Delta Air Lines(ATLANTA) -- Following a threat by Georgia's lieutenant governor to kill a proposed lucrative tax cut for Atlanta-based Delta over the carrier's decision to end a discount fare program for National Rifle Association members, lawmakers in other states have been courting Delta to ditch the Peach state.



"I will kill any tax legislation that benefits @Delta unless the company changes its position and fully reinstates its relationship with @NRA," Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle tweeted Monday. "Corporations cannot attack conservatives and expect us not to fight back."



Cagle's threat prompted elected officials elsewhere to roll out the welcome mat to one of the world's largest airlines.



".@Delta, if Georgia politicians disagree with your stand against gun violence, we invite you to move your headquarters to New York," New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo tweeted Tuesday.



New York Lt. Gov. Kathy Hochul chimed in, ".@Delta, as one of your most frequent flyers, know that the NY LG admires your principled stance," she tweeted Tuesday, adding that New York is "open for business."



Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam echoed his Northeast peers, tweeting Tuesday, "Hey @deltaVirginia is for lovers and airline hubs. You're welcome here any time."



Rep. Tim Ryan, D-Ohio, suggested on Twitter that northeast Ohio would be an ideal location for Delta's headquarters.



"Hey @Delta  Northeast Ohio would make a great HQ if youre put off by Mr. Cagles authoritarian tendencies," Ryan wrote. "Quality of life, infrastructure, and wonderful communities. Id love to show you around!"



And Randall Woodfin, the mayor of Birmingham, Alabama, tweeted Tuesday, "Hey @Delta. You know, in mathematics, Delta represents the change in something, e.g. HQ. Lets chat."



Delta is not alone in cutting ties with the powerful lobbying group. United Airlines, Best Western, MetLife and Wyndham Hotels are among some of the companies that have announced they are severing ties with the NRA in recent days.



The move to disassociate from the NRA follows the Feb. 14 shooting massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, during which suspected gunman Nikolas Cruz killed 17 students and faculty members.



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Principe, Democratic Republic of Saudi Arabia, Kingdom of Senegal, Republic of Serbia and Montenegro Seychelles, Republic of Sierra Leone, Republic of Singapore, Republic of Slovakia (Slovak Republic) Slovenia Solomon Islands Somalia, Somali Republic South Africa, Republic of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands Spain, Spanish State Sri Lanka, Democratic Socialist Republic of St. Helena St. Kitts and Nevis St. Lucia St. Pierre and Miquelon St. Vincent and the Grenadines Sudan, Democratic Republic of the Suriname, Republic of Svalbard & Jan Mayen Islands Swaziland, Kingdom of Sweden, Kingdom of Switzerland, Swiss Confederation Syrian Arab Republic Taiwan, Province of China Tajikistan Tanzania, United Republic of Thailand, Kingdom of Timor-Leste, Democratic Republic of Togo, Togolese Republic Tokelau (Tokelau Islands) Tonga, Kingdom of Trinidad and Tobago, Republic of Tunisia, Republic of Turkey, Republic of Turkmenistan Turks and Caicos Islands Tuvalu Uganda, Republic of Ukraine United Arab Emirates United Kingdom of Great Britain & N. Ireland Uruguay, Eastern Republic of Uzbekistan Vanuatu Venezuela, Bolivarian Republic of Viet Nam, Socialist Republic of Wallis and Futuna Islands Western Sahara Yemen Zambia, Republic of ZimbabweKarti Chidambaram was arrested by CBI on Feb 27, as soon as his flight from London landed at Chennai airport (Image: PTI/File)

New Delhi, Feb 28: Karti Chidambaram, the son of former finance minister P Chidambaram, was arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Wednesday, as soon as his flight from London landed at Chennai airport. Karti, 46, was taken into custody for his alleged involvement in the money laundering case involving INX Media.

Congress raised apprehension over the arrest of Karti, accusing the BJP government at Centre of practicing vendetta politics. The latter, however, struck back, saying "those who land on the wrong side of the law won't be spared no matter how influential they are".

Explained: What is the INX Media case?

In 2006, the INX Media was co-founded by erstwhile media barons Peter and Indrani Mukerjea. For setting up their business operations, the company sought overseas funds via the Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) route.

In 2007, INX Media appealed the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) to grant permission for two purposes: to seek approval for claiming funds from three Mauritius-based firms - Dunearn Investment (Mauritius) Private Ltd, NSR PE Mauritius LLC and New Vernon Private Equity Ltd - to the tune of Rs 4.26 crore. Secondly, it sought the board's nod for 26 per cent downward financial investment of the amount issued for its news channel - NewsX.

While the FIPB agreed to the FDI investment at Rs 4.26 crore cap, it disapproved the proposal to make downward financial investment.

INX Media, however, blatantly violated the guidelines issued by FIPB. Despite being allowed to claim overseas investment only to the tune of Rs 4.26 crore, it accepted an amount of Rs 305 crore -- nearly 80 times more than what was approved.

The company also made downward financial investment towards NewsX, despite not being granted clearance by the FIPB.

The violation was red-flagged by the Income Tax Department, which raised the matter with FIPB.

How is Karti Chidambaram involved?

After the investigation wing of I-T department launched a probe against Indrani and Peter Mukerjea, the then owner of INX Media, the Mukerjeas reached out to Karti Chidambaram, allegedly for seeking respite from legal hurdles.

The CBI, in its FIR filed in the case in 2015, said the FIPB, under the directions of the then Finance Ministry, refrained from taking action against INX Media. Instead, the Mukerjeas were asked to send a new proposal for increasing FDI and rerouting the funds downward towards NewsX.

In doing so, the Finance Ministry officials not only ignored the serious illegality on the part of M/S INX Media, but also embarked on showing undue favour to INX Group by abusing their official position," CBI said in its FIR.

The central probe agency claims the favour was shown towards INX Media due to Karti's father P Chidambaram heading the then Finance Ministry.

"The fresh proposal of (INX Media) was approved by FIPB by virtue of influence exercised over them by Karti P Chidambaram," the CBI FIR states.

In lieu of allegedly shielding INX Media from legal action using his father's clout, the company paid Rs 10 lakh to Advantage Strategic Consulting, "the company indirectly controlled by Karti", the CBI claimed.

Apart from Rs 10 lakh payment, the CBI also found invoices valuing Rs 3.5 crore in favour of INX Media raised by companies in which Karti has sustainable interest and where there are common directors".

Karti, however, has denied the charges levelled against him by the CBI. His father, P Chidambaram said the Centre is "hounding his son" due to his criticism of the government's work, schemes and policies.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Feb 28, 2018 02:02 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).Sitting for long hours at work can be dangerous for you, even if you exercise. At such a time, employers in Sweden has introduced mandatory exercise at work. Pushing the idea, many employers in Sweden is making on-the-job exercise compulsory for their employees. All of the staffs have to workout and there is no backing out of it. Following the regime, employees at fashion and sportswear retailer Bjorn Borg have been heading to their nearby gym at the company's Stockholm headquarters every Friday. It is the initiative of the company's 44-year-old chief executive Henrik Bunge.

"If you don't want to exercise or be a part of the company culture, you have to go. So far no one has quit because of the requirement." The main aims of the policy are to boost productivity and profitability while promoting good bonding in the workforce. It also makes all the employee feel they are equal.

Here is why working out in the workplace is beneficial:

1.Improved Productivity

Engaging in workplace workouts increases employee productivity and performance. People feel motivated and energised to do work post workouts. Coupled with good eating habits, it can also help keep your health in check.

2.Builds Community

Bonding is an important thing for workplace management. Employees with a good professional bond with each other, perform well. Workplace exercise can be a wellness program that motivates employees to engage more at work. It also helps keep the social health of the office in check.

3.Less Stress

High-stress jobs affect the mental health of the employee which in return can disturb the productivity of the company. Activities including workouts or other exercises can help reduce stress and make the person feel fresh at work.

4.Sense of accomplishment

Workout programs can promote good conversations among employees. It can increase healthy competition and make co-workers set targets among themselves. The tasks could be wellness habits or official duties.

5.Weight in check

Getting up on your feet will majorly burn that extra fat in your body. While most working individuals complain about not having enough time for gyms, these workouts will ensure you never have to complain about missing out on gym sessions and utilise rest of the time in office productively.

A study by University of Stockholm study also proved that exercising during the workday was advantageous. It said that it good for both employees and employer. Sweden is known for their healthy lifestyle which includes a lot of outdoor activities. Taking walks is almost a part of their daily lives. Most Swedish companies subsidize their employees' sporting activities which are tax-deductible for the employer.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Feb 28, 2018 03:09 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).Geneva preview: McLaren Senna Carbon Theme by MSO

Feb 28, 2018, 10:44am ET

The bespoke package will add more than $400,000 to the cost of a regular Senna.

McLaren Automotive has announced that it will introduce a special edition of its already exclusive Senna road-legal race car at next month's Geneva Motor Show.

Known as the Senna Carbon Theme by McLaren Special Operations, the limited edition hyper car features unique exposed carbon fiber and yellow and green exterior accents. Those accents are also featured in the car's interior. The pops of yellow and green are meant to honor the helmet colors of legendary Brazilian Formula 1 racing driver Ayrton Senna.

McLaren says the Senna Carbon Theme by MSO takes nearly 1,000 hours to produce. Roughly 250 of those production hours are taken up by the yellow detailing alone.

"The McLaren Senna customers in the process of specifying their own, personalized cars are almost without exception commissioning an elevated level of MSO content, so we are definitely appealing to our target audience, said Ansar Ali, Managing Director, McLaren Special Operations. "With the car having generated so much interest since its unveiling in December, we knew we needed to produce something very special in order to showcase the unique talents of McLaren Special Operations; the McLaren Senna Carbon Theme by MSO at the Geneva Motor Show is exactly the kind of project we thrive on delivering and once customers have had the opportunity to view it in person, I would not be at all surprised to see a rise in expressions of interest for MSO Visual Carbon Fiber cars similar to this one.

The standard McLaren Senna carries a base price of about 750,000 ($1,033,725), but the Carbon Theme by MSO adds a healthy premium to the bottom line  just under 300,000 ($413,635), to be exact. McLaren will build just 500 units of the Senna, and every one is already spoken for.Next Kia Soul EV to borrow Kona tech?

Feb 28, 2018, 5:49am ET

The gasoline-powered Soul will use numerous components from the Kona, too.

The third generation of the Kia Soul is beginning to take shape. Industry sources who anonymously spoke to a South Korean news outlet shed insight into what we can expect from the model.

The sources told ET News that Kia will make the next-gen Soul more rugged than the current model. It's being designed inside and out with American buyers in mind. It will be bigger than its predecessor (pictured) and it will look more like an SUV.

The updated sheet metal will hide a platform also found under the recently-introduced Hyundai Kona. The two soft-roaders will also share numerous mechanical components, including the Hyundai's naturally-aspirated and turbocharged four-cylinder engines. Front-wheel drive will come standard, and all-wheel drive will most likely be offered at an extra cost.

The all-electric variant of the Soul will return. And, unsurprisingly, it will benefit from the technology ushered in by the Kona Electric, a model scheduled to make its public debut next week at the Geneva Auto Show. ET News learned the battery-powered Soul will offer over 186 miles of range. There's no word yet on whether the Soul and the Kona will use the exact same battery pack, or if they'll merely share battery technology.

The third-generation Kia Soul will make its public debut before the end of the year. We expect it to arrive in showrooms in time for the 2019 model year, though the firm hasn't released an official time frame yet.A Status Red Weather Warning has been declared as the Beast from the East weather front is set to collide with the Storm Emma over leading to heavy snow to Ireland.

The decision was announced at 11am Wednesday morning by Met Eireann as the National Emergency Coordination Group on Severe Weather met in Dublin.

The warning is for snow-ice Warning for Munster and Leinster says Blizzard-like conditions will develop in heavy snow and strong easterly winds on Thursday evening and will continue Thursday night and Friday morning giving significant snow drifts in many areas.

The warning is valid from 4pm Thursday, March 1 to noon Friday, March 2.

A Status Red Warning Snow Ice issued at 5am on Wednesday has not been extended beyond Dublin, Kildare, Louth, Wicklow and Meath. It warns that total snowfall up to midday Thursday may reach 25cm. It is valid until noon Thursday, March 1.

Weather warnings have been issued for snow-ice.

The Map shows counties affected by these warnings. See https://t.co/sLGHpXxrhm for details. pic.twitter.com/gJ8Bh6LB6e  Met Eireann Warnings (@MetEire_Warning) February 28, 2018

A Status Orange Snow Ice Warning has been issued for Connacht, Cavan and Monaghan. From 8pm Thursday, March 1 to noon Friday, March 2.

A Status Orange Snow-ice Warning remains in place for for Carlow, Kilkenny, Laois, Longford, Wexford, Offaly, Westmeath, Cork, Tipperary and Waterford until noon Thursday, March 1.

A Red level warning is only issued in rare cases of severe weather. Met Eireann says it implies that recipients take action to protect themselves and/or their properties. This could be by moving their families out of the danger zone temporarily. staying indoors, or by other specific actions aimed at mitigating the effects of the weather conditions.

The criteria for a Status Red Snow/Ice warning is that significant falls of snow are likely to cause accumulations of 8 cm or greater. The extent of the snow would lead to slippery paths and roads due to accumulation of ice on untreated surfaces; situation likely to worsen.

A Red Warning for low temperatures is issued when conditions fall to minus 10C or lower and that they only rise to minus 2C or lower.Please allow ads as they help fund our trusted local news content.

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If you want further access to Ireland's best local journalism, consider subscribing to our ePaper and/or free daily Newsletter .

Support our mission and join our community now.A Portlaoise school has issued a statement relating to the extreme weather in Laois.

St Mary's CBS in Portlaise has said that it may be necessary to close the school.

"Please be aware that if the predicted snow / ice materialises as forecast, then it may be necessary to close the school for the safety of our students, staff and the wider school community.

"Hopefully dangerous conditions will not materialise but best to be prepared.

"Should we need to decide on school closure, we will inform parents by text, the school app and via our website, www.portlaoisecbs.com

"If it is deemed necessary to close the school then please use these days as study days in preparation for examinations."

There has been significant snowfall overnight in Laois and Met Eireann has issued a Status Red warning for neighbouring counties. Met Eireann has issued a Status Red weather warning.

"I appeal to you to keep you study and focused subjects within the same time-frame of a normal school day 9.00am - 4 .00 pm. Or divide it up - 3 hours in the morning, 2/3 in the afternoon and 2 in the evening.

"Make a study timetable that will enable you to retain information.

"For example, if you study one subject for 40 minutes in the morning, make sure that you timetable 20 minutes later in the day to test yourself on what you remember. Please make a detailed study timetable and adhere to it the best you can. It will help your focus.

"Each time you study, clearly specify the work that you intend to complete, and set yourself a given period of time in which to complete it.

"Dont become a clock-watcher - they sit in the room quite happily , just so long as they spend sufficient timeat the books

"Take notes, attempt exam questions.If you can get the opportunity to speak some Irish, French or Spanish with family or friends then take it. Every little helps - make it happen!

"Remember at the beginning of your exam papers you are given the required time allocation for each exam question - it is vital when answering these questions that you try to stay within this time frame.

"Stay safe, keep the balance, and enjoy a little fun with family and friends."

The Leinster Express will keep readers updated on any announcements from schools in relation to closures. We ask that all schools get in touch with us at news@leinsterexpress.ie with their latest updates.

The Department of Education is yet to issue a statement but has said that buses will stop running during a Red weather warning.

School buses will stop under Status Red weather warning says Department of Education.

Beast from the East snow hits Laois with much more to come Met Eireann warns.The severe weather set to hit through Thursday and Friday will put lives at risk and it will be 'suicidal' for people to drive during the storm, the chairman of the group responding to the Status Red severe weather.

Sean Hogan, Chairman of the National Emergency Co-ordination Group Committee on severe weather said public safety is driving the warnings issued in relation to Storm Eamma and the Siberian weather. He warned that driving snow puts lives at risks

"If you are out there you may become disorientated and got lost very quickly...Unfortunately we had cases of people dying in the cold spells in 2010 who were out of doors. So there is a very real public safety issue.

"There is an obvious issue about driving. It would b suicidal to go driving in blizzard like conditions.

"That is why we are saying do not be out there from 4pm tomorrow evening (Thursday) in these conditions.

"This is like Ophelia. It is a different type of safety concern but it is primarily a safety concern that we have for people" he said.

"We are hoping the damage won't be like what it was in Ophelia but we are in uncertain territory here. We simply don't know what the impact is going to be. We have a lot of snow already and more snow coming. We will have gale force wind and we simply don't know what the impact of that will be in terms of the drifts that will come and how that will impact. That is the big issue that people need to bear in mind," he said.

He urged people to clear the paths before the arrival of the big snow. He said timing is critical on that issue.

He warned it would not be 'business as usual' after the Storm passes on Friday. He said the situation would then have to be assessed to try to get the country back moving again.

Eveyln Cusack of Met Eireann said the blizzard would mean 'zero visibility' due to type of snow and temperatures are due to plummet to -7 degrees c. She said it is similar weather as to what hits Chicago due to the proximity to the the Great Lakes.

She expects Storm Emma is expected to bring up mild weather. She said Storm Emma would push the Siberian air north but snow is expected to stay on the ground until Saturday at least.

WATCH PRESS BRIEFING HEREThe Minister for Housing has issued a clear warning to everyone in Leinster and Munster to stay out of snow blizzards from tomorrow Thursday March 1 until Friday March 2.

Minister Eoghan Murphy spoke after this morning's meeting of the National Emergency Co-ordination Group.

"There has been a significant escalation in the weather event. We will see blizzard like conditions and zero visability. This is not like weather that people should be out in," he said.

Status Red warning as Storm Emma collides with Beast

The government is advising people to heed their advice.

"Schools and third levels will be closed in Leinster and Munster where red warnings will apply, tomorrow and Friday. From 4pm tomorrow, people should plan to be at home until noon the following day Friday.

"In the interests of public safety, which is our primary concern, there will be no Dublin Bus or Bus Eireann service tomorrow in Leinster and Munster. Luas and Irish Rail will operate a constrained service to finish between 12 and 2pm," Minister Murphy stated.

'Suicidal to drive' says emergency group chairman

He said that employers must keep in mind the advice that people in Red areas should be at home, and the loss of public transport.

"Different protocols will apply for those in essential and emergency services," he said.

The public are asked to check on the vulnerable in their communities.

"I'd ask people to check in on the elderly and vulnerable people in their communities, and check in on any rough sleepers they see and report them to our outreach teams, at homelessdublin.ie," he said.Employers must remain vigilant for the rest of this week with the anticipated worsening of weather conditions over the next couple of days according to the ISME.

Status Red warnings are now in place as follows:

Snow and ice warning for Dublin, Kildare, Louth, Wicklow, Meath:

05:00hrs 28th Feb to 12:00hrs 1st Mar



Snow and ice warning for Munster and Leinster:

16:00hrs 1st Mar to 12:00hrs 2nd Mar



Businesses have the opportunity to prepare for this event and we advise employers to put measures in place to reduce the potential business impact this warning could have.

During Storm Ophelia, widespread business closures occurred at short notice. While it is very possible that business closures will not be necessary on this occasion, businesses should prepare for the possibility.

As employers have a duty of care for all employees under the Safety Health and Welfare at Work Act, a key consideration needs to be whether, in the circumstances, it is safe to ask employees to travel to work, or to undertake their work.

The potential risk could be greater for certain roles or in certain sectors (e.g. "on-the-road" sales positions or in the construction sector where outside work is required).

Consider how a business decision will be made as to whether or not closure is necessary. Will work automatically be called off if a Status Red warning is issued? Will other circumstances be taken into consideration (i.e. the employee's work environment?). Who will make the decision and more importantly, how will this decision be communicated to employees?

You should ensure you have up to date contact information for all employees within the organisation in case a last minute decision needs to be communicated to staff members.

Where your employment contracts allow for a period of "lay off," you may want to put employees on notice that this clause could be invoked at short notice later on in the week.

Should the business be forced to close, you should consider the likely impact this will have on customers/clients. A plan should be put in place as to how this will be communicated. Consider whether any steps can be put in place to reduce the impact on customers.

Status Red issued by Met Eireann as Storm Emma set to collide with #beastfromtheast

For example, is remote working a possibility for your employees? Would this help to diminish the impact on your customers/clients? Is there a contact number that could be provided in the event of an urgent issue arising?

Where a business closure does not occur, you should ensure employees are aware who they should contact in the event that they are unable to attend work due to the weather conditions. Flexibility should be allowed for employees, especially those who have some distance to travel.

Where employees are present in the workplace, care should be taken to remain vigilant for any worsening conditions and cancelled/amended travel services throughout the day. Consideration should also be given to how long it will take somebody to commute home safely.

Further advice for employers can be found on the BeWinter Ready website

Pay Considerations:

The question of whether or not employees will need to be paid if they are unable to attend work due to the severe weather conditions is proving difficult for many employers.

There are a number of matters that require consideration in this respect.

Where the workplace remains open and an employee is unable to attend work due to the weather there is no requirement to pay, unless custom and practice or company policy states otherwise.

Routine surgeries and out patients appointments cancelled at Portlaoise hospital #BeastFromTheEast

Where employees fail to turn up to work due to the weather conditions the employer can at his/her discretion:

Continue to pay the employee as normal

Consider allowing the employee to work from home if possible

Allow the employee to make up their missed time at a later date

Provide them with the option of taking a day's annual leave to cover their absence

Difficulties however arise where the company closes, or employees are sent home upon turning up to work. Again, where the option to work from home is a possibility the employee can be requested to do so. Where this is not a possibility however, it becomes somewhat more difficult.

Where employers have existing policies outlining what will happen in the event of business closures, these should be activated, and employees informed. As long as employees have been made aware of this policy, the provisions outlined should take effect.

Most employers however, do not have a policy in place. In this case, the general rule-of-thumb, where an employer cancels work (or is forced to cancel work), is that the employer is liable to pay employees.

However, where employers have a "lay-off" clause within the employment contract, they are within their rights to invoke this clause.

It is important to note that you cannot force an employee to take a day's annual leave to cover this time. Legislation requires that in order to force an employee to take a day's annual leave, you must provide them with 1 month's notice. The only exception to this would be if the right to do so is included in a specific "adverse weather conditions" policy, as referenced previously.

Further advice can be found on the Workplace Relations Commission website.

Laois Gardai set up incident room do deal with weather.RTE weather presenter Evelyn Cusack has said that the eye of Storm Emma which is over Portugal at the moment will 'clash' with the Siberian air over Ireland in the next two days.

The clash will bring gusts of wind up to 100km/h/110km/h in the East and South of the country with temperatures as low as minus eight degrees in Ireland tonight.

Laois motorways and main roads open but hazardous - warns Laois emergency response team.

Speaking at the press conference for the National Emergency Coordination Group, Cusack, who is Deputy Head of Forecasting at Met Eireann, said that usually a storm like Emma would bring rain to Ireland but because of the cold Siberian air over the country at the moment, snow is expected.

"Severe snow showers coming across Scotland and east Britain and that is why we updated to red this morning with those showers turning heavier and thunderstorms reported.

Stay inside until noon Friday to shelter from 'zero visibility' blizzard in Leinster and Munster.

"We have the very cold Siberian air pushing across these snow showers and as Emma pushes northwards you are going to get a clash of the two air masses and this is our prediction for Friday.

"The storm centre of Emma predicted to travel northwestwards with quite a tight gradient over Ireland and there will be gale force eight to strong gale force nine winds over land with gusts of 100km/h/110km/h.

"That is why we have issued a status red for Munster and Leinster from tomorrow evening, tomorrow night and Friday morning, because it is an easterly wind, eastern areas will be most effected and southern areas.

"So when we say Leinster and Munster it is really eastern counties of Leinster and southern counties of Munster and then as one moves northwestwards the intensity of the precipitation will diminish but geographically we are saying much of Leinster and Munster," she explained.

WATCH: Portlaoise supermarket shelves in Laois empty ahead of #BeastfromtheEastThe Department of Education has confirmed that every effort is being made to finalise the new site for St Pauls Secondary school in Monasterevin.

A meeting was held on Monday night with local representatives and the school committee over delays in the planning process for the secondary school. Questions were raised about the delay in the Department's acquisition of the site at Moore Abbey and the likely impact on the tendering process for the new school.

The Department of Education has in response confirmed in a statement to Ceann Comhairle Sean OFearghail that they are currently involved in ongoing engagement with the Chief State Solicitors Office and the vendors solicitors, in order to finalise this legal transaction.

Every effort is being made to expedite the process and bring this transaction to a successful conclusion. The Department will shortly be issuing a letter to the school outlining proposed dates for tender and construction.

Meanwhile Kildare South TD Fiona O'Loughlin also raised the issue in the Dail recently. The school is at full capacity with prefabs in use for class rooms.

"I raised my concerns over issues that may cause delays to the 2020 completion of a new build for St Pauls Secondary School in Monasterevin," she said.

"The school has been waiting 16 years for the new building and concerns over the new site are extremely worrying for teachers, students and parents. The number of students doubled in 10 years and there are only two toilet cubicles for 207 boys. Teachers have no staff room and there are old, damp prefabs currently in use."

WATCH:



After a night of heavy snowfall in many parts of the country Met Eireann issued a Status Red weather warning around 06:00 on Wednesday morning.

The Status Red snow-ice warning is initially for Kildare, Dublin, Louth, Wicklow and Meath valid until 12:00pm on Thursday.

The warning states that there has been between 5 and 10cm accumulations of snow in these areas and snow showers will continue to occur during today and again tonight with further accumulations. Total snowfall up to midday Thursday may reach 25cm in some areas.

Severe Weather Warning issued for Snow/Ice

Status: RED

Location: Dublin, Kildare, Louth, Wicklow and Meath

Valid: Wed 5am to Thurs 12pm

Warning updates will be issued in due course

Latest information here:https://t.co/X6NncUghZ9 pic.twitter.com/rWhZ3kTAu8  Met Eireann (@MetEireann) February 28, 2018

A Red level alert is the highest warning that can be issued. It implies that people take action to protect themselves and their properties. This could include moving families out of the danger zone temporarily, staying indoors or taking specific actions to mitigate the effects of weather conditions i.e. sandbags to prevent flooding, gritting for icy driveways etc.

What does that mean for schools and businesses?

The Department of Education ordered all schools and colleges to close as a safety precaution during Storm Ophelia in October 2017. Many businesses across Ireland also closed for the day.

During extreme weather, the decision to close a business is ultimately down to the employer.

What is the criteria for a Status Red warning?

Significant falls of snow likely to cause accumulations of 8 cm or greater. Slippery paths and roads due to accumulation of ice on untreated surfaces; situation likely to worsen.

Low temperatures of -10C or lower expected. Max of minus 2C or lower expected.

Schools will make decisions on whether they need to close during this week's winter storm but school transport services will not operate if there is a level red weather warning.

A Department of Education representative issued the advice at a the National Emergency Co-ordination Group press conference in Dublin.

A Department of Education representative said a protocol in place in the event of severe whether conditions. He said each school will make a decision on whether or not to close based on 'local conditions'.

He said such decisions would not be made based on whether a school is located in a county that is under a severe weather warning. However, he said under a code Red bus transport would not operate.

"We are going to issue advisories to all schools which say that if a Status Red is issued then obviously school transport is gone then they will make their decisions based on that," he said.Kildare County Councils Crises Management Team has endorsed the National Emergency Coordination Group's advice urging people to stay indoors across the county while the red weather alert is in place due to public safety fears which could arise from blizard like conditions tomorrow.

The team, which incorporates the Severe Weather Assessment Team, reconvened for a second time today at 3.15pm to discuss and analyse the impact of the severe weather being experienced in County Kildare.

It is also continuing to work in close co-operation with An Garda Siochana, the HSE and the Defence Forces.

SEE ALSO: KILDARE COMMUTER UPDATE: What public transport services are running and what services are not

"The councils response teams including roads, water, fire, civil defence are actively engaged in dealing with the current weather situation. Currently we have nine snowploughs in operation, in conjunction with 20 privately contracted ploughs and ploughs supplied by the Defence Forces. In addition Civil Defence are using seven four wheel drive vehicles to assist members of the public in difficulty and to ensure Kildare County Council truck drivers and members of An Garda Siochana can get to their places of work," it said.

Water Services continue to monitor the water infrastructure in Kildare and have not experienced any major issues so far.

"As temperatures are expected to reach a low of -6 degrees celsius tonight, (Wednesday), motorists are urged to continue to exercise caution on all roads when driving and to avoid any unnecessary journeys. Please review the Winter Ready Booklet on our website for useful information," it added.

"The main concern at national level remains the forecast for Thursday night and Friday. Storm Emma coming up from the south will meet the polar air from the east and will give rise to heavy snowfalls, starting in the south of the country at approx. 16.00 hr on Thurs evening and spreading up across Munster and Leinster. With winds up to 100 km/hr allied with the snowfall, Met Eireann have issued a RED LEVEL WARNING for Munster and Leinster extending from 16.00 hrs Thurs to 12.00 noon on Friday."

The public are also encouraged to check on vulnerable neighbours.

Kildare County Councils Crisis Management Team will reconvene again tomorrow and further updates will be published on its website, Facebook and Twitter.

The Peter McVerry Trust, on behalf of Kildare County Council have put the Cold Weather Initiative for the county into operation to provide shelter for people sleeping rough during the severe weather conditions and the Freephone Number for this service is 1800 804 307 and is operational at all times.

If you need to contact the council for urgent matters please telephone: 1890 500 333

The Defence Forces said it deployed 60 army personnel and 16 vehicles today in a range of tasks to support the local authorities.

The manpower and mobility deployments using 4x4, and other specialist vehicles, took place in Kilkenny, Wexford, Waterford, Cork, Kerry, Kildare, Dublin and Donegal.

Troops from the Defence Forces Training Centre in Kildare transported essential nursing staff in 4x4 vehicles to a local nursing home and also provided a snowplough to Kildare County council for use in Newbridge, Athgarvan, Kilcullen and the Curragh.

"Defence Forces personnel remain on stand by around the country and are liaising with their local authorities regarding requests for support that may be required tonight and tomorrow," said a spokesperson.

"Staff Officers from Defence Forces Operations Branch are attending all National Emergency Coordination Group meetings, where they advise on Defence Forces capabilities and resources."A 56-year-old Polish National has been sentenced to a total of 20 months in prison for his role in a growhouse discovered in the Aughavas area of Co Leitrim in January 2017.

At this months sitting of Carrick-on-Shannon Circuit Court Jarolsaw Rojewski was found guilty of possession of cannabis and possession of cannabis for the purpose of sale or supply by a jury of six men and six women. The jury took less than an hour to reach a unanimous verdict at the conclusion of the three day trial.

The charges related to the discovery of a sophisticated growhouse operation at Gradogue, Aughavas Co Leitrim on January 5, 2017.

Mr Rojewski, 5 The Moorings, Marketpoint, Mullingar had previously pleaded guilty to a charge of cultivating cannabis.

The court heard that a number of electrical faults in the area led to ESB contacting gardai and a full investigation of the premises revealed an elaborate growhouse with 200-250 plants growing upstairs.

At the sentencing hearing last Thursday, it was noted that Mr Rojewski specialised in the repair of commercial sewing machines. He is a retired father of two adult children and is in receipt of a 350/month Polish pension.

He had only arrived into Ireland in November 2016 and over the course of six garda interviews, following his arrest at the growhouse, admitted his job was to oversee the heating and electrical systems at the growhouse.

He admitted he suspected there was some form of drugs in the house but thought this involved cocaine or amphetamines. The cannabis plants were growing in the attic of the property but no fingerprint or DNA evidence linked the defendant to the attic.

Gardai described Mr Rojewski as assisting in the cultivation operation but acknowledged there were much bigger players than the defendant involved.

It was accepted that Mr Rojewski did not receive any payment for his involvement but rather hoped to receive the benefit of access to housing at a later date.

Speaking on behalf of the defendant, Senior Counsel, Damien Colgan detailed how Mr Rojewskis wife is seriously ill in Poland and he intends to serve his time and return to Poland on his release. He noted Mr Rojewski has no previous convictions here or in Poland and was, according to the Probation Service, at low risk of re-offending.

Mr Rojewski has been in custody since a special court sitting in January 2017 .

This was a sophisticated growhouse and he (the defendant) didnt know the extent of what was going on, said Mr Colgan.

He was a man taken in by other persons and used to their advantage. I would ask the court to be as lenient as possible to let him get home sooner rather than later.

Prosecuting barrister, Donal Keane BL, instructed by State Solicitor Noel Farrell, admitted Mr Rojewski had offered considerable co-operation with the investigation into the case.

After a brief adjournment, Judge John Aylmer handed down sentence. He said he believed the conviction for cultivation of cannabis to be at the lower end of the scale. Noting Mr Rojewskis early guilty plea, he imposed an 18 month prison sentence.

Referring to the conviction for possession of cannabis for the purpose of sale or supply, Judge Aylmer said he could not allow as much credit as no guilty plea was offered. He sentenced him to 20 months to be served concurrently with the previous sentence. He also ordered that both sentences be backdated to when he entered custody on January 5, 2017. The remaining conviction for possession of cannabis was taken into account.It has been a very special week for Carrick-on-Shannon as three local businesses took three national awards presented by WeddingsOnline.

They were :

WeddingsOnline Award for Venue Co-Ordinator of the Year  Imelda Scally  The Landmark Hotel, Carrick-on-Shannon.

WeddingsOnline National Award for Bridalwear Supplier of the Year  Padanee Bridal Couture and Consultancy, Carrick-on-Shannon.

WeddingsOnline National Award for Hen and Stag Supplier of the Year - The Courtyard Apartments, Carrick-on-Shannon.

Pamela Ruddy, who has been with The Courtyard Apartments for 5 years as sales administrator, told the paper this is their first time to be nominated and we can't believe we won it!

As Carrick-on-Shannon is one of the main destinations for hen and stag parties , it is fantastic for the winner to come from a provider which is situated in the town. Dealing with over 200 people every weekend, we provide a service like no other and make sure that they have the best weekend of their lives.

Asked how will the win affect the business she said I think it will give great reassurance to people booking with us that we provide an excellent service and highlight The Courtyard Apartments and Carrick-on -Shannon as a destination which has so much to offer not only Hen and Stag parties markets but for corporate groups and team building events.

Talking about why she believes they won the award she said Unlike other third party hen and stag providers, we are onsite and provide a face to face customer presence. We are not a provider who can close up shop and switch off their computers on a Friday.

We provide onsite, contactable service day and night and are on hand to help in anyway. Being the best hen and stag provider means being there from the beginning, providing a service and making sure they have the best weekend of their lives.

On the initial phone contact, we say our welcoming line: This is the Courtyard Apartments how can I help you? We start a relationship and fulfil a weekend of memories for the bride and groom to treasure.

This is a service like no other and our ultimate goal is that they come back to us again and again.

As we say at the Courtyard Apartments Book here and we will do the rest!

Looking towards the future she added We are always looking to improve by providing more options for activities as Carrick-on-Shannon has an abundance of these to offer. We are striving to keep the hen and stag party groups returning to Carrick-on-Shannon as this keeps the town buzzing at the weekend and gives a lot of employment to the locals. We will continue to push our midweek business attracting more corporate groups and more families as in The Courtyard Apartments we are always looking to evolve.

Imelda Scally who took the award for Venue Co-Ordinator of the Year has been at the Landmark Hotel for the last two years and is loving every minute!

This is my first time to win Ireland's Venue Coordinator of the Year, we were also finalists this year in Best Wedding Venue in Connaught and Waterside Venue of the Year! We won Ireland's Best Waterside Venue of the Year last year too, it is a great achievement to win two prestigious awards two years in row! Everyone is delighted here at The Landmark Hotel!

Winning the award means the absolute world, I was so shocked when my name was called out as Venue Coordinator of the Year; the competition was fierce with some amazing coordinators from amazing hotels around Ireland! I am honoured to have this title and to represent The Landmark Hotel at such a high level!

The Leitrim Observer asked Imelda what this will mean for the business. From the response we got last year our business levels will soar, the Weddingsonline awards are the most prestigious wedding awards out there so to be a winner again for the second year in a row we are thrilled! Also, the fact that the other two ladies Patricia and Pamela brought home awards I think it really puts Carrick-on-Shannon on the map as an outstanding area for wedding services, she said.

The wedding industry is a tough business so what does she thinks made them stand out in the competition?

The wedding industry is forever changing, trends change on a yearly basis and I feel we are always on the top of our game here at The Landmark delivering not only the best food but also the best service. This was always my aim to provide the best service to all my brides and grooms, I want to make them feel very special, that they are in safe hands and not to stress about anything!

I take on a lot of little jobs for my brides and grooms and I am only happy to help them with every aspect of their wedding! I do feel my personality and standards of service pitted me at the top of such an amazing category!

So what's next for Imelda and The Landmark?

We have just completed a huge refurbishment of our ballroom, reception room, lobby, aromas cafe and bedrooms which is great for us as it looks like a completely new venue! We have a new website on the way in the coming months so I feel like it is going to be an exciting, busy year for us! We thank all our past, present and future brides and groom who continue to support us and let The Landmark Hotel be a part of their very special wedding day!

Patricia Corrigan is the owner of Padanee Bridal Couture and Consultancy, which has been in operation for the last three years.

Patricia told the paper I have been nominated in these Awards many times both as a Wedding Coordinator and this was the first time Padanee had entered for Best Bridal Retailer.

So far to date I now am very proud to say I hold 3 titles of Wedding Coordinator of the Year Ireland, Padanee holds one title of Best Newcomer in its first year in Business, in its second year it Won Best Bridal with TV3s Xpose and Fafinder and now in our 3rd year we have Best Bridal in Ireland 2018. We are absolutely so proud and excited.

Asked what winning the award means to her she replied It means that all the hard work that you put in to get to this stage of your business is being acknowledged by the people that matter the most your brides. If they do not vote for you in the beginning there is no chance of getting to the next stage. Finally you are assessed by judges in the wedding industry, these guys are at the top of their game and it is incredible to believe that when they look at you they think you are the best.

This is amazing for my brides to be able to say that they have chosen their gown in an award winning shop but for me it's always most important to be thinking about my bride that is getting married this week and not to be thinking about the awards. That is the most important thing for me, to make sure my brides are always happy.

Asked why she thought she won she said, The answer to that question is very simple, I dont know, in all the years I have won awards I am always blown away that I could be up against such serious competition and actually win. To win awards for doing something I love with all my heart is the most amazing feeling. I dont feel I do anything better than anyone else, I just work really hard to ensure that my gorgeous brides are happy and have a nice experience when choosing their wedding gown. So I never see myself as outshining the competition. I just look at what I do and try to do my very best always; give one hundred per cent and push myself to the best I can be. I never focus on what anyone else is doing. If you are watching what other people are doing you are not focusing on yourself.

And what's next for Patricia and Padanee? I take every day as it comes, I dont ever have plans all laid out. I just want to look after each of my brides to the very best of my ability and ensure they are happy and are wearing beautiful gowns.

We are developing a second phase to the business at the moment and I am also involved with setting up the first ever Irish Wedding Industry Federation in which the wedding suppliers of Ireland are recognised on a national level as one entity, she concluded.A series of National Fire Training Days are due to take place around the country over the coming weeks.

The campaign launch heard that in an effort to reduce forest fire incidents, the public are being urged to be vigilant and report fires as soon as possible. Meanwhile land owners are being reminded that burning vegetation on land not yet cultivated between March 1 and August 31 each year is an offence.

Mick Power, Coillte National Estates Risk Manager said, At the start of spring there is often a lot of dead vegetation accumulated from last year. This material can dry out quickly when there are bright sunny days, high temperatures and low humidity levels, which can greatly increase the risk of fire.

We are appealing to the public to be vigilant and most importantly to report forest fires in a bid to protect the countryside, its wildlife and residents.

2017 was an exceptional year for forest fires in Ireland with 85 separate fire events on Coillte property alone, which affected more than 1,700 hectares of forestry and 2,000 hectares of bog.

The cost of fighting these fires as well as the loss of standing timber was significant.

This process is very challenging as significant work is required to remove burnt material and prepare the lands for reforestation. Most areas will be fully replanted while others may be converted to biodiversity and nature conservation areas with the agreement of the Forest Service, said Mr Power.



7 Steps to Reduce Fire Risk

1. Do not light fires in or near woodland.

2. Ensure you have a current fire plan for your forest.

3. Work with neighbours. Co-operation is vital to achieve successful fire prevention.

4. Be vigilant. Forest owners should be particularly vigilant following dry weather.

5. Check Fire Breaks and Access Routes

6. Insure your crop.

7. Report Losses. If a plantation is destroyed or damaged by fire, the incident should be reported to the nearest Garda Station and to the Forest Service.

Further National Fire Training Days events are planned for Avondale, Co. Wicklow today, 28th of February, in Woodford, Co. Cork on March 6th and a Sligo date yet to be confirmed.Met Eireanns latest weather forecast suggests that the snow will hit the Leitrim area on Friday with temperatures nationally set to fall to between -1 and -5.

Met Eireann have issued a Yellow Weather advisory update for the entire country predicting exceptionally cold weather this week until Friday at 6pm. They warn that it will be very cold overnight with temperatures falling to between -1 and -5 degrees Celsius, possibly slightly lower in some western and northwestern counties and temperatures tomorrow struggling to get above zero.

Air and ground temperatures will be 5 to 10 degrees below normal, with significant wind chill and penetrating severe frosts.

Snow showers will progressively become more widespread and heavier through midweek. A spell of persistent and heavy snow is expected to extend from the south late Thursday and Thursday night, with significant and disruptive accumulations.

Met Eireanns prediction for Leitrim includes snow today and Friday with midday temperatures not going above one degree celsius and winds ranging between 25 and 35 kph.

Regionally, Met Eireann have predicted that in Connacht, it will be bitterly cold today with scattered showers of snow and hail. There is a risk of isolated thunderstorms. The showers will be mainly in the east at first but will extend westwards during the day.

There will be some bright sunshine at times. Highest temperatures of just zero to 2 degrees in moderate to fresh and at times strong and gusty easterly winds.

Tonight there will be some further scattered snow showers in places. Extremely cold with lowest temperatures of minus 3 to minus 6 degrees with frost and icy patches.

Tomorrow, Thursday will be bitterly cold again with some sunshine for a time and scattered snow showers. Highest temperatures of just zero to 2 degrees in fresh to strong and gusty easterly winds.

Thursday night: Snow, sleet and rain will extend northwards through the country during the evening/night in strong easterly winds. Accumulations of snow may be significant in some places. Temperatures will range -1 to -4 degrees.

Friday: The rain, sleet and snow will clear from the south of the country during the day but it may persist across more northern counties until later in the afternoon/evening. It will be another cold day with highest temperatures around 1 or 2 degrees but there will be a slight rise in temperatures to around 4 to 6 degrees for southern counties. East to northeast winds will be strong and gusty. Widespread frost on Friday night.

Saturday: Many places will remain dry for the day but outbreaks of rain, sleet and snow will affect southern and eastern coastal counties during the afternoon/evening. Highs of 1 to 3 degrees in moderate southeasterly winds.

Sunday: Becoming slightly milder with highs of 4 to 9 degrees. Some rain at times but a good deal of dry weather. Southeasterly winds.

Met Eireann have also issued a Red Snow/Ice Warning for Dublin, Kildare, Louth, Wicklow and Meath that will be in operation until 12 noon on Thursday, March 1. Heavy overnight snowfall has led to accumulations of snow between 5 and 10 cm.

Snow showers will continue to occur during today and again tonight with further accumulations. Total snowfall up to midday Thursday may reach 25cm.

There has also a Orange Snow/Ice Warning for Carlow, Kilkenny, Laois, Longford, Wexford, Offaly, Westmeath, Cork, Tipperary and Waterford with scattered heavy snow showers continuing today, tonight and tomorrow with further accumulations.

A Yellow Snow/Ice Warning for Donegal, Galway, Clare and Limerick has been issued with scattered heavy showers today, tonight and tomorrow.THE LOCAL horse racing community has paid tributes to the popular Limerick talent spotter Sean Micks, who passed away peacefully this week.

The Crecora man, aged 76, died peacefully at Milford Care Centre this Tuesday.

Sean, formerly of Jurys Hotel, was well-known within the racing community for his ability to spot up-and-coming talent.

His most notable purchase arrangement was Royal Stag, which won eight races and came second in the prestigious Queen Mother Champion Chase at Cheltenham in 1989.

Trainer Andrew McNamara Snr, father of eminent trainers Andrew Jnr and Robbie McNamara, described Sean as a gentleman who was very popular at the Point to Point races.

He always spotted nice horses and had his clients in England. He was always on the lookout, and he arranged a lot of sales, said Mr McNamara, who met with Sean last Saturday.

Rathkeale trainer Eric McNamara said he was a character around the Point to Points.

Beloved husband of Breda. Dearly loved father of Anne and adored grandad to Ciara. Sadly missed by his loving sister Bridge (Nevin), brother-in-law Paddy, nephews, nieces, extended family and friends. May he rest in peace.

Reposing at Thompsons Funeral Home, Thomas Street on Wednesday evening from 5.30pm to 7pm followed by removal to St Josephs Church, OConnell Avenue. Requiem Mass on Thursday at 11.30am with burial afterwards in Mount St Lawrence Cemetery, Extension.May 2, 2021, 5 PM

The unveiling of the 2018 U.S. Flag definitive stamp at the Feb. 9 first-day ceremony in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. From left to right, Hollywood Stamp Club president Parker A. Bailey Jr. and club vice president Jackie Cortes; American Stamp Dealers Association executive director Dana Guyer; U.S. Postal Service South Florida district manager Timothy R. Costello; Richard A. Asper, chair of Honor Flight South Florida; and national anthem singer Taylor McPhee-Johnson from the U.S. Postal Service.

By Dan Culbert

About 50 stamp enthusiasts attended the Feb. 9 first-day ceremony for the new nondenominated (50) United States Flag forever definitive stamp. The 11 a.m. ceremony took place at War Memorial Auditorium in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

Visitors arriving at the site were greeted by a display of Old Glory waving in the tropical breeze outside the venue.

Inside, attendees were greeted by vendors and representatives of the American Stamp Dealers Associations Winter Postage Stamp Show, as well as members of the Hollywood (Fla.) Stamp Club.

The stamp show was taking place Feb. 9-11 at the auditorium.

Also on hand were many U.S. Postal Service employees celebrating the initiation of this new postal workhorse.

The Postal Service offered all attendees a patriotic souvenir folder with a pocket that contained the speaker list. The folder was enclosed in a beautiful envelope franked with a booklet version of the new stamp and tied with a black ink first-day cancel.

Each visitor also received a lapel pin reproducing the new stamp design.

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The ceremony was led by ASDA executive director Dana Guyer. She invited the Davie (Fla.) police honor guard to troop the colors, and introduced Taylor McPhee-Johnson of the Postal Service to sing the national anthem.

Guyer next introduced Timothy R. Costello, USPS district manager for South Florida. Costello told the audience that the first full-color commemorative featuring the U.S. flag as a single design was the 1957 Old Glory stamp (Scott 1094).

He added that the colors of the flag signify hardiness and valor (red), purity and innocence (white), and vigilance, perseverance and justice (blue). His father and grandfather were veterans of World War I and World War II, and Costello said hes always felt that the flag is more than a symbol of the United States: It represents all of the citizens of the country.

Next up was the unveiling ceremony. An 8-foot by 8-foot reproduction of the stamp design was revealed by the ceremony participants and greeted by enthusiastic applause from the audience.

Richard A. Asper, the chair and founder of Honor Flight South Florida, spoke next. His organization sends local veterans to Washington, D.C., for visits to war memorials in the nations capital.

The groups Flags of our Heroes program provides the families of veterans with plaques in honor of those who were unable to make the trip.

Asper shared a personal story about the impact of the U.S. flag while he was visiting the nation of Chad in central Africa.

Despite the language barrier, a local child noticed the U.S. flag patch on Aspers Army shirt, touched it, and said America.

Asper thanked the Postal Service for issuing the new Flag stamp, noting it will travel with messages sent all over the world  possibly even to a small village in Chad.

The final speaker was Parker A. Bailey Jr., president of the nearby Hollywood Stamp Club. A lifelong stamp collector and a retired police officer, Bailey has attended many first-day ceremonies, but his favorite was for the 1968 6 Law and Order stamp (Scott 1343) issued on his birthday.

Bailey said that one of the most moving experiences in his life was when there were no flags available to purchase after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, as the stores had all been emptied of flags by people looking for an example of our national symbol.

The flag represents the people of the United States, not the government, Bailey observed. He added that when he travels abroad, his favorite experience is seeing Old Glory flying on his return to the United States.

At the conclusion of the formal program, attendees gathered at the autograph tables to obtain signatures of the ceremony participants on programs and other souvenirs.

The new U.S. Flag definitive is being sold in double-sided panes of 20 (which the Postal Service refers to as a booklet), and in coils of 100.

The two Postal Service contract printers, Ashton Potter and Banknote Corporation of America, each printed a pane of 20 and a coil.

The Ashton Potter printings of the pane and the coil were available at the ceremony.

By my count there have been more than 60 face-different regular-issue U.S. Flag stamps issued, not counting commemoratives and special stamps.

Collectors who enjoy these patriotic issues can create some combination first-day covers by including different Flag stamps from the past, and can use the new U.S. Flag forever stamp on daily mail as well.Pollution is the process of making land, water, air or other parts of the environment dirty and not safe or suitable to use. This can be done through the introduction of a contaminant into a natural environment, but the contaminant doesn't need to be tangible. Things as simple as light, sound and temperature can be considered pollutants when introduced artificially into an environment.

Toxic pollution affects more than 200 million people worldwide, according to Pure Earth, a non-profit environmental organization. In some of the world's worst polluted places, babies are born with birth defects, children have lost 30 to 40 IQ points, and life expectancy may be as low as 45 years because of cancers and other diseases. Read on to find out more about specific types of pollution.

Land pollution

Land can become polluted by household garbage and by industrial waste. In 2014, Americans produced about 258 million tons of solid waste, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. A little over half of the waste  136 million tons was gathered in landfills. Only about 34% was recycled or composted.

Organic material was the largest component of the garbage generated, the EPA said. Paper and paperboard accounted for more than 26%; food was 15% and yard trimmings were 13%. Plastics comprised about 13% of the solid waste, while rubber, leather and textiles made up 9.5% and metals 9%. Wood contributed to 6.2% of the garbage; glass was 4.4% and other miscellaneous materials made up about 3%.

Commercial or industrial waste is a significant portion of solid waste. According to the University of Utah, industries use 4 million pounds of materials in order to provide the average American family with needed products for one year. Much of it is classified as non-hazardous, such as construction material (wood, concrete, bricks, glass, etc.) and medical waste (bandages, surgical gloves, surgical instruments, discarded needles, etc.). Hazardous waste is any liquid, solid or sludge waste that contain properties that are dangerous of potentially harmful to human health or the environment. Industries generate hazardous waste from mining, petroleum refining, pesticide manufacturing and other chemical production. Households generate hazardous waste as well, including paints and solvents, motor oil, fluorescent lights, aerosol cans and ammunition.

Water pollution

Water pollution happens when chemicals or dangerous foreign substances are introduced to water, including chemicals, sewage, pesticides and fertilizers from agricultural runoff, or metals like lead or mercury. According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), 44% of assessed stream miles, 64% of lakes and 30% of bay and estuarine areas are not clean enough for fishing and swimming. The EPA also states that the United State's most common contaminants are bacteria, mercury, phosphorus and nitrogen. These come from the most common sources of contaminates, that include agricultural runoff, air deposition, water diversions and channelization of streams.

Water pollution isn't just a problem for the United States. According to United Nations, 783 million people do not have access to clean water and around 2.5 billion do not have access to adequate sanitation. Adequate sanitation helps to keep sewage and other contaminants from entering the water supply.

According to National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), 80% of pollution in marine environment comes from the land through sources like runoff. Water pollution can also severely affect marine life. For example, sewage causes pathogens to grow, while organic and inorganic compounds in water can change the composition of the precious resource. According to the EPA, low levels of dissolved oxygen in the water are also considered a pollutant. Dissolved is caused by the decomposition of organic materials, such as sewage introduced into the water.

Warming water can also be harmful. The artificial warming of water is called thermal pollution. It can happen when a factory or power plant that is using water to cool its operations ends up discharging hot water. This makes the water hold less oxygen, which can kill fish and wildlife. The sudden change of temperature in the body of water can also kill fish. According to the University of Georgia, it is estimated that around half of the water withdrawn from water systems in the United States each year is used for cooling electric power plants.

"In nearly all cases, 90% of this water is returned to its source, where it can raise the water temperature in an area immediately surrounding the water discharge pipe. Depending on water flow, the water temperature quickly returns to ambient temperatures that do not harm fish." Donn Dears, former president of TSAugust, a not for profit corporation organization focused on energy issues, told Live Science.

Nutrient pollution, also called eutrophication, is another type of water pollution. It is when nutrients, such as nitrogen, are added into bodies of water. The nutrient works like fertilizer and makes algae grow at excessive rates, according to NOAA. The algae blocks light from other plants. The plants die and their decomposition leads to less oxygen in the water. Less oxygen in the water kills aquatic animals.

Air pollution

The air we breathe has a very exact chemical composition; 99% of it is made up of nitrogen, oxygen, water vapor and inert gases. Air pollution occurs when things that aren't normally there are added to the air. A common type of air pollution happens when people release particles into the air from burning fuels. This pollution looks like soot, containing millions of tiny particles, floating in the air.

Another common type of air pollution is dangerous gases, such as sulfur dioxide, carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides and chemical vapors. These can take part in further chemical reactions once they are in the atmosphere, creating acid rain and smog. Other sources of air pollution can come from within buildings, such as secondhand smoke.

Finally, air pollution can take the form of greenhouse gases, such as carbon dioxide or sulfur dioxide, which are warming the planet through the greenhouse effect. According to the EPA, the greenhouse effect is when gases absorb the infrared radiation that is released from the Earth, preventing the heat from escaping. This is a natural process that keeps our atmosphere warm. If too many gases are introduced into the atmosphere, though, more heat is trapped and this can make the planet artificially warm, according to Columbia University.

Air pollution kills more than 2 million people each year, according to a study published in the journal of Environmental Research Letters. The effects of air pollution on human health can vary widely depending on the pollutant, according to Hugh Sealy, professor and director of the environmental and occupational health track at the Department of Public Health and Preventive Medicine, St. George's University, St. George's, Grenada. If the pollutant is highly toxic, the effects on health can be widespread and severe. For example, the release of methyl isocyanate gas at Union Carbide plant in Bhopal in 1984 killed over 2,000 people, and over 200,000 suffered respiratory problems. An irritant (e.g. particulates less than 10 micrometers) may cause respiratory illnesses, cardiovascular disease and increases in asthma. "The very young, the old and those with vulnerable immune systems are most at risk from air pollution. The air pollutant may be carcinogenic (e.g. some volatile organic compounds) or biologically active (e.g. some viruses) or radioactive (e.g. radon). Other air pollutants like carbon dioxide have an indirect impact on human health through climate change," Sealy told Live Science.

Noise pollution

Even though humans can't see or smell noise pollution, it still affects the environment. Noise pollution happens when the sound coming from planes, industry or other sources reaches harmful levels. Research has shown that there are direct links between noise and health, including stress-related illnesses, high blood pressure, speech interference, hearing loss. For example, a study bythe WHO Noise Environmental Burden on Disease working group found that noise pollution may contribute to hundreds of thousands of deaths per year by increasing the rates of coronary heart disease. Under the Clean Air Act, the EPA can regulate machine and plane noise.

Underwater noise pollution coming from ships has been shown to upset whales' navigation systems and kill other species that depend on the natural underwater world. Noise also makes wild species communicate louder, which can shorten their lifespan.

Light pollution

Most people can't imagine living without the modern convenience of electric lights. For the natural world, though, lights have changed the way that days and nights work. Some consequences of light pollution are:

Some birds sing at unnatural hours in the presence of artificial light.

Scientists have determined that long artificial days can affect migration schedules, as they allow for longer feeding times.

Streetlights can confuse newly hatched sea turtles that rely on starlight reflecting off the waves to guide them from the beach to the ocean. They often head in the wrong direction.

Light pollution, called sky glow, also makes it difficult for astronomers, both professional and amateur, to properly see the stars.

Plant's flowering and developmental patterns can be entirely disrupted by artificial light.

According to a study by the American Geophysical Union, light pollution could also be making smog worse by destroying nitrate radicals that helps the dispersion of smog.

Turning on so many lights may not be necessary. Research published by International Journal of Science and Research estimates that over-illumination wastes about 2 million barrels of oil per day and lighting is responsible for one-fourth of all energy consumption worldwide.

Other pollution facts:

Americans generate 30 billion foam cups, 220 million tires, and 1.8 billion disposable diapers every year, according to the Green Schools Alliance.

According to the WHO, ambient air pollution contributes to 6.7% of all deaths worldwide.

The Mississippi River drains the lands of nearly 40% of the continental United Sates. It also carries an estimated 1.5 million metric tons of nitrogen pollution into the Gulf of Mexico each year, resulting in a dead zone each summer about the size of New Jersey.

Pollution in China can change weather patterns in the United States. It takes just five days for the jet stream to carry heavy air pollution from China to the United States, where it stops clouds from producing rain and snow.

About 7 million premature deaths annually linked to air pollution, according to WHO. That is one in eight deaths worldwide.

Additional resourcesCould your pee reveal your youth? Or perhaps your advanced age? Scientists in China think so. In a study published today (Feb. 27) in the journal Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience, researchers say they have identified a natural chemical in urine that appears in higher concentrations as we age.

The researchers said the chemical may serve as a marker of your "biological age," or how fast you're aging, as opposed to your chronological age, which is based on your birth date. It's easy to detect in urine, too, they added.

The name of the chemical is a mouthful  8-oxo-7,8-dihydroguanosine, or 8-oxoGsn for short. It's a byproduct of slow, lifelong damage to RNA, an important molecule that interacts with DNA to enable gene expression and to create proteins in the core of most cells. [7 Ways the Mind and Body Change with Age]

If aging is defined as a prolonged buildup of damage to cells and tissues, then something that measures the deterioration of RNA, a molecule essential for maintaining healthy cell function, would be a proxy for measuring aging, said lead study author Dr. Jian-Ping Cai, of the MOH Key Laboratory of Geriatrics at Beijing Hospital and the National Center of Gerontology in Beijing.

Humans age at vastly different rates, based on a combination of genetics and environmental factors. So, finding an accurate biomarker to measure the rate of aging has been akin to a search for the Holy Grail for many in the field of geriatric medicine.

Such a biomarker could be used to determine a person's age at the cellular level and thus identify their risk for developing age-associated diseases, such as arthritis, heart disease and Alzheimer's disease.

Physical features such as wrinkles and gray hair can belie the internal youthfulness that many older people might still have. Someone in their 50s with no gray hair, for example, may be aging faster and at a greater risk for age-related diseases than a gray-haired grandmother in her 70s.

Searching for a marker

Cai and his colleagues, from West China Hospital at Sichuan University in Chengdu, China, searched for a biomarker that would be based on a leading aging theory, called the free radical theory of aging. A free radical is a highly reactive atom or molecule that is produced in the presence of oxygen, in a process called oxidation. If not neutralized by an antioxidant, the free radical can interact with and damage other molecules at a subcellular level.

Free radicals "produced during normal metabolism can cause oxidative damage to biomolecules in cells, such as DNA and RNA," Cai told Live Science. "As we age, we suffer increasing oxidative damage, and so the levels of oxidative markers increase in our body."

The molecule 8-oxoGsn is one such marker; it is a well-known byproduct of the oxidation of guanine, one of the four base pairs found in DNA and RNA.

In previous studies on mice, rats and monkeys, Cai and his colleagues found that levels of 8-oxoGsn increased in the urine of these animals as they aged. In their latest work, the researchers turned to humans  more than 1,200 Chinese males and females between 2 and 90 years old. Similarly, they found an age-dependent increase in urinary 8-oxoGsn in participants 20 years and older. In other words, levels of the biomarker were higher in people ages 20 and older.

Levels of 8-oxoGsn were about the same between men and women, except in postmenopausal women, who showed higher levels. This may be a result of the decrease in estrogen levels that happens during menopause, as estrogen is known to have antioxidant effects, the researchers said.

Cai said his group hopes to validate their findings in a much larger study, which is feasible because the measurement technique they developed can analyze 10 urine samples per hour.

Should 8-oxoGsn prove to be an accurate biomarker for the rate of aging, it could be used in rodents, monkeys and humans to test interventions to slow aging, such as calorie restriction, because changes in the levels of 8-oxoGsn could be tracked over a short span of time instead of the entire life span of the test subject, as is the case for such studies now.

Follow Christopher Wanjek @wanjek for daily tweets on health and science with a humorous edge. Wanjek is the author of "Food at Work" and "Bad Medicine." His column, Bad Medicine, appears regularly on Live Science.New research by Joan Taylor suggests Jesus may have been an average height, with short black hair, brown eyes and olive-brown skin.

A quick Google search of "Jesus" will pull up an assortment of images showing a tall, white guy with long, blondish hair and a beard. But what did Jesus really look like?

In her new book, a scholar says Jesus probably didn't look anything like this modern picture.

The Gospels in the Bible say that Jesus was a Jew who was born around 4 B.C. in Bethlehem and lived in Egypt as a child for a short time before moving to Nazareth. These writings make no mention of what Jesus looked like, aside from some references to the clothing that he and his disciples wore, wrote Joan Taylor, professor of Christian Origins and Second Temple Judaism at King's College London, in her book "What Did Jesus Look Like?" (T&T Clark, 2018).

"It's so curious how little is made of it, what he looked like," Taylor told Live Science. [See Images of Jesus' House and Nazareth Artifacts]

Even so, both Moses (the prophet said to have led the Israelites) and David, who the Bible says killed Goliath, were described as being handsome figures in the Hebrew Bible.

Additionally, the earliest artistic depictions of Jesus date to at least two centuries after he died, and they provide little credible information about what Jesus may have looked like, Taylor wrote in her book.

To get an idea of Jesus' visage, Taylor turned to archaeology and texts that provide clues about the general appearance of Jews in Judea and Egypt at the time Jesus lived. She also looked at artistic images on coins and Egyptian mummy paintings.

Average, short-haired guy

According to Taylor's research, rather than towering over others in Judea, Jesus was about 5 foot 5 inches (1.7 meters) tall, or the average height seen in skeletal remains from males there at the time. People in Judea and Egypt tended to have brown eyes, black hair and olive-brown skin, based on surviving archaeological remains, historical texts and depictions of people seen in mummy portraits from Egypt, Taylor said in her book.

There was interaction between Judea and people from Europe (who could have lighter skin) as well as Sudan and Ethiopia (who could have darker skin). But because Jews in Judea and Egypt tended to marry among themselves at the time, Jesus' skin, eyes and hair probably looked like those of the majority of the people in Judea and Egypt, Taylor found. Surviving texts say that Jews in Egypt couldn't be physically distinguished from the rest of Egypt's population around Jesus' time. [Proof of Jesus Christ? 7 Pieces of Evidence Debated]

Historical records also showed that people in Judea tended to keep their hair (and beards) reasonably short and well-combed, probably to keep out lice, a big problem at the time, Taylor said. Jesus likely did the same.

He could have used a knife to trim his hair and beard, Taylor said, noting that people in the ancient world tended to be more skilled with knives than people are today.

Jesus is portrayed in the gospels as a carpenter who did a lot of walking but at times didn't have much to eat. This active lifestyle, but lack of regular food, meant that he was probably thin, but somewhat muscular, Taylor said. "Jesus was a man who was physical in terms of the labor that he came from," Taylor said. "He shouldn't be presented as [in] any way someone who was living a soft life, and sometimes that's the kind of image we get."

Some aspects of Jesus' face, such as his mouth and cheeks, are anyone's guess, Taylor said. He may have had facial scars or skin damage from his work as a carpenter, but there's no way to tell, Taylor said.

She said she is skeptical of depictions of Jesus that show him as being very handsome. If Jesus were handsome, Taylor said, the gospel writers, or other early Christian writers, would have said so, as they did for Moses and David.

Jesus' tunic

The gospels, along with surviving archaeological remains, do provide some hints about Jesus' clothing. He likely wore a woolen, undyed tunic that left his lower legs bare; possibly a loincloth; and a "mantle," or outer cloak, to stay warm.

His shoes would have looked like modern-day sandals, and the high price of clothing meant that Jesus likely did a lot of mending. Also, unless someone provided him with fresh clothing, what he wore would become more tattered as time went on. From his clothing, "I think what you would recognize Jesus as being is just really someone who looked very poor," Taylor said.

Among the biblical scholars who have read Taylor's book, Helen Bond, a professor of theology at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland, and Jim West, an adjunct professor of biblical studies at Ming Hua Theological College in Hong Kong, gave the work generally positive reviews.

Taylor said she looks forward to seeing scholars publish detailed reviews of the book. She is also looking forward to seeing more artists try to reconstruct images of Jesus based on her findings, she said. Her book features a reconstruction by artist Cathy Fisher based on Taylor's findings.

Originally published on Live Science.At the edge of life and death is a spreading dark wave.

Scientists spotted it first in rabbits. In a series of papers published throughout the 1940s, Harvard biologist Aristides Leao described finding a sudden silencing of electrical activity in the exposed brains of his unconscious experimental animals after subjecting them to injuries  applying electrical shocks, poking them with glass rods or cutting off the blood in their arteries. The "spreading depression," as he termed it, began at the injured spot within 5 minutes of the injury, before eclipsing more distant parts of the brain.

Seven decades later, a paper published Feb. 15 in the journal Annals of Neurology reveals just how this process occurs in the dying brain cells of humans. [10 Mysteries of the Mind]

To gather their data, the researchers set up shop in hospitals in Berlin and Cincinnati. With consent from next of kin and other legal representatives, they reported results from nine patients who died with electrodes implanted in their brains, recording how their neurons behaved in their last minutes. All of them had existing conditions that required invasive neural monitoring, so the electrodes were already in place when doctors stopped life-preserving care.

The people in the study had severe brain injuries: a "47-year-old male occupant of a car struck by train," a "57-year-old male who was found at the base of a stairway," and heart attack and stroke victims. So they likely had already gone through their first "spreading depression" before the electrodes were applied. This paper describes the final depressions before final brain death.

As the body dies, brain cells sputter electrical juice

Like other organs, brains are made up of flesh, which means they are made up of cells  neurons, mostly. And neurons rely on delicate chemical balances to function. The new paper, the first to study in detail in humans the chemical processes Leao discovered in rabbits, reveals a very similar process preceding final, irreversible death.

Neurons work by filling themselves with charged ions, creating electrical imbalances between themselves and their surroundings that let them generate the little shocks that constitute their signals. And maintaining that imbalance, the authors wrote, is a constant effort  electromagnetic forces tug on the ions, trying to wipe out the charge imbalance even as the neurons labor to maintain it.

To fuel that effort, those hardworking cells drink greedily from the bloodstream, gulping oxygen and chemical energy. When the body dies, and blood flow to the brain stops, oxygen-deprived neurons try to hoard their remaining resources, the researchers wrote.

Sending signals back and forth is wasteful of those precious last sips of life. So, as much as possible, the neurons go silent, instead using their remaining energy stores to maintain their internal charges, waiting for the return of a blood flow that will never come.

To researchers observing with electrodes, this first wave of darkness doesn't seem to spread. Instead, they wrote, it happens everywhere at once, as neurons all over the brain react to the sudden drought. The final, spreading wave comes minutes later, as cells run out of their limited chemical stores, and their stored ions leach into the surrounding tissue  and millions of batteries suddenly lose their charge.

This marks, for dying patients, the final moments of brain function, the authors wrote. But they cautioned that it's an imperfect marker of true death. Previous research in animals has shown that if blood and oxygen return quickly enough to the brain after the spreading wave, the neurons can return to life and recover their chemical charge. Only after sitting in their depolarized chemical soup for a few minutes after the spreading wave, it seems, do neurons reach a somewhat vague "commitment point" beyond which there is no return.

Originally published on Live Science.A Google Street View image captures Ballground Plantation in Redwood, Mississippi, the site of an interview in Vice's documentary with a man who was once enslaved there through peonage.

White landowners enslaved black Americans for at least a century after the Civil War.

That's the conclusion of decades of research by historian and genealogist Antoinette Harrell, who described her findings in a series of interviews for Vice published today (Feb. 28). Harrell has uncovered numerous examples of white people in Southern states entrapping black workers into peonage slavery  slavery justified and enforced through deceptive contracts and debt, rather than claims of ownership  even though peonage was technically outlawed in the United States in 1867, four years after the Emancipation Proclamation.

People enslaved through peonage may not have appeared in any ledgers as belonging to their enslavers, but the experience was indistinguishable in many respects from the brutal practices of the antebellum period. [6 Civil War Myths, Busted]

"I met about 20 people all who had worked on the Waterford Plantation in St. Charles Parish, Louisiana," Harrell told Vice. "They told me they had worked the fields for most of their lives. One way or another, they had become indebted to the plantation's owner and were not allowed to leave the property At the end of the harvest when they tried to settle up with the owner, they were always told they didn't make it into the black and to try again next year. Every passing year, the workers fell deeper and deeper in debt. Some of those folks were tied to that land into the 1960s."

And Harrell found that the cruelty practiced by modern white enslavers toward the black people they enslaved through peonage was reminiscent of records from the height of chattel slavery. Harrell described the case of Mae Louise Walls Miller, who didn't get her freedom until 1963, when she was about 14. As a child, Miller would get sent up to the landowner's house on the farm where her family was enslaved and "raped by whatever men were present," sometimes alongside her mother.

Harrell pointed out that not every person enslaved through this system was African-American. Immigrants from places like Eastern Europe occasionally got caught up in it as well, she said, but "the vast majority of 20th-century slaves were of African descent."

Why hasn't this story been more widely told?

"People are afraid to share their stories," Harrell told Vice, "because in the South so many of the same white families who owned these plantations are still running local government and big businesses. They still hold the power. So the poor and disenfranchised really don't have anywhere to share these injustices without fearing major repercussions."

You can read the full collected interviews with Harrell at Vice. The article also contains a short documentary that follows Harrell as she conducts her research, and includes interviews with people who were enslaved through peonage.

Originally published on Live Science.MICHAEL STRAVATO/STR

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has charged three oil and gas companies and its executives with fraudulently scheming to raise $11.7 million for drilling projects allegedly located in Kentucky and using investor money for booze, drugs and strippers.

In a federal complaint filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Sherman, lawyers with the SEC's Fort Worth office say that AmeraTex Energy and Lewis Oil Company, which are based in North Dallas, and Lewis Oil Corp., which is headquartered in Albany, KY., perpetrated a fraud to sell unregistered securities to more than 150 investors in 36 states, made false statements to investors and diverted money raised for personal pleasures.I hesitate to conjure some overreaching take on "Atlanta," Donald Glover's richly imagined and deservedly praised dramedy for FX, a hazy and half-stoned collage of a young African-American man's unhurried life in the inner suburbs of the Southern megalopolis, where he works, sometimes, managing his cousin's rise as a local rap star.

Twice now I've seen Glover, with his "Atlanta" castmates and co-producers/writers, sit in a roomful of journalists and seem genuinely baffled and even slightly perturbed by any attempts to dig too deeply into "Atlanta's" intent, theme or meaning. The rave reviews and awards are fine, but that still doesn't mean everyone watches "Atlanta" the same way.

While meeting with critics in January to promote the show's long-awaited second season, Glover and company claimed that much of what they're trying with "Atlanta" this time was partly inspired by "Tiny Toon Adventures," a syndicated children's cartoon show from the early 1990s. They giggled among themselves while serious-minded reporters asked them to elaborate on the cartoon's merits.

There was a vague sense that it's fun to watch white people - so desperate to appear "woke" in an intensely woke moment of popular culture - project too much onto "Atlanta." In fact, the Q&A session played very much like a scene from the show.

"Atlanta," after all, functions and succeeds entirely on its own terms, even though in structure and momentum it isn't all that different from Pamela Adlon's "Better Things," Aziz Ansari's "Master of None," or even Lena Dunham's "Girls" - all of which rely on a disjointed, slice-of-life narrative style and their creators' particular ways of seeing the world. The half-hour cable dramedy has become television's most consistent expression of experimental film techniques, its own little exercise in 21st-century new-wave cinema. Last year "Atlanta" toyed surprisingly with talk-show formats, commercials and cartoons. Some also compared the show to the meandering genius of David Lynch.

Returning Thursday night after an extended hiatus (Glover has been busy playing Lando Calrissian in an upcoming "Star Wars" movie), "Atlanta" has acquired a coy subtitle, "Robbin' Season," which, as explained by Darius (Lakeith Stanfield), the show's resident cool cat, is the wary time of year in the weeks leading up to Christmas.

In this unsettling inverse of Advent, the first minutes of the show include an armed robbery of a fast-food restaurant that ends with bullets flying in a Tarantino-like way of twining violence to wryness. "Christmas approaches," Darius explains to Glover's character, Earn Marks. "Everybody's gotta eat."

Based on the first three new episodes made available for review, "Atlanta" appears to be buckling down for a more serious moment with a more linear story line. Earn's life is noticeably more marginal and depressing - the storage unit he used to sleep in with his belongings has fallen out of his possession. His cousin, Alfred Miles (Brian Tyree Henry), now better known around town as the rapper Paper Boi, is perpetually unhappy with the state of his career, which has plateaued.

Earn's attempt to boost his cousin's profile leads them to a branding agency - a modern, open-floor-plan warehouse teeming with mostly white, bright-eyed millennials, who, hoping to appear doper than they'll ever be, nervously patronize Al and Earn while spitballing ways to market Paper Boi. When Earn pulls out a CD of some of Paper Boi's recordings, he's told that there aren't any disc players in this ultrahip office; emailing a file doesn't work either.

It's two cultures failing in every way to connect - and, I think, what "Atlanta" is about, at heart. The show welcomes us into the world of Earn, who happens to be a Princeton dropout, and his closest friends and associates, all of them living apart from an America that is all too willing to leave them behind in the 21st-century's fairy dust- an America that craves their music, mostly as means to marketing.

As Earn eats a bag of chips and waits for a disgruntled Al to record a series of promos in a soundbooth, he suddenly realizes that the entire office is watching him. When he turns around, they all pretend to go back to work. Viewing it, I couldn't help but think of that roomful of critics trying to wrest more introspection from Glover than he was willing to give. The same closely held sense of self-consciousness flows through "Atlanta."

Part of what sets the show apart is its unapologetic portrayal of Earn's awareness of himself in the world - especially in the white world, where the indignities and dangers are endless and range from subtle to direct. Treating his on-again/off-again girlfriend, Van (Zazie Beetz), to a movie at a luxury theater, Earn has a $100 bill rejected by a cashier, only to see a white customer behind him pay for tickets using a $100 bill. His reaction to these moments isn't outrage. Instead he says what most of us say in the face of mistreatment: "Wow. Seriously?"

Robbin' Season also comes with a heightened danger of black-on-black crime and other cruelties, from a scene where Al gets robbed at gunpoint to another scene where an acquaintance sees an opportunity to swindle Earn out of a newfound and sorely needed payout.

All of which is to note that "Atlanta" might be a more depressing show than it used to be - and it wasn't exactly euphoric to begin with. A viewer's laughs come less from its covert commentary and more in exasperated gasps, as Earn endures repeat disappointments, always holding the short end of society's stick. Beneath all its current cultural cachet, it's not a Tiny Toon. It's an excellent and deceptively precise show about the human condition.

---

"Atlanta Robbin' Season" (30 minutes) returns Thursday at 10 p.m. ET on FX.A kolache sounds pretty good right now. And a free one even better.

On March 1, local kolache shops plan to get in the spirit of launching a new culinary holiday, National Kolache Day. Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner signed a proclamation to declare Houston Kolache Day on March 1, thanks to Koala Kolache, a bake shop in Cypress.

"Once I realized that National Kolache Day didn't yet exist, I wanted my city, Houston, to be the city to proclaim the holiday because of the large Czech community and diversity in Texas," said Vatsana Souvannavog, the owner of Koala Kolache. "I am thrilled the mayor proclaimed the holiday for the city. This moment is so much bigger than us. This is for all Texans, all kolache shops in Texas and all over the country. Kolaches have always been the underdog in the pastry world, and National Kolache Day will pave the way for this overlooked pastry to gain its much-deserved recognition."

READ ALSO: New Hopdoddy Burger Bar to open at CityCentre

On March 1 Koala Kolache, 14502 Spring Cypress Road, will give away one free kolache per customer while supplies last. Additionally it is offering a year of free kolaches to one winner participating in its campaign to mark National Kolache Day by posting a picture using the tag @KoalaKolache and #NationalKolacheDay.

Also on March 1, Kolache Shoppe at 3945 Richmond will give out one free kolache per person (selected flavors) and a $5 gift card to use on next visit by posting a photo of Kolache Shoppe on Instagram, Facebook or Twitter and showing the cashier. Kolache Shoppe also is debuting two new Rodeo-inspired flavors on March 1: drunken pecan (made with Blue Heron Farm bourbon cajeta, cream cheese and toasted Texas pecans), and a savory kolache made with Pinkerton's BBQ brisket, egg, and cheese. These will be available Thursday through Saturday during the duration of the Rodeo.

Kolache Factory stores throughout Houston also will give out one free fruit kolache on March 1: just mention National Kolache Day.

READ ALSO: Roman-style pizza restaurant coming to West U

See NationalKolacheDay.com for other local Kolache Day specials.A 36-year-old man was sentenced on Wednesday to 25 years in prison for possession of a controlled substance, according to a news release from the Galveston County District Attorney's Office.

Willard Welch was found in Oct. 2016 with illegal drugs after a traffic stop by a deputy from the Galveston County Sheriff's Office, the release stated. The jury decided his punishment after a three-day trial in the 212th District Court that ended Wednesday.

During testimony brought up in the trial that began on Monday, jurors learned the deputy attempted to stop the driver on Oct. 18 after he noticed Welch's car had a defective brake lamp.

When the deputy tried to stop Welch, he did not immediately yield. Welch than began moving his car into a driveway and finally into a front yard.

When Welch finally stopped, prosecutors said he became "belligerent" when the deputy approached, and Welch asked why he was being stopped.

The deputy found several packages of a crystallized substance near Welch, which was later identified as methamphetamine.

He was arrested and charged with possession of a controlled substance between 4 to 200 grams.

A chemist from the Texas Department of Public Safety testified and confirmed that the drug found near Welch was meth and it weighed more than four grams.

Welch also has prior convictions which were presented as evidence during the trial. He was convicted in 2001 of aggravated robbery and attempting to take a weapon from a peace officer. He also was convicted in 2014 of felony theft and evading arrest/detention with a vehicle.

Welch must serve at least one-fourth of his sentence before becoming eligible for parole.A 20-year-old Central Valley man was arrested on suspicion of traveling to Africa in a bid to fight alongside the Islamic State terrorist group, federal officials said Tuesday.

Bernard Raymond Augustine, a resident of the small farming community of Keyes south of Modesto, was picked up by FBI agents in Tunisia last week and transported to New York, where he was expected to make an appearance Tuesday in federal court, documents show.

Augustine faces a charge of attempting to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization. He remains in federal custody. The charge carries a potential 20-year prison sentence.

Neither Augustines lawyer nor his family could be immediately reached for comment.

The U.S. Attorneys Office said Augustine flew from San Francisco to Istanbul two years ago as part of a long-hatched plan to proceed to Libya to join the Islamic State. He was arrested en route, however, when he flew through Tunisia and his intentions became known, prosecutors said.

Augustine served two years in a Tunisian jail after authorities there convicted him of two offenses  entering the country with the intent to illegally travel to Libya and trying to participate in Islamic State activities, court documents show. He was turned over to the FBI last week.

The U.S. governments case against him cites interviews with an unnamed family member in California as well as searches of a computer and phone, and information from the Tunisian government. The case was unsealed Tuesday.

Augustines relative, who lived with him in Keyes, said he had no obvious reason to travel to Africa, according to a court affidavit written in December 2016 by FBI Special Agent Ryan Larkin.

Before he went overseas, Augustine sent a series of text messages to the family member containing several references to the Islamic State, including a link to a YouTube site with an apparent song from the terrorist group, Larkin wrote.

Another text message allegedly read: If I ever get lucky enough to live in the Khilafah (the Islamic State caliphate), Ill burn my own passport lol. Theres a lot you dont know about the justice of the Sharia (Islamic law). If mabey (sic) you understood it, you wouldnt want to live here either.

Once Augustine left home, he asked the family member to cease communications, the FBI alleged.

At San Francisco International Airport, Augustine was briefly stopped and interviewed by a customs officer. He told the agent that he was going to Tunisia for a vacation, court documents show.

Investigators later searched a computer at Augustines home and found he had been actively researching the Islamic State before his trip, according to court documents. He also allegedly made several comments on online messaging boards in support of the group.

Tunisia is a common destination for Islamic State recruits trying to get to Libya, authorities said.

In the years since the Sept. 11 attacks, hundreds of Americans have been accused of attempting to leave the country to join terrorist groups abroad, though few have made it onto the battlefield.

A recent report by George Washington Universitys Program on Extremism, which looked at Americans traveling to Syria and Iraq, said that would-be terrorists tend to be male and have an average age of 27. The states with the highest recruitment rates, according to the report, are Minnesota, Virginia and Ohio.

Augustine sought to travel to Libya to join a violent terrorist organization, U.S Attorney Richard Donoghue said in a statement Tuesday. This office and our law enforcement partners will continue to work tirelessly to arrest and prosecute aspiring terrorists before they are able to threaten the United States and its allies.Three Marines exposed to a suspicious substance Tuesday after an envelope was opened at Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall in Arlington, Virginia, have been released from the hospital as authorities continue to investigate the incident.

The envelope was opened on the Marine Corps side of the base about 3 p.m. Tuesday, a news release said. Eleven people were sickened. Three Marines were taken to a hospital for evaluation. They were released at 10 p.m.The father of a 14-year-old girl who was gunned down in Parkland, Florida, has called on President Donald Trump to address threats against student survivors and their families - many of whom have been outspoken about their desire for tighter gun-control laws since the deadly shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.

Some have been harassed (or worse) by gun-rights advocates; others have become the target of viral lies and even death threats.

On Wednesday, as students returned to school for the first time since the horrific shooting that left 17 people dead, Fred Guttenberg spoke to CNN about the occasionally vicious attacks against the survivors.

"There's been threats against some of these kids and their families," said Guttenberg, whose daughter, Jaime, was among the victims.

"We need our President Trump today to address it publicly and demand that everyone who is making these threats stop," he said.

He said he hoped the FBI, Broward County Sheriff's Office and other authorities were investigating the threats - "and initiating arrests."

"This community has been through trauma," Guttenberg said. "We can't have additional trauma in this community. . . . We need to get something done."

He added: "Trump, make an announcement."

Since the shooting, some student survivors have pushed for tougher gun-control laws, traveling to Tallahassee and Washington in an attempt to discuss gun-control efforts with legislators. They also have been tangling with conservative critics and trolls on Twitter and organizing a nationwide march.

Their activism has made them targets, and conspiracy theories have alleged that the vocal students are "crisis actors."

There have been threats, too: Cameron Kasky, a junior at the school, wrote last week that he was leaving Facebook temporarily because "the death threats from the @NRA cultists are a bit more graphic than those on twitter."

Rebecca Boldrick, whose 17-year-old son David Hogg has become one of the school's most prominent student-activists since the shooting, said she had initially scoffed at the conspiracy theories.

But then the family started receiving death threats, she told The Washington Post.

"I'm under so much stress," she said a week after the shooting. "I'm angry and exhausted. Angry, exhausted and extremely proud."

The major social media platforms have also responded to harassment against the students.

"Such behavior goes against everything we stand for at Twitter, and we are taking action on any content that violates our terms of service," the company tweeted.

Trump doesn't always respond to public pressure to speak out about interactions between Americans - but he has done so on occasion.

Most notably, in late 2016, after the election, "60 Minutes" correspondent Lesley Stahl asked the president-elect about a reported spike in incidents of racial intimidation and harassment across the country.

And for the first time, Trump addressed reports of hate crimes committed in his name.

"I am so saddened to hear that. And I say: Stop it," Trump told Stahl. "If it, if it helps. I will say this, and I will say right to the cameras: Stop it."

On the day of the shooting, Guttenberg posted on Facebook that he found his son but could not reach his daughter.

The next morning, he wrote that his "heart was broken." He and his wife had "lost our baby girl to a violent shooting at her school."

"Hugs to all and hold your children tight," he wrote.

Since then, he has taken on a prominent role among Parkland parents.

At CNN's emotionally charged town hall on gun violence last week, Guttenberg confronted Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., on the lawmaker's gun-control stance.

"I want to like you," Guttenberg told the senator. "Here's the problem. And, I'm a brutally honest person, so I'm just going to say it up front.

"Your comments this week, and those of our president, have been pathetically weak."

On Wednesday, Guttenberg talked about returning to Stoneman Douglas without his daughter.

"My son walks in here without his sister," he told CNN. "My daughter's friends walk in there. They used to always walk in with my daughter . . . and they're walking in there without her."COLUMBIA, S.C. - After waiting in the morning chill for other lawmakers to speak, state Rep. Nancy Mace finally took the microphone. She was the General Assembly's newest member, only four weeks on the job, "a baby among these folks," she told the crowd.

She was also a proud Republican in this very red state, the first woman to graduate from The Citadel military college, a former campaign worker for President Trump, a fiscal conservative who championed his tax overhaul - not the kind of politician demonstrators gathered at a rally organized by liberals were accustomed to hearing.

But the words she roared into the mic set off a round of whistling, shouting and fist pumps. Like several GOP legislators who joined Democrats in stirring the crowd, Mace broke sharply with the president over his plan to offer oil and gas companies leases to drill a few miles off beaches that bring $20 billion in annual revenue to South Carolina and support 600,000 tourism jobs.

"Eight to 10 million tourists a year come down to Charleston. They don't want to come to see oil drilling off the coast," said Mace, who represents an area that includes the city. The former military cadet laid down a gauntlet: "Ain't gonna happen. Not on my watch!"

As the Interior Department hosts public "listening sessions" through early March to explain its proposed five-year lease plan - which would open 95 percent of the nation's outer continental shelf to potential drilling - a growing chorus of bipartisan opposition is finding its voice. At least a half-dozen similar rallies have taken place in other cities where sessions were held, including in New Jersey, Virginia, North Carolina, Georgia, Oregon and California.

Mace's defiance is an indication of how deep the opposition goes. Atlantic and Pacific coast governors, congressional delegations and attorneys general delivered the first waves of protests. Now state lawmakers, mayors and city councils are mobilizing in an attempt to stop the administration's plan.

From the front steps of South Carolina's capitol, Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke was targeted by Republicans and Democrats alike for exempting Florida from the leasing plan less than a week after it was announced. Zinke said Florida was spared because its geology is different, although he offered no scientific studies to support his claim.

Sen. Chip Campsen, R, was outraged. "If Florida is unique, we're more unique," he said a few days after speaking at the mid-February event. "We have the most beautiful and historic coastline on the East Coast."

Oil and gas representatives say energy development off that coast could provide the state $2.7 billion in annual economic growth, 35,000 jobs and potentially lower costs for residents struggling to pay their heating bills.

But Campsen focused on what they fail to say: Oil and gas drilling could permanently scar the state's pristine coast. Refineries, chemical plants, sea-to-shore pipelines and storage tanks would be built and placed near and on beaches. Roads would be needed for a parade of diesel trucks to haul material away.

"We have a lot at stake, a lot to protect, a lot in danger," said Campsen, an avid outdoorsman whose district also overlaps Charleston. "People need to understand that if you are going to have offshore drilling, you have to industrialize a huge portion of your coast."

Along the Gulf Coast, oil and gas companies control leases on 14 million acres as part of a long history of drilling. And the country relied on the Gulf Coast for its gas reserves after the 1970s Arab oil embargo hobbled the U.S. economy.

The Atlantic coast, by contrast, developed a beach tourism economy. But when Congress decided to lift a 40-year ban on exporting American crude oil in 2015, the industry began searching for oil to put into the world market and increased its demand to drill in the Atlantic.

"We don't want it. We don't need unsightly oil rigs and the smelly pipelines sprawled across our beaches and coast," said Rep. Robert Brown, D, known to butt heads with Republicans who also represent parts of Charleston. "Why allow this dirty industry to devalue our most valuable property?"

The Trump administration's drilling plan came under fire minutes after it was announced in early January, and the fury only intensified when Zinke traveled to Florida, met with its GOP governor, Rick Scott, and assured him that the Sunshine State would be excluded.

Other governors along the Atlantic and Pacific coasts immediately demanded the same consideration, and their attorneys general sent a letter to Zinke asking him to back off the plan or, some warned, face lawsuits.

Zinke has been accused of favoring oil and gas interests over nearly everything else. Between February and November of last year, top Interior officials had nearly 180 meetings with industry representatives, according to an analysis of the department's visitor log by the nonprofit organization Friends of the Earth.

"You always know these meetings are happening, but the sheer volume was shocking," said Nicole Ghio, fossil fuels program manager for the group, which leans to the political left. It undertook the analysis, she said, because opposition to the drilling plan was so immediate, strong and bipartisan on both coasts that Friends of the Earth wondered how the administration put it together.

The secretary's effort to justify the plan since its rollout is "striking," according to Ghio. "You look at the immediate exemption of Florida; it looks political," she said. "There's no legal rationale. Florida is important, but I say the same about California, my state. "

The meetings at the Interior Department contrast with the listening sessions the department is holding in 23 cities in coastal states, from Boston, Trenton, N.J., and Tallahassee to Olympia, Wash., Salem, Ore., and Sacramento. The sessions are far different from the sometimes boisterous public hearings they replaced: After a video presentation about the drilling plan, anyone in attendance can log comments into a bank of computers.

The powerful emotions at Columbia's rally fizzled under the new format, which included experts from the department's Bureau of Ocean Energy Management quietly answering questions one on one in a hotel meeting room. Only once did the volume rise, when a man with a bullhorn leaped on a chair. "Mic check!" yelled Drew Hudson, a local resident opposed to the drilling. "This process is a sham!"

Renee Orr, chief of the bureau's Office of Strategic Resources, said the new format is a better way to exchange ideas as opposed to the shouting and booing that often characterizes public hearings. But across the country, participants have disagreed, including a New Jersey protester who described the listening session as "dodging democracy."

But standing in a hallway outside the session, two of the Interior Department's supporters talked about the plan's pluses. Tim Page, executive director of the Consumer Energy Alliance, said drilling off the South Carolina coast could help "keep energy prices low for consumers so they won't have to choose between heat and groceries," he said.

Mark Harmon, the director of a state unit of the American Petroleum Institute, stressed a different point. "Ultimately it means the potential for jobs and reinvestment in the community," he said.

When the state's newest legislator took her fight against drilling to her Facebook page, Mace heard from one of the oil industry's powerful backers. And in a comment posted to the page, U.S. Rep. Jeff Duncan, R-S.C., lit into her.

"I believe that if natural gas were discovered at distances over the visible horizon, in abundant recoverable resources, this conversation would be different," wrote Duncan, who favors seismic testing to determine how much oil and gas might lie off the state's coast. "But having a closed mind about offshore activities is shortsighted. Everyone likes their gasoline and natural gas supplying industries like Alcoa and Nucor Steel - as long as it is produced elsewhere."

Mace replied: "Thank you Congressman Jeff Duncan for offering your thoughts here. However, every municipality along the coast disagrees with you."

Indeed, South Carolina's opposition and support for drilling is largely a divide between people who live on the coast and those who don't. "It's easy for the upstate to support offshore drilling when it ain't in your back yard," Mace added in her reply. "Coastal communities ought to have input on this decision."

The comment thread on the Facebook page filled with remarks from people who said that she was out of step, that they didn't know she would take such a stand against a Republican agenda, that they would reconsider their support for her.

Mace shrugged them off. "I worked for President Trump . . . in several states. I support his agenda," she said. "But that doesn't mean like a blind sheep I will agree with everything. I represent the Charleston area."A federal grand jury has indicted the man suspected of the Jan. 10 robbery of First MidAmerica Credit Union in Edwardsville. Charges against 30-year-old Dandre Brown were issued the same day as the grand jury indicted David C. Hogue, 30 of Granite City, on charges of child pornography and destruction of records.

Thirteen days after the Edwardsville bank robbery, U.S. marshals arrested Brown in Atlanta.

In addition to that robbery, the indictment also charges him with bank robberies that occurred late last year in Alton, Godfrey and East Alton, and a Jan. 2, 2018, bank robbery in Wood River.

A sixth count alleges that Brown drove a stolen vehicle from Missouri to Illinois.

If convicted of bank robbery, Brown faces up to 20 years in federal prison, a fine of up to $250,000 and up to three years supervised release. If convicted on all the bank robbery counts, he could face discretionary, consecutive sentences totaling 100 years, according to a news release from U.S. Attorney Donald S. Boyce.

A conviction on the transportation of a stolen vehicle charge would lead to a sentence of up to 10 years, a fine of up to $250,000 and up to three years of supervised release.

The federal indictments come several weeks after the Madison County States Attorneys Office issued their own robbery charges against Brown.

Edwardsville police investigated the robberies along with the Madison County Sheriffs Department, and police departments in Alton, Granite City, East Alton and St. Louis County. The case was also investigated by the FBI, Illinois State Police, and the Madison County States Attorneys Office.

Assistant U.S. Attorney James G. Piper is prosecuting the case.

After the First MidAmerica Credit Union robbery, Edwardsville police released surveillance photos showing a man wearing sunglasses and a white hoodie. His left arm was in a sling, and the photo showed what appears to be a cast on the top part of his hand.

Following his arrest in Atlanta, Brown was transported to Madison County Jail in Edwardsville, where he is being held on $1 million bond.

Hogue was already facing charges of receiving child pornography and now faces when the latest charges were filed.

The new charges allege that while he was out on bond on those charges, he committed other offenses.

Those include allegations that Hogue tried to destroy images, videos and files on his computer in an attempt to obstruct the FBIs investigation into his alleged receipt of child pornography, according to a Feb. 23 news release from the U.S. Attorneys Office.

The receipt of child pornography charge carries a mandatory minimum penalty of up to five years in prison and a maximum of 20 years, to be followed by not less than five years to lifetime of supervised release and a fine up to $250,000, according to the release.

The destruction of records offense is punishable by up to 20 years in prison.LONDON - In the days of the Troubles, as the 30-year sectarian conflict in Northern Ireland was known, the borderlands between the North and the Republic of Ireland were called "bandit country" - a frontier of milk smugglers, gun runners and frequent clashes between British soldiers and Irish Republican Army cells.

Today, because the sides made peace and because both the Irish Republic and Northern Ireland are members of the same European Union, the border between them is wide open to the point of invisibility. Manufactured goods, alongside tens of thousands of people, and a lot of sheep and Guinness stout, pass freely on a daily basis, without customs checks or passport control, over new highways, farm roads and country lanes.

But that border is now a major point of contention in the Brexit debate, as Britain and the EU sort out how to disengage next year.

European negotiators on Wednesday released draft language for a treaty that would have Northern Ireland essentially remain in the EU customs union, which would allow for an open border for trade and travel between Northern Ireland, still a part of the United Kingdom, and the Republic of Ireland in the south, a member of the European bloc.

In Parliament, British Prime Minister Theresa May immediately called the proposal unacceptable, signaling a rocky road ahead.

May said the Brussels draft would "undermine the U.K. common market and threaten the constitutional integrity of the U.K. by creating a customs and regulatory border down the Irish Sea, and no U.K. prime minister could ever agree to it."

Presenting the proposed treaty, Brussels's chief negotiator Michel Barnier said that Europe was open to other suggestions but that it must preserve the open border. He signaled that Europe needed to hear clear answers from May and that time was running out.

This vexing issue of the Irish border was hardly mentioned before Britain's historic June 2016 vote to leave the European Union.

But the balance between Republicans and Unionists, and between north and south on the Irish island, remains fragile and unsettled 20 years after the sectarian violence ended with the Good Friday Agreement.

May is squeezed by the border issue in part because she failed to achieve a majority in the last British elections and so had to enter into a soft coalition with the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) of Northern Ireland, made up of Protestants loyal to Britain and the monarch, who oppose any move that would sever ties with the United Kingdom.

The DUP leader in Parliament, Nigel Dodds, on Wednesday described the latest EU proposals as "ludicrous" and said that if enacted, the treaty would be "catastrophic" for Northern Ireland.

"We did not leave the European Union to oversee the breakup of the United Kingdom," he told the BBC.

The conservative Times of London wrote, "The European Union has demanded that Britain effectively hand over sovereignty of Northern Ireland to Brussels if it cannot find a solution to the Irish border question."

Meanwhile, the Republic of Ireland's foreign minister, Simon Coveney, praised the draft language.

May has suggested the Irish border issue can be finessed with a combination of clever compromise and 21st-century technology, but she has not said how.

The question of what to do about the border was dismissed this week as a nonissue by hard-line Brexiteers in May's cabinet, foremost by Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, who on Tuesday suggested the solution was no more complex than arranging cameras along the frontier to take pictures of license plate numbers passing by, to collect tolls and information.

He compared the Irish border to moving between two boroughs in London, between zones where traffic tolls are taken to reduce congestion and pollution in the city's center. Johnson's comments, criticized as glib and ahistorical, angered both sides of the Irish border.

Returning from a morning jog in the snow, Johnson, a former London mayor, told reporters Wednesday, "What is going on at the moment is that the issue of the Northern Irish border is being used quite a lot politically to try to keep the U.K. in the customs union, effectively the single market, so we cannot really leave the EU That is what is going on."

Earlier this week, Jeremy Corbyn, leader of the Labour Party and the opposition in Parliament, said he supported a softer Brexit that could include a customs union with Europe on trade and tariffs - an arrangement that could preserve an open Irish border but would block Britain from making its own bilateral deals abroad. May dismissed the idea.

The prime minister is scheduled to present the government's vision for Brexit in a major speech on Friday.Pedestrian hit by truck

A rural Jacksonville man was injured Monday when he was struck by a truck on Old Route 36 west of Jacksonville, according to authorities.

Kevin S. Middendorf, 54, of 201 Zela Lane was treated at Passavant Area Hospital and released.

A sheriffs department report said Middendorf was walking on the highway about 8:30 p.m. when he was struck by a truck being driven by Robert M. Delaney, 58, of South Jacksonville.

Delaney told the sheriffs department that he was driving east on Old Route 36, west of Vasey Lane, when his truck hit something. Delaney said he wasnt sure what his truck hit, so he turned around and saw a person wearing dark clothing walking east on the side of the road. Delaney said the person waved to him but when he turned around again, he was unable to find the person. The trucks passenger-side mirror and window were both damaged in the accident, a sheriffs department report said.

The sheriffs department report said deputies searched the area but were unable to find anyone. At 1:39 a.m. Tuesday, the sheriffs department received a call from Passavant that Middendorf was in the emergency room saying that he had been struck by a vehicle.



Morgan County

SHERIFF

Arrests, Citations

 Alaric I. Gravert, 20, of 207 Main St., Franklin, was booked into the Morgan County jail at 10:50 a.m. Tuesday on charges of criminal damage to state-supported property and littering.

JACKSONVILLE POLICE

Arrests, Citations

 Richard W. Holsman, 38, of 302 W. Douglas Ave. was arrested about 9:40 a.m. Tuesday on an Illinois Department of Corrections warrant accusing him of a violating parole on a burglary charge.

 A 13-year-old girl was arrested about 12:20 p.m. Tuesday on a charge of disorderly conduct after an incident at Jacksonville Middle School.

SOUTH JACKSONVILLE POLICE

Arrests, Citations

 Dianne P. Farley, 44, of Florissant, Missouri, was booked into the Morgan County jail at 4:22 a.m. Tuesday on a warrant accusing her of contempt of court.



Pike County

STATE POLICE

Accidents

 Joshua W. Taylor, 31, of New Salem was injured Monday night when his pickup truck crashed on Pike County Highway 2.

Taylor was flown to St. Johns Hospital in Springfield.

State police said Taylor was driving west on Pike County Highway 2 about 7:30 p.m. when his truck went off the left side of the road and overturned several times.

Compiled by Greg OlsonWASHINGTON - Hostilities between Russia and the United States - waged over the Internet and airwaves and through legislative sanctions - have reached a new battleground: Municipal street signs.

Federal lawmakers and D.C. Council members joined Russian dissidents Tuesday to celebrate the unveiling of brown signs designating a stretch of the northwest Washington, D.C., road outside the Russian Embassy as "Boris Nemtsov Plaza," in honor of the opposition slain leader.

Nemtsov, a critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin, has been praised as an activist promoting democracy and human rights, and supporters believe that his work cost him his life. He was shot from behind while walking across a bridge near the Kremlin and Red Square in Moscow on Feb. 27, 2015.

Critics of Russia in Congress tried last year to pass a law renaming the street outside the embassy in Nemtsov's honor, but the effort stalled. So they went to the D.C. Council, the city of Washington's municipal authority, which acted swiftly and unanimously passed the name change legislation in early February.

Tuesday's event commemorating the change drew more than a dozen television cameras and scores of well-wishers gathered across the street from the embassy. A U.S. Secret Service car was parked under the Boris Nemtsov sign directly in front of the embassy entrance.

"He would not have cared much for a plaque or a sign or a street name," said Vladimir Kara-Murza, a friend of Nemtsov's who chairs a foundation in his honor. "The best possible tribute to him and to his legacy will be a free and democratic Russia, and that day will come."

But on Tuesday, the day was focused on revealing four new brown Boris Nemtsov signs affixed to light poles around the gated Russian embassy on Wisconsin Avenue Northwest.

Flanked by lawmakers, Kara-Murza's young daughter - also Nemtsov's goddaughter - pulled a string to remove the cloth covering the sign across the street from the embassy. Shortly after, and with less fanfare, city transportation workers did the same for the other signs.

The measure is largely symbolic, because the street addresses are unchanged. But it is meant to send a message to diplomats and other Russians entering and leaving the embassy.

"The street sign directly outside of the Russian Embassy will serve as an enduring reminder to Vladimir Putin and those who support him that they can't use murder and violence and intimidation to silence the voices for freedom," said Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla.

D.C. Council member Mary Cheh, D-Ward 3, who introduced the name change legislation, blasted Russian government officials for what she called "Stalinist" tactics to erase memories of Nemtsov. Authorities in Moscow have repeatedly cleared away makeshift memorials on the bridge where he was gunned down.

"This commemoration will not be removed. This commemoration will stay here. It will always be here as a symbol and an honor to Boris Nemtsov," Cheh said. "Let them steal the candles, let them steal the flowers, they can never steal his memory."

Politicians in Russia have dismissed the street name change as a "dirty trick" and are considering one of their own in retaliation.

One Russian lawmaker wants Moscow to rename the street where the U.S. houses its embassy to "North American Dead End." And unlike the D.C. legislation, it would change the embassy's address, too.

This is not the first time the United States has deployed street signs as a diplomatic tool against the Kremlin.

In the waning years of the Cold War, Congress infuriated Moscow in 1984 by voting to change the name of a stretch of 16th Street NW outside the then-Soviet Embassy to "Andrei Sakharov Plaza," an homage to the Soviet Union's best-known dissident.

"Those who stood as the Sakharov name was unveiled outside the Soviet Embassy know that a campaign over years ultimately succeeded in restoring a measure of human rights and dignity and freedom to the then-Soviet Union," said Sen. Christopher Coons, D-Del., telling those gathered Tuesday to "know that someday, someday, Russia will be free again. This embassy will be honored again by the name Boris Nemtsov."

When politicians and activists finished speaking, they left a large photo of Nemtsov at the foot of the light pole where they unveiled the plaza sign. One by one, people left roses in front of the poster.

While the affair was a jab at the Russian government, it was unclear whether anyone from the embassy was watching. There was no sign of activity, and the gate did not open to let any vehicles in or out.

The Russian Embassy did not respond to a request for comment on the new signs.MARTINSBURG, W.Va. -- Striking West Virginia teachers are expected to return to the classroom this week after educators and the state's governor reached a deal on a 5 percent raise.

Gov. Jim Justice announced the end of the work stoppage Tuesday at the state Capitol in Charleston, saying educators would be back on the job Thursday, with Wednesday serving as a "cooling off day." The announcement signaled an end to a strike that has had a sweeping impact in West Virginia, a state with more than 277,000 public school students.

"The long and the short of it is just this: We need our kids back in school. We need our teachers back in school," Justice said. "They want to be back in school. Our service personnel wants to be back in school."

The strike, sparked by concerns about pay and benefits, began last week. Schools had closed in all 55 counties in the state, as educators and school employees headed for picket lines in their local communities and gathered at the state Capitol. West Virginia's public school students started their week out of school again Monday, though a spokeswoman for the state's Department of Education had said some of those closures were because of flooding or previous schedule arrangements.

At Tuesday's press conference, Justice announced an agreement of a 3 percent raise for all state employees, with an additional 2 percent increase for those who work in education. The proposed pay increase still has to pass West Virginia's legislature.

"To be perfectly honest, in a lot of ways, I was looking at this maybe not correctly," Justice said. "You know I've said many, many, many times we ought to look at education as an economic driver. But maybe I was looking at it as what is the prudent thing to do and not necessarily looking at education as an investment."

The salary for beginning teachers in West Virginia is $32,435 a year, and the average teacher salary is $44,701, according to the state teachers union. The state ranked 48th in average teacher salaries in 2016, according to data from the National Education Association. That data, which included 50 states and the District of Columbia, showed that only South Dakota, Mississippi and Oklahoma ranked below West Virginia.

Teachers in the state had not only been concerned about benefits and salary, but also "attacks on their voice," Christine Campbell, president of the American Federation of Teachers-West Virginia, a major union, had previously said.

"So our people are standing up, they're energized, and they're willing to do what they feel they have to do for our students and public education, to make it a priority," she had said.

Teachers in West Virginia went on strike in 1990, a spokeswoman for the state's Department of Education spokeswoman has previously said, but participation in that stoppage varied county to county and was not statewide.A grandmother recently landed behind bars after her 8-year-old granddaughter was found crossing La Pita Mangana Road and U.S. 83 without supervision, according to Laredo police.

On Feb. 19, Alma Rosa Gonzalez, 54, was charged with abandoning, endangering a child causing imminent danger of bodily injury.A Mexican woman has been sentenced in a Laredo federal court to almost 13 years in prison for her role in conspiring to hold two U.S. nationals hostage in the Sister City.

Ruth Sarahi Lopez-Espinoza, of Nuevo Laredo, pleaded guilty in February 2017, about a week before her case was set to go to trial. On Tuesday, visiting U.S. District Judge Keith P. Ellison handed Lopez-Espinoza, 31, a sentence of 153 months in prison.

READ ALSO: Laredo Man tells court he killed wife for 'biblical reasons'

At the hearing, two kidnapping victims spoke of the pain and destruction this event inflicted on them and their families, according to the U.S. Attorneys Office. In handing down the sentence, the court noted that this was one of the worst cases he has seen during his time on the bench.

Lopez-Espinoza was ordered to pay $25,000 in restitution to the victims. She is expected to face deportation proceedings following the sentence.

On July 16, 2006, four men wearing masks and brandishing pistols kidnapped two U.S. nationals as they were leaving a wedding reception in the Sister City of a co-worker from a Laredo restaurant. The masked captors forced the victims into the victims vehicle and to wear hoods. They were taken to an unknown residence in Nuevo Laredo and detained for two days until the ransom demands were met. The captors demanded $20,000 and the victims two vehicles.

READ ALSO: Woman pleads guilty to stealing over $60K

During their confinement, the captors told the victims there was an employee at the restaurant who was providing them with current information about what actions were being taken to secure their release. The kidnappers also said they knew about the wedding reception and that they were targeted because of their vehicle  a Chrysler 300.

With cooperation from Mexican law enforcement, U.S. authorities eventually identified Christina Rodriguez, an employee at the restaurant where one of the victims worked at the time, and her sister  Lopez-Espinoza  as the ones who provided the captors with information about the wedding date, location, targets and real-time information about investigative efforts during the detention of the victims.

A warrant for the arrest of Lopez-Espinoza remained outstanding for eight years until she was arrested in Mexico in March 2015. She was extradited to the United States on June 28, 2016.

Rodriguez, 42, of Laredo, was also convicted and sentenced in 2007 to 168 months in federal prison and also ordered to pay restitution to the victims. The kidnappers who executed the plot are currently incarcerated in Mexico for a separate but similar scheme.A public information officer for the Texas Department of Insurance (TDI) told the Reporter-Telegram that it was Midland Countys decision to shut down the La Hacienda Event Center.

According to Jerry Hagins with the TDI, the State Fire Marshals office conduced a fire safety inspection at the request of local authorities. Those results, Hagins said, were then sent to Midland County Fire Marshal Dale Little.A San Antonio nurse whose prescribing practices came under scrutiny by the Texas Board of Nursing has voluntarily surrendered his nursing licenses, according to an informal agreed order made public this week.

Keith A. Wichinski voluntarily surrendered his registered nurse license, advanced practice registered nurse license and prescriptive authorization through the agreed order signed Monday by Texas Board of Nursing Executive Director Katherine Thomas.

As a result, Wichinski, 46, cant practice nursing or prescribe medications in the state of Texas, said Dusty Johnston, the boards general counsel.

Wichinski can petition for his licenses to be reinstated after one year.

Because of the agreement, he no longer faces an administrative hearing on those licenses.

Wichinski  who owned Nurse Practitioner Associates and treated many transgender patients and low-income patients  had no comment, said his attorney, Justin Nichols.

He certainly never intentionally or knowingly posed a risk to any patient - nor did he harm any patient, Nichols said.

The state nursing board had accused Wichinski of nontherapeutic prescribing practices, alleging he issued 8,798 prescriptions for controlled substances to patients while working in an emergency room setting during an 18-month period.

The board also accused him of failing to properly screen a 14-year-old patient before giving her testosterone injections for gender dysphoria and providing pre-signed prescriptions to a nurse practitioner student.

Wichinski was never charged with any criminal wrongdoing, Nichols said.A 22-year-old man was jailed Wednesday in connection with the death of Cayley Mandadi, a 19-year-old Trinity University cheerleader who died Halloween 2017 after falling unconscious in a car traveling to Houston.

Mark Howerton faces charges of murder and sexual assault.

The arrest comes about four months after Mandadi, who is from the Houston area, was pronounced dead on Oct. 31 at the Seton Medical Center Hays in Kyle, Texas. Until Wednesday, few details about her death had been made public. But an arrest warrant affidavit for Howerton, her boyfriend of four weeks, has shed new light on the hours leading up to Mandadi's death.

The warrant describes injuries Mandadi sustained that don't match Howerton's version of events.

READ ALSO: Affidavit provides detailed timeline of what allegedly happened the night West Texas college student disappeared

According to the documents, the couple had spent the weekend partying with ecstasy and alcohol at the Mala Luna music festival in San Antonio. On the second day of the festival, Oct. 29, they got into a spat when they saw Mandadi's ex-boyfriend at the festival. They left and went to Howerton's car to talk things over.

Howerton told authorities that once the argument ended, Mandadi agreed to go to Houston with him, though the arrest affidavit written by the Texas Rangers notes that none of her possessions, other than the clothing she was apparently wearing that day, were found in his car during the investigation, indicating she had not packed for the trip. Howerton later told investigators he planned on buying her everything she needed, the affidavit says.

On the way to Houston, Howerton claimed the couple stopped at a Valero gas station and had "rough" make up sex, which included hair pulling, light choking and scratching. Afterwards, Mandadi reportedly said she wasn't feeling well and began sleeping in the front seat without her clothes on. Howerton drove on to Houston, according to the affidavit.

As he entered Luling, Howerton said he noticed she wasn't breathing, so he started performing CPR, then detoured to a nearby hospital.

When first responders saw her, she was unresponsive, nude from the waist down, covered in bruises on her neck and thigh and showed signs of sexual trauma, according to the affidavit. Photos taken by Luling police indicate Howerton's knuckles were red "in a manner consistent with someone punching someone else" and he had scratches on his forearms, authorities said.

Mandadi was pronounced brain dead on Oct. 30.

A medical exam showed her injuries were not consistent with Howerton's description of what happened, according to the affidavit.

Mandadi was covered "from head to toe" with red marks, bruises and scratches, according to the affidavit. Both of her eyelids were swollen and bruised.

"The only areas of [Mandadi] with no evidence of injury were her back and the back of her legs," the affidavit says.

Such injuries did not line up with Howerton's claim of "rough sex," notes the arrest affidavit. They line up with "physical and violent sexual assault."

On Oct. 31, Mandadi was taken off life support and died. The medical examiner's officer later determined her cause of death to be blunt force trauma to the head.

Her family released a statement Wednesday afternoon thanking the Texas Rangers and Beth Smith, a Hays County justice of the peace.

"We remain utterly devastated by the loss of Cayley. We ask people of faith to pray for her family, friends, and for justice in this case," they said.

RELATED: Trinity University shocked by cheerleader's mysterious death

From the beginning, the news of her death shocked the campus. A photo of Howerton had circulated on students' social media accounts for months, labeled "the face of a killer" based on alleged previous violent incidents directed at Mandadi, though authorities never publicly named him as a suspect before he was charged Wednesday.

On Wednesday, the university issued a statement saying the focus would remain on Mandadi's life on campus.

"She was an exuberant, curious and engaged classmate, friend and student, a Communication major who deeply loved her Chi Beta Epsilon sorority sisters and teammates on the Trinity Cheer team," Spokeswoman Sharon Schweitzer. "Our focus continues to be on helping Cayley's friends, classmates and faculty heal from her loss."

During the investigation, Texas Rangers spoke with multiple sorority sisters of Mandadi, as well as her ex-boyfriend and her roommate. All of them said Mandadi had told them Howerton had previously physically abused her and threatened her.

In late September, Howerton trashed Mandadi's dorm room, friends told authorities. On that occasion, Howerton allegedly put Mandadi in his car and began driving to Houston.

"Eventually, [Howerton] did return [Mandadi] to San Antonio, but only after purchasing her items to replace those [Howerton] damaged or destroyed in her room," the affidavit says.

He later blamed the incident on "roid rage." One of Howerton's friends told authorities he had previously purchased steroids from him. Another friends told authorities that Howerton sold steroids to several students at Trinity University, according to the affidavit.

The witnesses also accused Howerton on various occasions of slamming Mandadi's head into a car window, waving a gun in her face and threatening to throw her off a balcony.

Trinity University issued an alert about criminal trespass warning on Nov. 1, barring Howerton from campus for a year.

On Jan. 12, Texas Rangers spoke with a friend of Howerton's, who told them Howerton had confided to him that he had "lied to the police, had 'very rough' sex in a mall parking lot with [Mandadi] that night, where he choked and slapped" her. He also allegedly told the friend that he didn't know how long she had not been breathing, and that police had never found his burner phone, which he had hidden inside a planter, when he turned over Mandadi to the hospital.

The Texas Rangers obtained an arrest warrants for Howerton on Feb. 26. Two days later he was booked into the Bexar County Jail. If convicted, Howerton faces up to life in prison.

Text "NEWS" to 77453 for breaking news alerts from mySA.com

Caleb Downs is a crime reporter for mySA.com. Read more of his stories here.| cdowns@mysa.com | Twitter: @calebjdowns1 Defending schools: Nigerias security forces have been ordered to defend all schools in liberated areas of the countrys northeast to avoid further mass abductions from schools by Boko Haram extremists, the presidents office announced Wednesday. Many in Africas most populous country have been outraged by the kidnapping of 110 girls in a Feb. 19 attack by Boko Haram on a school in Dapchi town. It has reminded many of the seizure of 276 schoolgirls in Chibok by the extremists in 2014. President Muhammadu Buharis office said police and civil defense forces have been ordered to coordinate with the military to ensure deployment of personnel to all schools.

2 Education workers killed: A U.N. childrens agency staffer and five other education workers were killed in an attack in Central African Republic, the U.N. agency said Wednesday. The team came under attack Sunday while traveling near Markounda, a remote northwestern area near the border with Chad. Central African Republic has faced deadly interreligious and inter-communal fighting since 2013, when predominantly Muslim Seleka rebels seized power in the capital, Bangui. Mostly Christian anti-Balaka militias fought back, resulting in thousands of people killed and hundreds of thousands displaced.Bord na Mona will commit rural genocide if newly revised plans for a proposed wind farm in south Longford is allowed to go ahead.

That was the stinging prognosis delivered by main opposition body, the No To Derryadd Wind Farm group after local politicians were informed of the semi states amended proposals at a meeting at its Mount Dillon plant on Monday evening.

Among the changes include plans to reduce turbine numbers from 28 to 24 while increasing their blade tip height to 185 metres or over 600ft.

Bord na Mona revealed a combination of constraints had meant its design team have extend the likely distance turbines will be positioned from residential homes to 750 metres.

That, the company insists, represents, a 15 per cent increase in the setback distance in plans which are expected to be lodged with Longford County Council by June 2018.

In a statement, Bord na Mona said a community liaison officer will be tasked with calling to local households to provide residents with a copy of the revised layout.

However, leading members aligned to the No to Derryadd Wind Farm group accused the firm of adopting a divide and conquer approach in a bid to ensure its plans are not derailed.

Bord na Mona are not engaging with the local community so thats why they have decided to go down that road, said PRO Niall Dennigan.

He also said speculation Bord na Mona were willing to offer upwards of 800 towards the energy bills of those closest to the development was further evidence of its attempts to undermine local opposition to the project.

Its just buying support, thats all that is, added Mr Dennigan.

They wont meet with the community so their next stop is to divide support.

Mr Dennigan said the continued backing from local politicians, most recently evidenced by a positive meeting the group had with OPW Minister Kevin Boxer Moran, remained key to their efforts in thwarting the multi-million euro development.

Asked about what impact the revised layout would have on the area and county as a whole, Mr Dennigan said the long term repercussions were unimaginable.

It will put the county back ten steps, he said.

Theres great things happening at the minute with Center Parcs and others but it will all be for nothing if it goes ahead.

Local Councillor Mark Casey was just as incensed, accusing Bord na Mona of overlooking the concerns and anxieties of local residents.

And, in a thinly veiled swipe at Local Government Minister Eoghan Murphy, Cllr Casey predicted similar structures would become a permanent fixture countywide should the utility service provider secure planning approval for the venture.

Not only will these (turbines) be the biggest in Ireland, they will be the biggest in the world, he warned.

Its actually criminal what they (Bord na Mona) are doing. In fact, what they are doing is they are committing genocide to the local area.

But this is only phase one. They will be in every parish in the county if it goes ahead. Maybe not Bord na Mona but a precedent will be set to build these monstrosities 185 metres high.

Directing his wrath at the Government and in particular Mr Murphy, Cllr Casey said: This is once again a case of Dublin politicians making decisions in Longford.

He (Mr Murphy) doesnt even know where Longford is, nor does he care.

Its a regressive step for Longford and is nothing short of bordering on the ridiculous.

Read also:

'No to Derryadd Wind Farm' group meets Boxer Moran

Longford says no to Derryadd wind farmModel Alannah Beirne has just completed her ninth week of RTEs Dancing with the Stars and last Sunday the audience saw an emotional dance off between her and Marty Morrissey.

The young woman is no stranger to Longford either - her father Gerry hails from Ardagh, and her grandmother Bridie still resides in the south Longford village.

Alannah, who grew up in Co Kildare, is having a whale of a time on Dancing with the Stars but a gruelling week of perfecting those dance moves precedes each show.

This week we will have the team dance; we have been split into two teams and there are two couples on my team, she adds, before pointing to the fact that this Sundays winning team will collect additional individual scores when the results come in.

I have just finished week nine and the show is 12 weeks altogether, so its been great so far with lots more to come.

I honestly cant believe how far Ive come and really that is down to the votes that Im getting from the public.

She went on to say that her dad - who is her biggest fan - texts his entire phonebook every Sunday in an effort to drum up some much needed voting power for Alannah.

The votes really matter; last Sunday I was in the dance-off with Marty and that was really difficult; it was emotional to see Marty going as well, she continues.

The voting really is what counts when it comes down to it.

Meanwhile, Alannah has been visiting Longford and Ardagh since she was a child and last year she made a guest appearance at Aines Boutique in Longford town.

She mingled with local fashionistas and chatted to school children who dropped into the store just to meet her!

It was an experience that she really enjoyed.

For the craic: 10 things we all say while watching Dancing With The Stars

I take trips to Ardagh to visit my granny and all my cousins regularly - James Beirne was my grandad and he died two years ago.

We all miss him a lot.

She added; My dad is a really proud Longford man and so we go down there often.

Alannah says she has received great support from the Longford contingent, so far, on Dancing with the Stars.

I have great support in Longford and I know that will continue, she adds.

Im having a great time and I really appreciate all the support that I am getting.

ALSO READ: Longford pride as Alannah Beirne (24) dreams of Dancing with the Stars successLongford is on the up, Longford has turned the corner and Longford is very much open for business.

Those were just some of the choice depictions used by national and local politicians earlier today for the official launch of the Royal Canal Greenway.

Rural Affairs Minister Michael Ring conducted the formalities at Mosstown Harbour in Kenagh as part of an overall project aimed at linking Dublin to Clondra.

Mr Ring complemented the part played by Longford County Council in bringing the project, jointly funded by the Department of Rural and Community Development as well as Transport, to fruition.

The 6km stretch of greenway was built by Longford County Council using 525,000 allocated by Minister Ring through his Departments Outdoor Recreation Infrastructure Scheme.

"We all know outdoor activity is the way forward," he told those in attendance.

"It's great to see so many children and so many adults of all ages enjoying facilities like this all over the country.

"What will happen from this development here today is you will see businesses popping up, you will see people employed and you will see jobs created."

The afternoon was accompanied with OPW Minister Kevin 'Boxer' Moran's announcement to allow free admission for disabled visitors and their carers to heritage sites within his department's portfolio.

That disclosure came at Corlea Trackway Visitor Centre shortly afterwards with Mr Moran confirming the policy would take effect from May 1.

"The OPW is entrusted with looking after wonderful heritage sites and I feel passionately that everyone should be able to enjoy these cultural assets on our doorstep," he said.

There were contributions too from Longford County Council CEO Paddy Mahon and Cathaoirleach Cllr Martin Mulleady, both of whom spoke fervently of the recent economic positivity the county was experiencing.

"Longford, as I have said from day one, is open for business," said Cllr Mulleady, as he reserved special praise for Longford County Council's "outstanding" executive.

"There has been an awful lot of good things that have happened in Longford over the past fortnight.

"We got negative publicity, we took it and we came out fighting. That's what we are at.

It's about time Longford people stood up for their county and were positive going forward because that is what this county needs."

ALSO READ:

'Longford is open for business' as Rural Affairs Minister cuts ribbon on Royal Canal GreenwayA court has heard how an asylum seeker with a broken television and living on little more than 20 a week was prosecuted for not having a TV licence in place.

An Post took a case against Jamil Farhen after An Post TV licence inspector called to the accuseds place of resident at 10 Ardagh Lodge on June 28 2017.

Mr Farhen, who represented himself throughout the brief hearing at Longford District Court, said he was pleading not guilty to the alleged offence.

The court was told when an inspector called to the home of Mr Farhen a TV was observed on the premises.

It was also revealed the State was at a loss of 93 with Mr Farhen having taken out a TV licence the day before the court sitting.

Mr Farhen said he had lived in the aforementioned property for the past 12 months but said the TV on the premises was not functional.

He (inspector) asked me to give my details, said Mr Farhen.

I gave my name and he was gone.

The TV was there but it was a broken TV. He just asked my details and ran away.

The court was told Mr Farhen had been sent two warning letters in the meantime, a claim which was disputed by the accused who said he had received only one.

Judge Conal Gibbons asked Mr Farhen why he chose not to inform the inspector that the television in his home was not working.

If you can fix the TV, I will pay a licence. That would be the first thing you would say to him, said Judge Gibbons.

Mr Farhen replied, saying was not aware of the protocols surrounding having a TV licence, an excuse Judge Gibbons said was not credible in the eyes of the law.

Even if your TV is broken, if you have an aerial thats sufficient for a prosecution.

Though the argument could be made that you will learn more looking at a blank screen rather than an active one, joked the judge.

It was at that juncture, Mr Farhen revealed he was not in a position to work as he was an asylum seeker, an acknowledgement which prompted Judge Gibbons to strike out the case.

Thats extraordinary, he responded.

Hes (Mr Farhen) open, honest and hes trying his best.

He also couldnt work for the last two years and despite all of that he went out and bought a TV licence for a broken television.

Maybe An Post should give him one.Local News, Community, Charity & Cause, Politics

By Long Island News & PR Published: February 28 2018

Zeldin: "From hurricanes to fires, in the most dire situations, the T-band spectrum provides critical communication between first responders."

Long Island, NY - February 28, 2018 - Representatives Lee Zeldin (R, NY-1), Eliot Engel (D, NY-16), and Peter King (R, NY-2) yesterday introduced the Dont Break up the T-Band Act, legislation that would repeal a provision of a 2012 law to allow law-enforcement, fire officials, and EMS to continue using the T-Band spectrum to operate their radios for day-to-day life saving operations.

Currently, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is required to reallocate and auction the T-Band spectrum by 2021, which would endanger public safety communications in major metropolitan areas across the United States. The T-Band is a portion of spectrum used in 11 heavily populated metropolitan areas, covering over 90 million Americans, to support critical public safety communications (i.e. police and fire radios) and provide regional interoperability among first responders. Public safety agencies have spent numerous years and hundreds of millions of dollars of federal, state and local funds to plan and build out these T-Band networks. The result is battle-tested public safety networks that provide resilient coverage, reliability and regional interoperability. This spectrum is essential to public safety and for many public safety entities there is nowhere else to move, so Reps. Zeldin, Engel, and King have introduced the Dont Break Up the T-Band Act to preserve the T-Band spectrum before it is reallocated for good.

Congressman Zeldin (R, NY-1) said, Our first responders bravely and selflessly put their lives on the line each and every day to protect our communities, and our first priority must be ensuring they have the resources they need to safely and effectively do their jobs. From hurricanes to fires, in the most dire situations, the T-band spectrum provides critical communication between first responders. Even when cell phones, internet, and electricity cease to function, T-band is the last line of defense, and selling off this spectrum would be a disservice to our nations first responders and the millions of Americans they serve.

Congressman Eliot Engel (D, NY-16) said, When it comes to the T-Band spectrum, its a classic case of if it isnt broke, dont fix it. First Responders charged with the protection of life and property  such as police, firefighters and Emergency Medical Service (EMS) providers  rely on T-Band as a vital component of their communications systems. It is a reliable and resilient network that functions in subway tunnels, underground concrete parking lots, and even deep inside large buildings where other systems routinely fail. Our bill is designed to allow first responders to continue using the T-Band spectrum to communicate effectively when saving lives and keeping us safe.

Congressman Peter King (R, NY-2) said,This legislation allows our first responders to take advantage of emerging telecommunication technologies while still retaining their radio communications. In addition, it will remove the requirement to re-work emergency communications infrastructure which would be an overwhelming financial burden to our local governments.

NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio said, The safety of our city depends on our use of the T Band, and taking it away would be unconscionable. The City has invested millions of dollars in ensuring our first responders can communicate in all types of emergencies, and this resource is key to our ability to keep our communities safe. I want to thank the congressional leaders who are working to protect public safety through HR 5085.

NYC Police Commissioner James P. ONeill said, The NYPD has significantly reduced crime and disorder in New York City due, in large part, to our ability to rapidly respond and effectively communicate. Our police officers depend on the well-engineered T-Band to keep all New Yorkers safe. This system enables the NYPD to efficiently answer more than nine million calls to 911 each year. This legislation is crucial in maintaining our ability to best protect all the people we serve.

NYC Fire Commissioner Daniel A. Nigro said, Since September 11th, we have systematically improved radio communications for our Firefighters and EMS personnel responding to fires and medical emergencies because those transmissions can so often mean the difference between life and death. Losing the T-Band spectrum would require billions of dollars to replace existing radios and infrastructure, devastate FDNYs operations at thousands of emergencies each day, and unnecessarily endanger the safety of every single New Yorker.Axiostat has become the first Indian wound care product to receive 510(K) FDA clearance in the US for its external hemostatic dressing. Axiostat, a 100% chitosan haemostatic dressing to stop external bleeding, was earlier approved with CE mark in Europe. The FDA clearance now allows Axiostat to be marketed in the US as over-the-counter (OTC) product for control of bleeding.

Axiostat Chitosan Hemostatic Dressing is a patented product that has prevented countless deaths due to bleeding in battlefields, hospitals, and on roadsides, worldwide. The innovative first-aid dressing stops uncontrollable bleeding within just two-three minutes of its application. Axiostat is the de-facto product of Indian armed forces.

Commenting on the FDA approval, Leo Mavely, CEO of Axio Biosolutions, said, The FDA clearance of Axiostat in the US is a major milestone in our journey so far. This is a validation of the performance, safety and efficacy of Axiostat in bleeding control. We developed Axiostat to be a world-class quality product and this clearance reiterates that. We could not have done it without the trust and support of our entire team as well as investors.

Axiostat is currently manufactured at their GMP, ISO 13485-certified manufacturing facility in Gujarat. In the US, the product will be marketed by Advamedica Inc, headquartered in Boston.

Product Page: Axiostat

About Axio Biosolutions:

Axio is a ISO 13485 medical device company with focus on advanced woundcare. Funded by Accel Partners, IDG Ventures and UC-RNT, Axio uses innovative biopolymer based medical technology to create novel woundcare products. Its flagship product is Axiostat  a 100% chitosan haemostatic dressing that controls external bleeding within minutes through its active adhesion to the wound. The award winning CE approved product is being used in frontline battlefield by many defence forces across the globe. Visit AxioBio for more information. Reach at LinkedIn or TwitterFlashback to the Google Glass craze of 2013. People were vying to get an invite onto the Glass Explorers list in order to buy the prototype that would bring us one step closer to actualizing the scenes in the movie Minority Report of Tom Cruise interacting with a holographic computer projection in front of him.

Exelus is a French MedTech company that has been developing Nomadeec, a HoloLens telemedicine app, for the past three years that resembles the Minority Report system. Exeluss telemedicine platform is one of the closest, most impressive demonstrations of a mixed-reality technology I have seen for medical/healthcare use. Having had the opportunity to view multiple Microsoft Hololens demos at various conferences, as well as to chat with Microsoft Hololens developers, it has been exciting to track the applications developed to date and to experience the Exeluss Nomadeec app demo at this years CES conference in Las Vegas.

With the recent explosion of virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) in the tech world, these terms, as well as that of mixed reality (MR) can get a bit confusing, especially as the distinction between AR and MR can get a little fuzzy. The simple breakdown is as follows. Virtual reality immerses the user in a fully artificial computer-simulated environment, augmented reality overlays virtual objects onto the real-world environment, and mixed reality takes things one step further and not only overlays, but also anchors virtual objects to the real world.

The most advanced VR experiences provide freedom of movement, and users can use special hand-held controllers to enhance VR experiences (think Oculus Rift or HTC Vive with controllers). In AR, users can see and interact with the real world while digital content is superimposed onto the real world environment (think Pokemon Go). MR can start with either the real world or virtual world, wherein either a user remains in the real-world environment while digital content is added to it, or a user is fully immersed in the virtual environment while the real world is blocked out.

Nomadeec is an exciting Hololens mixed-reality application that not only showcases the potentials of MR in medicine and healthcare, but also a provides a proof-of-concept demonstration that these AR headset technologies can actually be used in practical real world field applications. Co-founded by an emergency medicine physician, Dr. Louis Rouxel, and engineer/UX expert, Xavier Maurin, Exelus has created a telemedicine platform that is an integrated, connected, and mobile solution for clinical examination performed by field practitioners. For the first time, EMTs and paramedics can seamlessly respond hands-free to incidents with the ability to diagnose and interact remotely using hand gestures and the onboard capabilities of the HoloLens hardware and software.

When you fire up the Nomadeec application after donning the HoloLens, a patients electronic health record (EHR) can be accessed. The EHR data is displayed in multiple thoughtfully categorized windows, as you would see on a computer screen. Using recognized hand gestures by the HoloLens, the user can then position and re-position these windows spatially in the real world around them (in the sky above, next to you, behind you, etc.) and toggle between records from different dates. Telemedicine involves virtually connecting you with a doctor miles away who diagnoses a patient and oversees treatment in real-time. Nomadeec uses the HoloLens to feed information to a remotely located doctor through video, and this doctor (also wearing a HoloLens) is then able to provide directions via video chat, voice, or holographic markers created that can be seen by both users.

To provide some context, let us imagine a paramedic out in the field dealing with an obscure animal bite that they have never seen before. Using Nomadeec, this paramedic can connect with a physician possessing the necessary expertise who can show the paramedic how to treat the wound by providing visual cues after taking a look at the patient in a real-time video feed. The paramedic can use voice or hand gestures to control the apps interface to look at the real-time heart rate of the patient, medication allergies the patient has, blood type, and other potentially relevant information in the patients EHR. A holographic human body display can even be superimposed onto the patient, or displayed next to the patient that points out the critical body areas to examine. Videos of how to conduct the specific physical test or exam can be displayed with real-time feedback from the remote physician based on what is seen. This allows for fast, accurate on-site triage of a patient.

Technologically, the Microsoft HoloLens is a standalone headset with portable computing power. Nomadeec is compatible with a wide array of wireless diagnostic devices and can support 10 or more connected Bluetooth devices at a time, and features mobile connectivity (WiFi, 3G/4G, satellite) for tele-transmission and tele-consultation. As you can imagine, there are many use cases for this technology. The virtual projections look aesthetically pleasing, a vast range of customizable assessment modules to display information in the most impactful forms, and most importantly  Nomadeec actually works as a telemedicine platform that applies MR to patient management, and is not just a futuristic concept.

We had a chance to catch up with the two co-founders of Exelus: Chief Medical Director Dr. Louis Rouxel and Chief Executive Officer Xavier Maurin.

Alice Ferng, Medgadget: How was the idea for this telemedicine platform conceived? What was the inspiration behind creating this technology?

Xavier Maurin, Chief Executive Officer of Exelus: Our story began in 2013, when Dr. Louis Rouxel, the emergency physician, and myself, the UX design expert decided to start the project upon Louiss needs and vision. Indeed, in his day-to-day practice, Louis failed from being able to share an integrated and secure view of the field scene with an remote expert if needed- especially in case of emergency or expertise- including patient medical data, circumstances, etc. He used his mobile phone to send pictures or videos, and some connected medical devices for vital parameters, but all that information was sent separately and unsecurely. So Louis came up with the idea of a mobile integrated platform, featuring on the field practitioner side, a mobile application used on tablet with connected medical devices, and on the remote doctor side, a secure web application allowing to get the whole patient information at a glance. Exelus, the company, was created late 2014 and it has been dedicated to research and development of the Nomadeec platform for 3 years.

Medgadget: Why was the Microsoft HoloLens headset chosen? Was there any technological advantage that made this ideal?

Mr. Maurin: Technically, the first and main benefit is the hands-free experience. That is to say, the ability to interact with the apps to fulfill the patient assessment, and communicate with the remote expert, even with blood on your gloves or in the sterile environment. This is a real revolution in outpatient assessment.This device should definitely replace tablets or smartphones in a short time, even inside the hospital.

Another very important thing is keeping the eye-contact with the patient through the surgical mask, and being able to communicate and reassure the patient in the meantime.

We believe that this kind of tool is making the difference to provide better and faster medical decision, and to improve patient care and patchway, especially in medical desert and critical area.

Clearly, Microsoft HoloLens is the only technology that is really mature today. Also, we are friends with the founders of Asobo Studio, a French company based in Bordeaux (like us), that was the first video game studio to develop on HoloLens from the early stage of the technology. They are among the best in the world, and we wanted to co-develop with their holographic division Holoforge to get the best of breed in term of technology AND user experience. Microsoft has also been a very helpful and value-added partner. We are working with European and U.S. teams from both sides: the medical and HoloLens divisions, and they are all very supportive.

With Nomadeec, HoloLens acts as a heads-up display for monitoring a patients vital signs, as the platform can connect to numerous types of medical devices, such as ECGs, thermometers, stethoscopes, and ultrasound devices via Bluetooth. And when practitioners need a second opinion from a medical professional, the Nomadeec system can connect them to those medical experts via video conference.

Medgadget: How has adoption of Nomadeec among the medical and healthcare communities been going? Who have you partnered with to use this technology and validate it in the field?

Dr. Louis Rouxel, Chief Medical Director of Exelus: Our current emergency teleHealth platform (working on the tablet) is used by 25% of the emergency medical services (EMS) in France, which means around 500 field practitioners are able to communicate with around 100 EMS physicians. Our next generation platform featuring Microsoft HoloLens technology has been tested by EMTs, paramedics and Chief Medical Officers, though the commercial development has not started yet. We are currently running through the FDA approval process, which means that we will be able to sell our product by the end of this year. We are also in a consistent process of user-centric development, which means that we keep on collaborating with healthcare professionals permanently. As an example, Dr. Rafael Grossman, from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology is currently testing Nomadeec on HoloLens.

Medgadget: What are some of the most difficult challenges you have encountered so far with this kind of mixed-reality application?

Dr. Rouxel: The main challenge is to drive the change as in any story of innovation. But here, since we are talking about a humans life and medical care, the challenges are of course greater. Since our companys DNA is clearly medical, we always pay a lot of attention to developing useful and meaningful innovation. Even if we are a small company at the moment, we have conducted medical studies with healthcare professionals to prove the benefit of our solution.

In 2018, some research labs are running bigger studies with Nomadeec, and we will be able to demonstrate the telemedicine impact this way.

Medgadget: Is Nomadeec currently limited by the biggest challenges in telemedicine related to internet connectivity? Does this limit field use of Nomadeec to locations with stable connections such as hospitals or homes?

Mr. Maurin: These are relevant concerns and were working with them in mind because one of our co-founders is an emergency physician who uses Nomadeec in his daily work. Nomadeec has been designed through a pure user-centric approach, in collaboration with emergency and prehospital practitioners. What matters is the benefit in use of the telemedicine. Our medical preliminary studies shows that the triage and the orientation of the patients care changed in 25% of the cases thanks to the use of Nomadeec.

The stake is to improve the field-hospital communication. We offer the ideal solution for seamless communication between on-duty staff (Paramedics, EMT, nurses, care assistants, night watchmen, etc.) and medical care coordination services in an primary care and distant-care context. The first outpatient assessment is proceed and teletransmit in less than 10 minutes in average ( no longer than current existing process) according to the feedbacks of our current users. We develop our applications considering various scenarios from the greatest performance (with full 4G connectivity) to no connectivity.

The field practitioner is not network dependent to fulfill the patient assessment since all medical devices are communicating via Bluetooth with our mobile app. We have optimized compression algorithms to allow data transmission via 3G or Edge only. 4G would be required if the assessment features numerous images or if a videoconferencing is required. But sharing a comprehensive assessment with a remote physician, including scores, pictures of the scene or prescriptions, ECG traces, etc. is already big progress and can change the patient evaluation and treatment, as we have demonstrated.

Talking about security, we have developed a rugged architecture based on a secured hub. Data are always encrypted (AES 256 bits) and transmitted according to secure protocols (SSL). NOMADEEC meets all security requirements health data transmission and storage. Video-conferencing implements standard and secure protocols. Also data, services, and web applications are available to health practitioners via a server certified for medical data hosting according to EU regulation and HIPAA-compliant for North America. This guarantees security, 24/7 access, and long-term storage.

All medical devices that are part of NOMADEEC are Bluetooth connected and made by world-class manufacturers to offer adapted, professional medical devices. They all meet CE and or FDA mark requirements (Class IIA).

Medgadget: Are there additional HoloLens applications that Exelus is working on?

Mr. Maurin: Not for the moment but we are working on further development to improve the user experience and care features on the current one stay tuned :)

Medgadget: Are there plans to integrate other sensors and wearable devices?

Dr. Rouxel: Yes. Our platform has been designed with an open view, and we definitely seek the best and most meaningful (medically speaking) connected medical devices. Among our forthcoming projects, we are currently working on implementing ultrasound, multi-parameter monitors from the best professional manufacturers worldwide.

Medgadget: What are the next steps for the company and the Nomadeec platform in 2018 and the years to come?

Mr. Maurin: Thanks to CES 2018, we have set up exciting and amazing projects with international medical partners from the USA, Latin America, and Europe. Most of them are confidential, but weve clearly initiated our international development at the best level of medical innovation because we are the first to demonstrate a proven and secure mobile telemedicine platform using mixed-reality.

Our company has entered a new development cycle and we have initiated fundraising to concrete our growth.

Link: Nomadeec company homepageby Joe Mandese @mp_joemandese, February 28, 2018

Last week, I wrote about findings of the most recent CMO Survey indicating that most would like to lean away from politically charged issues. Makes sense, but the survey did not address what happens when your brand comes under fire due to news events, like the one that happened when high school students came under fire, and a grassroots boycott spawned to boycott brands collaborating with the National Rifle Association.

To date, more than a dozen national brands have announced they are parting ways with the NRA due to #boycottNRA, including many in the transportation industry, such as rental cars and airlines that had offered promotional discounts to NRA members. (You may recall from last weeks columns that 100% of CMOs in the transportation industry eschewed politically charged issues.) But one notable one is standing its ground: FedEx.

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In its official statement responding to the issue, FedEx said it is a common carrier under federal law and therefore does not and will not deny service or discriminate against any legal entity regardless of their policy positions of political views. The statement is ironic, because FedExs promotional deal with the NRA does discriminate -- favorably -- on behalf of NRA members, providing them with discounts of up to 26% on FedEx shipping costs.

Policy positions and political views aside, its a free marketplace. So after more than two decades as a FedEx shareholder, Im dumping my shares today. Its a small gesture -- I have a tiny position in a long-term IRA -- but I went into it in the late 1990s, because I believed FedEx was a company for the future, especially as the ecommerce marketplace was poised to explode.

Kudos to Dicks Sporting Goods for banning sales of assault rifles, and to all the brands ending their promotional deals with NRA members. Some things are more important than money -- especially peoples lives. Especially the lives of young people in Americas schools, and the adults who teach them. As the husband of an American public school teacher, Ive gotten to see up close and personal how the rise of school shootings using assault weapons impacts educators and students, ever since Sandy Hook.

Last week, I met with an old friend, Engagement Marketing Group CEO Bob DeSena, whose daughter is a schoolteacher, and he said: We have to do something. I told him Im game, but the question is what? I pointed out that the student movement already has wings, and has already led to things like #boycottNRA.

Bob said it shouldnt be a political issue, but a form of activism and support that makes American schools safer. I cant imagine anyone would disagree with that. The only debate is over policies of how to do that.

So let me pose the question: what can the advertising, media and marketing industries do to help? Bob says hes game to help organize that, and I told him wed be happy to use this publication as a platform to inform it. If youve got any ideas, or would like to participate in a roundtable discussion about it, contact joe@mediapost.comby Ray Schultz , February 28, 2018

Only 8% of small businesses in the UK are fully prepared or the General Data Protection Regulation, according to a study by the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB).

However, 35% are in the early stages of getting ready, and another 33% have not started.

Theyre not necessarily happy about it. Of those polled, 60% say their profits are attributable to compliance with data protection rules. And 31% have been forced to stop workforce expansion, the study states.

The FSB estimates that SMBs spend an average of seven hours per month complying with existing regulations -- for a cost of 1,075 per year. Added to that is the direct cost of compliance: 508 per year. These costs will incease under GDPR.

"The GDPR is the biggest shake-up in data protection to date and many small businesses will be concerned that the changes will be too much to handle," states Mike Cherry, FSB national chairman. "Its clear that a large part of the small business community is still unaware of the steps that they need to take to comply and may be left playing catch-up."

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Among the firms starting to make preparations, 52% say they will approach the Information Commissioners Office for advice on what to do.

"With less than 100 days until the changes come into force, the attention now shifts to the Information Commissioner's Office and whether it can effectively manage the demands of small businesses seeking advice and guidance," Cherry notes. "It is vital that smaller firms looking for this support, either by phone or the web, are able to get it easily."



Information Commissioner Elizabeth Denham adds that GDPR "is not about fines; its about putting the consumer and citizen first."

She continues that "as regulator, we do have the power to impose larger fines under the GDPR, but we have access to lots of other tools that are well-suited to the task at hand, such as guiding, advising and educating organizations, and these are just as effective."



According to the FSB, a briefing paper by Chris Rhodes shows that there are 5.7 million private businesses in the UK, and 99% of these are considered small or medium-sized businesses. These firms, which have between 0 and 249 employees, employ 60% of the UK workforce, and turnover is 1.9 trillion.

The FSB announcement did not disclose methodology.by Joe Mandese @mp_joemandese, February 28, 2018

Two weeks after the Stoneman Douglas High School shooting, Viacoms new Paramount Network is delaying the premiere of one of its flagship shows, Heathers.

A TV adaptation of the 1980s film about killings in a high school, the Paramount series is an updated version featuring dark humor -- apparently a little too dark, given the timing of recent school shooting news.

Paramount Networks original series Heathers is a satirical comedy that takes creative risks in dealing with many of societys most challenging subjects ranging from personal identity to race and socioeconomic status to gun violence, Viacom said in a statement sent to the press Wednesday afternoon.

While we stand firmly behind the show, in light of the recent tragic events in Florida and out of respect for the victims, their families and loved ones, we feel the right thing to do is delay the premiere until later this year.Of course, treaties and international laws are one thing  and humanitys ability to find innovative ways of killing each other is another.

In effect, biological warfare is using non-human life to disrupt  or end  human life. Because living organisms can be unpredictable and incredibly resilient, biological weapons are difficult to control, potentially devastating on a global scale, and prohibited globally under numerous treaties.

These agents are used to incapacitate or kill humans, animals, or plants as part of a war effort.

Sometimes known as germ warfare, biological weapons involve the use of toxins or infectious agents that are biological in origin. This can include bacteria, viruses, or fungi.

Biological weapons. The phrase alone could send chills down the spine. But what are they? How do they work? And are we really at risk? In this Spotlight, we survey their history and potential future.

[T]he Japanese army poisoned more than 1,000 water wells in Chinese villages to study cholera and typhus outbreaks. [] Some of the epidemics they caused persisted for years and continued to kill more than 30,000 people in 1947, long after the Japanese had surrendered.

The following quote comes from a paper on the history of biological warfare.

It was the Japanese who made the most use of biological weapons during World War II, as among other terrifyingly indiscriminate attacks, the Japanese Army Air Force dropped ceramic bombs full of fleas carrying the bubonic plague on Ningbo, China.

During World War II, many of the parties involved looked into biological warfare with great interest. The Allies built facilities capable of mass producing anthrax spores, brucellosis, and botulism toxins. Thankfully, the war ended before they were used.

Although we now know that this would be a relatively ineffective way to transmit smallpox, the intent was there.

Moving forward to 1763, the British Army attmped to use smallpox as a weapon against Native Americans at the Siege of Fort Pitt. In an attempt to spread the disease to the locals, the Brits presented blankets from a smallpox hospital as gifts.

Some researchers believe that this tactic may have been responsible for the spread of Black Death plague into Europe. If so, this early use of biological warfare caused the eventual deaths of around 25 million Europeans.

In the 1300s, Tartar (Mongol) warriors besieged the Crimean city of Kaffa. During the siege, many Tartars died at the hands of plague, and their lifeless, infected bodies were hurled over the city walls .

An early example takes us back more than 2 and a half millennia: Assyrians infected their enemys wells with a rye ergot fungus, which contains chemicals related to LSD. Consuming the tainted water produced a confused mental state, hallucinations, and, in some cases, death.

The history of biological warfare is a long one, which makes sense; its deployment can be a lo-fi affair, so there is no need for electrical components, nuclear fusion, or rocket grade titanium, for instance.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) define bioterrorism as the intentional release of viruses, bacteria, or other germs that can sicken or kill people, livestock, or crops.

Share on Pinterest How likely is a bioterrorism attack today?

This can be achieved in a number of ways, such as: via aerosol sprays; in explosive devices; via food or water; or absorbed or injected into skin.

Because some pathogens are less robust than others, the type of pathogen used will define how it can be deployed.

Utilizing such weapons holds a certain appeal to terrorists; they have the potential to cause great harm, of course, but they are also fairly cheap to produce when compared with missiles or other more hi-tech equipment.

Also, they can be detonated, and, due to the long time that it takes for them to spread and take effect, there is plenty of time for the perpetrator to escape undetected.

Biological weapons can be difficult to control or predict in a battlefield situation, since there is a substantial risk that troops on both sides will be affected. However, if a terrorist is interested in attacking a distant target as a lone operant, bioterrorism carries much less risk to the person.

Anthrax

Experts believe that today, the most likely organism to be used in a bioterrorism attack would be Bacillus anthracis, the bacteria that causes anthrax.

It is widely found in nature, easily produced in the laboratory, and survives for a long time in the environment. Also, it is versatile and can be released in powders, sprays, water, or food.

Anthrax has been used before. In 2001, anthrax spores were sent through the United States postal system. In all, 22 people contracted anthrax  five of whom died. And, the guilty party was never caught.

Smallpox

Another potential agent of bioterrorism is smallpox , which, unlike anthrax, can spread from person to person. Smallpox is no longer a disease of concern in the natural world  because concerted vaccination efforts stamped it out  and the last naturally spread case occurred in 1977.

However, if someone were to gain access to the smallpox virus (it is still kept in two laboratories  one in the U.S. and one in Russia), it could be an effective weapon, spreading quickly and easily between people.

Plague

We have already mentioned the Tartars use of the plague, Yersinia pestis, hundreds of years ago, but some believe that it could be used in the modern world, too. Y. pestis is passed to humans through the bite of a flea that has fed on infected rodents.

Once a human is infected, the resulting disease can either develop into bubonic plague, which is difficult to transmit among humans and fairly easy to treat with antibiotics, or  if the infection spreads to the lungs  it becomes pneumonic plague, which develops rapidly and does not respond well to antibiotics.

A paper written on the plague and its potential for use in biological terrorism says:

Given the presence and availability of plague around the world, the capacity for mass production and aerosol dissemination, the high fatality rate of pneumonic plague, and the potential for rapid secondary spread, the potential use of plague as a biological weapon is of great concern. Dr. Stefan Riedel, Department of Pathology, Baylor University Medical Center, Dallas, TX

Cholera

As a potentially severe and sometimes deadly gastrointestinal disease, cholera has the potential to be used in bioterrorism. It does not spread easily from person to person, so for it to be effective, it would need to be liberally added to a major water source.

In the past, the bacteria responsible for cholera, Vibrio cholerae, has been weaponized by the U.S., Japan, South Africa, and Iraq, among others.

Tularemia

Some consider tularemia, an infection caused by the Francisella tularensis bacterium, as a potential bioweapon. It causes fever, ulcerations, swelling of lymph glands, and, sometimes, pneumonia.

The bacterium can cause infection by entering through breaks in the skin or by being breathed into the lungs. It is particularly infectious, and only a very small number of organisms (as few as 10) need to enter the body to set off a serious bout of tularemia.

Studied by the Japanese during World War II and stockpiled by the U.S. in the 1960s, F. tularensis is hardy, capable of withstanding low temperatures in water, hay, decaying carcasses, and moist soil for many weeks.

According to the Johns Hopkins Center for Public Health Preparedness, Aerosol dissemination of F. tularensis in a populated area would be expected to result in the abrupt onset of large numbers of cases of acute, non-specific, febrile illness beginning 3 to 5 days later [], with pleuropneumonitis developing in a significant proportion of cases.

Without antibiotic treatment, the clinical course could progress to respiratory failure, shock, and death.

Those pathogens are an abbreviated selection, of course. Others considered to have potential as biological weapons include brucellosis, Q fever, monkeypox, arboviral encephalitides, viral hemorrhagic fevers, and staphylococcal enterotoxin B.The risk of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis may be increased for people who are frequently exposed to diesel exhaust, new research suggests. Share on Pinterest Researchers found that men exposed to diesel exhaust in their jobs were more likely to develop ALS. In a study of more than 1,600 adults, scientists working at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health in Boston, MA, found that men with higher exposure to diesel exhaust over 510 years were at least 20 percent more likely to develop amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) than men with no exposure. Study co-author Aisha Dickerson, Ph.D., and her colleagues are due to present their findings at the American Academy of Neurologys (AAN) Annual Meeting, which will be held in Los Angeles, CA, in April. ALS, or Lou Gehrigs disease, is a progressive neurological condition in which the nerve cells that control voluntary muscle movement are damaged. It is estimated that around 14,00015,000 people in the United States are living with ALS. Early symptoms of the disease include cramping, weakness, and stiffness of the muscles, problems chewing and swallowing, and slurred speech. Mobility and breathing problems arise as the disease progresses. Familial ALS, wherein a genetic mutation for the disease is inherited from a parent, accounts for around 510 percent of all ALS cases. The remaining 9095 percent of cases are sporadic, meaning that no specific risk factors for the condition can be found.

The link between diesel exhaust and ALS Previous studies have suggested that environmental factors could be involved in the development of ALS. A 2013 study published in PLOS One, for example, uncovered a link between exposure to diesel exhaust and a greater risk of ALS. Diesel exhaust is a combination of gases and particulate matter that is produced through diesel fuel combustion. However, notes Dickerson, no studies have directly looked at the relation between diesel exhaust exposure during different time points in life and ALS. With this in mind, she and her team set out to investigate how high exposure to diesel exhaust over 5 and 10 years might impact the risk of ALS. The scientists included the data of 1,639 adults from the Danish National Patient Registry, who were aged 56, on average. They had all been diagnosed with ALS between 1982 and 2013. Each of these adults was matched for age and sex with 100 people who had not been diagnosed with ALS. To estimate cumulative exposure to diesel exhaust for each subject, the researchers looked at their employment history. People with certain occupations, such as construction workers, service station attendants, and bus drivers, have greater exposure to diesel exhaust than the general population. The team calculated diesel exhaust exposure for up to 5 and 10 years prior to the time period in which subjects with ALS were diagnosed with the condition.A rescue inhaler helps to expand a persons airways during an asthma attack. Rescue inhalers dispense a type of medication called a bronchodilator, which expands, or dilates, the airways, known as bronchioles. Here, we explore the different types of rescue inhaler. We also discuss how these inhalers are used and any associated side effects.

What are they and why are they used? Share on Pinterest A rescue inhaler is a device that treats the symptoms of asthma by expanding the airways. Relief from an asthma attack is the chief use. According to a recent estimate in the American College of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology, 26 million Americans have asthma. It is a long-term condition that affects the lungs and airways. During an asthma attack, the airways swell. This makes them narrower, causing a person to: cough

wheeze

have trouble breathing A rescue inhaler delivers medication that expands the airways, relieving these symptoms. This helps the person to recover from the attack and breathe normally. Someone with asthma may also use a rescue inhaler before a workout, to prevent an attack. A person with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) may also benefit from using a rescue inhaler if their symptoms are worsening. Like asthma, COPD causes breathing difficulties. A study from 2016 found that people with COPD experienced relief from severe symptoms after using typical types of rescue inhalers.

How rescue inhalers work Rescue inhalers allow a person having an asthma attack to inhale their medication. When inhaled, the medication relaxes the muscles in the airways. This causes the airways to widen, reducing breathing difficulties. These types of medicines  bronchodilators  also help to open the airways by reducing the build-up of mucus. This, too, makes breathing easier. There are three types of bronchodilators: beta-agonists

anticholinergics

theophylline Inhalation is the best way to take a bronchodilator. These medications are also available as: tablets

liquids

injections

Short- vs. long-acting rescue inhalers Share on Pinterest Rescue inhalers provide fast-acting relief from asthma symptoms. There are two types of bronchodilator: long-acting and short-acting. Rescue inhalers use short-acting medication, which provides relief from symptoms within 15 to 20 minutes. Short-acting bronchodilators continue to work for 4 to 6 hours. Albuterol is one short-acting medication commonly used in rescue inhalers. Long-acting bronchodilators help people with asthma to manage their condition in the long term. They provide control, rather than immediate relief of symptoms. Long-acting medications commonly used in rescue inhalers include budesonide and formoterol.

Rescue inhaler side effects Side effects may include: feeling shaky or anxious

a rapid heart rate

hyperactivity Rare side effects include an upset stomach and sleeplessness.

How to use rescue inhalers Any person diagnosed with asthma should keep their rescue inhaler close by at all times, in case of an attack. Symptoms of an attack include: coughing

wheezing

trouble breathing

a tight chest At the first sign of any of these symptoms, use a rescue inhaler for relief. Doing so as soon as possible will reduce the severity of the attack. It is important to stay calm. The medication starts to expand the airways as soon as it is inhaled. A person should be able to breathe normally again within 15 to 20 minutes. A doctor can teach a person to use their inhaler in a way that ensures the best results. A 2016 study found that teaching people to use rescue inhalers properly reduced the need for emergency care.

Managing asthma Share on Pinterest A doctor may provide a treatment plan to help manage asthma. If a person has to use a rescue inhaler more than twice a week, it may be a sign that their asthma is not well managed. If this is the case, speak to a doctor about options for long-term management. A doctor can develop a plan to provide the best possible management of asthma. A common plan involves using long-acting bronchodilators twice a day, alongside inhaled steroids. This helps to keep the airways open. Following a long-term management plan reduces the risk of an asthma attack. It can also mean that a person experiences symptoms less often.

When to see a doctor If using a rescue inhaler has not relieved symptoms, a person may need emergency treatment. In this case, they should contact emergency services. A person with asthma should also contact emergency services if they experience any of the following symptoms: rapid breathing, with the skin feeling sucked in around the ribs as they inhale

rapidly moving nostrils

the ribs or stomach deeply and rapidly moving in and out

the face, fingernails, or lips turning blue

the chest remaining inflated as they exhaleMy standing desk arrived earlier this month. Having written many articles about the harms of prolonged sitting, I was very excited to give it a go. So, imagine my dismay when I see this latest study: standing desks might not be so beneficial after all.

Share on Pinterest Researchers suggest that standing desks may not be as beneficial as we think.

Yep. According to new research, it turns out that prolonged standing is bad for us, too.

The study  which was conducted by scientists from Curtin University in Australia  found that adults who stood for 2 hours while working experienced an increase in whole-body discomfort and a reduced mental state.

I expect many of you are reading this thinking that you just cant win. I certainly am.

Earlier this year, Medical News Today covered a study that linked sitting down for long periods of time with a buildup of visceral fat, or fat around our internal organs. This is the worst kind of fat  the kind that raises our risk of cardiovascular disease and diabetes.

In 2016, another study that we reported on claimed that sitting down for more than 3 hours every day is responsible for more than 430,000 deaths across 54 countries.

Given that the average person in the United States spends a whopping 12 hours per day sitting down, such studies are worrying.

It seems that upping our physical activity alone wont reduce the harms of prolonged sitting  so, what can we do?

According to recent research, we need to reduce the amount of time that we spend sitting down. Enter the standing desk: a simple solution to a big problem. Or is it?'The Conjuring' was one such horror film that set extremely high standards for viewers and let's face it, that's one hell of a feat because it isn't easy to scare the beejesus out of everyone. And since then, many horror films have come and gone, with only a few of them leaving us terrified. But finally, the internet has found something which is at par with the seminal film- enter, 'Veronica'.

 Visualistas

First things first, 'Veronica' is directed by Spanish film director Paco Plaza who is known for the creation of the horror film- trilogy 'REC' which took the entire world by storm. So when 'Veronica' came out, the expectations were at an all time high. But from what we have heard and read till now, the film has exceeded all these expectations.

The film is inspired by an actual unsolved case in Spain and we think that's honestly enough to hook anyone and everyone. Because what is scarier than a horror film based on a real life incident?

 Visualistas

The movie tells the story of a teenage girl- Veronica, who is left with the responsibility of caring for her siblings after the death of their father.

 Visualistas

Since their mother is a working woman, Veronica eventually starts feelings burdened and lonely and so, she decides to bring back the spirit of their dead father by using an Ouija board. Because that's what every lonely teenager does, right?

 Visualistas

Well, if you were ever planning to use one for fun, you won't even think about it after watching this movie because things obviously don't go as planned.

 Visualistas

 Visualistas

Now, just a heads up, the film did release in 2017 but the reason why we are talking about is that it just dropped on Netflix and has been getting rave reviews.

From wanting to turn it off to comparing it to classic horror films, people are going crazy on social media:

Go watch Veronica on netflix....its a spanish horror flick [obviously in spanish, but with subs] its pretty good... supposedly "based" on a true story I dunno, maybe thats for scare factor...either way, check it out I just watched it, i have to brave the dark to sleep now... nite  ThoseNiceCopperPipes (@NiceCopper) February 28, 2018

The new Paco Plaza flick Veronica hit netflix this week! Ridiculously stoked for this. A possession flick from one of the minds behind [REC]2 which is one of my favorite demon based films. pic.twitter.com/YLtZBUbFIN  lucas. (@nargles4life) February 28, 2018

Veronica on netflix is soooooo good. I usually am so skeptical about new age horror movies but damn im shook.  Almita (@OhBrujita) February 28, 2018

Watching Veronica on Netflix which is directed by Paco Plaza of REC fame. I have pretty much become desensitised to horror these days, but this is genuinely spinechilling. So yeah, don't mess with ouija boards kids.  Leigh Curtis (@LeighCurtis_NP) February 27, 2018

If @creepypuppet doesn't end up directing the next @TheConjuring movie can someone please call @paco_plaza? Just caught Veronica on @netflix and I am in awe!  Buttercup (@Sequins4Thought) February 27, 2018

Started watching Veronica on Netflix (huge REC fan so interested in anything Paco Plaza is involved in) but the demon walking down the hallway scene freaked me out so much I had to turn it off... #SuchAWuss pic.twitter.com/4oCcjQUJST  Nancy at Chase HQ (@weyland76) February 25, 2018

Have a look at the trailer:

If the reviews and the trailer have convinced you to watch it (they did to us), good luck getting some sleep tonight and even though the film is in Spanish, it's never stopped us before, has it?Around 5 months ago, tragedy struck the Elphinstone Bridge and 23 people lost their lives. The Indian Army came to the rescue and helped in putting the situation under control. Not only that, the Army also promised to rebuild the entire bridge. Keeping their word, the Indian Army not only built it, but did it in a record 117 days!

250 Army men put up at the Army headquarters in Colaba and others in railway quarters in Parel and Kalyan, constructed bridges at the Parel, Currey Road & Ambivali railway stations #MumbaiThanksArmy pic.twitter.com/rqlZzlYD2l  Ministry of Railways (@RailMinIndia) February 27, 2018

Our brave soldiers managed to do what the Indian Railways couldn't manage to do in a very long time. The Indian Army also help in rebuilding the Ambivilli and Currey Road stations as well.

Mumbaikars are grateful to Army for constructing 3 Foot Over Bridges in Elphinstone Road, Currey Road & Ambivilli in a record time, setting high standards of speed, skill and professionalism. #MumbaiThanksArmy pic.twitter.com/UNxnfHnq31  Piyush Goyal (@PiyushGoyal) February 27, 2018

The best part about the development was that all the stations were inaugurated by the 'aam admi', and not some politician with his entourage that would only cause ruckus. The Elphinstone station was inaugurated by a florist and the other two stations were inaugurated by a 'dabba wala' and a 'fisherman'.

Mumbaikars Rock !!!

The inaugural plaque for FOB at Elphinstone Road was unveiled by a flower vendor Shri Shivraj Konde, while the plaque of Currey Road FOB by a dabbawalla Shri Sopan More and the plaque of Ambivali FOB by a fish vendor Smt Lata Chandrakant Koli. pic.twitter.com/8WgzMg8AOD  Western Railway (@WesternRly) February 28, 2018

The entire city is pouring its love and gratitude for the Indian Army.

Elphinstone - Parel FOB will much convenient for flower & fish vendors of nearby markets during wee hours. #MumbaiThanksArmy pic.twitter.com/A265l7vjPL  Neetu Garg (@NeetuGarg6) February 27, 2018

Here are some pictures of newly constructed bridges at Currey Road, Ambivali, Elphinstone and Parel ! #MumbaiThanksArmy pic.twitter.com/1q9CBJz2El  Hitesh Bansal (@ihiteshbansal) February 27, 2018

There is not a single thing that our beloved men in uniform cannot do.

No union minister, no state minister no MP No MLA inaugurated the Elphinstone road station footoverbridges. It was the common Mumbaikars who inaugurated the FOBs. @PiyushGoyal #MumbaiThanksArmy    (@indiantweeter) February 27, 2018

Indian Army @adgpi create a new chapter in history! FOBs for Mumbaikars completed on warfooting basis! #MumbaiThanksArmy pic.twitter.com/KpslIOP80e  Dikshant  (@Dikshants112) February 28, 2018

Thank you Indian Army for completing FOB at Parel -Elphinstone Road Railway Station. Ppl who died will not come back but atleast it will prevent future stampede and chaos. All it took 117 days to complete, which @RailMinIndia could have done it before. #Mumbai #MumbaiThanksArmy pic.twitter.com/6urTAPyUvO  Office of Citizen (@pnavadgi) February 28, 2018

We have mad respect for our Army men, who, besides ensuring that millions of us sleep in peace at night, also come to our rescue every single time. Be it floods or a stampeded. Not all heroes wear capes because some wear uniforms.The global financial crisis of 2008-09 and soaring energy costs had forced the closure of the plant in May 2009, but Jisco reopened it in June last year. An initial 35,000-tonne shipment was sent in November, arriving in the Chinese port of Lianyungang at the end of December. We are on the way to bringing back Jamaica to its rightful industry position, Jing said. A third shipment of alumina will...Alternate Minister of Foreign Affairs Giorgos Katrougalos today participated in a meeting of the EU General Affairs Council (GAC) and observed the preparatory meeting of Socialists & Democrats (S&D) European Affairs Ministers. Addressing the meeting of S&D European Affairs Ministers, Mr. Katrougalos underscored the need for the debate on the new community budget to be linked with the debate on the future of Europe. Democratization and social deepening of European integration are the only path to regaining citizens trust in the European endeavour. Europes progressive forces should work together closely in this direction.

In the context of the GAC, he congratulated the Bulgarian Presidency on the assumption of its duties. He stressed that Greece, as the oldest EU member in the region, will work closely with the Presidency to promote the principles of democracy and rule of law and to support the European perspective of the countries of the Western Balkans. To this end, a trilateral meeting was held with Bulgaria and Romania, which will hold the presidency in the first half of 2019.

Regarding preparations for the March meeting of the European Council, Mr. Katrougalos reiterated the Greek Prime Ministers proposal for the social reorientation of economic governance through the establishment of binding indicators for poverty, unemployment and inequality in the Economic Semester, and the initiation of redistributive policy means, such as taxation of international stock transactions and internet giants.

Regarding the Brexit process, he mentioned his recent meeting with the UK Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union, David Davis, and stressed the need for similarly transparent and effective solutions in the effort towards the new UK-EU partnership.BAD AXE -- Current and former public officials spoke at Tuesday's Huron County Board of Commissioner's meeting about recent controversy surrounding the planning commission.

During public comment, Planner Terry Heck; former county commissioner Rich Swartzendruber; and Charles Bumhoffer, who recently resigned from the Huron County Planning Commission, commented on the board's recent move to reject the investigation of Heck and Planner Robert McLean.

Heck began speaking by stating his name.

"Terry Heck: I think you know that name. It's been run through the mud enough lately," he said. "I'm just here today to let you know I'm totally disgusted, embarrassed. My name's been run through the mud. I've been ridiculed by one commissioner, Mr. (Commissioner Steve) Vaughan, who is on a witch-hunt."

Heck denied any wrongdoing and thanked the board for voting against the investigation of the two men Feb. 13. Vaughan's complaint alleged misfeasance, malfeasance or nonfeasance of office.

"I will be back before you," Heck added. "And I'm going to expect justice  And I am extremely angry. And I hope the Tribune will print my total denial of any wrongdoing as they have when they ran my name through the mud."

Heck said he had no prior notice of Vaughan's complaint. The motion for the investigation was voted down 2-4.

"I didn't have a chance to come and defend myself, and I just feel totally humiliated," Heck said, before restating his intention to come back before the board.

Swartzendruber, who also formerly served on the planning commission, challenged the board's decision not to investigate Heck and McLean and referred to it as a "cover up" in a statement he read to the board.

"The board has an oversight responsibility for individuals it appoints to county boards. Commissioner (John A.) Nugent noted twice during the meeting that these alleged allegations might be criminal offenses," Swartzendruber said.

He then quoted a statement by Corporation Counsel Stephen Allen from the same meeting: "'I concluded that there was ample evidence for a charge of one of the misfeasances, or one or more with respect to Robert McLean and also for Terry Heck.'"

"To fail to investigate these allegations backed by the opinion of counsel is nothing short of a cover up," Swartzendruber added.

"At the last board meeting, Mr. McLean denied any misconduct. If he believes he did not act improperly, then he should welcome an investigation to vindicate himself.

"He is, however, doing everything he can to prevent the facts regarding his conduct on the planning commission from becoming public, including threatening legal action against the county in an attempt to intimidate commissioners."

Swartzendruber said the board had a responsibility at Tuesday's meeting to make a motion to reconsider its previous action and allow the investigation.

He suggested using a trained, unbiased investigator from the Huron County Sheriff's Office to conduct an inquiry and report back to the board.

"If the evidence shows no wrongdoing, then these planning commissioners will have the allegations overturned, and the board will have fulfilled its oversight responsibility," Swartzendruber said. "If evidence of wrongdoing is found, then the board would have to conduct a public hearing before any appointee could be removed. That is the due process outlined in the Michigan Planning Enabling Act.

"If the decision from last week's meeting to bury these allegations without an investigation stands, a dark cloud will continue to hang over the planning commission and over this board as well, for failure to conduct its oversight responsibility.

"It will also send a message to planning commission members that their oath to uphold state statutes and county ordinances can be ignored, despite repeated reminders from corporation counsel about inappropriate and unlawful actions by members of the planning commission.

"This isn't about opposition to, or support of wind turbines. It's about whether actions by planning commission members are following state statutes, county ordinances and the duties of office, in which each person is serving," Swartzendruber concluded.

Bumhoffer, who spoke first, had two points: "The deal between the board of commissioners and the planning commission, in my estimation, went way beyond the scope that it should have."

"The second point is that my resignation off the planning commission and the (Huron County Zoning Board of Appeals) is nonnegotiable. I'm not going to consider coming back," Bumhoffer added.

The board made no move to reconsider the motion to investigate Heck and McLean.

The board was fully staffed for the first time in months, as Commissioner David G. Peruski returned after having health issues.Thanks to a complex system of credits and deferment, Amazon won't pay any federal income taxes after topping $5.6 billion in income in 2017. The Seattle-based online retailer will end up paying out roughly $769 million in taxes for the year, but $724 million of that will be in foreign taxes.

That's according to an analysis of the online behemoth's 2017 10-K form, which "provides a comprehensive overview of the company's business and financial condition," according to the Securities and Exchange Commission. Public companies are required to submit the form every year to the SEC in addition to quarterly updates (10-Q forms) and, when announcing major events shareholders should know about, the 8-K or "current report" form.

Matthew Gardner, senior fellow at the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, wrote about Amazon's tax bill that won't come due in a Feb. 13 blog post. Without being privy to the company's tax return, no one can say exactly how CEO Jeff Bezos and Co. avoided what could have been more than $1.3 billion in federal taxes based solely on the annual financial report, but there is information to be gleaned.

RELATED: City experts: Amazon's HQ2 search set off 'race to the bottom'

For example, Amazon took out a $917 million tax deduction on stock options exercised by current or former employees. Unlike wages, which are also deducted from any company's taxable income, the stock options don't require any cash expenditures by the company.

"Even though these don't represent as meaningful out-of-pocket expenses for the companies, they're still allowed to deduct the fair value of the stock options when they're exercised," Gardner told SeattlePI. "When somebody who has been given this right cashes them in, the company gets to deduct this from their taxable income."

Amazon's stock price closed at just under $1,512 per share on Tuesday.

Another ingredient in the low tax bill is likely capital expenditure depreciation, Gardner said, where companies are allowed to write off the cost of some expenses -- say those incurred while building a distribution center, for example -- up front. Those taxes are essentially shifted to future years' tax bills.

Some of the disclosures in the 10-K form are maddeningly vague. For instance, a table on page 65 lists a tax credit of $220 million, but there's no indication of whether or not those credits apply to federal, state or foreign taxes.

Bezos, a frequent critic -- and target -- of President Donald Trump, nevertheless earned a windfall from the Trump administration's U.S. Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, passed in December. Amazon readjusted estimates for taxes deferred under the old 35 percent corporate tax rate to meet the new tax law's 21 percent figure, which resulted in an estimated $789 million reduction for Amazon.

Gardner is quick to point out that there's no evidence that Amazon engaged in behavior that is unusual, let alone illegal. But he thinks it might be relevant for cities attempting to attract the company's second North American headquarters (HQ2).

"At a time when states all want to see HQ2 coming to them, but they don't necessarily have the cash to spend on tax incentives, it's potentially helpful for them to know that at least in 2017, Amazon doesn't appear to be a company that's excessively burdened by the workings of the tax system to begin with," he said.

Seattlepi.com reporter Stephen Cohen can be reached at 206-448-8313 or stephencohen@seattlepi.com. Follow Stephen on Twitter at @scohenPI.PORTLAND  Affable and candid, Frank Connolly is about as far removed from the Machiavelian personalities who populate his recently published novel about the intrigue, passions and sometimes nefarious dealings that characterize small-town politics.

Hidden Agendas: Inside Town Hall is loosely based on his three-decade career as an administrator in three Connecticut municipalities. It may be a work of fiction, but its plot, replete back stabbing, ignited passions, behind-the-scenes schemings and rich characters  both unsavory and altruistic  reveals the entertaining and sometimes lurid nature of town government.

The novel, self-published on the CreateSpace independent publishing platform, opens with a heated public hearing during which residents speak out against developers proposing a new shopping center on vacant land in Covingford, Connecticut  a melding of the three towns Connolly managed during his three-decade-long career.

I find local government absolutely fascinating. Its been my whole life, Connolly said by phone Tuesday from his vacation home in southwest Florida, where it was 70 degrees and sunny. Local government is so direct. Its not one step removed like state or federal  everyone can have an impact. Youre trying to solve problems that are so diversified.

Its funny when you go to town meetings and look at some of the shenanigans, politics and whatnot taking place, said Connolly, whose first book, Local Government in Connecticut, won the 2013 Wesleyan University Press Driftless Award for an outstanding book in any field on a Connecticut topic or written by a Connecticut author.

The book is a blend of Connollys experiences and the lively personalities he met during his 30 years of work in the field, which included stints as town manager of Coventry in the late 1970s, Newington in the 80s and North Branford in the 90s.

Connolly, who was also Coventrys first town planner, earned his undergraduate degree in economics from Providence College, a masters of education and social studies from Southern Connecticut State University, and masters in planning from the University of Virginia.

The seeds of the book began about two decades ago when he began taking notes during meetings. As the years went on, Connolly worked on his manuscript in fits and starts.

This was on my bucket list, he said.

He retired in 2008.

In Hidden Agendas, out-of-town developers must gain support from the local planning board, politicians and the public. They are surprised to find dissonance among neighborhood residents and one particularly outspoken older woman.

While town manager in Coventry, a developer quietly purchased 2,000 acres of land and proposed whats termed new town development  the construction of an entire community, including schools, commercial/industrial spaces and individual housing.

It was a really big issue, Connolly said.

The town opposed the plan and during several public hearings, residents passionately spoke against the proposal, leading to its defeat.

Pointing to developments such as the $40 million Brainerd Place site plan for the former Elmcrest Hospital property on Route 66 in Portland approved by the planning and zoning board last month, and a decade in the making, Connolly said these types of projects are often drawn-out affairs.

When citizens get involved in local government, they can directly influence the outcome: They can have it modified, defeated or moved along, he said. You dont have that at the state or federal level.

Connolly, an adjunct faculty member in the public administration program at the University of New Haven, views politics a little bit like a soap opera.

Take, for instance, his character Dom the Bomb Columbo.

The head of the local political committee wields a lot of power behind the scenes. Hes very influential on what is taking place. People chosen by town committees are an unseen force in local government and very influential on who gets nominated, he said.

To help ensure the plans approval, the developers make agreements with local politicians, hire a prominent lawyer, and bring in an nefarious enforcer and outside gun, Dom the Bomb, to put pressure on the head of the towns political committee.

His character balances out that of Louie the Enforcer, who suddenly appears on the scene.

He is a sinister character  a dark force who threatens people physically, said Connolly.

A reporter, Janet Johnson, succinctly and objectively relays what transpires during the course of the novel.

As Johnson digs into the proposal, her articles raise questions on the vacant land, adding fuel to the enraged neighbors, Connolly said.

The reporter character is a good storyteller because shes able to grasp whats taking place and also keep people honest with probing questions and a background investigation, Connolly said.

Recently, Connolly met a Florida mayor from Connecticut and they talked about his book.

He laughed and said it reminded him of the town hall annex  a coffee shop where most of the business in town takes place, he said. People associate with it so much because of the descriptions of what is taking place.

As the writing came along, Connolly was stymied devising the perfect wrap-up  until his neighbor volunteered in the creative process. Raymond H. Poet of Portland, who died last month, helped Connolly throw a curveball in how the book ends. The surprise ending stuns everyone.

Sometimes being a public figure can be draining, he said.

You can go into the supermarket and run into members of the planning and zoning commission: Oh, by the way, as long as I have you ...

One time, he was stopped in church, and another time at the store.

If I really wanted to get shopping done, Id have to go out of town, he said with a laugh. You constantly bump into people who know who you are. Youre on duty 24-7, no matter where you go.

In May, Connolly will begin a book signing circuit in Portland and North Branford. Hidden Agendas: Inside Town Hall is available for purchase in softcover or digital for Kindle on Amazon.BRIDGEPORT  A Fairfield man accused of threatening on social media to kill Fairfield Ludlowe High School students posted bond Wednesday afternoon.

Nicholas Graham, 23, left the Golden Hill Street courthouse with family members after Superior Court Judge William Holden agreed to reduce the bond from $20,000 to $10,000.

There were no weapons involved in this situation whatsoever, Grahams lawyer, Eugene Riccio, said.

Police said Graham, a student at Southern Connecticut State University who had previously graduated from Fairfield Ludlowe High School, posted on Snapchat that he was going to kill students at the high school and all their friends. The post led several parents to call 911 on Tuesday night.

Graham, the son of a physician, was arrested on the New Haven school campus and charged with second-degree threatening, second-degree breach of peace and second-degree harassment.

During the arraignment hearing, Riccio told the judge that Graham has no prior criminal record and has been receiving medical attention. He did not elaborate.

After agreeing to reduce the bond, Holden ordered Graham to stay away from the high school.

Police said Graham told them he had no intention of harming anyone and that his posts were motivated by emotion. He was taken to St. Vincents Medical Center for evaluation.

Police said there was no connection to an incident earlier in the day at Westports Staples High School.

According to a release from Fairfield Police Lt. Robert Kalamaras, While the sensitivity of these matters are serious, we are glad that the public is coming forward and reporting what they see as potential risks to our schools and our students.

Superintendent of Fairfield Schools Toni Jones said students expressed concerns regarding unspecified social media posts leading police to take immediate action.

There is no perceived threat to any (Fairfield Public School), wrote Jones in an email to the Fairfield Citizen early Wednesday morning.

Fairfield Ludlowe High School posted to Twitter Tuesday, just before midnight, FLHS is aware that an individual was causing concern among our students because of some social media posts. The individual is in police custody and there is NOT a perceived threat to FLHS or any FPS school.

We are grateful for our Fairfield law enforcement who work with us around the clock, said Jones in her email to the Citizen.

The incident comes on the heels of a harrowing day in neighboring Westport, where an apparent plan by a student to inflict a mass casualty incident was foiled by an alert student.White House senior adviser Jared Kushner's interim security clearance has been downgraded, a government source told Fox News on Wednesday, a move that restricts him from viewing the president's daily brief.

Kushner, who is also President Trump's son-in-law, was one of several White House aides who have been working without a permanent security clearance for the better part of a year.

White House Chief of Staff John Kelly had set a Feb. 23 deadline for halting access to top-secret information for those whose applications have been pending since June 1 or earlier. As an apparent result, Kushner's clearance was downgraded from "interim top secret" to "interim secret."

A spokesperson for Kushner said in a statement that "the new clearance policy will not affect Mr. Kushner's ability to continue to do the very important work he has been assigned by the president."

Kushner's portfolio once included the U.S. relationships with China and Japan and a host of domestic priorities, including infrastructure, trade and economic development. But his free-wheeling reach in the foreign policy space -- which was viewed as undermining Secretary of State Rex Tillerson -- had already been curtailed somewhat under Kelly.

Trump said Friday that he would leave it up to Kelly to determine the status of Kushner's clearance.

"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 during a joint press conference with Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull.

The president also heaped praise on Kushner, calling him a master dealmaker and saying he'd "done an outstanding job." Trump further asserted that he inherited a "broken" background check system in which it can take "months and months and months" for full security clearance to be granted, even for people without complicated financial holdings.

Kushner has been forced to repeatedly correct omissions in his "SF-86," the governmentwide form used to apply for clearances, as well as his financial disclosure forms, which experts said could delay or even nix his chances of earning a clearance through the normal process. Kushner has also come under scrutiny in Special Counsel Robert Mueller's ongoing investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election.

The White House's handling of security clearances has come under intense scrutiny in the wake of revelations that former White House Staff Secretary Rob Porter had worked for more than a year with only interim clearance.

Porter, whose job gave him constant access to the most sensitive of documents, had been accused of domestic abuse by his two ex-wives. The White House has repeatedly adjusted its timeline about who knew what and when about the allegations, and the scandal has weakened Kelly's standing, both among staffers and with the president.

Fox News' John Roberts and The Associated Press contributed to this report.Some 11 people reported feeling sick and several Marines received medical treatment after an envelope containing an "unknown substance" was opened around 3:30p.m. in an unidentified building on the Marine Corps side of Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall in Virginia Tuesday.

Little information is available yet on what military and emergency response officials are calling a "HAZMAT" incident aboard the base, which abuts Arlington Cemetery.

In a statement, Marine Corps spokesman Maj. Brian Block said personnel in the building where the envelope was received evacuated immediately.

"Base officials and are coordinating with local HAZMAT teams and FBI," he said. "Several Marines are receiving medical care as a result of this incident. No additional details are available at this time as the investigation is ongoing."

UPDATE: Marines Released from Hospital after HAZMAT Incident at Joint Base Myer

A release sent late Tuesday evening by Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall said Naval Criminal Investigative Service is also participating in the investigation.

The building, officials said, has been screened and cleared.

In a series of Tweets, the Arlington County Fire Department, which responded to the scene, said that three people were transported for further examination following their initial report of symptoms; all are in stable condition.

"Command is scaling back incident starting to put some units in service," the fire department said in a Tweet. "Investigation ongoing."

-- Hope Hodge Seck can be reached at hope.seck@military.com. Follow her on Twitter at @HopeSeck.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.An ongoing political fight over funding of the Veterans Choice Program drove the agenda Tuesday in the first of a series of congressional hearings with the major veterans service organizations.

A joint session of the House and Senate Veterans Affairs Committees, with testimony from the leadership of Disabled American Veterans, followed a meeting Monday at the White House with Chief of Staff John Kelly. At the meeting, leaders of the VSOs aired their complaints that President Donald Trump's political appointees were pushing a version of Choice that would gut the core health care mission of the Department of Veterans Affairs and lead to "privatization."

Kelly, a retired Marine general, "indicated to us that he's going to try to set up a meeting with the president in the next couple of weeks," Garry Augustine, executive director of the Washington office of the 1.3-million member Disabled American Veterans, told the hearing.

Republicans and Democrats at the hearing backed up the organizations' concerns that political appointees on veterans issues at the White House and within the VA were aggressively pursuing reform of Choice, which allows veterans to opt for private care, that would diminish the role of the VA as the primary payer and provider of health care for veterans.

Sen. Jon Tester, a Montana Democrat and the ranking member of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee, said that "there are outsize forces and there are political agendas that work against us. Dysfunction in the administration is bleeding over to the VA."

He said the political appointees were advocating Choice reform that "serves them and their financial benefactors instead of veterans."

Rep. Bruce Poliquin, R-Maine, a member of the House Veterans Affairs Committee, said he was in favor of a Choice program that would "augment the VA, not replace the VA," particularly in providing access to private care in rural communities where travel to VA facilities is a problem for veterans.

As for privatizing the VA, Poliquin said "That ain't gonna happen as long as I'm here on this committee."

The VSOs have been direct in asserting that the advocacy group Concerned Veterans of America, which is funded by the conservative Koch brothers organization, was behind the efforts of political appointees to undermine the VA.

CVA has denied the charges. Dan Caldwell, a CVA spokesman, told Stars & Stripes Monday that "We look forward to continuing to work with President Trump and his team to advance reforms to the VA that will ultimately help our veterans."

Sen. Johnny Isakson, a Georgia Republican and chairman of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee, said the Committee passed a Choice reform bill last year by a vote of 15-1 that addressed the concerns of the VSOs. The bill would gradually expand Choice while providing ample funding for VA health care.

The one nay vote came from Sen. Jerry Moran, R-Kansas, who later joined with Sen. John McCain, R-Arizona, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, in offering an alternative bill. The result has been a legislative impasse.

Rep. Phil Roe, R-Tennessee, called on both sides of the argument to recognize that private and community care, when properly integrated with the VA's health care system, was in the best interests of veterans caught up in wait lists for appointments, or who need specialized treatment unavailable at the local VA.

"I think there's a way forward," Roe said. "Sometimes you have to go out of network. We certainly want veterans to have options for their care. I think that it can be worked out."

The hearing was called to receive DAV leadership's comments on the White House request of $198.6 billion for the VA in fiscal 2019, a boost of $12 billion over the previous year. Other VSOs will testify on the budget later this week.

In her testimony, DAV National Commander Delphine Metcalf-Foster, the first African-American woman to lead a major VSO, said the DAV backed the Isakson-Tester bill as the best option for Choice reform.

She said the DAV and other VSOs want an integrated network of care meshing private care with the VA health care system, with the "the VA acting as coordinator for access."

The highest priority for the DAV in the budget, Metcalf-Foster said, was the overhaul of the current VA caregiver program, which provides small stipends for family members who care for severely disabled veterans to allow them to them to stay in their homes.

The program is currently limited to post-9/11 veterans, and Metcalf-Foster said it should be available to veterans of all wars.

-- Richard Sisk can be reached at Richard.Sisk@Military.com.Soldiers from 4th Infantry Division at Fort Carson, Colorado, will soon deploy to Afghanistan and then join the NATO Kosovo Mission Force this spring.

Elements of the 2nd Infantry Brigade Combat Team will travel to Afghanistan over the next several weeks to conduct advise-and-assist operations for Operations Resolute Support and Freedom's Sentinel, according to a recent Fort Carson press release.

"The 2nd Infantry Brigade Combat Team of the 4th Infantry Division has a proud history in support of combat operations in Afghanistan," Col. David Zinn, commander of 2nd IBCT, said in the press release.

Later this spring, the 2nd IBCT's 3rd Battalion, 61st Cavalry Regiment, will deploy to Kosovo to take part in Operation Joint Guardian, according to the release.

The 3-61 will replace the 3rd Battalion, 319th Field Artillery Regiment, of the 82nd Airborne Division's 3rd Brigade Combat Team as part of a regular rotation to support the Kosovo Forces for Multinational Battle Group-East, the release states.

"The soldiers of the 3rd Bn., 61st Cav. Reg., 2IBCT, have worked and trained hard in preparation for our upcoming Kosovo deployment," said Lt. Col. Donald Braman, 3rd Battalion commander. "I am proud of our soldiers, and we are ready to support the NATO Kosovo Force Mission."

-- Matthew Cox can be reached at matthew.cox@military.com.The legislative assistant to the commandant of the Marine Corps has been suspended from his post amid allegations of a hostile work environment, the service announced Wednesday.

Brig. Gen. Norman L. Cooling was removed after Defense Secretary Jim Mattis received a request from Congress to investigate his behavior, according to a news release. The Senate Armed Services Committee asked Mattis directly to review the command climate Cooling had created during his tenure at the post, officials said.

The office of the secretary of defense is now investigating the allegations.

A Marine Corps spokesman, Maj. Brian Block, said the length of the investigation would be determined by OSD; there's no defined time limit to Cooling's suspension.

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Marine Corps Commandant Gen. Robert Neller, who personally removed Cooling from his post, said in a statement that the service planned to give full cooperation to the Department of Defense as officials complete their review.

"We are committed to being an organization in which every Marine has the opportunity to serve at their full potential, unimpeded by discrimination, bias, or hostile working conditions," he said.

Cooling, an infantry officer, graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1982, according to his biography. He's a veteran of combat in Iraq and Afghanistan and previously served as deputy director, J-3 Plans and Operations for U.S. European Command in Stuttgart, Germany. He became legislative assistant to the commandant in July 2017.

The news of Cooling's suspension comes just ahead of the one-year anniversary of an explosive story that revealed the existence of Marines United, a private Facebook group used by some troops and veterans to circulate nude photographs of female service members without their consent.

In the wake of that scandal, which prompted multiple congressional hearings, the Marine Corps launched an aggressive multi-pronged effort to create greater accountability for bad behavior on social media and promote respect in the ranks.

Last August, Assistant Commandant Gen. Glenn Walters revealed that two of the five Marine Corps unit commanders that had been relieved that year to date were removed from their posts in connection with a negative command climate including the issue of Marines' improper behavior toward women.

""Their [unit's] behavior toward women was a component of that decision. And that's as far as I'd like to go," Walters said at the time. " ...They didn't do what we want commanders to do and exhibited the wrong behavior as a commander."

Walters plans to hold a round table for reporters Friday to discuss additional steps taken in the last year to address gender bias and social media misconduct.

-- Hope Hodge Seck can be reached at hope.seck@military.com. Follow her on Twitter at @HopeSeck.Three Marines have been sent home after a brief hospital stay following the discovery of an envelope containing an unknown substance at Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall.

In all, 11 people reported symptoms of illness after the envelope was opened on the Marine Corps side of the Northern Virginia base around 3:30 p.m. Tuesday. The three Marines, who have not been identified, were transported to the hospital for further examination.

Lindsey Mastis, an anchor for the local News Channel 8, Tweeted that a corporal, gunnery sergeant and colonel reported symptoms including burning hands and face, and one individual experienced a nosebleed. That account has not been confirmed by officials.

The Marines were released around 10 p.m. Tuesday night, base officials said in a news release.

The joint base borders Arlington Cemetery and overlooks the Pentagon. It's home to a number of military ceremonial units and the U.S. Army Band.

According to Marine officials and emergency responders, the building was evacuated immediately after the envelope was discovered. HAZMAT procedures were initiated, and all 11 people participated in a decontamination process. The building itself was screened and cleared.

Naval Criminal Investigative Service is working with the FBI to investigate the incident, joint base officials said.

-- Hope Hodge Seck can be reached at hope.seck@military.com. Follow her on Twitter at @HopeSeck.This story has been updated.

Nellis Air Force Base officials say they've removed a noncommissioned officer from her supervisory role after she made racially insensitive comments about her subordinates in a Facebook video that went viral on social media last month.

"In accordance with the Uniform Code of Military Justice, Geraldine Lovely was held accountable for her actions," Maj. Christina Sukach, 99th Air Base Wing spokeswoman, told Military.com on Wednesday. Sukach clarified on Thursday that Lovely had been removed from her position as a supervisor of other airmen.

Sukach, who withheld details of Lovely's rank in her initial statement, said that while specifics of the case cannot be released, "99th Air Base Wing leadership is satisfied with the outcome."

"A military member's administrative record is protected by the Privacy Act of 1974," Sukach said. "These cases are not tried in social media but handled through the fair and due process afforded to military members under public law and regulations."

She added, "Nellis Air Force Base leadership emphasizes that any activity which disparages anyone because of their race, religion, gender, or sexual orientation will not be tolerated. Service members are responsible for their own actions, to include social media. Our airmen are too valuable, and our mission is too complex and perilous, to accept anything less than the tenets of our core values: integrity, service before self, and excellence in all we do."

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Tech. Sgt. Geraldine Lovely came under investigation after she was suspended for making a profane slurs against black female subordinates during a "Facebook Live" video posted on Jan. 26.

These "f---ing issues with my airmen and my NCOs, that are lower ranking than me, but they're black females. And it pisses me the f--- off that they have no f---ing respect and constantly having an attitude, and what the f--- is up with that?" Lovely said in the video.

"Like I'm trying my best to hold my professionalism with them, but good God, that they don't have f---ing respect whatsoever. Everytime I talk to them, [imitating the airmen] 'No, ma'am,' " she said.

She continued, "It's just like, they're talking down to me. And I'm trying to tread lightly as a higher-ranking NCO not to f---ing blow the f--- up and start a fight club."

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The video, which was posted to a private group page called "Nellis Burn Book," was eventually sent to the public Facebook group Air Force Amn/nco/snco, which is popular within the Air Force but isn't officially run by the service.

In weeks following, retired Master Sgt. Steven Mayne, the administrator for the Amn/nco/snco Facebook group, paused posts to the Facebook page until Nellis officials provided details as to how they addressed Lovely's behavior.

Mayne said it was in the interest of transparency that taxpayers understand what happened.

"I believe they should state [Lovely's] rank, duty title, and if they restored her supervisory duties," Mayne told Military.com on Wednesday, after Sukach released a statement. "And that the legal process is vital, along with protecting one's privacy while overall maintaining good order and discipline."

Whether or not Lovely has been reduced in rank or reassigned remains unclear. Prior to the incident, she was listed as an administrator at the base's fitness center, part of the 99th Force Support Squadron.

-- Oriana Pawlyk can be reached at oriana.pawlyk@military.com. Follow her on Twitter at @oriana0214.The Air Force has lifted its operational pause for T-6 Texan II trainer aircraft after a number of pilots at several bases in recent weeks experienced unexplained physiological events [UPEs] while in flight.

Maj. Gen. Patrick Doherty, 19th Air Force commander, ordered the end to the pause Tuesday, with instructor pilots beginning flights first, then student pilots by the end of this week, according to a release from Air Education and Training Command.

Command officials said the cases described were not classical cases of hypoxia which is caused by oxygen deprivation. While pilots experienced similar symptoms in flight -- disorientation, shortness of breath, confusion, wheezing -- an obvious root cause has not been found.

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"The operational pause was required to provide a robust and intrusive look at every component on every aircraft connected to or critical to the On-Board Oxygen Generating System," Doherty said in a release.

Doherty said the OBOGS received crucial examination and testing after a team of experts from the Air Force, Navy, NASA and medical crew listened to pilots, maintainers, engineers and flight surgeons across the fleet.

Their descriptions led officials to believe the T-6 "was exhibiting symptoms indicative of a compromise of the integrity of the OBOGS, leading to degradations in performance, which then likely led to the pilots' physiological events," he said.

"As tests, inspections, and data were gathered, component failures or degradations were identified as affecting the topline performance of OBOGS oxygen pressure, flow, and content, resulting in various disruptions that negatively impacted the human-machine interface," Doherty added.

But flight engineers and flight surgeons will continue to further investigate to find a final root cause, he said.

The command on Feb. 1 ordered an indefinite operational pause for all T-6 aircraft at Columbus Air Force Base, Mississippi; Vance Air Force Base, Oklahoma; and Sheppard Air Force Base, Texas.

AETC leaders on Feb. 19 began testing a new, technical maintenance order to better evaluate the system, launching 24 flights of the T-6 to experiment with the procedures.

Before pilots could take to the air, a series of evaluations took place.

"The time change technical order allows you to go through and perform maintenance on it, so the system, the first [change] is checking the valve, the second [will] check the overall system looking for leaks, how's the system's overall performance," Lt. Gen Chris Nowland, the service's deputy chief of staff for operation, told reporters after a House Armed Services Committee on Air Force readiness on Feb. 14.

Once in the air, teams in place began testing a backup method: Pilots disconnected from the OBOGS, flying at a restricted altitude.

The flights aimed to help "determine how's the system working, and what's the ambient air," or what a pilot experiences when he or she isn't connected to the system, Nowland said.

Pilots can breathe free-flowing air in the cockpit when flying under 10,000 feet, but need to hook up to an OBOGS above that altitude. If pilots experience hypoxia-like symptoms at lower altitudes, it could be an indication something else is erratic in the aircraft.

Lt. Gen. Steven Kwast, head of AETC, told Aviation Week during the Air Force Association's Air Warfare Symposium last week that investigators had not found a reason to believe pilots were getting sick from breathing ambient air, a determination that indicates something faulty in the OBOGS.

On Tuesday, Doherty said in the release that more maintenance must be taken on the OBOGS, and that the 19th Air Force would implement "recurring inspections focusing on OBOGS components."

"With 30 years of flying experience, looking at all of the facts and listening to our experts, these particular types of T-6 UPEs aren't unexplained anymore in my mind," Doherty said.

"We have zeroed in on a handful of components that are degrading or failing to perform and needed to be replaced or repaired more often than the Air Force anticipated when they bought the aircraft," he said.

-- Oriana Pawlyk can be reached at oriana.pawlyk@military.com. Follow her on Twitter at @oriana0214.U.S. Special Operations Command is facing a recruiting challenge that may force it to be more choosy about the missions it takes on in the future, a senior Defense Department official said today.

"We have some recruiting challenges, and I think the trajectory is not good over the next few years," Mark Mitchell, principal deputy assistant Secretary of Defense for Special Operations and Low Intensity Conflict, said today.

"Around 30 percent of American high schoolers meet the requirements to join service, and even fewer of them can meet the demands of the special operations community."

Mitchell shared his concern with an audience at the National Defense Industrial Association 29th Annual Special Operations/Low Intensity Conflict Symposium.

For example, Mitchell said, the current requirement for Army Special Forces is 685 officers and enlisted soldiers.

"I think we are going to hit 470 this year; we have to find some new ways to reach into some untapped pools," Mitchell said. "The barrier to SOF entry is high and will remain high. We don't intend to drop the standards, and we are committed to that, but we really need to look at attacking those other pools."

To help offset the recruiting challenge, Mitchell said SOCOM need to "ruthlessly prioritize where we are investing our SOF resources."

"We are currently meeting all of our requirements overseas, but the ops-temp is pretty high," Mitchell said.

Mitchell hailed the conventional Army's recent decision to stand up new Security Force Assistance Brigades, units of highly trained officers and soldiers designed to take over the "advise-and-assist" mission of training foreign troops in conventional infantry operations.

In the past, this high-demand mission has placed tremendous stress on special operations forces such as Army Special Forces units, which are traditionally designed to raise foreign armies to fight as coalition partners.

"We welcome this, because we see it as an opportunity to preserve our special operations capabilities for those missions that require it," Mitchell said.

It's one example of ways SOF may have to reevaluate strategy and reassess priorities in light of current challenges.

"I'm sure some of the SF guys can tell you, we go year after year to the same country, doing the same training for different groups of guys, buying them equipment," Mitchell said, "And then coming back the next year and finding that all the guys we trained are gone, the equipment is broken, and we really can't get them to be an effective partner."

Perhaps, Mitchell said, it is time for the senior leadership to reevaluate some of these partnerships.

"What role do we want this country, this partner to play in a competition, short of armed or in an actual armed conflict," he said. "And if they are not willing and able to play an active role in one of those ... then we need to look elsewhere in investing our SOF personnel."

Matthew Cox can be reached at matthew.cox@military.com.It was 27 years ago today that the First Gulf War, otherwise known as Desert Storm came to an official end.

Nearly 700,000 troops from 40 nations were united as a coalition to fight Iraq's invasion of its small southern neighbor Kuwait.

We won't get into the politics or the details here, let's just discuss how this war changed things.

Made For TV

This war was the first one that was covered by the 24 hour news media. You might say this war was made for TV.

The first airstrikes and missile launches were conveniently timed to coincide with the nightly news; daily pentagon press briefings had videos from aircraft, ships, and even the weapons themselves; and every major network had their staff as near to the action as possible allowing them to give live updates as the bombs and bullets flew.

Generals like Thomas Kelley, Norman Schwarzkopf and Colin Powell became instant media celebrities, and their daily briefings were ratings gold. The nation hadn't seen wall-to-wall media coverage of a war like this since World War 2, and there really hasn't been coverage of any later wars that can match it.

Many say that the huge ratings boost CNN got as a result of its war coverage paved the way for the 24 hour news networks we have today.

Changes at the VA

After the war the VA underwent a major change. Prior to the Gulf War the VA was, let's face it, concerned mainly with older male veterans. After the war this changed, albeit a bit slowly. Since many younger veterans were now returning from war zones with different illnesses and injuries than had been seen before, the VA had to adapt.

Also, many of the veterans were female, something the VA hadn't really dealt with before. As a result, the VA now has dedicated and expanded services to female veterans.

Sure the VA was slow to adapt, and they didn't really change their main focus until 15 years later when veterans returning from the Iraq war had totally different injuries such as Traumatic Brain Injury and injuries from improvised explosive devices.

I would argue that the first Gulf War was the beginning of VA's slow change from a system that mainly dealt with middle-aged and older male veterans to an organization that regularly deals with younger veterans suffering terrible war injuries that aren't normally seen in the civilian world. You might say the VA got back to its original mission as a result of the Gulf War.

VA is now focusing on all veterans; young, old, male, female. That is something they didn't do before the Gulf War.

Welcome our Technological Overlords

This war changed the way the military used technology in many ways.

Before the Gulf War technology was cool and neat, but it was usually used as an adjunct to boots on the ground, rarely did the military rely solely on technology.

The surgical strikes from Tomahawk cruise missiles, laser rangefinders on the M-1 tank, live satellite pictures of troop movements on the ground, thermal sights and night vision goggles, laser guided smart bombs, and something new called GPS changed the way our military fights forever.

All of these technological advances did what they were supposed to do - save military and civilian lives. Because of that we continue to use them and improve them.

The Gulf War Changed The Way Civilians View The Military

Yes, we even had a National Victory Celebration - a parade in DC to welcome back victorious troops. Most people who pay attention to these sorts of things say that the general public's opinion of the military changed for the better as a result of this war.

So even though most younger veterans will laugh off the Gulf War as a "walk in the park" compared to Iraq & Afghanistan operations, and most older ones will tell you that it "was nothing like 'Nam", if you're a Gulf War vet today is your day.

Enjoy the way you changed the world.Military members and veterans can get up to four free months of Apple Music through the Apple Music military discount -- but...Its been roughly two weeks since the release of Black Panther and the frenzy is still unfolding. The movie is the 18th in Marvel Cinematic Universe and it doesnt disappoint  unless you are among the most anal of comic geeks. All in all, the movie is amazing and, by now, youve had plenty of time to go see it.

There is one particular character that stands out among the fray and that is Erik Killmonger Stephens. Michael B. Jordan brought the screen adaptation of this character to life and immediately shot straight up the ranks of the great comic-book-inspired villains in cinema.

Killmonger stands out for various reasons. From his origin story to his amazing fighting skills, there is one thing that just cannot be ignored: how operator Killmonger actually is.

*Warning: Spoilers ahead*

Education

It is revealed that Erik Stevens is a graduate of both the Naval Academy and MIT. In the movie, they dont tell you which type of degree he pursued and obtained, but in the comics, they make it clear that he has multiple PhDs.

Erik Killmonger is considered to have a genius-level intellect and a charismatic leadership style.

Not pictured: Erik Killmonger sitting and plotting, in silence. (U.S. Navy photo by Sam Shavers)

Military training

In the same monologue that reveals Killmongers education, we also learn that Stevens was a Navy SEAL! We all know that SEALs are some of the most insane badasses around.

If Killmonger was one of them and later joined a JSOC unit, its an extremely safe bet to assume he could hang with any fighter in the world.

In the comics, Killmonger nearly defeats the Black Panther in combat but is undone by his own aggression.

The real-world badasses on which this fictional badass is based. (Photo from Wikimedia Commons).

Fighting skills

Just think about this for a moment. TChalla was born, raised, and groomed to one day be king and to assume the mantle of Black Panther.

Killmonger was an orphan who somehow attended and graduated from the Naval Academy by 19 and ended up being a Navy f*cking SEAL! Killmonger handily defeated TChalla in hand-to-hand combat, which says a lot about the level of skill he reached.

Killmonger getting those hands together. (Photo from Warner Bros. Pictures Creed)

An actual claim to throne

In the MCU storyline, Killmonger is actually TChallas first cousin. He was abandoned after TChaka murdered his father. He had a legitimate right to the throne and he took it through wit, training, and might.

Killmonger had a legitimate gripe and a legitimate claim to the throne. (Photo from Marvel Studios Black Panther).

MORE POSTS FROM WE ARE THE MIGHTY:

4 reasons why fighting with a lightsaber would actually suck

This hero was so deadly, they called him Black Death

6 most stubborn world conflicts happening right now

We Are The Mighty (WATM) celebrates service with stories that inspire. WATM is made in Hollywood by veterans. It's military life presented like never before. Check it out at We Are the Mighty.You landed the job. Congrats!

Now it's time to make your boss love you by becoming a star employee. Start with these 11 things successful people do to make the most of the first three months in a new position.

They execute and reflect on their plans and goals established on Day 1

Reflect on the goals you created at the onset of your new position.

"Whatever you sold them on in the interview, make it your mission to demonstrate that you're going to do it," Amanda Augustine, a career advice expert for TopResume, previously told Business Insider.

Examine how your goals have changed and how you can improve your workflow to get more done and become the version of yourself you wanted to be on Day 1.

They become invaluable to team members and coworkers

Three months is enough time to learn the lay of the land and make it clear to your coworkers how much you have to offer.

Augustine previously told Business Insider that starting in your first week, you should be showing up to meetings and conversations and establishing your expertise to become a go-to person on your team.

They find a way to resolve any frustrations that affect their team

Annabel Action, the founder of Never Liked It Anyway, a site for people to sell unwanted items from past relationships, shared a few tricks for creative problem-solving with The Muse. Her tips include starting with small projects, banning your go-to solutions, and even asking yourself "What would my hero do?"

"Considering how Willy Wonka would solve a packaging challenge, how Coco Chanel would tackle a communications issue, and how Salvador Dali would take on streamlining a supply chain can be very enlightening," she wrote.

They reevaluate their social group and branch out

It's easy to become comfortable with our office neighbors  but once you know them, it's time to branch out and meet other people in the company. You may want to start by asking for their advice and perspectives.

"People are willing to talk about themselves," Rachel Bitte, the chief people officer at the software recruiting firm Jobvite, previously told Business Insider. "People are willing to share what they learned being in that field. So don't be afraid to go leverage that network, just to even learn."

They explore new ways to achieve more

Stewart Butterfield, the CEO of Slack, told Adam Bryant of The New York Times that he encouraged employees to experiment and innovate.

"I feel like people in their early- to mid-20s are very earnest," he said. "They're very serious, and they want to feel like they've accomplished a lot at a very young age rather than just trying to figure stuff out. So I try to push them toward a more experimental attitude."

They continually tweak their habits

Charles Duhigg, the author of "The Power of Habit," wrote in his book:

"Typically, people who exercise start eating better and becoming more productive at work. They smoke less and show more patience with colleagues and family. They use their credit cards less frequently and say they feel less stressed. Exercise is a keystone habit that triggers widespread change."

Other positive activities that can improve your work might include meditation, writing, painting, or reading.

They identify time wasters and kick them

We're all guilty of wasting time here and there  but it's up to you to eliminate it.

The first step is keeping track of how you spend your days so you can identify the most and least productive tasks.

If you need a hand getting it all down, try one of these tools.

They always demonstrate their value to the company

Successful people will always demonstrate how much value they bring to their respective roles.

"I never think in terms of convincing anyone of anything  I think in terms of inspiring them," Robin Dreeke, an FBI agent, previously told Business Insider. "If you want to move into a position of leadership, or you want to move up in the company, the first thing to ask yourself is, 'How can I inspire them to want me?'"

He continued: "You've got to understand what's important to them. How do they see prosperity? What can you do to make their job easier?"

They establish new goals according to their manager's expectations

Now that you've had some time to settle in, consult with your managers to see whether your goals are still good fits.

"This is a great opportunity to get some early feedback on what you are doing right, what needs to be done better, and how you can spend your time next week for the greatest benefit of the team," Natalia Autenrieth wrote on TopResume.

They take every opportunity to network with coworkers

Networking sounds intimidating, but it's as simple as grabbing coffee or talking "Game of Thrones" with your coworkers.

Joanna Coles, the former editor-in-chief of Cosmo and Marie Claire, says that connecting with your peers is just as important as connecting with your bosses, if not more.

"The thing that I always try and say to young people starting out is your peer group is really the most important influence on your life because you are going to rise and fall together," she previously told Business Insider. "And I have always got jobs through the loose ties of friendships and someone knowing someone who might know a job."

They rekindle their relationships with former coworkers

Augustine previously told Business Insider that near the start of a new gig, new hires should "go back and reconnect with people at your old company and ask for LinkedIn recommendations."

The best time to get referrals isn't when you're hunting for a job, but well before you need it.

More From Business Insider:Sudarshan Sukhani of s2analytics.com told CNBC-TV18, "I think there is an intraday rally still in the offing, my stocks are also on the buy side. All trades are intraday. In a trading range, there is no need to carry positions. Tomorrow may be a gap up which could fall during the day, so, just trade intraday."

"Apollo Tyres is a buying opportunity. The stock was trading at the highs of the day and is also higher than yesterday."

"Similarly, Ashok Leyland which is a remarkable stock. It is at lifetime new highs. Now we want to respect lifetime new highs and buy them whenever they are available. That is available today and I am a buyer in Ashok Leyland. I would suggest buying," he said.Ashwani Gujral of ashwanigujral.com told CNBC-TV18, "Apollo Tyres is a buy with a stop loss of Rs 267 and target of Rs 283. Bank of India is a sell with a stop loss of Rs 116 and target of Rs 108. Dewan Housing Finance (DHFL) is a sell with a stop loss of Rs 560 and target of Rs 535."

"M&M Financial Services is a sell with a stop loss of Rs 440 and target of Rs 415. Axis Bank is a sell with a stop loss of Rs 532 and target of Rs 510. Mindtree is a buy with a stop loss of Rs 808 and target of Rs 830."Yogesh Mehta, Associate Vice President- PCG Advisory Equities at Motilal Oswal told CNBC-TV18, "Tech Mahindra is quoting at Rs 616 in F&O segment. One can buy this in F&O segment with a stop loss of Rs 605 and projecting price target of Rs 635."

"The other stock which we are recommending is Reliance Industries. Keeping a stop loss of Rs 942, target could be around Rs 975 on the buy side."

"In Bharti Airtel, Rs 431.5 is the current price in future segment, keeping a small stop loss of Rs 424, target could be in the range of Rs 448-450 range," he said.

: Reliance Industries Ltd. is the sole beneficiary of Independent Media Trust which controls Network18 Media & Investments Ltdlive bse live

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Three years after losing the race to acquire Italys second-largest steelmaker, JSW group is set to make a comeback. The Sajjan Jindal group company is expected to sign a deal with Cevital  to whom it had lost out in 2014  to buy Aferpi.

Cevital, the largest privately-held group in Algeria, had bought Lucchini in 2014 and renamed in Aferpi. Lucchini was then owned by Russias Severstal and was declared insolvent in 2012.

The JSW group company is likely to sign the agreement on Thursday for the deal, which is estimated to be about Rs 500 crore. Some of its top officials are present in Italy.

Aferpi has a capacity to produce 2.5 million tons of steel every year. It used to have an employee-strength of 2,000. Its operations include a blast furnace, a steel mill, a coke oven and a ports.

The deal will also make up for another lost opportunity for JSW group in Italy, last year. The company had lost to LN Mittals ArcelorMittal in the race to acquire Ilva, which owned Europes largest steel facility.

Good news

The Aferpi buy will cheer up officials at JSW group. The company had suffered a couple of setbacks on its push for growth in India, after its bids for Bhushan Steel and Bhushan Power & Steel ended up second highest to Tata Steels.

Presence in Italy will give JSW access to high margin products. At present Aferpi manufactures products used in sectors such as railways, energy, automotive and engineering. For instance, it products high speed rails that support some of the major rail networks in Europe.

With some of its facilities dating back to late 19th century, Aferpi was one of the centres of industrialisation in post-World War Italy. But since the commodity boom went bust after 2008, the company has been struggling to make a profit.

Cevital had promised to invest 300 million Euros after acquiring the company in 2014. The turnaround plant included the setting up of a new steel plant.

The JSW group company may opt to supply primary steel from its India-based facilities and convert them into high margin products in Italy. Given the high margins for these products in Europe, this would make sense, said an executive from the industry.Moneycontrol News

The Board of Fortis Healthcare, India's second largest healthcare provider will be meeting today to approve the second and third quarter results amidst increasing scrutiny of the company's finances, and a clamour for clarity on its liabilities.Fortis is yet to report the second and third quarter numbers - the company's Board which met early this month had sought an extension of 15 days citing the statutory auditors have enhanced the scope of audit resulting in a delay.

Reports have emerged that Deloitte - the statutory auditor of Fortis refused to sign Q2 accounts of the company.

Deloitte earlier told Moneycontrol that it's unable to comment on client-specific matters, as it is "bound by confidentiality obligations".

Troubles surfaced at Fortis after the company indicated that considerable funds were transferred to third parties, which were later classified as promoter entities. The current outstanding amount towards such entities is Rs 473 crore.

Fortis said the same loans were adequately secured, and the promoters had agreed to repay the loan by the end of June this year.

However, that explanation failed to convince corporate governance experts who were critical of the company's internal controls and Board's lack of oversight.

Even the role of statutory auditor has come under scanner for not disclosing the reasons why it hasn't signed the Q2 accounts.

What has changed for the company since the last Board meet?

A lot has changed, ever since the disclosure about promoters taking out money.

Most regulatory agencies that includes stock exchanges, SEBI, RoC and ICAI have issued notices and sought information from the company to ascertain if there is any breach of securities, company and accounting laws.

The promoters holding has come down from little over 34 percent to around 3 percent as lenders have invoked the shares pledged by the promoters. Now lenders are the dominant shareholders of the company.

The company announced last week that its company secretary or chief compliance officer has resigned.

Though unrelated to Fortis but could have ramifications for the company - the Supreme Court dismissed petitions of Fortis promoters Malvinder Singh and Shivinder Singh referred as Singh brothers challenging Delhi High Court order that allowed Japanese drug maker Daiichi Sankyo to enforce Rs 3500 crore foreign arbitration award. Subsequently the Delhi High Court in its interim order attached all assets of two holding companies privately held by Singh brothers. The court also sought details of non-encumbered assets owned by the Singhs.

Why is today's Board meet crucial?

The Board meet is crucial because - the investors, lenders, vendors and even possible strategic buyers are expecting some clarity on the state of finances of Fortis.

After late disclosures about promoters taking out money and company's shoddy internal controls, investors are interested to know what is the extent of liabilities the company is carrying on its books.

It needs to be seen whether today's Board meet will provide the financial numbers of the company or may end up seeking further extension?The self-proclaimed founder of Bitcoin, Craig Wright, has been sued for stealing bitcoins worth in excess of USD 5 billion previously owned by his deceased partner.

The lawsuit filed in the Florida District court earlier this months by the estate of Wrights partner David Kleiman, accuses Wright of stealing 550,000 to 1.1 million bitcoins which the duo (him and Kleiman) had mined when they participated in a joint venture.

The lawsuit further alleges that Wright also forged multiple backdated documents after Kleimans death to indicate that the ownership of the bitcoins in question and multiple rights on the Bitcoin technology was passed to Wright.

The plaintiff, Ira Kleiman, David Kleimans brother and the personal representative of his estate sought the return of those bitcoins which could be worth over USD 10 billion as of now.

The plaintiff mentioned multiple evidence to prove their claim, including email exchanges between Wright and Ira Kleiman which happened shortly after Davids death.

[Dave] mentioned that you had 1 million Bitcoins in the trust and since you said he has 300,000 as his part. I was figuring the other 700,000 is yours, Ira Kleiman wrote shortly after his brothers death in 2013. Is that correct?

Around that, Wright replied. Minus what was needed for the companys use. (A copy of the lawsuit is embedded at the end of this story)

Wright first became public in December 2015 when he famously claimed that he was the fabled founder of Bitcoin, Satoshi Nakamoto. Wright, at that time, offered to demonstrate his claim by Nakamotos cryptographic signatures but they proved to be faulty. Ultimately, he was unsuccessful in convincing the Bitcoin community.

The lawsuit, interestingly, makes no claims of either Wrights or Kleimans role in the creation of Bitcoin. It neither comments anything on their connection to Nakamoto.

It is unclear whether Craig, Dave, and/or both created Bitcoin, the complaint reads. For reasons not yet completely clear, they chose to keep their involvement in Bitcoin hidden from most of their family and friends. It is undeniable, however, that Craig and Dave were involved in Bitcoin from its inception and that they both accumulated a vast wealth of bitcoins from 2009 through 2013.Pranab Mukherjee

Former president Pranab Mukherjee today expressed hope that India's economy will inch towards 8 per cent growth in 2018-19 fiscal and onwards.

Mukherjee, however, said that to sustain such a growth rate for the longer term, the country will need to address issues like employability for the youth and boosting the rural economy.

"It may be in 2018-19 and onwards, it (India) will move towards 8 per cent annual GDP growth if there is no eventual setback from unexpected quarters," he said at a session organised by the Calcutta Chamber of Commerce here.

Mukherjee said the agriculture sector needs focus, along with allied areas like rural infrastructure, rural health, rural education, rural sanitation and rural housing.

He said empowering the growing young population of India and preparing them for employability was of paramount importance.

"In a short of span of time, 48 per cent of India's population is going to be below the age of 40 ... unless you give them employment, enhance employability, train them, make them available to the world labour market ... this is a challenge in the growth of GDP on a sustainable basis," the former finance minister said.

Mukherjee exuded confidence that the Indian economy has the resilience to address challenges, find out appropriate solutions and take corrective measures.

"But mere policy formations are not adequate, it needs effective implementation," he added.Will Prime Minister Modi win the next round of general election? Well, for that we might have to wait for the actual results but investors have assigned a very high probability of Modi 2.0, UBS said in a report.

Modi's reform agenda has aided investors in ignoring earnings disappointments over the past four years. Thus, his re-election as Prime Minister with a single-party majority underpins the market's hopes, reflected in rich multiples, it said.

However, a change in such expectations by investors through 2018 could result in lower multiples. Historically, the Nifty has reacted sharply around elections in the short term, the report highlighted.

In a few cases, the move was even visible one year prior to and post an election. USDINR has moved more when closer to the date (3 months before) and less than 12 months ahead of the event; while USDINR volume also unsurprisingly moved higher closer to the event.

UBS Nifty base case, upside and downside scenarios are 10,500, 11,900, and 8,800 respectively which implies unattractive risk-reward at the current level, even more so if uncertainty rises around the outcome and timing of the election.

Investors should focus more on the individual stocks rather than looking at the index. Top preferred stocks include names like Bank of Baroda, Bharti Airtel, BPCL, Cipla, HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, ITC, Motherson Sumi, TCS, Titan Company etc. among others.

The global investment bank is positive on Auto Parts, IT services, Oil & Gas, Private Bank, property, and Telecom & Media.

A weaker portfolio inflow could put the rupee under pressure, said the UBS report. The rupee needs a larger amount of portfolio inflow to stay afloat compared with 12 months ago.

It has been driven by sharp deterioration in the basic balance from 1.3 percent a year ago to close to zero lately. The widest trade deficit (in January) since 2013 is not helping the cause. We now think USD-INR could trade around 65 in the next 3 months, said the report.live bse live

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Indian investor is always hungry for returns no matter what the market condition is. Anecdotal evidence suggests that there are as many as six stocks which have given a stellar return in the period starting from April  June not just in one year but for the last five years.

The S&P BSE Sensex is down by about 6 percent from its record high weighed down by both global as well as domestic factors. But, stocks which have outperformed market does not belong to Sensex or even from 'A' group category but more from the small and midcap space.

Consistent performance in the last five year in that three month put them ahead of bluechip stocks. Minimum these stocks have returned in the March quarter is 15 percent while on the higher side, the returns have gone to as much as 140 percent, according to data collated from AceEquity.

Stocks which have given stellar returns in the March quarter include names like Ashima Ltd, India Tourism Development Corporation, Integra Engineering, Ok Play India, Transgene Biotek Ltd, and UPL Ltd.

Ashima Ltd which belongs to the textile sector is one of India's leading 100 percent cotton fabric manufacturers. In a short span of 5 years, the Group has invested US$ 120 million in state-of-the-art technology and today is one of the foremost cotton textile players in the world.

The next stocks is from the tourism industry India Tourism Development Corporation which is an hospitality, retail, and Education company owned by the government of India, under the ministry of tourism. Established in the year 1996, it owns 17 properties under the Ashok group of hotels brand, across India.

The next stock which gave 142 percent return in the year 2013 belongs to the manufacturing sector. INTEGRA Engineering India Limited is engaged in manufacturing and sales of Railway control systems, and contract engineering and manufacturing for power and transport sectors.

The next outperformer belongs to the plastic product space which is in the manufacturing of plastic toys. OK Play is the largest manufacturer of plastic moulded toys, fun-stations, playground equipment and childrens furniture in India.

Transgene Biotek Ltd which has been a consistent performer in the June quarter of the last five years comes from the Healthcare sector. The product portfolio covers Oncology, Auto-Immunity, Drug Delivery and Biogenerics.

UPL from the chemical space is the most commonly known stock which has given a minimum of 15 percent return and a maximum of 21 percent return in the last five years. UPL is focused on emerging as a premier global provider of total crop solutions designed to secure the worlds long-term food supply.

What should investors do?

The December quarter earnings were not as bad as was imagined by some experts on the D-Street and in a way has laid down the foundation for a bounce back in earnings in the following quarters.

Q3 FY18 saw a decent earning growth. Both at the Nifty level and a broader market level. The Nifty earnings grew at 7 percent as against the estimate of 12 percent, Edelweiss said in a report. The S&P BSE- 500 earnings growth has been at 11 percent.

Metals and Mining clearly stood out as top performers, followed by Consumer Staples, Auto Ancillaries. Pharma, Telecom, Textiles, Public Sector Banks have all been dragger.

"Corporate earnings are expected to improve over coming quarters as the impact of GST fades and consumption picks up. This, along with a continued shift in household savings from physical to financial assets, bodes well for equity markets," Sanjay Kumar, Chief Investment Officer, PNB MetLife India Insurance told Moneycontrol.

"The current fall and any further weakness in the near-term provide a window of opportunity to enhance allocation to good quality stocks," he said. Kumar is positive on Information Technology, private sector banks, Consumer Discretionary and Staples, Automobiles, and Engineering & Infrastructure.

Most analysts feel that the recovery cycle has already started the way December quarter results came out. Although December quarter earnings were a mixed bag, the fact that they are trending higher is encouraging with profit growth of 9 percent compared to last quarters 6 percent.

As many as 77 percent of the respondents feel that earnings have bounced back while the rest 23 percent feel that it might take a couple of more quarters, according to Moneycontrol poll of 15 analysts and money managers.

If earnings start to improve it would have a positive impact on equities as well which should lead to some recovery in markets as well, it indicated.

More than 70 percent of the respondents feel that the S&P BSE Sensex is on track to reclaim Mount 36K while 14 percent feel that it could hover in the range of 34000 to 36000. The rest 14 percent feel that it could slip below 34K towards the end of the year.

"We had a one year target of 36,000 for Sensex which was reached in the month of January itself. This target has been maintained subject to the full development of ongoing Q3 and changes in valuation given the global clampdown," Vinod Nair, Head of Research at Geojit Financial Services told Moneycontrol.

"We continue to have a moderate outlook for equity during the year given premium valuation, increase in interest cost and reduction in liquidity. Till date, if you have lost the chance to reduce your exposure in high beta stocks then an uptick is likely in the near-term which can provide an opportunity to play in this volatility and restructure your portfolio accordingly," he said.The National Highways Authority of India has awarded a Rs 939 crore project for construction of proposed Srinagar Ring Road to Ramky Infrastructure, the government said today.

"The NHAI has issued letter of award for construction of of the proposed Srinagar Ring Road/ Bypass from Galander to Crossing of Sumbel Road on the Jammu-Srinagar highway (NH-IA)," Ministry of Road Transport and Highways said in a statement.

The 42.10 km project with a cost of Rs 939.41 crore has been awarded to Ramky Infrastructure and would be implemented on engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) mode, the statement said adding the construction period is 36 months.

The entire greenfield alignment has been proposed on the western side of Srinagar City to cater provide connectivity to the habitation on that side, it said.

It will also provide smooth and easy traffic flow in and around Srinagar City.

"Vehicles carrying heavy machinery to border/strategic areas of Baramula, Uri, Kupwara, Bandipora and Gandarbal will have an easier, congestion free passage along this route," the statement said.

The Ring Road/ Bypass will traverse through 52 villages and 5 Districts (Phulwama, Budgaon, Baramula, Srinagar & Bandipora), it added.

The ring road/bypass will also lead to substantial socio-economic growth of the area.News18.com

The CBI has booked computer manufacturer R P Info Systems and its directors for allegedly cheating a consortium of banks to the tune of Rs 515.15 crore, and carried out searches at six locations in Kolkata on Wednesday.

It is alleged that the directors of the company, Shibaji Panja, Kaustuv Ray and Vinay Bafna, and its vice president defrauded Canara Bank and nine other consortium member banks to the tune of Rs 515.15 crore. The CBI carried out searches at the residence of all the accused and the corporate office in Kolkata.

One of the company directors, Shibaji Panja, is known to be close to West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and has been arrested earlier by Delhi Police and booked by CBI in connection with defrauding banks.

The company, too, has had a brush with the law earlier as the CBI had booked it in 2015 for cheating IDBI bank, once a leader of the consortium before relinquishing the position in 2013, to the tune of Rs 180 crore.

The other members of the bank were State Bank of India, State Bank of Bikaner and Jaipur and State Bank of Patiala (both now part of the CBI), Union Bank of India, Allahabad Bank, Oriental Bank of Commerce, Central Bank of India, Punjab National Bank, State Bank of Patiala and Federal Bank.

It is alleged that loans were taken on the basis of false and fabricated documents.

Read the full report hereAfter the successful auction of a prime commercial site in Gurugram by Haryana State Industrial and Infrastructure Development Corporation (HSIIDC) to DLF that fetched a record sum of Rs 1496 crore, the authority is planning to dispose of other commercial sites in a months time.

Noteworthy sites in this auction include the 4.5 acres Japanese Hostel site located on NH8 and the Global City project located along Dwarka Expressway.

We will be auctioning a slew of commercial and institutional sites across the state in a months time. These would include properties in Gurugram, Faridabad, Karnal, Panipat, Rohtak etc. Among the prime properties that we intend auctioning are the Japanese Hostel complex spread over 4.5 acres of prime land on National Highway 8, located right across Signature Tower in Gurugram. The other site is the Global City project spread across 1000 acres and another 200 acres of land abutting the Northern Peripheral Road in Harsaru and Garhi Harsaru areas which are earmarked for commercial use, HSIIDC sources told Moneycontrol.

We will be launching the advertisement campaign in a months time, sources said.

Buoyed by the response being generated for commercial properties in NCR, Noida Authority is also planning to launch a commercial plots scheme in a weeks time.

In about 10 days, Noida Authority will be launching a scheme for commercial plots, said Alok Tandon, Noida Authority's chief executive officer and chairman.

It is worth noting here that in the month of January, Noida Authority had launched a scheme for two of its new industrial sectors  155 and 156. Entrepreneurs could apply for plots of sizes 5 acres and multiples of 5 acres under an open-ended scheme. The total land available was approximately spread across 250 acres.

On Monday, Aadarshini Real Estate Developers Private Limited, a subsidiary of DLF Home Developers Limited, had emerged as the highest and successful bidder of an e-auction conducted by HSIIDC for a freehold land parcel measuring 11.76 acres located in Udyog Vihar, Gurugram. Multiple bidders had participated in the e-auction. The land parcel has been earmarked for mixed-use development and is eligible for the higher floor area ratio (FAR) as per the Transit Oriented Development (TOD) policy that makes it over 2 million sq ft.

HSIIDC managing director Raja Sekhar Vundru in a statement said the success of the auction assumes significance in the light of the generally held perception of a sluggish real estate market. "It also indicates the status of Gurugram as the most preferred investment destination in India near Delhi," he had said, adding that considering the response of this auction, HSIIDC now plans to aggressively take up disposal of other such sites and projects.

DLF termed the project as a Strategic fit in the overall master plan of Downtown, Gurugram as its location is next to the existing operational buildings of Cybercity, Cyber Park (under construction) and future development of Mall of India, Gurugram. The development of this land parcel is envisaged in the near future and shall be positioned as a Grade A commercial complex in a similar genre as Horizon Centre in DLF5, Gurugram, the company said in its disclosure to stock exchanges.

Real estate experts say that the deal is a landmark deal for Gurugram. It helps the company retain its competitive edge in the commercial segment. It is a profitable deal. It is likely to make a profit of Rs 1600 to Rs 1700 crore from this deal in the next three to five years alone, says Samir Jasuja, founder and MD, Propequity.

But does the DLF deal indicate that the commercial segment is back on the path of recovery? According to experts, over the last few years, the limited amount of supply in the market has constrained take-up of commercial space in most markets. The same is the case with Cyber City area where there is not much Grade A commercial space supply available. This deal will mean that new Grade A supply will be added in the Cyber City area and that is a good sign for the commercial segment.

We are already seeing rentals being quoted at Rs 125 to Rs 135 per sq ft depending on the location and requirements. The Cyber Park project in the vicinity is already seeing pre-commitments in the range of Rs 110 to Rs 115 per sq ft. By the time the Udyog Project comes up in the next three to five years, rates would only increase, says Vivek Dahiya, managing director, North, Cushman & Wakefield India.

But as for overall growth in the commercial segment, he says that the segment will start looking up only when it is the actual demand that is the reason for sales going up and not just the supply constraint. When job creation happens on the ground. Right now even the IT occupiers are not growing more than 10 percent, he adds.

As per the India Real Estate Residential and Office (July-Decemeber 2017) report by Knight Frank India report, the share of technology sector has been on a decline in the past eight quarters, accounting for mere 18 percent in 2017  the lowest ever. Coupled with absence of any large deals IT sectors demand share has further reduced to 15 percent in H2 2017 from an already low 28 percent share in H2 2016. The macroeconomic change in the dynamics of the IT sector is responsible for its slowdown. The sector, which is increasingly emphasising on automation, is in turn leading to a slowdown in hiring by larger IT firms, thus translating into a dull demand and cautious moves for large office spaces. Also, it is to be noted that currently, NCR does not have good quality IT supply which is also deterring demand.

The overall vacancy in Cyber City is coming down and makes sense for DLF to buy and hold on for the future. This is a complementary/top dollar deal for DLF. For the overall commercial real estate market, this deal indicates that there is continuing demand for office space in Gurugram in prime areas. It is also a good sign for government agencies that are currently cash-strapped This will enable it to develop more sectors, new infrastructure going forward, says Mudassir Zaidi, Executive Director  North, Knight Frank India.

Real estate experts say that going forward more deals will take place in NCR. There will also be activity around landowners, developers who do not have the wherewithal to build right now, tying up with brand names to execute commercial projects.

vandana.ramnani@nw18.comSri Devi | She was a veteran actress and India's first female superstar. Sri Devi's demise came as a shock to the country. On February 24, Sri Devi was found dead in a hotel bathtub in Dubai. She was only 54.

After a lifetime under the arc-lights, Indian cinema icon Sridevi on Wednesday was given a send-off fit for celluloid posterity.

Surging crowds of mourners walked with the cortege as it made its slow way through the city and thousands more glued to television to watch her last rites.

The 54-year-old, whose sudden death in Dubai late Saturday sent shock-waves through India, was given a state funeral with her body wrapped in the tricolour and a gun salute by the Mumbai Police.

Sridevi, Indian cinema's first woman superstar who straddled the parallel worlds of southern films and Bollywood, became an actor when she was only four years old. Three hundred films later, the doe-eyed actor is still remembered for her comic timing, vivacity and her quicksilver expressions.

Sridevi's funeral procession was the biggest Mumbai had seen for a Bollywood star since Rajesh Khanna in 2012 and perhaps the biggest for a woman, said old timers. There was a sea of people as far as the eye could see.

The last rites were conducted by her filmmaker husband Boney Kapoor as her family and close friends from the industry and outside packed into the Vile Parle Seva Samaj crematorium. The couple's daughters, Jahnvi and Khushi, were by his side, sources close to the family told PTI.

Fans and the media were kept outside as the mortal remains of the star through the ages were consigned to the flames. The actor's body was draped in a red kanjivaram sari with a bindi on her forehead.

Few could hold back their tears as the ceremonial gun shots rang out and the pyre was lit. Outside, there was mayhem with thousands of people, including star-gazers looking to freeze the moment on their phones, blocking the road leading to the crematorium. Police had a difficult time controlling the crowds. Many celebrities like Shah Rukh Khan and even Boney Kapoor's niece, actor Sonam Kapoor, were forced to get off their cars and walk the distance.

Mourners in the crowd, some with flowers and pictures and others with just a prayer on their lips, said they were still trying to come to terms with the suddenness of her death in a hotel room in Dubai, where she had gone to attend a family wedding.

The funeral procession took about two hours to cover the seven-kilometre distance from Lokhandwala to the crematorium.

There were men, women and children and even the old, desperate for a last glimpse of the actor, who had mesmerised them in films as diverse as "Moondram Pirai", "Mr India" and "English Vinglish".

Boney Kapoor, stepson Arjun Kapoor and other family members were with the body as it left the building. As crowds mobbed the vehicle  with some climbing on trees and clambering on gates to get a better look  Arjun Kapoor requested them with folded hands to let the funeral procession pass through.

"Paid my last respects to Sridevi. The entire industry was there grieving, some on the verge of breakdown. Such was her aura & magic in films. She lay there, beautiful in a red saree, serene in death & totally at peace," Hema Malini said on Twitter.

A prayer was performed at the hall before taking the actor's body for the last rites. Sridevi's body was taken to the Celebration Club at 9 am by her family members. Inside the hall, her family, including brothers-in-law Anil Kapoor and Sanjay Kapoor as well as nephew Harshvardhan Kapoor and nieces Sonam and Rhea, stood in a corner, their eyes wet with tears.

Jahnvi and Khushi were standing a little behind them.

A sombre, red-eyed Boney Kapoor stood in a corner surrounded by his family and friends from the film fraternity.

Fashion designer Manish Malhotra broke down and was consoled by film-maker Karan Johar, who was also unable to control his grief.

Rani Mukerji, a close friend, sat near the body.

While the gates for the general public opened after 10 am, fans from across the country had started queuing up to pay their last respects to the "Chandni" star since 6 am. People came from as far as Karnataka and Chennai for one last look. In the crowd was a group of fans from Karnataka waiting to pay their respects to the actor.

"We were there even at Anil Kapoor's bungalow earlier and will not leave Mumbai without seeing our idol," said a fan waiting in the line. The body of Sridevi was flown back to Mumbai last night after the Dubai authorities determined that she had accidentally drowned in her hotel bathtub.

Sridevi's death initially led to a frenzy of speculation and questions about what could have triggered the death of an apparently healthy woman. "This is not the time to analyze the reasons or belittle her passing away. Let us instead resolve to bestow on her the dignity of death & show her the respect she deserves. We owe it to her..." is how actor-politician Hema Malini put it.Karti Chidambaram, arrested in connection with the probe into the INX Media case, was on Wednesday remanded to one-day CBI custody by a Delhi Court.

46-year-old Karti, son of former Finance Minister P Chidambaram, was produced before Metropolitan Magistrate Sumeet Anand and the CBI sought his custodial interrogation for 15 days claiming that he was not cooperating in the probe.

The duty magistrate remanded him to one-day CBI custody and asked the agency to produce Karti before the concerned judge on Thursday.

When Karti was brought to the Patiala House district court premises and was taken to the court room, he told the waiting scribes, "It is absolutely a political vendetta. I will be vindicated".

In the remand application filed in the court, the CBI claimed that sustained interrogation of Karti was needed to unearth the "total conspiracy" hatched in the case and also to find out the details of overseas payments allegedly received by him from INX Media as a "quid pro quo".

"Thus, Karti Chidambaram needs to be subjected to sustained interrogation for unearthing the total conspiracy hatched in the case and also to find out the details of overseas payments received by him from INX Media as a quid pro quo for influence exercised by him over the public servants to scuttle the punitive action required to be taken against M/S INX Media (P) Ltd for the illegal acts of receiving excess investment than the approved FDI and also for making of downstream investment without the FIPB approval. For this purpose, his police custody remand for a period of 15 days is considered essential," the CBI said in the court.

At the outset, the court allowed the request of Karti's lawyers to have an interaction with the accused inside the court room for 10 minutes, after which the proceedings resumed.

Earlier in the day, Karti was taken into custody by a team of CBI officials at the Chennai airport on his return from the United Kingdom.

The CBI had lodged an FIR on May 15 last year alleging irregularities in the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) clearance to INX Media for receiving overseas funds to the tune of Rs 305 crore in 2007 when P Chidambaram was the Union finance minister.

The agency alleged that Karti had received funds to the tune of Rs 10 lakh in the case.

It had claimed that Karti had also received money from INX Media to scuttle a tax probe. The firm was owned at the time by Peter and Indrani Mukerjea, who are currently in jail on charges of allegedly murdering Indrani's daughter Sheena Bora.

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has also registered a money laundering case in the INX Media matter.The Congress leader Karti Chidambram has been arrested by the CBI in Chennai on grounds of non-cooperation, according to a CNN News 18 report.

Karti's name had come up in the case which relates to Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) approval granted in 2007 for receipt of funds by INX Media, when his father and senior Congress leader P Chidambaram was the Union finance minister during the previous UPA regime.

It had alleged that INX Media had deliberately and in violation of the conditions of the approval made a downstream investment of 26 percent in the capital of INX News without specific approval of FIPB. This included indirect foreign investment by some foreign investors that generated Rs 305 crore foreign direct investment in INX Media Pvt Ltd against the approved foreign inflow of Rs 4.62 crore.

The ED had registered a case against him and others in May last year. It had registered an Enforcement Case Information Report (ECIR), the ED's equivalent of a police FIR, against the accused named in a CBI complaint, including Karti Chidambaram, INX Media and its directors  Peter and Indrani Mukerjea.

To wriggle out of the situation without any punitive action, INX Media entered into a criminal conspiracy with Karti, the ED has alleged.

The FIPB unit of the finance ministry had not only granted illegal approval but also misinformed the investigation wing of Income Tax Department, it had alleged.Karti Chidambaram, arrested by the CBI in connection with the probe into the INX Media case, wason Wednesday produced before a Delhi court.

46-year-old Karti, son of former Finance Minister P Chidambaram, was produced before Metropolitan Magistrate Sumeet Anand who allowed the request of his lawyers to have an interaction with the accused inside the court room.

The court allowed Karti and his lawyers to interact for 10 minutes, after which the proceedings resumed.

Earlier in the day, Karti was taken into custody by a team of CBI officials at the Chennai airport on his return from the United Kingdom.

The CBI had lodged an FIR on May 15 last year alleging irregularities in the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) clearance to INX Media for receiving overseas funds to the tune of Rs 305 crore in 2007 when P Chidambaram was the Union finance minister.

The agency has alleged that Karti had received funds to the tune of Rs 10 lakh in the case.

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has also registered a money laundering case in the INX Media case.21:06 Congress wins Kolaras bypoll election by 8083 votes, reports ANI. Congress received 82515

BJP

votes, whilebagged 74432 votes.

19:26 Congress candidate Brajendra Singh Yadav got 70,808 votes while the BJP candidate, Baisahab Yadav, bagged 68,684, reports CNN News18 quoting an Election Commission official.

19:08 Congress wins Mungaoli by-poll election, reports ANI. Congress candidate Brajendra Singh Yadav defeated BJP's Bai Sahab Yadav by a margin of 2124 votes.

18:52 Congress is leading in Mungaoli by 2,855 votes after 19th round of counting and by 4,379 votes in Kolaras after 14th round of vote count.

18:08 Congress is maintaining its lead in Madhya Pradesh bypolls by 2,500 votes in Mungaoli and 4,061 votes in Kolaras.

17:18 After the 15th round of counting, Congress is leading by 2,500 votes in Mungaoli in Madhya Pradesh bypolls and by around 3,800 votes in Kolaras bypoll after 12th round of counting in the state.

16:09 Congress has extended its lead to close to 3,900 votes in the Mungaoli bypoll in Madhya Pradesh and by close to 3,500 votes in the Kolaras bypoll in the state.

15:09 After 10 rounds of counting in Mungaoli and 8 rounds of counting in Kolaras, the Congress is leading in both constituencies by 3,602 votes and 2,249 votes, respectively. Both consituencies fall under the Guna Lok Sabha constituency, which is has been held by Congress leader Jyotiraditya Scindia since 2002 and was held by his father Madhavrao Scindia before him.

14:15 After 8 rounds of vote counting in Mungaoli, the Congress is leading by close to 3,300 votes. The current vote tally is --

Congress -- 30,738BJP -- 27,346NOTA -- 1,046

Others -- 2,458

14:10 Odisha chief minister Naveen Patnaik said : "I would like to express my deep gratitude to the people of Bijepur Assembly constituency for having showered their blessings on BJD."

14:07 After 20 rounds of counting, the BJD has sealed its victory with over 1 lakh votes to its name, leading by over 41,000 votes. The vote tally stands at -

BJD -- 1,01,435BJP -- 59,895

Congress -- 10,153

13:23 After 17 rounds of counting in the Bijepur bypoll in Odisha, BJD candidate Rita Sahu leads by over 37,000 votes. The vote count currently stands at --

BJD

BJP

-- 88,292-- 51,791Congress -- 7,213

NOTA -- 1,316

12:57 After 14 rounds of counting, BJD candidate Rita Sahu leads by over 32,000 votes in the Bijepur by election in Odisha. The current vote count stands at -

BJD

BJP

-- 75,740-- 43,161

Congress -- 3,755

12:45 Meanwhile, in Kolaras, where 3 rounds of counting have been completed, according to the Election Commission, Congress candidate Mahendra-Ramsingh Yadav Khatora is leading by over 1,200 votes.

12:39 After round 5 of counting in Mungaoli, Congress candidate Brajendra Singh Yadav is leading by just over 2,000 votes, according to data on the Election Commission's website.

12:30 Celebrations have reportedly begun at BJD headquarters in Bhubaneswar as candidate Rita Sahu gained a lead of over 25,000 votes in the Bijepur by election.

12:05 Media reports indicate that BJD candidate Rita Sahu is leading by over 25,000 votes now in Bijepur, which means that the BJP, which is currently second in the race, has no chance of a come back from here.

11:50 After 10 rounds of counting in Bijepur, the BJD was leading with over 54,000 votes, while the BJP was at second place with over 31,000 votes. The Congress, which held the seat before the bypoll, was a distant third with just over 2,000 votes.

11:30 Meanwhile, Congress is leading BJP by close to 1,400 votes in Kolaras.

11:30 Congress is reportedly leading the BJP by around 1,300 votes in Mungaoli in the third round of counting.

11:28 Media reports indicated that Naveen Patnaik's BJD is leading the BJP by around 12,000 votes in the Bijepur bypoll, while Congress is languishing at third.

11:19 The by elections in the three constituencies -- Kolaras and Mungaoli in MP and Bijepur in Odisha -- were made necessary because of the death of the sitting MLAs there. In MP, Congress MLAs Mahendra Singh Kalukheda of Mungaoli and Ram Singh Yadav of Kolaras recently passed away, while in Odisha, the by election was held due to the death of sitting Congress MLA Subal Sahu.

11:08 The by election has now turned into a heads up battle between the BJP and Naveen Patnaik's BJD. This is despite the seat being held by Congress before the by election.

11:06 According to a Statesman report, the Congress reportedly conceded defeat even before counting of votes began, instead making accusations of betrayal and internal sabotage.

11:04 Bijepur saw a voter turnout of 72 percent for the by election. Biju Janata Dal candidate Rita Sahu, Congress candidate Pranay Sahu, and BJP's Ashok Panigrahi are all vying for the seat.

11:01 Meanwhile, we will also be bringing you timely updates on the Bijepur bypoll in Odisha, counting for which is also underway.

10:57 Both Kolaras and Mungaoli fall under the Guna Lok Sabha constituency, which happens to be Congress leader Jyotiraditya Scindia's stronghold.

10:55 According to India TV, the Kolaras constituency vote count currently stands at Congress -- 3,556, BJP -- 3,304

10:46 The bypoll, which was held on Saturday, saw a voter turnout of around 77 percent in Mungaoli and around 70 percent in Kolaras. Both seats are currently held by the Congress.

10:41 According to a News18 report from Tuesday, the BJP has not revealed a single sign of what it is expecting from the by-election. The Congress, on the other hand, had reportedly already started celebrating.

10:39 In all, there are 13 candidates facing off for the Mungaoli seat, including Congress' Brijendra Singh Yadav and BJP's Bai Sahib. In Kolaras, there are 22 candidates facing off for the seat, including BJP's Devendra Jain and Congress' Mahendra Singh Yadav.

10:36 After the second round of counting in Mungaoli and Kolaras, Congress is leading in both constituencies. It is ahead by 174 votes in Mungaoli and by close to 700 votes in Kolaras.

10:30 According to media reports, the BJP is leading by over 300 votes in Mungaoli while the Congress is leading by around 500 votes in Kolaras.

Mungaoli

Kolaras

Madhya

BJP

The counting of votes is currently underway in theandconstituencies ofPradesh. The by-election may be inconsequential to the structure of the state Assembly but both the Congress and theare looking at it as their last shot at a show of strength before they head to the Assembly polls later this year.The Congress today labelled the arrest of senior leader P Chidambaram's son Karti Chidambaram vendettaand a diversionary tactic by the Modi government to hide its scams and "mal-governance". Karti Chidambaram's arrest would not deter the party from speaking the truth to hold the government accountable, the party's communications in-charge Randeep Surjewala said.

It was a classical diversionary tactic to hide corruption scams, mal-governance and mal-administration that have marred this government, Surjewala said.

The Congress party will not be deterred by unleashing of vendetta against Mr P Chidambaram or his family. We will continue to speak the truth. We will continue to expose the Modi governments corruption and we will continue to hold them accountable to people of the country, he told reporters. Karti Chidambaram was arrested at Chennai airport around 8 am when he returned from the United Kingdom.

An FIR filed by the CBI on May 15 last year had alleged irregularities in the FIPB clearance to INX Media for receiving overseas funds to the tune of Rs 305 crore in 2007 when Chidambaram was Union finance minister. It is alleged that Karti Chidambaram received funds to the tune of Rs 10 lakh in the case, officials said.

Surjewala said scams worth over Rs 30,000 crore were unearthed in the last 10 days alone. But the prime minister has not moved the transition from Maun Modi to Bol Modi. The prime minister remains mum about Chhota Modi as also Mehul Choksi, he said.

He cited the cases of designer jeweller Nirav Modi and his uncle Mehul Choksi, Rotomac and Durga Das Seth jeweller to say that fresh scams were being unearthed everyday but the prime minister was keeping quiet.

His party colleague, AICC general secretary Ashok Gehlot, said Karti Chidambaram was arrested to divert attention from the big issues and the bank scam facing the NDA government.

Gehlot said on Twitter, Mr Karti Chidambaram was arrested when he landed at Chennai airport, he was not trying to escape from India like Nirav Modi then arresting him on his arrival at airport is funny. Karti Chidambaram was cooperating with the CBI, the CBI could have summoned him.Infosys

Infosys Finacle the banking product developed by Infosys EdgeVerve Systems division, said it has entered a partnership with Moneythor, a Singapore-based data driven digital banking solutions provider.

The Moneythor platform, integrated with Finacle, will enable financial institutions to deliver personalised recommendations and insights to customers on numerous digital channels and devices, the Bengaluru-headquartered company said.

The joint solution will offer an engine to classify, analyze and augment transaction data to generate better insights for banks and customers. It will bring new interactive features and enriched transaction data, and will enhance customer engagement across digital channels.

It can be utilised by banks to publish interactive content to assist customers with their money management needs, as well as provide contextual offers.

We are delighted to assist Infosys Finacle in creating more value for their banking clients through innovative capabilities powered by our Moneythor solution. We are always on the lookout for partners to combine their domain expertise and solutions with Moneythor. Infosys Finacle offers such an opportunity and we are looking forward to a productive partnership, said Olivier Berthier, CEO, Moneythor, in a statement.

Rule based capabilities and statistical algorithms will allow the solution to deliver data-driven personalised recommendations and insights with a quick time-to-market.A sign is seen above a branch of Oxfam, in London, Britain February 12, 2018. REUTERS/Peter Nicholls - RC133C18EF20

Haiti today suspended the operations of British charity Oxfam pending the outcome of its investigation into allegations that its staff sexually exploited Haitians after a devastating 2010 earthquake.

The country's ministry of planning and foreign aid said Oxfam GB had made a "serious error" by failing to inform Haitian authorities of the actions by their staff at the time they occurred.

"These reprehensible acts, alleged crimes, acknowledged by the perpetrators as well as the NGO, are a serious violation of the dignity of the Haitian people," a government statement said.

It said the charity was suspended for two months pending an internal Haitian investigation into the matter.

An investigation conducted by Oxfam a year after the earthquake had found that seven staff were accused of using prostitutes at an Oxfam-funded residence.

The 2011 report, disclosed on Monday, also found that three staff members had physically threatened a witness.

One official has acknowledged paying for prostitutes and the others were accused of harassment and intimidation.

A young Haitian woman told The Times newspaper she had had relations with the former Oxfam country director in Haiti, Roland Van Hauwermeiren, when she was 16 and he was 61.

Van Hauwermeiren denied to Belgian media last week, however, that he had organized orgies with young prostitutes in Haiti, and said he had "intimate relations" with "an honorable, mature woman" whom he did not pay.

Four staff were fired for gross misconduct and three others, including Van Hauwermeiren, were allowed to quit.

Oxfam formally apologized to the Haitian government on Monday for its handling of the scandal and for failing to report it promptly to local authorities.

"It was not for Oxfam to decide whether a crime had been committed. That was the wrong decision," Oxfam GB's chief executive Mark Goldring said Tuesday at a hearing before a British parliamentary committee.

The Haiti scandal has opened the charity to greater scrutiny, leading to 26 new cases of sexual misconduct, most involving its international operations.North Korea told a United Nations disarmament forum today that sanctions over its nuclear programme would "never work", as it voiced further defiance against President Donald Trump's "maximum pressure" campaign.

The "US should (be) aware that sanctions and pressure will never threaten (North Korea) and never work", said Han Tae Song, Pyongyang's envoy to the UN Conference on Disarmament in Geneva.

The comments came days after Trump unveiled what he described as the "heaviest sanctions ever" levied on North Korea.

That may be an overstatement given past tough measures against Pyongyang approved by Washington, but Trump's administration has confirmed that the new sanctions target virtually every ship North Korea is currently using.

North Korean diplomats repeatedly spar with US officials at the disarmament body in Geneva, a venue where the bitter rivals argue face-to-face.

"If the US ignores our sincere efforts for improving inter-Korean relations but prefers provocation and confrontation, the DPRK will certainly respond," Han said, using an acronym for the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea.

Despite an apparent easing of tensions between Seoul and Pyongyang at the just concluded "peace Olympics" in the South's city of Pyeongchang, Trump has pledged to maintain pressure on the North.

He has warned that if the latest sanctions do not work, "we'll have to go to phase two. Phase two may be a very rough thing."

Washington's disarmament ambassador on Tuesday repeated his insistence that the United States would never accept North Korea as a nuclear-armed state.

"It will not happen," Robert Wood said, replying to Han's threats.FILE PHOTO: China Eastern Airlines planes are seen on the tarmac at Hongqiao International Airport in Shanghai, July 29, 2014. REUTERS/Aly Song/File Photo GLOBAL BUSINESS WEEK AHEAD SEARCH GLOBAL BUSINESS 28 AUG FOR ALL IMAGES - RC1CCED4CF90

A mobile power bank caught fire inside a plane in China on Sunday leading to a delay of three hours in the flight.

The China Southern Airlines said in a statement on Chinese microblogging website Weibo that the incident happened when the passengers were boarding the flight CZ3539, smoke and fire was noticed coming out of a bag kept in the overhead bin.

The fire was doused by the security and fire department, the airline further said. However, a video of the incident doing the rounds on the internet shows a crew member and a passenger using water bottles and juices.

The passenger who owned the bag which stored the power bank was escorted by police to help with the investigations. The preliminary investigation revealed that the power bank was not in use when it caught fire, the airline said.



Power bank fire on board China Southern CZ3539, Feb 25 2018. pic.twitter.com/cby6E62qRv

 ChinaAviationReview (@ChinaAvReview) February 25, 2018

According to Channel News Asia , a replacement aircraft was called in to fly the passengers and after three hours of delay from the scheduled departure time, the plane left the Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport for Shanghai Hongqiao International Airport.

The Li-ion batteries used in mobile phones, laptops, and power banks have been banned by the International Civil Aviation Organisation as they pose fire risks. However, the airlines usually allow the devices in carrying bags.Donald Trump

US President Donald Trump discussed Iran's "destabilizing activities" and other security and economic issues in separate telephone calls with senior Saudi and Emirati leaders on Tuesday, the White House said.

In calls with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahyan of the United Arab Emirates, Trump thanked them for highlighting ways that Gulf Arab states "can better counter Iranian destabilizing activities and defeat terrorists and extremists," the White House said.

Saudi Arabia and the UAE, along with Bahrain and Egypt, cut off travel and trade ties with Qatar in June, accusing it of supporting terrorism and their arch-rival Iran. The United States is trying to resolve the dispute.

Qatar denies the charges and says the four Arab countries aim to curtail its sovereignty.

The two crown princes, as well as Qatar's Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, are planning to visit Trump for bilateral meetings in March and April, a senior US official said on Friday.

The agenda for the meetings will include setting up a summit of the six-member Gulf Cooperation Council, the official said, which Washington hopes will be held later this year, as well as Middle East peace and Iran.

Trump also discussed enhancing bilateral partnerships on security and economic issues with the Saudi and Abu Dhabi crown princes, the White House said.Vodafone

British telecom major Vodafone said it plans to create the first 4G network on the moon to support a mission by PTScientists in 2019.

"The moon will get 4G coverage next year, 50 years after the first NASA astronauts walked on its surface. Vodafone plans to create the first 4G network on the moon to support a mission by PTScientists. We have target to land in 2019 on Moon," a Vodafone representative said.

The company has appointed Nokia as its technology partner for the 4G network .

"This will be the first privately-funded moon landing mission. It will lay the future of space exploration. The cost less than what it cost for full mission lab. We will be below USD 50 million mark," Robert Bohme, CEO and Founder of PTScientists said.

Berlin-based PTScientists is working with Vodafone Germany and Audi on the project. Mission to the moon is due to launch in 2019 from Cape Canaveral on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, Bohme said.

Vodafone testing indicates that the base station should be able to broadcast 4G using the 1800 MHz frequency band and send back the first ever live HD video feed of the Moon's surface, which will be broadcast to a global audience via a deep space link that interconnects with the PTScientists server in the Mission Control Centre in Berlin.

The project will last for about 11 days because of massive change in temperature on the moon, Bohme said.

A 4G network is highly energy efficient compared to analogue radio and that will be crucial to Mission to the Moon and is the first step to building communications infrastructure for future missions, Bohme said.

Vodafone's network expertise will be used to set up the Moon's first 4G network, connecting two Audi lunar quattro rovers to a base station in the Autonomous Landing and Navigation Module (ALINA), as per the details shared here.

Nokia, through Nokia Bell Labs, will create a space-grade Ultra Compact Network that will weigh less than one kilogram --the same as a bag of sugar.

The 4G network will enable the Audi lunar quattro rovers to communicate and transfer scientific data and HD video while they carefully approach and study NASA's Apollo 17 lunar roving vehicle that was used by the last astronauts to walk on the Moon to explore the Taurus-Littrow valley in December 1972.The Canadian Mortgage Awards is known for more than merely bestowing accolades upon the industrys best. Its also an opportunity for everybody to let their hair down, mingle, and even network.

James Loewen of Loewen Group Mortgages says that even though everyone at the awards show is technically each others competition, it certainly never feels that way.

We learn so much from our fellow brokers, he said. Technically, were competition, but youd never know that at any of these events. Were always willing to share, challenge and collaborate, and we get amazing support from our brokers and lenders. Its a fun time, but also a great opportunity for lending, which were always seeking to do.

Given that Canadian mortgage industry professionals are scattered about the countrys continental landmass, the CMAs proffer the chance to connect names with faces, which is particularly beneficial for people in more secluded markets.

Those industry events are in bigger centres, which are great because were out in the middle of nowhere and we get to see a lot of banking industry people, lenders and all the other people we dont get to see out in Newfoundland, said Shane Bruce of St. Johns, Newfoundland-based ACME Group of Companies . The other thing is when you network with peers from across the country, its always nice to get ideas about what theyre doing and to see how theyre being successful. We get to problem solve together. Theres really no down side to these things.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.Ocwen Financial Corporation announced today that it has reached a definitive agreement to acquire all outstanding shares of PHH Corporation.

Ocwen will make the acquisition for about $360 million in cash. The purchase price represents a 35% discount to PHHs GAAP book equity as of Dec. 31.

With the acquisition, the company would service 1.9 million loans with an unpaid principal balance of $328 billion, and originate more than $3 billion in residential mortgage loans annually. Ocwen said that the increased size and scale of the company should create several strategic and financial benefits, including:WASHINGTON - Efforts by Sen. Ted. Cruz to find relief for refiners from the high costs of meeting federal ethanol mandates hit a wall Tuesday as Midwestern senators rejected his proposals at a White House meeting aimed at finding a compromise.

Cruz has proposed capping the prices of credits that refiners must buy if they don't blend ethanol themselves. But after a meeting with corn-belt lawmakers and President Donald Trump, Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, tweeted "no deal." Grassley later disputed Cruz's argument that the biofuels compliance system based on the credits - known as Renewable Identifications Numbers or RINs - was hurting oil refineries.

"We haven't had any reputable economist say RINs was the most important problem," Grassley said. "I pointed that out to the president today."

The ethanol mandates, known as the Renewable Fuel Standard was signed into law by former President George W. Bush in 2005, primarily as a way to reduce U.S. dependence on Middle Eastern oil. But as ethanol has taken a larger share he nation's fuel supply, so too have the prices of the biofuel credits. Many refiners complain that the market for the credits is thinly traded and subject to manipulation by Wall Street investors.

The owner of the largest East Coast refinery recently blamed its bankruptcy on the high cost of ethanol credits.

Cruz is urging the Trump administration to place a price cap on the credits. But Trump has told him he wants a plan that is a "win-win" for both the oil and ethanol industries.

Cruz had blocked a Senate vote on Trump's nominee for undersecretary of agriculture, Bill Northey of Iowa, in an effort to get action on ethanol policy The Texas senator, however, removed that hold Tuesday in recognition of the Midwestern senators willingness to sit down with him and Trump.. He maintained there was still opportunity to reach an agreement with the White House.

"This morning, we had a very positive and productive meeting on fixing the broken RINs system," Cruz said in a statement after the meeting. "I believe we are likely to arrive upon a win-win solution."

Also at the meeting were Senators Joni Ernst, R-Iowa,, and Pat Toomey, R-Pa., along with EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt and Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue, according to sources briefed on the meeting.

RIN prices have credits have increased in recent years, raising billions of dollars in costs on refineries across the nation. Both Cruz and Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, the Senate Majority Whip, are working on prospective remedies in how the government administers the mandate biofuels are blended into the nation's fuel supply.

With Cruz up for re-election in November, he is not expected to let up on an issue that is important to Texas's powerful oil industry. "I wouldn't expect Senator Cruz to back off any position he has on any subject," Grassley said.

Trump is expected to meet with ethanol producers at the White House later this week, Ernst said. Midwestern politicians are reluctant to make any change to the ethanol program, concerned it might reduce demand for a product on which corn farmers in their states have made a good living since the Renewable Fuel Standard was created more than a decade ago.

"Any action that seeks to weaken the RFS for the benefit of a handful of refiners will, by extension, be borne on the backs of our farmers," a coalition of farmers' groups said.

Some political momentum for a bipartisan solution appeared this week when Sen. Tom Carper, D-Del., ranking member of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, told Politico he would support changes to the RIN blending credit market.

Such a move, he said, "would "not do harm to the Renewable Fuel Standard" but would "frankly help a number of refineries that are paying an arm and a leg for RINs when they never expected to do that," according to Politico.

RELATED STORY: After years of rancor over ethanol, Cruz, Cornyn go head to head on reformTexas oil and gas producers paid more in taxes and royalties last year as oil prices climbed and drilling activity ramped up in the Permian Basin and elsewhere in the state.

The industry paid more than $11 billion in royalties and state and local taxes in fiscal 2017, up from the $9.4 billion it paid the prior year. Texas school districts and counties received $1.1 billion and $336 million in mineral property taxes, respectively.

The increase coincided with the so-called shale boom in West Texas that has produced enormous amounts of cheap oil and natural gas in the prolific Permian Basin and other reserves. In November, U.S. oil production topped 10 million barrels a day for the first time in 50 years.

RELATED: U.S. rig count rises as inventories fall

The boom has transformed the U.S. energy export market to rival that of the Middle East. American oil exports hit record levels late last year, and the U.S. Department of Energy expects that the nation will become a net exporter of natural gas this year for the first time since 1957.

"These energy outcomes were unthinkable a decade ago," TXOGA president Todd Staples said in in a conference call. "American crude oil is a game changer in international trade."

RELATED: China's environmental crackdown opening markets for Houston exports

The production boom has prompted a major expansion in the state's pipelines, ports and refineries. Recently, the Trump administration included in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' civil works budget $13 million to expand the port of Corpus Christi.

Much of the pipeline expansion has developed to support U.S. natural gas exports to Mexico, where demand has skyrocketed in the wake of a major reform of the country's energy policies. In 2013 and 2014, Mexico opened its energy market to private investment and pledged to rely on cleaner sources such as natural gas.

Staples said his association supports the continuation of the North American Free Trade Agreement, from which the Trump administration has threatened to withdraw. Representatives from the U.S., Mexico and Canada convened in Mexico City this week for the seventh round of negotiations.Capping a strong 2017, the Lone Star States oil and gas industry hopes to keep the momentum going in 2018.

Texas energy future lies beyond oil and natural gas production to infrastructure such as pipelines, refining and petrochemicals, said Todd Staples, president of the Texas Oil & Gas Association.

While he said he was hesitant to look into my crystal ball, he said he is bullish on the industry in 2018, saying it will be the year of production, pipelines, refineries and ports.

In a media conference call on Tuesday in which he released the associations annual energy and economic impact, Staples said smart policy is key to maintaining that momentum.

We need policies and regulations that encourage safe, responsible production, he said. Operators need to move production from West Texas and South Texas and expand energy infrastructure. Pipelines, tanks, terminals and refining capacity is the best way to shield ourselves from natural disasters like Hurricane Harvey.

That storm last summer prompted the shutdown of refineries along the Gulf Coast, shutting in 20 percent of the nations fuel supplies, illustrating the importance of the industry not just to Texas but to the country, he said. As the Gulf Coast rebuilds, he said energy infrastructure needs to be part of that conversation. He said the budget signed by President Trump earlier this year included $13 million for the Corpus Christi Ship Channel Expansion Project.

Transportation is needed to move crude and natural gas from West Texas and South Texas to end-users -- whether in the U.S. or overseas via exports. Staples said that exports of refined products have jumped to 5.6 million barrels a day, and crude exports were averaging 1.4 million barrels a day as of Jan. 26, more than double the average in January 2017. He also said exports of natural gas are expected to increase more than 10-fold in 2019 as the seven liquefied natural gas facilities planned or under construction in Texas come online.

Staples said the association is closely watching ongoing negotiations over the North American Free Trade Agreement, which resumed this week in Mexico City. He said TXOGA understands the need to revisit a 30-year-old agreement, but said the agreement has been an essential framework that has allowed the oil and natural gas industry to attain the growth and prosperity it has today and resulted in hundreds of thousands of jobs for Texans.

We have a lot at stake as NAFTA negotiations continue because Texas is home not only to the oil and natural gas and the pipelines that transport it to Mexico, but also the refineries and petrochemical plants that make the products we export to our neighbors. Its imperative to maintain the NAFTA provisions that enforce fair trade practices and allow our industry to remain competitive, grow jobs and invest with certainty.

If Texas were its own nation, it would be the sixth largest oil producing nation in the world, he said. As it is, Texas was responsible for 40 percent of the nations crude production  3.89 million barrels a day in November  as the nations output exceeded 10 million barrels a day.

By the numbers --$11 billion and $9.4 billion: State and local taxes and state royalties paid by the Texas oil and gas industry in FY 2017 and 2016, respectively --$30 million: Amount industry paid per day --$1.1 billion: Amount paid to Texas school districts in property taxes paid from mineral properties (production, pipelines and gas utilities) $32.5 million received by Midland ISD (third highest statewide) --$336 million: Amount Texas counties received in mineral property taxes $4.5 million: Amount Midland County received (up 13.8 percent from FY 2016) --308,000 - Direct energy-related jobs --$127,500 - Average earned in those jobs (24 times the pay of any other industrial sector) --Seven: The amount of state and local taxes and state royalties per energy-related job is seven times that of any other industry Source: Texas Oil & Gas Association See More Collapse

This remarkable and sustained recovery in our oil and gas industry is the primary reason the U.S. is a global power broker, he said.Authorities captured a mountain lion that was found in a south Laredo neighborhood on Sunday.

The animal was tranquilized and will be assessed by Texas game wardens before being released back into the wild.

READ ALSO: Video: Animal World & Snake Farm Zoo reveals two new baby mountain lions

According to Laredo police, some homes in the Santa Rita Subdivision, off U.S. 83, were evacuated while authorities contained the mountain lion. Early Sunday afternoon, police issued an alert on their Facebook page, asking residents in the neighborhood to stay indoors after the animal was spotted in the area. Several hours later, LPD announced it has been captured.

"We appreciate the residents of Santa Rita Subdivision for their cooperation in being abruptly evacuated from the surrounding homes where the animal was contained," LPD said in a post on its Facebook page. "We also want to thank Border Patrol, State of Texas Game Warden, Texas DPS, Dr. Leyndecker, City of Laredo Animal Control, and the officers of Laredo PD assigned in South Laredo for their professional handling of this unique call for service.

READ ALSO: Couple convicted in pit bull attack that maimed San Antonio senior sentenced

"This is one for the books for sure. These animals do not tend to enter heavily populated areas. However, the neighborhood is very close to the animal's natural habitat along the Rio Grande."

According to Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, mountain lions are native to Texas. They are classified as a nongame species. The department has records of mountain lions occurring in every county of Texas except for the northernmost counties of the Panhandle.

You should consider yourself fortunate if you ever get the opportunity to see one of these big cats. Because lions are secretive by nature it is rare to see a mountain lion; however, as we encroach upon their habitat conflict is bound to occur, the department states on its website.AUSTIN -- Was this endorsement supposed to help?

President Trump on Tuesday -- exactly one week before Election Day -- tweeted a message to Texans asking them go vote for the state's top Republican leaders who are seeking reelection.

"I want to encourage all of my many Texas friends to vote in the primary for Governor Greg Abbott, Senator Ted Cruz, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, and Attorney General Ken Paxton," the tweeter-in-chief said. "They are helping me to Make America Great Again! Vote early or on March 6th."

Almost immediately, Trump critics lit up his tweet.

"They are making things worse," wrote @IR.net.

"These men are America's problem. They don't really care about anything other than themselves," responded @EdKrassen. "A Trump endorsement is a kiss of death."

But the candidates were delighted to get the backing.

Cruz later tweeted out his thanks: "Thank you, Mr. President! Together, in 2017 we accomplished a lot for our country & we still have a lot of work to do: cutting taxes, reducing job-killing regulations, repealing Obamacare, and confirming constitutionalist judges who'll defend the Constitution."

While Texas' top officials have supported Trump, who retains strong support among Texas' Republican base, Democrats have been agitating their base for months by reminding Texans how close the Republican power structure is to the controversial president.

The tweet also sparked speculation in Texas about two of the statewide Republican candidates he didn't mention at first: Land Commissioner George P. Bush and Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller.

Late Tuesday afternoon, however, Trump dropped a new tweet also backing Bush, Miller, Railroad Commissioner Christi Craddick and Comptroller Glenn Hegar.

Bush, who backed Trump even though some in his family did not, has also been endorsed by Donald Trump Jr. Miller has been an avid supporter of Trump, and said he considers himself the president's go-to guy in Texas. The president vouched for that in his late tweet, saying Miller indeed is "Trump's man in Texas."EAST ALTON  Jay Korte, director of client relations at The Korte Company, was named 2018 auxiliary board chair for the Southwest Illinois Division of United Way of Greater St. Louis.

He succeeds JoAnn Barton, senior vice president for TheBANK of Edwardsville, who has held the chair position since 2016.

As a long-time volunteer who also served as campaign chair just a few years ago, Ive seen first-hand the importance of United Ways support and work in our community, said Korte. Im excited for the opportunity to lead the board and continue helping people.

Korte has served in several roles with the Southwest Illinois Division of United Way of Greater St. Louis the past few years, including as a member of the auxiliary board since 2012, a member of the boards executive committee since 2015 and as board vice chair since 2015. In addition, he led the Southwest Illinois Divisions annual campaign as chair in 2016 and helped raise $1.75 million for the community.

Korte joined The Korte Company in 1990 after earning his degree in civil engineering at the University of Illinois  Champaign-Urbana. His roles have included project engineer, superintendent, director of preconstruction and project manager. He is a Certified Professional Constructor by the American Institute of Constructors and a Designated Design-Build Professional by Design-Build Institute of America. Korte is an active member of several community and church organizations, including the Leadership Council Southwestern Illinois, Highland Optimist Club and Highland Rotary Club.

Jay is a tremendous leader and is very passionate about United Way and the work we do to strengthen the Southwest Illinois area, said Dayna Stock, vice president of regions and special initiatives, United Way of Greater St. Louis. His commitment and enthusiasm make him a great choice to lead our board.

United Ways Southwest Illinois Division also welcomed the following as new members to the auxiliary board: Megan Allen, Phillips 66; Marna Asbury, Scott Credit Union; Tom Berry, Jr., Jackson Lewis; Dr. Dale Chapman, Lewis & Clark Community College; Mark Conner, District No. 9, I.A.M.A.W.; Suvir Dhar, Simmons, Hanly, Conroy; Herb Frohock, Plumbers & Pipefitters Local 553; Ann Lesemann, Alton Steel; Edmonn Maul, Global Brass; Hon. Bill Russell, mayor of Jerseyville; Cleveland Sebree; Anne Sturgeon, 1st Mid-America Credit Union; Steve Thompson, Carrolton Bank; and Wade Weitlauf, TheBANK of Edwardsville.

United Ways Southwest Illinois Division helps nearly 200,000 people each year in Madison, Macoupin, Jersey, Greene and Calhoun counties.New Location of Oak Valley Community Bank East Sonora Branch View Photos

Sonora, CA  Relocation plans are in the works for a Mother Lode bank that will shortly be shuffling its services to a more prominent location in East Sonora.

Officials at Oak Valley Community Bank say they are moving its existing full-service East Sonora branch office, located at 14580 Mono Way, to a new address at 14890 Mono Way, which is the former site occupied by Sonora Subaru. The new full-service branch will open its doors March 26.

The new facility will offer improved access and parking in addition to more lobby and safe deposit box space, according to bank spokesperson Bill Nunes, who adds that personal and commercial services will include a walk-up ATM and night deposit service. Business hours will remain the same: Monday through Thursday from 9 a.m. until 5 p.m.; Friday until 6 p.m.

Sonora has been a really great market for us  we are now Number Three in terms of deposit market-share in Sonora, Nunes enthuses. As everybody knows, a couple of years ago we acquired Mother Lode Bank and the former customers have been greata very loyal groupwe have been able to retain most of those folks. But the combining of the two banksputs a certain demand on the two branches that we have there and we really felt we were outgrowing the space that we have.

Nunes shares that the banks large local staff will be very happy for the additional space to move around in and do business. Besides Sierra Region Manager Lyn Wilson, personnel includes East Sonora Branch Manager Michelle Ferguson, New Accounts Representative Linda Eskandary and a team of customer service representatives.

Asked what else might currently be in the works, expansion-wise, Nunes confides that the bank is always doing homework and research ahead of growth plans  and in fact, recently opened a loan production office in Sacramento. As he puts it, It is just a small officenot a full-service branch. But we continue to look for opportunities to expand the bank  not only our services but our service area  and we continue to look to adjacent counties and other markets that may make sense for the bank to move into.

Oak Valley Community Bank and Eastern Sierra Community Bank are operated by parent company Oak Valley Bancorp. Along with two Sonora branches and Sacramento loan production office it oversees three Modesto branches and locations in Oakdale, Turlock, Stockton, Patterson, Ripon, Escalon, Manteca, and Tracy. Through its Eastern Sierra Division, the bank does business at offices located in Bridgeport, Mammoth Lakes and Bishop.MICHAEL STRAVATO/STR

Oil is poised for its first monthly decline in half a year as January's rally fades on growing fears over booming U.S. shale supply.

Futures in New York were down 0.1 percent, putting them on course for a 2.7 percent drop in February. An industry report was said to show U.S. oil inventories rose last week, which would be the fourth expansion in five weeks if confirmed in government data. The head of OPEC plans to dine with shale producers in Houston next week at a time when America is pumping at record levels and threatening the group's efforts to curb a global glut.WASHINGTON - Energy Secretary Rick Perry is slated to meet with officials from Saudi Arabia in London Friday in a bid to sell them on U.S. nuclear technology, according to the Associated Press.

With domestic demand for new nuclear technology in the doldrums, U.S. nuclear companies like the bankrupt Westinghouse Electric Co. have been seeking new markets abroad for their nuclear technology.U.S. oil production reached a record high in November as the shale boom puts the nation among the world's biggest suppliers and upends global markets.

Once the world's largest importer of crude, the U.S. is passing Saudi Arabia and closing in on Russia to become the world's largest producer. Oil prices above $60 a barrel have lured companies to ramp up production. Oil and gas exploration last year was a money-maker for the first time in more than a decade, according to Wood Mackenzie Ltd. As a result, drillers in the U.S. are using the most oil rigs since 2015.A bankruptcy judge Wednesday approved a plan to auction the assets of womens apparel and accessories retailer AGaci as executives explore all options that could save the 47-year-old company from a wholesale sell-off.

Chief U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Ronald King approved an April 3 auction and an April 9 court date to review the sale, which would have to close no later than April 27.

AGaci filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on Jan. 9, citing poor financial performance on a failed expansion, hurricanes and other troubles.

AGaci has retained investment bank SSG Capital Advisors to assist with a sale, refinancing or restructuring of the retailers assets.

Were open to all options at this time, whether it be an equity investment, whether it be a sale, Mark Butterbach, AGacis chief financial officer, said after Wednesdays bankruptcy court hearing. That could include selling the business as a going concern or disposing of its assets piecemeal, he added.

Butterbach was unable to answer any other questions.

SSG has contacted more than 100 potential buyers and investors, several of whom have signed nondisclosure agreements, AGaci attorney Ian Peck told the judge.

Peck said AGaci has not yet lined up a stalking-horse bidder, which would essentially be the first party to make an offer for the assets so other bidders would have to submit higher offers.

If AGaci goes forward with the auction, its scheduled to be held at Pecks law offices in Dallas.

In a court filing last week, AGaci listed total assets of $37.3 million, including $16.3 million in inventory and about $8.9 million in cash, and about $54.7 million in total liabilities.

At the time of its January bankruptcy filing, AGaci identified 49 of its 76 stores for potential closure  including the stores at the Rolling Oaks Mall and the Ingram Park Mall. Both of those San Antonio stores remain open, however.

AGaci describes itself on its website as a lifestyle brand catering to young fashion lovers who are sexy, feminine and elegant in their style. The retailers earnings before taxes, interest and other items fell from $4.7 million in 2016 to a negative $2.5 million last year, according to documents filed in the bankruptcy.

At the time of the bankruptcy, AGaci employed 2,100 workers, including 1,900 in its stores. About 160 employees worked at its 283,000-square-foot distribution center in Von Ormy.

In a court filing, AGaci has blamed its financial troubles on a rapid expansion that spread the organization too thin to respond to changing trends and to hurricanes that ravaged stores in Texas, Florida and Puerto Rico last year.A 30-year-old Hayward man was charged with attempted murder Tuesday after pinning an Alameda County Sheriffs deputy under his car and dragging him down the road earlier this month, authorities said.

Forensic evidence led authorities to identify Jack Toki as the suspect, said Sgt. Ray Kelly of the Alameda County Sheriffs Office. Toki is also charged with assault with a deadly weapon and other felonies.

The incident occurred Feb. 1, when a deputy on a motorcycle initiated a stop near an Interstate 880 on-ramp in Hayward at the intersection of West A and Arbor streets, Kelly said.

Instead of stopping, Toki reportedly weaved back and forth for several blocks. He then suddenly reversed his 2003 GMC Yukon and rammed into the deputy, Kelly said. The SUV reportedly pinned the deputy under the vehicle and dragged him.

As the deputy untangled himself from his motorcycle, Toki drove at the officer in a second attempt to hit him, Kelly said, leading the officer to fire his weapon at the front windshield.

Toki was not injured in the incident and drove off before abandoning the vehicle, which was later reportedly determined to be stolen, Kelly said.

Authorities were able to track down Toki and arrest him Monday, according to jail records.

He is currently being held at the Santa Rita Jail and bail has not yet been determined.A man suspected of critically injuring another man in a hatchet attack last week in San Franciscos Tenderloin neighborhood was arrested, police said.

San Francisco Police Departments Tenderloin station tweeted out the arrest Tuesday night. The suspects name was not released.Since its founding in 2012, Fredericksburg-based Pedernales Brewing Co. has earned scores of loyal drinkers with a lineup of beers that range from classic German styles to a celebrity-endorsed brew bearing Robert Earl Keens name. And as of Feb. 28, those suds will officially move to Austin.

Uncle Billys Brewery at the Celis Brewery in Austin has purchased the Pedernales brand and will continue to brew its Pedernales Classic, Lobo and Robert Earl Keen recipes in Austin. John West has helped shape many of those beers as head brewer at Pedernales, and he came along with the purchase, joining the Celis Brewery crew to ensure the flavors dont stray.BRADENTON, Fla.  Tyler Clippard wore a black jersey with a white players union logo and pitched hitless ball for two innings against amateurs in the green shirts of the East Japan Railway Company.

He had the poorest personal results of his nine major-league seasons last year, yet ended the year with a celebration in the clubhouse of the World Series champion Houston Astros. This is not how the 33-year-old right-hander envisioned spring training.

We know that my year last year was a bad year, but at the end of the day, how bad was it? And it wasnt as bad as some that got significant contracts, he said Tuesday after appearing in the first of two exhibition games for free agents scheduled for this week at the IMG Academy.

Thirty-eight players have attended the camp since workouts started Feb. 14. They wonder why they are on the outside while several teams have jettisoned players to fill a higher percentage of their roster spots with lower-salaried youth.

The players association filed a grievance Friday against the Marlins, As, Pirates and Rays, accusing the teams of failing to appropriately spend revenue-sharing money.

Isnt the goal to win the World Series every year? I think every team should want to win the World Series every year, 35-year-old left-hander Tom Gorzelanny said. Youre not trying to go out there and say Id rather save money than win games.

Two players agreed to minor-league deals after attending camp: right-hander Carlos Torres with Cleveland and left-hander Tommy Layne with Boston. First baseman Mike Napoli had been on the roster for the exhibition, but left for Arizona and a physical needed to finalize a minor-league contract with Cleveland. Second baseman Neil Walker arrived this week.

This camp is similar to the one run by the union at Homestead, Fla., following the end of the 1994-95 strike.

The starting lineup had center fielder Alejandro De Aza, catcher Jarrod Saltalamacchia, designated hitter Juan Francisco, first baseman Tyler Moore, right fielder Luke Scott, third baseman Chris Johnson, shortstop Omar Infante, left fielder Nolan Reimold and former As second baseman Tyler Ladendorf. The free agents won 2-0 in five innings, allowing just one hit. Several scouts watched from the small stands, which had three rows of blue seats and nine rows of metal bleachers.

Its not like anybody here that Ive talked to is here waiting for a 10-year deal or a five-year deal. These are guys just waiting to get a job, said Saltalamacchia, the 32-year-old who went 1-for-25 for Toronto last season.

Ive called six or seven teams myself. My agents called teams and weve told them, Hey, Ill go to Triple-A. Ill go to Double-A. I just want to play. Let me be an insurance policy.

Top free agents have skipped the camp to continue working out on their own, a group that includes pitchers Jake Arrieta, Alex Cobb, Lance Lynn and Greg Holland, and third baseman Mike Moustakas.

Its been absolutely remarkable to me some of the articles that I have seen suggesting that veteran leadership and a veteran presence is overvalued and doesnt have what it used to have, said union head Tony Clark, a 2001 All-Star first baseman. Thats disheartening, to believe that that is the philosophy of some of those making personnel decisions.STAMFORD  Michael Feighan knows he could be inviting controversy when he playfully suggests the citys St. Patricks Day Parade now rivals its beloved Downtown Parade Spectacular in size.

What Feighan, the organizer of the last six Stamford St. Patricks parades, means to highlight are the 80 groups and some 2,000 people who march in his event.

He isnt going as far to say that his event surpasses the annual Thanksgiving balloon parade in the number of spectators it draws. Stamfords St. Patricks Day Parade, which will be held Saturday, is expected to have about 8,000 spectators. Meanwhile, the Parade Spectacular, organized for the past 24 years by the Downtown Special Services District (DSSD), attracts at least 10 times that amount of people.

I kid with (DSSD President Sandy Goldstein), Feighan said. We dont get the numbers that she gets for the Thanksgiving Day parade. Thats really a unique effort with the balloons.

Still, Feighan notes since he began organizing the St. Patricks parade, its route has expanded to one mile and the number of groups participating has doubled.

This years grand marshal is Democratic U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy, a fifth generation Irish-American whose family has lived in Connecticut since his great-great-grandparents emigrated to Norwich from Ireland in the mid-1800s. Feighan said Murphy, 44, has been on the organizing committees radar for his work on U.S-Irish relations.

The Murphys have been in Connecticut for generations, Murphy, in office since 2013, said in a statement this week. Its such an honor to be named the grand marshal of this years Stamford St. Patricks Day Parade, and I cant wait to celebrate with people across Connecticut.

The grand marshal generally has to meet several criteria  he or she needs to be of Irish ancestry, supportive of Irish culture and giving back to the community, as well as hail from Stamford. Murphy checks every box except being from Stamford, Feighan said. Murphy and his family live in Cheshire.

Last years grand marshal was artist and thespian Bob Callahan. In 2016, it was state Supreme Court Justice Andrew McDonald, one of the first openly gay people in the nation to lead a St. Patricks Day Parade.

Marching in the parade are groups from schools and churches, as well as step dancers and pipe and drum bands. Theres also a family area near Veterans Park on Atlantic Street, where children can pot shamrocks  three-leaf clovers  and take them home.

The procession steps off at noon Saturday from Summer and Hoyt streets, heading south to Main Street and then north on Atlantic Street. It finishes at Latham Park.

Stamfords St. Patricks Day Parade started 23 years ago when the Ancient Order of Hibernians in Stamford, an Irish Catholic fraternal organization, moved into their new building on Greyrock Place. That was in 1996, Gov. Dannel Malloys first full year as mayor of Stamford.

A couple of guys are sitting in Hibernians Hall saying, Weve got a new hall and an Irish-American mayor  its time for a St. Patricks Day Parade, Feighan said.WASHINGTON  Sen. Chris Murphy took the case for expanded universal background checks directly to President Donald Trump at a White House summit on gun legislation, telling the president that his support was the only way to overcome the gun lobbys veto power.

We have a unique opportunity to get comprehensive background checks, Murphy, D-Conn., said at a roundtable meeting with 16 other senators and House members, including Rep. Elizabeth Esty. Mr. President, its going to have to be you that brings Republicans to the table on this, because right now the gun lobby would stop it in its tracks.

I like that responsibility, Chris, I really do, Trump responded. I think its time that a president stepped up.

Murphy also pressed Trump on easy availability of guns, arguing that the U.S. has the same rates of mental illness as other developed nations where schools are much safer.

Whats different is that we have the loosest, most lax gun laws in the (world), Murphy said. Trump demurred, bringing the subject back to background checks and inveighing on lawmakers to address mental illness.

Esty recalled how she got a call in 2012 while in training to be a House member informing her of the mass-shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School.

So I havent had a day when I dont think about it, Esty said. Thats been our nightmare for our people we represent. Its now (Rep. Ted Deutch, a Democrat who represents the area where the Florida high school mass shooting occurred) and its now your nightmare.

Trump interrupted Esty to ask why nothing had been done in Washington after previous mass shootings. At another point he blamed former President Obama, even though Obama joined Murphy, Esty and others in pushing for expanded background checks and no fly, no buy legislation to prohibit gun purchases by those on the terrorism air-travel watch list.

Trump, for his part, traversed the ideological map on guns and gun laws. He praised two background proposals backed by Murphy and Esty and said he can buck the National Rifle Association, which has successfully blocked numerous new gun measures.

He called leaders of the NRA patriots and called himself a big fan.

But he acknowledged the organizations hold over Congress, suggesting to the assembled lawmakers that some of them are petrified by the organizations influence.

The NRA has power over you people, Trump said. But they have less power with me.

He expressed approval for raising the age for purchasing semi-automatic rifles from 18 to 21, the same as handguns. The NRA opposes any such measure.

However, Trump was in alignment with the NRA on its call for arming teachers, veterans and other qualified volunteers to carry weapons in schools, and the view that Gun Free Zones at schools are an open invitation for mass shooters.

He was cool to the NRAs No. 1 legislative priority at the moment: Concealed carry reciprocity. The House in December approved concealed-carry reciprocity along with Fix NICS, Murphys measure that would beef-up the existing FBI background-check system.

Concealed-carry reciprocity would make it legal for gun owners in easy-gun-law states like Texas and Mississippi to carry weapons over state lines under the laws of their home states, rather than the laws in states such as Connecticut that are considerably tougher.

The concealed-carry bill is a non-starter with Democrats, something that Trump noted in the meeting.

If you add concealed carry to a background checks measure, youll never get it passed, Trump said.

Trump favored packaging Fix NICS with a far stronger background check bill that would close the so-called gun-show loophole and require checks for all but a small number of private firearms sales.

Under current law, only federally licensed firearms dealers have to process background checks. Sales between individuals not directly in the firearms business (at gun shows and elsewhere) are not required to do such checks.

Such support would set Trump apart from most Republicans on Capitol Hill who almost uniformly voted against a universal-checks bill in 2013. The measure, sponsored by Sens. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., and Pat Toomey, R-Pa., won 54 votes mostly from Democrats, six shy of the 60 needed to move forward.

After the meeting, both Esty and Murphy expressed guarded optimism that it represented a significant step forward in the years-long effort to pass gun legislation against staunch Republican opposition.

If the President comes out forcefully for comprehensive background checks and puts pressure on Republicans, they'll pass it, Murphy told reporters at the Capitol. The President ran based upon his ability to close a deal. And he told everybody today that he wants to do comprehensive background checks and if he and Republicans don't deliver, I think there's only a few people to blame.

Esty called the meeting somewhat surprising.

If the president is willing to use his image as a tough guy, I think were witnessing a tipping point, Esty said. Words are easy, but action is hard to do in Congress. The president understands there is a moment. And we can feel it.

It was the second time in two months that Trump conducted a major White House meeting on live TV.Craig Hartley / For the Chronicle

SOUTHBURY  Sacred Heart Church is raising money for various charitable causes through its upcoming 11th annual Lenten Fish Fry.

The Knights of Columbus Council 5066 and the Columbiettes of Southbury will host the event this Friday and on March 16 at the Main Street South church.Katy City Council postponed until its March 12 meeting a public hearing on a proposed residential/commercial project after five residents from nearby neighborhoods raised concerns.

The public hearing on Feb. 26 involved a proposed amendment to the zoning ordinance that would create 25k Morton Park and Silver Oaks Estates. It's a planned development district on about 45 acres that would include both single-family residential and commercial. It's bordered by Morton Road on the south, Katy-Hockley Cut-Off Road on the east and Heritage Park West subdivision to the north.

Residents from Heritage Park West and Riceland Terrace subdivisions spoke at the February hearing raising concerns about development heightening the risk of flooding, which some of them experienced after Hurricane Harvey. The proposed commercial portion of the project drew criticism.

Lisa Hirschfelder of Heritage Park West subdivision raised objections to commercial development behind her house, including potential problems with noise, lights, garbage and fencing.

She said commercial development "would take natural habitat from animals and not give them a place to live."

If soil is brought in to build up the site, the tract will be higher than existing homes, she said, asking where the water would then flow.

Speaking on behalf of the client, Rick Lawler said the land plan had been adapted after the Feb. 13 hearing conducted by the City Planning and Zoning Commission had shown residents had some concerns.

A planning report for City Council summarizes requested changes in zoning, signage, lot sizes, lighting, fencing and screening, recreational space and landscaping. The report ends with "Staff recommends that you review the PDD documents and let us know if there are any changes that need to be made." LJA Engineering submitted the PDD plan.

As to drainage issues, Lawler said they are working with an engineer who has been in contact with Costello Inc., the engineer hired by the city to come up with flood mitigation projects after Tax Day flooding in 2016 and Hurricane Harvey flooding last year.

Ward B Councilman Durran C. Dowdle referred to Hirschfelder's comments and said he didn't feel commercial would be good for neighbors.

"If we open the door, we open other doors and set a precedent. I'm not sure we want to go that way."

He talked of trying to decide what would be best for residents while helping growth in the city. He called the project a good plan but added a lot of questions need to be answered.

Councilman-at-large Steve Pierson said he's received calls from residents concerned about commercial development and flooding.

Lawler said, "We care and we'll do whatever adjustments you think are necessary." Mayor Chuck Brawner thanked him for hearing what citizens had to say.

Fabol Hughes, a Riceland Terrace resident, said he just moved back in his house three weeks ago after being flooded last August. He blamed water coming south from Morton Ranch Road and thought the proposed development would make conditions worse. He asked to defer the project until the city hears from Costello and how the engineering firm will address the flooding issues.

Joseph Konieczka, whose mother lives in Heritage Park West, asked council to defer action to give residents adequate time to evaluate changes and to carefully look at what the developer is proposing.

City attorney Art Pertile III told City Council members that they could give residents that time by continuing the hearing to a specific date. If council postponed action, it would have to repost the hearing notice, he said.

Konieczka said he still opposed the commercial. When the developer bought the land it was residential, he said, and there's not a guarantee of getting a rezoning change. The developer took a speculative risk, he added.

Another Riceland Terrace resident, Karri Schneider, also doesn't like the idea of adding commercial to the residential area. "I understand development but do not agree. It's not good for the community; it's not good for those who flooded."Brazoria County District Attorney Jeri Yenne has admonished Pearland city officials after finding that a document pertaining to the city's annexation of a tract count land had been altered.

In a letter sent to City Council members on Feb. 1, Yenne warned that a corrected typo on an ordinance document concerning the number of acres the city is annexing on the tract "could constitute tampering with a governmental record."

Yenne said any attempt to use the altered document to enforce annexation of that area, which is south of Shadow Creek Ranch between county roads 564 and 48, would result in a review for prosecution.

"The investigation found that the record was altered after the Mayor signed it to make Ordinance Number 1548 reflect 895 acres instead of 885 acres," Yenne wrote in her letter. "As such, it is not a record that the City of Pearland or its agents may use or present as a genuine and valid governmental record without violating the penal code."

As a result, said Pearland City Attorney Darrin Coker, the document certifying "Area A" as within city limits will be changed back to reflect that the land covers 885 acres instead of 895.

Coker said the error was unintentional.

"The individual did not know it had been partially executed," Coker said of the administrative staff member who made the change. "It was clearly an honest mistake."

Mayor Tom Reid has signed a new ordinance re-executed by the city that lists the acreage as 885, Coker said. He said the move has satisfied the district attorney's instruction in her letter to correct the record.

Yenne's office had looked into the matter after receiving a criminal complaint from Caye Hauser, who lives in Area A.

Yenne said the incident was reviewed by a grand jury. "A record signed by the mayor was altered after execution, you can't do that. The procedure that was used by Pearland was not lawful. I strongly encourage them to take an assessment of their polices and conduct an internal investigation about what happened," Yenne said of city officials.

Hauser and other county residents living in that area urged City Council on Feb. 26 to reconsider annexing the tract, which they say was done through a rushed, flawed process in which Pearland acquired various parcels before Dec. 1, when a new law changed rules for annexations. That law, Senate Bill 6, requires consent from voters living in areas targeted for annexation.

"You would think they would do the right thing," Hauser said of the city after the Feb. 26 meeting.

Coker said his office was not aware the final ordinance showed the wrong number of acres (885) until Hauser brought it to their attention.

When Hauser showed up to City Hall a few days after the council's approval of the ordinance to obtain a copy of the law, she was initially given the document that listed the acreage as 885. She said that when she pointed out the discrepancy between the number on the document and the 895 acres approved by council, Coker and another official blamed the difference on a typo.

"We'll have a signed copy for you at 4:30,' is what they told me," said Hauser. "When I picked it up, guess what, it was changed." The new document had 895 acres written on it.

Hauser then went to Yenne's office to file the complaint.

The city staff member who made the change to the acreage number did not know the ordinance had already been signed by the mayor because there are multiple pages to the document, with Reid's signature on the last one, Coker said.

During City Council's second and final reading of the ordinance before it was approved on Nov. 27, the acreage number that was read aloud was 895, a meeting video shows.

The council voted 4-2 to annex Area A, with council members Tony Carbone and Woody Owens casting the no votes.

"We had a staff member that made an understandable mistake. Ultimately, it does not change the ordinance that was passed," City Councilman Trent Perez said.

He said discussions with city staff have occurred to ensure such an error doesn't reoccur.

Said Hauser: "It probably was a typo, but they didn't do it right."

She and husband, Gerard, and other residents in their neighborhood hope the episode prompts county and state lawmakers to look into the city's annexation process.

Hauser said that she had sent email messages to every council member in October before the vote, alerting them to a discrepancy in the acreage amount between what was in notices the city sent to residents (885) and posted online and what was written on a surveyor's notice performed for the city (895). She said she never received a response from the city about her messages.

Yenne wrote: "The notices provided to the public were inconsistent in regard to the size of the annexation area."

The city's annexation of Area A and other tracts ahead of Senate Bill 6 taking effect has drawn criticism from state officials including Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton.

In a letter dated Nov. 28, Paxton wrote thatSenate Bill 6 "makes annexation more democratic. As a result, cities throughout Texas are rushing to annex land before December 1 when SB 6 will require them to obtain voter approval. The City of Pearland is one of these cities."Residents in another tract land annexed by Pearland during the same process, called "Area L," have filed a lawsuit against the city, said Michele Falzon, who owns property in that area. That area is northeast of Texas 35 between Dixie Farm Road and County Road 129 and includes about 1,000 acres and Pearland Regional Airport.BERLIN - German officials said Wednesday that the government's information technology networks had been infiltrated and that evidence pointed toward a Russian hacking group that's been implicated in high-profile cyberattacks worldwide.

The breach, acknowledged by the interior ministry in a statement, had been known since December, when security experts discovered malware in the secure computer networks of the foreign ministry, according to a senior German security official. German media outlets reported that the defense ministry also was affected.

The senior security official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to comment on the record, said the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution and the Federal Office for Information Security allowed the malicious program to keep running in recent months so they could monitor hacker activity. But no significant data was transmitted, according to the official. He said at some stage German officials decided to stop monitoring.

The official also said the country's security agencies suspected that the Russian-linked hacking network known as APT28, or Fancy Bear, was behind the attack. Germany's Suddeutsche Zeitung reported that the hackers may have had access to German governmental networks for up to a year.

Fancy Bear has previously been connected to a range of cyberattacks, including one in which phishing and malware was used to infiltrate the U.S. Democratic National Committee before the 2016 presidential election, as well as the networks of Emmanuel Macron's election campaign before last year's French presidential election, according to the Tokyo-based cybersecurity research group Trend Micro.

The extent of damage in Germany, if any, was not made public. The interior ministry said in a statement that the breach was "isolated and brought under control."

Still, the revelation that sensitive systems had been penetrated, with potential Russian fingerprints, represented a major breach just three years after suspected Russian hackers broke into the computer networks at the German parliament and made off with 16 gigabytes worth of data, enough for about 1 million emails. The information stolen in that attack has never been published.

If the Russian link is proved, it could mark a potential escalation in hostilities between Moscow and the West.

"If the details reported so far are accurate, this attack represents an unprecedented incident," said Sven Herpig, Director for International Cyber Politics at Germany's New Responsibility Foundation. "The prior hacking of the German parliament was also problematic, but it only lasted for a short period of time."

He indicated that whoever was behind the latest attack must have assumed that it would eventually become public.

"Following the parliamentary breach, the German government strongly urged Russia to refrain from attacks," Herpig said. "The likelihood that such incidents become public relatively quickly is high."

Some experts believe Fancy Bear was also behind the cyberattack on the parliament, known as the Bundestag, though other experts say there's not sufficient proof. German security officials publicly said they believed that attack was of Russian origin.

- - -

Mekhennet reported from Frankfurt, Noack from London and Beck from Berlin. The Washington Post's Griff Witte contributed from Athens.A 15-year veteran of the U.S. Capitol Police filed a lawsuit against the department Wednesday alleging sex and disability discrimination and retaliation, claiming she was wrongfully dismissed from the elite and male-dominated K-9 unit during training after mistreatment by her supervisor.

Mauricia Van Meter claims in the suit that she experienced a pattern of discrimination from the officer in charge of K-9 training, Sgt. Anthony Phelps, that included him berating her, telling her in the third week of the 14-week program that he planned to fail her and assigning her a dog whose prospects for completing the program were in doubt, putting her own chance of success at risk.

According to the lawsuit, Phelps also blamed Van Meter when she complained about his treatment of her and "continually derided and belittled her" after she told him she suffered from anxiety and depression.

Capitol Police K-9 positions are highly coveted for their prestige, salary and benefits.

Van Meter, who claims she passed all tests and training modules before she was expelled from the program in Week 11, remains on the force with the rank of private first class. She declined to comment on the lawsuit through her attorney, who cited a policy that bars Capitol Police officers from speaking to the news media.

"Ms. Van Meter was belittled every step of the way as she sought to advance within the force," said Les Alderman, a lawyer with Alderman, Devorsetz & Hora in Washington. "Her mistreatment points once again to the Capitol Police's discrimination against women officers. This lawsuit will help to shed light on Capitol Police practices that have resulted in a predominantly male force and created impediments to female officers' growth."

Reached by email, Capitol Police communications director Eva Malecki said the force doesn't comment on pending litigation.

Attempts to reach Phelps, who no longer works for the force, according to the complaint, were not successful.

Van Meter's lawsuit comes amid a debate over what critics describe as persistent gender-based harassment and discrimination in congressional offices. The Capitol Police, the agency charged with protecting Capitol Hill and the thousands of people who work and visit there, has faced multiple allegations of sex discrimination and harassment in the past five years.

The department has a "history of being male-dominated and unwelcome to female officers" and required female officers to wear uniforms and body armor designed specifically for men until approximately the past 10 years, Van Meter's lawsuit stated.The power of the Democratic Party is at or near an all-time nadir, despite rumblings of a blue-wave election in November. In Washington, the GOP controls the White House and both chambers of Congress. Across the country, Republicans sit in two-thirds of all governors' mansions.

Democrats, however, are exercising what little clout they possess to fight back against the Trump administration on energy and environmental issues.

Through the first 13 months of the Trump administration, state attorneys general from a slew of mostly blue states took at least 80 legal actions against the Trump administration's efforts to roll back environmental regulations, according to a report released Tuesday by the State Energy and Environment Impact Center.

"We have even more work to do," Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey, D, told reporters Tuesday. "Not only are they not enforcing the laws, they're actually working at counter purposes."

The sheer volume of lawsuits, letters and legal briefings shows how Democratic attorneys general have led the charge against President Donald Trump's deregulatory agenda at a time when the minority party lack the levers of power in Congress needed to issue subpoenas, call hearings or otherwise hold the administration accountable.

Democratic attorneys general have tried to use the court system to stymie the rollback of Obama-era rules meant to curb the emission of climate-warming gases, including carbon dioxide from coal-fired power plants, methane from onshore oil and natural gas extraction, and hydrofluorocarbons from refrigeration and air-conditioning systems.

For example, the Trump administration has sought to repeal the Environmental Protection Agency's Clean Power Plan, finalized in 2015, to cut carbon emissions from electricity generation. The Democratic attorneys general have fought the repeal on the grounds the EPA is required by a 2009 Supreme Court decision to regulate carbon emissions because of their effect on Earth's climate.

New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, D, has been the most aggressive, leading or joining in on 49 legal actions. Healey and Xavier Becerra, California's Democratic attorney general, were not far behind with 47 legal actions each.

At times, Republican attorneys general joined in briefs to the federal government, such as when Mark Brnovich of Arizona asked the National Park Service to reconsider hiking entrance fees and when Ken Paxton of Texas asked the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to ensure the recently passed tax cuts benefit customers and not just electric utilities.

The lawyers have enjoyed some victories. In March, the Energy Department dropped its effort to delay implementing new energy-efficiency standards after nine attorneys general challenged the agency in court.

By June, the department had not published final energy-efficiency rules, and they sued again. This month, a federal-district court sided with the attorneys general.

But some of those successes could be short-lived, especially as executive-branch officials gained experience during Trump's first year in office.

In October, for example, a federal judge ordered the government to enforce an Interior Department rule regulating the leaking of methane - only for the Trump administration to reissue a rule to "temporarily suspend or delay" the old one. California and Nevada sued again.

In total, 26 states and the District of Columbia have taken some sort of legal action against the Trump administration. The states are Arizona, California, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Iowa, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Nevada, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Texas, Virginia, Vermont and Washington.

The State Energy and Environment Impact Center - housed at New York University and launched in August by David Hayes, who served as the Interior Department's deputy secretary under presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton - helps coordinate legal actions among the left-leaning attorneys general.

"State attorneys general are using every tool in their toolbox," Hayes said in the report. "Indeed, attorneys general possess unique power to stop unlawful actions dead in their tracks at the courthouse."

During the Obama administration, Republican attorneys general also collaborated on lawsuits against the EPA and other departments. Much of that coordination was done by Scott Pruitt, who as Oklahoma's attorney general sued the EPA 14 times.

Now Pruitt heads that agency, which under Trump he has transformed into one of the president's most powerful deregulatory tools.The gun control group Giffords has put out its annual scorecard, ranking states on their gun laws as the nation is again embroiled in debate about gun policy in the wake of a shooting that killed 17 people at a Florida high school on Valentine's Day. The group gave 25 states - including Florida - an "F" rating.

The annual scorecard measures what lawyers at the Giffords Law Center consider "the relative strength or weakness" or gun laws in each state in 2017. The findings, they argue, show a correlation that indicates that gun laws work: "States with strong gun safety laws have fewer guns deaths per capita than states with weak laws."

California, for example, ranks at the top of the list, receiving the only "A" grade for its strong gun laws and relatively low gun death rate - 43rd in the nation at 7.9 deaths per 100,000. Alaska, which received an "F" grade, had the nation's highest gun death rate -- 23 per 100,000. Massachusetts had the lowest gun death rate in the country, at 3.4 per 100,000.

Giffords calls gun violence "a moral crisis" and a "public health crisis." The report comes as survivors of the Parkland shooting are rallying support for gun control and as Washington grapples with how to respond to the latest mass shooting involving an assault-style rifle.

In the weeks after the massacre in Parkland, Florida, Democratic governors in the Northeast have created a gun task force, and Florida Gov. Rick Scott, a Republican and other Republican lawmakers have called for raising the minimum age for purchasing rifles to 21. President Donald Trump has proposed arming teachers to help secure the nation's schools.

"It's very timely," said Laura Cutilletta, legal director of the Giffords Law Center. "People are demanding change right now, and one of the reasons people are demanding change is because of awareness."

In Florida, one of the states to get the lowest rating, a permit is not needed to buy guns and there is no limit to the number of firearms that can be purchased at one time. Alleged shooter Nikolas Cruz, 19, legally purchased the AR-15 assault-style rifle authorities say was used in the Parkland attack as well as numerous other guns he had collected in the year prior. Authorities said he passed a background check.

In addition to Scott's call to raise the purchasing age for rifles, Rep. Brian Mast, R-Fla., an Army veteran who lost both legs while deployed in Afghanistan, announced Friday that he supports a ban on all assault rifles. But the Florida legislature, which has long been seen as a laboratory for gun rights legislation that is tested elsewhere in the country, rejected a ban on assault weapons after Parkland.

Nevada - scene of the Las Vegas concert massacre that left 58 people dead in October - dropped from a C-minus to a D this year, Cutilletta said, because a 2016 voter-approved ballot initiative requiring that private party transfers of firearms be subject to a background check has not taken effect. The state's attorney general released an opinion stating that Nevada does not have the authority to conduct the background checks.

Maryland received an A-minus rating and Virginia received a D.

Twelve states improved their scores from the prior year. They include Oregon, which added a red flag law intending to keep guns from criminals and the mentally ill; New Jersey, which passed a law restricting access to guns for people convicted of domestic violence offenses, and Illinois, which funded gun violence reduction programs.

Some states, including Maryland, are now debating red flag laws. Rhode Island Gov. Gina Raimondo, a Democrat, signed an executive order last week to keep guns away from those she said are a "threat to themselves and others." It was the first gun legislation signed after the Florida shooting.

"You're already seeing in the wake of Parkland one state acting," Cutilletta said.Working at Facebook means access to resourceful colleagues, cutting-edge technology and the opportunity to make a global impact. With more than 25,000 employees and 2.1 billion users worldwide, the company attracts top-notch talent and provides them with luxurious perks, from meals and other on-campus services to generous parental leave.

Its this perfect storm of features, and more, thats landed Facebook the title of Best Place to Work among large companies on Glassdoors annual list. This marks the third year Facebook has earned this distinction in the Glassdoor Employees Choice Awards.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerbergs resolution for 2018 is to fix Facebook, so people may assume that working at the company right now -- amid findings of Russian election interference and fake news, backlash from publishers and efforts to make Facebook use time well spent -- would be extremely challenging, but the company is spinning it into an opportunity to attract people who are looking to solve big problems.

To shed more light on what Facebook does to maintain its reputation, Facebook VP of HR Janelle Gale and recruiting director Liz Wamai spoke onstage at the Glassdoor Best Places to Work Tour on Tuesday.

While the perks are awesome, they are not the most important thing, Gale said. We want [employees] working on the biggest issues, the biggest problems, and we want them doing it in their areas of strength, where they feel like time is flying by.

Related: Why These People and Brands Are Fed Up With Facebook

Here are some insights Gale and Wamai shared into Facebooks recruiting and retention strategies.

Facebook engages in 'structured interviewing.'

Facebook organizes the interview process so that candidates meet with a variety of existing employees. It also trains those employees to ask questions and vet candidates with their biases in mind so that they can overcome those biases and make fair hiring decisions.

We leverage people during the interview process that are in similar roles to the role that youre interviewing for. And that maintains consistency in the process, Gale said. Usually, when youre coming through, youre going to be interviewing with either somebody whos in a similar role, a cross-functional partner or peer, somebody whos potentially a future direct report, as well as your hiring manager.

Facebook plays the short, medium and long game on diversity and inclusion.

Facebook partners with Hispanic-serving institutions and other organizations to increase representation of women and underrepresented minorities in the interview process. This is a way to boost diversity in hiring in the short term, Wamai said.

In the medium term, the company partners with nonprofit organizations that are educating women and underrepresented minorities in computer programming and computer science, as well as careers in finance and analytics.

Through various programs, Facebook reaches out to students to help them gain exposure to technical training opportunities that would prepare them for a career at Facebook down the road.

Facebook recruits in over 300 schools. Theres a perception that its Ivy League focused. Its not, Wamai said. She added that its not just about sending people to those schools to recruit, but who you send, to maximize diversity.

Are the people youre sending out for the career fairs for the events, she said, do they represent the workforce that you want to attract?

Facebook says theres a time and place for AI in recruiting.

Recruiting is one of those [areas] where, you cant completely use technology, because theres a human connection in the interview and selection process, Wamai said.

Facebook uses machine learning to narrow down large candidate pools. The tech also helps match candidates to other opportunities similar to what theyve applied to to ensure theyve found the best fit.

The company has an interview bot that reminds people to enter interviewer feedback immediately after the interview, for instance, keeping the process moving.

Internal recruiting at Facebook is like Amazon recommendations.

In addition to looking for outside talent, Gale said, Facebook is constantly recruiting internally to give employees mobility within the company.

She compared the placement strategy to Amazons recommendations engine: People whove read this book might want to read books like this, she said. Were trying to do that for people in certain jobs  a lookalike job that might be a good path for you.

Facebook wants people to play to their strengths.

Facebook believes that if employees work aligns with their strengths, theyll be more likely to enjoy their work.

People who are in jobs where theyre playing to their strengths, theyre much more engaged, theyre much more productive, Gale said. They stay at Facebook longer.

The company has internal training programs to make sure people are being self-reflective about when time flies for them. It asks questions such as, Tell us about your very best day: What were you doing?

During exit interviews, Wamai and Gale said they often find out that people are leaving because they werent playing to their strengths. But, Gale said, If were waiting until then weve failed.

The company conducts surveys partially designed to predict warning signs that someone might be thinking of leaving.

We measure the percentage of time people spend doing work that they enjoy, Gale said. Our threshold is above 70 percent. We want more than 70 percent of your time doing work that you really enjoy.

Technical teams at Facebook can spend a month trying a different job on for size to make sure it works for them and their potential new hiring manager before committing.

Mark Zuckerberg holds Q&A sessions.

Zuckerberg famously holds Q&A sessions with employees, and he answers questions honestly -- even those that expose his vulnerabilities -- as well as discusses how employees use Facebooks own platforms.

You ask it, he answers it, Gale said. The more relevant information you have, the better you can do your job.

People get personal, talking about the biggest mistakes theyve made at work and asking the same of Zuckerberg. Questions often center around self-reflection -- its a learning opportunity.

Facebook wants supporters, not managers.

Gale has been with Facebook for six years and said that managerial roles used to be considered side jobs adjacent to employees primary individual contributor work.

We quickly realized, we are not going to scale this organization without real investment in our managers and real strength in our management roles across the company, Gale said.

Now, she added, Facebooks managers dont lead from the front, giving orders all day, but have more of a support role. Its less of a command-control style, and more about listening, Wamai explained.

And if people find management isnt their strong suit, Facebook doesnt hold it against them.

If they decide management isnt for them, then they move off, Gale said. And its not a scarlet letter. Its OK.

Ultimately, Facebook wants people to be who they are.

Gale said she hopes prospective hires let go of any facades and just be who they authentically are.

You can actually show up better at work and you can contribute faster, Gale said. Theres no personal you and professional you. Theres just you.

Related:

La nueva red social que amenaza con destronar a Facebook

Here's What You Can Expect If You Want to Get Hired at Facebook

Por que estas personas y marcas estan hartos de Facebook



Copyright 2018 Entrepreneur.com Inc., All rights reserved



This article originally appeared on entrepreneur.com

Bob Schneider is semi-retired in Cincinnati. After years at a government desk job, he now spends his days managing bookings for his daughter and son-in-law, who are musicians. It's a gig that often takes him around the city and its surrounding areas. Schneider, an independent voter, says he can see the economy has improved since Donald Trump was elected.

"I think the economy is more on the right track. It seems better when I drive through parts of Cincinnati that were once really depressed," said Schneider. "What I'm sensing is a greater sense of people feeling good and believing things will get better."

Independents are the most optimistic about the economy in years. A weekly Bloomberg survey of independent voters - the Consumer Comfort Index - recently hit its highest level since 2001. The monthly University of Michigan Survey of Consumers shows independents are as upbeat now about the economy as they were in the 1980s.

"Independents are more likely to have positive feelings about the tax cut," said Richard Curtin, director of the University of Michigan survey. "We're in the ninth year of this expansion. This is very favorable sentiment at this age of the economic expansion."

Republicans hope this wave of optimism helps them to victory in the midterm elections.

"When the economy is doing well, people tend to support the incumbent party," said Samara Klar, a political science professor at the University of Arizona. She says another factor is "independents today tend to be more conservative leaning."

But the GOP faces a conundrum: While Americans feel good about the economy, Trump's approval ratings remain at anemic levels. The 2018 election could test the famous American saying that "It's the economy, stupid" that matters most when voters go to the polls.

While the GOP strategy is to make the midterm election about the economy, Democrats want to make it about Trump's controversies that have pushed his approval rating back to all-time lows. Several independent voters told The Washington Post they are struggling to weigh Trump's positives and negatives and figure out how they'll vote in 2018 and 2020.

"Trump is not as tactful as I'd like him to be," said Schneider, but he likes what the president has done for the economy, including "reducing paperwork."

James Bowen, a graduate student at the University of Kansas and independent voter, sides with Trump on immigration, defense and trade issues, but he's concerned about how much Trump is running up America's debt.

"I don't like the tax bill. If we're going to balance our budget and undertake a lot of work that needs to be done, we have to raise taxes," Bowen said. He recently calculated his 2017 taxes, but he hasn't figured out his bill yet for 2018, the first year Americans would see any benefit from Trump's tax cuts.

Many of the political indicators point to a Democratic wave in 2018. Democrats are ahead in the polls, and history favors them.

"History is against the party that holds the White House. In 100 years, the party that has held the White House has only kept the majority in the House three times in that first midterm," Republican National Committee chair Ronna Romney McDaniel told young conservatives last week at the Conservative Political Action Conference.

She urged them to change history by highlighting the economy, and regardless of whether you credit Trump or former president Barack Obama, there's plenty to highlight.

Unemployment is at the lowest level since December 2000. In December 2017, black unemployment hit the lowest level since the Labor Department began recording the statistic in 1972. The tax savings are starting to show up in people's paychecks, and wages are showing the first signs of rising after years of stagnation. If these trends continue, the economy could be an even stronger talking point in the fall.

After the 2016 election, Democrats' views of the economy tanked, according to the University of Michigan data. Some even pulled their money out of the stock market because they were so fearful of what Trump would do in the Oval Office. Meanwhile, Republicans' views of the economy soared and have stayed high ever since. Independents have had a more interesting path: their economic views jumped a little after the election then pulled back in the summer and are now going back up again after the tax cut.

"Independents are more open to both positive and negative news," said Curtin, the director of the University of Michigan survey.

The roaring stock market and rebounding economy have already transformed Wall Street executives' opinions on Trump. Many business leaders who were once critical of the president now say they are net positive on Trump after the tax cuts. Republicans are hoping middle-of-the-road voters come to a similar conclusion.

One of the challenges for Republicans is ensuring that Americans really do see tangible benefits from the tax cuts. While the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center says 80 percent of Americans will see a reduction in their taxes this year, only 44 percent will see a reduction of $500 or more, according to the nonpartisan Joint Committee on Taxation.

House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., was widely ridiculed for tweeting about a secretary who saved $1.50 a week from the tax bill. A few hours later, he deleted the tweet.

Schneider, the independent voter in Cincinnati, says he looked at his own finances and thinks he'll "come out about even" after the tax changes. He thinks the cuts are aimed more at "helping the fat cats."

Paul Shank, a real estate broker and independent voter in Albuquerque, is also skeptical he'll benefit from the tax bill.

"My wife pointed out to me that her last check was supposed to include all the changes in the new tax bill. It was within a dollar of what it had always been," Shank said.

Even among those who do receive a sizable tax cut, Peter Atwater, an expert on U.S. sentiment data and president of Financial Insyghts, thinks enthusiasm about the extra money could fade by Election Day. For some, the amount might be less than expected, and for others, it might feel normal by November to have that additional money.

"Consumer confidence is an inherently forward-looking sensation," said Atwater. "Whether it is sentiment data or stock prices, it looks like people already factored the tax cut and any-related wage gains into their expectations of the economy."A federal judge whom President Donald Trump suggested would be biased against him because of the judge's "Mexican" heritage sided with the administration Tuesday in a lawsuit over whether officials could move forward with expedited plans to build a border wall.

In a 101-page opinion, U.S. District Judge Gonzalo Curiel wrote that the government had the authority to waive environmental laws and proceed with its border wall.

Curiel wrote he was "aware that the subject of these lawsuits, border barriers, is currently the subject of heated political debate in and between the United States and the Republic of Mexico as to the need, efficacy and the source of funding for such barriers," but that he could "not consider whether underlying decisions to construct the border barriers are politically wise or prudent."

The ruling granting what is known as "summary judgment" is an unequivocal win for the Department of Homeland Security and Justice Department, though those who had sued to slow down construction said they would look to a higher court to intervene.

"We intend to appeal this disappointing ruling, which would allow Trump to shrug off crucial environmental laws that protect people and wildlife," said Brian Segee, a senior attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity, one of the groups suing. "The Trump administration has completely overreached its authority. ... They're giving unprecedented, sweeping power to an unelected agency chief to ignore dozens of laws."

The Department of Homeland Security said it "looks forward to building the wall where our frontline operators say it is needed and in accordance with all applicable laws."

Justice Department spokesman Devin O'Malley said, "Border security is paramount to stemming the flow of illegal immigration that contributes to rising violent crime and to the drug crisis, and undermines national security."

Advocacy groups and the state of California sued the administration over its plans, arguing DHS was improperly relying on a years-old immigration law so it could ignore obligations under environmental laws and put Trump's vision into place quickly. The government argued the Homeland Security secretary had wide latitude to waive other requirements to improve border security.

California Attorney General Xavier Becerra said: "We remain unwavering in our belief that the Trump Administration is ignoring laws it doesn't like in order to resuscitate a campaign talking point. ... We will evaluate all of our options and are prepared to do what is necessary to protect our people, our values, and our economy from federal overreach. A medieval wall along the U.S.-Mexico border simply does not belong in the 21st century."

The case threatened to delay implementation of one of Trump's signature campaign promises. The president is seeking is seeking $25 billion for enhanced border security, including hundreds of miles of new barrier construction. His proposal would extend the physical structure by about 300 miles and replace another 400 miles with more formidable barriers. Right now, about 1/3 of the 2,000-mile U.S.-Mexican border has some kind of wall or fencing.

But the case was also notable for the judge deciding it. Curiel was the judge in an unrelated lawsuit against the now defunct Trump university, and Trump, on the campaign trail, had lashed out at him.

Curiel's parents were immigrants from Mexico. He was born in Indiana, a point he noted in his latest ruling.

"As fellow Indiana native Chief Justice Roberts observed in addressing a case surrounded by political disagreement: 'Court[s] are vested with the authority to interpret the law; we possess neither the expertise nor the prerogative to make policy judgments. Those decisions are entrusted to our Nation's elected leaders, who can be thrown out of office if the people disagree with them. It is not our job to protect the people from the consequences of their political choices,'" Curiel wrote.

---

The Washington Post's Nick Miroff contributed to this report.WASHINGTON - Some Supreme Court justices on Wednesday seemed to think Minnesota's law banning "political" clothing and buttons from polling places is an affront to free speech, while some seemed to think it might uphold the decorum and dignity due the casting of a ballot in a democracy.

But all came bearing hypotheticals. And for the two lawyers arguing the case, their time in the well of the Supreme Court came to resemble the time fish spend in a barrel.

At issue is a law that prohibits people from wearing a "political badge, political button or other political insignia" at a polling place on an election day. But the law has been broadly interpreted to bar logos of the National Rifle Association, AFL-CIO, MoveOn.org and, in the test that got the case to the high court, the tea party.

The justices had no trouble putting the lawyers on the spot by thinking up others that might violate Minnesota's law: #meetoo, Make America Great Again, "Resist," "Restrain Government Spending," a Colin Kaepernick jersey, a Reagan/Bush '84 shirt and wearing all-white to signal solidarity with the suffragists.

Justice Samuel Alito, a former prosecutor, mounted what felt like a cross-examination of Daniel Rogan of the Hennepin County Attorney's Office, who was defending Minnesota's law.

"How about a shirt with a rainbow flag?" asked Alito. "Would that be permitted?"

"A shirt with a rainbow flag?" Rogan repeated. "No, it would - yes, it would be - it would be permitted unless there was - unless there was an issue on the ballot that - that related somehow to - to gay rights."

A T-shirt bearing the words of the Second Amendment? Alito asked.

Probably banned, because of the gun control issue, Rogan said.

The First Amendment, Alito asked? Probably not, Rogan answered.

That led Justice Neil Gorsuch to observe: "Under your interpretation of 'political,' it would forbid people from wearing certain portions of the Bill of Rights into a polling place but not other portions of the Bill of Rights. And I guess I'm just wondering what compelling interest Minnesota has identified that requires a statute that goes so much further than the vast majority of states?"

On the other hand - and there's always another hand at the Supreme Court - some justices wondered why any voter had the need to express political views while casting a vote.

"Why should there be speech inside the election booth at all, or inside the what you call the election room?" Justice Anthony Kennedy asked David Breemer, a lawyer for the Pacific Legal Foundation, representing the challengers. "You're there to vote."

Justice Stephen Breyer added that after the "hurly-burly" of a campaign, couldn't there be a "place where a person has reflective thought for a moment."

Several criticized Breemer for not offering a clear view on whether a state could ban direct advocacy for a candidate in the polling place without violating the Constitution.

"I honestly don't know, your honor," Breemer said when Justice Elena Kagan posed that question. He added: "I agree it's a tough - a very tough call, but it's not one this court has to decide."

That did not suit Kennedy. "It's important for us if we're going to have to write an opinion on this. You say, 'Well, I don't know, I don't know.'"

The Supreme Court decided 25 years ago that states could ban electioneering and distributing campaign materials within 100 feet of polling places, and all states have restrictions.

But Minnesota and nine other states go further. Minnesota's clothing and button ban has been interpreted to include the names of political parties, candidates, support or opposition to a ballot question, materials designed to influence or impact voting and promoting groups with recognizable political views, which is where unions, the chamber of commerce and other organizations come in.

On Election Day 2010, Andrew Cilek, executive director of the Minnesota Voters Alliance, was stopped at the polls for wearing a tea party T-shirt and a button saying "Please I.D. Me." (The button issue has dropped out of the case, and Breemer acknowledged Wednesday that could be intimidating, since the state does not have an ID requirement.)

Cilek was told he could not vote without covering up or losing the T-shirt. Eventually, he was allowed to vote.

His name was recorded for possible prosecution - Alito called it being registered as a "bad Minnesotans" - but Rogan said no one has been prosecuted or fined for offending the law.

Indeed, he agreed with Kagan that the main work of the statute is that Minnesotans comply with it.

"For over 100 years, we've had this statute in place and . . . this is the first time that it's been challenged by anybody," Rogan said.

He turned the tables once on his inquisitors, nothing that "there are instances where you can ban any type of speech."

For that, he said, and said the justices need look no farther than the plaza in front of the Supreme Court, "where any speech or any message on a banner, flag, or device is prohibited."

The case is Minnesota Voters Alliance v. Mansky.A new legal defense fund designed to help defray the costs faced by aides to President Donald Trump drawn into the various Russia investigations has yet to answer key questions about how it will vet donors and provide transparency about the contributors who finance the effort.

The Patriot Legal Expense Fund Trust filed paperwork Tuesday with the Internal Revenue Service and the Delaware Secretary of State, declaring it will operate as a political committee and help defray the legal costs of "eligible persons" involved in the investigations.

The trust plans to allow unlimited donations from both individuals and "entities" that will be pooled to defray the costs of multiple recipients, according to paperwork filed in January with the Office of Government Ethics.

But the filings offered little insight into how the fund will operate, raising concerns about its transparency and how it will comply with conflict of interest rules, ethics experts said.

Attorneys from the Washington-based law firm Wiley Rein, who established the fund, declined to comment. The White House did not respond to requests for comment. A news release announcing the launch of the trust offered few details, and a spokesman and the interim manager for the fund did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Questions about how the fund will raise and distribute money are building amid signs that special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation is intensifying.

According to figures released last month by the White House, at least 48 White House staff, campaign staff and others affiliated with the campaign have voluntarily given interviews to the special counsel or congressional committees.

Trump associates pulled into the inquiries said they are contending with growing legal costs.

Michael Caputo, a former Trump campaign aide who has been interviewed by the House Intelligence Committee and contacted for two interviews by two Senate committees, estimates his legal bills will range from $75,000 to $125,000.

"There are dozens of people in this situation, some of them much worse than me," said Caputo, who added that he has spoken with numerous aides worried about their legal bills.

"Everyone is talking about it privately," he added. "If this Patriot Fund is real and they can help any one of us pay our legal bills, it would be a real blessing."

One reason for the delay in the fund's launch has been a search for an administrator to manage the trust, according to an official familiar with the planning.

Former congresswoman Nan Hayworth of New York, who supported Trump in the 2016 campaign, was named interim manager of the fund Tuesday while the search for a permanent manager continues, according to the news release.

The trust's manager has broad authority to decide who gets reimbursed and how much, filings show.

Those who could be eligible to receive money through the fund include employees, consultants or volunteers to the Trump campaign, transition and administration who have been involved in the investigations, according to the statement from the trust.

Ty Cobb, the attorney handling the White House's response to the Russia investigators, said in November those who were targeted or indicted in the investigation would not qualify to receive financial help from the legal fund. Tuesday's news release specified that legal expenses incurred "on behalf of any party which arise from the defense of any charge or indictment for dishonest, fraudulent or criminal activity" would not be reimbursed through the fund.

In deciding which aides to reimburse, the fund's manager cannot consider whether an aide's involvement in the investigation is favorable to Trump, according to the draft agreement.

Unlike the two legal defense funds established to assist President Bill Clinton and first lady Hillary Clinton in the 1990s, the Patriot fund will pool money from a variety of donors and entities for an undetermined number of recipients. The two Clinton funds were established to defray the couple's legal expenses and were not available to their aides, documents establishing the funds show.

The Patriot fund will include at least two separate accounts - one for federal employees and one for non-employees - as an effort to avoid potential conflicts of interest posed by donors. But experts say the distinction between the accounts could get lost without careful tracking and vetting.

"The question is: Does one bad apple spoil the whole pot for everybody involved?" said Marilyn Glynn, a former Office of Government Ethics general counsel who helped shape disclosure and contribution requirements for Clinton funds.

The fund's filings indicate that donors will be responsible for flagging any potential conflicts by filling a questionnaire that asks them about foreign lobbying and federal contracts, among other issues.

Under IRS guidelines, the fund will be required to disclose donors who give $200 or more monthly or quarterly in an even year, which would mean its first disclosure would probably be filed in mid-April. Officials have not yet said how often they plan to disclose the names of contributors.

Donations to legal defense funds for public officials usually are capped at a certain amount. Members of Congress have donation limits set through congressional rules - $5,000 annually per source for the House and $10,000 for the Senate, according to research by Ellen Aprill, tax law expert at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles. Donations to the Clintons' legal fund were voluntarily capped at $1,000 for the first fund and $10,000 for the second, according to Aprill.

But the Patriot fund's filings do not address whether there will be any limits on how much each contributor can give.

Even though the fund said it will not accept anonymous contributions, it will take donations from entities - which could include limited liability companies, according to experts who reviewed the OGE filing. Donations given through LLCs can often mask the identity of the contributors.

"This is strikingly different from either of the Clinton legal defense funds," said Kathleen Clark, legal and government ethics professor at Washington University School of Law. "The bottom line is: There is an astounding level of secrecy."

The Office of Government Ethics last month reviewed the fund's draft agreement and found that it complied with federal rules. The office added it "does not approve or disapprove of specific legal defense funds."

- - -

The Post's Alice Crites and Carol D. Leonnig contributed to this report.Federal officials Wednesday reiterated their call for the Federal Railroad Administration to issue an emergency order for new safety measures along rail corridors when work crews temporarily disable signalling systems designed to manage train traffic.

A report released Wednesday by investigators with the National Transportation Safety Board, offered few new details about the head-on collision between an Amtrak passenger train and a CSX freight train Feb. 11 in Cayce, South Carolina. Two Amtrak employees, an engineer and a conductor, were killed in the crash. More than 90 others were hospitalized.The two candidates for Morgan County sheriff on Tuesday outlined some of their plans for how they would run the sheriffs department if elected.

The sheriffs candidates  Morgan County Sheriffs Department Chief Deputy Mike Carmody and Jacksonville Police Lt. Chris Johnson  and Circuit Judge Pete Cavanagh, who is a write-in candidate for appellate court judge, provided the program at a meeting of the Republican Womens Club of Morgan County at the Jacksonville Municipal Building. About 75 people attended the meeting.

Carmody and Johnson square off in the Republican primary election March 20, which will decide who is the countys next sheriff, as there is no Democrat seeking the position.

Johnson and Carmody answered six questions posed by Republican Womens Club member Kaye Coop at Tuesdays meeting. The questions covered such things as background, goals, greatest challenges, training and upgrades to the jail.

Johnson said that, if elected, he would not make immediate major changes to the sheriffs department. He said he would like to update the departments policy procedure manual, provide more staff training and expect more professionalism and accountability from the staff.

I want the sheriffs staff to be efficient and effective, Johnson said.

Carmody said there are many good people who work at the sheriffs department, but he acknowledged there needs to be more professionalism. The direction needs to come from the sheriff, he said.

Carmody said he wants supervisors teaching deputies the Golden Rule. Basically, I want them to treat people like you would want to be treated, he said. He added that he wants to strengthen trust between the sheriffs department and the community.

Johnson agreed that there needs to be a more positive view of police in general. We are there to provide a service, he said. We have to reinvent how we are perceived by the community.

Johnson also said a change he would make is to deputize police officers in Morgan County towns to assist the sheriffs department.

Carmody said something that needs to be addressed at the jail is replacement of the old cell locks, which pose a potential safety issue.

Johnson said he would like to change the structure of the sheriffs departments command staff, which currently has six command officers supervising eight patrolmen. As sheriff, Johnson said, everyone will be available for calls, taking pressure off patrols. I want everyone to be trained and to be held accountable.

Carmody said that when Sheriff Randy Duvendack is away, I do the sheriffs job. I know the job and Im able to do the job. He added that he works well with all the police chiefs in Morgan County.

Carmody has served as chief deputy for 12 years and been with the sheriffs department for 31 years.

Johnson has been a Jacksonville police lieutenant for about eight years and been with the police department for nearly 23 years. Prior to that, Johnson served as a correctional officer at the Morgan County jail for about three years.

Cavanagh, a Republican who is seeking a seat on the Fourth District Appellate Court, spoke briefly near the close of the meeting and encouraged everyone to get out and write in his name on the ballot. Cavanagh needs 1,070 write-in votes in the Fourth District, which covers 30 central Illinois counties.

If elected, Cavanagh would take the open seat created by the death of Appellate Justice John Schmidt, who died Dec. 19.

Greg Olson can be reached at 217-245-6121, ext. 1224, or on Twitter @JCNews_Greg.The Trump administration recently proposed massive, across-the-board cuts to food stamps. But even without those cuts, a new analysis finds, current benefit amounts don't cover the full cost of meals for the vast majority of recipients.

The report, released this week by researchers at the Urban Institute and the University of Illinois, compared the maximum, per-meal benefit allowed by the food-stamp program to the average cost of meals purchased by low-income households in the U.S. They found that in 99 percent of counties those meals regularly cost more than even the maximum benefit disbursed by the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.

In Manhattan, for instance - home to nearly a quarter-million food-stamp recipients - SNAP allows $1.86 per meal, while the average meal costs $3.96.

The reports adds to a growing body of evidence that SNAP benefits may already be too small to fully prevent hunger and related health risks. In light of the Trump administration's calls to reduce spending in the program, advocates are pointing to studies like this to argue that the program can not take further reductions.

"Benefits are already not meeting needs," said Elaine Waxman, a senior fellow at the Urban Institute and the lead author of this report. "I can't expect less funding would improve that situation."

Waxman and others say the issue appears to be twofold: Benefit amounts are stingy to begin with. They're also not adjusted for regional food-cost differences.

It's a point that's been made before - most notably in a 2016 Institute of Medicine review, which recommended the Agriculture Department raise its baseline benefit amount and grant more money to people living in expensive areas. But this new analysis goes a step further, attempting to identify those specific areas and quantify the size of the gap.

To do that, Waxman estimated the cost of an average, home-prepared meal in every county in the contiguous U.S. While there isn't a single survey or database that contains that information, the researchers were able to extrapolate it by adjusting national grocery-spending averages according to a county food-price index.

Once they had those figures, Waxman tallied the number of counties with average meal costs above $1.86, the food-stamp program's maximum per-meal benefit. This is the amount given to households with no net income: In other words, it's intended to cover the family's full grocery costs, not just supplement other funds that the family spends.

Despite that distinction, the researchers found that only 22 counties in the entire country have food costs low enough to squeeze beneath the $1.86 limit. On average, the cost of a meal is 27 percent higher than the maximum SNAP benefit.

In cities and remote rural counties, where food costs are higher, the gap is even worse: 136 percent in Crook County, Oregon and 113 percent in New York County, New York.

"The food budget shortfall has only been growing," said Triada Stampas, vice president for research and public affairs at the Food Bank for New York City. "People who are food insecure are further today from being in a place of having enough food for themselves and their families."

Like many other anti-hunger advocates, Stampas wasn't particularly surprised at the scale, or the depth, of the SNAP shortfall. Food banks and pantries have warned of this for years.

In New York, the Food Bank for New York City estimates that the average SNAP benefit only buys 14 days of food, forcing recipients to lean on their families, bus outside their neighborhoods to shop at cheaper stores, and resort to soup kitchens and food pantries. The food bank reports that, since 2009, there has been a 30 percent increase in the gap between the amount of money hungry people need to afford groceries, and the amount of money they actually have to spend on them.

Stampas said she and other advocates have been pushing Congress to enact policies that would address the shortfall in SNAP benefits. On Tuesday, she joined hundreds of other anti-hunger advocates on Capitol Hill to ask legislators to sign onto the Closing the Meal Gap Act. The bill would raise the baseline benefit for all SNAP households and allocate more funds to those with large medical and housing expenses.

But it seems unlikely the legislation will advance now, or that advocates will get many of the other fixes they have long wanted. Just two weeks ago, as part of his 2018 budget proposal, President Donald Trump proposed gutting SNAP by nearly 30 percent, a figure achieved by halving most households' cash benefits. One week later, USDA kicked off the process to tighten eligibility for the program.

For researchers and advocates, such moves are frustrating. If anything, Waxman writes in the conclusion of her report, the data shows that SNAP needs more money, not less.

"In a lot of cases we're playing defense now," Stampas said. "We're just trying to protect the structure of SNAP and access to SNAP as it currently is."BERLIN -After five months of backroom horse-trading and all-night arm twisting, Angela Merkel faces one last obstacle to achieving a stable government in her fourth term as German chancellor.

He's 28, but he looks younger. On a recent evening, he was unshaven in a black sweatshirt, blue jeans and gray canvas Adidas sneakers. His dirty-blond hair was combed indifferently. He spoke casually, as if talking to friends.

But for two hours, a standing-room-only crowd of 150 in a concrete-block neighborhood of east Berlin strained to hear Kevin Kuehnert's every word as he unspooled a message of youthful rebellion against plans for four more years of the same centrist-based compromise.

"A grand coalition should be the exception in a democracy. But it's not the exception any longer," said Kuehnert, leader of the Social Democratic Party's youth wing, as he delivered a plea for the party's rank-and-file members to reject a deal to govern with Merkel's conservatives. "You reach a point where the commonalities have been exhausted."

Young Americans may be sick of hyperpartisan divisions that seem to have left Washington mired in gridlock. But in Germany, teen and 20-something political activists are crying out for an end to the cozy consensus of the Merkel years. They want less dealmaking, more commitment to principles and a sharper distinction between the two establishment parties that have governed Germany throughout its postwar history.

The parties are on the verge of doing so, together, once again - a reprise of the so-called grand coalitions that have defined two of Merkel's three terms.

Yet if Kuehnert and other youth activists succeed in their against-the-odds campaign, the coalition will never come to be.

Social Democratic (SPD) voters have the chance to weigh in on the agreement between their center-left party's leaders and the bloc led by Merkel's Christian Democratic Union (CDU) in balloting that ends Friday. If they reject the deal, Merkel will be left jilted at the altar - and Europe's most populous nation will be thrust into uncharted levels of political turbulence.

The country, where staid politics had become the norm in recent decades, has endured a historically long stretch without a government after elections in September were inconclusive. And Merkel has failed once since then to cobble together a coalition.

A second failure would leave her with an unappealing choice: lead a minority government that survives from vote to vote in the highly fragmented German Parliament and could collapse at any time, or call new elections. Each would be a first for modern Germany and would call into question just how long Merkel can hang on as chancellor.

Most analysts say it is unlikely that the 464,000 members of Germany's oldest party will jettison the deal. A recent survey showed two-thirds of the SPD rank and file in favor, and the party's leadership is campaigning for its passage - albeit with a distinct lack of zeal.

"It's a matter of two not-so-good alternatives," said deputy party leader Ralf Stegner. "Going into government is better than early elections and losing even more, compared to an already bad result."

The SPD garnered 20 percent of the vote in September, its worst showing since before World War II and just half the level of support it enjoyed two decades ago.

Since the election, the party's fortunes have declined further: Recent polls show its support falling to about 15 percent, good enough for only third place behind the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD). The Greens are a close fourth, threatening to displace the SPD as the country's leading party on the left. Merkel's conservative bloc has held steady at about a third of the vote.

Meanwhile, the SPD's leader of less than a year, Martin Schulz, was forced to resign after embarrassing flip-flops over whether the party would join the government and, if so, whether he would serve in it.

As the SPD flails, Kuehnert, a student and Berlin native who was unknown politically just weeks ago, has sought to fill the void. In the process, he has set off a battle for control.

"It's a power struggle between the younger generation and the older generation," said Juergen Falter, a political science professor at the University of Mainz.

The party's youths, Falter said, are enticed by the example of Jeremy Corbyn's Labour Party in Britain or the Bernie Sanders-led faction of the U.S. Democratic Party - both of which advocate a more resolutely left-wing approach.

In recent weeks, Kuehnert has traveled across Germany signing up thousands of new members and encouraging them to vote down a coalition that he warns will only betray the SPD's core beliefs. Instead, he argues, the party needs time in opposition so it can carry out "a radical renewal."

The weariness with government-through-consensus is not limited to the young left. Among the more youthful elements of Merkel's party, too, there is a hunger to ditch the political center after 12 years in which many of the CDU-led government's signature accomplishments - a minimum wage and legalization of same-sex marriage, for instance - were anathema to conservatives.

One oft-mentioned candidate to replace Merkel, 37-year-old Jens Spahn, has advocated shifting the party decidedly to the right, particularly on issues such as immigration, to win back voters lost to the AfD.

The leader of the CDU youth wing, meanwhile, publicly lamented the loss of powerful ministries in negotiations with the SPD and suggested that the CDU's top figures should have fought harder to keep control of key areas such as finance.

"The mood at the base is more than bad," Paul Ziemiak said after the coalition deal was announced this month, according to the German weekly Der Spiegel.

But even as Ziemiak and other young CDU activists have fallen in line behind Merkel in recent days, Kuehnert and the SPD's youth wing remain in open rebellion.

The depth of their dissatisfaction was on display one recent night in the Marzahn district of east Berlin, a working-class area where the AfD has recently made gains.

As Kuehnert made his case for a no vote, 19-year-old Lisa-Marie Sager said the appeal resonated with her own fear that her party is more concerned with staying in power than with fighting for principles.

"Even in a wealthy country like Germany, there are huge gaps between rich and poor and between [pay for] men and women," she said. "Our leaders will say, 'We've got to do this' or 'We've got to do that.' And if the other party disagrees, then the SPD says, 'Oh, maybe it didn't matter that much.' But what's more important than equality?"

Sager, a student and local SPD activist, said she was committed to voting down the coalition.

But not everyone was so certain. Even among the party's young, there was anguish over the SPD's future as its poll numbers crater - and a fear that the far right will continue to rise no matter how the SPD votes.

"If we have a grand coalition, the AfD will do well. And if we vote no, the AfD will also do well," said Dennis Kovoussoglou, a 22-year-old biotechnology student. "So what are we going to do?"

- - -

The Washington Post's Luisa Beck contributed to this report.TORRINGTON  Jamie Lynn Boothe traveled a hard road to find himself. But he learned along the way, and has found joy and pleasure in becoming an author, he said this week.

Boothe, a Torrington resident and native of Moneta, Virginia, said Monday that he was an avid reader as a child, fascinated by the way authors could create a world of their own devising, and began to write poetry in high school.

Putting the words together allowed him an escape from tough times, he said  he was living in a foster home after an abusive childhood. He became close to his foster parents, who taught (him) what love was, but carried scars into adulthood.

As he got older, he said he traveled to North Carolina, West Virginia, Tennessee and Colorado before coming to Connecticut. Along the way, he struggled with alcoholism, homelessness, suicidal thoughts, a sense of worthlessness and confusion, searching for who he was, he said.

I guess I kept moving around so much because I didnt know who I was, I didnt know what I wanted. I knew I wanted to write, but I was in search of something, but I wasnt sure what it was, said Boothe. Ive been around the block a few times, and it took me coming here, and hitting rock bottom here  it could have been anywhere, but it happened to be here... to finally surrender and say, okay God, Im ready.

He hit his limit in Torrington and started something new. After being hospitalized and finding belief in God, he began proceeding through Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous and took up a lifelong dream, he said.

Boothe said he wrote poetry while he traveled, but didnt begin writing his first novel until he was clean for six months, living in a sober home on Brightwood Avenue. He had always wanted to write one, but figured it wouldnt happen unless he got started.

Over the next few months, he put together a draft, which became Nightmares and Dreams, his first book. It was a pleasure to complete, he said.

I remember sitting in the living room, writing the last paragraph, and I started crying, because I finally wrote my first novel, said Boothe. It was a great feeling.

He has since written 10 books, often featuring romantic and inspirational themes. He has been sober for six years.

Boothe said he is trying to tell down-to-earth, real stories. Hes seeking a deal with a literary agent, which would allow him to write full time.

After battling addiction and going through recovery, he found himself through the tumult  a sensitive and caring individual, able to love and be loved, with belief in himself, he said.

I was told everyday growing up that I would never amount to anything, that I was stupid, I was dumb, that I was gay  that I was worthless, said Boothe. When you hear that every single day of your life, you believe it. So for many years I was confused about my sexuality, I was confused and I was scared and I didnt believe in myself as a person, I didnt think I was worthwhile, I didnt think anyone cared about me or loved me. And I was wrong all those years.

Now, he has a home, a job helping people with disabilities in Winsted, and is a published author. He is grateful for where he is today, with people in his life who care about him and a roof over his head. He knows himself.

I know who I am today, and I know Im worthwhile. And thats one reason why I write inspirational stuff, said Boothe. We all have demons. We all have skeletons in the closet. We just have to fight them.

As he pursues a full-time deal, he hopes his books leave people inspired and moved, as he draws on his past and his present.

I tell readers  and in a way, Im joking when I say it, but in a way Im not  that if I didnt move you to tears, then I didnt write a very good story, because everything I write, I write from the heart, said Boothe. Everything I write, somewhere in that book, I write from experience. And its realistic, every day stuff  some of its good, some of Its painful. But its where people can connect with it.

Boothes works are available on Amazon  https://www.amazon.com/Jamie-Lynn-Boothe/e/B00D4R8QZW.WASHINGTON (AP)  The Justice Department said Tuesday it will support local officials in hundreds of lawsuits against manufacturers and distributors of powerful opioid painkillers that are fueling the nations drug abuse crisis.

The move is part of a broader effort to more aggressively target prescription drugmakers for their role in the epidemic, Attorney General Jeff Sessions said. The Justice Department will file a statement of interest in the multidistrict lawsuit, arguing the federal government has borne substantial costs as a result of the crisis that claimed more than 64,000 lives in 2016.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton was one of seven who attended Sessions news conference announcing the Justice Departments actions to combat the national opioid epidemic.

The opioid crisis demands the attention of federal, state, local and private sector leaders. My office will continue to do everything it can to protect Texans from the opioid crisis, Paxton said in a statement.

Texas was among 40 states that last year served investigative subpoenas and other requests on eight companies that either manufacture or distribute opioids. In 2016, there were an estimated 1,3000 deaths in Texas that were tied to opioids, according to a news release from Paxtons office.

Several local governments are among those in Texas that already have filed their own lawsuits.

Bexar County commissioners decided in October to sue opioid drug manufacturers and distributors it blames for an addiction epidemic that has hit Bexar hard. More than 100 Bexar County residents died from opioid-related overdoses in 2015, which means opioid overdoses led to almost six deaths per 100,000 in the county, according to an analysis by the San Antonio Express-News.

The San Antonio City Council has discussed in closed session whether to join opioid litigation but have yet to make a formal decision.

In December, the commissioners for both Kendall and Kerr counties also voted to sue. (for hyperlink purposes: https://www.expressnews.com/news/local/article/Kendall-Kerr-counties-prepare-to-sue-over-opioid-12422829.php)

The Trump administration has said it is focusing intensely on fighting drug addiction, but critics say its efforts fall short of what is needed. Trump signed off this month on a bipartisan budget deal to provide a record $6 billion over the next two years to fight opioids, but its not yet decided how that will be allocated.

The statement of interest was the latest move by the Justice Department, which has also sought to crack down on black market drug peddlers and doctors who negligently prescribe.

It could increase the role of the federal government in talks aimed at reaching a settlement between government entities, drugmakers, distributors and others. A federal judge in Cleveland is overseeing the talks as an attempt to resolve the case rather than hold a trial involving more than 370 plaintiffs, mostly county and local governments. The talks also include a group of about 40 states that are conducting a joint investigation of the crisis but which have not yet sued, as well as states that have sued in state courts.

Targets of the lawsuits include drugmakers such as Allergan, Johnson & Johnson, and Purdue Pharma, and the three large drug distribution companies, Amerisource Bergen, Cardinal Health and McKesson. Drug distributors and manufacturers named in these and other lawsuits have said they dont believe litigation is the answer but have pledged to help solve the crisis.

Any settlement deal could include billions of dollars in payments that could be used for treatment programs, abuse prevention and to cover some of the costs incurred by government dealing with the crisis. A filing could also put the federal government in line to receive some of the payouts in a deal. But any settlement is not likely to cover the cost of the crisis. A White House report last year estimated the annual cost at about $500 billion, including deaths, health care, lost productivity and criminal justice costs.

Its a game-changer, Ohios attorney general Mike DeWine said of the Justice Departments involvement. Its a real realization of what has been going on.

The latest effort by the Justice Department targets powerful, but legal, prescription painkillers OxyContin and Vicodin, which have been widely blamed for ushering in the drug crisis. But prescribing of those drugs has been falling since 2011 due to policies by government, medical and law enforcement officials designed to reverse years of overprescribing.

The majority of opioid deaths now involve illegal drugs, especially the ultra-potent opioid fentanyl. Deaths tied to those fentanyl and related drugs doubled in 2016, to more than 19,000, dragging down Americans life expectancy for the second year in a row.Officials in Hays County urged park visitors to begin carrying pepper spray in case they come into contact with a mountain lion.

The warning earlier this week came after multiple deer were killed by a mountain lion near Blue Hole Park in Wimberley, roughly 60 miles northwest of San Antonio, said Ray Helm, Hays County Constable for Precinct 3.

"There has been sightings in the Woodcreek North area and Woodcreek the past several years. We will not harm these cats unless they become a immediate threat," he said.

RELATED: Mountain lion roaming Texas neighborhood captured

Authorities received a report of a killed dear last week and one this week, Helm said. Hays County Deputy Keith Tomlin investigated the deer found this week and determined it was killed by a mountain lion.

"Keep pepper spray or some hornet spray while you walk the parks," Helm said. "If you spot one you are welcome to call us to report the sighting."

The recommendation came just days after authorities captured a mountain lion in a residential South Laredo neighborhood on Sunday. Homes in the area were evacuated as the animal was contained.

But Helm said hikers shouldn't be too concerned, as mountain lions do not look for humans as food.

RELATED: Coyote caught on camera in Monte Vista

Texas Parks and Wildlife Department officials said mountain lion attacks on humans are rare. If Texans do come into contact with a mountain lion, officials suggest staying calm, keeping eye contact with the animal, appearing larger by waving your arms or grabbing a stick, and if the mountain lion does attack, to fight back.

"Only four attacks on humans in Texas have been reported since 1980, all of them in remote areas of West Texas," they said.

Kelsey Bradshaw is a digital reporter for mySA.com. Read more of her stories here.| kbradshaw@express-news.net | Twitter: @kbrad5Federal authorities on Wednesday introduced jurors to the bylaws of Texas ruling biker club, the same day that a state prosecutor in Waco dismissed 13 cases against bikers stemming from the deadly 2015 shootout there.

The rules of the Bandidos Motorcycle Club were shown to a federal jury in the second day of the racketeering trial of former Bandidos Motorcycle Club President Jeffrey Fay Pike and ex-vice president John Xavier Portillo.

RELATED: S.A. murder suspect captured in Mex. resort town after years on the lam

FBI special agent Scott Schuster, who has spent five years investigating the Bandidos, testified that the bylaws lay out everything from what a prospective member must do to join the Bandidos, to required club dues, to prohibitions such as lying to other members.

Dues from its 130 to 140 local chapters in the United States  35 to 40 of them in Texas with 300 members  generate more than $100,000 to the national chapter, according to Schuster.

Some rules, Schuster said, are not written down, but are understood, including a very important one: Do not cooperate with law enforcement.

RELATED: Boyfriend, who said cheerleader stopped breathing after rough sex, arrested

A member who violates the rules, Schuster said, may be fined, knocked down a rank to being assaulted and having your (Bandidos) patch pulled.

And if you get kicked out, you must remove ... (Bandidos) tattoos, or they will be removed for you, Schuster added.

Schuster also testified that Bandidos hide their discussions of illegal activity by using face-to-face meetings, talking in code or using burner cell phones. Also members will hold meetings in locations where they can control access, so it limits law enforcement surveillance, Schuster testified.

But in cross-examination, Pikes lead lawyer, Dick DeGuerin, aimed to show that the Bandidos is more of a social club with a commonality of veterans who have an affinity for motorcycles  instead of the criminal enterprise that law enforcement paints them to be.

In a separate action, McLennan County District Attorney Abel Reyna announced at a press conference Wednesday morning that he intends to dismiss 13 Twin Peaks cases and will refuse 24 others that had not been indicted, the Waco Herald-Tribune reported.

Reyna said that brings a total of 58 Twin Peaks cases that have been disposed of from the more than 100 he indicted in the aftermath of the 2015 shootout that involved Bandidos, Cossacks and police.

Reyna cited evidence that has yet to be introduced in the federal trial, including transcripts of the feds wiretap operation against Portillo, that Reyna says helps prove his offices theory that members of the Bandidos traveled to Waco to confront members of a rival club, the Cossacks  resulting in the shootout.

That is what we have stated all along, that there was an issue between the groups, he said, according to The Associated Press.

The ex-Bandidos leaders are not charged in the federal case with what transpired in Waco, in which nine bikers were killed and 20 were injured. However, their indictment charges numerous other acts  including assaults before the Waco incident against Cossacks and other rivals  as part of a racketeering conspiracy stretching 16 years  from January 2000 to when Pike and Portillo were arrested in January 2016.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Eric Fuchs said during the trial that as part of the racketeering acts, Portillo declared war on the Cossacks in 2014. And, while other attacks on the rival bikers are part of the federal case, Fuchs said Waco forms no basis for the charges against the former Bandidos bosses.In a mySA.com survey, most respondents said students who choose to walk out of school to protest gun violence should not be punished.

Plans for protests and walkouts have erupted all over the country in the days following the mass killing of 17 people at a Florida high school. Students who survived the Parkland shooting have taken the lead on speaking to media about gun control and encouraging peers to stand up for what they believe in.

Multiple national school walkouts are scheduled for March and April. Of the 6,733 people who took the unscientific mySA NextDoor survey, 55 percent said students should not be punished for walking out while 33 percent said they should. Twelve percent of respondents said they weren't sure.

RELATED: Threats made against schools run rampant in Texas after Florida mass shooting

Ten San Antonio schools are listed on the organizing page for the April 20 walkout. Districts including North East Independent School District said students who walk out of class will receive unexcused absences. Officials with the San Antonio Independent School District said students who walk out of class and leave campus would also receive an unexcused absence but principals at high schools where there is interest will plan a "structured, peaceful assembly" on campus.

In the Houston area, some school officials are taking a harder line and threatening to suspect students to participate in the protests.

But colleges in Texas and across the nation have said high school students who are punished for protesting will not be penalized when they apply.

The University of Texas at San Antonio also said it would still consider students who walk out.

"Civic activism is as important a component in the development of tomorrow's leaders as an academic education. We expect students to be engaged citizens and to exercise their civic responsibility of speaking out on important issues facing society," said UTSA President Taylor Eighmy. "Students who apply to UTSA will not be penalized for participating in peaceful protests, even if their high schools take disciplinary action against them."

Kelsey Bradshaw is a digital reporter for mySA.com. Read more of her stories here.| kbradshaw@express-news.net | Twitter: @kbrad5As Mark Howerton faces charges of murder and sexual assault in the death of his Trinity University cheerleader girlfriend Cayley Mandadi, court documents reveal the violent weeks leading up to her death last October.

Mandadi, 19, was pronounced dead on Oct. 31, 2017 after she fell unconscious while in a car traveling to Houston. Though Howerton said the two had "rough sex" before she passed out, authorities said her injuries were consistent with "physical and violent sexual assault."

In affidavits, Mandadi's friends described previous violent incidents.

One said she had previously seen bruises on Mandadi's legs and Mandadi said they were caused by Howerton, according to the affidavit. The same friend said she accompanied Mandadi to retrieve her cellphone from Howerton. She said Howerton became aggressive, pulled a gun out of his glove box and threatened to shoot people, documents show.

RELATED: Suspect in death of Trinity University cheerleader arrested on charges of murder, sexual assault

Multiple friends described hearing of an incident where Howerton slammed Mandadi's head against a car window. One said Mandadi was scared of Howerton, according to the affidavits.

In the early morning hours of Sept. 24, 2017, about a month before Mandadi was pronounced dead in Kyle, Texas, Trinity University police found Howerton, 22, alone in her destroyed dorm room.

According to documents, Mandadi's suitemate called police after hearing "loud noises" and yelling between a man and woman.

Mandadi's suitemates said a man was heard saying he could "smash" someone's face, documents show.

Responding officers found Howerton alone in the room at 1:22 a.m. He denied any argument and said he had been in his girlfriend's dorm since 11 p.m. while she was at a party, according to an affidavit.

He reportedly invited authorities into the room, which was described in documents as being in "disarray."

Decorations were broken on the floor, a glass sliding door was cracked and Mandadi's bedding was wet with soda that had been poured on it, according to documents.

When Mandadi returned to her room she appeared "distraught" over the damage, documents show.

"She also stated that the room had not been in this condition when she had left earlier," the document reads. "Ms. Mandadi state that she was now very scared that Mr. Howerton would return."

Friends of Mandadi told investigators they believed Howerton was using and dealing anabolic steroids and "roid rage" was his excuse for destroying her room. They also stated that Howerton threatened to throw Mandadi off the balcony that night.

Damages were estimated to be $1,337 for the door and $132 for the bed. Howerton was charged with criminal mischief for this incident. On Nov. 2, 2017, Trinity University eventually issued a criminal trespass warning that barred Howerton from entering campus for a year.

Howerton's attorney, John T. Hunter, said his client turned himself in Wednesday afternoon.

"Mr. Howerton maintains his innocence, and we ask the public to honor the presumption of his innocence," Hunter said. "He turned himself in because that's what a responsible citizen does if there's a warrant out for his arrest."

Madalyn Mendoza is a digital reporter for MySA.com. Read more of her stories here.| mmendoza@mysa.com | Twitter: @MaddySkyeIf you're looking for a great place to live in the San Antonio area, consider looking beyond the city's center.

AreaVibes, a website that scores the livability of cities across the United States, recently ranked the best neighborhoods to live in San Antonio in 2018.

Though top picks include traditionally upscale areas such as Terrell Hills, Olmos Park and Alamo Heights, many other desirable neighborhoods lie beyond the city's outer loop.

RELATED: 10 homes for sale in one of San Antonio's trendiest neighborhoods

To come up with its score, AreaVibes used data from the U.S. Census, FBI Uniform Crime Reports, the Environmental Protection Agency and others and graded neighborhoods  A through F  in seven categories. Each area was then given a total "livability score."

Residents and potential home buyers wanting to live in San Antonio's "most livable" areas will likely pay more to live there. Seven of the 15 top neighborhoods scored a F for Cost of Living.

Ten of the 15 neighborhoods scored an A or A+ in the Crime category, but Castle Hills was the lone city on the ranking with an F grade for crime.

While Castle Hills Police Chief Johnny Siemens doesn't refute the study's findings, he also doesn't think it's indicative of the town's reputation. Castle Hills police are "proactive," and many crimes that are reported are "typically transient-type crime"  like theft, drunken driving and narcotics, he told mySA.

"It's not like we have a lot of hot spots or trouble areas in the city," Siemens said.

According to the most recent data available from the FBI's UCR, Castle Hills reported one property crime for every 12.5 residents in 2016. The violent crime rate was much lower, coming in at a rate of one for every 897 residents.

Overall, San Antonio received a B+ for Cost of Living and an F rating for Crime. The Alamo City had a property crime rate of one for every 19.2 residents, according to the FBI.

Take a look at the best neighborhoods to live in San Antonio in 2018 in the slideshow above.

erobinson@mysa.com | Twitter: @eeelizzzabeth

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Sixty kilos of liquid meth worth $6 million was found in a hidden compartment during a traffic stop thanks to Fayette County's beloved K9, Lobos, authorities said.

Sgt. Randy Thumann and his four-legged partner pulled over a 2007 Chevrolet Tahoe on Monday afternoon near mile marker 658 on I-10, according to a news release from the sheriff's office.The suspect in a 2006 San Antonio killing was arrested Tuesday in Cancun, Mexico, ending a 12-year manhunt.

Freddie Alaniz, 37, was returned to the U.S. Wednesday and is being held in a detention facility in Houston, awaiting extradition to San Antonio, where he will face charges of murder, sexual assault of a child and marijuana possession.

RELATED: Sheriff: Deputies shoot suicidal, shotgun-wielding man at west Bexar Co. home

"Today's arrest was not only a testament to the diligent work of the law enforcement officers who joined together to capture Alaniz, but more importantly, justice for the victims and their family members who suffered at the hands of this fugitive," said Melesio Hernandez, the United States Marshal for the Western District of Texas.

Alaniz was arrested in 2006 on a charge of aggravated assault after he allegedly stabbed a man during a fight and then left him for dead. He fled after posting bail.

RELATED: 'They just killed him over a car': Family looking for answers after double shooting at S.A. hotel

He was soon on the Texas Department of Public Safety's Top-10 Most Wanted Fugitives list but he remained at large for more than a decade.

A break in the case came when authorities learned Alaniz had fled to Mexico. Further investigation by the U.S. Marshals Service and Mexican authorities revealed he was located in Cancun, where he was then arrested.

Text "NEWS" to 77453 for breaking news alerts from mySA.com

Caleb Downs is a crime reporter for mySA.com. Read more of his stories here.| cdowns@mysa.com | Twitter: @calebjdownsA San Antonio man could be in even bigger trouble after a phone call he made from jail, authorities said.

Damian Barajas, 22, was in custody on a possession of marijuana charge when he admitted to another crime while on the phone, according to police.

On Feb. 20, police tried pulling over Barajas after receiving a tip that he was dealing drugs, according to an arrest affidavit.

Barajas sped away from police, but officers found his parked car later that day and saw him running away. Officers also noted he appeared to be clutching something as he ran, which police believed were narcotics, according to the affidavit.

RELATED: Police: Family friend sexually assaulted two S.A.-area girls, made them watch porn

Police arrested Barajas, but officers couldn't find the suspected drugs he was holding, authorities said.

While Barjas was in custody at the magistrate's office, he made several phone calls to his friends and told them he fled on foot because he had "a lot of s**t" on him," according to the affidavit.

Barajas allegedly told his friends he jumped several fences, cutting his hands and his shirt, to stow marijuana in two separate backyards.

Barajas was additionally charged with tampering with evidence Thursday. A judge set his bail at $5,000, according to jail records.

Fares Sabawi covers crime in San Antonio and Bexar County for mySA.com. Read more of his stories here. | fsabawi@mysa.comPark officials are asking the public to report any suspicious activity after a teenager reportedly picked up a package containing a kilo of cocaine on the beaches of Padre Island National Seashore.

According to a KRIS-TV report, a teenager stumbled upon the package Saturday and walked it back to Corpus Christi city limits before calling police.Jenell Patterson visited Rev's Funeral Parlor in Fort Worth on Monday for the second time in six months.

This visit was for her brother, 25-year-old Robert Patterson, who was fatally shot last week during a violent robbery at a hotel on the northwest side of San Antonio.

"They just killed him over a car," Jenell Patterson said. "A car. Materialistic stuff. It wasn't even worth it.

"I don't understand," she said after a pause.

RELATED: 'A classic sociopath': Abused victims of Stone Oak playboy speak out after years of violence

According to a police report, Robert Patterson and his girlfriend, Rachel Finney, had been staying at the Best Western Plus hotel in the 4800 block of Manitou Drive the night of the shooting. Around 1:10 a.m., two people came to their room and opened fire on the couple as they lay in bed.

The assailants then grabbed the keys to Finney's new Dodge Charger and fled, one in the Charger, the other in a Kia Soul, police said. They are still at large.

Finney survived the shooting with a non-life threatening gunshot wound to the neck. After the shooting ended, she ran down the hotel hallway for help. A witness saw her and called 911. By the time police arrived, Finney was falling in and out of consciousness. Paramedics rushed her to University Hospital in critical but stable condition. She has since been released.

A police officer found Robert Patterson's body lying on the blood-splattered bed of his hotel room. Two bullet shells were found on the ground near the bed.

Now Jenell Patterson and her family are trying to comprehend the second loss.

Only months had passed since her first visit to the funeral home, after her husband and childhood sweetheart, Quinton Strong, died of heart failure in September at the age of 26. In the months preceding his death, he suffered multiple strokes and worked through dialysis treatment. All the while, Patterson and the couple's two children helplessly watched as Strong's life ebbed.

"It's a repeat of things," Patterson, 30, said. "It's awful. I wish that I could've spent more time with my brother, but it's too late for all of that."

She tried to explain her feelings through the crime shows she and Robert Patterson used to watch together. In just about every episode, she said, there's a grieving family member who says something along the lines of "You never think it's going to happen to you."

"And it's really true," she said. "They never thought it would happen to them, and that's how I feel. I don't even know how to begin to deal with my brother."

The Pattersons are based in Fort Worth, but "Robbie," as his family called him, was a free spirit who loved to travel. He and Finney spent their time in Los Angeles, Atlanta and San Antonio, which they both loved to visit.

RELATED: Teen found shot to death in East Side street was mourning mother, trying to earn GED

Both Jenell Patterson and Robert Patterson's former girlfriend, Na'Shen Williams Turley, said he had just begun to find his own path and build a solid life for himself when he was killed. Both women said he was supportive, someone who was there when they needed him: Jenell after the death of her husband, and Turley as she was pregnant with their son.

"It is really sad and senseless," Turley said. "He was just starting to find his way. I had just spoken to him and he sounded so happy and satisfied with life, and they robbed him of that. It's not fair to him nor his family."

Police said on Tuesday that no arrests have been made since the shooting almost a week ago. The police report describes the suspects as a black man and a black woman. The man is about 20- to 35-years-old and is about 5 feet 10 inches tall. He was last seen wearing grey sweat pants, white shorts, a yellow and green jacket and a black cap. The woman's age is unknown, but she is about 5 feet 6 inches tall and weighs 140 pounds. She was wearing a pink shirt, blue jeans, a beige hat and a green hoodie with a white, circular emblem on the back.

Police continue to investigate the shooting. Anyone with information on the suspects is asked to call the San Antonio Police Department Homicide Unit at 210-207-7635.

Patterson's family has created a GoFundMe account to help raise funds to pay for his funeral service.

Text "NEWS" to 77453 for breaking news alerts from mySA.com

Caleb Downs is a crime reporter for mySA.com. Read more of his stories here.| cdowns@mysa.com | Twitter: @calebjdownsA 20-year-old man is facing child sex abuse charges after two girls reported him to the Odessa Police Department.

Two 16-year-olds went to police a month apart, in November and December of 2017, and said Kyler Rexton Bruton sexually assaulted them, according to Odessa police.Mayor Ron Nirenberg and San Antonio Chamber of Commerce President Richard Perez came out swinging Wednesday against a firefighters union campaign to amend the city charter.

Nirenberg and Perez both said the unions push for three charter amendments would be extremely detrimental to the city, its ability to govern and would result in higher taxes and fees for residents.

The San Antonio Professional Fire Fighters Association last week launched a petition campaign for three charter amendments.

RELATED: San Antonio mayor warns fire union proposal could hurt CPS Energy credit rating

One would cap the salary for the city manager and place a term limit of eight years on the position. The second would mandate that the city and union go to binding arbitration when they reach an impasse on contract negotiations, rather than to litigate. And the third would remove current prohibitions against citizen referendums on several council actions, including levying taxes, setting utility rates and appropriating tax dollars.

Nirenberg said the unions campaign is about destroying the citys ability to operate effectively.

It would deform the city charter and hamstring the city, he said.

Nirenberg also said that Chris Steele, president of the firefighters union did not represent the best interest of the citys rank-and-file first responders.

One union boss prefers to perpetuate his own petty political drama, he said. Firefighters deserve better.

OPINION: Firefighter plan would wreck the city

Perez said the local business community is unified in its opposition to the unions efforts. He said that if approved, the amendments would undermine representative government and residents.

The chamber publicly and emphatically opposes the petition drive, he said.

Union boss Chris Steele attended the press conference on the steps of City Hall. Standing among a gaggle of reporters, he recorded it with his cell phone. Immediately after the press conference ended, several reporters attempted to ask Steele for his reaction. He walked away quickly, ignoring questions from several members of the media.SEYMOUR  The massive American flag overlooking town once again is flying high.

The flag  20 feet by 30 feet  is back atop French Memorial Park following a brief hiatus.

The flag wasnt present for most of January and February, according to local businessman and lifelong resident Stanley Jachimowski, donor and the keeper of the flag.

I was driving across the Bank Street Bridge on January 9, and looked toward the sky and saw the flag wasnt there, Jachimowski said. Just earlier in the day, when he crossed the same bridge, Jachimowski said the flag was still there.

The flag can be seen from many parts of downtown Seymour, along Route 8 and beyond. When Jachimowski noticed it wasnt there , he took a ride to French Park to see what couldve happened to the flag.

I noticed footprints in the snow, but there was no flag to be found, he said.

Jachimowski inquired with Public Works employees and even the police to see whether anybody knew what had happened.

A few days later, Jachimowski received a phone call from Town Hall. First Selectman Kurt Millers administrative assistant, Rory Burke, had good news. He told Jachimowski two men came in and dropped off a giant flag they said they found in a wooded area on the ground near the flag pole. Burke said he didnt catch the names of the good Samaritans, but was glad to see a glorious ending for Old Glory.

Jachimowski got to work on figuring out how to hoist the flag back up the pole. He didnt want to have to hire a crane, but needed to get the flag back atop the 80-foot pole.

Jachimowski a couple of weeks later was in touch with Citizens Engine Co. Fire Chief Michael Lombardi, who, after meeting with the volunteer members, offered to hoist the flag back into place courtesy of the departments ladder truck.

Jachimowski said the flag itself had no tatters or tears but the wire and cable it was attached to was damaged. A local businessman, Steve Clark, from Brookview Heavy Equipment, offered to make some reinforced hardware for the flag, for which Jachimowski said hes eternally grateful .

Earlier this week, several volunteer firefighters from Citizens Engine Co., along with some veterans from Emil Senger American Legion Post 10, raised the flag.

I am so thankful not only to the two men who found and returned the flag, and because they were patriotic to bring it back, but to the Citizens Engine Co., Fire Chief Michael Lombardi, the Emil Senger veterans and Steve Clark for all their help, said Jachimowski. Its wonderful to see the flag back.

Jachimowski, who owns Jachimowski Construction Co. in business here since 1967, and his wife, Phyllis, donated the flag and the illuminated flag pole to the town three years ago to pay homage to the sacrifices and bravery of those in the military.WILTON  When Wilton Public Schools made computers a core component of the curriculum last year, it opened a world of opportunities for the district  but, it also introduced new possibilities for technological abuses as well.

As the district expanded its digital footprint with its Ready Access program, which provides students from third grade up through high school with personal Chromebook laptops and access to a wide array of Google programs, so grew the need for the district to monitor students increased chat capabilities.

As districts like ours move forward with a digital learning environment, there is a kind of gap and a need for something that looks at communication tools like Google, said Fran Kompar, the districts director of instructional technology and digital learning.

To bridge that gap, the school district enlisted the services of Gaggle, a company focused on providing security management to school districts like Wilton that have an increasing reliance on technology. The company, which has offered archiving services to the school district since 2014, expanded its role in town to include 24-hour monitoring of student emails, Google documents and all G-Suite chats.

The $15,000-a-year program includes services for Wilton High, Cider Mill and Middlebrook schools  all of which are a part of the districts Ready Access program.

Under Gaggle, student activity on school accounts are pored over by algorithms designed to reveal potentially harmful content, such as profane language, pornographic images or cyberbullying. The material is also vetted by trained professionals, who can alert school officials and local police in the event of a serious transgression.

Though the district already educates students on safe internet practices as part of its digital citizenship classes, Kompar said that Gaggle helps to reinforce what students are being taught about the internet.

Ultimately, living in today's digital society requires a balance between knowledgeable, creative use of tools in a new, collaborative environment, while providing a safe space to do so. Gaggle is one of the tools in that toolbox that helps us with that goal. Beginning the lessons while our children are young will serve them well as they move on to college and career, Kompar said.

School administrators are benefiting from Gaggle, too. Not only does the program work as a deterrent for unsafe internet practices, but administrators also receive access to an interactive dashboard for insight into incidents and to help keep students on track.

Any time we can ensure that students are using their tools in a safe manner  and then if theyre not, being able to educate them around that  is a win-win for us, said Kim Zemo, the safe school climate coordinator for the district.

While the district first began considering Gaggle in mid-2017, a number of hate speech incidents during the 2017-2018 school year have only emphasized the need to monitor the newly added digital frontier.

Since being implemented in mid-October, Gaggle has become a platform for teachers and administrators to teach students that the same rules that apply to speech in public hold true on the internet as well.

Were really looking at these not as gotcha moments, but as a way to educate students on appropriate behavior, Zemo said. This is just another way to identify struggling students and to put supports in place.

Though there havent been any suspensions or expulsions as a result of Gaggle findings yet, its the preventative aspect of the service that has impressed administrators most so far.

It allows us to be more proactive. Were probably in a better place to prevent particular instances from happening, and those are harder to quantify, Kompar said.BUSINESSMAN Energy Mutodi has challenged former Defence minister Sydney Sekeramayi and Health minister, David Parirenyatwa to withdraw their $40 000 defamation suit against him if they are no longer interested in pursuing the matter.

Sekeramayi and Parirenyatwa jointly sued Mutodi late last year, accusing him of posting falsehoods on his Facebook page regarding the poisoning of President Emmerson Mnangagwa.

After receiving the summons, through his lawyers Chinyama and Associates, Mutodi demanded urgent trial, saying further delays were inconveniencing him.

Please kindly note that we filed our plea on October 27, 2017 and we have not heard from you. May you kindly indicate if you still intend to pursue this matter? If you have no intention to do so, may you file a notice of withdrawal?, the businessman said in a letter addressed to the twos lawyers, Machingura legal practitioners.

Prior to writing to the ministers lawyers, Mutodi had responded to the litigation denying any involvement with the alleged Facebook post.

It is further denied that the defendant (Mutodi) operates a Facebook page under the name Energy Mutodi. It is denied that such a Facebook page can be ascribed to the defendant neither was it opened at the instance of the defendant who denies any links with it, Chinyama said.

It could be that some other persons unknown to the defendant could have opened such a page using the defendants name and photograph. He will further states that before the alleged publication of the article in other news website or Facebook, no one contacted him from Facebook and from news websites to verify the correctness or authenticity of the source of the article. The first and the second defendants (Sekeramayi and Parirenyatwa) have to look to Facebook and these news websites for relief.

In their litigation, the two ministers claimed sometime in August last year, Mutodi allegedly posted on his Facebook wall an article titled Two ministers top suspects in ED poison case which circulated countrywide and beyond the borders.

The article, according to the ministers, put them in bad light as it insinuated that they gave Mnangagwa samoosas, sandwiches and grapes that were laced with poison.

The food, according to the online report, came from Sekeramayis home.

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Related Zimbabwe Latest News- Following President Buhari's rejection of the Peace Corps bill, its commandant claims there is conspiracy against the youths

- He said some persons had vowed not to allow President Buhari sign the bill to recognise them

- According to him, the matter is still on as the National Assembly can still take it up

Dickson Akoh who is the commandant of Peace Corps of Nigeria has claimed those who were against the group in the first place conspired to see it rejected by President Muhammadu Buhari.

Legit.ng had reported that President Buhari withheld assent to the bill on Tuesday, February 27, citing security concerns, duplication of roles and lack of funds as his reasons.

READ ALSO: Herdsmen reportedly invade Benue community, order residents out

Akoh spoke after a House of Representatives committee meeting, alleging that security agencies work against them.

He said: The same people that opposed the bill with the same content during the National Assemblys public hearing, took the matter before the president, telling him that instead of voting money for a new establishment, they should use it to boost money for their own activities.

They had said it is a duplication of their functions but we made an advertorial in some newspapers to show the differences in the functions. Whatever they have done has not brought the situation to an end. The National Assembly may still take it up.

The commandant said the organisation is in the interest of the youth but that from what I am seeing, there is a conspiracy against the youth. Let them (the youth) be jobless and be committing crimes and let these people have more money and jail them. I think that is the conspiracy."

He claimed some persons had sworn to do everything possible to see President Buhari does not grant assent to the bill.

Akoh said: We have the tape that immediately after the passage of the bill by the national assembly, it was conspired and sworn to God Almighty to forestall the passage of the bill. We have bills that have suffered similar fate and resistance and were later passed. So we have hope that one day, propped attention will be given to the bill.

Meanwhile, Legit.ng had previously reported that President Buhari rejected the Nigerian Peace Corps Bill.

Sources said the president is bowing to security advice not to assent the bill which has faced lots of controversies. The bill approved by the National Assembly was earlier sent to the president in December 2017 through the legislative clerk, Sani Omolori.

PAY ATTENTION: Read the news on Nigerias #1 news app

However, it was gathered that a 30-day window period which is needed for the president to append his signature on the bill has elapsed.

Smartphones giveaway. Hurry up! 1 week until winner announced - on Legit.ng TV

Source: Legit- Henry Okah has rejected the dismissal of his appeals by the Constitutional Court of South Africa

- Okah has applied to appeal his case at the International Court of Justie

- He is facing terrorism charges for the 2010 Nigeria's Independence Day attacks that killed 12 people

After the Constitutional Court of South Africa dismissed his appeal, leader of the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), Henry Okah, has re-appealed his case at the International Court of Justice (ICJ).

In 2013, the Constitutional Court of South Africa convicted Okah of 13 charges of terrorism, including bombings that killed 12 people in Abuja on October 1, 2010.

Okah, in a letter written from Kokstad Prison, Kwa-Zulu Natal in South Africa, said he has ordered his lawyer to seek redress at the ICJ, Sahara Reporters reports.

Okah, in his letter said: "I totally disagree with the ruling of the South African Constitutional Court, which ruling sidestepped pertinent questions posed to the court by my legal representatives and have therefore instructed my laWyers to seek redress at the International Court of Justice. My lawyers are in complete agreement with my position on the ruling by South Africa's highest court in this matter.

READ ALSO: Exercise Cat Race: Troops arrest herdsmen while setting ablaze Gwamba village

"The situation in the Niger Delta is a conflict as defined by International Human Law (IHL), the internationally accepted body of legislation for adjudicating conflict situations. Therefore, prosecuting a party to a conflict in a foreign country under the South African Anti-Terrorism Act, where the same statute is inapplicable to other parties to that same conflict is, in my opinion, illogical, and in fact, absurd.

"It is therefore little wonder that in my sentencing, the trial judge alluded to Mr.Nelson Mandela and the leaders of the Africa National Congress (ANC) as terrorists in their prosecution of the South African armed struggle against Apartheid. The South African armed struggle against Apartheid and that undertaken by MEND are not dissimilar in substance.

"Even more shocking and without outcry is the continued imprisonment as common criminals in South African prisons of soldiers for liberation armies, who had been captured by the Apartheid government almost a quarter of a century after 'independence' in South Africa. Freedom fighters in South Africa are regarded in South African law as terrorists despite the victory against Apartheid having ostensibly been attained through violent means."

Okah alleged that the ex-president Goodluck Jonathan bribed the former president of South Africa, Jacob Zuma to keep in prison.

He said: "Every Nigerian is aware that I am imprisoned in South Africa at the insistence of the Nigerian government in cahoots with western nations plundering the resources of the Niger Delta. MTN Nigeria was instrumental in my capture in 2010 and for this, some personalities in South Africa were rewarded with oil blocks jn the Escrovas area, which are presently operated by a South African registered company named SACOIL.

"MTN South Africa also provided a witness who testified falsely at my trial, using fabricated evidence. I was informed that numerous payments disguised as donations were made by former President Goodluck Jonathan to one of ex-president Jacob Zuma's wives, who was a frequent visitor to the State House in Abuja.

"What sort of country is Nigeria where criminals such as Goodluck Jonathan who ought to be imprisoned along with past leaders and recycled corrupt politicians have the effrontery to aspire to rule Nigeria? We will be a nation of idiots to accept such nonsense.

"Goodluck Jonathan sneaked into South Africa about three weeks ago where he desperately pleaded with Mr Zuma just before he was 'recalled' by the ANC, to ensure my continued internment in this country at any cost."

PAY ATTENTION: Read the news on Nigerias #1 news app

Recall that Legit.ng previously reported that Okah's appeal to overturn his conviction was turned down on Friday, February 23, by Justice Edwin Cameron who ruled that the trial under the anti-terrorism act of South Africa was in line with the countrys international obligations.

The court upheld the 20 years jail sentence earlier handed to Okah for his 13 counts charges of terrorism, including engaging in terrorist activities, conspiracy to engage in terrorist activities, and delivering, placing, and detonating an explosive device in 2010.

Survivors of Boko Haram on Legit.ng TV

Source: Legit.ng- The PDP spokesperson in Adamawa state has been confirmed dead

- He was killed alongside 13 others in a clash between suspected herdsmen and farmers

- Soldiers were reportedly deployed and the troops trailed the herdsmen, arresting six of them while 10 others were shot dead

The spokesperson of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Adamawa state, Sam Zadock, and 13 others were confirmed killed on Tuesday, February 27, in the violence between herdsmen and farming communities in the state.

Premium Times reports that the opposition party on Wednesday, February 28, confirmed the killing of Zadock in a clash between Bachama militia and herdsmen in Numan-Demsa areas.

The PDP secretary in the state, Abdullahi Prembe, said: Its unfortunate that we lost our publicity secretary; its a great loss to our party.

Thats why we kept calling on the government to take steps in solving the lingering crisis plaguing our societies, he said.

READ ALSO: Henry Okah seeks redress at International Court of Justice, accuses Jonathan of bribing Zuma

Also confirming the incident, a Bachama youth leader, Euphraimu Turaki, said: They were on a rescue mission after herdsmen attacked some villages near Numan.

He said they were not aware the attackers had laid ambush and before you know they opened fire sporadically during which Zadock, and three others were killed instantly.

Earlier reports indicates the herdsmen, in a revenge mission on Tuesday, February 27, attacked two communities in Numan and Demsa, razing houses and leaving many residents injured and displaced.

But in a swift reaction, soldiers were deployed and the troops trailed the herdsmen and arrested six of them, while 10 others were shot dead, after showing resistance, the director of Army Public Relations, Texas Chukwu, stated.

Chukwu disclosed that the troops were deployed from 101 Special Forces Battalion.

He said: Troops deployed in the Numan local government area of Adamawa state swiftly responded to a distress call and supported troops at Gwamba village, which was under attack by herdsmen on Tuesday. Despite the swift reaction to rescue the village from destruction, the notorious herdsmen set the village ablaze before troops could get to the community.

The troops trailed the herdsmen and arrested six of them at Garigiji village while trying to escape. During the process of the arrest, the herdsmen showed resistance, which made the alerted troops to engage them and kill 10 of them.

PAY ATTENTION: Install our latest app for Android, read best news on Nigerias #1 news app

According to the army, items recovered from the herdsmen included one AK-47 rifle, 41 rounds of 7.62mm special ammunition, one locally made rifle with 25 cartridges, one cutlass, looted clothes and one motorcycle.

Legit.ng previously reported that at least nine PDP delegates were confirmed dead in a fatal crash in Kafanchan in Kaduna state.

Confirming the accident, the Federal Road Safety Corp (FRSC) said the accident took place about 38km from Kafanchan on the Kafanchan -Forest route, at past 8am on Sunday, September 1, 2013,

The accident reportedly involved two vehicles, a Volkswagen Salon with reg. no RAN 107 SA and a Toyota Hiace bus registered XA 399 SHR.

The FRSC also added that the crash left another nine injured. Victims were taken to General Hopital, Kafanchan.

Victims of herdsmen killing buried in Benue state - on Legit.ng TV

Source: Legit.ng NewsAfrican elephants are migrating to safetyand telling each other how to get there Quartz

Checking in With Alphabet Chair John Hennessy IEEE Spectrum. Hennessy: When I was growing up, we had extremely strict limitations on when we could watch TV or not; there was absolutely no TV during the week, and only limited viewing time on weekends. We have to do the same with young people and their devices today.

Google receives 2.4m requests to delete search results FT

Untrue-Tube: Monetizing Misery and Disinformation Medium

Facebooks algorithm has wiped out a once-flourishing digital publisher Business Insider. If your business depends on a platform, you dont have a business.

Money Laundering Via Author Impersonation on Amazon? Krebs on Security

Studies are increasingly clear: Uber, Lyft congest cities Minneapolis Star-Tribune

Citigroup Is Refunding $335 Million to Credit Card Customers Fortune. Plus interest?

A banking centre seeks to reinvent itself The Economist. Switzerland is maintaining loose rules for crypto-businesses, even as other countries are tightening theirs.

Powell debut steals focus from pressure in the money market FT

In-the-wild DDoSes use new way to achieve unthinkable sizes Ars Technica (DK).

Syraqistan

Brexit

Barnier: open-ended Brexit transition not possible EU Observer. Barnier also said the commissioners will adopt on Wednesday (28 February) the draft legal text of the Brexit withdrawal agreement, which will also contain the EUs starting negotiating position on transition. As Yves says: Who controls the documents controls the deal. Shoppers may be forced to buy inferior milk from America in post-Brexit trade deal with US iNews

Ministers Handed Probation Companies 342m Bailout  But Demanded No Extra Staff HuffPo UK

Brussels move on digital taxes raises transatlantic stakes Politico

Italys Election Is a Shipwreck Foreign Policy

China?

China manufacturing gauge suffers sharpest fall in 6 years FT

India

Debt burden driving farmers to suicide in Punjabs food bowl Asia Times

New Cold War

Trump Transition

Imperial Collapse Watch

Commentary: Even in worlds oldest democracies, citizens may be losing control Reuters. Political class: You say that like its a bad thing!

Democrats in DIsarray

Sex in Politics Not.

Our Famously Free Press

Models for our Media (part 3) Grassroots Economic Organizing

Net Neutrality

Health Care

Gunz

Class Warfare

Marcie Smith, adjunct econ professor at John Jay College (CUNY), on the recently departed Gene Sharp, revered but problematic theorist of nonviolence and friend of the intelligence service (podcast) Left Business Observer (and see thread here).

Keynes core insight Real World Economics Review. Bracing!

Antidote du jour (via):

Coping with the news flow.

See yesterdays Links and Antidote du Jour here.An 19 year-old Co. Tipperary youth has received an 8 year jail term with 6 years suspended for the terrifying ordeal he put another teenager through that included firing a shotgun that twice narrowly missed him, putting the gun to his head and telling him he was going to die and striking him with the gun barrel.

The defendant, who can't be named for legal reasons to protect the identity of underage witnesses, has also been ordered to pay 10,000 compensation over the next two years to the victim, who was 15 years old when the incident happened in rural South Tipperary on August 20, 2015.

He was sentenced at the final day of Clonmel Circuit Criminal Court's latest session.

Judge Tom Teehan said the sentence had to reflect the court's "abhorrence" of the defendant's actions and it should be eight years imprisionment for the false imprisonment of the youth.

To reflect the mitigating factors in the case, the Judge said he was prepared to suspend the last six years of the prison term on condition the defendant be of good behaviour and refrain from alcohol and illicit drugs during those six years. The offence of recklessly discharging a firearm was marked proven and taken into account.

The defendant was in custody in Limerick Prison for a month before the sentencing hearing after his bail was revoked because he breached the court's bail conditions to refrain from consuming alcohol and abide by a nightly curfew. Judge Teehan warned him that if he adopted a similar approach after his release from prison, he would serve a far greater period in custody.

The Judge directed the defendant pay 5000 compensation to the victim per year for the next two years and on his release from prison he must not approach the victim or his family unless at their express friendly invitation.

The evidence in the case was heard at Clonmel Circuit Court in March last year where the defendent pleaded guilty to both the false imprisonment and firearms offence. The garda sergeant, who outlined the evidence, said it was one of the most serious cases he had seen in his 28 year in the force and it was lucky no one was killed while Judge Teehan described it as one of the most "traumatic" cases he has dealt with.

The defendant was 17 years and four months old when the committed the offences. He returned home on the night of August 20 to find his 14 year-old sister was not in the house babysitting their siblings. When he discovered she was meeting with a group of youths and another girl in a field next to their home, he went outside with his father's shotgun and fired shots into the air.

The young people ran for cover and while the victim in this case was hiding in a bush, the defendant fired a shot that missed him by a foot. When the youth tried to seek refuge in the house, the defendant hit him with the butt of the gun, knocking him to the ground. When he got up, the defendant put the gun to his head and told him he was going to die. The defendant also took aim at the youth's knee but the defendant's 10 year-old brother grabbed the gun and the youth tried to run away but was again punched and struck again with the gun barrel. When the defendant let him leave the scene, he fired another shot that narrowly missed the youth.

Witness statements the gardai took established that between 10 and 17 shots were discharged during the incident. The defendant admitted firing between 10 and 15 shots.

At the sentencing hearing this month, the garda sergeant said he received a letter of apology dated January 8 from the defendant made out to the victim's mother. She informed him the apology was too late. The court was also told that the primary victim's family was not disposed to going down the road of participating in a restorative justice programme, which involves meetings through a trusted intermediary, between the victim and perpetrator.

The defendant went into the witness box and told Judge Teehan he was "totally in the wrong and he shouldn't have done what he did." He said he accepted the impact his behaviour had on the injured party and had thought a lot about it in prison.

"If I could take back what I did I would. I didn't mean to do it. I am sorry for what I did."

He appealed to Judge Teehan to give him a chance. "I screwed up. I know what I did was wrong. If you give me a chance I would appreciate it."

When asked why he hadn't saved compensation money for the victim since last March, the defendant said he found it hard to save. He had never been a good saver. He tried to get a loan but it was rejected.

Mr Cody asked him why he didn't comply with the conditions Judge Teehan set at the court hearing last March. He replied that he just didn't take the case seriously enough and agreed he hadn't appreciated the consequences of his actions.

Having spent four weeks in prison, he said he now realised what he took for granted "on the outside".

Defence counsel Colman Cody submitted there was a marked contrast between his client's attitude and demeanour at this court hearing compared to last March.

"It's fair to say, particularly because of his prison experience, that he is a very chastened young man, who knows what he is facing. "

Mr Cody said his client now had a real appreciation of what he had done and the impact on the victim and his family and urged Judge Teehan to give him a chance, albeit subject to stringent conditions.

The senior counsel had earlier acknowledged it was fair to say the court was "deeply unimpressed" by his client's attitude at the court hearing last March. In fairness, his client admitted to the offence and gave an explanation for his behaviour. The concern was that he had not sufficiently appreciated the gravity or consequences of his actions. The Probation Report, which was quite favourable to his client, did remark that he had insufficent insight or awareness of the consequences of what he had done.

There didn't seem to be any underlying psychological or psychiatric issues but he was an immature young man for his age, which explained why he hadn't engaged in fully confronting what he had done. It had been recommended that he undergo therapy and he had certain anger management issues.

Mr Cody recounted that his client was away in France working during the summer of 2015 and while he was over there was led to believe that his sister was socialising with "undesirable elements".

Judge Teehan responded that at the previous court hearing there was no suggestion that the "unfortunate victim" was responsible for that.

Mr Cody continued that his client became "hardened in this view" and took it upon himself to take on the role of being guardian of his sister and in some misguided way felt it was necessary and appropriate to protect his sister by getting out his father's shotgun. Fortunately serious injuries were not sustained.

The barrister pointed out his client wrote letters of apology to four juveniles and the owner of the field. Two of the letters, including the one from the field owner, were accepted.

A reference letter from the defendant's former employer was presented to the court. Mr Cody said his client instructed him that a job will be available to him when he is released from jail.

Mr Cody said it was an unusual case, the offences were serious and the circumstances as described by the injured party and members of the defendant's own family made for distressing and upsetting reading. It was particularly distressing that it was witnessed by his siblings who tried to stop him.

He pointed out that what was unusual was that prior to this incident, his client hadn't any previous convictions and came from a very solid and respectable family background. He had all the benefits of a very good upbringing.The NATO Deputy Secretary General, the Honourable Rose Gottemoeller, will visit Greece on Thursday, 1 March and Friday, 2 March 2018.

She will meet the President, Mr. Prokopios Pavlopoulos, the Minister of Defence, Mr. Panos Kammenos, and other senior officials.

On Thursday 1 March, Ms. Gottemoeller will deliver a speech at the opening session of the Delphi Economic Forum. The speech will be livestreamed by the host.

On Friday 2 March, the Deputy Secretary General will participate in an event with students hosted by the Greek Association for Atlantic and European Cooperation.

Still and video images will be available on the NATO website.From 26 to 28 February 2018, at the invitation of General Denis Mercier, Supreme Allied Commander Transformation (SACT), the Military Committee travelled to Allied Command Transformations (ACT) subcommand, the Joint Analysis and Lessons Learned Centre (JALLC) in Monsanto, Portugal. The Military Committee also took the opportunity to visit the Naval Striking and Support Forces NATO (STRIKFORNATO) Headquarters. Furthermore, General Petr Pavel, Chairman of the Military Committee and General Mercier met with the Minister of Defence, H. E. Mr. Jose Alberto de Azeredo Lopes and the Portuguese Chief of Defence, General Artur Pina Monteiro.

Upon arrival at the Military Airbase in Lisbon, General Pavel and the Military Committee received an official Welcome with an Honour Guard and were greeted by ACT Chief of Staff, Air Marshal Graham Stacey. Subsequently, they received a warm welcome by the Commander of JALLC, Brigadier General Mario Barreto.

The focus of the Military Committees three-day meeting was adaptation and innovation, as part of the continuous effort to ensure the Alliance addresses both current challenges and tasks as well as keeps pace with technological and operational changes. The Military Representatives received subject matter expert briefings from senior military and civilian officials from ACT, NATO Headquarters Consultation, Command and Control Staff (NHQC3S), NATO Communications and Information (NCI) Agency, Cooperative Cyber Defence Centre of Excellence (CCD COE), NATO Maritime Command (MARCOM), STRIKFORNATO and from the NATO Chief Scientist. Topics of discussion included NATO Command Structure adaptation, long term military strategic considerations, Cyberspace, emergence of disruptive technologies, and Maritime domain.

General Mercier, Supreme Allied Commander Transformation (SACT) kicked off the meetings by highlighting the importance of Lessons Learned (LL) in the Alliance. General Pavel, Chairman of the Military Committee noted that by analysing missions, operations, training, exercises and activities and identifying possible improvements, the JALLC allows NATO to continuously transform and modernize its processes, forces & capabilities. SACT then briefed the 29 Military Representatives on the adaptation of the NATO Command Structure from ACTs perspective and on ACTs contribution to the adaptation process to ensure that the Alliance is Fit for Purpose. The ACT Chief of Staff, Air Marshall Sir Graham Stacey added that NATO needs to be a flexible, adaptive, and responsive organization to overcome this centurys threats.

The second day of NATOs Military Committee visit focused on technology. Specifically, how new technologies can be better utilized to improve the Alliances capabilities and how the use of advanced and emerging technology can be integrated into the way NATO works. General Pavel highlighted that technology offers game changing capabilities which brings both risks & opportunities to the Alliance. The Military Committee then went on to discuss topics related to the Cyber Domain, namely NATOs Cyberspace Domain Roadmap and the Operationalization of the Cyberspace Domain. Cyber threats and attacks are becoming more common, more sophisticated, and more damaging. NATO and its Allies rely on strong and resilient cyber defences to fulfil the Alliances core tasks, of collective defence, crisis management, and cooperative security. Cyber is part of modern conflict and it is important that the Alliance is as effective in cyber space as we are on land, at sea & in the air, noted General Pavel.

On the final day of meetings, the NATO Military Committee took an in-depth look at NATOs Maritime agenda, examining the current maritime environment and challenges, and evaluating current NATO capabilities and future opportunities. The Chairman of the Military Committee underscored that the Atlantic binds our Alliance together and we must ensure that NATO can deploy its maritime forces rapidly, control sea lines of communication, preserve freedom of navigation and conduct effective mine counter-measure activities.

At the joint press conference with General Mercier, General Pavel stressed that the Military Committees visit to ACT in Portugal is very timely, as our discussions will be reflected in products for the July NATO Summit and beyond. NATO must be prepared as much for the now as for the future. With an ever changing and complex international security environment affecting strategic assumptions, it is essential that we operate and adapt at the same time. General Mercier concluded by saying that transformation is not an aim on itself, it is about the transformation of our military capacity. Consequently, warfare development is the actions we take to adapt our military capacity to the rapidly changing security environment. From the discussions we had, I see coming not only sharing best practices but also emerging new ideas".(Natural News) How prepared is humanity to go on an actual mission to Mars? Scientists and experts from all over the world may be working hard to find out as much as they can about the red planet from Earths comfortable surface  as well as from space  but Mars itself may turn out to be unforgiving. For this reason, researchers have established a so-called analog test site in Dhofar, Oman, where they have set out to conduct a series of tests to prepare for future Mars missions.

Dubbed the AMADEE-18 Mars Analog Mission, the project was spearheaded by the Austrian Space Forum  in cooperation with the Oman National Steering Committee for AMADEE-18  and aims to gather advanced data on simulated missions for future human space journeys to the planet Mars. According to an official announcement pertaining to the project, the Mission Support Center in Austria serves to direct it, with a small field crew tasked with conducting the experiments that cover the fields of engineering, planetary surface operations, geology and geophysics, astrobiology, life sciences, and more.

The simulation project is said to be the first to rely on a combination of drones, robotic rovers, and an inflatable greenhouse in order to carry out its experiments. The base of operations is a 2.4-ton inflated habitat thats surrounded by a number of shipping containers converted into laboratories and crew quarters. If the tests prove to be successful, there is a chance that the National Aeronautics and Space Administration could use their resulting data for a human mission to Mars by some time in the 2030s.

According to a spokesman for the mission, the location for the AMADEE-18 project was chosen for its resemblance to the Martian surface, among other things.

The deserts of Dhofar, the largest governorate in the Sultanate of Oman, have a resemblance to various Mars surface features, the spokesman said. Such as sedimentary structures dating back to the Paleocene and Eocene, salt domes of the South Oman Salt Basin and ancient river beds.

One astronaut involved in the project, Kartik Kumar, shared his thoughts in a series of statements published by Daily Mail online. According to Kumar, the recent success of SpaceX in launching their Falcon Heavy rocket puts us in a completely different realm of what we can put into deep space, what we can send to Mars. He further added that the next step to Mars is to tackle certain non-engineering problems such as medical emergency responses and human isolation.

As for why exactly Omani deserts were chosen for the projects location, he said that its because the deserts surface resembles Mars so much that its hard to tell the difference between the two. But it goes deeper than that: the types of geomorphology, all the structures, the salt domes, the riverbeds, the wadis, it parallels a lot of what we see on Mars, he said.

The Omani government had reportedly offered to host the Austrian Space Forums next Mars simulation during a meeting of the United Nations (UN) Committee On the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space. The forum quickly accepted, according to Gernot Groemer, the commander of the Oman Mars simulation and known veteran of a total of 11 science missions based here on Earth.

Talking about the technology and methods being used in the Omani experiments, Groemer commented that some of the resulting data is surely going to be used in future space missions. No matter who is going to this grandest voyage of our society yet to come, I think a few things we learn here will be actually implemented in those missions, he said, acknowledging the fact that anyone between Americans, Europeans, or even the Chinese could end up eventually going to Mars.

The team behind the AMADEE-18 project has since wrapped up their mission, and is expected to share the results of their research very soon.

Learn more about whats being done in preparation for future space missions in Space.news.

Sources include:

DailyMail.co.uk

OEWF.org(Natural News) When it comes to the issue of toxic firefighting foam, the U.S. military is always fighting a futile rearguard action. It used the same fluorine-heavy formula for decades and dumped tons of that same foam into the sea. Now its spending billions on clean-up efforts, and its supposedly new foam formula is just more of the same cancer-causing chemicals, warned The Intercept.

Developed during the 60s, aqueous film-forming foam (AFFF) forms a thin layer over the surface of a combustible material. This layer starves the fire and stops the release of potentially explosive fuel vapor.

AFFF was widely used around the world by the U.S. and other countries, sometimes to fight real fires but mostly to train firefighters.

The foam relied on fluorinated surfactants to spread itself across surfaces. These chemicals were comprised of polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) that included PFOA and PFOS.

PFAs are persistent chemicals that are expensive to clean up and have proven to cause various health issues up to and including cancer. (Related: Pizza boxes and food containers contain cancer-causing chemicals, alarmed scientists warn.)

The dangers of AFFF

As early as 1974, experts have been concerned about the environmental dangers of AFFF. They reasoned that anything that ruined the potability of water should not be dumped into important bodies of water.

Despite these recommendations, the U.S. military dumped uncounted gallons of firefighting foam into military harbors. According to a 1978 report by the Naval Ship Research and Development Center, AFFF would not be environmentally significant.

In 2000, the main manufacturer of firefighting foam for the military  3M  conducted a study where monkeys were exposed to PFOs. After the lab animals developed serious health complications or died, 3M declared it would stop making AFFF and any related fluorine products.

The EPA urged both private companies and the U.S. military to look into safer alternatives. It also set the safe threshold for PFOS and PFOA to 70 ppt for each chemical and 70 ppt for combined levels.

U.S. states such as New Jersey, Vermont, and Minnesota set even lower PFOS and PFOA thresholds.

According to The Intercept, foam and surfactant manufacturers formed the Fire Fighting Foam Coalition (FFFC) lobby to market their fluorine-based products as environmentally responsible, safe for humans and the best firefighting option for the military.

Despite this effective lobby, more and more health-related cases related to firefighting foam contamination are coming up to this day. According to the lists released by the U.S. military, the water supply for more than 40 military installations have been contaminated by PFOS and PFOA at levels that went well past the EPAs threshold limit.

The U.S. military is cleaning contaminated sites and providing drinkable water for affected residents and personnel. The cost is expected to exceed $2 billion.

Theyve also adopted a new formulation that they claim is environmentally responsible. However, the new foam simply substituted the old chemical cocktail with related PFAS molecules, warned The Intercept.

The new PFAS chemicals are almost as toxic as PFOS and PFOA. Theyre also more difficult to filter out of drinking water.

There are also concerns regarding the other chemicals used in firefighting foam, as the U.S. military has limited its efforts to PFOS and PFOA.

Fluorine-free alternative

Former AFFF manufacturer 3M developed fluorine-free firefighting foam that was almost as effective as AFFF. However, the U.S. Navy rejected it because its requirements called for fluorine surfactants.

When 3M closed its firefighting foam division, a Norwegian company named Solberg picked up the fluorine-free formula. Theyve successfully marketed the new foam to Scandinavian air forces, oil corporations and Heathrow Airport in the U.K.

Wary about the dangers posed by chemicals? Get updated with Chemicals.news.

Sources include:

TheIntercept.com

EPA.gov(Natural News) A movie theater chain in Great Britain has caved to politically-correct pressure from the LGBT global militia, which aggressively objected to the screening of a Christian film documenting the stories of people who have chosen to leave the homosexual lifestyle.

As per BBC News, a Vue theater in Piccadilly, London, reportedly canceled all scheduled viewings of the film, entitled Voices of the Silenced, after the gay mafia responded to news that the Christian ministry Core Issues Trust had been granted access to screen the flick.

The documentary apparently highlights the stories of 15 people emerging out of homosexual lifestyles, who tell about how they discovered a new life outside of the LGBT mindset. The stated purpose of the film is to preserve and promote teachings on sexual ethics, which immediately caught the attention of the LGBT crowd.

Core Issues Trust had booked the movie theater space back in November as part of a personal booking, and delivered the film to the Vue theater on January 22. But after reviewing a press release that was sent to the company, Vue reportedly made the decision to review the intentions of the event, only to quickly cancel it not too long afterward.

While it is not our intention to censor content, in some instances, where we feel an activity is in direct contradiction to Vues values, a decision will be made to refrain from allowing a private event to go ahead, a spokeswoman for the theater told BBC News.

LGBT extremists seek to silence anything that disrupts their narrative

Homosexual activists had tried to claim that the film was promoting things like a gay cure and other reparative and conversion therapies that some believe are abusive and psychologically damaging. But the films creators say none of this is true.

In responding to Vues statement about the cancellation, Mike Davidson, the leader of Core Issues Trust, told BBC News that the film has nothing to do with finding a so-called gay cure, but is rather about promoting the rights of individuals to access help and support for unwanted homosexual feelings.

But the LGBT crowd has denied this, insisting that Voices of the Silenced is an unethical film that promotes the idea that gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender people are somehow sick and in need of healing.

LGBT people arent ill, stated a spokesperson for the pro-LGBT campaign group Stonewall. Being gay, lesbian, bi or trans is not something that should be cured or changed.

This same spokesperson expressed disappointment that Vue Piccadilly would even consider screening the documentary at all, claiming that the idea of a gay cure is an unethical and degrading practice (that) has been condemned by all major U.K. health organizations.

It was Pink News, however, that led the charge to censor the film from being screened. One of its former journalists reportedly received an invitation to the event, which prompted a firestorm of pull that film! from LGBT mafia activists who made sure that nobody would be able to see the film at Vue Piccadilly.

Pink News even went so far as to say that Vue theaters had a duty to ensure that material such as this is not shown on its screens, and that any LGBT staff members at the theater could unwittingly be disturbed by the content.

However, what the film actually depicts, contrary to the LGBT hysterics, in this case, doesnt have anything to do with gay conversions or cures. It explains LGBT issues through the lens of history, revealing how the self-made choice to resist homosexual feelings and follow biblical truth set them free.

Voices of the Silenced reminds us that the Christian Gospel, whether or not equated to personal faith, has influenced western civilisation so profoundly that even secularists today build on its legacy and, without self-examination, fail to acknowledge the pivotal and enduring influence of Christian teaching, the Core Issues Trust website explains.

Sources for this article include:

PJMedia.com

BBC.com

NaturalNews.com(Natural News) Earlier this year, investigative journalist Sharyl Attkisson participated in a TEDx Talk at the University of Nevada, during which she revealed that the origins of the fake news narrative that was pushed by the Democrats during the 2016 presidential election can be traced back to a non-profit organization called First Draft. According to Attkisson, First Draft seems to be the first to use fake news in its modern context.

On September 13, 2016, First Draft announced a partnership to tackle malicious hoaxes and fake news reports, Attkisson explained. The goal was supposedly to separate wheat from chaff, to prevent unproven conspiracy talk from figuring prominently in internet searches. To relegate todays version of the alien baby story to a special internet oblivion.

After doing a bit of research, Attkisson eventually discovered that Google was one of First Drafts primary donors. Interestingly enough, the head of Googles parent company Alphabet  a man by the name of Eric Schmidt  happens to be a huge supporter of Hillary Clinton.

Eric Schmidt offered himself up as a campaign adviser and became a top multi-million donor to it. His company funded First Draft around the start of the election cycle, Attkisson explained during the TEDx Talk. Not surprisingly, Hillary was soon to jump aboard the anti-fake news train and her surrogate David Brock of Media Matters privately told donors he was the one who convinced Facebook to join the effort.

Just days after the election, the New York Times ran a story with the headline Google and Facebook Take Aim at Fake News Sites. In it, authors Nick Wingfield, Mike Isaac and Katie Benner reported that both companies made it clear that they intended on taking aim at the revenue sources of websites that they consider to be peddling fake news. The New York Times noted that just hours after Google announced its plan to ban fake news sites from using their online advertising service, Facebook updated the language in its Facebook Audience Network policy to include fake news sites. (Related: Facebook censors Natural News from users that want it, but wont allow you to block Mark Zuckerbergs feed.)

The problem, as most conservatives are now well aware, is that Google and Facebook never intended on combatting fake news; if they did, then they would be targeting news organizations like CNN and MSNBC. Rather, these two companies are out to suppress and censor conservative content on the Internet, primarily because it poses a significant threat to the advancement of the progressive agenda. (Related: Silicon Valley is rapidly abandoning the philosophy of free speech by turning to censorship, obedience and conformity.)

For example, in recent months, the Google-owned video sharing website YouTube has been explicitly targeting conservative users for censorship and demonetization. Back in October of last year, the conservative digital media organization PragerU went as far as filing a lawsuit against YouTube for unlawful censorship and free speech discrimination. Over the past four months, nearly 40 videos produced and published by PragerU on YouTube have been restricted, including Why America Must Lead, The Ten Commandments: Do Not Murder, Why Did America Fight the Korean War, and The Worlds Most Persecuted Minority: Christians.

Google and Facebook need to understand that the American people are on to them. They are well aware that the war on fake news was just an excuse to censor Internet content that doesnt align with the liberal ideology, and that the First Amendment is virtually irrelevant in Silicon Valley. As conservatives, it is our responsibility to continue spreading the truth about Facebook and Google, and exposing them for the anti-Trump, pro-Hillary Clinton companies that they are. With any luck, karma will catch up to them in due time.

Sources include:

PJMedia.com

NYTimes.com

TheBlaze.com(Natural News) According to a recent study, people who often use self-deprecating humor have greater levels of psychological well-being.

However, the University of Granadas (UGR) findings, which were published in the international journal Personality and Individual Differences, contradict some of the research carried out concerning in the psychology of humor.

To date, the bulk of the research literature implies that self-defeating humor is exclusively associated with negative psychological effects among individuals who regularly employ this style of humor.

Jorge Torres Marin, a researcher who belongs to the team that worked on the groundbreaking UGR project, says that based on their observations, the use of self-defeating humor often indicates high scores in psychological well-being dimensions like happiness and, to a smaller extent, sociability.

Torres-Marin adds that the results are consistent with the positive implications often linked to the ability to laugh at oneself, and it also implies that the influence of self-defeating humor on well-being can change based on the location of the research. The researchers also noted that new studies could help look into the potential cultural differences in the use of this kind of humor.

A good sense of humor can even help reduce stress hormones, and it can even boost the immune system. Laughing can also improve your overall sense of well-being, and according to experts, individuals who have a more positive outlook on life have a higher chance of protecting themselves from diseases.

In earlier studies, the significance of cultural or individual differences when it comes to senses of humor wasnt clearly addressed in psychological research for two main reasons. One, the comical nature of humor influences the bias of both researchers and readers of specialized scientific literature. These preconceived ideas can change their judgment when it comes to assessing the quality, relevance, and applicability of humor-related data.

Second, the different comments, behaviors, etc. which are considered humorous has hindered the creation of a consistent theoretical framework that will unite the information collected to date in the scientific literature.

Hugo Carretero Dios, a co-author of the study, states that their team wishes to prove that their research fits into one of the theoretical models that can overcome these limitations and impart on the psychology of humor a well-founded, accurate theoretical body of knowledge. Doing so can help experts learn about the different behavioral tendencies linked to the everyday use of humor, which can then be categorized more specifically based on their adaptive nature instead of the harmful.

Adaptive styles of humor include affiliative humor, which intends to improve social relationships. Self-enhancing humor aims to maintain a humorous outlook in potentially stressful and negative situations. These types of humor are often associated with indicators of positive psychological well-being like happiness, satisfaction with life, hope, etc., but they are also linked to more negative states such as depression and anxiety. (Related: Dont Take Life Too Seriously  A Healthy Sense of Humor May Prolong Your Life.)

The researchers assert that the data revealed the existence of a curvilinear relationship between pro-social humor and personality dimensions such as kindness and honesty. This link indicates that low and high scores due to certain personality traits are often connected to either lower or higher propensities to make humorous comments that can help build and strengthen social relationships.

The scientists also discussed certain styles of humor that people can use to hide negative intentions and feelings. According to Gines Navarro-Carrillo, the results of their study show that despite a benign or well-intentioned facade, humor may also be used to hide negative intentions. With humor, people who have low honesty scores can still establish trust and closeness with others, even using sensitive data to exploit them.

Meanwhile, the results regarding the link between the use of humor and anger management imply that the ability to remain good-humored despite trying times is often evident in people who are better at managing their anger and in those who have lower tendencies to express any angry feelings or reactions.

On the other hand, individuals who employ aggressive or self-defeating humor arent as capable of managing their anger or rage. In fact, aggressive humor is connected with the expression of anger towards others and a greater disposition of feeling anger in daily life.

Through the use of aggressive humor, people can express negative feelings (like anger, superiority, or hate) more discreetly, unlike physical or verbal abuse, because they can reason that the humorous nature of the comments excuses the negativity.

Self-defeating humor is tied to an inclination to suppress anger. But this suppression doesnt mean that the anger directed at others is restrained, its just that the triggers that prompt the angry reactions are masked or not as pronounced.

Torres-Marin and Navarro-Carrillo conclude that the team wishes to look into the connection between unique differences in how we use humor and other psychological variables of interest. They add that their research had the following goals:

To give the scientific community access to a measuring tool that can gauge different styles of humor in the Spanish population, To broaden the available knowledge about the connections between the tendency to use certain kinds of humor and specific personality traits by coming up with analyses designed to test potential curvilinear relationships, And to examine the link between the use of humor and anger management, which is significant to applied psychology.

The research carried out at the UGR helped create a more efficient tool that can analyze predispositions related to the use of humor among the Spanish population. For this study, the Humor Styles Questionnaire, the international reference scale used to gauge humor styles, was modified to suit the Spanish environment.

You can learn more about the science of humor and how it affects mental health at Mind.news.

Sources include:

ScienceDaily.com

Gaiam.com(Natural News)

Do you have a dog, cat, or any pet? There is a rise in the recognition of the therapeutic benefits that pets can provide to mental health. A group of researchers from the University of Liverpool, University of Manchester, and University of Southampton assessed the role of companion animals in the lives of people living with a mental health condition.

The number of people with mental health problems continue to increase. In fact, approximately 450 million people currently suffer from mental or neurological disorders, with these conditions being one of the leading causes of ill health and disability globally. Although treatments are available, about two-thirds of people diagnosed with a known mental disorder never seek help from a health professional.

The research group conducted a systematic review of studies, which included a total of 17 research. They looked at the positive, negative, and neutral effects of owning a pet on people who live with a mental health condition.

In the review, they found that pets provide benefits to their owners through the intensity of relationship they have with their owners. The study review confirmed that pets provide emotional support to their owners, especially in times of crises. On the other hand, the negative features that go together with having a companion animal include the practical and emotional burdening of taking care of one, and the psychological effect when owners lose their pet.

The researchers concluded that their findings, which were published in the journal BMC Psychiatry, suggest that people with mental health conditions can benefit from having a pet because they provide emotional support and help them manage their condition.

The benefits of having a pet

Here are the many benefits of having a pet, according to various scientific studies.

Pets help you get over social rejection  A study published in the journal Anthrozoos found that people who are inclined to treat animals or objects like people, such as talking to a pet, are more likely to have traits like empathy and unconventional thinking to protect them from rejection. Pets can be your companion and make you happy  According to a study in the journal Aging & Mental Health, older adults who owned pets were less likely to report that they were lonely, compared to those who did not own a pet. A pet could give social interaction when other people are not around, particular to those who live by themselves. Pets prevent stress  Pet owners, dog owners in particular, had an increased levels of oxytocin, the happy hormone, and had lower heart rates, according to a small Swedish study. Female participants of the study also had lower levels of cortisol, the stress hormone, between 15 to 30 minutes after petting a dog. Pets are good for your heart  A research published in the Journal of Vascular and Interventional Neurology found that people who own a cat have lower chances of dying from heart disease. (Related: Why Dog Owners are Happier,Healthier and Have Better Hearts!) Pets improve cognitive function of older adults  According to a study published in the journal Anthrozoos, older homebound adults who owned cats or dogs had better mental skills, such as the skills needed for paying attention, remembering details, and using past experience to decide how to act, compared to those who did not own a pet. Pets motivate you to exercise  People who owed dogs exercise about 30 minutes more weekly than those who dont have a dog, according to a Michigan State University study. Pets help relieve pain  Another study in Anthrozoos revealed that adults who spent five to 15 minutes with a dog after joint replacement surgery used less pain medication. Pets lower babies risk of allergies  A study in Clinical & Experimental Allergy found that babies exposed to pets have lower risk of developing allergies in later life.

Want more reasons why you should love your furry friend? Visit PetHealth.news today.

Sources include:

Science.news

ScienceDaily.com

WHO.int

RD.com(Natural News) Lawmakers  that is, those who really care about the safety, security, and viability of America  are learning more details about one of the biggest acts of treason in modern history.

And no, it isnt the election of President Donald J. Trump, though it is certainly related to his Democratic opponent and her former president husband.

As reported by political operative Dick Morris, writing in The Western Journal, the attorney for FBI informant William D. Campbell said her client informed congressional committees that the Russians bragged that [Bill and Hillary] Clintons influence in the Obama administration would ensure CIFUS (Committee on Foreign Investments in the United States) approval for [the] Uranium One deal.

And, Campbells attorney Victoria Toensing noted further, he was right.

Morris noted that before CIFUS  a panel on which Hillary Clinton, as secretary of state, sat  could approve the Uranium One deal, nine investors in the company gave a total of $145 million to the Clinton Foundation.

He noted further:

The deal called for the United States to allow Russia to purchase 20 percent of our uranium reserves, giving Russia access to vastly more uranium than we have.

Campbell testified that Russias goal was to achieve global hegemony over the supply of uranium.

The Russians sought the Uranium One deal very aggressively.

Alt-Left commentators and the American Pravda media  when they have addressed this treason at all  have covered for Clinton, always claiming that, hey, she wasnt the only one on the approving panel and besides, she was never personally involved in approval of the deal anyway.

So why buy her off? Why buy off her husband and their foundation with $145 million in contributions  if they had nothing to do with approving the deal?

No one has yet to refute the fact that the Clintons foundation received this amount from people with a personal stake in the deal. Whats more, regardless of the fact-checking that has taken place thus far by various websites, not a single one of them has talked to William D. Campbell, at least to my knowledge.

Morris goes on to state that according to Campbell, in the years before the approval process by the U.S. government came up, Russia placed 10 spies in the United States with a singular mission, and that was to get close to Hillary Clinton so she would help approve the deal. (Related: Report: Attorney for FBI informant in Uranium One deal SLAMS falsified leaks by anonymous federal officials and demands NEW DOJ probe.)

As it happened, the FBI managed to uncover the gaggle of spies about a year before the deal was set to be approved. The Bureau acted to arrest the spies when it did because one of them had risen to a high position in a company owned by Hillarys finance chairman, Morris wrote.

In addition to the foundation, Bill Clinton himself also profited handsomely during this period. Russian President Vladimir Putin, Morris writes, arranged for [him] to address the Renaissance Bank in Moscow, an institution closely connected to the Kremlin.

For that, the ex-POTUS was paid a fee  which was personal income for him and his then-Secretary of State wife  of $500,000.

For a speech. What words of wisdom and insight from Bill Clinton could possibly be worth a half-million dollars  a cheap investment for one-fifth of all U.S. uranium?

Morris adds other players involved in this scandal:

To try to keep word of the Uranium One deal under wraps and to bury the story about the Russian spies, FBI Director Robert Mueller arranged for the suspects to take plea bargains admitting to minor offenses and then spirited them out of the country quickly  in a prisoner exchange with Russia  before the media could interrogate them.

Two Justice Department attorneys who were overseeing the investigation, by the way, include current Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein and recently ousted FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe.

J.D. Heyes is also editor-in-chief of The National Sentinel.

Sources include:

TheNationalSentinel.com

WesternJournal.com(Natural News) Demonic Hollywood puppet Jimmy Kimmel is back in the news, just days before this years Oscars is set to air, over comments he made back in 2014 mocking a man who was allegedly forced to engage in sexual acts with Hollywood executive Randy Callahan in order to be cast for a role.

An audio clip of the late-night talk show goon discussing the matter with The Big 3 Podcasts Perry Caravello, Don Barris, and Walter Molinski, reveals more of what Kimmel actually thinks in real life about such matters, as opposed to what he pretends to believe every time he sheds fake crocodile tears in front of his mind-numbed audience.

During his appearance on The Big 3 Podcast, Kimmel is heard offering his usual dose of callous invective in response to claims that Callahan had coerced the man in question into touching his private parts in exchange for being given a chance in Hollywood. There was no Me Too sentiment expressed by Kimmel at the time about this heinous allegation and its implications for the television and film industry  just heartless dismissal and mockery.

We wont repeat the words exchanged between Kimmel and Caravello, one of the podcasts hosts, as theyre simply too obscene. But if you wish to read (or listen) for yourself what was said, revealing the true, vile nature of Jimmy Kimmel, you can do so by visiting The Daily Wire.

Jimmy Kimmel is a vile person who pretends to care about human dignity

If you want the lite version, well sum it up like this: Kimmel basically joked about the mans physical interactions with Callahans private parts, calling it light gay prostitution. In other words, it was just another day in Hollywood for an aspiring actor to fondle the reproductive organs of a gross old man in charge of film and television casting.

If Kimmel supposedly cares so much, all of a sudden, about people being sexually assaulted in Hollywood  this being the latest mainstream media cause  then why didnt he speak up back in 2014 and say something along the lines of, this is wrong, and this type of thing shouldnt be happening.

The answer to this question is simple: Jimmy Kimmel, like many other Hollywood actors, doesnt actually care about sexual assault and real-life victims of it. Like everything else he does, Kimmel simply plays the role and pretends, usually to advance whatever cause the media whores are trying to push on any given day.

One of the more recent examples of this was when Kimmel got up and grandstanded, artificial tears and all, about the shooting in Parkland, Florida. Kimmel pretended to care about the lives of innocent children because thats what everyone on the left is doing right now. But as you may recall, Kimmel several years back openly mocked the parents of vaccine-injured children, demonstrating once again his true feelings about childrens lives.

Like many others in Hollywood and the mainstream media, Jimmy Kimmel is a fraud. Hes also a disgusting pervert, having featured references on his show to pedophilia, all wrapped up in comedy, of course.

This is the second #MeToo-themed Kimmel tape that has emerged since the anti-sexual harassment movement first began in fall 2017, writes James Barrett for The Daily Wire about the latest revelation concerning Kimmels open perversion.

In a video that went viral in October, the former Mans Show host asks women to feel all over his crotch to find out what hes got stuffed inside, he adds, referring to some of Kimmels earlier work in which he walked around the streets of Los Angeles soliciting women to touch and lick the crotch area of his pants for laughs.

Sources for this article include:

DailyWire.com

Facebook.com

NaturalNews.com

NaturalNews.com

Stupid.news

NaturalNews.com(Natural News) A man who lived in Zhongshan, Guangdong Province in southeast China was rushed to the hospital around midnight of Sunday, February 4 after he saw a mysterious ball-sized lump dangling from outside his anus.

The Chinese man sought medical attention after a big lump slipped out of his anus. After examining him, the doctors said the mans rectum became disattached from his body, according to the Daily Mail.

The doctors were of the opinion that the man had spent too much time playing on his phone while he was on the toilet, thus succumbing to a condition called rectal prolapse, which is described as the last part of ones intestines losing its attachment to the body and becoming visible from outside the body.

The last part of ones large intestine essentially turns itself inside out, thus being able to slip out of the anus, according to the American Society of Colon and Rectal Surgeons (ACRS). Around two out of every 100,000 people suffer from rectal prolapse, with up to two-third of patients having chronic constipation.

According to the Cleveland Clinic, rectal prolapse most commonly afflicts women over age 50, but the condition can also occur in younger adults and children as well.

The man said he was playing mobile games while trying to move bowels for over 30 minutes. (Related: Butt of course: Man sticks drinking glass in anus for sexual stimulation; needed surgery after it broke.)

The head of the doctors who examined the man, Dr. Su Dan, said the patient suffered from a severe case of rectal prolapse. The patient has had rectal prolapse since he was four years old, but the bulge was bale to retract in the past. But he did not have the condition treated, so the situation got worse.

A computed tomography scan (CT) scan revealed a ball-shaped bulge  which had a diameter of 16 centimeters (6.3 inches)  outside the patients anus. There were also bruises and blood spots along the patients intestinal wall, Dr. Su said.

Surgeons were able to remove the lump from the man, who is now recovering fitfully. He was treated at the gastrointestinal surgery division of The Sixth Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-Sen University.

The incident shows that trying to defecate for a long period of time can be dangerous as it can weaken the muscles in the pelvis and cause the disentanglement of some organs around that area. Staying for a prolonged period of time on the toilet may not be a good idea  youd think you might be multitasking, but you may be getting yourself into trouble instead.

More on rectal prolapse

Most women with rectal prolapse are over the age of 60, while the few men who develop it are in their 40s or younger. In these younger patients, autism, developmental delay, and psychiatric problems that need to be addressed by multiple medications are prevalent.

While there are some factors that have been shown to influence the development of rectal prolapse, there is no clear cause to the condition. Chronic constipation is experienced by 30 percent to 67 percent of patients, while an additional 15 percent suffer from diarrhea.

Some people have wrongfully assumed that rectal prolapse is caused by having had multiple vaginal deliveries; this is negated by the fact that 35 percent of patients who have rectal prolapse never experienced giving birth.

Rectal prolapse develops gradually. At first, it comes down with bowel movement and then returns to its normal position. Patients characterize this as something falling out. Until the prolapsed rectum goes back inside the anus, patients describe the experience to something like sitting on a ball. Rectal prolapse is often confused with hemorrhoids.

Once a prolapse has manifested itself fully, fecal incontinence (inability to control gas, liquid, or solid bowel movement) presents itself in 50 percent to 75 percent of cases. When a rectum is prolapsed, it has gone past the anal sphincter (a structure that allows a person to hold on to their stool when they feel the need to move their bowel), thus allowing stool and mucus to pass in an uncontrolled fashion.

Pelvic nerve damage is also a result of prolapse. The anal sphincter is also constantly stretched by the prolapse, adding an additional factor for incontinence.

For more stories that tackle the bizarre and strange side of science, visit WeirdScienceNews.com.

Sources include:

DailyMail.co.uk

LiveScience.com

FASCRS.com(Natural News) I sometimes wonder why President Donald J. Trump and Republicans want to help American corporations that are operated by Left-wing kooks and outright cowards.

I know why mind you: Helping them grow helps investors and raises their value, which in turn helps ordinary Americans who invest in these companies via their personal 401(k) and other retirement financial vehicles. Helping them grow creates jobs and opportunities for Americans so they can live better lives.

And as a capitalist, Im all about that.

But I question the behavior and decision-making by the executives of some of these companies  and whether they truly do deserve to take advantage of the presidents America first agenda when they so blatantly subvert key American civil rights organizations while promoting a culture of death in our society.

United Airlines is one such corporation.

In recent days, United became one of a number of U.S. corporations whose corporate CEOs abandon what little courage they had remaining to jump on the Alt-Left anti-Second Amendment bandwagon in the wake of the latest, admittedly horrific, school shooting in Parkland, Fla.

Like other corporations, United decided to end its special discount program for members of the National Rifle Association (NRA), which it announced in a tweet:

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

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 company tweeted.

Which is the companys right, mind you. But Uniteds decision is particularly repulsive given that, according to 2ndVote, a conservative corporate watchdog, the airline continues to donate to Planned Parenthood, the nations biggest organized killer of the unborn, the Washington Times reports.

In addition, United supports the March of Dimes organization, a nonprofit organization that says its mission is to help moms have full-term pregnancies and research the problems that threaten the health of babies.

Not bad, right? Except that the March of Dimes also supports Planned Parenthood, which makes no sense whatsoever given its stated mission.

Fox News contributor Guy Benson had no problem calling out the airline for its hypocrisy.

Hey @united, Im an extremely loyal 1k customer. Youve now severed ties w/ the NRA at the urging of an online mob, yet you maintain ties with Planned Parenthood, the most prolific ender of childrens lives in America, by far. Are you actively trying to chase away my business? he tweeted.

Hey @united, Im an extremely loyal 1k customer. Youve now severed ties w/ the NRA at the urging of an online mob, yet you maintain ties with Planned Parenthood, the most prolific ender of childrens lives in America, by far. Are you actively trying to chase away my business? https://t.co/eArS3fiF2c  Guy Benson (@guypbenson) February 24, 2018

Bensons got a great point. Not only has Planned Parenthood ended more lives than all AR-15s put together, its a very efficient, well-financed killing organization.

Just how great is the carnage? According to Life News, the National Right to Life organization estimates that since the U.S. Supreme Court in 1972 somehow decided that the Constitution says its okay to kill unborn human beings, more than 58 million abortions have taken place.

In a separate story, Life News reported that Planned Parenthood aborts 900 babies every day, according to the organizations own figures.

And lets never forget that, despite the Obama administrations disgusting decision not to investigate formally or charge anyone, Planned Parenthood was busted during an undercover media operation in 2015; some of its officials were caught on video negotiating the sale of baby body parts for profit, which is illegal in the United States. (Related: Planned Parenthood harvested baby parts without patient consent; whistleblower says they just took what they wanted.)

Instead, the miserable Leftists who run California charged the whistleblowers, the Center for Medical Progress (where you can also view the undercover videos).

Now, United Airlines has decided that this is the kind of organization it would rather support instead of the NRA, the countrys oldest civil rights organization that defends the Second Amendment to the Constitution, which helps protect life by allowing Americans to take advantage of the right to self-defense.

Is there another airline out there with the integrity and courage to support self-defense over certain death?

J.D. Heyes is editor of The National Sentinel and a senior writer for Natural News and News Target.

Sources include:

WashingtonTimes.com

LifeNews.com

NaturalNews.comThe Department of Transportation's Inspector General says the FAAs oversight of industry actions to remove unapproved parts (from the nations aviation system) is ineffective, and the agency cannot be assured that unapproved parts  no longer pose a threat to safety for the traveling public.

That OIG report has prompted ranking member of the U.S. House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, Rep. Peter DeFazio, (D-Oregon), to vow to crack down on unapproved airplane parts that he says pose a safety risk to the flying public. The inspector generals report echoes a series of stories by NBC Bay Areas Investigative Unit that first aired in 2016. The Investigative Units reporting found thousands of unapproved parts made their way onto and into the systems of commercial aircrafts.

NBC Bay Area also found aviation suppliers and manufacturers who continued to sell unapproved parts even after receiving FAA sanctions.

We really need to pay a lot more attention to this. How parts are manufactured and tracked throughout their life and ultimately destroyed at the end so they cant be snuck back into the part stream, DeFazio told NBC Bay Area.

Concerned about the FAAs oversight or lack thereof, DeFazio was the one who asked the Inspector Generals Office to audit the FAAs suspected unapproved parts program.

I dont understand whats going on at the FAA. I asked for that report to see if we have made progress in the last 20 years, and it appears that very little has been made, DeFazio said. One critical component that isnt up to manufacturers standards could take down a plane mid-air.

The audit criticized the FAA for a lack of recordkeeping, management control, and inaccuracies in tracking unapproved parts.

CHINESE PARTS ON AMERICAN PLANES

Officials at the Inspector General's Office aren't the only ones raising safety concerns about unapproved parts ending up in commercial airplane systems. Industry whistleblower Charles Shi, who worked for an aviation parts supplier for Boeing aircraft, believes the problem of unapproved parts is worse than the FAA acknowledges.

Shi worked as a quality control inspector based in China, overseeing parts made for Boeing aircraft.

During his inspections, Shi says he found that parts outsourced to another third party Chinese supplier were made with inferior materials that were not "baked" long enough to harden appropriately during production.

You need to bake the parts to get the hydrogen out of the parts. So the parts can still be solid with integrity. Otherwise the hydrogen goes into the parts that can make the parts thin and brittle so the parts can fail, Shi told NBC Bay Area.

The parts in question are components in a Boeing 777s spoiler system, which allows an airplane to take off and land safely.

Shi took his safety concerns to the FAA. According to documents from an FAA whistleblower investigation, officials confirmed that hundreds of parts used on Boeing 777s were manufactured in violation of FAA standards and that documents were fabricated by a third party Chinese supplier to conceal the violation. Even so, the FAA still allowed Boeing to install the parts as is. Those parts remain on Boeing aircraft to this day.

A spokesperson for Shis former employer, Moog Inc., said the parts in question were tested and determined to meet specifications. There have been no reported issues with these parts. The FAA investigated and determined all necessary corrective actions had been taken, the spokesman said.

A spokesperson for Boeing said the company also found no issues with the parts in question, stating:

The safety of the flying public is Boeings primary concern, and any allegation related to safety is thoroughly investigated. In late 2016, the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration investigated allegations related to suppliers to Moog. Boeing cooperated fully. The FAA investigations, as well as Boeing and Moog, found no evidence of a safety risk related to these allegations. Any claim otherwise is false.

SUSPECTED UNAPPROVED PARTS

A lot of our airlines have outsourced their heavy maintenance to overseas where, you know, one criminal could put in a part that's going to cause a critical failure in that plane. One terrorist could put in a part that intentionally is going to fail, DeFazio said.

FAA records analyzed by the Investigative Unit revealed incidents like these happen more often than the public is aware. Investigation reports and unapproved part notifications found more than 2,800 individual airplanes that had unapproved parts discovered on them since 2011, including on U.S. commercial air carriers.

The NBC Bay Area Investigative Unit found thousands of instances where bogus and potentially dangerous airplane parts were surreptitiously installed on planes including major commercial airliners. The Federal Aviation Administration sanctions repair shops and manufacturers who deal bogus parts, but records show that doesnt always stop some companies from staying open for business. Stephen Stock reports on a story that aired on May 17, 2017.

Former Acting FAA Administrator Joseph Del Balzo believes the agency could do more to root out bogus parts from the industry.

I don't think anybody really knows how serious the issue really is, Del Balzo told NBC Bay Area. Through his firm, JDA Aviation Technology Solutions, Del Balzo helps train inspectors how to identify bogus parts. The FAA certainly doesnt have the resources to go out and get the data. ... I don't think anybody knows how serious the issue really is.

FAA ENFORCEMENT

FAA Acting Administrator Daniel K. Elwell told the Investigative Unit his agency is reviewing the inspector generals recommendations while also touting his agencys safety track record.

There has not been a commercial passenger fatality in the U.S. in nine years. It's an amazing safety record that is borne from a collaborative approach to safety, Elwell said.

As a former commercial pilot, Elwell said he does not believe unapproved parts pose a safety risk to the flying public.

I've been flying for longer than I care to admit and was recently checked out again. So if I had a concern about it, I wouldn't be flying, Elwell told NBC Bay Area.

Meanwhile, DeFazio said he is working to strengthen regulations that would allow investigators to more easily identify legitimate aviation parts.

I want to see every part indelibly marked at the manufacturer, tracked throughout its lifespan and disposed of properly at the end of its lifespan.

If you have a tip for the Investigative Unit, give us a call at 1-888-996-8477, or you can reach us via email at TheUnit@nbcbayarea.com

Dozens of undocumented immigrants have been arrested across Northern California since Sunday, according to federal officials with Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Removal Operations.

More than 150 people who are in violation of federal U.S. immigration laws have been arrested since Sunday, ICE said Tuesday.

Federal ICE and Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) deportation officers have been conducting targeted immigration enforcement in the San Francisco Bay Area "consistent with federal law and agency policy, to arrest individuals who have violated U.S. immigration laws," ICE spokesperson James Schwab said.



The arrests were made based on leads developed by the local field office in conjunction with the National Criminal Analysis and Targeting center (NCATC), Schwab said.

The arrests have sparked fear in immigrant neighborhoods and kept people at home for fear of being arrested, according to local business leaders. ICE arrests come amid a nationwide debate over whether local jurisdictions that call themselves sanctuary cities must cooperate with federal immigration authorities.

About half of the individuals arrested have criminal convictions in addition to immigration violations, including convictions for assault/battery, crimes against children, weapons charges and DUI, he added.



"This operation is a continuation of ICEs efforts to prioritize enforcement against public safety threats," Schwab said.

Sanctuary jurisdictions like San Francisco and Oakland shield dangerous criminal aliens from federal law enforcement at the expense of public safety," said ICE Deputy Director Thomas D. Homan. "Because these jurisdictions prevent ICE from arresting criminal aliens in the secure confines of a jail, they also force ICE officers to make more arrests out in the community, which poses increased risks for law enforcement and the public."

Honan also criticized Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf's decision to alert the public about ICE operations, saying it "further increased that risk for my officers and alerted criminal aliens  making clear that this reckless decision was based on her political agenda with the very federal laws that ICE is sworn to uphold.

"Thanks to the dedicated and professional work of ICE deportation officers, we were able to remove many public safety threats from the streets of the Bay Area during the past few days," Honan said.

"However, 864 criminal aliens and public safety threats remain at large in the community, and I have to believe that some of them were able to elude us thanks to the mayors irresponsible decision. Unlike the politicians who attempt to undermine ICEs critical mission, our officers will continue to fulfill their sworn duty to protect public safety.

Those arrested include 38-year-old ICE fugitive Armando Nunez-Salgado, a Mexican citizen and documented Sureno gang member previously removed by ICE on four prior occasions. Nunez-Salgado has prior criminal convictions in California over the past 18 years resulting in prison sentences totaling 15 years. His convictions include assault with a deadly weapon, burglary, hit-and-run causing injury and evading a peace officer.

In a similar operation earlier this month in Los Angeles, 88 percent of those arrested by ICE were convicted criminals. In 2017, ICE arrested 20,201 undocumented immigrants throughout California  81 percent of whom were convicted criminals.

In a statement, ICE clarified: "ICE does not conduct sweeps or raids that target aliens indiscriminately, and the agency prioritizes public and national security threats, immigration fugitives and illegal reentrants. However, all of those in violation of immigration laws may be subject to immigration arrest, detention and, if found removable by final order, removal from the United States"

An immigrants' rights group says word of the ICE operations are fueling fear across the Bay Area.

The group called Rapid Response and Immigrant Defense Network hasn't verified the exact number of arrests through the federal agency. ICE officials confirmed they have detained at least one person since Sunday.

In the Alum Rock business district in East San Jose, merchants say business has been down since Monday, and it's mostly due to rumors of ICE activity.

Jesus Flores, who runs a tax office on the Alum Rock corridor, says undocumented immigrants are staying home out of fear they could get caught up in a sting.

"We believe it's a fault of all the comments on social media, comments about immigration (agents) visiting households and our neighborhoods also visiting businesses," Flores said.

A merchant at a cellphone shop on Alum Rock Avenue said business the past two days has dropped by more than half.

"Its been really slow," Alicia Infante said.

Since Sunday, the phones at the offices of immigrant rights group SIREN have been ringing nonstop. The agency is also part of the countys Rapid Response Network, going out to investigate reports of ICE activity in the neighborhoods.

But in many cases, SIREN says, the reports are false.

"Its really important for community members to not spread something that hasnt been verified," said Erica Leyva, spokeswoman for Services, Immigrant Rights and Education Network.

Meanwhile, as president of the Alum Rock Business Association, Flores is planning a workshop for local merchants to see how they can legally protect their customers, so they can return to the local shops.

"We want our clients to know that we will do everything possible to protect them," he said.

A coalition of immigrant rights groups called Power, Not Panic Emergency Response Committee has scheduled a rally at noon Wednesday to denounce ICEs operation as an abuse of power and to mount an emergency response. The rally will take place at ICEs Northern California headquarters at 630 Sansome St. in San Francisco.

Additional information about the nature of the arrests provided by ICE:

 In Sacramento, a citizen of Mexico, who has criminal convictions for possession of a dangerous weapon, inflicting corporal injury on a spouse, DUI, convicted felon in possession of a firearm, burglary, threatening with intent to terrorize, battery on a police officer and resisting arrest. The individual is also a documented Surenos gang member

 In Sacramento, a citizen of Guatemala, who has a criminal conviction for false imprisonment

 In Bay Point, a citizen of Mexico, previously removed by ICE eight times and who has a criminal conviction for assault with a deadly weapon

 In Stockton, a citizen of Mexico, who has a previous criminal conviction for lewd and lascivious acts with a child under 14 years old

 In San Francisco, a citizen of Mexico, who has previous criminal convictions for battery and DUI

Of the targets who remain at large, those believed to be currently living in Oakland include:

 A Honduran citizen who was previously arrested in San Francisco County multiple times for cocaine possession and transport, probation violations and sex with a minor under 16, and;

 A citizen of Mexico who was previously arrested and convicted for carrying a loaded firearm, transportation and sale of narcotics and DUI.

Both have been previously removed from the U.S. on multiple occasions.

The backlash against Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf for alerting undocumented immigrants against potential ICE raids in her city over the weekend isnt going away. Acting ICE Director Thomas Homan issued a stern statement on Tuesday, decrying Schaafs actions, going as far as to say that she might have put the lives of federal agents in danger. On Wednesday morning, Homan went on Fox and Friends to say that what Schaaf did was no better than a gang lookout.

Calling the mayors warning reckless, Homan told the shows hosts that ICE was unable to locate 800 undocumented criminals because of it.

"What she did is no better than a gang lookout yelling 'police' when a police cruiser comes in the neighborhood, except she did it to an entire community. This is beyond the pale," he said.

Schaaf, who has received death threats and is being accused of protecting people with criminal records, once again defended her actions at a news conference Wednesday, stressing that shes confident what she did was the right thing.[[475455393, C]]



When I made my decision, the type of person I was thinking about was Melin Sanchez, the 21-year-old daughter of Oakland nurse Maria Mendoza-Sanchez, and her husband Eusebio, whose battle to legally remain with their children in the United States ended with the couple's deportation.



Sanchez, who served as a nurse at Highland Hospital providing care to cancer and heart patients, spent 15 years trying to get U.S. legal status, but was unsuccessful.

They committed not a single crime and they were deported by this administration, Schaaf told reporters. Melin asked me weeping, Why did the government need to take her parents away from her."

ICE said that about half of the 150 individuals arrested had criminal convictions in addition to immigration violations, including convictions for assault/battery, crimes against children, weapons charges and DUI.

The arrests have sparked fear in immigrant neighborhoods and kept people at home for fear of being arrested, according to local business leaders. The ICE arrests come amid a nationwide debate over whether local jurisdictions that call themselves sanctuary cities must cooperate with federal immigration authorities.

Sanctuary jurisdictions like San Francisco and Oakland shield dangerous criminal aliens from federal law enforcement at the expense of public safety, Homan said in a statement. "Because these jurisdictions prevent ICE from arresting criminal aliens in the secure confines of a jail, they also force ICE officers to make more arrests out in the community, which poses increased risks for law enforcement and the public."

He added that "ICE does not conduct sweeps or raids that target aliens indiscriminately, and the agency prioritizes public and national security threats, immigration fugitives and illegal reentrants.

Schaaf said she took fighting crime extremely seriously, saying that even in a sanctuary state like California, procedures were in place for deporting dangerous criminals. ICE is trying to distract people from their racist messages by spreading fear, she said.



Schaaf characterized ICEs actions as political retaliation.

I hope we take this moment to recognize that we have to fight against the racist myth that the Trump administration is trying to perpetuate  that immigrants are dangerous criminals. There is nothing further from the truth, Schaff said. The Trump administration and ICE has already stated that they are targeting California and targeting sanctuary cities like Oakland because of our political stand  political retaliation should not be tolerated in a Democratic America.

As for whether she had broken any laws, Schaaf, herself a lawyer, said she had sought informal legal advice to ensure what she was doing was legal and justified.

The Justice Department said they are looking into whether Mayor Libby Schaaf obstructed justice.

Im doing my job as the mayor of Oakland, a community which is one-third immigrant, she said. Just as I am being criticized, Im also being thanked  thanked for standing up for the residents of my city. Thanked for standing up for our most vulnerable residents that dont have a voice  this is their city that believes in keeping families safe and keeping families together.

When asked to comment about the controversy by reporters, Schaaf described it as really sad.

Our country has become so decisive, so polarized and so hateful and vitriol, and Im trying in this moment to be calm and thoughtful.

Homan said assault on ICE agents were up over 50 percent this year. This is a whole new norm, to intentionally warn criminals that law enforcement is coming. I just cant believe its happening  she put law enforcement officials at risk  Our officers are putting their lives on the line every day to defend this country and to defend their community. And when politicians choose to take care of their political ambitions and make political statements on the backs of law enforcement it makes our jobs more difficult.

He added: We are not going away. We are going to keep enforcing the law.Protesters on Wednesday took to the streets and sidewalks outside the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement building in San Francisco, demanding answers as dozens of undocumented immigrants have been arrested across Northern California over the past few days.

At one intersection near the ICE office, protesters chalked the pavement with the words "Bay Area United Against ICE! Keep Families Together" while denouncing the recent raids. Others nearby sat tethered together with "Sanctuary For All" banners attached to their clothing and barrels with the phrases "No Raids, No Ban, No Wall" resting next to them.

More than 150 people who are in violation of federal U.S. immigration laws have been arrested since Sunday, ICE said Tuesday.

The arrests have sparked fear in immigrant neighborhoods and kept people at home for fear of being arrested, according to local business leaders. ICE arrests come amid a nationwide debate over whether local jurisdictions that call themselves "sanctuary cities" must cooperate with federal immigration authorities.



Federal ICE and Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) deportation officers have been conducting targeted immigration enforcement in the San Francisco Bay Area "consistent with federal law and agency policy, to arrest individuals who have violated U.S. immigration laws," ICE spokesperson James Schwab said.



The arrests were made based on leads developed by the local field office in conjunction with the National Criminal Analysis and Targeting center (NCATC), Schwab said.

About half of the individuals arrested have criminal convictions in addition to immigration violations, including convictions for assault/battery, crimes against children, weapons charges and DUI, he added.



"This operation is a continuation of ICEs efforts to prioritize enforcement against public safety threats," Schwab said.

"Sanctuary jurisdictions like San Francisco and Oakland shield dangerous criminal aliens from federal law enforcement at the expense of public safety," said ICE Deputy Director Thomas D. Homan. "Because these jurisdictions prevent ICE from arresting criminal aliens in the secure confines of a jail, they also force ICE officers to make more arrests out in the community, which poses increased risks for law enforcement and the public."

Honan also criticized Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf's decision to alert the public about ICE operations, saying it "further increased that risk for my officers and alerted criminal aliens  making clear that this reckless decision was based on her political agenda with the very federal laws that ICE is sworn to uphold.

"Thanks to the dedicated and professional work of ICE deportation officers, we were able to remove many public safety threats from the streets of the Bay Area during the past few days," Honan said.

"However, 864 criminal aliens and public safety threats remain at large in the community, and I have to believe that some of them were able to elude us thanks to the mayors irresponsible decision. Unlike the politicians who attempt to undermine ICEs critical mission, our officers will continue to fulfill their sworn duty to protect public safety.

Those arrested include 38-year-old ICE fugitive Armando Nunez-Salgado, a Mexican citizen and documented Sureno gang member previously removed by ICE on four prior occasions. Nunez-Salgado has prior criminal convictions in California over the past 18 years resulting in prison sentences totaling 15 years. His convictions include assault with a deadly weapon, burglary, hit-and-run causing injury and evading a peace officer.

In a similar operation earlier this month in Los Angeles, 88 percent of those arrested by ICE were convicted criminals. In 2017, ICE arrested 20,201 undocumented immigrants throughout California  81 percent of whom were convicted criminals.

Protestors Denounce Immigration Raids Outside ICE Office Building in San Francisco

In a statement, ICE clarified: "ICE does not conduct sweeps or raids that target aliens indiscriminately, and the agency prioritizes public and national security threats, immigration fugitives and illegal reentrants. However, all of those in violation of immigration laws may be subject to immigration arrest, detention and, if found removable by final order, removal from the United States"

An immigrants' rights group says word of the ICE operations are fueling fear across the Bay Area.

The group called Rapid Response and Immigrant Defense Network hasn't verified the exact number of arrests through the federal agency. ICE officials confirmed they have detained at least one person since Sunday.

In the Alum Rock business district in East San Jose, merchants say business has been down since Monday, and it's mostly due to rumors of ICE activity.

Jesus Flores, who runs a tax office on the Alum Rock corridor, says undocumented immigrants are staying home out of fear they could get caught up in a sting.

"We believe it's a fault of all the comments on social media, comments about immigration (agents) visiting households and our neighborhoods also visiting businesses," Flores said.

A merchant at a cellphone shop on Alum Rock Avenue said business the past two days has dropped by more than half.

"Its been really slow," Alicia Infante said.

Since Sunday, the phones at the offices of immigrant rights group SIREN have been ringing nonstop. The agency is also part of the countys Rapid Response Network, going out to investigate reports of ICE activity in the neighborhoods.

But in many cases, SIREN says, the reports are false.

"Its really important for community members to not spread something that hasnt been verified," said Erica Leyva, spokeswoman for Services, Immigrant Rights and Education Network.

Meanwhile, as president of the Alum Rock Business Association, Flores is planning a workshop for local merchants to see how they can legally protect their customers, so they can return to the local shops.

"We want our clients to know that we will do everything possible to protect them," he said.

A coalition of immigrant rights groups called Power, Not Panic Emergency Response Committee has scheduled a rally at noon Wednesday to denounce ICEs operation as an abuse of power and to mount an emergency response. The rally will take place at ICEs Northern California headquarters at 630 Sansome St. in San Francisco.

Additional information about the nature of the arrests provided by ICE:

 In Sacramento, a citizen of Mexico, who has criminal convictions for possession of a dangerous weapon, inflicting corporal injury on a spouse, DUI, convicted felon in possession of a firearm, burglary, threatening with intent to terrorize, battery on a police officer and resisting arrest. The individual is also a documented Surenos gang member

 In Sacramento, a citizen of Guatemala, who has a criminal conviction for false imprisonment

 In Bay Point, a citizen of Mexico, previously removed by ICE eight times and who has a criminal conviction for assault with a deadly weapon

 In Stockton, a citizen of Mexico, who has a previous criminal conviction for lewd and lascivious acts with a child under 14 years old

 In San Francisco, a citizen of Mexico, who has previous criminal convictions for battery and DUI

Of the targets who remain at large, those believed to be currently living in Oakland include:

 A Honduran citizen who was previously arrested in San Francisco County multiple times for cocaine possession and transport, probation violations and sex with a minor under 16, and;

 A citizen of Mexico who was previously arrested and convicted for carrying a loaded firearm, transportation and sale of narcotics and DUI.

Both have been previously removed from the U.S. on multiple occasions.

Worshippers in a Pennsylvania church clutching AR-15 rifles drank holy wine and exchanged wedding vows in a commitment ceremony Wednesday morning.

The event at the World Peace and Unification Sanctuary in Newfoundland, Wayne County, led a nearby school to cancel classes.

The Rev. Sean Moon leads the controversial church. He and his wife are known as the king and queen. Moon said in a prayer Wednesday that God gave people the right to bear arms. He held a gold AR-15 rifle throughout the ceremony.

Moon is the son of the Rev. Sun Myung Moon, a self-proclaimed messiah who founded the Unification Church, often described as a cult, in the 1950s.

[NATL]Church Holds 'Blessing' Ceremony Featuring AR-15s

The sanctuary believes the AR-15 symbolizes the "rod of iron" in the book of Revelation, and encouraged couples to bring the weapons to the ceremony. An AR-15 was used in the Florida high school massacre.

Women wearing white wedding-style dresses and men in black suits calmly shuffled into the building. Church officials said all weapons would be unloaded, secured with zip ties and checked at the door.

At least one man placed a red rose in the barrel of his gun.

Steven Fisher

Inside the building, paintings featured guns with the word "Holy" written above each one. Several quoted the Bible: Blessed be the lord, my strength, which teacheth my hands to war and my fingers to fight."

Once seated, attendees were invited to bring out their guns, muzzles up, and keep their fingers off the trigger. The ceremony, held about a half-mile from Wallenpaupack South Elementary School in the Pocono Mountains, was expected to draw hundreds of couples.

Protesters also gathered early Wednesday morning. Some worried about safety while others disapproved of guns inside a church. One man told NBC10 he was outraged at the display and wanted to see it stopped.

"I don't care about guns," local resident Bill Duff said. "I care about people."

[[475420773, C]]

On Friday, the superintendent of the Wallenpaupack Area School District wrote in a letter to parents that while "there is no direct threat to our school or community," given concerns about parking, traffic and the "nature of the event," students will be bused to schools about 15 miles (24 kilometers) away.

Superintendent Michael Silsby added there will be increased security at the school all week.

"We respect your decision if you choose to keep your children home for the day," he wrote.

The Sanctuary church, which also calls itself Rod of Iron Ministries, is a breakaway faction of the Unification Church. The Southern Poverty Law Center, which tracks hate groups across the country, has called Hyung Jin Moon an "anti-LGBT cult leader."

Moon's father was most notable for holding mass weddings and his followers were dubbed "Moonies."

Church officials said it planned Wednesday's event months ago, well before the Feb. 14 massacre at a Florida high school. Authorities say the gunman there used an AR-15 in an attack that killed 17.

The Unification Church distanced itself from Wednesday's event, saying its ceremonies and theology do not involve weapons.

"It saddens us that Reverand Moon's son has chosen to separate himself and walk in opposition to his parent's legacy building world peace," the Rev. Richard Buessing, president of Family Federation, another name for the Unification Church, said in a statement.The Illinois House passed bills banning bump stock devices and raising the minimum age to purchase a firearm in the state Wednesday amid a flurry of votes on gun reform.

By a vote of 83-31, the House voted to ban the sale, manufacture, purchase, possession, or carrying of the controversial devices, which were used in a Las Vegas mass shooting that left 59 people dead and nearly 600 wounded.

The House has also voted to raise the minimum age to purchase an assault weapon to 21 in a much closer vote, with a 64-51 majority supporting the legislation.

Senate Bill 1657, approved by that body last April, was also approved by the House. The bill will require anyone in the business of selling, leasing, or transferring firearm ownership to be licensed with the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation.

The bill also requires training for gun dealers and their employees to know how to conduct background checks and how to stop straw purchases.

The act exempts stores where firearm sales make up less than 20 percent of all sales, a provision that critics decried as being fundamentally unfair to small businesses during debate on the House floor.

The legislation will now head to the desk of Gov. Bruce Rauner for approval.

HB-1468 also passed the House, making it illegal to sell or deliver an assault weapon without at least a 72-hour cooling off period. The bill passed with a 79-37 vote in the chamber.

Several more bills are being debated in the House as prominent Chicago religious leaders arrived in Springfield to show their support for the legislation.

Cardinal Blase Cupich urged Illinois lawmakers during a press conference to adopt restrictions on assault weapons and other curbs on firearms after a Florida high school massacre and the fatal shooting of a police officer two weeks ago.



"The youth of our nation are shaming the adult world into action," Cardinal Cupich said, pointing to teen-aged activists who have protested for tougher rules on firearms after 17 students were killed Feb. 14 in Parkland, Florida.



Father Michael Pfleger from St. Sabina Church boarded a bus to Springfield with a group of supporters, all looking to throw their support behind new bills reforming gun laws across the state.

There are several bills under consideration in Springfield on that topic, one of them written and named in honor of slain Chicago Police Cmdr. Paul Bauer, who was fatally shot in a stairwell at the James R. Thompson Center in Chicago on Feb.13. Shomari Legghette, the suspect charged in his death, is a convicted felon who police said was wearing body armor and used a semi-automatic weapon with a 30-round clip in the shooting.

House Bill 1469, known as the "Commander Paul Bauer Act," would prohibit the sale and possession of high-capacity magazines greater than 10 rounds, with exemptions for members of law enforcement and the military.

Sale, purchase, transfer or possession would be a Class 3 penalty, and a subsequent offense a Class 2.

The measure would also make possession of body armor a misdemeanor for first offense, Class 4 felony for second, and a penalty enhancement for committing a crime while wearing armor.

HB 1469 was introduced in committee Tuesday, with Supt. Eddie Johnson delivering testimony in support of the measure, saying it's "not perfect" but would be a step in the right direction.

"Now while we can't bring Cmdr. Bauer back, we owe it to his family and friends to carry on his legacy by emulating what he did in life and that's simply keeping the people that we serve safe," Johnson said in his testimony.

"We have an obligation to the citizens that we serve to help keep them safe," Johnson elaborated at a news conference. "And you know, it's just time that we stop talking about this stuff and do something about it."

Johnson's testimony was part of a back-and-forth exchange on the legislation, with some, including lawmakers, raising concerns about retired officers who have body armor or extended magazines being punished under the new bill.

"There are a lot of other levels of law enforcement that are not addressed in this bill," Republican state Rep. Terri Bryant, of Murphysboro, said in the committee meeting, adding, "I do think this is rushed, I'm not going to support this bill."

*Correction: the House bill only bans sales of assault weapons and accessories to those under the age of 21, not all guns.Three years ago, an Independent Police Review Authority investigator named Lorenzo Davis lost his job. Davis has long alleged he was fired because he refused to change his findings in a number of controversial police shooting cases where he had found against the officers involved. He is currently suing the city of Chicago over his dismissal.

Emails obtained by NBC5 Investigates through an open records request reveal the ouster of Davis from the IPRA ranks had been contemplated for months. Superiors accused him of clear bias, and of cherry picking facts in controversial cases. When his dismissal finally happened in July of 2015, it sparked a maelstrom of controversy.

And the emails suggest that the actual timing of Daviss firing was no accident.

Firing him has been in the works for almost a year, IPRA administrator Scott Ando wrote the mayors press secretary, Adam Collins. Im glad I intentionally waited until after the election to fire him.

The election, a hotly-contested race between Mayor Emanuel and challenger Chuy Garcia, was decided in April. Davis was fired three months later.

Three different current or former city department heads recalled a mayoral cabinet meeting in the weeks prior to the election, where Emanuel urged his lieutenants not to make any waves in their individual departments. Two of those officials told NBC5 they specifically recalled the mayors remarks. The third said he did not remember Emanuels actual comments, but said he remembered that sentiment as being the overall theme of the meeting.

I created a big controversy, Davis told NBC 5. A big storm within the community when the information began to get out.

While that controversy was certainly not welcome at City Hall, mayoral press secretary Collins insisted Ando was not doing the mayors bidding and that no one told him to hold off on firing Davis until after the election.

Mr. Ando was clearly talking about a personnel decision he himself had made, Collins said in an emailed statement. I cant speak for why he would think it would ever be appropriate to apply a political judgment to his decision-making process or what was going through his head. And Mr. Ando is no longer employed by the city.

The actual email chain reveals that Ando had wanted to engage with WBEZ reporter Chip Mitchell, who had inquired about the Davis firing, but that his proposed response was squelched by City Hall.

[[475336623, C]]

I dont understand the fear of responding at this point since we are getting clobbered locally, he wrote. And since we didnt nip it in the bud with Chip at the start, nationally.

Heres what I would like to give Chipthe truth, Ando wrote. Having heard Mr. Davis comments in various print and visual media reports, I feel it is necessary for me to respond to his false and baseless allegations.

Ando went on to say that Davis had dug in his heels about his police findings, despite the fact that other levels of review had found in favor of the officers in question.

His narrative in the investigations for which we found his findings to be incorrect were based upon incomplete versions of all the available evidence, Ando wrote. But Collins suggested in a reply that such an explanation would be futile.

I understand how frustrating it can be to have your work scrutinized by the press, he wrote, noting the goal is to minimize any further coverage, because were not the most sympathetic entity in this story and as a result its highly unlikely were convincing anyone.

Among the cases where Davis ruled against the officer in question, one involving a teenager named Cedrick Chatman yielded a settlement of $3 million.

For his part, Davis says he believes he was a victim of politics on many levels, and that decisions against police officers in heater cases were not welcomed by his superiors.

Why are you trying to cover this up, he asked. Who does it benefit? What does the mayor want? Is this political?State election officials say they revealed what they could Wednesday about Russian meddling.

Just a day after NBC News reported Russian hackers "compromised" Illinois before the 2016 election:

The Illinois Board of Elections says it cant reveal much about a warning from Homeland Security just last week.

The contents of the briefing are classified, said Steve Sandvoss, the board's executive director. They (DHS) ended by saying the threat out there is still very real and all states should be on guard for the upcoming elections.

This comes after intelligence sources tell NBC News "Russia compromised seven states prior to the 2016 election" including Illinois.

We were never told by the FBI it was the Russians," Sandvoss said. "I didnt find that out until June of last year.

Illinois officials say they did immediately told the federal government in 2016 that unknown hackers got into the states voter registration system.

The intruders were unable to add, change or delete any records or otherwise permanently entrench themselves in any of our systems, said the board's information technology specialist Matt Emmons.

Election officials insist they accurately counted every vote -- because they cross-check the results with voters paper ballots.

In order to change results they would have to have access to each individual machine or theyd have to be in the counting center at a local election jurisdictions, Kyle Thomas, of the board's division of voting and registration systems, said.

Besides improving cyber security since the 2016 breach -- Illinois election officials also say the federal government promises to communicate more quickly with states on any future hacking.NBC 5 asked school administrators, teachers unions, policy makers and a retired federal agent what they think about President Donald Trump's idea of putting guns in the hands of teachers.

Here's what they said.

An emphatic no from the Chicago Teachers Union vice president when asked about Trumps solution to stop school shootings by arming teachers.

"Its a horrible idea and youd wind up with guns in the wrong hands, Jesse Sharkey said.

Trump described his plan to a room full of governors Monday.

"Arming a small portion that are very gun adept that truly know how to handle it, he said.

But gun experts--including retired Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms senior special agent Tom Ahern have concerns.

"Just from my experience, teachers are trained to teach and law enforcement officers are trained to be law enforcement officers," Ahern said. "I think there could be more security measures in place in the schools but arming the teachers I dont see that as a real viable way for combating this."

Century School District 100 in Ullin, Illinois--south of Carbondale--is open to the idea of giving teachers guns.

The superintendent says its something theyre considering  writing on facebook: There have been preliminary discussions with the districts attorney to determine if arming staff is even a legal possibility," the superintendent wrote on Facebook. "The districts stance is that we are willing to have any conversation, and at least consider any possibilities, as it relates to school safety.

But the Illinois Education Association says it shouldnt even be a consideration.

Representing more than 135,000 teachers outside of Chicago, the union president writes arming our teachers is not the answer.

Republican candidate for governor Jeanne Ives said over the weekend teachers should be able to carry if they want to--especially those with a military background or those carrying and practicing on a regular basis.

Gov. Bruce Rauners office says he supports armed school resource officers but not armed teachers.

The democratic candidates for governor are against arming teachers as well.Chicago Authorities received a call for help from a mental health facility in Dixmoor, which resulted in an evacuation after police found disabled patients living in deplorable conditions Friday.

The unlicensed facility at the 141st Street and South Leavitt Avenue was immediately shut down after complaints of a lack of hot water and a massive infestation of bed bugs ensued.

Thirty individuals were transported from the residential facility to area hospitals.

Although officials said there were no clear answers as to who was ultimately responsible for the horrendous conditions at the facility, it is clear that to clients the place is known as Mothers House. It is also known that utility bills were going to a company known as Value Care Centers.

As this investigation goes on were just determined that more and more people were involved, said Police Chief Ron Burge at a news conference Tuesday.

Police said there could be potential criminal charges for some individuals who may be linked to the so-called Mothers House."

According to Burge, police are investigating the involvement of half a dozen people including administrators, current and former-elected officials, and at least one police officer in the case.

Donelia Pittmans mother-in-law was being treated for substance abuse by Mothers House.

All of her clothes are gone, all of her belonging are gone, Pittman said. She has nothing and these people are nowhere to be found.

Angie Britch said her 22-year-old son Bailey Pontius, who is autistic and has developmental disabilities, had been living at the facility since December and had notified her of the terrible living situation right away.

Britch said she called the chief and contacted the mayor about the conditions more than two months ago.

I never heard back from anyone and we continued to get the run-around from the facility, she said.

Chief Burge denied knowing about the conditions prior to last week. He said the investigation is ongoing and charges are expected to be filed. The Illinois Department of Public Health and The Department of Human Services said they are also looking into the facility's operations.An Israeli organization said Wednesday it has minted a coin bearing President Donald Trump's image to honor his recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital.

The Mikdash Educational Center said the "Temple Coin" features Trump alongside King Cyrus, who 2,500 years ago allowed Jews to return to Jerusalem from their exile in Babylon.

Rabbi Mordechai Persoff said that Trump, like Cyrus, made a "big declaration that Jerusalem is the capital of the holy people."

His organization minted 1,000 biblical half-shekel coins that can be purchased with a minimum donation of $50. The coin cannot be used as currency.

Mikdash bills itself as a non-profit educational and religious organization. The donations will "help spread the light of Jerusalem and the spirit of the Holy Temple throughout the world," it said.

Israel has warmly welcomed Trump's move, which angered Palestinians.

The Trump coin is likely to rile Iranians, who uniformly respect King Cyrus as an ancient Persian hero.A man says he forged a museum artifact in Connecticut that was once described as a "treasure to behold for art and history buffs alike."

Massachusetts antique dealer Harold Gordon tells The Hartford Courant he turned a plain writing desk into the "Bingham Family Civil War Memorial Secretary." The piece was said to be a gift given to a Civil War veteran in honor of his brother who was killed at the Battle of Antietam.

Gordon said he sold the piece to a Connecticut antiques dealer because he needed the money. The dealer showed the piece at a 2015 Winter Antiques Show in New York, where it was purchased by the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art.

The museum said in a statement Monday it has been offered a full refund.

Following is the full statement from the museum:

As stated clearly in our mission statement, we hold our collections in trust for all people, and we are dedicated to advancing knowledge and inspiring everyone to experience and appreciate excellence in art and culture. To realize that mission, we work to acquire items for our collections. In the acquisition and accession process we strive to confirm the authenticity of every item in accordance with our Collections Management Policy.

In late 2016, we received an anonymous report that one of the items acquired for our folk art collection in February 2015  a piece of antique furniture adorned with relics of the civil war at the time of the American centennial, 1876  was fake. We began to investigate and in 2017 took the item off view at the Atheneum until the investigation could be completed. One of the steps we took was to engage a materials scientist to try to determine the age and timeframe of the adornments. Other steps included a thorough review of a wide variety of historical sources and our own records in an attempt to scrutinize the authenticity.

This week, we learned that a Massachusetts antiques picker and craftsman has reportedly confessed to adorning the antique secretary himself, forging the provenance documentation, and misleading the dealer to whom he sold the piece. That dealer, who sold it to the Atheneum, has offered the museum a complete and total refund. We are also in contact with the appropriate authorities to follow up on this matter.

While it can be difficult to authenticate folk art of this kind, and this was by all accounts a masterful forgery that fooled a number of experts in this field, we will review our accession process and make every effort to ensure that art we acquire is what it purports to be.

We thank the concerned individuals who brought this to our attention and pursued this matter to this conclusion. We take our role as a steward of the public trust to be paramount and appreciate your support. Collections are fundamental to this institutions identity, essential to its core function as a place for art and public engagement, and a defining element of our present and future plans. We will continue to do our best to identify, authenticate, acquire, preserve and present culturally significant works of art in our collections.Governor Dannel Malloy pitched Delta Air Lines to move its headquarters from Atlanta to Connecticut after Georgia's Republican lieutenant governor Wednesday defended his vow to kill a tax break for the airlines in retaliation for the company severing ties with the National Rifle Association.

"I ask you to consider relocating your headquarters to the great state of Connecticut. As I am sure you are well aware, Connecticut is a state where we've put partisanship aside and passed commonsense gun laws," Malloy wrote to Delta's CEO Ed Bastian.

Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle and other leading Republican candidates to succeed GOP Gov. Nathan Deal next year have been united this week in attacking Delta ever since it announced it was ending the travel discount program it had offered to NRA members.

The airline's recent decision to cut ties with the NRA following a deadly school shooting in Florida had prompted Cagle to tweet Monday that he would "kill" a proposed tax exemption benefiting Delta unless the airline reverses its stance. Georgia officials have been working behind the scenes ever since to try to reach a resolution between Republican lawmakers, Delta and the NRA.

"Delta has been a strong partner for us at Bradley International Airport, and we would welcome the opportunity to host the airlines headquarters in Connecticut. We look forward to future discussions on the matter, and we are committed to doing whatever necessary to help make this relocation a reality," Kevin A. Dillon, the executive director of the Connecticut Airport Authority, said in a statement.



Malloy is an active pro-gun control politician who had to deal with the aftermath of the 2012 Sandy Hook shooting. Connecticut has some of the strictest gun laws in the country with bans on assault-style weapons and high capacity magazines from being sold in Connecticut. The governor is also pursuing a ban on bump stocks, the accessory used to make a semi-automatic weapon fire more rapidly.With a significant number of ticks in the southeastern part of the state, a public health department in New London formed a task force to help protect those in the community who are most vulnerable.

New London County comes in third for the number of reported Lyme disease cases out of the eight counties in Connecticut, according to the state Department of Public Health's data from 2016.

Ledge Light Health District serves as the local health department for East Lyme, Groton, Ledyard, New London, Old Lyme, Waterford, Stonington and North Stonington.

All the towns in Ledge Light Health Districts jurisdiction, except for Groton and New London, have rates [of tick-borne diseases in humans] that are higher than the state average, Epidemiologist Russell Melmed said.

Old Lyme, Waterford and Stonington top the list within Ledge Lights jurisdiction, he added.

Its why the health district formed a task force with local health workers, school officials, municipal leaders, landscapers, senior center staff and more to target the most vulnerable populations. Those are children, the elderly and people who spend a lot of time outside, according to Melmed. The task force is about increasing awareness, protection and education.

The nurses always see the children with ticks and unfortunately we see so many that I dont even hear about it anymore, Leah Hendricks, the nurse supervisor for the Visiting Nurse Association of Southeastern Connecticut, said.

Hendriks overseas the nurses at Groton, New London, Waterford and East Lyme schools. Being part of the task force, she hopes to give her nurses the most up-to-date research and provide more education for parents and teachers.

When the weather is above 45 degrees, ticks can be out biting, Melmed said.

That warmer weather also means Leighann Kuenns kids are crawling, running and swinging outside.

Ticks are like my scariest thing. We are lucky enough not to get any ticks last year, Kuenn, who lives in Stonington, said.

Kuenn never had Lyme disease but has taken precaution ever since she got bit when she was younger.

I got bit by a Lyme tick when I was younger and ever since then Ive just been super scared of them, she said, adding she hopes more education about tick protection through this task force helps.

Melmed said 2017 was a very active tick season in Connecticut, but the official numbers have not been released.

The task force is meeting again April and Melmed said they plan to meet every month for the next several months to put a plan in place to educate the public about tick safety.A Southern Connecticut State University is accused of harassing and threatening several Fairfield-Ludlowe High School students over Snapchat, according to Fairfield police.

Police allege that 23-year-old Nicholas Graham told the victims that he would find them and kill them and all their friends over Snapchat on Tuesday. The police investigation began when parents of those high school students saw the posts and called 911.

Graham was taken into custody without incident and told investigators that the comments came out of emotion and anger, and that he had no intention of harming anyone. He was taken to St. Vincents Medical Center for evaluation.

Investigators said they found no evidence that Graham had the capacity to act on these threats.

Graham was charged with second-degree harassment, second-degree threatening and second-degree breach of peace. He is scheduled to appear in Bridgeport Superior Court Wednesday and is currently being held on a $20,000 bond.

Police stressed that while there is no known threat to the public or any Fairfield school, but there will be an increased police presence at schools as a precaution.There is extra security on hand at the RHAM campus and elementary schools in Hebron Wednesday after police say a student was overheard making a threat against the school.

Connecticut State Police said the investigation began around 10 p.m. Tuesday after three witnesses reported hearing a male student at RHAM Middle School make the threat during lunch on Monday. Police did not specify what was said.

The student was issued a misdemeanor summons for second-degree threatening and breach of peace and released to the custody of his guardian.

State police will be on hand at schools around town as a precaution.On Feb. 28, 1993, agents with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms raided the Branch Davidian's Mt. Carmel compound east of Waco looking for David Koresh  the leader of the sect officials believed was stockpiling weapons and ammunition.

After a TV cameraman inadvertently tipped off a Davidian to the impending raid earlier in the morning, the ATF had lost the element of surprise.

As federal agents arrived at the compound on Double EE Ranch Road, they were met with gunfire.

The siege that unfolded at the Branch Davidian compound outside Waco started after a shootout Feb. 28, 1993 -25 years ago Wednesday.

The siege that unfolded at the Branch Davidian compound outside Waco started after a shootout Feb. 28, 1993 -25 years ago Wednesday.

In the exchange, four federal agents and six Davidians were killed and more than a dozen others, including Koresh, were wounded.



The federal agents retreated, beginning a 51-day standoff that would end with nearly 80 dead, including 17 children, after the Mt. Carmel compound burned to the ground on April 19.

In 2017, NBC 5's Deborah Ferguson leads a round-table discussion of journalists who covered the Waco seige: (L-R) Irwin Thompson, photographer with the Dallas Morning News; Ken Kalthoff, NBC 5 reporter; Ferguson; John Thompson, NBC 5 photojournalist; Lyle Davis, NBC 5 photojournalist and Steve Stewart, NBC 5 chief photographer.

Sunday, Feb. 28



A TV cameraman who knew of the upcoming raid was trying to find the location of Mt. Carmel and asked a postal employee to confirm the location. The postal employee was a Davidian, who was able to return to Mt. Carmel and warn Koresh and his followers of the federal agents who were on their way.

Federal agents, having lost the element of surprise, were under fire soon after arrival.

The exchange of gunfire kicked off the 51-day standoff that soon garnered attention from around the world.

Included in the timeline below are news clips pulled from the archives of KXAS-TV/NBC 5, hosted on The Portal to Texas History.



Monday, March 1



Negotiations continue and 10 children are released from the compound. FBI agitates Koresh by moving armored vehicles closer to the compound.

Tuesday, March 2



Koresh says he'll surrender if a recording of his message is broadcast nationally. The message is broadcast over the Christian Broadcasting Network that afternoon but Koresh declines to surrender saying God spoke to him and told him to wait.

Friday, March 5



ATF Special Agent Steven Willis, one of the four ATF agents killed in the raid, is laid to rest.

Friday, March 5



Mechanic Mike Barnard, who worked with Koresh on auto repairs at a Waco shop, talks about the leader with KXAS-TV/NBC 5.

Friday, March 5



KXAS-TV/NBC 5 reports the possibility of known dangers before agents entered the compound, and the impact of allowing David Koresh to be broadcast on local radio station KRLD. This footage includes ATF agent Dan Conroy and FBI agent Bob Ricks.

Friday, March 5



A former University of Texas Arlington student discusses how his 1985 student film, a satire named Armagosa Fabulosa, mirrors events occurring at that time with David Koresh and the Branch Davidians in Waco, Texas.

Saturday, March 6



Sightseers flock to Waco to watch the standoff while others capitalize on the moment by selling memorabilia.

Sunday, March 7



Koresh said the only children that remained in the compound were his biological children and that they would not be leaving.

Monday, March 8



ATF agents investigate Mag Bag, a business they say was operated by and for Koresh. The owner of the property said he knew nothing about it and that it was Paul Fatta who rented the property.

Tuesday, March 9



Electricity cut to the compound but later restored after Koresh vowed to end negotiations. In the following days, the power is temporarily cut and restored before being ordered cut off for good on March 12.

Thursday, March 11



Reports estimate the ATF was spending $500,000 per week on "Operation Koresh"; state and local agencies felt the overtime pinch too as State Troopers, deputies and police secured the area.

Thursday March 11



Koresh's mother, Bonnie Haldeman, and her attorney attempt to contact her son.

Friday, March 12



FBI uses spotlights on the compound at night to disrupt sleep and begins broadcasting music and sounds from loudspeakers. In the coming days negotiations would sporadically continue.

Sunday, March 14



A Presbyterian bible study group discusses the Davidians' views about the afterlife and the end of the world; a teenage bible study group discussing young Branch Davidian members.

Between Friday, March 19-21, 10 Davidians leave the compound, two men and eight women.

Tuesday, March 23



A representative of British Branch Davidian Livingstone Fagan, who left Mt. Carmel, speaks in front of the Correctional Facility.

Friday, March 26



The Branch Davidians unfurl a banner reading "Rodney King We Understand."

Monday, March 29



Koresh meets at the compound with lawyer Dick DeGuerin who later tells officials the Davidians will surrender after observing Passover.

Monday, April 5



Davidians begin observing Passover; observances can take eight days.



Friday, April 9



Letter sent to the FBI signed "Yahweh Koresh" warns FBI of being called to judgment.

Saturday, April 10



FBI rings compound with concertina wire, a type of barbed wire with razors attached.

Monday, April 12



U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno asks, "Why now, why not wait?" when asked to approve the FBI's plan to use gas on the compound.

Monday, April 19



Fifty-one days after the siege began, the Davidians were told via loudspeaker they were under arrest and to exit the compound and that gas was going to be used. Minutes later, tanks are used to breach the walls and inject the gas. Six hours after the first breach, at about noon, the compound begins burning. Nine Davidians flee the compound and are arrested. More than 70 Davidians die in the fire, including 17 children. Koresh and others close to him died of gun shots fired at close range.

Monday, April 19



David Koresh's attorney Dick DeGuerin speaks to the media about the escalation by federal agents that led to the fire at the Davidian compound.

1993 Tom Brokaw Report on Waco Siege

Saturday, April 24



The Tarrant County Medical Examiner identifies the causes of death of some of the Branch Davidians while other officials talk about identifying victims who died in the fire.

Waco Raid Evokes Painful Memories for Davidian Survivors 24 Years Later



Nearly 25 years later, painful memories remain vivid for Branch Davidians who survived the 51-day seige in Waco that left more than 80 dead.

ATF Agent Recalls Raid: The Dallas Morning News



Former Dallas Morning News reporter Lee Hancock talks with former ATF Agent Blake Boteler about the raid on Mt. Carmel, and some misconceptions.

Megyn Kelly - The Waco Raid 25 Years Later

More Online:Authorities went door-to-door twice Wednesday once again asking residents of a Northwest Dallas neighborhood to evacuate their homes amid ongoing natural gas issues in the area.

The new precautionary evacuation was ordered for residents of 30 homes located on the 9800 block of Bowman Boulevard, the 9900 block of Bowman, the 9900 Chireno Street, with Dallas Fire-Rescue officials joining Atmos Energy crews in notifying residents at about 2 a.m.

Later in the day around 1:30 p.m. they went door to door again in the 3800 block of Cortez and 3800 block of Wembdon.

Several residents were scrambling to pack up and leave at least an hour after that.

Just try to think of everything you need. I dont know. I dont even know what to say right now," said Santos Pineda.

Pineda's family will now join nearly 500 others who've been evacuated from their homes. Many have been in hotels since this weekend.

"We just received a knock on the door saying we have to go because of a gas leak. So we left. They didnt really tell us how long it was going to take, so we just took our wallet, our keys. When we realized they were kicking us out of the property, we grabbed our pets and left but without any clothes," said Iris Rocha.



NBC 5 has reached out to Atmos for more information on what prompted the latest evacuations.

Atmos Energy did release this media statement at 5 p.m. on Wednesday.

Here are the latest details as of 5:00 p.m. Wednesday of Atmos Energys work in restoring service to Northwest Dallas neighborhoods.



By late afternoon:

 Evacuation has been lifted for Dallas Fire Station #43

 Service has been restored to 80 homes

 182 homes and a 90-unit apartment complex currently are evacuated

Latest areas evacuated, affecting about 38 homes:

 3800 block of Cortez (even addresses)

 3800 block Wemdon (odd)

 3900 block of Wembdon (odd)

Previous and still current evacuation areas:

 3700 Matador Drive (odd and even addresses)

 3700 block of Park (odd addresses)

 3700 block of Rockdale (even houses)

 9800 block Bowman (odd)

 9900 block of Bowman (odd and Even)

 9900 block Chireno (odd)

 Chapel Creek Apartments  90 units

Atmos Energy has expanded its safety boundaries for surveying:

 Forest to the north

 Webb Chapel to the west

 Lenel to the east

 Northwest Highway to the south

Atmos Energy is going door to door restoring natural gas service to the following areas:

 3500 Block (even) Gaspar & 3500 block (odd) Fontana

 3600 Block (even) Gaspar & 3600 block (odd) Fontana

 3600 Block (even) Cortez & 3600 block (odd) Bolivar

 3700 Block (even) Cortez & 3700 block (odd) Bolivar

 3600 Block (even) Bolivar & 3600 block (odd) Almazan

 9500 Block & 9600 Block Larga



Amount of cash cards distributed so far to evacuated families to cover personal expenses: More than $170,000

DV.load("https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/4390970-Atmos-Energy-Affected-North-Dallas-Resident-Map.js", { responsive: true, container: "#DV-viewer-4390970-Atmos-Energy-Affected-North-Dallas-Resident-Map" }); Atmos Energy Affected North Dallas Resident Map (PDF)

The latest area of concern is less than a mile from the home that exploded last week, killing 12-year-old Linda Rogers.

The early morning evacuations came just hours after the city and Atmos hosted a community meeting where hundreds packed the auditorium at Foster Elementary School to hear solutions to the natural gas leaks. Some in attendance said they have felt alarmed seeing Atmos crews near their homes and suggested Atmos can better communicate what crews are doing and where they are headed next.

Authorities went door-to-door once again early Wednesday morning asking residents of a Northwest Dallas neighborhood to evacuate their homes amid ongoing natural gas issues in the area.

"How can we trust ya'll? My friend barely made it out alive. That's my question to ya'll," asked one man in the audience. "How are you going to change this and fix this?"

On Tuesday, 60 homes on the 3700 block of Matador Drive, the 3700 block of Park Lane, the 3700 block of Rockdale Drive and the Chapel Creek Apartments were evacuated.

Atmos Energy Tuesday announced new precautionary evacuations in the northwest Dallas neighborhood where a house explosion last week killed a 12-year-old girl.

Dallas Fire Station 43 was also ordered to close Tuesday evening, with firefighters and paramedics relocated to nearby stations.

Tuesday night, firefighters and paramedics at Dallas Fire Station 43 were relocated after Atmos energy crews discovered a natural gas leak in front of the fire station.

Atmos has been repairing older gas lines and repairing leaks in the area since the deadly explosion. The utility company has offered lodging for evacuated residents. Evacuees can contact Atmos at 972-964-4191.

Special counsel Robert Mueller's team is asking witnesses pointed questions about whether Donald Trump was aware that Democratic emails had been stolen before that was publicly known, and whether he was involved in their strategic release, multiple people familiar with the probe told NBC News.

Mueller's investigators have asked witnesses whether Trump was aware of plans for WikiLeaks to publish the emails. They have also asked about the relationship between GOP operative Roger Stone and WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, and why Trump took policy positions favorable to Russia.

The line of questioning suggests the special counsel, who is tasked with examining whether there was collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia during the 2016 election, is looking into possible coordination between WikiLeaks and Trump associates in disseminating the emails, which U.S. intelligence officials say were stolen by Russia.

Trump has repeatedly denied any collusion and has described the special counsel's investigation as "illegal" and a "witch hunt." John Dowd, the presidents outside attorney, told NBC News, "We do not discuss our knowledge of or communications with the Special Counsel."A social studies teacher barricaded himself inside a classroom at a Georgia high school on Wednesday and fired a handgun, sending students running outside or hunkering down in darkened gym locker rooms, authorities said.

No Dalton High School students were in the classroom when the teacher fired the weapon, and despite the chaotic lockdown and evacuation, the only injury was a student who hurt her ankle running away.

It wasn't immediately clear why the teacher, 53-year-old Jesse Randal Davidson, had the gun. Under questioning by detectives, he refused to discuss what led to the shooting.

The gunfire erupted with a nation on edge two weeks after a Florida school shooting left 17 students and faculty dead and ignited a new debate over gun control in America. Within minutes of the Dalton shooting, students there took to social media, calling for restricting gun rights. In the afternoon, President Donald Trump, who has advocated for arming teachers, convened a bipartisan group of lawmakers at the White House to address gun violence.

The teacher was taken into custody without incident after a 30- to 45-minute standoff with officers, police spokesman Bruce Frazier said. A teacher since 2004, Davidson also serves as the play-by-play announcer for the high school's football team.

Police noted that Davidson didn't appear to want to hurt the students or faculty. He fired the gun at an exterior window when the principal tried to enter the classroom.

"I don't know whether he was just firing the gun off to let people know to back off or what," Frazier said.

The shooting happened about 11:30 a.m. during Davidson's planning period. At first, students tried to get into the classroom, but they couldn't. The students told the principal, who tried to enter.

"I didn't get the door open very far, but he slammed the door and hollered 'Go away, don't come in here.' He had some nonsensical noises that were made as well," Principal Steve Bartoo said.

Bartoo returned a short time later and put his key in the door "and again he slammed the door before I could open it and he said, 'Don't come in here, I have a gun.'"

That's when Davidson fired and the school was placed on lockdown, authorities said.

Davidson faces six charges, including aggravated assault involving a gun and terroristic threats and acts, jail records showed. Other charges include carrying a weapon in a school safety zone and reckless conduct. It's not clear if he has an attorney.

Chondi Chastain told The Associated Press she was supposed to have Davidson's class at 2:30 p.m.

"My favorite teacher at Dalton high school just blockaded his door and proceeded to shoot. We had to run out the back of the school in the rain. Students were being trampled and screaming. I dare you to tell me arming teachers will make us safe," she tweeted in a post that was retweeted 15,000 times within hours.

She said Davidson himself had commented that arming teachers was a bad idea.

"I feel like there just shouldn't be guns at school at all," she said. "It's our basic student right to feel safe at school and if (teachers were armed), I wouldn't feel safe."

Student Emma Jacobs texted her mother while she hid inside a darkened classroom, said her mother, Annmarie Jacobs. Emma, a junior, said in texts that her teacher had turned the lights off and told the students to sit in a corner.

Then, in an act that brought home the danger of the situation, Emma texted her mother, "omg she's putting the desk in front of the door."

Nathaniel Lopez hunkered down with students and teachers in a gym locker room. While there, he tweeted a photo of teens sitting on benches and called for more gun control.

"This shouldn't happen to us," he wrote. "I hope a lawmaker somewhere will do something."

When he found out that a teacher was involved, he shifted his stance on arming educators.

"At first, I was thinking that that might have been a good idea. I am now totally against it," he said.

Several students said on social media they were outraged that some on Twitter questioned whether the incident was staged.

Davidson was described as laid back and smart. In 2012, he was recognized as the school's top teacher, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported. He moved to Dalton in 1995 and became sports and news director at WBLJ-AM radio.

"It was always about the students. He really wanted the students to understand the concept," said 18-year-old senior Rowdy Zeisig.

The principal said Davidson was an "excellent teacher" who was well thought of, and "as far as I know he was fit to be at work."

Twice in recent years, Dalton police say they encountered the teacher exhibiting odd behavior and wrote in one report that he "may be delusional."

Davidson had walked into the police department and told a rambling story about thinking a murder had occurred, police wrote in a 2016 report. But police said they investigated and were not able to verify that any of the information was true. Police said that after the interview, Davidson was taken to a hospital "based on him thinking about hurting himself."

Police said in another report last year that officers found Davidson during a school day sitting on the curb of a street, conscious but unresponsive and being held up by two school staff members. He was again taken to a hospital.

Both police reports were posted late Wednesday by the Chattanooga Times Free Press.

A week ago, police found a "threatening" note on the floor of a classroom at Dalton High, but it wasn't related to the shooting Wednesday.

Threats have been made at schools across the country in the wake of the Feb. 14 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida.

Dalton High has about 2,000 students. The school is about 90 miles (145 kilometers) north of Atlanta.

AP writer Jacob Jordan contributed to this report.A divided California Supreme Court on Monday struck down sentences that fail to give juveniles a chance at parole for 50 years or more for crimes other than homicide, saying such punishments are unconstitutional because they dont recognize the defendants youth and ability to change.

The 4-3 ruling came amid heightened scrutiny of sentences for juveniles nationwide. A 2010 U.S. Supreme Court ruling ended sentences of life without parole for juveniles who commit crimes other than homicide. The justices said juveniles lack maturity, dont have well-developed characters and are vulnerable to peer pressure.

Citing that ruling, California Supreme Court Associate Justice Goodwin Liu said juvenile sentences must recognize the offenders capacity for change and limited moral responsibility, offer hope of a chance for fulfillment outside prison, and give the juvenile an incentive to become a responsible individual.

The two sentences the court considered  50 years to life for one defendant and 58 years to life for the other  failed that test because they would not provide the defendants with an opportunity for parole until one was 66 and the other 74, Liu said.

"Even assuming defendants parole eligibility dates are within their expected lifespans, the chance for release would come near the end of their lives," Liu said. "Even if released, they will have spent the vast majority of adulthood in prison."

The justice said such sentences violate the constitutional ban on cruel and unusual punishment.

California law gives juveniles under 18 who were convicted of murder a chance at parole after 25 years. Related legislation signed by Gov. Jerry Brown last year expands the states youthful parole program, which already requires that inmates who were under 23 when they committed their crimes be considered for parole after serving at least 15 years.

Mondays ruling came in the case of two 16-year-olds charged as adults and convicted in 2012 of kidnapping and raping two teenage girls in San Diego County.

Their crimes made them ineligible for an early parole hearing. The California Supreme Court ruling means a lower court will have to sentence the teens again.

Richard Braucher, who filed a brief in the case, said the court sent a message to state lawmakers that they had wrongly left some juveniles out of the youthful parole process. He estimated the ruling would apply to less than 100 cases.

The decision built on a previous state Supreme Court ruling that said a juvenile defendants sentence of 110 years to life for attempted murder equated to life without parole and was therefore unconstitutional.

The attorney generals office had argued that the latest case was different because the defendants would get an opportunity for parole within their expected lifetimes.

The office didnt immediately return an email seeking comment on the ruling.

In a dissenting opinion, Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye agreed with the attorney general, saying sentences offering parole at 66 and 74 showed respect for the ability of juveniles to change and re-enter society.

She said "profound life experiences still may lie ahead of someone released from prison at age 66 or 74."

"The majority describes these ages as falling 'near the end' of a persons life, language that suggests that fulfillment at such a juncture is well-nigh impossible. The millions of productively employed senior citizens would beg to differ," Cantil-Sakauye said.An American citizen from Central California has been arrested on charges he sought to fight overseas for the Islamic State group.

Federal prosecutors in New York City announced the arrest of Bernard Augustine of Keyes, California, near Modesto, on Tuesday.

Prosecutors said that before he left the United States, the 21-year-old Augustine repeatedly expressed his support for the Islamic State group and violent jihad. They said a search of his laptop also showed that he researched how to join the group.

He's accused of traveling in 2016 to Tunisia, where he tried to enter Libya. Prosecutors said he booked a one-way ticket to Tunisia out of San Francisco International Airport, where he told a customs agent he was taking a vacation.

Augustine was captured before he could make it into Libya. He served two years in prison in Tunisia before he was turned over to FBI agents, who brought him back to the U.S.

An examination of Augustine's laptop turned up evidence that he had been viewing Islamic State group material on the Internet, including a video showing the beheadings of Ethiopian Christians who were kidnapped in Libya, court papers said. He also searched for "jihadology" and "how to safely join isis," it said.

In addition, Augustine viewed sermons by fiery American-born cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, a leader of al-Qaida in Yemen who was killed in 2011, the papers said. The online videos of Al-Awlaki have been cited in several U.S. cases as being a dangerous influence on self-radicalized terrorists.

Records show Augustine took a Turkish Airlines flight from San Francisco to Tunisia via Istanbul, Turkey, using a one-way ticket. Once there he emailed a relative in California, telling that person, "I'm not mad or mentally ill, I really truly am on a path to fight for justice," the papers said.

Augustine made a court appearance later Tuesday in Brooklyn. He is charged with providing material support to terrorists, according to prosecutors.As California develops its legal marijuana market, the state-regulated system versus federal regulations are causing confusion and red tape for businesses. As a result, some pot cultivation and manufacturing businesses are considering moving onto tribal lands.

The move could off-set some of the federal expenses and taxes that come with operating a marijuana business in California.

Recreational and medical marijuana is legal at a state-level in California, but still illegal on the federal level, complicating tax rates.

"When it comes to federal business taxes for these companies, they are not allowed to write off any expenses because they are not seen as legal," said Dallin Young, executive director of the Association of Cannabis Professionals. "This is things like product, employees. It comes to thousands and thousands of dollars."

This cuts into the overall profit margins. Young said the rumor that marijuana businesses are bringing in an abundance of cash just isn't true.

"After taxation, most marijuana businesses in the state are only seeing profits between three to five percent, which is not that much," Young added. "Federal tax rates on products or employees would be a lot lower on tribal land."

But the issue is further convoluted when taking into consideration the sovereignty of American Indian lands: while they are currently seen as sovereign, allowing marijuana businesses on tribal lands could jeopardize this.

The state has required right now that for tribes to interface with the California commercial cannabis market tribes have to give the state civil jurisdiction over their reservation lands, Said Mark Levitan, a tribal attorney based in Sonora, California. This is an unprecedented demand by the state of California.

Tina Braithwaite, chairwoman of the Benton Paiute Tribe in Mono County, California, says this is discrimination by the state.

"I feel strongly that if it's legal for the state it should be legal for the tribes," said Braithwaite. "By locking out the tribes from the marketplace they force us into a corner and it's not where we want to be."

Braithwaite added that for her tribe, located in the central eastern part of the state, being able to get into the marijuana industry would mean economic security.

"We're a remote tribe and we're not in the position where we could just pop up a casino," said Braithwaite. "The cannabis business has helped us to become more economically and developmentally friendly."

According to southern California tribal attorneys, some tribal lands prohibit marijuana operations altogether, others are trying to reconcile California law with cultivation and manufacturing companies.

At the beginning of 2018, Attorney General Jeff Sessions lifted policies that kept federal agencies from cracking down on state marijuana trades. This also included enforcement on tribal lands.

This shift has delayed development plans in eastern San Diego County.

Young added another benefit of moving to tribal lands would be less competition in the area for marijuana businesses.

"There's not even enough licenses locally to go around for everybody," said Young. "So any other providers I think are good."What to Know The group from Israel hopes to help those who serve the South Florida community, such as counselors, following the Parkland school tragedy.

Seventeen people were shot dead at a Parkland school on Feb. 14.

People who wish to participate can register on the group's website.

The Israel Trauma Coalition is sharing their knowledge to help South Florida move forward after the Parkland school tragedy.

"In Israel in general, with all the turmoil, the terrorist attacks, and the evacuation of the Gaza settlements, there are so many things that have been going on that we've had a lot of practical experience," Israel Trauma Coalition representative Alan Cohen said.

Among participants in the free sessions at Coral Springs: counselors, psychologists, first responders, clergy members and teachers.

The ITC hopes to assist more than 300 people this week, particularly with how to improve communication with people who are stressed.

"They gave us a variety of different tools that we can share with our students, and how to debrief and talk about it in a productive way," teacher Lisa Mastronardi said. "This is Parkland. We're not used to dealing with anything like this, and they're coming with so much experience."

On Wednesday, students will return to the campus where the tragedy occurred for a special half-day program.

"The crisis that they've been through is an opportunity for growth, and from this crisis, a lot of good things can develop," Cohen added.

Those who wish to participate in the sessions can register on the ITC's website.What to Know Two weeks since 17 died in the deadliest school shooting in Florida history, classes will resume at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School

The security clearance of White House senior adviser Jared Kushner has been downgraded, significantly reducing his access to classified info

Ryan Seacrest is speaking out about the sexual harassment allegations leveled against him, continuing to deny the claims

Get the top headlines of the day in your morning briefing from NBC 4 New York, Monday through Friday. Sign up for our newsletter here.

Classes Resuming at Douglas High Weeks After Mass Shooting

Two weeks to the day from when 17 people lost their lives in the deadliest school shooting in Florida history, classes are set to resume at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. Students and teachers will be on a modified schedule for the remainder of the week, in class from 7:40 a.m. to 11:40 a.m. before returning to a full schedule next week. Teachers and staff spent two this week prepping for the return, while students and parents were on campus last Sunday for an orientation. Support services will be available throughout the week for students, staff and even parents who need help in dealing with the return to school and the tragic events that surrounded the schools closure. The Parkland schools principal, Ty Thompson, tweeted that the focus of the next three days will be comfort, not curriculum while advising students they dont need to bring backpacks and to come ready to start the healing process, adding the hashtag #RECLAIMTHENEST in honor of their mascot, the Eagles. The walkway leading onto the campus remains lined with flowers and photographs, memorials to the students and teachers killed in a Valentine's Day massacre that forever altered their lives and thrust them into the center of the nation's gun debate.

Jared Kushner's Security Clearance Downgraded

The security clearance of White House senior adviser and presidential son-in-law Jared Kushner has been downgraded, significantly reducing his access to classified information, according to two people informed of the decision. Kushner had been operating with an interim clearance at the "top secret/sensitive compartmented information" level for more than a year. Now he is authorized to access information only at the lower "secret" level, according to a White House official and a person familiar with the decision, both of whom spoke on condition of anonymity. Neither source was authorized to discuss the decision publicly. The news set off rampant speculation among Trump allies that Kushner's days in the White House might be numbered. On the same day, the departure of a third Kushner ally in the West Wing in as many months was announced. And the selection of a Kushner ally to serve as Trump's 2020 campaign manager appeared to suggest the campaign could provide Kushner with a convenient place to land after his White House duties end. Kushner lost his access to the nation's deepest secrets after chief of staff John Kelly ordered that White House officials with interim clearances pending since before June 1, 2017, be cut off if they hadn't received permanent clearances by last Friday. A White House official confirmed to The Associated Press that Kelly's order has been implemented.

Russia Compromised 7 U.S. States Before 2016 Election, Officials Say

The U.S. intelligence community developed substantial evidence that state websites or voter registration systems in seven states were compromised by Russian-backed covert operatives prior to the 2016 election  but never told the states involved, according to multiple U.S. officials. Top-secret intelligence requested by President Obama in his last weeks in office identified seven states where analysts  synthesizing months of work  had reason to believe Russian operatives had compromised state websites or databases. Three senior intelligence officials told NBC News that the intelligence community believed the states as of January 2017 were Alaska, Arizona, California, Florida, Illinois, Texas and Wisconsin. The officials say systems in the seven states were compromised in a variety of ways, with some breaches more serious than others, from entry into state websites to penetration of actual voter registration databases. NBC News reached out to all seven states that were compromised, as well as 14 additional states the Department of Homeland Security says were probed during the 2016 election. To this day, six of the seven states deny they were breached, based on their own cyber investigations.

Ryan Seacrest Denies Sexual Harassment Allegations



Ryan Seacrest is speaking out about the sexual harassment allegations leveled against him. One day after Variety published one woman's account of "unwanted sexual aggression" by the television personality while working as his personal stylist, Seacrest continues to deny the claims. Seacrest shared in a statement, "Much has been said about the #MeToo and Times Up movement(s) and the importance of providing women and men with the opportunity to share their stories of workplace misconduct, in an effort to change our culture and the systemic inequalities that exist. I absolutely support this cause unequivocally and applaud all the brave souls who have come forward to share their stories." "Sadly, last fall I became one of the accused," he continued, "which I promptly revealed proactively to the network involved and to the public. And to be equally clear, those accusations were then investigated by an independent third-party over the course of a two-month process and involved dozens of interviews that included me, the accused and countless others. Ultimately, my name was cleared. I eagerly participated in the investigation in order to demonstrate my innocence because I know my truth, and I believe in due process." Seacrest first faced the accusations in November, prompting E! to launch an investigation. Three months later, the network said no sufficient evidence to corroborate the allegations was discovered.What to Know A Staten Island man who tortured his neighbors cat and live streamed the incident was sentenced Wednesday to 15 months in prison

Tyrike Richardson, 21, previously pleaded guilty to aggravated animal cruelty for torturing and abandoning his neighbors cat, Chester

Chester suffered multiple serious injuries, but has since made a full recovery and is being cared for, according to officials.

A Staten Island man who tortured his neighbors cat and live streamed the incident was sentenced Wednesday to 15 months in prison, authorities say.

Tyrike Richardson, 21, previously pleaded guilty to aggravated animal cruelty for torturing and abandoning his neighbors cat, Chester, last summer.

The Richmond County District Attorneys office says that on June 2017, Richardson struck the feline multiple times in the head, body and face with a stick and knife and threw a chair at it, before placing it in a trash can outside to die. Richardson live streamed the incident on Facebook.

NYPD Staten Island Gang Squad officers rescued the cat who, according to a veterinarian from the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, suffered serious injuries, including blunt force trauma, injured lungs, rib fractures, ear contusions, a bloody nose, broken teeth, liver and kidney injuries, head trauma and muscle injuries, officials say.

District Attorney Michael McMahon said his office will continue working together with the NYPD and ASPCA to ensure animals are protected under the law and that those who chose to do them harm are prosecuted.

Richardson is banned from owning animals for 10 years and must register with the NYC Animal Abuse Registry, according to the district attorneys office. He must also pay $8,226 to the ASPCA.

Chester has since made a full recovery and is being cared for, according to officials.What to Know Yevgeniy Vasilievich Bayraktar was arrested Feb. 22 on suspicion of confining the woman, who had been missing for six days

According to reports, the woman's head, arms, legs and torso were found in separate locations in parts of Kyoto and Osaka on Sunday

No one answered the door at Bayraktar's home on Monday, but his parents have previously denied the allegations to Japanese media

Japanese police confirmed Thursday the arrest of an American on suspicion of dismembering and abandoning the body of a woman in western Japan.

Hyogo prefectural police said Yevgeniy Vasilievich Bayraktar was arrested Feb. 22 on suspicion of confining the woman, who had been missing for six days.

Police said they added allegations Wednesday of dismembering and abandoning the body. They are also investigating if the suspect killed the woman.

Police would not release the suspect's hometown, saying they are still verifying it, but multiple reports have indicated he is from Long Island.

Police said they found the severed head of the woman, a 27-year-old office worker from Sanda City, in the suspect's lodging in Osaka last week. They found other body parts on Sunday in the mountains of Osaka and Kyoto after the suspect identified where he abandoned them, police said. An examination of those parts is still underway.

Japanese media reports say the suspect met the woman on an internet dating site and exchanged messages using Instagram. The woman went missing on Feb. 16 after messaging her friend that she was going to meet someone named "Jay."

Investigators believe Bayraktar confined the woman in his lodging in the Higashinari district in Osaka between Feb. 16 and Feb. 18, during which he dismembered the victim and took the head to another room he rented in nearby Nishinari and the remaining parts to the mountains.

Security camera video from the first building showed him entering with a woman, but did not show the woman leaving. It showed the suspect going in and out with a suitcase, police said.

Media reports say Bayraktar entered Japan in January on a tourist visa.What to Know Five Westchester County public school districts went into lockout or lock-in mode for hours Tuesday as cops searched for a possible gunman

Irvington, Tarrytown, Elmsford, Hastings and Dobbs Ferry school districts all posted messages sites advising parents of the security

The police probe didn't appear to have anything to do with any of the districts, but lockouts were ordered out of an abundance of caution

School districts in Tarrytown and Irvington, and later, Elmsford, Hastings-on-Hudson and Dobbs Ferry, went into lockout or lock-in mode for hours Tuesday as cops searched for a man who was thought to be armed following a deadly shooting at an apartment complex, authorities said.

All five districts -- Irvington Union Free School District, Tarrytown Union Free School District, Elmsford Union Free School District, Hastings-on-Hudson Union Free School District and Dobbs Ferry -- had messages on their websites advising parents of the security measures following the shooting death of a 34-year-old woman at an apartment in the town.



The children were not believed to be at risk -- the shooting had nothing to do with any of the districts -- but schools were acting out of an abundance of caution as police searched for the suspected gunman. Only students and staff were being allowed into the buildings. Staff were manning all entrances to ensure safety; the security measures remained in place until dismissal.

[NATL] Top News Photos: Pope Visits Japan, and More

By late Tuesday, a person of interest was being interviewed in the shooting, but no arrests had been made. Authorities said the person of interest was detained by police at the Port Authority Bus Terminal in Manhattan.

A Port Authority spokesman said the man, 28, was in line to purchase Greyhound tickets to Wilmington, Delaware, when he was spotted by officers just before 7 p.m. Tuesday.

The spokesman added the unarmed suspect was accompanied by a woman identified as his aunt and the aunt's child. He says the FBI had provided photos of the man.

Tarrytown, Irvington, Elmsford, Hastings-on-Hudson and Dobbs Ferry public school districts serve thousands of students in 18 schools from pre-K through grade 12. Irvington alone says it has 7,000 student across its four schools, according to the district's website.

[NY-NATL] TripAdvisor Reveals the Best Beaches in the World (And in America)A New York City real estate technology company was filming b-roll at a Brooklyn park when a feature-worthy event got in the shot.

VirtualApt said its 360-degree video-shooting robot was stationed in Bushwick Inlet Park in Williamsburg on Monday afternoon when it accidentally filmed a man getting down on one knee in an apparent proposal. The company said it didn't know the camera had caught the touching moment until afterward and is now trying to find the couple so they can have the footage.

"We saw the proposal and thought it would be nice to share it with the couple so they could have that moment forever on video," a company representative said.

The footage shows the pair sitting on a bench at the East River waterfront, looking curiously in the unattended robots direction in the otherwise unoccupied portion of the park.

Provided by VirtualApt.com

They both then stand up and embrace for a few seconds before the man reaches into his pocket -- presumably for a ring -- and gets down on one knee.

It wasnt clear what the man said to the woman, or if she replied with a yes because whipping winds drowned out other sounds on the robots microphones.

But the woman can be seen putting her hands over her mouth in surprise before leaning down to kiss the man. They then stand there for a few more seconds before the video ends.

The company said the robot's operator, who had left the area to avoid getting in the camera's shot, didn't realize he had captured the apparent proposal until he started going through the footage on Tuesday morning.

That is when the company said it posted the footage on its website, VirtualApt.com, and several social media networks in hopes of finding the couple.

If you recognize the couple, email VirtualApt at info@virtualapt.com.

Top Tri-State News PhotosA New Jersey woman was asked to leave the Metropolitan Museum of Art last weekend after a security guard mistakenly thought she stole clothing from the museum's Costume Institute, according to a published report.

Eliza Vincz, a 26-year-old woman from Burlington, New Jersey, with a hobby for wearing centuries-old clothing, denounced her treatment by a security guard at the Manhattan museum last weekend after she said she was told she couldn't be in the museum in a costume, according to NJ.com.

"I was furious and embarrassed. I felt like a criminal in the one place where I get a lot of my inspiration for my clothing. It hurt--it hurt terribly," Vincz told the website.

Vincz reportedly planned her visit to the museum to speak to a group called the "Shady Ladies," for a tour encompassing fashion and beauty in art. Unfortunately, she had to cut her presentation short.

"The Met doesn't have a dress code, but there are guidelines for what visitors can bring in and what activities are allowed in the galleries, and the Museum's security officers are also there to ensure that anyone entering the building isn't going to unnecessarily disturb fellow visitors or put the art at risk," a museum spokeswoman said in a statement to NJ.com.

Vincz told NJ.com she was simply paying homage to work she held in high regard.

In a post on her blog, "Silk and Sass," Vincz wrote: "Ive never been so embarrassed in my entire life; I was treated like a criminal for volunteering to help a tour and sharing my love for history. Ive been going to the Met ever since I was a child and was enthralled by the artwork and history it held."

Following the incident, Vincz stated that she was still in a state of shock, and that an apology from the Met is needed.Nearly a dozen people, including several Marines, at Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall fell ill Tuesday after they opened a suspicious letter containing an unknown substance.

The letter was recieved about 3:30 p.m. in Henderson Hall, which Arlington Fire officials described as an administrative building.

A gunnery sergeant opened a letter and showed it to a superior, a Pentagon official told NBC News.

Eleven people began to feel ill, and the building was evacuated. Three Marines were taken to a hospital in stable condition, officials said in a statement.

The Marines were released from a hospital later Tuesday.

The Marines affected reported itchy hands and faces, and bloody noses, a Marine official said. It was unclear how many people suffered from those symptoms.

A large number of police and medics responded to the Northern Virginia military base, which is near the Pentagon and Arlington National Cemetery. The FBI, Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS) and local hazardous material teams cleared the building with base police.

The NCIS and FBI are conducting a joint investigation, a statement said.

Information was not available immediately on what the unknown substance could be.

Stay with News4 for more details on this developing story.The U.S. intelligence community developed substantial evidence that state websites or voter registration systems in seven states were compromised by Russian-backed covert operatives prior to the 2016 election  but never told the states involved, according to multiple U.S. officials.

Top-secret intelligence requested by President Barack Obama in his last weeks in office identified seven states where analysts  synthesizing months of work  had reason to believe Russian operatives had compromised state websites or databases.

Three senior intelligence officials told NBC News that the intelligence community believed the states as of January 2017 were Alaska, Arizona, California, Florida, Illinois, Texas and Wisconsin.

The officials say systems in the seven states were compromised in a variety of ways, with some breaches more serious than others, from entry into state websites to penetration of actual voter registration databases.

NBC News reached out to all seven states that were compromised, as well as 14 additional states the Department of Homeland Security says were probed during the 2016 election.

To this day, six of the seven states deny they were breached, based on their own cyber investigations.A task force studying issues surrounding marijuana legalization in Delaware is set to issue its final report.

Members of the panel, which was established after a legalization bill stalled in the General Assembly last year, were scheduled to vote Wednesday on a final report summarizing their findings and recommendations.

Rep. Helene Keeley, a Wilmington Democrat who is co-chair of the task force and chief sponsor of the stalled legalization bill, said the bill would be amended to address some of the concerns raised during task-force meetings. The panel has discussed a variety of issues, including law-enforcement concerns, taxation and banking, consumer safety, and local authority and control.

Advocates argue that legalization will eliminate the stigma associated with marijuana use, decrease criminal activity and raise revenue for the state.Amid multiple lawsuits and escalating tension, Pennsylvanias midterm elections kicked off Tuesday.

It was the first day candidates could circulate petitions in what has become one of the most closely watched races in the nation.

"Are you a registered Democrat?" asked a campaign volunteer wearing a blue Dwight Evans for Congress T-shirt.

The man standing outside a Shop Rite market in Roxborough carrying a clipboard was one of many campaign volunteers who fanned out collecting signatures on behalf of their favorite candidates.

Two women sheepishly signed a petition in favor of Democratic U.S. Rep. Dwight Evans. He represents the former 2nd District and is one of several candidates who has been forced to change races at the last minute after the state Supreme Court issued a new voting map.

There has to be a blue wave in November, retired teacher Kathy Stone told NBC10. Especially with these gun laws, they have to change and the only way theyre going to change is if we do a complete turn around.

The Germantown resident is part of a potential onslaught of Democratic voters who could flip Pennsylvania from red to blue. The trend is fueled by last weeks state Supreme Court ruling that removed key Republican strongholds from the states voting map.

But lingering lawsuits continue to sow confusion ahead of the primary election as Republicans fight a map that is likely to benefit Democrats.

Last week, GOP leaders filed two lawsuits  one in U.S. District Court and another with the U.S. Supreme Court  in hopes of blocking it from taking effect in this years midterm election.

In a third action, state House Speaker Mike Turzai and Senate President Pro Tempore Joe Scarnati had asked the Pennsylvania Supreme Court to reverse its order. On Tuesday, the court declined to delay or reverse its order.

Meanwhile, the U.S. Supreme Court already declined to take up the issue until the lower courts weigh in. But a three-judge panel delayed any hearing until March 9.

This is all good news for Democrats, who could gain several seats under the new map. Even newcomers were quick to take advantage of updated boundaries, including 3rd District challenger Kevin Johnson.

The former pastor, who is running against Evans as a Democrat, spent his afternoon at a separate Shop Rite in Parkside. He knows this particular store well. He, his wife, three children and several members of the church he founded  Dare to Imagine  have spent weekends here, handing out food and speaking with congregants.

"This is an opportunity for me to come back and say 'We've helped you before. Now we need your helping running,'" he said.

Johnson's kids held signs while their parents gathered signatures. This was one of many stops throughout the day and the team already has several hundred.

"We want 6,000," he said. "We're not playing."

Relatively unknown outside his congregation, Johnson has the look of someone new to campaigning. This is his first time. He isn't tired, cynical or prone to attacking his rival. When asked why he chose to run against Evans, Johnson demured and since it wasn't personal.

"I live in the new 3rd (congressional district). My church is in the new third. I buy my groceries here in the new third. I go to the cleaners in the new third. So this is really home," he said.

Like so many other candidates, Johnson changed his district after the new map come out. He launched in the 1st District at the beginning of February.

Evans will also run in this new district, which comprises portions of West and Northwest Philly.

Since the courts decision last week, several other candidates have switched races. Former Philadelphia Deputy Mayor Nina Ahmad on Monday dropped out of the 1st District contest and announced her bid for lieutenant governor against incumbent Mike Stack.

Ahmad replaces Democratic State Rep. Madeleine Dean on that ticket after Dean dropped out in order to run in Montgomery Countys 4th District. She would have faced Democratic State Sen. Daylin Leach in the race, but he canceled his campaign after several female staffers accused him of inappropriate behavior.

Voters wondering how the new map impacts them can click here for a rundown.The Grossmont Union High School District confirmed Wednesday the arrest of a West Hills High School student accused of posting a disturbing message on social media.

The student was arrested "for making terrorist threats after he posted a photo of a Lego rifle on social media with a threatening message," district spokesperson Catherine Martin posted via Twitter.

The San Diego County Sheriffs Department (SDSO) confirmed the student is 14 years old and in 9th grade at the school. The student posted a photo of an AR-15 rifle made out of Legos on Instagram with a caption that read, Dont come to school tomorrow.

[[475466593,C]]

The SDSO said the assistant principal of West Hills High School called deputies on Tuesday at around 10 p.m. to report the incident. Another student had asked the suspect to take down the Instagram post due to its threatening implications, but he refused.

The assistant principal told deputies that other students were in fear of the student behind the post.

Deputies traced the post to the students home in Lemon Grove and contacted the teens parents. The SDSO said deputies learned the student has access to hunting rifles and investigators are now trying to determine if he has access to other weapons.

[[475417073,C]]

The teen was booked into Juvenile Hall; since he is a minor, his name will not be released.

The SDSO said local school districts and officials are taking every threat seriously and nothing will be dismissed or ignored.

Anyone who hears of threats of violence can call the anonymous Crime Stoppers tip line at (888) 580-8477 or the SDSO at (858) 565-5200.

West Hills High School is located along busy Mast Boulevard in Santee and enrolled more than 1,700 students in grades nine through 12 in the 2016-2017 school year.A Westview High School student was taken into custody Tuesday, accused of threatening to shoot up the school, San Diego police confirmed.

The unidentified teenager was overheard telling classmates to stay home Wednesday SDPD Acting Capt. Paul Phillips said.

Several students reported the comments to school officials, who called the police.

The suspect was questioned, arrested and booked into juvenile hall, police said.

"No weapons have been found at this time," Phillips said. "No other students are believed to be involved and the investigation is ongoing."

Phillips has said law enforcement officers are taking threats made verbally or non-verbally, in person or on social media, seriously. He advised students, parents, and faculty to report any suspicious activity to local law enforcement.

Westview High School has an enrollment of approximately 2,300 students and is located on Camino del Sur. The campus is part of the Poway Unified School District.Daredevil Nik Wallenda brought his high-wire act to Maryland Wednesday morning, walking between two buildings at National Harbor.

Wallenda used only a balance bar as he walked 75 feet in the air on a cable the diameter of a nickel. The 230-foot walk took Wallenda about four minutes to complete.

There was one heart-stopping moment as Wallenda stumbled toward the end of the walk, taking a knee before saying, "Just kidding."

When he completed the walk, the crowd erupted in cheers.

The death-defying stunt was just a warm-up. Wallenda's high-wire walk is the kick off to the Big Apple Circus, which will open at the National Harbor March 8 and run until April 1.

Wallenda holds 10 Guinness World Records for his stunts. He completed his longest tightrope walk ever during an appearance at the Wisconsin State Fair in 2015 and walked across Niagara Falls in 2012.What to Know County officials won't act on two citizen complaints about a large Confederate flag that flies over Virginia's I-95.

Citizens who signed up to speak at the county board meeting Tuesday night were never invited to speak.

An attorney for the complainants said there are more options for residents who oppose the flag, including courts and appeals.

A large Confederate flag in Stafford County will continue to fly over Interstate 95 after county officials declined to take action, despite the requests of angry residents.

Dozens of residents attended a hearing Tuesday night, and some had signed up to speak their case about the flag.

Many of them carried signs with slogans including "Hate never made any nation great" and "white silence is white consent."



Two hours into a public hearing Tuesday evening, the Stafford County Board of Zoning Appeals hadn't called any members of the public to speak.

Then, they voted to dismiss a complaint filed by two members of the public who said the flag violated signage rules. The board members decided the residents didn't have standing to make the complaint.

The flag would stay.

"That's just hatred," Melvin Allen, a member of the Stafford Couny NAACP, said.

Several people told News4 they were furious that they didn't get a chance to speak at the hearing.

"This is a kangaroo court. They had a public hearing here, then they talked for two hours," county resident Kevin Raymond said.

"It's shameful that people can't even speak to an issue like this. We can't have a civil conversation? That is disgraceful," resident Nicholas Iroaka-Ohia told News4.

One woman stood to leave the room and yelled, "Let us speak. What are you afraid of?"

An attorney for the two residents who filed the complain wants to keep fighting the flag and is weighing options. Residents could appeal to the courts or possibly file a new complaint.MOST Filipinos trust the United States and are neutral on China, a new survey by Social Weather Stations showed. The pollsters December 2017 survey showed that 75 percent of the Filipinos it polled said they had much trust in the United States compared with the 14 other countries included in the poll. That was equivalent to a very good net trust rating of +68 for the US, which was followed by Canada and Japan in the ratings. The leaders of the three countries visited Manila last year for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations Summit. SWS said the public trust survey results on the United States, a long-time Philippine ally, had been positive since the country was first included in its polls in December 1994. The US continued to hold a positive impression among Filipinos despite President Rodrigo Dutertes tirades over the American officials criticism of his war on illegal drugs and the atrocities against Filipinos during World War II. US President Donald Trump hailed the long-standing ties between the Philippines and the US during his visit to Manila in November. While the Philippines bilateral ties with China have warmed up under the Duterte administration, the majority of Filipinos who participated in the survey said they felt neutral about the country. SWS said Chinas trust ratings among Filipinos went up by a grade from poor to neutral, rising by 20 points from the -13 rating it had in September 2017. The pollster said the net trust in China had been positive in only nine out of 45 surveys since it first included it in its polls in August 1994.It reached as high as a moderate +17 in June 2010 and as low as a bad -46 in September 2015, SWS said. Manila and Beijing began regular consultations last year even as the Chinese government continued to ignore an international tribunals July 2016 ruling that invalidated its claim over nearly all of the South China Sea. But the Duterte administration has been pursuing stronger trade ties with China, downplaying the tensions over the South China Sea. The other countries that Filipinos feel neutral about are Myanmar, Cambodia and Laos. The countries moderately trusted by Filipinos are Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, Brunei and Vietnam. Although the trust rating for North Korea has improved, it is still the most distrusted country by Filipinos. The net trust rating of Pyongyang stayed poor at -19 even as it increased by nine points from -28 in September 2017, SWS said. The pollster said that since it began surveying public trust in North Korea in March 2003, its net trust rating had always been negative, ranging from a bad -34 in May 2012 to a neutral -5 in March 2017. Last year, Duterte described North Korean leader Kim Jong Un as a fool and a son of a bitch over its nuclear program.What to Know Classes will resume in West Virginia on Thursday as Gov. Jim Justice struck a deal with protesting teachers throughout the state.

Teachers will get a 5 percent raise, the governor said on Twitter.

Schools will resume Thursday instead of Wednesday because some already cancelled classes Wednesday.

Classes will resume in West Virginia on Thursday as Gov. Jim Justice struck a deal with protesting teachers throughout the state.

Justice announced Tuesday night that all teachers will receive a 5 percent raise. All other state employees will see a 3 percent raise this year.

Schools will resume Thursday instead of Wednesday because some had already cancelled classes Wednesday.

The agreement comes as teachers throughout the state participated in a walkout that began Thursday, refusing to return to work until their complaints were heard. The walkout was is in its fourth day before the deal was announced.

"I was not looking at this correctly," Justice said.

The state's average teacher pay ranks 48th in the nation and teachers were balking at planned increases they said were too stingy.

The teachers, represented by the American Federation of Teachers, the West Virginia Education Association and the West Virginia School Service Personnel Association, wanted Justice and leaders from the state Senate and House to meet with them on their complaints.

Christine Campbell, the president of the AFT's West Virginia chapter, said there had been separate talks with various leaders but not with the governor, who spoke at town-hall style meetings Monday in the cities of Wheeling, Martinsburg and Morgantown. She said union officials had spoken at times with the governor's staff.

Justice signed across-the-board teacher pay raises of $808 next year and $404 percent the following two years. But teachers said the increases weren't enough, especially as health care costs rise.

Missed class time is automatically added to the end of the school year.Bernie Sanders' son says he's running for Congress in New Hampshire.

Levi Sanders is joining seven other Democrats and three Republicans in this year's race for the seat now held by Democratic Rep. Carol Shea-Porter, who is stepping down after her term ends.

"This is a unique opportunity to listen to the hard-working men and women of New Hampshire about the issues that matter to them," Sanders said in a statement announcing his bid.

Sanders, a 48-year-old legal services analyst in Massachusetts who has lived in New Hampshire for 15 years, is the latest relative of the 2016 presidential contender and independent Vermont senator to announce a bid for public office. Levi Sanders' step-sister, Carina Driscoll, is running for mayor of Burlington, Vermont, a post held by Bernie Sanders four decades ago.

In announcing his bid, Levi Sanders said he is proposing "Medicare For All" health care system, a higher minimum wage, "sensible gun legislation" and tuition-free college. He also vowed to fight the opioid crisis.

Many of the positions put forward by Sanders are similar to his father, a self-described democratic socialist who campaigned for a single player health care system and free tuition at public universities during his bid for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2016.

"We need an education system which says that whether you are rich or poor, you have the ability to go to a public college and/or university tuition free," Levi Sanders said. "We need to demand that we have a minimum wage which allows people to work 40 hours a week without being in poverty."

Sanders is running for a seat in New Hampshire's 1st Congressional District, which spans from oceanfront towns into the White Mountains and includes the state's largest city, Manchester. He lives in in Claremont, in the state's other congressional district. The U.S. Constitution requires only that U.S. House members reside in the state they serve, not necessarily in the same district.

His announcement was quickly panned by one of the top Republicans in the race, Sen. Andy Sanborn, of Bedford. In a statement, Sanborn called Sanders an "out-of-district socialist" whose views conflict with those of New Hampshire voters.

"I am appalled, but not surprised, Bernie Sanders is sending his socialist son here to dismantle our state motto," Sanborn said. "We are a state that believes in personal freedom, personal liberty, and individual rights, yet Sanders' socialist views look to turn New Hampshire residents into government-controlled zombies, where you lose the right to think for yourself, act for yourself and live free."Member Services Continue; Deposits Remain Protected by Share Insurance Fund

ALEXANDRIA, Va. (Feb. 28, 2018)  Members of First Jersey Credit Union are now members of USALLIANCE Federal Credit Union following todays liquidation by the New Jersey Department of Banking and Insurance.

The Department liquidated First Jersey, of Wayne, New Jersey, and appointed the National Credit Union Administration as liquidating agent. USALLIANCE Federal Credit Union of Rye, New York, immediately assumed most of First Jerseys assets and loans and all member shares.

The new USALLIANCE Federal Credit Union members should experience no interruption in services. Members accounts remain insured by the National Credit Union Share Insurance Fund. Administered by the NCUA, the Share Insurance Fund insures individual accounts up to $250,000, and a members interest in all joint accounts combined is insured up to $250,000. The Share Insurance Fund separately protects IRA and KEOGH retirement accounts up to $250,000. The Share insurance Fund has the backing of the full faith and credit of the United States.

USALLIANCE Federal Credit Union is a federally chartered credit union that serves 101,717 members and has assets of nearly $1.4 billion, according to the credit unions most recent Call Report. Members with questions can call USALLIANCE at 800.431.2754 between 7:30 a.m. and 8 p.m. Eastern Monday through Friday and between 9 a.m. and 2 p.m. Saturday.

Members with questions about Share Insurance coverage can find information online at NCUAs consumer website, MyCreditUnion.gov (opens new window).

The New Jersey Department of Banking and Insurance made the decision to liquidate First Jersey Credit Union and discontinue its operations after determining the credit union was insolvent with no prospect for restoring viable operations on its own. First Jersey Credit Union is the second federally insured credit union liquidation in 2018.

At the time of liquidation and subsequent purchase and assumption by USALLIANCE Federal Credit Union, First Jersey Credit Union served 9,045 members and had assets of almost $86 million, according to the credit unions most recent Call Report. Chartered in 1929, First Jersey Credit Union provided financial services to members in Bergen and Passaic Counties and the underserved areas of Essex, Hudson, and Union Counties in New Jersey.A former teacher at a New Hampshire prep school has been arrested amid an ongoing investigation into sexual misconduct at the school, according to the attorney general's office and state police.

David Pook, 47, of Warner, is facing two counts of witness tampering and two counts of conspiracy to commit perjury.

The AG said Pook's arrest came as the result of a 2017 report concerning sexual assaults by St. Pauls teachers on their students, among other inappropriate behavior, including student sexual conquest rituals such as the "senior salute," a practice which led to the arrest and conviction of Owen Labrie in 2015.

Authorities said Pook taught at the Concord prep school for eight years but left under "questionable circumstances" in 2008. He has been employed at the Derryfield School in Manchester since 2009.

According to the AG, the investigation focused on Pooks relationship with a female student at St. Pauls School while he was a teacher there.

As part of the investigation, that former student and Pook were called before a grand jury. Based on testimony and other evidence, authorities were able to bring charges against Pook.

He is scheduled to be arraigned on the charges in the Merrimack County Superior Court on March 15.

Officials at Derryfield School said they immediately suspended Pook, and that it will cooperate with the investigation.

St. Paul officials also released a statement on Wednesday.

"The school leadership at the time should never have given Mr. Pook a recommendation and the fact that it did not inform Derryfield of Mr. Pook's boundary issues was a failure for which we apologize," Michael Hirschfeld, the current rector of St. Paul's School, said.The parents accused of beating their 10-year-old daughter to death in their Stockton Springs, Maine home have faced a judge.

Bail has been set at $500,000 cash for both Julio and Sharon Carrillo, and a judge ordered them to have no contact with children under the age of 15.

According to court documents, the parents admitted to beating daughter Marissa Kennedy for months, striking her with their fists, a belt, and a metal mop until she could barely walk. When the daughter began slurring her speech, the mother allegedly accused the girl of faking her injuries, and beat her more.

Julio Carrillo placed a 911 call on Feb. 25, stating that the girl had fallen in the basement. Police say the parents staged an accident scene, but later changed their stories.

Both have been charged with depraved indifference murder, and could face a lifetime behind bars.

I've been prosecuting cases for close to 30 years and this is the most serious case of depraved indifference murder that I have dealt with, said prosecutor Don Macomber. He told the judge what the parents allegedly did to Kennedy amounted to torture.

There are always two sides to a story, and she is presumed innocent at this point, said Sharon Carillos defense attorney, Chris Maclean.

The co-defendants will undergo mental health evaluations.

Prosecutors say Julio Carrillo has a prior domestic violence conviction.

Neighbors from the Carrillos previous address in Bangor said they had concerns about the abuse in the home.

You could tell something was wrong, said Ethan Miele. You shouldnt be raising your voice at your kids for that prolonged period of time. Im talking hours.

Neighbors told necn affiliate WLBZ that they reported their concerns to the Department of Health and Human Services.

A spokesperson for Maine DHHS said she cannot comment on the Marissa Kennedy case.

Records regarding child protective activities are confidential, said Emily Spencer.

Kennedy had most recently attended Searsport Elementary School. State Police say she stopped showing up at school in November.

District spokesperson Marianne DeRaps said she could not comment on the case due to privacy laws. She said the district has a protocol when students have prolonged absences. It includes sending letters home, conducting home visits, and contacting DHHS. She said she has no reason to believe that protocol was not followed in this case, but could not go into details about what the district did for Kennedy.

The idea that this happened to a precious child is one that we are coping with while supporting our children, staff and community, said an RSU 20 press release. It is not easy.

The Carrillos are due back in court at the end of April.A transgender Massachusetts elementary school principal will return days after being put on a temporary leave of absence.

The leave came weeks after Stanley Elementary Principal Shannon Daniels revealed herself as transgender.

Daniels, 52, is expected to meet with Superintendent Pamela R. H. Angelakis sometime on Wednesday.

In a letter sent to parents on Tuesday, Angelakis said that the principal has been getting messages she considers to be hurtful. Daniels made her official announcement in a letter to parents back on Feb. 6.

"I had several conversations with Principal Daniels last week in which she reported receiving messages that she considers hurtful relative to her recent announcement and the media attention it received. We mutually agreed that Principal Daniels would take at least a few days off when school reopened and we would meet this week," read a part of the letter from Angelakis.

Some parents say their feelings about Daniels have been misconstrued and that the real issue is lack of communication.

"We hear nothing," said Nicole Nichols, a parent at the school. "Parents have rumors everywhere because we can't get a straight answer really from anybody about what's going on at that school."

Nichols added that Swampscott is a tolerant community but some parents don't feel Daniels is a right fit for the principal position.

"We embrace diversity. We're not going to embrace incompetence," said Nichols. "We feel that this principal has been incompetent for years, he has multiple grievances filed against him, teachers have left the school because of him, he's had multiple issues with teachers over the fall-spring he's said in multiple interviews. We feel we are being misrepresented."

Still, other parents say they realize this is a stressful time for Daniels.

"This is a personal thing," said another parent, Melissa Camire. "I've come out before in my life and it was a very stressful personal time."

Police cars have been stationed outside of the school since Monday. Angelakis said they are there to reduce any anxiety parents may be feeling.

It's unclear exactly what time the meeting between Daniels and Angelakis will take place.

"I am mindful of the fact the last few weeks have been challenging, and I want to assure you that providing a safe, supportive learning environment for all students and staff is the highest priority," Angelakis said.

Norwich prayer walkers tell of their experience Norwich prayer walkers tell of their experience

A Norwich couple, who long to see a revival in the city, have been prayer walking around the streets on a regular basis for the last eight years.



By Helen Baldry





Paul and Val Waller have been members of Wroxham Road Methodist Church for around 35 years and are also part of the Call to Prayer team in Fishergate and involved with the "Transforming the Atmosphere" group.



Val said, We love Norwich. It is a beautiful city and are very blessed to be living here. They lament the fact that the 2001 census showed Norwich to be the most godless city in the UK. However, it was also at one time known as the most Christian city in Europe and during the Middle Ages there were leper hospitals outside most of the city gates. More money was left in legacies to the poor than anywhere else in England and praying hermits lived above some of the gates that guarded the city.



Val said, We long to see God turn that around again. The purpose of prayer walking is to speak blessings upon an area in order to bring Gods light to the land.



While they are walking, the couple witness the desperate state of the city as they encounter homelessness, people mental health problems, evidence of drug use and businesses closing. They see how emergency services are stretched and how few police officers are on the streets.

We carry Gods light into these dark places. Says Val, who insists that she and Paul are just ordinary people. God uses the ordinary. We just go out in obediance and bring the light of our Lord into our streets.



Paul and Val say that history is significant because it has an impact on the city today. Paul said, What has gone on in the past has big effects physically and spiritually.



They research an area before they embark on a walk to uncover what has happened there in the past. For example, they say that historical battles have a profound effect on the Barrack Street area of the city. The people of Norwich suffered several plagues and destructive fires in medieval times and rioting in the the thirteenth century.



Paul describes former execution site Lollards Pit, where Christian martyr Thomas Bilney was burned to death, as a very dark area.

Before they go out, the couple take communion together and sometimes they write out verses from the Bible and place them in the ground. Paul said, It might sound a bit strange but its scriptural. Weve seen results but its nothing to do with us  its God. Paul explained that there is no correct formula for prayer walking, Anyone can prayer walk and there is no right or wrong way to do it as long as you seek the Lord and ask for his strategy. You dont even have to go out. It is possible to refer to a map as a guide as you pray for your local area. Paul recommend going out in pairs or threes. He said, I find it really exciting.



Paul and Val are not the only prayer walkers in the region. Several other people with a passion to pray for their communities speak out blessings on their local areas - and more people are encouraged to give it a go. Resources are available from the House of Prayer on Fishergate. Paul and Val, who have prayer walked around the 13 miles of the ring road, say this is a task that anyone can do and they believe it will pave the way for long term transformation.



Pictured: Paul and Val Waller with their prayer walking map of Norwich

A flaw in the implementation of the UDP protocol for Memcached servers can allow anyone to launch a massive Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack with little effort.

The problem was first discovered by the 0kee Team from China, which published a paper about it (pdf). This past week, security researchers at content delivery network (CDN) specialist Cloudflare also wrote about the issue. And CDN specialist Akamai and security provider Arbor Networks recently published their findings.

Memcached is a Web-based massive memory cache for database-driven sites, such as websites, that caches the most frequently retrieved data and keeps it in memory rather than getting it from the hard disk over and over again. It is a combination of open-source software and standard server hardware that consists of memory, memory, and more memory.

What researchers found is Memcached developers have implemented support for the UDP protocol in an unsecure way. Cloudflare said it detected several DDoS attacks carried out via exposed Memcached servers in the past few days, which is what led to the discovery.

Over last couple of days, we've seen a big increase in an obscure amplification attack vector  using the memcached protocol, coming from UDP port 11211, the company wrote in a blog post.

Poorly implemented UDP puts exposed Memcached servers at risk for DDoS attack

Cloudfare said because UDP wasn't implemented properly, hackers can send a tiny, byte-sized request to an exposed Memcached server, and instead of responding with a response of similar size, it responded with packets that are sometimes thousands of times bigger than the initial request.

A carefully prepared technique allows an attacker with limited IP spoofing capacity, such as 1Gbps, to launch very large attacks reaching hundreds of gigabits per second, Cloudflare reported. The company cited one recent DDoS attack launched against its network where attackers sent 15-byte packets and Memcached servers responded with 750KB packets.

Because it's the UDP protocol, which does not require a source address in its headers, the packet's original IP address can be easily spoofed. So an attacker can trick the Memcached server into sending oversized response packets to another IP address, the hapless target.

Memcached servers also expose their UDP port to external connections in the default configuration, meaning any Memcached server not behind a firewall can be abused for a DDoS attacks right now.

The fix is fairly easy, and Cloudflare spells it out in their report. Memcached server users should disable their UDP port immediately and place these servers on private networks behind firewalls.UNITED NATIONSThe United States and three European allies condemned Iran on Tuesday after the United Nations found Tehran had violated the arms embargo on Yemen by failing to block supplies of missiles and drones to Huthi rebels. Britain, France, Germany and the United States urged Iran to immediately cease all activities that are inconsistent or would violate the UN resolution that established the arms embargo in 2015. The joint condemnation came a day after Russia vetoed a British-drafted resolution renewing sanctions on Yemen and citing particular concern about a reports findings on Iran. The report by a UN panel of experts in January concluded that Iran was in violation after determining that missiles fired by the Huthis at Saudi Arabia last year were made in Iran. Russia, however, questioned the findings and blocked the resolution, saying the report did not contain conclusive evidence of Irans violation of the arms embargo. We condemn Irans non-compliance, as described by the panel, which poses serious risks to peace and stability in the region, said the joint statement released by the US mission. All four countries are signatories to the Iran nuclear deal of 2015. In response to Tuesdays condemnation, the Iranian Foreign Ministry said in a statement, for three years now the behavior of the United States and Britain at the UN Security Council has been harmful, and tantamount to legitimizing the aggressors in Yemen.The statement said these countries were stoking Saudi aggression in Yemen by acting as the kingdoms main backers and arms suppliers. The Russia veto was a setback for the United States as it pushes the Security Council to take a stronger stance toward Iran over its role in regional conflicts and missile tests. The US administration maintains that Iran is not living up to its commitments under the nuclear deal, which President Donald Trump has criticized as the worst ever. AFP The British-drafted resolution that was strongly backed by the United States was vetoed by Russia after 11 countries voted in favor at the 15-member Security Council. China and Kazakhstan abstained and Bolivia voted against it. A Saudi-led coalition supporting Yemens government has been fighting the Huthis since 2015 in a war that has created what the United Nations describes as the worlds worst humanitarian crisis. The council earlier heard the UN director of aid operations, John Ging, describe living conditions in Yemen as catastrophic, with a growing risk of famine and a severe outbreak of cholera.BRIDGEPORT  A freshman City Councilman has apologized for not reprimanding a colleague for her inflammatory comments about a two Jewish attorneys.

It was a lapse on my part and, although no excuse, it stemmed partially from the shock of hearing such inappropriate comments from another council person. Lesson learned, Peter Spain wrote Tuesday to Hearst Connecticut Media. I hope I never hear such inexcusable comments again; but if I do, I will not be shy about immediately responding and objecting.

Spains letter followed a complaint, filed by Russell Liskov, a municipal attorney, with the state Commission on Human Rights and Opportunities (CHRO), accusing Spain and seven of his council colleagues of anti-Semitism.

The councils ordinance committee is probing what critics call a too-aggressive sewer fee collection process, overseen by Liskov, who often sends delinquent bills of $2,000 or more to collections lawyer Juda Epstein to pursue. Sometimes homeowners who cannot clear their debt  including legal fees charged by Epstein or other collections attorneys  lose their homes to foreclosure.

At a Dec. 27 meeting, Eneida Martinez, an ordinance committee cochairman, alleged a plot to between Liskov and Epstein: Both men are Jews and buddies and they go to the same synagogue and they are buying up these properties.

Liskov, who has also threatened Martinez with a lawsuit unless she publicly retracts her statement, included Spain and six other council members present at that Dec. 27 meeting in his CHRO complaint. Liskov argued their silence was tantamount to a concurrence and wholehearted adoption of her statements.

The ordinance committee had been scheduled Tuesday to hold a public hearing on proposals to reform the sewer fee system, but that meeting was abruptly canceled.

More for you Lawyer accuses council members of anti-Semitism

Martinezs co-chairman, Marcus Brown, another freshman member who was also named in Liskovs complaint, said not enough members could attend the meeting.

But Brown said the hearing will be rescheduled.BRIDGEPORT  After more than 24 hours, police have identified the victim of the citys fourth homicide of the year Wednesday as a 48-year-old city resident.

Alfanso Anderson, 48, of Ezra Street in Bridgeport, was killed around 11:30 p.m. Monday in Room 12 of the Sunnyside Inn on Lake Street, police Lt. Christopher LaMaine said.

Officers initially responded to the inn for a report of shots fired. When police arrived, LaMaine said, they found a middle-aged man  later identified as Anderson  who had been shot at least once.

A man who identified himself as the inns owner Tuesday morning declined to comment on the homicide.

Police did not release any additional context about the shooting or what might have led up to it Wednesday.

In an attempt to get an identification on the victim Tuesday afternoon, detectives used his fingerprints and ran them through the system, police Chief Armando Perez said.

Reviews on Yelp mentioned bullet holes in the door, with one man from New York providing a picture that appeared to show a bullet hole in the door of his room. Others said they felt unsafe and some even said they pushed furniture against the door while they slept at night as a precaution.

The inn, located at the corner of Lake Street and Reservoir Avenue, has been the site of arrests in the past.

More for you Man found shot dead in Bridgeport inn

Back in Aug. 2015, a 17-year-old girl told police she was held against her will in one of the inns room by Brandon Williams, 34, of Waterbury. The victim told police Williams forced her to engage in sex trafficking.

In early Jan. 2013, a couple staying at the inn faced drug possession and firearm charges after they were pulled over for running a stop sign. Officers found drugs and weapons in the vehicle. Walter Ribot, 31, and Clarisa Ribot, 41, were placed under arrest. Police later found ammunition in their room.NEW MILFORD  Mayor Pete Bass announced the hiring of a grant writer last week, days after he laid off several town employees.

Bass said he expects a grant writer to bring in at least $2 million in federal, state and private aid each year.

We need to realign our government to the reality of our state, Bass said. The state has cut us over $3 million in revenue, so were bringing in an employee to bring in revenue.

The move comes after the announcement of six layoffs Bass said were needed to help balance this years budget  which had been $2.2 million in the hole  and next years budget, which is forecast to have $3.4 million less revenue than earlier projected.

One of those positions  the assistant Parks and Recreation director  was reinstated Friday after Parks and Recreation officials were able to find other savings or revenue.

Weve identified $179,000 in cost savings in the Parks and Recreation budget over this year and next year  savings that will not impact the quality of the services we provide to New Milford, Bass said.

Bass expects to generate about $40,000 by increasing boat slip fees to better reflect prices in the other towns around Candlewood Lake.

The five other layoffs will save the town about $323,000, the mayor said. Leaving other vacant positions unfilled and canceling plans to create more will save the town an additional $532,000, he said.

Bass said the grant writers position would go to Tammy Reardon, who was an assistant to former GOP Mayor Pat Murphy. She will make $55,000 a year, he said, during a recent budget presentation to Town Council.

Council member Peter Mullen, a Democrat, said Reardons hiring just doesnt make any sense.

Mullen said most municipalities handle grant writing without a paid position. Noncompetitive grant applications are often written by department heads, he said, while competitive ones are outsourced to professional grant-writing companies.

Both Murphy and former Mayor David Gronbach, a Democrat, used a grant-writing company from Waterbury, Mullen added.

Thats how municipalities do it, he said. There are very few municipalities that have an in-house grant writer.

Bass said Reardons grant writing for New Milford under Murphy garnered the town millions of dollars.

That Bass, a Republican, is bringing on a former Murphy aide also raises a red flag, Mullen said.

This is cronyism, Mullen said. Thats all it is.

Bass said Mullens claim is unfounded. He said he interviewed 17 candidates and Reardon stood out, noting she has certification in grant-writing.

That Reardon worked for Murphy doesnt make a bit of difference, Bass said. Its just how she performed.Human Rights Watch has denounced the new repressive campaign launched by Algerian authorities targeting sub-Saharan Africans, including women and children, expelling many of them to Niger.

The Algerian authorities have deprived those arrested of their right to challenge their detention and possible deportation, said HRW.

As in earlier waves in October 2017 and December 2016, security forces rounded people up on the streets or at construction sites, where many work. Most, if not all, were taken to a facility in Zeralda, a suburb of the capital, where they spent one to three days in crowded halls with no mattresses and little to eat, people who were arrested told Human Rights Watch.

Security forces then bused the migrants 1,900 kilometers south to a camp in Tamanrasset. In the previous waves, they took some of the migrants by trucks to Guezzam, a town near the border, then over the border into Niger.

Algeria is rounding up and deporting migrants in a degrading way and depriving them of the right to have their cases reviewed on an individual basis, said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East and North Africa director at Human Rights Watch.

A local activist who asked not to be named said that round-ups of hundreds of migrants occurred on January 24 and on February 10. The overall number of those expelled in 2018 is not known.

The International Rescue Committee (IRC), which operates an assistance program for migrants in Agadez, Niger, estimated the total at 3,000 since the beginning of 2018, with 500 since February 10, mostly from Niger, and small numbers from Nigeria, Cameroon, Mali, and Guinea.

Trusted sources in Algiers told Human Rights Watch that those detained in January and February included 20 refugees and asylum seekers, among them two minors. Authorities released some after ascertaining their status, while others escaped during their transfer to Tamanrasset. The whereabouts of at least two is unknown.

Human Rights Watch which interviewed several persons among those who were held in Tamanrasset, said they described the conditions in the camp in Tamanrasset as inhumane, dirty, and overcrowded, with detainees going an entire day without food.

They said that the detainees included Nigeriens, Malians, Cameroonians and Ivorians, and that there were women and children among them.

According to HRW, Algeria should give each African migrant an effective opportunity to challenge their removal and to consider their individual circumstances. It should not subject migrants to arbitrary detention, or any form of inhuman and degrading treatment.

As a party to the 1951 Refugee Convention and the 1987 Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, Algeria is barred from forcibly removing any refugee or asylum seeker to a place where they would face a threat of being persecuted, risk being tortured, or subjected to inhuman and degrading treatment, the human rights watchdog stated.Can we stay young forever, or even recapture lost youth?

Research from the laboratory of Professor Julian Chen in the School of Molecular Sciences at Arizona State University recently uncovered a crucial step in the telomerase enzyme catalytic cycle. This catalytic cycle determines the ability of the human telomerase enzyme to synthesize DNA "repeats" (specific DNA segments of six nucleotides) onto chromosome ends, and so afford immortality in cells. Understanding the underlying mechanism of telomerase action offers new avenues toward effective anti-aging therapeutics. illustration depicting the enzyme telomerase This figure depicts the enzyme telomerase as well as telomeres relative to a chromosome.

Typical human cells are mortal and cannot forever renew themselves. As demonstrated by Leonard Hayflick a half-century ago, human cells have a limited replicative lifespan, with older cells reaching this limit sooner than younger cells. This "Hayflick limit" of cellular lifespan is directly related to the number of unique DNA repeats found at the ends of the genetic material-bearing chromosomes. These DNA repeats are part of the protective capping structures, termed "telomeres," which safeguard the ends of chromosomes from unwanted and unwarranted DNA rearrangements that destabilize the genome.

Each time the cell divides, the telomeric DNA shrinks and will eventually fail to secure the chromosome ends. This continuous reduction of telomere length functions as a "molecular clock" that counts down to the end of cell growth. The diminished ability for cells to grow is strongly associated with the aging process, with the reduced cell population directly contributing to weakness, illness, and organ failure.

The fountain of youth at molecular level

Counteracting the telomere shrinking process is the enzyme, telomerase, that uniquely holds the key to delaying or even reversing the cellular aging process. Telomerase offsets cellular aging by lengthening the telomeres, adding back lost DNA repeats to add time onto the molecular clock countdown, effectively extending the lifespan of the cell. Telomerase lengthens telomeres by repeatedly synthesizing very short DNA repeats of six nucleotides -- the building blocks of DNA -- with the sequence "GGTTAG" onto the chromosome ends from an RNA template located within the enzyme itself. However, the activity of the telomerase enzyme is insufficient to completely restore the lost telomeric DNA repeats, nor to stop cellular aging.

The gradual shrinking of telomeres negatively affects the replicative capacity of human adult stem cells, the cells that restore damaged tissues and/or replenish aging organs in our bodies. The activity of telomerase in adult stem cells merely slows down the countdown of the molecular clock and does not completely immortalize these cells. Therefore, adult stem cells become exhausted in aged individuals due to telomere length shortening that results in increased healing times and organ tissue degradation from inadequate cell populations.

Tapping the full potential of telomerase

Understanding the regulation and limitation of the telomerase enzyme holds the promise of reversing telomere shortening and cellular aging with the potential to extend human lifespan and improve the health and wellness of elderly individuals. Research from the laboratory of Chen and his colleagues, Yinnan Chen, Joshua Podlevsky and Dhenugen Logeswaran, recently uncovered a crucial step in the telomerase catalytic cycle that limits the ability of telomerase to synthesize telomeric DNA repeats onto chromosome ends.

"Telomerase has a built-in braking system to ensure precise synthesis of correct telomeric DNA repeats. This safe-guarding brake, however, also limits the overall activity of the telomerase enzyme," said Professor Chen. "Finding a way to properly release the brakes on the telomerase enzyme has the potential to restore the lost telomere length of adult stem cells and to even reverse cellular aging itself."

This intrinsic brake of telomerase refers to a pause signal, encoded within the RNA template of telomerase itself, for the enzyme to stop DNA synthesis at the end of the sequence 'GGTTAG'. When telomerase restarts DNA synthesis for the next DNA repeat, this pause signal is still active and limits DNA synthesis. Moreover, the revelation of the braking system finally solves the decades-old mystery of why a single, specific nucleotide stimulates telomerase activity. By specifically targeting the pause signal that prevents restarting DNA repeat synthesis, telomerase enzymatic function can be supercharged to better stave off telomere length reduction, with the potential to rejuvenate aging human adult stem cells.

Human diseases that include dyskeratosis congenita, aplastic anemia, and idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis have been genetically linked to mutations that negatively affect telomerase activity and/or accelerate the loss of telomere length. This accelerated telomere shortening closely resembles premature aging with increased organ deterioration and a shortened patient lifespan from critically insufficient cell populations. Increasing telomerase activity is the seemingly most promising means of treating these diseases.

While increased telomerase activity could bring youth to aging cells and cure premature aging-like diseases, too much of a good thing can be damaging for the individual. Just as youthful stem cells use telomerase to offset telomere length loss, cancer cells employ telomerase to maintain their aberrant and destructive growth. Augmenting and regulating telomerase function will have to be performed with precision, walking a narrow line between cell rejuvenation and a heightened risk for cancer development.

Distinct from human stem cells, somatic cells constitute the vast majority of the cells in the human body and lack telomerase activity. The telomerase deficiency of human somatic cells reduces the risk of cancer development, as telomerase fuels uncontrolled cancer cell growth. Therefore, drugs that increase telomerase activity indiscriminately in all cell types are not desired. Toward the goal of precisely augmenting telomerase activity selectively within adult stem cells, this discovery reveals the crucial step in telomerase catalytic cycle as an important new drug target. Small molecule drugs can be screened or designed to increase telomerase activity exclusively within stem cells for disease treatment as well as anti-aging therapies without increasing the risk of cancer.

Source: https://asunow.asu.edu/20180223-discoveries-asu-scientists-unveil-immortality-enzyme-telomeraseA new set of studies has explored the saline used in intravenous fluids in hospitals and found that they may not be as safe as earlier believed. These two large studies have found that the presently used concentration of saline leads to an increased risk of kidney damage and death and replacing them with an alternate fluid could reduce the deaths by 50,000 to 70,000 and reduce the number of kidney failures by 100,000 annually in the United States.

Image Credit: Thekopmylife / Shutterstock

The studies were presented at the Society of Critical Care Medicine (SCCM) annual meeting this week. The studies were published in the latest issue of the journal New England Journal of Medicine.

Researchers explain that saline IV fluids are one of the most commonly used medications in healthcare to prevent dehydration, flush wounds, deliver IV medications, maintain dialysis and chemotherapy and maintain the blood pressure of the patients. These fluids are used in patients who cannot feed on their own and need essential nutrients. Saline IV fluids have been in use for over a century in the US. New evidence shows that saline or salt water at regulated osmolarity or concentration can cause damage to the kidneys especially when they are used in large amounts. Other fluids are saline along with other electrolytes such as potassium which are used in Europe and Australia.

The studies included over 28000 patients admitted at Vanderbilt University. They were given either plain saline or the balanced IV fluid. They noted that for every 100 patients who received the balanced fluid, there was one less death or kidney damage proving that it was safer than plain saline. Wesley Self, MD, an associate professor of medicine at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine in Nashville explained that these saline fluids contain very high levels of sodium and chloride which are far more than what is present in blood. This may be the reason for the harm they cause he said.

For this study, Vanderbilt used saline and balanced fluids alternatively for a month each for a year in the emergency room and in the intensive care units at their set up. On every even numbered month they used saline and odd numbered months they used the balanced fluids such as Ringers lactate or Plasma-Lyte-A. These balanced fluids have less sodium than saline. All patients were followed up for 30 days to see how they did. Deaths and kidney damage was much less among those who received balanced fluids than saline. For example 7942 patients received balanced fluids and of these 1139 developed complications. On the other hand 7860 patients received saline and of these 1211 patients developed complications. The difference was of 1.1 percent. According to Self, this difference becomes large when millions and millions of patients are considered.

Study author Dr. Matthew Semler said that around 30 million hospitalizations are seen yearly in the US and use of this balanced fluid instead of saline can prevent tens or hundreds of thousands of deaths and kidney damage. Seeing the results of these studies, Vanderbilt hospital has now switched to balanced fluids from plain saline. Both types of fluids are similar in terms of costs and most manufacturers make both types. This means that the switch is inexpensive and easy. Two more similar studies in large populations are underway from Brazil and Australia that could provide deeper insights into this matter.Patients with chronic heart failure face related problems, such as depression and fatigue, that could be relieved by an expanded model of care, according to a recently published study led by a researcher from the University of Colorado School of Medicine.

The study, "Effect of a Collaborative Care Intervention vs Usual Care on Health Status of Patients With Chronic Heart Failure: The CASA Randomized Clinical Trial," published in the current issue of the journal JAMA Internal Medicine, found benefit to some aspects of patients' quality of life when conventional cardiac therapy is supplemented with a nurse and a social worker who collaborate with a team to address patients' symptom and psychosocial needs.

"Many of the 5.8 million Americans with heart failure live with bothersome symptoms, reduced function and poor quality of life" said David B. Bekelman, MD, MPH, the study primary author. "Improving their care is important because many people with heart failure live with these challenges for years."

Bekelman, an associate professor of medicine who practices at the Eastern Colorado Health Care System for the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, and his colleagues evaluated 314 patients, with half of them enrolled in a program that addressed those quality of life concerns.

The Collaborative Care to Alleviate Symptoms and Adjust to Illness intervention, also called CASA, offered 157 patients a nurse and social worker who collaborated with a primary care provider, cardiologist, and palliative care physician to address the patients' needs. The CASA trial is the first clinical trial of such a collaborative intervention in heart failure and it included patients receiving care from VA, academic and safety-net health systems in Colorado between August 2012 and April 2016. Patients enrolled in the study were evaluated for a one-year period. The typical CASA intervention was three to four months.

The CASA intervention significantly improved patients' depression and fatigue but did not result in significant changes in heart failure-specific health status, pain, shortness of breath, or number of hospitalizations. The number who died during the study was similar - 10 of the patients in the CASA intervention died, while 13 of those receiving the typical standard of care died.

The improvements in depression and fatigue are important results because they are both common, burdensome, and difficult to treat in heart failure, Bekelman said. Very few other studies have found treatments for these symptoms in patients with heart failure. Furthermore, the improvement in depression lasted the whole duration of the patient's 12-month study period, months after the CASA intervention ended.

Bekelman discussed several next steps in the research, including studying the intervention in a higher-risk or more ill population, and using health technology, such as videoconference, to extend the reach of the CASA intervention.Health authorities will need to focus on more than eating habits if they are going to combat the obesity epidemic.

A study led by the University of Waterloo found it's generally a combination of unhealthy behaviors among youth that could be the greatest predictors of whether or not young people will experience obesity issues in adulthood.

The study concluded that public health efforts focusing on obesity prevention must identify and correct poor behaviors that are often developed in early childhood.

"Adolescents with obesity often maintain their weight status into adulthood, increasing their risk of developing cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and high blood pressure," says Rachel Laxer, who formed part of the research team while doing her PhD at Waterloo. "Public health practitioners should be targeting clusters of risky behaviors using a comprehensive and multi-pronged approach."

"Research tells us that while calorie intake has not dramatically changed over time, habits such as exercising, smoking, drug use and alcohol consumption have," said Laxer. "It's increasingly important to target these risky behaviors together, and early, before they become habits."

The study involved Ontario students in grades nine and ten, ranging from 13 to 17 years of age and participating in the COMPASS Study, a nine-year study started in 2012 that is funded by the Canadian Institute for Health Research.

Students reported risky behaviors at the beginning of the study, and their heights and weights were tracked for two additional years. Based on their reported behaviors, the teens were classified as Typical High School Athletes, Inactive High Screen-Users ("Screenagers"), Moderately Active Substance Users, or Health Conscious. The researchers found that although the four groups saw similar increases to their weight status over the years that they were followed, students in the Health Conscious group had the healthiest body weight at the beginning of the study.

"It's important to try to improve behaviors before they become habits, which are much harder to correct," said Laxer. "This could have important implications for public health initiatives. Intervening and modifying unhealthy behaviors earlier might have a greater impact than during adolescence. Health promotion strategies targeting higher risk youth as they enter secondary school might be the best way to prevent or delay the onset of obesity, and might have better public health outcomes over the longer term."Point-of-care (POC) ultrasound is helping to improve the quality of life for metastatic breast cancer patients in the West Midlands thanks to the fundraising efforts of Breast Friends Solihull and the University Hospitals Birmingham Charity. A FUJIFILM SonoSite SII ultrasound system funded through donations is enabling chemotherapy patients to be fitted with portacaths instead of traditional peripherally inserted central catheters (PICC lines).

The SII system is enabling chemotherapy patients to be fitted with portacaths instead of traditional PICC lines

Mike Hammond, CEO of University Hospitals Birmingham Charity, explained:

PICC lines provide an effective route for the delivery of chemotherapy drugs, but can be quite restrictive on a patients lifestyle; they require weekly appointments to flush the lines and they prevent patients from swimming, for example. We wanted to offer our patients a better solution  subcutaneous portacath lines  that eliminate these issues. Ultrasound guidance is essential for placing and accessing these semi-permanent catheters but, unfortunately, there was no funding within the trust to purchase a POC ultrasound system for oncology outpatients. University Hospitals Birmingham Charity decided to fund this and, as a well-established trusted supplier to the trust, we turned to FUJIFILM SonoSite to provide this system.

Matt Fowler, an Advanced Clinical Practitioner in the Oncology Department, added:

Because the portacath is sutured under the skin, it doesnt require a dressing, and only needs flushing once a month. This means that patients can swim, go on holiday and have a generally improved quality of life, without having to worry about having a weekly line flush. Many patients say it helps to improve their body image as well, which can be important in helping them through their treatment.

Mike continued:VolitionRx Limited ("Volition") today announced interim results from its first asymptomatic colorectal cancer (CRC) frontline screening study. This ongoing study is being carried out in collaboration with Hvidovre Hospital, University of Copenhagen, Denmark and involves 680 subjects from the Danish National CRC Screening Program. The interim results demonstrated that a small panel of three ELISA assays, when considered with the subjects' ages and smoking histories, produced an area under the curve (AUC) of 83 percent and was able to detect 80% of Stage I CRC cases and 66 percent of High-Risk Adenomas (HRA) at 78 percent specificity, respectively.

Cameron Reynolds, Chief Executive Officer of Volition, commented:

After seven years of hard work, we are happy to announce these excellent early detection interim results from our ongoing front-line screening trial for colorectal cancer. Using only a small panel of three assays and considering certain limited patient variables, these data demonstrate that we can identify early stage and pre-cancerous adenomas at a high level of accuracy in an asymptomatic screening environment. Our tests use only a small amount of blood and could be added to routine blood screening regimens at a reasonable cost. We believe these are the first data to show high detection rates in a blood test, not only of early Stage I cancer, but also of the extremely important high-risk pre-cancerous adenomas. We believe that with further development, our Nu.Q(TM) panel could form the basis of new CRC tests with early stage disease detection, and that our tests could become accessible to and usable by a wide section of the screening population around the world.

Hans Jorgen Nielsen, Professor of Surgical Oncology at Hvidovre Hospital in Denmark, commenting on these findings said:

These interim results are encouraging, particularly for detecting early-stage colorectal cancer and potentially pre-cancerous adenomas. Most blood-based cancer biomarkers are more effective at detection of large late-stage cancers than small early-stage cancers, and very poor at detecting pre-cancer. Certainly, these results need to be validated in larger and representative cohorts, which Volition plans to do initially in a 4,300-subject study and subsequently in a 12,000+ double blinded study, using samples collected at 10 collaborating Danish hospitals.

CRC is one of the most preventable cancers, yet it currently remains the least prevented form of cancer. The American Cancer Society Cancer Facts and Figures 2018 report provides that the five-year survival rate for CRC at all stages is 65 percent; however, the survival rates differ significantly depending upon the stage at diagnosis: only 14 percent of patients diagnosed at Stage IV survive more than five years, whereas 90 percent of those diagnosed at Stage I survive more than five years. This clearly underscores the importance of early detection. Moreover, while not included in the Facts and Figures report, it is widely believed that diagnosis of pre-cancer conditions like HRA and High-Grade Dysplasia can result in cancer-free survival.

In the U.S., Volition is participating in what is believed to be the largest ever CRC screening study in collaboration with the National Cancer Institute's Early Detection Research Network with a cohort of over 13,500 subjects. Collection is underway and is expected to be completed in 2020. The objective is to build upon the European studies to refine test performance and to present final data to the FDA prior to completion of the study. Volition expects to define the final panel for the U.S. front-line test within the next 18 months.

"We have now embarked with confidence on our next stage of assay development to further validate these assays, and ultimately our Nu.Q(TM) Frontline Asymptomatic Colorectal Cancer Screening Test. This will be run in parallel with ongoing work in our 680-sample set, which still has more Nu.Q(TM) assays to be tested," said Dr. Jake Micallef, Volition's Chief Scientific Officer. "This next stage of development is a 4,300-subject training study, which will determine the final locked down panel (which we expect to be 5-6 assays), the results of which we hope to report in the second quarter of 2018. We will then conduct a large, 12,000+ subject validation study, which we hope to begin in the second half of 2018, which will form the basis of our EU product claims. In parallel, we are progressing towards obtaining a CE Mark for this panel so that the Nu.Q(TM) Frontline Asymptomatic Colorectal Cancer Screening Test could be available for sale in the EU later this year."

Professor Stefan Holdenrieder, Director of the Institute of Laboratory Medicine of the German Heart Center at the Technical University of Munich, Germany and a widely published expert in the field of circulating nucleosomes added:Honda Motorcycle & Scooter India celebrates a historical milestone as the companys four manufacturing plants in India have together crossed the 35 million two-wheeler mark in total. Honda is the only two-wheeler brand in India to reach this milestone and cross the 35-million-unit mark in just 17 years.

Honda 2Wheelers India started operations in 2001. It took 11 years to achieve the initial 10 million units cumulative production in India (milestone achieved in 2012). Honda added the next 25 million customers in just five and half years. With this, Honda is now 35 million customers strong.

The Honda Africa Twin offers great riding experience. (Photo: Siddharth Safaya/News18.com)

Rolling out the historic 35th million two-wheeler, an Activa 4G from Hondas second plant in Tapukara (Rajasthan), Mr. Minoru Kato  President & CEO, Honda 2Wheelers India said, Thanks to great support from customers in both India and 68 countries across the world, Honda 2Wheelers India is celebrating our 35 millionth two-wheeler landmark today. Taking forward this love and trust, we at Honda are committed to provide quality products and experiences that make customers lives more enjoyable.

Honda produced approximately 14.8 million units of motorcycles worldwide (from April to December 2017). Of this, Honda 2Wheelers India accounted for approximately 31% of the motorcycle production and reinforced its position as the biggest two-wheeler production hub for Honda globally.

Also Read: Honda Activa 5G First Look Video Review!

Interestingly, Honda 2Wheelers made its entry into the then dying segment of automatic scooters with its first offering for India  the Activa. In 2004, Honda made its entry into the motorcycle segment with 150cc CB Unicorn and followed this with the launch of 125cc CB Shine (Indias largest selling 125cc motorcycle) in 2006.

Today, Honda is the only two-wheeler brand to offer a diversified portfolio, with as many as 24 two-wheeler models ranging from 110cc to 1800cc capacity.

Also Read:Hyundai Motor today showcased the Next Generation Fuel Cell Electric Vehicle (FCEV)  Hyundai Nexo and Global Electric Vehicle  Ioniq (Battery Powered) during the India Korea Business Summit 2018 held today in New Delhi.

Present at the India Korea Business Summit, Mr. S H Kim, Vice President, Namyang R&D Centre, Hyundai Motor Company, said, We are glad to participate in the 2nd India-Korea Business Summit 2018. Hyundai has a long-term commitment towards Make-in-India for the past 20 years and today we are proud to showcase the Next Generation Fuel Cell Electric Vehicle  Hyundai Nexo SUV, for the first time along with Global EV - Ioniq at the India Korea Summit 2018.

The creation of Fuel Cell Electric Vehicle  Hyundai Nexo SUV and Global EV - Ioniq is a significant leap forward for Hyundai Motor as it intensifies our efforts to produce highly efficient, eco-friendly vehicles. Hyundai as a caring brand is continuously innovating in Clean and Connected Mobility Solutions to make a long-term positive transformation for our future generations, he added.

The Fuel Cell Electric Vehicle  Hyundai Nexo SUV model is set to spearhead Hyundai Motors plans to accelerate development of low emission vehicles globally. The all-new Hyundai Nexo combines the practicality of an SUV with clean advanced fuel cell technology. The Hyundai Nexo is capable of traveling 609 kilometers (*on Korean certificate basis) on a single charge, the best among fuel cell-powered vehicles in the world. This next generation vehicle offers the most advanced technology on the market with various advanced driver assistance systems and the strongest powertrains in the segment.

The showcase of Global Electric Vehicle  Ioniq reflects the commitment of Hyundai towards clean mobility solutions and future readiness with unrivalled global technology in electric vehicles for aspiring customers without compromising on driving dynamics and performance.

The Fuel Cell Electric Vehicle - Hyundai Nexo SUV and Global EV  Ioniq are futuristic vehicles that closely represent Hyundais three visions for future mobility: Connected Mobility, Freedom in Mobility and Clean Mobility.

Also Watch: 2018 Hyundai Elite i20 Review (Test Drive) | Exclusive | Cars18The government has said that it is trying to bring out an industry-friendly new National Automotive Policy as well as a rational system of taxation for promoting electric and hybrid vehicles.

We are going to work out a rational system of taxation for the promotion of electric and hybrid vehicles in consultation with the finance ministry," Department of Heavy Industry Secretary Asha Ram Sihag said.

The policy, he said, will help create a more enabling environment for the sector besides providing stability which overseas investors seek.

The ministry has invited stakeholders comments on the policy and is analysing them, he said, adding that the process is likely to be finalised within a couple of months.

Addressing the India-Korea Business Summit organised by CII, Heavy Industry Minister Anant Geete said it is the governments endeavour to make the policy industry-friendly.

We are trying to make a fool-proof policy, to ensure the success of Make in India, he added.

He further said that it would be his ministrys endeavour to continuously adapt and modify the policy so as to keep up with the changing times.

Inviting Korean companies to invest in India, Geete said that they should consider developing technology in India itself.

Also WatchNew York: The family of a dead programmer has filed a $5 billion lawsuit against a man who claimed to be the creator of bitcoin. The family of Dave Kleiman filed their lawsuit in federal court in Florida against Australian businessman Craig Wright, who claimed in 2016 he was Satoshi Nakamoto.

Kleiman's family alleges that the two men jointly owned roughly 1.1 million bitcoins and a company. When Kleiman died in 2013, Wright allegedly backdated contracts to transfer the ownership of the coins and intellectual property to him.

Wright claimed in 2016 that he was the inventor of bitcoin, but stepped back from that claim after skepticism arose on whether he was the actual inventor of bitcoin.

The lawsuit does not claim that Kleiman or Wright are the actual inventors of bitcoin, but instead alleges that the two were heavily involved with bitcoin in its infancy. Early adopters of bitcoin were able to acquire large quantities of bitcoin through a process known as mining long before its value ever got above a dollar. For example, an extremely early transaction made on the bitcoin network was when someone paid 10,000 bitcoins for Domino's Pizza.

Kleiman's family claims they are owed at least half of the bitcoins mined by the two men. The estimated value of Wright and Kleiman's bitcoin holdings is roughly $11.6 billion.

Wright did not immediately respond to a request for comment through his company nChain.The outgoing United Nations envoy for war-torn Yemen on Tuesday urged the warring parties to stop fighting and bloodshed to give peace a chance in the country, plunged because of a destructive pattern of zero-sum politics into ever deeper poverty and desolation.

Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed, who was briefing the Security Council on the eve of his stepping down at the end of the month, emphasized that while the UN and the wider international community can try to bring about a favorable environment for a path to peace, Yemeni decision-makers must stop the fighting and bloodshed.

Conflict has gradually destroyed the economy, healthcare services, housing, roads and schools  everything that Yemenis need in order to live and prosper, he said, calling on the parties to cease hostilities, reactivate negotiations aimed at a peaceful settlement.

As the conflict deepened, so did the socio-economic misery, making Yemen the worlds largest man-made humanitarian crisis, which has claimed thousands of lives and driven many times more from their homes, he deplored.

He recalled that across the country, more than three-fourths of the population  over 22 million persons  are in need of humanitarian assistance, including more than 8.4 million who are severely food-insecure.

Prices of essential commodities in the country have skyrocketed, the value of the currency has dwindled, salaries have not been paid in months and in some cases, years, and the countrys health, water and sanitation, basic services and education system are in tatters, with money which could have been used to maintain such services and stimulate economy being used to fund the war, he stated further.

The UN Special Envoy noted that a roadmap for peace in Yemen exists but the parties to the conflict need to build confidence among themselves and launch it.

The only part missing is the commitment of parties to make concessions and give priority to the national interest, he concluded.

Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed will be replaced by Martin Griffiths, a seasoned former diplomat and humanitarian worker.

John Ging, Director of Operations at the UN Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) who also briefed the Security Council on the situation in Yemen echoed Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed, underscoring that an end to hostilities and meaningful engagement of the parties is vital to ensure a lasting political solution.

However, until that happens, humanitarian response is critical to save lives, he said.

Securing full funding for the $2.96 billion Yemen Humanitarian Response Plan is a top priority, he said, noting that the Central Emergency Response Fund recently allocated $50 million to humanitarian efforts in the country.New Delhi: As more zeroes are being added every week to Niravgate and with the Congress reeling under pressure ever since the name of Capt Amarinder Singhs son-in-law cropped up in the Simbhaoli Sugars scam, the central government has announced its intent to act on bank frauds.

According to moneycontrol.com, the government is expediting work on a new law to keep fraudsters in check with the Fugitive Economic Offenders Bill.

This new proposed legislation intends to act against tax fraudsters and swindlers, making it difficult for them to borrow from banks and run away. For ease of understanding, we shall be referring to this bill as the Anti-Swindler Bill. Some of the salient features of this proposed legislation are:

 It will include wilful loan defaults, cheating and forgery, forged or fraudulent document of electronic records, duty evasion and non-repayment of deposits.

 It will empower investigating agencies to instantly confiscate and sell all the property of the absconding offenders  this to clear all debt.

 The wilful defaulter will lose all claim over his property. They shall also be disentitled from any civil claim.

 Fast track courts will try the fugitive fraudsters.

 Bill intends to instantly target any financial fraud upwards of Rs 100 Crore.

The bill is likely to be introduced in the second half of the budget session beginning March 6. We tried putting this latest Modi bill through the typical political test and our results were predictable  there is no political unanimity.

Congress Spokesperson and Lawyer Aadil Singh Boparai says, The Bill is inadequate. This is a distraction. It is an attempt by the BJP to evade culpability. Does this Bill help in getting Nirav Modi back? Does this Bill help in fixing accountability on all officials in the Prime Ministers Office, who turned a blind eye and allowing Nirav Modi, Mehul Choksi to flee?

The BJP was quick to retort, with BJP spokesperson Zafar Islam saying, This was expected of the Congress. This is a party full of fraud and fraudsters. Over the years, these existing laws are not effective enough. There is a strong need for this legislation.

The Modi government has been jolted into introducing this new bill  which had been in a gestation phase for almost a year.

Let me take you back at least 12 months. This Bill was proposed in the last years budget. The finance minister said that a legislation will be brought about to deal with people like Vijay Mallya and Nirav Modi, who defraud banks, flee the country and refuse to come back to India to face prosecution. In the month of May, last year, the finance ministry came out with a first draft, it went to the law ministry and was vetted last September. Thats that. In the meantime, the PNB scam unfolded. So now, the government is going to fast track this Bill and put it for passage in Parliament, says Gaurav Chaudhary, the moneycontrol.com journalist who first broke the news.

The Congress raises a technical argument in opposing the new legislation. They claim that rhetoric cannot substitute governance.

There are two laws capable of dealing with fraudsters. There is the Securitisation and Reconstruction of Financial Assets and Enforcement of Security Interest Act, 2002 (also known as the SARFAESI Act) and there is the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). Section 13 and 14 of The SARFAESI Act says that in case a borrower defaults to pay a creditor, the creditor can take over the properties of the defaulter, can take over the management and can also further appoint a receiver. Section 5 of the PMLA provides the ED powers to attach properties. We have plenty of legislation on this subject. This new bill does not help the cause, argues Aadil.

So is the Congress opposing for the sake of opposing a government Bill or is there merit in their claims? Is the Bill vulnerable to misuse?

There is always a possibility of misuse by the investigating authorities, especially the officers who are handling a particular case. It entirely depends on how the rules are framed. If too much of power is vested at the investigating officers stage, then there is always a possibility of misuse, explains Chaudhary.

We took this debate to independent industry experts as well. Author and Entrepreneur Ashutosh Garg feels this bill should move away from politicking

Anyone who is a swindler should ideally not be supported by either the Congress or the BJP. Time has now come for us to take the strongest possible action. When Nirav Modi flew away, it was the Congress who made the maximum noise on why the government did not stop him. This is money that basically belongs to you and me. We have to stop being parochial about what the BJP said and what the Congress said. Innuendo needs to stop. This is the right time to bring in a strong legislation and everyone should support it, he said.

Chartered Accountant and Tax Experts feel the new proposed legislation follows the principles of natural justice.

This is the amplest law that could have been passed. It has the principle of natural justice. The offender gets six weeks to comply with the notice in order to escape the declaration as fugitive. When assets are confiscated, he should not be able to have a civil claim claiming control over assets, says tax expert Charanjot Nanda.

Discourse around the Anti-Swindlers Bill can be seen both as an afterthought and also a political masterstroke by the Modi government. They have had to battle massive criticism over Nirav Modi running away right from under the governments nose.

But now, anyone seen opposing this proposed bill will be perceived as someone sympathetic to swindlers. Can the Congress risk doing this? Especially now, when Capt Amarinder Singhs son-in-law Gurmit Singh Mann has been accused of defrauding Oriental Bank Of Commerce to the tune of 97.85 crores.

If we read this new law, along with the existing laws, then it is only going to make the hands of the government stronger. As far as its misuse is concerned, that is for the government to legislate. But by that logic, any law can be misused, Garg adds.Kolkata: Former president Pranab Mukherjee today expressed hope that India's economy will inch towards 8 percent growth in 2018-19 fiscal and onwards.

Mukherjee, however, said that to sustain such a growth rate for the longer term, the country will need to address issues like employability for the youth and boosting the rural economy.

"It may be in 2018-19 and onwards, it (India) will move towards 8 percent annual GDP growth if there is no eventual setback from unexpected quarters," he said at a session organised by the Calcutta Chamber of Commerce here.

Mukherjee said the agriculture sector needs focus, along with allied areas like rural infrastructure, rural health, rural education, rural sanitation and rural housing.

He said empowering the growing young population of India and preparing them for employability was of paramount importance.

"In a short of span of time, 48 percent of India's population is going to be below the age of 40 ... unless you give them employment, enhance employability, train them, make them available to the world labour market ... this is a challenge in the growth of GDP on a sustainable basis," the former finance minister said.

Mukherjee exuded confidence that the Indian economy has the resilience to address challenges, find out appropriate solutions and take corrective measures. "But mere policy formations are not adequate, it needs effective implementation," he added.On Tuesday, BJP MP Paresh Rawal found himself in a spot after he tweeted out a Google document that carried out instructions for BJP supporters to trend '#JhootiCongress' on Twitter.

Realising his mistake soon, the MP later deleted the tweet.

(via moneycontrol

)

The document shared with the aim to trend #JhoothiCongress on the microblogging site read,

"After enjoying decades in power, the Congress and Gandhi dynasty just cannot bear to be out of power. They will resort lies, slander and low level cunning to somehow capture power by hook or crook. Even national security is not a topic for them for remain circumspect about. They have spread lies on Doklam as well. Rahul Gandhi even got caught trying to meet the Chinese ambassador on the sly."

"This party will go to any level like spreading lies about FRDI Bill to scare people about banks, maliciously claiming they didnt meet Pakistanis during Gujarat elections while they did, and more. It is time to expose them. Let us trend #JhoothiCongress NOW and expose all their lies and remind them that the people are watching, it further stated."

Some of the drafted tweets assumably meant to be tweeted out by people were:

Congress lies even on national security. Randeep Surjewala claimed in press conference that Chinese came back to Doklam, only to be rebutted by Army Chief that Chinese presence in that part is status quo.

#JhoothiCongress

Fake concern of Congress on national security exposed when at the height of Doklam conflict Rahul Gandhi held talk with Chinese embassy and tied to hide the info of meeting. #JhoothiCongress

The official BJP Twitter account tweeted using the hashtag #JhoothiCongress.

Shri @rsprasad will hold a press conference today at 4 pm at BJP HQ to bust the lies and fear spread by Rahul Gandhi and Congress party. Stay tuned for LIVE updates. #JhoothiCongress BJP (@BJP4India) February 27, 2018

While the BJP IT Cell head Amit Malviya tweeted:

Tune in to @BJP4India at 4pm! Shri @rsprasad will expose the lies and chicanery of Congress party led by Rahul Gandhi. #JhoothiCongress Amit Malviya (@malviyamit) February 27, 2018

Aware of Rawal's gaffe, people responded to Malviya's tweet with document's screenshots.

Find here with attached copy for payment into my Account @Rs 2/- twit pic.twitter.com/59u9WVVHR3 R K Daharwal (@DaharwalK) February 27, 2018

See the extent of IT cell propaganda..  pic.twitter.com/1Gd4HQEGuc Monkey Baat  (@StupidPeople_in) February 27, 2018

Last year, top BJP leaders and supporters trended the hashtag #DemonetisationSuccess on Twitter after Reserve Bank of India revealed in its annual report that 99 percent of scrapped currency notes came back into the system post demonetisation.

The hashtag later caught the eye of social media users when some pointed out that the tweets were copied + pasted to give maximum mileage to the hashtag on Twitter.New Delhi: Twenty years after the crime was committed, the Supreme Court has agreed to consider a mans plea that he was a juvenile when the incident occurred and therefore, he could not have been jailed for seven years as an adult.

In a rare order, the top court indicated it was open to examining the plea and not dismiss it on the grounds that 20 years had passed and that the two subordinate courts had also convicted the man as a major under the charge of culpable homicide not amounting to murder.

A bench of Justices Kurian Joseph and MM Shanatanagoudar gave liberty to the accuseds counsel to adduce the birth certificate to corroborate the claim that he was a juvenile at the time of the crime in question and should have been dealt under the juvenile justice law instead of IPC.

The learned counsel for the petitioner claims the juvenality at the time of the commission of offence on 5thFebruary, 1998. He claims that his date of birth is 9th February, 1980. The petitioner is directed to produce the birth certificate issued by the Registrar of Birth and Death and also the details of the members of his family, stated the Court order.

The bench gave the petitioner six weeks to come back with a proof of his age.

The man was sentenced to seven years in jail for hitting with a stick an old man, who intervened when the former was allegedly beating his mother on February 5, 1998. The old man later died of the head injuries. In April 1999, the accused was convicted by a court in Pratapgarh in Uttar Pradesh under Section 304 for culpable homicide not amounting to murder.

In October 2017, the Allahabad High Court upheld the conviction and sentence in view of the direct evidence of the assault.

Notably, the only defence adopted by the accused before the trial court and the High Court was lack of motive but no arguments were made on the point of juvenility.Lucknow: After Kanpur-based Rotomac owner Vikram Kothari, another firm in Kanpur, Shri Lakshmi Cotsyn Limited, has allegedly defrauded a consortium of 16 banks of over nearly Rs 3,972 crore.

Central Bank, the leading bank of the consortium that gave loans to the firm, has already started auctioning firms assets for the recovery of loans. The firms office is registered at Krishnapuram on GT Road in Kanpur, while the Group Chairman and Managing Director is MP Agarwal. Apart from textiles, the company also makes automobiles blast proof.

The accumulated loss of Shri Lakshmi Cotsyn slowly surpassed the capital amount, which led to grim chances of the revival of the company. According to the information, the loss of the firm is around Rs 1646.12 crore. The long term loan amount of the firm is Rs 2,406 crore, while short term loan is around Rs 937 crore.

For the recovery of such a huge amount, the companys assets are valued at Rs 1,495 crore as per the balance sheet, and that too, when these assets are sold at the book value. The amount deposited in various banks by Shri Lakshmi Cotsyn is around Rs 2.54 crore only, while the running cost of the company is Rs 577 crore but the income of the company floats around Rs 311 crore.

Banks kept on giving new loans to the firm to get rid of old loans and eventually the company was in debt. For recovery of the amount, banks have sold four units which have been shut down. For the recovery of Rs 3972 crores, Central Bank was the first one to reach DRT, later this case was transferred to NCLT on 30th November 2016 for compromise considering it sick unit.

A consortium of 16 banks who gave loans to Shri Lakshmi Cotsyn Pvt Ltd includes Central Bank, which is the lead bank of the consortium, while Syndicate Bank, Union Bank, Canara Bank, Bank of Baroda, Punjab National Bank, Indian Bank, State Bank of India, Exim Bank, Oirental Bank of Commerce, IDBI Bank, Vijaya Bank, Corporation Bank, Saraswat Bank, Andhra Bank and Edelweiss Estate Reconstruction are also the part of the consortium.

Just days after the Punjab National Bank (PNB) Rs 11,360 crore fraud came to light, the parent company of Rotomac Pens was accused of fleeing with loans of more than Rs 800 crore from various government banks in the country. According to sources, the owner of the company, Vikram Kothari, had taken a loan of more than Rs 800 crores from five government banks. Kothari took a loan of Rs 485 crore from Union Bank of India and a loan of Rs 352 crore from Allahabad Bank. A year later, Kothari has been reported to not have paid back either the interest or the loaned amount.New Delhi: The CBI has booked computer manufacturer R P Info Systems and its directors for allegedly cheating a consortium of banks to the tune of Rs 515.15 crore, and carried out searches at six locations in Kolkata on Wednesday.

It is alleged that the directors of the company, Shibaji Panja, Kaustuv Ray and Vinay Bafna, and its vice president defrauded Canara Bank and nine other consortium member banks to the tune of Rs 515.15 crore. The CBI carried out searches at the residence of all the accused and the corporate office in Kolkata.

One of the company directors, Shibaji Panja, is known to be close to West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and has been arrested earlier by Delhi Police and booked by CBI in connection with defrauding banks.

The company, too, has had a brush with law earlier as the CBI had booked it in 2015 for cheating IDBI bank, once a leader of the consortium before relinquishing the position in 2013, to the tune of Rs 180 crore.

The other members of the bank were State Bank of India, State Bank of Bikaner and Jaipur and State Bank of Patiala (both now part of the CBI), Union Bank of India, Allahabad Bank, Oriental Bank of Commerce, Central Bank of India, Punjab National Bank, State Bank of Patiala and Federal Bank.

It is alleged that loans were taken on the basis of false and fabricated documents.

The bank in its complaint on February 26, now part of the FIR, has alleged that the company which manufactured computers with brand name Chirag had taken funds from the consortium from time to time from 2012 onwards.

These loans have become NPA, it said. The banks alleged that company manipulated financial statements and did not route sale proceeds through the loan account.

The agency had booked the company and its directors in 2015 in connection with the case related to IDBI. But in the FIR, the agency had only focussed on the exposure to IDBI bank which was over Rs 180 crore.

"During 2013, IDBI Bank relinquished their position as consortium leader after the deliberations with RBI. It is learnt that in the month of December 2013, IDBI Bank lodged a complaint regarding the fraud committed on their bank alone to the CBI and the CBI investigated only their exposure of IDBI Bank," the latest complaint from Canara Bank said.New Delhi: A Delhi court on Tuesday sent former finance minister P Chidambarams son Karti Chidambaram to one day CBI custody for interrogation for his alleged involvement in the INX media money laundering case. The CBI had sought 15-day custody.

The order was passed after a bitter legal battle between Kartis lawyer and the CBI counsel. While the CBI maintained that Karti was arrested for not cooperating with the investigation, Kartis lawyer Abhishek Manu Singhvi called the case against him "motivated" and "bizarre".

Arguing before Judge Sumeet Anand, the CBI said that Kartis custody was important as his frequent absence from the country was hampering the investigation.

Karti was arrested for not cooperating with investigations. There are many things which we cannot disclose in the open court. We need 15 days of remand of Karti Chidambaram. He was not cooperating and frequently visiting abroad," said CBI's counsel.

Singhvi rubbished the charge and said there was no question of not cooperating with the probe as not a single summons had been issued in the last six months. "Karti has no connection with Advantage Strategic Consulting (P) Limited, the company that had allegedly received kickbacks, said Singhvi.

Karti was picked up from the Chennai airport on Wednesday morning just after he arrived on a flight from London. The CBI has alleged that firms with links to Karti had influenced FIPB approval for Rs 305 crore irregular investment in INX media. This took place in 2007 when his father was the Finance Minister. The FIR has been registered against Karti, INX Media along with eight others and unknown officials of the finance ministry.

The primary reasons for which the CBI demanded the custody of Chidambaram was to investigate the entire conspiracy, discover the payments made overseas and payments received by Chidambaram and to understand how the probe against INX media got hampered.

However Karti maintained that he had "nothing to fear as he has nothing to hide." "I have gone abroad but I have come back also. Don't use power of arrest. I will surrender my passport and will take any condition and I will appear whenever summoned," Karti told the court.

He also questioned why the CBI was apprehensive about his frequent foreign visits. Am I flight safety risk? asked Karti. I am not a Hindustan leaver like others. I am a Hindustan returner, he added.

However, CBI said that Karti has only appeared in India after the SC order and that he "did not provide details of his foreign visits." "Karti has not produced the itinerary of his foreign visits. Karti left country without complying with directions. The matter is pending before HC. He didn't inform us when he left the country," said CBI.

CBI also stated that Karti had met a person at Mumbais Hyatt Hotel on February 17 to arrange one million dollars to settle the INX Media case, among other set of allegations.

Karti called it a distortion of facts. I went abroad only after getting permission from the Supreme Court. Forget remand, it is not a case of even arrest. Not even a single official has been questioned over FIPB clearance to INX," he said.

My client has not been given a single summon in the last 6 months. How can the CBI submit that Karti is not cooperating when no summon has been issued after August, 2017," his lawyer Singhvi argued.New Delhi: Senior Congress leader P Chidambaram's son Karti was arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in Chennai on Wednesday for not cooperating in the investigation of a money laundering case. He was taken into custody at the Chennai airport on Wednesday morning just after he landed from London.

Karti is currently being questioned inside the airport and will be taken to Delhi later in the day, sources said.

But what is the case all about? News18.com breaks it down:

What is FIPB?

FIPB was a national agency of the central government with the remit to consider and recommend foreign direct investment (FDI) that does not come under the automatic route.

What is the case?

The CBI has alleged that firms with links to Karti had influenced FIPB approval for Rs 305 crore irregular investment in INX media. This took place in 2007 when his father was the Finance Minister. The FIR has been registered against Karti, INX Media along with eight others and unknown officials of the finance ministry.

The Case Files

The Finance Ministry received an application from INX media for FIPB approval on March 15, 2007. The FIPB, in a meeting on May 18, 2017, recommended the proposal of INX media. However, the board did not approve downstream investment by INX media in INX news. And even for INX media, FIPB allowed FDI inflow of only Rs 4.62 crore.

As per the CBI FIR, contrary to approval of FIPB, INX media deliberately violated conditions and made downstream investment up to 26% in the capital or INX news.

They allegedly generated over Rs 305 crore of FDI in INX media against the allowed foreign inflow of Rs 4.62 crore by issuing shares to foreign investors at a premium of over Rs 800 per share

The CBI has alleged that officers concerned of the FIPB unit by virtue of influence of Karti Chidambaram, not only ignored serious illegalities on part of INX media, on both accounts, but also deliberately showered undue favours. The officers also ignored the request of Revenue Department seeking an investigation into the matter.

Role of Karti Chidambaram

As per the CBI, INX Media tried to wriggle out of the situation by entering into a criminal conspiracy with Karti Chidambaram, promoter of Chess Management Services, to get the issue resolved amicably by influencing public servants of FIPB unit of the Finance Ministry by virtue of his relationship with the then Finance Minister (P Chidambaram).

The FIR goes on to describe the quid pro quo by showing how INX media made the payment to Karti for the services rendered by Karti P Chidambaram to INX Group through Chess Management Servicesconsiderations in the form of payment were received against an invoice raised on INX Media by one Advantage Strategic Consulting (P) Limited (ASCPL).

The FIR further states that the very reason for getting the invoice raised in the name of M/s/ ASCPL for the services rendered by Chess Management Services was with a view to conceal the identity of Karti.

The CBI in its FIR has also claimed that such deceitful and fallacious deal was favourably considered by Ministry of Finance and Approved by the then Finance Minister. And thus in a way has also brought the role of his father P Chidambaram under scanner.Bengaluru: With the issue of waste management in Bengaluru growing to become a thorn in the flesh for the ruling Congress, focus of the newly-rechristened Garbage City's Budget for the next financial year will mostly be on garbage disposal and waste management.

A much-chastised Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) has decided to set aside over 11 percent or Rs 1,066 crore of its Budget for 2018-19 for scientific waste management. This will be the single biggest spending for the coming year.

The BBMP has been repeatedly rebuked by the High Court for not decentralizing its composting units. On the other hand, opposition BJP, too, has upped the ante on the Congress government's failure on waste management and planned a 15-day padyatra across all Assembly segments in the IT city, to take home this message to the voters.

With Assembly elections due in two months and Bengaluru accounting for a staggering 28 Assembly segments, the Congress is under pressure to show results here.

The BBMP's rather conservative Budget, presented on Wednesday, however, leaves much to be desired on other fronts. Many important sectors like that of health, education and lakes have got measly sums. Bengaluru's dying lakes have been allocated Rs 30 crore  to be shared between the 40 lakes identified for rejuvenation.

Paradoxically, maintenance of parks and improving greenery have also got an allocation of over Rs 200 crore  though the city's parks are relatively well-maintained compared to its lakes.

Among other allocations, 150 kilometre of city roads, too, will get a facelift through white topping as part of preliminary works for the overall development of the city at a cost of Rs 2,500 crore. This comes in the wake of the government facing much flak in the last monsoon, when over 16,000 potholes had surfaced in the 198 wards of the city, while bad roads claimed at least four lives.

Another ambitious project is to construct helipads at a cost of Rs 5 crore in all zones of the city to facilitate air ambulances.

What civic activists worry over is that when it comes to revenue receipts, the civic body's revenue generation is not up to the mark.

A major source of revenue comes in the form of property taxes and this year too, the BBMP has estimated to collect property tax and cess to the tune of Rs 3,317 crore. That aside, it will still depend on the central and state grants to execute most of its projects  nearly Rs 3,650 crores worth of projects will depend on the state government's mercy.

Janaagraha, a city-based civic NGO, says BBMP is far from self-sustaining.

"While the state government grants have provided a much-needed relief to the citizens, such dependence on state grants may not be sustainable. The state government would need to devolve revenue powers to BBMP and hold it accountable for delivery instead of providing for grants towards specific infrastructure works," Janaaagraha stated.

The NGO also pointed out that "out of the bills paid till February 2018, 81% pertained to pending or spillover bills, while only 19% pertained to the current years works.

This shows that most of the budgetary allocations get spent on past bills while the current fiscal's works barely take off. A large number of works promised in the 2017-18 Budget are still yet to take off.New Delhi: Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau defended the government official who claimed that 'rogue' political factions in India orchestrated Khalistani extremist Jaspal Atwal's invitation to a formal dinner.

In the House of Commons, during his first Question Hour since returning from India, the Prime Minister was asked if he agreed to or disavowed the allegations made by a senior security official.

"I can understand where the opposition finds this difficult because for 10 years it used the professional public service for partisan ends. It torqued the public service every possible way it could. When one of our top diplomats and security officials says something to Canadians, it is because they know it to be true," Trudeau replied.

Canadian high commissioner Nadir Patel had invited Atwal for dinner, which he was hosting for the visiting Trudeau and his delegation. Foreign media outlets even got access to Atwal's photograph with Trudeau's wife Sophie and Canadian minister Amarjeet Sohi at the event in Mumbai on February 20.

The subsequent uproar led to the invite being cancelled.

Trudeau later said that Atwal should "never have received an invitation" to the event. The Indian government is still trying to ascertain how the convicted militant obtained a visa.Botswana government on Monday criticized President of the Democratic Republic of Congo Joseph Kabila for his countrys humanitarian and security crisis.

In a statement published on Monday, Botswanas Ministry of International Affairs said the continent continues to witness a worsening humanitarian situation in the DRC mainly because its leader (Kabila) has persistently delayed holding elections, and lost control over the security of his country.

Government troops have clashed with opposition supporters, following President Kabilas refusal to leave office. The most recent was a peaceful march by the Catholic Church. Police fired tear gas at protesters holding green leaves and arrested a number of priests and protesters.

Kabila came to power in 2001 after the assassination of his father Laurent Kabila. He has since won the last two elections organized in the resourcerich country, first in 2006 before his reelection for a final term in 2011.

He was expected to step down in 2016 but failed to do so with the reason that the prevailing conditions were not suitable for an election.

According to the information minister Lambert Mende, the president will in July this year announce his preferred successor for the elections.Bengaluru: The Spiderman of Karnatakas Malnad region, Kothi Rama, who had gone missing during a daring rescue mission at Jog Falls in Shimoga district on Tuesday evening was rescued a day later.

Jyothiraj is a talented climber and his bare hand tricks have given him the moniker  Kothi Rama. In Kannada, Kothi means monkey.

The climber shot to fame after he rescued hundreds of tourists, who fell from the cliffs of the worlds fifth highest waterfalls. He has also helped recover numerous bodies of those who did not survive the fall.

Kothi Rama was summoned by the police on Tuesday to look for a youth who had gone missing near Jog Falls. Rama who had climbed down the steep 900-feet waterfalls but went missing after an hour. It triggered panic across the region and thousands of locals rushed to Jog Falls looking for their Spiderman. Some local adventurers also climbed down the waterfalls looking for him.

Till Wednesday morning, there were no traces of him and hopes began to fade. Special prayers were offered at local temples for the daredevils safe return. Using powerful binoculars and drone cameras, the police and fire department searched for hours, locals also aided the mission. Finally, Kothi Rama was spotted precariously perching on a cliff, 400 feet above the bed of Jog Falls.

The brave man himself managed to climb over 500-feet of the rocky slope on his own without any help. He was injured after a fall and managed to save himself from certain death by clinging to a rock all through the night.

This isnt Jyothirajs first brush with death as he had earlier slipped at the same waterfalls a few years ago. The accident had caused him to be out of action for over a year. Against the advice of his well-wishers and doctors, Kothi Rama returned to rescue tourists and adventurers.

As he was pulled up, a cheering crowd carried him to an ambulance, after which he was taken to a hospital in Shimoga city for treatment.New Delhi: Karti Chidambaram has been arrested by the CBI for not cooperating in the investigation of the INX media money laundering case.

Karti, son of senior Congress leader P Chidambaram, was at the Chennai airport just after he arrived in a flight from London, sources said.

The CBI has alleged that firms with links to Karti had influenced FIPB approval for Rs 305 crore irregular investment in INX media. This took place in 2007 when his father was the Finance Minister. The FIR has been registered against Karti, INX Media along with eight others and unknown officials of the finance ministry.

FIPB was a national agency of central government with the remit to consider and recommend foreign direct investment (FDI) that does not come under the automatic route.

Reacting on the issue, Congress said that it is a diversionary tactic by the Narendra Modi government. "This is a classic diversionary tactic by the Modi government to shift the focus from the corruption," said Sanjay Jha, party spokesperson.

On Tuesday, a Delhi court had sent Kartis chartered accountant S Bhaskararaman to 14-day judicial custody in the INX Media money laundering case. Bhaskararaman was arrested from a five-star hotel in Delhi on February 16.

The Case Files

The Finance Ministry received an application from INX media for FIPB approval on March 15, 2007. The FIPB, in a meeting on May 18, 2017, recommended the proposal of INX media. However, the board did not approve downstream investment by INX media in INX news. And even for INX media, FIPB allowed fdi inflow of only Rs 4.62 crore.

As per the CBI FIR, contrary to approval of FIPB, INX media deliberately violated conditions and made downstream investment up to 26% in the capital or INX news.

They allegedly generated over Rs 305 crore of FDI in INX media against the allowed foreign inflow of Rs 4.62 crore by issuing shares to foreign investors at a premium of over Rs 800 per share

The CBI has alleged that officers concerned of the FIPB unit by virtue of influence of Karti Chidambaram, not only ignored serious illegalities on part of INX media, on both accounts, but also deliberately showered undue favours. The officers also ignored the request of Revenue Department seeking an investigation into the matter.

Role of Karti Chidambaram

As per the CBI, INX Media tried to wriggle out of the situation by entering into a criminal conspiracy with Karti Chidambaram, promoter of Chess Management Services, to get the issue resolved amicably by influencing public servants of FIPB unit of the Finance Ministry by virtue of his relationship with the then Finance Minister (P Chidambaram).

The FIR goes on to describe the quid pro quo by showing how INX media made the payment to Karti for the services rendered by Karti P Chidambaram to INX Group through Chess Management Servicesconsiderations in the form of payment were received against an invoice raised on INX Media by one Advantage Strategic Consulting (P) Limited (ASCPL).

The FIR further states that the very reason for getting the invoice raised in the name of M/s/ ASCPL for the services rendered by Chess Management Services was with a view to conceal the identity of Karti.

The CBI in its FIR has also claimed that such deceitful and fallacious deal was favourably considered by Ministry of Finance and Approved by the then Finance Minister. And thus in a way has also brought the role of his father P Chidambaram under scanner.Bhopal: The Congress on Wednesday defeated the BJP in the by-election to both Mungaoli and Kolaras assembly seats but the victory was not as cut and dried as it had previously projected.

In celebration mode since Tuesday, the Congress found itself embroiled in a keenly contested battle but managed to retain both seats at the end. While it won Mungaoli with a slender margin of 2,142 votes, there was more breathing room in Kolaras with a margin of over 8,000 votes.

The by-polls were necessitated due to the death of Congress MLAs Mahendra Singh Kalukheda (Mungaoli in Ashoknagar district) and Ram Singh Yadav (Kolaras in Shivpuri district). With the BJP recently losing all the three by-polls in Rajasthan, these elections were being closely observed and the neck-and-neck fight till the very end did not make it a dull affair.

At Mungaoli, BJP's Baaisaheb Yadav had taken an early lead over Congress candidate Brajendra Singh Yadav. However, the Congress candidate surged ahead from second round onwards and maintained the lead till the seventh round. The BJP candidate again caught up and left his opponent behind between rounds 12 and 15. In the last round, the Congress managed to gain a lead once again.

While the Congress candidate bagged 70,808 votes, the BJP nominee polled 68,684. Notably, the Congress had won the seat by a margin of 20,765 votes in the 2015 assembly election.

The fight was equally intense in Shivpuri's Kolaras, where Congress' Mahendra Singh Yadav had gained a lead since the first round but BJP's Devendra Jain kept bouncing back in the later stages. After around 13 hours of grueling counting, Yadav emerged victorious by over 8,000 votes.

"It's a victory of public against brazen misuse of power, muscle and money," Congress MP Jyotiraditya Scindia said, crediting the voters, senior leaders and party workers for the success.

Dodging queries on whether it was an endorsement of his leadership claim in MP, Scindia stated that he reckons himself a small-time fighter of Congress who wholeheartedly accepts any responsibility entrusted on him by the party.

He also accused the BJP of using all possible means to win these by-elections.

BJP leaders, including state head Nandkumar Singh Chauhan, on the other hand, took pride in the fact that the party managed to reduce the lead of Congress candidates sizeably as compared to the 2013 polls.

Earlier in the day, CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan had said that both the seats were Congress citadels as the party had won here with hefty margins even as the BJP achieved a thumping win across the state. He also hinted that BSPs move to not field any candidates helped the Congress.

The Congress offices in Bhopal, Ashoknagar and Mungaoli erupted in celebrations since the afternoon despite their candidates being engaged in tough fight.

Since the last assembly election, there have been 14 by-polls, of which Congress has won five. Interestingly, four of these wins came in the last one year. It had previously won the Ater and Chitrakoot bypolls.

Political analysts believe that these wins would bolster Scindia's demand to be projected as the Congress CM face, while the losses would only dent CM Shivraj's authority within the BJP ahead of the crucial assembly polls.New Delhi: There is no interference from the government and the law must take its course, Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad on Wednesday said after Karti Chidambaram, son of former finance minister P Chidambaram, was arrested by the CBI in connection with its probe in the INX media case.

Karti, 46, was placed under arrest by a CBI team on his return from London.

The law minister said that the nature of evidence available against the offender must speak for itself and not the "alibi" of vendetta.

"The law is taking its course. The law must take its course. The CBI will explain all the details. We do not wish to interfere. There is no interference of the government," he told reporters.

The CBI has sought 15-day remand of Karti Chidambaram for custodial interrogation.

"But I will only make one observation. When such issues are raised, what is important is that the nature of evidence available against the offender must speak for itself and not the alibi of vendetta," he said.

The Congress on Wednesday dubbed the arrest of Karti Chidambaram a "diversionary tactic" by the government to hide its scams and said "vendetta" would not deter the party from speaking the truth.New Delhi: PNB MD and CEO Sunil Mehta got chastised from unexpected quarters when a globally acclaimed doctor V Shanta censured him for using the word 'cancer' to describe the Rs 12,717 crore fraud at the bank by billionaire jeweller Nirav Modi and his associates.

Corruption is something to be ashamed of, cancer is not, she said. "Do not try to find parallels where none exist. Do not mix cancer with corruption. Ever," said the Ramon Magsaysay Award winner and cancer specialist in a letter to Mehta.

While addressing a press conference in connection with the USD 2 billion scam earlier in the month, the Punjab Nation Bank chief had said: "This cancer, that's been going on since 2011, we have brought it out and we are resolving it."

Strongly objecting to the use of the word 'cancer', the legendary cancer specialist who was awarded Padma Bhushan in 2006 and is currently Chairman of Chennai based Cancer Institute (WIA), said one ought to be ashamed of corruption but not of cancer.

"I was extremely disturbed to read your reference to cancer in the context of the recent scam unearthed at your bank. Corruption is a crime and something to be ashamed of; cancer is not," Shanta said in her letter.

Observing that several cancer patients are cured and lead productive lives, she said, "we do not want the word cancer to be associated with guilt, hopelessness or dread. And definitely not with the shame."

She also appealed to the others not to use the word in cancer in such sense as it could outrage medical personal working in the field of cancer prevention and cure.

The spate of frauds in the banking sector running into thousands of crores or rupees have outraged common people, who often liken deep-rooted corruption to something pernicious as cancer.

The worried government on Tuesday asked all state-owned banks to scrutinise non-performing assets (NPAs) exceeding Rs 50 crore for fraud and accordingly report the matter to Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).New Delhi: No lesson seems to have been learned from the 2016 Pathankot terror attack as an NIA investigation into the Sunjuwan Army camp attack has revealed that the terrorists breached not one, but two perimeter walls of the camp in February.

There were no sentries on the outside wall which is about 10 feet high and we have found foot holds on this wall. It looks like the terrorists scaled this wall, crossed the empty ground and then breached a second wall about 150 meters away, before entering the camp," a top NIA official told News18.

Moreover, similarities between the Pathankot attack and the latest Sunjuwan attack has forced the investigating agency to believe that the latter may also be the handiwork of Jaish-e-Mohammad.

Though NIA has not conclusively identified the terrorists yet, officials say there are a lot of similarities in the modus operandi of the Pathankot attack, Handwara and Sunjuwan. The similarities have made NIA believe that Sunjuwan, too, was the handiwork of Jaish-e-Mohammed.

There are a number of similarities between all of these cases. The modus operandi of breaching the perimeter security, mentions of the Afzal Guru squad and the website rang-o-noor.com are common among all three cases," the official said.

Also, the National Investigation Agencys (NIA) probe into the Pathankot airbase attack had revealed that terrorists used a fence cutter to cut the wire before jumping over the perimeter wall and entering the high security IAF airbase. Sources say no fence cutter has been recovered so far from the Sunjuwan attackers or the camp, but searches are on.

Three AK-56-wielding terrorists wearing Army combat uniform entered the residential quarters of the Sunjuwan Army camp on February 10. They were killed in an encounter that lasted more than 36 hours.

Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman blamed Pakistan-based terror groups for the attack and warned the neighbours saying they "will pay for its misadventure".

Meanwhile, NIA registered an FIR last week under Sections 7 and 27 of the Arms Act and Sections 16 and 18 of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act. A team led by an IG-level officer is in Jammu to probe how terrorists entered the Army camp and killed 7 people, including 6 soldiers and a civilian.

Preliminary investigation by the NIA has revealed that the outer most wall of the camp does not have sentry deployment. The inside wall or the second wall had sentries deployed and also lights. It seems nothing was detected till the time the terrorists opened fire," an investigating officer told News18.

Investigating officers agree with the Indian Army's initial assessment that the terrorists had not infiltrated recently to carry out the attack. "The recoveries made from them suggest that they had not infiltrated recently. The labels on the items recovered from them are Indian," the official said.

Indian agencies had earlier said that the terrorists who attacked Sunjuwan were part of a larger group that had infiltrated the Indian territory in June 2017.

NIA is also not ruling out the possibilities of local support to the terrorists at this stage and officials say they are also investigating if any insider helped them with information about sentry deployment, perimeter security and layout of the camp.As the Autumn/Winter 2018 ready-to-wear shows move into Paris, we take stock of the biggest beauty trends seen on the catwalks in Milan.

Eyeliner, eyeliner

Fun, colorful eyeliner was a big trend on the Italian catwalks, adding a dash of joie de vivre to otherwise sleek, classic beauty looks. Fendi and Tommy Hilfiger opted for a flash of metallic silver shadow at the inner corner of the eye and along the lower lids, while a streak of electric blue liner added a jazzy flash of color to the utilitarian tailored looks on show at Salvatore Ferragamo.

Read my lips

Lipstick was also bold and colorful, in keeping with multiple AW18 shows in New York and London. It was all about the bubblegum colors at Max Mara, where the models sported bright lipstick in poppy tones such as hot pink and lilac, and slightly more unusual shades -- such as a lurid green -- at Annakiki.

Feline flicks

Despite all the offbeat color, there was still room for some classic Italian glamour. Alberta Ferretti kept things traditional with winged black eyeliner that ended in a perfect flourish and served as a reminder of the power of simplistic beauty looks, while Ermanno Scervino followed suit, focusing on the lower lash line for an edgier look.Los Angeles: Bollywood actor Ali Fazal, who is preparing for his next Hollywood unannounced venture, says meeting icons like Hollywood personalities like Britney Spears and Samuel L. Jackson was surreal.

The actor was attending the annual Hollywood Beauty Awards, an annual forum where the best in talent of the hair, beauty and design talent is feted, Ali was also elected as an award presenter.

"It was surreal. We were all on the same tables, dining at the award show. I mean , fact is, Britney has been an icon during the largest part of my childhood. She was up there breaking records with her hit singles.

"I bet all my friends know lyrics to at least two of her songs. Like it or not. Its like the era of Backstreet Boys and NSYNC. She was receiving the fragrance beauty award for her latest perfume line and so i guess i went to get a whiff of that and congratulate her," Ali said in a statement.

Ali presented the 2018 New Beauty Awards to two new comers, namely Kirstin Maldonado and Olivia Holt. And the finale, award for Timeless beauty to Jane Seymour.

Talking about meeting Jackson, Ali said: "Samuel L. Jackson and I share the same team, and so this meeting was pending for a while. What can i say, am just a huge fan. And he loved my performance from my film 'Victoria and Abdul'. So that was one of the best compliments I have received in my life. Somethings are just best experienced I guess. I told him I hope I meet him on a set next time. Working together."Sridevi's Mom co-star Adnan Siddiqui revealed that Boney Kapoor was "inconsolable" after discovering that the actor was no more. The actor, who passed away due to "accidental drowning", was in Dubai to attend a family wedding. Sridevi's body was handed over to her family on Tuesday by the Dubai Police authorities after investigating her death circumstances thoroughly and was flown back to Mumbai the same evening. She was 54.

Siddiqui, who also was in Dubai at the time of the tragic incident, said he rushed to Kapoor's hotel only after a journalist called him up to check if the news of Sridevi's death was actually true.

Siddiqui, who played Sridevi's on-screen husband in the Ravi Udyawar-directed movie, told mid-day, "I got a call from a journalist at around 11 pm asking if the news about Sridevi's death was true. I immediately called up Boney (Kapoor) and rushed to him. I got to Jumeirah Emirates at around midnight. Initially, I was not allowed to go upstairs. At the time of the investigation, only Boney sir and Dubai officials were present. So, I waited in the lobby for about an hour."

The actor further said he was given permission to meet Boney only after the initial probe got over. "When everything was settled, Boney saab called me upstairs. He was there along with a family friend, his wife and a daughter. Boney saab was crying like a baby; he was inconsolable. I was with him until 5 am. He was under a lot of stress, so I advised him to rest, and then left," said Siddiqui.Hours after the cremation of veteran actor Sridevi, her niece and daughter of Anil Kapoor, Rhea Kapoor, shared a message on behalf of the entire family. Rhea took to her Instagram account to thank Sridevi's colleagues and fans for showering love and prayers and asked them to do the same for her two daughters, Jhanvi and Khushi. The letter was further reposted by Anil and Sonam Kapoor.

Credit: @ Rhea Kapoor

"This outpouring of love is the memory we would like Khushi and Jhanvi to have of their mother... a woman who was unquestionable loved by all. Let us all who loved Sri, envelope her two little ones, her life as she often called them, with as much or more love than we gave Sri so that they can live their lives ahead with a little less ache in their hearts." the letter said.

Rhea also asked the media to respect the family's privacy and allow them space to grieve. The death of veteran actor Sridevi sent shock waves across the nation and fans, family members and the entire film fraternity mourned the loss of their beloved. The actor, who was 54, passed away in Dubai where she had gone to attend a family wedding.

Sridevi was cremated with full state honours in Mumbai. The actor, who was conferred with Padma Shri in 2013, was draped in the national tricolor and was accorded with a gun salute and elaborate arrangements made by the Maharashtra Government. The actor's mortal remains were draped in a red kanjivaram sari with a bindi on her forehead.South Africas new leader, Cyril Ramaphosa, on Monday, appointed African National Congress (ANC) Deputy President David Mabuza as his second in command.

In a late-night address, Ramaphosa announced significant changes to his Cabinet, including the return of Nhlanhla Nene and Pravin Gordhan, among others.

Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, the former presidents ex-wife who narrowly lost to Ramaphosa in an ANC leadership election last year, was named as minister in the presidency responsible for planning and monitoring.

Ramaphosa, a 65-year-old former businessman, in his first State of the Nation address earlier this month, promised to fight corruption, boost the economy and create jobs in the southern African nation.

His predecessors nine-year tenure as president was dogged by corruption allegations and high levels of unemployment.

The ruling ANC has praised the cabinet changes as laying a strong foundation for greater alignment and corporation between the ANC and its cadres in Parliament.

The Economic Freedom Fighters, led by Julius Malema, has rejected President Cyril Ramaphosas Cabinet reshuffle, saying it was a realignment of corrupt and delinquent ministers.

In a statement, EFF national spokesperson Mbuyiseni Ndlozi said the changes were not in the best interests of South Africans.

The Democratic Alliance opposition party has also reacted, saying the new changes show that the countrys problems lie with the ANC.The country and the film industry is in a state of grief as it says its final goodbye to veteran actor and icon of the 90s- Sridevi. The actor, who was 54, breathed her last in Dubai where she had gone to attend the wedding of her nephew Mohit Marwah. Celebrated as India's first female superstar, Sridevi was an inspiration for not only an entire generation of females but even her male contemporaries.

While presenting Sridevi with the lifetime achievement award at one of the award functions last year, Salman Khan opened up about his Chaand Ka Tukda co-star and called her the ultimate superstar.

"Aamir Khan, Shah Rukh Khan, Akshay (Kumar), we have all done many films. Aamir may have done about 50 films  he has a lot of time, as he does only one film per year; Shah Rukh may have done more than 100 films. Put together, we may have all done about 250-275 films. But there is one legend who is very talented, dedicated, hardworking and professional. She completed 300 films, after starting her career as a child artiste. Our work cannot even be compared to this legend  she is none other than Sridevi!, he said while introducing the actor.

In her speech, Sridevi thanked her mother and her children and said, "If it was not for the support of my mother, I would not have been able to work in films. And I'm also happy that my children want me to do films, even now. Without them, I would not have lasted in the industry for so long."

Salman and Sridevi starred in two films together- Chaand Ka Tukda and Chandra Mukhi.

She started out as a child artiste and went on to become the first female superstar of the Indian film industry. She worked in and conquered Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and Hindi films with her acting prowess, comic timing and ethereal dancing skills.

In a career spanning over four decades, she delivered quite a few memorable hits including Mr India, Lamhe, Khuda Gawah, Chaalbaaz, Nagina and English Vinglish.

The entire industry is currently at the celebration club, Mumbai, to pay their last respects to the iconic star.Ahmedabad: Gujarat Assembly Speaker Rajendra Trivedi today suspended around 15 Congress MLAs for a day after they sat in the well and shouted slogans against the ruling BJP over VAT being charged on fuel by the state government. Besides these, another Congress MLA was suspended for two days by the Speaker.

The exact number of MLAs suspended from the Assembly for a day was not immediately clear. Following the suspension and eviction, nearly 50 other Congress MLAs staged a walkout from the Legislative Assembly.

Earlier during the Question Hour, Congress MLA Vimal Chudasama sought details about the Value Added Tax (VAT) being charged on petrol and diesel by the BJP government. The MLA also asked if the government plans to reduce the taxes on fuel to give relief to the people.

In his reply, Deputy Chief Minister Nitin Patel said the government charges 20 percent VAT on fuel. He then compared Congress-ruled states like Punjab and Karnataka with Gujarat and claimed both these states charge 28 and 30 percent tax respectively is much higher than Gujarat.

Irked by the comparison, Leader of Opposition Paresh Dhanani asked Patel to stick to Gujarat and have a debate on it. When Speaker Trivedi stopped him from making further comments, all Congress MLAs started shouting slogans against the BJP government.

As around 15 Congress MLAs sat in the well, the Speaker first suspended them for the day and called in marshalls to evict them. While the MLAs were walking out of the House, the Speaker took a serious note of Congress' Unjha MLA Asha Patel's sloganeering. Speaker Trivedi termed the words "BJP Hooligans" said by Asha Patel derogatory and suspended her for two days.

After coming out of the Assembly, Congress MLAs sat outside the Speaker's chamber for about an hour and raised slogans against him.Patna: After Jitan Ram Manjhi exited the NDA, another ally Rashtirya Lok Samata Party (RLSP) on Wednesday said that the BJP should now start listening to smaller allies instead of ignoring their demands.

Talking to News18, RLSP national general secretary Abhyanand Suman conceded that after Nitish Kumar's Janata Dal (United) returned to the NDA fold other smaller parties had concerns about their fate in the coalition.

"The onus of accommodating and listening our demands is now on the BJP and not the JD(U). Nitish Kumar is a late entrant. When he left the BJP in 2013, we continued our support to them. The BJP leadership must understand this, he said.

Suman reiterated that his party was legitimate contender for the Jehanabad Assembly seat as its candidate was runners-up in the last Assembly polls but after JD(U) decided to field its candidate they withdrew their claim. "But the same cant go on", he said.

On the other hand, RLSP chief and union minister of state for HRD Upendra Kushwaha told News18 that he would make any statement after going through all the details.Chennai: As actor-turned-politician Kamal Haasan releases his partys first list of key members, political experts say that it will be interesting to see how freshers will change the politics of the South-Indian state.

Projecting himself as a serious alternative to Dravidian politics, Haasan has chosen to include people from all walks to life in his newly-launched 'Makkal Needhi Maiam.

From CEOs to bureaucrats to co-actors, the list seems to have an interesting mix of people, which experts believe can further help Haasan substantiate his statement of "neither working from left nor right but centre".

One of the key members is Raja Narayanan, who is the political manager of the party. Narayanan shot to fame following the success of his show Kuttram Nadandhadhu Enna aired on Vijay TV, which focused on unravelling the truth on various issues across India. He is also known for his reportage on Rajinikanth and his spiritual life in the Himalayas.

Another popular face in the party is actor, producer and director Sripriya Rajkumar, who is also Haasans good friend. Sripriya was known to be actor-turned-politicians advisor during Tamil Bigg Boss, Season 1 and had appeared in one of the episodes.

Besides the two popular female faces, another member in Haasans core team is Kameela Nasser, actor Nassers wife, who is an M-Phil scholar.

Members from other political parties, who have now switched sides, are Congress youth wing general secretary C Rajshekaran and former CPI (M) member Bharathi Krishnakumar.

While Rajshekaran is an anti-corruption crusader who extended support to the superstar ahead of his political debut, Krishnakumar was with the CPI (M) two decades ago and drew flak from the Left party after joining Haasans party. They called him the sleeper cell of the Left.

Another bigwig who made to the list is Naturals Salons and Spa CEO CK Kumaravel, younger brother of CK Ranganathan, CEO of Cavinkare. Interestingly, Ranganathan is married in the DMK family.

Political analyst N Sathiyamoorthy said, Even for a beginning, it looks an incomplete list. He has begun somewhere, but considering that no other big names are in his party, whatever the reason is, he could have done better.

The list is also an equal mix of people from different castes and community, including Dalits, Thevar castes and other religions, which will further support Haasan's rationalist view as he strongly believes in Periyarism and shuns worshipping god.

Meanwhile, superstar Rajinikanth is also busy appointing office-bearers in all the districts. Rajinikanth said only after office bearers are appointed across the state, he will announce his party.Bengaluru: The focus of the Karnataka Assembly election campaign has oscillated between corruption and Hindutva, and now it is back to corruption. The Prime Minister Narendra Modi who first raised the issue of corruption calling Siddaramaiah-led Congress government a percentage sarkar has stuck to it by coining a new term to describe the state government. Addressing a farmers rally at central Karnataka city of Davanagere on Tuesday, Modi said that it was not a Siddaramaiah government and it was a Seeda Rupaiyya government, indirectly hinting that nothing happens without bribe in the state.

A day after PMs visit, a visibly angry Siddaramaiah has hit back at him calling Modi the most corrupt Prime Minister. Talking to media at Koppal in Hyderabad  Karnataka region, the chief minister said, I have not seen a more corrupt central government than the present one in my entire life. Prime Minister Modi himself is facilitating corruption. His government is a 90% commission government. Who is he to call our government corrupt? Who has allowed fraudsters like Vijay Mallya and Nirav Modi to flee the country with tens of thousands of crores public money? What was Modi doing?

He said that Modi was the worst PM in the history of India and his statements were unbecoming of a Prime Minister.

Siddaramaiah attacked both Modi and BJPs Karnataka CM face B S Yeddyurappa alleging that both are anti-farmers. Siddaramaiah said, Modi is against farmers and villagers. His government policies are killing them. Yeddyurappa government had opened fire on innocent farmers killing two of them in 2008. How can he claim that he is pro-farmer?

The state Congress has also decided to take the BJP head-on closer to election. Senior Congress leader and KPCC working president Dinesh Gundurao has returned the favours, saying that NAMO means Namage Mosa. Kannada phrase Namage Mosa means Betrayal to us or betraying us.

On Tuesday, Modi had said, You have such a chief minister here. Some people feel that in Karnataka there is Siddaramaiah government. But the fact is here there is seeda rupaiya sarkar. In everything there is seeda Rupaiya, only then work happens.

The rally in the Lingayat belt in Devangere was organised to coincide with the 75th birthday of state BJP chief B S Yeddyurappa, who is being projected as the party's chief ministerial candidate for the upcoming assembly polls.

With the prime minister himself in attendance, the rally was also seen as an attempt by the BJP to set at rest any doubts about the choice of Yeddyurappa, a Lingayat strongman, for the chief ministership in the event of BJP winning the polls. The Lingayat community forms a strong voter base for the BJP.

The Saffron party is seeking to unseat the Congress with its 150-plus seats target in the 224-member assembly, polls to which are expected to be held in coming April or May.

In his earlier rallies, Modi had called the Siddaramaiah dispensation "a 10 per cent commission government" and later said his information was not correct and came to know that it was much more.Bhopal: The counting of votes for Mungaoli and Kolaras Assembly seats is underway. Congress' Mahendra Singh Yadav is ahead of BJP's Devendra Jain by 832 votes in Kolaras and Congress' Brijendra Singh Yadav is leading BJP's Bai Sahib by 31 votes in Mungaoli.

Although inconsequential in terms of the strength in the Madhya Pradesh Assembly, the results of the by-election are expected to alter political equations within both Congress and the BJP.

The results are the last opportunity for a show of strength for the two parties before they lock horns later this year for the Assembly election. While the BJP has not given any signs as to what it expects from the by-elections, Congress is already gearing up for celebrations.

The IT Cell of the party had issued an invitation to media on Tuesday itself for the victory celebrations at the Pradesh Congress Committee office at 11 am on Wednesday.

Riding on mass support base of MP Jyotiraditya Scindia, the Congress is hoping for wins in both seats while the ruling BJP is hoping that three-time Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan has enough left in the tank to pull through in the by-elections.

If insiders in both parties are to be believed, the Congress has emerged as the clear favourite for both seats. The BJP failed to rein in its internal discontent which could make it pay heavily in the results, a political analyst said.

The analyst said that a big loss for the BJP could set off alarm bells in the party, especially after it lost three by-elections in Rajasthan recently. He said that the desperation exhibited by the Shivraj government during the campaign was another evidence of the political undercurrents in the region.

If Scindia does help his party win at both the seats, it could give him a perfect platform to lead the Congress charge in Madhya Pradesh, where the Congress has been itching to dethrone the BJP since 2003.

On February 24, Mungaoli and Kolaras recorded a voters' turnover of 77.05 and 70.4 percent respectively. The voting percentage, however, did not give any hint as to where the pendulum would swing.New Delhi: The team that will prepare the Congress strategy for Karnataka elections has the name of a member many may have missed at first glance, that of former Governor and one-time Sonia Gandhi loyalist-turned-critic Margaret Alva.

Alva had a bitter breakup with Sonia after her son was denied a ticket for the 2008 state election. In a public outburst, she had asked whether her son was a terrorist to be overlooked. In her book, Courage and Commitment, released in June 2016, she had attacked Sonia several times.

Times have changed and for the first time I have come to feel like a misfit in an organisation that I considered as precious as my own home. A look at our recent candidate lists show a distinct pattern of patronages to the wealthy and rich lobbies like mining, education and real-estate...

As noisy her exit had been, her comeback has been equally silent. Her name was included in the Congress election committee list that was announced without any fanfare.

According to sources, Alvas re-entry is part of a well-thought out plan by Congress president Rahul Gandhi. At a recent meeting with general secretaries of his party, he made it clear that the mission for Congress was to win elections and all those who have and can contribute should be brought back.

Congress is a large party and can accommodate differing points of view as long as they still hold the party ideology, he is said to have told his close aides.

More examples of this approach are Ashok Chavan and Arvinder Singh Lovely, who are no longer political pariahs.

There could be more in the offing too. Rahul has decided to reach out to some allies he has cold shouldered in the past, sources told News18.

Sharad Pawar and Lalu Prasad Yadavs RJD are no longer untouchable for him. Same is the case with Asaduddin Owaisi. Jagan Reddy, too, is being tapped and Madhu Yakshi has been encouraged to reach out to him.

The new partnerships are part of Rahuls strategy to build an axis of allies everywhere. In Uttar Pradesh, for example, the ideal situation would be Samajwadi Party, Bahujan Samaj Party and the Congress coming together.

Political analyst Rasheed Kidwai, who has closely watched both Sonia and Rahul, said no two regimes have a similar style of functioning and the new Congress chiefs approach is reflective of it.

Look at Nehru-Indira, Indira-Rajiv or Rajiv-Sonia. Similarly, the Rahul era will be drastically different from the Sonia era. Both at subconscious and functional levels, a new leader tends to make amends and course correction from his predecessor, he said.

The irony is that Sonia during her tenure as Congress president was considered to be accommodating and someone who upholds the status quo, and it was Rahul Gandhi who was viewed as abrupt and impulsive.

The fear within the seniors in the party was that when Rahul takes over, they would all have to pack their bags.

A fear that was confirmed when Rahul famously tore the ordinance being presented by then PM Manmohan Singh at Press Club while a shocked and embarrassed Ajay Maken looked on. This was also the time when Congress was looking to form an alliance with Lalu.

Sonia always considered Lalu has her strongest ally and despite the corruption charges against him, she believed he was not a fair-weather ally.

A belief that Rahul rejected in private. Sources say Rahul and Sonia had a huge disagreement over this. A senior leader said in confidence, The incident really shook us. We saw it coming for us.

So as speculation of Rahul taking charge grew, so did planting of stories of old guard versus the new. But in politics, compromises have to be made. Sonia did when she took over and realised that she couldnt show contempt for some of her colleagues the same way as Rajiv or Indira did. But the Sonia style of dragging her feet when it came to tolerating dissent or indiscipline earned her criticism.

Rahul has made it clear that he will not hesitate to take disciplinary action, like he did with Mani Shankar Aiyar for his neech comment at Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

But when it comes to those who could help the party recover, Rahuls Congress is happy to reach out. At a recent meeting, he made it clear to Sonia and the old guard that while he would want to see new faces, old was gold too.Patna: Ending months of speculation, a group of Congress leaders led by former Bihar Pradesh Congress Committee (BPCC) Chairman Ashok Chaudhary on Wednesday demanded recognition as a separate faction in the Legislative Council.

Ashok Chaudhary, in a letter to Deputy Chairman Haroon Rashid sought that his group be recognised as a separate group. He has claimed that he has the support of three other members of Legislative Council  Tanweer Akhtar, Ramchandra Bharti and Dileep Chaudhary.

Congress has six members in the Council and 27 in the 243-member Bihar Assembly.

One of the three, Dileep Chaudhary told News18 that they do not want to sit in opposition. When asked whether they will support Nitish Kumar government, he said, "A decision will be taken very shortly."

This development comes on the same day as Jitan Ram Manjhis announcement of quitting the NDA and joining hands with RJD and Tejashwi Yadav-led Mahagathbandhan.

Both NDA and the Mahagathbandhan leaders have been claiming that many MLAs from the rival faction are in touch with them. Coming right after Manjhi's announcement, Ashok Chaudhary's decision is being considered by many as a counter-attack by the NDA.

A senior BJP leader and minister in Nitish's cabinet had already indicated this earlier on Wednesday when he said, "See what happens tonight."

Ashok Chaudhary, former education minister in the Nitish-led Mahagathbandhan government, is considered close to the chief minister and has been criticising the Congress leadership for quite some time.BRUSSELS: The European Union on Wednesday laid out how it expected to regulate Northern Ireland's trade if no better solution was found in the rapidly shrinking window before Britain quits the EU, prompting furious reactions in London and Belfast.

Brussels' chief negotiator Michel Barnier, presenting the EU's draft of an exit treaty, denied that the proposal, intended to avoid a disruptive EU-UK "hard border" on the island of Ireland, would loosen Northern Ireland's constitutional ties to the rest of the United Kingdom.

But British leader Theresa May told her parliament that no prime minister could ever agree to these terms, which would "threaten the constitutional integrity of the UK".

The hardline Unionist allies in Belfast on whom she relies for a slim majority denounced them as "constitutionally unacceptable" and "economically catastrophic" as they would distance Northern Ireland from mainland Britain.

Establishing a "common regulatory area" with Ireland and 26 other EU states, as the draft treaty proposes, would in effect put the British province in a customs union with the bloc.

"Northern Ireland shall be considered to be part of the customs territory of the Union," the draft read. Barnier said Britons should not be surprised by a text that merely translated an interim accord with London into legal language.

And he said the border proposal was only a "backstop" solution, which could be changed if Britain offered alternatives along the lines of those it hinted at during talks in December.

N.IRELAND PEACE SETTLEMENT

Britain's vote to leave the EU has undermined one of the pillars of a 1998 settlement that ended decades of violence in Northern Ireland between mostly Catholic Irish nationalists and Protestant unionists favouring continued union with Britain.

In Dublin, Foreign Minister Simon Coveney echoed Barnier, saying the draft was "absolutely faithful" to the December accord and "should not be a surprise to anybody".

Barnier rammed home that "time is short" before Britain will be out of the EU in exactly 13 months. He called on May to "pick up the pace" of negotiations so that a withdrawal treaty, including terms for keeping the status quo during a two-year transition, could be agreed this autumn and ratified by March.

As the rhetoric on both sides has taken a more irritable turn, and negotiations have stalled since the interim accords in December, Barnier said he was "preparing for every situation" in case the continents second-biggest economy lurches out of the Union without a deal after 46 years.

May, who will lay out her vision for a future trading relationship with the EU on Friday and deliver a full response to the withdrawal draft on Monday, said she would work to protect UK unity in the negotiations. She again ruled out an EU-UK customs union -- something that her Labour opponents advocate as a way to avoid disruptive controls at the Irish land border.

"Overall the work has been progressing well in recent weeks," her spokesman said. "This is just a draft document ... and we will be having discussions where we don't agree in the coming months."

Unionists fear new barriers with the British mainland could increase the chances of the Republic, which broke from British rule a century ago, absorbing the province, most of whose 1.8 million people are entitled to Irish, and hence EU, citizenship.

Barnier conceded there might be new checks on trade between Northern Ireland and the mainland -- but definitely no "border".

"NO ARROGANCE HERE"

The Democratic Unionist Party's Nigel Dodds, however, said his "ludicrous" plan "will not go anywhere".

Barnier dismissed suggestions that the draft was an attempt to "shock" Britons into concluding a deal, insisting that his sole goal was to avoid a disorderly divorce. "There is no arrogance here," he said.

The draft treaty sees a joint EU-UK committee overseeing the arrangements but the European Court of Justice remaining the ultimate authority to resolve disputes.

Asked why the draft made no mention of a section in December's EU-UK joint report that there should be no regulatory divergence between Great Britain and Northern Ireland, Barnier said it was because that was an internal UK matter.

He restated his view that the proposals for future trade that May is expected to make on Friday - to maintain a mixture of common and different regulations with the EU - were not acceptable. "There will be no cherry-picking," he said.

Barnier said he would engage in a new round of negotiations next week and would also meet leaders of Northern Ireland.

He also said "significant divergences" remained in talks on a transition period, and so a deal, which both sides hope to clinch in March to calm business nerves, was "not a given".

Supporters of Brexit argue that Britain will benefit from no longer being bound by EU rules and can do more trade with the rest of the world, while opponents say the prospect of new barriers to trade in Europe is already hurting its economy.

May's government got a boost on Wednesday when Japanese carmaker Toyota confirmed plans to build a new model in England.Washington: The freeze in US security aid to Pakistan will continue as it is yet to take any decisive action against the Taliban and the Haqqani network, a top American general has said.

"That's the current posture. And I would imagine, hopefully, in the future, well have an opportunity to (review)," General Joseph Votel, Commander of the US Central Command, told members of the Senate Armed Services Committee when asked about the future of freeze of American security assistance to Pakistan.

"So, we remain in a posture of discontinuing that support (to Pakistan)," inquired Indiana Senator Jim Banks.

Votel said the US has started to see an increase in communication, information sharing and actions on the ground in response to specific US requests.

"These are positive indicators," he said, adding that "however, ongoing national counter-terrorism efforts against anti-Pakistan militants throughout the country have not yet translated into the definitive actions we require Pakistan to take against Afghan Taliban or Haqqani leaders,"

"This problem is compounded by increasing cross-border terrorist attacks and fires between Pakistan and Afghanistan, which hinders both countries abilities to coordinate on border security," Votel said.

The US, he said, has preserved its valuable military-to-military relationship with Pakistan and attempted to increase transparency and communication with influential military leaders, while pressing its serious concerns about the country's provision of sanctuary and support to militant and terrorist groups that target the US personnel and interests.

"Achieving long-term stability in Afghanistan and defeating the insurgency will be difficult without Pakistan's support and assistance," he said.

Although most security assistance for Pakistan is currently suspended, since 2002 Pakistan has been among the largest recipients of US-provided Foreign Military Financing (FMF) and International Military Education and Training (IMET), the general said.

He said to date Pakistan has also been reimbursed hundreds of millions of dollars in Coalition Support Funds (CSF) for counter-insurgency operations that support US security objectives in the region.

The US uses ground and air routes in Pakistan to deliver material to Afghanistan, he said, adding that "we also have options to utilize routes through the other Central Asian nations".

Responding to a question from Senator Banks, Votel said the pressure that the Trump Administration has put on Pakistan has contributed to the recent seen positive response from Islamabad.

I think what is also working right now is the approach that we have in place with them. I think we have tried to be very clear in terms of the things that we Pakistan to do for us. And what I have endeavoured to do  not always in a public way, but in a private way  is develop a relationship that allows us to provide feedback both ways," he said.

There are things, frankly, that Pakistan has asked from the US as well, he said. "So this is a two-way street here. It is my responsibility to make sure that we have feedback loops in place that go back and forth between the things that were doing to try support each other and moving forward in that regard," Volte said.

He said it was important to recognise that Pakistan as a country has suffered greatly from terrorism, "perhaps as much as anybody in the region, or maybe as anybody around the world". "They have taken a number of measures to address terrorism within their borders," the general said.

"That has contributed, over the years, to some increased security in the area. And we have to recognise at up front. So our approach is to continue to be engaged with them. We want to have a candid discussion. We want to have frequent communication. We want to build trust in this relationship," Votel said.The governor of the restive North West region in Cameroon has extended a curfew restricting movement of persons and property from 8PM to 6AM as security forces continue the fight against separatists in Northwest and Southwest regions.

The two regions, since 2016, have been the theatre of social unrest, initially of a corporate character by teachers and lawyers, which later turned into a political crisis, with secessionist inclinations.

Since October 2017, Cameroonian troops have staged a crackdown targeting activists in the two regions where the English-speaking minority has staged protests against the government in this predominantly francophone country.

Dozens of people have died. Official figures, though, refer to the 23 police and soldiers killed. The spiraling violence has prompted an estimated 30,000 Cameroonians to flee to neighboring Nigeria.

The government has labeled the separatists as terrorists and last month, Nigeria deported about 47 separatists to Yaounde. The deportees included a known separatist leader, Julius Sisuku Ayuk Tabe.

Earlier this month, President Paul Biya signed directives reorganizing the countrys defense forces leading to the splitting into two of the former military region. The new region becomes the fifth (RMIA 5) and is headquartered in capital of the northwest region Bamenda.Beirut/Geneva: Syrian government forces launched a ground assault on the edge of the rebel-held eastern Ghouta enclave on Wednesday, seeking to gain territory despite a Russian plan for five-hour daily ceasefires, a war monitor and sources on both sides said.

Hundreds of people have died in 11 days of bombing of the eastern Ghouta, a swathe of towns and farms outside Damascus that is the last major rebel-held area near the capital.

The onslaught has been one of the fiercest of the civil war, now entering its eighth year.

The UN Security Council, including President Bashar al-Assad's strongest ally Russia, passed a resolution on Saturday calling for a 30-day countrywide ceasefire, but it has not come into effect, with Moscow and Damascus saying they are battling members of terrorist groups excluded from the truce.

Russia has instead called for daily five-hour local ceasefires to establish what it calls a humanitarian corridor so aid can enter the enclave and civilians and wounded can leave.

The first such truce took place on Tuesday but quickly collapsed when bombing and shelling resumed after a short lull.

There were no air strikes during Wednesday's five-hour ceasefire, but heavy bombardment resumed in the afternoon, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group reported.

There has been no sign of aid delivered to the besieged area.

Moscow and Damascus have accused rebels of shelling the corridor to prevent people leaving. Rebels deny this, and say people will not leave eastern Ghouta because they fear the government. A senior US general accused Moscow of acting as "both arsonist and firefighter" by failing to rein in Assad.

Wednesday's ground assault targeted the Hawsh al-Dawahra area at the eastern edge of the rebel-held area.

The Observatory reported advances by the government forces in the area, describing it as the resumption of an assault that first began on Feb. 25. It said rebels had inflicted heavy losses on government forces.

An official with one of the rebel groups in eastern Ghouta said fighters were battling to repel an attempted incursion, and characterised the battle as "back and forth".

A commander in the military alliance that backs Assad said an elite unit of the Syrian army, the Tiger Force, was taking part in the assault and advances had been made.

France's foreign ministry called on Russia and Iran, Assad's other military ally, to exert "maximum pressure" on the Syrian government to implement the 30-day ceasefire.

But with no sign of decisive international pressure to stop the attack, eastern Ghouta appears on course to eventually meet the same fate as other areas won back by the government in lengthy, punishing assaults, where rebels and civilians who oppose Assad were finally evacuated in negotiated withdrawals.

Damascus appears to be applying tried and tested military means, combining air strikes and bombardment with ground assaults, as it did to win back eastern Aleppo in 2016.

A senior Western diplomat said Russia appeared intent on a repeat of Aleppo in eastern Ghouta by evacuating the area and then killing "the terrorists even if it's not just Nusra", a reference to a jihadist group with al Qaeda links.

US, RUSSIA CLASH OVER CHEMICAL WEAPONS

Diplomatic sources have said the chemical weapons watchdog, the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, opened an investigation into attacks in eastern Ghouta to determine whether banned munitions were used.

The United States says it has evidence Syrian forces have used chlorine, which is permitted for civilian purposes but banned as a weapon, in attacks in eastern Ghouta and elsewhere.

US disarmament ambassador Robert Wood said on Wednesday that Russia has violated its duty to guarantee the destruction of Syria's chemical weapons stockpile and prevent the Assad government from using poison gas.

Syria agreed to give up its stockpile of poison gas and join the international chemical weapons ban in 2013 under a Russian-brokered deal that averted US retaliatory air strikes after a nerve gas attack killed hundreds of people. Washington accused Damascus last year of again using nerve gas and carried out a round of air strikes as punishment.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Syria had eliminated its poison gas stockpiles, and called allegations it was still using chemical weapons "absurd".

Lavrov said militants entrenched in eastern Ghouta were blocking aid and the evacuation of people who want to leave. Moscow would continue to support the Syrian army in totally defeating the "terrorist threat", Lavrov told the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva.

A Syrian army officer told journalists insurgents had shelled the corridor again on Wednesday.

Rebels have intensified shelling of nearby government-held Damascus. A medical official in the capital said on Monday 36 people had been killed in four days. Damascus and Moscow say the campaign in eastern Ghouta is needed to halt such shelling.

The United Nations said on Tuesday it was proving impossible to aid civilians or evacuate wounded, and said all sides must abide by the 30-day truce sought by the Security Council.

The multi-sided Syrian war has killed hundreds of thousands of people and driven half of the pre-war population of 23 million from their homes. Fighting has escalated on several fronts this year, with the collapse of Islamic State giving rise to conflict between other Syrian and foreign parties.

As Assad has pressed the offensive against eastern Ghouta, Turkey has launched an incursion against Kurdish fighters in the northwestern Afrin region.Washington: The U.S. special envoy for North Korea plans to retire on Friday, the State Department said just hours after President Donald Trump again rejected talks to resolve the North Korean nuclear crisis unless conditions are met.

South Korean-born Joseph Yun, a strong advocate for engagement with Pyongyang, has led U.S. contact with North Korea, quietly pursuing direct diplomacy since taking his post under former President Barack Obama in 2016.

Yun's departure leaves the State Department without a point person for North Korea policy at a time Pyongyang has signalled it may be willing to talk to the United States after a period of diplomatic contacts with South Korea during the Winter Olympics.

The special envoy's authority to engage with North Korea appeared to be undercut by a tug-of-war between the White House and State Department over North Korea policy under Trump.

While his tenure was praised publicly by the State Department, one senior administration official said Yun would not be missed because he contradicted Trump's policies, while at a daily press briefing White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders brushed off questions about the impact of Yun's departure.

Yun, a 32-year foreign service veteran, told U.S. media his retirement was a personal decision and that Secretary of State Rex Tillerson had tried to persuade him to stay.

"It is really my decision. The time, I thought, was right," he told CBS News. "There is a bit of a lull in activity and I thought it would be a good (time) to get out."

Yun did not respond to Reuters requests for comment.

In the CBS interview, Yun noted that North Korea had "stopped nuclear and missile tests." Pyongyang conducted its biggest and most recent nuclear bomb test in September and its largest and latest missile test in late November.

Some East Asia analysts called Yun's departure a big blow to attempts to use diplomacy to resolve the crisis over North Korea's development of nuclear missiles capable of hitting the United States, which has raised fears of war.

"This is exceptionally bad news," Frank Jannuzi, an East Asia expert who heads the Mansfield Foundation, said on Twitter. "Joe Yun is the only senior official left at State who has experience dealing with the complexities of North Korea policy."

Former deputy assistant secretary of defence for East Asia Abraham Denmark called Yun's departure "a huge loss for the U.S. government at a critical moment."

CBS quoted Yun as saying there were no policy differences "per se," but officials he has dealt with in South Korea told Reuters he had appeared increasingly frustrated with conflicting views within the administration on how to deal with the crisis.

Yun nevertheless appeared in step with recent administration positions when speaking to CBS.

"We need to get it right," he was quoted as saying. "We need to make sure if there are talks it will lead to denuclearisation. We need a whole of government approach."

NO POLICY CHANGE

The U.S. State Department said Tillerson had "reluctantly accepted his decision."

Spokeswoman Heather Nauert said the denuclearisation of North Korea remained the top U.S. national security priority and Washington's "maximum pressure" campaign to bring that about was succeeding.

"If someone chooses to retire, that does not change our policy," Nauert told a regular news briefing. "I feel fully confident we have the appropriate people in place who can handle everything he did and more."

South Korea this week urged Washington and Pyongyang to give ground to allow for talks. Trump on Monday reiterated his willingness to talk, but only under the right conditions.

Washington has said repeatedly that any talks must be aimed at North Korea giving up its nuclear weapons, something North Korea has rejected.

Yun told South Korea's Yonhap news agency he was "very hopeful about talks." "I hope there is a good dialogue, there is a peaceful resolution," Yonhap quoted him as saying.

On Friday, Washington announced its largest package of sanctions yet on North Korea. Trump warned of a "phase two" that could be "very, very unfortunate for the world" if the steps did not work, an apparent reference to military options his administration says remain on the table.

In another reference to the risk of war, Trump said on Monday: "We're talking about tremendous potential loss of lives, numbers that nobody's even contemplated, never thought of."

In Geneva on Tuesday, North Korea's envoy to the U.N. Conference on Disarmament Han Tae Song dismissed sanctions as ineffective and said plans by Seoul and Washington to resume joint military exercises would harm "the current positive process of improved inter-Korean relations."

A senior State Department official told Reuters late last year that Yun had sought direct diplomacy with North Korean officials at the United Nations in the hope of lowering the temperature in U.S.-North Korean tensions.

Most were deeply sceptical about his chances. "Hes such a dreamer," a White House official said at the time, with a note of sarcasm.

Yun travelled to North Korea last June to help secure the release of comatose American student Otto Warmbier, whose detention and subsequent death further soured relations.

Meanwhile, Trump has yet to nominate an ambassador to South Korea, a post vacant for over a year. Congress, former U.S. officials and foreign policy experts have criticized the administrations failure to fill this and other positions.Washington: The US has begun to see "positive indicators" from Pakistan for some time now, a top general said on Wednesday, while clarifying that the freeze in American security aid to the country will continue as it is yet to take any decisive action against the Taliban and the Haqqani network.

"That's the current posture. And I would imagine, hopefully, in the future, well have an opportunity to (review)," General Joseph Votel, Commander of the US Central Command, told members of the Senate Armed Services Committee when asked about the future of freeze of American security assistance to Pakistan.

"So, we remain in a posture of discontinuing that support (to Pakistan)," inquired Indiana Senator Jim Banks. Votel said the US has started to see an increase in communication, information sharing and actions on the ground in response to specific US requests.

"These are positive indicators," he said, adding that "however, ongoing national counter-terrorism efforts against anti-Pakistan militants throughout the country have not yet translated into the definitive actions we require Pakistan to take against Afghan Taliban or Haqqani leaders,"

"This problem is compounded by increasing cross-border terrorist attacks and fires between Pakistan and Afghanistan, which hinders both countries abilities to coordinate on border security," Votel said.

The US, he said, has preserved its valuable military-to-military relationship with Pakistan and attempted to increase transparency and communication with influential military leaders, while pressing its serious concerns about the country's provision of sanctuary and support to militant and terrorist groups that target the US personnel and interests.

"Achieving long-term stability in Afghanistan and defeating the insurgency will be difficult without Pakistan's support and assistance," he said.

Although most security assistance for Pakistan is currently suspended, since 2002 Pakistan has been among the largest recipients of US provided Foreign Military Financing (FMF) and International Military Education and Training (IMET), the general said.

He said to date Pakistan has also been reimbursed hundreds of millions of dollars in Coalition Support Funds (CSF) for counter-insurgency operations that support US security objectives in the region.

The US uses ground and air routes in Pakistan to deliver materiel to Afghanistan, he said, adding that "we also have options to utilize routes through the other Central Asian nations".

Responding to a question from Senator Banks, Votel said the pressure that the Trump Administration has put on Pakistan has contributed to the recent seen positive response from Islamabad.

"I think what is also working right now is the approach that we have in place with them. I think we have tried to be very clear in terms of the things that we Pakistan to do for us. And what I have endeavoured to do -- not always in a public way, but in a private way -- is develop a relationship that allows us to provide feedback both ways," he said.

There are things, frankly, that Pakistan has asked from the US as well, he said. "So this is a two-way street here. It is my responsibility to make sure that we have feedback loops in place that go back and forth between the things that were doing to try support each other and moving forward in that regard," Volte said.

He said it was important to recognise that Pakistan as a country has suffered greatly from terrorism, "perhaps as much as anybody in the region, or maybe as anybody around the world".

"They have taken a number of measures to address terrorism within their borders," the general said.

"That has contributed, over the years, to some increased security in the area. And we have to recognise at up front. So our approach is to continue to be engaged with them. We want to have a candid discussion. We want to have frequent communication. We want to build trust in this relationship," Votel said.Parkland, Fla.: Students returned to Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School on Wednesday, bearing white roses and wearing white ribbons to commemorate the 17 people killed there two weeks ago in the second deadliest public school shooting in US history.

The mood was subdued as roughly 3,000 teenagers walked past hundreds of uniformed police officers to resume classes at the school in the Fort Lauderdale suburb of Parkland. The building where most of the victims died will remain closed indefinitely, however.

Parents who had never accompanied their children to high school tagged along with their teens to offer moral support. Jeannine Gittens, 44, and a friend and fellow mother, had gone ahead of their sons to greet them as they came off the bus.

"We just wanted to make sure they know we are there and that they have our support," said Gittens, who said her son Jevon, 16, and his friend had ridden the bus alone "because they wanted to make today feel as normal as possible."

Freshman Nicholas Rodrigues, 15, said he decided to walk the mile (1.6 km) from his home in neighboring Coral Springs rather than ride his bicycle as usual because "wanted to think about things."

Even as students went into the sprawling Douglas campus, supporters remained gathered outside. "We feel for these kids so much," said Beverly Turner, a 63-year-old youth pastor, who said she had two children who graduated from the school. "We've seen them grow up and us being there for them is the least we can do."

Investigators have accused 19-year-old Nikolas Cruz, who had been kicked out of the school for disciplinary reasons, of carrying out his attack with a legally purchased AR-15 assault-style rifle. The shooting inflamed the nation's long-running debate on gun rights as defined in the Second Amendment of the US Constitution.

Debates over how to respond to the school shootings has seen in recent years erupted in Washington and at state capitals since the Feb. 14 massacre. They also pulled in corporate America, with gun retailer Dick's Sporting Goods Inc on Wednesday saying it would no longer sell assault-style rifles, the type of weapon used in four of the five deadliest mass shootings by a single gunman in US history, as well as Parkland.

EYES ON WASHINGTON

The Republican leaders of the US Congress on Tuesday rejected new limits on guns after the attack, saying they would not raise the minimum age for gun buyers. The powerful National Rifle Association lobbied forcefully against any restrictions on gun sales, saying the infringe on the rights of law-abiding citizens.

President Donald Trump has suggested arming teachers, as well as reopening mental hospitals, as a way of combating school violence. Trump is scheduled to meet with lawmakers from both parties at the White House later on Wednesday to discuss proposals.

Teenage survivors of the carnage have launched an extraordinary student-led campaign to lobby lawmakers on Capitol Hill and the statehouse in Tallahassee for new restrictions on firearms.

Following the shooting, several large American companies said they were ending programs that offered discounts or other benefits to NRA members. Some have faced blowback, particularly in Georgia where a lawmaker said he would try to kill lucrative tax benefits at Atlanta-based Delta Air Lines after it cut ties with the group.

Nonetheless, retailer Dick's on Wednesday said it was taking action, including banning sales of guns at its stores to anyone under 21 and no longer selling high-capacity ammunition magazines. The company noted that it had sold a firearm to Cruz, although not the one used in the rampage.

"We have to help solve the problem that's in front of us," the company's chief executive, Edward Stack, said in a statement. "Gun violence is an epidemic thats taking the lives of too many people, including the brightest hope for the future of America  our kids."

Dick's had also removed assault-style weapons from its stories after the 2012 massacre of 26 children and educators at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, but later returned them to the sales floor.

Cruz was 18 when he bought the gun he is accused of using to attack the school. A Florida court on Wednesday scheduled a hearing to determine whether he has the assets to pay for his own defense.

The Broward County Sheriff's Office and the Federal Bureau of Investigation have faced criticism that they failed to properly follow through on multiple tips warning that Cruz had the potential and capacity for deadly violence.

Sheriff Scott Israel has come under heavy criticism after disclosing that one of his armed deputies, assigned as the school resource officer, stayed outside of the building while it was under attack rather than enter and confront the gunman. The deputy has said he believed the gunman was outside.

The sheriff has acknowledged his office is examining reports from a neighboring police department that three more deputies who were present took cover outside the building with guns drawn rather than go into the school immediately.Beijing: President Xi Jinping's leap toward lifelong rule has largely been met by guarded silence in world capitals as governments try to predict how China's formidable leader will wield his new found power on the global stage.

The Communist Party's move to lift presidential term limits will allow Xi to reign supreme as he pushes through an ambitious agenda to turn China into a military and economic superpower by mid-century.

"Xi has all this power. But we don't really know what he wants to use it for," said Kerry Brown, the director of the Lau China Institute at King's College London.

"If it's to address the challenges that need sorting out in China then that will be a good thing. If not, then it will be deeply problematic."

China is already causing global jitters with its growing assertiveness, from its territorial claims in the South China Sea to the opening of its first overseas military base in the Horn of Africa and its influence in capitals across the Western world.

Xi has championed one of the largest international infrastructure projects in history, the $1 trillion Belt and Road initiative, which has drawn both interest and suspicion about China's intentions.

At the same time, it is teetering on the brink of a trade war with the world's largest economy, the United States.

At home, the move has been hailed by state media as a necessary measure to usher in an era of "stability" that will provide a reassuring beacon of hope to countries spooked by the turmoil of American politics.

"In the future, with Xi leading the country for a very long time, it's guaranteed that foreign relations will be stable and predictable," Wu Xinbo, a US politics expert at Fudan University, told AFP.

- 'Autocrat for life' -

The Communist Party's constitutional amendment is certain to be approved by the rubber-stamp National People's Congress when it begins its annual session next week, which will enable Xi to remain president beyond 2023.

Where countries stand on the move largely depends on where they sit.

In Russia, whose President Vladimir Putin's unyielding grasp on power is often cited as a model for Xi's rule, the reaction to the abolition was largely positive, according to Alexander Gabuev, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Moscow Center.

Although some China-watchers expressed concern that China could slip back into Mao-style authoritarianism, the government thinks that Xi "staying in power beyond 2023 is a good thing," especially as "relations with the West are hitting new lows every month."

But Xi's power play is likely to fuel growing suspicions about China in Western countries.

After the election of Donald Trump in the US, China tried to step into the vacuum created by his rapid withdrawal from international trade pacts and environmental agreements.

Xi's speech at Davos last year emphasising the importance of globalisation earned rapturous reviews from liberal politicians.

But "getting permission from a rubber stamp legislative branch to become autocrat-for-life only undermines the ability of democratic leaders to afford such respect," said Orville Schell, director of the Center on US-China Relations at the Asia Society in New York.

It will look particularly bad in Australia, New Zealand and the United States, where concerns about China's growing power and how it chooses to exercise it have increasingly preoccupied lawmakers.

The White House has avoided criticism of the move, saying the decision was "up to China".

But "there's been a lot more concern about China and what it wants abroad," said Eric Hundman, an international relations expert at NYU Shanghai.

"Everybody's going to read this as he's going to become a dictator, which makes China look much more threatening."

- Surrounded by sycophants -

Xi's consolidation of power means that China's own foreign policy will likely become more assertive, said Bonnie Glaser, a China expert at the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies.

If the term limit repeal is a sign of strength, that could mean that Xi will increasingly be surrounded by sycophants and yes-men.

"Xi is unlikely to get balanced, objective input and advice. He may be overconfident about what he can achieve," Glaser said.

That could mean a China that is "even more aggressive" in its use of economic coercion and its assertion of its territorial rights in places like the East and South China Sea, where it has long-standing disputes with its neighbours.

NYU's Hundman warned that if Xi's apparent power grab is a sign of weakness, then that "may lead to actions on China's part that look irrational... but are directed at domestic audiences."

He could do things such as threatening Taiwan that are aimed at "whipping up popular support. They would look very provocative to us, from a foreign perspective, but they may not be intended that way."GamesRadar+ is supported by its audience. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Learn moreTHE RUSH delves into the horror of the Wild West this October

The Wild West was dangerous enough, but now there are Spider monsters in THE RUSH #1PM Narendra Modi breaks protocol, receives Jordan King at airport

New Delhi : Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday broke protocol and received Jordan's King Abdullah II bin Al-Hussein, who arrived here on a three-day state visit to India, at the airport. Modi welcomed King Abdullah with a warm hug as he alighted from the aircraft

In a tweet, External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said that Modi, deviating from protocol, "welcomes His Majesty at the airport".

"India attaches great importance to its ties with Jordan," Kumar said. This is King Abdullah's second visit to India after his visit along with Queen Rania in 2006.

Abdullah will hold talks with Modi on Thursday during the course of which the two sides will discuss the entire gamut of bilateral relations as well as regional and international issues of mutual interest.

President Ram Nath Kovind will host a banquet in honour of King Abdullah while Vice President M. Venkaiah Naidu and External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj will call on the visiting dignitary. On Wednesday, the King will visit IIT Delhi to explore collaboration with Jordan technical institutes.

#WATCH Delhi: King Abdullah II of Jordan arrives in India, received at the airport by PM Narendra Modi pic.twitter.com/tieDKXRiFO  ANI (@ANI) February 27, 2018

During the day, the King will also participate in a CEO Round-table followed by India-Jordan Business Forum jointly organised by Industry bodies Ficci, CII and Assocham.

India welcomes His Majesty @KingAbdullahII Ibn Al Hussein, King of the Hashemite Kingdom of #Jordan on his State Visit. Deviating from protocol, PM @narendramodi welcomes His Majesty at the Airport. India attaches great importance to its ties with Jordan. #DelhiAmman pic.twitter.com/ZfHKGfv5D6  Anurag Srivastava (@MEAIndia) February 27, 2018

India-Jordan trade stood at $1.35 billion in 2016-17, according to figures provided by the External Affairs Ministry. On Thursday, the King will deliver a special address on "Promoting Understanding and Moderation", organised by the India Islamic Centre at Vigyan Bhawan.

Earlier this month, King Abdullah hosted Modi at his residence in Amman. Jordan had facilitated Modi's transit to Palestine in what was the first ever prime ministerial visit from India to that West Asian nation.3 astronauts back on Earth after months in space

Washington : Three astronauts have landed safely in Kazakhstan on Wednesday after five-and-a-half-month of performing research and spacewalks in low-Earth orbit.

The Soyuz spacecraft with NASA astronauts Mark Vande Hei and Joe Acaba, and cosmonaut Alexander Misurkin of the Russian space agency Roscosmos landed at 8.31 a.m. in Kazakhstan, NASA said.

The three were part of the Expedition 54 crew aboard the International Space Station (ISS).

Vande Hei ventured outside the space station on four spacewalks to perform work that included replacing and lubricating the Latching End Effectors on both ends of the Canadarm2.

Acaba completed one spacewalk to lubricate an end effector and install new cameras on the station's arm and truss. He now has accrued 306 days in space on three flights.

Acaba and Vande Hei also participated in dozens of educational events while in space as part of NASA's Year of Education on Station.

Misurkin conducted one record-setting spacewalk with fellow cosmonaut Anton Shkaplerov to replace an electronics box for a high-gain communications antenna on the Zvezda service module in February.

The spacewalk timed out at eight hours and 13 minutes, the longest in Russian space programme history. Misurkin now has spent 334 days in space on two flights.

Now operating the station are Expedition 55 crew members Commander Anton Shkaplerov of Roscosmos and Flight Engineers Scott Tingle of NASA and Norishige Kanai of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency.

Astronauts Ricky Arnold and Drew Feustel of NASA, and Oleg Artemyev of Roscosmos are scheduled to launch on March 21 and arrive at the space station two days later, returning the crew size to six, according to NASA.Astronauts train for Mars mission by living in inflatable greenhouses in the Dhofar desert

How prepared is humanity to go on an actual mission to Mars? Scientists and experts from all over the world may be working hard to find out as much as they can about the red planet from Earths comfortable surface  as well as from space  but Mars itself may turn out to be unforgiving. For this reason, researchers have established a so-called analog test site in Dhofar, Oman, where they have set out to conduct a series of tests to prepare for future Mars missions.

Dubbed the AMADEE-18 Mars Analog Mission, the project was spearheaded by the Austrian Space Forum  in cooperation with the Oman National Steering Committee for AMADEE-18  and aims to gather advanced data on simulated missions for future human space journeys to the planet Mars. According to an official announcement pertaining to the project, the Mission Support Center in Austria serves to direct it, with a small field crew tasked with conducting the experiments that cover the fields of engineering, planetary surface operations, geology and geophysics, astrobiology, life sciences, and more.

The simulation project is said to be the first to rely on a combination of drones, robotic rovers, and an inflatable greenhouse in order to carry out its experiments. The base of operations is a 2.4-ton inflated habitat thats surrounded by a number of shipping containers converted into laboratories and crew quarters. If the tests prove to be successful, there is a chance that the National Aeronautics and Space Administration could use their resulting data for a human mission to Mars by some time in the 2030s.

According to a spokesman for the mission, the location for the AMADEE-18 project was chosen for its resemblance to the Martian surface, among other things.

The deserts of Dhofar, the largest governorate in the Sultanate of Oman, have a resemblance to various Mars surface features, the spokesman said. Such as sedimentary structures dating back to the Paleocene and Eocene, salt domes of the South Oman Salt Basin and ancient river beds.

One astronaut involved in the project, Kartik Kumar, shared his thoughts in a series of statements published by Daily Mail online. According to Kumar, the recent success of SpaceX in launching their Falcon Heavy rocket puts us in a completely different realm of what we can put into deep space, what we can send to Mars. He further added that the next step to Mars is to tackle certain non-engineering problems such as medical emergency responses and human isolation.

As for why exactly Omani deserts were chosen for the projects location, he said that its because the deserts surface resembles Mars so much that its hard to tell the difference between the two. But it goes deeper than that: the types of geomorphology, all the structures, the salt domes, the riverbeds, the wadis, it parallels a lot of what we see on Mars, he said.

The Omani government had reportedly offered to host the Austrian Space Forums next Mars simulation during a meeting of the United Nations (UN) Committee On the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space. The forum quickly accepted, according to Gernot Groemer, the commander of the Oman Mars simulation and known veteran of a total of 11 science missions based here on Earth.

Talking about the technology and methods being used in the Omani experiments, Groemer commented that some of the resulting data is surely going to be used in future space missions. No matter who is going to this grandest voyage of our society yet to come, I think a few things we learn here will be actually implemented in those missions, he said, acknowledging the fact that anyone between Americans, Europeans, or even the Chinese could end up eventually going to Mars.

The team behind the AMADEE-18 project has since wrapped up their mission, and is expected to share the results of their research very soon.

Learn more about whats being done in preparation for future space missions in Space.news.

Sources include:

DailyMail.co.uk

OEWF.orgWASHINGTON  Greenwich native Hope Hicks appeared Tuesday before the House intelligence committee but apparently declined to answer numerous questions on her time with President Donald Trump both at the White House and during the transition.

But in over eight hours before the panel in a closed-door setting, people in attendance said she did do some talking about Trump and the issues swirling around the investigation of special counsel Robert Mueller.

Mueller is looking into possible links between the Trump 2016 campaign and concerns about Russian interference in the election. Trump has railed against the investigation, calling the basis of it a hoax.

For much of the time, Hicks, 29, a former fashion model and former co-captain of Greenwich High Schools lacrosse team, stuck close to the White House script of claiming that conversations with Trump during the transition and after the inauguration were matters of executive privilege, according to several people who attended.

But one Republican lawmaker said that she was answering questions about the campaign and talking to a certain extent about the transition.

"They actually opened up some questions on the transition, so that's good," said Florida Rep. Tom Rooney as he left the meeting, according to the Associated Press. He said she has answered "everything" they have asked about the time during the campaign.

Hicks has come a long way from her days in Greenwich, growing up in the home of Paul Hicks and his wife Caye Anne, who met in Washington as congressional staffers  He for Republican Rep. Stewart B. McKinney of Connecticut; she for a Tennessee Democrat, Ed Jones.

Nominally a Republican, she segued into the glittery world of New York public relations after graduating from Southern Methodist University in 2010, and ultimately landed a job helping Ivanka Trump with her fashion line.

Trump himself picked her to be a spokeswoman early in his campaign. She grew to be more of a confidante, fixer and smoother literally vacuuming his suits while he was still wearing them, campaign insiders said.

She was reported last year to be in line to speak to Muellers team.

The interest of Mueller and the separate House and Senate intelligence committee investigators appeared initially to rest on her closeness to Trump.

But she became an object of investigator interest herself after reportedly fashioning a statement last year after news of the fateful 2016 Trump Tower meeting with a Russian lawyer broke.

The offer of the meeting was part of Russia and its governments support for Mr. Trump, British publicist Rob Goldstone said in an email to Donald Trump Jr.

But on a return flight from Europe, Hicks, Trump and others drafted a statement saying the meeting was about resolving a dispute that had disrupted U.S. adoptions of Russian children.

According to published reports in the New York Times and elsewhere, a spokesman for the Trump legal team, Mark Corallo, expressed concern that Trump Jr.s own emails would contradict that claim.

Hicks reportedly replied to Corallo, those emails will never get out.

But ultimately they did, implicating Hicks in efforts to hide the truth of Trump campaign connections to Russia  the focus of Muellers probe.

Hicks lawyer, Robert Trout, went out of his way to deny the allegation.

As most reporters know, its not my practice to comment in response to questions from the media, Trout said in a statement. But this warrants a response. She never said that. And the idea that Hope Hicks ever suggested that emails or other documents would be concealed or destroyed is completely false.Georgias Score Reduces in Corruption Perception Index 2017

By Tea Mariamidze

Berlin-based Transparency International (TI) Secretariat has released the results of its annual Corruption Perception Index (CPI) 2017, according to which, Georgias score has been reduced.The report, released on February 21, reads that Georgia is ranked 46th among 180 countries with the score of 56 points while in previous report Georgias score was 57 and it was ranked 44th. In the ranking, 100 points indicate the lowest level of perceived corruption while 0- the highest level.TI Georgian branch reports that according to this years survey, Georgias decrease of the score by one point is considered insignificant, however, added that the stability of Georgias position in CPI over the past several years indicates that, after Georgia made a certain progress, its government still needs to enhance its anti-corruption efforts.As for the countrys results during the last years the data looks as follows:2012- 52 points (51th place)2013 - 49 points (55th place)2014 - 52 points (50th place)2015 - 52 points (48th place)2016 - 57 points (44th place)TI says that despite the improvements, some measures need to be carried out in Georgia in order to further eliminate corruption:1. Informal influence on state institutions should be eliminated and public and private sectors should be effectively separated.2. Oversight of the Parliament of Georgia over the executive branch should be strengthened.3. An independent anti-corruption agency should be created.4. Independency and political impartiality of judicial authorities and law enforcement agencies should be ensured.5. Independent, professional civil service should be created which will be free from nepotism and political influence.6. Supervisory and regulatory institutions independency should be strengthenedEffective, anti-corruption mechanisms should be created in state enterprises.7. Journalists, who reveal corruption facts, should be supported and proper measures should be carried out based on their obtained information.8. Institutional independence of oversight and regulatory institutions, such as State Audit Service, State Procurement Agency, Competition Agency, Georgian National Communications Commission should be strengthened.The organization says Georgias score in CPI 2017 is based on the following studies: Bertelsmann Stiftungs Transformation Index, World Economic Forum Executive Opinion Survey, World Justice Project Rule of Law Index, Global Insights Country Risk Rating, Freedom Houses Nations in Transit, Varieties of Democracy Project.As for the other countries, the level of perceived corruption is the lowest in New Zealand and Denmark (89 and 88 points) and the highest in Somalia (9 points), South Sudan (12 points) and Syria (14 points).Canada has never been better positioned to lead the global fight for gender equality but we must also address the unique voices and needs of girls  who are so often ignored  in this fight.

TORONTO, Feb. 28, 2018 /CNW/ - Plan International Canada applauds the federal government's gender responsive budget, which marks an unprecedented step towards ensuring this budget serves all Canadians, including girls and women. On both the national and international stage, leaders must continue to push for resources to follow policy when it comes to advancing gender equality and girls' rights.

It is also vital that all governments address the unique voices and needs of girls  who face different challenges than women  in these conversations. Too often girls are left out of decisions, policies and laws that focus on women and children, and rarely address their unique needs.

"We are already so proud that Canada has boldly taken up the mantle of gender equality. Today's strengthening of the Department of Status of Women is key to ensuring gender is brought to the centre of government decision-making," says Caroline Riseboro, President and CEO of Plan International Canada. "Canadian leadership is putting its money where its mouth is in terms of gender equality, and that's a groundbreaking achievement."

"Discriminatory gender norms can be challenged and power imbalances between women and men can be changed, but they must be confronted early, before young women arrive in the workplace because they start at home, continue at school and pervade every area of our society," says Riseboro.

Plan International Canada also welcomes the government's announcement that it will commit $2 billion over five years towards the implementation of Canada's Feminist International Assistance Policy. Canada has never been better positioned to lead the global fight for gender equality, but leaders must step up to meet Canada's ambitious goals for Agenda 2030 through long-term funding focused on reaching the poorest and most vulnerable populations.

About Plan International Canada and the Because I am a Girl initiative

Founded in 1937, Plan International is one of the world's oldest and largest international development agencies, working in partnership with millions of people around the world to end global poverty. Not for profit, independent and inclusive of all faiths and cultures, Plan International strives for a just world that advances children's rights and equality for girls. Because I am a Girl is Plan International's global movement to transform power relations so that girls everywhere can learn, lead, decide and thrive.

Visit plancanada.ca for more information.

SOURCE Plan International Canada

For further information: Media contact: Kyla Pearson, Plan International Canada, 416-920-1654 x350, [email protected]

Related Links

http://www.plan-international.org/canada

MILFORD >> A Jonathan Law High School student was arrested Friday after police say he threatened a staff member at the school.

Alex Rednak, 18, of Norway Street, was charged with second-degree breach of peace and second-degree threatening after the incident.Folks outside of Connecticut do not believe there is such a thing as New Haven style pizza. They definitely have no clue what "apizza" is.

It's a burden you must bear if you find yourself living thousands of miles away from Wooster Street. I have seen this world devoid of white clam pies and coal fired ovens, and sometimes it's just more than a man can take.

Having lived in Connecticut for over a decade before recently returning to my native California, I know what it's like to be in a place where the food landscape doesn't look the same as where you are from. For years I bemoaned the lack of decent Mexican food in the Nutmeg state. If it hadn't have been for Casa Villa on the West Side of Stamford, I might have lost my mind.

So here I find myself 2,900 miles away from what I now consider the pinnacle of American pizza. I once asked a reputable pizzaiolo (whose pies are celebrated around San Francisco) if I could get a New Haven pie in San Francisco and it was dismissed with the response, "You mean with the burnt crust?"

Yeah, that burned crust. I want that burned crust more than ever.

This weekend I found a place that claims to serve New Haven style pies and against my better judgement, I decided to give them a try.

I don't want to knock their food; it was decent and it was the type of place that locals and families can enjoy in an area so heavily saturated with establishments aimed at wine tourists.

That is an admirable thing -- being a decent, unpretentious server of food.

But the pies. The pies fell short.

The pizza was not terrible in and of itself, but to hold a pie to such a high standard as those produced in Connecticut, that's just asking for trouble.

"Get that saltine cracker outta here," a friend says upon seeing the crust.

The crust, yeah, it's too thin. The pies are made in a gas-fired oven. The toppings are all wrong. There weren't even any clams on the menu (though they had a white shrimp pie).

On the plus side, the food came to the table quickly with no need for queuing outside the restaurant in the cold.

More for you Pizza Hut Launches a Line of Pizza-Themed Apparel

Sitting in this restaurant, looking at the black and white photographs of Pepe's, the wrought iron sign above Wooster Square and the worn brick buildings that are so familiar, I felt homesick for the state I adopted for much of my adult life.

Alas, my search for proper pizza in California continues, and I have a promising lead, but I'm not sure I can bear the eventual disappointment.

They say, "You can't take it with you," and boy were they right.

Yours truly in pizza exile,

Chris Preovolos

P.S. The wine's better here. You win some, you lose some.HARTFORD  A Hamden man has been sentenced to more than 15 years in prison for two armed robberies he committed in West Haven and Hamden.

Derrick White, 53, also known as Fly, robbed a West Haven post office and a Hamden bank April 21, 2016. He was sentenced Tuesday by U.S. District Judge Alvin W. Thompson to 188 months in prison, followed by five years of supervised release, according to a release.

The conviction is in connection with two armed robberies in which White, along with Malcolm Haynes, Howard Bookert and another man, stole nearly $10,000 from the Allingtown Post Office in West Haven and the Wells Fargo Bank in Hamden.

At the Allingtown Post Office, Haynes, armed with a .22-caliber rifle, entered the post office with White and Bookert, and pointed the rifle at people in the lobby and the clerk as White jumped over the counter and took approximately $491 from the cash drawer, handing it to Bookert as the men fled with another man, according to the release.

That afternoon, the four men drove to the Wells Fargo bank on Whitney Avenue in Hamden, where Haynes was again armed with the same rifle while White and the other man went into the bank. While Haynes pointed the rifle around at employees, White went behind the counter and took approximately $9,287 from the teller drawers. During the incident, the other man brandished what was reported to be a small semiautomatic pistol, the release said.

White and Bookert were arrested that day and White pleaded guilty to one count of armed bank robbery Jan. 25, 2017, according to the release. Haynes, of New Haven, and Bookert, of Hamden, previously pleaded guilty to related federal charges and the fourth male was charged by the state. Haynes and Bookert were sentenced last year to 90 months and 16 months in prison, respectively.

The robberies were investigated by police departments in West Haven, Hamden and New Haven, as well as the Federal Bureau of Investigation and U.S. Postal Inspection Service.

White has 10 prior convictions that span more than 30 years and include multiple robbery convictions, the release said.The News in Brief

Vice-Premier: Number of Visitors in Georgia Is Increasing



The first Vice Premier and Minister of Economy and Sustainable Development of Georgia, Dimitry Kumsishvili noted that Georgia provides the most favorable investment environment with low taxes and simplified regulations during the official reception of the International Aviation Forum CONNECT 2018.



We strongly believe that governments can provide significant assistance in the development of certain fields. We have been on this path for the last few years, said Kumsishvili.



The minister added these investments will lead to growth and development of the country.



In addition, we are taking special efforts to improve our transport network quality. We have invested in airports  we took all measures to ensure high security standards. We also introduced the so-called open sky policy which made our market open. I am glad to tell you that this approach has already yielded results and will bring benefits in the future too. The number of visitors is increasing in Georgia yearly," said Kumsishvili.



The 15th International Aviation Forum CONNECT 2018, hosted by Tbilisi this year, brought together more than 500 representatives of 65 airline companies and 250 airports to participate in the European Aviation Forum.



The air companies, including Royal Dutch Airlines, Gulf Air, Wizz Air, Ryanair, Ukraine International Airlines, Turkish Airlines and many others participated in the Forum.



The event lasted from February 20 to February 22.







Ukraine Bans Saakashvili for 3 Years



Ukraine's border service has banned Georgia's former President and active opposition leader of Ukraine Mikheil Saakashvili from entering the country for three years, days after he was expelled from the country.



The information was confirmed by the Ukrainian border-service spokesman Oleg Slobodyan.



Saakashvili posted a document from the border service that said his entry ban runs until February 13, 2021 via Facebook.



Saakashvili responded to the ban: "With or without me, the end has already come for these authorities, and I will return home to Ukraine very soon now, much sooner than in three years."



Ukrainian authorities have accused Saakashvili of supporting an alleged "criminal group" led by Viktor Yanukovych, the Moscow-friendly former president who fled the country in 2014 during the massive protests known as the Euromaidan.



Saakashvili was the third president of Georgia. He now is in Netherlands where he arrived in detention after deported from Kyiv for illegally crossing Ukraine's state border.



He is also wanted in Georgia for embezzlement and abuse of power which he describes as politically motivated charges.

(Prepared by Mariam Chanishvili)



NEW HAVEN  A 51-year-old New Haven man was sentenced Tuesday to 72 months of imprisonment for his role in a heroin trafficking ring, according to a release.

Carlos Santiago, also known as Carlito, was also sentenced by U.S. District Judge Jeffrey A. Meyer to four years of supervised release, according to a release from U.S. Attorney John H. Durham.NEW HAVEN  The movers are coming Wednesday to bring up to four families to new apartments following six days in hotels after the Norton Street complex they lived in was found to be structurally unsafe.

Structural engineer Nic Cuoco of Fairfield told the city it would be safe to move four families at a time if they have already arranged to rent another place and it has been inspected by the Livable City Initiative.

Rick Fontana, head of the citys Office of Emergency Management, said 20 apartments have been identified and they need an estimated 15 more. Any new housing units would have to be inspected before the tenants move there.

It was unclear Tuesday afternoon how many apartments have been inspected and are ready for the families, but LCI personnel were working all day on it.

A total of 74 individuals, including 22 children in 37 apartments, had to leave 66 Norton Apartments on Thursday after LCI Inspector Rick Mazzadra found serious problems at the complex as part of a license renewal review.

He brought in Building Official Jim Turcio, who ordered the evacuation on Thursday based on an alarming preliminary report by Cuoco.

Fontana said Cuoco wants all the tenants belongings removed before they can attempt some interior demolition to get a better take on the century-old buildings condition.

More News 80 displaced as New Haven apartment building abruptly...

In his initial review last week he found that some floors were sagging as much as 6 inches and it appeared that the building was only being supported by five floors of plumbing stacks.

Fontana said each family will get its own moving crew who will transport their belongings to their new homes. He said security deposts being held by the property manager, Mendy Katz, will be transferred to the new rentals.

He said the owner, Ernest Schemitsch of Brooklyn, N.Y., will continue to cover the cost of hotels and food vouchers until the tenants all have been relocated to new homes.

Fontana said representatives of the owner have been cooperating, covering all the costs.

The details were worked out in a meeting Tuesday of officials from LCI, emergency management, the fire marshals office, the Building Department and corporation counsels office, as well as representatives of the owner.

The plan is to move the tenants to apartments, rather than transporting their belongings to a storage space as they look for new homes.

Fontana said a fence would be erected for security purposes once the building is empty.

Repairing the structure is expected to be a long process.

Claudia Munroe was one of the tenants who has already identified an apartment and hopes to move in shortly with her young adult children.

Vanessa Grassi said she is having a harder time getting a two-bedroom apartment for around $1,000 that has heat and hot water included. She also wants to be close to the Troup and Edgewood schools, which her children attend.

She said she moved to the city 11/2 years ago and doesnt want to disrupt their school year by moving to another neighborhood.

I spent Friday, Saturday and Sunday looking for apartments. Im tired, Grassi said. She got some positive feedback recently and hopes that option comes through.

The families, who didnt stay with friends or relatives, are at the New Haven Inn, the Three Judges Motel and the Regal Inn.DERBY  Police and school officials Tuesday assured parents that the safety of their children is paramount and everything that can be done to protect them at school is being done.

That message was delivered Tuesday during a community forum on school safety held at Derby Middle School, which drew about 150 people.

The forum was held in light of the most recent school shooting in Parkland, Fla., where 17 people were killed by a lone gunman Feb. 14.

Superintendent of Schools Matthew Conway said the district, along with the Derby Police Department, want the community to know whats been done and whats being done to improve security in Derbys schools.

Conway said Derby received two rounds of state grant money a few years back, following the Sandy Hook Elementary School shootings in 2012. Security professionals were brought into Derby schools to conduct safety audits and assessments of the buildings, and what resulted were plenty of upgrades to make the schools safer.

Some of those upgrades included improved door locks, increased lighting, better alarm systems, door sensors, additional security cameras, panic alarms, window films, enhanced visitor monitoring, an employee identification system, improved signage, safety glass on windows and more. Staff also completed crisis response training and lockdown drills are also part of the routine now.

There is also regular police presence at the schools, whether an officer stops by to eat lunch with students, shoot some hoops in the gym or do a check of the grounds.

Its in our DNA to think security and we are constantly thinking of ways to protect our students, staff and schools and improve things, Conway said.

Police Chief Gerald Narowski and Conway said while they cant reveal all details of safety measures that have been put in place for obvious reasons, they said parents can feel confident that Derby is being proactive in the event of any emergencies.

We are omnipresent in all the schools, and we are constantly working on safety and security, Narowski said. Weve upgraded our training, especially with active shooter scenarios, and were training with area police departments so were all on the same page.

Conway said he recently spoke with Maj. Gen. Thaddeus Martin of the Connecticut National Guard, who said Derby schools could ultimately become a pilot program to have National Guard personnel in the schools as another layer of security, but said the discussions are in the infancy stage.

Parent Rob Hyder, who has two children in Derby schools, said he was glad to hear of the security upgrades in the schools.

Its comforting to see the improvements that have been made, Hyder said.

Derby High School senior Christian Olenoski, class valedictorian, drew loud applause when he asked parents to talk to their kids more, and encouraged teachers to include students more.

School is a place where were supposed to feel free, yet we the students find ourselves afraid to attend, he said. Our typical high school days went from stressing over a math test to stressing over being shot down while taking the math test. We need to do more, hire more security, get more equipment, but we need more mental health help. Parents, check in with your kids every day and ask how their day went, and teachers, make your students feel included. A simple hug, smile or a compliment can save lives.

Derby Board of Education Chairman Jim Gildea had this message for all.

The Derby Board of Education is committed to ensuring our schools are safe and secure, he said. There can be no greater priority. Its important that security is a work in progress and be in the forefront constantly and not just in response to an issue or when it may be too late.A lioness mauled a woman to death Tuesday on a private game reserve in South Africa, according to an emergency service.

Netcare 911 paramedics responded to a call about the attack, which occurred about 11 a.m. just outside Dinokeng Nature Reserve in Hammanskraal town.You have permission to edit this article.

Edit CloseIn this May 31, 2007, 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.Roseburg, OR (97470)

Today

Cloudy with heavy rain developing late. Low 58F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 100%. 1 to 2 inches of rain expected. Locally heavy rainfall possible..

Tonight

Cloudy with heavy rain developing late. Low 58F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 100%. 1 to 2 inches of rain expected. Locally heavy rainfall possible.

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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.1. Jared Kushner, the presidents adviser and son-in-law, has been downgraded.

Hes been stripped of his top-secret security clearance. (Now hes only privy to more ordinary secrets.) The move was part of an overhaul by the White House chief of staff, John Kelly.

The question now is whether Mr. Kushner, above center, will be able to keep his portfolio, which includes negotiations with Israel and the Palestinians.ATLANTA  Delta Air Lines, one of Georgias largest private-sector employers, is among the glossiest corporate jewels in the state, contributing billions of dollars a year to the economy. Its hundreds of daily flights in and out of Atlantas airport are the main reason Georgias capital can brag, with justification, that it is a truly international city.

Delta is the Atlanta international airport, and our airport is, you know, the fuel that generates our commercial community, said Sam Massell, the citys former mayor.

But prestige, boosterism and corporate coddling  all cherished concepts in Georgia  took a back seat this week to the national debate over gun control. In the wake of the Florida school shooting, the airline announced it was ending a promotional discount with the National Rifle Association, and suddenly found itself in the rare position of being openly dressed down  and potentially punished  by Republicans who control the statehouse.

Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle of Georgia, a Republican who presides over the State Senate and has received an A-plus grade from the N.R.A., joined other conservative lawmakers this week in threatening to remove a $50 million sales tax exemption on jet fuel that some hoped would encourage Delta to open even more routes  and help Atlanta attract even more national and international companies.The House on Tuesday passed a bill that gives victims and prosecutors more power to sue websites that knowingly aided sex trafficking, adding a new level of accountability for internet companies.

Silicon Valley had strongly opposed the bill, because it would chip away at an existing law that gives internet companies broad immunity for the content that people put on their services. Tech companies that argued against the bill said that the current law has encouraged free speech online and helped the internet thrive.

But sex trafficking victims and law enforcement officials say the existing law, known as Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, has been too loosely applied by sites like Backpage.com, a site known for prostitution and sex trafficking. Some large online companies, including Facebook, eventually backed off from their opposition to the bill after its scope was narrowed.

Congress never intended for the internet to be a haven for criminal activity, said Representative Ann Wagner, a Missouri Republican who introduced the bill, known as the Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act. This is not a slippery slope. It is a narrow amendment to stop crimes by businesses online that they werent able to commit offline.A woman told the police that she had a child with the casino mogul Steve Wynn after he raped her, while another reported that she was forced to resign from a Las Vegas job after she refused to have sex with him.

The Associated Press on Tuesday obtained copies of police reports recently filed by the two women about allegations dating to the 1970s. The police in Las Vegas said this month that they had taken the statements after a news report in January revealed sexual misconduct allegations against the billionaire.

The allegations are the latest leveled against Mr. Wynn. He resigned as chairman and chief executive of Wynn Resorts on Feb. 6, less than two weeks after The Wall Street Journal reported in an in-depth investigation that a number of women said he harassed or assaulted them and that one case led to a $7.5 million settlement.

Mr. Wynn has vehemently denied the misconduct accusations the newspaper reported, and he attributed them to a campaign led by his ex-wife, Elaine Wynn, whose lawyer has denied that she instigated the news article.From Vanity Fair: There was a time, Monica Lewinsky once told me, when she had to leave the movie theater every time a cop on a screen showed a badge  a flashback to being ambushed by federal agents in a Pentagon shopping mall. Now, 20 years after the implosion of what she has always called a consensual relationship with Bill Clinton, she is reflecting on one of the themes of #MeToo. I now see how problematic it was that the two of us even got to a place where there was a question of consent, she writes. Instead, the road that led there was littered with inappropriate abuse of authority, station, and privilege.  Jessica Bennett, gender editor@NewsbySmiley

Yet another poll has found that a ban on the sale of assault weapons -- something a majority of Florida lawmakers are unwilling to consider -- is supported by most Floridians.

Nearly 70 percent of people in the state want to see a ban on the sale of assault-style weapons and support stricter gun laws, according to a poll conducted by Florida Atlantic University's Business and Economics Polling Initiative. More than 87 percent support universal background checks and nearly 78 percent support raising the minimum age to buy a rifle.

More than two-thirds, however, oppose arming teachers, something lawmakers are considering.

The poll, an online and automated-phone query of 800 people conducted Feb. 23 to Feb. 25, was released Wednesday, two weeks after a teenager killed 17 and wounded 15 more with an AR-15-style rifle at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland. It's the latest look at how voters feel about guns in the wake of the shooting, and how that compares to legislation moving in Tallahassee, where lawmakers in both the House and Senate are considering proposasl to train and arm select school faculty but have voted against a push by Democrats to ban the sale of assault-style rifles.

A poll released last week by Senate Republicans also showed voters support an assault weapons ban.

The findings also come six months before primary elections for U.S. Senate, governor, and a slew of other state and local offices. They show that Senator Bill Nelson, D-Fla., holds a 2-point lead over Gov. Rick Scott, who is considering a challenge. They also show that a majority of Floridians, including a majority of registered Republicans, disapprove of President Donald Trump's reaction to the Parkland shooting.

Gun control may turn out to be a pivotal issue in the midterm elections and could well be the difference in a close race for the Senate between Rick Scott and Bill Nelson, Kevin Wagner, a political science professor and research fellow of the Initiative, said in a statement. While large majorities of Floridians support background checks and an increase in the age requirement, it is not at all clear that there is sufficient support for these measures in the Florida legislature. As we are already late in the session, it will take a serious push by Gov. Scott to pass any of these reforms this year.

Close to 38 percent of those queried in the poll iidentified as Democrats, and slightly more than 35 percent identified as Republicans. Some 41 percent said they own a gun.The idea of connecting the No. 7 subway line to New Jersey may not be quite dead yet.

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey is commissioning a long-term study of ways to expand the use of rapid transit across the Hudson River, and it expects to get some help from the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which operates the subway.

The two authorities are teaming with New York City and New Jersey Transit to consider a wide range of options for increasing commuting capacity two decades down the road. This week, the Port Authority received several bids from firms seeking the contract to produce the study, said Rick Cotton, the agencys executive director.

Mr. Cotton said in an interview on Tuesday that the notion of extending the No. 7 line  an idea that was briefly considered several years ago  was just one of many possibilities that would be analyzed. He said he had not discussed the feasibility of connecting the citys subway system to New Jersey with any officials of the transportation authority, including its chairman, Joseph J. Lhota. Six years ago, Mr. Lhota said that a trans-Hudson subway extension was not going to happen in anybodys lifetime.

A spokesman for the transportation authority, Jon Weinstein, declined to discuss the study. In a brief statement, he said, We look forward to working with federal, state and local public sector partners and private parties to explore long-term options for trans-Hudson transportation.Cynthia Heimel, whose first book, Sex Tips for Girls, established her in the early 1980s as a fearlessly funny writer about men, feminism, female friendships, flirting, birth control and lingerie, died on Sunday in Los Angeles. She was 70.

Her son, Brodie Ransom, said she was given a diagnosis of dementia last year. She also suffered from depression, he said.

Ms. Heimels informal, confessional writing about sex and relationships preceded by more than a decade that of Candace Bushnell, whose column about dating for The New York Observer led to the HBO series Sex and the City.

I used to say about Cynthias writing, and her being, that she had the soul of Janis Joplin in the voice of Hedda Hopper, Emily Prager, the novelist and comedy writer, said in an email. She was a voice for liberation with manners, freedom without regret and the blues with a grain of salt.Similarly, the presidents newfound support for banning bump stocks, which allow semiautomatic weapons to be fired nearly as rapidly as automatic ones, is fine, on the surface. But bump stocks could have been banned at any time before or since a killer used them to murder 58 people in Las Vegas last fall, and Trump has done nothing to make it happen.

Some politicians  so far not including Trump or the Republican leadership in Congress  are calling for raising the age to buy a semiautomatic weapon to 21 from 18. (The person charged with the murders in Parkland, Fla., this month was 19.)

There should be such a law, on a national basis and not state by state, but Everytown found that only 5 percent of the mass shooters it studied were under 20. And of course, mass shooting victims account for a tiny percentage of the Americans gunned down every year. A majority of children killed by guns are killed by accident, or by their own hand, or by adults, with weapons legally obtained by adults.

Trump also chimed in on calls from the right to arm more teachers and train them to shoot would-be killers. Its an absurd and dangerous idea. Highly trained police officers frequently miss their targets, even at close range, in the heat of the moment. Having armed civilians at a shooting scene would just make their jobs harder.

The real problem with gun violence is not about mental hospitals, armed teachers, bump stocks or age requirements. The real problem is that there are far too many firearms in America  more than 300 million, according to Congress. They are too easy to obtain and they are becoming ever more lethal.

But the gun lobby, led by the National Rifle Association, has stopped every effort to reduce the number and lethality of firearms, a crusade that seems as much or more about expanding the markets for firearms makers than about constitutional principles.

Banning the possession of semiautomatic weapons by civilians would be a better approach. So would repealing lax concealed-carry laws, stand-your-ground laws and other rules that are proliferating around America to make it easier to shoot someone and get away with it.

The risk is that the passage of a few partial measures will take our eyes off the bigger picture and drain the energy out of the demands for change led by young people after the Parkland slaughter. That is what the gun lobby is counting on.Ms. Moser, whose husband was the videographer for President Barack Obama, skewed a little farther left. Her work history was spottier: She has been a freelance writer. After Mr. Trumps victory, she created Daily Action, a service that allowed the grief-stricken to barrage their public servants in Washington with angry texts. All three candidates were native Houstonians, though Ms. Moser came home from Washington to run.

By the end of the third quarter of 2017, Mr. Triantaphyllis had raised the most money  more than Mr. Culberson. Ms. Fletcher came in second and Ms. Moser third. At the same time, Ms. Moser, who somewhat resembles a taller and younger Carol Burnett, was more colorful in person and better at grass-roots organizing than her competitors. If her politics were a little squishy, she was more entertaining  supporters could take a spin class with #MeToos Alyssa Milano!

It wasnt hard to figure out how threatening that could be, especially to the old-line Clinton Democrats who lost to Mr. Obama in 2008 and remembered the betrayal of Bernie Sanders in 2016. Those people undoubtedly influenced the political action committee Emilys List to endorse Ms. Fletcher  and should have listened to the grumbling among female voters here, who thought the organization should not have chosen between two female abortion-rights supporters.

Then came the D.C.C.C., with its high-stakes gamble of attacking Ms. Moser on its website. Maybe it believed, along with The Houston Chronicle, that Ms. Moser was too liberal to beat Mr. Culberson. (The paper endorsed Ms. Fletcher and another Democratic candidate, an oncologist.) Maybe the committee thought its gripes were legitimate  it complained that Ms. Moser was a Washington insider who had used her husbands firm as her political consultants. But the first wasnt true, and the second showed only that her husband worked cheap. Ms. Moser stated publicly she wouldnt want to live in Paris, Tex.? Wow. Most urban Texans wouldnt either.

Besides, there is nothing Texans hate more than East Coast political operatives meddling in their business. Especially those who dont know anything about Texas.

Virtually overnight, the story of interference from real Washington insiders went viral, and Ms. Moser became a glorious martyr, quoting Michelle Obama (When they go low ). Her profile is skyrocketing, her fund-raising is booming. And no doubt John Culberson is ecstatic about the Democrats being in disarray.

Note to the D.C.C.C.: Next time you think about sticking your nose where it doesnt belong, try believing in the democratic process instead.Their flatness matches that of their biblical repertoire, which is formal, presentational and strictly without subtext: like a school play where the kids play vegetables. To alter the rhyming couplets with extraneous emotion or a hint of free will would be a form of blasphemy. But after suffering an even more grievous loss than usual, Hollis (Quincy Tyler Bernstine) begins to question God  and also His dialogue. In a moment of stubborn curiosity that alters the aesthetic history of mankind, she asks what would happen if Mrs. Noah just didnt feel like getting on that ark one day.

What would happen, Mr. Harrison suggests, is the Renaissance, or very nearly. The beginning of self-consciousness, he argues, is the beginning of enlightenment. If this sounds a bit heady for a rollicking tragicomedy in which pratfalls and death throes are tumbled together, that is part of the plays unusual scheme. Halfway through the troupes journey toward salvation  which for them means a command performance with an important duke who may take them under his wing  The Amateurs jumps ahead seven centuries.

This is only in part so that Mr. Harrison, who now appears as a character onstage, can connect the dots between the Black Death and AIDS. The detour also allows him to delay the return trip down the mountain of plot he has spent the first half of the play climbing. What Mr. Harrison, the character, says he is avoiding is the very object of that trek: the plays catharsis, which he doubts he can earn. In a world of endless suffering, a catharsis is innately complacent, he concludes.

Like the rest of The Amateurs, this despairing contemporary interlude is frantically funny, even when it veers into an art history lecture. Playing Mr. Harrison, Michael Cyril Creighton, who in the medieval scenes is handy Gregory, paints a witty, affectionate portrait of a neurotic playwright afraid of his own tools. It cant be a realistic portrait; Mr. Harrison could hardly wield those tools so expertly if his hands were shaking. As in his 2015 play Marjorie Prime  a superbly controlled exercise in speculative fiction that elicits profound feeling without appearing to solicit it  The Amateurs works by a kind of indirection. The magic happens, by design, wherever the playwright isnt pointing.ANAHEIM, Calif.  On Disneylands Main Street, Emily Bertola spends hours working on her feet, embroidering names onto mouse ears at the Mad Hatter shop, where she has been an employee for the last two years. She usually offers visitors the sunny smile she was trained to give.

None of her customers know that for months, she slept in the back of her truck, showering at the park before her shift.

Her struggle is hardly unique to Disneyland.

Orange County is known for its affluence, and for its tourist industry. But the thousands of workers who keep its resorts, restaurants and hotels running are sometimes struggling to stay afloat.

As the state grapples with soaring housing costs, workers in California earning just above the minimum wage find it difficult to pay for basic costs. Many employees at Disneyland have moved farther inland, driving hours each day to work. Others, like Ms. Bertola, have opted to move from couch-to-couch or sleep in their cars for months at a time.WASHINGTON  Eleven people, including nine Marines, were being treated for injuries on Tuesday after an envelope carrying a hazardous but unknown substance was opened on a Virginia base down the street from the Pentagon, the authorities said.

Hazardous materials teams responded to the base in Fort Myer, Va., after two Marines who initially handled the envelope started having an unspecified physical reaction to the substance, said a military official familiar with the episode who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

The official said the envelope was addressed to the Marines headquarters battalion on the base, not to an individual. A Marine in the units administrative section opened the envelope and, because it looked suspicious, called over another Marine to inspect it, the official said.Some of the high-profile defendants include pharmaceutical giants Johnson & Johnson, Purdue Pharma and Teva Pharmaceuticals, large distributors McKesson and Cardinal Health and pharmacy chains like CVS, Rite Aid and Walgreens.

Mr. Sessions called the opioid addiction crisis beyond imagining during separate remarks on Tuesday morning at the National Association of Attorneys General. He said the government would take a hard look at doctors who overprescribe prescription painkillers, which can lead to addiction and abuse of illegal drugs like heroin.

Mr. Sessions has described the opioid epidemic as a national health crisis and estimates that 64,000 Americans died of drug overdoses in 2016, a record increase. The vast majority of those deaths, he said, happened after users took opioids like prescription painkillers, heroin and fentanyl.

He also called the opioid crisis a significant drain on federal resources, costing the government $115 billion in 2017 and $1 trillion since 2001. He predicted that it could cost the United States an additional $500 billion over the next three years.

The attorney general is legally able to argue on behalf of the governments interest in any court in the country via a statement of interest, which does not make the government a plaintiff. Mr. Sessionss announcement on Tuesday followed a significant dispute in the case in Ohio.

On Monday, lawyers for the Drug Enforcement Administration attended a hearing in the Ohio courtroom about how much data they would share about the national distribution of painkillers.

Insisting that it did not want to compromise ongoing criminal investigations, the agency offered to provide two years worth of information in the case. Judge Dan Aaron Polster has given the agency until next Monday to decide whether it will comply with his request to provide the sides with nine years of data. Determining the number of pills, the location and the distributors can be a major factor in assigning liability.

Richard Fields, a lawyer who represents state attorneys general and sovereign Native American nations in opioid litigation, predicted that the statement of interest will help unlock this data so that we can hold manufacturers, distributors and pharmacies accountable for flooding communities with pills.WASHINGTON  Faced with unrelenting interference in its election systems, the United States has not forced Russia to pay enough of a price to persuade President Vladimir V. Putin to stop meddling, a senior American intelligence official said on Tuesday.

Adm. Michael S. Rogers, the departing head of the National Security Agency and the militarys Cyber Command, said that he was using the authorities he had to combat the Russian attacks. But under questioning during testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee, he acknowledged that the White House had not asked his agencies  the main American spy and defense arms charged with conducting cyberoperations  to find ways to counter Moscow, or granted them new authorities to do so.

President Putin has clearly come to the conclusion that theres little price to pay and that therefore I can continue this activity, said Admiral Rogers, who is set to retire in April. Clearly what we have done hasnt been enough.

Admiral Rogerss testimony was the second time this month that a senior American intelligence official had said that Russias efforts to meddle in American elections did not end in 2016, and that the Trump administration had taken no extraordinary steps to stop them. He and other intelligence leaders warned two weeks ago on Capitol Hill that Russia was using a digital strategy to worsen political and social divisions in the United States, and all the intelligence chiefs said they had not been expressly asked by the White House to find a way to punish Russia for its efforts.WASHINGTON  More than a year after President Trump abruptly pulled out of the Trans-Pacific Partnership, saying it was a bad deal for the United States, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said on Tuesday that the United States is discussing rejoining the multilateral trade agreement.

Mr. Mnuchin, speaking at an investment summit meeting sponsored by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, said that renegotiating the trade agreement was on the table and that he had been in talks with other countries about what it would take for the United States to reverse course.

Mr. Trump withdrew from the deal in January 2017, dooming President Barack Obamas signature trade agreement and leaving the 11 other countries in the pact scrambling to renegotiate the deal on their own. But Mr. Trump appears to have found a renewed interest in an agreement that he once described as a rape of our country.

Ive met with several of my counterparties and other people, and weve begun to have very high-level conversations about T.P.P., Mr. Mnuchin said, adding that Mr. Trump would still prefer to do one-on-one trade agreements first. Its not a priority at the moment, but it is something the president will consider.In another sign of widespread support for the issue, nearly all voters have already made up their minds, more than eight months before the election. Only 6 percent of voters surveyed said they didn't know or had no opinion about the issue.WASHINGTON  With just 980 days to go until the next presidential election, President Trump said Tuesday that he would run again in 2020, an announcement that several White House advisers said simply meant the president would step up his preferred and much-missed activity of performing for an adoring crowd.

In effect, it continues the permanent campaign of a president who, from the time he took office over a year ago, has signaled his interest to run again and has kept holding campaign-style rallies. The president officially filed for re-election with the Federal Election Commission on Jan. 20, 2017, the day of his inauguration.

It was also a statement aimed at ending speculation among allies and critics that Mr. Trump, who has faced a series of personal scandals, and whose campaign remains the subject of an F.B.I. investigation into possible ties to Russia, might not run for re-election at all.

But another part of Mr. Trumps announcement  that Brad Parscale, his 2016 campaign digital director, would be elevated to campaign manager  signaled a more complicated political maneuver on behalf of the presidents family, and specifically Jared Kushner, his son-in-law, according to the presidents advisers.WASHINGTON  A few weeks after Stephen K. Bannon left the White House in August, he was invited to a dinner at the Council on Foreign Relations to discuss American policy toward China. With his unbridled China bashing and dark talk of a looming conflict in the Pacific, Mr. Bannon expected to be roughed up by the group, which included China scholars, writers and veterans from past Republican and Democratic administrations.

Mr. Bannons hosts were hard on him, but not in the way he expected. Rather than faulting him or his former boss, President Trump, for their hostile approach, they pressed him on why Mr. Trump had not followed through with his tough talk about trade and North Korea. I walked out of there thinking, Something has changed with the elite, he recalled.

Chinas relentless rise and its more recent embrace of repressive tactics that recall the Mao era  a process accelerated by President Xi Jinpings bid to stay in power indefinitely  have fractured a deeply rooted consensus in Washington about the long-term direction of its relationship with Beijing.

Gone is a widespread agreement among diplomats, scholars and businesspeople that China is gradually converging with the United States and, therefore, that Americans should work to manage any flare-ups between the two countries. With China now unabashedly charting its own course  one that diverges rather than converges with the liberal democracies and market economies of the West  conflict, many say, is inevitable.A teachers strike that ground public schools to a halt across West Virginia is set to end on Thursday, a week after it began, Gov. James C. Justice and teachers union representatives said Tuesday. They announced a deal that signaled a win for unions in a reddening state, even though some lawmakers and even the teachers themselves expressed doubts it would ultimately work.

Mr. Justice, a Republican, said that he had promised the states teachers and other school employees a 5 percent raise and that he would create a task force to address the problem of rising insurance costs for public employees, a key issue in the strike.

We need our kids back in school, and we need our teachers back in school, Mr. Justice said in a news conference announcing the deal. He added that he was hopeful that state lawmakers would go along with his proposals, which would also give all state employees a 3 percent raise. But some Republican lawmakers appeared deeply skeptical of his plan to find the money.

The strike left more than 250,000 children out of school in the states 55 counties. Teachers crying Well get louder and carrying signs with slogans like WV teachers deserve better flooded the State Capitol, their voices echoing through the halls. The teachers frequently cited data showing that they are among the lowest-paid public educators in the United States.GENEVA  He was a prosecutor of Irans Islamic revolution and acquired a notorious reputation for the arbitrary executions of thousands of opponents. A few decades later he oversaw the judiciarys 2009 trials of anti-government protesters and was denounced overseas, not least by the United Nations.

But on Tuesday the former prosecutor, Seyyed Alireza Avaei, now Irans minister of justice, appeared at the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva, one of nearly 100 ministers and dignitaries to speak at the start of its main session this year. The reaction inside and outside the council was outrage.

Swedens foreign minister, Margot Wallstrom, and a handful of European diplomats left the council chamber in protest.

Had the meeting been held in a European Union member state Mr. Avaei would have not been permitted to attend. The European Union penalized Mr. Avaei with a travel ban and assets freeze in October 2011 for human rights violations, arbitrary arrests, denials of prisoners rights and increase of executions.Mr. Norris took a sip of tea. Sitting next to him at a conference table on the Publics second floor was the plays director, Michael Greif, who can count Dear Evan Hansen and Rent among his credits. With previews, they still have time to experiment and fine-tune the action.

During the plays 2 hours and 30 minutes, free market watchwords  not to mention, religious piety, racism, judicial corruption and well-intentioned liberals  all come in for a drubbing. But the central theme is one that runs through all the playwrights work: humanitys irredeemable flaws.

I probably write the way I do because Im disappointed, Mr. Norris said. I was a very optimistic child and I had a very close relationship with my mother who promised me good things, and then, as I said in another play, she smoked herself to death. So that was a mixed message.

Clybourne Park, which won the Pulitzer Prize in 2011, the Olivier Award, and later the Tony, picks up where Lorraine Hansberry ended her seminal 1959 play, A Raisin in the Sun. Its subject is inescapable racism, class bias and anxiety.

Similarly, The Low Road trains its sights on the species inherent failings. The conclusion is that our greed, hypocrisy and ruthlessness will ultimately bring doom  even if there are a few laughs to be had along the way.

Human nature is both noble and ugly. Mr. Norris said his mother was intensely devoted to him and thus was very excusing of all faults in me and very much encouraging me to cheat other children.

Any misbehavior could be explained away. Whenever I would do badly in school, she would tell me the teachers angry because I wont date her daughter, Mr. Norris said. She did that out of her love for me. And we all do that to each other.In the department of silver linings, Michelle Kuo  who resigned as editor in chief of Artforum in October amid multiple accusations of sexual harassment against one of the magazines publishers, Knight Landesman  has been appointed the Marlene Hess curator of painting and sculpture at the Museum of Modern Art.

This is an exciting turn of events, said Ms. Kuo, adding that the past months have all been extremely unexpected.

In a statement provided last fall to ARTnews, she explained her decision to resign: I felt that, in light of the troubling allegations surrounding one of our publishers, I could no longer serve as a public representative of Artforum. We need to make the art world a more equitable, just and safe place for women at all levels. She said she has no involvement in the ongoing litigation involving Mr. Landesman, Artforum and Amanda Schmitt, a former employee of the magazine.

The timing proved opportune for Ann Temkin, MoMAs chief curator of painting and sculpture, who was looking to fill the position in her department left vacant by the promotion of Leah Dickerman to director of editorial and content strategy at the museum.The Incomplete Araki is a knowingly redundant title for an exhibition of Japans most prolific, most controversial, and most disobedient photographer. For more than 50 years, Nobuyoshi Araki has pushed the limits of production  he has taken an uncountable number of photographs, gathered into something like 500 books  and pushed the limits, too, of free expression. He was arrested once on obscenity charges, and Japanese and foreign authorities have censored his exhibitions of Tokyo streetscapes, blossoming flowers, and, most notoriously, women trussed up in the baroque rope bondage technique known as kinbaku-bi, or the beauty of tight binding.

Even more than his colleague Daido Moriyama, or the slightly younger Hiroshi Sugimoto, Mr. Araki has emerged as Japans most famous living photographer, and the 77-year-old ropemaster has been enjoying a victory lap of sorts lately. A major retrospective of his work took place in 2016 at the Musee Guimet, Pariss Asian art museum. Last summer, the Tokyo Photographic Art Museum assembled hundreds of his large-scale prints, Polaroids and books; another show is up in Munich. Now he receives his largest exhibition in New York, though at a different sort of institution: the Museum of Sex, better known for its anatomically explicit bouncy castle and Studio-54-manque cocktail bar than its engagement with visual art.Over the last decade, Carnegie Halls composer in residence position has tended to go to veteran iconoclasts whose innovations have taken root in the broader classical scene. Meredith Monk, Louis Andriessen and Kaija Saariaho, for example, have all been celebrated with the concert series that come with the Carnegie post, the Debs Composers Chair.

Ive noticed, listening to a range of these series, that programs devoted exclusively to the chosen composers works are often impressive. Less satisfying, on the whole, have been the concerts in which the composer is tucked  or, more to the point, jammed  into a broader concept or next to other works.

This year Philip Glass holds the chair. And Tuesday evening was his turn with that latter format. In its Carnegie debut, the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra and its music director, Carlos Miguel Prieto, played two of his lesser-known orchestral pieces  Days and Nights in Rocinha (1997) and the Concerto Fantasy for Two Timpanists and Orchestra (2000)  on a program that also included Silvestre Revueltass La Noche de los Mayas.2. We love these kids and their rallying cry, Enough is enough. It got to us.

That was the chief executive of Dicks Sporting Goods, one of the countrys largest sporting goods retailers, speaking about the Florida survivors this morning.

He was explaining why Dicks is ending sales of assault-style rifles and barring gun sales to those under 21, taking one of the strongest corporate stances since the mass shooting.

Later on Wednesday, Walmart, the largest retailer in the United States, also said it will stop selling guns and ammunition to anyone under 21. It stopped selling assault-style rifles in 2015.Germany said on Wednesday that it would investigate tightening the rules that govern when an investor needed to disclose a holding in a company after Chinas Geely purchased a $9 billion stake in Daimler, surprising the market.

Geelys founder and main owner, Li Shufu, revealed on Friday that he had built up a 9.7 percent stake in Daimler, the owner of the Mercedes-Benz brand, without having previously disclosed that he had crossed regulatory thresholds of 3 percent and 5 percent.

The stake purchase has rekindled fears in Germany that its highly prized expertise could fall into Chinese hands.

An Economy Ministry report to the economics committee of the Bundestag, Germanys Parliament, said on Wednesday, Against the backdrop of the current case, the federal government will examine whether the existing rules are sufficient to provide an adequate level of transparency, or if further guidelines are necessary, according to Reuters.@alextdaugherty

Last week, Marco Rubio stared into the eyes of a father who lost his daughter during the nations deadliest high school shooting and made an announcement: Young adults should not be able to purchase guns.

I absolutely believe that in this country, if you are 18 years of age you should not be able to buy a rifle. I will support a law that takes that right away, Rubio said during an intense town hall event with Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School students, parents and alumni.

But one of Rubios own bills, which he has introduced twice, would overturn an assault weapons ban and legalize gun sales for young adults in the nations capital, allowing 18- to 21-year-olds in Washington, D.C. to purchase weapons like the AR-15 used in the Parkland shooting if federal law doesnt change.

The Florida Republican introduced the Second Amendment Enforcement Act in 2015 and again in 2017 that would drastically change the District of Columbias gun laws. After introducing the bill for the first time in 2015 while seeking the Republican presidential nomination, Rubios National Rifle Associations grade went from a B+ to an A.Spotifys prospectus is the most detailed disclosure the company has given about its business.

According to the filing, Spotify, which began its streaming service in Sweden in 2008 and came to the United States three years later, had nearly $5 billion in revenue in 2017, up 38.6 percent from the year before. In 2016, it had grown by 52 percent.

By the end of 2017, Spotify, whose full name is Spotify Technology, had 159 million active users, including 71 million who pay for subscriptions; the rest, using the freemium model that has become Spotifys marketing hallmark, get free access to music but are subjected to advertisements.

As quickly as Spotify has grown, though, so have its losses. Last year, it had a net loss of $1.5 billion, up from about $650 million the year before. Its largest expense, by far, is the cost of licenses from record companies and music publishers.

The prospectus also highlights Spotifys successes, and its value to the music industry. Through the end of last year, the company had paid more than $10 billion in music royalties since its inception, and its churn  a measure of how many paying users cancel each month  has been steadily declining, to 5.5 percent in 2017 from 7.7 percent in 2015.

The largest stakes are owned by its two founders: Daniel Ek, the chief executive and the companys public face, and Martin Lorentzon, who holds no executive position. In addition to their shares, they also have beneficiary certificates granting them extra voting rights. In total, Mr. Ek has 37.3 percent voting power over the company, and Mr. Lorentzon 43.1 percent, according to the prospectus.

The major record labels also own minority stakes in the company, as a result of licensing deals struck over the years. Sony has the largest, with 5.7 percent; the others were not disclosed.

Spotifys major competitor is Apple, whose co-founder Steve Jobs had long disdained music subscriptions. Apple finally entered the streaming subscription business in 2015 with Apple Music, and recently said that it had 36 million paying users. But according to a recent report in The Wall Street Journal, Apple Music has been outpacing Spotify in its growth in paid subscribers in the United States.Items in the European Unions cross hairs: drinking straws, plastic bottles, coffee cups and lids  none of which were available to shoppers browsing the new aisle in western Amsterdam on Wednesday.

Plastic packaging has become so widespread as a result of its convenience and qualities of hygiene. But because of its light weight and ability to float, along with its increasing use in international garbage exports, plastic has become an ecological bane.

One mans plastic food wrapper is another mans problem, Ms. Sutherland said.

The proposals from the European Union and from Britain landed on the heels of a Chinese ban on all foreign plastic waste imports, which began in January.

Rwanda has also begun a campaign that threatened public shaming and even prison time to tackle the plastics problem, making it illegal to import, produce, use or sell plastic bags and plastic packaging except within specific industries like hospitals and pharmaceuticals.

The nation is one of more than 40 around the world that have banned, restricted or taxed the use of plastic bags, including France and Italy.

In a study published last year, scientists estimated that 8.3 billion metric tons of plastic has been produced worldwide since the 1950s, when plastic began being mass produced. Of that, roughly 6.3 billion metric tons has been thrown away, 79 percent of it in landfills or in other parts of the environment.

Only 9 percent of the discarded plastic has been recycled, according to the study, whose lead author is Roland Geyer of the Bren School of Environmental Science and Management at the University of California, Santa Barbara.PARIS  When she began planning her fall 2018 collection, Maria Grazia Chiuri, Diors artistic director for womens wear, could not have known that in the days before her show, students from a Florida school would transform the debate on gun control in the United States, calling time on the status quo and reframing the national dialogue.

She could not have anticipated that six teenagers would be running for governor in Kansas on different platforms of change.

All she knew, she said in a preview, was that 50 years ago students in France took to the streets to make their voices heard, and it became a social and political turning point. The world then was at an inflexion point, as was fashion, and she thought, maybe, we were at a similar place today. Shed pay homage to it on her runway.Judy Chicago was on her way to meet a friend in the Village when she first read Robert Hughess review of her work The Dinner Party in Time magazine. I walked into the restaurant, put my head down on the bar and cried, she says.

When it debuted in 1979, most art critics  including Hilton Kramer of The New York Times  panned The Dinner Party, which features three 48-foot-long tables assembled into a triangle with 39 intricate place settings, each dedicated to a notable woman. In his review, Mr. Kramer called it both very bad and failed art. Nothing more obvious or accessible or didactic has been seen in an exhibition of contemporary art in a very long time, he wrote, concluding that to this male observer, it looks like an outrageous libel on the female imagination.

During a talk at the Brooklyn Museum with the sociologist and writer Sarah Thornton in January, Ms. Chicago called Mr. Kramer one of the most vicious, vitriolic critics, adding that he was responsible for a description of her work that lasted for decades: vaginas on plates, as she put it.

So for 20 years The Dinner Party, which is a symbolic history of women in western civilization, was described in The Times over and over and over as vaginas on plates, Ms. Chicago said.Have you ever lived in, or visited, a town or city that felt just right to you? If so, what was it that appealed to you, and why?

Imagine your ideal town or city. What would it look like? What would housing, commerce, transportation and recreation be like? What amenities or special features would it include, and why?

In Tech Envisions the Ultimate Start-Up: An Entire City, Emily Badger writes:

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. Mr. Huh leads a project begun by the start-up accelerator Y Combinator to explore the creation of new cities. Hundreds applied to work on what looked like the ultimate full-stack start-up. Last October, Sidewalk Labs, an Alphabet company, announced it would team up with a government agency in Toronto to redevelop a stretch of the city from the internet up. For others in tech  intrigued by word of a proposed smart city in Arizona, a big Bitcoin land grab in Nevada, a special economic zone in Honduras  fantasizing about newly built cities has become a side gig. They dream of utopias with driverless cars, radical property-ownership models, 3-D-printed houses and skyscrapers assembled in days. While some urban planners roll their eyes, it is true that Americas cities have always been built on someones hubris, whether the characters who plotted Manhattans street grid, or those who imagined the Golden Gate Bridge.

Students: Read the entire article, then tell us:

 Do you agree with the article that some cities today dont work quite right? If so, what doesnt work, and why? If not, why not?

 Do you agree with the article that todays cities are the equivalent of the flip phone, and are out of date? If so, how could they be redesigned and improved, and why?

 What suggestions or ideas would you give to a city planner, if you could, and why?During her visit to Mass General a few days earlier, doctors wanted her to see their physical therapists to help make walking easier until her bruising healed. But then something strange happened. As she waited in the E.R., her red-blood-cell count dropped, leaving her weak and pale; she was admitted for a transfusion and further evaluation. A CT scan of her swollen right leg revealed the reason for the drop: In her thigh, she now had a huge pool of blood that had leaked out of her vessels and into the muscle of her upper leg. She was bleeding internally. And no one knew why.

A Diagnostic Consensus

Like the patient herself, her doctors assumed all her symptoms were connected to the can shed dropped on her foot. Why hadnt that injury healed? And why was the entire right leg  and some of the left  so painful? None of the tests conducted in her nearly two weeks in the hospital explained it. Eventually her first Mass General doctors concluded that she had an unusual disorder called complex regional pain syndrome (C.R.P.S.). This disorder, which usually affects a limb after some trauma, is thought to be caused by injury to the nervous system. That damage in turn causes pain, swelling and changes in skin color and temperature. No one knows why the body has this extreme overreaction. Treatment has to focus on reducing pain rather than on treating the disorder. Recovery takes months, even years. Having made this diagnosis, the doctors sent the patient home to follow up with specialists to treat the pain.

In the days after this second hospitalization, the patient worsened. She felt exhausted and cold all the time. One morning upon waking, she felt so weak and tired that she couldnt stand. She scooched herself along the floor toward the bathroom. Halfway there, she was so incapacitated that she lay down and called her sister. I think Im dying, she told her. Her hand dropped weakly to the floor. Her sister asked for 911, and the E.M.T.s came and took her to the emergency room for the third time.

Loss of Blood

A blood test showed that she was bleeding internally again. She had less than half the blood she should have in her circulatory system. No wonder she was cold and tired and out of breath  these are classic signs of severe anemia. She was given more blood and then transported back again to Mass General.A little over a decade ago, I moved to Montreal expecting, perhaps foolishly, that I would become fluent in French. It was a goal that proved elusive  I just couldnt master the Quebecois accent, which was almost inscrutably nasal compared with the Parisian French I learned in high school. I stuttered through one quotidian exchange after another, painfully aware I was marking myself as a clumsy outsider. It was exhausting. Somewhat chastened, I gave up on French and turned my attention to a new language: Celsius.

I gravitated toward Celsius for the same reason I had wanted to learn French: to experience the world through a foreign filter. Besides, I didnt really have a choice. Montreal is a bilingual city, but it uses just one temperature scale: Celsius. Of course, the same is true in every country aside from the United States and a few other global superpowers like the Cayman Islands and Belize. Using Fahrenheit in Canada was a sure way to brand myself not only as a recalcitrant American but also as a maniac. If you casually tell a friend who thinks in Celsius that it is 65 outside  nearly 150 degrees in Fahrenheit  and therefore a good day to go to the park, she will look at you as if you have misplaced your frontal lobe.

My hope was to internalize Celsius, not just to learn it but to feel it in my American flesh. The first thing I did to acquaint myself with it  forgoing that impossible conversion formula  was to memorize relative temperatures scattered throughout the scale so I could extrapolate from them. I was already aware, as most people are, that what I knew as 32 was 0, but I also came up with a few useful way stations: 10 in Celsius was 50 Fahrenheit; 21 was 70; 30 was 86. With this loose constellation of data points, I could safely guess that 15 degrees C, say, was about 60 degrees F, without constantly cross-referencing between the scales.

Scientists prefer Celsius because it integrates seamlessly with the metric system, but as a unit of measurement, its far less precise than Fahrenheit. This laxity has its merits. For everyday use, its an appealingly economical scale because it hovers mostly around 0, each unit packing a substantial punch. Still, it took me a while to regard Celsius as anything but absurd. Seven degrees outside, Id think to myself as I adjusted to the forecast. Balmy! Ian McEwan once pointed out that British tabloids like to capitalize on this dissonance, often reporting colder temperatures in Celsius and hotter ones in Fahrenheit, which makes for more sensational headlines.But a year later, Mr. Friederwitzer made a successful legal motion for primary custody, claiming that the childrens mother, who had moved to Manhattan, had begun letting a non-Orthodox man sleep over and going out socially at night, leaving the girls alone.

At a time when courts typically awarded mothers custody, a state Supreme Court judge on Long Island ruled that the father was a more fit custodian. The mother challenged the ruling to the Court of Appeals, the states highest court, which upheld the decision, ruling that the mother put her own interests over the best interests of her children.

I can quote it, Judge Friederwitzer said, reciting the decisions wording that custody agreements could be altered when the totality of circumstances is in the best interests of the child.

Thats what made this case so different  it changed the way things usually went, she said. It wasnt just a knee-jerk reaction where the mother gets custody.

The case  something of a real life Kramer vs. Kramer, the 1979 film that involved a painful courtroom custody battle and was emblematic of the surge in divorces at the time  seemed to follow young Lisa through her life, from the many classmates in school who knew about it, to her law school professors, to legal professionals over the years who recognized her last name.

After graduating from Queens College, and then Touro Law Center on Long Island, she began working at age 24 in Queens Family Court as a court-appointed law guardian, often on behalf of children.

In 1998, Judge Friederwitzer began working for the state court system in Queens Family Court, first as a court attorney assisting a judge, and then conducting hearings in child support and paternity cases.MIDDLETOWN, N.Y.  The director of the public library in this Hudson Valley town calls his assistant and security guard Starsky and Hutch. They have been trained to spot signs of overdose in library patrons  paleness and shortness of breath when it is heroin; sudden collapse when it is fentanyl  and administer the drug naloxone. They patrol the bathrooms and stacks at the Middletown Thrall Library, checking on anyone who is dozing.

Its easier to call the police, to wait for E.M.S., said the library director, Matt Pfisterer, who had to decide whether to use the overdose-reversing drug himself a few years ago, after he found a woman lying in the grass outside, unconscious and covered with ants.

You dont know how theyre going to react, he said. But when it comes down to it, you ask, Do I want to see this person dying in front of me? No. So you take the leap.

The opioid epidemic is reshaping life in America, including at the local public library, where librarians are considering whether to carry naloxone to battle overdoses. At a time when the public is debating arming teachers, it is another example of an unlikely group being enlisted to fight a national crisis.Three Muslim women have each reached a $60,000 settlement with New York City after they were forced to remove their hijabs to be photographed while in police custody, according to a city official and court documents obtained on Wednesday.

Documents outlining the settlements were filed in Brooklyn federal court on Monday and reported by the The New York Daily News on Tuesday. Asked about the report, Kimberly Joyce, a spokeswoman for the citys law department, said in an emailed statement, The resolution of these matters were in the best interest of all parties involved.

The settlements involved separate cases claiming that the womens religious rights had been violated.

In 2012, a Brooklyn high school student detained on a harassment complaint was told to remove her head scarf to be photographed at a central booking center in the borough. She had asked that a female officer take her picture in private, but the request was rejected, according to a complaint filed in district court that year.Three are parents. Three have relatives who struggle with a mental illness. Five live on the Upper West Side of Manhattan.

They are among 12 jurors and six alternates ready to hear the case of a nanny accused of stabbing to death two young children in her care in an affluent part of the neighborhood six years ago.

The trial of the nanny, Yoselyn Ortega, who is mounting an insanity defense, was scheduled to begin on Thursday in State Supreme Court in Manhattan with opening statements from prosecutors and defense lawyers. But it is the expected testimony of Marina Krim  who arrived home with her third child to find her two other children bloodied and dead in a bathtub and their nanny slicing her own neck  that will undoubtedly sear the minds of everyone in the room. Jurors may also have to contend with gruesome crime scene photos.

If you dont get emotional during this trial then maybe you need to check your pulse, Justice Gregory Carro said in response to one prospective jurors question about her ability to be impartial given the emotional nature of the case. He said he did not expect jurors to be robots.We have to cross a line in our thinking, not only in this state but in the country, Mr. Gianaris said, adding that it was mind-boggling to me that we could watch our children die and were sitting here making excuses.

Twenty-nine Democrats, including all eight members of the Independent Democratic Conference, voted to consider the amendments, falling short of the 32 needed for passage. Mr. Gianaris failed to persuade a single Republican to consider the measure; more important, he also failed to lure Simcha Felder, a Brooklyn Democrat, to his side.

Mr. Felder said that he felt the bills were being rushed to the floor in piecemeal fashion.

I do believe that its better to do something thats as important as this in a very comprehensive way, said Mr. Felder, who has sponsored a bill to put armed guards at schools, something he says he wished would have been taken up sooner.

I think now is a very broad term, he continued, adding, Theres a balance between doing something expeditiously or doing something immediately thats not really conclusive, not comprehensive.

The Independent Democratic Conference and Ms. Stewart-Cousins group of mainstream Democrats have tentatively pledged to form a new majority in April, after two special elections to fill seats vacated by Democrats. (That plan still depends on Mr. Felder, who has repeatedly said he is loyal to no party.)

Those who stand on the wrong side of history on this issue will be judged harshly, Mr. Gianaris said. Starting with this election.Updated, 11:38 a.m.

Good morning on this energizing Wednesday.

One day this month, we woke up to an email from a loyal New York Today reader:

There has been an outbreak of emotional support animals on airlines, but whats up with the proliferation of pets in the subway? Its getting out of control. What are the rules around it?

Having recently watched a 70-pound goldendoodle named Augustus leap into a taxi, we, too, were curious.

Shams Tarek, a spokesman for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, pointed out the agencys rules of conduct for the subway:

No person may bring any animal on or into any conveyance or facility unless enclosed in a container and carried in a manner which would not annoy other passengers.

(The word annoy is, of course, subjective; a good boy in one riders eyes may be a slobbering monster to another.)Late last spring, Barbara Pearson, who lives in Kips Bay and works in pharmaceutical advertising, took her 90-year-old mother and 37-year-old daughter to see the Broadway musical Come From Away.

The Tony Award-winning production, which opened in March of last year at the Gerald Schoenfeld Theater on West 45th Street, tells the true story of what happened on 9/11 when 38 planes from all over the world were rerouted and ordered to land in Gander, a remote, tiny town in the northeastern part of Newfoundland.

For five days, about 10,000 residents from the province fed, housed and consoled some 6,700 unexpected visitors. Some opened their homes to people in need of showers, a change of clothes or a warm bed. Others bought rounds of drinks for stir-crazy passengers at the local bar. One local, Beulah Cooper, sat by a landline for days with a New Yorker who was waiting for any news about her firefighter son.

Right away, audiences connected to the quirky story of mass generosity. But for Ms. Pearson, seeing it was particularly powerful. For the past year she had experienced heightened anxiety, she said, ever since the 2016 presidential election. I dont want to sound overwhelmingly melodramatic, she said. But there was a certain amount of survival of hope at stake.Arthur J. Moss, a researcher who was credited with saving countless patients from fatal cardiac disorders, including a rare genetic heart glitch that can kill suddenly, died on Feb. 14 at his home in Brighton, N.Y., a suburb of Rochester. He was 86.

Dr. Jonathan W. Friedberg, director of the Wilmot Cancer Institute at the University of Rochester Medical Center, said the cause was cancer.

Dr. Eric Topol, a cardiologist at the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, Calif., said of Dr. Moss in an email, Hes probably done more to advance our understanding of heart rhythm disorders than any cardiologist or researcher in the world.

Two of Dr. Mosss career milestones resulted from serendipitous twists.

As an intern at Massachusetts General Hospital, he planned to specialize in hematology, or blood disorders. But for unknown reasons the Navy, after drafting him, thought he was a cardiologist.Editors note: On Feb. 16, a Turkish court sentenced Ahmet Altan, a novelist and former newspaper editor; his brother, Mehmet Altan, an economics professor and political commentator; Nazli Ilicak, a prominent journalist; and three media employees to life imprisonment without parole for involvement in the July 15, 2016, coup attempt in Turkey.

The Altan brothers had appeared on a television program hosted by Ms. Ilicak a day before the coup attempt. Turkish prosecutors claimed that they gave subliminal messages announcing the coup on the program.

Turkey says that a network led by Fethullah Gulen, an Islamist cleric based in the United States, orchestrated the coup, which included an attempt on President Recep Tayyip Erdogans life, the bombing of the Parliament and the deaths of more than 270 people. In the purge by the Turkish government that followed, more than 150,000 people have been fired from their jobs, detained or arrested.

Mr. Altan wrote this essay about his imprisonment and sentencing, and about fiction and reality, in his prison cell in the city of Silivri, on the outskirts of Istanbul.In the fall, I traveled to rural Ohio to meet with the children of a man who had been recently deported to Mexico, even though he was considered a model citizen by his neighbors and had no criminal record beyond driving without a license. I had seen video footage of his three young boys and little girl saying goodbye to him at the airport. They looked like orphaned bear cubs, wandering around aimlessly in the terminal, their faces frozen in fear.

Eric, the oldest at 14, is in the eighth grade and wants the local Wendys to make an exception to its minimum age requirement so he can work there. Im the man of the house now, he told me. When their father left, so did the only member of the family who could drive. Eric walks several miles to the grocery store and returns carrying heavy bags of food even in the snow. Their mother, who is also undocumented, is now the familys sole source of income and works long hours at a factory, so Eric has to come straight home from school to take care of his younger siblings. (He had to scrap plans to try out for the wrestling team.)

Edwin, 12, has nightmares about his father and crawls into his mothers bed almost every night. Classmates taunt him that they hope his mother gets deported, too. Anuar, 10, who calms himself by doing equations in his head, brought me his report card with a perfect 100 in math. Elsiy, 6, has not been eating well since her fathers been gone.

Americas historic uneasiness with interracial marriage and mixed-race children has found a new incarnation in the persecution of families with mixed legal status. There are nearly six million citizen children who live with at least one undocumented parent, and perhaps millions of other Americans who are married to undocumented immigrants. Reports are multiplying of Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents picking up immigrants at their green card couple interviews, while their American spouses are left speechless and powerless. The Trump administrations aggressive detention and removal of undocumented immigrants is not only inhumane in its treatment of immigrants, but a direct attack on the rights and well-being of their American family members.But a certain amount of cynicism is also in order. Its worth noting, for instance, how Tim Cooks willingness to play the social justice warrior when the target is a few random Indiana restaurants that might not want to host hypothetical same-sex weddings does not extend to reconsidering Apples relationship with the many countries around the world where human rights are rather more in jeopardy than they are in the American Midwest. And the sin of Damores infamous memo on sex differences was to explicitly defend a reality  the nerdy-boys-club culture of the tech world  that Silicon Valleys mostly male bigwigs are quite happy to sustain, even as they use gender-diversity initiatives to toss some incense to egalitarianism.

The interesting question is whether the incense-tossing works. In certain ways the Peace of Palo Alto wont be fully tested until the next time the Democrats hold real power, when well get to find out whether the lefts antimonopoly forays have any follow-through, whether more than a token portion of the Trump corporate tax cuts will get rolled back  or whether corporate wokeness will suffice as a concession to the new spirit of liberalism, enabling the easy post-1980s relationship between corporate America and the Democratic Party to endure.

If it does it will offer partial confirmation of an argument that James Poulos proposed in The Hedgehog Review last year  that the hollowing out of all the old communities in American life has left the corporation, however mistrusted and even vilified upon occasion, as one of the last plausible vessels for communitarian yearnings, offering in branding and employment and consumption a fixity that we struggle to find within ourselves or in the consolations of love, faith or honor.

As much as we fear corporations gone wild, Poulos concludes, we love corporations that love us. And in a rich society people may prefer that their #brands prove this love by identifying with favored social causes rather than through the old-fashioned expedient of paying their workers a little bit more money.

Or some people may prefer it, at least  the professional classes, blessed with material comfort, and those groups designated as being on the official winning side of history. For others, though, the Peace of Palo Alto has rather less to offer. It confirms the blue-collar suspicion that liberalism is no longer organized around working-class economic interests, and it encourages cultural conservatives in their feeling of general besiegement, their sense that all the major institutions of American life, corporate as well as intellectual and cultural, are arrayed against their mores and values and traditions.

Between them these trends and sentiments will help sustain the Republican Party even as it lurches deeper into demagogy and paranoia  by making a vote for the G.O.P. the only way to protest a corporate-backed liberal politics that seems indifferent to the working man and an ascendant cultural liberalism that has boardrooms as well as Hollywood and academia in its corner.

But of course so long as this same Republican Party remains itself pro-corporate in its economic ideology  as the Trumpified G.O.P., despite his populist forays, has determinedly remained  the corporate interests themselves stand to lose little from these polarizing trends. Their wokeness buys them cover when liberalism is in power, and any backlash only helps prop up a G.O.P. that has their back when it comes time to write our tax laws.

The win-win scenario for woke capitalism cant last forever. But it might be quite the racket while it lasts.Even after eight years of economic recovery and steady private-sector job growth, wages for most Americans have hardly budged. It is tempting to think that wage stagnation is intractable, a result of long-term trends, like automation and globalization, that government is powerless to do anything about.

In fact, a growing body of evidence pins much of the blame on a specific culprit, one for which proven legal weapons already exist. But they are not being used.

The culprit is monopsony power. This term is used by economists to refer to the ability of an employer to suppress wages below the efficient or perfectly competitive level of compensation. In the more familiar case of monopoly, a large seller  like a cable company  is able to demand high prices for poor service because consumers have no other choice. It turns out that many corporations possess bargaining power over their workers, not just over their consumers. Their workers accept low wages and substandard working conditions because few alternative job opportunities exist for them or because switching jobs is costly. In other words, in the labor market, effectively a small number of employers are competing for their labor.R.S.: One thing that Ive learned is that the perceptions of what it takes to be a leader are often based on prototypical models that dont have much truth in reality. People look at the institutions that I have led and they see dissimilarities. I see similarities. When people think in terms of leadership, theyre often thinking about the kind of specific skills needed for different types of enterprises. I think of leadership as more of a disposition  the ability to step into a situation to learn about the history of the enterprise, the opportunities that it faces, the culture that exists and the people who are served by it. To look at all of that, to listen to stakeholders and then to think about how that enterprise or institution should best be served. There is no one model of leadership if you approach it that way. What I have tried to do wherever I go is to start where the institution is rather than try to import particularly rigid constructs from other places. In that sense, I think a leader is more than anything else a facilitator. A person who is able to come in to show a community a picture of what it is, to provide some insight into what it could be  how it could be different or improved perhaps  and then enlist the help of people who are there and others who support that institution in order to move forward together.

I dont subscribe to the model of hero leadership, which is identifying somebody who can come in and have magical powers and then wield the wand and fix things that have not been fixable before. I dont see that. I think leadership is a community affair.

M.J.: That makes sense. So how do you approach educating the current generation of students at Prairie View to lead in the way you described?

R.S.: People today are fond of leadership programs that theorize about the profile and tenets of leadership. And students anxiously get involved in those programs. I rather think that our entire campuses are incubators of leadership even without the formality of such programs because if were doing what we should be doing, we are acclimating students to an environment in which they have to learn to work with others who are very different from themselves. And that seems to me to be the first requirement of leadership. To actually learn to work with people in a respectful and inclusive way is inordinately important. A campus provides one of the best opportunities for people to be able to do that because you sit in class alongside people whom you initially dont know. You are discussing your ideas, having people respond to them and often rejecting what youre saying. You are joining organizations that have certain aims that are being advanced by the collective, so youre learning how to facilitate. You are asked to step into leadership roles either through student government or organizations. Even in the classroom context you might play a leadership role. You have to learn to express yourself, to be convincing, to write out your ideas, to be more thoughtful than youd ordinarily be. All of those things are components of leadership.

M.J.: Some would argue that social media, or perhaps disagreements over the concept of safe spaces, have made it more challenging for people to come together and to work together.

R.S.: Yeah, I would say that people frequently say that, but that has certainly not been my experience. I would say that in my days as a student, the tensions were higher, the disagreements were greater, the separation among us was certainly more pronounced. And people are kind of inventing a new narrative, that things are so much worse today than they were in the past. I dont buy that. I think we have new terminology, because the modern sciences of psychology and sociology and so forth and modern media have enabled us to peer into areas that we were not able to see as easily as before. And so when you have social media and all of the ways in which people can now say whatever they want to say  in an unartful or offensive way  that turns the volume up to be sure. But it doesnt mean it wasnt there before.

I would say that the current situation ought to give us much more practice in how to engage with each other because it is not underground. Its out front, its in the open. The media today and the things that are being reported should be upsetting or troubling to students, my goodness. But it may be an even better opportunity to engage students.The Department of Homeland Security may soon formalize the abhorrent practice of detaining the children of asylum-seekers separately from their parents. Immigrant families apprehended at the southwest border already endure a deeply flawed system in which they can be detained indefinitely. In this immigration system, detainees too often lack adequate access to counsel. But to unnecessarily tear apart families who cross the border to start a better life is immoral.

Sadly, such separations are already happening. The Florence Project in Arizona documented 155 such cases by October and other immigrant advocacy organizations report that children are being taken away from their parents. If the secretary orders this practice to be made standard procedure, thousands of families could face unnecessary separation.

The Trump administrations goal is to strong-arm families into accepting deportation to get their children back. Kirstjen Nielsen, the secretary of homeland security, admitted this when she told the Senate on Jan. 16 that separating families may discourage parents from seeking refuge in America.

But the increasing informal use of family separation has not proved to be a deterrent. Last year, the number of family apprehensions at the southwestern border skyrocketed from 1,118 families in April to 8,120 in December.Amid the dizzying details of internet trolls, almost a million dollars worth of antique rugs and fake bank accounts, the indictments brought by Robert Mueller, the special counsel, in his investigation of Russian tampering in the 2016 election have one thing in common.

Both the indictment of 13 Russians associated with a troll farm called Internet Research Agency and the indictment of President Trumps onetime campaign chairman Paul Manafort accuse the defendants of pretending to engage in American politics in good faith but secretly serving someone elses interest. In both cases, the charge, conspiracy to defraud the United States, is an assertion that they were really serving the interests of Russia or of a Russian-backed Ukrainian politician, and that by hiding their true intent, the defendants prevented the United States government from protecting our politics from undisclosed outside influence.

That precedent, and the guilty plea to the same charge by Rick Gates, Mr. Manaforts deputy, may pose a real danger to Jared Kushner, the presidents son-in-law and senior adviser. According to reports, Mr. Mueller appears to be assessing whether Mr. Kushner, in the guise of pursuing foreign policy on behalf of the United States, was actually serving the interests of his family and foreign governments.

On Tuesday, The Washington Post reported that officials in at least four countries  United Arab Emirates, China, Israel and Mexico  have privately discussed ways they can manipulate Mr. Kushner by taking advantage of his complex business arrangements, financial difficulties and lack of foreign policy experience. The president gave his son-in-law an expansive foreign policy role, including an effort to negotiate peace between Israel and the Palestinians. The implication in the article is that the United States government has intercepted communications of foreign leaders talking about ways they could take advantage of Mr. Kushner, whose family real estate empire is facing substantial debt woes.To the Editor:

Re Dont Count Bibi Out  Not Yet (column, Feb. 24):

Bret Stephens predicts that despite recommendations by Israels police that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu be charged on multiple counts of bribery, fraud and breach of trust, he is likely to endure in power. But should he?

When Mr. Stephens writes about the American president, he has been eloquent about why hes a NeverTrumper. Character does count, and virtue does matter, and Trumps shortcomings prove it daily, Mr. Stephens wrote in a Dec. 29 column.

Mr. Netanyahu displays daily many of the characteristics that Mr. Stephens finds objectionable in President Trump. Mr. Stephens courageously attacks fellow conservatives who pretend Mr. Trumps personality doesnt matter. He should do the same for those, including himself, who play down Bibis flaws.

RICHARD CHIMBERG

NEWTON, MASS.This article is part of the Opinion Today newsletter. You can sign up here to receive the newsletter each weekday.

First, Jared Kushner has some significant problems, even if we dont yet know exactly what they are. He has lost his top-secret security clearance, and several foreign governments  including Chinas  believe his business interests have made him vulnerable to manipulation.

In any other White House, Kushner would either be out of a job or temporarily step away from matters of national security, writes Jennifer Rubin in The Washington Post. In this White House, President Trump may decide to leave Kushner in his senior role and even continue showing him top-secret information, explains Lawfares Susan Hennessey.

Once again, Trump is putting the interests of himself and his family over those of the country.

The benefits of faith. In his Sunday column this week, Ross Douthat issued something of a challenge to secular liberals. They think of themselves as empiricists, Ross wrote, but theyre actually close-minded about several powerful forces for good, starting with religion.Wayne LaPierre is rarely accused of progressivism. But when Mr. LaPierre, the leader of the National Rifle Association, addressed the Conservative Political Action Conference last week, he invoked the Second Amendment in much the same way that a significant portion of the left has long spoken of the rights it values. According to this conception, rights are zones of personal autonomy where the individual owes no explanation and the community has no jurisdiction. This manner of thinking about rights is a serious barrier to reasonable regulations of firearms. The N.R.A. ritually claims the mantle of the Constitution, but the American founders who framed it had a far richer view in which individual rights were subject to considerations of the common good.

There may be good reasons not to regulate firearms further, but the individuals absolute claim that his or her guns are nobodys business is not one of them. To even make this assertion is an illustration of what the legal scholar and diplomat Mary Ann Glendon calls the illusion of absoluteness, an idea that is hostile to the possibility of political community. All rights have limits. The question is who determines them. For the framers of the Constitution, the answer was that the people do.

One of the earliest American assertions of rights, the 1641 Massachusetts Body of Liberties, delineated rights against everything from banishment to dismemberment but subjected them to regulation by the legislature. The community could take these actions only according to rules known in advance and equally applicable to all. The essence of rights in this early understanding was the rule of law  as propounded by the community  not the isolation of the individual.

The Declaration of Independence, whose unalienable rights individualists are so quick to claim for themselves, dealt with rights similarly. In legal parlance, to alienate something is to exchange it for an equivalent  precisely what individuals do with their rights when they form a political community. The Declarations rights are coherently unalienable only if they are possessed by what the document calls one people. This interpretation is backed by the fact that many of the complaints against King George that the document proceeds to enumerate are not that he did something absolutely forbidden but rather that he did so without the legislatures consent.It was basically an aside  an odd and interesting nugget in an interview with Barbra Streisand that otherwise dealt with heavy topics like sexism and politics.

Indeed, most of the 2,800-word article about Ms. Streisand in Variety is devoted to detailing the actresss decades-long efforts to break up Hollywoods boys club, as the 90th Academy Awards ceremony approaches with the #MeToo movement as the backdrop.

But it was that one nugget  a brief comment about her dogs  that drew the most attention on Tuesday night.

In her interview with Variety, Ms. Streisand revealed that two of her three Coton de Tulear dogs were clones. Specifically, the magazine reported that the dogs  Miss Violet and Miss Scarlett  had been cloned from cells taken from the mouth and stomach of Ms. Streisands late dog Samantha, who was 14 when she died last year.Im imagining a lot of gold-plated stuff and pseudotapestries, said Wendy Goodman, the design editor of New York magazine. Needlepoint faux 14th-century furniture and bath curtains in silk taffeta that the Manaforts were told was water-repellent. What do you think the interior of the cars look like? Was it sheer fur?

In short order, reporters from The Weekly Standard and HuffPost identified J&J Oriental rugs as the likely location of Mr. Manaforts spree. (J&J did not answer questions from The New York Times.) That flummoxed the small network of high-end dealers who rely on a mix of cooperation and competition when dealing with the biggest collectors, and who expressed utter disbelief that Mr. Manafort had spent this amount at what was basically a neighborhood store.

I looked at that website, and the rugs shown there were mostly standard Iranian commercial goods from now or not long ago, said Daniel Shaffer, the executive editor of Hali Magazine, a rug and textiles publication. There was nothing collectible about them. I dont know what he bought, but with the kind of things I saw on the website, he would have had to buy a container load to spend a million dollars.

I cant believe it was kosher, Mr. Nazmiyal said, echoing the opinions of more than half a dozen other Persian carpet experts. If you want to buy jewelry and youre going to spend a million dollars, you go to see Faberge, you go to Cartier and Tiffany. When you go to a local, neighborhood store for rare and expensive rugs, in all probability that dealer is going to contact a dealer in a big metropolitan area to get it on consignment and bring it to you. That drives the price up. Theres more hands involved. People hear about it.

Mr. Manafort wasnt even a fixture on the auction scene, a typical stomping ground for those looking for deals on highly collectible pieces.

He never came, said Mary Jo Otsea, who ran the rugs department at Sothebys, where she worked for more than 30 years. She oversaw the 2013 sale of the most expensive carpet ever, a kaleidoscopic tapestry of leafy vines that was woven in Southeast Iran in the early 17th century and measures 9 feet by 6 feet.So closely associated is Denmark with its capital, Copenhagen, that most visitors unknowingly overlook the countrys second-largest city. Aarhus is another Viking-founded seaside port, this one 98 miles across the Kattegat on the eastern coast of the Jutland peninsula  a town whose modest size (327,000 people) can give it the feel of an overgrown village, complete with cobbled streets and 18th-century facades.

And yet over the past decade, as Copenhagen has reached hygge-seeker saturation point, Aarhus has emerged on its own terms as a design destination. Consider Isbjerget, the ambitious 2013 architectural collaboration that consists of four faceted residential buildings meant to resemble floating icebergs, or 2015s equally avant-garde Dokk1, Scandinavias largest public library. Then theres the Michelin-starred restaurant scene, which takes full advantage of the surrounding countryside and waters bounty. Happily, however, new development hasnt detracted from the coziness that still distinguishes the city: Here, visitors can actually participate in everyday life, whether that means hunting for perfect peonies at Ingerslevs Boulevard farmers market, stopping for coffee on one of the narrow, medieval streets of the Latin Quarter, home to many of Aarhus Universitys politically active students, or biking through Marselisborg forest, south of the city and dense with elms, oaks and wildflowers.How the government uses the technology, however, appears far less sophisticated. I often wonder if it even has the manpower and resources to review all the material it gathers from surveillance operations. It has this incredibly sophisticated spyware, and yet most signs indicate reckless use without real material gain. Sometimes it can feel as if the government bought a Lamborghini to race around a go-kart track.

What do you do, in broad strokes, to keep your communications secure?

The least tech-forward thing you can imagine: I meet face to face with people.

I tend to avoid messaging or talking about specific work targets on my main Mexican phone. Im pretty sure I was sent Pegasus, the spyware purchased by the Mexican government, and though Ive wiped that phone and replaced it, Im cautious. I use the typical encrypted apps for communications and maintain several phones, which I use for different purposes. Its annoying lugging all of them around, and I get funny looks at the airport when I toss three phones into the scanner basket. Its also a pain keeping them all charged.

How has the tech landscape changed in Mexico over the years? Is there a lot of tech start-up activity?

Lots has been written about the booming tech scene in Mexico, in particular in the city of Guadalajara, which is the latest place to be given some kind of Silicon Valley moniker. There are a bunch of start-ups there, taking advantage of the tens of thousands of engineering graduates coming out of prestigious programs in Mexico every year.

Is it a game-changer? I dont know, to be honest. The entrepreneurs and officials here were trying to drum up support for recruiting foreign-born Silicon Valley engineers, to take advantage of President Trumps immigration policies. Not sure that went anywhere past the headlines, though.But not everywhere. Several states are considering whether to adopt their own versions of the individual mandate, Obamacares rule that people who can afford insurance should pay a fine if they dont obtain it. A few are looking to tighten rules for short-term health plans. Some states are investing heavily on Obamacare outreach and marketing, even as the federal government cuts back.

The result is likely to be big differences in health insurance options and coverage, depending on where you live. States that lean into the changes might have more health insurance offerings with small price tags, but ones that are inaccessible to people with health problems and dont cover major health services, like prescription drugs. States pushing back may see more robust Obamacare markets of highly regulated plans, but the price of those plans is likely to remain higher.

Legislation to replace the individual mandate has already been introduced in Maryland and New Jersey with prominent sponsors. Political leaders in other states, including California, Washington, Rhode Island, Vermont, Connecticut as well as the District of Columbia, are weighing options for replacing the mandate this year, as Stephanie Armour reported in The Wall Street Journal. The mandate was designed to give healthier people an incentive to buy insurance before they fell ill, lowering the cost of insurance for everyone who buys it.

Clearly, I think the federal administration and Congress are moving in one direction, said Brian Feldman, a Maryland state senator who leads the state health subcommittee and was the primary sponsor of mandate legislation there. And I think states like Maryland would like to move in a different direction.

Mr. Feldman and his colleagues arent planning simply to replicate the federal individual mandate. Instead, they are trying a new strategy. People who fail to obtain insurance would still be charged a fine, but they would be allowed to use that money as a down payment on a health plan if they wished. Legislators estimate that many people subject to the penalty would not owe anything more to buy health insurance, after federal tax credits are applied.There is a national poet laureate, but you might be surprised to learn there is a national youth poet laureate as well. Amanda Gorman, 19, who is the first to hold the lofty title, is a native of Los Angeles and a sophomore at Harvard.

I feel in many ways like a unicorn, she has said. But its only her work that is born out of imagination. The Timess Race/Related newsletter asked her for original poetry for Black History Month, which we then animated. You can watch her poems below. After each selection, weve included her back story to the poem.

She also shared her story with us here.Good morning.

(Want to get California Today by email? Heres the sign-up.)

Its not only housing prices that are sky high in San Francisco. The citys public defender, Jeff Adachi, is leading a campaign to highlight what one study found were among the highest bail levels in the state.

The judges here set bails like they are announcing the next jackpot in the lottery, Mr. Adachi said. Its typical to see $50,000 or a $100,000 bail.

In January, Mr. Adachi was emboldened by a California Court of Appeal decision that cast doubt on the practice of setting bail above what defendants can pay. The ruling says a defendant may not be imprisoned solely due to poverty.

The case that prompted the landmark ruling involved Kenneth Humphrey, 64, who was accused of following a 79-year-old disabled man into his apartment in San Francisco, threatening to put a pillow case over his head and demanding money. Mr. Humphrey, who has a history of substance abuse and multiple prior felony convictions, stole $5 and a bottle of cologne from the man.A teacher at a high school in Dalton, Ga., was arrested on Wednesday after he barricaded himself in his classroom and fired at least one gunshot through a window, the police said.

Bruce Frazier, the spokesman for the Dalton Police Department, said that no students were hit and that he was aware of only one injury: A student hurt her ankle while running through the halls.

The police identified the teacher as Jesse Randall Davidson, 53. They said that he appeared to have locked the door to his classroom at Dalton High School and was alone there when students tried to enter shortly before noon. The principal, Steve Bartoo, was called to the classroom and said he used a key to open the door.

I attempted to enter the classroom and he slammed the door, Mr. Bartoo said at a news conference on Wednesday afternoon, adding that Mr. Davidson told him to go away. He had some nonsensical noises that were made as well.SAN FRANCISCO  A top federal official likened Mayor Libby Schaaf of Oakland to a gang lookout on Wednesday, saying her warning of an impending, large-scale arrest operation had given immigrants in the United States illegally the opportunity to flee.

Ms. Schaaf had announced on Saturday that she had learned through unofficial channels that the federal Immigrations and Customs Enforcement agency, or ICE, was planning arrests in the area.

I know that Oakland is a city of law-abiding immigrants and families who deserve to live free from the constant threat of arrest and deportation, she said in a statement that circulated widely on social media over the weekend. I believe it is my duty and moral obligation as mayor to give those families fair warning when that threat appears imminent.

The mayors warnings proved correct. Since Sunday night, ICE officers have arrested more than 150 people in Northern California in an operation ICE said was targeting public safety threats.You dont have the answer to the questions, where did you come from? What is life all about? Where are you going when you die? You dont have those answers yet. You can find it tonight. Billy Graham is probably the most important evangelist of the 20th century, even though American history is populated with prominent Christian preachers who were pivotal figures in their times. But Billy Graham combined his personal magnetism and his clear message with the foresight to make use of modern communications technologies. Everything from television to satellite uplinks to the internet.  of Gods mighty love. When I go abroad, I dont go as an ambassador of the United States, I go as an ambassador of the king of kings and Lord of Lords. Billy Graham pioneered global crusades, and his sermons were transmitted simultaneously into dozens of languages  Be repentant of your sins before.  and transmitted by satellite to hundreds of countries. So he had a global reach. Christianity is not a white mans religion, and dont let anybody ever tell you that its white or black. Christ belongs to all people. Billy Graham was not only charismatic and telegenic, but he understood that no matter how large the crowd, he had to move each man and woman there personally. Is your heart right? And he would speak in a way that was accessible.  be Lord of your eyes, Lord of your ears  People who attended Billy Graham crusades would often say afterward, I felt like he was speaking to me personally. Im going to ask you to get up from your seat if you  Thousands of people, many first-time converts, would stream forward and be met by representatives of local churches, so that after the crusade was over, they would have a local church to be part of. And in this way, Billy Graham had a huge impact on building evangelical Christianity. The spirit at large comes to live within you  He wasnt building just his own movement or his own church. He was building Christianity. Im looking forward to that day when Ill see Christ face to face. Are you?To Democrats, the fact that the N.R.A. is not opposed to the proposal is prima facie evidence that it falls short. They are demanding a more robust debate over a series of gun initiatives, notably what they call a universal background check system that would cover all gun transactions in the country. That plan is opposed by the gun lobby but was seemingly endorsed by Mr. Trump, putting him at odds not only with the gun advocacy group that strongly backed him, but with many congressional Republicans, as well.

Senator Christopher S. Murphy, Democrat of Connecticut and an author, with Mr. Cornyn, of the more limited background check bill, equated taking up his own legislation without allowing consideration of alternatives to slamming the door in the face of all these kids who are demanding change.

I think it is imperative that we rise to the moment, Mr. Murphy said.

Mr. Trump told lawmakers they should use a broader bipartisan background check measure that failed in 2013 after the school shooting in Newtown, Conn., as the basis for a comprehensive measure that could take in many proposals, including the Cornyn plan, new mental health provisions and added security for schools. He urged backers of a renewed ban on assault weapons to make their case to the authors of the legislation and said he would welcome the opportunity to enact one sweeping bill to combat mass shootings. But Congress has for years been unable to make even incremental headway on new gun buying limits, let alone the type of multifaceted plan called for by the president.

Democrats would like to persuade Senator Mitch McConnell, Republican of Kentucky and the majority leader, to allow votes on major gun control proposals, a plan that could throw the Senate into a full-blown showdown over competing initiatives. But Mr. McConnell is never one to rush into a fight that divides his own party if he can help it. While Mr. McConnell has been quiet about his intentions, Mr. Cornyn opened the door to that possibility of a wider debate provided it could get to passage of his bill at a minimum.

We can set up a situation where they can vote on those amendments, he said. What I dont want to do is leave here this week and go back home to Texas and say we failed to do anything to try to address these tragedies.

As lawmakers quibbled about how to proceed, some of the multiple proposals promoted by Mr. Trump were falling by the wayside.Democrats have been building their own list, of companies announcing stock buybacks, and have showcased that as evidence the bill is benefiting the rich rather than trickling down to workers. Wall Street analysts have since released even more detailed estimates of how companies are responding to the law, which lowered taxes for corporations and so-called pass-through businesses. On Wednesday, the nonprofit research group Just Capital will release one of the most detailed accountings to date: a ranking of companies on how much of their tax windfalls are going to workers, customers, communities and shareholders.

Advocates are hoping that the more information they can bring to the surface, the more they can bend companies or voters behavior with it.

What we want to create is sort of a living thing that puts companies on notice, said Martin Whittaker, chief executive of Just Capital, a nonpartisan group that has compiled data on how 90 public corporations plan to spend their tax savings, and which will send letters to 875 companies on Wednesday seeking more information on those plans. Its initial release includes breakdowns of how individual companies will allocate their tax savings, based on their public statements and disclosures.

Paul Tudor Jones, a hedge fund titan who is a co-founder of Just Capital, said he hoped publication of that data would lead to a dialogue among executives and the general public about whats the most equitable way to distribute this windfall we just received. By the middle of the year, he added, the group should have enough information from public disclosures and survey responses to get a fuller understanding of where the money is actually headed. Well learn a lot, he said.

The groups initial findings suggest shareholders of 90 large corporations  including Home Depot, Pfizer and Capital One  are reaping far more of the benefits of the law than workers or consumers. Pay or benefit increases for workers account for 6 percent of the savings those companies report from the law, the group calculates, while job creation accounts for 22 percent. More than half of the money going directly to workers takes the form of one-time bonuses, as opposed to permanent raises or benefits.WASHINGTON  The long-simmering friction between President Trump and Attorney General Jeff Sessions erupted into an extraordinary public face-off on Wednesday as the investigation into Russias election interference roiled the administration and raised new questions about the independence of law enforcement agencies.

Mr. Trump excoriated Mr. Sessions for not ordering his own investigation into the handling of the Russia inquiry during its early months, calling his attorney general DISGRACEFUL in a lacerating Twitter post. Mr. Sessions, who has absorbed blows from the White House since last year mostly in silence, responded with a rare statement defending his integrity and honor.

The back-and-forth, unthinkable in previous administrations, came during a week of unrest at the White House. As the president railed about the special counsel Robert S. Mueller IIIs Russia investigation, his son-in-law and senior adviser, Jared Kushner, was stripped of his top-secret security clearance. One of Mr. Trumps closest aides, Hope Hicks, announced that she will step down as communications director. And Mr. Trumps former campaign chairman was back in court pleading not guilty to new charges.

The schism between Mr. Trump and his attorney general has become a persistent subplot of his administration, an almost Shakespearean rift between a president and one of his earliest and strongest supporters. Mr. Sessions was the first senator to back Mr. Trumps candidacy but has fallen out of favor because the president wanted an attorney general who would protect him and investigate his political enemies.The bloodied shoes that Brooke had worn the day of the shooting had been taken away as evidence. Her favorite sweater was also seized. Her black backpack now has a bullet hole in the bottom, from one of the AR-15 rifle rounds that filled her English class with a choking haze and killed Alex Schachter, Alyssa Alhadeff and Alaina before her eyes there in room 1216.

So on Wednesday, Brooke went back to school carrying little more than her phone and a small bracelet made by students that said ALAINA.

The shortened school day started with fourth period, the class where everything had shattered. For 30 minutes, the students reunited with the classmates and teachers who had huddled with them in closets and corners. They spent 24 minutes in each of their other classes and were done by 11:40 a.m. Robert W. Runcie, the Broward schools superintendent, said about 95 percent of the student body of 3,293 had returned.

There were extra counselors and therapy dogs on hand, and it will be days  if not weeks  before students return to their regular lessons. The schools principal, Ty Thompson, said on Twitter that the focus of the week would be on healing, and classes are being dismissed at 11:40 a.m. for the rest of the week in an effort to let the students acclimate to being back.

There is no need for backpacks, he wrote. Come ready to start the healing process and #RECLAIM THE NEST.

Back at home that morning, it was 7:23. Time for Brooke to go.

Are we ready? Ms. Harrison asked.

Yeah.Overweight mothers are more likely to have overweight babies, and the gut bacteria the babies inherit may in part be to blame.

Researchers report that overweight mothers are more likely to have a cesarean section, and that babies born by cesarean to those mothers have species of gut bacteria different from those in babies born to normal weight women. And that difference in the gut microbiome  specifically an abundance of bacteria of the family Lachnospiraceae in infants of overweight mothers  may contribute to an increased risk for obesity.

The study included 935 mother-infant pairs. Compared to children born to normal weight mothers, those born vaginally to overweight women were more than three times as likely to be overweight by age 3. But C-section babies born to overweight mothers were more than five times as likely to be overweight.

For normal weight mothers, vaginal or C-section delivery made no difference in the risk for overweight babies.Six educators were killed this week in the Central African Republic, Unicef said on Wednesday, the latest of several attacks on aid workers as that fragmented and war-torn nation slides deeper into chaos.

The attack occurred near Markounda, a small town in the northwest, near the border with Chad  a remote part of a sparsely populated country that is sometimes described as the least developed in the world. Like most of the nation, the area is beyond the control of the central government in the capital, Bangui, and power is wielded instead by an array of militias that often fight one another.

Last August, six Red Cross volunteers were killed in the southeastern part of the country, and there have been other acts of violence against aid workers since then. Days after the August attack, the United Nations warned of rapidly escalating violence and a worsening humanitarian crisis in the Central African Republic.

Even the most intrepid aid groups have reconsidered whether it is safe to work in the country. In November, Doctors Without Borders shut down a major operation after a string of attacks and threats.The first assumption was based on a remark by the United Nations secretary general, Antonio Guterres, that the problem of sexual abuse was probably worse on the civilian side of the organization than within the peacekeeping forces. Mr. MacLeod concluded that this meant there must be at least 312 victims of the non-peacekeeping staff  311 plus 1  but to keep his estimate conservative, he put the number at 289, to arrive at an even 600 for the year. Needless to say, that kind of rounded guess based on an offhand statement is unlikely to be reliable.

From there, Mr. MacLeod estimated that only 10 percent of the assaults were actually recorded, a figure he said was based on reporting rates in the United Kingdom, to arrive at a figure of 6,000 victims annually. But because the United Nations doesnt have good (or possibly any) data about the rate at which victims report assaults by its staff, theres no way to know if that was the right multiplier to use.

Then, to arrive at an estimate for the decade, Mr. MacLeod assumed that 2016 was a representative year, so he multiplied 6,000 by 10.

Presto: 311 becomes 60,000.

By the Numbers

In Mr. MacLeods telling, he always intended his memo to be an advocacy statement rather than what he called peer-reviewed statistical analysis  essentially a way to say here is a problem that is very large and very bad (my phrase), with digits instead of words.

The problem is, that isnt how journalists use statistics, or how the public consumes them.

Good journalists always try to check the provenance of the numbers we cite. But we arent trained statisticians, so we cant necessarily perform independent checks of every figure experts provide to us. And sometimes numbers manage to enter the news ecosystem so quickly and pervasively that our fact checks cant keep up.

After the Parkland school shooting, for instance, you may have seen the viral statistic that America had experienced 18 school shootings already this calendar year.

In fact, it turns out, that number was misleading. It came from Everytown for Gun Safety, a gun-control organization, whose definition of school shootings is far broader than the common understanding of the term. It counts every time a person fires a gun in or near a school building as a school shooting, including a suicide in Michigan that took place outside a shuttered, empty school.KABUL, Afghanistan  President Ashraf Ghani of Afghanistan renewed a call on Wednesday for the Taliban to join peace talks, offering to treat the insurgent group as a legitimate political party, though it has repeatedly rejected similar proposals.

In the latest overture, Mr. Ghani said his government would provide the Taliban with an office in the capital, Kabul; passports for their members; help resettling militants families; and assistance in scrubbing the names of top commanders from international terrorist blacklists.

We believe in providing a peaceful and respectful life for all Afghans, including those Taliban who leave violence behind, Mr. Ghani said. He spoke at a peace conference, called the Kabul Process, attended by more than 20 nations but not the Taliban.

There appears little chance of any breakthrough, but the Afghan government made the offer to show an international audience that it is willing to negotiate, and to encourage those participating in the conference to pressure the Taliban to accept. The government is under pressure to offer incentives as the United States increases military pressure.TAIPEI, Taiwan  In very different ways on Wednesday, citizens of Taiwan used an important holiday to call for the 23 million people of this self-governing island  which Beijing claims as its territory  to have a greater say in their political identity.

Young protesters in the northern city of Taoyuan, carrying an anti-China banner, splashed red paint on the tomb of Chiang Kai-shek, the generalissimo who fled to Taiwan after losing Chinas civil war to the Communists and who declared martial law on the island that lasted until 1987, 12 years after his death.

And at a news conference in Taipei, the capital, two former presidents called for a referendum in April 2019 on whether to replace the Republic of China, which has been the islands government since 1945, with a Republic of Taiwan  a move that Beijing has warned would lead to war.

Both developments on Wednesday  the 71st anniversary of an uprising that led to a massacre of Taiwanese by Chiangs soldiers  highlight the challenges that President Tsai Ing-wen faces in dealing with rising pressure from China while trying to keep Taiwans pro-independence voters on her side as midterm elections approach.As soon as China announced it would remove term limits on the presidency, its censors and propaganda machine kicked into gear. The surprise move would clear the way for Xi Jinping to stay in power indefinitely. Its a break from Chinas decades-old rules to prevent power from being too centralized around one person. In China, the most important political announcements are made through the state-owned news organizations. This explosive news was announced by Xinhua news agency on Sunday in the afternoon. So how did officials try to spin the news? On Weibo, Chinas version of Twitter, China.com published this video focusing on the central role of the president. In the face of the complicated domestic and international situation, this will further promote the sustainable development of various great causes. China Central Television ran a similar editorial, stating that the people love their dear leader. Global Times, a Chinese daily, published an editorial recommending that people firmly support the constitution amendment suggestion, which is both the rational choice and our belief. But the same day, it published an editorial that depicted the news in a softer light, saying, The change doesnt mean that the Chinese president will have a lifelong tenure. The Peoples Liberation Army Daily is the voice of the military. It published a write-up saying that soldiers and armed policemen all support the decision. President Xi Jinping has consolidated his control of the army, and all of the soldiers are supporting him 100 percent. State-run media tried to control the narrative in Hong Kong, too. That video was made by the Ta Kung Pao. Its a pro-Beijing Hong Kong newspaper. And I think the most important part of the video is trying to let people know that the Chinese constitution actually had been changed four times in the past several decades. So its not a big deal. So people dont need to freak out. But not everyone was on board. Chinese citizens took to social media networks to voice their disagreements. One user said he couldnt use the word disagree on Weibo, because it was apparently a violation of the social platforms terms. But perhaps not surprisingly, those comments were swiftly removed from the web.A Budapest university threatened with being shut down after emerging as a high-profile target of government attacks on its founder, the financier George Soros, announced a bit of welcome news on Wednesday: It has been reaccredited for the next five years.

Our university is proud to have secured reaccreditation here in Hungary, where we belong, the president and rector of the Central European University, Michael Ignatieff, said in a statement.

The university became a focus last year of a broad campaign against Mr. Soros by the right-wing government of Prime Minister Viktor Orban, although the institution has consistently maintained that he no longer plays a role in its operations.

The government proposed legislation last year that appeared to have been written specifically with the intent of shutting the school down, and its passage was met with criticism from universities around the world, the United States and the executive arm of the European Union.MILAN  He may potentially be the most powerful man in Italy, yet few people know who he is. Foreign ambassadors seek him out, even though he holds no public office. He claims to be but a simple member of a political movement, volunteering free technical assistance, but critics say he and his small Milan company control the votes, the candidates and the policies of the countrys leading party.

As Italy faces critical national elections on Sunday, the media-shy internet entrepreneur, Davide Casaleggio, is the Wizard of Oz-like figure behind the tightly drawn curtain of the countrys front-running Five Star Movement as it approaches real political power.

Since its birth less than a decade ago, the party has confounded Europes establishment and promoted itself as an internet-based insurgent party that could change Italys politics. It has gained support, especially among young voters, by presenting itself as a truly transparent, egalitarian political movement that votes on its candidates  as well as positions  on the web.

Yet on the way to becoming a forum for unfiltered democracy, Five Star has grown into Italys most opaque political party, and Mr. Casaleggio its most enigmatic leader in an era when the web is a mire of hacking, fake news and hidden interests.OSLO  The protocol for nominating and choosing recipients of the Nobel Peace Prize is one of the worlds most scrutinized and secretive.

A total of 329 candidates  217 individuals and 112 organizations  are being considered for this years prize, which will be announced in October. The identities of the candidates are kept secret, and indeed, the Norwegian Nobel Committee, which awards the prizes, is forbidden from divulging any information about its deliberations for 50 years, and even then, only for scholarship purposes and at its discretion.

But a wrinkle in this time-honored process  the peace prize was first awarded in 1901  emerged on Tuesday, when the committee announced that it had uncovered what appeared to be a forged nomination of President Trump for the prize. The matter has been referred to the Oslo police for investigation.

Moreover, the forgery appears to have occurred twice: Olav Njolstad, the secretary of the five-member committee, said it appeared that a forged nomination of Mr. Trump for the prize was also submitted last year  and was also referred to the police. (The earlier forgery was not disclosed to the public at the time.)BRATISLAVA, Slovakia  Before he and his fiancee were killed in their home, a Slovak journalist was investigating a powerful Italian organized crime group, its activities in his country and its possible ties to Slovak government officials, the journalists colleagues said on Wednesday.

The journalist, Jan Kuciak, was looking into whether the Ndrangheta, the Calabrian organized crime syndicate, had funneled money into Slovakia, investing in real estate and other ventures, and developing ties to Slovak politicians, according to Aktuality.sk, the news site he worked for, and the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project, one of several organizations collaborating on the investigation.

A version of Mr. Kuciaks last, unfinished article, published on Wednesday by Aktuality and other news organizations, explored the business dealings of Antonino Vadala, an Italian man living in Slovakia whom the Italian authorities suspected of having ties to the Ndrangheta.

Mr. Vadala could not be reached for comment, and he is not quoted in the article.

The articles publication prompted the resignation of high-ranking Slovak government officials. Mr. Kuciaks report says the major investments that Mr. Vadala and his associates made included farmland, to draw European Union agricultural subsidies.The European Union proposed on Wednesday that, unless other solutions are found, Northern Ireland will remain in a customs union with the European Union and, for all intents and purposes, the single market as well, when Britain leaves the bloc.

The purpose, as outlined in a draft document, is to ensure that there will be no hard border between Ireland and Northern Ireland after the British withdrawal, known as Brexit. That drew a rebuke from Prime Minister Theresa May, who rejected the idea out of hand.

Here is a guide to why this issue is seemingly so intractable, and how it might be settled or otherwise dealt with.

Why Is the Border Such a Big Deal?

The 500-kilometer border between Ireland, which will remain in the European Union, and Northern Ireland, which as part of the United Kingdom will be leaving the bloc, is probably the toughest challenge in talks over Britains departure.LONDON  Even before the first snowflake had fallen, alarm bells were sounding across Britain.

Beware Beast From the East: It Will Kill, one tabloid warned.

Army on standby as heavy snow to cripple Britain in 15C weather hell, another said.

Bold red signs went up in shop windows, prompting panicked Brits to empty supermarket shelves: SNOWMAGGEDON! Stock up on essentials now.

They were describing a storm known as the Beast From the East, a polar vortex that brought freezing temperatures and snowstorms to parts of Europe this week, including to cities like Rome and London that rarely see snow.

Some noted that as the cold descended on Europe, the Arctic was witnessing one of its warmest winters ever. Last Sunday, as the temperature in Britain fell to 23 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 5 Celsius), northern Greenland was at 43 degrees.WASHINGTON  The United States-led campaign to hunt down the last pockets of Islamic State militants in Syria has lost its most effective battleground partner in what American military officials fear will stall a critical phase of the offensive and leave open the door for hundreds of foreign fighters to escape.

Thousands of Kurdish fighters and commanders who make up the backbone of the Syrian Democratic Forces in recent weeks have diverted to defend Afrin, in Syrias northwest, where other Kurdish militia are facing sharp attacks from Turkish troops.

The Kurdish-led S.D.F. was the driving force last fall in routing the Islamic State from its self-proclaimed headquarters in Raqqa and chasing insurgents fleeing south along the Euphrates River Valley to the Iraqi border.

That fight now is largely reliant on Syrian Arab fighters who make up a majority of the S.D.F. but lack the Kurds military organization and logistical prowess.When a gunman walked into Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School on Feb. 14, he was carrying an AR-15-style rifle that allowed him to fire upon people in much the same way that many American soldiers and Marines would fire their M16 and M4 rifles in combat.

A Marine shooting a standard rifle used by the military. Defense Visual Information Distribution Service The gunman firing a civilian variant during the Parkland shooting.

(This video is graphic.) @jnarls on Twitter

C.J. Chivers is a reporter for The New York Times, a former Marine infantry officer and the author of The Gun, a history of assault rifles and their effects upon security and war. Since 2007, at least 173 people have been killed in mass shootings in the United States involving AR-15s, according to a New York Times analysis. The grim list includes crimes in Newtown, Conn.; Las Vegas; San Bernardino, Calif.; and now Parkland, Fla.

Military M16 Feb. 2018 Parkland, Fla. 17 killed nov. 2017 Sutherland Springs, Tex. 26 killed oct. 2017 Las Vegas 58 killed dec. 2015 San Bernardino, Calif. 14 killed dec. 2012 Newtown, Conn. 27 killed July 2012 Aurora, Colo. 12 killed

The main functional difference between the militarys M16 and M4 rifles and a civilian AR-15 is the burst mode on many military models, which allow three rounds to be fired with one trigger pull. Some military versions of the rifles have a full automatic feature, which fires until the trigger is released or a magazine is empty of ammunition.

But in actual American combat these technical differences are less significant than they seem. For decades the American military has trained its conventional troops to fire their M4s and M16s in the semiautomatic mode  one bullet per trigger pull  instead of on burst or automatic in almost all shooting situations. The weapons are more accurate this way, and thus more lethal.

Military Safe semi burst Civilian fire (semi) Safe Military Civilian Safe semi burst fire Safe

The National Rifle Association and other pro-gun groups highlight the fully automatic feature in military M4s and M16s. But the American military, after a long experience with fully automatic M16s reaching back to Vietnam, decided by the 1980s to issue M16s, and later M4s, to most conventional troops without the fully automatic function, and to train them to fire in a more controlled fashion.

What all of this means is that the Parkland gunman, in practical terms, had the same rifle firepower as an American grunt using a standard infantry rifle in the standard way.

Representative Brian Mast of Florida, a Republican and an Army combat veteran, has called for a ban on the sale of AR-15-style rifles.

The exact definition of assault weapon will need to be determined, Mr. Mast said. But we should all be able to agree that the civilian version of the very deadly weapon that the Army issued to me should certainly qualify.

Joe Plenzler, a 20-year combat veteran of the Marine Corps, is part of a social media movement of military veterans, including those who served in Afghanistan and Iraq, calling for reforms on the sale or possession of modern military-style firearms.

They are the Formula One cars of guns, designed to kill as many people as quickly and efficiently as possible, Mr. Plenzler said, referring to AR-15-style rifles. We are seeing battlefield-level casualties because we are allowing those weapons on our street, he said.

Like the militarys M4s and M16s, civilian AR-15s are fed with box magazines  the standard magazine holds 30 rounds, or cartridges  that can be swapped out quickly, allowing a gunman to fire more than a hundred rounds in minutes. That is what the police described the Parkland gunman as having done. In many states, civilians can buy magazines that hold many more rounds, including 60- and 100-round versions.

A New York Times analysis of a video from a Florida classroom estimates that during his crime the gunman fired his AR-15 as quickly as one-and-a-half rounds per second. The military trains soldiers to fire at a sustained rate of 12 to 15 rounds per minute, or a round every four or five seconds.

The small-caliber, high-velocity rounds used in the military rifles are identical to those sold for the civilian weapons. They have been documented inflicting grievous bone and soft-tissue wounds. Both civilian and military models of the rifle are lightweight and have very little recoil.

Firearms manufactured in the United States Pistols Rifles Includes AR-15 and others Shotguns Revolvers Source: Annual Firearms Manufacturing and Exportation Report 2017, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. Data includes firearms manufactured for export and excludes production for the U.S. military but includes firearms purchased by domestic law enforcement agencies.

A federal ban on the manufacture of certain rifles deemed to be assault weapons took effect in 1994, and the list of covered rifles included the AR-15.Employers must remain vigilant for the rest of this week with the anticipated worsening of weather conditions over the next couple of days according to the ISME.

Status Red warnings are now in place as follows: Snow and ice warning for Dublin, Kildare, Louth, Wicklow, Meath:

05:00hrs 28th Feb to 12:00hrs 1st Mar



Snow and ice warning for Munster and Leinster: 16:00hrs 1st Mar to 12:00hrs 2nd Mar



Businesses have the opportunity to prepare for this event and we advise employers to put measures in place to reduce the potential business impact this warning could have.

During Storm Ophelia, widespread business closures occurred at short notice. While it is very possible that business closures will not be necessary on this occasion, businesses should prepare for the possibility.

All employers have a duty of care for all employees under the Safety Health and Welfare at Work Act, a key consideration needs to be whether, in the circumstances, is it safe to ask employees to travel to work, or to undertake their work.

The potential risk could be greater for certain roles or in certain sectors (e.g. "on-the-road" sales positions or in the construction sector where outside work is required).

Consider how a business decision will be made as to whether or not closure is necessary. Will work automatically be called off if a Status Red warning is issued? Will other circumstances be taken into consideration (i.e. the employee's work environment?). Who will make the decision and more importantly, how will this decision be communicated to employees?

You should ensure you have up to date contact information for all employees within the organisation in case a last minute decision needs to be communicated to staff members.

Where your employment contracts allow for a period of "lay off," you may want to put employees on notice that this clause could be invoked at short notice later on in the week.

MORE TO READ: This is what will happen in Offaly when Storm Emma hits the Beast from the East

Should the business be forced to close, you should consider the likely impact this will have on customers/clients. A plan should be put in place as to how this will be communicated. Consider whether any steps can be put in place to reduce the impact on customers.

For example, is remote working a possibility for your employees? Would this help to diminish the impact on your customers/clients? Is there a contact number that could be provided in the event of an urgent issue arising?

Where a business closure does not occur, you should ensure employees are aware who they should contact in the event that they are unable to attend work due to the weather conditions. Flexibility should be allowed for employees, especially those who have some distance to travel.

Where employees are present in the workplace, care should be taken to remain vigilant for any worsening conditions and cancelled/amended travel services throughout the day. Consideration should also be given to how long it will take somebody to commute home safely.

Further advice for employers can be found on the BeWinter Ready website

Pay Considerations:

The question of whether or not employees will need to be paid if they are unable to attend work due to the severe weather conditions is proving difficult for many employers.

There are a number of matters that require consideration in this respect.

Where the workplace remains open and an employee is unable to attend work due to the weather there is no requirement to pay, unless custom and practice or company policy states otherwise.

Where employees fail to turn up to work due to the weather conditions the employer can at his/her discretion:

Continue to pay the employee as normal

Consider allowing the employee to work from home if possible

Allow the employee to make up their missed time at a later date

Provide them with the option of taking a day's annual leave to cover their absence

Difficulties however arise where the company closes, or employees are sent home upon turning up to work. Again, where the option to work from home is a possibility the employee can be requested to do so. Where this is not a possibility however, it becomes somewhat more difficult.

Where employers have existing policies outlining what will happen in the event of business closures, these should be activated, and employees informed. As long as employees have been made aware of this policy, the provisions outlined should take effect.

Most employers however, do not have a policy in place. In this case, the general rule-of-thumb, where an employer cancels work (or is forced to cancel work), is that the employer is liable to pay employees.

MORE TO READ: List of Offaly services and roads closed due to heavy snow

However, where employers have a "lay-off" clause within the employment contract, they are within their rights to invoke this clause.

It is important to note that you cannot force an employee to take a day's annual leave to cover this time. Legislation requires that in order to force an employee to take a day's annual leave, you must provide them with 1 month's notice. The only exception to this would be if the right to do so is included in a specific "adverse weather conditions" policy, as referenced previously.

Further advice can be found on the Workplace Relations Commission website.Rape case: Mumbai is still safest city for women says Sena

Brace for a 'warmer' summer this year, heatwave conditions likely in Mumbai : IMD

India

oi-Deepika

By Deepika

Brace for a warmer summer ahead with the weathermen predicting 'above normal' temperature across the country this season, even as January was recorded as the eighth warmest in 116 years.

The India Meteorological Department (IMD) has issued a heat wave warning for Mumbai. The temperature is likely to touch 38 degrees Celsius, which is six degrees above normal.

"Above normal temperatures up to one degree Celsius are likely to prevail over all meteorological sub-divisions of the country, except the northwest India where temperatures are likely to be more than one degree Celsius above normal," the IMD said.

Heatwave occurs when mercury shoots five degrees above normal.

The regions falling under the core heat wave zone are Delhi, Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Bihar, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Orissa and Telangana, and meteorological subdivisions of Marathwada, Vidarbha, central Maharashtra and coastal Andhra Pradesh.

Above normal conditions are likely over "core heatwave zone".

This includes Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Delhi, Haryana, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Bihar, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Odisha and Telangana.

The India Meteorological Department also said that temperatures warmer than normal might be experienced across India between March and May. "Seasonal [March to May] average temperatures over many of the subdivisions from northwest and neighbouring central India are likely to be above normal by more than one degree Celsius."

"The country averaged monthly mean temperature during January 2017 was also significantly above normal with anomalies of 0.67 degree Celsius, which is the warmest ever since 1901," the IMD said.

Last year, more than 1,600 people died due to extreme climate conditions. Of them, 700 died due to heatwave conditions. This included over 400 deaths in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana.

OneIndia News (with agency inputs)Union minister Narendra Singh Tomar faces angry locals as he visits flood-hit Sheopur in Madhya Pradesh

Swachh Survekshan 2021: Indore, India's cleanest city is now the country's first 'water plus' city

Viral video: Bangle seller thrashed in MP's Indore; Minister says used fake name

Over 1 crore people in MP fully vaccinated against COVID-19

MP and Odisha bypolls 2018 results: Congress retains both seats in MP, BJP draws blank

India

oi-Chennabasaveshwar

By Chennabasaveshwar

The Congress on Wednesday won the Mungaoli and Kolaras Assembly seat in a bypoll in Madhya Pradesh while it lost to the BJD the lone constituency in Odisha where bypolls were held this month.

Brajendra Singh Yadav of the Congress defeated his BJP rival Baisahab Yadav by a margin of 2,124 votes to win the Mungaoli seat while in Kolaras, Congress candidate Mahendra Singh Yadav prevailed over Devendra Jain of the BJP by 8,083 votes.

Brajendra Yadav got 70,808 votes while Baisahab Yadav bagged 68,684, a poll official said. In Kolaras, Mahendra Yadav polled 82,515 votes and Jain 74,432 ballots, the official said. The by-elections of February 24 were necessitated by the deaths of sitting Congress MLAs.

In Odisha, ruling Biju Janata Dal wrested the Bijepur assembly seat from the Congress with its candidate Rita Sahu defeating her nearest rival, Ashok Panigrahi of the BJP, by 41,933 votes.

Patnaik said, " I would like to express my deep gratitude to the people of Bijepur Assembly constituency for having showered their blessings on BJD."

Counting for two key assembly constituencies in Madhya Pradesh and Odisha's Bijepur assembly seat has begun. The bypoll held on February 24 recorded 77.05 per cent and 70.40 percent voting turnout recorded in Mungaoli and Kolaras respectively. In Odisha's Bijepur , 72 per cent polling was recorded till 5pm.

The by-elections in Madhya Pradesh are seen as providing an opportunity to gauge the mood of the state that will go for assembly elections this year. Both seats are currently held by the Congress. 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.

Both the BJP and Congress are confident of the victory on the two seats, that fall under Guna Lok Sabha constituency, the pocket-borough of Congress stalwart Jyotiraditya Scindia.

The bypolls were necessitated due to the death of sitting Congress MLAs Mahendra Singh Kalukheda (Mungaoli) and Ram Singh Yadav (Kolaras). For Scindia, retaining both the seats in his home turf is a battle of prestige as he is positioning himself as the chief ministerial candidate of the Congress. Aware of the high stakes involved, the Gwalior royal had onstantly toured these two seats in a bid to ward off the saffron challenge.

In Odisha, district of Bargarh has seen more union ministers, parliamentarians, MLAs, film stars, politicians than any poll in Odisha might have ever witnessed. Odisha's two union ministers, Dharmendra Pradhan and Jual Oram had led BJP's campaign in the district. Also, Smriti Irani had addressed three rallies.

Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik had spent a night in the constituency during his hectic two-day schedule of rallies. This is the last bypoll in the state before the 2019 general elections.

The by-poll was necessitated due to death of Congress MLA Subal Sahu. BJD candidate Rita Sahu, Pranay Sahu of Congress and BJP's Ashok Panigrahi are in the fray. For the first time, Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) machines were used in the Bijepur by-poll.

Here are the byelection LIVE Updates:

OneIndia NewsDelhi: 67-year-old Madrasa teacher arrested for molesting minor girl

India

oi-Madhuri

A 67-year-old Madrasa teacher was arrested on Tuesday night for allegedly molesting an 8-year-old girl in Narela located in the North West Delhi.

The incident took place on Sunday and was reported to police on Tuesday. A case has been registered under relevant sections of POCSO and IPC.

Taking to Twitter, Delhi Commission of Women chairperson Swati Maliwal tweeted that the incident was 'sickening'. "Woke up to brutal rape of a 9 year old girl by a 70 year old man in a madrasa. The girl has bled substantially and sustained critical injuries. On my way to the hospital to see her. Sickening!," she tweeted.

This incident comes months after the Uttar Pradesh police raided a madrasa in Lucknow and rescued 51 girls who were allegedly sexually exploited by the madrasa manager.

OneIndia NewsShopping malls in Gurgaon to reopen from July 1; Dos and don'ts

Rajasthan man who robbed more than 20 banks arrested by Gurugram Police

Which is the most suitable city to live in during COVID-19

Ryan school murder case: Accused bus conductor acquitted

India

oi-Madhuri

A Child Special Court on Wednesday acquitted bus conductor Ashok Kumar, who was initially accused of murdering Ryan International School Class II student Pradyuman Thakur.

Gurugram Police had earlier arrested Kumar for allegedly murdering the seven-year-old. The police claimed that Kumar had tried to molest Thakur and killed him with a knife when he resisted. Kumar's family alleged that the Gurugram Police extracted a confession from him under duress.

The CBI, which later took over the case, has arrested a Class XI student for the murder and gave a clean chit to Kumar. Speaking to reporters after the court order, Pradyuman's father, Varun Thakur, has once again appealed to authorities to try the Class XI student as an adult.

Ryan International School owners - founder Augustine Francis Pinto, MD Grace Pinto and CEO Ryan Pinto - had earlier got a temporary reprieve from arrest after the Punjab and Haryana High Court granted them anticipatory bail.

OneIndia NewsIn front of a picture of little Sridevi, students from actress hometown Sivakasi pay tribute

India

oi-Oneindia Staff

By Oneindia Staff

Chennai, Feb 28: Away from the prying cameras, residents of Sivakasi are mourning the death of Sridevi, who hails from Meenampatti, a small village in Tamil Nadu's fireworks industry hub.

The legendary Bollywood and south Indian film icon Sridevi died at the age of 54 in Dubai on Saturday evening. Her funeral will take place in Mumbai on Wednesday. Since the time the news of Sridevi's death has come to light, the entire nation is mourning. A pall of gloom has descended on Sivakasi as the people simply could not believe that their "most famous daughter" is no more.

Born Shree Amma Yanger Ayappan on August 13, 1963, Sridevi lived in her native village for a short period of time. On Wednesday, students of a primary school, owned by the family of Sridevi, paid tribute to the actress in Sivakasi. The memorial service was unique as young kids in front of a black and white picture of "little" Sridevi, when she was around four years old, prayed for the departed soul.

In fact, Sridevi, who had worked in some of the most iconic Bollywood and south Indian movies, started her career as a child artist at the age of four with the Tamil film, Thunaivan. In a career spanning five decades, Sridevi had worked in more than 250 Tamil, Hindi, Telugu, Malayalam and Kannada movies.

Students of primary school owned by family of #Sridevi paid tributes to the actress in Sivakasi #TamilNadu pic.twitter.com/teMSl4cJLD  ANI (@ANI) February 28, 2018

Residents of the native village of the legendary actress told ANI that they "cannot believe Sridevi has passed away".

Tamil Nadu: Visuals from #Sridevi's native village Meenampatti in Sivakasi; residents express grief, says, 'cannot believe Sridevi has passed away.' pic.twitter.com/UamFGan68Q  ANI (@ANI) February 28, 2018

Sridevi's family left their village and settled in Chennai after she joined the Tamil film industry. The Padma Shri-winning actress last visited her village in 1989 to campaign for her father Ayyappa Naidu who contested the assembly election from Sivakasi constituency as a Congress candidate.

"She stayed for 10 days and campaigned for her father. During her stay, she interacted with the locals freely. It left an everlasting impression on them," Duraisamy from Meenampatti was quoted as saying by DNA.

OneIndia NewsJ&K: NIA takes over Lethpora attack

India

oi-Vicky Nanjappa

The National Investigation Agency has taken over the probe into the Lethpora attack at Jammu and Kashmir in which five jawans were martyred. The probe was taken over by the NIA following a directive of the Ministry for Home Affairs.

Terrorists struck on December 31, 2017, at a CRPF camp. The Jaish-e-Mohammad has claimed responsibility for the attack. The terrorists stormed the 185th battalion camp of the CRPF in Lethpora village in Kashmir valley around 2 am. They first hurled grenades and then opened fire.

OneIndia NewsKarnataka assembly elections 2018: Congress makes millennials its target group

India

oi-Anusha

By Anusha Ravi

Younger leaders to target young voters is the Congress' new initiative in poll-bound Karnataka. Under the name 'Nanna Karnataka', the Congress is attempting to woo millennials- mostly first-time voters- ahead of Karnataka Assembly Elections 2018. Young leaders like Priyank Kharge, Krishna Byregowda, Dinesh Gundu Rao, Rizwan Arshad plan to hold more than 100 town hall sessions across the state with youngsters to interact and gain their favour for the Congress.

Nanna Karnataka- an initiative to understand the aspirations, expectations, challenges and needs of the youth is set in the 'question-answer format'. "It was conceived as part of the broader strategy to reach out and listen to the younger generation and take their suggestions," is how Dinesh Gundu Rao, Working President, Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) the concept. The first such interaction was organised earlier this month in Bengaluru. Now, the Congress is set to take the Town Hall discussions forward across the state.

Nanna Karnataka is the Congress' attempt to strike a chord with the youth- a vote bank that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has claimed to be its strength. The Congress' enhanced social media interaction ahead of the Karnataka Assembly Elections 2018 has helped connect with youngsters and the Nanna Karnataka initiative is an extension of the same.

"Unlike the BJP, we believe in taking questions, even if they are uncomfortable. We want a dialogue to understand the needs of youngsters and we are reaching out to them. Many suggestions are being sent to us even through WhatsApp and we will consider them for our manifesto," said Priyank Kharge, Minister for IT&BT and Tourism. He believes that if the initiative can make an impact in a multi-cultural Karnataka, it could be emulated elsewhere in the country.

According to Election Commission statistics, based on the final electoral roll in Karnataka for the assembly elections, 16 lakh youngsters have registered as first-time voters. More than 50 per cent voters in Karnataka are under the age of 40 years. With Nanna Karnataka, the Congress aims to appeal to this vote bank which comprises mostly of millennials.

The audience in these interactive sessions will include students, young entrepreneurs, graduates, young professionals. The Town Hall in Bengaluru saw questions over jobs, urban infrastructure, moral policing, dynasty politics, corruption and reservations. The Congress' strategy to create a feeling of inclusivity by taking suggestions from voters and interacting with them is likely to add to its image of 'development agenda as a poll plank'.

Karnataka Assembly Election dates Date of notification April 17 Last date to file nominations April 24 Last date to withdraw nominations April 27 Date of polling May 12 Date of counting May 15

OneIndia NewsCongress prime opposition to BJP in UP, will win without SP, BSP alliance: Ajay Kumar Lallu

Karti arrest vendetta, diversionary tactic: Congress

India

pti-PTI

Congress on Wednesday termed the arrest of Karti Chidambaram as an attempt by the Modi government to "divert the attention" of the nation from the multi-crore bank scam involving Nirav Modi, Mehul Choksi and others.

Several Congress leaders, including the party's communications in-charge Randeep Surjewala, Kapil Sibal and Abhishek Singhvi, spoke out against Karti Chidambaram's arrest.

It was a "classical diversionary tactic" to hide "corruption scams, mal-governance and mal-administration that have marred this government", Surjewala said.

"The Congress party will not be deterred by unleashing of vendetta against Mr P Chidambaram or his family. We will continue to speak the truth. We will continue to expose the Modi government s corruption and we will continue to hold them accountable to people of the country," he told reporters.

Senior Congress leader Kapil Sibal also termed the arrest "malafide" and said it was done to harass P Chidambaram.

"This is complete vendetta politics, this is completely malafide," he said.

Mr Sibal challenged the agencies to produce evidence against Karti Chidambaram. "They are always misusing the law," he said.

Karti Chidambaram was arrested at Chennai airport around 8 am when he returned from the United Kingdom.

An FIR filed by the CBI on May 15 last year had alleged irregularities in the FIPB clearance to INX Media for receiving overseas funds to the tune of Rs. 305 crore in 2007 when Chidambaram was Union finance minister.

Surjewala said scams worth over Rs. 30,000 crore were unearthed in the last 10 days alone. But the prime minister has not moved the transition from Maun Modi to Bol Modi . The prime minister remains mum about chhota Modi as also Mehul Choksi, he said.

He cited the cases of designer jeweller Nirav Modi and his uncle Mehul Choksi, Rotomac and Durga Das Seth jeweller to say that fresh scams were being unearthed everyday but the prime minister was keeping quiet.

According to party spokesperson Mr Singhvi, Karti Chidambaram's arrest showed the government's "double standards". While Nirav Modi and Vijay Mallya were not stopped from fleeing the country, Karti Chidambaram was arrested even when he returned from a foreign tour, he said.

He also questioned the timing of the arrest, asking if it had anything to do with the Karnataka elections and whether it was aimed at deflecting attention from the Nirav Modi fraud case. The nation, he added, was questioning the Centre on "Chhota Modi".

"Fantastic double standards. Amazing selectivity. Nirav; Lalit and Mallya not stopped from fleeing; Karti arrested on arrival, returning after repeated foreign trips. Few lakhs become 80 crore in few months in Jai Ho case no raid no arrest, instead gag order. 10 lakh allegation and arrest!" he said on Twitter.

"FIR recently filed in PC case. Allegations exist in public domain for over one year with many appearances for questioning; how can sudden custodial interrogation be justified. If no flight risk, no tampering, available for questioning, how and why arrest? Karnataka elections?" he added.Why ISKP would be ISIs preferred proxy to launch attacks in India

ISKP may scout for Indian Mujahideen leftovers to further terror in India: Intel

MHA downplays existence of ISIS in Kashmir

India

oi-Vicky Nanjappa

Seeking to downplay the presence of the Islamic State in Kashmir, the Ministry of Home Affairs said that it has no existence in the Valley.

There is no physical infrastructure or manpower of the IS in the Valley. It does not exist in the Valley, a Home Ministry spokesperson said here.

The central government's assertion came after the terrorist group claimed responsibility for the killing of a policeman, Farooq Ahmad Yatoo, in Jammu-Kashmir on Sunday.

Another official said Pakistan-based terror group Lashkar-e-Taiba could be behind the attack on the policeman, and Esha Fazali, a local militant who first joined the Hizbul Mujahideen and later shifted his allegiance to LeT, has emerged as the prime suspect. However, Jammu and Kashmir DGP SP Vaid have said in Srinagar that it was now clear that ISIS had carried out the attack and it is "indeed a worrying sign".

In November 2017, there were reports that the global terror organisation was involved in an encounter with security forces in Srinagar where a terrorist, identified as Mugees, was killed and a sub-inspector, Imran Tak, lost his life.

Amaq, which is the official news agency of ISIS, had claimed responsibility for that attack.

Pictures of Mugees with the ISIS flag in the background surfaced on social media. Even his body was wrapped in the flag of the banned terror group during the funeral.

However, security officials had then claimed that Mugees belonged to an extremist group called Tehrik-ul- Mujahideen and was its Pulwama district commander.

The Tehrik-ul-Mujahideen was among the first few militant groups that emerged at the onset of terrorism in Jammu and Kashmir in the early 1990s. However, police have found no logistical connection between the two, another official said.

The cadre strength of the group is very small and it has been facing an extreme shortage of weapons, officials said.

The Tehrik-Ul-Mujahideen was founded much before the Pakistan-based group Lashkar-e-Taiba and Hizbul Mujahideen came into existence, they said.

After the killing of Mujees, Adil Ahmed has been appointed the group's commander in Pulwama district.

OneIndia NewsDeath toll due to Encephalitis climbs to 128 in Muzaffarpur; Kanhaiya Kumar visits hospital

Heat, humidity and malnutrition contributed to children's death due to AES in Bihar: IMA

Ex-inmate of Muzaffarpur shelter home raped: NCW, NHRC shoot notices to Bihar DGP, other officials

23-year-old Muzaffarpur woman set on fire after failed rape bid, dies at Patna hospital

Muzaffarpur shelter home: Brajesh Thakur moves HC against jail for life for sexual assault

Muzaffarpur hit and run case: BJP leader Manoj Baitha surrenders

India

oi-Madhuri

Bihar BJP leader Manoj Baitha, who is accused in the Muzaffarpur hit-and-run case, has surrendered on Wednesday.

Baitha has been admitted at Patna Medical College for treatment of injuries he suffered in the accident, that killed 9 school students, denies driving the vehicle involved in the incident.

Nine children of Dharampur Middle School were killed by the speeding SUV when the students were crossing the national highway on their way back home, triggering outrage in the area.

Following the accident, Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad announced the cancellation of Holi celebrations at PNT Community House in Patna planned for March 1.

OneIndia NewsPNB scam: Nirav Modi snubs CBI, says can't join probe

India

oi-Madhuri

Diamond trader Nirav Modim who has been accused of defrauding the Punjab National Bank, replied to CBI letter, saying he won't be able to join the probe and that he has run his business. The CBI had asked Nirav Modi to mandatory join for the probe by next week.

Trouble does not seem to stop for diamond trader Nirav Modi, who is a main accused in the Punjab National Bank (PNB) scam, which allegedly would now somewhere around $2 billion.

While the probing agencies are doing the constant rounds of interrogating to unearthed one of the biggest scams in the history of PSUs. It has been reported that the Enforcement Directorate (ED) moving a court for a non-bailable warrant (NBW) and another court issuing summons to Nirav Modi in a tax evasion case.

Nirav Modi has been accused, along with his Choksi, of defrauding the Punjab National Bank of Rs. 12,600 crore, with Rs. 1,300 being added to the fraud kitty on Monday night.

Earlier, the amount stated to have been defrauded by Modi and Choksi companies was Rs. 11,300 crore.

The CBI had filed the first FIR in the scam on February 14 against Nirav Modi, his wife Ami, brother Nishal, uncle Choksi and his firms Diamond R US, Solar Exports and Stellar Diamond.

Nirav Modi, his family and Choksi left the country in early January. The FIR mentions fraud of around Rs. 6,400 crores.

The CBI filed the second FIR on February 15 for Rs. 4,886.72 crore fraud against the Gitanjali group headed by Choksi.

The agency source said the CBI had written to the Chief Vigilance Officers of five banks to share details of money credited to Nostro accounts of PNB on receiving Letters of Undertaking and Foreign Letters of Credit, which were then withdrawn by Nirav and Choksi's group as buyer's credit.

Till date, 12 persons have been arrested in the case. The ED has attached properties valued by them at Rs. 6,000 crores.

OneIndia NewsOne Nation One Poll: TRS says yes, ally says no

The idea of one election, one ideology is not acceptable says Congress

To push for one nation, one election, BJP to hold 25 webinars over next few weeks

One nation one poll on agenda as Modi, Shah set to meet CMs of BJP ruled states

India

oi-Vicky Nanjappa

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP president, Amit Shah would meet the Chief Ministers of the BJP ruled states today. The one nation one poll would also be on the agenda, sources tell OneIndia.

The meeting will also review the ongoing welfare schemes. The BJP is keen on positioning itself as a pro-poor party ahead of the Lok Sabha elections.

Discussions on holding simultaneous polls too would be on the agenda.

The national general secretary of the BJP had written to all the CMs of the BJP ruled states to 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.

Infographic: States ruled by the BJP in 2017

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PNB scam: Blue Corner notice issued against Nirav Modi, Mehul Choksi

India

pti-PTI

The Income Tax Department on Wednesday attached diamantaire Nirav Modi's four immovable assets, including a farmhouse and a solar power plant, worth Rs 70 crore in connection with a tax evasion probe against him and his companies, officials said.

The department said it has also got issued a Look Out Circular (LoC), also known as a blue corner notice, against Modi and his uncle Mehul Choksi, the promoter of Gitanjali Gems, to keep a tab on their entry at all land, air and sea ports in the country.

According to the officials, Modi's farmhouse in Alibaug, near Mumbai, valued at Rs 13 crore, the 5.24 MW solar power plant spread in 135 acres land in Karjat in Maharashtra's Ahmednagar district, along with two other properties, have been provisionally attached by the department.

"The total value of these attached assets is Rs 70 crore," a senior official said. The department also attached 34 bank accounts and fixed deposits, valued at Rs 1.45 crore, of the Gitanjali group.

Modi, Choksi and others are being investigated by multiple probe agencies after the Punjab National Bank (PNB) disclosed a fraud, valued at close to UDS 2 billion, wherein they allegedly acquired fraudulent letters of undertaking (LoUs) from its Brady House branch in Fort area for overseas credit from other lenders.

Earlier this week, PNB had said the number of unauthorised transactions could go up by more than Rs 1,300 crore from an earlier estimate of Rs 11,400 crore.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the Enforcement Directorate (ED) have registered two FIRs each in this case.

PTIDont want terrorists to know what software is being used: Centre to SC on Pegasus row

SC bans registration of two wheelers without hand grips, saree guards

India

oi-Vicky Nanjappa

The Supreme Court has said that all two-wheeler manufacturers will have to install safety accessories for pillion riders such as saree guards and hand grips.

The order was passed while upholding an order of the Madhya Pradesh High Court which had in 2008 banned registration of vehicles without such accessories. The SC had in 2008 stayed the order after the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers had filed an appeal.

However while finally disposing of the appeal, the SC held that there was no merit in the appeal. The court also upheld Rule 123 of the Central Motor Vehicles Rules which provides for mandatory safety measures for pillion riders. The rule states that manufacturers will need to ensure the safety measures before the vehicles are rolled out of the factories.

"No motor cycle, which has provision for pillion rider, shall be constructed without provision for a permanent hand grip on the side or behind the driver's seat and a foot rest and a protective device covering not less than half of the rear wheel so as to prevent the clothes of the person sitting on the pillion from being entangled in the wheel," the Central Motor Vehicles Rules 1989, say.

OneIndia NewsSridevi financially helped a UP blind man. He waits 2 days outside actors house to pay tribute

India

oi-Oneindia Staff

By Oneindia Staff

Mumbai, Feb 28: The story of a visually-challenged man from Uttar Pradesh waiting outside the Mumbai residence of late Sridevi to pay his tribute to the legendary deceased actress will move you to tears for sure. Since Sridevi's demise in Dubai on Saturday the nation is shocked, as she died pretty early leaving behind a legion of fans. The Padma Shri-winning actress was only 54. According to the forensic report, she died due to "accidental drowning in a bathtub" at her hotel room in Dubai.

A steady stream of visitors, mostly fans and well-wishers of Sridevi, were seen gathering outside her Andheri residence in Mumbai since Sunday morning. They came to have a last glimpse of the actress who gave them so much joy and happiness with her several memorable screen avatars in films like Mr India, Chaalbaaz and English Vinglish, among others.

Unfortunately, as Sridevi died in a foreign country, medical and legal procedures took long before authorities allowed to take back her mortal remains to Mumbai on Tuesday evening. The last rites of the superstar, who had given stellar performances in various south Indian and Bollywood films, will take place in the city on Wednesday.

As the shocked nation was mourning the untimely death of the Bollywood icon, a visually-impaired man from Uttar Pradesh was spotted outside the residence of Sridevi. He told journalists on Tuesday evening that he had been waiting outside her house for two days.

The man, who identified himself as Jatin Valmiki, told ANI that Sridevi once financially helped him. He added that the popular actress paid Rs 1 lakh for the operation of his brother. Valmiki, who expressed his inability to return her favour, said he came to mourn her death.

"Sridevi ji had helped us during the brain tumour operation of my brother. She paid me Rs 1 lakh for the operation. She also helped us in getting Rs 1 lakh fee waiver from the hospital. (Sridevi ji mere bhai ke brain tumour ke operation ke liye help ki thi. Uss samay unhone mujhe 1 lakh ki madad ki & hospital se 1 lakh maaf bhi karwaaye)," Valmiki was quoted as saying by ANI.

Sridevi ji mere bhai ke brain tumour ke operation ke liye help ki thi. Uss samay unhone mujhe 1 lakh ki madad ki & hospital se 1 lakh maaf bhi karwaaye: Jatin Valmiki, a visually impaired man from Uttar Pradesh who has been waiting outside #Sridevi's house since last two days. pic.twitter.com/VkYGEx7PrB  ANI (@ANI) February 28, 2018

"My brother is alive only because of Sridevi. I can't do anything for her. At least, I can join her in her last journey by taking part in her funeral. (Unki wajah se mera bhai aaj zinda hai. Main kuch nahi kar sakta unke (Sridevi) liye, lekin main kam se kam unki antim yatra mein toh shaamil ho hi sakta hoon)," a sobbing Valmiki added.

Unki wajah se mera bhai aaj zinda hai. Main kuch nahi kar sakta unke (Sridevi) liye, lekin main kam se kam unki antim yatra mein toh shaamil ho hi sakta hoon: Jatin Valmiki, a visually impaired man from Uttar Pradesh who has been waiting outside #Sridevi's house. pic.twitter.com/uXnU74B6Bn  ANI (@ANI) February 28, 2018

While we all know how the powerful and beautiful actor and dancer Sridevi was, little is known about her benevolence as revealed by Valmiki. In spite of his disability, Valmiki paid the best tribute to the legendary actor by simply waiting for her mortal remains to arrive in Mumbai, unlike the rumour mongers spreading canards over the delay in the funeral of Sridevi.

It is true that Sridevi was one of the finest actresses of India; it is equally true that it is because of fans like Valmiki, film stars are worshipped like gods in the country.

OneIndia NewsTo seek Kartis remand, CBI to rely on Indrani Mukerjeas confession

India

oi-Vicky Nanjappa

While seeking remand of Karti Chidambaram, the Central Bureau of Investigation would quote a confession reportedly made by Indrani Mukerjea. She is alleged to have told the CBI during questioning in the INX Media case that the help of Chess Management Service was sought.

Further Indrani had said that she and her husband Peter had sought the help of Karti's firm once their FIPB clearance was rejected. They had sought for a clearance of Rs 305 crore, but the FIBP allowed only Rs 5 crore, she had also told the CBI.

Once Chess Management was hired, the clearance came through and they had paid the firm Rs 10 lakh for its services, she had also said.

The INX Media case explained in 6 points

The CBI would seek from the court the custody of Karti Chidambaram who was arrested earlier today at the Chennai airport. The CBI arrested after he landed in India from the UK on a British Airways flight.

OneIndia NewsGive me strength to work even harder for nation: PM Modi on birthday wishes

V-P Naidu, PM Modi condole Kanchi Shankaracharya's demise

India

pti-PTI

New Delhi, February 28: Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu and Prime Minister Narendra Modi expressed sadness at the demise of Kanchi Shankaracharya Jayendra Saraswathi, saying he will live on in the hearts and minds of devotees due to his exemplary service to society.

The senior pontiff of the Kanchi Sankara Mutt passed away in Kanchipuram, Tamil Nadu, following a cardiac arrest. The 82-year-old seer was rushed to a private hospital after he complained of uneasiness.

"Pay my respects to Kanchi peethadhipathi Shri Jayendra Saraswati who attained moksha. His contribution for the welfare of mankind and in promoting spirituality will always be an inspiration for others," Naidu tweeted.

The prime minister said the Shankaracharya will live on in the hearts and minds of lakhs of devotees due to his exemplary service and noble thoughts.

"Jagadguru Pujyashri Jayendra Saraswathi Shankaracharya was at the forefront of innumerable community service initiatives. He nurtured institutions which transformed the lives of the poor and downtrodden," Modi said on Twitter.

PTIWhat is the INX Media case? How Karti, Indrani and Peter Mukerjea are linked

India

oi-Vicky Nanjappa

Karti Chidambaram was arrested today by the Central Bureau of Investigation in connection with the INX Media case.

The CBI had earlier filed an FIR against Karti, Peter and Indrani Mukerjea on charges of criminal conspiracy, cheating, receiving illegal gratification, criminal misconduct and influencing public servants.

It has been alleged Karti had received money from the Peter-Indrani owned INX Media. It is also alleged that they wanted him to use his influence to manipulate a tax probe against it. The probe was about a violation of Foreign Investment Promotion Board conditions to receive investments from Mauritius.

Tracking the money trail:

Peter Mukerjea put his wife in front before starting several companies under the INX banner. By 2014, he had floated several companies including INX News Pvt Ltd, INX Media Pvt Ltd, IPM Incon Pvt Ltd, and INX Executive Search Pvt Ltd.

It was sometime in 2012 that Indrani and Peter completely sold their stake in INX News Pvt Ltd. It may be recalled that Temasek, the investment arm of the Singapore government had also invested in INX Media Pvt Ltd. The documents with the probe agencies show that Indrani and Peter remained investors in INX till a few months before Sheena Bora's murder on April 24, 2012. Both Indrani and Peter are in jail for the murder of Sheena Bora.

Indrani was asked to head another company called IPM Incon Pvt Ltd in 2007. She was made the inlet. The probe agencies have found that Rs 10 crore was given as loan to the company. This was used to buy shares in INX Media Pvt Ltd.

By 2009, both Indrani and Peter jointly started INX Executive Search Pvt Ltd. The same year Peter had approved a loan of Rs 10 crore to his wife and co-director. Interestingly the company was floated with Indrani owning 99.9 per cent stake and the company had a share capital of Rs 10 crore.

Another company INX Services Pvt Ltd was floated by the duo with a paid-up capital of Rs 50 lakh. 99.9 per cent was owned by Indrani while the rest was by Peter. Rs 69 lakh was pumped into the company. There was no business activity in the books except for the transactions between Peter and Indrani.

The loans were interest-free with no terms of repayment. The probe agencies suspect that they were raising money elsewhere. They were handing out loans to each other through a company with no business, address with losses of a few thousand which are shown.

OneIndia NewsWork hard to take govt's flagship measures to masses: Modi tells BJP CMs

India

pti-PTI

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday asked the chief ministers of the BJP-led states to work hard to take his government's flagship welfare measures like health insurance for the poor, and electricity and house for all, to the masses as the party gears up for the next Lok Sabha polls in 2019, party sources said.

Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh told reporters that the issue of simultaneous polls, strengthening the organisation further ahead of the next Lok Sabha polls, and taking the party's development agenda to the poor were among the matters discussed at the meeting which lasted for over five hours.

All BJP chief ministers, barring Goa Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar, and six deputy chief ministers were present in the meeting which was attended by top party leaders, including its president Amit Shah and Union ministers Rajnath Singh, Sushma Swaraj and Arun Jaitley besides the prime minister among others.

A key matter on the meeting's agenda was the central government's proposal to have a Rs 5 lakh medical cover for 10 crore poor families, the Chhattisgarh chief minister said.

"We discussed key planks of our good governance agenda and the chief ministers highlighted what they have been doing in this aspect," Singh said, adding that the work to take electricity to all households by next year and providing a home to all families by 2022 was also reviewed.

On simultaneous polls, Singh said the party is keen to implement it and discussed measures in this regard.

PTI2017 was Good for Yggdrasil, According to Year-ending Reports

Published February 28, 2018 by Lee R

Yggdrasil is effectively expanding and diversifying into 2018.

Yggdrasils Q4 figures are in, and they are as strong as ever.

Jumps in Q4

Highlights for the quarter include revenue jumping 61% to MSEK 51.2 from Q4s 2016 total of 31.8. A healthy 42% jump was turned in for EBITDA as well, increasing to MSEK 21.5 from last years 13.2.

EBIT for the period also increased nicely, reaching MSEK 17.5 from 9.3 for a 34% jump.

Increased Patronage

Player activity increased as well, with transaction rounds improving 87% to 1,184.

Mobile Expansion

The quarter also revealed that mobile gaming has reached 59% of total gross game win, with new licence agreements surely helping out.

New Deals in Q4

The deals include new ink with Pinnacle, Tabcorp, Rank Group and Snaitech, with further exciting plans on the horizon for Yggdrasils Danish market entry through new deals with Jackpotjoy Group, Danske Spil/Bwin.dk and LeoVegas.

New Releases

The quarter also saw two bold new titles being released: Pumpkin Smash and Reptoids. Those two offerings came with an announcement from Yggdrasil to add bingo to its vertical offerings in the coming year.

New Holiday Promotion

A key promotion Yggdrasil held in Q4 2017 was the launch of EUR 500,000 Christmas Calendar campaign for operators.

Yearly Gains

Highlights for the landmark year in the words of CEO Fredrik Elmqvist included revenue increases of a near-double 95% to MSEK 169.1, up from 2016s 86.9.

EBITDA for the year also showed significant improvement to MSEK 71.5, up from 2016s MSEK 40.1) for a margin of 42%. EBIT also improved nicely to MSEK 58.8 (2016: MSEK 27.4) for a margin of 35%.

New Deals in 2017

For the year, a total of 11 new network games and one operator exclusive game were released, along with 40 new licensing agreements.

New Territory

Yggdrasil also was pleased to make its first foray into the Italian market.

Awards

On the heels of the bold new changes, Yggdrasil received industry recognition in the forms of Slot Provider of the Year at the 2017 EGR B2B Awards and IGAs Innovator Supplier of the Year.

Innovation

On the innovation font, Yggdrasil effectively revamped its technical platform iSENSE2.0+

New Games

The year 2017 saw the launch of a brand new game mechanic called Fusion Realms supporting its first game, the newly released Jungle Books, as well as the launch of a new business initiative called Yggdrasil Dragons.

Outlook

Yggdrasils growth should only continue in 2018, with more innovation and expansion already afoot.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 Boston Globe

By Elizabeth Warren and *Steven A. Tolman



Union Labor Built the American Dream

(Image by flickr.com) Details DMCA



When he was gunned down by an assassin's bullet in 1968, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was in Memphis. His last political act was to support sanitation workers as they fought for economic security and dignity on the job. Dr. King understood that the struggle for equality and justice is not limited to civil rights. It also includes economic justice. So, as he led the great struggle for civil rights, he also fought for labor rights.

King was in Memphis to support a union because he knew that unions help lift the fortunes of working people in this country. Union jobs built America's great middle class by lifting families out of poverty, by strengthening communities, and by providing workers with a voice in shaping the direction of our nation. Labor unions also played a powerful role in advancing the fight for racial justice and equality during the civil rights era, mobilizing members and providing financial support.

As the United States continues to grapple with racial and economic inequality, what was true during King's time remains true today: When workers come together in a union, they gain power to win better wages and benefits for themselves and their families.

But over the last several decades, big corporations, billionaires, and their Republican allies in Washington have waged a war on working men and women through brutal anti-union efforts. These powerful interests have run a coordinated campaign in Congress, in state houses, in executive-branch agencies, and in the courts to rig key decisions in favor of employers at the expense of workers.

This is why powerful anti-union organizations worked to hold a Supreme Court seat open for over a year, until President Trump could appoint their hand-picked, pro-corporate choice, Justice Neil Gorsuch. Now, with Justice Gorsuch on the bench, the Supreme Court on Monday heard a case that represents the latest attack on working people: Janus v. AFSCME. This case is a pernicious assault on public sector workers who are the backbone of our communities: police officers, firefighters, teachers, nurses, janitors, and the sanitation workers who King died fighting to help in Memphis.

If the Supreme Court sides with powerful corporate interests in the Janus case, unions will be forced to represent workers who choose not to pay dues. That's not fair -- and it means that unions could lose a significant portion of the resources they use to negotiate fair contracts. Such a ruling would deal a blow to the freedom of working people in Massachusetts and across the country to band together to fight for fair wages, decent benefits, and a better future.

When powerful corporate interests succeed in weakening unions, they undermine all workers' economic security. Income inequality gets worse, and the wage gap by gender and race gets worse. The data bear this out: The difference in wages between women and men in unions is far smaller than in nonunion workplaces, about 6 cents for men and women in unions, while nonunion women still earn only 78 cents for every dollar a man makes.

The consequences of the Janus decision could be even more serious for people of color, who constitute a larger portion of the public sector workforce than the private sector workforce. More than half of black workers and almost 60 percent of Latino workers make less than $15 per hour. Union jobs are a path to the middle class for people of color. Black union members today earn about 16 percent more -- and Latino union workers about 25 percent more -- than their nonunion counterparts. In many industries, the difference is even greater. In addition, most union jobs come with benefits. More than 76 percent of black women in unions have health insurance, while just over 50 percent of nonunion black women do.

At a time of gaping economic inequality, the Supreme Court and the billionaires promoting the Janus case are trying to sink people who are working hard to close that gap and build opportunity for themselves and for their families.

The Supreme Court will do enormous harm to workers across the country if it overturns 40 years of legal precedent to benefit anti-union corporations. But whether they win or lose in court, working people will continue to fight back against powerful corporate interests that are trying to rig the system further in their favor. And working people will continue to come together to join unions because, as King said, the labor movement is "the principal force that transform[s] misery and despair into hope and progress."

The fight to protect and to grow the labor movement is about strengthening America's middle class and building opportunities for all our families -- and we will not back down from that fight.

*Steven A. Tolman is president of the Massachusetts AFL-CIO.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.

In late February, Venezuela's government began accepting presidential candidate registrations and announced a snap legislative election for April. The country's opposition denounces the process as a sham and Maduro as a dictator, both of which may be true.

Oddly, a third voice -- the US government -- also weighed in. Per US state media outlet Voice of America, "the United States, which under President Donald Trump has been deeply critical of Maduro's leadership in crisis-torn and economically suffering Venezuela, on Saturday rejected the call for an early legislative vote."

Given the perpetual public pearl-clutching over alleged Russian meddling in the 2016 US presidential election, that's some major league chutzpah.

The US State Department wants "'a free and fair election' involving full participation of all political leaders, the immediate release of all political prisoners, credible international observation and an independent electoral authority.

Let's take that one at a time.

Participation of all political leaders? In some US states, it's harder for a third party to get on a ballot than in, say, Iran.

The immediate release of all political prisoners? Last I heard, US president Donald Trump hadn't pardoned (among others) Leonard Peltier.

Credible international observation? The US proper committed to admitting international election observers in the Organization for Security and Co-Operation in Europe's 1990 Copenhagen Document, but many US states forbid international observers or, for that matter, local observers who aren't affiliated with one of the two ruling parties.

Electoral authorities? The two ruling parties control them all and routinely use them to suppress threatened competition, as do pseudo-private entities like the Commission on Presidential Debates, which makes giant illegal (but government approved) in-kind contributions to the Republican and Democratic candidates in the form of televised candidate beauty pageants which exclude the opposition parties.

Writing in The Atlantic, veteran election meddler Thomas O. Mela -- formerly of the US State Department, the US Agency for International Development, the National Democratic Institute and Freedom House -- argues that election meddling is different when the US does it, because ... well, "democracy."

Mela asserts a "difference between programs to strengthen democratic processes in another country (without regard to specific electoral outcomes), versus efforts to manipulate another country's election in order to sow chaos, undermine public confidence in the political system, and diminish a country's social stability."

The US government spends a lot of time and money (USAID's budget alone is about one-tenth the budget of the entire Russian government) on foreign election meddling, and somehow "democracy" always gets interpreted as "whatever outcome the US government prefers at the moment."

Perhaps we should get our own democratic house in order instead of, or at least before, presuming to tell the rest of the world how democracy does or should work.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.



Police BADGE

(Image by conner395) Details DMCA



In the American police state, police have a tendency to shoot first and ask questions later.

In fact, police don't usually need much incentive to shoot and kill members of the public.

Police have shot and killed Americans of all ages--many of them unarmed--for standing a certain way, or moving a certain way, or holding something--anything--that police could misinterpret to be a gun, or igniting some trigger-centric fear in a police officer's mind that has nothing to do with an actual threat to their safety.

So when police in Florida had to deal with a 19-year-old embarking on a shooting rampage inside Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., what did they do?

Nothing.

There were four armed police officers, including one cop who was assigned to the school as a resource officer, on campus during that shooting. All four cops stayed outside the school with their weapons drawn (three of them hid behind their police cars).

Not a single one of those cops, armed with deadly weapons and trained for exactly such a dangerous scenario, entered the school to confront the shooter.

Seventeen people, most of them teenagers, died while the cops opted not to intervene.

Let that sink in a moment.

Now before your outrage bubbles over, consider that the U.S. Supreme Court has repeatedly affirmed (most recently in 2005) that police have no constitutional duty to protect members of the public from harm.

Yes, you read that correctly.

According to the U.S. Supreme Court, police have no duty, moral or otherwise, to help those in trouble, protect individuals from danger, or risk their own lives to save "we the people."

In other words, you can be outraged that cops in Florida did nothing to stop the school shooter, but technically, it wasn't part of their job description.

This begs the question: if the police don't have a duty to protect the public, what are we paying them for? And who exactly do they serve if not you and me?

Why do we have more than a million cops on the taxpayer-funded payroll in this country whose jobs do not entail protecting our safety, maintaining the peace in our communities, and upholding our liberties?

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From Paul Craig Roberts Website

We continue to hear from a variety of uninformed or corrupt people that there is "clear evidence" that Russia interfered in the US presidential election. We hear it from the Atlantic Council, a mouthpiece for the military/security complex.

We hear it from a nutcase in the British Labour Party.

We hear it from Washington Post presstitutes and, of course, from all the others professional liars at the New York Times, CNN, MSNBC, and the rest of the brothel.

We hear it from Internet columnists.

We hear it from Newt Gingrich on Fox News and from politicians in both parties.

We hear it from Bloomberg news from the presstitutes Henry Meyer and Kevin Cirilli.

The truth of the hoax indictment is available, but it is not reported by the presstitutes. This website has reported the facts about the indictment as has Moon of Alabama and David Stockman. Even Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein in his press conference announcing Muller's indictment of 13 Russians told us part of the truth when he said at the 5 minute, 22 second mark that "there is no allegation in this indictment that any American was a knowing participant in this illegal activity. There is no allegation in the indictment that the charged conduct altered the outcome of the 2016 election." Rosenstein goes on to say that the suspects are innocent until proven guilty in a trial, which, of course, will not take place as the indicted charges are make-believe and the US has no jurisdiction over the indicted Russians.

Is this the way the presstitutes and politicians are reporting it? Of course not.

Mueller's comic indictment is being treated as proof that the Russian government interfered in the election. In other words, the presstitutes and politicians are purposely deceiving the public at home and abroad. The corrupt American media and political system misrepresent Mueller's unproven accusation as proof of guilt.

Note that Rosenstein waited until the end of his press conference to tell us that Mueller's indictment is not supportive of the Russiagate allegation of a Trump/Putin conspiracy that stole the election from Hillary. Note also that Rosenstein does not tell us that what Mueller has indicted is a private Russian internet marketing bait-click scheme whose purpose was to make money, not influence the US presidential election. See, for example, here, here and here.

The presstitutes have not explained the charges that comprise the indictments of the 13 Russians. It is important to understand what these charges are. As Mueller's charges themselves make perfectly clear, the indictment has nothing to do with stealing an election. The Russians are charged with committing violations of visa laws by disguising the true reason for their trip to the US. They are charged with fraudulent use of telephone calling cards, email accounts and bank accounts, apparently by using false names and stolen identities. In other words, the crimes, even if they were committed, do not relate to the Russiagate allegations of a Trump/Putin conspiracy to steal the presidential election.

As I read the indictment, these illegalities are alleged to constitute a conspiracy to defraud the United States by interfering in the election. However, according to the indictment, the conspiracy to defraud began in 2014 before it was known Trump would be a presidential candidate. So who was the unknown candidate at the time who was to benefit from the interference? Why would Russians interfere in an election when they do not know who the candidates will be? Apparently, both Mueller and the American presstitute media are too stupid to see the relevance of this question.

Why hasn't the media explained any of this and asked how it amounts to a Putin/Trump conspiracy to steal the election? What is wrong with the American people that they cannot see this by themselves. Why do they need it explained to them? Is it because they are too lazy to care enough to know the truth?

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(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).Congress Switchboard: 202-224-3121

"There's no dispute that we now live in a hyper-connected, globalized world--but plenty of argument over the type of globalization that's best for our collective future. In this timely work, Rob Kall makes a persuasive case for 'trickle-up' globalization from below and that the truest, best, and most long-lasting fundamental change always comes from the bottom up. Read this bookthen act on it!"



Rory O'Connor, award-winning filmmaker and author of Friends, Followers, and the Future: How Social Media are Changing Politics, Threatening Big Brands, and Killing Traditional MediaCongress Switchboard: 202-224-3121

"Rob Kall's book, Bottom-Up, offers a compelling vision of a way of being in the world, bringing insights from different cultures and fields together while offering concrete steps to make the vision a reality. This is one of the rare books that, once you read it, will change the way you see the world and your relationships."



Helena Norberg-Hodge, author of Ancient Futures, Producer and co-director of the film The Economics of Happiness, Founder of Local Futures and cofounder of the International Forum on GlobalizationQuicklink Not Found

Sometimes, authors delete their quicklinks after publishing them.



To see if the quicklink was renamed or re-published, please click here.Progressive Content Not Found

Sometimes, authors delete their progressive content after publishing.



To see if the progressive content was renamed or re-published, please click here.Would you like to know how many people have read this article? Or how reputable the author is? Simply sign up for a Advocate premium membership and you'll automatically see this data on every article. Plus a lot more, too.

From The Hill

Robert Mueller and Donald Trump are joined, along with every American, in a gripping Shakespearean drama that will powerfully impact the future of America.

Special counsel Mueller, a hero during the Vietnam War who is now leading the investigation of the Russian attack against American democracy, and President Trump, who was decidedly not a hero during the Vietnam War and is not leading the fight against the Russian attack against America, are the star protagonists in an epic drama that will change the course of history.

In "As You Like It," William Shakespeare wrote, "All the world's a stage, And all the men and women merely players."

In the great democratic drama that is now unfolding, Trump is a player, Mueller is a player and all Americans are players every time we answer a question in a poll, exercise our right to vote or ask our representatives in Washington hard questions at town meetings.

It is possible that Mueller indicts Trump for one or more criminal offenses. It is possible he does not indict Trump but sends a detailed report to Congress that would justify impeachment, whether House Republicans respect these findings or not.

It is also possible that Mueller clears Trump, telling that nation that no offense was committed by the president, which would give his presidency a significant boost.

Ernest Hemingway advised writers to write one true sentence. One true sentence about Mueller is that he will make his decisions based on the facts, the truth and the law, whether they lead to innocence or guilt.

One true sentence about Trump is that persistent reports suggest his lawyers are advising him to not testify before Mueller because they fear he would be caught telling a lie, which would be a crime.

Sunday, the Washington Post ran a front-page story that discussed at length how Mueller and Trump both grew up with privileged backgrounds but ended up in very different places, having made vastly different choices.

Mueller is the epitome of the ethic of duty, honor and country in public service. He is a pillar of integrity and justice in public life.

Like others of his generation, such as Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and former Secretary of State John Kerry, Mueller could have began his career living comfortably after a first-rate education but chose, instead, to risk his life serving our country. He continued his service with a brilliant and honorable career in public life.

Trump, by contrast, throughout his career, appears to have asked himself one question: "What's in it for me?" One of the most dastardly things Trump ever said was in response to the question of whether McCain is a hero. He said he prefers troops who were never captured.

In the Shakespearean drama that is unfolding today, Americans are gripped by regular news of Mueller achieving more indictments, plea bargains and evidence about the scandal of the Russian attack against America that continues today.

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From Creators

Breaking news: Trump & Company are a murderous mob!

From the start of his White House tenure, the Trumpsters have plotted, stalked and serially killed vibrant members of the English Language.

The word "Fact" was the first to go. Robust and universally respected, Fact was assassinated last year when one of Trump's hired killers poisoned it with an unknown substance nicknamed: "Alternative Fact."

Their latest victim was a much-honored word that has produced a whole family of world literature: "Satire." This powerful noun embodied the use of sarcasm and ridicule to expose the vanity and vice of public figures, but Trump himself killed satire by starving it of any meaning. How can anyone satirize a presidency that is, in reality, nothing but a fully-staged satire of vanity and vice? Satire involves exaggerating the flaws, mannerisms, oddities, etc., of various characters to convey how corrupt and contemptible they are -- but it's impossible to exaggerate the awfulness of an administration that gleefully flaunts its awfulness every day.

Take Trump's proposed budget... please! Delivered just in time for Valentine's Day, it's a nasty piece of work. For example, it would intentionally increase poverty and hunger across our country. It would slash programs providing essential food, housing, and even heating assistance for about 50 million Americans -- mostly children, old folks, poverty-wage workers, and disabled people.

Then there are the vital Medicare and Medicaid programs that most working class Americans count on. Candidate Trump promised us that "there will be no cuts" in funding for these programs. But now he has sent his Valentine budget to us, featuring -- guess what? -- hundreds of billions of dollars in cuts to Medicare and Medicaid. Not only has his cynicism killed satire, but his cynical health care cuts could kill you.

Presidential budgets aren't just numbers, they're statements of a president's moral principles. No work of satire could ridicule Trump's morality as effectively as his own budget does.

Even Charles Dickens, the masterful satirist of Victorian English elites, couldn't have imagined using a box of food to take a gratuitous, heavy-handed slap at poor people. But Donald Trump and two of his slap-happy cabinet officials did imagine it -- and then did it.

They slipped a malicious, punish-the-poor provision into the food stamp budget Trump sent to Congress. Instead of getting a small monthly allowance to spend on foods of their choice, the Trump provision would take away half of the poor people's allowance and substitute a monthly box of peanut butter, canned goods, and other packaged food items chosen for them by their friendly Federal government.

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(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).Efficient wafer handling with the latest vacuum technology

Cross-section of a COBRA NX dry screw vacuum pump

www.buschvacuum.com

The IHP  Innovations for High Performance Microelectronics  in Frankfurt (Oder), Germany is a member of the Leibniz Association. It performs research and development in the fields of silicon-based systems, highest-frequency integrated circuits and technologies for wireless and broadband communication. The focus of research at the institute is oriented towards issues relevant for business and results in applications for telecommunications, semiconductor and automotive industries, aerospace, telemedicine, and automation technologies. The institute has developed into an internationally recognized competence centre for silicon-germanium technologies. The IHP chose a state-of-the-art centralized vacuum system from the company Dr.-Ing. K. Busch GmbH to supply the vacuum for the clean room building. The fully-automatic vacuum system supplies up to 80 vacuum consumers with the vacuum needed in the different departments to hold or handle wafers.The IHP provides an important bridge between academia and industry. The Joint Labs, with universities and universities of applied sciences in the Berlin-Brandenburg region, have been particularly successful in this cooperation. As a public research institute, it is funded by the state of Brandenburg and the German Federal Government. The IHP employs 300 employees from over 20 countries. About half of the employees are scientists, mainly engineers and physicists, who conduct interdisciplinary and application-orientated research. The heart of the innovative research facility is the clean room building with 1,000 square meters of class 1 clean room area where wafers are prepared under conditions similar to those in the industry. Here, pilot production of wafers is developed for analyzing possible subsequent industrial manufacturing. There is a total of 80 vacuum consumers in all of the clean rooms for wafer production. These can simply be vacuum tweezers that employees use manually for visual inspection of the wafers, for example. Handling equipment for transporting the wafers or for putting them down in a defined spot for further processing are also connected to the facilitys vacuum network. Furthermore, different vacuum holding devices on the microscope are used in etching and coating processes, or in lithography systems.A vacuum supply consisting of three identical liquid ring vacuum pumps had been in operation since moving into the new building in the East-Brandenburg technology park in Frankfurt (Oder) in 1999. However, the team at the IHP was not really satisfied with this solution. For one, these vacuum pumps required water as an operating fluid. Decalcified, demineralized water was used in this case, which required a certain degree of effort and incurred associated costs. Secondly, these vacuum pumps were not adjustable and thus consumed unnecessary energy because they were not able to be adjusted to the actual vacuum requirements. Because all process steps in the clean rooms depend on the central vacuum supply, the team was also worried about reliability, especially as the supply reliability for spare parts became increasingly critical.So in 2016, they began looking for a trend-setting vacuum technology that was state of the art, could be operated as economically as possible and guaranteed the highest degree of reliability.They selected a vacuum system with three COBRA NX screw vacuum pumps from the company Dr.-Ing. K. Busch GmbH. In December 2016, this system was installed in a step-by-step process  pump by pump  while the system was in operation and the existing liquid ring vacuum pumps were dismantled.COBRA NX screw vacuum pumps use dry compression, so they do not need any operating fluid for the vacuum generation. This vacuum technology allows a contact-free operation. Two screws rotate in opposite directions and do not come into contact with each other or the housing. The gap here is so small that no operating fluid is needed for sealing. This technology also has the advantage of being absolutely maintenance-free, meaning that there is no need to replace wearing parts.The speed of all three of the installed COBRA NX screw vacuum pumps can be controlled and operated according to demand. This ensures that the only vacuum pumps in operation are the ones that are actually needed to maintain the vacuum level of 50 to 60 millibars. The size of the vacuum system is such that two COBRA NX vacuum pumps at 100% output are sufficient for full load operation. The third vacuum pump serves as a stand-by to increase reliability. The control system ensures that all three vacuum pumps have the same number of operating hours so that they are evenly loaded. The control system is self-sufficient and guarantees that the required vacuum level is constantly maintained. In turn, the self-adjusting control system is connected to building control technology, which registers any problems that may occur and can be used to call up different parameters.The vacuum system operates around the clock all year long. It is part of the clean room building facilities and located on the ground floor together with other supply tools like the compressed air supply, cooling water processing, fume scrubbers or power supply units. All these supply units are located in one clean room. Additional systems such as radiators, chillers and transformers are located on the first floor while the actual core area of the clean room building is on the second floor; this is where all the process steps for preparing the wafers are located.After just the first few months, they already saw a 40 percent reduction in operating costs. This was possible because COBRA NX screw vacuum pumps require less motor power due to their high efficiency factor; therefore, they can function with smaller motor sizes than liquid ring vacuum pumps. Speed control enables exact adjustment to the actual needs; speed control is not possible for liquid ring vacuum pumps for technical reasons. In addition, the costs for water as an operating fluid and all the associated energy costs for its preparation and circulation no longer apply. It was thus possible to make the vacuum supply much more economical and reliable at the same time by using state-of-the-art vacuum technology from Busch.About Busch:Busch Vacuum Pumps and Systems is one of the worlds largest producers of vacuum pumps, vacuum systems, blowers and compressors.Its extensive product portfolio comprises solutions for vacuum and overpressure applications in all industries, including the chemical, semiconductor, medical technology, plastics, and food sectors. It also covers the design and construction of customized vacuum systems, as well as a global service network.The Busch group is a family-owned company and is still managed by the Busch family. Busch Vacuum Pumps and Systems has 3,000 employees in more than 60 companies in over 40 countries worldwide. Busch is headquartered in Maulburg, in southwest Germany. This is the location of Busch SE headquarters, as well as the German production facility and German sales company. In addition to Maulburg, Busch also has its own production plants in Switzerland, the UK, Czech Republic, Korea and the USA.History:Busch Vacuum Pumps and Systems was founded by Dr.-Ing. Karl Busch and his wife Ayhan Busch in 1963. Dr.-Ing. Karl Busch developed the Huckepack, which was the first vacuum pump that could be used for vacuum packaging of foodstuffs. The follow-up product, the compact R 5 rotary vane vacuum pump, revolutionized food packaging. A further milestone represented the development of the COBRA screw vacuum pump. In 1971 the international expansion of the Busch group started with the founding of a sales company in the UK. The first production plant outside Germany was established in the USA in 1979.Contact:Busch Vacuum Pumps and SystemsSchauinslandstrae 179689 MaulburgTelephone: +49 (0) 7622 681 3376jasmin.markanic@busch.deWhat are the World's Largest Industrial Robots Markets?

Industrial robots market

https://www.progressivemarkets.com/industry-research/industrial-robotics-market

https://www.progressivemarkets.com/request-sample/industrial-robotics-market

www.progressivemarkets.com

Progressive Markets has published a report, titled, Global Industrial Robotics Market - Size, Trend, Share, Opportunity Analysis & Forecast, 2014-2025. As per the report, the global industrial robotics market is expected to register a CAGR of 10.1% from 2017 to 2025. The report offers a path to turn investments into meaningful outcomes, expand consumer base, and gain a leadership status in the global industry. It offers an extensive analysis of revenue generated by key segments in various geographies for the historic period, 2014-2016 and the forecast period, 2017-2025. Market size estimations are made to help market players and investors to devise strategies for growth.Access Full Summary at:Executive summary is offered in the research to help management executives, CEOs, and investors to gain a brief idea about the global industrial robotics market. Key findings and market attractiveness are discussed in the market to help them devise strategies for future based on those. Moreover, recent development trends are highlighted to outline progress of the global market. Competitive landscape is provided in the research to help them gain insights on current market conditions and devise strategies to gain competitive advantage.The market landscape of the global industrial robotics industry is offered based on drivers and restraints. Rise in demand for automation of industrial processes and availability of affordable & energy efficient robotics are driving forces of the market. The impact of these drivers is outlined in study to assist market players capitalize on opportunities presented by them. However, high costs of investment and installation are challenges market players need to overcome. These insights will facilitate companys planned growth strategies.Porters Five Forces Analysis is provided in the research based on parameters including bargaining power of buyers, bargaining power of suppliers, threat of substitutes, threat of new entrants, and industrial rivalry. These insights are helpful for business strategy development and determining level of competition in the industry. Moreover, research methodology adopted by research analysts is highlighted in the study. Primary and secondary research methods are implemented to gather and validate data and statistics.Detailed segmentation of the global industrial robotics market is provided in the research based on type, industry, function and geography. Type segment is classified based on articulated, cartesian, SCARA, cylindrical, and others. Industry segment is bifurcated into automotive, electrical & electronics, chemical, rubber & plastics, machinery, food & beverages, precision & optics, and others. Functions analyzed in the report include soldering & welding, materials handling, assembling & disassembling, painting & dispensing, milling, cutting & processing, and others. Geographical breakdown of each segments is discussed for North America, Asia-Pacific, Europe, and LAMEA. Market share analysis of each segment in aforementioned regions is provided for the historic period and the forecast period with the help of tables and figures.Do Inquiry for Sample report:Countries from each aforementioned region are also analyzed in the study. In North American region, U.S., Mexico, and Canada are countries discussed, however, U.K., Germany, France, and Rest of Europe are regions analyzed in the European region. China, India, Japan, South Korea, and rest of Asia-Pacific are regions discussed in the Asia-Pacific region. On the other hand, Brazil, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, and rest of LAMEA are countries explored for LAMEA.The report provides an extensive analysis of market players operating in the Global Industrial Robotics industry. A business overview and recent developments are highlighted. Moreover, financial and business segments of each company are outlined in the study. The top market players operating in the Global Industrial Robotics market include Kuka Robotics, Denso, Fanuc, Mitsubishi, Universal Robots, ABB Ltd., Adept Technology, Inc. Rockwell Automation, Inc. Nachi-Fujikoshi Corp., Yaskawa Electric Corp. This information is valuable for investors to determine investment pockets and market players to devise strategies to gain competitive edge.About Progressive:The company makes use of primary corporate research and secondary inputs from trusted sources to build its own reference base. It maintains consistency in quality as it keeps itself updated with changes in market dynamics and gauging its net effect on global business trends.Reach UsMr. Shriram Dighe4th Floor, Unit 12, Marisoft III,West Wing, Marigold IT Park,Kalyani Nagar, Pune, Maharashtra 411014,India: +91 20 66346040Toll Free: + 1-888-906-9222help@progressivemarkets.comLandmark Nigeria Mining Week returns to Abuja in October to gather the industry and explore its potential and future

Improving Brand Nigeria in the international mining space

http://www.nigeriaminingweek.com/

Nigeria Mining Week, the flagship mining conference and expo in West Africa, will return to Abuja from 15-17 October following its tremendous success in October 2017. Not only a landmark achievement, but an encouragement for the mining sector is how Alh. Sani Shehu, the President of MAN (Miners Association of Nigeria), described the second edition of Nigeria Mining Week. He adds: the participation of about 14 nations is an illustration of the desire of global players, service and technology providers to go beyond their shores and tap into the minerals-rich soil of Nigeria.Improvement in Brand NigeriaMines and Steel Development Minister Dr Kayode Fayemi said during his opening keynote address that according to a recent World Risk Report, Nigeria had made remarkable improvements in both hard risk and perceived risk factors, stating: the Nigerian mining jurisdiction is now considered to have a better investment risk profile than Russia, China, India and several other leading jurisdictions. Nigeria is now perceived to have a better investment risk profile than New York!The event will receive again the strategic support from the Ministry of Mines and Steel Development, the Miners Association of Nigeria (MAN) and PwC. Cyril Azobu is Advisory Partner and Mining Leader at PwC Nigeria and states: "any individual or organisation interested in exploring the many opportunities Nigerias solid minerals sector presents should plan to be at Nigeria Mining Week 2018.Strategic platform for the mineral sectorNigeria Mining Week offers a one-stop-shop to engage directly with policy makers, financiers and mining investors as well as the opportunity to gain the most current information on geophysical data on the resources available to explore in Nigeria. The third annual event will provide a platform to engage with over 700 small scale miners through MAN, 10 Nigerian states displaying and promoting opportunities in small and medium scale mining and over 100 mining and exploration companies.New features at this years Nigeria Mining Week include: Three-day conference focusing on strategic minerals. Exclusive indoor and outdoor exhibition featuring over 40 Nigerian and international suppliers. Free-to-attend technical workshops targeted to small scale miners. Online matchmaking platform to allow sponsors, exhibitors, delegates and speakers to connect prior to the event and schedule in advance their business meetings. Matchmaking discussion roundtables on finance and investment. Dragons Den: Enabling project financing by pitching mining business plans to a panel of selected financiers.Since inception the event has received solid and enthusiastic industry support and already market leaders such as 3M Geo Resources, SBOG, AG Vision, Minelab, Panafrican Equipment and Rubble Master are early confirmed sponsors for Nigeria Mining Week.Nigeria Mining Week dates and location:Pre-conference: 15 October 2018Conference: 16-17 October 2018Site visit: 18 October 2018Venue: Nigerian Air Force Conference Centre, Abuja, NigeriaNigeria Mining Week is organised by the Miners Association of Nigeria in partnership with Spintelligent and PwC Nigeria. Spintelligent is a well-known trade conference and expo organiser on the continent. The company has particular expertise and experience in mining, infrastructure development and energy events; including long-running flagship shows such as DRC Mining Week in Lubumbashi, Mining Baraza in Nairobi and African Utility Week in Cape Town.Senior communications manager: Annemarie RoodbolTelephone: +27 21 700 3558Email: annemarie.roodbol@spintelligent.comWebsite:Postal address: PO Box 321, Steenberg, 7947, South AfricaPen Needles Market worth 2.81 Billion USD by 2021

Pen Needles Market

https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Market-Reports/pen-needles-market-75948613.html

The report "Pen Needles Market by Type (Standard Pen Needles, Safety Pen Needles), Needle Length (4mm, 5mm, 6mm, 8mm, 10mm, 12mm), Therapy (Insulin, GLP-1, Growth Hormone), Mode of Purchase (Retail, Non-Retail) - Trends & Global Forecasts to 2021", This report studies the pen needles market for the forecast period of 2016 to 2021. This market is expected to reach USD 2.81 Billion by 2021 from USD 1.65 Billion in 2016, growing at a CAGR of 11.2%.Browse 102 market data Tables and 53 Figures spread through 185 Pages and in-depth TOC on "Pen Needles Market by Type (Standard Pen Needles, Safety Pen Needles), Needle Length (4mm, 5mm, 6mm, 8mm, 10mm, 12mm), Therapy (Insulin, GLP-1, Growth Hormone), Mode of Purchase (Retail, Non-Retail) - Trends & Global Forecasts to 2021"Early buyers will receive 10% customization on reports.A number of factors such as the favorable reimbursement environment and government support in selected countries; advantages of insulin pens over syringes and vials; technological advancements to minimize pain and needle anxiety; growing diabetic population; and conferences, meetings, and congresses to create pen needle awareness are expected to drive the growth of the pen needles market during the forecast period.In this report, the pen needles market is segmented on the basis of type, needle length, therapy, mode of purchase, and region. Based on type, the pen needles market is categorized into standard pen needles and safety pen needles. The standard pen needles segment is expected to account for the largest share of the pen needles market in 2016. However, the safety pen needles segment is projected to grow at a higher CAGR during the forecast period.Based on needle length, the pen needles market is segmented into 4mm, 5mm, 6mm, 8mm, 10mm, and 12mm. The 8mm needle length segment is expected to account for the largest share of the market in 2016. However, the 4mm needle length segment is expected to grow at the highest CAGR during the forecast period.On the basis of therapy, the pen needles market is segmented insulin therapy, growth hormone therapy, and Glucagon-like Peptide-1 (GLP-1) therapy. The insulin therapy segment is expected to account for the largest share of the market in 2016 and is projected to grow at the highest CAGR in the forecast period.Based on mode of purchase, the pen needles market is segmented into retail and non-retail purchase. The retail purchase segment is expected to account for the largest share of the market in 2016 and is projected to grow at the highest CAGR during the forecast period.Geographically, the global pen needles market is divided into North America, Europe, Asia, and the Rest of the World (Latin America, Pacific countries, the Middle East, and Africa). Europe is expected to account for the largest share of the pen needles market in 2016, followed by North America, Asia, and the Rest of the World. The Asian market is projected to grow at the highest CAGR and serves as a revenue pocket for companies offering pen needle productsProminent players in the global pen needles market include Becton, Dickinson and Company (U.S.), Novo Nordisk A/S (Denmark), Ypsomed Holding AG (Switzerland), Owen Mumford, Ltd. (U.K.), HTL-STREFA S.A. (Poland), B. Braun Melsungen (Germany), Terumo Corporation (Japan), UltiMed, Inc. (U.S.), Allison Medical, Inc. (U.S.), and Artsana S.p.a. (Italy).About MarketsandMarketsMarketsandMarkets is the worlds No. 2 firm in terms of annually published premium market research reports. Serving 1700 global fortune enterprises with more than 1200 premium studies in a year, M&M is catering to a multitude of clients across 8 different industrial verticals. We specialize in consulting assignments and business research across high growth markets, cutting edge technologies and newer applications. Our 850 fulltime analyst and SMEs at MarketsandMarkets are tracking global high growth markets following the "Growth Engagement Model  GEM". The GEM aims at proactive collaboration with the clients to identify new opportunities, identify most important customers, write "Attack, avoid and defend" strategies, identify sources of incremental revenues for both the company and its competitors.M&Ms flagship competitive intelligence and market research platform, "RT" connects over 200,000 markets and entire value chains for deeper understanding of the unmet insights along with market sizing and forecasts of niche markets. The new included chapters on Methodology and Benchmarking presented with high quality analytical infographics in our reports gives complete visibility of how the numbers have been arrived and defend the accuracy of the numbers.We at MarketsandMarkets are inspired to help our clients grow by providing apt business insight with our huge market intelligence repository.Contact:Mr. RohanMarkets and MarketsUNIT no 802, Tower no. 7, SEZMagarpatta city, HadapsarPune, Maharashtra 411013, India1-888-600-6441Email: sales@marketsandmarkets.comWhy San Clemente Dental Patient Feedback Is So Important

San Clemente Dental Patient Feedback

http://www.drericjohnson.com

San Clemente, CA -- Thursday, February 27, 2018 -- With the growing entrenchment of social media it is only natural for medical professionals to take advantage of it. It is primarily through patient feedback, comments, reviews and overall evaluations can they truly know the efficacy of their efforts.Social media is an indispensable tool for the medical profession so that they may both know the true value of their practice to the community and gain valuable input as to what patients really want from them. In the case of dental care, there is no other more personal doctor the average person will see on a routine basis for the majority of their lives. Add to that the growing importance of dental care to one's overall health and it becomes clear that dentists must do all that is possible and take advantage of every avenue available to perfect the services they provide to the community.For example, in the idyllic Southern California beach city of San Clemente, there is one dental practice that is offering the latest set of dental technologies such as enhancements to anesthesia known as OraVerse and Onpharma, health awareness strategies such as oral cancer screenings, advanced TMJ detection techniques, as well the standard dental preventive services. By taking advantage of the power of social media through the concept known as "social proof", the dental practice of Dr. Eric Johnson has clearly pulled out ahead of the pack as evidenced by the overwhelming acceptance of both the personal style of the staff and effectiveness of the care provided by this popular dental health destination. The people of San Clemente could not be happier.For example, read what this recent patient of Dr. Johnson had to say about a visit in February of 2018:"Professional, pleasant and caring. They all genuinely care for each patient, not only for your dental needs but also about your well being. Dr. Johnson not only an exceptional dentist, but a man of integrity. Not to mention his dental skills, which are unsurpassed."Or this San Clemente Dental Patient Feedback from James J. also relating to a visit in February of 2018:"Top Quality Office. The entire staff is very friendly and totally professional with their work. This is a great office to visit for any dental needs."And another positive review from Karlin T. in the same month of February of 2018:"My dental visits are always comfortable, easy, efficient, and friendly! They always explain exactly what they are going to do, and ask if I have any questions."And still another glowing review from Christopher B. from January of 2018:"#1 Dentist. Love these guys! They focus on preventative measures, and execute appropriately went more aggressive action needs to be taken. Great staff and always on top of every aspect of their business."When a patient uses the word "love" to describe a dental visit, it is clearly a vote of absolute confidence in the service rendered, and a genuine testimonial of positivity to any other San Clemente resident seeking out an exemplary dentist for themselves and their family. Further, it is the utmost compliment to all involved in the practice.San Clemente residents may all benefit from San Clemente Dental Patient Feedback such as is listed above to achieve optimum dental health. Conveniently located just off the 5 freeway at the Estrella exit.Residents of Orange County, CA will be pleased to know that there is an Orange County Cosmetic Dentist in the area who is now reaching out to residents all over the county.Dr. Eric Johnson, DDSCosmetic Dentist San Clemente647 Camino De Los Mares, Ste. 209San Clemente, CA, 92673Phone: (949) 493-9311Website:Email: smile@drericjohnson.comProviding Students With One Login Solution Campus Consortium Awards $24,000 SSO & Identity Grant to Logos Evangelical Seminary

https://campusconsortium.org/grant-programs

https://www.les.edu/language/en/

https://campusconsortium.org

Campus Consortium, the largest global education association of schools, colleges and universities, awards Logos Evangelical Seminary (Logos) a $24,000 Grant to help fulfil a Single Sign-On & Identity solution for students and faculty. Located in El Monte, California, Logos was founded in 1989 and is the first fully accredited Asian American seminary by both the Association of Theological Schools in the United States and Canada (ATS) and the WASC Senior College and University Commission (WSCUC).A respite for students not having to remember numerous logins and passwords, the grant covers 100% of the licensing costs associated with implementing a single sign-on and identity solution.Logos currently is planning and developing 100% online degree programs in order to reach and benefit more prospective Chinese students across the globe. However, in order to access student emails, academic information, or course materials from different platforms, our students are required to use different credentials to access the desired information from different platforms. And they always have trouble remembering their credentials and which credential for what platform. We are pleased to receive this grant from Campus Consortium. Through the QuickLaunch SSO and identity platform, I believe it will not only solve the troubles we have been suffering from for years but also will help streamline and improve our operational effectiveness as well as service quality, said Rev. Kuo-Liang Lin, President at the Logos Evangelical Seminary.Logos Evangelical Seminary (Logos) will use the grant to acquire the QuickLaunch software, that will enable them with single sign-on to enterprise applications including O365, Populi, EBSCO and ProQuest.We at Campus Consortium are glad to award this Grant to Logos. We are sure by implementing single sign-on, the Quicklaunch platform will make student and faculty experience better, along with tightening security parameters, states Anjli Jain, Chairman of the Campus Consortium.To learn about and apply for a Campus Consortium Grant, please visitAbout Logos Evangelical Seminary (Logos)Logos provides a range of academic degree programs including M.Div., MA in Christian Studies, MA in Family Ministry, MA in Intercultural Studies, D.Min., Th.M., and Ph.D. that emphasize in the four core areas of spiritual formation, academic excellence, ministerial competence and godly living to equip servant leaders for the body of Christ worldwide. Logos currently enrolls more than 230 degree students (on site and online) and trains more than 1100 students annually through its non-degree, lay education program Logos Training Institute (LTI). The online education has grown rapidly in recent years due to the increasing demand. For more information please visitFacebookTwitterLinkedInGoogle+Campus Consortium is a leading education association with more than 37,000 higher education institutions and K-12 school district members. The Campus Consortiums mission is to help members reduce the time, cost and effort associated with implementing enterprise IT services by leveraging shared IT services, lessons learned and best practices so that each member can avoid reinventing the wheel. For more information, please visit55 East Monroe StreetChicago, IL 60603Noble Missions launches I Take Actions platform to improve education in Nigeria

Education is the key to success

www.itakeactions.org

www.noblemissions.org.ng

Noble Missions, a tech social enterprise launches iTakeActions.Org, a web platform that enables citizens to take civic actions towards the advancement of public education in Nigeria. The platform serves as a feedback mechanism between citizens and the government, whereby citizens can report infrastructural condition of schools in their communities to the government. Citizens can also use the platform to draw attention to critical educational issues, and demand for improvement in the education sector by sharing tweets, signing petitions and sending emails among other civic actions. Citizens are rewarded as they take these civic actions with the platforms digital currency called ActBit Coins which can be used to shop for gift items, events tickets and sales discount on the platform. The platform also features educative and informative articles about education for all stakeholders.With over 65 million citizens who cannot read nor write despite finishing primary school, Nigeria's educational system has failed to meet the fundamental international standards. According to UNESCO, Nigeria ranked 103 out of 113 in the Education for All Development Index (EDI) rating of 2015, scoring 0.714. Studies show that dilapidated learning environments, insufficient classrooms and learning resources, are among the main factors shaping the systems decay. With its key features, the platform will allow users to send alerts to governmental officials depicting the conditions of public schools nationwide to enable the government plan and allocate resources more efficiently.I believe when citizens are provided with the right tools and opportunities to engage the government and contribute to the advancement of education, the educational system in Nigeria would greatly improve, says Noble Missions founder - Charles Omofomwan.For more information or to sign up for live actions, visitAbout Noble Missions:Noble Missions is a tech non-profit social enterprise based in Nigeria with support from volunteers all over the world. Noble Missions deploys technology to achieve the UN sustainable development goals (SDGs), and envisions a world where technology is available and accessible to all citizens to foster sustainable development and reduce hunger. Our mission is to use digital tools to advance education in Africa.Suite 1H Machima PlazaMambolo Close,Wuse Zone 2, Abuja08063801339info@noblemissions.org.ngCloud Project Portfolio Management Market 2023: Chain Structure, Competitive Landscape, New Projects, Investment Analysis, Region, Applicatio, Price Trends, Competitive Market Share by Top Vendors

http://www.qyreports.com/request-sample/?report-id=79512

http://www.qyreports.com/ask-for-discount/?report-id=79512

http://www.qyreports.com/payment-form/?report-id=79512

www.qyreports.com

The cloud PPM report aims at estimating the market size and future growth potential of the market across different segments, such as application, deployment model, organization size, vertical, and region. The primary objective of the report is to provide a detailed analysis of the major factors influencing the growth of this market (drivers, restraints, opportunities, industry-specific challenges, and burning issues), analyze the opportunities in the market for stakeholders, and details of the competitive landscape for market leaders.Cloud Project Portfolio Management market estimated to grow at impressive CAGR of +14% during the forecast period.The report on Cloud Project Portfolio Management market is a source of expansive ideas, statistical data, and detailed information, which has the potency to ensure profit of an enterprises. It gives a basic overview of the industry which includes definition, applications, classifications, and industry chain structure. Extensive development plans and policies are discussed meticulously. There also exists a cost study and manufacturing structures with perfect explanation.Get Sample copy of this Report @:Companies Profiled in this report includes, CA Technologies, Changepoint Corporation, Clarizen, Inc., HPE, Microsoft Corporation, Mavenlink, Oracle Corporation, Planisware, ServiceNow, Inc., SAP SE, Upland Software, Workfront, Inc.This report defines the specifications, applications, classifications of Cloud Project Portfolio Management market and explains the industrial chain structure in detail. Recent policies and developments are researched in depth to help enhance this report. A detailed cost structure is examined and prices are coated by labors, raw material supplier and others. An insight about demand supply chain is also mentioned in detail.Get 20% Discount on this Report @:The examination of the manufacturing cost structure of the global Cloud Project Portfolio Management market has been performed based on key aspects such as industry chain structure, manufacturing process, raw materials, and their suppliers. The manufacturing plants analysis and technical data of the global market have been explained in the lights of raw material sources, technology sources, research and development status, manufacturing plants distribution, and commercial production date and capacity.Initially, the Cloud Project Portfolio Management producing an analysis of the most important trade players based on their company profiles, annual revenue, sales margin, growth aspects is additionally lined during this report, which is able to facilitate alternative Cloud Project Portfolio Management market players in driving business insights.Access Complete Report @:The report gives a SWOT analysis of the new projects in the international and Cloud Project Portfolio Management market, investment feasibility, development trends, and investment return analysis of these projects. Study of the Cloud Project Portfolio Management markets competitive landscape includes data facts and figures about leading countries and suppliers capacity, cost-structures, production values, profits, and gross margins of key businesses operating in the market over the reports review period. The report also provides details such as product picture and specification, and contact information of the companies profiled in the Cloud Project Portfolio Management markets manufacturer analysis segment.Table of ContentsGlobal Cloud Project Portfolio Management Market Research ReportChapter 1 Cloud Project Portfolio Management Market OverviewChapter 2 Global Economic Impact on IndustryChapter 3 Global Market Competition by ManufacturersChapter 4 Global Production, Revenue (Value) by RegionChapter 5 Global Supply (Production), Consumption, Export, Import by RegionsChapter 6 Global Production, Revenue (Value), Price Trend by TypeChapter 7 Global Market Analysis by ApplicationChapter 8 Manufacturing Cost AnalysisChapter 9 Industrial Chain, Sourcing Strategy and Downstream BuyersChapter 10 Marketing Strategy Analysis, Distributors/TradersChapter 11 Market Effect Factors AnalysisChapter 12 Global Cloud Project Portfolio Management Market ForecastAbout QYReports:We at, QYReports , a leading market research report publisher accommodate more than 4,000 celebrated clients worldwide putting them at advantage in todays competitive world with our understanding of research. Our list of customers include prestigious Chinese companies, multinational companies, SME's and private equity firms whom we have helped grow and sustain with our fact-based research. Our business study covers a market size of over 30 industries offering unfailing insights into analysis to reimagine your business. We specialize in forecasts needed for investing in a new project, to revolutionize your business, to become more customer centric and improve the quality of output.Contact:QYReportsJones John(Sales Manager)+91-9764607607sales@qyreports.comCurrent Trends and Future Growth of IoT in Manufacturing Market

IoT in Manufacturing

https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/IoT-in-manufacturing-market

https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/request-sample/2483

According to a new report published by Allied Market Research, titled, "IoT in Manufacturing Market by Component and Application: Global Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast, 2017-2023," the global IoT in manufacturing market was valued at $424 billion in 2016, and is projected to reach $994 billion by 2023, growing at a CAGR of 13.1% from 2017 to 2023. The predictive maintenance segment is anticipated to witness the highest growth rate during the forecast period.Access full summary at:North America was the highest revenue contributor to the global IoT in manufacturing market in 2016, owing to deployment of advanced IoT technologies such as Industry 4.0, virtual reality, and augmented reality. In addition, the enhanced internet penetration, decreased cost of powerful sensors & controllers, rapid growth in communication & technology and bandwidth & connectivity, and rise in expenditure by government in the several developed and the developing regions, including North America, Europe, and Asia Pacific, drive the IoT in manufacturing market growth. However, Asia-Pacific is anticipated to witness a significant growth rate, due to increase in number of IoT connected devices; rise in smartphone penetration; convergence of technologies including analytics, cloud, and big data; and exponential social media adoption.In 2016, the services segment accounted for the highest share in the IoT in manufacturing market, while the predictive maintenance segment is anticipated to witness the highest growth rate, owing to automation of manufacturing processes to deliver a better experience to their end users.The key players profiled in the global IoT in manufacturing market are Cisco Systems Inc., Hitachi Ltd., IBM Corporation, Microsoft Corporation, PTC Inc., Robert Bosch GmbH, SAP SE, Software AG, Texas Instruments, and Zebra Technologies. These players have adopted competitive strategies, such as geographical expansions, mergers & acquisitions, new product launches, and partnerships & collaborations, to expand their businesses in the IoT in the manufacturing industry.Get Sample PDF of the Report at:Key findings of the IoT in Manufacturing Market: The services segment accounted for the highest share in the global IoT in manufacturing industry in 2016, growing at a CAGR of 13.8% from 2017 to 2023. The predictive maintenance segment in the IoT in manufacturing market is projected to witness the highest growth rate of 17.6%. North America IoT in manufacturing market generated the highest share of $148 billion, in terms of revenue, in 2016.About Us:Allied Market Research (AMR) is a full-service market research and business-consulting wing of Allied Analytics LLP based in Portland, Oregon. Allied Market Research provides global enterprises as well as medium and small businesses with unmatched quality of "Market Research Reports" and "Business Intelligence Solutions". AMR has a targeted view to provide business insights and consulting to assist its clients to make strategic business decisions and achieve sustainable growth in their respective market domain.Contact Us:Dhananjay Potle5933 NE Win Sivers Drive#205, Portland, OR 97220United StatesInt'l: +1-503-894-6022Toll Free: +1-800-792-5285 (U.S. & Canada)E-mail: sales@alliedmarketresearch.comSmart/Connected Street Lights Market - Current Scenario and Forecast 2017 - 2025

https://www.tmrresearch.com/sample/sample?flag=B&rep_id=2813

https://www.tmrresearch.com/sample/sample?flag=T&rep_id=2813

https://www.tmrresearch.com/smart-connected-street-lights-market

Global Smart/Connected Street Lights Market: OverviewWith smart city projects gaining enormous traction, urban planners are seen envisaging how best to harness the potential of Internet of Things (IoT) in various applications. The main intention is to better city infrastructure. A shining example in this direction is the deployment of smart lighting in which street lighting systems are outfitted with connected sensors, thereby enabling them to respond automatically to different environmental triggers, and be remotely controlled in response to the situation.The smart/connected street light infrastructure, comprising of connected technology, LED bulbs, motion sensors that activate lights when passersby are near, or switch off automatically with sunlight at daybreak, and generate prompts on when a light needs to be replaces, serves to make the streets safer.Request Sample Copy of the Report @The smart/connected street lights are typically connected via Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, radio frequency, etc. Some of the lamps used for smart or connected street lights are HID lamps, LED lamps, and CFL lamps.Global Smart/Connected Street Lights Market: Key TrendsUSPs of smart/connected street lights is that they aid in bringing down consumption of energy and save electricity and other costs. Besides they also have a positive impact on the environment. This is because an ideal smart light has solar panels, batteries, lightings, and network devices for communications. In fact, smart lighting is considered to be highly efficient and therefore has a very positive impact on the conservation of energy.Apart from that, with technological progress it has become possible to intimate the right department about the malfunctioning of streetlight as soon as it occurs. Thus smart and connected street lighting has myriad advantages. It also holds a lot of possibilities to integrate applications to it. For example, it can be leveraged to gather information about the weather and can also act as CCTV surveillance system and GRPS system.Request TOC of the Report @Apart from that, smart/connected poles are being installed with Volte 4G technology for improving the mobile phone coverage. Renting the poles to the cell carriers create an opportunity for authorities to generate revenues.Global Smart/Connected Street Lights Market: Market PotentialStreetlights all over the world are currently being upgraded with traditional sodium lamps being swiftly supplanted with energy-efficient, reliable LED lighting. Hence, this is just the perfect time to push ahead with progressive lighting systems such as smart or connected street lights. With modern sophisticated technologies such as cloud and fog computing, the market is expected to receive further fillip.Global Smart/Connected Street Lights Market: Regional OutlookGeographically, the key segments of the global market for smart or connected street lights are Latin America, North America, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, Asia Pacific, and the Middle East and Africa. Currently, Europe leads the market on the back of different lighting companies working towards deployment of smart lighting controls in both private and public areas. North America is expected to emerge as another attractive market in the years ahead. Since the cost of operating lighting in North America for commercial spaces is substantially high, smart lighting which is cost effective has emerged as a viable option. Besides, regulations and energy policies to limit the energy consumption in North America has also stoked the market for connected or smart street lights in the region.Read Comprehensive Overview of Report @Global Smart/Connected Street Lights Market: Competitive AnalysisSome of the key players operating in the global market for smart or connected street lights are General Electric, Telensa, Tech Mahindra, Osram, Wipro, Philips, Echelon Corporation, Tvilight, Verizon Enterprise, Sierra Wireless, and Sunview LED. In order to up sales, these companies are pitching their products to government and other associations.About TMR ResearchTMR Research is a premier provider of customized market research and consulting services to business entities keen on succeeding in todays supercharged economic climate. Armed with an experienced, dedicated, and dynamic team of analysts, we are redefining the way our clients conduct business by providing them with authoritative and trusted research studies in tune with the latest methodologies and market trends.Our savvy custom-built reports span a gamut of industries such as pharmaceuticals, chemicals and metals, food and beverages, and technology and media, among others. With actionable insights uncovered through in-depth research of the market, we try to bring about game-changing success for our clients.Contact:TMR Research,3739 Balboa St # 1097,San Francisco, CA 94121United StatesTel: +1-415-520-1050Email: sales@tmrresearch.comArtificial Intelligence Market - New Era Of Industry & Forecast 2017-2025

https://www.tmrresearch.com/sample/sample?flag=B&rep_id=2858

https://www.tmrresearch.com/sample/sample?flag=T&rep_id=2858

https://www.tmrresearch.com/artificial-intelligence-market

Global Artificial Intelligence Market: OverviewGlobally, the trend of using artificial intelligence across various industries, particularly healthcare and consumer electronics is increasing because of the numerous benefits AI offer. This trend is likely to continue to grow in the upcoming years. The global market for artificial intelligence is predicted to see a tremendous growth in the years to come as the organizations are now leveraging on the advantages of phenomenal technologies like these for the efficient positioning of their services and to expand their consumer reach. Additionally, the increasing investments by enterprises to improve the quality of the services and products will push the demand for AI.Request Sample Copy of the Report @As per Transparency Market Research (TMR), the global market for artificial intelligence to register a tremendous 36.1% CAGR between 2016 and 2024, that comes up to US$3061.35 bn by the end of 2024 from US$126.14 bn in 2015.Global Artificial Intelligence Market: Drivers and RestraintsA large number of companies today are concentrating on many different groundbreaking technologies so as to be able to reach out to the customers easily. This happens to be one of the main reasons boosting the global market for artificial intelligence. Such technologies consist of effective marketing practices like social, mobile, analytics and cloud technologies (SMAC) that help the companies to have strong control in the digital business. The need for this market is also arising due to the extended usage of artificial intelligence in various sectors such as E-Commerce, BFSI, retail, health informatics, to name a few. The rise in IT expenditure by companies throughout the globe in the hope of developing enhanced and efficient products will also drive the global artificial intelligence market.Request TOC of the Report @The global market for artificial intelligence is currently facing challenges due to lack of investments. Many of the companies that offer artificial intelligence services have issues in accumulating funds in the initial levels for development and research. This dearth of investment is adversely impacting the task of creating new prototypes along with other technologies. Also, there is a lack of trained professionals in the market to solve advanced technical problems. This lack of professionals also happens to be an important reason in the growth of the global market for artificial intelligence as a whole.Global Artificial Intelligence Market: Regional OutlookIn the year 2015, North America contributed the most in terms of revenues and it accounted for around 38% of the entire market. The presence of a large number of technology companies is behind the growth of the market for artificial intelligence in North America. Plus, the large investments by the government have proven to be of great help in the technological growth of artificial intelligence in the region. The increased scope of usage of this technology in so many sectors, including retail, BFSI, consumer electronics, media and advertising, and automotive, equally help this market in the North America. Because of these reasons, this region is slated to keep its leadership with it throughout 2024. The Middle East and Africa is expected to register a noticeable CAGR of 38.2% throughout the assessment period, that is the highest in any area. Technological advancements, like the robotic automation, and the rise in the adoption of smart cities, gives impetus to the acceptance of artificial intelligence in the region. The current infrastructure plans like the creation of new airports is making the market in the Middle East and Africa to be full of opportunities.Read Comprehensive Overview of Report @Global Artificial Intelligence Market: Competitive LandscapeMany of the players are finding it difficult to gather funds for their research which is in early stage. Market players need funds for developing prototypes of their underlying technology and the lack of it is restricting their research. Some of the prominent players within the market include: Nuance Communications, Next IT Corporation, MicroStrategy Inc., eGain Corporation, QlikTech International AB, Microsoft Corporation, Google Inc., Brighterion Inc., IBM Corporation, and IntelliResponse Systems Inc.About TMR ResearchTMR Research is a premier provider of customized market research and consulting services to business entities keen on succeeding in todays supercharged economic climate. Armed with an experienced, dedicated, and dynamic team of analysts, we are redefining the way our clients conduct business by providing them with authoritative and trusted research studies in tune with the latest methodologies and market trends.Our savvy custom-built reports span a gamut of industries such as pharmaceuticals, chemicals and metals, food and beverages, and technology and media, among others. With actionable insights uncovered through in-depth research of the market, we try to bring about game-changing success for our clients.Contact:TMR Research,3739 Balboa St # 1097,San Francisco, CA 94121United StatesTel: +1-415-520-1050Email: sales@tmrresearch.comCloud Robotics Market - Geographical Analysis and Forecast 2017  2025

https://www.tmrresearch.com/sample/sample?flag=B&rep_id=2861

https://www.tmrresearch.com/sample/sample?flag=T&rep_id=2861

https://www.tmrresearch.com/cloud-robotics-market

Global Cloud Robotics Market: OverviewThe global cloud robotics market is benefitting from the advent of cloud connected robots and expansion of their applications. This coupled with advancements in cloud technology is leading to the uptake of cloud robotics. In addition, rising trend of automation of several industry verticals such as manufacturing, agriculture, defense and logistics, and healthcare will elevate demand for cloud robotics.Global Cloud Robotics Market: Key TrendsThe demand for cloud robotics is primarily driven by the rising trend of automation across several industry verticals. The need to enhance the efficiency of industrial processes is leading to automation, which in turn is creating opportunities for deployment of cloud robotics. Cloud connected robots use electrical, mechanical, and software systems to deliver higher accuracy, precision, and speed, hence their installation is likely to increase in the future.Request Sample Copy of the Report @Further, rapid advancements in artificial technology are likely to open growth opportunities for the global cloud robotics market in the upcoming years. Besides this, expansion of cloud computing and big data analytics will stoke growth of the cloud robotics market.However, the cloud robotics market could face cutbacks due to several factors. Despite several growth opportunities, cloud robotics poses risks of security threats and data theft that could limit the markets growth to some extent. Cloud robotics deals with critical information from clients as well as their personal data, which in the event of hacking puts personal information as well security of individuals at risk.Nevertheless, the market is foreseen to be benefitted by the emergence of advanced technologies such as 5G. The deployment of cloud robotics necessitates reliable and unbroken connectivity so as to ensure that robots carry out their task efficiently regardless of the environment where they function. With the emergence of 5G technology, cloud robotics will be benefitted by a reliable platform to reach a wider audience.Request TOC of the Report @Besides this, recent developments in robotic applications will boost the expansion of cloud robotics market in the future.Global Cloud Robotics Market: Market PotentialIn an unusual move, Chinese online retailer JD.com have forayed into the autonomous driving space. With this move, the Beijing based company has joined the bandwagon with technology giants Google and Baidu that have been pumping vast sum of money for developing self-driving technology along with established car makers.The online retailer will pump in US$1.5 billion in a project in Changsha, and have signed a contract with the Changsha government along with other companies in new projects pertaining to driverless technology, artificial intelligence, and robotics and the cloud.Global Cloud Robotics Market: Geographical AnalysisThe report classifies the global cloud robotics market in terms of geography into: North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, South America, and the Middle East and Africa. As per the report analysis, North America held supremacy in the market in 2015 vis-a-vis revenue; however, Asia Pacific will display the leading CAGR of 33.9% between 2016 and 2024. China and India will emerge as key domestic markets in Asia Pacific due to rising trend of adoption of advanced technology.Read Comprehensive Overview of Report @Global Cloud Robotics Market: Competitive LandscapeKuka Robotics, ABB Group, Fanuc Corporation, Cavalry Robotics, and Wolf Robotics are the handful of companies that hold command due to global presence in the cloud robotics market. This amounts to limited competition in this market. However, in the upcoming years, the entry of regional players will limit the expansion of market leaders due to customer loyalty issues.About TMR ResearchTMR Research is a premier provider of customized market research and consulting services to business entities keen on succeeding in todays supercharged economic climate. Armed with an experienced, dedicated, and dynamic team of analysts, we are redefining the way our clients conduct business by providing them with authoritative and trusted research studies in tune with the latest methodologies and market trends.Our savvy custom-built reports span a gamut of industries such as pharmaceuticals, chemicals and metals, food and beverages, and technology and media, among others. With actionable insights uncovered through in-depth research of the market, we try to bring about game-changing success for our clients.Contact:TMR Research,3739 Balboa St # 1097,San Francisco, CA 94121United StatesTel: +1-415-520-1050Email: sales@tmrresearch.comIntellectual Property Market - In-Depth Analysis & Forecast 2017-2025

https://www.tmrresearch.com/sample/sample?flag=B&rep_id=2867

https://www.tmrresearch.com/sample/sample?flag=T&rep_id=2867

https://www.tmrresearch.com/intellectual-property-market

Global Intellectual Property Market: OverviewAn intellectual property usually refers to the creation of one's mind for which monopoly is designated to the creator by law. A vast variety of creations in the form of invention, literary work, images, concepts, symbols, and designs that are used in commerce fall under the purview of intellectual property. Such intellectual properties are defied law as intangible rights assigned to the develop of the entity thus preventing them from theft or copying. Established as a measure of fostering a productive environment wherein such creations of high form of creative and intellect are prized and protected, patent or individualized designation of intellectual properties form the basis of development and competitive prowess of several organizations and businesses.Request Sample Copy of the Report @The report by TMR Research presents a overview of the market surrounding the various laws, their enforcement, and other activities related to the filing and execution of intellectual properties. The report discusses the key trends, challenges, growth drivers, and other aspects that affect the course of development of the market. A detailed account of the competitive landscape, market attractiveness, and demand and distribution dynamics of the global intellectual property market are also included in the report. The report leverages also makes use of analytical tools such as Porters Five Force analysis, which allows a clear understanding of the level of competitive rivalry among leading vendors in the market.Global Intellectual Property Market: Trends and OpportunitiesOwing to the various disputes and competitive rivalries that can arise during business transactions, allocation of contracts, M&A, and collaborations, businesses deem protection of their intellectual properties a key area of focus. It is common knowledge that intellectual property can comprise a key tool of distinction for business and companies operating in the same domain. Intellectual properties are also often the basis for the establishment of a distinctive image for an organization for potential clients. This is owing to the fact that intellectual property rights enable potential consumers to view companies in the light of certain qualities that can ascertain their capability of achieving something remarkable in the concerned domain.Request TOC of the Report @Renting out intellectual properties is one of the key trend that has emerged in the global intellectual property market in the recent past. This highly lucrative trend has allowed several technology firms to earn a large share of their revenues and continues to be a key part of the revenue mix of several companies that are constantly involved in the development of technologically advanced or creative entities that find applications across a vast variety of applications and products. Thus a number of companies are constantly investing in the area and continue to contribute towards the development of the global intellectual property market.While these factors could help the global intellectual property market thrive on the global level in the past few years, factors such as high cost of most technologically advanced licenses and copyrights could hinder the growth opportunities of the market to a certain extent. Nevertheless, the rising popularity of online intellectual property could benefit the market in the next few years.Global Intellectual Property Market: Market PotentialIntellectual property rights in the form of patents, copyrights, and trademarks not only help enable creators to gain financial rewards but also promote the recognition of their work. Such laws commonly help and protect writers, artists, and scientific creators works from misuse, infringement, or unauthorized use with the help of a copyright. On the other hand, patents are often issued in the form of individualized rights for inventions or innovations, encouraging private investments by restricting the development and distribution of massively similar new varieties of products that use technological information used by an invention or innovative product.Read Comprehensive Overview of Report @Global Intellectual Property Market: Leading VendorsSome of the leading companies operating in the global intellectual property market are Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, LLP, Irell & Manella LLP, WilmerHale, and Morrison & Foerter LLP.About TMR ResearchTMR Research is a premier provider of customized market research and consulting services to business entities keen on succeeding in todays supercharged economic climate. Armed with an experienced, dedicated, and dynamic team of analysts, we are redefining the way our clients conduct business by providing them with authoritative and trusted research studies in tune with the latest methodologies and market trends.Our savvy custom-built reports span a gamut of industries such as pharmaceuticals, chemicals and metals, food and beverages, and technology and media, among others. With actionable insights uncovered through in-depth research of the market, we try to bring about game-changing success for our clients.Contact:TMR Research,3739 Balboa St # 1097,San Francisco, CA 94121United StatesTel: +1-415-520-1050Email: sales@tmrresearch.comHybrid Cars Market - Demand for Electric Charging 2017  2025

https://www.tmrresearch.com/sample/sample?flag=B&rep_id=2870

https://www.tmrresearch.com/sample/sample?flag=T&rep_id=2870

https://www.tmrresearch.com/hybrid-cars-market

Global Hybrid cars Market: OverviewThe global hybrid cars market is envisaged to be benefited by the growing awareness about clean and eco-friendly cars amongst the common people. An alarming rise in the level of air pollution across the globe has resulted in the rise of temperature worldwide. As such, people are now more concerned and hence are adopting products that are carbon-free. Such awareness amongst people coupled with government initiatives for the increased adoption of such vehicles are the underlying causes for the exponential growth of the market for hybrid cars.Global Hybrid cars Market: Key TrendsThe demand for hybrid cars is anticipated to be propelled by the fact that most of manufacturers are increasingly focusing on extending their support for eco-friendly vehicles at the backdrop of such high level of environmental pollution. Apart from that, stringent government regulations have been put into place to contain carbon emissions. New emission standards are in favor of such hybrid vehicles that use electricity as opposed to gasoline or diesel thereby helping in the control of carbon emissions.Request Sample Copy of the Report @Lighter engines and lighter materials comprise hybrid cars and as such they are light in weight. Lightweight vehicles use less of power to function. Furthermore, resale value of the hybrid cars have increased as more and more consumers are opting for hybrid cars. Higher resale value is also motivating the buyers to go for hybrid cars. The segment of plug-in hybrid cars are expected to witness a surge in demand owing to government backing for the usage of plug-in hybrid cars. Furthermore, more and more electric charging stations have been installed to trigger the future demand for such plug-in hybrid cars.However, there could be some challenges that stunt the growth of the market players operating in the global hybrid cars market. Hybrid cars come with high cost, which is anticipated to mar its growth worldwide. Apart from high cost, electric cars are in direct competition with the hybrid cars. Electric cars are easily available, as such, it is going to restrain the market for hybrid cars.Request TOC of the Report @Global Hybrid cars Market: Market PotentialFurthermore, various governments are providing various incentives, subsidies, and tax incentives in a bid to encourage manufacturers to produce such environment-friendly vehicles for the common people. For example, as per the 2009 norms of European Union, the limit of emission level for new passenger vehicles have been set to 130g per kilometer. In 2014, Euro VI norm was introduced which set the nitrogen oxide emission level to be below 0.4 g/kWh and various other emissions should not exceed 0.01g /kWh. It is expected that other countries like Mexico, Russia, Australia, and Brazil will also follow suit and implement such stringent measure.With such government initiatives and increasing awareness amongst the common people about the adverse effects of carbon emissions on the environment, the market for hybrid cars is estimated to gain momentum and move with a positive graph of growth.Global Hybrid cars Market: Regional OutlookAs per the analysis of the report, the world hybrid cars market could see a geographical classification of the market into North America (Canada and US), Europe (France, Italy, Germany, Spain, then U.K and rest of Europe), Middle East and Africa (GCC, South Africa and rest of MEA), and Asia Pacific (ASEAN, India, Japan, China and rest of Asia Pacific). According to the experienced and qualified researchers, Asia Pacific is expected to secure a leading position in the market because of the growing prominence of hybrid cars in the region due to increasing environmental awareness. Furthermore, increasing disposable income of the people of the regions is also responsible for such a growth of the market for hybrid cars.Read Comprehensive Overview of Report @Global Hybrid cars Market: Competitive LandscapeThe worldwide hybrid cars market is expected to witness the presence of prominent players such as BMW, Nissan, Volkswagen, Hyundai, Toyota, General Motors, and the like. Market leaders could adopt some common business strategies, such as new product launches, and acquisitions to bolster their market growth.About TMR ResearchTMR Research is a premier provider of customized market research and consulting services to business entities keen on succeeding in todays supercharged economic climate. Armed with an experienced, dedicated, and dynamic team of analysts, we are redefining the way our clients conduct business by providing them with authoritative and trusted research studies in tune with the latest methodologies and market trends.Our savvy custom-built reports span a gamut of industries such as pharmaceuticals, chemicals and metals, food and beverages, and technology and media, among others. With actionable insights uncovered through in-depth research of the market, we try to bring about game-changing success for our clients.Contact:TMR Research,3739 Balboa St # 1097,San Francisco, CA 94121United StatesTel: +1-415-520-1050Email: sales@tmrresearch.comNorth America Wheelchair Accessible Vehicle Converters Market - Current Trend Analysis & Forecast 2017-2025

https://www.tmrresearch.com/sample/sample?flag=B&rep_id=2873

https://www.tmrresearch.com/sample/sample?flag=T&rep_id=2873

https://www.tmrresearch.com/wheelchair-accessible-vehicle-converters-market

North America Wheelchair Accessible Vehicle Converters Market: OverviewThe North America wheelchair accessible vehicle converters market is envisaged to testify industry players taking to the introduction of advanced and novel products as part of their core strategic expansion plans. The market could also see the rise of mergers and acquisitions as players look to cement their status in the industry. In terms of entry modality, ramps could secure a dominating share in the market due to their relatively low maintenance and installation expenses and ease of use. By entry mode, the market could witness the dominance of side entry vehicles expansively demanded in the region due to the improving development rate of manufacturers supported by increased consumer spending.Request Sample Copy of the Report @North America Wheelchair Accessible Vehicle Converters Market: Key TrendsThe North America wheelchair accessible vehicle converters market is foreseen to cash in on growth opportunities birthing from the rising count of differently-abled people. Over the past few years, the market has been showcasing a promising growth for players to bank on. The increase in the introduction of inexpensive mobility gadgets and swelling need for accessible vehicles that are user friendly could be among the primary reasons for the growth witnessed in the market. In the near future, players could be lavished upon favorable growth prospects arising due to increasing geriatric population and escalating count of trauma cases causing disabilities.As per type of vehicle, full-size vehicle is expected to account for a lions share in the North America wheelchair accessible vehicle converters market. This could be because of the rising purchase of wheelchair accessible vehicles among families with differently-abled members.North America Wheelchair Accessible Vehicle Converters Market: Market PotentialAn outdoor mobility vehicle solution has been planned to be launched commercially in 2018 by three founders of NeoMotion, known as Team Aseem. Enable Makeathon of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) had incubated their venture in 2016. An easy and a quick external attachment for manual wheelchairs has been designed by the startup which could convert them into outdoor mobility devices capable of traveling to long distances. In order to meet the needs of users, the attachment will be made available in both motorized and manual (hand cycle) mode.Request TOC of the Report @North America Wheelchair Accessible Vehicle Converters Market: Regional OutlookThe U.S. is anticipated to continue with its lead secured in the recent past. In 2015, the country had attained a colossal share in the North America wheelchair accessible vehicle converters market. Owing to the presence of a large number of differently-abled people in the country, the U.S. could maintain its lead in the market for the coming years. The U.S. market for wheelchair accessible vehicle converters is also foretold to gain momentum from the increase in government funding.Several governments around the globe have been boosting the sale of wheelchair accessible vehicles with their strong funding. Furthermore, a mounting count of initiatives taken by manufacturers to increase awareness about wheelchair accessible vehicle converters could add to the growth of the market.Read Comprehensive Overview of Report @North America Wheelchair Accessible Vehicle Converters Market: Competitive LandscapePowerful players, viz. BraunAbility, Vantage Mobility International, and Mobility Ventures LLC are prophesied to take a leading position in the North America wheelchair accessible vehicle converters market. Experienced analysts predict the markets vendor landscape to hold a highly competitive and a moderately fragmented nature.About TMR ResearchTMR Research is a premier provider of customized market research and consulting services to business entities keen on succeeding in todays supercharged economic climate. Armed with an experienced, dedicated, and dynamic team of analysts, we are redefining the way our clients conduct business by providing them with authoritative and trusted research studies in tune with the latest methodologies and market trends.Our savvy custom-built reports span a gamut of industries such as pharmaceuticals, chemicals and metals, food and beverages, and technology and media, among others. With actionable insights uncovered through in-depth research of the market, we try to bring about game-changing success for our clients.Contact:TMR Research,3739 Balboa St # 1097,San Francisco, CA 94121United StatesTel: +1-415-520-1050Email: sales@tmrresearch.comBiocides and Disinfectants 2018 Global Industry Key Players - BASF , Akzo Nobel , Clariant , Kemira , The Dow Chemical Company Market Analysis And Forecast To 2025

Global Biocides and Disinfectants Market

https://www.wiseguyreports.com/sample-request/3018839-global-biocides-and-disinfectants-market-research-report-2018

https://www.wiseguyreports.com/reports/3018839-global-biocides-and-disinfectants-market-research-report-2018

Global Biocides and Disinfectants MarketIn this report, the global Biocides and Disinfectants market is valued at USD XX million in 2017 and is expected to reach USD XX million by the end of 2025, growing at a CAGR of XX% between 2017 and 2025.Global Biocides and Disinfectants market competition by top manufacturers, with production, price, revenue (value) and market share for each manufacturer; the top players includingBASFAkzo NobelClariantKemiraThe Dow Chemical CompanyAlbemarle CorporationBaker HughesBWA WATER ADDITIVESCortecFMCGE Water and Process Technologies (GE)LANXESSLonzaNALCO ChampionShandong Taihe Water Treatment TechnologiesStepanThe LubrizolThorTroyWeylChem InternationalRequest a Sample Report @Geographically, this report is segmented into several key Regions, with production, consumption, revenue (million USD), market share and growth rate of Biocides and Disinfectants in these regions, from 2013 to 2025 (forecast), coveringNorth AmericaEuropeChinaJapanSoutheast AsiaIndiaOn the basis of product, this report displays the production, revenue, price, market share and growth rate of each type, primarily split intoChlorine DisinfectantsPlant-Based Peroxide DisinfectantAlcohols DisinfectantOtherOn 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, includingGround WaterSea WaterMunicipal Drinking WaterIndustrial Waste WaterTable of Contents-Key Points CoveredGlobal Biocides and Disinfectants Market Research Report 20181 Biocides and Disinfectants Market Overview1.1 Product Overview and Scope of Biocides and Disinfectants1.2 Biocides and Disinfectants Segment by Type (Product Category)1.2.1 Global Biocides and Disinfectants Production and CAGR (%) Comparison by Type (Product Category)(2013-2025)1.2.2 Global Biocides and Disinfectants Production Market Share by Type (Product Category) in 20171.2.3 Chlorine Disinfectants1.2.4 Plant-Based Peroxide Disinfectant1.2.5 Alcohols Disinfectant1.2.6 Other1.3 Global Biocides and Disinfectants Segment by Application1.3.1 Biocides and Disinfectants Consumption (Sales) Comparison by Application (2013-2025)1.3.2 Ground Water1.3.3 Sea Water1.3.4 Municipal Drinking Water1.3.5 Industrial Waste Water1.4 Global Biocides and Disinfectants Market by Region (2013-2025)1.4.1 Global Biocides and Disinfectants Market Size (Value) and CAGR (%) Comparison by Region (2013-2025)1.4.2 North America Status and Prospect (2013-2025)1.4.3 Europe Status and Prospect (2013-2025)1.4.4 China Status and Prospect (2013-2025)1.4.5 Japan Status and Prospect (2013-2025)1.4.6 Southeast Asia Status and Prospect (2013-2025)1.4.7 India Status and Prospect (2013-2025)1.5 Global Market Size (Value) of Biocides and Disinfectants (2013-2025)1.5.1 Global Biocides and Disinfectants Revenue Status and Outlook (2013-2025)1.5.2 Global Biocides and Disinfectants Capacity, Production Status and Outlook (2013-2025)..7 Global Biocides and Disinfectants Manufacturers Profiles/Analysis7.1 BASF7.1.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base, Sales Area and Its Competitors7.1.2 Biocides and Disinfectants Product Category, Application and Specification7.1.2.1 Product A7.1.2.2 Product B7.1.3 BASF Biocides and Disinfectants Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2013-2018)7.1.4 Main Business/Business Overview7.2 Akzo Nobel7.2.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base, Sales Area and Its Competitors7.2.2 Biocides and Disinfectants Product Category, Application and Specification7.2.2.1 Product A7.2.2.2 Product B7.2.3 Akzo Nobel Biocides and Disinfectants Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2013-2018)7.2.4 Main Business/Business Overview7.3 Clariant7.3.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base, Sales Area and Its Competitors7.3.2 Biocides and Disinfectants Product Category, Application and Specification7.3.2.1 Product A7.3.2.2 Product B7.3.3 Clariant Biocides and Disinfectants Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2013-2018)7.3.4 Main Business/Business Overview7.4 Kemira7.4.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base, Sales Area and Its Competitors7.4.2 Biocides and Disinfectants Product Category, Application and Specification7.4.2.1 Product A7.4.2.2 Product B7.4.3 Kemira Biocides and Disinfectants Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2013-2018)7.4.4 Main Business/Business Overview7.5 The Dow Chemical Company7.5.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base, Sales Area and Its Competitors7.5.2 Biocides and Disinfectants Product Category, Application and Specification7.5.2.1 Product A7.5.2.2 Product B7.5.3 The Dow Chemical Company Biocides and Disinfectants Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2013-2018)7.5.4 Main Business/Business Overview7.6 Albemarle Corporation7.6.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base, Sales Area and Its Competitors7.6.2 Biocides and Disinfectants Product Category, Application and Specification7.6.2.1 Product A7.6.2.2 Product B7.6.3 Albemarle Corporation Biocides and Disinfectants Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2013-2018)7.6.4 Main Business/Business Overview7.7 Baker Hughes7.7.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base, Sales Area and Its Competitors7.7.2 Biocides and Disinfectants Product Category, Application and Specification7.7.2.1 Product A7.7.2.2 Product B7.7.3 Baker Hughes Biocides and Disinfectants Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2013-2018)7.7.4 Main Business/Business Overview7.8 BWA WATER ADDITIVES7.8.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base, Sales Area and Its Competitors7.8.2 Biocides and Disinfectants Product Category, Application and Specification7.8.2.1 Product A7.8.2.2 Product B7.8.3 BWA WATER ADDITIVES Biocides and Disinfectants Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2013-2018)7.8.4 Main Business/Business Overview7.9 Cortec7.9.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base, Sales Area and Its Competitors7.9.2 Biocides and Disinfectants Product Category, Application and Specification7.9.2.1 Product A7.9.2.2 Product B7.9.3 Cortec Biocides and Disinfectants Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2013-2018)7.9.4 Main Business/Business Overview7.10 FMC7.10.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base, Sales Area and Its Competitors7.10.2 Biocides and Disinfectants Product Category, Application and Specification7.10.2.1 Product A7.10.2.2 Product B7.10.3 FMC Biocides and Disinfectants Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2013-2018)7.10.4 Main Business/Business Overview7.11 GE Water and Process Technologies (GE)7.12 LANXESS7.13 Lonza7.14 NALCO Champion7.15 Shandong Taihe Water Treatment Technologies7.16 Stepan7.17 The Lubrizol7.18 Thor7.19 Troy7.20 WeylChem InternationalContinued..Complete Report Details @Wise Guy Reports Is Part Of The Wise Guy Consultants Pvt. Ltd. And Offers Premium Progressive Statistical Surveying, Market Research Reports, Analysis & Forecast Data For Industries And Governments Around The Globe. Wise Guy Reports Features An Exhaustive List Of Market Research Reports From Hundreds Of Publishers Worldwide. We Boast A Database Spanning Virtually Every Market Category And An Even More Comprehensive Collection Of Market Research Reports Under These Categories And Sub-Categories.Wise Guy Research Consultants Pvt LtdOffice No. 528, Amanora ChambersMagarpatta Road, HadapsarPune - 411028Maharashtra, IndiaCloud-based English Language Learning Market, Segmentation,Top Manufactures, Industry Analysis,Emerging Trend & Forecast to 2022

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Global Cloud-based English Language Learning Market Size, Status and Forecast 2022Language learning, one of the oldest segments of the global education market, within the non-formal education category has improved with the evolution of teaching and learning methods. This has improved the credibility and success rate of services offered in this market, resulting in increased expenditure by individuals, corporates, and educational institutions toward language learning courses. Training in the English language is more prominent in the market compared with other languages, given the importance of the academic and corporate sectors. However, the emergence of other languages will also contribute to market growth in the future. is on the rise.Get sample copy of this report:Companies Profiled in this report includes: Linguatronics, Rosetta Stone, Sanako, SANS, Edusoft, OKpanda, Sanoma, VoxyMarket segment by Regions/Countries, this report coversUnited StatesEUJapanChinaIndiaSoutheast AsiaMarket segment by Type, Cloud-based English Language Learning can be split intoRemoteFace to FaceMarket segment by Application, Cloud-based English Language Learning can be split intoCorporateAcademicGet Discount of this report:Cloud-based English Language Learning market are providing innovative web services, developing applications for users, and providing learning tools that are tailored to the specific needs of learners.Table of Content:Global Cloud-based English Language Learning Market Size, Status and Forecast 20221 Industry Overview of Cloud-based English Language Learning2 Global Cloud-based English Language Learning Competition Analysis by Players3 Company (Top Players) Profiles3.1 Linguatronics3.1.1 Company Profile3.1.2 Main Business/Business Overview3.1.3 Products, Services and Solutions3.1.4 Cloud-based English Language Learning Revenue (Value) (2012-2017)3.1.5 Recent Developments3.2 Rosetta Stone3.2.1 Company Profile3.2.2 Main Business/Business Overview3.2.3 Products, Services and Solutions3.2.4 Cloud-based English Language Learning Revenue (Value) (2012-2017)3.2.5 Recent Developments3.3 Sanako3.3.1 Company Profile3.3.2 Main Business/Business Overview3.3.3 Products, Services and Solutions3.3.4 Cloud-based English Language Learning Revenue (Value) (2012-2017)3.3.5 Recent Developments4 Global Cloud-based English Language Learning Market Size by Type and Application (2012-2017)5 United States Cloud-based English Language Learning Development Status and Outlook6 EU Cloud-based English Language Learning Development Status and Outlook7 Japan Cloud-based English Language Learning Development Status and Outlook8 China Cloud-based English Language Learning Development Status and Outlook9 India Cloud-based English Language Learning Development Status and Outlook10 Southeast Asia Cloud-based English Language Learning Development Status and Outlook11 Market Forecast by Regions, Type and Application (2017-2022)12 Cloud-based English Language Learning Market Dynamics13 Market Effect Factors AnalysisComplete Report:Contact Info:Name: Sameer JoshiEmail: sales@reportsweb.comCompany Name: ReportsWebWebsite: Reportsweb.comPhone: +1-646-491-9876ReportsWeb.com is a one stop shop of market research reports and solutions to various companies across the globe. We help our clients in their decision support system by helping them choose most relevant and cost effective research reports and solutions from various publishers. We provide best in class customer service and our customer support team is always available to help you on your research queries.533, 5th floor, Amanora Township,Amanora Chambers, East Block,Kharadi Road, Hadapsar, Pune-411028Transcriptomics Market Reach $4,658 Million By 2023

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The Global Transcriptomics Market was valued at $3,130 million in 2016, and is projected to reach $4,658 million by 2023, growing at a CAGR of 5.8% during the study period. Transcriptomics is the study of entire set of RNA transcripts produced by the genome of any organism. Increase in advancements in the field of transcriptomics such as extensive use of RNA-sequencing and rise in application of transcriptomics, which includes drug discovery is expected to drive the growth of the transcriptomics market. In addition, rise in funding and grants by various private and government organizations have further stimulated the market growth. However, certain drawbacks of RNA sequencing and lack of skilled professionals are expected to restrain the market growth.For More Info, Get Sample :Key Benefits The study provides an in-depth analysis of the global transcriptomics market, with current trends and future estimations to elucidate the imminent investment pockets. Quantitative analysis from 2016 to 2023 is expected to enable the stakeholders to capitalize on prevailing market opportunities. Comprehensive analysis of all geographical regions is provided to determine the prevailing opportunities. Extensive analysis is conducted by closely following key product positioning and monitoring the top contenders within the market framework.Transcriptomics Market Key Segments:By Technology Real Time-PCR (qPCR) Microarray Sequencing Sanger Sequencing RNA-SequencingBy Product & Services Consumables Instruments Software ServicesEnquire About Report :By Application Diagnostics & Disease Profiling Drug Discovery Others End User Government Institutes & Academic Centers Pharmaceutical & Biotechnology Companies Contract research Organizations (CROs)By Region North America U.S. Canada Mexico Europe Germany France UK Italy Spain Rest of Europe Asia-Pacific Japan China India Australia Rest of Asia-Pacific LAMEA Brazil Saudi Arabia South AfricaAlso Request For Discount :Rest of LAMEATable Of Content CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION CHAPTER 2 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY CHAPTER 3 MARKET OVERVIEW CHAPTER 4 TRANSCRIPTOMICS MARKET, BY TECHNOLOGY CHAPTER 5 TRANSCRIPTOMICS MARKET, BY PRODUCTS & SERVICES CHAPTER 6 TRANSCRIPTOMICS MARKET, BY APPLICATION CHAPTER 7 TRANSCRIPTOMICS MARKET, BY END USER CHAPTER 8 TRANSCRIPTOMICS MARKET, BY REGION CHAPTER 9 COMPANY PROFILESAbout UsWe have a large database of quality and precise market research reports that will be very beneficial for your organization. Reports that we sell our authentic in nature and from reputed publishers, hence it can definitely help you with your growth opportunities. Research Beam will always make sure to bring most ethical and high quality reports. We value your relationship with us and look forward for a long term relation.Contact UsGlobal Head Quarters5933 NE Win Sivers Drive,#205, Portland, OR 97220United States+1 (800) 910-6452help@researchbeam.comInternet of Things (IoT) Twin Market, Latest Trend, Business Opportunities, Segmentation & Forecast to 2022

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Global Internet of Things (IoT) Twin Market Size, Status and Forecast 2022The market research report helps analyze the Internet of Things (IoT) Twin market on a global basis and also offers forecast and statistics in terms of revenue for the anticipated forecast period 2017 to 2022. This research study offers a detailed overview of the market dynamics that are expected to affect them overall industry in the coming few years. In addition, the study explains the impact of the key factors on the development and growth of the global Internet of Things (IoT) Twin market through the forecast period. Promising opportunities in the global Internet of Things (IoT) Twin market have also been mentioned in the study.Get sample copy of this report:Companies Profiled in this report includes: General Electric, PTC, Siemens, Dassault Systemes, IBM Corporation, ANSYS, Microsoft Corporation, Oracle Corporation.To offer a clear understanding of the global Internet of Things (IoT) Twin market, several questions have been addressed in the research study concerning the growth of the global Internet of Things (IoT) Twin market. It is also been discussed with respect to projected growth rate of the global Internet of Things (IoT) Twin market in the near future. Also, depending on the ongoing trend of the market, the region which is anticipated to witness high growth in the next few years is studied in detail. Various aspects are been elucidated including primary application areas, latest trends, leading players operating in the global Internet of Things (IoT) Twin market, factors which are expected to accelerate the growth, primary challenges faced by the leading players and many more.Get Discount of this report:The research study further offers a detailed overview of the competitive landscape of the global Internet of Things (IoT) Twin market and throws light on the key players operating in it. The key players have been highlighted on the basis of various business strategies and the marketing tactics. This helps provide a strong understanding of the overall market. In addition, the financial overview, recent developments, SWOT analysis, product portfolio, and mergers and acquisitions in the market have been discussed in depth.Get Complete Report:Table of Content:Global Internet of Things (IoT) Twin Market Size, Status and Forecast 20221 Industry Overview of Internet of Things (IoT) Twin2 Global Internet of Things (IoT) Twin Competition Analysis by Players3 Company (Top Players) Profiles4 Global Internet of Things (IoT) Twin Market Size by Type and Application (2012-2017)5 United States Internet of Things (IoT) Twin Development Status and Outlook6 EU Internet of Things (IoT) Twin Development Status and Outlook7 Japan Internet of Things (IoT) Twin Development Status and Outlook8 China Internet of Things (IoT) Twin Development Status and Outlook9 India Internet of Things (IoT) Twin Development Status and Outlook10 Southeast Asia Internet of Things (IoT) Twin Development Status and Outlook11 Market Forecast by Regions, Type and Application (2017-2022)12 Internet of Things (IoT) Twin Market Dynamics13 Market Effect Factors AnalysisContact Info:Name: Sameer JoshiEmail: sales@reportsweb.comCompany Name: ReportsWebWebsite: Reportsweb.comPhone: +1-646-491-9876ReportsWeb.com is a one stop shop of market research reports and solutions to various companies across the globe. We help our clients in their decision support system by helping them choose most relevant and cost effective research reports and solutions from various publishers. We provide best in class customer service and our customer support team is always available to help you on your research queries.533, 5th floor, Amanora Township,Amanora Chambers, East Block,Kharadi Road, Hadapsar, Pune-411028Global Flavoured Milk Market Overview 2018: Share, Growth, Demand and Forecast Research Report to 2023

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The global flavoured milk marketing is witnessing a positive growth. This can be highly accredited to the efforts made by manufacturers in terms of new product varieties and attractive packaging.Request a sample report:Flavoured milk is produced using milk, sweeteners, added flavours, colourings and preservatives, in order to enhance the taste. It is recognized as the second most acceptable dairy product worldwide and contains vital nutrients like calcium, protein, vitamins, etc. In addition to this, it comes in different variants as well as disparate milk types, such as fat-free, low-fat, etc. A new research report by IMARC Group, titled Flavoured Milk Market: Global Industry Trends, Share, Size, Growth, Opportunity and Forecast 2018-2023, estimates that the market reached a volume of 21.7 Billion Litres in 2017. The report further anticipates the market to reach approximately 28 Billion Litres by 2023, at a projected CAGR of around 4.5% over the forecast period.Read full report with TOC:Market Drivers/Constraints:Currently, more than a half of the demand for flavoured milk comes from developing countries where the market is expanding constantly. Thus, manufacturers are shifting their focus towards emerging markets.Continuous introduction of innovative packaging and new product variants with enhanced nutritional value as well as new and unique flavours has attracted a large section of consumers. This represents another factor bolstering the market growth.Moreover, the factors that have been proactive in maintaining the growth of the global flavoured milk market include hectic schedules and disturbed eating patterns which have increased the global demand for convenient food and beverages such as flavoured milk.However, there are several factors that imped the market growth. Flavoured milk stands in a great competition to carbonated beverages. Further, a rise in the vegan population acts as another obstacle for the market growth.Regional Insights:On a geographical front, Asia-Pacific represents the leading market for flavoured milk, accounting for the majority of the market share. Within Asia-Pacific, China represents the largest consumer. Asia-Pacific is followed by Africa, Eastern Europe, Latin America, North America and Western Europe.Competitive Landscape:The market is highly fragmented with the presence of numerous small and large manufacturers who compete in terms of prices and quality. There is an intense competition in the market which makes it difficult for small players to survive. Some of the leading players operating in the market are:DanoneArla FoodsDean FoodsChina Mengniu DairyAmul, Lactalis ParmalatYili Industrial Group.Browse related reports:UHT Milk Market Research Report:Fluid Milk Market Research Report:About UsIMARC Group is a leading market research company that offers management strategy and market research worldwide. We partner with clients in all sectors and regions to identify their highest-value opportunities, address their most critical challenges, and transform their businesses.IMARCs information products include major market, scientific, economic and technological developments for business leaders in pharmaceutical, industrial, and high technology organizations. Market forecasts and industry analysis for biotechnology, advanced materials, pharmaceuticals, food and beverage, travel and tourism, nanotechnology and novel processing methods are at the top of the companys expertise.Contact usIMARC Group309 2nd St, Brooklyn, NY 11215, USAWebsite:Email: sales@imarcgroup.comUSA: +1-631-791-1145Follow us on twitter: @imarcglobalBaby Food Sector in Czech Republic : New Opportunities for Key Players Nutricia AS (Danone), Hipp Czech SRO, and Hame AS (Orkla),2018-2024

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Baby Food Sector: Czech RepublicOverview:The baby food sector has performed relatively well, particularly over the last two or three years, boosted by higher birth numbers, a better economy and a decrease in VAT. The country continues to produce a significant quantity of baby food as consumers have positive attitude to industrially prepared baby food.The Czech market is accustomed to fruit-based baby meals, but savory lines, especially meat-based varieties, are more recent innovations, which have grown strongly in popularity in recent years. Health concerns have led to higher sales of organic food.Click here for sample report @Major Companies mentioned are:Nutricia AS (Danone)Hipp Czech SRONestle Cesko SROHame AS (Orkla)Major Highlight:In 2015, sales of organic foods rose by 11.4% baby food are one of the most purchased types of organic food. It is expected that the market for baby food will rise by 4.8% over the next six years, with volume growth expected in all the sectors.Major Scope Of the Report:Baby Food sector demand increased with reduction in VAT level in January 2015, the impact of manufacturer price increases negated much of the benefit. All sectors saw stable prices in 2016, apart from meals.Milks accounts for 39.7% of retail sales. In terms of volume, wet meals and juices are more dominant, claiming 61.4% of consumption in 2016, compared with 24.8% for milks (dried weight).Imports of baby food have increased slightly overall, and in 2016 stood at 12,028 tons. The majority, 71% of imports comprise cereals and milks.Exports are considerably higher than imports, and in 2016 stood at 29,809 tons. Exports are dominated by meat and sweet meals.Danone leads in all three of the main categories. The only other two companies of significance are Nestle and Hame, which from early 2016 has been owned by Orkla.Supermarkets/hypermarkets now control the largest share of volume sales, at 70.3% in 2016, ahead of pharmacies and drugstores with 20.7%, while the share of other grocery outlets has now slipped to under 10%. Internet shopping is beginning to be a feature of the Czech market.The highest growth rate will be seen in the milks sector, with breastfeeding rates unlikely to pick up significantly in the near future.Reasons to buyEvaluate important changes in consumer behavior and identify profitable markets and areas for product innovation.Analyze current and forecast behavior trends in each category to identify the best opportunities to exploit.Detailed understanding of consumption by individual product categories in order to align your sales and marketing efforts with the latest trends in the market.Investigates which categories are performing the best and how this is changing market dynamics..ContinuedFor Detailed Reading Please visit @About UsWise Guy Reports is part of the Wise Guy Consultants Pvt. Ltd. and offers premium progressive statistical surveying, market research reports, analysis & forecast data for industries and governments around the globe. Wise Guy Reports understand how essential statistical surveying information is for your organization or association. Therefore, we have associated with the top publishers and research firms all specialized in specific domains, ensuring you will receive the most reliable and up to date research data available.Contact Us:NORAH TRENTPartner Relations & Marketing Managersales@wiseguyreports.comPh: +1-646-845-9349 (US)Ph: +44 208 133 9349 (UK)Wise Guy Reports understand how essential statistical surveying information is for your organization or association. Therefore, we have associated with the top publishers and research firms all specialized in specific domains, ensuring you will receive the most reliable and up to date research data available. We also provide COTS (Commercial off the Shelf) business sector reports as custom exploration agreeing your particular needs.WISEGUY RESEARCH CONSULTANTS PVT LTDOffice No. 528, Amanora ChambersPune - 411028Maharashtra, IndiaGlobal Wound Care Product Market to be Worth USD 21.79 Billion by 2022

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Latest report by Netscribes highlights the trends, growth and challenges in global wound care marketNew York  February 27, 2018 Netscribes, Inc.,a global market intelligence firm, released the 'Global Wound Care Market'report today. According to Netscribes, the Global Wound Care Market is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of around 5.9% and expected to be worth $21.79 billion by 2022.Factors such as rise in disposable income, increasing access of better healthcare, advancements in technology and increasing awareness have contributed to the growth of the global advanced wound dressing market. Netscribes observed the practice of home health care trending in emerging markets like Asia-Pacific and Latin America.Although the global wound care market is expected to grow progressively, there is a lack of expert healthcare professionals who can adopt new advanced technologies. Additionally, the average price for wound care products is quite high, which can hamper growth in price-sensitive markets.Other key highlights from the report are as follows:1. North America is the market leader in global wound care product market. Asia-Pacific region is the fastest-growing region.2. Surgical wound care products is the largest segment within the wound care product market, while the advanced wound care products is the fastest-growing segment.3. Chronic wound care is the largest and the fastest-growing segment due to the rising prevalence of diabetes.For more information, download the Netscribes 'Global Wound Care Product Market Report'Netscribes offers custom market research solutions based on specific business needs. To request for custom research contact info@netscribes.com.About NetscribesNetscribes is a global market intelligence and content services provider that helps corporations achieve strategic objectives through a wide range of offerings. Our solutions rely on a unique combination of qualitative and quantitative primary research, secondary/desk research, social media analytics, and scientific research. For more than 15 years, we have helped our clients across a range of industries, including technology, financial services, healthcare, retail, and CPG. Fortune 500 companies, as well as small- to mid-size firms, have benefited from our partnership with relevant market and competitive insights to drive higher growth, faster customer acquisition, and a sustainable edge in their business.Netscribes is backed by Helix investments, a US-based private equity fund.Media ContactAlina Lewisalina.lewis@netscribes.com022-40987689- Netscribes (India) Pvt Ltd.- Office No. 504, 5th Floor, Lodha SupremusSenapati Bapat Marg, Railway Colony, Lower Parel, Mumbai - 400 013, Maharashtra, India- Alina Lewis- marketing@netscribes.comGlobal Database Encryption Market Research and Analysis 2015-2022

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Global Database Encryption Market, Size, Share, Intelligence, Company Profiles, Market Trends, Strategy, Analysis, Forecast 2015-2021DATABASE ENCRYPTION MARKET INSIGHTS:Database encryption technology is a set of algorithms that is used to transform the data into Cipher Text (plaintext that is unreadable by computer or human without decryption). It is used to protect the data form third party access. Important function of the database encryption includes; prevention of data corruption, predefined restrictions etc. The global database encryption market is anticipated to grow with the CAGR of 30.0% during 2017-2022. Increasing incidences of data breaches and rising adoption of the cloud based database are the primary factors that are driving the growth of the market. Additionally, growing compliance regulation, increasing mobility and virtualization and availability of the encryption software in the market are also estimated to be one of the major factors that are fuelling the growth of the market. However, restriction of crypto software and management of encryption keys are estimated to be the major constraints in the growth of the market. Except these restraints, database encryption market is yet to explore its full potential. Increasing demand of the cloud based encryption services are estimated to develop numerous growth opportunities during the forecast period.For More info:Database encryption market is analysed on the basis of the type, deployment model and verticals. On the basis of the type, our market is segmented into database operational models and database encryption types. Database operational models are further segmented into data in motion and data in rest. Database encryption types are also further divided into key management, column level encryption, file system encryption, application level encryption and transparent or external database encryption. Furthermore, on the basis of the deployment model, market is bifurcated into public cloud deployment, private cloud deployment and hybrid cloud deployment. And on the basis of the verticals, market is segmented into BFSI, Healthcare, IT and Telecommunication, Government, Retail and E-commerce, Aerospace and Defence, and others.GEOGRAPHY INSIGHTS:Global database encryption model is further analysed on the basis of the geographical regions that are contributing significantly towards the growth of the market. On the basis of the geography, our market is segmented into North America, Asia Pacific, Europe and Rest of the World. North America is estimated to be the leading region in the global database encryption market owing to presence of large number data centres in the region and early adoption of the cloud based services. Asia Pacific is estimated to be the fastest growing region due to extensive adoption of digitalization and increasing mobility and virtualization market in the region. Increasing number of SMEs in the developing countries such as India and China are also driving the growth of the market.Competitive Insights:Key vendors of the database encryption market across the globe are Check Point Software Technologies, EMC Corporation, Gemalto NV, Hewlett Packard Company, IBM Corporation, Intel Security, Microsoft Corporation, Netapp Inc., Oracle Corporation, Proofpoint Inc., SAS Institute Inc., Sophos Ltd., Symantec Corporation, Trend Micro Inc., Vormetric Inc., Win Magic Inc. and so on. Mergers and Acquisitions, Product launch and Geographical expansion are some of the most popular strategies adopted by these players to sustain in the market. For Example: in 2015, Microsoft Corporation announced the acquisition of the Secure Islands Technologies Ltd, a data protection company to strengthen its position in the market.MARKET SEGMENTATION:GLOBAL DATABASE ENCRYPTION MARKET BY TYPEo DATABASE OPERATIONAL MODELS DATA IN MOTION DATA IN RESTo DATABASE ENCRYPTION TYPES KEY MANAGEMENT COLUMN LEVEL ENCRYPTION FILE SYSTEM ENCRYPTION APPLICATION LEVEL ENCRYPTION TRANSPERANT OR EXTERNAL DATABASE ENCRYPTIONGLOBAL DATABASE ENCRYPTION MARKET BY DEPLOYMENT TYPEo PUBLIC CLOUDo PRIVATE CLOUDo HYBRID CLOUDGLOBAL DATABASE ENCRYPTION MARKET BY VERTICALSo BFSIo HEATHCAREo GOVERNMENT AND UTILITIESo RETAIL AND E-COMMERCEo IT AND TELECOMMUNICATIONo AEROSPACE AND DEFENCEo OTHERSOMR REPORT COVERS: Comprehensive research methodology of Global Database Encryption Market. This report also includes detailed and extensive market overview with Analyst insights & key market trends. Exhaustive analysis of macro and micro factors influencing the market guided by key recommendations. Analysis of regional regulations and other government policies impacting the Global Database Encryption Market. Insights about market determinants which are stimulating the Global Database Encryption Market. Detailed and extensive market segments with regional distribution of forecasted revenues. Extensive profiles and recent developments of market players.Orion Market Research (OMR) is an Indian research company known for its crisp and concise reports.The company is equipped with an experienced team and young brigade of analysts. The company provides quality syndicated research reports, customized research reports, company profiling, consulting and other research-based services. OMR provide global and regional market reports of various domains such as healthcare, energy, IT, chemicals, and automobiles. The company provides a 360-degree view of the market with parametric analysis, key market insights, key findings, statistical forecasts, competitive landscape, extensive segmentation, key trends, strategic recommendations and detailed company profiles.CORPORATE OFFICE:Orion Market Research Pvt Ltd116, Shagun ArcadeVijay Nagar SquareIndore, Madhya Pradesh  India- 452010Email: info@omrglobal.com, support@omrglobal.comIndia: +91-780-304-0404Global: +1-646-755-7667Global Business Leader Ms Vinita Bali Talk at Banasthali

Global Business Leader Ms Vinita Bali Talk at Banasthali

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While one and all in India today has been calling the Billion plus population as Boon, blessing and Sowbhagya, considering the current state of health, nutrition, water, food, women and children in the nation at large; Ms Vinita Bali who is no Tom Dick and Harry calls it bane, curse and Durbhagya.Alumnus of LSR Delhi, Jamnalal Bajaj Institute Mumbai, Michigan State University, Ms Vinita Bali began her career with Voltas, played a stellar role in launching iconic brand Rasna, moved over to Cadbury and then became World Wide Marketing Director for the most valuable brand in the world - "Coca-Cola". In 2005 she boarded the near-rudderless Britannia and went on to turn around its fortunes, and take it to its deserved position, of being a market-leading, innovative and trusted foods company. Currently, she is Director Bunge Limited a global agribusiness and food company, an advisory board member of PwC India, and is a non-executive director on the boards of Smith & Nephew Plc, as well as several companies, including Crisil, Titan Industries and Syngene International.On 15 Feb 2018, Ms Vinita Bali visited Banasthali and on her arrival, had a grand reception at Swagat Dwar. After visiting the Shantabai Shiksha Kutir which is the birth place of Banasthali, she had a breakfast meeting which included senior officers of Banasthali and faculty members. She visited Kala Mandir, Flying Club and witnessed a spectacular display by students of horse riding club. At the Library she glanced through the original copy of the Indian Constitution which included the signature of Banasthali founder Shri Hiralal Sastriji who was a member of the constituent assembly. Other landmarks of the institution she visited included Bajaj School of Automation, School of Design, Jamnalal Bajaj School of Legal Studies and School of Music Dance and Theatre.Addressing a gathering of thousands of students and Banasthali, Ms Vinita Bali spoke about the very purpose of education and its role in building a character and value system. When she said that she was impressed by the team spirit of Banasthalites, Self Confidence, sense of responsibility and leadership potential and the urge to achieve more and more and break barrier after barrier, there was a thunderous round of applause. Prof Aditya Shastri Vice Chancellor gave the welcome address, Prof Siddharth Shastri Vice President gave the vote of thanks and President Prof Chitra Purohit presented a glittering memento on behalf of Banasthali pariwar.The students and faculty who came t0 hear Ms Vinita Bali left with beaming faces and pride that they were indeed part of an institution which is a jewel in the crown among the womens universities not only in India today but across the globe.For more details about Banasthali seeAbout Banasthali: The Institution which is also the largest fully residential womens university in the world has played a big role in revolutionizing womens education in the country for the last eight decades with a belief that there is a tremendous role of higher education in empowering the women. Banasthali has scripted numerous success stories in a wide range of fields, and stands tall among the citadels of learning in India today. Team Banasthali with Vice Chancellor J C Bose Memorial Award for eminent scientist recipient Prof Aditya Shastri a highly acclaimed alumnus of BITS Pilani, SUNY State University of New York Stony Brook and MIT USA is indeed racing forward to be the very best among global women universities. Matter of pride that NITI Aayog has selected Banasthali along with ISB CCMB in Top 10 to host Atal Incubation Centre. Proud to be Banasthali alumni who call themselves as Banasthalites can be found in all latitudes, longitudes and altitudes in all walks of life across the globe.Banasthali UniversityP.O. Banasthali VidyapithRajasthan  304022Phone 91 1438 228456 / 228341Email: info@banasthali.ac.inWebsite:Facebook:Track Geometry Measurement System Market : Share Analysis Report 2017 to 2025

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Global Track Geometry Measurement System Market: SnapshotThe prosperity of the global track geometry measurement system market is owing to several factors, such as increasing need for safety and security in railway transport, growing railway networks and metro lines, and deployment of intelligent techniques in railways. On the other hand, slow infrastructure growth in a number of emerging economies is hindering the market from attaining its full potential. Nevertheless, the stockholders connected to the value chain of the track geometry measurement system market will gain new opportunities from the growing requirement from public and private partnerships (PPP) and diversification of services and solutions offered by these measurement systems.Based on operation-type, the global market for track geometry measurement system can be segmented into contact based and no contact based, while on the basis of measurement-type, this market can be categorized into cant and cant deficiency, track gauge, twist, curvature, vertical profile, alignment, dipped joints, dynamic cross-level, and others such as inclination and cyclic top. High-speed railways, heavy haul railways, light railways, and mass transit railways can be some of the categories of the global track geometry measurement system, whereas component-wise bifurcation of the market can be software, navigation equipment, lighting equipment, computer, communication equipment, camera, data storage, sensor, and power supply equipment. Geographically, this report takes stock of the potential of the track geometry measurement system market in all important regions such as North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, and the Middle East and Africa.Request Sample Copy of the Report @The report is a comprehensive representation of the current scenario of the market for track geometry measurement system and provides analysis as well as forecasts on its future prospects.Global Track Geometry Measurement System Market: OverviewThe global track geometry measurement system market is projected to exhibit a positive CAGR between 2017 and 2025. The market will benefit from the increase demand for improved security in railway transport and the growling metro lines and railway networks. Besides this, the deployment of cost-effective and smart technologies in railway drive will give the global track geometry measurement system market significant impetus during the forecast period.The report studies growth exhibited by the tract geometry measurement system market based on various parameters such as railway type, measurement type, operation type, component, and region. It covers various aspects such as growth drivers, key restraints, opportunities, and challenges that companies are likely to witness. The profiles of some of the most prominent enterprises operating in global market are included as well.Request TOC of the Report @The report is therefore compiled with the intent of presenting a comprehensive overview of the global track geometry measurement system market. It gauges the impact of Porters five forces on the overall market and analyzes the investment feasibility for new players. Exhaustive information included in the report is obtained from trusted industrial sources via proven research methodologies. It is aimed at helping readers gain a clearer perspective about the prevailing dynamics and trajectory of the global track geometry measurement system market.Global Track Geometry Measurement System Market: Trends and OpportunitiesThe rising demand for improved safety in railway transport is the chief driver of the market. The recent incidents of train mishaps have raised concerns worldwide compelling governments to digitize the mode of transport to ensure safer journey. The demand for cost-effective yet smart technologies for maintaining tracks and ensuring operational safety is therefore at all-time high. This however can be achieved through calculating the geometry parameters in real-time. Track geometry measurement systems assist in maintenance works conducted to detect any track irregularities, which is a key factor enabling the market gain impetus.Read Comprehensive Overview of Report@While these factors will support the markets expansion, slow infrastructure growth will restraint it to an extent. Furthermore, data management and control is a sensitive concern for the track geometry measurement systems market. It is therefore very important to ensure protection of data generated via diverse measuring devices. This is a key challenge posing threat to the market as well.Global Track Geometry Measurement System Market: Regional OutlookNorth America, Europe, and Asia Pacific are among the key regional markets for track geometry measurement system. Among these regions, the market is witnessing highly lucrative opportunities in Asia Pacific. The rising demand for track geometry measurement system in China, which as of 2016 had the longest high-speed railway network in the world, is supporting growth witnessed in the region.Besides this, the market is also gaining from the rapid expansion of metro networks in countries such as Australia and India. Growth in railway networks also fuels the demand for advanced maintenance to ensure risk-free travel to the passengers. Since, railway networks constitute the key transport across emerging Asian economies, the region exhibits a considerably high demand for track geometry measurement system.Global Track Geometry Measurement System Market: Vendor LandscapeSome of the most prominent enterprises operating in the global track geometry measurement system market are Ensco, Inc., MER MEC S.p.A., Fugro, Balfour Beatty, Plasser & Theurer, Egis, MRX Technologies, R. Bance & Co., Ltd. Inc., and Goldschmidt Thermit Group.About UsTMR Research is a premier provider of customized market research and consulting services to business entities keen on succeeding in todays supercharged economic climate. Armed with an experienced, dedicated, and dynamic team of analysts, we are redefining the way our clients conduct business by providing them with authoritative and trusted research studies in tune with the latest methodologies and market trends.Our savvy custom-built reports span a gamut of industries such as pharmaceuticals, chemicals and metals, food and beverages, and technology and media, among others. With actionable insights uncovered through in-depth research of the market, we try to bring about game-changing success for our clients.Contact:TMR Research,3739 Balboa St # 1097,San Francisco, CA 94121United StatesTel: +1-415-520-1050Email: sales@tmrresearch.comGlobal Commercial Airport Baggage Handling Systems Market Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends, and Forecast to 2018

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Market Research Reports Search Engine (MRRSE) has been serving as an active source to cater intelligent research report to enlighten both readers and investors. This research study titled Commercial Airport Baggage Handling Systems Market Get Free Sample Report @This market is primarily driven by the growing number of new airport terminals and upgradation of existing airport infrastructure. The upgrades can be due to existing systems turning obsolete on the basis of technology used, or due to increase in the handling capacity of the airport. Irrespective of the factors affecting the market demand, the global market is experiencing a surge in demand, attributed to rise in airline passengers, airline operators, and the airport as an independent unit.The requirement of a BHS (Baggage Handling System) is primarily driven by the need for efficient systems, which are able to manage the movement of customer/airline baggage in and out of the check-in and checkout points at the airports. The roles of a BHS have increased significantly, with developments of new technologies and improved systems.A typical BHS performs the following tasks in the current market scenario - movement of baggage from the check-in point to the air-craft loading point or cart, movement of baggage from one aircraft to another (in case of transit flights), and moving baggage from an inbound aircraft to the baggage claim section of the airport.For More Info about This Report Visit @Some advanced BHS additionally perform functions such as baggage screening, and tagging as well as sorting. Geographically, the Asia-Pacific region holds a high potential for market growth, due to large number of airports, high demand of airport upgrades, and a rise in the number of new upcoming projects and those under consideration. Also, the Asia-Pacific region, which accounts for the largest share for number of inbound and domestic travelers, is a probable market for high capacity BHS.The scope of BHS in railways is also a probable market, and holds new opportunities across some of the busiest networks. However, the concept is new in the market, and might take time for global acceptance. The key challenges faced by the commercial airport baggage handling systems are on-time movement of baggage from one point to another and efficient performance during peak and non-peak hours.Industry players are continuously working on technologies to improve the overall performance of the entire system. Features such as remote controlled operation, which can be integrated with smart handheld devices or smart phones, are new concepts and are expected to drive the market growth.With a rise in the number of travelers, airline operators, and security challenges, the demand and operational challenges for baggage handling systems is expected to go up. These factors are already being explored by leading players in the market, who are developing advanced systems. Some of the market players in the airport baggage handling systems market are Siemens AG, Daifuku Webb, Vanderlande Industries B.V., and Glidepath.Send an Inquiry @This research report analyzes this market depending on its market segments, major geographies, and current market trends. Geographies analyzed under this research report includeNorth AmericaAsia PacificEuropeRest of the WorldThis report provides comprehensive analysis of Market growth drivers Factors limiting market growth Current market trendsMarket structure Market projections for upcoming yearsThis report is a complete study of current trends in the market, industry growth drivers, and restraints. It provides market projections for the coming years. It includes analysis of recent developments in technology, Porters five force model analysis and detailed profiles of top industry players. The report also includes a review of micro and macro factors essential for the existing market players and new entrants along with detailed value chain analysis.Reasons for Buying this Report This report provides pin-point analysis for changing competitive dynamics It provides a forward looking perspective on different factors driving or restraining market growth It provides a technological growth map over time to understand the industry growth rate It provides a seven-year forecast assessed on the basis of how the market is predicted to grow It helps in understanding the key product segments and their future It provides pin point analysis of changing competition dynamics and keeps you ahead of competitors It helps in making informed business decisions by having complete insights of market and by making in-depth analysis of market segments It provides distinctive graphics and exemplified SWOT analysis of major market segmentsCheck Discount on This Report @About Market Research Reports Search Engine (MRRSE)Market Research Reports Search Engine (MRRSE) is an industry-leading database of Market Research Reports. MRRSE is driven by a stellar team of research experts and advisors trained to offer objective advice. Our sophisticated search algorithm returns results based on the report title, geographical region, publisher, or other keywords.MRRSE partners exclusively with leading global publishers to provide clients single-point access to top-of-the-line market research. MRRSEs repository is updated every day to keep its clients ahead of the next new trend in market research, be it competitive intelligence, product or service trends or strategic consulting.Contact UsState Tower90, State StreetSuite 700Albany, NY - 12207United States Telephone: +1-518-730-0559Email: sales@mrrse.comWebsite:Read More Industry News At:Depression Drugs Market 2018 Study by Trends and Solutions till 2023

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The worldwide Depression Drugs market is expected to witness high growth during the forecast period. The study provides key statistics on the market status of the leading market players and offers key trends and opportunities in the market.Data coverage: Depression Drugs market size and volume; Depression Drugs market trends and prospects; Global Depression Drugs production and its dynamics; Per capita consumption; Breakdown of production by region and country; Medium term outlook; Depression Drugs trade (exports/imports); Prices for Depression Drugs; Profiles of the main manufacturers.Request a Free Sample Now atRegional AnalysisUnited StatesCanadaMexicoGermanyFranceUKItalyRussiaChinaJapanIndiaKoreaSoutheast AsiaAustraliaBrazilMiddle EastAfricaLeading Market Companies OverviewIntellipharmaceuticsPfizerEli LillyAstrazenecaLundbeckAllerganGSKOtsuka PharmaceuticalTakedaNHU GroupShionogiAPOTEXKanghong PharmaHUAHAIView Detailed Report atReport Types and Applications OutlookSplit by Product Types, with sales, revenue, price, market share of each type, can be divided intoSSRIsSNRIsOthersSplit by applications, this report focuses on sales, market share and growth rate of Depression Drugs in each application, can be divided intoHospitalsClinicsOthersMajor Points from Table of Contents:1 Depression Drugs Market Overview2 Global Depression Drugs Sales, Revenue (Value) and Market Share by Players3 Global Depression Drugs Sales, Revenue (Value) by Countries, Type and Application (2013-2018)4 Global Depression Drugs Players Profiles/Analysis5 North America Depression Drugs Sales, Revenue (Value) by Countries, Type and Application (2013-2018)6 Latin America Depression Drugs Sales, Revenue (Value) by Countries, Type and Application (2013-2018)7 Europe Depression Drugs Sales, Revenue (Value) by Countries, Type and Application (2013-2018)8 Asia-Pacific Depression Drugs Sales, Revenue (Value) by Countries, Type and Application (2013-2018)9 Middle East and Africa Depression Drugs Sales, Revenue (Value) by Countries, Type and Application (2013-2018)10 Global Depression Drugs Market Forecast (2018-2023)11 Depression Drugs Manufacturing Cost Analysis12 Industrial Chain, Sourcing Strategy and Downstream Buyers13 Marketing Strategy Analysis, Distributors/Traders14 Market Effect Factors Analysis15 Research Findings and Conclusion16 AppendixContact Information:Call: +1-646-491-9876Email: sales@reportsweb.comReportsWeb.com is a one stop shop of market research reports and solutions to various companies across the globe. We help our clients in their decision support system by helping them choose most relevant and cost effective research reports and solutions from various publishers. We provide best in class customer service and our customer support team is always available to help you on your research queries.505, 6th floor, Amanora Township,Amanora Chambers, East Block,Kharadi Road, Hadapsar, Pune-411028Regenerative Medicine Market 2022 Analysis With Cook Biotech, Osiris Therapeutics, Organogenesis, Stryker and RTI surgical, Baxter International And More

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The Market Research Future has been published New Research Reports which is Regenerative Medicine Market & In This Report the Information has been Provided like Market Analysis, Scope, Stake, Progress, Trends & Forecast which is making through primary and secondary research which is done by professional healthcare researcher.The Global Regenerative Medicine Market is growing steadily. Factors that influence the regenerative medicine market are increasing advancement in healthcare technology, increasing advance technology in Regenerative Medicine Market, increasing prevalence of chronic diseases, increasing growth in stem cell technology and others. Globally the market for regenerative medicine is expected to grow at the rate of about 25.4% from 2016 to 2022.Global Regenerative Medicine Market has been segmented on the basis of material which comprises synthetic materials, genetically engineered materials, pharmaceuticals, biologically derived materials and others. On the basis of therapy the market is segmented into stem cell biology, cellular therapy, tissue engineering and others. Furthermore on the basis of application the market is segmented into cord blood, oncology, urology, orthopedics, neurology, dermatology, cardiovascular, orthopedic and others.Key Players for Regenerative medicine Market:Some of the key players in this market are: Cook Biotech, Osiris Therapeutics, Organogenesis, Stryker and RTI surgical, Baxter International, Inc., LifeSciences, Advanced Cell Technology, CryoLife, Sanofi, BioMimetic Therapeutics, StemCellsInc, Medtronic, LifeCell Kinetic Concepts and others.Get Standard Sample Copy atRegional Analysis of Regenerative medicine Market:Globally North America is the largest market for Regenerative Medicine Market. North America holds the largest market share of more than 44% of the Global Regenerative Medicine Market and is expected to grow at a CAGR of 22.3%. Europe is the second-largest market for Regenerative medicine which is expected to grow at a CAGR of 22.5%. Asia pacific region is expected to be fastest growing region in Regenerative Medicine Market.Regenerative medicine market by Region:North AmericaUSCanadaEuropeWestern EuropeGermanyFranceItalySpainUKRest of Western EuropeEastern EuropeAsiaChinaIndiaJapanSouth KoreaRest of AsiaPacificLatin America, Middle East & AfricaTable of Contents:1 Introduction1.1 Definition1.2 Scope Of Study1.3 Research Objective1.4 Assumptions & Limitations1.5 Market Structure:2 Research Methodology2.1 Research Process2.2 Primary Research2.3 Secondary Research3 Market Dynamics3.1 Drivers3.2 Restraints3.3 Opportunities3.4 Challenges3.5 Macroeconomic Indicators4 Market Factor Analysis4.1 Porters Five Forces Model4.1.1 Bargaining Power Of Suppliers4.1.2 Bargaining Power Of Customer4.1.3 Intensity Of Competitors4.1.4 Threat Of New EntrantsContinuedApply for Discount atTop Reasons to Buy the Reports:Company profiling with detailed strategies, financials, and recent development activitiesMarket Strategic Business Influence DataMarket Research Future recommendations in key business segments based on the market estimationsMarket share analysis of the top industry playersMarket forecasts for a minimum of 5 years of all the mentioned segments, Trends and the regional markets With SWOT AnalysisAbout Market Research Future:At Market Research Future (MRFR), we enable our customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through our Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Raw Research Reports (3R), Continuous-Feed Research (CFR), and Market Research & Consulting Services.Contact:Market Research Future+1 646 845 9312Email: sales@marketresearchfuture.comMRFR has the distinguished objective of providing the optimal quality research and granular research to clients. Our market research studies by products, services, technologies, applications, end users, and market players for global, regional, and country level market segments, enable our clients to see more, know more, and do more, which help answer your most important questions.Our Research Analysts are eager to share their knowledge and assist you in refining market research parameters, choosing right market studies, and evaluating both the market scope and the research methodologies of varied segments.We bridge the gap between our clients and their clients by identifying and decoding just the target group, while generating leads with the highest accuracy.Years of research into diverse fields of work has ingrained within us, a proficiency so distinguished that our industry-specific specialists identify with your business ideas and feel the pulse of your challenges and opportunities. This enables us for providing assistance, through our consulting and strategic consulting services, in informed managerial decision making. In order to stay updated with technology and work process of the industries, WantStats Research and Media often conducts industrial visits for its research analysts. Relevant inputs from various established market participants, help our clients make significant contribution in respective markets are a huge motivation for all of us to endlessly furnish quality. We depend greatly on profound insights into complex realms of our study.Pune, IndiaParonychia Treatment Industry 2018  Top Players are GlaxoSmithKline plc (U.K), Glenmark Generics Ltd. (India) and others.

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Global Paronychia Treatment Market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 11.7% during the forecast period 2017-2023. Global market for paronychia treatment is one of the steady growing markets. Paronychia usually happens when the skin around an individual's nail is irritated or harmed. Paronychia is a soft tissue infection of the skin around the fingernails and toenails. Bacteria which cause this type of infection are known as Candida. The infection begins as cellulitis but may progress to a definite abscess.Key Players:Some of the key players in this market are GlaxoSmithKline plc (U.K), Glenmark Generics Ltd. (India), Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. (Israel), Eli Lilly Company (U.S.), Jonakayem Pharma Formulation Pvt. Ltd. (India), Fougera Pharmaceuticals Inc. (U.S.), Taro Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. (U.S.), Perrigo New York, Inc. (U.S.) and others.Request Sample copy of Paronychia Treatment Market Report@Paronychia Treatment Market - OverviewThe paronychia treatment market is growing mainly due to rising cases of infection. According to a recent study report published by the Market Research Future, the paronychia treatment market is booming and expected to gain prominence over the forecast period. The market is forecast to demonstrate a spectacular growth by 2022, surpassing its previous growth records in terms of value with a striking CAGR during the anticipated period (2017  2022).Paronychia is a soft tissue infection that begins as cellulitis but can progress to a definite abscess. There are majorly two types of paronychia i.e. acute paronychia, and chronic paronychia. The treatment of paronychia depends upon the extent of the infection. In case of acute paronychia, medical care is usually adopted. Major symptoms associated with paronychia are redness of the skin around nail, tenderness of the skin around your nail, changes in nail shape, colour, or texture, detachment of nail, and pus-filled blisters.Paronychia Treatment Market - Competitive AnalysisThe paronychia treatment market is currently dominated by various players. Due to rising research and development expenditure various existing and new marketers are continuously coming up with advanced drugs to control this condition. The global paronychia treatment market is currently dominated by numerous players.Astellas is one of them by holding a strong share in the market. The company is a multinational pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical company. Astellas offers distinctive products such as Cresemba, AmBisome, and many others. On March 6, 2015, Cresemba received FDA approval for treatment of fungal infection. On Nov. 9, 2015, Astellas Pharma Inc. acquired Ocata Therapeutics, Inc. for USD 379 million.Get Discount on Paronychia Treatment Market Report@Regional Analysis:The Americas account for a major share in the global paronychia treatment market owing to the increasing prevalence of acute paronychia, chronic paronychia, candidal paronychia, and pyogenic paronychia. Moreover, well-developed technology, increasing government support for research & development, high healthcare expenditure, and changing lifestyle have fuelled the growth of the Americas paronychia treatment market. Additionally, the concentration of major players in this region is likely to fuel the growth of the market during the forecasted period.Europe holds the second largest paronychia treatment market, which is followed by Asia Pacific. Availability of funds for research & development and strong government support, drive the market growth. For instance, countries like Germany and France are increasing investment in the healthcare domain. Most of the players belong to this region and are constantly investing more into research and development for introducing quality treatment. There is a huge demand of quality treatment from the emerging market. Thus, they encash the opportunity and maximize the market share by exporting better treatment option to the developing countries of Asia Pacific region.Table of Content:IntroductionResearch MethodologyMarket DynamicsMarket Factor AnalysisGlobal Paronychia Treatment Market, By TypesGlobal Paronychia Treatment Market, By ApplicationGlobal Paronychia Treatment Market, By End UserGlobal Paronychia Treatment Market, By RegionCompetitive LandscapeCompany LandscapeMRFR ConclusionAppendixComplete Report Details @About Market Research Future:At Market Research Future (MRFR), we enable our customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through our Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Raw Research Reports (3R), Continuous-Feed Research (CFR), and Market Research & Consulting Services.ContactMarket Research FutureOffice No. 528, Amanora ChambersMagarpatta Road, Hadapsar,Pune  411028Maharashtra, India+1 646 845 9312Email: sales@marketresearchfuture.comPsoriasis Treatment Market: Opportunities, Emerging Trends, Competitive Strategies and Forecasts 2025

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Market Scenario:Psoriasis is non-communicable autoimmune inflammatory, chronic, and painful skin disease characterized by abnormal skin patches. These skin patches are scaly, red, and itchy. These patches may be small and either localized or encompass the entire body. At present, there is no cure for this disease and the major goal of treatment is to limit inflammation and formation of abnormal skin plaque. Factors such as rising disease prevalence, significant unmet needs, and large number of pipeline molecules would drive the psoriasis treatment market growth across the globe.There are five different psoriasis types namely Inverse, Plaque, Pustular, and Erythrodermic. The most common type of psoriasis is called Plaque psoriasis or psoriasis vulgaris, and accounts for over 90% of reported cases. The majorly affected body areas include around the navel, back of the forearms, shins, and the scalp. The guttate psoriasis is characterized by drop-shaped lesions while in pustular psoriasis small non-infectious pus-filled blisters are seen. Inverse psoriasis leads to the formation of red patches in skin folds. Erythrodermic psoriasis occurs on widespreading of the rash and develops into other types. At some point of disease, the fingernails and toenails are affected in most people. This may include nails pits or lead to transformation in nail color.Factors promoting the growth of psoriasis market include availability of varied treatment options for psoriasis, use of light therapy for psoriasis and rising prevalence of psoriasis coupled with early diagnosis.Request a Sample Report @Key Players:The major companies that provide psoriasis treatment include: Johnson & Johnson Glenmark Pharmaceuticals Limited Cipla Ltd. Sun Pharmaceuticals Industries Ltd. Stiefel Laboratories Inc. (GlaxoSmithKline plc) Win Medicare Pvt. Ltd. Rowan Bioceuticals Private Limited Novartis AGIndustry HighlightsDifferent treatment methods can aid to control the psoriasis symptoms that is fuelling its treatment market growth. The different treatment methods include administration of steroid, vitamin D3, exposure to ultraviolet B (UVB) light, and immunosuppressive like methotrexate. Over 75% of the cases can be treated with creams alone. Cream and ointments of corticosteroid, and calcipotriol can help to treat mild-to-moderate psoriasis. However, in cases of severe psoriasis, creams are coupled along with oral medications such as methotrexate, acitretin, and cyclosporin.Various topical drugs that are used in psoriasis treatment include hydroxyanthrone, corticosteroids, vitamin D, and retinoid. For the treatment of mild-to-moderate psoriasis, topical corticosteroids are often prescribed. However, low-potency corticosteroid ointments can be used for sensitive areas such as face or skin folds and for the treatment of widespread damaged skin patches. Medicated foams as well as scalp solutions are available in market for the treatment of psoriasis scalp patches.Browse Report @Market SegmentsThe global psoriasis treatment market can be classified based on drug class, route of administration and region. On the basis of drug class, the global market is classified into TNF inhibitors, vitamin D analogues, interleukin blockers, topical corticosteroids and others. On the basis of route of administration, it is segmented into topical therapeutic, oral therapeutic,and parenteral therapeutic drugs.Regional AnalysisBased on regions, the global psoriasis treatment market is divided into North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific (APAC), Middle East & Africa (MEA), and Latin America. The North American region is anticipated to command the maximum market share and would lead the psoriasis treatment market during the forecast period. Factors such as large patient pool, better medical facilities, commercialization of new diagnostic technology, medical policies, and favorable reimbursement policies are fuelling the growth of this market.Related Reports:Infant Nutrition Market:Recording Chart Paper Market:About us:Xpodence Research have the most extensive collection of market research reports of many categories. Xpodence Research provides the best market research solution for every industry by publishing the best possible results of great market research firms worldwide. For every particular problem, theres a particular solution, so according to the customer needs, we provide the best possible results to them from different market research organization, whether its a Custom Research or Syndicated Research reports because the product that wins is the one that bridges customers to the future, not the one that requires a giant leap.Every organization, whether it is related to Pharmaceuticals, Technology, Eatables, Consumable Goods and many more demands a market research results so that they can take important decisions for more productivity and better output in this swift world. Xpodence Research gives the best possible outcome, perfect forecast, analysis and insights of market research in the form of report which is beneficial for various organisations and also to the manufacturing companies in taking the best decisions for quality production.Contact us:Xpodence Research244 , Madison AvenueNew York City, NY - 10016United StatesToll Free +1- 844-445-2861Email: sales@xpodenceresearch.comAutomotive Intelligence Battery Sensor Market Rising at a CAGR of 18.30% Between 2017 - 2025

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"The Latest Research Report Automotive Intelligence Battery Sensor Market - Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends, and Forecast 2017 - 2025 provides information on pricing, market analysis, shares, forecast, and company profiles for key industry participants. - MarketResearchReports.biz"This report analyzes and forecasts the market for automotive intelligence battery sensor at the global and regional level. The market has been forecast based on revenue (US$ Mn) and volume (Million Units) from 2017 to 2025. The study includes drivers and restraints of the global automotive intelligence battery sensor market. It also covers the impact of these drivers and restraints on demand for automotive intelligence battery sensor during the forecast period. The report also highlights opportunities in the automotive intelligence battery sensor market at the global and regional level. It comprises a detailed value chain analysis, which provides a comprehensive view of the global automotive intelligence battery sensor market. Porters Five Forces model for the automotive intelligence battery sensor market has also been included to help understand the competitive landscape in the market. The study encompasses market attractiveness analysis, wherein end-users are benchmarked based on their market size, growth rate, and general attractiveness.The study provides a decisive view of the global automotive intelligence battery sensor market by segmenting it in terms of technology, voltage, vehicle, electric vehicle and region. These segments have been analyzed based on present and future trends. Regional segmentation includes the current and forecast demand for automotive intelligence battery sensor in North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Latin America, and Middle East & Africa. The report also covers demand for individual application segments in all the regions.Get Sample Copy of this report @The market for automotive intelligence battery sensor is primarily driven by rising demand for eco-friendly agro products. Industrialization has led to urbanization, which has resulted in migration to cities. The report provides the estimated market size of automotive intelligence battery sensor for 2016 and forecast for the next nine years. The global market size of automotive intelligence battery sensor has been provided in terms of revenue and volume. Market numbers have been estimated based on key Sale Channel, Sales Channel, and regional segments of automotive intelligence battery sensor market. Market size and forecast for each major Sale Channel and Sales Channel have been provided in terms of global and regional/country markets.Global Automotive Intelligence Battery Sensor Market: Research MethodologyIn order to compile the research report, we conducted in-depth interviews and discussions with a number of key industry participants and opinion leaders. Primary research represents the bulk of research efforts, supplemented by extensive secondary research. We reviewed key players product literature, annual reports, press releases, and relevant documents for competitive analysis and market understanding. Secondary research also includes a search of recent trade, technical writing, internet sources, and statistical data from government websites, trade associations, and agencies. This has proven to be the most reliable, effective, and successful approach for obtaining precise market data, capturing industry participants insights, and recognizing business opportunities.Secondary research sources that are typically referred to include, but are not limited to company websites, annual reports, financial reports, broker reports, investor presentations, and SEC filings, internal and external proprietary databases, and relevant patent and regulatory databases, national government documents, statistical databases, and market reports, news articles, press releases, and webcasts specific to companies operating in the market, National government documents, statistical databases, and market reports, American Automobile Association, European Automobile Manufacturers Association, Automotive Research Association of India, Organisation Internationale des Constructeurs d'Automobile (OICA), GAIKINDO, MARKLINES, KAMA, IHS MARKIT, Factiva, etc.Primary research involves e-mail interactions, telephonic interviews, and face-to-face interviews for each market, category, segment, and sub-segment across geographies. We conduct primary interviews on an ongoing basis with industry participants and commentators in order to validate the data and analysis. Primary interviews provide firsthand information on market size, market trends, growth trends, competitive landscape, and outlook, etc. These help validate and strengthen secondary research findings. These also help develop the analysis teams expertise and market understanding.Browse Complete Report with TOC @Global Automotive Intelligence Battery Sensor Market: Competitive AnalysisThe study includes profiles of major companies operating in the global automotive intelligence battery sensor market. Key players in the automotive intelligence battery sensor market include Continental AG, Robert Bosch GmbH, HELLA GmbH & Co. KGaA, inomatic GmbH, NXP Semiconductors, ams AG, FURUKAWA ELECTRIC CO., LTD., Vishay Intertechnology, DENSO CORPORATION, MTA S.p.A., Abertax Technologies Ltd., Autotec Components, and others. Market players have been profiled in terms of attributes such as company overview, financial overview, business strategies, recent developments, and SWOT analysis.The Automotive intelligence battery sensor market has been segmented as follows:By Technology (US$ Mn) (Million Units)LINCANMCUBy Voltage (US$ Mn) (Million Units)12 Volt14 Volt24 Volt48 VoltBy Vehicle (US$ Mn) (Million Units)Passenger VehicleCommercial VehicleBy Electric Vehicle (US$ Mn) (Million Units)Battery Electric VehicleHybrid Electric VehiclePlug-In Hybrid Electric VehicleBy Region/Country/Sub regionNorth AmericaU.S.CanadaEuropeGermanyU.K.FranceItalySpainRest of EuropeAsia PacificChinaIndiaJapanASEANRest of Asia PacificMiddle East & AfricaGCCSouth AfricaRest of South AfricaLatin AmericaBrazilMexicoRest of Latin AmericaView Sample PDF @Table of Content1. Preface1.1. Market Definition and Scope1.2. Market Segmentation1.3. Key Research Objectives1.4. Research Highlights2. Assumptions and Research Methodology3. Executive Summary : Global Automotive Intelligent Battery Sensor Market3.1. Global Automotive Intelligent Battery Sensor Market Size, US$ Mn, Units, 2016-20254. Market Overview4.1. Introduction4.1.1. Automotive Intelligent Battery Sensor Market Definition4.1.2. Industry Developments4.2. Key Market Indicators4.3. Market Dynamics4.3.1. Drivers4.3.1.1. Significant demand for ADAS equipped vehicle4.3.1.2. Rise in government concerned toward the environment4.3.2. Restraints4.3.2.1. Malfunctioning of the system4.3.3. Opportunity4.3.3.1. Increasing demand for autonomous vehicles4.3.3.2. Research and development in the field of electronic components4.4. Porters Five Force Analysis4.5. Value Chain Analysis4.5.1. List of Key Raw Material Suppliers4.5.2. List of Key Manufacturers4.5.3. List of Customers4.5.4. Level of Integration4.6. Regulatory Scenario4.7. SWOT Analysis5. Automotive Intelligent Battery Sensor Raw Material & Price Trend Analysis6. Global Automotive Intelligent Battery Sensor  Supply Demand Scenario6.1. Overview6.2. Global Production Output, by Region6.2.1. North America6.2.2. Latin America6.2.3. Europe6.2.4. Asia Pacific6.2.5. Middle East & AfricaAbout usMarketResearchReports.biz is the most comprehensive collection of market research reports. MarketResearchReports.Biz services are specially designed to save time and money for our clients. We are a one stop solution for all your research needs, our main offerings are syndicated research reports, custom research, subscription access and consulting services. We serve all sizes and types of companies spanning across various industries.ContactMr. NachiketState Tower90 Sate Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-621-2074Website:E: sales@marketresearchreports.bizEurope Liquid Chromatography Devices Market by 2024 Focuses on Top Companies, Research Methodology, Drivers and Opportunities

Europe Liquid Chromatography Devices Market 2018

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Europe Liquid Chromatography Devices Market, By Product Type, End User, Geography (Germany, France, U.K., Italy, Spain, Russia, Turkey, Belgium, Netherlands, Switzerland, Rest of Europe)  Industry Trends and Forecast to 2024The report is an upcoming report from Data Bridge Market Research. The new market report contains data for historic years 2016, the base year of calculation is 2016 and the forecast period is 2017 to 2024.Request For Free Sample Report @:The market is segmented based on product type, end-user and geography.This research report scopes includes the following geographical segments Germany United Kingdom France Spain Italy Russia Turkey Belgium Nether lands Switzerland Rest of EuropeRequest for Detail TOC @:This reports includes the following deliverable Macro Indicator Analysis Market Overview Market Dynamics Drivers, Restraints, Opportunities and Challenges Market sizing and growth analysis Market forecasting to 2024 Market Competitive Landscape Product Launches and Pipeline Analysis Value Chain Analysis Market Mergers, Acquisitions and Agreements Company ProfilesThis Liquid Chromatography Devices Market Report scope includes a holistic study of the current dynamics of the market, industry growth and restraints of the market. It provides the market forecast to 2024, recent developments in the market and pipeline analysis of the major players. The report also includes a review of micro and macro forecasts, new entrant strategies, and market penetration strategies with a comprehensive value chain analysis.Have any Questions? Inquire Here:Related ReportGlobal Liquid Chromatography Devices Market  Industry Trends and Forecast to 2024Global Liquid Chromatography Devices Market, By Type (Normal-phase liquid chromatography, Reversed-phase liquid chromatography, Ion Exchange Chromatography, Size exclusion liquid chromatography), By Application (BiomedicalAnalysis, Food Product Analysis, Oils and fats Analysis, Others), By End Users (Research Laboratories (clinical research laboratories, food safety laboratories) , Diagnostics Centers, Forensic, Others), By Geography (North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, Europe, South America, Middle East and Africa) Industry Trends and Forecast to 2024About Data Bridge Market Research:Data Bridge Market Research set forth itself as an unconventional and neoteric Market research and consulting firm with unparalleled level of resilience and integrated approaches. We are determined to unearth the best market opportunities and foster efficient information for your business to thrive in the market. Data Bridge endeavors to provide appropriate solutions to the complex business challenges and initiates an effortless decision-making process.Contact:Vishal DixitData Bridge Market ResearchTel: +1-888-387-2818Email: Sales@databridgemarketresearch.comInvestor: investors@databridgemarketresearch.comVisit BlogUltra-mobile Devices (UMD) Market : Production & Consumption Professional Survey Report 2025

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Global Ultra-mobile Devices (UMD) Market: SnapshotUntil a couple of years from now, the future of the sleeker, smaller, and portable computing devices, now dubbed as ultra-mobile, looked bleak. The segment had few devices and the flagship devices failed to entice masses. But the scenario soon transformed and ultra-mobile devices charged in the burgeoning global computing devices market with immense force, a host of new products from some of the worlds most renowned brands and are witnessing massive sales.Analysts predict that ultra-mobile devices will soon supplant desktop computers in professional as well as public spaces. With the impressive rate of technological advancements that this segment of computing devices is achieving in a short span, this transition does not seem very far or difficult. Vast advances in battery, screen, processing, and material processing technologies are supplementing this change, making it technically very feasible to develop portable devices that can easily compete with the present-day ubiquitous, relatively bulkier, and mostly immobile workhorse personal computers.Request Sample Copy of the Report @The rapid influx of a number of technologically advanced and highly promising candidates in the global ultra-mobile devices arena is strengthening the position of the segment as the right candidate to claim a significant stake in the workplace computers replacement process that many organizations eagerly await. Conventional smartphones and tablets fail to be as productive and fast as desktop computers when it comes to fulfilling a number of requirements, a factor that makes the high demand for ultra-mobile devices more likely. This report gives a detailed overview of the global ultra-mobile devices market and its crucial segments.Global Ultra-mobile Devices (UMD) Market: OverviewUltra-mobile devices (UMD), also referred to as ultra-mobile personal computers (UMPC), the notebook computers with physical features such as screen and overall size scaled down to bring about a reduction in weight make the devise more compact, have emerged as one of the largest selling computing devices in the past few years. These portable and easy to carry computing devices, which majorly pack capabilities and functionalities similar to those of a traditional personal computer, are steadily outpacing the conventional personal computer models.Request TOC of the Report @The market for ultra-mobile computing devices is expected to expand at a promising pace in the next few years as the trend of mobility gathers further pace. This report on the global ultra-mobile devices market provides a thorough analytical overview of the market in the present times and several forward-looking statements predicting the growth prospects of the market and its segments for the period 20172025, wherein 2016 is considered the base year.The report covers a detailed analytical overview of all the key trends expected to play a key role in the overall development of the market over the said period. The study highlights factors such as drivers, restraints, regulations, and opportunities expected to impact the growth prospects of the market during the forecast period.Global Ultra-mobile Devices (UMD) Market: Trends and OpportunitiesThe report states that of the key varieties of ultra-mobile devices available in the market, including basic UMD, utility UMD, and premium UMD, the segment of premium UMD accounted for the leading share in revenues in the global market. Operational capabilities equal or enhanced as compared to conventional personal computers, compact size, and high cost have made premium UMDs one of the most profitable UMD segments in the global market in the past few years.Read Comprehensive Overview of Report@On the basis of operating system, the global UMD market can be segmented into Windows, Mac, Android, and open source. Presently, the Windows category accounts for the dominant share in the global market and is expected to retain dominance over the next few years as well.Global Ultra-mobile Devices (UMD) Market: Geographical and Competitive DynamicsFrom a geographical perspective, the report analyzes the UMD market across regions such as Asia Pacific, North America, Europe, Middle East and Africa, and Latin America. Of these, the North America market contributed to the leading share in the global markets revenue. The presence of an affluent consumer base and some of the worlds leading UMD manufacturers have helped the region take the top spot in the UMD market.Emerging economies across regions such as Asia Pacific and Latin America have become some of the worlds profitable destinations for the personal computers market owing to the rising population of affluent and digitally aware consumers and the burgeoning enterprise and education sectors. However, the high prices of UMDs could crop up as one of the key challenges for markets expansion in these regions, making people favor budget computing devices over UMDs. The consumer perception that UMDs lack in data processing or operating functionalities as compared to conventional personal computers could also be a factor limiting the overall demand for ultra-mobile devices to mostly business professionals and enterprise circles in these regions.The study also includes business profiles of some of the leading players operating in the global immersive simulator market with details such as recent developments, growth strategies, market share, market positioning, finances, and product portfolio. Some of the leading companies operating in the global UMD market are HTC Corporation, Google, Dell, Microsoft Corporation, Lenovo, ASUSTeK Computer Inc., Apple Inc., Sony, HP Development Company L.P., and Samsung.About UsTMR Research is a premier provider of customized market research and consulting services to business entities keen on succeeding in todays supercharged economic climate. Armed with an experienced, dedicated, and dynamic team of analysts, we are redefining the way our clients conduct business by providing them with authoritative and trusted research studies in tune with the latest methodologies and market trends.Our savvy custom-built reports span a gamut of industries such as pharmaceuticals, chemicals and metals, food and beverages, and technology and media, among others. With actionable insights uncovered through in-depth research of the market, we try to bring about game-changing success for our clients.Contact:TMR Research,3739 Balboa St # 1097,San Francisco, CA 94121United StatesTel: +1-415-520-1050Email: sales@tmrresearch.comUreteral Stents Market 2018- Regional Overview and Top Vendors are Boston Scientific Corporation (US), Cook Medical, Inc. (US), C. R. Bard, Inc. (US) and more.

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Global Ureteral Stents Market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 8% during forecasted period 2017-2023. Global ureteral stents market is segmented on the basis of its type into open end stents, double pigtail stents, closed end stents, multiloop stents. On the basis of type of material they are segmented into metal stents, silicone stents, plastic stents, hydrogel stents, and polyurethane stents and other. On the basis of application they are segmented into ureterorenoscopy, lithotripsy and otherKey Players for Global Ureteral Stents Market:Boston Scientific Corporation (US), Cook Medical, Inc. (US), C. R. Bard, Inc. (US), Medline Industries, Inc. (US), Allium Medical Solutions Ltd (Israel), Pnn Medical A/S (Denmark), B. Barun melsungen (Germany), Urovision (Germany), Surgimedik, Coloplast (Denmark), Applied Medical (US), Teleflex (US), Urotech, Opti-Med, Goharshafa, Mednova, ConMed, W. L. Gore & Associates Inc., Merit Endotek, Micro-Tech Co., Ltd, Rontis Medical, Smiths Medical and many more.Request Sample copy of Ureteral Stents Market Report@Regional Analysis:The geographical segmentation of the global ureteral stent market is diversified into North America, Latin America, Eastern Europe, Western Europe, Asia-Pacific, and the Middle East and Africa. The developed markets such as Europe and North America and Europe are expecting to witness rapid growth. Factors that contribute to this growth are the presence of the prominent market players and rise in the number of urological surgeries, and constant research and development in the projects. Asia Pacific will have a positive growth owing to patient demographics that are favourable and emerging healthcare infrastructure. The Middle East region is having hospitals that are providing better services in the urology.Market Analysis:Ureteral stents are hollow & thin tubes that are inserted in ureters to treat or prevent obstacles during urine-flow. They find applications in urological surgeries for retaining ureter patency & ensuring proper urinary-drainage. Ureteral stents are employed by the right end-users through various endourological procedures. They are mainly inserted with the help of cytoscopes. Multiple factors; like kidney stones, prostate cancers, and pre-operative patients draw the adoption of ureteral stents.These stents enable the transport of remaining fragments without causing obstructions. Stents are also used for scratched ureters. Frankly, any kind of ureter surgery normally involves stents for ureter-treatments. Some other propellers of the ureteral stents market include tumors, bladder irregularities, & ureteral scarring/narrowing. With a rise in such cases, the global ureteral stents market is set to grow at a substantial CAGR in the forecast period.Get Discount on Ureteral Stents Market Report@Classification and Regional Overview:The worldwide market is classified into materials, kinds, applications, and regions. Silicon, metal, hydrogel, plastic, polyurethane, etc. form the materials. The kinds encompass closed end, double pigtail, open end, and multiloop. Based on applications, the market consists of lithotripsy, ureterorenscopy, and others. Latin America, North America, Eastern Europe, Asia Pacific, Western Europe, and the Middle East & Africa constitute the geographies.Emerging markets, such as Europe and North America are predicted to undergo swift expansion. Their increasing participants, research & developments, and urology incidences drive their sales. Asia Pacific would observe decent trends, as a consequence of its expanding medical infrastructure & supportive patient-demographics. Asia Pacific is home to even more patients suffering from these diseases. With better fiscal conditions in India, China, and Brazil; majority of the business expansion could be ascribed to the collective demand from these nations. The Middle East specializes in advanced urology services.Table of Content:IntroductionResearch MethodologyMarket DynamicsMarket Factor AnalysisGLOBAL URETERAL STENTS MARKET, BY MATERIALGLOBAL URETERAL STENTS MARKET, BY APPLICATIONGLOBAL PAIN MANAGEMENT DEVICES MARKET, BY REGIONCompetitive LandscapeCompany ProfileCONCLUSIONComplete Report Details @About Market Research Future:At Market Research Future (MRFR), we enable our customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through our Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Raw Research Reports (3R), Continuous-Feed Research (CFR), and Market Research & Consulting Services.ContactMarket Research FutureOffice No. 528, Amanora ChambersMagarpatta Road, Hadapsar,Pune  411028Maharashtra, India+1 646 845 9312Email: sales@marketresearchfuture.comGlobal Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) Carrier Market -Strategic Analysis of the Top Companies Investments

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Market HighlightsIn North America, United States is expected to dominate in export of shale gas, owing to the huge domestic production. In spite of having too many environmental issues in Japan, the pattern of increment in consumption of LNG in power sector is highlighted in recent years. Australia, the United States, and Russia are may lead this race of global LNG trade during the forecast years. However, the developing counties like China and India will also have a major shareholding for natural gas consumption growth, which will further boost the demand for LNG carriers.Get Sample Report @Top Industry PlayersSome of the key players in the global liquefied natural gas (LNG) carrier market include China State Shipbuilding Corporation, Daewoo Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering (DSME), Dynagas Ltd., GasLog Ltd., Hyundai Heavy Industries Co., Kawasaki Heavy Industries, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Mitsui O.S.K. Lines, Ltd. (MOL), Samsung Heavy Industries and STX Offshore & Shipbuilding Co., Ltd.Market OverviewLiquefied natural gas (LNG) is a natural gas that has been converted to liquid form for the ease and safety of non-pressurized storage or transport. It is odorless, colorless, non-toxic and non-corrosive in nature. The increase in population and improving standards of living is propagating the growth of this market. Also, the trading of natural gas along further expanded the expansion in transportation of LNG is also driving this market.The cryogenic liquefactions of LNG reduces the volume of gas as compared to its original volume, making it easier for the transportation process in a specialized LNG carrier. The most appropriate way to transport natural gas is with the help of a pipeline that is subdivided into offshore and onshore pipelines. The onshore pipelines ensure the transportation of gas to a short distance, whereas the offshore pipelines are used for long distance. Other means of carrying LNG is through vessels. The oldest LNG carrying technology Moss-Rosenberg containment system (commonly known as Moss) is still in use for new vessel construction. The second type of large-scale LNG carrying technology is the membrane technology.For More Information @Market SegmentsThe global liquefied natural gas (LNG) carrier market can be segmented on the basis of technology and region. On the basis of technology, the global liquefied natural gas (LNG) carrier market can be segmented into moss type, prism type and membrane type. On the basis of region, the global liquefied natural gas (LNG) carrier market can be segmented into North America, Europe, Middle East & Africa, Asia-Pacific, and Latin America.Related ReportsOil and Gas Logistics Market-Underfloor Heating Market-About UsXpodence Research has the most extensive collection of market research reports of many categories. Xpodence Research provides the best market research solution for every industry by publishing the best possible results of great market research firms worldwide. For every particular problem, theres a particular solution, so according to the customer needs, we provide the best possible results to them from different market research organization, whether its a Custom Research or Syndicated Research reports because the product that wins is the one that bridges customers to the future, not the one that requires a giant leap.Every organization, whether it is related to Pharmaceuticals, Technology, Eatables, Consumable Goods and many more demands a market research results so that they can take important decisions for more productivity and better output in this swift world. Xpodence Research gives the best possible outcome, perfect forecast, analysis and insights of market research in the form of report which is beneficial for various organizations and also to the manufacturing companies in taking the best decisions for quality production.Contact UsXpodence ResearchUSA Office244, Madison AvenueNew York City, NY - 10016United StatesToll Free +1- 844-445-2861Email: sales@xpodenceresearch.comGlobal Solar Water Heater Market: Industry Size, Share, Growth, Trends and Forecast 2010-2020

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The solar water heater (SWH) uses solar energy to heat water. Solar water heater (SWH) is made of solar power collector panels and a water storage tank. It supplies hot water for various house hood activities such as washing, bathing and cleaning. Apart from the domestic use solar water heater is widely in use in commercial places such as hotels and public institutions. The innovation in the field of hybrid water heater is making it as one of the prefer choice among manufacturing industries. It is generally installed at the top of the roof in order to get sufficient exposure of the sun light.On the basis of the solar plate technology the Asia Pacific solar water heater market is segmented into plate collection type water heater, and evacuated tubes collection type water heaters. Based on the various product segments the market can be categorise in two broad categories namely active solar water heater and passive solar water heater. In active solar water heaters external water pump is needed for water circulation. Passive solar water heater doesnt need any pumps for water circulation.Report Overview @Increased market demand of solar water heater is mainly driven by increasing awareness about various cost and environment related beneficiaries of solar energy, as it is free of cost, green and renewal source of energy. More over the various supports from government and United Nations (UN) to developing economies is boosting global solar water heater market.The efficiency level of solar water heater varies from one climatic region to other climatic region based on intensity of sun light. Limitation of solar water heater in winters and cold climatic region is one of major restrain of the market.Request for Table of Contents @China is by far the largest market of solar water heater (SWH) constituting about 50% of the total market. It is followed by India, Japan and Australia. Asia Pacific is the fasted growing market owing to the large potential of solar power generation in this region. Over the past few years both India and China are investing heavily on the development of solar power generation and solar power based appliances.Some of the leading companies operating in Asia Pacific solar water heater market include, EMMVEE Solar, Systems, Genersys, Nuetech Solar System, Phoneix Solar System, Siemens AG, GE Co., Heat Transfer Products Inc., Rheem Manufacturing Co., and Rinnai Corp.Get Sample Copy of this Report @Key points covered in the reportReport segments the market on the basis of types, application, products, technology, etc (as applicable),The report covers geographic segmentation,,North America,Europe,Asia,RoW,The report provides the market size and forecast for the different segments and geographies for the period of 2010 to 2020,The report provides company profiles of some of the leading companies operating in the market,The report also provides porters five forces analysis of the market..Need more information about Report methodology ? @About UsPersistence Market Research (PMR) is a third-platform research firm. Our research model is a unique collaboration of data analytics and market research methodology to help businesses achieve optimal performance.To support companies in overcoming complex business challenges, we follow a multi-disciplinary approach. At PMR, we unite various data streams from multi-dimensional sources. By deploying real-time data collection, big data, and customer experience analytics, we deliver business intelligence for organizations of all sizes.Contact UsPersistence Market Research305 Broadway7th Floor, New York City,NY 10007, United States,USA,Canada Toll Free: 800-961-0353Email: sales@persistencemarketresearch.comWeb:Aseptic Processing Market Report Now Available at Top Global Research Firm of 2025

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Global Aseptic Processing Market: SnapshotAs per the Food and Agriculture Organization, 43% of the food produced in Asia Pacific in 2014 was wasted, leading to huge financial losses for both manufacturers and retailers. Thus, the need for efficient packaging which offers long life and maintains the quality of products was felt. This gave rise to the demand for aseptic processing and the market for this technology is projected to witness a high growth in the years to come.The growing preference for eco-friendly packages is behind the high demand for aseptic processing technology, despite their complexity when compared to terminal sterilization or canning. A surge in the demand for convenience foods and pharmaceutical supplies is boosting the growth of the aseptic processing market. Aseptic processing enables longer shelf life and thus, in demand. As the disposable income of consumers is increasing, their spending capability is also growing, creating a heightened demand for various products, driving the global aseptic processing market.Request Sample Copy of the Report @Players in the market are expected to witness a stupendous growth as they increase their already large production capacities. The increased demand for aseptically packaged goods has compelled manufacturers to expand their business and production capacity. The cosmetics and dairy sectors are two areas demanding aseptic processing increasingly, thus pushing the growth of the market. The dairy industry is witnessing robust growth on account of the high demand for varieties in terms of flavors, which is benefitting the aseptic processing industry in turn.Global Aseptic Processing Market: OverviewAseptic processing is referred to as the methodology through which sterile or aseptic products, mainly pharmaceutical and food is packed in a sterile container which would efficiently maintain its sterility. Sterility is obtained through a process of flash heating between a temperature of 195 and 295 degree F which recollects more nutrients and employs less energy than the traditional form of sterilization methods such as hot-fill canning or retort. The method of aseptic food preservation allows the storage of processed food for elongated periods without the use of preservatives. These type of aseptic packages are generally a mix of aluminum, polyethylene, and paper. Collectively, these materials form a constricted seal against degradation, contaminants, microbial organisms, thus removing the requirement for refrigeration. The products which packed using aseptic processing are tomatoes, gravies, liquid whole eggs, fruit juices, and milks.Request TOC of the Report @The market intelligence report investigates into the conceivable growth prospects for the aseptic processing market and the sequential growth of the market during the course of the forecast period. It also exclusively provisions the mandatory data related to aspects such as the dynamics manipulating the progress in all possible reflective manner. Numerous pervasive and non-pervasive trends have also been stated in the report. An outlook of extensive nature keeping in mind the Porters five forces analysis has been provided to make the vendor landscape transparent to the reader. The report further points out several activities related to R&D, mergers, acquisitions, and crucial conglomerates and corroborations. The companies in attention have been examined on the basis of market shares, prime products, and key marketing strategies.Global Aseptic Processing Market: Trends and OpportunitiesThe global aseptic processing market is likely to witness exponential growth over the forecast period owing to rising focus on environment-friendly packaging and improvement in technologies and equipment in the packaging industry. The market is also expected to be benefitted by the mounting need for pharmaceutical supplies, growing demand for quality and convenience food products, and significant progress of the dairy beverage market. However, the market is expected to be negatively impacted by the high initial capital investment required for buying equipment and the need for advanced understanding of the technology in question in place forms of packaging forms.Read Comprehensive Overview of Report@In terms of packaging, the segment of paper and paperboard is expected to lead the market in the coming years. This is because, paperboard can be easily cut and processed and is both strong and lightweight, thus making it an ideal material for packaging. Paperboard packaging is available in different grades with unique qualities. The grades are thus chosen on the basis of the respective packaging requirements.Global Aseptic Processing Market: Regional OutlookDeveloping countries such as Argentina, Brazil, India, and China are likely to contribute significantly to the revenue of the global aseptic processing market in the coming years. The growth of the markets in these countries can be primarily attributed to the hectic lifestyles of consumers and their shift towards processed and ready-to-eat meals, growth in household incomes, and favorable demographics.Global Aseptic Processing Market: Competitive LandscapeEquipment manufacturers and suppliers are focusing on offering innovative equipment in different categories along with integrating processing equipment. They are also diversifying the product offerings to strengthen distribution base. Some of the leading companies are JBT Corporation, Greatview Aseptic Packaging Co. Ltd., GEA Group, Amcor Limited, Becton, Dickinson and Co., GEA Group, Tetra Laval International S.A., E.I. Du Pont De Nemours and Company, and Robert Bosch GmbH.About UsTMR Research is a premier provider of customized market research and consulting services to business entities keen on succeeding in todays supercharged economic climate. Armed with an experienced, dedicated, and dynamic team of analysts, we are redefining the way our clients conduct business by providing them with authoritative and trusted research studies in tune with the latest methodologies and market trends.Our savvy custom-built reports span a gamut of industries such as pharmaceuticals, chemicals and metals, food and beverages, and technology and media, among others. With actionable insights uncovered through in-depth research of the market, we try to bring about game-changing success for our clients.Contact:TMR Research,3739 Balboa St # 1097,San Francisco, CA 94121United StatesTel: +1-415-520-1050Email: sales@tmrresearch.comGlobal Synthetic Fibers Market: Industry Analysis, Growth, Trends and Forecast 2016 - 2026

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Generally produced from petrochemicals, synthetic fibers are man-made fibers which possess superior physical and chemical properties, such as durability, elasticity, strength, etc. Synthetic fibers are also cost effective compared to their natural counterpart and are more stain and water resistant as compared with natural fibers such as cotton or silk. Synthetic fibers play a key role in day to day human life. Along with apparels, synthetic fibers are used in numerous industrial, outdoor, indoor, and commercial applications. Some of the common synthetic fibers include nylon, acrylic, polyester, carbon fiber, etc.; whereas rayon, spandex, etc. are specialty synthetic fibers.Last few decades have seen significant growth in consumption of synthetic fibers globally. Synthetic fibers do not wrinkle easily and possess good elastic properties which make them comfortable to wear. Synthetic fibers are easy to wash, dry up quickly and can be dyed easily. Due to technological advances in production methods and superior physical, chemical, and mechanical characteristics, synthetic fibers are not only well recognized for their use in general textile, but also play crucial role in key end user industries such as healthcare, aerospace, food packaging, water purification, electronics, automotive, air filters, and others. Furthermore, durability, cost effectiveness, and easy maintenance are anticipated to have a positive impact on the synthetic fiber market growth over the forecast period. Moreover, rapid industrialization, changing consumer pattern for textiles, and increasing disposable income are projected to drive the global synthetic fiber market over the forecast period 20162026.Report Overview @Market DynamicsConsumers highly prefer characteristics such as durability, better stain resistance, softness, and elasticity in their fiber uses; and manufacturers ability to provide all such properties at lower costs is one of the key driving factors for the growth of the global synthetic fiber market. Furthermore, changing fashion trends are also expected to have perceptible effects on the global synthetic fiber market. The lower cost of synthetic fibers as compared to natural fibers also encourages their use among consumers. Furthermore, weak supply of natural fibers such as cotton is another factor, expected to drive the global synthetic fiber market over the forecast period.Environmental concerns such as non-biodegradability of synthetic fibers are expected to pose significant challenges to manufacturers across the globe. Apart from this, synthetic fibers possess low melting point and burn faster compared to natural fibers. Such environmental and safety concerns are some of the key restraining factors which might hamper the growth of the global synthetic fiber market.Manufacturers across the globe are focused in R&D to develop various technologies and processes to impart better technical and safety characteristics in their products. Special attention has been given to incorporate functional changes in synthetic fibers with little or no hazardous impact on the environment.Request for Table of Contents @Market SegmentationSome of the many ways by which global synthetic fiber market can be segmented, includes on the basis of product type, application, and region. On the basis of product type, global synthetic fiber market segments into acrylic, nylon, polyester, polyolefin, acetate, rayon, aramid, and others. On the basis of applications, global synthetic fiber market segments into apparels, aerospace, automotive, medical, and others.Regional OutlookSupported by Megatrend of population growth and rising disposable income, market outlook for Asia-Pacific is expected to remain positive and strong over the forecast period. Globally, China and India are expected to be key suppliers as well as consumers of synthetic fibers. Taiwan and the U.S. are expected to hold significant shares in the global production capacities. Consumption in Western Europe is expected to be lower compared to other developing regions of the world. Growth in the Middle East and Africa is expected to remain higher as compared to the global average over the forecast period.Key PlayersSome of key players identified across the value chain of global synthetic fiber market include DuPont, BASF, W. Barnet GmbH & Co. KG, Toray Industries, Inc., The CHA Textiles Group, Eastman Chemical Company, Mitsubishi Rayon, Asahi KASEI, Radici Group, Jushi Group, and Reliance Industries Limited.The research report presents a comprehensive assessment of the market and contains thoughtful insights, facts, historical data, and statistically supported and industry-validated market data. It also contains projections using a suitable set of assumptions and methodologies. The research report provides analysis and information according to categories such as market segments, geographies, types and applications.The report covers exhaustive analysis on:Market Segments,Market Dynamics,Market Size,Supply & Demand,Current Trends/Issues/Challenges,Competition & Companies involved,Value Chain.Get Sample Copy of this Report @Regional analysis includes:North America,Latin America,Asia Pacific,Japan,Western Europe,Eastern Europe,Middle East & Africa.The report is a compilation of first-hand information, qualitative and quantitative assessment by industry analysts, inputs from industry experts, and industry participants across the value chain. The report provides an in-depth analysis of parent market trends, macroeconomic indicators and governing factors, along with market attractiveness within the segments. The report also maps the qualitative impact of various market factors on market segments and various geographies.Report highlights:Detailed overview of parent market,Changing market dynamics in the industry,In-depth market segmentation,Historical, current and projected market size in terms of volume and value,Recent industry trends and developments,Competitive landscape,Strategies of key players and products offered,Potential and niche segments, geographical regions exhibiting promising growth,A neutral perspective on market performance,Must-have information for market players to sustain and enhance their market footprint.Need more information about Report methodology ? @About UsPersistence Market Research (PMR) is a third-platform research firm. Our research model is a unique collaboration of data analytics and market research methodology to help businesses achieve optimal performance.To support companies in overcoming complex business challenges, we follow a multi-disciplinary approach. At PMR, we unite various data streams from multi-dimensional sources. By deploying real-time data collection, big data, and customer experience analytics, we deliver business intelligence for organizations of all sizes.Contact UsPersistence Market Research305 Broadway7th Floor, New York City,NY 10007, United States,USA,Canada Toll Free: 800-961-0353Email: sales@persistencemarketresearch.comWeb:Global Solar Photovoltaic Material Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends, and Forecast to 2024

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Market Research Reports Search Engine (MRRSE) has been serving as an active source to cater intelligent research report to enlighten both readers and investors. This research study titled Solar Photovoltaic Material MarketGet Free Sample Report @Solar photovoltaic materials are the materials that are used in manufacturing of solar panels or modules which are installed for generating electricity. Solar photovoltaic materials are basically of two types crystalline and thin film. Crystalline is further divided into polycrystalline and gallium arsenide whereas thin film is of three types namely amorphous silicon, cadmium telluride, and copper indium diselenide. Out of all the solar photovoltaic materials, polycrystalline is the most dominant material because of its good efficiency and easy manufacturing process. Thin film materials like cadmium telluride and copper indium diselenide is expected to grow in the near future.The report estimates and forecasts the solar photovoltaic material market on the global, regional, and country levels. The study provides forecast between 2016 and 2024 based on volume (kilo tons) and revenue (US$ Mn) with 2015 as the base year. The report comprises an exhaustive value chain analysis for each of the product segments. It provides a comprehensive view of the market. Value chain analysis also offers detailed information about value addition at each stage. The study includes drivers and restraints for the solar photovoltaic material market along with their impact on demand during the forecast period.The study also provides key market indicators affecting the growth of the market. The report analyzes opportunities in the solar photovoltaic material market on the global and regional level. Drivers, restraints, and opportunities mentioned in the report are justified through quantitative and qualitative data. These have been verified through primary and secondary resources. Furthermore, the report analyzes substitute analysis of solar photovoltaic material and global average price trend analysis.Global Solar Photovoltaic Material Market: SegmentationThe study provides comprehensive view of the solar photovoltaic material market by dividing it into end-user and geography. The solar photovoltaic material market has been segmented into crystalline, polycrystalline, cadmium telluride, copper indium diselenide and others. End-user segments residential, commercial, and industrial have been analyzed based on historic, present, and future trends.For More Info about This Report Visit @Regional segmentation includes the current and forecast demand for solar photovoltaic material in North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Latin America, and Middle East & Africa (MEA). Additionally, the report comprises country-level analysis in terms of volume and revenue for end-user segments. Key countries such as the U.S., France, Germany, Italy, the U.K., China, India, Japan, South Africa, Mexico, and Brazil have been included in the study. Market segmentation includes demand for individual end-users in all the regions and countries.The report includes Porters Five Forces Model to determine the degree of competition in the solar photovoltaic material market. It comprises qualitative write-up on market attractiveness analysis, wherein end-users and countries have been analyzed based on attractiveness for each region. Growth rate, market size, raw material availability, profit margin, impact strength, technology, competition, and other factors (such as environmental and legal) have been evaluated in order to derive the general attractiveness of the market. The report comprises price trend analysis for solar photovoltaic material between 2016 and 2024.Global Solar Photovoltaic Material Market: Competitive AnalysisThe report covers detailed competitive outlook that includes market share and profiles of key players operating in the global market. Major players profiled in the report include BASF SE, Mitsubishi Material Corporation, Hemlock Semiconductor Corporation LLC, LDK Solar Co. Ltd., Okmetic, Wacker Chemie AG , Applied Materials, Inc, Shin-Etsu Chemicals Co., Ltd., Atecom Technology Co., Ltd., Topsil GlobalWafers A/S, Silicor Materials, Inc., Targray Technology International, Inc. Company profiles include attributes such as company overview, number of employees, brand overview, key competitors, business overview, business strategies, recent/key developments, acquisitions, and financial overview (wherever applicable).Secondary research sources that were typically referred to include, but were not limited to company websites, financial reports, annual reports, investor presentations, broker reports, and SEC filings. Other sources such as internal and external proprietary databases, statistical databases and market reports, news articles, national government documents, and webcasts specific to companies operating in the market have also been referred for the report. In-depth interviews and discussions with wide range of key opinion leaders and industry participants were conducted to compile this research report. Primary research represents the bulk of research efforts, supplemented by extensive secondary research. Key players product literature, annual reports, press releases, and relevant documents were reviewed for competitive analysis and market understanding. This helped in validating and strengthening secondary research findings. Primary research further helped in developing the analysis teams expertise and market understanding.Send an Inquiry @The global solar photovoltaic material market has been segmented as follows:By Material TypeCrystallinePolycrystallineCadmium TellurideCopper Indium DiselenideOthersBy End UserResidentialCommercialIndustrialBy RegionNorth AmericaU.S.CanadaEuropeGermanyFranceU.K.ItalySpainRest of EuropeAsia PacificChinaIndiaJapanASEANRest of Asia PacificMiddle East & AfricaGCCSouth AfricaRest of Middle East & AfricaLatin AmericaChileBrazilMexicoRest of Latin AmericaAbout Market Research Reports Search Engine (MRRSE)Market Research Reports Search Engine (MRRSE) is an industry-leading database of Market Research Reports. MRRSE is driven by a stellar team of research experts and advisors trained to offer objective advice. Our sophisticated search algorithm returns results based on the report title, geographical region, publisher, or other keywords.MRRSE partners exclusively with leading global publishers to provide clients single-point access to top-of-the-line market research. MRRSEs repository is updated every day to keep its clients ahead of the next new trend in market research, be it competitive intelligence, product or service trends or strategic consulting.Contact UsState Tower90, State StreetSuite 700Albany, NY - 12207United States Telephone: +1-518-730-0559Email: sales@mrrse.comWebsite:Read More Industry News At:Automotive Seat Belt Sensor Market Size and Forecast 2025 - Current Trends, Opportunities, Challenges

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"The Latest Research Report Automotive Seat Belt Sensor Market - Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends and Forecast 2017 - 2025 provides information on pricing, market analysis, shares, forecast, and company profiles for key industry participants. - MarketResearchReports.biz"This exclusive report will provide you with the market size and forecast (US$ Mn) for the global market and its segments for the period from 2015 to 2025 along with the growth rate (CAGR) from 2017 to 2025, considering 2016 as base year. In addition, drivers, restraints and opportunities, competitive landscape have also been covered under the current proposed table of contents, which will in due course help you to take strategic decisions with respect to the market.Automotive Seat Belt Reminder sensor detects the inhabitants in the passenger seat and the rear seat. This particular information is then being used by the seat belt reminder system in the vehicle for the purpose of triggering the warning light or an audible ring reminding the unbuckled seat occupiers to tighten their seat belt. The growth of automotive seat belt sensor market is highly reliant on the rising road safety regulation across various and price of cars equipped with advanced safety features.Get Sample Copy of this report @Rise in the improvisation of the occupant safety across the value chain of the automotive industry is acting as a major growth driver for the automotive seat belt sensor market. Therefore, the growing need of adoption and integration of active and passive safety system in the current automotive ecosystem in the form of seat belt sensor, seat belt lock engagement and side airbags along with the increasing consumer awareness on the automotive safety is also one of the key factor anticipated to catalyze the growing demand of automotive seat belt sensor during the forecast period. In addition, adoption of seat belt sensor as a part of counter driving the accidents because of the drowsiness is also anticipated to increase the demand of automotive seat belt sensor in the upcoming years. In turn this is also projected to affect the automotive seat belt sensor market in a positive manner during the forecast period.In spite of many driving factors, the automotive seat belt sensor market is expected to show a shrink and fluctuation in growth rate because of the cost pressure of original equipment manufacturers because of the addition of sensors in the seat belts. The reduction of the overall profit margin of the OEMs and the car manufacturers due to the evenly distributed profit margin in its value chain is also one of the major restraining factors for the global automotive seat belt sensor market. The growing regulations in different regions including Europe and North America is going to create significant opportunity for the automotive seat belt sensor as a part of ADAS in the coming years. Apart from that the growth of public awareness in investment related to automotive safety is also acting as an opportunity factor for the automotive seat belt sensor market in the forecast period.For the purpose of doing in depth analysis, the automotive seat belt sensor market has been segmented on the basis of technology, application and geography. Based on the technology the automotive seat belt sensor market has been segmented into three categories those are mechanical, hall and reed technology. Based on the application, the automotive seat belt sensor market has been segmented into two segments they are airlines and land & off road vehicles. Moreover, this report also provide cross functional analysis of all the above mentioned segment across different regions such as Europe, North America, Asia Pacific, Middle East and Africa and Latin America. By application, the land & off road vehicle segment is expected to capture largest market share in the forecast period. Rapid growth in the adoption of automotive seat belt sensor for the purpose of avoidance of drowsiness for the drivers and mandatory government regulations to install this feature as in built system makes it the most appropriate choice for various end user applications. Geographically, the global automotive seat belt sensor market is mainly driven by Asia Pacific region. Growing purchasing capability of the population in this particular region along with the price decline of cars with advance safety features is driving the market of Asia Pacific region.View Report @Some of the leading players operating in the automotive seat belt sensor market includes Delphi Automotive, Standex-Meder Electronics, Piher Sensors & Controls, Olea Sensor Networks, Mouser Electronics, ITOPS Automotive, FUTEK Advanced Sensor Technology, Far Europe, Amber Valley, ZF Friedrichshafen among others.The report offers a comprehensive evaluation of the market. It does so via in-depth qualitative insights, historical data, and verifiable projections about market size. The projections featured in the report have been derived using proven research methodologies and assumptions. By doing so, the research report serves as a repository of analysis and information for every facet of the market, including but not limited to: Regional markets, technology, types, and applications.The study is a source of reliable data on:Market segments and sub-segmentsMarket trends and dynamicsSupply and demandMarket sizeCurrent trends/opportunities/challengesCompetitive landscapeTechnological breakthroughsValue chain and stakeholder analysisThe regional analysis covers:North America (U.S. and Canada)Latin America (Mexico, Brazil, Peru, Chile, and others)Western Europe (Germany, U.K., France, Spain, Italy, Nordic countries, Belgium, Netherlands, and Luxembourg)Eastern Europe (Poland and Russia)Asia Pacific (China, India, Japan, ASEAN, Australia, and New Zealand)Middle East and Africa (GCC, Southern Africa, and North Africa)The report has been compiled through extensive primary research (through interviews, surveys, and observations of seasoned analysts) and secondary research (which entails reputable paid sources, trade journals, and industry body databases). The report also features a complete qualitative and quantitative assessment by analyzing data gathered from industry analysts and market participants across key points in the industrys value chain.Send An Enquiry Request @A separate analysis of prevailing trends in the parent market, macro- and micro-economic indicators, and regulations and mandates is included under the purview of the study. By doing so, the report projects the attractiveness of each major segment over the forecast period.Highlights of the report:A complete backdrop analysis, which includes an assessment of the parent marketImportant changes in market dynamicsMarket segmentation up to the second or third levelHistorical, current, and projected size of the market from the standpoint of both value and volumeReporting and evaluation of recent industry developmentsMarket shares and strategies of key playersEmerging niche segments and regional marketsAn objective assessment of the trajectory of the marketRecommendations to companies for strengthening their foothold in the marketAbout usMarketResearchReports.biz is the most comprehensive collection of market research reports. MarketResearchReports.Biz services are specially designed to save time and money for our clients. We are a one stop solution for all your research needs, our main offerings are syndicated research reports, custom research, subscription access and consulting services. We serve all sizes and types of companies spanning across various industries.ContactMr. NachiketState Tower90 Sate Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-621-2074Website:E: sales@marketresearchreports.bizGlobal Automobiles Coolant Market: Industry Size, Growth, Trends and Outlook Report 2010-2020

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Coolant is used in almost all major automobiles ranging from small engine motor bikes to heavy duty commercial vehicles. Coolants are used for three major functions: cool down engine parts to avoid over heating during use of the automobiles; to maintain minimum temperature level of engine and avoid freezing when the vehicle is unused for long duration, especially in cold climates and to prevent corrosion of the metal machinery of the automobile.The engine operating temperature must be maintained in an optimum range for engines proper operation and efficiency. High temperatures of engine tend to oxidize the engine oil and break it down into hard carbon, thus destroying it. Coolant flows from the automobiles engine picking up heat and giving it to outside air while the coolant flows to radiator. The maximum coolant flow rate in automobile engine can be one gallon (4 ltr) per minute for each horse power of engine. The heat transfer rate depends largely on the temperature difference between coolants and outside air and the coolants flow rate. In ideal condition, the freezing point of a coolant remains -20 degree Fahrenheit where as boiling point normally does not exceed 234 degree Fahrenheit.Report Overview @Based on technology, the global automobile coolants market is broadly categorized as inorganic additive, organic acid, hybrid organic acid and others. Further on the basis of application in automobiles, the coolant market is categorized as passenger car, commercial vehicle, two wheelers and others.Ethylene glycol based coolants such as traditional green ethylene glycol and embittered coolant (contains up to 93% ethylene glycol plus water and additives) has higher boiling point resulting in high absorption of heat than some of the other coolants. Organic acid coolants are basically ethylene glycol-based but it does not contain silicates or phosphates, whereas hybrid organic acid based coolant such as VW/Audi pink (green or orange in color) contain ethylene glycol with small amount of silicate to provide correct pH for antifreeze properties.Request for Table of Contents @North America is the largest market for automobile coolant attributed to large number of vehicle and their vibrant intercity/country road connectivity. It is followed by Europe and Asia Pacific. The growth rate of automobile coolant is highest in Asia Pacific, lead by China and some of the other developing countries such as India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and Philippines.Growing middle class population, rising disposable income, developing surface transportation infrastructure, growing aspiration of owning private vehicles, increasing mobility due to development of satellite townships near megacities and increasing demand of goods carriers from micro, small and medium size enterprises are fueling the market for automobile coolant in Asia Pacific region. Growing automotive aftermarket and do it yourself (DIY) culture in North America and Europe is fueling the growth of automobile coolant in these two region.Get Sample Copy of this Report @Some of the major players operating in automobile coolant market include Total S.A., Castrol Limited., Cummins Filtration, Motul S.A., China National BlueStar (Group) Co. Ltd., Valvoline International Inc., Exxon Mobil Corp., Sinopec Corp. and Shandong Yuean Chemical Industry Co. Ltd.Key points covered in the reportReport segments the market on the basis of types, application, products, technology, etc (as applicable),The report covers geographic segmentation,,North America,Europe,Asia,RoW,The report provides the market size and forecast for the different segments and geographies for the period of 2010 to 2020,The report provides company profiles of some of the leading companies operating in the market,The report also provides porters five forces analysis of the market.Need more information about Report methodology ? @About UsPersistence Market Research (PMR) is a third-platform research firm. Our research model is a unique collaboration of data analytics and market research methodology to help businesses achieve optimal performance.To support companies in overcoming complex business challenges, we follow a multi-disciplinary approach. At PMR, we unite various data streams from multi-dimensional sources. By deploying real-time data collection, big data, and customer experience analytics, we deliver business intelligence for organizations of all sizes.Contact UsPersistence Market Research305 Broadway7th Floor, New York City,NY 10007, United States,USA,Canada Toll Free: 800-961-0353Email: sales@persistencemarketresearch.comWeb:Carnauba Wax Market : Industry Analysis & Outlook 2017 - 2025

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Carnauba Wax Market: SnapshotThe global carnauba wax market, traditionally dominated by Brazil, has emerged as a major economic avenue in recent years thanks to the steady growth of the automotive and food and beverage sectors. The cosmetics sectors growth in developing countries has also been vital for the global carnauba wax market and is likely to remain a key driver due to the growing demand for a variety of anti-pollution and anti-aging products.The automotive industry has emerged as a leading consumer in the global carnauba wax market due to the growing secondhand car industry. Carnauba wax is a precious commodity in automotive maintenance due to the superior performance it provides in terms of polish. Thus, resold cars generally require a generous application of carnauba wax, while new cars are also often treated with carnauba wax to maximize their appeal to customers. The growing automotive industry in developing countries is thus likely to be vital for the global carnauba wax market, while developed regions are home to an affluent consumer demographic that has shown a steady interest in automobile maintenance and is likely to remain a key consumer in the global carnauba wax market.The food and beverage industry has become a key consumer in the global carnauba wax market due to the rising demand for food glazing and the increasing consumption of confectionery items such as jelly and chewing gum. The rising demand for sweets in developing countries, where the products are still novel, is thus likely to be a vital contributor to the global carnauba wax market.Request Sample Copy of the Report @Global Carnauba Wax Market: OverviewThe global carnauba wax market has witnessed tremendous growth over the past few years, due to its increasing application in the pharmaceutical and cosmetics sector. Brazil is the leading producer as well as exporter of carnauba wax across the globe. The manufacturing of this wax involves low setup cost, however, the labor intensive nature of extraction and processing leads to a high labor cost, thereby boosting the overall manufacturing cost. Moreover, the widespread adoption of primitive tools for extraction leads to an increase in the overall extraction time. This wax commonly finds its application in food, pharmaceutical, automotive, and cosmetics.The report serves as a reliable business tool providing information regarding important parameters of the global carnauba wax market. It is intended to update stakeholders about the ongoing trends of the market. It provides an immaculate understanding of the market through definitions, classifications, applications, and chain structure. It gives a detailed description of the factor influencing the market and analyzes the extent to which they impact the growth. It offers qualitative and quantitative insights into the competitive landscape of the market. It profiles key players in the market and takes into account their business strategies, latest development, investment outlook, financial overview, and market shares. For a coherent understanding, the report segments the global carnauba wax market on the basis of various criteria including geography and applications.Request TOC of the Report @Global Carnauba Wax Market: Drivers and RestraintsThe burgeoning consumption of confectionary products such as jellies and chewing gums, particularly in developing countries, is anticipated to stimulate the demand for carnauba wax in the forthcoming years. In addition, the rising demand for food glazing agent in the food and beverage industry is bolstering the growth of the market. The growth of the market is also backed by conducive regulations enforced by regulatory authorities such as the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the European Union. On the other hand, the rising attempts of market participants to increase their margins and revenues are resulting in an increase in price, which in turn is adversely affecting the growth of the market.Global Carnauba Wax Market: Geographical SegmentationBased on geography, the key segments meticulously studied in the report are Asia Pacific, Europe, North America, and Rest of the World. Europe and North America will account for a substantial cumulative share in the market throughout the forecast period. The growing demand for waxes for the production and maintenance of automobiles is bolstering the growth of these regions. The robust growth of the automotive care industry, due to rising automobile sales coupled with the increasing sales of pre-used cars, is translating into the greater uptake of carnauba wax.Read Comprehensive Overview of Report@Asia Pacific will rise at a noteworthy pace during the same period, owing to the growing demand for food glazing agents in the food and beverage industry. The rapid industrialization, which is leading to the flourishing growth of various end-user industries, is also impacting the growth of the region positively. Moreover, the rising disposable income of consumers is propelling the growth of the region.Global Carnauba Wax Market: Competitive LandscapeProminent players in the global carnauba wax market are paying strong attention to improving their distribution network to cater to the global demand. The majority of players are focusing towards product customization to serve better to the requirements of end users and stay relevant in the market. The strong foothold of key players, due to their market knowledge and acumen, makes the market a highly competitive arena. Some of the key companies operating in the global metal carnauba wax market are Brasil Ceras, Tropical Ceras do Brasil Ltda, FONCEPI  Comercial Exportadora Ltda, Pontes Industria de Cera Ltda, and Carnauba do Brasil Ltda.About UsTMR Research is a premier provider of customized market research and consulting services to business entities keen on succeeding in todays supercharged economic climate. Armed with an experienced, dedicated, and dynamic team of analysts, we are redefining the way our clients conduct business by providing them with authoritative and trusted research studies in tune with the latest methodologies and market trends.Our savvy custom-built reports span a gamut of industries such as pharmaceuticals, chemicals and metals, food and beverages, and technology and media, among others. With actionable insights uncovered through in-depth research of the market, we try to bring about game-changing success for our clients.Contact:TMR Research,3739 Balboa St # 1097,San Francisco, CA 94121United StatesTel: +1-415-520-1050Email: sales@tmrresearch.comSterility Testing Market 2018  Top Players are Avance Biosciences (U.S.), Boston Scientific Corporation (U.S.) and others.

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Sterility Testing Market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 12.3% during 2017-2023. Sterility testing is the vital part of the pharmaceutical and biotechnological industry. It is one of the difficult process carried out by trained professionals. Pharmaceutical and biotechnological industries are developing very quickly, introduction of new drugs and increase in the R&D in life science are the major factors for the growth of market. It is an essential part of every sterilization validation and is an extremely difficult process that must be designed and executed for eliminating false positive results, which, are generally due to laboratory contamination from the testing environment or technician error. Beside this increase in government support for biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries is the other factor for the growth of Global Sterility Testing Market. Increase in the technological advance in sterility testing is expected to support for increasing the market of the Global Sterility Testing.Saturation and the high cost is the major factor restraining the growth of the market. Various methods of sterility testing to reduce the failure and contamination of the test are ben introduced. It is expected that in future there will be major growth in the sterility testing market.Request Sample copy @Key Players:Some of the major player in the market are Avance Biosciences (U.S.), Boston Scientific Corporation (U.S.), Paragon Bioservices, Inc (U.S.), Merck KGaA (Germany), Thermo Fisher Scientific, Inc. (U.S.), Charles River Laboratories International, Inc. (U.S.), Avista Pharma Solutions (U.S.), and Dynalabs LLC. (U.S.), WuXi AppTec Group (China), bioMerieux SA (France), SGS S.A. (Switzerland).Segmentation:Global sterility testing market is segmented on the basis of product, types of test, application, and end user. On basis of type of product, the market is segmented into instrument, reagent & services, kits, and others. On the basis of type of tests, the market is segmented into membrane filtration sterility testing, direct incubation sterility testing, direct transfer, and others. On application, the market is segmented into pharmaceutical & biological manufacturing, medical devices manufacturing, and others. On the basis of end user, the market is segmented into pharmaceuticals, hospital & laboratories, and other.Regional Analysis:The Americas dominate the global Sterility testing market owing to the development of new drugs and government support for research & development. Every year various drugs are introduced by the companies in the market and these companies involve in in depth research for introducing the best products to leads the market.Europe holds the second largest share of the global Sterility testing market as result of Increase in the number of small and medium organization in healthcare sector and focus of various government agencies. Moreover, the growing public awareness likely to boost the Europe market.For more Inquiry on Sterility Testing Market Report @LIST OF TABLES:Table 1 Sterility Testing Industry Synopsis, 2017-2023Table 2 Global Sterility Testing Market Estimates And Forecast, 2017-2023, (USD Million)Table 3 Global Sterility Testing Market By Region, 2017-2023, (USD Million)Table 4 Global Sterility Testing Market By Types, 2017-2023, (USD Million)Table 5 Global Sterility Testing Market By Tests, 2017-2023, (USD Million)Table 6 Global Sterility Testing Market By Application, 2017-2023, (USD Million)Table 7 Global Sterility Testing Market By End Users, 2017-2023, (USD Million)Table 8 North America Sterility Testing Market By Types, 2017-2023, (USD Million)Table 9 North America Sterility Testing Market By Tests, 2017-2023, (USD Million)Table 10 North America Sterility Testing Market By Application, 2017-2023, (USD Million)Table 11 North America Sterility Testing Market By End Users, 2017-2023, (USD Million)Table 12 US Sterility Testing Market By Types, 2017-2023, (USD Million)Table 13 US Sterility Testing Market By Tests, 2017-2023, (USD Million)Table 14 US Sterility Testing Market By Application, 2017-2023, (USD Million)Table 15 US Sterility Testing Market By End Users, 2017-2023, (USD Million) and more..Complete Report with Full TOC@About Market Research Future:At Market Research Future (MRFR), we enable our customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through our Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Raw Research Reports (3R), Continuous-Feed Research (CFR), and Market Research & Consulting Services.ContactMarket Research FutureOffice No. 528, Amanora ChambersMagarpatta Road, Hadapsar,Pune  411028Maharashtra, India+1 646 845 9312Email: sales@marketresearchfuture.comGlobal Styrene Acrylic Market: Industry Size, Share, Growth, Trends and Forecast 2017  2025

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Styrene Acrylic is a kind of coating which is used for building and construction to provide concrete and roofing applications to improve or provide flexibility, heat sealability, salt stability, and water resistance. Chemically styrene acrylic is nothing but modified acrylic polymer to increase weathering resistance of the polymer. Coating of styrene acrylic increases the longevity of roofs and other building materials which are at direct expose to the outer atmosphere. With the rise in global warming houses and building coated with styrene acrylic are on trend. Over the forecast period, it can be anticipated that the styrene acrylic market will increase with the rise in demand of weather proof coating.Report Overview @Global Styrene acrylic Market Dynamics:The growth of global styrene acrylic market is driven by growing construction industry. The macroeconomic factors responsible for the growth of global styrene acrylic market is the rapid rate of urbanization, rising disposable income which results into high demand for weather proof houses and apartments. Consumers now look for living spaces which can meet their demands and require least of maintenance. Such demand push the constructor and builders to utilize those goods and raw material s which are treated with styrene acrylic. Even automobile manufacturers are working on modified styrene acrylic to incorporate into coating of automobile outer body in order to make the vehicle less weather prone and in the process making car interior least affected by outer temperature.Request for Table of Contents @Owing to its strong chemical composition, industry and industry workers manufacturing styrene acrylic are prone to myriad health issues. And since styrene acrylic is made with natural gas and crude oil. Recent price fluctuations of crude oil in the international market has deterred the profit of styrene acrylic market. Such factors can act as a restraint for styrene acrylic market growth.Global Styrene acrylic Market Segmentation:Global styrene acrylic market is segmented by application, end-user, and region. By application global styrene acrylic market is segmented as coating, paint. Among the application segment, painting contributes for the significant revenue share over the forecast period in global styrene acrylic market, owing to increasing demand for styrene acrylic paint in various segments. By end-user, the global styrene acrylic market is segmented as the construction industry, chemical industry.Based on application, the global styrene acrylic market is segmented into:Coating,Paint ,Based on end-user, the global styrene acrylic market is segmented into:,,Construction Industry,Automobile Industry,Chemical Industry,Others.Get Sample Copy of this Report @Global Styrene acrylic Market Regional Outlook:Based on the geographies, the global styrene acrylic market is fragmented into seven key regions -- North America, Latin America, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, Asia-Pacific except Japan, Japan, and the Middle East & Africa. Among the aforementioned regions, North America accounts for a significant share of global styrene acrylic market, owing to relatively high-value share of the region in the global construction industry. Western Europe is followed by North America region in the global styrene acrylic market, owing to the substantial growth of automobile industry in the region. The Asia-Pacific except Japan region accounts for significantly high volume share in the global styrene acrylic market, owing to the substantial growth in the construction industry in the region. Eastern Europe and Japan also accounts for significant value share in the global styrene acrylic market over the forecast period. The developing economy such as Middle East Africa and Latin America have been exhibiting moderate opportunity in the global styrene acrylic market, owing to the moderate growth rate in the construction industry and growing population. Overall, the outlook for the global styrene acrylic market will have a positive growth over the forecast period, owing to the increasing demand for the pharmaceuticals as an anti-counterfeiting measure.Global Styrene acrylic Market Player:Few players in the global styrene acrylic market include BASF, The Lubrizol Corporation, Arkema, Wacker Chemie AG, DIC Corporation, Trinseo, Momentive Performance Materials Holdings LLC, Omnova Solutions Inc., Nuplex Industries Ltd, The DOW Chemical Company.Need more information about Report methodology ? @About UsPersistence Market Research (PMR) is a third-platform research firm. Our research model is a unique collaboration of data analytics and market research methodology to help businesses achieve optimal performance.To support companies in overcoming complex business challenges, we follow a multi-disciplinary approach. At PMR, we unite various data streams from multi-dimensional sources. By deploying real-time data collection, big data, and customer experience analytics, we deliver business intelligence for organizations of all sizes.Contact UsPersistence Market Research305 Broadway7th Floor, New York City,NY 10007, United States,USA,Canada Toll Free: 800-961-0353Email: sales@persistencemarketresearch.comWeb:Laminated Busbar Market : Report and Industry Outlook, 2017 - 2025

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Global Laminated Busbar Market: SnapshotAs the switchgear market worldwide is treading along a healthy growth track, the global laminated busbar market is anticipated to rake in a healthy share of the revenue pie. Laminated busbars are used in various industries and with their widening scope of applications such as in electric and hybrid vehicles, the market is expected to experience a significant push in the coming years. However, the upward climb of the market is marred by the protean prices of raw materials. Moreover, the expansion of gray markets is leading to the greater supply of low-quality and inexpensive products, which in turn is adversely affecting the overall revenue generation of the global laminated busbar market.The demand for these busbars is likely to witness a surge in the forthcoming years, especially for alternative energy. Power generation through alternative sources of energy requires the generation of DC feeds into a capacitor circuit and insulated-gate bipolar transistor, through a low inductance laminated busbars. This enables delivery of safe and efficient power.Request Sample Copy of the Report @Developing regions are expected to emerge as key destinations for prominent players in the global laminated busbars market in the near future. The emergence of smart cities, increasing number of high-rise buildings, and government policies encouraging energy saving solutions are rendering these regions highly opportunistic. Market participants are also paying high attention to contracts and agreements and new product launches to stay ahead in the global arena.Global Laminated Busbar Market: OverviewThe power density requirements of present-day technologies and the highly complex and compact electronic devices require the central power distribution system to optimize the power being distributed, while also improve performance and reliability of the device it supplies. Also, the need for power distribution systems capable of making efficient use of space and providing low inductance is also deepening with rising adoption of high speed electronics and increasing switching speeds and decreasing pulse rise times of analog and digital circuits, generators, and data transmission equipment. These developments have made laminated busbar assemblies the ideal power distribution tool of late.Request TOC of the Report @This report on the global laminated busbar market presents a detailed overview of the markets growth dynamic in the present times and forecasts it on global, regional, and country levels. The report includes a, in-depth analytical study of the market and the factors such as growth drivers, opportunities, trends, and challenges, expected to have a prominent impact on the markets growth over the period between 2017 and 2025. The report includes several forward-looking statements about the growth prospects of the market and its segments over the said period, backed by detailed analysis of past and present trends, industry standard analytical models, and inputs from industry experts.The level and dynamic of competition in the market has been examined with the help of a detailed Porters five forces analysis of the competitive landscape of the market, allowing the reader a clear understanding of the opportunities that new and established companies can exploit going ahead. The report also includes an attractiveness analysis for the key segments covered under the scope of the study, benchmarked on the basis of criteria such as future growth potential, present market size, growth attractiveness, and growth rate.Read Comprehensive Overview of Report@Global Laminated Busbar Market: Drivers and RestraintsThe global market for laminated busbar has witnessed growth at a healthy pace in the past few years and is expected to remain strong over the reports forecast period as well. Some of the key factors expected to have a notable positive impact on the overall development of the market are the rising adoption of connected infrastructures across industrial and residential setups and the rising demand for compact and high-speed electronics across these facilities.The increased focus on increasing the use of renewable energy sources and the subsequent need to modify power distribution infrastructures is also expected to fuel the demand for laminated busbar assemblies in the next few years. Moreover, the rising awareness regarding the need for saving and efficiently using energy is also expected to drive the increased demand for efficient power distribution tools such as laminated busbars.Global Laminated Busbar Market: SegmentationThe report segments the global laminated busbar market on the basis of criteria such as insulation material, end-use industry, and geography.Of the key materials used for insulation in laminated busbars, including nomex, epoxy powder coating, polyimide, polyvinyl fluoride (PVF), epoxy glass, and polyethylene terephthalate (PET), the segment of epoxy coating presently dominates the market. The material finds extensive usage in the production of laminated busbars owing to its high dielectric strength and low cost.Key industries utilizing laminated busbar assemblies for a variety of applications include transportation, power electronics, telecom, data centers, and alternative energy. Of these, the power electronics industry is presently the key consumer of laminated busbars and is expected to remain the leading contributor of revenue to the global laminated busbar market in the next few years as well.Global Laminated Busbar Market: Geographical and Competitive DynamicsFrom a geographical standpoint, the global laminated busbar market is dominated by Asia Pacific and Europe owing to the presence of established and high-growth industries such as steel, manufacturing, and automotive. Asia Pacific is expected to remain the region with the most promising growth opportunities for the laminated busbar market in the next few years owing to the continuously rising set of applications across these high-growth industries.Some of the key companies operating in the global laminated busbar market are Methode Electronics, Inc., Idealec SAS, Amphenol Corporation, Rogers Corporation, and Mersen S.A.About UsTMR Research is a premier provider of customized market research and consulting services to business entities keen on succeeding in todays supercharged economic climate. Armed with an experienced, dedicated, and dynamic team of analysts, we are redefining the way our clients conduct business by providing them with authoritative and trusted research studies in tune with the latest methodologies and market trends.Our savvy custom-built reports span a gamut of industries such as pharmaceuticals, chemicals and metals, food and beverages, and technology and media, among others. With actionable insights uncovered through in-depth research of the market, we try to bring about game-changing success for our clients.Contact:TMR Research,3739 Balboa St # 1097,San Francisco, CA 94121United StatesTel: +1-415-520-1050Email: sales@tmrresearch.comHealthcare Assistive Robot Market statistics and research analysis released in latest report

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Global healthcare assistive robot market is expected to significantly rise over the next few years, owing to the key factors such as the growing geriatric population and a consequent rise in the number of neurological disorders. An increase in the number of stroke patients and the need for advanced rehabilitation facilities is likely to accelerate the industry growth. According to Global Market Insights, Inc., "Healthcare Assistive Robot Market size is expected to grow at a CAGR of 18.9% over the period of 2016-2024.Surveillance and Security robots, Humanoid robots, Rehabilitation robots, and Socially assistive robots are the four prominent products of the healthcare assistive robot market. The constantly rising elderly population has led to an increase in the demand for skilled care services. Surveillance & Security robots will serve as the perfect replacement for caretaking staff and ultimately, improve the quality of service. Surveillance & Security robot industry share is expected to grow at a CAGR of 18.2% over 2016-2024.The rising frequency of strokes which is also a major cause of disability in western countries is driving the demand for rehabilitation robots worldwide. Rehabilitation robots are designed to offer a repetitive set of exercises and provide measurable feedback, which help patients overcome their disability as quickly as possible.Request sample copy @In terms of portability, mobile healthcare assistive robot industry is expected to grow at a CAGR of more than 19.5% over 2016-2024. Driven by remote handling and high programmability, mobile robots are very compatible and can be integrated along with other mobile technologies.Healthcare assistive robot market is witnessing a major demand, driven by its wide set of applications across orthopedics, sports, cognitive & motor skills, and stroke. Healthcare assistive robot industry size in stroke application is estimated to generate a heavy momentum, surpassing a revenue of USD 355 million by 2024. The growth can be attributed to the increasing geriatric population base, increasing frequency of neurological disorders, and technological developments in rehabilitation robotics.Orthopedics applications worth USD 56.3 million in 2015, is anticipated to register a CAGR of 19.4% over the period of 2016-2024. High demand for robotics services in physiotherapy coupled with the increasing number of accident injuries will drive the application demand over the coming years.Geographically, U.S healthcare assistive robot industry is expected to grow rapidly over the next few years, with the target market size estimated to go beyond USD 310 million by 2024. The noteworthy factors that will stimulate this industry growth include favorable government initiatives, increased awareness, growing geriatric population, and technologically advanced devices.Make Inquiry about this report @Japan healthcare assistive robot market is anticipated to witness a CAGR of more than 22% over 2016-2024, primarily driven by the nations favorable government initiatives. For instance, the "robot revolution realization council" is a major contribution in the development of artificial intelligence technologies.Germany healthcare assistive robot industry growth can be attributed to its excellent research funding methodologies and an increase in the number of companies working on robot-assisted technologies.Improved government regulations and a growing awareness will intensify industry growth. Undoubtedly, healthcare assistive robot market growth will be subject to restraining factors such as high R&D expenditure, limited understanding of robotics, and lack of regulatory support. Despite the shortcomings, more and more efforts to promote robotic research will enhance the business outlook.Global healthcare assistive robot market is dominated by companies such as Cyberdyne, Hansen Medical, HONDA Motor, and KUKA Robot Group. A strong financial background and popular products are major reasons for these pioneers to have the upper hand, in an industry that is still in a nascent stage.About Global Market InsightsGlobal Market Insights, Inc., headquartered in Delaware, U.S., is a global market research and consulting service provider; offering syndicated and custom research reports along with growth consulting services. Our business intelligence and industry research reports offer clients with penetrative insights and actionable market data specially designed and presented to aid strategic decision making. These exhaustive reports are designed via a proprietary research methodology and are available for key industries such as chemicals, advanced materials, technology, renewable energy and biotechnology.Contact Us:Arun HegdeCorporate Sales, USAGlobal Market Insights, Inc.Phone: 1-302-846-7766Toll Free: 1-888-689-0688Email: sales@gminsights.comWeb:Blog:11th International Virology and Infectious Diseases Congress

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Conference Series invites all the participants from all over the world to attend Virology Congress Conference which is to be held during July 27th -28th, 2018 Vancouver, Canada which includes prompt keynote presentations, Oral talks, Poster presentations and Exhibitions.11th International Virology and Infectious Diseases Congress is a global platform to discuss and learn about Viral infections, Molecular biology, Epidemiology, Monoclonal antibodies, Virology Research, Viro therapy, Pediatric Infectious Diseases, Urinary tract infections, STD & HIV Infection, Scientific conferences and meetings and the field of Virology. Virology Meetings would discuss various topics related to Diagnosis of infectious diseases, Vector-borne Diseases, Immunology of Infections, Microbial pathogenesis, Recent Advances in Drug Discovery and procedures. Conference Series has taken the initiation to gather the world class experts both from industry and academic in a common platform at Virology Congress 2018.Executive Airport Plaza Hotel & Conference Centre 7311 Westminster Highway Richmond, BC V5X 1A3Global Cystic Fibrosis (CF) Market Overview with Detailed Analysis, Competitive landscape Forecast 2023

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The report on Cystic Fibrosis (CF) Market by Drug Class (CFTR modulators, mucolytics, pancreatic enzyme supplements and bronchodilators), by Route of Administration (inhaled drugs and oral drugs), and by Region (North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific and Rest of the World) trends analysis and forecasts up to 2023 studies the market sizes, key trends and opportunities in the main geographies such as North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, Rest of the World. According to the report the Global Cystic Fibrosis (CF) Market is projected to grow at a CAGR of 15.4% in terms of value over the period of 2017-2023. The growth in the world market is primarily driven by significant contribution by North America (Leading region) region to this market.Get Free Sample Pages of this Report:Cystic fibrosis is a genetic disease that causes continuous lung infections and breathing problem over time. It is a progressive disease. The presence of imperfect gene causes a thick, sticky buildup of mucus in the lungs, intestine liver, pancreas, and other organs. The mucus in the lungs clogs airways and traps bacteria leading to infections that causes savior lung damage, and respiratory failure. The mucus prevents in the pancreas discharge the digestive enzymes that allow the body to break down food and absorb vital nutrients. This disease is caused by mutation in gene, cystic fibrosis trans membrane conductance regulator (CFTR) is a membrane protein in vertebrates, a protein required for regulating sweat, mucus and body secretions.Market InsightsThe global cystic fibrosis market was sized over USD 2.15 billion in 2015. The global cystic fibrosis market is projected to reach USD 6.67 billion by 2023, growing with a CAGR between 15% and 15.4% from 2017 to 2023. The global market for cystic fibrosis is driven by continued growth of the number of CF patients worldwide. Increasing awareness for cystic fibrosis therapy, technological developments in the R&D and increase in the occurrence of cystic fibrosis are some of the factors likely to drive the global cystic fibrosis market over the forecast period. However, high cost of treatment and R&D, complicated pathophysiology, and increase in genetic mutation rate are the prime restraining factors to the growth of global cystic fibrosis market. Nevertheless, rising number of initiatives taken by nonprofit organizations, and presence of flexible policies are will bring more opportunities to the global cystic fibrosis market over the forecast period.Segments Covered:The report segments the global cystic fibrosis market by drug class, by route of administration and by region. The global cystic fibrosis market is segmented on the basis of drug class as CFTR modulators, mucolytics, pancreatic enzyme supplements and bronchodilators. The CFTR modulator drug class was estimated to account for approximately 44% of total CF drug revenue share in 2015. On the basis of route of administration it is segmented by inhaled drugs and oral drugs. Oral route accounted for the largest share of nearly 62.7% in 2015Browse Complete TOC of this Report:Geographic Coverage and Analysis:The report provides regional analysis covering geographies such as North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific and Rest of the World. In this section the key trends and market size for each geography is provided over the period of 2015  2023. North America is accounted for largest revenue share as a majority of patients affected with CF are of Caucasian descent. The Asia Pacific market region is anticipated to grow at the highest CAGR over the forecast period due to underdiagnosis and lack of country-specific CF patient registries, rising awareness about CF disorders & treatment options is expected to boost this segment over the forecast period.Companies Profiled:The companies covered in the report include Vertex Pharmaceuticals Incorporated, Gilead, AbbVie Inc, Novartis AG., F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd, Alaxia, Merck & Co. Inc., AIT (Advanced Inhalation Therapies)., ALLERGAN., AstraZeneca, Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. and Alcresta Therapeutics, Inc.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:Latest Development Of Positive Displacement (PD) Sanitary Pumps Market in Global Industry 2018

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Albany, NY, 28th February : Recent research and the current scenario as well as future market potential of "Positive Displacement (PD) Sanitary Pumps Market (Rotary PD Sanitary Pumps Type - Rotary Lobe, Twin Screw, Progressive Cavity, Eccentric Disc, Gear, Sinusoidal, Hose; Reciprocating PD Sanitary Pumps Type - Piston/Plunger, Diaphragm; End-us- Food & Beverage, Pharmaceutical, Cosmetics, Biotechnology, Water Treatment Systems, Textile) - Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends and Forecast 2016 - 2024" globally.The Positive Displacement (PD) Sanitary Pumps Market report provides analysis of the global PD sanitary pumps market for the period 20142024, wherein the years from 2016 to 2024 is the forecast period and 2015 is considered as the base year.Get PDF for more Professional and Technical insights @The report precisely covers all the major trends and technologies playing a major role in the PD sanitary pump markets growth over the forecast period. It also highlights the drivers, restraints, and opportunities expected to influence the market growth during this period. The study provides a holistic perspective on the markets growth in terms of revenue (in US$ Mn), across different geographies, which includes Asia Pacific (APAC), Latin America (LATAM), North America, Europe, and Middle East & Africa (MEA). An in-depth analysis of various geographical regions is going to provide a precise and detailed understanding of the global PD sanitary pumps market over the forecast period. North America comprises of the U.S. and Canada, while Latin America covers Brazil and Rest of Latin America. Europe region covers the U.K., Germany, France, Spain, Italy and Rest of Europe. Furthermore, the Asia Pacific is divided into China, India, Japan, Indonesia and rest of Asia Pacific. MEA covers the United Arab Emirates (UAE), South Africa, Saudi Arabia and Rest of Middle East and Africa.Major key trends has been provided for every geographic region in the report in order to give a thorough analysis of the overall state of the PD sanitary pumps market worldwide. Moreover, the report provides an overview of the various strategies of key players in the market.The market overview section of the report showcases the markets dynamics and trends such as the drivers, restraints, and opportunities that influence the current nature and future status of this market. Moreover, the report provides the overview of various strategies of the key players in the PD Sanitary Pumps market and analyzes their behavior in the prevailing market dynamics.The report segments the global PD sanitary pumps market on the basis of rotary PD sanitary pumps type such as Rotary Lobe, Twin Screw, Progressive Cavity, Eccentric Disc, Gear Sinusoidal and Hose. By reciprocating PD sanitary pumps type, the market is classified into Piston/Plunger and Diaphragm. By end-use, the global PD sanitary pumps market is categorized into Food & Beverage, Pharmaceutical, Cosmetics, Biotechnology, Water Treatment Systems, Textile and Others (Bio Fuel & Semiconductors). Thus, the report provides in-depth cross-segment analysis for the PD sanitary pumps market and classifies it into various levels, thereby providing valuable insights on macro as well as micro level.View Complete TOC with tables & Figures @The report also provides the competitive landscape for the PD sanitary pumps market, thereby positioning all the major players according to their geographic presence, market attractiveness and recent key developments. This is identified as a crucial step for getting the full overview of the market through key market leaders and the strategies adopted by them. The complete PD sanitary pumps market estimates are the result of our in-depth secondary research, primary interviews, and in-house expert panel reviews. These market estimates have been analyzed by taking into account the impact of different political, social, economic, technological, and legal factors along with the current market dynamics affecting the PD sanitary pumps markets growth.SPX Corporation, Fristam Pumps, IDEX Corporation, Alfa Laval AB, PSG Dover, Xylem Inc. and ITT Corporation are some of the major players which have been profiled in this study. Details such as financials, business strategies, recent developments, and other such strategic information pertaining to these players has been provided as a part of company profiles.Below is the list of acronyms used in the report:LPG  Liquefied Petroleum GasGTAI  Germany Trade & InvestUSDA  The United States Department of AgricultureCIP  Clean-in-placeEHEDG  European Hygienic Engineering & Design GroupMAPI  Manufacturers Alliance for Productivity and InnovationWTO  World Trade OrganizationBrowse Report @CAGR  Compound Annual Growth RateY-o-Y  Year-on-YearBn  BillionMn  MillionResearchMoz is the one stop online destination to find and buy market research reports & Industry Analysis. We fulfill all your research needs spanning across industry verticals with our huge collection of market research reports. We provide our services to all sizes of organizations and across all industry verticals and markets. Our Research Coordinators have in-depth knowledge of reports as well as publishers and will assist you in making an informed decision by giving you unbiased and deep insights on which reports will satisfy your needs at the best price.ResearchMozMr. Nachiket Ghumare,90 State Street, Albany NY, United States - 12207Tel: +1-518-621-2074USA-Canada Toll Free: 866-997-4948Email: sales@researchmoz.usFollow us on LinkedIn @Follow me on :Innovative Technology Of Solvent-based Inks Market in Global Industry 2018

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Albany, NY, 28th February : Recent research and the current scenario as well as future market potential of "Solvent-based Inks Market (Printing Type - Lithographic, Gravure, Flexographic, Screen-printing, Letterpress, Digital; Product Type - Vinyl Inks, Vinyl-Acrylic Inks, Epoxy Inks, Polyurethanic Inks, Cellulose Inks; Application - Packaging, Books & Catalogue, Advertising, Tags & Labels, Office Stationery, Magazines, Newspaper) - Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends, And Forecast 2016 - 2024" globally.This research study analyzes the market for solvent-based inks in terms of revenue (US$ Mn) and volume (kilo tons). The solvent-based inks market has been segmented on the basis of product, printing type, end use applications, and geography. The report features a detailed regional segmentation with market growth forecasts for the 2016?2024 period.Get PDF for more Professional and Technical insights @For the research, 2015 has been considered as the base year and 2016 the estimated year, while all forecasts have been given for the period from 2016 to 2024. Market data for all the segments has been provided at the regional and country-specific levels from 2016 to 2024. The report provides a broad competitive analysis of companies engaged in the development of solvent-based inks technologies for the solvent-based inks business. The report also includes key market dynamics such as the drivers, restraints, and opportunities affecting the global solvent-based inks market. These market dynamics are analyzed in detail and are illustrated in the report with the help of supporting graphs and tables. The report also provides a comprehensive analysis of the market with the help of the Porters Five Forces Analysis model, which helps in understanding the five major forces that affect the structure and profitability of the global solvent-based inks market. The forces analyzed are the bargaining power of buyers, the bargaining power of suppliers, the threat of new entrants, the threat of substitutes, and the degree of competition.The high-level analysis in the report provides detailed insights into the solvent-based inks business globally. There are currently several drivers for the market. The most prominent drivers include rapid growth in the packaging industry along with growth in the digital printing industry. Market attractiveness analysis was carried out for the solvent-based inks market on the basis of product type, printing type, application, region, and country. Market attractiveness was estimated on the basis of common parameters that directly impact the market.On the basis of printing type, the market has been segmented into lithographic, gravure, flexographic, screen-printing, letterpress, and digital. On the basis of product type, the market has been segmented into vinyl inks, vinyl-acrylic inks, epoxy inks, polyurethanic inks, and cellulose inks. By application, the solvent-based inks market has been segmented by various end-use applications, including packaging, advertising, tags & labels, books & catalog, office stationery, magazines, newspaper, and other applications.View Complete TOC with tables & Figures @In terms of geography, the market has been segmented into five regions: North America, Asia Pacific, Europe, Middle East & Africa, and Latin America. China is expected to remain the dominant market for solvent-based inks, with demand reaching 275.7 kilo tons by 2024. A zero tax agreement between ASEAN and China has created a stable position for ASEAN, which is expected to expand at a CAGR of 3.2% between 2016 and 2024.India is one of the fastest-growing economies in the world. Favorable government regulations and emergence of medium and small enterprises in India have contributed significantly to the solvent-based inks market.Key players in the solvent-based inks market are Tokyo Printing Ink Mfg. Co. Ltd., Dainichiseika Color & Chemicals Mfg. Co., Ltd., Sun Chemical Corporation, Flint Group, Toyo Ink SC Holdings Co., Ltd., Lawter Inc. , Yansefu Inks and Coatings Pvt. Ltd., Siegwerk Druckfarben AG & Co. KGaA, Sakata INX Corporation, Huber Group, Zeller+Gmelin GmbH & Co. KG, ALTANA AG, Wikoff Color Corporation, SICPA Holding SA, Fujifilm Sericol India Private Limited, Royal Dutch Printing Ink Factories Van Son and T&K Toka Co., Ltd. The report provides an overview of these companies, followed by their financial details, business strategies, and recent developments.Solvent-based Inks Market: By Printing TypeLithographicGravureFlexographicScreen-printingLetterpressDigitalSolvent-based Inks Market: By Product TypeVinyl InksVinyl-Acrylic InksEpoxy InksPolyurethanic InksCellulose InksSolvent-based Inks Market: By ApplicationPackagingBooks & CatalogueAdvertisingTags & LabelsOffice StationeryMagazinesNewspaperOthersSolvent-based Inks Market: By RegionNorth AmericaThe U.S.CanadaEuropeThe U.K.FranceGermanySpainItalyRest of EuropeAsia PacificChinaJapanIndiaASEANRest of Asia PacificMiddle East & AfricaGCCEgyptSouth AfricaBrowse Report @Rest of Middle East and AfricaLatin AmericaBrazilMexicoRest of Latin AmericaResearchMoz is the one stop online destination to find and buy market research reports & Industry Analysis. We fulfill all your research needs spanning across industry verticals with our huge collection of market research reports. We provide our services to all sizes of organizations and across all industry verticals and markets. Our Research Coordinators have in-depth knowledge of reports as well as publishers and will assist you in making an informed decision by giving you unbiased and deep insights on which reports will satisfy your needs at the best price.ResearchMozMr. Nachiket Ghumare,90 State Street, Albany NY, United States - 12207Tel: +1-518-621-2074USA-Canada Toll Free: 866-997-4948Email: sales@researchmoz.usFollow us on LinkedIn @Follow me on :Global Automotive Battery Cables Market Is Expecting Revolutionary Growth in 2018 and Coming Years

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Qyresearchreports include new market research report Automotive Battery Cables to its huge collection of research reports.The report on the global Automotive Battery Cables market is an in-depth analysis taking a critical look at various factors and key trends shaping the markets trajectory during the forecast period of 20182025. The growth of the market is driven by various regional and global developments, influenced by changing regulations and governmental policies. The study strives to offer comprehensive assessment of these factors and evaluates their impact on the business landscape of the market. In addition, the study presents elaborate insights into the various types of region-specific business risks faced by industry players and the prevailing strategic dynamics to allay these. Making a granular assessment of demand dynamics, the study takes a closer look at paradigmatic and mild shifts in the global Automotive Battery Cables market made by various players to gain a better foothold in the market. Furthermore, the research analyzes the impact of these shifts on emerging prospects and the lucrative avenues they will likely lead to in the years to come. The study tries to give clear signals into imminent investment pockets and offers insights into new revenue streams in the global market.Get Sample Report of the Research Study at:The report is prepared by gleaning over vast volumes of historic data assessed through reliable primary sources and a wide spectrum of secondary sources. Using SWOT analysis and Porters Five Forces Analysis, the study tries to evaluate the level of competition. Complementing with several industry-wide quantitative tools and enabled by qualitative methods, the study makes estimations and projections of key segments in the global Automotive Battery Cables market. This helps various market participants get a clearer picture of the markets growth. The study also highlights the views of various opinion leaders and major policy makers in various countries, in a bid to paint a holistic picture of the overall outlook of the global Automotive Battery Cables market.Global Automotive Battery Cables market competition by top manufacturers, with production, price, revenue (value) and market share for each manufacturer; the top players includingGeneral CableDelphiHuber + SuhnerNocoEast PennLeoniAuto Marine CableMeishiteTable of ContentsGlobal Automotive Battery Cables Market Research Report 20181 Automotive Battery Cables Market Overview1.1 Product Overview and Scope of Automotive Battery Cables1.2 Automotive Battery Cables Segment by Type (Product Category)1.2.1 Global Automotive Battery Cables Production and CAGR (%) Comparison by Type (Product Category)(2013-2025)1.2.2 Global Automotive Battery Cables Production Market Share by Type (Product Category) in 20171.2.3 Aluminium Cables1.2.4 Copper Cables1.2.5 Alloy Cables1.3 Global Automotive Battery Cables Segment by Application1.3.1 Automotive Battery Cables Consumption (Sales) Comparison by Application (2013-2025)1.3.2 Cars1.3.3 Trucks1.3.4 SUVsRead Complete Table of Content of the Report at:2 Global Automotive Battery Cables Market Competition by Manufacturers2.1 Global Automotive Battery Cables Capacity, Production and Share by Manufacturers (2013-2018)2.1.1 Global Automotive Battery Cables Capacity and Share by Manufacturers (2013-2018)2.1.2 Global Automotive Battery Cables Production and Share by Manufacturers (2013-2018)2.2 Global Automotive Battery Cables Revenue and Share by Manufacturers (2013-2018)2.3 Global Automotive Battery Cables Average Price by Manufacturers (2013-2018)2.4 Manufacturers Automotive Battery Cables Manufacturing Base Distribution, Sales Area and Product Type2.5 Automotive Battery Cables Market Competitive Situation and Trends2.5.1 Automotive Battery Cables Market Concentration Rate2.5.2 Automotive Battery Cables Market Share of Top 3 and Top 5 Manufacturers2.5.3 Mergers & Acquisitions, Expansion3 Global Automotive Battery Cables Capacity, Production, Revenue (Value) by Region (2013-2018)3.1 Global Automotive Battery Cables Capacity and Market Share by Region (2013-2018)3.2 Global Automotive Battery Cables Production and Market Share by Region (2013-2018)3.3 Global Automotive Battery Cables Revenue (Value) and Market Share by Region (2013-2018)3.4 Global Automotive Battery Cables Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2013-2018)3.5 United States Automotive Battery Cables Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2013-2018)3.6 EU Automotive Battery Cables Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2013-2018)3.7 China Automotive Battery Cables Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2013-2018)3.8 Japan Automotive Battery Cables Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2013-2018)3.9 South Korea Automotive Battery Cables Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2013-2018)3.10 India Automotive Battery Cables Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2013-2018)...About QYResearchReports.comQyresearchreports.com delivers the latest strategic market intelligence to build a successful business footprint in China. Our syndicated and customized research reports provide companies with vital background information of the market and in-depth analysis on the Chinese trade and investment framework, which directly affects their business operations. Reports from Qyresearchreports.com feature valuable recommendations on how to navigate in the extremely unpredictable yet highly attractive Chinese market.Contact US:Brooklyn, NY 11230United StatesToll Free: 866-997-4948 (USA-CANADA)Tel: +1-518-618-1030Web:Email: sales@qyresearchreports.comGlobal Gesture Recognition for Mobile Devices Market to grow at a CAGR of 61.34% during the period 2018-2021

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Albany, NY, 28th February : Recent research and the current scenario as well as future market potential of "Global Gesture Recognition for Mobile Devices Market 2017-2021" globally.Gesture recognition involves the generation and capture of an individual's gesture using a camera. The vision system identifies the gesture and stores it in a database. When an individual performs a gesture, the gesture recognition software identifies and matches it with the gestures stored in the database.Get PDF for more Professional and Technical insights @Technavios analysts forecast the global gesture recognition for mobile devices market to grow at a CAGR of 61.34% during the period 2017-2021.Covered in this reportThe report covers the present scenario and the growth prospects of the global gesture recognition for mobile devices market for 2017-2021. To calculate the market size, the report considers the total shipment of devices with built-in gesture recognition.The market is divided into the following segments based on geography:AmericasAPACEMEAView Complete TOC with tables & Figures @Technavio's report, Global Gesture Recognition for Mobile Devices Market 2017-2021, has been prepared based on an in-depth market analysis with inputs from industry experts. The report covers the market landscape and its growth prospects over the coming years. The report also includes a discussion of the key vendors operating in this market.Key vendorsAppleArcSoftCrunchfisheyeSight TechnologiesIntelMicrosoftQualcommSamsung ElectronicsSoftKinetic (SONY)Market driverEmergence of gestures as new medium of communication with machinesFor a full, detailed list, view our reportMarket challengePrice wars among smartphone and tablet manufacturersFor a full, detailed list, view our reportMarket trendAdvent of power-free gesture recognitionFor a full, detailed list, view our reportBrowse Report @Key questions answered in this reportWhat will the market size be in 2021 and what will the growth rate be?What are the key market trends?What is driving this market?What are the challenges to market growth?Who are the key vendors in this market space?What are the market opportunities and threats faced by the key vendors?What are the strengths and weaknesses of the key vendors?ResearchMoz is the one stop online destination to find and buy market research reports & Industry Analysis. We fulfill all your research needs spanning across industry verticals with our huge collection of market research reports. We provide our services to all sizes of organizations and across all industry verticals and markets. Our Research Coordinators have in-depth knowledge of reports as well as publishers and will assist you in making an informed decision by giving you unbiased and deep insights on which reports will satisfy your needs at the best price.ResearchMozMr. Nachiket Ghumare,90 State Street, Albany NY, United States - 12207Tel: +1-518-621-2074USA-Canada Toll Free: 866-997-4948Email: sales@researchmoz.usFollow us on LinkedIn @Follow me on :Future Market Trends of Global Gelatin Market Research Report 2017 till 2023

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The report on Gelatin Market by Source (bones, bovine hides, pig skin, sheep skin), Application (food & beverages, dyeing & tanning, nutraceuticals, personal care, pharmaceuticals, photography), and by Function(gelling agent, stabilizer, thickener) trends analysis and forecasts up to 2023 studies the market sizes, key trends and opportunities in the main geographies such as North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, Rest of the World. According to the report the Global Gelatin Market is projected to grow at a CAGR of 5.5% in terms of value over the period of 2017-2023. The growth in the world market is primarily driven by significant contribution by North America (Leading region) region to this market.Browse Complete TOC of this Report:Gelatin is a colorless, odorless and tasteless substance widely used in food products. Gelatin is made from collagen, a soft protein which connects bones, muscles, skins and tendons of mammals such as cows and pigs. The sticky jelly substance obtained, after prolonged boiling of safe to use cartilages, muscles and skins is dried into powder form, for commercial use in various industries. Gelatin finds applications as gelling agent stabilizers and thickeners in cakes, candies, fruit desserts, fruit jellies, ice-creams, marshmallows, puddings, yogurts and some others. Gelatin find industrial applications in the manufacturing of cosmetics, personal care products, pharmaceutical products, dyeing and tanning materials, photographic plate coatings, and some others. Gelatin helps in improving mood, sleep, skin health, digestion and intestinal health, protecting joints and reducing the joint pain, maintaining hormonal balance, heart healthy, and bones stronger, detoxing liver, preventing stretch marks, anti-aging and resists wrinkles, aiding the wellbeing of hair, nails and teeth, stimulating high metabolism and losing weight.Heavy investments by major players such as Capsugel, Gelita AG, PB Gelatins, Rousselot S.A.S, Weishardt Group and others in research and development for product innovation to counter the threat of alternatives and for finding new applications characterizes the global gelatin market. Increasing preference for convenience & functional food and beverages among people, due to change in lifestyles and need for instant nutrition, drive the growth of the global gelatin market. Moreover, the increasing awareness about the health benefits of the gelatin is enhancing the demand for gelatin based products. As gelatin is a good source for protein, the demand for gelatin is anticipated to increase significantly to meet the increasing demand from nutraceutical industry for making nutritional supplements. Due to the health benefits the applications of gelatin is increasing in the personal care products and it is expected to drive the growth of the market. The technological advancements and emergence of new applications in pharmaceutical industry is expected to drive the growth of the gelatin market. Due to the protein content and the compatibility with the milk, the use of gelatin in dairy products is expected to increase during the forecast period. Fish based gelatin segment is expected to grow faster, due to the demand from food processing and pharmaceutical sectors, during the forecast period 2017-2023.Get Free Sample Pages of this Report:Segments CoveredThe report covers the analysis of global as well as regional markets of gelatin market. Moreover, the global gelatin market is segmented by source, by application and by function. The global gelatin market by source covers bones, bovine hides, pig skin, sheep skin, and some others. On the basis of applications, the market is segmented as food & beverages, dyeing & tanning, nutraceuticals, personal care, pharmaceuticals, photography, and some others. Based on function, the market is segmented as gelling agent, stabilizer, thickener and some others.Geographies Covered:Among geographies, Europe is the dominant gelatin market with a global share of around 40%. The increasing consumption of gelatin in countries such as Germany and France, increasing demand for natural nutritional ingredients in food and beverages, and the presence of huge number of pharmaceutical companies in the region drive the growth of the European gelatin market. However the impact of the endemic Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy is anticipated to hinder the growth of the market in the short term, as the outbreak affected large bovine population in Europe and it affect the availability of raw materials for gelatin. North America is the second largest gelatin market. Presence of major global meat processing companies, increasing demand for organic personal care products and functional foods and beverages drive the growth of the North American gelatin Market. Asia Pacific region is anticipated to be the fastest growing gelatin market in terms of CAGR during the forecast period 2017-2023, due to the huge population in region, increasing consumption of convenience food and beverages, increasing instances of ailments such as arthritis and increasing demand for personal care products. Increasing demand for frozen and convenience foods in countries such as Brazil and Argentina drive the growth of the Latin American gelatin market. As a major meat exporting region, Latin America has the potential to grow as a major gelatin market, due to the availability of raw materials.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:2021 Residential Construction Market in Indonesia Based On Two Categories: Single-Family Housing And Multi-Family Housing

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Researchmoz added Most up-to-date research on "2021 Residential Construction Market in Indonesia Based On Two Categories: Single-Family Housing And Multi-Family Housing" to its huge collection of research reports.Timetrics "Residential Construction Market in Indonesia: Market Size, Growth and Forecast Analytics to 2021" contains historic and forecast market data for the residential construction market in Indonesia, with a detailed breakdown of the data by construction activity (new construction, repair and maintenance, refurbishment and demolition) and by cost type( construction materials, construction equipment and construction services). This report also contains overall values of the residential construction segments such as Residential construction market covers new construction, renovation and demolition of residential buildings such as houses, townhouses, cottages, condominiums, single-unit dwellings, sub-divisions and apartments. This market includes two categories: single-family housing and multi-family housing.. This research report provides up-to-date market size data for the period 2012-2016 and an illustrative forecast to 2021.SummaryResidential construction market covers new construction, renovation and demolition of residential buildings such as houses, townhouses, cottages, condominiums, single-unit dwellings, sub-divisions and apartments. This market includes two categories: single-family housing and multi-family housing.The Indonesian residential construction category continued to increase in the review period with a value of IDRxxx.xx Billion (US$xxx.xx Billion) in 2016 and increased at a rate of x.xx% over 2015. The market recorded a CAGR of xx.xx% from 2012 through 2016."Residential Construction Market in Indonesia: Market Size, Growth and Forecast Analytics to 2021"' provides a top-level overview and detailed insight into the operating environment of the residential construction market in Indonesia. It is an essential tool for companies active across the Indonesia construction value chain and for new players considering to enter the market.To Get Sample Copy of Report visit @ScopeAn overview of the residential construction market in Indonesia.Historic (2012 through 2016) and forecast (2017 through 2021) construction market output values are provided.A detailed breakdown of the data by construction activity (new construction, repair and maintenance, refurbishment and demolition) is provided at the market level while the values for the segments are provided by cost types (construction materials, construction equipment & construction services).This report covers all the segments of commercial construction market including Residential construction market covers new construction, renovation and demolition of residential buildings such as houses, townhouses, cottages, condominiums, single-unit dwellings, sub-divisions and apartments. This market includes two categories: single-family housing and multi-family housing..Reasons To BuyEnhances your knowledge of the market with key figures detailing construction type.Provides you with a breakdown of the market by construction activity (new construction, repair and maintenance, refurbishment and demolition).Provides you with a breakdown of the segments by cost type (construction materials, construction equipment &construction services).Details the segments covered under commercial construction market.Allows you to plan future business decisions using the forecast figures given.Browse TOC @Table of Contents1 Introduction1.1 What is this Report About?1.2 Definitions1.3 CAGR Definition and Calculation2 Overall Residential Construction: Market Analysis2.1 Overall Residential Construction Output Value, 2012 - 20162.2 Overall Residential Construction Output Value Forecast, 2017 - 20212.3 Overall Residential Construction Output Value by Cost Type2.3.1 Overall Residential Construction Output Value by Cost Type, 2012 - 20162.3.2 Overall Residential Construction Output Value by Cost Type Forecast, 2017 - 20213 Residential Construction Output: Analysis by Category3.1 New Construction Output Value, 2012 - 20163.2 New Construction Output Value Forecast, 2017 - 20213.3 New Construction Output Value by Cost Type3.3.1 New Construction Output Value by Cost Type, 2012 - 20163.3.2 New Construction Output Value by Cost Type Forecast, 2017 - 20213.4 Repair & Maintenance Output Value, 2012 - 20163.5 Repair & Maintenance Output value Forecast, 2017 - 20213.6 Repair & Maintenance Output Value by Cost Type3.6.1 Repair & Maintenance Output Value by Cost Type, 2012 - 20163.6.2 Repair & Maintenance Output Value by Cost Type Forecast, 2017 - 2021About ResearchMozResearchMoz is the one stop online destination to find and buy market research reports & Industry Analysis. We fulfill all your research needs spanning across industry verticals with our huge collection of market research reports. We provide our services to all sizes of organizations and across all industry verticals and markets. Our Research Coordinators have in-depth knowledge of reports as well as publishers and will assist you in making an informed decision by giving you unbiased and deep insights on which reports will satisfy your needs at the best price.Mr. NachiketState Tower,90 State Street,Suite 700,Albany NY - 12207United StatesEmail: sales@researchmoz.usWebsite @Tel: 866-997-4948 (Us-Canada Toll Free)Tel: +1-518-621-2074Follow us on LinkedIn @Follow us on Blogger @Interconnects and Passive Components Market 2018 Global Leaders: Cisco Systems, AVX, Molex, Panasonic, Ametek, Amphenol, Delphi Automotive, Hubbell, Hirose Electric

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Market Research Future published a research report on Global Interconnects and Passive Components Market - Forecast 2022  Market Analysis, Scope, Stake, Progress, Trends and Forecast to 2022.Market Scenario:Interconnect can be defined as an optical connection or cable which is used to connect two or more derives. Interconnect helps to bring two conductors by joining them electrically and mechanically with the terminals of electrical devices. Interconnects are passive electrical components of parts that contains two terminals that store energy in their magnetic flux. To understand Interconnects and Passive Components, a computer system can be an example where a cable connecting a hard drive or a monitor to a laptop or CPU is n interconnect whereas the inside components of a PCs are both interconnects and passive components.The Global Market of Electronic Components which also includes interconnects and passive components is expected to rise in the coming years. Today, primary end users of interconnects and passive components are equipment manufacturers such as OEMs. High demand for the electronic components by the industries such as telecommunications, computing and consumer electronics is forcing the manufacturers to increase their productivity in order to meet the demand and this becomes the main market driver of interconnects and passive components.Get Sample of Report @The global Interconnects and Passive Components market is expected to grow at USD ~211 billion by the end of year 2022 with ~6% of CAGR.Regional Analysis:Asia Pacific is dominating the market of Interconnects and Passive Components. High development in field of manufacturing industry and high presence of semiconductor manufacturing gives Asia-Pacific a competitive advantage over other regions. North America stands as second biggest market for Interconnects and Passive Components where U.S. is the major contributors in the market growth due to the growing telecommunication and IT industry. Asia-Pacific is also expected to be the fastest growing market during the forecast period. Development of Asian countries is inviting major big players to establish their business unit in Asian Countries.Key PlayersThe prominent players in the Interconnects and Passive Components Market are  Cisco Systems, Inc. (U.S.), AVX Corporation (U.S.), Molex, LLC (U.S.), Panasonic Corporation (Japan), Ametek, Inc. (U.S.), Amphenol Corporation (U.S.), Delphi Automotive PLC (U.K.), Hubbell Incorporated (U.S.), Hirose Electric Co., Ltd. (Japan) and Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., Ltd., (U.S.) among others.SegmentsBy Components Resistors & Inductors Diodes and Transformers PCBs (Printed Circuit Boards) Switches Relays OthersBy Applications Consumer Electronics Information Technology Telecommunications Automotive Industrial OthersGet complete Report @Intended Audience Technology Providers Semiconductor Manufacturing Companies Semiconductor Distributors Consumer Electronic Manufacturers Consumer Electronic Suppliers Research Institutes GovernmentAbout Us:At Market Research Future (MRFR), we enable our customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through our Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Raw Research Reports (3R), Continuous-Feed Research (CFR), and Market Research & Consulting Services.Media Contact:Akash Anand,Market Research FutureOffice No. 528, Amanora ChambersMagarpatta Road, Hadapsar,Pune - 411028Maharashtra, India+1 646 845 9312Email: akash.anand@marketresearchfuture.comGlobal Disposable Filters Industry Segmentation and Analysis by Recent Trends, Development and Growth by Regions to 2021

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Researchmoz added Most up-to-date research on "Global Disposable Filters Industry Segmentation and Analysis by Recent Trends, Development and Growth by Regions to 2021" to its huge collection of research reports.Disposable Filters Report by Material, Application, and Geography Global Forecast to 2021 is a professional and in-depth research report on the world's major regional market conditions, focusing on the main regions (North America, Europe and Asia-Pacific) and the main countries (United States, Germany, united Kingdom, Japan, South Korea and China).The report firstly introduced the Disposable Filters basics: definitions, classifications, applications and market overview; product specifications; manufacturing processes; cost structures, raw materials and so on. Then it analyzed the world's main region market conditions, including the product price, profit, capacity, production, supply, demand and market growth rate and forecast etc. In the end, the report introduced new project SWOT analysis, investment feasibility analysis, and investment return analysis.The report includes six parts, dealing with:1.) basic information;2.) the Asia Disposable Filters Market;3.) the North American Disposable Filters Market;4.) the European Disposable Filters Market;5.) market entry and investment feasibility;6.) the report conclusion.To Get Sample Copy of Report visit @Table of ContentsPart I Disposable Filters Industry OverviewChapter One Disposable Filters Industry Overview1.1 Disposable Filters Definition1.2 Disposable Filters Classification Analysis1.2.1 Disposable Filters Main Classification Analysis1.2.2 Disposable Filters Main Classification Share Analysis1.3 Disposable Filters Application Analysis1.3.1 Disposable Filters Main Application Analysis1.3.2 Disposable Filters Main Application Share Analysis1.4 Disposable Filters Industry Chain Structure Analysis1.5 Disposable Filters Industry Development Overview1.5.1 Disposable Filters Product History Development Overview1.5.1 Disposable Filters Product Market Development Overview1.6 Disposable Filters Global Market Comparison Analysis1.6.1 Disposable Filters Global Import Market Analysis1.6.2 Disposable Filters Global Export Market Analysis1.6.3 Disposable Filters Global Main Region Market Analysis1.6.4 Disposable Filters Global Market Comparison Analysis1.6.5 Disposable Filters Global Market Development Trend AnalysisBrowse TOC @Chapter Two Disposable Filters Up and Down Stream Industry Analysis2.1 Upstream Raw Materials Analysis2.1.1 Upstream Raw Materials Price Analysis2.1.2 Upstream Raw Materials Market Analysis2.1.3 Upstream Raw Materials Market Trend2.2 Down Stream Market Analysis2.1.1 Down Stream Market AnalysisAbout ResearchMozResearchMoz is the one stop online destination to find and buy market research reports & Industry Analysis. We fulfill all your research needs spanning across industry verticals with our huge collection of market research reports. We provide our services to all sizes of organizations and across all industry verticals and markets. Our Research Coordinators have in-depth knowledge of reports as well as publishers and will assist you in making an informed decision by giving you unbiased and deep insights on which reports will satisfy your needs at the best price.Mr. NachiketState Tower,90 State Street,Suite 700,Albany NY - 12207United StatesEmail: sales@researchmoz.usWebsite @Tel: 866-997-4948 (Us-Canada Toll Free)Tel: +1-518-621-2074Follow us on LinkedIn @Follow us on Blogger @Practice Analytics Market - Changing Supply And Demand Scenarios By 2027 With Competitive Analytics

Practice Analytics Market

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Namely Practice Analytics Market Report has Been Published by Market Research Future Which Covers All the Geographical Locations with Demand, Trend Analysis with near about Forecasted results and Also Covers the Market Expectations.The Global Practice Analytics Market is growing with a rapid pace. According to a recent study report published by the Market Research Future, the Global Practice Analytics Market is booming and expected to gain prominence over the forecast period and is projected to grow a sound pace. The market is projected to demonstrate a sound growth by 2027, surpassing its previous growth records in terms of value with a sound CAGR during the anticipated period (2017-2027).Practice analytics can be defined as the capability to evaluate and examine the state of a practice in a business. It serves as a basic tool for providing essential support to produce business. Practice analytics is used in report writing. Moreover, it can be used as a business intellect tool and is extensively utilized by the directors, managers, providers and support staff. In practice analytics, analysis of the data is done in detail. Thereafter, it is summarized for preparing reports and graphics, along with generating data files for exports to other applications. Such trends in the application of the techniques is driving the market growth. Moreover, increasing SaaS (Software as a Service) based analysis and SQL database are estimated to boost the growth during the forecast period. However, analysis of huge amount of data is time consuming. This is the major restrain that can hinder the markets growth during the forecast period.Practice Analytics (U.S.), Greenway Health (U.S.), Medisys (U.S.), Cardinal Health (U.S.), Mckesson (U.S.), DigiChart (U.S.), Meditab (U.S.), UROGPO (U.S.), Global Health Management Services (U.S.) and others are some of the prominent players at the forefront of competition in the Global Practice Analytics Market and are profiled in MRFR Analysis.Access Free Copy atGlobal Practice Analytics Market - Competitive Analysis:Characterized by the presence of several well-established and small players, the Global Practice Analytics Market appears to be highly competitive and fragmented. International players are increasingly expanding their footprint in the developing economy, making it difficult for regional vendors to compete with them, especially in terms of features such as product differentiation, product portfolios, quality, and pricing. The market is witnessing intensified competition which is expected to get more intensified further during the forecast period. The intense competition prevalent in the market dictates the consolidation among marketers.Well established players incorporate acquisition, collaboration, partnership, expansion, and product launch in order to gain competitive advantage in this market and to maintain their market position.In November, 2017- Greenway Health, a leading health information technology and services provider, announced that all three of its electronic health record and practice management solutions received 2015 ONC Health IT certification. The certified editions of Prime Suite v18.00, Intergy v11.00 and Success EHS v9.0, were certified in June, became available to help the customers to succeed in value-based care programs such as the Merit-based Incentive Payment System (MIPS) and Alternative Payment Models.In January, 2017- Medisys Health Group Inc. which is Canadas only national provider of preventive and executive health services, announced that it has completed the acquisition of Tri Fit Incorporated. This accelerated Medisys pathway into a leadership position in Canadian corporate wellness.In April, 2018- Cardinal Health announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Medtronic's Patient Care, Deep Vein Thrombosis and Nutritional Insufficiency businesses for USD 6.1 billion in cash. The purchase price did not included cash tax benefits of at least USD 100 million. The acquisition is expected to be financed with a combination of USD 4.5 billion in new senior unsecured notes and existing cash. The transaction is expected to close in the first quarter of Cardinal Health's fiscal year 2018.In December, 2016- McKesson Corporation, a leading international healthcare services and information technology company, announced that it has completed the acquisition of Rexall Health for USD 2.9 billion CAD. This was followed by the agreement reached with the Competition Bureau of Canada for the acquisition of Rexall Health and approval received under the Investment Canada Act.In August, 2016- Harris Healthcare group announced that it has completed the acquisition of digi Chart Inc. Digital Chart is a provider of electronic medical records (EMR) and practice management solutions for Obstetricians and Gynecologists practices in the U.S.Global Practice Analytics Market - Regional Analysis:On regional basis, the Practice Analytics Market is segmented into Americas, Europe, Asia Pacific and Middle East & Africa. North America commanded the largest market. Increasing use of information technology in healthcare industries and rising industrialization followed by the development of IT industries are the major drivers for the market growth of the market within the region. Following the similar trends of North America, Europe stands second in the market. On the other hand Asia Pacific is estimated to be the fastest growing market. The Middle East and Africa have the lowest market share due to lack of technical knowledge and poor medical facilities.Request for TOC atTop Reasons to Buy the Reports:Company profiling with detailed strategies, financials, and recent development activitiesMarket Strategic Business Influence DataMarket Research Future recommendations in key business segments based on the market estimationsMarket share analysis of the top industry playersMarket forecasts for a minimum of 5 years of all the mentioned segments, Trends and the regional markets With SWOT AnalysisAbout Market Research Future:At Market Research Future (MRFR), we enable our customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through our Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Raw Research Reports (3R), Continuous-Feed Research (CFR), and Market Research & Consulting Services.Contact:Market Research Future+1 646 845 9312Email: sales@marketresearchfuture.comMRFR has the distinguished objective of providing the optimal quality research and granular research to clients. Our market research studies by products, services, technologies, applications, end users, and market players for global, regional, and country level market segments, enable our clients to see more, know more, and do more, which help answer your most important questions.Our Research Analysts are eager to share their knowledge and assist you in refining market research parameters, choosing right market studies, and evaluating both the market scope and the research methodologies of varied segments.We bridge the gap between our clients and their clients by identifying and decoding just the target group, while generating leads with the highest accuracy.Years of research into diverse fields of work has ingrained within us, a proficiency so distinguished that our industry-specific specialists identify with your business ideas and feel the pulse of your challenges and opportunities. This enables us for providing assistance, through our consulting and strategic consulting services, in informed managerial decision making. In order to stay updated with technology and work process of the industries, WantStats Research and Media often conducts industrial visits for its research analysts. Relevant inputs from various established market participants, help our clients make significant contribution in respective markets are a huge motivation for all of us to endlessly furnish quality. We depend greatly on profound insights into complex realms of our study.Pune, IndiaGlobal Car Brake Pads Market Size, Growth 2023 Forecast Research Report

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MarketResearchReports.Biz presents this most up-to-date research on "Global Car Brake Pads Industry Outlook to 2022 - Capacity and Capital Expenditure Forecasts with Details of All Operating and Planned Refineries".This report studies the Car Brake Pads market, Brake Pads are components of brake systems used in automotive and other applications. Brake pads are friction materials which bound to the surface that faces the brake rotor and take the brunt of the frictional force necessary to stop the car. In a disc brake system, the brake pedal activates a hydraulic line which squeezes the calipers against the rotors of the car's tires. Pads are positioned between the calipers and the rotors to absorb the energy and heat, and then provide enough grips to stop the car.Request Sample Copy of the Report @Scope of the Report:This report focuses on the Car Brake Pads in global market, especially in North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, South America, Middle East and Africa. This report categorizes the market based on manufacturers, regions, types and applications.Market Segment by Manufacturers, this report coversFederal MogulAkebonoZF TRW Automotive Holdings CorpMAT HoldingsBOSCHNisshinbo Group CompanyDelphi AutomotiveATEITT CorporationBREMBOBrake Parts IncSumitomoAcdelcoFras-leKnorr-Bremse AGADVICSMeritorSangsin BrakeHitachi ChemicalDouble LinkHawk PerformanceEBC BrakesABS FrictionMK KashiyamaHunan Boyun Automobile Brake MaterialsFBK SYSTEMS SDN BHDComplete Report Details @Market Segment by Regions, regional analysis coversNorth America (United States, Canada and Mexico)Europe (Germany, France, UK, Russia and Italy)Asia-Pacific (China, Japan, Korea, India and Southeast Asia)South America (Brazil, Argentina, Colombia)Middle East and Africa (Saudi Arabia, UAE, Egypt, Nigeria and South Africa)Market Segment by Type, coversNon-asbestos Organic Brake PadsLow Metallic NAO Brake PadsSemi Metallic Brake PadsCeramic Brake PadsMarket Segment by Applications, can be divided intoCar OEM IndustryCar Aftermarket IndustryRequest For TOC Report @There are 15 Chapters to deeply display the global Car Brake Pads market.Chapter 1, to describe Car Brake Pads Introduction, product scope, market overview, market opportunities, market risk, market driving force;Chapter 2, to analyze the top manufacturers of Car Brake Pads, with sales, revenue, and price of Car Brake Pads, 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 Car Brake Pads, for each region, from 2013 to 2018;Chapter 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9, to analyze the key regions, with sales, revenue and market share by key countries in these regions;Chapter 10 and 11, to show the market by type and application, with sales market share and growth rate by type, application, from 2013 to 2018;Chapter 12, Car Brake Pads market forecast, by regions, type and application, with sales and revenue, from 2018 to 2023;Chapter 13, 14 and 15, to describe Car Brake Pads sales channel, distributors, traders, dealers, Research Findings and Conclusion, appendix and data sourceAbout usMarketResearchReports.biz is the most comprehensive collection of market research reports. MarketResearchReports.Biz services are specially designed to save time and money for our clients. We are a one stop solution for all your research needs, our main offerings are syndicated research reports, custom research, subscription access and consulting services. We serve all sizes and types of companies spanning across various industries.Contact UsState Tower90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207United StatesTel: +1-518-621-2074Website:Email: sales@marketresearchreports.bizHair Transplant Market | Top Key players are Bernstein Medical, Bosley, Cole instruments, Ethics hair instruments, MEDICAMAT and Restoration Robotics Inc. Company

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Hair loss is one of the major problems across the globe. This condition is not limited to the particular age group it can be caused any age group. Many famous figures and politicians are also suffering from hair loss. According to the research of Charite  Berlin University of Medicine performed in 2013, hair loss can lead to lower the self-confidence and in some cases, it may lead to depression and anxiety. As per Sanket Shah, CEO of Advanced Hair Studio, which is a hair replacement company headquartered in India has told in his interview that, the trend of hair transplant has increased in young or mid age population as, 80% of the clients are between the age group of 20-40 years. While, few years back, during1980s-90s where 70% of a client was between the age group of 40-60 years. He also explained that increasing stress, changing lifestyle and increasing population has led to the onset of hair loss at a young age. The prevalence of hair loss is continuously increasing and so as its demand.Get a sample report atGlobal Hair Transplant Market- OverviewHair transplantation is a surgical procedure in which the hair follicles are moved from one part of the body (already have to fill an area) to the area with thin or no hair. Hair transplantation is chiefly used to treat the baldness in male and female. There are two types of procedures used in the process of hair transplantation namely follicular unit transplantation (FUT) and follicular unit extraction (FUE).The market for the hair transplant is expecting an outstanding growth in coming future. Increasing consumption of drugs, steroids are also responsible for hair loss, therefore, has supported the growth of the market. According to International Society for Hair Restoration Surgery (ISHRS) more than 1 million hair transplant procedures performed in 2014 alone which was increased by 64% since 2006. As per the Consumer Reports Health surveys, it has been found that 65% individuals said they found wearing a wig was very or somewhat effective.In another survey, it was observed that nearly 40% of women and 27% of men consuming over-the-counter products to stop or reverse their hair loss. Whereas 20% of the men have preferred the prescription pills and they have got very effective results. Neil Sadick, a dermatologist in private practice at Sadick Dermatology in New York City expressed his views to WebMD that prescribed drugs and treatment are the best options for the treatment of hair loss. He also mentioned that Propecia, minoxidil, and hair transplantation can be more effective for the treatment of hair loss than over-the-counter drugs. Some of the scientists have explained that Propecia if combined with advanced hair transplantation techniques, can stimulate the growth of hairs. Todays hair transplant is more natural looking due to advance in the technology and medical devices.Browse Complete Report atGlobal Hair Transplant Market - Competitive AnalysisHair transplant market is characterized by the presence of numerous well-established players with their presence in global as well as at regional level. Many well-established players are entering into the various acquisition, collaboration, partnership, expansion, and technology launch events in order to gain a competitive advantage over other players in the market and to maintain their market position. Hair transplant market demonstrates a high growth potential which is likely to attract many entrants to the market resulting in intensified competition further with an increase in service extensions, technological innovations. For instance, in April 2017, a company named Bernstein Medical has introduced major upgrade of their hair transplant robot ARTAS 9x, that will enable faster and more precise Robotic FUE procedures. To gain the competitive edge and to stay abreast in the market; marketers ensure that the information about hair transplant procedures is provided thoroughly to the client only by a well-trained surgeon. For that, the companies organize or participate in the conferences to take about or spread awareness about their product. For say, Dr. Bernstein (a Clinical Professor of Dermatology at the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Columbia University) discussed the exciting new capabilities of the most recent upgrade to the ARTAS Robotic System, ARTAS 9x and its latest innovations in the FUE procedures at the 25th Annual Conference of the International Society of Hair Restoration (ISHRS) in October 2017. These key players also ensure to provide the best possible patient care throughout Hair Transplant experience. Hence, the growing technological innovations and raising consciousness about the treatment methods has spurred the growth of the market.More Inquire atAbout Market Research Future:At Market Research Future (MRFR), we enable our customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through our Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Raw Research Reports (3R), Continuous-Feed Research (CFR), and Market Research & Consulting Services.ContactMarket Research FutureOffice No. 528, Amanora ChambersMagarpatta Road, Hadapsar,Pune - 411028Maharashtra, India+1 646 845 9312Email: sales@marketresearchfuture.comObjective Lens Market Size and Key Trends in Terms Of Volume and Value - Forecast to 2025

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"The Latest Research Report Objective Lens Market - Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends and Forecast 2017 - 2025 provides information on pricing, market analysis, shares, forecast, and company profiles for key industry participants. - MarketResearchReports.biz"This exclusive report will provide you with the market size and forecast (US$ Mn) for the global market and its segments for the period from 2015 to 2025 along with the growth rate (CAGR) from 2017 to 2025, considering 2016 as base year. In addition, drivers, restraints and opportunities, competitive landscape have also been covered under the current proposed table of contents, which will in due course help you to take strategic decisions with respect to the market.Objective lens are being used extensively in imaging and photography and are likely to display large demand from these segments in the coming few years. The increasing use of projectors in offices, movies hall and educational institutes is driving the whole objective lens market. Furthermore, the development of the application base of objective lenses, with their use in research and development, healthcare, defense, and others is estimated to increase the demand for objective lenses in the next few years. The objective lens in a microscope is the lens that is nearby to the specimen being extravagant. Although, there are many lenses in the microscope, each of them performs a different type of resolution, but most too attractive the part of the specimen is objective lens. Most microscopes have four or three objective lenses and all objective lens offer a different level of intensification whereas the longest lens has the greatest intensification power. Since, the objective lens is closest to the sample, it is the furthest from the eye of the spectator and provides the greatest intensification.Get Sample Copy of this report @Objective lens provides an advanced degree of intensification, which allows to "zoom" in nearer to the thing. This is one factors that is driving the objective lens market. However, a lesser power lens will deliver a broader field of vision. This is equivalent to using an enlarging glass to observe an insect. As move to enlarging glass nearer to the insect, it can see extra but less of the pulverized around it. Complex design, high cost of equipment required for designing are affecting the objective lens market. Most of the developments in the objective lens market are not only supposing at products elastic with higher superiority images, but also at less price. Efforts are being taken by many companies to upgrade their research and development activities to introduce innovations in this field.Global objective lens market can be segmented on the basis of type, application, end use industry and region. By type, the objective lens strengths are found in most microscopes that are 10x, 4x, 40x and 100x. To calculate actual intensification provided by all type of objective lens, simply multiply the amount x by ten. Thus a 4x lens shows a thing at 40 times of its ordinary size. 10x lens display an object at 100 times, 100x at 1,000 times, and a 40x at 400 times intensification. By application, the market can be segmented into cameras, microscopes, telescopes, and other optical instruments. By end use industry, the objective lens market can be segmented into healthcare, consumer electronics, automotive, defense. Furthermore, objective lens market can also be studied according to regional bifurcations such as North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Middle East & Africa and South America. With technological developments, the objective lens market is projected to grow at a fast pace throughout the forecast period. The growing application base in diverse industries is further projected to augment the growth of the objective lens market during forecast period. Asia Pacific has been acquiescent toward adopting objective lens within the companies for improving imagining and amplified customer experience. Additionally, the objective lens is growing in Asia Pacific region due to the development in industrial sector as well as media sector.Many players are involved in manufacturing objective lens some of the key players in the market are Qioptiq, OPTO, Navitar, Opto Engineering, SILLOPTICS, CVI Melles Griot, EHD Imaging, Moritex, Vistacom, Inc., NET New Electronic Technology, Alcon (Novartis AG), Bausch + Lomb, Incorporated (Valeant Pharmaceuticals International, Inc.), Kyocera Optek, and Unilens Corporation and so on.The report offers a comprehensive evaluation of the market. It does so via in-depth qualitative insights, historical data, and verifiable projections about market size. The projections featured in the report have been derived using proven research methodologies and assumptions. By doing so, the research report serves as a repository of analysis and information for every facet of the market, including but not limited to: Regional markets, technology, types, and applications.View Report @The study is a source of reliable data on:Market segments and sub-segmentsMarket trends and dynamicsSupply and demandMarket sizeCurrent trends/opportunities/challengesCompetitive landscapeTechnological breakthroughsValue chain and stakeholder analysisThe regional analysis covers:North America (U.S. and Canada)Latin America (Mexico, Brazil, Peru, Chile, and others)Western Europe (Germany, U.K., France, Spain, Italy, Nordic countries, Belgium, Netherlands, and Luxembourg)Eastern Europe (Poland and Russia)Asia Pacific (China, India, Japan, ASEAN, Australia, and New Zealand)Middle East and Africa (GCC, Southern Africa, and North Africa)The report has been compiled through extensive primary research (through interviews, surveys, and observations of seasoned analysts) and secondary research (which entails reputable paid sources, trade journals, and industry body databases). The report also features a complete qualitative and quantitative assessment by analyzing data gathered from industry analysts and market participants across key points in the industrys value chain.A separate analysis of prevailing trends in the parent market, macro- and micro-economic indicators, and regulations and mandates is included under the purview of the study. By doing so, the report projects the attractiveness of each major segment over the forecast period.Send An Enquiry Request @Highlights of the report:A complete backdrop analysis, which includes an assessment of the parent marketImportant changes in market dynamicsMarket segmentation up to the second or third levelHistorical, current, and projected size of the market from the standpoint of both value and volumeReporting and evaluation of recent industry developmentsMarket shares and strategies of key playersEmerging niche segments and regional marketsAn objective assessment of the trajectory of the marketRecommendations to companies for strengthening their foothold in the marketAbout usMarketResearchReports.biz is the most comprehensive collection of market research reports. MarketResearchReports.Biz services are specially designed to save time and money for our clients. We are a one stop solution for all your research needs, our main offerings are syndicated research reports, custom research, subscription access and consulting services. We serve all sizes and types of companies spanning across various industries.ContactMr. NachiketState Tower90 Sate Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-621-2074Website:E: sales@marketresearchreports.bizGlobal Benefits Administration Software Market by Manufacturers, Regions, Type and Application, Forecast to 2022

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"The Report EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) Benefits Administration Software Market 2017 Forecast to 2022 provides information on pricing, market analysis, shares, forecast, and company profiles for key industry participants. - MarketResearchReports.biz"About Benefits Administration MarketThis report studies the Benefits Administration Software market, Benefits administration is the process of establishing, maintaining, and managing benefits for the employees of an organization. Employee benefits typically include medical insurance, pension plans, individual retirement accounts (IRAs), vacation time, sick time, and maternity leave. Numerous vendors offer software that can assist benefits administrators.Get Sample copy of this Report @Scope of the Report:This report focuses on the Benefits Administration Software in EMEA market, covering Europe, Middle East and Africa, This report categorizes the market based on manufacturers, regions, type and application.Market Segment by Manufacturers, this report coversADPWorkdayWEX HealthBenefitfocusbswiftNamelyZenefitsPaycomEmpowerHR/PayCeridianPlanSourcePaycorGustoBambooHRBreatheHRZane BenefitsMarket Segment by Regions, regional analysis coversEurope (Germany, France, UK, Russia, Italy and Turkey)Middle East (Saudi Arabia, Israel, UAE and Iran)Africa (South Africa, Nigeria, Egypt and Algeria)Market Segment by Type, coversOn-PremiseCloud-BasedMarket Segment by Applications, can be divided intoSmall BusinessMedium-sized BusinessLarge BusinessRequest for TOC @There are 13 Chapters to deeply display the EMEA Benefits Administration Software market.Chapter 1, to describe Benefits Administration Software Introduction, product scope, market overview, market opportunities, market risk, market driving force;Chapter 2, to analyze the top manufacturers of Benefits Administration Software, with sales, revenue, and price of Benefits Administration Software, 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 EMEA market by regions, with sales, revenue and market share of Benefits Administration Software, for each region, from 2012 to 2017;Chapter 5, 6, 7, to analyze the market by regions, manufacturers, type and application, with sales, revenue and market share by key countries in these regions;Chapter 8 and 9, to show the market by type and application, with sales market share and growth rate by type, application, from 2012 to 2017;Chapter 10, Benefits Administration Software market forecast, by regions, type and application, with sales and revenue, from 2017 to 2022;Chapter 11, 12 and 13, to describe Benefits Administration Software research findings and conclusion, sales channel, distributors, traders, dealers, appendix and data sourceView Report @Table of Contents1 Market Overview1.1 Benefits Administration Software Introduction1.2 Market Analysis by Type1.2.1 On-Premise1.2.2 Cloud-Based1.3 Market Analysis by Applications1.3.1 Small Business1.3.2 Medium-sized Business1.3.3 Large Business1.4 Market Analysis by Regions1.4.1 Europe (Germany, France, UK, Italy, Russia and Turkey)1.4.1.1 Germany Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.1.2 France Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.1.3 UK Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.1.4 Italy Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.1.5 Russia Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.1.6 Turkey Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.2 Middle East (Saudi Arabia, Israel, UAE and Iran)1.4.2.1 Saudi Arabia Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.2.2 UAE Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.2.3 Israel Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.2.4 Iran Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.3 Africa (South Africa, Nigeria, Egypt and Algeria)1.4.3.1 South Africa Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.3.2 Nigeria Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.3.3 Egypt Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.3.4 Algeria Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.5 Market Dynamics1.5.1 Market Opportunities1.5.2 Market Risk1.5.3 Market Driving Force2 Manufacturers Profiles2.1 ADP2.1.1 Business Overview2.1.2 Benefits Administration Software Type and Applications2.1.2.1 Type 12.1.2.2 Type 22.1.3 ADP Benefits Administration Software Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.2 Workday2.2.1 Business Overview2.2.2 Benefits Administration Software Type and Applications2.2.2.1 Type 12.2.2.2 Type 22.2.3 Workday Benefits Administration Software Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.3 WEX Health2.3.1 Business Overview2.3.2 Benefits Administration Software Type and Applications2.3.2.1 Type 12.3.2.2 Type 22.3.3 WEX Health Benefits Administration Software Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.4 Benefitfocus2.4.1 Business Overview2.4.2 Benefits Administration Software Type and Applications2.4.2.1 Type 12.4.2.2 Type 22.4.3 Benefitfocus Benefits Administration Software Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.5 bswift2.5.1 Business Overview2.5.2 Benefits Administration Software Type and Applications2.5.2.1 Type 12.5.2.2 Type 22.5.3 bswift Benefits Administration Software Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.6 Namely2.6.1 Business Overview2.6.2 Benefits Administration Software Type and Applications2.6.2.1 Type 12.6.2.2 Type 22.6.3 Namely Benefits Administration Software Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.7 Zenefits2.7.1 Business Overview2.7.2 Benefits Administration Software Type and Applications2.7.2.1 Type 12.7.2.2 Type 22.7.3 Zenefits Benefits Administration Software Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.8 Paycom2.8.1 Business Overview2.8.2 Benefits Administration Software Type and Applications2.8.2.1 Type 12.8.2.2 Type 22.8.3 Paycom Benefits Administration Software Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.9 EmpowerHR/Pay2.9.1 Business Overview2.9.2 Benefits Administration Software Type and Applications2.9.2.1 Type 12.9.2.2 Type 22.9.3 EmpowerHR/Pay Benefits Administration Software Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.10 Ceridian2.10.1 Business Overview2.10.2 Benefits Administration Software Type and Applications2.10.2.1 Type 12.10.2.2 Type 22.10.3 Ceridian Benefits Administration Software Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.11 PlanSource2.11.1 Business Overview2.11.2 Benefits Administration Software Type and Applications2.11.2.1 Type 12.11.2.2 Type 22.11.3 PlanSource Benefits Administration Software Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.12 Paycor2.12.1 Business Overview2.12.2 Benefits Administration Software Type and Applications2.12.2.1 Type 12.12.2.2 Type 22.12.3 Paycor Benefits Administration Software Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.13 Gusto2.13.1 Business Overview2.13.2 Benefits Administration Software Type and Applications2.13.2.1 Type 12.13.2.2 Type 22.13.3 Gusto Benefits Administration Software Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.14 BambooHR2.14.1 Business Overview2.14.2 Benefits Administration Software Type and Applications2.14.2.1 Type 12.14.2.2 Type 22.14.3 BambooHR Benefits Administration Software Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.15 BreatheHR2.15.1 Business Overview2.15.2 Benefits Administration Software Type and Applications2.15.2.1 Type 12.15.2.2 Type 22.15.3 BreatheHR Benefits Administration Software Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.16 Zane Benefits2.16.1 Business Overview2.16.2 Benefits Administration Software Type and Applications2.16.2.1 Type 12.16.2.2 Type 22.16.3 Zane Benefits Benefits Administration Software Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)Buy Now @About usMarketResearchReports.biz is the most comprehensive collection of market research reports. MarketResearchReports.Biz services are specially designed to save time and money for our clients. We are a one stop solution for all your research needs, our main offerings are syndicated research reports, custom research, subscription access and consulting services. We serve all sizes and types of companies spanning across various industries.ContactMr. NachiketState Tower90 Sate Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-621-2074Website:E: sales@marketresearchreports.bizFashion Luxury Cashmere Clothing Market 2018 Analysis and Global Forecast to 2025

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The Global Fashion Luxury Cashmere Clothing market size will be XX million (USD) in 2023, from the XX million (USD) in 2017, with a CAGR (Compound Annual Growth Rate) of XX% from between 2017 and 2023.This report studies the global Fashion Luxury Cashmere Clothing market, especially in North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, South America, Middle East and Africa, focuses on the top 5 Fashion Luxury Cashmere Clothing players in each region, with sales, price, revenue and market share from 2013 to 2018, the top players includingLoro PianaBrunello CucinelliErmenegildo ZegnaMaloAlykiPringle of ScotlandSofiaCashmereAutumn CashmereTSEBallantyneBirdie CashmereMaiyetGobiGOYOCashmere HoldingErdos GroupHengyuanxiangKingdeerSnow LotusZhenbei CashmereRequest a Sample Report @Market Segment by Regions, this report splits Global into several key Regions, with sales, revenue, market share of top players in these regions, from 2013 to 2018 (forecast), likeNorth America (United States, Canada and Mexico)Asia-Pacific (China, Japan, Southeast Asia, India and Korea)Europe (Germany, UK, France, Italy and Russia etc.South America (Brazil, Chile, Peru and Argentina)Middle East and Africa (Egypt, South Africa, Saudi Arabia)Split by Product Types, with sales, revenue, price, market share of each type, can be divided intoSweaterCoatsTrousersDressesOtherSplit by applications, this report focuses on sales, market share and growth rate of Fashion Luxury Cashmere Clothing in each application, can be divided intoChildrenWomenMenTable of Contents2018 Top 5 Fashion Luxury Cashmere Clothing Players in North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, South America, Middle East and Africa1 Fashion Luxury Cashmere Clothing Market Overview1.1 Product Overview and Scope of Fashion Luxury Cashmere Clothing1.2 Fashion Luxury Cashmere Clothing Segment by Types1.2.1 Global Sales Market Share of Fashion Luxury Cashmere Clothing by Types in 20171.2.2 Sweater1.2.2.1 Major Players of Sweater1.2.3 Coats1.2.3.1 Major Players of Coats1.2.4 Trousers1.2.4.1 Major Players of Trousers1.2.5 Dresses1.2.5.1 Major Players of Dresses1.2.6 Other1.2.6.1 Major Players of Other1.3 Fashion Luxury Cashmere Clothing Segment by Applications1.3.1 Fashion Luxury Cashmere Clothing Sales Market Share by Applications in 20171.3.2 Children1.3.3 Women1.3.4 Men1.4 Fashion Luxury Cashmere Clothing Market by Regions1.4.1 North America Status and Prospect (2013-2023)1.4.1.1 North America Fashion Luxury Cashmere Clothing Revenue (Million USD) and Growth Rate (2013-2023)1.4.2 Asia-Pacific Status and Prospect (2013-2023)1.4.2.1 Asia-Pacific Fashion Luxury Cashmere Clothing Revenue (Million USD) and Growth Rate (2013-2023)1.4.3 Europe Status and Prospect (2013-2023)1.4.3.1 Europe Fashion Luxury Cashmere Clothing Revenue (Million USD) and Growth Rate (2013-2023)1.4.4 South America Status and Prospect (2013-2023)1.4.4.1 South America Fashion Luxury Cashmere Clothing Revenue (Million USD) and Growth Rate (2013-2023)1.4.5 Middle East and Africa Status and Prospect (2013-2023)1.4.5.1 Middle East and Africa Fashion Luxury Cashmere Clothing Revenue (Million USD) and Growth Rate (2013-2023)1.5 Global Market Size (Value) of Fashion Luxury Cashmere Clothing (2013-2023)2 Global Fashion Luxury Cashmere Clothing Sales, Revenue (Value) and Market Share by Players2.1 Global Fashion Luxury Cashmere Clothing Sales and Market Share by Players in 2016 and 20172.1.1 Global Fashion Luxury Cashmere Clothing Sales by Players in 2016 and 20172.1.2 Global Fashion Luxury Cashmere Clothing Sales Market Share (%) by Players in 2016 and 20172.2 Global Fashion Luxury Cashmere Clothing Revenue and Market Share by Players in 2016 and 20172.2.1 Global Fashion Luxury Cashmere Clothing Revenue by Players in 2016 and 20172.2.2 Global Fashion Luxury Cashmere Clothing Revenue Market Share (%) by Players in 2016 and 20172.3 Global Fashion Luxury Cashmere Clothing Average Price by Players in 2016 and 20172.4 Global Fashion Luxury Cashmere Clothing Manufacturing Base Distribution, Sales Area, Product Types by Players2.4.1 Global Fashion Luxury Cashmere Clothing Manufacturing Base Distribution and Sales Area by Players2.4.2 Players Fashion Luxury Cashmere Clothing Product Types2.5 Fashion Luxury Cashmere Clothing Market Competitive Situation and Trends2.5.1 Fashion Luxury Cashmere Clothing Market Concentration Rate2.5.2 Fashion Luxury Cashmere Clothing Market Share of Top 3 and Top 5 Players2.5.3 Mergers & Acquisitions, Expansion3 Global Fashion Luxury Cashmere Clothing Sales, Revenue (Value) by Regions, Type and Application (2013-2018)3.1 Global Fashion Luxury Cashmere Clothing Sales, Revenue and Market Share by Regions (2013-2018)3.1.1 Global Fashion Luxury Cashmere Clothing Sales and Market Share by Regions (2013-2018)3.1.2 Global Fashion Luxury Cashmere Clothing Revenue and Market Share by Regions (2013-2018)3.2 Global Fashion Luxury Cashmere Clothing Sales, Revenue, Market Share and Price by Type (2013-2018)3.2.1 Global Fashion Luxury Cashmere Clothing Sales and Market Share by Type (2013-2018)3.2.2 Global Fashion Luxury Cashmere Clothing Revenue and Market Share by Type (2013-2018)3.2.3 Global Fashion Luxury Cashmere Clothing Price by Type (2013-2018)3.3 Global Fashion Luxury Cashmere Clothing Sales and Market Share by Application (2013-2018)3.3.1 Global Fashion Luxury Cashmere Clothing Sales by Application (2013-2018)3.3.2 Global Fashion Luxury Cashmere Clothing Sales Market Share by Application (2013-2018)3.4 Global Fashion Luxury Cashmere Clothing Sales, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2013-2018)4 North America Top 5 Players Fashion Luxury Cashmere Clothing Sales, Revenue and Price4.1 North America Top 5 Players Fashion Luxury Cashmere Clothing Sales, Revenue and Market Share in 2016 and 20174.1.1 North America Top 5 Players Fashion Luxury Cashmere Clothing Sales and Market Share in 2016 and 20174.1.2 North America Top 5 Players Fashion Luxury Cashmere Clothing Revenue and Market Share in 2016 and 20174.2 North America Fashion Luxury Cashmere Clothing Sales, Revenue, Market Share and Price by Type (2013-2018)4.2.1 North America Fashion Luxury Cashmere Clothing Sales and Market Share by Type (2013-2018)4.2.1.1 North America Fashion Luxury Cashmere Clothing Sales by Type (2013-2018)4.2.1.2 North America Fashion Luxury Cashmere Clothing Sales Market Share by Type (2013-2018)4.2.2 North America Fashion Luxury Cashmere Clothing Revenue and Market Share by Type (2013-2018)4.2.2.1 North America Fashion Luxury Cashmere Clothing Revenue by Type (2013-2018)4.2.2.2 North America Fashion Luxury Cashmere Clothing Revenue Market Share by Type (2013-2018)4.2.3 North America Fashion Luxury Cashmere Clothing Price by Type (2013-2018)4.3 North America Fashion Luxury Cashmere Clothing Sales and Market Share by Application (2013-2018)4.3.1 North America Fashion Luxury Cashmere Clothing Sales by Application (2013-2018)4.3.2 North America Fashion Luxury Cashmere Clothing Sales Market Share by Application (2013-2018)4.4 North America Fashion Luxury Cashmere Clothing Sales and Market Share by Country (US, Canada and Mexico) (2013-2018)4.4.1 North America Fashion Luxury Cashmere Clothing Sales by Country (2013-2018)4.4.2 North America Fashion Luxury Cashmere Clothing Sales Market Share by Country (2013-2018)4.5 North America Fashion Luxury Cashmere Clothing Import & Export (2013-2018)5 Europe Top 5 Players Fashion Luxury Cashmere Clothing Sales, Revenue and Price5.1 Europe Top 5 Players Fashion Luxury Cashmere Clothing Sales, Revenue and Market Share in 2016 and 20175.1.1 Europe Top 5 Players Fashion Luxury Cashmere Clothing Sales and Market Share in 2016 and 20175.1.2 Europe Top 5 Players Fashion Luxury Cashmere Clothing Revenue and Market Share in 2016 and 20175.2 Europe Fashion Luxury Cashmere Clothing Sales, Revenue, Market Share and Price by Type (2013-2018)5.2.1 Europe Fashion Luxury Cashmere Clothing Sales and Market Share by Type (2013-2018)5.2.1.1 Europe Fashion Luxury Cashmere Clothing Sales by Type (2013-2018)5.2.1.2 Europe Fashion Luxury Cashmere Clothing Sales Market Share by Type (2013-2018)5.2.2 Europe Fashion Luxury Cashmere Clothing Revenue and Market Share by Type (2013-2018)5.2.2.1 Europe Fashion Luxury Cashmere Clothing Revenue by Type (2013-2018)5.2.2.2 Europe Fashion Luxury Cashmere Clothing Revenue Market Share by Type (2013-2018)5.2.3 Europe Fashion Luxury Cashmere Clothing Price by Type (2013-2018)5.3 Europe Fashion Luxury Cashmere Clothing Sales and Market Share by Application (2013-2018)5.3.1 Europe Fashion Luxury Cashmere Clothing Sales by Application (2013-2018)5.3.2 Europe Fashion Luxury Cashmere Clothing Sales Market Share by Application (2013-2018)5.4 Europe Fashion Luxury Cashmere Clothing Sales and Market Share by Country (Germany, UK, France, Italy and Russia) (2013-2018)5.4.1 Europe Fashion Luxury Cashmere Clothing Sales by Country (2013-2018)5.4.2 Europe Fashion Luxury Cashmere Clothing Sales Market Share by Country (2013-2018)5.5 Europe Fashion Luxury Cashmere Clothing Import & Export (2013-2018)6 Asia-Pacific Top 5 Players Fashion Luxury Cashmere Clothing Sales, Revenue and Price6.1 Asia-Pacific Top 5 Players Fashion Luxury Cashmere Clothing Sales, Revenue and Market Share in 2016 and 20176.1.1 Asia-Pacific Top 5 Players Fashion Luxury Cashmere Clothing Sales and Market Share in 2016 and 20176.1.2 Asia-Pacific Top 5 Players Fashion Luxury Cashmere Clothing Revenue and Market Share in 2016 and 20176.2 Asia-Pacific Fashion Luxury Cashmere Clothing Sales, Revenue, Market Share and Price by Type (2013-2018)6.2.1 Asia-Pacific Fashion Luxury Cashmere Clothing Sales and Market Share by Type (2013-2018)6.2.1.1 Asia-Pacific "&Sheet1!B1&" Sales by Type (2013-2018)"6.2.2 Asia-Pacific Fashion Luxury Cashmere Clothing Revenue and Market Share by Type (2013-2018)6.2.3 Asia-Pacific "&Sheet1!B1&" Price by Type (2013-2018)"ContinuedAccess Complete Report @ABOUT US:Wise Guy Reports is part of the Wise Guy 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Ltd. and offers premium progressive statistical surveying, market research reports, analysis & forecast data for industries and governments around the globe. Wise Guy Reports features an exhaustive list of market research reports from hundreds of publishers worldwide. We boast a database spanning virtually every market category and an even more comprehensive collection of market research reports under these categories and sub-categories.ADDRES:WISE GUY RESEARCH CONSULTANTS PVT LTDOffice No. 528, Amanora ChambersMagarpatta Road, HadapsarPune - 411028Maharashtra, IndiaGlobal Benefits Administration Software Market by Manufacturers, Regions, Type and Application, Forecast to 2022

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"The Report EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) Blood Banking Market 2017 Forecast to 2022 provides information on pricing, market analysis, shares, forecast, and company profiles for key industry participants. - MarketResearchReports.biz"About Blood Banking MarketThis report studies the Blood Banking market, and blood banking refers to the process of collecting, separating, and storing blood. A blood bank is a center where blood gathered as a result of blood donation is stored and preserved for later use in blood transfusion. The term "blood bank" typically refers to a division of a hospital where the storage of blood product occurs and where proper testing is performed (to reduce the risk of transfusion related adverse events). However, it sometimes refers to a collection center, and indeed some hospitals also perform collection.Get Sample copy of this Report @Scope of the Report:This report focuses on the Blood Banking in EMEA market, covering Europe, Middle East and Africa, This report categorizes the market based on manufacturers, regions, type and application.Market Segment by Manufacturers, this report coversAmerican Red CrossJapan Red Cross SocietyNew York Blood CenterSanquin Blood Supply FoundationAmericas Blood CentersCanadian Blood ServicesShire (Baxalta)CSLGrifolsOctapharmaKedrionLFB GroupBiotestBPLRAASCBPOHualan BioSichuan Yuanda ShuyangAbbottBeckman CoulterBDBio-Rad LaboratoriesbioMrieuxCerusHaemoneticsImmucorFresenius KabiMacoPharmaOrtho-ClinicalTerumo BCTKawasumiRequest for TOC @Market Segment by Regions, regional analysis coversEurope (Germany, France, UK, Russia, Italy and Turkey)Middle East (Saudi Arabia, Israel, UAE and Iran)Africa (South Africa, Nigeria, Egypt and Algeria)Market Segment by Type, coversMarket Segment by Applications, can be divided intoThere are 13 Chapters to deeply display the EMEA Blood Banking market.Chapter 1, to describe Blood Banking Introduction, product scope, market overview, market opportunities, market risk, market driving force;Chapter 2, to analyze the top manufacturers of Blood Banking, with sales, revenue, and price of Blood Banking, 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 EMEA market by regions, with sales, revenue and market share of Blood Banking, for each region, from 2012 to 2017;Chapter 5, 6, 7, to analyze the market by regions, manufacturers, type and application, with sales, revenue and market share by key countries in these regions;Chapter 8 and 9, to show the market by type and application, with sales market share and growth rate by type, application, from 2012 to 2017;Chapter 10, Blood Banking market forecast, by regions, type and application, with sales and revenue, from 2017 to 2022;Chapter 11, 12 and 13, to describe Blood Banking research findings and conclusion, sales channel, distributors, traders, dealers, appendix and data sourceView Report @Table of Contents1 Market Overview1.1 Blood Banking Introduction1.2 Market Analysis by Type1.3 Market Analysis by Applications1.4 Market Analysis by Regions1.4.1 Europe (Germany, France, UK, Italy, Russia and Turkey)1.4.1.1 Germany Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.1.2 France Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.1.3 UK Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.1.4 Italy Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.1.5 Russia Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.1.6 Turkey Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.2 Middle East (Saudi Arabia, Israel, UAE and Iran)1.4.2.1 Saudi Arabia Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.2.2 UAE Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.2.3 Israel Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.2.4 Iran Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.3 Africa (South Africa, Nigeria, Egypt and Algeria)1.4.3.1 South Africa Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.3.2 Nigeria Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.3.3 Egypt Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.3.4 Algeria Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.5 Market Dynamics1.5.1 Market Opportunities1.5.2 Market Risk1.5.3 Market Driving Force2 Manufacturers Profiles2.1 American Red Cross2.1.1 Business Overview2.1.2 Blood Banking Type and Applications2.1.2.1 Type 12.1.2.2 Type 22.1.3 American Red Cross Blood Banking Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.2 Japan Red Cross Society2.2.1 Business Overview2.2.2 Blood Banking Type and Applications2.2.2.1 Type 12.2.2.2 Type 22.2.3 Japan Red Cross Society Blood Banking Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.3 New York Blood Center2.3.1 Business Overview2.3.2 Blood Banking Type and Applications2.3.2.1 Type 12.3.2.2 Type 22.3.3 New York Blood Center Blood Banking Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.4 Sanquin Blood Supply Foundation2.4.1 Business Overview2.4.2 Blood Banking Type and Applications2.4.2.1 Type 12.4.2.2 Type 22.4.3 Sanquin Blood Supply Foundation Blood Banking Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.5 Americas Blood Centers2.5.1 Business Overview2.5.2 Blood Banking Type and Applications2.5.2.1 Type 12.5.2.2 Type 22.5.3 Americas Blood Centers Blood Banking Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.6 Canadian Blood Services2.6.1 Business Overview2.6.2 Blood Banking Type and Applications2.6.2.1 Type 12.6.2.2 Type 22.6.3 Canadian Blood Services Blood Banking Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.7 Shire (Baxalta)2.7.1 Business Overview2.7.2 Blood Banking Type and Applications2.7.2.1 Type 12.7.2.2 Type 22.7.3 Shire (Baxalta) Blood Banking Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.8 CSL2.8.1 Business Overview2.8.2 Blood Banking Type and Applications2.8.2.1 Type 12.8.2.2 Type 22.8.3 CSL Blood Banking Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.9 Grifols2.9.1 Business Overview2.9.2 Blood Banking Type and Applications2.9.2.1 Type 12.9.2.2 Type 22.9.3 Grifols Blood Banking Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.10 Octapharma2.10.1 Business Overview2.10.2 Blood Banking Type and Applications2.10.2.1 Type 12.10.2.2 Type 22.10.3 Octapharma Blood Banking Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.11 Kedrion2.11.1 Business Overview2.11.2 Blood Banking Type and Applications2.11.2.1 Type 12.11.2.2 Type 22.11.3 Kedrion Blood Banking Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.12 LFB Group2.12.1 Business Overview2.12.2 Blood Banking Type and Applications2.12.2.1 Type 12.12.2.2 Type 22.12.3 LFB Group Blood Banking Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.13 Biotest2.13.1 Business Overview2.13.2 Blood Banking Type and Applications2.13.2.1 Type 12.13.2.2 Type 22.13.3 Biotest Blood Banking Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.14 BPL2.14.1 Business Overview2.14.2 Blood Banking Type and Applications2.14.2.1 Type 12.14.2.2 Type 22.14.3 BPL Blood Banking Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.15 RAAS2.15.1 Business Overview2.15.2 Blood Banking Type and Applications2.15.2.1 Type 12.15.2.2 Type 22.15.3 RAAS Blood Banking Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.16 CBPO2.16.1 Business Overview2.16.2 Blood Banking Type and Applications2.16.2.1 Type 12.16.2.2 Type 22.16.3 CBPO Blood Banking Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.17 Hualan Bio2.17.1 Business Overview2.17.2 Blood Banking Type and Applications2.17.2.1 Type 12.17.2.2 Type 22.17.3 Hualan Bio Blood Banking Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.18 Sichuan Yuanda Shuyang2.18.1 Business Overview2.18.2 Blood Banking Type and Applications2.18.2.1 Type 12.18.2.2 Type 22.18.3 Sichuan Yuanda Shuyang Blood Banking Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.19 Abbott2.19.1 Business Overview2.19.2 Blood Banking Type and Applications2.19.2.1 Type 12.19.2.2 Type 22.19.3 Abbott Blood Banking Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.20 Beckman Coulter2.20.1 Business Overview2.20.2 Blood Banking Type and Applications2.20.2.1 Type 12.20.2.2 Type 22.20.3 Beckman Coulter Blood Banking Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.21 BD2.21.1 Business Overview2.2.2 Blood Banking Type and Applications2.21.2.1 Type 12.21.2.2 Type 22.21.3 BD Blood Banking Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.22 Bio-Rad Laboratories2.22.1 Business Overview2.22.2 Blood Banking Type and Applications2.22.2.1 Type 12.22.2.2 Type 22.22.3 Bio-Rad Laboratories Blood Banking Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.23 bioMrieux2.23.1 Business Overview2.23.2 Blood Banking Type and Applications2.23.2.1 Type 12.23.2.2 Type 22.23.3 bioMrieux Blood Banking Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.24 Cerus2.24.1 Business Overview2.24.2 Blood Banking Type and Applications2.24.2.1 Type 12.24.2.2 Type 22.24.3 Cerus Blood Banking Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.25 Haemonetics2.25.1 Business Overview2.25.2 Blood Banking Type and Applications2.25.2.1 Type 12.25.2.2 Type 22.25.3 Haemonetics Blood Banking Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.26 Immucor2.26.1 Business Overview2.26.2 Blood Banking Type and Applications2.26.2.1 Type 12.26.2.2 Type 22.26.3 Immucor Blood Banking Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.27 Fresenius Kabi2.27.1 Business Overview2.27.2 Blood Banking Type and Applications2.27.2.1 Type 12.27.2.2 Type 22.27.3 Fresenius Kabi Blood Banking Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.28 MacoPharma2.28.1 Business Overview2.28.2 Blood Banking Type and Applications2.28.2.1 Type 12.28.2.2 Type 22.28.3 MacoPharma Blood Banking Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.29 Ortho-Clinical2.29.1 Business Overview2.29.2 Blood Banking Type and Applications2.29.2.1 Type 12.29.2.2 Type 22.29.3 Ortho-Clinical Blood Banking Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.30 Terumo BCT2.30.1 Business Overview2.30.2 Blood Banking Type and Applications2.30.2.1 Type 12.30.2.2 Type 22.30.3 Terumo BCT Blood Banking Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.31 Kawasumi2.31.1 Business Overview2.31.2 Blood Banking Type and Applications2.31.2.1 Type 12.31.2.2 Type 22.31.3 Kawasumi Blood Banking Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)Buy Now @About usMarketResearchReports.biz is the most comprehensive collection of market 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MarketResearchReports.Biz services are specially designed to save time and money for our clients. We are a one stop solution for all your research needs, our main offerings are syndicated research reports, custom research, subscription access and consulting services. We serve all sizes and types of companies spanning across various industries.ContactMr. NachiketState Tower90 Sate Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-621-2074Website:E: sales@marketresearchreports.bizWorldwide Anal Cancer Market | Top Key Players are Advaxis, Inc. (U.S.), ORYX, Genticel (France), Taiwan Liposome Company

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Market Research Future published a half cooked research report on Global Anal Cancer- Forecast to 2027-Market Analysis, Scope, Stake, Progress, Trends and Forecast to 2027The anus is the opening at the end of the large intestine, below the rectum, where bowel movements leave the body. The beginning of the anal cancer is seen when the healthy cells grow in an uncontrolled manner, thereby, forming masses of cells called as tumours. The infected cells can be squamous cell, cloacogenic cell, anal lining cell and basal cell. A majority of the reported anal cancers are the squamous cell carcinomas. When the cells are at the beginning sate, they appears to be normal. This is the dysplasia state of the cancer. Dysplasia in the anus is called anal intraepithelial neoplasia (AIN) or anal squamous intraepithelial lesions (SILs). Increasing prevalence of the anal cancer and sexually transmitted diseases along with the growing geriatric population are the major drivers for the market growth during the forecast period. In 2017, according to the American Cancer Society, 8,200 new cases of the anal cancer were reported in the U.S. causing 1,100 deaths. Moreover, it is reported that the anal cancer is rare in people younger than 35 years in age and is found mainly in the geriatric population. According to the World Health Organization, the number of people aging 65 or older is projected to grow from an estimated 524 million in 2010 to nearly 1.5 billion in 2050, with most of the increase in developing countries. However, factors like lack of awareness and low per capita healthcare expenditure are estimated to restrain the market growth during the forecast period.Get a sample report atThe global anal cancer market is growing with the rapid pace. According to a recent study report published by the Market Research Future, the global anal cancer market is booming and expected to gain prominence over the forecast period. The market is projected to demonstrate a spectacular growth by 2027, surpassing its previous growth records in terms of value with a striking CAGR during the anticipated period (2017  2027).Advaxis, Inc. (U.S.), ORYX, Genticel (France), Taiwan Liposome Company, Ltd. (Twain) and others are the prominent players at the forefront of competition in the global anal cancer market and are profiled in MRFR Analysis.Global Anal Cancer Market - Competitive AnalysisCharacterized by the presence of several well-established and small players, the global anal cancer market appears to be a highly competitive and fragmented market. International players who are increasingly expanding their footprint in the developing economy, making it difficult for regional vendors to compete with them, especially in terms of features product portfolios, quality, and pricing. The market is witnessing intensified competition which is expected to get more intensified further during the forecast period. The intense competition prevalent in the market dictates the consolidation among marketers.Well established players incorporate acquisition, collaboration, partnership, expansion, and product launch in order to gain competitive advantage in this market and to maintain their market position.In August 2016, Amgen and Advaxis, Inc. entered into a global agreement for the development and commercialization of Advaxis' ADXS-NEO, a novel, preclinical investigational cancer immunotherapy treatment that is designed to activate a patient's immune system to respond against the unique mutations, or neoepitopes. This collaboration brought together Amgen's development expertise in immuno-oncology with Advaxis' MINE program, which is uniquely positioned to develop a customized approach for cancer treatment.In October-2017, Taiwan Liposome Company, Ltd. showcased the superiorities of its pain management solution at the Janneys Osteoarthritis and Pain Therapeutic Forum addressing companys TLC599 candidate.Browse Complete Report atGlobal Anal Cancer Market - Regional AnalysisThe Americas leads the global anal cancer market due to a well-developed healthcare sector, huge patient population and rising healthcare expenditures within the region. Moreover, the presence of the global like Advaxis, Inc. within the region fuels the market growth during the forecast period. The Americas is followed by Europe in the presence of the similar factors facilitating the market growth within the region. The Asia Pacific is the fastest growing region due to a huge patient population and continuously growing healthcare sector by the developing economies like India and China. Additionally, the growing geriatric population fuels the market growth. On the other hand, Middle East & Africa have the least share of the market due to stringent government policies and presence of lack of a developed healthcare sector, especially within the African region.About Market Research Future:At Market Research Future (MRFR), we enable our customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through our Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Raw Research Reports (3R), Continuous-Feed Research (CFR), and Market Research & Consulting Services.Market Research FutureP: +1 646 845 9312W:sales@marketresearchfuture.comGlobal Sodium Hypochlorite Industry Analysis, Emerging Opportunities, Market Size, Share, Growth Drivers, Market Trends, Statistics and Forecast to 2020

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Market Research Reports Search Engine (MRRSE) has been serving as an active source to cater intelligent research report to enlighten both readers and investors. This research study titled Sodium Hypochlorite MarketGet Free Sample Report @Sodium hypochlorite is an inorganic salt of hypochlorous acid. It is a clear, unstable, highly corrosive liquid with a pungent odor. It is manufactured commercially by hooker process which involves passing chlorine gas into dilute sodium hydroxide (NaOH) solution in the presence of active electrodes. The process is essentially carried out at low temperature as sodium hypochlorite is unstable at temperatures higher than 40 degrees Celsius and starts converting into sodium chlorate. Sodium chloride or common salt is a common by-product of this process.Sodium hypochlorite is primarily used as the basic ingredient in household bleaches and stain removal detergents. It is used as a biocide and chlorinating agent in industrial as well as municipal water treatment plants. Sodium hypochlorite is also used as a disinfectant in surface cleaner formulations, especially in restaurants and equipment for food processing. Some other uses for sodium hypochlorite include neutralizing chemical agent for nerve gas disposal and as biocide and pulp digestion chemical in endodontic applications by dentists. The sodium hypochlorite market is driven by its demand in water treatment applications and household bleach products especially stain remover and surface cleaner formulations. However, instability and hazardous nature of sodium hypochlorite due to its strong oxidizing properties might hamper the market growth. Skin treatment formulations with highly diluted concentrations of sodium hypochlorite have been tested and found to be beneficial for treating inflammations caused by radiation therapy.For More Info about This Report Visit @This could be an attractive opportunity for market growth.Sodium hypochlorite is a widely used household bleaching agent due to its high oxidizing strength. It is extensively used in cleaner formulations for clothes as well as surfaces. In water treatment applications sodium hypochlorite is commonly used as a biocide owing to its anti microbial characteristics and as a chlorinating agent. It is also employed for treating cyanide contamination of industrial wastewater. The water treatment chemicals industry is witnessing a rapid rise in demand due to regulatory pressure for better treatment of industrial as well as municipal waste water released into the water bodies. Growing awareness among the general public and the protests against the harmful effects, of industrial and municipal waste water contaminated with human wastes, on the environment has lead to strict regulations governing the release of treated wastewater. This, in turn, has supported the growth of waste water treatment chemicals including sodium hypochlorite.In terms of geography, Asia Pacific is the dominant consumer of sodium hypochlorite riding on high sales of household bleaching products to its large population. Major industrial economies including China, India, Japan and South Korea are the major consumers of sodium hypochlorite for application in waste water treatment, household products, dental care and chemical industry. Two of the most populated countries, China and India are situated in Asia. Both these countries are growing rapidly and witnessing rising disposable income and purchase power parity of the general population. This is expected to fuel market growth of household products including bleach and detergents, which in turn is expected to fuel demand for sodium hypochlorite in the region. North America is another major consumer for sodium hypochlorite especially in the dental care and waste water treatment applications. In Rest of the World, Brazil, Argentina and South Africa contribute to major demand for the market. Europe is expected to witness comparatively slower growth than other regions due to its stringent regulations.For any Assistance about This Report? Ask Our Expert @Some of the market players include AGC group, Sunbelt Chemical Corporations, Orica Watercare and Shanghai Polymet Commodities Ltd., among many others.About Market Research Reports Search Engine (MRRSE)Market Research Reports Search Engine (MRRSE) is an industry-leading database of Market Research Reports. MRRSE is driven by a stellar team of research experts and advisors trained to offer objective advice. Our sophisticated search algorithm returns results based on the report title, geographical region, publisher, or other keywords.MRRSE partners exclusively with leading global publishers to provide clients single-point access to top-of-the-line market research. MRRSEs repository is updated every day to keep its clients ahead of the next new trend in market research, be it competitive intelligence, product or service trends or strategic consulting.Contact UsState Tower90, State StreetSuite 700Albany, NY - 12207United States Telephone: +1-518-730-0559Email: sales@mrrse.comWebsite:Read More Industry News At:Automotive Camera Market 2018 Global Key Players: Allied Vision Technologies, Balluf, Basler, Autoliv, Delhi Automotive, Denso, Robert Bosch, Valeo, TRW Automotive

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Market Research Future published a research report on Global Automotive Camera Market Research Report- Forecast 2023  Market Analysis, Scope, Stake, Progress, Trends and Forecast to 2023.Market ScenarioAutomotive camera is a camera installed at front side, rear side, or inside a vehicle for safety purposes. Camera modules contain image sensors that are coupled with electronic components in vehicles. The factors propelling the growth of the market are growing influence of new car assessment program (NCAP), increasing demand for luxury vehicles, and demand forsafety measures.The market is segmented on the basis of camera type, vehicle type, application and geographically. The vehicle type comprises of passengers cars, commercial vehicles among others. The market for sensing cameras is expected to grow at a faster rate during the forecasted period. This could be accounted to the higher scope of application of these cameras in the advanced driver assistance systems. The market for cameras in passenger cars dominated the overall automotive market. High requirement of the product primarily in the passenger cars is expected to improve industry size.Rising prices of vehicles along with high costs incurred at the design & testing phase is expected to act as key challenge for the automotive camera market growth.The global Automotive Camera Market is expected to grow at approx. USD 19 Billion by 2023, at 19% of CAGR between 2017 and 2023.Get Sample of Report @Regional Analysis:The regional analysis of automotive camera market is being studied for regions such as Asia Pacific, North America, Europe and Rest of the World.It has been observed that North America would be dominating the automotive camera market owing to high speed connectivity. Europe is also prominent market for product and will show immense growth in the installation of safety technologies in the passenger cars in Germany, UK, France, and Italy.Asia Pacific will witness significant growth mainly in China, India, Japan, Thailand, Malaysia and South Korea in light of rapid industrialization along with increasing number of automobile production. In addition, rising disposable income along with high standard of living of the consumers will propel growth of automotive camera market.Key Players:The prominent players in over the automotive camera market are  ADA-ES Inc. (U.S.), Allied Vision Technologies (Germany), Balluf (Germany), Basler AG (Germany), Autoliv, Inc (Sweden), Delhi Automotive PLC (U.K.), Denso Corporation (Japan), Robert Bosch GmBH (Germany), Valeo S.A. (France), TRW Automotive (U.S.) among othersSegments:Automotive camera market can be segmented on the basis of following:By Camera Type: Digital camera Thermal camera Infrared cameraBy Vehicle Type: Passengers car Commercial vehiclesBy Application Type: Lane Departure Warning Adaptive Cruise Control Blind Spot Detection Park Assist System Night Vision Pedestrian Detection Road Sign Recognition Driver MonitoringBy Geography: North America Europe Asia Pacific Rest of WorldGet Complete Report @Intended Audience Technology investors Integrated device manufacturers (IDMs) Wearable electronics technology platform developers Original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) Smart grid integrators Surface mount component device distributors and providers Research/Consultancy firmsAbout Us:At Market Research Future (MRFR), we enable our customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through our Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Raw Research Reports (3R), Continuous-Feed Research (CFR), and Market Research & Consulting Services.Media Contact:Akash Anand,Market Research Future+1 646 845 9312Email: akash.anand@marketresearchfuture.comExotic Fats Market Professional Survey Report 2017, Key Companies Profile, Supply, Demand, Manufacturing Process and Cost Structure Analysis

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The latest report on Exotic Fats Market by Infinium Global Research gives complete coverage of the Exotic Fats Market by Type (coca butter equivalent (llipe butter, shea butter), cocoa butter substitutes (phulawara fat, dhupa, and mehua fat)), by Form (liquid and dries (solid,semisolid), application(Chocolate & confectionery, bakery, dairy, cosmetic) in terms of key trends, market size, forecast and CAGR growth over the period of 2017 to 2023. In addition, the study covers deep dive into key product and applications trends in the regional markets of Exotic Fats such as North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific and Latin America over the short run and long run.Get Free Sample pages of this Report:The global Exotic Fats market was dominated by the North America region followed by the Asia-Pacific Exotic fats market. On the basis of countries, the India, China, and Japan led the global Exotic Fats market in 2015. Rising demand of exotic fats in cosmetic industry has played a major role in driving the Exotic Fats market worldwide. Similarly, factors such as fall in production of cocoa beans due to which steady rise in demand for chocolate and cocoa butter and improved taste and texture of chocolate based exotic fats that help cosmetic industry to control their cost of production are some of the important factors responsible for the growth of the global Exotic Fats market. Furthermore, significantly rise in demand for exotic fats as cocoa butter equivalent expected to drive the Exotic Fats market worldwide.Exotic Fats are used for application such as Chocolate & confectionery, bakery product, dairy products, cosmetic industry and other applications. Report identifies that chocolate and cosmetic industry is the largest application segment for which exotic fats are used. Moreover, various application segments expected to drive the exotic fats market worldwide. Among the geographies North America is expected to be the largest market for the Exotic Fats market over the Forecast period from 2017 to 2023. The report covers the analysis of global as well as regional markets of the Exotic Fats market.Get 15% Discount on this Report:Moreover, 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 demand globally as well as regionally. Moreover, Infinium Global Research- Growth Matrix (IGR- Growth Matrix) 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 Porters five forces analysis and value chain analysis of Exotic Fats. Moreover, the study highlights current market trends and provides forecast from 2017 to 2023. We also have highlighted future trends in the Exotic Fats that will impact the demand during the forecast period.Companies Covered in this Report:The companies covered in the report include PZ Cussons, Twifo oil palm plantations, Unilever Ghana Ltd., Kassardian Industries Ltd., Blu Mont Ghana Ltd., International Business Group, Olam Ghana Ltd., Sekaf Ghana Limited, Wilmar Specialty Fat Limited, 3F Industries, Pranav Agro Industries Ltd.Reasons to buy this reportComprehensive analysis of global as well as regional markets of Exotic Fats.Complete coverage of all the type, form, processing, and application segments to analyze the trends, developments, and forecast of market size up to 2023.Comprehensive analysis of the companies operating in this market. The company profile includes analysis of product portfolio, revenue, SWOT analysis and latest developments of the company.Infinium Global Research- Growth Matrix presents analysis of the product segments and geographies that market players should focus to invest, consolidate, expand and/or diversify.Browse Complete TOC of this Report:About Infinium Global ResearchInfinium Global Research is a business intelligence company that provides its clients with market information services, solutions, and reports. The intelligence reports include qualitative as well as quantitative information, which are blended using forecasting models in order to project future market demand. Our panels of Subject Matter Experts (SMEs), Analysts, and Consultants use numerous data gathering tools in order to provide you with detailed information on the market as well as a preview of its projected growth. Our repository includes the largest and most credible databases, through which we determine various qualitative and quantitative parameters of the market to provide you with an in-depth business intelligence report.Infinium Global Research reports and consulting services cover numerous sectors, which include healthcare, chemicals, materials, energy, packaged goods, food and beverages, technology, and communications. These reports provide readers with market insights and detailed analysis of market segments to possible micro levels. Our reports, with stratified research methodology and wider scope of analysis, provide clients with crucial insights and information to meet their every requirement.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. 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ReportsWeb.com added Virtual Private Network Market - Global Trends, 2018 Analysis and 2025 Forecasts report to its research database. This Report is spread across 150 Pages and Supported by 10 Company Leaders.Virtual Private Network (VPN) is a separate and secure path between two or more devices. Used to encrypt all personal information such as passwords, card details etc., and to avoid access from third parties. It reduces the threat of snooping, hacking, prevent from tracking. Major driver for the market is fear for data security among users for their data. Added to this, also helps in sharing files between remote clients with total security. Also, getting around geo-restrictions placed on websites, and content.FREE |Request Sample Copy is Available atGlobal Virtual Private Network Market Players:Microsoft CorporationCisco Systems, Inc.Array Networks, Inc.Cohesive NetworksSingtelHuawei Technologies Co., Ltd.NCP engineering GmbHVirtela Technology Services IncorporatedGoogle Inc.RobustelVPN in some cases consumes more time because it secures the data which takes time due to network traffic sometimes. Another reason which can restraint the market can be complexities in network. Because to make it stronger, many devices, hardware, protocols are used which can result in creating a complex network. Nevertheless, with the enhancement in technology for Personal Server & Personal IP options, and even the ability to set a VPN on your which will bring new opportunities in the market in coming years.The "Global VPN Market Analysis to 2025" is a specialized and in-depth study of the VPN industry with a focus on the global market trend. The report aims to provide an overview of global VPN market with detailed market segmentation by deployment type, products, end user and geography. The global VPN market is expected to witness high growth during the forecast period. The report provides key statistics on the market status of the leading market players and offers key trends and opportunities in the market.The report provides a detailed overview of the industry including both qualitative and quantitative information. It provides overview and forecast of the global VPN market based on deployment type, products, and end user. It also provides market size and forecast till 2025 for overall VPN market with respect to five major regions, namely; North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific (APAC), Middle East and Africa (MEA) and South America (SAM). The market by each region is later sub-segmented by respective countries and segments. The report covers analysis and forecast of 16 counties globally along with current trend and opportunities prevailing in the region.Besides this, the report analyzes factors affecting market from both demand and supply side and further evaluates market dynamics effecting the market during the forecast period i.e., drivers, restraints, opportunities, and future trend. The report also provides exhaustive PEST analysis for all five regions namely; North America, Europe, APAC, MEA and South America after evaluating political, economic, social and technological factors effecting the market in these regions. Also, key VPN market players influencing the market are profiled in the study along with their SWOT analysis and market strategies.Complete Report is Available atThe report also focuses on leading industry players with information such as company profiles, products and services offered, financial information of last 3 years, key development in past five years. Some of the key players influencing the market are the list of companies for VPN Market Microsoft Corporation, Cisco Systems, Inc., Array Networks, Inc., Cohesive Networks, Singtel, Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd., NCP engineering GmbH, Virtela Technology Services Incorporated, Google Inc. and Robustel among others.About ReportsWeb:ReportsWeb is a one stop shop of market research reports and solutions to various companies across the globe. We help our clients in their decision support system by helping them choose most relevant and cost effective research reports and solutions from various publishers.Contact Us:Phone: +1-646-491-9876Email Id: sales@reportsweb.comFog Computing Market Trends, 2018 Analysis and 2025 Forecasts by Type, Application and Global Regions

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The Global Fog Computing Market Analysis to 2025 is a specialized and in-depth study of the Fog Computing industry with a focus on the global market trend. The global Fog Computing market is expected to witness high growth during the forecast period. The report provides key statistics on the market status of the leading market players and offers key trends and opportunities in the market.Fog computing also known as fog networking, is a computing technology that reorganizes application and computing resources in the most effective and efficient point. This technology improves efficiency and aids in reducing the data size needed to be uploaded to the cloud for analysis, storage and data processing. Further, it also helps in enhancing security and compliance for the end-users.Request Sample is Available atFog Computing Market Key Players- Microsoft Corporation- Cisco Systems' Inc.- Dell Inc.- Intel Corp.- Schneider Electric Software LLC- GE Digital- Toshiba Corporation- ARM Holdings PLC- Fujitsu Ltd.- Prismtech CorporationInquire before Buying atThe report aims to provide an overview of Global Fog Computing Market along with detailed segmentation of market by segment type, application and five major geographical regions. Global Fog Computing market is expected to witness growth during the forecast period due to limitations of bandwidth in existing IoT infrastructure resulting in slow analysis of growing big data.The objectives of this report are as follows: To provide overview of the global Fog Computing market To analyze and forecast the global Fog Computing market on the basis of type and application. To provide market size and forecast till 2025 for overall Fog Computing market with respect to five major regions, namely; North America, Europe, Asia Pacific (APAC), Middle East and Africa (MEA), and South America (SAM), which are later sub-segmented across respective major countries To evaluate market dynamics effecting the market during the forecast period i.e., drivers, restraints, opportunities, and future trend To provide exhaustive PEST analysis for all five regions To profiles key Fog computing players influencing the market along with their SWOT analysis and market strategiesKey Questions Answered In This Report What will the market size be in 2025 and what will the growth rate be? What are the key market trends? What is driving this market? What are the challenges to market growth? Who are the key vendors in this market space? What are the market opportunities and threats faced by the key vendors? What are the strengths and weaknesses of the key vendors?Complete Report is Available atContact Us:Call: +1-646-491-9876Email: sales@theinsightpartners.comAbout Us:The Insight Partners is a one stop industry research provider of actionable intelligence. We help our clients in getting solutions to their research requirements through our syndicated and consulting research services. We are a specialist in Technology, Media, and Telecommunication industries.533, 5th Floor,Amanora Chambers, East Block, Amanora Township,Kharadi Road, Hadapsar, Pune-411028Global Neurological Biomarkers Market by Manufacturers, Regions, Type and Application, Forecast to 2022

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"The Report EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) Neurological Biomarkers Market 2017 Forecast to 2022 provides information on pricing, market analysis, shares, forecast, and company profiles for key industry participants. - MarketResearchReports.biz"About Neurological Biomarkers MarketA biomarker is a characteristic that can be objectively measured and evaluated as an indicator of a physiological as well as a pathological process or pharmacological response to a therapeutic intervention. Examples of classical biomarkers are measurable alterations in blood pressure and blood glucose in diabetes mellitus. In the era of molecular medicine, biomarkers usually mean molecular biomarkers and can be divided into 3 broad categoriesGet Sample copy of this Report @Scope of the Report:This report focuses on the Neurological Biomarkers in EMEA market, covering Europe, Middle East and Africa, This report categorizes the market based on manufacturers, regions, type and application.Market Segment by Manufacturers, this report coversThermo FisherMerckBio-Rad LaboratoriesRocheQIAGENAthena DiagnosticsMyriad RBMCisbio BioassaysWuxi APPBGIAepodiaGenewizProteome SciencesRequest for TOC @Market Segment by Regions, regional analysis coversEurope (Germany, France, UK, Russia, Italy and Turkey)Middle East (Saudi Arabia, Israel, UAE and Iran)Africa (South Africa, Nigeria, Egypt and Algeria)Market Segment by Type, coversProteomicsGenomicsImagingBioinformaticsOthersMarket Segment by Applications, can be divided intoDiagnosticsDrug DiscoveryPersonalized MedicineOthersThere are 13 Chapters to deeply display the EMEA Neurological Biomarkers market.Chapter 1, to describe Neurological Biomarkers Introduction, product scope, market overview, market opportunities, market risk, market driving force;Chapter 2, to analyze the top manufacturers of Neurological Biomarkers, with sales, revenue, and price of Neurological Biomarkers, 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 EMEA market by regions, with sales, revenue and market share of Neurological Biomarkers, for each region, from 2012 to 2017;Chapter 5, 6, 7, to analyze the market by regions, manufacturers, type and application, with sales, revenue and market share by key countries in these regions;Chapter 8 and 9, to show the market by type and application, with sales market share and growth rate by type, application, from 2012 to 2017;Chapter 10, Neurological Biomarkers market forecast, by regions, type and application, with sales and revenue, from 2017 to 2022;Chapter 11, 12 and 13, to describe Neurological Biomarkers research findings and conclusion, sales channel, distributors, traders, dealers, appendix and data sourceView Report @Table of Contents1 Market Overview1.1 Neurological Biomarkers Introduction1.2 Market Analysis by Type1.2.1 Proteomics1.2.2 Genomics1.2.3 Imaging1.2.4 Bioinformatics1.2.5 Others1.3 Market Analysis by Applications1.3.1 Diagnostics1.3.2 Drug Discovery1.3.3 Personalized Medicine1.3.4 Others1.4 Market Analysis by Regions1.4.1 Europe (Germany, France, UK, Italy, Russia and Turkey)1.4.1.1 Germany Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.1.2 France Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.1.3 UK Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.1.4 Italy Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.1.5 Russia Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.1.6 Turkey Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.2 Middle East (Saudi Arabia, Israel, UAE and Iran)1.4.2.1 Saudi Arabia Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.2.2 UAE Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.2.3 Israel Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.2.4 Iran Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.3 Africa (South Africa, Nigeria, Egypt and Algeria)1.4.3.1 South Africa Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.3.2 Nigeria Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.3.3 Egypt Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.3.4 Algeria Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.5 Market Dynamics1.5.1 Market Opportunities1.5.2 Market Risk1.5.3 Market Driving Force2 Manufacturers Profiles2.1 Thermo Fisher2.1.1 Business Overview2.1.2 Neurological Biomarkers Type and Applications2.1.2.1 Type 12.1.2.2 Type 22.1.3 Thermo Fisher Neurological Biomarkers Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.2 Merck2.2.1 Business Overview2.2.2 Neurological Biomarkers Type and Applications2.2.2.1 Type 12.2.2.2 Type 22.2.3 Merck Neurological Biomarkers Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.3 Bio-Rad Laboratories2.3.1 Business Overview2.3.2 Neurological Biomarkers Type and Applications2.3.2.1 Type 12.3.2.2 Type 22.3.3 Bio-Rad Laboratories Neurological Biomarkers Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.4 Roche2.4.1 Business Overview2.4.2 Neurological Biomarkers Type and Applications2.4.2.1 Type 12.4.2.2 Type 22.4.3 Roche Neurological Biomarkers Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.5 QIAGEN2.5.1 Business Overview2.5.2 Neurological Biomarkers Type and Applications2.5.2.1 Type 12.5.2.2 Type 22.5.3 QIAGEN Neurological Biomarkers Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.6 Athena Diagnostics2.6.1 Business Overview2.6.2 Neurological Biomarkers Type and Applications2.6.2.1 Type 12.6.2.2 Type 22.6.3 Athena Diagnostics Neurological Biomarkers Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.7 Myriad RBM2.7.1 Business Overview2.7.2 Neurological Biomarkers Type and Applications2.7.2.1 Type 12.7.2.2 Type 22.7.3 Myriad RBM Neurological Biomarkers Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.8 Cisbio Bioassays2.8.1 Business Overview2.8.2 Neurological Biomarkers Type and Applications2.8.2.1 Type 12.8.2.2 Type 22.8.3 Cisbio Bioassays Neurological Biomarkers Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.9 Wuxi APP2.9.1 Business Overview2.9.2 Neurological Biomarkers Type and Applications2.9.2.1 Type 12.9.2.2 Type 22.9.3 Wuxi APP Neurological Biomarkers Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.10 BGI2.10.1 Business Overview2.10.2 Neurological Biomarkers Type and Applications2.10.2.1 Type 12.10.2.2 Type 22.10.3 BGI Neurological Biomarkers Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)Buy Now @About usMarketResearchReports.biz is the most comprehensive collection of market research reports. MarketResearchReports.Biz services are specially designed to save time and money for our clients. We are a one stop solution for all your research needs, our main offerings are syndicated research reports, custom research, subscription access and consulting services. We serve all sizes and types of companies spanning across various industries.ContactMr. NachiketState Tower90 Sate Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-621-2074Website:E: sales@marketresearchreports.bizEdge Data Center Market 2025 Growth Forecast by EdgeConneX, vXchnge, 365 Data Centers

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The Insight Partners added World Edge Data Center Market Report 2018-2025 to its research database.Worldwide Edge Data Center Market Analysis to 2025 is a specialized and in-depth study of the Edge Data Center industry with a focus on the global market trend. The report aims to provide an overview of global Edge Data Center Market with detailed market segmentation by product/application and geography. The global Edge Data Center Market is expected to witness high growth during the forecast period. The report provides key statistics on the market status of the Edge Data Center players and offers key trends and opportunities in the market.Request a Sample Report atEdge Data Center Market Players:- EdgeConneX- VXchnge- 365 Data Centers- Compass Data Centers- ByteGridThe report provides a detailed overview of the industry including both qualitative and quantitative information. It provides overview and forecast of the global Edge Data Center Market based on product and application. It also provides market size and forecast till 2025 for overall Edge Data Center Market with respect to five major regions, namely; North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific (APAC), Middle East and Africa (MEA) and South America (SAM), which is later sub-segmented by respective countries and segments. The report evaluates market dynamics effecting the market during the forecast period i.e., drivers, restraints, opportunities, and future trend and provides exhaustive PEST analysis for all five regions.Also, key Edge Data Center Market players influencing the market are profiled in the study along with their SWOT analysis and market strategies. The report also focuses on leading industry players with information such as company profiles, products and services offered, financial information of last 3 years, key development in past five years.Reason to Buy- Highlights key business priorities in order to assist companies to realign their business strategies.- The key findings and recommendations highlight crucial progressive industry trends in the Edge Data Center Market, thereby allowing players to develop effective long term strategies.- Develop/modify business expansion plans by using substantial growth offering developed and emerging markets.- Scrutinize in-depth global market trends and outlook coupled with the factors driving the market, as well as those hindering it.- Enhance the decision-making process by understanding the strategies that underpin commercial interest with respect to products, segmentation and industry verticals.View Complete Report atContact Us:Call: +1-646-491-9876Email: sales@theinsightpartners.comAbout Us:The Insight Partners is a one stop industry research provider of actionable intelligence. We help our clients in getting solutions to their research requirements through our syndicated and consulting research services. We are a specialist in Technology, Media, and Telecommunication industries.533, 5th Floor,Amanora Chambers, East Block, Amanora Township,Kharadi Road, Hadapsar, Pune-411028NOTICE:

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Market Research Future published a research report on Global Physical Security Market Research Report- Forecast 2022  Market Analysis, Scope, Stake, Progress, Trends and Forecast to 2022.Market Scenario:Physical security describes the security measures that are designed to protect the property from any attacks and to cease unauthorized access. Physical security is a broad term which includes CCTV surveillance, security guards, protective barriers, locks, access control protocols, security scanning, metal detection and many other techniques.The study indicates that the Physical Security Market is boosted by the increasing demand for security measures against terrorist attacks and for controlling the business assets. The study indicates that apart from these factors, increasing usage of IoT and development of smart transportation systems to track the location of automobiles is also driving the physical security market. The technological advancements are contributing to development of cost effective security systems which boosts the physical security market. The study indicates that the combination of logical and physical components of security is a challenge faced by the physical security market.The global physical security market is expected to grow at USD ~120 Billion by 2022, at ~10% of CAGR between 2016 and 2022.Get Sample of Report @Regional Analysis:The regional analysis of physical security market is being studied for region such as Asia Pacific, Americas, Europe and Rest of the World. Government initiatives against the terrorist attacks and illegal immigration has driven the market of physical security in North America. It has been observed that North America region is leading in physical security market. The study reveals that Asia-Pacific region is expected to show a positive growth in the physical security market during the forecast period. Asia-Pacific countries like China, Japan and South Korea have a fair share in the physical security market.Key PlayersThe prominent players in the physical security market are  Cisco Systems, Inc. (U.S.), Anixter International Inc. (U.S.), Tyco International Plc (Ireland), Bosch Security Systems, Inc. (Germany), ADT Corporation (U.S.), Genetec Inc. (Canada), Honeywell International, Inc. (U.S.), Pelco (U.S.), Stanley Security (U.S.), Senstar Corporation (Canada), among othersSegments:The global physical security market has been segmented on the basis of type, industry and region.Physical Security Market by Type:System Access Control protocols Biometrics systems Locks Video Surveillance Physical Security Information Management Security Scanning Metal Detection Fire & Life SafetyService Maintenance & Support Designing & Consulting System integrationPhysical Security Market by Industry: Defense & Public Sector Government Transportation & Logistics IT & Telecom BFSI Education Retail Oil, Gas & Energy Hospitality OthersGet complete Report @Intended Audience Software investors Security solution vendors Physical Security service providers Value-added Resellers Distributers Investors and Venture Capitalist Security Management Service Provider Security Equipment Providers Security Agencies System Integrators Research/Consultancy firmsAbout Us:At Market Research Future (MRFR), we enable our customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through our Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Raw Research Reports (3R), Continuous-Feed Research (CFR), and Market Research & Consulting Services.Media Contact:Akash Anand,Market Research FutureOffice No. 528, Amanora ChambersMagarpatta Road, Hadapsar,Pune - 411028Maharashtra, India+1 646 845 9312Email: akash.anand@marketresearchfuture.comPerimeter Security Market 2018 Business Analysis, Recent Developments, Application for Global Regions: United States, Europe, Japan and China

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ReportsWeb.com added Perimeter Security Market - Global Trends, 2018 Analysis and 2025 Forecasts report to its research database. This Report is spread across 150 Pages and Supported by 10 Company Leaders.Perimeter security system comprises of technologies which facilitate protection of people and assets inside a facility and its surroundings by blocking unauthorized physical interferences across the perimeter. Since past few years, technological advancements have helped proliferation the outlook of perimeter security systems. Generally, these systems were used to prevent and detect intrusions in critical infrastructure, military facilities, and other high-security places. However, the use of these systems in gaining pace in residential & commercial sites, transportation sites, retail spaces and several other locations.FREE |Request Sample Copy is Available atGlobal Perimeter Security Market Players:Honeywell InternationalAxis CommunicationsHangzhou Hikvision Digital Technology Co.,Ltd.Bosch Security SystemsUnited Technologies CorporationDahua Technology Co., Ltd.Advanced Perimeter Systems LimitedSouthwest Microwave, Inc.Schneider Electric SECias Elettronica SrlConcerns such as the rise in terrorist threat as well as awareness issues regarding illegal immigration are some of the factors propelling the market growth. Furthermore, advancements in technology related to video surveillance; increasing manpower costs; growth in smart city infrastructure; as well as strict government rules and industry standards for perimeter security are also influencing the market growth.The report provides a detailed overview of the industry including both qualitative and quantitative information. It provides overview and forecast of the global perimeter security market based on component and vertical. It also provides market size and forecast till 2025 for overall perimeter security market with respect to five major regions, namely; North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific (APAC), Middle East and Africa (MEA) and South America (SAM). The market by each region is later sub-segmented by respective countries and segments. The report covers analysis and forecast of 16 counties globally along with current trend and opportunities prevailing in the region.Besides this, the report analyzes factors affecting market from both demand and supply side and further evaluates market dynamics effecting the market during the forecast period i.e., drivers, restraints, opportunities, and future trend. The report also provides exhaustive PEST analysis for all five regions namely; North America, Europe, APAC, MEA and South America after evaluating political, economic, social and technological factors effecting the market in these regions.Complete Report is Available atAlso, key perimeter security market players influencing the market are profiled in the study along with their SWOT analysis and market strategies. The report also focuses on leading industry players with information such as company profiles, products and services offered, financial information of last 3 years, key development in past five years. Some of the key players influencing the market are Honeywell International, Axis Communications, Hangzhou Hikvision Digital Technology Co., Ltd., Bosch Security Systems, United Technologies Corporation, Dahua Technology Co., Ltd., Advanced Perimeter Systems Limited, Southwest Microwave, Inc., Schneider Electric SE and Cias Elettronica Srl.About ReportsWeb:ReportsWeb is a one stop shop of market research reports and solutions to various companies across the globe. We help our clients in their decision support system by helping them choose most relevant and cost effective research reports and solutions from various publishers.Contact Us:Phone: +1-646-491-9876Email Id: sales@reportsweb.comOil and Gas Pipeline Leak Detection Equipment Market  In Depth Analysis & Forecast till 2025

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A latest research report titled as Oil and Gas Pipeline Leak Detection Equipment Market - Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends and Forecast 2016 - 2024 has been recently added to the vast portfolio of Market Research Reports Search Engine (MRRSE) online research offerings. This report is a professional and in-depth analysis on the present state and future prospect for the global market. It provides valuable information to the industry insiders, potential entrants or investors. It includes an exhaustive enquiry with the reliability of logic and the comprehensiveness of contents.Request For Free Sample Report @The torchbearers in the global oil and gas pipeline leak detection equipment market are leveraging their core business strengths in this highly competitive market. They are also focused on acquisitions to augment their technological strengths in a bid to develop new products. Expansion of product portfolio is another popular growth strategy adopted by key players for increased market share.Some of the key growth drivers in the global oil and gas pipeline leak detection equipment market are stringent environmental rules regarding handling oil and gas, policies regarding pipeline leakages and obligations on part of pipeline operators to compensate for a leak. The growth of oil and gas pipeline leak detection equipment market can also be attributed to aging pipeline, large number of planned projects for pipeline construction, and increasing number of incidents of pipeline leakages.As per a report by Market Research Reports Search Engine (MRRSE), the global oil and gas pipeline leak detection equipment market to expected to expand at a CAGR of 6.8% for the forecast period between 2016 and 2024. Progressing at this rate, the revenue of the market is projected to be become US$3.65 bn by 2024 increasing from US$2.02 bn in 2015.Acoustic/ultrasonic Technology Segment to emerge at fore due to Economic ReliabilityIn terms of technology, the oil and gas pipeline leak detection equipment market is segmented into mass-volume balance, fiber optics, acoustic/ultrasonic, vapor sensing, and others. The segment of mass-volume balance, among these, held the leading share of 39.3% of the overall market in 2015. On the other hand, the segment of acoustic/ultrasonic is expected to expand at a significant CAGR over the forecast period due to economic reliability of the technology.Based on location, the oil and gas pipeline leak detection equipment market is divided into onshore and offshore. Between the two, onshore led the global oil and gas pipeline leak detection equipment market in 2015 and is predicted to account for a significant share over the forecast period.Browse Full Report with TOC @On the basis of equipment type, flowmeters, cable sensors, acoustic sensors, and others are the segments into which the global oil and gas pipeline leak detection equipment market is divided. Among these, the segment of flowmeters held a significant share in the oil and gas pipeline leak detection equipment market in 2015 and is expected to hold a sizable share over the forecast period.Planned Pipeline Construction Projects Power Growth in Middle East and AfricaThe regional segments into which the global oil and gas pipeline leak detection equipment market is segmented are North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Latin America, and the Middle East and Africa. North America is a key regional market due to an extensive network of pipelines in the region. North America contributed the leading revenue of 40% to the overall market in 2015, of which the U.S. stood as the leading contributor.Europe followed North America in terms of market share in the global market in 2015. However, the regional market of Middle East and Africa is predicted to expand at a rapid pace during the forecast period and display an increased market share between 2015 and 2024. The growth of the Middle East and Africa oil and gas pipeline leak detection equipment market is due to a large number of planned projects for pipeline construction.The key players in the global oil and gas pipeline leak detection equipment market profiled in this study are Siemens AG, KROHNE Messtechnik GmbH, Schneider Electric SE, Perma-Pipe Inc., FLIR Systems Inc., TTK-Liquid Leak Detection Systems, PSI AG, Honeywell International Inc., ATMOS International, Pentair Thermal Management, Pure Technologies Ltd., and AREVA NP.Enquire about this Report @About Market Research Reports Search Engine (MRRSE)Market Research Reports Search Engine (MRRSE) is an industry-leading database of Market Research Reports. MRRSE is driven by a stellar team of research experts and advisors trained to offer objective advice. Our sophisticated search algorithm returns results based on the report title, geographical region, publisher, or other keywords.MRRSE partners exclusively with leading global publishers to provide clients single-point access to top-of-the-line market research. MRRSEs repository is updated every day to keep its clients ahead of the next new trend in market research, be it competitive intelligence, product or service trends or strategic consulting.Contact UsState Tower90, State StreetSuite 700Albany, NY - 12207United States Telephone: +1-518-730-0559Email: sales@mrrse.comWebsite:Read More Industry News At:Travel Insurance Market (Single Trip, Annual Multi-Trip, and Long Stay) Is Expected to Generate +$28,263 Million by 2022

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Travel Insurance Market share is expected to generate +$28,263 million by 2022, growing at a CAGR of +8.4% during 2016 - 2022. Highest inbound travel. With the growing tourist traffic, increased incidences of loss of luggage, important documents, medical emergencies, and natural calamities are being registered. To mitigate the risk associated with such incidences, more number of travelers are opting for travel insurance. Historical events, and the current market picture. Moreover, the report also includes a SWOT analysis that determines the strengths, weaknesses, prospects, and threats impacting the segments of the overall market.Top Key Players: USI Affinity, Seven Corners Inc., Travel Safe, MH Ross, Allianz Global Assistance, Travel Insured International, AIG Travel, and InsureandGo.Get an exclusive sample of this report @:The research report tries to understand the pioneering tactics taken by vendors in the global market to offer product differentiation through Porter's five forces analysis. It also points out ways in which these companies can reinforce their stand in the market and increase their revenues in the coming years. Ongoing industrial advancements and the persistent penetration of Internet in the remote corners of the world are also responsible for the noteworthy growth of the Global Travel Insurance Market.The telecommunication segment is currently leading the global market, tailed by military and defense segment. The industrial sector is also adding to the overall development of this market. The growing technological advancement in the field of imaging systems, material study and process control in the industrial sector is steering the Travel Insurance market across the globe.Some of the major factors driving the growth of Global Travel Insurance Market are the increasing mobile data traffic, high demand for bandwidth intensive applications, growing need for high-speed data connectivity and great potential in the usage of millimeter wave technology in consumer electronics application. Environmental concerns and limited range, on the other hand, are some of the factors restraining the growth of the Global Market. The inconsistent licensing approach is one of the major challenge to the growth of this market.Ask for a Special Discount on this Report@:North America alleged the major market share in Travel Insurance and is expected to continue its dominion throughout the forecast period. Growing demand for 5G technologies, increasing advancements in the field of satellite communication systems, radar, scanning and imaging systems are driving the growth of the Global Market in this region. Other regions are also expected to follow the upward trend and further fuel the growth of the Global Market.The report's conclusion reveals the overall scope of the Global Travel Insurance Market in terms of feasibility of investments in the various segments of the market, along with a descriptive passage that outlines the feasibility of new projects that might succeed in the market in the near future.Table of Content:Chapter 1 Travel Insurance Market OverviewChapter 2 Global Economic Impact on IndustryChapter 3 Global Market Competition by ManufacturersChapter 4 Global Production, Revenue (Value) by RegionChapter 5 Global Supply (Production), Consumption, Export, Import by RegionsChapter 6 Global Production, Revenue (Value), Price Trend by TypeChapter 7 Global Market Analysis by ApplicationChapter 8 Manufacturing Cost AnalysisChapter 9 Industrial Chain, Sourcing Strategy and Downstream BuyersChapter 10 Marketing Strategy Analysis, Distributors/TradersChapter 11 Market Effect Factors AnalysisAbout Research N Reports:Research N Reports is a new age market research firm where we focus on providing information that can be effectively applied. Today being a consumer driven market, companies require information to deal with the complex and dynamic world of choices. Where relying on a sound board firm for your decisions becomes crucial. Research N Reports specializes in industry analysis, market forecasts and as a result getting quality reports covering all verticals, whether be it gaining perspective on current market conditions or being ahead in the cut throat Global competition. Since we excel at business research to help businesses grow, we also offer consulting as an extended arm to our services which only helps us gain more insight into current trends and problems. Consequently we keep evolving as an all-rounder provider of viable information under one roof.Sunny Denis10916, Gold Point Dr, Houston, TX, Pin - 77064,(Sales Manager),+1-8886316977,sales@researchnreports.com ,Global Automotive Sun Visor Market by Manufacturers, Regions, Type and Application, Forecast to 2022

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"The Report EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) Automotive Sun Visor Market 2017 Forecast to 2022 provides information on pricing, market analysis, shares, forecast, and company profiles for key industry participants. - MarketResearchReports.biz"About Automotive Sun Visor MarketAutomotive sun visor is a component of an automobile located on the interior just above the windshield. They are designed with a hinged flap that is adjustable to help shade the eyes of drivers and passengers from the glare of sunlight.Get Sample copy of this Report @Scope of the Report:This report focuses on the Automotive Sun Visor in EMEA market, covering Europe, Middle East and Africa, This report categorizes the market based on manufacturers, regions, type and application.Market Segment by Manufacturers, this report coversGrupo AntolinDaimeiAtlas (Motus)Kyowa SangyoKASAI KOGYOHayashiTakataIAC GroupHOWA TEXTILEDongfeng ElectronicYongsanMecaiMarket Segment by Regions, regional analysis coversEurope (Germany, France, UK, Russia, Italy and Turkey)Middle East (Saudi Arabia, Israel, UAE and Iran)Africa (South Africa, Nigeria, Egypt and Algeria)Request for TOC @Market Segment by Type, coversSun Visor with MirrorSun Visor without MirrorMarket Segment by Applications, can be divided intoPassenger VehicleCommercial VehicleThere are 13 Chapters to deeply display the EMEA Automotive Sun Visor market.Chapter 1, to describe Automotive Sun Visor Introduction, product scope, market overview, market opportunities, market risk, market driving force;Chapter 2, to analyze the top manufacturers of Automotive Sun Visor, with sales, revenue, and price of Automotive Sun Visor, 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 EMEA market by regions, with sales, revenue and market share of Automotive Sun Visor, for each region, from 2012 to 2017;Chapter 5, 6, 7, to analyze the market by regions, manufacturers, type and application, with sales, revenue and market share by key countries in these regions;Chapter 8 and 9, to show the market by type and application, with sales market share and growth rate by type, application, from 2012 to 2017;Chapter 10, Automotive Sun Visor market forecast, by regions, type and application, with sales and revenue, from 2017 to 2022;Chapter 11, 12 and 13, to describe Automotive Sun Visor research findings and conclusion, sales channel, distributors, traders, dealers, appendix and data sourceView Report @Table of Contents1 Market Overview1.1 Automotive Sun Visor Introduction1.2 Market Analysis by Type1.2.1 Sun Visor with Mirror1.2.2 Sun Visor without Mirror1.3 Market Analysis by Applications1.3.1 Passenger Vehicle1.3.2 Commercial Vehicle1.4 Market Analysis by Regions1.4.1 Europe (Germany, France, UK, Italy, Russia and Turkey)1.4.1.1 Germany Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.1.2 France Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.1.3 UK Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.1.4 Italy Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.1.5 Russia Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.1.6 Turkey Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.2 Middle East (Saudi Arabia, Israel, UAE and Iran)1.4.2.1 Saudi Arabia Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.2.2 UAE Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.2.3 Israel Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.2.4 Iran Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.3 Africa (South Africa, Nigeria, Egypt and Algeria)1.4.3.1 South Africa Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.3.2 Nigeria Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.3.3 Egypt Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.3.4 Algeria Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.5 Market Dynamics1.5.1 Market Opportunities1.5.2 Market Risk1.5.3 Market Driving Force2 Manufacturers Profiles2.1 Grupo Antolin2.1.1 Business Overview2.1.2 Automotive Sun Visor Type and Applications2.1.2.1 Type 12.1.2.2 Type 22.1.3 Grupo Antolin Automotive Sun Visor Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.2 Daimei2.2.1 Business Overview2.2.2 Automotive Sun Visor Type and Applications2.2.2.1 Type 12.2.2.2 Type 22.2.3 Daimei Automotive Sun Visor Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.3 Atlas (Motus)2.3.1 Business Overview2.3.2 Automotive Sun Visor Type and Applications2.3.2.1 Type 12.3.2.2 Type 22.3.3 Atlas (Motus) Automotive Sun Visor Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.4 Kyowa Sangyo2.4.1 Business Overview2.4.2 Automotive Sun Visor Type and Applications2.4.2.1 Type 12.4.2.2 Type 22.4.3 Kyowa Sangyo Automotive Sun Visor Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.5 KASAI KOGYO2.5.1 Business Overview2.5.2 Automotive Sun Visor Type and Applications2.5.2.1 Type 12.5.2.2 Type 22.5.3 KASAI KOGYO Automotive Sun Visor Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.6 Hayashi2.6.1 Business Overview2.6.2 Automotive Sun Visor Type and Applications2.6.2.1 Type 12.6.2.2 Type 22.6.3 Hayashi Automotive Sun Visor Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.7 Takata2.7.1 Business Overview2.7.2 Automotive Sun Visor Type and Applications2.7.2.1 Type 12.7.2.2 Type 22.7.3 Takata Automotive Sun Visor Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.8 IAC Group2.8.1 Business Overview2.8.2 Automotive Sun Visor Type and Applications2.8.2.1 Type 12.8.2.2 Type 22.8.3 IAC Group Automotive Sun Visor Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.9 HOWA TEXTILE2.9.1 Business Overview2.9.2 Automotive Sun Visor Type and Applications2.9.2.1 Type 12.9.2.2 Type 22.9.3 HOWA TEXTILE Automotive Sun Visor Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.10 Dongfeng Electronic2.10.1 Business Overview2.10.2 Automotive Sun Visor Type and Applications2.10.2.1 Type 12.10.2.2 Type 22.10.3 Dongfeng Electronic Automotive Sun Visor Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.11 Yongsan2.11.1 Business Overview2.11.2 Automotive Sun Visor Type and Applications2.11.2.1 Type 12.11.2.2 Type 22.11.3 Yongsan Automotive Sun Visor Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.12 Mecai2.12.1 Business Overview2.12.2 Automotive Sun Visor Type and Applications2.12.2.1 Type 12.12.2.2 Type 22.12.3 Mecai Automotive Sun Visor Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)Buy Now @About usMarketResearchReports.biz is the most comprehensive collection of market research reports. MarketResearchReports.Biz services are specially designed to save time and money for our clients. We are a one stop solution for all your research needs, our main offerings are syndicated research reports, custom research, subscription access and consulting services. We serve all sizes and types of companies spanning across various industries.ContactMr. NachiketState Tower90 Sate Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-621-2074Website:E: sales@marketresearchreports.bizIn-Memory Computing Market: Business Opportunities, Current Trends, Market Challenges and Industry Analysis by 2020

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In-memory computing is a database management technology that stores data in the random access memory (RAM) of servers rather than in traditional disks. It is estimated to be 3,000 times faster than rotating disks. In-memory computing helps in faster data management, as the data to be processed is already stored in computer's main memory.The market is divided into the following segments based on geography:- Americas- APAC- EMEARequest Sample Copy atKey vendors:- IBM- Oracle- QlikTech- SAPOther prominent vendors:- Altibase- GridGain Systems- Microsoft- ScaleOut Software- Tibco SoftwareInquire For This Report atMarket Driver:- Exponential growth in amount of data stored and used- For a full, detailed list, view our reportMarket Challenge:- High cost of implementation and introduction of new memory technologies- For a full, detailed list, view our reportMarket Trend:- Growing need for embedded analytics and SaaS-based in-memory computing- For a full, detailed list, view our reportFor More Information About This ReportContact Us:Call: +1-646-491-9876Email: sales@reportsweb.comReportsWeb.com is a one stop shop of market research reports and solutions to various companies across the globe. We help our clients in their decision support system by helping them choose most relevant and cost effective research reports and solutions from various publishers. We provide best in class customer service and our customer support team is always available to help you on your research queries.505, 6th floor, Amanora Township,Amanora Chambers, East Block,Kharadi Road, Hadapsar, Pune-411028Energy Harvesting Market Trends, 2018 Analysis and 2025 Forecasts by Type, Structure and Global Regions

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The Global Energy Harvesting Market Analysis to 2025 is a specialized and in-depth study of the Energy Harvesting industry with a focus on the global market trend. The global Energy Harvesting market is expected to witness high growth during the forecast period. The report provides key statistics on the market status of the leading market players and offers key trends and opportunities in the market.Energy harvesting (also known as power harvesting or energy scavenging) is defined as a process which captures small amount of energy that would be lost as heat, light, sound and vibration. It is the process by which energy is derived from an external source and is directly utilized to drive the machines, or is used for future purpose.Energy harvesting reduces dependency on battery power, minimizes maintenance cost and as long as the ambient energy is available it will provide long term solution are the major drivers which help in surging the growth of this market whereas high initial setup cost may act as a restraining factor for this market. Innovation in energy harvesting technology such as ocean energy harvesting will add new opportunities for this market in the coming years.Request Sample is Available atThe Global Energy Harvesting System Market Analysis to 2025 is a specialized and in-depth study of the energy harvesting system industry with a focus on the global market trend. The report aims to provide an overview of global energy harvesting system market with detailed market segmentation by technologies, components, application and geography. The global energy harvesting system market is expected to witness high growth during the forecast period. The report provides key statistics on the market status of the leading market players and offers key trends and opportunities in the market.The report provides a detailed overview of the industry including both qualitative and quantitative information. It provides overview and forecast of the global energy harvesting system market based on technologies, materials, components and application. It also provides market size and forecast till 2025 for overall energy harvesting system market with respect to five major regions, namely; North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific (APAC), Middle East and Africa (MEA) and South America (SAM). The market by each region is later sub-segmented by respective countries and segments. The report covers analysis and forecast of 16 counties globally along with current trend and opportunities prevailing in the region.Inquire before Buying atBesides this, the report analyzes factors affecting market from both demand and supply side and further evaluates market dynamics effecting the market during the forecast period i.e., drivers, restraints, opportunities, and future trend. The report also provides exhaustive PEST analysis for all five regions namely; North America, Europe, APAC, MEA and South America after evaluating political, economic, social and technological factors effecting the market in these regions.Also, key energy harvesting system market players influencing the market are profiled in the study along with their SWOT analysis and market strategies. The report also focuses on leading industry players with information such as company profiles, products and services offered, financial information of last 3 years, key development in past five years. Some of the key players influencing the market are Arveni , Convergence Wireless LLC, Cymbet Corporation, EnOcean GmbH., Honeywell International Inc., Powercast Corporation, Texas Instruments Incorporated., Bionic Power Inc., O-Flexx Technologies GmbH and Fujitsu Limited among others.Energy Harvesting Market Key Players1. Arveni2. Convergence Wireless LLC3. Cymbet Corporation4. EnOcean GmbH.5. Honeywell International Inc.6. Powercast Corporation7. Texas Instruments Incorporated.8. Bionic Power Inc.9. O-Flexx Technologies GmbH10. Fujitsu LimitedComplete Report is Available atContact Us:Call: +1-646-491-9876Email: sales@theinsightpartners.comAbout Us:The Insight Partners is a one stop industry research provider of actionable intelligence. We help our clients in getting solutions to their research requirements through our syndicated and consulting research services. We are a specialist in Technology, Media, and Telecommunication industries.533, 5th Floor,Amanora Chambers, East Block, Amanora Township,Kharadi Road, Hadapsar, Pune-411028Intelligent Platform Management Interface Market 2018 Global Leaders: Intel, Cisco Systems, Dell, HPE, Microsoft, ARM Holdings, Emerson, NEC, Softlayer Technologies

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Market Research Future published a research report on Global Intelligent Platform Management Interface Market Research Report- Forecast 2023  Market Analysis, Scope, Stake, Progress, Trends and Forecast to 2023.Market Scenario:Intelligent Platform Management Platform is a set of specifications that monitors the environment and the hardware server. It helps to manage multiple servers from a particular location. These servers can be independently switched on or off, rebooted whenever it is required. Originally, it was developed by Dell, HP and Intel.The factors contributing to the growth of the intelligent platform management market are increasing demand for improved server management, reduced cost of ownership and also increase in spending and growing adoption of technological solutions. The implementation of intelligent platform management interface reduces the time by handling flaws. However, factors such as security, high price are the factors hindering the growth of the intelligent platform management interface market. The advancements in the retail sector majorly due to number of systems running in the organization acts as an opportunity for the overall growth of the market.Geographically, North-America accounted for the largest market share in the global intelligent platform management interface market, whereas Asia-Pacific is expected to grow at a fast pace over the forecast period, 2017-2023.The global intelligent platform management interface market is expected to reach approximately USD 4 billion by the end of 2023 with 13% CAGR during forecast period 2017-2023.Get Sample of Report @Key PlayersThe key players in the global intelligent platform management interface market include- Cisco Systems (U.S.),Intel Corporation (U.S.), Dell, Inc. (U.S.), HPE (U.S.), Microsoft (U.S.), ARM Holdings Inc. (U.K.), Emerson (U.S.), NEC Corporation (Japan), Softlayer Technologies, Inc. (U.S.), Super Micro Computer, Inc. (U.S.) among others.Regional Analysis:Regionally, North-America accounted for the largest market share from countries such U.S. among others. The growing adoption of data center various by small and medium scale businesses and increasing number of data centers.However, Asia-Pacific region is expected to grow over the forecast period, 2017-2023. The reason is attributed to the advancement in the telecommunication sector in China and India and the mobility penetration in the Asia-Pacific region.SegmentsFor the purpose of this study, Market Research Future has segmented the market of intelligent platform management interface into component, application, verticals and region.Component Hardware Sensors Controls Memory Devices Controller SoftwareApplication Server Storage Devices EquipmentVerticals Education Retail Manufacturing Public sector BFSI IT & Telecommunication HealthcareRegion North-America Europe Asia-Pacific RoWGet complete Report @Intended Audience Manufacturers Distributors Suppliers Original Equipment Manufacturers Research Institutes Integrators Research firms Software Developers Vendors Semiconductor Manufacturers End-user sectors Technology InvestorsAbout Us:At Market Research Future (MRFR), we enable our customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through our Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Raw Research Reports (3R), Continuous-Feed Research (CFR), and Market Research & Consulting Services.Media Contact:Akash Anand,Market Research FutureOffice No. 528, Amanora ChambersMagarpatta Road, Hadapsar,Pune - 411028Maharashtra, India+1 646 845 9312Email: akash.anand@marketresearchfuture.comGlobal Biosimulation Market to Reach US$ 1,750 Mn in the Year 2022

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In the process of biosimulation, the computer aided mathematical models are used to simulate the biological processes. Biosimulation is an important part of systems biology and helps in the discovery and development of new drugs, in the area of drug metabolism and in the modeling of biomedical systems that are complex. There is a growing demand for reduction in the cost of discovery of new drugs and the risk of failure at a later stage in the development of new drugs is too high.In order to counter such problems, biosimulation is used as a predictive tool and it helps in the prediction of the future outcomes of the drug development by simulation of the biological processes involved. This is the main factor supporting the growth of the global biosimulation market. However, high costs associated with the R&D related to biosimulation and a lack of qualified workforce are the main restraints hampering the growth of this market.Request to sample report @The global biosimulation market is slated to touch a value of about US$ 1,750 Mn in the year 2022 and grow at a robust CAGR during the assessment period.4 Forecast Highlights on Global Biosimulation MarketAs per the forecast of Persistence Market Research, the services product type segment is slated to touch a value of nearly US$ 700 Mn in the year 2022. This represents a robust CAGR growth during the assessment period of 2017-2022. The services product type segment is estimated to account for more than one-third of the revenue share of the product segment by the year 2017 and is forecasted to gain market share by 2022 over 2017.As per the forecast of Persistence Market Research, the pharmaceutical and biotech companies segment will reach a value of about US$ 350 Mn in the year 2017. This represents a robust CAGR growth during the forecast period. The pharmaceutical and biotech companies segment is forecasted to account for more than one-third of the total revenue share of the end user segment by the end of the year 2017 and is expected to lose in market share by 2022 as compared with the year 2017.As per the forecast of Persistence Market Research, the drug development segment is slated to reach a value of nearly US$ 1,000 Mn in 2022. The drug development segment is expected to gain market share by the end of the year 2022. The largest share is contributed by the North America region in the drug development segment.Persistence Market Research forecasts the U.S. biosimulation market to exhibit a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of more than 13% from 2017 to 2022.Request Report for TOC @The report has also included the profiles of some of the leading companies in the biosimulation market like Dassault Systemes SE, Acceryls Inc., Schrodinger, Inc., Leadscope Inc., Certara, L.P., Entelos, Inc., Advanced Chemistry Development, Inc., Evidera, Inc., Simulations Plus, Inc. and Genedata AG.Report overview @About UsPersistence Market Research (PMR) is a U.S.-based full-service market intelligence firm specializing in syndicated re-search, custom research, and consulting services. PMR boasts market research expertise across the Healthcare, Chemicals and Materials, Technology and Media, Energy and Mining, Food and Beverages, Semiconductor and Electronics, Con-sumer Goods, and Shipping and Transportation industries. The company draws from its multi-disciplinary capabilities and high-pedigree team of analysts to share data that precisely corresponds to clients business needs.ContactPersistence Market Research Pvt. Ltd305 Broadway7th Floor, New York City,NY 10007, United States,USA  Canada Toll Free: 800-961-0353Email: sales@persistencemarketresearch.comGlobal Aerospace Materials Market by Manufacturers, Regions, Type and Application, Forecast to 2022

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"The Report EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) Aerospace Materials Market 2017 Forecast to 2022 provides information on pricing, market analysis, shares, forecast, and company profiles for key industry participants. - MarketResearchReports.biz"About Aerospace Materials Market"This report studies the Aerospace Materials market, Aerospace materials are materials, frequently metal alloys, that have either been developed for, or have come to prominence through, their use for aerospace purposes.These uses often require exceptional performance, strength or heat resistance, even at the cost of considerable expense in their production or machining. Others are chosen for their long-term reliability in this safety-conscious field, particularly for their resistance to fatigue."Get Sample copy of this Report @Scope of the Report:This report focuses on the Aerospace Materials in EMEA market, covering Europe, Middle East and Africa, This report categorizes the market based on manufacturers, regions, type and application.Market Segment by Manufacturers, this report coversAlcoaRio Tinto AlcanKaiser AluminumAlerisRusalConstelliumAMI MetalsArcelor MittalNippon Steel & Sumitomo MetalNucor CorporationBaosteel GroupThyssenkrupp AerospaceKobe SteelMaterionVSMPO-AVISMAToho TitaniumBaoTiPrecision Castparts CorporationAperamVDMCarpenterAMGATI MetalsToray IndustriesCytec Solvay GroupTeijin LimitedHexcelTenCateRequest for TOC @Market Segment by Regions, regional analysis coversEurope (Germany, France, UK, Russia, Italy and Turkey)Middle East (Saudi Arabia, Israel, UAE and Iran)Africa (South Africa, Nigeria, Egypt and Algeria)Market Segment by Type, coversAluminium AlloysSteel AlloysTitanium AlloysSuper AlloysComposite MaterialsOthersMarket Segment by Applications, can be divided intoCommercial AircraftMilitary AircraftThere are 13 Chapters to deeply display the EMEA Aerospace Materials market.Chapter 1, to describe Aerospace Materials Introduction, product scope, market overview, market opportunities, market risk, market driving force;Chapter 2, to analyze the top manufacturers of Aerospace Materials, with sales, revenue, and price of Aerospace Materials, 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 EMEA market by regions, with sales, revenue and market share of Aerospace Materials, for each region, from 2012 to 2017;Chapter 5, 6, 7, to analyze the market by regions, manufacturers, type and application, with sales, revenue and market share by key countries in these regions;Chapter 8 and 9, to show the market by type and application, with sales market share and growth rate by type, application, from 2012 to 2017;Chapter 10, Aerospace Materials market forecast, by regions, type and application, with sales and revenue, from 2017 to 2022;Chapter 11, 12 and 13, to describe Aerospace Materials research findings and conclusion, sales channel, distributors, traders, dealers, appendix and data sourceView Report @Table of Contents1 Market Overview1.1 Aerospace Materials Introduction1.2 Market Analysis by Type1.2.1 Aluminium Alloys1.2.2 Steel Alloys1.2.3 Titanium Alloys1.2.4 Super Alloys1.2.5 Composite Materials1.2.6 Others1.3 Market Analysis by Applications1.3.1 Commercial Aircraft1.3.2 Military Aircraft1.4 Market Analysis by Regions1.4.1 Europe (Germany, France, UK, Italy, Russia and Turkey)1.4.1.1 Germany Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.1.2 France Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.1.3 UK Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.1.4 Italy Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.1.5 Russia Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.1.6 Turkey Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.2 Middle East (Saudi Arabia, Israel, UAE and Iran)1.4.2.1 Saudi Arabia Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.2.2 UAE Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.2.3 Israel Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.2.4 Iran Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.3 Africa (South Africa, Nigeria, Egypt and Algeria)1.4.3.1 South Africa Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.3.2 Nigeria Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.3.3 Egypt Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.3.4 Algeria Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.5 Market Dynamics1.5.1 Market Opportunities1.5.2 Market Risk1.5.3 Market Driving Force2 Manufacturers Profiles2.1 Alcoa2.1.1 Business Overview2.1.2 Aerospace Materials Type and Applications2.1.2.1 Type 12.1.2.2 Type 22.1.3 Alcoa Aerospace Materials Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.2 Rio Tinto Alcan2.2.1 Business Overview2.2.2 Aerospace Materials Type and Applications2.2.2.1 Type 12.2.2.2 Type 22.2.3 Rio Tinto Alcan Aerospace Materials Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.3 Kaiser Aluminum2.3.1 Business Overview2.3.2 Aerospace Materials Type and Applications2.3.2.1 Type 12.3.2.2 Type 22.3.3 Kaiser Aluminum Aerospace Materials Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.4 Aleris2.4.1 Business Overview2.4.2 Aerospace Materials Type and Applications2.4.2.1 Type 12.4.2.2 Type 22.4.3 Aleris Aerospace Materials Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.5 Rusal2.5.1 Business Overview2.5.2 Aerospace Materials Type and Applications2.5.2.1 Type 12.5.2.2 Type 22.5.3 Rusal Aerospace Materials Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.6 Constellium2.6.1 Business Overview2.6.2 Aerospace Materials Type and Applications2.6.2.1 Type 12.6.2.2 Type 22.6.3 Constellium Aerospace Materials Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.7 AMI Metals2.7.1 Business Overview2.7.2 Aerospace Materials Type and Applications2.7.2.1 Type 12.7.2.2 Type 22.7.3 AMI Metals Aerospace Materials Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.8 Arcelor Mittal2.8.1 Business Overview2.8.2 Aerospace Materials Type and Applications2.8.2.1 Type 12.8.2.2 Type 22.8.3 Arcelor Mittal Aerospace Materials Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.9 Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal2.9.1 Business Overview2.9.2 Aerospace Materials Type and Applications2.9.2.1 Type 12.9.2.2 Type 22.9.3 Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal Aerospace Materials Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.10 Nucor Corporation2.10.1 Business Overview2.10.2 Aerospace Materials Type and Applications2.10.2.1 Type 12.10.2.2 Type 22.10.3 Nucor Corporation Aerospace Materials Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.11 Baosteel Group2.11.1 Business Overview2.11.2 Aerospace Materials Type and Applications2.11.2.1 Type 12.11.2.2 Type 22.11.3 Baosteel Group Aerospace Materials Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.12 Thyssenkrupp Aerospace2.12.1 Business Overview2.12.2 Aerospace Materials Type and Applications2.12.2.1 Type 12.12.2.2 Type 22.12.3 Thyssenkrupp Aerospace Aerospace Materials Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.13 Kobe Steel2.13.1 Business Overview2.13.2 Aerospace Materials Type and Applications2.13.2.1 Type 12.13.2.2 Type 22.13.3 Kobe Steel Aerospace Materials Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.14 Materion2.14.1 Business Overview2.14.2 Aerospace Materials Type and Applications2.14.2.1 Type 12.14.2.2 Type 22.14.3 Materion Aerospace Materials Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.15 VSMPO-AVISMA2.15.1 Business Overview2.15.2 Aerospace Materials Type and Applications2.15.2.1 Type 12.15.2.2 Type 22.15.3 VSMPO-AVISMA Aerospace Materials Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)Buy Now @About usMarketResearchReports.biz is the most comprehensive collection of market research reports. MarketResearchReports.Biz services are specially designed to save time and money for our clients. We are a one stop solution for all your research needs, our main offerings are syndicated research reports, custom research, subscription access and consulting services. We serve all sizes and types of companies spanning across various industries.ContactMr. NachiketState Tower90 Sate Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-621-2074Website:E: sales@marketresearchreports.bizGlobal Aluminium Powder Market by Manufacturers, Regions, Type and Application, Forecast to 2022

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"The Report EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) Aluminium Powder Market 2017 Forecast to 2022 provides information on pricing, market analysis, shares, forecast, and company profiles for key industry participants. - MarketResearchReports.biz"About Aluminium Powder MarketThis report studies the Aluminium Powder market, Aluminium powder is powdered aluminium. This was originally produced by mechanical means using a stamp mill to create flakes. Subsequently, a process of spraying molten aluminium to create a powder of droplets was developed by E. J. Hall in the 1920s. The resulting powder might then be processed further in a ball mill to flatten it into flakes for use as a coating or pigment. Aluminium powder is non-toxic and is not harmful unless injected directly in a major blood vessel such as the aorta Aluminium powder, if breathed in, is not particularly harmful and will only cause minor irritation. The melting point of aluminum powder is 660 C.Get Sample copy of this Report @Scope of the Report:This report focuses on the Aluminium Powder in EMEA market, covering Europe, Middle East and Africa, This report categorizes the market based on manufacturers, regions, type and application.Market Segment by Manufacturers, this report coversAlcoaKymera InternationalUC RUnited StatesLToyal GroupXinfa GroupHenan YuanyangHunan GoldskyHunan Ningxiang JiweixinLuxi JinyuanHunan GoldhorseAngang GroupJiangsuTianyuanZhangqiu Metallic PigmentMetal Powder CompanyArasan Aluminium IndustriesRequest for TOC @Market Segment by Regions, regional analysis coversEurope (Germany, France, UK, Russia, Italy and Turkey)Middle East (Saudi Arabia, Israel, UAE and Iran)Africa (South Africa, Nigeria, Egypt and Algeria)Market Segment by Type, coversSpherical Aluminum PowderSpherical Aluminum PowderMarket Segment by Applications, can be divided intoPhotovoltaic Electronic Paste IndustryPaint and Pigment IndustryRefractory Materials IndustryOthersThere are 13 Chapters to deeply display the EMEA Aluminium Powder market.Chapter 1, to describe Aluminium Powder Introduction, product scope, market overview, market opportunities, market risk, market driving force;Chapter 2, to analyze the top manufacturers of Aluminium Powder, with sales, revenue, and price of Aluminium Powder, 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 EMEA market by regions, with sales, revenue and market share of Aluminium Powder, for each region, from 2012 to 2017;Chapter 5, 6, 7, to analyze the market by regions, manufacturers, type and application, with sales, revenue and market share by key countries in these regions;Chapter 8 and 9, to show the market by type and application, with sales market share and growth rate by type, application, from 2012 to 2017;Chapter 10, Aluminium Powder market forecast, by regions, type and application, with sales and revenue, from 2017 to 2022;Chapter 11, 12 and 13, to describe Aluminium Powder research findings and conclusion, sales channel, distributors, traders, dealers, appendix and data sourceView Report @Table of Contents1 Market Overview1.1 Aluminium Powder Introduction1.2 Market Analysis by Type1.2.1 Spherical Aluminum Powder1.2.2 Spherical Aluminum Powder1.3 Market Analysis by Applications1.3.1 Photovoltaic Electronic Paste Industry1.3.2 Paint and Pigment Industry1.3.3 Refractory Materials Industry1.3.4 Others1.4 Market Analysis by Regions1.4.1 Europe (Germany, France, UK, Italy, Russia and Turkey)1.4.1.1 Germany Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.1.2 France Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.1.3 UK Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.1.4 Italy Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.1.5 Russia Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.1.6 Turkey Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.2 Middle East (Saudi Arabia, Israel, UAE and Iran)1.4.2.1 Saudi Arabia Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.2.2 UAE Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.2.3 Israel Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.2.4 Iran Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.3 Africa (South Africa, Nigeria, Egypt and Algeria)1.4.3.1 South Africa Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.3.2 Nigeria Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.3.3 Egypt Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.3.4 Algeria Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.5 Market Dynamics1.5.1 Market Opportunities1.5.2 Market Risk1.5.3 Market Driving Force2 Manufacturers Profiles2.1 Alcoa2.1.1 Business Overview2.1.2 Aluminium Powder Type and Applications2.1.2.1 Type 12.1.2.2 Type 22.1.3 Alcoa Aluminium Powder Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.2 Kymera International2.2.1 Business Overview2.2.2 Aluminium Powder Type and Applications2.2.2.1 Type 12.2.2.2 Type 22.2.3 Kymera International Aluminium Powder Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.3 UC RUnited StatesL2.3.1 Business Overview2.3.2 Aluminium Powder Type and Applications2.3.2.1 Type 12.3.2.2 Type 22.3.3 UC RUnited StatesL Aluminium Powder Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.4 Toyal Group2.4.1 Business Overview2.4.2 Aluminium Powder Type and Applications2.4.2.1 Type 12.4.2.2 Type 22.4.3 Toyal Group Aluminium Powder Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.5 Xinfa Group2.5.1 Business Overview2.5.2 Aluminium Powder Type and Applications2.5.2.1 Type 12.5.2.2 Type 22.5.3 Xinfa Group Aluminium Powder Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.6 Henan Yuanyang2.6.1 Business Overview2.6.2 Aluminium Powder Type and Applications2.6.2.1 Type 12.6.2.2 Type 22.6.3 Henan Yuanyang Aluminium Powder Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.7 Hunan Goldsky2.7.1 Business Overview2.7.2 Aluminium Powder Type and Applications2.7.2.1 Type 12.7.2.2 Type 22.7.3 Hunan Goldsky Aluminium Powder Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.8 Hunan Ningxiang Jiweixin2.8.1 Business Overview2.8.2 Aluminium Powder Type and Applications2.8.2.1 Type 12.8.2.2 Type 22.8.3 Hunan Ningxiang Jiweixin Aluminium Powder Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.9 Luxi Jinyuan2.9.1 Business Overview2.9.2 Aluminium Powder Type and Applications2.9.2.1 Type 12.9.2.2 Type 22.9.3 Luxi Jinyuan Aluminium Powder Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.10 Hunan Goldhorse2.10.1 Business Overview2.10.2 Aluminium Powder Type and Applications2.10.2.1 Type 12.10.2.2 Type 22.10.3 Hunan Goldhorse Aluminium Powder Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.11 Angang Group2.11.1 Business Overview2.11.2 Aluminium Powder Type and Applications2.11.2.1 Type 12.11.2.2 Type 22.11.3 Angang Group Aluminium Powder Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.12 JiangsuTianyuan2.12.1 Business Overview2.12.2 Aluminium Powder Type and Applications2.12.2.1 Type 12.12.2.2 Type 22.12.3 JiangsuTianyuan Aluminium Powder Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.13 Zhangqiu Metallic Pigment2.13.1 Business Overview2.13.2 Aluminium Powder Type and Applications2.13.2.1 Type 12.13.2.2 Type 22.13.3 Zhangqiu Metallic Pigment Aluminium Powder Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.14 Metal Powder Company2.14.1 Business Overview2.14.2 Aluminium Powder Type and Applications2.14.2.1 Type 12.14.2.2 Type 22.14.3 Metal Powder Company Aluminium Powder Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.15 Arasan Aluminium Industries2.15.1 Business Overview2.15.2 Aluminium Powder Type and Applications2.15.2.1 Type 12.15.2.2 Type 22.15.3 Arasan Aluminium Industries Aluminium Powder Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)Buy Now @About usMarketResearchReports.biz is the most comprehensive collection of market research reports. 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"The Report EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) Antivenom Market 2017 Forecast to 2022 provides information on pricing, market analysis, shares, forecast, and company profiles for key industry participants. - MarketResearchReports.biz"About Antivenom MarketAntivenom, also known as antivenin, venom antiserum and antivenom immunoglobulin, is a medication made from antibodies which is used to treat certain venomous bites and stings. They are only recommended if there is significant toxicity or a high risk of toxicity. The specific antivenom needed depends on the species involved. It is given by injection.Get Sample copy of this Report @Scope of the Report:This report focuses on the Antivenom in EMEA market, covering Europe, Middle East and Africa, This report categorizes the market based on manufacturers, regions, type and application.Market Segment by Manufacturers, this report coversCSL BehringMerck & Co., Inc.BTG PlcPfizerHaffkine Bio-Pharmaceutical CorporationRare Disease TherapeuticsFlynn PharmaVins BioproductsBharat Serums and VaccinesSerum BiotechMarket Segment by Regions, regional analysis coversEurope (Germany, France, UK, Russia, Italy and Turkey)Middle East (Saudi Arabia, Israel, UAE and Iran)Africa (South Africa, Nigeria, Egypt and Algeria)Request for TOC @Market Segment by Type, coversPolyvalent antivenomMonovalent antivenomMarket Segment by Applications, can be divided intoRetail PharmaciesHospitalsOthersThere are 13 Chapters to deeply display the EMEA Antivenom market.Chapter 1, to describe Antivenom Introduction, product scope, market overview, market opportunities, market risk, market driving force;Chapter 2, to analyze the top manufacturers of Antivenom, with sales, revenue, and price of Antivenom, 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 EMEA market by regions, with sales, revenue and market share of Antivenom, for each region, from 2012 to 2017;Chapter 5, 6, 7, to analyze the market by regions, manufacturers, type and application, with sales, revenue and market share by key countries in these regions;Chapter 8 and 9, to show the market by type and application, with sales market share and growth rate by type, application, from 2012 to 2017;Chapter 10, Antivenom market forecast, by regions, type and application, with sales and revenue, from 2017 to 2022;Chapter 11, 12 and 13, to describe Antivenom research findings and conclusion, sales channel, distributors, traders, dealers, appendix and data sourceView Report @Table of Contents1 Market Overview1.1 Antivenom Introduction1.2 Market Analysis by Type1.2.1 Polyvalent antivenom1.2.2 Monovalent antivenom1.3 Market Analysis by Applications1.3.1 Retail Pharmacies1.3.2 Hospitals1.3.3 Others1.4 Market Analysis by Regions1.4.1 Europe (Germany, France, UK, Italy, Russia and Turkey)1.4.1.1 Germany Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.1.2 France Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.1.3 UK Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.1.4 Italy Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.1.5 Russia Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.1.6 Turkey Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.2 Middle East (Saudi Arabia, Israel, UAE and Iran)1.4.2.1 Saudi Arabia Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.2.2 UAE Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.2.3 Israel Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.2.4 Iran Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.3 Africa (South Africa, Nigeria, Egypt and Algeria)1.4.3.1 South Africa Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.3.2 Nigeria Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.3.3 Egypt Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.3.4 Algeria Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.5 Market Dynamics1.5.1 Market Opportunities1.5.2 Market Risk1.5.3 Market Driving Force2 Manufacturers Profiles2.1 CSL Behring2.1.1 Business Overview2.1.2 Antivenom Type and Applications2.1.2.1 Type 12.1.2.2 Type 22.1.3 CSL Behring Antivenom Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.2 Merck & Co., Inc.2.2.1 Business Overview2.2.2 Antivenom Type and Applications2.2.2.1 Type 12.2.2.2 Type 22.2.3 Merck & Co., Inc. Antivenom Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.3 BTG Plc2.3.1 Business Overview2.3.2 Antivenom Type and Applications2.3.2.1 Type 12.3.2.2 Type 22.3.3 BTG Plc Antivenom Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.4 Pfizer2.4.1 Business Overview2.4.2 Antivenom Type and Applications2.4.2.1 Type 12.4.2.2 Type 22.4.3 Pfizer Antivenom Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.5 Haffkine Bio-Pharmaceutical Corporation2.5.1 Business Overview2.5.2 Antivenom Type and Applications2.5.2.1 Type 12.5.2.2 Type 22.5.3 Haffkine Bio-Pharmaceutical Corporation Antivenom Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.6 Rare Disease Therapeutics2.6.1 Business Overview2.6.2 Antivenom Type and Applications2.6.2.1 Type 12.6.2.2 Type 22.6.3 Rare Disease Therapeutics Antivenom Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.7 Flynn Pharma2.7.1 Business Overview2.7.2 Antivenom Type and Applications2.7.2.1 Type 12.7.2.2 Type 22.7.3 Flynn Pharma Antivenom Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.8 Vins Bioproducts2.8.1 Business Overview2.8.2 Antivenom Type and Applications2.8.2.1 Type 12.8.2.2 Type 22.8.3 Vins Bioproducts Antivenom Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.9 Bharat Serums and Vaccines2.9.1 Business Overview2.9.2 Antivenom Type and Applications2.9.2.1 Type 12.9.2.2 Type 22.9.3 Bharat Serums and Vaccines Antivenom Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.10 Serum Biotech2.10.1 Business Overview2.10.2 Antivenom Type and Applications2.10.2.1 Type 12.10.2.2 Type 22.10.3 Serum Biotech Antivenom Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)Buy Now @About usMarketResearchReports.biz is the most comprehensive collection of market research reports. MarketResearchReports.Biz services are specially designed to save time and money for our clients. We are a one stop solution for all your research needs, our main offerings are syndicated research reports, custom research, subscription access and consulting services. We serve all sizes and types of companies spanning across various industries.ContactMr. NachiketState Tower90 Sate Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-621-2074Website:E: sales@marketresearchreports.bizToxicology Laboratories Market: Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends and Forecast 2021

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Toxicology in the field of biology, chemistry and medicines, deals with the study of adverse effects caused to living organisms due to certain chemicals. Toxicology testing involves detection, identification and also the measurement of approximate quantity of drugs and other foreign compounds in biological and related specimens to help in the diagnosis, prognosis, prevention and treatment of poisoning. The importance for their evaluation lies with their potential to cause birth defects, cancer and other adverse health hazards. Toxicologists working in the toxicology laboratories are specialized scientists or medical persons with knowledge of symptoms, mechanisms, treatment and detection of toxins. Advances in biotechnology, and molecular biology have paved the way for major improvements in evaluation of health risks due to potentially toxic chemicals. These advances are also reducing need for animal testing by developing more laboratory tests based on human cells. The toxicology laboratories may reside in hospitals or as a separate facility. Toxicity studies primarily conducted for new pharmaceutical applications to be submitted to FDA require human subjects, but under strict ethical considerations. Various regulatory agencies such as U.S. FDA in the U.S. and EMEA in Europe provide guidance documents for toxicology studies.Request for Table of Contents @The global toxicology laboratories market can be segmented based on test type and application. Test types majorly include blood testing and/or urine testing. Various applications include drugs of abuse, medicines, foods additives, industrial and agricultural chemicals and also forensic toxicology analysis. Drugs which can be detected by toxicology screening include alcohol, barbiturates, benzodiazepines, amphetamines, opiates, cocaine, phencyclidine and methadone. Geographically, the global toxicology laboratories market can be segmented into four major regions namely, North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific and Rest of the World. Additionally, there are various types of toxicity studies carried out using animals to evaluate acute, chronic, sub-chronic, carcinogenicity, reproductive, developmental, dermal, ocular, genetic and neurotoxicity. New high through put technologies developed by the pharmaceutical companies provide toxicology laboratories to use efficient automated methods for testing of effects of chemicals on biological activities.Get Sample Copy of this Report @Bioinformatics and rapid assay technologies are helping researchers to better understand the cellular networks in the human body which is the key to maintaining health. Gene expression profiling is also being used to predict toxicity since gene expression is known to rapid change on toxin exposure. Toxicogenomics, proteomics, and metabolomics aim to investigate the adverse biological effects induced by toxic compounds. Toxicology laboratories make use of genomic information since it plays a n important role in determining toxicity response by a biological system. The prediction of toxicity based on non-invasive urine and blood samples is a promising achievement, since multiple sampling over a long time period allows the monitoring of chronic toxicity.Increasing number of drug developments and technological advancements such as computerized testing methods are expected to drive the global toxicology laboratories market in the near future. However, there are various factors which affect chemical toxicology and thus standardization of toxicity testing becomes difficult. These factors include drug dosage, route of exposure (inhalation, ingestion, skin exposure) and other factors such as age, species, sex, health and individual characteristics.The industry leaders such as Quest Diagnostics offer services such as general toxicology, metals testing, therapeutic drug monitoring, and prescription drug monitoring. The laboratory is known to conduct approximately nine million drug tests per year. Some of the toxicology laboratories include Agilent Technologies, Alere Laboratories, Bio-Rad Laboratories, Pacific Toxicology Laboratoies AIT Laboratories, Cardiff Toxicology Services, Aeon clinical laboratories, Quest Diagnostics, Gene Logic, Inc., Molecular Toxicology, Inc., and Covance, Inc.Need more information about Report methodology ? @About UsPersistence Market Research (PMR) is a third-platform research firm. Our research model is a unique collaboration of data analytics and market research methodology to help businesses achieve optimal performance.To support companies in overcoming complex business challenges, we follow a multi-disciplinary approach. At PMR, we unite various data streams from multi-dimensional sources. By deploying real-time data collection, big data, and customer experience analytics, we deliver business intelligence for organizations of all sizes.Contact UsPersistence Market Research305 Broadway7th Floor, New York City,NY 10007, United States,Telephone - +1-646-568-7751USA  Canada Toll Free: 800-961-0353Email: sales@persistencemarketresearch.comWeb:Insulation Products Market 2018 by Global Leaders: Sika AG, Trelleborg AB, Owens Corning, BASF SE, Knauf Insulation, John Manville, 3M Company, Dunmore

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Market Research Future published a research report on Insulation Products Market Research Report - Global Forecast to 2022  Market Analysis, Scope, Stake, Progress, Trends and Forecast to 2023.Market ScenarioInsulation can refer to the process of protecting or shielding. The popularity of building insulation and other applications have grown over last few years. It can used for different purposes like sound, heat, and electricity insulation. The key drivers for the growth of the insulation products market are increasing consumer awareness regarding energy conservation and rising the construction & industrial activities. The insulation products can be found in households, commercial and industries applications. Residential application segment is anticipated to dominate the market. Increasing demand for thermal insulation from households is expected to drive the application growth. However, volatile prices of raw materials are expected to remain a key challenge for industry participants. The Insulation products market size was valued at around USD 42 Billion in 2015 and is expected to grow at CAGR of 7% by 2022.Get Sample of Report @Study Objectives of Insulation products Market:To provide detailed analysis of the market structure along with forecast for the next 6 years of various segments and sub-segments of the Insulation products MarketTo provide insights about factors affecting the market growthTo Analyze the Insulation products Market based on various factors- price analysis, supply chain analysis, porters five force analysis etc.To provide historical and forecast revenue of the market segments and sub-segments with respect to four main geographies and their countries- North America, Europe, APAC, and Rest of the World (ROW)To provide country level analysis of the market with respect to the current market size and future prospectiveTo provide country level analysis of the market for segment by Insulation Type, Materials, Applications and by Region.To provide strategic profiling of the key players in the market, comprehensively analyzing their core competencies, and drawing a competitive landscape for the marketTo track and analyze competitive developments such as joint ventures, strategic alliances, mergers and acquisitions, new product developments, and research and developments in the Insulation products MarketRegional Analysis of Insulation Products Market:North-America is the largest market for insulation products, followed by Europe. Increasing demand for thermal insulation in residential and commercial building & government initiatives such as Weatherization Assistance Program, which promotes the thermal insulation, are the major factor driving the North America market. Asia-Pacific is expected to expand fastest over the forecasted period because high rate of industrialization & construction activity.Key PlayersThe key players of Insulation products Market report include- Sika AG, Trelleborg AB, Owens Corning, BASF SE, Knauf Insulation, John Manville Inc., 3M Company, Dunmore Corporation, DuPont, and Avery Dennison Corporation.Get Complete Report @Target AudienceInsulation products manufacturesInsulation Materials SuppliersEnvironmental AssociationsResearch Institute / Education InstitutePotential InvestorsKey executive (CEO and COO) and strategy growth managerProduct AnalysisProduct matrix which gives a detailed comparison of the market for different recycled product typesAdditional InformationRegulatory LandscapePricing AnalysisMacroeconomic IndicatorsGeographic AnalysisGeographical analysis across 15 countriesCompany InformationProfiling of 10 key market playersIn-depth analysis including SWOT analysis, and strategy information of related to report titleCompetitive landscape including emerging trends adopted by major companiesThe report for Insulation Products Market of Market Research Future comprises of extensive primary research along with the detailed analysis of qualitative as well as quantitative aspects by various industry experts, key opinion leaders to gain the deeper insight of the market and industry performance. The report gives the clear picture of current market scenario which includes historical and projected market size in terms of value and volume, technological advancement, macro economical and governing factors in the market. The report provides details information and strategies of the top key players in the industry. The report also gives a broad study of the different market segments and regions.About Us:At Market Research Future (MRFR), we enable our customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through our Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Raw Research Reports (3R), Continuous-Feed Research (CFR), and Market Research & Consulting Services.Media Contact:Akash Anand,Market Research FutureOffice No. 528, Amanora ChambersMagarpatta Road, Hadapsar,Pune - 411028Maharashtra, India+1 646 845 9312Email: akash.anand@marketresearchfuture.comMiddle East and Africa Cable Glands Market Is Estimated to Show a Lucrative Growth in upcoming years

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The report MIDDLE EAST AND AFRICA CABLE GLANDS MARKET provides the detail description of cable glands market size, share, estimation, and forecast in Middle East and Africa. The market is expected to reach USD 1.12 Billion by 2024, at a CAGR of 7% during forecast period.Cable glands are well known as cable entry devices. Cable glands are used in conjunction with cable and wiring used in electrical instrumentation and automation systems in various numbers of industries. They are also used as a sealing and termination device to ensure the enclosure characteristics. High-performance solutions for industries, markets penetration into the healthcare industry and construction boom in the emerging economies are the key attributes responsible for the cable glands market. Manufacturers offer a large number of cable glands depending upon cable size, type of cable, pressure range, and mode of utilization.Reasons To Buy This ReportThis report contains the in-depth analysis on the market and the estimations are done using volume and value data are further validated on three approaches including bottom-up, top-down and from top companies revenues to conclude the market estimations precisely and accurately considering all the parameters and market dynamics.Download Free Sample Brochure at @Key pointers in the report include: Competitive landscape & market analysis is included in the report to understand the key companies position and Porter's Analysis & PESTLE analysis to perform to analyze the impact of drivers, restraints, challenges and constraints on the market during the next five years. Team of analysts have analyzed and listed out the key drivers, constraints, challenges and emerging opportunities in all the industry verticals which will specify the emerging scope for the market in end user industries. Industry value chain analysis is provided in the report to identify the key stakeholders and prominent players at each stage of the company along with the value addition at each stage of the value chain. Complete analysis including global and regional trends, technological developments, and new product innovations are included in the report specific to each and every segment of the market. A complete 360 degree analysis is provided in the report on key companies product portfolio, business portfolio, developmental strategies, and key developments from the companies in the historical period. Advanced customizations on countries, specific applications in end user industries, product based customizations will be provided based on the request. All the collected data is further validated and verified using surveys, interviews and interactions with industrial experts.Middle East and Africa Cable Glands Market Top Players Sealcon LLC Amphenol Industrial Products Group Mouser Electronics Bartec Feam Hubbell Incorporated Emerson Industrial AutomationRelated Reports:India Lubricant Market:High  End Copper Foil Market:About usEnvision Inteligence is the Main Supplier of Market Analysis Reviews, Customized Consulting Companies, Information Analytics and Trade Evaluation. Our purpose is to offer the correct data required by the stakeholder on the proper level of time, in a format which assists an clever and knowledgeable resolution making course of!Contact UsSales Team,Sales@envisioninteligence.comCall:+1 408-963-0099Web:Aluminum Lithium Alloys Market Analysis, Global Status and Types 2025

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Qyresearchreports include new market research report "Aluminum Lithium Alloys Market Report by Company, Regions, Types and Applications, Global Status and Forecast to 2025" to its huge collection of research reports.The report on the global market for Aluminum Lithium Alloys procures data and other relevant information from myriad dependable sources, and applies various methodologies to analyze and map it. It then groups the data into digestible chunks so that they offer crucial market information. The entire process entails both primary and secondary research methodology.The sourced information is also used to draw growth forecasts of the global market for Aluminum Lithium Alloys. It helps to understand the various factors providing tailwinds and headwinds to the markets trajectory and the macro-fundamentals likely to impact in the near future.Geographically, this report is segmented into several key regions, with sales, revenue, market share and growth Rate of Aluminum Lithium Alloys in these regions, from 2013 to 2025 (forecast), coveringNorth America (United States, Canada and Mexico)Europe (Germany, UK, France, Italy, Russia and Turkey etc.)Asia-Pacific (China, Japan, Korea, India, Australia and Southeast Asia (Indonesia, Thailand, Philippines, Malaysia and Vietnam))South America (Brazil etc.)Middle East and Africa (North Africa and GCC Countries)The major companies in this report includingAlcoaRio Tinto AlcanConstelliumKUMZAlerisFMCSouthwest AluminumFill the form for an exclusive sample of this report @Another key area, where the report proves to be a valuable source of information is in the understanding the competitive dynamics for the global market for Aluminum Lithium Alloys. Using analytical tools, viz. Porters Five Forces and SWOT Analysis, it evaluates the opportunities and pitfalls players might encounter in the market for Aluminum Lithium Alloys. It also enables it to draw insights on strengths and weaknesses of prominent market participants.For the purpose of study, the global market for Aluminum Lithium Alloys has been segmented depending upon different parameters in the research study. A comparative analysis of the different segments grouped under one head is presented to that stakeholders can tap into the market right. The research and development landscape too has been studied to understand the scope in the global market for Aluminum Lithium Alloys.Table of Contents1 Aluminum Lithium Alloys Market Overview1.1 Aluminum Lithium Alloys Product Overview1.2 Aluminum Lithium Alloys Market Segment by Type2 Global Aluminum Lithium Alloys Market Competition by Company2.1 Global Aluminum Lithium Alloys Sales and Market Share by Company (2013-2018)2.2 Global Aluminum Lithium Alloys Revenue and Share by Company (2013-2018)2.3 Global Aluminum Lithium Alloys Price by Company (2013-2018)2.4 Global Top Players Aluminum Lithium Alloys Manufacturing Base Distribution, Sales Area, Product Types2.5 Aluminum Lithium Alloys Market Competitive Situation and TrendsAccess the Report and full TOC @3 Aluminum Lithium Alloys Company Profiles and Sales Data3.1 Alcoa3.1.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base and Competitors3.1.2 Aluminum Lithium Alloys Product Category, Application and Specification3.1.3 Alcoa Aluminum Lithium Alloys Sales, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin(2013-2018)3.1.4 Main Business Overview3.2 Rio Tinto Alcan3.2.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base and Competitors3.2.2 Aluminum Lithium Alloys Product Category, Application and Specification4 Aluminum Lithium Alloys Market Status and Outlook by Regions4.1 Global Market Status and Outlook by Regions4.1.1 Global Aluminum Lithium Alloys Market Size and CAGR by Regions4.1.2 North America4.1.3 Asia-Pacific4.1.4 EuropeAbout Us:QYResearchReports.com delivers the latest strategic market intelligence to build a successful business footprint in China. Our syndicated and customized research reports provide companies with vital background information of the market and in-depth analysis on the Chinese trade and investment framework, which directly affects their business operations. Reports from QYResearchReports.com feature valuable recommendations on how to navigate in the extremely unpredictable yet highly attractive Chinese market.Contact Us:1820 AvenueM Suite #1047Brooklyn, NY 11230United StatesToll Free: 866-997-4948 (USA-CANADA)Tel: +1-518-621-2074Web:Email: sales@qyresearchreports.comUtilization of Pressure Sensors in Automobiles and Government rules contributed to the Expansion of Italy Pressure Sensors Market Growth.

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The report ITALY PRESSURE SENSORS MARKET, offers market size, share, growth, trends, and outlook. The market is projected to reach USD 0.260 Billion by the year 2024, growing at a CAGR of XX% during the forecast period.Government rules mandating the utilization of the pressure sensors in automobiles have additionally contributed to the expansion in demand for pressure sensors. A pressure sensor is a device consists of pressure sensitive element which is used to measure the pressure of a gas or a liquid against a diaphragm. Generally, it is made up of stainless steel, silicon and some other materials. Optical and solid state sensors are expected to exhibit larger growth in pressure sensors market because of their applications on venturous environments and little bit reduction within the price of those sensors may act as a key driver for the expansion of the market.Reasons To Buy This ReportThis report contains the in-depth analysis on the market and the estimations are done using volume and value data are further validated on three approaches including bottom-up, top-down and from top companies revenues to conclude the market estimations precisely and accurately considering all the parameters and market dynamics.Download Free Sample Brochure at @Key pointers in the report include: Competitive landscape & market analysis is included in the report to understand the key companies position and Porter's Analysis & PESTLE analysis to perform to analyze the impact of drivers, restraints, challenges and constraints on the market during the next five years. Team of analysts have analyzed and listed out the key drivers, constraints, challenges and emerging opportunities in all the industry verticals which will specify the emerging scope for the market in end user industries. Industry value chain analysis is provided in the report to identify the key stakeholders and prominent players at each stage of the company along with the value addition at each stage of the value chain. Complete analysis including global and regional trends, technological developments, and new product innovations are included in the report specific to each and every segment of the market. A complete 360 degree analysis is provided in the report on key companies product portfolio, business portfolio, developmental strategies, and key developments from the companies in the historical period. Advanced customizations on countries, specific applications in end user industries, product based customizations will be provided based on the request. All the collected data is further validated and verified using surveys, interviews and interactions with industrial experts.Italy Pressure Sensors Market Top Players STREAMLINE S.R.L TDK INVENSENSE BURSTER ABB S.p.A GIULIANO INDUSTRIAL CARELRelated Reports:Mexico Pressure Sensors Market:Latin America Wearable Sensors Market:Spain Vibration Sensors Market:About usEnvision Inteligence is the Main Supplier of Market Analysis Reviews, Customized Consulting Companies, Information Analytics and Trade Evaluation. Our purpose is to offer the correct data required by the stakeholder on the proper level of time, in a format which assists an clever and knowledgeable resolution making course of!Contact UsSales Team,Sales@envisioninteligence.comCall:+1 408-963-0099Web:Myocardial Fibrosis Key Players - Evotec AG, Galectin Therapeutics Inc, and Invivosciences Inc Market Analysis & Forecast 2017 to 2022

Myocardial Fibrosis

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Myocardial FibrosisOverviewMyocardial fibrosis is an abnormal thickening of the heart valves due to inappropriate proliferation of cardiac fibroblasts. Symptoms include chest pain, some abdominal swelling, nausea and fatigue. The guide is built using data and information sourced from proprietary databases, company/university websites, clinical trial registries, conferences, SEC filings, investor presentations and featured press releases from company/university sites and industry-specific third party sources.Additionally, various dynamic tracking processes ensure that the most recent developments are captured on a real time basis.Click here for sample report @Top Companies mentionedDaewoong Pharmaceutical Co LtdEvotec AGGalectin Therapeutics IncInvivosciences IncLead Discovery Center GmbHMandalMed IncMyocardial Fibrosis Industry Major OutlookPharmaceutical and Healthcare latest pipeline guide Myocardial Fibrosis - Pipeline Review, H1 2018, provides comprehensive information on the therapeutics under development for Myocardial Fibrosis , complete with analysis by stage of development, drug target, mechanism of action (MoA), route of administration (RoA) and molecule type. The guide covers the descriptive pharmacological action of the therapeutics, its complete research and development history and latest news and press releases.The Myocardial Fibrosis (Cardiovascular) pipeline guide also reviews of key players involved in therapeutic development for Myocardial Fibrosis and features dormant and discontinued projects. The guide covers therapeutics under Development by Companies /Universities /Institutes, the molecules developed by Companies in Phase II, Phase I, Preclinical and Discovery stages are 1, 1, 10 and 4 respectively. Similarly, the Universities portfolio in Preclinical stages comprises 3 molecules, respectively.Myocardial Fibrosis pipeline guide helps in identifying and tracking emerging players in the market and their portfolios, enhances decision making capabilities and helps to create effective counter strategies to gain competitive advantage.Myocardial Fibrosis - Competitive AnalysisKey players are making innovative developments in Myocardial Fibrosis industry. The same will help in improving the market performance. Heavy investments are made by major players in the R&D sectorScopeThe pipeline guide provides a snapshot of the global therapeutic landscape of Myocardial Fibrosis.The pipeline guide reviews pipeline therapeutics for Myocardial Fibrosis by companies and universities/research institutes based on information derived from company and industry-specific sources.The pipeline guide covers pipeline products based on several stages of development ranging from pre-registration till discovery and undisclosed stages.The pipeline guide features descriptive drug profiles for the pipeline products which comprise, product description, descriptive licensing and collaboration details, R&D brief, MoA & other developmental activities.The pipeline guide reviews key companies involved in Myocardial Fibrosis therapeutics and enlists all their major and minor projects.The pipeline guide evaluates Myocardial Fibrosis therapeutics based on mechanism of action (MoA), drug target, route of administration (RoA) and molecule type.The pipeline guide encapsulates all the dormant and discontinued pipeline projects.The pipeline guide reviews latest news related to pipeline therapeutics for Myocardial Fibrosis..ContinuedFor Detailed Reading Please visit @Wise Guy Reports understand how essential statistical surveying information is for your organization or association. Therefore, we have associated with the top publishers and research firms all specialized in specific domains, ensuring you will receive the most reliable and up to date research data available. We also provide COTS (Commercial off the Shelf) business sector reports as custom exploration agreeing your particular needs.WISEGUY RESEARCH CONSULTANTS PVT LTDOffice No. 528, Amanora ChambersPune - 411028Maharashtra, IndiaSpecialty Silicas Market: Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends and Forecast by 2020

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Specialty silicas are chemical compounds that are made predominantly from silica or silicon dioxide (SiO2). Specialty silicas are found in shape of chunks, sawed or trimmed blocks, round pebbles, and other shapes. Specialty silicas are widely adopted in food and beverages industry, footwear manufacturing, rubbers and production of green tires.Report Overview @On the basis of silica type, the global silicas market can be segmented as precipitated silica sol, silica gel, and fumed silica. Precipitated silica sol is the largest market segment of specialty silicas market owing to the increase use of it in automotive tyres manufacturing. Based on the various end user applications, the market can be segmented in three different categories namely chemicals, rubber, and food and beverages.Rubber was the largest market segment of specialty silicas in 2013. It is expected that rubber will be also the fastest growing market segment in the forecasted period owing to the increase adoption of silica rubbers in environment friendly automotive tyres. The demand of Silica sol is mainly expected from growing end user industries such as paper coatings and semiconductor polishing market.Increasing global concern over environmental sustainability coupled with different labeling regulations by the government in different part of the world is the major driver of this industry. Moreover better performance specification of green tires made up of specialty silicas such as higher resistance, less rolling friction enhance vehicle fuel economy, and increasing consumption of processed food and beverage, are some of the dominant drivers of the global specialty silicas market.Request for Table of Contents @Asia Pacific is the largest market of the specialty silicas followed by Europe and North America. The growth is highest in Asia Pacific region owing to growth of the sizable Chinese market especially in automotive industry. China accounts for more than half of the total market share of specialty silicas in Asia Pacific. It is then followed by India and Japan. Middle East and Europe are the other two fasted growing market of specialty silicas attributed to growing export-oriented manufacturing industries in this region. North America specialty silicas market is heading towards maturity and a below average growth is expected from this region.Some of the major companies operating in global specialty silicas market include, Akzo Nobel NV, Cabot Corporation, Ecolab Incorporated, Evonik Industries AG, Gujarat Multi Gas Base Chemicals Private Limited, Imerys SA, Oriental Silicas Corporation, Solvay SA, and Zhuzhou Xinglong Chemical Industry Company Limited.Key points covered in the reportReport segments the market on the basis of types, application, products, technology, etc (as applicable),The report covers geographic segmentation,,North America,Europe,Asia,RoW,The report provides the market size and forecast for the different segments and geographies for the period of 2010 to 2020,The report provides company profiles of some of the leading companies operating in the market,The report also provides porters five forces analysis of the market.Need more information about Report methodology ? @About UsPersistence Market Research (PMR) is a third-platform research firm. Our research model is a unique collaboration of data analytics and market research methodology to help businesses achieve optimal performance.To support companies in overcoming complex business challenges, we follow a multi-disciplinary approach. At PMR, we unite various data streams from multi-dimensional sources. By deploying real-time data collection, big data, and customer experience analytics, we deliver business intelligence for organizations of all sizes.Contact UsPersistence Market Research305 Broadway7th Floor, New York City,NY 10007, United States,USA Canada Toll Free: 800-961-0353Email: sales@persistencemarketresearch.comWeb:Global Property & Casualty Insurance Providers Market 2018 Key Players: Allstate,American International Group,Berkshire Hathaway,Liberty Mutual,Travelers Companies Inc.

Property & Casualty Insurance Providers Market

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Property & Casualty Insurance Providers Market:WiseGuyReports.com adds Property & Casualty Insurance Providers Market 2018 Global Analysis, Growth, Trends and Opportunities Research Report Forecasting to 2023reports to its database.Executive SummaryProperty & Casualty Insurance Providers Market Global Report 2018 from The Business Research Company provides the strategists, marketers and senior management with the critical information they need to assess the global property & casualty insurance providers market.Where is the largest and fastest growing market for the property & casualty insurance providers? How does the market relate to the overall economy, demography and other similar markets? What forces will shape the market going forward? The property & casualty insurance providers market global report from the Business Research Company answers all these questions and many more.The report covers market characteristics, size and growth, segmentation, regional and country breakdowns, competitive landscape, market shares, trends and strategies for this market. It traces the markets historic and forecast market growth by geography. It places the market within the context of the wider financial services market, and compares it with other markets. The market characteristics section of the report defines and explains the market. The market size section gives the market size ($b) covering both the historic growth of the market and forecasting the future. Drivers and restraints looks at the external factors supporting and controlling the growth of the market. Market segmentations break down market into sub markets. The regional and country breakdowns section gives an analysis of the market in each geography and the size of the market by geography and compares their historic and forecast growth. It covers all the regions, key developed countries and major emerging markets. It draws comparisons with country populations and economies to understand the importance of the market by country and how this is changing. Competitive landscape gives a description of the competitive nature of the market, market shares, and a description of the leading companies. Key financial deals which have shaped the market in recent years are identified. The trends and strategies section highlights the likely future developments in the market and suggests approaches companies can take to exploit this. The property & casualty insurance providers market section of the report gives context. It compares the property & casualty insurance providers market with other segments of the property & casualty insurance providers market by size and growth, historic and forecast. It analyses Expenditure Per Capita, The Property & Casualty Insurance Providers Market Indicators Comparison.Request Sample Report @ScopeMarkets Covered: Automobile Insurance Carriers; Malpractice/Indemnity Insurance Carriers; Fidelity Insurance Carriers; Mortgage Guaranty Insurance Carriers; Homeowners Insurance Carriers; Surety Insurance Carriers; Liability Insurance CarriersCompanies Mentioned: Allstate,American International Group,Berkshire Hathaway,Liberty Mutual,Travelers Companies Inc.Countries: Brazil, China, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, Spain, Russia, UK, USA and Australia.Regions: Asia-Pacific, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, North America, South America, Middle East And AfricaTime series: Five years historic and forecast.Data: Ratios of market size and growth to related markets, GDP, Expenditure Per Capita, The Property & Casualty Insurance Providers Market Indicators Comparison.Data segmentations: country and regional historic and forecast data, market share of competitors, market segments.Sourcing and Referencing: Data and analysis throughout the report is sourced using end notesTable of Content1. Auditing Services Market Characteristics2. Auditing Services Market Size And Growth3. Auditing Services Trends And Strategies;4. Pestle Analysis5. Auditing Services Market Customer Information;6. Auditing Services Market Regional And Country Analysis7. Auditing Services Market Segmentation8. Auditing Services Market Segments9. Global Auditing Services Market Comparison With Macro Economic Factors10. Auditing Services Market Comparison With Macro Economic Factors Across Countries11. Asia-Pacific Auditing Services Market12. Western Europe Auditing Services Market13. Eastern Europe Auditing Services Market14. North America Auditing Services Market15. South America Auditing Services Market16. Middle East Auditing Services Market17. Africa Auditing Services Market18. Auditing Services Market Competitive Landscape18.1. Company Profiles18.2. Allstate18.2.1. Overview18.2.2. Products And Services18.2.3. Strategy18.2.4. Financial Performance18.3. American International Group18.3.1. Overview18.3.2. Products And Services18.3.3. Strategy18.3.4. Financial Performance18.4. Berkshire Hathaway18.4.1. Overview18.4.2. Products And Services18.4.3. Strategy18.4.4. Financial Performance18.5. Liberty Mutual18.5.1. Overview18.5.2. Products And Services18.5.3. Strategy18.5.4. Financial Performance18.6. Travelers Companies Inc.18.6.1. Overview18.6.2. Products And Services18.6.3. Strategy18.6.4. Financial Performance19. Key Mergers And Acquisitions In The Auditing Services Market20. Market Background: Insurance Providers Market21. AppendixReasons to Purchase Outperform competitors using accurate up to date demand-side dynamics information. Identify growth segments for investment. Facilitate decision making on the basis of historic and forecast data and the drivers and restraints on the market. Create regional and country strategies on the basis of local data and analysis. Stay abreast of the latest customer and market research findings Benchmark performance against key competitors. Develop strategies based on likely future developments. Utilize the relationships between key data sets for superior strategizing. Suitable for supporting your internal and external presentations with reliable high quality data and analysis Gain a global perspective on the development of the market. Report will be updated with the latest data and delivered to you within 3-5 working days of order.ContinuousFor further information on this report, visit Contact Us:Norah Trentsales@wiseguyreports.comPh: +1-646-845-9349 (US); +44 208 133 9349 (UK)Wise Guy Reports Is Part Of The Wise Guy Consultants Pvt. Ltd. And Offers Premium Progressive Statistical Surveying, Market Research Reports, Analysis & Forecast Data For Industries And Governments Around The Globe. Wise Guy Reports Features An Exhaustive List Of Market Research Reports From Hundreds Of Publishers Worldwide. We Boast A Database Spanning Virtually Every Market Category And An Even More Comprehensive Collection Of Market Research Reports Under These Categories And Sub-Categories.Addres:WISEGUY RESEARCH CONSULTANTS PVT LTDOffice No. 528, Amanora ChambersPune - 411028Maharashtra, IndiaPhone :+91 841 198 5042Cryptocurrency ATM Market - New Platform for cryptocurrency to Break

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Cryptocurrency ATM are machines or kiosks connected to internet which allow the inclusion of cash in exchange of cryptocurrencies such as Litecoin, Bitcoin and others. The ATMs generates paper receipt which allocates the money to a public key on the blockchain. Cryptocurrency or virtual currency is a medium of exchange generated and stored electronically in the blockchain using the encryption techniques for controlling the creation of monetary units and for verifying the transfer of funds.Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin and Dogecoin are few crypto coins available and are dominating the market. In some cases, the transaction entails the users to have current accounts along with the operator. Moreover, these machines are also introduced to support multiple wallets and exchanges and are programmed to support any nation currency of various denominations. Growing acceptance of decentralized means of transaction is expected to fuel the market over the forecast period.PDF Sample For Latest Advancement:Growing number of investors, and user confidence in cryptocurrencies, are also projected to spur the industry demand. Also, increasing mining complexity and growing awareness among the consumers for the crypto coins is further expected to enhance the demand. According to the Coin ATM Radar, the number of bitcoin ATMs is increasing at a steady growth rate of 1.72 ATMs per day.In 2017, Coinsource, one of the major players in the bitcoin ATM industry from California has added 14 new ATM machines in Southern and Northern California. The company installation rate has increased from 1.2 machines per week in 2016 to 2.3 machines per week making a total of 39 units in the region.The ATM machines installed by Coinsource network are one way machines which is only used for buying the bitcoin but the consumer cannot sell the bitcoin. Two-way ATM machines globally represent only one-third of the supply (approx. 30%), which also allows consumer to sell the crypto coins, i.e., bitcoin for approved cash and one-way ATM machines two-third of the market share around 70%.However, companies such as Lamassu are installing the Ethereum ATMs. The processing time of Ethereum ATMs is quite less as compare to the Bitcoion ATMs. An Ethereum ATM takes few seconds for completing a transaction whereas Bitcoin ATM takes around 10 min to complete a transaction. Lamassu has launched approximately 196 ATMs holding a noble share in crypto ATM in the international market.However, the issuing fee associated with transaction made for buying the crypto coins is expected to restrain the market. Furthermore, the providers and manufacturers of the ATM machine are different results in support issues and less efficient ATMs which is also anticipated to hinder the industry.Obtain Report Details @North America region remains the dominating region in terms of value and volume owing to the maximum installations of ATMs in the region such as U.S., Canada and is also expected to dominate the market share over the forecast period. The region is then followed by Europe, Asia Pacific and Latin America. The Key manufacturers in the market include Genesis Coin, General Bytes, Lamassu, Coinsource, BitAccess, Covault, and BitXatm.About Us-Xpodence Research is a U.S. based Market Research Company and offers the most extensive collection of progressive surveying syndicated and customized research reports of various categories for private and public industries across the globe.We offer the comprehensive market research solution for all the industries by performing the in-depth study of industry trends, verticals globally. We believe in building an eternal bond with our customers through providing them inclusive research study both customized and syndicated based on their specific requirements.The organizations in every industry such as Technology, Pharmaceuticals, Consumable Goods, Food & Beverage and others demands a market-based solutions for various significant decisions based on productivity and output globally. Our services are tailored specifically to our clients by proposing them the potential outcome, based on our in-depth analysis and insights for exploring the growth strategies through providing the best possible decision for quality production.Contact Us-Xpodence ResearchUSA Office244 , Madison AvenueNew York City, NY - 10016United StatesUK Office109 ,Straford Street,LeedsWest Yorkshrie LS11 6JGUnited KingdomToll Free +1- 844-445-2861Email-sales@xpodenceresearch.comMedical Image Analysis Software 2018 Global Market Key Players  AQUILAB, AGFA-GEVAERT GROUP, CARESTREAM HEALTH, INC., MERGE HEALTHCARE INC., INFIMED....

Medical Image Analysis Software Market 2018

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Medical Image Analysis Software Market 2018Wiseguyreports.Com Adds Medical Image Analysis Software  Global Market Demand, Growth, Opportunities, Manufacturers, Analysis of Top Key Players and Forecast to 2022 To Its Research Database.Description:Based on the Medical Image Analysis Software industrial chain, this report mainly elaborate the definition, types, applications and major players of Medical Image Analysis Software market in details. Deep analysis about market status (2012-2017), enterprise competition pattern, advantages and disadvantages of enterprise Products, industry development trends (2017-2022), regional industrial layout characteristics and macroeconomic policies, industrial policy has also be included. From raw materials to downstream buyers of this industry will be analyzed scientifically, the feature of product circulation and sales channel will be presented as well. In a word, this report will help you to establish a panorama of industrial development and characteristics of the Medical Image Analysis Software market.The Medical Image Analysis Software market can be split based on product types, major applications, and important regions.Major Players in Medical Image Analysis Software market are:AQUILABAGFA-GEVAERT GROUPCARESTREAM HEALTH, INC.MERGE HEALTHCARE INC.INFIMEDBARCOBRUKERESAOTEELEKTAGENERAL ELECTRIC COMPANY (GE)Request for Sample Report@Major Regions play vital role in Medical Image Analysis Software market are:North AmericaEuropeChinaJapanMiddle East & AfricaIndiaSouth AmericaOthersMost important types of Medical Image Analysis Software products covered in this report are:DiagnosisManagementMost widely used downstream fields of Medical Image Analysis Software market covered in this report are:HospitalMedical CenterComplete report details @If you have any special requirements, please let us know and we will offer you the report as you want.Table of Contents:Global Medical Image Analysis Software Industry Market Research Report1 Medical Image Analysis Software Introduction and Market Overview1.1 Objectives of the Study1.2 Definition of Medical Image Analysis Software1.3 Medical Image Analysis Software Market Scope and Market Size Estimation1.3.1 Market Concentration Ratio and Market Maturity Analysis1.3.2 Global Medical Image Analysis Software Value ($) and Growth Rate from 2012-20221.4 Market Segmentation1.4.1 Types of Medical Image Analysis Software1.4.2 Applications of Medical Image Analysis Software1.4.3 Research Regions1.4.3.1 North America Medical Image Analysis Software Production Value ($) and Growth Rate (2012-2017)1.4.3.2 Europe Medical Image Analysis Software Production Value ($) and Growth Rate (2012-2017)1.4.3.3 China Medical Image Analysis Software Production Value ($) and Growth Rate (2012-2017)1.4.3.4 Japan Medical Image Analysis Software Production Value ($) and Growth Rate (2012-2017)1.4.3.5 Middle East & Africa Medical Image Analysis Software Production Value ($) and Growth Rate (2012-2017)1.4.3.6 India Medical Image Analysis Software Production Value ($) and Growth Rate (2012-2017)1.4.3.7 South America Medical Image Analysis Software Production Value ($) and Growth Rate (2012-2017)1.5 Market Dynamics1.5.1 Drivers1.5.1.1 Emerging Countries of Medical Image Analysis Software1.5.1.2 Growing Market of Medical Image Analysis Software1.5.2 Limitations1.5.3 Opportunities1.6 Industry News and Policies by Regions1.6.1 Industry News1.6.2 Industry Policies2 Industry Chain Analysis2.1 Upstream Raw Material Suppliers of Medical Image Analysis Software Analysis2.2 Major Players of Medical Image Analysis Software2.2.1 Major Players Manufacturing Base and Market Share of Medical Image Analysis Software in 20162.2.2 Major Players Product Types in 20162.3 Medical Image Analysis Software Manufacturing Cost Structure Analysis2.3.1 Production Process Analysis2.3.2 Manufacturing Cost Structure of Medical Image Analysis Software2.3.3 Raw Material Cost of Medical Image Analysis Software2.3.4 Labor Cost of Medical Image Analysis Software2.4 Market Channel Analysis of Medical Image Analysis Software2.5 Major Downstream Buyers of Medical Image Analysis Software Analysis.8 Competitive Landscape8.1 Competitive Profile8.2 AQUILAB8.2.1 Company Profiles8.2.2 Medical Image Analysis Software Product Introduction and Market Positioning8.2.2.1 Product Introduction8.2.2.2 Market Positioning and Target Customers8.2.3 AQUILAB Production, Value ($), Price, Gross Margin 2012-2017E8.2.4 AQUILAB Market Share of Medical Image Analysis Software Segmented by Region in 20168.3 AGFA-GEVAERT GROUP8.3.1 Company Profiles8.3.2 Medical Image Analysis Software Product Introduction and Market Positioning8.3.2.1 Product Introduction8.3.2.2 Market Positioning and Target Customers8.3.3 AGFA-GEVAERT GROUP Production, Value ($), Price, Gross Margin 2012-2017E8.3.4 AGFA-GEVAERT GROUP Market Share of Medical Image Analysis Software Segmented by Region in 20168.4 CARESTREAM HEALTH, INC.8.4.1 Company Profiles8.4.2 Medical Image Analysis Software Product Introduction and Market Positioning8.4.2.1 Product Introduction8.4.2.2 Market Positioning and Target Customers8.4.3 CARESTREAM HEALTH, INC. Production, Value ($), Price, Gross Margin 2012-2017E8.4.4 CARESTREAM HEALTH, INC. Market Share of Medical Image Analysis Software Segmented by Region in 20168.5 MERGE HEALTHCARE INC.8.5.1 Company Profiles8.5.2 Medical Image Analysis Software Product Introduction and Market Positioning8.5.2.1 Product Introduction8.5.2.2 Market Positioning and Target Customers8.5.3 MERGE HEALTHCARE INC. Production, Value ($), Price, Gross Margin 2012-2017E8.5.4 MERGE HEALTHCARE INC. Market Share of Medical Image Analysis Software Segmented by Region in 20168.6 INFIMED8.6.1 Company Profiles8.6.2 Medical Image Analysis Software Product Introduction and Market Positioning8.6.2.1 Product Introduction8.6.2.2 Market Positioning and Target Customers8.6.3 INFIMED Production, Value ($), Price, Gross Margin 2012-2017E8.6.4 INFIMED Market Share of Medical Image Analysis Software Segmented by Region in 20168.7 BARCO8.7.1 Company Profiles8.7.2 Medical Image Analysis Software Product Introduction and Market Positioning8.7.2.1 Product Introduction8.7.2.2 Market Positioning and Target Customers8.7.3 BARCO Production, Value ($), Price, Gross Margin 2012-2017E8.7.4 BARCO Market Share of Medical Image Analysis Software Segmented by Region in 20168.8 BRUKER8.8.1 Company Profiles8.8.2 Medical Image Analysis Software Product Introduction and Market Positioning8.8.2.1 Product Introduction8.8.2.2 Market Positioning and Target Customers8.8.3 BRUKER Production, Value ($), Price, Gross Margin 2012-2017E8.8.4 BRUKER Market Share of Medical Image Analysis Software Segmented by Region in 20168.9 ESAOTE8.9.1 Company Profiles8.9.2 Medical Image Analysis Software Product Introduction and Market Positioning8.9.2.1 Product Introduction8.9.2.2 Market Positioning and Target Customers8.9.3 ESAOTE Production, Value ($), Price, Gross Margin 2012-2017E8.9.4 ESAOTE Market Share of Medical Image Analysis Software Segmented by Region in 20168.10 ELEKTA8.10.1 Company Profiles8.10.2 Medical Image Analysis Software Product Introduction and Market Positioning8.10.2.1 Product Introduction8.10.2.2 Market Positioning and Target Customers8.10.3 ELEKTA Production, Value ($), Price, Gross Margin 2012-2017E8.10.4 ELEKTA Market Share of Medical Image Analysis Software Segmented by Region in 20168.11 GENERAL ELECTRIC COMPANY (GE)8.11.1 Company Profiles8.11.2 Medical Image Analysis Software Product Introduction and Market Positioning8.11.2.1 Product Introduction8.11.2.2 Market Positioning and Target Customers8.11.3 GENERAL ELECTRIC COMPANY (GE) Production, Value ($), Price, Gross Margin 2012-2017E8.11.4 GENERAL ELECTRIC COMPANY (GE) Market Share of Medical Image Analysis Software Segmented by Region in 2016Continued..Contact US:NORAH TRENTPartner Relations & Marketing Managersales@wiseguyreports.comPh: +1-646-845-9349 (US)Ph: +44 208 133 9349 (UK)About Us:Wise Guy Reports Is Part Of The Wise Guy Consultants Pvt. Ltd. And Offers Premium Progressive Statistical Surveying, Market Research Reports, Analysis & Forecast Data For Industries And Governments Around The Globe. Wise Guy Reports Features An Exhaustive List Of Market Research Reports From Hundreds Of Publishers Worldwide. We Boast A Database Spanning Virtually Every Market Category And An Even More Comprehensive Collection Of Market Research Reports Under These Categories And Sub-Categories.Addres:: Wise Guy Research Consultants Pvt Ltd: Pune  411028: Maharashtra,: Ph: +91 841 198 5042Syngas and Derivatives Market Expected to Grow at a CAGR 9.4% till 2024

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A latest research report titled as Syngas and Derivatives Market - Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends, and Forecast 2016 - 2024 has been recently added to the vast portfolio of Market Research Reports Search Engine (MRRSE) online research offerings. This report is a professional and in-depth analysis on the present state and future prospect for the global market. It provides valuable information to the industry insiders, potential entrants or investors. It includes an exhaustive enquiry with the reliability of logic and the comprehensiveness of contents.Request For Free Sample Report @The global syngas market has been demonstrating a substantial rise in its size over the recent times. The burgeoning need to reduce the dependency on fossil fuels, as there is a finite number of fossil fuel reserves across the world, has been the key driving force behind the significant rise in this market. Apart from this, the increasing usage of derivatives in various industrial applications is also boosting the demand for syngas and derivatives substantially.In 2015, the global consumption of syngas and derivatives was 115,000 MWth. Thanks to the rising demand for fuel, electricity, and agricultural products, it is anticipated to rise at a CAGR of 9.40% between 2016 and 2024 and cross a 256,605 MWth mark by the end of 2024. Although the market points towards a thriving future, it may face some hindrances from the dearth of considerable capital investment and funding over the next few years.Biomass Gasification to Remain Most Demanded TechnologyPartial oxidation, steam reforming, and biomass gasification are the key technologies utilized for the production of syngas and derivatives. Among these, biomass gasification is the most-utilized technology for production of syngas and derivatives, as, with this technology, the organic/fossil fuel-based carbonaceous materials, such as biomass and coal, can be converted into syngas, carbon monoxide, hydrogen, and carbon dioxide. A continued strong demand for this technology is predicted across the world in the years to come.The demand for steam reform technology is also increasing steadily and is expected to pick up pace over the forthcoming years. In steam reforming technology, natural gas is used as a feedstock to produce syngas. Hydrogen, carbon monoxide, and several other useful products are also produced during the process. Partial oxidation technology, which held a meager share in the overall syngas and derivatives market, is anticipated to witness increased demand in the near future.Browse Full Report with TOC @Asia Pacific to Remain on Top in Global Syngas and Derivatives MarketAsia Pacific, the Middle East and Africa, North America, Europe, and Latin America are the main geographical segments of the worldwide market for syngas and derivatives. With a share of more than 52%, Asia Pacific dominated the global market in 2015. Analysts predict this regional market to retain its lead over the next few years, thanks to the ample availability of coal and natural gas reserves, together with the rising urbanization, developments in the infrastructure, and the new discoveries in the field of oil and gas.Among other regions, the Middle East and Africa is likely to witness strong growth in its market for syngas and derivatives in the near future due to the rising utilization of syngas for electricity and power generation. On the other hand, Latin America, North America, and Europe are anticipated to exhibit a sluggish rise in their respective markets over the forthcoming years.At the forefront of the global market for syngas and derivatives are The Linde Group, Syngas Technology LLC, Siemens AG, Sasol Ltd., Haldor Topsoe A/S, Chicago Bridge & Iron Co. N.V., BASF SE, Air Products & Chemicals Inc., AMEC Foster Wheeler Plc., and Air Liquide SA.Enquire about this Report @About Market Research Reports Search Engine (MRRSE)Market Research Reports Search Engine (MRRSE) is an industry-leading database of Market Research Reports. MRRSE is driven by a stellar team of research experts and advisors trained to offer objective advice. Our sophisticated search algorithm returns results based on the report title, geographical region, publisher, or other keywords.MRRSE partners exclusively with leading global publishers to provide clients single-point access to top-of-the-line market research. MRRSEs repository is updated every day to keep its clients ahead of the next new trend in market research, be it competitive intelligence, product or service trends or strategic consulting.Contact UsState Tower90, State StreetSuite 700Albany, NY - 12207United States Telephone: +1-518-730-0559Email: sales@mrrse.comWebsite:Read More Industry News At:Diabetes Monitoring Devices Market Overview Till 2025 | Industry Insights, Trends, Analysis, And Forecast

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Increasing incidence of diabetes across the world is one of the primary factor responsible to drive growth of the global diabetes monitoring devices market. For instance, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), 2014, around 8.5% of adults aged 18 and above accounting for 422 million adults were suffering from diabetes worldwide. Moreover, diabetes was the cause of 1.6 million deaths in 2015 and high blood glucose levels was the cause of another 2.2 million deaths. According to National Diabetes Statistics Report 2017 published by Centers of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), around 9.4% of American population, which includes all age groups i.e., pediatric, adults and geriatric population accounting for 30.3 million people are suffering from diabetes whereas 33.9% of the rest population is diagnosed with pre-diabetes. The prevalence of diabetes is significant among the emerging economies of Asia. According to a study report published in World Journal of Diabetes 2012, Asian economies contribute to more than 60% of the diabetic population in the world. The massive prevalence of diabetes is thus expected to create a demand for monitoring blood glucose devices, which in turn is expected to foster growth of the global diabetes monitoring devices market.To understand Research Methodology @Diabetes is referred as group of metabolic diseases wherein patient suffers from varying levels of glucose either due to inadequate production of insulin or due to irresponsiveness of bodys cells to respond to insulin. Symptoms of patients suffering from diabetes include frequent urination (polyuria), excessive hunger (polyphagia), and increased thirst (polydipsia). Diabetes can affect eyes, kidneys, nerves and other body parts wherein, the excessive blood glucose levels can result into progression of cardiovascular diseases leading to death of a person. Thus the treatment goal of diabetes is to control the blood sugar levels, which can be monitored and tracked using assistive medical devices known as diabetes monitoring or blood glucose monitoring devices. These devices are available for patients suffering from both type I and type II diabetes for regular glucose invigilation and secure oneself from threats associated with diabetes. High prevalence of diabetes due to changing lifestyle is increasing the demand for diabetes monitoring devices in developed as well as emerging economies, which in turn is propelling growth of the market.The global Diabetes Monitoring Devices Market was valued at US$ 15,276.1 million in 2016 and is expected to witness a robust CAGR of 8.87% over the forecast period (2017 - 2025).Increasing incidence of diabetes across the world is one of the primary factor responsible to drive growth of the global diabetes monitoring devices market. For instance, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), 2014, around 8.5% of adults aged 18 and above accounting for 422 million adults were suffering from diabetes worldwide. Moreover, diabetes was the cause of 1.6 million deaths in 2015 and high blood glucose levels was the cause of another 2.2 million deaths. According to National Diabetes Statistics Report 2017 published by Centers of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), around 9.4% of American population, which includes all age groups i.e., pediatric, adults and geriatric population accounting for 30.3 million people are suffering from diabetes whereas 33.9% of the rest population is diagnosed with pre-diabetes. The prevalence of diabetes is significant among the emerging economies of Asia. According to a study report published in World Journal of Diabetes 2012, Asian economies contribute to more than 60% of the diabetic population in the world. The massive prevalence of diabetes is thus expected to create a demand for monitoring blood glucose devices, which in turn is expected to foster growth of the global diabetes monitoring devices market.Glucose monitoring devices are gaining significant traction due to increasing awareness among urban population regarding advantages of glucose monitoring. For instance, a research article published in Annals of Palliative Medicine- an Open Access Journal for High Quality Research 2015, suggested that the incidence of blood glucose monitoring practices was common among 19% of the people suffering with diabetes in Canada. Furthermore, increasing number of obese population is one of the major factors leading to rise in diabetes incidence. For instance, according to National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 2014 conducted by National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, more than 1 among 3 adults suffering from Diabetes in the U.S. were reported to be overweight and more than 2 in 3 adults were considered to be overweight and obese.However, high cost of easy operating automatic glucose monitoring and other devices, pricing pressure on manufacturers, and discrepancy in reimbursement policies are expected to hinder the market growth. On the contrary, increasing efforts by healthcare authorities and medical insurance companies to educate patients regarding the advantages of diabetes monitoring devices can create potential opportunities for growth of the market.Complete Report Details @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:Green Coating Market 2018 Global Key Players: Axalta Coating System, Momentive, Omnova Solutions, Bayer Material Science, Valspar, Arkema, DSM, PPG Industries

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Market Research Future published a research report on Global Green Coating Market Research Report - Forecast to 2022  Market Analysis, Scope, Stake, Progress, Trends and Forecast to 2023.Market Scenario:Coating is a layer of a substance spread over a surface as for protection or decoration. Any coating that does not pollute the environment or indirectly reduces pollution during any of its stages can be termed as green coating. The growth of the end use industries is the key factor driving the growth of the market. Additionally, the coating manufacturers have shifted their focus to bio-based coating due to stringent regulatory standards of REACH, EPA, and other environment & health care agencies. However, economic slowdown in U.S. and Europe may hamper the growth of green coating market. Green coating market is expected to grow at CAGR of approximately 5% by 2022.Get Sample of Report @Study Objectives of Green Coating Market:To provide detailed analysis of the market structure along with forecast for the next 6 years of various segments and sub-segments of the Global Green Coating MarketTo provide insights about factors affecting the market growthTo Analyze the Global Green Coating Market based on various factors- price analysis, supply chain analysis, porters five force analysis etc.To provide historical and forecast revenue of the market segments and sub-segments with respect to four main geographies and their countries- North America, Europe, APAC, and Rest of the World (ROW)To provide country level analysis of the market with respect to the current market size and future prospectiveTo provide country level analysis of the market for segment by Type, by Application and by Region.To provide strategic profiling of the key players in the market, comprehensively analyzing their core competencies, and drawing a competitive landscape for the marketTo track and analyze competitive developments such as joint ventures, strategic alliances, mergers and acquisitions, new product developments, and research and developments in the Green Coating Market.Regional Analysis of Green Coating Market:APAC dominates the green coating market followed by North America and Europe. Growth in the industrial sector and increasing the consumer focus towards the benefits of green coatings are some factors driving the growth of this market in APAC region. Asia Pacific region is expected to grow at fastest pace during the forecasted period.Key Players:The key players of global Green Coating market report include- Axalta Coating System, Allnex S.a r.l., Momentive, Omnova Solutions, Bayer Material Science, Valspar Corporation, Arkema Inc., Sherwin-Williams Company, DSM, and PPG Industries.Target Audience:Material Manufacturing OrganizationsDistributors & SuppliersResearch Institute / Education InstitutePotential InvestorsGovernment agencies & research organizationGet Complete Report @Product Analysis:Product matrix which gives a detailed comparison of the market for different recycled product typesAdditional Information:Regulatory LandscapePricing AnalysisMacroeconomic IndicatorsGeographic Analysis:Geographical analysis across 15 countriesCompany Information:Profiling of 10 key market playersIn-depth analysis including SWOT analysis, and strategy information of related to report titleCompetitive landscape including emerging trends adopted by major companiesThe report for Global Green Coating Market of Market Research Future comprises of extensive primary research along with the detailed analysis of qualitative as well as quantitative aspects by various industry experts, key opinion leaders to gain the deeper insight of the market and industry performance. The report gives the clear picture of current market scenario which includes historical and projected market size in terms of value and volume, technological advancement, macro economical and governing factors in the market. The report provides details information and strategies of the top key players in the industry. The report also gives a broad study of the different market segments and regions.About Us:At Market Research Future (MRFR), we enable our customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through our Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Raw Research Reports (3R), Continuous-Feed Research (CFR), and Market Research & Consulting Services.Media Contact:Akash Anand,Market Research FutureOffice No. 528, Amanora ChambersMagarpatta Road, Hadapsar,Pune - 411028Maharashtra, India+1 646 845 9312Email: akash.anand@marketresearchfuture.comLED & OLED Display Market Key Players  Corning, Samsung Electronics, Philips Electronics by Forecast to 2027

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Market Scenario:The major growth driver of LED & OLED Display Market includes growing acceptance of LED in commercial & residential sectors, growing demand for flexible display products, and government regulations such as mandating OLED and LED lighting in public places among others.Hence the market for LED & OLED Display is expected to grow at XX% CAGR (2016-2027).However, lack of skilled employment and complex manufacturing process are the major factors which are hindering the growth of LED & OLED Display Market.Key Players LG Electronics Inc.(South Korea) Corning (U.S.) OSRAM GmbH (Germany) Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. (South Korea) Panasonic Corporation (Japan) Philips Electronics (Netherland) Microchip Technologies (U.S.) Sony Corporation (Japan) Universal Display Corporation (U.S.)Request a Sample Report @Objective of LED & OLED Display Market Study: To provide detailed analysis of the market structure along with forecast for the next 10 years of the various segments and sub-segments of the Global LED & OLED Display market. To provide insights about factors affecting the market growth. To analyze the LED & OLED Display Market based on various factors- price analysis, supply chain analysis, porters five force analysis etc. To provide historical and forecast revenue of the market segments and sub-segments with respect to four main geographies and their countries- North America, Europe, Asia, and Rest of the World (ROW). To provide country level analysis of the market with respect to the current market size and future prospective To provide country level analysis of the market for segment by type, by applications and sub-segments. To provide strategic profiling of key players in the market, comprehensively analyzing their core competencies, and drawing a competitive landscape for the market To track and analyze competitive developments such as joint ventures, strategic alliances, mergers and acquisitions, new product developments, and research and developments in the Global LED & OLED Display market.Segments:Global LED & OLED Display Market can be segmented as follows:Segmentation by Type: Passive-matrix OLED (PMOLED), Active-matrix OLED (AMOLED), organic LED, inorganic LED and high brightness LED among others.Segmentation by Application: Commercial, residential and industrial among others.Regional Analysis of LED & OLED Display Market:North America is dominating the Global LED & OLED Display Market with the largest market share due to presence of established market players and growing technical base in the region, and therefore accounting for high million and is expected to grow over more billion by 2027.Industry News: Universal Display Corporation has announced about its acquisition of BASFs OLED intellectual property on June 2016. BASF is one of the leading chemical industries in the globe. This acquisition would help in the development in commercial blue emissive system. Sony Europe has announced in August 2016 that it has acquired eSATURNUS NV, a Belgium based company which provides clinical video in medical field. This acquisition covers intellectual property rights and technological and software capabilities of the organization.Americas: North America US Canada Latin AmericaEurope: Western Europe Germany France U.K Rest of Western Europe Eastern EuropeBrowse Full Report Details @Asia Pacific:Asia China India Japan South Korea Rest of Asia PacificAbout Market Research Future:At Market Research Future (MRFR), we enable our customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through our Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Raw Research Reports (3R), Continuous-Feed Research (CFR), and Market Research & Consulting Services.MRFR team have supreme objective to provide the optimum quality market research and intelligence services to our clients. Our market research studies by products, services, technologies, applications, end users, and market players for global, regional, and country level market segments, enable our clients to see more, know more, and do more, which help to answer all their most important questions.Contact:Market Research FutureOffice No. 524/528, Amanora ChambersMagarpatta Road, HadapsarPune - 411028Maharashtra, India+1 646 845 9312Email: sales@marketresearchfuture.comConveyor System Market 2018 by Global Leaders: aifuku, Dematic Group, Emerson Electric, Siemens AG, Allied Conveyor Systems, Caterpillar, Dorner Conveyors, Dynamic Conveyors, Fives Group, FMC technologies

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Market Research Future published a research report on Global Conveyor System Market Research Report- Forecast 2022  Market Analysis, Scope, Stake, Progress, Trends and Forecast to 2023.Market Scenario:A Conveyor System is one of the most used & preferred equipment all over the world and can be used in wide range of applications. It is an equipment which is used to handle and transport materials within industry premises and used in several industries including automotive, manufacturing, retail, food and beverage, and transportation Conveyors system refers to numerous products such as belt conveyors, roller, and pallet among others. The use of conveyors system ensures handling larger volume of goods & efficiency. Moreover, Factors such as growing industrialization, need of automation to reduce manufacturing costs and waste and growth of e-commerce moving them towards adoption of conveyor systems, Fluctuating raw material prices, environmental regulations, as well as uncertainty of final products hampers the growth of the market significantly.Get Sample of Report @Study Objectives of Conveyor System MarketTo provide detailed analysis of the market structure along with forecast of the various segments and sub-segments of the Conveyor system markets Market.To provide insights about factors affecting the market growth.To analyze the Conveyor system markets market based porters five force analysis etc.To provide historical and forecast revenue of the market segments and sub-segments with respect to four main geographies and their countries- North America, Europe, Asia, and Rest of the World (ROW)To provide country level analysis of the market with respect to the current market size and future prospectiveTo provide country level analysis of the market for segment by type, applications and sub-segmentsTo provide strategic profiling of key players in the market, comprehensively analyzing their core competencies, and drawing a competitive landscape for the marketTo track and analyze competitive developments such as joint ventures, strategic alliances, mergers and acquisitions, new product developments, and research and developments in the Conveyor system.Regional AnalysisConveyor System Market is highly application driven and such conveyor systems are gaining popularity across the end user industries like automotive, retail, Food & beverages, airport which is referred as one of the major driving factors for market. Furthermore, increasing FDI investments in automotive sector, material safety concerns and other factors is also augmenting the growth of the market. Currently, America region is the largest market for conveyor systems, U.S. accounted for a majority of the market share Because of presence of developing countries such as Mexico and Brazil has enhanced the conveyor systems market.Asia Pacific is referred as fastest growing region for conveyor belts and North America is the second largest market for conveyor belt. The increase in the modernization and construction of new airports, distribution centers, and warehouses, the development of environment friendly and cost-effective conveyor systems will enhance the market for conveyor systems in Asia-Pacific and the Middle East.Key PlayersThe major player operating in the market of Global Conveyor system are- Daifuku, Dematic Group, Emerson Electric, Siemens AG, Allied Conveyor Systems, Caterpillar, Dorner Conveyors, Dynamic Conveyors, Fives Group, FMC technologies, Interroll and Intelligrated.Target AudiencePackaging OrganizationsManufacturerResearch Institute / Education InstitutePotential InvestorsGet Complete Report @Product AnalysisProduct matrix which gives a detailed comparison of the market for different recycled product typesAdditional InformationRegulatory LandscapePricing AnalysisMacroeconomic IndicatorsGeographic AnalysisGeographical analysis across 15 countriesCompany InformationProfiling of 10 key market playersIn-depth analysis including SWOT analysis, and strategy information of related to report titleCompetitive landscape including emerging trends adopted by major companiesThe report for Global Conveyor System Market of Market Research Future comprises of extensive primary research along with the detailed analysis of qualitative as well as quantitative aspects by various industry experts, key opinion leaders to gain the deeper insight of the market and industry performance. The report gives the clear picture of current market scenario which includes historical and projected market size in terms of value and volume, technological advancement, macro economical and governing factors in the market. The report provides details information and strategies of the top key players in the industry. The report also gives a broad study of the different market segments and regions.About Us:At Market Research Future (MRFR), we enable our customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through our Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Raw Research Reports (3R), Continuous-Feed Research (CFR), and Market Research & Consulting Services.Media Contact:Akash Anand,Market Research FutureOffice No. 528, Amanora ChambersMagarpatta Road, Hadapsar,Pune - 411028Maharashtra, India+1 646 845 9312Email: akash.anand@marketresearchfuture.comInvisible Braces Market: Industry Analysis, Growth, Trends and Forecast 2017  2025

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Dental braces and aligners are used in orthodontics to straighten and align teeth in order to position them appropriately to a persons bite. These instruments are often used to correct under bites, cross bites, over bites, malocclusions, crooked teeth, deep bites and various other oral flaws. Metal and ceramic braces are the most well-known types of braces for the orthodontic treatment. Aligners are relatively new orthodontic treatment option which removes the need for attaching braces and brackets to the teeth. In addition, clear aligners are not visible as the metal braces, thus do not impact the daily life of the patient. Aligners are made of smooth and virtually invisible plastic that will gradually and gently shift the teeth in the right place over a period of time.Request for Table of Contents @Treatment using clear aligners offers better comfort, flexibility and convenience compared to the traditional braces. There are no metal brackets or wires to be attached to this aligner for tightening it as they are customized specific to the patients requirement. Further, this aligners are cost effective and take less time to complete the treatment procedure. Moreover, clear aligners also avoid common side effects such as mouth sores, injuries, tooth decay and plaque buildup caused by the regular metal braces.The market for clear aligners (invisible braces) is analyzed based on the geographies categorized as North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific and rest of the world. North America dominates the market in terms of revenue generation and demand and is the one of the largest market for clear aligner manufacturers. Increasing consumer awareness for dental health and rising disposable incomes of the general population are the factors fueling the growth of the global clear aligners market.Get Sample Copy of this Report @Some of the major players in this industry include Align Technology, Inc., Clear Correct, LLC, and DENTSPLY International. Align Technology currently dominates the clear aligners market.About UsPersistence Market Research (PMR) is a third-platform research firm. Our research model is a unique collaboration of data analytics and market research methodology to help businesses achieve optimal performance.To support companies in overcoming complex business challenges, we follow a multi-disciplinary approach. At PMR, we unite various data streams from multi-dimensional sources. By deploying real-time data collection, big data, and customer experience analytics, we deliver business intelligence for organizations of all sizes.Contact UsPersistence Market Research305 Broadway7th Floor, New York City,NY 10007, United States,Telephone - +1-646-568-7751USA  Canada Toll Free: 800-961-0353Email: sales@persistencemarketresearch.comWeb:Warehouse Management System (WMS) Market 2018 Global Leaders: HighJump Software, Oracle, Manhattan Associates, Tecsys, JDA Software Group, LogFire, Softeon

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Market Research Future published a research report on Global Warehouse Management System (WMS) Market Research Report - Forecast to 2022  Market Analysis, Scope, Stake, Progress, Trends and Forecast to 2023.Market ScenarioA warehouse management system (WMS) is a software application, designed to support warehouse or distribution center management and staff. WMS applications can be so complex and data intensive that they require a dedicated staff to run them. The major driving factors for the growth of Warehouse management system (WMS) market are raising the demand for warehouse management system in retail as well as healthcare sector. Additionally, emergence of e-commerce and omni-channel fulfillment requirements are some factors fueling the growth of Warehouse management system (WMS) market. However, dominance Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) vendors have restrained the growth of this market. The global warehouse management system (WMS) market size was valued at around USD 1.15 Billion in 2015 and is expected to cross USD 2.45 Billion at CAGR of around 14% by 2022.Get Sample of Report @Study Objectives of Global Warehouse management system (WMS) MarketTo provide detailed analysis of the market structure along with forecast for the next 6 years of various segments and sub-segments of the Global Warehouse management system (WMS) MarketTo provide insights about factors affecting the market growthTo Analyze the Global Warehouse management system (WMS) Market based on various factors- price analysis, supply chain analysis, porters five force analysis etc.To provide historical and forecast revenue of the market segments and sub-segments with respect to four main geographies and their countries- North America, Europe, APAC, and Rest of the World (ROW)To provide country level analysis of the market with respect to the current market size and future prospectiveTo provide country level analysis of the market for segment by Type, by Application and by Region.To provide strategic profiling of the key players in the market, comprehensively analyzing their core competencies, and drawing a competitive landscape for the marketTo track and analyze competitive developments such as joint ventures, strategic alliances, mergers and acquisitions, new product developments, and research and developments in the Warehouse management system (WMS) Market.Regional Analysis of Global Warehouse management system (WMS) MarketEurope held the largest share of warehouse management system (WMS) market followed by North America. The advancement in warehouse management system as well as increasing awareness of cloud based warehouse management systems are some factors driving the growth of this market in European region. Asia Pacific is the fastest growing region for warehouse management system (WMS) market.Key PlayersThe key players of Global Warehouse management system (WMS) Market report include HighJump Software (U.S.), Oracle Corporation (U.S.), Manhattan Associates Inc. (U.S.), Tecsys Inc. (Canada), SAP SE (Germany), JDA Software Group Inc. (U.S.), LogFire Inc. (U.S.), Made4net LLC (U.S.), Softeon Inc.(U.S.), and Synergy Logistics Ltd (U.K.).Target AudienceManufactures OrganizationsDistributors & SuppliersResearch Institute / Education InstitutePotential InvestorsEnd-Use SectorsGet Complete Report @Product AnalysisThe Product matrix gives a detailed comparison of the different recycled product types of the market.Additional InformationRegulatory LandscapePricing AnalysisMacroeconomic IndicatorsGeographic AnalysisGeographical analysis across 15 countriesCompany InformationProfiling of 10 key market playersIn-depth analysis including SWOT analysis, and strategy information of related to report titleCompetitive landscape including emerging trends adopted by major companiesThe report for Global Warehouse management system (WMS) Market of Market Research Future comprises of extensive primary research along with the detailed analysis of qualitative as well as quantitative aspects by various industry experts, key opinion leaders to gain the deeper insight of the market and industry performance. The report gives the clear picture of current market scenario which includes historical and projected market size in terms of value and volume, technological advancement, macro economical and governing factors in the market. The report provides details information and strategies of the top key players in the industry. The report also gives a broad study of the different market segments and regions.About Us:At Market Research Future (MRFR), we enable our customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through our Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Raw Research Reports (3R), Continuous-Feed Research (CFR), and Market Research & Consulting Services.Media Contact:Akash Anand,Market Research FutureOffice No. 528, Amanora ChambersMagarpatta Road, Hadapsar,Pune - 411028Maharashtra, India+1 646 845 9312Email: akash.anand@marketresearchfuture.comFacial Recognition Market Size, Competitors Strategy, Regional Analysis and Growth Forecast to 2022

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Facial Recognition Global Market Overview:Facial recognition is an emerging intrusive and fastest biometric technology working with most individual identifier- the human face. Face recognition technology automatically identifies a person through comparing his digital image with the record available. It monitors the captured image from every angle, identifies skin tone of a human faces surface, and also able to identify the suspect by emotion analysis technique.There are various methods used to perform facial recognition such as 3D facial recognition, 2D facial recognition, thermal imaging and skin texture analysis. With growing technology advancement, 3D facial recognition is been adopted on large number over 2D and other facial recognition techniques. There is huge demand for 3D facial recognition technique in government and banking sector in order to increase security at homeland and in military & defence sector. 3D facial has the ability to identify suspect from a mile of distance unlike 2D facial and other techniques thereby has large benefits for suspect identification during criminal investigation. Further, Aware Inc., IBM Corporation, Apple, and Intel security group among others are implementing facial biometrics in wearable, PCs & laptops, thereby developing good opportunity for facial biometrics in commercial, and retail sectors.The growing criminal activities and increase in terrorist attacks worldwide has driven the huge demand for high tech and highly secured surveillance system especially for public places. The law enforcement agencies are using Facial Recognition Market to trace & identify suspects during crime investigations. Other than securities, facial recognition also attracting commercial and automotive market these days.Major Key Players: Safran SA (France), NEC Corporation (Japan), Cognitec Systems (Germany), Aware Inc. (U.S), Daon Inc. (U.S.), Gemalto (Netherlands) FaceFirst Inc. (U.S.), Ayonix Corporation (Japan), Key Lemon Ltd. (Switzerland), Face++ (China)Request a Sample Report @Industry News:December 2017  Intel Corporation in collaboration with Foxconn introduced use cases for 5G based edge computing facial recognition technology to serve emerging requirement of safety in application areas such as payments, retailing, and residential & business security. This technology allows consumer to make transactions within 0.03 seconds of payment process.December 2017  Vision Labs announced a strategic partnership with BS/2, a Lithuanian banking technology company, to develop an interbank services for contactless identification using facial recognition technology. This solution is expected to capture user data including gender, age, and emotional response with video stream analysis.November 2017  OnePlus, an emerging smartphone company, launched its new product named OnePlus 5T featuring facial recognition technology for device unlock.February-2017 Apple Buys Face Biometrics Company RealFace, an Israel based facial recognition company. With this acquisition, Apple is looking to introduce password based login on its iPhone with facial biometric solution.Facial Recognition Global Market- Competitive Analysis:IBM Corporation is the leading market player in Facial Recognition market and has occupied highest market share globally in 2016. They offer i2 facial recognition software kit for intelligent video analytics application. Recently the company has partnered with Rice University to develop elder care robots that can assist seniors which stay alone. These robots would have many features like sensors, cameras that would read facial expressions, sensors to capture vital signs, and Watson-powered speech recognition to know when to call for help.Safran S.A., NEC Corporation, Gemalto NV, and 3M Company are some other growing companies which are fuelling the growth of Facial Recognition in coming years.Facial Recognition Global Market- Segmentation:The Facial Recognition Market can be classified into 5 key segments as follows:Segmentation by Technology: 3D Facial Recognition, 2D Facial Recognition, Thermal Imaging, and Skin Texture AnalysisSegmentation by Services: Consulting and cloud basedSegmentation by Component: Hardware and SoftwareSegmentation by End-User: Government, BFSI, Commercial, Retail, Automotive, Education, Healthcare and others.Segmentation by Regions: Comprises Geographical regions - North America, Europe, Asia Pacific and Rest of the World.Browse Full Report Details @Facial Recognition Global Market- Regional AnalysisThe global facial recognition market is estimated to grow at a promising rate in upcoming years. North America is dominating the market followed by Europe. Law enforcement agencies of U.S. and Canada are early adopter of facial recognition technology to control the increasing crime rate in the country. Mexico government has also implemented this technology to reduce fraud at elections and to control the criminal activities in the country.Asia-Pacific is the fastest growing region which is estimated to show high growth during forecast period. China is dominating the market in Asia-Pacific. In China, government and private companies has deployed facial recognition technology for various purposes such as public safety, fraud prevention, and reducing crime rate. In India also, Government and NGOs are promoting facial recognition technology based biometrics service. However, lack of technical awareness about facial biometrics process and benefits is the major reason behind slow growth in the country.About Market Research Future:At Market Research Future (MRFR), we enable our customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through our Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Raw Research Reports (3R), Continuous-Feed Research (CFR), and Market Research & Consulting Services.MRFR team have supreme objective to provide the optimum quality market research and intelligence services to our clients. Our market research studies by products, services, technologies, applications, end users, and market players for global, regional, and country level market segments, enable our clients to see more, know more, and do more, which help to answer all their most important questions.ContactMarket Research FutureOffice No. 528, Amanora ChambersMagarpatta Road, Hadapsar,Pune  411028Maharashtra, India+1 646 845 9312Email: sales@marketresearchfuture.comPolymer Bearing Market to Register a Healthy CAGR Throughout 2017 - 2025

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Polymer bearings are used as an alternative for metal bearings. Generally, they are used in applications where metal bearings are prone to friction or wear and tear, or where they may have exposure to chemicals or moisture. Polymer bearings are manufactured from polymers such as PP, PE, PT or a combination of polymers. Polymer bearings have several advantages over metallic or other types of bearings, such as: resistance to acid, alkali, grease, wax and solvents, corrosion resistance, their nonconductive nature and self-lubrication, among others. Owing to these advantages, polymer bearings help reduce maintenance cost in machinery.Request to Sample of Report-On account of stringent government regulations over energy consumption, emission of gases, waste disposal, etc. automotive companies focus on each possible solution to minimize weight of vehicles and their component parts. As polymer bearings are 70%-80% lighter than their metal counterparts, they are a viable substitute in the automotive Industry. It is commonly used in windshield wipers, hinges, shock absorbers, brakes, shafts, gearboxes, engine compartments, pedals, angle transmitters etc.Global Polymer Bearing Market DynamicsThe polymer bearing market is mainly driven by demand from automobile industries, especially in vehicle manufacturing in order to reduce weight, noise and to avoid corrosion. Polymer bearings are used in a wide range of applications, such as in chemical processing, textile processing, elevators and electronic products. Availability of polymer bearings in various types makes them suitable for an array of applications in various industries; which in turn is expected to increase demand for the polymer bearing market. Furthermore, polymer bearings are relatively more economical, making them a more favorable alternative to metal bearings.Growth of the polymer bearing market is restricted by fluctuation in prices of raw materials, which adversely affects the manufacturers profitability. Also, Polymer bearings are not suitable for use under high loads and at high temperatures, whereas these conditions are sustainable by metal bearings  hence restricting the use of polymer bearings in such applications. Additionally, there are several restrictions over the use of polymer bearings in food & beverage processing as there are chances of contamination. With technological advancement in the manufacturing processes and increasing awareness for its uses, demand for polymer bearings is expected to grow  thus helping it acquire a higher market share in the future.Request Report for TOC @Global Polymer Bearing Market SegmentationOn the basis of material type, the global polymer bearing market is segmented into:,, Polypropylene (PP), Polyethylene (PE), Ultra high molecular weight polyethylene (UHMW), Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET), Polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF), Acetyl Polyoxymethylene (POM), Polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE), Phenol resins, Poly Acetyl, Others,,On the basis of type of bearing, the global polymer bearing market is segmented into:,, Ball bearing, Roller bearing, Needle bearing, Others,,On the basis of end use, the global polymer bearing market is segmented into:,, Automobile, Chemical, Textile, Electronics, Pharmaceutical, Food & Beverage, Packaging, OthersNeed more information about Report methodology ?Global Polymer Bearing Market: Regional OutlookThe polymer bearing market is mainly dominated by the Asia pacific region owing to the presence of major producer and consumer countries such as China and India. China, followed by India and Japan, hold the highest share of the polymer bearing market and are expected to remain major consumers over the forecast period. The Europe and North America region carries the second largest share of the polymer bearing market, owing to large demand stemming from the automotive industry and chemical industry, among others. Stringent regulations in North America have slightly affected the growth of the Polymer bearing market. Middle East and Africa are expected to register slow growth over the forecast period.Global Polymer Bearing Market PlayersSome of the market participants in the global polymer bearing market, identified across the value chain, include igus, Plastics Capital plc, Kashima Bearings, Inc, Icon Polymer Ltd, GGB Bearing Technology, Altra Industrial Motion Corp., Nozzle Auto Association Pvt. Ltd., Waukesha Bearings Corporation, Epic Polymer Systems Corp. and Poly Fluoro, among others.The research report presents a comprehensive assessment of the market and contains thoughtful insights, facts, historical data, and statistically supported and industry-validated market data. It also contains projections using a suitable set of assumptions and methodologies. The research report provides analysis and information according to categories such as market segments, geographies, types and applications.For more information about this Report visit @The report covers exhaustive analysis on:Market Segments, Market Dynamics, Market Size, Supply & Demand, Current Trends/Issues/Challenges, Competition & Companies involved, Value ChainAbout UsPersistence Market Research (PMR) is a third-platform research firm. Our research model is a unique collaboration of data analytics and market research methodology to help businesses achieve optimal performance.Contact UsPersistence Market Research305 Broadway7th Floor, New York City,NY 10007, United States,USA  Canada Toll Free: 800-961-0353Email: sales@persistencemarketresearch.comWeb:Medical Ventilator Market Outlook to 2022: Top Companies Resmed, Medtronic, Philips Healthcare, GE Healthcare, Invacare, Teijin Pharma, Fisher & Paykel, Drager Medical

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The Medical Ventilator Market Research Report Forecast 2017-2022 is a valuable source of insightful data for business strategists. It provides the Medical Ventilator industry overview with growth analysis and historical & futuristic cost, revenue, demand and supply data (as applicable). The research analysts provide an elaborate description of the value chain and its distributor analysis.A medical ventilator is a mechanical ventilator, a machine designed to move breathable air into and out of the lungs, to provide breathing for a patient who is physically unable to breathe or breathing insufficiently.Scope of the Report:This report focuses on the Medical Ventilator 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.Request a Free sample PDF of this research to evaluate more @Medical Ventilator Market Segment by Top Manufacturers Including:Resmed, Medtronic, BD (Carefusion), Philips Healthcare, GE Healthcare, Invacare, Teijin Pharma, Fisher & Paykel, Drager Medical, DeVilbiss and eVent Medical.An inherent sub-vertical of the Medical Devices Industry space, Medical Ventilator market stands to gain remarkable proceeds over 2017-2022, as per a recently compiled report Market Segment by Regions, regional analysis covers:North America (United States, Canada and Mexico)Europe (Germany, France, UK, Russia and Italy)Asia-Pacific (China, Japan, Korea, India and Southeast Asia)South America (Brazil, Argentina, Colombia)Middle East and Africa (Saudi Arabia, UAE, Egypt, Nigeria and South Africa)Market Segment by Table of Contents:Global Medical Ventilator Market OverviewGlobal Medical Ventilator Market Manufacturers ProfilesGlobal Medical Ventilator Market Competition, by ManufacturerGlobal Medical Ventilator Market Analysis by RegionsGlobal Medical Ventilator by CountriesGlobal Medical Ventilator Market Segment by TypeGlobal Medical Ventilator Market Segment by ApplicationMedical Ventilator Market Forecast (2017-2022)Sales Channel, Distributors, Traders and DealersResearch Findings and ConclusionMarket Segment by Type, coversNon-invasive Ventilator and Invasive VentilatorMarket Segment by Applications, can be divided intoHome Use, Hospitals & Clinics and OthersEnquire Discount on Global Medical Ventilator Market Research Report @There are 15 Chapters to deeply display the global Medical Ventilator market.Chapter 1, to describe Medical Ventilator Introduction, product scope, market overview, market opportunities, market risk, market driving force;Chapter 2, to analyze the top manufacturers of Medical Ventilator, with sales, revenue, and price of Medical Ventilator, 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 Medical Ventilator, 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, Medical Ventilator market forecast, by regions, type and application, with sales and revenue, from 2017 to 2022;Chapter 13, 14 and 15, to describe Medical Ventilator sales channel, distributors, traders, dealers, Research Findings and Conclusion, appendix and data sourceFor more information on this report, Please visit at:Related Reports: -2018-2023 Global Top Countries Medical Ventilator Market ReportThis report studies Medical Ventilator in Global market, especially in United States, Canada, Mexico, Germany, France, UK, Italy, Russia, China, Japan, India, Korea, Southeast Asia, Australia, Brazil, Middle East and Africa, focuses on the top Players in each country, coveringMarketstudyreport.com allows you to manage and control all corporate research purchases to consolidate billing and vendor management. You can eliminate duplicate purchases and customize your content and license management.Market Study ReportThe Green Suite #4594,Dover, DE 19901United StatesPhone: 1-201-355-0868US Toll Free: 1-866-764-2150Email: sales@marketstudyreport.comWebsite:News:More Report at:Global Air Cargo Market Growth Rate at a CAGR of 4.76% to 2021

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Air cargo service providers ship different kinds of goods by air, which are either for international or domestic customers. The cargo is either transported by passenger aircraft or dedicated freighter aircraft. The global air cargo market can be segmented by the two types goods that are transported, airmail and air freight. The transportation of mail via air is referred to an airmail service. Typically, airmail costs more than other modes of transportation but there is an advantage of the mail getting delivered faster.Publisher's analysts forecast the global air cargo market to grow at a CAGR of 4.76% during the period 2017-2021.FREE | Request Sample Copy is Available atCovered in this reportThe report covers the present scenario and the growth prospects of the global air cargo market for 2017-2021. To calculate the market size, the report considers the volume transported by different vendors that provide air cargo transportation services to end-user industries such as manufacturing, FMCG and retail, pharmaceuticals and chemicals, and other industries.The market is divided into the following segments based on geography:-Americas-APAC-EMEAPublisher's report, Global Air Cargo Market 2017-2021, has been prepared based on an in-depth market analysis with inputs from industry experts. The report covers the market landscape and its growth prospects over the coming years. The report also includes a discussion of the key vendors operating in this market.Key vendors-Cathay Pacific Cargo-Emirates SkyCargo-FedEx-UPSComplete Report is Available atOther prominent vendors-AIR FRANCE KLM MARTINAIR Cargo-British Airways-CAL Group-Cargolux-China Airlines-Delta Air Lines-Deutsche Post DHL Group-Etihad Airways-Korean Air-Lufthansa Cargo-Qatar Airways Cargo-Saudi Airlines Cargo-Singapore AirlinesMarket driver-Increase in e-commerce sales to boost air cargo market-For a full, detailed list, view our reportMarket challenge-Expected rise in jet fuel prices-For a full, detailed list, view our reportMarket trend-Expected rise in demand for temperature-sensitive products-For a full, detailed list, view our reportContact Us:Call: +1-646-491-9876Email: sales@reportsweb.comReportsWeb.com is a one stop shop of market research reports and solutions to various companies across the globe. We help our clients in their decision support system by helping them choose most relevant and cost effective research reports and solutions from various publishers. We provide best in class customer service and our customer support team is always available to help you on your research queries.505, 6th floor, Amanora Township,Amanora Chambers, East Block,Kharadi Road, Hadapsar, Pune-411028Cetane Number Improver Market: Global Industry Analysis, Growth, Trends and Forecast 2016  2026

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Global Cetane Number Improver Market: IntroductionCetane number is a measure of quality of ignition for diesel fuel. It indicates the time delay between injection and actual ignition of the fuel. Higher the cetane number, lower is the ignition delay, better is the ignition quality, more complete is the fuel combustion and better is the overall performance. In case of lower cetane number, higher is the overall time delay. Diesel fraction obtained from sour crude, blending of diesel with biodiesel or ethanol result in lower cetane number.Report Overview @Cetane number improver or simply cetane improver is that additive which is used to increase cetane number of diesel fuel. These Cetane number improver compounds are used in the concentration ranging from 0.06% to 0.4% and result in effecting increase in the cetane number by nearly 3 to 8. Thus, use of cetane number improvers result in improvement in overall ignition characteristics of diesel fuel.Moreover, cetane number improvers offer several advantages such as easy ignition of fuel, lowering smoke emission, wear reduction, smoother engine operation, among others. Cetane number Improvers are generally alkyl nitrate compounds which are decompose at higher temperatures and lower the initial boiling point of diesel fuel. Ethyl hexyl nitrate and Di-tertiary butyl peroxide (DTBP) are some of the commonly used as cetane number improver compounds.Request for Table of Contents @Global Cetane Number Improver Market: DynamicsGlobal cetane number improver market is expected to witness a steady growth during forecast period. Blending of biodiesel with conventional diesel results in a blend having relatively lower cetane number. Government regulations, especially in countries such as Brazil, U.S., Argentina, Germany and Spain, among others, pertaining to mandatory blending of biodiesel with diesel are expected to gain momentum during forecast period. As such, the demand for cetane number improvers is expected to in turn witness a steady growth during forecast period. Furthermore, increasing diesel fuel consumption in power generation and other application areas is expected to drive the growth in demand for cetane improvers over forecast period.Also, increasing preference for diesel fuel exhibiting complete combustion characteristic along with low exhaust emissions, is another factor that is expected to fuel the growth of additives like cetane improvers, antifoaming agents, cleaning additives, among others. However, relatively complex and precarious process involved in cetane number improver production coupled with relatively higher prices of these chemical compounds is expected to act as an impediment to growth of overall global cetane number improver market during forecast period.Global Cetane Number Improver Market: Segmentation:On the basis of chemical compounds used, the global cetane number improver market is segmented into following;2-Ethylhexyl nitrate (EHN),Di-tertiary butyl peroxide (DTBP),Others.Other alkyl nitrates, peroxides, ether nitrates and nitroso compounds etc. are also some of the chemical compounds that are used for cetane number improvement. However, commercial use of such chemical compounds is rather limited.On the basis of its application, the global cetane number improver market is segmented into following; Biodiesel,Petroleum Based Diesel.Global Cetane Number Improver Market: Regional OutlookGlobal cetane number improver market can be divided into seven major regions including North America, Eastern Europe, Asia Pacific, Japan, Latin America, Western Europe and Middle East & Africa. North America and Europe are expected to account for significant shares in overall global cetane number improver market during forecast period, however, developing regions such as Asia Pacific and Latin America are expected to register relatively faster growth during the same period.Stringent regulatory guidelines over the fuel characteristics in regions such as Europe and North America are expected to be major factors that are expected to drive the increasing demand for cetane number improvers in these regions over forecast period. Initiatives such as those in European Union, directed towards increasing use of biofuels in transportation sector are expected to in turn boost the demand for cetane number improver over the forecast period.Global Cetane Number Improver Market: Market PlayersSome of the players operating in global cetane number improver market include BASF SE, The Lubrizol Corporation, Innospec Specialty Chemicals, Chevron Oronite Company LLC., Eurenco, Nitroerg SA, Cestoil Chemicals Inc., Kutch Chemical Industries Ltd., EPC-UK, Dorf-Ketal Chemicals India Private Limited among others.Get Sample Copy of this Report @The research report presents a comprehensive assessment of the market and contains thoughtful insights, facts, historical data, and statistically supported and industry-validated market data. It also contains projections using a suitable set of assumptions and methodologies. The research report provides analysis and information according to categories such as market segments, geographies, types and applications.The report covers exhaustive analysis on:Market Segments,Market Dynamics,Market Size,Supply & Demand,Current Trends/Issues/Challenges,Competition & Companies involved,Value ChainRegional analysis includes:North America,Latin America,Asia Pacific,Japan,Western Europe,Eastern Europe,Middle East & AfricaThe report is a compilation of first-hand information, qualitative and quantitative assessment by industry analysts, inputs from industry experts, and industry participants across the value chain. The report provides an in-depth analysis of parent market trends, macroeconomic indicators and governing factors, along with market attractiveness within the segments. The report also maps the qualitative impact of various market factors on market segments and various geographies.Report highlights:Detailed overview of parent market,Changing market dynamics in the industry,In-depth market segmentation,Historical, current and projected market size in terms of volume and value,Recent industry trends and developments,Competitive landscape,Strategies of key players and products offered,Potential and niche segments, geographical regions exhibiting promising growth,A neutral perspective on market performance,Must-have information for market players to sustain and enhance their market footprintNeed more information about Report methodology ? @About UsPersistence Market Research (PMR) is a third-platform research firm. Our research model is a unique collaboration of data analytics and market research methodology to help businesses achieve optimal performance.To support companies in overcoming complex business challenges, we follow a multi-disciplinary approach. At PMR, we unite various data streams from multi-dimensional sources. By deploying real-time data collection, big data, and customer experience analytics, we deliver business intelligence for organizations of all sizes.Contact UsPersistence Market Research305 Broadway7th Floor, New York City,NY 10007, United States,USA Canada Toll Free: 800-961-0353Email: sales@persistencemarketresearch.comWeb:Therapeutic Drug Monitoring Market Overview Till 2025 | Industry Insights, Trends, Analysis, And Forecast

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North America holds the dominant position in therapeutic drug monitoring (TDM) market, owing to robust health care infrastructure, high awareness for treatment regime and increasing patient awareness regarding adverse drug reaction (ADR). According to 2013 survey by Medical Expenditure Panel published in Scientific American, 1 in 7 American adult consume Anti-Psychotic drug, a class of drugs which requires TDM. Stringent government regulations regarding safe medication practices especially with drugs having narrow therapeutic range would propel growth therapeutic drug monitoring. Moreover, increasing adoption of instruments such as monitors and analytic equipment, reagents, and diagnostics tools for drug monitoring is driving the growth of therapeutic drug monitoring market.However, difficulty in reimbursement bars the widespread usage of TDM, as often the cost associated with TDM is high. Furthermore, insufficient infrastructure and skilled manpower is restraining the growth of the market in emerging economies.To understand Research Methodology @Therapeutic drug monitoring is a multidisciplinary practice of measuring drug amount in bloodstream to maintain its effective concentration. It is used to maximize efficacy of drug, avoid toxicity and adverse drug reactions (ADR), facilitate dose adjustment according patient requirement, and to identify therapeutic failure. It is used especially for drugs characterized by narrow therapeutic window, drugs that are highly protein bound and those in which the metabolite might be toxic. Physicians and hospitals use therapeutic drug monitoring to maximize the clinical benefits of the drug by minimizing the toxic side effects thereby improving the quality of life for the patients.Personalized medicine is driving the growth of therapeutic drug monitoring market, owing to increasing demand for better treatment outcome with minimum side effects from the medication. For instance, TDM is majorly used for anti-cancer drugs monitoring for which standard guidelines are recommended by many oncology Journal and associations, one of them being the European Journal of Oncology. Moreover, advanced treatment therapies such pharmacogenomics, gene testing, and proteomics is further expected to boost the growth of market. Increasing antimicrobial resistance is one of the key factor driving the growth of TDM market. According to WHO Factsheet 2017, antimicrobial resistance is one of the leading cause of death. For instance, according to WHO factsheet, around 4,80,000 multi-drug resistance TB cases were reported, which is creating an opportunity for physicians to optimize or monitor the drug therapies through TDM.Organ transplant procedures are also propelling the growth of therapeutic drug monitoring market. Immunosuppressant drugs are basic treatment for organ transplant to avoid rejection of transplanted organ by body, which requires TDM to avoid ADR and side effects. Asia Pacific is a promising region for organ transplant due to increased awareness and infrastructure availability. According to Waters Corporation Blog, China witnessed 35% y-o-y increase in organ transplant in the first 4 months of 2017. There is a growing trend of clinical research organizations being shifted to cost effective Asia Pacific region for bioequivalence study of generic drugs on account of low cost of processes in this region. Moreover, advances in the field of biomedical technology such as nano biosensors and implantable devices are expected to boost the growth of therapeutic drug monitoring market. Advancement in tools for TDM such as assay kits, chromatography columns, spectrometry, and alternative matrices such as interstitial fluid provide continuous real time monitoring of the therapeutic drug through Probe Scientifics new MicroEye Technology.Key players in the global therapeutic drug monitoring market include Roche Diagnostics, Thermo Fisher Scientific, Bio Rad Laboratories, Siemens Healthcare Diagnostics, Beckmann Coulter, and Abbott Diagnostics. In 2016, Danaher Corporation, parent company for Beckman Coulter acquired Cepheid at US$ 4 billion to strengthen companys diagnostic portfolio.Complete Report Details @Catch us at 3rd International Conference on Separation + Drying Technologies for Milk & Whey at Cologne, March 19 and 20, 2018About 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.1001 4th Ave,#3200Seattle, WA 98154Global Minimally Invasive Surgery Market Overview  Key Futuristic Trends and Competitive Analysis And Forecast To 2024

Minimally Invasive Surgery Market  Industry Trends and Forecast to 2024

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Global Minimally Invasive Surgery Market by Product (Surgical Devices, Monitoring & Visualization Systems, Endosurgical Equipment, Electrosurgical Equipment), By Application (Gastrointestinal Surgery, Gynecology Surgery, Urology Surgery, Cosmetic Surgery, Obesity Surgery, Thoracic Surgery, Vascular Surgery, Orthopaedic Surgery), By Technology (Transcatheter Surgery, Laparoscopy Surgery, Non-Visual Imaging, Medical Robotics), By End User (Hospital Surgical Departments, Outpatient Surgery Centers, Group Practices, Individual Surgeons), By Geography  Industry Trends and Forecast to 2024The Global Minimally Invasive Surgery Market accounted to USD 37.27 billion in 2016 growing at a CAGR of 11.3% during the forecast period of 2017 to 2024. The upcoming market report contains data for historic years 2015, the base year of calculation is 2016 and the forecast period is 2017 to 2024.Get a Free Sample Copy Of This Report @Top Competitors: Medtronic , Johnson & Johnson Private Limited, B. Braun Melsungen AG, Stryker, Smith & Nephew, Abbott, Applied Medical Resources Corporation, CONMED Corporation, Hoya Group, Zimmer Biomet, Bema Medical, Elite Life Care, Tegra Medical, Fortimedix Surgical, Eurosurgical, GENICON, Europages, MEDI-GLOBE CORPORATION, Silex Medical, LLC, Freudenberg Medical and Elliott Manufacturing among others.Major Market Drivers and Restraints: Less pain and better results boosts the market Less hospital stay and fast recovery Rise in geriatric population with chronic diseases Technologically advanced products in imaging endoscopes Benefits of minimally invasive surgeries over traditional open surgeries High price of minimally surgical instruments Lack of skilled surgeons is the challenge in the marketCompetitive Analysis:The minimally invasive surgery market is highly fragmented and is based on new product launches and clinical results of products. Hence the major players have used various strategies such as new product launches, clinical trials, market initiatives, high expense on research and development, agreements, joint ventures, partnerships, acquisitions, and others to increase their footprints in this market. The report includes market shares of minimally invasive surgery market for global, Europe, North America, Asia Pacific and South America.Speak To the Author @Market Segmentation:The minimally invasive surgery market is segmented by product into surgical devices, monitoring & visualization systems, endosurgical equipment and electrosurgical equipment.Electrosurgical instruments are sub segmented into electrosurgical generators, electrosurgical instruments and electrocautery devices.On the basis of application :- Gastrointestinal surgery, gynecology surgery, urology surgery, cosmetic surgery, obesity surgery, thoracic surgery, vascular surgery and orthopaedic surgery.By technology :- Transcatheter surgery, laparoscopy surgery, non-visual imaging and medical robotics.By end user :- Hospital surgical departments, outpatient surgery centers, group practices and individual surgeons.On the basis of geography:- North America & South America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, and Middle East & Africa.Read more about This Report @Key Questions Answered in Global Minimally Invasive Surgery Market Report:-What will the market growth rate, Overview and Analysis by Type of Global Minimally Invasive Surgery Market in 2024?What are the key factors driving, Analysis by Applications and Countries Global Minimally Invasive Surgery Market?What are Dynamics, This Overview Includes Analysis of Scope, and price analysis of top Vendors Profiles of Global Minimally Invasive Surgery Market?Who are Opportunities, Risk and Driving Force of Global Minimally Invasive Surgery Market?Who are the opportunities and threats faced by the vendors in Global Minimally Invasive Surgery Market?What are the Global Minimally Invasive Surgery Market opportunities, market risk and market overview of the Market?About Data Bridge Market Research:Data Bridge Market Research set forth itself as an unconventional and neoteric Market research and consulting firm with unparalleled level of resilience and integrated approaches. We are determined to unearth the best market opportunities and foster efficient information for your business to thrive in the market. Data Bridge endeavors to provide appropriate solutions to the complex business challenges and initiates an effortless decision-making process.Contact:Data Bridge Market ResearchTel: +1-888-387-2818Email: Sales@databridgemarketresearch.comInvestor: investors@databridgemarketresearch.comVisit Blog:Follow us on LinkedIn:Interior Design 2018 Global Market Key Players -HBA, IA Interior Architects, Perkins Eastman, SOM, Gold Mantis, Jacobs, Stantec  Analysis And Forecast To 2022

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Interior Design Market 2018Wiseguyreports.Com Adds Interior Design-Market Demand, Growth, Opportunities, Manufacturers, Analysis of Top Key Players and Forecast to 2022 To Its Research Database.Description:Based on the Interior Design industrial chain, this report mainly elaborate the definition, types, applications and major players of Interior Design market in details. Deep analysis about market status (2012-2017), enterprise competition pattern, advantages and disadvantages of enterprise Products, industry development trends (2017-2022), regional industrial layout characteristics and macroeconomic policies, industrial policy has also be included. From raw materials to downstream buyers of this industry will be analyzed scientifically, the feature of product circulation and sales channel will be presented as well. In a word, this report will help you to establish a panorama of industrial development and characteristics of the Interior Design market.The Interior Design market can be split based on product types, major applications, and important regions.Major Players in Interior Design market are:HBAIA Interior ArchitectsPerkins EastmanSOMGold MantisJacobsStantecCannon DesignAECOM TechnologySmithGroupJJRWilson AssociatesHKSM Moser AssociatesPerkins+WillNelsonHOKAreen Design ServicesDB & BNBBJCCDCallisonGenslerLeo A DalyRequest for Sample Report@Major Regions play vital role in Interior Design market are:North AmericaEuropeChinaJapanMiddle East & AfricaIndiaSouth AmericaOthersMost important types of Interior Design products covered in this report are:CommercialResidentialOthersMost widely used downstream fields of Interior Design market covered in this report are:Repeated DecoratedNewly DecoratedComplete report details @If you have any special requirements, please let us know and we will offer you the report as you want.Table of Contents:Global Interior Design Industry Market Research Report1 Interior Design Introduction and Market Overview1.1 Objectives of the Study1.2 Definition of Interior Design1.3 Interior Design Market Scope and Market Size Estimation1.3.1 Market Concentration Ratio and Market Maturity Analysis1.3.2 Global Interior Design Value ($) and Growth Rate from 2012-20221.4 Market Segmentation1.4.1 Types of Interior Design1.4.2 Applications of Interior Design1.4.3 Research Regions1.4.3.1 North America Interior Design Production Value ($) and Growth Rate (2012-2017)1.4.3.2 Europe Interior Design Production Value ($) and Growth Rate (2012-2017)1.4.3.3 China Interior Design Production Value ($) and Growth Rate (2012-2017)1.4.3.4 Japan Interior Design Production Value ($) and Growth Rate (2012-2017)1.4.3.5 Middle East & Africa Interior Design Production Value ($) and Growth Rate (2012-2017)1.4.3.6 India Interior Design Production Value ($) and Growth Rate (2012-2017)1.4.3.7 South America Interior Design Production Value ($) and Growth Rate (2012-2017)1.5 Market Dynamics1.5.1 Drivers1.5.1.1 Emerging Countries of Interior Design1.5.1.2 Growing Market of Interior Design1.5.2 Limitations1.5.3 Opportunities1.6 Industry News and Policies by Regions1.6.1 Industry News1.6.2 Industry Policies2 Industry Chain Analysis2.1 Upstream Raw Material Suppliers of Interior Design Analysis2.2 Major Players of Interior Design2.2.1 Major Players Manufacturing Base and Market Share of Interior Design in 20162.2.2 Major Players Product Types in 20162.3 Interior Design Manufacturing Cost Structure Analysis2.3.1 Production Process Analysis2.3.2 Manufacturing Cost Structure of Interior Design2.3.3 Raw Material Cost of Interior Design2.3.4 Labor Cost of Interior Design2.4 Market Channel Analysis of Interior Design2.5 Major Downstream Buyers of Interior Design Analysis.8 Competitive Landscape8.1 Competitive Profile8.2 HBA8.2.1 Company Profiles8.2.2 Interior Design Product Introduction and Market Positioning8.2.2.1 Product Introduction8.2.2.2 Market Positioning and Target Customers8.2.3 HBA Production, Value ($), Price, Gross Margin 2012-2017E8.2.4 HBA Market Share of Interior Design Segmented by Region in 20168.3 IA Interior Architects8.3.1 Company Profiles8.3.2 Interior Design Product Introduction and Market Positioning8.3.2.1 Product Introduction8.3.2.2 Market Positioning and Target Customers8.3.3 IA Interior Architects Production, Value ($), Price, Gross Margin 2012-2017E8.3.4 IA Interior Architects Market Share of Interior Design Segmented by Region in 20168.4 Perkins Eastman8.4.1 Company Profiles8.4.2 Interior Design Product Introduction and Market Positioning8.4.2.1 Product Introduction8.4.2.2 Market Positioning and Target Customers8.4.3 Perkins Eastman Production, Value ($), Price, Gross Margin 2012-2017E8.4.4 Perkins Eastman Market Share of Interior Design Segmented by Region in 20168.5 SOM8.5.1 Company Profiles8.5.2 Interior Design Product Introduction and Market Positioning8.5.2.1 Product Introduction8.5.2.2 Market Positioning and Target Customers8.5.3 SOM Production, Value ($), Price, Gross Margin 2012-2017E8.5.4 SOM Market Share of Interior Design Segmented by Region in 20168.6 Gold Mantis8.6.1 Company Profiles8.6.2 Interior Design Product Introduction and Market Positioning8.6.2.1 Product Introduction8.6.2.2 Market Positioning and Target Customers8.6.3 Gold Mantis Production, Value ($), Price, Gross Margin 2012-2017E8.6.4 Gold Mantis Market Share of Interior Design Segmented by Region in 20168.7 Jacobs8.7.1 Company Profiles8.7.2 Interior Design Product Introduction and Market Positioning8.7.2.1 Product Introduction8.7.2.2 Market Positioning and Target Customers8.7.3 Jacobs Production, Value ($), Price, Gross Margin 2012-2017E8.7.4 Jacobs Market Share of Interior Design Segmented by Region in 20168.8 Stantec8.8.1 Company Profiles8.8.2 Interior Design Product Introduction and Market Positioning8.8.2.1 Product Introduction8.8.2.2 Market Positioning and Target Customers8.8.3 Stantec Production, Value ($), Price, Gross Margin 2012-2017E8.8.4 Stantec Market Share of Interior Design Segmented by Region in 20168.9 Cannon Design8.9.1 Company Profiles8.9.2 Interior Design Product Introduction and Market Positioning8.9.2.1 Product Introduction8.9.2.2 Market Positioning and Target Customers8.9.3 Cannon Design Production, Value ($), Price, Gross Margin 2012-2017E8.9.4 Cannon Design Market Share of Interior Design Segmented by Region in 20168.10 AECOM Technology8.10.1 Company Profiles8.10.2 Interior Design Product Introduction and Market Positioning8.10.2.1 Product Introduction8.10.2.2 Market Positioning and Target Customers8.10.3 AECOM Technology Production, Value ($), Price, Gross Margin 2012-2017E8.10.4 AECOM Technology Market Share of Interior Design Segmented by Region in 20168.11 SmithGroupJJR8.11.1 Company Profiles8.11.2 Interior Design Product Introduction and Market Positioning8.11.2.1 Product Introduction8.11.2.2 Market Positioning and Target Customers8.11.3 SmithGroupJJR Production, Value ($), Price, Gross Margin 2012-2017E8.11.4 SmithGroupJJR Market Share of Interior Design Segmented by Region in 2016 8.12 Wilson Associates8.12.1 Company Profiles8.12.2 Interior Design Product Introduction and Market Positioning8.12.2.1 Product Introduction8.12.2.2 Market Positioning and Target Customers8.12.3 Wilson Associates Production, Value ($), Price, Gross Margin 2012-2017E8.12.4 Wilson Associates Market Share of Interior Design Segmented by Region in 2016 8.13 HKS8.13.1 Company Profiles8.13.2 Interior Design Product Introduction and Market Positioning8.13.2.1 Product Introduction8.13.2.2 Market Positioning and Target Customers8.13.3 HKS Production, Value ($), Price, Gross Margin 2012-2017E8.13.4 HKS Market Share of Interior Design Segmented by Region in 20168.14 M Moser Associates8.14.1 Company Profiles8.14.2 Interior Design Product Introduction and Market Positioning8.14.2.1 Product Introduction8.14.2.2 Market Positioning and Target Customers8.14.3 M Moser Associates Production, Value ($), Price, Gross Margin 2012-2017E8.14.4 M Moser Associates Market Share of Interior Design Segmented by Region in 20168.15 Perkins+Will8.15.1 Company Profiles8.15.2 Interior Design Product Introduction and Market Positioning8.15.2.1 Product Introduction8.15.2.2 Market Positioning and Target Customers8.15.3 Perkins+Will Production, Value ($), Price, Gross Margin 2012-2017E8.15.4 Perkins+Will Market Share of Interior Design Segmented by Region in 20168.16 Nelson8.16.1 Company Profiles8.16.2 Interior Design Product Introduction and Market Positioning8.16.2.1 Product Introduction8.16.2.2 Market Positioning and Target Customers8.16.3 Nelson Production, Value ($), Price, Gross Margin 2012-2017E8.16.4 Nelson Market Share of Interior Design Segmented by Region in 20168.17 HOK8.18 Areen Design Services8.19 DB & B8.20 NBBJ8.21 CCD8.22 Callison8.23 Gensler8.24 Leo A DalyContinued..Contact US:NORAH TRENTPartner Relations & Marketing Managersales@wiseguyreports.comPh: +1-646-845-9349 (US)Ph: +44 208 133 9349 (UK)About Us:Wise Guy Reports Is Part Of The Wise Guy Consultants Pvt. Ltd. And Offers Premium Progressive Statistical Surveying, Market Research Reports, Analysis & Forecast Data For Industries And Governments Around The Globe. Wise Guy Reports Features An Exhaustive List Of Market Research Reports From Hundreds Of Publishers Worldwide. We Boast A Database Spanning Virtually Every Market Category And An Even More Comprehensive Collection Of Market Research Reports Under These Categories And Sub-Categories.Addres:: Wise Guy Research Consultants Pvt Ltd: Pune  411028: Maharashtra,: Ph: +91 841 198 5042Isolated Gate Drivers Market: Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends, and Forecasts 2022

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MarketStudyReport.com Add New Global Isolated Gate Drivers Market Research Report 2017 to its research database. The report presents a deep study of the market growth factors and drivers. The report spread across 122 pages with table and figures in it.This report studies the Isolated Gate Drivers market. A gate driver is a power amplifier that accepts a low-power input from a controller IC and produces a high-current drive input for the gate of a high-power transistor such as an IGBT or power MOSFET. Gate drivers can be provided either on-chip or as a discrete module.Request a Sample Copy of Global Isolated Gate Drivers Market Research Report @Scope of the Report:This report focuses on the Isolated Gate Drivers 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 covers Texas Instruments, Analog Devices, Infineon, STMicroelectronics, BroadcomMarket Segment by Regions, regional analysis covers North America (USA, Canada and Mexico), Europe (Germany, France, UK, Russia and Italy), Asia-Pacific (China, Japan, Korea, India and Southeast Asia), South America (Brazil, Argentina, Columbia etc.), Middle East and Africa (Saudi Arabia, UAE, Egypt, Nigeria and South Africa)Market Segment by Type, covers Isolated IGBT Gate Driver, Isolated MOSFET Gate Driver, OthersMarket Segment by Applications, can be divided into Industrial, Automotive, Enterprise, Telecommunications, OtherRequest Discount for Global Isolated Gate Drivers Market Research Report @Table of Content:3 Global Isolated Gate Drivers Market Competition, by Manufacturer3.1 Global Isolated Gate Drivers Sales and Market Share by Manufacturer (2016-2017)3.2 Global Isolated Gate Drivers Revenue and Market Share by Manufacturer (2016-2017)3.3 Global Isolated Gate Drivers Price by Manufacturer (2016-2017)3.4 Market Concentration Rate3.4.1 Top 3 Isolated Gate Drivers Manufacturer Market Share3.4.2 Top 5 Isolated Gate Drivers Manufacturer Market Share3.5 Market Competition Trend4 Global Isolated Gate Drivers Market Analysis by Regions4.1 Global Isolated Gate Drivers Sales, Revenue and Market Share by Regions4.1.1 Global Isolated Gate Drivers Sales by Regions (2012-2017)4.1.2 Global Isolated Gate Drivers Revenue by Regions (2012-2017)4.2 North America Isolated Gate Drivers Sales and Growth (2012-2017)4.3 Europe Isolated Gate Drivers Sales and Growth (2012-2017)4.4 Asia-Pacific Isolated Gate Drivers Sales and Growth (2012-2017)4.5 South America Isolated Gate Drivers Sales and Growth (2012-2017)4.6 Middle East and Africa Isolated Gate Drivers Sales and Growth (2012-2017)5 North America Isolated Gate Drivers by Countries, Type, Application and Manufacturers5.1 North America Isolated Gate Drivers Sales, Revenue and Market Share by Countries5.1.1 North America Isolated Gate Drivers Sales by Countries (2012-2017)5.1.2 North America Isolated Gate Drivers Revenue by Countries (2012-2017)5.1.3 USA Isolated Gate Drivers Sales and Growth (2012-2017)5.1.4 Canada Isolated Gate Drivers Sales and Growth (2012-2017)5.1.5 Mexico Isolated Gate Drivers Sales and Growth (2012-2017)5.2 North America Isolated Gate Drivers Sales and Revenue (value) by Manufacturers (2016-2017)5.2.1 North America Isolated Gate Drivers Sales by Manufacturers (2016-2017)5.2.2 North America Isolated Gate Drivers Revenue by Manufacturers (2016-2017)5.3 North America Isolated Gate Drivers Sales by Type (2012-2017)5.4 North America Isolated Gate Drivers Sales by Application (2012-2017)6 Europe Isolated Gate Drivers by Countries, Type, Application and Manufacturers6.1 Europe Isolated Gate Drivers Sales, Revenue and Market Share by Countries6.1.1 Europe Isolated Gate Drivers Sales by Countries (2012-2017)6.1.2 Europe Isolated Gate Drivers Revenue by Countries (2012-2017)6.1.3 Germany Isolated Gate Drivers Sales and Growth (2012-2017)6.1.4 UK Isolated Gate Drivers Sales and Growth (2012-2017)6.1.5 France Isolated Gate Drivers Sales and Growth (2012-2017)6.1.6 Russia Isolated Gate Drivers Sales and Growth (2012-2017)6.1.7 Italy Isolated Gate Drivers Sales and Growth (2012-2017)6.2 Europe Isolated Gate Drivers Sales and Revenue (value) by Manufacturers (2016-2017)6.2.1 Europe Isolated Gate Drivers Sales by Manufacturers (2016-2017)6.2.2 Europe Isolated Gate Drivers Revenue by Manufacturers (2016-2017)6.3 Europe Isolated Gate Drivers Sales by Type (2012-2017)6.4 Europe Isolated Gate Drivers Sales by Application (2012-2017)For More Info on Market Research @Related Reports: -World LED Billboard Market Research Report 2022(covering USA, EU, China, Japan, India and etc)LED Billboard market research report provides the newest industry data and industry future trends, allowing you to identify the products and end users driving revenue growth and profitability.Marketstudyreport.com allows you to manage and control all corporate research purchases to consolidate billing and vendor management. You can eliminate duplicate purchases and customize your content and license management.Market Study ReportThe Green Suite #4594,Dover, DE 19901United StatesPhone: 1-201-355-0868US Toll Free: 1-866-764-2150Email: sales@marketstudyreport.comWebsite:News:More Report at:Consumption of Methylparaben to Remain High During 2015 to 2021

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Methylparaben is a preservative used by the food, pharmaceutical, and personal care product industries. It contains antifungal and antibiotic products which can protect products against microbial growth. Methylparaben is utilized in several forms. It is used as a preservative in the cosmetic industry. Lotions, moisturizers, toothpaste, shampoos, personal lubricants, spray tanning solution and shaving cream among others consist of methylparaben. It prevents the growth of bacteria and fungi and promotes long shelf life of products. In the pharmaceutical industry, it is used in the medicinal products to protect it against contamination.Request to Sample of Report-Pharmaceutical products such as herbal preparations, eye medications and corticosteroids among others consist of methylparaben. An antibiotic such as aqueous penicillin also has methylparaben to protect it against fungi. Several food items also consist of methylparaben to protect against spoilage. Jams, syrups, bevarages and dairy products among others consist of Methylparaben in small quantities. It is generally used to prevent growth of Clostridium botulinum which causes botulism. Methylparaben is considered generally recognized as safe (GRAS) for food and cosmetic antibacterial preservation. It is produced commercially through esterification of para-hydroxybenzoic acid with alcohol such as methanol, ethanol, or n-propanol.The continued expansion and growth of cosmetics and pharmaceuticals industries is one of the key drivers for the methylparaben market. The rise in per capita income and increase in standard of living across the world has lead to increased spending on cosmetics. Methylparaben is used to preserve majority of cosmetics that are available in the market today. Parabens are popular as they are inexpensive, odorless, colorless, non toxic and have wide spectrum of antimicrobial activity. They are approved by the FDA for use in the cosmetics industry. The future of preservatives in cosmetic industry is expected to be shaped by consumer perception and regulatory issues.Request Report for TOC @The Asia Pacific market is projected to be the fastest growing market for methylparaben based products due to increasing demand for skin care, color cosmetics and hair care products. The BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India and China) countries are project to be major market for cosmetics in the coming years. Most of the major international cosmetic manufacturers are focusing on expanding their base in BRIC. Large population, rise in disposable income and availability of international products will contribute to the growth of cosmetic industry in emerging economies such as China and India. Further emerging countries like Argentina, Mexico, Thailand and Turkey will also show incremental growth. Hence, the growth of cosmetic industry is expected to drive the growth of the methylparaben market in the near future. Europe is currently the largest market for methylparaben followed by Asia Pacific, North America and rest of the world.Need more information about Report methodology ?There are large numbers of small and medium companies operating in this market especially in Asia Pacific. Some of the manufactures of methylparaben in Asia are Wuhu Huahai Biology Engineering Co. Ltd, Changzhou Elly Chemical Industry Co., Ltd, Gujarat Organics Ltd, Triple Chem, Evergreen Chemical Industry Limited, Dafeng Huaxin Bio-technology Co.,ltd, Prism Intertrade Tanzania Ltd, Xian Meheco, Qingzhou Ailitong Chemicals Technical Co.,Ltd, and HangzhoujianchengtradeCo.,Ltd among others . CellMark USA, LLC, Sea-Land Chemical Co, Charkit Chemical Corporation, BOC Sciences and Santa Cruz Biotechnology Inc among others are the key manufacturers in the U.S. In addition, Sigma-Aldrich Corporation is one of the key suppliers in the global market.For more information about this Report visit @Key geographies evaluated in this report are:North America, U.S, Canada, Europe, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and the UK, Eastern Europe, CIS, APAC, China, India, Japan, Australia, Others, Latin America, Argentina, Brazil, OthersAbout UsPersistence Market Research (PMR) is a third-platform research firm. Our research model is a unique collaboration of data analytics and market research methodology to help businesses achieve optimal performance.Contact UsPersistence Market Research305 Broadway7th Floor, New York City,NY 10007, United States,USA  Canada Toll Free: 800-961-0353Email: sales@persistencemarketresearch.comWeb:Tactical Communications Market Overview  Key Futuristic Trends and Competitive Analysis And Forecast To 2024

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MarketStudyReport.com adds a new Tactical Communications Market Research Report for the period of 2017-2024 that shows the growth of the market is rising at a 3% CAGR to 2024.Tactical Communications Market is set to exceed USD 30 billion by 2024; as per a new research report. Global shipments are projected to witness more than 3% CAGR between 2017 and 2024.The need for advanced systems having high-quality audio capabilities to replace the legacy systems in the military is anticipated to drive the tactical communications market growth. Advancements in communication technology, such as bone conduction, ear canal equipment, penetration of LTE in professional mobile radios is contributing towards the growing adoption of these devices. Furthermore, wireless technology in headsets is gaining precedence as it allows users easier movement and greater flexibility. To tackle the issues of miscommunication, vendors operating in the tactical communications market are leveraging compression technology and digital signal processing for the provision of clear filters for ambient sound and voice communication in any environment. The rising trend of product miniaturization is anticipated to transform the tactical communications market.Get Sample Copy of this Report:The tactical communications market has penetrated industrial verticals such as oil and mining, logistics, and manufacturing, which generate high noise during normal operation. To protect the hearing capabilities of the workforce, organizations are mandated by the government to provide adequate hearing protection while retaining the ability to conduct effective conversation. The usage of protective earplugs and communication headsets separately can restrict the capabilities of the user. To combat this, manufacturers are integrating robust communication systems with protective, durable gear, such as 3M Peltor ballistic proof headsets, to ensure the safety of the device and the user while maintaining high quality communications.The presence of government regulations in various economies such as the U.S and Europe are major factors contributing towards the high growth of the tactical headsets market. This equipment provides protection to the hearing of the customers from loud noises such as explosions and gunshot firings while filtering certain sounds of lower frequencies such as human speech to reach the user.The public safety applications in the tactical communications market dominated in terms of revenue share in 2016. This is attributed to the demand for covert and continuous communication channels during critical mission operations. Technological innovations such as magnetic ear canal technology allows for clear two-way communications in stealth and covert situations and are majorly adopted for usage by undercover operators and officers in the secret task forces.Get Discount on this Report:Rapid growth of the industrial sector in the Asia Pacific region is a major factor contributing to tactical communications market demand. Furthermore, several economies in this region are increasing their military spending and investing heavily in the development and procurement of safe communication channels and protective gear. For instance, India is increasing their military spending by approximately 6% during the fiscal year 2017 and is also contracting the development of tactical communication systems to local organizations such as Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL) under the Make in India' program.Players operating in the global tactical communications market include CeoTronics, David Clark Inc., Silynx Communications, Invisio Communications, 3M, Sepura, Bose Coporation, Savox Communications, etc. The tactical communications market is characterized by high investments in R&D. In September 2016, David Clark Inc. announced the launch of DC ONE-XH Helicopter Headset which has improvements in the voice transition in terms of clarity.Tactical communications market research report includes in-depth coverage of the industry with estimates & forecast in terms of volume in unit shipments and revenue in USD from 2013 to 2024, for the following segments:Tactical Communications Market, By Product:Headsets, PMRTactical Communications Market, By ApplicationIndustrial, Aviation, Construction, Public Safety.The above information is provided for the following regions and countries:North America, U.S., Canada, Europe, Germany, UK, France, Italy, Spain, Russia, Poland, Asia Pacific, China, India, Japan, Australia, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand.More Details On this report:Related Report:Unified Communications & Collaboration (UCC) Market Size By Platform (Telephony [IP Phones, IP PBX], Collaboration [Mobile, Social Network, Video Platform], Unified Messaging [Voicemail, Email, Fax], Conferencing [Audio, Video, Web], Services & Tools), By Deployment Model (On-premise, Cloud/Unified Communications as a Service (UCaaS), Hybrid), By Application (IT & Telecom, BFSI, Public Sector, Retail, Healthcare, Education), Industry Analysis Report, Reginal Outlook (U.S., Canada, UK, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Netherlands, China, Japan, Australia & New Zealand (ANZ), South Korea, India, Singapore, Brazil, Mexico, Argentina, GCC, South Africa), Growth Potential, Competitive Market Share & Forecast, 2017 - 2024Unified Communications Market size is forecast to hit USD 57 billion by 2024. Increasing digitalization along with growing acceptance rate of mobile devices have had a considerable impact on unified communications & collaboration (UCC) market share. Merely a few years back, the application of mobile devices was only limited to voice communication, however, with the passage of time, the emergence of innovative technologies has changed the outlook of the traditional communication networks.About Us:Marketstudyreport.com allows you to manage and control all corporate research purchases to consolidate billing and vendor management. You can eliminate duplicate purchases and customize your content and license management.Contact Us:Market Study ReportThe Green Suite #4594,Dover, DE 19901United StatesPhone: 1-201-355-0868US Toll Free: 1-866-764-2150Email: sales@marketstudyreport.comWebsite:News:More Report at:Global Low Temperature Coating Market Research Growth by Manufacturers, Regions, Type and Application, Industry Analysis and Forecast 2024

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The Global Low Temperature Coating Market accounted for USD 3.54 billion in 2016 and is projected to grow at a CAGR of 6.9% during the forecast period of 2017 to 2024. The upcoming market report contains data for historic year 2015, the base year of calculation is 2016 and the forecast period is 2017 to 2024.For In depth Information Get Free Sample Copy of this Report@Global Low Temperature Coating Market By Coating Type (Powder-Based, Liquid-Based), By Resin Type (Polyester, Polyurethane, Epoxy, Acrylic) end Use (Automotive, Heavy-Duty Equipment, Industrial, Architectural, Furniture) Geography (North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, Europe, South America, Middle East and Africa)  Industry Trends and Forecast to 2024Complete report on Global Low Temperature Coating Market Research Report 2017-2024 spread across 350 Pages, profiling Top companies and supports with tables and figuresMarket Definition: Global Low Temperature Coating MarketLow temperature coating is also known as low cure coating which is used in automotive electronics due to its short healing time and expanded efficiency level. These are primarily used in order to prevent coating in specific are as during the diffusion coating process below1,500F.These coatings are used in automotive, heavy-duty equipment, industrial, architectural and furniture manufacturing sectors.Key Questions Answered in Global Low Temperature Coating Market Report:-Our Report offers:- What will the market growth rate, Overview and Analysis by Type of Global Low Temperature Coating Market in 2024? What are the key factors driving, Analysis by Applications and Countries Global Low Temperature Coating Market? What are Dynamics, This Overview Includes Analysis of Scope, and price analysis of top Vendors Profiles of Global Low Temperature Coating Market? Who are Opportunities, Risk and Driving Force of Global Low Temperature Coating Market? Who are the opportunities and threats faced by the vendors in Global Low Temperature Coating Market? Business Overview by Type, Applications, Gross Margin and Market Share What are the Global Low Temperature Coating Market opportunities, market risk and market overview of the Market?Request for Detailed TOC:Top Key Players: PPG Industries Inc. Axalta Coating Systems LLC. Dupont The Valspar Corporation Bowers Industrial Vitracoat Tulip Paints Platinum Phase SdnBhd Forrest Technical Coatings Specialty Polymer Coatings Inc. among others.Major Market Drivers: Environment friendly coating Growing demand from the automotive sector More of energy saving due to minimization in cure temperaturesRestraints: Difficult to use in thin film applicationsInquire Before Buying @Customize report of "Global Low Temperature Coating Market" as per customers requirement also available.Market Segmentations:Global Low Temperature Coating Market is segmented on the basis of Coating Type Resin Type End Use GeographyMarket Segmentations in Details:On the basis of Coating Type, global low temperature coating market is segmented into powder-based and liquid-based.On the basis of Resin Type, global low temperature coating market is segmented into polyester, polyurethane and epoxy, acrylic.On the basis of End Use, global low temperature coating market is segmented into automotive, heavy-duty equipment, industrial, architectural and furniture.On the basis of Geography, North America South America Europe Asia-Pacific Middle East & AfricaCompany Share Analysis: Global Low Temperature Coating MarketThe global low temperature coating market is consolidated due to the presence of limited number of players concentrated in few countries. These major players have adopted various organic as well as inorganic growth strategies such as mergers & acquisitions, new product launches, expansions, agreements, joint ventures, partnerships, and others to strengthen their position in this market.Speak to Author of the report @Other ReportGlobal Location-based services (LBS) and Real Time Location Systems (RTLS) Market  Industry Trends and Forecast to 2024Global Location-based services (LBS) and Real Time Location Systems (RTLS) Market, By Geography; Location Type (Indoor, Outdoor); Technology (Satellite, Microwave & Infrared Remote Sensing, OTDOA & E-OTD, RFID & NFC, Context-Aware Technology, Wi-Fi/WLAN, UWB, BT/BLE, Beacons, A-GPS); Hardware; Software; Service; Application Area  Industry Trends and Forecast to 2024Report Access:About Data Bridge Market Research:Data Bridge Market Research set forth itself as an unconventional and neoteric Market research and consulting firm with unparalleled level of resilience and integrated approaches. We are determined to unearth the best market opportunities and foster efficient information for your business to thrive in the market. Data Bridge endeavors to provide appropriate solutions to the complex business challenges and initiates an effortless decision-making process.Contact:Vishal DixitData Bridge Market ResearchTel: +1-888-387-2818Email: Sales@databridgemarketresearch.comInvestor: investors@databridgemarketresearch.comVisit BlogFollow us on LinkedIn:Cancer Vaccines Market Overview Till 2025 | Industry Insights, Trends, Analysis, And Forecast

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Cancer is the second leading cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide. Major cause of cancer is gene mutation and rarely due to inherited genes. On the basis of the type of cell it initiates to form cancerous with, it is divided into carcinoma, lymphomas, leukaemias, brain tumors, and sarcomas. According to World Health Organization (WHO), 2017, nearly 1 in 6 deaths is due to cancer globally and around 70% of deaths from cancer occur in low- and middle-income countries. Moreover, it is projected that for next two decades, 70% of new cases are expected to be diagnosed globally. Advent of cancer vaccines can significantly reduce this numbers and lead a cancer-free life for the global population.To understand Research Methodology @Manufacturers in the cancer vaccines market are focusing on developing new vaccines in order to treat various cancers. Through this, they are expected to gain a competitive edge in the market and increase their market share. For instance, Gilead Science Inc., in 2017, acquired Kite Pharma Inc., which is involved in development of different type of immunotherapy and vaccines. Also, Treos Bio, in 2017, collaborated with Pharmaceutical Product Development, LLC (PPD), in order to conduct its first-in-human clinical trial for its cancer vaccine for metastatic colorectal cancer.Furthermore, BioNTech developed RNA vaccines for mutations caused due to cancer. RNA vaccine exposes cancer cell to antigen, which is recognized by the immune system. On the other hand, Scancells DNA vaccine forces cancerous cell to express two antigens  gp100 and TRP-2 stimulating a strong T cell response.In 2017, Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center and the Brain Tumor Center at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA), was designated a Specialized Program of Research Excellence (SPORE) by the National Cancer Institute. The program is expected to support research into prevention, detection, and treatment of cancers and will promote co-operation among scientist in different disciplines, and also help to translate basic research from laboratories to clinical trials more quickly and effectively. Such recognition by national organizations is expected to support research in cancer vaccines.According to a research from University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, in 2017, a high dose flu vaccine can be used to treat people aged between 5464 years with chronic condition such as heart disease, lung disease, diabetes, and cancer. The study is recommended for clinical trials in geriatric population.Also, in 2017, Swiss Biotech, developed VXM01  an attenuated bacterial vaccine modified to express vascular endothelial growth factor receptor-2 (VEGFR2), stimulates cytotoxic (killer) T cells, which will destroy cells in the vasculature feeding tumor and allow greater infiltration of immune cells. This vaccine is expected to be used for treatment in colorectal cancer and glioblastoma.In August 2017, Imugene Limited announced the entry of its anti-cancer vaccine, HER-Vaxx for gastric cancer in 1b/2 clinical study and the phase 2 is expected to start soon.Increasing prevalence and incidence of different cancers is expected to favor growth of the cancer vaccines marketAccording to WHO, in 2015, about 8.8 million people died from cancer. Moreover, tobacco related cancers was responsible for 22% deaths, lung cancer accounted for 1.69 million deaths, liver cancer led to 788,000 deaths. Colorectal, stomach, and breast cancer are estimated to cause 774,000, 754,000, and 571,000 deaths, worldwide. Increasing prevalence is a major driving factor to fuel growth of the cancer vaccines market.Key players in the global cancer vaccines market include, Astrazeneca Plc. (Medimmune, LLC.), Glaxosmithkline Plc., Merck & Co., Inc., Sanofi Pasteur, Aduro BioTech Inc., Sanpower Group, Astellas Pharma Inc., CSL Limited, Pfizer Inc., and Serum Institute of India Pvt. Ltd.Complete Report Details @Catch us at 3rd International Conference on Separation + Drying Technologies for Milk & Whey at Cologne, March 19 and 20, 2018About 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:Smart Irrigation Market - Changing Agriculture and Landscape Management to Sophisticated, High Tech Industries

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Smart irrigation is also known as technology-oriented irrigation. Applications of tools and technology in irrigation process has led to lessened use of water for irrigating of the same land and improved productivity of land and yield. Irrigation managers in smart irrigation function are according to the weather conditions, it shuts off automatically in case of wind, rain, and others. It functions are an vital tool to evaluate and apply right amount of irrigation water at right place, at right time to improve the productivity of the land and crop.It is an automated system, provides plants the exact amount of water when its required without any manual involvement. Smart irrigation system mechanically adjust the watering schedule based various real-time limitations including water content of the plant, wind direction, wind speed, and local weather data. Thses practises carries various advantages, including reduced labor cost, environmental sustainability, and also lowers the expense of water usage in the fields.Request For Free Sample Of The Report @The global smart irrigation market has be categorized into irrigation controller, hardware and network component, application and regions. Based on the irrigation controller the market has been segmented into sensor-based controllers and weather-based controllers. On the basis of network component the market has be bifurcated into sensor, network element of smart detection systems, and flow meter or water meter. Applications are widely segmented into non-agriculture and agriculture.The major factors driving the smart irrigation market are growing necessity for food production, decrease in the wastage of resources and rising need for water conversation. Installation cost is very high and lack of awareness about the advantages of smart irrigation are the major factros that may hamper the growth of smartt irrigation market in the near future.Geographically, the Smart Irrigation market has been bifrucated into five regions North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Middle East & Africa and Latin America. The Smart Irrigation market size and forecast period for each region has been estmated from 2017 to 2023. Additionally the CAGR (%) for the forecasted period 2017 to 2023. The study also includes market estimates for major countries/regions such as the U.S, the U.K., Germany, France, Japan, China, India, GCC, North Africa, South Africa and Brazil. The detailed analysis by irrigation controller, hardware & network component, application and regions supports in evaluating the present scenario, growth prospects and the future scenario for the smart irrigation market over the forecast period. Thus, the report delivers in-depth segment analysis of the market and classifies it into various industries, thereby providing valuable perceptions.PDF Sample For Latest Advancement:The growing need for more effective charging systems in the Smart Irrigation is anticipated to drive the Asia-Pacific market for Smart Irrigation in the future years. The major companies that providing Smart Irrigation include Rain Bird Corporation, Hunter Industries, Netafim, The Toro Company, Baseline Inc., Hydropoint Data Systems, Calsense, Galcon, Weathermatic, and Rachio Inc.About Us-Xpodence Research is a U.S. based Market Research Company and offers the most extensive collection of progressive surveying syndicated and customized research reports of various categories for private and public industries across the globe.We offer the comprehensive market research solution for all the industries by performing the in-depth study of industry trends, verticals globally. We believe in building an eternal bond with our customers through providing them inclusive research study both customized and syndicated based on their specific requirements.The organizations in every industry such as Technology, Pharmaceuticals, Consumable Goods, Food & Beverage and others demands a market-based solutions for various significant decisions based on productivity and output globally. Our services are tailored specifically to our clients by proposing them the potential outcome, based on our in-depth analysis and insights for exploring the growth strategies through providing the best possible decision for quality production.Contact Us-Xpodence ResearchUSA Office244 , Madison AvenueNew York City, NY - 10016United StatesUK Office109 ,Straford Street,LeedsWest Yorkshrie LS11 6JGUnited KingdomToll Free +1- 844-445-2861Email-sales@xpodenceresearch.comHot Melt Adhesives Market: Key Factors Impacting Growth by 2020

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Hot melt adhesive popularly known as hot glue is a thermoplastic adhesive which is commonly marketed in solid cylindrical form of varied diameters. Hot melt adhesives are designed in such a way that it can melt in electric hot glue gun. Hot melt adhesives have unique advantage of fast processing over other adhesives. Unlike water-based and solvent based adhesives hot melt adhesives do not need drying after application.Need more information about Report methodology ?Hot melt adhesives begin bonding immediately after it is applied on the object because it cools down to its solidification point immediately. Such fast solidification feature of hot melt adhesives is ideal for industrial application that requires high speed manufacturing line, bonding versatility, large gap filling, fast green strength and minimal shrinkage.On the bases of nature global hot melt adhesives market can be bifurcated into ethylene acrylic acid adhesives, polyolefin adhesives, polyurethane adhesives, amorphous polyolefin, ethylene vinyl acetate adhesives, styrenic block copolymer adhesives, polyamide adhesives and others. Hot melt adhesive are majorly applied by the packaging industry. Other major application of hot melt adhesives includes building and construction, paper converting, woodworking, tiles and floor adhesive product, bookbinding, clear case bonding, soap & bubble gum wrapper coating, footwear & leather goods, stock & tapes manufacturing, bottle labeling, automotive headlights and glue sticks.Request to Sample of Report-North America has the largest market for hot melt adhesives, followed by Europe and Asia-Pacific. China is the largest consumer of hot melt adhesive products owing to greater demand from manufacturing industry. North America is expected to maintain its dominance in the forecasted period. Europe is expected to show average growth. However, Asia-Pacific region is expected to witness highest growth in the coming future. Increasing number of manufacturing units in the developing region such as India is expected to boost the Asian market.Increasing demand from high speed manufacturing companies is driving the global hot melt adhesive market. Additionally, changing trend of the packaging industry (largest end-user of hot malt adhesive) is expected to increase the global demand for hot melt adhesive products. Also, government policy by EPA (environment protection agency) in the U.S. and European country for using eco friendly product is further expected to increase the demand for hot melt adhesive products to some extent.Request Report for TOC @Some of the major companies operating in the global hot melt adhesive market are Avery Dennison Corporation, Dow Corning Corporation, Sika AG, Henkel AG, H. B. Fuller, Beardow & Adams (Adhesive) Ltd, Bostik Inc., Hexcel Corporation, Worthen Industries, Inc., Ashland Inc., American Chemical Inc. and 3M CorporationFor more information about this Report visit @Key points covered in the reportReport segments the market on the basis of types, application, products, technology, etc (as applicable),, The report covers geographic segmentation, North America, Europe, Asia, RoWAbout UsPersistence Market Research (PMR) is a third-platform research firm. Our research model is a unique collaboration of data analytics and market research methodology to help businesses achieve optimal performance.Contact UsPersistence Market Research305 Broadway7th Floor, New York City,NY 10007, United States,USA  Canada Toll Free: 800-961-0353Email: sales@persistencemarketresearch.comWeb:Slitting Rewinding Machine Market 2017 to 2022 Top Manufacturers  Atlas Converting Equipment, Kampf, ASHE Converting Equipment, Euromac, Parkinson Technologies, Pasquato, Universal Converting Equipment

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The Slitting Rewinding Machine Market Research Report Forecast 2017-2022 is a valuable source of insightful data for business strategists. It provides the Slitting Rewinding Machine industry overview with growth analysis and historical & futuristic cost, revenue, demand and supply data (as applicable). The research analysts provide an elaborate description of the value chain and its distributor analysis.Slitting Rewinding Machines are machines for paper, plastic films, aluminum foil and flexible laminates. These Slitting Rewinding Machines are broadly categorized as converting machines and are used by manufacturers of Flexible packaging material in conjunction with Rotogravure/ Flexographic printing and Lamination equipment for the production of laminated reels and pouches.Scope of the Report:This report focuses on the Slitting Rewinding Machine 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.Request a Free sample PDF of this research to evaluate more @Slitting Rewinding Machine Market Segment by Top Manufacturers Including:Atlas Converting Equipment, Kampf, ASHE Converting Equipment, GOEBEL IMS, Euromac, Parkinson Technologies, Pasquato, Universal Converting Equipment, Parkland International, SOMA Engineering, Varga-Flexo, Grafotronic, Class-Engineering, HCI, Revomac, Toshin, Temac, Kingsun Machinery, Kunshan Furi Precision Machinery and Comexi.An inherent sub-vertical of the Manufacturing and Construction Industry space, Slitting Rewinding Machine market stands to gain remarkable proceeds over 2017-2022, as per a recently compiled report Market Segment by Regions, regional analysis covers:North America (USA, Canada and Mexico)Europe (Germany, France, UK, Russia and Italy)Asia-Pacific (China, Japan, Korea, India and Southeast Asia)South America (Brazil, Argentina, Colombia)Middle East and Africa (Saudi Arabia, UAE, Egypt, Nigeria and South Africa)Market Segment by Table of Contents:Global Slitting Rewinding Machine Market OverviewGlobal Slitting Rewinding Machine Market Manufacturers ProfilesGlobal Slitting Rewinding Machine Market Competition, by ManufacturerGlobal Slitting Rewinding Machine Market Analysis by RegionsGlobal Slitting Rewinding Machine by CountriesGlobal Slitting Rewinding Machine Market Segment by TypeGlobal Slitting Rewinding Machine Market Segment by ApplicationSlitting Rewinding Machine Market Forecast (2017-2022)Sales Channel, Distributors, Traders and DealersResearch Findings and ConclusionMarket Segment by Type, coversLess than 1000mm Web Width, 1000-2000 mm Web Width and Above 2000 mm Web WidthMarket Segment by Applications, can be divided intoPlastic Film, Paper, Foils and LaminatesEnquire Discount on Global Slitting Rewinding Machine Market Research Report @There are 15 Chapters to deeply display the global Slitting Rewinding Machine market.Chapter 1, to describe Slitting Rewinding Machine Introduction, product scope, market overview, market opportunities, market risk, market driving force;Chapter 2, to analyze the top manufacturers of Slitting Rewinding Machine, with sales, revenue, and price of Slitting Rewinding Machine, 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 Slitting Rewinding Machine, 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, Slitting Rewinding Machine market forecast, by regions, type and application, with sales and revenue, from 2017 to 2022;Chapter 13, 14 and 15, to describe Slitting Rewinding Machine sales channel, distributors, traders, dealers, Research Findings and Conclusion, appendix and data sourceFor more information on this report, Please visit at:Related Reports: -2018-2023 Global Top Countries Slitting Rewinding Machine Market ReportThis report studies Slitting Rewinding Machine in Global market, especially in United States, Canada, Mexico, Germany, France, UK, Italy, Russia, China, Japan, India, Korea, Southeast Asia, Australia, Brazil, Middle East and Africa, focuses on the top Players in each country, coveringMarketstudyreport.com allows you to manage and control all corporate research purchases to consolidate billing and vendor management. You can eliminate duplicate purchases and customize your content and license management.Market Study ReportThe Green Suite #4594,Dover, DE 19901United StatesPhone: 1-201-355-0868US Toll Free: 1-866-764-2150Email: sales@marketstudyreport.comWebsite:News:More Report at:Reasons Why the Cellulose Acetate Butyrate (CAB) Market Will Witness A Decline During 2015 to 2021

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Cellulose acetate butyrate (CAB) is an amorphous, transparent thermoplastic material with uses from trim for automobiles to tool handles, pens and blister packaging among others. It can be melted and remodeled into new shapes without altering its molecular structure. It is resistant to ultraviolet rays, has low moisture absorption and high impact strength. In addition it has high transparency, aesthetic appeal, high dielectric constant, excellent machinability, compatibility with human skin and ability to be offered in unlimited range of colors.For more information about this Report visit @It has soft and pliable nature and can be stretched up to 60% of its original length. It is expensive than its precursor cellulose acetate because of additional steps necessary in producing the compound. Since, cellulose acetate butyrate is resistant to ultraviolet, it can be used for applications where high surface gloss is needed such as production of lacquers for lenses and for various forms of plastic film.Cellulose acetate butyrate is resistant to household chemicals and can be used in manufacture of numerous types of toys and sporting goods. Since, cellulose acetate butyrate has low electrical conductivity, high internal resistance and external resistance, it serves as a good insulating material. It also finds variety of applications in products such as textile fibers, wound dressings, photography, slip covers, steering wheels, goggles, pneumatic system traps and magnetic tape among others. Majority of cellulose acetate butyrate is consumed for making cigarette filters.Request Report for TOC @Cigarette tow and textiles are the key end use application for cellulose acetate butyrate. The major demand comes from cigarette filter tow manufacturing companies that are also engaged in manufacture of textile fibers. Rising consumption of cigarette in low to middle income countries such as China and India, introduction of longer cigarette filters, preference for low tar cigarettes is driving the demand for cellulose acetate butyrate. Absence of stringent government regulations regarding cigarette consumption and demand for lesser emission of nicotine in the smoke is also accelerating the demand for cellulose acetate butyrate in emerging economies. A company must incur huge sunk costs to build a dedicated production facility, this act as a significant barrier for new players to enter the cellulose acetate butyrate market.Cellulose acetate butyrate is a mature product and growth has slowed down in the U.S and Western Europe. Cigarette applications are getting diminished in Europe and the U.S as a result of increased awareness of health hazards of smoking and stringent government regulations. Demand for cellulose acetate butyrate is growing in Eastern and Central Europe, India, China and Latin America as cigarette consumption is growing in these regions.Need more information about Report methodology ?The Asia Pacific region is the largest consumer for Cellulose acetate butyrate. It is also one of the fastest growing regions for cellulose acetate butyrate, largely driven by filter tow market. China is the largest market in terms of filter tow consumption and new cellulose acetate filter tow production facilities and capacity expansions are expected to be constructed in China in the coming years. There is also a shift of textile production facilities from western countries towards China that favors the growth of domestic market.Request to Sample of Report-The key companies in the cellulose acetate butyrate market include Mitsubishi Rayon Co. Ltd, Daicel Corporation, Eastman Chemical Company, Celanese Corporation, SK Chemicals Co. Ltd, Celanese Acetate, Rhodia Acetow GmbH, Primester, Simagchem Corporation, Haihang Industry Co. and Hangzhou Dayangchem Co. Ltd among others.About UsPersistence Market Research (PMR) is a third-platform research firm. Our research model is a unique collaboration of data analytics and market research methodology to help businesses achieve optimal performance.Contact UsPersistence Market Research305 Broadway7th Floor, New York City,NY 10007, United States,USA  Canada Toll Free: 800-961-0353Email: sales@persistencemarketresearch.comWeb:Major Advancements of Corporate Wellness Market : Market share, Trend analysis, Growth drivers, Future opportunity and forecast 2024

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Researchmoz added Most up-to-date research on "Corporate Wellness Market: (Service Type - Health Risk Assessment, Fitness, Smoking Cessation, Health Screening, Weight Management, Nutrition) - Asia Pacific Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends, and Forecast 2016 - 2024" to its huge collection of research reports.Corporate wellness services such as fitness, health risk assessment, weight management, and health screening have witnessed significant growth in revenue in the past few years. Corporate wellness programs are designed to support employees in understanding their health risk and accepting healthy behavior at workplace and to reduce their health care expenditure. These programs reduce the cost of hospitalization, emergency room visits, specialist visits, and surgeries. Moreover, corporate wellness programs result in decrease in absenteeism, increase in productivity, and improvement in quality of life of employees. Increase in non-communicable diseases, government support and initiatives, growingnumber of white collar employees, rising health consciousness among the population, willingness of employers to incorporate wellness programs, and mandatory laws to implement wellness programs in organizations are the factors likely to drive the corporate wellness market in Asia Pacific. However, high cost of services andinefficient execution of corporate wellness services are anticipated to hamper the growth of the corporate wellness market in Asia Pacific.To Get Sample Copy of Report visit @The executive summary of the report comprises a market snapshot of the corporate wellness market in Asia Pacific and comparative analysis by geography in terms of value % for 2015 and 2024. Based on service type, the corporate wellness market in the region has been segmented intohealth risk assessment, fitness, smoking cessation, health screening, weight management, nutrition, and others.Market revenue analysis of all the segments mentioned abovehas been provided for the forecast period from 2016 to 2024, considering 2015 as the base year and 2014 as historical year. The executive summary also comprises majordrivers and restraints along with key trends likely to drive the growth of the corporate wellness market in Asia Pacific.The market overview section of the corporate wellness market report analyzes the market dynamics and trends such as drivers, restraints, and opportunities that influence the current and future status of the corporate wellness market in Asia Pacific. Impact factors such as market attractiveness analysis by geography of the corporate wellness market in Asia Pacific have been provided in this section of the report. Furthermore, the report includes market opportunity map, industry developments and opportunity analysisfor the market.Make an Enquiry about TOC @Geographically, the corporate wellness market in Asia Pacific has been segmented into ninecountries: China, Japan, India, Australia, Singapore, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Thailand, and Rest of Asia Pacific. The study further offers recommendations and key trends for the corporate wellness market in the region, which would be useful for existing and new players to sustain and grow in the market.The report on the corporate wellness market in Asia Pacific concludes with the company profiles section that includes key information in terms of company overview, financial information, product portfolio, business strategies, and recent development about the major players operating in the corporate wellness market in the region. Key players operating in the corporate wellness market in Asia Pacificinclude Central Corporate Wellness, ComPsych Corporation, Optum, Inc., JLT Australia (Recovre Group), Truworth Wellness, SOL Wellness, Sodexo, ConneXions Asia, and Bupa Wellness Pty Ltd.The corporate wellnessmarket in Asia Pacifichas been segmented as follows:Asia Pacific Corporate Wellness Market, by ServiceHealth Risk AssessmentFitnessSmoking CessationHealth ScreeningWeight ManagementNutritionOthers (stress management, diabetes management, and vaccinations)Asia Pacific Corporate Wellness Market, by CountryChinaJapanIndiaAustraliaSingaporeHong KongMalaysiaThailandRest of Asia PacificAbout ResearchMozResearchMoz is the one stop online destination to find and buy market research reports & Industry Analysis. We fulfill all your research needs spanning across industry verticals with our huge collection of market research reports. We provide our services to all sizes of organizations and across all industry verticals and markets. Our Research Coordinators have in-depth knowledge of reports as well as publishers and will assist you in making an informed decision by giving you unbiased and deep insights on which reports will satisfy your needs at the best price.For More Information Kindly Contact :ResearchMozMr. Nachiket Ghumare,Tel: +1-518-621-2074USA-Canada Toll Free: 866-997-4948Email: sales@researchmoz.usFollow us on LinkedIn @Sulphuric Acid Market to Represent Significant Revenue Growth

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Sulphuric acid also known as oil of vitriol having molecular formula H2SO4 is a highly strong corrosive mineral acid. Sulphuric acid is pungent-ethereal, colorless to slightly yellow viscous liquid soluble in water at all concentrations. During production, sulphuric acid takes dyed dark brown color to intimate people of its strong hazard effects. Sulphuric acid shows different properties with different material depending on the concentration. Having strong acidic nature, sulphuric acid can harm materials such as metals, living tissues even stones at strong concentration. Sulphuric acid at high concentration can cause serious damage to eye as it burns the cornea of the eye causing permanent blindness if splashed into the eye.Request to Sample of Report-Some of the majorly used methods of producing sulphuric acid include contact process (production of sulphuric acid at high concentration) and wet sulfuric acid process (gas desulfurization processes). Major application of sulphuric acid includes domestic acidic drain cleaner, electrolyte in lead-acid batteries also used as cleaning agent. Other major use of sulphuric acid is in the chemical industry. Major uses of sulphuric acid in the chemical industry include mineral processing, manufacturing of fertilizer, wastewater processing, chemical synthesis and oil refining. Sulphuric acid is used to manufacture phosphoric acid with the help of wet method, which is further used to manufacture phosphate fertilizer. Sulfuric acid is used as catalyst in the chemical industry for the conversion of cyclohexanone oxime to caprolactam used for nylon production.Request Report for TOC @Asia Pacific has the largest market share for global sulphuric acid, followed by North America and Europe. Asia Pacific region is expected to maintain its dominance in the global market owing to increasing domestic demand for sulphuric acid by the chemical industry. Emerging markets of China and India are expected to boost the Asia Pacific sulphuric acid market. Other emerging markets are the Middle East countries.Wide variety of application of the sulphuric acid in the chemical industry is driving the global sulphuric acid market. Additionally, with increasing population demand for better infrastructure, food crops and base metals is expected to increase. This is expected to increase the global demand for sulphuric acid. Also, various fertilizers are produce with the use of sulphuric acid; so increasing demand for fertilizers is further expected to increase the demand of sulphuric acid in the global market.Global sulphuric acid market is dominated by big chemical and pharmaceutical companies. Some of the major companies operating in the global sulphuric acid market are Agrium, Honeywell, Cytec Industries, Bayer, Akzo Nobel, Evonik Industries, Dupont, Chevron and SolvayNeed more information about Report methodology ?Key points covered in the reportReport segments the market on the basis of types, application, products, technology, etc (as applicable),, The report covers geographic segmentation, North America, Europe, Asia, RoWFor more information about this Report visit @About UsPersistence Market Research (PMR) is a third-platform research firm. Our research model is a unique collaboration of data analytics and market research methodology to help businesses achieve optimal performance.Contact UsPersistence Market Research305 Broadway7th Floor, New York City,NY 10007, United States,USA  Canada Toll Free: 800-961-0353Email: sales@persistencemarketresearch.comWeb:Ultra Fine Copper Powder Market Trends Global Industry Analysis, Top Manufacturers, Share, Growth, Statistics, Opportunities & Forecast up to 2023

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MarketStudyReport.com Add New Global Ultra Fine Copper Powder Market by Manufacturers, Countries, Type and Application, Forecast to 2023 to its research database. The report presents a deep study of the market growth factors and drivers. The report spread across 104 pages with table and figures in it.This report focuses on the Ultra Fine Copper Powder market, especially in North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, South America, Middle East and Africa. This report categorizes the market based on manufacturers, regions, types and applications.Request a sample copy of Ultra Fine Copper Powder Market Research Report @Market Segment by Manufacturers, this report covers GGP Metalpowder, Mitsui Kinzoku, Sumitomo Metal Mining, Gripm, Nippon Atomized Metal Powders, Jinchuan Group, Fukuda Metal Foil & Powder, Hebei Hengshui Ruenze, Hefei Quantum Quelle, Haotian nano, Join M, Shenzhen Nonfemet, DOWA, Ningbo Guangbo, Suzhou Canfuo Nanotechnology, Shanghai CNPC Powder Material, Kun Shan Detai Metal, Nanjing Emperor Nano Material, Tongling Guochuan.An inherent sub-vertical of the Chemicals and Advanced Materials industry space, Ultra Fine Copper Powder market stands to gain remarkable proceeds over 2018-2023, as per a recently compiled report Market Segment by Regions, regional analysis covers:North America (United States, Canada and Mexico)Europe (Germany, France, UK, Russia and Italy)Asia-Pacific (China, Japan, Korea, India and Southeast Asia)South America (Brazil, Argentina, Colombia)Middle East and Africa (Saudi Arabia, UAE, Egypt, Nigeria and South Africa)Market Segment by Table of Contents:Global Ultra Fine Copper Powder Market OverviewGlobal Ultra Fine Copper Powder Market Manufacturers ProfilesGlobal Ultra Fine Copper Powder Market Competition, by ManufacturerGlobal Ultra Fine Copper Powder Market Analysis by RegionsGlobal Ultra Fine Copper Powder by CountriesGlobal Ultra Fine Copper Powder Market Segment by TypeGlobal Ultra Fine Copper Powder Market Segment by ApplicationUltra Fine Copper Powder Market Forecast (2018-2023)Sales Channel, Distributors, Traders and DealersResearch Findings and ConclusionAppendixMarket Segment by Type, covers Nano Copper Particles PowderMicro Copper Particles PowderMarket Segment by Applications, can be divided into Electronic IndustryChemical IndustryMechanical IndustryPharmaceutical IndustryOthersEnquire For Discount on Ultra Fine Copper Powder Market Research Report @There are 15 Chapters to deeply display the global Ultra Fine Copper Powder market.Chapter 1, to describe Ultra Fine Copper Powder Introduction, product scope, market overview, market opportunities, market risk, market driving force;Chapter 2, to analyze the top manufacturers of Ultra Fine Copper Powder, with sales, revenue, and price of Ultra Fine Copper Powder, 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 Ultra Fine Copper Powder, for each region, from 2013 to 2018;Chapter 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9, to analyze the key regions, with sales, revenue and market share by key countries in these regions;Chapter 10 and 11, to show the market by type and application, with sales market share and growth rate by type, application, from 2013 to 2018;Chapter 12, Ultra Fine Copper Powder market forecast, by regions, type and application, with sales and revenue, from 2018 to 2023;Chapter 13, 14 and 15, to describe Ultra Fine Copper Powder sales channel, distributors, traders, dealers, Research Findings and Conclusion, appendix and data sourceFor More Info on Market Research @Related Reports: -2018-2023 United States Polycarbonate Diol Market Report (Status and Outlook)In 2017, the Polycarbonate Diol market size was xx million USD in United States, and it will be xx million USD in 2023, with a CAGR of xx% between 2017 and 2023. In United States market, the top players include UBE Chemical TOSOH Ba...Centralize market research purchases across your entire organization in one place.Marketstudyreport.com allows you to manage and control all corporate research purchases to consolidate billing and vendor management. You can eliminate duplicate purchases and customize your content and license management.Market Study ReportThe Green Suite #4594,Dover, DE 19901United StatesPhone: 1-201-355-0868US Toll Free: 1-866-764-2150Email: sales@marketstudyreport.comWebsite:News:More Report at:Connect with us: Google+ | LinkedIn | TwitterAntithrombin Deficiency Testing Market Demand is Increasing in Most Part of World - 2021

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Antithrombin III is a non-vitamin, K-dependent protease that naturally blocks abnormal blood clot formation in the bloodstream. Deficiency of antithrombin III causes various blood clot disorders in the human body. For instance, congenital antithrombin III deficiency is a common antithrombin deficiency, which usually occurs when individuals receive the abnormal antithrombin III gene from their parents. This abnormal gene causes abnormal blood clots in the human body which block blood flow and damage organs.Antithrombin deficiencies are mainly divided into two types: type I and type II. The type I antithrombin deficiency is characterized by an inadequate amount of normal antithrombin present in the bloodstream. In this condition, there is simply not enough antithrombin present to inactivate the coagulation factors. The type II antithrombin deficiency is characterized by adequate amount of antithrombin present in the bloodstream. However, it does not function properly and is unable to carry out its normal functions.Read Report Overview @The major symptoms of blood clotting include fainting, coughing up blood, shortness of breath, pain when taking deep breaths, and swelling of legs. In addition, some physical symptoms of blood clots are abnormal lung sounds, fast breathing, swollen foot or leg, and fast heart rate.The global antithrombin III deficiency testing market is categorized on the basis of various types of deficiencies, diagnostic procedures, and end users. Based on the type of deficiencies, the report covers type I antithrombin deficiency and type II antithrombin deficiency. Based on the type of technology, the report covers monoclonal antibodies, molecular diagnostics, differential light scattering, immunoassays, flow cytometry, chromatography, gel micro droplets, diagnostic imaging, and others. Based on end users, the report covers commercial or private labs, physician offices, hospitals, public health labs, and academic research institutes.Request Sample Report@In terms of geography, North America dominates the global antithrombin III deficiency testing market. This is due to increased government funding on healthcare infrastructure in the region. In addition, technological advancement in antithrombin III diagnostic procedures has also propelled the market in North America. The U.S. represents the largest market for antithrombin deficiency testing in North America, followed by Canada. In Europe, Germany, France, and the U.K. hold the major shares of the antithrombin III deficiency testing market. The antithrombin III deficiency testing market in Asia is also expected to show high growth rates in the next five years. This is due to the various initiatives undertaken by governments to increase awareness about blood clotting disorders in the region. In addition, increased investments by many foreign diagnostic instrument companies have also propelled the growth of the antithrombin III deficiency testing market in the region. India, China, and Japan are expected to be the fastest-growing markets for antithrombin III deficiency testing in Asia.Advanced applications of antithrombin deficiency diagnostic instruments and increasing prevalence of blood clot disorders are the key drivers for the global antithrombin III deficiency testing market. Also, increased government support in the form of funding and rapid technological advancements have fueled the growth of this market.An increasing number of mergers and acquisitions involving diagnostic consumables manufacturing companies and rapid product launches are the key trends in the global antithrombin III deficiency testing market.Download and View Report TOC, Figures and Tables @The major companies operating in this market are Abbott Laboratories, Avocet Medical Inc., Axis-Shield plc, Beckman Coulter Inc., Becton, Dickinson and Company, Trinity Biotech PLC, Thermo Fisher Scientific, Inc., Siemens AG, Roche, Chrono-log Corporation, Sysmex Corporation, Hyphen Biomed and American Diagnostica GmbH.About UsPersistence Market Research (PMR) is a third-platform research firm. Our research model is a unique collaboration of data analytics and market research methodology to help businesses achieve optimal performance.To support companies in overcoming complex business challenges, we follow a multi-disciplinary approach. At PMR, we unite various data streams from multi-dimensional sources. By deploying real-time data collection, big data, and customer experience analytics, we deliver business intelligence for organizations of all sizes.Contact UsPersistence Market Research305 Broadway7th Floor, New York City,NY 10007, United States,USA  Canada Toll Free: 800-961-0353Email: sales@persistencemarketresearch.comWeb:Pacemaker Devices Market Dynamics, Segments, Size and Demand by 2022

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The vendor landscape of the global pacemaker devices market is moderately fragmented, thanks to the presence of several established medical companies, observes Transparency Market Research (TMR) in a recent report. In the next few years, the market is likely to become more crowded and competitive owing to the rising number of specialist players in the market globally. To remain competitive in such intense dynamics, companies have begun focusing more on innovations and expansion of business across promising emerging markets.Some of the leading players operating in the global pacemaker devices market are Boston Scientific Corporation, Biotronik SE & Co. KG, Medtronic Plc., OSYPKA AG, Lepu Medical Technology, Pacetronix Limited, Oscor Inc., Zoll Medical Corporation, and Abbott Laboratories.Read Report Overview:TMR analysts estimate that the global pacemaker devices market will exhibit a promising 8.1% CAGR over the period between 2017 and 2022, rising from a valuation of US$5.5 bn in 2017 to US$8.1 bn by 2022.Implantable Pacemakers Continue to Remain Most Preferred Product VarietyOf the two key varieties of pacemaker devices in the market, namely external and implantable pacemakers, the segment of implantable pacemakers held a clear authority in the market, holding a more than 65% of the market in 2017. The segment is also likely to hold its ground over the reports forecast period. The steady rise in the number of innovative devices in this sector, improved convenience of advanced implantable pacemakers over external devices in terms of comfort and accuracy will continue to help implantable pacemaker devices remain the most preferred product type over the reports forecast period as well.Request Sample of Report:Geographically, the market for pacemaker devices in North America presently dominates in terms of revenue contribution to the global market. The regional market, holding a major share in the global markets overall revenue in 2016, is expected to expand at a robust CAGR of 8.7% over the period between 2017 and 2022. The well-established healthcare research sector in the region and the early adoption of innovative technologies in the field of healthcare and medicine could help the region retain its dominance in the global pacemaker devices market over the reports forecast period as well.Increased Funds from Public and Private Bodies Help Push Research Activities AheadOne of the key factors likely to help the global pacemaker devices market gather steady pace in the near future is the rising support  in the form of conducive regulations, increased funds and investments directed towards R&D activities  in the field of advanced medical devices across the globe. Along with private investments, the market for pacemaker devices is also witnessing a significant rise in investment from governments and public bodies. An uptick in research and development activities is favoring the overall growth prospects of the market as well.Download Brochure of Report:The market is also benefitting from the increased incorporation of advanced connectivity features in modern-day pacemakers. Increased advent of technologically advanced products is expected to remain one of the key drivers for the market in the next few years as several new and specialized medical device companies are entering the market. Easy availability of advanced technology across high growth potential regions that have vast untapped growth opportunities could also benefit the market massively.About us:Transparency Market Research (TMR) is a U.S.-based provider of syndicated research, customized research, and consulting services. TMRs global and regional market intelligence coverage includes industries such as pharmaceutical, chemicals and materials, technology and media, food and beverages, and consumer goods, among others. Each TMR research report provides clients with a 360-degree view of the market with statistical forecasts, competitive landscape, detailed segmentation, key trends, and strategic recommendations.Contact us:Transparency Market Research90 State Street,Suite 700,AlbanyNY - 12207United StatesTel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:Wood Preservative Chemicals Market to Represent Significant Revenue Growth

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Wood is an important part of building material. Wood preservation chemicals ensure the longer life of wood by keeping it safe from the attack of any insects, fungus or bacteria. Such preservation can be done by several treatments and chemicals. Wood preservative chemicals market is growing with a significant growth rate due to the increased use of wood in the households and industrial sector. Wood has several indoor and outdoor applications. In the recent year, the commercial uses include decking; railroad products and fencing represent the major end-use application for wood preservative chemicals globally. The demand for wood preservative chemicals from the landscape-products end-use segment is projected to increase in the future years.Need more information about Report methodology ?North America and Europe are the largest market for wood preservative chemicals due to the increased residential and commercial use of wood preservative chemicals. Asia Pacific is an emerging market for wood preservative chemicals due to the rapid industrial growth in this region.Request Report for TOC @The growing industrialization and rising infrastructure needs are the major driving force for wood preservative chemicals market. Governments and private sectors across the globe are investing in better infrastructure facilities. Construction of residential buildings, healthcare centers and educational institutes leads to the demand for wood and ultimately it drives the demand for wood preservative chemicals. For infrastructure development, the U.K governments public sector investment is expected to rise by USD 4.9 billion to about USD 77.7 billion in 2013-14 over 2012-13. It is further expected to increase to about USD 83.0 billion in 2014-15. With the increase in infrastructure investment, demand for wood will increase, providing ample growth opportunity for the wood preservative chemicals market.Request to Sample of Report-The major companies operating in the wood preservative chemicals market include BASF SE, Janssen Preservation and Material Protection, KMG Chemicals Inc, Kurt Obermeier GmbH & Co. KG, Kop-Coat Incorporated, Lonza Group Ltd., Lapeyre SA, Osmose Inc., Rio Tinto Borax, RUTGERS Organic and Viance LLC.For more information about this Report visit @Key points covered in the reportReport segments the market on the basis of types, application, products, technology, etc (as applicable),, The report covers geographic segmentation, North America, Europe, Asia, RoWAbout UsPersistence Market Research (PMR) is a third-platform research firm. Our research model is a unique collaboration of data analytics and market research methodology to help businesses achieve optimal performance.Contact UsPersistence Market Research305 Broadway7th Floor, New York City,NY 10007, United States,USA  Canada Toll Free: 800-961-0353Email: sales@persistencemarketresearch.comWeb:Trend of Serial Device Server Market : Global Industry Insights, Analysis, Latest Growth, Development Trends & Forecast to 2022

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Researchmoz added Most up-to-date research on "Global Serial Device Server Sales Market Report 2017" to its huge collection of research reports.In this report, the global Serial Device Server market is valued at USD XX million in 2016 and is expected to reach USD XX million by the end of 2022, growing at a CAGR of XX% between 2016 and 2022.Geographically, this report split global into several key Regions, with sales (K Units), revenue (Million USD), market share and growth rate of Serial Device Server for these regions, from 2012 to 2022 (forecast), coveringUnited StatesChinaEuropeJapanKoreaTaiwanTo Get Sample Copy of Report visit @Global Serial Device Server market competition by top manufacturers/players, with Serial Device Server sales volume, Price (USD/Unit), revenue (Million USD) and market share for each manufacturer/player; the top players includingMoxaDigi InternationalAdvantechSiemens Industrial CommunicationComtrol Corporation3onedataOMEGAWestermoAtop Technologies Inc.KylandPerleEtherWAN SystemsKorenix TechnologySealevel SystemsORing Industrial Networking Corp.Chiyu TechnologyTibbo Technology Inc.Silex Technology America, Inc.Sena TechnologiesUTEKOn the basis of product, this report displays the production, revenue, price, market share and growth rate of each type, primarily split into1-port Serial Device Server2-port Serial Device Server4-port Serial Device Server8-port Serial Device Server16-port Serial Device ServerOthers (32-port Serial Device Server, etc.)Make an Enquiry about TOC @On the basis on the end users/applications, this report focuses on the status and outlook for major applications/end users, sales volume, market share and growth rate for each application, includingPOS SystemsAttendance SystemAccess Control SystemsOthersTable of ContentsGlobal Serial Device Server Sales Market Report 20171 Serial Device Server Market Overview1.1 Product Overview and Scope of Serial Device Server1.2 Classification of Serial Device Server by Product Category1.2.1 Global Serial Device Server Market Size (Sales) Comparison by Type (2012-2022)1.2.2 Global Serial Device Server Market Size (Sales) Market Share by Type (Product Category) in 20161.2.3 1-port Serial Device Server1.2.4 2-port Serial Device Server2 Global Serial Device Server Competition by Players/Suppliers, Type and Application2.1 Global Serial Device Server Market Competition by Players/Suppliers2.1.1 Global Serial Device Server Sales and Market Share of Key Players/Suppliers (2012-2017)2.1.2 Global Serial Device Server Revenue and Share by Players/Suppliers (2012-2017)2.2 Global Serial Device Server (Volume and Value) by Type2.2.1 Global Serial Device Server Sales and Market Share by Type (2012-2017)3 United States Serial Device Server (Volume, Value and Sales Price)3.1 United States Serial Device Server Sales and Value (2012-2017)3.1.1 United States Serial Device Server Sales and Growth Rate (2012-2017)3.1.2 United States Serial Device Server Revenue and Growth Rate (2012-2017)4 China Serial Device Server (Volume, Value and Sales Price)4.1 China Serial Device Server Sales and Value (2012-2017)4.1.1 China Serial Device Server Sales and Growth Rate (2012-2017)4.1.2 China Serial Device Server Revenue and Growth Rate (2012-2017)About ResearchMozResearchMoz is the one stop online destination to find and buy market research reports & Industry Analysis. We fulfill all your research needs spanning across industry verticals with our huge collection of market research reports. We provide our services to all sizes of organizations and across all industry verticals and markets. Our Research Coordinators have in-depth knowledge of reports as well as publishers and will assist you in making an informed decision by giving you unbiased and deep insights on which reports will satisfy your needs at the best price.For More Information Kindly Contact :ResearchMozMr. Nachiket Ghumare,Tel: +1-518-621-2074USA-Canada Toll Free: 866-997-4948Email: sales@researchmoz.usFollow us on LinkedIn @Smart Foods 2018 Global Market Key Players  Cargill, Arla Foods, Kerry Group, Nestle, Archer Daniels Midland Company Analysis and Forecast to 2025

Smart Foods Market

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Smart Foods Market 2018Wiseguyreports.Com adds Smart Foods Market Market Demand, Growth, Opportunities, Analysis of Top Key Players and Forecast to 2023 To Its Research Database.Report Details:This report provides in depth study of Smart Foods Market using SWOT analysis i.e. Strength, Weakness, Opportunities and Threat to the organization. The Smart Foods Market report also provides an in-depth survey of key players in the market which is based on the various objectives of an organization such as profiling, the product outline, the quantity of production, required raw material, and the financial health of the organization.Global Smart Foods market competition by top manufacturers, with production, price, revenue (value) and market share for each manufacturer;The top key players including ;Cargill Inc.Arla FoodsKerry GroupNestleArcher Daniels Midland CompanyAvekaBalchem CorporationGSKFirmenichBASFKelloggThe Coca Cola CompanyIngredion Inc.International Flavors & Fragrances Inc.PepsiCoRoyal FrieslandCampina N.V.Sensient Technologies CorporationSymriseTate & LyleRequest a Sample Report @Geographically, this report is segmented into several key Regions, with production, consumption, revenue (million USD), market share and growth rate of Smart Foods in these regions, from 2013 to 2025 (forecast), coveringNorth AmericaEuropeChinaJapanSoutheast AsiaIndiaOn the basis of product, this report displays the production, revenue, price, market share and growth rate of each type, primarily split intoFunctional FoodEncapsulated FoodGenetically Modified FoodOthersOn 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, includingSupermarketConvenience StoreOnline StoresOthersThis report provides valuable information for companies like manufacturers, suppliers, distributors, traders, customers, investors and individuals who have interests in this industry.If you have any special requirements, please let us know and we will offer you the report as you want.Complete Report Details@Major Key Points in Table of Content:Global Smart Foods Market Research Report 20181 Smart Foods Market Overview1.1 Product Overview and Scope of Smart Foods1.2 Smart Foods Segment by Type (Product Category)1.2.1 Global Smart Foods Production and CAGR (%) Comparison by Type (Product Category)(2013-2025)1.2.2 Global Smart Foods Production Market Share by Type (Product Category) in 20171.2.3 Functional Food1.2.4 Encapsulated Food1.2.5 Genetically Modified Food1.2.6 Others1.3 Global Smart Foods Segment by Application1.3.1 Smart Foods Consumption (Sales) Comparison by Application (2013-2025)1.3.2 Supermarket1.3.3 Convenience Store1.3.4 Online Stores1.3.5 Others1.4 Global Smart Foods Market by Region (2013-2025)1.4.1 Global Smart Foods Market Size (Value) and CAGR (%) Comparison by Region (2013-2025)1.4.2 North America Status and Prospect (2013-2025)1.4.3 Europe Status and Prospect (2013-2025)1.4.4 China Status and Prospect (2013-2025)1.4.5 Japan Status and Prospect (2013-2025)1.4.6 Southeast Asia Status and Prospect (2013-2025)1.4.7 India Status and Prospect (2013-2025)1.5 Global Market Size (Value) of Smart Foods (2013-2025)1.5.1 Global Smart Foods Revenue Status and Outlook (2013-2025)1.5.2 Global Smart Foods Capacity, Production Status and Outlook (2013-2025).7 Global Smart Foods Manufacturers Profiles/Analysis7.1 Cargill Inc.7.1.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base, Sales Area and Its Competitors7.1.2 Smart Foods Product Category, Application and Specification7.1.2.1 Product A7.1.2.2 Product B7.1.3 Cargill Inc. Smart Foods Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2013-2018)7.1.4 Main Business/Business Overview7.2 Arla Foods7.2.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base, Sales Area and Its Competitors7.2.2 Smart Foods Product Category, Application and Specification7.2.2.1 Product A7.2.2.2 Product B7.2.3 Arla Foods Smart Foods Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2013-2018)7.2.4 Main Business/Business Overview7.3 Kerry Group7.3.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base, Sales Area and Its Competitors7.3.2 Smart Foods Product Category, Application and Specification7.3.2.1 Product A7.3.2.2 Product B7.3.3 Kerry Group Smart Foods Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2013-2018)7.3.4 Main Business/Business Overview7.4 Nestle7.4.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base, Sales Area and Its Competitors7.4.2 Smart Foods Product Category, Application and Specification7.4.2.1 Product A7.4.2.2 Product B7.4.3 Nestle Smart Foods Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2013-2018)7.4.4 Main Business/Business Overview7.5 Archer Daniels Midland Company7.5.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base, Sales Area and Its Competitors7.5.2 Smart Foods Product Category, Application and Specification7.5.2.1 Product A7.5.2.2 Product B7.5.3 Archer Daniels Midland Company Smart Foods Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2013-2018)7.5.4 Main Business/Business Overview7.6 Aveka7.6.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base, Sales Area and Its Competitors7.6.2 Smart Foods Product Category, Application and Specification7.6.2.1 Product A7.6.2.2 Product B7.6.3 Aveka Smart Foods Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2013-2018)7.6.4 Main Business/Business Overview7.7 Balchem Corporation7.7.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base, Sales Area and Its Competitors7.7.2 Smart Foods Product Category, Application and Specification7.7.2.1 Product A7.7.2.2 Product B7.7.3 Balchem Corporation Smart Foods Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2013-2018)7.7.4 Main Business/Business Overview7.8 GSK7.8.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base, Sales Area and Its Competitors7.8.2 Smart Foods Product Category, Application and Specification7.8.2.1 Product A7.8.2.2 Product B7.8.3 GSK Smart Foods Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2013-2018)7.8.4 Main Business/Business Overview7.9 Firmenich7.10 BASFContinued.Contact Us:NORAH TRENTPh: +1-646-845-9349 (US)Sales@Wiseguyreports.ComPh: +44 208 133 9349 (UK)ABOUT US:Wise Guy Reports is part of the Wise Guy Consultants Pvt. Ltd. and offers premium progressive statistical surveying, market research reports, analysis & forecast data for industries and governments around the globe. Wise Guy Reports features an exhaustive list of market research reports from hundreds of publishers worldwide. We boast a database spanning virtually every market category and an even more comprehensive collection of market research reports under these categories and sub-categories.ADDRES:WISE GUY RESEARCH CONSULTANTS PVT LTDOffice No. 528, Amanora ChambersMagarpatta Road, HadapsarPune - 411028Maharashtra, IndiaAutomotive Active Safety System Market: 2018 Industry Size, Share, Growth with Forecast to 2023

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Automotive Active Safety System Market Analysis 2018 to 2023 Report explores Global Automotive Active Safety System Market Size, Share, Growth, and Opportunity Forecast to 2023.Market research future published a half cooked research report on global Automotive Active Safety System market. The Automotive Active Safety System market is expected to grow over the CAGR of around 10.65% during the period 2017 to 2023.Electric Axle Drive Systems Market Major Companies:The key players in automotive active safety system market are Bosch (Germany), Continental (Germany), Delphi Technologies (U.K.), ZF Friedrichshafen (Germany), Autoliv (Sweden), Hyundai Mobis (South Korea), Valeo (France), DENSO (Japan), Magna International (Canada), FLIR Systems (U.S.), Infineon Technologies (Germany), Ficosa International S.A. (Spain), PSA Peugeot Citroen (France), Borg Warner Inc.(U.S.), CAx software (India).Get sample copy of report at:Electric Axle Drive Systems Market Summary:The Automotive Active Safety System increases the vehicle safety and enhance the driving experience of the driver. The system is combination of software that allows to alert the driver about the problems that is going to occur. There are different active safety systems that are installed in the vehicle which includes automated lighting, adaptive cruise control, automate braking, incorporate traffic warnings, connect to smartphones, alert driver to other cars or dangers, and among others. The increase adoption of active safety technologies will result in the growth of the market during the forecast period. The stringent government regulation have resulted the OEMs to install different safety systems in the vehicle to mitigate the risk of accident. OEMs such as Bosch, Continental, Delphi Technologies, ZF Friedrichshafen are focusing on the development of active safety system in order to be upfront in the competitive environment. The presence of the strong automotive players in the active safety system will result in growing demand for the active safety system in the vehicles. This increase in demand will result in the growth of the market during the forecast period.On the basis of region, the market is segmented based on North America, Asia Pacific, Europe, and Rest of the World. In Asia Pacific region, there is an increase in the production of new vehicles in countries such as India, China, and Japan. The major growth in Asia Pacific is due to the increase in the use of automotive active safety system because of the growing demand for safety to the passenger. The recent shift in the preference from mileage to vehicle looks and features is also expected to result in the high demand for active safety systems. The global advanced driver assistance systems market is also expected to grow during the forecast period owing to increasing population, rapid industrialization and aggressive expansion of manufacturing sector. North America is expected to be the second largest market due to the stringent government regulation for safety. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration have set up various regulation for the safety of the passenger in the car. Due to the increase in the stringent government regulation, people are going forward for high demand of active safety system installation in the vehicles. Europe is expected to be the third largest region to grow during the forecast period due to the technology improvement from the last few years. Germany is known for its outstanding automotive industry and engineering. The German cars are highly valued due to the innovation, reliability, safety, and design. In Europe, Germany is one of the leading countries for production and sales of vehicles. World class R&D infrastructure, and highly qualified workforce, have created incomparable automotive environment. This will boost the production of automotive vehicle, in future which will result in the growth of the market during the forecast period.Access Complete Report at:This study provides an overview of the global automotive active safety system market, tracking three market segments across four geographic regions. The report studies key players, providing a five-year annual trend analysis that highlights market size, volume and share for North America, Europe, Asia Pacific (APAC) and Rest of the World (ROW). The report also provides a forecast, focusing on the market opportunities for the next five years for each region. The scope of the study segments the global Automotive Active Safety Systems market by its product, occupant type vehicle type, and regionContact:Market Research Future+1 646 845 9312Email: sales@marketresearchfuture.comAbout Market Research Future:At Market Research Future (MRFR), we enable our customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through our Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Raw Research Reports (3R), Continuous-Feed Research (CFR), and Market Research & Consulting Services.Contact:Market Research Future+1 646 845 9312Email: sales@marketresearchfuture.comSalmonella Testing Market to Witness an Outstanding Growth by 2021

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Salmonella, a gram-negative facultative rod-shaped bacterium, is found in human and animal intestines. Most people get infected with salmonella by eating contaminated food such as raw meat, infected poultry and seafood, raw eggs, and contaminated fruits and vegetables. Salmonella infection causes diseases and conditions such as typhoid, paratyphoid, and food poisoning. Major symptoms of salmonella infection include diarrhea, fever, dehydration, and abdominal cramps that usually occur within 8 to 72 hours after ingesting contaminated food. Most people recover without treatment. However, sometimes diarrhea and dehydration may become severe and the patient may need medical attention.Read Report Overview @Elderly people, infants, and people who have a weak immune system due to disease such as AIDS, sickle cell disease, malaria, and corticosteroids get affected more easily by salmonella infection. The salmonella testing procedure includes detection and isolation, and confirmation and identification of the bacteria. In the detection and isolation stage, animal feces and water sources are tested for the bacteria. Moreover, large number of food ingredients and food products are routinely tested by the food industry, especially meat products, eggs, and dairy products for the detection of salmonella in these items. Salmonella testing methods include traditional and rapid detection methods. It takes 3 to 5 days to detect the presence of salmonella in a source using the tradititional methods, while the rapid detection method takes up to 48 hours to the detect the presence of salmonella.The global salmonella testing market is categorized based on various technologies used to detect the bacteria, food type, and end user. Based on technology, the report covers traditional and rapid technologies. Rapid technology includes polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-based testing, immunoassay-based testing, convenience-based testing, and DNA hybridization. Based on food type, the market comprises meat and poultry, dairy products, fruits and vegetables, and others. Based on end user, the market covers hospitals, public health labs, physician offices, and commercial labs.Request Sample Report@In terms of geography, North America has the largest market for salmonella testing, followed by Europe. This is due to implementation of stringent food safety regulations that track every testing procedure of food materials during every stage of food production and processing, rise in foodborne diseases, technological advancements in testing procedures, and improved healthcare infrastructure in the region. The salmonella testing market in Asia is expected to experience a high growth rate over the next few years due to developing healthcare infrastructure, increasing prevalence of foodborne diseases, and growing research and development activities on salmonella testing in the region. Moreover, growing demographics and economies in developing countries such as India and China are also expected to drive the salmonella testing market in Asia. However, lack of food control infrastructure and resources in developing countries inhibits the growth of the market.Download and View Report TOC, Figures and Tables @Rising awareness about food- and waterborne diseases and growing food industry are some of the major drivers of the salmonella testing market. Also, implementation of food safety regulations across the world and technological innovations in bacterial detection technologies is fuelling the growth of this market. Increasing number of mergers and acquisitions, rising number of collaborations and partnerships, and new product launches are some of the latest trends in the global salmonella testing market. The major companies operating in this market worldwide are Affymetrix, Inc., Abbott, Becton, Dickinson and Company, F. Hoffmann-La Roche AG, Siemens AG, Bio-Rad, DiaSorin S.p.A., bioMerieux, Diamedix Corporation, Eiken Chemical Co., Ltd., Fujirebio Diagnostics, Inc., Hologic, Inc. and Enzo Biochem, Inc.About UsPersistence Market Research (PMR) is a third-platform research firm. Our research model is a unique collaboration of data analytics and market research methodology to help businesses achieve optimal performance.To support companies in overcoming complex business challenges, we follow a multi-disciplinary approach. At PMR, we unite various data streams from multi-dimensional sources. By deploying real-time data collection, big data, and customer experience analytics, we deliver business intelligence for organizations of all sizes.Contact UsPersistence Market Research305 Broadway7th Floor, New York City,NY 10007, United States,USA  Canada Toll Free: 800-961-0353Email: sales@persistencemarketresearch.comWeb:United States Air-Cooled Turbine Generator Market Forecast 2018-2025 Andritz, Brush, Harbin Electric

Air-Cooled Turbine Generator Market

http://bit.ly/2CNaH0h

http://www.qyresearchstore.com/united-states-air-cooled-turbine-generator-market-manufacturers-2018-review-size-and-forecast-2023

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Air-Cooled Turbine Generator Market Research 2018A market study "United States Air-Cooled Turbine Generator Market" examines the performance of the Air-Cooled Turbine Generator market 2018. It encloses an in-depth Research of the Air-Cooled Turbine Generator market state and the competitive landscape United Statesly. This report analyzes the potential of Air-Cooled Turbine Generator market in the present and the future prospects from various angles in detail.The United States Air-Cooled Turbine Generator Market 2018 report includes Air-Cooled Turbine Generator market Revenue, market Share, Air-Cooled Turbine Generator industry volume, market Trends, Air-Cooled Turbine Generator Growth aspects. A wide range of applications, Utilization ratio, Supply and demand analysis are also consist in the report.It shows manufacturing capacity, Air-Cooled Turbine Generator Price during the Forecast period from 2018 to 2025.To Get Sample Report Click Here:Manufacturers Analysis and Top Sellers of United States Air-Cooled Turbine Generator Market 2018 :1. GE2. Andritz3. MHPS4. TMEIC5. Brush6. Harbin Electric7. ELSIB8. Shanghai ElectricAir-Cooled Turbine Generator Market : By Application Coal Power Plants Gas Power PlantsAir-Cooled Turbine Generator Market : By Type Below 100 MW 100-200 MW Over 200 MWFirstly, the report covers the top Air-Cooled Turbine Generator manufacturing industry players from regions like United States, EU, Japan, and China. It also characterizes the market based on geological regions.Further, the Air-Cooled Turbine Generator report gives information on the company profile, market share and contact details along with value chain analysis of Air-Cooled Turbine Generator industry, Air-Cooled Turbine Generator industry rules and policies, circumstances driving the growth of the market and compulsion blocking the growth. Air-Cooled Turbine Generator Market development scope and various business strategies are also mentioned in this report.Browse Full Report Here:The Air-Cooled Turbine Generator research report includes the products that are currently in demand and available in the market along with their cost breakup, manufacturing volume, import/export scheme and contribution to the Air-Cooled Turbine Generator market revenue worldwide.Finally, Air-Cooled Turbine Generator market report gives you details about the market research findings and conclusion which helps you to develop profitable market strategies to gain competitive advantage.About US:"QY Research Store" is a leading market intelligence team which accredits and provides the reports of some of the top publishers in the field of technology industry. We are as a firm expertise in making extensive reports that cover all the necessary details about the market assessments such as major technological improvement in the industry.Contact Us5001 Spring Valley Road,Suite 400 East,Dallas, TX 75244, USAWeb:Email: sales@qyresearchstore.comUnited States Atomic Absorption Spectroscopy Market Forecast 2018-2025 PerkinElmer, Agilent Technologies

Atomic Absorption Spectroscopy Market

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http://www.qyresearchstore.com/united-states-atomic-absorption-spectroscopy-market-manufacturers-2018-review-size-and-forecast-2023

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Atomic Absorption Spectroscopy Market Research 2018A market study "United States Atomic Absorption Spectroscopy Market" examines the performance of the Atomic Absorption Spectroscopy market 2018. It encloses an in-depth Research of the Atomic Absorption Spectroscopy market state and the competitive landscape United Statesly. This report analyzes the potential of Atomic Absorption Spectroscopy market in the present and the future prospects from various angles in detail.The United States Atomic Absorption Spectroscopy Market 2018 report includes Atomic Absorption Spectroscopy market Revenue, market Share, Atomic Absorption Spectroscopy industry volume, market Trends, Atomic Absorption Spectroscopy Growth aspects. A wide range of applications, Utilization ratio, Supply and demand analysis are also consist in the report.It shows manufacturing capacity, Atomic Absorption Spectroscopy Price during the Forecast period from 2018 to 2025.To Get Sample Report Click Here:Manufacturers Analysis and Top Sellers of United States Atomic Absorption Spectroscopy Market 2018 :1. PerkinElmer2. Agilent Technologies3. Thermo Fisher Scientific4. Shimadzu5. Hitachi High-Technologies6. GBC Scientific7. Beifen-Ruili8. Persee9. PG Instruments10. EWAI11. Analytik Jena12. Lumex Instruments13. Shanghai Spectrum Instruments14. ELICO Ltd15. Aurora BiomedAtomic Absorption Spectroscopy Market : By Application Food & Agriculture Life Sciences & Pharmacy Chemical Metals & Mining Environmental OthersAtomic Absorption Spectroscopy Market : By Type Flame Graphite Furnace OtherFirstly, the report covers the top Atomic Absorption Spectroscopy manufacturing industry players from regions like United States, EU, Japan, and China. It also characterizes the market based on geological regions.Further, the Atomic Absorption Spectroscopy report gives information on the company profile, market share and contact details along with value chain analysis of Atomic Absorption Spectroscopy industry, Atomic Absorption Spectroscopy industry rules and policies, circumstances driving the growth of the market and compulsion blocking the growth. Atomic Absorption Spectroscopy Market development scope and various business strategies are also mentioned in this report.Browse Full Report Here:The Atomic Absorption Spectroscopy research report includes the products that are currently in demand and available in the market along with their cost breakup, manufacturing volume, import/export scheme and contribution to the Atomic Absorption Spectroscopy market revenue worldwide.Finally, Atomic Absorption Spectroscopy market report gives you details about the market research findings and conclusion which helps you to develop profitable market strategies to gain competitive advantage.About US:"QY Research Store" is a leading market intelligence team which accredits and provides the reports of some of the top publishers in the field of technology industry. We are as a firm expertise in making extensive reports that cover all the necessary details about the market assessments such as major technological improvement in the industry.Contact Us5001 Spring Valley Road,Suite 400 East,Dallas, TX 75244, USAWeb:Email: sales@qyresearchstore.comSingle Use Technologies Biologic Market Poised to Expand at a Robust Pace Over 2021

https://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/market-research/single-use-technologies-biologic-market.asp

https://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/samples/4220

https://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/toc/4220

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Single-use, also known as disposable, refers to products that are intended for one-time use. These products are made from a plastic (polyamide {PA}, polyethylene {PE}, polycarbonate {PC}, polyethersulfone {PESU}, polypropylene {PP}, polyvinyl chloride {PVC}, polytetrafluorethylene {PTFE}, cellulose acetate {CA}, and ethylene vinyl acetate {EVA}) and are disposed after use. Single-use products have revolutionized the field of bioproduction. These products are becoming popular in the biopharmaceutical arena as they reduce the risk of contamination during development and production. Various disposable products such as laboratory instruments, including petri plates, flasks, filling and tubing systems, cell culture apparatus, filters, pumps, bioreactors, are used in bioproduction.Single-use technologies are mainly used in bio-therapeutic development and manufacturing processes. These technologies facilitate the development of small amounts of drug products for use in preclinical and clinical testing procedures.Read Report Overview @The global single-use technologies market is categorized based on technology and application. Based on technology, the report covers membrane adsorber, bioreactors, disposable mixing systems, tangential flow filtration, tubing and connectors, depth filtration, buffer containers, waste containers and media bags, and filter cartridges. The application segment is further sub-segmented into monoclonal antibodies, vaccines, gene therapy, recombinant proteins, and blood derivativesIn terms of geography, North America dominates the global single-use technologies market. This is due to improved biopharmaceutical industry in the region. Moreover, increased awareness about therapeutic applications of biotherapeutics has also fueled the market in North America. The U.S. represents the largest market for single-use technologies in North America, followed by Canada. In Europe, Germany, France, and the U.K. hold major shares of the single-use technologies market.Request Sample Report@The single-use technologies market in Asia too, is expected to experience high growth rate over the next five years. This is due to improving Life Sciences arena in the region. Furthermore, increased foreign investment in this field is also supporting the growth of the single-use technologies market in the region. India, China, and Japan are expected to be the fastest growing markets for single-use technologies in Asia.Rising awareness about therapeutic applications of biotherapeutics is a key driver for the global single-use technologies market. Also, increasing demand of biologics and advancements in medical technology are fuelling the growth of this market. Low manufacturing and maintenance costs of single-use products and instruments attract end-users to adopt this technology in bioproduction. Increasing research on cell biology and stem cell is propelling the demand for single-use products.Moreover, drug pricing control is forcing large and emerging biotech companies to change their overall approach in development and production of bioproducts. This is leading to rise in demand for improved process optimization and more efficient operations such as single-use technologies and bioengineering. This is creating growth opportunities for single use-use technologies market.Download and View Report TOC, Figures and Tables @However, stringent regulations imposed by various governments hamper the growth of global single-use technologies market. Increasing number of mergers and acquisitions of biotech and pharmaceutical companies and rapid product launches are key trends in the global single-use technologies market.The major companies operating in this market are Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc, Applikon Biotechnology B.V., GE Healthcare, Pall Corporation, NewAge Industries, Inc., Saint-Gobain S.A., BioPure Technology Limited, Sartorius AG, RENOLIT, Novasep, W. L. Gore & Associates, Inc., EMD Millipore, and Dow Corning Corporation.About UsPersistence Market Research (PMR) is a third-platform research firm. Our research model is a unique collaboration of data analytics and market research methodology to help businesses achieve optimal performance.To support companies in overcoming complex business challenges, we follow a multi-disciplinary approach. At PMR, we unite various data streams from multi-dimensional sources. By deploying real-time data collection, big data, and customer experience analytics, we deliver business intelligence for organizations of all sizes.Contact UsPersistence Market Research305 Broadway7th Floor, New York City,NY 10007, United States,USA  Canada Toll Free: 800-961-0353Email: sales@persistencemarketresearch.comWeb:United States General Purpose Container Market Forecast 2018-2025 Sea Box, Maersk Container Industry

General Purpose Container Market

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General Purpose Container Market Research 2018A market study "United States General Purpose Container Market" examines the performance of the General Purpose Container market 2018. It encloses an in-depth Research of the General Purpose Container market state and the competitive landscape United Statesly. This report analyzes the potential of General Purpose Container market in the present and the future prospects from various angles in detail.The United States General Purpose Container Market 2018 report includes General Purpose Container market Revenue, market Share, General Purpose Container industry volume, market Trends, General Purpose Container Growth aspects. A wide range of applications, Utilization ratio, Supply and demand analysis are also consist in the report.It shows manufacturing capacity, General Purpose Container Price during the Forecast period from 2018 to 2025.To Get Sample Report Click Here:Manufacturers Analysis and Top Sellers of United States General Purpose Container Market 2018 :1. CIMC2. SINGAMAS3. Maersk Container Industry4. Hoover Container Solutions5. Sea Box6. Charleston Marine ContainersGeneral Purpose Container Market : By Application Fruit Vegetables Marine Products OtherGeneral Purpose Container Market : By Type 40 ftFirstly, the report covers the top General Purpose Container manufacturing industry players from regions like United States, EU, Japan, and China. It also characterizes the market based on geological regions.Further, the General Purpose Container report gives information on the company profile, market share and contact details along with value chain analysis of General Purpose Container industry, General Purpose Container industry rules and policies, circumstances driving the growth of the market and compulsion blocking the growth. General Purpose Container Market development scope and various business strategies are also mentioned in this report.Browse Full Report Here:The General Purpose Container research report includes the products that are currently in demand and available in the market along with their cost breakup, manufacturing volume, import/export scheme and contribution to the General Purpose Container market revenue worldwide.Finally, General Purpose Container market report gives you details about the market research findings and conclusion which helps you to develop profitable market strategies to gain competitive advantage.About US:"QY Research Store" is a leading market intelligence team which accredits and provides the reports of some of the top publishers in the field of technology industry. We are as a firm expertise in making extensive reports that cover all the necessary details about the market assessments such as major technological improvement in the industry.Contact Us5001 Spring Valley Road,Suite 400 East,Dallas, TX 75244, USAWeb:Email: sales@qyresearchstore.comUnited States Automotive Emergency Call Services Market Forecast 2018-2025 Bosch, Valeo, Delphi, Magneti

Automotive Emergency Call Services Market

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Automotive Emergency Call Services Market Research 2018A market study "United States Automotive Emergency Call Services Market" examines the performance of the Automotive Emergency Call Services market 2018. It encloses an in-depth Research of the Automotive Emergency Call Services market state and the competitive landscape United Statesly. This report analyzes the potential of Automotive Emergency Call Services market in the present and the future prospects from various angles in detail.The United States Automotive Emergency Call Services Market 2018 report includes Automotive Emergency Call Services market Revenue, market Share, Automotive Emergency Call Services industry volume, market Trends, Automotive Emergency Call Services Growth aspects. A wide range of applications, Utilization ratio, Supply and demand analysis are also consist in the report.It shows manufacturing capacity, Automotive Emergency Call Services Price during the Forecast period from 2018 to 2025.To Get Sample Report Click Here:Manufacturers Analysis and Top Sellers of United States Automotive Emergency Call Services Market 2018 :1. Bosch2. Continental3. Valeo4. Delphi5. Magneti6. Denso7. HARMAN8. Telit Wireless Solutions9. LG10. Gemalto11. Infineon Technologies12. Ficosa13. U-Blox14. Visteon15. Flairmicro16. Fujitsu Ten LimitedAutomotive Emergency Call Services Market : By Application Passenger Vehicle Commercial VehicleAutomotive Emergency Call Services Market : By Type Automatic Manual ButtonFirstly, the report covers the top Automotive Emergency Call Services manufacturing industry players from regions like United States, EU, Japan, and China. It also characterizes the market based on geological regions.Further, the Automotive Emergency Call Services report gives information on the company profile, market share and contact details along with value chain analysis of Automotive Emergency Call Services industry, Automotive Emergency Call Services industry rules and policies, circumstances driving the growth of the market and compulsion blocking the growth. Automotive Emergency Call Services Market development scope and various business strategies are also mentioned in this report.Browse Full Report Here:The Automotive Emergency Call Services research report includes the products that are currently in demand and available in the market along with their cost breakup, manufacturing volume, import/export scheme and contribution to the Automotive Emergency Call Services market revenue worldwide.Finally, Automotive Emergency Call Services market report gives you details about the market research findings and conclusion which helps you to develop profitable market strategies to gain competitive advantage.About US:"QY Research Store" is a leading market intelligence team which accredits and provides the reports of some of the top publishers in the field of technology industry. We are as a firm expertise in making extensive reports that cover all the necessary details about the market assessments such as major technological improvement in the industry.Contact Us5001 Spring Valley Road,Suite 400 East,Dallas, TX 75244, USAWeb:Email: sales@qyresearchstore.comUnited States Catalytic Combustion Combustible Gas Sensors Market Forecast 2018-2025 Bosch, Denso, Delphia

Catalytic Combustion Combustible Gas Sensors Market

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Catalytic Combustion Combustible Gas Sensors Market Research 2018A market study "United States Catalytic Combustion Combustible Gas Sensors Market" examines the performance of the Catalytic Combustion Combustible Gas Sensors market 2018. It encloses an in-depth Research of the Catalytic Combustion Combustible Gas Sensors market state and the competitive landscape United Statesly. This report analyzes the potential of Catalytic Combustion Combustible Gas Sensors market in the present and the future prospects from various angles in detail.The United States Catalytic Combustion Combustible Gas Sensors Market 2018 report includes Catalytic Combustion Combustible Gas Sensors market Revenue, market Share, Catalytic Combustion Combustible Gas Sensors industry volume, market Trends, Catalytic Combustion Combustible Gas Sensors Growth aspects. A wide range of applications, Utilization ratio, Supply and demand analysis are also consist in the report.It shows manufacturing capacity, Catalytic Combustion Combustible Gas Sensors Price during the Forecast period from 2018 to 2025.To Get Sample Report Click Here:Manufacturers Analysis and Top Sellers of United States Catalytic Combustion Combustible Gas Sensors Market 2018 :1. NGK-NTK2. Bosch3. Denso4. Delphia5. Hyundai KEFICO6. UAES7. FAE8. Ford Parts9. First Sensor10. Walker Products11. Honeywell12. Eaton13. FIGAROCatalytic Combustion Combustible Gas Sensors Market : By Application Chemical Mining Metal OthersCatalytic Combustion Combustible Gas Sensors Market : By Type Defusion InhalationFirstly, the report covers the top Catalytic Combustion Combustible Gas Sensors manufacturing industry players from regions like United States, EU, Japan, and China. It also characterizes the market based on geological regions.Further, the Catalytic Combustion Combustible Gas Sensors report gives information on the company profile, market share and contact details along with value chain analysis of Catalytic Combustion Combustible Gas Sensors industry, Catalytic Combustion Combustible Gas Sensors industry rules and policies, circumstances driving the growth of the market and compulsion blocking the growth. Catalytic Combustion Combustible Gas Sensors Market development scope and various business strategies are also mentioned in this report.Browse Full Report Here:The Catalytic Combustion Combustible Gas Sensors research report includes the products that are currently in demand and available in the market along with their cost breakup, manufacturing volume, import/export scheme and contribution to the Catalytic Combustion Combustible Gas Sensors market revenue worldwide.Finally, Catalytic Combustion Combustible Gas Sensors market report gives you details about the market research findings and conclusion which helps you to develop profitable market strategies to gain competitive advantage.About US:"QY Research Store" is a leading market intelligence team which accredits and provides the reports of some of the top publishers in the field of technology industry. We are as a firm expertise in making extensive reports that cover all the necessary details about the market assessments such as major technological improvement in the industry.Contact Us5001 Spring Valley Road,Suite 400 East,Dallas, TX 75244, USAWeb:Email: sales@qyresearchstore.comBiodetection Market : Global Industry Analysis, Growth, Trends and Forecast 2017  2025

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https://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/market-research/biodetection-market.asp

https://www.persistencemarketresearch.com/methodology/21262

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Biodetection is perceiving better acceptance due to growing bio-terrorism, which results in increasing the number of illness and deaths. Bioterrorism is mainly caused by organisms or toxins that weaken or kill livestock, crops and people. These organisms can be dispersed by person to person contact, by contaminating food and water, by infecting animals that carry disease to human and others.These pathogens can be identified by the system called biodetection which directs the entry and presence of pathogens. The increasing attacks have brought a major worry to the public as well as governments. Bio detection has an emerged solution to the government as well as public as these can give a negative impact on a large number of population. Ebola outbreaks, H1N1 attacks has resulted in loss of human resources and affect adversely on overall healthcare system. The increase in bio-terrorist attacks has increased the need for bio-security systems that secure the people from pathogen attacks and reduce the risk of disease transmission to others.Request Sample Report @Biological analyses includes determining the contaminants along with identification of biological effects. These assays also assist in identification of the compounds imposing positive health effects such as inhibition and activation of cellular pathways. Contaminant detection is based on detection of biological effect or chemical analysis, and the services include the detection of contaminants in defense, food and environment settings, and clinical. Chemical analyses aid in detection and determination of complex mixture of bioactive compounds present in the sample. These analyses involve the implementation of several chemical analytical fractionation techniques such as solid phase extraction (SPE), high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), and gel permeation chromatography.The global biodetection market is anticipated to register a significant CAGR over the forecast period. The biodetection market is being majorly driven due to increasing awareness about bio-terrorism and biological warfare. This may anticipated to propel the demand for biodetection and drives the global market of biodetection market. The increasing support from the government to develop effective bio-detection technologies also enhance the growth of biodetection market over the forecast period.Request to Browse Full Table of Content, figure and Tables @The need for an early detection system for bio-terrorist attack also boost the demand for biodetection systems. However, the problems faced in the detection of minute pathogens, may hamper the growth of biodetection market. The increasing misuse of scientific technologies along with increasing circulation of harmful biological agents also restraining the growth of the biodetection market.The global biodetection market is segmented on the basis of services and application:On the basis of services, the global biodetection market is segmented into: Bioanalyses,Chemical analyses,On the basis of application, the global biodetection market is segmented into:,Human and animal health,Pharmaceutical industry,Food industry,Military forces,EnvironmentGeographically, the biodetection market is segmented into five key regions such as North America, Latin America, Europe, Asia pacific (APAC), and Middle East & Africa (MEA). The North America has become the lucrative market for biodetection and is anticipated to emerge as the fastest growing market due to the rising investments in bio surveillance systems. The Europe is expected to register a significant growth over a forecast period due to the increase in implementation of highly efficient technologies. APAC region is also expected to register a significant growth in the biodetection market over a forecast period as the government is trying to prevent these bio attacks and trying to minimize damage caused by these attacks by implementing effective methods.Read Report Overview @Some of the players operating in the global biodetection market are environmental bio-detection products Inc., New Horizons Diagnostics Inc, BioDetection Instruments, Inc., BioVeris, Bertin Technologies, ANP Technologies, Haztech Systems, Tetracore, BioDETECT, BioSentinel, Inc. and others. These companies are highly focused and further contributing to the growth of biodetection market globally.The report is a compilation of first-hand information, qualitative and quantitative assessment by industry analysts, inputs from industry experts and industry participants across the value chain. The report provides in-depth analysis of parent market trends, macroeconomic indicators and governing factors along with market attractiveness as per segments. The report also maps the qualitative impact of various market factors on market segments and geographies.The report covers exhaustive analysis on: Biodetection market segments,Biodetection market dynamics,Historical actual market size, 2012 - 2016 ,Biodetection market size & forecast 2017 to 2025,Biodetection market current trends/issues/challenges,Competition & companies involvedRegional analysis includes North America,Latin America,Europe,Asia pacific,Middle east & AfricaNeed more information about Report methodology ?Report highlights:Shifting industry dynamics,In-depth market segmentation,Historical, current and projected industry size,Recent industry trends,Key competition landscape,Strategies of key players and product offerings,Potential and niche segments/regions exhibiting promising growth,A neutral perspective towards market performanceABOUT US:Persistence Market Research (PMR) is a third-platform research firm. Our research model is a unique collaboration of data analytics and market research methodology to help businesses achieve optimal performance. To support companies in overcoming complex business challenges, we follow a multi-disciplinary approach. At PMR, we unite various data streams from multi-dimensional sources. By deploying real-time data collection, big data, and customer experience analytics, we deliver business intelligence for organizations of all sizes.CONTACT:Persistence Market Research305 Broadway7th Floor, New York City,NY 10007, United States,USA  Canada Toll Free: 800-961-0353Email: sales@persistencemarketresearch.comWeb:5G Infrastructure Market, By Communication Infrastructure, Application, and Geography - Global Industry Insights, Trends, Forecast, and Opportunity Analysis to 2025

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https://www.coherentmarketinsights.com/ongoing-insight/5g-infrastructure-market-1343

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5G is a key enabler for the futuristic digital world. It offers ultra-high broadband infrastructure, for application in various sectors such as healthcare, automotive, and manufacturing. Increasing number of connected devices pays a key role in growth of the 5G infrastructure market. According to Coherent Market Insights, the installed base of Internet of Things devices was 18 billion units in 2016 and is projected to reach 75 billion units by 2025.Integration of sensors in various applications such as automation, automotive, consumer electronics, healthcare, infrastructure maintenance, and smart metering and utilities in turn increases demand for robust and energy-efficient connectivity technologies such as 5G. 5G is a key enabler for Internet of Things by offering a platform to connect a number of devices to the internet. Moreover, government initiative plays a major role for growth of the 5G infrastructure market. For instance, China government is expected initiate commercial rollouts by 2020. With 3,4003,600 MHz band, the countrys first trials will be conducted in 2020. The 3,3003,400 MHz, 4,4004500 MHz, and 4,8004,990 MHz bands are also under consideration. For high internet speeds, China government has plans on using spectrum around 25 gigahertz and 40 gigahertz frequencies.To get holistic SAMPLE of the report including table of contents @Software-Defined Networking segment is projected to account for the dominant position in global 5G infrastructure market over the forecast period.Software defined network segment accounted for a dominant position in the 5G infrastructure market and is expected to retain its dominance throughout the forecast period. Software defined network is known as intelligent network architecture, planned to minimize hardware constraints. 5G allows for various advance features high speed connectivity, large bandwidth etc. Providing 5G features through conventional networks becomes difficult as it does not support all the features. Therefore, it is not possible to provide effective control and network management in conventional networking. Hence, software defined networking is the only solution for controlling complex 5G networking.North America held a dominant position in the global 5G Infrastructure market in 2020.North America hold a dominant position in the market in 2020 and is projected to retain its dominance throughout the forecast period. The U.S. and Canada are the major growth engines in the region. Government initiatives to improve the current infrastructure, is expected to aid in growth of the market. For example: according to Federal Communications Commission, in 2016, it opened nearly 11 GHz of high frequency spectrum for the use of mobile and fixed broadband applications, 3.85 GHz of licensed spectrum in the 27.5  28.35 GHz and 37  40 GHz bands, as well 7 GHz of unlicensed spectrum from the 64  71 GHz band. This in turn is expected to aid in growth of the market.Key Companies: Global 5G Infrastructure MarketAnalog Devices, Inc. , Cavium, Cisco Systems, Inc., Ericsson, Fujitsu, Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd, Intel Corporation, LG Electronics Inc., MACOM Technology Solutions, MediaTek Inc., NEC Corporation , Qorvo, Qualcomm, Samsung, and VMware, Inc some of the major companies of 5G Infrastructure market.For More InformationAbout 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.Catch us at 3rd International Conference on Separation + Drying Technologies for Milk & Whey at Cologne, March 19 and 20, 2018Contact Us:Mr. ShahCoherent Market Insights1001 4th Ave,#3200Seattle, WA 98154Tel: +1-206-701-6702Email: sales@coherentmarketinsights.comVisit our news Website:Precipitated Fine Hydrate Markets Lead to Remain Unchallenged throughout 2016 - 2026

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Precipitated Fine Hydrate Market: OverviewAlumina trihydrate (Al2O3. 3H2O), often termed as hydrated alumina is a white powdery substance and is most commonly produced by means of Bayer process which involves dissolving bauxite in sodium hydroxide at elevated temperatures. Alumina trihydrate is one of the most widely used flame retardants across the globe. It is often incorporated into plastics or polymers prior to further processing stages in order to impart the property of suppressing spread of flame. Besides, it also find application in pharmaceuticals and as a chemical intermediate.Need more information about Report methodology ?Commercially, alumina trihydrate is produced in a variety of grades including wet, dried, ground, and fine precipitated form among others. Precipitated Fine Hydrates are characterized by high chemical purity, relatively smaller particles or fine particle sizes. Precipitated fine hydrates or fine precipitated alumina hydrates are commonly used as flame retardants and/or fillers especially in applications in wire & cable insulations, cross-linked elastomers, flexible PVC, polyester resins, epoxy resins, thermoplastics, paper, adhesives and paints among others. Precipitated Fine Hydrate based flame retardants are halogen free, non-toxic & non-corrosive and also impart relatively higher temperature and flame resistance as compared to conventionally used alternatives.Request Report for TOC @Precipitated Fine Hydrate Market: DynamicsDemand for precipitated fine hydrate is expected to witness a steady growth during the forecast period. Stringent regulations, especially in Europe and North America, directed towards reducing and eventually replacing halogenated flame retardants have resulted in a significant growth in global non halogenated flame retardants market over the recent past. Moreover, increasing preference for such non-halogenated flame retardants in Asia Pacific region, spearheaded by China is expected to drive growth of global precipitated fine hydrate market during forecast period.Also, steady growth of polymer processing industry  one of the primary consumers of precipitated fine hydrate based flame retardants especially for application in key end use industries such as construction, automotive, and industrial equipment among other industries is expected to propel the growth of global precipitated fine hydrate market during forecast period. Growing use of precipitated fine hydrate as flame retardant in paints and coatings industry is another factor that is expected to fuel growth of market during forecast period.Precipitated Fine Hydrate Market: SegmentationGlobal Precipitated Fine Hydrate market can be segmented on the basis of end user industry and on the basis of regions.On the basis of end use industry, global Precipitated Fine Hydrate market can be segmented as follows:Plastic industry, Rubber industry, Paper industry, Adhesives & Sealants industry, Coating & paint industry, Wire & Cables industry, OthersPrecipitated Fine Hydrate Market: Region-wise OutlookAsia-pacific excluding japan (APEJ) is expected to witness relatively faster growth over the forecast period 2016-2026. Growth in the region is expected to be spearheaded, primarily, by countries such as China and India. Increasing demand from plastics, paper processing and rubber industries is expected to drive growth of global precipitated fine hydrate market in these countries during forecast period. Europe and North America accounted for significant share in global precipitated fine hydrate market over the recent past. These mature markets are expected to register relatively slower growth in terms of volume over forecast period as compared to Asia Pacific region.Request to Sample of Report-Precipitated Fine Hydrate Market: Market PlayersSome of the identified players operating in global precipitated fine hydrate market include Huber Engineered Materials, Hindalco Industries Limited, Alteo, and The R.J. Marshall Company, among others. Some of these companies have focused on increasing precipitated fine hydrate production capacities so as to better cater to the increasing demand for the chemical over the forecast period.The precipitated fine hydrate market research report presents a comprehensive assessment of the market and contains thoughtful insights, facts, historical data, and statistically supported and industry-validated market data. It also contains projections using a suitable set of assumptions and methodologies. The research report provides analysis and information according to market segments such as geography, and end use industries.For more information about this Report visit @The precipitated fine hydrate market report covers exhaustive analysis on:Market Segments, Market Dynamics, Market Size, Supply & Demand, Current Trends/Issues/Challenges, Competition & Companies involved, Technology Trends, Value ChainAbout UsPersistence Market Research (PMR) is a third-platform research firm. Our research model is a unique collaboration of data analytics and market research methodology to help businesses achieve optimal performance.Contact UsPersistence Market Research305 Broadway7th Floor, New York City,NY 10007, United States,USA  Canada Toll Free: 800-961-0353Email: sales@persistencemarketresearch.comWeb:Bioenergy Market 2018: Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends, Technology, Opportunities Assessment, Focusing On Top Key Players: Solazyme, Kior, POET, LanzaTech, Gevo, Novozymes, Honeywell UOP, Sapphire Energy

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The report titled, Bioenergy Market Research Report examines and estimates the market both on a worldwide and a regional level. The investigation covers the effect of different drivers and hindrances in the market and features the opportunities that lie in it. It offers a comprehensive overview of the past performance, present status, and the future prospects of this market. The demand for Bioenergy in the market is increasing substantially due to the growing awareness among individuals regarding the latest technological advancements and innovations.Top Key Vendors:Solazyme, Kior, POET, LanzaTech, Gevo, Novozymes, Honeywell UOP, Sapphire EnergyGet Sample Copy of this Report:Bioenergy is renewable energy made available from materials derived from biological sources. Biomass is any organic material which has stored sunlight in the form of chemical energy. As a fuel it may include wood, wood waste, straw, manure, sugarcane, and many other by-products from a variety of agricultural processes. The increasing pressure on the world leaders to reduce the carbon footprint and the deadly amount of greenhouse gasses is also forcing nations across the globe, especially developing countries to take up the option of bioenergy seriously.This statistical surveying research report on the Global Bioenergy Market is an all-inclusive study of the business sectors latest outlines, industry growth drivers, and inadequacies. It gives market forecasts for the coming years. It contains an examination of the latest progressions in technology, Porter's five force analysis and dynamic profiles of exclusive industry competitors. The report besides conveys an investigation of trivial and full-scale factors prosecuting for the new candidates in the market and the ones currently in the market. A methodical value chain analysis is also carried out in this report.The report has been assembled using primary and auxiliary research methodologies. The data has been gathered from reliable sources, for example, interviews with market pioneers, diaries, distributions, conferences, and white papers. The report investigates the historical data alongside the present advancements in the market to provide map a reasonable trajectory of the Global Bioenergy Market for the coming few years.Get more Information about this Report:The growing demand for Global Bioenergy Market to keep up with the industrial spurt and the rampant urbanization has created a huge shortfall, coaxing several countries to resort to alternative energy options. The increasing pressure on the world leaders to reduce the carbon footprint and the deadly amount of greenhouse gasses is also forcing nations across the globe, especially developing countries to take up the option of bioenergy seriously. With these environmental, social, and political pressures the opportunity in the market is anticipated to be worth.Global Bioenergy Market in North America is increasing due to the stringent emission norms in the region. U.S. in North America is anticipated to lead the production of bioethanol during the forecast period whereas Germany in Europe is expected to lead the biogas production. The market in Europe is anticipated to grow due to favorable subsidization schemes regulated by government in countries such as the Germany, France, the U.K., and Sweden related to bioenergy use and production.Table of Content:Global Bioenergy Market Research Report 2018-2023Chapter 1 Global Bioenergy Market OverviewChapter 2 Global Economic ImpactChapter 3 Competition by ManufacturerChapter 4 Production, Revenue (Value) by Region (2018-2023)Chapter 5 Supply (Production), Consumption, Export, Import by Regions (2018-2023)Chapter 6 Production, Revenue (Value), Price Trend by TypeChapter 7 Analysis by ApplicationChapter 8 Manufacturing Cost AnalysisChapter 9 Industrial Chain, Sourcing Strategy and Downstream BuyersChapter 10 Marketing Strategy Analysis, Distributors/TradersChapter 11 Market Effect Factors AnalysisChapter 12 Market Forecast (2018-2023)Chapter 13 AppendixWe at, QYReports , a leading market research report publisher accommodate more than 4,000 celebrated clients worldwide putting them at advantage in todays competitive world with our understanding of research. Our list of customers include prestigious Chinese companies, multinational companies, SME's and private equity firms whom we have helped grow and sustain with our fact-based research. Our business study covers a market size of over 30 industries offering unfailing insights into analysis to reimagine your business. We specialize in forecasts needed for investing in a new project, to revolutionize your business, to become more customer centric and improve the quality of output.Jones John(Sales Manager)+91-9764607607sales@qyreports.comMining Automation Market, by Product Type, Technology, Workflow, and Region - Global Industry Insights, Trends, Outlook, and Opportunity Analysis, 2017-2025

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Mining automation refers to highly efficient autonomous equipment installation that enhances productivity and improves safety.The market for global mining automation is expected to witness significant growth due to increased need for safety, higher productivity, and increased energy efficiency requirement and environmental sustainability. According to a Fatal Accidents in the Mining Industry Report, by Government of Western Australia Department of Mines and Petroleum, there were 52 fatal accidents over the period (20002012), in which 17 were underground and 35 were on the surface. Mining was primarily considered as a high risk job due to exposure to harmful vapors, flammable gases, unbalanced materials, susceptibility to fires and roof collapses, leading to serious threat to human lives.Most conventional systems are not adept at detecting the presence of the target material that needs to be mined and also any such hazards that might be lurking beneath the surface, without human intervention. Mining automation technology helps in detection of dangerous areas in underground mining by sending drones or robots, which collects samples and make a model for best outcome before attempting. Thus mining automation reduce unnecessary expenditure, avoid waste, incorporate operation and faster production rate. Deployment of automation aids in improving safety in mines as it requires less human intervention. For example, Penguin System is robotic system used for determining exact path to follow within a rock mass in real-time, with the help of synthetic rocks, for ensuring safety of workers and replacing manual labor. Automated underground vehicles based on laser technology, can be utilized to monitor leg pressure and analyze performance. Thus, mining automation enhances individual safety of mine workers.Additionally, driverless haulage trucks, semi-automatic load haul dump truck (LHD), automatic load haul dump truck (LHD), and environmental monitoring systems, among others, are key equipment used in mining automation. Radio Frequency Identification System (RFID), Real Time Sensing System (RTSS), and wireless mesh networking technology with Real Time Locating System (RTLS) are used for better communication in underground mines.To get holistic SAMPLE of the report including table of contents @The key factor that is expected to restraint growth of global mining automation market is reduction of natural resources.Mining Automation Market: Regional InsightsThe global mining automation market is segmented on the basis of regions into North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Latin America, Middle East, and Africa. The market for mining automation in Asia Pacific accounted for largest share in the global market in 2016. This growth is attributed to increasing exploration activities in Australia and presence of leading mining companies, which includes Rio Tinto, Fortescue Metals Group, and BHP Billiton. According to Mining.com a leading digital publication covering the global mining sector, among minerals gold is the leading sector accounted 45% of the total exploration expenditure in 2016, but from 2017 expenditure in base materials such as copper, nickel, and zinc among others are increasing. In 2017, Australian government announced to invest US$ 79.8 million to small and medium sized mining companies for encouraging exploration.Moreover, Western Australia have already been started using automated mining equipment. For example, The Morobe Mining Joint Venture (MMJV) set up a new flotation control system that aids in adjustment of mass balances. The Australian Centre for Field Robotics (ACFR) collaborated with Rio Tinto, for the establishment of the Rio Tinto Centre for Mine Automation (RTCMA) in 2007 through to 2019. The purpose of RTCMA is to improve and implement the visualization of a entirely autonomous, remotely operated mine.According to the Government of Australias Department of Industry report in 2014, Australias largest goods producing industry is mining, contributing 8.3% towards GDP. Mining equipment and technology & services recorded the strongest average annual growth in business expenditure on R&D of 14.2%, over the period 200607 to 201112. These are the factors for growth of the regional mining automation market.Mining Automation Market: Competitive BackgroundMajor players operating in the global mining automation market include Caterpillar, Inc., Komatsu Ltd., Sandvik, Atlas Copco, Hexagon AB, Hitachi, Ltd., RPMGlobal Holdings Limited, Trimble Inc., Autonomous Solutions Inc., Fluidmesh Networks LLC, MST Global, and Symboticware Inc.For More InformationAbout 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.Catch us at 3rd International Conference on Separation + Drying Technologies for Milk & Whey at Cologne, March 19 and 20, 2018Contact Us:Mr. ShahCoherent Market Insights1001 4th Ave,#3200Seattle, WA 98154Tel: +1-206-701-6702Email: sales@coherentmarketinsights.comVisit our news Website:Global Psoriasis Pipeline Drugs Market 2018 Key Players: UCB, Sun Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd, Boehringer Ingelheim, Forward Pharma, Almirall and Valeant Pharmaceuticals.

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Psoriasis Pipeline Drugs Market:WiseGuyReports.com adds Psoriasis Pipeline Drugs Market 2018 Global Analysis, Growth, Trends and Opportunities Research Report Forecasting to 2023reports to its database.Executive SummaryThe report titled Global Psoriasis Pipeline Drugs Market Assessment: Industry Analysis, Pipeline Review, Clinical Trials, Market Potential  Forecast to 2023 presents the market potential of six major pipeline drugs meant for the treatment of Psoriasis. These six drugs that fall in the various categories of Injectables, Oral pills and Topical creams/lotions by mode of administration have been recognized as being clinically effective in Psoriasis treatment. Expected to be launched in the market within the next 4-5 years, these six potential drugs are likely to bring about major changes in the way psoriasis is treated globally.A comprehensive research report created through extensive primary research (inputs from industry experts, companies, stakeholders) and secondary research, the report aims to present the analysis of Global Psoriasis Pipeline Drugs Market by assessing the potential of the six drugs that will be launched in the near future. Also, the report assesses the results of various clinical trials undertaken for each of the six drugs, the product profile, description and regulatory phase of each of the six drugs. Also, 7Ps Analysis (Patent, Phase, Pathway, Patient, Physician, Payer, Partner) has been done for each of the six drugs to present the current perspective.Over the recent years, the Psoriasis Drugs market is growing rapidly due to rising prevalence of Psoriasis patients around the world. Globally, the growth of Psoriasis Drugs market is driven by rising psoriatic population. The global psoriasis drugs market is projected to display a robust growth during 2019 2023, chiefly driven by low efficacy and tolerability of present psoriasis drugs and improved safety and efficacy of investigational drugs.The report has covered and analysed the major psoriasis drugs that are in pipeline and expected to be launched in the near future. The product profile, assessment of clinical trials, the regulatory phases and the potential of the drugs has been analysed in the report. The report intends to provide cutting-edge market intelligence and help decision makers take sound investment decision. The report titled Global Psoriasis Pipeline Drugs Market Assessment: Industry Analysis, Pipeline Review, Clinical Trials, Market Potential  Forecast to 2023 also analyzes the incidences of psoriasis in countries like United States, United Kingdom, France, Italy, Spain, Germany and Norway.Request Sample Report @Scope of the ReportPsoriasis Pipeline Drugs Assessment  Drug X1, X2, X3, X4, X5, X6 (Forecast Period: 2019-2023) Market Potential Clinical Trials Product Description Regulatory Phases 7Ps AnalysisCountry Analysis  US, UK, France, Italy, Spain, Germany and Norway (Forecast Period: 2019-2023) Incidence of PsoriasisOther Report Highlights Company Analysis  UCB, Sun Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd, Boehringer Ingelheim, Forward Pharma, Almirall and Valeant PharmaceuticalsCustomization of the ReportThe report could be customized according to the clients specific research requirements. No additional cost will be required to pay for limited additional research.Table of Content1. Research Methodology2. Psoriasis - An Overview3. Diagnosis of Psoriasis4. Treatment of Psoriasis5. Anti-Psoriasis Pipeline Drugs6. Company Profiles6.1. UCB6.2. Sun Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd6.3. Boehringer Ingelheim6.4. Forward Pharma6.5. Almirall6.6. Valeant Pharmaceuticals7. Number of Psoriasis Patients By Country7.1. U.S7.2. U.K7.3. France7.4. Italy7.5. Germany7.6. NorwayList of FiguresContinuousFor further information on this report, visit Contact Us:Norah Trentsales@wiseguyreports.comPh: +1-646-845-9349 (US); +44 208 133 9349 (UK)Addres:WISEGUY RESEARCH CONSULTANTS PVT LTDOffice No. 528, Amanora ChambersPune - 411028Maharashtra, IndiaPhone :+91 841 198 5042Addres:WISEGUY RESEARCH CONSULTANTS PVT LTDOffice No. 528, Amanora ChambersPune - 411028Maharashtra, IndiaPhone :+91 841 198 5042Third-Party Chemical Distribution Market Development, Key Opportunity, Application & Gross Revenues 2018

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MarketStudyReport.com Add New Global Third-Party Chemical Distribution Market by Manufacturers, Countries, Type and Application, Forecast to 2023 to its research database. The report presents a deep study of the market growth factors and drivers. The report spread across 109 pages with table and figures in it.The chemical distribution process involves sales, logistics, and transportation of chemicals. Chemical distributors offer value-added services such as blending, mixing, packaging, formulation, inventory management, and waste removal to customers. These distributors source the products from chemical manufacturers and supply them to vendors. The chemicals are transported to other vendors or directly transported to third-party chemical distributors that supply these chemicals to end-users.Scope of the Report:This report focuses on the Third-Party Chemical Distribution market, especially in North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, South America, Middle East and Africa. This report categorizes the market based on manufacturers, regions, types and applications.Request a sample copy of Third-Party Chemical Distribution Market Research Report @Market Segment by Manufacturers, this report covers Univar, Brenntag, HELM, Nexeo Solutions, IMCD, Azelis, Biesterfeld, ICC Chemical, Jebsen & Jessen, Stockmeier Chemie, Hydrite, Barentz International, Petrochem Middle East, Protea Chemical, Reda Chemicals, Solvochem Holland, Obegi Chemicals, Manuchar, Ai nahda international Chemical, Sinochem Plastics, Connell Brothers, Chemstation Asia, Redox.An inherent sub-vertical of the IT and Telecommunications industry space, Third-Party Chemical Distribution market stands to gain remarkable proceeds over 2018-2023, as per a recently compiled report Market Segment by Regions, regional analysis covers:North America (United States, Canada and Mexico)Europe (Germany, France, UK, Russia and Italy)Asia-Pacific (China, Japan, Korea, India and Southeast Asia)South America (Brazil, Argentina, Colombia)Middle East and Africa (Saudi Arabia, UAE, Egypt, Nigeria and South Africa)Market Segment by Table of Contents:Global Third-Party Chemical Distribution Market OverviewGlobal Third-Party Chemical Distribution Market Manufacturers ProfilesGlobal Third-Party Chemical Distribution Market Competition, by ManufacturerGlobal Third-Party Chemical Distribution Market Analysis by RegionsGlobal Third-Party Chemical Distribution by CountriesGlobal Third-Party Chemical Distribution Market Segment by TypeGlobal Third-Party Chemical Distribution Market Segment by ApplicationThird-Party Chemical Distribution Market Forecast (2018-2023)Sales Channel, Distributors, Traders and DealersResearch Findings and ConclusionAppendixMarket Segment by Type, covers Market Segment by Applications, can be divided into Enquire For Discount on Third-Party Chemical Distribution Market Research Report @There are 15 Chapters to deeply display the global Third-Party Chemical Distribution market.Chapter 1, to describe Third-Party Chemical Distribution Introduction, product scope, market overview, market opportunities, market risk, market driving force;Chapter 2, to analyze the top manufacturers of Third-Party Chemical Distribution, with sales, revenue, and price of Third-Party Chemical Distribution, 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 Third-Party Chemical Distribution, for each region, from 2013 to 2018;Chapter 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9, to analyze the key regions, with sales, revenue and market share by key countries in these regions;Chapter 10 and 11, to show the market by type and application, with sales market share and growth rate by type, application, from 2013 to 2018;Chapter 12, Third-Party Chemical Distribution market forecast, by regions, type and application, with sales and revenue, from 2018 to 2023;Chapter 13, 14 and 15, to describe Third-Party Chemical Distribution sales channel, distributors, traders, dealers, Research Findings and Conclusion, appendix and data sourceFor More Info on Market Research @Related Reports: -North America and Europe Investment Management Software Market by Manufacturers, Regions, Type and Application, Forecast to 2023This report studies the Investment Management Software market, investment (portfolio) management software is a type of tools to paper-free investment management activities. Scope of the Report: ThCentralize market research purchases across your entire organization in one place.Marketstudyreport.com allows you to manage and control all corporate research purchases to consolidate billing and vendor management. You can eliminate duplicate purchases and customize your content and license management.Market Study ReportThe Green Suite #4594,Dover, DE 19901United StatesPhone: 1-201-355-0868US Toll Free: 1-866-764-2150Email: sales@marketstudyreport.comWebsite:News:More Report at:Connect with us: Google+ | LinkedIn | TwitterComprehensive Industry Report Offers Forecast and Analysis on Ultra-Pure Sulphuric Acid Market 2017-2025

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Global Ultra-Pure Sulphuric Acid Market: IntroductionThe global ultra-pure sulphuric acid market has been elevated with the rising applications in the field of electronic devices manufacturing industries and most significantly to manufacture semi-conductors across the globe. Ultra-pure sulphuric acid is generally traded in concentration of 95% to 98% with less than 100ppt (Parts Per Trillion) by chemicals firm suppliers and distributor. Ultra-pure sulphuric acid is used in its purest form i.e. crystal clear which is also known as electronic grade sulphuric acid.For more information about this Report visit @Ultra-pure sulphuric acid has been used for applications in electronic industry in order to manufacture printed circuit boards. Thus increasing growth in the technology leads to increasing demand for ultra-pure sulphuric acid in bulk production of silicon wafers to manufacture integrated circuits and microchips to a great extent. Such chemical reagent for micro-electronic with the ongoing rapid development in electronic sector anticipates substantial growth over the forecast period. It is observed that the consumption in semiconductor industry is approximately one-third of the total ultra-pure sulphuric acid produced annually thus offers significant opportunities for the manufacturers over the forecast period.Global Ultra-Pure Sulphuric Acid Market: Drivers and restraintsAlthough electronic industry has witnessed significant advancements in the past decade, use of ultra-pure sulphuric acid is substantial which helps in achieving significant yield in the removal of carbon deposits and inorganic residues on the silicon wafer while etching and cleaning electronic products. Thus, one big benefit and driver to ultra-pure sulphuric acid market is in meeting Level12 of chemical material, SEMI C12 standard articulated by Semiconductor Equipment and Materials Internationals.Request to Sample of Report-However, lack of technological expertise in the production of ultra-pure sulphuric acid is the major obstruct for the market growth in terms of volume and eventually monetary gain. The direct distillation of raw material i.e. industrial sulphuric acid at its boiling point in order to remove impurities causes the problems of generation of acid mist resulting to pollution and its controlling measures along with the high energy consumption and high cost of operation. Therefore new manufacturing methods are required to overcome the pertaining complications and aiding to boost the ultra-pure sulphuric acid market over the forecast period.Global Ultra-Pure Sulphuric Acid Market: SegmentationUltra-pure sulphuric acid market can be segmented on the basis of the application:,, Semiconductors, Industrial Chemicals, Printed circuit boardsGlobal Ultra-Pure Sulphuric Acid Market: Region Wise OutlookBased on the geographic division, ultra-pure sulphuric acid market is expected to dominate in the Asia-Pacific region over the forecast period. This region is expected to be promising in ultra-pure sulphuric acid market due to high investment in new technological developments in electronic industries. Developing countries like China, Taiwan and Brazil are expected to boost the economy with the increasing demand of ultra-pure sulphuric acid in end-use industries during the forecast period.Request Report for TOC @Regions like Europe and North America are expected to show a slight maturity in ultra-pure sulphuric acid market that results to incline towards the strategic capacity expansion in emerging market in the coming future.Asia-Pacific is expected to dominate the ultra-pure sulphuric acid market with major developments witnessed in electronic core nations like South Korea, Japan and China. Thus it is anticipated to show a good scope for consumption of ultra-pure sulphuric acid market in this region over the forecast period. Such growth is attributed to the rise of production capacity and escalating demand for electronic devices. This will give progressive opportunities for ultra-pure sulphuric acid market. Rise in industrialization and Urbanization in ASEAN and Middle East Countries will promote the demand for ultra-pure sulphuric acid hence holds significant share in ultra-pure sulphuric acid market.Need more information about Report methodology ?Global Ultra-Pure Sulphuric Acid Market: Market ParticipantsSome of the participants in ultra-pure sulphuric acid market are list below:,, Sigma-Aldrich Co. LLC, KMG Chemicals Inc., PVS Chemicals Group, Kanto Chemical Co. Inc., Linde Group, Reagent Chemicals, Chemtrade Logistics Inc., Avantor Performance Materials. LLC, Ineos Enterprises;The research report presents a comprehensive assessment of the market and contains thoughtful insights, facts, historical data, and statistically supported and industry-validated market data. It also contains projections using a suitable set of assumptions and methodologies. The research report provides analysis and information according to market segments such as geographies, application, and industry;The report covers exhaust analysis on:,, Market Segments, Market Dynamics, Market Size, Supply & Demand, Current Trends/Issues/Challenges, Competition & Companies involved, Technology, Value ChainAbout UsPersistence Market Research (PMR) is a third-platform research firm. Our research model is a unique collaboration of data analytics and market research methodology to help businesses achieve optimal performance.Contact UsPersistence Market Research305 Broadway7th Floor, New York City,NY 10007, United States,USA  Canada Toll Free: 800-961-0353Email: sales@persistencemarketresearch.comWeb:Polyethylene (PE) Foams Industry Analysis, Overview with Detailed Study, Competitive Landscape Forecast (2017-2024)

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The Global Polyethylene (PE) Foams Market accounted for USD 2.63 billion in 2016 and is projected to grow at a CAGR of 6.0% during the forecast period of 2017 to 2024. The upcoming market report contains data for historic years 2014, 2015, the base year of calculation is 2016 and the forecast period is 2017 to 2024.For In depth Information Get Free Sample Copy of this Report@Global Polyethylene (PE) Foams Market by Type (XLPE Foam, Non XLPE Foam), End User (Protective Packaging, Automotive, Building & Construction, Medical, Foot Wear), Geography (North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, Europe, South America, Middle East and Africa)  Industry Trends and Forecast to 2024Complete report on Global Polyethylene (PE) Foams Market Research Report 2017-2024 spread across 350 Pages, profiling Top companies and supports with tables and figuresMarket Definition: Global Polyethylene (PE) Foams MarketPolyethylene (PE) foams is a polymerization of ethylene which comes in a closed-cell material along with the durability, recyclability and light weighted material. It can be applied mainly for packaging, automobile and healthcare. It is a high moisture and chemical resistant.Key Questions Answered in Global Polyethylene (PE) Foams Market Report:-Our Report offers:- What will the market growth rate, Overview and Analysis by Type of Global Polyethylene (PE) Foams Market in 2024? What are the key factors driving, Analysis by Applications and Countries Global Polyethylene (PE) Foams Market? What are Dynamics, This Overview Includes Analysis of Scope, and price analysis of top Vendors Profiles of Global Polyethylene (PE) Foams Market? Who are Opportunities, Risk and Driving Force of Global Polyethylene (PE) Foams Market? Who are the opportunities and threats faced by the vendors in Global Polyethylene (PE) Foams Market? Business Overview by Type, Applications, Gross Margin and Market Share What are the Global Polyethylene (PE) Foams Market opportunities, market risk and market overview of the Market?Request for Detailed TOC:Top Key Players: JSP Armacell The DOW Chemical Company Zotefoams PLC BASF SE Sealed Air INOAC CORPORATION Wisconsin Foam Products Trecolan GmbH Pro-Tac Industries Inc. Thermotec PAR Group Dafa Pregis Corporation Mitsui Chemicals Inc. Rhira Industries LLC SANWA KAKO CO.,LTD MEDICAL Rogers Foam Corporation Foam Partner among others.Major Market Drivers: Excessive usage in the automotive industry Investment made in the research and development programmerMarket Restraint: Continuous changes in the raw material pricesInquire Before Buying @Customize report of "Global Polyethylene (PE) Foams Market" as per customers requirement also available.Market Segmentations:Global Polyethylene (PE) Foams Market is segmented on the basis of Type End User GeographyMarket Segmentations in Details:On the basis of Type, global polyethylene (PE) foams market is segmented into XLPE Foam and non XLPE foam.On the basis of End User, global polyethylene (PE) foams market is segmented into protective packaging, automotive, building & construction, medical, foot wear and others.On the basis of Geography, North America South America Europe Asia-Pacific Middle East & AfricaCompany Share Analysis: Global Polyethylene (PE) Foams MarketThe global polyethylene (PE) foams market is consolidated due to the presence of limited number of players concentrated in few countries. These major players have adopted various organic as well as inorganic growth strategies such as mergers & acquisitions, new product launches, expansions, agreements, joint ventures, partnerships, and others to strengthen their position in this market.Speak to Author of the report @Other ReportGlobal Location-based services (LBS) and Real Time Location Systems (RTLS) Market  Industry Trends and Forecast to 2024Global Location-based services (LBS) and Real Time Location Systems (RTLS) Market, By Geography; Location Type (Indoor, Outdoor); Technology (Satellite, Microwave & Infrared Remote Sensing, OTDOA & E-OTD, RFID & NFC, Context-Aware Technology, Wi-Fi/WLAN, UWB, BT/BLE, Beacons, A-GPS); Hardware; Software; Service; Application Area  Industry Trends and Forecast to 2024Report Access:About Data Bridge Market Research:Data Bridge Market Research set forth itself as an unconventional and neoteric Market research and consulting firm with unparalleled level of resilience and integrated approaches. We are determined to unearth the best market opportunities and foster efficient information for your business to thrive in the market. Data Bridge endeavors to provide appropriate solutions to the complex business challenges and initiates an effortless decision-making process.Contact:Vishal DixitData Bridge Market ResearchTel: +1-888-387-2818Email: Sales@databridgemarketresearch.comInvestor: investors@databridgemarketresearch.comVisit BlogFollow us on LinkedIn:Naval Combat Systems Market 2018 Global Players: General Dynamics, Harris Corporation, L-3 Communication Systems, Northrop Grumman, Sagem.

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Market Highlights:Naval combat systems uses advance computers and radar technologies to track, detect and guide weapons to destroy enemy targets. They comprise of three systems; C4ISR, electronic warfare (EW), and weapon systems, which aid in the naval war fighting, data transmission, ISR missions, and enemy detection operations.In 2014, there were 62 destroyer ships in the US, compared to Japan and China, which had 60 and 25 such vessels, respectively. During the same period, Russia and South Korea had 12 such destroyer ships, each, while, India, which is continuously developing its naval fleet, had nine such vessels. Similarly, in the same year, there were 47 frigate ships in China, 22 in Taiwan, 21 in Russia and 15 in India. In 2014, Russia had the highest number of Corvette ships, with a total of 74 such vessels.In 2014, Lockheed Martin signed a contract with the Canadian Navy, worth $165 million, for the modernization of two Anzac-class frigates. These frigates would be sold to the Royal New Zealand Navy. Similarly, in 2013, General Dynamics signed two contracts, one with the US Navy and the other with the Royal Australian Navy, worth $50 million, to modernize the AN/BYG-1 combat control systems of the Royal Australian Navy and US Navy submarines. The AN/BYG-1 modernization program integrates the weapons and tactical control and network subsystems to provide submarine fleet operators and commanders with enhanced real-time intelligence and improved situational awareness. In the same year, Mikros Systems Corporation, a prominent vendor in the market, signed a contract with the US Navy, worth $2.8 million, to deliver new radars and electronic systems for the US Navys Littoral Combat Ships (LCS).Request a Sample Report @Major Key PlayersBAE Systems,Lockheed Martin,Raytheon,Thales,General Dynamics,Harris Corporation,L-3 Communication Systems,Northrop Grumman,Sagem.The global Naval Combat Systems Market is highly competitive, and vendors compete on the basis of cost, product quality, reliability, and aftermarket service. In order to survive and succeed in such an intensely competitive environment, it is crucial for vendors to provide cost-effective and high-quality naval combat systems with latest technology and materials.Industry/ Innovation/ Related News:2015:- Lockheed Martin signed a contract worth $362 million, with the US Navy, to design, develop and provide one Littoral Combat Ship (LCS). The vendor was also awarded $79 million for the development of a second ship, in advanced procurement funding.2015:- BAE Systems signed a contract with the German Navy, to develop and provide MKS180, the multirole combat ship, having the structural design of the British Royal Navy's Type 26 frigate.Get Full Report @The market report for Naval Combat Systems market of Market Research Future comprises of extensive primary research along with the detailed analysis of qualitative as well as quantitative aspects by various industry experts, key opinion leaders to gain the deeper insight of the market and industry performance.About Market Research Future:At Market Research Future (MRFR), we enable our customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through our Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Raw Research Reports (3R), Continuous-Feed Research (CFR), and Market Research & Consulting Services.MRFR team have supreme objective to provide the optimum quality market research and intelligence services to our clients. Our market research studies by products, services, technologies, applications, end users, and market players for global, regional, and country level market segments, enable our clients to see more, know more, and do more, which help to answer all their most important questions.Contact:Market Research Future+1 646 845 9312sales@marketresearchfuture.comNeedle-Free Diabetic Care Market Ready to Grow at CAGR of 7.5% during the forecast period 2017-2023

Needle-Free Diabetic Care Market

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The Market Research Future has been published New Research Reports which is Needle-Free Diabetic Care Market & In This Report the Information has been Provided like Market Analysis, Scope, Stake, Progress, Trends & Forecast which is making through primary and secondary research which is done by professional healthcare researcher.Diabetes is a metabolic disorders caused due to insulin deficiency. The administration of the medication through a modern technique known as needle-free diabetic care for the patient. According to the International Diabetes Federation, about 420 million adult population was suffering from diabetes in 2016, which is increasing at the rate of 8.4% per year and is expected to reach 625 million by 2040. Increasing diabetic population across the globe is the main reason for the development of the global needle-free diabetic care market. The Global Needle-Free Diabetic Care Market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 7.5% during the forecast period 2017-2023Moreover, increasing obese population, increasing healthcare expenditure, and strong encouragement from the government have also contributed to the growth of the market. According to research, smoking increases the possibility of diabetes; more than 60% of the global population smokes, this has increased the risk of diabetes and contributed to the growth of the market.On account of lack of effective treatment for this disorder, many manufacturers are continuously trying to develop new drugs and more convenient drug delivery devices. Moreover, increasing healthcare expenditure, increasing demand for the better and convenient devices, and development in healthcare infrastructure have contributed to the growth of the market. On the other hand, factors such as, lack of awareness among people and higher cost are hampering the growth of the market.Global Needle-Free Diabetes Care Market  Company Analysis:The Global Needle-Free Diabetic Care Market is highly fragmented due to the presence of a number multinational and local players. The prominent players in the market adopt various strategies such as new product launch, product innovation, and investment in research and development for the advancement of needle-free devices. Some companies have adopted developmental strategies like merger and acquisition to sustain in the competitive market environment.For instance, in 2007, INJEX Pharma AG announced FDA clearance to market and sold their needle free injection products in the America. Twin-Jector EZ II and ZOMA-Jet are the most common needle-free injector developed by Antares Pharma Inc.,. Also, the company has got approval for Vision, which is a reusable needle-free injectors, and disposable multi-use pen injectors.Antares Pharma, Inc. (US), Bioject Medical Technologies Inc. (US), Endo International plc (US), European Pharma Group (Netherland), PharmaJet (US), Medical International Technology, Inc. (US), Valeritas, Inc. (US), PenJet Corporation (US), INJEX Pharma AG (Germany), National Medical Products Inc. (US), Crossject SA (France), Zogenix, Inc. (US), 3M Company (US) and others are some of the prominent players at the forefront of competition in the Global Needle-Free Diabetes Care Market and are profiled in MRFR Analysis.Get Sample Copy atGlobal Needle-Free Diabetes Care Market  Regional:Geographically, the regional market is segmented into America, Europe, Asia Pacific, and the Middle East & Africa.America dominates the Global Needle-Free Diabetes Care Market owing to large diabetic population. Apart from this, increasing number of obese people, changing lifestyle and increasing healthcare expenditure have boosted the growth of the market in America. According to American Diabetic Association, 29 million Americans were suffering from diabetes in 2016, which is 9.3% of total American population. Obese patients are more prone to diabetes; increasing number of obese population in America is the major driving factor in the growth of the market.Europe is the second largest market, which is followed by Asia Pacific. Increasing awareness among the people and government support for the research and development have encouraged the growth of the market in Europe.Asia Pacific is the fastest growing region in the global market due to the presence of large diabetic population. China and India contribute a major share in the Asia Pacific Needle-Free Diabetes Care Market due to the presence of huge diabetic population. Owing to a large diabetic population, Asia Pacific is the fastest growing market in the globe, and according to WHO, more than 60 % of diabetic people in the world are living in Asia Pacific region. Therefore, increasing diabetic and obese population across Asia Pacific driving the growth of the market. Due to rapidly developing economies and increasing healthcare expenditure, boosted the growth of the market. India and China are the major contributors in the Asia Pacific region. According to WHO, about 90 million and 62 million diabetic population is currently present in India and China respectively By 2030, both of the countries together will have about half a billion diabetic population. The Middle East and Africa contribute least in the Global Needle-Free Diabetes Care Market.Table of Content:Chapter 1 Introduction1.1 Definition1.2 Scope of Study1.2.1 Research Objective1.2.2 Assumptions & Limitations1.2.2.1 Assumptions1.2.2.2 Limitations1.3 Market StructureChapter 2 Research Methodology2.1 Research Process2.2 Primary Research2.3 Secondary ResearchChapter 3 Market Dynamics3.1 Drivers3.2 Restraints3.3 Opportunities3.4 Macroeconomic IndicatorsChapter 4 Market Factor Analysis4.1 Porters Five Forces Model4.2 Bargaining Power of Suppliers4.3 Bargaining Power of Buyers4.4 Threat of New Entrants4.5 Threat of Substitutes4.6 Intensity of RivalryContinuedApply for Discount atTop Reasons to Buy the Reports:Company profiling with detailed strategies, financials, and recent development activitiesMarket Strategic Business Influence DataMarket Research Future recommendations in key business segments based on the market estimationsMarket share analysis of the top industry playersMarket forecasts for a minimum of 5 years of all the mentioned segments, Trends and the regional markets With SWOT AnalysisAbout Market Research Future:At Market Research Future (MRFR), we enable our customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through our Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Raw Research Reports (3R), Continuous-Feed Research (CFR), and Market Research & Consulting Services.Contact:Market Research Future+1 646 845 9312Email: sales@marketresearchfuture.comMRFR has the distinguished objective of providing the optimal quality research and granular research to clients. Our market research studies by products, services, technologies, applications, end users, and market players for global, regional, and country level market segments, enable our clients to see more, know more, and do more, which help answer your most important questions.Our Research Analysts are eager to share their knowledge and assist you in refining market research parameters, choosing right market studies, and evaluating both the market scope and the research methodologies of varied segments.We bridge the gap between our clients and their clients by identifying and decoding just the target group, while generating leads with the highest accuracy.Years of research into diverse fields of work has ingrained within us, a proficiency so distinguished that our industry-specific specialists identify with your business ideas and feel the pulse of your challenges and opportunities. This enables us for providing assistance, through our consulting and strategic consulting services, in informed managerial decision making. In order to stay updated with technology and work process of the industries, WantStats Research and Media often conducts industrial visits for its research analysts. Relevant inputs from various established market participants, help our clients make significant contribution in respective markets are a huge motivation for all of us to endlessly furnish quality. We depend greatly on profound insights into complex realms of our study.Pune, IndiaMilitary Radar Systems Market 2018 Global Leaders - Israel Aerospace Industries, Saab AB, Selex ES, Thales, ASELSAN, Boeing, Harris, Lockheed Martin

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Market Highlights:Radar system uses radio waves or microwaves to determine range and velocity of objects. The transmitter transmits the radio waves which is reflected back to the receiver, when it strikes any object or obstacle in the path. These reflected waves are analysed to determine the properties of the object. The information include range (and position) of the object. In general, the radars help to determine target range, angles, size, speed and features. Thus, radar can be used to detect aircraft, ships, missiles, military land vehicles or any such desired target.For airborne radar, the aircraft are fitted with radar systems that warn of other aircraft or obstacles in the approaching path. These airborne radar systems also provide weather information, and altitude readings. Aircraft equipped with radar can also operate (take-off and land) during difficult weather conditions (such as fog). The radar-assisted ground-controlled approach systems are largely being utilized in many of the current operational aircraft.Similarly, to maintain market share and competitiveness, the major vendors should keep track of such market dynamics and changing demands. Moreover, they should be capable to provide rapid innovative solutions in the ever changing Military Systems Market. For example, one of the trends in the military systems market has been towards SWaP reduction, thus there is demand for lightweight and smaller platforms. Development of high-end processors and lightweight antenna is a better solution in such case. Such antennas and processors are highly in demand for utilization in synthetic-aperture-radar (SAR). SAR and inverse SAR (ISAR) have already become the standard system on many military platforms and will likely find growing acceptance in other fighter aircraft and helicopters as well.Request a Sample Report @The leading market players in the global military radar systems market primarily include General Dynamics, Israel Aerospace Industries, Saab AB, Selex ES, Thales, ASELSAN, Boeing, Harris, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, Raytheon, and Terma.Industry/ Innovation/ Related News:Jan, 2018:- Raytheon signed a foreign military sales (FMS) contract worth USD 333.4 million with the U.S. Air Force for conducting Surveillance Radar Program operations.Dec, 2017 - A joint venture of Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman signed a foreign military sales contract worth USD 103.1 million with the U.S Army to refurbish the fire control radars of the U.K.Sep, 2017:- Northrop Grumman signed a contract worth $124.7 million with the U.S. Navy, to support the AN/APR-39 Radar Warning Receiver program.Regional AnalysisAlong with the increase in global conflicts, countries have spent on military expansion and also to upgrade the existing fleet of military aircraft, naval vessels and military land vehicles. The US, and NATO members have deployed thousands of their troops and military systems in various conflict regions (e.g. Iraq, Afghanistan). All these military systems (airborne, naval and land-based systems) use radar to navigate, gather information and also to identify the target. Also, the modern warfare has evolved and is more asymmetric in nature. The evolving nature of modern warfare also demands advanced radar systems for effective defense and surveillance mechanism. The market for military radar systems is thus expected to grow at a steady rate in the next five years, driven by the rising demand for advanced military radar systems that enhance the defense capabilities for the military. Demand from major markets, such as the US and Europe, and also from the emerging nations in APAC is expected to contribute to the market growth.The US and Europe are heavily spending on military modernization, upgrading their existing military aircraft and land vehicle fleet. The maintenance and operability of existing fleet is more cost-effective to the defense sector than replacing an entire fleet of aircraft or military land vehicle. As a result, new and optimized radar systems are largely being retrofitted to various military systems.Get Full Report @To maintain market share and competitiveness, the major vendors should keep track of such market dynamics and changing demands. Moreover, they should be capable to provide rapid innovative solutions in the ever changing military systems market. For example, one of the trends in the military systems market has been towards SWaP reduction, thus there is demand for lightweight and smaller platforms. Development of high-end processors and lightweight antenna is a better solution in such case. Such antennas and processors are highly in demand for utilization in synthetic-aperture-radar (SAR). SAR and inverse SAR (ISAR) have already become the standard system on many military platforms and will likely find growing acceptance in other fighter aircraft and helicopters as well. For example, the next-generation fighter aircraft procured by NATO either already have active electronically scanned array (AESA) radar, with SAR capabilities, or are expected to upgrade this radar at a later stage. Thus, focus towards SAR-based radar system will provide a robust growth opportunity in the future.About Market Research Future:At Market Research Future (MRFR), we enable our customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through our Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Raw Research Reports (3R), Continuous-Feed Research (CFR), and Market Research & Consulting Services.MRFR team have supreme objective to provide the optimum quality market research and intelligence services to our clients. Our market research studies by products, services, technologies, applications, end users, and market players for global, regional, and country level market segments, enable our clients to see more, know more, and do more, which help to answer all their most important questions.Contact:Market Research Future+1 646 845 9312Email: sales@marketresearchfuture.comGlobal Propylene Glycol Market: Recent Study Including Growth Factors, Applications, Regional Analysis, Key Players and Forecast 2017-2024

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Worldwide Propylene Glycol Industry 2017 Market Research Report centers around value, deals, income and development rate of each sort, and the sorts and each write cost of key makers, through meeting key makers. Second on premise of fragments by producers, this report centers around the business, cost of each sort, normal cost of Credit Insurance, income and piece of the overall industry, for key makers.The Global Propylene Glycol Market accounted for USD 3.49 billion in 2016 and is projected to grow at a CAGR of 5.9% during the forecast period of 2017 to 2024. The upcoming market report contains data for historic years 2014, 2015, the base year of calculation is 2016 and the forecast period is 2017 to 2024.Request for Free Sample Report @Global Propylene Glycol Market by Source (Petroleum-Based, Bio-Based) Application (Antifreeze & Functional Fluids, Unsaturated Polyester Resin, Food, Pharmaceuticals & Cosmetics, Plasticizers, Liquid Detergents) End use (Building & Construction Industry Trends and Forecast to 2024Complete report on Global Propylene Glycol Market Research Report 2017-2024 spread across 350 Pages, profiling Top companies and supports with tables and figuresMarket Definition: Global Propylene Glycol MarketPropylene glycol is a colorless, odorless and a tasteless liquid, also referred as PG with a chemical formula CHO. It is less toxic, stable, highly soluble and has a high boiling point. It is mostly used in cosmetic products, processed foods, medication, electronic cigarettes, hydraulic fluids, plasticizer and many more.Key Questions Answered in Global Propylene Glycol Market Report:-Our Report offers:- What will the market growth rate, Overview and Analysis by Type of Global Propylene Glycol Market in 2024? What are the key factors driving, Analysis by Applications and Countries Global Propylene Glycol Market? What are Dynamics, This Overview Includes Analysis of Scope, and price analysis of top Vendors Profiles of Global Propylene Glycol Market? Who are Opportunities, Risk and Driving Force of Global Propylene Glycol Market? Who are the opportunities and threats faced by the vendors in Global Propylene Glycol Market? Business Overview by Type, Applications, Gross Margin and Market Share What are the Global Propylene Glycol Market opportunities, market risk and market overview of the Market?Request for Detaild TOC:Top Key Players: BASF SE The DOW Chemical Company LyondellBasell Industries Holdings B.V. Archer Daniels Midland Company Huntsman Corporation Global Bio-Chem Technology Group Company Limited Dupont Tate & Lyle Bio Products LLC SKC Co., Ltd. Asahi Glass Limited HELM AG Chaoyang Chemicals, Inc. Temix International S.R.L. Qingdao Shida Chemical Co., Ltd. ADEKA CORPORATION Royal Dutch Shell PLC. Golden Dyechem TRInternational, Inc. Oleon NV Shandong Depu Chemical Industry Science and Technology Co., Ltd INEOS Oxide among others.Avail 10% Instant Discount on Purchase of this report Mail us on: sopan.gedam@databridgemarketresearch.comMajor Market Drivers Environment friendly process Rising demand of petroleum based and bio based Growing demand in emerging economiesMarket Restraint High investment in research and development activities Demand switching to petroleum basedFor more insightful information visit @Customize report of "Global Propylene Glycol Market" as per customers requirement also available.Market Segmentations:Global Propylene Glycol Market is segmented on the basis of Source Application End Use GeographyMarket Segmentations in Details:On the basis of Source, the global propylene glycol market is segmented into petroleum based and bio based.On the basis of Application, the global propylene glycol market is segmented into antifreeze & functional fluids, unsaturated polyester resin, food, pharmaceuticals & cosmetics, plasticizers and liquid detergents.On the basis of End use, the global propylene glycol market is segmented into building & construction, pharmaceuticals & cosmetics, transportation and food & beverage.On the basis of geography North America South America Europe Asia-Pacific Middle East & AfricaCompetitive Landscape: Global Propylene Glycol MarketThe global propylene glycol market is consolidated due to the presence of limited number of players concentrated in few countries. These major players have adopted various organic as well as inorganic growth strategies such as mergers & acquisitions, new product launches, expansions, agreements, joint ventures, partnerships, and others to strengthen their position in this market.Speak to Author of the Report@Other ReportGlobal Ransom Ware Protection Market  Industry Trends and Forecast to 2024Global Ransom ware protection Market, By Geography, Solution (Standalone Anti-Ransom Ware Software, Secure Web Gateways, Application Control, IDS/IPS, Web Filtering, Threat Intelligence), Service (Managed Services, Professional Services), Application, Deployment Mode, Organization Size, Vertical- Industry Trends and Forecast to 2024Report Access:About Data Bridge Market ResearchData Bridge Market Research set forth itself as an unconventional and neoteric Market research and consulting firm with unparalleled level of resilience and integrated approaches. We are determined to unearth the best market opportunities and foster efficient information for your business to thrive in the market. Data Bridge endeavors to provide appropriate solutions to the complex business challenges and initiates an effortless decision-making process.Contact:Vishal DixitData Bridge Market ResearchTel: +1-888-387-2818Email: Sales@databridgemarketresearch.comInvestor: investors@databridgemarketresearch.comVisit BlogFollow us on LinkedIn:Organic Energy Bar Market Historical Analysis, Opportunities, Competitive Landscape and Industry Growth with 6.1% of CAGR by Forecast 2023

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Market Overview:Increase in health awareness and demand for convenience on-the-go nutritious products have prompted the growth of organic energy bar on a global level. The sector is driven by increasing disposable income and rising health consciousness among the consumers. Additionally, in order to cope up with the hectic and dynamic life-style, consumers demand ready-to-eat healthy products which impart instant energy to the body. Hence, with the growth of functional food commodities market, the demand for organic energy bar have surged.Boost in fitness and wellness sector has enhanced the market growth trajectory of the sector to an elevated level. Fast pace of lifestyle, increase in awareness related to health benefits obtained from the consumption of functional foods such as energy bars and snacks have raised the demand for organic energy bar on a global level. However, presence of counterfeit products possess major threat to this market.Latest Industry Updates:Dec 2017 Kelloggs recently bought the company RXbars for a hefty $600 million. The cereal maker says the unique and innovative company, known for its simple labels with ingredients printed on the front, will continue to operate independently.Nov 2017 A Nottingham Charity launched a free vending machine for homeless people to use. The machine itself is stocked with things like fresh fruit, sanitary towels, socks, energy bars, and sandwiches. It is accessible 24/7 under the canopy outside the back entrance of Broadmarsh shopping centre.Get a Sample Report @Nov 2017 Mars, the owner of confectionery brands including Snickers, M&Ms and Galaxy acquired a minority stake in Kind, the maker of healthy nut bars.Nov 2016 Hearthside Food Solutions in Downers Grove completed its transaction to acquire Standard Functional Foods Group Inc. of Nashville, Tennessee, in an effort to grow its nutrition and energy bar business.Competitive Analysis:With rising health consciousness on a global level, the demand for organic energy bar have experienced a surge. Owning to this, established manufacturers in the global organic energy bar market have started high R&D investments to enhance their product quality and bring variety in their existing product-line. New players are identified to enter into the market based on escalating demand from the consumers end. The key strategy followed by new players majorly include product innovations in order to create product differentiation and increase the sales of their product.The key players profiled in organic energy bar are Clif Bar & Company (U.S.), General Mills, Inc. (U.S.), Kellogg Company (U.S.), Atkins Nutritionals, Inc. (U.S.), Quest Nutrition, LLC (U.S.), McKee Foods Corporation (U.S.) and Quaker Oats Company (U.S.) among many others.Market Segments:The global organic energy bar market has been divided into Ingredients, Certifications, distribution channel and region.On The Basis Of Ingredients: Fruits, Cereals, Nut & Seeds and othersOn The Basis Of Certifications: 95% Certified and 100% CertifiedOn The Basis Of Sales Channel: Store Based & Non Store BasedOn The Basis Of Region: North America, Europe, Asia Pacific and ROW.Access Report Details @Regional Analysis:The global organic energy bar market is segmented into North America, Europe, APAC, and Rest of the World (RoW). Global organic energy bar market is highly dominated by North America and Europe due to escalating demand for energy booster chemical-free on-the-go bars and snacks from these regions. APAC is fastest growing region due to changing lifestyle and increasing health consciousness. The consumption of organic energy bar in countries like India and Brazil is expected to grow in upcoming years.About Market Research Future:At Market Research Future (MRFR), we enable our customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through our Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Raw Research Reports (3R), Continuous-Feed Research (CFR), and Market Research & Consulting Services.MRFR team have supreme objective to provide the optimum quality market research and intelligence services to our clients. Our market research studies by products, services, technologies, applications, end users, and market players for global, regional, and country level market segments, enable our clients to see more, know more, and do more, which help to answer all their most important questions.Contact:Market Research FutureOffice No. 528, Amanora ChambersMagarpatta Road, Hadapsar,Pune - 411028Maharashtra, India+1 646 845 9312Email: sales@marketresearchfuture.comMilitary Vetronics Market 2018 Global Key Players: General Electric Company, BAE Systems plc, Rheinmetall Defence, Moog, Inc., Lockheed Martin Corporation, Elbit Systems Ltd., Thales Group,

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https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/reports/military-vetronics-market

Market HighlightsVetronics (vehicle electronics) are used in military land vehicles to enable navigation, observation, and communication. They can help in the exchange of inter-vehicular or intra-vehicular information. These systems increase warfare capabilities by facilitating the military in their intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance missions.The global military vetronics market is expected to grow steadily in the next few years. This growth is driven by the rising demand for advanced vetronics systems enabling enhanced performance, military modernization programs, and changing nature of warfare (technology-centric warfare) among others. Demand from major markets such as Europe and the US, along with the rising demand from emerging nations in the APAC is also expected to be a major factor for the market growth.Over the last decade, there has been an increasing need to rapidly modernize the military systems. It includes the need to upgrade and equip the military land vehicles with optimized military equipment and vetronics. Traditionally, 'bolt-on' systems were largely used for such requirements. It however leads to added weight, reduced flexibility of the system, and power and cooling issues in the vehicles.To overcome such possible issues, modular approach are largely being implemented. Modular vetronics approach is based on a layered architecture that enables ease for scaling and implementing configuration changes. This approach emphasizes on standard component design while also providing a significant reduction in the cost of making changes in future requirements. Vehicles with modular system approach thus offer more benefit than the conventional vehicles. Because of the similarity in various components, it is easily available during the need for maintenance, which further reduces the life cycle cost, and also enables a lean supply chain.Request a Sample Report @Market Key PlayersCurtiss-Wright Corporation,Oshkosh Corporation,Ultra Electronics Ltd.,TE Connectivity,SAAB A.B.,Kongsberg Gruppen ASA,General Electric Company,BAE Systems plc,Rheinmetall Defence,Moog, Inc.,Lockheed Martin Corporation,Elbit Systems Ltd.,Thales Group,The Raytheon CompanyGeneral Dynamics CorporationIndustry/ Innovation/ Related News:February, 2017:- General Dynamics Land Systems signed a contract worth USD 308 million with the Government of Canada, to upgrade 141 Light Armored Vehicles that would improve the vehicles' performance and survivability while reducing their long-term maintenance costs.February, 2017:- BAE Systems signed a contract worth USD 28.2 million with the U.S. Army, to provide them with 11 M88A2 Heavy Equipment Recovery Combat Utility Lift Evacuation System (HERCULES) vehicles and related vetronics.Military Vetronics Market  SegmentsFor the convenience of the report and enhanced understanding; the military vetronics market is segmented in to three key dynamicsSegmentation by Vehicle Type: Light Protected Vehicles, Unmanned Ground Vehicles, Armored Amphibious Vehicles, and Special Purpose Vehicles.Segmentation by System: (Communication, Navigation, C3 Systems, and Power Systems).Segmentation by Regions: Comprises Geographical regions Americas, Europe, APAC and Middle East and Africa.Browse Report Details @Regional AnalysisThe traditional markets in the US and Europe have been extensively spending for military modernization along with the upgrades of existing military land vehicle fleets. It helps to maintain the operability of the existing land vehicles rather than replacing the entire fleet of ageing vehicles. Meanwhile, the emerging nations are also buying new land vehicles as the additional strength to their respective military forces. Emerging nations such as China, and India, have a large number of military troops, and land military is one of the major force for border defense in both the countries. In the present scenario of increased security concerns, these nations have increased their respective defense budgets, and also for purchase and upgrade of military land vehicles and vetronics.About Market Research Future:At Market Research Future (MRFR), we enable our customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through our Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Raw Research Reports (3R), Continuous-Feed Research (CFR), and Market Research & Consulting Services.MRFR team have supreme objective to provide the optimum quality market research and intelligence services to our clients. Our market research studies by products, services, technologies, applications, end users, and market players for global, regional, and country level market segments, enable our clients to see more, know more, and do more, which help to answer all their most important questions.Contact:Market Research Future+1 646 845 9312Email: sales@marketresearchfuture.comSleeping Aids Market - Global Industry Insights, Trends, Outlook, and Opportunity Analysis, 20172025

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Sleeping aids, also known as hypnotics are sleeping pills or devices, which are used to induce sleep. It is used in the treatment of various sleeping disorders such as narcolepsy, sleep apnea, and insomnia, which are caused due to factors such as psychiatric disorders (Depression and anxiety), environmental problems (light, noise and extreme temperatures) medical issues (asthma) and others. Sleeping aid medications include non-benzodiazepines, antidepressants, and antipsychotics for the treatment of sleeping disorders. However, various behavioral therapies such as light therapy, cognitive behavioral therapy, and relaxation techniques are also used in the treatment of these disorders. According to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), in 2017, around 49.2 million people across the globe have trouble focusing due to lack of sleep.Rising incidences of insomnia is expected to fuel growth of the sleeping aids marketOne of the major factors contributing to growth of the sleeping aids market is the rising number of insomnia cases. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), in 2016, around 70 million adults suffered from insomnia in the U.S., with men reporting a higher rate of insomnia cases. Moreover, increasing geriatric population, changing life style with increase in consumption of alcohol, caffeine, and smoking, are some other factors leading to sleeping disorders. For instance, caffeine blocks the effectiveness of adenosine, a chemical that helps to bring on drowsiness and to regulate the sleep wake cycles. Furthermore, Side effects associated with sleeping aids medication include dizziness, dry mouth, headache, stomach ache, and constipation, which hinders growth of the market.Request a sample copy of this report:Sleeping Aids Market TaxonomyOn the basis of treatment, the global sleeping aids market is segmented into:Drug TypePrescription-based DrugsOver-the-counter DrugsHerbal DrugsSleep Apnea DevicesPositive Airway Pressure (PAP) DevicesAdaptive Servo-ventilation (ASV)Oxygen ConcentratorsOral ApplianceOthersMattresses and PillowsOn the basis of disorders, the global sleeping aids market is segmented into:InsomniaSleep ApneaNarcolepsySleep WalkingOthersOn the basis of geography, the global sleeping aids market is segmented into North America, Latin America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Middle East, and Africa. North America held the dominant position in the global sleeping aids market in 2016. This is attributed to rising number of sleep apnea disorders, which is a chronic disease that increases the risk of heart diseases, high blood pressure, depression, and diabetes. For instance, according to American Academy of Sleep Medicine, in 2014, around 25 million people were affected with sleep apnea disorder in the U.S. Furthermore, Asia Pacific is expected to be the fastest growing region in the global sleeping aids market, owing to rising demand for sleeping pills due to stressful modern lifestyle. For instance, according to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 2014, in Japan around 339 million sleeping pills were sold and the three most common drugs sold for the treatment of insomnia were Zolpidem (137.09 million pills), Estazolam (86.08 million pills) and Zopiclone (28.74 million pills)Click here to know more about this report:Strategic partnerships among key players to deliver expert solutions for sleep apnea detection is expected to propel the market growthMajor players operating in the global sleeping aids market include Itamar Medical, SleepMed Inc, Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd., Cadwell Laboratories Inc., and Drive Medical Ltd. Key players are focusing on strategic mergers and acquisition for development of novel products in order to provide better care for sleep disorders. For instance, in August 2017, SleepMed Inc. announced its plans to enter into partnership with Early Sense, the inventor of Early Sense live, a sleep monitor that shares precise data with users about their sleep cycles. The objective of this partnership was to develop a sensor that can be used for monitoring disruptions throughout the night, including detection of interrupted breathing, heart rate, sleep cycles, and stress levels. The partnership will provide a comprehensive solution to its customers enabling better diagnosis and therapy.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:Automotive Tappet Market Global Forecast to 2023: Schaeffler, SKF, Eaton, Federal-Mogul, Competition Cams

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Automotive tappet market is expected to grow over the CAGR of around 4.55% during the period 2017 to 2023. Tappet is a mechanical component, generally used to lift the valve or camshaft, used between the tappet lifting and camshaft section. The camshaft rotation produces both vertical as well as side thrust in the engine. The center of tappet is fixed in such a way that the rotation of camshaft in contact with the lobe will spread over a large cross sectional area.Off-Road High-Performance Vehicle Market Major Companies:The key players in automotive tappet market are Schaeffler (Germany), SKF (Sweden), Eaton (Ireland), Federal-Mogul (US), and NSK (Japan), Crower Cams & Equipment Company, Inc. (U.S.), Competition Cams Inc. (U.S.), SM Motorenteile GmbH (Germany), Lunati (U.S.), Jinan Hongjitang Pharmaceutical Co Ltd (China), Rane Engine Valve Limited (India), Wuxi Xizhou Machinery Co., Ltd (China), Yuhuan Huiyu Tappets Co. Ltd (China), RSR Industries (India), SSV Valve (India). Get sample copy of report at:Tappet is most importantly used in high speed cars because they require quick changing of tappet without interrupting the working of engine. This increases the performance and fuel efficiency of the vehicle. The rotation of tappet is important because it reduces the wear in the engine which is caused due to the contact with cam. The two major types of tappets used are, flat tappet and roller tappet. Flat tappet is widely used because it is cost effective as compared to roller tappet and it increases the overall performance of the vehicle. There are various types of tappet used depending on the engine capacity. The capacity ranges from less than 4 cylinders, 4-6 cylinders, and more than 6 cylinders. The growing demand for increased efficiency of the vehicle will result in the growth of tappet market in future.On the basis of region, the market is segmented based on North America, Asia Pacific, Europe, and the Rest of the World. Asia Pacific is expected to witness the highest growth during the forecast period due to the shifting consumer preference for high performance vehicle and increased fuel efficiency in vehicles which is likely to result in the increase in sales of passenger and commercial vehicles. This will result in growing demand of tappet in the vehicles which will drive the growth of the market during the forecast period. There has been an increase in the production of passenger and commercial vehicles in the emerging countries such as India, China, and Japan because these countries are the manufacturing hubs for the automotive companies. The OEMs are preferring to set up their base in this countries which will result in the growing demand for passenger and commercial vehicles. North America is expected to be the second largest market that is expected to grow during the forecast period because there have been increased investment by OEM manufacturers in order produce commercial vehicles. The high investment for OEM manufacturer will result in increased production of commercial vehicles and will require increased tappet to be installed in the vehicles. This factor will result in the growth of the market in North America. Europe is expected to be the third largest market that is expected to grow during the forecast period. In Europe, Germany is the largest country that is contributing highest to the market in future.This study provides an overview of the global automotive tappet market, tracking three market segments across four geographic regions. The report studies key players, providing a five-year annual trend analysis that highlights market size, volume and share for North America, Europe, Asia Pacific (APAC) and Rest of the World (ROW). The report also provides a forecast, focusing on the market opportunities for the next five years for each region. The scope of the study segments the global automotive tappets market by its type, engine capacity, and vehicle type, and region.Access Complete Report at:About Market Research Future:At Market Research Future (MRFR), we enable our customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through our Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Raw Research Reports (3R), Continuous-Feed Research (CFR), and Market Research & Consulting Services.Contact:Market Research Future+1 646 845 9312Email: sales@marketresearchfuture.comCommercial Aircraft Avionics Systems Market 2018 Key Leaders - Rockwell Collins, Thales, Curtiss-Wright, Elbit Systems, Garmin, GE Aviation, L-3 Communications, Universal Avionics System

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Market Highlights:Avionics are the electronics system used for communication, navigation, and various other flight critical applications in an aircraft. Avionics are one of the most expensive and highly critical component in the modern aircraft. Modern avionics system also aid in improved navigation and routing, provide enhanced situational awareness to pilots, and improve ATM process.With the growth in acceptance and utilization of avionics system such as the SVS for aviation applications, the regulatory scenario has also improved. In 2013, the FAA proposed a new rule that would allow suitably equipped, trained operators to continue approaches below the current conventional minimum. It would motivate the Aviation industry and also make the installation of SVS far more worthwhile and less burdensome.Such regulations accepting the utilization of SVS would allow more operators to enjoy the advantage of purchasing a new aircraft with SVS. It also encourages aircraft operators to negotiate for the inclusion of SVS for its fleet, as it allows commercial aircraft operators flying SVS-equipped aircraft to dispatch and depart even if visibility is below authorized minimums. Such benefits may stimulate the retrofit market and give new incentives to manufacturers to offer competitive products, and accelerate the adoption of new technologies into a wider segment of aircraft fleet.Moreover, SVS helps create navigational capability that simplifies the gate-to-gate operation of an aircraft by minimizing the impact of weather. If pilots have such technology onboard the aircraft, instrument procedures can be simplified, and airports would operate with fewer delays, even as air traffic grows. Advanced vision capabilities through SVS not only provide cost-saving solutions to aircraft operators, but also help increase access, efficiency, and throughput at many airports when low visibility is a limiting factor.Request a Sample Report @The Leading Market Players in the global Commercial Aircraft Avionics Systems Market primarily include Cobham, Honeywell, Panasonic Avionics, Rockwell Collins, Thales, Curtiss-Wright, Elbit Systems, Garmin, GE Aviation, L-3 Communications, Universal Avionics System, and Zodiac Aerospace.Industry/ Innovation/ Related News:January, 2018:- Cascade Aerospace signed a contract with the Mexican Air Force, to modernise avionics on a C-130 Hercules aircraft with a Flight2 digital avionics suite, developed by Rockwell Collins.December, 2017:- PZL company, a Poland-based company signed a contract with the Polish Ministry of Defence, to modernise a dozen PZL-130 Orlik trainer aircraft, with improved avionics and new wings.Commercial Aircraft Avionics Systems Market  Competitive AnalysisThe Commercial Aircraft Avionics System Industry is a lucrative industry providing a healthy profit margin. Thus, many OEMs are attracted to this market and provide systems as well as integrated services to attract customers and capture the growing portion of this market.The market is also highly competitive and vendors compete on the basis of cost, product quality, reliability, technological innovation, and market share. To survive and succeed in such an intensely competitive environment, it is crucial for vendors to provide cost-effective and high-quality commercial aircraft avionics system.Get Full Report @Regional AnalysisEurope and the Middle East are driving the growth of the market in the EMEA region. Europe is one of the largest aviation markets worldwide and has adopted next generation air transport modernization program such as SESAR. In 2014, SESAR launched a flight demonstration project for augmented approaches, and the SESAR JU formed a new consortium as a part of this program. The consortium, called A3, intends to perform more than 200 demonstration flights at airports across Europe to validate the new approach and landing technologies. A3 also wants to develop new approach and landing solutions based on five different technologies, including SVGS. The other four are curved RNP paths, GBAS, SBAS, and EFVS. This will increase air traffic throughput while also reducing aircraft emissions and noise. The program is being executed in cooperation with companies such as Honeywell and Elbit Systems (supply avionics and SVS), Dassault Aviation, and Airbus (to provide airframe manufacturing and aircraft systems support).About Market Research Future:At Market Research Future (MRFR), we enable our customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through our Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Raw Research Reports (3R), Continuous-Feed Research (CFR), and Market Research & Consulting Services.MRFR team have supreme objective to provide the optimum quality market research and intelligence services to our clients. Our market research studies by products, services, technologies, applications, end users, and market players for global, regional, and country level market segments, enable our clients to see more, know more, and do more, which help to answer all their most important questions.Contact:Market Research Future+1 646 845 9312Email: sales@marketresearchfuture.comInspection Robotics Market - Global Industry Insights, Trends, Outlook, and Opportunity Analysis, 20172025

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Robots have found extensive applications for automating several repetitive industrial tasks. In conjunction with the development in the robotic vision systems and sensing, requirements for better production quality in the industrial manufacturing procedures and focus towards eliminating human errors in these operations have in turn led to significant growth of the inspection robotics market. Some of the major applications of these systems include inspection of water pipelines, high voltage transmission lines, bridges, and dams.To get holistic SAMPLE of the report including table of contents @Superior quality output and high ROI fueling growth of the inspection robotics marketBetter production quality assessment in industry critical applications, specifically that including aerospace and oil & gas exploration form the basis of their applications. Introduction of human errors in these processes can threaten loss of million dollars or endanger multiple human lives. These applications for high accuracy are expected to garner consistent demands over the following few years. Moreover, high return on investment (ROI), owing to reduction in manual workforce expenses, 24-hour working capacities, less residual waste generation, and minimal human intervention requirement will provide considerable growth opportunities for the inspections robotics market.Advancement in automated visual capability of these next generation systems will enhance the system applicabilityGeneric robots were attributed with operations in specific area at particular time owing to lack of appropriate vision systems. Incorporation of vision sensors, cameras, and software that can control the operation of these automated systems has led to significant increase in the application of these systems. For instance, SkySpecs offers autonomous wind turbine drone examination solutions that can operate independently and examine the various parameters of the turbines to determine its power efficiency. Moreover, such applications in food and beverage industry, high altitude or unfavorable working environment that endangers human lives can be easily met with the utilization of these systems. These factors are expected to drive the inspection robotics market growth.High initial capital and social unacceptance owing to significant loss of human jobs are expected to be major challenges to the industry growthOwing to its high initial one time capital, it is difficult for SMEs to adopt these solutions. Availability of low cost work force in some emerging economies that include China, India, and Indonesia, will also present considerable growth challenge. Moreover, requirement to meet regulatory compliances for the co-existence of the human and automated workforce such as Robot Ethics Charter in South Korea and RoboLaw project in the EU, is projected to hamper adoption of inspection robots.Remotely operated vehicles major growth drivers of the inspection robotics marketRemotely-operated vehicles are tethered by cables and can be controlled through central control unit. High utilization of these systems in surveillance and examination operations is expected to be the major growth driver for this market. However, autonomous solutions are increasingly gaining popularity, owing to their ease of utilization, and the segment is expected to witness highest growth rate over the forecast period. On the basis of application, oil & gas industry segment dominated the market, owing to its mission critical applications and requirement of accurate real time operation monitoring conducive to ensure optimal productivity.Asia Pacific is expected to dominate the industry through the forecast period, primarily owing to large production and sales in Japan, China, and South Korea. Other major regional markets include the U.S., Germany, and the U.K. The market is characterized by the presence of a relatively small number of original equipment manufacturers in comparison to other types of industrial robots. Most of the solution providers in the industry include system integrators and assemblers. Industry participants are expected to focus on innovation in order to gain strong industry foothold.Key players in the inspection robotics market include AETOs, GE Inspection Robotics, Honeybee Robotics, Inuktun Services, and Universal Robots.For More InformationAbout 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.Catch us at 3rd International Conference on Separation + Drying Technologies for Milk & Whey at Cologne, March 19 and 20, 2018Contact Us:Mr. ShahCoherent Market Insights1001 4th Ave,#3200Seattle, WA 98154Tel: +1-206-701-6702Email: sales@coherentmarketinsights.comVisit our news Website:Cardiac Implants Market Overview Till 2025 | Industry Insights, Trends, Analysis, And Forecast

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Rising incidence of cardiovascular diseases is expected to boost growth of the cardiac implants market over the forecast period. According to the World Health Organization, in 2015, around 17.7 million deaths were recorded due to cardiovascular diseases, out of which around 7.4 million deaths were caused due to coronary heart disease and 6.7 million deaths due to stroke. The other factors that are contributing to growth of the market include sedentary lifestyle leading to adoption of unhealthy eating habits, rampant advancements in technologies such as Cardialen, Parachute Implant, Watchman, HVAD Pump (HeartWare Ventricular Assist System), and HeartMate 3 are leading to new therapies for heart failure as well as growing geriatric population. However, high cost of the devices making it unaffordable for the middle and low income population is hindering growth of the global cardiac implants market are.To understand Research Methodology @Cardiac implants are designed to monitor irregular heartbeats for people suffering from heart rhythm disorders. These abnormalities are caused by problems with the hearts electrical system, which signals the heart to contract and pump blood throughout the body. Cardiac implants comprise pacemakers, implantable cardioverter defibrillators (ICDs), cardiac resynchronization therapy, implantable hemodynamic monitoring, and implanted heart rhythm monitors, among others, are also known as loop recorders. These implants are used in the treatment of myocardial ischemia, arrhythmias, and acute myocardial infraction. Due to growing aging population and demographic changes across the world, prevalence of heart disease is expected to increase, which in turn, is expected to increase the demand for cardiac implants in the near future. According to the American College of Cardiology, as of 2017, cardiovascular diseases accounts for around 800,000 deaths in the U.S and it remains the leading cause of death in the U.S.Increasing demand for pacemakers is expected to propel growth of the cardiac implants market in North AmericaOn the basis of regions, the global cardiac implants market is segmented into North America, Latin America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Middle East, and Africa. North America is expected to hold a dominant position in the market, owing to the rising demand for pacemakers. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2017, every year around 790,000 people have a heart attack, out of which 580,000 are reported as new cases, and 210,000 are recurring cases. Every 40 seconds one heart attack case is reported in the U.S. Furthermore, Asia Pacific is expected to be the key region in the global cardiac implants market. This is mainly due to rampant advancements in technology such as MRI compatible pacemakers, increasing demand for minimally invasive surgeries, and rising prevalence of cardiovascular diseases.Increasing development of innovative products is expected to propel growth of the cardiac implants marketMajor players operating in the global cardiac implants market include Medtronic, Inc. Boston Scientific Corporation, Abbott Vascular Inc., Edwards LifeScience Corporation, Thoractec Corporation, Syncardia systems, and St Jude Medical, Inc. Key players are focusing on strategic mergers and acquisitions and development of innovative products. For instance, in 2014, Medtronic announced the worlds first smallest minimally invasive cardiac pacemakerMicra TPS (Transcatheter pacing system), in the U.S. The device is delivered into the heart directly through a catheter inserted in the femoral vein. Micra TPS does not require the use of wires to connect to the heart, this in turn reduces recovery time and complications as compared to conventional pacemaker implants.Complete Report Details @Catch us at 3rd International Conference on Separation + Drying Technologies for Milk & Whey at Cologne, March 19 and 20, 2018About 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:Wide Body Aircraft MRO Market 2018 Global Leaders - GE Aviation, Honeywell Aerospace, Lufthansa Technik, Pratt & Whitney, Rolls-Royce, Abu Dhabi Aircraft Technologies,

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Market HighlightsWidebody aircraft MRO market is crucial for sustaining and extending the life of the aircraft. It consists of maintenances, overhauls, routine checks, inspections, repairs, and modifications carried out on the aircraft and their components. MRO services assure the safety and airworthiness of the aircraft. Commercial aircraft MRO comprises of engine overhaul, component MRO, line maintenance and heavy maintenance.Currently, there are more than 21,000 active widebody and narrowbody aircraft. The existing fleets will be replaced by more than 38,000 new aircraft over the next 20 years, and fleet across the world is likely to reach 45,000 aircraft by 2034. The widebody aircraft, in particular, would have increased orders from emerging regions, such as Asia, Westen Europe and the Middle East. Approximately, 7,000 widebody aircraft would be delivered to these regions in the next 20 years. On the other hand, 1,500 widebody aircraft would be delivered in the Americas.Like many airline companies around the world, Boeing outsourced its aircraft maintenance to reduce the MRO costs. 70% of the 787 Dreamliner MRO was outsourced to reduce the production time and costs. It also adopted a three-tiered outsourcing structure, in which Tier 2 and Tier 3 suppliers manufactured the aircraft parts, which were then assembled by Tier 1 manufacturers.Get a Sample Report @Major Key PlayersGE Aviation,Honeywell Aerospace,Lufthansa Technik,Pratt & Whitney,Rolls-Royce,Abu Dhabi Aircraft Technologies,Air France Industries KLM Engineering and Maintenance,MTU Aero Engines,Singapore Technologies Aerospace.Industry/ Innovation/ Related News:May 2017:- France-based OEM Services signed a contract with the South Korean carrier Asiana Airlines, to support the future fleet of Airbus A350-900 aircraft, over a 15-year period.November 2015:- Emirates signed a contract with GE Aviation for maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) of the GE9X engines that will power the airlines fleet of 150 Boeing 777X aircraft, over a period of 12 years. The contract is worth USD 16 billion.Browse Full Report @Competitive AnalysisGE Aviation and Pratt & Whitney are the two leading vendors in providing MRO services for commercial, military, regional and business aircraft application. Their focus is primarily on the implementation of light-weight materials, more electric technologies, and robust systems.Of late, the aircraft OEMs are increasingly proactive in the aftermarket services. In 2013, the engine OEMs generated 50% of its revenue from MRO and the rest by manufacturing engines. For example, Pratt & Whitney provides engine and line maintenance on a wide range of its engines. Pratt & Whitney has also entered the PMA market, where United Airlines became its first PMA customer.Similarly, the aircraft OEMs such as Boeing and Airbus, generated 10% of its revenue from MRO services, Of late, they are focussed on increasing their aftermarket revenue. For example, Airbus is developing Air+ program, which leverages the MRO network and provides better maintenance solutions. Airbus has also shown interest in setting up MROs in emerging countries like India.About Market Research Future:At Market Research Future (MRFR), we enable our customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through our Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Raw Research Reports (3R), Continuous-Feed Research (CFR), and Market Research & Consulting Services.MRFR team have supreme objective to provide the optimum quality market research and intelligence services to our clients. Our market research studies by products, services, technologies, applications, end users, and market players for global, regional, and country level market segments, enable our clients to see more, know more, and do more, which help to answer all their most important questions.Contact:Market Research Future+1 646 845 9312Email: sales@marketresearchfuture.comCommercial Aircraft Propeller Systems Market 2018 Key Players - McCauley, UTC Aerospace Systems, Culver Props, Curtiss-Wright, Electravia, and WhirlWind Propellers.

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Market OverviewCommercial aircraft propeller systems find their application in piston-engine and turboprop-powered aircraft. The systems include blades, hubs, and electronic controls. The number of blades in a propeller system ranges from three to six (in a commercial aircraft). The blades are either made of aluminum or composite. The key advantage that composite-based propeller blades offer is reduced weight, which in turn reduces the fuel consumption.A turboprop is considered to provide better fuel efficiency as compared to regional jets. Thus, with the rise in global fuel prices, turboprop is bound to become more popular among the regional airlines and low-cost carriers mostly operating in point-to-point short haul routes. Cost pressure plays an important role in airlines' choice for aircraft as it helps determine the operational cost.OEMs, as well as PMA vendors, are involved in the manufacturing of propeller systems. Thus, the ongoing demand for turboprop aircraft largely supports the market for propeller systems.Request a Sample Report @The Leading Market Players in the global Commercial Aircraft Propeller Systems Market primarily include Airmaster, Dowty Propellers, Hartzell Propeller, McCauley, UTC Aerospace Systems, Culver Props, Curtiss-Wright, Electravia, and WhirlWind Propellers.Industry/ Innovation/ Related News:December, 2017:- Dowty Propellers signed a contract with AVIC Aircraft Co. Ltd. for the design, development, production, and in-service support for the propeller system on the MA700, a twin-engine airliner.June, 2014 - Dowty Propellers signed a contract with India's SpiceJet airline company, to provide a complete support package for the propeller systems equipped on the airline's 15 Bombardier Q400 regional aircraft.Commercial Aircraft Propeller Systems Market  SegmentsFor the convenience of the report and enhanced understanding; the commercial aircraft propeller systems market is segmented in to two key dynamics:Segmentation by Solution: Blades, Hub Systems, and Digital Electronic Controls.Segmentation by Regions: Comprises Geographical regions Americas, Europe, APAC and Middle East and Africa.Get a Full Report @Regional AnalysisAPAC region has emerged as one of the potential markets for turboprop sales. As a result, manufacturers are focusing their new product launch targeting this region. For example, ATR, one of the leader in turboprop sales in the APAC market has launched two new versions of its ATR 72-600 in the region. The launch customers for both the versions are from APAC region, namely Cebu Pacific from Philippines and Air Niugini from Papua New Guinea.ATR 72-600 consists of 568F-bladed propellers from Hamilton Sundstrand (merged with Goodrich in 2012 to form UTC Aerospace Systems). The company provides complete propeller system solutions including blades, hubs, and digital electronic controls that incorporate aerodynamics as well as control dynamics.About Market Research Future:At Market Research Future (MRFR), we enable our customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through our Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Raw Research Reports (3R), Continuous-Feed Research (CFR), and Market Research & Consulting Services.MRFR team have supreme objective to provide the optimum quality market research and intelligence services to our clients. Our market research studies by products, services, technologies, applications, end users, and market players for global, regional, and country level market segments, enable our clients to see more, know more, and do more, which help to answer all their most important questions.Contact:Market Research Future+1 646 845 9312Email: sales@marketresearchfuture.comPyridine and Pyridine Derivative Market - Global Industry Insights, Trends, Outlook, and Opportunity Analysis, 2017-2025

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Pyridine and its derivatives are mostly used in the pharmaceutical industry. For instance, beta picoline is used to manufacture vitamin B3 and vitamin B6. Vitamin B3 is used in pharmaceutical applications. It can cure skin diseases, improve digestive function, maintain cholesterol level, and reduce the risk of cardiovascular diseases. This increases the demand of pyridine and its derivatives. Pyridine and its derivatives are also used as agrochemicals, antioxidants, polymer, dyes, latexes, and in food industry.Rising application in the pharmaceutical industry is the major driver for the market. Increase in chemical consumption in agrochemicals, urbanization, and increasing demand for vitamin B3 are the main drivers for the pyridine and pyridine derivatives market. The constantly changing prices and supply demand gap of pyridine and its derivatives are the challenges faced by the pyridine and pyridine derivative market. The ban on pyridine in 36 countries including China and government regulations on the usage of agrochemicals restrains the growth of pyridine and pyridine derivative market.Request a sample copy of this report:Pyridine and Pyridine Derivative Market TaxonomyPyridine and pyridine derivative market can be segmented on the basis of type and application as follows:On the basis of type;PyridineBeta PicolineAlpha PicolineGamma PicolineOthersOn the basis of Application;AgrochemicalsPharmaceuticalsLatexesFoodOthersAlpha and Gamma pyridine are used in pharmaceutical, human nutrition, animal nutrition, agrochemical, and industrial sectors. Beta pyridine is used in herbicides and insecticides industries.Insecticides and herbicides are used in agrochemicals sector. Pyridine is harmful if inhaled, however, its derivatives are used in the pharmaceutical industry. Plastic films, cardboard, and aluminum are used as pyridine and pyridine derivative materials. The largest end-use industry is pharmaceutical followed by electronics.Pyridine and Pyridine Derivative Market OutlookAsia Pacific is the largest and estimated to be the fastest growing market due to burgeoning growth in the pharmaceutical industry, which has been driven by urbanization in India. Increase in geriatric and infant population has led to an elevated demand for medicines. Moreover, cheaper healthcare facilities in countries such as Thailand and India has boosted medical tourism in the regionEurope is estimated to be the second largest market for pyridine due to high consumption rate of pharmaceutical products and latexes. Although the pharmaceutical industry in these regions is matured, with high prevalence of lifestyle diseases, the market is projected to grow furtherNorth America is an emerging market for pyridine derivatives. The growth of pyridine and pyridine derivative market is due to the need for productivity of agriculture field, which requires non-toxic and noble productsThe Middle East population has high disposable incomes, which drives consumerism. Consumption of electronics and consumer goods are growing rapidly, driving the pyridine and pyridine derivative market as well. Decline in markets of Syria and Iran have been compensated by high growth rate in the GCC countriesLatin America plays a major role in boosting the global pyridine and pyridine derivative market growth. Brazil is the fourth largest pharmaceutical market in the world. Argentina, Mexico, and Brazil are also among the largest producers of non-patented generic drugs, which are exported to over 40 countriesSome of the major players in the pyridine and pyridine derivative market are Jubilant Life Sciences Ltd. (India), Vertellus Holdings LLC (U.S.), Lonza Group AG (Switzerland), Nanjing Redsun Co. Ltd. (China), Resonance Specialties Ltd. (India), Shandong Luba Chemical Co. Ltd. (China), Hubei Sanonda Co. Ltd. (China), Chang Chun Petrochemical Co. Ltd. (Taiwan), and Koei Chemical Co. Ltd. (Japan).To know the latest trends and insights prevalent in this market, click the link below:About Coherent Market Insights:Coherent Market Insights is a prominent market research and consulting firm offering action-ready syndicated research reports, custom market analysis, consulting services, and competitive analysis through various recommendations related to emerging market trends, technologies, and potential absolute dollar opportunity.Contact Us:Mr.ShahCoherent Market Insights1001 4th Ave,#3200Seattle, WA 98154Tel: +1-206-701-6702Email:sales@coherentmarketinsights.comBorder Security Market Global Players - Airbus group, Boeing, Cobham, DRS Technologies, Northrop Grumman, Elbit Systems,

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Market Overview:A sharp rise in terrorism globally has put the focus back on protection of the national boundaries on the state radars. The issue of border protection was minor especially in the European Continent until a few years back. The Schengen agreement allowed free movement in the amongst the members of the European Union, which had allowed for less investment in the border protection measures. Russia controlled overwhelming majority of the market. But the rise of ISIS and the incessant inflow of refugees has forced the members of the European Union to strengthen their border security apparatus.The key strategies traced from the analysis of recent developments of the key players include Product Launch, Agreement & Partnership, Acquisition and expansion. Strategic partnerships between Key players support the growth and expansion plans of the key players during the forecast period. On the product and sales side, companies are investing in innovation/R&D, brand building, and fostering strong relationships with customers to support their competitive position.Request a Sample Report and Detailed TOC @Major Key PlayersAirbus group,Boeing,Cobham,DRS Technologies,Northrop Grumman,Elbit Systems,Embraer Defense & Security,FLIR Systems,General Atomics Systems,General DynamicsGlobal Border Security Market is expected to grow at a CAGR of around 8% during 2016-2021. The key factors driving the growth are demand for mobile warfare systems, driverless cargo inspection systems, demand for persistent ISR, and demand for aerostat and blimps.Industry/ Innovation/ Related News:September 12, 2017 - Airbus Tetra technology is integral part of the next generationAirbus_Modem2.jpg electronic verification system to transmit data and information of vessel locations off the coast. Airbus provides its latest Tetra modem TW1m to the telecom company Atlas in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). It will be used to integrate confidential data, such as GPS positioning and text messages into the Atlas vessel identification system which is run by a government agency.September 12, 2017 - U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) awarded Elbit Systems of America, LLC, a contract to provide an in-fill radar system and tower. The amount of the award is not material to Elbit Systems Ltd, the parent company of Elbit Systems of America. The work is being performed in Texas. This program is another example of Elbit Systems of America delivering solutions supporting CBP's mission to protect U.S. borders.July 6, 2017 - Airbus Defence and Space has expanded its WorldDEM portfolio with the launch of WorldDEM4Ortho. Tailored for orthorectification of high and very high resolution optical and radar satellite data, WorldDEM4Ortho will enable corrections of all distortions induced by the topographical variations of the Earths surface and satellite orientation when acquiring an image. Covering the Earths entire land surface, WorldDEM4Ortho is the most consistent and accurate elevation model for orthorectification on a global scale.Get a Complete Report @Regional AnalysisAsia-Pacific region will also see major activity in the border protection space. The conflict in the South China Sea has forced the nations such as Vietnam, Philippines, Malaysia, Taiwan to strengthen the border security measures against the Chinese. India also will be a major market going into the future as it seeks to neutralize its troublesome neighbors. South Korea and Japan will be implementing incremental features to counter the threats from North Korea and China respectively. The European market along with the Asia Pacific region will be as a result the fastest growing market in the forecast period.About Market Research Future:At Market Research Future (MRFR), we enable our customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through our Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Raw Research Reports (3R), Continuous-Feed Research (CFR), and Market Research & Consulting Services.MRFR team have supreme objective to provide the optimum quality market research and intelligence services to our clients. Our market research studies by products, services, technologies, applications, end users, and market players for global, regional, and country level market segments, enable our clients to see more, know more, and do more, which help to answer all their most important questions.Contact:Market Research Future+1 646 845 9312Email: sales@marketresearchfuture.comMilitary Communications Market 2018 Key Players - Northrop Grumman Corporation, Lockheed Martin Corporation, BAE Systems, Thales, Alcatel, Raytheon

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Market Highlights:Military communication includes electronic systems, products and devices that are used for the transmission and reception of video, voice and data signals, essential in military operations. The facilitation of communication has become an effective means for defense authorities to enhance the capabilities of their units. Also, the defense industry is embracing the new communication technologies, shifting to a new generation of sophisticated systems that enables faster, secure, less costly and more flexible communications.Access to broadband and internet services while airborne is one of the crucial elements for effective mobile command and control of the aircraft, beyond ISR. New developments in antenna and satellite technology, along with the nimble and high-capacity global networks, has brought military air force on the forefront of technology and capability.The antennas that are used for the military aircraft had its origin in the commercial aircraft. For example, in 2013, ViaSat signed a contract with Boeing, to provide broadband services to 15 C-17 Globemaster III, their military transport aircraft. When the air forces fly to places like Afghanistan they often use a C-17 aircraft because they are equipped with the high-speed broadband capability, which offers them intelligence and communications en route. Small military airplanes are equipped with small antennas whereas, large aircraft are provided with low-profile antennas for data extraction, surveillance and reconnaissance purposes.The internet and broadband technologies allow en route communications, mission planning, and gathering of last-minute intelligence and downloading it to the aircraft en route. The broadband system is protected by various layers of security that prevents unauthorized access or to extract intelligence information.Request a Sample Report @Military Communications Market competition by top manufacturers, with production, price, revenue (value) and market share for each manufacturer; the top players includingNorthrop Grumman Corporation (U.S.), Lockheed Martin Corporation (U.S.), BAE Systems (U.K.), Thales (France), Alcatel (France), Raytheon (U.S.), Rockwell Collins (U.S.), General Dynamics (U.S.), Harries corporation (U.S.), and Airbus Group (Netherlands) are some of the leading players operating in this market.Industry/ Innovation/ Related News:2015:- Northrop Grumman signed a contract with the US Air Force, worth $145 million, to provide additional Battlefield Airborne Communication Node (BACN) communications capabilities to military aircraft, by 2016.2013:- EADS Innovation Works had carried out test flights for the wireless sensors on an Airbus aircraft, which provided promising results. Research is currently ongoing for finalizing the appropriate strategies in case of extreme situations, such as flight routes in freezing regions.Military Communications Market  Competitive AnalysisThe global Military Communication Market is highly competitive, and vendors compete on the basis of cost, product quality, reliability, and aftermarket service. In order to survive and succeed in such an intensely competitive environment, it is crucial for vendors to provide cost-effective and high-quality communication systems with latest technology and materials.Among the companies, BAE Systems and Northrop Grumman are the two leading vendors in the market. Their focus is primarily on the implementation of light-weight materials, more electric technologies, and robust systems.Mergers and acquisitions, along with increased collaboration with alliance partners around the world, would drive the global military communication market, in the forecast period. In 2015, Data Link Solutions LLC was formed, as a result of the joint venture of BAE Systems and Rockwell Collins to provide support to the military assets globally. The joint venture would enhance the company's position in the market and enable direct access to the local customers.Browse Full Report @About Market Research Future:At Market Research Future (MRFR), we enable our customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through our Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Raw Research Reports (3R), Continuous-Feed Research (CFR), and Market Research & Consulting Services.MRFR team have supreme objective to provide the optimum quality market research and intelligence services to our clients. Our market research studies by products, services, technologies, applications, end users, and market players for global, regional, and country level market segments, enable our clients to see more, know more, and do more, which help to answer all their most important questions.Contact:Market Research Future+1 646 845 9312sales@marketresearchfuture.comArtificial Intelligence In Healthcare Market - Frontier in Healthcare & Turning Ideas in to Reality

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Artificial intelligence (AI) in healthcare uses software and algorithms to estimate human cognition in the analysis of compound medical data. The main aim of health-related AI applications is to examine relationships between prevention nad treatment techniques of patient outcomes. AI programs have been technologically advanced and applied to practices such as treatment protocol development, diagnosis processes, personalized medicine, drug development, and patient monitoring and care, among others. Medical institutions such as, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and National Health Service, The Mayo Clinic, multinational technology companies such as Google and IBM, startups such as Ayasdi and Welltok, have created solutions currently used in the industry. Healthcare remains the major area of investment in AI as measured by venture capital deal flow.Request For Free Sample Of The Report @Global artificial intelligence in healthcare market has be categorized into offering, technology, application, end-user and regions. Based on the offering the market has been segmented into software, hardware and services. On the basis of technology the Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare market has been divided into deep learning, natural language processing, context-aware processing in querying method. Application segment has been bifurcated into medical imaging & diagnostics, patient data and risk analysis, drug discovery, precision medicine, lifestyle management and monitoring, wearables, virtual assistance, inpatient care and hospital management and research. End-user segment has been categorized into payers, patients, pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, ACOS & MCOS and providers.The major factors driving the artificial intelligence in healthcare market are the increasing importance of precision medicine, ability of AI to improve patient outcomes, collaboration of big data in healthcare, rising number of cross-industry partnership and collaborations, growing necessity to reduce increasing healthcare costs, and imbalance between patients and health workforce. Unwillingness among medical practitioners to adopt AI-Based technologies, and ambiguous regulatory guidelines for medical software are the major factors that may hinder the progress of the artificial intelligence in healthcare market in the near future. Additionally the growth opportunities of emerging markets such as India, China, & Brazil and the growth of potential of AI-based tools for elderly care are some of the major growth opportunities for the artificial intelligence in healthcare market players.Geographically, the artificial intelligence in healthcare market has been bifurcated into five regions North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Middle East & Africa and Latin America. The Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare market size and forecast period for each region has been estimated from 2017 to 2023. Additionally the CAGR (%) for the forecasted period 2017 to 2023. The study also includes market estimates for major countries/regions such as the U.S, the U.K., Germany, France, Japan, China, India, GCC, North Africa, South Africa and Brazil. The detailed analysis by Offering, Technology, Application and regions supports in evaluating the present scenario, growth prospects and the future scenario for the Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare market over the forecast period. Thus, the report delivers in-depth segment analysis of the market and classifies it into various industries, thereby providing valuable perceptions.Obtain Report Details @The growing necessity for the reduction in the increasing healthcare costs is anticipated to drive the Europe market for Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare in the future years. The major companies that are involved artificial intelligence in healthcare are Intel Corporation, Google, Inc., NVIDIA Corporation, Microsoft Corporation, IBM Corporation, Enlitic, Inc., General Vision, Inc., iCarbonX, Koninklijke Philips N.V., and Recursion Pharmaceuticals, Inc.About Us-Xpodence Research is a U.S. based Market Research Company and offers the most extensive collection of progressive surveying syndicated and customized research reports of various categories for private and public industries across the globe.We offer the comprehensive market research solution for all the industries by performing the in-depth study of industry trends, verticals globally. We believe in building an eternal bond with our customers through providing them inclusive research study both customized and syndicated based on their specific requirements.The organizations in every industry such as Technology, Pharmaceuticals, Consumable Goods, Food & Beverage and others demands a market-based solutions for various significant decisions based on productivity and output globally. Our services are tailored specifically to our clients by proposing them the potential outcome, based on our in-depth analysis and insights for exploring the growth strategies through providing the best possible decision for quality production.Contact Us-Xpodence ResearchUSA Office244 , Madison AvenueNew York City, NY - 10016United StatesUK Office109 ,Straford Street,LeedsWest Yorkshrie LS11 6JGUnited KingdomToll Free +1- 844-445-2861Email-sales@xpodenceresearch.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 []Blood Clot Retrieval Devices Market 2018  Boston Scientific, Medtronic, Abbott, Acandis, Biotronik, CONMED, Cordis

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Qyresearchreports include new market research report Global Blood Clot Retrieval Devices Market Size, Status and Forecast 2025 to its huge collection of research reports.The report on the global market for Blood Clot Retrieval Devices procures data and other relevant information from myriad dependable sources, and applies various methodologies to analyze and map it. It then groups the data into digestible chunks so that they offer crucial market information. The entire process entails both primary and secondary research methodology.The sourced information is also used to draw growth forecasts of the global market for Blood Clot Retrieval Devices. It helps to understand the various factors providing tailwinds and headwinds to the markets trajectory and the macro-fundamentals likely to impact in the near future.Request for Sample Copy of this Study @Another key area, where the report proves to be a valuable source of information is in the understanding the competitive dynamics for the global market for Blood Clot Retrieval Devices. Using analytical tools, viz. Porters Five Forces and SWOT Analysis, it evaluates the opportunities and pitfalls players might encounter in the market for Blood Clot Retrieval Devices. It also enables it to draw insights on strengths and weaknesses of prominent market participants.For the purpose of study, the global market for Blood Clot Retrieval Devices has been segmented depending upon different parameters in the research study. A comparative analysis of the different segments grouped under one head is presented to that stakeholders can tap into the market right. The research and development landscape too has been studied to understand the scope in the global market for Blood Clot Retrieval Devices.Table of ContentsGlobal Blood Clot Retrieval Devices Market Size, Status and Forecast 20251 Industry Overview of Blood Clot Retrieval Devices1.1 Blood Clot Retrieval Devices Market Overview1.1.1 Blood Clot Retrieval Devices Product Scope1.1.2 Market Status and Outlook1.2 Global Blood Clot Retrieval Devices Market Size and Analysis by Regions (2013-2018)1.3 Blood Clot Retrieval Devices Market by Type1.3.1 Mechanical embolus removal devices1.3.2 Stent retrievers1.3.3 Ultrasound-assisted devices1.4 Blood Clot Retrieval Devices Market by End Users/Application1.4.1 Hospitals and specialty clinics1.4.2 ASCsAccess the Report and full TOC @2 Global Blood Clot Retrieval Devices Competition Analysis by Players2.1 Blood Clot Retrieval Devices Market Size (Value) by Players (2013-2018)2.2 Competitive Status and Trend2.2.1 Market Concentration Rate2.2.2 Product/Service Differences2.2.3 New Entrants2.2.4 The Technology Trends in Future3 Company (Top Players) Profiles3.1 Argon Medical Devices3.1.1 Company Profile3.1.2 Main Business/Business Overview3.1.3 Products, Services and Solutions3.1.4 Blood Clot Retrieval Devices Revenue (Million USD) (2013-2018)3.1.5 Recent Developments3.2 Boston Scientific3.2.1 Company Profile3.2.2 Main Business/Business Overview3.2.3 Products, Services and Solutions3.2.4 Blood Clot Retrieval Devices Revenue (Million USD) (2013-2018)3.2.5 Recent Developments3.3 Medtronic3.3.1 Company Profile3.3.2 Main Business/Business Overview3.3.3 Products, Services and Solutions3.3.4 Blood Clot Retrieval Devices Revenue (Million USD) (2013-2018)3.3.5 Recent Developments3.4 AbbottList of Tables and FiguresFigure Global Blood Clot Retrieval Devices Market Size (Million USD) Status and Outlook (2013-2018)Table Global Blood Clot Retrieval Devices Revenue (Million USD) Comparison by Regions (2013-2018)Figure Global Blood Clot Retrieval Devices Market Share by Regions (2013-2018)Figure United States Blood Clot Retrieval Devices Market Size (Million USD) and Growth Rate by Regions (2013-2018)Figure EU Blood Clot Retrieval Devices Market Size (Million USD) and Growth Rate by Regions (2013-2018)Figure Japan Blood Clot Retrieval Devices Market Size (Million USD) and Growth Rate by Regions (2013-2018)Figure China Blood Clot Retrieval Devices Market Size (Million USD) and Growth Rate by Regions (2013-2018)Figure India Blood Clot Retrieval Devices Market Size (Million USD) and Growth Rate by Regions (2013-2018)Get discount copy @QYResearchReports.com delivers the latest strategic market intelligence to build a successful business footprint in China. Our syndicated and customized research reports provide companies with vital background information of the market and in-depth analysis on the Chinese trade and investment framework, which directly affects their business operations. Reports from QYResearchReports.com feature valuable recommendations on how to navigate in the extremely unpredictable yet highly attractive Chinese market.1820 AvenueM Suite #1047Brooklyn, NY 11230United StatesToll Free: 866-997-4948 (USA-CANADA)Tel: +1-518-621-2074Web:Email: sales@qyresearchreports.comAutomotive Sun Visor Market 2018  Grupo Antolin, Daimei, Atlas (Motus), Kyowa Sangyo, KASAI KOGYO, Hayashi, Takata, IAC Group

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Qyresearchreports include new market research report Global Automotive Sun Visor Market 2018 Size, Growth Rate, Share, Progress 2023 to its huge collection of research reports.The global market for Automotive Sun Visor has been examined on different perspectives that are for all intents and purposes introduce in the situation, and have influenced the market circumstance to the huge degree. The report additionally introduces excellent experience and information related to worldwide Automotive Sun Visor showcase. The real purposes behind the report is to detail out certain positive and obstructive elements centers about the market conditions with the target that potential examiners have a tolerable thought and finding out about the market they will place assets into. Exact and authentic data has been accounted for with a specific ultimate objective to give a hardened view and alongside a present status of the market, to the customers of the generation. The market consider report furthermore amasses the features for instance, drivers, constraints, advertise figures, segments, future improvement, ventures, and alternate points of view. The introduction similarly fuse the basic market purposes, which contains specific highlights of the basic viewpoints that are most likely going to trigger change in the market or reasons that may have a negative impacts as well.Request for Sample Copy of this Study @This report gives an additional knowledge and investigation of the global market for Automotive Sun Visor by effectively looking at current happenings and business systems of concerned market. This is required to go about as a supplementary guide in giving right data and information on a couple of plots for the market, for instance identifying with pattern of the administration bodies in the locales, progress and course structure, streams drawbacks, income exchange, and wages made among others.Table of Contents1 Automotive Sun Visor Market Overview11.1 Product Overview and Scope of Automotive Sun Visor11.2 Automotive Sun Visor Segment by Types (Product Category)21.2.1 Global Automotive Sun Visor Production by Types21.2.2 Global Automotive Sun Visor Production Market Share by Types in 201731.2.3 Sun Visor with Mirror31.2.4 Sun Visor without Mirror41.3 Global Automotive Sun Visor Segment by Applications41.3.1 Global Automotive Sun Visor Consumption Comparison by Applications41.3.2 Passenger Vehicle61.3.3 Commercial Vehicle6Get more information from Table of Content:2 Global Automotive Sun Visor Market Competition by Manufacturers162.1 Global Automotive Sun Visor Production and Share by Manufacturers (2016-2017)162.2 Global Automotive Sun Visor Revenue and Share by Manufacturers (2016-2017)182.3 Global Automotive Sun Visor Average Price by Manufacturers (2016-2017)212.4 Manufacturers Automotive Sun Visor Headquarters, Established Date222.5 Automotive Sun Visor Market Competitive Situation and Trends232.5.1 Automotive Sun Visor Market Concentration Rate232.5.2 Automotive Sun Visor Market Share of Top 3 and Top 5 Manufacturers242.5.3 Mergers & Acquisitions, Expansion253 Global Automotive Sun Visor Production by Regions (2013-2018)263.1 Global Automotive Sun Visor Production and Market Share by Regions (2013-2018)263.2 Global Automotive Sun Visor Revenue and Market Share by Regions (2013-2018)283.3 Global Automotive Sun Visor Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2013-2018)303.4 North America Automotive Sun Visor Production (2013-2018)313.5 Europe Automotive Sun Visor Production (2013-2018)323.6 China Automotive Sun Visor Production (2013-2018)333.7 Japan Automotive Sun Visor Production (2013-2018)343.8 Korea Automotive Sun Visor Production (2013-2018)363.9 India Automotive Sun Visor Production (2013-2018)374 Global Automotive Sun Visor Consumption by Regions (2013-2018)394.1 Global Automotive Sun Visor Consumption by Regions (2013-2018)394.2 North America Automotive Sun Visor Consumption (2013-2018)414.3 Europe Automotive Sun Visor Consumption (2013-2018)424.4 China Automotive Sun Visor Consumption (2013-2018)434.5 Japan Automotive Sun Visor Consumption (2013-2018)444.6 Korea Automotive Sun Visor Consumption (2013-2018)454.7 India Automotive Sun Visor Consumption (2013-2018)46Get discount copy @QYResearchReports.com delivers the latest strategic market intelligence to build a successful business footprint in China. Our syndicated and customized research reports provide companies with vital background information of the market and in-depth analysis on the Chinese trade and investment framework, which directly affects their business operations. Reports from QYResearchReports.com feature valuable recommendations on how to navigate in the extremely unpredictable yet highly attractive Chinese market.1820 AvenueM Suite #1047Brooklyn, NY 11230United StatesToll Free: 866-997-4948 (USA-CANADA)Tel: +1-518-621-2074Web:Email: sales@qyresearchreports.comCeramic Tableware Industry:2018 Global Market Overview and Competitive Analysis

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This report studies the Ceramic Tableware market status and outlook of global and major regions, from angles of manufacturers, regions, product types and end industries; this report analyzes the top manufacturers in global and major regions, and splits the Ceramic Tableware market by product type and applications/end industries.The ceramic tableware is mainly made from clay materials, kaolin, feldspathic fluxes, quartz sands, etc. The main applications of ceramic tableware are household and commercial use. Commercial use is dominating the end market, occupy for about 71.9 % of market share.The global ceramic tableware market is valued at 59.1 billion USD in 2017 and is expected to reach 75.0. billion USD by the end of 2022, growing at a CAGR of 4.9% between 2017 and 2022; while the Ceramic Tableware sales was 68.8 billion units in 2017 and it will be 82.4 billion units in 2022.Request for Sample Copy of this Study @Asia-Pacific and Europe are dominating the ceramic tableware market; Americas also plays important role, especially the United States, Mexico and Brazil etc.In Asia-Pacific, China is the largest producer, exporter and consumer, but most of Chinese manufacturers are supplying the low-end products, low price and fierce competition. Japanese and other European brands are dominating the high-end market. India, Indonesia and Thailand also are important producers, but most of players are small- and medium-sized manufacturers and supplying the low-and-medium-grade products.In China, hundreds of manufactuers are mainly located in Chaozhou (Guangzhou Province), Liling (Hunan Province), Beiliu (Guangxi Province), Dehua (Fujian Province), Tangshan (Hebei Province), Zibo (Shandong Privince), Yixing (Jiangsu Province) and Jingdezhen (Jiangxi Province). Most of companies are small players and producing the low value-added products. The typical manufacturers include Songfa Ceramics, Hualian China, Sitong Group, The Great Wall, Guangxi Sanhuan, Weiye Ceramics, Huaguang Ceramics, Guangdong Meidi, Jingdezhen Redleaf Ceramics, Gaochun Ceramics, Sanyuan Ceramics, China Yong Feng Yuan and Shandong Guiyuan Advanced Ceramic.In Europe, Germany, UK and France are major producers, the European brands are dominating the global high-end market, like Villeroy & Boch, Rosenthal GmbH (brands like Rosenthal, Thomas, Hutschenreuther), Meissen, Sch?nwald, Fiskars Group (brands include Royal Copenhagen, Wedgwood, Royal Doulton, Arabia, Royal Albert and R?rstrand etc.) and Portmeirion Group PLC etc.Table of Contents1 Ceramic Tableware Market Overview11.1 Ceramic Tableware Product Overview11.2 Ceramic Tableware Segment by Types (Product Category)21.2.1 Global Ceramic Tableware Production and Growth (%) Comparison by Types (2012-2022)21.2.2 Global Ceramic Tableware Production Market Share (%) by Types in 201731.2.3 Porcelain41.2.4 Bone China41.2.5 Stoneware (ceramic)51.3 Global Ceramic Tableware Segment by Applications51.3.1 Global Ceramic Tableware Production (K Units) Comparison by Applications (2012-2022)51.3.2 Commercial Use61.3.3 Home Use8Complete table of content is available at:2 Global Ceramic Tableware Market Competition by Manufacturers/Brand642.1 Global Ceramic Tableware Production (K Units) and Share by Manufacturers (2012-2017)642.2 Global Ceramic Tableware Revenue (Million USD) and Share by Manufacturers (2012-2017)652.3 Global Ceramic Tableware Average Price (USD/Unit) by Manufacturers (2012-2017)672.4 Manufacturers Ceramic Tableware Manufacturing Base Distribution, Sales Area683 Global Ceramic Tableware Production (K Units), Revenue (Million USD) by Regions (2012-2017)713.1 Global Ceramic Tableware Production (K Units) and Market Share (%) by Regions (2012-2017)713.2 Global Ceramic Tableware Revenue (Million USD) and Market Share (%) by Regions (2012-2017)733.3 Global Ceramic Tableware Production (K Units), Revenue (Million USD), Price (USD/Unit) and Gross Margin (%) (2012-2017)743.4 North America Ceramic Tableware Production (K Units), Revenue (Million USD), Price (USD/Unit) and Gross Margin (%) (2012-2017)754 Global Ceramic Tableware Production, Revenue, Price Trend by Types784.1 Global Ceramic Tableware Production (K Units) and Market Share (%) by Types (2012-2017)784.2 Global Ceramic Tableware Revenue and Market Share (%) by Types (2012-2017)804.3 Global Ceramic Tableware Price (USD/Unit) by Type (2012-2017)81Enquiry For Discount Visit @QYResearchReports.com delivers the latest strategic market intelligence to build a successful business footprint in China. Our syndicated and customized research reports provide companies with vital background information of the market and in-depth analysis on the Chinese trade and investment framework, which directly affects their business operations. Reports from QYResearchReports.com feature valuable recommendations on how to navigate in the extremely unpredictable yet highly attractive Chinese market.1820 AvenueM Suite #1047Brooklyn, NY 11230United StatesToll Free: 866-997-4948 (USA-CANADA)Tel: +1-518-621-2074Web:Email: sales@qyresearchreports.comPicric Acid Market - Global Industry Insights, Trends, Outlook, and Opportunity Analysis, 2017-2025

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Picric acid, also known as TNT i.e. tri nitro phenol, is mainly used for manufacturing explosives, medicines, and dyes. Picric acid in its pure form and also in its metallic structure form can be used as an explosive. It is used as a booster for other explosives and rocket fuels. In the healthcare industry, it is used to cure mental exhaustion, spinal cord degenerative condition, burn out or exhaustion, and also hackneyed minds. Dyes in which picric acid are used are highly preferred in the textile industry. Final products in which dyes being used are plastic, paint, printing ink, rubber, cosmetics, etc.Picric acid is generally stored in an environment with 10% moisture content. This is due to the fact that it explodes when it comes in contact with metal surface since it is usually stored in metal containers. In heating conditions, it forms toxic oxides of carbon and nitrogen, which are hazardous to the human body. According to ACGIH, if picric acid is ingested or inhaled by any person in quantities more than 1-2gms, it may lead to severe poisoning. It is a strong acid among all derivative acids of phenol. However, it is also corrosive and strong irritant.Request a sample copy of this report:Picric Acid Market TaxonomyOn the basis of type, the picric acid market is classified into:Dry and DehydratedLess than 30% wetD1BD2BMore than 30% wetB4D1BD2BOn the basis of end-user industry, the picric acid market is classified into:DefensePharmaceuticalTextileMiningAgricultureOthersDry and dehydrated picric acid is odorless and yellow colored crystals. It is highly unstable and is used as a high powered explosive. Wet picric acid is slightly less reactive but is unstable and is used in other end-use industries.The pyrotechnic ability of picric acid allows it to be utilized in explosives. Also, the antiseptic and astringent properties make it a crucial part of pharmaceutical industry. It is also used in the textile industry, as a yellow dye. Moreover, its toxic nature is an advantage while in the form of pesticide. Picric acid finds significant application as an etching agent of magnesium alloys as well.Picric Acid Market OutlookAsia Pacific is the largest and fastest growing region in the global picric acid market. This is due to the high number of end-use segments in India and China. The pharmaceutical, agriculture, and textile industries are witnessing rapid growth in this region. Additionally, growing tensions in South East Asia, has led to arms procurement, which boosts the picric acid market growth.To know the latest trends and insights prevalent in this market, click the link below:North America and Europe dominate the arms manufacturing industry.. The increased armament of countries all around the world has led to an arms industry revival, boosting picric acid market as well.In Latin America, the emergence of Brazil, Argentina, and Mexico as major markets in end-user industries has resulted in market growth. Moreover, increasing agricultural land by logging of Amazon rainforest has resulted in use of picric acid and its derivatives as pesticidesThe Middle East and Africa has witnessed substantial growth in the pharmaceutical industry. With increased medical aid to Africa from the western world, use of antiseptic medicines has grown in this region, resulting in picric acid market growth.Some of the key companies identified across the value chain of global picric acid market are Chemtura, Innospec, BASF, Shell, DOW, GE, Nalco, Afton, Baker Hughes, Chemours, and Biobor.About Coherent Market Insights:Coherent Market Insights is a prominent market research and consulting firm offering action-ready syndicated research reports, custom market analysis, consulting services, and competitive analysis through various recommendations related to emerging market trends, technologies, and potential absolute dollar opportunity.Contact Us:Mr.ShahCoherent Market Insights1001 4th Ave,#3200Seattle, WA 98154Tel: +1-206-701-6702Email:sales@coherentmarketinsights.comCoconut Fatty Acids Market Professional Survey Report 2018, Opportunities, Manufacturers, Analysis of Top Key Players and Forecast to 2024

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The report "Coconut fatty acids Market by type (Whole Coconut Fatty Acids and White Coconut Fatty Acids), Function(Emulsifier, Additives, Lube and Others), Application (Chemicals, Food &Beverages, Household &Personal Care, Textile and Others (Paint &Coatings, Metal Works, etc.)) - 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)", global coconut fatty acids market is projected to grow at a CAGR of 4.5% over the forecast period of 2018-2024. Factors driving the growth of this market include increasing demand for coconut fatty acids coupled with strong consumption in surfactants owing to their real origin& versatility, growing consumer awareness towards natural & bio-based products and rising demand for coconut fatty acids in personal care and household sector.Get Sample Copy of this Report:Whole Coconut Fatty Acids are estimated to account for the largest share of the market in 2018By product type, the coconut fatty acids market is classified into whole coconut fatty acids and white coconut fatty acids.Whole coconut fatty acids include low IV whole coconut fatty acids and partly hydrogenated whole coconut fatty acids. Furthermore, based on white coconut fatty acids the market is categorized into stripped white coconut fatty acids, low IV white coconut fatty acids and others.The whole coconut fatty acid segment is expected to lead the global coconut fatty acids in 2018. Factor driving the growth of this segment include increasing demand from household & personal care as well food & beverages sector owing to its delicious coconut smell and imparting mild coconut flavour in the cooking & baking.Household & personal care are estimated to command the largest share of the market during the forecast periodFor More Enquiry on This Report:Based onapplication, the coconut fatty acids market is categorized into chemicals, food and beverages, household and personal care, textile and others (paint and coatings, and, metal works, etc.). The household & personal care segment are estimated to account for the largest share of the global coconut fatty acids market during the forecast period. The heavy consumption of coconut fatty acids in household sector owing to its reliable supply and real origin and rising disposable income coupled with increasing demand in personal care sector for coconut fatty acids owing to growing consciousnessare the key factors driving the growth of this application segment.Asia Pacific is estimated to command the largest share of the marketBased on region, the coconut fatty acids market is segmented into North America, Europe, Asia, and the Rest of the World (RoW). Asia Pacific is expected to dominate the coconut fatty acids market in 2018. This is attributed to factors such as large number of coconut production in the region, growing application of coconut fatty acids such as soaps, detergents and personal care sector and presence of several oleochemical manufacturing industries.Complete report at:The report profiles some of the key companies in the coconut fatty acids market including United Coconut Chemicals, Inc., Guangzhou Hangsheng Chemical Industry Co., Ltd., Osky Integrated, Timur Oleochemicals Malaysia, Twin Rivers Technologies, Inc., Vantage Specialty Chemicals, Inc., Pacific Oleochemicals Sdn Bhd, Emery Oleochemicals, Chemical Associates, Inc. and Echo Chem Pacific Sdn. Bhd.About UsInfinium Global Research and Consulting Solutions is started with a single motto of being business partner of first choice. We at Infinium work on the strengths of our clients to ensure we help them consolidate their market position. We firmly believe in the fact that if you are able to develop newer opportunities then you find there is no dearth of opportunities for you. With our strategic research approaches and deep dive in the market segments, we try to find out new opportunities that our clients can encash with their existing resources. Our experts with over 100 years of cumulative experience in research offer the best in the industry services to our clients to ensure that they achieve their business goals.Contact UsInfinium Global Research,Toll Free:U.S. + Canada: 1-800-638-0796,Website :Email: sales@infiniumglobalresearch.comBlister Packaging Market - Global Industry Insights, Trends, Outlook, and Opportunity Analysis, 2017-25

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Blister Packaging is a plastic packaging used for pharmaceuticals, small appliances and consumer goods. Their function is to protect the packaged material from air, moisture and contamination from external sources. Blister packagings advantages over alternatives include cost-effectiveness, enhanced durability, tamperproof, improved shelf life and lower risk of contamination. It is a hard material and protects from mechanical damage as well. Blister Packaging is versatile and can be designed to suit specific needs. For example, child-proof seals, individual pouches and calendar packs can be designed.Request Sample Copy of this Report:Pharmaceuticals is the largest end-use industry in the blister packaging market. Tablets and capsules are widely sold in blister packaging. The added advantages are assurance of product safety and multiple product packaging. Despite its advantages, blister packaging is non-biodegradable and non-recyclable. This has led to environmental concerns regarding its large scale use.Blister Packaging Market TaxonomyOn basis of technologyThermoformingVacuum FormingPressure FormingCold formingOn basis of blister packing machinePlate typeRoller typeRoller-Plate typeOn basis of product typeBlister CardsFace SealFull Face SealTrapped BlisterFull Card BlisterClam ShellMockTwo pieceTrifoldOn basis of MaterialPlastic FilmsPVCPETPEOthersPaper and CardboardSBSWLCOthersAluminumOn basis of end-usePharmaceuticalElectronics and SemiconductorsConsumer GoodsOthersBlister packaging market can be segmented on basis of fabricating process, thermoforming and cold forming respectively. Thermoformed plastics are versatile, lightweight and aesthetically pleasing. Cold formed plastics have more tensile strength and stiffness. Clamshell packaging is used for consumer goods. They are usually transparent in order to ensure that the consumer can see the contents of the packaging. Blister cards are used in pharmaceuticals industry, and they are manufactured by heat sealing a sheet foil. Plastic films, cardboard and aluminum are used as blister packaging materials.Check the Trending Report of Blister Packaging Market:Blister Packaging Market OutlookAsia Pacific is the fastest market due to burgeoning growth of the pharmaceuticals industry, which has been driven by large populations in India and China. Increase in the geriatric and infant population has led to surge in demand for medicines. Moreover, relatively low-cost healthcare in countries such as Thailand and India has boosted medical tourism in the region. Lax regulations have hindered exports to countries such as US and Canada. For instance, India-based manufacturer Ranbaxy was banned from drug sales in US due to manufacturing and quality violations.North America and Europe markets are also expected to gain major traction due to high consumption of consumer goods and electronics. Also, the pharmaceuticals industry in these regions is matured and with the high prevalence of lifestyle diseases the market is projected to grow further. The market is supplemented by Latin American and Asian markets.Middle East region population has high disposable incomes which drives consumerism. Electronics and consumer goods are growing rapidly, driving the blister packaging industry as well. Decline in markets of Syria and Iran have been compensated by high growth in the GCC countries.Latin America is a growth engine, with Brazil positioned as the fourth largest pharmaceuticals market in the world. Argentina, Mexico and Brazil are also among the largest producers of non-patented generic drugs, which are exported to over 40 countries from these countries. Mexico being a member of North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), has access to the lucrative markets of US and Canada, which has resulted in Mexico becoming a manufacturing hub for international pharmaceutical companies.To Get Discount on this Report:Alternatives to blister packaging such as Stretch and Skin packaging are gaining popularity due to increased performance. More durability, toughness, improved aesthetics and lower material use are advantages over conventional blister packaging.The major players in the blister packaging market are Constantia Flexibles, E.I. du Pont de Nemours and Company (U.S.), Klockner (Germany), Honeywell International Inc. (U.S.), Tekni-plex, Inc. (U.S.), and Display Pack, Inc. (U.S.).About Coherent Market Insights:Coherent Market Insights is a prominent market research and consulting firm offering action-ready syndicated research reports, custom market analysis, consulting services, and competitive analysis through various recommendations related to emerging market trends, technologies, and potential absolute dollar opportunity.Contact UsMr. ShahCoherent Market Insights1001 4th Ave,#3200Seattle, WA 98154Tel: +1-206-701-6702Email: sales@coherentmarketinsights.comWebsite:Nitrogen Market: Size will Observe Substantial Growth During 2015 to 2021

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Nitrogen is an odorless, colorless chemical element which is a source of raw material in various important industrial compounds such as nitric acid, ammonia, and cyanides. It occurs in majority of the organisms, primarily amino acids such as proteins, and nucleic acids (RNA and DNA).Nitrogen is widely used as fertilizers where synthetically manufactured nitrates and ammonia are some of the vital industrial fertilizers used in the agrochemical industry. Other than fertilizers, nitrogen compounds are versatile organics used in industrial applications, developing Kevlar fabric and pharmaceutical drugs such as antibiotics.Request Sample Report@The global market for nitrogen has been witnessing noticeable growth mostly due to the development of the fertilizer industry. Moreover, long term leases of ammonia vessels at fixed prices have enabled large scale companies to manage transportation costs thereby providing economical delivery to the consumers in developed as well as developing regions. These companies also own manufacturing facilities as well as major supply contracts with certain region emerging economies such as China thereby gaining flexibility and logistics strength for the imports.Growing demand for fertilizers on account of increasing food grain production is anticipated to boost the demand for nitrogen over the forecast period. However, increasing health and environmental concern regarding the ill effects of nitrogen based chemical fertilizers are expected to slow down the growth of the market.Increasing focus towards developing bio based agrochemicals such as nitrogen fixation biofertilizers are anticipated to provide new opportunities for the growth of the market. North America remained the largest consumer for nitrogen. However, Asia Pacific is expected to lead the market over the forecast period on account of increasing use of agrochemicals and rising industrial activities in emerging economies such as China and India.Request Report for TOC @Agrium Inc., PotashCorp, ICL Fertilizers, K+S AG, Sinofert, Sociedad Quimica y Minera de Chile(SQM), andThe Mosaic Company among others are some of the major manufacturers of nitrogen dominating the market.Need more information about report methodology?Key geographies evaluated in this report are:North America,U.S,Canada,Europe,France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and the UK,Eastern Europe,CIS,APAC,China,India,Japan,Australia,Others,Latin America,Argentina,Brazil,Others,Key features of this report Drivers, restraints, and challenges shaping the Nitrogen market dynamics,Latest innovations and key events in the industry,Analysis of business strategies of the top players,Nitrogen market estimates and forecasts(2015 -2021)Read Report Overview @About UsPersistence Market Research (PMR) is a third-platform research firm. Our research model is a unique collaboration of data analytics and market research methodology to help businesses achieve optimal performance.To support companies in overcoming complex business challenges, we follow a multi-disciplinary approach. At PMR, we unite various data streams from multi-dimensional sources. By deploying real-time data collection, big data, and customer experience analytics, we deliver business intelligence for organizations of all sizes.Contact UsPersistence Market Research305 Broadway7th Floor, New York City,NY 10007, United States,USA  Canada Toll Free: 800-961-0353Email: sales@persistencemarketresearch.comWeb:Gelatin Market - Global Industry Insights, Trends, Outlook and Opportunity Analysis, 2017-2025

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Gelatin is a soft protein comes from collagen obtained by boiling skin, tendons, ligaments, bones when dissolved with water. It is usually found in animal parts enriched with amino acids (as cows, pigs, and fish). This type of collagen gelatin usually helps to swallow capsules easily. According to varying sources of raw material and processing techniques, gelatin has its additional nutritional value. Gelatin is used for preparation of foods, cosmetics, and medicines. The gelling agent is used in numerous applications such as in cosmetics, nutraceutical, personal care, food and beverages and health care products. The properties of gelatin as emulsification, cleansing agent, stabilizing, viscosity and unique binding properties increase its growing demand. The innovative use of gelatin in processed food, in photography, energy drinks and its unconventional applications are projected to fuel growth of gelatin market. Apart from basic nutrition, gelatin provides many health benefits. The demand for functional and convenience food is continuously increasing which is driving the growth of gelatin market. Gelatin is widely used compounds in food and beverage industries driven the market growth. Gelatin is also used in pharmaceutical products such as wound dressing, blood volume substitutes, and homeostatic sponges. It is also used for treating diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis and brittle bones, which led to the growth of gelatin market. In meat processing industry, gelatin is used as a binding and coating agent.Access Table of Content (TOC) of the report:Gelatin Market TaxonomyOn the basis of source type, the global market is classified into:Skin GelatinBone GelatinHalal gelatinBovine hidesOn the basis of function type, the global market is classified into:ThickenersStabilizersEmulsifiersGelling AgentOthersOn the basis of application, the global market is classified into:Food and BeveragesConfectioneryDairy productsBakery ProductsLow fat spreadsMeat productsOthersPersonal CarePharmaceuticalsHard CapsulesSoft CapsulesCoatingsPlasma ExpandersNutraceuticalsPhotographyCosmeticsOthersOf all, the most abundant source of gelatin is skin gelatin. Gelatin contains collagen which helps to reduce the wrinkles and fights with aging problems and collagen is essential to repair connective tissues this would project the growth of market. Based on application, the dairy section replete with product containing gelatin including cheese and sour cream. Beverages such as wine and soft drinks may also consist of gelatin are driving the market growth.Market Outlook of Gelatin - Europe represents the largest manufacturer of gelatin followed by Asia Pacific and North America.The global market for gelatin is driven by myriad applications in food and beverages, pharmaceutical and nutraceutical solutions supported by its properties. The hard shelled capsules made of gelatin would significantly benefit the growth of this market. The rise in the consumption of supplements and multivitamins consist of gelatin would downstream the value of gelatin market. The rising living standards is the important reason for growth of global gelatin market. The widening scope of applications has provided lucrative growth of the gelatin market. The favorable factor for the growth of gelatin market is its excellent functions and characteristics. The high demand for convenience foods in emerging economies such as India and China helps market growth. An increasing number of new applications of gelatin in food industry such as emulsifiers foaming agent and micro encapsulating agents with a burgeoning aim to replace synthetic agents with natural one.Globally, Europe is the leading producer of gelatin and gelatin derivatives market. Asia Pacific is estimated to lead upcoming growth by features such as increasing inhabitants and healthy food production.Some of the leading producers in the gelatin market from Europe are DGF Stoess, Delft Sobel, Tessenderlo, Miquel Junca, Reinert Gruppe and Weishardt. The other top vendors operating in the global gelatin market are Rousselot, GELITA AG, Nitta Gelatin Inc., GELNEX, Sterling Gelatin, India Gelatin and Chemicals, ITALGELATINE, Jiliding Marine Biotech Co. Ltd., LAPI GELATINE, Qinghai Gelatin Ltd. Co., Trobas Gelatine B.V., and Ewald Gelatine.To know the latest trends and insights prevalent in this market, click the link below:About Coherent Market Insights:Coherent Market Insights is a prominent market research and consulting firm offering action-ready syndicated research reports, custom market analysis, consulting services, and competitive analysis through various recommendations related to emerging market trends, technologies, and potential absolute dollar opportunity.Contact Us:Mr.ShahCoherent Market Insights1001 4th Ave,#3200Seattle, WA 98154Tel: +1-206-701-6702Email:sales@coherentmarketinsights.comAcute Otitis Media Treatment Market-Forecast to 2025

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Acute otitis media (AOM) is a type of ear infection in which air-filled space behind the eardrum (the middle ear) is infected and causes pain and general symptoms of illness such as fever, irritability and problem in sleeping. AOM is a most common ear infections among children as the Eustachian tube is shorter as compared to adults, which makes it more accessible to bacteria and viruses. Bacteria such as Streptococcus pneumoniae (strep) and Hemophilus influenzae (H. flu) account for around 85% of cases of AOM and viruses account for only 15% of these cases.Increasing prevalence of AOM disease is expected to drive growth of the acute otitis media treatment marketAccording to a research published in South African Medical Journal in 2014, global incidence rate of acute otitis media is 10.9% and it was estimated that 80% of children will have at least one episode of acute otitis media (AOM) before the age of 3. Increasing prevalence of acute otitis media is expected to create a conducive environment for growth of acute otitis media treatment market in near future. Furthermore, according to a study published in Formulary Journal in 2014, AOM accounted for healthcare expenditure of around US$ 314 per child per year in the U.S. which is additional US$ 2.88 billion healthcare expenditure. Moreover, stringent guidelines and recommendations in terms of treatment of AOM for children by various non-governmental and governmental bodies is expected to be factor for growth of the market. For instance, in 2013, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) updated the guidelines for treatment of AOM. AAP launched 'The Diagnosis and Management of Acute Otitis Media', in 2013, which provides recommendations to physicians for managing uncomplicated AOM in children. As compared to previous guideline published in 2004, the new guideline has added more criteria for diagnosing AOM. This update in guideline is expected to help in better diagnosis and higher treatment rate, which may boost growth of the global acute otitis media treatment market.Request For Sample Copy@The global acute otitis media treatment market was valued at US$ 1,943.9 million in 2016 and is expected to witness a CAGR of 5.1% over the forecast period (20172025).Launch of novel drugs is expected to support growth of acute otitis media treatment market in the near futureLaunching of new products for acute otitis media treatment by key players are factors expected to create a conducive environment for market growth in the near future. For instance, in 2016, Laboratorios SALVAT S.A. and Arbor Pharmaceuticals, LLC launched its OTOVEL (ciprofloxacin 0.3 % and fluocinolone acetonide 0.025 %). This solution is indicated for the treatment of acute otitis media with tympanostomy tubes (AOMT) in pediatric patients. Moreover, in 2016, Otonomy, Inc. launched its OTIPRIO (ciprofloxacin otic suspension), indicated for the treatment of pediatric patients with bilateral acute otitis media in the U.S.Presence of generic drugs, at much lower price compared to branded drugs, in market for the treatment of acute otitis media is the major factor which is expected to hamper the growth in near future. For instance, in 2015, Aurobindo Pharma Ltd. received US FDA approval to launch its generic antibiotic Cefixime in the U.S. market. Cefixime is a third generation cephalosporin indicated for the treatment of acute otitis media.Furthermore, key players manufacturing drugs for treatment of acute otitis media are focusing on increasing their online presence, by launching websites, in order to expand their customer base. For instance, in 2013, Alcon launched its DROPS101 Web Tools  a mobile website that provides educational resource about commonly prescribed eye and ear treatments. DROPS101 Web Tools offers product information related to the treatment of acute otitis media.Key players operating in the acute otitis media treatment market include Pfizer, Inc., Eli Lilly and Company, Abbott Laboratories, GlaxoSmithKline plc., Bayer AG, Novartis AG, Pediapharm Inc., Sanofi S.A., and Bristol Myers Squibb Company.Get More Details On this Report:About Coherent Market Insights:Coherent Market Insights is a prominent market research and consulting firm offering action-ready syndicated research reports, custom market analysis, consulting services, and competitive analysis through various recommendations related to emerging market trends, technologies, and potential absolute dollar opportunity.Contact Us:Mr.ShahCoherent Market Insights1001 4th Ave,#3200Seattle, WA 98154Tel: +1-206-701-6702Email:sales@coherentmarketinsights.comVisit our news Website:Anti-counterfeit Packaging Market - Global Industry Insights, Trends, Outlook, and Opportunity Analysis, 2017-25

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Anti-counterfeit packaging is mainly meant to prevent brand imitation. It enables brand protection and enables customers to distinguish between original and counterfeit. Product imitations of clothing, electronics, pharmaceuticals and other consumer products are of poorer quality and do not meet stipulated safety standards. The imitations are sold in violation of law and cost the company vital revenue and affect brand image. According to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), counterfeiting costs the global economy US$ 250 Bn per year. An estimated of 10% of pharmaceuticals around the world are counterfeit, according to the WHO. Counterfeiting can take place anywhere across the supply chain and is difficult to regulate.The major drivers for market are the consequences of using counterfeit product. Ingestion of counterfeit drugs may lead to serious health issues or death. Moreover, anti-counterfeit packaging are guarantors of product quality which drives the product sales. The major challenge includes significant cost incurred in adopting security measures and lack of awareness among consumers about product authenticity.Access Table of Content (TOC) of the report:Anti-Counterfeit Packaging Market TaxonomyOn Basis of TechnologyCoding & Printing TechnologyRFID (Radio-Frequency Identification)HologramSecurity LabelsPackaging DesignsOthersOn Basis of Usage FeatureTrack and TraceRFIDActivePassiveBarcodesLinearScripted2-D MatrixOvert FeaturesHologram2D/3DComputer GeneratedDot MatrixStereogramTransmissionVolumeImageOthersSecurity Inks and CoatingsGraphicsNumberingVisible PrintingOthersCovert FeaturesInvisible PrintingWatermarksEmbedded ImagesLaser CodesForensic FeaturesBiological TaggantsMicro TaggantsTamper EvidenceWrappersStrip PackBreakable CapsTear Away CapsSealed metal tubesContainer SealsHeat Shrink BandOthersOn basis of End userPharmaceuticals & HealthcareFood and BeveragesIndustrialAutomotiveClothing & ApparelConsumer GoodsOthersThe market is segmented into five segments, based on the type of usage feature. Track and Trace features allows determination of location of products. Overt features are visible to the naked eye and are tactile. Covert features are only visible to trained personnel using specialized tools and forensic features, and can only be observed in laboratory settings. Tamper Evidence packaging is designed to reveal any interference with product.Pharmaceutical and Food & Beverages are the largest end user industries. With increased tampering and adulteration of food and medicines, companies have taken increased security measures. Hence, driving the anti-counterfeit packaging market.Anti-Counterfeit Packaging Market OutlookEurope and North America are the largest markets for anti-counterfeit packaging. The countries in these regions have strict regulations regarding counterfeit sales and manufacture. Particularly, the rise in counterfeit online products has plagued these regions. Third party sellers on online platforms can easily evade detection and source products from other countries. This makes counterfeiting measures vital in these regions as they are the largest consumer markets in the world.Asia-Pacific is the largest market for counterfeit pharmaceuticals. In September 2016, the World Customs Organization (WCO) seized 113 million counterfeit tablets bound for Africa out of which 97% were manufactured in India and China. As the awareness among manufacturers and consumers grows regarding counterfeiting, the market is projected to grow the fastest in this region during the forecast period.In Latin America, Brazil, Mexico and Argentina are among the largest producers of generic drugs. Copying of branded drugs is a major issue, with lenient regulations regarding brand protection. This trend is expected to reverse and the region is slated to boost the growth as countries introduce new counterfeit legislation.In the Middle East, GCC countries have strict border regulations which has ensured minimal counterfeit product penetration. Moreover, strict commercial legislation in countries such as Saudi Arabia and UAE has driven the market.Africa is a major victim of counterfeit drugs. Poverty stricken countries in this region are reliant on medical aid from other regions. Lack of awareness has resulted in a booming counterfeit market. With increasing economic growth in the region and rising literacy rate, the anti-counterfeit packaging market is projected to grow in this region.The major players in the anti-counterfeit packaging market are SICPA Holding SA, Applied DNA Sciences Inc., SAVI Technology, Inc., Authentix Inc., Avery Dennison Corporation, CCL Industries Inc., 3M Company, E.I. du Pont de Nemours and Company and Zebra Technologies Corporation.To know the latest trends and insights prevalent in this market, click the link below: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.comWebsite:Forecast and Analysis on Hospice Market for Period 2015 - 2023

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Hospice center is referred to as the place that provides end-of-life care to patients. At hospice, a team of health care professionals and volunteers provide care that focuses on palliation of seriously ill patients. They provide psychological, spiritual and medical support to the patient. The aim of hospice is to help diseased patients, who have less period of life span remaining, to have comfort, peace and dignity. Usually, patients to whom hospice services are provided are predicted to survive six months or even less than that. The caregivers try to cure pain and other symptoms so that patients can remain comfortable and alert as long as possible. Besides, hospice services also provide help and support to patients family.Get Brochure of Report @According to the place of providing these hospice services, hospice market is divided into four major segments:Home hospice careHospice centerHospitalSkilled nursing facilityAmong all of the above mentioned places, hospice centers followed by home hospice care are preferred by patients. Hospice centers are preferred because it provides a friendly environment to the patients where one does not feel lonely mainly due to the presence and accompany of similar patients. These centers also provide mental support to the patients through certain special activities such as meditation, spiritual speeches and parties.The hospice market is increasing at faster pace majorly due to the increasing prevalence of the diseases among the growing aging population worldwide. According to the data of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDS), in 2010 there were 40 million people who aged 65 and above in United States accounting for 13% of the total population and CDC projected that around 20% of the population of U.S. would be under this category by 2030. Additionally, availability of large number of diverse programs according to the disease condition and economic condition of the patient is also helping the market to grow. According to the disease conditions special programs are designed by hospice providers on the basis of cancer, AIDS, heart diseases, kidney failures, liver diseases and many others.Request Report For TOC @North America and Europe leads the global hospice market majorly due to the extensive support from the government to set up the infrastructure and other essential necessities required by hospice centers. Hospice care expenses in U.S. are mostly paid by the Medicare and Medicaid services and Department of Veterans Affairs. Additionally, most of the private insurance plans, health maintenance organizations (HMOs) and other managed care organizations also provide the expenses for hospice care in their plans and policies. Also, large number of community contributions, foundation gifts and memorial donations in U.S. are helping hospice market to give free services to poor patients. Asia-Pacific is currently at growth stages for hospice market and has set up few hospice centers with the help of government, private sectors and renowned doctors. For instance, Dr. L. J. Desouza, a cancer surgeon, has set up hospice centers in Mumbai, Goa and Delhi with the name Shanti Avedna Sadan. This center is focused on providing treatment for cancer patients. The countries which are majorly driving the hospice market in Asia-Pacific region include India, China, Japan and Taiwan.Some of the market players in hospice market include AMEDISYS, Inc, Gentiva Health Services, LHC group, Almost Family, HCR Manor Care, Seasons Hospice and Pallative Care, AseraCare Hospice, Compassionate Care Hospice, Crossroads Hospice and Accent Care, Inc.Enquiry for discount on this report About UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMRs experienced team of analysts, researchers, and consultants, use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather, and analyze information. Our business offerings represent the latest and the most reliable information indispensable for businesses to sustain a competitive edge.US Office Contact90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA  Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:Tube Packaging Market - Global Industry Insights, Trends, Outlook and Opportunity Analysis 2017-25

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A tube is a soft container that can be squeezed and utilized for the packing of thick liquids such as glues, sealing, ointment, and toothpaste. A tube is a hollow structure, both ends of which are treated differently during the manufacturing process and filling. A tube has a round orifice at one end that is closed with the help of a cap. The orifice can be shaped in many different ways, for instance, plastic nozzles that of varied styles and lengths. The other end of the tube is folded, to seal after the contents are added. Tube packaging containers are modified with production, labeling, punching, slicing, and crimping to create an attractive package. A thread is mostly tapped onto the opening structure in order to attach caps and closures. Tube packaging contains no germs due to the high temperatures during the production process. As it is possible to coat the inside of a tube with special coatings, the tube does not react with its contents.Toothpaste, cosmetic creams, food items, gums and glues, ointments, and cleaners use tubes for their packaging. Increased cosmetic and toiletry production is one driver contributing to growth of the tube packaging market. Excellent barrier protection, extremely elastic project and ease of packaging makes tubes a highly sought after packaging option. The key factors driving growth of the tube packaging market are growth in flexible packaging and innovative packaging.Request Sample Copy @Tube Packaging Market Taxonomy:-On the basis of application, the global tube packaging market is classified into:AdhesivesOintmentsSealantToothpastesCosmetic and shaving creamOthersOn the basis of tube type, the global tube packaging market is classified into:Squeeze TubesTwist TubesRigid tubesExtruded tubesOn the basis of material, the global tube packaging market is classified into:Laminated TubesAluminum TubesPlastic TubesOthersOn the basis of end user, the global tube packaging market is classified into:Cosmetics & Oral CareFood & BeveragesCleaning ProductsPharmaceuticalsSportsOthersSqueeze tubes are the major growth drivers of the global tube packaging market. Squeeze tubes have efficient properties such as resilience, non-poisonous, and convenient application. The cosmetics & oral care industries are the biggest contributors towards growth of the global tube packaging market. Laminated tubes are used the most as a result of its multi-layered barricade arrangement, which reduces the transfer of oxygen and light. As compared to other methods, laminated printed tubes look clearer and brighter, in turn improving the visual value of the tube. The increased use of tubes in beauty products and toiletries, support the growth of the tube packaging market as these end users represent a major share of the tube packaging market.Market outlookThe European market accounts for the largest share of global tube packaging market due to its large-scale use in various healthcare and toiletry products. However, due to technological developments in this region, the market is now maturing in the European countries. However, therecovering economies post-recession are expected to boost the growth of the tube packaging market.In Asia -Pacific, the tube packaging market in growing at a huge pace in emerging markets of the region such as China, India, and Japan. The reason for the market is the increasing middle-class population of the region and increasing incomes, which drive the demand for easy and safe packaging, subsequently driving growth of the tube packaging market.In Latin America, the growth of the tube packaging market is credited to influences such as improving living conditions, coupled with rising disposable income of the working population in its emerging economies.To know the latest trends and insights prevalent in this market, click the link below:The African region is represented by a strong growing demand for various healthcare products in South Africa. The developing economies in this region could provide the tube packaging market with various growth opportunities due to investments made by companies to improve. Africa is the home to major companies such as Nampak, which further boost the growth of the tube packaging market. The Middle East proves to be an attractive market due to the growing urbanization and availability of disposable incomeRecent developments in the tube packaging market include the deal between J&J and Dr Ci Labo in 2016. This would improve J&Js influence in the global skin care market. This in turn is projected to drive the demand for the tube packaging market, in Asia. Some major tube packing players include Albea Group, Alcan Packaging, Amcor, Constantia Flexible, Custom Paper Tools, Essel ProPack, Sonoco Products Company, and Unette Corporation.About Coherent Market Insights:Coherent Market Insights is a prominent market research and consulting firm offering action-ready syndicated research reports, custom market analysis, consulting services, and competitive analysis through various recommendations related to emerging market trends, technologies, and potential absolute dollar opportunity.Contact Us:Mr.ShahCoherent Market Insights1001 4th Ave,#3200Seattle, WA 98154Tel: +1-206-701-6702Email:sales@coherentmarketinsights.comBaby Drinks Market -Replace The Nutrient Content Of Natural Breast Milk

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Infant formula, infant juices, and infant electrolyte contain vitamins and supplements for the advancement of the infant. In spite of the fact that doctors prescribe breastfeeding to newborn children, baby formula can be utilized as an option because of the comparative supplement substance. The market is driven by increment in the quantity of ladys experts. In addition, changes in way of life, ascend in working class populace, and development in extra per capita disposable incomes in the rising economies, for example, China, India, and Indonesia among others, have moved the market development. Notwithstanding, concerns identified with sustenance wellbeing and decrease in worldwide birth rate are required to hamper the market development.Market Scenario:China is the most lucrative locale for infant drinks producers. The rollback of the one tyke arrangement by the Chinese government has prompted increment in newborn child populace, which would support the utilization of infant drinks. Huge size, high obtaining power, and expanded utilization of infant drinks are relied upon to support the market development in China. Child drinks includes infant juice and newborn child recipe. All infant drinks in light of natural product squeezes that are intended for the utilization by youngsters under three years are incorporated under child juices.Request For Free Sample Of The Report @Baby juice has low entrance rate in this area as it isn't accessible all around. Customers fundamentally lean toward newborn child equation because of ascend in the quantity of working ladies and changes in way of life. Additionally, infant formula is thought to be the sole wellspring of nourishment for babies. High nourishment content in child drinks combined with the inclination of specialists for infant drinks is expected to support the development of this market in the significant nations of Asia Pacific including Japan, India, China and Australia among others over the forecast period. Dynamic advancements by child drinks makers, wellbeing and health patterns and developing assortments of items are the real drivers adding to the extension of the infant savors advertise Asia Pacific. In view of various sorts of infant drinks, newborn child equation is expected to witness generous development during the forecast period, as it is the best substitute for bosom bolstering and customers are more intrigued to have fast suppers because of their bustling way of life.Key Players: Heinz and Hain Celestial Group. Nestle S.A. Mead Johnson Nutrition Company. LLC. Abbott Laboratories. Beingmate Group Co. Ltd. Danone.Obtain Details @The global baby drinks market can be segmented on the basis of type and region. On the basis of type, the global diabetic food market can be segmented into Bottled Baby Drinks, Canned Baby Drinks, Baby Cereals, Others. On the basis of region, the global baby drinks market can be segmented into North America, Europe, Middle East & Africa, Asia-Pacific, and Latin America.If you have any special requirements, please let us know and we will offer you the report as you want.Related Reports :Sweet And Savoury Market:Natural Alternative Sweeteners Market:Frozen French Fries Market:Basmati Rice Market:Organic Baby Food Market:About UsXpodence Research is a U.S. based Market Research Company and offers the most extensive collection of progressive surveying syndicated and customized research reports of various categories for private and public industries across the globe.We offer the comprehensive market research solution for all the industries by performing the in-depth study of industry trends, verticals globally. We believe in building an eternal bond with our customers through providing them inclusive research study both customized and syndicated based on their specific requirements.The organizations in every industry such as Technology, Pharmaceuticals, Consumable Goods, Food & Beverage and others demands a market-based solutions for various significant decisions based on productivity and output globally. Our services are tailored specifically to our clients by proposing them the potential outcome, based on our in-depth analysis and insights for exploring the growth strategies through providing the best possible decision for quality production.Contact UsXpodence ResearchUSA Office244 , Madison AvenueNew York City, NY - 10016United StatesToll Free +1- 844-445-2861Email : sales@xpodenceresearch.comWaterborne Automobile Coatings Market - Global Industry Insights, Trends, Outlook, and Opportunity Analysis, 20172025

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Waterborne coatings use water as a solvent to disperse a resin, thus making these coatings eco-friendly and easy to apply. Generally, waterborne coatings comprise up to 80% water along with small amounts of other solvents, such as glycol ethers. Conventional coatings have VOC solvent content of about 84% (and 16% solids), while a waterborne base-coat comprises of 70% water (and 20% solids) and 10% solvent. Stringent regulations on the use of VOC have driven the growth of waterborne automotive coatings. The California Air Resources Board (ARB) approved a suggested controller extent for automotive coatings in October 2005. The purpose of the SCM is to increase enforceability and consistency among air district rules and to accomplish VOC emissions reductions which started in 2009.Waterborne coatings offer various advantages such as good resistance to abrasion and heat, excellent adhesion properties, low flammability and toxicity due to low HAP emissions and VOC levels, more economical as compared to solvent-borne coatings, no need of thinners, additives or hardeners and less coating is needed to cover the same surface area as compared to solvent-borne coatings. These coatings are used to cover the internal as well as external parts (hood, bumpers etc) in an automobile.Request a sample copy of this report:Waterborne Automobile Coating Market TaxonomyOn the basis of product type, the Waterborne Automobile Coating market is classified into:Colloidal coatingsWater-soluble paintsLatex paintsWater-based alkydsOn the basis of resin, the Waterborne Automobile Coating market is classified into:EpoxyPolyesterPolyurethane,PVDFPTFEAlkydPVDCAcrylicWater-soluble paints consist of water-soluble resins which completely dissolve in water. The resins used are synthesized by polymerization or polycondensation reactions in an organic medium. The resins used for manufacturing this type of coatings are alkyds, polyacrylates, polyesters, epoxies and epoxy esters. These paints offer high gloss, excellent corrosion protection, and stabilization. Water based alkyds have versatile applications as they can be diluted with water to any viscosity. These alkyd coatings can be applied with dip or spray applications.Access Table of Content (TOC) of the report:Waterborne Automobile Coatings Market Outlook  Rising Demand Eco-friendly materials to be the Major Market DriverAsia Pacific and North America are expected to be the most potential markets for Waterborne Automobile Coating manufacturers. Asia Pacific is projected to witness relatively high growth in terms of value over the forecast period. This is mainly attributed to the anticipated growth in automotive industry, especially in emerging economies such as China and India. According to IBEF the US$ 300 billion will be generated by the Indian automotive industry by 2026. This trend is expected to be followed over the forecast period. India Brand Equity Foundation (IBEF) is a Trust established by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Department of Commerce in collaboration with the Government of India with the purpose of promoting and creating international awareness of goods manufactured in India.Rapidly increasing automotive industry is driving the growth of Waterborne Automobile Coating market, especially in Asia Pacific and Middle East regions. Product launch and expansion in various geographies is a key strategy adopted by the major players in the Waterborne Automobile Coating market. In June 2017, BASF Corporation expanded invested US$ 40 Mn in the production of automotive coatings production in North America. This investment will add production capacity to the companys plants in Ohio, Greenville, and Tultitlan, Mexico. This will also support the companys innovation of products. Some of the major companies operating in the global waterborne automobile coating market include Akzo Nobel N.V., BASF SE, Axalta Coating Systems, Berger Paints India Limited, Nippon Paint Company Limited, Kansai Paint Company Limited ,PPG Industries Inc., Williams-Hayward Protective Coatings Inc., Tikkurila Oyj, The Valspar Corporation, RPM International Inc., and The Sherwin Williams Company.To know the latest trends and insights prevalent in the Waterborne Coatings Market, click the link below: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 98154Email:nikhil@coherentmarketinsights.comWind Power Equipment Market Rising Trends And Demand 2018-2025

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Qyresearchreports include new market research report Global Wind Power Equipment Market Professional Survey Report 2018 to its huge collection of research reports.This report focuses on top manufacturers in global market, with production, price, revenue and market share for each manufacturer, covering;Phoenix ContactABBSchneider ElectricEatonIngeteamGESiemensVaconS&C ElectricEmersonSulzerVEOShanghai ElectricSungrow Power SupplyVentusRequest for Sample Copy of this Study @This report gives an additional knowledge and investigation of the global market for Wind Power Equipment by effectively looking at current happenings and business systems of concerned market. This is required to go about as a supplementary guide in giving right data and information on a couple of plots for the market, for instance identifying with pattern of the administration bodies in the locales, progress and course structure, streams drawbacks, income exchange, and wages made among others.Table of ContentsGlobal Wind Power Equipment Market Professional Survey Report 20181 Industry Overview of Wind Power Equipment1.1 Definition and Specifications of Wind Power Equipment1.1.1 Definition of Wind Power Equipment1.1.2 Specifications of Wind Power Equipment1.2 Classification of Wind Power Equipment1.2.1 Onshore1.2.2 Offshore1.3 Applications of Wind Power Equipment1.3.1 Commercial1.3.2 ResidentialGet more information from Table of Content:2 Manufacturing Cost Structure Analysis of Wind Power Equipment2.1 Raw Material and Suppliers2.2 Manufacturing Cost Structure Analysis of Wind Power Equipment2.3 Manufacturing Process Analysis of Wind Power Equipment2.4 Industry Chain Structure of Wind Power Equipment3 Technical Data and Manufacturing Plants Analysis of Wind Power Equipment3.1 Capacity and Commercial Production Date of Global Wind Power Equipment Major Manufacturers in 20173.2 Manufacturing Plants Distribution of Global Wind Power Equipment Major Manufacturers in 20173.3 R&D Status and Technology Source of Global Wind Power Equipment Major Manufacturers in 20173.4 Raw Materials Sources Analysis of Global Wind Power Equipment Major Manufacturers in 20174 Global Wind Power Equipment Overall Market Overview4.1 2013-2018E Overall Market Analysis4.2 Capacity Analysis4.2.1 2013-2018E Global Wind Power Equipment Capacity and Growth Rate Analysis4.2.2 2017 Wind Power Equipment Capacity Analysis (Company Segment)4.3 Sales Analysis4.3.1 2013-2018E Global Wind Power Equipment Sales and Growth Rate Analysis4.3.2 2017 Wind Power Equipment Sales Analysis (Company Segment)4.4 Sales Price AnalysisList of Tables and FiguresFigure Picture of Wind Power EquipmentTable Product Specifications of Wind Power EquipmentTable Classification of Wind Power EquipmentFigure Global Production Market Share of Wind Power Equipment by Type in 2017Figure Onshore PictureTable Major Manufacturers of OnshoreFigure Offshore PictureTable Major Manufacturers of OffshoreTable Applications of Wind Power EquipmentFigure Global Consumption Volume Market Share of Wind Power Equipment by Application in 2017Get discount copy @QYResearchReports.com delivers the latest strategic market intelligence to build a successful business footprint in China. Our syndicated and customized research reports provide companies with vital background information of the market and in-depth analysis on the Chinese trade and investment framework, which directly affects their business operations. Reports from QYResearchReports.com feature valuable recommendations on how to navigate in the extremely unpredictable yet highly attractive Chinese market.1820 AvenueM Suite #1047Brooklyn, NY 11230United StatesToll Free: 866-997-4948 (USA-CANADA)Tel: +1-518-621-2074Web:Email: sales@qyresearchreports.comOptical Coherence Tomography Market Research and Forecast Worldwide Reaching at a Strong CAGR of +11.7% Till 2024

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Optical Coherence Tomography Market Report 2018 added by Data Bridge Market Research explores Global Optical Coherence Tomography Market size, share and growth with forecast to 2024.Some of the major companies operating in this market are: Bausch & Lomb Incorporated Johnson & Johnson Roche Pharmaceutical Essilor International S.A. Imalux Corporation Axsun Technologies (U.S) Topcon Medical Systems Inc. Avinger Agfa Healthcare Carl Zeiss Meditec AG Heidelberg Engineering GmbH Michelson Diagnostics Novacam Technologies Inc. OPTOPOL Technology CooperVision AG Abbott Medical Optics, Inc. Alcon, Inc. Canon Inc. HAAG-Streit Group Hoya Corporation NIDEK CO., LTD.Get Free Sample Report @Report Analysis:Global Optical Coherence Tomography Market is expected to reach USD 2.4 billion by 2024 from USD 1.1 billion in 2016, at a CAGR of 11.7% in the forecast period 2017 to 2024. The new market report contains data for historic years 2014 & 2015, the base year of calculation is 2016 and the forecast period is 2017 to 2024.This report consists of below pages: No of pages: 350 No of Figures: 60 No of Tables: 220Report Definition:The market of optical coherence tomography is increasing now a day due to its benefits such as cost reduction which is a very important concern in todays healthcare in developed nations such as U.S., Germany, and U.K. among others. The growth of this market is owing to its benefits such as diagnosis and treatment of skin cancers of the eyelid, ocular surface lesions, iris and ciliary body tumors, lymphoma and others. These technological superiority and cost efficiency is the main factor driving the optical coherence tomography market in the forecast period 2017 to 2024.For Any Query Speak to Expert @Segmentation of Global Optical Coherence Tomography Market:The global optical coherence tomography market is segmented on the basis of type, technology, application, end-user and geography.On the basis of type the global optical coherence tomography market is segmented into catheter based OCT devices, doppler OCT devices, handheld OCT devices and tabletop OCT devices.On the basis of technology the global optical coherence tomography market is segmented into time domain OCT, frequency domain OCT and spatial encoded frequency domain which is further sub segmented into fourier domain OCT and spectral domain OCT.Based on application, the market is segmented into age-related macular degeneration, central serous retinopathy, diabetic retinopathy, macular edema, macular hole, macular pucker, vitreomacular traction, pre-retinal membranes, others.On the basis of end users the global optical coherence tomography market is segmented into hospitals, research laboratories and others.Based on geography the Global Optical Coherence Tomography Market is segmented into: North America South America Europe Asia-Pacific Middle East and AfricaThe global optical coherence tomography market report contains an in-depth profiling of the key market players, along with the recent developments (new product launches, partnerships, agreements, collaborations, and joint ventures) and strategies adopted by them to sustain and strengthen their positions in the market. For, instance, in January 2015, Bausch + Lomb, received 510(k) clearance from the U.S. FDA for an advanced Swept Source OCT (Optical Coherence Tomography) imaging system and updated software for its VICTUS Femtosecond Laser Platform which will provide surgeons with a new, redesigned interface.View Full Report @Related ReportGlobal Computed Tomography Devices Market  Industry Trends and Forecast to 2024Global Computed Tomography Devices Market, By product (Low Slice CT Scanner, Medium Slice CT Scanner, High Slice CT Scanner), by Application (Cardiovascular, Oncology, Neurovascular, Abdomen and Pelvic, Pulmonary Angiogram, Spinal, Musculoskeletal), by End-User (Hospitals, Diagnostics Centers), By Geography (North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, Europe, South America, Middle East and Africa)  Industry Trends and Forecast to 2024Report Access:About Data Bridge Market Research:Data Bridge Market Research set forth itself as an unconventional and neoteric Market research and consulting firm with unparalleled level of resilience and integrated approaches. We are determined to unearth the best market opportunities and foster efficient information for your business to thrive in the market. Data Bridge endeavors to provide appropriate solutions to the complex business challenges and initiates an effortless decision-making process.Contact:Vishal DixitData Bridge Market ResearchTel: +1-888-387-2818Email: Sales@databridgemarketresearch.comInvestor: investors@databridgemarketresearch.comVisit Blog:Follow us on LinkedIn:Library Automation Software Market Segmentation, Application, Trends, Opportunity & Forecast 2018 to 2025

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WiseGuyReports.Com Publish a New Market Research Report On  Library Automation Software Market Segmentation, Application, Trends, Opportunity & Forecast 2018 to 2025.Description:This report studies the global Library Automation Software market, analyzes and researches the Library Automation Software development status and forecast in United States, EU, Japan, China, India and Southeast Asia. This report focuses on the top players in global market, likeExLibrisInnovative InterfacesLibrary Automation TechnologiesLibsysPrimaSoftSirsiDynixAmple TrailsAuto GraphicsAxiell GroupBook SystemsCR2 TechnologiesCapitaCybrosys Techno SolutionsMandarin Library AutomationJaywil Software DevelopmentInsignia SoftwareQuantumSoftlinkSRB Education SolutionsTechnowin SolutionGet a Sample Report @For more information or any query mail at sales@wiseguyreports.comMarket segment by Regions/Countries, this report coversUnited StatesEUJapanChinaIndiaSoutheast AsiaMarket segment by Type, the product can be split intoOff-The-Shelf Library Automation PackageCustomized SolutionsMarket segment by Application, Library Automation Software can be split intoPublic LibrariesAcademic and School LibrarySpecial LibraryReport Details @Table Of Contents  Major Key PointsGlobal Library Automation Software Market Size, Status and Forecast 20251 Industry Overview of Library Automation Software1.1 Library Automation Software Market Overview1.1.1 Library Automation Software Product Scope1.1.2 Market Status and Outlook1.2 Global Library Automation Software Market Size and Analysis by Regions (2013-2018)1.2.1 United States1.2.2 EU1.2.3 Japan1.2.4 China1.2.5 India1.2.6 Southeast Asia1.3 Library Automation Software Market by Type1.3.1 Off-The-Shelf Library Automation Package1.3.2 Customized Solutions1.4 Library Automation Software Market by End Users/Application1.4.1 Public Libraries1.4.2 Academic and School Library1.4.3 Special Library2 Global Library Automation Software Competition Analysis by Players2.1 Library Automation Software Market Size (Value) by Players (2013-2018)2.2 Competitive Status and Trend2.2.1 Market Concentration Rate2.2.2 Product/Service Differences2.2.3 New Entrants2.2.4 The Technology Trends in Future3 Company (Top Players) Profiles3.1 ExLibris3.1.1 Company Profile3.1.2 Main Business/Business Overview3.1.3 Products, Services and Solutions3.1.4 Library Automation Software Revenue (Million USD) (2013-2018)3.1.5 Recent Developments3.2 Innovative Interfaces3.2.1 Company Profile3.2.2 Main Business/Business Overview3.2.3 Products, Services and Solutions3.2.4 Library Automation Software Revenue (Million USD) (2013-2018)3.2.5 Recent Developments3.3 Library Automation Technologies3.3.1 Company Profile3.3.2 Main Business/Business Overview3.3.3 Products, Services and Solutions3.3.4 Library Automation Software Revenue (Million USD) (2013-2018)3.3.5 Recent Developments3.4 Libsys3.4.1 Company Profile3.4.2 Main Business/Business Overview3.4.3 Products, Services and Solutions3.4.4 Library Automation Software Revenue (Million USD) (2013-2018)3.4.5 Recent Developments3.5 PrimaSoft3.5.1 Company Profile3.5.2 Main Business/Business Overview3.5.3 Products, Services and Solutions3.5.4 Library Automation Software Revenue (Million USD) (2013-2018)3.5.5 Recent Developments3.6 SirsiDynix3.6.1 Company Profile3.6.2 Main Business/Business Overview3.6.3 Products, Services and Solutions3.6.4 Library Automation Software Revenue (Million USD) (2013-2018)3.6.5 Recent Developments3.7 Ample Trails3.7.1 Company Profile3.7.2 Main Business/Business Overview3.7.3 Products, Services and Solutions3.7.4 Library Automation Software Revenue (Million USD) (2013-2018)3.7.5 Recent Developments3.8 Auto Graphics3.8.1 Company Profile3.8.2 Main Business/Business Overview3.8.3 Products, Services and Solutions3.8.4 Library Automation Software Revenue (Million USD) (2013-2018)3.8.5 Recent DevelopmentsContinueFor more information or any query mail at sales@wiseguyreports.comABOUT US:Wise Guy Reports is part of the Wise Guy Consultants Pvt. Ltd. and offers premium progressive statistical surveying, market research reports, analysis & forecast data for industries and governments around the globe. Wise Guy Reports features an exhaustive list of market research reports from hundreds of publishers worldwide. We boast a database spanning virtually every market category and an even more comprehensive collection of market research reports under these categories and sub-categories.Office No.528,Amanora Chambers,Magarpatta Road,Hadapsar,Pune-411028.Blood Collection Market to Achieve a Revenue Earning of US$ 9.8 Billion by the Completion of 2022

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The global blood collection market is prophesied to ride on the growing awareness about blood donation through various government initiatives. This could eventually up the demand for blood collection products, and thereby produce quality business opportunities in the market. Besides manual blood collection, other methods such as automatic collection of blood are expected to be widely available across the world. Players looking to penetrate in the market could take advantage of such advancements in the industry.Request for Sample Copy of Report @The report offered herewith is expected to help vendors deal with unseen challenges and plan powerful strategies to sustain their growth in the global blood collection market. Each section of the report is aimed toward providing profound and comprehensive information about the market. Inputs from industry experts and other professionals possessing sound knowledge about the nature and dynamics of the market are taken into consideration to present a valuable collection of market data.The world blood collection market is prognosticated to be boosted for attaining an enduring growth in the coming years due to the surging count of surgical procedures performed globally. Another factor that could be deemed important for the growth of the market is the increase in the number of accidents and trauma incidences. The demand for blood collection could be hampered by risks associated with blood transfusion, mostly in underdeveloped nations. However, there are several awareness plans and campaigns conducted by governments and foreign entities to tackle this issue.Enquiry for discount on this report @Moreover, improving healthcare infrastructure and the mandate of hiring responsible and qualified healthcare professionals could create favorable prospects in the world blood collection market.The international blood collection market is predicted to be segmented as per three categories, i.e. product, end user, and application. In terms of segmentation by product, the market could be encouraged for more growth due to the larger share earned by blood collection needles and syringes. In 2017, this segment collected a revenue of US$2.4 bn. However, there could be more products such as vials, blood bags, blood lancets, blood collection tubes, and others creating opportunities in the market. By end user, the market is anticipated to be divided into hospitals and diagnostic centers, blood banks, and other end users. In terms of application, there could be segments such as diagnostics and treatment showing face in the market.On the basis of region, North America is predicted to take the lead in the international blood collection market while growing at a 4.9% CAGR between 2017 and 2022. Asia Pacific except Japan (APEJ) could be a faster growing segment, whereas the Middle East and Africa (MEA) and Japan are expected to showcase a lackluster growth. Other regions such as Latin America and Europe could also make their contribution in the market.Report Overview @The worldwide blood collection market could be marked by leading companies such as Abbott Laboratories, Inc., Medtronic Plc., Becton, Dickinson and Company, Terumo Corporation, Nipro Corporation, QIAGEN N.V., F.L. Medical SRL, Greiner Holding AG, Haemonetics Corporation, and Sarstedt AG & Co. The report offers a detailed study of some of the top-level players operating in the market.About UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMRs experienced team of analysts, researchers, and consultants, use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather, and analyze information. Our business offerings represent the latest and the most reliable information indispensable for businesses to sustain a competitive edge.Each TMR syndicated research report covers a different sector - such as pharmaceuticals, chemicals, energy, food & beverages, semiconductors, med-devices, consumer goods and technology. These reports provide in-depth analysis and deep segmentation to possible micro levels. With wider scope and stratified research methodology, TMRs syndicated reports strive to provide clients to serve their overall research requirement.US Office Contact90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:Hair Removal Market to Gain a Value of US$ 1.35 Billion by the End of 2022

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The hair removal market is gaining significant momentum across the world, thanks to the increasing interest of people across the world into personal grooming. The rising beauty consciousness among consumers, globally, has fueled the demand for a number of hair removal products, such as hair removal creams, shaving razors, epilators, and wax and wax strips, reflecting positively on this market. In addition to this, the increasing popularity of the at-home hair removal techniques is projected to boost the market for hair removal solutions across the world, remarkably, in the near future.Request for Sample Copy of Report @This research study offers a decisive overview of the worldwide market for hair removal by analyzing this market thoroughly on the basis of its past performance and current status. The future market potential has also been evaluated in details to provide the readers with future projections and forecasts. The overview section also includes a qualitative assessment of the overall market, emphasizing the influencing factors and various market dynamics, such as the driving forces, challenges, market trends, opportunities, and limitations, coupled with the assessment of potential customers. In addition to this, an analysis of the markets attractiveness, coupled with the key strategies adopted by the leading players, have been examined thoroughly in this report to explain the intensity of the competition within the market.This research report consists of an exhaustive executive summary and a market snapshot that provide all the important information about various segments and sub-segments studied within the scope of this research. This section also offers significant information and data regarding the global hair removal market with respect to the leading segments based on the key products available in this market, their end users, and the markets geographical distribution. The performance of these market segments has been assessed at length on the basis of their utility, efficiency, and sales. Based on the product, the market has been bifurcated into laser based devices, energy based devices, and intense pulse light (IPL) devices. Based on the end user, the market has been classified into beauty clinics and dermatology clinics.Enquiry for discount on this report @In terms of the region, the market has been segmented into six regions: North America (Canada and the U.S.), Latin America (Argentina, Mexico, and Brazil), the Middle East and Africa (Israel, South Africa, Turkey, and GCC countries), Asia Pacific excluding Japan (India, South Korea, China, Australia, Indonesia, and Singapore), Europe (the U.K., Germany, Italy, Spain, France, and Nordic countries), and Japan. The market revenue for all the segments have been provided here in terms of US$ Mn for the period from 2017 to 2022, together with the cumulative average growth rate (CAGR %) between 2017 and 2022.In conclusion, the market study offers a thorough review of the key players in the global hair removal market on the basis of a number of attributes, such as the overview of the enterprise, with respect to an assessment of its financial status, brand recognition, and the business. The product portfolio, recent developments, and business strategies have also been discussed in this research report. The leading players profiled in this research study are Solta Medical Inc., Cynosure Inc., Lynton Lasers Ltd., Fotona d.d., Strata Skin Sciences Inc., Syneron Medical Ltd., Alma Lasers Ltd., Venus Concept Canada Corp., Lumenis Ltd., Lutronic Corp., Sciton Inc., and Cutera Inc.Report Overview @About UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMRs experienced team of analysts, researchers, and consultants, use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather, and analyze information. Our business offerings represent the latest and the most reliable information indispensable for businesses to sustain a competitive edge.Each TMR syndicated research report covers a different sector - such as pharmaceuticals, chemicals, energy, food & beverages, semiconductors, med-devices, consumer goods and technology. These reports provide in-depth analysis and deep segmentation to possible micro levels. With wider scope and stratified research methodology, TMRs syndicated reports strive to provide clients to serve their overall research requirement.US Office Contact90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:Global Cement Bonded Particle Board Market 2017 Growth Drivers : CETRIS, BetonWood

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Qyresearchreports include new market research report "Global Cement Bonded Particle Board Market Professional Survey Report 2017" to its huge collection of research reports.The report on the global Cement Bonded Particle Board market is an in-depth analysis taking a critical look at various factors and key trends shaping the markets trajectory during the forecast period of 20pq20rs. The growth of the market is driven by various regional and global developments, influenced by changing regulations and governmental policies. The study strives to offer comprehensive assessment of these factors and evaluates their impact on the business landscape of the global Cement Bonded Particle Board market. In addition, the study presents elaborate insights into the various types of region-specific business risks faced by industry players and the prevailing strategic dynamics to allay these. Making a granular assessment of demand dynamics, the study takes a closer look at paradigmatic and mild shifts in the global Cement Bonded Particle Board market made by various players to gain a better foothold in the market. Furthermore, the research analyzes the impact of these shifts on emerging prospects and the lucrative avenues they will likely lead to in the years to come. The study tries to give clear signals into imminent investment pockets and offers insights into new revenue streams in the global Cement Bonded Particle Board market.Order a Free Copy of Sample Report @This report studies Cement Bonded Particle Board in Global market, especially in North America, China, Europe, Southeast Asia, Japan and India, with production, revenue, consumption, import and export in these regions, from 2012 to 2016, and forecast to 2022.This report focuses on top manufacturers in global market, with production, price, revenue and market share for each manufacturer, coveringCETRIS (CS)JSC TAMAK (Russia)BetonWood (Italy)Yaodonghua Furniture Boards Co., Ltd. (China)Eltomation B.V. (Netherlands)Euroform Products (UK)The report is prepared by gleaning over vast volumes of historic data assessed through reliable primary sources and a wide spectrum of secondary sources. Using SWOT analysis and Porters Five Forces Analysis, the study tries to evaluate the level of competition. Complementing with several industry-wide quantitative tools and enabled by qualitative methods, the study makes estimations and projections of key segments in the global Cement Bonded Particle Board market. This helps various market participants get a clearer picture of the markets growth. The study also highlights the views of various opinion leaders and major policy makers in various countries, in a bid to paint a holistic picture of the overall outlook of the global Cement Bonded Particle Board market.Table of Contents1 Industry Overview of Cement Bonded Particle Board1.1 Definition and Specifications of Cement Bonded Particle Board1.1.1 Definition of Cement Bonded Particle Board1.1.2 Specifications of Cement Bonded Particle Board1.2 Classification of Cement Bonded Particle Board1.3 Applications of Cement Bonded Particle Board1.4 Market Segment by Regions2 Manufacturing Cost Structure Analysis of Cement Bonded Particle Board2.1 Raw Material and Suppliers2.2 Manufacturing Cost Structure Analysis of Cement Bonded Particle Board2.3 Manufacturing Process Analysis of Cement Bonded Particle Board2.4 Industry Chain Structure of Cement Bonded Particle BoardRequest A Discount on This report @3 Technical Data and Manufacturing Plants Analysis of Cement Bonded Particle Board3.1 Capacity and Commercial Production Date of Global Cement Bonded Particle Board Major Manufacturers in 20163.2 Manufacturing Plants Distribution of Global Cement Bonded Particle Board Major Manufacturers in 20163.3 R&D Status and Technology Source of Global Cement Bonded Particle Board Major Manufacturers in 20163.4 Raw Materials Sources Analysis of Global Cement Bonded Particle Board Major Manufacturers in 20164 Global Cement Bonded Particle Board Overall Market Overview4.1 2012-2017E Overall Market Analysis4.2 Capacity Analysis4.2.1 2012-2017E Global Cement Bonded Particle Board Capacity and Growth Rate Analysis4.2.2 2016 Cement Bonded Particle Board Capacity Analysis (Company Segment)4.3 Sales Analysis4.3.1 2012-2017E Global Cement Bonded Particle Board Sales and Growth Rate Analysis4.3.2 2016 Cement Bonded Particle Board Sales Analysis (Company Segment)4.4 Sales Price Analysis4.4.1 2012-2017E Global Cement Bonded Particle Board Sales Price4.4.2 2016 Cement Bonded Particle Board Sales Price Analysis (Company Segment)6 Global 2012-2017E Cement Bonded Particle Board Segment Market Analysis (by Type)6.1 Global 2012-2017E Cement Bonded Particle Board Sales by Type6.2 Different Types of Cement Bonded Particle Board Product Interview Price Analysis6.3 Different Types of Cement Bonded Particle Board Product Driving Factors Analysis6.3.1 By Thickness of Cement Bonded Particle Board Growth Driving Factor Analysis6.3.2 Type II Cement Bonded Particle Board Growth Driving Factor AnalysisList of Tables and FiguresFigure Picture of Cement Bonded Particle BoardTable Product Specifications of Cement Bonded Particle BoardTable Classification of Cement Bonded Particle BoardFigure Global Production Market Share of Cement Bonded Particle Board by Type in 2016Figure Global Consumption Volume Market Share of Cement Bonded Particle Board by Application in 2016Figure North America Cement Bonded Particle Board Market Size (Million USD) (2012-2022)Figure China Cement Bonded Particle Board Market Size (Million USD) (2012-2022)Figure Europe Cement Bonded Particle Board Market Size (Million USD) (2012-2022)Figure Southeast Asia Cement Bonded Particle Board Market Size (Million USD) (2012-2022)Figure Japan Cement Bonded Particle Board Market Size (Million USD) (2012-2022)Figure India Cement Bonded Particle Board Market Size (Million USD) (2012-2022)About Us:QYResearchReports.com delivers the latest strategic market intelligence to build a successful business footprint in China. Our syndicated and customized research reports provide companies with vital background information of the market and in-depth analysis on the Chinese trade and investment framework, which directly affects their business operations. Reports from QYResearchReports.com feature valuable recommendations on how to navigate in the extremely unpredictable yet highly attractive Chinese market.Contact Us:1820 AvenueM Suite #1047Brooklyn, NY 11230United StatesToll Free: 866-997-4948 (USA-CANADA)Tel: +1-518-621-2074Email: sales@qyresearchreports.comLatest Overview of Global Solar PV Glass Sales Market 2017 : First Solar, Holding Company, Sun Power Corporation, Trina Solar, Canadian Solar

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Researchmoz added Most up-to-date research on "Global Solar PV Glass Sales Market Report 2017" to its huge collection of research reports.In this report, the global Solar PV Glass market is valued at USD XX million in 2016 and is expected to reach USD XX million by the end of 2022, growing at a CAGR of XX% between 2016 and 2022.Geographically, this report split global into several key Regions, with sales (K sqm), revenue (Million USD), market share and growth rate of Solar PV Glass for these regions, from 2012 to 2022 (forecast), coveringUnited StatesChinaEuropeJapanSoutheast AsiaIndiaTo Get Sample Copy of Report visit @Global Solar PV Glass market competition by top manufacturers/players, with Solar PV Glass sales volume, Price (USD/sqm), revenue (Million USD) and market share for each manufacturer/player; the top players includingAsahi Glass Co., LtdSaint-Gobain S.AXinyi Solar Holdings LtdNippon Sheet Glass Co., LtdGuardian IndustriesFirst SolarYingli Green Energy Holding CompanySun Power CorporationTrina SolarCanadian Solar, IncJA Solar Co., LtdHanwha Q CELLSRenesola UK LtdOnyx Solar Energy S.LJinko SolarShunfeng International Clean Energy LtdBorosil Glass Works LtdEmmvee Solar Systems Pvt. LtdOn the basis of product, this report displays the production, revenue, price, market share and growth rate of each type, primarily split intoUltra-Thin GlassSurface Coated GlassLow Iron Content (Ultra White) GlassOn the basis on the end users/applications, this report focuses on the status and outlook for major applications/end users, sales volume, market share and growth rate for each application, includingResidentialNon-ResidentialUtilityTable of ContentsGlobal Solar PV Glass Sales Market Report 20171 Solar PV Glass Market Overview1.1 Product Overview and Scope of Solar PV Glass1.2 Classification of Solar PV Glass by Product Category1.2.1 Global Solar PV Glass Market Size (Sales) Comparison by Type (2012-2022)1.2.2 Global Solar PV Glass Market Size (Sales) Market Share by Type (Product Category) in 20161.2.3 Ultra-Thin Glass1.2.4 Surface Coated Glass1.2.5 Low Iron Content (Ultra White) Glass1.3 Global Solar PV Glass Market by Application/End Users1.3.1 Global Solar PV Glass Sales (Volume) and Market Share Comparison by Application (2012-2022)1.3.2 Residential1.3.3 Non-Residential1.3.4 Utility1.4 Global Solar PV Glass Market by Region1.4.1 Global Solar PV Glass Market Size (Value) Comparison by Region (2012-2022)1.4.2 United States Solar PV Glass Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.4.3 China Solar PV Glass Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.4.4 Europe Solar PV Glass Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.4.5 Japan Solar PV Glass Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.4.6 Southeast Asia Solar PV Glass Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.4.7 India Solar PV Glass Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.5 Global Market Size (Value and Volume) of Solar PV Glass (2012-2022)1.5.1 Global Solar PV Glass Sales and Growth Rate (2012-2022)1.5.2 Global Solar PV Glass Revenue and Growth Rate (2012-2022)2 Global Solar PV Glass Competition by Players/Suppliers, Type and Application2.1 Global Solar PV Glass Market Competition by Players/Suppliers2.1.1 Global Solar PV Glass Sales and Market Share of Key Players/Suppliers (2012-2017)2.1.2 Global Solar PV Glass Revenue and Share by Players/Suppliers (2012-2017)2.2 Global Solar PV Glass (Volume and Value) by Type2.2.1 Global Solar PV Glass Sales and Market Share by Type (2012-2017)2.2.2 Global Solar PV Glass Revenue and Market Share by Type (2012-2017)2.3 Global Solar PV Glass (Volume and Value) by Region2.3.1 Global Solar PV Glass Sales and Market Share by Region (2012-2017)2.3.2 Global Solar PV Glass Revenue and Market Share by Region (2012-2017)2.4 Global Solar PV Glass (Volume) by ApplicationGet Complete TOC With Tables and Figures @3 United States Solar PV Glass (Volume, Value and Sales Price)3.1 United States Solar PV Glass Sales and Value (2012-2017)3.1.1 United States Solar PV Glass Sales and Growth Rate (2012-2017)3.1.2 United States Solar PV Glass Revenue and Growth Rate (2012-2017)3.1.3 United States Solar PV Glass Sales Price Trend (2012-2017)3.2 United States Solar PV Glass Sales Volume and Market Share by Players3.3 United States Solar PV Glass Sales Volume and Market Share by Type3.4 United States Solar PV Glass Sales Volume and Market Share by Application4 China Solar PV Glass (Volume, Value and Sales Price)4.1 China Solar PV Glass Sales and Value (2012-2017)4.1.1 China Solar PV Glass Sales and Growth Rate (2012-2017)4.1.2 China Solar PV Glass Revenue and Growth Rate (2012-2017)4.1.3 China Solar PV Glass Sales Price Trend (2012-2017)4.2 China Solar PV Glass Sales Volume and Market Share by Players4.3 China Solar PV Glass Sales Volume and Market Share by Type4.4 China Solar PV Glass Sales Volume and Market Share by Application5 Europe Solar PV Glass (Volume, Value and Sales Price)5.1 Europe Solar PV Glass Sales and Value (2012-2017)5.1.1 Europe Solar PV Glass Sales and Growth Rate (2012-2017)5.1.2 Europe Solar PV Glass Revenue and Growth Rate (2012-2017)5.1.3 Europe Solar PV Glass Sales Price Trend (2012-2017)5.2 Europe Solar PV Glass Sales Volume and Market Share by Players5.3 Europe Solar PV Glass Sales Volume and Market Share by Type5.4 Europe Solar PV Glass Sales Volume and Market Share by Application6 Japan Solar PV Glass (Volume, Value and Sales Price)6.1 Japan Solar PV Glass Sales and Value (2012-2017)6.1.1 Japan Solar PV Glass Sales and Growth Rate (2012-2017)6.1.2 Japan Solar PV Glass Revenue and Growth Rate (2012-2017)6.1.3 Japan Solar PV Glass Sales Price Trend (2012-2017)6.2 Japan Solar PV Glass Sales Volume and Market Share by Players6.3 Japan Solar PV Glass Sales Volume and Market Share by Type6.4 Japan Solar PV Glass Sales Volume and Market Share by ApplicationContinue...About ResearchMozResearchMoz is the one stop online destination to find and buy market research reports & Industry Analysis. We fulfill all your research needs spanning across industry verticals with our huge collection of market research reports. We provide our services to all sizes of organizations and across all industry verticals and markets. Our Research Coordinators have in-depth knowledge of reports as well as publishers and will assist you in making an informed decision by giving you unbiased and deep insights on which reports will satisfy your needs at the best price.ResearchMozState Tower,90 State Street,Suite 700,Albany NY - 12207United StatesEmail: sales@researchmoz.usWebsite @Tel: 866-997-4948 (Us-Canada Toll Free)Tel: +1-518-621-2074Follow us on LinkedIn @Global Pterostilbene Market to Grow at a CAGR of more than 13.3%

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Qyresearchreports include new market research report "Global Pterostilbene Market Research Report 2018" to its huge collection of research reports.This report on global Pterostilbene market is a quantitative and qualitative publication that takes account of the historical data, presents the current scenario, and figuratively predicts the future. The forecast period of the report is 2018 to 2025. Curated via extensive primary and secondary research, and is aimed at armoring existing players in the global Pterostilbene market to gain ground over their competitors. It also includes highly useful information for new and emerging players to make their mark over the market. It does so by highlighting the mergers and acquisitions that have been sealed by the key players in the recent past, and their strategies for future of the global market for Pterostilbene. The company profiles section contains valuable details such as individual product portfolio, production capacity, competitors, revenue, and gross margin.Interpret a Competitive Analysis Report with Free Sample Report :The global production of Pterostilbene increases from 1548 Kg in 2013 to 2550 Kg in 2017, at a CAGR of more than 13.3%. In 2017, in term of volume, the global Pterostilbene market is led by China, capturing about 51.57% of global Pterostilbene production. In term of revenue, United States is the largest market with the share of 50.8%.This report studies Pterostilbene in Global market, especially in United States, Europe, China, Southeast Asia, India and Japan, focuses on top manufacturers in global market, with capacity, production, price, revenue and market share for each manufacturer, coveringChromaDexChemillHerb NutritionalsK V NaturalWuxi Cima ScienceBrilliantTaizhou BonaShaanxi Pioneer BiotechTo present a transparent evaluations of the revenue available in the global Pterostilbene market, the report carefully segments it into smaller yet significant chunks, such geographically, product type, services, components, and others, whichever applicable. The report also provides the values of each of these segments and individual growth rates during the forecast period. The dominant as well as emerging trends have been picked out. With a vast number of tables, charts, and graphs, the report carries extensive pictorial representation to support its findings.One of the key features of this report on global Pterostilbene market is its evaluation of several factors that are primed to influence the growth rate during the forecast period. The report also catches some of the emerging trends in this market which will give a head-start to the players into the future, before their competitors.Table of Contents1 Pterostilbene Market Overview11.1 Product Overview and Scope of Pterostilbene11.2 Pterostilbene Segment by Types21.2.1 Global Production Market Share of Pterostilbene by Types in 201721.3 Pterostilbene Segment by Applications41.3.1 Pterostilbene Consumption Market Share by Applications in 201741.4 Pterostilbene Market by Regions81.4.1 United States Status and Prospect (2013-2024)81.5 Global Market Size (Value) of Pterostilbene (2013-2024)132 Global Pterostilbene Market Competition by Manufacturers142.1 Global Pterostilbene Capacity, Production and Share by Manufacturers (2013-2018E)142.2 Global Pterostilbene Revenue and Share by Manufacturers (2013-2018E)192.3 Global Pterostilbene Average Price by Manufacturers (2013-2018E)222.4 Manufacturers Pterostilbene Manufacturing Base Distribution and Sales Area242.5 Pterostilbene Market Competitive Situation and Trends25Get discount on this report at3 Global Pterostilbene Capacity, Production, Revenue (Value) by Regions (2013-2018E)263.1 Global Pterostilbene Capacity and Market Share by Regions (2013-2018E)263.2 Global Pterostilbene Production and Market Share by Regions (2013-2018E)283.3 Global Pterostilbene Revenue (Value) and Market Share by Regions (2013-2018E)303.4 Global Pterostilbene Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2013-2018E)323.5 United States Pterostilbene Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2013-2018E)323.6 Europe Pterostilbene Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2013-2018E)333.7 China Pterostilbene Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2013-2018E)333.8 Japan Pterostilbene Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2013-2018E)344 Global Pterostilbene Supply (Production), Consumption, Export, Import by Regions (2013-2018E)364.1 Global Pterostilbene Consumption by Regions (2013-2018E)364.2 United States Pterostilbene Production, Consumption, Export, Import by Regions (2013-2018E)384.3 Europe Pterostilbene Production, Consumption, Export, Import by Regions (2013-2018E)384.4 China Pterostilbene Production, Consumption, Export, Import by Regions (2013-2018E)384.5 Japan Pterostilbene Production, Consumption, Export, Import by Regions (2013-2018E)394.6 Southeast Asia Pterostilbene Production, Consumption, Export, Import by Regions (2013-2018E)394.7 India Pterostilbene Production, Consumption, Export, Import by Regions (2013-2018E)39List of Tables and FiguresFigure Picture of Pterostilbene1Figure Global Production Market Share of Pterostilbene by Types in 20172Figure Pterostilbene Consumption Market Share by Applications in 20174Figure United States Pterostilbene Revenue (K USD) and Growth Rate (2013-2024)8Figure China Pterostilbene Revenue (K USD) and Growth Rate (2013-2024)9Figure Europe Pterostilbene Revenue (K USD) and Growth Rate (2013-2024)9Figure Japan Pterostilbene Revenue (K USD) and Growth Rate (2013-2024)10Figure Southeast Asia Pterostilbene Revenue (K USD) and Growth Rate (2013-2024)11Figure India Pterostilbene Revenue (K USD) and Growth Rate (2013-2024)12Figure Global Pterostilbene Revenue (K USD) and Growth Rate (2013-2024)13Table Global Pterostilbene Capacity (Kg) of Key Manufacturers (2013-2018E)14About Us:QYResearchReports.com delivers the latest strategic market intelligence to build a successful business footprint in China. Our syndicated and customized research reports provide companies with vital background information of the market and in-depth analysis on the Chinese trade and investment framework, which directly affects their business operations. Reports from QYResearchReports.com feature valuable recommendations on how to navigate in the extremely unpredictable yet highly attractive Chinese market.Contact Us:1820 AvenueM Suite #1047Brooklyn, NY 11230United StatesToll Free: 866-997-4948 (USA-CANADA)Tel: +1-518-621-2074Email: sales@qyresearchreports.comGlobal Agrigenomics Market 2017 Key Regions with Revenue, Industry Share and Growth Rate

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Qyresearchreports include new market research report "Global Agrigenomics Market 2017 Industry Research Report" to its huge collection of research reports.Agrigenomics Market Research Report is a comprehensive market study, which has been created with a sole goal to armor existing and new players to gain advantage over their competitors. For the development of the report, proven research methodology and reliable analytical tools are applied to gain accurate understanding and insightful foresight into its potential development. The report presents figurative scenario of the market in current situation as well as forecasts the future based on all the important factors that that primed to influence the global Agrigenomics market. The report covers all prevalent trends and products playing a significant role in the growth of the market for Agrigenomics over the forecast period.For More Info Get Free Sample Report :In the last several years, global market of Agrigenomics developed rapidly, with an average growth rate of 7.3%. In 2016, global revenue of Agrigenomics is nearly 3.46 billion USD.This report studies Agrigenomics in Global market, especially in North America, Europe, China, Rest of Asia, focuses on top manufacturers in global market, with revenue and market share for each manufacturer, coveringThermo Fisher ScientificIlluminaAgilent TechnologiesEurofinsZoetisLGC LimitedBGINeogen CorporationPacific BiosciencesPrepared after extensive primary and secondary research, the report contains findings that are both reliable and verifiable. With the use of research techniques such as Porters five forces analysis and SWOT analysis, the important facets of each player and key segment are highlighted.One of the key feature of the report is the player profile section, in which it offers valuable information on the major players in the global Agrigenomics market, such as their manufacturing base, product specification, production capacity, revenue and gross margin, and competitors. The report also includes the major business strategies adopted by the players, their market positioning, and various recent developments.The report also divides the global market for Agrigenomics into important segments to present a clear picture of the opportunities available for the players. The segmentations have been done on the basis of product type, application, and technology. The geographical segmentation of the global Agrigenomics market is also examined in detail, with the development of the market in each region charted through accurate historical statistics.Table of Contents1 Agrigenomics Market Overview11.1 Product Overview and Scope of Agrigenomics11.2 Agrigenomics Segment by Types11.2.1 Agrigenomics Segment by Types11.2.2 Global Agrigenomics Revenue Market Share by Types in 201631.3 Global Agrigenomics Segment by Applications61.4 Agrigenomics Market by Regions81.5 Global Market Size (Value) of Agrigenomics (2012-2022)13View TOC (table of content) of the Report:2 Global Agrigenomics Market Competition by Manufacturers142.1 Global Agrigenomics Revenue and Share by Manufacturers (2016 and 2017)142.2 Global Agrigenomics Gross and Share by Manufacturers (2016 and 2017)162.3 Global Agrigenomics Gross Margin of Manufacturers (2016 and 2017)192.4 Manufacturers Agrigenomics Headquarters and Establish212.5 Agrigenomics Market Competitive Situation and Trends222.5.1 Agrigenomics Market Concentration Rate222.5.2 Agrigenomics Market Share of Top 3 and Top 5 Manufacturers233 Global Agrigenomics Revenue (Value) by Regions (2012-2017)253.1 Global Agrigenomics Revenue (Value) and Market Share by Regions (2012-2017)253.2 Global Agrigenomics Gross and Market Share by Regions (2012-2017)273.3 Global Agrigenomics Revenue and Gross Margin (2012-2017)273.4 North America Agrigenomics Revenue and Gross Margin (2012-2017)283.5 Europe Agrigenomics Revenue and Gross Margin (2012-2017)283.6 China Agrigenomics Revenue and Gross Margin (2012-2017)283.7 Rest of Asia Agrigenomics Revenue and Gross Margin (2012-2017)294 Global Agrigenomics Consumption Value by Regions (2012-2017)304.1 Global Agrigenomics Consumption Value by Regions (2012-2017)304.2 North America Agrigenomics Consumption Value (2012-2017)324.3 Europe Agrigenomics Consumption Value (2012-2017)334.4 China Agrigenomics Consumption Value (2012-2017)344.5 Rest of Asia Agrigenomics Consumption Value (2012-2017)354.6 Latin America Agrigenomics Consumption Value (2012-2017)36Make An Enquiry For Discount :5 Global Agrigenomics Consumption Value Trend by Types375.1 Global Agrigenomics Consumption Value and Market Share by Types (2012-2017)375.2 Global Agrigenomics Gross and Market Share by Types (2012-2017)395.3 Global Agrigenomics Gross Margin by Type (2012-2017)415.4 Global Agrigenomics Consumption Value Growth by Type (2012-2017)416 Global Agrigenomics Market Analysis by Applications426.1 Global Agrigenomics Consumption Value and Market Share by Applications (2012-2017)426.2 Global Agrigenomics Consumption Value Growth Rate by Applications (2012-2017)44About Us:QYResearchReports.com delivers the latest strategic market intelligence to build a successful business footprint in China. Our syndicated and customized research reports provide companies with vital background information of the market and in-depth analysis on the Chinese trade and investment framework, which directly affects their business operations. Reports from QYResearchReports.com feature valuable recommendations on how to navigate in the extremely unpredictable yet highly attractive Chinese market.Contact Us:1820 AvenueM Suite #1047Brooklyn, NY 11230United StatesToll Free: 866-997-4948 (USA-CANADA)Tel: +1-518-621-2074Email: sales@qyresearchreports.comVenous Stents Market is Estimated to be Worth US$ 1.72 Billion by the End of 2025

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This report on the Global Venous Stents market analyzes the current and future scenario of the global market. Rise in private and public funding for R&D of novel venous stents, increase in prevalence of chronic venous occlusion & other symptomatic venous disorders and their improved diagnosis are boosting the growth of the Global Venous Stents market. Improved access to the deep long veins located in the iliac and femoral portion of the body, and availability of well-qualified interventional cardiologists in the developed countries are some of the factors expected to drive the growth of Global Venous Stents market during the forecast period.Request for Sample Copy of Report @The venous stents report comprises an elaborate executive summary, which includes market snapshot that provides information about various segments. It also provides information and data analysis of the global market with respect to the segments based on technology, application, disease indication, and geography. A detailed qualitative analysis of drivers and restraints, and opportunities has been provided in the market overview section. Additionally, the section comprises exhaustive mapping of all the products & companies operating in the global venous stents market, to help understand the competitive landscape in the market. An overview of critical venous diseases such as May-Thurner Syndrome and Post Thrombotic Syndrome in terms of their prevalence, diagnosis, symptoms, and treatment options are provided. A brief snapshot of ongoing clinical trials in the U.S. is also provided for better understanding of venous stents scenario in the U.S. This report also provides market attractiveness and its analysis in terms of geography and market share analysis by key players, thus presenting a thorough analysis of the overall competitive scenario in the Global Venous Stents market.Based on the technology, the Venous Stents market has been segmented into Iliac vein Stent Technology, Wallstent Technology, and Others. Iliac Vein Stent Technology is considered to be a leading segment of Venous Stents market, owing to the improved access to the deep veins of iliac area. It is expected to continue to dominate the market in terms of revenue by 2025, which is attributed to the increasing investments by key players for the development of venous stents. The market size and forecast for each of these segments have been provided for the period from 2015 to 2025, along with their respective CAGRs for the forecast period from 2017 to 2025, considering 2016 as the base year.Enquiry for discount on this report @Different types of applications in the Venous Stents market are Leg, Chest, Abdomen, and Arm. Legs accounted for highest market revenue in 2016, and is expected to remain leading in terms of revenue during the forecast period. The dominance is attributed to the shift of patients preference towards minimally invasive interventional procedures for the occlusion in femoral & popliteal veins.Based on disease indication, the global Venous Stents market is segmented into 5 major segments, which are Chronic Deep Vein Thrombosis, Post Thrombotic Syndrome, May-Thurner Syndrome, Hemodialysis/Arteriovenous Fistulae, and Others. Other disease segment comprised of venous anastomosis, restenosis, and venous occlusions among others. The others segment is anticipated to lead the market during the forecast period, owing to the government participation in the control of venous disorders, and research grants by public & private players to promote the R&D of innovative venous stents.Report Overview @Geographically, the global Venous Stents has been categorized into five major regions and the key countries in the respective region: North America (U.S. and Canada), Europe (U.K., Germany, France, Spain, Italy, and Rest of Europe), Asia Pacific (India, China, Australia, and Rest of Asia Pacific), Latin America (Brazil, Mexico, and Rest of Latin America) and Middle East & Africa (South Africa, GCC Countries, Israel, and Rest of Middle East & Africa).The report also profiles major players in the Global Venous Stents based on various attributes such as company overview, financial overview, product portfolio, business strategies, SWOT analysis, and recent developments. Major players profiled in this report include Boston Scientific Corporation, C. R. Bard, Inc., Jotec GmBH, Veniti, Inc., Gore Medical, Cook Medical, and Optimed Medizinische Instrumente GmBH.About UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMRs experienced team of analysts, researchers, and consultants, use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather, and analyze information. Our business offerings represent the latest and the most reliable information indispensable for businesses to sustain a competitive edge.Each TMR syndicated research report covers a different sector - such as pharmaceuticals, chemicals, energy, food & beverages, semiconductors, med-devices, consumer goods and technology. These reports provide in-depth analysis and deep segmentation to possible micro levels. With wider scope and stratified research methodology, TMRs syndicated reports strive to provide clients to serve their overall research requirement.US Office Contact90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:Global Solvents Market To Grow At A CAGR Of 5.01% During The Period 2017-2021 | Ashland, The Dow Chemical Company, BASF, ExxonMobil, Huntsman

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Researchmoz added Most up-to-date research on "Global Solvents Market 2017-2021" to its huge collection of research reports.A solvent is a substance capable of dissolving a solute which can be in a solid, liquid, or gaseous state to form a solution. Solvents are chemicals that melt, suspend, or extract other materials. Solvents can be of two types: Organic that contains carbon, and inorganic that does not contain carbon. Oxygenated, hydrocarbons, and halogenated are the common types of organic solvents.Technavios analysts forecast the global solvents market to grow at a CAGR of 5.01% during the period 2017-2021.To Get Sample Copy of Report visit @Covered in this reportThe report covers the present scenario and the growth prospects of the global solvents market for 2017-2021. To calculate the market size, the report considers sales of solvents based on its uses in paints and coatings, pharmaceuticals, printing inks, adhesives, cleaning products, and others.The market is divided into the following segments based on geography:AmericasAPACEMEAGlobal Solvents Market 2017-2021, has been prepared based on an in-depth market analysis with inputs from industry experts. The report covers the market landscape and its growth prospects over the coming years. The report also includes a discussion of the key vendors operating in this market.Key vendorsAshlandThe Dow Chemical CompanyBASFExxonMobilHuntsmanOther prominent vendorsArcher Daniel MidlandsArkemaBioAmberBPCargillCelaneseChevron Phillips ChemicalEastma ChemicalFlotek IndustriesHoneywell InternationalINEOSInvistaLyondellBasellMonument ChemicalOlinShell GlobalSolvayTop SolventMarket driverSurging automotive and construction industriesFor a full, detailed list, view our reportMarket challengeFluctuating crude oil pricesFor a full, detailed list, view our reportGet Complete TOC With Tables and Figures @Market trendEmerging opportunities of soy-based solventsFor a full, detailed list, view our reportKey questions answered in this reportWhat will the market size be in 2021 and what will the growth rate be?What are the key market trends?What is driving this market?What are the challenges to market growth?Who are the key vendors in this market space?What are the market opportunities and threats faced by the key vendors?What are the strengths and weaknesses of the key vendors?About ResearchMozResearchMoz is the one stop online destination to find and buy market research reports & Industry Analysis. We fulfill all your research needs spanning across industry verticals with our huge collection of market research reports. We provide our services to all sizes of organizations and across all industry verticals and markets. Our Research Coordinators have in-depth knowledge of reports as well as publishers and will assist you in making an informed decision by giving you unbiased and deep insights on which reports will satisfy your needs at the best price.ResearchMozState Tower,90 State Street,Suite 700,Albany NY - 12207United StatesEmail: sales@researchmoz.usWebsite @Tel: 866-997-4948 (Us-Canada Toll Free)Tel: +1-518-621-2074Follow us on LinkedIn @Global Sales Of Prefilled Syringes Is Projected To Reach US$7.9 Bn, Expanding At A CAGR Of 9.3% Over The Period Of 2016 To 2024

Prefilled Syringes Market

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Researchmoz added Most up-to-date research on "Prefilled Syringes Market - Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends, and Forecast 2016 - 2024" to its huge collection of research reports.This report provides a forecast and analysis of the prefilled syringes market on the global and regional levels. It provides historical data of 2015 along with forecast from 2016 to 2024 in terms of revenue (US$ Mn) and volume (Bn Units). The report also includes macroeconomic indicators along with an outlook on prefilled syringes consumption globally. It includes drivers and restraints of the prefilled syringes market and their impact on each region during the forecast period. The report also comprises the study of current issues with distribution channels and opportunities for prefilled syringes manufacturers. It also includes pricing analysis by material and value chain analysis with a list of industry stakeholders at each node in the value chain.To Get Sample Copy of Report visit @In order to provide users of this report with a comprehensive view of the market, we have included detailed competitiveness analysis and company players. The dashboard provides a comprehensive comparison of prefilled syringe manufacturers on parameters such as operating margin, unique selling propositions, collective market share, and geographic concentration. The study encompasses market attractiveness analysis, by material type, product type, application type, and region.The report includes consumption of prefilled syringes and the revenue generated from sales of prefilled syringes in all regions and important countries in these regions. By material, the global prefilled syringes market has been segmented into glass based and polymer based prefilled syringes. By application, the market is segmented into vaccines, monoclonal antibodies and others. On the basis of the distribution channel, the market is segmented into hospitals, ambulatory surgical centers and mail order pharmacies.Prefilled Syringes Market: Research MethodologyMarket numbers have been estimated based on average consumption and weighted average pricing of prefilled syringes by material and the revenue is derived from regional pricing trends. Market size and forecast for each segment has been provided in the context of global and regional markets. The prefilled syringes market has been analyzed based on expected demand. Prices considered for the calculation of revenue are regional average prices obtained through primary quotes from numerous regional prefilled syringes manufacturers, suppliers, and distributors. All key distribution channels have been considered and potential applications have been estimated on the basis of secondary sources and feedback from primary respondents. Regional demand patterns have been taken into account while assessing the market for various end users of prefilled syringes in different regions. Bottom-up approach has been used to estimate the prefilled syringes market by regions. Market numbers for global material, application and distribution channel segments have been derived using the bottom-up approach, which is cumulative of each regions demand. The company-level market share has been derived on the basis of revenues reported by key manufacturers. The market has been forecast based on constant currency rates.Get Complete TOC With Tables and Figures @Several primary and secondary sources were consulted during the course of the study. Secondary sources include FACTIVA, NCBI, Google Books, company websites, journals, press releases, Hoovers, and company annual reports and publications.The report provides detailed competitive and company profiles of key participants operating in the global market. Major players in the global prefilled syringes market are Becton Dickinson & Co., Gerresheimer, Medtronic, Baxter International, SCHOTT AG, West Pharmaceuticals, Vetter International, Unilife Corporation, Stevanato Group, and Terumo Corporation.The market has been segmented as below:Global Prefilled Syringes Market  By Material- Glass based prefilled syringes- Polymer based prefilled syringesGlobal Prefilled Syringes Market  By Application- Monoclonal Antibodies- Vaccines- OthersGlobal Prefilled Syringes Market  By Distribution Channel- Hospitals- Ambulatory Surgical Centers- Mail order pharmaciesMake an Enquiry of this report @Global Prefilled Syringes Market  By Region- North America- U.S.- Canada- Latin America- Brazil- Mexico- Rest of Latin America- Europe- Germany- U.K- France- Italy- Spain- Rest of Europe- Asia Pacific (APAC)- China- India- Japan- Australia- New Zealand- Rest of Asia Pacific- Middle East and Africa (MEA)- Saudi Arabia- UAE- RSA- Rest of MEAAbout ResearchMozResearchMoz is the one stop online destination to find and buy market research reports & Industry Analysis. We fulfill all your research needs spanning across industry verticals with our huge collection of market research reports. We provide our services to all sizes of organizations and across all industry verticals and markets. Our Research Coordinators have in-depth knowledge of reports as well as publishers and will assist you in making an informed decision by giving you unbiased and deep insights on which reports will satisfy your needs at the best price.ResearchMozState Tower,90 State Street,Suite 700,Albany NY - 12207United StatesEmail: sales@researchmoz.usWebsite @Tel: 866-997-4948 (Us-Canada Toll Free)Tel: +1-518-621-2074Follow us on LinkedIn @Global Cosmetic Packaging Market Will Exhibit A 4.4% CAGR Over The Period Between 2016 And 2024 Will Rise To US$33 Bn

Cosmetic Packaging Market

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Researchmoz added Most up-to-date research on "Cosmetic Packaging Market - Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends, and Forecast 2016 - 2024" to its huge collection of research reports.This report provides forecast and analysis of the cosmetic packaging market on the global and regional levels. It provides historical data of 2015 along with forecast from 2016 to 2024 in terms of revenue (US$ Mn) and volume (Million units). The report also includes macroeconomic indicators along with an outlook on packaging consumption globally. It includes drivers and restraints of the cosmetic packaging market and their impact on each region during the forecast period. The report also comprises the study of current issues with end users and opportunities for cosmetic packaging manufacturers. It also includes detailed pricing analysis by container type and value chain analysis.To Get Sample Copy of Report visit @In supply chain analysis the report also provides approximate profit margins garnered by industry stakeholders such as cosmetic packaging product raw material suppliers and cosmetic packaging product manufacturer. The report also enlists some of the key buyers of cosmetic packaging products across the globe.In order to provide users of this report with comprehensive view of the market, we have included detailed competitiveness analysis and company players with unique selling propositions. The dashboard provides detailed comparison of cosmetic packaging manufacturers on parameters such as operating margin, unique selling propositions, collective market share, and geographic concentration. The study encompasses market attractiveness analysis, by material type, application type, container type, declared capacity type and region.Global Cosmetic Packaging Market: SegmentationThe report includes consumption of cosmetic packaging and the revenue generated from sales of cosmetic packaging in all regions and important countries in these regions. By material type, the global cosmetic packaging market has been segmented into glass, paper, plastic, metal and others. Plastic segment is further sub-segmented into PET, PP, PE and others. By application type, the market is segmented into skin care, hair care, make up and nail care. On the basis of container type, the global cosmetic packaging market is segmented into jars, tubes, bottles, pumps & dispensers, sachets and other. On the basis of declared capacity type the global cosmetic packaging market is segmented into Type 1(Below 50 ml), Type 2(50 ml  100 ml), Type 3(100 ml -150 ml), Type 4(150 ml  200 ml) and Type 5(Above 200 ml).Market numbers have been estimated based on average consumption and weighted average pricing of cosmetic packaging by container type and the revenue is derived through regional pricing trends. Market size and forecast for each segment have been provided in the context of global and regional markets. The cosmetic packaging market has been analyzed based on expected demand. Prices considered for the calculation of revenue are average regional prices obtained through primary quotes from numerous regional cosmetic packaging manufacturers, suppliers, and distributors. All key end users have been considered and potential applications have been estimated on the basis of secondary sources and feedback from primary respondents.Get Complete TOC With Tables and Figures @Regional demand patterns have been considered while estimating the market for various end users of cosmetic packaging in different regions. Top-down approach has been used to estimate the cosmetic packaging market by regions. Market numbers for global material type, application type, container type and declared capacity segments have been derived using the bottom-up approach, which is cumulative of each regions demand. Company-level market share has been derived on the basis of revenues reported by key manufacturers. The market has been forecast based on constant currency rates.A number of primary and secondary sources were consulted during the course of the study. Secondary sources include Factiva, World Bank, Packaging Digest, and Hoovers, and company annual reports and publications.Global Cosmetic Packaging Market: Competitive LandscapeThe report provides detailed competitive and company profiles of key participants operating in the global market. Key players in the global cosmetic packaging market include Aptar Group Inc., RPC Group Plc, Gerresheimer AG, Amcor Limited, Albea S.A., Libo Cosmetics Company, Ltd., Quadpack Industries, HCP Packaging, Fusion Packaging, ABC Packaging Ltd.The market has been segmented as below:Global Cosmetic Packaging Market  By Material- Glass- Paper- Plastic- - PET- - PP- - PE- - OthersGlobal Cosmetic Packaging Market  By Application Type- Skin Care- Hair Care- Make up- Nail CareGlobal Cosmetic Packaging Market  By Container Type- Jars- Tubes- Bottles- Pumps & Dispensers- Sachets- Other (Rolling Balls, Sticks, Pen type etc.)Global Cosmetic Packaging Market  By Declared Capacity Type- Type 1 (Below 50 ml)- Type 2 (50 ml  100 ml)- Type 3 (100 ml  150 ml)- Type 4 (150 ml  200 ml)- Type 5 (Above 200 ml)Make an Enquiry of this report @Global Cosmetic Packaging Market  By Region- North America- U.S.- Canada- Latin America- Brazil- Argentina- Rest of Latin America- Europe- EU-5- Russia- Nordic- Benelux- Poland- Rest of Europe- Asia Pacific (APAC)- China- India- Japan- ASEAN- Oceania- Rest of Asia Pacific- Middle East and Africa (MEA)- GCC Countries- South Africa- North Africa- Rest of MEAAbout ResearchMozResearchMoz is the one stop online destination to find and buy market research reports & Industry Analysis. We fulfill all your research needs spanning across industry verticals with our huge collection of market research reports. We provide our services to all sizes of organizations and across all industry verticals and markets. Our Research Coordinators have in-depth knowledge of reports as well as publishers and will assist you in making an informed decision by giving you unbiased and deep insights on which reports will satisfy your needs at the best price.ResearchMozState Tower,90 State Street,Suite 700,Albany NY - 12207United StatesEmail: sales@researchmoz.usWebsite @Tel: 866-997-4948 (Us-Canada Toll Free)Tel: +1-518-621-2074Follow us on LinkedIn @Global and U.S. Automotive Loudspeaker Market Status and Forecast by Key Manufacturers 2017-2022

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Qyresearchreports include new market research report "2017-2022 Automotive Loudspeaker Report on Global and United States Market, Status and Forecast, by Players, Types and Applications" to its huge collection of research reports.The report that has been compiled to describe the Automotive Loudspeaker market, also acts as a valuable insight for businesses who wish to grow in this industry. The report extensively outlines important factors that such as geographical reach, factors contributing towards better sales, dominant segments, amidst many others. Businesses and individuals who are interested in this market, or are already involved in the relevant processes need to carefully understand the described aspects, in order to thrive over here. Detailed quantitative as well as qualitative analytic methodologies have been incorporated while making the report.This report studies the Automotive Loudspeaker market status and outlook of global and United States, from angles of players, regions, product types and end industries; this report analyzes the top players in global and United States market, and splits the Automotive Loudspeaker market by product type and applications/end industries.For More Info Get Free Sample Report :The global Automotive Loudspeaker market is valued at XX million USD in 2016 and is expected to reach XX million USD by the end of 2022, growing at a CAGR of XX% between 2016 and 2022.The Asia-Pacific will occupy for more market share in following years, especially in China, also fast growing India and Southeast Asia regions.North America, especially The United States, will still play an important role which cannot be ignored. Any changes from United States might affect the development trend of Automotive Loudspeaker. United States plays an important role in global market, with market size of xx million USD in 2016 and will be xx million USD in 2022, with a CAGR of XX.The major players in global and United States Automotive Loudspeaker market, including ACDelco, Beck Arnley, Hella, Kleinn, Uno Minda, Robert Bosch, HELLA, Mitsuba Corporation, Imasen Electric Industrial, Wolo Manufacturing, PIAA, Spyder, OmegaEvery critical element associated with the Automotive Loudspeaker market has been broadly defined and its effectiveness described in detail in the report. Every market needs to depict a hopeful future in order to exist, and to ensure that our readers get a full-fledged idea of this aspect, we have put a lot of emphasis on the scope of the Automotive Loudspeaker market in this report. Both new entrants, as well as seasoned players can get a good idea about strategies that need to be carried out for maximizing sales of the products and services in the Global and United States market for Automotive Loudspeaker. Every strategy that can prove useful to the players from the perspective of attracting maximal revenue is mentioned in the report. All these aspects can help businesses understand where they need to put maximum focus, while maintaining a stable position in the Automotive Loudspeaker market.Many businesses search the Internet for getting more information about the Automotive Loudspeaker market and only get small snippets of data. However, this report is exactly the kind of a compilation that will not only give readers an idea of the markets present situation, but also will provide a valuable forecast for at least the next five to seven years. From an overall perspective, people searching for information on the Automotive Loudspeaker market can highly benefit from this report.Table of Contents1 Methodology and Data Source1.1 Methodology/Research Approach1.1.1 Research Programs/Design1.1.2 Market Size Estimation1.1.3 Market Breakdown and Data Triangulation1.2 Data Source1.3 Disclaimer2 Automotive Loudspeaker Market Overview2.1 Automotive Loudspeaker Product Overview2.2 Automotive Loudspeaker Market Segment by Type2.3 Global Automotive Loudspeaker Product Segment by Type2.3.1 Global Automotive Loudspeaker Sales (K Units) and Growth (%) by Types (2012, 2016 and 2022)2.3.2 Global Automotive Loudspeaker Sales (K Units) and Market Share (%) by Types (2012-2017)2.3.3 Global Automotive Loudspeaker Revenue (Million USD) and Market Share (%) by Types (2012-2017)2.3.4 Global Automotive Loudspeaker Price (USD/Unit) by Type (2012-2017)2.4 United States Automotive Loudspeaker Product Segment by TypeTo Get Discount Of This Report Click here @3 Automotive Loudspeaker Application/End Users3.1 Automotive Loudspeaker Segment by Application/End Users3.2 Global Automotive Loudspeaker Product Segment by Application3.2.1 Global Automotive Loudspeaker Sales (K Units) and CGAR (%) by Applications (2012, 2016 and 2022)3.2.2 Global Automotive Loudspeaker Sales (K Units) and Market Share (%) by Applications (2012-2017)3.3 United States Automotive Loudspeaker Product Segment by Application3.3.1 United States Automotive Loudspeaker Sales (K Units) and CGAR (%) by Applications (2012, 2016 and 2022)3.3.2 United States Automotive Loudspeaker Sales (K Units) and Market Share (%) by Applications (2012-2017)4 Automotive Loudspeaker Market Status and Outlook by Regions4.1 Global Market Status and Outlook by Regions4.1.1 Global Automotive Loudspeaker Market Size and CAGR by Regions (2012, 2016 and 2022)4.2 Global Automotive Loudspeaker Sales and Revenue by Regions4.2.1 Global Automotive Loudspeaker Sales (K Units) and Market Share (%) by Regions (2012-2017)4.2.2 Global Automotive Loudspeaker Revenue (Million USD) and Market Share (%) by Regions (2012-2017)4.2.3 Global Automotive Loudspeaker Sales (K Units), Revenue (Million USD), Price (USD/Unit) and Gross Margin (%) (2012-2017)4.2.4 North America Automotive Loudspeaker Sales (K Units), Revenue (Million USD), Price (USD/Unit) and Gross Margin (%) (2012-2017)4.2.5 Europe Automotive Loudspeaker Sales (K Units), Revenue (Million USD), Price (USD/Unit) and Gross Margin (%) (2012-2017)4.2.6 Asia-Pacific Automotive Loudspeaker Sales (K Units), Revenue (Million USD), Price (USD/Unit) and Gross Margin (%) (2012-2017)4.2.7 South America Automotive Loudspeaker Sales (K Units), Revenue (Million USD), Price (USD/Unit) and Gross Margin (2012-2017)5 Global Automotive Loudspeaker Market Competition by Players/Manufacturers5.1 Global Automotive Loudspeaker Sales (K Units) and Market Share by Players (2012-2017)5.2 Global Automotive Loudspeaker Revenue (Million USD) and Share by Players (2012-2017)5.3 Global Automotive Loudspeaker Average Price (USD/Unit) by Players (2012-2017)5.4 Players Automotive Loudspeaker Manufacturing Base Distribution, Sales Area, Product Types5.5 Automotive Loudspeaker Market Competitive Situation and Trends5.5.1 Automotive Loudspeaker Market Concentration Rate5.5.2 Global Automotive Loudspeaker Market Share (%) of Top 3 and Top 5 PlayersAbout Us:QYResearchReports.com delivers the latest strategic market intelligence to build a successful business footprint in China. Our syndicated and customized research reports provide companies with vital background information of the market and in-depth analysis on the Chinese trade and investment framework, which directly affects their business operations. Reports from QYResearchReports.com feature valuable recommendations on how to navigate in the extremely unpredictable yet highly attractive Chinese market.Contact Us:1820 AvenueM Suite #1047Brooklyn, NY 11230United StatesToll Free: 866-997-4948 (USA-CANADA)Tel: +1-518-621-2074Email: sales@qyresearchreports.comInfant Formula Market 2018 - Global Industry size, Shares, Trends, Growth, Analysis and Forecast 2022

Infant Formula Market

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Researchmoz added Most up-to-date research on "Global Infant Formula Market: Industry Analysis & Outlook (2018-2022)" to its huge collection of research reports.Baby food (baby nutrition) is a manufactured soft food, designed & marketed for feeding babies between four to six months and two years of age and usually used as a substitute or along with infant formula or human breast milk. It can be purchased ready made from the producers and comes in various varieties & flavors. Baby food can be segmented into four key products types including infant formula, prepared baby food, dried baby food and other baby food.To Get Sample Copy of Report visit @Infant formula (milk formula) is a close substitute for human breast milk, manufactured by mixture of dairy & other ingredients. Generally infant formula is manufactured for feeding infants under 12 months of age to achieve healthy growth & maintain good health. It is prepared for bottle-feeding or cup-feeding from mixing powder and liquid. There are different types of infant formulas available in the market which varies according to nutrients content, calorie count, taste and ability to be digested. Some of the common infant formula used globally are cow milk, soy based, protein hydrolysate, lactose free, special and newer formula.China is a major contributor to the global infant formula market supported by increased population in China after withdrawal of one child policy by the Government of China in 2013 and increased income of middle class population.The global infant formula market is expected to grow with emerging middle class population, growing birth rate in developing countries, increasing female in the workforce, increasing e-commerce sales, increasing disposable income and accelerating economic growth. Key trends of this market includes premiumisation of products and increasing preference by towards foreign infant formula in China. However, there are some factors which can hinder growth of the market including stringent regulations and dominance of infant formula alternatives.The report Global Infant Formula Market: Industry Analysis & Outlook (2018-2022) by Koncept Analytics provides an extensive research and detailed analysis of the present market along with future outlook. The report discusses the major growth drivers, key tends & developments and challenges of the market, covering China, Asia Pacific (Ex. China), Europe, North America, Latin America and Middle East Africa region along with the global market. The report profiles the key players of the market including Nestle S.A. Danone S.A., Abbott Laboratories and Royal FrieslandCampina N.V.Table of Content1. Market Overview1.1 Baby Food1.2 Infant Formula1.3 Infant Formula Value Chain Analysis1.4 Advantages of Infant Formula2. Baby Food Market Analysis2.1 Global Baby Food Market by Value2.2 Global Baby Food Market Forecast by Value2.3 Global Baby Food Market by Product Type2.4 Asia Pacific Baby Food Market by Value2.5 Asia Pacific Baby Food Market Forecast by ValueGet Complete TOC With Tables and Figures @3. Global Infant Formula Market Analysis3.1 Infant Formula Market by Value3.2 Infant Formula Market Forecast by Value3.3 Infant Formula Market by Volume3.4 Infant Formula Market Forecast by Volume3.5 Infant Formula Market Value by Product3.6 Infant Formula Market Value by Region4. Regional Infant Formula Market Analysis4.1 China4.1.1 China Infant Formula Market by Value4.1.2 China Infant Formula Market Forecast by Value4.1.3 China Infant Formula Market by Volume4.1.4 China Infant Formula Market Forecast by Volume4.1.5 China Infant Formula Market by Distribution Channel4.2 Asia Pacific (Ex. China)4.2.1 Asia Pacific (Ex. China) Infant Formula Market by Value4.2.2 Asia Pacific (Ex. China) Infant Formula Market Forecast by Value4.2.3 South Asia Infant Formula Market Value by Countries4.2.4 Australia Infant Formula Market by Volume4.2.5 Australia Infant Formula Market Forecast by Volume4.3 Europe4.3.1 Europe Infant Formula Market by Value4.3.2 Europe Infant Formula Market Forecast by Value4.4 North America4.4.1 North America Infant Formula Market by Value4.4.2 North America Infant Formula Market Forecast by Value4.5 Latin America4.5.1 Latin America Infant Formula Market by Value4.5.2 Latin America Infant Formula Market Forecast by Value5. Market Dynamics5.1 Growth Drivers5.1.1 Growing Birth Rate in Developing Countries5.1.2 Emerging Middle Class Population5.1.3 Rising Females in the Workforce5.1.4 Increasing E-Commerce Sales5.1.5 Increasing Disposable Income5.1.6 Accelerating Economic Growth5.2 Key Trends and Developments5.2.1 Premiumisation of Products5.2.2 Increasing Preference Towards Imported Infant Formula in China5.3 Challenges5.3.1 Stringent Regulations5.3.2 Dominance of Infant Formula AlternativesContinue...About ResearchMozResearchMoz is the one stop online destination to find and buy market research reports & Industry Analysis. We fulfill all your research needs spanning across industry verticals with our huge collection of market research reports. We provide our services to all sizes of organizations and across all industry verticals and markets. Our Research Coordinators have in-depth knowledge of reports as well as publishers and will assist you in making an informed decision by giving you unbiased and deep insights on which reports will satisfy your needs at the best price.ResearchMozState Tower,90 State Street,Suite 700,Albany NY - 12207United StatesEmail: sales@researchmoz.usWebsite @Tel: 866-997-4948 (Us-Canada Toll Free)Tel: +1-518-621-2074Follow us on LinkedIn @Low Temperature Sterilization Market 2018 - Global Industry size, Shares, Trends, Growth, Analysis and Forecast 2022

Low Temperature Sterilization Market

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Researchmoz added Most up-to-date research on "Global Low Temperature Sterilization Market: Industry Analysis & Outlook (2018-2022)" to its huge collection of research reports.Sterilization refers to the process of removing micro-organisms and other pathogens from an object or surface with the help of chemical and radiation treatments or subjecting the object to high heat. Sterilization of medical equipments is needed to achieve the desired result of a medical surgery or any medical operation requiring medical equipments. Use of non-sterile instruments or devices leads to increased infection rates, increased patients stays, increased costs and potentially increased mortality rates. Sterile processing department of the hospital takes care of the reprocessing of used or contaminated medical devices. Reprocessing is a procedure of cleaning medical devices to remove soil and other contaminants by using sterilizer or disinfectant.To Get Sample Copy of Report visit @There are two ways to sterilize a medical instrument or device: Steam sterilization and Low temperature sterilization. Low temperature sterilization is ideal for sterilizing delicate medical devices, especially minimally invasive surgical devices. Low-temperature sterilization techniques such as cold vapor, gas, and liquid chemicals, are used on these devices. There are four methods available for low temperature sterilization.The U.S. is a major contributor to the global low temperature sterilization market supported by increased ageing population, growing number of endoscopic surgeries and incidences of healthcare associated infections.The global low temperature sterilization market is expected to grow in future due to increasing ageing population, healthcare expenditure, hospital admissions and outpatient visits and occurrence of superbugs. Key trends of this market include increasing growing number of surgical procedures in the U.S., leading causes of death in the U.S. and rising innovations in surgical procedures. However, there are some factors which can hinder the market growth including stringent legal norms.The report Global Low Temperature Sterilization Market: Industry Analysis & Outlook (2018-2022) by Koncept Analytics provides an extensive research and detailed analysis of the present market along with future outlook. The report discusses the major growth drivers and challenges of the market, covering the U.S. and Europe region along with the global market. The report profiles the key players of the market including Johnson & Johnson, 3M, Getinge and Steris Plc.Table of Content1. Overview1.1 Sterilization1.2 Low Temperature Sterilization1.3 Types of Low Temperature Sterilization1.4 Advantages and Disadvantages of Sterilization2. Infection Prevention Market2.1 Global Infection Prevention Market by Value2.2 Global Infection Prevention Market Value Forecast2.3 The U.S. Infection Prevention Market by Value2.4 The U.S. Infection Prevention Market Value ForecastGet Complete TOC With Tables and Figures @3. Global Low Temperature Sterilization Market3.1 Low Temperature Sterilization Market by Value3.2 Low Temperature Sterilization Market Value Forecast3.3 Low Temperature Sterilization Market by Region3.4 Low Temperature Sterilization Device Market Volume Forecast3.5 Low Temperature Sterilization Device Market- Annual Replacement Value3.6 Low Temperature Sterilization Device Market- Annual Replacement Value Forecast4. Regional Low Temperature Sterilization Market4.1 The U.S.4.1.1 The U.S. Low Temperature Sterilization Market by Value4.1.2 The U.S. Low Temperature Sterilization Market Value Forecast4.1.3 The U.S. Low Temperature Sterilization Device Market Volume Forecast4.1.4 The U.S. Low Temperature Sterilization Device Market-Annual Replacement Value Forecast4.2 Europe4.2.1 Europe Low Temperature Sterilization Market by Value4.2.2 Europe Low Temperature Sterilization Market Value Forecast4.2.3 Europe Low Temperature Sterilization Market Volume Forecast4.2.4 Europe Low Temperature Sterilization Market-Annual Replacement Value Forecast4.3 ROW4.3.1 ROW Low Temperature Sterilization Market by Value4.3.2 ROW Low Temperature Sterilization Market Value Forecast4.3.3 ROW Low Temperature Sterilization Market Volume Forecast4.3.4 ROW Low Temperature Sterilization Market-Annual Replacement Value Forecast5. Market Dynamics5.1 Growth Drivers5.1.1 Increasing Healthcare Expenditure5.1.2 Growth in Hospital Admissions5.1.3 Rising Ageing Population5.1.4 Increasing Outpatient Visits5.1.5 Increasing Healthcare Associated Infections5.1.6 Occurrence of Superbugs5.2 Key Trends5.2.1 Growing Number of Surgical Procedures5.2.2 Leading Causes of Death in The U.S5.2.3 Rising Innovations in Surgical Procedures5.3 Challenges5.3.1 Legal RegulationsContinue...About ResearchMozResearchMoz is the one stop online destination to find and buy market research reports & Industry Analysis. We fulfill all your research needs spanning across industry verticals with our huge collection of market research reports. We provide our services to all sizes of organizations and across all industry verticals and markets. Our Research Coordinators have in-depth knowledge of reports as well as publishers and will assist you in making an informed decision by giving you unbiased and deep insights on which reports will satisfy your needs at the best price.ResearchMozState Tower,90 State Street,Suite 700,Albany NY - 12207United StatesEmail: sales@researchmoz.usWebsite @Tel: 866-997-4948 (Us-Canada Toll Free)Tel: +1-518-621-2074Follow us on LinkedIn @Best Report Global Radiopharmaceuticals Market Research Players, Emerging Trends 2018 and Projected CAGR of 8.7% till 2024

Radiopharmaceuticals Market expected to reach USD 9.49 billion by 2024

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Radiopharmaceuticals Market report give rising open doors in the market and the future effect of significant drivers and difficulties and, bolster leaders in settling on practical business choices. Radiopharmaceuticals are a group of pharmaceuticals drug which have radioactivity. It can be used as diagnostic and therapeutic agent. Radiopharmaceuticals are unique medicinal formulations containing radioisotopes which are used in major clinical area for diagnosis or therapy. The procedures and facilities for the production, use, and storage of radiopharmaceuticals are subject to licensing by national or regional authorities.Data Bridge Market Research offerings new industry report "Global Radiopharmaceuticals Market" is expected to reach USD 9.49 billion by 2024 from USD 4.87 billion in 2016, at a CAGR of 8.7% in the forecast period 2017 to 2024. The new market report contains data for historic years 2015, the base year of calculation is 2016 and the forecast period is 2017 to 2024.Click Here for Free Sample Report Visit @Data Bridge Market Research report provides an extensive analysis of current and future market status of the Global Radiopharmaceuticals Market for purchase this report mail us at Sales@databridgemarketresearch.com Or call on number +1-888-387-2818Market Segmentation:The global market is segmented based on type, procedural volumes, application, sources, end-user, and geography.On the basis of type, the global radiopharmaceuticals market is sub-segmented into Diagnostic Therapeutic radiopharmaceuticals.In 2017, diagnostic radiopharmaceuticals segment dominate the market and is expected to grow at the highest in the forecast period. This is due to the production of MO-99 in the U.S., FDA approvals of radiopharmaceuticals, initiatives of International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), new irradiation facility in Germany, installation of PET scanners in India, andgovernment investments in Rest of Asia-Pacific.On the basis of procedural volumes, the global radiopharmaceuticals market is sub-segmented into1. Diagnostic procedure single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) radiopharmaceuticals positron emission tomography (PET) radiopharmaceuticals2. Therapeutic procedures beta emitters alpha emitters brachy therapyOn the basis of application, the global radiopharmaceuticals market is sub-segmented into1. diagnostic application single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) - positron emission tomography (PET)- oncology, cardiology, neurology and others2. therapeutic application thyroid, bone metastasis, lymphoma, endocrine tumours othersOn the basis of sources, the global radiopharmaceuticals market is sub-segmented into nuclear reactors cyclotronsOn the basis of end user, the global radiopharmaceuticals market is sub-segmented into hospitals, ambulatory surgical centers, diagnostic centers, cancer research institutes and othersIn 2017, hospital segment dominate the market with the highest market share due to accessibility of highly skilled medical practitioners in the radiology departments of hospitals.Request for Table of Content of Full Report @Major Players in Global Radiopharmaceuticals Market are included which give a brief analysis of following points: Market Overview Market Dynamics Drivers, Restraints, Opportunities and Challenges Market sizing and growth analysis Market forecasting to 2024 Market Competitive Landscape Product Launches and Pipeline Analysis Value Chain Analysis Market Mergers, Acquisitions and Agreements Company ProfilesTop Challengers: Cardinal Health Inc. MallinckrodtPlc. GE Healthcare Lantheus Medical Imaging Inc. Bayer AG Bracco Imaging SpA Eczacibasi-Monrol Nuclear Products Nordion Inc. Advanced Accelerator Applications S.A. IBA Molecular Imaging Actinium Pharmaceuticals Inc., Among others.Read more about Report Visit @Related ReportNorth America Digital Health Monitoring Market  Industry Trends and Forecast to 2024North America Digital Health Monitoring Market By Product Type Devices (Blood Pressure Monitors, Blood Glucose Monitors, ECG, Oximeters, Peak Flow Monitors, Multi Parameter Monitors, Sleep Neap Monitors, Neurological Monitors, Others), Software (Healthcare Apps, Chronic Disease Apps, Personal Health Apps, Others), Services (Remote Monitoring, Consultancy Services, Treatment Services, Fitness and Wellness Services, Others), By Country (U.S., Canada, Mexico)  Industry Trends and Forecast to 2024Report Access:About Data Bridge Market Research:Data Bridge Market Research set forth itself as an unconventional and neoteric Market research and consulting firm with unparalleled level of resilience and integrated approaches. We are determined to unearth the best market opportunities and foster efficient information for your business to thrive in the market. Data Bridge endeavors to provide appropriate solutions to the complex business challenges and initiates an effortless decision-making process.Contact:Vishal DixitData Bridge Market ResearchTel: +1-888-387-2818Email: Sales@databridgemarketresearch.comInvestor: investors@databridgemarketresearch.comVisit Blog:Operating Room Lights Market Latest Report with Forecast up to 2025

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Operating room lights, popularly known as surgical lights or surgical light heads, are used by surgeons to illuminate a local area or cavity of the patient during an operation. The correct set of operating room lights is crucial for achieving procedural accuracy, patient care, and positive results. Combination of several surgical lights and other technologies such as cameras has evolved into advanced operating room light systems.The global Operating Room Lights Market is expected to expand at a sluggish pace during the forecast period. Growth in few markets like the U.S. was attributed to the shifting of many facilities from halogen lights to LED lights. LED lights offer various advantages over traditional halogen lights such as higher light intensity, larger adjustable spot, and a wide range of settings and adjustment options. These LED lights do not heat up as compared to halogen lights, and thus help maintain a cool and comfortable operating room environment for surgeons. Some of the leading brands in the operating lights market are Stellar Series from Skytron; ALM and Hanau Med from Getinge Group; and Phililux from Philips.Request to View Brochure of Report -Rise in the number of cardiovascular, neurological, urological, orthopedic, and dermatology surgical procedures is likely to drive the global operating room lights market. Increase in the geriatric population undergoing major cardiac surgeries has propelled the global market. Moreover, product innovations driven by advancement in technology is anticipated to propel the operating room lights market. Rising demand for sophisticated operation theaters has boosted the global operating room lights market. However, high cost of these lights is likely to restrain the market.The global operating room lights market can be segmented based on type of lamp, mounting configuration, applications, and region. In terms of type of lamp, the global operating room lights market can be categorized into conventional incandescent lamps, gas discharge, and LED. Technological advancements has led to shift from halogen lamps to LEDs. Different types of LED lamps with required specifications for a particular medical procedure are available in the market. Based on mounting configuration, the global operating room lights market includes ceiling-mounted, wall-mounted, and on floor stand. Currently, various portable operating room light are in high demand in the market. In terms of application, the market can be categorized into major surgeries and minor surgeries.Request to View ToC of Report -In terms of geography, the operating room lights market has been segmented into North America, Asia Pacific, Europe, and Rest of the World. Most hospitals in these regions are increasingly adopting modern day OR equipment and hybrid ORs. Additionally, rising number of surgical procedures is contributing to the expansion of market in North America and Europe. The market in countries such as Japan, China, India, Malaysia and Australia are projected to create growth opportunities for equipment manufacturers. The operating room lights market in Asia Pacific is anticipated to expand at a significant pace. Emerging economies such as India and China are expected to propel the operating room lights market in Asia Pacific due to the rise in health care expenditure.Key players operating in the room lights market include Getinge Group, TRUMPF GmbH +Co. KG, Steris Corporation, Berchtold Corporation, and Skytron, LLC. According to Healthcare Purchasing News (a business news magazine for purchasing decision-makers at hospitals and other health care facilities), Skytron LLC dominates the market in the U.S. with the largest share followed by Steris Corporation, Getinge Group, and Berchtold Corporation.View Report -About UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMRs experienced team of analysts, researchers, and consultants, use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather, and analyze information. Our business offerings represent the latest and the most reliable information indispensable for businesses to sustain a competitive edge.US Office Contact90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA  Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:Healthcare Enterprise Software Market 2027 Top Key players Are Microsoft Corporation (US), IBM (US), Oracle Corporation (US), Allscripts (US) And More

Healthcare Enterprise Software Market

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Healthcare software are used by the hospitals to manage clinical & non-clinical data. They help to maintain records of the patient electronically for easy storage and retrieval. These software help to manage, secure and analyze information in healthcare environment. Enormous data can be stored in the software instead of handling manual records. The demand of healthcare software is increasing with an increase in the number of software solutions available for healthcare management. Emphasis on electronic health records and stringent rule governing the management of patient information drive this market.The Global Healthcare Enterprise Software Market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 15.7% during forecasted period 2017-2027.There are large number of multi-national medical device and software companies. Designing software according to the specific requirements of healthcare organizations is a challenging job for software companies. These IT companies development enterprise software or hospital management software thus fulfil the specific requirement of their clients. Use of software in healthcare management helps to store clinical and non-clinical data on the server so that it is available across the healthcare organization. Fierce competition among medical device companies and new software solutions available for healthcare management contribute to the growth of this market. Thus, Healthcare Enterprise Software Market is blooming due to an increase in demand for developing healthcare software, research and development activities for production of innovative products and emphasis on cost reduction and patient safety.Healthcare Enterprise Software in healthcare is the procedure of dealing with office's cases, installment and revenue generation processes and other management of healthcare organizations vital assets. In order to efficiently manage the patient revenue cycle of any organization, institute or office. In this era it is required or essential to have medical billing software, practice administration program which permits the management to successfully monitor the process. Cost of software solution may act as restrain for this market.Access Sample Copy atMajor Key Players Are:Microsoft Corporation (US), IBM (US), Oracle Corporation (US), Allscripts (US), Nuance Communications (US), McKesson Corporation (US), Cerner Corporations (US), Athenahealth (US), Medidata Solutions (US), CompuGroup (UK) and others are some of the prominent players at the forefront of competition in the global Healthcare Enterprise Software Market and are profiled in MRFR Analysis.Global Healthcare Enterprise Software Market  Company Analysis:Cognizant Technology Solutions Corporation is an American multinational corporation that provides consulting, digital and operation services. In 2015, the company was named by Fortune magazine as worlds fourth most admired IT Solutions Company. In June 2017, the company acquired TMG health, healthcare IT Company. In June 2017, the company acquired TMG health, healthcare IT Company.Allscripts Healthcare Solutions is a publically traded outsourcing company providing healthcare professionals with electronic health records technology and practice management. Its solutions include care coordination, clinical and patient engagement.Global Healthcare Enterprise Software Market  Regional:Geographically, the regional market is segmented into America, Europe, Asia Pacific, and the Middle East & Africa.America is the largest market whose growth is attributed to increasing use of information technology in hospitals and demand for software solutions for managing medical records of patients. IBM Corporation and Microsoft Corporation are players in the U.S developing healthcare software solutions. Increasing importance of electronic health records, replacement of manual records by electronic records and extensive use of software solutions in healthcare management drive the growth of this market in North America. North America is the largest market whose growth is attributed to extensive use of healthcare software by healthcare professionals and growing importance of electronics medical records.Technological advancement in software development and easy adoption of information technology in healthcare also favor the growth of this market in North America. Maintenance of health records, awareness among patients about importance of their medical records & its legal applications and demand of user friendly software solutions drives this market in South America. Major medical device and healthcare IT companies in the U.S are global leaders in manufacturing medical devices and components as well as providing healthcare software solutions.Europe is the second largest market owing to an increase in adoption of information technology for healthcare management. The market is growing continuously and slowly catching up with the American market in the near future.Asia Pacific shows fastest growth in this market because of rising awareness about software and replacement of manual records by electronic ones. Asia Pacific market is expected to show fastest growth in the Healthcare Enterprise Software Market during the forecasted period. Diagnostic devices segment of this market is showing positive and increasing growth. Toshiba Medical Systems Corporation is a major market player in Asia-Pacific. Increasing disease burden, population growth, healthcare demand outreaching supplies drive this market in Asia Pacific Middle East and Africa show steady growth in this market.Major Table of Contents:Chapter 1 Introduction1.1 Definition1.2 Scope Of Study1.2.1 Research Objective1.2.2 Assumptions & Limitations1.2.2.1 Assumptions1.2.2.2 Limitations1.3 Market Structure:Chapter 2 Research Methodology2.1 Research Process:2.2 Primary Research2.3 Secondary Research:Chapter 3 Market Dynamics3.1 Drivers3.2 Restraints3.3 Opportunities3.4 Macroeconomic IndicatorsChapter 4 Market Factor Analysis4.1 Porters Five Forces Model4.2 Bargaining Power Of Suppliers4.3 Bargaining Power Of Buyers4.4 Threat Of New Entrants4.5 Threat Of Substitutes4.6 Intensity Of RivalryContinuedGet Premium Discount atTop 5 Reasons to Buy the Reports:Company profiling with detailed strategies, financials, and recent development activitiesMarket Strategic Business Influence DataMarket Research Future recommendations in key business segments based on the market estimationsMarket share analysis of the top industry playersMarket forecasts for a minimum of 5 years of all the mentioned segments, Trends and the regional markets With SWOT AnalysisAbout Market Research Future:At Market Research Future (MRFR), we enable our customers to unravel the complexity of various industries through our Cooked Research Report (CRR), Half-Cooked Research Reports (HCRR), Raw Research Reports (3R), Continuous-Feed Research (CFR), and Market Research & Consulting Services.Contact:Market Research Future+1 646 845 9312Email: sales@marketresearchfuture.comMRFR has the distinguished objective of providing the optimal quality research and granular research to clients. Our market research studies by products, services, technologies, applications, end users, and market players for global, regional, and country level market segments, enable our clients to see more, know more, and do more, which help answer your most important questions.Our Research Analysts are eager to share their knowledge and assist you in refining market research parameters, choosing right market studies, and evaluating both the market scope and the research methodologies of varied segments.We bridge the gap between our clients and their clients by identifying and decoding just the target group, while generating leads with the highest accuracy.Years of research into diverse fields of work has ingrained within us, a proficiency so distinguished that our industry-specific specialists identify with your business ideas and feel the pulse of your challenges and opportunities. This enables us for providing assistance, through our consulting and strategic consulting services, in informed managerial decision making. In order to stay updated with technology and work process of the industries, WantStats Research and Media often conducts industrial visits for its research analysts. Relevant inputs from various established market participants, help our clients make significant contribution in respective markets are a huge motivation for all of us to endlessly furnish quality. We depend greatly on profound insights into complex realms of our study.Pune, IndiaDigital Signature Global Market 2018: Key Players  Adobe Systems, Inc, Ascertia, Microsoft Corporation, Docusign, Inc., Entrust Datacard Corp

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Digital Signature IndustryDescriptionWiseguyreports.Com Adds Digital Signature -Market Demand, Growth, Opportunities and Analysis Of Top Key Player Forecast To 2023 To Its Research DatabaseGlobal Digital Signature Market is accounted for $662.4 million in 2016 and expected to grow at a CAGR of 30.0% to reach $3209.4 million by 2022. Factors like increasing use of digital signature to eliminate fraud, Technological innovations and enhanced data integrity, scalability, and transparency are driving the market growth. Increase in adoption of cloud based solutions will provide opportunity for Digital Signature market. However, implementation cost and incompatibility among various digital signature techniques will hinder the market.Cloud based solutions is projected to be the largest deployment segment as they reduce the operational cost of implementation. The managed services segment is expected to witness largest market share owing to reduction of the cost of operations as well as they provide integration of Wide Area Network (WAN) and branch networks. North America is the largest market followed by Europe. Europe growth is attributed to growing legal services firms, adoption of digital signature and release of new regulations for electronic signatures by the European Electronic Messaging Association. Asia Pacific is the fastest growing market due to enhancement of digital technologies in countries such as China and India.Some of the key players in global Digital Signature market are Adobe Systems, Inc, Ascertia, Microsoft Corporation, Docusign, Inc., Entrust Datacard Corp, Gemalto, Inc, IdenTrust, Inc, International Business solutions llc, Kofax Limited, Korea SYSTEM's TECH Inc, Kotrade Inc, Right Signature LLC, Secured Signing Limited, Signix Inc and Oracle Corporation.Deployments Covered: Cloud-Based On-Premises Web BasedRequest for Sample Report @Components Covered: Serviceso Professional Serviceso Managed Services Solutionso Softwareo HardwareApplications Covered: Banking, Financial Services, and Insurance Education and Research Government and Defense Healthcare and Life Sciences Human Resources Legal Manufacturing and Engineering Real Estate Other ApplicationsEnd Users Covered: Large Enterprises Small and Medium Enterprises (SME)Types Covered: Class 1 Class 2 Class 3Regions Covered: North Americao USo Canadao Mexico Europeo Germanyo Franceo Italyo UKo Spaino Rest of Europe Asia Pacifico Japano Chinao Indiao Australiao New Zealando Rest of Asia Pacific Rest of the Worldo Middle Easto Brazilo Argentinao South Africao EgyptLeave a Query @What our report offers:- Market share assessments for the regional and country level segments- Market share analysis of the top industry players- Strategic recommendations for the new entrants- Market forecasts for a minimum of 6 years of all the mentioned segments, sub segments and the regional markets- Market Trends (Drivers, Constraints, Opportunities, Threats, Challenges, Investment Opportunities, and recommendations)- Strategic recommendations in key business segments based on the market estimations- Competitive landscaping mapping the key common trends- Company profiling with detailed strategies, financials, and recent developments- Supply chain trends mapping the latest technological advancements1 Executive Summary2 Preface2.1 Abstract2.2 Stake Holders2.3 Research Scope2.4 Research Methodology2.4.1 Data Mining2.4.2 Data Analysis2.4.3 Data Validation2.4.4 Research Approach2.5 Research Sources2.5.1 Primary Research Sources2.5.2 Secondary Research Sources2.5.3 Assumptions3 Market Trend Analysis3.1 Introduction3.2 Drivers3.3 Restraints3.4 Opportunities3.5 Threats3.6 Application Analysis3.7 End User Analysis3.8 Emerging Markets3.9 Futuristic Market Scenario....11 Key Developments11.1 Agreements, Partnerships, Collaborations and Joint Ventures11.2 Acquisitions & Mergers11.3 New Product Launch11.4 Expansions11.5 Other Key Strategies12 Company Profiling12.1 Adobe Systems, Inc12.2 Ascertia12.3 Microsoft Corporation12.4 Docusign, Inc.12.5 Entrust Datacard Corp12.6 Gemalto, Inc12.7 IdenTrust, Inc12.8 International Business solutions llc12.9 Kofax Limited12.10 Korea SYSTEM's TECH Inc12.11 Kotrade Inc12.12 Right Signature LLC12.13 Secured Signing Limited12.14 Signix Inc12.15 Oracle CorporationBuy Now @Continued...Contact Us: Sales@Wiseguyreports.Com Ph: +1-646-845-9349 (Us) Ph: +44 208 133 9349 (Uk)About Us:Wise Guy Reports Is Part Of The Wise Guy Consultants Pvt. Ltd. And Offers Premium Progressive Statistical Surveying, Market Research Reports, Analysis & Forecast Data For Industries And Governments Around The Globe. Wise Guy Reports Features An Exhaustive List Of Market Research Reports From Hundreds Of Publishers Worldwide. We Boast A Database Spanning Virtually Every Market Category And An Even More Comprehensive Collection Of Market Research Reports Under These Categories And Sub-Categories.Addres:Wise Guy Research Consultants Pvt LtdPune  411028Maharashtra, GlobalPh: +91 841 198 5042Global Vehicle Whiplash Protection Systems Market Technology Progress Research Report 2021

Vehicle Whiplash Protection Systems

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Worldwide Market Reports added Latest Research Report titled " Global Vehicle Whiplash Protection Systems Market Research Report 2017 " to its Large Report database.Vehicle Whiplash Protection Systems Report by Material, Application, and Geography - Global Forecast to 2021 is a professional and in-depth research report on the world's major regional market conditions, focusing on the main regions (North America, Europe and Asia-Pacific) and the main countries (United States, Germany, united Kingdom, Japan, South Korea and China).The report firstly introduced the Vehicle Whiplash Protection Systems basics: definitions, classifications, applications and market overview; product specifications; manufacturing processes; cost structures, raw materials and so on. Then it analyzed the world's main region market conditions, including the product price, profit, capacity, production, supply, demand and market growth rate and forecast etc. In the end, the report introduced new project SWOT analysis, investment feasibility analysis, and investment return analysis.Request for Sample Copy of Research Report:The report includes six parts, dealing with:1.) basic information;2.) the Asia Vehicle Whiplash Protection Systems Market;3.) the North American Vehicle Whiplash Protection Systems Market;4.) the European Vehicle Whiplash Protection Systems Market;5.) market entry and investment feasibility;6.) the report conclusion.Table of ContentsPart I Vehicle Whiplash Protection Systems Industry OverviewChapter One Vehicle Whiplash Protection Systems Industry OverviewChapter Two Vehicle Whiplash Protection Systems Up and Down Stream Industry AnalysisPart II Asia Vehicle Whiplash Protection Systems Industry (The Report Company Including the Below Listed But Not All)Chapter Four 2012-2017 Asia Vehicle Whiplash Protection Systems Productions Supply Sales Demand Market Status and ForecastChapter Five Asia Vehicle Whiplash Protection Systems Key Manufacturers AnalysisChapter Six Asia Vehicle Whiplash Protection Systems Industry Development TrendRequest for Discount @Part III North American Vehicle Whiplash Protection Systems Industry (The Report Company Including the Below Listed But Not All)Chapter Seven North American Vehicle Whiplash Protection Systems Market AnalysisChapter Eight 2012-2017 North American Vehicle Whiplash Protection Systems Productions Supply Sales Demand Market Status and ForecastChapter Nine North American Vehicle Whiplash Protection Systems Key Manufacturers AnalysisChapter Ten North American Vehicle Whiplash Protection Systems Industry Development TrendPart IV Europe Vehicle Whiplash Protection Systems Industry Analysis (The Report Company Including the Below Listed But Not All)Chapter Eleven Europe Vehicle Whiplash Protection Systems Market AnalysisChapter Twelve 2012-2017 Europe Vehicle Whiplash Protection Systems Productions Supply Sales Demand Market Status and ForecastChapter Thirteen Europe Vehicle Whiplash Protection Systems Key Manufacturers AnalysisChapter Fourteen Europe Vehicle Whiplash Protection Systems Industry Development TrendPart V Vehicle Whiplash Protection Systems Marketing Channels and Investment FeasibilityChapter Fifteen Vehicle Whiplash Protection Systems Marketing Channels Development Proposals AnalysisChapter Sixteen Development Environmental AnalysisChapter Seventeen Vehicle Whiplash Protection Systems New Project Investment Feasibility AnalysisPart VI Global Vehicle Whiplash Protection Systems Industry ConclusionsChapter Eighteen 2012-2017 Global Vehicle Whiplash Protection Systems Productions Supply Sales Demand Market Status and ForecastChapter Nineteen Global Vehicle Whiplash Protection Systems Industry Development TrendChapter Twenty Global Vehicle Whiplash Protection Systems Industry Research ConclusionsAbout 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Recent News 2018: Disposable Surgical Stapler Is Dominating the Product Type of North America Surgical Staplers Market

North America Surgical Staplers Market is predictable to reach USD 682.4 million by 2024

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North America Surgical Staplers Market is predictable to reach USD 682.4 million by 2024 from USD 336.8 million in 2016, at a CAGR of 9.2% in the forecast period 2017 to 2024. The new market report contains data for historic year 2015, the base year of calculation is 2016 and the forecast period is 2017 to 2024.Avail 10% Discount on Direct Purchase "North America Surgical Staplers Market" Or kindly send the email at sopan.gedam@databridgemarketresearch.comRequest For Free Sample Report @:The major factors driving the growth of this market include increased surgical procedures, technological advancements, new product launches in North America. These factors increase the demand for surgical devices such as manual, powered, disposable and reusable surgical staplers. On the other hand, rising costs of surgical staplers device and stringent regulatory scenario may hinder the growth of the market.North America Surgical Staplers Market  Segmentation:The North America surgical staplers device market is segmented on the basis of type, product type, application, end user, distribution channel, and geography. The North America surgical staplers market is segmented into manual and powered. In 2017, the manual surgical staplers segment is expected to dominate the market with a share of ~44.9% and is expected to continue this trend till 2024.Surgical staplers device market is segmented into disposable and reusable. In 2017, the surgical staplers disposable segment is expected to dominate the market with a share of ~88.3% and is expected to continue this trend till 2024.On the basis of application, the market is segmented into abdominal, general surgery, cardiac, thoracic, orthopedic, hemorrhoids, and others. Thoracic is projected to witness the highest growth rate of 8.8% during the forecast period to reach a value of USD 422.6 million by 2024.On the basis of distribution channel, the North America surgical staplers market is segmented into direct tenders and retail. In 2017, the direct tender market is expected to dominate the market with a value of USD 1,213.3 million.On the basis of end users, the North America surgical staplers market is segmented into hospital, clinics, and ambulatory surgical centers. In 2017, the hospital segment is expected to dominate with the market share of 61.6% and is expected to continue this trend till 2024.Based on geography, the market is segmented into three geographical regions, such as, U.S., Canada, and Mexico.North America Surgical Staplers Market, By Product Type (Manual, Powered),Type (Disposable, Reuse), Application (Abdominal, Pelvis, General Surgery, Cardiac, Thoracic, Orthopedic, Hemorrhoids, Cosmetic, Pediatric), End User (Hospital, ASC, Clinic), Distribution Channel (Retail, Direct Tenders), Country (North America Surgical Staplers Market, By Product Type (Manual, Powered),Type (Disposable, Reuse), Application (Abdominal, Pelvis, General Surgery, Cardiac, Thoracic, Orthopedic, Hemorrhoids, Cosmetic, Pediatric), End User (Hospital, ASC, Clinic), Distribution Channel (Retail, Direct Tenders), By country ( U.S., Canada, and Mexico)  Industry Trends and Forecast to 2024)Request for TOC@Key Drivers of North America Surgical Staplers Market:Some of the major factors driving the market for rising scope of surgical staplers devices are increased surgical procedures, technological advancements, new product launches in North America. These factors increase the demand for devices such as manual, powered, disposable and reusable surgical staplers. Rising cost of surgical staplers devices and stringent regulatory scenario are the factors which may hinder the growth of this market. Many companies are increasingly focusing on development of technologically advanced surgical staplers in order to strengthen their product portfolios in the surgical staplers market.Top Key Players:Medtronic, Ethicon. U.S., LLC., Cardica Inc., Smith and Nephew Plc, CONMED Corporation, Purple Surgical Inc., Welfare Medical Ltd, Reach Surgical., Grena Ltd., B.Braun Melsungen AG, Frankenman International Limited, Zimmer Biomet, Stryker, Meril Life Sciences Pvt. Ltd., Touchstone International Medical Science Co. Ltd. and others.Key Points:The North America surgical staplers market report contains an in-depth profiling of the key market players, along with the recent developments (new product developments, partnerships, agreements, collaborations, and joint ventures) and strategies adopted by them to sustain and strengthen their position in the market. For instance, in 2017, Medtronic launched Signia smart surgical stapler in U.S. It is a smart technology designed to detect the variability of tissue thickness and automatically adjust the staplers speed during surgery. Hospitals market is growing with the highest CAGR. Manual surgical staplers are driving the market with the highest market share. However, powered surgical staplers are growing with the highest CAGR. Disposable surgical stapler is dominating the product type of North America surgical staplers device market.Purchase Full Report @:Related ReportAsia-Pacific (APAC) Ostomy Drainage Bags Market  Industry Trends and Forecast to 2024Asia-Pacific (APAC) Ostomy Drainage Bags Market By Product Type, By End-Users, By Distribution Channel, By Country ( Japan, China, South Korea, India, Australia, Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippines, Rest of APAC)  Industry Trends and Forecast to 2024Access Report:About Data Bridge Market Research:Data Bridge Market Research set forth itself as an unconventional and neoteric Market research and consulting firm with unparalleled level of resilience and integrated approaches. We are determined to unearth the best market opportunities and foster efficient information for your business to thrive in the market. Data Bridge endeavors to provide appropriate solutions to the complex business challenges and initiates an effortless decision-making process.Contact:Vishal DixitData Bridge Market ResearchTel: +1-888-387-2818Email: Sales@databridgemarketresearch.comInvestor: investors@databridgemarketresearch.comVisit BlogReport Includes Market Shares of Global Neuromodulation Market For Global, Europe, North America, Asia Pacific and South America During 2017-2024

Global Neuromodulation Market 2024

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Global Neuromodulation Market added Data Bridge Market Research report delivers a strategic analysis and growth forecast for the period from 2017  2024. The scope of the report includes competitive analysis of various market players who are operating in the market, segmental analysis based on type of technology and application. It also covers geographical analysis of the market with growth forecast for the period of 2017  2024New report entitled, Global Neuromodulation Market accounted to USD 4.05 billion in 2016 growing at a CAGR of 12.22% during the forecast period of 2017 to 2024. Market segmented By Technology (Internal Neuromodulation, External Neuromodulation), By Application (SCS, DBS, Sacral, Vagus, Gastric Electrical, Transcutaneous Electrical, Repetitive Transcranial Magnetic, Respiratory Electrical), By Geography  Industry Trends and Forecast to 2024Request for Free Sample Report @:Report highlights 350 pages, 220 tables and 60 figures Neuromodulation Market Forecast Period: 20172024 Neuromodulation Market Historical Year: 2015 Neuromodulation Market Base Year: 2016 Neuromodulation Market Estimated Year: 2017Market Research Points: Rise in geriatric population Increase in cases of neurological diseases such as Alzheimers and Parkinsons diseases Increase in awareness regarding the safety and efficacy of neurostimulator devices Robust product pipeline Rise in investments and funds Unfavorable reimbursement policies Lack of healthcare professionalsTop Competitors of Global Neuromodulation Market1. BioAlps Association,2. Bioness Inc.,3. Soterix Medical Inc.,4. Medtronic,5. Abbott,6. Boston Scientific Corporation,7. LivaNova PLC,8. Axonics Modulation Technologies, Inc.,9. Johnson & Johnson Services Inc.,10. DynaMD,11. BioControl Medical,12. Synapse Biomedical Inc.13. Among OthersRequest for Table of Content and Figures@:Global Neuromodulation Market SegmentationThe neuromodulation market is segmented by technology into internal neuromodulation and external neuromodulation (Non-invasive). Internal Neuromodulation is sub segmented into spinal cord stimulation (SCS), deep brain stimulation (DBS), vagus nerve stimulation (VNS), sacral nerve stimulation (SNS) and gastric electrical stimulation (GES).External neuromodulation (non-invasive) is sub segmented into transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS), transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) and respiratory electrical stimulation (RES).On the basis of application the market is segmented into spinal cord stimulation (SCS), deep brain stimulation (DBS), sacral nerve stimulation market, vagus nerve stimulation market, gastric electrical stimulation market, transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation market, repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation market and respiratory electrical stimulation market.Spinal cord stimulation (SCS) market is further sub segmented by application into failed back syndrome (FBSS), chronic pain and ischemia.Deep brain stimulation (DBS) market is further sub segmented by application into Parkinsons disease, tremor and depression. Sacral Nerve Stimulation Market is further sub segmented by application into urine incontinence and fecal in continence. Vagus Nerve Stimulation Market is further sub segmented by application into epilepsy and others. Gastric electrical stimulation market is further sub segmented by application into gastroparesis and obesity.Transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation market is further sub segmented by application into treatment resistant depression and others. Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation market is further sub segmented by application into depression and migraine headache. Respiratory electrical stimulation market is further sub segmented by application into spinal cord injury.On the basis of geography, neuromodulation market report covers data points for 28 countries across multiple geographies such as North America & South America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, and Middle East & Africa. Some of the major countries covered in this report are U.S., Canada, Germany, France, U.K., Netherlands, Switzerland, Turkey, Russia, China, India, South Korea, Japan, Australia, Singapore, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, and Brazil among others. In 2017, North America is expected to dominate the market.Purchase Full Report of Global Neuromodulation Market @:Related ReportNorth America Digital Health Monitoring Market  Industry Trends and Forecast to 2024North America Digital Health Monitoring Market By Product Type Devices (Blood Pressure Monitors, Blood Glucose Monitors, ECG, Oximeters, Peak Flow Monitors, Multi Parameter Monitors, Sleep Neap Monitors, Neurological Monitors, Others), Software (Healthcare Apps, Chronic Disease Apps, Personal Health Apps, Others), Services (Remote Monitoring, Consultancy Services, Treatment Services, Fitness and Wellness Services, Others), By Country (U.S., Canada, Mexico)  Industry Trends and Forecast to 2024Report:About Data Bridge Market Research:Data Bridge Market Research set forth itself as an unconventional and neoteric Market research and consulting firm with unparalleled level of resilience and integrated approaches. We are determined to unearth the best market opportunities and foster efficient information for your business to thrive in the market. Data Bridge endeavours to provide appropriate solutions to the complex business challenges and initiates an effortless decision-making process.Contact:Vishal DixitData Bridge Market ResearchTel: +1-888-387-2818Email: Sales@databridgemarketresearch.comInvestor: investors@databridgemarketresearch.comVisit Blog:The UK Teleradiology Market: Size, Trends & Forecasts (2018-2022) : Medica Group, Everlight Radiology (RRO), Unilabs (Telemedicine Clinic) and Synova Capital (4ways Healthcare) Profiled

The UK Teleradiology Market: Size, Trends & Forecasts (2018-2022)

https://www.researchbymarkets.com/report/the-uk-teleradiology-market-size-trends-forecasts-2018-2022-9350.html

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Scope of the ReportThe report entitled "The UK Teleradiology Market: Size, Trends & Forecasts (2018-2022)", provides analysis of the UK teleradiology, with detailed analysis of market size and growth, and segmentation of the industry. The analysis includes the market by value, by volume, by outsourced volume and by segmentation.More Information:Moreover, the report also assesses the key opportunities in the market and outlines the factors that are and will be driving the growth of the industry. Growth of the overall UK teleradiology market has also been forecasted for the years 2018-2022, taking into consideration the previous growth patterns, the growth drivers and the current and future trends.Access Full Report:Medica Group, Everlight Radiology (RRO), Unilabs (Telemedicine Clinic) and Synova Capital (4ways Healthcare) are some of the key players operating in the UK teleradiology market, whose company profiling has been done in the report. In this segment of the report, business overview, financial overview and business strategies of the companies are provided.Company CoverageMedica GroupEverlight Radiology (RRO)Unilabs (Telemedicine Clinic)Synova Capital (4ways Healthcare)Executive SummaryWith the help of Teleradiology, radiologists are able to decipher any scan and image like x-ray while residing in another location. The practice of teleradiology is gaining popularity among the hospitals and clinics as it is less expensive comparative to hiring staff and training them. Teleradiology is used for various purposes such as for imaging studies in hospitals, for research studies, for teaching, and as accumulating second opinion of images.Teleradiology works in three steps, first step is recording and sending the images (scans) via an image centre, second is proper and smooth transmission of images are done and last step is the receiving and decoding of the image at the receivers end. There are many advantages of implying teleradiology such as cost efficiency, convenient, availability for 24*7, faster transmission, etc. But there are few disadvantages too such as heavy reliance on internet connectivity, privacy concerns, miscommunication, etc.The UK teleradiology market is expected to increase at high growth rates during the forecasted period (2018-2022). The UK teleradiology market is supported by various growth drivers, such as growing scan and diagnosis demand, increasing penetration of teleradiology, increasing consultant radiologists, etc. yet, the market faces certain challenges, such as, increasing workload, backlog of unreported scans, etc. few new market trends are also provided such as, increasing proportion of female radiologist, etc.Contact:ResearchByMarketsMs. Lia Seth | Client Relations Managerenquiry@researchbymarkets.comResearch By Markets is an online Market Research Report Repository.Our repository contains reports segmented by Geography and Industry. We cover all major Industry Verticals - Information Technology, Semiconductor, Electronics, Manufacturing, Food & Beverages, Telecommunications, Healthcare, Pharmaceutical, Automotive, BioTechnology, Energy & Power, Banking and many more.Research By Markets3, Nagar Road,Pune 411 014, Maharashtra, Indiaenquiry@researchbymarkets.com+1-800-416-3124Global Ground Engineering Market: Size, Trends & Forecasts (2018-2022) : Keller Group Plc., Trevi Group, Bauer Group and Vinci SA Profiled

Global Ground Engineering Market: Size, Trends & Forecasts (2018-2022)

https://www.researchbymarkets.com/report/global-ground-engineering-market-size-trends-forecasts-2018-2022-9352.html

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Scope of the ReportThe report titled "Global Ground Engineering Market: Size, Trends & Forecasts (2018-2022)" provide a detailed analysis of the global ground engineering market in terms of market sizing and growth. The analysis includes ground engineering market in terms of value, and market share by region. It also includes global construction market in terms of value and market share by segments.More Information:Furthermore, the report also assesses the key opportunities available in the market and summarizes the dynamic forces that are and will be accountable for growth of the industry. Growth of the global ground engineering market has also been forecasted for the period 2018-2022, taking into consideration previous growth outlines, growth drivers and the existing and forthcoming trends.Access Full Report:The global ground engineering market is highly fragmented because of the presence of several small to medium size players that compete with each other and large players of the market. Keller Group Plc., Trevi Group, Bauer Group and Vinci SA are some of the major players in the ground engineering whose company profiling has been provided in the report. This segment of the report summarizes business overview, financial overview and the business strategies adopted by respective companies. Keller is the leader in the highly fragmented ground engineering market, with significant scope for long term growth.Company CoverageKeller Group Plc.Trevi GroupBauer GroupVinci SAExecutive SummaryConstruction industry is one of the major sectors in any economy which involves the process of constructing residential or non-residential infrastructure. The industry has a major impact on the economy of any nation as it comprises 6% to 9% of the gross domestic products of developed and countries. The process of construction involves planning, designing and financing and continues till the project is built and ready for use. The construction industry is divided into two sectors: Non-residential and Residential. Non-residential is further sub-divided into three categories namely heavy industrial, institutional and commercial and engineering.Ground engineering which is also known as geotechnical contracting is the branch of civil engineering of the construction industry which is mainly concerned with the study of behavior of earth properties. It involves the study of geographical structures, materials and processes and combines with the application in mining, petroleum, military and other complex geological constructions. Major functions of ground engineering include analysis of embankment behavior, strength of excavation, caves, tunnels, conducting of response analysis for a site, etc.Ground engineering is a niche segment in the overall construction industry which has shown upward trends over the past few years and projections are made that the market would grow tremendously over the forecasted period (2018-2022). Urbanization and population growth is the major factor attributed to growth of the market. Other factors such as land shortages, increasing global infrastructure investment, adoption of digital technology, and techniques such as building information modelling (BIM) would expected to propel growth of the market.Contact:ResearchByMarketsMs. Lia Seth | Client Relations Managerenquiry@researchbymarkets.comResearch By Markets is an online Market Research Report Repository.Our repository contains reports segmented by Geography and Industry. We cover all major Industry Verticals - Information Technology, Semiconductor, Electronics, Manufacturing, Food & Beverages, Telecommunications, Healthcare, Pharmaceutical, Automotive, BioTechnology, Energy & Power, Banking and many more.Research By Markets3, Nagar Road,Pune 411 014, Maharashtra, Indiaenquiry@researchbymarkets.com+1-800-416-3124The year was 1968, there was not an internet, appliances didnt talk to each other and texting was a thing of the future.

But there were antiques. For the last 50 years, the Michigan Antique Festival has attracted thousands of people looking for great deals on vintage goods, high-quality antiques and premium collectibles at its annual festivals.

But what connected people then continues to do so today  local events, neighborhood gatherings and a sense of community, said festival owner Lori Oberlin of Clarkston.

For the last 12 years, Oberlin has been developing a loyal community of customers along with being being the driving force behind the events incredible growth.

The festival that started with a small group of vendors and a specialty car show, today attracts huge crowds of visitors looking for great deals. Once again the festival returns to the Midland County Fairgrounds, 6905 Eastman Ave., on June 2, for the first of three events. The second will take place on July 21-22 and the third, Sept. 22-23.

Dates for the Davisburg festival are May 5-6 and Oct. 6-7.

Hours each day will be from 8 a.m.-6 p.m. Saturdays and 9 a.m.-4 p.m. Sundays. Admission is $6 and children 11 and under will be admitted free. Parking is free.

Early bird shoppers are welcome to get a head start on their treasure hunt from 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Fridays. Early bird admission is $15/person and the wristband is good all weekend long.

For more information, call 989-687-9001 or visit www.MiAntiqueFestival.com.Tax reform was the topic of the latest 2018 Issues and Answers Program Series held at the Midland Country Club.

Sponsored by the Midland Area Chamber of Commerce, a group of about 50 interested citizens heard Ashley Wilson, vice president, legislative tax strategies for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, present How was Tax Reform Achieved and What's Next?

"It's going to be new and different and we're going to all need assistance," Wilson exclaimed.

Even though it took 31 years for Congress to enact its next major tax reform, the significance of the legislation has been immediate. President Donald Trump signed the tax reform into law on Dec. 22, 2017.

"Laws and regulations usually take a long time to get out to state before an impact. That's not the case with this reform," Wilson said.

Wilson pointed to Fiat Chrysler in Michigan that has announced a $1 billion investment in a new Michigan plant, which will add 2,500 jobs. Fiat has also decided to reward its employees with a $2,000 bonus.

"Treasury announced that 90 percent of American workers are going to see a change in their paycheck," Wilson said. "Detroit Energy is talking about a 3 percent rate savings for customers."

During the question and answer period, an attendee asked if former Rep. Dave Camp's Tax Act of 2014 influenced the current tax reform.

"Camp took a big risk because he did it first. He aired all the issues," Wilson said.

U.S. corporations have now gone from the highest corporate tax rate in the world, at 35 percent, to being middle of the pack at 21 percent.

"Companies like this bill and are reinvesting. Everyday companies are announcing new investments or reinvestments, bonuses and raises," Wilson said.

But, the lower rates have also caused reactions from other nations such as Germany and Japan, which are now in the process of reviewing their rates.

"They've spent all this time looking at the U.S. as just not being there," Wilson said. "But, since U.S. companies are now expanding in America, they will receive the new business."

The Tax Foundation, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank that researches U.S. tax policies, has said there will be a 1.7 percent increase in the GDP and an additional $1 trillion in federal revenue.

The House Ways and Means website: waysanmeans.house.gov/taxreform, says that in Michigan, a four-person household, (married couple and two kids) with a median household income of $74,500 should experience a lower tax bill of $2,104. For all Michigan households (assuming single with no children) and a median household income of $48,434, should see a $1,010 reduction.

For more information on tax reform, the U.S. Chamber has established a website at: Taxreformforamerica.comA Freeland priest is being monitored by a GPS tether after his arraignment, and officials are asking victims to come forward.

The Rev. Robert John DeLand Jr., 71, Saginaw Township, was arraigned in the Saginaw County courthouse Monday afternoon on charges of attempted second-degree criminal sexual conduct, second-degree criminal sexual conduct and gross indecency between males. Each count is a felony punishable by up to five years in jail.

DeLand is the pastor at St. Agnes Church in Freeland and the judicial vicar at the Catholic Diocese of Saginaw.

At a press conference after the arraignment, Tittabawassee Township Police Detective Brian J. Berg said police have been inundated by calls dating back 30 years.

What we are doing is encouraging victims to come forward, he said, adding the information will be passed along to the appropriate agencies for investigation.

Its far from over, Saginaw County Assistant Prosecutor Mark Gaertner said of the investigations being conducted by law enforcement.

As for the GPS tether, Gaertner said officials will monitor DeLands location.

His whereabouts will be constantly known to law enforcement, Gaertner said.

DeLand was arrested late Sunday after a joint investigation by the Tittabawassee Township Police and the Saginaw Township Police which began on Aug. 8 when a 21-year-old man reported he had been sexually assaulted the night before by a Catholic priest at the priest's Saginaw Township condo.

Between Nov. 2 and Feb. 25, five reports naming the same suspect were filed with police. Those cases accuse the suspect of gross indecency, furnishing alcohol to a minor, sexual assault and purchase of the drug ecstasy, a media release from the Tittabawassee Township Police states.

Also during that time, the suspect was under law enforcement surveillance by detectives, with assistance from the Bay Area Narcotics Enforcement Team.

The arrest involved an incident with a 17-year-old male victim during surveillance, officials said at the press conference.

Gaertner stressed the age difference of 54 years between DeLand and the 17-year-old victim.

We feel that this is highly inappropriate behavior, he said.

Officials said the investigations found grooming techniques, including befriending victims and preying on their weaknesses, were employed by the suspect.

The Catholic Diocese of Saginaw first learned about DeLand's arrest on Monday morning from local media, and had no previous knowledge of the police investigation or the allegations, according to the diocese.

"I am deeply distressed by this most serious situation," the Most Rev. Joseph R. Cistone, bishop of Saginaw, stated in a media release. "Clearly, the diocese will cooperate fully with law enforcement and their investigation. I ask that you keep in your prayers Father DeLand and anyone who has brought forward allegations against him. My heartfelt prayers and support go out to the St. Agnes Parish family and the entire Freeland community."

DeLand has been placed on administrative leave during the investigation according to diocesan policy.

DeLand, represented by attorney Alan A. Crawford of Saginaw, is next due in court for a March 19 preliminary hearing.To the editor:

Dear congressman, I am so angry about the recent shootings at MSD High School in Broward County, Florida, that it's taking all my self-control to neither rant nor use too much pejorative language. The deaths are not the fault of this mentally ill young man, nor the FBI as the Florida governor asserts. In fact, there is too much scapegoating against the already maligned mentally ill. The fault lies with you and your fellows in Congress who are too timid to pass any significant gun legislation, and also with the assault weapon owners who love their guns more than their own children.

The National Firearms Act of 1934 outlawed machine guns, but due to technology "improvements," the NRA, and your inaction, we again have these de facto automatic weapons in the public domain. These assault weapons as well as bazookas, tanks and rockets belong in the military, not within the reach of our children. And I don't blame our clueless leadership like President Donald Trump and Rep. Paul Ryan who either blame the mentally ill or say "it's too soon to talk about it," hoping that the fury will die down before they have to do anything.

No other modern democracy has all the deaths caused by these weapons because all the other countries except the "wild west U.S." has had the sense to outlaw them. The 1934 act came out of stopping the gangland crime during prohibition, but even the mobsters were not killing children. If these weapons had already been outlawed, the Florida teenagers would still be alive. I'm sure that you, like most of Congress, keeps taking the NRA blood money and pretend you are protecting the Second Amendment. Where does it say that people have the right to assault weapons? And exactly how many NRA dollars have you accepted over the years?

STEPHEN JENKINS

MidlandTo the editor:

I stand with the students in Florida who want to protect schools against crazed gun shooters. They are right; we need to regulate guns.

Some writers say it can't be done; there are too many weapons, plus we have the Second Amendment. Instead, they would barricade schools, arm teachers, and install guards, turning schools into fortresses. The cost would be astronomical.

Shooters also target churches, concerts, places where people gather to celebrate and support each other. How do we protect these groups?

I believe it is easier to regulate guns. Assault weapons, designed to kill people, are not needed for sport or protection. They should be banned. There is no reason a person owning a gun should not register his weapon and show he/she is responsible.

There are many ideas to curb shootings. One writer says quit selling bullets for assault rifles. Another asks credit companies not to allow cardholders to buy guns with their cards. Others say require gun owners buy insurance for all damages if the gun is used to wantonly kill people. Insurance companies would then make sure gun owners are responsible. A "red flag" law would allow the temporary removal of a gun from a person at risk. Without his gun, my depressed uncle could not have shot and killed himself.

Let's come together to ban assault weapons and regulate guns. It can be done.

JULIA SCHMIDT

MidlandOur picks for the best books of March include everything from Shobha Raos stunning debut novel set in India to Sarah McBrides gripping memoir about the fight for transgender equality. The 10 books belowincluding titles from our most anticipated books of 2018 listwill keep you captivated throughout the coming month.

Release Date: March 6th from Harper Voyager

Why Youll Love It: A refreshing standalone epic, Blood of the Four builds an enthralling fantasy world brimming with high stakes and political intrigue.

Description: In the great kingdom of Quandis, everyone is a slave. Some are slaves to the gods. Most are slaves to everyone else.

Blessed by the gods with lives of comfort and splendor, the royal elite routinely perform their duties, yet some chafe at their role. A young woman of stunning ambition, Princess Phela refuses to allow a few obstaclesincluding her mother the queen and her brother, the heir apparentto stand in the way of claiming ultimate power and glory for herself.

Far below the royals are the Bajuman. Poor and oppressed, members of this wretched caste have but two paths out of servitude: the priesthood . . . or death.

Because magic has been kept at bay in Quandis, royals and Bajuman have lived together in an uneasy peace for centuries. But Princess Phelas desire for power will disrupt the realms order, setting into motion a series of events that will end with her becoming a goddess in her own right . . . or ultimately destroying Quandis and all its inhabitants.

Release Date: March 6th from Ecco

Why Youll Love It: Jesse Balls novel is a powerful meditation on grief, weaving a father-son tale that proves as captivating as it is haunting.

Description: When a widower receives notice from a doctor that he doesnt have long left to live, he is struck by the question of who will care for his adult sona son whom he fiercely loves, a boy with Down syndrome. With no recourse in mind, and with a desire to see the country on one last trip, the man signs up as a census taker for a mysterious governmental bureau and leaves town with his son.

Traveling into the country, through towns named only by ascending letters of the alphabet, the man and his son encounter a wide range of human experience. While some townspeople welcome them into their homes, others who bear the physical brand of past censuses on their ribs are wary of their presence. When they press toward the edges of civilization, the landscape grows wilder, and the towns grow farther apart and more blighted by industrial decay. As they approach Z, the man must confront a series of questions: What is the purpose of the census? Is he complicit in its mission? And just how will he learn to say good-bye to his son?

Release Date: March 6th from Flatiron Books

Why Youll Love It: Girls Burn Brighter is an absolutely stunning debut novel from an author youll want to follow for years to come.

Description: Poornima and Savitha have three strikes against them: they are poor, they are ambitious and they are girls. After her mothers death, Poornima has very little kindness in her life. She is left to care for her siblings until her father can find her a suitable match. So when Savitha enters their household, Poornima is intrigued by the joyful, independent-minded girl. Suddenly their Indian village doesnt feel quite so claustrophobic, and Poornima begins to imagine a life beyond arranged marriage. But when a devastating act of cruelty drives Savitha away, Poornima leaves behind everything she has ever known to find her friend.

Her journey takes her into the darkest corners of Indias underworld, on a harrowing cross-continental journey, and eventually to an apartment complex in Seattle. Alternating between the girls perspectives as they face ruthless obstacles, Girls Burn Brighter introduces two heroines who never lose the hope that burns within.

Release Date: March 6th from Simon & Schuster

Why Youll Love It: Apricot Irvings honest memoir highlights the good, the bad and the ugly of missionary life, challenging traditional white savior narratives.

Description: Apricot Irving grew up as a missionarys daughter in Haitia country easy to sensationalize but difficult to understand. Her father was an agronomist, a man who hiked alone into the hills with a macouti of seeds to preach the gospel of trees in a deforested but resilient country. Her mother and sisters, meanwhile, spent most of their days in the confines of the hospital compound they called home. As a child, this felt like paradise to Irving; as a teenager, the same setting felt like a prison. Outside of the walls of the missionary enclave, Haiti was a tumult of bugle-call bus horns and bicycles that jangled over hard-packed dirt, the clamor of chickens and cicadas, the sudden, insistent clatter of rain as it hammered across tin roofs and the swell of voices running ahead of the storm.

As she emerges into womanhood, an already confusing process made all the more complicated by Christianitys demands, Irving struggles to understand her fathers choices. His unswerving commitment to his mission, and the anger and despair that followed failed enterprises, threatened to splinter his family.

Told against the backdrop of Haitis long history of interventionoften unwelcomeThe Gospel of Trees grapples with the complicated legacy of those who wish to improve the world.

Release Date: March 6th from Hogarth

Why Youll Love It: Jennifer Clement gifts Gun Love with a spellbinding narrator, who tackles weighty topicshomelessness, gun violencewith grace and frankness.

Description: Pearls mother took her away from her family just weeks after she was born and drove off to central Florida determined to begin a new life for herself and her daughterin the parking lot next to a trailer park. Pearl grew up in the front seat of their 94 Mercury, while her mother lived in the back. Despite their hardships, mother and daughter both adjusted to life, making friends with the residents of the trailers and creating a deep connection to each other. All around them, Florida is populated with gun ownersthose hunting alligators for sport, those who want to protect their families and those who create a sense of danger. But when the violence that surrounds Pearl changes her life in one shocking moment, the unlikely bonds she has formed end up sustaining her.

Release Date: March 6th from Harper

Why Youll Love It: The long-awaited novel from Beasts of No Nation author Uzodinma Iweala, Speak No Evil offers a haunting story about identity and power.

Description: On the surface, Niru leads a charmed life. Raised by two attentive parents in Washington, D.C., hes a top student and a track star at his prestigious private high school. Bound for Harvard in the fall, his prospects are bright. But Niru has a painful secret: he is queeran abominable sin to his conservative Nigerian parents. No one knows except Meredith, his best friend, the daughter of prominent Washington insidersand the one person who seems not to judge him.

When his father accidentally discovers Niru is gay, the fallout is brutal and swift. Coping with troubles of her own, however, Meredith finds that she has little left emotionally to offer him. As the two friends struggle to reconcile their desires against the expectations and institutions that seek to define them, they find themselves speeding toward a future more violent and senseless than they can imagine. Neither will escape unscathed.

Release Date: March 6th from Knopf

Why Youll Love It: The fourth book in Lars Keplers (a.k.a. Alexandra and Alexander Ahndorils) Joona Linna series, The Sandman is a thrilling crime novel that will keep you awake until you read the final page.

Description: Late one night, outside Stockholm, Mikael Kohler-Frost is found wandering. Thirteen years earlier, he went missing along with his younger sister. They were long thought to have been victims of Swedens most notorious serial killer, Jurek Walter, now serving a life sentence in a maximum security psychiatric hospital. Now Mikael tells the police that his sister is still alive and being held by someone he knows only as the Sandman.

Years ago, Detective Inspector Joona Linna made an excruciating personal sacrifice to ensure Jureks capture. He is keenly aware of what this killer is capable of, and now he is certain that Jurek has an accomplice. He knows that any chance of rescuing Mikaels sister depends on getting Jurek to talk, and that the only agent capable of this is Inspector Saga Bauer, a 27-year-old prodigy. She will have to go under deep cover in the psychiatric ward where Jurek is imprisoned, and she will have to find a way to get to the psychopath before its too lateand before he gets inside her head.

Release Date: March 6th from Crown Archetype

Why Youll Love It: Sarah McBrides memoir is a must-read, offering encouragement while showing that the fight for equality is just getting started.

Description: Before she became the first transgender person to speak at a national political convention in 2016 at the age of 26, Sarah McBride struggled with the decision to come outnot just to her family but to the students of American University, where she was serving as student body president. Shed known she was a girl from her earliest memories, but it wasnt until the Facebook post announcing her truth went viral that she realized just how much impact her story could have on the country.

Four years later, McBride was one of the nations most prominent transgender activists, walking the halls of the White House, advocating the passing of laws and addressing the country in the midst of a heated presidential election. And, shed found her first love and future husband, Andy, a trans man and fellow activist, who complemented her in every wayuntil cancer tragically intervened.

Informative, heartbreaking and empowering, Tomorrow Will Be Different is McBrides story of love and loss, a powerful entry point into the LGBTQ communitys battle for equal rights and what it means to be openly transgender.

Release Date: March 13th from Riverhead Books

Why Youll Love It: In the span of 300 pages, Anna Badkhen will transform you from knowing nothing about this Senegalese community to being completely transfixed by their stories.

Description: The sea is broken, fishermen say. The sea is empty. The genii have taken the fish elsewhere.

For centuries, fishermen have launched their pirogues from the Senegalese port of Joal, where the fish used to be so plentiful a man could dip his hand into the grey-green ocean and pull one out as big as his thigh. But in an Atlantic decimated by overfishing and climate change, the fish are harder and harder to find.

Here, Badkhen discovers, all boundaries are permeablebetween land and sea, between myth and truth, even between storyteller and story. Fishermans Blues immerses us in a community navigating a time of unprecedented environmental, economic and cultural upheaval with resilience, ingenuity and wonder.

Release Date: March 20th from Harper

Why Youll Love It: Guardian journalist Aida Edemariam recounts her grandmothers extraordinary life in this memoir, chronicling a century of Ethiopian history through one womans experiences.

Description: Born in the northern Ethiopian city of Gondar in about 1916, Yetemegnu was married and had given birth before she turned 15. As the daughter of a socially prominent man, she also offered her husband, a poor yet gifted student, the opportunity to become an important religious leader.

Over the next decades Yetemegnu would endure extraordinary trials: the death of some of her children; her husbands imprisonment; and the detention of one of her sons. She witnessed the Fascist invasion of Ethiopia and the subsequent resistance, suffered Allied bombardment and exile from her city; lived through a bloody revolution and the nationalization of her land. She gained audiences with Emperor Haile Selassie I to argue for justice for her husband, for revenge and for her childrens security, and fought court battles to defend her assets against powerful men. But sustained, in part, by her fierce belief in the Virgin Mary and in Orthodox Christianity, Yetemegnu survived. She even learned to read, in her sixties, and eventually made a pilgrimage to Jerusalem.

Told in Yetemegnus enthralling voice and filled with a vivid cast of charactersemperors and empresses, priests and scholars, monks and nuns, archbishops and slaves, Marxist revolutionaries and wartime double agentsThe Wifes Tale introduces a woman both imperious and vulnerable; a mother, widow and businesswoman whose deep faith and numerous travails never quashed her love of laughter, mischief and dancing; a fighter whose life was shaped by direct contact with the volatile events that transformed her nation.

If youre looking for more reading recommendations, check out our list of the most anticipated books of 2018.Were not hearing all that much about the corruption cases rocking the top of Israels government, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. I suppose were full up with the wide-ranging criminal investigation of our President. Its a shame, too, because the cases against Netanyahu (there are four of them) are bonkers.

They are also uncannily similar to the legal problems facing our own head-of-state:

 Multiple allegations of fraud and graft, some involving well-known billionaires

 Accepting illegal gifts and donations while head-of-state

 Colluding with a media conglomerate to get positive coverage and to attack political opponents

 Prosecutors have flipped multiple people in his inner circle, turning some into witnesses for the state

 His son has also been targeted in a political case

 Netanyahu calls the investigations a witch hunt, and he calls reporting that incriminates him fake news

 Right-wing leveraging collusion within the justice system to dismiss the case outright

In contrast to Trump, though, prosecutors have interviewed Netanyahu seven times. Theyve also already recommended charges against Bibi in two of the four cases. This means we might have a glimpse of the future that awaits Trump, his administration, and his family.

Heres a simple breakdown of whats going on in Israel.

Skip this if you dont need the background, but quickly:

Benjamin Bibi Netanyahu is Israels Prime Minister. Hes been in power on and off since the mid-nineties, and this is his fourth term. Politically, hes hard to the righta Zionist who seems intractable in peace negotiations with the Palestinians. Netanyahu leads the right-wing Likud party and famously didnt get along with President Barack Obama, especially when it came to the Iran nuclear deal, which he opposed.

He loves Donald Trump.

Theyre known as Cases 1000  4000.

Case 1000: Israeli law enforcement recommended the state charge Bibi and his wife Sara for not handing over to the government an array of gifts theyd received from billionaires in exchange for political favors. The gifts included hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of champagne, cigars, and other luxuries. One quid allegedly exchanged for those quos was a U.S. visa.

This is one of the cases where Israeli law enforcement has already charged Netanyahuwith bribery in this instance. Bibi admits he received the gifts, but he denies they were bribes.

Case 2000: Netanyahu allegedly made a deal with an Israeli publisher to get favorable coverage in exchange for stricter regulations on a competing publication. This recalls the Trump administrations efforts to meddle in political media by blocking AT&Ts proposed merger with Time Warner, the parent company of Trumps favorite media target, CNN. The DOJ has claimed the governments case isnt politically motivated.

The police have also charged Netanyahu in this case. Again, Bibi says nothing illegal went down, but in that case, lordy, there are tapes.

Case 3000: This is the only investigation not yet explicitly pointing to Netanyahu (Again: Not yet.)

Case 3000 alleges high-level government corruption in the purchase of German-made nuclear submarines. Though Netanyahu hasnt been officially named, his personal lawyer represented the government official alleged to have made the bribe. It was also a major arms deal, so its unrealistic to assume the prime minister wasnt in the loop. Hell probably at least be implicated in the proceedings, if not named outright.

Case 4000: This is another corrupt deal between the Netanyahu government and a media conglomerate called Bezeq. In that deal the conglomerate would give Netanyahu favorable coverage in exchange for legislation favorable to Bezeq. Some of that coverage included attacks on Netanyahus rivals. An official in the case has called favorable coverage too gentle a term.

The judge and a prosecutor in Case 4000 allegedly exchanged texts to coordinate their efforts. Netanyahu and his right-wing supporters argue the case should be shut down. Politicians on the left say the government should address the scandal separately and not throw out the case.

All of this stunningly similar to the text scandal in the Trump-Russia investigation.

Netanyahus allies argue he shouldnt leave office even if hes charged, and hes said as much himself. Despite the stonewalling, though, it seems increasingly likely the government will indict him. After all, there are tapes. The looming question: What goes down next?

Whatever it is, it wont be quick. The indictment process for Netanyahu seems similar to what would happen to Trump in the United States: Prosecutors can recommend the government press charges, but its up to the attorney general to pursue them. (In the Trump case, Deputy AG Rod Rosenstein would make that call, because Jeff Sessions recused himself from all matters related to the Russia investigation.) In both countries these processes would take several months.

Further mucking it up, even if Bibi were indicted, hes not legally required to resign. Its not impossible to imagine that hed follow through on his promise to stay in power, but political pressure might force his hand: Two-thirds of the country feels Netanyahu should resign if the state brings charges, andagain like Trumpsupport from within his own personal circle seems to have privately frayed.

Even worse for the prime minister, if he decided to stay in power (or make the attempt) hed be going against precedent: In 2009, prime minister Ehud Ohmert resigned in the face of a corruption scandal. In that case, though, Ohmert resigned before he was even indicted. He eventually went to prison, and his successor lost the next election (To Netanyahu, turns out.)

Also, Bibi doesnt have an obvious successor, and the next elections are more than 18 months away. Its not yet clear what it would mean for the possible defibrillation of peace talks with Palestine, which fell apart in 2014, but it doesnt look good. Its also worth noting that these scandals have diluted the media coverage of perhaps Bibis biggest political achievement: The recently announced movement of the U.S. Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, and Trumps recognition of the new capital.

Whats more, even if Bibi manages to hold on, legal troubles will still hound him: His wife Sara is under investigation for financial crimes and his son just got sued. Hes survived corruption charges before: Three years ago he and his wife were alleged to have charged the government for their own private contractor work. Those charges were dropped.

Which leads us to the final parallel, Bibis nationally televised, remarkably Trumpian self-own: Over the years, I have been the subject of at least 15 enquiries and investigations.

Hell be fine.Boyne City sprints past Harbor Springs to set up huge week five

Longtime rivals Boyne City and Harbor Springs met up on the football field FridayRace Lite, circa 1996. Bontrager's orginal version, the "OR" debuted in 1989, morphed slightly into the "Race" model and then was offered in this lighter "Race Lite" version. The core features, however, were constant.

Bontrager Race Lite - 1989-1998

The professor is in...

THE PROFESSOR

METAL SHOP GONE MAD

Which leads us to the subject of gussets: They were plastered all over the framewhat seemed, at the time, like huge slices of metal were welded to the toptube, downtube and chainstays. Gussets are de rigeur today but back then they looked positively garish. They also, however, were part of the reason the Race Lite weighed a scant (for the time) 3.9 pounds yet proved nigh bullet-proof.



THE TRAGIC ENDING

For many riders, much of the appeal of owning a Race Lite was that they were owning something handcrafted in ever-so-hip Santa Cruz. People wanted a bike built in Keiths garage. They didnt want bikes built in Waterloo, Wisconsin.



Its worth noting that Trek employed capable welders back in the daythey made some damn fine steel frames out there in Waterloo. Moreover, the Race Lite and the slightly heavier Race models were always made in Santa Cruz (only the Privateer models were made in Wisconsin). Perception, however, can be a real bitch and the public perception in the late `90s was that Bontrager Race Lites were no longer Bontrager Race Lites. Reality be damned.



The last Race Lite frames rolled out of Santa Cruz in 1998. It was the end of an era and, you might contend, entirely inevitable. The tide was simply shifting. Hardtails, even those of the fat-tubed variety, were losing ground to full-suspension bikes, which grew progressively less sucky with each passing model year. People wanted suspension. Or they wanted inexpensive-to-produce aluminum hardtails with oversized tubing and meticulously-engineered buzzwords. Simple as that. Its hard to argue with history.



This much is indisputablethe Race Lite was years ahead of its time and truly deserving of its cult status. To this day, Race Lites command serious dollars on the resale market.



People collect and cherish Bontragers while the vast majority of the Race Lites flashier contemporaries are largely forgotten, consigned to the local landfill.



That says it all.

The Race Lite inspired devotion.

Its 1993 and Im wrestling my busted Stumpjumper through the front door of The Spokesman in downtown Santa Cruz, California, when I see ita battered looking hardtail leaning against the bike shops front window.Can a bike have a dont give a f*ck attitude? Is that even possible? This being a non-sentient mass of chromoly and all, the obvious answer is Of course not, you git.But I tell you, squinting and looking back through the window of time, that bikea Bontrager Race Litesure seemed to be raising a rusty finger at the rest of the world.Let me be clear. Its not like the Bontrager was striking a typical slacker, I cant be bothered pose. Exactly the opposite. This was a bike with very strong opinions. The Race Lite didnt give a rats ass about thein the mountain bike world. It spat in the eye of convention...and that is what made Keith Bontrager's creation the groundbreaking classic that it was.Let me give you some context. By the mid-90s full-suspension bikes were starting to shed theircircus freak status and were starting to emerge as viable challengers to what was then, the Next Big Thingfat tubed hardtails.Big, fat aluminum tubes were The New Sexy back then. Cannondale and Klein had imbued terms like 6061 and 7005-series alloy with an almost mythical quality. Even the big brands that had made their bones with chromoly-steel frames were taking note and rolling out extra-fat framesets.we were awash in a veritable marketing orgy of splatter-paint jobs and pseudo-scientific terms...and the fall-out was that steel frames suddenly seemed as chic and edgy as your Grandpa's bed pan.Keith Bontragers Race Lite, however, wasnt having any of that mess. It was skinny and proud, and it defiantly cut against the grain. At first glance, the Race Lite might not strike you as the most sophisticated mountain bike on earth, but for awhile it was just that. You had to look closely, however, to suss out the details. Well get to them in a second. First, a bit about the guy behind the bike.Keith Bontrager was the kind of kid who tore apart perfectly good things in order to put them back togetherbetter than before. Admittedly, his attempt to transform an old clothes dryer into a rocket ship was a bit ambitious, but by the time he hit 12, Bontrager had taken a lawnmower engine and used it to build a mini-bike from scratch. Adults started calling a teenage Bontrager "the Professor".Bontrager built his first mountain bike frame in 1980. He quickly gained a reputation for quality, which was no small feat. That chunk of Northern California was lousy with good framebuilders: Albert Eisentraut, Joe Breeze, Tom Ritchey, Scot Nicol, Charlie Cunningham Im leaving out a whole lot of names, but you get the idea...it took a lot to stand out in this crowd. Whats more, the Bay Area was a vertibable breeding ground for fast, angry riders who could quickly put a serious beat down on a frame. To make your bones here, your bikes had to be both ultra-light and crazy strong.Bontrager put it this way, when he spoke to a crowd at Mission Workshop a few years back. During all the early years in Santa Cruz, Bontrager said, I was mainly making frames for people who broke frames. Most of what you see on my bikes, these industrial-looking touches, was a consequence of thatif I was going to have to stand behind my work, then I was going to have to find ways to make sure those frames didnt break.So, lets talk about those little industrial-looking touches. While a lot of framebuilders were alumni of the I want to make pretty-looking things school of thought, Keith Bontrager was a guy who'd both earned a degree in physics and worked in the pits as a professional motocross mechanic for Fox. He was a man obsessed with making shit strong and with questioning every possible engineering assumption. Early mountain bikes owed a lot of their technology to what came before themroad bikes. And that wasnt cutting it.One big stack and youd be buying a new downtube. One big jump and the fork and the downtube would bend, explains Bontrager. So there was a real need for an approach to building that would actually strengthen the frame. I tried to do that everywhere on the frame.First things firstBontrager TIG-welded his frames. None of that classic brazing here. Ever the professor, Bontrager compared brazed joints and TIG-welded joints and learned about what happens in the thermal history of the process. He found that adding gussets to TIG-welded frames enabled him to redistribute loads and build a much stronger bikeTo the underside of the Race Lites driveside chainstay, Bontrager welded an anti-chainsuck plate. Did it look pretty? It did not. Did it keep your chain from gouging the hell out of your chainstay. It sure did. He used 4130 plate drop outs, which were homely, but, he argued, stronger than the softer, forged drop outs of the day. Waithow many forged dropouts actually broke back then? Look, the Race Lite was an exercise in overkilla meticulous, finely-crafted exercise in overkill, which was at least half its charm.I could go on and on here, but heres the pointa lot of the things that seem standard today were rare back in the `90s, yet absolutely part and parcel of every Bontrager Race Lite. The gussets, the sloping top tube, the top-tube cable routingthere were other small, innovative builders (including Richard Cunningham and Charlie Cunningham) and Im not taking anything away from any of them, but Keith Bontrager and his Race Lite deserve a heartfelt nod for carrying the banner in a very big way during the mid nineties.The Race Lite was, simply put, years ahead of its time. It also rode a treat. Many of those sexy, beer-can aluminum bikes would rattle the prostate right out of you if the descent was rocky enough. The Race Lite was, by comparison, smooth and surefooted. The rare featherweight heavyweight, if you will.So, why did the bike disappear if it really was so awesomely ahead of the curve? Lots of reasons, really. For starters, Trek Bicycles had gone on a shopping spree and picked up several hot, boutique brands, including Gary Fisher, Klein, Icon and, in 1995, Bontrager.Kevin Iacofano Ships the WSOP Circuit Las Vegas Main Event for $259,463

February 28, 2018 Jason Glatzer

After three days of play, Kevin Iacofano shipped the WSOP Circuit Las Vegas Event #11: $1,675 Main Event at the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino for $259,463.

The former PokerStars Sunday Million winner and WCOOP champion was unable to find the winner's circle in a live poker tournament in the past despite having nearly $1.1 million in live tournament cashes leading up to this WSOPC event. Iacofano has had several close calls in the past included a runner-up finish in a WSOP event to go along with a pair of third-place finishes in WSOP events and two more third-place performances in WSOP Circuit events.

The event smashed its $1 million guaranteed prize pool after 887 entrants joined the field in the two opening days to create a massive $1,330,500 prize pool.

WSOP Circuit Las Vegas $1,675 Main Event Final Table Results

Position Player Country Prize 1 Kevin Iacofano United States $259,463 2 Nikhil Gera United States $160,325 3 Boris Kasabov United States $118,095 4 Jesse Cohen United States $88,132 5 Yashveen Mudireddy United States $66,631 6 Brett Bader United States $51,025 7 Jim Agate United States $39,569 8 Mark Kaganovsky United States $31,067 9 Matt Affleck United States $24,694 10 Drazen Ilich United States $19,864

The final day of the Main Event kicked off with 22 hopefuls battling it out for the coveted ring with all of the players guaranteed at least a $9,353 payday.

Brett Bader began the day in the lead and extended it when the unofficial 10-max final table began. Iacofano started the final table near the bottom of the pack in seventh place.

According to WSOP.com, it didn't take long for the action to heat up. Drazen Ilich opened from under the gun with pocket nines and was called by Nikhil Gera from the big blind with pocket jacks. Ilich check-raised all-in on the eight-seven-six-flop. Gera tanked and called making Ilich hit the rail in 10th place for $19,864 after he was unable to complete a straight or nail a set on the turn and river.

Not much later, Gera eliminated another opponent, this time Matt Affleck in ninth place for $24,694. Affleck called a four-bet jam with pocket queens and was unable to win the race against his opponent's ace-king.

About 30 minutes later, Yashveen Mudireddy opened from under the gun with pocket-nines and was called by Mark Kaganovsky from the big blind with eight-seven. Kaganovsky jammed on the eight-high flop and was eliminated in eighth place for $31,067 after a pair of aces appeared on the turn and river.

Despite eliminating Bader, Iacofano entered the dinner break in the last place.

Gera then eliminated his third opponent at the final table to grab the chip lead from Bader who was bleeding chips after losing several pots. Gera jammed from the small blind with king-queen covering the 13 big blind stack of Jim Agate, who called from the big blind with ace-seven suited. The board was safe for Agate until a queen spiked the river to send him to the rail in seventh place for $39,569.

Bader's stack decreased even more as he lost a hand against Iacofano, falling to the unfavorable position of the short stack. He was then eliminated in sixth place for $51,025 after he jammed for 17 big blinds with ace-queen suited from under the gun. He was outmatched by Iacofano who called with pocket aces from the big blind.

Despite eliminating Bader, Iacofano entered the dinner break in the last place. After the break, Iacofano was able to chip up after winning a hand off of Mudireddy. About half an hour later, Mudireddy was eliminated in fifth place for $66,631 after he three-bet jammed ace-king only to run into the pocket aces held by Boris Kasabov.

Iacofano's run continued as he called a three-bet jam with pocket nines against Jesse Cohen with ace-jack to put the duo in a classic race. Cohen appeared to be in great shape to double up after a jack appeared on the flop. However, Cohen was eliminated in fourth place for $88,132 after a nine on the turn gave Iacofano an unbeatable set.

Shortly after, Iacofano was able to snag the chip lead from Gera for the first time on the final table.

Kasabov was low on chips after losing a pair of pots to Gera. He then three-bet jammed his short-stack with pocket tens from the big blind against Gera's king-queen and was eliminated in third place for $118,095 after a queen spiked the flop.

Iacofano: "This has been ten, twelve years of hard work."

Iacofano entered the heads-up battle against Gera with a slight chip lead. However, Gera quickly snagged back the lead he had much of the final table back and eventually extended his lead to a 3:1 chip advantage. In the back and forth battle, Iacofano was able to reclaim the chip lead and shortly afterward had a 6:1 chip advantage. This time Gera battled back from a short-stack to reclaim the lead before once again relinquishing it to Iacofano.

On the final hand, Iacofano had a 3:2 edge on his opponent. The action was limped by Gera on the button, and Iacofano opted to check from the big blind. Iacofano check-raised with eight-four on an eight-high flop and Gera called. Gera called another bet from his opponent when a deuce appeared on the turn. He then mucked his hand after he called a bet for the rest of his chips when an ace completed the board on the river to take the runner-up prize of $160,325.

Iacofano shared his excitement on his first tournament victory with WSOP.com.

"I feel absolutely amazing," said Iacofano. "This has been ten, twelve years of hard work."

Won my first live tournament and 250k!!!!! A great heads up battle against a tricky tough opponent. Feel so much gratitude #  Kevin Iacofano (@icekevin)

*Image and hand details courtesy of WSOP.com.Loni Harwood Wins the WSOP Circuit Las Vegas High Roller for $72,802

February 28, 2018 Jason Glatzer

Loni Harwood outlasted a field of 130 entrants to win the WSOP Circuit Las Vegas Event #13: $2,200 No-Limit Hold'em High Roller at the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino for $72,802.

Harwood now has a five WSOP Circuit rings to go along with her two WSOP gold bracelets as part of her more than $2.6 million in total career cashes.

WSOP Circuit Las Vegas $2,200 High Roller Final Table Results

Position Player Country Prize 1 Loni Harwood United States $72,802 2 Joseph Cheong United States $44,998 3 Ankush Mandavia United States $32,089 4 Stephen Bierman United States $23,340 5 Phue Nguyen United States $17,308 6 Seth Davies United States $13,081 7 Ryan Leng United States $10,070 8 Vincent Moscati United States $7,896 9 Viet Vo United States $6,302

The second and final day of the High Roller began with 49 hopefuls battling it out for the title and 16 guaranteed to bank at least $3,557.

According to WSOP.com, Ryan Olisar (who ended the first day in the chip lead) missed out on the unofficial final table finishing in 10th place for $6,302 after he four-bet jammed ace-seven and couldn't get there against the ace-king held by Ankush Mandavia.

After that hand, Mandavia lead the unofficial nine-max final table, with Harwood and Joseph Cheong on his tail in second and third place.

Viet Vo was the first to go in ninth place for $6,302 after he jammed his ten big blind stack from early position with ace-ten suited and didn't improve against Vincent Moscati ace-king suited.

Moscati's day ended soon after with an eighth-place finish for $7,896. He four-bet jammed ace-nine suited and the board ran all blanks after he was called by Cheong with ace-queen. That hand made Cheong the chip leader for the first time before Mandavia claimed it back right after.

After the dinner break, Mandavia opened from early position and Ryan Leng three-bet all-in with ace-nine from the small blind. Harwood four-bet jammed with ace-king and Mandavia folded. Leng was drawing dead after a king spiked the turn and he bowed out in seventh place for $10,070.

Not too much later, Mandavia eliminated Seth Davies in sixth place for $13,081 after his ace-king suited held against his opponent's king-queen.

Shortly after, Phue Nguyen jammed eight big blinds with ace-five from the button. Steve Bierman shoved over the top with pocket jacks from the small blind and the big blind folded. Nguyen seemingly got the help he needed after an ace appeared on the turn. However, Bierman nailed a set on the river to eliminate Nguyen in fifth place for $17,038.

Cheong then reclaimed the chip lead. He opened with pocket queens from the button and called Bierman's jam with pocket eights from the small blind. Bierman claimed fourth place for $23,340 after the board was unable to improve his hand.

Harwood found herself with fewer than 10 big blinds. She doubled twice against Mandavia to push herself back in contention. Mandavia faced off one last time against Harwood. He was eliminated in third place for $32,089 after he three-bet all-in with ace-eight and failed to improve against Harwood's ace-ten.

Cheong began heads-up play with a 9-to-7 chip advantage against Harwood before extending it to a 2.5-to-1 advantage after he picked off a bluff from his opponent.

Harwood: "thanks to my 'donk Dad'"

Harwood battled back and was able to turn the tables to take the chip lead for the first time with an almost 2:1 chip advantage before the final hand took place.

Cheong's hopes for a second WSOP Circuit ring ended after he four-bet jammed ace-nine and didn't improve against Harwood's ace-queen suited. Cheong didn't walk away empty-handed as he claimed the runner-up prize of $44,998 to add to his more than $12 million in live tournament cashes.

According to WSOP.com, Harwood dedicated her latest tournament victory to her dad. "He wanted me to win a tournament for him since I won a tournament last week ($365 WSOP Circuit Coconut Creek for $10,801, PokerNews) and dedicated it to my brother's wife, said Harwood. "So, thanks to my 'donk Dad'"

*Image and hand details courtesy of WSOP.com.Dominik Nitsche Analyzes Heads-Up River Value Bet From WSOPE One Drop

February 28, 2018 Dominik Nitsche PokerNews Staff

888Poker Ambassador Dominik Nitsche is on a nice roll of late, especially in the Czech Republic where over recent months he's made multiple final tables and earned a couple of titles.

Highlighting the run was Nitsche's victory last November in the 111,111 buy-in 2018 World Series of Poker Europe High Roller for One Drop in Rozvadov. Nitsche topped a 132-entry field to win 3,487,463 and his fourth career WSOP bracelet.

During heads-up play, Nitsche had a tough opponent in fellow German Andreas Eiler. Eiler was ahead to begin their duel, but Nitsche grabbed the advantage early on and after about two dozen hands had opened up a chip lead on Eiler.

That's when the following hand took place, an interesting one that saw Nitsche win a nice-sized pot, made even bigger after a creative thin river value bet earned a call. Take a look:

To recap the action, Eiler min-raised the button with and Nitsche called with . The flop gave both players a pair, and Nitsche check-called a continuation bet of 4.5 million from Eiler.

Then after the turn, Nitsche led for 10.5M and Eiler called, making the pot 34 million. The came on the river and Nitsche bet small  just 6M  and after Eiler called once more, Nitsche won the pot.

Nitsche recently took the time to analyze the hand in detail for us, explaining his thinking on each street. Watch his discussion below and find out...

why Nitsche just called Eiler's initial c-bet after flopping top pair,

how the turn (bringing a flush draw) changed his plan from checking to betting,

turn (bringing a flush draw) changed his plan from checking to betting, why the on the river wasn't as bad for him as it might seem at first glance,

on the river wasn't as bad for him as it might seem at first glance, how he arrived at that small bet size on the river, and

how the players' stack sizes additionally influenced his decisions.

888poker Ambassador Dominik Nitsche has amassed over $11.4 million in lifetime tournament earnings to date, earning multiple titles on various tours. Among those wins are four in World Series of Poker bracelet events, including one in the 111,111 buy-in 2017 World Series of Poker Europe High Roller for One Drop.1.4k SHARES Facebook Twitter Whatsapp Pinterest Reddit Print Mail Flipboard

Rachel Maddow brought up the fact Jared Kushner was mixing policy and personal business in what was a serious breach of national security.

Video:

Maddow said, According to current and former officials briefed about Chinese communications, Chinese officials said that in meetings to prepare for the Chinese president summit at Mar-a-Lago, the Chinese ambassador and Jared Kushner discussed the business interests along with U.S. Government policy. If Jared Kushner is bringing up his own personal business interest alongside, thats a serious national security breach that was the first time we learned Jared Kushner was given access to the presidents daily brief every day. Frankly strange about that revelation. Jared Kushner was given access despite the fact he doesnt have a full security clearance or hasnt been able to get one for the year hes been in the white house so that new Yorker report was last month. Since then, as you know, the whole issue of security clearances has blown up into a full-scale disaster for the Trump White House.

Rachel Maddow nailed the heart of the problem. If Jared Kushner was holding off the books meetings with foreign governments, and mixing his private affairs with government business, he breached national security. Kushner also turned himself into an easy target for blackmail. It is clear now why Kushner was so desperate to hold on to his top-secret national security clearance. Kushner needed the clearance to get access to the information that would get him in the door with foreign leaders so that he could use his position to help his private business.

Kushner is deep in debt, and it was already widely speculated that he was abusing his position in the government for personal financial gain. Rachel Maddow just took the Kushner national security breach and made it Trumps biggest problem.

The corruption runs deep in this administration, and now we have proof that the Presidents son-in-law breached national security. You can almost hear the chants of lock him up ringing across our great land.

To discuss Rachel Maddow and more join our Rachel Maddow and MSNBC group.When Bob Dylan won the Nobel Prize for Literature back in 2016, many of us wondered what Philip Roth thought about it. Literary intellectuals have proclaimed Roth as the greatest living American writer, one of the best this country has ever produced, but hes never been awarded the Nobel for his achievements. Roth has been known to be tetchy. Did the now 84-year-old wordsmith piss and moan that the young 76-year-old whipper snatcher snatched up the prize with verse put to music instead of the printed page? More importantly, was it good for the Jews? Thats a joke I hope these two venerable authors would hopefully understand and appreciate.

So, what does this young shiksa, okay maybe not so young but not so old either, have to say about the affair? Amy Rigby broaches the subject on the very first song of her new record, The Old Guys. The track takes the form of an email, From [email protected] to [email protected]. For Rigby, Roth understands his time has passed. Hes philosophical about the whole thing. This conceit pervades many of the other 11 self-penned songs on the record. Rigby writes with the wisdom of age, or at least from the lessons experience has taught her. One day you are champ, the next youre a tramp.

The self-reflexivity of the lyrics makes them personal. When Rigby sings in the first person, the listener presumes shes honest. Who knows if the facts are truethey have the ring of truth with maybe some artistic embellishment. When she sings about Playing Pittsburgh, her old hometown that she couldnt wait to leave, you can feel her desire for freedom. Its unclear if things happened just the way she said or if she still has those feelings about the town. Its a blues number. Its also funny. Consider this two-line verse about the Steeltowns most famous artist: Andy Warhols dead and in the ground / Its the only way they could get him back to town. Rigby has a dark sense of humor and compares herself to Carrie before the blood spills down on her.

The album was produced by Rigbys husband, Wreckless Eric. He keeps the sound a bit fuzzyeven dirtyto add a street authenticity to the disc. When there is a spotless quiet, its usually to announce that an abrasive instrumental noise is coming. And when Rigby delivers lines about being evil, Eric has her do it sweetly (at least at first). In my mind, Im Nucky Thompson. In my mind, Im Tony Soprano. In my mind, Im WALTER WHITE, Rigby croons before shouting out her conclusion followed by a minute of instrumental clamor full of feedback.

Rigby has a sweet voice. She may not have a great vocal range, but she makes up for it through her expressive phrasing. Rigby never strains to reach a note or hold her breath unless she is singing a line where the narrator would be straining for something or clenching for support. There is a conversational quality to the disc as a whole. She may never have won a Super Bowl ring like the heroes of her birthplace. Her life and career may have had its ups and downs. But like The Old Guys of her title song, shes still here and says thanks for that.With a few exceptions, the works of Bengali filmmaker Satyajit Ray have been difficult to track down on home video, so here we celebrate the video debut of his 1966 The Hero (Nayak) in a gloriously clear 2K digital restoration, courtesy of the Criterion Collection.

As Indian film scholar Meheli Sen points out in a bonus interview, The Hero is Rays answer to Federico Fellinis 8 1/2 (1963), that film about the existential crisis of a film director. Theres been a whole subgenre of 8 1/2 movies since then, not to mention a few precursors like Preston Sturges Sullivans Travels (1942). In Rays film, the existential crisis isnt quite experienced by a filmmaker but rather by the biggest Bengali film star in the country  as played by the biggest Bengali film star in the country, Uttam Kumar. As with the hero of Fellinis film, his most distinctive feature is the heavy black reflective shades he dons in public.

As movie star Arindam Mukherjee boards a train to Delhi to pick up a film prize, the stares he receives from everyone on the platform, as shot on location at the train station in semi-documentary fashion, are the unrehearsed stares from people who recognize Uttam Kumar. When he passes from the outside world into the train, he enters the world of a studio train film, shot brilliantly on meticulous claustrophobic sets with seamless rear projection of the countryside flashing by outside the windows.

As Pico Iyer points out in thoughtful liner notes, this film shows whos inside those mournfully whistling trains that rush past the poor children in Rays Apu trilogy. We enter a world of stratified passengers, primarily upper-class travelers who can afford sleeping cars, plus those in the chair car who cant quite afford that, and the railroad employees who serve them.

Sharmila Tagore, who worked often with Ray since The World of Apu (1959), here plays Miss Sengupta in sari and heavy black spectacles, so both main characters are defined primarily by their eyewear and how it disguises them or helps them see, or perhaps impedes their vision. She edits a struggling magazine called Modern Woman and realizes that an interview with the nations heart-throb would do wonders for sales. Although it goes against her vision of the magazine to indulge in puffy film-gossip pieces, she approaches Arindam, doing little to hide her biases. Sizing each other up, they become more or less the only two passengers on the train who can be honest with each other.

Over the course of the journey, he will open up to her about his career via carefully chiseled flashbacks to his mentors: a disapproving theatre director who disparages film acting, the waning film star of an older generation, and a former friend who tries to exploit his connection for political purposes by promising demonstrators that a film star would speak to them. As in Fellinis film, the hero also has deliciously surreal nightmares of obvious symbolism  skeletons under piles of money, a nightclub in a spectral forest  and these seem to give Ray and photographer Subrata Mitra special chiaroscuro joy.

Everyone on the train knows that Arindam has just been involved in a scandalous nightclub brawl with the husband of a woman whod been vamping him for an entry into a film career, and his flashbacks explain some of this. The other passengers reflect disapproval, adoration or both, and sometimes indifference. They too have their dramas.

The most pressing mini-drama is another case of exploitation and transaction, as an advertising executive (Kamu Mukherjee) prepares to use his decorative young wife (Susmita Mukherjee) to land a client. Her sense of hurt at realizing how her husband thinks she can help him makes me think Ray may also be channeling Jean-Luc Godards Contempt (1963). This young woman, too, would like to be in movies  as would everyone. When she approaches Arindam on the subject, weve already learned she belongs to a long line of similar requests, all blurring into each other.

This impulse to be in pictures, to exploit others until one becomes eminently exploitable, to pass into a make-believe world or admire those who float in it, is one of the films primary themes. Although Ray presents it implicitly as a sign of spiritual emptiness, the moral alternatives provided by respectable people who berate film stars, like the theatre director or the old conservative male passenger, dont make them seem like more enlightened people.

Rays scenes feel completely natural yet are written with such revealing details that issues flash into sharp focus before folding into the next. Taking many forms is the theme of modernism, as the young actor realizes his Brando style of mumbling is better than the old-fashioned declamations of the fading star, or as everyone hustles their particular wares, from Modern Woman (magazine and concept) to self-help religion to political organization to movie fantasies to the two-penny wretches who clamor at the train windows.

Rays even-handedness doesnt allow anyone to be dismissed or sanctified, and we continually realize that an individuals value is formed in the moment, according to the perceptions of those around him or her. Therefore, a film star is probably as valid a Rorschach blot as any other pressing issue.

If the film is in dialogue with Indian film history and with contemporary European art cinema, it cant help contributing in turn to the film history that succeeds it. One minor if telling element is the brief scene invoking Kolkatas annual festival to the goddess Durga. This tradition unwittingly kills a character and leads to cremation. Those who follow Indian cinema will take many associations from this, such as the brilliant 2012 thriller Kahaani, set during the same festival.

Meheli Sens interview offers pertinent observations, and Sharmila Tagores interview gives a personal take on the filmmaker and the star. The Hero is an example of 60s-era showmanship, both sleek and deep, moving too lightly and quickly to be glum. We hope its presence signals many more Ray restorations on the horizon.Get the SC business stories that matter.

Our newsletter catches you up with all the business stories that are shaping Charleston and South Carolina every Monday and Thursday at noon. Get ahead with us - it's free.Charleston, SC (29403)

Today

Partly cloudy early followed by mostly cloudy skies and a few showers later in the day. High around 85F. Winds NE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 40%..

Tonight

Mainly cloudy. Low 73F. Winds light and variable.The crowd cheered at a rally in Marion Square on Feb. 19 to demand legislative change after the latest school shooting in Florida. Since the shooting, threats of more violence across the country have put schools on edge, including in South Carolina. File/Leroy Burnell/StaffAssistant Columbia bureau chief

Adcox returned to The Post and Courier in October 2017 after 12 years covering the Statehouse for The Associated Press. She previously covered education for The P&C. She has also worked for The AP in Albany, N.Y., and for The Herald in Rock Hill.Watchdog/Public Service Editor

Glenn Smith is editor of the Watchdog and Public Service team and helped write the newspapers Pulitzer Prize-winning investigation, Till Death Do Us Part. Reach him securely on Signal at 843-607-0809 or by email at gsmith5@protonmail.com.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.BEAUFORT  A special prosecutor questioned the impartiality of a judge in the Statehouse corruption case and asked her to step aside during a tense courtroom exchange Wednesday in which they blamed each other for a central figure in the investigation walking away with no jail time.

Circuit Judge Carmen Mullen refused to back down after the prosecutor, David Pascoe, sought her recusal from the proceeding.

Pascoe had accused the judge of improperly communicating with lawyers defending former House Majority Leader Rick Quinn, whom she sentenced to probation on a misconduct charge earlier this month.

"You're making something about absolutely nothing," the judge told Pascoe.

At one point, as attorneys on both sides jumped up to argue the issue, Mullen called for a brief recess, putting up her hands and walking out of the courtroom.

"Now I am going to get locked up, Pascoe was heard commenting to someone nearby.

That didn't happen, and the hearing soon resumed without further incident.

Mullen ended the 90-minute proceeding without ruling on the central issue that brought them there: whether to reconsider Quinn's sentence of probation. A written order is expected later.

Pascoe lamented in the courtroom how the case had turned out so far. Though he had dropped other charges that Quinn faced in exchange for the plea, Pascoe said he expected a harsher punishment.

"I really thought that pleading the defendant guilty would (reveal) all these political atrocities since 2010," he said. "This was going to be a golden opportunity ... to send the most corrupt legislator up there to prison. ... But now he's given a presumption of innocence that doesn't exist."

Tensions have been building since Mullen muzzled Pascoe during Quinn's sentencing, refusing to hear arguments about why Quinn deserved jail time based on an array of misconduct wider than the former legislator acknowledged during his December guilty plea. Pascoe fired back with a Feb. 16 motion accusing the court of legal errors and alleging that Mullen had told him to "go light on the facts so the plea deal won't blow up."

Mullen has told Pascoe that considering any additional accusations in sentencing would violate Quinn's constitutional rights and that the prosecutor should have taken the case to trial if he wanted all of the charges considered against the former lawmaker. The sentencing hearing earlier this month had lasted less than 10 minutes.

But the judge heard him out Wednesday, often making lengthier arguments in response to Pascoe than to Quinn's own lawyers.

After the hearing, Quinn repeated a often-invoked criticism of Pascoe.

"It verifies what I've been telling you all for a year and a half: This man is using the state law to prosecute and investigate his political adversaries," Quinn said. "Scoring political points ... is more important to him than actually getting to the truth."

Pascoe is the elected Democrat 1st Circuit solicitor; Quinn is a former GOP state lawmaker.

Pascoe quickly jumped into the fray as the hearing got underway. He again accused the judge of legal missteps and added a new ripple by alleging that she had improper, ex-parte meetings with the defense attorney outside his presence.

Mullen fired back, telling Pascoe if he were going to make such an allegation you better have something to back it up."

The judge and Quinn's lawyers contended Pascoe had agreed to let parties in the case talk without all being present, which is allowed in cases involving attorneys trying to hash out an agreement.

Mullen urged both sides to move beyond personal attacks.

"This isn't about you," she said.

Pascoe countered, saying the attorneys and the judge had engaged in such communications before he agreed to it. He took exception to the judge giving her own accounts and said the state's chief justice should appoint a new judge.

"You have now stepped off the curb from being a fair and impartial judge to being a witness in this case," Pascoe told her.

The prosecutor has argued Mullen went too light on Quinn. The 22-year Statehouse veteran, Pascoe said, abused his public office by leveraging his influence to benefit his family's stable of corporate and political clients. Quinn and his father, veteran Republican operative Richard Quinn, deny those allegations and have accused Pascoe of waging a political witch hunt.

Mullen continued Wednesday to rebuff the prosecutor's arguments that she should have looked beyond the narrow admission of guilt Rick Quinn made during his December plea and sent him to jail for a broader palate of misdeeds. Though Pascoe outlined a variety of allegations during the plea hearing, Mullen said she couldnt consider his presentation as evidence.

"They denied each and every one of those allegations," aside from Quinn's narrow admission, she noted. "I think what you're trying to do is hold me to accepting all of that as fact.

"If thats what you wanted, you should have tried the case."

The judge said the legal precedents Pascoe has cited in his arguments knocking the court's ruling were not even close to the details of the Quinn prosecution. Pascoe replied that the court errors in the case were much more egregious.

Pascoe also insisted that the judge's remarks backed up his arguments.

"You help me prove my point of judicial errors, Pascoe said, adding that Quinn didnt deserve the presumption of innocence because he had pleaded guilty to a crime.

Pascoe said the way Quinn's defense team handled the guilty plea was an effort to manipulate and mislead this court by narrowing the misconduct Quinn admitted to.

Quinn's lawyer, Matthew Richardson, said Pascoe's presentation to the court about broad misconduct by the former legislator was not trustworthy or reliable. He said the judge was right not to rely on it.

Quinn, a Lexington Republican, pleaded guilty to a single misconduct in office charge, acknowledging he omitted the University of South Carolina, which leased office space from a company tied to him, on his 2016 economic interest statement. In return, the prosecution dropped other charges against him that could have landed Quinn behind bars for a decade.

As part of the deal, Richard Quinn & Associates, the political and marketing consulting firm run by Quinn's father, agreed to pay $5,500 to settle an illegal lobbying charge. The elder Quinn, a longtime political kingmaker, was cleared of all wrongdoing but must testify before the state grand jury.

Pascoe said at Wednesday's hearing that he had hoped such testimony would show the roots of corruption at the Capitol and "start telling us where the bones are buried."

Afterward, the prosecutor packed up mounds of papers and walked out, refusing to comment to reporters in the courtroom.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.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.Political Editor

Schuyler Kropf is The Post and Courier political editor. He has covered every major political race in South Carolina dating to 1988, including for U.S. Senate, governorship, the Statehouse and Republican and Democratic presidential primaries.Joseph Cranney is an investigative reporter in Columbia, with a focus on government corruption and injustices in the criminal legal system. He can be reached securely by Proton mail at jcranney@prontonmail.com or on Signal at 215-285-9083.Political Reporter

Caitlin Byrd is a political reporter at The Post and Courier and author of the Palmetto Politics newsletter. Before moving to Charleston in 2016, her byline appeared in the Asheville Citizen-Times. To date, Byrd has won 17 awards for her work.PR-Inside.com: 2018-02-28 14:00:15

FSCwire / Press ReleaseThe following press release was disseminated by FSCwire for 360 Blockchain Inc.--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---Vancouver, BC (FSCWire) - 360 Blockchain Inc. (CSE:CODE). has issued a press release with the following headline:360 Blockchain Closes Over Subscribed FinancingTo view this press release on the FSCwire website, please either click on the link below, or copy and paste the link into your browser:If you would prefer, you can also view this press release as a PDF file, please either click on the link below, or copy and paste the link into your browser:For more information on 360 Blockchain Inc., or to see additional press releases issued by this company, please either click on the link below, or copy and paste the link into your browser: http://www.fscwire.com/public-company/360 Blockchain Inc.Source: 360 Blockchain Inc. (CSE: CODE, OTC Bulletin Board: BKLLF, FWB: C5B, WKN: A2JSTL, ISIN: CA88557T1084)Date: February 28, 2018Time: 8:00 AM EST--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---The story mentioned above was issued on behalf of 360 Blockchain Inc. and disseminated through FSCwire.About FSCwireFSCwire (a division of Filing Services Canada Inc.), is a global newswire dissemination, SEDAR, SEDI, and EDGAR / XBRL service provider.FSCwire is a full service global newswire dissemination company and is fully approved by all exchanges in Canada and the U.S. Press releases can be distributed for all sizes of public, private or not for profit companies and any other organization requiring news distribution. In addition to individual companies; public relations, communications and investor relations firms trust FSCwire to distribute press releases for their respective clients.In addition to newswire dissemination FSCwire also offers EDGAR, XBRL, SEDAR, SEDI, and additional services for publicly traded companies. For more information, please go to our website: http://www.fscwire.com Maximum News Dissemination by FSCwire. http://www.fscwire.com Copyright 2018 - FSCwire (a division of Filing Services Canada Inc.)PR-Inside.com: 2018-02-28 18:40:02

Bureau Veritas Launches Origin, the Worlds First Blockchain-Based Complete Food Traceability Solution

Bureau Veritas Services

Helene RIBA, +33 (0)1 55 24 76 92

Helene.riba@bureauveritas.com

Bureau Veritas launches Origin, the worlds first traceability label to give consumers a complete end-to-end proof of a products journey, from farm to fork. This solution will be presented to an international audience on March 5th 2018 in Tokyo, at this years Global Food Safety Conference.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/201802280061

Origin, built on blockchain technology, offers a smart and practical way for consumers to access information on each stage of a products journey. Shoppers flash a QR code in-store to see the full history of each product, and make informed purchase decisions.

Food industry players throughout the value chain also benefit from this cost-effective solution. Brands and retailers are able to better control supply chains, through better visibility as well as real time management of product recalls.

Projects are underway with a number of Bureau Veritas clients, and the technology is now ready to be launched to the wider market.

Vincent Bourdil, Vice-President Food at Bureau Veritas said:

The launch of Origin follows two years of work by Bureau Veritas to develop blockchain applications that increase confidence in transactions. Origin is a win-win solution not just for consumers, but also for retailers, suppliers, processors and manufacturers, as it adds value to the final product. With Origin, product recalls can be managed in real time, enabling the brand to preserve its reputation.

The use of blockchain makes Origin technologically innovative and resolves key challenges that have made full food traceability elusive until now. Built in partnership with Worldline, a leader in securing digital transactions, it is first solution of its kind to leverage the technology.

Olivier Stuckens, Managing Director Mobility & e-Transactional Services at Worldline said:

Blockchain offers unique advantages for a product such as Origin: it is secure, open, transparent, and does not require a controlling entity. Using blockchain technology revolutionizes how transactions are verified, thereby increasing reliability of information. This feature means that while Origin has been developed with the food industry in mind, it can be used for any sector.

Food verification schemes have traditionally relied on third party inspections and sampling at each stage of the food production process. By contrast, a blockchain-based solution enables continual and complete verification, by demanding that all the players share records and validate transactions each time they occur. At the same time, sensitive data remains confidential, with each party awarded different levels of access to information.

About Bureau Veritas

Bureau Veritas is a world leader in laboratory testing, inspection and certification services. Created in 1828, the Group has around 74,000 employees located in 1,400 offices and laboratories around the globe. Bureau Veritas helps its clients improve their performance by offering services and innovative solutions in order to ensure that their assets, products, infrastructure and processes meet standards and regulations in terms of quality, health and safety, environmental protection and social responsibility.

Bureau Veritas is listed on Euronext Paris and belongs to the Next 20 index.

Compartment A, ISIN code FR 0006174348, stock symbol: BVI.

For more information, visit www.bureauveritas.com

Follow us on Linkedin

About Worldline

Worldline [Euronext: WLN] is the European leader in the payments and transactional services industry. Worldline delivers new-generation services, enabling its customers to offer smooth and innovative solutions to the end consumer. Key actor for B2B2C industries, with nearly 45 years of experience, Worldline supports and contributes to the success of all businesses and administrative services in a perpetually evolving market. Worldline offers a unique and flexible business model built around a global and growing portfolio, thus enabling end-to-end support. Worldline activities are organized around three axes: Merchant Services, Mobility & e-Transactional Services and Financial Services including equensWorldline. Worldline employs more than 9,400 people worldwide, with estimated pro forma revenue of more than 1.5 billion on a yearly basis. Worldline is an Atos company.

For more information, visit: www.worldline.com [..]

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/201802280061

#BureauVeritas launches Origin, the world's first blockchain-based complete traceability solution.PR-Inside.com: 2018-02-28 14:04:01

CHICAGO, Feb. 28, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Enablon, a Wolters Kluwer business, and TapRooT, each world leaders in EHS Operations, announce a partnership today that will enable their customers to be even more efficient in preventing incidents and maximizing safety. With a connector between both software platforms, customers can track and trend incidents in the Enablon solution and perform the Root Cause Analysis with TapRooT without duplicating efforts. The partnership is the first of its kind in the EHS industry.

Leading companies around the world use the TapRooT process and software to investigate and fix the root causes of major accidents, incidents and near-misses. Many of the same companies rely on Enablon to ensure EHS compliance and risk management.

"Combining our expertise and connecting our platforms will make a real difference to our customers. Incident data will be automatically synchronized, making the root cause analysis process easier and more efficient, and allowing action plans to be launched much faster," said Dan Verlinde, Vice President and Chief Technology Officer of TapRooT.

"The contribution TapRooT Incident investigators can now bring to their companies is significant and goes far beyond efficiency in understanding the root cause and acting upon it," said Taylor Allis, Vice President of Product at Enablon. "It increases production effectiveness and reduces cost, which in turn adds business value to companies. At Enablon, we continuously work on innovating our solution to better assist our customers in making a difference. We do this not only through adding new features or applications but also by working with other recognized expert providers. The technology partnership with TapRooT allows us to do just that."

The Enablon-TapRooT connector is available for customers using the Enablon 8.4 or 8.6 and Taproot 6.3 software versions.

About Wolters Kluwer

Wolters Kluwer N.V. (AEX:WKL) is a global leader in information services and solutions for professionals in the health, tax and accounting, risk and compliance, finance and legal sectors. We help our customers make critical decisions every day by providing expert solutions that combine deep domain knowledge with specialized technology and services. Wolters Kluwer reported 2017 annual revenues of 4.4 billion. The company, headquartered in Alphen aan den Rijn, the Netherlands, serves customers in over 180 countries, maintains operations in over 40 countries, and employs 19,000 people worldwide. Wolters Kluwer shares are listed on Euronext Amsterdam (WKL) and are included in the AEX and Euronext 100 indices.

Enablon, a Wolters Kluwer business, is the world's leading provider of EH&S, Operational Risk Management and Sustainability Software. More than 1,000 global companies and 1 million users rely on Enablon software solutions to manage their environmental and social performance, minimize risks and improve profitability. Enablon offers the most comprehensive platform in the industry, and is consistently recognized as a global leader and visionary. For more information about Enablon: www.enablon.com.

Press Contact

Elke Colpaert

Communication Director Wolters Kluwer | Enablon

elke.colpaert@wolterskluwer.comPR-Inside.com: 2018-02-28 14:03:01

OTTAWA, Feb. 28, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- GaN Systems, the global leader in GaN power semiconductors, today made public the 120 A, 650 V GaN E-HEMT, extending its leadership with the industry's most powerful line of high performance GaN transistors.

Power levels continue to rise creating the need for higher operating current. The numerous advantages of GaN can be applied to much higher power levels today in the automotive, industrial, and renewable energy industries. This pioneering product will be showcased at the upcoming Applied Power Electronics Conference & Exposition (APEC) in San Antonio, Texas on March 4-8, 2018 in Booth #1041.

Gan Systems' 120 A, 650 V GaN E-HEMT increases the power density of 20 to 500 kW power conversion systems, including automotive traction inverters, very high power on-board chargers (OBC), large-scale energy storage systems, and industrial motor drives. This transistor, with twice the current capability of GaN Systems' highest rated current part, allows customers to effectively double the power processing for the same volume.

The product (GS-065-120-1-D), sold as a die to customers building modules, is the lowest R DS(on) , highest current 650 V GaN HEMT in the power semiconductor industry. Modules are an important form factor in high power electronics constituting up to 40 percent of the market based on form factor. Customers will use this die product in half-bridge, full-bridge, and six pack module topologies to create enhanced, high-power designs.

"This is the most pivotal GaN product on the market to be optimized for modules and is compatible with both embedded and traditional module technology," stated Jim Witham, CEO of GaN Systems. "As an extension of our flagship product, it encompasses all the benefits of GaN technology and our approach to GaN power transistors - ease of use, high power density, and high efficiency - enabling power systems that are smaller in size and lower cost with unprecedented power levels."

For more information, please contact GaN Systems Sales or come see GaN Systems at Booth #1041 at APEC.

About GaN Systems

GaN Systems is the global leader in GaN power semiconductors with the largest portfolio of transistors that uniquely address the needs of today's most demanding industries including data center servers, renewable energy systems, automotive, industrial motors and consumer electronics.

As a market-leading innovator, GaN Systems makes possible the design of smaller, lower cost, more efficient power systems. The company's award-winning products provide system design opportunities free from the limitations of yesterday's silicon. By changing the rules of transistor performance, GaN Systems is enabling power conversion companies to revolutionize their industries and transform the world. For more information, please visit: www.gansystems.com or on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.

Media Contact:

Mary Placido

Trier and Company for GaN Systems

mary@triercompany.com

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/42067de0-771a-482b-948f-5c13fc3a2bf7

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: GaN Systems via Globenewswire

PR-Inside.com: 2018-02-28 11:39:25

1,970 exhibitors present exquisite jewellery raw materials; International Jewellery Show to commence at HKCEC on ThursdayHONG KONG, Feb 27, 2018 - (ACN Newswire) - The fifth Hong Kong International Diamond, Gem and Pearl Show, organised by the Hong Kong Trade Development Council (HKTDC), opened today and will run for five days (27 February to 3 March) at the AsiaWorld-Expo. This year's Show gathers a record number of 1,970 exhibitors from 40 countries and regions, including new exhibitors from Belize and Turkey, to showcase an assortment of jewellery raw materials including exquisite diamonds, precious and semi-precious stones as well as pearls to international buyers. The 35th Hong Kong International Jewellery Show, which features finished jewellery products, will take place from 1 to 5 March at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre (HKCEC). The two shows will feature a total of more than 4,550 exhibitors from 52 countries and regions, forming the world's largest jewellery marketplace."This year's Hong Kong International Diamond, Gem and Pearl Show continues to attract jewellers, trade associations and organisations from around the world. The participation of exhibitors is the highest on record. It is a testament to Hong Kong's standing as a key sourcing platform for the global jewellery industry," said Benjamin Chau, Deputy Executive Director of the HKTDC. "The improving global economic conditions have led to a steady rebound in overall jewellery exports. There is also an increasing demand for product diversity. The Diamond, Gem and Pearl Show and the Hong Kong International Jewellery Show, which opens on Thursday (1 March) to showcase finished jewellery products, are set to generate synergy and to help industry players capture more business opportunities." - A dazzling array of exquisite jewellery raw materials on displayTo facilitate buyers to source jewellery raw materials, the Hong Kong International Diamond, Gem and Pearl Show has set up thematic zones for different product categories. The Hall of Fine Diamonds showcases quality diamonds in a variety of sizes, grades and colours. Exhibits include an enthralling two-carat natural green diamond presented by US exhibitor Rio Diamond MFG Corp (Booth: 2CON-21); a 28-carat fancy vivid yellow diamond ring from Scarselli Diamonds Inc (Booth: 2CON-25); a top-quality argyle pink diamond from Australia, which is valued at more than HK$7 million, featured by Rachminov Diamonds 1891, Asia Ltd (Booth: 2-Q17); and a radiant shape, natural fancy colour polished diamond from Hong Kong exhibitor Novel Collection Ltd (Booth: 2-Q01).Another zone, Treasures of Nature, is devoted to precious and semi-precious coloured gems of different origins. Exhibits include a set of Colombian emerald jewellery, valued at more than HK$23.4 million, showcased by Hong Kong exhibitor Hatta New World Company Limited (Booth: 1-B05); a Sri Lankan chrysoberyl cat's eye stone, that weighs over 100 carats and is valued at more than HK$20 million, from Wilds Company Limited (Booth: 1-B11); a spinel snake presented by German exhibitor Paul Wild (Booth: 1-B01); a cushion vivid pink sapphire from US exhibitor Shaun Gems International (Booth: 1-A16); a purplish-red spinel from Swiss exhibitor ALine GmbH (Booth: 1-C16); and neon mint tourmalines from Ukrainian exhibitor Vitalii Golokoz, Pte (Booth: 1-A27).With Hong Kong becoming a major trading and distribution centre for pearls, the Treasures of Ocean zone is set up to showcase quality pearls from Tahiti, the South Seas, Japan, the Chinese mainland, the Caribbean and other pearl-producing regions. Another highlight zone Rough Stones & Minerals has also returned to the Show to present unpolished and uncut precious stones.As a major global sourcing platform for jewellery, this year's Show features 22 group pavilions of countries and trade organisations, representing Australia, the Chinese mainland, Germany, Italy, Myanmar, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Thailand and the United States; and prominent trade organisations such as the Antwerp World Diamond Centre (AWDC), the International Colored Gemstone Association and the Tanzanite Foundation.- Buying missions to generate more business opportunitiesThe HKTDC will organise 115 mainland and overseas buying missions comprising over 9,800 buyers from more than 8,000 companies from 75 countries and regions to visit the shows. To let industry practitioners capture the latest trends, the HKTDC will organise a series of seminars and buyer forums, topics include "New Diamond Findings and Developments from the GIA Laboratory", "125 Years since the Invention of Cultured Pearl" and "The Latest Development and Opportunities in the Belt and Road Markets". The HKTDC will also arrange business matching sessions on-site to create more business exchange and opportunities for the visitors.- Jewellery Show opens on Thursday at HKCECThe 35th Hong Kong International Jewellery Show will open on Thursday and will run for five days (1 to 5 March) at the HKCEC. It will feature a broad spectrum of finished jewellery products, including exceptional jewellery collections, premier brands, antique jewellery and new designer brands. Several thematic zones will be set up, including the Hall of Fame, which showcases the collections of renowned jewellery brands; the Hall of Extraordinary, which presents the most exquisite, valuable and unique jewellery pieces; the Designer Galleria, which gathers youthful, trendy and high quality collections; the World of Glamour, which demonstrates the expertise and artistry of the Hong Kong fine jewellery sector; the Treasures of Craftsmanship, where jewellery and art converge; and the new zone IT Solutions for Jewellery. The two shows will create synergy and offer buyers an effective, one-stop sourcing experience.In addition, there will be a variety of networking events during the Show, including a gala dinner sponsored by the Tanzanite Foundation on Thursday night (1 March). Under the theme "Roman Constellation", the dinner will feature a menu curated by Gianni Favro, an award-winning chef of the Virtual Group of Italian Chefs (GVCI). Along with special performances, local and international guests of the evening will have ample opportunities to network. There will also be multiple jewellery parades during the shows to demonstrate exhibitors' superior offerings to global buyers and to maximise exposure.During the Diamond, Gem and Pearl Show, a complimentary shuttle bus service will run between the AsiaWorld-Expo and various downtown areas (including the HKCEC) to facilitate sourcing at both shows. Please visit the fair websites for details.Fair Websites:Hong Kong International Diamond, Gem and Pearl Show: http://hkdgp.hktdc.com/ Hong Kong International Jewellery Show: http://hkjewelleryshow.hktdc.com/ Enhanced Security Measures for Buyers: http://bit.ly/2EIxhJa Photo download: http://bit.ly/2GQwxCtPR-Inside.com: 2018-02-28 08:00:15

FSCwire / Press ReleaseThe following press release was disseminated by FSCwire for Eco (Atlantic) Oil and Gas Ltd.--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---Toronto, Ontario (FSCWire) - Eco (Atlantic) Oil and Gas Ltd. (TSX Venture:EOG). has issued a press release with the following headline:Interim Results for 3 9 Months Ended 31 Dec 2017To view this press release on the FSCwire website, please either click on the link below, or copy and paste the link into your browser:If you would prefer, you can also view this press release as a PDF file, please either click on the link below, or copy and paste the link into your browser:For more information on Eco (Atlantic) Oil and Gas 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/Eco (Atlantic) Oil and Gas Ltd.Source: Eco (Atlantic) Oil and Gas Ltd. (TSX Venture: EOG, LSE: ECO, OTC Bulletin Board: ECAOF, WKN: A1JVA8, ISIN: CA27887W1005)Date: February 28, 2018Time: 2:00 AM EST--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---The story mentioned above was issued on behalf of Eco (Atlantic) Oil and Gas 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.)Fast Market Research recommends "Global Oil and Gas Accumulator Market 2017-2021" from TechNavio, now available

PR-Inside.com: 2018-02-15 14:40:11

Oil and gas is one of the biggest sectors in the world in terms of revenue generation. The industry includes a majority of the national oil companies that generate billions of dollars, which contributes significantly toward the economic development of any country. Several industries are dependent on the oil and gas sector, which require either the final petroleum product or general oil and gas services. This industry is responsible for providing thousands of jobs, and its success or failure has a huge impact on several industries. An accumulator is a pressure storage reservoir, which stores a specific amount of fluid that is under pressure. This fluid is later released to perform a specific operation in the hydraulic system.Technavio's analysts forecast the global oil and gas accumulator market to grow at a CAGR of 3.65% during the period 2017-2021.Full Report Details atCovered in this reportThe report covers the present scenario and the growth prospects of the global oil and gas accumulator market for 2017-2021. To calculate the market size, the report considers the number of active rig count across the world.The market is divided into the following segments based on geography:* Americas* APAC* EMEATechnavio's report, Global Oil and Gas Accumulator Market 2017-2021, has been prepared based on an in-depth market analysis with inputs from industry experts. The report covers the market landscape and its growth prospects over the coming years. The report also includes a discussion of the key vendors operating in this market.Key vendors* Bosch Rexroth* Eaton* Freudenberg Sealing Technologies* NIPPON ACCUMULATOR* PARKER HANNIFINOther prominent vendors* Airmo* Accumulators* General Electric* HANNON HYDRAULICS* Hydac International* Roth Industries* TECHNETICSMarket driver* Increase in oil rig count* For a full, detailed list, view our reportMarket challenge* Uncertainties associated with low crude oil prices* For a full, detailed list, view our reportMarket trend* IoT in accumulators* For a full, detailed list, view our reportKey questions answered in this report* What will the market size be in 2021 and what will the growth rate be?* What are the key market trends?* What is driving this market?* What are the challenges to market growth?* Who are the key vendors in this market space?You can request one free hour of our analyst's time when you purchase this market report. Details are provided within the report.Companies Mentioned in this Report: Bosch Rexroth, Eaton, Freudenberg Sealing Technologies, NIPPON ACCUMULATOR, PARKER HANNIFIN, Airmo, Accumulators, General Electric, HANNON HYDRAULICS, Hydac International, Roth Industries, TECHNETICSAbout Fast Market ResearchFast Market Research is a leading distributor of market research and business information. Representing the world's top research publishers and analysts, we provide quick and easy access to the best competitive intelligence available. Our unbiased, expert staff is always available to help you find the right research to fit your requirements and your budget.For more information about these or related research reports, please visit our website at https://fastmr.com or call us at 1.800.844.8156 (1.413.485.7001 Int'l)PR-Inside.com: 2018-02-28 17:38:16

FSCwire / Press ReleaseThe following press release was disseminated by FSCwire for PPX Mining Corp.--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---Vancouver, British Columbia (FSCWire) - PPX Mining Corp. (TSX Venture:PPX). has issued a press release with the following headline:PPX Processes 2,008 tonnes of Bulk Sample Grading 8.19 gpt Au at Mina Callanquitas during January 2018To 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 PPX Mining 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/PPX Mining Corp.Source: PPX Mining Corp. (TSX Venture: PPX, WKN: A2APYX, ISIN: CA69354U1003)Date: February 28, 2018Time: 11:38 AM EST--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---The story mentioned above was issued on behalf of PPX Mining 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: 2018-02-28 18:07:14

FSCwire / Press ReleaseThe following press release was disseminated by FSCwire for ProSmart Enterprises Inc.--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---Kelowna, BC (FSCWire) - ProSmart Enterprises Inc. (TSX Venture:PROS). has issued a press release with the following headline:Prosmart Announces Filing of December Quarter Financial StatementsTo 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 ProSmart Enterprises Inc., or to see additional press releases issued by this company, please either click on the link below, or copy and paste the link into your browser: http://www.fscwire.com/public-company/ProSmart Enterprises Inc.Source: ProSmart Enterprises Inc. (TSX Venture: PROS, FWB: 1R6, WKN: A143NS, ISIN: CA83581Q1054)Date: February 28, 2018Time: 12:07 PM EST--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---The story mentioned above was issued on behalf of ProSmart Enterprises Inc. and disseminated through FSCwire.About FSCwireFSCwire (a division of Filing Services Canada Inc.), is a global newswire dissemination, SEDAR, SEDI, and EDGAR / XBRL service provider.FSCwire is a full service global newswire dissemination company and is fully approved by all exchanges in Canada and the U.S. Press releases can be distributed for all sizes of public, private or not for profit companies and any other organization requiring news distribution. In addition to individual companies; public relations, communications and investor relations firms trust FSCwire to distribute press releases for their respective clients.In addition to newswire dissemination FSCwire also offers EDGAR, XBRL, SEDAR, SEDI, and additional services for publicly traded companies. For more information, please go to our website: http://www.fscwire.com Maximum News Dissemination by FSCwire. http://www.fscwire.com Copyright 2018 - FSCwire (a division of Filing Services Canada Inc.)PR-Inside.com: 2018-02-28 19:52:02

IRVINE, Calif., Feb. 28, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Kofax, a leading provider of software to simplify and transform the First Mile(TM) of business, today announced that Spotcap, a multinational provider of finance to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), has implemented Kofax Kapow(TM) Robotic Process Automation (RPA) software to support its proprietary credit assessment algorithm. Kapow mimics human actions to automate a wide range of manual, repetitive tasks, helping Spotcap to provide flexible financing options to SMEs.

Spotcap's machine-learning credit models evaluate business and cash flow data alongside conventional credit and financial information-providing a holistic view of a company's performance and creditworthiness. Kofax Kapow software robots help to facilitate the fast and automatic aggregation, extraction and transformation of data from a wealth of sources into actionable information for use by Spotcap's credit assessment algorithm and credit experts.

Spotcap's investment in Kapow, which delivered a full return on investment in under a year, helps eliminate paperwork and manual processing. Business applicants simply enter basic personal and business information online in a highly intuitive process which can be completed in less than 15 minutes. Applications are reviewed within 24 hours and, once approved, SMEs have immediate access to funds.

Spotcap is also leading the charge in an emerging trend known as Lending-as-a-Service, offering its full-service lending platform and risk decisioning tools to major institutions, financial or otherwise. This approach recognizes that SMEs have long had trouble obtaining financing, with traditional lenders historically discouraged by the considerable expense of processing loan applications for smaller credit lines.

"For every loan application received, thousands of data points must be analyzed to make a decision about whether to offer a loan," said Karl Sponholz, COO of Spotcap. "Unlike traditional lending processes, where credit decisions are based primarily on historical financials and credit scoring, we are tapping into Kapow smart automation software to quickly and easily access data from a large number of sources for in-depth insight."

"We're also creating a collaborative environment for traditional lenders," added Sponholz. "By tapping into our full-service lending platform, traditional players can offer more refined services, efficiently serving SMEs with competitive financial services and products."

"Kofax is helping Fintech leaders digitally transform their businesses to better serve customers," said Reynolds C. Bish, Chief Executive Officer of Kofax. "In addition to increasing their competitive differentiation and advantage, these technology-focused leaders are poised to thrive by developing deeper and better engagement with customers across their entire lifecycle."

Supporting Resources

Spotcap Revolutionizes Lending with Flexible and Accessible Financing for Small and Medium-Sized Businesses case study

How Financial Institutions are Improving Operations with Robotic Process Automation eBook

The Ultimate Guide to Choosing the Right Robotic Process Automation Solution white paper

About Kofax

Kofax is a leading provider of software to simplify and transform the First Mile(TM) of business. By capturing information and automating information-intensive processes, Kofax helps improve customer engagement, greatly reduce operating costs and increase competitiveness and profitability for more than 20,000 customers in financial services, insurance, government, healthcare, supply chain and other markets. Kofax delivers its information capture, robotic process automation, financial process automation and customer onboarding solutions through its direct sales and service organization, and a global network of more than 1,000 authorized partners in more than 70 countries throughout the Americas, EMEA and Asia Pacific.

 2018 Kofax, Inc. Kofax is a registered trademarks and First Mile and Kofax Kapow are trademarks of Kofax Limited.



Media Contact: Sylvia Chansler Sr. Manager, Public Relations +1 (949) 783-1476 sylvia.chansler@kofax.comPR-Inside.com: 2018-02-28 10:05:08

MUNICH, Feb 21, 2018 - (ACN Newswire) - Trillium Secure, Inc., known for its disruptive automotive IoT cybersecurity technology and highly innovative 'SecureIoT' Cyber Security as a Service (C-SaaS) platform, has been selected to present at the renowned Munich Summit (MUST) on February 21, 2018. MUST is an exclusive, invitation-only, networking event connecting cutting-edge startup companies with industry leaders and investors to create new business realities.Trillium will showcase technology that enables real-time global protection of the millions of commercial, public and private vehicles that will be serviced by the SecureIoT C-SaaS platform. Trillium's solution dynamically creates and deploys security patches and countermeasures in near real-time as threats unfold."Trillium was nominated for its innovative business model and disruptive technology - it's just the type of startup company for which the MUST summit was designed" said David Hajizadeh, Entrepreneur in Residence, Volkswagen DataLab."We are honored by the opportunity to present at such a prestigious event. We are continuously innovating our security platform, which incorporates in-vehicle machine learning agents and deep learning technologies in the cloud. Our development work over the past year is enabling Trillium to deliver a solution that solves the most critical problems facing automakers and insurance providers in the era of connected and autonomously driven vehicles," said David Uze, Trillium CEO."Our solution provides a scalable comprehensive security platform as well as a business model that dramatically reduces vehicle manufacturer liability and transforms automotive safety from a considerable cost for manufacturers into a compelling profit center," said Uze.Adrian Sossna, Trillium's Strategic Business Development Manager, will share Trillium's SecureIoT technology and the C-SaaS business model at The MUST event. Equally as important, Sossna will hold one-on-one meetings the following day, which has been set aside for the specific purpose of helping technology innovators identify partners for penetrating the European market."It will be a Darwinian version of musical chairs, with some players not having a partner with which to sit once the music stops. We need to identify our go-to-market partners for Europe as quickly as possible to complete our global footprint before launching our services this summer in Japan," said Sossna.The SecureIoT solution is a purely software-based technology comprised of four modules: SecureCAR, SecureIXS, SecureOTA, and SecureSKYE.About Trillium Secure, Inc.Trillium Secure, Inc. is the world's largest independent automotive IoT cybersecurity provider. Trillium's multi-layered offering includes lightweight encryption, authentication, cryptographic key management, IDS/IPS and secure over-the-air software update technology. The company operates design centers & fleet security operation sites in Silicon Valley, Brno, Detroit, Ho Chi Min City and Tokyo. For further information, please visit www.trilliumcyber.com Trillium Secure, Inc. products and services are marketed under the Trillium, SecureIoT, SecureCAR, SecureIXS, SecureOTA and SecureSKYE trademarks.For Media Enquiries, please contact Adrian Sossna at adrian.sossna@trilliumcyber.com Topic: Trade Show or ConferenceSectors: Electronics, Security/Biometrics, Automotive, Engineering, DigitalFrom the Asia Corporate News NetworkCopyright  2018 ACN Newswire. All rights reserved. A division of Asia Corporate News Network.PR-Inside.com: 2018-02-28 10:03:01

Zain teams up with DOCOMO Digital, Shift Technologies and FOO to enhance offerings and roll-out platform

Zain and DOCOMO Digital Partner with Google's Apigee Platform to Introduce an API Platform to Boost Zain's Digital Strategy

DOCOMO Digital

Dennis Heisig, Press Officer

Dennis.Heisig@docomodigital.com

+49 162 406 32 42

At the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, DOCOMO Digital and Zain Group, the leading mobile telecom innovator in eight markets across the Middle East and Africa, announced that it will launch the Zain Group Application Program Interface (API) Platform, that will see the operator exposing its APIs, thereby helping to remove a significant barrier to developing potential digital partnerships from across the globe. Zain will initially launch the platform with a pilot phase in Kuwait and Saudi Arabia and will be thereafter gradually extended to all Zain operations.

To introduce this group-wide API program and connect its operating companies across the region onto a single enablement platform, Zain will work alongside the Apigee team at Google Cloud as the API platform provider, FOO, a leading regional mobile digital solutions entity as the developer, and Shift Technologies, the leading Apigee Edge API Platform implementer in the Middle East region, This strategic initiative is set to bring about greater agility to Zain as it considers new market opportunities, accelerating innovation, expanding into new business verticals and building future platform business model-based revenue streams.

Notably, Zain has partnered with the global alternative payments provider DOCOMO Digital, the European unit of Japans NTT DOCOMO, as its first new content partner using the new API layer. DOCOMO Digital offers an advanced mobile commerce ecosystem-enabling platform that encourages financial inclusion for citizens worldwide. Thanks to this partnership, DOCOMO Digital will enable Zain with the most advanced VAS Digital Content hosted on its own Product Frameworks and supported by a Best in Class Advertising Solution Platform & Service. Zain Kuwait and Zain Saudi Arabia will be the first operations to offer DOCOMO Digitals services.

Commenting on the imminent launch of the API platform in Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, Bader Al-Kharafi, Zain Vice-Chairman and Group CEO said, We are pleased to be collaborating with more blue-chip technology companies in the form of Google and DOCOMO Digital in rolling the platform initially in Kuwait. In an ever-evolving and challenging telecommunications market, technology acts as an enabler for service differentiation and digital enablement. It drives our ambition to ensure a superior customer experience, and we believe opening up our APIs will help us to push continuous delivery of the best user experience whilst expanding contribution to the development of our digital services to a whole new universe of contributors. Mr Al Kharafi added, This initiative is another step in our strategy to build a digital lifestyle provider, partnering with the best possible technology providers and offer the best services for our customers.

Hiroyuki Sato, CEO of DOCOMO Digital said: Our partnership with Zain is very strategic, demonstrating the focus DOCOMO Digital has on MEA to drive scalable growth for our payments and content platform services. I strongly believe this is one of the many such important partnerships we hope to forge in the region in coming months as it weaves into our prime aspiration of driving financial inclusion for 5 billion people worldwide with the greatest possible trust and convenience.

Sebastian Marotte, VP EMEA, Google Cloud, We are excited to be a part of Zain's digital journey. There are tremendous opportunities for telcos to provide enhanced customer experiences, create new products and partner with other organisations to create value for both consumers and business. We look forward to supporting Zain as they drive their various innovation initiatives forward."

Yousef AlBarkawie, CEO of Shift Technologies added: The vision that Zain has set for itself as a true digital innovator across the Middle East is very exciting, and we are very proud to be the partner of choice to help Zain lay the foundation of its digital platform, leveraging the exceptional capabilities that Apigee Edge API Platform offers. Zain has a deep understanding of the importance of digital ecosystems to power the new emerging economies, and we are excited to be provided this opportunity to translate this vision into reality.

The API platform is set to give opportunities for large digital players and individual developers alike to be able to launch services to Zain customers in a reduced amount of time. In due course, with the new open source digital enablement platform available at each of its operations, Zain will be able to offer internet service providers, other mobile network operators, and its own customers the following features:

Direct Operator Billing, SMS, Location-Based Service and Identity Services

A streamlined engagement model with a single contract offering access to other APIs

Centralised support for fast track new partner integration

Centralised reconciliation services and reporting

The group-wide agreement with Google and DOCOMO Digital will bolster Zains efforts to further leverage the capable operations of FOO, a leading mobile digital solutions developer in which Zain holds a strategic stake. FOOs expertise in implementing and managing this platform played a critical part of the development of the API. FOO will further support the rollout of the API platform across other Zain markets.

ENDS

About DOCOMO Digital

DOCOMO Digital is a provider of a global payments platform to leading OTTs, merchants and content providers. It is a fully owned subsidiary of the Japanese mobile operator NTT DOCOMO. DOCOMO Digital is headquartered in London but is a global company having presence in 35 offices across six continents. For more info please visit: www.docomodigital.com

About Zain Group

For info about Zain please visit: www.zain.com

About Shift Technologies

For info about Zain please visit www.shift-technologies.com

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/201802280055ADVERTISEMENT

A Nigerian comedian, Owen Osamwengie, popularly known as Owen Gee, has opened up about how he contemplated suicide in 2017 after he sunk into depression.

The Lagos-based humour merchant said, I have had suicidal tendencies.

Last year, I tried several things, but they did not work out. It was not because the ideas were bad, but the people I was working with just didnt let them work out. Then anxiety and depression set in.

It was then I realised that no drug could calm depression. There was hardly anyone I didnt take. There was a time I was sleeping on drugs.

There was a particular yellow tablet that, if I took it on Tuesday, on Wednesday I would only be prompted to barely wake up, eat and go back to sleep even before I finished eating. I would not wake up until Thursday.

Owen Gee narrated the experience in Lagos during the unveiling of Live and not Die (LAND), an initiative aimed at stemming the tide of suicide in the country.

The comedian shared his real-life experience battling depression, with stakeholders that gathered at the Empowerment Center, Allen Avenue, Ikeja,

The comedian also explained how he eventually came to the reality that he had the responsibility to handle his issues with tact and live to take care of his children.

He advised the guests to shun fake life, which according to him, is the bane of the Nigerian showbiz industry.

The convener of the programme, Kunle Pelemo, encouraged several professionals to share their experiences while experts proffered solutions to depression.

According to Mr Pelemo, suicide is so rampant that the World Health Organisation affirmed that it is one of the leading causes of death worldwide.

WHO, he added, noted that about a million people committed suicide annually. Mr Pelemo thus believes that it is important to take a conscious and sustained effort to tackle the menace.

The idea and passion for suicide prevention dawned on me after my intervention helped to prevent a friend and protege from carrying out the destructive act. At LAND, we realise that there is always a gap between the period of suicide ideation and the act. If we care enough to render support to people prone to suicide, we will achieve a zero-suicide society.

Mr. Pelemo added that the project would engage people prone to suicide, attempters and survivors. It will offer support ranging from moral, mental, material to psychological.ADVERTISEMENT

Moscow calls for the urgent deployment of a mission of the UN or the International Committee of the Red Cross to assess the situation in Syrias Raqqa, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Wednesday.

It is also necessary to urgently dispatch a joint UN-ICRC assessment mission to Raqqa, which has been bombed to rubble and left to the mercy of fate by the coalition, with mine fields uncleared and infrastructure fully devastated, Mr. Lavrov said at the 37th session of the UN Human Rights Council.

On Monday, Russian Defence Minister, Sergei Shoigu, said that Russia was proposing setting up a UN-led international humanitarian commission to assess the situation in Raqqa.

Mr. Lavrov said militants in Syrias Eastern Ghouta are hindering the supply of humanitarian aid to this area and the evacuation of civilians by continuing shelling Damascus.

The people of Syria today face the direst humanitarian crisis.

UN Security Council Resolution 2401 has established a framework for all parties to agree upon conditions to alleviate the plight of civilians throughout the territory of the country.

Russia together with the Syrian Government has already announced the establishment of humanitarian corridors in Eastern Ghouta.

Now it is the turn to act for militants entrenched there, who still continue shelling Damascus, blocking aid deliveries and the evacuation of those wishing to leave, as well as for their sponsors, Mr. Lavrov said.

He also urged all the countries to avoid dividing terrorists into the bad and good.

He noted that some UN Human Rights Council were unwilling to openly condemn international terrorism in all forms under the pretext of upholding freedom of expression.

The manifest unwillingness of some Council members to unequivocally condemn international terrorism in all of its forms and manifestations under the pretext of upholding freedom of expression is striking.

We believe that dividing terrorists into the good and bad ones is unacceptable, especially when it is done depending on the extremists proclaimed objectives or sources of financing,

The minister added that Russia would continue fighting against such double standards.

Russia will continue to persistently fight against this vicious practice of double standards, including by providing support to the Syrian Army in their efforts to finally eradicate the terrorist threat, Mr. Lavrov stressed.

He urged the U.S.-led international coalition to ensure humanitarian access to the areas in Syria under its control, including Rukban refugee camp and the area surrounding al-Tanf.

We call upon the members of so-called American coalition to ensure the same humanitarian access to the areas in Syria under their control, including the Rukban refugee camp and the entire territory surrounding al-Tanf.

(Sputnik/NAN)ADVERTISEMENT

Authorities said two trains collided in Egypts Nile Delta province of Beheira on Wednesday, killing at least 10 people.

The ministry said 21 others were injured in the collision.

The accident took place when two carriages of a passenger train broke off and rammed into a nearby goods train, the Egyptian news portal al-Youm al-Saba reported, citing the provinces security chief.

Transport Minister, Hesham Arafat, left Cairo to visit the site of the collision, state-run newspaper al-Ahram said.

Egypt has seen several railway tragedies in recent years.

In August, more than 40 people were killed in a collision between two passenger trains in Egypts coastal city of Alexandria.

In the aftermath, the chief of the countrys state-run railways authority resigned and the government promised to upgrade the service.

Egypts worst rail disaster took place in 2002 when a passenger train caught fire, killing more than 360 people. (dpa/NAN)ADVERTISEMENT

The UN on Wednesday said six aid workers were killed this week in an attack in the Central African Republic.

The attack took place on Monday as the group was traveling to the northeastern town of Markounda, located in a remote region near the Chadian border.

UNICEF declined to immediately give the nationalities of those killed.

We strongly condemn this senseless act against aid workers who were there to improve the lives of the most vulnerable populations, UNICEFs West and Central Africa Regional Director Marie-Pierre Poirier said in the statement.

The agency said it was not yet in a position to release more details on the incident.

Militia violence in the Central African Republic has intensified over the past year, making it one of the worlds deadliest countries for humanitarian workers.

Assailants killed six Red Cross volunteers in the southeast in August 2017, barely a month after another worker was shot dead by an unidentified armed group in the town of Bangassou.

(Reuters/NAN)ADVERTISEMENT

U.S. senators on Tuesday called for an increase in the $38 billion in military aid the U.S. is currently providing Israel, signaling support for more funds for Israeli missile systems.

Sen. Lindsey Graham and Sen. Chris Coons, both just returned from a trip to Israel.

Sen. Graham, a leading Republican foreign policy voice, and Sen. Coons, a Democratic member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said they considered the provision of 38 billion dollars over 10 years, a floor.

Graham said that he thought provisions in the agreement phasing out an arrangement in which Israel could spend U.S. funds on its own defence industry and the provision of just 500 million dollars in missile defence funding were short-sighted.

Coons said tensions in the broader region supported the idea of more funding for Israel, citing the ongoing war in Syria and Irans recent use of a stealth drone.

This is the largest such aid package in U.S. history but one that included concessions by Israels government.

(Reuters/NAN)ADVERTISEMENT

The Nigerian Army has confirmed the killing of three kidnap suspects and a soldier in Kogi during a rescue operation on Tuesday.

The spokesman of the Command Army Records, Lokoja, Weri Finikumor, told the News Agency of Nigeria on phone in Lokoja that some of the suspected kidnappers have been arrested and helping the military in its investigations.

Mr. Finikumor assured residents that operation exercise cat race was ongoing to curtail criminality and boost security in the state.

He said that the army would make details of the exercise public as soon as it was concluded.

A soldier and three suspected kidnappers lost their lives in Okene area of Kogi on February 26 during a gun duel between some soldiers and a gang of kidnappers.

It was gathered that the gun duel ensued when the soldiers were attempting to rescue an oil magnate, Momoh Otinau, from the suspected kidnappers that abducted him on February 17.

Mr. Otinau was kidnapped in front of a mosque in Okene while relaxing with friends.

A relation of the kidnapped victim who has been negotiating with the kidnappers was said to have informed soldiers believed to be part of those prosecuting exercise cat race of his intention to go and drop a ransom for the kidnappers.

The soldiers then decided to follow him with the intention to rescue the victim and arrest the suspects.

This, however, proved fatal as the kidnappers on sighting the relation approaching the designated point with the armed soldiers immediately opened fire on them.

In the exchange of gun shots that followed, a soldier and three suspected kidnappers lost their lives while Mr. Otinau also sustained gunshot injury.

A source at the General Hospital, Lokoja, also confirmed to journalists that the corpse of the soldier was deposited at the morgue.ADVERTISEMENT

Suspected kidnappers on Wednesday abducted the wife and child of a reporter with the Voice of America (VOA) in Kaduna.

The abductors also killed a staff of the Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC), who rushed out to help the victims.

The reporter, Nasir Birnin-Yero, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) that the abductors, about 30 in number, attacked his residence in Birnin Yero, near Kaduna at about 1:30 a.m.

They came to my house at about 1:30 a.m. I was not at home then, but they forced themselves into my house and asked my wife of my whereabouts and she told them I was not at home.

They vandalised my television set and refrigerator before taking my wife and son insisting that they must take them to where I was.

One of my neighbours, who works with the FRSC, Sabitu Abdulhamid, was shot dead by the kidnappers when he rushed out in an attempt to save my family.

The kidnappers have not made any contact yet, Mr. Birnin-Yero said

The FRSC Sector Commander in the state, Umar Ibrahim, confirmed the death of the corps personnel and described the incident as very unfortunate.

Mr. Ibrahim described the deceased as a very hard working person, who was also a member of the communitys vigilante.

I am just coming back from the burial. It is a sad day for members of his family and the entire FRSC family, the sector commander said.

(NAN)The Senate says it may take a major legislative decision as majority of the Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) have refused to either submit details of their 2018 budget proposal or their amendments as requested by Senate committees.

The vice chairman of the Senate committee on appropriation, Sonny Ogbuoji (Ebonyi-PDP) made this known while briefing other lawmakers on the status of the 2018 budget on Wednesday.

The lawmakers accordingly resolved to give another a one-week ultimatum to the MDAs after which, the committees will work only with the appropriation as submitted by President Muhammadu Buhari.

The Senate had on February 14 issued a one-week ultimatum to 63 government agencies who are yet to submit details of their 2018 budget proposals.

Despite the expiration of the ultimatum, Mr. Ogbuoji said most heads of agencies have refused to interface with the Senate committees for consideration of the proposals.

Most of the subcommittees have huge challenges with the MDAs because majority of them are not coming forward to interface with them. Some of them, ministers, they will tell you they are travelling out of the country and because of them, the MDAs are not fully ready.

Again, some of the MDAs, when asked to go back and work on what they brought, they dont come back. And that is really delaying the work. That is why we dont have a comprehensive report up till today, he said.

While urging the MDAs to yield to the Senates appeal, the Senate President, Bukola Saraki, said the Senate leader, Ahmed Lawan will communicate to the heads of defaulting agencies on the need to discharge their roles in the budget process.

Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu, was however not comfortable with the ruling.

He proposed that the Senate continue the budget process with the appropriation presented by President Buhari.

It is not right for the MDAs and the ministers to hold the country down. It has come to a stage where we have to consider taking what has already been presented to the president from those MDAs, instead of waiting for them forever.

So instead of all of us suffering, let us give them few more days and after that, the relevant committees will adopt what was sent to us as the position of the MDAs, so that we pass the budget.

Philip Aduda (FCT-PDP) asked the Senate to give marching orders to the MDAs.

The implication is that these ministries are holding the country to ransom. If you go out there, the feeling is that the National Assembly is not working on the budget, with people not knowing it is the various ministers and MDAs who are not doing their work, travelling out of the country and forgetting about the welfare of the citizens.

You must give timeline to these ministers and tell them to sit and do what is needful so we can have budget. Otherwise if we continue like this, we may not pass this budget until June and Nigerians will not know it is the fault of the National Assembly. So you should give marching orders to these MDAs and ministers for them to submit their reports within a timeline so that the committee(s) can do their work.

The lawmakers then resolved to give the MDAs one more week to submit details of their budget proposals and make their defence.

Conveying the resolution, Mr. Saraki said, The consensus is that we give these agencies maximum of end of next week. Anything that has not come by then, the committee should complete their exercise and work on what they have.

Mr. Saraki, however, cautioned against passing the budget without input from MDAs.

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If we now proceed without the MDAs being present and the committee decides to do their work, when the budget is now passed, we are back to the problem of where it will be said the inputs of the agencies were not taken into consideration, he said.The chairman of the Lagos State chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Henry Ajomale, has said he was helpless at the decision of the Forum of APC State Chairmen to support the extension of the tenure of the National Working Committee of the party.

Ahead of the National Executive Committee meeting in Abuja on Tuesday, the Forum of APC State Chairmen met a day earlier and unanimously resolved to propose a two-year tenure elongation for the NWC headed by the partys national chairman, John Odigie-Oyegun.

The Odigie-Oyegun-led NWC eventually got the nod at the NEC meeting to retain their positions for another 12 months after the expiration of their tenure in June.

Speaking to PREMIUM TIMES on his return from the nations capital on Wednesday, Mr. Ajomale said the endorsement by the party chairmen was for constituted organs of the party at the local, state, and national levels.

We endorsed the entire executives from the ward level to the national, so we did not single out anybody.

Eye brows had been raised after reports emerged that Mr. Ajomale was a party to a decision that retained Mr. Odigie-Oyegun at the helm of affairs despite a persistent push for his removal by his benefactor, Bola Tinubu, a national leader of the party.

Last week, Mr. Tinubu accused the partys national chairman of sabotaging his efforts at reconciling warring factions within the party, an assignment handed to him by President Muhammadu Buhari.

On Tuesday, the Nigerian Tribune reported sighting a hard copy of the communique at the end of the APC State Chairmens meeting in which 31 chairmen, including Mr. Ajomale, signed and which culminated in Mr. Odigie-Oyeguns tenure extension.

But Mr. Ajomale told PREMIUM TIMES he was not aware of Mr. Tinubus position on the partys national chairman, adding that his opposition to the proposal would not have made any difference.

File Photo of APC Chieftain, Chief Bola Tinubu briefing State House Correspondents

Its not an issue of individual, he said.

Even if you oppose it, you have 37 chairmen and one person objecting to it doesnt make any difference. And it was done at the NEC meeting anyway, the governors and everybody were there and I was not the one who proposed it.

Everybody supported it, so its not a question of one person. How can one person have a different opinion among the majority?

Its democracy. Once you have majority who are stronger without you and at the NEC meeting, only four people objected, the others supported it, so I couldnt have. Out of about 152 people only four people objected to it, so how does that four make a difference?

Asked if he was among the four that objected to the proposal, Mr. Ajomale replied, Why should I? Ive said I did not vote for either, but once you find about 112 people from 152 or so and only four people objected to 152 members of NEC, what can I do?

On Tuesday, a group of aggrieved members of the Lagos State APC launched the Broom United Movement to, among other things, protest Mr. Ajomales activities within the party.

Fouad Oki, the convener of the movement, told PREMIUM TIMES on Wednesday that they were unhappy at Mr. Ajomales role in extending Mr. Odigie-Oyeguns position as the national chairman of the party.

It goes to show exactly what Broom United Movement is talking about, Mr. Oki said.

The chairman of the Lagos State APC, as you are aware, is also the chair of chairmen of the states chairmen of the APC, and really theyve been at it long before now, which he has been championing.

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His actions and activities call to question among several other things, is he working alone? What is the position of Lagos State APC in the Federation?

I think hes the only person in the position to tell us why it is so, because if our leader, who is also our benefactor is taking a position I think..this is what Im saying, when you go to attend briefings at the national level, you also must take due cognisance of the feelings of the people you are representing back home.

John Odigie-Oyegun, Former APC Chairman

So the question is, is he representing us? Has he been a very good ambassador at the national level? Did he discuss this with our leader, who is from our state? Are they in tandem with such position? Or maybe he even voted against it, I want to grant him that benefit of doubt.

Mr. Ajomale declined to speak on the agitations of the new movement and the alleged divisions within the Lagos APC.

Im just landing from Abuja now. So until I do my investigation, I cant answer you. Im just arriving Lagos, Im at the airport now. We are in a democracy. Im going to consult and find out.ADVERTISEMENT

The House of Representatives on Tuesday set up an ad-hoc committee to investigate the abduction of female students from the Government Girls Science and Technical College in Dapchi, Yobe State.

In a unanimously adopted motion moved by Goni Bukar-Lawan, the representative of Dapchi community in the chamber, the lawmakers mandated the committee to investigate the abduction and return with a report and recommendation that can be practically applied to ensure that a re-occurrence is averted.

Mr. Lawan said the withdrawal of security checkpoints before the attack gave room for the ugly incident.

There was not any justification whatsoever to withdraw the military from that place, knowing fully well that there is a girls school there with about 900 of them and its a local government headquarters.

They withdrew the military personnel last week, which was not even known to us, he said

The army has since disputed the claim, saying it withdrew soldiers from the town over a month before the attack. The soldiers were moved to another more urgent battlefront against the Boko Haram, the army said.

The federal government on Tuesday provided the names and details of the 110 girls missing after Boko Haram attacked the town.ADVERTISEMENT

The Nigerian Air Force has denied that it is searching for the missing Dapchi schoolgirls with 100 aircraft.

The air force said a statement by the National Security Adviser on the matter was misconstrued.

Read the full statement by the force below.

The attention of the Nigerian Air Force (NAF) has been drawn to a statement being circulated to the effect that 100 NAF aircraft had been deployed in search of the missing Dapchi girls. While paying a courtesy call on the Executive Governor of Yobe State, in company of the Chief of Air Staff, on 27 February 2018, the National Security Adviser, Mohammed Monguno, indeed spoke about the number of sorties so far conducted by NAF aircraft in the course of searching for the missing girls within a stated period. Obviously, the number of sorties does not equate the number of aircraft deployed.

In a related development, the Chief of the Air Staff (CAS), Sadique Abubakar, has temporarily relocated to the Nigerian Air Force (NAF) base at Maiduguri, from where the air search operations for the missing Dapchi girls are being coordinated. This is in order to have first-hand information on the progress of the air search efforts and also give additional directives as might be necessary. The National Security Adviser (NSA), Mohammed Monguno, was equally at the NAF Base, Maiduguri, where he spoke to and encouraged the NAF personnel involved in the day and night air search operations.

Furthermore, both the NSA and the CAS visited Damaturu, where they paid a courtesy call on His Excellency, Ibrahim Gaidam, of Yobe State, during which they held useful discussions regarding the missing girls. Later in the day, the NSA, accompanied by the CAS and other top military officers, travelled to Monguno to commission new projects at 171 NAF Detachment Monguno. The newly commissioned projects include the Units Headquarters Complex, a block of 4 Single Officers Quarters, a block of 10 flats for airmen/airwomen and 2 helipads, all of which have just been constructed.

According to the Commander of the Air Task Force, Idi Lubo, air power projection has limitations, one of which is reach. He therefore expressed his delight, noting that with the commissioning of the projects at 171 NAF Detachment Monguno, the NAF had just extended the reach of its helicopters. In his remarks at the commissioning ceremony, the CAS stated that the projects were undertaken in pursuit of the NAFs commitment to ensuring security in the Northeast. He added that the NAF would continue to deploy air assets in all parts of the country towards ensuring that Nigerians are able to prosecute their businesses in a safe and secured environment. On the missing Dapchi girls, Mr. Abubakar declared that no efforts would be spared by the NAF in locating the girls, in conjunction with other security forces. He disclosed that NAF pilots on different NAF platforms were operating day and night to locate the girls, adding that he had decided to temporarily relocate to Maiduguri, given the import of the unfortunate incident.

While commissioning the projects, the Special Guest of Honour, Mohammed Monguno, lauded the monumental achievements of the NAF under its current leadership. He recalled that 171 NAF Detachment Monguno was only established in 2017; he was therefore surprised to see all that had been accomplished within the short period. He described the feats as a testimony to the zeal and commitment of the CAS to repositioning the NAF into a highly professional force in line with his clearly stated vision. The NSA also described the establishment of NAF presence in Monguno as being long overdue, as it would add the much needed value to the efforts of the other security agencies in ensuring peace in the Northeast. Speaking further, the NSA commended the NAF for its immense contributions to the overall efforts at degrading the capability of the Boko Haram Terrorists (BHTs) while urging NAF personnel to remain steadfast. He equally seized the opportunity to appreciate President Buhari for his support to the Armed Forces of Nigeria in ensuring the sustenance of operations.

Also commissioned yesterday, by the NSA, were a newly constructed Fire Fighting and an Aircraft Arming Bay at NAF Base Maiduguri. It is recalled that the Dapchi girls were declared missing on February 19 after reported attacks by BHTs following which the NAF immediately commenced an air search for them. The NAF has had to deploy additional air assets, including Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) platforms, to the North-east, on February 25, in a renewed effort at locating the missing girls. The CAS was still in the North-east as at the time of writing this report.ADVERTISEMENT

The trial of a former Group Managing Director, Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Andrew Yakubu, was on Wednesday, stalled at the Federal High Court, Abuja, due to the absence of prosecution witnesses.

When the matter was called up, the prosecuting counsel, Ben Ikani, told the court that the matter was for continuation of trial, but that unfortunately, his witnesses were not present in court.

Mr. Yakubus counsel, Ahmed Raji (SAN), also told the court that in the circumstance, he had filed an application seeking the leave of court for his client to attend to his health.

Mr. Raji further told the court that the prosecution had not opposed the application.

The trial judge, Justice Ahmed Mohammed, granted the application, as the prosecution raised no objection and adjourned the matter until May 10.

It will be recalled that on the last adjourned date, Waziri Nitte, the second prosecution witness, told the court how he and his colleagues, raided a house in Kaduna and recovered a huge sum of money in foreign currency.

Mr. Nitte, who was led in evidence by Mr. Ikani, told the court that he was a detective with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

The witness who said that they acted based on an intelligence report that the house in question was stashed with money, added that the money recovered was taken to the Central Bank of Nigeria.

We searched the house and found a safe which was locked, we engaged the services of a locksmith who unlocked the safe and upon counting the money, it amounted to $9,772, 800 and 74,000.

Mr. Yakubu was arraigned by the EFCC on a six-count charge, bordering on non-disclosure of assets and fraud, charges to which he pleaded not guilty.

He was alleged to have, as Group Managing Director of NNPC, between 2012 and 2014, within the jurisdiction of the court, with intent to avoid lawful transaction, transported to Kaduna $9.8million and 74,000.

He was also accused of failure to disclose $9.8 million and 74,000 in his asset declaration form, a crime which contravened Section 27 (3) of the EFCC Act.

(NAN)ADVERTISEMENT

A 68-year-old man, John Ekeh, who allegedly produced adulterated fan milk under the brand name, Fandago drinks, is to cool his heels in prison pending the fulfillment of his bail conditions.

The accused, who lives at Aluminum Village, Dopemu in Lagos, was granted a bail of N100,000 with two sureties in like sum, according to the ruling of an Ikeja Chief Magistrates Court.

The Chief Magistrate, L. Y. Balogun, who gave the ruling, said the sureties should be gainfully employed with an evidence of two years tax payment to the Lagos State Government.

She said the accused, who is facing a charge of adulteration, should remain in Kirikiri Prisons pending when the bail conditions would be met.

The accused, however, pleaded not guilty to the charge.

The accused allegedly committed the offence in the night of January 23 at 7.50 p.m. at his home in Otubu area of Agege, a Lagos suburb, the prosecution told the court.

The Police Prosecutor, Rachael Williams, said the accused adulterated fan milk branded as Fandago drinks as products of Fan Milk Company Ltd, situated at Ogba in Lagos.

The accused poured sachet water into fan milk bottles, mixed it with Nutri C thereby rendering the products noxious, dangerous, unfit for human consumption and sold same to (the) general public, she told the court.

The prosecutor said a letter had been sent to the Director-General, National Agency for Food and Drugs Administration and Control (NAFDAC), Oshodi, to conduct a laboratory analysis of the contents of the Fandago drinks.

Mr. Williams also alleged that the accused had no sealing machine to seal the fake products.

The offence contravenes Section 160 (b) of the Criminal Law of Lagos State, 2015 (Revised).

The Section prescribes a seven-year jail term for adulteration of products.

The magistrate adjourned the case until March 15.ADVERTISEMENT

The Nigeria Union of Local Government Employees (NULGE) said only nine states have so far voted in support of Local Government autonomy in the ongoing effort to amend the constitution.

The National President of the Union, Ibrahim Khaleel, who made this known at a press conference Wednesday in Abuja said two states out-rightly rejected the bill.

Mr. Khaleel called for the abolition of State Independent Electoral Commission, adding that the existence of the commission has made democracy at the local government level a mockery.

Mr. Khaleel said Kwara, Benue, Niger, Plateau, Bauchi, Cross River, Bayelsa, Ogun and Ondo are the states which have endorsed the local government autonomy bill, while Edo and Imo rejected it outright.

While accusing governors of the two states and their party, the All Progressives Congress (APC) of influencing the State Houses of Assembly to reject the bill, he said governors of the North-western states also influenced their state assemblies to defer its consideration.

He urged the states to approve the bill in the interest of Nigerians.

He said the union was not asking legislators to automatically endorse the bill, but to conduct public hearing as agreed by the Speakers Forum and the Governors Forum.

I want to call on our governors to, as a matter of respect for Nigerian citizens who have spoken and aspiring to have a local government system they can call their own, that will be free for them to participate democratically by electing their Chairmen and Councillors as and when due without undue influence from the government of the state.

The governors should begin to have some level of decorum in their approach to governance. Look at the shame brought to bear on our democracy by the election in Kano where underaged were the ones that mostly voted.

These are some of the issues that we have been trying to make Nigerians understand. That is not only in the area of democracy.

The idea behind establishing local government is by way of bringing governance closer to the people and providing a platform for everybody to participate at his own community level.

But the governors have hijacked this tier of government for their own advantage. This is why we are doggedly following this issue and we are not happy with most of the governors that are foot-dragging on this issue. If you look at the governors from the North-western states, they are foot-dragging, Mr. Khaleel said.ADVERTISEMENT

A former Vice President and chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party, Atiku Abubakar, has condemned the latest sectarian crisis, which claimed the life of the Adamawa State PDP spokesperson, Sam Zadock and 12 other victims.

Mr. Abubakar also condemned similar crisis in Kaduna and other places that have led to avoidable loss of lives in the country.

The former vice president said he was deeply embarrassed and utterly shocked by the continuing cycle of violence, revenge and counter revenge by ethnic warriors and militias in the country that has led to needless waste of precious human lives.

He noted that the reckless disregard for the sanctity of life is not only disturbing, but it also shows the failure of local leaders to manage differences and grievances, adding that bloodshed cannot be the solution to those grievances.

He explained that our common humanity is greater than our ethnic and religious differences and that the frequent resort to violence is inconsistent with the teachings of our religions about the sanctity of life.

Mr. Abubakar stressed that no society can achieve peace and happiness when love is replaced with violent and destructive hate and bigotry.

The former vice president called for cool headed approach to conflict resolutions instead of incitements to violence by ethnic and religious leaders, adding that those who encourage the destruction of life are unfit to lead others.

He also called for increased vigilance and prompt response to early signs of developing violence or conflicts in order to nip such crises in the bud.

He explained that the deployment of troops after lives have been lost is tantamount to locking the stable door after the horse has bolted.

While praising the efforts of security personnel and their sacrifices, he called for improved strategies and the use human intelligence to foil mass murderers before they strike.

He condoled with the Zadock family, families of the other deceased and the Adamawa PDP over the loss of their loved ones.ADVERTISEMENT

Justice Nnamdi Dimgba of the Federal High Court sitting in Maitama, Abuja, on Wednesday granted four applications by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, regarding properties purchased by Drexel Tech Nigeria Limited with proceeds of the ill-fated recruitment exercise into the Nigeria Immigration Service, NIS, which claimed the lives of over 20 applicants in various centres across the country.

Drexel Tech Nigeria Limited was the company to whom the Ministry of Interior awarded the contract for provision of online enlistment service for the NIS recruitment which took place on March 17, 2013 when Abba Moro (the first defendant in the suit) was minister.

The counsel to the EFCC, Aliyu Yusuf, had on January 24, 2018 moved a motion pursuant to Sections 6(d), 7(2), 24, 26(1) & (3), 28 and 34(1) of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission Act No.1 of 2004; Sections 329, 330 of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act, 2015 and Sections 46(2) (k), 251(3) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999, for interim attachment of the assets and properties set out in the schedule attached herein.

An order stopping the disposal, conveyance, mortgage, lease, sale or alienation or otherwise tampering with the properties/assets which are located at No 1, Lahn Crescent, Maitama, Abuja and No. 2, Sigure Close, Off Monrovia Street, Wuse II, Abuja.

An order authorising the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission to appoint a competent person/firm to manage the properties/assets listed in the schedule herein, temporarily forfeited to the Federal Government of Nigeria pending the conclusion of the criminal Charge No. CR/42/2016 in FRN v. Abba Moro Patrick and 3 others against the Defendant herein;

And for such further orders as this Honourable Court may deem fit to make in the circumstances of this case, he said.

Following the objection by the defence, the court adjourned to today for hearing on the motion.

At the resumed sitting, Justice Dimgba after arguments and counter arguments on the motion, granted all the prayers by the prosecution.

The judge held that, the court has the power to make preservatory orders which the court can monitor by itself.

The court also struck out another motion by Nkereuwem Akpan, who sought to be a party in the suit.

Thereafter, the case was adjourned to March 28 and 29 for continuation of trial.ADVERTISEMENT

The President of the Senate, Bukola Saraki, on Wednesday in Abuja said that the National Assembly would transmit the Disability Bill to President Muhammadu Buhari within 30 days for assent.

Mr. Saraki made the assertion when the Kapakpando Foundation, a non-governmental organisation, led by its Chairman of Board of Trustees, Osita Izunaso, visited him at the National Assembly Complex.

Mr. Saraki said that the bill was supposed to have been transmitted long ago having been passed by the two arms of the National Assembly.

According to him, this bill had no business in the National Assembly because it was passed but I am disappointed that due to administrative bottlenecks it had not been transmitted.

However, may I assure you that within 30 days, this bill will be sent to the president for assent because over 95 per cent work on it has been done.

I understand that the benefits are enormous and as soon as we start the better.

It should have come earlier but be assured that before the end of March the Senate will work assiduously to ensure it is transmitted for assent because we must provide the best of opportunities for the disabled, Mr. Saraki said.

Earlier, Mr. Izunaso, urged the leadership of the National Assembly to facilitate the transmission of the bill to the president for assent.

The Senior Special Assistant to the President on Disability Matters, Samuel Ankeli, commended Mr. Saraki over his assurance that the bill would be transmitted within 30 days for assent.

He said, It is a thing of joy that that within 30 days we will be celebrating that the harmonised version of the bill is transmitted for assent.Nigerias Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo, says American multinational firm, General Electric (GE), wants to invest $2 billion to revive the Lagos-Kano Rail Line, as part of efforts to boost local and international trade along Nigerias northern and southern zones.

Mr. Osinbajo, who spoke Wednesday at the opening of the inaugural edition of the Lagos-Kano Economic and Investment Summit in Lagos, said the proposal by GE, under a concession from the Nigerian government, aims to enhance the movement of cargo from Apapa ports to Kano via the rail line.

I believe that Lagos and Kano states have by this collaboration underscored the cornerstone of the federal governments economic recovery and growth plan, namely the leveraging of synergies among states and between government and the private sector, said Mr. Osinbajo, a Law Professor.

The strategic role of the federal government is of course to create an enabling environment for commerce, beginning with the provision of infrastructure.

For us, what this meant especially in the context of Lagos and Kano collaboration is the refurbishing of the narrow gauge Lagos to Kano Rail with a concession to General Electric who are proposing to invest almost $2 billion to ensure that the rail route is effective for movement of cargo from Apapa port to Kano.

Similarly, we are investing in the Lagos to Kano standard gauge line, the Lagos-Ibadan portion of that is expected to be ready by the end of this year.

Also, we have budgeted N80 billion for the development of special economic zones in the six geo-political zones of the country.

Mr. Osinbajo also said arrangements had been made to establish independent power projects to specifically service printers in Somolu area and traders in Sura Market in Lagos.

He said the Federal Government would keep a close tap on the decisions reached at the Summit and would use it to direct its engagement with state governments going forward.

Let me again commend Governors Ganduje and Ambode for this summit, the vice president continued.

I want to commend Governor Ganduje for making the long journey to Lagos. I must also say that Governor Ambode deserves special mention for his foresightedness in establishing this collaboration, working with Governor Atiku Bagudu of Kebbi on the famous LAKE Rice and even leasing land from Ogun State to grow rice which I think is another act of collaboration.

In his address, Governor Akinwunmi Ambode said the decision of the Lagos state Government to join the Oodua Investment Group triggered what has evolved over the last two years to become a signpost for effective partnerships between Lagos and other States.

He said with the current economic challenges facing the nation, there was no better time for states to begin to look beyond an oil driven economy and take advantage of their comparative advantages to engender economic growth.

We urge other states and regions to begin to leverage on their respective areas of comparative advantage by establishing partnerships towards establishing an inter-state or inter-regional commodity value chain, the Lagos governor said.

The idea of an intra and inter-regional trade and cooperation is not new to Lagos State. Over the past years, our State has collaborated with Kebbi and other states from within the western region to drive economic growth and development.

He said the immediate aim of the strategic partnership with Kano is to produce about 80 per cent of Nigerias agro-allied inputs such as wheat, groundnut, onions, maize, millet, sorghum, sugar cane and beef, adding that a Memorandum of Understanding would be signed by both states at the end of the summit to demonstrate commitment to the sustainability of the partnership.

Also speaking, Governor Abdullahi Ganduje said his administration entered into the partnership with Lagos with a strong belief that it would create a veritable platform to drive home grown investments in the face of volatile global oil prices.

We need to redefine our investment climate and find alternative sources of financing critical sectors and projects as well as improve public service delivery, he said.

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He said the state was looking towards effective partnership in Infrastructure, Agricultural Value Chain, Solid Minerals, ICT, Commence and Industry, Medium and Small Scale Enterprises, Tourism, Governance and Institutions.

On his part, president of Dangote Group, Aliko Dangote, commended the partnership between both states, just as he said Lagos has clearly demonstrated its readiness for serious investments.

Lagos is more than ready for business. Our refinery, petrochemical, fertilizer and gas projects will generate N8 trillion per annum for Nigeria when fully on stream, he said.The Inspector General of Police, Ibrahim Idris, on Wednesday warned governors to desist from pushing anti-open grazing laws in their respective states until they have ranches for livestock in place.

Mr. Idris comment, which is a reiteration of similar warnings for which he had been criticised the past, was delivered at a security meeting with northern leaders on Wednesday in Kaduna, according to a police statement.

To reduce the incidence of clashes between farmers and herders in Nigeria, state governments should endeavour to establish grazing ranches in their various states before enacting laws to prohibit open rearing and grazing, Mr. Idris was quoted as saying in an e-mailed statement from the Force Headquarters.

The police chief has been an ardent critic of any legislation that targets herdsmens activities across the country, warning that the best approach towards a peaceful resolution of the farmers-herders crisis is to work out the modalities for livestock ranching first.

Establishment of ranches across the state would make the anti-open grazing statutes acceptable by all the parties concerned and other critical stakeholders in that all-important sector, Mr. Idris said.

Mr. Idris position clashes with the policy decisions of governors in Benue, Ekiti and Taraba States, where anti-open grazing laws are now in place.

In Ekiti State, the law, signed by Governor Ayo Fayose in 2016, prohibits open-grazing between 6:00 p.m. and 7:00 a.m.

Governor Samuel Ortom followed suit in 2017 with a law that places an absolute ban on open-grazing across Benue State.

The law, which went into effect in November 2017, has been blamed for the escalating violence which had left more than 100 residents killed in attacks linked to herdsmen across Benue since January 1.

As several other states across the south are weighing laws against open-grazing, Mr. Idris warned governors not to emulate their counterparts in the three states that have so far put the law in place in order not to worsen the security situation across the country.

.

It will do us good if we avoid the hasty formulation and implementation of such laws across the country in the interest of peace and unity, Mr. Idris said.

Lere Olayinka, a spokesperson for Mr. Fayose, disagreed with the police chief in a telephone exchange with PREMIUM TIMES Wednesday night.

It unfortunate that this is coming from the Inspector-General, Mr. Olayinka said.

Cattle farming is a business like every other business. Governments dont go about building poultry for poultry farmers. Governments dont go about building fisheries for fish farmers. Governments dont go about building piggeries for pig farmers.

Mr. Olayinka accused Mr. Idris of dishonesty because the recent attacks predated the activation of open-grazing laws.

An estimated 1,269 were killed in attacks linked to herdsmen between 2013 and 2016, but hardly had anyone been punished for the killings, a PREMIUM TIMES investigation found in August 2016, weeks before Mr. Fayose signed the first-ever law to curb open-grazing on August 29, 2016.

Herdsmen accused villagers of killing herders and rustling their livestock, with Fulani leaders telling PREMIUM TIMES in a 2016 interview that the massacre in Agatu was a reprisal attack for the alleged theft and the 2013 killing of one of their leaders.

The annual cost of the conflict between pastoralists and villagers across the country was placed at about $14 billion by the UK-funded global humanitarian agency, Mercy Corps.

Mr. Olayinka said the police should be an unbiased authority in the crisis.

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Whatever the opinion of the Inspector-General, the police must realise that they have no choice but to implement any law signed by a governor or the president, the spokesperson said. Mr. Idris does not have a choice in this matter.

President Muhammadu Buhari has come under pressure to address the crisis since Nigerians entered the new year with reports of deadly attacks on villages across the north central, especially in Benue, Nasarawa and Taraba.

Mr. Buhari, who had delegated Vice President Yemi Osinbajo to lead the efforts in devising policies that would end the crisis, ordered Mr. Idris to relocate to the region following the attacks, but the police chief did not comply with the order without publicly stating his reasons.The Kogi State Governor, Yahaya Bello, has assured the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) of complete security for their investment in the Alape Staple Crop Processing Zone situated in Kabba/Bunu Local Government Area of the State. He said this at the NNPC Tower, Abuja, while making his remarks on Tuesday, at the Memorandum of Understanding signing ceremony between the NNPC and the Kogi State Government for the Cooperation in the Promotion and Development of Biofuels Project.

Governor Bello said the era of calling Kogi State a civil servant state is officially over as this project is expected to create about two million direct and indirect jobs and the internally-generated revenue would surely grow exponentially. He thanked the NNPC top management staff and all the investors for choosing Kogi and promised that the investment would be well secured.

I have the mandate of the good people of Kogi State that your investment and personnel would be well secured. We inherited a state that was largely insecure 24 months ago. Today, Kogi is the most secure place to invest as far as this country is concerned.

We are currently the largest producers of cassava in the country. We will be the largest producer in the world very soon.

The governor further explained that the Africa Development Bank is poised to finance all the infrastructure needed to make the Alape Staple Crop Processing Zone a success.

In his welcome remarks, the Group Managing Director of the NNPC, Maikanti Baru, said the occasion marked another major milestone in the present federal governments determination to diversify the economy. He said it also compliments Nigerias effort in meeting with the growing energy demand.

NNPC is committed towards the implementation of Nigerias Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) under the Paris Agreement aimed at combating global Climate Change, to which Mr. President, Muhammadu Buhari signed, and deposited Nigerias Instrument of Ratification to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in May 2017, he said.

The Renewable Energy Division of NNPC was created in line with federal government directive with the sole aim of industrializing Agriculture in Nigeria through the commercial production of biofuels from selected energy crops as feedstock, while fostering the exploitation of other renewable energy sources; mitigating climate change and earn carbon credits from CDM Projects Activities and serve as additional line of profitable business for NNPC, including food production and power generation, diversification of NNPCs business portfolio and serve as a credible source of additional income for the corporation.

Mr. Baru said in order to address the food security issues associated with producing 1st generation biofuels, the Nigerian Biofuels Policy had carefully selected energy crops as feedstock to be developed on large-scale green fields and out-growers scheme, using improved high-yielding varieties. This would ensure fuel and food production as well as land-use optimisation, and minimise to the barest minimum the impact on food production.

The NNPC is pleased to know of another opportunity in the Alape Staple Crop Processing Zone (SCPZ), a vast agro allied business opportunity which provides suitable agronomics for the cultivation of sugar cane, cassava and oil palm.

Discussions have been held with the various parties/stakeholders on the Kogi Biofuels Project on the modality for the implementation of the Kogi Biofuels Project, and we have reached a point of mutual agreement for the first stage with the signing of MoU today.

Kogi, NNPC sign MOU on biofuels Kogi, NNPC sign MOU on biofuels Kogi, NNPC sign MOU on biofuels

The signing of this MoU with the Kogi State Government will spearhead the furtherance of pre-project engagements, which hopefully will lead to the formation of a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) to steer the future activity of the proposed project.

Mr. Baru said that apart from the two million jobs to be provided, the project is central to the attainment of economic development on the basis of value-added investment portfolios, environmental sustainability, climate change mitigation, wealth and job creation to reduce the poverty index, while balancing the ecosystem, and maintenance of national and global security.

Kogi, NNPC sign MOU on biofuels Kogi, NNPC sign MOU on biofuels Kogi, NNPC sign MOU on biofuels

The proposed NNPC Biofuels project in Kaba/Bunu, Kogi State will be modeled to be an integrated Feedstock Plantation and Process Plants Complex on land covering a total of 20,000 hectares for sugarcane and or 15,000 hectares for cassava with potentials for further expansion.

According to the GMD, the project to be constructed in the complex under a Zero-Waste Concept, and the services thereof include, but not limited to the development and provision of: Sugarcane Feedstock Plantation: 19,000 hectares; Cane Mill and Raw/Refined Sugar Plant: 126,000 tons/year; Fuel-Ethanol Processing Plant: 84 million Litres/year; Bagasse Cogeneration Plant: 64 Megawatts; Carbon Dioxide Recovery and Bottling Plant: 2,000 tons/year; Animal Feed: 63,000 tons/year; Organized Out-Growers Scheme; Clean Development Mechanism Projects Activities under the UNFCCC and Other appropriate Utilities/Services.

Kogi, NNPC sign MOU on biofuels Kogi, NNPC sign MOU on biofuels Kogi, NNPC sign MOU on biofuels

This is to provide about one million direct and indirect jobs.

For cassava, the benefits are Cassava Feedstock Plantation: 15,000 hectares; Cassava tubers tonnage: 400,000 tons/year; Fuel-Ethanol Processing Plant: 38 million Litres/year; Dry native starch: 36,300 tons/year; Carbon Dioxide Recovery and Bottling Plant: 10,000 tons/year; Animal Feed: 31,500tonnes tons/year; Organized Out-Growers Scheme; Clean Development Mechanism Projects Activities under the UNFCCC other appropriate Utilities/Services.

Kogi, NNPC sign MOU on biofuels Kogi, NNPC sign MOU on biofuels Kogi, NNPC sign MOU on biofuels

This as well will provide 1 million direct and indirect jobs. The plant has a gestation period of 36 months.

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The Kogi State Commissioner for Finance, Mukadam Asiru, said the state government is excited to be hosting such a huge project and the added revenue that would come with it.

Kogi, NNPC sign MOU on biofuels Kogi, NNPC sign MOU on biofuels Kogi, NNPC sign MOU on biofuels

Our joy is that this massive project is coming in the time of the new direction administration of Governor Yahaya Bello and we are most happy to be proving doubters wrong. We are sure that this project alone will secure the future of most of our youth and the health of our state purse, he concluded.

Kogi, NNPC sign MOU on biofuels Kogi, NNPC sign MOU on biofuels Kogi, NNPC sign MOU on biofuels

Kogi, NNPC sign MOU on biofuels Kogi, NNPC sign MOU on biofuels Kogi, NNPC sign MOU on biofuelsADVERTISEMENT

Kogi State House of Assembly has called on the state government to embark on biometric data capturing of all Fulani herdsmen in the state for proper planning, control and security purposes.

The call was made in a resolution of the house reached at plenary on Wednesday following a motion moved by the Majority Leader, Bello Abdullahi-Balogun (APC-Ajaokuta).

He said that the state had in recent times experienced influx of Fulani herdsmen as a result of the clashes between farmers and herdsmen in neighbouring states of Benue and Nasarawa among others.

Mr. Abdullahi-Balogun said that Governor Yahaya Bello in humility and magnanimity had offered to make Kogi State a home for every law-abiding citizens of Nigeria irrespective of race or religion as part of tenets of democratic deliverables.

The state has to ensure the security of people and property as a result of the influx of the Fulani herdsmen in large number to the state.

There is also the need for the government to embark on head count of the herdsmen residents in the state.

He, therefore, called on the state government, the local government administrators and the Ministry of Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs to embark on biometric data capturing of herdsmen in the state.

Seconding the motion, Ahmed Mohammed (APC-Ankpa I) said it was a motion of concern to the people of Kogi, adding that the biometric data capturing would really help in checking the farmers/herdsmen hostilities.

A lot of people had taken advantage of the Fulani herdsmen/farmers clashes to perpetrate evil but with this technology, we will be able to know the Fulanis in our midst, especially now that our government is making the state a home for all, he said.

Supporting the motion, Hassan Abdullahi (APC-Dekina II) and Oluwatoyin Lawal (PDP-Yagba West) said the motion was timely in view of recent happenings.

Ruling on the motion, Speaker Matthew Kolawole said that with the biometric data capturing of the Fulanis from village to village, excesses of those destroying crops and those involved in robbery would be checked.

Mr. Kolawole said the head count had nothing to do with colony or ranch but the need to know those coming into the state.

The motion, thereafter, was adopted following majority voice votes.

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The Senate President, Bukola Saraki, has expressed happiness over the passage of a bill by the Kwara State House of Assembly to suspend payment of pension to former governors and their deputies who are holding political or public offices.

The bill was passed on Tuesday after the House considered a report of its Committee on Establishment and Public Service.

The lawmakers unanimously adopted the motion for the passage of the bill, which was moved by the Deputy House Leader, Segilola Abdulkadir.

Mr. Saraki, who is a former governor of Kwara, through a Facebook post on Wednesday, revealed that he, had a hand in the passage of the bill.

I am pleased that following my conversation with Kwara Speaker, Rt. Hon. Ali Ahmad, two months ago, the Bill to suspend the payment of Pension to former Governors and their Deputies when they hold a Political or Public office was passed into law yesterday by the Kwara House of Assembly, said the Senate president.

PREMIUM TIMES could not immediately verify Mr. Sarakis claims that he influenced the passage.

He added, Moving forward, it is my hope that other State Assemblies take a cue from Kwara State and pass similar pieces of legislation into law.

Apart from Kwara, other states like Akwa Ibom, Lagos, Kano, Rivers, Gombe, and Zamfara have enacted laws to provide outrageous pension to former governors and their deputies.

In Akwa Ibom, for instance, the law empowered the state government to spend about N200 million annually on the former governor, Godswill Akpabio, even while he is earning salary as a senator.

A Non-governmental Organisation in Nigeria, the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project, SERAP, has been in court since October 2017 to stop former governors, now serving as senators and ministers, from receiving double pay and life pensions.

Public function should be exercised in the public interest. Double emoluments promote private self-interest or self-dealing. By signing double emoluments laws, which they knew or ought to know that they would be beneficiaries, these former governors have abused their entrusted positions, and thereby obtained an undue advantage, contrary to article 19 of the UN Convention against Corruption to which Nigeria is a state party, SERAP stated in a document it filed before a Federal High Court in Lagos.

SERAP is asking the court to compel the Attorney General of the Federation to take legal steps to stop pensions for former governors and their deputies.

Senators and ministers should not be receiving salaries and pensions running into billions of naira from states that are currently unwilling or unable to pay their workers salaries and pensioners entitlements. National and international laws implicitly forbid public officials entrusted with public resources from granting to themselves emoluments for life while serving in other public offices including as senators and ministers.

Taking advantage of entrusted public offices and positions to enact laws to grant double emoluments and large severance benefits to serving public officials amounts to not only an abuse of office but also incorrect, dishonourable and improper performance of public functions, as per the provisions of paragraph 2 of article 8 of the United Nations Convention Against Corruption, SERAP said in the court document.Houses were again set ablaze by a mob in Kalla village near Kasuwar Magani in Kajuru local Government Area of Kaduna State on Tuesday evening.

The incident occurred at about 5 p.m., according to residents.

The village is about 7 kilometres from Kasuwar Magani community where a previous violence raged on Monday causing about 12 deaths.

PREMIUM TIMES gathered that about 300 residents of Kalla village are now squatting with relations and friends.

Residents say a mob, consisting mostly of the youth, were seen going from house to house setting fire yesterday evening.

Premium Times reported the outbreak of violence among the youth in Kasuwar Magani, over interfaith dating on Monday.

Normalcy was said to have returned Tuesday morning as security agencies deployed to the area took over the major streets in the community. The police confirmed 12 killed in the violence but said normalcy had been restored.

Residents remained indoors throughout the day.

A resident of Kalla village who simply identified himself as Akilu told PREMIUM TIMES by phone that he and his neighbours took refuge at Kasuwar Magani Police Station after the youth chased them away from their houses.

We abandoned our properties to save our lives. We are not part of the crisis in Kasuwar Magani. In fact, when the first incident occurred on Monday nothing happened in our village.

But on Tuesday evening that we thought everything was calm, some youth in their numbers began to set fire to our houses.

Our village is small with virtually about 20-25 houses and all have been set ablaze by the youth. This I saw with my eyes as we were being escorted out by mobile policemen and soldiers who came to rescue us, he said.

Mr Akilu said it was the security personnel that gave them cover to the police station.

From the police station, those of us with relatives nearby went there with our family members to past the night. It was really a horrific situation, he said.

According to him, nobody was killed but an elderly man in the area was seriously injured.

We have been living peacefully with the tribes there but see what their youth did to us. I dont think we will return to the village again, he said.

Motorists plying the Kaduna-Kachia-Kajuru Highway from the southern part of the state were said to have been stranded yesterday night due to the fresh violence at Kalla village.

The fresh violence happened few hours after a team of Muslim and Christian scholars visited Kasuwar Magani community to counsel the people about peace and reconciliation Tuesday Morning.

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The team was headed by Yohanna Buru, who is the national president, Peace Revival and Reconciliation Foundation of Nigeria.

He explained that the aim was to meet with all the traditional title holders, Muslim and Christian leaders, youth organisation, and other relevant authority in the area to sympathise with them over the ugly incident that claimed lives and properties.

We came here as a team of religious leaders to meet with every stake holder in the area, so as to interact and dialogue, on ways to move the region ahead through forgiveness, tolerance because peace is the best solution to all kinds of problem disturbing any society.ADVERTISEMENT

The Bayelsa State Government says it will spend N3.5 billion for the payment of civil servants salary in February against the N2.9 billion spent for January salary in the state.

Governor Seriake Dickson disclosed this through his deputy, retired Rear Admiral Gborigbiogha John-Jonah.

He spoke on Wednesday in Yenagoa, the state capital during the monthly transparency briefing to outline the expenditure of government during the month.

The governor attributed the increase in salary for the month to the introduction of school feeding programme and boarding facilities in public schools across the state, where more staff would be engaged.

He, however, promised to sustain the school feeding programme in the state to encourage the citizens and Nigerians living in the state to acquire qualitative education.

According to him, the state spent over N2 billion on January salaries, while the increase for February will help in educational sector.

He said that the state government invested huge funds to remodel and provide adequate facilities for intensive learning for Bayelsa children and other Nigerians living in the state.

In the month of January, the state received N2.9 billion as its statutory allocation; N9.6 billion, over N730 million from VAT; N8.9 million from Forex, and N57.5 million from the refund from other states which amount to the sum of N14, 289,476,335,70 for the month, he highlighted.

He announced that during the period under review, the state spent N630 million for salary grants to the state owned tertiary institutions, explaining that the state is expecting increase in its Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) for the months of February and March.

(NAN)The Peoples Democratic Party in Edo State has attacked the state Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, Yinka Omorogbe, for saying human trafficking in the state has deep cultural roots.

But the state government rose to the defence of the commissioner, saying she only told the truth.

Ms. Omorogbe was quoted recently by CNN saying (Human) trafficking in Edo is neither solely about economic issues nor underdevelopment, but has deep cultural roots that must be exposed, examined and pulled out.

Ms. Omorogbe, who is the head of a task force against human trafficking in the state, was responding to questions from the American cable television network which was on an undercover investigation in Edo.

Edo State is Nigerias trafficking hub and one of Africas largest departure points, CNN said in the report of its investigation which had its reporter posing as a would-be migrant attempting to travel from the state to Italy.

The PDP said Ms. Omorogbes remark was not only distasteful but degrading to Edo people and their culture.

We reject the description, the party said on Tuesday in a statement issued by its spokesperson, Chris Nehikhare.

On the contrary, Edo people are proud, industrious and have one of the richest cultures on the African continent.

The party, which said human trafficking has peaked since the coming into power of the All Progressives Congress-led government in the last 10 years in Edo State, blamed the situation on the failure of Governor Godwin Obaseki s administration to provide jobs for the youth.

It also accused the government of killing small businesses through a punitive tax regime.

The truth cannot be hidden as it is clear that the singular reason for the thriving human trafficking business in Edo is poverty. Poverty caused by government failure, policy, and insensitivity! Mr. Nehikhare said.

The PDP sympathised with families which lost their loved ones to human trafficking and advised the state government to shift gear from campaign mode and begin to govern.

However, Crusoe Osagie, the spokesperson to Governor Obaseki, in his response to the attack from the PDP, said the commissioner for justice was only stating the obvious.

She was frank about the menace and any honest Edo person would appreciate the fact that the trend had assumed the status of an alternate culture, unfortunately, among our people, Mr. Osagie said in an article he forwarded to PREMIUM TIMES, Wednesday.

The grim statistics are verifiable from the number of Edo people that were evacuated from Libya. In every batch of returnees, there were at least 60 percent Edo people. Does this mean that Edo people are the poorest in Nigeria? Is Edo State the least industrialised in Nigeria? Is Edo State the closest state to the Sahara Desert or Mediterranean? PDP can provide Edo people with the correct answers. The truth must be told, if we are ready to solve the seeming hydra-headed problem.

Mr. Osagie said PDP, and not the All Progressives Congress, APC-led government in the state, should be blamed for setting the stage for the unprecedented scale of illegal migration and human trafficking.

He said, Undergraduates abandoned their educational pursuit, those learning one trade or the other gave them up for the reigning alternate culture of migrating illegally abroad.

There were no motorable roads in Benin City or elsewhere. Teachers House area in Ogida was a disaster, same for Queen Eden and St Maria Goretti junction on Upper Sokponba Road, which was christened Morocco and Spain. The situation was pathetic and disheartening.

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It is also laughable that the PDP would think that taxing cottage industries is a root cause of human trafficking. With this, they show that they are ignorant of the matrix of governance. That they gloss over the issues and want to pitch tent with the common man with these misguided inferences mark them out as mischief makers garbed in lies and falsehood.

The British Deputy High Commissioner in Nigeria, Laure Beaufils, said on Monday in Edo State, during a Roundtable on Migration and Human Trafficking organised by the Nigerian Senate, that 4000 to 6000 times, some Nigerian girls are forced to have sex with strangers for the rest of their lives.

The deputy high commissioner said the situation called for immediate actions that could help end human trafficking.ADVERTISEMENT

The Imo State Deputy Governor, Eze Madumere, on Wednesday rejected the offer of a senatorial seat made to him by Governor Rochas Okorocha.

The governor had on Monday declared interest to run for the Imo West Senatorial seat. He also hinted that he would ask his deputy to jettison his governorship ambition and contest for the Imo East Senatorial election which will pave the way for Mr. Okorochas son-in-law, Uche Nwosu, to emerge candidate of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).

The governor had earlier endorsed Mr. Nwosu, who is married to his first daughter, Uloma, as the next governor of the state.

If Uche Nwosu will be home for governor, I will tell the deputy governor to go to the Senate, Mr. Okorocha had said.

But Mr. Madumere, who is from Owerri zone, which has not produced a governor since the return to democracy in 1999, rejected the offer in a statement by his Chief Press Secretary, Uche Onwuchekwa.

According to the statement, Mr. Madumere restated his resolve to contest for the office of the governor in 2019.

He said it is not just about his ambition but about the entire Owerri zone which, he said, has been side-lined and marginalised.

Gods given vision to better the lot of Imo people is in no mans hands.

He described the Senate position offered to him by Mr. Okorocha as an act of betrayal, adding that If Jesus Christ could be ill-treated by those he called his friends and was later betrayed by Judas, how much more a mere mortal like me.

He lamented that he has been molested, betrayed and insulted by those he nurtured to become relevant in life.ADVERTISEMENT

The Senator representing Abia South Senatorial District of Abia, Enyinnaya Abaribe, has urged Aba entrepreneurs not to hide their ingenuity in Aba, but to show it the world.

Mr. Abaribe gave the advice at the ongoing 5th Made-in-Aba Trade Fair on Wednesday in Abuja.

The Senator said the entrepreneurial abilities of the Abia people should not be hidden in Aba because no one would know such ingenuity exists.

He said that the aim of holding the fair annually in Abuja was to show the capabilities of the Aba artisans to the whole of Nigeria and beyond.

I dont want people to continue to hide in Aba, hence, the organisers of the fair had to bring them to the capital of Nigeria, so that everybody would know that these people exist in Aba, Mr. Abaribe said.

A fashion designer at the fair, Comfort Ogbor, who spoke with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), called on the federal government to support businesses in Aba to generate more employment and boost the countrys economy.

An online trader, Ifeanyi Anucha said the government could assist the artisans with modern tools to enhance production.

Mr. Anucha said made- in-Aba products were of good quality and could compete with products from other climes.

Recently, I had orders from the United Kingdom for some of our products; I sent samples and the recipient was amazed at what we could do in Aba, he said.

A producer of trunk boxes, Ifeanyi Onuoha, said he was at the fair to show the world that Aba could manufacture better trunk boxes.

One of the guests at the fair, Dr. Ardak from Kazakhstan, said the products exhibited at the fair were cheaper than those in the conventional Abuja market.

She said the products were good for local consumption, but could not compete favourably in the international market due to poor finishing.

(NAN)The private waste operators in Lagos State on Tuesday insisted that reinstating them to their previous duties as domestic waste collectors in the state is the way out of their protracted dispute with the government.

The operators under the aegis of Association of Waste Managers of Nigeria at a press conference in Lagos said the governments decision to channel their operations solely on commercial waste collection would ruin their businesses.

Domestic waste collection forms about 80 per cent of our total operations, the reason for clamouring for domestic is because commercial is just 20 per cent of our operations, Oladipo Egbeyemi, the associations chairman, said.

Commercial waste collection will not be enough for the almost 400 of our members.

The waste collectors, also known as Private Sector Participant (PSP) operators, have been at loggerheads with the Lagos State Government following the latters decision to contract a concessionaire, the Dubai-based Visionscape Group, to handle collection of waste from residential areas.

The PSP operators went to court in January last year to challenge the governments action.

The courts order that parties explore an extrajudicial settlement of the dispute has stalled for months as both sides have refused to budge.

The PSP operators accused the government of insincere intentions after, firstly, they found out their jobs had been ceded to a foreign company in 2016.

And as settlement talks were in earnest, the operators said a list of 49,000 properties presented by the government for commercial collection of waste included mostly duplicated and triplicated properties, according to Mr. Egbeyemi.

The government, on its part, accused the operators of sabotaging the efforts of the Cleaner Lagos Initiative and arrested an operator last week.

The company, however, denied the accusations.

No division

The PSP operators also accused the state government of employing divide-and-rule tactics after a splinter group of waste collectors emerged last week and pledged their cooperation to the government.

The new group, which identified themselves as the Concerned Stakeholders of Association of Waste Managers of Nigeria, said their desire to work with government was borne out of a desire to prevent the outbreak of an epidemic considering the resurgence of waste in public places.

But the Association of Waste Managers of Nigeria distanced itself from the claims to cooperate with the government, saying they are still negotiating an out-of-court settlement.

At Tuesdays press conference where the members unanimously agreed that domestic waste collection is the only way to save their jobs, Mr. Egbeyemi said the association, would not sanction members of the splinter group.

We have internal mechanisms that can be explored and once we have exhausted that then we can go to the next level, Mr. Egbeyemi said.

We have absolutely no intention of sanctioning them because there is still room for them to come back.

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He said that negotiations with the government and Visionscape had not collapsed, adding that they were yet to receive a feedback from their talks with the company.

The only way out of this challenge is for us to work together to take Lagos out of this mess. We are still hoping that Visionscape will come around and give us their terms of operation.ADVERTISEMENT

The striking non-teaching staff of Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, under the aegis of Joint Action Committee, on Monday disrupted the mock examination that was scheduled to take place at the university.

The examination is part of that organised nationwide by the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board, JAMB.

The workers stormed the ICT centre of the institution, pulling the canopies erected for the purpose of the examination down. This caused the candidates already seated to run.

According to the Chairman of Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities, SSANU, Ademola Oketunde, the disruption came up as a result of an infuriating statement credited to the university management.

The exam must not hold, he said. We are ready to lay our lives for this struggle. What enraged us was the VC saying he will bring in the police to fight us.

On arrival at the scene, the police area commander, Funsho Adegboye, addressed the angry workers and pleaded with them to show their grievances within the ambits of the law.

Weve been in dialogue with the CSO, the VC and other stakeholders. Nobody is happy with your plight, even the vice chancellor. The reason why I am here with my men is for peace. Let us carry out this struggle within the ambits of the law, he pleaded.

Speaking later with journalists, Mr Oketunde said the main purpose for the total shut down was for the world to know that things are not in a good state in Nigerian universities.

He said, We are shutting down even water. I live in staff quarters and if water becomes difficult to get, I will dig well. Im from the village. We are fighting for our legitimate right and we wont stop until we get to a logical conclusion. If they write the exam in the midnight, we will wake up to stop them. Government and universities management are stage managing reports in newspapers saying things are normal whereas, things are not.

We are not only fighting injustice alone but also calling the government to prosecute all the people that are involved. The money paid was paid without passing through bursary and audit. It is a total fraud. Even if they give us what we asked for tomorrow, we are going to write a petition against the procedure. If you believe in Nigeria without fighting corruption, we wont get anywhere and that is why here JAC in OAU is passionate about reducing corruption to the barest minimum.ADVERTISEMENT

The cracks within the Lagos State chapter of the All Progressives Congress became apparent on Tuesday with the emergence of the Broom United Movement, a group of aggrieved members of the party.

At the launch of the group in Lagos, Fouad Oki, the convener, said the group is a coalition of all members in one big and united enclave that will accommodate all shades of opinion, views and aspirations in a collective and healthy competitive atmosphere.

Our party suffers from low organisational capacity and lack of internal democracy, Mr. Oki said.

The resultant effect of this has been its incapacity to support our democracy as expected. Its inability to serve many important functions, including citizen mobilisation, interest aggregation, public policy formulation, leadership recruitment and government organisation.

This apparent weakness underscores the need for reform and institutionalisation of a process whereby professionals become more central to the running of our party.

For years, issues of lack of internal democracy as well as the imposition of candidates during elections have dogged the state chapter of the party.

In 2014, dozens of party members marched to the office of the then governor, Babatunde Fashola, to protest against the imposition of candidates for elective positions.

A few months later, in an interview with PREMIUM TIMES, the partys National Legal Adviser and a former commissioner in the state, Muiz Banire, spoke out strongly against the tendency of imposition on the people.

Mr. Banires persistent campaign against imposition of candidates set him at loggerheads with the party leadership in the state, with some members calling for his expulsion from the party.

In his statement, Mr. Oki said the desire to form the Broom United Movement came out of the need to thoroughly interrogate and dissect the issues militating against deepening synergic cohesion which had eluded the party since inception.

The party has not been able to engender peace, trust and confidence in its membership. The undesirable cleavages of mistrust between the principal stakeholders is encouraging perfidious little minds at the local levels to further sow the seed of discord among the stakeholders in the naive belief that the could gainfully exploit the cleavages for personal purposes.

Our party in Lagos State has never been this divided and disunited, the current graveyard silence that permeate our political landscape with a siddon look A O mu erin joba syndrome is very dangerous. Political parties are vital organisations in a democracy, and democracy is stronger when citizens become active members of political parties.

Today, our party in Lagos State is fading into insignificance. Massive membership exclusion is becoming the order of the day with members withdrawing from the political space and constituting themselves into internal opposition.ADVERTISEMENT

The Governor of Ondo State, Oluwarotimi Akeredolu, has said the national leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Bola Tinubu, will find no work to do in his reconciliation efforts in Ondo State as there is unity in the state chapter of the party.

Mr. Tinubu was recently appointed by President Muhammadu Buhari to mend cracks in the unity of the ruling APC across its states chapters, many ruptured by crises.

The governor spoke against the backdrop of earlier reports quoting him as saying that Mr. Tinubu had no business coming to the state.

In a statement on Tuesday signed by his Commissioner for Information, Yemi Olowolabi, the governor however said the former Lagos State governor was welcome in the state.

Mr, Akeredolu said that Mr, Tinubu would find no work to do in the state since there was peace and stability among members of the (state) APC.

The governor also denied that he did not recognise the senator representing Ondo North, Ajayi Boroffice, as senator, but added that his statement underscored the fact that, he knew only two APC senators working with him to uplift the state.

The APC in Ondo State is currently embroiled in a legal tussle over the leadership of the party.

Isaac Kekekeme, who was suspended as chairman of the party under controversial circumstances, is prosecuting a case against the Acting Chairman, Ade Adetimehin, who has the backing of the governor.

Mr. Boroffice is seen by some members of the governors team as guilty of anti-party activities having backed the Alliance for Democracy during the last governorship election.

The governor had repeatedly denounced Mr. Boroffices action during the election, saying he should be sanctioned according to the provisions of the partys constitution .

Also, his statement, that he knew only two senators working with him to uplift the state clearly points to senators, Yele Omogunwa and Tayo Alasoadura, and reflects the silent battle between Mr. Bofroffice and the governor.

Olusegun Abraham, who was the runner up at the September 2016 governorship primaries, is still livid over the manner issues arising from the primaries were handled and has since sought recourse in the court of law, contending that he was the right APC candidate.

Despite these misgivings, the governor maintains there is no crisis in the state APC chapter.

According to the commissioner, the governor wishes to make it clear that the Asiwaju Tinubu-led reconciliation committee is welcome in Ondo State at any time.

The committee will, however, find that it has no work to do in the state, as there is peace and stability in the Ondo State APC, it added.

APC Chieftain, Bola Tinubu

The governor never doubts the ability of Asiwaju Tinubu to successfully carry out this onerous task of uniting our great party and putting it in good stead for the task ahead.ADVERTISEMENT

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Ibadan zonal office, Wednesday, arraigned an hotelier, Ebiesuwa Fredrick, and a female colleague, Tinuola Oyegunle, for alleged fraud to the tune of N53 million, before a Federal High Court in Ibadan, Oyo State capital.

The commissions head, media, Ayo Oyewole, said the accused faced a two-count charge bordering on obtaining money by false pretence, before the judge, Joyce Abdulmalik.

He said the defendants were arraigned following a petition submitted to the commission by a complainant, (name withheld) alleging that they masterminded a dollar scheme to entrap her.

Mr. Oyewole said the complainant, sometime in May 2013, boarded a taxi with three other passengers who were purportedly members of a syndicate who specialise in hoodwinking unsuspecting victims.

He said the complainant alleged that she heard the three arguing about a Ghana-must-go bag filled with U.S. dollars in the boot of the car, while one of them told her that she must be cleansed to avert sudden and mysterious death having heard their discussion.

At that point, she was taken to an unknown destination where she subsequently started giving the defendants, and the other members of the syndicate different sums in cash and bank payment totaling N53, 713, 260.00, which she allegedly got from the sale of her properties in both Ibadan and Lagos, Mr. Oyewole added.

The spokesman said preliminary investigations, however, revealed that over N9.1 million was paid to the second defendant, Ms. Oyegunle, in an account domiciled in one of the third generation banks apart from other funds traced to the first defendant, Fredricks personal account reportedly from the victim.

He said it was also discovered that the first defendant has built a hotel located at Igbogbo, Ikorodu, Lagos State from the proceeds of the crime. He said the defendants, however, pleaded not guilty to the charge preferred against them.

The prosecution counsel, Adeola Elumaro, in view of their plea asked the court for a trial date but urged the court to remand the defendants in prison custody. Prior to their plea, the defendants accepted to act without a legal representative.

The judge ordered that the defendants be remanded in the Federal Prison, Agodi. She also directed the defendants to get a legal representative by the next adjournment or else the court will get one for them.

The case was adjourned to March 19, 2018.ADVERTISEMENT

An accidental discharge from a policemans rifle left one dead during a fight at a bar in Oyo State, an official said.

The incident happened at Petes Bar & Lounge on Monday evening in Ibadan, Oyo State.

Sequel to the unfortunate incident, the Oyo State Government on Wednesday announced the indefinite closure of the bar.

Although the matter was said to havr been reported to the police, the Oyo State police spokesperson, Ajisebutu Adekunle, said he was yet to get details on the matter.

However, a statement by the Oyo State Government on Wednesday said the fight at the bar resulted in the loss of life of one of the patrons of the bar, due to accidental discharge by a security official who was invited to calm the situation.

The Executive Secretary, Oyo State Bureau of Investment Promotion and Public Private Partnerships, Yinka Fatoki, in the statement, said that the management of the Trans Wonderland Nigeria Plc, owners of the property where the bar is located, had communicated the decision to close the bar to the government on Tuesday.

Wonderland Nigeria said a three-month quit notice had earlier been issued to Petes Bar and Lounge effective from January 12 over allegation of public sale and use of illicit drugs in the park by patrons of Petes Bar & Lounge.

Mr. Fatoki said that the management of Trans Wonderland had also issued warning to the chairman of Petes Bar on November 17, 2017 over the issue of illicit drugs which led to the quit notice following non-compliance.

He confirmed that there was a scuffle at the bar on February 26, 2018 which led to the accidental discharge from one of the security operatives invited to ensure calm and orderliness.

He added that the incident had been reported to Sango Police Station for further investigation.

When PREMIUM TIMES reached Mr. Adekunle for his reaction, he said he would make inquires and make the information available.

I dont have the details right now, I will find out the details and get back to you, the police spokesperson said.Tiaty Member of Parliament Kassait Kamket has proposed the creation of a prime ministers post in a new bill.

In the drafted Bill, the lawmaker wants the PM to have executive powers and be the leader of government business. He says the proposed post is to be filled by an elected MP.

The Bill seeks the Constitution which will allow Parliament to provide for the position of Prime Minister, leader of the Opposition, and members of the shadow Cabinet, he said.

The MP also proposes that the President should serve a single seven-year term with limited powers.

It(Bill) seeks to amend the constitution to limit the president to a ceremonial role of Head of State and a symbol of national unity.

The Bill further states that the President is to be elected in a joint sitting of Parliament convened on the first Thursday of December every seventh year. It notes that the President should not hold any elective or appointive office with political parties.

The former Baringo County Assembly Speaker also proposes a deletion of Article 132 of the Constitution that seeks to reduce the functions of the President.

It is proposed that a candidate for election as President has attained the age of 50 years and he or she should not hold any political party post, the Bill reads in part.

The lawmaker also proposes that the Deputy President post should be scrapped. The Bill seeks to delete references to the deputy president, it read.

Kamket further proposes the reintroduction of the leader of the Opposition and that the cabinet secretaries should also originate from Parliament. He also wants county assemblies to elect two senators each of the opposite gender.

The MP is today expected to appear before the Budget and Appropriations Committee chaired by Kikuyu MP Kimani Ichungwa to look into the implication of the proposal.PHILADELPHIA, Feb. 28, 2018 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- AARP is excited to bring its Block Party, a traveling exhibit that engages attendees with interactive experiences, back to the Philadelphia Flower Show this March. In addition to four interactive features, including augmented reality, an interactive photo booth and a prize wheel, AARP is making a $5,000 charitable donation to the William Way LGBT Community Center.

William Way was selected because it shatters stereotypes about aging, challenges outdated beliefs and sparks new solutions that help the LGBT community in the Greater Philadelphia region choose how we live as we age.

WHAT: AARP Block Party will offer four interactive features:

Augmented Reality Experience  This activation is an enhanced version of reality where the attendees will use an iPad to view and interact with 3D computer images of an animated game aimed at a wall of the exhibit. Social Media Art Mosaic  In this fun and interactive photo activation, attendees will create an artistic mosaic with photos that are converted into stickers. Attendees will also learn more about social media and AARP's presence on various social media channels and be able to share their photo on their own social media channels. Wishing Well  Make a wish! For every AARP coin tossed into our Wishing Well, a donation will be made to the William Way LGBT Community Center.* The specially designed coins were created for the Philadelphia Flower Show and are free to all participants. Prize Wheel  Visitors will get a chance to spin a prize wheel for various prizes.

WHERE: Pennsylvania Convention Center, 12th & Arch Streets, Philadelphia, PA

WHEN: Saturday, March 10, 2018 8am  9pm

Sunday, March 11, 2018 8am - 6pm

Saturday, March 10, 2018 2pm $5,000 Check Presentation to William Way LGBT Community Center

For updates on AARP's presence at the Philadelphia Flower Show, follow @AARPPA on Twitter and AARP Pennsylvania on Facebook.

*Maximum amount of $5,000 donated.

CONTACT: Jacklyn Isasi

(609) 902-6242, [email protected]

SOURCE AARP Pennsylvania

Related Links

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MORRISTOWN, N.J., Feb. 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Advanced Systems Concepts, Inc. (ASCI) is expanding its software integration capabilities by introducing ActiveBatch Version 11 Service Pack 2 (V11 SP2). These capabilities include support for Microsoft Azure SQL Server, as well as support for Microsoft SQL Server 2017 for both Windows and Linux. These updates will also help customers build their automation workflows faster with additional options for prebuilt Job Steps from the ActiveBatch Integrated Jobs Library.

Built on ASCI's history of putting customer needs first, ActiveBatch V11 SP2 widens the range of compatible databases that are available for customersincreasing flexibility by offering more systems and options for them to choose from. This will allow customers to choose the one that best aligns with individual organizational requirements. The result is the ability to leverage existing in-house expertise when implementing an IT Automation solution to reduce the automation learning curve and get up and running faster. If customers choose to utilize the cloud, the support for Azure SQL Server will enable ActiveBatch users to benefit from the added storage, flexibility, and convenience that comes along with managing their databases in the cloud.

Product updates such as these often come as a result of ASCI customer feedback to the Support Team. In a survey of 3000 ASCI customers, ActiveBatch's Support Team has received consistently high marks in the ActiveBatch Support Satisfaction Survey. (The following rankings are on a scale of 1-5):

Response time4.61 / 5

Resolution time4.52 / 5

Answer4.50 / 5

Professionalism4.75 / 5

Product Knowledge4.67 / 5

ASCI's Support and Engineering teams are collocated, enabling the efficient adoption of customer feedback into product development. This gives ASCI the ability to provide customers with every option to help them build an automation environment that best fits their existing organizational structure.

"The ActiveBatch Support Team strives to create the best customer experience by providing great customer service and support for our products," said Mariusz Lubas, Customer Services Manager at ASCI. "We listen to our customers and consistently share their feedback to our Product Management team for consideration in future product roadmaps and releases."

ActiveBatch V11 SP2 is now available for ActiveBatch customers to download. To learn more about ActiveBatch IT Automation and get a personalized demonstration, please visit here.

About Advanced Systems Concepts, Inc.

Founded in 1981, Advanced Systems Concepts, Inc. has developed cutting-edge products across the breadth of customer markets for over 35 years. Advanced Systems Concepts offers many software products and options for users of Windows, UNIX, Linux, HP OpenVMS and NSK systems as well as IBM z/OS, AIX, i5OS, and SCO UNIX. With a worldwide base of customers in 50 countries worldwide, Advanced Systems Concepts helps companies respond to increasingly complex business needs with a leading-edge IT Automation solution that improves business performance and IT operations.

Copyright  2018 Advanced Systems Concepts, Inc. ActiveBatch is a registered trademark of Advanced Systems Concepts, Inc. Other company and/or product names are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of their respective firms.

SOURCE Advanced Systems Concepts, Inc.BOULDER, Colo., Feb. 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Frenchman Valley Coop, an established leader in agronomy and agricultural products, has deepened its partnership with Agribotix to continue to drive innovation leading to increased value for Frenchman Valley's growers. This season the coop is expanding its existing drone survey program for their growers, continuing their work with Agribotix, a leader in drone-enabled agricultural intelligence. Using Agribotix's award-winning FarmLens software, Frenchman Valley is providing greater insights on crop performance, increasing use of precision ag tools that enable more efficient and effective use of inputs and labor, even starting in late winter.

The Digital Scouting Report presents the analysis of data Agribotix FarmLens Digital Scouting Report from an agricultural drone to help farmers identify problems, increase yields and decrease use of expensive inputs like fertilizer.

Positioning its FarmLens SaaS platform as "The Gateway to Precision Agriculture," Colorado-based Agribotix is helping coop's like Frenchman Valley and other ag retailers expand their customers' use of variable rate and other precision ag tools, helping farmers increase yields and reduce inputs and other costs. In February and March, Frenchman Valley will be surveying their growers' winter wheat to see where emergence is strongest and where it needs a boost.

"At Frenchman Valley Coop we are excited to see the potential an NDVI image has to influence a late season fertilizer application on wheat to increase both the yield and quality, thus increasing the growers' profit potential," says Jeff Wessels, head of Frenchman Valley's precision ag program Coop's Acre+.

For their growers who will soon be planting corn, soybeans and other crops, this time of year is excellent for surveying bare fields to see where they'll need more or less herbicide and other inputs before they plant, making sure that soil is in the best possible shape for the highest potential yields. Looking at soil color displayed in drone images, growers and their agronomists can see where they want to take soil samples, letting drones guide yet another aspect of precision ag technology. Results from FarmLens can be pulled up on a smartphone or tablet to guide the user on a walk around the field, and are also available in a variety of file formats for whatever farm management software a grower might be using.

Jason Barton, vice president of sales for Agribotix, knows that growers are at all different levels and types of technology adoption. "We want to make sure that when an agronomist from a coop like Frenchman Valley approaches customers or prospective customers, they can first listen to what those growers are already doing and what they're trying to accomplish. Then the agronomist will be confident how the results from FarmLens will add value to those operations. That puts both grower and agronomist in a much better position to be successful right away and for years to come as growers and the technologies they use continue to change."

About Agribotix

Founded in Boulder, Colorado, in 2013, Agribotix LLC delivers agricultural intelligence to increase yields and profits using drone-enabled technologies. All Agribotix solutions include FarmLens, a leading cloud-based data analysis and reporting solution for people using drones in agriculture. Outputs include agricultural intelligence maps for in-season fertilization, georeferenced reports that can be used to identify underperforming areas and specialized reporting that supports precision agriculture programs. The FarmLens solution is available separately and in bundles that include a drone system. For more information, visit www.agribotix.com or call (720) 295-3625.

About Frenchman Valley Coop

Frenchman Valley Coop is a leading provider of agricultural expertise, products and services in one of the world's most productive agricultural-producing regions. It is the sixth-largest cooperative in Nebraska with over 20 locations to serve its members. Its nearly 300 employees proudly serve its outstanding farmer-rancher members who have contributed to the cooperative's long-lasting success. For more information, visit fvcoop.com.

Media Contact:

Paul Hoff

Phone: 720 295 3625

Email: [email protected]

Agribotix and FarmLens are trademarks of Agribotix LLC. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

Related Images

agribotix-farmlens-digital.png

Agribotix FarmLens Digital Scouting Report

The Digital Scouting Report presents the analysis of data Agribotix FarmLens Digital Scouting Report from an agricultural drone to help farmers identify problems, increase yields and decrease use of expensive inputs like fertilizer.

agricultural-drones-speed-farm.jpg

Agricultural Drones Speed Farm Scouting

agricultural-drone-rapidly-scans.jpg

Agricultural Drone Rapidly Scans and Identifies Problems in a Field

Related Links

Agribotix website

SOURCE Agribotix

Related Links

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DALLAS, Feb. 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Alerian announced the presenters for the 2018 Ammys, recognizing excellence in the North American energy infrastructure industry.

Rob Baldwin , Partner and National MLP Tax Practice Leader, PwC

, Partner and National MLP Tax Practice Leader, PwC Andrejka Bernatova, Co-Founder, Executive Vice President, and Chief Financial Officer, Core Midstream

Randy Burkhalter , Vice President of Investor Relations, Enterprise Products Partners

, Vice President of Investor Relations, Enterprise Products Partners Christine Cho , Director and Equity Research Analyst, Barclays Capital

, Director and Equity Research Analyst, Barclays Capital Patrick Diamond , Executive Chairman and Founding Partner, Next Wave Energy Partners

, Executive Chairman and Founding Partner, Next Wave Energy Partners Tim Fenn , Managing Partner of Houston Office , Latham & Watkins

, Managing Partner of , Latham & Watkins Randall Fowler , President, Director, and Co-Chairman of Capital Projects Committee, Enterprise Products Partners

, President, Director, and Co-Chairman of Capital Projects Committee, Enterprise Products Partners Barry Guinn , Senior Managing Director and Head of Institutional Equity Sales, US Capital Advisors

, Senior Managing Director and Head of Institutional Equity Sales, US Capital Advisors Matt Harrison , Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, Summit Midstream Partners

, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, Summit Midstream Partners Hillary Holmes , Partner, Capital Markets, Energy and Infrastructure, Securities Regulation and Corporate Governance, and Mergers & Acquisitions Practice Groups, Gibson Dunn

, Partner, Capital Markets, Energy and Infrastructure, Securities Regulation and Corporate Governance, and Mergers & Acquisitions Practice Groups, Gibson Dunn Jeff Jorgensen , Managing Director, Portfolio Manager, and Director of Research, Energy Infrastructure Equities, Public Securities Group, Brookfield Asset Management

, Managing Director, Portfolio Manager, and Director of Research, Energy Infrastructure Equities, Public Securities Group, Brookfield Asset Management Young Kim , Managing Director, Equity Capital Markets, Guggenheim Securities

, Managing Director, Equity Capital Markets, Guggenheim Securities Jennifer Kneale , Chief Financial Officer, Targa Resources

, Chief Financial Officer, David Oelman , Partner and Co-Head of Capital Markets and Mergers & Acquisitions Practice Group, Vinson & Elkins

, Partner and Co-Head of Capital Markets and Mergers & Acquisitions Practice Group, Vinson & Elkins Rob Pierce , Managing Director and Head of Energy Investment Banking, Americas, UBS

, Managing Director and Head of Energy Investment Banking, Americas, UBS Greg Reid , Partner and President of MLP Complex, Salient Partners

, Partner and President of MLP Complex, Salient Partners David Schulte , Co-Founder, Chief Executive Officer, and President, CorEnergy Infrastructure Trust

, Co-Founder, Chief Executive Officer, and President, CorEnergy Infrastructure Trust Lori Ziebart , Executive Director, MLP Association

Annual award winners and Hall of Fame inductees will be recognized at the Third Annual Ammys Dinner in Houston, Texas on March 5, 2018.

About the Ammys

The Ammys is a set of awards given annually by Alerian to recognize excellence in the North American energy infrastructure industry. The awards were first presented in 2016 at the Houston Club. The Third Annual Ammys Dinner, honoring the best companies, individuals, and transactions of 2017, as well as a class of Hall of Fame inductees for outstanding contributions to the sector during their lifetimes, will be hosted by Kevin Howard on March 5, 2018, at the Crystal Ballroom at the Rice Hotel in Houston.

About Alerian

Alerian equips investors to make informed decisions about Master Limited Partnerships (MLPs) and energy infrastructure. Its benchmarks, including the flagship Alerian MLP Index (AMZ), are widely used by industry executives, investment professionals, research analysts, and national media to analyze relative performance. As of January 31, 2017, over $16 billion is directly tied to the Alerian Index Series through exchange-traded funds and notes, separately managed accounts, and structured products. For more information, including index values and constituents, research content, and announcements regarding rebalancings, please visit alerian.com.



SOURCE Alerian

Related Links

http://www.alerian.com

NEW YORK, Feb. 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Rowley Law PLLC is investigating potential claims against PHH Corporation (NYSE: PHH) and its board of directors for breach of fiduciary duty concerning the proposed acquisition of the company by Ocwen Financial Corporation. Stockholders will receive $11.00 for each share of PHH Corporation stock that they hold. The transaction is valued at approximately $360 million and is expected to close in the second half of 2018.

If you are a stockholder of PHH Corporation and are interested in obtaining additional information regarding this investigation, please visit us at: http://www.rowleylawpllc.com/investigation/phh. You may also contact Shane Rowley, Esq. at Rowley Law PLLC, 50 Main Street Suite 1000, White Plains, NY 10606, by email at [email protected] , or by telephone at 914-400-1920 or 844-400-4643 (toll-free).

Rowley Law PLLC represents shareholders nationwide in class actions and derivative lawsuits in complex corporate litigation. For more information about the firm and its attorneys, please visit http://www.rowleylawpllc.com .

Attorney Advertising. Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome.

SOURCE Rowley Law PLLC

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DUBLIN, Feb. 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Allergan plc, (NYSE: AGN) a leading global pharmaceutical company, today announced that it was notified by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) that the review of the New Drug Application (NDA) for ulipristal acetate will be extended. The PDUFA target action date has been extended to August 2018 to provide time for a full review of the file.

About Ulipristal Acetate

Ulipristal acetate, an investigational drug in the U.S. for the medical treatment of abnormal uterine bleeding in women with uterine fibroids, is a selective progesterone receptor modulator (SPRM), which acts directly on the progesterone receptors in three target tissues: the endometrium (uterine lining), uterine fibroids, and the pituitary gland. In the U.S, the safety and efficacy of ulipristal acetate has been evaluated in two North American Phase 3 studies (Venus I and VENUS II) of more than 500 adult women of reproductive age. Ulipristal acetate is protected by a patent that expires in 2029.

In addition to the Venus I and II trials, the efficacy of ulipristal acetate has been demonstrated in a series of four, multi-center, Phase 3, European trials involving more than 1,000 women with uterine fibroids. In Europe, ulipristal acetate is marketed under the trade name Esmya by Gedeon Richter. In Canada, ulipristal acetate is available under the trade name Fibristal and marketed by Allergan. Esmya and Fibristal are currently approved for the pre-operative and intermittent treatment of moderate to severe symptoms of uterine fibroids in adult women of reproductive age.

To date, approximately 700,000 women have been treated with ulipristal acetate for fibroids in over 80 countries worldwide.1

About Allergan plc

Allergan plc (NYSE: AGN), headquartered in Dublin, Ireland, is a bold, global pharmaceutical company and a leader in a new industry model  Growth Pharma. Allergan is focused on developing, manufacturing and commercializing branded pharmaceutical, device, biologic, surgical and regenerative medicine products for patients around the world.

Allergan markets a portfolio of leading brands and best-in-class products for the central nervous system, eye care, medical aesthetics and dermatology, gastroenterology, women's health, urology and anti-infective therapeutic categories.

Allergan is an industry leader in Open Science, a model of research and development, which defines our approach to identifying and developing game-changing ideas and innovation for better patient care. With this approach, Allergan has built one of the broadest development pipelines in the pharmaceutical industry.

Allergan's success is powered by our global colleagues' commitment to being Bold for Life. Together, we build bridges, power ideas, act fast and drive results for our customers and patients around the world by always doing what is right.

With commercial operations in approximately 100 countries, Allergan is committed to working with physicians, healthcare providers and patients to deliver innovative and meaningful treatments that help people around the world live longer, healthier lives every day.

For more information, visit Allergan's website at www.Allergan.com.

Forward-Looking Statement

Statements contained in this press release that refer to future events or other non-historical facts are forward-looking statements that reflect Allergan's current perspective on existing trends and information as of the date of this release. Actual results may differ materially from Allergan's current expectations depending upon a number of factors affecting Allergan's business. These factors include, among others, the difficulty of predicting the timing or outcome of FDA approvals or actions, if any; the impact of competitive products and pricing; market acceptance of and continued demand for Allergan's products; the impact of uncertainty around timing of generic entry related to key products, including RESTASIS, on our financial results; uncertainty associated with financial projections, projected cost reductions, projected synergies, restructurings, increased costs, and adverse tax consequences; difficulties or delays in manufacturing; and other risks and uncertainties detailed in Allergan's periodic public filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including but not limited to Allergan's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2016 and Allergan's Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the period ended September 30, 2017. Except as expressly required by law, Allergan disclaims any intent or obligation to update these forward-looking statements.

1 Data on file.

CONTACTS:

Investors:

Daphne Karydas

(862) 261-8006

Allergan Media:

Lisa Brown

(862) 261- 7320

SOURCE Allergan plc

Related Links

www.allergan.com

NORTHBROOK, Ill., Feb. 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- The Allstate Corporation (NYSE: ALL), the nation's largest publicly held personal lines insurer, announced that Mario Rizzo, its Chief Financial Officer, will present at the Raymond James 39th Annual Institutional Investors Conference at 12:45 p.m. Eastern Time on Wednesday, March 7, in Orlando, Florida.

A webcast of the presentation can be accessed at www.allstateinvestors.com. For those unable to hear the live event, a replay will be posted on the investor relations and executive speeches sections of the company's website shortly after the presentation ends.

The Allstate Corporation (NYSE: ALL) is the nation's largest publicly held personal lines insurer, protecting people from life's uncertainties with 82 million proprietary policies. Allstate offers a broad array of protection products through multiple brands and diverse distribution channels, including auto, home, life and other insurance offered through its Allstate, Esurance, Encompass and Answer Financial brands. The company provides additional protection products and services through Allstate Benefits, Allstate Roadside Services, Allstate Dealer Services, Arity and SquareTrade. Allstate is widely known from the slogan "You're In Good Hands With Allstate." Allstate agencies are in virtually every local community in America. The Allstate Foundation, Allstate, its employees and agency owners have a proud history of caring for local communities.

Financial information, including material announcements about The Allstate Corporation, is routinely posted on www.allstateinvestors.com.

SOURCE The Allstate Corporation

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WASHINGTON, Feb. 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Just over one month after its national launch, Americans for Farmers & Families (AFF) has quickly grown and expanded, having secured its hundredth member organization. AFF is a broad-based coalition of growers, refiners, producers, transporters, retailers and consumers that is working to ensure President Donald Trump and Congressional leaders understand the importance of preserving and modernizing the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) to America's agricultural and retail economies.

As part of these efforts, AFF has launched robust educational campaigns in Washington, D.C. and eight states where local economies are particularly reliant on NAFTA, laying the groundwork for an updated trade agreement that preserves America's strong economic standing for decades to come.

"NAFTA is a critical component of Wisconsin's and America's economy  especially for our farmers, food processors and manufacturers," said U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.). "I share the same vision of fair, reciprocal and robust trade with Canada and Mexico that Americans for Farmers & Families is advocating. I look forward to working with AFF and other allies to informing President Trump of the importance of preserving NAFTA while updating and modernizing it to fully reflect today's economy and opportunities."

Since taking effect in 1994, the positive impacts of NAFTA extend beyond America's farming community, and have helped the food and agricultural industries grow to support more than 43 million jobs. But it is rural economies and communities that are among the biggest winners under NAFTA, the very same communities that powered President Trump to victory in 2016.

"NAFTA has opened markets for America's farmers and ranchers, and U.S. agricultural exports to Canada and Mexico have quadrupled under the agreement, so it is not surprising to see such a wide breadth of support behind this coalition," said Zippy Duvall, president of the American Farm Bureau Federation and a member of AFF's leadership committee. "The Farm Bureau is pleased to work with AFF to engage farmers and leaders at the local, state and national levels, and deliver that message to Congress and the President."

Under NAFTA, food and agriculture exports have boomed, and now account for 25 percent of American exports. One in every 10 acres of American crops is for export to NAFTA partners. NAFTA has fueled the growth of agriculture-related industries, which in turn has been a driver in growing American jobs. Today, American food and agriculture supports more than 20 percent of the U.S. workforce and provides more manufacturing jobs than any other sector. And NAFTA has helped keep grocery prices down for all Americans.

"Farm Belt voters supported President Trump by a three-to-one margin in the last election and they are counting on him to improve NAFTA in the modernization negotiations," said John Bode, president and CEO of the Corn Refiners Association and a member of AFF's leadership committee. "Truth be told, some farmers are still farming today only because of NAFTA. It must be modernized, but preserved. With several of President Trump's cabinet members having expressed their support for updating the agreement, we are confident the President will use his considerable experience as a negotiator to make NAFTA better."

NAFTA has opened markets to America's farmers, grown domestic jobs and supported $127 billion in annual economic activity. As President Trump's negotiators are debating major changes to the agreement, we will ensure they keep a clear eye on the positive impact NAFTA has had on the American economy, job growth and wages.

"We have been active participants in this discussion and look forward to continuing to work with the administration and leaders in Congress to ensure the growers, producers, processors, transporters, retailers and consumers we represent have their voices heard," added Chris Novak, CEO of the National Corn Growers Association and another member of AFF's leadership committee. "This issue is simply too important for us to sit on the sidelines."

For more information on AFF, including an initial membership list, please visit https://americansforfarmersandfamilies.com/.

Contact: Joshua Baca

571.438.5816

[email protected]

SOURCE Americans for Farmers & Families

Related Links

https://americansforfarmersandfamilies.com

All is not well in the marital union of media personality Doreen Gatwiri and Mwingi Central MP Gideon Mulyungi. This after the former Ebru TV Swahili news anchor accused the legislator of assault.

Taking to social media to expose the MPs dirty linen, Gatwiri claimed that Mulyungi battered her on Monday night at their Karen home. She added that she sustained head injuries to the back of her ear and sought treatment at Avenue Hospital.

Guys My life is in danger. This evening at about 9.50pm my husband MWINGI CENTRAL MEMBER OF PARLIAMENT GIDEON MULYUNGI assaulted me at our Karen Home over domestic quarrel and I sustained head injuries at the back of my ear resulting to my left ear going numb and serious headache and my right knee, wrote Gatwiri.

She added that she reported the incident at the Hardy Police Station, noting that this was not the first time Mulyungi had battered her.

I managed to report the matter at Hardy Police Station. I fear for my life because he always threatened me that I really dont know who he is. One time he told me to ask around who Mulyungi is This assault is not the first or second time, she added.

The MPs wife said she kept quiet all this while to protect her home and his anger condition. She, however, reached her tipping point after the Monday night incident.

Enough is enough. His anger issue is always getting out of hand making me a target, she said.

Gatwiri further claimed that the law-maker had also assaulted their housegirl and chef.

The other day he assulted our house girl in our Mwingi home by slapping her and using his mkwaju stick on her, he also slapped our chef one old Mr. Kangangi who took the matter to the police.

The tv presenter further explained that the Honourable Member of Parliament locked her up in the bedroom where he carried out the physical assault.

I dont know of my safety. Being locked up in the bedroom to be beaten is horrifying, Gatwiri stated in another post.

Nairobi Wire understands that she has since filed a restraining order against the MP, with police opening investigations into the accusations.

Karen OCPD Cunningham Suiyanka noted they were waiting for Doreen to return her P3 form for action against Gideon Mulyungi.

She reported the matter on Monday and was supposed to leave the hospital and come back to the station with her forms. We are waiting for them to kick of the procedures, the OCPD said on Tuesday.

The MP is yet to address the issue.ROHNERT PARK, Calif., Feb. 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- A recent survey showed younger adults are using credit cards in much lower numbers than older generations. Many already have student debt and are hesitant to take on more debt in the form of a credit card and other forms of loans. While a healthy skepticism of any form of debt is good, student loans should not be the main factor holding individuals back from pursuing their financial goals. Ameritech Financial, a document preparation company which helps federal student loan borrowers apply for repayment plans, encourages a holistic approach to taking on new debt.

"It's totally understandable that folks who are living with student debt are hesitant to take on anything else, and that's probably not always a bad thing," said Tom Knickerbocker, executive vice president of Ameritech Financial. "But we hope that people are not sidelining their dreams and goals because of their student debt."

It's encouraging that many young adults do not want to borrow money that is beyond their means. Those who are most comfortable with cash and can live a cash-only life are not in the wrong. But not every young person will have the cash reserves on hand to live like that and borrowing within a person's means is possible. It's likely for most individuals, even buying a modest car or purchasing a first home may simply require a loan.

Additionally, federal student loan borrowers have resources at their disposal to keep their student loans from spinning out of control. Ameritech Financial helps its customers identify and apply for income-driven repayment plans, which calculate a borrower's monthly payment based on income and family size. This can lower borrowers' monthly payments and give them more financial leeway to pursue goals other than student loan debt repayment.

"Not all debt is created equal and taking on any debt should be a carefully considered decision," said Knickerbocker. "But federal student loan debt shouldn't be a wall blocking someone's financial milestones, whether those milestones concern new debt or not."

About Ameritech Financial

Ameritech Financial is a private company located in Rohnert Park, California. Ameritech Financial has already helped thousands of consumers with financial analysis and student loan document preparation to apply for federal student loan repayment programs offered through the Department of Education.

Ameritech Financial is a member of the Association for Student Loan Relief (AFSLR), and each representative on the phone has received the Certified Student Loan Professional certification through the International Association of Professional Debt Arbitrators (IAPDA).

Ameritech Financial prides itself on its exceptional customer service.

Contact

To learn more about Ameritech Financial, please contact:

Ameritech Financial

5789 State Farm Drive #265

Rohnert Park, CA 94928

1-800-792-8621

[email protected]

Related Links

Ameritech Financial home page

SOURCE Ameritech FinancialROHNERT PARK, Calif., Feb. 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Last year, an Australian businessman famously commented on millennials throwing away their money on frivolous luxuries like high-priced avocado toast when they could be saving for a home. While we're not quite as familiar with the Australian housing market, what is true is that in certain places in the United States, saving for a home is not just a matter of forgoing avocado toast at a fancy cafe, especially for student loan borrowers. Ameritech Financial, a document preparation company that assists federal student loan borrowers in applying for and maintaining enrollment in repayment plans, supports student loan borrowers who are seeking financial mobility.

"From our perspective at Ameritech Financial, we realize that there are many reasons why individuals aren't reaching their financial goals like buying a house," said Tom Knickerbocker, Executive Vice President of Ameritech Financial. "Of course, student loans could be a barrier for those who are trying to save but can't without falling behind on their loans."

While the housing market may be affordable for younger adults in some areas in the country, many urban centers like Denver, Boston, D.C., and San Francisco will require more than a decade of saving for homeownership to be a possibility for many millennial renters because of high home prices. And while these young adults may do well to curb some spending, experts also cite stagnant wages as a reason for delayed homeownership, while student debt is another.

Ameritech Financial can help federal student loan borrowers who are looking for assistance regarding their repayment options. Ameritech helps its clients apply for and stay enrolled in repayment plans that often make monthly payments more affordable. These are known as income-driven repayment plans, and they also put borrowers on track to forgiveness after a 20- to 25-year period of repayment.

"Bringing that student loan payment down could be one of the factors that pushes young people closer to homeownership," said Knickerbocker. "At Ameritech Financial, we are hoping that the assistance we provide can help bring individuals closer to their goals."

About Ameritech Financial

Ameritech Financial is a private company located in Rohnert Park, California. Ameritech Financial has already helped thousands of consumers with financial analysis and student loan document preparation to apply for federal student loan repayment programs offered through the Department of Education.

Ameritech Financial is a member of the Association for Student Loan Relief (AFSLR), and each representative on the phone has received the Certified Student Loan Professional certification through the International Association of Professional Debt Arbitrators (IAPDA).

Ameritech Financial prides itself on its exceptional Customer Service.

Contact

To learn more about Ameritech Financial, please contact:

Ameritech Financial

5789 State Farm Drive #265

Rohnert Park, CA 94928

1-800-792-8621

[email protected]

Related Links

Ameritech Financial home page

SOURCE Ameritech Financial

Related Links

https://ameritechfinancial.com

AMERICAN FORK, Utah, Feb. 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Blue Raven held its first annual Solar Giveaway, installing a complete solar power system for free to Matt Smith. Installers and many employees from headquarters gathered at his home in West Valley, Utah for the culminating event of this project, the solar installation.

"Matt was nominated by his dad who is also a Blue Raven Solar customer. We were really touched by his story," said Ben Peterson, President of Blue Raven Solar.

Matt was born with a neurological disorder. When he was 30-years-old, he had a stroke that left him nearly helpless.

Over the next year, Matt's wife, Deann, faithfully helped him regain his motor skills. Almost a year to the day after his stroke, Deann suddenly collapsed from a heart attack, which was fatal. Matt was left to raise his daughter on his own with limited mobility and resources. It has no doubt been a struggle, but Matt's grit and dedication to his daughter are noteworthy. With solar powering his home, Matt will free up additional resources to support his family.

On the day of the installation, many of the employees had a chance to participate in the event. They spent the day learning from the installers about safety, trying on harnesses, reviewing forms, bending pipe, and even got practice mounting a panel.

Peterson continued, "Most of these folks work in our office so they don't get a chance to touch and feel the equipment. This is a really exciting opportunity for us to help the office to get to know what it is we do."

Ben Wade, National Installation Manager, explained why he appreciated the opportunity to participate in this giveaway:

"We're here today because we want to connect to the community We have a strong culture to work together, not only with each other, but also with members of the community... It's very important that we have relationships of trust."

Getting involved in the local community is one of the main goals of the Helping Hands Solar Giveaway at Blue Raven. Jeff Lee, VP of Sales Operations and Co-Founder, put it this way, "We love solar. We love this renewable energy and being able to give people energy independence."

Links:

https://youtu.be/-4uGrlJe5jg

Contact: Holly Glem, [email protected]

SOURCE Blue Raven Solar

Related Links

http://blueravensolar.com

CHICAGO, Feb. 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ - BMO Wealth Management (U.S) today announced the following strategic appointments to its CTC l myCFO division, the wealth advisory group that serves ultra-high net worth (UHNW) individuals, families and family offices in the U.S. and globally:

Rick Pomeroy , Senior Managing Director

, Senior Managing Director Mike Miranda , Managing Director

, Managing Director Doug Sullivan , Managing Director

, Managing Director Ron Macleod , Managing Director

, Managing Director Don Dabisch , Director

, Director Bo Youn Jo , Director of Research Analytics

These strategic hires allow CTC | myCFO to expand its roster of tenured professionals, enhance the experience of UHNW clients and strengthen the group's capabilities and service to UHNW clients. With an array of domestic and international industry awards, CTC l myCFO is recognized as a leading provider of integrated wealth management services to UHNW clients.

"I'm excited to welcome this extraordinary group of leaders who are industry veterans and bring new perspectives that will enrich our offering and client experience," said Nick Paldrmic, Head of CTC | myCFO. "The collaboration will be dynamic as we work daily to address the unique needs of our clients."

Based in Chicago, Rick Pomeroy is a Senior Managing Director with over 20 years of experience in the financial services industry. Pomeroy works closely with leadership to implement new client engagement strategies and client experience enhancements. Previously, he held several executive and managerial roles at global wealth management firms, including U.S. Trust and TIAA. Pomeroy earned his Bachelor of Accounting degree from Rutgers University.

Mike Miranda serves as a Managing Director, leading the Chicago-based investment advisory group. He is a primary member of the U.S. Investment Management Leadership team; he will help drive growth in the UHNW business with a focus on the client experience, enhancing the product and platform suite and delivering a unified integrated offering for clients. Miranda is a Certified Financial Analyst with over 18 years of experience running investment businesses, teams and portfolios. Most recently, he was a Senior Managing Director and Chief Investment Officer at Mesirow Financial. He received his Bachelor of Arts in Economics from Northwestern University and a Masters of Business Administration with honors from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.

Doug Sullivan serves as Managing Director and has 30 years of experience helping clients navigate the complex issues of significant wealth. He is responsible for promoting new client engagement across the enterprise; he works closely with leadership to develop and execute strategies for growing the business and delivering exceptional client experiences. Sullivan is a Certified Financial Planner (CFP) with a Bachelor degree from Southern Methodist University.

Ron Macleod serves as Managing Director working closely with leadership to promote new client engagement across the enterprise. Macleod is a family office specialist, guiding family offices to appropriate resources and services. He has nearly 25 years working with family office management and serving UHNW clients including entrepreneurs, athletes, and entertainers, among others. Previously, he was with Rockefeller & Company servicing family offices, trusts, foundations and endowments. Macleod holds series seven and 66 licenses with the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority.

Don Dabisch serves as a Director on the Capital Advisory Services team, and has over 25 years of experience in the financial services industry. He advises ultra-affluent families and individuals on the management and optimization of their financial liabilities. Most recently, Dabisch served as the Midwest and Southeast Regional Lending Manager for Goldman Sachs Bank USA, serving the needs of private wealth clients. Before joining Goldman, Dabisch served in various capacities at The Northern Trust Company within the Global Family Office group, Large Corporate Commercial Banking and Treasury Management. He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Illinois at Chicago and a Masters of Management degree from the J.L. Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University.

Based in Portland, Bo Youn Jo is Director of Research Analytics. She helps lead the efforts to optimize portfolio construction for clients, evaluating multiple risk factors and market exposures. She is also involved in the Financial Technology ("FinTech") efforts of BMO Financial Group, CTC | myCFO's parent company. Most recently, Jo worked as a Strategist at Pine River Capital Management, a $15 billion hedge fund firm, where she created valuation models and structured macro hedges for the fund. She had previously served as a Senior Manager in the Complex Securities Group of Ernst & Young, where she led the development of credit derivative models. She earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Physics at Yonsei University in Seoul, Korea, a Master of Business Administration at Marquette University and a Masters of Financial Engineering at the University of California-Berkeley.

"We have a long history of serving UHNW clients with an unwavering commitment to bringing the best talent, tools and resources to them every step of the way. We are growing and making significant investments in the business with our clients' needs top of mind," Paldrmic added.

For more information about CTC | myCFO, please visit: https://www.ctcmycfo.com/home

About BMO Wealth Management

BMO Wealth Management serves mass affluent, high net and ultra-high net worth individuals and families with a full suite of wealth management solutions including wealth planning, banking, lending, investment management, retirement planning, trust and estate services, philanthropy, insurance and risk management, tax planning and ultra-high net worth services. With over 140 offices across 16 states and international offices in Canada, Hong Kong, and Singapore, BMO Wealth Management provides guidance and planning advice combined with individualized service and local experience. As of October 31, 2017, BMO Wealth Management had assets under management of US$49 billion and assets under administration of US$61 billion. BMO Wealth Management is supported by the resources and stability of one of North America's premier financial services organizationsBMO Financial Group. Visit bmowealthmanagement.com.

CTC | myCFO is the wealth consulting group within BMO Wealth Management that delivers integrated solutions to ultra-affluent individuals, families and family offices. The team offers a comprehensive suite of multi-family office services and expertise, including Investment Advisory, Family Office, Capital Advisory and Fiduciary Advisory Services. CTC | myCFO is a brand delivering family office services and investment advisory services through CTC myCFO, LLC, an investment adviser registered with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, a Commodity Trading Advisor registered with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission ("CFTC"), and a member of the National Futures Association ("NFA"); trust, deposit and loan products and services through BMO Harris Bank N.A., a national bank with trust powers; and trust services through BMO Delaware Trust Company, a Delaware limited purpose trust company. BMO Delaware Trust Company offers trust services only, does not offer depository, financing or other banking products, and is not FDIC insured. Not all products and services are available in every state and/or location. Family Office Services are not fiduciary services and are not subject to the Investment Advisors Act of 1940 or the rules promulgated thereunder. Investment products and services: ARE NOT A DEPOSIT  NOT INSURED BY THE FDIC OR ANY FEDERAL GOVERNMENT AGENCY  NOT GUARANTEED BY ANY BANK  MAY LOSE VALUE.

SOURCE BMO Harris BankWASHINGTON, Feb. 27, 2018 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Boys & Girls Clubs of America, in partnership with U.S. Senators Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV) and Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), hosted a congressional briefing on youth opioid prevention on Tuesday, February 27 at the U.S. Capitol Visitors Center. The briefing was put together to address the opioid crisis ravaging communities across the country.

Community leaders gathered to show their commitment for youth opioid prevention and highlighted the importance of their efforts in addressing the epidemic. Panelists from Boys & Girls Clubs and city police departments presented their own unique and compelling story about best practices, and the role community organizations play in addressing the epidemic.

"I've always said that solving the drug epidemic requires an all-hands-on-deck approach, and organizations like the Boys and Girls Club play an important role in that fight," Senator Capito said. "The next generation of West Virginians has the power to help combat the growing drug crisis and to inspire others to do the same. Thanks to the Boys and Girls Club in Martinsburg and their work with local and national law enforcement, more young men and women have the opportunity to see how they can make a difference and lead a drug-free life. I am confident that with this continued collaboration, we can help end this epidemic."

With more than 4,300 Clubs nationwide, over 438,000 kids and teens enter the doors of a Boys & Girls Club every day. Boys & Girls Clubs offer educational, healthy lifestyle and leadership programs during those critical hours of 3 to 6 p.m. (8 p.m. for teens), when youth are most likely to get involved in high-risk activity.

"I'm glad Senator Capito and I were able to unite community partners from New Hampshire and West Virginia, who are on the frontlines of the opioid epidemic, to have an important conversation about the resources we need to protect our kids from this crisis," said Senator Shaheen. "I thank Boys and Girls Clubs of America for its good work and appreciate that our New Hampshire partners were able to come to Washington and share their experiences working with our youth in the fight against substance use disorders. Combating this emergency requires a multifaceted approach of prevention, treatment and recovery. I hope today's dialogue will help amplify the call for additional federal resources to combat this epidemic. As always, I will continue to advocate for a robust response to deliver the resources that our states desperately need."

The traumatic experience of growing up within a family or community where substance misuse is prevalent disrupts a young person's ability to thrive and increases their risk for substance use. This uniquely positions Clubs to disrupt the cycle of addiction and abuse by providing a high quality youth experience that intentionally employs key prevention strategies and risk prevention practices. But, in order to combat the opioid epidemic, greater investments in prevention must be made.

"Youth serving organizations such as Boys & Girls Clubs play a critical role in preventing drug use by providing prevention services; reducing risk factors leading to addiction; and promoting resiliency in children, families and communities," said Julie Teer, Chief Development & Public Affairs Officer, Boys & Girls Clubs of America. "Clubs are uniquely positioned to disrupt the cycle of addiction and abuse through our broad reach, strong track record of impact, including reducing drug use, and our investments in community partnerships. We commend Senators Shaheen and Capito, as well as our distinguished panelists for their leadership and partnership on this important issue."

The following community leaders were represented on the panel:

Stacie Rohn , CEO, Boys & Girls Club of the Eastern Panhandle; Martinsburg, West Virginia

, CEO, Boys & Girls Club of the Eastern Panhandle; Maury Richards , Ed.D., Chief of Police, Martinsburg, West Virginia

, Ed.D., Chief of Police, Tom Carr , Executive Director, Washington/Baltimore High intensity Drug Trafficking Area

, Executive Director, Washington/Baltimore High intensity Drug Trafficking Area Norm Bouthilette , CEO, Boys & Girls Club of Greater Nashua ; Nashua, New Hampshire

, CEO, Boys & Girls Club of ; Robert Cormier , Police Chief, Tilton Police Department, New Hampshire

, Police Chief, Police Department, Elizabeth Fowlkes , Senior Vice President of Youth Development, Boys & Girls Clubs of America

To learn more about Boys & Girls Clubs of America, visit www.bgca.org.

About Boys & Girls Clubs of America

For more than 150 years, Boys & Girls Clubs of America (BGCA.org) has enabled young people most in need to achieve great futures as productive, caring, responsible citizens. Today, 4,300 Clubs serve 4 million young people through Club membership and community outreach. Clubs are located in cities, towns, public housing and on Native lands throughout the country, and serve military families in BGCA-affiliated Youth Centers on U.S. military installations worldwide. They provide a safe place, caring adult mentors, fun and friendship, and high-impact youth development programs on a daily basis during critical non-school hours. Club programs promote academic success, good character and citizenship, and healthy lifestyles. In a Harris Survey of alumni, 54 percent said the Club saved their lives. National headquarters are located in Atlanta. Learn more at on Facebook and Twitter.

SOURCE Boys & Girls Clubs of America

Related Links

https://www.bgca.org

DUBLIN, Feb. 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --

The "Fleet Vehicle Leasing Market in Brazil, Forecast to 2020" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

Vehicle leasing is seen as a solution to the growing problems faced by companies for their mobility needs, including vehicle funding, fleet maintenance and, more importantly, residual risk handling. Businesses in the present market conditions are focused on their core products/services and would like to outsource all other support activities.

Mobility is a significant department - starting from fleet purchase to re-marketing at a competitive price, and for each of the segments in the value chain, unless an expert team is on the job, issues such as cost spikes, utilization mismatches, irregularities in fleet maintenance, and risks of dips in residual value can crop up. Leasing the fleet simply provides hassle-free mobility, on-demand mobility, and fleet after-service facilities, among others. This has driven growth and given the leasing market a structure and regulated the ecosystem.

This study details market size across the passenger vehicle (PV) and the light commercial vehicle (LCV) segments and provides sales/parc data for the total market and the fleet and the company car (true fleet) segments. The company car segment is discussed in detail with a focus on the actual development and the growth potential of financial lease, operational lease, and outright purchase.



The analysis takes into account historic data and current market conditions and insight and opinion from market participants to deliver a 5-year outlook on growth opportunities (2016-2021). In addition to market data (PV and LCV) for both new registrations and portfolio, the study details actual competitor data (portfolio) for the leading leasing providers in the country.

Competitor data is available for both the leasing segments (operational and financial) for the base year 2016. The evolution of any industry depends on factors such as transformational trends that are linked to the macroeconomic factors of the region and the emerging business models that reflect innovation in mobility solutions, such as rental, carsharing, integrated mobility, and alternative power train. The study covers these evolutionary trends that are expected to shape the market.



For leasing providers and other companies that share the leasing ecosystem, their interest lies in the growth opportunities that they need to look at and the strategic imperatives that aid in their pursuit of growth and success.

Key Topics Covered:



1. Executive Summary



2. Research Scope And Definitions



3. Fleet Vehicle Leasing Market Trends



4. Market Analysis And Forecast - Fleet Vehicle Leasing Market



5. Growth Opportunities And Companies To Action



6. Key Conclusions And Future Outlook



7. Appendix



For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/rr7bzz/brazil_fleet?w=5





Media Contact:

Laura Wood, Senior Manager

[email protected]



For E.S.T Office Hours Call +1-917-300-0470

For U.S./CAN Toll Free Call +1-800-526-8630

For GMT Office Hours Call +353-1-416-8900



U.S. Fax: 646-607-1907

Fax (outside U.S.): +353-1-481-1716



SOURCE Research and Markets

Related Links

http://www.researchandmarkets.com

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., Feb. 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- There are more than 19,000 staffing firms in the US, but fewer than 700 generate over $25 million in revenue and only 140 have achieved the industry heights of building a $100 million business. The new book Breaking Through: Leadership Disciplines from Top Performing Staffing Firms investigates what it takes to be a top performer in a global industry with over $400 billion in annual spend.

Co-written by industry experts Mike Cleland, Founder, Charted Path, and Barry Asin, President, Staffing Industry Analysts, Breaking Through is based on interviews with industry leaders and covers companies who have grown from start up to the top ranks of the industry and over the last five years at more than four times the rate of industry growth.

"Every staffing executive we interviewed provided invaluable insight on what it takes to build a top tier organization," said Mike Cleland. "While each took different paths, they all shared leadership characteristics that allowed their companies to excel and consistently outperform the competition. We wrote Breaking Through not only to capture their journeys, but to provide valuable insight for any staffing leader committed to their company's success."

"There is no magic behind the success of the companies profiled in Breaking Through," according to Barry Asin. "We believe break-through performance for staffing firms stems from the leadership and discipline of chief executives and their leadership teams. I am excited for the release of the book and our ability to contribute to developing industry leadership."

Breaking Through was released today during the Executive Forum North America conference at Fontainebleau Hotel in Miami Beach, FL.

For inquiries and review copies, contact [email protected].

For orders and more information visit: www.staffingindustry.com/breaking-through/

About the Authors

Mike Cleland

With over 20 years of experience in the staffing industry, Mike Cleland helps executives achieve their growth goals through leadership development and organization design. As the founder of Charted Path, Mike has worked with owners and executives on optimizing organizational structure, company governance, business planning, sales strategy, process improvement, performance management, and compensation plan development. In addition, he assists owners and investors with vetting and assimilation of strategic acquisitions. Mike has worked with over 75 companies ranging from start-up to $600 million in every major staffing vertical. As a former president of a $60 million IT staffing company, Mike understands the practical challenges of execution and helps clients develop focused and feasible solutions that management teams can implement. When not working with his clients, Mike shares his knowledge through various articles, speaking engagements, and his first book, Behind the Wheel: Driving Excellence in Staffing Operations. Mike was named to the Staffing Industry Analysts Top 100 in Staffing for 2017. He is also an Everything DiSC and a Five Behaviors of a Cohesive Team Partner as well as a Certified Contingent Workforce Professional through Staffing Industry Analysts.

Barry Asin

A leading authority on workforce solutions worldwide, Barry Asin is renowned for his expertise on staffing and contingent labor. President of Staffing Industry Analysts (SIA) since 2010, Asin holds overall responsibility for the company's strategy, operations, and growth on a global basis. He has been with the company since 2003, where he previously held the position of Chief Analyst, leading the team responsible for SIA's award-winning research and content. He is a frequent speaker at industry events and is quoted in major business and industry publications, including the New York Times, BusinessWeek, Inc. Magazine, The Atlantic, Bloomberg Business, CNBC, Marketplace, USA Today, and MarketWatch among others. Prior to joining SIA, Asin spent nearly 12 years as a senior executive at global staffing leader Adecco SA. Before Adecco, he held operations management positions with PepsiCo, and he began his professional career with Andersen Consulting, the predecessor of Accenture. He holds an M.B.A. from Harvard University and a B.S. in engineering from Princeton University.

About Staffing Industry Analysts (SIA)

SIA is the Global Advisor on Staffing and Workforce Solutions

Elevating the Workforce Solutions Ecosystem

Founded in 1989, SIA is the global advisor on staffing and workforce solutions. Our proprietary research covers all categories of employed and non-employed work including temporary staffing, independent contracting and other types of contingent labor. SIA's independent and objective analysis provides insights into the services and suppliers operating in the workforce solutions ecosystem including staffing firms, managed service providers, recruitment process outsourcers, payrolling/compliance firms and talent acquisition technology specialists such as vendor management systems, online staffing platforms, crowdsourcing and online work services. We also provide training and accreditation with our unique Certified Contingent Workforce Professional (CCWP) program.

Known for our award-winning content, data, support tools, publications, executive conferences and events, we help both suppliers and buyers of workforce solutions make better-informed decisions that improve business results and minimize risk. As a division of the international business media company, Crain Communications Inc., SIA is headquartered in Mountain View, California, with offices in London, England.

Media Contact

Jennifer Arcuni, Communications Director, Staffing Industry Analysts

[email protected] | +1 650-390-6171 | www.staffingindustry.com

SOURCE Staffing Industry Analysts

Related Links

http://www.staffingindustry.com

"We are pleased to have tires from both of our industry-leading brands selected as original equipment on the 2019 Jeep Cherokee," said Shannon Quinn, president, original equipment, U.S. and Canada Consumer Tire Sales, Bridgestone Americas Tire Operations. "Tires play an important role in vehicle performance, and we have designed our offerings to match the capability and versatility of this newly designed, premium SUV."

The Bridgestone Dueler H/L Alenza Plus tire is offered as standard equipment on 2019 Jeep Cherokee Overland models in size P235/50R19. Designed to provide the smooth, quiet highway ride that Jeep Cherokee drivers appreciate, the Dueler H/L Alenza Plus tire delivers great handling and trusted all season traction.

The Jeep Cherokee Latitude and Latitude Plus models feature durable Firestone Destination LE2 tires in sizes 225/65R17 and 225/60R17. The Firestone Destination LE2 tire is a dependable tire engineered to keep up with the adventures of any Jeep Cherokee owner without sacrificing comfort.

In addition, the Firestone Destination A/T tire offers the classic styling of white lettering as standard equipment on 2019 Jeep Cherokee Trailhawk models in size P245/65R17. An all-terrain tire, the Destination A/T tire is engineered to provide a perfect combination of on-road handling and off-road durability.

For more information about the Bridgestone Dueler tire line, visit bridgestonetire.com/tire-brand/dueler. For information about the Firestone Destination tire line visit firestonetire.com/brands/destination.

About Bridgestone Americas, Inc.:

Nashville, Tennessee-based Bridgestone Americas, Inc. (BSAM) is the U.S. subsidiary of Bridgestone Corporation, the world's largest tire and rubber company. BSAM and its subsidiaries develop, manufacture and market a wide range of Bridgestone, Firestone and associate brand tires to address the needs of a broad range of customers, including consumers, automotive and commercial vehicle original equipment manufacturers, and those in the agricultural, forestry and mining industries. The companies are also engaged in retreading operations throughout the Western Hemisphere and produce air springs, roofing materials and industrial fibers and textiles. The BSAM family of companies also operates the world's largest chain of automotive tire and service centers. Guided by its One Team, One Planet message, the company is dedicated to achieving a positive environmental impact in all of the communities it calls home.

SOURCE Bridgestone Americas, Inc.LAWTON, Okla., Feb. 27, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Carol Cooke Dittmann, MD is recognized by Continental Who's Who as a Pinnacle Professional Member in the field of Healthcare in recognition of her role as Anatomic and Clinical Pathologist and Chief of Staff at Comanche County Memorial Hospital.

Established since 1948, Comanche County Memorial Hospital is a "regional referral center" that is committed to the health and wellness of their clients utilizing advanced and comprehensive healthcare. Serving the Lawton, Oklahoma community for the past sixty years, the hospital pledges to "provide safe, compassionate and innovative healthcare which exceeds expectations." With trust, loyalty and respect at the forefront of the company's values, the hospital ensures their clients receive the quality healthcare that they deserve all while utilizing the latest innovations in medical technology.

With over twenty five years of experience in the field of healthcare under her belt, Dr. Carol Cooke Dittmann is revered for her outstanding contributions to the medical industry. In her current capacity Dr. Dittmann serves as Medical Director of the Clinical Laboratory, Medical Staff President at Comanche County Memorial Hospital and as Cancer Liaison Physician for the Comanche County Memorial Hospital Cancer Program. As a prestigious specialist, Dr. Dittmann has gained extensive expertise in the study of diseases of cells, tissues and organs. Additionally, Dr. Dittmann has specialized in the areas of lymphoma, leukemia, breast cancer, and clinical laboratory medicine.

Emphasizing the importance of learning, Dr. Dittmann notes it is important to know "how to communicate to clinicians in all medical specialties." Attributing her success to her "communication skills and a willingness to be an accomplished problem-solver," in her previous years Dr. Dittmann worked as a medical technologist.

Certified by the American Board of Pathology, in Anatomic Pathology & Clinical Pathology, early in her career, Dr. Dittmann attained her Medical Degree from the University Of South Alabama College Of Medicine in Mobile. Thereafter, Dr. Dittmann remained at the University of South Alabama to complete her residency.

A renowned scholar, Dr. Dittmann has authored several peer reviewed articles and papers.

Dr. Dittmann dedicates this recognition to two pathologists who helped pave the path to her success in the field: to Betsy Bennett MD, Ph D for her continuing, superb mentorship and leadership; and in loving memory of William A. Gardner, MD for his steadfast belief and spectacular guidance.

For more information, please visit http://www.ccmhhealth.com/

Contact: Katherine Green, 516-825-5634, [email protected]

SOURCE Continental Who's Who

Related Links

http://www.continentalwhoswho.com

Well, there is no denying that Babu Owino is one of the most foul-mouthed personalities in Kenya.

From hurling unprintable insults towards President Uhuru Kenyatta to calling on NASA supporters to open Njeri servers if they cannot resist women from the Kikuyu Community, the Emabakasi East MP almost has no filter in his mouth.

Whether on political rallies or on social media, Babu has consistently shown an insatiable appetite for making derogatory remarks with sexual connotations and he was at it once again while talking to a female reporter.

In a video that is about to go viral, Babu Owino is seen answering random questions from the equally dirty-minded reporter before he is asked about what he meant about opening Njeri servers.

I want people to seduce you as a Njeri, said Babu Owino. When pressed further if he meant opening of servers as a bad thing, Babu Owino answered: Is that a bad thing? When your server is opened, will you feel bad or good?

Babu Owino and the reporter continue their sexually-charged exchange, with Babu Owino explaining how servers should be opened.

Hapana. No, no no, (I was not promoting rape)..the server must be opened nicely and in a well orgasm way..not orgasm [but] organised way, said Babu.

Some claim that Babu Owino and the female reporter were flirting. You decide! Watch the video below.MISSOULA, Mont., Feb. 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Coaster Cycles, a driving force behind national pedicab operations, announces a new experiential marketing division. Coaster will leverage their very own in-house manufacturing and media capabilities to help clients build impactful marketing experiences all on 3 wheels. With the growth and recent buzz of experiential marketing, CEO Ben Morris states, "I am eager to get more involved in this space, offering custom bike solutions to our valued clients."

The story behind the Northeastern student who had a vision 14 years ago pedaling the streets of Boston is quite remarkable. That college student is CEO and founder Ben Morris. Since then, Coaster has grown by always imagining "Where else can three wheels take us" and has successfully built the business into owning 150+ pedicabs nationwide, opening their own advertising and manufacturing division and now launching their new experiential arm.

Since opening their 12,000 sq. ft manufacturing division in Bonner, Montana in 2012, the team has crafted a custom fleet of trikes to revolutionize the pedicab experience. "We truly want to create cutting edge ideas on wheels to make us the best in the industry," states COO, Justin Bruce. Justin was the fifth pedicab driver ever hired and has easily become the Coaster Cycles operations wizard, manufacturing master and business development guru, with his creative ideas for continuously perfecting Coasters well-oiled machine, (or ahem, bike).

Jedd Davis will help lead the new Experiential Division as Marketing Director. Jedd adds a fresh, unique flare to the Coaster team with an impressive background in experiential marketing. He has 10+ years of promotional and event marketing experience representing some of the top agencies and brands in the industry.

Coaster is the team behind the UPS (United Parcel Service) e-assist program launch in Toronto, Canada. Mayor John Tory announced in October 2017, they would test a pilot project using cargo bikes for package delivery. Tory said deploying cargo bikes could help reduce congestion and mitigate the "traffic nightmares that people experience in this city."

To check out Coaster Cycles revolutionized Pedicabs and unique vendor or cargo trikes please visit www.coastercycles.com/promo-trikes/

To check out Pedicab Outdoor media/sponsorship capabilities and experiential case studies please visit www.pedicaboutdoor.com

Who is Coaster Cycles

Coaster Cycles is a manufacturer of Pedicab and custom bike solutions located in Bonner, Montana. With our 12,000 sq. ft. facility, we can offer customers the best trikes ever made for every project need. Our company specializes in Pedicabs, Vendor and Cargo Trikes, Pedicab Operations and Media Management, Manufacturing and Custom Fabrication, General Branding/Sponsorship Activation and Free Ride Programs nationwide. Coaster has a fleet of 150 Pedicabs and access to over 2000 partner bikes across 80 markets nationwide.

Worldwide shipping available.

Photos:

https://www.prlog.org/12694257

Press release distributed by PRLog

SOURCE Coaster Cycles

Related Links

http://www.coastercycles.com

NEW YORK, Feb. 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Commercial Observer is pleased to announce that it will serve as a media partner to MIPIM, the leading global commercial real estate conference held March 13-18, 2018 in Cannes, France, for the second year in a row.

This year, Commercial Observer will also co-organize the U.S.-focused panel at MIPIM, which will be attended by more than 24,500 real estate professionals from around the world. Entitled Developing and Investing in the United States: Where, What & How?, Commercial Observer's conference session will feature two panel discussions focusing on developers and investors, respectively.

Composed of top commercial real estate professionals, panelists will discuss which assets and markets in the U.S. are on the rise and why; provide tips for investors looking to expand their portfolio stateside; and give insights on choosing the best development and financing partners.

Ric Clark, Senior Managing Partner & Chairman of Brookfield Property Group, will introduce the session as the keynote speaker. The conference session will be held on March 14, 2018 from 8:00 a.m. to 10:00 a.m. in The Ruby Room at Palais des Festivals, and will feature:

Bruce Mosler , Chairman of Global Brokerage of Cushman & Wakefield (moderator)

, Chairman of Global Brokerage of Cushman & Wakefield (moderator) Isaac Zion , Co-Chief Investment Officer of SL Green Realty Corp.

, Co-Chief Investment Officer of SL Green Realty Corp. Eran Polack , CEO & Co-Founder of HAP Investments

, CEO & Co-Founder of HAP Investments Christopher D. Hughes , Senior Managing Director/CEO, Capital Markets & US East Region of Hines

, Senior Managing Director/CEO, Capital Markets & US East Region of Hines Jonathan Mechanic , Chairman, Real Estate Department of Fried Frank (moderator)

, Chairman, Real Estate Department of Fried Frank (moderator) Michael Shields , Member of Global Management Team Real Estate Finance, Head of USA , UK and APAC of ING

, Member of Global Management Team Real Estate Finance, Head of , UK and APAC of ING Alexander Joerg , Managing Director & Head of Real Estate Finance Department of LBBW - Landesbank Baden-Wurttemberg

, Managing Director & Head of Real Estate Finance Department of LBBW - Landesbank Baden-Wurttemberg Christoph Donner , Chief Executive Officer of Allianz Real Estate of America LLC

"Commercial Observer is honored to serve as a media partner to MIPIM, a conference that exemplifies the industry's ongoing commitment to bringing real estate professionals together from around the world," said James Karklins, president of Commercial Observer.

Ronan Vaspart, MIPIM Director, also shared his thoughts on the partnership noting, "We are pleased to once again welcome Commercial Observer as a media partner for MIPIM 2018. As a conference which strives to represent global interests, we consider a strong presence from the U.S. to be integral to our mission. I am looking forward to collaborating with Commercial Observer for MIPIM 2018, as well as at the upcoming MIPIM Proptech NYC conference in October."

Commercial Observer is a leading commercial real estate media company. Its content, events, and platforms connect and inform industry participants of the key trends and leaders defining the global real estate landscape.

Contact:

Greg McGunagle

Commercial Observer

212.407.9345

[email protected]

SOURCE Commercial Observer

Related Links

www.commercialobserver.com

LIEGE, Belgium, Feb. 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/-- Convert Pharmaceuticals has been granted a total of EUR 13.6 million in equity and non-dilutive funding by investors Droia Oncology Ventures, Meusinvest and Spinventure, with non-dilutive support by the Walloon region and the European Eurostars program. The funds will be used to prepare and conduct initial clinical studies with Convert's lead anti-cancer drug, which may bring a novel approach to tackling certain aggressive and resistant tumors.

Convert was co-founded by Droia, Prof. Dr. Philippe Lambin, Paul Tulcinsky, and Nicolas Geuens. The company's lead drug candidate is designed to leverage tumor hypoxia, which occurs wherever tumor cells are deprived of oxygen. Tumor hypoxia promotes the development of aggressive tumors, which are resistant to chemo-, immuno-, and radiotherapy, and is strongly associated with poor clinical outcome. Convert's lead drug is a Hypoxia-Activated Prodrug (HAP), designed as a nitroaromatic analogue with highly optimized drug-like properties. Successful in vitro and in vivo proof of concept studies have confirmed the outstanding anti-cancer potential of this HAP.

The candidate drug was licensed from one of the world's most renowned research labs in the field of hypoxia-selective prodrugs: the University of Auckland, New Zealand.

Prof. Dr. Philippe Lambin (Chief Scientific Advisor of Convert, professor at Maastricht University) comments: "Convert was founded to develop next-generation tumor-microenvironment modulated prodrugs. These prodrugs are inactive by themselves, but transform into potent anti-cancer agents when entering tumors. Many tumors contain areas that are insufficiently oxygenated. These areas are hard to treat with radio-, chemo- and immunotherapies. However, Convert's lead drug becomes active in these areas and eradicates them very efficiently."

Janwillem Naesens (Managing Partner at Droia, acting CEO of Convert) adds: "Thanks to the enthusiastic support of the investors, the Walloon region and the European Union, Convert now has the critical resources to achieve its clinical development goals. We are currently completing the team, which is already working hard on bringing the first drug to cancer patients. In the meantime we are evaluating other drug candidates, based on Convert's innovative insights in both the tumor-microenvironment and specific biomarkers as well as in the chemical design of prodrugs. This investment fits perfectly within the core of Droia's investment strategy, combining original science, professional translation and a long-term company building approach."

Marc Foidart (Deputy General Manager of Meusinvest) concludes: "We are delighted to welcome Convert Pharmaceuticals in our ecosystem. Backed by a professional and very selective VC such as Droia, relying on outstanding science, and located close to the new Integrated Oncological Centre of the University Hospital, Convert really has all the ingredients to achieve its scientific, clinical and economic huge potential."

About Convert:

Convert Pharmaceuticals, headquartered in Liege, Belgium, develops tumor-microenvironment modulated prodrugs. Its lead drug candidate, CP-506, is a hypoxia-activated cytotoxin designed by Prof. A. Patterson and Prof. J. Smaill from the University of Auckland, New Zealand. The drug improves the activity, specificity and safety relative to older hypoxia-activated prodrugs. Tumor sensitivity to CP-506 is not only driven by hypoxia, but is also greatly enhanced by other specific activating factors. Convert is therefore also developing advanced biomarkers that will enable an accurate selection of patients who stand to benefit the most from CP-506 treatment.

The development of CP-506 was ranked by Eurostars among the top 8% of all European projects. Convert will present more on CP-506 at the AACR annual meeting in Chicago, in April 2018.

(www.convertpharma.com)

About Droia:

Droia Oncology Ventures is a specialist investor, dedicated to the fight against cancer. Droia invests in promising new cancer therapies and accelerates their progress by actively supporting young drug development companies to achieve clinical proof of concept with their lead programs. Droia has an in-house team of drug development professionals who offer hands-on support. Operating from Luxembourg and Belgium, Droia invests globally: its current ten portfolio companies are split equally between Europe and the US. Droia currently manages EUR 73 million.

(www.droiagroup.com)

SOURCE Convert Pharmaceuticals

Related Links

http://www.convertpharma.com

SANTA CLARA, Calif., Feb. 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Crunch Media Works, the leading provider of best-in-class video optimization solutions announced today that it has joined Coriant, a global supplier of open, disruptive and hyperscale networking solutions for service providers and web-scale Internet operators, as a partner of its Multi-Sided Platform Partner Program. Crunch Media Works will provide video optimization tools, which will deliver up to 80 percent reduction in video file size and bit rate while maintaining the same perceptible quality.

Combining disruptive innovation with comprehensive, lifecycle service management capabilities, the platform helps network operators accelerate the introduction of differentiated end-user services and applications, including 5G, IoT, cloud and industrial internet. The Coriant partner ecosystem enables companies across the globe to quickly and efficiently realize the benefits of best-in-class innovations across diverse segments and technologies, including managed cloud-based IoT service enablement; "deploy anywhere" distributed compute capabilities; simplified deployment and management of MEC and IoT assets; cloud-based Spectrum Access System (SAS); and optimization of mobile and video service delivery.

"Crunch Media Works is excited to join the Coriant Multi-Sided Platform Partner Program," stated Masoud Ghafouri, COO, Crunch Media Works. "This will enable us to better support network operators and telecom service providers as they improve quality of service and user experience while reducing cost of delivery for their live and on-demand video service by using Crunch Media Work's proprietary optimization tools."

"Our collaboration with Crunch Media Works enhances the value proposition Coriant can offer its global enterprise and service provider customers with disruptive innovation optimized for new service creation," said Homayoun Razavi, chief customer officer and executive vice president of global sales and digital marketing, Coriant. "Having a premier video optimization partner such as Crunch Media Works available to Coriant customers provides a significant reduction in video file size and bit rate while maintaining the same perceptible quality to ensure a successful digital transformation."

The Coriant multi-sided partner ecosystem consists of industry-leading system integrator partners providing a new generation of end-user services that drive innovation. Additionally, Crunch Media Works will participate in Coriant's Multi-Sided Solutions Showcase at MWC in Barcelona Feb. 26-March 1, 2018. To meet with us at the show and see a demonstration, email [email protected].

About Crunch Media Works

Crunch Media Works offers a new class of video tools that provide significant reduction in video file size and bit rate without any perceptible change in video quality for modern day use cases. Its patent-pending technology is the culmination of years of research in close collaboration with EPFL of Switzerland. Crunch's video optimization solutions support both live and on-demand delivery of the highest-quality videos, at the lowest possible bit rate, and can be installed on mobile devices as well as private servers or public clouds.

About Coriant

Coriant delivers innovative and dynamic networking solutions for a fast-changing and cloud-centric business world. The Coriant SDN/NFV-enabled portfolio of open, disruptive and hyperscale solutions and Multi-Sided Platform innovations help network operators cost efficiently scale network capacity, reduce operational complexity and create the resilient foundation for a new generation of mobile, video and cloud services. Coriant serves leading network operators around the world, including mobile and fixed-line service providers, cloud and data center operators, Web 2.0 content providers, cable MSOs, government agencies and large enterprises. With a distinguished heritage of technology innovation and service excellence, Coriant is helping its global customers maximize the service value of their network infrastructure as demand for bandwidth explodes and the communications needs of businesses and consumers continue to evolve. Learn more at www.coriant.com and follow us on Twitter for the latest @Coriant news and information.

Media Contacts:

Jennifer Handshew

Percepture

[email protected]

+1.917.359.8838

Sales

Crunch Media Works

[email protected]

+1.650.567.4747

SOURCE Crunch Media WorksIn LexisNexis Risk Solutions' "Ask the Business Experts" series, Linda Straub Jones, director of collections compliance at LexisNexis Risk Solutions, the data and analytics provider, sat down with Rozanne Andersen, vice president and chief compliance officer, Ontario Systems LLC, to discuss how the collections industry has evolved to tackle new compliance regulations, as well as the trends debt collection agencies will have to face in future.

Linda Straub Jones: Thank you so much for joining us today, Rozanne. What would you say has been the biggest compliance challenge for the accounts receivables management industry in the past decade, with regards to debt collection agencies' bottom lines?

Rozanne Andersen: Without a doubt, it has been the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's (CFPB) requirement for agencies of all sizes to implement a compliance management system.

Compliance management is a discipline within an agency that cannot be taken lightly. It is not achieved by assigning a long-term employee with a new title or telling them to wear a second or third hat. It can only be achieved with planning, training and in some environments, hiring. But with that comes increasing costs to the basic infrastructure of an organization. If you look back 10 years, most debt collection agencies did not have compliance as a line item in their budget. It has only been since the advent of the CFPB that we've started to see agencies budget for the expense of driving a compliance management system within their organization.

In many ways, compliance has become a differentiator for collection agencies. Companies that have invested heavily and meaningfully in a compliance management system are using that to win RFPs and stand out among the pack. However, I think this is also the main reason why we have seen carnage among the small to mid-size debt collection agencies, which cannot afford to compete with the additional cost of compliance.

Straub Jones: How have debt collection agencies responded to this change?

Andersen: They have either embraced it, resisted or changed their business model to reduce regulatory risk. For example, many third-party debt collection agencies are moving to a first party collections or the extended business model structure to avoid third party exposure under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA). For those who are not familiar with the term, the first party collections model is a model which requires the collection agency to present itself to consumers in the image and likeness of the creditor or healthcare provider. Compliance with the FDCPA is not required. For all practical purposes, the collection agency's staff become the defacto employees of the client.

When you are collecting consumer debts as a first-party debt collector in the image and the likeness of the creditor, the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) no longer applies to the debt collection agency. Unfortunately, many collection agencies do not know how to properly collect in the name of their creditor clients, and find themselves waffling between the first and third-party model to their detriment. Plaintiff attorneys love to prey upon the collection agency that talks the talk of a first party collector without adhering to the legal formalities required of that model.

Straub Jones: What role does technology play in debt collection agencies' compliance management systems?

Andersen: In the eyes of the CFPB, the compliance management system is not just software or technology. It's a culture by which you manage your entire business, so you're able to detect, investigate and fix any potential issue that might lead to any form of consumer harm. Technology supports this vision of a compliance management system by automating the collection process and generating reports to analyze compliance with all aspects of consumer financial laws. Most debt collection agencies are building this technology from the ground up, often with the assistance of a third party, but it's important to note that software is just one spoke in the wheel of a compliance management system.

Straub Jones: What solutions might be available to help debt collection agencies build out a compliance management system?

Andersen: Speech analytics software, training software, collection software applications, complaint management systems and collection screen prompts create huge compliance advantages for collection agencies. From my experience driving the compliance consulting division for Ontario Systems, I strongly recommend agencies test out the state of the art software solutions available today. The Ontario Systems software applications are designed to support an agency's ability to comply with state and federal law every step of the way. For example, the Ontario Systems software applications are installed in a default state with a variety of compliance settings for the agency to select based on their risk tolerance, size and complexity and market segments.

Straub Jones: For a debt collection agency, trying to keep up with the changes  whether it's a lawsuit or a suggested piece of legislation  this is a real challenge.

Andersen: Well, you have hit the nail on the head. If the change is due to a new law or regulation or a modification to an existing law or regulation, most agencies adapt quickly. But if the change is due to a new interpretation of a law or regulation, operations folks understandably resist making changes to their process based on one court decision. This is because legal decisions at the district or even appellate level do not change the law of the land. Judges from one jurisdiction may interpret the very same law or regulation in a way that directly conflicts with the interpretation of the law or regulation by a judge in a different jurisdiction. The debt collector doesn't know which way to turn. That ambiguity is probably what frustrates debt collection agencies the most.

Straub Jones: How does cost factor into a compliance management system?

Andersen: Building a compliance management system is an expensive process, especially for a small to mid-sized debt collection agencies. The larger agencies with 100 or more agents typically spend at least $100,000 on one compliance person to build and manage their compliance management system. In contrast, a small to mid-sized agency cannot take on that expense without dramatically affecting their bottom-line. Therefore, small to mid-sized agencies are really at a competitive disadvantage out of the gate. And that's why we're seeing so many larger agencies buy up the smaller agencies who are not able to compete in this new environment.

Straub Jones: What three trends do you see on the horizon for the collections industry that others might not be aware of?

Andersen: Number one, the resurgence in debt buying. I think the reason we're seeing this now is that money is flowing again and the current markets have loosened. Debt selling is also being recognized by credit issuers as a great way to once again meet revenue goals. There's a perceived relaxation in the regulatory environment, which means the concerns that drove most debt sellers and buyers out of business after the launch of the CFPB are being replaced with new-found appetites for debt funding, selling and buying.

Number two, I think we're seeing a renaissance of residential home refinancing. Everyone knows that the residential real estate market is booming right now, particularly for the owners of homes suited for first-time buyers, and that's across the U.S. We're seeing houses sell for their list price and then some. As a result, this allows banks to appraise them at a higher value, and loan money against that higher value. Whenever that occurs in our marketplace, it's always a great sign for the collections industry because it means consumers feel cushioned by the increase in their home's market value. Do one or all of three things: buy more, borrow more or pay off debts. I think we're going to see another Golden Age in debt collection in the next few years, albeit short-lived.

Finally, the third trend I anticipate is that losses from an increase in lawsuits under the Electronic Funds Transfer Act (EFTA) are going to explode. We've seen a decrease in lawsuits under the FDCPA, but consumer lawyers are always searching for new ways to defend the "innocent" consumer," and the EFTA supports this effort because it provides for private right of action. As a result, and because there is so much confusion about how to comply with the EFTA, I predict we will see many more class actions filed under the EFTA against debt collectors and creditors.

Straub Jones: Thank you so much for sharing your insights with us, Rozanne. Here at LexisNexis Risk Solutions, we also look forward to seeing how the debt collection industry addresses collecting unpaid debts, while meeting evolving compliance expectations in 2018.

At LexisNexis Risk Solutions, we believe in the power of data and advanced analytics for better risk management. With over 40 years of expertise, we are the trusted data analytics provider for organizations seeking actionable insights to manage risks and improve results while upholding the highest standards for security and privacy. Headquartered in metro Atlanta USA, LexisNexis Risk Solutions serves customers in more than 100 countries and is part of RELX Group, a global provider of information and analytics for professional and business customers across industries. For more information, please visit risk.lexisnexis.com

Media Contact: Jean Creech Avent

Director, Public Relations

LexisNexis Risk Solutions

+1 770-862-7978

[email protected]

SOURCE LexisNexis Risk Solutions

Related Links

http://risk.lexisnexis.com

NEW YORK, Feb. 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- A veteran online strategist who brings a range of digital skills, Marc Beharry, has joined digital communications agency Lumentus as Director of Search Marketing Strategy.

Beharry is responsible for creating and executing digital marketing solutions, from search engine optimization (SEO) to search engine marketing (SEM) campaigns, in order to achieve client goals. His addition further fills out an impressive roster of digital expertise offered by the New York-based firm.

Lumentus is a full-service integrated digital communications agency that helps clients build and manage brands while simultaneously protecting and improving perceptions. The agency represents a roster of corporations, public policy organizations, financial services firms, healthcare businesses, life sciences companies and executives from across the spectrum.

"We are thrilled to have Marc join our team and bring his world-class skills to our clients," said Rob Beltran, Lumentus Senior Partner. "Marc's experience, perspective and hands-on skills are impressive and will help us deliver even greater success across the digital landscape."

Beharry developed digital strategy for various well-known brands including Advil, ExxonMobil, IAMS, Robitussin, Nexium, and ThermaCare. As Senior SEO Strategist at Tribal Worldwide/DDB, Beharry developed a track record of success generating traffic and conversion from internal and external search channels. His expertise focuses on implementing market research into campaigns, optimizing those campaigns into sales or public policy visibility and proving those successes across a variety of platforms.

"Lumentus has an impressive roster of clients and I am excited to leverage my digital expertise to help them achieve their goals," said Beharry. "I am also excited to join a growing team with diverse backgrounds, knowing that this mix of capabilities will help us find creative ways to efficiently and effectively create solutions for clients."

Prior to joining Tribal Worldwide/DDB, Beharry was an SEO Strategist at Accenture/Boomerang Pharmaceutical, and the Marketing Director at Blue Fountain Media where he planned and managed campaigns for the Kingdom of the Netherlands, the Green Bay Packers, Novartis Oncology, Celgene, Novo Nordisk, Children's Aid Foundation and more. Beharry studied Information Management & Technology at Syracuse University.

Lumentus is in the midst of a major expansion after adding several new team members last fall.

For more information, visit www.lumentus.com.

Connect with Lumentus on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.

SOURCE Lumentus

Related Links

http://www.lumentus.com

HUNTSVILLE, Ala., Feb. 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Digium, Inc., the Asterisk Company, today announced the call for speakers is now open for AstriCon 2018, its 15th annual Asterisk user conference and expo to be held Oct. 9-11 at the Omni Orlando Resort at ChampionsGate in Orlando, Fla. Those interested in speaking can register here. Submissions will be accepted through June 15, 2018.

Digium welcomes submissions that will be of value to those looking to build or employ communications solutions based on Asterisk. Talks can be aimed at beginners or those with more experience in using and deploying Asterisk. Topics could cover: using Asterisk in SIP infrastructure, testing and tuning Asterisk deployments, creating custom applications using the Asterisk RESTful Interface (ARI), the use of Docker and Kubernetes with Asterisk, and everything in between.

"Asterisk has expanded from being an incredibly feature-rich software PBX to being an essential communications application development environment," said David Duffett, Worldwide Community Director for the Asterisk project. "We're excited to see AstriCon evolve to include many other technologies that folks are using alongside Asterisk, like Kamailio, Homer and Docker. Our amazing Asterisk Community speakers, along with the exhibitors and attendees reflect the fact that Asterisk covers a massive range of applications, from standalone PBX to the critical component in making large, scalable and resilient communications solutions."

AstriCon provides a forum where all members of the Open Source Communications community  from telephony enthusiasts to developers to businesses  can learn about the technology. Each session is delivered by Asterisk community members that are happy to share their expertise, making AstriCon a must-attend event for anyone who is serious about Asterisk.

Digium is once again pleased to partner with TMC to promote the event to a broader audience. TMC has helped support other Digium events, including Asterisk World, with training sessions, video production, attendee registration and exhibit management. Companies interested in sponsoring AstriCon and participating on the EXPO floor should contact Joe Fabiano at TMC: +1 (203) 852-6800, ext. 132.

About AstriCon

AstriCon is the longest-running event devoted to all things Asterisk, a free and open source framework for building communications applications that is downloaded nearly 2 million times per year. AstriCon's mission is to expand awareness and knowledge of Asterisk. Attendees will learn about trends in Asterisk use, the growing Asterisk ecosystem, the newest applications and a wide range of in-depth technical topics from Asterisk developers, users and entrepreneurs.

About Digium

Digium, Inc. provides Asterisk software, telephony hardware, and on-premises and hosted Switchvox business phone systems that deliver enterprise-class Unified Communications (UC) and UC as a Service (UCaaS) solutions at an affordable price. Digium is the creator, primary developer and sponsor of the Asterisk project; the world's most widely used open source communications software. Asterisk turns an ordinary computer into a feature-rich communications server. A community of more than 80,000 developers and users worldwide uses Asterisk to create VoIP communication solutions in more than 170 countries. Since 1999, Digium has empowered developers to create innovative communications solutions based on open standards and open source software, providing an alternative to proprietary phone systems. Digium Switchvox Cloud and other cloud-based products and services are offered through Digium Cloud Services, LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Digium, Inc. Digium's business communications products are sold through a worldwide network of reseller partners. More information is available at www.digium.com and www.asterisk.org.

The Digium logo, Digium, Asterisk, Asterisk SCF, Switchvox, Asterisk Business Edition, AsteriskNOW, Asterisk Appliance and the Asterisk logo are trademarks of Digium, Inc. Apple is a trademark of Apple Inc. All other trademarks are property of their respective owners.

SOURCE Digium, Inc.The Dr. Krawitz line of supplements now includes Dr. Krawitz Macular Support, Vision Performance and Dry Eye Support . All are free of GMO's, soy, gluten, sugar, egg, milk products, peanuts, shellfish, albumin, and whey.

Dr. Krawitz, a renowned ophthalmic surgeon and assistant clinical professor of ophthalmology, explained the reasons behind his company's partnership with The Vitamin Shoppe. "The Company's approach is holistic," Dr. Krawitz said. "While many retailers evaluate products for customer interest, quality of packaging and price, The Vitamin Shoppe went much deeper. As a company, they were extremely knowledgeable about ingredients and perhaps more importantly, ingredient sources. They understood the thought and care required to formulate and manufacturer these three Dr. Krawitz eye formulas. The Vitamin Shoppe places a high value on educating its in-store Health Enthusiasts. In short, what most impressed us is that The Vitamin Shoppe sought natural eye nutritional products that would not just sell a single time, but have the potential for repeat purchases while building their company's reputation as a wellness authority and a leading national resource for quality nutrition.

Pure ingredients, easy absorption, a strong safety profile and high quality standards are why Dr. Krawitz Professional Eye Care supplements have attained strong success.

"It is our mission at Vitamin Science to provide eye health supplements that are constantly evolving and updating to match the latest scientific research," says Dr. Paul Krawitz, acclaimed Ophthalmologist, Vitamin Science, C.E.O., Assistant Professor of Ophthalmology and formulator of Dr. Krawitz Professional Eye Supplements. "We continue to leverage the newest scientific findings, using evidence-backed symbiotic ingredients from premium sources that are well-tolerated and most effective in promoting eye health."

Dr. Krawitz Professional Eye Care Supplements are available at www.vitaminshoppe.com, www.amazon.com and through qualified eye doctors, supplement stores and pharmacies.

SOURCE Vitamin Science, Inc.

Related Links

http://www.RBIvitamins.com

"In Dr. Caro, we found someone uniquely equipped to lead the College into the future, as Peirce continues to serve the evolving needs of non-traditional students and the region's employers," said Barbara A. Prutzman, Chair of the Board of Trustees. "Her many accomplishments, as both an educator and business professional, have prepared Dr. Caro for the challenge of guiding the College through the changing higher education landscape. She is deeply qualified to build upon Peirce's legacy of academic innovation and to further develop connections in the Philadelphia business community that meet the needs of our students, the city, and the region."

Caro is currently Vice President of Enrollment Management and Learner Services at Thomas Edison State University in Trenton, N.J. An institution of more than 17,000 students, Thomas Edison, like Peirce, is focused on serving adult learners. Caro is responsible for a wide range of functions, including student affairs; strategic corporate and military partnerships; marketing; and enrollment management. She previously held other leadership positions at Thomas Edison, including Executive Vice Provost, Associate Provost and founding Dean of the School of Business and Management.

Caro joined Thomas Edison in 2004 after a 25-year career at AT&T, where she progressed through several executive positions, culminating as Vice President in AT&T Business Services managing a global portfolio of more than $1 billion with Fortune 100 clients.

"Peirce College is an integral piece of the puzzle for workforce development and adult degree attainment in Philadelphia," Caro said. "I look forward to building on this 153-year legacy and I am excited for the opportunity to collaborate with new partners throughout the region to benefit working adults, businesses and the regional economy."

Caro completed her doctorate in Higher Education Management at the University of Pennsylvania, focusing her dissertation on partnerships between business and higher education. In addition, she earned a Master of Science in Management from Stanford University, where she was an AT&T Sloan Fellow; a Master of Science in Applied Statistics from Rutgers University; and a Bachelor of Arts from the College of Saint Elizabeth, where she majored in Mathematics and Sociology.

Recently, the City of Philadelphia, the Greater Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce, and the United Way of Greater Philadelphia and Southern New Jersey have strengthened their focus on building a more equitable economic ecosystem through cross-sector workforce development programs and skills-focused education partnerships. Peirce College has been a key participant in these regional conversations and initiatives and Caro's focus on partnership development is well-aligned with Peirce's critical role in this space.

"Dr. Caro's expertise and vision will provide the perfect ingredients to expand on the great work of the Peirce community," Mergiotti said. "I am very enthusiastic about the College's future under her direction and delighted that an executive of her caliber will be joining the leadership ranks in our region."

About Peirce College

Founded in 1865, Peirce College has been providing working adults with affordable education, flexible classes, and personalized support for more than 150 years. Peirce offers bachelor and associate degree programs in the areas of Business, Healthcare, Information Technology, and Legal Studies, and Master of Science degrees in Healthcare Administration and Organizational Leadership & Management, all designed to meet modern workforce demands. Located in the heart of Philadelphia, Peirce is a non-profit institution that specializes in serving the unique needs of working adults through both online and on campus education. In 2015, Peirce took life-friendly learning and degree attainment to the next level with the creation of Peirce Fit, a revolutionary learning format that allows students to choose each week whether to attend class in person or online. Through competency-based education in Peirce's IT program, students may also choose a faster, more affordable path to a degree. Peirce College is accredited by the Middle States Commission on Higher Education, 3624 Market St. Philadelphia, PA 19104 (267-284-5000). Additionally, select programs are accredited by The Accreditation Council for Business Schools and Programs, the American Bar Association and the Commission on Accreditation for Health Informatics and Information Management Education.

For more information about Peirce College, call 888.467.3472, or visit www.Peirce.edu. Visit Peirce's blog, Peirce Connections, at http://blog.Peirce.edu. Become a fan of Peirce College on Facebook. Follow @PeirceCollege on Twitter. View the Peirce College YouTube Channel.

SOURCE Peirce CollegeNEW YORK, Feb. 27, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Castle Connolly Private Health Partners, LLC ("CCPHP"), a leading membership-based (or concierge) practice conversion and support company, is pleased to announce a collaboration with Eastside Medical Associates, P.C., a practice led by Dr. Jeffrey Loria and Dr. Amy Lichtenfeld, to establish the concierge practice EMA CCPHP, LLC.

About the Physicians

Native New Yorkers, Dr. Jeffrey Loria and Dr. Amy Lichtenfeld have been practicing Internal Medicine in New York City for over 25 years.

Dr. Lichtenfeld and Dr. Loria of EMA CCPHP, LLC.

After graduating from Emory University and New York Medical College, Dr. Loria completed his residency in Internal Medicine and served as Chief Medical Resident at Lenox Hill Hospital. He completed his fellowship training in Gastroenterology at Mount Sinai's Elmhurst Hospital Center. He currently serves as a clinical instructor at the NYU School of Medicine and is an active attending physician at NYU Langone Medical Center, Lenox Hill Hospital, and Mount Sinai Beth Israel. Dr. Loria is board certified in Internal Medicine and Gastroenterology. He is also a multiple-time Castle Connolly Top Doctor award recipient.

After Dr. Lichtenfeld received her degree from The University of Pennsylvania, which she graduated summa cum laude, she remained in Philadelphia to attend medical school at her alma mater. Dr. Lichtenfeld completed her residency in Internal Medicine at Lenox Hill Hospital, followed by a fellowship in Allergy/Immunology at New York-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center. She is board certified in both Internal Medicine and Allergy/Immunology. Dr. Lichtenfeld currently serves as a Clinical Instructor of Medicine at New York Hospital and is an active attending at both Lenox Hill Hospital and New York-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center.

Dr. Lichtenfeld has held multiple executive positions, including President of The New York Allergy and Asthma Society. She is a fellow of the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology. Additionally, she has been designated as one of the Castle Connolly Top Doctors and featured as a 'Best Doctor' in New York Magazine's "Best Doctors" issue.

Dr. Loria and Dr. Lichtenfeld are proud to share their home and work life. They live on Long Island where they raised their family and happily share their home with their golden retriever, Roxy.

The Collaboration

By collaborating with CCPHP, Eastside Medical Associates will be able to continue to provide patients with outstanding, personalized care through a flexible membership model that will allow: same-day and next-day appointments, extended office visits, enhanced connectivity to over 50,000 Castle Connolly Top Doctors, the innovative and personalized SENS Solution Wellness program, and more.

"Practicing medicine is an honor, and we are proud to be a part of our patient's lives," said Dr. Lichtenfeld. "By collaborating with CCPHP, the membership model will enable us to spend more time with our patients, discuss their health concerns in greater depth, and, ultimately, provide a more enhanced care experience," continued Dr. Loria.

"CCPHP is pleased to announce the addition of another leading physician practice to our roster of top concierge physicians with the launch of Eastside Medical Associates' membership program," said Dean McElwain, President of CCPHP. "CCPHP is excited to collaborate with Dr. Loria and Dr. Lichtenfeld. They truly understand CCPHP's goals in striving to provide accessible, convenient care and we are looking forward to supporting them and their patients during this exciting time and for years to come."

To learn more about EMA CCPHP practice and the benefits of membership, visit emaccphp.com or call (646) 412-5561.

SOURCE Castle Connolly Private Health Partners, LLCAmazon is purchasing Ring, the maker of video doorbells and other smart-home technology, the companies announced Tuesday.

Ring, based in Santa Monica, California, was founded six years ago with a single product: a WiFi-enabled video doorbell that allows homeowners to monitor their front doors using an app on their smartphones. A built-in motion detector alerts users when a visitor arrives at their stoops, and gives them the option to see, hear and speak to guests before they let them in. The company has since introduced other products, including security cameras, home alarms, and WiFi-enabled smoke detectors and flood sensors.

"Ring's home security products and services have delighted customers since day one," an Amazon spokesman said in a statement. "We're excited to work with this talented team and help them in their mission to keep homes safe and secure." (Jeff Bezos, the founder and chief executive of Amazon, also owns The Washington Post.)

The companies did not disclose the terms of the deal.CHICAGO, Feb. 27, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Edwards Maxson Mago & Macaulay, LLP, or EM3 Law, is pleased to announce that two of its partners, Jamal Edwards and Ajay Mago, have received honors for leadership and excellence in both business and law. The newly-formed firm's innovative, collaborative business model has garnered attention from three distinguished organizations.

Jamal Edwards, EM3's Chicago-based attorney, has been selected for inclusion on the Top 100 Black Lawyers Executive Committee by The National Black Lawyers. This organization recognizes and honors the nation's top-achieving black attorneys for their outstanding performance and commitment to diversity in the industry.

Jamal was selected because of his "superior skills and qualifications and for having demonstrated leadership, excellence, and outstanding results in his career," according to the announcement made by The National Black Lawyers. Inclusion on this exclusive list is by invitation-only, and nominated attorneys are subjected to a rigorous examination process before inclusion, with peer recommendations and third-party research.

"I am very grateful to have been selected for this committee and to be honored for my work on a national level," commented Edwards. "It truly is a privilege to join the ranks of so many distinguished colleagues, and I am proud to be recognized as a minority leader in the legal field."

"We are proud of Jamal and his achievements, and are pleased to witness him gain national recognition. His business acumen and extensive experience in Real Estate have been of great value to our platform on all levels," said Samuel Mtunga, COO, and principal of XFD Real Estate Partners, a client of EM3 Law and which owns and operates student housing properties in Illinois and Texas.

Edwards has an extensive list of honors and awards prior to launching EM3 Law, including from the National Black Lawyers, who named him to their "40 under 40" in 2016, and "Top 100" lawyers in 2017. He has also been recognized multiple times by SuperLawyers as a Rising Star in both Illinois and Michigan and is an alumnus of Crain's Chicago Business' prestigious "40 Under 40" list.

Ajay Mago, based out of EM3's Dallas office, has also been recognized for his outstanding career milestones by The Dallas Business Journal. Mago has been chosen to receive the 2018 Minority Business Leader award. "Our class of honorees represents the best of the best in North Texas," commented Tracy Merzi, publisher of the Dallas Business Journal. This year, the award judges chose from more than 170 nominees, and the winners were selected based on their exceptional business leadership skills and positive impacts on the communities in which they work.

"With countless dedicated and influential minority industry leaders in the North Texas business community, it is an honor to have been chosen as one of the 30 award-winners," said Mago. "I am energized by the growth in the Dallas/Ft. Worth Metroplex and it is exciting to be in a position to enable businesses and entrepreneurs to succeed and achieve new heights. This award, and the honor granted to my colleague Jamal Edwards, demonstrates EM3's dedication to encourage inclusion, diversity, and growth within our communities."

Mago was also recently elected as a Fellow to the American Bar Foundation upon the recommendation of the national officers of The Fellows. Selection as an ABF Fellow is recognition of a lawyer whose public and private career has demonstrated outstanding dedication to the welfare of society and to the highest principles of the legal profession. The Fellows of the American Bar Foundation is an honorary society of lawyers and jurists and is limited to one percent of the lawyers admitted to practice in the U.S. and its territories and to a limited number of lawyers in jurisdictions outside the U.S. Mago is a member of Indiaspora and has additional honors from Emerging Lawyers and Legal 500  Leading Lawyers for M&A: Middle Market.

"Ajay and EM3 Law have been integral to our global manufacturing business. He has an unwavering commitment to his clients and an unparalleled ability to understand our businesses and quickly close complex transactions and make it seem like a walk in the park," said Gordhan Patel, Chairman of American Standard Circuits, Inc., a client of EM3 Law and a leading manufacturer of advanced printed circuit boards for Military, Aerospace, Industrial, Medical, Telecom, and Automotive applications and recipient of numerous innovation in manufacturing accolades.

About EM3

Edwards Maxson Mago and Macaulay, LLP, or EM3, is a new class of professional law firm that utilizes the experience and talent of attorneys nationally recognized in their fields to deliver lean, business-focused legal counsel to businesses and entrepreneurs. EM3 honors a conscientious, value-based approach to business and the law. It operates across the U.S. with offices in Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas and New York. More information is available at EM3law.com.

Media Contact: Karolyn Raphael, Winger Marketing, 312-494-0422

Related Files

EM3 Award-Winners Release final.pdf

Related Links

EM3 Law

About EM3 Law

SOURCE EM3 Law - Edwards Maxson Mago & Macaulay, LLP

Related Links

https://em3law.com

"It's an honor for EnableComp to again be recognized as a quality award recipient by the Tennessee Center for Performance Excellence," said David F. Jones, President and CEO of EnableComp. "Receiving this award is nice and our team appreciates it. However, for us the real reward is working every day as an organization to improve and get better. We remain committed to organizational excellence and we look forward to continuing our Baldrige journey."

EnableComp provides workers' compensation revenue cycle solutions to more than 600 hospitals in 38 states.

Through an annual evaluation and assessment process, TNCPE recognizes high-performing organizations that demonstrate continuous improvement and role model processes. This year, TNCPE has named 31 organizations as 2017 Award winners that represent outstanding achievement in the following industry sectors: health care, manufacturing, service, education, government, and nonprofit.

"Organizations that pursue a TNCPE award have a special drive," Gov. Bill Haslam said. EnableComp's commitment to improvement will reach deep into our community, making a significant contribution to the state's economy, and the wellbeing of its citizens."

Since the program was founded in 1993, only 24 organizations have attained the excellence designation. One will receive the Excellence Award this year; five organizations will be honored with the Achievement Award; 24 organizations will receive a Commitment Award; and one will receive Interest Recognition.

Commitment Awards are presented to organizations that are beginning to demonstrate serious commitment to, and implementation of, performance improvement principles. They have demonstrated progress by identifying and putting in place a measurement system to capture data and analyze results, and some key process improvements, which are directly attributable to a fact-based improvement process.

"The TNCPE Awards program helps organizations look at the big picture and continuously strive to implement the best practices in their industry or sector," said TNCPE president Katie Rawls. "But it's not easy  if it were, every organization in the state would be participating. Our 2017 award winners are truly passionate about performance excellence and have chosen TNCPE and the Baldrige framework to help them become the best they can be."

A full list of winners can be found on the TNCPE website www.tncpe.org

Media Contact: Ally Conner

615-791-4300

[email protected]

SOURCE EnableComp

Related Links

http://www.enablecomp.com

VANCOUVER, Feb. 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ - Entree Resources Ltd. (TSX:ETG; NYSE American:EGI  the "Company" or "Entree") is pleased to announce that it has today filed a National Instrument 43-101  Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects ("NI 43-101") technical report ("Report") titled "Entree/Oyu Tolgoi Joint Venture Project, Mongolia, NI 43-101 Technical Report" on its interest in the Entree/Oyu Tolgoi joint venture property in Mongolia. The Report has an effective date of January 15, 2018 and is available on SEDAR at www.sedar.com and on the Company's website. The Report relates to the press release announced by the Company on January 15, 2018.

The Report discusses two development scenarios, an updated reserve case ("2018 Reserve Case") and a Life-of-Mine Preliminary Economic Assessment ("2018 PEA"). The 2018 Reserve Case is based only on mineral reserves attributable to the Entree/Oyu Tolgoi joint venture from the first lift ("Lift 1") of the Hugo North Extension ("HNE") underground block cave. The 2018 PEA is an alternative development scenario completed at a conceptual level that assesses the inclusion of mineral resources from the second lift ("Lift 2") at HNE and the Heruga deposit into an overall mine plan with mineral resources from HNE Lift 1.

Mr. Stephen Scott, President and CEO of Entree, comments, "I am very excited that Entree's stakeholders can now assess and appreciate the life-of-mine potential of Entree's joint venture interest. The 2018 PEA demonstrates that Entree's interest is multi-generational, with potential to deliver over US$2.1 billion dollars in undiscounted pre-tax cash flows just from Hugo North Extension Lifts 1 and 2 over the first 33 years of production. Post-tax, this equates to a net present value ("NPV8%") of US$277 million*. The 2018 PEA also brings resources from Heruga into the mine plan, but these are not scheduled to be mined until much later in the life of the Oyu Tolgoi project. Although the Heruga deposit provides considerable flexibility for future mine planning and development options, additional technical work is needed to establish the mineral resources and costs with greater certainty and to enable investors to better understand the true value of the Heruga deposit. Right now, the schedule outlined in the Report shows the 2018 PEA has a duration of at least 77 years, from the start of HNE Lift 1 in 2021 until the completion of Heruga in 2097, even without further exploration success."

The 2018 Reserve Case is based only on mineral reserves attributable to the Entree/Oyu Tolgoi joint venture from Lift 1 of the HNE underground block cave. The 2018 Reserve Case NPV8% for HNE Lift 1 is US$111 million. The 2018 PEA includes Indicated and Inferred resources from HNE Lifts 1 and 2, and Inferred resources from Heruga. The 2018 PEA NPV8% is $278 million.

*Long term metal prices used in the net present value economic analysis are: copper US$3.00/lb, gold US$1,300.00/oz and silver US$19.00/oz.

The economic analysis in the 2018 PEA does not have as high a level of certainty as the 2018 Reserve Case. The 2018 PEA is preliminary in nature and includes Inferred mineral resources that are considered too speculative geologically to have the economic considerations applied to them that would enable them to be categorized as mineral reserves, and there is no certainty that the 2018 PEA will be realized. Mineral resources are not mineral reserves and do not have demonstrated economic viability.

The Report was completed independently by Amec Foster Wheeler Americas Limited.

QUALIFIED PERSON

Robert Cinits, P.Geo., Entree's Vice President, Corporate Development, a Qualified Person as defined by NI 43-101, has approved the technical information in this release.

ABOUT ENTREE RESOURCES LTD.

Entree Resources Ltd. is a well-funded Canadian mining company with a unique carried joint venture interest on a significant portion of one of the world's largest copper-gold projects  the Oyu Tolgoi project in Mongolia. Entree has a 20% carried participating interest in the Entree/Oyu Tolgoi joint venture, with a 30% interest in all mineralization identified above 560 metres elevation on the Entree/Oyu Tolgoi joint venture property. Sandstorm Gold Ltd., Rio Tinto and Turquoise Hill Resources Ltd. are major shareholders of Entree, holding approximately 14%, 10% and 8% of the shares of the Company, respectively. More information about Entree can be found at www.EntreeResourcesLtd.com.

This News Release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and forward-looking information within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities laws with respect to corporate strategies and plans; the value and potential value of assets and the ability of Entree to maximize returns to shareholders; potential types of mining operations; construction and continued development of the Oyu Tolgoi underground mine; the expected timing of first development production from Lift 1 of the Entree/Oyu Tolgoi joint venture property; anticipated future production and mine life; the future prices of copper, gold, molybdenum and silver; the estimation of mineral reserves and resources; the realization of mineral reserve and resource estimates; anticipated future production, capital and operating costs, cash flows and mine life; anticipated business activities; and future financial performance.

In certain cases, forward-looking statements and information can be identified by the use of words such as "plans", "expects" or "does not expect", "is expected", "budgeted", "scheduled", "estimates", "forecasts", "intends", "anticipates", or "does not anticipate" or "believes" or variations of such words and phrases or statements that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "would", "might", "will be taken", "occur" or "be achieved". While the Company has based these forward-looking statements on its expectations about future events as at the date that such statements were prepared, the statements are not a guarantee of Entree's future performance and are based on numerous assumptions regarding present and future business strategies, local and global economic conditions, legal proceedings and negotiations and the environment in which Entree will operate in the future, including the price of copper, gold, silver and molybdenum, and the status of Entree's relationship and interaction with the Government of Mongolia, Oyu Tolgoi LLC ("OTLLC"), Rio Tinto and Turquoise Hill Resources. With respect to the construction and continued development of the Oyu Tolgoi underground mine, important risks, uncertainties and factors which could cause actual results to differ materially from future results expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements and information include, amongst others, the timing and cost of the construction and expansion of mining and processing facilities; the timing and availability of a long term power source for the Oyu Tolgoi underground mine; the ability of OTLLC to draw down on the supplemental debt under the Oyu Tolgoi project finance facility and the availability of additional financing on terms reasonably acceptable to OTLLC, Turquoise Hill Resources and Rio Tinto to further develop Oyu Tolgoi; delays, and the costs which would result from delays, in the development of the underground mine; projected copper, gold, silver and molybdenum prices and demand; and production estimates and the anticipated yearly production of copper, gold, silver and molybdenum at the Oyu Tolgoi underground mine. The 2018 PEA is based on a conceptual mine plan that includes Inferred resources. Numerous assumptions were made in the preparation of the 2018 PEA, including with respect to mineability, capital and operating costs, production schedules, the timing of construction and expansion of mining and processing facilities, and recoveries, that may change materially once production commences at HNE Lift 1 and additional development and capital decisions are required. Any changes to the assumptions underlying the 2018 PEA could cause actual results to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by forward-looking statements and information relating to the 2018 PEA. Other uncertainties and factors which could cause actual results to differ materially from future results expressed or implied by forward-looking statements and information include, amongst others, unanticipated costs, expenses or liabilities; discrepancies between actual and estimated production, mineral reserves and resources and metallurgical recoveries; the size, grade and continuity of deposits not being interpreted correctly from exploration results; the results of preliminary test work not being indicative of the results of future test work; fluctuations in commodity prices and demand; changing foreign exchange rates; actions by Rio Tinto, Turquoise Hill Resources and/or OTLLC and by government authorities including the Government of Mongolia; the availability of funding on reasonable terms; the impact of changes in interpretation to or changes in enforcement of laws, regulations and government practices, including laws, regulations and government practices with respect to mining, foreign investment, royalties and taxation; the terms and timing of obtaining necessary environmental and other government approvals, consents and permits; the availability and cost of necessary items such as power, water, skilled labour, transportation and appropriate smelting and refining arrangements; and misjudgements in the course of preparing forward-looking statements.

In addition, there are also known and unknown risk factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of Entree to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements and information. Such factors include, among others, risks related to international operations, including legal and political risk in Mongolia; risks associated with changes in the attitudes of governments to foreign investment; risks associated with the conduct of joint ventures; discrepancies between actual and anticipated production, mineral reserves and resources and metallurgical recoveries; global financial conditions; changes in project parameters as plans continue to be refined; inability to upgrade Inferred mineral resources to Indicated or Measured mineral resources; inability to convert mineral resources to mineral reserves; conclusions of economic evaluations; future prices of copper, gold, silver and molybdenum; failure of plant, equipment or processes to operate as anticipated; accidents, labour disputes and other risks of the mining industry; delays in obtaining government approvals, permits or licences or financing or in the completion of development or construction activities; environmental risks; title disputes; limitations on insurance coverage; as well as those factors discussed in the Company's most recently filed Management's Discussion and Analysis and in the Company's Annual Information Form for the financial year ended December 31, 2016, dated March 10, 2017 filed with the Canadian Securities Administrators and available at www.sedar.com. Although the Company has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual actions, events or results to differ materially from those described in forward-looking statements, there may be other factors that cause actions, events or results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. There can be no assurance that forward-looking statements will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. The Company is under no obligation to update or alter any forward-looking statements except as required under applicable securities laws.

SOURCE Entree Resources

Related Links

http://www.entreegold.com

ERIE, Pa., Feb. 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Five members of Erie Insurance's IT Division will soon take on new responsibilities having been promoted to vice presidents. The promotions are a reflection of the increased strategic-level responsibilities of these roles within the organization.

David Edgerton will take on the role of vice president of Personal Lines Technology Marko Jovanovich has been named vice president of Infrastructure Administration Jamie Neumaier was named vice president of Information Security Erica Shine was named vice president of Strategic Initiatives Tim Shine will take on the role of vice president of Commercial Lines Technology

David Edgerton will take on the role of vice president of Personal Lines Technology. He joined Erie Insurance in 2014 as an IT Delivery Manager and was promoted to IT Director in 2015. In his new role, he is responsible for enabling ERIE's Personal Lines and ERIE Family Life product and service strategies. Edgerton holds a bachelor's degree in civil engineering from Auburn University. He earned his MBA from Poole College of Management at North Carolina State University. Prior to joining Erie Insurance, he served in the United States Navy from 1994 until 2014, where he attained the rank of lieutenant commander.

Marko Jovanovich has been named vice president of Infrastructure Administration. Jovanovich joined ERIE in 2003 as Section Manager in the IT Operations and Support Department. He was promoted to an IT Director in the fall of 2014. Jovanovich is responsible for all data center and print operations, server, network and telephony administration and IT disaster recovery. He also oversees enterprise systems management and enterprise applications. Jovanovich earned a bachelor's degree in Management from Gannon University in 1980. Prior to joining Erie Insurance, he held a variety of IT positions at GE Transportation.

Jamie Neumaier was named vice president of Information Security. Neumaier was hired as ERIE's Lead Information Security Analyst in 2003. He was promoted to IT Director in 2014. Since that time, he has led the company's information security program, responsible for maintaining the confidentiality, integrity and availability of Erie Insurance's information assets. Neumaier earned his bachelor's degree in Mathematics and his MBA at Penn State Erie, The Behrend College. Prior to joining ERIE, Jamie worked at GE Transportation as a technical analyst.

Erica Shine was named vice president of Strategic Initiatives. Shine joined Erie Insurance 13 years ago as a project management intern. She earned a bachelor's degree in business and operations/supply chain management from Penn State Erie, The Behrend College. Since joining Erie Insurance, she has held a variety of roles within IT, including project controls administrator, project manager and section supervisor. Shine has served as IT Director for multiple areas since 2014.

Tim Shine will take on the role of vice president of Commercial Lines Technology, having joined Erie Insurance in 1999 as an Actuarial Programmer. Shine holds a bachelor's degree in Management Information Systems from Gannon University. He worked as a software developer for State Farm Insurance and GE Transportation before joining Erie Insurance. He has held a number of positions across ERIE's IT department, serving as a systems analyst, release manager, section supervisor and section manager before being promoted to IT Director in 2014.

About Erie Insurance

According to A.M. Best Company, Erie Insurance Group, based in Erie, Pennsylvania, is the 10th largest homeowners insurer and 11th largest automobile insurer in the United States based on direct premiums written and the 15th largest property/casualty insurer in the United States based on total lines net premium written. The Group, rated A+ (Superior) by A.M. Best Company, has more than 5 million policies in force and operates in 12 states and the District of Columbia. Erie Insurance Group is a FORTUNE 500 company.

News releases and more information about Erie Insurance Group are available at www.erieinsurance.com .

SOURCE Erie Insurance

Related Links

http://www.erieinsurance.com

BOWIE, Md., Feb. 28, 2018 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Erik Jetmir of Bowie, Chief Petty Officer in Navy Reserves and Senior Research Scientist has declared his candidacy for the Democratic nomination for the United States Senate.

Erik Jetmir for Senate. Representing the future, representing the change we need.

"It is an honor to announce my candidacy for the United States Senate representing the great state of Maryland. Maryland has an exceptional work force that is doing amazing work both in the private sector and government. College costs are through the roof and I know firsthand how critical training and education can translate into opportunities and jobs. We need solutions that solve these runaway costs and improve opportunities for all. We need to do more for the young people of Maryland and the U.S. We need to invest in their futures, so they inherit the hope and promise of the American dream."

"Maryland is ready for change and we need to lead the nation in providing free college, that includes housing, meals, childcare and medical insurance. We need policies that put the middle class and struggling poor to work. With a comprehensive training and education program that provides a complete solution, we will ensure more of our best and brightest see their potential realized, not just those that can afford it. We are ready for this kind of change. Now is the time!"

"In my candidacy, I want to bring the struggle of everyday citizens to the White House. From the National Security impacts, underemployment, the incredible cost of medical insurance, childcare, the continued work of our schools and persistent struggles of the poor. I will be your ground engaged advocate. I will bring all parties to the table, and I will get the job done for all of us, not just career politicians and insiders. We can do better than this and I want to make that happen for all of us."

About Erik Jetmir - Erik Jetmir is a business leader with an extensive background in Military, Intelligence, Information Technology and Research Science. He has worked in senior positions in a Fortune 25 company, startups and defense contracting. Erik Jetmir is also a Navy Chief Petty Officer in the Navy Reserves, distinguished as a decorated Intelligence Analyst whose active duty included 3 years training 23,000 Marines in 29 Palms on Counter IED and three years working at NSA as a Deputy Chief at Joint Improvised Threat Defeat Agency SIGINT Element. NSA Team Lead, Senior Enlisted Leader (SEL) and field support Manager. He is a PhD Candidate in Homeland Security Public Policy. Erik left his position as Senior Research Scientist at an NSA contracting company to run for the U.S. Senate fulltime.

Endorsement: Erik Jetmir is proud to be recently endorsed by one of our nation's most influential thinkers, scholar, an award-winning author of 18 books, professor, talk show host and two-time NAACP Image Award winner, Dr. Michael Eric Dyson.

For more information got to: www.ErikJetmir.com

Contact: Erik Jetmir for Senate

Phone: 888-509-9979

Email: [email protected]

SOURCE Erik Jetmir for Senate

Related Links

http://www.erikjetmir.com

FARMINGTON HILLS, Mich., Feb. 27, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Eview 360 has helped Kia Motors open eight "pop-up" salons in shopping-center locations across the United States, creating a Kia salon concept in less than four months to support the launch of the automaker's 2018 Stinger GT sport sedan.

Kia reached out to Detroit-based Eview 360 last August for help in creating the special salons. The car maker gave Eview responsibility for handpicking and negotiating site locations, as well as designing, implementing and manufacturing every inch of the strategically placed salons.

To meet the tight four-month deadline, Eview designed the entire prototype space in virtual reality. To save even more time, the design team sent its virtual-reality headgear equipment directly to Kia's headquarters in Irvine, California, which allowed the Kia team to "virtually" immerse itself in the salon's environment  a move that truly captured the essence of experiential retailing. The process also allowed design changes to be made in real time, directly in front of Kia decision makers.

"Kia's Stinger experience is about minimalism, simplicity and purity of form," said Melissa Centra, Eview 360 CEO. "We built these attributes in a salon environment to offer curious customers a space to roam, gain insight and take away fresh perspectives on what the Kia brand has to offer with the Stinger GT."

In addition to a unique sales environment, each salon is equipped with Eview's DigitalB Retail Analytics Platform, which allows Kia's marketing team to capture and analyze each consumer's journey through the salon, while directly and accurately measuring key performance indicators set for the experience. Installed cameras and sensors throughout each salon measure the amount of foot traffic that passes by or enters the doors. They also analyze the locations visitors occupy within the space to hone in on decision-making moments. The system even measures demographics, speed and direction of customers to allow continuous improvement of the experience.

In addition to the physical layout and appearance of the salons, Eview's programming team developed a Stinger GT VR video game that allows players to choose their Stinger's color and race it on an Xbox located in the salon. To connect visitors to the brand, their top speed, 0-60 mph time and horsepower rating are captured and e-mailed back to them, giving them the ability to post their stats on social media and further spread awareness for the Stinger GT.

Eview also created a brand engagement center for each salon with video walls and digital signage that allows visitors to dive deeper into the product. Viewers can learn more about the vehicle's features and watch it race in different environments.

"This blending of interactive components with elements that have an emotional appeal allows visitors  old and new to Kia  to touch the brand and the vehicle in an inviting, interactive environment," Centra noted.

Stinger salons are now open and doing business in the following locations:

Nov., 2017 - Montgomery Mall // Bethesda, Md.

Nov., 2017 - Old Orchard Mall // Skokie, Ill.

Nov., 2017- The Westchester // White Plains, N.Y.

Dec., 2017- Valley Fair // Santa Clara, Calif.

Jan., 2018 - Irvine Spectrum Center // Irvine, Calif.

Jan., 2018 - The Domain // Austin, Texas

Jan., 2018 - Mall of Georgia // Buford, Ga.

An eighth salon is scheduled to open later this spring in suburban Miami at the Aventura Mall in Aventura, Florida.

About Eview 360: We are an international, award-winning design agency that has been creating memorable brand experiences for global clients since 1999. Our team is comprised of creative "rock stars" sharing one universal passion for design. We are drawn to the intersection of design and technology, infusing our multiple disciplines to create award-winning experiences online and in the physical environment. We specialize in brand development; digital and mobile technologies, and auto show, retail and special-event design. We enjoy leaving our clients breathless, waiting to see what we are going to do next.

Note to Editors: High resolution photos are available on request.

SOURCE Eview 360ORLANDO, Fla., Feb. 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Florida Hospital for Women and upscale Central Florida publication Lifestyle Magazine are pleased to join forces and announce the winner of the 10th Annual Cutest Baby Contest.

Since the contest's inception in 2008, Lifestyle Magazine has grown its online reach to over 108 different countries, including Italy, Canada and Mexico. This year's contest reached almost 100,000 people, yielding over 33,000 online votes.

Lifestyle Magazine Florida Hospital for Women

"We're pleased to partner with Lifestyle Magazine on their Annual Cutest Baby Contest and provide a fun way for our community to come together and celebrate life! We're excited to see some of Central Florida's newest and most adorable residents growing up healthy and strong!" said Doreen Forsythe, Women's Health Navigator for Florida Hospital for Women. Doreen makes life easier for new parents by providing expert clinical assistance to help coordinate any healthcare needs.

Florida Hospital for Women, Central Florida's comprehensive network of trusted healthcare services for women, will be featured alongside the three adorable winners of the Cutest Baby Contest in the March edition of Lifestyle Magazine. "We were thrilled when Florida Hospital for Women agreed to sponsor our annual baby contest. Their commitment to women of all stages of life and their pursuit of health is perfectly aligned with our magazine's focus," said Kristi Karst Gomen, CEO of Lifestyle Magazine.

Contest submissions are accepted each year from December through January and voting is held online for a week in early February.

Lifestyle Magazine - Founded in 2003, Lifestyle Magazine is direct mailed each month to over 60,000 affluent households in the greater Orlando area. Their mission is to create high-quality community tailored publications that reflect the lifestyles, interests and events within each community and ultimately provide the best value for advertisers.

VS Media Group - VS Media Group, parent company of Lifestyle Magazine, is a diversified multi marketing company committed to delivering innovative experiences across all platforms. They include a broad array of niche publications as well as targeted digital advertising solutions that connect advertisers and audiences.

Florida Hospital for Women - Florida Hospital for Women is part of a larger vision to improve women's health in the community, providing comprehensive services including obstetrics, high risk obstetrics, gynecologic oncology, minimally invasive women's surgery, neonatal intensive care, digital mammography, women's cardiovascular, wellness and education, a lactation center and the High Risk Breast Center.

Media contact:

Lyndsay Fogarty

407-558-3472

SOURCE VS Media Group, Inc

Related Links

http://www.vsmediagroup.com

GATINEAU, Quebec, Feb. 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Foko Retail today unveiled new compliance features to its visual communications platform that will ultimately improve customer experiences for multi-location retailers. Foko Retail's advanced platform provides the science behind merchandising and execution to determine which displays are driving sales, and deliver these insights to company headquarters so they can make data-informed decisions.

The new compliance enhancements build upon existing functionalities, such as a visibility module--a real time window of what's happening in each location--and analytics--instant insights and performance reporting for executive leadership. Now retailers can combine these capabilities to assign tasks and surveys, request photos and give feedback on submissions in real-time, so stores can reach compliance faster.

"Brand consistency is critical to customer loyalty, yet the ability for headquarters to ensure merchandise displays and store layouts are compliant across locations can take weeks," said Marc Gingras, CEO of Foko Retail. "By helping headquarters gain greater visibility into their retail stores and generating data insights, our engaging platform can reduce this process to hours. We save retailers and brands precious time, which can be better spent on other aspects of customer experience."

Foko Retail's platform delivers both the art and science of retail execution. Its visual, social media-style interface provides retail teams with an easy and engaging way to communicate in real time, so they can better share best practices, receive feedback on displays and resolve execution problems faster. The platform also provides scientific features, such as advanced compliance workflows, which enable retailers to track the execution of brand guidelines and generate detailed analytics on store performance.

In just two years, Foko Retail has acquired over 60 customers and now works with some of the world's largest brands in retail, including Nike, Whole Foods, Helly Hansen and Club Monaco. To book a walkthrough, please visit www.fokoretail.com .

About Foko Retail

Foko Retail's visual communications platform helps improve in-store customer experiences. The Canada-based company delivers the art and science of retail execution, so retailers can ensure total visibility and compliance across stores, and get real-time analytics on in-store execution, for a brand-consistent customer experience every time. The company was founded in 2013 and is headquartered in Gatineau, QC. For more information, please visit www.fokoretail.com.

SOURCE Foko Retail

Related Links

http://fokoretail.com

Murray Energy spokesman Gary Broadbent blasted the dismissal and said the company planned to appeal the decision.

This decision contains absolutely no legal reasoning, whatsoever, and instead blindly adopts the Defendants deeply flawed arguments, Broadbent said in an email. 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.

The ACLU of West Virginia has moved on, though. Seemingly unfazed by the threat of an appeal, the nonprofit legal group started a Twitter campaign to try to get Croft onto Olivers show, and called the lawsuit a ridiculous abuse of our justice system from its very inception.

And on Sundays episode of Last Week Tonight, Oliver acknowledged the judges dismissal during the opening of the show, recapping the saga and restraining himself from fully gloating, inasmuch as Oliver shows restraint.DOVER, Del., Feb. 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Honoring the legacy of a loved one and worrying about the offset of funeral expenses while mourning can be one of life's hardest hurdles.

Online fundraising offers an easy and stress free experience to set up fundraisers quickly for time sensitive and tragic events, such as funerals, which often exceed costs of $7,000.

GiveHope offers customized campaigns which allows users to manage and track their progress on mobile and desktop devices.

GiveHope has hosted thousands of funeral and memorial campaign on their website. We've come across several fundraisers on GiveHope that have raised more than $10,000 within 24 hours. These examples are outlined below for new users to learn how easy it is to raise money for important causes online. On average, over 65 percent of users reach their fundraising goals, including many that raise upwards of $10,000.

Successful campaigns include Stephanie Ervin's, who created a GiveHope campaign after her younger brother, Jack Hooten, passed away at a young age. Hooten, a middle schooler, left behind a distraught family who was unable to cover funeral expenses.

Jack Hooten's fundraiser on GiveHope can be found here

"Any help to ease the financial stress is appreciated and will be used to put Jack's sweet soul to rest, as well as give everyone an opportunity to mourn this tragic loss," says Ervin. Thanks to the generosity of 193 donors, she collected $11,470 in less than 24 hours - enough to cover the cost of the funeral.

"In the most basic terms, crowdfunding is a means of community-building that brings people together around a cause," says Jordan Tanner, CEO of GiveHope. "It can be a wonderful, warm feeling to know that people care and are sharing in the grief."

Another GiveHope campaign that was able to raise over $10,000 in less than 24 hours is a campaign created by Susan Coldiron honoring her late husband, Jerry Coldiron. Susan wrote, "We would love nothing more than to continue Jerry's legacy of giving to others for many years to come. It gives our family great pleasure to know instead of flowers being sent to Jerry, your 'flower' gift will be helping someone else."

Jerry's memorial fund raised over $19,538, with the first $13,000 generated in 24 hours.

Jerry Coldiron fundraiser on GiveHope can be found here

GiveHope's online platform allows donors to react, act in the moment, start a fundraiser and give in just a matter of minutes.

About GiveHope

GiveHope is an easy and secure way to raise money online for personal causes and life events, to challenging circumstances such as accidents and illnesses. Based in the US, GiveHope welcomes users from all over the world and is available in 8 languages and multiple currencies. With a new software and cloud infrastructure in place, GiveHope works fast, secure, and as its one million donors say, reliable. Join millions who have successfully raised money for important causes. Visit www.GiveHope.com to create a FREE fundraiser today!

SOURCE GiveHope

Related Links

https://givehope.com/

NEW DELHI, February 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --

Geospatial Media and Communications announces the release of the 2nd edition of its comprehensive research report titled GeoBuiz 2018 (previously known as The Global Geospatial Industry Outloook).

(Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/647550/Geospatial_GeoBuiz_Logo.jpg )



The report is presented in two complementing parts - the Global Geospatial Industry Outlook and the Countries Geospatial Readiness Index 2018. The Global Geospatial Industry Outlook captures the global size, growth and value impact of the global geospatial industry till 2020. It estimates that the geospatial industry is projected to reach US$ 439.2 billion by 2020, growing at a CAGR of 13.6% owing to increasing democratization of geospatial information and its integration with IT. The report also highlights that the embedment of geospatial technologies creates an economic impact on the global GDP at 20% CAGR. Furthermore, the report provides detailed growth estimates of the four key segments of the geospatial industry - GNSS and Positioning, GIS/Spatial Analytics, Earth Observation, and 3D Scanning. For each industry segment, key industry trends, market size, technology drivers, benefits and challenges, and innovations are presented to provide a wholesome perspective on the geospatial industry and its value proposition to the global audience.

The Countries Geospatial Readiness Index-2018 reiterates the need expressed by the government, and industry stakeholders to develop a holistic national geospatial strategy in tandem with technological advancements. The United States of America, United Kingdom, Germany, Singapore and the Netherlands are assessed as top five geospatially ready countries out of the 50 countries index. The assessment is based on an evaluation framework comprising of five pillars (inclusive of 20+ sub-pillars) which are - geospatial data infrastructure, policy framework, institutional capacities, user adoption and geospatial industry capacities. The countries have been grouped as 'Leaders', 'Challengers', and 'Aspirers' in each of the evaluation pillars with comparative insights, and highlights accompanied with geography-wise infographics.

You can download a free copy of GeoBuiz 2018 Report from: http://www.geobuiz.com/geobuiz-2018-report.html.

Geospatial Industry Segments Analyzed:

GNSS & Positioning

Earth Observation

GIS & Spatial Analytics

3D Scanning

Geographies covered:

North America

Europe

Asia Pacific

South America

Middle East

Africa

User Segments captured:

Defense and Internal Security

Infrastructure

Urban Development

Utilities

Retail and Logistics

Agriculture

BFSI

Disaster Management

Citizen Services

Natural Resources

For further inquiries contact:

Ranjan Singh

Director - Market Intelligence and Policy Advocacy Division

Geospatial Media and Communications

[email protected]

+91-120-461-2500

SOURCE Geospatial Media and Communications Pvt LtdHEIDELBERG, Germany, Feb. 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- ARAG Krankenversicherungs-AG, a German health insurance provider, has established a central data warehouse with SAS, the leader in analytics, to supply all the company's organizational units with the data they require. Using a portal developed with SAS Enterprise BI Server, departments at the insurer can access comprehensive analyses.

"Data warehousing is an ongoing process, not one-time project," said Wolfgang Neuber, project lead at ARAG IT GmbH. "Using SAS, we've built a central platform that allows us to distribute information according to our needs. That gives us a solid foundation for our medium-term and long-term business planning."

ARAG Krankenversicherungs-AG has relied on SAS solutions for 20 years. Past projects include a joint effort resulting in the successful migration of the company's enterprise wide reporting system to a web-based solution in addition to other innovative IT projects focusing on business process optimization, automated processing and product profitability. Consequently, ARAG Krankenversicherungs-AG had already established a foundation for fact-based controlling.

With SAS, the company now has a consistent, centralized data warehouse, making it even more effective at reaching business decisions in the areas of planning, analysis and controlling. The SAS portal distributes automatically generated information to the corresponding departments. Ad hoc queries receive fast answers, and no programming is required. In addition, the company has created a single version of truth by standardizing terms, pre-defining reporting standards, and establishing comparable and structured metrics. Another overall benefit for the health insurance carrier is the high-data quality that the automated monitoring mechanisms ensure.

Custom access control through a central permissions management system ensures that each user gets precisely the information that they need, such as statistics on sales targets, rate increases or telephony.

"Especially in the insurance industry, being able to access all the data in a consistent way is so important  data quality is a huge topic," explained Kai Fahlenbock, Director for Sales Insurance in German, Australia and Switzerland at SAS. "We're pleased to have this opportunity to build a comprehensive data management structure for ARAG Krankenversicherungs-AG. It will put the company in the best possible position to make key determinations  whether they're looking at customer relationships, accounting issues or strategic planning."

About SAS

SAS is the leader in analytics. Through innovative software and services, SAS empowers and inspires customers around the world to transform data into intelligence. SAS gives you THE POWER TO KNOW.

SAS and all other SAS Institute Inc. product or service names are registered trademarks or trademarks of SAS Institute Inc. in the USA and other countries.  indicates USA registration. Other brand and product names are trademarks of their respective companies. Copyright  2018 SAS Institute Inc. All rights reserved.

SOURCE SAS

Related Links

http://www.sas.com

DUBLIN, Feb. 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --

The "3D Cell Culture Global Market - Forecast to 2024" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

The market is expected to grow at a low double digit CAGR to reach $1,485.1 million by 2024.

As intricacies of these techniques are understood advanced 3D models have been developed which greatly influence the in-vitro culturing and driving cell culture market.

In contrast to 2D environment, cells grown in three-dimensions display higher degree of intercellular interactions, assume more physiologically relevant morphologies and preserve higher-order tissue processes. Tools, technologies, and protocols are making in-vitro 3D analysis simple, cheap, reproducible and scalable-enough for adaptation in drug development.

As these tools have become more accessible and validated, researchers in both academia and biopharma are shifting their attention from 2D to 3D cell culture.



Rising investments in research and development, increasing need for organ transplantation, use of 3D cell culture models as a tool against animal testing, use of microfluidic technology, and increasing focus on regenerative medicine are some of the factors that are driving the market growth.

The entry of new players with novel technologies and introduction of technology driven products are creating an opportunity in the global 3D cell culture market. Whereas, Lack of experienced and skilled research professionals, lack of consistency in 3D cell culture products and budget restriction for small and medium-sized laboratories are hindering the market growth.

Stringent regulatory process controls and ethical concern over animal source usage are the major threat to the market.

The recent progress in microfluidic technology, scaffolds, spheroids and gels-based systems is making lot of difference in the market as they provide micro-scale complex structures and well-controlled parameters to mimic the in vivo environment of cells and thereby gives an opportunity for scientists to explore new applications such as tissue engineering, stem cell, drug discovery and regenerative medicine.

The rapid advancements in the field of cell culture such as 3D bioprinting, organ-on-chip, and single use bioreactors is advancing day- by-day and has been accepted as the future direction of 3D cell culture market. Now-a-days, ultra low attachment micro-plates (ULA) applications are increasing as researchers are focusing on single spheroid and microtissue production for downstream assay compatibility driving demand for ultra low attachment microplates. For instance, InSphero AG (Switzerand), Corning Incorporated (U.S.), Perkin Elmer (U.S) are some the major companies manufacturing these plates.

The 3D cell culture technology global market is broadly classified into scaffold based platforms and scaffold free platforms, of which the scaffold based platforms, hold the largest share in 2017. However the scaffold free platforms are expected to grow at a faster rate.

Furthermore scaffolds hold the largest share among the scaffold based platforms that include hydrogels and other products as well. Similarly, the forced floating method occupied the largest share within the scaffold free market when compared to the other methods such as hanging drop method, agitation based methods and microfluidics.

A number of product categories are available in the 3D cell culture market that include cells & tissues, media, sera and reagents, microplates and others, assay kits, scaffolds and other products. The media, sera and reagents segment occupy the largest share in 2017. However the scaffolds market seems to be the fastest growing, due to the advancements in technologies in this area including the uptake of bioprinting technology.

There are a number of applications in which 3D cell culture products are used that include basic research, toxicity and drug safety screening, tissue engineering, stem cell research, drug discovery, gene therapy and cancer research. The toxicity and drug safety screening is a field in which recent advanced are recognized making it the largest segment in 2017.

From an end-users perspective the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries occupy the largest share in 2017 followed by CROs and hospitals is growing at the fast rate.

Geographically, 3D cell culture market is divided into North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific and Rest of the world. North America dominated the market with largest share in 2017, due to increased government funding, rising incidence of cancer, development of new models for candidate drug screening and cytotoxicity testing, expanding biopharmaceutical industries and high healthcare expenditure.

Europe accounts for second largest share followed by Asia-pacific region and it is expected to grow at the highest rate due to increased healthcare awareness, improved economic growth, low operating cost and increased outsourcing. Significant new product launches, collaborations and partnerships joint ventures are some of the industry trends that are playing a major role for the market growth.

Key Topics Covered:



1. Executive Summary



2. Introduction



3. Market Analysis

3.1 Introduction

3.2 Market Segmentation

3.3 Factors Influencing Market

3.3.1 Drivers And Opportunities

3.3.1.1 Substantial R&D Investments For 3D Cell Culture

3.3.1.2 Use Of 3D Cell Culture Models In Drug Discovery And Research As An Alternative To Animal Testing

3.3.1.3 Emergence Of Microfluidic Technology And Bioprinting

3.3.1.4 Increasing Focus On Regenerative Medicine

3.3.2 Restraints And Threats

3.3.2.1 Lack Of Experienced And Skilled Professionals

3.3.2.2 Budget Restriction For Small And Medium Sized Laboratories And Lack Of Consistency In 3D Cell Culture Products

3.3.2.3 Stringent Process Controls For Advanced Handling Capabilities

3.3.2.4 Ethical Concern Over Use Of Animal Sources

3.4 Regulatory Affairs

3.4.1 United States

3.4.2 Europe

3.4.3 India

3.4.4 Japan

3.5 Technological Advancements

3.5.1 Introduction

3.5.2 Organ-On-Chip

3.5.3 3D Bioprinting

3.5.4 Single Use Reactors

3.6 Porter'S Five Force Analysis

3.6.1 Threat Of New Entrants

3.6.2 Threat Of Substitutes

3.6.3 Bargaining Power Of Suppliers

3.6.4 Bargaining Power Of Buyers

3.6.5 Rivalry Among Existing Competitors

3.7 Supply Chain Analysis

3.7.1 Raw Material Supplier:

3.7.2 Product Manufacturers:-

3.7.3 3D Cell Culture Products Distributors

3.7.4 End-Users

3.8 Market Share Analysis By Major Players



4. 3D Cell Culture Global Market, By Technology

4.1 Introduction

4.2 Scaffold Based Platforms

4.2.1 Scaffolds

4.2.2 Hydrogels

4.2.3 Others

4.3 Scaffold Free Platforms

4.3.1 Hang Drop Method

4.3.2 Forced Floating

4.3.3 Agitation Based Methods

4.3.4 Microfluidics



5. 3D Cell Culture Global Market, By Products

5.1 Introduction

5.2 Cells And Tissues

5.3 Media, Sera And Reagents

5.4 Microplates And Others

5.5 Assay Kits

5.6 Scaffolds

5.6.1 Natural Scaffolds

5.6.2 Synthetic Scaffolds

5.6.3 Hybrid Composite

5.6.4 Hydrogels

5.7 Others



6. 3D Cell Culture Global Market, By Application

6.1 Introduction

6.2 Basic Research

6.3 Toxicity And Drug Safety Screening

6.4 Tissue Engineering

6.5 Stem Cell Research

6.6 Drug Discovery

6.7 Cancer Research

6.8 Gene Therapy



7. 3D Cell Culture Global Market, By End-Users

7.1 Introduction

7.2 Academic Institutes

7.3 Biotechnology And Pharmaceutical Industries

7.4 Others



8. Regional Analysis

8.1 Introduction

8.2 North America

8.2.1 U.S.

8.2.2 Others

8.3 Europe

8.3.1 Germany

8.3.2 U.K.

8.3.3 France

8.3.4 Others

8.4 Asia-Pacific

8.4.1 China

8.4.2 Japan

8.4.3 Korea

8.4.4 Others

8.5 Rest Of The World

8.5.1 Brazil

8.5.2 Rest Of Latin America

8.5.3 Middle East And Others



9. Competitive Landscape

9.1 Introduction

9.2 Collaborations & Partnerships

9.3 New Product Launches

9.4 Agreements, Expantions & Mergers

9.5 Company Matrix



10. Major Companies

3D Matrix Co ( Japan )

) AMSBio LLC (U.S.)

Ascendance (U.S.)

Becton Dickenson & Company (U.S.)

& Company (U.S.) BioCellChallenge ( France )

) Biolamina AB ( Sweden )

) CellecBiotek AG ( Switzerland )

) CelVivo IVS ( Denmark )

) Corning (U.S.)

Cytoo ( France )

) Fujifilm ( Japan )

) Hurel Corp (U.S.)

Insphero ( Switzerland )

) JSR Corporation (Organogenix Inc.)( Japan )

) Kuraray Co. Ltd. ( Japan )

) Lonza ( Switzerland )

) Merck KGaA ( Germany )

) Nano 3D Biosciences (U.S.)

Nanopahrma AS ( Czech Republic )

) Organovo Holdings Inc. (U.S.).

Prodizen (Korea)

Thermofisher Scientific (U.S.)

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/4n7l68/global_3d_cell?w=5



Media Contact:

Research and Markets

Laura Wood, Senior Manager

[email protected]



For E.S.T Office Hours Call +1-917-300-0470

For U.S./CAN Toll Free Call +1-800-526-8630

For GMT Office Hours Call +353-1-416-8900



U.S. Fax: 646-607-1907

Fax (outside U.S.): +353-1-481-1716

SOURCE Research and Markets

Related Links

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LONDON, Feb. 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- A comprehensive, systematically structured research report on wireless keyboard market by Persistence Market Research enables the reader to chalk down strategies to progress with the changing pace of the global market scenario.



Download the full report: https://www.reportbuyer.com/product/5351021





The research report is backed up with a unique research methodology, which presents data and statistics with high precision. The global wireless keyboard market research report covers an in-depth market segmentation which covers all angles of the market thus giving a 3600 view delivering necessary value addition from a strategic standpoint.



Benefit with a unique research process

The research carried out for analyzing the wireless keyboard market follows an elite research methodology that increases the accuracy percentage by reducing the deviations to a great extent.



The one of its kind research methodology follows a repetitive pattern wherein each data point of every single parameter of each and every segment is evaluated multiple times and a re-validation gives a finishing touch that offers high precision with reduced errors followed by a triangulation method that raises the aspect ratio of credibility.



There is no room for miscalculations due to such a streamlined and structured research process. Managed by domain experts, the analysts have crafted the wireless keyboard market research report in such a way that it can be easily understood owing to simple yet matchless report structure.



Benefit from global market perspective

The comprehensiveness of the global wireless keyboard market research report is due to a unique research process with which every angle present in every segment and sub-segment of the global market with respect to each sub region of all important geographies is covered, that gives a holistic touch to the research study.



The reader can get a broad idea regarding implementation of marketing strategies in order to achieve informed growth in the years to come. The geographical cover up includes intelligence on important landscapes of North America, Europe, Latin America, Asia-pacific and Middle East and Africa (MEA).



Several aspects are analyzed which have an impact on the wireless keyboard market growth along with the opportunities and threats that these regions portray. Moreover, the macroeconomic aspects, trends, drivers and challenges are also discussed in this research study.



Weighted analyses on key players

The global wireless keyboard market research report dedicates an entire research chapter on competitive intelligence, which reflects key details of various tier companies involved in the market. The details such as company overview, product portfolio, SWOT analysis, key innovations and developments, key financial intelligence of these key players have been included in the research study.



Market Taxonomy

By Platform

Windows

Mac OS

Linux

Android

iOS



By End User

Residential

Commercial



By Application

PC

Smartphone and Tablet

Smart TV

Others



By Region

North America

Latin America

Europe

Asia Pacific (APAC)

Middle East and Africa (MEA)



Reasons for investing in this research report

Holistic market research with unbiased market crunching

Considering every angle of the market which influences the global market growth by carrying out detailed market segmentation

Support with respect to conceptualization to commercialization of ideas

Highly accurate data an statistics

Weighted analysis and data interpretations and 24x7 analyst support to solve any queries

Key recommendations basis the opinions of the market domain experts



Download the full report: https://www.reportbuyer.com/product/5351021



About Reportbuyer

Reportbuyer is a leading industry intelligence solution that provides all market research reports from top publishers



For more information:

Sarah Smith

Research Advisor at Reportbuyer.com

Email: [email protected]

Tel: +1 (718) 213 4904

Website: www.reportbuyer.com

SOURCE ReportBuyer

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WESTPORT, Conn., Feb. 28, 2018 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The following is a Westport, Connecticut Representative Town Meeting letter addressing the CT General Assembly Transportation Committee presented by Greg Kraut.

Dear Connecticut General Assembly Transportation Committee,

Greg Kraut addresses the Connecticut General Assembly Transportation Committee

I call for all rail increases to be immediately halted by the legislature. The rail fares have gone up 23 percent and now the Governor wants to raise them another 21 percent. At the same time, commuters will get reduced service. This only happens when we have a monopoly and the decision making is controlled by one person, the Governor. We live in a democracy, not a dictatorship. Even the Commissioner of the Department of Transportation James Redeker at the Connecticut Department of Transportation public forum on February 28th, at the University of Connecticut-Stamford publicly stated, "This is not my plan, so don't blame me." This is unacceptable and will just be another factor to cause people and business to leave our state. I have had hundreds of constituents email and call me expressing their concern regarding this matter. The fare is already high, and this may be the tipping point for riders. Without a long-term vision or strategy, this seems misguided and an anti-growth policy which is the opposite strategy that we need now. It is now abundantly clear that we need to have all rail increases approved by the legislature.

Please help!

Greg Kraut

Westport RTM

Kraut for Connecticut!

203-557-0995

www.gregkraut.com

Related Images

image1.jpg

greg-kraut-photo.jpg

Greg Kraut photo

Greg Kraut photo

SOURCE Kraut for CTNapa has a new furniture store  one that offers a dual approach to shopping.

Called Brick & Mantel, the business is located at 742 California Blvd., close to the intersection of Third Street.

Shoppers can visit the Brick & Mantel boutique to choose a new American-made sofa or dining room set. But for those that have trouble deciding what to buy, help is on hand: owner Anne Alderson is also an accredited interior designer.

Anderson opened her business to help customers and clients find good-quality, American-made furniture, affordably priced. She also provides interior design services from the bottom up.

A native of Truckee, Calif., Alderson said, I just had an eye for it. Some people are math people, I was always good at color and style, so I got accredited as an interior designer. I have a degree from the University of Nevada at Reno and then I sat for the exam for the National Council for Interior Design Qualifications. Its important for people to know theyre dealing with a professional. Now she is an accredited member of the American Society of Interior Designers.

As she practiced interior design in the Lake Tahoe area, she got the idea of opening a furniture shop as well, and fled the snow to Petaluma in 2012.Mr. Shang Bin, Chairman of China Mobile stated that China Mobile will start 5G scale-up trials in 5 cities and 5G application showcase in 12 cities, propel core network transformation and RAN evolution in 2018 to speed up 5G end-to-end development. China Mobile will also actively promote 5G+AI innovation to pioneer 5G smart network for intelligent operation, and to enable the intelligent connectivity and applications for all aspects of life. In this summit, based on 2 years efforts and collaboration with 112 partners in 5G Innovation Center, China Mobile kicked off 5G Innovative Application Campaign, providing 5G end-to-end environment in 12 open labs world widely, to prepare 5G service innovation for 5G pre-commercial showcase in 2019.

Bharti Airtel introduced the multifold challenges of network and socio economic in India. It is believed that new services in 5G era will definitely solve these problems. Bharti will take this opportunity to build the 5G network to support the industry pillars of "DIGITAL INDIA" by providing superior user experience diversified applications.

Deutsche Telekom stated that in the customer-centric 5G network, addressing and knowing well about customer demand is critical and DT's 5G network slicing will be the tailored network solutions for the diversified industry demands.

NTT DOCOMO shared the vision of wonderful future life in 2020s with intelligent connectivity and innovative use cases, which 5G and AI will bring. NTT DOCOMO would like to co-create enhanced user experience and new market using 5G and AI with partners across industries, and will open AI Agent API to help co-create new value.

At this Summit, AT&T, China Mobile, Deutsche Telekom, NTT DOCOMO and Orange jointly founded the world-wide ORAN Alliance to empower the next generation RAN with deeply imbedded intelligence, much higher efficiency, lower cost, greater agility and flexibility, and zero-touch automation. AT&T, Orange and all the founding members stated they will devote to the new open RAN in ORAN Alliance.

Verticals expect the fast development of 5G and AI technology, which will bring new opportunities and innovation applications to all aspects of society. Christoph Voigt, Chairman of 5GAA (5G Automotive Association) believes that the 5G+AI will make the autonomous driving a reality with ultra-low latency, high-reliability, and intelligent driving system. ABB emphasize robots, wireless connectivity and intelligent digitalization will play critical roles in the Forth Industrial Revolution. 5G + AI will enable paradigm shift in manufacturing which deliver faster time to market, higher flexibility, higher productivity and lower cost. Delegate of CEPRI of State Grid Corporation of China shares the 5G+AI requirements including high speed, Ubiquitous perception, always on-line, intelligence to achieve the smarter future of internet of energy.

End-to-end industry are putting more efforts to bringing 5G into a reality. Qualcomm, ZTE, Nokia, Huawei and Ericsson shared their progress on the latest development status of 5G technology, products and trials. With AI and cloud architecture, the 5G network will become more intelligent, agile and flexible to facilitate the service and application innovation with verticals. The smarter 5G devices is one of the keys to usher a 5G new era. Therefore, with 20 industry partners, China Mobile released 5G Terminal Forerunner Plan to promote the maturity of 5G chipset, component and terminals, and to improve the time to market of 5G pre-commercial products.

5G is believed to be a key enabler for innovative services and applications in next few years that should reshape our society and various verticals in a way we have never seen before. And Artificial Intelligence (AI) is also a very promising technology which could penetrate into all aspects of our society. When 5G encounters AI, our world is filled with even much more possibilities and inspirations which will take innovation to another level. In the future, GTI will continue to hold hands with industrial partners to build an effective international cooperation platform to promote 5G commercialization and 5G joint innovation.

What is GTI?

Global TD-LTE Initiative (GTI), founded in 2011, has been dedicated to constructing a robust ecosystem of TD-LTE, speeding up the commercialization of TD-LTE and promoting the convergence of LTE TDD and FDD. As 4G evolves to 5G, GTI 2.0 was officially launched at the GTI Summit 2016 during the Mobile World Congress 2016 in Barcelona, aiming not only to further promote the evolution of TD-LTE and its global deployment, but also fostering a cross-industry innovative and a synergistic 5G ecosystem.

GTI Summit is a premier event that industry professionals should attend. This summit brings together the industry's most influential decision makers, policy makers and partners from around the globe to discuss the latest industry trends, share cutting-edge technologies and release innovative achievements. It is held three times a year in Barcelona Spain, Shanghai China and America respectively.

Contact:

Yu, Jiang [email protected]

SOURCE China Mobile LimitedCHICAGO, Feb. 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- HealthScape Advisors, a leading provider of healthcare consulting and analytics, today announced that the systems* of HealthScape Advisors and its affiliate Pareto Intelligence have earned Certified status for information security by HITRUST.

HITRUST CSF Certified status demonstrates that the organization's systems have met key regulations and industry-defined requirements, and are appropriately managing risk. This achievement places HealthScape and Pareto in an elite group of organizations worldwide that have earned this certification. By including federal and state regulations, meeting standards and frameworks, and incorporating a risk-based approach, the HITRUST CSF helps organizations address these challenges through a comprehensive and flexible framework of prescriptive and scalable security controls.

"Protecting our clients' data has always been a top priority for both HealthScape Advisors and its technology and analytics affiliate, Pareto Intelligence," said Steve Young, Managing Partner at HealthScape. "Achieving HITRUST CSF Certified status is proof of that commitment, and our dedication to providing the highest level of service and compliance for our client partners."

"Organizations that have earned HITRUST CSF Certification represent the highest caliber of sensitive information safeguarding and information risk management," said Ken Vander Wal, Chief Compliance Officer, HITRUST. "We commend HealthScape Advisors and Pareto Intelligence for implementing the necessary controls to achieve HITRUST CSF Certified status. Clients of these organizations can be confident in their compliance standards."

*Systems that are HITRUST CSF Certified include fileshare system, databases, web applications, and supporting infrastructure.

About HealthScape Advisors

HealthScape Advisors is a privately held management consulting firm dedicated to serving clients within the healthcare industry. We provide consulting services to commercial and government health plans, specialty health organizations, health systems and providers, and healthcare investors. To learn more, visit our website at www.healthscape.com.

About Pareto Intelligence

Pareto Intelligence is a technology and analytics company that supports health plans and providers with solutions to evaluate revenue accuracy, manage cost, and improve long-term financial performance. We inform, optimize, and engage by bringing together a suite of interoperable technology solutions and tailored advisory services. Pareto is an affiliate of HealthScape Advisors. To learn more, visit our website at www.paretointel.com.

Media contact:

Bre Bush

[email protected]

630-292-8859

SOURCE HealthScape Advisors; Pareto Intelligence"At UNC Charlotte, the HEIDENHAIN KGM grid encoder is used to demonstrate the measurement of dynamic machine tool errors to the graduate class in Machine Tool Metrology utilizing the ISO230 standard series," explained CPM Chief Engineer Dr. Jimmie Miller. "As far as R&D with this equipment, other plans involve its utilization by directly connecting to research machine encoders to assess the machine multi-axis position and control. This will enable us to move the assessment metrology loop outside of the control loop for a faster non-interfering independent evaluation."

"The generous support of companies like HEIDENHAIN supporting education and R&D allows us to continue to maintain the CPM capabilities at the state-of-the-art level by utilizing today's top technologies such as the donated HEIDENHAIN interface equipment and software," stated Dr. Miller.

Interface electronics from HEIDENHAIN adapt the encoder signals to the interface of the subsequent electronics. They are used when the subsequent electronics cannot directly process the output signals from HEIDENHAIN encoders, or if additional interpolation of the signals is necessary. Because of their high IP 65 degree of protection, interface electronics with a box design are well suited for a rough industrial environment. The inputs and outputs are equipped with robust M23 and M12 connecting elements.

About HEIDENHAIN

Dr. Johannes HEIDENHAIN GmbH, headquartered in Traunreut, Germany, develops and supports motion control feedback solutions for the machine tool, semiconductor, electronics assembly and test, metrology, automation, medical, energy, biotechnology and other global markets. The North American subsidiary is HEIDENHAIN CORPORATION, headquartered in Schaumburg, IL, and San Jose, CA, and has been serving the U.S. industry for over 50 years. www.heidenhain.us

For more information, contact HEIDENHAIN's North American Public Relations Manager Kathleen Stoneski at 847-519-4702 or [email protected].

SOURCE HEIDENHAIN

Related Links

http://www.heidenhain.us

YARDLEY, Pa., Feb. 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Heraeus Medical, a global leader in joint fixation and infection management announced today the introduction of innovations to its current PALACOS product portfolio. The exciting new products include the medium viscosity bone cement PALACOS MV variations, along with two mixing systems, PALAMIX and PALABOWL.

The innovative PALAMIX and PALABOWL, while created for use with PALACOS bone cement, can be effectively used with other types of bone cements. These new products, along with the complete PALACOS portfolio, will be displayed during the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons' Annual Meeting, March 6-10, 2018 in New Orleans. AAOS attendees wanting to learn more about the medium viscosity bone cement, versatile mixing options or view other ground-breaking products are encouraged to visit Heraeus Medical at booth 1713 and participate in demonstrations and discussions.

"The collaborative environment of AAOS provides an excellent opportunity to share our newest technologies with total joint arthroplasty surgeons and gain direct feedback," said Devin Childers, Vice President and General Manager of Heraeus Medical LLC. "Heraeus is excited to share our rapidly growing portfolio with attendees."

In January, the company announced it would provide PALACOS customers with earlier access to its latest technologies by selling to them directly. PALACOS, formerly sold exclusively through a distributor in the US, is now available directly through its pioneer and manufacturer, Heraeus Medical.

New and existing PALACOS customers in the US are able to order products directly from Heraeus Medical by calling 1-833-PALACOS (725-2267). Heraeus Medical has successfully sold and supported PALACOS customers directly in Europe, Australia, and several other countries through an integrated ordering process that is now also available to US customers.

For more information or to order PALACOS in the US, please visit www.heraeus-medical-usa.com or call 1-833-PALACOS (725-2267).

For more information during AAOS, please visit Heraeus Medical at booth 1713.

About the Heraeus Medical Global Business Unit

Heraeus Medical is known as a global leader in joint fixation and infection management in orthopedics and trauma surgery. This enables the company to make an important contribution to supporting surgeons and the surgical team and to improve surgery outcomes. In the area of biomaterials, Heraeus Medical focuses on products for use in bone and joint surgery. The core product PALACOS is considered the gold standard among bone cements and has repeatedly proven itself over five decades of clinical use.

About Heraeus

Heraeus, the technology group headquartered in Hanau, Germany, is a leading international family-owned company formed in 1851. With expertise, a focus on innovations, operational excellence and an entrepreneurial leadership, we strive to continuously improve the businesses of our customers around the world.

We create high-quality solutions for our customers and strengthen their long-term competitiveness by combining material expertise with technological know-how. Our ideas are focused on important issues such as the environment, energy, health, mobility, and industrial applications. Our portfolio ranges from components to coordinated material systems which are used in a wide variety of industries, including the steel, electronics, chemical, automotive, and telecommunications industries.

In the 2016 financial year, the FORTUNE Global 500 listed company-generated revenues without precious metals of US$2.2 bn and a total revenue of US$23.8 bn. With approximately 12,400 employees worldwide in more than 100 subsidiaries in 40 countries, Heraeus holds a leading position in its global markets. In 2016, the Foundation for Family Businesses named Heraeus as one of the "Top 10 Family Businesses" in Germany.

SOURCE Heraeus Medical

Related Links

http://www.heraeus-medical-usa.com

"This award is further validation that what the market is already telling us is true  PRM has moved into the mainstream as a core enterprise business solution that's as critical to a company's business success as CRM, ERP or any other foundational technology that is part of a modern go-to-business architecture," said Dave R Taylor, Impartner CMO, listing off a stream of world-leading corporations that have recently signed on with Impartner including Splunk, Zendesk and Jive Communications.

The 12th annual Stevie Awards for Sales and Customer Service saw more than 2,500 nominations of all sizes and in virtually every industry were evaluated in this year's competition. Finalists were determined by the average scores of more than 150 professionals worldwide in seven specialized judging committees. The full list of winners can be viewed here, https://stevieawards.com/sales.

The Stevie Awards for Sales and Customer Service is one of the world's top honors for customer service, contact center, business development and sales professionals. The group organizes several of the world's leading business awards programs, including the prestigious American Business AwardsSM and International Business AwardsSM. The awards were presented during a gala banquet on Friday, Feb. 23 in Las Vegas.

To learn more about Impartner's full suite of functionality and how companies with contemporary SaaS PRM solutions help generate an average of up to $9 million a year in additional channel revenue, click here.

About Impartner

Impartner delivers the industry's most advanced SaaS-based Partner Relationship Management (PRM) solution, helping companies worldwide manage their partner relationships and accelerate revenue and profitability through indirect sales channels. Impartner PRM is the industry's most award-winning PRM technology and one of the industry's only turnkey solutions that can deploy a world-class Partner Portal in as few as 14 days, using the company's highly engineered Velocity onboarding process, which is guided by an individually customized Customer Success Portal. For more information on Impartner, which is based in Utah's tech hotbed, the Silicon Slopes, visit www.impartner.com, or in the United States call +1 801 501 7000, for EMEA general call +33 1 40 90 31 20, for London call +44 0 20 3283 4465, and for LATAM call +1 954 364 7883.

Follow Impartner on LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook.

Contact:

Kerry Desberg

Impartner

425-231-9529

[email protected]

SOURCE Impartner

Related Links

http://www.impartner.com

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., Feb. 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Intermedia, a leading cloud communications and collaboration provider, today announced that it has been presented with two Sales & Customer Service Stevie Awards. Intermedia secured Silver status in the following categories:

Customer Service Department of the Year

Sales Distinction of the Year

The Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service are the world's top honors for customer service, contact center, business development, and sales professionals. The Stevie Awards organizes seven of the world's leading business awards programs, also including the prestigious American Business AwardsSM and International Business Awards.

More than 2,500 nominations from organizations of all sizes and in virtually every industry were evaluated in this year's competition. Winners were determined by the average scores of more than 150 professionals worldwide in seven specialized judging committees.

"Whether we're advising a customer or partner on the feature, security, mobility or cost benefits of moving to the cloud, or helping them solve technical issues, Intermedia's approach to communication and collaboration is world-class," said Michael Gold, CEO of Intermedia. "I'm incredibly proud of the terrific job our Intermedia team does of delighting our more than 110,000 customers and 6,500 partners. Due to our consistent focus on improvement and excellence, we continue to receive recognition from prominent organizations like the Stevies, J.D. Power, and the Technology Services Industry Association (TSIA) for the quality of our technical support and also, in the case of the Stevies, for the quality of our sales team."

Customer Service Department of the Year

Support is a key Intermedia differentiator. In fact, Intermedia is the only business cloud application provider to have twice been certified by J.D. Power for its superior 24/7 technical support. To complement a growing user base and product portfolio, Intermedia rolled out a new unified support model, along with hiring dozens of additional support staff at all levels. Today, customers and partners turn to one source of support for speedy access to assistance and resolutions.

Sales Distinction of the Year

Rather than focus on the performance of a named sales department, this category recognizes sales-related achievements across the entire company or organization. Similar to the customer service team, Intermedia has built its sales organization around executional excellence. On top of the company's 360 approach to partner success, Intermedia made investments across nearly every sales function to optimize enablement and help partners scale more rapidly. Intermedia also continues to build on top of a core technology platform to address evolving market needs with new offerings such as Intermedia Unite. As a result, Intermedia had a record-breaking year in 2017 and scaled its channel business at an accelerated rate with more than 80% of sales coming through the channel today  up from 70% at the start of 2017. The company is well-positioned for even greater success in 2018.

"All of our Stevie Award winners should be proud of their achievements. Independent professionals around the world have agreed that their accomplishments are worthy of our public recognition," said Stevie Awards president Michael Gallagher.

The awards were presented to honorees during a gala banquet on Friday, February 23 at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, NV. More than 600 executives from the U.S.A. and several other nations attended. For more details, including a list of the winners, visit www.StevieAwards.com/sales.

About the Stevie Awards

Stevie Awards are conferred in seven programs: the Asia-Pacific Stevie Awards, the German Stevie Awards, The American Business Awards, The International Business Awards, the Stevie Awards for Great Employers, the Stevie Awards for Women in Business and the Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service. Stevie Awards competitions receive more than 10,000 entries each year from organizations in more than 60 nations. Honoring organizations of all types and sizes and the people behind them, the Stevies recognize outstanding performances in the workplace worldwide. Learn more about the Stevie Awards at www.StevieAwards.com.

About Intermedia

Intermedia is a Unified Communications as a Service (UCaaS) and business cloud email provider hyper-focused on delivering easy-to-use and secure communications and collaboration solutions to SMBs and the partners that serve them. More than 110,000 business customers and 6,500 active partners rely on Intermedia for greater reliability and productivity. Intermedia's broad yet tightly integrated suite of cloud applications is managed through one intuitive point of control, and Intermedia services are backed by a 99.999% uptime service level agreement (SLA). Offerings include cloud voice, web/video/content sharing and conferencing, chat, presence, file backup, sync and share, business email, identity and access management, security, archiving, and more.

Intermedia's 360 approach to partner success makes it easy for channel partners to sell, set up, manage, and support the cloud while achieving strong margins and creating attractive new revenue streams through both branded and private label programs.

Intermedia is the only business cloud application provider to have twice been certified by J.D. Power for its superior 24/7 technical support in 2016 and 2017. For more information, visit Intermedia.net or connect with us on LinkedIn, Twitter, or Facebook.

Contact

Melanie Lombardi

Intermedia

650.285.5857

[email protected]

Intermedia Unite is either a registered trademark or trademark of Intermedia.net, Inc. in the United States and/or other countries. J.D. Power 2017 Certified Assisted Technical Program, developed in conjunction with TSIA. Based on successful completion of an audit and exceeding a customer satisfaction benchmark for assisted support operations. For more information, visit www.jdpower.com or www.tsia.com.

SOURCE Intermedia

Related Links

https://www.intermedia.net/

BOSTON, Feb. 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- John Hancock Tax-Advantaged Dividend Income Fund (NYSE: HTD) (the "Fund"), a closed-end fund managed by John Hancock Advisers, LLC and subadvised by both John Hancock Asset Management a division of Manulife Asset Management (US) LLC, and Analytic Investors, LLC, announced today sources of its monthly distribution of $0.1380 per share paid to all shareholders of record as of February 12, 2018, pursuant to the Fund's managed distribution plan. This press release is issued as required by an exemptive order granted to the Fund by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

Notification of Sources of Distribution

This notice provides shareholders of the John Hancock Tax-Advantaged Dividend Income Fund (NYSE: HTD) with important information concerning the distribution declared on February 1, 2018, and payable on February 28, 2018. No action is required on your part.

Distribution Period: February 2018 Distribution Amount Per Common Share: $0.1380

The following table sets forth the estimated sources of the current distribution, payable February 28, 2018, and the cumulative distributions paid this fiscal year to date from the following sources: net investment income; net realized short term capital gains; net realized long term capital gains; and return of capital or other capital source. All amounts are expressed on a per common share basis and as a percentage of the distribution amount.

Source

Current

Distribution ($)

% Breakdown

of the Current

Distribution

Total Cumulative

Distributions for

the Fiscal Year to

Date ($)1

% Breakdown of the Total Cumulative Distributions for the Fiscal Year to Date1 Net Investment

Income

0.1380

100%

0.5520

100% Net Realized Short-

Term Capital

Gains

0.0000

0%

0.0000

0% Net Realized Long-

Term Capital

Gains

0.0000

0%

0.0000

0% Return of Capital or

Other Capital

Source

0.0000

0%

0.0000

0% Total per common

share

0.1380

100%

0.5520

100%

















Average annual total return (in relation to NAV) for the 5 years ended on January 31, 2018

11.11%





Annualized current distribution rate expressed as a percentage of NAV as of January 31, 2018

6.78%





Cumulative total return (in relation to NAV) for the fiscal year through January 31, 2018

-4.12%





Cumulative fiscal year-to-date distribution rate expressed as a percentage of NAV as of January 31, 2018

2.26%

You should not draw any conclusions about the Fund's investment performance from the amount of this distribution or from the terms of the Fund's managed distribution plan.

The amounts and sources of distributions reported in this Notice are only estimates and are not being provided for tax reporting purposes. The actual amounts and sources of the amounts for tax reporting purposes will depend upon the Fund's investment experience during the remainder of its fiscal year and may be subject to changes based on tax regulations. The Fund will send you a Form 1099-DIV for the calendar year that will tell you how to report these distributions for federal income tax purposes.

The Fund has declared the February 2018 distribution pursuant to the Fund's managed distribution plan (the "Plan"). Under the Plan, the Fund makes fixed monthly distributions in the amount of $0.1380 per share, which will continue to be paid monthly until further notice.

If you have questions or need additional information, please contact your financial professional or call the John Hancock Investments Closed-End Fund Information Line at 1-800-843-0090, Monday through Friday between 8:00 a.m. and 7:00 p.m., Eastern Time.

Statements in this press release that are not historical facts are forward-looking statements as defined by the United States securities laws. You should exercise caution in interpreting and relying on forward-looking statements because they are subject to uncertainties and other factors which are, in some cases, beyond the Fund's control and could cause actual results to differ materially from those set forth in the forward-looking statements.

An investor should consider a Fund's investment objectives, risks, charges and expenses carefully before investing.

About John Hancock Investments

John Hancock Investments provides asset management services to individuals and institutions through a unique manager-of-managers approach. A wealth management business of John Hancock Financial, we managed more than $155 billion in assets as of December 31, 2017 across mutual funds, college savings plans, and retirement plans.

About John Hancock Financial and Manulife Financial

John Hancock Financial is a division of Manulife Financial, a leading Canada-based financial services group with principal operations in Asia, Canada and the United States. Operating as Manulife Financial in Canada and Asia, and primarily as John Hancock in the United States, the Company offers clients a diverse range of financial protection products and wealth management services through its extensive network of employees, agents and distribution partners. Funds under management by Manulife Financial and its subsidiaries were C$1 trillion (US$806 billion) as of September 30, 2017. Manulife Financial Corporation trades as 'MFC' on the TSX, NYSE and PSE, and under '945' on the SEHK. Manulife Financial can be found on the Internet at manulife.com.

The John Hancock unit, through its insurance companies, comprises one of the largest life insurers in the United States. John Hancock offers and administers a broad range of financial products, including life insurance, annuities, fixed products, mutual funds, 401(k) plans, college savings, and other forms of business insurance. Additional information about John Hancock may be found at johnhancock.com.

1 The Fund's current fiscal year began on November 1, 2017, and will end on October 31, 2018.

SOURCE John Hancock Tax-Advantaged Dividend Income FundMIAMI, Feb. 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Following a two week trial in Orange County, Florida, a jury entered its verdict on February 23, 2018, against Florida Hospital for retaliating against one of its heart and lung transplant surgeons by wrongfully terminating him after he objected to and refused to participate in Florida Hospital's violation of Florida's patient safety laws. Ahmad Chaudhry, M.D., brought his case pursuant to Florida's Whistleblower Act.

The Plaintiff alleged that Florida Hospital, specifically its Heart and Lung Transplant Institute Director, Hartmuth Bittner, M.D., violated Florida's patient safety laws, causing death and injury to numerous patients during the years 2013 and 2014. Dr. Chaudhry alleged that Florida Hospital knew Dr. Bittner was an unsafe surgeon who repeatedly violated patient safety rules, yet the Hospital buried the truth in order to pass site surveys with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services ("CMS") and with the United Network for Organ Sharing ("UNOS"). Dr. Chaudhry contended that Florida Hospital put its business (passing the site surveys meant tens of millions of dollars in annual revenue) ahead of patient safety. Dr. Chaudhry alleged that Florida Hospital violated patient safety laws requiring Hospitals to maintain competent medical staff, engage in proper peer review of its staff, discipline unsafe surgeons, and report adverse incidents to patients, their families, and to the Agency for Health Care Administration ("AHCA").

In 2013, Dr. Chaudhry brought numerous patient safety violations to the administration, including the following: that Dr. Bittner was intentionally ignoring the clearance process for certain heart surgeries, causing an unacceptably high death rate; Dr. Bittner was ignoring quality assurance rules; Dr. Bittner dropped a surgical foreign object in a patient's heart during a surgery, causing an increased risk for a stroke; the patient had a stroke within hours of the surgery, yet Dr. Bittner refused to order an MRI as recommended by the consulting neurologist; intra-operatively, Dr. Bittner refused to perform a requisite search for the foreign body, stating "It's not the first time a surgeon left a pledget in a patient's heart;" Dr. Bittner was having larger than expected numbers of lung transplant complications; Dr. Bittner was making fraudulent representations impeding the ability for patients to obtain matching donor organs; and Dr. Bittner lacked attention to patient well-being.

Dr. Chaudhry claimed that despite his objecting to the patient safety violations to administrators, Florida Hospital chose not to conduct peer review, not to alert the patients or AHCA, nor discipline Dr. Bittner.

While Florida Hospital, through testimony and internal emails, acknowledged the patient safety violations, and even identified the need for an external third party peer review, no peer review was ever done.

The patient safety violations continued, and Dr. Chaudhry continued objecting that the administration was doing nothing. The administration told Dr. Chaudhry there would be no peer review. When Dr. Chaudhry, frustrated by the administration's months of delay and refusal to act, sought to engage the peer review process directly, the administration internally noted that Chaudhry's actions were "unacceptable" because Dr. Chaudhry, by reaching out to the official peer review process, was "airing our dirty laundry in public." Dr. Chaudhry alleged that the Florida Hospital administration wanted to protect the program rather than discipline Dr. Bittner.

The administration and Dr. Bittner then changed its focus to Dr. Chaudhry by limiting his role in the program, prohibiting him from performing surgeries, and belittling him behind his back.

Ultimately, in late January, 2014, Dr. Chaudhry told the administration he was going to report their illegal conduct to the UNOS inspectors who were scheduled for the heart/lung transplant program's site survey in February, 2014.

Just days later, Florida Hospital terminated Dr. Chaudhry ahead of the site inspection. The Hospital insisted Dr. Chaudhry leave the premises immediately and noted in an internal email, "it is clear he wants to make trouble" with the UNOS site survey.

At the end of February, 2014, just after the UNOS inspection, and after firing Dr. Chaudhry, Florida Hospital finally did an internal review of its heart/lung transplant program. Florida Hospital finally expressed an intent to discipline Dr. Bittner. The Hospital, for the first time, acknowledged and corroborated many of the same patient safety violations Dr. Chaudhry raised over the last year.



As a result of Florida Hospital terminating Dr. Chaudhry after only one year on the job, he lost his career in the insular world of heart/lung transplant surgery. He was not able to find a new position as a heart/lung transplant surgeon, even after searching for years.

Within two months before the start of trial, Dr. Chaudhry was finally able to secure a position as a general cardiothoracic surgeon, not practicing in the more lucrative field of heart/lung transplant.

Dr. Chaudhry alleged that he suffered lost wages, loss of future earning capacity, and noneconomic losses as a result of the retaliation.

The jury entered a verdict of $2.85 million, including $1.25 million in past lost wages, $1.5 million in future loss of earning capacity, and $100,000 for noneconomic damages.

"This case lifts the curtain covering Florida Hospital's business practices," said Stuart N. Ratzan, Dr. Chaudhry's attorney. "The simple truth is, hospitals must put patient safety before business revenue and site surveys."

Stuart J. Weissman, a Ratzan Law Group partner who also tried the case, added, "Dr. Chaudhry is a courageous doctor and patient advocate who stood up against the conspiracy of silence that pervades the medical community. He lost his career as a transplant surgeon, but he stayed true to his principals and true to patient safety."

"Hospitals have to know that breaking the law, especially patient safety laws, will have consequences," Ratzan said. "The jury enforced the law in this important case and, by doing so, it helped protect all of us from harm and death in the future."

"Florida Hospital could have prevented death and injury to many of its patients. Medical error in hospitals is the third leading cause of death in the United States. Over 400,000 people die due to medical error in hospitals annually. But, it's not too late to do the right thing. The Hospital can still comply with Florida law by giving notice to the affected patients and their families, and still take action with the relevant state and federal agencies."

Ahmad Chaudhry, M.D. was represented by Stuart N. Ratzan, Esq., Stuart J. Weissman, Esq., and Evan Gilead, Esq., of Ratzan Law Group, P.A., Miami, Florida. Ratzan Law Group was assisted by Lincoln Connolly, Esq. of Lincoln J. Connolly Trials & Appeals, P.A.

Ratzan Law Group, PA is a boutique trial practice that is dedicated to building and retaining a safe society through diligent and sophisticated advocacy. It champions its clients' cases against powerful interests, including insurance companies, hospitals, manufacturers, doctors and corporations in order to hold wrongdoers accountable for the harm they do to others, and to help make sure it does not happen again. For additional information, call (305) 374-6366 or log on to www.ratzanlawgroup.com. Connect via Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.

Media Contact

Gabriela Sierra

Public Relations/GrupoUno

[email protected]

(305) 448-6111

SOURCE Ratzan Law Group, PA

Related Links

http://www.ratzanlawgroup.com

Do you wonder how we Americans came to have such differing and deeply entrenched thoughts about politics?

Chez Nous/This is Our Land, gives an opportunity to look at the political divide in another country. The film has played at film festivals, but does not open in theaters in the U.S. until April. You can see it, however, at the Jarvis Conservatory in Napa on Saturday, March 10 where it will be shown at 4 and 7 p.m.

Chez Nous is a ficitionalized account of a French national election. We watch a previously apolitical woman recruited to run for local office under the auspices of a far right party. Because the story is told in the context of her budding relationship with an old flame, whose party affiliations clash, it is a very personal look at the issues and methods that persuade all of us.HOULTON, Maine, Feb. 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Katahdin Bankshares Corp. (OTCQX: KTHN), parent company of Katahdin Trust Company, announced that it has declared a cash dividend of $0.1075 per share for the first quarter of 2018. In making the announcement Jon J. Prescott, Katahdin Trust President & CEO, stated that it represented a 7.5% increase over last year's first quarter dividend. The dividend will be payable on March 22, 2018 to all shareholders of record as of March 15, 2018.

Katahdin Bankshares Corp. also declared a cash dividend on its preferred stock Series D of $54.6875 per share for the first quarter of 2018. The preferred stock Series D dividend will be payable on April 15, 2018 to shareholders of record as of April 5, 2018.

About Katahdin Bankshares Corp.

Katahdin Bankshares Corp., parent company of Katahdin Trust Company, stock is quoted on the OTC Markets quote board OTCQX under the symbol KTHN and was named to the 2018 OTCQX Best 50, a ranking of top performing companies traded on the OTCQX Best Market. Current stock information can be found at otcmarkets.com/stock/KTHN/quote. Katahdin Trust Company, celebrating 100 years of community banking since its founding in 1918, has nearly $800 million in assets and 180 employees. The Bank offers financial services to individuals and businesses from sixteen offices throughout Maine and a full range of online and mobile banking solutions. Learn more about Katahdin Trust on its website at www.katahdintrust.com and get the latest news and information by following Katahdin Trust on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram.

SOURCE Katahdin Bankshares Corp.

Related Links

http://www.katahdintrust.com

HOUSTON, Feb. 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- KBR, Inc. (NYSE: KBR) announced today that its global Government Services business, KBRwyle, signed a contract with the Australian Department of Defence (DoD), becoming just one of four Major Service Providers (MSP) to the Capability Acquisition and Sustainment Group (CASG).

The MSP contract introduces a significant change to the procurement and contracting model for services to CASG program execution. Through this change, CASG has taken the opportunity to adopt a more strategic and integrated approach to its support services requirements through the appointment of a small number of Major Service Providers who are capable of delivering larger, longer-term and more integrated work packages across the CASG domains. This new contract will run for an initial five year period beginning February 1, 2018 with options for an additional six years.

KBRwyle has selected Ernst & Young (EY) to be its strategic subcontractor in the MSP consortia. Also central to KBRwyle's strategy is the engagement, support and development of its comprehensive, non-exclusive supply chain of small and medium businesses. These will complement KBRwyle and EY capabilities to deliver a full range of services to CASG throughout the capability life cycle for the maritime, land, aerospace, joint systems and business management domains.

"This contract win provides a solid foundation for the continued growth of the KBRwyle business in the APAC region," said Greg Conlon, President APAC region. "We have created a long term, competitive model with the potential to deliver over a hundred million dollars in revenue throughout the term of the engagement."



"KBRwyle, with our strategic EY relationship, is committed to playing a key role in working with, growing, and developing the Australian Defence industry sector," Conlon continued.

Revenue associated with this project will be booked, progressively when awarded, into backlog of unfilled orders for KBR's Government Services Business.

About KBR, Inc.

KBR is a global provider of differentiated professional services and technologies across the asset and program life cycle within the Government Services and Hydrocarbons sectors. KBR employs over approximately 34,000 people worldwide (including our joint ventures), with customers in more than 75 countries, and operations in 40 countries, across three synergistic global businesses:

Government Services, serving government customers globally, including capabilities that cover the full life-cycle of defense, space, aviation and other government programs and missions from research and development, through systems engineering, test and evaluation, program management, to operations, maintenance, and field logistics

Technology & Consulting, including proprietary technology focused on the monetization of hydrocarbons (especially natural gas and natural gas liquids) in ethylene and petrochemicals; ammonia, nitric acid and fertilizers; oil refining; gasification; oil and gas consulting; integrity management; naval architecture and proprietary hulls; and downstream consulting

Engineering & Construction, including onshore oil and gas; LNG (liquefaction and regasification)/GTL; oil refining; petrochemicals; chemicals; fertilizers; differentiated EPC; maintenance services (Brown & Root Industrial Services); offshore oil and gas (shallow-water, deep-water, subsea); floating solutions (FPU, FPSO, FLNG & FSRU) and program management.

KBR is proud to work with its customers across the globe to provide technology, value-added services, integrated EPC delivery and long term operations and maintenance services to ensure consistent delivery with predictable results. At KBR, We Deliver.

Visit www.kbr.com

Forward Looking Statement

The statements in this press release that are not historical statements, including statements regarding future financial performance, are forward-looking statements within the meaning of the federal securities laws. These statements are subject to numerous risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond the company's control that could cause actual results to differ materially from the results expressed or implied by the statements. These risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to: the outcome of and the publicity surrounding audits and investigations by domestic and foreign government agencies and legislative bodies; potential adverse proceedings by such agencies and potential adverse results and consequences from such proceedings; the scope and enforceability of the company's indemnities from its former parent; changes in capital spending by the company's customers; the company's ability to obtain contracts from existing and new customers and perform under those contracts; structural changes in the industries in which the company operates; escalating costs associated with and the performance of fixed-fee projects and the company's ability to control its cost under its contracts; claims negotiations and contract disputes with the company's customers; changes in the demand for or price of oil and/or natural gas; protection of intellectual property rights; compliance with environmental laws; changes in government regulations and regulatory requirements; compliance with laws related to income taxes; unsettled political conditions, war and the effects of terrorism; foreign operations and foreign exchange rates and controls; the development and installation of financial systems; increased competition for employees; the ability to successfully complete and integrate acquisitions; and operations of joint ventures, including joint ventures that are not controlled by the company.

KBR's most recently filed Annual Report on Form 10-K, any subsequent Form 10-Qs and 8-Ks, and other Securities and Exchange Commission filings discuss some of the important risk factors that KBR has identified that may affect the business, results of operations and financial condition. Except as required by law, KBR undertakes no obligation to revise or update publicly any forward-looking statements for any reason.

SOURCE KBR, Inc.

Related Links

http://www.kbr.com

VIRGINIA BEACH, Va., Feb. 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Leesa Sleep, the leading direct-to-consumer online luxury mattress retailer, today announced the launch of its customizable Hybrid Pillow, complete with reversible and adjustable layers that give consumers the personalized comfort they need for their sleeping preferences. The release of the pillow continues Leesa's growing sleep portfolio, following the recent launch of new sheets, a foundation and bed frame.

The pillow includes several adjustable layers to accommodate side, stomach and back sleepers as well as preferences that may vary through different seasons and life cycles. These layers, include a down-like quilted pocket layer, a ventilated gel comfort layer and cool-to-the-touch fabric surrounding the layers. A pillow insert is nestled between the quilted pocket layer and comfort layer and can be removed with a simple zip to change support level. The removable insert also serves as a travel pillow for customers who want to take the comfort of Leesa with them on their journeys. With fibers that offer a restorative calming and cooling nature, the soothing design also features one side of the pillow that naturally feels cooler to the touch.

The launch of these products comes after a breakout year for Leesa, which included a $23M round of Series B funding, an exclusive west elm retail partnership and inclusion in Forbes' list of Next Billion Dollar Startups. Leesa is excited to continue its momentum and use the recent round of funding on new products, including this revolutionary customizable pillow as well as its new sheets, foundation and bedframe.

"We achieved what we intended to with this pillow by creating a product with superior design that offers customers the flexibility they need to get a good night's sleep," said Jamie Diamonstein, Co-Founder and Chief Product Officer at Leesa and 30-year mattress industry veteran. "There are many pillows on the market right now, but none that offer this level of customizability."

As a certified B Corp, Leesa measures its impact on the world just as heavily as it does its financial success. In the midst of impressive business growth, Leesa's social impact program has remained core to the company. Through Leesa's One-Ten Program, wherein they donate one mattress for every ten sold, the company has donated more than 24,000 mattresses to nonprofits that serve people seeking refuge from homelessness, domestic risk and human trafficking. This pillow will be a great addition to the company's One-Ten program. Similar to the mattresses, one pillow will be donated for every ten sold.

"We are excited to launch the latest in our line of innovative products designed to help people sleep better." said David Wolfe, Co-Founder and CEO of Leesa. "We are just as excited to be including pillows into our One-Ten program. From our start, we've been donating one mattress for every ten we sell and now we will be donating pillows too."

Pillow Product Information:

Includes reversible and adjustable layers  a down-like quilted pocket side, and a ventilated gel comfort layer  to accommodate different preferences and kinds of sleepers; a removable pillow insert is also included to change support level

Uses cool-to-the-touch fibers that offer a restorative calming and cooling nature; one side of the pillow also naturally feels cooler to the touch due to a ventilated gel comfort layer

Stylish cover has one smooth memory foam side and one quilted pocket side

The down-like quilted pockets maintain their fluffy shape and support, and don't clump the way down pillows typically do

With the removability of layers, the pillow is easy to wash and durable

Retail value: $125 for Standard size, $135 for Queen size

for Standard size, for Queen size Included in Leesa's One-Ten Program, one pillow will be donated for every ten sold

The Leesa pillow is available on Leesa and west elm's websites

About Leesa Sleep, LLC

Based in Virginia Beach, Va., Leesa is a direct-to-consumer online luxury mattress company that offers American-made mattresses delivered directly to consumers' doors. From its start, Leesa has measured its own success not just by the bottom line, but by the company's overall social impact. To date, Leesa's One-Ten program has provided more than 24,000 mattresses to those in need. Leesa offers a 100-night risk-free trial, free shipping and no-hassle returns. In 2016, Leesa was recognized as a certified B Corp, joining forces with more than 2,100 companies using business as a force for good. The company currently offers free shipping to the U.S., U.K., Canada and Germany. For more information, visit www.leesa.com.

Media Contact:

Dina Binney

Kwittken

[email protected]

(646) 747-0156

SOURCE Leesa Sleep, LLC

Related Links

http://www.leesa.com

Additionally, The Sherwin-Williams Company will become the only nationwide supplier to Lowe's U.S. retail outlets for interior and exterior paints, including Valspar and HGTV Home by Sherwin-Williams brands.

"Sherwin-Williams is one of the most recognized brands for paint and highly respected for quality products by both do-it-yourselfers and professional customers. Sherwin-Williams' family of brands is among some of America's most trusted," said Michael P. McDermott, Lowe's chief customer officer. "We are proud to expand the partnership and bring customers more of the industry's top brands for their next paint project."

The expanded partnership builds on the strong, long-standing relationship between Lowe's and the Valspar Corporation since 1971, which launched the Valspar paint brand at Lowe's in 2007. Lowe's and Sherwin-Williams launched HGTV Home by Sherwin-Williams at Lowe's in 2015.

"We are excited to expand the partnership with Lowe's to deliver a simplified paint and stain line that is designed to make it easier for customers to buy and associates to sell," said Aaron Erter, President and General Manager of Sherwin-Williams' Consumer Brands Division. "As paint continues to reign as the #1 do-it-yourself project, we know this expanded alliance will provide an improved experience that helps make customers more confident when selecting a color, product and applicator for their next paint or stain project."

Lowe's is also investing in its paint service model by rolling out a new paint desk experience beginning this quarter, with plans to complete the rollout nationwide in the second half of 2018. Combined with the simplified line design across multiple categories, the improved experience will also include an updated product selector display and a simplified and streamlined service model to make it even easier for customers to work with an associate to find a color, pick a paint or stain and begin a project.

About Lowe's

Lowe's Companies, Inc. (NYSE: LOW) is a FORTUNE 50 home improvement company serving more than 18 million customers a week in the United States, Canada and Mexico. With fiscal year 2017 sales of $68.6 billion, Lowe's and its related businesses operate or service more than 2,390 home improvement and hardware stores and employ over 310,000 people. Founded in 1946 and based in Mooresville, N.C., Lowe's supports the communities it serves through programs that focus on K-12 public education and community improvement projects. For more information, visit Lowes.com.

About Sherwin-Williams Consumer Brands Group

The Sherwin-Williams Company, founded in 1866, is the global leader in the manufacture, development, distribution, and sale of paints, coatings and related products to professional, industrial, commercial, and retail customers. The Sherwin-Williams Consumer Brands Group manufactures and distributes well-known brands such as Valspar(R), HGTV HOME(R) by Sherwin-Williams, Dutch Boy(R), Krylon(R), Minwax(R), Thompson's(R) Water Seal(R), Cabot(R), Purdy(R) and many more.

With global headquarters in Cleveland, Ohio, Sherwin-Williams Consumer Brands are sold through leading mass merchandisers, home centers, independent paint dealers, hardware stores, automotive retailers, and industrial distributors.

Sherwin-Williams acquired The Valspar Corporation in 2017, and the combined company generated pro forma 2016 revenues of $15.8 billion and employs approximately 60,000 associates worldwide. It has a prominent market position in architectural paint in North America, South America, China, Australia and the UK.

Sherwin-Williams shares are traded on the New York Stock Exchange (symbol: SHW). For more information, visit www.sherwin.com.

SOURCE Lowe's Companies, Inc.

Related Links

http://www.lowes.com

CSE: MDM

FSE: 2M0

OTCQX: MRPHF

KELOWNA, BC, Feb. 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ - Marapharm Ventures Inc. ("Marapharm" or the "Company") is pleased to announce that we are now in the final installation stages of cultivation and production equipment. The Company has been selective regarding the technologies to be implemented in the facilities, to maximize profitability while producing the highest quality cannabis. Our facilities are expected to be the first in operation in the immediate geographical area of North Las Vegas. Our goal is to transfer our plants from the temporary modular buildings to our permanent cultivation facilities on 4/20 (April 20, 2018).

The installation of the HVAC equipment is underway. In climates where extreme temperatures are common it is essential to install HVAC equipment designed to perform under stressful conditions. We are leveraging propane engines to produce chilled water for our HVAC needs. This system will allow precise control over both temperature and humidity, while reducing our reliance on electricity supplied by the grid. Components of the heat exchangers, manufactured in Italy, caused a minor delay and have now been shipped.

During a review and audit of the emergency power and back-up procedures, it was determined that an on-site, backup power generation scenario was needed. We opted for automatic transfer switch gear, this will allow power to be automatically restored, at full capacity, in the event of a power interruption. This measure will safeguard the source of our revenue and the health of our plants. The equipment has a 10-week lead time for manufacturing.

The Company has focused its cultivation efforts on using all Organic Material Review Institute (OMRI) inputs. This allows us to partner with several certification providers that follow the National Organics Program protocol. Providing the cleanest possible cannabis is our goal and we are happy to work with these 3rd party certifiers. This provides our consumer base the confidence that our product is produced without toxic chemicals.

As previously announced on December 21, 2017, the Company selected American Buildings Company to manufacture the third facility. The order has been placed on hold while engineers review and evaluate the load bearing capacity of the second and third stories, due to our cultivation requirements.

State mandates for the final inspection and occupancy permitting have required supplementary construction which has extended our completion schedule by approximately 12 weeks. Security and safety features, including a reinforced room to house the extraction equipment, have been installed per state and local requirements.

"Thank you to all of the shareholders who have been supportive during the construction process, the unforeseen challenges and state compliance. The Company, during its vigorous growth, has successfully navigated its way through this highly regulated sector." Linda Sampson, CEO.

ABOUT MARAPHARM VENTURES INC.

www.marapharm.com

Marapharm is a publicly traded company investing in the medical and recreational cannabis space, since 2014. Marapharm has rapidly expanded to include having cultivation, production and dispensary locations in the key North American states of Washington, Nevada, and California, and are seeking expansion opportunities worldwide.

SOCIAL MEDIA:

Facebook: facebook.com/marapharm

Twitter: twitter.com/marapharm

Web Program: marapharm.tv

STOCK EXCHANGES:

Marapharm trades in Canada, ticker symbol MDM on the CSE, in the United States, ticker symbol MRPHF on the OTCQB, and in Europe, ticker symbol 2Mo on the FSE. Marapharm also trades on other recognized platforms in Europe including Stuttgart, Tradegate, L & S, Quotnx, Dusseldorf, Munich, and Berlin.

Neither the CSE, the FSE nor the OTCQB has approved nor disapproved the contents of this press release. Neither the CSE, the FSE nor the OTCQB accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

MARIJUANA INDUSTRY INVOLVEMENT:

Canadian listings (CSE) will remain in good standing as long as they provide the disclosure that is rightly required by regulators and complying with applicable licensing requirements and the regulatory framework enacted by the applicable state in which they operate.

Marapharm owns marijuana licenses in California and Nevada. Marijuana is legal in each state however marijuana remains illegal under US federal law and the approach to enforcement of US federal law against marijuana is subject to change. Shareholders and investors need to be aware that adverse enforcement actions could affect their investments and that Marapharm's ability to access private and public capital could be affected and or could not be available to support continuing operations. Marapharm's business is conducted in a manner consistent with state law and is in compliance with licensing requirements.

Copies of licenses are posted on Marapharm's website. Marapharm has internal compliance procedures in place and has compliance focused attorneys engaged in jurisdictions to monitor changes in laws for compliance with US federal and state law on an ongoing basis. These law firms inform any necessary changes to our policies and procedures for compliance in Canada and the US.

FORWARD - LOOKING STATEMENTS:

Certain statements contained in this news release constitute forward looking statements. The use of any of the words "anticipate", "continue", "estimate", "expect", 'may", "will", "project", "should", 'believe", and similar expressions are intended to identify forward- looking statements. These statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results or events to differ materially from those anticipated in such forward- looking statements are based on reasonable assumption but no assurance can be given that these expectations will prove to be correct and the forward-looking statements included in this news release should not be unduly relied upon.

SOURCE Marapharm Ventures Inc.

Related Links

www.marapharm.com

NEW YORK, Feb. 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Greenhouse, the fastest-growing enterprise talent acquisition suite, has announced its 2017 business results along with several new enterprise customers including Match.com, AEG, J.D. Power, Wargaming, and The PGA of America. During the last 12 months, Greenhouse has launched two new products, and won hundreds of new customers across all industries including healthcare, retail, finance, sports, media/publishing, and tech.

"With over 25,000 employees and growing at BAYADA, we knew we needed a better system to support our complex hiring needs," said Ashley Wharton, division director at BAYADA. "We're the largest privately held home healthcare company, and after 43 years of being in business, we are keenly aware that talent is a top business driver for us. We look forward to the anticipated power and flexibility Greenhouse will provide to our hiring team, while also providing consistent global reporting and analytics for our leadership teams. We are excited about this partnership as we strive to find the top talent in every market."

"Our mission is to help our customers improve every aspect of their hiring process," said Daniel Chait, CEO of Greenhouse. "Our customers, from global enterprises to growing organizations, know that competing for top talent is no longer optional. Greenhouse's relentless focus on increasing business impact for our customers was the key to our record growth in 2017."

The company integrated with 68 new technologies in 2017, making Greenhouse's partner ecosystem the largest and fastest-growing in the industry with over 190 unique partners. The company is also revealing proprietary data insights for the talent acquisition industry in its Greenhouse 2017 Year in Review infographic. Analyzing its own proprietary data, Greenhouse revealed that 2,500 customers in 50 countries used the company's talent acquisition technology to:

Receive 21.9 million job applications

Submit 4.4 million interview scorecards

Hire 189,000 new employees

Transform the way 14,400 recruiters hire

Greenhouse also released two new products to improve candidate, new hire, and hiring manager experiences:

Greenhouse CRM gives recruiters the ability to manage their talent pools -- for example, prospects, future grads and "silver medalists." It enables them to execute unique workflows for each pool, backed up by the knowledge of every touchpoint you've had with them over time.

The Greenhouse Events App pairs with Greenhouse CRM to alleviate the stress of collecting and organizing resumes. You can gather resumes and prospect data through a streamlined iPad app and easily import and classify that data in Greenhouse CRM. It makes it easy to share and review the prospects you meet in real life with your entire team and to engage them in the hiring process. And, critically, it finally helps you measure the ROI of your spend at events with conversion reports.

Industry accolades in 2017 revealed Greenhouse is a market leader and expert at building a winning hiring culture:

The Greenhouse OPEN 2018 conference is coming to New York City April 2-4, bringing HR leaders from the world's biggest companies to the stage including Johnson & Johnson, Whole Foods, Lyft and more. Patty McCord, former Chief Talent Officer at Netflix will deliver a keynote talk on building culture.

For more information about Greenhouse Software, visit greenhouse.io.

About Greenhouse Software:

Based in New York City and San Francisco, Greenhouse Software is the fastest-growing enterprise talent acquisition company. Thousands of the smartest and most successful companies like Cisco Meraki, Time Inc., and Airbnb use Greenhouse's intelligent guidance to design and automate all aspects of hiring throughout their organizations, helping them compete for and win top talent. Greenhouse has won numerous awards including #1 Best Place to Work by Glassdoor, Forbes Cloud 100, and Talent Acquisition FrontRunner leader by Software Advice. Greenhouse lives its mission that hiring great employees is a strategic business goal, ranked #15 in Crain's New York Best Places to Work 2017. To learn more, visit greenhouse.io.

SOURCE Greenhouse Software

Related Links

https://www.greenhouse.io

CHICAGO, Feb. 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Matrix Holding Group, LLC ("Matrix") announced today the launch of Matrix Executions a joint venture with Investment Technology Group (ITG), as the minority stakeholder. Matrix is partnering with ITG to create a newly established separate derivatives execution and technology business. ITG has been a leader and innovator in equities execution and technology to the global institutional trading community for over three decades.

Matrix, acting as an agency-broker dealer, with offices in Chicago and New York, will serve the needs of both the buy and sell-side institutional trading communities, retail investors, exchanges and market makers via industry-leading front-end EMS capabilities, advanced algorithms, and low-latency routing technology.

"The ability for Matrix to quickly adapt to the ever-evolving derivatives trading landscape is based on our deep industry experience, our extraordinary staff, and our entrepreneurial spirit," says Tony Saliba, CEO of Matrix Holding Group.

The team is made up of industry veterans from Saliba's LiquidPoint days, including Michael McNamara and Jordan Naylor. The principals in the new venture average 29 years of listed derivatives product experience.

Saliba added, "Our plan at Matrix is to deliver best-in-class execution services and customized solutions to the derivatives trading community through the combination of our close client partnerships, market-leading technology, and talented team."

The multi-asset, open architecture front-end trading technology, developed by Matrix Execution Technologies, is easily deployable and scalable for the needs of the entire listed derivatives and equities trading community.

Jordan Naylor, President and Chief Technology Officer for Matrix Execution Technologies, commented, "Matrix, in addition to delivering a listed derivatives execution stack, is closely collaborating with ITG for equities routing to ensure seamless end-to-end execution quality. Matt Otto, the original architect for the back-end trading platform and ITG veteran, has joined our team to continue to build market-leading solutions for Matrix clients."

Both the desktop and mobile platforms of the Matrix front end offer access to every US exchange and numerous international exchanges, plus the ability to plug in to Triton, ITG's execution management system. Matrix routing and algorithms are also available on the major EMS and OMS platforms.

Matrix has appointed institutional trading veteran Jay Fraser as Chief Strategy Officer for its broker-dealer subsidiary, Matrix Executions.

Saliba had this to say: "I'm incredibly excited to have Jay on our team. I look forward to working with him and leveraging his expertise in institutional equity and listed derivatives trading, as well as his experience in the exchange and listings space."

Fraser joins from IEX (the Investors Exchange) where he was an early employee of the US stock exchange. Fraser ran electronic equity trading while at Deutsche Bank and held managerial, sales and trading roles with Citadel Securities and ITG.

"There is a unique opportunity to launch a new entrant for the trading of listed options, futures, and equities," Fraser said. "I am a firm believer and advocate of the transparent agency execution model, and I'm excited to work with this team to build a best-in-class trading and analytics platform."'

Websites:

Matrix Executions: www.matrixexecutions.com

Matrix Execution Technologies: www.matrixex.com

Media Contact:

Helen Coupe

Matrix Executions

Office: 312-291-2780

Cell: 917-455-5133

Email: [email protected]

SOURCE Matrix Executions

Related Links

http://www.matrixexecutions.com

DURHAM, N.C., Feb. 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- MGT Capital Investments, Inc. (OTCQB: MGTI) announced the dismissal of the pending federal securities class action lawsuit alleging Company violations of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Yesterday, the Honorable Naomi Reice Buchwald, United States District Judge, Southern District of New York, entered an Order granting MGT's Motion to Dismiss in its entirety. Further, this dismissal was granted with prejudice, meaning plaintiffs may not amend the complaint. In summary, the Court found no reason to rule that the Company or any of its Officers misled stockholders with material misrepresentation or omission relating to events in 2016.

"Notwithstanding the distraction, as well as the waste of time, effort and financial resources to defend this baseless litigation, it is reassuring that common-sense justice can still prevail," stated Robert Ladd, President and Chief Executive Officer of MGT.

About MGT Capital Investments, Inc.

With facilities in northern Sweden and WA state, MGT Capital Investments, Inc. (OTCQB: MGTI) ranks as one of the largest U.S. based Bitcoin miners. Further, the Company continues to execute on an expansion model to grow its crypto assets materially.

The Company also owns a portfolio of cyber security technologies, including the Company's first product, Sentinel, an enterprise class network intrusion detector which was released in October 2017. The Company also owns the intellectual property associated with developing and marketing a mobile phone with extensive privacy and anti-hacking features. The cybersecurity products were guided by John McAfee, the Company's former Chief Cybersecurity Visionary. MGT is presently evaluating various alternatives for its cybersecurity business.

For more information on the Company, please visit: http://www.mgtci.com

Forwardlooking Statements

This press release contains forwardlooking statements. The words or phrases "would be," "will allow," "intends to," "will likely result," "are expected to," "will continue," "is anticipated," "estimate," "project," or similar expressions are intended to identify "forwardlooking statements." All information set forth in this news release, except historical and factual information, represents forwardlooking statements. This includes all statements about the Company's plans, beliefs, estimates and expectations. These statements are based on current estimates and projections, which involve certain risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements. These risks and uncertainties include issues related to: rapidly changing technology and evolving standards in the industries in which the Company and its subsidiaries operate; the ability to obtain sufficient funding to continue operations, maintain adequate cash flow, profitably exploit new business, license and sign new agreements; the unpredictable nature of consumer preferences; and other factors set forth in the Company's most recently filed annual report and registration statement. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forwardlooking statements, which reflect management's analysis only as of the date hereof. The Company undertakes no obligation to publicly revise these forwardlooking statements to reflect events or circumstances that arise after the date hereof. Readers should carefully review the risks and uncertainties described in other documents that the Company files from time to time with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

Investor and Media Contact

Grace Livingston

[email protected]

919.973.0954

SOURCE MGT Capital Investments, Inc.

Related Links

http://www.mgtci.com

"Since 2009, Motiv has been dedicated to taking the guesswork out of adding all-electric vehicles to existing fleets. Moving from providing powertrain kits to manufacturing complete electric chassis is a natural evolution for us," said Jim Castelaz, founder and CEO of Motiv Power Systems. "With the debut of the EPIC chassis family, fleet buyers and operators seeking un-compromised performance and functionality, together with dramatically reduced operating and servicing costs, now have a streamlined path towards that goal."

Having received Ford's qualified vehicle modifier approval (EQVM), the new EPIC chassis family provides a broad range of capabilities in range, power, and capacity equivalent to common combustion alternatives with the added benefits of near silent operation and smooth power delivery. Featuring Motiv's award-winning and industry-proven Smart Power Control Technology, each EPIC chassis is available with universal charging compatibility and secure remote telematics and diagnostics for unparalleled charging flexibility and fleet/driver connectivity.

"With nearly ten years of operations, and with more than 350,000 miles logged in major national fleet deployments, Motiv's powertrain offerings have established a well-deserved reputation for reliability and scalability. These traits are also exemplified in the new EPIC chassis family as a turn-key, all-electric chassis," said Kash Sethi, Director of Sales at Motiv. "With EPIC, fleets can select chassis optimized for their specific range, payload, and route requirements. By providing an all-electric offering for fleet applications Motiv now closely mirrors the long-established procurement process for internal combustion engine powered chassis."

The new EPIC all-electric chassis will be on exhibit at Ford's booth #3239 at The Work Truck Show in Indianapolis, March 7-9, 2018. Attendees wanting to experience the quiet and smooth operation of Motiv power for themselves are encouraged to test drive an all-electric EPIC chassis powered AmeriPride walk-in van with a Utilimaster body, as part of a Ride & Drive event jointly hosted by Utlimaster and Motiv.

About Motiv:

Founded in 2009, and headquartered in the San Francisco Bay Area, Motiv is committed to freeing fleets from a dependence on fossil fuels. Motiv's Electric Powered Intelligent Chassis (EPIC) has received Ford's EQVM approval and is available for a number of different body configurations including walk-in vans, box trucks, work trucks, shuttle buses, school buses, trolleys, and other specialty vehicles. A Motiv EPIC chassis offers uncompromised performance and functionality without the pollution, noise, heat, and vibration of combustion power. With more than 350,000 miles logged in Fortune 50 fleet deployments throughout North America, Motiv's EPIC family eliminates 100% of vehicle emissions, dramatically reduces operating and maintenance costs, and creates a healthier environment for riders and communities, while also reducing driver fatigue.

SOURCE Motiv Power Systems

Related Links

http://www.motivps.com

LOS ANGELES (AP)  Relatives who thought they had buried their loved one only to find out he was alive 11 days after his funeral sued a Califo(Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/628362/MyCRM_Logo.jpg )



(Photo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/646199/eMap_MyCRM_Infographic.jpg )



eMap from MyCRM is an extensive data management tool that enables Microsoft Dynamics CRM/365 users to manipulate and work directly with CRM data from an integrated Bing Map. eMap includes a range of great sales and marketing tools, from building complex advanced find queries by location through drawing areas on a Map, to building Marketing lists and planning routes to visit customers or prospects. eMap is one of the only solutions to also include external data sources by location and gives access to 85 million external business records globally with basic contact information in CRM, this creates a powerful prospecting and research solution.

CEO Alistair Dickinson said: "We are very proud of the eMap solution for Microsoft Dynamics CRM/365 as it enables organisations to increase productivity and significantly enhances their investment in Microsoft Dynamics. "WOW!" is the most common expression used when gaining feedback from our customers and end users."

The eMap solution is a cost effective subscription based solution, offered with a compelling licence model that only requires a subscription for those users that need access to the eMap functionality not every Microsoft Dynamics user that is enabled. Subscriptions can be purchased monthly or annually with discounts available for volume and duration, and can be increased and decreased as needed.

About MyCRM

MyCRM is now in its 9th year of trading and has seen continued growth and profits. We continue to innovate and offer a unique, friendly and honest service to customers worldwide. MyCRM is a private limited organisation registered and based in the UK, with more than 300 customers located in 27 countries around the world.

Trial Software

MyCRM can provide a fully featured eMap trial including business data integration for a limited period of 14 days. Please register here: https://downloads.mycrmgroup.com/Products/2016/eMap

Watch our YouTube videos

We have recently uploaded new content to our YouTube channel demonstrating eMap's simple to use features. All the videos can be viewed on our website here: https://downloads.mycrmgroup.com/Products/2016/eMap

If you would like to find out more you can email Mike Spink at [email protected], or call +44(0)1983-245-245.

SOURCE MyCRMWASHINGTON, Feb. 27, 2018 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Three members of the Expedition 54 crew aboard the International Space Station (ISS), including NASA astronauts Mark Vande Hei and Joe Acaba, returned to Earth on Tuesday after months of performing research and spacewalks in low-Earth orbit.

Vande Hei, Acaba and cosmonaut Alexander Misurkin of the Russian space agency Roscosmos landed at 9:31 p.m. EST (8:31 a.m. Feb. 28 in Kazakhstan) southeast of the remote town of Dzhezkazgan in Kazakhstan.

Their time on station marked the beginning of the first long-term increase in crew size on the U.S. segment, enabling NASA to double the time dedicated to research and achieve a record-setting week of research that surpassed 100 hours. Highlights from this research include investigations into the manufacturing of fiber optic filaments in microgravity, improving the accuracy of an implantable glucoses biosensor, and measuring the Sun's energy input to Earth.

The crew also welcomed four cargo spacecraft delivering several tons of supplies and research experiments. Orbital ATK's Cygnus spacecraft arrived at the station in November on the company's eighth commercial resupply mission, followed in December by SpaceX's Dragon spacecraft on the company's thirteenth resupply mission. Two Russian ISS Progress cargo craft arrived at the station in October and February.

Vande Hei logged 168 days in space on this, his first, mission. He ventured outside the space station on four spacewalks to perform work that included replacing and lubricating the Latching End Effectors on both ends of the Canadarm2. Acaba completed one spacewalk to lubricate an end effector and install new cameras on the station's arm and truss. He now has accrued 306 days in space on three flights. Acaba and Vande Hei also participated in dozens of educational events while in space as part of NASA's Year of Education on Station.

Misurkin conducted one record-setting spacewalk with fellow cosmonaut Anton Shkaplerov to replace an electronics box for a high-gain communications antenna on the Zvezda service module in February. The spacewalk timed out at 8 hours and 13 minutes, the longest in Russian space program history. Misurkin now has spent 334 days in space on two flights.

Now operating the station are Expedition 55 crew members Commander Anton Shkaplerov of Roscosmos and Flight Engineers Scott Tingle of NASA and Norishige Kanai of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency. Astronauts Ricky Arnold and Drew Feustel of NASA, and Oleg Artemyev of Roscosmos are scheduled to launch March 21 and arrive at the space station two days later, returning the crew size to six.

Learn more about the International Space Station at:

https://www.nasa.gov/station

Get breaking news, images and features from the station on social media at:

https://instagram.com/iss

and

https://www.twitter.com/Space_Station

SOURCE NASACLEVELAND, Feb. 27, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- NeverBounce, the industry leading email verification and list cleaning service, today released a new white paper examining the average attrition rate of B2B versus B2C email addresses.

Based on user data analyzed over a 12-month period, the white paper "The State of Email Attrition 2018" looks at the average attrition rate, or "churn rate" of B2C email addresses, addresses featuring consumer domains such as "@aol.com," "@gmail.com," "@yahoo.com," "@rr.com," etc., and B2B email addresses, addresses containing unique domain addresses specific to a business or organization. A sample set of 40 million records of valid user B2C and B2B email data gathered during a five-month period was reevaluated after a year to determine the average attrition rate of both subsets.

To view the white paper in full, visit here.

"Compiling this research and data is a part of our ongoing commitment to analyzing the email marketing industry and tracking the changes to email technology over time," said Brad Owen, CEO and Founder of NeverBounce. "We have not previously released our findings on the attrition of email data publicly and we are excited to share this study, among other insights, that can be learned from NeverBounce's extensive user data."

Email lists must be cleaned and maintained to ensure that messages reach the inbox. Spam complaints, undelivered messages, and unsubscribes can all impact email deliverability, as Internet Service Providers (ISPs), Email Service Providers (ESPs), anti-spam advocates, and email protection services set thresholds for bounced emails, spam complaints, and unsubscribe requests. If your email marketing efforts are consistently being sent to invalid or unwanted email addresses, you could find your messages filtered as spam, your account blocked or suspended from sending mail. To check the health of your email list, visit NeverBounce.com for a free instant bounce analysis.

About NeverBounce

Over 60,000 users trust NeverBounce for their real-time email verification and list cleaning services. NeverBounce ensures you reach your customers by dramatically increasing the delivery of your emails to the inbox. By removing outdated email addresses and checking if an email is valid, NeverBounce improves deliverability and helps businesses adhere to strict email provider guidelines. Based in Cleveland, Ohio, a dedicated team of engineers are available to assist with integrations.

SOURCE NeverBounce

Related Links

http://www.NeverBounce.com

SANTA MONICA, Calif., Feb. 28, 2018 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- New analysis released today by the Stockholm Environment Institute finds that limiting oil production in California would lead to substantial greenhouse gas emission cuts at a cost comparable to other state climate policies. The analysis shows that addressing oil production in California -- something Governor Brown has thus far resisted -- will have critical climate, health, and global leadership benefits.

The report finds that, contrary to previous claims, every barrel of California oil left in the ground will result in a net decrease in oil consumption globally. It lays out policy pathways to limiting state oil production, including ending permitting for new oil production, ending subsidies for oil and gas production, and establishing setbacks to limit urban drilling in vulnerable communities.

The report can be found here: https://www.sei-international.org/publications?pid=3302

Public Interest Groups responded to the report findings with the followings statements:

"Today's report from Stockholm Environment Institute puts critical numbers behind what we already knew: You can't be a climate leader and continue drilling for oil. California, under Jerry Brown's leadership, has an incredible opportunity to bolster climate action and set a global precedent by limiting oil production in the state to help keep the climate from warming to catastrophic levels. As we look ahead towards the Global Climate Action Summit, Governor Brown can show what true climate leadership looks like by ending new oil and gas development and starting a managed decline of existing production in California. Our communities, and our climate, depend on it." - David Turnbull, Strategic Communications Director, Oil Change International

"The Stockholm Environment Institute makes a strong case that Governor Jerry Brown cannot support full-throttle oil and gas production while claiming that emissions can be cut substantially enough via energy efficiency, carbon trading, and renewable energy to avoid the 'existential threat' of climate change. We have to start leaving oil in the ground." -Liza Tucker, Consumer Watchdog

"Nurses are already seeing the detrimental effects of climate change on health, from more asthma attacks to more premature deaths to displaced communities. Addressing climate change requires bold and immediate action, including transitioning from fossil fuel energy sources. The Stockholm Environment Institute's new analysis makes clear that limiting oil production in California is a necessary step to protecting the health of our communities and future generations from the threat of climate change."

- Katie Huffling, Executive Director, Alliance of Nurses for Healthy Environments

"The SEI study demonstrates what California parents already know: our children's future depends on fighting climate change with every tool in the toolbox. So far Governor Brown has only been willing to use demand-side tools, like boosting efficiency and renewable energy. While essential, these tools are simply inadequate to the task of limiting global warming to 2 Celsius. We must use supply-side tools as well, by ending new oil and gas development in California, eliminating subsidies for fossil fuel production, and implementing a managed decline in oil and gas production ASAP. And we must protect our vulnerable frontline communities by establishing common-sense setback requirements on urban drilling. Oil derricks do not belong next to schools and homes! California's children deserve 100% of our effort to ensure a healthy environment today and a livable climate tomorrow."

- Linda Hutchins-Knowles, Mothers Out Front

"We support the Stockholm Environment Institute report's call to limit fossil fuel production. Not only do the environmental harms of fossil fuels need to be addressed, but so do the significant health risks associated with oil and gas production, including possible increased risk of breast cancer especially for workers and communities located near production sites. We need this kind of large systemic change in order to address the root causes of breast cancer and end the breast cancer epidemic." Joyce Bichler, Breast Cancer Action

The groups calling on Governor Brown to take action include: Alliance of Nurses for Healthy Environments, Asian Pacific Environmental Network, Breast Cancer Action, California Environmental Justice Alliance, Californians Against Fracking, Center for Biological Diversity, Central California Environmental Justice Network, ClimateTruth.org, Communities for a Better Environment, Consumer Watchdog, Environment California, Food & Water Watch, Greenpeace USA, Hollywood United for a Healthy CA, Mothers Out Front, Oil Change International, Stand.earth

SOURCE Consumer Watchdog

Related Links

http://www.consumerwatchdog.org

LONDON, February 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --

The DAS Group of Companies, a division of Omnicom Group Inc. (NYSE: OMC,) has announced the launch of ONE HUNDRED, a new purpose-driven practice, in Europe.

(Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/647142/ONE_HUNDRED_Logo.jpg )



A coalition, with seven Omnicom agencies at the core, ONE HUNDRED is the world's largest multi-disciplinary collective in Europe, with a mission to create positive, purpose-led change through connected creative marketing communication solutions.

Having worked with non-profits globally since 2016, ONE HUNDRED is now expanding its offering to businesses and organisations wishing to embrace the power of ethical and sustainable purpose.

ONE HUNDRED will help organisations to address four key societal challenges:

Protect : a responsibility to safeguard our world, each other and the valued things we care about

: a responsibility to safeguard our world, each other and the valued things we care about End : working with clients to eliminate what is wrong in the world, from preventable diseases and poverty to poor practices and performance

: working with clients to eliminate what is wrong in the world, from preventable diseases and poverty to poor practices and performance Equalise : every human being deserves basic rights, opportunities and reason to hope

: every human being deserves basic rights, opportunities and reason to hope Improve: belief that clarity of purpose can bring about positive change, drive performance and build a better, more sustainable future

Emma Sergeant, Managing Partner, ONE HUNDRED, and President Europe DAS Group of Companies (Omnicom Group), says: "ONE HUNDRED brings together a multi skilled dynamic resource; spanning purpose strategy, branding, public relations, digital experience design, fundraising as well as precision and cause marketing. The combination of these skills enables us to consider a client's challenge from many perspectives to define a unique purpose to produce tangible, sustainable success."

Brian Crimmins, Global Managing Partner, ONE HUNDRED and CEO, Changing Our World says: "When we launched ONE HUNDRED in the US in 2016, the mission was simple and profound. To provide nonprofits with one single source for integrated marketing, branding and fundraising; a holistic approach that was missing from this sector. Together, with our clients, we raise more than a billion dollars annually.

"Today we are extremely proud to announce our expansion into Europe, coinciding with our expansion of services. We surround each client with an integrated team - across various disciplines - with a depth of knowledge and experience in the cause area(s) most relevant."

"We deliver solutions that take clients further than any one agency can do alone. We're using the power of our partnership to empower purposeful change, making lasting impacts where they are most needed and inspiring others to do the same."

The lead Omnicom agencies involved in ONE HUNDRED in Europe are: Changing Our World, Critical Mass, Interbrand, Porter Novelli, Portland, RAPP and Rabin Martin. ONE HUNDRED in Europe will be led by John O'Brien MBE, Managing Partner, ONE HUNDRED in collaboration with Emma Sergeant, Managing Partner, ONE HUNDRED, and President Europe DAS Group of Companies (Omnicom Group), and Brian Crimmins, Global Managing Partner, ONE HUNDRED and CEO, Changing Our World.

To date, ONE HUNDRED has worked with clients such as: Lions Clubs International Foundation, The Salvation Army, Internews, CMMB and Association of Zoos and Aquariums.

About the DAS Group of Companies

The DAS Group of Companies, a division of Omnicom Group Inc. (NYSE: OMC) (http://www.omnicomgroup.com), is a global group of marketing services companies. DAS includes over 200 companies in the following marketing disciplines: specialty, PR, healthcare, CRM, events, promotional marketing, branding and research. Operating through a combination of networks and regional organizations, DAS serves international, regional, national and local clients through more than 700 offices in 71 countries.

ABOUT OMNICOM GROUP INC.

Omnicom Group (http://www.omnicomgroup.com) is a leading global marketing and corporate communications company. Omnicom's branded networks and numerous specialty firms provide advertising, strategic media planning and buying, digital and interactive marketing, direct and promotional marketing, public relations and other specialty communications services to over 5,000 clients in more than 100 countries. Follow us on Twitter for the latest news.

For media enquiries please contact:

Gordon Carver (Porter Novelli) / [email protected] / +44(0)7720-277-146

SOURCE ONE HUNDREDSEATTLE, Feb. 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Outreach, the leading sales engagement platform, has hired Anna Baird as COO and Mike Zinne as Senior Vice President of Customer Success, rounding out the company's management team and positioning Outreach to continue the rapid growth trajectory it has been on since its founding in 2014.

In just two years (FY2015-2017), Outreach, which late last year was recognized by Forbes as one of its "Next Billion Dollar Startups", went from zero to a $10 million run rate and just closed FY2018 up another 100+ percent. The company has also seen significant increases in headcount, doubling the number of employees from FY2018 to FY2019. Headcount growth for FY2019 will focus on investments in engineering, sales and customer success.

Anna Baird brings a wealth of financial and operational leadership experience to her new role as Outreach COO. Before joining Outreach, Baird was responsible for providing financial and strategic leadership as CFO of Livongo Health, a consumer digital health company. Prior to her tenure at Livongo, she served as President and CFO of RadiumOne, a data driven marketing platform that was recently acquired by RhythmOne. She has also held senior-level financial and operational positions at Say Media, McAfee and KPMG. As COO of Outreach, Baird will lead the company's Finance, Business Intelligence, Sales Operations, Security and IT efforts.

Mike Zinne, Outreach's new SVP of Customer Success, will be a key part of future growth, providing services and training to existing customers and the Outreach employees that support them. Zinne has deep experience building and optimizing customer delivery teams for SaaS companies. Prior to joining Outreach, Zinne spent several years as Vice President of Customer Experience for Zendesk as well as in sales and support roles at Kyriba, Oracle and RightNow.

"Like most startups, a major key to our success has been  and continues to be  finding the right people to join our team, challenge us and ultimately propel us forward," said Manny Medina, CEO of Outreach. "These hires represent the best of the best in terms of experience, skill set and a deep understanding of what it takes to strategically grow. We are excited to welcome Anna and Mike to Outreach."

In the recent months, Outreach has secured numerous new marquee customers, including MINDBODY, Splunk, and The San Francisco Chronicle. What's more, the company has successfully expanded into new verticals, building on its base of technology customers. In Q4 FY2018 alone, more than half of Outreach's new accounts came from verticals outside of technology, primarily financial services, telecom and healthcare.

About Outreach

Outreach, the leading sales engagement platform, automates and prioritizes customer touch points throughout the sales process, resulting in increased productivity for sales teams. Thousands of customers rely on Outreach to transform the sales process, drive collaboration between sales and marketing, and deliver higher revenue per sales rep. Outreach is a privately held company based in Seattle, Washington. To learn more, please visit www.outreach.io.

Media Contact:

Jennefer Traeger

Traeger Communications

720-988-6149

[email protected]

SOURCE Outreach

Related Links

http://www.outreach.io

Quality is the core element for fair and equitable market competition. It is also the basic element for the success of scientific and technological innovation and the fundamental guarantee for people's quality of life. Innovation enables human beings to define new territories and effectively resist the threat of nature as well as explore the infinite possibilities for human development. Innovation is the only path for human development and social progress. Quality is the root of human existence, and innovation is the way of human development.

It is indisputable that by means of innumerable creations, human beings have acquired a large sphere of activity, from oceans to the sky. Human production and life have become much more efficient, convenient and prosperous. However, no one can deny the fact that even if humans have discovered advanced science and technology as well as made great social progress, they still have many problems to solve, such as food safety, shortages of resources, climate change, environmental pollution, epidemic disease, cyber attacks, transnational crime and so on, which pose serious treats to the international order and human existence. In fact, no matter what country, faith, or belief a person calls their own, people are in a community of common destiny.

"Let the World Be Filled with Love" is a public service song from China in the 1980's. "We share joy, we bear it, and we have the same expectation. Together we seek, we cherish the same love... "

Quality and innovation are the common pursuit of mankind. Quality and innovation are the same love cherished by all humanity.

A list of the more than 2,018 Chinese university students who participated in the joint action can be seen at:

Sina Microblog: https://m.weibo.cn/6104612870/4210597753724832

Wechat: http://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/Q-50CqTb_D950fWHw2fVNA

SOURCE National University Entrepreneurship service networkNEW YORK, Feb. 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Pareteum Corporation (NYSE American: TEUM), ("Pareteum" or the "Company"), the rapidly growing Cloud Communications Platform company, announced today it has been awarded a 3-year contract to provide Global Cloud Services to launch a global Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO) for an established Carrier. The contract is scheduled to add over $10,000,000 to Pareteum's 36 month contractual revenue backlog.

Under the terms of the agreement, the global MVNO will leverage connectivity provided by Pareteum's Global Cloud Platform to service the needs of 300,000 subscribers once fully deployed. Pareteum is providing Communications Platform as a Service (CPaaS) that support and enable subscribers, and, the connectivity for the voice, messaging, and data service bundle. Monthly fees apply to the support and usages services consumed.

Vic Bozzo, CEO of Pareteum stated, "This contract is a major milestone for continued growth. Being awarded this contract demonstrates that the technology and strategy of Pareteum's turn-key solution for launching mobile network operators is being widely adopted across the globe."



Hal Turner, Executive Chairman and Principal Executive Officer of Pareteum said, "Pareteum's Global Cloud Service Platform, recognized by TMC for the Communications Solutions Product of the Year 2017, the 2017 IoT Excellence Award, and again for the Internet Telephony Product of the Year 2018, provides a clear disruptive, distinguishing, and sustainable advantage in the marketplace and for the customers who vote with their dollars. Delivering service, virtually on demand, separated us from our competitors in this key customer decision. Our global cloud provides a single orchestration interface to customers who wish to expand their customer base and generate new sources of revenue, especially with mobile services. Pareteum's services development roadmap, featuring identity management, Blockchain, predictive analytics and insights is geared to assist our customers with viable new services for their subscribers needs."

About Pareteum:

The mission of Pareteum Corporation (NYSE American: TEUM) is to connect "every person and everything". Organizations use Pareteum to energize their growth and profitability through cloud communication services and complete turnkey solutions featuring relevant content, applications, and connectivity worldwide. Our platform services partners (technologies integrated into our cloud) include: HPE, IBM, Sonus, Oracle, Microsoft, and other world class technology providers. All of the relevant customer acquired value is derived from Pareteum's award winning software, developed and enhanced for many years. By harnessing the value of communications, Pareteum serves retail, enterprise and IoT customers. Pareteum currently has offices in New York, Sao Paulo, Madrid, Barcelona, Bahrain and the Netherlands. For more information please visit: www.pareteum.com.



Forward Looking Statements:

Certain statements contained herein constitute "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such statements may include, without limitation, statements with respect to Pareteum's plans and objectives, projections, expectations and intentions. These forward-looking statements are based on current expectations, estimates and projections about Pareteum's industry, management's beliefs and certain assumptions made by management. Readers are cautioned that any such forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and are subject to certain risks, uncertainties and assumptions that are difficult to predict. Because such statements involve risks and uncertainties, the actual results and performance of Pareteum may differ materially from the results expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Given these uncertainties, readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on such forward-looking statements. Unless otherwise required by law, Pareteum also disclaims any obligation to update its view of any such risks or uncertainties or to announce publicly the result of any revisions to the forward-looking statements made here. Additional information concerning certain risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected or suggested in Pareteum's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, copies of which are available from the SEC or may be obtained upon request from Pareteum Corporation.



Contractual Revenue Backlog Definition:

Contractual revenue backlog is measured on a forward looking 36 month snapshot view monthly, and, is generated by each of the Company's Managed Services, Global Mobility Cloud, and Application Exchange & Developer's Platform customers. The Pareteum multi-year Software-as-a-Service agreements include service establishment and implementation fees, guaranteed minimum monthly recurring fees, as well as contractually scheduled subscribers, in some cases including subscriber usage, during the term of the agreement, and, their resulting monthly recurring revenue. There can be no assurances that we reach the total revenue backlog. The revenue backlog assumes timing of revenue recognition that may vary from actual results.

Pareteum Investor Relations Contact:

Ted O'Donnell

Chief Financial Officer

(212) 984-1096

[email protected]

Hayden IR

(917) 658-7878

SOURCE Pareteum Corporation

Related Links

http://www.pareteum.com

At Napas Loose Caboose, the locomotive will cost about $850, said store manager Roy Ballard. Two other cars will be manufactured. A passenger car will sell for approximately $400 and the box car for $180.

Only about 300 of each car will be made, said Gale Cousins, North America general manager for Marklin. So far, he said he has preorders for at least 100 locomotives.

Napa Valley visitors, typically more affluent and with more discretionary income, will have no problem spending money on a train like this, said Cousins.

We have a lot of people like that buy our products just for display.

Riding the train itself creates memories, and now people can buy this memory and take it home with them and remember the experience they had on the train, said Cousins.

Cousins said that a Marklin entity called LGB will manufacture the train in Hungary.

There are LGB enthusiasts all over the world, said Cousins. This is their life, their hobby; this is what they do.

Yes, the trains are expensive, he acknowledged.BOSTON, Feb. 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- The PERKS Convention, or 'PERKS', is expanding from a local Boston-area showcase of unique and inexpensive office and employee amenities to a national-level convention in 2018. Founded by startup executives frustrated by lack of channel awareness for their employer-focused startups, PERKS graduates to the Hynes Convention Center in May to showcase more employee-focused services and products from across the U.S.

"Quite simply, our organization has used PERKS ideas to bring our workforce opportunities to simplify or make their lives more convenient. By offering new solutions such as on-site eye exams, grocery-store mobile savings, or any other PERK, they're hearing through our actions that we recognize their talents and want to improve staff well-being," said Robin Antonellis, VP of Human Resources for Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, an annual attendee of the PERKS Convention.

Since 2014, PERKS has attracted thousands of benefits, HR, and employee engagement professionals from all over New England. PERKS has used a conventional tradeshow-style model with some unconventional tactics to grow the event year-over-year and attract New England's best employers. With rising demand for competitive offerings from Boston-area employers and surrounding states, PERKS has focused on expanding their marketplace of great employee services attracting services based in San Francisco, New York, Chicago and beyond.

"We're really creating the first marketing experience for 'B2B2C' businesses. This is a new category of companies looking to benefit employees by working through their employers and it's exploding," says Co-Creator, Alexa Baggio.

PERKS showcases a range of unique offerings focused mainly in five categories: food & beverage, facilities, convenience, engagement and wellness. PERKS attendees can experience each service personally during the event (manicures, massages, and more) and learn more about each PERK in a more meaningful way than traditional sales phone calls allow. There's music and a happy hour to boot making it a truly unique environment. Services showcased include:

Preventative healthcare services

Innovative office supplies and furnishings

Onsite and online convenience offerings

Team bonding and group experiences

Employee engagement tools and platforms

Cost-savings and home-life support products

About PERKS: PERKS is a national tradeshow and community dedicated to service and amenity discovery for employers. The convention takes place on May 9th, 2018 and registration is now open at www.perkscon.com.

Press Inquiries:

Kristin Healy

Press Coordinator

[email protected]

SOURCE PERKS

Related Links

http://www.perkscon.com

SAN DIEGO, Feb. 27, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Shareholder rights law firm Johnson Fistel, LLP has launched an investigation into whether the board members of PHH Corporation ("PHH") (NYSE: PHH) breached their fiduciary duties in connection with the proposed sale of the Company to Ocwen Financial Corporation ("Ocwen") (NYSE: OCN). PHH provides outsourced mortgage banking services to financial institutions and real estate brokers in the United States.

On February 27, 2018, PHH announced that it had signed a definitive merger agreement with Ocwen. Under the terms of the agreement, Ocwen will acquire all of the outstanding shares of PHH Corporation for $11.00 in cash.

The investigation concerns whether the PHH board failed to satisfy its duties to the Company shareholders, including whether the board adequately pursued alternatives to the acquisition and whether the board obtained the best price possible for PHH shares of common stock. Nationally recognized Johnson Fistel is investigating whether the proposed deal represents adequate consideration, especially given that one Wall Street analyst has a $12.00 price target on the stock. The 52-week high for PHH was $15.00.

If you are a shareholder of PHH and believe the proposed buyout price is too low or you're interested in learning more about the investigation or your legal rights and remedies, please contact lead analyst Jim Baker ( [email protected] ) at 619-814-4471. If emailing, please include a phone number.

About Johnson Fistel, LLP:

Johnson Fistel, LLP is a nationally recognized shareholder rights law firm with offices in California, New York and Georgia. The firm represents individual and institutional investors in shareholder derivative and securities class action lawsuits. For more information about the firm and its attorneys, please visit http://www.johnsonfistel.com . Attorney advertising. Past results do not guarantee future outcomes.

Contact:

Johnson Fistel, LLP

Jim Baker, 619-814-4471

[email protected]

SOURCE Johnson Fistel, LLP

Related Links

http://www.johnsonfistel.com

FORT WORTH, Texas, Feb. 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Principle Logistics Group (PLG), where Sheila Jackson serves as CEO, has just received recertification status as a woman-owned business by the Women's Business Enterprise National Council (WBENC), the largest certifier of women-owned businesses in the U.S. and a leading advocate for women business owners and entrepreneurs.

Jackson, who has been involved for more than 20 years in business development, management, ownership and consulting, has specialized in transportation logistics and management services since 2005 when she became CEO of Principle Transport Group, a Fort Worth-based, strategic planning and transportation logistics and management company. This year, the company has undergone a facelift, including a new name  Principle Logistics Group  emphasizing its vast range of logistics technology and services.

"Principle Logistics Group became certified as a Woman Business Enterprise (WBE) by the Women's Business Council  Southwest over two years ago and has been an active member ever since," said Debbie Hurst, the organization's regional president. "They are a strong and reliable WBE in the logistics and transportation management space. CEO Sheila Jackson has not only utilized our network of WBEs, corporations and governmental entities to market her business but also has contributed her time and insight to our organization's programming."

One of the major benefits of the certification program is that the certification is accepted by more than 1,000 corporations representing America's most prestigious brands, in addition to many states, cities and other entities seeking to meet their goals of supporting women-owned businesses and meeting federal/state diversity mandates. This gives certification owners the ability to compete for real-time business opportunities provided by WBENC corporate members and government agencies.

In addition to the certification benefits of WBENC, whose mission is "to fuel economic growth globally by identifying, certifying and facilitating the development of women-owned businesses," WBENC offers the education, events, support and tools certified companies need to grow and succeed through the full life cycle of entrepreneurship.

PLG's industry-leading role of bringing best-in-services to their partners and clients, like their continued WBENC certification and leadership within it, is helping them better serve both small and large companies nationally, like Sabre, AT&T and Encap.

For more information, please contact:

Lauren Yates

ThinkWell Consulting

703.593.3184

[email protected]

SOURCE Principle Logistics GroupSAN FRANCISCO, Feb. 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- ProsperWorks, a leader in the CRM market, today announced a new evolution in the CRM industry for its customers.

This coincides with G Suite revealing Hangouts Chat, an intelligent and secure collaboration tool designed to bring amazing teams together no matter where they work from. With the proliferation of digital tools in the workplace and omnichannel communication, this integration will arm teams with the tools they need to get their jobs done efficiently.

ProsperWorks and Chat will allow relationship-makers (sellers, marketers, service professionals) to have direct messages and group conversations, while providing a centralized, integrated experience that makes team collaboration easy and efficient from anywhere in the world.

"Today's relationship-makers require more collaboration than ever before. They don't have time to toggle between apps, they want to work in the systems they're most used to in G Suite," said Jon Lee, ProsperWorks co-founder and CEO. "As a longstanding Google Cloud partner, we're proud to reinforce our existing G Suite integration and continue to provide more functionality to new and existing users. By eliminating the need to switch between apps, we're helping sales teams save valuable time and focus on what matters most - closing deals."

ProsperWorks has been a go-to launch partner with Google Cloud since the early days of its Chrome extension in 2014. This first partnership gave users the ability to access critical CRM data directly through Gmail. With today's deeper integration announcement, users can now access that same data in Chat, providing the collaboration and flexibility required to form strong relationships.

Chat with ProsperWorks will allow any G Suite company to create rooms for relationship-specific messaging, conversations, or private meeting rooms for business relationship conversations. Chat is a free service that is included in every G Suite subscription and at no additional cost.

ProsperWorks has built a relationship bot designed to give alerts to any new business relationship triggers, from new users, new deal activity, updates, lead status changed, opportunities created, won, or even lost, and all status updates in the relationship lifecycle.

"Building cloud-first offerings with native integration provides a limitless future with the ability to leverage all of GCPs (Google Cloud Platforms) and G Suite technology," said Jon Aniano, ProsperWorks Chief Product Officer. "This is a critical component of empowering companies to work better and smarter to gain new and maintain existing relationships."

To learn more about ProsperWorks' Chat bot, visit: https://www.prosperworks.com/crm-software-for-google-deepens-integration-with-hangouts-chat

About ProsperWorks

ProsperWorks is a leading CRM for G Suite and recommended by Google's G Suite Marketplace. ProsperWorks helps companies build stronger relationships with a CRM that's simple to use, eliminates manual data entry through a seamless integration with G Suite applications. Founded by entrepreneurs Jon Lee and Kelly Cheng, ProsperWorks is based in San Francisco, has 160 employees and has raised $87M in venture capital financing. For more information, visit http://www.prosperworks.com.

Media Contact

[email protected]Inkhouse.com

SOURCE ProsperWorks#QSWUR

QS Quacquarelli Symonds, global higher education analysts, have today released the eighth edition of the QS World University Rankings by Subject. The research project enumerates the world's leading institutions for the study of 48 different subjects and five subject groups. The portfolio - the most extensive of its kind - is designed to provide a crucial comparative guide to university performance for students both aspiring and current, parents, career & study advisors, and academia.

(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20130909/638188 )



This year, Harvard University retains its global pre-eminence. It ranks number-one for fourteen different subjects, outranking Massachusetts Institute of Technology (12 number-one ranks) and the University of Oxford (four number-one ranks).

Key Findings:

The United States' higher education system records more drops than rises;

higher education system records more drops than rises; The United Kingdom's universities remain resilient in the face of Brexit, taking 10 number-one ranks - two more than last year;

universities remain resilient in the face of Brexit, taking 10 number-one ranks - two more than last year; The University of Cambridge takes more top-ten ranks than any other institution (37);

takes more top-ten ranks than any other institution (37); In continental Europe , The Netherlands is the only country to take two top places while Switzerland and Italy take one apiece;

, is the only country to take two top places while and take one apiece; French universities continue to flounder, with more regressions than progressions;

National University of Singapore is Asia's standout institution, taking 11 top-10 places;

is standout institution, taking 11 top-10 places; China's rate of improvement has slowed, as has Russia's ;

rate of improvement has slowed, as has ; India's performance deteriorates slightly;

performance deteriorates slightly; Brazil loses nearly a quarter of its top-100 places, underlining the system's struggles;

loses nearly a quarter of its top-100 places, underlining the system's struggles; QS have added two new tables to the portfolio this year: Library & Information Management and Classics & Ancient History.

QS World University Rankings by Subject 2018: Institutions achieving most Top-10 Ranks Institution Country Number of Top-10 Places University of Cambridge UK 37 University of Oxford UK 35 University of California, Berkeley USA 34 Harvard University USA 34 Stanford University USA 32 Massachusetts Institute of Technology USA 24 University of California, Los Angeles USA 14 London School of Economics UK 13 National University of Singapore Singapore 11 Yale University USA 11 (c) QS Quacquarelli Symonds 2004-2018 http://www.TopUniversities.com

Ben Sowter, Research Director, QS, said: "For perhaps the first year since we began this research project, we see the improvement of Asian nations decelerate somewhat. There is no noteworthy proportional increase in the number of top-50 positions they take, and only the National University of Singapore demonstrates comprehensive competitiveness in the very highest echelons. The results demonstrate the difficulties facing any institution or system aiming to reach world-class research performance standards."

The full rankings can be found at http://www.TopUniversities.com.

SOURCE QS Quacquarelli SymondsCHICAGO and NEW YORK, Feb. 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Chicago-based R.J. O'Brien & Associates (RJO), the oldest and largest independent futures brokerage and clearing firm in the United States, announced that for the second consecutive year, the firm won the award for "Best FCM  Client Service" at the CTA Intelligence U.S. Services Awards 2018.

Bestowed last night in New York and now in their fifth year, the awards recognize those service providers to the U.S. managed futures industry that have demonstrated exceptional customer service, innovative product development and growth over the past 12 months.

This is the sixth CTA Intelligence award RJO and its UK affiliate have earned, and it marks the third time the firm has won for client service in the United States. In 2016, RJO won the "Best FCM  Innovation" category at the U.S. awards. Its London-based affiliate won the magazine's European Services award in the technology category in November 2016 and in the innovation category in 2015.

Gerald Corcoran, RJO Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, said: "We are truly dedicated to providing outstanding client service so winning this category  particularly against some of the biggest banks in the world  is very gratifying. Thanks to CTA Intelligence for celebrating the art of service and selecting RJO once again."

Published by Pageant Media, CTA Intelligence focuses on key issues for professionals working in the commodity trading advisor (CTA) and managed futures space. An independent panel of judges from CTA Intelligence and leading industry experts selected RJO for the award.

About R.J. O'Brien & Associates

Founded in 1914, R.J. O'Brien & Associates is the largest independent futures brokerage firm in the United States, serving institutional, commercial and individual clients globally, in addition to a network of 400 introducing brokers (IBs). Clearing more than 80,000 client accounts, RJO services the industry's most expansive global network of IBs, a vast array of middle market firms and many of the world's largest financial, industrial and agricultural institutions. The firm offers state-of-the-art electronic trading and 24-hour trade execution on every major futures exchange worldwide.

SOURCE R.J. O'Brien & Associates

Related Links

http://www.rjobrien.com

ATLANTA, Feb. 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Rollins, Inc. (NYSE:ROL), a premier global consumer and commercial services company, today announced that it has purchased the stock of AMES Group Limited and Kestrel Pest Control Limited, both companies operating in the UK.

Founded in 1990 and headquartered in Birmingham, United Kingdom, AMES Group Limited is a long established pest control company in the UK, with a rich history of providing superior pest control, bird control, and specialist services to commercial customers throughout the midlands and including London. Owners Alan and Joanne Read will stay on to run the company's operations.

Kestrel Pest Control Limited, based in Chandler's Ford, Eastleigh, Hampshire, UK, was founded in 1993. Kestrel Pest Control provides superior commercial pest control to customers in Southhampton and surrounding areas of the Southwest. Kestrel Pest Control will roll up to our Safeguard UK brand. Owner Richard Borlase will stay on with the company in a sales position.

Gary W. Rollins, Vice Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Rollins stated, "The acquisitions of AMES and Kestrel help us to expand our presence within the United Kingdom. These two additions will help us as we strive to position our organization as industry leaders, and we share a culture of continuous improvement and ongoing investment in training and development. Further, we are pleased that Alan and Joanne Read as well as Richard Borlase will remain in with the respective companies and look forward to sharing best practices between our organizations."

About Rollins

Rollins, Inc. is a premier global consumer and commercial services company. Through its wholly owned subsidiaries, Orkin LLC., HomeTeam Pest Defense, Orkin Canada, Western Pest Services, Critter Control, Inc., The Industrial Fumigant Company, Trutech LLC., Rollins Australia, Waltham Services LLC., PermaTreat, Rollins UK, and Crane Pest Control, the Company provides essential pest control services and protection against termite damage, rodents and insects to more than two million customers in the United States, Canada, Central America, South America, the Caribbean, the Middle East, Asia, the Mediterranean, Europe, Africa, Mexico, and Australia from more than 700 locations. You can learn more about Rollins and its subsidiaries by visiting our web sites at www.orkin.com, www.pestdefense.com, www.westernpest.com, www.orkincanada.ca, www.crittercontrol.com, www.indfumco.com, www.trutechinc.com, www.allpest.com.au, www.walthamservices.com, www.permatreat.com, www.cranepestcontrol.com, www.murraypestcontrol.com.au, www.statewidepestcontrol.com.au, www.safeguardpestcontrol.co.uk, and www.rollins.com. You can also find this and other news releases at www.rollins.com by accessing the news releases button.

CAUTION CONCERNING FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS

The above release contains statements that constitute "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 including, without limitation, statements regarding the expectation that Alan and Joanne Read will stay on to run AMES Group's operations and that Richard Borlase will stay on with Kestrel in a sales position, and the goal of positioning our organization as industry leaders and sharing best practices between the new companies and our existing organization. The actual results of the Company could differ materially from those indicated by the forward-looking statements because of various risks and uncertainties, including without limitation, general economic conditions; market risk; changes in industry practices or technologies; the degree of success of the Company's pest and termite process reforms and pest control selling and treatment methods; the Company's ability to identify and integrate potential acquisitions; climate and weather trends; competitive factors and pricing practices; potential increases in labor costs; uncertainties of litigation; and changes in various government laws and regulations, including environmental and tax regulations. All of the foregoing risks and uncertainties are beyond the ability of the Company to control, and in many cases the Company cannot predict the risks and uncertainties that could cause its actual results to differ materially from those indicated by the forward-looking statements.

ROL-IR

For Further Information, Contact

Eddie Northen (404) 888-2242

SOURCE Rollins, Inc.

Related Links

http://www.rollins.com

FREMONT, Calif., Feb. 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Safetrust, a pioneer in mobile identity technology solutions, today announced that SafeLogon has been recognized as a Trust Award finalist in the Best Mobile Security Solution category for the 2018 SC Awards. The finalists and winners for the Trust Awards are chosen by an expert panel of judges with extensive knowledge and experience in the cybersecurity industry. Winners will be announced at the SC Awards ceremony on April 17, 2018 in San Francisco.

The SC Awards is recognized as the industry gold standard of accomplishment for cybersecurity professionals, products and services. Vendors and service providers who offer a product and/or service for the commercial, government, educational, nonprofit or other industries are eligible for the SC Awards' Trust Award category.

"Mobile devices are now providing a new way to conveniently identify yourself and eliminate the insecurity and frustration of passwords," said Jason Hart, CEO, Safetrust. "We have solved the tap to login to your desktop or web site by merging government encryption standards like NIST 800-73 with the power and convenience of a mobile device. This enables an elegant but highly secure replacement for passwords and old fashioned smartcards with a simple tap of your mobile phone or wearable."

"Safetrust has demonstrated that they are among the best in the industry for mobile security solutions," added Armstrong of SC Media. "Being a Trust award nominee is a special honor as it demonstrates that you are at the top of your game, and your peers know it."

For further information, please visit www.safetrust.com/scawards.

To register for the 2018 SC Awards gala, please visit http://www.scmagazine.com/awards/.

About SC Media

SC Media is cybersecurity. For over 25 years, they have armed information security professionals with in-depth and unbiased information through timely news, comprehensive analysis, cutting-edge features, contributions from thought leaders, and independent product reviews in partnership with and for top-level information security executives and their technical teams.

About Safetrust

Safetrust is a global pioneer in physical and logical identity solutions that allow people to identify themselves electronically, gain access to online and physical resources, and protect their privacy by leveraging industry standards and protocols. Safetrust solutions are sold through their partners including Verizon Enterprise and PwC to government, corporations, health care institutions, licensing authorities amongst others.

Press Enquiries

[email protected]

SOURCE Safetrust

Related Links

http://www.safetrust.com

JOHANNESBURG, Feb. 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Sappi Limited, a leading global producer of dissolving wood pulp, specialities and packaging papers, printing and writing papers and biomaterials, today announced that all conditions precedent relating to the acquisition of the speciality paper business of Cham Paper Group Holding AG (CPG) have been fulfilled and closing has been completed.

The transaction includes the acquisition of CPG's Carmignano and Condino Mills in Italy, its digital imaging business located in Cham, Switzerland as well as all brands and know-how.

The main benefits of the acquisition include:

Supports Sappi's diversification strategy and 2020vision to grow in higher margin growth segments

Strengthens Sappi Europe's specialities and packaging papers footprint and skills; adds 160,000 tons of speciality paper to our capacity

Increases Sappi's relevance in specialities and packaging papers, opening up new customers and markets to Sappi's existing products and generating economies of scale and synergies

Gaining greater share-of-wallet with valued brand owners; accelerating innovation and new product development

Improved near-term profitability and serve as platform for organic growth and further acquisitions. Will add 183 million of sales and approximately 20 million of EBITDA before taking into account synergies

Builds on the investments currently underway to increase specialities and packaging papers capacity at our Somerset, Maastricht and Alfeld Mills

Unlocks the growth potential of the CPG speciality paper business

Commenting on the transaction Steve Binnie, Chief Executive Officer of Sappi Limited, said:

"I am very pleased that we have been able to finalise this acquisition so quickly. We are now able to move with speed to combine Cham's strong brands, employees and assets with Sappi's global presence. Our existing as well as new customers will benefit from a broader range of products coupled with our well-established excellent customer service. This transaction strengthens Sappi's specialities and packaging papers business both in Europe and globally, improves our profitability and is another significant milestone towards realizing our Vision2020 goal."

Further information can be found at www.sappi.com

About Sappi Limited

A global leader in dissolving wood pulp and paper-based solutions, Sappi Limited (listed and in the Top 40 on the JSE - SAP), is headquartered in Johannesburg, South Africa; has over 12,000 employees; manufacturing facilities on three continents, in seven countries (eight operations in Europe, three operations in America and five operations in South Africa) and customers in over 150 countries worldwide.

Sappi works closely with customers to provide relevant and sustainable dissolving wood pulp, paper (speciality, packaging and printing and writing), paper pulp, and biomaterial products and related services and innovations. Our market-leading range of paper products includes: flexible packaging, label, release liner, containerboard and fluting, coated fine papers, casting release papers and in our Southern African region newsprint, uncoated and business papers. These products serve the fashion, FMCG and industrial sectors. Our dissolving wood pulp products are used worldwide by converters to produce viscose fibre, pharmaceutical products as well as a wide range of household and consumer products.

We continue to grow into a profitable and cash-generative diversified business with an exciting future in woodfibre, a renewable resource.

About Cham Paper Group Holding AG (CPG): CPGN (SWX) The Cham Paper Group Holding AG is a leading manufacturer of coated speciality papers. The company was founded in 1657. Following the divestment of the paper business, the company will focus on its real estate business and will operate under the name Cham Group.

Carmignano Mill (Carmignano di Brenta, Padua, Italy): This is a non-integrated paper mill with two paper machines. The plant can produce 100,000 tons of paper and employs 223 people. Paper grades include C1S FlexPack, C1S Label Papers, Wet Glue and Self-Adhesive applications, base paper for metallisation.

Condino Mill (Borgo Chiese, Trento, Italy): This is a non-integrated paper mill, with one paper machine. The mill employs 127 employees and can produce 60,000 tons of paper per year. Paper grades include glassine (silicone base paper) and super calendared, uncoated flexible packaging papers.

Digital Imaging Business (Cham, Canton Zug, Switzerland): A finishing plant is located in Cham Switzerland, in a 4000sqm industrial warehouse where the base paper from Condino or Carmignano mills are converted to produce 12,000 tons of digital imaging paper. The business employs 35 people.

SOURCE Sappi Limited

Related Links

http://www.sappi.com

Halper says he contacted G. L. Mezzetta, Inc. and was put in touch with their insurance provider. He was given a claim number, but, the suit alleges, the insurance company denied any liability and refused to settle the claim or pay for Halpers medical costs.

This is not the first time Halper has filed a claim against Mezzetta alleging that an olive was jarred with its pit, but the earlier results werent as serious, according to the suit. The first incident was more than eight years ago, the suit says.

In the last decade, Halper said that he has filed claims and received settlements from the company at least two other times. He keeps eating the olives, he said, because the brine they jar the olives with is second to none.

I guess Im basically loyal to Mezzetta, Halper said. I love these olives. I shouldnt be precluded from eating (them) and enjoying (them) simply because G. L. Mezzetta, Inc. doesnt accept a strong enough responsibility to ensure in their processing and bottling that the pits are removed.

The olive packaging does have a warning on it, according to the suit. The warning says Caution: Due to mechanical pitting, a pit or pit fragment may remain in the olive. Halper calls this warning obscure and barely identifiable.WASHINGTON, Feb. 28, 2018 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The U.S. Small Business Administration will present the final two hour-long webinars of its six-part free Historically Underutilized Business (HUB) Zone webinar series on March 7 and March 14. The webinar series began on Feb. 7 and all webinars will be archived on SBA's YouTube page.

The webinars are designed to help small businesses get and maintain their HUBZone certification, survive HUBZone status protests to contracts, maintain good recordkeeping to ensure compliance in the program, locate HUBZones, and compete for HUBZone contracts.

To get the most out of the webinars, review the HUBZone website and the frequently asked questions.

Webinar Schedule

Understanding How HUBZones are Designated

March 7 | 2-3 p.m. EST

Small businesses will learn how areas become designated as HUBZones.

Click on this link 10 minutes before the March 7 webinar begins: http://ems8.intellor.com/login/803401 There is no registration required.

HUBZone Protests and Appeals

March 14 | 2-3 p.m. EDT

Small businesses will learn the process for filing HUBZone protests and appeals; and for responding to protest notices.

Click on this link 10 minutes before the March 14 webinar begins: http://ems8.intellor.com/login/803400 There is no registration required.

About the U.S. Small Business Administration

The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) was created in 1953 and is a Cabinet-level agency of the federal government to aid, counsel, assist and protect the interests of small business concerns, to preserve free competitive enterprise and to maintain and strengthen the overall economy of our nation. The SBA helps Americans start, build and grow businesses and recover from disasters. Through an extensive network of field offices and partnerships with public and private organizations, the SBA delivers its services to people throughout the United States, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands and Guam. To learn more about the SBA, visit www.sba.gov.

Contact: Tiffani S. Clements (202) 401-0035

Internet Address: http://www.sba.gov/news

Follow us on Twitter, Facebook , Instagram & Blogs

Advisory Number: 18-03

SOURCE U.S. Small Business Administration

Related Links

http://www.sba.gov

NEW YORK, Feb. 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- In one of the worst flu seasons in years, during which search rates for cold and flu on WebMD's Symptom Checker mirrored the magnitude of the misery felt by millions nationwide, the most recent data suggest that the flu is winding down.

Searches with cold and flu symptoms -- including fever, cough, runny nose, sore throat, and nasal congestion -- increased by more than 47% over last season's peak flu period, which begins in December, and by more than 33% over the course of the entire cold and flu season. The WebMD Symptom Checker data show a 14% drop in cold and flu symptom searches, which correlates to the most recent CDC report showing that the percentage of doctor visits for flu symptoms have decreased to 6.4% from 7.5%.

WebMD Symptom Checker data, available immediately after midnight every Sunday, have shown a 95% correlation with CDC data, published one week later.

An average of 4 million people a month use WebMD's Symptom Checker tool to research symptoms and learn about possible conditions, so they are better informed and more confident about what to do next. While a helpful way for consumers to learn about conditions that may be causing specific symptoms, it is not meant to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment.

"The high level of activity on the WebMD Symptom Checker this year over last was a weekly reminder of just how bad this flu season has been," said Michael Smith, M.D., WebMD's Chief Medical Editor. "That the recent data show a decrease in symptom checks for flu suggests that cases may have peaked. That said, we aren't out of the woods yet. The flu remains very active and serious."

WebMD's Symptom Checker powers the WebMD Cold and Flu interactive map, which displays real-time analysis of cold and flu data. Users of the map can track cold and flu symptoms across the entire country, by state, or at the county level. Users can also receive push notifications to alert them to a high level of symptoms in their region.

About WebMD

WebMD Health Corp. is the leading provider of health information services, serving patients, physicians, health care professionals, employers, and health plans through our public and private online portals, mobile platforms, and health-focused publications. The WebMD Health Network includes WebMD Health, Medscape, MedicineNet, eMedicineHealth, RxList, OnHealth, Medscape Education, and other owned WebMD sites.

WebMD, Medscape, CME Circle, Medpulse, eMedicine, MedicineNet, theheart.org, and RxList are among the trademarks of WebMD Health Corp. or its subsidiaries.

WebMD Health Corp. was acquired by Internet Brands in September 2017 and is a key company in the Internet Brands Health vertical.

SOURCE WebMD Health Corp.

Related Links

http://www.webmd.com

"We are excited to leverage Eric's expertise to further develop SecureCircle's global alliance program," said Jeff Capone, SecureCircle co-founder and CEO. "His robust background and insight into developing teams and programs is exactly what we need to continue our partnership expansion strategy."

Schrenker comes to SecureCircle after spending seven years developing and leading the Global Systems Integrator programs at HPE/Voltage, where he was responsible for building the alliance program as well as recruiting, training, business development, field engagement and eminence development.

Schrenker also served in several software leadership and management consulting positions over the course of his 25-year career, including as an officer in the U.S. Army. Eric is a graduate of West Point where he received a Bachelor of Science degree in computer science.

About SecureCircle

SecureCircle was founded in 2015 to help solve pressing industry challenges in cybersecurity. Its patent-pending Transparent File Encryption solution helps organizations ensure the security, visibility and control of unstructured data from internal and external threats, regardless of format or storage location. Unlike existing technologies, SecureCircle provides a completely transparent solution which is always encrypted, trackable, and retractable, helping organizations to effectively secure data in today's cloud-first environment. SecureCircle helps companies within healthcare, finance, manufacturing, pharma, media, and government organizations meet data security and compliance requirements. Learn more at SecureCircle.com or follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn.

Press Contact:

Brooks Wallace, Hollywood Agency

[email protected]

(781) 749-0077

SOURCE SecureCircle

Related Links

http://SecureCircle.com

IRVINE, Calif., Feb. 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Shopoff Realty Investments ("Shopoff"), a national manager of opportunistic and value-add real estate investments, announced today that the company has successfully sold Brookside Mobile Home Park for $72.5 million, after an 11-month holding period. Located at 12700 Elliott Avenue in the City of El Monte, Calif., the manufactured housing community consists of 421 mobile home sites set on more than 45 acres.

Shopoff purchased the property in April 2017 together with Ladder Capital, a New York based real estate investment trust ("Ladder"), in a joint-venture partnership for $52.7 million, which included $14.7 million in equity and $38 million in debt provided by Ladder. The sale resulted in a 1.76 property-level equity multiple.

"Brookside Mobile Home Park was off-market and unsolicited when we were approached by the buyer with an offer to purchase the property at an acquisition price substantially higher than our original purchase price," explained Shopoff Realty Investment CEO William Shopoff. "While the sale of Brookside was certainly unplanned, we ultimately decided the sale would be in the best interest of all partners involved."

Shopoff's original business strategy for this acquisition included physical improvements to the property, the addition of new mobile homes to the property's vacant sites, as well as improving park operations.

John Santry, executive vice president of Shopoff Realty Investments Land Division explained, "Although we only owned Brookside a short period of time, we were still able to add value to the property. First, we streamlined park operations by combining the fee land and the leasehold/operations. In addition, we worked closely with the City of El Monte to secure approvals that allowed carports to be built at the property, which was previously not allowed by state code."

Santry continued, "Finally, we were able to change the outdated view of this property with mobile home dealers, ultimately building partnerships with these dealers that will help facilitate the move-in and sale of new homes at the property in the coming year."

About Shopoff Realty Investments

Shopoff Realty Investments is an Irvine, California-based real estate firm with a 26-year history of value-add and opportunistic investing across the United States. The company primarily focuses on proactively generating appreciation through the repositioning of commercial income-producing properties and the entitlement of land assets. The 26-year history includes operating as Asset Recovery Fund, Eastbridge Partners and Shopoff Realty Investments (formerly known as The Shopoff Group). Performance has varied in this time frame, with certain offerings generating losses. For additional information, please visit www.shopoff.com or call (844) 4-SHOPOFF.

About Ladder Capital

Ladder Capital is an internally-managed real estate investment trust and a leader in commercial real estate finance. Ladder originates first mortgage loans secured by commercial real estate, makes investments in investment-grade securities secured by first mortgage loans on commercial real estate; and invests in net leased and other commercial real estate equity. Founded in 2008, Ladder is run by a highly experienced management team with extensive expertise in all aspects of commercial real estate, including origination, credit, underwriting, structuring, capital markets and asset management. Ladder is headquartered in New York City, with branches in Boca Raton, FL and Los Angeles, CA. For more information please visit www.laddercapital.com

Disclosures

This is not an offering to buy or sell any securities. Such offer may only be made through the offerings memorandum to qualified purchasers. Any investment in Shopoff Realty Investments programs involves substantial risks and is suitable only for investors who have no need for liquidity and who can bear the loss of their entire investment. There is no assurance that this strategy will succeed to meet its investment objectives. The performance of this asset is not indicative of future results of the Fund. Securities offered through Shopoff Securities, Inc. member FINRA/SIPC, 2 Park Plaza, Suite 1120, Irvine, CA 92614, (844) 4-SHOPOFF.

Contact:

Jill Swartz

Spotlight Marketing Communications

949.427.5172, ext. 701

[email protected]

SOURCE Shopoff Realty Investments

Related Links

http://www.shopoff.com

SAN DIEGO and PLANO, Texas, Feb. 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- IPC APEX Expo 2018: San Diego, California -- Siemens today announced the Valor IoT Manufacturing Analytics product, a new comprehensive big data and business intelligence platform that monitors and manages global electronics manufacturing operations for accurate, real-time manufacturing utilization and overall equipment effectiveness (OEE). Building on the acquisition of Mentor Graphics, Siemens continues to invest in software solutions to realize innovation and power each customer's digital enterprise. This new solution is powered by MindSphere. By collecting and managing rich data sources from Valor shop-floor modules, the product provides visibility into all shop floor equipment, materials management, product quality, traceability, and supply-chain operations globally for optimum supply-chain performance.

This new product is an extension of the Valor Manufacturing Solution, a robust, scalable and secure plug-and-play IoT device and data acquisition product for electronics manufacturing. Only Siemens provides integrated software solutions across the entire customer value chain, from initial conceptual design through manufacturing planning and execution, to service and support of both the products and the plants that produce them.

"Our Valor plug-and-play IoT device and data acquisition tool for electronics manufacturing has evolved to today's new IoT Manufacturing Analytics solution, which aligns with Siemens' commitment to developing innovative technologies for factory automation," stated Dan Hoz, general manager of the Valor Division of Mentor, a Siemens business. "Our new technology will provide invaluable performance data and real-time visibility to shop-floor management so they can deliver high-quality, high-yield products as a key competitive advantage."

This open and scalable Valor solution captures and explores complete materials, quality and process traceability data for printed circuit boards (PCB) and assemblies, measuring and analyzing how resources are utilized with real-time work-in-progress tracking and optimum efficiency. It manages data from all manufacturing sites and production lines, including machine performance analysis and utilization. PCB manufacturing executives, line managers, and manufacturing engineers can now realize design-to-manufacturing efficiency for their customers' work orders by detecting factors that affect yield and identifying areas for improvements.

"Smart capture and utilization of technical data is essential for enabling analysis of manufacturing floor processes," reports Laurie Balch, Chief Analyst at Gary Smith EDA. "Manufacturing teams have found it incredibly challenging to obtain the critical data they need. Providing solutions to streamline and simplify that process, as with the Valor IoT Manufacturing Analytics solution, is crucial to improving their data analysis capabilities and empowering their decision making."

MindSphere, Siemens' open cloud-based Internet of Things (IoT) operating system provides the ability to develop robust industrial IoT solutions on a shorter timeline for customers across many industries. MindSphere delivers a wide range of device and enterprise application connectivity protocol options, industry applications, advanced analytics and an innovative development environment that utilizes both Siemens' open Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) capabilities along with access to native cloud services. Valor IoT Manufacturing Analytics powered by MindSphere provides a holistic set of IoT solutions and services matching customer requirements, providing numerous opportunities to build and operate digital offerings.

The introduction of this new technology expands Siemens' offerings for the manufacturing digital enterprise. Siemens' expertise in digital manufacturing provides digital twins of the product and process as part of the planning phase, and then captures a digital twin of the equipment/performance as part of the execution phase. By acquiring EDA leader Mentor Graphics, Siemens will leverage Mentor's leading IC, PCB and software design tools with the growth in the digitization and automation of global manufacturing. In the same way Siemens brings digitalization to mechanical manufacturing, digitalization is available to electronics through an end-to-end solution covering the entire PCB design through manufacturing flow. The new Valor IoT Manufacturing Analytics solution is the next step in the future vision for Siemens' digital enterprise for electronic engineering, with a goal to enable a seamless connection between the electronic and mechanical flows, with real-time updates between each discipline.

"We look forward to a clear vision of one integrated solution for the entire manufacturing process and production system," said Zvi Feuer, senior vice president of Manufacturing Engineering Software for Siemens PLM Software. "By closing the loop between manufacturing and design, customers will be able to use advanced analytics to help turn vast amounts of data into clear and useful insights, enabling key improvements in the areas of preventative maintenance and inventory turnover optimization. This latest product from the Valor team takes us one step closer to our future vision."

To learn more, please visit Booth 2621 at the IPC APEX Expo February 21 through March 1, 2018.

For more information on Valor IoT Manufacturing Analytics, visit: https://www.mentor.com/pcb-manufacturing-assembly/iot-valor-manufacturing/

Siemens PLM Software, a business unit of the Siemens Digital Factory Division, is a leading global provider of software solutions to drive the digital transformation of industry, creating new opportunities for manufacturers to realize innovation. With headquarters in Plano, Texas, and over 140,000 customers worldwide, Siemens PLM Software works with companies of all sizes to transform the way ideas come to life, the way products are realized, and the way products and assets in operation are used and understood. For more information on Siemens PLM Software products and services, visit www.siemens.com/plm.

Follow us on Twitter at: www.twitter.com/siemens_press

Siemens AG (Berlin and Munich) is a global technology powerhouse that has stood for engineering excellence, innovation, quality, reliability and internationality for 170 years. The company is active around the globe, focusing on the areas of electrification, automation and digitalization. One of the world's largest producers of energy-efficient, resource-saving technologies, Siemens is a leading supplier of efficient power generation and power transmission solutions and a pioneer in infrastructure solutions as well as automation, drive and software solutions for industry. The company is also a leading provider of medical imaging equipment  such as computed tomography and magnetic resonance imaging systems  and a leader in laboratory diagnostics as well as clinical IT. In fiscal 2017, which ended on September 30, 2017, Siemens generated revenue of 83.0 billion and net income of 6.2 billion. At the end of September 2017, the company had around 377,000 employees worldwide. Further information is available on the Internet at www.siemens.com.

Note: Siemens and the Siemens logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Siemens AG. Valor is a trademark or registered trademark of Mentor Graphics Corporation. All other trademarks, registered trademarks or service marks belong to their respective holders.

SOURCE Siemens

Related Links

https://www.siemens.com/global/en/home.html

After an extensive testing and evaluation period, Harris has chosen Silvus Technologies StreamCaster SC4200 as the radio to provide wireless command, control, and video operations of the T7 robot. The rugged construction and superb robustness of the StreamCaster radios allows T7 operators to more effectively defeat explosive threats, including improvised explosive devices (IEDs) from a safe stand-off distance.

"Silvus is thrilled for the opportunity to support Harris Corporation in bringing mission critical technology like this to the U.K. forces," said Kasey Cooper, Director of Sales, Unmanned Systems. "The pairing of Silvus MN-MIMO Technology with the T7 robot will provide an unprecedented capability to overcome the growing threat IEDs pose to our friendly forces."

Silvus and Harris look to get the program underway in 2018.

About Silvus Technologies:

Respected for developing advances in next generation military technology to provide wireless communications in the harshest of environments, Silvus excels where traditional systems fail. Silvus leads the Mobile Networked MIMO waveform revolution with mesh radio systems designed to distribute high bandwidth video and data anywhere. From sea to sky and everywhere in between, Silvus StreamCaster radios create robust, self-healing/self-forming, fluid mesh networks. Delivering COFDM modulation and up to 4x4 MIMO, Silvus provides higher throughput, longer range, better reliability and more flexibility than any wireless standard: true, military-grade "plug and play" operation. Today, Silvus continues to pioneer MIMO innovations that are reshaping critical broadband wireless connectivity around the world.

Contact: Kasey Cooper, [email protected]

SOURCE Silvus Technologies, Inc.

Related Links

www.silvustechnologies.com

BROOKFIELD, Wis., Feb. 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Symmetry today announced that Sloan Valve Company, the world's leading manufacturer of commercial plumbing systems, has selected Symmetry as the outsourcing partner for its SAP HANA migration initiative. Sloan will deploy multiple Symmetry services and solutions, including hybrid cloud hosting, SAP Basis management and cloud-based disaster recovery. Sloan will also implement Symmetry's ControlPanelGRC software suite for GRC automation of their SAP environment.

Sloan has been delivering water-efficient solutions to businesses all over the world since its founding in 1906. As a mid-sized, family-owned company that continues to grow, Sloan's internal IT organization has evolved into a highly strategic function that enables Sloan's business units to achieve their objectives through the use of technology. To support this continued evolution, the company needed a strategic partner that could help them with core IT services as well as provide expert services in support of future IT initiatives.

Historically, Sloan maintained its entire IT infrastructure on-premiseincluding the data center. This approach initially suited the business but became difficult and expensive to scale as the company grew and technology requirements evolved. According to Tom Coleman, Chief Information Officer for Sloan, "As our company expanded, my focus and that of my team needed to be on supporting business strategy. We needed to work with the business units to enable supply chain, digital commerce, product lifecycle and engineering initiatives through technology, not build servers, perform upgrades and manage databases."

Sloan's objective was to solve its IT infrastructure and operations challenges without adding additional budget pressure as it moved to SAP HANA. Building and managing an upgraded ERP infrastructure in-house would have required a significant increase in internal staff, infrastructure and other key resources. So despite legacy hesitation around outsourcing key IT responsibilities, Coleman understood this approach was critical to meeting their business goals.

Following a lengthy evaluation of multiple vendors, Coleman chose Symmetry as its strategic partner. This enabled Coleman and his team to seamlessly draft in responsibilities, and offload infrastructure and application management functions so they could focus on further enabling the business. Symmetry is a leader in SAP application management and hybrid cloud hosting services, and Coleman was familiar with the company's reputation for service excellence, SAP expertise and cutting-edge hybrid cloud services through previous collaborations with Symmetry.

"Symmetry's engagement with Sloan is an excellent example of how SAP customers can upgrade to the next-generation SAP HANA platform and feel confident with the team that's driving their transformation," said Pete Stevenson, Chairman and CEO of Symmetry. "Symmetry's deep experience with SAP and hybrid cloud hosting enables Sloan to accomplish this important IT evolution without disrupting the business, and will position Sloan to continue its growth for years to come."

The project is due to be completed in May of 2018. "We're bringing multiple parts of the landscape together, which is not an easy thing to do," Coleman said. "Our end goal is to go live seamlessly, and the way the project has been going thus far, I have every confidence that Symmetry will make that happen."

About Symmetry

Symmetry manages complex SAP implementations on a global scale for more than 200 of the world's leading enterprises. With its proprietary client-centric business model  The Symmetry Way  combined with the industry's most advanced SAP hosting platform and industry leading ControlPanelGRC software suite, Symmetry delivers expert, high-touch SAP application management services across all deployment environments, including on-premise, hosted, and private, public and hybrid cloud. With more than 22 years in business, Symmetry has built a base of expertise unmatched by any other independent SAP service provider. An SAP partner since 2005, Symmetry is certified in SAP Hosting, Cloud and SAP HANA Operations. Symmetry is based in Brookfield, Wis. with locations across North America and Europe. Learn more at https://symmetrycorp.com

SOURCE Symmetry Corporation / Three Rings Inc.

Related Links

https://symmetrycorp.com

Attorney Robert Perlmutter on behalf of Measure C backers found flaws with the Miller Starr Regalia report. These type of informational reports authorized by state law are supposed to be fair, accurate and impartial, he said.

It reads as if it was prepared by the opponents of the measure, Perlmutter said.

He talked about the science behind the proposed stream setbacks and other features of the initiative. He read a press release from Napa Valley Vintners praising the measure, before the wine industry group later reversed itself and opposed it.

Rex Stults of Napa Valley Vintners gave the groups reasons for the reversal. Napa Valley Vintners held a forum with attorneys arguing both for and against Measure C and decided some points are vague, he said.

Also, Stults said, the October wildfires made a difference. The fires destroyed oaks, making it unclear to the group at what point Measure Cs oak removal limit for new vineyards in the agricultural watershed zoning district might take effect.

Former Supervisor Ginny Simms said the Miller Starr Regalia report listed all the possible negative effects of Measure C and none of the possible positive effects. Simms said protecting watersheds so people have water to drink is a positive.SACRAMENTO, Calif., Feb. 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Smart Cannabis Corp, (OTC: SCNA), has been featured in an in-depth interview of Vice President Don Smith in Superb Crew. The article unveils the direction of the company's intended growth, its position on the stringent California regulations on growing cannabis, and how its new SMART App uniquely supports the most efficient, highly productive greenhouse farming. Additionally, the interview covers the company's Track and Trace software in development as well as the integration of blockchain technology by SinglePoint Corporation (OCTQB: SING) to enable transactions between vendors using the SMART App.

The Superb Crew article can be viewed at: https://smartcannabis.com/2018/02/20/smart-cannabis-plans-grow-strategic-company-acquisitions-joint-ventures-top-sector-companies/

Both John Taylor, President, and Don Smith are available to all media as experts in using agritech to maximize cannabis growing whilst keeping public health a top priority. They are reachable for comment at the contact information listed below.

Smart Cannabis (OTC PINK: SCNA) is a public equity corporation advancing the agriculture and cannabis industries and growing through acquisition, strategic alliances, and proprietary intellectual property. The company's wholly owned subsidiary, Next Generation Farming Inc., provides turnkey, automated, commercial greenhouses systems that efficiently improve yields and decrease water consumption for cultivators of organic food and cannabis crops. The company websites are http://smartcannabis.com and http://nextgen.farm.

Disclaimer: The Company relies upon the Safe Harbor Laws of 1933, 1934 and 1995 for all public news releases. The company may make forward-looking public statements concerning its expected future operations, performance and other developments. Such forward-looking statements are estimates that reflect the company's best judgment based upon current information. All investments involve risks and uncertainties, and there can be no assurance that other factors will not affect the accuracy of such forward-looking statements. It is impossible to identify all such factors. Factors which could cause actual results to differ materially from those estimated by the company include, but are not limited to, government regulation; managing and maintaining growth; the effect of adverse publicity; litigation; competition; and other factors which may be identified from time to time in the company's public announcements.

Contact:

Smart Cannabis Corp.

Don Smith, Vice President

[email protected]

(424) 732-7646

SOURCE Smart Cannabis Corp.

Related Links

http://www.smartcannabis.com

SINGAPORE, Feb. 27, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- SpaceChain (spacechain.com) announced today that it has joined the Enterprise Ethereum Alliance (EEA), the world's largest open-source blockchain initiative with over 250 member companies. SpaceChain joined EEA to connect with the EEA members and support the adoption of Ethereum in the enterprise.

SpaceChain co-founder Zee Zheng said: "We are very excited to become a member of Enterprise Ethereum Alliance. SpaceChain is building an open-source operation system that will enable developers to make applications by applying smart contract and blockchain sandbox designed by our CTO Jeff Garzik. We look forward to connecting with all the EEA members and discussing opportunities for collaboration."

SpaceChain is actively building the world's first open-source satellite network to enable a next-generation infrastructure for blockchain industry. This non-terrestrial, decentralized satellite network will become an alternative for data transmission, storage and application development.

The SpaceChain open-source operating system, SpaceChainOS, provides a "blockchain sandbox" that any developer can utilize for rapid development, testing, and deployment of decentralized applications.

SpaceChain will be meeting with Ron Resnick, Executive Director of Ethernet Enterprise Alliance, to discuss the details of their cooperation.

About The Enterprise Ethereum Alliance

The EEA is an industry-supported, not-for-profit established to build, promote, and broadly support Ethereum-based technology best practices, open standards and open-source reference architectures. The EEA is helping to evolve Ethereum into an enterprise-grade technology, providing research and development in a range of areas including privacy, confidentiality, scalability and security. The EEA is also investigating hybrid architectures that span both permissioned and public Ethereum networks as well as industry-specific application layer working groups.

EEA will collectively develop open industry standards and facilitate collaboration with its member base. It is also open to any members of the Ethereum community who wish to participate. This open-source framework will enable the mass adoption at a depth and breadth otherwise unachievable in individual corporate silos and provide insight to the future of scalability, privacy and confidentiality of the public Ethereum permissionless network.

For additional information about joining EEA, please reach out to [email protected].

SOURCE SpaceChain

Related Links

https://entethalliance.org/

As the opening, they held a seminar of Stargram technology with VIP guests on first segment, and continued with the second segment where Korean K-POP stars (B1A4, EXID, JBJ, Park Eugene, Kwak Dong Hyun, Optical Crew) joined the celebration of this joyful moment together.

After successfully completed the first concert of Stargram Global in 2018, KMS CEO, Mr. Kim Min Soo will continue to work hard on the development of Stargram related services in the future.

Meanwhile, on February 14, Korea Mobile Society (KMS) and Korea Microsoft (MS) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) for the development, construction and technical support of Bingo Music that connected with Stargram Platform based on Azure Media Service. To strengthen and secure the service quality of Bingo Music, Golden Group Inc. signed an MOU business agreement on February 5 and accelerated the development of Bingo Music.

SOURCE Stargram GlobalThe meeting brought together medical professionals from a wide range of disciplines to learn about recent advances in instrumentation and technology in skull base surgery, and gain knowledge in challenging skull base pathology from experienced leaders in the field.

"I had the cherished opportunity to know Steven as a patient and dear friend, and I was humbled to present this donation to NASBS in his name," said Dr. Mansfield, Director of Skull Base Surgery and Head and Neck Oncology at Senta Clinic in San Diego and Chairman of the Steven Prewitt Skull Base Disease Foundation.

Skull base surgery is a highly specialized, minimally invasive surgical technique for evaluating, diagnosing and treating benign or cancerous growths located on the underside of the brain, the base of the skull and the upper vertebrae of the spinal column.

Steven Prewitt Skull Base Disease Foundation is a multidisciplinary information repository, founded by Steven Prewitt, to advance the education, treatment and cure of skull base diseases. Patients with a head and neck disease now have a dedicated place to go for answers. As a clearinghouse for patients and doctors, The Foundation is designed to help patients on a national and international level for years to come.

ABOUT THE STEVEN PREWITT SKULL BASE DISEASE FOUNDATION

The Mission of the foundation was conceived from the realization and Steven Prewitt's personal experience that patients with a head and neck disease need one place to go to be their "personal advocate." From his experience and interactions with top medical providers treating head and neck diseases, Steven Prewitt assembled a board of directors and established the Steven Prewitt Skull Base Surgery Foundation for patients and doctors that could help thousands to millions of people both nationally and internationally over the years.

SOURCE Steven Prewitt Skull Base Disease FoundationCHICAGO, February 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Thrifting, estimated to be a $15 to $18 billion industry, continues to grow exponentially. As such, the consumer behaviors and shopping trends seen in the secondhand market are becoming increasingly more important as a predictor of what will keep this industry on its aggressive growth trajectory. As the largest online consignment and thrift shop for women, men and children carrying over 2.3 million items in inventory, Swap.com (https://www.swap.com) is uniquely positioned to see trends and shifts in consumer behavior. The following report from Swap.com (for full results: http://blog.swap.com/swap-com-quarterly-report-2017-trends/ ) reveals the brand and style trends that bolstered the secondhand industry during 2017 and hints at what's next for this dynamic marketplace.

Fastest Selling Brands

Rock Revival

Levi's

Lululemon

LulaRoe

These brands were listed on Swap.com for less than 20 days before selling.

Highest Volume Brands

Old Navy Carter's GAP Gymboree The Children's Place

To help put into perspective Swap.com's vast inventory, these five brands only comprise 14 percent of Swap.com's total annual volume.

States Buying the Most Secondhand

Vermont New Hampshire Maine District of Columbia (DC) West Virginia

The biggest increase in purchasing per capita came from eco-savvy Vermont, with a 40 percent jump in Q4 '17 over their annual average.

Best Selling Designer/Premium Brands

Ralph Lauren

Calvin Klein

Columbia Sportswear Company

Polo by Ralph Lauren

Michael Kors

The online consignment industry's biggest appeal is arguably being able to nab high-end brands for less (up to 90% off average retail). The most well-known premium brands owned this category in 2017, proving secondhand shoppers are drawn to brands they know and trust.

Fastest Selling Designer/Premium Brands

Tory Burch Ivanka Trump The North Face Diane Von Furstenberg Patagonia

Secondhand continues to be a place to get coveted brands that are either no longer available or are harder to find at retail, which could account for the #2 spot being held by the controversial Ivanka Trump brand.

About Swap.com

Swap.com is the largest online consignment shop with more than 2 million unique items. The company strives to redefine consignment services by making the process of buying and selling pre-owned goods more convenient, safe, and profitable. Offering women's, men's and children's apparel, Swap.com is a one-stop shop the whole family can enjoy.

SOURCE Swap.com

Related Links

https://www.swap.com

MCLEAN, Va., Feb. 28, 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 rebranded and unveiled a redesigned website. Since 2005, Swish has been focused on achieving high-quality outcomes for government clients by delivering optimal business and mission value to their enterprise. With this rebranding, the new www.SwishData.com highlights the company's strategic solution areas that map back to four key service pillars.

IT Modernization: Streamline IT operations with automation, orchestration, virtualization and cutting-edge data center and cloud infrastructure.

Streamline IT operations with automation, orchestration, virtualization and cutting-edge data center and cloud infrastructure. Performance Engineering: Gain insights and operational excellence to ensure high-velocity end-to-end digital operations.

Gain insights and operational excellence to ensure high-velocity end-to-end digital operations. Cyber Security: Architect and automate security solutions that tackle the toughest cyber missions.

Architect and automate security solutions that tackle the toughest cyber missions. Managed Services: Turnkey managed services with industry certified professionals using cutting edge technology and proven ITIL best practices.

"Our goal is not to add technology that incrementally improves our client's environment, but to deliver solutions whose innovations work together to magnify their collective capabilities in support of our client's mission outcomes," said Monty Deel, President and CEO of Swish.

The redesigned Swish logo and website showcases a fresh look for the company and utilizes a responsive and easy-to-navigate design. Website visitors will also find a grown dedication to educational content, including solution briefs, white papers, and blog posts, geared at educating our government clients on the latest technology in the industry and generating discussion about trends and new ideas.

Visit www.SwishData.com to begin exploring Swish's redefined service categories and stay up to date on hot topics by becoming a regular reader of the Swish blog. You can also connect with Swish on Twitter and LinkedIn.

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: [email protected]

Related Links

Company Website

SOURCE Swish

Related Links

http://www.SwishData.com

LONDON, Feb. 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Friends of Kayany, a U.S. public charity, is delighted to partner with Christie's and Kayany Foundation on a selection of special lots by stellar Middle Eastern and international artists to be auctioned to raise funds for the education and support of Syrian refugee children in Lebanon.

Syri-Arts: Saving a Generation Through Education

Yinka Shonibare MBE (b.1962), Girl Balancing Knowledge, 2015, Fibreglass mannequin, Dutch wax cotton textile, books, globe and steel baseplate, 179 x 139 x 89cm. Image courtesy of Christie's.

Artists include Antony Gormley, David Altmejd, David Hockney, Ed Ruscha, Etel Adnan, Frank Stella, Gerhard Richter, Jenny Holzer, Mona Hatoum, Oscar Murillo, Peter Lindbergh, Phyllida Barlow and Yinka Shonibare

"It really is a pleasure for me to contribute to this cause. It truly touches me. It's so important." - David Altmejd

The devastating conflict in Syria has led to one of the greatest refugee crises of our time, with neighbouring Lebanon taking in more refugees per capita than any other country in the world. One in every four people in Lebanon is a refugee, and of these, 250,000 children are not attending school. Friends of Kayany partners with Kayany Foundation, a Lebanese nonprofit founded by Nora Joumblatt in 2013, that built and operates seven schools serving more than 3,500 Syrian refugee children living in Informal Tented Settlements. Kayany Foundation provides education, nutritional support and clothing to some of the most vulnerable children in the world. Friends of Kayany is proud to support its work. We can save a generation through education.

The Post-War and Contemporary Art Day Auction on March 7, 2018, Saving a Generation through Education, hopes to raise funds for the operation and building of more schools by Kayany. The sale features a selection of remarkable works generously donated by some of the biggest names in contemporary art, including Antony Gormley, David Altmejd, David Hockney, Ed Ruscha, Esther Klas, Etel Adnan, Frank Stella, Gerhard Richter, Harold Ancart, Henry Taylor, Huguette Caland, Idris Khan, Jaume Plensa, Jenny Holzer, Larry Bell, Marwan, Mona Hatoum, Nabil Nahas, Oscar Murillo, Peter Lindbergh, Phyllida Barlow, Richard Mosse, Rudolf Stingel, Tony Cragg, Rashid Johnson, Secundino Hernandez and Yinka Shonibare, amongst others.

Says Friends of Kayany co-founder Wassim Rasamny: "Partnering with Christie's has been a wonderful collaboration. When we first approached them with our idea for an auction to benefit the Syrian children refugees, they at once understood and believed in our vision and mission. The artists and galleries who generously donated works to our auction have been extremely thoughtful in their choices. We received myriad genres, from esteemed international artists who, together, illustrate a beautiful, almost poetic, story of struggle, beauty, despair, hope and resilience, ultimately mirroring the very struggles, hope and resilience embodied by these refugee children."

Friends of Kayany is supported by a steering committee of celebrated international figures, including Alec Baldwin, Nicolas Berggruen, Albert Boghossian, Renee Fleming, Sir Elton John and David Furnish, Yoko Ono Lennon, Lord and Lady Rogers, Lord and Lady Palumbo, Yinka Shonibare, Trudie Styler, Christopher Tsai and Ai Weiwei. KAYANY'S first auction, held in 2013, raised enough funds to build and administer seven much-needed schools in Lebanon's Bekaa Valley. The proceeds from its second auction, Saving a Generation through Education, will go towards expanding these activities and supporting the construction of new schools.

Please find a link to download high-res images of selected lots: https://we.tl/Hqya3Mfa2M

To view the full catalogue, please click here: Syri-Arts Catalogue

For more information, contact Wassim Rasamny: [email protected] or + 33 6 32 55 00 09

Notes to Editors:

Works sold to benefit Friends of Kayany will be offered in the following auctions:

Post-War and Contemporary Art Day Auction: Wednesday, March 7, 2018, 1 p.m.

Viewing: March 2-7, 2018

First Open: April 9-17, 2018

Viewing: April 6-17, 2018

Lalique: May 15, 2018, 2:30 p.m.

Photographs: May 17, 2018, 12 p.m.

All auctions at Christie's, 8 King Street London SW1Y 6QT

About Friends of Kayany and Kayany Foundation

The Syrian War is now in its seventh year and has forced millions from their homes and into exile. The speed and scale of the Syrian catastrophe has forced these refugees into crushing poverty. Syrian refugee children suffer the most serious harm, from the painful scars of physical and psychological trauma to the lifelong disadvantage of receiving no education. They are becoming a lost generation. Friends of Kayany is a U.S. public charity that supports the schools built and operated by KAYANY Foundation, a Lebanese NGO. The two organisations share the same charitable mission of educating refugee children in a safe and supportive environment. KAYANY Foundation has a proven track record of providing refugee children with the quality education they deserve.

For more information, visit www.syri-arts.org.

About Christie's

Christie's, the world's leading art business, had global auction, private and digital sales in 2016 that totalled 4 billion/$5.4 billion. Christie's is a name and place that speaks of extraordinary art, unparalleled service and expertise, as well as international glamour. Christie's offers around 350 auctions annually in over 80 categories, including all areas of fine and decorative arts, jewellery, photographs, collectibles, wine and more. Prices range from $200 to over $100 million. Christie's also has a long and successful history conducting private sales for its clients in all categories, with emphasis on Post-War & Contemporary, Impressionist & Modern, Old Masters and Jewellery. Christie's has a global presence in 46 countries, with 10 salerooms around the world including in London, New York, Paris, Geneva, Milan, Amsterdam, Dubai, Zurich, Hong Kong and Shanghai.

For more information, visit www.christies.com.

Pre-auction Cocktail: 6:30 p.m., March 2, 2018

Auction: 1 p.m., March 7, 2018

Related Files

Syri-Arts and Christie's Auction PRESS RELEASE.pdf

Related Images

girl-balancing-knowledge-2015.jpg

Girl Balancing Knowledge, 2015

Yinka Shonibare MBE (b.1962), Girl Balancing Knowledge, 2015, Fibreglass mannequin, Dutch wax cotton textile, books, globe and steel baseplate, 179 x 139 x 89cm. Image courtesy of Christie's.

bekaa-valley-lebanon.jpg

Bekaa Valley, Lebanon

Richard Mosse (b.1980), Bekaa Valley, Lebanon, Executed in 2017, Digital c-print on metallic paper, in artist's frame 66 x 157.5 cm. This work is number 1 from an edition of 5 plus 2 artist's proofs. Photo credit: Richard Mosse. Donated by the artist, Courtesy Jack Shainman Gallery, New York.

still-life-in-red-interior-2015.jpg

Still Life in Red Interior, 2015

Farah Atassi (b.1981), Still Life in Red Interior, 2015, Oil & glycero on canvas, 185 x 140 cm. Donated by the artist.

Related Links

Christie's Catalogue

The Auction Catalogue

SOURCE Friends of KayanySEATTLE, Feb. 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Telmediq, the #1 KLAS rated vendor for secure communication platforms in healthcare, launches new call center console within its platform at HIMSS18. The new console allows call center agents and operators within a healthcare system's call center to handle inbound calls and access to critical information from clinical and IT systems in real-time using a single unified interface.

Using the new functionality, call center agents can join virtual queues from any location to service inbound patient and clinician calls, and instantly contact clinicians using Telmediq's secure texting platform and unified clinical directories. Rapid access to patient data is also enabled using a seamless integration with leading EMR systems such as Epic, Cerner, and Meditech.

"Hospitals continually struggle to get their legacy CTI-based call center technology properly integrated with their directory, scheduling solutions, patient records and texting solutions. This creates a lot of inefficient work arounds by call center staff and IT," said Ben Moore, CEO and Founder of Telmediq. "The key to improving communication in hospitals is removing those silos and connecting all communication channels. That's what we do."

Barry Runion of Gartner Research, recently wrote, "Clinical communication and collaboration, interactive patient care, and alarms and notification systems have actively begun to assume nurse call responsibilities. Soon contact/call centers will begin to participate directly in this new care team collaboration IT ecosystem," in his Innovation Insight for Care Team Collaboration report.

Telmediq is the first company to include a full call center capability with a unified communications platform in healthcare using a cloud delivery model. Historically, on premise call center software would need to be integrated with third-party paging or texting solutions, but Telmediq brings all of the mobile communications into a single platform.

The new call center console also enables hospitals to easily record operators and produce detailed reporting to promote higher levels of call service. Analytics are built into the system to measure call types and message flow to better deploy staffing resources over time.

"Our goal is to help hospitals move the call center towards a patient engagement center by reducing the number of administrative calls received. This will allow call center staff to focus on more proactive patient engagement activities," said Moore.

Telmediq plans to add a patient texting module to the platform later this year so call center operators will be able to service both phone calls and inbound secure text messages from patients and route them accordingly, within the healthcare system.

"Every other industry has evolved towards multi-channel call center strategies except for healthcare," said Moore. "Patients should have better access options for real-time communication with their healthcare providers. We're working with our healthcare customers to make that happen."

About Telmediq

Telmediq is KLAS' #1 vendor for secure communication platforms in 2018. Telmediq provides a unified clinical communication platform to large hospital systems and acute-care facilities that integrates with more than 20 clinical systems (EHR, scheduling, lab, nurse call). Telmediq provides an integration and consolidation roadmap to reduce software and support costs, improve workflows and provide a single source for analytics, auditing and reporting. Our clients reduce patient wait times, improve patient handover times and improve physicians' work environment.

SOURCE Telmediq

Related Links

https://www.telmediq.com/

Uri Hasson, a psychology professor at Princeton, has studied how stories entrance and command the brain, as it shows up on fMRIs. To be under the control of even an anodyne tale is to be at its mercy. To be bombarded with brutal stimuli, including images of terrified kids and blood, as well as the infuriating suggestion that youre being conned, is to be psychically roughed up.

The Hogg video had that kind of effect. As it climbed YouTubes trending chart, it felt as though everyone were watching it. It was enraging if you fell for it, and enraging if you didnt. In the heat of the moment, anyway, the question isnt whether anyone believes the disinformation, as if it were a logical proposition. The question is whether we thrill to it. It seems we do.

Politically themed porn  trolling, conspiracy theories, propaganda  stokes our chronic political arousal. Why do we keep turning to it? Because we are terminally uncomfortable, unable to tolerate both the confusion of our times and, harder still, the silence of grieving.

But the Parkland students are undaunted by the disinformation surrounding the massacre. Off the blocks, they documented their experience, dismantled weasel words like thoughts and prayers, and determined not to let ideologues rewrite history. Every bit as powerful as their push for gun control is their intolerance of lies: #WeCallBS.

Virginia Heffernan is a contributing editor at POLITICO, a cohost of Slates Trumpcast podcast, and a columnist at FastCompany. She wrote this for The Los Angeles Times.PHILADELPHIA, Feb. 27, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- The Clay Studio today unveiled plans outlining a major move and expansion for the nationally known ceramics organization, with a focal point on the development of a new facility in Philadelphia's South Kensington neighborhood. The relocation of The Clay Studio, scheduled for completion in fall 2020 with a groundbreaking in fall 2018, will allow the organization to expand by more than 67 percent in terms of both services and space.

Design for new Clay Studio facility by Digsau design

"For more than 40 years, The Clay Studio has been a vital center where emerging artists shape their careers and young minds can shape their imaginations, where skilled crafters shape communities of makers and where handmade works of art quite literally take shape," said Michael Lukasek, chairman, The Clay Studio Board of Directors. "And now, we are shaping a new movement, building upon our rich tradition of service and re-affirming our vision to bring together creativity, community and clay  to 'ClayTogether'  and lead as a 21st-century organization."

The new Clay Studio, located at 1425 North American Street in Kensington, will house the most technologically advanced art-making equipment, larger studio spaces and more income-generating opportunities for the organization. When complete, the studio will serve as a creative space for community members, enhance the cultural landscape of Philadelphia and advance the field of ceramics across the country.

Designed by Philadelphia-based architect firm Digsau, the new studio space will feature an open and streamlined build. Creative mixed-use spaces will enhance workflow, increase energy efficiencies, improve accessibility and reduce operating costs. The completion of The Clay Studio's new home will signal record growth for the organization, including:

27 percent growth in resident artist studio space

88 percent more kiln capacity

108 percent growth in designated Claymobile studio space

193 percent more dedicated classroom space

The new studio will also build on the exciting momentum in South Kensington  an area that is shaping its own significant transformation. "South Kensington and the American Street Corridor are in the midst of a renaissance," continued Lukasek. "The community has attracted dozens of creative businesses, arts nonprofits and is ripe for future investment. Completion of this project will enhance the cultural landscape of Philadelphia, bolster revitalization, actively engage with the Kensington neighborhood and serve as a national center for ceramic arts." Serving as a hub for building community and public access, the new Clay Studio will offer:

Expanded classroom and workshop space for art-making

Dedicated spaces for youth programs and arts engagement

Communal workspaces to engage artists of all skill levels

New dynamic exhibition space to experience art and instillations

Improved access for school groups, clay campers and after-school programs

New retail space offering handmade artwork and clay-making supplies

In addition to programmatic improvements, the new studio will feature innovative updates to allow for more streamlined and efficient operations. Improvements to studio operations will include:

New loading dock area for improved shipping

Flexible public space for events, meetings, lectures and rentals

Updated energy-efficient equipment

Enhanced accessibility features including ADA capabilities

Updated data and technology features

Empowering The Clay Studio to expand upon their mission to create a unique learning environment to experience ceramic arts, the organization has received three significant grants from The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage, the William Penn Foundation and the Windgate Charitable Foundation. In 2017, The Clay Studio was awarded a project grant from Pew for their "Making Place Matter" program and a Creative Communities Grant from the William Penn Foundation for their "Maker Days Project." Both projects are specifically aimed at connecting the Kensington neighborhood with their relocation plans. Through "Making Place Matter," The Clay Studio will engage community members in South Kensington to develop an exhibition plan for an inaugural project in the organization's new facility. With the "Maker Days Project," the studio will hold a series of eight community workshops where participants can craft ceramic pieces that will be used at a culminating community dinner in the fall of 2018.

Additionally, in spring 2017, the Windgate Charitable Foundation extended a motivating challenge to The Clay Studio in support of their efforts to advance and expand their services. The foundation, a national organization dedicated to supporting institutions that provide educational programs in the visual arts and fine craft, challenged The Clay Studio to raise $1 million for relocation efforts by Jan.1, 2018  to which The Clay Studio successfully responded. The Windgate Foundation has now awarded $500,000 to the organization, allowing them to advance their expansion plans.

These generous gifts underscore the studio's national reputation for cultivating artists, supporting the arts, bolstering the community and shaping youth. Although the grants cement the foundation for the expansion and relocation of The Clay Studio, the organization must secure additional funding for the development of their new facility. The "ClayTogether" capital campaign, currently underway, aims to raise an additional $2.5 million in funding to complete the development of their new home and expand their programming capabilities.

For further information about The Clay Studio's "ClayTogether" capital campaign, relocation and expansion plans, and current studio initiatives, visit their newly revamped website  theclaystudio.org. Follow The Clay Studio on Facebook: @theclaystudio.phl; Twitter: @TheClayStudio; and Instagram: @theclaystudiophl.

Media Contact:

Crystal Hayes Casazza

[email protected]

215.867.8060

Related Images

shaping-a-movement.jpg

Shaping A Movement

the-new-clay-studio.jpg

The New Clay Studio

Design for new Clay Studio facility by Digsau design

Related Links

The Clay Studio

Shaping A Movement

SOURCE The Clay Studio

Related Links

https://www.theclaystudio.org/

NEW YORK, Feb. 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Read the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p05343316







Report Details

The latest report from business intelligence provider Visiongain offers comprehensive analysis of the global Big Data in Aerospace & Defence market. Visiongain assesses that this market will generate revenues of $2.97 billion in 2018.



Now: There has been recent news about the UK government extending its assistance to Japan in the wake of growing threat in the Korean peninsula. The collaboration will be on many fronts, one of which is on big data intelligence and analytics sharing.



This is an example of the business-critical headline that you need to know about - and more importantly, you need to read Visiongain's objective analysis of how this will impact your company and the industry more broadly. How are you and your company reacting to this news? Are you sufficiently informed?



How this report will benefit you

Read on to discover how you can exploit the future business opportunities emerging in this sector. Visiongain's new study tells you and tells you NOW.

In this brand new report you find 324 in-depth tables, charts and graphs all unavailable elsewhere.



The 302-page report provides clear detailed insight into the global Big Data in Aerospace & Defence market. Discover the key drivers and challenges affecting the market.



By ordering and reading our brand-new report today you stay better informed and ready to act.



Report Scope

 Profiles And Market Share Of The Leading 10 Companies Involved With Big Data In Aerospace & Defence

 Cloudera, Inc (Cloudera)

 Hewlett Packard Enterprise Company (HPE)

 Hitachi, Ltd.

 International Business Machines Corp. (IBM)

 Microsoft Corporation

 Oracle Corporation

 Palantir Technologies

 SAP SE

 SAS Institute Inc.

 Teradata

 Global Big Data in Aerospace & Defence Market Forecasts From 2018-2028

 Regional Big Data In Aerospace & Defence Market Forecasts From 2018-2028 Covering

 APAC Big Data In Aerospace & Defence Market 2018-2028

 China Big Data In Aerospace & Defence Market 2018-2028

 Japan Big Data In Aerospace & Defence Market 2018-2028

 Rest Of APAC Big Data In Aerospace & Defence Market 2018-2028

 Europe Big Data In Aerospace & Defence Market 2018-2028

 UK Big Data In Aerospace & Defence Market 2018-2028

 Germany Big Data In Aerospace & Defence Market 2018-2028

 Rest Of Europe Big Data In Aerospace & Defence Market 2018-2028

 North America Big Data In Aerospace & Defence Market 2018-2028

 US Big Data In Aerospace & Defence Market 2018-2028

 Canada Big Data In Aerospace & Defence Market 2018-2028

 Rest Of North America Big Data In Aerospace & Defence Market 2018-2028

 Rest Of The World Big Data In Aerospace & Defence Market 2018-2028

 MEA Big Data In Aerospace & Defence Market 2018-2028

 Brazil Big Data In Aerospace & Defence Market 2018-2028

 Other Countries Big Data In Aerospace & Defence Market 2018-2028



 Big Data In Aerospace & Defence Submarket Forecasts From 2018-2028 By Type

 Structured Big Data In Aerospace & Defence Market 2018-2028

 Semi-Structured Big Data In Aerospace & Defence Market 2018-2028

 Unstructured Big Data In Aerospace & Defence Market 2018-2028



 Big Data In Aerospace & Defence Submarket Forecasts From 2018-2028 By Deployment Mode

 On-Premises Big Data In Aerospace & Defence Market 2018-2028

 On-Demand Big Data In Aerospace & Defence Market 2018-2028



 Big Data In Aerospace & Defence Submarket Forecasts From 2018-2028 By Offering

 Big Data Analytics In Aerospace & Defence Market 2018-2028

 Data Discovery In Aerospace & Defence Market 2018-2028

 Data Management In Aerospace & Defence Market 2018-2028

 Systems Integration In Aerospace & Defence Market 2018-2028

 Others In Aerospace & Defence Market 2018-2028



 Big Data In Aerospace & Defence Submarket Forecasts From 2018-2028 By Application

 Defence Big Data Market 2018-2028

 Commercial Aerospace Big Data Market 2018-2028

 Space Big Data Market 2018-2028



 Analysis Of The Key Factors Driving Growth In The Global, Regional And Country Level Big Data In Aerospace & Defence Markets From 2018-2028



How will you benefit from this report?

 Keep your knowledge base up to speed. Don't get left behind

 Reinforce your strategic decision-making with definitive and reliable market data

 Learn how to exploit new technological trends

 Realise your company's full potential within the market

 Understand the competitive landscape and identify potential new business opportunities & partnerships



Who should read this report?

 Defence contractors

 Aviation & aerospace manufacturers

 IT hardware companies

 Software developers

 Analytics vendors

 IT infrastructure specialists

 Telecom network companies

 Venture capitalists

 Investment analysts

 Market analysts

 Consultants

 Technology investors

 Economists

 Defence technology associations

 Product managers

 Sales teams

 Procurement teams

 Business development managers

 Marketing managers

 Technologists

 Suppliers

 Investors

 Hedge funds

 Banks

 Government agencies



Visiongain's study is intended for anyone requiring commercial analyses for the Big Data in Aerospace & Defence market and leading companies. You find data, trends and predictions.



Read the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p05343316



About Reportlinker

ReportLinker is an award-winning market research solution. Reportlinker finds and organizes the latest industry data so you get all the market research you need - instantly, in one place.



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SOURCE Reportlinker

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NEW YORK, Feb. 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- The Kinetix Group will be joining prominent healthcare thought leaders as a Silver Exhibitor at the AMGA 2018 Annual Conference from March 7th  March 10th, which includes representation from Academic/Faculty Practices, Group Practices, ACOs, and many more healthcare organizations.

In conjunction with the conference, TKG will also be hosting a welcome reception the evening of March 8th and a Health Systems Insights Advisory Panel on March 9th, which will feature key insights from the company's health system advisor network. Healthcare industry professionals interested in these events should contact William Owen at [email protected].

TKG has also been recognized by the American Medical Group Association (AMGA) as a Premier Corporate Partner for its support of the AMGA's mission to promote patient-centered, value-driven health care. As both a life sciences marketing agency and health systems and payer consultancy, TKG has a unique understanding of the shared priorities across the industry, making the company a trailblazer for collaboration in networks such as the AMGA.

For details on the AMGA 2018 Annual Conference and to register to attend, click here. For more information on The Kinetix Group, visit thekinetixgroup.com.

SOURCE The Kinetix Group

Related Links

http://thekinetixgroup.com

NEW YORK, Feb. 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Trusted Media Brands, TrustedMediaBrands, a leader in brand-driven multi-platform media content, and home to iconic brands such as Taste of Home, Reader's Digest, and The Family Handyman among others, today announced the appointment of highly respected digital media industry veteran Greg Coleman to the company's Board of Directors.



Coleman is currently Senior Advisor and Board Member of Buzzfeed Japan. He had been the company's President until late last year when he moved into his current role with the organization.

His extensive background in media includes serving as President of Criteo, a global advertising technology and software company. Coleman has also held executive positions in many of the world's most influential technology companies including serving as the president and Chief Revenue Officer at the Huffington Post and the EVP of global sales at Yahoo. Coleman also as served as President of Platform-A at AOL.

Coleman was previously with the predecessor company of Trusted Media Brands as a senior vice president of Reader's Digest Association and president of U.S. Magazine Publishing, and at CBS, Inc., where he spent 10 years leading advertising efforts for Woman's Day as vice president and national sales manager.

"We are thrilled to have someone with Greg's incredible experience and knowledge in helping multi-channel media companies build on their growth and expansion join our Board," says Bonnie Kintzer, President and CEO, Trusted Media Brands. "We have had tremendous success in the past year growing our business across digital and social media platforms, and his insights will be extremely valuable as we look to further accelerate that expansion moving forward."

Kintzer notes that according to comScore, the Trusted Media Brands Digital network is among the top 30 out of over 2,000 digital lifestyle networks. Across its digital network the company reached 62.7 million UVs in December, a 20.4 percent increase from the same period last year, and added over 10 million within that timeframe.

In addition, Tasteofhome.com reached a record 19.8 million unique visitors (UVs) in December, a 55.1 percent increase from the same period in 2016 and the digital destinations for The Family Handyman and Reader's Digest saw strong year-over-year growth with Familyhandyman.com increasing its UVs by 34.7 percent and RD.com increasing its UVs by 34.2 percent. Additionally, Reader's Digest is now among the top ten magazine brands reaching an average audience of 19 million according to the latest Magazine Media 360 report.

"Bonnie and her team have created a new model for the media industry built on great brands and trusted content that is both desired and valued by the consumer," says Coleman. "I'm excited to join the Trusted Media Brands Board as the company further expands its dynamic growth across new platforms."

He holds a B.S. degree in business administration from Georgetown University and attended the M.B.A. program at New York University. Coleman is also an adjunct professor at NYU Stern School of Business teaching a class on Digital Media Innovation.

About Trusted Media Brands

Trusted Media Brands is a visionary, brand-driven multiplatform media company, home to iconic brands like Taste of Home, the world's largest circulation food media brand; Reader's Digest; The Family Handyman, America's leading source for DIY; a suite of highly-targeted brands including Birds & Blooms, Country, Country Woman, Farm & Ranch Living and Reminisce; and digital properties which include the Taste Community and Haven Home Media.

Trusted Media Brands reaches active consumers who genuinely connect with our blend of uplifting and enduring expertly-curated family, food, health, home improvement, finance and humor content  digitally, via social media, magazines and books, and events and experiences. Founded in 1922 by DeWitt Wallace as The Reader's Digest Association, one of the first user-generated content publishers, Trusted Media Brands is headquartered in New York City. For more information, TrustedMediaBrands

Media Contacts:

Patrick Taylor, Sr. Communications Advisor, 917/653-4785; [email protected]

Dana Casalino, [email protected]

SOURCE Trusted Media BrandsTROY, Mich., Feb. 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- United Wholesale Mortgage (UWM) announced that it is now exclusively offering Conventional High Balance loans nationwide, making a more cost-effective loan product available to borrowers in counties and states that previously did not have access to high-balance loans.

"The roll-out of High Balance Nationwide opens up a huge business opportunity for mortgage brokers throughout America," said Mat Ishbia, President and CEO of United Wholesale Mortgage. "This is a win-win for consumers and our mortgage broker network, and we are excited for this product to make a big difference to our broker partners and many of their consumers in 2018 and beyond."

Currently, only 7% of U.S. counties (220 out of 3,234) have access to loan amounts over $453,100, through FHFA Conforming loan limits, and up to $679,650. If a home does not reside in one of those 220 counties, the only program option is a true Jumbo loan. Jumbo loans notoriously come with higher fees, tedious guideline requirements and stringent overlays.

UWM is solving this problem by offering its broker network a Conventional High Balance loan program in 100% of U.S. counties. This program gives consumers access to a $679,650 loan amount, great rates, a streamlined underwriting process, and the accessibility of a $849,570 purchase price with a 20% down payment.

Highlights of the High-Balance Nationwide include:

680 Minimum FICO

43% Debt to Income

80% LTV

Primary and Second Homes

Lower rates, more flexible guidelines and fewer requirements than Jumbo

Fast turn times, averaging 15 days or less from submission to closing

"Jumbo loans are very competitive in our area, and we are in a county that High Balance is not available, so often we lose business to big banks as a result," said Brodie Calder, President of Beam Lending in Layton, Utah. "Now we are able to offer a fast and easy competitive loan with a great rate that will not only be beneficial to growing our business, but it will also be a better loan option for our clients."

This product is another example of UWM's continued commitment to offer its network of mortgage brokers access to exclusive programs and products to grow their business. It comes less than three weeks after UWM announced that it lowered its minimum FICO requirements for Elite FHA and VA to 640, and down to 620 for all other FHA and VA loans. Additionally, UWM announced last week that it had made virtual e-closing capability available on all Conventional Purchases and Refinances in 16 states.

To learn more about UWM's Conventional High Balance Nationwide product, visit www.UWM.com.

About United Wholesale Mortgage

Headquartered in Troy, Michigan, United Wholesale Mortgage (UWM) is the #1 wholesale lender in the nation three years in a row, providing state-of-the-art technology and unrivaled client service, from the industry's leading account executives. Operating under parent company United Shore, UWM is known for its highly efficient, accurate and expeditious lending support, UWM underwrites and provides closing documentation for residential mortgage loans originated by independent mortgage brokers, correspondents, small banks and local credit unions. UWM's exceptional teamwork and laser-like focus on delivering innovative mortgage solutions are driving the company's ongoing growth and its leadership position as the foremost advocate for mortgage brokers. For more information, visit www.uwm.com or call 800-981-8898. NMLS #3038.

MEDIA CONTACT:

BRAD PETTIFORD, Communication Strategist

[email protected] p (248) 833-5000, ext. 3160 | c (419) 509-9338

1414 East Maple Road, Troy, Michigan 48083

UWM.com

SOURCE United Wholesale Mortgage

Related Links

http://www.UWM.com

Not when so little funding is allocated for mental health screenings, and when those screenings are themselves often imprecise.

Not when a 22-year-old law, courtesy of the pro-gun lobby, effectively prohibits the federal government from conducting any research that might point to gun control of any kind.

And, certainly not when so many Americans are convinced that they need guns like the AR15 to protect themselves from foreign invasion, the so-called "Deep State" or, as is more often the case these days, other Americans with guns.

What we need is a collective gut check. What have we become as a people? How did we get to this terrible point in our history? And how much more of this are we willing to absorb before enough is enough?

No gun, including the AR-15, can kill without someone first resting his finger on the trigger and squeezing. It is a vital that we begin to better understand how that finger ends up on that trigger before the inevitable next slaughter.

James Huberty wanted some sort of last word in San Ysidro. They all do. We don't need to stand by and grant that.

Society still has a chance to get to the root of this rage we have allowed to fester. We owe it to those we have lost to try.

David Freed, a screenwriter, novelist and former reporter for the Los Angeles Times, lives in Santa Barbara. He wrote this for the Sacramento Bee.According to the market research report on "Vessel Traffic Management Market by Component (Equipment, Solution, Service), Investment (Brownfield, Greenfield), Systems (PMIS, RIS, GMDSS, Aton Management & Health Monitoring Systems), End User (Commercial, Defense), Component, Region - Global Forecast to 2023" , published by MarketsandMarkets, the market is estimated at USD 2.87 Billion in 2018 and is projected to reach USD 4.12 Billion by 2023, at a CAGR of 7.50% from 2018 to 2023. Increasing demand for Internet of Things (IoT), e-navigation, and artificial intelligence drones are some of the key technologies expected to drive the vessel traffic management market.

(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160303/792302 )



Browse 251 tables and 51 figures spread through 248 pages and in-depth TOC on "Vessel Traffic Management Market - Global Forecast to 2023"

https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Market-Reports/vessel-traffic-management-market-226816165.html

Early buyers will receive 10% customization on this report

Based on system, the River Information Systems (RIS) segment of the market is projected to grow at the highest CAGR during the forecast period

The River Information Systems (RIS) segment is projected to be the fastest-growing application segment during the forecast period. The growth of this segment can be attributed to the rise in interconnected mode of transport.

Based on end user, the commercial segment of the vessel traffic management market is estimated to account for the largest market share during the forecast period

Based on end user, the commercial segment is estimated to account for the largest market share during the forecast period. This growth can be attributed to the increasing security in ports & harbors, inland waterways, and offshore platforms.

Based on investment, the brownfield segment of the market is projected to grow at the highest CAGR from 2018 to 2023

Based on investment, the brownfield segment of the market is projected to grow at the highest CAGR during the forecast period. Increase in port expansions along with the installation of high security VTM equipment, rise in vessel congestion, and saturation of existing ports across the world is also projected to drive the brownfield segment.

Download PDF Brochure : https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/pdfdownload.asp?id=226816165

Based on component, the solutions segment of the vessel traffic management market is projected to grow at the highest CAGR from 2018 to 2023

Based on component, the solutions segment of the vessel traffic management market is projected to grow at the highest CAGR during the forecast period. This growth can be attributed to the adoption of technologies, such as GNSS, artificial intelligence, cloud computing, big data analytics, and e-navigation.

Surveillance & monitoring in the equipment subsegment of the vessel traffic management market is projected to grow at the highest CAGR from 2018 to 2023

Surveillance & monitoring in the equipment subsegment of the vessel traffic management market is projected to grow at the highest CAGR during the forecast period. Rise in illegal immigration and terrorist activities are driving the need for VTM surveillance & monitoring equipment, such as CCTV surveillance cameras, sensors, and Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs).

Asia Pacific is expected to be the fastest-growing vessel traffic management market during the forecast period

Asia Pacific is expected to be the fastest-growing vessel traffic management market during the forecast period, which can be attributed to increasing port expansions, new port construction, and rise in government involvement towards coastal & port security. Moreover, high investments for the development of inland waterways to promote the interconnected mode of transport are also leading to the growth of the market.

Inquiry Before Buy @ https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Enquiry_Before_Buying.asp?id=226816165

Major companies across the globe providing vessel traffic management equipment are Kongsberg (Norway), L3 Communication (US), Transas (Ireland), Saab AB (Sweden), Thales (France), Rolta India (India), Japan Radio Co. Ltd. (Japan), Frequentis (Austria), TERMA (Denmark), Tokyo Keiki Inc. (Japan), Indra (Spain) Leonardo Finmeccanica (Italy), and Kelvin Hughes (UK).

These key players offer various vessel traffic management systems, including VHF communication systems, Automatic Identification Systems (AIS) receivers and base stations, e-navigation charts, routing monitors, UAVs, and multi tracking sensors, among others. New product developments, partnerships, and contracts are the major strategies adopted by these players to retain their positions in the vessel traffic management market.

Browse Related Reports

Coastal Surveillance Market by Application (C2, Communication, Computers, Intelligence, Surveillance & Reconnaissance, and Electronic Warfare), End Use (Naval, Coast Guard), Structure (National, Regional, and Port), Scale - Global Forecast to 2021

https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Market-Reports/coastal-surveillance-market-89731714.html

Automatic Identification System Market by Class (Class A, Class B, & AIS Base Stations), Platform (Vessel-Based, and Onshore-Based), Application (Fleet Management, Vessels Tracking, Maritime Security, Other Applications), and Geography - Global Forecasts & Analysis (2014-2020)

https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Market-Reports/automatic-identification-system-market-138357200.html

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SOURCE MarketsandMarketsBOSTON, Feb. 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- The VHL Alliance today announced the winner of its VHL Mobile App Challenge. Nearly two dozen teams from some of the top Universities in the US submitted entries. The result is a modern and user-friendly app that provides a resource for patients, caregivers, and health care professionals to better manage care of von Hippel-Lindau (VHL), a genetic cancer condition.

"The VHL Alliance seeks to find a Cure for Cancer through advancing research into VHL and its manifestations. Taking our knowledge and putting it into action by educating patients, caregivers, and physicians is key to meeting our mission. The VHLApp is meant to complement our website, conferences, discussion calls, and other resources that seek to make living, managing, and thriving with VHL easier to do," says VHLA Executive Director, Dr. Ilene Sussman.

The app is available today for free on iOS and on the Android platform in the future. The contest winner and developer is Cody Craig from The Ohio State University. Craig, a computer science and engineering student from an agricultural family in Ohio, hopes that "patients from all over the world will be able to benefit from it." In recognition of his excellent work, Craig will receive a one-time grant of $5,000, funded by an anonymous donor. On Craig's achievement, Dr. Sussman said "we are extremely impressed and appreciative of the high quality work that all of the participants submitted. He should be extremely proud of his achievement and we wish him great success as he pursues a career in agricultural technology."

About the VHL Alliance

The VHL Alliance (VHLA) is the preeminent resource and clearinghouse for those affected by von Hippel Lindau disease, including patients, caregivers, researchers, and the medical community. VHLA is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization founded in 1993, which is dedicated to research, education, and support to improve awareness, diagnosis, treatment, and quality of life for those affected by VHL. VHLA is the leading funder of VHL research with over $1.7 million granted to support studies designed to find a cure. The VHL Alliance's vision is Curing Cancer through VHL.

For more information about the VHL Alliance, please visit vhl.org.

For media inquiries and interviews, please contact Heidi Leone., Director of Advancement at 617.277.5667 x 4 or [email protected].

SOURCE VHL Alliance

Related Links

http://vhl.org

GUANGZHOU, China, Feb. 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- "As mobile payment is increasingly welcomed by mainland Chinese outbound tourists, WeChat Pay plans to constantly invest in its cross-border business, with the aim of duplicating the domestic WeChat lifestyle overseas," Grace Yin, WeChat Pay Director for Overseas Operation today commented on the latest white paper issued by Nielsen, a global leading information and measurement company.

The white paper named "Outbound Chinese Tourism and Consumption Trend: 2017 Survey" found that over 90% Chinese tourists would use mobile payment overseas given the option. 83% of Chinese tourists would ask whether or not the local merchants support mobile payment while abroad; only 17% of Chinese tourists would not ask. Some Chinese respondents even expressed that when paying overseas, they will subconsciously take out the cell phone, and open the mobile payment page, according to the white paper.

According to the Nielsen survey, Chinese tourists expressed "convenience and speed, and familiarity" (64%) as the primary reason for using mobile payment while abroad. Among other reasons, respondents also chose "feeling proud of Chinese mobile payment brands" (48%), "favorable exchange rate" (43%) and "discounts or promotions" (36%) for choosing mobile payment as the method of payment. The younger generations used mobile payment more frequently: for the post-90s generation, 3.3 out of 10 payments were via mobile; but for the post-70s generation, 2.3 were via mobile.

What the most overseas merchants lack is not a payment tool, according the WeChat Pay, who said existing payment method would suffice in terms of handling transaction. "What local merchants really need is social interaction, a lasting communication channel to connect with the shoppers which allows future promotion and communication."

The cross-border payment solution offered by WeChat Pay helps merchants across the world draw Chinese travelers into their shops and serve as a lasting link to its 800 million users. Chinese tourists can make payment to the merchants in Chinese yuan, while enabling the merchants to receive the payment in their local currency, saving them the trouble of exchanging currencies and saddling the shopper with a small-denomination banknotes and coins in an unfamiliar currency. Even after they leave the shop, shoppers can still get promotion and after sales service through WeChat.

As one of the most frequently used apps in China, WeChat is most likely to be the first app to open when travelers land the destination. "Over 70% of the mobile internet traffic consumed by Chinese traveler in Korea was consumed on WeChat," WeChat Pay quoted its Korean partner as saying.

Through serving Chinese outbound tourists, WeChat Pay has established partnerships with an ever-growing number of overseas merchants with the ability to handle transactions in 13 different currencies in 25 countries and regions.

"When travelling abroad mainland Chinese are increasingly on the lookout for places that accept WeChat Pay. It's a sign that Chinese are welcome and it's a preferred payment option of ease for Chinese consumers," said Matthew Brennan, tech analyst and founder of China Channel (ChCh).

According to the 2017 MOBILE PAYMENT USAGE IN CHINA REPORT, an earlier report issued by Tencent Research Institute, The Chongyang Institute for Financial Studies at Renmin University of China (RDCY), and Ipsos, in China, 74% people stated that they can live for more than a month with only 100 RMB in cash, while 84% people reported that they could accept a totally cashless life.

Two key events that significantly moved Chinese society towards a smart lifestyle are both related to WeChat. One is the WeChat Red Packet, where WeChat capitalized on China's tradition of gifting cash-filled red packets, while the other is its cooperation the ride-hailing app DiDi which revolutionized how people commute in China. Social interaction has always been the driving force behind payments on WeChat, and it is globalizing with WeChat Pay expand overseas.

SOURCE WeChatBOSTON, Feb. 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Indigo Insurance Services new workers' compensation offering is adding value for small businesses across Massachusetts.

Indigo introduced workers' compensation in mid-2017 to small businesses across all professions with up to 100 employees. The benefit, which is administered by Compnet and underwritten by Berkshire Hathaway Guard, is the latest in a growing specialty benefits portfolio of products including vision, group life and disability, and stop-loss. Indigo is a wholly owned specialty benefits subsidiary of Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts.

Indigos vice president of specialty benefits Rich Greenhalgh said small businesses that have added workers' compensation are seeing even better resultsboth from an employee health and premium standpointwhen they combine the benefit with Blue Cross medical plans and innovative wellness program, Healthy Actions.

"We know small businesses are looking for ways to keep their employees healthy and mitigate work-related injuries and illnesses," he said. "Our workers' compensation benefit and Blue Cross Healthy Actions program work hand in hand to improve the health of small business workforces and decrease their health care costs."

Healthy Actions is the only program of its kind in the marketemployees can earn up to $300 for getting an annual physical and managing their health conditions (like diabetes and hypertension), and employers can earn a credit on their annual premium based on employee participation.

The workers' compensation offering is available at a 7.5% discount to employers that offer Blue Cross medical coverage. Employers that achieve a 50% participation rate in Healthy Actions can earn an additional 5% off their workers' compensation premium.

New offering caps decade of growth

Workers' compensation is the latest product powering unprecedented growth in specialty benefits offered through Indigo, which is marking its 10th anniversary this year.

Over the past decade, Indigo has grown from one customer and two specialty products to 16 products and over 1,200 employer customers who offer at least one Indigo benefit in addition to Blue Cross medical plans. And Indigo will continue to add new specialty benefits in the future.

"Our customers recognize the value of partnering with us to offer these additional benefits to their employeesa one-stop shopping experience, administrative ease, and affordable premiums," Greenhalgh said. "Bringing all of these benefits together for our accounts is what we do best."

About Indigo Insurance Services

Indigo Insurance Services (www.indigo-insurance.com) a full-service insurance agency offering an extensive suite of specialty insurance products to employers with two or more employees. Our portfolio of products includes life, disability, vision, travel, accident, critical illness, stop loss, workers' compensation, and more. Indigo is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts, headquartered in Boston.

SOURCE Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts

Related Links

http://bluecrossma.com/

CHICAGO, Feb. 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- The French Pastry School, of Kennedy-King College at City Colleges of Chicago, has added new master demonstrations from world-renowned chefs to its full-time Pastry and Baking (L'Art de la Patisserie) and Cake (L'Art du Gateau) programs for 2018. Students will now also learn from visiting expert chefs who normally only teach Professional Continuing Education classes. They include Stephane Leroux, M.O.F. (French Master), Maggie Austin, Luc Baudin, Andres Lara, Christophe Morel, and Xavier Sterke.

Elegant chocolate floral sculpture by Chef Stephane Leroux, M.O.F. Leroux and many other renowned chefs will now conduct master demonstrations for FPS students in the full-time programs.

"The mission of The French Pastry School has always been to promote excellence. We do this by ensuring our students learn from the best including world champions, master bakers, and certified master sugar artists," says Chef Jacquy Pfeiffer, co-founder of the school.

For the current term, students will learn from Chef Austin and Chef Sterke. Chef Austin, a graduate of FPS' Cake program, is an internationally renowned cake artist who counts the White House, celebrities, and royalty as her clients. Chef Sterke is a master pastry chef, chocolatier, cookbook author, and a former French palace chef who has baked gluten- and lactose-free for over 20 years.

For the Fall term, students will learn from five additional world-renowned chefs. Chef Leroux, M.O.F., is considered the one of best pastry chefs and chocolatiers in the world. Chef Baudin studied at Les Compagnons du Devoir and opened La Mutinerie Patisserie. Chef Lara, a graduate of FPS, is a master pastry chef known for his innovative techniques from around the world. Chef Morel is a master chocolatier who took first place in chocolate at the Coupe du Monde de la Patisserie in 2005.

"With small classes and an 18-1 student-faculty ratio, students receive invaluable learning opportunities and personal interactions with world-class instructors," said Chef Sebastien Canonne, M.O.F., co-founder.

For more information, visit www.frenchpastryschool.com or contact us at [email protected].

The French Pastry School

Founded in 1995, The French Pastry School of Kennedy-King College at City Colleges of Chicago is the only major culinary school in North America dedicated to all things sweet and baked. FPS provides hands-on education taught entirely in state-of-the-art kitchens by world-renowned chefs. Co-founders, Sebastien Canonne, M.O.F., and Jacquy Pfeiffer, James Beard Award-winning author, are both recipients of the French Legion of Honour Award and were featured in the "Kings of Pastry" documentary.

SOURCE The French Pastry School

Related Links

http://frenchpastryschool.com

DES MOINES, Iowa, Feb. 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Yesway, the fast growing and innovative convenience store chain, today announced the further expansion of the company with the acquisition of five Rip Griffin Travel Center convenience stores, located at 202 Tahoka Road, Brownfield, Texas; 708 Frontage Road, Idalou, Texas; 4704 4th Street, Lubbock, Texas; 4609 Avenue A, Lubbock, Texas; and Dowden Road & Hwy 82, Wolfforth, Texas; and the State Line Convenience store located at 1117 State Line Road in Joplin, Missouri.

These new Yesway stores will further enhance the company's presence in the Texas and Missouri markets, and are the latest to be added to the company's existing portfolio of 80 locations currently operating in Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Oklahoma, and Texas. The company has a robust acquisition pipeline, with plans to acquire, improve and rebrand an additional 120 to 130 stores per year over the next several years in order to reach its goal of building a 500-location strong chain of Yesway convenience stores in selected regions of the United States.

Brian Trout, Yesway's Senior Vice President of Operations said, "With Yesway, our customers will enjoy great customer service at stores that are true to our brand promise  they'll be efficient, inviting and friendly. Our aim is to make life easier and each day a bit more pleasant for all of our customers and we are eager to continue to serve, get to know and be part of their communities."

"We are very proud of our progress and continued expansion, which we expect will continue at an accelerated pace over the next few months," said Thomas Nicholas Trkla, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Yesway. "As we continue to grow our portfolio, our exceptional management team is focused on delivering terrific customer service to everyone who visits any our stores. That is our promise to all of our customers."

Editor note: To arrange interviews with Yesway executives, please contact Erin Vadala of Warner Communications at [email protected] or 978-468-3076. High-resolution images and graphics are available on request.

About Yesway  BW Gas & Convenience, d/b/a Yesway, is headquartered in Des Moines, Iowa, and was named a "2017 Chain to Watch" by Convenience Store Decisions. Yesway plans to acquire, improve and rebrand 500 convenience stores in selected regions of the United States over the next several years. For more information on Yesway, please visit the company's website at www.yesway.com.

Contact: Erin Vadala, Warner Communications; (978) 468-3076; [email protected]

SOURCE Yesway

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La Francaise Real Estate Partners International has acquired, on behalf of a La Francaise collective real estate investment vehicle, an office building located at Muiderstraat 1, in central Amsterdam.

The 5-storey office building, refurbished in 2012/2013, offers 2,731 m of lettable space and is...

[]EXPERT OBSERVATION

Australians have spent the last month eyeing their share portfolios as the volatility of Wall Street crept into the ASX.

Over many decades, equities have been a proven performer for Australians. But just as a single day can have you planning a kitchen renovation, inherent risks can mean losses just as easily transpire; its part and parcel of the modern, global economy. As an example, in early February, about $70 billion was wiped from the All Ordinaries  the top 500 companies listed on the Australian Securities Exchange - in the space of three days.

Ask anyone what their goal out of an investment is and the response is unanimous: make as much money as possible.

Amongst the suite of investment classes  which continue to diversify through the profile of options like cryptocurrencies  real estate continues to be a cornerstone. As opposed to other options, its less exposed to daily or weekly fluctuations.

As an investment class, real estate has a tremendous profile, simply because the overwhelming percentage of people have had some form of relationship with property: most people have either been sellers, buyers or tenants at some point their lives. Its this exposure that allows people to be more comfortable with the process and research involved, especially with the amount of information at our fingertips.

So how does real estate stack up?

Theres no such thing as a foolproof get-rich scheme. Any investment  irrespective of class  should be treated as a long-term proposition. So, while equities markets have taken a battering in the last few weeks, its more appropriate to view them in a long-term perspective.

Twenty years ago, the All Ords Index was 2894. In mid-February, the Index was around 6147, representing an average gain over time of 112%. Companies on the All Ords are, by their nature, solid, long-term performers that avoid fluctuations. While most investors will include some members of the All Ords in their wealth management strategies, theyll supplement it with higher risk performers which can accelerate returns.

But lets examine residential real estate over the same period. In December 1997, the median house price across Australia was $139,000 (you can find some car spaces in the city fringes of Sydney and Melbourne being purchased for similar prices, today).

At the end of last year, the median national house price was $535,000, representing an increase of 285% over two decades  well above the performance of equities.

Look at the big picture

But results need to be viewed at face value with numerous variables involved in both. For instance, borrowing for shares is usually something only highly experienced investors engage in, while most real estate investors will borrow for their investment(s). So, commonly, share market gains can be seen in their entirety for most investors, while capital gains in property are offset by mortgage debts.

Also, real estate investors look for a combination of capital gains and yield in their investments. And if a property can be positively geared, the investor is placed in a great position.

But, its the safety of real estate that allows it to really stand out from other investment classes. As the below graph shows, the national median house price has only ventured into negative territory three times in the past 20 years. In contrast, equities have made negative 12-month gains on nine occasions.

So, as an investment class, history has shown that real estate offers steady growth and less fluctuations in value.

Mathew Tiller is head of research at LJ Hooker.The American Canyon City Council has begun shaping its proposed ordinance on recreational marijuana activities by expressing support for home delivery and allowing indoor cultivation and manufacturing in the citys commercial district off Green Island Road.

But council members expressed little support for allowing retail sales in American Canyon or backyard cultivation in residential neighborhoods.

No decision was made last week on the ordinance itself, which staff is still crafting.

The council decided to postpone the issue until its March 20 meeting, at which time staff will offer a time frame for when they could have a draft ordinance ready for a vote.

Tuesday nights discussion lasted nearly two hours, with numerous residents expressing support or opposition to allowing recreational marijuana operations in the city.National Book Awardwinning author Sherman Alexie, whose prominence in the Native American writing community is perhaps unparalleled, is the latest author to have been accused of sexual and general misconduct.

The accusationsnone of which have yet been made on recordfirst appeared in the comments section of a January 3 article in School Library Journal. There, Alexie was accused of sexual harassment, anonymously, by multiple posters, alongside other bestselling children's authors including Jay Asher (Thirteen Reasons Why) and James Dashner (Maze Runner series). Both Asher and Dashner have subsequently been dropped by their agents. Dashner's publisher, Random House, has also cut ties with him.

The situation surrounding Alexie highlights an emerging trend in how the publishing industry is grappling with purported sexual predators who also happen to be powerful members of the literary community. While reporting has outed some notable professionals in the business, such as former Paris Review editor Lorin Stein, many accusations of abuse against alleged harassers are bubbling up via social media, where accusers can maintain their anonymity.

In response to the initial allegations revealed on the SLJ articleand right after Alexie won ALA's Carnegie Medal for nonfictionJessica Hughes, the executive director of the Reference and User Services Association (RUSA), which is a division of the ALA, told PW that "ALA only recently learned of these concerning allegations against Sherman Alexie. We take this matter seriously, and we are looking into it." Alexie won the award for You Don't Have to Say You Love Me: A Memoir.

Accusations against Alexie, which have been something of an open secret for weeks as journalists have scrambled to find sources willing to speak on the record about their experiences, reached a fever pitch on social media over the weekend. The social media uproarmostly on Twittercame in response to an article in Pacific Standard published last week, documenting alleged misconduct by author Daniel Handler. The article explicitly mentioned the Alexie accusations referenced on the SLJ article.

The Pacific Standard story appeared just before the publication of a BuzzFeed profile, by Anne Helen Petersen, of writers and teachers in the literary program at the Institute of American Indian Arts (IAIA), where Alexie has been a prominent figure. Alexie, according to the article, worked there "without pay for five years and funds a full scholarship for an incoming MFA student each year." That scholarship, according to the Santa Fe New Mexican, will soon be undergoing a name change. IAIA MFA program director Jon Davis told the newspaper that the name change is a direct response to the allegations, which he called "jarring" and "baffling."

The name change of the scholarship comes as a number of public figures in the Indigenous American writing community have begun to publicly address, if not outright condemn, Alexie and his behavior. Among them is Debbie Reese, a tribally enrolled member of Nambe Pueblo in New Mexico and a former professor of American Indian Studies at University of Illinois. In a post on the blog she edits, American Indians in Children's Literature, she announced that she was removing Alexie's photograph from AICL's gallery of Native writers and illustrators and planned to edit "any page that has referenced Alexie or his work." She went on to say that she "can no longer let his work sit on AICL without noting that he has hurt other Native writers in overt and subtle ways, including abuse, threats, and humiliation."

In the post, Reese included, with permission, Facebook comments posted by authors Janet McAdams, Joy Harjo, and Susan Power, which describe Alexie's alleged penchant for, as Harjo put it, "abuse of different kinds." Author Litsa Dremousis has also publicly severed ties with Alexie, and has been working to connect women alleging abuse with journalists covering the story.

At press time, neither Alexie's literary agent, Nancy Stauffer Cahoon of Nancy Stauffer Associates, nor his primary publisher, Little, Brown, responded to multiple requests for comment about the allegations.Collegians and Millennials are abandoning organized religion at a dizzying pace. Nearly four in 10 (39%) young adults (ages 18-29) claim no religious identity. Six in 10 say they stopped believing in the teachings of their childhood religion, according to a 2016 study by the Public Religion Research Institute.

Now, publishers are responding to this culture shift with books by believers, scholars and young adults themselves on Millennials and faith  or the lack of it. Several recent and upcoming books address whether or not Millennials care about religion, how they live out their faith and how faith leaders can reach them.

One reason for rising interest in Millennials is "the plummeting numbers of young adults affiliated with a church is causing huge anxiety for their parents, says David Bratt, executive editor for Eerdmans. "They wonder: Will we be able to transmit what we believe to our children?"

Help may be on the way. Eerdmans has a title coming in late 2019 that offers some hope to the fretful folks, he says. The Confirmation Project is a book about what succeeds in drawing Millennials into church. The authors, Richard Osmer at Princeton Seminary, and Katherine Douglass at Seattle Pacific University, drew on a study by a group of authors who examined programs in mainline churches that boosted the numbers of young people confirmed in the church. Bratt says the book addresses what Millennials really want: to know what their church believes and to find answers to tough questions there.

This November, Zondervan will release The Passion Generation: The Seemingly Reckless, Certainly Disruptive, But Far From Hopeless Millennials, by a Grant Skeldon, a Millennial and founder of the Initiative Network. Sandra Vander Zicht, associate publisher and executive editor for Zondervan, says The Passion Generation was conceived by Skeldon and co-author Millennial Pastor Ryan Casey Waller, for parents, pastors and business leaders struggling to understand Millennials.

Being the mother of a Millennial who had moved back home for a while as an adult and who struggled to find a career path, I was instantly hooked, Vander Zicht said. She was also drawn to Skeldon because he launched the non-profit Initiative Network in response to Millennials being labeled noncommittal, cynical, entitled, slacktivists. His goal was to train Millennials to be Christ-lovers, city-changers, church-investors, and disciple-makers.

But they can't deal with this alone. Intergenerational relationships are necessary for the longevity and wellbeing of the church and its congregants, sociologist Meredith Gould argues in Transcending Generations: A Field Guide to Collaboration in Church (Liturgical Press, July 2017). And those relationships are not as difficult to achieve if people shake off stereotypes and see at a core level, that what unites our generations is more significant than anything dividing us, Gould writes.

Webster Younce, executive editor and associate publisher for Thomas Nelson, says, The best way to reach anyone or any generation is to take their views and perspectives seriously. On Thomas Nelsons list for April is Saved from Success: How God Can Free You from Cultures Distortion of Family, Work and the Good Life by Dale Partridge.

More upcoming books written by Millennials, including Friend of Sinners: Why Friend of Sinners: Why Jesus Cares More About Relationships than Perfection (Rogers & Cowan, March) by Rich Wilkerson, and three books from NavPress; Ready or Not: Leaning into Life in Your Twenties (April) by Drew Moser and Jess Fankhauser; Good News for a Change (June) by Matt Mikalatos, and Stumbling Toward Wholeness (Sept.) by Andrew Hames Bauman.

Caitlyn Carlson, acquiring editor of Good News, says, Millennials are walking away from the church often because the faith they grew up with doesnt seem to connect with the reality they know. Were excited to be publishing a paradigm-changing approach to talking about the gospel that identifies with that angst.

Church isnt the only answer for Millennials' spiritual angst. InterVarsity press is releasing Mindful Silence by Phileena Heuertz, (Oct.) who offers the historic practice of contemplative silence as a response to anxious modern times.

InterVarsity, aware that some young evangelicals are turned off by a perception that their elders are anti-science, has another book, forthcoming in March, that tackles this perception head on. In Mere Science and Christian Faith, author Greg Cootsona argues that there is no need to choose between the two.

Tom Lin, president of InterVarsity Christian Fellowship, contributed an essay aimed at Millennials to a collection entitled Still Evangelical edited by Mark Labberton and published last month. Lins essay reflects on what it means to be evangelical in today's polarized climate.

Ethan McCarthy, assistant editor at IVP Books and a Millennial himself, says young adults are frustrated because both conservative and liberal Christians have, in different ways, traded the transcendent mystery of our gospel for the here and now: whether by pursuing political power and influence, or by reducing the church to a list of social concerns. Either way, weve often missed the transcendent mystery of the Christian faith, which is the 'authenticity' millennials famously crave.

To that end, publishers are keen to release books that show this mystery and demonstrate the hallmarks of Christian tradition that Millennials nonetheless feel are lacking in the church, such as faith secure enough not to pander to them, for instance, or genuine love for the poor, says McCarthy. Its part of our job as publishers to show people, both church leaders and young people throwing in the towel, that these things are already part of our Christian heritage.

Recent and upcoming books also focus their attention on Catholics, Muslims and other faithful youth, who are seen as the potential audience for books on nurturing young adults toward a life of faith.

Selfies (Baker, March 2018) by Craig Detweiler addresses how social media and self-portraits change our perspective on ourselves and each otheroffering sage wisdom to anxious parents, confused church educators, and those daring digital disciplers, according to Robert N. Hosack, executive acquisitions editor.

Faith Forward Future: Moving Past Your Disappointments, Delays, and Destructive Thinking by Millennial pastor Chad Veach (Thomas Nelson, Nov, 2017) emphasized whats possible with God in the future, geared toward the generation for whom the future might seem the farthest away.

In Keeping It Halal: The Everyday Lives of Muslim American Teenage Boys (Princeton, Sept. 2017), sociologist John OBrien follows a group of teenage Muslim boys who live, as he writes, culturally contested lives, and finds that their supportive communities of adults and peers, as well as the availability of social and physical spaces, enable them to maintain a positive sense of both their Muslim identity and their American identity.

In Faith with Benefits: Hookup Culture on Catholic Campuses (Oxford, Jan. 2017), theology scholar Jason King considers how students at Catholic colleges drew upon religious faith to generate alternatives to this [mainstream hookup] culture  alternatives that provided better benefits.

Married Millennials D.A. and Elicia Horton offer guidance from a Southern Baptist perspective on how to navigate mainstream cultural and religious expectations in marriage in Enter the Ring: Fighting Together for a Gospel-Saturated Marriage (NavPress, Jan. 2017). They tackle intimacy, money management, and how to raise childrennot just as dependents, but as disciples of Christin a world where, they write, convictions rooted in Scripture are under attack.

In Faith with Benefits: Hookup Culture on Catholic Campuses (Oxford, Jan. 2017), theology scholar Jason King considers how students at Catholic colleges drew upon religious faith to generate alternatives to this [mainstream hookup] culture  alternatives that provided better benefits.The US Department of Justice has approved Discoverys proposed acquisition of Scripps Networks Interactive.





We are pleased to have passed this significant regulatory milestone on our path to acquire Scripps Networks Interactive, said David Zaslav, president and CEO, Discovery . The conclusion of the Department of Justices investigation is an integral step toward closing our transaction. We look forward to combining these two great companies to the benefit of our enthusiast audiences around the world.Discovery announced in July 2017 that it had reached a definitive agreement to acquire Scripps Networks in a cash-and-stock transaction. The combination of the companies is expected to extend Scripps Networks' content to international audiences, increase opportunities for advertisers and digital distribution partners, and unlock significant cost synergies.The closing of the proposed transaction remains subject to completion of review in Ireland and other customary closing conditions. The transaction is expected to close by the end of the first quarter 2018.Marvel series Inhumans and Runaways are among the content to be added to Amazon Prime Video's digital video offering in India, following a new deal with Disney.





Seven titles from Marvel and ABC will be available on the subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) service in India immediately after they premiere in the US.Marvel's Cloak and Dagger and ABC series The Crossing, Station 19 and the already available show Freeform's Alone Together also form part of the deal."We are elated to bring quality content from Marvel and ABC to our Prime members. Whether it's binging on past seasons of an old favorite or discovering your new favourite show, we believe that everyone will find something to enjoy," said Vijay Subramaniam, director of content at Amazon Prime Video India. Amrita Pandey, regional head - media distribution & OTT at Disney , South Asia said: "It's critical for us to make our diverse content available to fans everywhere. This opportunity with Amazon Prime Video in India, allows us to bring some of our fan favourite shows from Marvel and ABC to Indian audiences on a device of their choice and convenience."Prime members in India can also watch complete seasons of international hit series, including Desperate Housewives, Grey's Anatomy, Criminal Minds, Castle, Scandal and Scrubs.On Thursday at a conference sponsored by the American Conservative Union, Ben Domenech, the publisher of The Federalist, had an illuminating exchange with Senator Ted Cruz, the Texas Republican who once called Donald Trump a pathological liar, but has since lined up behind the billionaire who spread lies about his father, insulted the appearance of his wife, and nicknamed him Lyin Ted.In January, when negotiations over the fate of 800,000 DACA recipients broke down, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) blamed the impasse on the alleged racism of President Trump and his senior advisers. Last night the president put forth a plan,Im used to being vilified by the far left as a bloodthirsty neocon warmonger for the Original Sin of having supported the invasion of Iraq along with 72 percent of the American public. It has been a little more surprising to be simultaneously vilified by the far right as a dangerous left-winger.Republicans got a wake-up call regarding the perils of anti-incumbent primaries last year, when Alabama Sen. Luther Strange lost a runoff to Roy Moore, who in turn lost to Democrat Doug Jones  at one time an unthinkable outcome. But not everyone sees danger. Instead, another conservative insurgent from the Deep South, Mississippi state Sen. Chris McDaniel, is poised to run against a fellow Republican, U.S. Sen. Roger Wicker.

McDaniel is expected to announce a bid for the seat at a Wednesday rally in his hometown of Ellisville, Miss., the eve of the March 1 filing deadline. Most conservatives feel that our party, the Republican Party, has lost its foundation," McDaniel said during a Facebook Live video promoting the rally. "We're looking for a fight, and I can't wait to have you on my team again."

But the challenge comes as Republican lawmakers and President Trump are getting along quite well. The party passed a long-awaited tax bill in December that GOP incumbents plan to use as a calling card in the midterms. Steve Bannon, the former Trump adviser who had planned to back anti-incumbent campaigns around the country, is no longer in the president's good graces, and therefore considered a pariah among Trump's base. And Republican Senate candidates around the country are taking pains to align themselves with the president.

Trump pledged his support to Wicker on Twitter Tuesday ahead of McDaniel's announcement, calling the senator "a great supporter and incredible help in getting our massive Tax Cut Bill done and approved. Also big help on cutting regs. I am with him in his re-election all the way!"

McDaniel's bid will likely re-open party wounds and cause headaches for national operatives hoping to devote resources to open and Democratic-held seats. Whats more, the environment for taking down a party incumbent, particularly one who votes in line with the president, appears far less receptive than it did just a few months ago.

"We're generally an unsettled group of folks these days in America. But not everybody is disgruntled with every incumbent," said Mississippi Republican strategist Hayes Dent. "Universally, the disgruntled crowd is 100 percent with Trump. And Trump has already said he thinks Wicker has been doing a great job. So, what needle do you now need to thread if you're Chris McDaniel?"

The state senators supporters point to his challenge nearly four years ago to Sen. Thad Cochran, in which he forced the incumbent into a runoff. Cochran was considered the embodiment of the GOP establishment: a six-term senator who chaired the Appropriations Committee, a powerful post that symbolizes excess government spending for some conservatives. That primary became among the party's nastiest, involving nursing home spying and racial undertones. McDaniel eventually lost by about 8,000 votes, and challenged the results. He and his supporters argued the election was stolen from them, asserting that Cochran had mobilized black voters to turn out in the open primary. McDaniel has since embraced the hashtag "Remember Mississippi," which a super PAC supporting him took it as its name; it has raised $1 million in contributions.

"McDaniel is much more aligned with Mississippi's values than Sen. Wicker has demonstrated, which is going to be a big advantage for McDaniel," said Tommy Barnett, the super PAC's treasurer. "The people of Mississippi deserve to have a strong voice in Washington, D.C., fighting for them, not someone who goes along with the Republican establishment every chance they get. It's going to be a fight and we look forward to fighting alongside Chris McDaniel."

Challenging Wicker apparently wasnt McDaniel's first choice. There has been wide speculation about Cochran's future in the Senate, given his ailments and missed votes. If he were to retire, Republican Gov. Phil Bryant would appoint a temporary stand-in, and the state would host an open race in November. McDaniel had been eyeing that pathway, but with no movement on Cochran's part, and the March 1 deadline fast approaching, he has set his sights on Wicker.

The Wicker camp wasn't caught off guard. "We've been planning for this for a year and we're ready," said campaign spokesman Justin Brasell. "Senator Wicker is helping President Trump get his agenda passed. We feel like we're in great shape."

Unlike some of his Senate colleagues, Wicker has been a steadfast supporter of the president, who is widely popular in Mississippi. In October, when there were questions about the president's loyalty to party members, Politico reported that Trump promised to back Wicker. Vice President Mike Pence has donated to his campaign. And Wicker, who chaired the National Republican Senatorial Committee in 2016, has raised over $4 million. His campaign also released two new ads this week: one touting his work for veterans and another promoting an endorsement from state Sen. David Parker, who backed McDaniel in 2014.

Nonetheless, McDaniel allies see areas of vulnerability for the incumbent. The two-term senator hasn't really faced a tough race before. He was appointed to the Senate in 2007 from the House to replace Trent Lott, and won a special election to the seat the following year. He was re-elected easily in 2012.

McDaniel is likely to make his campaign against Wicker a campaign against Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, positioning himself to the right of Wicker and also as an ardent ally of Trump. But the Mississippi race has its own nuances that make it difficult to attach lessons from Stranges loss in neighboring Alabama. For example, Strange had been appointed by a disgraced governor, which played into the electorate's decision. Elsewhere, Arizona Sen. Jeff Flake's criticisms of Trump invited a primary challenge this year; when it became clear he wouldn't survive, he decided to retire.

Asked in October how he would argue that Wicker was, in his view, insufficiently conservative despite voting with Trump, McDaniel told RCP that the president "was an agent of change. ... Sometimes we disagree. But as long as he is pushing back against Washington, D.C., and against the establishment  what were really after here is to change Washington.

The anti-Washington sentiment throughout the country "requires the incumbent to make clear there may be a problem with Washington, but I'm not part of the problem," said Dent, the state GOP strategist.

"[McDaniel] has got a following, make no bones about that," he said. "I'm just not sure that following translates to a reasonable showing in a GOP primary right now in an age where President Trump supports Wicker."Cal/OSHA has proposed penalties of more than $100,000 on two businesses allegedly responsible for the death of a Vallejo man who was killed in a fall at Sutter Home Winery in St. Helena last year.

Daniel Mario Colombo, 56, fell through a fiberglass light panel on the roof of the refrigeration building at 100 Main St. while doing repairs on a refrigeration system on May 4, 2017. He fell 16 feet to a concrete working surface below, sustained serious head injuries and died at the scene.

Colombo was a pipefitter/welder employee of Applied Process Cooling Corporation, a refrigeration contractor based in Modesto.

He was not wearing a safety harness when he fell, according to Cal/OSHA.

The fiberglass panels were dirty and were the same shape as the corrugated steel roofing that surrounded the workers, therefore it was difficult to tell the difference between the two, according to Cal/OSHA.Good morning, its Wednesday, February 28, 2018. On this date in 1947, a 62-year-old father took time out from the demands of his job in the nations capital to pen a brief and loving letter to his daughter, who had moved to New York.

The recipient of this missive was an only child, meaning that her parents were empty nesters. Also, the young lady had headed off to the big city with aspirations of a professional singing career, a lifestyle her mother wasnt sure about. Her dad, however, had made peace with any reservations he may have harbored.

If she wants to be a warbler and has the talent and will to do the hard work necessary to accomplish her purpose, I dont suppose I should kick, he wrote to his own mother. Shes one nice girl.

And so, with his customary directness, Harry Truman declared his support for the aspirations of first daughter Margaret. The Truman family is on my mind this morning because, under the auspices of the White House Historical Association, a charming gentleman named Clifton Truman Daniel, one of Margarets sons, will be in Washington tonight to share recollections of his grandfather.

In a moment Ill have more on what took place at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue on this day in 1947. First, Id point you to RealClearPolitics front page, which presents our poll averages, videos, breaking news stories, and aggregated opinion columns spanning the political spectrum. We also offer original material from our own reporters and contributors, including the following:

* * *

McDaniel Poised to Take On Wicker in Miss. GOP Primary. Caitlin Huey-Burns reports on the Senate challenger, who is banking on anti-incumbent fervor to put him over the top, despite that dynamic backfiring last year in neighboring Alabama.

Why America Cant Go Swiss on Guns. In RealClearWorld, Kevin Sullivan writes that attitudes may not differ in both countries regarding firearms, but they do differ regarding trust in government.

Five Facts About Buying Guns in the United States. In RealClearPolicy, the bipartisan group No Labels offers an overview.

Don't Weep for the Appropriators. Also in RCPolicy, James C. Capretta contends that government reform is the most effective way to bring more cost discipline to domestic appropriations.

Electric Vehicle Subsidies Hurt the Poor and Help the Rich. In RealClearEnergy, Silvestre Reyes urges lawmakers to focus on improving public transportation instead.

Let Ethanol Fend for Itself. Also in RCE, Arthur R. Wardle makes a case for repealing the Renewable Fuel Standard.

Is It Time to End Military Reliance on GPS? In RealClearDefense, Matt Civacek warns of vulnerabilities in the positioning technology.

Life With The Lion King. In RealClearLife, Sean Cunningham provides a view of the hugely successful stage show through the eyes of the actor who spent years playing Timon the meerkat.

* * *

February 28, 1947 was a busy Friday for Harry Truman. After receiving a report on the United States extensive efforts to feed the hungry in devastated postwar Europe, the president issued a report on progress being made.

Truman also held the 99th news conference of his presidency, where he fielded a question about the new loyalty oath being imposed on government workers, including military enlistees. The president then spoke at the National Press Club at the inaugural ceremony for the Wendell Willkie Awards for Journalism, an event set in motion by Richmond newspaper editor and Civil War historian Douglas Southall Freeman to honor outstanding black journalists. Truman ended his long day with a 10 p.m. broadcast urging Americans to contribute to the Red Cross.

Amid all that activity, he found time to dash off a letter to his daughter, along with the inclusion of some money to defray her costs of living in New York City. In the note, he mentioned a live performance he and wife Beth had seen in Washington. Your ma is sending program, he wrote. Heres a little dough. Lots of love, Dad.

With her first performance, in Detroit, looming in two weeks, Harry Truman sent his daughter a similar letter the following week. It came with some more money in case she needed help arranging train fare to Michigan, along with some fatherly encouragement.

Dear Margie, he began. Heres a little dough in case you need R.R. tickets to some mysterious town. Now dont get scared, you can do it! And if anyone says you cant, Ill bust him in the snoot.

Harry Truman meant it, too, as Paul Hume of The Washington Post would find out later. But thats another story, one Ive told in this space before, and in my book as well.

In other words, Give Em Hell, Harry sometimes did live up to his nickname -- especially when his kid was involved.

Carl M. Cannon

Washington Bureau chief, RealClearPolitics

@CarlCannon (Twitter)

ccannon@realclearpolitics.comThe mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shredded the lives of 17 families and forever impacted those of hundreds, perhaps thousands more. The public debate about why America has so many mass shootings, what can be done to stop or prevent them consisted of familiar  and predictably partisan -- tropes from both sides in the larger debate about Americas relationship with guns.

To be sure, there is a time and place for a vigorous discussion about firearms and the Second Amendment. This may actually be that time. What the high school massacre in Parkland, Fla., brings into even starker relief, though, is the continual failure of our political institutions to forge consensus on any real issue.

Put aside action, for a moment. Today, the leaders of both political parties are unwilling to even compromise on guns -- or any other pressing public policy issue. Asked by students and parents from Parkland to enact a ban on assault rifles, a Republican-controlled committee in the Florida legislature passed a measure to arm teachers. Tallahassee lawmakers wouldnt even allow a relatively modest gun control measure to come up for a vote, defeating its introduction by a 2-1 margin.

Republicans are running scared in the face of NRA threats, perceived and real, to their political health. Democrats are demanding action that they themselves wouldnt take when they controlled both houses of Congress and had a Democrat in the White House during Barack Obamas first two years as president.

While gun control now tops the list, it is far from the only pressing matter in which our elected representatives have abdicated their responsibility in favor of marking time till their inevitable re-election in primaries controlled by their partys extremes and then general elections in gerrymandered districts.

After winning a second term in 2004, President George W. Bush proposed reforming the Social Security system. The issue was quickly buried, in bipartisan fashion, as no one on Capitol Hill was willing to touch the third rail of American politics.

When the Republicans retook Congress during Obamas presidency, then-Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan suggested reforming entitlements. Democrats responded with demagoguery instead of negotiations. Rather than discussing the dire long-term fiscal realities of Social Security or Medicare or debating modest proposals such as raising the retirement age, they resorted to personal attacks and over-the-top simplifications.

Its apparently easier for politicians to sponsor attack ads featuring wheelchair-bound grandmothers being pushed off cliffs than to engage in rational debate. Yet, anyone under the age of 45 knows that what Social Security and Medicare look like today is not what these programs will look like upon their retirement in 25 or 30 years. Its actually the baby boomers who are pushing millennials off the metaphorical cliff.

Our education system, too, is ripe for massive reform and disruption  on behalf of Americas young people. Yet this debate, like the others, quickly breaks down into a war of teachers union talking points about the corporatization of our schools.

As we hurtle toward the November 2018 midterms, most Americans will have only two choices at the ballot box. Regardless of the outcome, neither one of them -- Democrats nor Republicans -- has demonstrated a commitment to honest debate, real change, or even a willingness to discuss new solutions to the issues confronting the majority of Americans.

If the Republicans hold on to the House and Senate, they will do all they can to push through a unified agenda ahead of the 2020 presidential election. If the Democrats take one or both Houses in November, their mission will be one of obstruction and investigation (not unlike the GOP circa 2011-2016) as they attempt to prepare the battlefield for their own presidential candidates.

And in all this jockeying, strategizing and spending, Americans who arent political activists will stand by and watch, and wonder why we cant do better. We are at an inflection point in our political history. How long it will last is unknowable. Today, there is no better time for voters of all stripes to demand more and better options from their politics. Whats the worst that could happen?

The two parties have abandoned their traditional roles as broad-based coalitions that could and did work on behalf of the American people. Its time we abandon them and begin the hard work of creating a new party for a new American majority  one devoted to honest and open debate and problem solving for the good of all of us.Sino-Japanese relations have enjoy a relative lull in their complicated relationship over the past six months. In September 2017, Prime Minister Abe paid a surprise visit to the Chinese Embassy in Tokyo marking Chinas upcoming National Day as well as the forty-fifth anniversary of the normalization of Japan-China relations at the Chinese Embassy. We have seen Abe express open interest in President Xis signature initiative, the Belt Road Initiative (BRI). Furthermore, Abe has voiced numerous positive statements conveying Japans interests in building a future-oriented relationship with Beijing. The de-escalation in the relationships downward spiral was also signaled by a low-key commemoration ceremony for the Nanjing Massacre in December 2017 in which President Xi did not speak.

While the warming of relations should be applauded and supported by the region and the world at large, this push towards a Sino-Japanese detente should be understood through the lens of domestic politics, reform and increasingly turbulent geopolitics within the region and globally. At the same time, we should have a sober appraisal about the fundamental challenges in the bilateral relationship but also how an intensifying Sino-U.S. rivalry will make it difficult for Beijing and Tokyo to transform the dynamics of their relation.

Prioritization of Risks for Beijing: North Korea and the United States

The Trump presidency and its efforts to denuclearize North Korea have been identified as Beijings two biggest risk factors for continued socioeconomic development to achieve President Xis China Dream, the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation and people. The North Korean issue has the potential to bring conflict to the region disrupting trade and regional stability, key precursors for China to maintain is socio-economic development. On the other hand, the Trump administrationif not treated with prudence and careful diplomacyhas the potential to push Sino-U.S. relations into a downward negative spiral that could manifest itself as Thucydides trap. As a result, leaders in Zhongnanhai have decided that they must improve relations with both Japan and South Korea, so they can concentrate their diplomatic efforts on Sino-U.S. relations and North Korea.

Leaders in Beijing seem to have recognized that their informal embargo against South Korea in 2017 to push back against the THAAD installment resulted in increased anti-Chinese sentiment and deepening relations with the United States. They also recognize that the anti-Japanese policy from 20122017 has not brought them the diplomatic results they wished.

Rather than maneuvering Tokyo into Beijings sphere of influence, regular incursions into the East China Sea (ECS) and anti-Japanese protests have concerns in Japan over Chinas long term objectives for the region and caused a shift in Japanese trade and investment in Mainland China. Importantly, it has energized and consolidated Japans commitment to strengthening its economy, political influence and security capabilities.

Beijing understands that Abe is not going away anytime soon because of Abes political stability, successful economic and diplomatic policies and longevity in office (potentially to 2021). With that, they feel that they must form a more productive relationship.

Tokyos Cautious Engagement: History and Economy as Barrier and Bridge

On the Japanese side, Abe has consistently been open about the economic opportunities that a warm Sino-Japanese relationship would have and as a result he has made significant efforts to bridge the relationship. On matters of history for example, the Cabinet Statement on August 14, 2015, highlighted Japans role in bringing great harm and indignity to countries in the region. TheKitaoka Commission On the History of the 20th Century and on Japans Role and the World Order in the 21st Century also recognized this. Abe has also recognized the positive opportunities of President Xis signature foreign policy, the BRI and has expressed interest in joining it.

Functional Not Transformative Turn in Relations

Based on the above facts, rather than Sino-Japanese relations improving because a fundamental transformation in their relationship as we saw in the Franco-German relationship, the relationship is returning to being functional and cooperative in areas that are not contentious. In this sense, a return to theSeikei Bunri (?c?a??e?i?style of relations in which politics and economics are separated is superficially taking place. Progress on issues such as history, the Senkakus/Daioyutai islands in the East China Sea (ECS), and different views about the sovereign claims in the South China Sea are being deprioritized for now.

In the mid- to long-term future Japan still sees the United States as thecornerstone of its security. In the mid- to long-term future, China views the United States as its strategic rival. These two visions are incompatible and, as a result, Sino-Japanese relations will remain functional and will be characterized as case-by-case cooperation.

Shelving ECS Disputes?

The ideal scenario is that both countries return to the Tanage (shelve) approach to dealing with the ECS Senkaku/Daioyutai issue in which leaders in both countries decided to let wiser future generations find a solution to the dispute of sovereignty over these contentious islands. This does not appear to be the trajectory of the issue over the past five years and going forward.

Rather than military conflict, China is engaging in as long-term strategy to delegitimize Japans legal basis for sovereignty over the islands. It is doing this through a so-called salami-slicing strategy of disproving Japans effective control over the island. This is being accomplished by the air defense identification zone (ADIZ), which includes the Senkaku/ Daioyutai islands. Here, planes must report their entry through the Chinese ADIZ, which demonstrates that the Chinese have effective management of the region.

The continued insertion of civilian vessels in the seas around the islands similarly demonstrates that Japan has no effective control of the islands. In the long term, the combination of the civilian vessels and ADIZ examples of Chinese control erodes away Japans legal claim.

For China, it can continue a dual path of engagement with Japan through economic cooperation and other forms of functional cooperation while at the same time erode away Japans legal claim over the Senkaku/Daioyutai Islands. Japan understands this but has not been able to conceive of a counter strategy to consolidate its claims.

Motivations Behind Apparent Thaw?

Prime Minister Abe has consistently demonstrated a track record as a pragmatist. Improving relations with China has several dimensions. First, there is no solution to the North Korean nuclear quandary without Chinese leadership and cooperation. Warming Sino-Japanese relations may encourage China to put more pressure on Pyongyang. This could amount to fully committing to sanctions against the North or even regime replacement in which a more compliant and less belligerent Pyongyang denuclearizes in exchange for economic aid and a commitment by China (and other countries) to maintain the Norths security.

Second, Abenomics requires access to markets in an era where Japans demographics challenges mean that there are less and less consumers to drive economic growth. Frigid Sino-Japanese relations would not contribute to growing the Japanese economy. Participation in the BRI would be a boon toJapanese corporations and would contribute to Abenomics success and bilateral relations in general. By not joining or at least keeping the doors open to the BRI for Japanese corporations, Abe may even face a political backlash by his corporate supporters eroding away his political support base.

Third, without warming relations with Beijing it will be difficult to deal with bilateral issues such as the ECS Senkaku/Diaoyutai issue, which could spiral out of control as we saw in 2012 when the Noda administration Nationalized the Senkaku Islands. At a regional level, warming Sino-Japanese relations are also necessary to find ways to manage the South China Sea conundrum, anti-piracy, transnational diseases and other issues that could destabilize the region.

The 19th Party Congress in October 2017 has consolidated President Xis position as the core leader in China. He now has great latitude to engage in foreign policy that he feels will contribute to achieving the China Dream, the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation and people. To do that China must have regional stability. Warming relations with Japan contributes to that stability by allowing China to trade with Japan and to continue to enjoytechnological exchanges with Japan. At the same time, making the Sino-Japanese economic relationship denser, more expensive and more lucrative for the Japan has the effect of increasing Beijings economic leverage over Japan in the cases where there are political disagreements. In this sense, President Xi sees warming relations as a way to achieve the China Dream while at the same time move Japan more deeply into Chinas economic orbit.

Reprinted with permission from The National Interest. Dr. Stephen Nagy is a senior associate professor at the International Christian University in Tokyo, Japan, and a distinguished fellow at the Asia Pacific Foundation in Canada.The Tate Student Center Grand Hall was filled with more than 300 students around 7 p.m. on Saturday, March 3 -- all of which were there to celIn Athens, the start of the school year represents a time for students to start anew. They leave behind the challenges of last year and brace The underlying causes of mass shootings will not go away simply by banning the most popular gun for a mass shooting. Another gun will always fill its place.The University of Georgia should protect all its students as much as possible, and expanding the free speech zones on campus would not be protecting its students.Currently Reading

Former employees reveal secrets about old workplacesWere living in a rapidly evolving world where almost everything is done online and the very notion of privacy seems to be evaporating. Most of us are growing increasingly more comfortable having our lives made public through a variety of social networks. This new open and public approach to sharing information is affecting companies as well.

How so? Many companies are embracing the notion of complete public transparency and disclosure in ways they never have before. Everything is potentially on the table for being made public, including employee salariessomething that up until recently has long been held in the strictest of confidence. Lets dig deeper into this concept of employee pay transparency, and how its affecting the status quo.

The idea behind making employee salaries public is an arguably noble onemore and more companies are seeking to embrace the philosophy that being open and honest with their employees about all things is an effective way to forge more progressive, sincere, and honest employee/employer relationships. It can also help address some unfortunate inequities in compensation that women and minority groups sometimes face, an issue that gets inadequate attention, especially when salary information is kept hidden.

The Wall Street Journal published an article on the good, the bad, and the downright awkward aspects of companies adopting an open salary policy. According to the article, The idea of open pay is to get pay and performance problems out on the table for discussion, eliminate salary inequalities, and spark better performance But open pay also is sparking some awkward conversations between co-workers comparing their paychecks, and puncturing egos among those whose salaries dont sync with their self-image.

The truth is, as employees we can make a direct correlation between our pay and how our employers perceive and value our contributions, so having this information helps take the guesswork out of knowing where we standboth as individuals and in comparison with our colleagues.

So, despite its good intentions, when salaries are revealed employers can count on seeing a potentially disruptive effectwhile those employees who are at the top of the pay scale will likely be grateful and appreciative (unless they feel that theyre still not being paid enough compared to their coworkers), those at the bottom of the salary food chain can count on being unhappy and confronting their bosses to help remedy the situation. Then, if balance regarding compensation is not reached, it will likely lead to some employees seeking better opportunities elsewhere. Making salary information public can also lead to potential awkwardness and strife among colleagues who sit at opposite ends of the compensation spectrum, which can adversely affect productivity and motivation.

It seems clear that although there are some truly good potential reasons for publicly disclosing salary information, there are some significant potential pitfalls that employers should be on the lookout for when making the decision to do so. Progressive employers who react quickly and decisively to address issues regarding pay inequity will be in the best position to quell any potential disruptions, while those who are slow or late to respond may create some tension among their staff or lose some valuable talent to competitors who are willing to pay your employees what they feel they deserve.

Perhaps the best approach for handling the issue of whether or not to publicly disclose salary information is to plan carefullyand proceed with caution.

The post The effects of making employee salaries public appeared first on TheJobNetwork.When someone files a Public Records Act request, their name itself becomes a public record  but that doesnt mean they should be shamed for it.

That was the unanimous ruling of the St. Helena City Council on Tuesday, as the city prepares to post its responses to such requests on its website. That web portal, which is still months away from going online, will not show the names of the original requestors.

The city received about 330 such requests in the last fiscal year, and it often takes significant staff time to unearth the requested documents. Posting the responses on the web is an effort to disseminate that information and potentially prevent people from having to file another request for the same documents.

However, some people in town were worried that publicizing the names of people who file those requests would have a chilling effect.

Tom Belt, who admitted hes filed my share of requests, said publishing the names could intimidate people and make them reluctant to seek public records.FOUND: Patricia Ludington, of North Haven wrote, I would like to request a recipe from LoMonacos Restaurant in Branford (990 W. Main St www.lomonacos.com 203-481-9990). We were at a Communion dinner for my granddaughter Sofia. Five of us ordered Gamberoni Monachina  shrimp with mushrooms, wine, topped with mozzarella. All five of us thought it was delicious. We would love to have this recipe. We love your column and look forward to it every Wednesday in the New Haven Register.

Patricia, it is time to go purchase the ingredients, since owner Vincenzo Lo Monaco and Chef Atlante Esposito were happy to share the recipe. It is one of the most popular items on the menu.

LoMonacos has been serving Branford and beyond for 32 years. Longevity seems to be common here. Atlante has been with the restaurant for 21 years and several other employees have been employed for at least a decade. Vincenzos interest in the restaurant business began when he was 14 and living in Jackson Heights, Queens, New York. Every day, he stopped at a pizzeria to watch how the pies were made. It fascinated him. Of course, he had to eat a slice too. He asked the owner for a summer job. He was offered a delivery boy position and he delivered pizza with a bicycle. This was OK, but young Vincenzo wanted to cook, so the owner allowed him to get his hands in the dough. He told me his first pizza making experience was a disaster and the owner said to stay in school because he didnt think Vincenzo would be a good pizza maker. The boy proved him wrong. Fast forward and he worked at DeMatteos pizza in Hamden and then at Gabrielles (first located in West Haven and then moved to Orange) where he learned how to cook beyond pizza. It was at Gabrielles where Vincenzo met the chef, Nicola Mastroianni who later was to become his business partner. The two also own Bellinis in North Haven. Vincenzo thanks all of his loyal customers for their patronage over the past three decades. The relationships he has developed over the years keeps him inspired to keep on cooking and running the restaurant.

A house specialty is, Vitello LoMonaco, veal scallopine sauteed with pignoli and almonds, topped with Parma prosciutto, eggplant rollatini and mozzarella in a light champagne sauce.

Salmon Fruttasecca is a creative preparation of the fish that is sauteed with shallots, dried fruits, pine nuts, walnuts in a sweet Madeira reduction.

Open seven days a week for lunch and dinner, you will find traditional Italian dishes as well as seafood and meat cooked with a twist, and with prices that wont empty your wallet.

Gamberoni Monachina

12 jumbo shrimp, peeled, deveined, tail off (they use U-8 size)

Flour for dredging

4 eggs, beaten

1 teaspoon unsalted butter

1/3 cup vegetable oil

12 button mushrooms, diced

2  ounces Rainwater Maderia wine

1 ounce Prosecco

16 ounces fish or clam juice

 cup marinara sauce

Black pepper to taste

 cup mozzarella, shredded

Chopped fresh parsley for garnish

Dredge shrimp in flour and then dip in eggs.

On stovetop, heat vegetable oil in an ovenproof saute pan. Once oil is hot put in shrimp and brown on both sides, about 1 minute per side. Remove shrimp and drain oil from pan. Set shrimp aside. Put butter in pan and add diced mushrooms and saute for a couple of minutes. Remove pan from stove and add Madeira and Prosecco. Put back on heat and add fish or clam juice, marinara and pepper to taste. Let liquid reduce for 5-7 minutes and put shrimp back in pan and cook for a minute. Remove from heat and sprinkle with mozzarella and place oven-proof pan in a preheated 400 degree oven for about five minutes, until golden brown. Garnish with fresh chopped parsley. Serves 3-4.

Desperately seeking

Kathleen Carlson, of Hamden, wrote, The Village Restaurant in Litchfield makes a delicious acorn squash with a quinoa stuffing and coconut sauce. Id love the recipe since its only offered on their special menu occasionally.

Kathleen, I will check and see if the chef will share the recipe.

Culinary calendar

Chefs of Our Kitchen 2018 Series begin with: A culinary take on This Is Us: Siblings Elena Fusco, owner/founder of Bin 100 (Milford), Gennaro Gerry Iannaccone, owner/chef at Goodfellas; and their nephew, Paul Iannaccone, co-owner/chef at Ristorante Luce (Hamden) March 7, 6 p.m., Gateway Community College, 20 Church St., New Haven. 203-285-2617. $85. Tickets at http://bit.ly/2j24HH9. Enjoy a wine and hors doeuvres reception and then watch the chefs demonstrate the preparation of popular dishes from their restaurants, which will be served. Guests receive recipe cards signed by the siblings. The recipes demonstrated will be prepared by Gateway Culinary Arts and Hospitality Management students.

Consiglios Cooking Demonstration and Dinner: March 15, 6:30 p.m., Consiglios Restaurant, 165 Wooster St., New Haven, 203-865-4489 (reservations required), $75 (beverages, tax and gratuity not included). Learn how to make saffron crab cake, winter fennel salad, three onion soup, pesto rubbed skirt steak pinwheels, chocolate pastry ravioli.

Contact Stephen Fries, professor and coordinator of the Hospitality Management Programs at Gateway Community College, at gw-stephen.fries@gwcc.commnet.edu or Dept. FC, Gateway Community College, 20 Church St., New Haven, 06510. Include your full name, address and phone number. Due to volume, I might not be able to publish every request. For more, go to stephenfries.com.TORRINGTON  While the Board of Educations redistricting committee continued its discussion with the public on elementary educations future in the city this week, many residents remain against the idea of closing East School. That opinion was voiced repeatedly in their comments during the committees third hearing Monday.

The ad-hoc redistricting committee recommended that elementary education in shift to a sister school model, and put the idea before the full Board of Education for consideration.

Under the sister school model, termed Option 2 during past weeks of discussion, K-3 students would be divided between Vogel-Wetmore and Torringford. Vogel-Wetmore students would move on to Southwest for grades four and five, while Torringford students would go to Forbes.

The committee also recommended Monday that pre-school classes be moved out of the elementary schools  freeing up otherwise-cramped buildings  into alternative accommodations. The committee did not specify where the pre-K program would move to, although St. Peter/St. Francis School was raised as an option.

Before the committees votes, parents insisted that East School remain open for another year, and that other options be explored.

Lets do this right and do it once. I ask that a motion be made to delay the closing of East for one year and continue this conversation, said resident Keith Hudak. It helps restore faith to the community; it enables us, the parents, to decide for ourselves what is best for our kids,

I ask that we reconsider closing East next year, and hold off one more year, to allow for necessary time required for this large undertaking. It does not appear that it can be appropriately thought out, organized, and put in place by September, said another resident, Carissa McIntire. Parents, teachers, and students will all feel more comfortable if every avenues been explored, appropriately vetted, and have the final option chosen (be) the correct one for the town.

Resident Brian Thomas said it was not appropriate to close East School because the district had other issues with the capacity of its schools. He pointed out that students are being taught in a stairwell at Southwest School.

You clearly dont have enough time to get this done. You cant even fix the problems youve got now, said Thomas.

As she has in the past, board chairman Fiona Cappabianca said that the Board of Education had not sought to close East. Rather, the situation had been thrust upon them, especially in the face of impending financial pressure, she said.

Cappabianca and Superintendent Denise Clemons said that district was facing a prospective loss of approximately $700,000 in Education Cost Sharing funding next year, intensifying the need to close a school.

None of us want this. None of us want to have to go down this road. We would all prefer that everything could stay status quo, but the reality is, it cannot, said Cappabianca.

One thing that weve been working on is really trying to save the staff, but with the new proposals coming out and the cuts coming out from the state department, there are going to be staff cuts, said Clemons. So, it is essential, in terms of the consolidation of buildings, that it is done. That is the only way that we are going to continue to move.

Clemons said that she hoped the loss of ECS funding would be defrayed by money received under the Alliance District program, but that wasnt an assurance at this time. .

Committee members conducted a straw poll Monday, weighing Option 1, which would create four elementary schools, against Option 2, then followed by voting on a potential to recommend the second plan, which was approved 22 to 13, with three abstentions.

The possibility of shifting students to Torrington High School in the future was raised during the meeting. Clemons has noted that the impending accreditation process from the New England Association of Schools and Colleges makes that inadvisable in the near-term.

Both options would lead to a reduction in staff, according to an analysis discussed by parent and committee member Jeff Putnam. Approximately 14 staff positions would be cut under the second option  Clemons said that they had estimated 16 earlier Monday  compared to roughly eight under the first option.

Clemons said that the cost of transportation, previously raised as a concern with Option 2, would increase by approximately $350,000 if buses are shared, as opposed to $850,000 if schools have their own.

The Board of Education is set to meet Wednesday.

In November, the board voted to close East School beginning in the 2018-19 school year, either permanently or to allow for repairs, and redistrict the city schools.

The building is in need of at least $4.4 million in repairs. Renovating it entirely is estimated to cost approximately $41.4 million, or $18 million after state reimbursement, according to former board member Ken Traub.TORRINGTON  The University of Connecticut announced plans to sell the former Torrington campus Wednesday, offering the city the right to purchase the property.

Under state statute, UConn is required to offer Torrington the opportunity to buy any property it plans to sell within the city before offering it to other buyers, according to a release from university Spokeswoman Stephanie Reitz.

The city has 45 days to notify UConn that it wishes to negotiate a purchase of the 95-acre site at 855 University Drive, and in this case, the three buildings it contains, Reitz said Wednesday.

If it does not, the university is free to offer the property on the market. Torrington would then have the opportunity to match a later agreement.

A letter from UConn President Susan Herbst was sent Wednesday to Mayor Elinor Carbone and other city and state officials to notify them of the universitys plans, according to Reitz. Carbone could not be immediately reached for comment.

EdAdvance, one of the six Regional Educational Service Centers in Connecticut, has expressed an interest in buying the M. Adela Eads Classroom Building and property around it for use in its educational programming, Reitz said.

In August, the Board of Trustees authorized the university to negotiate a three-year lease to allow EdAdvance to use the classroom building and sell the property to Torrington.

Since then, though, EdAdvance determined it would be more practical to buy the classroom building than to lease it, since it would need to bear the expenses of modifying the structure for its use, Reitz said Wednesday.

Any deal between the city of Torrington and the university would have to be approved by the Superior Court for the Judicial District of Litchfield or another similar court, according to the letter from UConn President Susan Herbst.

Julia Brooker Thompson bequeathed funds for the purchase or construction of a building or buildings in Torrington or in the vicinity of Torrington for use by the Torrington Branch of the University of Connecticut in her estate, according to Herbst.

This money was used to construct the classroom building  a legal issue that would need to be hashed out in a sale.

It is not known what conditions the court might impose on the City in order to approve the transfer of title to the classroom building from UConn to the City, said Herbst.  It is our understanding that the requirement of court approval does not apply to the sale of the remaining buildings, other improvements or the unimproved land.

In any agreement between the city and the university, UConn would also have to be able to lease the on-site Extension Building at no cost through 2026 due to a charitable use restriction, according to Herbst.

UConn is appreciative of the importance of this property to the City. At the same time, UConn has an obligation to be prudent with its assets, said Herbst in the letter. We look forward to continuing a constructive conversation with the goal of reaching an outcome that serves Torrington, UConn and the State of Connecticut. 

The UConn-Torrington campus was opened in 1965 and remained in operation for more than 50 years.

The UConn Board of Trustees voted to close the campus in April 2016, beyond an existing agricultural extension program.

At the time, university officials cited the low level of student enrollment, a lack of tenure-track faculty and the associated cost of future capital improvements as reasons for the closure.

Reitz said enrollment continued to decline despite efforts to recruit and retain undergraduates through increased marketing, scholarships, and outreach to the regions high schools.

All current students at the time were offered spots elsewhere in UConn, and although the university continues to operate the Extension Center there and maintain the property, there are no academic programs or courses offered there, Reitz said in the release.

The City Council previously authorized Carbone to enter into negotiations with the university regarding the property in July.The school shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida was fresh on the minds of parents and teachers on Monday as a large group of concerned parents came to St. Helena High School to listen to a presentation about the St. Helena Unified School Districts School Safety Plan.

The half-hour presentation, which was provided in both English and Spanish in two separate rooms to accommodate the large number of attendees, was the result of two years of focused preparation by the districts team, consisting of principals, teachers, administrators, police and fire department officials.

The message on Monday night, delivered repeatedly by Superintendent Marylou Wilson and Director of Curriculum and Instruction Mary Allen was Your childs safety is our number one priority.

The purpose of the plan, according to the districts PowerPoint presentation, was To build partnerships and share information to be more aware, and better prepared to react and mitigate emergency incidents that occur on a school campus. The plan was mandated by California Senate Bill 187 The Comprehensive School Safety Plan.

The number one concern Monday night seemed to be how the school district has prepared for emergency and disaster responses and the effectiveness of the drills that the schools perform to prepare students and staff. These parental concerns seemed to be directly tied to the devastating epidemic of mass shootings at schools that have captured the attentions of parents, teachers, administrators and students in recent weeks.

The administrators talked at length about the need for these emergency drills, how the teaching staff has been trained to respond to emergencies, the tools that are available to every teacher during an emergency, and the step-by-step processes by which each school campus has implemented the overall plan.

Included in these messages was the explicit request that If you see something, say something to principals, teachers or staff, so that it can be immediately transmitted throughout the district.

Allen said that the fire and police departments are constantly monitoring this communication channel, and each and every teacher has the ability to initiate an emergency lockdown. Allen said only an appropriate administrator can release students from such an emergency lockdown after a threat has been contained.

Wilson and Allen also spoke of the infrastructure investments the school district has made to harden both the school rooms and the communication process itself, so that a threatening individual cannot take control of the system.

These investments have included putting blinds in each classroom that prevent a potential assailant from peering into a classroom, and installind door locks that can only be opened from within a classroom during a threat.

Wilson said that these investments alone  as well as an increased number of security cameras on campuses  came as a substantial expenditure to the school district, but that they should help in the ongoing quest to provide for the safety of students in the event of an active threat situation.

After the presentation, questions regarding the differences in definition between an emergency drill and a lockdown circumstance were answered, as well as questions regarding the resources available to students to notify officials of threats or suspicious activity that they might see.

To these specific concerns, Allen spoke of the need for continued drills  stating that the legal mandate was to have at minimum one or two drills per year. But, she said, increasing the number of drills helped students understand how the process works for their safety. Such drills also build muscle memory through repetition, she said.

When one parent asked about providing staff and teachers with concealed weapons to confront an active shooter, Wilson responded that the idea had, in fact, been discussed by the school board. I said at that time, Wilson responded, that I would never ask our teachers or staff to carry weapons in school.

Be the first to know Get local news delivered to your inbox! Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy.Asiatic black bears inside a cage at a private bear bile farm in Vietnam's southern province of Binh Duong, before being transported to a bear rescue center founded by Animals Asia, Nov. 29, 2011.

Animal rights activists have been winning battles to save endangered bears in several Asian countries, but much still needs to be done.

Bile extracted from bears has been prized as a traditional medicine in East Asian countries for hundreds of years. It has also served as an additive in Asian wines and tonics. And its claimed by some to counter impotence.

The demand for bear bile comes largely from China, Japan, Taiwan, and Vietnam. A few bear cubs have been known to have been captured in Myanmar and shipped by traffickers to China, where they are much in demand.

The bears, which are mostly Asiatic black bears, are often called moon bears because of the white fur crescents on their chests.

Many bears are kept in captivity, often on bear farms, to facilitate the extraction of their bile, which is produced by the liver and stored in the gall bladder. The extraction by catheters can cause permanent damage and lead to infections.

Farmed bears are frequently kept in small cages, sometimes small enough to prevent the bears from turning around or standing upright.

Some who are caught as cubs may live under such conditions during a lifetime lasting 20 to 30 years.

When the bears outlive their most productive years at around 10 years old, some are then killed for body parts considered delicacies, including their paws.

But no one knows with certainty how many of the Asiatic black bears are in captivity or how many are still roaming free in forests.

According to Traffic East Asia, a monitoring organization, there are 25,000 moon bears left in the world.

But the Bear Conservation Action Plan published by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) lists the numbers of moon bears in China as fewer than 20,000.

The World Wildlife Foundation says the figure may be as low as 16,000.

Experts agree that China is home to the largest number of moon bears, most of which can be found in forested areas of northern and southern China.

Chinas endangered bears

The last official figures for captive bears in China from late 2007 came to 7,002 bears on 68 farms.

But the Animals Asia Foundation (AAF), a charity based in Hong Kong, believes that the figure could now be as high 10,000.

Bear farms are supposed to be licensed by the government, but experts suspect there are some smaller, illegal unlicensed farms that go uncounted.

Unlike the American black bear, which is showing an increase in its population in some places, the Asiatic black bear is an endangered species in China. This is partly due to deforestation in northern and southern China, where the bears are most heavily concentrated.

According to Animals Asia, China has introduced some legal improvements.

In 1989, under a wild animal protection law, the Chinese government made it illegal to hunt bears for their parts, such as gall bladders, paws, and claws.

However, Animals Asia said that more than 20 percent of bears coming from bear farms to its rescue center were missing limbs, indicating that bears were still being targeted in the wild in violation of existing laws.

Meanwhile, what is described as a new method of extracting bile from bears in China that was introduced several years ago has proved to be as cruel and as damaging as any of the old methods.

On the positive side, Animals Asia is working with its Chinese government partners to close more bear farms and rescue caged and tortured moon bears.

A number of traditional Chinese medicine doctors working with Animals Asia have condemned the prescription and consumption of bear bile.

For the fortunate bears which are able to escape a life of torture and confinement, Animals Asia runs two bear sanctuaries in Asia, one in Chengdu, China, and another in Vietnam, located in a national park in the northern part of the country.

Making progress in Vietnam

In 2013, Animals Asia, which has been working with government officials and local environmentalists in Vietnam, survived a threatened revocation of its lease on its bear sanctuary, located about 30 miles north of Hanoi.

We know the details of how Vietnams then Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung intervened in 2013 to halt a plan to close the bear rescue center thanks to reporting for the web-based Asia Sentinel by David Brown, a former U.S. diplomat now working as a journalist.

According to Brown, Animals Asia mobilized tens of thousands of petitions to the prime minister, mobilized celebrities and a dozen ambassadors, and attracted thousands of backers on Facebook.

In the end, a plan to allow construction of a commercial ecotourism project to replace the bear sanctuary was defeated in a country where, Brown says, development projects promoted by top government officials all too often simply steamroll the opposition.

On July 19, 2017 Animals Asia signed a memorandum with the Vietnamese government aimed at ensuring a complete end to bear bile farming by 2020.

This followed an earlier agreement to rescue the remaining bears still caged on farms across Vietnam, believed to number about 1,000.

The Vietnamese traditional medicine Association had earlier agreed to ensure an end to bear bile prescriptions by 2020.

South Koreas success story

South Korea was a latecomer to the bear bile business and had to import bears in the early 1980s to meet a growing demand, which was driven partly by a belief that bear bile could cure ailments such as liver disease.

According to Russel McLendon, writing for the Mother Nature Network (mnn) website, after hunters killed many wild moon bears in the last century, scientists in North Korea found a way to extract bile from live ones.

This was supposed to take the heat off the bears, and it quickly caught on in Chinawhich had thousands of captive bears by the 1990sas well as South Korea, Vietnam, and other Asian countries, McLendon says.

Due to deforestation and poaching, however, the  decline didnt stop, and annual demand for bile in China actually grew, he says.

But the bile business went into a sharp decline in South Korea some years ago. Many Koreans have opposed the suffering that captive bears endure, and the bears there are now protected by law.

Many Koreans are also said to admire bears for their courage and determination.

As McLendon notes, the official mascot for the 2018 Paralympic Winter Games to be held March 8-18 in Pyeongchang, South Korea, is a moon bear.

Some of the credit for South Koreas success in countering the cruel treatment of captive bears should go to the nongovernmental organizations World Animal Protection and Green Korea United, the latter of which has worked with the South Korean bear bile industry since 2003.

In 2014, Green Korea United facilitated an agreement between the South Korean government and the bear bile industry aimed at improving the protection of the bears.

Dan Southerland is RFA's founding executive editor.Cambodia's Prime Minister Hun Sen is surrounded by his commune counselors from his Cambodian People's Party during a Senate election in Takhmao, southeastern Cambodia's Kandal province, Feb. 25, 2018.

The Cambodian government on Wednesday called a cutoff of aid, including military support, by the United States and a threat of sanctions by the European Union an insult, while Prime Minister Hun Sen said the country is importing thousands of tons of military weapons from an unnamed nation.

A day earlier, the White House announced that it was ending or curtailing several U.S. Treasury Department, USAID, and American military assistance programs that support Cambodias taxation department, local governments, and military.

The U.S. cited recent setbacks to democracy in Cambodia, including the recent Senate elections in which the ruling Cambodian Peoples Party (CPP) took all seats in an uncontested vote held just over three months after the Supreme Court dissolved the opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP).

Washington has spent more than $1 billion in support for Cambodia over the last 25 years, the White House said, adding that aid for health care, agriculture, and mine-clearing would continue.

The European Union on Feb. 26 threatened the Cambodian government with specific targeted measures if it failed to stop using the judiciary as a political tool to harass and intimidate political opponents, civil society, labor rights activists, and human rights defenders.

It is sad and shocking that our friends have decided to cut their development assistance to Cambodia! wrote Phay Siphan, spokesman of Cambodias Council of Ministers, on his Facebook in response to the aid cuts.

Such sanctions are nothing short of an insult to Cambodians and hurt those who love real democracy, he said, adding that the U.S. and other Western countries had intervened in Cambodias internal affairs when the Southeast Asia nation was going through a bitter period in 1970-1975.

The years encompassed a civil war during which the U.S.-backed government forces fought against the Communist Khmer Rouge and their North Vietnamese allies for control of Cambodia.

Cambodia can never forget those bad memories, Phay Siphan wrote. Cambodia will continue to be self-sufficient and strive for and build democracy on its own and free from foreign interference.

The CNRP, which applauded the move by the EU Foreign Affairs Council, issued a call for dialogue with the CPP to address the current political crisis, but the ruling party dismissed the suggestion, saying that the opposition was dead.

There is no dialogue whatsoever, CPP spokesman Sok Eysan wrote on Wednesday on Telegram, a messaging app used by Cambodian officials. The CNRP is dead. A dead body cannot come alive again.

The call for a national dialogue is nothing but pure frustration expressed by the fugitives and the outlawed that they are now at a dead end, he said.

Hun Sen has targeted the political opposition, NGOs, and independent media in a months-long crackdown to silence government critics ahead of a general election on July 29.

CNRP lawmakers in exile, including former party chief Sam Rainsy, have launched the Cambodia National Rescue Movement to put pressure on the government to end its persecution of the opposition and ensure free and fair elections.

Special goods

Meanwhile, during a speech to several thousand factory workers in Kampong Speu province on Wednesday, Hun Sen said Cambodia is receiving thousands of tons of military supplies, including weapons, from a foreign country he did not name, but is believed to be China.

Last night our special goods were shipped to Cambodia, he said. By special goods I mean something that is confidential. However they are not drugs. They are up to 10,000 tons of supplies. They were transported in containers. A country must have the means of national defense.

He went on to say that Tea Banh, Cambodias national defense minister, is in charge of the shipments.

You can now guess what the goods are because Ive told you that they are being taken care of by Tea Banh, Hun Sen said. Of course, he would not ship flowers. The supplies must be ammunition and weapons.

Tea Banh famously vowed last year to smash the teeth of anyone protesting a win by the ruling party in local elections. Hun Sen has also repeatedly threatened his opponents with violence.

Cambodian and Chinese soldiers will be holding the next iteration of a joint military exercise dubbed Golden Dragon in March as both countries commemorate the 60th anniversary of their ties this year.

Burning effigies

In his address to factory workers, Hun Sen also encouraged Cambodian-Australians to burn and vandalize seven-headed naga, or dragon, statues that decorate Cambodian temples in Australia if they do not like him rather than burn effigies of him, as they have threatened to do.

A week ago, the premier said he would beat protesters who burned photos of him during an upcoming trip to Australia and threatened to boycott the ASEAN-Australian Special Summit on March 17-18 over pressure on his government for its crackdown on the opposition, The Phnom Penh Post reported.

In response, some Cambodian-Australian residents said they would burn Hun Sen in effigy during demonstrations coinciding with his visit while demanding the release of jailed opposition leader Kem Sokha and the reinstatement of the CNRP, the report said.

Let me give those protesters some tips, Hun Sen told the workers in Kampong Speu province. Burning effigies of me is not effective at all. On the contrary, I feel good. If you want a better result and hope that Hun Sen will die when you cast your spells, may I ask you to burn the naga statues and smash them all at every Khmer temple?

Australian lawmaker Chris Bowen, the countrys former immigration and citizenship minister, lashed out at Hun Sens threat to bash Cambodian-Australians who protest against him.

The Cambodian community is rightly outraged and they are frankly  scared, and they need to know that this parliament will not put up with that sort of language from anybody even if they are head of another country and even if they are head of a member of ASEAN, he told the lower house of parliament on Wednesday.

We will stand with the Cambodian-Australian community and their right to engage in peaceful protest, he said.

Reported by RFAs Khmer Service. Translated by Nareth Muong. Written in English by Roseanne Gerin.A decorative plate featuring an image of Chinese President Xi Jinping is seen beside a statue of late communist leader Mao Zedong at a souvenir store next to Tiananmen Square in Beijing, Feb. 27, 2018.

The ruling Chinese Communist Party's plan to remove a two-term limit from the posts of president and vice president, paving the way for incumbent Xi Jinping to rule indefinitely, have provoked a surge in the number of people wanting to leave the country, amid strong opposition among the country's more outspoken dissidents.

The party said at the weekend it would place the proposals before the annual session of its rubber-stamp parliament, the National People's Congress (NPC) next week, where political analysts say they will almost certainly be ratified.

Government censors moved swiftly to erase public reaction from social media, banning keyword searches for a huge array of phrases, including those containing the words "emperor," "personality cult," and "lifelong tenure."

Words forming a pun relating to imperial or long-term rule, or historical parallels with late supreme leader Chairman Mao Zedong or imperial Chinese dynasties were also blocked.

But there were other signs that the news has sent shock waves through China's burgeoning middle classes, with a huge surge in queries relating to emigration recorded by the Chinese search engine Baidu, and overseas-linked realtors and immigration advisers reporting a sudden boost in interest since the announcement.

Baidu said queries relating to emigration and visas for other countries had risen tenfold in the wake of the announcement.

A Canada-based realtor surnamed Wang with ties to the southwestern city of Chengdu said business had suddenly boomed in the days since the announcement on terms in office last Sunday.

"Since the announcement was made, the amount of consultations have increased greatly compared with the same period in normal times," Wang told RFA. "The numbers have skyrocketed, all relating to emigration."

"For example, they increased from around 2,000 to 5,000, to more than 7,000," she said. "The whole of last year was pretty sluggish, and now we've had this huge boost in inquiries since the announcement."

'Everyone is doing overtime'

An employee surnamed Chen at an immigration consultancy in Beijing said their workload has risen sharply since the announcement, too.

"It has doubled in the past couple of days," Chen said. "Our workload is now two or three times what we are used to."

"For example, where we would get around 10-20 inquiries in the space of a day before, now we can get 30 or as many as 50 inquiries," she said. "Everyone is doing overtime."

"The reason people are giving is a new policy announced by the government and the amendment of the constitution by our president to enable him to remain in office," Chen said. "A lot of things in this country will be affected by this, and it has made people who do business and some in government posts panic a bit."

According to Chen, many of the inquiries are coming from highly qualified or creative people who are hoping to emigrate under special skills provisions, or those hoping to emigrate using investment visas.

An employee at a second immigration consultancy confirmed Chen's account, linking a surge in inquiries to the few days since the Feb. 25 announcement.

"As everyone wants to emigrate to one, or at most a handful of countries, there may be some queuing situations that arise," the employee said.

"Nobody knows exactly what will happen," he said. "We just know that there is currently an increasing in consultations and sign-up rates."

A resident of Hubei surnamed Zeng said people are afraid of a return to the politics of the Mao era.

"All I know is that Xi Jinping wants to make himself an emperor, and a lot of people now want to get out of here, mostly the middle classes," Zeng said. "Perhaps the Communist Party won't do anything if tens of millions leave, but if hundreds of millions try to make a run for it, what then?"

Shandong-based rights activist Liu Jiwei said he knows a lot of people on lower incomes who are planning to leave, too.

"I know a lot of people who have reacted against this very strongly," Liu said. "There are plenty of people who can't get an investment visa or a skills-based visa who are grabbing a few hundred thousand yuan and booking onto tours in Singapore, Thailand, and Malaysia, then to Africa and Europe."

"When they have been out of the country three times, then they apply to the United States [on a tourist visa], after which they won't leave," Liu said.

Books about Chinese President Xi Jinping are on display at a bookstore in Beijing, Feb. 28, 2018. Credit: AFP An 'epoch-making' rule

Former China Youth Daily editor Li Datong was among the first dissenting voices to be raised in public, with an open letter posted and forwarded on the social media platform WeChat, calling on NPC delegates to oppose the move with their votes.

"The 1982 Constitution imposed a limit on Chinese leaders of no more than two terms in office, after the Chinese Communist Party and the entire nation had been through the huge pain and suffering of the Cultural Revolution," Li wrote.

He said the new rule had been an "epoch-making" one, and an effective legal curb on individuals becoming dictators.

"This reversal of history will once more sow the seeds of turmoil in China, and set in motion unlimited harm," Li wrote. "Please vote against it, in the highest interests of the Chinese people, and China's long-term peace and stability."

Li's letter was later joined by similar statements from fellow dissidents.

Jin Zhong, editor of Hong Kong's Open Magazine and a veteran publisher of books on China, said Xi's announcement heralded a more "extreme" era in Chinese politics.

"Since Xi Jinping took power, he has become more and more politically extreme ... purging and cleansing so-called reformers," Jin told RFA.

"His goal has been get to the point where he can establish himself as supreme authority, and consolidate his personal dictatorship," he said.

There are also concerns that a new form of anti-corruption police, a "supervisory body," will soon enable Xi to pursue his political opponents in every walk of life, not just within party ranks.

"It ... is in fact an illegitimate extension of administrative power, and is now to be included in the constitution in order to give it legal status," U.S.-based lawyer Ye Ning told RFA. "They will have the right to detain citizens, which violates the relevant provisions of ... criminal law, and the constitution, which states that an administrative organ may not illegally infringe the personal freedom of citizens."

Xia Ming, a political science professor at the The City University of New York, said the proposed new commission will further blur the line between ruling party and government.

"The commission further obscures the difference between the party and the state, further integrates party and the state, to the extent that the political system is completely dominated by the party," Xia said.



Reported by Wong Siu-san and Sing Man for RFA's Cantonese Service, and by Zhang Min and Gao Shan for the Mandarin Service. Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie.Thai police working together with labor rights advocates freed 19 migrant workers, some still in their teens, from an ice factory early this month after one of the migrants escaped and described to police the conditions in which they were being held.



The freed workers, who included six Lao nationals and 13 Cambodians, had been forced to live in the factory and were made to work long hours for little pay, with some threatened at knife-point by a guard hired by their employer, the workers told an RFA reporter accompanying police.



Among the Lao workers freed in the Feb. 16 raid were two young women, both 18, who had already worked in the factory for more than two years, they said, adding that they had been lured from their home town in Saravan province by a Lao labor broker promising well-paid work as housemaids in Thailand.



The broker said that I would have a good job with good pay, one young woman told RFAs Lao Service in an interview. Things did not turn out like that, though at first we worked as housemaids and were paid six thousand baht [U.S. $190] per month.



While confined in the factory, though, they were paid only 150 to 170 baht (U.S. $4.76 to $5.40) per day, while male workers, including three Lao boys under 17 years of age from Laoss Champassak province, were paid a daily wage of from 220 to 270 baht (U.S. $6.99 to $8.58).



All were housed in a room surrounded by wire fencing to prevent escapes, and were forced to work from 5:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. with only day off per month, the workers told members of the team who rescued them.



'All were abused'



Also speaking to RFA, a member of the LPN group accompanying the police raid on the factory in Thailands Nonthaburi province said that all workers held at the ice works had been abused.



We discovered that none of them had any documents, Smark Thupthani, head of LPNs anti-trafficking section, said.



And all of them had been treated as badly as human trafficking victims. All the male workers confirmed that one of their employers men had often threatened them with a knife, Smark said, adding that wages paid to the workers were far under the amounts required by law.



Police have now charged the workers employer with six violations of their rights, including forced confinement, work beyond legally allowable hours, pay below the minimum wage, and the use of illegal labor, Smark said.



Workers often exploited



According to Thailands Ministry of Labour, there are around 170,000 Lao workers working legally in the country out of around 2.7 million documented migrant workers, mainly from Myanmar and Cambodia.



While the ministry does not provide figures for undocumented workers from specific countries, it estimates that 2 million migrants are working in Thailand without papers. Reports suggest that more than 200,000 of those illegal migrant workers are from Laos.



Thailand has been widely criticized by rights groups for its treatment of migrant workers, who are often exploited by unscrupulous employers and labor brokers.



Thailand is a source, destination, and transit country for men, women, and children subjected to forced labor and sex trafficking, the U.S. State Department said in its 2017 Trafficking in Persons Report.



Reported by RFAs Lao Service. Translated by Manichanh Phimpachanh. Written in Engish by Richard Finney.As religious tensions continue to simmer in Buddhist-majority Myanmar, authorities have been taking measures to subdue unruly monks who stir up problems. A week ago, the religious affairs minister asked the State Sangha Maha Nayaka Committee (Mahana), the countrys highest Buddhist regulatory council, to allow the government to take action against wayward monks who create social disorder. Some influential hard-line clergy members have used inflammatory rhetoric to incite communal hatred against Muslims, especially the ethnic minority Rohingya residents of western Myanmars Rakhine state who have been the target of a military crackdown that the international community has called a campaign of ethnic cleansing.



About a year ago, religious authorities in Mandalay prohibited firebrand monk Wirathu from giving sermons for a year because of his repeated hate speech against Muslims. Two months later, Buddhist authorities banned the ultranationalist monk network Ma Ba Tha. And last week, a court in Yangon sentenced prominent ex-Buddhist abbot Parmaukkha to three months in jail for his role in organizing a protest against the U.S. government's use of the word "Rohingya" outside the American embassy in April 2016 without obtaining permission from authorities.



Concern about the issue has been growing since the one-year ban on Wirathu delivering sermons is set to expire on March 10. Earlier this week, the Myanmar Journalist Network (MJN) in Yangon planned to host a press conference for monks to pressure the government to take action against Wirathu. Reporter Tin Aung Khing of RFA's Myanmar Service spoke to Ashin Aikthsriya, one of the organizers of the press conference, about the problem of rabble-rousing monks. What follows is an edited version of the interview.

RFA: You canceled the press conference planned by the MJN on Feb. 25 where some people were going to call for the government to take action Ma Ba Tha monk Wirathu. Why?

Aikthsriya: When we were about to start the press conference at the MJNs offices, about 200 people including monks, men, and women showed up, so there was not enough room for all people. Thats why we negotiated with them to let only five monks each from both sides attend, as the important thing was to be able to talk to reporters about what we want. But they strongly and aggressively refused to leave the room, and that created tension between both groups. Then the office coordinator came and told us that he couldnt let us continue holding the event because the others were arguing with us. He said he could only allow us to peacefully hold the conference and told the people [from Ma Ba Tha] that the press conference was being canceled by the MJN. We announced that the event had been canceled there, and we secured another place where we held it at my monk friends monastery on the evening of the same day.

RFA: Do you believe those people intended to create unrest at the event as some people have said?

Aikthsriya: Yes, they seemed as though they wanted to create unrest. They told some people who attended that they would create some disturbances during the press conference. We didnt want any problems at the press conference. What we wanted was to explain to reporters and other people about maintaining peace and not having more hate speech from monks. If we had experienced problems while we are trying to maintain peace, we would have more disadvantages than advantages. Thats why we suspended the event [at the MJNs offices].

RFA: Would you say that the monks who came to attend the press conference did so as an act of dissension? Do you think the Sanga Maha Nayaka can control the situation?

Aikthsriya: These monks can be controlled if the State Sangha Maha Nayaka Committee works with the Ministry of Religious Affairs and the Ministry of Home Affairs to take effective action against them according to the law. For example, Ashin [honorific] Parmaukkha was charged and sentenced because he has been involved in the problems of farmers who have had their lands confiscated by the military. The Home Affairs Ministry takes action on behalf of the people only if the problem doesnt harm the militarys interests, but it doesnt take action if the problem could hurt the military or military leaders. U [honorific] Wirathu was banned from delivering sermons for a year, but he hasnt followed the order. Although a warrant has been issued for his arrest, he has not yet been arrested, and he has even participated in campaigns to support the military together with some other monks. Both U Parmaukkha and U Wirathu have had warrants issued for their arrests, but only U Parmaukkha was arrested, charged and sentenced  not U Wirathu. It shows we dont have the rule of law in our country.

RFA: Why has the Ministry of Religious Affairs proceeded very carefully with handling Wirathu?

Aikthsriya: The religious affairs ministry is very sensitive. We think the ministry has to consider the possibility of having problems and violence because of its actions, although it has to take responsibility and assume accountability as the problems can become bigger if it doesnt take action. Regarding U Wirathu, his monastery Ma Soe Yein is responsible for his actions. The monk leaders from this monastery have to warn him or control him.



RFA: You have advocated taking action against Wirathu. What do you expect to see?

Aikthsriya: We would like to tell people to be more aware of people who are supporting evil confrontations and to try to get more people to support peace and justice. It would be good for Myanmar if the State Sangha Maha Nayaka Committee could work with the Ministry of Religious Affairs, the Ministry of Home Affairs, and the states Central High Court to take effective action against such people according to the law. If not, we will have more problems.

Reported by Tin Aung Khine for RFAs Myanmar Service. Translated by Khet Mar. Written in English by Roseanne Gerin.Locals participate in a protest calling for the abolishment of the countrys 2008 constitution in Paungde township, south-central Myanmar's Bago region, Feb. 27, 2018.

More than 100 people in south-central Myanmars Bago region staged a protest on Tuesday calling for the abolishment of the countrys 2008 constitution, in a reprise of grassroots demonstrations demanding the scrapping of the military-drafted charter that filled the streets before Aung San Suu Kyis civilian party came to power.

One lawyer and four members of the Peoples Advocacy Network gave speeches at the demonstrations in Paungde township demanding renewed efforts to change a charter that gives the military a veto over key state policies despite the formal end of military rule.

We gave speeches at the Yangon-Pyay junction on abolishing the 2008 constitution, said Khin Maung Hlaing, Member of the townships Peoples Advocacy Network.

Protest leaders said they will hold another rally in western Bago and one with residents from six townships in Pyay district.

State Counselors Aung San Suu Kyis National League for Democracy (NLD), which came to power two years ago, had pushed for changes to the 2008 constitution to dilute the militarys political power when it was the main opposition party under the quasi-civilian government of former President Thein Sein.

Farmers, students, workers, Buddhist monks, community leaders, and civil society groups participated in dozens of rallies in 2014 and 2015, calling for the abolishment of the military-drafted constitution along with democratic reforms.

In 2014, the NLD and the 88 Generation Students Group, a pro-democracy movement known for its activism against the country's military junta, staged demonstrations during which leaders gave speeches and members collected more than 5 million signatures demanding that lawmakers amend the constitution.

They specifically sought changes to Article 436 of the charter, which gives the military a de facto veto over any constitutional changes.

At that time, Aung San Suu Kyi said that getting rid of the militarys veto would be the first step to pave the way for other charter amendments.

But in June 2015, Myanmars parliament failed to pass amendments that would have removed the militarys veto on legislative reform, drawing criticism from NLD lawmakers who expressed doubt over the countrys commitment to democratic change.

The NLDs proposed amendments to Article 436 would have lowered the share of parliamentary votes required to approve charter changes from more than 75 to 70 percent, limiting the veto power of the military, which is guaranteed a quarter of legislative seats through appointment.

Opposition lawmakers also had proposed amending Article 59(f) of the constitution to change the eligibility requirements that prevented Aung San Suu Kyi from becoming president because her late husband was a foreign national, as are her two sons.

Siding with the army

Though the NLD came to power in March 2016 after winning national elections by a landslide in 2015, and Aung San Suu Kyi got around Article 59(f) by becoming state counselor under current proxy President Htin Kyaw, she has continued to be constricted by the military, which controls three security and defense ministries.

Her plans to hold a series of national peace conferences to end Myanmars decades-long civil wars have been thwarted by continued fighting between the national military and ethnic militias.

Aung San Suu Kyi also has failed to rein in security forces during and after a brutal military crackdown on the Rohingya in Rakhine state, which began in August 2017 and has driven nearly 700,000 members of the Muslim group to Bangladesh.

Faced with international pressure to end the humanitarian crisis and to hold the army accountable for violence against the Rohingya, the government has sided with the military and denied accusations of atrocities, which the United Nations and the United States have said amount to ethnic cleansing.

Reported by Thiri Min Zin for RFAs Myanmar Service. Translated by Khet Mar. Written in English by Roseanne Gerin.A Vietnamese activist jailed in 2010 for writing online articles criticizing government policies is in good spirits and preparing to appeal his sentence, his brother told RFAs Vietnamese Service on Tuesday.

Tran Huynh Duy Thuc, 52, was convicted in 2010 on charges of plotting to overthrow the government under Article 79 of Vietnams penal code and is serving a 16-year prison term. He was tried along with lawyer Le Cong Dinh, engineer Nguyen Tien Trung, and businessman Le Thang Long.

Thucs brother, Tran Huynh Duy Tan, spent an hour with the political prisoner on Feb. 18 with two other siblings and Thucs wife during a Lunar New Year visit to Prison No. 6 in north-central Vietnams Nghe An province.

His health seems to be normal. He seemed to be in good spirits as ever and firmly believes in the path he has chosen, Tan told RFA.

His confidence was shown in each word and message he told my family that we shouldnt worry about anything and to just believe in justice, as well as to believe that he will soon come home to be with us, Thucs brother said.

In April 2017, family members reported that Thuc was suffering failing vision after being kept in a dark cell and denied books and other reading materials.

But Tan told RFA that for the past three months, the behavior of prison staff has become more pleasant.

"This time, although we still had to talk through a glass wall, the door of the room in which we stayed was left open. This never happened before the past three months, Tan said.

At the end of the conversation, Thuc could step out to shake hands and give us hugs for a very short time. Before this, we couldnt even hold hands let alone hug each other, he said.

The atmosphere was also not as stressful as before, added Tan.

Tan said Thuc had recently sent a petition to the Chief Justice of the Supreme People's Court, demanding a review and reduction of his sentence under Vietnams new penal code.

Our family is also going to continue writing another petition, with Thucs father being the applicant, to send to the Supreme People's Court. At the same time, we will also work with his lawyers for advice and support, Thucs brother said.

Reported by RFAs Vietnamese Service. Translated by Emily Peyman. Written in English by Paul EckertA Vietnamese activist blogger now under house arrest in Hanoi says she will not travel outside the country to receive a human rights award in March, vowing instead to remain in Vietnam to work for change in the one-party communist state.



Pham Doang Trang, author of a recently published book on political engagement that has angered Vietnamese authorities, wrote on Wednesday on her Facebook page that she will not attempt to go abroad to receive her prize.



I havent gone abroad and dont plan to, not even for a few days to receive the Homo Homini Prize in the Czech Republic on March 5, Trang said.



I will never leave Vietnam until Vietnam has changed.



When one is like a fish that has been born in a dirty and polluted pond, one can either find ones way to a nicer and cleaner pond nearby or to the vast ocean, or one can try to change ones own pond to make it beautiful, breathable, and worth living in, Trang said.



I choose this second option, she said.



"She will never surrender'



Speaking on Wednesday to RFAs Vietnamese Service, Trangs mother Bui Thi Thien Can praised her daughter for her beautiful ideals, saying Trang cannot and will never surrender or betray the path she has begun.



Trang wrote her book, Politics for Everyone, to equip the Vietnamese public with basic knowledge about politics so they wont be afraid of politics or try to avoid it, especially youth and students who are afraid of the security forces, Can said.



I am very proud of having a daughter as smart and brave as Trang, she said.



Security officers apprehended Trang on Feb. 24 to ask about her book and other activities and held her for 23 hours before returning her to her home under house arrest, fellow activists said at the weekend.



Copies of Trangs book, which is considered politically sensitive in Vietnam, were seized by customs agents in the central coastal city of Danang on Feb. 9, when they were shipped into the country from abroad.



Trang recently received the Homo Homini Award from People in Need, an international human rights organization based in the Czech Republic that recognizes individuals dedicated to the development of human rights, democracy, and nonviolent solutions to political conflict.



Reported by RFAs Vietnamese Service. Translated by Emily Peyman. Written in English by Richard Finney.We all know that the best wine in the world comes from St. Helena  right? Well, theres at least one local wine with legitimate bragging rights to that title. The Harlan Estate 2013 was recently named Best Red Wine of the World at the Best Wine of the World competition in Helsinki. It was the only American wine to take the top prize in any of the six categories: red, white, Champagne, sparkling, fortified and sweet.

In closing, this is my last column before the Oscars ceremony, which of course is being broadcast live at the Cameo Cinema at 3 p.m. Sunday, March 4. Tickets are $25, youre encouraged to bring an appetizer and dress as your favorite movie star. Ever since the nominations were announced, Ive been on a mission to watch all nine Best Picture nominees. In the sort of classy move youd expect of proprietor Cathy Buck, the Cameo will have managed to squeeze a whopping seven out of the nine nominees into its schedule since mid-January. The two exceptions, Dunkirk and Get Out, have already been out on video for months. I missed odds-on favorite Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri when it came to the Cameo in December, but Ill have another chance on Friday and Saturday, thanks to some thoughtful scheduling by Cathy. May the best film (which is of course Dunkirk  no, The Shape of Water  no, Lady Bird  no, Phantom Thread, final answer) win.Afghan President Ashraf Ghani has proposed the recognition of the Taliban as a legitimate political group, as part of a process that could lead to peace negotiations and put an end to more than 16 years of fighting.

Ghani made the proposal during a February 28 conference of countries and organizations involved in the so-called Kabul Process aimed at setting up a platform for negotiations with the militants.

"I call on Taliban and their leadership -- today the decision is in your hands. Accept peace -- a dignified peace -- come together to safeguard this country," he said.

Ghani offered the militants a cease-fire, a release of prisoners, passports, an office in Kabul or another agreed location, and the removal of sanctions.

The Afghan president also said he would be ready to accept a review of the constitution as part of an accord with the Taliban.

In return, the militants would have to recognize the Kabul government and respect the rule of law, Ghani said.

"We are making this offer without any preconditions in order to pave the way for a peace agreement," he said, insisting that Kabul "will consider the Taliban's view in the peace talks."

The one-day conference in Kabul was attended by representatives from more than 20 countries and several international organizations. The Taliban was not invited.

It comes 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.

The new U.S. strategy for Afghanistan, announced in August, is intended to break a stalemate with the insurgents and push them to the negotiating table.

The United States has since deployed 3,000 more troops to the country to train, advise, and assist and to conduct counterterrorism missions, and increased air strikes against the militants. The United States currently has about 14,000 uniformed personnel in Afghanistan.

The Taliban refuses to hold direct talks with the Afghan government, which it calls a "puppet regime," instead demanding to speak to the United States, the largest contributor of troops to the war.

"It would help in finding a solution if America accepts the legitimate demands of the Afghan people and forward its own concerns and requests for discussion to the Islamic Emirate through a peaceful channel," the Taliban said in a statement this week.

Washington insists that the Kabul government must play a lead role in the negotiations.

The Afghan government and the Taliban held peace talks in 2015, but they broke down almost immediately.

During the Kabul gathering, Ghani also called for government-to-government talks with neighboring Pakistan, saying Kabul was ready to "forget the unpleasant past" and start a new phase of relations with Islamabad.

Pakistan has been under increasing pressure from both Afghan and U.S. officials to take action against militants operating in the country.

Islamabad denies harboring militant groups that carry out attacks in Afghanistan.

With reporting by AP, dpa, and ReutersA man has reportedly been stoned to death by Islamic State (IS) militants in Afghanistan's eastern Nangarhar Province.

An RFE/RL correspondent who obtained photos released by the militants reported that the stoning occurred in the Wazir Tangi area of Nangarhar.

The pictures from the scene show a purported IS member dressed in white apparently kissing the forehead of a blindfolded man before he is stoned to death.

In other pictures, people are gathered in a semicircle while the victim is laying on the ground with stones around the body. In yet another photo, the body is laid on a bed with people around him.

In a brief statement, the militant group said the married man, whose identity was not given, was stoned to death for extramarital sexual relations.

The statement does not say when the incident occurred or with whom the victim had had sexual relations.

There was no immediate comment from Afghan authorities, and the photos' authenticity could not be independently verified.Afghan officials say at least five police officers have been killed and 30 other people abducted in two separate incidents in the south of the country.

Dost Mohammad Nayab, the spokesman for Oruzgan Province's governor, told RFE/RL that the incidents occurred on a highway linking Kandahar and Oruzgan provinces on February 27.

Kandahar police chief General Abdul Raziq confirmed the attack and abduction.

He said that a group of militants launched an assault on a police checkpoint, killing six officers and wounding five others.

Nayab put the death toll in the assault at five.

Kandahar police spokesman Ahmadzia Durani said that efforts were under way to secure the release of those kidnapped.

No one has claimed responsibility for the attack or abduction, but Raziq blamed Taliban militants.

The incidents come 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.

At a conference in Kabul, President Ashraf Ghani on February 28 proposed the recognition of the Taliban as a legitimate political group, as part of a process that could lead to peace negotiations and put an end to more than 16 years of fighting.

With reporting by AP and dpaStsipan Svyatlou is something a cybercelebrity in his homeland. The Belarusian's YouTube channel has attracted tens of thousands of followers who are drawn to his offbeat and irreverent take on events in his homeland.

But the country's long-ruling, authoritarian president, Alyaksandr Lukashenka, might not be one of them.

After the vlogger, who publishes under a pseudonym, posted a recent video that appeared to mock Lukashenka, the authorities are reportedly investigating whether he insulted the "honor and dignity" of the Belarusian president.

The episode -- dubbed "LukaSHERLOCK" in a nod to the famous Scotland Yard sleuth Sherlock Holmes -- mocked the idea that Lukashenka had personally helped solve a murder dating back nearly a decade.

After the publication of the clip featuring an image of the president with a superimposed pipe, two police officers searched Svyatlou's family's Minsk apartment on February 22. They seized a computer and a video camera that Svyatlou, who is away studying in Poland, said did not belong to him.

"There is nothing that's insulting on the channel. I'm convinced this is happening to crack down on dissent," Svyatlou told RFE/RL's Belarus Service in an interview published on February 23.

Slandering the president is a criminal offense in Belarus that can result in a prison sentence.

The Investigative Committee refused to answer questions on the case from RFE/RL. No formal charges have been filed against Svyatlou at this point.

Lukashenka tolerates little dissent and routinely locks up political opponents. More than 100 reporters were fined last year just for merely lacking accreditation, according to Amnesty International.

Police Search

Two officers, one in uniform and one in plainclothes, showed up at Svyatlou's Minsk apartment on February 22 armed with a search warrant from the Investigative Committee.

Svyatlou's mother, who was home at the time, said the warrant contained a statement from an unidentified Belarusian claiming that her son had insulted the honor and dignity of the president on his YouTube channel.

Under Article 368 of the Belarusian Criminal Code, defaming the president can result in up to five years in prison.

Svyatlou said the two officers never identified themselves to his mother, and did not provide her with a copy of the warrant.

During the search, the two seized a laptop computer Svyatlou says is used by his brother, along with a video camera. "It's not mine. I don't know why they need it," he told RFE/RL. "Anything related to the case is not there. No banned literature. There were just personal files."

LukaSHERLOCK

The police action comes a few weeks after Svyatlou posted his video, Aleksandr LukaSHERLOCK And CHAOS.

Svyatlou takes a humorous jab at a recent claim by Lukashenka that he personally had helped solve a murder case dating back to 2009. The president made the claim during a dressing-down of a top law enforcement official in Minsk on February 1 that was widely reported in state media.

"I analyzed the materials and instructed the prosecutor and the KGB chairman to use all tools to investigate the case. The culprit was caught in Russia and brought to Minsk," Lukashenka was quoted as saying by the official BelTA news agency.

The episode proved especially popular, garnering more than 246,000 views on Svyatlou's YouTube channel, NEXTA, which boasts nearly 112,000 followers.

Police Action Won't Stop Him

Svyatlou says it was the first time authorities had taken issue with something on his YouTube channel, which he has operated for more than two years.

The first entry on his channel was posted on the eve of the presidential election held in Belarus on October 11, 2015, in which Lukashenka won his fifth term in office by an overwhelming margin.

Even with the possibility of a criminal charge now hanging over his head, the vlogger doesn't seem a bit deterred.

A day after the police visit, Svyatlou released a new episode as scheduled. And judging by his recent posts he has not backed down from reporting critically on events in Belarus.

His video posted on February 22 takes aim at recent local elections, noting that no opposition candidates were on the ballot and alleging that vodka, among other tricks, was used to lure Belarusians to the polls.

The entry, titled Kolya Lukashenko Becomes A Politician/ELECTIONS in Belarus, points out that Lukashenka raised the issue of violations on election day -- not at the polls, but at the Winter Olympics.

Skier Anton Kushnir had failed to qualify for the men's aerials due to what the Belarusian leader said was an unfair judge.

Journalists Tightly Controlled In Belarus

In the past, journalists have been arrested, and even imprisoned, in Belarus for allegedly slandering Lukashenka.

In one case that drew international attention, a correspondent for a leading Polish newspaper was arrested twice for slandering Lukashenka.

Andrzej Poczobut, who worked at the time for Gazeta Wyborcza, was detained in 2012 for supposedly insulting the Belarusian leader. In 2011 he had received a suspended sentence for articles he wrote that were critical of the president.

Aside from allegedly insulting Lukashenka, reporting on inconvenient events or facts can land a reporter in hot water in Belarus.

Journalist Larysa Schyryakova, from the city of Homel in southeastern Belarus, was arrested and fined repeatedly for reporting on protests. She reported that police had warned her that she could be found "socially irresponsible" if she committed further administrative offences and that her 11-year-old son might be placed in a children's home, Amnesty International wrote in its annual report released on February 22.

The rights watchdog points out that official accreditation remains mandatory for anyone working for a foreign media outlet in Belarus and is routinely denied.

More than 100 print, radio, and TV journalists and bloggers were detained -- some repeatedly -- for not having obtained accreditation in 2017, often leading to fines. In at least eight cases journalists reporting from protests were arrested as participants and sentenced to administrative detention of between five and 15 days, according to the Amnesty report.Appeals against Bosnian Serb wartime leader Radovan Karadzic's 40-year prison sentence will be heard before judges at a UN tribunal at The Hague in April.

The president of the UN war crimes tribunal, Theodor Meron, said on February 27 that the Mechanism for International Criminal Tribunals will hear "the appeals in the case" on April 23 and 24.

The four-decade term is being appealed both by Karadzic and prosecutors, who are seeking to have the sentence increased to life in prison.

Karadzic was handed his sentence by the judges at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in 2016 after they found him guilty of war crimes including genocide for the 1995 massacre in Srebrenica, where some 8,000 Bosnian Muslim men and boys were killed.

Karadzic was also convicted on nine other charges stemming from his role in the 1992-95 Bosnian War, which ended with more than 100,000 people dead and some 2.2 million others forced to leave their homes.

Bosnian Serb military chief Ratko Mladic was sentenced in 2016 to life imprisonment after he, too, was found guilty of genocide and war crimes committed in Bosnia-Herzegovina.

The ICTY officially closed in December.

Based on reporting by AFP and 24heures.chBRUSSELS -- The European Commission is moving closer to approving a 1 billion-euro ($1.22 billion) financial package to Ukraine, although officials are awaiting further signs from Kyiv to ensure that its reform process remains on track before the funds will be delivered.

Commission Vice President Valdis Dombrovskis told RFE/RL in an interview that commissioners had given tentative approval on February 28 for a new Macro-Financial Assistance (MFA) proposal -- the third in a series of financial aid packages for Ukraine.

He said commissioners were likely to give final approval next week, then send the plan to the European Council and European Parliament for their approval.

With that approval, Dombrovskis said, the funds could be delivered as soon as this summer if Kyiv meets several conditions that prevented it from receiving a previous aid distribution.



Following a request from Ukraine in late 2014 for additional financial assistance as a result of the deterioration of its macroeconomic situation, the European Commission adopted a third MFA operation of up to 1.8 billion euros in 2015.

The first tranche of 600 million euros was disbursed in July 2015, while the second tranche was released in April 2017.

However, the EU in December 2017 said Kyiv -- while making progress on several requirements -- had failed to meet four specific demands required under the MFA agreement.

"Against this background, the commission is not in a position to disburse the last tranche of the current MFA program. We encourage Ukraine to maintain the reform momentum in the many areas that have progressed well, and complete the measures outstanding under the current program," the EU said at the time.

The EU said the four conditions that Ukraine must meet are verification of asset declarations by government officials; the validation of data provided by Ukrainian companies of their beneficial owners; the establishment of a central credit registry; and the lifting of a ban on Ukrainian wood exports.

Dombrovskis expressed guarded confidence Kyiv can deliver this time around, saying the effort continued to make progress.

"It does not mean that between December and now all the work has been stopped in Ukraine. For example, this credit registry is likely to be finalized really soon, even if there is no macro-financial program."

Still, he said, "We think it is important that those conditions that were there to finalize the previous MFA are now set as a condition for a first disbursement of the proposed program."

If the European Parliament and European Council give their approval and the commission determines that its conditions are being met, Dombrovskis said, the first tranche of the new MFA could be delivered in the summer or early fall in tranches of 500 million euros each.

But the most important hurdle could be the resistance from various EU member states voicing concerns that Ukraine's reform process has stalled in recent months, although Dombrovskis said he was confident of moving forward.

"It is important that the EU stays with Ukraine and this support continues. Of course, the support is conditional also on the reform agenda in Ukraine, so we will be able to engage with Ukraine and also facilitate reform delivery in Ukraine."

For the second tranche, more demands for reforms will be worked out between the EU and Ukraine in the coming months, he said.

Ukraine's financial situation deteriorated after Russia seized and annexed its Crimean Peninsula and has continued to aid separatists fighters in the eastern portion of the country in a war that has killed more than 10,300 since April 2014.European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker has called on Kosovo to ratify a border demarcation agreement with Montenegro and seek better ties with Serbia.

Juncker, together with EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini and Enlargement Commissioner Johannes Hahn, continued his tour of the six Balkan countries that remain outside the European Union with a stop in Kosovo on February 28.

It was the first such visit by a head of the EU executive to the young independent state.

The EU has said the border treaty is a precondition for Kosovo's citizens to travel freely within its Schengen visa-free travel zone.

Opposition parties claim that Kosovo will lose territory with the 2015 agreement, although that has been denied by the previous government and international experts.

Montenegro, which has approved the deal, recognizes Kosovo's 2008 independence from Serbia, which Belgrade rejects.

Juncker, speaking in the capital, Pristina, also said that "ties between Kosovo and Serbia are fundamental" in their path toward Europe.

Earlier on February 28, Juncker urged Bosnia-Herzegovina's leaders to overcome their differences if they want the country to join the European Union.

"Nationalism is a poison and it is contrary to European values," Juncker told Bosnia's parliament in Sarajevo.

Based on the 1995 pact that ended Bosnia's three-year civil war, the country consists of two highly autonomous entities, the Muslim-Croat Federation and the Serb-run Republika Srpska.

Bosnia applied for EU membership 18 months ago, but the reform process has stalled amid political quarrels among the countrys leaders.

"It requires joint efforts for a state to become a member," Juncker told lawmakers. "When there are differences, it leads to paralysis, it leads to delays."

Juncker received from Bosnian officials a questionnaire on the country's readiness to join the bloc.

"I cannot promise you a date for when your country becomes a candidate," he told the Bosnian political establishment gathered for the handover ceremony. "The essence is more important than the date."

It took more than a year for Bosnias multiple administrations to agree responses to more than 3,000 questions relating to the compatibility of Bosnia's economic, legal, and social systems with EU standards.

Addressing Bosnias parliament, Juncker called on politicians to agree on changes to the election law, to tackle organized crime and corruption, and to resolve its territorial disputes.

Bosnian officials say they hope their country will be granted the status of an EU candidate later this year.

With reporting by Reuters and APGerman officials say they are investigating a cyberattack on government computers, although they declined to comment on media reports blaming the hacking on a Russian group blamed for infiltration efforts in the United States and Europe.

A spokesman for Germany's Interior Ministry on February 28 said the targeted government agencies had taken measures to investigate the hacks and protect data, without providing detailed information.

"The attack was isolated and brought under control within the federal administration," a spokesman said.

German media reported earlier in the day that a Russian hacking group had penetrated the countrys Foreign and Defense ministries' secure computer networks and had stolen data.

The dpa news agency quoted unnamed security sources as saying the hack by APT28 -- also known as Fancy Bear -- was discovered in December and might have lasted for as long as a year.

The U.S. intelligence community has concluded that Fancy Bear acted on behalf of the Russian government when it allegedly interfered with the U.S. presidential election, a charge the Kremlin denies.

Western governments and security experts previously identified ATP28 as the likely source of an attack on the German parliament in 2015. It has also been blamed for hacking into the computer systems of NATO and governments in Eastern Europe.

The Associated Press in December reported that the group targeted more than 200 journalists globally, breaking into the Gmail inboxes of reporters, publishers, and bloggers.

Based on reporting by dpa, Reuters, and APDemonstrators gathered outside the UN in Geneva and some diplomats left in protest over an address given by Iran's justice minister, who has been sanctioned by the EU over human rights violations.

Alireza Avayi took the podium at the United Nations Human Rights Council late on February 27, slamming what he called "appalling deficiencies" at the UN and accusing Western powers of "exploiting human rights for their political ends."

His presence spurred a protest outside the gates of the UN's European headquarters, with between 100 and 150 protesters waving flags used by exiled Iranian opposition groups and signs reading "Arrest Avayi."

The demonstration featured a large pyramid of shoes meant to represent the thousands killed in a 1988 massacre of political prisoners allegedly overseen by Avayi.

Avayi is perhaps the most controversial of the around 100 dignitaries addressing the opening of the rights council's annual session this week.

Brussels has slapped sanctions on him, maintaining that as Tehran's former top prosecutor, he was "responsible for human rights violations, arbitrary arrests, denials of prisoners' rights. and an increase in executions."

According to exiled members of the Iranian opposition, he played a key role in a 1988 massacre of political prisoners.

Amnesty International has said nearly 5,000 prisoners were executed in a matter of months, while Iranian opposition groups put the figure closer to 30,000.

Before Avayi took the floor, a handful of diplomats left the room to protest his presence.

When approached by journalists after his speech and asked about the criticism, Avayi walked by without responding.

Earlier this week, Washington's UN ambassador, Nikki Haley, slammed the rights council for allowing him to participate and accused Avayi of "some of the worst human rights violations in Iran."

The council "should be ashamed," she said. "Yet again, the council discredits itself by allowing serial human rights abusers to hijack its work and make a mockery of its mandate to promote universal human rights."

"This does nothing but reinforce the United States' call for much needed reforms at the council for it to be viewed as a good investment of our time and money," Haley said.

The U.S. delegation to the council said Avayi "oversaw the summary executions of Iranians" in the late 1980s while today, he presides over "arbitrary" arrests and imprisonment "in a network of facilities notorious for suspicious deaths, the use of torture, and denial of medical care."

In his speech, Avayi criticized a blockade of Yemen by a U.S.-backed Arab coalition waging what he called a "war of aggression" against Huthi rebels there. The UN estimates more than 10,000 people have died in the conflict.

"These self-proclaimed champions of human rights, through finger-pointing, unjustly and widely blame others for violation of human rights, while certain parts of their population, especially blacks, immigrants, foreigners, and indigenous people, grievously suffer from human rights violations under their watch," Aviyi said.

Addressing a principal criticism of Iran today, Aviyi told the council he expected to see fewer executions in Iran as a result of recent reforms in drug laws. Drug violations have accounted for a large share of Iranian executions in the past.

On February 26, a Swiss lawyer filed a complaint on behalf of the National Council of Resistance of Iran asking the Swiss attorney general to prosecute Avayi for crimes against humanity.

The attorney general's office did not say whether it would press charges.

European Union sanctions bar Avayi from traveling to the EU and freeze any assets he might hold in the bloc. Swiss authorities have also imposed sanctions on Avayi, but they are financial and do not prevent him from visiting the country.

Avayi is not on the UN Security Council's sanctions list.

With reporting by AP, AFP, and Reuters15 Koshkarov has been hunting with golden eagles since he was in the sixth grade. "My father was a student of the famous berkutchi Abdilkhak Turlybayev, and I learned everything from my father," Koshkarov said. "It's not a hobby. It's a tradition that is passed down from generation to generation. It's also a passion -- to leave early in the morning on a horse, to check on the golden eagle and how it's flying and hunting.



"Many people believe that the strongest berkutchi are in Mongolia. But I've been to Mongolia and I don't agree. I've been many places, and I think that the best hunters are in Kazakhstan. The golden eagle is the same everywhere, but the person's approach to the bird is different."The #neveragain movement has taken off with the ambitious goal of making Parkland the last school shooting in America. The voices of the children who survived Marjory Stoneman Douglas are more powerful than anything I might pen.

Lorenzo Prado, To let these victims lives be taken without any change is an act of treason to our great country. What we must do now is enact change because that is what we do to things that fail: We change them.

Florence Yared, The right to bear arms does not and never will overpower the individuals right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. We cannot protect our guns before we protect our children.

Emma Gonzalez, To those who say no laws could have prevented the tragedies that have occurred, we call BS; who say that we kids dont know what were talking about and are too young to understand how government works, we call BS!

The students comments and efforts at organizing immediately drew dismissive claims that they are kids with no right to comment, despite their experiences as survivors and witnesses to the slaughter. One theory quickly spread on conservative social media that the whole incident was faked and smeared the students as being paid actors.Montenegrin Prime Minister Dusko Markovic has said he expects to open two new negotiating chapters on justice and the judiciary early this year to further Montenegro's bid to join the European Union.

Markovic made his remarks at a joint press conference on February 27 with European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, who was visiting Podgorica. Juncker said Montenegro had already demonstrated a devotion to common European values that is worthy of admiration.

The EU recently drafted a new expansion strategy that envisages Montenegro and Serbia joining the bloc by 2025.

"The key thing is that we are absolutely devoted to values of the union," Markovic said. "We dont have a doubt about that, as much as we dont have a doubt that there is no alternative for a European future," he said.

Juncker also met with Montenegrin parliament speaker Ivan Brajovic and gave an address to parliament on February 27.

Later in Washington, U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said the United States was "proud" to call Montenegro an ally as Montenegrin Defense Minister Oredreg Boskovic visited the Pentagon.

Mattis said he welcomed the small Balkan state, which became NATO's newest member in June, as a country that shares a "community of values" with the rest of the military alliance, including having a political system "based on democracy."

"The United States is proud to call you our ally, as we stand shoulder-to-shoulder alongside our fellow NATO members against common security threats, like those posed by Russia, as it seeks to redraw international borders by force and seeks veto authority over European diplomatic, economic, and security decisions," Mattis said.

"In the face of such threats, the United States will continue to engage Russia to honor both the letter and spirit of its international commitments," he said.

Mattis thanked Boskovic for making plans to reach NATO's defense-spending goal of 2 percent of economic output by 2024 to ensure "our militaries remain fit" and the defense burden is evenly shared.

He said Boskovic also informed the Pentagon of Montenegro's plans to increase troop contributions to NATO's mission in Afghanistan, where he said it had already sent 25 percent of its land forces in 16 different rotations.

"There are no mightier mountaineers, no braver soldiers than your country's troops," Mattis said, quoting the English poet Lord Tennyson.

Boskovic said "the United States always understood small nations much better than others."

He said Montenegro's region was a "very important region for Europe because an unstable Balkans is an unstable Europe."A man the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) claims was behind an alleged attempt to smuggle nearly 400 kilograms of cocaine from Argentina to Moscow is claiming he is the victim of a set-up by U.S. intelligence and Argentinian police, Russian media report.

The claim made by Andrei Kovalchuk's lawyer on February 28 was a new twist in a bizarre case involving 16 pieces of luggage authorities say were left -- packed with high-quality cocaine with a street value of more than $60 million in Moscow -- in a storage area at the Russian Embassy school in Buenos Aires.

Argentina's security minister, Patricia Bullrich, said last week that 389 kilograms of cocaine were found inside the bags when they were seized in December 2016, following a tip from the Russian ambassador and three FSB officers. She called it evidence of "one of the most complex and extravagant drug-dealing operations that Argentina has faced."

The cocaine was replaced with flour and the luggage was flown in 2017 to Russia, where two men were arrested when they came to pick it up, Bullrich said. She said a suspect she referred to by the initial K had allegedly been in charge of buying the cocaine and getting it into the embassy.

The FSB said that a total of three suspects had been detained in Russia and two in Argentina in result of what both countries said was a joint operation, while the alleged mastermind -- later identified as Andrei Kovalchuk, a former technical worker at the Russian Embassy in Argentina who lives in Germany -- is wanted under an international arrest warrant.

Kovalchuk's lawyer, Vladimir Zherebenkov, said on February 27 that his client had left his suitcases at the embassy in 2016 and they contained coffee, some alcohol, and other items -- but no cocaine.

On February 28, Russian state and independent media outlets quoted Zherbenkov as claiming that the operation was a provocation conducted by the U.S. intelligence services and Argentinian police in an attempt to discredit the Russian Embassy.

Zherebenkov did not provide evidence of the claim. He was quoted as saying that Kovalchuk was ready to come to Russia and cooperate with investigators in order "to prove his innocence and establish the truth."

Also on February 28, Berlin-based Russian-language television station RTVD showed a portion of an interview in which Konstantin Loskutnikov, whom RTVD identifies as a Russian businessman also known as "baron Konstantin von Bossner," says that Kovalchuk was introduced to him several years ago as a colonel in the Russian security services. There was no way to determine the veracity of the comment.

On February 23, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova criticized news reports she said suggested that the case "cast a shadow" on Russia's diplomatic corps.

"It's exactly the opposite," Zakharova said. "The success of this operation was ensured by the effective actions of the Russian ambassador and diplomatic personnel."

With reporting by TASS, Interfax, Meduza, and RTVDTelevision journalist Yekaterina Kotrikadze has directly accused powerful Russian lawmaker Leonid Slutsky of forcing himself on her during a discussion about an interview request, claiming that journalists covering the Kremlin often face sexual harassment but are afraid of coming forward.

The on-air accusation by Kotrikadze, a deputy editor in chief of the New York-based, Russian-language RTVi channel, was made on February 27 during a discussion about multiple allegations of sexual misconduct leveled against the State Duma deputy in recent days.

All of the allegations made since February 23 were made anonymously by journalists; Kotrikadze said that she believed them because I had the same unpleasant experience.

Kotrikadze said she was harassed by Slutsky, a member of the ultranationalist Liberal Democratic Party of Russia (LDPR) and current chairman of the Duma's International Relations Committee, seven years ago while working for a Georgian TV channel.

Shortly after arriving in the Russian capital from Tbilisi, Kotrikadze said, she contacted Slutsky about arranging an interview and he invited her to his office to discuss the details.

I entered his office. He locked the door and tried to push me up against a wall. He tried to touch me and kiss me. I broke away and ran out, Kotrikadze said during the discussion on RTVi TV.

Kotrikadze is the first to come forward publicly in accusing Slutsky of sexual harassment.

No one talks out loud about it because we understand it wouldn't make a difference; we'd only face abuse or accusations."

Allegations of Slutsky's misconduct first came to light on February 22, when Dozhd TV presenter Yelizaveta Antonova interviewed LDPR leader Vladimir Zhirinovsky.

Antonova, who covers Russia's lower house of parliament, asked Zhirinovsky if he was aware that Slutsky "constantly harasses young female journalists." Zhirinovsky, who is one of eight candidates in Russia's March 18 presidential election, said he would look into it.

The following day, two journalists, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Dozhd they had been harassed by Slutsky.

A Dozhd producer also claimed Slutsky had tried to kiss and grope her before an on-air appearance.

Slutsky has vehemently denied the charges and threatened Dozhd -- an independent online channel -- with a lawsuit.

He's received support from his party.

Deputy speaker and LDPR member Igor Lebedev has proposed revoking the accreditations of Dozhd journalists who cover the Duma.



Kotrikadze said on February 27 that female reporters covering the Russian government often face such harassment.

She said a sense of fear and futility prevent them from coming forward.

"No one talks out loud about it because we understand it wouldn't make a difference; we'd only face abuse or accusations," Kotrikadze said.

At least one State Duma deputy has voiced a willingness to tackle the problem.

Oksana Pushkina said she may introduce amendments to a draft law on gender equality that would criminalize sexual harassment.

"If there are facts," she told Kommersant about the Slutsky case, "then the matter should be carried to its conclusion. This [behavior] is flourishing in our society."

And presidential candidate and journalist Ksenia Sobchak has called for a probe into the sexual harassment claims involving Slutsky.

In a statement posted on her campaign website on February 27, Sobchak said that if the allegations were true, "such actions by a deputy would be a direct violation of" the law on the status of members of the Federation Council and the State Duma.

The accusations follow on the emergence of the #MeToo movement, which aims to end sexual violence and supports survivors of sexual assault and harassment. #MeToo has been largely lampooned by the Kremlin, and a small demonstration in support of Harvey Weinstein, a Hollywood film mogul who has been accused by dozens of women of sexual harassment and abuse, was held in front of the U.S. Embassy in Moscow in November 2017.

"Thank God we live in a country where political correctness hasn't reached the absurd," Russian filmmaker Andrei Konchalovsky told Izvestia in November. "When you can't call a man a man, a woman a woman, and you have to call them a person."

In April 2014, Zhirinovsky was censored and apologized for an outburst in which he ordered his aides to rape a pregnant reporter.

He later claimed he had been on medication at the time.The woman at the center of Russian opposition politician Aleksei Navalny's recent report about an alleged meeting between billionaire Oleg Deripaska and Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Prikhodko has asked for political asylum from the U.S. Embassy in Thailand, where she and an associate were detained after a police raid on a "sex training" seminar.

Anastasia Vashukevich, who goes by the name Nastya Rybka, and her partner Aleksandr Kirillov -- known as Alex Lesley -- were detained by Thai police in the city of Pattaya on February 25 along with eight other Russian nationals and are expected to be deported to Russia within 48 hours, their representative, Ivan Yunko, told RFE/RL on February 28.

Yunko provided RFE/RL with photographs of the handwritten letter he said Vashukevich, Kirillov, and the others sent to the U.S. Embassy in Thailand. In the letter, scrawled in English and addressed to "USA Consul," Kirillov says that he has been "repressed by Russia" because he provided material for Navalny's report alleging a meeting on a yacht between Deripaska and Prikhodko, a longtime former senior foreign policy adviser to President Vladimr Putin.

"We ask you political asylim (sic) and help us and protect us as quickly as possible, because we have very important information for USA and we risk our lives very much," the letter says.

In it, Kirillov claims to have photographed and taped evidence of "crymes of [the] Russian government," and promises to give the evidence -- which he does not describe in any detail -- to the United States "if you help us."

There was no immediate comment from the U.S. Embassy.

Belarus-born Vashukevich, who claims to have had an affair with Deripaska, was the main source for a report published by Navalny's Anticorruption Foundation on February 8 that drew on photographs and video posted on her social-media accounts in 2016.

Navalny says the report added to evidence of corruption among allies of Putin, who is widely expected to secure a new six-year term in a March 18 presidential election. Navalny has been barred from the ballot due to a financial-crimes conviction he contends was based on fabricated charges.

The material in Navalny's report appears to include part of a conversation between Deripaska and Prikhodko about U.S.-Russian relations, which have been severely strained over issues including Russia's alleged interference in the U.S. presidential election in 2016.

In a video that Vashukevich posted on February 27, which appeared to have been filmed in a Thai police car, she claims that she can reveal details about Russia's alleged meddling in the election.

"I am a witness and the only missing link in the chain related to Russia and elections in the United States, in other words in that long chain [linking] Oleg Deripaska, Prikhodko, Putin, and [U.S. President Donald] Trump," she said.

In exchange for U.S. help and protection, she said, she is "ready to provide...information to the United States, Europe, or any other country that can bail me out of Thai jail," Vashukevich said.

Meanwhile, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on February 28 that there is no connection between a visit to Thailand by Nikolai Patrushev, the secretary of Putin's advisory Security Council, and Vashukevich's detainment there.

Patrushev, who headed Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) between 1999 and 2008, arrived in Bangkok on February 27.

Peskov said any speculation about a link between the two developments is "absurd."

With reporting by Meduza, Interfax and TASSU.S. President Donald Trump has not ordered or authorized intelligence agencies to retaliate against Russian meddling and disinformation campaigns, resulting in a response that has not deterred Moscow, a top U.S. intelligence official has testified.

Admiral Mike Rogers, director of both the U.S. Cyber Command and the National Security Agency, told Congress on February 27 that neither Trump nor Defense Secretary Jim Mattis had granted him additional powers to counter what he said were Russian efforts to sow discord in the United States.

"I've never been given any specific direction to take additional steps outside my authority. I have taken the steps within my authority, you know, trying to be a good, pro-active commander," Rogers said at a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing. "I have not been granted any additional authorities."

Rogers told Congress that he thought a more aggressive response is needed, but that he didn't want to tell the president what to do.

"I believe that [Russian] President [Vladimir] Putin has clearly come to the conclusion that there's little price to pay and that therefore, 'I can continue this activity,'" Rogers said.

"Clearly, what we have done hasn't been enough," he said. "They have not paid a price that is sufficient to change their behavior."

White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said Trump was looking at ways to prevent Russian meddling and that more measures likely will be taken in coming weeks.

"I can tell you that we are taking a number of steps to prevent this, and we are looking at a variety of other ways that we're going to continue to implement over the coming weeks and months," Sanders said.

Rogers' statements came two weeks after U.S. intelligence chiefs testified that Russia is actively interfering with U.S. congressional campaigns ahead midterm elections in November this year.

Rogers stressed that he expected the Russian meddling that intelligence agencies saw in the 2016 presidential election -- including social-media disinformation campaigns and the theft and leaking of embarrassing internal party documents -- to continue until the United States acts to stop them.

"What I see on the Cyber Command side leads me to believe that if we don't change the dynamic here, that this is going to continue, and 2016 won't be viewed as isolated," he said.

Rogers' statements fueled concern among Democrats on the Senate committee.

"We're watching them intrude in our elections, spread misinformation, become more sophisticated...and we're just, essentially, just sitting back and waiting," said Senator Jack Reed, the ranking Democrat on the committee.

Rogers said he didn't fully agree with the characterization that the United States was just sitting back and waiting. But he said, "It's probably fair to say that we have not opted to engage in some of the same behaviors that we are seeing" from Russia.

Rogers said he didn't have the day-to-day authority to try to deter Russian activities at their source. He said that authority was held by Trump and Mattis. "There are some things I have the authority to do and I'm acting on that authority," he said.

Rogers said U.S. sanctions and recent indictments of Russians have had some impact. But "it certainly hasn't generated the change in behavior that I think we all know we need," he said.

Earlier this month, Democratic Senators Richard Blumenthal, Bill Nelson, and Jeanne Shaheen sent a letter to Mattis urging him to order the U.S. Cyber Command to prepare to engage Russian cyberoperators and disrupt Russian activities if they conduct any clandestine influence operations against the upcoming midterm elections.

With reporting by AP and AFPRussian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has said that Moscow will continue to help Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's government to defeat what he called the "terrorist threat."

Lavrov's remarks, in an address to the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva on February 28, came amid a global outcry over a Syrian government offensive that has killed hundreds of people near Damascus in the past 10 days or so.

The bombardment of eastern Ghouta, an area of towns and farms on the outskirts of the Syrian capital, has been one of the deadliest air campaigns of a seven-year war in which Assad has had crucial Russian military and diplomatic support.

Lavrov criticized unnamed countries he said had failed to "clearly condemn any forms and manifestations of international terrorism."

"We find it unacceptable to distinguish between good and bad terrorists," he said, echoing a frequent Russian claim that Western countries including the United States have applied double standards.

"Russia will continue to resolutely fight the practice of double standards, including by facilitating Syrian Army actions aimed at the final extermination of the terrorist threat," Lavrov added.

Lavrov's comments came as Western countries urged Russia and Iran to use their influence with Assad to secure a 30-day cease-fire across the country, as demanded in a Russia-backed UN Security Council resolution on February 24.

They also came as violence continued in eastern Ghouta despite Russia's announcement of a daily "humanitarian pause."

The Syrian and Russian governments frequently refer to opponents of Assad as terrorists, and Lavrov blamed the situation in eastern Ghouta on the rebels.

Lavrov told the Geneva forum that "militants entrenched" in the besieged area were blocking aid and the evacuation of people who want to leave, despite Moscow's announcement of a "humanitarian corridor."

In Moscow, President Vladimir Putins spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said that "continuing provocations by terrorists [in eastern Ghouta] regrettably leave no chance for settling this situation properly."

Responding to Russian criticism of rebel groups, Paris reiterated its call on Assads supporters to "exert maximum pressure on the Syrian government to implement its obligations," referring to Russia and Iran.

French Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Agnes Von der Muhll said that the rebels had already agreed to support the truce.

Activists said the government carried out air and artillery strikes in Ghouta during the first five-hour "pause" on February 27, while Damascus and Moscow accused rebels of shelling the evacuation route.

On February 28, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said government forces and allied militias, backed by intense shelling and rocket bombardment, advanced on the enclave overnight.

The United Nations says the continued fighting makes relief operations impossible.

Russia, along with Iran, has given Assad's government crucial support throughout the war in Syria, which began with a government crackdown on peaceful 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.

In a February 26 letter to the foreign ministers of Russia, Iran, and Turkey, EU foreign-policy chief Federica Mogherini urged the three countries to take "all necessary steps" to ensure that the fighting in Syria stops, Reuters news agency reported.

Moscow, Tehran, and Ankara are the guarantors of the so-called Astana process aimed at de-escalating violence in Syria.

Turkey on January 19 began an air-and-land military campaign in the Kurdish-controlled Afrin enclave in northern Syria, saying it was targeting terrorists.

With reporting by Reuters, AFP, TASS, and InterfaxThree International Space Station crew members have returned to Earth after a nearly six-month-long mission, landing on the snowy, cold steppes of Kazakhstan.

Two U.S. astronauts and a Russian cosmonaut landed in a Soyuz capsule in below-freezing conditions early on February 28 that NASA said were not severe enough to prevent a trouble-free recovery of the team by ground crew.

Joe Acaba, Mark Vande Hei, and Russian Aleksandr Misurkin emerged from the capsule one by one, smiling, waving, and pumping their fists in the air as they were carried to outdoor chairs.

Medical staff wrapped them in thick blankets, while taking their pulse and making sure they were OK.

"We're already missing you," space station commander Anton Shkaplerov said as the men left the station.

In handing over the skipper's job to Shkaplerov, Misurkin joked that at least he and his two crewmates didn't break anything and hopefully accomplished some good science. They'd lived on the space station since September.

Acaba, a former schoolteacher, is the first astronaut of Puerto Rican heritage.

During a series of spacewalks spanning months, Acaba and Vande Hei helped replace the aging mechanical hands of the station's big robot arm. And last fall, they had a chance to chat with Pope Francis, discussing the beauty and fragility of their home planet.

A replacement crew is scheduled to lift off from the Russian-leased Baikonur facility in Kazakhstan on March 21 and bring the space station back up to a full crew of six.

With reporting by AP and ReutersFEODOSIA, Ukraine -- A prosecutor in Russian-controlled Crimea has asked a court to sentence a Crimean Tatar activist who opposes Moscow's rule over the Ukrainian region to a suspended sentence of three years.

At a hearing in the city of Feodosia on February 28, the prosecutor also asked the court to bar Suleyman Kadyrov from "public activities" for two years -- a sentence that would prevent him from demonstrating.

Kadyrov is charged with public calls for the violation of Russia's territorial integrity.

The charge stems from his Facebook post of a video about a pro-Ukrainian volunteer military unit and a comment in which he wrote, "Crimea was, is, and will always be Ukraine!"

Kadyrov says he is not guilty, arguing that he has the right to express his opinion.

"I have never concealed my pro-Ukrainian position, I have always expressed it openly as it is my right, the right of a human being and a citizen," he said. "I do not hide it. I do not consider myself guilty."

Rights groups and Western governments have denounced what they call a campaign of oppression targeting members of the Turkic-speaking Crimean Tatar minority and others who opposed Moscow's seizure of the Black Sea peninsula in March 2014.

The majority of Crimean Tatars opposed the Russian takeover of their historic homeland.

In March 2017, the European Parliament called on Russia to free more than 30 Ukrainian citizens it said were in prison or other conditions of restricted freedom in Russia, Crimea, and parts of eastern Ukraine that are controlled by Russia-backed separatists.WASHINGTON -- A bipartisan group of U.S. senators is resurrecting a NATO observer group, aimed at strengthening congressional ties with the North Atlantic alliance.

The effort, headed by Democrat Jeanne Shaheen and Republican Thom Tillis, follows past comments by President Donald Trump that have raised doubts among some NATO members about the U.S. commitment to the alliance.

Trump has repeatedly criticized NATO members for not meeting obligations for defense expenditures. At one point, he appeared to cast doubt on the alliance's most important element: that an attack on one member is considered an attack on all members.

Trump has since walked back on some of those remarks, though he continues to be critical of spending obligations.

The Senate NATO Observer group, which went dormant about a decade ago, will be aimed at bolstering members' ties with Congress, Shaheen said in a statement on February 28.

Now more than ever, its imperative that the United States work closely with NATO to respond to the ever-evolving threats to Western democracies, particularly from the Kremlin, she said.

Russia has long considered the alliance a threat and a relic of the Cold War, vociferously opposing expansion to the East to admit countries like Montenegro, the newest member.It doesnt have to be this way. There are measures that we can take that would help keep guns out of the hands of people who are angry, depressed, desperate, deranged or just plain stupid or impulsive. These are measures that are clearly constitutional and in no way infringe on the Second Amendment.

How do we know? The Supreme Court has told us.

In the 2008 decision in District of Columbia v. Heller, the Supreme Court for the first time confirmed that the Second Amendment gives Americans the individual right to own and carry firearms, absent any kind of military duty. But in saying so, conservative Justice Antonin Scalia wrote that nothing in our opinion should be taken to cast doubt on longstanding prohibitions of firearms by felons and the mentally ill, or laws forbidding the carrying of firearms in sensitive places such as schools and government buildings, or laws imposing conditions and qualifications on the commercial sale of arms.

Like most rights, Scalia wrote, in demolishing the absolutist interpretation of the Second Amendment, the right secured by the Second Amendment is not unlimited.

So what is to be done?In a surprise move, Zakir Almatov has returned to Uzbekistans Interior Ministry after more than 12 years.

Perhaps more than any other Uzbek official, Almatovs name is linked with the violent events -- some say massacre -- that took place in Uzbekistans eastern city of Andijon on May 13, 2005.



He left his post as interior minister at the end of 2005, citing health reasons, and had largely faded from memory.

But on February 27, the now-68-year-old Almatov reappeared in the newly created post of adviser to the interior minister, who since September has been Pulat Bobojonov.

The move is surprising because President Shavkat Mirziyoev, who has been Uzbekistans leader since September 2016, has been working to suggest the country is moving away from the often disastrous policies and legacy of his predecessor, Islam Karimov.

But now Mirziyoev has brought back one of the most controversial figures from the darkest days of independent Uzbek history.

Almatov was appointed interior minister shortly after Uzbekistan became independent in late 1991 and remained there until late 2005.

He was one of the most powerful people in the country before the bloodshed in Andijon.

On the morning of May 13, 2005, a peaceful protest that had been in progress for a week by locals in Andijon who were demanding that detained local business leaders be freed was hijacked by escaped prisoners and an armed group that crossed into Uzbekistan from Kyrgyzstan in the early hours of the night.

The new arrivals turned the demonstration into an insurrection. Government buildings were seized, officials and police were taken hostage, and some were executed.

As interior minister, Almatov led the negotiations with the leaders of the armed group. Almatov was said to have offered the leaders of the group safe passage out of Uzbekistan, but the talks went nowhere.

In the late afternoon, Uzbek troops, many of them Interior Ministry forces, entered Andijon from all sides of the city and started firing on the crowd.

The vast majority of people on the streets of Andijon at the time were peaceful protesters or locals, but the troops appear to have made no distinction. Officially, 187 people were killed, but accounts from eyewitnesses suggest the number was several times higher, many of them unarmed civilians.

There was broad international condemnation of the violence in Andijon and calls for an international investigation. But, backed by Russia and China, Uzbekistan resisted and subsequently curbed many of its ties with Western governments and organizations.



Almatov stepped down from his post several months later, citing health reasons. He was genuinely ill and required medical treatment, which he found in Germany despite being on an EU travel ban for his role in the Andijon violence.

And Andijon was not the only violent incident in Uzbekistan involving Almatov.

Shortly after independence, in January 1992, Almatov had helped put down the student riots in Tashkent that began over cuts to stipends but which grew into a large, but not violent, protest.

Officially, two students were killed. Again, witnesses suggested the figure could have been above 200.



Mirziyoev has been increasingly critical of alleged abuses by officials under Karimov.

Many of the high and mighty under Karimov have been cast out publicly by Mirziyoev in recent months in what the president portrays as a campaign against the corruption and avarice that festered among a chosen few while Karimov was in power.

That makes Almatovs return to Uzbekistans Interior Ministry all the more strange.

Some believe Mirziyoevs ethics campaign is simply a cover for installing loyal cadres into key positions.

Almatov might now be counted among these loyal cadres. Mirziyoev was prime minister when the Andijon violence happened.

Almatovs return also contains a bit of irony.

After the Andijon bloodshed, the Uzbek government and Karimov rejected all criticism of the governments methods of restoring order in the city; but even so, Almatovs power was clearly weakened.



The head of the National Security Service (SNB), Rustam Inoyatov, appeared to be taking advantage of Almatovs situation, and some of the powers of the Interior Ministry were transferred to Inoyatovs security service. Those powers were recently transferred back to the Interior Ministry just prior to Inoyatovs dismissal as head of the SNB at the end of January.



The Interior Ministry once again appears to be the dominant internal security force in Uzbekistan, which arguably makes the reappearance of Almatov in the ministry even more disturbing.

RFE/RL's Uzbek Service contributed to this report. The views expressed in this blog post do not necessarily reflect the views of RFE/RL.Four Western powers have condemned Iran for allegedly violating an arms embargo on Yemen a day after Russia vetoed a UN resolution taking aim at Tehran over the same issue.

France, Germany, the United Kingdom, and United States issued a joint statement late on February 27 saying that Iran's failure to comply with the arms embargo, as determined by a panel of UN experts last month, "poses serious risks to peace and stability in the region."

The four countries called on Iran "to immediately cease all activities" that run counter to the 2015 United Nations resolution imposing the embargo on Yemen's Huthi rebel leaders.

The UN experts last month found Iran was not complying with the embargo because it failed to prevent missiles and drones Iran manufactured from falling into the hands of the Shi'ite rebels, who are allied with Tehran.

Iran has denied supplying weapons to the Huthis.

Russia on February 26 vetoed a UN Security Council resolution condemning Iran over the alleged violations, with Russia's UN Ambassador Vasily Nebenzya calling its conclusions "uncorroborated."

"In spite of a mountain of credible, independent evidence showing Iran violated the Yemen arms embargo, resulting in a series of attacks on civilian targets, Russia prevented accountability and endangered the entire region," U.S. Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley said, vowing to take action outside the UN against Iran.

The statement by Western powers condemning Iran on February 27 shows the United States has galvanized the support of major European allies, all of whom signed Iran's 2015 nuclear deal along with Russia and China, for taking action to deter Iran's ballistic-missile activities.

The four powers said they have "grave concerns" about the UN panel's findings that Iranian Qiam ballistic missiles were used by the Huthis to attack Saudi Arabia several times last year.

The Saudis lead an Arab coalition that has backed Yemen's government in its four-year civil war against the Huthis with a devastating bombing campaign since 2015.

The Western powers said that the move by the Huthis to fire missiles into Saudi Arabia "has the potential to turn a local conflict into a broader regional one."

The war in Yemen began in 2014 when the Huthis took over the capital, Sanaa, and forced the internationally recognized government to flee and seek support from neighboring Gulf Arab countries.

The UN has blamed the Saudi-led bombing campaign for much of the devastation and violence that has killed more than 10,000 Yemenis, displaced 2 million people, and created what it has called the world's biggest humanitarian crisis in the poor Arab country.

The Saudi-led coalition since last year has been blockading Yemeni ports in an effort to defeat the Huthis, in a move the UN says has exacerabated the near-famine conditions in the country.

The Western powers in their statement called on all parties in the conflict to return to peace talks and comply with international humanitarian and human rights law, including allowing food and medical aid shipments into all of the country's ports and airports.

U.S. President Donald Trump is threatening to pull out of the nuclear deal unless it is made stronger and more is done to limit Iran's ballistic-missile activities and involvement in regional conflicts.

Unless more is done by U.S. allies to deter Iran, Trump has said he will stop waiving U.S. sanctions against Iran as required under the nuclear deal in exchange for curbs on Iran's nuclear activities.

With reporting by AP, dpa, and AFPVladimir Zhirinovsky and Ksenia Sobchak clashed at the first Russian presidential TV debate, with the ultranationalist leader calling Sobchak a "whore" after being doused by her with water.

The debate was aired nationwide by state-run Channel One on February 28.

Tensions between the two began to rise while another candidate, Sergei Baburin, was speaking.

Zhirinovsky interrupted him, and Sobchak scolded him to be quiet. Angered, Zhirinovsky launched into a verbal assault of Sobchak, who fired back asking whether he really believed that a man can speak to a woman like that?

After that, Sobchak doused Zhirinovsky with water, triggering his profane language.

During the debate, Sobchak also reminded Zhirinovsky that a member of his Liberal Democratic Party of Russia (LPDR), Leonid Slutsky, was facing allegations of sexual harassment. He responded by asking Sobchak whether she had seen anything firsthand.

The debate, formally dedicated to foreign policy issues, was held on February 27 but only broadcast nationally a day later on February 28.

While all seven challengers participated, Russian President Vladimir Putin, who is widely expected to win the March 18 presidential election, did not take part in the debate.

With reporting by Meduza.ioCancun, Playa del Carmen highway expansion will use shadow toll

Cancun, Q.R.  The expansion of the current Cancun-Playa del Carmen highway to six lanes will be done with private funding and through a system called shadow toll.

According to Eduardo Ortiz Jasso, director of the Agency for Strategic Projects (Agepro), the expansion of the Cancun-Playa del Carmen highway to six lanes will be carried out with private capital in a scheme called shadow toll.

The agreement was signed between Agepro and National Bank of Works and Services (Banobras), who explained that shadow toll is a contractual payment made by the government per driver using a highway a private company operates with private funding.

Payments are based in part, on the number of vehicles using a section of road, often over a 20 to 30-year period. The shadow tolls or per vehicle fees are paid directly to the company without intervention or direct payment from the users.

Ortiz Jasso explained that the shadow toll system is from England, but is currently in operation on the Irapuato-La Piedad highway in Mexico. Agepro is already working on the analysis of 26 projects for the state, which will be prioritized in March.Mexico works with Texas on combating Cancun, Riviera Maya seagrass

Cancun, Q.R.  Cancun and Riviera Maya tourism sectors have, for the past year, been working with the University of Galveston on dealing with the seaweed that seasonally lands on Mexican beaches.

In an attempt to combat the arrival of sargasso, the State Secretariat of Tourism (Sedetur) implemented a containment program with the help of the University of Galveston.

Much like a daily weather report, satellite images taken by the University of Galveston in Texas show how and where the sea grass moves in the Caribbean Sea, providing Mexico with a three-day forecast of its arrival.

Marisol Vanegas Perez, head of Sedetur says, We take the images of that satellite and determine what will arrive and when because we have three days of forecasting. This tells how it will be today, tomorrow and on the third day.

We know that if the grass is going to land on a certain area we have to prepare the squads to clean the area when it arrives. That is what all the directors of tourism, of associations and the people who deal with sargasso do during the days, he said adding It is up to the municipal authorities and even the staff of the hotels, depending on the area, to prepare a crew. Thanks to the monitoring they know in advance if they will be affected.

You have to read the report. You have to look at it and you have to act accordingly. Its a very interesting report that allows us to make decisions.

We add a photo of the 15 most emblematic beaches in the state, from Chetumal to Holbox. In the report a daily photograph is uploaded and at 8:00 a.m. they receive in real time, the photograph of the beach in that moment and if it is covered with sargasso or not.

This helps them to organize the time of their people who have to dispose of it, he said.

The report features satellite photos and images collected from the University of Galveston that shows the sargassum spots. Municipality officials helping to monitor the sea grass were given a course by Sedetur to learn how to interpret the satellite images.

It is a tool to expedite their decision making and know what will happen in these three days. They receive the photos every day. We have been with the program for more than a year, he said.Tourist electrocuted during sailboat tour at Laguna Milagros

Chetumal, Q.R.  One person has died and another injured when the sailboat they were touring in made contact with overhead electric cables.

The accident occurred on Laguna Milagros outside the town of Huay Pix in the southern part of the state. Reports say one person died of electrocution while a second person was injured when they were touring the lagoon in a sailboat.

It was around 3:00 p.m. when the boat apparently got caught up in low-hanging high voltage cables that supply the town of Huay Pix. One of the tourists on board the sailboat died instantly.

Elements of the Federal Police cordoned off the area to give way to elements of the Office of the Prosecutor, who initiated investigations. The nationality of the tourists was not released, only that the respective consulate has been contacted.Driving north on the Silverado Trail past Bale Lane, look at the eastern hills. There is a large cut in the mountainside with a green pasture-like area below it. This is the Clover Flat Landfill. All the upper valley garbage goes there. The pasture-like green area is garbage that has been covered with dirt and seeded. The fact that you can see this from the trail means the landfill is close to capacity. Calistoga has approved three large resorts and St. Helena is considering more garbage generating development.

Where will our garbage go when the landfill is full?

It has not rained much during our two rainiest months -- January and February. Average rainfall for St. Helena is 26.96 inches -- we have received 9.3 inches or 34 percent of normal. The city has been sued by Water Audit California for taking too much water out of Bell Creek, which runs into our Bell Canyon Reservoir, the largest source of St. Helena water. The city settled and agreed to let more water leave the reservoir, also promising to study permanently bypassing the dam. The city buys water from Napa, but now we learn Yountville is running low and they want buy Napa water too. What if Napa doesn't have any to sell?A new article in Military Medicine, published by Oxford University Press, indicates that military personnel are making extensive use of outside mental health services, suggesting that military health and mental health services do not meet the needs of active duty service members.

The study aimed were to determine the personal characteristics of military personnel who receive care from a civilian network of volunteer professionals; to ascertain the mental health diagnoses of these military personnel; to analyze the characteristics most closely associated with mental health disorders, and suicidal thoughts; and to clarify the experiences that led military personnel to seek care outside military institutions.

Professionals working as volunteers in the Civilian Medical Resources Network received referrals of active duty GIs from the GI Rights Hotline, staffed by members of peace and faith-based organizations. A research team based at the University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, as well as in Texas, Oregon, and Massachusetts, collected quantitative and qualitative data for 233 clients between 2013 and 2016. Military clients were located throughout the United States and also in Afghanistan, South Korea, and Germany.

Clients showed very high rates of psychiatric disorders. Almost half, forty-eight percent, reported suicidal thoughts. Seventy-two percent of clients met criteria for major depression, 62% post-traumatic stress disorder, 20% generalized anxiety disorder, 25% panic disorder, and 27% alcohol use disorder. Thirty-eight percent of clients reported mistrust that their command would meet their needs. Twenty-four percent gave a history of pre-military mental health treatment.

Many clients related a history of pre-military (46%) and military (73%) trauma. Of those with military trauma, 52% gave accounts of combat related trauma while 59% reported non-combat related trauma, e.g., physical or sexual assault.

During recent years approximately 80% of referrals to Civilian Medical Resources Network involved mental health problems and 20% physical health problems, with an overlap of mental and physical problems in about 10% of cases. The majority of the clients were male (82%) and between 18 and 26 years of age (58%). Sixty-two percent identified themselves as White, 16% Black, 15% Hispanic, 2% Native American, and 4% Asian/Pacific Islander. Most clients were in the Army (64%), were of lower rank (82%), and had completed high school or some college (78%).

Several themes emerged in clients' intake interviews as reasons for seeking civilian services. Clients reported lack of accessible and trustworthy services, as well as feeling afraid of peers. Multiple clients reported that they could not afford the services they needed. Guilt about killing or injuring others were common experiences. The most frequent themes arising in client narratives were insufficient and unresponsive services (93%), fear of reprisal for seeking services (56%), mistrust of command (48%), pre-existing mental health disorders (22%), military sexual trauma (22%), and cost as a barrier to receiving health care (19%).

The mental health consequences of military service show themselves most dramatically in high rates of suicide, recently averaging 20 per day among veterans and over 1 per day among active duty military personnel. During recent wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, and elsewhere, more active duty personnel have been dying from suicide than from combat.

The article indicates that military health and mental health professionals must balance obligations both to patients and to the military command and argues that ethical problems of trust and confidentiality become barriers to care. Other barriers include stigma, a negative impact of seeking care on one's career, beliefs that care would not be effective, and lack of appropriate services.

"Current wars have led to a devastating public health epidemic of suicide and mental health problems among veterans and active duty GIs," said the study's coordinator, Dr. Howard Waitzkin, distinguished professor emeritus at the University of New Mexico. "The military should encourage and support GIs' use of civilian-sector services that do not involve the ethical conflicts inherent in military medicine and mental health care. Such civilian services should be based in not-for-profit organizations that do not benefit financially by restricting their services."Access to wood fuels for cooking must be considered when formulating policy to deal with food insecurity in sub-Saharan Africa, according to researchers who advocate expanding the effort to improve wood-fuel systems and make them more sustainable.

Although the health risks of collecting and using firewood and charcoal in traditional ways are real, policy makers, researchers and donors need to address the sustainability and viability of the biomass used by the majority of people, according to Ruth Mendum, director of gender initiatives in the Office of International Programs, College of Agricultural Sciences, Penn State. She collaborated with Mary Njenga, a research scientist who specializes in bioenergy at the World Agroforestry Centre in Kenya.

Firewood collection in African society is a gender issue because it is done almost exclusively by women, noted Mendum, who said inadequate sources of cooking energy contribute to food insecurity, particularly for very low income, food-insecure individuals. She believes that that reality has been overlooked intentionally by decision-makers in countries such as Ethiopia, Kenya, Nairobi, Tanzania and Zambia in their efforts to advocate for progressive cooking energy.

"It's not always a question of money -- in many cases people simply prefer cooking with wood," she said. "But we have literally been in places where people have food but don't have a way to cook it. It is an uncomfortable issue but it's an issue we need to understand better and learn how to make wood burning for cooking sustainable."

Wood fuels are by far the most widely used for cooking in sub-Saharan Africa. On the continent as a whole, more than 90 percent of the population relies on firewood or charcoal. Charcoal is mostly used in urban centers while firewood is the predominant form of wood fuel used in rural areas. But because wood burning is seen as outdated and environmentally unfriendly, governments have tried to persuade their citizens to use other fuels, such as liquefied natural gas and electricity.

Despite those efforts, the use of wood fuels is rising due to population growth and emerging urbanization trends, the researchers point out. For example, a 1 percent rise in urbanization has been linked to a 14 percent rise in charcoal consumption. They recommend that energy availability for household use -- specifically wood fuels -- should be added to the short list of essential drivers of food insecurity in sub-Saharan Africa.

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"Before policy makers can integrate energy considerations into food security interventions, it is necessary to consider the state of wood fuel research and how it might be expanded to better serve social needs," Mendum said. "If we ignore this practice of wood burning, which is so widespread, particularly among the continent's poorest people, we risk putting together solution steps for food security that are not effective."

After poring over the literature, Mendum and Njenga reported that little previous empirical research into wood burning in sub-Saharan Africa has been conducted, so policy makers have scant data to guide them in formulating best practices for sustainable biomass production and consumption. In their study, published this month in Facets, they have some recommendations.

They suggest creating financial policy to support wood-burning systems and developing agroforestry to ease the burden on wood gatherers. In rural areas, encourage the planting of trees and then pruning them to use the branches for firewood. As a result, more trees would be in place and people could care for trees and collect firewood on their own properties instead of carrying it long distances.

"That means all the negative impacts of hauling wood on women's backs would be eliminated," Mendum said.

They also recommend conducting more research on the complex issues that connect the use of women's time, environmental degradation and competition for agricultural nutrients. There are a host of other factors surrounding wood-fuel energy use in sub-Saharan Africa that remain poorly understood, Mendum said.

This research gap will not be filled as long as wood-fuel use remains ignored because the assumption is being made that a 21st-century economy must move up the energy ladder, the researchers concluded. Wood fuel is widely used, it has a long history of use, and there are food cultural barriers, widespread poverty and daunting geographic conditions that make other forms of fuel unpopular or unavailable.

"We shouldn't wait until we know the exact nutritional or agricultural productivity impacts of wood-fuel use -- that's information that we may never have the capacity to fully collect," Mendum said. "It is important to expand the work being done on improving wood-fuel systems with clear attention paid to the impacts of such improvements on food security and agricultural productivity."

The World Agroforestry Centre and CGIAR (formerly the Consultative Group for International Agricultural Research) and Office of International Programs, College of Agricultural Sciences, Penn State, supported this work.New genetic research reveals the complex demographic history of Vanuatu, explaining how Austronesian languages were retained throughout its history despite near-total replacement of early Austronesian-Lapita with Papuan ancestry

The study, published in Nature Ecology & Evolution and led by a multidisciplinary research team at the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History (MPI-SHH) together with researchers in France, Australia, New Zealand, Germany and Vanuatu, reveals that migrations of people from the Bismarck Archipelago in Oceania to the previously settled islands of the Pacific began as early as 2,500 years ago, much earlier than previously thought. The Remote Oceanian island nation of Vanuatu is the gateway to the rest of the Pacific and understanding its demographic history is critical to uncovering that of the wider region. The earliest inhabitants of Vanuatu, arriving about 3,000 years ago, were the Lapita peoples who spoke a form of Austronesian language and who had largely East Asian genetic ancestry. But Vanuatu's contemporary population has largely Near Oceanian heritage, showing that over time the genetic ancestry of the early inhabitants was mostly replaced by that of Bismarck Archipelago migrants, who began arriving very soon after initial settlement. Yet the original Austronesian language persisted and over 120 descendant languages continue to be spoken today, making Vanuatu the per capita most linguistically diverse place on Earth. Vanuatu therefore presents an unprecedented case, where a population's genetic ancestry but not its languages were replaced. Through analyses of new ancient and modern genome-wide data, the researchers show that rather than occurring in one wave, the genetic replacement was long and complex, likely the result of a sustained long-distance contact between Near and Remote Oceania. This provides demographic support for a model from historical linguistics, in which the initial Austronesian language of Vanuatu survived by being continually adopted by incoming Papuan migrants.

The Austronesian Expansion, which began around 5,500 years ago likely in modern-day Taiwan, was the most geographically extensive dispersal of farming peoples in prehistory, ultimately carrying people as far west as Madagascar and all the way east to Rapa Nui. These seafaring Neolithic people initially expanded out across Island Southeast Asia, carrying farming technology and a major branch of the Austronesian language family, eventually reaching Near Oceania where they encountered the indigenous Papuan peoples of New Guinea and the Bismarck Archipelago. The initial settlement east beyond the Solomon Islands and out into Remote Oceania only began around 3,000 years ago, with Austronesian-speaking groups associated with the Lapita pottery culture rapidly expanding east out to Vanuatu, New Caledonia, Fiji and the islands of Western Polynesia. A previous ancient DNA study of Lapita burial sites has shown that these earliest inhabitants had East Asian ancestry with negligible evidence of Papuan genetic admixture. But the present-day genetic make-up of Remote Oceania suggests at least some degree of Papuan ancestry, meaning there must have been subsequent Papuan migration and admixture into the Pacific from Near Oceania.

In order to understand this previously undescribed migration, a multidisciplinary team of researchers brought together different lines of evidence from the fields of genetics, archaeology and linguistics. They generated genome-wide data from the bones and teeth of 19 ancient individuals from across Vanuatu, Tonga, French Polynesia and the Solomon Islands, a significant addition to the ancient DNA record in a region whose environmental conditions generally leads to poor ancient DNA preservation. As co-lead author Kathrin Nagele of the MPI-SHH says, "The identification of the petrous bone, which has recently been shown to provide fantastic aDNA preservation, has been a real game changer for such regions that were previously considered to be almost inaccessible." The ancient DNA was complemented by new contemporary genome-wide data from 27 present-day inhabitants of Vanuatu, collected as part of a long-term linguistic and anthropological fieldwork project run by co-authors Professor Russell Gray and Dr. Heidi Colleran of the MPI-SHH.

The ancient DNA provided direct evidence that Papuan people began arriving in Vanuatu soon after initial settlement by Austronesians. "We found a genetically Papuan-related individual dating to around 2,500 years ago in Vanuatu, far earlier than had been previously estimated using only modern genetic data," explains co-lead author Dr. Cosimo Posth, also of the MPI-SHH. The researchers were able to show that the ancestry of the initial Austronesian inhabitants of Vanuatu has been largely replaced by ancestry from Papuan peoples coming from the Bismarck Archipelago. But this genetic replacement was not straightforward, as Dr. Posth says, "Our analyses show that this replacement did not occur in a one-time mass migration event but rather happened incrementally over time, suggesting an enduring long-distance network between groups in Near and Remote Oceania." The authors also directly described ancient individuals with sex-biased admixture, where Papuan males intermixed with Austronesian women, as long assumed based on analyses of the modern genetic make-up of the South Pacific.

Yet despite this genetic replacement, the people of present-day Vanuatu continue to speak languages descended from those spoken by the initial Austronesian inhabitants rather than any Papuan language of the incoming migrants. As Professor Gray, Director of the Department of Linguistic and Cultural Evolution at the MPI-SHH, says, "Population replacement with language continuity is extremely rare -- if not unprecedented -- in human history. The linguist Bob Blust has long argued for a model in which a separate Papuan expansion reaches Vanuatu soon after initial Austronesian settlement, with the initial, and likely undifferentiated, Austronesian language surviving as a lingua franca for diverse Papuan migrant groups." Dr. Adam Powell, senior author of the study and also of the MPI-SHH, continues, "The demographic history suggested by our ancient DNA analyses provides really strong support for this historical linguistic model, with the early arrival and complex, incremental process of genetic replacement by people from the Bismarck Archipelago. This provides a compelling explanation for the continuity of Austronesian languages despite the almost complete replacement of the initial genetic ancestry of Vanuatu."

The study in particular highlights the importance of interdisciplinary work and the value that multiple lines of evidence can have in deepening our understanding of human history. As Professor Johannes Krause, a senior author and Director of the Department of Archaeogenetics at the MPI-SHH, explains, "This multidisciplinary work has begun to uncover the complex, localized demographic processes that drove the initial colonization of the wider South Pacific and formed the enduring cultural and linguistic spheres that continue to shape the Pacific today." Ongoing engagement with local communities in Vanuatu, as well as with the Vanuatu Cultural Center, has been critical to this success. As Dr. Colleran points out, "One strength of this study is the degree to which we are collaborating with communities in Vanuatu who have a real stake in these results and who generously volunteered their data to help answer these questions. We will be back in the field very soon to share the results with those communities and to hear their thoughts on the whole process." The progress of this continuing fieldwork can be followed on the Nature Ecology & Evolution Community website (natureecoevocommunity.nature.com).As far as anyone can tell, the cold-water crayfish Faxonius eupunctus makes its home in a 30-mile stretch of the Eleven Point River and nowhere else in the world. According to a new study, the animal is most abundant in the middle part its range, a rocky expanse in southern Missouri -- with up to 35,000 cubic feet of chilly Ozark river water flowing by each second.

Because the crayfish is so rare, environmental authorities are considering listing F. eupunctus as an endangered species. But doing so requires a thorough accounting of its population size and distribution. To achieve this, researchers at the Illinois Natural History Survey at the University of Illinois used both old-school techniques and newer, high-tech methods.

"The traditional way to find crayfishes in this type of river is a method called kick-seining," said graduate research assistant Christopher Rice, who conducted the study with Christopher Taylor, the INHS curator of fishes and crustaceans, and Eric Larson, a U. of I. professor of natural resources and environmental sciences.

"You take a mesh seine attached to two poles and stand out in the stream, and someone else kicks rocks and flushes water and crayfishes down into the net," Rice said. Once caught, the animals can be counted, measured and sexed -- all valuable data for those hoping to conserve them. In the new study, the team kick-seined a dozen 1-square-meter plots at each of 39 sites along the river and in several smaller tributaries feeding it.

That effort found F. eupunctus at 21 of 39 sites sampled. None of the crayfish were found in any of the tributaries.

The researchers also used a technique called environmental DNA. They collected river water at each of the 39 sites, taking it back to the lab to filter and test it for F. eupunctus DNA.

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"One of our goals was to compare eDNA with kick-seining, to see how these methods performed in relation to one another," Taylor said.

Scientists are still trying to work out how to use eDNA to study animals in different habitats. Using the technique in streams and rivers can be especially tricky, Larson said.

"An animal's DNA can degrade within hours or days in the water, depending on a lot of factors," he said. Temperature, ultraviolet light and the acidity of the water can influence the rate at which it degrades.

"This makes eDNA a very useful detection tool," Larson said. If the DNA stuck around for years, scientists might mistakenly believe that an animal was present when it had died out years earlier.

River water also moves, transporting the DNA away from where it was originally shed by the animal in the form of skin, other tissues or secretions. The team didn't know whether eDNA would be able to detect crayfishes in the portions of the Eleven Point River where they were present.

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The eDNA testing corroborated the kick-seining data, detecting F. eupunctus DNA at 19 of the 21 sites where the team had found it before. It also found no evidence of the critter in the smaller streams feeding the river.

This adds to the evidence that F. eupunctus is very rare and lives only in the Eleven Point River, providing useful information for conservationists and resource managers, Taylor said.

While eDNA could fairly reliably determine whether an organism was present, it was not useful as a way of measuring abundance at specific locales, the researchers found.

"The ability of eDNA to work in this type of ecosystem is very exciting," Taylor said. "But our study also shows the value of doing traditional sampling. We did find the species at two locations where the eDNA did not. We also were able to directly measure abundance with the kick-seining method."

The researchers report their findings in the journal Freshwater Biology. The United States Department of Agriculture National Institute of Food and Agriculture Hatch Project and the Missouri Department of Conservation supported this research.Cephalopods -- which include octopuses, squid, and cuttlefish -- are masters of disguise. They can camouflage to precisely match their surroundings in a matter of seconds, and no scientist has quite been able to replicate the spectacle. But new research by Leila Deravi, assistant professor of chemistry and chemical biology at Northeastern, brings us a step closer.

The chromatophore organs, which appear as hundreds of multi-colored freckles on the surface of a cephalopod's body, contribute to fast changes in skin color. In a paper published last week in Advanced Optical Materials, Deravi's group describes its work in isolating the pigment granules within these organs to better understand their role in color change. The researchers discovered these granules have remarkable optical qualities and used them to make thin films and fibers that could be incorporated into textiles, flexible displays, and future color-changing devices. Deravi's lab collaborated with the U.S. Army Natick Soldier Research, Development, and Engineering Center for the study.

Chromatophores come in shades of red, yellow, brown, and orange. They are similar to the freckles on human skin that appear over time. But in cephalopods, these freckles open and close within a fraction of a second to give rise to a continuously reconfiguring skin color. Underneath the chromatophores is a layer of iridophores that act as a mirror. Together, these organs reflect all colors of visible light.

By removing individual pigment particles from the squid, Deravi was able to explore the breadth of their capabilities as static materials. One particle is only 500 nanometers in size, which is 150 times smaller than the diameter of a human hair. Deravi's team layered and reorganized the particles and found they could produce an expansive color pallet.

"We're showing these pigments are a powerful tool that can produce ultra-thin films that are really rich in colors," Deravi said.

Her team also discovered the pigments can scatter both visible and infrared light. This enhances brightness and light absorption and affects how a final color is perceived. And when Deravi engineered a system that included a mirror -- mimicking the layout of organs that squids have naturally -- she was able to further enhance the perceived color through scattering light through and off the granules. This process could potentially be replicated on functional materials like solar cells to increase the absorption of sunlight, Deravi said.

"From a scientific and technical engineering perspective, understanding how light scattering affects color is very important, and this is an exciting new development in the field of optics in biology," said Richard Osgood, a collaborator from the U.S. Army Natick Soldier Research, Development, and Engineering Center. "This is an unusual harnessing of optics and physics knowledge in scattering to understand biological systems."

The researchers made spools of fibers from the squids' pigment particles and are now exploring uses for the material. The fibers are so visually interesting that it's not difficult to imagine weaving them into fabric for clothing or other art forms. But perhaps the most exciting possible application is wearable, flexible screens and textiles that are capable of adaptive coloration. Osgood said the research could allow the Army to create new capabilities for soldiers.

"For more than a decade, scientists and engineers have been trying to replicate this process and build these devices that can color match, color change, and camouflage just like the cephalopods, but many of them come nowhere near the speed or dynamic range of color that the animals can display," Deravi said. "Cephalopods have evolved to incorporate these specific pigment granules for a reason, and we're starting to piece together what that reason is."A team led by Michigan Technological University set out to find what makes STEM integration tick. Their research -- published in the International Journal of STEM Education -- followed several case studies to observe the impacts of low, medium and high degrees of integration within a classroom. They found that across the board the greatest challenge that teachers face is making explicit connections between STEM fields while balancing the need for context and student engagement.

Emily Dare, assistant professor of STEM education at Michigan Tech, is the lead author on the study. She says different teachers have different approaches to STEM integration.

"This alone is not terribly surprising as we know that teachers conceptualize integrated STEM in multiple ways," Dare says. "What is new about this current study is that this degree of integration may be related to a teacher's understanding in making explicit and meaningful connections between the disciplines, as opposed to assuming that students will make those connections on their own."

Dare and her co-authors-Joshua Ellis of Michigan Tech and Gillian Roehrig of the University of Minnesota-worked with nine middle school science teachers to assess STEM integration in their classrooms. The researchers relied on both reflective interviews with the teachers and classroom implementation data like the number of instructional days dedicated to two or more disciplines and the amount of time given each discipline.

"The teachers who integrated more often in their class appeared to be more critical of their instruction," Dare says, "And after their first time implementing integrated STEM instruction, they were already considering ways in which to improve their practice."

She explains that this speaks volumes about teachers' motivation and dedication to incorporating these approaches in their classrooms: If they find the integrated approach valuable, they may be more willing to spend time helping students make those content connections.

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STEM education calls for connecting science, technology, engineering, and math. Within that framework, three themes arose from the results of Dare and her collaborators' work that distinguished low, medium and high STEM integration.

First, the nature of integration varied; that is, the role teachers perceived they should play in making explicit or implicit connections. A more active role in making connections reflected higher integration, though not without its challenges. Previously, Dare led research helping to clarify what STEM education, and therefore integration, means in practical terms for teachers.

Second, classroom integration depended on whether a teacher chose to focus primarily on science or engineering. Dare and her team argue that science versus engineering is a false choice. Teachers with higher degrees of STEM integration wove in science concepts throughout engineering design projects, like connecting lessons on heat transfer and insulators to building solar ovens. Across the board, design-based projects tended to happen in the last few days of instruction. Teachers with lower degrees of integration tended to focus on the science first, then shift completely into engineering.

Third, student engagement played a role-and an important one. Students tended to be motivated for engineering design projects; teachers explained that the work provided context, making the concepts more real and understandable. The challenge is that teachers felt pressed to balance the hands-on work with conceptual and reflective activities. Plus, maintaining a contextual example over several weeks became difficult.

The paper authors point out that while the study subjects are middle school physical science teachers doing first-time STEM instruction, many of the identified themes are not content-specific. Because of that, the successes and challenges identified may shed light on general struggles that are common to educators who are integrating across STEM disciplines under new teaching standards.

Teachers' primary challenges focused on trying to keep the lessons real for students and struggling with better integrating math. Dare suggests this may be because science teachers are just that, not math teachers or engineers.

"For teacher educators," Dare says, "this means continuing to support teachers in their classrooms as they embark on testing out new strategies and curriculum units in their classrooms."Researchers have identified a lung stem cell that repairs the organ's gas exchange compartment, according to a new study from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. The y isolated and characterized these progenitor cells from mouse and human lungs and demonstrated they are essential to repairing lung tissue damaged by severe influenza and other respiratory ailments.

The research, led by Edward E. Morrisey, PhD, a professor of Cell and Developmental Biology, was published this week in Nature. Morrisey is also director of the Penn Center for Pulmonary Biology and scientific director of the Institute for Regenerative Medicine.

The development of the lung, or pulmonary system, is an evolutionary adaption to life on land. Lungs are essential in most large animals for a terrestrial existence. Their complex structure, which is dictated in part by their integration with the cardiovascular system, makes them an interesting yet difficult organ to study from a regeneration medicine perspective. In addition, lung disease is one of the leading causes of death in the world, surpassed only by cardiovascular disease and cancer.

"One of the most important places to better understand lung regeneration is in the alveoli, the tiny niches within the lung where oxygen is taken up by the blood and carbon dioxide is exhaled," Morrisey said. "To better understand these delicate structures, we have been mapping the different types of cells within the alveoli. Understanding cell-cell interactions should help us discover new players and molecular pathways to target for future therapies."

The Nature study examined the epithelial cells that line the surfaces of lung gas-exchange alveoli for stem cell behavior that could restore normal respiratory function after severe injury caused by an influenza infection or in such diseases as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). While some organs, such as the intestine, turn over the entire epithelial lining every five days through the activity of a resident stem-cell lineage, organs such as the lung exhibit very slow turnover and contain stem cells that are activated only upon injury to regenerate the damaged tissue.

The team identified an alveolar epithelial progenitor (AEP) lineage which is embedded in a larger population of cells called alveolar type 2 cells, or AT2s. These cells generate pulmonary surfactant (a wetting agent), which keeps the lungs from collapsing upon every breath taken. "AEPs are a stable lineage in the lung and turn over very slowly, but expand rapidly after injury to regenerate the lining of the alveoli and restore gas exchange," said co-first author Will Zacharias, MD, PhD, a postdoctoral fellow in Morrisey's lab. David B. Frank, MD, PhD, a pediatric cardiologist at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, is the other co-first author.

AEPs exhibit their own distinct suite of genes and contain a unique epigenetic signature. The Morrisey lab used the genomic information gained from mouse AEPs to identify a conserved cell surface protein called TM4SF1 that can be used to isolated AEPs from the human lung. Using this ability to isolate mouse and human AEPs, the team then generated David B. Frank three-dimensional lung organoids. "From our organoid culture system, we were able to show that AEPs are an evolutionarily conserved alveolar progenitor that represents a new target for human lung regeneration strategies," Morrisey said.

The team has access to more than 300 lungs through the lung transplant program headed by Edward Cantu, MD, an associate professor of Surgery. For their next study, the team aims to investigate influenza-damaged lung tissue as well as other lung disease models to determine where and when AEPs increase in response to acute lung injury or more chronic disease states.

Given the severity of the current influenza season, these studies provide new insight into how the human lung regenerates and identifies novel genetic and epigenetic pathways important for lung regeneration. The team is now exploring which of these molecular pathways may promote AEP function in the mouse and human lung, including understanding whether drugs designed to activate Fgf signaling, one of the key pathways conserved in mouse and human AEPs, may promote lung regeneration.

"We are very excited at this novel finding," said James P. Kiley, PhD, director of the Division of Lung Diseases at the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, which supported the study. "Basic studies are fundamental stepping stones to advance our understanding of lung regeneration. Furthermore, the NHLBI support of investigators from basic to translational science helps promote collaborations that bring the field closer to regenerative strategies for both acute and chronic lung diseases."

Jarod A. Zepp, Michael P. Morley, Farrah Alkhaleel, Jun Kong, and Su Zhou, all from Penn are coauthors.

This work was supported by grants from the National Institutes of Health (T32-HL007586 to W.J.Z; T32-HL007915, K12-HD043245, T32-HL007843, HL110942, HL087825, HL132999, HL129478, HL134745)Using lasers, U.S. and Austrian physicists have coaxed ultracold strontium atoms into complex structures unlike any previously seen in nature.

"I am amazed that we've discovered a new way that atoms assemble," said Rice University physicist Tom Killian. "It shows how rich the laws of physics and chemistry can be." Killian is the lead scientist on a new paper in Physical Review Letters (PRL) that summarized the group's experimental findings.

Killian teamed with experimental physicists from Rice's Center for Quantum Materials and theoretical physicists from Harvard University and Vienna University of Technology on the two-year project to create "Rydberg polarons" out of strontium atoms that were at least 1 million times colder than deep space.

Rice University physicist Tom KillianThe team's findings, which are summarized in the PRL paper and a companion theoretical study appearing this week in Physical Review A (PRA), reveal something new about the basic nature of matter, Killian said.

"The basic laws that we learn in chemistry class tell us how atoms bond together to form molecules, and a deep understanding of those principles is what allows chemists and engineers to make the materials we use in our everyday lives," he said. "But those laws are also quite rigid. Only certain combinations of atoms will form stable bonds in a molecule. Our work explored a new type of molecule that isn't described by any of the traditional rules for binding atoms together."

Killian said the new molecules are only stable at extraordinarily cold temperatures -- about a millionth of a degree above absolute zero. At such low temperatures, the constituent atoms stay still long enough to become "glued together" in new, complex structures, he said.

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"One amazing thing is that you can keep attaching an arbitrary number of atoms to these molecules," Killian said. "It's just like attaching Lego blocks, which you can't do with traditional types of molecules."

He said the discovery will be of interest to theoretical chemists, condensed matter physicists, atomic physicists and physicists who are studying Rydberg atoms for potential use in quantum computers.

"Nature takes advantage of a fascinating toolbox of tricks for binding atoms together to make molecules and materials," Killian said. "As we discover and understand these tricks, we satisfy our innate curiosity about the world we live in, and it can often lead to practical advances like new therapeutic drugs or light-harvesting solar cells. It is too early to tell if any practical applications will come from our work, but basic research like this is what it takes to find tomorrow's great breakthroughs."

The team's efforts centered around making, measuring and predicting the behavior of a specific state of matter called a Rydberg polaron, a combination of two distinct phenomena, Rydberg atoms and polarons.

In Rydberg atoms, one or more electrons are excited with a precise amount of energy so that they orbit far from the atom's nucleus. Rydberg atoms can be described with simple rules written down more than a century ago by Swedish physicist Johannes Rydberg. They have been studied in laboratories for decades and are believed to exist in cold reaches of deep space. The Rydberg atoms in the PRL study were up to one micron wide, about 1,000 times larger than normal strontium atoms.

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Polarons are created when a single particle interacts strongly with its environment and causes nearby electrons, ions or atoms to rearrange themselves and form a sort of coating that the particle carries with it. The polaron itself is a collective -- a unified object known as a quasiparticle -- that incorporates properties of the original particle and its environment.

Rydberg polarons are a new class of polarons in which the high-energy, far-orbiting electron gathers hundreds of atoms within its orbit as it moves through a dense, ultracold cloud. In the Rice experiments, researchers began by creating a supercooled cloud of several hundred thousand strontium atoms. By coordinating the timing of laser pulses with changes in the electric field, the researchers were able to create and count Rydberg polarons one by one, ultimately forming millions of them for their study.

While Rydberg polarons had previously been created with rubidium, the use of strontium allowed the physicists to more clearly resolve the energy of the coated Rydberg atoms in a way that revealed previously unseen universal characteristics.

"I give a lot of credit to the theorists," said Killian, a professor of physics and astronomy. "They developed powerful techniques to calculate the structure of hundreds of interacting particles in order to interpret our results and identify the signatures of the Rydberg polarons.

"From an experimental standpoint, it was challenging to make and measure these polarons," he said. "Each one lived for only a few microseconds before collisions with other particles tore it apart. We had to use very sensitive techniques to count these fragile and fleeting objects."

Study co-authors include Joe Whalen, Roger Ding and Barry Dunning, all of Rice; Francisco Camargo, formerly of Rice and now of AMD; Germano Woehl Jr., formerly of Rice and now of the University of the Sao Paulo; Shuhei Yoshida and Joachim Burgdorfer of Vienna University of Technology; Hossein Sadeghpour of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics; and Richard Schmidt and Eugene Demler of Harvard University.

The research was supported by the Air Force Office of Scientific Research, the National Science Foundation, the Robert A. Welch Foundation, the Austrian Science Fund, the Army Research Office, Dr. Max Rossler, the Walter Haefner Foundation and the ETH Foundation.As an educator, parent, and grandparent, I was saddened and appalled by the most recent mass shooting at Stoneman Douglas high school  even the phrase, most recent mass shooting should give us all pause. Yousef Baigs column in the Feb. 22 Star makes an excellent point about how familiar these victims are. They could indeed be our own beloved teachers or children. Though we have a relatively strong law in California that limits the possession of assault weapons, so long as surrounding states, and the country as a whole, permit the possession of such incredibly lethal firearms we are all still in danger of the very sort of tragedy that occurred in Florida.

It is essential to understand that AR-15s and similar guns not only allow an assailant to mow down a great number of people in a very short time, they also result in unusually horrible wounds that are almost invariably fatal. In an article in the current issue of The Atlantic, Dr. Heather Sher provides an example of the way an AR-15 bullet affects the body: Handgun injuries to the liver are generally survivable unless the bullet hits the main blood supply to the liver. An AR-15 bullet wound to the middle of the liver would cause so much bleeding that the patient would likely never make it to a trauma center to receive our care. These guns are not hunting tools; they are killing machines more appropriate for the battlefield than for the sportsman.This item is available in full to subscribers.

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Otherwise, click here to view your options for subscribing.Posted Wednesday, February 28, 2018 2:23 pm

Gene A. Hemphill

Nov. 3, 1946  Feb. 26, 2018

Gene Alan Hemphill was born Nov. 3, 1946, in Huskerville to Dale Pickering and Deloris May (Landenberger) Hemphill and passed away Feb. 26, 2018, in Lincoln at the age of 71 years, 3 months and 23 days. Gene was raised in the Palmyra area until 1953, when the family moved to Seward. He attended Seward High School. He then worked at the Husker Beverage factory for several years until 1965, when he began his career at Hughes Brothers. During his time at Hughes Brothers, Gene did a little bit of everything. He ran the second-largest forklift in the state of Nebraska, drove their semi and also made starter logs. Gene retired from Hughes Brothers in 2013. He then began working at Super Wash and had been employed there the past four years.

On Dec. 21, 1978, he was united in marriage to Marilyn Jean Shaw in Seward. Gene helped his brothers at auctions and especially enjoyed going to the Lincoln Livestock Auction. He loved spending time with his nieces and nephews and enjoyed taking them fishing and horseback riding. Gene had a love for animals; he had horses, dogs and even a pet raccoon. He liked messing with CB radios, and he could fix anything. He was the type of person who would help anyone in need. Gene loved watching John Wayne movies and western shows and also loved listening to polka music. Gene was a member of Hughes Brothers Union Local 1569 and the Seward County Sheriffs Posse.

Gene was preceded in death by his parents; brother, Jimmy Lee Hemphill; parents-in-law, Ted and Bertha Shaw; and brother-in-law, Stanley Shaw.

Gene is survived by his wife, Marilyn of Seward; two daughters, Valerie Pilfold and Lori (Ahmad) Pilfold, both of Seward; grandson, Zachary Pilfold and special friend Alyssa Worth of Seward; granddaughter, Chelsea and husband Dustin Kulszski of Colorado Springs, Colorado; great-grandson, Ethan Kulszski; siblings, Jerry and wife Lyn Hemphill of Utica, Steve and wife Deb Hemphill of Staplehurst, Jack and wife Sherry Hemphill of Utica, Vickie and husband Richard Novak of Seward and Rick and wife Deb Hemphill of Utica; and numerous nieces, nephews, great-nieces and great-nephews.

Visitation will be from 1 to 8:30 p.m. on Thursday, March 1, 2018, at Zabka Funeral Home in Seward, with the family receiving friends from 6:30 to 8 p.m. A funeral service will be held at 10:30 a.m. on Friday, March 2, at the funeral home, with the Rev. Tamara Holtz officiating. A graveside service and interment will be in Mound Prairie Cemetery near Goehner. Memorial contributions may be made to the Hemphill family for future designation. Condolences may be sent to the family at www.zabkafuneralhome.com.Texas city fully commits to 100 percent renewable energy goal by the year 2020

The city of Denton, Texas has officially become the latest in a long list of U.S. states that have decided to adopt a long-term strategy for the use of renewable energy sources. That is, the city has now fully committed to transitioning to renewable energy for 100 percent of its energy needs, as stated in a new announcement on the official Sierra Club website.

The announcement notes that Denton is now the second city in the state of Texas to commit to its goal, following Georgetown, as it sets its sights on new objectives. According to a report, the Denton City Council voted successfully to revise the citys old Renewable Denton Plan, which has been changed to add a goal of producing enough energy from renewables to meet the citys current needs by 2020.

According to Ed Soph, a Denton resident and Sierra Club member, this marks a new era in the city in which he lives. This is the beginning of an energy transformation in Denton, he remarked. The foundation has been laid for the day when Denton has its own renewable generation capability with community and utility-scale solar installations.

Meanwhile, Cyrus Reed, the Conservation Director of the Sierra Clubs Lone Star Chapter, stated that the council deserves thanks and recognition for their efforts. The Sierra Club applauds Denton City Council for its leadership and pragmatism, he said. They could have easily let their current plan ride, but they decided to take a closer look at their options and make smarter decisions that will save people money on their bills.

Indeed they could have, as there are a lot of existing conventional power sources available to the city, which is why it has taken them so long to adapt to the changes brought forth by renewable and clean energy sources in the first place. However, if you take a look at the state of the current market, you will find that there are plenty of new and provable reasons to trust that clean energy is the way to go moving forward.

For one thing, it will always cost money to maintain existing power plants, and as it turns out, they cost a lot more than alternative clean and renewable energy sources. There have been many reports pointing to the fact that this year could be the year that renewable energy finally takes over, so its a good thing that the city of Denton has caught on and decided to change their plans accordingly.

Another benefit of going all-in for clean energy is the fact that its much more friendly to the environment than the usual sources of electricity. The likes of solar, wind, and battery storage are referred to as clean for a reason  they are known to be sources of electricity that dont harm the environment to the extent that oil or coal currently does.

The fact that they are so cheap is merely a welcome bonus. They should provide a viable way of transitioning to a cleaner Earth in the future. As Reed further states, We encourage city leaders and Denton Municipal Electric to take the next step to transition away from relying on the Gibbons Creek coal plant, as well as ensuring their next renewable energy investments include community solar projects and energy storage.

Find out more about clean energy in Power.news.

Sources include:

SolarIndustryMag.com

SierraClub.orgYoga is challenging enough without eight cats jumping on you. Add the cats and the experience becomes, as they say in the yoga trade, transcendental.

This brings an entirely different element to yoga, said Shirley Phelan, after Lavender the cat jumped on her while her left knee was somewhere in the vicinity of her right shoulder.

Offering yoga classes with cats is the latest way that the San Francisco SPCA is attempting to persuade humans that a cat is capable of so much more than wrecking a sofa.

The cat yoga class was being held at a special SPCA pop-up event at Embarcadero Center. On Tuesday, six otherwise normal people popped up with their yoga mats while veteran yoga teacher Alisha Rowe tried to figure out what she was getting herself into, this being her first yoga class ever with anyone except people.

I think this will be playful yoga, she said, as Gnar Gnar the cat began attacking her gym bag with his claws, playfully. Life throws challenges at you. Try to focus on the challenge. Besides, doing yoga with dogs would be harder.

Jomarie Dela Pena of San Francisco said she came for the class because doing yoga with cats was a cool opportunity.

Im trying to channel my inner peace, she said. Well see what happens.

What happened was that, for 45 minutes, the students were sniffed, scratched, batted, licked and nuzzled by each cat except a fluffy brown skeptic named Hugo who, dubious of the entire program, scooted behind a large display picture and hid out for the entire confab.

Relax, said Rowe, not the first time a yoga teacher has spoken that word. Enjoy the kitties all around you. Take it all in. Try to stay centered.

Gnar Gnar the cat was taking in all in, too, and after he took it all in he leaped at one student right in the middle of the yoga pose known as downward-facing dog, apparently seeking equal time.

The SPCA people had an ulterior motive, and its the same motive they have when they put the cute little kitties and puppies in the department store windows at Christmas. The idea is to get the humans to fall in love with the critters and take them home.

Each yoga-room cat was being auctioned off to would-be adopters. Bids started at $125. Gnar Gnar had four bids, the highest being $286. Harlequin and Hugo were going for $300 each.

Besides the knee-to-shoulder thing, there was other stuff to do. You could snuggle with puppies in a special yurt. The cost for doing that was $10 for 10 minutes, no further obligation necessary. You could also buy a framed painting of George Washington with a Dalmatian or Alexander Hamilton with a terrier, for $150 each.

The snuggling, the painting and the yoga-ing, said adoption counselor Christine Wilcox, connect people with animals in new ways and strengthen the human-animal bond.

Now Playing: Cat Yoga Video: Lea Suzuki

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.

After the snuggling and the yoga, matters get serious. Would-be adopters must visit SPCA headquarters, submit to interviews and fill out forms. No adoption is done at the pop-up center, in order to make sure that adoptions are driven by more than the cuteness factor. The San Francisco SPCA adopts out 100 animals a week, mostly to people not interested in doing yoga with them.

Wednesday is the last day that the Embarcadero Center pop-up will be open, Its being held inside a former Victorias Secret store, so the slinky vibes are not merely courtesy of the yoga or the cats.

I always wanted to do yoga with cats, said Larissa Martchenko of San Francisco. Now I have.

When the class was over, Phelan said doing yoga with cats had been so great that she was going to do yoga with goats next. Theres a goat farm near her home on the San Mateo County coast, she said, that is in the process of putting together a goat yoga program. She did not appear to be kidding.

I think it would be something really, really different, she said. Ive never done yoga with a goat before.San Francisco mayoral candidate Mark Lenos campaign headed to court Tuesday in an effort to strip acting mayor from Supervisor London Breeds job description on the June ballot.

Supervisor Breeds current ballot designation is factually inaccurate and misleading  Leno said as his lawyers put the finishing touches on a petition to Superior Court, asking a judge to order the change.

Voters deserve the truth, Leno said.

To be clear  this is not board President Breeds call, said Breed campaign spokeswoman Tara Moriarty.  Its up to the Department of Elections to defend its decision on the ballot designation.

Elections Department Director John Arntz said he had not seen Lenos petition.

Under San Francisco election rules, the job a candidate holds on the day of the filing deadline is the job that is listed on the upcoming ballot.

Leno is a former supervisor, state assemblyman and state senator  all titles that convey experience in government. On the ballot, however, Leno can only use his current job title  small businessman  because he wasnt in office on the day of the filing deadline, Jan. 9.

In Breeds case, she was both acting mayor following the death of Mayor Ed Lee and a supervisor when deadline day came.

Breeds camp wanted her ballot designation to be acting mayor, with no reference to her lesser position as a supervisor.

After a bit of back and forth with the Department of Elections, it was agreed that Breed would have the twin designation  acting mayor/supervisor next to her name.

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.

Two weeks later, Breeds tenure as acting mayor ended when six of her colleagues chose Mark Farrell to be mayor until June.

However, Breeds mayoral exit occurred after the 10-day period during which her ballot designation could be contested. The only recourse for those unhappy with Breeds acting mayor title was the courts.

S an Francisco Chronicle columnists Phillip Matier and Andrew Ross appear Sundays, Mondays and Wednesdays. Matier can be seen on the KPIX TV morning and evening news. He can also be heard on KCBS radio Monday through Friday at 7:50 a.m. and 5:50 p.m. Got a tip? Call (415) 777-8815, or email matierandross@ sfchronicle.com. Twitter: @matierandrossFederal officials said Tuesday they arrested more than 150 undocumented immigrants in a Northern California sweep aimed at countering local sanctuary laws, while suggesting Oakland Mayor Libby Schaafs decision to alert the public to the secret operation may have allowed some targets to elude capture.

Since Sunday, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers have fanned out from the Central Valley to the far northern reaches of the state, knocking on doors, detaining people and prompting alarm from community activists and some Democratic politicians who oppose President Trumps immigration crackdown.

Agency officials, who had remained silent about the operation for three days, said in a written statement that they arrested people in cities including San Francisco, Bay Point, Sacramento and Stockton, and that half of those arrested had criminal convictions, including for violent crimes.

The operation was named Keep Safe. Officials did not say whether the first letters of the operation were intended as a reference to Kate Steinle, the San Francisco woman shot dead on a bay pier in July 2015 by a homeless undocumented immigrant. ICE also did not say whether the sweep was over.

Sanctuary jurisdictions like San Francisco and Oakland shield dangerous criminal aliens from federal law enforcement at the expense of public safety, said Thomas Homan, the acting director of ICE. Because these jurisdictions prevent ICE from arresting criminal aliens in the secure confines of a jail, they also force ICE officers to make more arrests out in the community, which poses increased risks for law enforcement and the public.

Now Playing: Mayor Schaaf said she had multiple sources confirming that Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents are planning to conduct raids this week. (Feb. 25) Video: Associated Press

Homan slammed Schaaf, who on Saturday night released an unprecedented warning that ICE was about to begin arresting people. Schaaf said she issued the alert after receiving confidential tips from credible sources, and conferring with attorneys to make sure she wasnt opening herself up to federal prosecution.

The mayors move endangered ICE officers and alerted their targets, Homan asserted, making clear that this reckless decision was based on her political agenda. He said 864 criminal aliens and public safety threats remain at large in the community, and I have to believe that some of them were able to elude us thanks to the mayors irresponsible decision.

Fox News, which was given a ride-along with ICE officers during the operation, reported that agency officials were asking the Department of Justice to investigate whether Schaaf broke any laws.

In a statement Tuesday night, Schaaf stood by her decision to go public.

My statement on Saturday was meant to give all residents time to learn their rights and know their legal options. It was my intention that one mother, or one father, would use the information to help keep their family together, the mayor said. I do not regret sharing this information. It is Oaklands legal right to be a sanctuary city and we have not broken any laws. We believe our community is safer when families stay together.

San Francisco Mayor Mark Farrell released a statement saying that the city wont cower as the administration pursues their political plan of haphazardly punishing sanctuary cities.

We stand with our hardworking, law-abiding immigrant neighbors and we are unified in our response to the divisive rhetoric of this president.

The Chronicle reported in January that federal officials were planning the Northern California operation. The Trump administration has repeatedly expressed frustration at sanctuary laws in the state, which restrict cooperation between local authorities and ICE in an effort to convince undocumented immigrants they dont need to live in the shadows.

Trump seized upon the killing of Steinle to argue that sanctuary policies are dangerous. The undocumented immigrant shooter, Jose Ines Garcia Zarate, had previously been released from San Francisco County Jail under the citys sanctuary ordinance, even though immigration officers had asked that he be turned over for a sixth deportation.

This weeks sweep is the second to target California since a statewide sanctuary law signed by Gov. Jerry Brown, SB54, went into effect in January. The legislation, among other things, limits the circumstances in which jails across the state can turn over undocumented inmates to ICE and forbids police from arresting people on immigration warrants.

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.

Earlier this month, ICE arrested more than 200 immigrants suspected of being undocumented in an operation in Los Angeles. Federal agents also told 122 businesses there that they would be checking whether their employees were authorized to work. ICE launched a similar action in Northern California in January, visiting 77 businesses.

If you take all of the administrations statements in context ... it suggests that this is highly politically motivated and meant to send a message to California, said Pratheepan Gulasekaram, a professor and immigration expert at Santa Clara University School of Law. The message, he said, is that not cooperating with federal immigration authorities will result in aggressive immigration enforcement.

The ACLU of Northern California said Tuesday that reports from rapid-response networks over the previous three days suggested that ICE enforcement is terrorizing communities of color. The targeting of cities and states that refuse to use their limited resources to fuel the Trump administrations deportation machine is cruel and inhumane.

ICE said the agency focuses its enforcement resources on individuals who pose a threat to national security, public safety, and border security. But officials also said ICE no longer exempts classes or categories of removable aliens from potential enforcement.

Among those arrested this week, ICE said in a statement, was a 38-year-old documented Sureno gang member with four previous deportations to Mexico and multiple criminal convictions, including for assault with a deadly weapon.

In Bay Point, officials said, officers arrested a man with eight past deportations and a conviction for assault with a deadly weapon, and in Stockton they arrested a man with a conviction for committing lewd acts on a child. ICE did not release a full list of those arrested.

The Northern California sweep began three days after Trump threatened to remove ICE officers from the state, saying, In two months theyd be begging for us to come back.Santiago Mejia/The Chronicle

San Francisco stripped the name of Christopher Columbus, the Italian explorer, from his commemorative day in October.

But that doesnt mean the citys Italian Americans should stop holding their annual parade in North Beach, where the floats putter up Columbus Avenue as bystanders wave flags and cheer.When you request an Uber ride, you can swipe through options such as UberX, Pool, Black, SUV and WAV, which stands for wheelchair accessible vehicle.

But according to a lawsuit filed Tuesday that is seeking class-action status, the wheelchair-accessible vehicles are rarely if ever available in San Francisco and Alameda counties. Although the app includes an UberWAV button, the reality is that this button is a sham, the lawsuit said. Even when there are vehicles, customers must wait much longer for them than for other types of Uber rides, it says.

Uber is required by law to provide full and equal access to its services to all people regardless of whether or not they have a disability, said Melissa Riess, staff attorney at Berkeleys Disability Rights Advocates, which filed the suit in Alameda County Superior Court. This would be a real life-changer for people with mobility disabilities. Having an option to take them door to door on demand would give them a huge amount of flexibility and independence.

An Uber spokesman said in an email: We take this issue seriously, and are continuously exploring ways to facilitate mobility and freedom via the Uber app for all riders, including riders who use motorized wheelchairs.

It is discriminatory, said one of the lawsuits plaintiffs, Judith Smith, founder and artistic director emerita of Oaklands Axis Dance Company, which brings together dancers with and without physical disabilities. For those of us who use power wheelchairs and cannot transfer into a vehicle, it means we are not able to have the same access to Uber. I would love to have the ease of opening my phone and knowing I would have a ride show up.

We are deeply disappointed in Ubers continued resistance to following the laws that keep transportation services open to everyone, said Jessie Lorenz, executive director of the Independent Living Resource Center of San Francisco, which is another plaintiff, in a statement.

Riess said her nonprofit made UberWAV requests over six or seven weeks in multiple spots in San Francisco and Alameda County. We were never able to access a wheelchair-accessible vehicle in Alameda County, she said. In San Francisco, 80 percent of the time there was no vehicle available.

The group found similar issues with Lyft, she said, but is starting its legal action against Uber because it is bigger. Lyft did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The suit does not seek monetary damages. Instead, it wants Uber to institute a comprehensive remedial scheme to address its current exclusion of riders with mobility disabilities, according to a statement from Disability Rights. The lawsuit notes that Uber does provide widespread wheelchair-accessible transportation in London and six other cities in the United Kingdom.

Air Quality Tracker Check levels down to the neighborhood Ratings for the Bay Area and California, updated every 10 minutes

We want them to make this a viable, reliable service that people with mobility disabilities who use wheelchairs can rely on, like all other Uber users, Riess said.

Ubers and Lyfts state regulator, the California Public Utilities Commission, requires them to submit annual reports about their disability access, but it keeps those reports sealed. That information is among data that City Attorney Dennis Herrera is seeking with a subpoena. Lyft does provide the records to San Francisco, but they can be seen only by city staff.

Similar suits are pending against Uber in New York, Chicago and Washington, D.C.Since I write for The San Francisco Chronicle, readers frequently mistake me for a journalist. But the etymology disqualifies me. In French, the word for day is jour, and so a journaliste is one who keeps a daily inventory or account book.

Unlike such luminaries as Jon Carroll, Herb Caen or Art Hoppe, I dont write every day. Those people are the real writers. When Jack London was a journalist, he generated a good 1,500 words a day, saying, You cant wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club. This explains why he did so much better than Mark Twain. who wrote only about 1,400 words a day, and got himself fired.

There are 21st century writers who write every day for weblogs, often shortened to blogs, a pragmatic abbreviation entirely devoid of poetry.

Rather, I keep an inventory once every seven days, so you could call me a weeklyist, which is too easy to confuse with weakest. Even though I may be the weakest of the Chronicle writers, I certainly dont want anybody else to know that. If we borrowed from the French again, I could be called a semaine-alist, or better yet, semainarian.

Hmm, I tried to be a seminarian once, back in my college days, but it turned out that the Holy Cross Fathers were serious about that turning away from sin business, and I found that I was much better at vice than I was at virtue.

The term for a person who generates 750 words for a newspaper every Wednesday is columnist, which comes from the Latin word for pillar (columna), and its an American term dating back to 1915 or so. People like Walter Winchell, Dorothy Parker and Louella Parsons worked that title into celebrity status.

I have only ever been a celebrity once. Two weeks ago, Brian and I had a date night with the SASBs. They took us out to see The Book of Mormon, which had me laughing loud enough to embarrass the husband. Before the show, we met for drinks at the 19th floor of the Mark Hopkins Hotel: Top of the Mark. One hundred different variations of the martini, this was about as high class as it gets for the two of us, who normally drink our Saturday night cocktail straight out of the Franzia wine box. But the highlight of my evening came as we walked out the door. The maitre d took Brian aside and said, Please tell Mr. Fisher-Paulson how much we love his column, at which point Brian grabbed my arm, winked at the guy and said, Tell him directly. Kevin has always wanted to be famous to someone.

H. Allen Smith, who wrote for the Evening Mail in the 1920s, wrote a book titled The Gentle Art of Columning. Never read it myself, but I hear tell that its a text still used in journalism school. In it, he said, Just between you and me, its tough. A typewriter can be a pretty formidable contraption when you sit down in front of it and say: All right, now Im going to be funny ... but the reader likes the column because it reveals a daily insight into another mans soul  and he finds this other soul likable.

I studied fiction writing, not fact writing, at Notre Dame, which may explain why neither my husband nor my children take my stories at face value. But I cant argue with Smith about the daunting part. Hundreds of thousands of people read the Chron on a daily basis, and when I get things wrong, I hear from a fair number of them.

Cant argue with him about the insight, either. You devotees of this particular column (or is that flying buttress?) know all there is to know about the Bedlam Bungalow in the outer, outer, outer, outer Excelsior, and I like to think that you find our souls likable.

You watch this pilgrimage called family. You weep with us when Krypto passes away. You commiserate that we have been 10 weeks without a kitchen. You get angry when Thurgood Marshall High School suspends Zane, yet again, for flimsy reasons.

Liz Long wrote to me, We are rooting for the kids to make it, and yet we know that each misstep made is a chance to reset the clock and charge forward again.

So thank you for being there. Thank you for bearing witness. We may not be journalists, but we are on a journey.A collection of letters written by Harper Lee between 1956 and 1961 to her close personal friend Harold Caufield and his circle of friends is now held by Emorys Stuart A. Rose Manuscript, Archives and Rare Book Library. Emory Photo/Video

A collection of personal correspondence and memorabilia of renowned novelist Harper Lee, author of To Kill a Mockingbird and Go Set a Watchman, has been acquired by Emory Universitys Stuart A. Rose Manuscript, Archives and Rare Book Library.

The letters, written between 1956 and 1961, are from Lee to New York architect and close personal friend Harold Caufield and his circle of friends, which included Michael and Joy Brown, the couple who financially supported Lee for a year while she drafted Go Set a Watchman and began work on what would become To Kill a Mockingbird.

This correspondence of Harper Lee offers meaningful revelations into her life and her love of words, says Rosemary M. Magee, director of the Rose Library. We find her candid and insightful, modest yet full of life, thankful for the love and support of friends. Along with photographs, an inscribed volume and other related materials, these letters have found a most welcoming home in the Rose Library, where we celebrate literature that has the power to shape our own words and work and to transform lives.

Emory acquired the letters from retired attorney Paul R. Kennerson of La Jolla, California, who said he approached the university about becoming the permanent home of the archive after having met and talked with Emory historian Joseph Crespino. Crespino reached out to Kennerson while researching his forthcoming book, Atticus Finch: The Biography, available May 8, 2018.

Crespinos book is a cultural and political history of Lees most famous character. It draws on exclusive sources to reveal how Lees father, Amasa Coleman Lee  who practiced law, served in the Alabama State Legislature and was owner and editor of the Monroe Journal  served as the real-life inspiration for both the idealized character in To Kill a Mockingbird and the embittered, reactionary figure in Go Set a Watchman.

This correspondence from Harper Lee, some of which show her at home taking care of her ailing father, provides wonderful insight into her life during the critical years when she wrote what would be her only two novels, says Crespino, who serves as Jimmy Carter Professor of History. They provide a window into her life and her views during a period of tumultuous change in southern political life. Read with other historical sources, they offer clues as to why the character of Atticus seems to diverge so sharply between the two novels.

Crespinos scholarship makes Emory the appropriate home for the letters, Kennerson says.

These letters complement the research being done by Joe Crespino so perfectly that I was taken with the fit of it and was highly impressed with other work being done at Emory, Kennerson notes. I cant think of a better place to house these materials for future use by researchers and scholars.

Four of the six letters in the collection date from several years before Lee published To Kill a Mockingbird, and two are from the year following publication, by which time the novel had become a best-seller and Pulitzer Prize winner. Also included in the archive is a 35th anniversary edition of To Kill a Mockingbird inscribed to Caufield and signed Nelle Harper, which she reserved only for inscriptions to close personal friends.

According to Jennifer Meehan, incoming interim director of the Rose Library, the archive, which is still being processed, will be available to the public beginning April 2.Welcome to City Halls Room 200, where the buck stops, interim Mayor Mark Farrell. Now put this issue high on your to-do list: Only 13 arrests were made in the more than 81,511 auto break-ins reported online over the past seven years, according to the district attorneys office.

The number of reported burglaries wont surprise anyone who has seen the pervasive coatings of tiny glass shards on the pavements of the city. That in itself is maddening  and by all accounts, getting worse. But the reality that the vandals and thieves are doing it with near impunity is simply unacceptable.

San Francisco clearly needs to be more aggressive in deterring, investigating and prosecuting car break-ins. The outrageously low arrest rate shows that the value of the online reports have been reduced to documentation for insurance claims. The overall arrest rate is also distressingly low. Police arrested just 446 suspects for auto burglary from January to November 2017  even though there were more than 30,000 break-ins for the year.

In effect, the criminals are getting away with it unless an officer catches them in the act.

Some law-enforcement officials, namely the San Francisco Police Officers Association, would like to blame Proposition 47, a crime-reform bill passed by state voters in November 2014. They note that the measure raised the threshold for felony theft to $950. But that argument does not hold up to scrutiny. Auto break-ins can still be charged as felonies. And property crime rates have not changed significantly since the law took effect, according to a recent study by Californians for Safety and Justice.

There is no single solution to stopping this wave of break-ins. It requires commitment and teamwork between police and prosecutors. It also requires a tweak in the law.

District Attorney George Gascon has noted that one of the difficulties of prosecuting break-in cases as felonies is that it requires proof that the car doors were locked  otherwise a theft with a smashed window is treated as a misdemeanor. State Sen. Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco, has taken up Gascons call with proposed legislation that would add the words or when forced entry is used in the penal codes description of felony auto burglary.

San Francisco needs to treat this crime wave as the serious issue it has become.

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.The conspiracy theories, conflicting agendas, and screwball tweets surrounding Special Counsel Robert Muellers investigation of President Trump are heated enough to create their own chaotic ecosystem.

The dueling memos released by opposing parties on the House Intelligence Committee this month offer a keen window into the partisan danger that lies ahead.

On Saturday, Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Burbank, released a memo about the FBIs investigation of President Trumps 2016 presidential campaign. The Schiff memo, which contains many partial redactions, was released over Trumps wishes.

It suggests that the FBI has corroborated parts of the Steele dossier, a report by former British intelligence agent Christopher Steele about Trump and his teams interactions with Russians. It also reveals that the FBIs surveillance of a Trump campaign adviser, Carter Page, revealed valuable information (likely about Pages contacts with Russians, although those sections are redacted).

Schiff, ranking Democrat on the Intelligence Committee, crafted the memo in response to the memo released on Feb. 2 by Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes, R-Tulare.

The Nunes memo was released to the public with the blessing of Trump and against the wishes of the FBI and law enforcement.

It alleged that biased FBI and Justice Department officials had misled the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court about the dossier (which was funded by the Democratic National Committee and Hillary Clintons presidential campaign), and abused their surveillance powers with regards to Page.

Yet the rollout of the dueling memos  delaying the Democrats response that credibly debunked the GOPs main talking points about a tainted investigation  was the embodiment of bad faith.

Evidence of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election is so overwhelming that even Trumps own national security adviser, H.R. McMaster, called it incontrovertible. The investigation and response to this assault on our democracy should be handled in a nonpartisan matter.

Clearly, Nunes sees it differently. Hes already announced his intention to examine the State Departments role in the Russia investigation, and hinted at more memos to come.

His willful disregard for the institutions hes attacking is disturbing.

As Washington squabbles over memos, Mueller continues to move his investigation forward with new indictments and guilty pleas. He must be allowed to finish his critical work, no matter the efforts of the White House and its water carriers on Capitol Hill to deflect and discredit.

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.One irony of our spineless gun debate is the number of people who seem to believe that assault rifles are the backbone of the Second Amendment. If ever these weapons should be regulated or abolished, they believe, then its but a short step before the Second Amendment is ripped from the Bill of Rights.

In fact, assault rifles have as much in common with the spirit of the Second Amendment as child pornography has in common with the spirit of the First. The Second Amendment is based on a social contract that recognizes mutual need. Assault rifles are antisocial technologies pitched to consumers with the promise that they wont need anyone.

And the consumers are buying, in the millions. The result is a phenomenon the founders could never have envisioned: the emergence of the one-man militia. No man is an island, perhaps, but with an AR-15 in his hand, one man can be an army.

A fear of standing armies lies at the root of the Second Amendment. A well-regulated militia is what the framers preferred. Far as weve fallen from their ideal, we can still summon it with a mental image: hands reaching for the rifle on the wall, neighbors emerging from their houses to join with other neighbors in facing a common foe.

The symbolism of the assault rifle, on the other hand, suggests a different ideal  what has become our reigning ideal: radical autonomy through technological enhancement. From the self-serve checkout to the self-published book, the premise is the same. The need you once had for another person can be transferred to a device under your own control. You yourself are the free press, the religion, the assembly  and the self-regulated militia.

As such, you have become something more than one citizen among many. You no longer need the many. This is hardly a new ambition. There have always been two divergent visions for America: one a society of equals with no kings, and the other an anarchic competition in which any person with enough money, muscle or firepower can behave like a king. If we were honest with ourselves, wed have a monument beside the Lincoln Memorial for Al Capone.

Those of us who would like to see assault rifles banned or at least strictly regulated tend to see their proliferation as some kind of barbaric aberration, as out of place in a civilized country as the Coliseum would look in Central Park. Politically and socially, that sounds about right. In terms of our culture, however, these weapons are but a small, lethal piece of the larger project. Any change of heart capable of bringing about their abolition would require getting a new heart.

Easier, by far, to get a new gadget. I used to employ a typist in my work, but she went the way of the typewriter. My wife and I used to rent films from a store run by our neighbors; now we order them online. They come to us the old-fashioned way, by mail, but Randy, our postal carrier, drives under the shadow of a drone. He is starting to look dispensable. Its how poor people look to urban developers, how workers look to employers with robots on the brain.

Or, to take a step much shorter than we care to admit, its how children sitting in a classroom or gay patrons dancing at a nightclub start to look to the troubled isolato in his virtual cocoon. The most misanthropic Neanderthal was never able to do what he can do, which is to live and brood for weeks on end without the tangible assistance of another human being. And to make a massacre all by himself.

There neednt be an assault rifle on a subway car in order to see the conditions that make one thinkable. All you need to do is raise your eyes from your screen long enough to look around. Would you like to talk to any of these people? Would you care very much if the train operator were replaced by a droid? Wouldnt it all be so much easier if you could hit delete and everyone else just disappeared?SACRAMENTO  California fire officials asked lawmakers Tuesday for $100 million to improve the states strained mutual-aid system, which is designed to quickly rally first responders in an emergency, such as the deadly fires that ravaged the North Bay last year.

At a legislative hearing in Sacramento, fire chiefs and emergency officials said wildfires across the state last year exposed shortcomings in the 60-year-old system.

The system is a little too slow to react sometimes, and you are really starting to see it in these instances where a fire is moving so fast that you cant keep up, said Santa Rosa Fire Chief Tony Gossner, who battled one of the quickest moving and most destructive fires last year, the Tubbs Fire. The system worked great in the 50s, 60s and 70s. In todays world, the last three or four years have shown it is too slow.

Tuesdays hearing before two state Senate committees  the emergency services and governmental organization committees  came after a Chronicle story in November revealed that thousands of mutual-aid requests in fire emergencies went unfilled in the past few years, including 175 requests made during the early hours of the October fires that ravaged parts of the North Bay.

The Chronicle found that commanders in Sonoma and Napa counties requested 305 fire engines from other jurisdictions through the mutual-aid program during the early hours of the devastating Wine Country fires. But, in the first 12 hours, only 130 engines arrived to help with the deadly blazes. In Mendocino County, where nine people were killed in the fires, no engines were sent from the mutual-aid program during the first day, despite a request for 15 engines.

The mutual-aid system is a network managed by the Governors Office of Emergency Services to enable cities and counties to voluntarily assist each other during major emergencies in a neighbor helping neighbor concept, said Mark Ghilarducci, director of the Office of Emergency Services.

However, local governments can be reluctant to share their firefighting resources if it means leaving their own communities unprotected. And Californias emergency responders are seeing bigger and more destructive fires as well as longer fire seasons.

State officials told lawmakers that Californias mutual-aid system is the gold standard, but increased demand has weakened the systems ability to respond quickly and adequately in emergencies.

Ghilarducci said upgrades are needed to better utilize the mutual-aid system. For example, the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection is in the process of adding tracking devices to its emergency vehicles over the next three years, which allows the agency to live-map the location of all resources so that it can efficiently dispatch the closest vehicle to a fire.

We need to be able to have that seamless operating picture across all local governments responding so we can see how we can get the closest resources there, said Cal Fire Director Ken Pimlott.

Most of the $100 million requested for the 2018-19 fiscal year would go toward beefing up staffing in areas where weather conditions suggest a devastating fire could break out. Lawmakers and Gov. Jerry Brown are in the midst of budget negotiations.

The largest user of the states mutual-aid system is Cal Fire.

Pimlott said dry conditions during the states most recent drought led to an increase in fires, with Cal Fire turning to the mutual-aid system to handle the outbreaks. In 2012, Cal Fire sent 4,472 mutual-aid requests, with local governments filling 3,101 of those. Three years later, Cal Fires use of the mutual-aid system jumped to 11,899 requests in 2015, of which 6,421 were filled by local governments.

Our system in California is the best in the world, but it was never built to deal with the level of activity and the conditions we are facing, Pimlott said.

California faced an unprecedented 9,000 wildfires last year, which burned more than 1 million acres, destroyed 11,000 structures and killed 46 people. Among the most devastating fires were those that ripped through Northern California in October. In December, the Thomas Fire in Ventura County became the largest wildfire in recorded history, burning 280,000 acres.

In the last 36 months, every time we say its an unprecedented wildfire it just gets worse, said state Sen. Mike McGuire, D-Healdsburg, who said he supports the $100 million budget request from fire officials. We need to stop saying its unprecedented and prepare for what our new reality truly is.Rowan Atkinson isnt the first comic actor to move into a dramatic role, but the leap is especially large as he tackles the part of the great French police detective created by Georges Simenon, Chief Inspector Jules Maigret, in four TV films making their U.S. premiere on Wednesday, Feb. 28, on the streaming service BritBox.

At the outset, lets offer Atkinson a bit of career advice: David Suchet completed adaptations of Agatha Christies complete Poirot oeuvre and few would complain if Atkinson followed suit with Maigret. He is terrific and bordering on definitive, although Maigret has been adapted often around the world, and no doubt fans will have their own favorite impersonator.

If we buy into the concept that great comedys flip side is sadness, and we should, Atkinson brings that key element of his past comedic work to the role of Maigret, whose marriage and life have partially been informed by the death of a daughter at childbirth.

There are small, almost imperceptible references to that still unclosed chapter of Maigrets history in the two films made available to critics, Maigret Sets a Trap, based on a 1955 novel, and Maigret and the Dead Man, based on a work from 1948.

Maigret is not given to grand gestures, a la Sherlock Holmes, or odd personality quirks like Poirot. He is a rather dull individual, compared with some other classic crime solvers. He wears a heavy overcoat and a hat, rarely raises his voice, and solves cases by trying to place himself in the mind of the killer.

The Trap Maigret sets in the first film is designed to capture a Jack the Ripper-like killer who has targeted several young women in Montmartre. Panic has taken hold of the classic Parisian neighborhood on a hill and the police are feeling the pressure to stop the killings.

Knowing that the killer goes after dark-haired women, Maigret and his collaborators, Inspector LaPointe (Leo Starr) and Inspector Janvier (Shaun Dingwall), set a trap using undercover female police officers. Completely ignoring pressure from his superior, Judge Comelieu (Adrian McArdle), Maigret goes about solving the case in his own way. It may seem as though hes taking his time, but thats how he works, investigating, gathering evidence and clues, putting things together in the manner of the police procedural. Just knowing the identity of the killer turns out to be only part of the story.

Dead Man turns on the death of a desperate little man named Albert Rochain (Mark Hadfield) who makes several calls to Maigret as he tries to elude two men who are following him. One of his last acts is to post something in the mail. We dont know the identity of the recipient.

It turns out that Rochain and his wife, Nina (Nathalie Armin), own a small cafe called Au Petit Albert. Maigret and Madame Maigret (Lucy Cohu) take over running the cafe in order to smoke out Rochains killers. While they are there, they find a dresser drawer filled with baby clothes, as Albert and Nina were trying to have a child. We dont need to be told what goes through the minds of the Maigrets at that moment. At one point, on the phone, Madame Maigret says of the Rochains that theirs seemed to be a happy home. Isnt ours a happy home too? her husband asks, and his wife responds with assurance that it is.

The exchange is perfectly conceived, seemingly so typical of what a man and his wife might say to each other, but without needing to state the deeper meaning, screenwriter Stewart Harcourt makes his point, telling us something about Maigret and his wife.

Simenon wrote 76 Maigret novels and 28 stories. That should keep Atkinson busy for a while. If were lucky.

David Wiegand is an assistant managing editor and the TV critic of The San Francisco Chronicle. Follow him on Facebook. Email: dwiegand@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @WaitWhat_TV

Maigret, four feature-length films adapted from Georges Simenons novels, starring Rowan Atkinson, available to stream on the subscription service BritBox. Go to www.britbox.comA San Francisco transportation company offered a $10,000 reward for information that leads to the arrest of anyone involved in the spree of BB gun shootings targeting tech buses, authorities said.

The reward comes after at least five shuttle buses carrying Apple and Google employees were vandalized while traveling to and from the South Bay, according to the California Highway Patrol.Michael Macor/SFC

A federal appeals court refused Tuesday to halt the enforcement of San Francisco laws that require handgun owners to keep their weapons locked when stored at home and ban bullets that expand or splinter on contact, saying they do not interfere with the right to use firearms in self-defense.

One ordinance, passed in 2007, requires residents to keep handguns in locked containers or to use trigger locks when they are not carrying the weapons. The other law dates from 1994 and prohibits local sales of hollow-point bullets, designed to inflict more damage to the human body than conventional ammunition.Apparently, a curvy Venus was too much for Facebook to handle.

In what has become a case of Stone Age pornography, Facebook recently removed a post by a self-proclaimed "artivist" featuring a 30,000-year-old nude statue known as the Venus of Willendorf, which depicts a corpulent woman with prominent labia.

In late December, Laura Ghianda stated on her page that an image of the statue posted on Facebook was removed as inappropriate content despite her four attempts to appeal the decision.

Her post denouncing Facebook's censorship was shared over 7,000 times.

The statue is part of the Natural History Museum in Vienna and was discovered in Austria in 1908.

The removal of the online photo also prompted the museum to issue a snarky retort: "Let the Venus be naked! Since 29,500 years she shows herself as prehistoric fertility symbol without any clothes. Now Facebook censors it and upsets the community."

More for you Man who went missing 6 nights in Yosemite shares survival tips...

A case on Facebook's censorship of art recently headed to a Paris court. The case concerned a posted photograph of Gustave Courbet's 1866 painting L'Origine du monde (Origin of the World), a realistic depiction of a woman's genitals.

Even though Facebook's policy on nudity allows for "photographs of paintings, sculptures, and other art that depicts nude figures," instances of art censorship continue.

Meanwhile, photos of the classically svelte Venus continue to circulate freely on Facebook pages.Federal officials said Tuesday they arrested more than 150 undocumented immigrants in a Northern California sweep aimed at countering local sanctuary laws, while suggesting Oakland Mayor Libby Schaafs decision to alert the public to the secret operation may have allowed some targets to elude capture.

Since Sunday, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers have fanned out from the Central Valley to the far northern reaches of the state, knocking on doors, detaining people and prompting alarm from community activists and some Democratic politicians who oppose President Trumps immigration crackdown.

Agency officials, who had remained silent about the operation for three days, said in a written statement that they arrested people in cities including San Francisco, Bay Point, Sacramento and Stockton, and that half of those arrested had criminal convictions, including for violent crimes.

The operation was named Keep Safe. Officials did not say whether the first letters of the operation were intended as a reference to Kate Steinle, the San Francisco woman shot dead on a bay pier in July 2015 by a homeless undocumented immigrant. ICE also did not say whether the sweep was over.

Sanctuary jurisdictions like San Francisco and Oakland shield dangerous criminal aliens from federal law enforcement at the expense of public safety, said Thomas Homan, the acting director of ICE. Because these jurisdictions prevent ICE from arresting criminal aliens in the secure confines of a jail, they also force ICE officers to make more arrests out in the community, which poses increased risks for law enforcement and the public.

Homan slammed Schaaf, who on Saturday night released an unprecedented warning that ICE was about to begin arresting people. Schaaf said she issued the alert after receiving confidential tips from credible sources, and conferring with attorneys to make sure she wasnt opening herself up to federal prosecution.

The mayors move endangered ICE officers and alerted their targets, Homan asserted, making clear that this reckless decision was based on her political agenda. He said 864 criminal aliens and public safety threats remain at large in the community, and I have to believe that some of them were able to elude us thanks to the mayors irresponsible decision.

Fox News, which was given a ride-along with ICE officers during the operation, reported that agency officials were asking the Department of Justice to investigate whether Schaaf broke any laws.

In a statement Tuesday night, Schaaf stood by her decision to go public.

My statement on Saturday was meant to give all residents time to learn their rights and know their legal options. It was my intention that one mother, or one father, would use the information to help keep their family together, the mayor said. I do not regret sharing this information. It is Oaklands legal right to be a sanctuary city and we have not broken any laws. We believe our community is safer when families stay together.

San Francisco Mayor Mark Farrell released a statement saying that the city wont cower as the administration pursues their political plan of haphazardly punishing sanctuary cities.

We stand with our hardworking, law-abiding immigrant neighbors and we are unified in our response to the divisive rhetoric of this president.

The Chronicle reported in January that federal officials were planning the Northern California operation. The Trump administration has repeatedly expressed frustration at sanctuary laws in the state, which restrict cooperation between local authorities and ICE in an effort to convince undocumented immigrants they dont need to live in the shadows.

Trump seized upon the killing of Steinle to argue that sanctuary policies are dangerous. The undocumented immigrant shooter, Jose Ines Garcia Zarate, had previously been released from San Francisco County Jail under the citys sanctuary ordinance, even though immigration officers had asked that he be turned over for a sixth deportation.

This weeks sweep is the second to target California since a statewide sanctuary law signed by Gov. Jerry Brown, SB54, went into effect in January. The legislation, among other things, limits the circumstances in which jails across the state can turn over undocumented inmates to ICE and forbids police from arresting people on immigration warrants.

Earlier this month, ICE arrested more than 200 immigrants suspected of being undocumented in an operation in Los Angeles. Federal agents also told 122 businesses there that they would be checking whether their employees were authorized to work. ICE launched a similar action in Northern California in January, visiting 77 businesses.

If you take all of the administrations statements in context ... it suggests that this is highly politically motivated and meant to send a message to California, said Pratheepan Gulasekaram, a professor and immigration expert at Santa Clara University School of Law. The message, he said, is that not cooperating with federal immigration authorities will result in aggressive immigration enforcement.

The ACLU of Northern California said Tuesday that reports from rapid-response networks over the previous three days suggested that ICE enforcement is terrorizing communities of color. The targeting of cities and states that refuse to use their limited resources to fuel the Trump administrations deportation machine is cruel and inhumane.

ICE said the agency focuses its enforcement resources on individuals who pose a threat to national security, public safety, and border security. But officials also said ICE no longer exempts classes or categories of removable aliens from potential enforcement.

Among those arrested this week, ICE said in a statement, was a 38-year-old documented Sureno gang member with four previous deportations to Mexico and multiple criminal convictions, including for assault with a deadly weapon.

In Bay Point, officials said, officers arrested a man with eight past deportations and a conviction for assault with a deadly weapon, and in Stockton they arrested a man with a conviction for committing lewd acts on a child. ICE did not release a full list of those arrested.

The Northern California sweep began three days after Trump threatened to remove ICE officers from the state, saying, In two months theyd be begging for us to come back.A substitute teacher allegedly slapped a 6-year-old special education student last week in Vallejo, leading police to open an investigation.

On Friday, Lyniqueah Hawkins got a call from the assistant principal of Highland Elementary School in Vallejo, who apparently told her that he was on his way to a classroom where her son, Famous, had been slapped by a substitute teacher.

Famous is in first grade at Highland and enrolled in the schools special education program.

The mother headed straight for the school.

His cheek was really red, Hawkins told The Chronicle.

Both the assistant principal and Famous said the substitute teacher had slapped the boy.

Hawkins said she was told that the substitute had been escorted from the school, but that the police hadnt been called.

I said, You guys didnt call the police? And they said it was a district matter, Hawkins recalled.

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Hawkins then called police herself, and officers came to her home to take a report that night. She also filed a report with the Vallejo City Unified School District.

Gigi Patrick, the chief human resources officer for the district, confirmed the incident in a statement, noting that officials were saddened by this event.

The teacher in question was identified as a substitute, and immediately pulled from the site, Patrick wrote. This matter is currently being investigated by the Vallejo Police Department, and the district is cooperating in the investigation.

Vallejo police did not immediately respond to questions about the incident or the investigation.

Hawkins said her son has been traumatized by the alleged attack, and he no longer feels excited about going to school.

He hasnt been able to sleep in his own bed since Thursday, she said. He was waking up and having dreams.

Hawkins also expressed disappointment with how the district handled the situation.

At the end of the day, someone needs to be held accountable, because how they handled this wasnt professional, she said. It wasnt protocol.Story Highlights 94% of Americans view Canada favorably; 6% view North Korea favorably

Six in 10 Americans have a positive image of Haiti

Countries viewed most favorably are among harshest critics of U.S. leadership

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Canada once again ranks as the country or territory that Americans view most favorably, while North Korea ranks the least favorably among 22 countries on the world stage. Americans also view Great Britain, Japan, Norway, Germany, France and South Korea very positively. Five Middle Eastern countries -- Syria, Iran, Afghanistan, the Palestinian Authority and Iraq -- rank just above North Korea at the bottom of the list.

Historically, Americans have largely given positive ratings to the nations with whom the U.S. maintains good relationships and negative ones to the countries that the U.S. tangles with in world affairs, or that represent a military threat. These patterns hold true in the latest update of Americans' views of foreign countries from Gallup's World Affairs survey, conducted Feb. 1-10.

Americans' views of nations vary widely, with an 88-percentage-point gap separating favorability ("very favorable" and "mostly favorable" combined) toward Canada (94%) and North Korea (6%). These countries' ratings are near the historical high and low, respectively, among all of the countries Gallup has measured. Canada earned the highest favorability of 96% in 2012 while Iran and Iraq each earned the lowest favorability of 5% several times.

In addition to North Korea and the five Middle Eastern countries with low favorability, Russia (25%), Saudi Arabia (41%) and Cuba (48%) all fall below majority-level favorability.

Overall, favorability ratings reached a majority level for 13 of the 22 countries in the poll. In addition to the six countries with 80% or higher favorable ratings, India (75%), Israel (74%) and Mexico (61%) all maintained strong positive readings, while Egypt (59%) and China (53%) saw a significant increase in favorability. China crept onto the majority favorable list for the first time in nearly three decades, with 53% favorability.

Gallup tested opinions on Norway and Haiti for the first time in this survey, after President Donald Trump's widely reported comments in January in which he said the U.S. needs more migrants from places such as Norway and fewer migrants from Haiti and other countries.

Six in 10 Americans view Haiti favorably, but there was a considerable partisan difference in opinions. Republicans view Haiti less favorably than Democrats do, 53% vs. 71%, respectively. There is, however, no partisan difference in opinions of Norway with 85% of all Americans, including the same percentage of Democrats and Republicans, holding a positive opinion of the Scandinavian country.

Countries Viewed Most Favorably Among Harshest Critics of U.S. Leadership

Gallup's 2017 World Poll recorded people's views about U.S. leadership in 16 of the 22 countries measured in the U.S. World Affairs poll this year. The questions are not parallel because the World Poll asks people in other countries if they approve or disapprove of the job performance of U.S. leadership, while the U.S. poll measures Americans' favorability of countries as a whole. Still, the differences in these ratings provide insight into where goodwill is more or less reciprocated.

Overall, the number of countries and areas where majorities disapprove of U.S. leadership more than tripled from 15 in 2016 to a record 53 in 2017, coinciding with the change from the Barack Obama administration to the Trump administration. These results are according to Gallup's Rating World Leaders: 2018 , which is based on interviews conducted in 134 countries and areas between March and November 2017.

##SPEEDBUMP##

Many countries that have had historically positive relations with the U.S. were among the harshest critics of its leadership in 2017. For example, while Americans view Norway quite favorably, Norwegians do not approve of U.S. leadership. In fact, disapproval of U.S. leadership is higher in Norway (83%) than any of the countries included in Gallup's World Poll. Just 13% of Norwegians approve. Canada, where 78% disapprove and 20% approve, is also near the top of the list of countries most critical of U.S. leadership.

Israel is the only country included in both polls that registers majority approval of America's leadership. The poll in Israel was completed prior to the Trump administration's announcement that the U.S. would recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital and move the U.S. embassy there, but Trump had promised to do so throughout his presidential campaign. For their part, 74% of Americans view Israel favorably.

Reflecting continued tensions, Russian and American sentiments are similarly negative. Although the rating is slightly improved from 2016, just 8% of Russians approve of U.S. leadership. One-quarter of Americans view Russia favorably. Residents of Iraq and Afghanistan both approve of U.S. leadership more so than Americans view those countries favorably. Iranians' opinions of U.S. leadership are about the same as Americans' favorability rating of Iran (both under 20%).

Bottom Line

With near unanimity, Americans have a favorable opinion of Canada and an unfavorable opinion of North Korea, continuing the pattern seen in 2017. As has been the case historically in Gallup polling, traditional American allies are among the countries rated most positively, while U.S. adversaries join North Korea with highly negative ratings. Yet, in a departure from the past, many U.S. allies have soured on U.S. leadership since Trump took office.

Currently, Israel is one of the few countries that currently holds U.S. leadership in high esteem. If it persists, the sharp erosion in approval of U.S. leadership in many countries around the globe could lead to increased isolation.Federal officials and Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf traded bitter accusations Wednesday over Schaafs decision to alert the public about a multiday Northern California immigration sweep that the Trump administration launched to counter local sanctuary laws.

Thomas Homan, acting director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, compared the mayors warning on Saturday night  hours before ICE agents began knocking on doors and making arrests  to a gang lookout yelling police in an appearance on Fox News.

Schaaf responded, in a news conference and on radio, by assailing the administrations immigration crackdown as racist.

The war of words marked what could be a new low in the relationship between federal officials frustrated with sanctuary policies and liberal California leaders who have opposed President Trumps tightening of immigration and his assertions that undocumented people bring danger to the country.

While ICE arrested more than 150 undocumented immigrants in the first three days of this weeks operation, Homan said, Theres 800 that we are unable to locate because of that warning, so that community is a lot less safe than it would have been.

Schaafs warning is no better than a gang lookout yelling police when a police cruiser comes in the neighborhood, except she did it to the entire community, Homan said. Ill say this to the mayor and every other politician that wants to vilify the men and women of ICE  we are not going away, we are going to keep enforcing the law.

Schaaf made clear she wasnt backing down either. Speaking in her office, the mayor said she stood by her decision to reveal an operation she learned about from confidential credible sources.

I hope we take this moment to recognize that we have to fight against the racist myth that the Trump administration is trying to perpetuate  that immigrants are dangerous criminals, Schaaf said. There is nothing further from the truth. This is racist and it is false. Ample evidence shows that American-born citizens are actually more likely to commit crimes than immigrants.

Just as Im being criticized Im also being thanked, the mayor said. Thanked for standing up for our most vulnerable residents that often dont have a voice. I am hopeful that it gave comfort and security to many people in Oakland.

California Attorney General Xavier Becerra said Wednesday he was gathering more information on this weeks ICE operation while encouraging immigrants, employers and others to know their rights.

Its becoming sadly clearer that ICE is losing its focus on immigration enforcement, Becerra said. Rather than focus on people who are dangerous criminals, we hear ICE may be terrorizing communities, including family members who are citizens.

ICE said Tuesday that roughly half of those arrested since Sunday in Northern California had criminal convictions, including for violent offenses including assault with a deadly weapon. House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi, of San Francisco, seized upon that statistic to criticize the sweep, called Operation Keep Safe.

This raid was intended solely to terrorize innocent immigrant families and instill fear in the hearts of our communities, Pelosi said, not to keep Americans safe.

In downtown San Francisco, hundreds of protesters gathered Wednesday afternoon outside ICEs Northern California headquarters, chanting slogans and carrying signs that read ICE out of SF and Undocumented and unafraid. San Francisco Mayor Mark Farrell was among local politicians who attended the event to support advocates.

Its ridiculous to have all these families broken apart, said Maribel Rodriguez, a 33-year-old San Francisco resident who listened to the speeches outside the ICE building on Sansome Street. At the end of the day, family unity is what really matters, and its heartbreaking to see families being taken apart.

The immigration law firm Pangea Legal Services said ICE had put unnecessary barriers between attorneys and those arrested, including not allowing lawyers to pass information to detainees who may want representation. Attorneys said people arrested were sent to a processing center in Stockton, even though individuals would typically be processed in San Francisco.

San Francisco Public Defender Jeff Adachi also sent a letter to ICE on Wednesday demanding access to detainees.

James Schwab, an ICE spokesman in San Francisco, said in a statement that the agency respects the rights of all aliens in removal proceedings to hire and consult with a lawyer of their choice and has policies in place to ensure that aliens may do so to the extent required by federal law, but a local politician has no authority to make demands of the agency concerning such rights.

The Chronicle reported in January that federal officials were planning the operation. The Trump administration has repeatedly taken aim at sanctuary laws in California, which restrict cooperation between local authorities and ICE in an effort to convince undocumented immigrants they dont need to live in the shadows.

Homan has said that because of sanctuary laws, the agency would double down in the state and would have no choice but to conduct at-large arrests due to the agencys inability to pick up individuals with criminal records from local jails.

He has warned that ICE officers will inevitably come across other undocumented immigrants in the course of targeted actions and make what are known as collateral arrests. Arrests of undocumented immigrants without criminal convictions have risen sharply under the Trump administration.The Bay Area loves Whole Foods, Trader Joe's and other specialty grocery stores. But they all owe at least some of their concept to the original upscale San Francisco grocery store: Petrini's.

The beloved local chain began life as a San Francisco butcher shop on 7th and Clement, founded by Italian immigrant Frank Petrini in 1935. Soon, it had expanded to gourmet foods, bringing increasingly worldly American middle class shoppers treats from around the world.

Business was booming for the Petrinis, and in 1955, the chain broke ground on the $2 million Petrini Plaza shopping center at Masonic and Fulton. The massive supermarket had the largest "meat preparation area" ever created for a retail market and boasted "clean floors" and "soft music all day long."

MORE: Here's what San Francisco looked like 100 years ago

A 1956 advertisement that ran in the Chronicle touted the modern grocery experience shoppers could find at Petrini's:

"No matter where you live, it's fun to shop at Petrini Plaza because you enjoy 1. Acres and acres of free parking, 2. 28,000 value-priced food and drug items, 3. Easy, speedy, check-out systems for your convenience, 4. Delicious meal ideas in every department, 5. Tremendous selection of the world's finest foods."

The prices are enough to make you nostalgic: the "finest Eastern hams" for 54 cents a pound and "golden ripe bananas" at two pounds for 29 cents.

(If you want to see a 1960 advertisement for Petrini's, click here.)

In 1996, Petrini's was sold to a Los Angeles company, and they were slowly phased out over the next few years. The Masonic and Fulton location was eventually torn down. Today, it's complex of apartments and townhouses.

To see the interiors of California grocery stores from the late 1800s through the 1950s, check out the gallery above.Every Wednesday morning, SFGATE finds the biggest headlines in local (and sometimes national) beer. Check back here weekly for news, events, and information about special releases from your favorite local breweries.

SFGATE has launched a beer newsletter! Called the Taploid, it will contain some key stories from this column, as well as other, more nationally-spanning industry news. To sign up, head here, enter your email at the top, and check the box marked "Taploid."

It's a slow week for brewers as they continue to recoup from San Francisco Beer Week, but for beer drinkers, it's a magical time to hit the pub to sample pours from any remaining specialty event kegs. Get to it!

San Francisco's HolyCraft Brewing has officially begun canning. First up is their Japanese-style rice lager.

While you were likely still nursing your Beer Week hangover, Cellarmaker low-key teamed up with Berryessa and the Emporium arcade bar in San Francisco to release Fruity Rebels, a highly-attenuated IPA with locally-grown lemon zest. The bad news? The release happened last week, so if you're reading this, it's probably too late.

Out in the East Bay, Calicraft is expanding their outdoor space by adding a second deck. Per a Facebook post they will be "converting two grass areas into decks with expanded seating as well as adding a sliding garage door."

Did you hear it hailed in Sacramento this week?

Humble Sea is working on a "hoppy" collab with saison brewer extraordinaire, Casa Agria Specialty Ales, based in Oxnard. Keep an eye out for whatever this special beer will be.

Black Hammer is teaming up with General Assembly to host "one high impact, interactive evening in the brewery" wherein guests will take a crash course in coding. The event is free to attend but has limited space, so an RSVP is suggested.

Alyssa Pereira is an SFGATE staff writer. Email her at apereira@sfchronicle.com or find her on Twitter at @alyspereira.

Biotech firm MiMedx Group, which jolted investors last week by delaying its year-end earnings announcement, is under Justice Department scrutiny related to a pair of business practices, according to people familiar with the matter.

Federal authorities are investigating whether the Georgia company overcharged the government for its tissue-repair products, said a person with knowledge of the matter. The Justice Department is also looking into MiMedxs distribution practices  including whether it inappropriately booked sales of products that hadnt been ordered, a practice known as channel stuffing  according to several others familiar with that probe.

The company said that it isnt aware of any Justice Department investigations. It has previously disclosed that its cooperating with a Securities and Exchange Commission investigation into how it recognizes revenue, and has denied wrongdoing.

Its already been a bad stretch for the firm, which has grown rapidly selling biomaterials to help heal tendons, ligaments and cartilage. The stock plunged 40 percent on Feb. 20 after the company said it would delay its 2017 earnings report until it finishes an internal examination of certain sales and distribution practices. The internal review follows a series of public allegations, and a vicious public battle with short-sellers, over how and when the company books some of its sales.

Several former employees, in lawsuits and interviews, allege that the company has inflated its financial results by recognizing revenue on products that had been shipped to certain distributors but not used. The company has said the lawsuits have no merit and that it conducted an internal review last year that it said showed no wrongdoing.

The SECs enforcement division is looking into the companys practices related to distributors, and the agencys Denver office has been working with federal prosecutors in Manhattan, several people familiar with that matter said. The prosecutors participation hasnt previously been disclosed.

Justice Department declined to comment through Sarah Sutton, a spokeswoman.

The company, in its statement, reiterated that its audit committee and independent legal and accounting advisers are looking into certain sales and distribution practices.

We expect this thorough review will be completed in as timely a manner as possible, company spokesman Robert Borchert said, adding that MiMedx doesnt expect it to affect its operational performance or clinical research. On an investor call Friday, the company said it expected it would continue to hit its revenue targets.

In a second line of inquiry, federal agents are said to be looking into the companys sales to the government. MiMedx charged government customers higher prices for what was essentially the same product it was selling to others, according to two former employees. One of them said that late last year, the Federal Bureau of Investigation collected emails, sales reports, marketing materials, pricing charts and pay details as part of an inquiry into MiMedxs government sales.

If MiMedx overcharged taxpayers, it could face significant penalties. Federal prosecutors are looking into whether the companys tissue-graft sales violated the False Claims Act, the governments primary tool for policing fraud against federal agencies, according to the former employee who described the FBIs inquiries on condition of anonymity.

MiMedx has significant sales to government customers including the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and the Department of Defense, according to its most recent annual report.

Allegations of channel-stuffing were raised in a lawsuit by two former MiMedx salespeople who accused the company of terminating them in retaliation after they reported what they said was a fraudulent revenue-recognition scheme. The employees had previously been sued by the company for allegedly violating non-compete agreements.

The ex-employees withdrew their action and remain defendants in litigation brought by MiMedx. The company says the claims about its sales practices are without merit.

Three other former employees, who asked not to be identified, told Bloomberg in interviews that company executives at times asked salespeople to meet targets by shipping products that hadnt been ordered.

MiMedx conducted an internal review more than a year ago into its sales practices. It said in March 2017 that the inquiry revealed no wrongdoing by the firm or its executives. The company has said it has submitted a summary of the report to the SEC.

The company hasnt said when the current internal review of its practices would be completed.

Separately, the Wall Street Journal reported last week that MiMedx has financial ties to more than 20 doctors that it didnt disclose. The company said a 2013 law that requires reporting payments to doctors doesnt apply to its products.

MiMedx dropped its longtime auditor, Cherry Bekaert LLP, in August, and hired Ernst & Young. John La Place, an Ernst & YoungY spokesman, declined to comment. A representative for Cherry Bekaert didnt respond to requests for comment.WASHINGTON  The Supreme Court gave a skeptical hearing Tuesday to lawyers for Microsoft who insist the company need not turn over emails that they have stored overseas, even if federal prosecutors have a search warrant from a judge.

Chief Justice John Roberts said Microsofts position, if adopted by the high court, would be good news for people who want to break the law.

They could conduct illegal business via email in the United States with the assurance their messages would remain safe and off-limits to U.S. investigators because they were held in Canada or Ireland, Roberts reasoned.

The case of the United States vs. Microsoft has been hailed by some as a major test of privacy in a world where electronic traffic is stored in a digital cloud. Many observers say the federal law known as the Stored Communications Act of 1986 is hopelessly outdated.

But most of the justices seemed to agree with Justice Department lawyer Michael Dreeben, who argued that the court needed to decide the case before them based on the current law and on the extra weight given to search warrants.

The dispute arose during what looked like a routine federal drug investigation in New York. In 2013, agents went to court there and obtained a search warrant for all emails from a Microsoft customer.

But when the warrant was served at Microsofts headquarters in Redmond, Wash., the company refused to turn over the contents of the emails, saying they were held in a data center in Dublin, Ireland.

To the surprise of federal authorities, the Second U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York agreed with Microsoft that the federal law on stored communications did not allow for an extraterritorial application.

The Supreme Court then agreed to hear the administrations appeal.How does an airline feed 250 passengers for 19 hours? How does it keep rice or noodles moist for that long? Serve a perfectly cooked medium rare steak on the plane? Or ensure that food is tasty, beautiful and fresh after making its way halfway around the world from kitchen to truck to plane to airplane seat?

Singapore Airlines invited SFGATE cameras out to its inflight kitchens for a look at how it pulls off this amazing feat for some of the longest flights in the world.

Once a quarter, chefs, airline executives and accountants gather in a nondescript beige building next to a Hampton Inn in Millbrae, California. They are there to view, taste and discuss the meals served on Singapore Airlines long haul flights to Asia.

This ritual has recently taken on added importance as the airline chooses meals for its "ultra long haul" flights. Currently, one of Singapore Air's longest flight runs between San Francisco and Singapore, a 16-17 hour odyssey on an Airbus A350-900.

Singapore Air also recently started flying its longest flight, between New York/Newark and Singapore, which clocks in at about 19 hours. Flights like that require new thinking about inflight dining.

Don't miss a shred of important travel news! Sign up for our FREE bi-weekly email alerts

One new concept for ultra-long flights is something like an all-day-brunch or dine-on-demand plan in business class. This means that passengers don't necessarily have to dine when flight attendants push their carts down the aisles. Instead, they can choose from a wide variety of meals at any time during the very long flight.

For example, when you board SIA's SFO-SIN nonstop at 9:30 am, you can choose to have a dim sum or an omelet for breakfast. Or maybe you flew in from the east coast, and would rather have a steak for your first meal? Or maybe just a nice bowl of warm noodle soup. No problem.

As the flight approaches Singapore for a 6 pm arrival 17 or so hours later, some passengers may want breakfast after sleeping during the latter part of the flight. Others who may have slept earlier may be ready for a smoky barbecue sandwich or a bowl of fresh fruit.

If you know what you want before you go, premium economy and business class passengers can go to Singapore Air's website to "book the cook" and order from a special menu of items specially prepared on the ground and served on the plane when requested. (We checked out a few delicious menu items -- like fried prawns tossed with tangy mayonnaise and topped with candied walnuts-- during our visit- see it in the slideshow above.)

The current lowest fares for January flights on Singapore's two dailies between SFO and Singapore are about: $1,000 in economy, $1,600 in premium economy, and around $4,900 in business class. Singapore competes with United on this nonstop route, so fares rise and fall a lot. Singapore Air also flies from SFO to Singapore via Hong Kong using a Boeing 777.

Be sure to scroll through the slideshow at the top for a look behind the scenes at the inflight kitchen and boardroom as execs and chefs taste meals and make decisions. The story is in the captions! You'll get a preview of what it will be like to dine aboard tone of he world's longest distance and duration flights.

What's the best meal you've had on a long distance flight? Would you rather eat or sleep on a flight to Asia? Tell us in the comments!

Read all recent TravelSkills posts here

Chris McGinnis is SFGATE's senior travel correspondent. You can reach him via email or follow him on Twitter or Facebook. Don't miss a shred of important travel news by signing up for his FREE biweekly email updates!San Francisco police released body-worn camera footage and the names of the seven officers involved in a shooting in the Design District on Feb. 17 that followed a homicide investigation in the Panhandle.

At a town hall on Tuesday, Police Chief Bill Scott and Southern District Captain Daryl Fong met with a small gathering of residents at the Recology Golden Gate, just down the street from where the officers fired at a homicide suspect holed up inside an RV at Alameda and De Haro streets. No one was injured in the shooting.

The suspect, Joel Armstrong, a 31-year-old transient, was wanted on suspicion of fatally shooting Milkon Isleyen and injuring Justin Shivers.

Armstrong fired two rounds at officers while refusing orders to come out of the RV. Seven officers then fired a total of 65 rounds at the RV with Armstrong inside.

The officers were identified as Glennon Griffin, Anthony Sharron, Robby Wilkom, Matthew Nazar, Gregory Buhagiar, Steven Oesterich and Christopher Cotter.

Armstrong is charged with murder, eight counts of attempted murder, carjacking, possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, discharge of a firearm and receiving stolen property.

In contrast to past town halls on officer-involved shootings, the gatheringon Tuesday was small and subdued. Attendees were focused more on issues of homelessness in the neighborhood than on the officers conduct.

Phil Scibona, who has lived minutes away on Seventh Street for 10 years, expressed frustration with the citys response to the rising homeless population in the area.

We have to deal with their drug pushing, he said. There are sanitary problems, we have rats all over the place, and yet, all this time all anybody says is, Well talk to another agency. Nothing gets done.

Both Scott and Fong emphasized that the police department, in conjunction with other city agencies, have been working to address homelessness with a focus on the area. Scott pointed to the citys shortage of housing and stressed that improvement would not come overnight.

We understand the behavior problems, and we understand the criminal activity, but there is a difference between homelessness and criminal activity, Scott said. We're trying to address both.

Isleyen, Stivers and Armstrong were taking illegal narcotics together in the Panhandle, near Oak and Stanyan streets, at 6:29 pm. on Feb. 16 when the shooting occurred. According to a court document, Armstrong became irate after taking drugs and accused Stivers of raping his girlfriend, then pulled out a gun and pointed it at the two men.

Stivers and Isleyen both denied the rape accusation, but Armstrong then allegedly shot both of them. He hit Isleyen in the chest, killing him instantly, before shooting Stivers in the shoulder and fleeing, according to court documents.

Armstrong ran to Fell and Stanyan streets, where he allegedly threatened Kevin Estrada-Ruiz, a delivery truck driver for Amazon, with his gun before carjacking Estrada-Ruizs SUV and fleeing the scene. Estrada-Ruiz was uninjured.

Just after midnight, officers located the stolen SUV parked behind an RV about three miles away near Alameda and De Haro.

Police said they saw Armstrong inside the RV along with three other people, who were ordered to exit the vehicle. All except Armstrong complied, police said. Police said Armstrong shot at officers, prompting them to return fire.

After the gunfire ceased, Armstrong still refused to get out of the vehicle. An hour later, after a negotiator was called in, he surrendered to police and was taken into custody.

He is being held without bail.BOSTON  Bill Cosbys 44-year-old daughter Ensa Cosby died in Massachusetts from kidney disease, a spokesman for the comedian said Monday.

Spokesman Andrew Wyatt did not immediately offer other details about her death on Friday.

Please keep the Cosby family in your prayers and give them peace at this time, he said.

Bill Cosby lost another of his five children in 1997 when his 27-year-old son, Ennis, a graduate student at Columbia University, was shot to death while changing a flat tire near a freeway off ramp in Los Angeles. A 22-year-old man was later convicted and sentenced to life in prison without parole.

Bill Cosby, 80, owns a home in the western Massachusetts town of Shelburne Falls.

Ensa Cosby spoke out on her fathers behalf before his trial last year on charges he drugged and molested a woman at his suburban Philadelphia home in 2004. He has pleaded not guilty and remains free on bail ahead of his retrial scheduled for April 2. His first trial ended with a hung jury last year.

Ensa Cosby and her sister, Erinn, recorded statements that aired on New York hip-hop radio station Power 105. Ensa Cosby said she strongly believed in her fathers innocence and believed that racism played a big role in aspects of the scandal.

How my father is being punished by a society that still believes black men rape white women but passes off boys will be boys when white men are accused, and how the politics of our country prove my disgust. My father has been publicly lynched in the media, she said.

Boys will be boys was an apparent reference to President Donald Trump excusing as locker room talk lewd remarks he was recorded making in footage released during the 2016 presidential campaign by Access Hollywood.

Cosby is due in court next Monday for a pretrial hearing as his lawyers and prosecutors clash over how many other accusers can testify at his retrial.

In the wake of Ensa Cosbys death, Bill Cosby could ask to postpone the pretrial hearing or wave his right to be in court for it. Cosbys lead attorney, Tom Mesereau, did not immediately respond to messages.

A defamation lawsuit filed by seven women who have accused Cosby of sexual misconduct also is pending in Massachusetts.

Ensa Cosby largely stayed out of the public spotlight during her life though she did appear in 1989 in a single episode of her fathers popular sitcom The Cosby Show, which ran from 1984 until 1992.Forget about the cruffin. Have you heard about the tacro?

It's the latest croissant food mashup that San Franciscans are lining up to taste  and Instagram, of course.

The trend started with the advent of the cronut, a donut-shaped pastry that's flaky like a croissant and topped with sugar and icing, by baker Dominique Ansel in New York City. San Francisco responded with a unique viennoiserie of its own: the cruffin. The pastry (which is exactly what it sounds like) regularly sells out at Mr. Holmes Bakehouse just north of the Tenderloin.

Now a new croissant invention has arrived on the San Francisco foodie scene, this time with a savory flair to it. The tacro is a shell made with croissant dough, baked until it's golden-brown and flaky, then filled with meat, and topped with vegetables and salsa, like a taco.

Vive La Tarte has been experimenting with unique croissant flavors like blood orange and lemon meringue at its SoMa spot for two years. In January they expanded to a second location at the Ferry Building where they debuted the tacro.

Creative director Jimmy Houghton explains that the new item was the result of two months of trial and error.

"We took our regular croissant dough that we make and we tried to fill it with pulled pork or with chicken, and we found that the flavors didn't combine well. The pastry was way too rich, way too buttery, way too sweet," says Houghton. "We went back to the drawing board and we said it needs to be saltier, needs to be a bit more savory."

The tacro has only been for sale for about two weeks, but already appears to be a big hit, perhaps even more for its appearance than its taste. There are more than 140 public posts on Instagram using the hashtag #tacro.

The buzz surrounding the tacro has been so intense that Houghton says the Ferry Building stand has sold out on weekends.

Lenny Chan, a designer in San Francisco, went to give it a try Wednesday. We asked him how he heard of the tacro, to which he responded, "Literally, my friend Instagrammed it."

Sounds about right.

"It wasn't the most amazing thing I've ever had, but it's something new," said Chan, who confessed he probably wouldn't come back to order it again. "It's part of the whole SF thing of having a kimchi burrito or a sushirrito, people just putting things together. It's the new thing, I guess."

Max Schultz, who also works as a designer in the area, likes to keep a lookout for new restaurants at the Ferry Building. He tried the tacro on a whim Tuesday, then came back again for a second one the next day.

"It just works really well. You can kind of squish the croissant and actually get a bite so it's kind of more like a sandwich and you're not cracking the taco (shell)."

Vive La Tarte currently has three tacro options on the menu: pulled pork with pineapple, chicken with avocado, and barbecue jackfruit (a vegetarian option). Houghton says the bakery is experimenting with more flavor options, like a bacon and egg breakfast tacro, as well as a sweet offering.

We tasted the pork and chicken variations, and thought the flavors were appealing. Both tacros played on a mix of savory and sweet flavors, with juicy pineapple complementing the pulled pork, and the diced mango adding a bit of brightness to the chicken option.

But the novelty wore off a bit when the croissant taco shell started to flake apart and the filling spilled out. We let the pulled pork tacro sit a little too long (to snap a few too many photos, apparently), and the meat soaked through the bottom, causing it to disintegrate when we picked it up. It's something Houghton said Vive La Tarte is aware of, as they continue to listen to customer feedback and tweak their recipe. Still, the creation may be unavoidably messy since it combines two already very messy foods: a flaky pastry and a filled-to-the-brim taco.

When all was said and done, we left the Ferry Building picnic table full and dusting off little bits of croissant from our clothes. Sure, the tacro may be a gimmick. But it's a tasty one.

SFGATE's Chris Preovolos contributed to this story. Read Alix Martichoux's latest stories and send her news tips at amartichoux@sfchronicle.com.Trust Ryan Coogler to throw a uniquely Bay Area reference into "Black Panther."

The Oakland native apparently couldn't resist a nod to a BART meme that went viral a few years back. The line gets dropped by Wakandan princess Shuri during an early scene in her laboratory. Her brother, King T'Challa, arrives wearing a pair of black sandals, which she mocks by shouting, "What are those!"

The moment is funny without context, but eagle-eared locals may recognize the reference. In 2015, Bay Area native Brandon Moore was at a Berkeley flea market when BART police started writing up his friend for drinking in public. Moore, who posted comedy videos frequently on social media as Young Busco, started filming. In a moment that would be mimicked by thousands, Moore suddenly panned down to the BART officer's shoes.

"Officer, I got one question for you," he said. "What are those?!"

Moore posted the video to Instagram and it quickly racked up nearly 20 million views, turning into the preferred meme for people who wanted to make fun of their friends' taste in footwear.

MORE: Disney donates money for STEM center in Oakland on the heels of "Black Panther" success

"That's really crazy," Moore told Vice in 2015. "I got the whole world making fun of people's shoes."

It's not the only BART reference in the Marvel blockbuster. Production designer Hannah Beachler told Wired Coogler's Bay Area ties inspired the public transit in Wakanda. Hyperloop trains zooming around Golden City were partly based on BART  but more efficient, no doubt.WASHINGTON  The president gently touched the bare wood of Billy Grahams casket. The speaker of the House bowed his head. And hundreds of other lawmakers, family and friends stood in a rare salute Wednesday to the man they called, Americas pastor.

He ministered to all walks, from some of the greats whose statues line this hall  Eisenhower, King, Ford, and Reagan  to the everyday citizens lining up today to pay their respects, said House Speaker Paul Ryan, gesturing to Grahams casket under the eye of the Capitol Rotunda.

President Trump, who met Graham but is closer to his son, Franklin, nonetheless recalled that the elder Graham had long been part of his life. Trump said his father, Fred, said to me, Come on, son ... Lets go see Billy Graham at Yankee Stadium. And it was something very special.

He called Graham an ambassador for Christ who reminded the world of the power of prayer and the gift of Gods grace.

Grahams influence stretched far beyond the city where he counseled presidents and lawmakers to a global flock over the better part of seven decades. He is known for having met every president, Trump included, and counseled most.

But he learned to be wary of the heat of politics. Close to Richard Nixon, Graham later said the details of the Watergate scandal made him feel used.

But the world of American politics and government embraced Graham on Wednesday, a week after he died at age 99. Those gathered, including Vice President Mike Pence, some members of Trumps Cabinet and members of the House and Senate, stood around the casket. They were ringed by paintings of the nations founders.

The man we recognize today shared the Gospel with more people, face-to-face, than anyone else in history, said Sen. Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.

As the leaders stood by the casket, Trump reached out to touch it. Ryan, nearby, bowed his head.

Some 30 family members accompanied Grahams casket to Washington, where he had befriended presidents of both parties. Grahams son, Franklin, tweeted a photo Wednesday of family members loading the casket onto a jet emblazoned with Samaritans Purse, the name of a Christian relief charity that he chairs.

Graham is lying in honor before a funeral Friday near his home in North Carolina. The Rotunda entrances were draped with black fabric, and Grahams casket rested on a black-draped catafalque beneath the soaring ceiling and its painting, the Apotheosis of Washington.

Graham shares the honor of a public viewing in the Rotunda with 11 presidents and other distinguished Americans, starting with Sen. Henry Clay of Kentucky in 1852 and, most recently, Sen. Daniel Inouye of Hawaii in 2012.PARKLAND, Fla.  A judge has refused to step aside from the case of Florida school shooting suspect Nikolas Cruz as requested by his lawyers.

Court records show that Broward County Circuit Judge Elizabeth Scherer denied the request Monday.

Cruzs lawyers claimed Scherer has made rulings and comments that indicate favoritism for prosecutors. They say in court papers that Cruz cant get a fair trial, but Scherer disagreed.

Cruz, 19, is charged with 17 counts of murder in the Valentines Day shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla.

Meanwhile, a Tuesday morning hearing in the criminal case against the suspect accused in the Florida high school shooting was canceled after lawyers reached an agreement for prosecutors to get hair samples, fingerprints, DNA and photographs of Cruz.

Cruz was not expected to appear in court because he waived his right to attend the hearing. He is being held without bail at the Broward County Jail.

As the case moves through the courts, it has fueled a debate over gun control in the halls of the Florida Capitol in Tallahassee, hours from where the shooting took place in Parkland.

On Monday, a state Senate committee approved a bill raising the age for buying a gun from 18 to 21 and imposing a three-day waiting period for all gun purchases. The bill also would allow teachers to carry guns in schools if their school district approves and the teachers undergo law enforcement training and are deputized by the local sheriffs office.

On Tuesday, a Florida House committee approved a bill that also would raise the minimum age to 21 to buy any gun, require a three-day waiting period for rifle purchases and create a program that could allow some teachers to carry concealed weapons in the classroom.SAN DIEGO  A judge who was taunted by Donald Trump during the presidential campaign sided with the president Tuesday on a challenge to building a border wall with Mexico, removing what could have been a major obstacle to the signature campaign pledge.

U.S. District Judge Gonzalo Curiel rejected arguments by the state of California and advocacy groups that the administration overreached by waiving laws requiring environmental and other reviews before construction can begin.Simon Poll shows Rauner, Pritzker lead in primary elections

CARBONDALE, Ill.  Southern Illinois University Carbondales Paul Simon Public Policy Institute has released its first poll for 2018. The most recent version of the Simon Poll shows Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner and Democrat businessman JB Pritzker leading their respective partys primaries.

Rauner leads challenger Jeanne Ives, a state representative from Wheaton, by 20 points, 51 percent to 31 percent. Pritzker leads State Sen. Daniel Biss of Evanston in the crowded Democratic primary by 10 points, 31 percent to 21 percent. Former University of Illinois Board of Trustees Chairman Chris Kennedy trails in third place at 17 percent.

Rauner trails both Democrats in general election

In hypothetical general election matchups, Rauner trails both leading Democratic candidates by similar margins: Pritzker leads Rauner 50 percent to 35 percent; Biss leads Rauner 48 percent to 34 percent.

Its interesting that Pritzkers and Bisss margins over Rauner are essentially the same in The Simon Poll, Charlie Leonard, an institute visiting professor involved in the polling, said. One explanation may be that in the minds of voters  who may know little about either Biss or Pritzker  the decision may come down to Rauner versus not-Rauner. If the election were held today, Id rather be not-Rauner.

Rauner has slight lead among downstate voters

Both Pritzker and Biss lead the governor by wide margins in the City of Chicago and the Chicago suburbs (see Table 9), while downstate, Rauner leads Pritzer by three points and leads Biss by eight points  keeping in mind the smaller sample sizes and wider margins for error in the geographic subgroups.

It is three weeks to go until the March 20 primary and major events could still move these numbers, said John S. Jackson, another designer of this poll. However, for all the money and attention these two races have garnered, the results so far fairly faithfully reflect the bedrock strength of these two parties in the state of Illinois, and this advantages the Democrats.

Harold, Raoul lead in Illinois Attorney General primaries

In the Republican primary for attorney general, Harvard Law graduate and Champaign-Urbana attorney Erika Harold, who is well known in Republican political circles, leads the lesser-known Gary Grasso, a DuPage County board member, 18 percent to 14 percent, with almost two-thirds undecided.

Eight candidates are vying for the Democratic party nomination for attorney general. State Sen. Kwame Raoul of Chicago leads the pack with 22 percent of those responding, with former Gov. Pat Quinn with 18 percent. None of the other candidates register double-digit support and 39 percent are undecided.

Detailed poll results are available online.

Sample size and margin of error

The margin of error for the entire sample of 1,001 voters is plus or minus 3.1 percentage points. This means that if we conducted the survey 100 times, in 95 of those instances, the population proportion would be within plus or minus the reported margin of error for each subsample.

For subsamples, the margin of error increases as the sample size goes down. The margin of error was not adjusted for design effects. Among self-identified primary election voters, the margin is plus or minus 6 percentage points in the 259-voter sample of Republicans, and 4.5 percentage points in the sample of 472 Democrats.

Polling methodology

Live telephone interviews were conducted by Customer Research International of San Marcos, Texas using the random digit dialing method. The telephone sample was provided to Customer Research International by Scientific Telephone Samples.

Potential interviewees were screened based on whether they were registered voters and with quotas based on area code and sex (< 60 percent female). The sample obtained 51 percent male and 49 percent female respondents.

Interviewers asked to speak to the youngest registered voter at home at the time of the call. Cellphone interviews accounted for 60 percent of the sample. A Spanish language version of the questionnaire and a Spanish-speaking interviewer were made available.

Fieldwork was from Feb. 19 through Feb. 25. No auto-dial or robo polling is included. Customer Research International reports no Illinois political clients. The survey was paid for with non-tax dollars from the institutes endowment fund.

The data was not weighted in any way. Crosstabs for the referenced questions will be on the institutes polling website, simonpoll.org.

Polling data available for use by scholars and the public

The institute is a member of the American Association for Public Opinion Researchs (AAPOR) Transparency Initiative. AAPOR works to encourage objective survey standards for practice and disclosure. Membership in the Transparency Initiative reflects a pledge to practice transparency in reporting survey-based findings.

The Institutes polling data are also archived by four academic institutions for use by scholars and the public. The four open source data repositories are:A GOP congressman suggested fewer Jews would have died in the Holocaust had they been armed, and his office claims his remarks were taken out of context.

U.S. Rep. Don Young, R-Alaska, made the controversial statement at an appearance before the Alaska Municipal League in Juneau last week.

When asked about school safety, Young argued that arming teachers would keep students safe and went on to cite some historical examples.

"How many millions of people were shot and killed because they were unarmed? Fifty million in Russia because their citizens weren't armed," he said. "How many Jews were put in the ovens because they were unarmed?"

A recording of the veteran lawmaker's comments was provided by Dimitri Shein, an Anchorage Democrat vying for Young's seat. Shein is the man questioning Young about gun safety in the above video.

Young's press secretary Murphy McCollough told SFGATE in a statement that the congressman's comments were "taken entirely out of context."

"He was referencing the fact that when Hitler confiscated firearms from Jewish Germans, those communities were less able to defend themselves," she said. Young was not implying, she went on, that "an armed Jewish population" could have prevented the Holocaust.

"His intended message," she said , "is that disarming citizens can have detrimental consequences."

Politicians have made similar arguments before. In the run-up to the 2016 presidential election, Ben Carson sparked outrage when he told CNN's Wolf Blitzer he thought the "likelihood of Hitler being able to accomplish his goals would have been greatly diminished if the people had been armed."

The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) has long denied such claims. In response to Carson, ADL Director Jonathan Greenblatt wrote an open letter debunking the "old meme about guns, Hitler and the Holocaust."

"This historical second-guessing is deeply offensive to Jews, Holocaust survivors and those who valiantly fought against Hitler during World War II," he wrote.

"When you manipulate the history of the Holocaust and use it to score political points," Greenblatt continued, "its wholly inappropriate and offensive."

Michelle Robertson is an SFGATE staff writer. Email her at mrobertson@sfchronicle.com or find her on Twitter at @mrobertsonsf.SAN FRANCISCO (BCN)

In fiery speeches, two rallies and a hearing in San Francisco today, Bay Area government officials, activists and residents made their opposition known to a proposed repeal of a plan to move toward cleaner energy sources.

Under the federal Clean Power Plan outlined by the administration of former President Barack Obama, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency assigned every state a goal for limiting emissions from fossil fuel power plants across the country.

However, EPA administrator Scott Pruitt, who was appointed by President Donald Trump, proposed in October to repeal the plan.

"We in San Francisco will fight for clean energy programs that create jobs. We will fight to be sure dirty fossil fuels stay in the ground. We will fight to protect our families, and we will fight to protect our children," San Francisco Mayor Mark Farrell told a cheering crowd at Civic Center Plaza during a rally today.

The day's events began with a "polar bear funeral" outside the main branch of the San Francisco Public Library at 8 a.m. in which activists protested the proposed repeal, clustering around a facsimile polar bear lying in state in a coffin.

"Climate change is warming the planet, and the Arctic is warming three to four times faster than anywhere else," said Vera Pardee, a senior attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity, the organization that organized the protest.

"Polar bears are dependent on ice to raise their pups, for foraging and basic survival," Pardee said.

The attorney said that global warming is causing the ice to melt, endangering the lives of the polar bears.

According to Pardee, the nation's fossil fuel plants are the largest stationary source of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions.

In an emailed statement sent after the hearing, an EPA spokesman said, "EPA has proposed to repeal the so-called Clean Power Plan because it was premised on a novel and expansive view of the agency's authority under the Clean Air Act.

"The Clean Power Plan would also have had serious economic impacts on our country while doing little to help the environment. EPA has offered an extended comment period and held multiple listening sessions to hear from voices across the country and we look forward to the public's input."

During the midday rally, the master of ceremonies, Eddie Anh, a member of the San Francisco Commission on the Environment, noted that the EPA initially only intended to have one hearing.

"There was a local advocacy effort that started with (then-Mayor) Ed Lee, who sent the EPA a letter asking for more hearings," Anh said. "There were letters from all over the nation demanding these hearings. From San Jose to New York, we're seeing an enormous outcry."

Hearings have been held in Charleston, West Virginia; Kansas City, Missouri; San Francisco and next month one will be held in Gillette, Wyoming, according to Aaron Ringel of the EPA's Office of Congressional and Intergovernmental Relations.

Inside the library, Ringel kicked off the EPA listening session at 8:30 a.m. Organizers said 500 people signed up for the event in advance and 250 of them would be able to speak at the session.

Many of the speakers at the hearing addressed the issue of "economic impacts" cited by the EPA as a reason behind the proposal to repeal.

"Using Department of Labor statistics, for every one megawatt of power produced in 2014, one job was created in the fossil fuel industry and 15 clean energy jobs were created," said Dr. Carol Weed of Walnut Creek.

"Clean energy has driven innovation and provided clean, healthy jobs to hundreds of thousands of workers," Weed said.

"Solar and wind energy jobs are growing 12 times faster than traditional jobs in energy," said Berkeley City Councilman Ben Bartlett.

Before the hearing, the environmentally conscious citizens who came from as far away as Sacramento joked about their method of transport.

"I drove to the BART station in my plug-in vehicle," said scientist Jim McMahon of Moraga.

"What, you own a car?" Carrie Conover of San Francisco teased. "I walked to BART."

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James Hewitt, EPA hewitt.james@epa.govImmigration and Customs Enforcement agents have arrested more than 150 undocumented immigrants in Northern California since Sunday, and ICE Deputy Director Thomas Homan says that 864 additional targets remain at large - including at least two believed to be living in Oakland.

"Thanks to the dedicated and professional work of ICE deportation officers, we were able to remove many public safety threats from the streets of the Bay Area during the past few days," Homan said in a statement.

"However, 864 criminal aliens and public safety threats remain at large in the community and I have to believe that some of them were able to elude us thanks to the mayor's irresponsible decision," Homan said, referring to a statement issued by Mayor Libby Schaaf on Saturday alerting her constituents of the impending operation.

Homan also claimed Schaaf put his agents at risk and increased the likelihood of "collateral arrests," in which individuals who were not the intended target of an operation end up getting detained.

In the days since Schaaf's announcement some have called for her arrest on federal charges, including East Bay resident Ron Cohen, who is running for congress in 2018.

Cohen filed a complaint with the U.S. Attorney's Office as well as the Alameda County District Attorney alleging that Schaaf's news conference amounted to a violation of the Immigration and Naturalization Act.

"Mayor Schaaf's statements were directly intended to impede the work of ICE officers," the complaint states.

Cohen alleges that Schaaf committed a felony by willfully impeding the work of immigration agents enforcing federal laws.

"I'm doing this because I believe in it," Cohen said this evening about his motivations. "I'm strongly upset about this."

Schaaf's office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Those apprehended by federal agents in the last few days include 38-year-old Armando Nunez-Salgado in Napa County. ICE alleges that Nunez-Salgado is a documented gang member with criminal convictions for assault with a deadly weapon, burglary, hit-and-run causing injury as well as evading a peace officer.

Agents also arrested two Mexican nationals with previous convictions in Bay Point and San Francisco, although their names were not provided.

They're still looking for a Mexican national with previous drug and weapons convictions and a Honduran national who's been arrested in the past for drug and sex crimes. Both individuals are believed to reside in Oakland.

238-7072

Ron Cohen for Congress (510) 304-8890 or https://www.roncohen4congress2018.com/A Santa Cruz County Main Jail correctional officer was assaulted Tuesday night by an inmate, according to the Santa Cruz County Sheriff's Office.

At about 8:40 p.m., a correctional officer met with Jackson Cayot, 20, of Aptos, inside a jail housing unit in response to his involvement in an argument, deputies said.

The officer believed the disturbance was over and continued on with his regular duties, but Cayot threatened the officer and threw a cup of water at him, according to the sheriff's office.

Just moments later, Cayot swung a closed fist at the officer in an attempt to punch him, deputies said. Cayot was taken to the ground and the officer was able to call for help.

Sheriff's officials said Cayot and the officer both suffered minor injuries and were treated by jail medical staff.

According to deputies, this is the second unprovoked attack on a correctional officer within the last few months.

Sheriff's officials said inmate Javier Perez attacked three officers before he was restrained in December. All three officers suffered injuries and one is still off duty because of his injuries resulting from that attack.

The name of the officer attacked by Cayot was not immediately released.BERKELEY (BCN)

An Oakland man was arrested on suspicion of two misdemeanor offenses after an alert community member spotted him with a pistol in his back pocket at a restaurant in downtown Berkeley on Saturday evening, police said.

The community member gave police a description of the man who was in line at the restaurant in the 2100 block of Shattuck Avenue at about 6:15 p.m. Saturday, according to police.

Two officers and a supervisor who arrived at the scene a few minutes later saw a man who matched the description standing at the restaurant's counter and detained him in handcuffs without incident, police said.

While detaining the man, the officers could see a pistol in his rear pants pocket. Once he was safely in handcuffs, the officers recovered a loaded, semi-automatic 9mm handgun from him, according to police.

Police identified the suspect as Ernest Ochoa-Tavares, 26, and he was booked into the Berkeley City Jail on suspicion of carrying a loaded firearm in public and carrying a concealed firearm, police said.

981-5780CONCORD (BCN)

Police today identified the victim and suspect in an alleged fatal stabbing last week in Concord.

Concord resident Daniel Quast, 53, was allegedly stabbed to death Thursday at a mobile home park on Lodge Drive off of Meadow Lane sometime before police responded to the park at 5:22 a.m.

Police Cpl. Summer Galer said someone had called police to report a man was not breathing. Quast was pronounced dead at the scene.

Police arrested 41-year-old Pittsburg man Eric Martinez in Pittsburg on the day of the alleged stabbing.

Investigators believe that Quast was stabbed during an altercation and that he knew Martinez.

Contra Costa County prosecutors have charged Martinez with murder, use of a deadly weapon and for violating his probation.

Anyone with information about the stabbing is asked to call Concord police Detective Greg Mahan at (925) 603-5817.MILL VALLEY (BCN)

The Mill Valley Police Department is investigating an alleged sexual battery of a ride-hailing company employee on Saturday morning.

Police said the victim reported being sexually assaulted by a male passenger she picked up in the 300 block of Miller Avenue in Mill Valley.

The victim reported the misdemeanor sexual battery to police Saturday and provided information about a possible suspect. Police patrol officers investigated the alleged battery on Saturday and Sunday and the investigations unit then took over the investigation, police said.

No other information about the case was immediately available.SAN FRANCISCO (BCN)

More details of a shooting earlier this month involving a murder suspect and San Francisco police were released tonight by police at a town hall meeting.

At the meeting, police also released the names of seven officers who fired on 31-year-old Joel Armstrong, the suspect in an alleged murder that occurred on Feb. 16.

Police said officers fired about 65 shots at Armstrong, who allegedly fired two as he was inside a vehicle during a standoff.

Neither Armstrong nor police were injured in the shooting.

Police Cmdr. Greg McEachern said tonight that each shooting is unique and as part of the investigation the officers' tactics will be examined and possibly changed.

The officers who shot at Armstrong were identified as Glennon Griffin, Anthony Sharron, Robby Wilkom, Matthew Nazar, Gregory Buhagiar, Steven Oesterich and Christopher Cotter.

Armstrong allegedly shot and killed one man and injured another Feb. 16 near Oak and Stanyan streets before police responded to the scene at 6:28 p.m.

The injured man was in life-threatening condition after the shooting. The identity of the man who died, described by police as a 28-year-old San Francisco man, has not been confirmed.

After the shooting, Armstrong allegedly used a gun to carjack a vehicle on Fell Street and then fled.

At about 12:10 a.m. the next day officers located the carjacked vehicle near Alameda and De Haro streets, police said.

The vehicle was unoccupied but police allege they saw Armstrong inside a recreational vehicle parked in front of the carjacked vehicle.

McEachern said officers then ordered everyone out of the RV.

Three people and a dog came out but police allege that Armstrong did not, despite multiple commands. Armstrong allegedly fired two bullets as he was inside the RV and officers returned fire.

Officers backed up and continued to order Armstrong to come out and at about 2:15 a.m. he finally did.

McEachern said officers found a 9 mm gun inside the RV.

The seven officers who fired on Armstrong were wearing cameras on their uniforms. Police said five turned the cameras on before they fired on Armstrong and two turned them on after they opened fire.

All seven videos have been released to the public.SEBASTOPOL (BCN)

Analy High School in Sebastopol reopened today following an early dismissal Tuesday after threatening graffiti was found in a bathroom, school officials said.

Analy High School staff members are communicating with students today and Sebastopol police officers will be at the school for the rest of the week, West Sonoma County Union High School District assistant superintendent Steve Charbonneau said.

A FBI profiler and Sebastopol police concluded the graffiti message was not a credible threat, but students and staff were dismissed before noon Tuesday from the high school at 6950 Analy Ave. as a precaution, Charbonneau said.

Police said they believe the threatening graffiti was left in a second-floor boys' bathroom between 7-7:45 a.m. Tuesday.

Sebastopol police are encouraging anyone with information about the threat to call (707) 829-4400.SAN FRANCISCO (BCN)

The State Bar of California has filed a lawsuit seeking seizure of the papers and winding up of the practice of a Riverside man who is criminally charged with impersonating a San Francisco lawyer with a similar name.

The bar announced the Riverside County Superior Court lawsuit at its San Francisco headquarters today.

Michael R. Robbins, 32, of Riverside, who is not a lawyer, is accused of impersonating Michael L. Robbins, an attorney who specializes in intellectual property law in the San Francisco office of a Chicago-based law firm.

Michael R. Robbins was charged in San Bernardino County Superior Court on Dec. 29 with 12 criminal counts, including three counts each of impersonating the other Michael Robbins, identity theft, filing false or forged documents, and practicing law without a license.

Those charges are pending, according to court records.

The Riverside man created business cards with the name of Michael L. Robbins, used his bar membership number and fraudulently practiced law in at least four civil cases in San Bernardino County Superior Court, according to the bar's lawsuit.

The lawsuit asks the Riverside County Superior Court to take control of Robbins's unauthorized law practice, order him to cease practicing law, and assign State Bar Chief Trial Counsel Steven Moawad to seize his client files, return the files to clients and notify clients that the practice is closed.

The procedure of having a court take control and designating a State Bar attorney as its agent in such cases is provided for by the state Business and Professions Code.

The lawsuit says Michael R. Robbins admitted to the fraud after he was arrested by a sheriff's deputy on Nov. 8 following his appearance in one of the San Bernardino County Superior Court cases under the false identity.

The lawsuit says, "Until the court actually enters an order enjoining Robbins from continuing his unauthorized practice, there remains a concern he will continue or resume his illegal practice or otherwise continue to defraud the public and the courts."The Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors this morning unanimously approved the beginning of plans for a summit on gun violence and its relation to mental health.

The motion came as a result of the Feb. 14 mass shooting in Parkland, Florida, which killed 17 people, including students and faculty at Stoneman Douglas High School.

The board directed the County Executive's Office and the county's Behavioral Health Department to work with the supervisors to convene a "Gun Violence and Mental Health Summit" within the next 60 days.

The summit would be modeled after that of the 2011 Older Adult Summit, which is now held bi-annually as a part of the Seniors' Agenda plan to address the growing population of seniors in the county.

Supervisor Dave Cortese, who introduced the motion, said the summit will be just one of many recommendations, such as the formal endorsement of the March For Our Lives, an event being organized by high school students across the country on March 24, including in San Jose.

Along with the march endorsement and proposed summit, the motion called for the County Counsel to provide further legal analysis on how the county could possibly use police power and land use authority to require that mental health information be flagged in background checks for firearm purchases and transfers.

The idea of the summit garnered both positive and negative reactions from community members and advocates.

Cortese said he wanted to clarify that the county does not want to risk stigmatizing those with mental illness as violent, but some experts from around the county felt as though the suggested title of the summit had the potential to do just that.

Two representatives from National Alliance on Mental Illness Santa Clara County discussed, with data, how people with mental health issues have more violent acts perpetrated toward them rather than perpetrating violent acts themselves.

Executive director Kathy Forward said NAMI was not opposed to the summit itself, but the name of it, and suggested changing it to "Addressing Gun Violence" or "How To Stop Gun Violence," among other titles.

Forward said that according to NAMI's national office, people with mental illness only account for 4 percent of violent acts in the U.S. Only 2 percent of those acts are committed with guns, she said.

"There is no evidence that prohibitions against those with mental illness will reduce gun violence," Forward said. "However, expanding these prohibitions could enforce stigma and discrimination toward mental illness and further discourage people from seeking help when needed."

Erin O'Brien, president of the nonprofit Community Solutions, said she was grateful for the attention gun violence was getting after the Parkland shooting and for Cortese's desire to end gun violence, but she was concerned the summit established a clear association between that and mental illness.

"If we want to look at what data shows is tied to gun violence, particularly mass shootings, we need to look into domestic violence," O'Brien said. "Fifty women a month are killed by their partner with a gun."

Kathleen King, CEO of the non-profit organization Healthier Kids Foundation, and Santa Clara County Superintendent of Schools Mary Ann Dewan both spoke in support of the summit, offering their agencies' resources in collaboration to enable the dialogue's existence.

Dewan said that the county Office of Education will be announcing its own plans for gun violence prevention and safety at schools at its next board meeting.

After the public comments concluded, Cortese thanked the mental health advocates for speaking and said that he agrees the summit title should be different than that of the subject line of his attached memo.

Cortese said he would work with participating departments to come up with an appropriate name.

"I am sensitive to what has been brought up by public speakers today," Cortese said. "Sometimes titles aren't important, but in this case it does matter so that we don't forever today in the county archives have something that might be misunderstood."

Cortese said he intended only for the summit to be an open dialogue about the problem of gun violence, as "that is the Santa Clara County way."The Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors today unanimously passed a recommendation from Supervisor Cindy Chavez requiring the District Attorney's Office to bring back current information on financing needed for the county's untested sexual assault kits.

Chavez's recommendation comes in the wake of "the backlog of untested rape kits languishing in law enforcement agencies and forensic labs in California," according to a letter Chavez wrote to her colleagues.

District Attorney Jeff Rosen and his office will come back to the Board of Supervisors meeting on March 20, with an analysis of all resources that would be required to process all untested kits in the district attorney's office crime lab by the end of July 2019.

Chavez also asked for information on resources that would ensure that processing of sexual assault kits take no longer than 30 days. Rosen said in his public statement in today's meeting that the county's current average is 94 days, which is less than the national average of 120 days.

Chavez said the U.S. Department of Justice classifies forensic evidence untested after 30 days as backlogged, which is why she wants that to be the maximum amount of time it takes to test a kit.

Originally, Chavez requested kits be tested within 15 days and that all untested kits in the crime lab be processed by the end of the year. However, after speaking to Rosen, she extended the timetables to make the goals more attainable.

Rosen spoke on the vitality of having sexual assault kits processed as quickly as possible in order to use them as a tool to solve crimes.

"Over the years we have had many cases solved because we tested the Sexual Assault Response kit and uploaded the DNA to the Combined DNA Index System database and got hits," Rosen said. "Sometimes months and even years later, we were able to bring perpetrators to justice."

Rosen said that when it comes to testing kits, sometimes it is not an effective use of the crime lab's time to test for DNA because there are questions of consent, not identity.

In those cases, investigators look to the first part of a sexual assault examination done on the victim, which is a comprehensive physical examination done at Santa Clara Valley Medical Center in San Jose. The DNA testing of swabs and materials is considered the second part.

Sexual assault survivor advocates from agencies like Planned Parenthood came forward during public comment to speak in support of the recommendation.

"Any rape is a crime, and any rape kit that goes untested is just as criminal," said a woman named Valerie, who worked closely with Chavez and was part of the inspiration for the recommendation.

Perla Flores, a division director from the non-profit organization Community Solutions, talked about how getting an infrastructure in place to regularly test kits in the future would alleviate the discontentment that victims of assault can experience in waiting to begin their healing process.

"Our county has been making great strides in trying to decrease the backlog, but it can be frustrating to not have their case moving forward," Flores said. "It becomes more complicated to move on and share your story two or three years after it happened."

When asked what the recent #MeToo movement has done for sexual assault advocates and survivors, Flores said she believes it's been a positive campaign that encourages those affected to report their assaults.

"It has shown how frequently this issue happens, how frequently sexual assault happens," Flores said. "We know that one out of every three girls and one out of every four boys will be sexually assaulted before they are 18. It sheds light on the frequency in our society."

Chavez said partnering with the District Attorney's Office means that they will be able to have a deeper look at why there are delays in processing the kits.

"The crime lab here waits for any department to bring a processed kit to them, and then they will often have questions over how the kit gets processed," Chavez said. "We need to increase communication and the speed of it between local departments. That's one area where a clerk or a staff person might make all the difference."

Chavez said that the idea of having a clerk is still being tossed around and is not final, but it would be a productive move for the county budget. She cited understaffing in many of the county's police departments as one of the biggest reasons that kits can remain untested.

It came to light near the end of the meeting that the only location that can currently conduct the kit testing in the county is at Valley Medical Center, prompting Supervisor Joe Simitian to ask for clarification.

Simitian called requiring anyone "from a somewhat distant location" like Gilroy or Palo Alto to drive in the aftermath of such a traumatic event to an unfamiliar setting away from friends and family "an incongruity."

County Executive Jeffrey Smith said that historically the testing used to be able to be done in any hospital, but this kind of forensic exam requires a certain expertise.

Rosen came back up to the podium to explain that when it came to this kind of testing, "consistency is important."

However, he did say that his office was looking at other locations like Stanford Hospital to do the exams. He promised to report back next month on the feasibility of locations in north and south Santa Clara County.

Two bills have been passed in California in the last few weeks in relation to rape kit testing.

Assembly Bill 3118 and Senate Bill 1449, introduced by state Assemblyman David Chiu, D-San Francisco, and state Sen. Connie Leyva, D-Chino, on Feb. 16, calls for an audit of all kits in possession and a report back on information about each case as well as mandated reimbursement of local agencies and school districts for the costs.

Chiu and Levya worked together to co-author the bills, and are cited as "Sexual Assault Victims' DNA Bill of Rights."SANTA ROSA (BCN)

Sonoma County's Board of Supervisors reacted with anger, frustration and tears this morning as they discussed a state Office of Emergency Services report that criticized the gaps in the county's emergency alert system on the night of the Oct. 8-9 wildfires.

The fires in the Fountaingrove and Coffey Park areas of Santa Rosa, the Mark West Springs Road area north of the city and in Sonoma Valley destroyed 5,300 homes and killed 24 people.

The report said specific procedures for using emergency alerts and warning capabilities were uncoordinated and included gaps, overlays and redundancies regarding capabilities in various county departments.

The report noted the county's emergency alert system did not use wireless alert technology to warn the public of the disaster. The wireless systems included the federal Wireless Emergency Alert system that sends texts to all cellphones in a specific area, and the Emergency Alert System that uses radio, wireless cable systems and cable television systems.

Instead, the county relied on Sonoma County Alert and Nixle, both of which require residents to sign up for phone and email emergency alerts.

That led to a "limited awareness and understanding of the WEA system and outdated information regarding WEA's technical capabilities," according to the report.

The procedures and policies the county used during floods were misunderstood and was not applicable to the fast-moving, complex fire situation, the report states.

"Everyone knows what happened and what didn't in the Fog of War," Supervisor David Rabbitt said.

"My district was ground zero and I didn't see anything in this report on the Sonoma Valley," Supervisor Susan Gorin said as she began crying.

"You guys and gals rock," Gorin told Jim Colangelo, interim director of the Sonoma County Fire and Emergency Services Department. "To say I am horribly disappointed is an understatement."

Gorin, who lost her Oakmont home in the Nuns Fire, said she has heard evacuation horror stories from her constituents.

"Not one person received an alert. What the hell are we doing here?" Gorin asked.

Supervisor Lynda Hopkins said she was not surprised by the OES report in view of last year's flooding. She decried the lack of the role of elected officials, timely communication, lack of education and outreach and lack of evacuation planning for vulnerable populations.

"I take full responsibility and own up to the mistakes but there is a bigger role for the state," Hopkins said.

She said there should be multiple emergency alert systems in effect statewide.

Supervisor Shirlee Zane said, "I wish the California Office of Emergency Services was here. The 58 counties are handling emergencies differently and Cal Fire is grossly underfunded."

Board chair James Gore said the county "must own this moment and not point fingers. We need to talk about this together for a long time."

"Everyone knows what we have doesn't work. It needs to be blown up and fixed," Rabbitt said. "What is the role of the state? Is every city and county on their own?"

During the morning-long work session of the OES report and its recommendations, the board heard presentations about installing digital fire alert cameras on light poles or microwave towers to serve as modern lookouts and sounding sirens during emergencies and disasters.OAKLAND (BCN)

Two Southern California men were each sentenced today to 11 years in state prison for the shooting death of a man in a home invasion robbery in East Oakland in December 2014.

Ruben Anthony Cortez, 42, and Brian Martinez, 36, both of San Bernardino, were charged with murder for the fatal shooting of 39-year-old Michael Owens inside his home in the 1000 block of 92nd Avenue on Dec. 14, 2014, during what a prosecutor said was a marijuana deal that went wrong.

Cortez and Martinez stood trial last fall in a lengthy and contentious proceeding that included many closed discussions between the prosecution and the defense in the judge's chambers.

A mistrial was declared on Oct. 31 when jurors said they were hopelessly deadlocked 9-3 in favor of acquitting them following three days of deliberations.

The Alameda County District Attorney's Office considered prosecuting the two men on murder charges a second time, but on Jan. 29 they pleaded no contest to the lesser charge of voluntary manslaughter.

Their plea agreement called for them to get 11-year prison terms and Alameda County Superior Court Judge James Cramer formally sentenced them today.

Alameda County prosecutor Peter McGuiness alleged in his opening statement in the trial that Owens, the shooting victim, and his partner, 49-year-old Kevin Lamar White, had done business with Cortez and Martinez before.

But on Dec. 14, 2014, Cortez and Martinez, along with a third man only identified as "Michael" who has never been arrested, decided to take the victims' money instead of selling them marijuana as planned, McGuiness said.

McGuiness said the man known as Michael told Owens "just be cool or you'll get one to the head" and Owens was shot three times after he cursed at Cortez, Martinez and Michael.

The prosecutor said it isn't clear who fired the shots that killed Owens but he said all three suspects are guilty of felony murder because all three were armed with guns and participated in the robbery, in which $14,000 in cash was taken.

But Cortez's attorney Annie Beles told jurors that White, who was able to escape without being shot and testified against Cortez and Martinez, wasn't credible in his statements to police and his testimony in court.

Martinez's attorney Jeff Chorney alleged that White made up a story about what happened because "he's afraid of being blamed or prosecuted" for Owens' death.

Chorney admitted that Martinez, Cortez and the third suspect were planning to do a marijuana deal with Owens and White, but he alleged that Owens and White had a separate arrangement to buy or sell cocaine from a different group of people that same day and that Owens was killed during that deal.

"At the cocaine meeting, someone shot and killed Michael Owens," Chorney said.

Martinez and Cortez weren't present when Owens was fatally shot at his home, Chorney said.

Martinez has a prior conviction for assault with a deadly weapon and domestic violence in Riverside County in 2010, according to prosecutors.

272-6213

Annie Beles, Cortez's lawyer (510) 836-0100

Jeff Chorney, Martinez's lawyer (510) 272-6600Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf defended her actions today regarding an announcement she made over the weekend, warning residents of an upcoming operation by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

"My statement on Saturday was meant to give all residents time to learn their rights and know their legal options. It was my intention that one mother, or one father, would use the information to help keep their family together," Schaaf said in a statement.

"I do not regret sharing this information. It is Oakland's legal right to be a sanctuary city and we have not broken any laws. We believe our community is safer when families stay together," she said.

Earlier today, ICE officials confirmed that agents did in fact begin conducting an operation in Northern California Sunday, in which 150 undocumented immigrants were arrested.

In a statement, ICE Deputy Director Thomas Homan said, "Thanks to the dedicated and professional work of ICE deportation officers, we were able to remove many public safety threats from the streets of the Bay Area during the past few days."

"However, 864 criminal aliens and public safety threats remain at large in the community and I have to believe that some of them were able to elude us thanks to the mayor's irresponsible decision," Homan said, referring to Schaaf's announcement Saturday.

Homan also claimed Schaaf put his agents at risk and increased the likelihood of "collateral arrests," in which individuals who were not the intended target of an operation end up getting detained.

In the days since Schaaf's announcement, some have called for her arrest on federal charges including East Bay resident Ron Cohen, who is running for congress in 2018.

Cohen filed a complaint with the U.S. Attorney's Office as well as the Alameda County District Attorney alleging that Schaaf's news conference amounted to a violation of the Immigration and Naturalization Act.

"Mayor Schaaf's statements were directly intended to impede the work of ICE officers," the complaint states.

Cohen alleges that Schaaf committed a felony by willfully impeding the work of immigration agents enforcing federal laws.

"I'm doing this because I believe in it," Cohen said this evening about his motivations. "I'm strongly upset about this."

Those apprehended by federal agents in the last few days include 38-year-old Armando Nunez-Salgado in Napa County. ICE alleges that Nunez-Salgado is a documented gang member with criminal convictions for assault with a deadly weapon, burglary, hit-and-run causing injury as well as evading a peace officer.

Agents also arrested two Mexican nationals with previous convictions in Bay Point and San Francisco, although their names were not provided.

They're still looking for a Mexican national with previous drug and weapons convictions and a Honduran national who's been arrested in the past for drug and sex crimes. Both individuals are believed to reside in Oakland.

"We know that law-abiding residents live in fear of arrest and deportation everyday," Schaaf said in her statement. "I want to remind those who may need legal representation, to contact the following website: https://centrolegal.org/acilep/. Employers should also consult this link to understand their obligations and responsibilities under state law."

San Francisco Mayor Mark Farrell also responded to the news of the operations, saying this evening in a statement, "San Francisco is and will always remain a Sanctuary City."

"As the Trump Administration pursues their political plan of haphazardly punishing sanctuary cities, we will not cower. We stand with our hardworking, law-abiding immigrant neighbors and we are unified in our response to the divisive rhetoric of this president," Farrell said.

238-7072

Ron Cohen for Congress (510) 304-8890 or https://www.roncohen4congress2018.com/

San Francisco Mayor's Office of Communications (415) 554-6131Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf defended her actions Tuesday regarding an announcement she made over the weekend, warning residents of an upcoming operation by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

"My statement on Saturday was meant to give all residents time to learn their rights and know their legal options. It was my intention that one mother, or one father, would use the information to help keep their family together," Schaaf said in a statement.

"I do not regret sharing this information. It is Oakland's legal right to be a sanctuary city and we have not broken any laws. We believe our community is safer when families stay together," she said.

Earlier Tuesday, ICE officials confirmed that agents did in fact begin conducting an operation in Northern California Sunday, in which 150 undocumented immigrants were arrested.

In a statement, ICE Deputy Director Thomas Homan said, "Thanks to the dedicated and professional work of ICE deportation officers, we were able to remove many public safety threats from the streets of the Bay Area during the past few days."

"However, 864 criminal aliens and public safety threats remain at large in the community and I have to believe that some of them were able to elude us thanks to the mayor's irresponsible decision," Homan said, referring to Schaaf's announcement Saturday.

Homan also claimed Schaaf put his agents at risk and increased the likelihood of "collateral arrests," in which individuals who were not the intended target of an operation end up getting detained.

In the days since Schaaf's announcement, some have called for her arrest on federal charges including East Bay resident Ron Cohen, who is running for congress in 2018.

Cohen filed a complaint with the U.S. Attorney's Office as well as the Alameda County District Attorney alleging that Schaaf's news conference amounted to a violation of the Immigration and Naturalization Act.

"Mayor Schaaf's statements were directly intended to impede the work of ICE officers," the complaint states.

Cohen alleges that Schaaf committed a felony by willfully impeding the work of immigration agents enforcing federal laws.

"I'm doing this because I believe in it," Cohen said Tuesday evening about his motivations. "I'm strongly upset about this."

Those apprehended by federal agents in the last few days include 38-year-old Armando Nunez-Salgado in Napa County. ICE alleges that Nunez-Salgado is a documented gang member with criminal convictions for assault with a deadly weapon, burglary, hit-and-run causing injury as well as evading a peace officer.

Agents also arrested two Mexican nationals with previous convictions in Bay Point and San Francisco, although their names were not provided.

They're still looking for a Mexican national with previous drug and weapons convictions and a Honduran national who's been arrested in the past for drug and sex crimes. Both individuals are believed to reside in Oakland.

"We know that law-abiding residents live in fear of arrest and deportation everyday," Schaaf said in her statement. "I want to remind those who may need legal representation, to contact the following website: https://centrolegal.org/acilep/. Employers should also consult this link to understand their obligations and responsibilities under state law."

San Francisco Mayor Mark Farrell also responded to the news of the operations, saying Tuesday evening in a statement, "San Francisco is and will always remain a Sanctuary City."

"As the Trump Administration pursues their political plan of haphazardly punishing sanctuary cities, we will not cower. We stand with our hardworking, law-abiding immigrant neighbors and we are unified in our response to the divisive rhetoric of this president," Farrell said.

Two suspects have been arrested in a double fatal shooting Sunday in the unincorporated community of Broadmoor in San Mateo County, a county supervisor confirmed Tuesday.

Devin Lum, 20, of South San Francisco was arrested on suspicion of two counts of murder and Guardado Duff, 23, of Oakland, was arrested on suspicion of being an accessory.

San Mateo County Supervisor David Canepa confirmed the suspects were in custody and expressed his condolences Tuesday afternoon.

The shooting was first reported to police at 8:40 p.m. Sunday in front of Hillside Market near Hillside Boulevard and Villa Street.

The San Mateo County coroner's office identified the two people killed as Vanessa Guillory, 21, of San Francisco and Michael Garcia-Salem, 22, of Half Moon Bay. Guillory died at the scene while Garcia-Salem died at a hospital.

A third victim, who is also in their early 20s, suffered injuries not considered life-threatening.

Police believe the suspects and the victims knew each other and an altercation occurred before the victims were shot.

The Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors Tuesday morning unanimously approved the beginning of plans for a summit on gun violence and its relation to mental health.

The motion came as a result of the Feb. 14 mass shooting in Parkland, Florida, which killed 17 people, including students and faculty at Stoneman Douglas High School.

The board directed the County Executive's Office and the county's Behavioral Health Department to work with the supervisors to convene a "Gun Violence and Mental Health Summit" within the next 60 days.

The summit would be modeled after that of the 2011 Older Adult Summit, which is now held bi-annually as a part of the Seniors' Agenda plan to address the growing population of seniors in the county.

Supervisor Dave Cortese, who introduced the motion, said the summit will be just one of many recommendations, such as the formal endorsement of the March For Our Lives, an event being organized by high school students across the country on March 24, including in San Jose.

Along with the march endorsement and proposed summit, the motion called for the County Counsel to provide further legal analysis on how the county could possibly use police power and land use authority to require that mental health information be flagged in background checks for firearm purchases and transfers.

The idea of the summit garnered both positive and negative reactions from community members and advocates.

Cortese said he wanted to clarify that the county does not want to risk stigmatizing those with mental illness as violent, but some experts from around the county felt as though the suggested title of the summit had the potential to do just that.

Two representatives from National Alliance on Mental Illness Santa Clara County discussed, with data, how people with mental health issues have more violent acts perpetrated toward them rather than perpetrating violent acts themselves.

Executive director Kathy Forward said NAMI was not opposed to the summit itself, but the name of it, and suggested changing it to "Addressing Gun Violence" or "How To Stop Gun Violence," among other titles.

Forward said that according to NAMI's national office, people with mental illness only account for 4 percent of violent acts in the U.S. Only 2 percent of those acts are committed with guns, she said.

"There is no evidence that prohibitions against those with mental illness will reduce gun violence," Forward said. "However, expanding these prohibitions could enforce stigma and discrimination toward mental illness and further discourage people from seeking help when needed."

Erin O'Brien, president of the nonprofit Community Solutions, said she was grateful for the attention gun violence was getting after the Parkland shooting and for Cortese's desire to end gun violence, but she was concerned the summit established a clear association between that and mental illness.

"If we want to look at what data shows is tied to gun violence, particularly mass shootings, we need to look into domestic violence," O'Brien said. "Fifty women a month are killed by their partner with a gun."

Kathleen King, CEO of the non-profit organization Healthier Kids Foundation, and Santa Clara County Superintendent of Schools Mary Ann Dewan both spoke in support of the summit, offering their agencies' resources in collaboration to enable the dialogue's existence.

Dewan said that the county Office of Education will be announcing its own plans for gun violence prevention and safety at schools at its next board meeting.

After the public comments concluded, Cortese thanked the mental health advocates for speaking and said that he agrees the summit title should be different than that of the subject line of his attached memo.

Cortese said he would work with participating departments to come up with an appropriate name.

"I am sensitive to what has been brought up by public speakers today," Cortese said. "Sometimes titles aren't important, but in this case it does matter so that we don't forever today in the county archives have something that might be misunderstood."

Cortese said he intended only for the summit to be an open dialogue about the problem of gun violence, as "that is the Santa Clara County way."

The Alameda County Board of Supervisors voted unanimously Tuesday to continue supporting the sheriff's office's controversial "Urban Shield" first-responder training exercise despite strong opposition by a large group of activists.

Some of the dozens of speakers at a three-hour hearing on the law enforcement training exercise the sheriff's office has hosted every year since 2007 alleged that it's racist and xenophobic and has a negative impact on communities of color and immigrants.

Board members said they share some of the speakers' concerns but said they will continue to back it as long as Sheriff Gregory Ahern keeps making efforts to improve it and lets them monitor it closely.

Supervisor Nate Miley said, "I initially was not a supporter of Urban Shield but I became a fan and a supporter over time."

Miley said of Ahern, "This man is not perfect but no one is perfect. We just need to weed out the toxic elements in Urban Shield."

He said, "I think Urban Shield is necessary."

Supervisor Richard Valle said, "We continue to dialogue with Urban Shield. We will move forward with funding and dig deeper into this."

Scott Haggerty said, "I see no reason to discontinue Urban Shield."

Supervisor Keith Carson said, "This is a complicated issue and will continue to be complicated on many fronts. It's crucial that the board keeps close oversight."

Ahern said he has put in adequate safeguards to make sure that the annual Urban Shield training program bans racial profiling, excludes vendors who display derogatory or racist messages and excludes the sale or transfer of assault weapons and firearms.

The event, which is held at the Alameda County Fairgrounds in Pleasanton each September, provides training for natural disasters as well as man-made disasters such as explosions, mass shootings and terrorism.

Ahern said 30 law enforcement agencies from the Bay Area participate every year as well as two other agencies selected from other parts of the U.S. and another two agencies that are selected from foreign countries.

At its meeting Tuesday, the Board of Supervisors discussed the findings of an 18-member panel of community members, health officials and educational officials that was formed last year to address the community's concerns about the Urban Shield.

Activists who oppose the training exercise made much of the task force's determination that it was in no position to accomplish its community relations goals or to make any recommendations or assessments related to the program's impact on communities.

Executive Director of the Arab Resource & Organizing Center Lara Kiswani, who was appointed to the task force, said, "The task force agreed that as a body it does not represent vulnerable communities or those impacted by the training program."

Kiswani said, "The primary reason for this is that the composition of the task force was disproportionately not representative of vulnerable communities and communities most impacted by policing in Alameda County."

She said, "This is what we've been saying for years. If decision-makers in Alameda County want to take disaster and emergency response seriously, as its residents do, then it has to implement programs that are inclusive, sustainable, and transparent."

Tash Nguyen of the Ella Baker Center, who was also a member of the task force, alleged that, "Urban Shield and its sponsors have revealed dangerous values and politics."

Nguyen also charged that Urban Shield includes training scenarios that use stereotypes of Arab and Muslim people.

A shelter-in-place order issued due to a possible leak from one or more railway cars that may have been carrying hazardous materials near City Park in Pittsburg was lifted Tuesday afternoon, according to Contra Costa County Fire Protection District officials.

The incident was reported around 12:30 p.m., according to Fire Marshal Robert Marshall. The shelter-in-place order affected five residential blocks from North Parkside Drive south to West 17th Street and from Jimno Avenue west to Andrew Avenue, but it was lifted around 3 p.m.

Hazmat crews are still on the scene attempting to determine whether a leak has occurred and what sort of material might be leaking out.

"At this point we just don't know," Marshall said.

"They aren't currently detecting anything," he added. "They're still working to confirm whether or not there is a hazard."

Sonoma County's Board of Supervisors reacted with anger, frustration and tears Tuesday morning as they discussed a state Office of Emergency Services report that criticized the gaps in the county's emergency alert system on the night of the Oct. 8-9 wildfires.

The fires in the Fountaingrove and Coffey Park areas of Santa Rosa, the Mark West Springs Road area north of the city and in Sonoma Valley destroyed 5,300 homes and killed 24 people.

The report said specific procedures for using emergency alerts and warning capabilities were uncoordinated and included gaps, overlays and redundancies regarding capabilities in various county departments.

The report noted the county's emergency alert system did not use wireless alert technology to warn the public of the disaster. The wireless systems included the federal Wireless Emergency Alert system that sends texts to all cellphones in a specific area, and the Emergency Alert System that uses radio, wireless cable systems and cable television systems.

Instead, the county relied on Sonoma County Alert and Nixle, both of which require residents to sign up for phone and email emergency alerts.

That led to a "limited awareness and understanding of the WEA system and outdated information regarding WEA's technical capabilities," according to the report.

The procedures and policies the county used during floods were misunderstood and was not applicable to the fast-moving, complex fire situation, the report states.

"Everyone knows what happened and what didn't in the Fog of War," Supervisor David Rabbitt said.

"My district was ground zero and I didn't see anything in this report on the Sonoma Valley," Supervisor Susan Gorin said as she began crying.

"You guys and gals rock," Gorin told Jim Colangelo, interim director of the Sonoma County Fire and Emergency Services Department. "To say I am horribly disappointed is an understatement."

Gorin, who lost her Oakmont home in the Nuns Fire, said she has heard evacuation horror stories from her constituents.

"Not one person received an alert. What the hell are we doing here?" Gorin asked.

Supervisor Lynda Hopkins said she was not surprised by the OES report in view of last year's flooding. She decried the lack of the role of elected officials, timely communication, lack of education and outreach and lack of evacuation planning for vulnerable populations.

"I take full responsibility and own up to the mistakes but there is a bigger role for the state," Hopkins said.

She said there should be multiple emergency alert systems in effect statewide.

Supervisor Shirlee Zane said, "I wish the California Office of Emergency Services was here. The 58 counties are handling emergencies differently and Cal Fire is grossly underfunded."

Board chair James Gore said the county "must own this moment and not point fingers. We need to talk about this together for a long time."

"Everyone knows what we have doesn't work. It needs to be blown up and fixed," Rabbitt said. "What is the role of the state? Is every city and county on their own?"

During the morning-long work session of the OES report and its recommendations, the board heard presentations about installing digital fire alert cameras on light poles or microwave towers to serve as modern lookouts and sounding sirens during emergencies and disasters.

The Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors Tuesday unanimously passed a recommendation from Supervisor Cindy Chavez requiring the District Attorney's Office to bring back current information on financing needed for the county's untested sexual assault kits.

Chavez's recommendation comes in the wake of "the backlog of untested rape kits languishing in law enforcement agencies and forensic labs in California," according to a letter Chavez wrote to her colleagues.

District Attorney Jeff Rosen and his office will come back to the Board of Supervisors meeting on March 20, with an analysis of all resources that would be required to process all untested kits in the district attorney's office crime lab by the end of July 2019.

Chavez also asked for information on resources that would ensure that processing of sexual assault kits take no longer than 30 days. Rosen said in his public statement in Tuesday's meeting that the county's current average is 94 days, which is less than the national average of 120 days.

Chavez said the U.S. Department of Justice classifies forensic evidence untested after 30 days as backlogged, which is why she wants that to be the maximum amount of time it takes to test a kit.

Originally, Chavez requested kits be tested within 15 days and that all untested kits in the crime lab be processed by the end of the year. However, after speaking to Rosen, she extended the timetables to make the goals more attainable.

Rosen spoke on the vitality of having sexual assault kits processed as quickly as possible in order to use them as a tool to solve crimes.

"Over the years we have had many cases solved because we tested the Sexual Assault Response kit and uploaded the DNA to the Combined DNA Index System database and got hits," Rosen said. "Sometimes months and even years later, we were able to bring perpetrators to justice."

Rosen said that when it comes to testing kits, sometimes it is not an effective use of the crime lab's time to test for DNA because there are questions of consent, not identity.

In those cases, investigators look to the first part of a sexual assault examination done on the victim, which is a comprehensive physical examination done at Santa Clara Valley Medical Center in San Jose. The DNA testing of swabs and materials is considered the second part.

Sexual assault survivor advocates from agencies like Planned Parenthood came forward during public comment to speak in support of the recommendation.

"Any rape is a crime, and any rape kit that goes untested is just as criminal," said a woman named Valerie, who worked closely with Chavez and was part of the inspiration for the recommendation.

Perla Flores, a division director from the non-profit organization Community Solutions, talked about how getting an infrastructure in place to regularly test kits in the future would alleviate the discontentment that victims of assault can experience in waiting to begin their healing process.

"Our county has been making great strides in trying to decrease the backlog, but it can be frustrating to not have their case moving forward," Flores said. "It becomes more complicated to move on and share your story two or three years after it happened."

When asked what the recent #MeToo movement has done for sexual assault advocates and survivors, Flores said she believes it's been a positive campaign that encourages those affected to report their assaults.

"It has shown how frequently this issue happens, how frequently sexual assault happens," Flores said. "We know that one out of every three girls and one out of every four boys will be sexually assaulted before they are 18. It sheds light on the frequency in our society."

Chavez said partnering with the District Attorney's Office means that they will be able to have a deeper look at why there are delays in processing the kits.

"The crime lab here waits for any department to bring a processed kit to them, and then they will often have questions over how the kit gets processed," Chavez said. "We need to increase communication and the speed of it between local departments. That's one area where a clerk or a staff person might make all the difference."

Chavez said that the idea of having a clerk is still being tossed around and is not final, but it would be a productive move for the county budget. She cited understaffing in many of the county's police departments as one of the biggest reasons that kits can remain untested.

It came to light near the end of the meeting that the only location that can currently conduct the kit testing in the county is at Valley Medical Center, prompting Supervisor Joe Simitian to ask for clarification.

Simitian called requiring anyone "from a somewhat distant location" like Gilroy or Palo Alto to drive in the aftermath of such a traumatic event to an unfamiliar setting away from friends and family "an incongruity."

County Executive Jeffrey Smith said that historically the testing used to be able to be done in any hospital, but this kind of forensic exam requires a certain expertise.

Rosen came back up to the podium to explain that when it came to this kind of testing, "consistency is important."

However, he did say that his office was looking at other locations like Stanford Hospital to do the exams. He promised to report back next month on the feasibility of locations in north and south Santa Clara County.

Two bills have been passed in California in the last few weeks in relation to rape kit testing.

Assembly Bill 3118 and Senate Bill 1449, introduced by state Assemblyman David Chiu, D-San Francisco, and state Sen. Connie Leyva, D-Chino, on Feb. 16, calls for an audit of all kits in possession and a report back on information about each case as well as mandated reimbursement of local agencies and school districts for the costs.

Chiu and Levya worked together to co-author the bills, and are cited as "Sexual Assault Victims' DNA Bill of Rights."

A 37-year-old man was convicted Tuesday of rape, forcible oral copulation and sodomy for sexually assaulting a young woman in Oakland in 2007.

However, after five days of deliberations jurors deadlocked on six other felony counts against Eljarod Lawson involving two other alleged victims.

Prosecutor Amanda Chavez said jurors voted 9-3 or 10-2 in favor of convicting Lawson on those counts but said a decision hasn't yet been made about whether to prosecute him a second time on those charges.

Chavez said Lawson faces 24 years in state prison when Alameda County Superior Court Judge Allan Hymer sentences him on March 22 on the three counts for which he was convicted Tuesday.

Lawson's attorney, Matt Fregi, said he's "disappointed" that Lawson was convicted of the three counts but said he believes Hymer ruling on a key issue in the case was incorrect and there's a good chance that the convictions could be dismissed by an appellate court.

Chavez alleged during Lawson's lengthy trial that he preyed on young and vulnerable women in Oakland and forced them to perform sex acts.

She said he would kidnap the alleged victims or lure them into his car, sexually assault them and dump them back on the streets of Oakland.

The charges for which Lawson, who is 6-foot-5 and weighs 300 pounds, was convicted involved a woman who was referred to in the case as Jane Doe 3.

Chavez said the woman, who had just turned 21, was walking in an area of International Boulevard in Oakland on Sept. 18, 2007, when she noticed that she was being followed by a car and then a man later identified as Lawson got behind her and forced her into the car.

The prosecutor said Lawson threatened to kill the young woman and then sexually assaulted her before he pushed her out of the car and drove off.

Lawson also was charged with assaulting a victim described as Jane Doe 1 in late 2015 and a victim described as Jane Doe 2 on April 16, 2016, but the jury deadlocked on the charges involving those victims.

Chavez said, "I thought each of the victims was incredibly brave to come in and testify despite having to face their accuser in court."

Chavez said, "I don't agree with all of the jury's verdicts but I respect their hard work."

Fregi said he and co-counsel Barry Morris disagreed with Hymer's decision not to find Jane Doe 3 in contempt of court when she refused to testify after she was brought into court.

Fregi said Hymer then allowed prosecutors to read into record Jane Doe 3's testimony from Lawson's preliminary hearing and a previous trial that ended in a hung jury so the defense wasn't allowed to cross-examine her.

Fregi said, "There definitely will be an appeal and we think an appellate court will find that the judge's ruling was an error."

Fregi said he thinks the reason the jury didn't convict Lawson of the charges involving Jane Doe 1 and Jane Doe 2 is that the details of their allegations against Lawson, such as the dates on which he allegedly assaulted them, were vague.

A threat made Tuesday morning against a public high school in Sebastopol prompted school officials to close the school at noon Tuesday, the superintendent of the West Sonoma County High School District said.

Police believe that someone left threatening graffiti in a bathroom at Analy High School at 6950 Analy Ave. between 7 a.m. and 7:45 a.m.

Sgt. Joseph Furry would not say what the graffiti said because police are still conducting an investigation.

Superintendent Steven Kellner said in a letter Tuesday morning to parents that the threat was found in a second floor boys bathroom and was specific to Tuesday.

Kellner said no immediate threat exists. The school was closed out of an abundance of caution for students and staff.

Police said school officials notified them about the graffiti at about 8:30 a.m.

Furry said more police officers were sent to the school Tuesday morning and more will be on campus in the coming days.

Kellner said school officials would work with police Tuesday afternoon to determine whether to have classes today.

School officials made school buses available at noon to pick up students. Others were able to stay in the library until their parents picked them up.

Staff and police stayed in the library and police stayed on campus until all students left.

Sebastopol police are encouraging anyone with information about the graffiti to call them at (707) 829-4400.

A ruptured pipe released almost 1,200 gallons of untreated water in downtown Occidental on Monday morning, Sonoma County Water Agency officials said Tuesday.

Construction workers who were building sidewalks near Hill and Main streets "inadvertently punctured" a 4-inch wastewater pipe with a metal stake and caused the leak, water agency officials said.

The agency's workers responded to the incident shortly after 9:30 a.m. Monday.

An unknown amount of wastewater went into a storm drain that carries water to Dutch Bill Creek in Sonoma County, according to the agency.

The agency said workers contained most of the spill and used a small pump to move the wastewater to a nearby sewer.

Workers completed temporary repairs of the pipe shortly after 10 a.m., and the water agency reported the spill to the state Office of Emergency Services and state Division of Drinking Water.

Agency officials are working with a contractor to permanently repair the pipe.

The U.S. Supreme Court Tuesday overruled a federal appeals court in San Francisco and said that immigrants facing deportation can be held in custody indefinitely while awaiting resolution of their cases.

The decision applies to asylum seekers, undocumented immigrants who are seeking a right to remain in the U.S., and legal permanent residents who were convicted of a crime but have completed their probation or prison term.

In 2013, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said that non-citizens in those categories who are held in civil detention by immigration authorities are entitled to a bond hearing every six months to determine whether they are a flight risk or danger to the community.

A six-month bond hearing would be a "minimal procedural safeguard," a three-judge panel of the appeals court said.

In Tuesday's decision, the Supreme Court overturned the appeals court ruling by a 5-3 vote. One judge, former Solicitor General Elena Kagan, excused herself from the case.

Justice Samuel Alito said in the majority decision that it was "utterly implausible" for the appeals court to have interpreted three immigration laws to find a requirement for bond hearings.

"Nothing in the statutory text imposes any limit on the length of detention," Alito wrote.

Justice Stephen Breyer said in a dissent that the "basic right of liberty" has been part of American legal principles since the Declaration of Independence.

The case started in federal court in Los Angeles in 2004 by Alejandro Rodriguez, a legal permanent resident who worked as a dental assistant. After he was convicted and placed on probation for a drug offense, immigration authorities sought to deport him. He was detained in immigration custody for three years before he won permission to remain in the U.S.

While saying the 9th Circuit was wrong about interpretation of the immigration laws, the Supreme Court sent the case back to the appeals court for consideration of immigrants' constitutional due process claims.

American Civil Liberties Union attorney Ahilan Arulanantham, who represented Rodriguez and other immigrants in the case, said in a statement, "We have shown through this case that when immigrants get a fair hearing, judges often release them based on their individual circumstances.

"We look forward to going back to the lower courts to show that these statutes, now interpreted by the Supreme Court to require detention without any hearing, violate the due process clause," Arulanantham said.

Firefighters responded to a two-alarm blaze Tuesday night at a library in the unincorporated Contra Costa County community of El Sobrante, a fire dispatcher said.

According to a Contra Costa County Fire Protection District dispatcher, the fire was first reported at 8:20 p.m. at the El Sobrante Library at 4191 Appian Way.

Firefighters extinguished the blaze quickly, the dispatcher said.

Further details were not immediately available.

Today will be mostly cloudy with a chance of rain. Highs will be in the mid 50s. Southwest winds will be between 10 and 20 mph.

Tonight will be breezy with rain. Lows will be in the lower 50s. South winds will be between 20 and 30 mph.

Thursday will be very windy. There will be rain in the morning, then showers likely in the afternoon. Highs will be in the mid 50s. South winds will be between 30 and 45 mph, becoming southwest winds between 20 and 30 mph in the afternoon.We have had an Airbnb on our farm for about a year and a half and almost every guest has commented on one particular aspect of their stay. Its not the comfortable beds or the wonderful sunsets they are mentioning. Lots of their comments say how much they liked our dog, Howie. Who wouldveSTORRS, Conn. (AP)  At most of the largest U.S. public universities, students are under no obligation to be vaccinated against COVID-19. Some schools do require vaccines, but with leniency for those who opt out. Still others have expelled students who do not comply.L. Peter Callender/African-American Shakespeare Company

After a finely wrought and achingly felt take on Cat on a Hot Tin Roof in 2013, African-American Shakespeare Company, whose mission is to envision the classics with color, returns to Tennessee Williams this weekend with A Streetcar Named Desire.

L. Peter Callender directs Williams 1947 drama, one in which every word spoken seems to suck a little more air out of an already cramped apartment above a rail line in New Orleans. Jemier Jenkins stars as Blanche Dubois, theaters grand dame of delusion, whose airs spring partly from selfishness and self-aggrandizement, but partly from something less contemptible: aestheticism, imagination, a belief that poetry is more real than pesky pink slips and deeds of sale. The reliably capable Khary Moye plays Blanches brother-in-law Stanley Kowalski, for whom only the observable, the concrete is real. And what does he observe in Blanche? Lies and conceit and tricks.Erin Baiano

Choreographer Doug Varone has made a name for himself through the vast range and diversity in his work. His company, Doug Varone and Dancers boasts a 30-year legacy of sought-after performances on stage and screen, in theater and opera.

The New York dance group returns to the Bay Area on Thursday-Saturday, March 1-3, to perform at San Jose State University. Students of the dance program at San Jose State will also join company dancers in the intimate 40-minute dance cycle In the Shelter of the Fold.WASHINGTON  Department of Housing and Urban Development officials spent $31,000 on a new dining room set for Secretary Ben Carson's office in late 2017  just as the White House circulated its plans to slash HUD's programs for the homeless, elderly and poor, according to federal procurement records.

The purchase of the custom hardwood table, chairs and hutch came a month after a top agency staff member filed a whistleblower complaint charging Carson's wife, Candy Carson, with pressuring department officials to find money for the expensive redecoration of his offices, even if it meant circumventing the law.

Ben Carson is also facing questions on another front. Under pressure earlier this month, he requested that HUD's inspector general investigate his son's involvement in a department-sponsored listening tour of Baltimore last summer. Department lawyers had warned Carson that including Ben Carson Jr., an entrepreneur who does business with the federal government, could create a conflict of interest.

Ben Carson "didn't know the table had been purchased," but does not believe the cost was too steep and does not intend to return it, said Raffi Williams, a HUD spokesman.

"In general, the secretary does want to be as fiscally prudent as possible with the taxpayers' money," he added.

Department officials did not request approval from the House or Senate Appropriations Committees for the expenditure of $31,561, even though federal law requires congressional approval "to furnish or redecorate the office of a department head" if the cost exceeds $5,000.

Williams said department officials did not request congressional approval because the dining set served a "building-wide need." The table is inside the secretary's 10th-floor office suite.

The decision was made by a "career staffer" who selected the company, Sebree and Associates, which is based in Carson's longtime hometown, Baltimore, from a list of preapproved federal contractors, Williams said.

Neither Carson nor his wife  who expressed a strong interest in sprucing up the drab, wood-paneled, 1960s-era secretary's suite, according to several current and former department staff members  requested that the 50-year-old table be replaced, Williams said.

But he had remarked how the previous table was covered in scratches, scuff marks and cracks. Williams emailed several pictures of the old table, which looks polished and not visibly scarred, during events held by Carson's predecessor, Julian Castro.

The new table, listed as "household furniture" in federal procurement documents, has not yet arrived.

About a month before it was ordered, Helen G. Foster, a former top HUD official, filed a complaint with the Office of Special Counsel, a federal whistleblower agency, claiming she had been demoted and transferred after resisting Candy Carson's attempts to get around the $5,000 redecoration law.

The pressure began in January 2017, before Carson was even confirmed, when HUD's interim secretary, Craig Clemmensen, told Foster to help secure redecorating funds for Candy Carson, a frequent visitor to the department's Washington headquarters who serves as an informal adviser to her husband, the complaint said.

Clemmensen, acting on Candy Carson's behalf, told Foster to "find money" to purchase better furniture for the office  and he quipped that "$5,000 will not even buy a decent chair," according to the complaint, which was reported by The Guardiannewspaper.

Foster refused to comply, and said she then sent HUD officials the text of the law requiring congressional approval for the purchases. After she was removed from her position as the department's chief administrative officer, she was made head of the agency's unit overseeing Freedom of Information Act requests, which she viewed as an act of retribution.

She "has suffered much humiliation and a loss of reputation, and harm to career advancement, as a result of this retaliatory reassignment," according to a letter written by her lawyer, Joseph Kaplan, to the head of the special counsel investigations unit on Nov. 3.

Williams said Foster was reassigned as part of a routine agency reshuffle, and denied that Candy Carson pressured her to help redecorate the office.

"Secretary Carson, to the best of our knowledge, is the only secretary to go to the subbasement at his agency to select the furniture for his office," Williams said.Hope, we hardly knew ye.

The already lengthy list of departures from the Donald Trump White House got a little longer Wednesday with the news that Hope Hicks is stepping down as communications director.

She was the fourth person in the role in 14 months, following Jason Miller, Sean Spicer, Mike Dubke, and most memorably Anthony Scaramucci, whose term went up in flames shortly after he allegedly went on a rant that included comments about autofellatio to a reporter from the New Yorker.

Click through the gallery above to see reactions to Hicks' departure on Twitter.

Hicks began in the role in mid-August 2017. Age 28 at the time, she was the youngest White House communications director in history, according to Business Insider.

"Hope Hicks lasted approximately 19.6 Scaramuccis as communications director," CBS politics reporter Katie Watson quipped on Twitter.

Hicks reportedly drew the ire of the president over the handling of the Rob Porter scandal, CNN reported; Porter, a White House aide accused of domestic violence by several former partners, was also romantically connected to Hicks.

On Tuesday, she testified before the House Intelligence Committee in a closed-door session. During her testimony, she admitted to telling white lies on behalf of the president, the New York Times reported.

Some speculated that Hicks might head for a job at CNN after her time at the White House, as former Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski did for a time.

Her departure made some long for her more rambunctious predecessor; It wasn't long before hundreds of people began tweeting calls for the White House to #bringbackthemooch.

Filipa Ioannou is an SFGATE staff writer. Email her at fioannou@sfchronicle.com and follow her on TwitterA 2018 Nobel Peace Prize nomination for President Donald Trump appears to be fraudulent, the Norwegian Nobel Institute said Wednesday.

"We have good reason to believe that a nomination we received concerning Trump has been falsified," Olav Njolstad, secretary of the five-member institute, told AFP.

The institute said it had filed a report with Oslo police, who are investigating the matter.

This isn't the first time someone has tried to toss Trump's name into Nobel running. Njolstad told the New York Times an apparently forged nomination was submitted last year, too, although the institute did not disclose it to the public at the time.

More for you Judge sides with Trump on challenge to Mexico border wall

An inspector with the Oslo police told the Times that investigators had "been in touch with the FBI," suggesting that the forged nominations came from the United States.

"We verify all nominations, at least the ones with a shadow of doubt," Njolstad said.

The Nobel Institute received 329 valid nominations for the 2018 Peace Prize  217 individuals and 12 organizations. A select number of people can submit nominations, including lawmakers, heads of state, university professors, Nobel Institute committee members and heads of organizations that had previously received the Nobel Prize.

Four American presidents have previously won the Nobel Peace Prize, including Barack Obama in 2009.

The winner of the 2018 prize will be announced in Oslo in early October.

Michelle Robertson is an SFGATE staff writer. Email her at mrobertson@sfchronicle.com or find her on Twitter at @mrobertsonsf.It's all about creating cachet.

That's one reason the new mid-rise homes at 788 Minna St. don't have a Ninth Street address, says listing agent Frank Nolan.

"It's kind of the Manhattanization of San Francisco," he explained.

Those involved with the boutique building, finished in July, say its condominiums are on the cusp of the resurgence of the South of Market (SoMa) district.

They hope their western sector building - one of the first in the Mid-Market neighborhood - will fit in well among some of the new, high-dollar restaurants and trendy coffee shops, not to mention the Internet startups now doing business in the historically industrial area.

Of course, it doesn't hurt that Twitter, with the help of the city's tax break, announced it will move its headquarters to nearby 1355 Market St. Mozilla also signed on to move its offices to Harrison Street.

So far, the "Twitter effect" seems to be working.

At least a handful of the units have been sold to so-called "Twitter peeps" hoping to cash in on the potential hipster vibe ranging from couples to savvy singles. Nolan clarified, however, that none actually have been employees of the social media giant.

Fourteen of the 20 units have sold, and they are on target to meet their six-month selling goal.

Developer Richie Hart is proud of that accomplishment, given the fluctuations of the real estate market. The five-story, 20-apartment Minna project has been in his pipeline since 2005.

The neighborhood "can be gritty," Hart said. "But people like that edge."

The techie population and their companies, he continued, will embrace the edge, while simultaneously amping up the class. "It's going to change the neighborhood," Hart predicted.

Mozilla employee Aakash Desai closed on his unit Nov. 23. He said he was pleased with the investment potential and the community feel of the building.

"It was beautiful," Desai said. "The square footage was small, but it felt much larger than when I'd just seen the numbers. It felt great. Very open floor plan."

While many of the touches could be described as anything but rough, Hart said the building incorporates the neighborhood's historical nature and used local designers.

Each of the one-bed, one-bath condos has the San Francisco Design Center's Sozo Studio-created kitchen and bath cabinets.

The units all have one parking space and a gas-burning fireplace. They range from 550 to 800 square feet and are listed from $430,000 to $539,000.

At least one investor is hoping to rent his unit for $3,900 a month.

Sought-after touches such as wide-plank white oak floors, CaesarStone countertops and imported Italian porcelain tile in the bathrooms lend a sophisticate's touch to the modern style.

The open living and dining rooms feature track lighting and architectural windows.

Liebherr stainless steel refrigerators and Bertazzoni ranges fill the stylish kitchens. The bedrooms are ample.

Each unit has high-definition speakers and is wired for a security system that can be accessed from smartphones or other devices. The building, which has a bicycle room, is also solar ready.CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla.  Three astronauts returned from the International Space Station to the snowy, bitingly cold flat lands of Central Asia, ending a 5-month mission highlighted by robotic renovations, schoolteacher pep talks and heavenly greetings from Pope Francis.

The two Americans and one Russian landed in a Soyuz capsule shortly after sunrise Wednesday, local time, in Kazakhstan, where the temperature was below freezing. Flight controllers feared snow and freezing rain might hamper recovery efforts, but NASA said the weather wasnt nearly as bad as had been feared and the pickup teams got to where they needed to be.KABUL  Afghanistan President Ashraf Ghani on Wednesday called on the Taliban to take part in peace talks to save the country, offering security and incentives such as passports to insurgents who join the negotiations.

Ghani spoke at the 2nd Kabul Process Conference attended by representatives from more than 20 countries and international organizations.

We will consider the Talibans view in the peace talks, he said.

Ghani said the Afghan government will provide passports and issue visas to Taliban members and their families and open an office for them in Kabul. He said his government would also work to remove sanctions against Taliban leaders.

Ghani said a cease-fire must be agreed on and the Taliban must be declared a political group.

The Afghan government must be accepting and we will also work on the list of freeing Taliban prisoners, he said.

A resurgent Taliban has been blamed for much of the increased violence in Afghanistan since U.S. and NATO forces concluded combat missions in 2014. The recent attacks have underscored the weaknesses of Afghan security forces more than 16 years after the U.S.-led invasion toppled the Taliban.

U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary for South and Central Asia Alice Wells has said the United States has kept the door open to dialogue with the Taliban.

The Taliban in a statement Monday called on U.S. officials to talk directly to their political office regarding a peaceful solution to the fighting.

It would help in finding a solution if America accepts the legitimate demands of the Afghan people and forward its own concerns and requests for discussion to the Islamic Emirate through a peaceful channel, the statement said.

The Taliban said in the statement the U.S. must recognize that the conflict cannot be solved militarily.

Over the weekend in western Farah province, at least 18 soldiers were killed when their checkpoint came under attack by Taliban insurgents, two other soldiers were wounded in the attack in the Bala Buluk district, according to defense ministry officials.

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 than that 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.

Ghani also called on government-to-government talks with Pakistan.ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia  Representatives for thousands of Ethiopian Jews announced Wednesday they will stage a mass hunger strike if Israel eliminates funding to allow them to join their families in that country.

Hundreds gathered at a synagogue in Ethiopias capital, Addis Ababa, to express concern that Israels proposed budget removes the funding to help them immigrate to reunite with relatives.

Most of the nearly 8,000 Ethiopian Jews in the East African nation are said to have family members already in Israel. Some said they have been separated for well over a decade.

Activists say Israels government in 2015 pledged to bring the remaining Ethiopian Jews to Israel. In 1991 with Ethiopia in civil war, Israel carried out the dramatic Operation Solomon, successfully airlifting out some 14,500 Ethiopian Jews in less than two days.

All of us here in Ethiopia are in a foreign land and suffering from acute poverty and hunger, said Meles Sidisto, the community head of Ethiopian Jews in Addis Ababa. Most of our family members are in Israel. Several of our brothers and sisters who took dangerous routes to meet their relatives in Israel have died during their journey.

He said Addis Ababas community of Ethiopian Jews, which numbers around 800 households, will hold a hunger strike if the Israeli government doesnt hear their plea.

We have had enough here. What have we done wrong to suffer this much? he said, bursting into tears and prompting others to cry out. Several people carried photos of their loved ones who are already in Israel.

Wednesdays gathering was described as a solidarity event. Ethiopians currently are prohibited from holding protests under the countrys latest state of emergency, imposed this month after the most severe antigovernment demonstrations in a quarter-century.

Ethiopian officials were not immediately available for comment on the issue of the Ethiopian Jews. Most of the community lives in the northern Amhara region, one of the areas that has experienced the sometimes deadly antigovernment protests that began in November 2015 with demands for greater freedoms.

The origin of the Ethiopian Jews is unclear but a popular legend says they descended from the son of King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba. Ethiopian Jews are often referred to in Ethiopia as Falashas, a derogatory word which translates into strangers or migrants.

Chekol Alemayehu, who said he has been waiting desperately to go to Israel and meet his relatives, said he completed all the immigration papers but was turned back at the airport more than a decade ago.

Ive no idea why. My daughter died in Israel a few months ago. And Ive been suffering since, he said, displaying family photos.

In a letter addressed to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the Ethiopian Jews in Addis Ababa said they want to immediately and without any preconditions go to Israel and join family members.

We will never lose hope in going to Israel because we are winner people, the letter says.TOKYO  Japanese women who say Me too do so at their own risk.

Online comments accused Rika Shiiki of lying and being a publicity hound when she tweeted that she lost business contracts after refusing to have sex with clients. Some said that by agreeing to dine with a man, she led him on.

The comments I received were disproportionately negative, the 20-year-old university student and entrepreneur told a TV talk show in December. We need to create a society where we can speak up. Otherwise, sexual harassment and other misconduct will persist forever.

The #MeToo movement has not caught on in Japan, where speaking out often draws criticism rather than sympathy, even from other women.

In a patriarchal society where women have long taken the blame, many victims try to forget attacks and harassment instead of seeking support and justice, said Mari Miura, a political science professor at Sophia University in Tokyo.

Japan lacks such a sisterhood, she said. Its an exhausting and intimidating process. ... Its quite natural that victims feel reluctant to speak up.

One woman, journalist Shiori Ito, went public last year. She held a news conference after prosecutors decided not to press charges against a prominent TV newsman whom she had accused of raping her after he invited her to discuss job opportunities over dinner and drinks in 2015.

Many online comments criticized her for speaking out, looking too seductive and ruining the life of a prominent figure. Some women called her an embarrassment, she said.

The October release of Itos book Blackbox detailing her ordeal came as the #MeToo phenomenon was making headlines in America. It prompted some discussion in Japan, but only a handful of other women came forward.

Many people think Shioris problem has nothing to do with them ... and thats why #MeToo isnt growing in Japan, said lawyer Yukiko Tsunoda, an expert on sex crimes. In Japan, sexually assaulted women are traditionally called the flawed, she said.

Nearly three quarters of rape victims said they had never told anyone, and just over 4 percent had gone to police, according to a 2015 government survey. The study found that one in 15 Japanese women had been raped or forced to have sex.

Victims often shy away from going to court out of fear, privacy concerns or losing jobs, Tsunoda said.

Mika Kobayashi, a rape victim, runs a self-help group that has exchanged thousands of #MeToo experiences, but only anonymously among themselves.

She said she was pushed into a car and raped on her way home in 2000. She reported the attack to police, but the attacker hasnt been found.

Her focus is on providing support and understanding for victims, rather than being an activist.

I think its also OK not to speak up, she said. I respect any decision that makes a victim feel most comfortable.RIO DE JANEIRO  One by one, three black Brazilian men matter-of-factly give tips for interacting with police that sound very much like the talk that many black Americans have with their sons.

Dont carry a long umbrella. Dont make any sudden movements. Dont leave home without receipts for anything valuable youre carrying. Those are three of the many suggestions offered in the popular video that was posted online in mid-February amid a military takeover of Rio de Janeiros security forces.

It underscores fears that the intervention will trample the civil rights of poor people, particularly blacks, and lead to more police brutality. It also exposes a deep divide between Rio residents in affluent parts of the city and those who live in marginalized neighborhoods  who are both the primary victims of criminal violence and the attempts to crack down on it.

Rios police force is already one of the most deadly in the world: 925 people were killed during police operations in 2016, according to the think tank Brazilian Public Security Forum, and initial tallies by human rights groups put the 2017 number over 1,000.

The intervention will not solve criminality or drug trafficking, said Spartakus Santiago, a 23-year-old who is one of the videos creators. It will increase the fear of people who live in these communities, innocent people who are not involved with crime.

On the rise for at least two years, violence in Rio appeared to reach a tipping point during Carnaval celebrations this month, when thieves were caught on film chasing and beating victims along the citys picturesque beachfront.

The governor pleaded for federal help, and President Michel Temer issued a decree that put a military commander in charge of Rios police. The measure has already put thousands of soldiers in the streets and is expected to sharply increase operations against drug-trafficking gangs that largely operate in favelas, or poor areas.

Whether such a measure is necessary is the focus of a heated debate. Congress overwhelmingly approved Temers decree, though opposition leaders accused him of using the measure to improve his popularity  he currently has a 9 percent approval rating  ahead of elections later this year. Temer denies that.

Fears of police excesses were heightened when soldiers were seen searching the backpacks of young school children and taking photos and gathering information of residents of some favelas. Raul Jungmann  who leads the new public security minister  shocked some when he said the government was analyzing the use of collective search warrants that would allow searches of whole streets or even neighborhoods, rather than a single address.1 Fake news lawsuit: Austrias public broadcaster is suing the countrys vice chancellor for claiming it spreads fake news. ORF said it was moved to take legal action after nationalist politician Heinz-Christian Strache shared a post on Facebook earlier this month that defamed and discredited the work of 800 journalists, the broadcaster said in a statement on Tuesday. The Freedom Party politician had shared a post accusing ORF of spreading fake news, lies and propaganda on all of its channels. ORF is also suing Facebook for refusing to remove the original post which Strache shared, Wrabetz said.

2 Sinai fighting: Egypts military says three soldiers, including an officer, were killed while fighting militants in the Sinai Peninsula. Military spokesman Col. Tamer al-Rifai says three other officers and four conscripts were wounded in the fighting on Tuesday, which killed 11 militants. The troops were taking part in a countrywide offensive announced Feb. 9. The army says it has destroyed hundreds of targets and killed dozens of militants. The latest casualties bring the armys total death toll to 10 since the operation began. Egypt has struggled to combat an insurgency in the northern Sinai that grew more violent after the military overthrew an elected Islamist president in 2013. An Islamic State affiliate has carried out deadly attacks across the country.BEIRUT The Russia-ordered brief humanitarian pause was in effect for a second day Wednesday in rebel-held Damascus suburbs but no civilians used the corridor manned by Syrian and Russian forces to leave the enclave. Government forces, meanwhile, tried to push their way into the area, setting off ground battles.

Russian President Vladimir Putin blamed the rebels, saying they were preventing civilians from leaving the area known as eastern Ghouta, and suggested Russia would not endlessly tolerate the situation there.

Russia has ordered a five-hour daily humanitarian pause to allow civilians to exit the region that started Tuesday. But no humanitarian aid has gone in and no civilians have left. Residents said they do not trust the truce and the United Nations and aid agencies criticized the unilateral arrangement, saying it gave no guarantees of safety for residents wishing to leave.

The limited pause came after a U.N. Security Council resolution that called for a nationwide 30-day cease-fire that failed to take hold. While the relentless bombing has somewhat subsided in the region, home to around 400,000 civilians, the Syrian governments push to squeeze the insurgents out of the region continued.

On Wednesday, the European Union demanded that Russia, Iran and Turkey take responsibility for ensuring that the fighting stops in Syria and that a real 30-day halt in fighting be respected.

Opposition activists said Wednesdays five-hour pause in eastern Ghouta was preceded by a barrage of air strikes in the towns of Harasta and Douma, where Syrian troops and allied militia trying to push ahead with a ground offensive on a number of fronts from the east and west clashed with local insurgent groups.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said government shelling and limited clashes were reported on three fronts since the pause began: near Douma, in Harasta Farms, and near Shifouniyah.

Commentators on pro-Syrian government TV cheered the Syrian troops, saying there can be no going back on bringing the region under control.

The U.N. resolution came as more than 500 civilians were killed over the course of a week in eastern Ghouta and the regions medical facilities were targeted, overwhelming rescuers. On the first day of the pause, activists reported around 20 civilians were killed, including several pulled from under the rubble from previous bombings.

Bassam Abu Bashir, an anaesthetist in a hospital in eastern Ghouta, said the shelling continued Tuesday and Wednesday but has largely spared his central hometown of Saqba and he had to deal with fewer injuries than in the past week. He said the violence was now closer to the ground offensive areas. Abu Bashir said the shelling still struck civilians living in villages near the clashes.

Putin said many militants in eastern Ghouta belong to groups listed by the U.N. as terrorist organizations. He noted that the militants have regularly shelled Damascus.BEIRUT A five-hour truce ordered by Syrias Russian allies to allow civilians to flee a besieged, opposition-held enclave near Damascus failed to result in aid deliveries or medical evacuations Tuesday, while deadly air strikes and shelling continued in the region.

The U.N. and aid agencies criticized the unilateral arrangement for a daily humanitarian pause announced by Russian President Vladimir Putin, saying it gave no guarantees of safety for tens of thousands of residents of eastern Ghouta, where they have been trapped for weeks under intense attack by the Syrian government.

Russia ordered the daily truce, from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. local time, to begin Tuesday. A so-called corridor through a crossing point manned by the Syrian military was set up through which residents could leave, but no civilians used it and many said they feared harassment or arrest if they go into government areas after years of living in the rebel-controlled area.

Anyone would face a number of dangers at any moment if they step into Damascus, either by arrest or by questioning family members. ... We in Ghouta we have no way out, said Nemaat Mohsen, who lives in the town of Saqba in eastern Ghouta.

The enclaves residents also fear their region would meet the same fate as the eastern, rebel-held half of the city of Aleppo, where a similar Russian-ordered pause in 2016 called on residents to evacuate the area and for gunmen to lay down their arms. A full ground assault followed, finally bringing Aleppo under the control of forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar Assad.

People are still in shelters. They didnt leave it because they have no confidence in the Russian and Syrian governments, said Firas Abdullah, an opposition activist from Douma, one of the largest towns in eastern Ghouta about 12 miles from the center of Damascus.

Video from the Wafideen crossing point, near Douma, showed preparations to allow civilians to leave, including small buses waiting at a parking area and soldiers milling about. The sound of occasional shelling could be heard, and some appeared to be outgoing rockets from government areas. The site has been used for years as a crossing point between the rebel-controlled sector and Damascus under an informal wartime agreement.

A journalist for Syrias state-run Al-Ikhbariya TV said rebel-fired mortar shells had targeted the crossing, preventing civilians from leaving. Russian Gen. Viktor Pankov also told Russias state news agency Tass that residents couldnt leave because of the rebel shelling. It was not possible to verify the reports.

Tass said Russian military police set up the humanitarian corridor with the Syrian troops, but there were no signs of anyone emerging.

The United Nations estimates that nearly 400,000 people live in dire conditions from the siege in eastern Ghouta, which has been under intense bombing by government forces for weeks.Is it OK for schools to allow snowball fights during recess?

Some schools have banned the activity, which used to be viewed as a good, clean fun, but only one - that we know of - has gone to the extreme of the Jo Richardson Community School in Dagenham, East London.

Not only are its schoolchildren forbidden from throwing snow, they're not allowed to even touch it.

A major winter storm recently blanketed Great Britain with snow that is strictly hands-off, at least at Joe Richardson Community School.

Ges Smith, the school's headmaster, defended the rule on the "Good Morning Britain" show.

According to the Telegraph, Smith called the ban a "duty of care issue."

"It only takes one student, one piece of grit, one stone in a snowball in an eye, with an injury and we change our view," he said.

"If you don't touch the snow you're not going to throw it."

Smith also suggested that playing in the snow leaves children wet and "unfit for school."

Sorry, kids, but you won't be able to do your maths equations if you're damp from building snowmen or carving snow angels.

Host Piers Morgan warned that the school would produce children "unprepared for normal life" if they were forced to adhere to such rules.

But Smith countered that he was protecting the school from a lawsuit.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!Few weeks after Amnesty International rebuked Algeria for failing short to uphold its obligation in protecting sub-Saharan refugees and asylum seekers, Human Rights Watch (HRW) lambasted Algiers for the degrading treatment it reserves to Sub-Saharans.

Under the title, New Wave of Deportations, HRW said on its website that Algerian authorities have rounded up hundreds of sub-Saharan Africans since January 2018, including women and children, expelling many of them to Niger.

This new deportation wave comes after a series of arbitrary expulsion operations carried out in October 2017 and December 2016, HRW said, noting that most affected migrants if not all, were taken to a facility in Zeralda, a suburb of the capital, where they spent one to three days in crowded halls with no mattresses and little to eat.

Citing testimonies from victims, HRW drew the bleak situation suffered by migrants in Algeria. Algeria is rounding up and deporting migrants in a degrading way and depriving them of the right to have their cases reviewed on an individual basis, said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East and North Africa director at Human Rights Watch.

The international rights watchdog cited figures issued by the International Rescue Committee (IRC), which operates an assistance program for migrants in Agadez, Niger, estimating the total number of expelled migrants at 3,000 since the beginning of 2018, with 500 since February 10, mostly from Niger, and small numbers from Nigeria, Cameroon, Mali, and Guinea.

Victims told HRW of the abhorrent conditions in which they were held in Tamanrasset before being abandoned in the desert. They described the conditions in the camp in Tamanrasset as inhumane, dirty, and overcrowded, with detainees going an entire day without food, HRW said, citing cases of violence by Algerian security forces.

The organization deplored that Algerian authorities insist on denying the right of the migrants to challenge their expulsion or seek protection as asylum seekers in line with the 1951 Geneva Convention to which Algeria is a party.Dr Xiaoqi Feng knows the importance of looking at the big picture when it comes to health planning. Credit:Paul Jones

Social scientist Dr Xiaoqi Feng spent her childhood in one of the worlds largest cities, Beijing, and learned the importance of having good quality green space nearby. The lesson stuck. Now, Dr Fengs focus is on establishing just how much green space is needed to keep us healthy and out of hospital. Her work requires her to be more versatile.

I think there are many skills, I have to say, she says, describing statistical nous as important.

But the ability to generate innovative ideas through research is an essential tool, she says, adding that effective innovation stems from putting yourself in other peoples shoes  thinking from the perspective of other peoples truths.

For instance, Dr Feng  a University of Wollongong Associate Professor of Epidemiology and the founding co-director of UOWs Population Wellbeing and Environment Research Lab (PowerLab)  says that, instead of just looking at one neighbourhood trait, she addresses a combination of environment elements: the good and the bad.A decade after being put onto the drawing board, work on a 2-kilometre second airport runway tipped to generate 2200 jobs and $4 billion in revenue will begin on Thursday morning on the Sunshine Coast.

On Thursday morning, Sunshine Coast Council will announce civil infrastructure giant John Holland Group will build the runway at the Marcoola airport.

John Holland will build the new 2.45-kilometre-long runway at the Sunshine Coast Airport by 2020.

The new runway will cost about $225 million be finished by Christmas 2020.

It has taken 11 years for the Sunshine Coast Council to name a builder for the 2.45 kilometre-long and 45-metre-wide runway.When novelist Harper Lee died in her sleep two years ago, at 89, she left a trail of lingering questions about her life and work.

Why had she decided, in her final years, to publish a second novel, 55 years after her breakout success, To Kill a Mockingbird? Were there other unknown works? Who would inherit her literary papers, sought by many universities, as well as her estate, estimated to be worth tens of millions of dollars?

Harper Lee, who died two years ago. Credit:Rob Carr

On Tuesday, an Alabama court unsealed Lee's will, but the mystery surrounding one of American literature's most cherished authors only deepened.

The will, signed on February 11, 2016, eight days before her death, directed the bulk of her assets, including her literary properties, be transferred into a trust she formed in 2011.Prince Harry and Prince William have admitted that disagreements come "thick and fast" when working together.

The royals made the candid remarks at the Royal Foundation forum in London on Wednesday, an event which marked the first time Britain's royal "Fab Four" - Prince Harry, Prince William, wife Kate Middleton and Harry's fiance US actress Meghan Markle - have carried out an official engagement together.

"Working as [a] family does have its challenges, of course it does. But we're stuck together for the rest of our lives," said Harry.

Asked if there were any disagreements with the family working so closely, William joked: "Oh, yes!"

Queen Elizabeth's grandson Harry, 33 and Markle, 36, have attracted huge attention since they announced last November they were getting married while William, 35 and Kate, 36, have been a major media draw since their wedding in 2011.The EU-Morocco fisheries agreement remains in force until its expiry date set for July 2018, said Moroccos Agriculture and Fisheries agreement in a comment following the verdict of the European Court of Justice (ECJ)

The agreement remains valid and European vessels will continue to operate in Moroccan waters, including off the Sahara coasts until the termination of the agreement in July 2018, Aziz Akhannouch made it clear in a statement to the press.

The Minister dispelled numerous claims propagated by the adversaries of Moroccos territorial integrity. He said the verdict does not prohibit fishing in the coasts of the southern provinces, the Sahara.

He also noted that the verdict does neither mention the Polisario nor does it recognize the Algerian-backed and hosted puppet state, SADR.

Akhannouch added that negotiations between the Agriculture and Fisheries Ministry and the EU will be conducted to renew the agreement.

The verdict, he said, discards the politicized opinion of the ECJ Adviser, Melchior Wathelet, who declared the deal invalid as it includes the Sahara.

The ECJ verdict on the agricultural agreement, issued last year, stated clearly that the Polisario is not concerned with the agreements signed between Morocco and the EU and that the separatist militia is not qualified to represent the Sahrawis.

Following the ECJ verdict, Morocco and the EU expressed in a joint statement willingness to safeguard and bolster their partnership as well as to negotiate a new fisheries deal upon expiry of the current agreement.

Moroccos foreign Minister, Nasser Bourita, made it clear that the Sahara is an integral part of Morocco and that the Kingdom will never relinquish its sovereignty.Despite intensive lobbying by the business sector, the government still faces major obstacles to cutting the large company tax rate to 25 per cent. Large corporations such as Rio Tinto warn leaving the company tax rate at 30 per cent would inevitably lead to moving more of their operations overseas where lower tax rates apply, such as the new rate of 21 per cent in the United States.

Rio Tinto is among the large businesses lobbying for lower company tax. Credit:Steven Pelham

While more attention is paid to the potential benefits of making Australia a more attractive investment destination, the impact of a lower company tax rate on the Australian share market is also an important issue. Our market received a substantial boost in 1987 when then-Treasurer Paul Keating introduced the imputation credit system of company tax.

By granting resident investors a full credit for all company tax paid on dividends received by them, imputation effectively reduced the company tax rate (which was as high as 49 per cent at one stage) to zero but only for residents and only when profits were distributed. Prior to 1987, shareholders paid full personal income tax rates on dividends paid out of profits that had already been subject to company tax.Cheryl Oxley came to a compromise with her siblings over their mother's funeral. Credit:James Brickwood Rip-offs Consumer group Choice produced a report in 2016 that questioned even whether many of us need the services of a funeral director. "When a person dies a doctor must sign a certificate that confirms the death and if there's anything questionable about the death it will be reported to the coroner," the report says. "If the certificate is signed, government websites advise that a funeral director should be engaged by the executer of the will to collect the body for storage and preparation for the funeral.

"However, Choice could find no laws in Australia that said this was legally required." Choice says many funeral homes push for face-to-face "arrangement" meetings where crucial decisions  burial, cremation, embalming, viewing and the selection of the coffin  are worked through. One funeral director told Choice that by that stage "they've spent two hours planning and they think it's too late for them to back out." Upselling A report into the funeral industry last year found consumers are often unnecessarily upsold on funerals due to a lack of information and real competition, in an industry that is lightly regulated.

This is social stigma surrounding dealing with the dead that creates an opportunity for funeral directors to add a significant service fee and mark-ups on coffins, the authors, Sandra van der Laan, of The University of Sydney, and Lee Moerman, of the University of Wollongong, say in their report. They asked funeral homes for quotes for a "direct committal", where the body is taken from its location to be cremated and a "basic" funeral. The study found that a direct committal, including cremation, would cost between $1200 and $6500 with an average of price of $2755. When it came to the basic or essential services funeral the cost ranged from $2440 to $9000 with an average price of $4902. The researchers say that when the extra costs, such as death notices and flowers are added, Australians are paying about $6000 for a basic funeral, on average. However, they say all regulatory requirements related to the disposal of a body can be met for as little as $1200.

The two items that take-up the largest proportion of the cost of a funeral are the funeral director's service fee and the coffin or casket. Coffins can have very large mark-ups. Costco and others like Coffin World, which also sells cremation urns, sell coffins with starting prices of several hundreds of dollars. DIY funerals Gillian Maddigan organised the funeral of her father, who died in December. She sought the help of Karen Lucas, from Artisan Funerals, which serves the Gold Coast and Brisbane, to arrange for the transportation of the body and storage. "We bought an MDF coffin and painted and decorated it," Gillian says. "We cleansed his body and put his outfit on," she says.

"Initially, when my dad's wife said she wanted to care for his body, my initial reaction was 'no, no, I don't know if I can do that'. "But then, we were caring for him for four months in palliative care," she says. "It's not for everyone, but there are people in families that are quite capable of doing it themselves," she says. Ben Oxley, from Sydney, is developing an online course that shows people how to organise a funeral for themselves. He says some sections of the funeral industry tend to make it too much about them, and not enough about the people dealing with loss.

"My research has shown that people are shopping around for greater value, more flexibility and a change from the old black and white funeral. "Celebrating a life is what people want, when they realise what they can have," he says. Best farewell ever Ben and Cheryl Oxley, a married couple, are accomplished musicians and when Cheryl's mother, Joyce, died two years ago, Cheryl and her two brothers played in a band at the funeral with those who had known her mother. "I grew up playing in a brass band with my two brothers, which our father conducted", Cheryl says.

"My mother supported us in our music. Everyone loved her. Mum would be watching and supporting us," she says. "We had couple of meetings [with her two brothers] of what mum, who was a churchgoer, would have liked. "One brother favoured a traditional approach and the other wanted it to be a bit more fun and we discussed it and came to a compromise that we thought our mum would have loved," Cheryl says. The family used the services of a funeral home, a major one in Sydney's southern suburbs, to help organise it all. "We had someone at the funeral that I did not know come up after the service, a funeral director, who said this was the best funeral he has attended in 50 years," Cheryl says.

More competition would help keep costs down Those who have researched the funeral industry suspect it's a lack of competition that makes funerals more expensive than they need to be. The biggest player, by far, is the Australian sharemarket-listed InvoCare Group. While InvoCare says its market share is 32 per cent, other estimates have it as high as 40 per cent and up to 80 per cent on Australia's profitable east coast. InvoCare owns more than 30 brands, including White Lady Funerals, Simplicity Funerals and Guardian Funerals, as well as 14 cemeteries and crematoriums in NSW and Queensland. In Britain, the dominant player, the industry consolidator, Dignity, is under pressure as its not-for-profit competitor, Co-op Group, has cut prices.

Funeral operators there are under pressure because of the increasing popularity of a direct cremation. It is where the body is collected from the place of death, be it a hospital or home, and transported directly to a crematorium. The ashes are then returned to the family for scattering or a private ceremony. A report by analysts Morgan Stanley says that, unlike in Britain, there is no not-for-profit funeral provider of scale in Australia and, therefore, unlikely to be the same downwards pressure on funeral costs. The Morgan Stanley analysts say rather than hiking its prices, InvoCare appears to have improved its revenue from up-selling to more expensive funerals. Martin Earp, chief executive officer of InvoCare, says: "We provide price transparency upfront so that our customers can select an option to best suit their needs".

He says that includes itemised quotes clearly detailing all price elements and that InvoCare does not mark-up external supplier costs and that it provides options for all budgets. InvoCare launched FuneralPlanner.com.au last year to help plan a funeral service today and pre-plan a funeral service for the future. It is restricted to InvoCare options. Another comparison site, gatheredhere.com.au, lists the prices from 690 funeral homes, including the independents and most of the businesses owned by InvoCare. Colin Wong, the founder of the Gathered Here, says those who have lost a family member often have no idea of how the find the right funeral director. LoadingIts already the start of March and the end of financial year is only a few months away. Before you know it, tax time will roll around again, and if youre not ready you could miss out on big superannuation savings and incentives.

As of July 1, 2017, the ATO introduced a raft of superannuation changes. In case you missed it, below is a quick refresher to ensure you get the most out of your super this year.

Tax time means trying to get the most out of your superannuation. Credit:Michele Mossop

Personal super contribution changes

Employees now get access to tax-deducible personal contributions with the abolishment of the 10 per cent maximum earnings conditions. This meant that previously, you were only eligible if less than 10 per cent of your income came from salary and wages. Now, most Australians will have access to top-up their concessional contributions to reach their cap. Be aware that eligibility rules do apply, so do your homework.Several Canberra university students have reached out to advocacy group End Rape on Campus with confronting stories of hazing since a report on residential college traditions was published on Wednesday.

The group has received more than 140 disclosures from throughout Australia since reporting kicked off on The Red Zone Report.

End Rape on Campus founder Sharna Bremner at the University of Adelaide. Credit:David Mariuz

End Rape on Campus founder and director Sharna Bremner said the figure included students from the Australian National University and the University of Canberra sharing stories from the past and present.

"We're seeing a lot of the universities say 'these things happened years ago and we've stamped them out now' - that's definitely not the case," Ms Bremner said.The vice president of the Hellenic Club in Canberra has resigned after pictures of him posing with a dead baboon dressed up for the camera sparked outrage online.

A day after the images were reported by Fairfax Media, the club announced Nick Haridemos would be stepping down as vice president, effective immediately.

Canberra developer Nick Haridemos posted photos of his time hunting in Africa online. Credit:Photobucket

On Wednesday, the club moved to distance itself from the photos, which feature Mr Haridemos posing alongside various animals he has shot and killed on safari in Africa.

Along with an itinerary of bloodied hyenas and dead elephants is a photo of a baboon posed behind the wheel of a jeep in sunglasses and a hat, as Mr Haridemos smiles from the passenger seat. The image spread like wildfire across social media on Tuesday, and was slammed by animal rights group as "appalling" and "disturbing".They may be small and less than two weeks old, but these baby turtles, 18 to be exact, have a very important role to play.

For years, foxes in the Jerrabomberra Wetlands have been digging up turtle nest and eating the eggs, causing a concern for their future.

One of the 18 hatchlings.

But an experiment run by the Woodlands and Wetlands Trust and researchers to protect the eggs has shown positive signs, program manger Lori Gould said.

"A few years ago it was noted that about 67 out of 68 turtle nest were dug up, which was a concern," Ms Gould said.Clive Hamilton, who has written a book on Chinese Communist Party influence. Credit:Rohan Thomson

Today there are an estimated 1.2 million people living in Australia who have Chinese ancestry (of which I am one). Many would agree that old prejudices against Chinese have largely given way to general acceptance of Chinese-Australians.

Yet, ongoing debates make clear there is growing discomfort about the Chinese presence in Australia. In his recently published book Silent Invasion, Clive Hamilton argues the Peoples Republic of China is conducting a campaign designed to erode Australian sovereignty and to undermine our independence as a nation. This campaign, according to Hamilton, is 'being perpetrated and shaped by a complex system of influence and control overseen by agencies serving the Chinese Communist Party'.

There has been enormous heat in our public debate about Chinese influence. It is time to bring down the temperature. If we are not careful, we will run the risk of setting fire to our multicultural harmony.

Let me make one thing clear. I am not in any way downplaying the seriousness of concerns that have been raised, both from inside and outside government, about foreign interference. They must be taken seriously. In our liberal democracy, there should  and there must  be debate about matters affecting the integrity of our democracy and the sovereignty of our nation-state.Whenever they came, Pope John Paul II stepping onto the tarmac at Sydney, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Mother Teresa, the Dalai Lama, the Reverend Ian Paisley - Alan Gill was waiting for them. And they always got excellent treatment from a man who knew his subject and was committed to it.

Alan Gill was the Sydney Morning Herald's religious affairs writer from 1971 until 1988. He became such a dominating presence that he was referred to by colleagues as "the Reverend Alan Gill". When a colleague called out. "Hey Alan! The Archangel Gabriel is on the phone for you!", he told the perplexed caller not to worry about his boorish colleagues. With his compassion, in particular for child migrants, he became more than just a journalist.

Alan Gill, the former Sydney Morning Herald religious affairs journalist. Credit:Photographer Unknown

Alan George Frank Gill was born in England on March 29, 1937, son of a law clerk, Percy Gill, and Phyllis (nee Burgoine). Through his mother's line, he could claim to be an ancestor to an Archbishop of Canterbury, William Juxon, who administered the last rites to King Charles l.

Gill grew up in Richmond, south of London. From the beginning he exhibited a range of interests, one being filmmaking, another autograph collection. He collected many autographs, including one from the Kaiser, and pursued others. When he wrote to Richard Attenborough asking for his autograph, he was so miffed when he received a copy of the signature that he wrote back to complain. In response, Attenborough turned up to his home and gave one personally.Phyllis Vespucci, Reservoir Anyone who's ever played the pokies realises pretty quickly that the machine is one of the most efficient ever invented to quickly relieve you of your money, and so you walk away after a few goes. However, those who stay, shovel in more and more cash until they've not only lost all their money but often, their house, job and family as well. What makes people who are otherwise sane and often highly intelligent behave so crazily when they know they have so little chance of winning? The answer is psychologically complex and most likely about other problems in their lives but whatever the cause, there's no doubt they could do without the Fresh Food People feeding their life-crippling habit. Nick Franklin, Katoomba The Woolworths webpage for its liquor arm says of its hotels: "ALH aims to capture the values of an Australian pub with character, a friendly atmosphere and safe facilities ..." Can we have a list of hotels owned by this group for those of us who don't want our own values captured? Angela Michaelis, Balmain

Emphasis on accessible vocational tier essential University or a trade? You only have to recall the last time you were visited by a plumber to spot the pot of gold ("Back to school with job training", February 28). Yet our vocational education tier is a shambles. The Turnbull government recognised the problem but came up with the usual lazy answer to a complex situation, suggesting that experienced tradespeople could be shuffled from building sites into classrooms. So it's refreshing to hear Tanya Plibersek announce a full inquiry into our malfunctioning post-schooling education system, emphasising vocational and university education, if Labor is elected. A well-funded, well-staffed and accessible public vocational tier is essential, with the unions supporting its integrity instead of abetting mediocrity. There is a plethora of people out there in the boondocks who have rejected formal education but would appreciate an opportunity to pursue a trade if only it were made within their reach. That's the real challenge for our leaders. Bert Candy, Glenvale Ross Gittins eloquently articulates what those of us in the education sector have known for sometime. The notion that every student should aspire to a tertiary education is misguided and does neither the student nor the reputation of the institution any favours. I have seen too many students flailing in academic studies where they were clearly unsuited. The vocational alternative has been damaged by the shameful desecration of TAFE by governments pursuing a privatisation agenda. This policy has produced colleges whose main purpose seems to be to create private fortunes rather than provide a meaningful education. The experience of my nephew in the ACT is worth recalling. He was not interested in academic studies but was able to obtain an apprenticeship while at school and now runs a successful building company. It is time we paid more attention to programs such as this at the school level. Max Redmayne, Russell Lea

Stupidity or obstinacy? Here we go again! A new government proposal that would allow heavy polluters to increase, rather than decrease, their CO emissions ("Heavy polluters could raise emissions", February 28). Only days after reports of unheard of Arctic temperatures of 0 degrees (usually around minus-30 at this time of year), and heavy snow falls in Rome and London at the end of February, our politicians still won't even acknowledge that climate change is a problem that needs to be urgently addressed. Is it just stupidity or obstinacy? Or perhaps, as is the case with the NRA in the US, our politicians are receiving far too much funding from the polluters and non-renewable energy providers? Perhaps it is simply a case of not being a vote winner, as the real damage that climate change brings will only be manifest after the current mob of climate change denying shock jocks and impotent politicians are gone. Alan Marel, North Curl Curl Solutions to the immigration issue One of the arguments for maintaining unsustainable levels of immigration is "budget disarray" and an ageing population increasing the strain on "working people" ("Just how big does Sydney want to be?", February 28). When over 45s struggle to get a job because of age discrimination, they don't just lay down and die. They claim Newstart and other "benefits". Where's the saving there? Stop excessive immigration and give grandma a job instead!

Pat Francis, Jannali Conal Hanna errs in suggesting we have to choose between Sydney's continued choking growth and immigration. The most effective way to limit Sydney's growth is to build a very fast train from Williamtown airport via western Newcastle, the Central Coast, Hornsby, Western Sydney airport and Canberra. People can live a healthier, happier, cheaper lifestyle and have a stress-free journey to work in an hour. With Wi-Fi, people can work on the train. Extend it to Melbourne later to reduce airport pressure. Yes it won't be cheap but it can be built in stages. It won't be that much more than WestConnex and similar extravagant wastes trying to cram more cars into Sydney. If we count the social, health, environmental and economic benefits compared to sitting in traffic for three hours daily, it's a no-brainer. Just think of the jobs it will create. Time for some leadership Malcolm and Bill. Kevin Fell, Newcastle Well I have visited a few very densely populated cities, Tony Recsei (Letters, February 28), including Paris, New York, London and Tokyo. They are all very attractive, livable cities. Maybe a greater emphasis on appropriate housing development and public transport infrastructure would help Sydney to maintain its livability and attractiveness, whilst continuing to grow. Heather Proudfoot, North Bondi

Have people forgotten that during the "Millennium Drought" the water level in the Sydney catchment dams fell to 30 per cent capacity. The greatest limiting factor for the support of any population in Australia - be it human, animal or vegetation - is the availability of the basic natural resource of potable water. One can cull animals, allow vegetation to die off and hopefully regenerate with rain, but what to do with an excess of humans? Resort to the former Chinese policy of one child per family? Surely it is time for this country to have a sensible conversation on this topic. Joy Pegler, Picnic Point Country needs cash With friends and relatives north of the Harbour Bridge I do not for a moment begrudge them $60 million to provide a smoother journey south ("Smoother journey", February, 28th). Nor do we residents of Coffs Harbour deny city folk the right to $2 billion stadiums to watch the footy. But we also think the thousand daily truck drivers (especially) deserve some consideration for their travels up the A1 of the north coast, when they have to traverse the CBD of Coffs Harbour and 15 sets of traffic lights. Residents and holiday visitors rage at this astonishing bottleneck. It is no wonder the National Party continues to attract so much support when such expenditure disparities are evident between city and country.

Ian Muldoon, Coffs Harbour Dealership delays My vehicle is included ("Airbag crisis triggers recall of a million cars", February 28). After calling the dealership last week to check on progress to the letter received last year, I was informed they are out of stock for some time. If so, why can't dealerships at least remove the faulty airbag for now rather than run the risk to life? Sounds like the "too hard basket" to me. John Swanton, Botany Taking aim at Trump

Thank you, Malcolm Freak for the reminder of how President Trump avoided the draft (Letters February 28). Who would want to be an American with a president making such bizarre, farcical claims how he would have run into the Florida school to confront the crazed gun man, even if he had no weapons? Oh the embarrassment of it all. James Prior, Sylvania Waters You people are such cynics. I personally see no reason to doubt Donald Trump's assertion that he would have rushed in there even if he didn't have weapons. After all, we all saw him rush into the presidency without any attributes that would make him recognisably human, let alone qualify him to be the leader of the free world. George Baumann, Balmain Schools are no place for guns. I took over as principal of a school in the northern suburbs of Darwin in the early '90s and was shocked when I walked into reception one day to see a security guard casually leaning on the counter with a handgun on his hip. He had come to take the day's takings down to the bank. I contacted the school board president immediately and said I was cancelling the security firm's contract and making other arrangements to get our banking done. There was no way I was going to allow our students to be given the message that the school's money was more important than a life. Fortunately, the president backed me all the way.

Phyllis Codd, Bellingen Park far from quiet Phil Rodwell's description of Centennial Park as a "peaceful leafy retreat" used for "passive recreation" has me wondering if he has ever been there (Letters, February 27). Anyone who has frequented the park must first run the gauntlet of vast packs of shouty lycra-clad cyclists barreling along the roadways far in excess of the posted speed limits, skip between never-ending streams of sweaty joggers, and finally leapfrog endless "boot camp" style fitness groups as they punch, skip, sprint and hurl giant medicine balls around the place. Hardly a place of wistful reflection. Nick Andrews, Vaucluse Help post a profit

Both the census and the same-sex marriage survey helped Australia Post's business from going backwards ("Same-sex survey props up earnings", February 28). "I think if there is a postal god anywhere in the world, it can give me a third survey", says their chief executive, Christine Holgate.What about conducting a similar survey on uniformly legalising voluntary euthanasia throughout Australia? Polls so far indicate that the majority of people will vote in favour, and Ms Holgate's wish will be granted at the same time. Alicia Dawson, Balmain Policy hypocrisy I see double standards are still alive and well in politics ("ATO set to target $2.5b in dodgy work claims", February 28). I guess it's easier to do a forensic examination of hundreds of thousands of individual tax claims than go after big business. Margaret Grove, Abbotsford

The Coalition wants to drug test vulnerable welfare recipients. Since Parliamentarians are also receiving taxpayer money, they too should be drug tested. If they fail the test, they should be suspended from Parliament and put on income management! Raja Junankar, Kingsford Talent over beauty Sure, she was pretty ("The bipartisan love affair", February 28). But that should not blind us to Ainsley Gotto's innate intelligence, organisational abilities and her achievements. I look forward to your paper's customary detailed obituary of this great Australian. Pasquale Vartuli, WahroongaA Listeria outbreak caused by rockmelons from one regional farm has killed two people and affected 10 others across the country.

NSW, Victorian and Queensland authorities have linked the outbreak to a rockmelon grower in Nericon, near Griffith in NSW.

So far six cases have been identified in NSW, one in Victoria and three in Queensland, with the elderly victims falling sick between January 17 and February 9.

All had eaten rockmelon prior to their illness.High maintenance. Photo: Aaron Davidson/Getty Images

When Ben Carson first took the reins of American public housing  a system plagued by a $49 billion repairs backlog, in which entire complexes regularly lack heat and hot water in the winter  his greatest concern was that its tenants might be too comfortable in their lodgings. As the New York Times reported last May:

As he toured facilities for the poor in Ohio last week, Mr. Carson, the neurosurgeon-turned-housing secretary, joked that a relatively well-appointed apartment complex for veterans lacked only pool tables. He inquired at one stop whether animals were allowed. At yet another, he nodded, plainly happy, as officials explained how they had stacked dozens of bunk beds inside a homeless shelter and purposefully did not provide televisions.

Compassion, Mr. Carson explained in an interview, means not giving people a comfortable setting that would make somebody want to say: Ill just stay here. They will take care of me.

But Carson has taken a decidedly different view of the value of creature comforts when it comes to his own accommodations (apparently, the Housing secretary bestowed so much compassion on his constituents, he had none left to spare for himself).

On Tuesday, The Guardian reported that a career official at the Department of Housing and Urban Development had filed a lawsuit alleging that Carsons wife had instructed her to find extra (read: an illegally high sum of) money to refurbish her husbands office  and that when she refused to honor this request, the Carsons had her punitively demoted.

Helen Foster said she was told $5,000 will not even buy a decent chair after informing her bosses this was the legal price limit for improvements to the HUD secretarys suite at the departments Washington headquarters.

 Trump last September nominated Suzanne Israel Tufts, a veteran Republican operative from his home county of Queens, New York, as HUDs assistant secretary for administration, a position that Foster said subsumed her job. Foster was moved to the role of chief privacy and FOIA officer.

Now, people allege a lot of things in lawsuits. And one might have reasonably taken Fosters account with a grain of salt  after all, would anyone really say, $5,000 will not even buy a decent chair?

But on Tuesday night, the New York Times confirmed that this is exactly the kind of thing that the leadership of HUD would say. The paper reveals that, while the department was planning billions in cuts to federal spending on public housing (austerity that is all but certain to increase the nations homeless population) late last year, HUD spent $31,000 on a custom dining-room set for Carsons office.

The purchase of the custom hardwood table, chairs and hutch came a month after a top agency staff member filed a whistle-blower complaint charging Mr. Carsons wife, Candy Carson, with pressuring department officials to find money for the expensive redecoration of his offices, even if it meant circumventing the law.

 Mr. Carson didnt know the table had been purchased, but does not believe the cost was too steep and does not intend to return it, said Raffi Williams, a HUD spokesman.

In general, the secretary does want to be as fiscally prudent as possible with the taxpayers money, he added.

In other words: If it were fiscally possible to buy a decent dining-room set for less than $31,000, the Housing secretary surely would have done so.Paul Hunt of Engadine is on the level when he says: "Anthony Healy provides a story about Loreto Kirribilli planning a five-storey development (C8). The school originally hoped for an extra level, but that's another storey."

"I can confirm John Whiteing's 'air movement devices' (C8), having spotted them in a number of IBM printer manuals back in the mid-1980s," says Richard Murnane of Hornsby. "IBM were notorious for such language, prompting this joke: Q: How many IBM engineers does it take to change a light bulb? A: 100  Ten to do it, and 90 to write document number GC7500439-0001."

Paul Duncan of Leura writes: "A recent report claimed that a barista is better trained than a real estate agent. As it should be, one deals with a barista far more often than a real estate agent."

Fear not, Llieda Wild. Your vintage Morello Pitted Cherries (C8) are good to go. John Greenland of Woollahra "had to laugh at the coincidence. Am currently enjoying Italian Morello Cherries which are labelled 'Best by December 1988'." As for it being 'some kind of record' you're a touch behind Peter Lino of Lennox Head who says: "About 2000, I helped my elderly mother by cleaning out her cupboards. I came across a rusty tin of tomatoes, still intact and not bulging, with the price 1s/6d. They'd been there since before decimal currency." We see your point.

The latest household explosion (C8) takes place in the laundry. Maurice Collins of Wollongbar says: "My brother and I gave my mother a lot to worry about with our chemistry cupboard in the laundry but one evening after a huge explosion she raced in and found it was her ginger beer cupboard that had exploded."A judge has acknowledged the family of aspiring pastry chef Miming Listiyani might find her killer's prison sentence "completely inadequate" given the extent of their loss.

But Acting Justice Jane Mathews on Wednesday said she hoped they understood sentencing was complex as she jailed Khanh Thanh Ly for at least 13 years over the violent 2016 murder.

"You have lost a beautiful, much-loved and highly-valued person who was central to your lives," the judge told the Listiyani family before handing Ly a maximum 18-year sentence.

"You will no doubt think the sentence I am about to impose is completely inadequate, given the extent of your loss.

"I hope that you will understand that sentencing is a complex process and there are many factors to be taken into account."One of the great barbecue stoppers in western Sydney backyards is the conversation about how long it takes to get to work.

It was no surprise when a study from the Bureau of Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Economics confirmed that western Sydney, stretching from north to south, was Australia's undoubted capital of the long commute.

When most Australians have arrived home from work, we are more likely to still be stuck in transit.

Traffic on the M5. Western Sydney workers face the longest commute in Australia. Credit:Wolter Peeters

The escape route is to do everything we can to create more local jobs, particularly creative and scientific "knowledge jobs", that don't require a trip into the Sydney CBD every day.A man accused of fatally bashing and stabbing his pregnant partner at their home in Sydney's west does not deny he caused her death but says he was "mentally ill" at the time, a court has heard.

Joshua Scott Homann allegedly stabbed 37-year-old Kirralee Paepaerei, his de facto partner of two years, almost 50 times in the neck and chest late on September 21, 2015, in the bedroom of the Mount Druitt home they shared.

Kirralee Paepaerei was pregnant when she was stabbed to death in September 2015.

He then fled their two-storey townhouse by jumping out of a window and drove to the nearby police station, where he claimed he had been attacked during a home invasion.

Two young relatives of Ms Paepaerei, who had been in the home and heard the sound of glass smashing, went upstairs and called triple zero after they found the body of the mother-of-four.Katiusha Stepanyan, a fashion, fitness and beauty model and marketing executive from North Ryde, has pleaded guilty to one charge of dealing with the proceeds of crime relating to the discovery of more than $220,000 in her bedroom.

Stepanyan, 27, appeared in Burwood Local Court on Wednesday, dressed in a black pant suit.

Katiusha Stepanyan leaves Burwood Local Court on Wednesday. Credit:Kate Geraghty

She had been charged with two counts of recklessly dealing with the proceeds of crime, which carries a 10-year maximum sentence.

Two new charges were subsequently laid relating to dealing with the proceeds of crime valued at more than $100,000, which carry a five-year maximum sentence.A rogue junior lawyer at Sydney law firm Atanaskovic Hartnell allegedly stole millions from one of its clients, billionaire media mogul Bruce Gordon, before handing himself in to police.

Brody Jack Clarke, 35, who was sacked from the firm last year after the allegations came to light, was arrested in Sydney on Tuesday and charged with eight counts of obtaining financial advantage by deception totalling $9.75 million.

Brody Jack Clarke leaves a Sydney court, charged with eight counts of dishonestly obtaining financial advantage by deception. Credit:AAP

The firm is not implicated in any wrongdoing.

NSW Police allege Mr Clarke siphoned millions of dollars from Mr Gordon's companies into his personal bank account in the year to September 2017.Gold Coast and Brisbane drivers will need to drop their speed by 10 kilometres on the M1 motorway from Thursday or face fines.

The 110km/h speed limit on the busy motorway will be dropped to 100km/h and the 100km/h will be dropped to 90km/h, ahead of the Commonwealth Games in April.

Drivers will be forced to lower speeds by 10 kilometres on the M1. Credit:Alamy

The Queensland government warned there will be no grace period for those caught above the limit.

"It will be enforced and we are unapologetic for it," Transport Minister Mark Bailey told reporters on Wednesday.The pair met at a local pub and were later spotted becoming intimate at a nearby park.

Robert Trebeck was found guilty of murdering mother-of-three Alexis Jeffery during a night out in Goondiwindi in 2014.

A killer who smothered a mother-of-three to death in southern Queensland has appealed his conviction.

Ms Jeffery's body was found partially clothed on the banks of the town's Macintyre River.

The 24-year-old had been smothered to death with a pair of jeans.

Trebeck's legal team appealed his conviction on Wednesday on the grounds the trial judge did not give the jury specific enough directions before it retired to consider its verdict.

Defence barrister Saul Holt QC described the directions as "extraordinarily generic".

He also went on to say there was little mention of the fact the jury could also find Trebeck guilty of a lesser charge of manslaughter.A two-year old girl is allegedly raped in her home, and it seems most of us really don't want to know about it.

Attacked allegedly by a 24-year-old, who has been arrested, her injuries are unknown.

After the alleged attack on the young girl, Tennant Creek has never felt more remote. Credit:Glenn Campbell

So is her name. And why the hell she was allowed to keep living at a home that had been subject to almost two dozen notifications for disruptive behaviour in recent times.

The details of the crime waged against this little girl are just as anonymous.Loading

Hunters will take to the skies above the Alpine National Park to cull deer that are destroying the natural environment.

Professional shooters will hunt deer from helicopters for up to five days in May as part of a culling trial.

Parks Victoria said the deer control trial was aimed at protecting plants and wildlife, including species in the endangered alpine peatlands, that can be damaged by deer.

Parks Victoria confirmed the proposed aerial shooting area was not open to recreational hunting and was outside land that is the focus of a ground-based shooting trial.Carter Page, former Trump national security adviser. Photo: Mark Wilson/Getty Images

Alger Hiss is the martyred hero who inspired generations of progressives. A suave, articulate, Harvard-educated diplomat, Hiss was convicted in 1950 of perjury in a case related to his alleged espionage for the Soviet Union, and he remained a cherished symbol of the victims of McCarthyism. Decades later, testimonials to Hisss innocence have never stopped pouring forth.

The Republican Party appears to have been searching for an Alger Hiss of its own. It has settled on Carter Page. While neither suave nor articulate  indeed at times barely coherent  Page possesses the crucial virtue of having been the subject of a long-standing FBI counterintelligence investigation. This makes Page the best available symbol of the brutal investigatory excesses of the deep state.

The right-wing legal community has rallied around Page, from National Reviews Andrew McCarthy to party legal apparatchiks David Rivkin and Lee Casey in their Wall Street Journal op-ed perch. Page is completely innocent. There is no evidence to suggest that anything that is claimed in the dossier is true, asserts Fox News legal analyst Gregg Jarrett.

It is true that Page has not yet been charged with any crimes, and it is possible he never will be. Still, he has done very little to reward the confidence conservatives have placed in him. Sean Hannity, one of Pages most spirited defenders, recently asked him about the charges he has faced, What factual inaccuracies stand out to you? Pages entire reply was, Its just the complete ridiculousness of it all, Sean, so  and then he trailed off, forcing Hannity to come up with another question. Page then told Hannity, You have been the Edward R. Murrow of this whole process, seeming to epitomize the rights sense that the investigation into Trumps links with Russia is a modern form of McCarthyism.

Nor does Pages background recommend him as a promising candidate for martyrdom. In 2013, he met with Russian spies, who (in comments later picked up by FBI surveillance) assessed him as greedy for oil money, but also possibly too much of an idiot to be as useful as they hoped. Page traveled to Russia frequently and conducted business with Russian energy firms tied to Vladimir Putin. In 2016, he somehow glommed onto the Trump campaign as an adviser  Trump named him, though the two reportedly never met. That summer, he visited Moscow and delivered a bizarrely pro-Russian speech, including such lines as, Washington and other Western capitals have impeded potential progress through their often hypocritical focus on ideas such as democratization, inequality, corruption, and regime change.

Between these episodes, the narrative has a lot of blanks. British investigator Christopher Steele compiled reports filling in those blanks with massively incriminating details. Page, wrote Steele, met in 2016 with two different Russian officials to discuss lifting of sanctions against Russia, bilateral energy cooperation and, most intriguingly, Russias interest in passing harmful information about Hillary Clinton to the Trump campaign. Page denies all these charges.

Republicans have used the dossier to try to discredit the Russia investigation writ large. This is what has made Page their cause celebre. A widely hyped memo by Devin Nunes claimed the FBI had used the dossier as the primary basis to investigate Page, and failed to notify courts that its author was working for rival candidates. It turns out neither of these allegations is true. A Democratic memo shows that the FBIs investigation of Page long predates the dossier, and it did disclose Steeles political role.

In the wake of the destruction, little remains of the Republican argument except fulminations against the FBI for its unfair treatment of poor Carter Page. Yes, he met with Russian agents, went into business with state-controlled Russian entities, and publicly mouthed the Russian foreign policy line. But nothing else has been proven! There is no evidence to suggest that anything that is claimed in the dossier is true, insists Jarrett.

Well, the Democratic memo refers to a great deal of evidence the FBI had to open and then repeatedly renew its counterintelligence investigation. Most of that detail has been redacted, since it would compromise intelligence-gathering methods and sources. The Democratic memo asserts the FBI gathered a great deal of evidence to corroborate the picture drawn by Steele, but that evidence is broad patches of black:

What lies beneath that black ink? We dont know. If I had to bet, I would wager it does not make Page look good. Pages explanation is that theres nothing shady, and that he is the victim of anti-Catholic discrimination by the Clinton campaign. I am a lifelong practicing Roman Catholic who attended Catholic schools for 14 years, culminating with my Master of Arts in National Security Studies from Georgetown University in 1994, Carter wrote last month. The clear evidence of intolerance against Catholics shown by the Hillary for America campaign and the fact that several of her closest advisors knew of my religion helps to make part of the reason for her attacks more obvious. Therefore, according to Page, his treatment may be among the most extreme examples of human rights violations observed during any election in US history since Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was similarly targeted for his anti-war views in the 1960s.

My guess is that Steeles account of Pages behavior  which does not posit a conspiracy to persecute innocent Catholic foreign policy analysts, and places more weight on Page operating from simple greed  is closer to the mark. Republicans are betting the opposite.

One historical footnote worth considering is that Alger Hisss guilt as a Russian spy was eventually established beyond any reasonable doubt. Over the years, the ranks of his defenders dwindled to a hardened left-wing core. Maybe the future of Carter Page is to have a long career as a cartoonish right-wing, second-time-as-farce Alger Hiss.A man carrying a backpack was arrested at Crown casino after an incident. Credit:Simon Schluter

Melbourne's Crown Casino has been deemed safe several hours after police arrested a man carrying a backpack who was spotted behaving erratically outside the complex.

Witnesses said they feared it was a "terrorist attack" as police swarmed on and arrested a 55-year-old man after evacuating the complex.

Police have so far refused to say what was in backpack or if the man had made threats.Communists blamed for fire in Reichstag

The Chancellor, Herr Hitler, in a state of violent excitement, said to Herr von Papen in the hall of the burning Reichstag: "If this fire, as I believe, turns out to be the work of communists then nothing shall stop us from crushing out this murder pest with an iron fist." Cabinet requested that President von Hindenburg sign an emergency decree for the "protection of the German people against the communist danger".

Uproarious scene at accountants' meeting

Shouting and stamping of feet, invective, cat-calls and hooting, calls to the police to empty the room of the turbulent crowd and counter challenges by some of those present for the police to throw them out, were just a few of the incidents that occurred at the annual meeting of the NSW branch of the Federal Institute of Accountants. The meeting terminated when all lights in the building were turned off.

Rights for 'untouchables' delayedConstruction is now under way on a new nurse walk-in centre in Gungahlin - but not everyone is happy about it.

It is the third nurse-led centre in Canberra - a model not seen outside the ACT in Australia - offering free one-off treatment from a nurse for people with minor illness and injury.

Health Minister Meegan Fitzharris has announced a new multi-million dollar nurse walk-in centre for Gungahlin. Credit:Jamila Toderas

While popular with the public, the centres have been slammed as a waste of money and with no documented public health benefits by doctors and the opposition.

Minister for Health Meegan Fitzharris said the centre would be popular in the growing Gungahalin community.Federal Labor has declared "enough is enough" when it comes to sexual harassment and intimidating hazing rituals at Australia's prestigious university colleges, vowing to use financial and even criminal penalties against colleges and their students if behaviour does not change.

Shadow education spokeswoman Tanya Plibersek says Labor would penalise colleges and universities if behaviour doesn't change.

The release of The Red Zone report this week into alleged sexual assault, harassment and other misbehaviour has again put the spotlight on culture and misogyny at the country's elite colleges.

While the government says the problem should be handled by universities, shadow education minister Tanya Plibersek will today commit a Labor government to taking direct action against the colleges - and their universities - if they don't clean up their own acts.

If residential colleges fail to fulfil their legal duty of care to students and staff, "Labor will compel them", she will tell the Universities Australia conference in Canberra.Michaelia Cash's comments have been raised in estimates, where she is still answering questions.

Labor senator Jenny McAllister brings it up, faces some resistance, but Cash says she is happy to talk about it.

Cash says that a look at the Hansard transcript of the exchange shows that she withdrew the comments.

McAllister says it was a conditional withdrawal  she wants an unreserved one.

Under further questioning, with some interference by Liberal senator Ian Macdonald, Cash acquiesces, with some swipes at Labor:

"The comments were made and may I suggest people have a look at the actual transcript in response to highly inappropriate questions from Senator Doug Cameron. I withdrew them yesterday and I'm more than happy to withdraw them unreservedly. I was the one who stated that staff should not be named in Senate estimates hearings. Despite the fact that, hearing after hearing, Senator Cameron is very happy to name my staff and make insinuations against them. So whilst, yes, I'm more than happy to withdraw the comments unreservedly, may I suggest people have a very, very good look at the Hansard recordings. Senator Doug Cameron is nothing more than and nothing less than a bully and that was on display yesterday."

The question is now: Will Labor accept this withdrawal and leave the issue alone? Or will they demand an apology or more from the minister?Australians waste about eight billion dollars of food every year. That amounts to the average household throwing out over $1000 in uneaten groceries. But it's not just money being wasted, there's the energy that goes into producing all that food, and the four million tonnes of landfill it creates. So reducing what you buy and what you waste is not just good for your family, but good for the environment as well. With that in mind, I've spent the last few weeks testing various meal planners, grocery lists and pantry item apps, to figure out the easiest way to reduce our household waste. As you might guess, there are hundreds of apps for the task, each with their own benefits and quirks, and behind them, various business models at play. Get spicy with these pantry apps. The most popular apps in the field are the free recipe apps, with Yummly and Big Oven being the standouts here. Both apps are beautifully designed, and have thousands of recipes built in for you to browse and collect. Once you get started, you can then create shopping lists based on recipes you've saved. Yummly wins here by collating the ingredients across all of your recipes, and by producing a much cleaner looking list, broken down into aisles for faster shopping.

While Yummly and Big Oven have more recipes inside than you could ever eat in a lifetime, neither app has great support for importing your own recipes. While they allow you to bookmark your favourite recipes from GoodFood or SBS Food, the ingredients won't appear in those automatically generated shopping lists. One great feature of both apps is the ability to use up your leftovers. Yummly again has advantage, allowing you to pick as many ingredients you can find in your fridge or pantry, and matching recipes to them. Big Oven is limited to just three leftovers, and this feature is only available via a browser, not in the mobile apps. Yummly has no subscription fees, instead the app is filled with Amazon links to kitchen equipment, although the ads are generally relevant to the recipes and tastefully presented. Big Oven's subscription service unlocks a few extra features, like meal planning, more recipes, and nutritional information. Picking a recipe in Paprika App. After some further investigating, and recommendations from Twitter, I settled on the excellent Paprika App, available on Android, iOS, Windows and Mac. Paprika costs just a few dollars for the mobile versions, but unlike Yummly or Big Oven, you can import recipes from just about any website or blog, and the app will suck in the ingredients and cooking instructions, then catalogue them for you. Paprika can even automatically convert the recipe to metric, or scale it up or down depending on the size of your family. From there you can create a weekly meal plan to view and share in-app, or export to the calendar app of your choice. Once you have your meal plan in place, you can create a collated shopping list so you're only buying what you need.Since then visits from Australia to these blocked sites have fallen by 53 per cent , according to the Australian Site-Blocking Efficacy Report from UK-based intellectual property research company Incopro.

An image from Creative Content Australia's 'Say No to Piracy' campaign. Credit:CCA

Australian internet service providers have blocked a range of piracy websites since December 2016, including The Pirate Bay and SolarMovie, after the Federal Court enforced site-blocking laws at the behest of a consortium of copyright holders headed by Village Roadshow.

Court-enforced online roadblocks, demanded by movie studios, appear to be stopping only half of Australia's would-be pirates from reaching The Pirate Bay; even fewer once you allow for Aussies hiding behind a virtual private network, or VPN.

The report "offers proof to all the naysayers who decried site-blocking," Creative Content Australia executive director Lori Flekser tells Fairfax Media.

Flekser, responsible for the ongoing 'Price of Piracy' awareness campaign, views halving the traffic to these piracy sites as a win for Australian copyright holders, rather than dwelling on the fact that half of all would-be pirates still slip past the blocks. There are still hundreds of thousands of visits to piracy sites each month, not counting those behind VPNs.

"We believe that the research shows that site-blocking is effective, VPNs and all the other ways that people mask their activities notwithstanding, as there is clearly a move away from those pirate sites," Flekser says, as the Federal government launches an inquiry into the effectiveness of site-blocking.

"I suspect that site-blocking would not exist in 42 countries around the world if it were totally ineffective."

The figures look worse for copyright holders when you do allow for the fact that 20 per cent of Australia's pirates use a VPN to hide their tracks when pirating content, according to Creative Content Australia's own research.Parkland, Florida: Survivors of the second-deadliest US public school shooting were brought to tears on Wednesday by empty seats and missing names at roll call as they returned to their Florida high school two weeks after 17 students and educators were massacred there.

Upon emerging from a half-day of classes intended to ease their return after the tragedy, some of the roughly 3000 teens who attend Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, described their emotional day.

Samuel Safaite, a 15-year-old sophomore, said students in his Spanish class broke down when the teacher took attendance and read out the name of Luke Hoyer, a 15-year-old slain in the attack.Washington: A man who authorities say raped several women while posing as a driver for a ride-hailing service in Los Angeles is facing more than two dozen charges.

Nicolas Morales raped seven women over a 15-month period across Los Angeles County, prosecutors said on Tuesday. The crimes took place throughout the region.

A designated pick-up zone for a ride-sharing service. Credit:AP

Investigations into the assaults began a year ago. A woman left a Hollywood club January 7, 2017, and got into a four-door car, believing it was her ride. But the driver drove the woman to a secluded area and sexually assaulted her, police said.It was later revealed the then 17-year-old Christopher Lewis fired a shot as the Queen exited her motorcade at the Otago Museum on the afternoon of October 14, 1981. An NZSIS official was given access to police reports, including interview notes, after the arrest of Christopher Lewis and two of his teenage off-siders. A memo confirming Christopher Lewis did intend to kill the Queen. The newly released NZSIS file references "two persons who may well be fictitious whom Lewis would only describe as Snowman and Polar Bear respectively". According to Lewis' police interviews he commanded the National Imperial Guerilla Army, alongside a higher-ranked person known as the Polar Bear while The Snowman was the leader who ordered the fledgling army "to terrorise Dunedin".

While police expressed doubts over Lewis' claims over the existence of the shadowy pair, the NZSIS investigated the allegations. Queen Elizabeth walks around Dunedin's Octagon, unaware that Christopher Lewis has her in his sights. Credit:Dominion Post NZSIS had "no knowledge" of the National Imperial Guerilla Army organisation, and did not believe it was linked to the right-wing National Front movement, which was pro-monarchy. "They are a figment of my imagination," Lewis later conceded to police. The NZSIS documents appear to vindicate claims made by Tom Lewis, a former Dunedin Dunedin Detective Sergeant who went public about the assassination attempt in 1997.

After he went public it prompted another memo from NZSIS - also released under the OIA - to an undisclosed recipient. "[Christopher] Lewis did indeed originally intend to assassinate the Queen, however did not have a suitable vantage point from which to fire, nor a sufficiently high-powered rifle for the range from the target," the memo concluded. Police described Lewis, pictured here in 1987, as "something out of a boy scout manual". Credit:David Hallett Tom Lewis, who is no relation to Christopher Lewis and was initially the officer assigned to the case, doubted the complete truth would ever come out. "It will be like ripping the scab off . . . so much pus would come out."

Classified information The released information, which included a hand-drawn map, confirmed the shot was heard in the vicinity of Dunedin's Walsh Street, metres from the royal motorcade. That supports statements by two witnesses - including a former soldier - who told Stuff they heard a shot nearby. The documents noted the same unnamed NZSIS official asked questions of the Police Terrorist Intelligence Unit (PTIU) following media reports of the shot. According to the NZSIS file, Lewis gave a "long meandering story" to police about his self-styled army which he used to keep his accomplices in line "to feed his own delusions".

A hand-drawn map confirms the shot was heard near Walsh Street, metres from where the Queen travelled. It took police some time to get the full story from Lewis, but when coupled with the multitude of charges, "the following points appeared certain", the NZSIS document said. Those include: The possibility a firearm was discharged in the vicinity of the Queen was highly likely although it may not have been aimed directly at the Queen or the royal party.

The police received a .22 rifle with a discharged cartridge in the breech from the fifth floor of the Adams Building as a result of Lewis' admissions.

Lewis possibly fired a shot at a nearby road at the time in question, although he does say that he changed his mind about wanting to hurt anyone.

The angle of fire and range would have made it difficult for the Queen to have been a target. Buildings screened her from the firing point except on four occasions of about two seconds duration.

Police ballistic tests subsequently found the bullet's trajectory was more likely to have passed high above the crowd than to have been fired at a road. Lewis will not countenance this suggestion. Media misled?

The earliest NZSIS memo was written after Christopher Lewis appeared on initial armed robbery and burglary charges, and while his accomplices were bailed he was remanded in custody. "Current police investigations into the shots have been conducted discreetly and most media representatives probably have the impression that the noise was caused by a firework of some description," the report said. "There is a worry, however, that in court the press may make the connections between the date of the offence and the Queen's visit." Christopher Lewis' police file reveals he was facing a charge of attempted treason. Former news editor at Dunedin radio station 4XO, Allan Dick, recalled being called into a meeting with a high ranking detective who said reports of a shot being fired were not true.

"We all left that meeting more mystified about what had happened," Dick said. "I have no doubt the matter was covered-up, the cops were embarrassed - they didn't want the media to know and we got embarrassed that we allowed ourselves to be snowballed to such a degree." Tom Lewis said despite the initial "push from journalists", the latest tranche of released documents confirmed police wanted the matter to disappear from the outset. "Once you start to cover-up, you then have to keep covering up the cover-up," he said. The documents revealed that while the police investigation was ongoing, police did not intend to charge Christopher Lewis with anything more than unlawful possession and/or discharge of a firearm.

Christopher Lewis pictured in December 1996, less than a year before his death. Credit:Dominion Post That revelation stunned Tom Lewis, who said the teen was facing a charge of treason, and then attempted treason. "We knew we would get home on attempted treason." Those close to the case alleged political interference came into play over fears the country would lose future royal tours due to the security lapse. After the incident police told media that Christopher Lewis, who was never charged with treason or attempted treason, shot at a road.

He was sentenced to three years jail. Christopher Lewis went on to commit a string of armed robberies, sparked a mass police manhunt, was given a taxpayer-funded holiday and was then charged with murder. He took his own life in his Mt Eden prison cell while on remand on September 23, 1997. After being approached by Stuff about claims of a cover-up, a police spokesman said: "Given the interest in this historic matter, the Police Commissioner Mike Bush has asked the Deputy Commissioner National Operations, Mike Clement, to oversee an examination by current investigation staff of the relevant case file. "Given the passage of time, it is anticipated this examination of the old file and its associated material will take some time. NZ Police will share the outcome of this examination once it has been completed."It takes two to lie, one to lie and one to listen. Photo: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

If anyone still takes the House Intelligence Committees Russia probe seriously even after Chairman Devin Nuness coordination with White House officials and hyping of his own dud memo in an attempt to discredit Special Counsel Robert Muellers investigation, testimony from Hope Hicks on Wednesday should set them straight. The White House communications director told House investigators that while her work for President Trump occasionally required her to tell white lies, she doesnt lie about important things, like colluding with the Russians. The New York Times reported:

But after extended consultation with her lawyers, she insisted that she had not lied about matters material to the investigations into Russias interference in the 2016 presidential election and possible links to Trump associates, according to three people familiar with her testimony.

The idea that anyone should trust Hickss assessment of white lies versus serious lies is absurd. Her statement would be an appalling admission from the person running the White House communications team if we werent so accustomed to the president himself spreading falsehoods on a daily basis.

The admission doesnt make much of a difference in the House Russia probe, however. The far bigger issue is that Hicks, whos been by Trumps side since the earliest days of the campaign, refused to answer questions about the transition or her time in the White House, and House Republicans dont appear inclined to do anything about it.

Hicks used a legal strategy pioneered by Trump officials like Attorney General Jeff Sessions, and deployed in full by Steve Bannon, Trumps former chief strategist, when he appeared before the House Intelligence Committee in January. The idea is to refuse to answer questions because the White House might invoke executive privilege at a later date, without formally doing so. As Bannons attorney relayed questions to the White House counsel, he refused to answer questions about the transition, the White House, or even his discussions with Trump after his firing. While he was testifying voluntarily, Democrats and Republicans on the committee agreed to subpoena him on the spot. Bannon still refused to talk, and lawmakers have been mulling whether to hold him him in contempt ever since.

Hicks did not get the same aggressive treatment during her eight hours of private testimony. Representative Adam Schiff, the committees top Democrat, said he and his colleagues pushed to subpoena her, but the Republicans who control the committee refused.

Thats an overly broad claim of privilege that I dont think any court of law would sustain. And I think the White House knows that, Schiff said. This is not executive privilege, it is executive stonewalling.

Republicans claimed Hicks is different than Bannon because she is currently working in the White House, and answered some of their questions about the transition  though only after it was pointed out that shed already discussed the topics before the Senate Intelligence Committee. There were many significant topics she wouldnt go into, such as the drafting of a misleading statement from Donald Trump Jr. on his meeting with Russians during the campaign. Discussions about the statement reportedly left Mark Corallo, the former spokesperson for Trumps legal team, with concerns that Hicks was considering obstructing justice.

GOP committee members say they dont accept the White Houses interpretation of executive privilege, but they appear willing to let it slide. While some Republicans and Democrats think they must issue a contempt citation for Bannon to set an example for other witnesses, the decision depends on Representative Mike Conaway, who is leading the House Russia probe, and Speaker Paul Ryan. Conaway said on Tuesday that hes yet to discuss the matter with Ryan  which is unsurprising, since Ryan has quietly refused multiple requests to rein in Nunes, and Trumps abuses of power in general.

That doesnt mean theres no hope of ever getting Hicks to answer all the questions pertaining to the Trump teams ties to Russia. White House officials cant invoke executive privilege when they testify before the special counsel, who is also part of the Executive branch. Both Bannon and Hicks have already submitted to hours of questioning by Muellers team.EnWave Expands Agreement with Tilray Providing for Cannabis Drying in Portugal

Posted by Publisher Internet

EnWave Corporation (TSX-V:ENW | FSE:E4U) (?EnWave?, or the \Company\  https://www.youtube.com/) reports today that it has expanded its exclusive, sub-licensable, royalty bearing commercial license with Tilray (the ?License?) to include an exclusive option for the use of EnWave?s Radiant Energy Vacuum (?REVTM?) technology for the processing of medical cannabis products in Portugal (the ?Option?).

In order to exercise the Option, Tilray must submit a purchase order for large-scale REVTM machinery in the first half of calendar year 2018, and pay the deposit required thereunder, to be installed in Portugal for commercial processing of cannabis products. All other terms of the Option are confidential.

In June 2016, Tilray became the first company to legally export medical cannabis products from North America to the European Union (the ?EU?). In 2017, Tilray received a cultivation license from the Government of Portugal to produce products for the EU market. Tilray products are currently available at pharmacies in several EU countries.

The grant of the Option marks the initial expansion of EnWave?s patented REVTM dehydration technology for the dehydration of medical cannabis into international markets outside of Canada. EnWave?s strategy is to deploy its REVTM technology across multiple market verticals and geographies, including legalized cannabis markets, through its proven royalty-licensing business model.

About Tilray?

Tilray is a global pioneer in the research, cultivation, processing and distribution of medical cannabis and cannabinoids. Tilray was the first federally licensed cannabis company to be EU GMP certified to produce medical cannabis. The company currently serves tens of thousands of patients, physicians, pharmacies, governments, hospitals, and researchers in eight countries spanning four continents through its affiliated entities in Australia and New Zealand (Tilray Australia New Zealand Pty Ltd), Canada (Tilray Canada Ltd), Germany (Tilray Deutschland GmbH), and Portugal (Tilray Portugal Unipessoal Lda).

About EnWave

EnWave Corporation, a Vancouver-based advanced technology company, has developed Radiant Energy Vacuum (?REV??) ? an innovative, proprietary method for the precise dehydration of organic materials. EnWave has further developed patent-pending methods for uniformly drying and decontaminating cannabis through the use of REV? technology, shortening the time from harvest to marketable cannabis products.

REV? technology?s commercial viability has been demonstrated and is growing rapidly across several market verticals in the food, and pharmaceutical sectors including legal cannabis. EnWave?s strategy is to sign royalty-bearing commercial licenses with industry leaders in multiple verticals for the use of REV? technology. The company has signed over twenty royalty-bearing licenses to date, opening up eight distinct market sectors for commercialization of new and innovative products. In addition to these licenses, EnWave?s wholly-owned subsidiary, NutraDried Food Company, LLC, was formed to develop, manufacture, market and sell all-natural cheese snack products in the United States under the Moon Cheese? brand.

EnWave has introduced REV? as the new dehydration standard in the food and biological material sectors: faster and cheaper than freeze drying, with better end product quality than air drying or spray drying. EnWave currently has three commercial REV? platforms:

1. nutraREV? which is used in the food industry to dry food products quickly and at low-cost, while maintaining high levels of nutrition, taste, texture and colour;

2. powderREV? which is used for the bulk dehydration of food cultures, probiotics and fine biochemicals such as enzymes below the freezing point, and

3. quantaREV? which is used for continuous, high-volume low-temperature drying.

An additional platform, freezeREV?, is being developed as a new method to stabilize and dehydrate biopharmaceuticals such as vaccines and antibodies. More information about EnWave is available at www.enwave.net.

EnWave Corporation

Dr. Tim Durance

President & CEO

For further information:

John P.A. Budreski, Executive Chairman at +1 (416) 930-0914

E-mail: jbudreski@enwave.net

Brent Charleton, CFA, Senior Vice President, Sales and Business Development at +1 (778) 378-9616

E-mail: bcharleton@enwave.net

Deborah Honig, Corporate Development, Adelaide Capital Markets at +1 (604) 755-1348

E-mail: dhonig@enwave.net

Forward-Looking Information: This press release may contain forward-looking information based on management\-\-s expectations, estimates and projections. All statements that address expectations or projections about the future, including statements about the Company\-\-s strategy for growth, product development and market position are forward-looking statements. These statements are not a guarantee of future performance and involve a number of risks, uncertainties and assumptions, including those relating to the expectation of commercially successful integration of the EnWave technology to the dehydration of cannabis, the outcome of EnWave?s patent application, the ability of the Company to expand into the cannabis industry and successfully market its technology and patents, that the Company will be able to meet all applicable legal regulatory requirements in order to commercially exploit its patent, if and when its application is approved, or otherwise market its technology to cannabis industry participants, and other risks applicable to the Company as disclosed in its public filings. Although the Company has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially, there may be other factors that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. EnWave does not undertake to update its forward-looking information unless required by applicable securities law. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements.

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

NEW WAYS OF COMMUNICATION AND FINANCING FOR RESOURCE COMPANIES IS OUR MISSION! TRANSPARENCY, QUALITY AND EDUCATION OUR BOOSTER!

Website: https://www.resource-capital.ch/en.html

The world finance system is facing massive uncertainty and risk making it imperative that one has wide-ranging knowledge about alternative investment opportunities. Ensure your financial future by taking control. Diversification is the means to survive the current and future market difficulties with a specific focus on value investing such as quality stocks, precious metals and resources in general.

Swiss Resource Capital AG is your partner entering the mining industry. We also work very closely with successful investment funds and asset managers. SRC has a worldwide professional network of experts and unique access to financings, allowing investors to be part of a company at early stages. Ongoing analysis, monitoring and contact with the management and site visits of selected projects keeps us abreast of promising investment opportunities in the resource sector. Our news distribution system keeps you all the time informed and up to date about the latest developments.

We assist you and deliver clear and concise information pertaining to the precious metals and the resource sector as well as selected mining companies. Through our new developed multimedia channels like the exclusive Resource-TV you have access anytime and anywhere in the world to comprehensive data and information as well as access via our log in function to the free research area of our website.

Via exclusive events and one-on-one meetings we offer interested investors in many countries the opportunity to get direct information from and personal access to the management of various mining companies. We make sure that you know what we know!GoldMining strengthens Management and Technical Team

Posted by Publisher Internet

GoldMining Inc. (the \Company\ or \GoldMining\) (TSX-V: GOLD; OTCQX: GLDLF  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7D80aZDC0yQ&t=3s) is pleased to announce the appointments to its management and technical team with Mr. Jeff Wright as Executive Vice President and Dr. Jeremy Richards, Dr. J. Brian Mahoney and Dr. Michael Roberts as new members of the Company?s Technical Advisory Board (\Advisory Board\).

Mr. Wright has extensive capital markets experience with a specific focus on the natural resource sector, with more than 22 years of experience as an investment banker and analyst. ?He has been active in more than 100 successfully completed transactions with an aggregate value of over $2.5 billion.?

Garnet Dawson, CEO of GoldMining, commented: \We are excited to have Jeff join our management team and expand our corporate development and capital markets activities.? Additionally, we have assembled a Technical Advisory Board with leading professionals who will help guide our exploration and development efforts as well as provide valuable input in identifying and evaluating accretive opportunities.\

GoldMining\-\-s Technical Advisory Board now includes geologists Dr. Ross Sherlock, Dr. Jeremy Richards, Dr. J. Brian Mahoney, Dr. Michael Roberts and Dr. Paul Zweng, and mining engineer Mr. Curtis Clarke. ?These leading professionals on orogenic, epithermal and porphyry deposits will work closely with GoldMining\-\-s management team to advance our diversified portfolio of gold projects in the Americas.?

Jeff Wright, BA, MBA

Mr. Wright has over twenty-two years of experience in the capital markets with the last fifteen years devoted to the natural resource sector.? As a sell-side analyst, Jeff covered over 30 resource companies and has completed more than 60 property site visits.??He has extensive relationships with U.S.-based institutional investors and has keen awareness of capital markets. ?Jeff previously held analyst and investment banking positions with?Robertson Stephens, Montgomery & Co., H.C. Wainwright & Co. and Global Hunter Securities.

Mr. Wright received his MBA from the University of Southern California, his bachelor of arts degree in political science from North Carolina State University and is a member of the Board of Directors of the North Carolina State University Foundation.? Previous to his banking career, he served as a U.S. naval officer on the USS Carl Vinson and USS John Young.

Mr. Wright has extensive experience in the precious metals sector and has appeared or has been quoted in the Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg TV, Reuters, Marketwatch.com, Kitco News and The Gold Report.

Jeremy Peter Richards, PhD, PGeo

Dr. Richards is Canada Research Chair in Metallogeny at Laurentian University, Sudbury and is a registered professional geologist in Ontario. ?His research interests focus on the genesis of hydrothermal mineral deposits, and in particular, regional tectonic and magmatic controls on porphyry and epithermal mineralization. ?He has worked in Africa, North and South America, the Tethyan belt from southeastern Europe to China, and the Southwest Pacific region, and regularly consults for the mineral exploration industry.

Dr. Richards received the Society of Economic Geologists Lindgren Award in 1995, and Silver Medal in 2016; he was the SEG 2002/2003 International Exchange Lecturer, and the SEG 2016 Thayer Lindsley Visiting Lecturer. ?He has also received the Geological Association of Canada Hutchison Medal in 2007, and the Canadian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy Julian Boldy Memorial Award in 2007.

Dr. Richards received a BA in geology from Cambridge University in 1983, an MSc from the University of Toronto in 1986, and a PhD from the Australian National University in 1990. ?He was appointed as Lecturer at the University of Leicester, UK, in 1992, and worked at the University of Alberta as an Associate Professor and then Professor in Economic Geology from 1997 to 2017. ?He joined Laurentian University in July 2017.

J. Brian Mahoney, PhD, PG

Dr. Mahoney is a Professional Geologist with over 30 years\-\- experience in the economic geology and academic research.? He has extensive experience in stratigraphic, structural and economic geology field investigations in the Americas.? He is a Professor of Geology at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire and works internationally through Precision GeoSolutions, where he is a principal.

Dr. Mahoney completed a PhD at University of British Columbia, MSc at Idaho State University and BSc (Geology) at University of Wisconsin.? He has conducted research with teams from the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, University of British Columbia, Geological Survey of Canada and United States Geological Survey and is extensively published and referenced in peer-reviewed publications.? He is a certified professional geologist in the State of Wisconsin.

Michael Roberts, PhD, P.Geo.

Dr. Roberts is a Professional Geologists with 20 years of experience in the mining industry and academic research.? Dr. Roberts is principal of Resolution Geoscience, a private consultancy providing technical geological services to mineral exploration companies.? Mike has conducted and managed grassroots to advanced exploration programs for base and precious metals in North America and Australia, typically in partnership with major mining companies.? He has held senior positions with junior mining companies, and was most recently Vice President, Exploration for Kiska Metals.

Dr. Roberts completed post-doctoral research at the University of Southern California and the University of Cape Town, a PhD in Geology from James Cook University, Australia, and a BSc from the University of Victoria, Canada. ?He is a member of the Professional Engineers and Geoscientists of British Columbia.

The Company has granted incentive stock options to purchase 435,000 common shares of the Company (the \Options\) to certain officer, consultants and employee of the Company pursuant to the Company\-\-s stock option plan, which included 200,000 Options issued to an officer of the Company.? The Options have an exercise price of $1.23 per share, representing the closing price of the Company\-\-s common shares on the day prior to this news release, and are valid for a period of five years.

The Options will vest as follows: 25% immediately and 25% on the three, nine and twelve-month anniversaries of the grant date as to 200,000 Options and 25% immediately and 25% on the six, twelve and eighteen-month anniversaries of the grant date as to 235,000 Options.? The Option grants are subject to the acceptance of the TSX Venture Exchange.

Correction from Source

A correction from source is issued with respect to the news releases that were disseminated on January 16 and February 22, 2018 correcting the units in the Tonnage and Contained Metal column headings of Table 1 and Table 2 from \Mt\ to \t\ and \Moz\ to \oz\, respectively.? The resource estimate and all other figures in the disclosure remain unchanged, being an indicated resource of 30,653,000 t grading 1.0 g/t gold (1.0 Moz) and an inferred resource of 35,779,000 t grading 1.0 g/t gold (1.1 Moz) at a 0.4 g/t gold cut-off.? For further details on the resource estimate, the reader is referred to the technical report, dated effective December 20, 2017, titled \Technical Report on the Crucero Property, Carabaya Province, Peru\ authored by Mr. Greg Z. Mosher, M.Sc., P.Geo. and filed on SEDAR under the Company\-\-s profile.

About GoldMining Inc.

GoldMining Inc. is a public mineral exploration company focused on the acquisition and development of gold assets in the Americas.? Through its disciplined acquisition strategy, GoldMining now controls a diversified portfolio of resource-stage gold and gold-copper projects in Canada, U.S.A., Brazil, Colombia and Peru.? Additionally, GoldMining owns a 75% interest in the Rea Uranium Project, located in the Western Athabasca Basin of Alberta, Canada.

For additional information, please contact:

GoldMining Inc.

Amir Adnani, Chairman

Garnet Dawson, CEO

Telephone: (855) 630-1001

Email: info@goldmining.com

In Europe:

Swiss Resource Capital AG

Jochen Staiger

info@resource-capital.ch  www.resource-capital.ch

This document contains certain forward-looking statements that reflect the current views and/or expectations of GoldMining with respect to its business and future events, including expectations and future plans respecting its projects. ?Forward-looking statements are based on the then-current expectations, beliefs, assumptions, estimates and forecasts about the business and the markets in which GoldMining operates. ?Investors are cautioned that all forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties, the inherent risks involved in the exploration and development of mineral properties and uncertainties relating to the availability and costs of financing needed in the future. ?These risks, as well as others, including those set forth in GoldMining?s filings with Canadian securities regulators, could cause actual results and events to vary significantly. ?Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements and information. ?There can be no assurance that forward-looking information, or the material factors or assumptions used to develop such forward looking information, will prove to be accurate. ?GoldMining does not undertake any obligations to release publicly any revisions for updating any voluntary forward-looking statements, except as required by applicable securities law.

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange, nor its Regulation Services Providers (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this news release.Convergence India 2018  South Asias largest ICT expo

Launched in 1992, the Convergence India series of expo is credited as South Asias largest ICT expo. Convergence India is the only platform in this region which demonstrates convergence of technologies in Telecom, IT, Broadcast & Digital media sectors.

The expo will showcase latest trends and technologies related to Telecom, Broadcast, Cable and Satellite TV, Cloud & Big Data, IoT, Digital Homes, Mobile devices, Film and Radio, Content Creation, Management and Delivery, etc. and also provides engagement with digital innovators, international business gurus, telecom and broadcasting czars, leaders from IT & Internet and IoT industries. It is a mecca of mega-minds accumulating under one roof to take Prime Minister Narendra Modis vision of Digital India ahead, thus resulting in empowering the citizens of the country by transforming the landscape of Indian economy.

The three-day exhibition and concurrent conference sessions provides an excellent networking opportunity for speakers, visitors and delegates. This platform attracts high quality exhibitors to showcase their expertise and identify the thriving business opportunities in India.Georgetown, SC (29440)

Today

Clouds and some sun this morning with more clouds for this afternoon. Slight chance of a rain shower. High 83F. Winds NE at 5 to 10 mph..

Tonight

Partly to mostly cloudy. Low around 70F. Winds light and variable.Youve betrayed me for the last time, Donald. Photo: Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post/Getty Images

After a protracted intraWhite House battle, White House senior adviser Jared Kushners temporary security status has been downgraded, Politico reported on Tuesday. All other White House staffers with interim security clearances who have access to top-secret information met the same fate.

Specifically, Kushner and the others were demoted from a Top Secret/SCIlevel clearance to merely secret. This means that he will no longer be able to view highly classified documents like the Presidential Daily Brief.

And it will probably mean that Kushners comically dizzying set of responsibilities, which has variously included diplomatic relations with Mexico, criminal-justice reform, and  if he has time  peace in the Middle East, are likely to shrink.

White House chief of staff John Kelly is in the process of overhauling the security-clearance process at the White House, which he vowed to do after White House staff secretary Rob Porter was forced out amid accusations that he had abused two ex-wives. Porter was operating on a temporary security clearance, and there were fears that other staffers with skeletons in their closets could be susceptible to blackmail. Kushner reportedly pushed back against Kelly, but with his father-in-law deciding to stay out of the matter, the chief of staff had the last word.

Kushners dealings with foreign officials have been particularly concerning. He has had to revise his security-clearance form many times to reflect meetings with Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak, Kremlin lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya, and others. Highly unusual one-on-one meetings with Chinese ambassador Cui Tiankai have drawn suspicion. And, as the Washington Post reported on Tuesday, officials in at least four countries have privately discussed how to manipulate Kushner by taking advantage of his complex business arrangements, financial difficulties and lack of foreign policy experience.These composite images show Uranus auroras, which scientists caught glimpses of through the Hubble Space Telescope in 2011. The image was released on April 13, 2012.

The seventh planet from the sun, Uranus has the coldest atmosphere of any of the planets in the solar system, even though it is not the most distant. Despite the fact that its equator faces away from the sun, the temperature distribution on Uranus is much like other planets, with a warmer equator and cooler poles.

An icy atmosphere

Like Neptune, Uranus, discovered in 1781, is known as an "ice giant," in a slightly different category from Saturn and Jupiter. Both planets boast frigid atmospheres made up of ice rather than gas.

Uranus is composed predominantly of hydrogen, helium and methane. Most of the lighter gases are found in the layered atmosphere. Temperature and pressure increase farther from the insubstantial surface (like most gas giants, the surface of Uranus is set where the pressure of the gas is equal to the pressure at sea level on Earth).

The dense troposphere, which contains the planet's clouds, is frigid at minus 243 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 153 degrees Celsius) to minus 370 F (minus 218 C), making it the coldest atmosphere in the solar system. Warmed by the sun and radiation from space, the troposphere has slightly higher temperatures of minus 370 F (minus 218 C) to minus 243 F (minus 153 C). The outer layer can get was hot as 1,070 F (577 C).

Tipped on its side

Unlike most planets in the solar system, which have their equators pointed in the direction of the sun, Uranus is tipped on its side. The planet faces one pole at a time toward the sun, gradually spinning over the course of its orbit until the other pole receives light instead of darkness. The strange orientation of the planet was likely caused by a collision soon after its formation.

The off-kilter tilt should mean that temperatures at one pole would be higher than at the equator, and significantly higher than at the dark pole. The higher temperatures should drive the planet's weather, as the rising warm air travels to the other pole and falls.

The collision may have done more than just tip Uranus over.

"Material from the two bodies is ejected in a debris disk, and finally satellites are formed from the debris disk," researcher Yuya Ishizawa, of Japan's Kyoto University, told Space.com. "It is possible to explain the axial tilt and the formation of the regular satellites of Uranus simultaneously."

But weather on Uranus functions much as it does on other gas giants. Like Jupiter and Saturn, the planet has bands of zones and belts that orbit parallel to the equator, which is warmer than the poles. The warm temperatures that drive the planet's weather come from the interior of the planet, rather than from the sun. The significant distance to Uranus from the sun may play a role in why the planet's interior heat overpowers the faint light from the star.

The strange orientation has an unusual affect on the planet's activity. A year on Uranus spans 84 Earth-years, so each season lasts 21 years.

"Because it's tilted over on its side, that means that, for example, the south pole wouldn't see sunlight for about 40 years," Simon said. "So, it's got really extreme seasons, which help to drive the weather."

A cool interior

Despite the fact that it powers the planet's weather, the internal temperature of Uranus is lower than other planets. Very little excess heat is radiated into space.

Unlike other gas giants, Uranus most likely boasts a rocky core rather than a gaseous one. Temperatures inside it may reach 8,540 F (4,727 C), which sounds warm but is cooler than other planets  Jupiter's core may reach 43,000 F (24,000 C).

Simon said that temperature is a large part of the reason for Uranus' blandness. The ice giant doesn't have a lot of heat. In fact, it is the only planet that doesn't give off more heat than it receives from the sun, she said. That slows down the rise and fall of heat that would otherwise drive storms.

"You don't get the equivalent of thunderstorms. So, you don't see the bright clouds on Uranus that you see on the other planets," Simon said.

Follow Nola Taylor Redd at @NolaTRedd, Facebook, or Google+. Follow us at @Spacedotcom, Facebook or Google+.Uranus and its five major moons are depicted in this montage of images acquired by the Voyager 2 spacecraft. The moons, from largest to smallest as they appear here, are Ariel, Miranda, Titania, Oberon and Umbriel.

The planet Uranus has 27 known moons, most of which weren't discovered until the space age. They range from Titania, 981 miles (1,579 kilometers) in diameter, to tiny Cupid, only 11 miles (18 km) in diameter. All satellites of Uranus are named for characters in William Shakespeare plays or characters from Alexander Pope's "Rape of the Lock," according to International Astronomical Union guidelines.

Astronomers knew of five moons before the Voyager 2 spacecraft launched in 1977. The probe found an additional 10 when it swung by the system in 1986.

"When [Voyager 2] flew past in 1986, it was winter and dark on the whole northern hemispheres of all the moons, so we could only see a portion of their southern hemispheres," Jeff Moore, a planetary scientist at NASA Ames Research Center in California, told Space.com. "The encounter was also a bit like flying through a bull's-eye. Rather than one moon at a time, [Voyager 2] encountered the whole system at once."

No spacecraft has gone to Uranus since then, but astronomers have found new moons with the aid of generally improving telescope technology and techniques. The latest discoveries  Mab, Cupid and Margaret  were confirmed in 2003.

The moons of Uranus may have formed from the collision that knocked the planet over on its side.

"Material from the two [colliding] bodies is ejected in a debris disk, and finally satellites are formed from the debris disk," researcher Yuya Ishizawa, of Japan's Kyoto University, told Space.com. "It is possible to explain the axial tilt and the formation of the regular satellites of Uranus simultaneously."

Early moon discoveries

The discovery of Uranus and its first two moons came from the same astronomer: William Herschel. The English skygazer found Oberon and Titania in 1787, just six years after discovering the planet itself.

Close-up pictures two centuries later showed that Oberon is about half ice and half rock, with craters peppering its surface. Titania has fault lines running across its surface, hinting at past or present seismic activity.

English astronomer William Lassell spotted Umbriel, the darkest of Uranus' big moons, in 1851. In Voyager 2's quick fly-by, scientists were unable to figure out how the surface got so dark, or why there is a bright ring on Umbriel's surface that is 90 miles (140 kilometers) in diameter.

Ariel, another find from Lassell in 1851, has the youngest and brightest known surface among the moons. This could be due to meteorite hits, as well as possible geologic activity  among its features are grabens, or valleys surrounded by faults. Voyager 2 detected a silicate rock and water ice composition on this moon, with hints of carbon dioxide.

The last find before the space age was perhaps the most bizarre moon of all  Miranda. Found by Gerard P. Kuiper at the McDonald Observatory in 1948, the moon appears to be a jumble of disconnected features. It's unclear what made the mashed-up surface. Perhaps a huge meteorite blew the moon apart and it reassembled, or smaller meteorites melted the surface and caused slush to flow and freeze again.

Voyager 2's early discoveries

When Voyager 2 skimmed closest to Uranus' system in January 1986, its view turned up 10 new satellites within a month. While most of NASA's pictures of these moons show them as distant dots, if not for the spacecraft the moons probably would have gone unseen for decades if not longer.

Ophelia and Cordelia are sometimes called shepherd moons. They are close to Uranus' Epsilon ring, with their gravitational influence essentially keeping the ring from falling apart. No one knows how big Cordelia is, or what its composition might be. Ophelia is believed to be 12 miles (20 kilometers) in diameter.

Voyager 2 captured a picture of Puck that showed a mottled, dark surface. Astronomers believe it is made of carbonaceous material, and assume that much of the rest of the moons are of the same material. A 2003 study of the moon suggested water ice is on its surface.

Most of the other moons were so small and far away from the spacecraft that little is known about their composition and in some cases, their sizes. Belinda and Cressidahave low reflectivity, indicating they are probably carbonaceous moons as Puck is.

The other moons found right away were Portia, Rosalind, Juliet, Desdemona and Bianca. A 2001 study using the Hubble Space Telescope suggested these satellites (called the "Portia group" in this study) all have similar compositions and orbits.

Discoveries after Voyager

Since 1986, astronomers have turned up 12 new Uranus moons using the Voyager 2 data, as well as with newer observations with telescopes on or orbiting Earth.

Perdita has the most tangled history. The University of Arizona's Erich Karkoschka found the moon in 1999 using public Voyager 2 images and comparing them to some taken by the Hubble Space Telescope. At first, the IAU designated it a moon, but then rescinded that when other astronomers couldn't find it. Perdita was made official again in 2003 when Hubble spotted it again.

Caliban, found by a team at the Palomar Observatory in 1997, moves in an inclined opposite orbit to the rotation of Uranus. "These characteristics suggest that Caliban was an independent body that was captured by Uranus' gravity," NASA stated. The same team also found Sycorax, which appears red in telescopes and also has a retrograde orbit.

Three more discoveries happened in 1999 using the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope at the Mauna Kea Observatory: Setebos, Prospero and Stephano. In 2001, a team at the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in Chile found Trinculo, Francisco and Ferdinand.

The latest finds took place in 2003. Hubble spotted Mab and Cupid, while and Margaret was found using the Subaru 8.2-meter reflector at the Mauna Kea Observatory.

Recent publications

With no spacecraft visiting Uranus in the near future and its sheer distance from the Earth, the potential for observations of its moons is limited. That said, there have been several scientific examinations of the system in recent years, as well as proposals to send spacecraft there in the distant future. Some astronomers envision using small cubesats to reduce the cost of getting a spacecraft out that far, while still returning valuable science. A team also submitted a Uranus Pathfinder orbiter mission concept to the European Space Agency in 2010, and again in 2015, but neither concept was accepted for funding.

With the realization from Cassini observations that so many of Saturn's moons may have subsurface oceans, some astronomers have suggested that Uranus' moons could be host to oceans as well. The possibilities for life may be more limited because the moon is that much more distant from the sun, but it is hard to say for sure without doing detailed examination of the moons.

Some observations of the moons have been performed from Earth. In 2013, a group probed Miranda for evidence of volatiles such as ammonia hydrate, and could not exclude the possibility from their observations.

A 2015 Icarus publication based on Uranus system observations suggested that several of Uranus' moons have a mix of water and carbon dioxide ice on their surfaces.

Separately, a 2014 model of Miranda in the journal Geology suggested that its strange surface could at least in part have come by tidal heating, which created slow convection on the icy surface.

"Miranda has a really bizarre, deformed surface," Noah Hammond, a planetary scientist at Brown University in Rhode Island, told Space.com. "It's a really beautiful and exotic moon."

The thin rings that surround Uranus hint that the planet could have even more moons in orbit.

"At the edges of the rings  it's almost like the amount of stuff is going up and down in a periodic fashion that looks kind of like a wave, with crests and troughs," then-graduate student Robert Chancia, of the University of Idaho, told Space.com. "It seems consistent with something disturbing the rings there," he added.

"Based on the amplitude of this wave pattern and that distance from the ring  and our attempts to find the moon in images, it basically points toward if they exist, they're pretty tiny," Chancia said. He estimated that the moons, if they exist, are likely smaller than 3 miles (5 kilometers) in radius.

Additional reporting by Nola Taylor Redd, Space.com contributor.

Related ArticlesThe World's Largest Plane

Stratolaunch System

The private spaceflight company Stratolaunch is building the world's largest aircraft for future rocket launches from the sky. See photos from the first taxi tests of the Stratolaunch carrier aircraft the Roc here.

This image: Stratolaunch debuts the carrier plane on May 31, 2017.

A Giant of the Sky

Bennet Sell-Kline/Stratolaunch Systems Corp

Stratolaunch is backed by billionaire Paul Allen and was built at the Mojave Air and Space Port in Mojave, California. The plane made its first taxi test on Dec. 18, 2017.

A Slow Start

Bennet Sell-Kline/Stratolaunch Systems Corp

During the first taxi test on Dec. 18, 2017, Stratolaunch put the carrier plan through a its paces slowly.

Slow and Steady

Bennet Sell-Kline/Stratolaunch Systems Corp

"Our crew was able to demonstrate ground directional control with nose gear steering, and our brake systems were exercised successfully on the runway,"George Bugg, Stratolaunch's aircraft program manager, said in a statement. "Our first low speed taxi test is a very important step toward first flight. We are all proud and excited."

Ready to Roll

Bennet Sell-Kline/Stratolaunch Systems Corp

Stratolaunch's rocket-carrying mothership, reportedly nicknamed Roc, is a beast. It has a wingspan of 386 feet (118 meters) and weighs 500,000 lbs. (227,000 kilograms).

Heavy Hauler

Bennet Sell-Kline/Stratolaunch Systems Corp

The twin-boom arrangement of Stratlaunch's carrier plane will allow the aircraft to carry up to three rockets at a time. It can carry a payload of up to 550,000 lbs. (almost 250,000 kg) to launch altitude.

Launchpad in the Sky

Bennet Sell-Kline/Stratolaunch Systems Corp

The Stratolaunch carrier plane is designed to launch rockets into orbit from an altitude of 30,000 feet (9,100 meters).

Powerhouse

Stratolaunch

It takes six Pratt & Whitney PW4056 jet engines to power the monster jet. Those engines were successfully tested on Sept. 19, 2017.

View from Above

Stratolaunch Systems Corp.

Another look at the Stratolaunch carrier from above during its May 31, 2017 debut.

Tail View

Stratolaunch Systems Corp.

A view from the twin tails of the massive Stratolaunch Systems carrier plane for aerial rocket launches. The plane's tails stand about 50 feet (15 meters) above the ground.

Stratolaunch Taxi Tests: Take 2

Stratolaunch Systems Corp.

On Feb. 26, 2018, Stratolaunch rolled its massive carrier plane out to the runway at the Mojave Air and Spaceport in California for taxi speed tests. Unlike the first trials in Decemeber 2017, the Feb. 26 pushed the carrier plane to its fastest speeds yet to test takeoff approaches. Read the full story.WASHINGTON  NASA's fiscal year 2019 proposal will likely set up another showdown between NASA and Congress regarding the Europa Clipper mission , debating not only when to launch the spacecraft but also how.

The 2019 budget proposal, released Feb. 12, offers $264.7 million for the mission, which would send the spacecraft into orbit around Jupiter and make dozens of flybys of Europa, the potentially habitable icy moon of the giant planet. That's down from the $425 million the administration requested for the mission in 2018.

Congress has yet to pass a final appropriations bill for fiscal year 2018, more than four and a half months into the current year. The mission received $237.4 million in 2017, and a House version of a 2018 appropriations bill provided $495 million to be shared by Europa Clipper and a follow-on lander that is still in an early phase of studies. That bill came out of the commerce, justice and science appropriations subcommittee, whose chairman, Rep. John Culberson (R-Texas), is a vigorous advocate for missions to Europa.

The projections for future spending for the mission, included in the 2019 budget proposal, do not foresee significant increases. They call for another decrease, to $200 million, in 2020, then rising to about $360 million per year from 2021 through 2023. [Related: Europa Lander Mission Shut Out Again in 2019 NASA Budget Request]

Despite that funding profile, the budget proposal moves up the launch of the mission by a year from previous agency plans. "The budget allows us to pull the Europa Clipper in," said Jim Green, director of NASA's planetary science division, in a presentation at a meeting of the Planetary Science Advisory Committee here Feb. 21. "Last year's budget said we would be able to launch it in 2026. Now we have the funding necessary for us to be to launch it in 2025."

Green didn't explain how the funding profile accelerates the launch, but a launch in either 2025 or 2026 would conflict with language in previous appropriations bills calling for a launch of the mission by 2022. The House version of the 2018 spending bill retains that 2022 launch requirement.

NASA, in its 2019 budget request, included an alternative spending profile that would support a launch of Europa Clipper in 2022. That calls for significantly higher funding, peaking at $594 million in fiscal year 2020. "NASA does not recommend acceleration of the launch to 2022, given potential impacts to the rest of the Science portfolio," the budget proposal states. "The Administration supports a balanced science program, as recommended in the Decadal Survey."

Those appropriations bills have also specified that Europa Clipper launch on the Space Launch System heavy-lift rocket under development. NASA "shall use the Space Launch System as the launch vehicles for the Jupiter Europa mission, plan for an orbiter launch no later than 2022 and a lander launch no later than 2024, and include in the fiscal year 2019 budget the 5-year funding profile necessary to achieve these goals," the House version of a 2018 House appropriations bill stated.

NASA, though, is seeking to use instead a commercial launch vehicle that the agency believes will be less expensive than SLS. "The administration would also like us to fly Clipper on a commercial launch vehicle, because there is enormous cost savings, in our current analysis, between commercial and the use of an SLS," Green said.

NASA has studied launching Europa Clipper on both SLS and on the most powerful variant of the United Launch Alliance Atlas V. SLS offers the ability to fly a fast, direct route to Jupiter, with the spacecraft arriving at the planet less than three years after launch. The Atlas V would take more than six years to get Europa Clipper to Jupiter, and require flybys of both Venus and Earth to do so.

NASA's 2019 budget request notes those advantages for SLS, but concludes, "the additional costs of adding an SLS flight for the Clipper outweigh the benefits." It also states that SLS "will be focused on supporting the Administration's new space exploration strategy and prioritizing the return of astronauts to the surface of the Moon." An SLS launch of Europa Clipper, it notes, could not take place sooner than 2024 "without disrupting current NASA human exploration plans."

The budget does not specify how much an SLS launch would cost, but the spending profile supporting a 2022 launch includes $432 million for a commercial launch. That amount, the document adds, "may be reduced as commercial offerings and pricing continue to evolve."

Besides the Atlas 5, SpaceX's Falcon Heavy could also launch Europa Clipper. However, that vehicle, which performed its inaugural launch Feb. 6, may still be years away from the NASA certification required for launching Europa Clipper.

Curt Niebur, a program scientist in the planetary science division at NASA Headquarters, said at the Feb. 21 meeting of the Outer Planets Assessment Group (OPAG) in Hampton, Virginia, that the agency was not ruling out using SLS or a commercial vehicle for launching Europa Clipper. "We're maintaining compatibility with a variety of options, but right now SLS is the baseline," he said.

Niebur said that NASA doesn't need to make a formal decision on the launch vehicle for the mission until its critical design review. That review is scheduled for late 2019, according to a schedule chart presented at the OPAG meeting.

That schedule also shows a June 2022 launch for the mission. "We continue to work to a launch as early as June of '22," said Bob Pappalardo, Europa Clipper project scientist, at the OPAG meeting. "That's what the project schedule is currently, and what we'll continue to work towards."

This story was provided by SpaceNews, dedicated to covering all aspects of the space industry.An Air Force Research Laboratory experimental satellite and two other spacecraft are launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla.

WASHINGTON  The space-focused branch of the Air Force Research Laboratory is seeking proposals from the private sector "to advance the technology and scientific knowledge supporting all aspects of space systems," said a solicitation posted Feb. 23.

The request from the AFRL Space Vehicles Directorate comes as U.S. Air Force senior leaders continue to push for faster technological change and innovation in the space business. They warn that rival nations threaten to erode the United States' ability and freedom to operate in outer space and have asked military laboratories to gin up fresh ideas.

The space directorate is interested in industry pitches on everything from launch, payload adapters, on-orbit systems, communications links, ground systems and user equipment. AFRL is especially keen on attracting bids from small businesses but the project is a "full and open competition." [The Most Dangerous Space Weapons Concepts]

The solicitation explained that the United States military operations depend heavily on space systems to support combat forces around the world. And it pointed out that innovative technologies are need to ensure U.S. space systems can operate under any circumstance, even under enemy attack. "Traditionally, space systems have operated unhindered in an uncontested environment. However, as space becomes increasingly competitive, congested and contested, new concepts, approaches, technologies and architectures are required," said the announcement.

The AFRL Space Vehicles Directorate is located at Kirtland Air Force Base, New Mexico. It is one of the nation's premier sites for space research and development. "Our mission is to develop and transition innovative high-payoff space technologies supporting the war fighter, while leveraging commercial, civil and other government space capabilities," states the agency's website.

The directorate is known for educational outreach programs for students, such as the Space Scholars and the University Nanosatellite Program. It has three branches: The battle space environment division focused on space weather sensing and modeling. The spacecraft technology division develops next-generation spacecraft buses and payloads. The integrated experiments and evaluation division brings together ground, space and near-space technologies into a virtual digital environment.

Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson has been a proponent of greater outreach to the private sector for obvious reasons. "In a world where far more innovation is happening outside the government than inside it, connecting to the broader scientific enterprise is vital," Wilson told a science and technology conference recently.

Wilson in September launched a review of the Air Force technology strategy. It directed the Air Force Research Laboratory to set priorities for future investments.

China is the emerging space power that mostly worries Air Force leaders because of how quickly it is deploying new technology. "For the United States Air Force, our pacing threat is China because China is modernizing very rapidly," Wilson told reporters.

Experts see China leading the way in groundbreaking space technologies like quantum communications satellites that are immune to cyber attacks. The AFRL has done some research in this area but the Pentagon has not funded a program of record.

This story was provided by SpaceNews, dedicated to covering all aspects of the space industry.Some hardy Earth microbes could likely survive in the Saturn moon Enceladus' buried ocean, gobbling up hydrogen produced by interactions between seawater and rock, a new study suggests.

And the microbes tested in the study churn out methane as a metabolic byproduct. That's intriguing, because NASA's Cassini spacecraft detected methane in the plume of particles blasted out into space by Enceladus' powerful south-pole geysers.

"We were able to show that, under putative Enceladus conditions, biological methane production occurs in the lab," said study co-author Simon Rittmann, of the Department of Ecogenomics and Systems Biology at the University of Vienna in Austria. [Amazing Photos of Saturn's Icy Moon Enceladus]

"Hence, some of the methane detected on Enceladus could in principle be of biological origin," Rittmann told Space.com via email.

The researchers  led by Ruth-Sophie Taubner, also of the University of Vienna  performed initial experiments on three species of methane-producing archaean microbes. Archaea are similar to bacteria in that they lack a nucleus or any other membrane-bound internal structures, but the former beasties represent an entirely separate lineage that may go all the way back to the dawn of life on Earth.

This exploratory work identified one of the microbes, Methanothermococcus okinawensis, as the best suited for more in-depth study under Enceladus-like conditions. So the team exposed M. okinawensis to a variety of gas compositions and (relatively high) pressures at 150 degrees Fahrenheit (65 degrees Celsius)  basically, what you'd expect to find at hydrothermal vents on Enceladus' seafloor.

Astronomers have inferred the existence of such vents on Enceladus from several Cassini observations. For example, the Saturn orbiter spotted tiny silica particles and molecular hydrogen (H2) in the moon's plume, both of which are best explained by reactions between hot water and rock.

M. okinawensis grew well and produced methane in the team's experiments, which perhaps isn't terribly surprising, given that the organism was isolated from a hydrothermal vent off the Japanese island of Okinawa, at a depth of about 3,200 feet (975 meters).

Cassini image of Enceladus' geysers blasting material from the moon's subsurface ocean into space. (Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute)

In addition, Taubner and her colleagues modeled the water-rock reactions likely occurring in Enceladus' interior. They found that such reactions are likely producing lots of H2  enough to sustain methanogenic organisms such as M. okinawensis, if any exist on the Saturn satellite. [Inside Enceladus, Icy Moon of Saturn (Infographic)]

To be clear, study team members aren't claiming that Enceladus' methane is biological; after all, the substance can be produced geologically as well (by reactions between rock and hot water, in fact). But the new results could help inform the search for life on ocean moons in the solar system, Rittmann said.

"From an astronomical perspective, future missions to Enceladus or other icy moons should be equipped to be able to detect methanogenic biosignatures related to methanogens, like certain lipids or ratios of certain carbon isotopes," he said.

There are currently no Enceladus missions on the books of NASA or any other space agency. But both NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA) are developing missions to explore the icy ocean moons of Jupiter.

NASA's entry, called Europa Clipper, will assess the habitability of the buried ocean on the Jovian satellite Europa over the course of dozens of flybys. ESA's mission, called Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (JUICE), will also study Europa, though it will focus more on Ganymede and, to a lesser extent, Callisto.

Europa Clipper and JUICE are both scheduled to launch in the 2020s. NASA is also working on a separate Europa lander mission, though that project remains a concept at the moment.

The new study was published online today (Feb. 27) in the journal Nature Communications.

Scientists have also spotted methane in the atmosphere of Mars, and they're not sure where the Red Planet's store of the stuff is coming from. But more information should be coming soon: The Trace Gas Orbiter, part of the European-Russian ExoMars exploration program, is scheduled to begin measuring and mapping Mars methane in mid-April.

Follow Mike Wall on Twitter @michaeldwall and Google+. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook or Google+. Originally published on Space.com.Beloved "Star Wars" robots wouldn't fare too well in the real-life desert, according to an analysis in the journal Science Robotics  but they may be onto something with their iconic beeping communication.

The new monthly column by Texas A&M University roboticist Robin Murphy took as its first subject the beloved droids R2-D2 and BB-8, rolling robots that play a major role in "Star Wars."

Murphy asked Dan Goldman, a physicist at Georgia Tech, whether a spherical robot like BB-8 would be able to move around over rough terrain like sand  and "he just started giggling hysterically," Murphy told Space.com. ['Star Wars' Droids That Already Exist]

Goldman described buying one of Sphero's remote-control BB-8 toys as soon as the movie came out, to set up in his lab and test robot locomotion over a variety of granular materials.

"They run sand[fish] lizards through there, they run snakes, salamanders, the whole thing," Murphy said, referring to types of moving robots. "And they put BB-8 in there, and they gave it a little ramp with plywood, and it rolled in, and then  thwump! Just buried itself into the sand. And then they tried it again  it was a repeatable experiment. The only variation would be that occasionally it would stop so suddenly the head would fly off, which is kind of fun."

(And the whole idea of BB-8's head being able to reattach itself, she added, is equally dubious.)

"There's a reason you don't see a lot of animals with wheels," Murphy said. BB-8's rollable body "is fun  I love it. But it's not what you'd actually do on those desert planets that they keep winding up on."

Instead, the best-suited robots for that terrain generally use tank-like tracks, Murphy said. Legged robots work, too, but they're harder to coordinate. Scientists like Goldman and Howie Choset, a researcher at Carnegie Mellon University, experiment with more exotic, animal-inspired robots: Sandfish lizards, which dive and swim through sand like water, serve as an inspiration, as do snakes and scorpions.

For more general-purpose locomotion, Murphy said that robots with a combination of treads and tracks, with flippers to help the robot climb stairs and get over obstacles, is one promising possibility. Legged robots are also good at navigating uneven terrain  although, again, the control mechanism has to be much more complex.

In her article, Murphy cited one case where BB-8 and R2-D2's creators might be on to something: the beeps and whistles they use to communicate. Both robots look very alien, but use their beeps, whistles and body language to convey instantly recognizable thoughts and moods.

Researchers studying robots' interactions with children and adults have found that that type of communication makes people more comfortable with them; distinctive sounds and body language are how humans are used to interacting with each other nonverbally, as well as with animals.

"It's a subconscious expectation," Murphy said. "Part of our brain can deal with the fact that the robot's not doing it, but the other part's like, 'No, it's kind of alive, I want it to behave the way a dog would, the way a person would!'"

The "Star Wars" droid BB-8 (or at least its remote-control alter ego) is trapped in a sand-like substance during a lab experiment at Georgia Tech. (Image credit: Yasemin Ozkan Aydin/Daniel I. Goldman/Georgia Tech)

Another benefit is that nonverbal robots don't give the wrong impression of how intelligent they are. "One of the nice things about beeps and whistles is that you know that the robot isn't trying to talk, too, at a superhigh level," Murphy said. "It's not overstating its capabilities  'I'm paying attention, but I'm really not fully your peer intelligence.'"

Although they might not navigate well in real life, "Star Wars" robots like R2-D2 particularly stood out in science fiction because they didn't look like an animal or person in a suit.

R2-D2 "looked very, very mechanical, and very engineered for a specific purpose," Murphy said. "You weren't entirely always sure, in the movie, what the purpose was, but it looked like form was following function." For C-3PO, the robot's humanoid form made sense: It was a protocol droid intended for communicating with humans. "But it was really great to see something that's there to do repairs and help out didn't have to look like a humanoid, and that was part of the charm."

Since R2-D2's debut in 1977, "Star Wars" has displayed a rich ecosystem of robot forms. Murphy could think of only one that they hadn't tried yet.

"I think one of the coolest robot styles that they've not looked at doing is the 'Big Hero' style, the soft robot, where you're using the inflatable and conformable surfaces," Murphy said. "I think that's about the only one that they've missed in the 'Star Wars' universe.

Murphy discusses robotic principles through the lens of science fiction on the blog Robotics Through Science Fiction, and she wrote a book with the same name that will be coming out soon from MIT Press. And then there's her monthly column in Science Robotics.

"Next month, in honor of 'Pacific Rim' coming out again [its sequel premieres in March], it's going to be about exoskeletons," Murphy said. "Would we really build a huge, large machine that takes two people to be telepathically connected to [control]?"

"It turns out  exoskeletons are very useful for rehabilitation, other things like that, " she added. "We're using it as a bridge to think about robotics in a fun way."

Email Sarah Lewin at slewin@space.com or follow her @SarahExplains. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook and Google+. Original article on Space.com.Kushner and Raffel attend the New York Observer 25th anniversary party in New York on March 14, 2013. Photo: Paul Bruinooge/Patrick McMullan via Getty Images

The sun was shining everywhere in Washington on Tuesday, but not over Jared Kushner.

For him dark clouds began brewing in the afternoon and by nightfall, had reached Charlie Brownlike severity. What seemed, around 2 p.m., like a potentially minor personnel story involving the White House communications department revolving door appears in hindsight like a sign of impending  if technically unrelated  disaster for the adviser to and son-in-law of President Donald Trump.

As the White House briefing got underway, Axios broke the story that Josh Raffel, a press official who is considered the personal spokesman of Kushner and his wife, Ivanka Trump, would be resigning. Raffel, who is 33, is a Democrat who was still donating to Hillary Clinton as of October 2016, according to BuzzFeed. But whatever his political leanings (Kushner is the son of a prominent Democratic donor, and Trump himself was previously a Democrat), Raffel is centrally defined as a PR professional.

Prior to joining the White House staff in April of last year, Raffel worked in Hollywood and, crucially, in New York for the same publicity firm that employed Hope Hicks, the presidents longest-serving political aide and the White House communications director. In the White House, Raffel is well-liked and affectionately referred to, by some, as Joshy. Working together, Raffel and Hicks  who is not known in Washington as a social butterfly  went from merely friends to best friends, even celebrating holidays together in Greenwich, Connecticut, where her family lives.

But while Hicks testified before the House Intelligence Committee on Tuesday, word of Raffels impending departure was spreading. For the last two months, Axioss Jonathan Swan reported, Raffel had been telling friends, he has to deal with family obligations back in New York and will return to the private sector. Several senior administration officials, including Ivanka and Gary Cohn (though notably not Kushner), provided Axios with glowing statements about Raffels time in the White House. Sarah Huckabee Sanders wasnt asked about Raffels departure during the press briefing.

Raffel declined to provide comment to New York, but a source close to him said that while specific plans regarding his resignation werent known, the fact that there eventually would be a resignation very much was: We had discussed there would be a time [that he would leave]. We had not discussed when. The source said, I know that hes obviously been under a lot of pressure. The source added, He does have specific roots in New York, and it was never expected that he was going to do this forever. It ended up being a year.

A senior communications staffer resigning  or being fired, or self-immolating, for that matter  is not unusual in this White House, where, in just over a year, there have been three communications directors and two press secretaries. But Raffels performance itself was unusual, especially judged against the tumultuous backdrop of the summer, when the mood in the West Wing seemed almost cannibalistic.

With the press, Raffel was generally responsive and professional  if not particularly helpful  in a way that set him apart from the Mooches or Spiceys or scowling underlings in the press office. And unlike the others who shared his senior status, he hardly made headlines himself. If he wasnt making things better for the officials he served, he at least wasnt actively making them worse. For Ivanka and Jared, losing him is a significant blow  one they hardly seem able to afford.

Following the Raffel news, it emerged that last week White House chief of staff John Kelly downgraded Kushners interim security clearance from Top Secret to Secret, meaning much of the sensitive information previously available to him no longer is. And shortly after that disclosure, the Washington Post reported that officials in the United Arab Emirates, China, Israel, and Mexico, have privately discussed ways they can manipulate Kushner, and that his contacts with certain foreign government officials have prompted worry in the White House.

Asked if any fissures had emerged in Raffels relationship with Kushner that might explain his exit, the source close to Raffel told New York that recently, there hadnt been any indication of that. As far as I know, it is perfectly fine  as of last week it was.A long-lived NASA Mars orbiter appears to be bouncing back from a glitch that halted its science work nearly two weeks ago.

NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) put itself into a precautionary "safe mode" on Feb. 15 after measuring abnormally low voltage in its paired nickel-hydrogen batteries, which keep the solar-powered spacecraft running when it's cruising through Mars' shadow.

Mission team members brought MRO out of safe mode on Friday (Feb. 23), NASA officials said. The orbiter seems to be in good health overall; the battery voltage is back to normal, MRO is communicating with Earth, and temperatures and power levels are stable, agency officials said.

But MRO's handlers haven't put the orbiter back to work yet.

"We're in the diagnostic stage, to better understand the behavior of the batteries and ways to give ourselves more options for managing them in the future," MRO project manager Dan Johnston, of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, said in a statement. "We will restore MRO's service as a relay for other missions as soon as we can do so with confidence in spacecraft safety  likely in about one week. After that, we will resume science observations."

The $720 million MRO mission launched in August 2005 and arrived at the Red Planet in March 2006. Over the past dozen years, the orbiter has performed a variety of tasks, from hunting for signs of past water activity to scouting out locations for future Mars missions to relaying data from landed craft such as NASA's Opportunity and Curiosity rovers.

To date, MRO has beamed home about 317 terabits of data  more than all other interplanetary missions combined, NASA officials said.

Follow Mike Wall on Twitter @michaeldwall and Google+. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook or Google+. Originally published on Space.com.Mars will be one of the first targets for NASA's James Webb Space Telescope as the orbiting observatory gathers more data to learn why the Red Planet lost so much water over its 4.5-billion-year history.

In the ancient past, Mars' surface likely hosted an ocean as deep as the Mediterranean Sea. As the planet's atmosphere thinned, however, most of the ocean was lost to space. The remainder of the water is locked in the Martian ice caps.

The Webb telescope  which NASA bills as a successor to the famed Hubble Space Telescope mdash; is expected to reach space in 2019. Mars will be visible to Webb in its first year of operations, between May and September 2020. [Webb Emerges from Giant Vacuum Chamber]

"Webb will return extremely interesting measurements of chemistry in the Martian atmosphere," Heidi Hammel, a planetary astronomer and executive vice president of the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy in Washington, D.C., said in a statement. "And most importantly, these Mars data will be immediately available to the planetary community to enable them to plan even more detailed Mars observations with Webb in future cycles."

Hammel will lead the telescope's observations of Mars under a Guaranteed Time Observation (GTO) project. GTO dedicates research time to scientists such as Hammel who played a key role in the telescope's development. Hammel was named an interdisciplinary scientist for the Webb project in 2003."A respectable ocean"

Webb's observations will follow years of research examining Martian water loss and its changing environment. NASA's Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution mission arrived at Mars in 2014 to examine the rate of atmospheric loss today. And in 2015, NASA released results from several telescopes that measured the atmospheric ratio of "normal" to "heavy" water molecules on Mars, in different seasons and locations.

NASA's James Webb Space Telescope is an $8.8 billion space observatory built to observe the infrared universe like never before. See how NASA's James Webb Space Telescope works in this Space.com infographic (Image credit: Karl Tate, SPACE.com Infographics Artist)

Water is made up of hydrogen and oxygen, but hydrogen comes in different types, or isotopes. The heavier version of hydrogen  which has one proton and one neutron, rather than just a proton, in its nucleus  is called deuterium. The 2015 research suggests that deuterium, due to its heavier weight, remained on Mars even while the lighter hydrogen molecules were lost to space, according to a video NASA released in 2015.

Researchers suggested that pressure from charged particles in the solar wind blew the lighter hydrogen molecules out of Mars' atmosphere, because the planet has no global magnetic field to protect it. Additionally, the water molecules Mars had in its atmosphere likely broke apart under the sun's ultraviolet light.

Past infrared observations with the W. M. Keck Observatory, the NASA Infrared Telescope Facility and the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope showed that the Martian polar caps are highly enriched in deuterium, supporting the theory that deuterium remained behind. Mars' frozen water has a ratio of 1 hydrogen molecule to 400 deuterium molecules  about eight times greater than the ratio in Earth's oceans, which is 1 hydrogen molecule to 3,200 deuterium molecules, the 2015 research showed.

"Now we know that Mars water is much more enriched than terrestrial ocean water in the heavy form of water, the deuterated form," Michael Mumma, a senior scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland, said in the 2015 video. "Immediately that permits us to estimate the amount of water Mars has lost since it was young."

In the ancient past, Mumma added, Mars had an ocean that covered about 20 percent of the planet's surface area  "a respectable ocean," he said. The body of water was about 5,000 feet (1,500 meters) deep, on average. Today, only 13 percent of that ancient ocean remains, locked in the polar ice caps.

In separate observations, the Mars Curiosity rover, located at Gale Crater near the Martian equator, found that conditions were wet in that region for about 1.5 billion years. That period of time, Mumma said, "is already much longer than the period of time needed for life to develop on Earth." The infrared telescope observations suggested that "Mars must have been wet for a period even longer," he added. [Building the James Webb Space Telescope]

Looking close-up

The Webb telescope, which is designed for infrared observations, will follow up on the normal-water and heavy-water observations performed by the other observatories, NASA officials said in the statement. It will watch the normal-water-to-heavy-water ratio during different seasons, and at different times and locations.

Webb's observations will let researchers refine the measurements of heavy water at Mars and see how much water moves in the Martian water cycle between the atmosphere, the soil (regolith) and the polar ice.

Webb will be located far from Mars, in an orbit about 1 million miles (1.6 million kilometers) from Earth at a gravitationally stable spot in space between Earth and the sun called a Lagrange point. Unlike an orbiter, its vantage point will let Webb image the entire disk of Mars at once.

Webb's observation has other benefits, too. Earth's atmosphere can interfere with observations, but Webb is far away. And it is designed to look at small differences in light wavelengths, NASA officials said in the statement.

However, observing Mars will still be a challenge. Engineers will need to calibrate Webb's observations of the Red Planet to make sure the amount of light reaching its sensitive instruments will not overwhelm the telescope.

"Webb is designed to be able to detect extremely faint and distant targets, but Mars is bright and close," Geronimo Villanueva, the Mars lead on the GTO project and a planetary scientist at Goddard Space Flight Center, said in the statement.

"Very importantly, observations of Mars will also test Webb's capabilities in tracking moving objects across the sky, which is of key importance when investigating our solar system," added Goddard research scientist Stefanie Milam, who is coordinating Webb's solar system program.

Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook and Google+. Original article on Space.com.Two U.S. astronauts and a Russian cosmonaut have returned to Earth after spending 168 days on the International Space Station.

Expedition 54 crewmates Mark Vande Hei and Joe Acaba of NASA and Alexander Misurkin of Russia's federal space agency Roscosmos touched down aboard Russia's Soyuz MS-06 spacecraft Tuesday (Feb. 27). After re-entering the atmosphere, the capsule descended to the ground under a parachute and, slowed by braking thrusters, landed on the snow-dusted, frigid steppe of Kazakhstan at 9:31 p.m. EST (0231 GMT; 8:31 a.m. Kazakh time on Feb. 28).

Vande Hei, Acaba and Misurkin were assisted out of their Soyuz by Russian recovery forces, who along with NASA flight surgeons, provided initial medical checks to the three crew members. Live video broadcast from the landing site showed the trio to be in good spirits as they began their re-adjustment to gravity. [Space Station Photos: Expedition 54 Crew in Orbit]

Vande Hei, Acaba and Misurkin began their journey home about three hours before they landed with the undocking of their Soyuz from the space station's Poisk module at 6:08 p.m. EST (2308 GMT). Their departure marked the end of Expedition 54, the space station's 54th resident crew since November 2000.

Russia's Soyuz MS-06 spacecraft is seen descending to a landing in Kazakhstan with cosmonaut Alexander Misurkin and astronauts Joe Acaba and Mark Vande Hei on Feb. 27, 2018. (Image credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls)

"It was like one day. It looked like it started only yesterday," said Misurkin during a brief change of command ceremony aboard the station on Monday (Feb. 26). "I will never forgot our jobs and staying here."

Anton Shkaplerov of Roscosmos, NASA's Scott Tingle and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut Norishige Kanai, who arrived at the station on Dec. 19 and served on the Expedition 54 crew under Misurkin's command, remain on board the outpost, now as the Expedition 55 crew.

Three more Expedition 55 members  Oleg Artemyev of Roscosmos and Ricky Arnold and Drew Feustel of NASA  are scheduled to launch to the space station on March 21 and arrive two days later.

Vande Hei, Acaba and Misurkin's landing concluded their 168 days in space since launching from Russia's Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on Sep. 12. While in orbit, the three took part in and supported hundreds of investigations in the physical and life sciences.

"We didn't broke [sic] almost anything... and hope we give something  good thing and helpful thing  for science," said Misurkin.

Vande Hei and Acaba were part of the first expedition that began a planned long-term increase in the complement on the U.S. segment of the space station, from three people to four, enabling NASA to double the crew time dedicated to research  surpassing 100 hours in one week.

Soyuz MS-06 crewmates Joe Acaba, Alexander Misurkin and Mark Vande Hei are seen after landing, Feb. 27, 2018. (Image credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls)

All three crewmates also conducted spacewalks. Misurkin and Acaba each performed one, the earlier setting a new Russian duration record of 8 hours, 13 minutes. Vande Hei went out on four extravehicular activities (EVAs) in support of replacing the latching end effectors, LEEs or hands, on the space station's Canadarm2 robotic arm.

Expedition 53/54 marked Vande Hei's first flight into space, Misurkin's second and Acaba's third. Misurkin has logged 334 days off the planet, including a prior space station stay in 2013. Acaba trails Misurkin by a month with 306 days in orbit after a 2009 shuttle flight and 2012 station expedition.

Now back on Earth, the three Soyuz MS-06 crewmates will return to their respective countries after a brief layover in the Kazakh town of Dzhezkazgan. Misurkin will be flown to Star City, outside of Moscow; Vande Hei and Acaba will return on a NASA jet to Johnson Space Center in Houston.

Soyuz MS-06 was the 52nd Soyuz to launch to the space station. It completed 2,688 orbits of Earth, traveling a total of 71.1 million miles (114.5 million kilometers).

Follow collectSPACE.comon Facebookand on Twitter at @collectSPACE. Copyright 2018 collectSPACE.com. All rights reserved.An artist's illustration of a PTScientists Audi Quattro rover exploring the moon near NASA's Apollo 17 lunar rover. The moon will get a 4G mobile phone network to connect the rover and its twin to a PTScientists lander.

Call it one giant leap for 4G. The moon is about to get its very own mobile phone network.

Vodafone Germany has teamed with Nokia to build the first 4G network on the moon. The network, which will be built in 2019, will support a private lunar rover mission by the Berlin-based team Part Time Scientists, known as PTScientists. The group was one of several teams that competed in the Google Lunar X Prize, a private race to the moon that will end in March with no winners.

But although the Google Lunar X Prize competition is over, PTScientists' "Mission to the Moon" is not. The group aims to launch a lander and two small rovers to the moon from Cape Canaveral, Florida on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket during the 50th-anniversary year of NASA's Apollo 11 moon landing.

The moon's 4G network, which Vodafone Germany announced Tuesday (Feb. 27), will support PTScientists' twin Audi Quattro rovers and their lander ALINA (short for Autonomous Landing and Navigation Module). PTScientists will use its rovers to study the lunar rover used by the Apollo 17 astronauts during their historic December 1972 mission to the moon's Taurus-Littrow Valley.

Vodafone picked Nokia to build a space-worthy version of its Ultra Compact Network, one that will be the lightest ever made, at just 2.2 lbs. (1 kilogram)  no heavier than a bag of sugar, Vodafone representatives said in a statement.

"This project involves a radically innovative approach to the development of mobile network infrastructure," Vodafone Germany CEO Hannes Ametsreiter said in the same statement. "It is also a great example of an independent, multi-skilled team achieving an objective of immense significance through their courage, pioneering spirit and inventiveness."

Under the plan, PTScientists' ALINA lander will use the 4G network to beam the first live HD video feed from the surface of the moon. The signal, which will operate in the 1,800-MHz frequency band, "will be broadcast to a global audience via a deep space link that interconnects with the PTScientists server in the Mission Control Centre in Berlin," according to the statement.

"This important mission is supporting, among other things, the development of new space-grade technologies for future data networking, processing and storage, and will help advance the communications infrastructure required for academics, industry and educational institutions in conducting lunar research," Marcus Weldon, chief technology officer at Nokia and president of Bell Labs, said in the statement. "These aims have potentially wide-ranging implications for many stakeholders and humanity as a whole, and we look forward to working closely with Vodafone and the other partners in the coming months, prior to the launch in 2019."

An illustration of PTScientists' Autonomous Landing and Navigation Module (ALINA) on the moon. (Image credit: PTScientists)

In a statement, PTScientists CEO and founder Robert Bohme called the 4G network a "crucial first step for sustainable exploration of the solar system." By using a 4G network, PTScientists will be able to beam data from the Quattro rovers to the ALINA lander without depleting precious energy reserves or requiring the rovers to be stationary while transmitting data, the team explained in a mission description.

"With Mission to the Moon, we will establish and test the first elements of a dedicated communications network on the moon," Bohme said in the statement. "The great thing about this LTE solution is that it saves so much power, and the less energy we use sending data, the more we have to do science!"

Email Tariq Malik at tmalik@space.com or follow him @tariqjmalik and Google+. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook and Google+. Original article on Space.com.An artist's illustration of what the first stars in the universe may have looked like.

The cosmic dark ages lasted no more than 180 million years.

Astronomers have picked up a long-sought signal from some of the universe's first stars, determining that these pioneers were burning bright by just 180 million years after the Big Bang.

Scientists had long suspected that dawn broke over the cosmos that long ago; theorists' models predict as much. But researchers had never had the evidence to back it up until now. Before this new study, the oldest stars ever seen dated to about 400 million years after the Big Bang. [The Universe: Big Bang to Now in 10 Easy Steps]

"This pushes our knowledge of when and how stars formed to earlier times in the universe," said study lead author Judd Bowman, an astronomer at Arizona State University's School of Earth and Space Exploration.

These very ancient stars were trailblazers. Though they coalesced from primordial hydrogen and helium, they set in motion a continuing process of star birth and death that ended up, over the eons, seeding the universe with heavy elements  the stuff that rocky planets like Earth are made of.

"If you look at our cosmic origins," Bowman told Space.com, "the bottom rung of that ladder is this process of the first objects forming and enriching the medium to make everything else possible."

In addition, the signal that Bowman and his team found was surprisingly strong. It was so strong, in fact, that it hints at a possible interaction between mysterious dark matter and the "normal" stuff that makes up the stars and you and me and everything else we can see in the universe.

Sifting through the noise

The further back in time you go, the harder it is to spot stars directly, using instruments such as NASA's Hubble Space Telescope. For starters, there are fewer and fewer stars to find. And until about 500 million years after the Big Bang, the universe was suffused with neutral hydrogen atoms, which are good at blocking light. (Radiation from the first stars eventually split these atoms into their constituent protons and electrons, creating a more transparent ionized plasma, but this took a while.)

So, Bowman and his colleagues took an indirect route, searching for the fingerprints these early stars likely left on the cosmic background radiation (CMB)  the ancient light left over from the Big Bang. The stars' ultraviolet radiation, the idea goes, would excite hydrogen atoms into a different state, causing them to absorb CMB photons.

Theoretically, this dip in the CMB signal should be detectable. So, the team built, calibrated and tested a radio antenna the size of a kitchen table  a project they called Experiment to Detect the Global EoR (Epoch of Reionization) Signature (EDGES), which was funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF).

The EDGES ground-based radio spectrometer, at CSIROs Murchison Radio-astronomy Observatory in Western Australia. (Image credit: CSIRO Australia)

Then, they set the equipment up at the Murchison Radio-astronomy Observatory (MRO) in Western Australia. The MRO is in an extraordinarily radio-quiet area maintained by the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization, Australia's national science agency.

The radio-quiet aspect of the site was key, because modeling work suggested that the signal Bowman and his colleagues were looking for overlapped with frequencies on the FM radio dial. And the researchers already had to contend with all of the Milky Way's booming background radio noise. [Stunning Photos of Our Milky Way Galaxy (Gallery)]

"There is a great technical challenge to making this detection," Peter Kurczynski, the NSF program director who oversaw funding for EDGES, said in a statement. "Sources of noise can be 10,000 times brighter than the signal. It's like being in the middle of a hurricane and trying to hear the flap of a hummingbird's wing."

But EDGES picked up that tiny flap, spotting a dip that's most intense at a frequency of about 78 megahertz. Hydrogen emits and absorbs radiation at a wavelength equivalent to 1,420 megahertz, so the signal EDGES detected had been "redshifted"  stretched to lower frequencies by the expansion of the universe. The extent of this redshift told the team when those CMB photons were absorbed: about 180 million years after the universe's birth.

Bowman and his team reported these results today (Feb. 28), in a study published online in the journal Nature.

"These researchers with a small radio antenna in the desert have seen farther than the most powerful space telescopes, opening a new window on the early universe," Kurczynski said.

The EDGES signal petered out less than 100 million years later, probably because X-ray light emitted by supernovas, black holes and other objects had heated up the hydrogen atoms significantly by that point, Bowman said.

A timeline of the universe, updated to show when the first stars emerged (by 180 million years after the Big Bang). (Image credit: N.R. Fuller, National Science Foundation)

Dark matter involved?

The signal EDGES found was about twice as strong as the team expected. There are two possible explanations for this surprising intensity, Bowman said: Either the radio background was quite a bit stronger in those early days than scientists had thought, or the hydrogen gas was significantly cooler.

The study team leans toward the second possibility, because it's tough to imagine a process that would increase the radio background to the necessary levels, Bowman said. It's also tricky to figure out what may have cooled down the hydrogen, but there is a promising contender: dark matter, the mysterious stuff that makes up 85 percent of the material universe.

Dark matter neither absorbs nor emits light, making it impossible to see directly (hence the name). Astronomers have inferred the substance's existence from its gravitational effects on "normal" matter, but they don't know what dark matter actually is. Most researchers think it's made up of as-yet-undiscovered particles, hypothesized specks such as axions or weakly interacting massive particles.

In a separate study in the same issue of Nature, astrophysicist Rennan Barkana, of Tel Aviv University in Israel, suggested that cold dark matter may have sucked away energy from the hydrogen gas, cooling it down. If this happened, "the dark-matter particle is no heavier than several proton masses, well below the commonly predicted mass of weakly interacting massive particles," Barkana wrote in his study.

If Barkana is right, Bowman and his team have gotten a look at some exotic physics and uncovered an important clue about the nature of dark matter. [Gallery: Dark Matter Throughout the Universe]

"We've been looking for so long for anything that can tell us more about what dark matter might be," Bowman said. "If this indeed gets borne out and continues to be confirmed  that the detection is real, and Rennan's hypothesis is real [and] is the best explanation  then this might well be the first key to advancing our knowledge of what dark matter really is."

Next steps

Speaking of confirming the detection  that's the immediate next step in this line of early universe research, Bowman said. He and his team spent about two years validating their find, ruling out all possible alternative explanations. But for the discovery to be rock-solid, another research group needs to spot the signal as well.

If that happens, astronomers can mine the signal for more information, Bowman said. After all, now they know where to find it.

For example, further study by sensitive radio-telescope arrays should reveal more about the nonstandard physics hinted at by the signal and more about the properties of the universe's first stars, he said.

"Also, we would expect that we can eventually start to discern when the very first stars transitioned into the second-generation and later stars that were built out of gas that had heavier elements in it," Bowman said. "I think all of that then gets tied into the origin and formation of galaxies as a whole."

Follow Mike Wall on Twitter @michaeldwall and Google+. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook or Google+. Originally published on Space.com.



As Netflix continues to expand its library of original content, the streaming network's executive team seems uniquely focused on attracting top-tier Hollywood talent, oftentimes at the expense of quality. Regrettably, the latest sci-fi offering from writer and director Duncan Jones, a longtime passion project called Mute, is another example of Netflix relinquishing creative control to a filmmaker, only to have the end result fall short of whatever lofty aspirations might have been present at the outcome.



Taking place in a near-future version of Berlin whose dim, neon-lit streets could easily be mistaken for Blade Runner's futuristic Los Angeles (if not for a noticeable difference in the amount of money being spent on production design), Mute centers on Leo (Alexander Skarsgard), a bartender at a seedy nightclub who was left unable to speak after a tragic boating accident, and an even more tragic decision by his Amish parents not to allow surgeons to repair the damage. "God will heal him," she insists in a flashback, but God must have taken the day off.



In a world where humans are enhanced with cybernetic limbs and airborne drones can deliver piping hot meals to your exact location, Leo is something of an anomaly, a Luddite who doesn't own a cell phone, wears hand-crafted clothing and spends his free time carving intricate wooden charms that he gifts to his girlfriend, a blue-haired cocktail waitress named Naadirah (Seyned Saleh). She finds Leo's aversion to technology endearing, and gifts him with an ancient smartphone ("the most basic one I could find") that will come in handy as he begins to investigate her sudden disappearance, shortly after confessing that she's been keeping a secret.



Elsewhere, we're introduced to Cactus Bill (Paul Rudd), an obnoxious American military veteran with a handlebar mustache and endless supply of loud Hawaiian shirts, and his partner Duck (an unrecognizable Justin Theroux), a pair of underground surgeons working for the mob in exchange for a set of fake passports that will grant Cactus and his adolescent daughter safe passage out of Berlin, away from the MPs that patrol the streets looking for deserters. It's clear that Cactus is AWOL, but aside from a brief mention of a conflict in "New Kandahar," there's little context given for the American military's presence in the city.







Thanks to the chemistry between Rudd and Theroux, and a characterization that Jones admits was cribbed almost completely from the relationship between Hawkeye and Trapper in M*A*S*H*, the duo's scenes are some of the most engaging in the entire film - until we learn that one character has some particularly disturbing interests, which makes each subsequent interaction creepy and unsettling. This revelation feels completely unnecessary, and does almost nothing that affects that narrative, other than to provide a character with an absurdly dark comeuppance during the third act - but as audience members, it's almost impossible to feel good about this when it happens.



For the bulk of the film, the exploits of Cactus and Duck seem detached from Leo's quest to ascertain Naadirah's whereabouts - a quest that Leo is so remarkably well-equipped to handle that it far exceeds the limits of credulity. This shy, simple man with barely a passing understanding of technology is piecing together clues faster than the lead character in a Dashiel Hammett novel, and his willingness to take on underworld thugs while armed with only a hand-carved bedpost (I'm totally serious) just feels ridiculous. When both narratives finally converge, the "surprise" lands with a resounding thud - mostly because we have no real attachment to any of the characters involved. And while there's a perfectly suitable point at which Jones could've brought the story to a close, he instead labors onward for twenty more excruciating minutes.



Skarsgard is a fine actor, but between his lack of spoken dialogue and a character written with as much personality as the bedpost he wields in combat, he's seldom engaging. The decision to set Mute against a futuristic sci-fi backdrop is another curiosity - it makes for some striking visuals every once in awhile, but there's very little about the world itself that informs the narrative. Had Jones opted to relate this same tale in modern times, perhaps he would've been less prone to attempts at stylistic flourishes, and we would spend less time thinking about how many elements feel cribbed from other, better sci-fi stories.









In the deeps woods of Hungary, after having been captured by the Magyar Ultra, McAllister and the mysterious Dr. Zaryn (Daniel Cerqueira) are taken into the organizations campground. Once inside, they are placed inside a cell while Josef (Mark Strepan) and Rosa (Kelly Gough) try figure out their next move. Meanwhile, Section 20 is not far behind and they prepare to launch a risky assault to rescue McAllister.



Back at the camp, as Josef and Rosa discuss about what to do next, Josef demands for Rosas client to pay more than they initially agreed on for the exchange of Dr. Zaryn. Rosa warns Josef that her client wont take kindly to this change of plans. Soon after Rosa receives a call from Jane Lowry (Katherine Kelly), who warns her that Section 20 might be nearby and also tells her that she wants Zaryn as soon as possible. Rosa promises Jane that shell take care of the situation.





Meanwhile, Josef confronts McAllister in his cell. In an attempt to turn Josef against his sister, McAllister reveals to him that Jane Lowry, a converted Islamic terrorist, is Rosas client. Rosa arrives and denies this. Josef does not know who to trust but Rosa assures to him that he can trust her. Josef then decides to hang McAllister. Wyatt, Novin and Reynolds arrive just in time, creating a diversion and saving McAllister. As a gunfight erupts, Rosa tries to sneak out of the base camp with Dr. Zaryn, but she is intercepted by McAllister and Novin. Rosa manages to run away, while McAllister and Novin take Zaryn with them. Josef's men give chase but the pair manages to outrun them, although their vehicle leaves them stranded, forcing the trio to continue on foot.Reynolds and Wyatt retreat into the woods but the stumble across a fleeing Rosa, who pleads for them to take her with them, in exchange for information. She believes that Josef has lost his mind. A scouting group finds them, but with the help of Rosa, Wyatt and Reynolds fend them off. One of the scouts returns to Josef, to reveals to him about Rosa's betrayal. In order to prevent his group from abandoning the cause, Josef murders the scout in cold blood.Meanwhile, Colonel Donovan and Corporal Jensen (Phil Dunster) are shut down by the Hungarian authorities, led by Major General Laszlo (Attila C. Arpa), for being responsible for several shootings throughout the city. Donovan tries to convince Laszlo otherwise, but there's no avail. Later, she is found by Jane Lowry, who attacks her, although Jensen manages to save her but Lowry still escapes. Then, the pair sets out to rendezvous with the stranded Section 20 operatives.Back in the woods, McAllister, Novin and Dr. Zaryn meet with Wyatt, Reynolds and Rosa. Together, they find shelter in an abandoned facility where they set up defenses until rescue arrives. Close behind is Josef and his men, but he grows desperate and his men start distrusting him. Also, it is revealed that Dr. Zaryn is actually Dr. Markov, a Russian scientist who has been living in hiding after creating a deadly nerve agent called Novichok. Josef and his men arrive to the abandoned facility, where Section 20 ambushes them. In the vicious firefight, Rosa and Josef kill each other, but Section 20 manages to escape with Dr. Markov as Donovan and Jensen pick them up.In their escape route though, Section 20 is intercepted by General Laszlo and his men, who forces them to give Dr. Markov to him, under Whitehall's (England) orders. Section 20 drives away. The Hungarian convoy, however, is ambushed by Jane Lowry. All of the soliders are killed and she manages to retrieve Dr. Markov.I'm going to be honest, I thought this was going to be a generic episode, but it took several risks as it didn't turned out to be predictable. I want to point out too that the reason why I love Strike Back so much is because of its technical aspects and stunts. Its not only guns firing but it is the bullets making contact, environment destruction and sound engineering that make this show an adrenaline-fueled experience.This episode also featured some character development for Wyatt and Reynolds, although briefly. It seems like Reynolds is covering up for her father and Wyatt is a disgraced soldier from an elite task force. We still have to learn more from Novin, who pretty much just shoots and kills most of the time.I want to point out also that Kelly Gough and Mark Strepan did great jobs as Rosa and Josef respectively. We learn plenty about their characters and there's this emotional sendoff that serves as a payoff to villain development that has always been one of Strike Back's best traits. These are not one-dimensional characters as they are deeply humanized and flawed. I can't wait to see what other villains are brought up on the remainder of this season, and as always, Jane Lowry is probably one of the best villains the series has ever had. She is cunning, ruthless and sexy.I am definitely still watching this show.4 stars out of 5Chahid El Hafed, Feb 27, 2018 (SPS) - The Frente POLISARIO expressed its satisfaction with the European Court of Justice ruling today, which excludes the territorial waters of Western Sahara from the fishing agreement between Morocco and the European Union.

POLISARIO, in accordance with the decision of the European Court of Justice, called on all vessels fishing in the territorial waters of Western Sahara to withdraw immediately from their positions.

It also called on EU to stop all funding in Western Sahara under its agreements with Morocco, calling on him to immediately start negotiations with the Frente POLISARIO, the legitimate and sole representative of the Saharawi people to prepare legal fishing agreements.

Frente POLISARIO will undertake all legal procedures, including legal proceedings and appeals on the responsibilities of the European Union, to recover all the money it had paid to Morocco over the past decades under their bilateral agreements. He considered that the decision of the European Court today is the greatest gift to the Sahrawi people on the occasion of the 42nd National Day, says Emhamed Khadad, POLISARIO coordinator with the Minurso.

Under the European Court's judgment, Morocco and the Western Sahara are separate and different regions, and reaffirm that Morocco has no sovereignty over Western Sahara and its territorial waters.SPS

125/090/TRAWilaya de Smara, Feb 27, 2018 (SPS) - The President of the Republic, Secretary-General of the Frente POLISARIO, Mr. Brahim Gali, praised on Tuesday the "firm" position of Algeria towards the Sahara issue.

President Ghali said in his speech during the celebration of the 42nd anniversary of the declaration of the Republic, "The Sahrawi state celebrates its forty-two-year anniversary today, proud of its broad international relations and its brothers, friends and allies all over the world."

The President of the Republic cannot pass such an event without renewing the gratitude, to the sisterly Algeria, under the leadership of His Excellency the President of the Republic, Abdelaziz Bouteflika.

The proud Algeria - says President Ghali - who has not hesitated to adopt the Saharawi cause and support, like all issues of emancipation in the world, in a position consistent with its ideals and principles and with African and international legitimacy.

He also expressed his satisfaction with the level of fraternal relations, friendship, neighborliness, cooperation and coordination between the Sahrawi Republic and neighboring Mauritania.

President Gali paid tribute to all the members of the International Solidarity Movement for the struggle of the Saharawi people in Spain, Europe and the world, stressing the legal, historical and moral responsibility of the Spanish state towards completing the process of decolonization and self-determination in Western Sahara. SPS

125/090/TRANouakchott, Feb 27, 2018 (SPS) - The Special Envoy of the President of the Republic, Mr. Abdelkader Taleb Omar, received on Tuesday morning BY the Mauritanian President Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz at the Presidential Palace in the Mauritanian capital of Nouakchott.

The Special Envoy of the President of the Republic made the following statement: "The reception by the President of the Republic, Mr. Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz, was an opportunity for us to express our satisfaction with this reception and to convey a message from Mr. Brahim Gali, as an expression of the excellent relationship between them and the Sahrawi and Mauritanian peoples and the important role played by Mauritania in the region and the continent. "

"The meeting was an opportunity to extend congratulations to the Mauritanian president and Mauritania in general on the confidence that Mauritania received to host the next African summit," said Abdelkader Taleb Omar.

The message of Mr. Gali to his Mauritanian counterpart, Mr. Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz, focuses on the latest developments of the Sahrawi issue, the peace process and the importance of assistance to advance this process and achieve concrete results on the ground to put an end to the stalemate and obstruction that has characterized this process for a long time and to avoid any future tensions in this region, which cannot bear more tensions.SPS

125/090/TRASyrian civilians flee from reported Assad-regime air strikes on the rebel-held town of Jisreen on February 8, 2018. Photo: ABDULMONAM EASSA/AFP/Getty Images

A report by U.N. experts finds that North Korea supplied the Syrian government with materials that could have been used to produce chemical weapons on several occasions in the last two years, lending weight to long-standing suspicions that Syria is continuing to use these weapons on its own people.

The 200-page report, which remains unpublished but was reviewed by the New York Times, documents at least 40 previously unreported shipments from North Korea to Syria from 2012 to 2017, which included prohibited ballistic-missile parts and materials with both civilian and military uses. The supplies the U.N. suspects are being used to make chemical weapons include acid-resistant tiles, valves, and thermometers. North Korean missile experts have also been seen working at Syrian chemical-weapons and missile facilities.

The reports findings paint a damning picture of the international communitys ability to police the global black market in illegal weapons: Both North Korea and Syria are under extremely heavy sanctions from the U.N., U.S., EU, and other countries and supranational organizations, yet they have been able to do regular business with each other, helping Syrian president Bashar al-Assad carry out atrocities while also financing North Korean leader Kim Jong Uns nuclear weapons and ballistic-missile programs.

While the U.N. panel did not find conclusive evidence of ongoing collaboration between the regimes to manufacture chemical weapons currently, experts told the Times that it laid out in unprecedented detail the sophisticated measures these countries have taken to get around these sanctions. The report describes some of North Koreas methods of sanctions evasion, which include a complex web of shell companies, a network of sympathetic individuals in unnamed foreign countries who provide access to financing, the use of its own diplomats to carry out smuggling, and cyber operations.

The relationship between the Assad and Kim regimes dates back to before the current generation of dictators rose to power, with North Korea aiding Syria in the Arab-Israeli wars of the 1960s and 70s, helping the country develop its own ballistic missiles, and helping it build a plutonium-production facility, which Israel destroyed in 2007. North Korea has also supported Syrias chemical-weapons program since at least the 1990s.

After being accused of carrying out a sarin-gas attack on a rebel enclave that killed as many as 1,400 people in 2013, Assad agreed to join the Chemical Weapons Convention and destroy his stockpile under a deal brokered by Russia amid threats of military action from the U.S.

Critics of former president Barack Obamas reticence to intervene in Syria often point to this moment as a crucial misstep. Regardless, nobody thought Assad actually gave up all of his chemical weapons, and his army is believed to have carried out multiple chlorine-gas attacks this year as well as another sarin attack last April. Russia, however, has protected Assad from accountability for these actions, using its veto on the U.N. Security Council in November to scuttle a separate panel investigating the use of chemical weapons by actors on both sides of the Syrian civil war.

For its part, North Korea appears to have gotten sanctions evasion and illegal weapons exports down to a science. Another U.N. report shown to the press in early February said the regime had made $200 million from banned commodity exports in 2017, which included weapons shipments to Syria and Myanmar. That report also found evidence of the transfer of items with utility in ballistic missile and chemical weapons programs.

In addition to the methods identified by the U.N. panel, North Korea sends its illegal exports on ships flagged by different countries, which acquire new names, new (fraudulent) registrations, and new shell-company owners, Bloomberg Politics reports. For example, the ship Jin Teng, which was sanctioned by the U.S. in March 2016, was later rechristened as the Shen Da 8 and then the Hang Yu 1 to evade detection and continued to ship goods out of North Korea through Chinese ports, according to Kharon, a company that helps banks and companies identify sanctions risks.

The U.N. has accused companies in China and Singapore of helping North Korea conduct international trade in violation of sanctions. Identifying companies with links to Pyongyang and cracking down on them is perhaps the hardest part of the sanctions whack-a-mole game. Criticism of China for not doing enough to interdict North Korean shipping may be justified, but even more robust Chinese enforcement might not catch every illegal transaction.

That North Korea continues to do brisk business with other rogue states despite being subject to perhaps the tightest sanctions regime ever imposed on any country illustrates the limitations, and even downsides, of punishing rogue states by cutting them out of the legitimate global marketplace. Commerce always finds a way, especially when key players like Russia and China are unwilling or unable to enforce embargoes diligently.

Lack of access to licit export markets may even encourage such countries to traffic in highly profitable black-market commodities like illegal weapons and drugs. In addition to helping arm its fellow human-rights violators in Syria and Myanmar, North Korea has a well-documented history of exporting heroin and methamphetamine; state entities there reportedly ramped up production of these drugs in response to the tightening of sanctions last year.

Sanctions failing to prevent the de facto crime family that runs North Korea from making money is particularly unsurprising if one considers the effects sanctions have had on other misbehaving regimes in the recent past.

Thirteen years of sanctions on Iraq in the years leading up to the 2003 invasion failed to curb Saddam Husseins power or his penchant for violating human rights, sanctions on Iran enabled the hard-line Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps to consolidate its control over the economy, and sanctions on Russia have barely scratched President Vladimir Putin and his fellow oligarchs  in his words, theyve actually made him even stronger.

None of this is to say that criminal regimes like Kims should be allowed unfettered access to the global economy. The U.N.s findings, however, should inspire a serious conversation among world leaders about the ease with which sanctions are being evaded in the modern world and the need for more effective enforcement mechanisms, especially when it comes to finance and cyberespionage. It also may be time to start thinking about what else the international community can do to rein in the criminal behavior of states, if sanctions are ineffectual and war undesirable.Smara (Sahrawi Refugee Camps) ), Feb 28, 2018 (SPS) - Sahrawi President Brahim Ghali affirmed Tuesday, in Smara, that Morocco has to be convinced that its membership to the African Union alongside the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic is in itself a recognition of the Sahrawi reality.

In his speech on the occasion of the festivities of the 42nd anniversary of SADR proclamation, the secretary general of the Polisario Front said that Morocco must learn the lesson and recognize the fact that its membership to the African Union, alongside SADR, is in itself a recognition of the undeniable Sahrawi reality.

The kingdom of Morocco must accept that Africa never tolerates any form of colonialism in the continent, said President Ghali, adding that it (Morocco) shouldnt expect that Africa gives up one day the fundamental principles on which the African Union is based or tolerates any part trying to undermine its unity and cohesion and to play with its rules and principles.

Ghali invited Morocco to realize, in the same way as the other members of the Union, that he must respect its constitutive status by complying with AUs rules and decisions, including the resolutions of its 30th summit held last January.

SADR is ready to hold direct negotiations with Morocco for the settlement of their conflict through the implementation of the legitimate African and international decisions, including the respect of peoples rights to self-determination and independence as well as the respect of the borders inherited after the independence.SPS

125/090/700STAMFORD  For Roberta Reese, the decision to move to Danbury from Norwalk was an easy one.

Property was a bit more affordable, she said, and her homes proximity to the Metro-North Danbury branch made her daily commute to her accounting job in Norwalk a no-brainer.

However, she now has serious concerns since the state Department of Transportation announced it plans to cut service and raise fares. Reese said the proposed service cuts would eliminate the off-peak train she takes every day to get home from work, forcing her to wait 90 minutes for a later one to arrive.

I would not have moved to Danbury had I known I wouldnt be able to depend on the train to get to and from work, she said Wednesday. I never wanted to buy into a driving commute.

Reese is just one of the tens of thousands of commuters who would be affected by the DOTs proposal to eliminate weekend service and reduce weekday off-peak trains on the Shoreline East, Danbury, Waterbury and New Canaan branches.

The proposal would also raise Metro-North rail fares by 10 percent beginning in July, followed by additional 5 percent increases in 2020 and 2021, and bus fares would increase by 25 cents.

Reese echoed the thoughts of many who shared their concerns Tuesday night at the University of Connecticut-Stamford during a public forum to discuss Metro-Norths looming changes. Most of the crowd who packed the auditorium favored raising fares instead of cutting service.

Fare hikes are a necessary evil, Stamford resident Layne Rodney said. The prices are too low already. I have a senior citizens fare card. Its $30 and (with this proposal) it is going to go up to $34. It was a steal at $30 and it is a steal at $34.

Rodney, who said he lives on a fixed income, gave up his car more than a year ago and became a bus rider, and twice a week he takes the train to Westport. He said he would be willing to pay higher transportation fees, but added the state needs to improve efficiency and not just raise fares.

But raising fares alone is not going to solve the problem, said Jim Cameron, a commuter advocate and Hearst Connecticut Media transportation columnist.

Commuters cannot bear the brunt of the Special Transportation Fund any longer, he said. Its time to make motorists pay their fair share.

We already pay the highest fares of any commuter rail system in North America, and raising them is not going to help ridership and it is certainly not going to allow us to improve service, he added. Motorists are only paying 25 cents per gallon of gasoline as a tax in Connecticut. That is much lower than the neighboring states  in Pennsylvania its double that.

Cameron also advocated for toll roads, a proposal that has been floated over the past few months as a way to build revenue for the states Special Transportation Fund.

However, tolls would not be an immediate solution, said DOT Commissioner James Redeker, who added it would take years to get a toll system up and running and the Special Transportation Fund needs revenue now.

We all know the system is very stressed right now, said Mike Bernard, a train conductor on Metro-North and a local chairman for the Association of Commuter Rail Employees, Local 1. The funding situation for transportation is not good, and it is going to get worse unless we do something. Im willing to pay a little more for gas taxes to get additional dollars into the transportation fund now.

But service cuts, Bernard argued, would hurt the very people the rail system was designed to serve.

The people who ride our trains are good people who depend on (us) to get them to and from their destination each day, he said. It might be a dad from New Canaan going to Wall Street in Manhattan, or it might be a mom commuting from Bridgeport to New Haven for her job. It could be a student who rides to their school or college, or a family going to New Haven or New York City.

For Dave Hendershot, a Metro-North engineer and legislative representative for the Association of Commuter Rail Employees, Local 9, the impact of service cuts goes beyond inconveniencing commuters.

Henderson said the service cuts could mean layoffs for engineers and other rail personnel, then these highly-skilled professionals will be looking for jobs elsewhere. Even if the service is restored, Hendershot said it could take months for the system to get back up and running.

Cutting service is not like turning off a faucet, he said. Its more like locking a safe. Its easy to shut the door and spin the wheel, but its difficult to reopen, even with the combination.

Redeker said he shares the same concerns that many have voiced since the DOT made its announcement, especially when it comes to service cuts.

This is not what we (the transportation department) want to do, he said. The DOT is not advocating any of these cuts. In fact, it is completely contrary to our vision for mass transit in the state.  But we dont control the revenue, and its frustrating because we are supposed to advocate to provide more and better service to rail travelers and commuters, and instead were doing this.Entrepreneurship is a demanding job -- and one that encroaches on your lifestyle. Youll face long nights, working weekends, tough decisions and tougher consequences. So what is it that gets entrepreneurs out of bed in the morning? What motivates them to keep going, even in the face of adversity?

As you might imagine, theres no single answer here. Instead, each entrepreneur has his/her own vision for what motivation is, and how you can summon it.

Fear failure and crave victory.

Mark Cuban, serial entrepreneur and investor, claims in a Bloomberg article that his motivation comes from twin motivations: a repulsion toward failure and a constant desire to win. He understands that entrepreneurship is a constant competition. There are always younger, nimbler and more invested entrepreneurs in your field. Knowing that at any moment, a competitor could swallow you whole is motivation enough to keep moving and improving.

Related: Steve Jobs Shares the Secrets to Successful Team Leadership in This Throwback Video

Be grateful for what you already have.

Gary Vaynerchuk, Belarusian American entrepreneur and famed wine critic, attributes his recurring motivation to being grateful for what he already has and has done. Instead of focusing on all the dreams youve yet to achieve or all the hardships youre facing, take a moment to focus on what youve already achieved and all the advantages at your back. Your hard work has already paid off, at least in some ways, and that should be enough to keep you going.

Look to a mentor.

Warren Buffett, famed investor and one of the richest people on the planet, speaks with great admiration about his mentor Benjamin Graham and actively encourages newcomers to seek and follow mentors of their own. Go out and meet entrepreneurs more experienced than you. Not only will you likely learn something about business management and find new potential partners for your future endeavors, you may also find a source of recurring inspiration -- someone who has been through it all and still come out on top.

Related: The Inspiring Stories of These Trailblazing, Triumphant U.S. Olympics Athletes Will Warm Your Heart

Find your passion.

Chances are, you got into entrepreneurship because youre passionate about creating new businesses or because youre passionate about the industry you entered. Recall that passion, and remind yourself why you love this line of work. If you find that youre no longer passionate, ask yourself what went wrong, and see if you can make changes in your approach to rekindle that passion. If you cant rekindle that passion, it may be time to find another career.

Surround yourself with optimism.

A negative mentality can be contagious and energy-consuming. Instead of succumbing to it, surround yourself with things that inspire optimism, such as photos of your friends and family members, reminders of your long-term goals, or inspirational quotes from your favorite writers and entrepreneurs. It also helps to surround yourself with naturally optimistic people; youd be amazed how easily that attitude can transfer from one person to another.

Stop overthinking things.

Richard Branson, founder of companies that include a record company and an airline and space travel enterprise, attributes much of his success to his six-word motto: Screw it. Lets just do it. His style may be a bit brash, but theres something important to learn here. When facing a difficult problem or a project he isnt fully sure of, he doesnt wait around for motivation to settle in. Instead, he just does something. Success and failure both allow you to learn something and move forward, so you might as well.

Dont be motivated; be disciplined.

I was speaking at a high school recently when a student asked me that important question: how do you stay motivated? My answer was simple: I dont. And its true. There are days where I wake up and dont have any motivation at all. I want to stay in bed or browse social media, but its because of my self-discipline that I keep going. Motivation is fleeting. It comes and goes. Motivation gets you started, discipline keeps you going. Don't be motivated, be disciplined and hold yourself accountable.

Related: The Surprising Secret to Authentic and Powerful Leadership

Toward a motivated future.

There are many different approaches to motivation, just as there are many approaches to entrepreneurship. Hopefully youve found inspiration or resonance with these entrepreneurs and have found some new strategies to keep yourself moving.

Related:

3 Startup Lessons From Hip Hop Entrepreneurs

Surprisingly, Drake's Lyrics Provide Solid Lessons for Entrepreneurs

How This YouTuber Used Language Tutorials to Get More Than 55 Million Views



Copyright 2018 Entrepreneur.com Inc., All rights reserved



This article originally appeared on entrepreneur.com

W hen Tesco made a 3.7 billion swoop for cash-and-carry chain Booker last January it marked perhaps the biggest change in strategy since Jack Cohen set up his Hackney market stall in 1919.

For the first time, Tesco would go from serving the public in High Street shops and out-of-town hypermarkets to providing groceries to trade buyers  corner shops, restaurants, pubs and bars. Within months, deal frenzy had gripped rivals including Morrisons, Sainsburys and the Co-op.

Today, investors gave their final nod in favour of the takeover at Tescos AGM on Aldersgate in the City. Booker's approval followed shortly.

Despite some disquiet from investors including activist Sandell, Schroders and Artisan, the two boards have worked hard to convince investors the deal makes sense. Heres how:

Wholesale change

A key reason for the deal was to improve Tescos access to the chain restaurants market in which Booker, led by Charles Wilson, has enjoyed strong growth as a supplier. The merger benefits Tesco by making it a major supplier to 117,000 corner shops, including Premier and Londis, plus farm shops and delicatessens, as well as 440,000 restaurants and pubs from Carluccios and Wagamama to Michelin-starred venues.

The deal also means Bookers clients can benefit from Tescos food innovations such as gluten-free ranges, and its recently launched Wicked Kitchen vegan meals.

From debts to dividends

Tesco chief Dave Lewis has done much in his three years of repairing the business whose financial scandal he discovered when he arrived.

Part of that included selling businesses to cope with its mountain of debt. While he made a start, the company remains heavily indebted, an issue which has held back dividends to shareholders.

Booker, on the other hand, is hugely cash positive, so combining the two should ease Tescos financial crunch. Analysts at Redburn say the ratio of Tescos profits to its debt will fall from its stratospheric 5.2x today to 4.6x. Still high, but far more comfortable.

Not only that, but Tescos pension deficit will benefit from cash-generative Booker, as the deficit will be backed by a bigger stream of earnings.

Redburn is not in general a fan of the deal, citing botched Tesco takeovers in the past, but even it has to admit this is a big benefit.

The enlarged group will boast revenues of nearly 60 billion. Wilson says the company intends to be capital disciplined post-merger, mostly using existing space and resources to grow, rather than borrowing to invest.

Estimated cost savings and benefits of 200 million are also expected. The cashflow that Booker brings, plus the synergies that they will extract in time, will help Tesco reduce its debt more quickly and gives it a stronger capability to pay larger dividends over time, says Shore Capitals Clive Black.

Buying power

The drive into wholesale is something of a rearguard action for Tesco as it faces a stagnating grocery retail market. Customers have shifted away from doing big out-of-town weekly shops and have switched in their millions to discounters Aldi and Lidl.

That goes for Tescos rivals, too. Little wonder Co-op and Morrisons followed it with copycat wholesaler mergers.

For Tesco, becoming the UKs biggest retailer and wholesaler brings massive buying power when it comes to fresh fruit, vegetables and meat. For Bookers customers, too, the merger should bring benefits as the combined business has more vans, more depots and more manpower to deliver around the country. Food suppliers such as Brakes will struggle to match such coverage.

Booker has already grown its share of the wholesale market share from 7% to 12% in recent years. With Tesco, it should get to 15%-20%.

Hero worship

Wilson is seen as a hero by investors, and will surely succeed Lewis in the top job at Tesco. The City chatter has it that Lewis might fancy going back to run his old shop, Unilever when Paul Polman retires. Wilson, the brains behind Sir Stuart Roses time at Marks & Spencer, has led the cash-and-carry chain since 2005 and turned it around. He first held tentative talks with Tesco in 2009, it has emerged. In that time, he took Bookers market value from 600 million to 4 billion. Having him in charge of Tesco is, as Bruno Monteyne, a former Tesco executive and analyst at Bernstein says, a major pull. Another point: Wilson has a stake worth 250 million in Booker, equating to 6% of the business. With this deal, he swaps his big stake in little Booker for a small stake in titanic Tesco. That will make it far easier to sell his shares without hitting the share price when he eventually decides to make his exit. We told you he was clever.

Breeding loyalty

Holding a cash-and-carry card has long been a point of pride for small businesses. Combining that army of Booker customers with Tescos 16 million Clubcard holders gives the combined group one of the biggest customer databases in Britain. With that size of a population to pore over, management will be able better to work out how to sell more to each others customers.

Online gains

Tesco is the giant of the online grocers, but Booker is no slouch either. In 2008, it was doing 100 million sales via its websites with 12,000 customers. Last year it had 1.1 billion sales and 570,000 customers. The most striking thing is Wilson spent only 2.5 million over a decade to achieve that. The combination of Tesco and Bookers multi-temperature warehouses and delivery fleets should enable them to scale up both online operations at minimal cost. Lewis has talked about using some of Bookers retail customers to expand Tescos click-and-collect points to 8000.

A discount war

Perhaps the most eye-catching potential fallout from the deal could be a new retail chain.

Tesco, off the back of a decent Christmas trading season, is said to be setting up a standalone brand to take the fight to Aldi and Lidl. Whats more, Wilson recently boasted that Booker can undercut them on price. The biggest criticism of the deal is that it risks being a distraction for a convalescing Tesco, now worth 17 billion, less than half its value almost 10 years ago.

Although Lewis has lived up to his moniker Drastic Dave by cutting thousands of jobs and closing stores to turn the business around, the Booker deal will add little to Tescos retail business, critics have warned.

Lewis disagrees: Weve stabilised it and got ourselves to a place where were moving forward. Well stay rigorous on cost, efficient on capital and well open ourselves up to different innovation and growth opportunities. Watch this space.Debbie Lesko celebrates with former Arizona governor Jan Brewer after an unlikely chain of sex scandals won her a GOP congressional nomination. Photo: Ralph Freso/AP/REX/Shutterstock

The reckoning over sexual misconduct by powerful men took down another politician yesterday, as the front-runner for the GOP nomination in a special congressional district in Arizona, Steve Montenegro, lost to a former State Senate colleague, Debbie Lesko, in a contest dominated in the late going by a sexting scandal. Local media got ahold of a text-message exchange between Montenegro and a legislative staffer that included a topless image of the latter:

A series of text messages between Montenegro and a female staff member at the Arizona Legislature may raise questions about that claim.

The staffer sent Montenegro a topless photo via text message, according to a series of messages between Montenegro and the staffer that were reviewed by 12 News

The image itself was reportedly sent by Snapchat, and has disappeared. Montenegro angrily denounced the allegations as tabloid trash. But the text messages themselves were bad enough considering the context of a married legislator (and a youth minister at his fathers Pentecostal church!) and a legislative staffer. In an interview with the Washington Examiner Montenegro allowed as to how he may have let himself get too comfy or familiar with the woman in question, but suggested the entire episode represented politically motivated revenge porn.

What made Montenegros saga particularly damaging politically was its juxtaposition with the reason Arizonas Eighth District was having a special election in the first place: the resignation in December of Representative Trent Franks for asking two of his staffers to bear children for him in light of his inability to do so with his wife. This lurid disclosure, which seemed to come straight out of The Handmaids Tale, made relationships between pols and staffers a sensitive subject in the district, to Montenegros great peril.

At first it looked like he might survive the scandal and win anyway thanks to heavy early voting, which meant many Republicans casting ballots might have done so before hearing about Montenegros problem. But Montenegro ended up losing by 12 points to another former state senator, Debbie Lesko. The GOP thus lost a potential congressman who was something of a unicorn: a Salvadorean immigrant who was the only Latino legislator to vote for Arizonas notorious SB 1070 show your papers law, crafted by Kris Kobach. Montenegro was also a Trump delegate to the 2016 Republican National Convention. His candidacy in the special election was supported by Sheriff Joe Arpaio and Senator Ted Cruz.

Lesko will be a heavy favorite to hold the district for the GOP in the April 24 special general election against Democratic nominee Hiral Tipirneni, a physician who handily defeated transgender candidate and progressive activist Brianna Westbrook in the primary. The Eighth, which includes a big chunk of the Phoenix suburbs, has a Cook Political Report PVI rating of R+13, which means it has been on average 13 points more Republican than the country as a whole in recent presidential elections. Trump carried the district by a 58/37 margin in 2016, and Franks didnt even have a Democratic opponent in 2014 or 2016.

The Republican nominee will have to deal with charges of campaign finance irregularities that Montenegro and another GOP rival hurled at her during the primary. And in a special election cycle like this one, when Democrats have been routinely outstripping past performances by large margins, any GOP candidate would be foolish to take anything for granted. Given the Franks and Montenegro scandals, though, Republicans are probably lucky to have a woman as their nominee in this particular district. Theres only so much piggish behavior a party can sustain without real damage.A straZeneca on Wednesday injected six of its experimental autoimmune drugs into a new $250 million (180 million) standalone biotech company with Chinese backing.

This is part of chief executive Pascal Soriots strategy to cut back on drug development and focus on areas such as cancer. Viela Bio has attracted backing from a consortium of Chinese venture capital investors, including Hillhouse Capital. AstraZeneca will remain the largest minority shareholder.

The new companys potential new medicines include a treatment for a rare disease affecting the optic nerve and spinal cord of around five in 100,000 people.

The drug has orphan status, which gives a company exclusive rights and tax incentives to develop a cure for a rare disease. Approval for the medicine could be filed late next year.

The new company, based in Maryland in America, is expected to grow to 100 staff in three to five years.

A spokeswoman for AstraZeneca said: We are looking for creative ways to bring good science to patients.

AstraZeneca has sold off a number of medicines in recent years, as it focuses on its main therapy areas, which include heart and metabolic diseases as well as cancer.

Soriot has admitted that there are too many drugs in development at AstraZeneca after a strategy he put in place in 2013 to replenish the pipeline paid off.C omcast put Bank of America Merrill Lynch to work on Wednesday, asking it to gauge City appetite for its Sky bid.

The giant US cable company is keen to woo Sky shareholders, believing it could take control of the company even if Rupert Murdochs 21st Century Fox holds onto its 39% stake.

BAML has been hired by Comcast to start a charm offensive, even as chief executive Brian Roberts flew home.

Sky shares rose again this morning, up 8p at 1340p. That values the business at fully 1 billion more than the Comcast 12.50-a-share offer.

With the City salivating at the prospect of a bidding war, analysts at Jefferies said the stock could be worth 16. Thats the price Sky investors should hold out for, in our view said Jefferies. Analyst Jerry Dellis says there are credible prospects that Comcasts offer to Sky will be countered by Fox and Disney.

Comcast  whose subsidiary Dreamworks is responsible for such blockbusters as Madagascar (above)  has yet to make a formal offer and could, presumably, tweak it in light of what it hears from BAML.C hildren have had a straightforwardly joyous reaction to this mornings snow: they cheered the very sight of it before going out to play in it. And it would take a hard heart not to rejoice at the spectacle of London under fresh snow.

The capital is transformed and more beautiful: the city is an urban Christmas card.

Thats until you try and get to work in those areas where rail services have been cancelled or whose operators warn that even if they are running, there is no certainty that they will still be doing so late tonight.

Even the District line has been affected. And the no-can-do approach is already having a dire effect on the economy; restaurants have understandably taken a very dim view of the rail operators warning that travellers should be back home by 6pm.

A weather curfew is what the London economy needs least. Some schools have had to close.

Most London commuters have coped magnificently in getting into work.

Some local authorities are less impressive: while they have gritted most big roads, many smaller ones are unsalted, unswept and a danger to pedestrians.

Whats needed are more people with shovels.

For the weather is almost certainly going to get worse.

In a kind of meteorological mixed metaphor, tomorrow the Beast from the East will be joined by Storm Emma, and there will be severe wind chill as well as snow.

This is a time for London to show its best Big Society aspect.

Old people will be afraid to go out in the snow for fear of falls, so the rest of us should not hesitate to ask our neighbours if they need supplies.

We should rally around each other. Heavy snow may be unusual in London but its not unprecedented; this shouldnt be an excuse for the city to shut down.

If Continental Europe can cope, so can we.

Londoners share incredible pictures of sunrise in the snow 1 /23 Londoners share incredible pictures of sunrise in the snow A Spectacular sunrise over Canary Wharf James Burns/London from the Rooftops Amazing sunrise Tim Walker Tower Bridge glinting in the dawn sun Twitter/WECMotorsport Kensington Palace in the snow View of dawn breaking from Barbican, London James Burns/London from the Rooftops Bob Sanders captured this stunning sunrise over Jubilee river near Windsor Bob Sanders Piccadilly Circus in the snow Yahoo UK/Chris Parsons Sunrise in Battersea Hatty Collier Even boats had snow hats Twitter/TowerRNLI Clear skies as the sun rose Twitter/GreenwichLove Sunrise over the London skyline James Burns/London from the Rooftops Kensington Palace in the snow today Justin Davenport Honor Oak Park in the snow Martin Bentham The sun rises over the M4 Sally Blackmore Kensington Palace in the snow Justin Davenport A couple walk their dog through the snow and past the bandstand in Southwark Park AP A beutiful morning in Hertfordshire @SW1GG A woman jogging in the snow in Canary Wharf, London Victoria Jones/PA Sunrise over Richmond Station Gareth Richman A man cycles on a snow covered path in Southwark Park in south London AP Beautiful pink skies Twitter/Silk_Lodhi The morning light was bright in the snow Twitter/Dazzlinghes The sun rises over snow-covered London Twitter/PitshangerW5

DfiD investigates itself

The Department for International Development has taken a robust approach to the scandal of sexual misconduct on the part of employees of aid organisations.

The International Development Secretary, Penny Mordaunt, has ordered a review of the conduct of the agencies to identify the scale of locally reported allegations of sexual misconduct against both DfiD staff and its partners delivering aid to some of the world poorest countries, and has made clear that she will not tolerate abuse.

Yet in a parliamentary answer yesterday, overseas aid minister Harriett Baldwin admitted that under five DfID staff were under investigation for sexual misconduct.

It is not clear if this was at home or abroad; plainly the sexual exploitation of vulnerable individuals overseas is a very serious matter.

Yet this is a sign not of the departments culpability so much as its rigour. It is good that it is holding itself to account.

Like other aid agencies it must never be part of the problem in the areas in which it operates.

Royal Fab Four

Theres a new Fab Four in town: Harry, Meghan, William and Catherine.

Today has seen their first joint outing to insurance firm Aviva, to promote their charitable Royal Foundation.

Theirs is more than just a visually pleasing quartet: it is a signal of how Britain appears on the world stage.

Previous royal quartets, that of Prince Charles and Diana alongside Andrew and Sarah Ferguson, or indeed when William and Harry partied with Princesses Eugenie and Beatrice, belonged to their respective times.

Todays line-up shows dignity, glamour and a sense of duty to others through their endeavours. Just when we need quality exports, the perfect ensemble arrives.A s the problem of the Irish border returns to the fore as an obstacle between Theresa May and a Brexit transition deal, she may yearn for a more amenable Irish Taoiseach than Leo Varadkar. But would the rowdy bonhomie of Enda Kenny or the sly familiarity of Bertie Ahern have produced a different Irish response to Brexit?

Varadkar and his foreign minister Simon Coveney have adopted an uncompromising approach. They persuaded the EU to demand a commitment from Britain on the border as the price of concluding the first round of Brexit talks in December and now a transition deal.

Ahern has grumbled softly that Varadkar should persuade the EU to allow the governments in Dublin and London to work out a solution to the border themselves. And Kenny would almost certainly have been more understanding of the Prime Ministers problems in reconciling the factions in her party and reassuring her allies in the DUP.

Ahern is a committed republican but he found in Tony Blair and Jonathan Powell British interlocutors who were unusually committed to resolving the conflict in Northern Ireland. Kenny, an experienced politician before he became Taoiseach, established a close working relationship with David Cameron.

Cool in his personal interactions, Varadkar has never established a rapport with the Prime Minister, herself a reserved politician. He was in his teens during the IRA ceasefires of the Nineties and the negotiation of the Good Friday Agreement.

His tough approach on Brexit is popular in Ireland, where Britains decision to leave the EU is viewed as an irrational expression of English nationalism. It has made it almost impossible for Fianna Fail and Sinn Fein to outflank him on the national question, while reinforcing his image as a straight-talking politician.

Unlike Kenny and Ahern, Varadkar is dealing with a Prime Minister who has taken little interest in Northern Ireland and who depends on the

DUP for her survival. Boris Johnsons comparison of the border with Londons congestion charge evoked little outrage in Ireland, where it confirmed the perception of the Foreign Secretary as a buffoon. His leaked letter to the Prime Minister suggesting a hardening of the border after Brexit seemed to confirm what many in Ireland have long believed, that Britains promises on the border cannot be trusted.

It is this lack of confidence in the Government that has pushed Varadkar and the EU into demanding the airtight commitment outlined in Barniers draft agreement today.Outerwear brand Canada Goose have teamed up with the Pantone Colour Institute to create a special custom shade of blue - PBI blue - for a capsule of parkas and jackets.

The collection celebrates the 10th anniversary of their support for Polar Bears International (PBI), an organisation dedicated to the preservation of polar bears and their habitat.

Canada Goose have already contributed more than $2M to support the charitys research and conservation efforts.

They also provide PBI researchers and scientists with the cold-weather apparel they need to survive long hours in harsh Arctic conditions as they work to preserve the populations and natural habitats of these icons of the great white North.

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The signature colour of the new collection, PBI Blue was developed in partnership with The Pantone Colour Institute, who define the PBI Blue as vivid and vibrant.

canada goose

With two-thirds of the worlds polar bears living in Canada, we feel an innate responsibility to protect polar bears and their habitat. said Dani Reiss, President & CEO of the Toronto based brand says. 

One of the coats in the PBI Canada Goose collection / canada goose

The PBI Collection is a capsule of parkas, lightweight jackets and accessories for adults and kids, made in the signature colour, PBI Blue. Canada Goose donates $50 from each sale of a PBI jacket, which provides critical funding for polar bear and environmental research and advocacy.O nce it was enough to request which table in a restaurant you wanted to sit at, but now you need to decide which restaurant within a restaurant you want to dine in as Londons venues embrace the Russian doll effect.

Bubbledogs was a pioneer  owners Sandia Chang and James Knappett launched 20-seat tasting menu restaurant Kitchen Table beneath their champagne and hotdog bar.

Now many of the capitals hottest properties are following suit and inviting you to head down the restaurant rabbit hole.

Evelyns Table

Brother and sister powerhouse Layo and Zoe Paskin, who run The Palomar and The Barbary as well as coffee and cake shop Jacob the Angel, are clearly gluttons for punishment. When they took ownership of Soho pub The Blue Posts and reopened it late last year, they transformed it into not one venue but three. With ground-floor food pub The Blue Posts and upstairs cocktail den The Mulwray now bedded in, its crown jewel launched last week in the form of Evelyns Table.

An 11-seat basement restaurant set behind a door marked closed, fans of the pairs other restaurants will relish its counter seating, where conversation with strangers and chefs is encouraged and dishes such as tempura broccoli with oyster sour cream and mackerel escabeche with pickled carrots and orange are passed directly from the chefs pans to your plate.

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Its the first of their restaurants to serve pasta  including a delicious duck cappaletti bobbing in a rich consomme  as it pulls in influences from across the whole of southern Europe.

Layo says: Theres so much available in terms of eating in London that its important to create a unique experience. Its like a chefs table serving elevated dishes, except the chefs table is the whole restaurant and the atmosphere is much more relaxed.

Half its tables are bookable, the other half will go to those who wait  none will be easy to obtain.

Sabor

At Sabor, which opened this month, former Barrafina chef Nieves Barragan Mohacho and business partner Jose Etura have split their Heddon Street site into three.

Downstairs there is the Andalucian-style tapas bar, complete with its own menu of sherries, hams, cheeses and oozy piquillo croquetas. Next to it is the restaurant, focused on a long counter which overlooks the open kitchen as it turns out dishes including char-grilled baby potatoes with sobrasada, Iberian duck breast with tarragon ajo blanco and slow-cooked oxtail.

Up a spiral staircase is the Asador, a completely distinct area and the piece de resistance for meat eaters. Large wooden tables surround a traditional wood-fired oven which is used to cook specialities from the Galicia and Castile regions of northern Spain, including octopus with paprika and suckling pig. It is the only part of the restaurant where bookings are taken.

Barragan says: We wanted to take guests on a journey through Spain, and as Sabor is split across two floors it gave us the opportunity to do something different in each space. The food we serve in the Asador has more Castilian and Galician influences, while the restaurant on the ground floor features dishes from across the whole of Spain, including the Basque country and Catalonia. The bar takes inspiration from the tapas bars of Andulcia.

Hide

When Ollie Dabbbous opens his much-anticipated new restaurant Hide on Piccadilly this spring it will feature three distinct layers, as well as stocking the biggest selection of wine London has ever seen.

Ground will serve an a la carte menu and also feature a bakery. Above will be set on a mezzanine boasting views over Green Park and focus on tasting menus and set lunches. And Below, in the basement, will be a bar run by cocktail guru Oskar Kinberg, in a similar style to Oskars Bar which he ran beneath Dabbous.

The restaurant has partnered with Hedonism Wines around the corner to be able to offer in excess of 6,800 bottles.

Dabbous packed up his Fitzrovia flagship in June citing plans for something bigger and better, and Hide certainly seems to fit the bill.

Horatio Street Social Club

Its not just restaurants that are retreating within themselves. The hottest new addition to Bethnal Greens bar scene is tucked away in the basement of The Nelsons Head pub just off Columbia Road.

Run by Simon Thompson and Jake OBrien Murphy, who previously worked together at Callooh Callay in Shoreditch, it serves a regularly-changing selection of 10 cocktails which currently includes Kill the Cook  made with tequila, red pepper and yellow Chartreuse  and another denoted simply by the lips emoji made in honour of Dick Bradsell, the late barman and inventor of the espresso martini. Thompson expects to see more bars taking the same approach when it comes to nestling inside pubs.S mall kitchens call for creative problem solving - finding ways to use what little equipment you have to come up with great dishes.

Just think of the TV cook and author Rachel Khoo, made famous by her BBC 2 series The Little Paris Kitchen, where she showed it was possible to cook and serve classic French dishes from inside a kitchen barely big enough to swing a saucepan.

When Rick and Katie Toogood came up with their idea for Prawn on the Lawn in Islington, they planned to start a small, informal fishmonger-style operation where people might also slide in for a glass of wine with some oysters. This did well, enabling them to expand downstairs - but with only a retail license, the Toogoods were restricted in what food they could serve, giving Rick the challenge of experimenting with ceviches, pickles, cures and poaching fish. It was challenging at first, but I soon enjoyed coming up with new dishes every week: the key note of every dish was to allow the fish to shine through. This he writes in his and Katies new cookbook, Prawn on the Lawn: fish and seafood to share.

From the start the couple - neither of whom were trained chefs, but both had a passion for the industry - worked very closely with fisherman in Padstow, Cornwall, to supply them with fresh produce on a regular basis. This meant visiting the area regularly until the return journey to London became harder and harder. Eventually they opened a second restaurant nearby, this time with a bigger kitchen.

Their new book is charming, offering fun and straightforward ideas for cooking a range of fish and seafood. After an introduction written by one of Cornwalls seafood masters, Mitch Tonks, who writes of Ricks real connection to what he cooking and the joy of eating in either of the PONL restaurants, they tell their own story. Theres also a short paragraph on sourcing (dont be afraid to ask your fishmonger questions) and on the importance of sterilizing pickling jars.

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Among the recipes are a few key marinades, suggestions for cold tapas (smoked mackerel pate or ndjua squid, for example), hot tapas (crispy Falmouth Bay shrimp with sriracha creme fraiche or crab-stuffed courgette flowers) and large plates (Schezuan prawns and brill with lardo and red onions), alongside sides (brown shrimp with asparagus or tomato and tarragon salad), desserts and cocktails.

The book assumes some prior knowledge of fish and seafood - say, in understanding how to prepare the produce for cooking. This is fine, but given how straightforward the recipes are and therefore the wide range of readers it might attract, Id have liked a short tip next to each dish, from them or a fishmonger, pointing out what to look for when buying the fish, and how to prepare it before cooking.

Beyond that I like how easy it is to follow their instructions and come up with fresh, delicious dishes. The short booze pairing tips (wine or beer) next to each recipe also works well.

This is an easygoing, unpretentious book of recipes that I hope to return to.

Prawn on the Lawn: Fish and seafood to share

What Victoria cooked:

Starter: Scallop ceviche

This was the easiest of the lot to prepare, but its success relies on sharp knives and good quality fish from the fishmonger. Once youve made the tiger milk by blitzing lime, celery, garlic and green chilli, you need to ladle it over the scallop before adding red chilli and passion fruit. The lime smacks you in the face, although isnt overwhelmed by chilli, and both allow the flavour of the fish to come through. This is a good show dish, but not necessarily apt for a dinner party given that you have to finish it up the moment before you want to serve in order not to overpower the scallops.

Main: Mackerel curry with toasted peanuts

This isnt so much a curry as a curry marinade to put over fish. In any case, its easy to follow - frying onions, garlic and chilli, toasting spices, and whizzing it all up into a paste to place over the fish - and is fresh and flavoursome. Using fillets instead of whole mackerels, I laid the mixture over the top of these for three quarters of the cooking time, and all three received high praise from my friends.

Pudding: Salted caramel pot

This was the only let down of the three, as the quantities were all wrong. Once Id made the caramel and ladled it over crumbled Amaretti biscuits, I put each pot in the fridge as suggested but after 20 minutes - unsurprisingly - the whole thing had set solid making it virtually impossible to cut through. On its own the mixture was alright (who can argue with caramel and biscuits), but the best mouthfuls incorporated the creme fraiche, mint and raspberry for balance.P olice are hunting two men who tried to abduct a 13-year-old girl at knifepoint in a terrifying ordeal.

The girl was grabbed by the two men as she walked down Granville Gardens in Norbury, south London, during the afternoon of Sunday, February 18.

They forced her into an alley at knifepoint before tying her hands together.

Police say that while the two men were talking and distracted, the girl managed to escape, running into Norbury High Road where she was able to call her family.

The girl was targeted by the two men some time between 2.45pm and 4.20pm after the girl got off a number 250 bus at Green Lanes.

Det Insp Dan OSullivan, of Croydon CID, said: Incidents of this nature are very rare, and officers are doing all they can to identify the individuals and bring them to justice. We have stepped up patrols in the area and have been speaking with the local schools to raise awareness among teachers, parents and young people.

There is no doubt that this was a terrifying experience for a young girl in broad daylight. It has caused a great deal of anguish for the victim and her family.

Fortunately, thanks to her quick wit she was able to get away from the suspects and to safety.

Police believe the suspects followed the girl from the bus stop.

Both suspects are described as white. One was aged 18 to 23, around 5ft 9ins tall, with short brown hair, blue eyes and a London accent.

He had a black mask covering half his face, and was wearing a thin black jacket, blue work-style trousers, white trainers and a Nike bag.

The second man is aged 25 to 29, about 5ft 7ins tall, with blue eyes and wearing a black balaclava, grey hoodie, black trousers and white trainers.T heresa May hit back today after the European Union issued proposals to annex Northern Ireland by creating a customs border between the province and the mainland. She said: No UK prime minister could ever agree to it.

In a bombshell development, Brussels published a legal text calling for Northern Ireland to remain subject to EU laws, including membership of the customs union.

Irish prime minister Leo Varadkar hailed the idea of a common regulatory area, which he said would avoid any risk of physical border checks reappearing on the 310-mile border between Northern Ireland and the Republic.

Michel Barnier, the EUs negotiator, said the 120-page legal text should hold no surprises since the UK had promised to avoid a hard border, which all sides say would endanger the Good Friday Agreement of 1998. Mr Barnier said the EU proposals were based on legal principles, facts and solutions which are concrete and realistic.

Brexiteers accused the EU of trying to exploit tensions in Northern Ireland / PA

The plans drew outrage from Ulster unionists, who called them offensive, and from Brexiteers, who accused the EU of trying to exploit tensions in Northern Ireland to bounce the whole UK into remaining subject to EU law.

Ian Paisley Jr, one of the 10 Democratic Unionist Party MPs propping up Mrs Mays government in Westminster, urged her to show some teeth.

The ex-Cabinet minister and Brexiteer David Jones accused the EU of trying to annex Northern Ireland. Mrs May told MPs in the Commons today: The draft legal text the [European] Commission has published would, if implemented, undermine the UK common market and threaten [the] constitutional integrity of the UK by creating a customs and regulatory border down the Irish Sea. No UK prime minister could ever agree to it.

She said she would make it crystal-clear to Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker and others that we will never do so. Mrs May also said she would not betray the British people. In other developments:

The EUs long-awaited draft legal text also called for the European Court of Justice to be the arbiter in treaty disputes, flouting Mrs Mays red line that it must have no sway over UK affairs.

It also rejected her plan to give less favourable rights to EU citizens who arrive in the transition period compared with those here before its scheduled start in March 2019.

Mr Barnier warned that the agreement of a transition period of about two years was not a given, implying there could be a full Brexit next year.

The draft text said: A common regulatory area comprising the Union and the United Kingdom in respect of Northern Ireland is hereby established. The common regulatory area shall constitute an area without internal borders in which the free movement of goods is ensured and North-South co-operation protected. Northern Ireland would be subject to full alignment with those rules of the Unions internal market and the customs union which, now or in the future, support North-South cooperation, the all-island economy and the protection of the 1998 Agreement until a better solution was shown to work.

Mr Barnier said alternative solutions were unlikely to be ready by the end of the transition period, expected to finish in Christmas 2020. This is a backstop solution that we have to put in the withdrawal agreement, he said. It is the only way to guarantee that our joint commitments will be upheld.I relands prime minister openly attacked Boris Johnson today as a growing impasse over Northern Ireland threatened to derail Brexit talks.

Leo Varadkar tore into the Foreign Secretarys claim that Londons congestion charge showed that technology could avoid a hard border between Northern Ireland and the Republic.

Its really up to those who cant accept the backstop to actually come up with those alternative solutions, Mr Varadkar said. He added scathingly: It cant be theoretical stuff about congestion charges.

Amid rising tensions, a Brexit-backing former Cabinet minister, David Jones, accused the EU of trying to annex Northern Ireland.

Boris Johnson compares London Borough boundaries to Irish border

A former senior European Commissioner, Karel De Gucht, said the entire Brexit negotiations were heading at a fast pace... towards a cliff edge.

The border issue was the biggest blockage expected in a 120-page legal text due out from the European Union today.

Mr Johnson was in hot water after a leaked letter revealed that he foresaw the border between Northern Ireland and Ireland could become significantly harder after Brexit, contrary to government assurances it would be frictionless. Fellow senior ministers distanced themselves from his letter, sent to Theresa May two weeks ago. One told the Standard: It is not Government policy. Asked if it showed that a hard border was being contemplated, the minister said: By the Foreign Secretary.

Mr Varadkar caused consternation by suggesting that Northern Ireland could become part of a common regulatory area with full single market rules covering the island of Ireland, separate from the UK mainland.

In the same way that we have a common travel area between Britain and Ireland we could have a common regulatory area involving Northern Ireland, he claimed.

Mr Johnson hit back: What is going on is that the issue of the Northern Irish border is being used quite a lot politically to try and keep the UK in the customs union  effectively the single market  so we cannot really leave the EU. That is what is going on. The leak of Mr Johnsons letter was seen by Brexiteers as an attempt to undermine the ministers public case for divergence from EU regulation in the UK.

Michel Barnier outlines Irish border commitments

It is a very positive letter, Mr Johnson told Sky News after a morning jog. He hit out at the inverted pyramid of objections over the issue.

Former prime minister Sir John Major was set to intervene this afternoon in a speech. With the 30th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement falling on April 10, he was expected to make the case for closer alignment.

Former Foreign Office mandarin Sir Simon Fraser warned that todays text shifted negotiations onto a legal phase where the Government could no longer get by on creative ambiguity. When the lawyers are in the room you have to have precision, you have to nail things down, he said.

On the back of the leaked letter, Northern Ireland Secretary Karen Bradley said the Government remained committed to no new border infrastructure on the island of Ireland.Activists rally for gun reform at the Florida State Capitol on February 26, 2018, in Tallahassee, Florida. Photo: Don Juan Moore/Getty Images

On the morning a psychopath with 24 semiautomatic rifles murdered 58 people in Las Vegas, Nevada, last fall, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee sent its candidates a stern warning: Now was not the time to talk about gun violence.

You and your candidate will be understandably outraged and upset, as will your community. However, DO NOT POLITICIZE IT TODAY, the DCCC regional press secretary Evan Lukaske instructed candidates in the Northeast, in an email obtained by the Huffington Post. There will be time for politics and policy discussion, but any message today should be on offering thoughts/prayers for victims and their families, and thanking 1st responders who saved lives.

This was just one missive from a single DCCC employee. But it reflected a broader fear among Democratic operatives that the party had little to gain  and much to lose  from a renewed debate over gun control. And this assessment was understandable: The chances of passing meaningful gun reform with Trump in the White House looked to be roughly 0 percent; meanwhile, for Democrats to keep their red-state senators  and reclaim purple-state governorships  in 2018, they would need to over-perform in rural America, where NRA members disproportionately live. So why start a losing fight on guns, the logic goes, when you could keep the focus on health care and Donald Trumps myriad affronts to common decency?

But the survivors of the Parkland massacre dont take their talking points from the DCCC. And they wasted no time before politicizing their (inherently political) tragedy. The theater kids of Marjory Stoneman Douglas didnt lace their appeals for gun reform with pieties about the Second Amendment, but with diatribes against the NRAs blood money. They didnt stick to poll-tested prescriptions like universal background checks (with no enforcement mechanism); they heartily applauded a ban on all semiautomatic weapons. In short: They did exactly what the DCCC begged its candidates not to do.

And theyre winning. As the New York Times reports:

In Minnesota, a Democratic candidate for governor with rural roots is running from his past affiliation with the National Rifle Association. In South Florida, endangered House Republicans are embracing an assault weapons ban. In Ohio, the moderate Democratic candidate for governor, feeling heat from his left, is embracing a more stringent gun-violence platform than his past relations with the N.R.A. would suggest.

 On the Republican side, Gov. Bill Haslam of Tennessee, who runs the Republican Governors Association but does not have to run again, gave his party a blunt warning about the political challenge staring it in the face: voters particularly among suburban women, are mobilizing for gun control.

When you have something put into stark dramatization like Florida, than I think that gets peoples attention. And they say, theres got to be certain things we can do, said Mr. Haslam, who called for raising the age limit on gun purchases over the N.R.A.s opposition.

A Southern GOP governor is warning his party that Republicans are on the wrong side of the gun issue. This is what it sounds like when the tectonic plates beneath American politics shift.

Over the past two weeks, polls have registered a significant, leftward swing in public opinion on gun control  one that has almost certainly been engineered by the Parkland students activism. But the concern among (some) Republican candidates and operatives isnt exclusively a reaction to the shift in public opinion  universal background checks have boasted upwards of 90 percent support for years, and the GOP has blithely opposed them nonetheless.

The other critical factor, as Haslam suggests, is the centrality of the suburbs to the 2018 midterms. Once a reliable bastion of Republican politics, suburban areas have been moving leftward for decades  and the Trump-Clinton race accelerated that long-term trend. Now, the Democratic Partys path back to a House majority runs through historically Republican suburban districts that split their tickets in 2016.

Whats more, as Laura Putnam and Theda Skocpol demonstrate in Democracy Journal, suburban women in middle America have been the core of the Democratic resistance to Trump  they have made up the bulk of the organizers who are revitalizing state parties and winning special elections from coast to coast.

For decades, Democratic strategists have seen gun control as an issue that could help the party make inroads with suburban voters. The convergence of a galvanizing national tragedy and protest movement  with a midterm environment that gives disproportionate voice and influence to suburban voters  has made this a uniquely bad time for the Republican Party to perform its fealty to the NRA. And yet, many GOP candidates have been forced to do exactly that. On Monday, the Republican front-runner in Georgias governors race vowed to block a tax cut for Delta Airlines, unless the company restored discounts for NRA members  signaling that hes willing to put the ambitions of far-right activists over both the concerns of suburban moderates, and the needs of Atlantas business community.

Thus, most Democratic House candidates would do well to politicize the gun issue. As political analyst Sean McElwee, using regression modeling to extrapolate district-level political opinion from national survey data, finds:

[I]n the average DCCC target district, support for closing the gun show loophole (background checks for all sales, including at gun shows and over the internet is how the question is worded) is a whopping 88 percent; support for an assault weapon ban (ban assault weapons) is 61 percent.

To be sure, Democrats still face some risks in elevating the salience of gun policy, especially in a few of the Senates key battlegrounds. But all things considered, Team Blue has rarely had more to gain  and less to lose  by bringing progressive values to a gun fight.T wo homes worth 22 million and owned by a foreign tycoon today became the first to be targeted using a new law to tackle McMafia style criminals in Britain.

The National Crime Agency said that the 11 million London home and a mansion of similar value not far from the capital were both on unexplained wealth orders that it had obtained from the High Court.

The orders require the owner of the homes to show that they were bought with money from a legitimate source. If he is unable to do so, both will be seized.

The legal action is the first time that unexplained wealth orders have been issued and comes only weeks after legislation allowing them to be obtained came into force.

The action is likely to be welcomed by anti-corruption campaigners who have claimed that London property worth hundreds of millions of pounds has been bought with dirty money in recent decades. Ministers have also expressed concern about illicit funds being channelled through London and into high-end property in the capital, while the recent BBC drama McMafia has further highlighted the problem.

Full details of the homes targeted under the new orders obtained today have not been disclosed. The identity of their alleged owner, who is believed to hold the properties via associates, will also remain confidential while the court process continues.

Announcing its action today, however, the National Crime Agency said that it had also obtained freezing orders which would prevent either home being sold until the High Court had ruled on the source of the money used to buy them.

It added: The NCA has secured two unexplained wealth orders to investigate assets totalling 22 million that are believed to ultimately be owned by a politically exposed person. These are the first such orders granted and represent the first time the legislation will be tested through the court.B oris Johnson appears to have told Theresa May it is not up to Britain to stop a hard border in Ireland after Brexit, a leaked memo has revealed.

The Foreign Secretary instead said the Government should focus on stopping the Irish border becoming "significantly" harder after Brexit.

In the letter to the Prime Minister, he says "it is wrong to see the task as maintaining 'no border"' but instead the aim was to stop the frontier becoming "significantly harder".

Border comments: Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson / BBC

Mr Johnson had said "there's no border between Camden and Westminster" as he suggested that goods crossing between the Republic and Northern Ireland could be subject to electronic checks, in an apparent reference to the congestion charge.

The letter seemed to add to his thinking on the issue, saying that "even if a hard border is reintroduced, we would expect to see 95 per cent + of goods pass the border (without) checks".

The document from the Foreign Secretary, entitled "The Northern Ireland/Ireland border - the Facilitated Solution", accompanies a "concept note" that "draws on Foreign Office expertise".

It follows Mr Johnsons promise last year there would be no new hard border between the North and the Republic.

Boris Johnson compares London Borough boundaries to Irish border

He said the border would be absolutely unchanged during the Brexit referendum campaign.

The leak comes a day ahead of the publication of the European Commission's draft text for the withdrawal deal.

This will include procedures for putting into operation the "alignment" of Northern Irish regulations with the EU rulebook, which will be needed if no technological solution is found to keep the border with the Republic open after Brexit.

Whitehall sources insisted that there was agreement the task was not about "no border" but "it's about no hard border".

Mr Johnson's comparison of the Irish border to north London was dismissed as "willful recklessness" and "unbelievable" by Labour MPs.

Responding, Labour anti-Brexit MP David Lammy tweeted "God help us all this isn't just stupidity and ignorance but wilful recklessness", while Paul Blomfield said it was "unbelievable".

Mr Johnson's border comments were mocked by Tottenham Labour MP Mr Lammy, who said on Twitter: "When I was a young boy we were told to stay away from the Troubles on the Caledonian Rd & marching bands in Regent's Park. The Chalk Farm Peace Agreement has brought peace in our time. People can get the tube from Camden Town to Finsbury Park without being searched at the border."M ax Mosley has denied lying in court about a racist pamphlet he is said to have signed which claimed "coloured immigrants threaten your children's health".

Asked if he had perjured himself on an interview with Channel 4 news on Tuesday evening, Mr Mosley replied: "That is a very offensive suggestion that you shouldn't make."

He said: "I have never been a racist, I am not a racist, never will be a racist."

The former F1 boss, 77, told the High Court in a privacy case in 2008 that reports he was involved in a leaflet distributed by the candidate for his father Sir Oswald Mosley's party were "absolute nonsense".

The case, in which Mr Mosley successfully sued the News of the World for breach of privacy after it published details of an orgy with five prostitutes, touched on the distribution of the leaflet during the 1961 by-election in Moss Side, Manchester.

It was sent out on behalf of Union Movement candidate Walter Hesketh when Mr Mosley was acting as his election agent.

Held in the Working Class Movement Library in Salford it reads: "Let us give the coloured people a fair deal by sending them back to good jobs and good wages at home in Jamaica."

It also suggested immigration was linked to "tuberculosis, VD and other terrible diseases".

Asked by the newspaper's QC Mark Warby in the 2008 case if there was "any truth" in reports of the pamphlet, Mr Mosley replied that they were "absolute nonsense".

The leaflet was not produced in court but now the Daily Mail has obtained a copy and bears Mr Mosley's name at the bottom.

Mr Mosley told C4 that he believed what he said in court at the time was true and still believes that now.

Asked about the line "coloured immigration threatens your children's health" Mr Mosley said: "I think that probably is racist, I will concede that completely."

But he said he had "no reason to apologise to anyone" adding: "This was a statement in a leaflet which I am not even sure is genuine, which would never reflect my view, it would not reflect my view then or now because I simply wouldn't dream of insulting people."

He has also suggested its publication is linked to his current attempts to have historic articles relating to the orgy erased under data protection laws.

Mr Mosley added to reporters: "It appears that the historical investigation pursued by the Daily Mail is yet another misconceived attempt to intimidate and deter me.M eghan Markle today said women dont need to find their voice - they need people to listen - as the royal fab four carried out their first public engagement together.

She spoke out as she joined fiance Prince Harry and the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge at an event in the City to showcase their charity work.

Speaking at the event themed Making a Difference, Ms Markle admitted she was very excited to begin her work with the Royal Foundation, calling the work her future husband, and brother and sister-in-law had already done tremendous.

She told an audience she had experience working with both international charities and smaller organisations, which worked well because of a lot less red tape.

Chris Jackson - WPA Pool/Getty Images

She hinted towards focussing on women and girls rights in the work she does.

Women dont need to find a voice, they have a voice, they need to feel empowered to use it and people need to be encouraged to listen, she said.

I think right now in the climate where we are seeing so many campaigns like Me Too and Times Up, there is no better time than to really continue to shine a light on women feeling empowered and people really helping to support them...and that makes such a tremendous difference.

Meghan Markle and the Duchess of Cambridge at today's event / PA

The American bride-to-be wore a navy Jason Wu outfit, while the pregnant Duchess wore a royal blue Seraphine dress.

Kate said, Many of you came together to advise us, and help us, to develop and implement our ideas. I am sure the impact we had as a whole, by engaging on this together, was the reason we were so successful in pushing these issues further into the public consciousness.

Royal Foundation Forum - In pictures 1 /8 Royal Foundation Forum - In pictures Meghan Markle and the Duchess of Cambridge attend the first annual Royal Foundation Forum held at Aviva Getty Images Prince Harry, Meghan Markle and the Duchess of Cambridge attend the first annual Royal Foundation Forum held at Aviva Getty Images Meghan Markle and the Duchess of Cambridge attend the first annual Royal Foundation Forum held at Aviva Getty Images Meghan Markle and the Duchess of Cambridge during the first Royal Foundation Forum PA Meghan Markle and the Duchess of Cambridge during the first Royal Foundation Forum Getty Images Meghan Markle and the Duchess of Cambridge during the first Royal Foundation Forum PA Prince Harry, Meghan Markle, the Duchess of Cambridge and Prince William, Duke of Cambridge attend the first annual Royal Foundation Forum held at Aviva PA Prince Harry, Meghan Markle, the Duchess of Cambridge and Prince William, Duke of Cambridge attend the first annual Royal Foundation Forum held at Aviva Getty Images

The long-term focus is another unique feature of The Foundation and central to the way it operates. Since our roles are lifetime roles, our commitment to the work we do through The Foundation is genuinely long-term.

The work we do can, and should, have a long-lasting resonance. For this reason, we are able to support causes which we're passionate about for decades into the future. Rather than just for a few months or years.

Like The Queen, The Duke of Edinburgh, and The Prince of Wales, we feel strongly that we have to take a long-term view that is measured in generations.

"This perspective allows us to take time to really learn about and understand the issues, and then assemble the right group of experts and partners to form coalitions to create sustainable solutions, she said.

"It is an unusual and privileged position to be in, but I do think this long-term view will ultimately help us make a difference in the areas that we care so passionately about."

MeghansFashion.com blog identified Ms Markles dress as Wus Crepe Back Satin Belted Wrap Dress, which costs around 1,372.

Prince William described todays event as a special day and said he was particularly happy that his future sister-in-law had joined him, Kate and Harry at the inaugural Royal Foundation Forum.

Ms Markle will formally become the fourth patron of foundation following her wedding to Harry on May 19.D riving with snow on a car in the UK can lead to a fine or points on your licence.

The UK was hit with a fresh dump of the white stuff on Saturday and Sunday after a blast of Siberian air hit the country for the second time in March.

Dubbed the "Mini Beast from the East", the cold snap sparked treacherous conditions on the roads with cars becoming stranded in some areas overnight.

Highways England has urged drivers to brush the snow off their cars before setting out so that it does not blow into vehicles following behind.

It said in a statement on Twitter: "If you plan of travelling in the bad weather, please ensure you clear the snow from the top of your vehicle before travelling, this can become dislodged and obscure visibility.

"Please make sure you are fully prepared with food, water and warm clothes. Only travel if necessary."

Five tips for driving in the snow

Drivers must "remove all snow that might fall into the path of other road users", according to section 229 of the Highway Code.

This includes windows, mirrors and the roof of the vehicle, the AA said.

Technically, there is no road law that says it is illegal to drive with snow on your car but the Highway Code stipulates that if you're driving in adverse weather conditions you must, by law, be able to see out of every glass panel in your vehicle. Section 41D of the Road Traffic Act also states that it is a legal requirement to have a clear view of the road before setting off.

Snow hits the UK - March 17 2018 1 /25 Snow hits the UK - March 17 2018 Men look at a car trapped after snow fall in Coalville REUTERS A man digs a Landrover out of a snow drift in Coalville REUTERS Gardner Chris Orton tends to the Crocus garden at Wallington Hall in Northumberland PA Scottie Dog Douglas in the snow in Glasgow PA Men dig a Landrover out of a snow drift in Coalville REUTERS Cars in snow on Blackstone Edge near Littleborough in Greater Manchester PA Horses are covered in snow on the hills surrounding Merthyr Tydfil in Wales PA A stranded coach on Blackstone Edge near Littleborough in Greater Manchester PA Horses are covered in snow on the hills surrounding Merthyr Tydfil in Wales PA Horses are covered in snow on the hills surrounding Merthyr Tydfil in Wales PA A woman cleans snow off a car in Bristol PA A woman cleans snow off a car in Bristol PA People taking part in the Grindleford Gallop, a 21-mile fell race, on Curbar Edge in the Peak District PA A snow storm in Car Colston, Nottinghamshire. PA A jogger braves the snow near Hyde Park, central London Getty Images A woman battles icy winds in Kesington Gardens Getty Images Snow blankets Brockwell Park in Herne Hill Dylan the dog enjoys the snow in Grovelands Park, north London Spring flowers brighten up wintery scenes in Kensington Gardens Getty Images An Egyptian goose looks less than impressed by the weather Getty Images Londoners shelter from the snow under umbrellas outside Kensington Palace Getty Images Fresh snow covers the pitch after a flurry ahead of the English Premier League football match between Stoke City and Everton at the Bet365 Stadium in Stoke-on-Trent AFP/Getty Images A woman braves plunging temperatures in west London Getty Images Snow flurries settled in Beckenham, south east London A woman feeds the birds as temperatures plunge Getty Images

If you are caught with snow on your car, you could be given a 60 fine and have three points added to your licence.

Offences like "driving without due consideration" or "careless driving" can be applied if you were driving with snow on your roof or elsewhere on your car and it blew off onto another vehicle and caused an accident.

Luke Bosdet, a spokesman for the AA said that the consequences of a snowy roof could be much worse if it causes an accident.

If you are in an accident and it is the contributing factor then in terms of punishment the skys the limit, he said.

'Mini beast from the east' grips the UK

If a driver is charged with careless driving the fine could be as high as 5000.

The spokesman warned that it was very dangerous to leave snow on the roof of your car.

He said: You are driving along and you become one big car blizzard.

If the snow is frozen and comes off in chunks it could be very dangerous for cyclists and other cars.

The Met Office has put an amber warning for snow in place until 3am on Monday for parts of south-west England, while yellow warnings for snow and ice cover nearly the whole of the UK until midnight.T he British arm of Toys R Us collapsed into administration today putting some 3,200 jobs at risk.

On a brutal day for the high street, technology retailer Maplin, which has 200 stores around the UK and Ireland and employs 2,500 people, also went into administration, and it was reported that pasta chain Prezzo was closing 100 branches.

Toys R Us, which has 105 stores, could not to stave off financial disaster after a desperate search for a new owner ended in failure.

This meant a 15 million VAT bill due this week could not be paid, forcing the appointment of administrators. The company is also estimated to have a 25 million shortfall in its pension fund.

It is the highest-profile victim of tough conditions on the high street since BHS went bust two years ago. Analysts said the business, which arrived in Britain in 1985, was caught in a perfect storm by the rise of internet rivals such as Amazon, changing shopping expectations and high rents.

The shops, many in large warehouses on the edge of towns and cities, will stay open as stock is sold in clearance sales. However, shoppers will no longer be able to order online or use click and collect. Gift cards and vouchers will continue to be honoured although customers are urged to use them quickly before stores shut down for good.

Customers who have put down deposits for higher-value goods have been given until March 11 to pay the balance or risk losing their money.

Maplin chief executive Graham Harris said: I can confirm it has not been possible to secure a solvent sale of the business and as a result we now have no alternative but to enter into an administration process. During this process Maplin will continue to trade and remains open for business.

The business has worked hard over recent months to mitigate a combination of impacts from sterling devaluation post-Brexit, a weak consumer environment and the withdrawal of credit insurance.

Simon Thomas and Arron Kendall, partners at insolvency firm Moorfields Advisory, were appointed joint administrators of Toys R Us. They said in a statement: We will be conducting an orderly wind-down over the coming weeks. All stores remain open until further notice and stock will be subject to clearance and special promotions.

We will make every effort to secure a buyer for all or part of the business. The newer, smaller, more interactive stores in the portfolio have been outperforming the older warehouse-style stores that were opened in the Eighties and Nineties. Whilst this process is likely to affect many Toys R Us staff, whether some or all of the stores will close remains to be decided.

We have informed employees about the process and will continue to keep them updated. We are grateful for the commitment and hard work of employees. The administration does not affect Toy R Us stores outside the UK. The parent company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in America in September.This week's UK forecast

Here is the latest from Met Office meteorologist Charlie Powell on this week's forecast for the whole of the UK.

He said: "The UK is on track for some really cold weather this week. It's not going to be record-breaking, but it'll be pretty exceptional - winds are going to make it feel minus 10C (14F) to minus 15C (5F) during the day.

"We will see the first signs of that tonight in the shape of snow showers working all the way down the east coast.

"That continues into Monday, with snow showers moving across the country during the day before reaching Wales.

"Winds are then going to strengthen and we could see some easterly gales through the eastern Channel and east Anglia by the middle of the week.

"That's going to make it feel really cold, daytime temperatures on Wednesday and Thursday will be struggling to get above freezing for most of the country."

He added: "By Thursday evening, there are growing signs there could be some significant snowfall across southern England.

"Unusually for Britain, the snow is going to be quite dry, so it will blow around and gather in drifts and we could see some blizzard conditions.T he UK's red alert for snow grew today as forecasters issued their highest possible warning for another part of the country as Storm Emma held the country in its icy grasp.

The Met Office warned of heavy snow, blizzard conditions and very strong easterly winds hitting the south west.

The National Grid has also issued a gas deficit warning sparking fears that supplies could run empty.

Some areas were expected to see freezing rain on Thursday night. Commuters were warned of long delays and cancellations of public transport.

Forecasters said roads in the south west are likely to become blocked by deep snow, stranding vehicles and passengers.

UK Weather: Beast from the East freeze - In pictures 1 /64 UK Weather: Beast from the East freeze - In pictures Snow storm over London NPASLondon/Twitter The frozen canal at Little Venice, London Jeremy Selwyn A multi-car collision on the M66 NEAR Ramsbottom and Bury Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service (GMFRS) Ice climbers at Kinder Downfall, High Peak in Derbyshire PA RFA Tidespring battles powerful weather conditions sparked by the Beast from the East EPA/Ministry of Defence Members of 1st Battalion Welsh Guards take part in a snow ball fight prior to the combined St David's Day celebration and pre-deployment service at Elizabeth Barracks, Pirbright, Surrey PA A police car on fire on the M62 near Huddersfield. PA Andrea Geile skies along Princes Street in Edinburgh PA Heavy snowfall hits St Paul's Cathedral Zuma / Splash News Storm clouds over Dublin Bay PA Paddington Station today Jeremy Selwyn The M876 to Glasgow is closed PA A man walks in the snowy conditions in Larbert PA Edinburgh Castle in the snow PA Members of the public make their way through snow the streets in Alexandria, Scotland Getty Images Jock the Shih Tzu plays in the snow Getty Images Waterloo Station tracks covered in snow Jeremy Selwyn A man clears snow in Alexandria, Scotland Getty Images Snow-covered members of the public walk through heavy snow in Westminster Getty Images A stranded car covered in snow in Whitley Bay in Tyne and Wear PA Police push a car on the on the M80 Haggs in Glasgow PA A blizzard hit Trafalgar Square School children from Wearhead Primary School, in County Durham, which stands more than 1,100 feet (335m) above sea level and which remained open despite blizzards thanks to teachers battling through the elements and a parent with a digger PA Snow continues to fall in Westminster Jeremy Selwyn A man clears snow from a car in Larbert PA Fabio Fodaro cycles during a blizzard at Helix Park in Falkirk PA The scene on the M80 Haggs in Glasgow PA Police push a car on the on the M80 Haggs in Glasgow PA Huge crowds outside Oxford Circus Tube station @_kathyharvey People walk in the snow on Horse Guards Parade Reuters Whiteout: Londoners brave the snow in Piccadilly Circus Tony Villalon Three-year-old Wilfred Martin, enjoys sledding in the snow in Richmond Park, Londo PA Victor the polar bear enjoys the snow at the Yorkshire Wildlife Park in Doncaster PA Giant waves crash over Seaham lighthouse near Durham as the "Beast from the East" brings heavy snow and freezing temperatures to much of the country PA Spectacular sunrise over Canary Wharf James Burns/London from the Rooftops Vehicles get stuck on a hill on the A30 near Land's End in Cornwall following heavy snow that made driving conditions difficult PA Battersea looking beautiful in the snow Hatty Collier People walk their dogs on Blyth Beach in Northumberland PA A swimmer braves the snowy conditions at King Edwards bay near Tynemouth PA Frozen foutains at Trafalgar Square Jeremy Selwyn Stationary traffic on the M20 near Ashford, Kent PA Pedestrians cross Whitehall as snow falls AP Pedestrians walk across millennium bridge in front of St Paul's as heavy snowfall hits London AFP/Getty Images A snow-covered Tube train early today Londoners woke to wintry scenes Jeremy Selwyn A lorry shed its load on the M20 overnight Kent Police RPU Snow falls on Wimbledon Common Alex Lentati A London bus travels through the snow in Oxford street EPA Snow surrounds the Angel of the North in Gateshead PA People walk past Buckingham Palac PA People walk along Bankside, London in the snow PA Snow at Horse guards in London Jeremy Selwyn Rare snow seen at Brighton Beach James Mayes Toby Stanton walks to school in Ashford, Kent, as heavy snowfall is affecting roads across the UK PA Highways England/Twitter Cars travel through Great Chart in Ashford, Kent PA A Eurostar train passes through Ashford, Kent PA Vehicles on the M20 between Junctions 8 and 9, as heavy snowfall is affecting roads across the UK PA A double decker bus carefully makes it way through the snowfall in London Jeremy Selwyn Cars drive through falling snow on the A41 in Hemel Hempstead Jeremy Selwyn Parents walk their children to school in Ashford, Kent PA Newcastle Quayside following heavy overnight snowfall PA Walkers in the snow near to Another Place by Anthony Gormley, on Crosby Beech near LiverpooL PA Fishing boats moored in Scarborough harbour PA Commuters battle the snoiw across London Bridge Jeremy Selwyn

There were also warnings of power, gas and water outages and danger from falling trees and other structures due to snow and ice.

The Met Office has expanded its red weather warning to the south west of England

The National Grid warned the country's gas supplies were running at a deficit as supply fell 50m cubic short of expected demand on Thursday.

Britain covered in snow in a satellite image taken yesterday afternoon / University of Dundee

A red alert is already in place for parts of Scotland.

It came as some fifty stations were shut in Kent and London.

Londoners brave the icy conditions in Westminster today / Jeremy Selwyn

Temperatures plunged to a widespread low of between -6C and -4C overnight, and forecasters have warned it could feel as cold as -11C during the day as the winds continue to strengthen.

London is expected to be hit with further heavy snow this morning as Storm Emma, rolling in from the Atlantic, meets the Beast from the East's chilly Russia air.

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The rest of the UK is braced for more "blizzard-like" conditions.

Southeastern Railway has announced the closure of some 50 stations, including Bromley North and Albany Park in south-east London, amid the bitter chill.

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The train company has advised passengers to work from home or postpone their journeys if possible.

A spokesman said: Well be running a modified timetable to provide a more reliable service for our passengers.

Londoners share incredible pictures of sunrise in the snow 1 /23 Londoners share incredible pictures of sunrise in the snow A Spectacular sunrise over Canary Wharf James Burns/London from the Rooftops Amazing sunrise Tim Walker Tower Bridge glinting in the dawn sun Twitter/WECMotorsport Kensington Palace in the snow View of dawn breaking from Barbican, London James Burns/London from the Rooftops Bob Sanders captured this stunning sunrise over Jubilee river near Windsor Bob Sanders Piccadilly Circus in the snow Yahoo UK/Chris Parsons Sunrise in Battersea Hatty Collier Even boats had snow hats Twitter/TowerRNLI Clear skies as the sun rose Twitter/GreenwichLove Sunrise over the London skyline James Burns/London from the Rooftops Kensington Palace in the snow today Justin Davenport Honor Oak Park in the snow Martin Bentham The sun rises over the M4 Sally Blackmore Kensington Palace in the snow Justin Davenport A couple walk their dog through the snow and past the bandstand in Southwark Park AP A beutiful morning in Hertfordshire @SW1GG A woman jogging in the snow in Canary Wharf, London Victoria Jones/PA Sunrise over Richmond Station Gareth Richman A man cycles on a snow covered path in Southwark Park in south London AP Beautiful pink skies Twitter/Silk_Lodhi The morning light was bright in the snow Twitter/Dazzlinghes The sun rises over snow-covered London Twitter/PitshangerW5

This will mean reduced services on some lines, the closure of some stations and changes to the times of those trains that are running.

"We're advising our passengers, if they can, to work from home or postpone their journey, and if they do decide to make their journey, to allow themselves extra time and make sure you check before they travel.

There are 50 station closures across Kent (Southeastern)

Other train services, including South Western Railway and c2c, are running an amended timetable.

Greater Anglia has tweeted that it is expecting disruption while Southern says it is hoping to run a normal service on most routes.

Paddington Station was closed from 8am today owing to the severe weather conditions. Trains from the west country were only travelling as far as Reading.

Meanwhile more disruption is expected at Londons airports, with Gatwick Airport expecting "a large number of cancellations and delays to flights".

London City Airport tweeted this morning advising passengers to check the status of their flights before travelling.

Severe delays were reported on the Piccadilly, Jubilee and Metropolitan lines, while there were minor delays on the Northern line and London Overground.

Elsewhere in the UK, as winds picked up overnight, drifting snow caused misery for many motorists, with some parts recording accumulations up to a foot deep.

Watch amazing timelapse showing London waking up to blanket of snow

In Lincolnshire, police said the A52 had become impassable between Boston and Skegness, and warned that officers would not be able to rescue stuck drivers.

Not even a snowplough was able to get through, the fire service said.

There was also misery for drivers in Scotland  where the highest level of weather warning, a red alert, remains in place until 10am on Thursday.

Motorists on the M80 near Glasgow reported being stuck for up to 13 hours, with some spending the night in their cars, and others abandoning their vehicles on the motorway.

Gusts of up to 60mph could also bring "blizzard-like conditions".

As well as the red alert  which has never before been issued for Scotland, England or Northern Ireland  amber warnings have also been issued for the north east of England and the central belt of Scotland, in place between 10am and 8pm on Thursday, and for south west England and south Wales from 12pm until 8am on Friday.

On top of these, yellow snow warnings have been issued for vast swathes of southern, central, and northern England, Northern Ireland and Wales - in place for most of Thursday.

Met Office forecaster Simon Partridge said some parts of the south west could see up to 50cm of snow by Friday morning.

"If you don't have to go anywhere over the next few days, stay at home," he warned.C hina has banned the letter 'N' and George Orwell's Animal Farm and 1984 in a major online censorship clampdown.

Experts believe the crackdown is part of leader Xi Jinping's plans to become a dictator for life. The move has been met with criticism from around the world.

The China Digital Times reports a list terms including the letter 'n', George Orwell's novels 'Animal Farm' and '1984', and the phrase 'Xi Zedong', a combination of Mr Xi and former dictator Chairman Mao Zedong's names which have been banned from Weibo, China's equivalent of Twitter.

It is not entirely clear why the letter 'n' was briefly banned, just one among hundreds of words and phrases, although some speculate it could be considered a sign of dissent.

Prime Minister Theresa May and Chinese President Xi Jinping take part in a Tea Ceremony at Mr Jinping's official Diaoyutai State Guesthouse in Beijing, China / PA

Charlie Smith, co-founder of GreatFire.org, which helps users track and bypass Chinese censorship, told The Guardian: [Censors] probably determined it was sensitive and then moved to add that content to the blacklist so others would not be able to post something similar, he said, noting that the seditious symbol had now been emancipated.

I doubt that they actually put that much thought into it so sadly, the letter N was a victim of this rash decision.

Donald Trump visits China - In pictures 1 /14 Donald Trump visits China - In pictures U.S. President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump pose during a tour of the forbidden city, AP U.S. President Donald Trump shakes hands with opera performers at the Forbidden City in Beijing, China Reuters US First Lady Melania Trump (C-R) and China's First Lady Peng Liyuan (C-L) are surrounded by students after a cultural performance during a visit to Banchang Primary School in Beijing, China EPA U.S. President Donald Trump (2nd L) looks up as he sits beside First Lady Melania Trump (L) and China's President Xi Jinping (2nd R) and his wife Peng Liyuan (R) during a tour of the Forbidden City in Beijing AFP/Getty Images U.S. President Donald Trump takes part in a welcoming ceremony with China's President Xi Jinping Getty Images Military troops march during a welcoming ceremony for U.S. President Donald Trump in Beijing, China Getty Images U.S. President Donald Trump arrives for a welcoming ceremony in Beijing, China Reuters U.S. first lady Melania Trump and China's First Lady Peng Liyuan, left, are escorted by a student after a cultural performance during a visit to the Banchang Primary School in Beijing AP President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump exit Air Force One upon their arrival at Beijing Capital Airport in Beijing, China Getty Images U.S. First Lady Melania Trump (3-R) and Chinese First Lady Peng Liyuan (2-R) visit a fashion class during their visit to the Banchang Primary School in Beijing, China EPA U.S. President Donald Trump and first lady Melania arrive on Air Force One at Beijing, China Reuters U.S. First Lady Melania Trump (2-L) assist a student to adorn a gown near Chinese First Lady Peng Liyuan (C) during their visit to the Banchang Primary School in Beijing, China EPA U.S. President Donald Trump takes part in a welcoming ceremony with China's President Xi Jinping in Beijing, China. Trump is on a 10-day trip to Asia Getty Images

Censors also banned images of Winnie the Pooh after dissenters shared images of the cartoon bear hugging a jar of honey alongside the quote: "Find the thing you love and stick with it."

The Disney bear's image has been compared to President Xi Jinping, prompting periodic blocks on the use of Pooh pictures online.

Mr Xi's rule has been characterised by a relentless crackdown on critics and independent civil society voices such as lawyers netted in a sweeping crackdown on legal activists that began in July 2015.

Theresa May seeks to strengthen UK-China relations

Joseph Cheng, a long-time observer of Chinese politics now retired from the City University of Hong Kong, said that following the passage of the constitutional amendment: "There will be even less tolerance of criticism."S tudents and teachers wove through a tight cordon of armed police officers as they returned to the scene of the Florida shooting massacre for a half-day of lessons.

Families stood at the entrance to the school in a show of support as around 3,000 pupils filed past the piles of flowers, balloons and tributes left in memory of the 17 people killed in the Valentines Day shooting,

It was the first time lessons had resumed since the accused, teenager Nikolas Cruz, allegedly opened fire in Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, and thrust students into the centre of a national debate on gun laws.

Armed police patrolled the school in a bid to make the traumatised pupils and teachers feel safer and were accompanied by emotional support animals including therapy dogs.

Emotional: Pupils were handed carnations as they walked up to the school / Getty Images

Grief counsellors were on campus as well "to provide a lot of love, a lot of understanding" and help students "ease back" into their school routines, Broward Schools Superintendent Robert Runcie said.

Principal Ty Thomas tweeted that "our focus is on emotional readiness and comfort not curriculum: so there is no need for backpacks."

But several students were unnerved by the military-style rifles being carried by officers  like that believed to have been used by Cruz  and the sheer number of police in attendance.

Florida Shooting Vigil - In pictures 1 /15 Florida Shooting Vigil - In pictures People attend a candle light memorial service for the victims of the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Getty Images Attendees raise their candles at a candlelight vigil for the victims of the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School AP People hug as they attend a candlelit memorial service for the victims of the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Getty Images Mourners stand during a candlelight vigil for the victims of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in Parkland, Florida AFP/Getty Images Zachary Haupert, 14, painted "RIP Luke," on his hoodie in honor of his friend Luke Hoyer, who was one of the victims of the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, as he attends a candlelight vigil AP City, county and state officials release balloons in honor of the victims during a prayer vigil for the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting at Parkridge Church in Coral Springs, Florida AFP/Getty Images Ella Thompson, right, 8, hands out ribbons at a candlelight vigil for the victims of the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School AP A handwritten note to a lost friend is surrounded by candles and flowers at a candlelight vigil the day after a shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland Reuters Students console each other as they weep during a candlelight vigil for the victims of the Wednesday shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School AP Veronica Laureano, center, holds a teddy bear as she attends a vigil with her daughter Zorayha Laureano, 11, at the Parkland Baptist Church, for the victims of the Wednesday shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School AP Virginia Cancte prays at a cross setup during a candle light memorial service for the victims of the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School that killed 17 people Getty Images Attendees comfort each other at a candlelight vigil for the victims of the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School AP Mourners gather during a prayer vigil for the victims of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting at Parkridge Church in Coral Springs, Florida AFP/Getty Images A woman places roses on a stage during a vigil at Pine Trails Park for the victims of the Wednesday shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School AP People attend a candlelit memorial service for the victims of the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Getty Images

"This is a picture of education in fear in this country, David Hogg, a leading voice in the students' movement to control assault weapons, said.

The NRA wants more people just like this, with that exact firearm to scare more people and sell more guns. I know one of those bullets could be shredding through me if I was misidentified as a school shooter."

The day began during fourth period, which was when the shooting took place, so teachers and students would be starting back at school with those they had been with at the time of the tragedy.

Support: People arrived with emotional support animals, including horses and donkeys, to help the students / Getty Images

Not all of the sprawling school was reopened. The building where the 14 students and three teachers were killed remained cordoned off.

Many of the students said the focus of the national debate on new gun laws has helped them process the traumatic event, and prepared them to return to the scene.

Their return to school came as retailer Dick's Sporting Goods announced it will immediately end sales of assault-style rifles in all stores and won't sell guns to anyone under 21 years old.

Retailers: Guns on display at the Dick's Sporting Goods / EPA

It also will ban the sale of high-capacity magazines that allow people to fire more shots before reloading.

Dick's Chairman and CEO Edward Stack said on ABC's "Good Morning America" that the company "felt it needed to do something."

"We have to help solve the problem that's in front of us," he said in a statement. Gun violence is an epidemic that's taking the lives of too many people."

Donald Trump provokes outrage after claiming he 'would have run into Florida school unarmed' to tackle gunman

Dick's had removed assault-style weapons from its stores after the 2012 massacre of 26 children and educators at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, but later brought them back in some stores.

Mr Stack said the system that's in place won't stop sales to dangerous people and said lawmakers must do something. He also said the company is prepared for any potential backlash, but won't change its policies on gun sales.

On Tuesday a Florida State House committee voted in favour of a bill to raise the age limit to buy long guns from 18 to 21.

Florida high school shooting - February 2018 1 /20 Florida high school shooting - February 2018 Emergency personnel at the scene of a shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School EPA Parents wait for news after a reports of a shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School AP Students are evacuated by police from Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School AP The suspect is arrested and put in the back of a police car Reuters Students hold their hands in the air as they are evacuated by police AP People wait for loved ones Getty Images Law enforcement personel work the scene Getty Images AP The suspect is escorted into Broward Jail after being checked at hospital Reuters Students are reunited with parents and family EPA A law enforcement officer rushes toward Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School AP Fire Rescue personnel work the scene Getty Images Students released from lockdown AP People are brought out of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School after the shooting Getty Images Police and rescue workers attend the scene REUTERS A family reunites following a shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School AP Florida Gov. Rick Scott (right) walks with Sheriff Scott Israel of Broward County to a news conference near Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School AP Students released from lockdown AP Students are released from lockdown AP Students are comforted by parents and family after a shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High Schoo EPA

The bill would also create a program that would allow teachers to carry concealed weapons in their classrooms providing they have law-enforcement training and are deputized by the local sheriff's office.

But Republican leaders of the US Congress on Tuesday rejected new limits on guns after the attack, saying they would not raise the minimum age to buy guns.

And the National Rifle Association has lobbied forcefully against any restrictions on gun sales, saying they infringe on the rights of law-abiding citizens.

Following the shooting, several large American companies said they were ending programs that offered discounts or other benefits to NRA members.Trump is sticking with Team Wicker (and McConnell). Photo: Alex Wong/Getty Images

After waiting around to see if senior senator Thad Cochran might resign and open up an easier path to Washington, fiery conservative Chris McDaniel, the man who nearly ended Cochrans career in a 2014 primary, has decided to run against the junior senator from Mississippi, Roger Wicker. McDaniels announcement is scheduled to happen tomorrow.

So its interesting that today, when Wicker is technically the only Republican candidate in the field for 2018, President Trump reached out to endorse him:

.@SenatorWicker of Mississippi has been a great supporter and incredible help in getting our massive Tax Cut Bill done and approved. Also big help on cutting regs. I am with him in his re-election all the way!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 27, 2018

This is significant in part because Trump endorsed McDaniel in his challenge to Cochran in 2014. But what it feels most like is Trumps 2017 endorsement of Alabamas Luther Strange, another generally pro-Trump Establishment Republican under attack from a real conservative (or in Stranges case, two of them).

You have to figure that Wicker or Mitch McConnell or perhaps both of these senators got to the White House the minute it was plain McDaniel was entering the race and secured the presidential Twitter-dorsement. This leaves McDaniel with the same dilemma that Alabama Trump-worshipers Mo Brooks and Roy Moore had when Big Luther got the bid over there. Does he suggest the president has been duped by the wily Mitch and other Establishment types? Or does he go full Bannon and make himself out to be more of a Trumpist than Trump?

In a recent interview McDaniel took the middle ground and argued that Trump had to work with what he had in the Senate, but might secretly prefer someone more rigorously MAGA-devoted like himself:

[A]s part of the chess game hes playing, [Trump] does have to occasionally reach out and endorse a (former Alabama Republican Sen.) Luther Strange. Sometimes he has to do that to maintain his votes in the Senate. But if you get around to the heart of it, he went there to drain the swamp, not perpetuate it. Though he may have to endorse a Luther Strange, in his heart of hearts, he would much rather see new people in Washington. He made that promise to us on the campaign trail, and I believe him.

So McDaniel ought to be able to roll with Trumps endorsement of his opponent just fine, suggesting hes in his heart of hearts on Team Chris, whatever he says formally about the race. And then Trump will have to decide how much to invest in Wickers renomination, and whether he wants to alienate the national movement-conservative community that hates Mitch McConnell and loves Chris McDaniel.

Its a chess game, all right. And one of the key chess pieces will be the question of whether Mississippi Democrats can exploit GOP divisions by recruiting a Senate candidate with half the chops of Doug Jones. They dont have much time to get that done. In the meantime, Mississippi Republicans will go to war with each other.B ritish newlyweds pulled from the wreckage of a helicopter that crashed in the Grand Canyon during their honeymoon both died from complications of their burns, a coroner has said.

Ellie Milward, 29, died in a Las Vegas hospital 15 days after the crash due to "complications of thermal injury", the Clark County coroner said on Tuesday.

Her husband Jonathan Udall, 31, was previously given the same cause of death following the February 10 crash which also killed three other Britons.

Ms Milward, from Worthing, West Sussex, failed to regain consciousness while being treated at the University Medical Centre (UMC), the Foreign Office said.

Jon Udall was celebrating his honeymoon with new wife Ellie / JustGiving

In a statement, her family said: "It is with great sadness that we have to announce the death of our daughter Eleanor Udall (nee Milward) as a result of the injuries she sustained in the Grand Canyon helicopter crash on February 10, 2018.

"The family are exceedingly grateful for everything done by rescue services and volunteers in the Canyon, and throughout the last two weeks by the exceptional staff at UMC."

Chris Tucker, a friend who founded a JustGiving crowdfunding page, paid tribute to the "wonderful couple".

"Yesterday Ellie lost her battle to her injuries, the only consolation I can muster is that she is no longer in pain and is, I hope, with Jon," he wrote on the website.

Father remembers loving sons at memorial for Grand Canyon crash victims

The couple's friends, Becky Dobson, 27, her boyfriend Stuart Hill, 30, and his brother Jason Hill, 32, all from Worthing, died when the Airbus EC130 B4 crashed shortly before sunset.

They had also been celebrating Stuart Hill's 30th birthday with a trip to Las Vegas.

The aircraft, operated by Papillon Grand Canyon Helicopters, crashed on tribal land in a section of the Grand Canyon outside the national park where air tours are not as highly regulated.

Two others, Jennifer Barham, 39, and pilot Scott Booth, 42, were also treated in hospital.

The cause of the crash is being investigated by the National Transportation Safety Board.

A preliminary report said witnesses saw the helicopter do at least two 360-degree turns before hitting the ground.A man charged with stealing a pot of meatballs was caught thanks to one damning clue, police in Pennsylvania said.

His face and clothes were smeared with red sauce.

Leahman Glenn Robert Potter, 48, was arrested on three charges after he allegedly swiped some meatballs from a man's garage on Monday.

After noticing his meatballs were missing, the victim spotted Potter standing in front of his house covered in sauce at around 2.30pm.

The pot was found on the street, police said.

It's unclear if Potter washed the sauce off before he was arrested a short time later.A powerful earthquake has killed at least 16 people in the impoverished Pacific nation of Papua New Guinea.

The magnitude 7.5 earthquake, which hit on Monday, severed communications and blocked roads in the central region, meaning news of the death toll has only just emerged.

Southern Highlands Governor William Powi said the quake also brought work to a halt at four oil and gas fields in a remote region.

The National Disaster Centre has declined to give numbers as it assesses the damage.

Landslides: An area of the island affected by the earthquake / REUTERS

Secretary general of the PNG Red Cross Uvenama Rova said 11 people were killed in the southern highlands region, while another five died in Hela province.

Southern Highlands Governor William Powi warned the death toll may rise. "We are looking at massive, catastrophic havoc and destruction," he said.

The official said three oil fields and a liquefied natural gas plant run by ExxonMobil Papua New Guinea have halted operations for now as they assess the damage to their operations.

The quake has also disrupted work at a large gold mine and at coffee plantations in the region.

Landslides: the aftermath of the quake / AFP/Getty Images

Mr Powi said many roads remain cut off by landslides and that supplies will need to be airlifted.

The quake hit about 55 miles southwest of Porgera, the site of a large gold mine that employs more than 2,500. Several strong aftershocks have shaken the region as well.

The quake also caused panic and damaged buildings across the border in eastern Indonesia.

Papua New Guinea is home to 7 million people on the eastern half of the island of New Guinea, to the east of Indonesia.S pecial counsel Robert Mueller is investigating Donald Trumps business ties to Russia before he ran for the US presidency, it was reported today.

Witnesses in the ongoing inquiry into alleged Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election are reportedly being asked by Mr Muellers prosecutors about when Mr Trump decided he would run for office.

Mr Muellers office is said to have asked witnesses about Mr Trumps business dealings in Russia prior to the election, whether the Kremlin may have had any compromising information about him, and why plans for a Trump Tower in Moscow fell through.

A source told CNN that one witness claimed Mr Trump was serious in 2014 about launching a White House campaign even though the president tweeted earlier this month that he didnt decide whether to run until later. The reports suggest Mr Mueller is moving beyond the presidential campaign to also examine Mr Trumps finances and his past links with Russia, including the 2013 Miss Universe pageant held in Moscow.

Robert Mueller is investigating Donald Trump's business ties to Russia / AP

You ask everything even if you dont think its credible, said a source. The allegations are out there.

Both Mr Trump and the Kremlin are adamant there was no meddling in the US election and the president maintains that widening the investigation to include his familys finances would breach Mr Muellers mandate.

Investigators are also reportedly trying to determine if the Russians have any information that could potentially be used to blackmail Mr Trump. This echoes claims included in a controversial dossier compiled by former British spy Christopher Steele on behalf of Mr Trumps Democratic opponents. The unsubstantiated dossier allegedly details lewd behaviour involving Mr Trump in his suite at Moscows Ritz Carlton Hotel.

The FBI also wanted to know if the Trump Tower project in the Russian capital was shelved simply because the economy took a downturn, and is said to be probing the finances around the Miss Universe event, run by the Trump organisation, and the officials Mr Trump met while he was in Moscow for it. US intelligence officials believe Russian president Vladimir Putin ordered Russian hackers to interfere in the election to help Mr Trump beat Democrat rival Hillary Clinton.

Meanwhile Hope Hicks, 29, the White House communications director, reportedly admitted telling white lies on behalf of him during nine hours of testimony to the Congressional Intelligence Committee yesterday.P oliticians in France are considering fining wolf-whistlers more than 300 under a new law combatting lecherous behaviour.

The proposals, set out by a parliamentary committee, suggest that men who harass women on the street should be slapped with the fine under stricter laws.

The Government is expected to incorporate the recommendations into new legislation within months, French media reported.

It comes as various anti-sexual harassment campaigns around the world, including #MeToo and #TimesUp, highlighted the prevalence of Frances macho culture, where women are regularly subjected to unwanted sexual advances and harassment.

Anna Soubry comments on the Westminster sexual harassment scandal

The parliamentary group, set up by gender equality minister Marlene Schiappa, was tasked with defining harassment and considering a new law designed to tackle it.

It is advising the government to include creating an intimidating, hostile or offensive situation or injurious to the dignity of others because of their gender or sexual orientation under the new criminal offence.

Celebrities wearing white roses at the Grammy Awards 2018 1 /25 Celebrities wearing white roses at the Grammy Awards 2018 Anna Kendrick Getty Images for NARAS Miley Cyrus Getty Images for NARAS Miley Cyrus AFP/Getty Images Cardi B AFP/Getty Images Julia Michaels AFP/Getty Images Khalid AFP/Getty Images Cindy Lauper AFP/Getty Images Nick Jonas AFP/Getty Images Pink AFP/Getty Images Fabolous AFP/Getty Images Andra Day AFP/Getty Images Rita Ora Getty Images for NARAS Lady Gaga Getty Images for NARAS Sam Smith Getty Images for NARAS Camila Cabello Getty Images for NARAS Sarah Silverman Getty Images Janelle Monae AFP/Getty Images Kelly Clarkson Getty Images for NARAS James Corden Getty Images Lisa Loeb Getty Images for NARAS Lisa Loeb Getty Images for NARAS Darrel Walls, Ahjah Wall, and Paco Walls Getty Images The Infamous Stringdusters AFP/Getty Images Allen Hughes Getty Images for NARAS Eve Getty Images for NARAS

Perpetrators would be fined between 90 and 350 (79 to 308).

Wolf-whistling, making obscene or insulting remarks or pestering women for their phone number would be considered a criminal offence.K hloe Kardashian has opened up about the body issues her skinny sister Kendall Jenner and overweight brother Rob are forced to deal with.

The reality TV star, 33, spoke openly about her siblings on the latest series of her hit show Revenge Body which aims to help people achieve their dream body makeover.

Kardashian, who is currently pregnant with her first child, attempted to help a married couple tackle their individual weight struggles.

Allison, is desperate to lose weight while her husband Chad is trying to gain.

Different shapes: Kardashian aims to help the couple achieve their individual goals / E!

Kardashian sympathised with their situation, branding the hate towards them bullying.

She then revealed that her half-sister Jenner and brother Rob have similarly struggled with different body issues.

Friends congratulate Khloe Kardashian on pregancy news

Speaking to the couple, she said: I know how you feel [Allison]. You feel like trapped in your own body, and I feel that way for my brother, who has gained a lot of weight. Its debilitating.

"I don't think people sympathise when people are body shamed for being too thin.

Khloe Kardashian - In pictures 1 /44 Khloe Kardashian - In pictures Khloe Kardashian/Instagram REUTERS Lamar Jr., Lamar Odom, daughter Destiny, Khloe Kardashian, Kendall Jenner, Kim Kardashian, Kylie Jenner and Kourtney Kardashian arrive at the 2011 Teen Choice Awards held at the Gibson Amphitheatre on August 7, 2011 in Universal City, California Jason Merritt/Getty Images Kim Kardashian, Khloe Kardashian and Kourtney Kardashian attend the Beach Bunny Swimwear 2011 fashion show during Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Swim at the Raleigh on July 16, 2010 in Miami Beach, Florida Michael Buckner/Getty Images Khloe Kardashian and Lamar Odom attend Kanye West Yeezy Season 3 on February 11, 2016 in New York Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images Pharrell Williams and Khloe Kardashian attend the collaboration celebration of Pharrell Williams and Adidas at Hinoki & The Bird on December 3, 2014 in Los Angeles, California Getty Images Khloe Kardashian attends the 2015 NBCUniversal Cable Entertainment Upfront on May 14, 2015 Getty Images Khloe Kardashian attends the 2016 Angel Ball hosted by Gabrielle's Angel Foundation For Cancer Research on November 21, 2016 in New York Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images Khloe Kardashian attends Cosmopolitan's 50th Birthday Celebration at Ysabel on October 12, 2015 in West Hollywood, California Frazer Harrison/Getty Images Khloe Kardashian attends The Hollywood Reporter's 23rd Annual Women In Entertainment Breakfast at Milk Studios on December 10, 2014 in Los Angeles, California Valerie Macon/Getty Images Khloe Kardashian, Kendall Jenner and Kylie Jenner speak onstage at the 2014 American Music Awards at Nokia Theatre L.A. Live on November 23, 2014 in Los Angeles, California Kevin Winter/Getty Images Khloe Kardashian Odom arrives at Nickelodeon's 26th Annual Kids' Choice Awards at USC Galen Center on March 23, 2013 in Los Angeles, Californi Mark Davis/Getty Images Kris Jenner and Khloe Kardashian attend DuJour magazine's Spring issue collaboration with Kim Kardashian and Bruce Weber at the Four Seasons Hotel Los Angeles at Beverly Hills on March 2, 2013 in Beverly Hills, California Frazer Harrison/Getty Images Khloe Kardashian attends the 21st Annual Elton John AIDS Foundation Academy Awards Viewing Party at West Hollywood Park on February 24, 2013 in West Hollywood, California Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images Khloe Kardashian arrives at Fox's "The X Factor" Season Finale - Night 2 at CBS Television City on December 20, 2012 in Los Angeles, California Frazer Harrison/Getty Images Khloe Kardashian attends the 2011 Z100 & Coca-Cola All Access lounge at Z100's Jingle Ball 2011 pre-show at Hammerstein Ballroom on December 9, 2011 in New York Slaven Vlasic/Getty Images Kourtney Kardashian (3rd from L), Khloe Kardashian and Kim Kardashian pose with models backstage at the Beach Bunny Swimwear 2011 fashion show during Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Swim at the Raleigh on July 16, 2010 in Miami Beach, Florida Andrew H. Walker/Getty Images Kourtney Kardashian, Khloe Kardashian and Kim Kardashian, winners of the Favorite TV Guilty Pleasure award pose for a portrait during the 2011 People's Choice Awards at Nokia Theatre L.A. Live on January 5, 2011 in Los Angeles, California Michael Caulfield/Getty Images Khloe Kardashian, Kourtney Kardashian and Kim Kardashian make an appearance at Borders Century City to sign copes of their book "Kardashian Konfidential" on December 2, 2010 in Los Angeles, California Frazer Harrison/Getty Images Khloe Kardashian poses for a picture at the Beach Bunny Swimwear's grand opening party on April 27, 2010 in Los Angeles, California Toby Canham/Getty Images Khloe Kardashian arrives to NSF & GQ Magazine's Stop Puppy Mills Humane Society benefit at a private estate on September 22, 2009 in Los Angeles, California Angela Weiss/Getty Images Kris Jenner, Khole Kardashian, Kim Kardashian and Kourtney Kardashian threw out ceremonial first pitches prior to the game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Washington Nationals on May 6, 2009 at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles, California Juan Ocampo/LA Dodgers via Getty Images Khloe Kardashian arrives at the grand opening party of Sapphire Pool on May 2, 2009 in Las Vegas, Nevada Jacob Andrzejczak/Getty Images Khloe Kardashian unveils her PETA "Fur? I'd Rather Go Naked" billboard on December 10, 2008 in Los Angeles, California Charley Gallay/Getty Images Khloe Kardashian walks the runway at the Dash & Smooch Spring 2009 fashion show during Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week at the Metropolitan Pavilion on September 9, 2008 in New Yor Rob Loud/Getty Images Khloe Kardashian pose backstage in the Awards Room at the MTV Australia Awards 2008 at the Australian Technology Park, Redfern on April 26, 2008 in Sydney Maree Williams/Getty Images Khloe Kardahian arrives at the National Lampoon Premiere of "One, Two, Many" on April 10, 2008 at the Arclight Theatre, in Los Angeles, California Frazer Harrison/Getty Images Khloe Kardashian arrives at the Premiere of the new reality show "Keeping up with the Kardashians" held at the Pacific Design Center on Octorber 9,2007 in Los Angeles, California Alberto E. Rodriguez/ Getty Images Khloe Kardashian attending the Kardashian Kollection For Lipsy launch party at the Natural History Museum, London PA Khloe Kardashian, Kourtney Kardashian and Kim Kardashian arrive for the Elton John AIDS Foundation's 22nd annual Academy Awards Viewing Party at West Hollywood Park in Los Angeles PA Khloe Kardashian attending the Hairfinity UK Launch Party, at Il Bottaccio, in central London PA CALLIPYGIAN corset, 98, at openingceremony.com. GOOD AMERICAN jeans, 118 (goodamerican.com). JACQUIE AICHE choker, 4,320 (special order), at matchesfashion.com. LANA JEWELRY necklace, 1,045 (lanajewelry.com). HENRI BENDEL earrings, 38 (henribendel.com). EFFY ring (middle finger), 2,885 (effyjewelry.com). TACORI ring, 10,753 (tacori.com). Bangles, Kardashians own Credit: Mike Rosenthal Mike Rosenthal Y/PROJECT bodysuit, 358, at avenue32.com.MELODY EHSANI earrings, 28 (melodyehsani.com). EFFY ring (right hand), 2,885 (effyjewelry.com). TACORI rings (left hand) from 10,790 (tacori.com) Khloe Kardashian and daughter True Thompson Khloe Kardashian Instagram Khloe Kardashian attends GQ and Giorgio Armani Grammys After Party on February 8, 2015 Getty Images for GQ Khloe Kardashian appears At ULTA Beauty's West Hills Store To Promote Kardashian Beauty Hair Care And Styling Line on April 2, 2015 Getty Images Khloe Kardashian attends Cosmopolitan's 50th Birthday Celebration on October 12, 2015 Getty Images Khloe Kardashian signs copies of her new book 'Strong Looks Better Naked' on November 13, 2015 Getty Images Khloe Kardashian attends the A+E Networks 2016 Television Critics Association Press Tour for Kocktails with Khloe on January 6, 2016 Khloe Kardashian walks the red carpet at the official grand opening party for Mohegan Sun's new ultra-lounge, novelle, on Saturday, June 22, 2019 Getty Images for Mohegan Sun Khloe Kardashian attends Allergan KYBELLA event on March 3, 2016 Khloe Kardashian attends the 2017 NBCUniversal Upfront on May 15, 2017 Getty Images Khloe Kardashian celebrates the launch of Good American with Emma Grede on October 28, 2017 Khloe Kardashian attends the PrettyLittleThing LA Office Opening Party on February 20, 2019 Getty Images

"My sister Kendall, when she was growing up, she was very skinny and she used to get bullied all the time for being too skinny.

"And I think body shaming of any kind is still bullying and not acceptable."

Kardashian then added that she would be separating the couple throughout the process so that she could reveal the results at the end.J ess Wright and Giovanni Pernice shared a romantic weekend away in Rome just weeks after confirming their romance.

The two reportedly met late last year and hit it off after being introduced via Mark and his Strictly connections.

And now Wright has shared a cute picture from her recent trip to Rome with her beau, sightseeing and sampling the local food.

The 32-year-old posted a selfie of the two of them posing in the crisp Italian sunshine with a geotag filter showing they were in Rome.

Wright also put two photos of herself in the Italian capital on her Instagram page, including shots of her in Vatican City.

Earlier this month, Pernice posted a picture of himself kissing the model, captioned: Buon San Valentino @jesswright77.

Romance: Giovanni Pernice confirmed their relationship on Valentine's Day / Instagram / Giovanni Pernice

Wright also made a nod to her new relationship, posting a scene from Love Actually on her social media, writing: Happy Valentines Day. I hope someone makes you feel this special today #loveactually.

An insider told The Sun Online that the couple had looked loved up on a date to the theatre to see Dreamgirls in November 2017.

They told the publication: Giovanni was in the stalls bar and he bought two drinks, then Jess arrived. She was wearing all black, but it wasn't like she was hiding or anything. Khloe Kardashian has come under fire for flying while being eight months pregnant.

The US reality TV star, 33, was slammed by fans after she jetted over to Japan with her sisters Kim and Kourtney Kardashian on Tuesday.

Fans begged Khloe, who is expecting her first child with boyfriend Tristan Thompson, to stay at home and rest after she uploaded pictures and videos from her time in Tokyo.

One fan tweeted: Isnt Khloe like 8 months pregnant, why is she flying?

Another wrote: Youre not supposed to fly when youre pregnant... (sic).

A third commented: YOU ARE PREGNANT !!!! BABE !!!!!! Stay home please.

Perez Hilton was among those condemning the move, tweeting: My son was born when his surrogate was 8 months pregnant.

Khloe Kardashian reveals pregnancy struggles on Keeping Up With The Kardashians

I would not be wanting a surrogate to fly when she was that far along - ESPECIALLY on such a long flight! And to another country! Would U do this?

But others defended the reality TV star, with one tweeting: Why is everyone freaking out over Khloe flying to Japan?! Im sure she was checked before the trip & got the okay from her doctor!

Another posted: Shes wanted to be pregnant for years Im gonna go ahead and assume shes not gonna do anything harmful.

Khloe Kardashian - In pictures 1 /44 Khloe Kardashian - In pictures Khloe Kardashian/Instagram REUTERS Lamar Jr., Lamar Odom, daughter Destiny, Khloe Kardashian, Kendall Jenner, Kim Kardashian, Kylie Jenner and Kourtney Kardashian arrive at the 2011 Teen Choice Awards held at the Gibson Amphitheatre on August 7, 2011 in Universal City, California Jason Merritt/Getty Images Kim Kardashian, Khloe Kardashian and Kourtney Kardashian attend the Beach Bunny Swimwear 2011 fashion show during Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Swim at the Raleigh on July 16, 2010 in Miami Beach, Florida Michael Buckner/Getty Images Khloe Kardashian and Lamar Odom attend Kanye West Yeezy Season 3 on February 11, 2016 in New York Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images Pharrell Williams and Khloe Kardashian attend the collaboration celebration of Pharrell Williams and Adidas at Hinoki & The Bird on December 3, 2014 in Los Angeles, California Getty Images Khloe Kardashian attends the 2015 NBCUniversal Cable Entertainment Upfront on May 14, 2015 Getty Images Khloe Kardashian attends the 2016 Angel Ball hosted by Gabrielle's Angel Foundation For Cancer Research on November 21, 2016 in New York Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images Khloe Kardashian attends Cosmopolitan's 50th Birthday Celebration at Ysabel on October 12, 2015 in West Hollywood, California Frazer Harrison/Getty Images Khloe Kardashian attends The Hollywood Reporter's 23rd Annual Women In Entertainment Breakfast at Milk Studios on December 10, 2014 in Los Angeles, California Valerie Macon/Getty Images Khloe Kardashian, Kendall Jenner and Kylie Jenner speak onstage at the 2014 American Music Awards at Nokia Theatre L.A. Live on November 23, 2014 in Los Angeles, California Kevin Winter/Getty Images Khloe Kardashian Odom arrives at Nickelodeon's 26th Annual Kids' Choice Awards at USC Galen Center on March 23, 2013 in Los Angeles, Californi Mark Davis/Getty Images Kris Jenner and Khloe Kardashian attend DuJour magazine's Spring issue collaboration with Kim Kardashian and Bruce Weber at the Four Seasons Hotel Los Angeles at Beverly Hills on March 2, 2013 in Beverly Hills, California Frazer Harrison/Getty Images Khloe Kardashian attends the 21st Annual Elton John AIDS Foundation Academy Awards Viewing Party at West Hollywood Park on February 24, 2013 in West Hollywood, California Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images Khloe Kardashian arrives at Fox's "The X Factor" Season Finale - Night 2 at CBS Television City on December 20, 2012 in Los Angeles, California Frazer Harrison/Getty Images Khloe Kardashian attends the 2011 Z100 & Coca-Cola All Access lounge at Z100's Jingle Ball 2011 pre-show at Hammerstein Ballroom on December 9, 2011 in New York Slaven Vlasic/Getty Images Kourtney Kardashian (3rd from L), Khloe Kardashian and Kim Kardashian pose with models backstage at the Beach Bunny Swimwear 2011 fashion show during Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Swim at the Raleigh on July 16, 2010 in Miami Beach, Florida Andrew H. Walker/Getty Images Kourtney Kardashian, Khloe Kardashian and Kim Kardashian, winners of the Favorite TV Guilty Pleasure award pose for a portrait during the 2011 People's Choice Awards at Nokia Theatre L.A. Live on January 5, 2011 in Los Angeles, California Michael Caulfield/Getty Images Khloe Kardashian, Kourtney Kardashian and Kim Kardashian make an appearance at Borders Century City to sign copes of their book "Kardashian Konfidential" on December 2, 2010 in Los Angeles, California Frazer Harrison/Getty Images Khloe Kardashian poses for a picture at the Beach Bunny Swimwear's grand opening party on April 27, 2010 in Los Angeles, California Toby Canham/Getty Images Khloe Kardashian arrives to NSF & GQ Magazine's Stop Puppy Mills Humane Society benefit at a private estate on September 22, 2009 in Los Angeles, California Angela Weiss/Getty Images Kris Jenner, Khole Kardashian, Kim Kardashian and Kourtney Kardashian threw out ceremonial first pitches prior to the game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Washington Nationals on May 6, 2009 at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles, California Juan Ocampo/LA Dodgers via Getty Images Khloe Kardashian arrives at the grand opening party of Sapphire Pool on May 2, 2009 in Las Vegas, Nevada Jacob Andrzejczak/Getty Images Khloe Kardashian unveils her PETA "Fur? I'd Rather Go Naked" billboard on December 10, 2008 in Los Angeles, California Charley Gallay/Getty Images Khloe Kardashian walks the runway at the Dash & Smooch Spring 2009 fashion show during Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week at the Metropolitan Pavilion on September 9, 2008 in New Yor Rob Loud/Getty Images Khloe Kardashian pose backstage in the Awards Room at the MTV Australia Awards 2008 at the Australian Technology Park, Redfern on April 26, 2008 in Sydney Maree Williams/Getty Images Khloe Kardahian arrives at the National Lampoon Premiere of "One, Two, Many" on April 10, 2008 at the Arclight Theatre, in Los Angeles, California Frazer Harrison/Getty Images Khloe Kardashian arrives at the Premiere of the new reality show "Keeping up with the Kardashians" held at the Pacific Design Center on Octorber 9,2007 in Los Angeles, California Alberto E. Rodriguez/ Getty Images Khloe Kardashian attending the Kardashian Kollection For Lipsy launch party at the Natural History Museum, London PA Khloe Kardashian, Kourtney Kardashian and Kim Kardashian arrive for the Elton John AIDS Foundation's 22nd annual Academy Awards Viewing Party at West Hollywood Park in Los Angeles PA Khloe Kardashian attending the Hairfinity UK Launch Party, at Il Bottaccio, in central London PA CALLIPYGIAN corset, 98, at openingceremony.com. GOOD AMERICAN jeans, 118 (goodamerican.com). JACQUIE AICHE choker, 4,320 (special order), at matchesfashion.com. LANA JEWELRY necklace, 1,045 (lanajewelry.com). HENRI BENDEL earrings, 38 (henribendel.com). EFFY ring (middle finger), 2,885 (effyjewelry.com). TACORI ring, 10,753 (tacori.com). Bangles, Kardashians own Credit: Mike Rosenthal Mike Rosenthal Y/PROJECT bodysuit, 358, at avenue32.com.MELODY EHSANI earrings, 28 (melodyehsani.com). EFFY ring (right hand), 2,885 (effyjewelry.com). TACORI rings (left hand) from 10,790 (tacori.com) Khloe Kardashian and daughter True Thompson Khloe Kardashian Instagram Khloe Kardashian attends GQ and Giorgio Armani Grammys After Party on February 8, 2015 Getty Images for GQ Khloe Kardashian appears At ULTA Beauty's West Hills Store To Promote Kardashian Beauty Hair Care And Styling Line on April 2, 2015 Getty Images Khloe Kardashian attends Cosmopolitan's 50th Birthday Celebration on October 12, 2015 Getty Images Khloe Kardashian signs copies of her new book 'Strong Looks Better Naked' on November 13, 2015 Getty Images Khloe Kardashian attends the A+E Networks 2016 Television Critics Association Press Tour for Kocktails with Khloe on January 6, 2016 Khloe Kardashian walks the red carpet at the official grand opening party for Mohegan Sun's new ultra-lounge, novelle, on Saturday, June 22, 2019 Getty Images for Mohegan Sun Khloe Kardashian attends Allergan KYBELLA event on March 3, 2016 Khloe Kardashian attends the 2017 NBCUniversal Upfront on May 15, 2017 Getty Images Khloe Kardashian celebrates the launch of Good American with Emma Grede on October 28, 2017 Khloe Kardashian attends the PrettyLittleThing LA Office Opening Party on February 20, 2019 Getty Images

Kardashian has not disclosed her exact due date, but she has revealed she is in the third trimester. According to the American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, flying at this stage is safe, but not recommended after 36 weeks.

Kardashian has also kept schtum on the babys gender, so far only releasing a teaser clip of the moment she revealed the news to her sisters on an upcoming episode of Keeping Up with the Kardashians.

But People reported in October that she is expecting a boy.F erne McCann has shut down reports she is reconciling with acid attacker ex, Arthur Collins.

McCann, 27, hit back at claims she has fallen out with friend, and former TOWIE co-star, Sam Faiers, over her alleged insistence on staying with Collins, who is father to her daughter, Sunday.

Slamming the false stories on Twitter, McCann explained that the only communication she has with Collins is mainly through lawyers.

She tweeted: 1-Regarding todays many FALSE stories about me (and sorry to bore you all)

For the record (again) I am not in a relationship with Arthur. I do not know how much clearer I could be about that!! Sam and I never fell out about Arthur! This is false.

She continued: 2-Arthur is Sundays father. I have had to communicate with him and his family with respect to Sunday (mainly through lawyers).

Todays sources are wrong. Much love Ferne x.

McCann previously addressed false press in a statement in which she denied she had visited Collins in prison on multiple occasions.

She wrote: As I have already made clear I visited him once and I have not been to see him since.

Ferne McCann Is Determined to Look Towards the Future for the Sake of Her Daughter

I have repeatedly made clear that I have not been back to see him in response to the press asking me but this has been ignored.

Convicted: Ferne McCann with ex-boyfriend Arthur Collins

Collins is currently serving a 20 year sentence for an acid attack in an east London club which left 16 people with chemical burns and three people temporarily blinded.

In January he was handed an additional eight month sentence for smuggling a phone in to prison to call McCann.A dual-screen foldable phone and another with a pop-up selfie camera were among the more unusual-looking gadgets at the Mobile World Congress showcase in Barcelona.

The double-display Axon M model by ZTE allows users to open a second 5.2-inch HD screen from the back, transforming it into a small tablet.

The Android phone has a 20-megapixel camera but is bulkier than single-screened devices such as the new Samsung Galaxy S9, weighing in at almost a quarter of a kilo.

It can be propped up like a tent, with both screens showing the same image, for presentations and is expected to cost about 500 when it is released in the UK.

Laura Salse, of ZTE, said: It has the functionality of a tablet but is the size of a phone to fit in your pocket.

(JOSEP LAGO / AFP / Getty Images ) / JOSEP LAGO / AFP / Getty Images

Another prototype creating a buzz at the four-day show is the Apex by Chinese brand Vivo.

Its eight-megapixel pop-up front camera takes just under a second to rise from the top of the body and then retracts after taking a shot.

It also has a 1.8mm bezel around the edge, making it virtually frameless, with the entire bottom portion of the phones OLED screen used as an in-screen fingerprint reader.

A Vivo spokeswoman said: The whole display is also the speaker as it sends vibrations through the display without the need for a traditional loudspeaker.A $50 hat.

There was a line in President Trumps first State of the Union address that was immediately celebrated by some of his most overtly racist supporters.

My duty and the sacred duty of every elected official in this chamber is to defend Americans, to protect their safety, their families, their communities, and their right to the American dream, Trump said. Because Americans are dreamers, too.

It didnt take long for white nationalists to begin celebrating that last line, an obvious swipe at the labeling of DACA recipients as Dreamers.

Now Trumps reelection campaign and the RNC have put a version of it on a hat. Unveiled Wednesday morning, the American Dreamer hat features those two words in the same big, bold, capitalized letters that his Make America Great Again hats used. The back says #MAGA, complete with unnecessary hashtag.

Heres how the Trump shop describes the hat:

We all want to live the American dream and our 45th President is helping to make that dream a reality for each and every American. With our American Dreamer Hat you can show that you believe we can Make America Great Again.

And the price to show that? Just $50.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During the Spanish Civil War, many loyalist leaders and supporters of the Spanish Republican government fled into exile to wage their battle against the Spanish fascist dictatorship of Generalissimo Francisco Franco from abroad. 2018 is beginning to feel like 1939. After the fall of the Second Spanish Republic to Franco, who was aided by Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy, Spanish President Manuel Azana and Prime Minister Juan Negrin fled to exile in France. Following the October 27, 2017 declaration of independence of Catalonia by the Catalan Parliament and the dissolution of the Catalonian government by Francos proto-fascist successor, Spanish Prime Minister Manuel Rajoy, key members of the Catalonian government fled into exile. The President of the Catalonian Generalitat (Prime Minister) Carles Puigdemont and four of his ministers fled to Belgium to avoid arrest by Rajoys security forces.

Other Catalonian leaders were imprisoned in Madrid, where they await trials on sedition and rebellion charges. The leader of the pro-independence Popular Unity Candidature (CUP), Anna Gabriel, attained political asylum in Switzerland, where she told the Swiss newspaper Le Temps, I will not go to Madrid . . . Since I will not have a fair trial at home, I have looked for a country that can protect my rights. As with the loyalists imprisoned under Franco, the Catalan independence leaders, who enjoy a majority in the newly-elected Catalonian parliament, face decades in Spanish prison cells under Madrids EU-supported regime.

Rajoy, like Franco, appointed not a Catalonian but a Spanish Castilian, Deputy Prime Minister Maria Soraya Saenz de Santamaria Anton, as acting President of the Generalitat in Barcelona. Rajoy, as was the case with Franco, has Galician roots. Francos rule was infamous for stamping out Catalonian government, language, culture, and national identity and Rajoy, whose Spanish Peoples Party is the ideological and chronological heir to Francos Falangists, does his very best to emulate his partys ideological forbearer. Unlike 1936, when Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini came to Caudillo Francos side, in 2018, it is European Union Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker and European Council President Donald Tusk who rally to Rajoys ranks.

The Spanish government-in-exile was recognized by only a handful of nations, including Venezuela and Mexico. Although France did not recognize the exiled government, it did provide sanctuary for only a few of its leaders. Overall, France was as opposed to the Spanish Republicans in 1939 as it is with the Catalonians today. Two successive French leftist Popular Front prime ministers, Leon Blum and Edouard Daladier, ordered Spanish Republican military personnel and civilians seeking asylum in France interred at assembly centers in St. Cyprien, Gurs, and Le Vernet soon became concentration camps. When the Nazis took over France in July 1951, the Spanish Republican internees were transferred to German concentration camps and their deaths. Ironically, among those transferred along with the Spanish Republicans to Nazi concentration camps at Buchenwald and Dachau were the two French prime ministers  Blum and Daladier  who ordered the Spanish loyalist refugees to French internment camps. In not putting out the welcome mat for Catalonias exiled government, French President Emmanuel Macron followed the precedent set by Blum and Daladier. Puigdemont and his ministers were, instead, welcomed in Belgium, where the politically-strong Flemish independence bloc ensured they would be safe from Spanish-initiated INTERPOL arrest warrants.

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro was one of the few world leaders to support the Catalonian independence cause, declaring, Resist, Catalonia! Latin America admires you. However, Mexico, which supported the Spanish Loyalist government, was not as generous with the Catalonians. Mexican Foreign Minister Luis Videgaray Caso told the Spanish newspaper El Pais, If Catalonia goes for becoming independent from Spain, the Government of Mexico will not recognize it as a sovereign state. The National Assembly of Quebec issued a statement supporting the Catalonian cause, but Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau issued a typical Canadian Liberal Party milquetoast call for Spains constitution to be respected, a de facto nod to the Madrid authorities for their actions.

From the Vatican, Pope Francis I, doing his very best to emulate the pro-Nazi Pope Pius XII, who acceded to the papacy in 1939  the same year the Spanish Loyalists were driven to exile  condemned Catalonias nationalism and backed the European Union. It is no secret that the Vatican sees the European Union as a modern-day Holy Roman Empire. Pius XII raised no objection when, in 1943, Francos personal priest, Josemaria Escriva, founded the pro-fascist Catholic order, Opus Dei. According to his personal assistant, Escriva is recorded as saying, Hitler couldn't have been such a bad person. He couldn't have killed six million. It couldn't have been more than four million. Escriva gave the stamp of approval of the Catholic Church to Francos policy of cultural extermination of the Catalan and Basque peoples.

Opus Dei has given succor to fascist regimes around the world, including the juntas of Argentina, Pope Franciss home country. As Father Jorge Mario Bergoglio in Buenos Aires, Francis has been accused of handing over two priests to the security forces of the Argentine junta during the Dirty War of the 1970s. Pro-Vatican propagandists have attempted to whitewash Bergoglios dalliances with the Argentine fascist regime. Therefore, it should come as no surprise that the current Pope stands shoulder-to-shoulder with the Opus Dei-infested government of Rajoy; his proto-fascists in Madrid, which include Spains corrupted Borbon monarch, King Felipe VI; and the modern-day Holy Roman Empire that rules from EU headquarters in Brussels.

Just as was the case during the Spanish Civil War, Breton and Corsican nationalists in France have rallied to the side of the Catalonian independence, just as their forefathers supported the Spanish Loyalists, including the Catalonians and Spanish Basques in the late 1930s. Although Macrons coalition won a majority of seats in Frances July 2017 parliamentary election, it took not a single seat in Corsica. Jean-Guy Talamoni, the president of the Corsican Assembly, vowed that in ten years Corsica would follow Catalonias lead in declaring independence. Catalonia and Corsica are not independent today thanks to deals worked out by European monarchs hundreds of years ago. Today, instead of Spanish and French monarchs solely determining the future of Catalonia and Corsica, it is a Rothschild family creation in the Elysees Palace in Paris and a proto-fascist prime minister in the Moncloa Palace in Madrid who call the shots in suppressing the cultural and political identities of Europes aspirant nations, including the Basque people on both the Spanish and French sides of the Pyrenees mountain range.

Just as Francos troops patrolled the Pyrenees range during the civil war looking for Loyalists sneaking in and out of French territory, Spains current Interior Minister, Juan Ignacio Zoido, an Andalusian, ordered patrols increased on the Spanish-French frontier to prevent Puigdemont and his supporters from clandestinely entering Catalonia from France. Zoido was quoted by the UKs Daily Telegraph as ordering Spanish security forces to be on the lookout for Puigdemont and other exiled officials returning to Catalonia by helicopter, microlight, or boat. Zoido could have been channeling any of Francos generals during the 1930s civil war.

Unlike the Rajoy regime, which has misused the Spanish courts and constitution to imprison Catalonian political leaders on arcane and trumped up charges of sedition and rebellion, the Catalonian independence movement has been open and transparent about its aims. A clear majority of the Catalonian people want to be free of the shackles of Castilian imperialism and cultural and political superiority. The Catalonian independence leadership, exiled in Belgium, Switzerland, and other countries, does not have some hidden agenda nor, as some Western lunacy suggests, Russian puppet strings. The Catalonian cause reminds one of the passage by the famous Catalonian poet Joan Salvat-Papassei: the jailers of this world would not catch my shadow, if I were a thief and a bandit they would not know my flight.Paul ROGERS

Most analysts blame Vladimir Putins aggressive political stance for the renewed hostility between Russia and the western states of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO). The deteriorating relationship has been evident for a decade and more. The fallout from Moscow's interventions in Georgia / South Ossetia (2008), Ukraine / Crimea (2014), and Syria (2015), as well as its reported disruption in the United States presidential election (2016), are but the main episodes. Lesser ones include displays of military strength that attract wide coverage in the western media.

Before looking in more detail at the latter, it is worth offering a touch of historical perspective on great-power interference. In particular, at a time when Moscow's role in the US election is hotly disputed, a certain degree of hollow laughter is appropriate given Washington's (and London's) own dedicated efforts to influence elections and other political processes in many countries over many decades.

One person involved in a Congressional investigation into CIA activities is Loch K Johnson, an experienced intelligence analyst at the University of Georgia. He characterises Russia's recent election endeavour as simply a cyber-age version of past US activities:

Weve been doing this kind of thing since the C.I.A. was created in 1947. Weve used posters, pamphlets, mailers, banners  you name it. Weve planted false information in foreign newspapers. Weve used what the British call King Georges cavalry: suitcases of cash" (see Scott Shane, "Russia Isnt the Only One Meddling in Elections. We Do It, Too.", New York Times, 17 February 2018).

US actions have gone much further than merely trying to undermine elections  as indeed have Britains in the Middle East, including the overthrow of Iran's prime minister in 1953. These actions were memorably described by the much-decorated marine corps major-general, Smedley D Butler, in his memoirs:

I spent 33 years and four months in active military service and during that period I spent most of my time as a high class muscle man for Big Business, for Wall Street and the bankers. In short, I was a racketeer, a gangster for capitalism. I helped make Mexico and especially Tampico safe for American oil interests in 1914. I helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for the National City Bank boys to collect revenues in. I helped in the raping of half a dozen Central American republics for the benefit of Wall Street. I helped purify Nicaragua for the International Banking House of Brown Brothers in 1902-1912. I brought light to the Dominican Republic for the American sugar interests in 1916. I helped make Honduras right for the American fruit companies in 1903. In China in 1927 I helped see to it that Standard Oil went on its way unmolested. Looking back on it, I might have given Al Capone a few hints. The best he could do was to operate his racket in three districts. I operated on three continents.

The bigger picture

All this puts Russia's own numerous machinations, past and present (including in its incarnation as the Soviet Union), in the larger frame of routine great-power politics. In this light too, another view is possible on Russias recent media-heightened projection of military force.

A case in point is the deployment of the aircraft-carrier Admiral Kuznetsov to the Mediterranean in January 2017, which provoked a great ruction in Britain's media. The vessel is in reality an ageing warship more than thirty years old, prone to repeated propulsion mishaps and apt to have much of its plumbing freeze up, including toilets. Since its home port was on Russias Arctic coast, this alone was a bit of a drawback (see "Britain's military: costs of failure, symbols of vanity", 26 January 2018).

On the rare occasions when the carrier actually went to sea, it would be accompanied by an ocean-going tug in case it broke down. Indeed, when it finally got to the eastern Mediterranean in its recent deployment it lost two of its twelve strike-aircraft due to malfunctions. Most of the rest were eventually flown off to conduct their bombing raids from a Russian airbase within Syria, thus not from the Kuznetsov itself. In spite of all this, the ship's advance near to the UK's territory was still heralded in the British press as proof of a Russian threat and of the consequent need to increase military spending.

The frequency of Russian probes towards British airspace is further cited by Britain's defence lobby as an even scarier indication of that threat. Regular reports of near incursions by those Tu-95 bombers, complete with accompanying videos, were offered as additional proof of Russias steady rise to global power (see "Russia and the west: risks of hype", 6 October 2016).

Russia may present many dangers, it may have plenty of nuclear weapons, and may have a leader determined to take risks to make Russia great again  but such reports of its frequent air incursions are anything but true. A recent freedom-of-information request to the UK defence ministry, reported by Janes Defence Weekly, shows a rather different state of affairs. In each of the years 2013, 2014 and 2015, the RAF scrambled fighters on seventeen, twenty, and twelve days respectively: but many were not in response to Russian sorties, which stood at just eight for each of the years.

Moreover, in 2016 only five of the twelve days of "QRA" launches involved Russian aircraft, and in 2018 the incidence was only three out of six days (see Gareth Jennings, UK notes marked decrease in number of days QRA intercepts flown against Russian aircraft", Jane's Defence Weekly, 12 February 2018).

Such results are starkly different from public perceptions, as cultivated by the media. They remain one of the sustained planks in the narrative of a new threat from Russia. Even the data on the Russia flights only came to light through dedicated inquiry to unravel the information. Meanwhile, alarmist defence sources say next to nothing about the huge cost overruns on Britain's own new aircraft-carriers, its nuclear-attack submarines and Trident replacements. The imbalance of attention is extreme.

Perhaps the best way to look at the big picture is with another of Smedley D Butlers choice quotes, dating from 1935:

A few profit  and the many pay. But there is a way to stop it. You can't end it by disarmament conferences. You can't eliminate it by peace parleys at Geneva. Well-meaning but impractical groups can't wipe it out by resolutions. It can be smashed effectively only by taking the profit out of war.

opendemocracy.netSocial-studies teacher Jesse Randall Davidson has been taken into custody. Photo: Dalton Public Schools

Earlier on Wednesday, an armed teacher, Jesse Randall Davidson, reportedly fired several shots after barricading himself in a classroom at Dalton High School in Georgia. Fortunately, nobody was injured, according to local police, but students were still evacuated from the campus. One student, junior Chondi Chastain, detailed the evacuation in a tweet directed at the NRA. I dare you to tell me arming teachers will make us safe, Chastain tweeted.

@nra my favorite teacher at Dalton high school just blockaded his door and proceeded to shoot. We had to run out The back of the school in the rain. Students were being trampled and screaming. I dare you to tell me arming teachers will make us safe.  Chondi (@_omg_chondi_) February 28, 2018

She told the New York Daily News that Davidson, who teaches social studies, was her favorite teacher. He was really funny and always made jokes about random things. He always talked about how he disagreed with Donald Trump. I didnt expect him to do anything like this, its completely out of character, she said. She also noted that hed vocally disagreed with Trumps suggestion that teachers should be armed in the classroom to keep students safe. Chastain, like the survivors of the Stoneman Douglas shooting, also has no tolerance for Twitter trolls. Anyone that believes this isnt being staged to develop a talking point lives in lala land, tweeted one user whom she quote-tweeted.

Do you have any clue how disrespectful this is??? I don't know if your really this stupid or just an asshole, but I don't think I or any of my classmates were in for a plan to risk our lives in our own school. https://t.co/M7VUd7WwuG  Chondi (@_omg_chondi_) February 28, 2018

If only there had been another teacher with a gun, in the room with the teacher with the gun. That would definitely have deescalated the situation.The crumbling liberal West is in a desperate hurry in the Balkans. More than a quarter century since the first Western states, pushed by Germany, unilaterally recognized the secession of the former Yugoslav federal republics of Slovenia, Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina and about 19 years since NATOs air and land attack against what had remained of the country (the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, comprising Serbia and Montenegro) resulting in NATOs occupation and subsequent forced amputation of Serbias Kosovo and Metohija province (by way of recognition of its unilaterally declared independence of February 2008 by the main Western powers, some  but not all Muslim countries  and all the smaller countries whose hands Uncle Sam could either twist or stuff with a fistful of dollars)  NATOs taskmasters are increasingly showing signs of nervousness for having failed to establish complete control over the territory of the former model multi-ethnic country and calls for the Alliance to take care of unfinished business in the region are gaining in volume.

Just last summer, Montenegro was expressly absorbed into NATO, on the wings of a contrived, supposedly Russian-backed attempted coup (the evidence of which is on par with that so far offered to back claims of the Trump campaigns alleged collusion with Russians during the 2016 US presidential campaign) and the associated intimidation and scare-mongering used to justify pushing the country into the Alliance without allowing something as cumbersome as a referendum to get in the way. This special op might have, at first glance, seemed rather trivial, considering Montenegros tiny size and population of about 600,000. Until, that is, one looks at a map and realizes that the traditionally Russian-allied country was the last non-NATO holdout in the northern Mediterranean.

Next, it was Macedonias turn. First, its nationalist government, which had the temerity to actively court Chinese investment and good relations with Russia had to be jettisoned. This was accomplished through a destabilizing George Soros and US-backed campaign, the inevitable evidence-free claims of Russian meddling and the installing of a new pro-Western government in May 2017, brokered by the EU and US, after some major arm-twisting by US diplomat Hoyt Brian Yee (the deputy of Victoria Nuland of the Ukrainian coup and F*ck the EU fame), with the crucial aid of Macedonias Albanian minority  the Atlanticists most reliable trump card in the Balkans over the past three decades. In addition to promising the Albanians equal status with that of the majority Macedonians (who are South Slavs and make up about 65% of the population, as opposed to the Albanians 25%), new prime minister Zoran Zaevs main task is to make way for Macedonias EU accession and express admission to  you guessed it  NATO. Toward that end, hurried negotiations are now being conducted with Greece, which has been blocking Macedonias NATO aspirations for the better part of two decades until the country changes its name, i.e., gives up claims to being the historic Macedonia of Alexander the Great and, potentially, to Greeces own Macedonia region. Since the start of 2018, Macedonias new government has taken steps toward that end, renaming its capital city Skopjes airport (from Alexander the Great to Skopje International Airport) as well as its main highway to Greece (from Alexander the Great to Friendship Highway). That still hasnt fully satisfied Greece, but Macedonian diplomacy is doing its utmost to speed the process along in time for the next NATO summit in July 2018. By securing Macedonia, NATO not only adds another piece of jewelry but also gains firm control of a key communication along the Balkan branch of both Chinas New Silk Road and the Russian Turkish Stream gas pipeline.

That leaves Serbia and Bosnia-Herzegovina (B-H) as the last former Yugoslav non-NATO holdouts. Serbia is still a hard nut to crack, due to its relative size, traditional stubborn independence and military tradition  although it is being subjected to increasing pressure, as witnessed by Russian Foreign Minister Lavrovs recent warning that the West was pushing Serbia towards a Ukrainian scenario by forcing it to choose between the EU and Russia.

That leaves B-H as the weakest remaining link to break. The political parties representing the majority Muslims are not an obstacle, nor are the Croats (roughly 17% of the population). However, Bosnias Serbs, making up about a third of the population, but controlling 49% of the territory as a result of the Dayton Peace Accords of 1995 (according to which B-H is made up of two entities: the Serbian majority Republika Srpska, and the Muslim and Croat majority B-H Federation, comprising 51% of the country), are resolutely opposed to NATO membership, for three main reasons: a) memories of NATO powers demonization of the Serbs and siding with Sarajevos Islamic fundamentalist leadership during the bloody civil war of 1992-95, as well as today, b) refusal to be at odds with neighboring Serbia, which has declared military neutrality and refusal to join any military bloc, c) desire to retain friendship with Russia and other non-NATO countries.

As a result, since adopting its own Resolution on military neutrality last fall, making it impossible for B-H to be officially invited to join NATO, the Serbian leadership in B-H has been subjected to various fake news campaigns and provocations concocted in various Anglo-American media, military and diplomatic kitchens.

First came allegations that  what else?  a Russian-trained group under the name Serbian Honor (or Srbska cast in the original Serbian) took part in a parade marking the anniversary of Republika Srpska on January 9. The Washington Post and the Guardian quickly put out the distress calls, with appropriately alarmist headlines: Russia finds young men who love guns  and grooms them and Russian-trained mercenaries back Bosnia's Serb separatists. But, as has become the custom of late with what Donald Trump has christened the fake news media, the claims have proven to be evidence-free.

For one, while a group called Serbian Honor does exist, Republika Srpska Police Minister Dragan Lukac has denied that it took part in the parade. For two, absolutely no evidence has been offered that its members are Russian-trained, except for empty claims of supposed ties between this obscure group and the Russian-Serbian Humanitarian Center established in the Serbian city of Nish in 2012. The irony here is especially rich, as the Centers main activity since its inception has been to provide personnel and resources to help clear the thousands of illegal cluster munitions and aerial bombs left behind by NATOs illegal bombing of Serbia in 1999. Thats right: Russian resources are being used to clean up NATOs crime scene. And, yet, the lead NATO country is accusing Russia of exercising malign influence in the region.

The Center also provided vital aid during the catastrophic floods that beset Serbia in 2014. Yet, again, the main NATO countries have persistently tried to portray this small outpost  hosting, as Serbias foreign minister has put it, a grand total of five Serbs, four Russians and one dog  as some sort of sinister spy, or even military base. All that has been lacking is  you guessed it  evidence to back up these ludicrous claims. Even Reuters admitted as much, reporting that no sources were cited in the original story to back up the claim that mercenaries were being trained there. But, as weve learned, especially over the past several years, a minor inconvenience such as the truth must not stand in the way of the greater good of restarting the Cold War, even at the risk of making it substantially warmer than its previous incarnation.

Then, in early February, came another (alleged) scandal: the dastardly Bosnian Serb police were now  egads!  arming themselves. Arms shipment to Bosnian Serbs stokes EU fears, warned the trusty Guardian, with accompanying echoes in the Bosnian Muslim press. Except, it turned out that the Republika Srpska police had finally decided to buy its first batch of guns in 20 years. And that it had all been cleared with the B-H central authorities. And that, as clarified by the well respected Croatian journalist, Darko Hudelist, other police units in Bosnias Muslim-majority cantons had also recently purchased new weapons. Of course, there was no accompanying screaming Guardian headline to set the record straight.

Finally, in mid February, a Bosnian news site uncovered plans to hold a NATO military exercise in B-H in 2019. Naturally, this was to take part in the resolutely anti-NATO Serbian majority part of the country, near its capital of Banja Luka. However, the real news was the planned use of American A-10 Warthog close air support warplanes, and their possible use of depleted uranium munitions. As was to be expected, the response from Republika Srpska was that of outrage. NATO had twice bombed Serbian army positions during the B-H civil war, in 1994 and 1995, and the population living in the areas where DU ammunition was used saw an alarming rise in cancer rates in the subsequent years, as has been the case in neighboring Serbia, where DU munitions were much more heavily used during NATOs illegal air war of 1999.

The US Embassy in Sarajevo issued denials, but the published documents did indeed show that the use of A-10 and DU ammunition was being considered. Milorad Dodik, the president of Republika Srpska, flatly warned NATO not to dare use DU ammo, while the inhabitants of the villages near the proposed military exercise site vowed to block the event from taking place.

This is classic psychological warfare, and its bound to intensify. For, in its steady buildup along Russias western borders, NATO seems to be seeking to eliminate all potential loose ends in its rear. And Serbia and Bosnia-Herzegovina are precisely that. In the war-weary Balkans, especially in the Serbian majority parts, that kind of calculus has an eerily familiar ring. It was the Serbs that rose to reject the Royal Yugoslav governments attempt to appease Nazi Germany by signing a pact with it on March 25, 1941. As a result, Hitler had to postpone his attack on the USSR for several crucial weeks until the Serbian-led rebellion could be pacified (it was, but only briefly, as two majority Serb guerilla movements arose during summer of 1941, and fought on until the countrys liberation). Some think that this at least partly contributed to the Nazi war machines failure to break Stalin before the Russian winter set in, which ultimately cost it the war.

Some might find the analogy surprising. But actions speak louder than words. As in the US, its now practically all Russia! Russia! Russia! in the Balkans, and the traditionally pro-Russian Serbs are under rapidly increasing political, propaganda and military pressure to join the new order, finally give up their historic and spiritual Kosovo heartland, and turn their backs on their traditional Russian ally and Orthodox Christian co-religionists. The Wests quarter century long anti-Serbian and, by extension, anti-Russian crusade is intensifying, and things may well be coming to a head in the near future.

And we know what it might mean when things are coming to a head in the BalkansJapan is spending $61 million to upgrade its four E-767 AWACS (Air Warning And Control) aircraft. Each of the Japanese AWACS will fly to the United States for the work to be done and it will be completed by 2022. This is the fourth round of upgrades for the Japanese AWACS, which have now been in service for 18 years.

While using the same electronics and software as the American E-3 AWACS the Japanese use a larger 1980s era Boeing 767 airliner rather than on the 1950s era year old Boeing 707. The larger aircraft was used mainly because the older 707s were no longer available in the 1990s when Japan decided to buy an AWACS similar to the American E-3. Thus the Japanese AWACS has 50 percent more floor space and twice the internal volume of the E-3. These E-767s cost about $250 million each and were built and tested in the late 1990s before entering service in 2000. The Japanese AWACS will get extensive computer and software improvements with the latest upgrade. Previous upgrades were carried out in 2013, 2010 and 2006. The 2013 upgrade was more extensive and installed the latest electronic countermeasures and communications equipment, which made the systems more capable and easier to use. The2013 round of upgrades also installed a new operating system based on Linux that was easier to upgrade and less susceptible to hacking. Generally the E-767s receive upgrades to keep them nearly identical to the latest E-3 version, which is now the E-3G Block 45.

In 2008 the U.S. Air Force completed testing its latest (G) E-3 AWACS upgrades. This Block 40/45 version consists largely of replacing the 1980s era computers and electronics with modern gear. Japan did some of that in a 2010 upgrade but completed it in the 2013 upgrades. The Block 40/45 modifications make it possible to more quickly upgrade hardware and software (often using off-the-shelf commercial stuff) in the future. Most visibly, the new software eliminates nearly all of the hundreds of switches and knobs that surrounded the monitors and keyboards of the old model. Now many operations are automated or use point-and-click on a screen, not a separate switch.

The AWACS proved to be a key to victory in the 1991, 2001, and 2003 campaigns. The critical element in this was knowing where all friendly aircraft were at all times. Directing a lot of warplanes over enemy territory has long been a problem. It was elegantly solved with the development of airborne control aircraft like the E-3. But it took over half a century to perfect this approach. The problem was first noted during World War II, when operations involving over a thousand aircraft in the air at once demonstrated how out-of-control things could get. But no technical solution was available. That is, you could not put a radar in an aircraft powerful enough to get the big picture, the entire picture.

However, the U.S. Navy did plan to use radar equipped TBF (light bombers) Avengers to control the fighter screen protecting the fleet from Japanese suicide bombing attacks during the planned 1945 invasion of Japan. But the invasion never came off and the Navy pursued the radar equipped control aircraft idea at a more leisurely pace after the war. The navy E-1 carrier based airborne early warning aircraft first flew in 1956 and entered service in 1960. While mainly used to extend the radar coverage of a naval task force, this type of aircraft also had a vital role in controlling large numbers of friendly warplanes in air battles.

The U.S. Air Force also kept working on the problem. By 1953, the Air Force was able to send propeller driven transports (EC 121 Lockheed Constellations), equipped with powerful radar and radio equipment, off the coasts of North America to watch for Russian bombers. Beginning in 1965, the first of thirty EC 121s was sent to Vietnam, where they controlled combat operations in the northern part of the country. As useful as these aircraft were, it was obvious that, with a little more technology, one could control air combat operations more thoroughly and effectively.

The ultimate solution came in the form of a four engine jet transport converted to a flying radar station and control tower. This was the E-3 AWACS, whose development began in the late 1960s, and the first prototypes were flying in the late 1970s. The E-3 went into regular use in 1982. Flying far enough inside friendly territory to avoid enemy anti-aircraft missiles, the AWACS radar has a radar range of between 200 km (for small aircraft or cruise missiles flying close to the ground) to 600 km (for large aircraft flying at high altitude). The AWACS tracks several hundred friendly and enemy aircraft at once. The AWACS acts as an airborne command center for aircraft and friendly planes are kept out of each other's way. There was not a single friendly air to air collision during the 1991 Gulf war or in any subsequent operations using the E-3. The Japanese were impressed.

Enemy aircraft are spotted, identified, and friendly interceptors assigned to take care of the hostile planes. One or more AWACS is used to control an air operation and each can stay up eleven hours at a time, or up to twenty-two hours with refueling and extra crew on board to man the equipment. Its first wartime workout, during the 1991 Gulf war, was a spectacular success, often in more ways than anticipated. For example, the use of over a hundred tankers to refuel combat aircraft would not have been possible without the AWACS being there to efficiently link tankers and aircraft needing fuel. Forming up the Wild Weasels, and coordinating their use with the bombers they escorted, was much easier using an AWACS. Just keeping track of who was who and going where would not have been possible without the AWACS.

The U.S. currently has 32 E-3s while NATO has sixteen, Britain seven, France four, Saudi Arabia five. All were built during the Cold War, which ended in 1991. During the Cold War 68 AWACS based on the 707 were built and most are still in service. The Japanese AWACS are technically identical to these except that Japan used a larger aircraft.

Since the 1960s nearly as many AWACS type aircraft were built based on other types of transports. The most common smaller AWACS type aircraft are the E-2, of which 168 were built since the 1960s and most are still in service. Japan uses 13 E-2s in addition to the larger and more capable E-767s. Many aircraft of similar capability to the E-3 are still built using large business jets or smaller airliners like the 737. As electronics became smaller, lighter and more efficient it has become possible to fit all the equipment of the original E-3 into a smaller aircraft. Japan chose the larger 767 to provide expansion capabilities and the ability to remain aloft longer per sortie.

Japan frequently uses its AWACS to coordinate large scale responses to Russian or Chinese aircraft coming too close to Japanese air space. If nothing else, this shows the Russians and Chinese what the Japanese are capable. A warning, so to speak, and an impressive one.In February China launched its ninth Dongdiao class Type 815 AGI (Auxiliary General Intelligence, or electronic reconnaissance) ship. This was significant in several ways, most obviously because China has built six of these ships in the last four years and now has nine of them in service or preparing for service. With this many modern AGI ships China is suddenly able to collect information worldwide and on a sustained basis. In less than a decade China has gone from nowhere to everywhere in offshore intelligence collection.

The Type 815s are 6,000 ton vessels that are 130 meters (418 feet) long and have a crew of about a hundred sailors plus 150 specialists and technicians. Top speed is 36 kilometers an hour and armament consists of a 37mm and two twin 25mm autocannon, which are apparently there mainly to keep minor threats at bay (pirates, suspicious small craft in general). There is also a landing pad and hanger for a helicopter.

These ships sport several domes protecting antennae and the ship is crammed with computers and signals processing gear. The Dongdiao class are replacing at some of older AGI type ships that entered service in the 1970s. Some of these older ships have had their electronics and other information gathering gear upgraded but they are elderly ships and expensive to maintain.

This equipment upgrading has already taken place with the Type 815, which first appeared in 1999 as something of a prototype for a new class of AGIs. The second Type 815 did not appear until 2010 and it was the same ship but with obvious differences in the type and arrangement of radars, antennae and other visible sensors. Inside the ship there was much more powerful computers and electronics in general. In 2017 the sixth Type 815 was another major upgrade and was called the Type 815A in recognition of how extensive the upgrades had been since the first Type 815.

In 2014, before this spurt Type 815 construction China had about a dozen AGIs of varying sizes and ages. The Dongdiaos are the largest and most modern and are apparently going to replace most or all of the older AGIs. The Type 815s, like most AGIs worldwide are mainly about electronic reconnaissance and collection. Just keeping track of the enemy's electronic devices has become a major operation, especially since no one knows exactly how everyones electronic equipment will interact until there is a sustained period of use. Such use does not occur in peacetime, when the EW equipment is used infrequently for training and testing. In addition all electronic equipment has a unique electronic signature. Even equipment that is not broadcasting will appear a certain way to various sensors like radar or sonar. Thus a critical peacetime function is to determine what these signatures are. For this reason navies and air forces devote a significant amount of their time tracking other nations capabilities.

As a counter to ESM (Electronic Support Measures), equipment is disguised where possible. Signals can be varied in some circumstances. For equipment that is detected by shape and composition, like aircraft and ships, their shape and substance can be designed to minimize detection. This is the essence of the stealth technology that the United States is applying to a number of vehicles, especially aircraft. Small ships, aircraft, helicopters and vehicles loaded with sensors do most of the collecting. Low flying satellites are useful for catching signals deep inside a nations territory. UAVs and unmanned surface and subsurface vessels are used also, plus robotic sensors that are left on the ground or sea bottom. Collection involves more than sensors. Recording devices, foreign language interpreters and signal processing equipment also come into play.

Computers are increasingly crucial in sifting through the ocean of data swept up. Huge libraries of signals are collected, analyzed and boiled down to manageable amounts of data friendly troops and weapons can use. ESM has been so successful that one entire class of sensors, active sensors, has become endangered. Active sensors detect things by broadcasting a signal. When this signal bounces off something, the sensor detects the bounce back and knows something is out there. This is the basis of radar, which broadcasts microwaves, and sonar, which broadcasts sound. Because of the signal being broadcast, a passive sensor can detect it.

Passive sensors just listen. Because active sensor signals must reach an object in sufficient force to bounce something back, a vehicle carrying a passive sensor will detect a vehicle carrying an active sensor first. This is what happens you use a radar detector in your car to detect police speed trap radars. You usually have time to slow down before you illegal speed is detected by the police radar. As users of these devices well know, there is constant competition to come up with better radars and countermeasures. Passive sensors are the hot item in research and development these days, and for obvious reasons. Passive sensors are nearly impossible to detect. Passive sensors can also pick a wide variety of signals. Infrared sensors can detect heat, including something as faint as body heat or the hot skin of an approaching jet aircraft.

AGI ships have lots of collecting to do and when it comes to AGI vessels having too many of them is never enough.Vietnam February 9, 1968 - A Mortar team of Second Battalion, Fourth Marines, launch 4.2inch mortars during a fire mission near Camp Carroll while on Operation Ballistic Armor. Photo by Cpl. L. Preston Brown

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Each month we count on your subscriptions or contributions. You can support us in the following ways:by Austin Bay February 27, 2018

For the last five years, Chinese President Xi Jinping has methodically acquired additional positions of authority within China's government.

Xi is this century's most powerful Chinese leader. His power matches that of modernizer Deng Xiaoping and approaches that possessed by Chairman Mao Zedong.

So prepare for Emperor Xi, a high-tech 21st century monarch clothed in presidential garb, draped in Communist Party propaganda and supported by the globe's second largest GDP.

Last week, China's state-run Xinhua news service -- which works for Xi-- reported that his handpicked Central Committee will consider removing constitutional restrictions that limit the president and vice-president to two consecutive terms.

Changing the constitution sets legal conditions for one man rule without term limits. Xi could reign until 2040.

Zhou dynasty emperors invoked The Mandate of Heaven to justify their absolute monarchy. European royalists had their Divine Right of Kings. In the 21st century, the Central Committee Rubber Stamp Mandate satisfies Emperor Xi.

As it is, Xi already possesses ultimate decision-making power in China. He is President of China and Secretary-General of the Chinese Communist Party. In 2016, he succeeded in obtaining the title "core leader" from the CCP. That title went beyond mere presidential political authority. Xi's "thought" provided ideological guidance. To Chinese ears the title echoed the political poetry hallowing Mao.

In my view, becoming chairman of the Central Military Commission was his biggest name-plate acquisition. Running the CMC gave him an unusually strong grip on China's military. In 2017, he shrank the CMC to seven seats. Xi loyalists filled the other six seats.

Is Xi on a personal power trip? Yes. He used a highly publicized anti-corruption campaign to purge his political opponents and remove some anti-Xi officers in the military.

However, something more than the usual Stalin-Hitler-Saddam wannabe motivation is at work in China.

China has a Great Dilemma. Its savvy Communists know the value of a competitive market economy. At the same time they demand dictatorial control over what Adam Smith called "the invisible hand" of individuals engaged in free enterprise. Free enterprise might lead to calls for political freedom.

Two conflicting policies authored by Deng Xiaoping embody this Great Dilemma: his "Opening and Reform" program and his Four Cardinal Principles.

The Four Cardinal Principles enshrine CCP control -- China must "uphold" the socialist path, the "democratic" dictatorship, CCP leadership, and follow Mao's thought, etcetera. It's fossilized Marxism insisting on party unity.

Opening and Reform, however, promoted interdependent trade among nations, permitted foreign investment and ultimately liberalized the Chinese economy.

It worked. China's peculiar Communists know empirically their semi-free, slightly less corrupt but remarkably productive market economy gives them immense economic power and domestic political sway. Economic power has led to regional military power and international influence.

For over three decades China's Communist leaders have sought to maintain domestic stability while simultaneously pursuing these conflicting policies.

Twice since 1949, the CCP has experienced great disunity. Mao's obscene Cultural Revolution wreaked havoc on the country. The second era of disunity followed the June 4, 1989, massacre in Beijing's Tiananmen Square.

In 1989, China's economic reforms were giving the people a taste of prosperity. In Tiananmen Square, the CCP heard free market-spurred calls for political reform. One group made a foam and papier-mache statue they called the Goddess of Democracy.

Deng ordered Peoples Liberation Army tanks to attack the demonstrators; the PLA complied and killed at least 2,000 people.

Tiananmen is still a lurking tiger. The government still forbids discussing the massacre. Communist cyber cops patrol the internet, identifying and arresting citizens discussing the incident.

Xi and his cohort know the Communist dictatorship still lacks legitimacy. They have decided to gamble that investing power in one man for at least two more uninterrupted decades will eliminate any future domestic demands for genuine democracy. During that same period, China will become a world power superseding the declining United States.The young crown prince of Saudi Arabia (Mohammad bin Salman or MBS) replaced several senior military commanders, including the head of the land forces and the Strategic Missile Force (Chinese long range missiles aimed at Iran). This was apparently an effort to generate some better performance and new ideas in the Yemen operations. MBS has been working on major reforms in the military but he had to work through some higher priority items first. His Defense Ministry reforms involve over thirty major moves, including changes in senior military leadership and new personnel policies. This includes allows Saudi women to participate in the military. Pakistan and other Arab countries have long done this and even found success in several areas, including using women as military pilots, including fighter pilots. Most Saudis are aware that back when Islam was founded Arab women (including the Prophet Mohammeds wife) sometimes rode with their husbands into battle and were consulted on military decisions. Saudi women are well aware of this and have been demanding some action.

Since 2015 the operations in Yemen have shown that the Saudi Air Force. Navy and Air Defense forces were competent but the ground forces have been less successful. This is most embarrassing along the Yemen border where Yemen Shia rebels, who have always lived along the border, have turned over a hundred kilometers of border into a very dangerous area for Saudi civilians or security personnel. The continued ballistic missile attacks from Yemen on Saudi Arabia are also embarrassing. The Saudi Air Defense units have prevented these missiles from hitting any important targets but Saudis wonder why the Saudi ground forces in Yemen since early 2015 have not found and destroyed these missiles before they are launched.

The Saudi crown prince, and soon to be king as his father plans to abdicate soon, launched a major anti-corruption operation in 2017, arresting or detaining hundreds of wealthy Saudis, many of them members of the extended Saud family. This, and his coming assumption of the throne, delayed MBS from doing anything drastic in Yemen. But now he feels confident enough, even without being king, to make big changes in strategy and tactics used to deal with Iran (and Yemen and so on). This was expected to happen in 2018 and here it is.

MBS is seen as one of the brightest (he has a degree in law) of the top Saudi royals. In addition to being the crown prince he was, in January 2016, appointed the youngest Minister of Defense ever. MBS is ambitious and has proved himself capable to handling the Saudi bureaucracy. Since 2014 he has been working on a plan to move Saudi Arabia away from dependence on oil income. In April 2016 he announced that his plan has been accepted and he will implement it. MBS considers this economic plan more important than what is happening in Yemen. The UAE ambassador apparently agreed with that assessment and the need for the Saudis to reform their economy as well as the more recent military reforms.

Iran Slithers To Success

The United States, France, Germany and Britain have openly accused Iran of violating the 2015 treaty (that lifted economic sanctions) with continued Iranian covert support of Shia rebels in Yemen. Iran responds to this criticism of Iranian actions in Yemen (as well as Syria, Iraq, Palestine and Lebanon) by insisting that it had an obligation to aid these nations in their fight against American and Israeli threats. This justification is unpopular with most Iranians who want their government to pay more attention to real problems inside Iran rather than imaginary ones overseas. Leaders of Iran backed groups in Iraq, Hezbollah in Lebanon. Hamas in Gaza and Shia rebels in Yemen openly boast of their financial and other support from Iran. Most UN members agree with this problem and Iran recently needed a Russian veto to block a UN resolution condemning Iranian meddling in Yemen. What further angers the UN is the fact that the Shia rebels have, more than once, expressed interest in a peace deal but then were apparently convinced by Iran to stop short of agreeing to any peace deal and demand more concessions. Iran denies all this but most of the UN officials in Yemen have seen ample evidence of Iranian influence and that has led to more public criticism of Iranian interference of UN peace efforts.

The Shia rebels are having a hard time maintaining an effective defense against growing government and Arab coalition advances on the ground. The Shia rebels have lost of their local support because the rebellion appears to have failed and most Yemenis dont approve of the Iranian interference. Back in Iran it is no secret that the Iranian government sees the Yemen operation as a relatives inexpensive way to torment and embarrass their Arab enemies. Not inexpensive according to most Iranians but so far the Iranian hardliners remain in charge.

Meanwhile

In the southwest (Taiz province) government and Arab coalition forces have spent most of the month taking back areas the rebels have held since 2015. The government forces have been advancing as part of an operation to clear Shia rebels from most of Taiz province, especially along the Red Sea coast. Currently the main purpose of the coastal drive is to find and eliminate rebel bases where missiles, naval mines or remotely controlled bomb boats are being stored and prepared for use against ships in the Red Sea. This is an Iranian idea, to make life more difficult for Saudi Arabia, Egypt and nations that depend on the Suez Canal to avoid taking the longer route around Africa.

The most heavily fought over area continues to be Taiz city, near the Red Sea. Government forces have been slowly driving rebels out of the city. In 2017 government forces were pushing inland from the Red Sea town of Mocha (Mokha) to open a land route to Taiz. The major obstacle remains the Khalid bin al Waleed military base, which was surrendered to the rebels in 2015 by soldiers loyal to the former dictator Ali Abdullah Saleh. The base is 30 kilometers east of Mocha and held out until mid-2017 but the rebels were not completely driven out of the 12 square kilometer base. Government forces are also advancing from east of Taiz as well in order to prevent any rebel reinforcement of rebels still around the Khalid base. So far this year the rebels have been losing more ground and dozens of dead in Taiz province every week but it is slow going.

In the southeast (Hadramawt province) army forces have cleared AQAP (Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula) out of several more towns and villages they were using as bases. These counter-terrorist operations in Hadramawt have been going for most of the month and are continuing. AQAP has not got the manpower to oppose these advances, not as long as the government forces have air support. On the government side the main problem is obtaining sufficient troops or paid militia to ensure that these localities remain free of AQAP. This clearing effort includes coastal areas around Mukalla (a major port and the largest city in the province). The effort to clear AQAP out Hadramawt, Abyan (Aden) and Shabwa provinces has been going on since late 2016 but became more intense since early 2017 when the United States increased its effort to find and kill key AQAP personnel, especially the many who were based in Shabwa. This was mainly done from the air using UAVs for surveillance and attacks using guided missiles and smart bombs.

Since late December the government forces and their Arab Coalition allies have been on the offensive just about everywhere. While that has gained much territory the UN aid providers point out that this offensive has caused nearly 100,000 additional refugees as civilians flee their homes to get away from the fighting. One reason for the offensive was a major defection from the rebels when former dictator Saleh sought to switch sides but was caught by the rebels and killed. That made the pro-Saleh rebels angrier and up to a third of the rebel gunmen either switched sides or became neutral.

The Shia rebels had a lot of non-Shia tribes on their side initially, especially since the Shia made a convincing case that corruption was a major problem in Yemen and had to be confronted and controlled. That did not happen. Yemen has long been considered one of the most corrupt nations on the planet. In 2017 Yemen ranked 175th out of 180 countries compared to 170th out of 176 in 2016 in worldwide surveys on corruption. Yemen is now one the five most corrupt nations in the world and seems likely to hold that dubious distinction for a while.

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/14, South Sudan/12 and Somalia/9) have a rating of under 15 while of the least corrupt (New Zealand and Denmark) are over 85. The current Yemen score is 16 (14 last year) compared to 18 (17) for Iraq, 40 (41) for Turkey, 49 (46) for Saudi Arabia, 48 (48) for Jordan, 28 (28) for Lebanon, 30 (29) for Iran, 71 (66) for the UAE (United Arab Emirates), 62 (64) for Israel, 15 (15) for Afghanistan, 32 (32) for Pakistan, 40 (40) for India, 29 (29) for Russia, 41 (40) for China, 17 (12) for North Korea, 73 (72) for Japan and 75 (74) for the United States. A lower corruption score is common with nations in economic trouble. African nations are the most corrupt, followed by Middle Eastern ones. Fixing an existing culture of corruption has proved a most difficult challenge and Yemen is one the most striking examples.

February 26, 2018: In the south (Shabwa province) air and ground forces of the Arab coalition destroyed several AQAP bases and established checkpoints on key roads the Islamic terrorists were using.

February 25, 2018: Government and Arab coalition forces took control of the Al Nakhash Mountains some 40 kilometers northeast of Sanaa.

February 24, 2018: In the south (Aden) ISIL (Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant) claimed responsibility for two suicide car bomber attacks in the port city. These were the first such ISIL attacks in over a month and left at least twenty dead and many more wounded.

February 23, 2018: In central Yemen (Marib province) an Arab coalition Patriot air defense system used anti-missile missiles to shoot down five ballistic missile the rebels fired at military bases in the area. These bases are less than 180 kilometers from the rebel held capital of Sanaa. All the ballistic missiles were intercepted (or missed their targets). The Patriot systems have been guarding this Marib area since mid-2016 and regularly intercepts rebel ballistic missiles (now largely supplied by Iran).

February 18, 2018: In central Yemen (Baida province) an American UAV used a missile to kill an AQAP commander and his driver. Baida continues to be where the United States concentrates most of its airstrikes (usually via UAVs). During 2017 there were 114 of these airstrikes, most of them towards the end of the year and largely going after AQAP and ISIL (Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant) camps and key personnel in and around Baida. This greatly reduced Islamic terrorist capabilities in Baida, which had long been an Islamic terrorist stronghold.

Pakistan announced it is sending another thousand troops to Saudi Arabia to operate a military training program for more than 10,000 Saudi troops. The Pakistanis have a lot of recent experience dealing with Islamic terror groups and irregular warfare in general. The Pakistanis are expected to pass those skills on to Saudi officers and troops. Pakistan has already supplied Saudi Arabia with security advisors and trainers and that has worked out well.

February 10, 2018: In the southwest (Taiz province) government forces advancing along the coast captured a rebel base and found eleven ballistic missiles.

February 5, 2018: In the northwest another rebel ballistic missile was shot down by Saudi Patriot anti-missile missiles after it crossed the border headed for Asir province. This ballistic missile appeared to be headed for the city of Khamis Mushait rather than the nearby King Khalid Air Base. In March 2017 there was a similar attack involving four ballistic missiles, at least one of them headed for the air base. The Arabs point to these Iranian ballistic missiles and Iranian UAVs as pretty clear evidence that Iran was still smuggling weapons in. Iran denies everything and when confronted with physical evidence insists that the Yemeni Shia made they stuff locally, obtaining technical help via the Internet.

February 2, 2018: Saudi and UAE officials have worked out a truce deal with the Yemeni separatists that had, during the last week of January, forced their way into the port city of Aden demanding that changes be made in the composition of the current elected (UN recognized and Arab coalition backed) Hadi government. The southern separatists complain that the current administration in the south is corrupt, incompetent and not serving the needs of the people. That is largely because the Hadi government does not control all of the south. There are still large areas controlled by tribes that are independent or support Islamic terror groups. All the tribes believe they are not getting their fair share of financial and other support. The Aden invaders belong to the STC (South Transitional Council), which is recognized by the Arab coalition (especially the UAE) that is leading the battle against the Shia rebels. The two major members of that coalition, the UAE and Saudi Arabia, have divided some of the responsibility for the fighting and maintaining security. The UAE looks after Aden and has had good relations with the STC but not enough to prevent the current violence that has, in the last four days caused several hundred casualties and at least 40 dead. The UAE and Saudi Arabia sent some senior officials to Aden to negotiate with the STC.Chief Justice of Pakistan Justice Mian Saqib Nisar took on Wednesday a suo motu notice of ongoing publicity campaigns by the provinces of Punjab, Sindh and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

Hearing a case related to the prices of medicines, the chief justice remarked that the governments of KP, Sindh and Punjab are running advertisement campaigns at taxpayers expense.

He observed that such campaigns fall under the purview of pre-poll rigging in light of the upcoming general elections.

The chief justice directed the provincial chief and information secretaries to submit a report on the campaign in a week and adjourned the hearing until March 12, when he himself will hear the case.

Chief Justice Nisar observed during the hearing that party funds and not the national exchequer should be used for such advertising campaigns.

He also remarked during the hearing that there are no medicines in hospitals and no clean drinking water for the public but advertisements are being aired at the people's expense.Frances Frei. Photo: Harvard Business School

Back in June 2017, Uber  hot on unending a streak of the worlds worst press  announced it was hiring Frances Frei of Harvard Business School as the companys first SVP of leadership and strategy. In other words, that they were bringing in a professional to make Uber a more professional workplace. Today, Frei announced shell be leaving Uber. When I got here, my goal was to train and teach executives how to manage better, but it became super apparent that the training needed to go way beyond that, Frei told Recode. As soon as the executive team was calmer, I turned my attention to 3,000 managers whose jobs grew well beyond their skills, which I think was the real work.

During her tenure, founder Travis Kalanick stepped down from his role as CEO and was replaced by former Expedia CEO Dara Khosrowshahi. I think with Dara leading, a lot of our biggest challenges are in the rearview mirror, Frei also told Recode. Shell stay on in an advisory capacity, a role which she held prior to coming on full-time  and commuting between Cambridge and San Francisco  as an SVP. According to a memo sent to Uber employees by Khosrowshahi this week, Frei is off to design another first-of-its-kind executive education program before resuming her role teaching at Harvard.Members of the public will have the opportunity to get a behind the scenes look at policing next month as Rotorua and Tauranga Police stations open their doors to the public.

The day is part of nationwide series of events where police stations throughout the country will also be open to public.

Rotorua and Tauranga police stations will host their open days on Sunday March 11.

Bay of Plenty District Commander, Superintendent Andy McGregor says the open days are an opportunity for police to connect with their local communities and for people to see what a career in police might look like.

There will be a number of activities on display during the day to provide members of the public and anyone wanting to join the police with a real insight into the job we do.

Well have displays from our Armed Offenders squad, police dog teams and well have staff there from our specialist teams including road policing, youth and CIB.

Well also have staff on hand at both events who can talk to and provide advice and information to anyone considering policing as a career.

Bay of Plenty District wants great people to join the police to help keep this fantastic community safe.

Our staff are looking forward to welcoming everyone on the day and to give a real hands on view of the different aspects of Policing, says Andy.

For more information on the Rotorua and Tauranga Open Days visit the Bay of Plenty & Taupo Police Facebook page or the NZ Police website.

Check out photos of last years open day here.Residents in a Brookfield street are being warned of suspicious activity, following reports of a prowler in the neighbourhood on Tuesday night.

One resident, who wants to remain anonymous, says the incident happened at about 8pm.

I live on Solomon Street in Brookfield. Behind our house is a reserve where last night we spotted a man looking into our neighbours property.

Our neighbour lives alone and she was at home when her dog started barking like crazy. All of a sudden she noticed a hand coming through her ranch slider doors.

Police were called when she suspected he was trying to get into the house.

She says earlier in the day the woman had also discovered her gate was ajar along with suspected human faeces in her back yard.

She has only a very small dog, so its not possible these faeces were from her dog.

The man is believed to be known to those in the neighbourhood.

When we described this man to some of our other neighbours we discovered he is known to many of them and we think that he must live around us.

This, however, is the first time weve actually seen him doing anything suspicious.

She says she wants others to be aware of any suspicious activity.

I feel so sorry for our neighbour, shes pretty shaken up and now feels unsafe as if someone might break into her property.

I want everyone who lives in the nearby area to be very wary of their own security.

SunLive has contacted police for more information and will add more to the story soon.Bay of Plenty

Ever thought of joining the civil construction industry? if so then this is your chance to get a foot in the door. We are...



View or Apply on GoodWork.co.nzThe Green Party is renewing its call to remove from law the double standard that allows for referenda only on the establishment of Maori wards.

The partys comments come following confirmation that binding polls will be held in several districts around the country on whether the racially-segregated wards should be introduced on local councils, including the Western Bay of Plenty District Council.

The time has come to remove this discriminatory and racist provision that prevents the establishment of Maori wards right around the country, says Green Party Maori Development spokesperson Marama Davidson.

As we have seen with previous referendum on Maori wards, the polls that have just been initiated will almost certainly overturn the decisions of local councils.

Its unacceptable that indigenous rights to representation are being decided on by the majority, especially when the UN has noted that we have persistently low levels of Maori representation in local government.

Currently councils may establish or change general wards as they see fit (such as creating At Large or geographic wards), without electors being able to oppose these decisions. It is only Maori wards that electors can vote to overrule, if a council tries to introduce them.

All that we are asking for is for government to support the leadership of local councils by ensuring the same process for establishing both Maori and general wards, says Marama.

Western Bay of Plenty councillor Mike Lally, who was instrumental in gathering signatures to force a public poll on the issue of Maori wards, says the Green Party has little use for democracy.

They say Maori wards come from the Treaty of Waitangi, but theres nothing in the Treaty about them, says Mike. They cant understand its about one people, one nation.

He acknowledges that there is a double standard, and that if people are unhappy with changes to general wards, their only recourse is to vote the councillors who made the decisions out at the next election. But he thinks the answer is to have more consultation with the public on both general and Maori wards.

The Green Party are saying we have a wrong, so lets have two wrongs.

Hobsons Pledge spokesperson Casey Costello says the Green Partys call to end referenda on Maori wards once again shows they distrust voter opinion.

Decisions on Maori wards is the only Maori issues decision in which the public is allowed a say, and we have noticed that people from all walks of life are keen to have their voices heard on this issue.Hauraki District Council has asked the new government to consider homeowners in Waihi before finalising its proposed Overseas Investment Amendment Bill.

The new bill includes restrictions on overseas companies/people purchasing residential and lifestyle land.

If adopted, this would potentially prevent international mining company OceanaGold from purchasing properties and homes in the Waihi area as part of its operations.

Hauraki District Mayor John Tregidga says one of the consent conditions for the companys Correnso project, which involves mining underneath residential homes in Waihi East, is that in certain circumstances properties must be purchased to address the social and economic well-being of home owners.

In many instances property purchases have worked well in addressing these issues, he says.

The proposed new bill would remove the councils ability to enforce existing consent conditions relating to land purchase as well as prevent the establishment of new land purchase conditions on any future mining consents.

Weve made a formal submission asking for the bill to be amended to ensure mining operators continue to be able to purchase residential properties as part of their mining operations and we continue to be able to consider property purchase conditions if issuing resource consents.

The mayor will speak in support of the submission at a Select Committee hearing in Auckland on March 2.

To view the full submission go to www.hauraki-dc.govt.nz/speaking-for-waihi-homeownersClick the image above to watch the video

Today is the first day of March and theres a mild touch of autumn in the air.

We are expecting a cloudy day, with a few showers and northeasterlies.

Its a one-clothing-layer day today with a high of 23 and an overnight low of 20 degrees. Humidity has dropped to 71 per cent.

Low tide is at 1.10pm and high tide at 7.20pm. Theres a swell of .5m, sea temperature is 22 degrees and sunset tonight is at 7.53pm.

If youre going fishing today the best fish bite time is from 11.30am to 1.30pm.

This day in NZ history in 1862 British-born tenor Charles Thatcher gave his first New Zealand performance at Shadrach Jones Commercial Hotel in Dunedin.

In 1916 the New Zealand Division was formed. After the evacuation from Gallipoli in December 1915, New Zealand forces returned to Egypt to recover.

In February 1916, it was decided that Australian and New Zealand infantry divisions would be sent to the Western Front. On March 1, the New Zealand Division was formed.

This day in world history in 1780 Pennsylvania became the first U.S. state to abolish slavery.

In 1875 the US Congress passed the Civil Rights Act. In 1912 Albert Berry completed the first in-flight parachute jump, from a plane in Missouri.

In 1932 the Lindbergh baby was kidnapped from the Lindbergh family home in New Jersey. In 1943 the British RAF conducted strategic bombing raids on all European railway lines.

In 1985 the Pentagon accepted the theory that an atomic war would block the sun, causing a nuclear winter.

Today is the birthday of composer and pianist Frederic Chopin who was born in 1810. Today is also the birthday of Robert Lowell (1917) Richard Wilbur (1921) and Howard Nemerov (1921) who between them won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry four times. Howard Nemerov once wrote "Ive never read a political poem thats accomplished anything. Poetry makes things happen, but rarely what the poet wants."

To get involved in some of the many activities happening around the Bay, please check out our Whats on page.

Have a great day!Apple Loses French Legal Fight Over Tax Protesters

by Ulrika Lomas, Tax-News.com, Brussels

28 February 2018

Apple has failed to obtain an injunction to prevent tax protesters demonstrating in its flagship store in Paris.

Apple's application for an injunction was turned down by a district court in Paris on February 23, with the court concluding that there was no justification for limiting the protesters' freedom of expression on the grounds that the protests may cause harm. The court also said that the protests were lawful and represented "a general interest campaign on the payment of taxes and tax evasion."

The court also rejected Apple's request that the protesters be fined a sum of EUR150,000 (USD185,000) and impose further damages if further demonstrations take place in its stores.

Attac, an international tax justice campaign group, which was behind the protests, said that it planned to hold more sit-ins at Apple stores in France.

Commenting on the matter, Dominique Plihon, spokesman for Attac France, said "our actions are aimed at having Apple, the largest multinational company in the world, pay its fair share of taxes in the countries where it actually operates."Australia Announces Upcoming Guidance On Int'l Tax Matters

by Mary Swire, Tax-News.com, Hong Kong

28 February 2018

The Australian Tax Office has updated and added to its list of the guidance on international tax matters it intends to release this year.

This month, the ATO intends to release a guide on corporate residency  central management and control in Australia [reference code 3838], to provide the ATO's view on "central management and control in Australia" for the purposes of paragraph (b) of the definition of "resident" or "resident of Australia" in subsection 6(1) of the Income Tax Assessment Act 1936, which includes the tests to determine whether a company or individual is resident in Australia.

At the end of the month the ATO expects to release guidance on transfer pricing rules and debt/equity tests [3765], which will provide the Commissioner's view on whether Division 974 (the debt and equity rules) can limit the operation of Subdivision 815-B (Australia's transfer pricing rules).

The ATO anticipates that it will release three guidance notes in April, on April 30. These are on:

[3907] Thin capitalization: mining rights recognition and revaluation, which will set out the ATO view relating to the classification and revaluation of a mining right in accordance with accounting standards when applying the thin capitalization rules contained within Division 820 of the ITAA 1997.

[3908] Thin capitalization: bifurcation of financial instruments, which will set out the ATO view relating to the valuation of a taxpayer's debt capital in accordance with accounting standards when applying the thin capitalization rules;

[3865] MAAL  on the meaning of "directly in connection with supply" in sub-paragraph 177DA(1)(a)(ii) of the Income Tax Assessment Act 1936, discussing when activities undertaken in Australia will be directly in connection with a supply by a foreign entity under the Multinational Anti-Avoidance Law.

It intends to release one guide on May 31, 2018, on related-party financing and specifically interest-free loans [3901], which will set out the principles for determining whether interest-free loans made between related parties should be characterized as either debt or equity in identifying the arm's length conditions.

In June, five guidance notes are scheduled to be released. These are:

[3902] Offshore hubs  non-core procurement, due for release on June 7, which will set out the ATO's risk assessment framework, including the low risk benchmark for offshore procurement hubs that supply "indirect" or "non-core" goods or services;

[3906] Thin capitalization: compliance approach, due for release on June 29, which will set out the ATO compliance approach in respect of the taxation outcomes associated with thin capitalization arrangements. This will include a schedule outlining risk indicators for arrangements associated with recognition and revaluation of mining rights;

[3910] Thin capitalization: arm's length debt test, also due on June 29, which will set out the ATO view on the application of the thin capitalization arm's length debt test;

[3909] Thin capitalization: internally generated intangibles, which will set out the ATO view relating to the recognition and revaluation of internally generated intangible assets in accordance with accounting standards when applying the thin capitalization rules; and

[3900] Related party financing derivatives, also due June 29, 2018, which will explain the risk indicators associated with a financing arrangement, related transaction, or contract entered into with cross-border related parties involving "derivatives."

Finally, the ATO expects to complete additional guidance on the diverted profits tax on June 30, 2018. This guidance will set out the Commissioner's view on some of the new concepts that have been introduced in the Treasury Laws Amendment (Combating Multinational Tax Avoidance) Act 2017.Bitcoin Exchange Coinbase To Comply With IRS Tax Summons

by Mike Godfrey, Tax-News.com, Washington

28 February 2018

Coinbase, a virtual currency wallet and virtual currency exchange service provider, has confirmed it will soon transmit information on the transactions of 13,000 customers to the Internal Revenue Service, as a result of an earlier court ruling.

In IRS v. Coinbase, Case No. 17-cv-01431-JSC, the United States District Court for the Northern District of California ordered Coinbase to provide the taxpayer ID, name, birth date, address, and historical transaction records for certain higher-transacting customers covering the 2013-2015 period.

The case follows a December 2016 summons received by the company from the IRS, which demanded that Coinbase produce a wide range of records relating to approximately 500,000 Coinbase customers. Coinbase fought the summons in court. After a long process, the Court issued an order, which Coinbase said was "a partial, but still significant, victory for Coinbase and its customers," in providing that Coinbase should produce only certain limited categories of information from the accounts of approximately 13,000 customers.

Coinbase has newly sent correspondence to the 13,000 taxpayers concerned, warning them of the upcoming disclosure, which stated: "We are writing to let you know that the above-described court order requires us to produce information specific to your account. If you have concerns about this, we encourage you to seek legal advice from an attorney promptly. Coinbase expects to produce the information covered by the court's order within 21 days."The Uganda Road Fund (URF) has released Shs 102bn to its designated agencies and sub-agencies for maintenance of various categories of public roads for the third quarter of the 2017/2018 financial year.

The agencies include Uganda National Roads Authority (Unra), KCCA, 121 local governments (districts and municipalities) and their sub-agencies town councils and sub-counties.

The third quarter disbursement reflects 25 per cent of URFs annual roads maintenance budget of Shs 406bn. The cumulative release by the Fund currently stands at Shs 279bn since the financial year began.

In this quarter, the Fund has suffered a shortfall of Shs 25bn amounting to 6.29 per cent of the agency annual roads maintenance budget.

Activities to be funded

The funds disbursed will facilitate routine and periodic maintenance, road safety works, axle load control, ferry operations and maintenance, plant and equipment repairs, road materials and operational expenses in respective agencies.

Unra

In this quarter, Unra plans to maintain 3,490km of paved roads, 13,537km unpaved roads, 86 bridges and 13 ferries.

Unra will also carry out road safety works in the third quarter by installing street lighting, road signage, road marking and demarcation of road reserves on 854km of selected national roads.

The Fund will also finance the pretesting of alternative technology on one kilometre of a selected national road. The low-cost seal technology is an alternative to the costly bitumen which is commonly used to pave Ugandas roads.

The Fund will facilitate the operations of axle load control and enforcement on eight fixed and four mobile axle load control bridges.

KCCA

KCCA will maintain 145km of paved roads and 120km of unpaved roads. KCCA will also undertake road markings and junction maintenance under its road safety programmes.

In this quarter, the Fund will finance transport studies on road safety and congestion on Kampala city roads.Canada To Reform Taxation Of Passive Investments

by Mike Godfrey, Tax-News.com, Washington

28 February 2018

Canada's 2018 Budget has provided the long-awaited details of the Government's proposal to limit the tax benefits that can be derived from the holding of passive investments in a private corporation.

In July 2017, the Government consulted on three proposed changes to the tax planning rules intended to prevent private corporations from gaining undue tax advantages. After a backlash, the Government that autumn dropped plans to prevent the conversion of a private corporation's regular income into capital gains. It did nevertheless introduce legislation to restrict income sprinkling by private corporations, albeit in modified form.

The Government also confirmed last October that it would include in Budget 2018 detailed proposals for limiting the tax benefits of investing passively in private corporations, and that it would in the intervening period examine all deferral benefits arising from passive investment.

It did however announce at the time that it would introduce a passive investment threshold of CAD50,000 (USD39,159) per year for future, go-forward investments, which it said is equivalent to CAD1m in savings, based on a nominal five percent rate of return, and that there would be no tax increase on investment income below this threshold.

Finance Minister Bill Morneau delivered his 2018 Budget on February 27.

According to Budget documentation, the Government will, as promised, move ahead with its plans, but will do so in a "more targeted and simpler manner."

In the first instance, the Government intends to limit the ability of businesses with significant passive savings to benefit from the small business tax rate. Under the current rules, the small business deduction limit allows for up to CAD500,000 of active business income to be subject to the lower small business tax rate.

The Government said that it will phase out access to the lower rate on a "straight-line basis" for associated Canadian-controlled private companies (CCPCs) with between CAD10m and CAD15m of aggregate taxable capital employed in Canada. The Government said that this approach will "reinforce the principle that the small business rate is targeted to support small businesses, which tend to have more difficulty accessing capital, so they can reinvest in their active business, not accumulate a large amount of passive savings."

The Government will seek to introduce an additional eligibility mechanism for the small business deduction, based on the corporation's passive investment income.

If a corporation and its associated corporations earn more than CAD50,000 of passive investment income in a given year, the amount of income eligible for the small business tax rate would be gradually reduced. The small business deduction limit would be reduced by CAD5 for every CAD1 of investment income above the CAD50,000 threshold (equivalent to CAD1m in passive investment assets at a five percent return).

As a result, the business limit would be reduced to zero at CAD150,000 of investment income (equivalent to CAD3m in passive investment assets at a five percent return).

The tax applicable to investment income would remain unchanged, unlike under the original July 2017 proposal. No existing savings would face any additional tax upon withdrawal. Capital gains realized from the sale of active investments or investment income incidental to the business would not be taken into account for the measurement of passive investment income for the purposes of this measure.

The Government said that the new approach would be much simpler to comply with.

The second major reform announced in the Budget will seek to limit the tax advantages that larger CCPCs can obtain by accessing refundable taxes on the distribution of certain dividends. The Government has proposed that CCPCs should no longer be able to obtain refunds of taxes paid on investment income while distributing dividends from income taxed at the general corporate rate. Refunds would continue to be available when investment income is paid out.

The two measures would apply to taxation years that begin after 2018. The Government expects them to raise CAD925m a year.

The Government estimates that less than three percent of CCPCs will be affected by these changes  roughly around 50,000 private corporations. It said that more than 90 percent of the tax revenues from the measures would be generated from corporations whose owners' household income is in the top one percent of the income distribution.

The Budget also contained a number of measures designed to crack down on tax avoidance and tax evasion. The Budget proposed that the Government:Dutch Cabinet Approves Anti-Evasion Measures

by Ulrika Lomas, Tax-News.com, Brussels

28 February 2018

The Government of the Netherlands has announced a comprehensive package of tax anti-avoidance proposals designed to bring the jurisdiction's rules into line with new European Union anti-avoidance laws and fulfill its obligations under the international BEPS agenda.

The plans were detailed in a parliamentary paper sent by State Secretary for Finance Menno Snel on February 23, and include legislative proposals that the Government intends to introduce over the next two years to combat cross-border tax avoidance, as well as other aspirations in this direction. The main proposals are summarized below:

The European Anti-Avoidance Directive (ATAD 1) will be introduced in 2019, with the Netherlands going beyond the minimum requirements stipulated in the directive. Legislation will be introduced in the first half of 2018 containing a general interest deduction limitation rule, a new controlled foreign company regime, new exit tax rules, and a general anti-abuse rule.

The second EU Anti-Avoidance Directive (ATAD 2) will be implemented in 2020 to tackle hybrid mismatch arrangements. An online consultation on these measures, described as "technically very complex," will commence in 2018, and it is expected that ATAD 2 legislation will be introduced in parliament in 2019.

A new system of withholding taxes will be imposed on outgoing dividend, interest, and royalty payments to discourage the "abusive" shifting of income to low-tax jurisdictions. This measure may also require the Government to negotiate changes to some of the Netherlands' tax treaties.

Substance requirements needed for taxpayers to claim the benefits of Dutch tax treaties will be tightened to tackle so-called "letterbox companies." As a result, companies will be required to have a total wage bill of at least EUR100,000 (USD123,000) and have office space available for at least 24 months to qualify for tax treaty benefits. The Netherlands will also exchange information more frequently with source countries to help enforce these rules.

Transfer pricing rules will be amended in line with OECD guidance. In particular, the Government wants to adopt the new methodology used to determine the allocation of risk and function in a multinational group. The plan also mentions how the guidelines pay closer attention to the attribution of profits related to intangible assets.

To combat the use of aggressive cross-border tax avoidance schemes, legal liability of tax advisors would be reinforced, legislation governing trust offices strengthened, and penalties for non-compliance would be published.

To increase transparency of company ownership, a register of ultimate beneficial owners will be introduced, in line with the EU Fourth Anti-Money Laundering Directive.

As set out in its letter to parliament on February 18, 2018, the Government also intends to introduce new processes and substance requirements regarding cross-border advanced tax rulings, including advanced pricing agreements. The Government will seek advice from an independent panel of experts and stage a public consultation on these proposals, before introducing new rules in January 2019.

According to the plan, the Netherlands also supports EU proposals for the disclosure by tax advisers of aggressive tax avoidance schemes, and for the public disclosure of country-by-country reports.

However, while the plan discusses the issue of corporate tax competition, particularly in the context of the recent tax reforms in the United States, and says that countries should work together to eliminate harmful tax regimes, it nevertheless argues that countries should remain free to set their own rates of corporate tax. As such, the Government is opposed to the idea of a minimum corporate tax rate at EU level, as well as the harmonization of the EU corporate tax base under the proposed EU common consolidated corporate tax base proposals.EU Committee To Consider VAT Response To Paradise Papers

by Jason Gorringe, Tax-News.com, London

28 February 2018

Value-added tax avoidance will be considered by a new EU anti-tax avoidance committee, the creation of which is expected to be endorsed at an EU parliamentary plenary on March 1, 2018.

The Committee is being established to follow up after the leak of confidential files of international law firm Appleby  the so-called Paradise Papers.

In a "proposal for a decision," published on February 26, 2018, ahead of the plenary, the EU has set out what the proposed mandate of the Committee will cover. According to the document, among other things, the Committee will "assess how EU VAT rules were circumvented in the framework of the Paradise Papers and to evaluate in a more general way the impact of VAT fraud and administrative cooperation rules in the Union." It will also be tasked with preparing an analysis of the exchange of information framework in place in the EU and coordination policies between member states and Eurofisc, the anti-fraud agency.

Earlier, when announcing that the Committee will be established, Philippe Lamberts, the co-president of the Greens/EFA political group, said: "The Paradise Papers showed that there is clearly unfinished work to do if we are to secure tax justice in Europe. We want to make sure that national treasuries are able to collect the money that is needed to build shared prosperity across Europe."

"The European Parliament's inquiry committee into the Panama Papers has already produced a strong action plan for clamping down on tax dodging This new committee can now make sure this progress is not lost and that these much-needed measures are implemented by the Commission and by governments across Europe."

In the area of value-added tax, the Paradise Papers resulted in allegations of widespread VAT avoidance on aircraft leasing. The allegations were made by media associated with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, who broke the "Paradise Papers" story, and center on the importation of business jets via the Isle of Man into the EU.

When these allegations first emerged, a press release was issued by the Isle of Man's Cabinet Office, which said the UK's Treasury Department had been invited to conduct an assessment. It said the island had already conducted an internal review, which showed no evidence of wrongdoing, or to suggest the Isle of Man's Customs and Excise Division has been involved in the mistaken refunding of VAT.

The Isle of Man's Chief Minister, Howard Quayle, emphasized back when the allegations surfaced that the VAT treatment on importing aircraft into the EU is a highly technical and complex area, and that the Isle of Man follows the same policy, laws, and rules as the UK.

Subsequently French aircraft manufacturer Dassault Aviation issued a statement on its tax arrangements in response to media coverage.

The company, which was accused in media as enabling its clients to circumvent French VAT on plane purchases by importing the aircraft into the EU through the Isle of Man, said at the time it "complies with all of its tax obligations and in this respect pays taxes and duties in the countries where it conducts its industrial activities, i.e. chiefly in France and in the United States, via its American subsidiary. No tax optimization structure has been set up by the company in order to evade French taxes or French VAT."

It said: "Between 2008 and 2012 only, Dassault Aviation incorporated seven leasing companies in the Isle of Man, to cover the financing needs of customers amid the financial crisis. This represented two percent of Falcons delivered worldwide over the period 2008 to 2012. The Isle of Man was chosen for reasons related to operational flexibility and corporate management. The Isle of Man is with respect to VAT a European Community territory and is not listed among the non-cooperative tax jurisdictions."

"Whether for direct sales or financing of its Falcon business jets, Dassault Aviation conducts out the necessary checks and formalities in compliance with the laws and regulations in force, with all such operations being regularly checked by the French tax authorities. Dassault Aviation keeps a scrutiny on its operations leading to the delivery of aircraft to its clients. The choice of country of registration and the mode of operations of aircraft delivered are the exclusive prerogative of clients."EU Consults On Tackling E-Commerce VAT Non-Compliance

by Ulrika Lomas, Tax-News.com, Brussels

28 February 2018

The European Commission launched a consultation on February 27, 2018, on proposals to enhance the amount of data available to member states and European law enforcement bodies to better combat e-commerce VAT evasion and fraud.

Introducing the consultation, the European Commission said: "Tax administrations have [few] sources of information to identify remote sellers (those situated in another EU country or in countries outside EU) that do not comply with the VAT rules when selling online to final consumers (i.e. no VAT registration, no VAT declaration, no VAT payment)."

"Market intermediaries, such as payment service providers, hold data that may be useful for tax administrations to detect these non-compliant remote sellers and correctly assess the VAT liabilities on e-commerce sales. In fact, these intermediaries are involved in almost all e-commerce sales. In 2014, 94 percent of online payments for cross-border purchases occurred via online payment intermediaries, credit or debit cards, or prepaid cards. Depending on the national legislation, in some member states the tax authorities collect data from payment intermediaries to fight against VAT fraud in the field of e-commerce, while this is not the case in other member states."

The consultation is intended to collect stakeholders's opinions on:

The problem of VAT fraud in the field of e-commerce and its EU dimension;

Whether the current EU legal framework to fight VAT fraud provides the tax authorities in EU countries with the proper tools to fight VAT fraud in the field of e-commerce;

Whether an EU harmonized approach could provide better tools to tax authorities in EU countries to fight the VAT fraud in the field of e-commerce;

The impact of the different policy options in terms of fighting fraud, regulatory costs, and individuals rights, including issues of privacy and protection of personal data.

Responses to a questionnaire on these four areas are being sought by April 25, 2018.

The initiative is one of the last deliveries of the European Commission's 2016 VAT Action Plan, intended to complement the recently adopted VAT Digital Single Market Package. This latest effort focuses on the development of administrative cooperation tools for the competent tax authorities to detect and control VAT non-compliant sellers trading online.

Improving information exchange processes with regards to VAT, including with third countries, is a key tenet of the EU Commission's ongoing VAT reform efforts, as outlined in greater detail on November 30, 2017.

Its overall work in this area is intended to enable member states to communicate more quickly to challenge fraudsters, as fraud can happen nearly instantaneously. As part of its wider efforts, the Commission will establish an online system for information sharing within Eurofisc, a network that connects anti-fraud experts from the member states. This system would enable member states to process, analyze, and audit data on cross-border activity to make sure that risk can be assessed as quickly and accurately as possible. New powers would also be given to Eurofisc to coordinate cross-border investigations.

The new measures would also open new lines of communication and data exchange between tax authorities and European law enforcement bodies on cross-border activities suspected of leading to VAT fraud: OLAF, Europol, and the newly created European Public Prosecutor Office (EPPO). Cooperation with European bodies would allow for the national information to be cross-checked with criminal records, databases, and other information held by Europol and OLAF, in order to identify the real perpetrators of fraud and their networks.

Recently, to build on these efforts, the EU and Norway signed a new agreement on administrative cooperation on VAT compliance on February 6. It will provide EU member states and Norway with a legal framework for administrative cooperation in the prevention of VAT fraud and for mutual assistance in the recovery of VAT claims. Norway is the first country with which the EU has signed an agreement in this area but the Commission has stated that it wants to secure more agreements mirroring this pact with other countries.

VAT fraud is estimated to cause losses for EU member states of about EUR50bn (USD61bn) each year and there are growing concerns that terrorist organizations are branching out into carrying out value-added tax fraud schemes to fund their activities.Manitoba To Join Pan-Canadian Climate Plan

by Mike Godfrey, Tax-News.com, Washington

27 February 2018

Manitoba is to join the Pan-Canadian Framework on Clean Growth and Climate Change, following its announcement of a CAD25 (USD19.70) per tonne carbon tax.

Rochelle Squires, the province's Minister of Sustainable Development, wrote to the federal Environment Minister, Catherine McKenna, to announce Manitoba's decision.

Squires said that Manitoba is prepared to adopt the framework immediately, "on the understanding that by doing so we are not agreeing to the price schedule set out in the federal carbon pricing benchmark or to application of the federal backstop."

Her letter noted that Manitoba's carbon pricing approach "differs from the federal pricing benchmark and projected price schedule." However, she also explained that she has been "advised that we do not have to resolve these differences now, but rather we can move forward with adoption by simply respecting and reserving the positions of our governments."

Federal environment minister McKenna replied that Manitoba's "commitment to carbon pricing appears on track to meet the federal standard this year and next, but would need to be strengthened to hit the standard in the years thereafter."

McKenna confirmed that the federal Government will make Manitoba's full allocation under the Low Carbon Economy Leadership Fund.

As with all other territories and provinces, Manitoba's approach to carbon pricing will be reviewed each year against the federal benchmark.

In December 2016, the federal Government and all but two provinces (Manitoba and Saskatchewan) agreed to the Pan-Canadian Framework on Clean Growth and Climate Change. Under this framework, a federal carbon pricing option will apply in provinces without a provincial carbon pollution pricing system in price from this year.

Federal carbon levy rates will initially be set for the period 2018-2022. Rates for each fuel subject to the levy will be equivalent to CAD10 per tonne of CO2 in 2018, and increase by CAD10 per tonne annually to reach CAD50 per tonne in 2022.

In November 2017, Manitoba announced that it would introduce a CAD25 per tonne carbon tax from 2018. The Manitoban rate of CAD25 will not rise after 2018, and a full review of the carbon pricing plan will take place in 2022. The CAD25 per tonne price is half the amount mandated by the federal Government and will mean that Manitoba will have the second-lowest carbon price in Canada by 2022.OECD Calls On Chile To Pursue More Equitable Tax Policies

by Ulrika Lomas, Tax-News.com, Brussels

28 February 2018

The OECD has called on Chile to undertake more comprehensive tax reform to improve the fairness of the tax regime.

The OECD called on the country to build on the tax reform undertaken in 2014, and the tax administration improvements introduced in 2016. This year, authorities should look to make the individual income tax regime broader and more progressive, it said.

The OECD praised Chile for its reforms in recent years. The 2014 tax reform bill lifted the corporate income tax rate to 25 percent from 20 percent and prevented companies from indefinitely deferring liability to taxation by reinvesting profits. The top individual income tax rate was cut and excise taxes were increased. The 2014 tax reform also eliminated the VAT exemption on the customary sale of new or used property in 2017.

Then, in 2016 the Government approved a number of measures to improve conditions for businesses. This included the introduction of online pre-filled VAT forms in 2017.

The OECD's latest Economic Survey for Chile proposes that the country should raise property taxation to 1.7 percent of GDP (the OECD median), from 0.9 percent currently, and increase green taxes also to the OECD median of 2.2 percent of GDP, from 1.2 percent currently.

The OECD said: "More can be done to use taxes and transfers for addressing inequality. Raising property and environmental taxes, or lowering personal income tax bands, could help finance higher social spending, formal employment subsidies, and health insurance support."

In particular, the OECD noted that the personal income tax yields a low share of overall revenue mainly because the tax base is very narrow. Almost 76 percent of taxpayers are exempted and the top rate applies only at very high income levels. As a result, the current personal income tax has poor redistributive power in Chile, the OECD said. It recommended Chile make "significant changes in the personal income tax rate schedule, especially by lowering the bands at which the personal income tax and the higher income rate are levied" This could lead to an increase in revenues of 1.3 percent of GDP, the OECD said.OECD Urges Countries Not To Go It Alone On Digital Tax

by Ulrika Lomas, Tax-News.com, Brussels

27 February 2018

The problems posed by the digitalization of the economy should be addressed collectively and any interim measures taken by countries unilaterally should be "as little damaging as possible," the OECD's Director of Taxation has said.

Pascal Saint-Amans told the Irish Independent that to "find a long-term solution, you need to change tax treaties, you need to adopt transfer pricing rules and that's going to take time."

"You need to get the right analysis of the challenges of the digitalization of the economy, and things are not stabilizing there. So I think there is an agreement that we need to address this collectively," he said.

According to Saint-Amans, this process "will take a few years." He did however acknowledge that, if it takes too long, countries will be faced with the challenge of how to address the concerns of citizens.

Saint-Amans noted that there is some expectation that certain countries will take "interim measures," but stressed that these measures should be "as little damaging as possible."

Earlier this month, EU Tax Commissioner Pierre Moscovici said that the situation calls for "a fundamental overhaul of our corporate tax systems." He argued that while, ideally, progress should be achieved at an international level, but this "is not a prerequisite."

Moscovici said that although the Commission is working closely with the OECD on the issue, "international progress does not give much cause for optimism."Think Tank Calls For Canadian Tax Reform

by Mike Godfrey, Tax-News.com, Washington

28 February 2018

Canadian think tank the C D Howe Institute has published its recommendations for Tuesday's Budget, which include measures to compete with the US on tax.

The Institute's "Shadow Budget" argues that the Government should "think longer term," and aim to "reassure Canadians about the sustainability of fiscal policy while responding to sharper competitive pressure on trade and taxation."

According to the Institute, recent reforms to the US corporate tax regime promise "to spur US investments and economic growth, change cross-border tax planning, and potentially damage the competitive landscape for corporate investments in Canada." In particular, the reduction in the US corporate tax rate and the introduction of an immediate tax write-off for certain capital expenses were identified as bolstering the attractiveness of the US.

The Institute recommended two "easy-to-implement" reforms to the Canadian depreciation system as a means of improving the investment climate and short-run competitiveness. It said the Government should eliminate the "half-year rule," to enable businesses to claim in the first year the maximum depreciation deduction otherwise available, as opposed to only one half. In addition, it argued that eliminating the "available for use" requirement would mean that large multi-year projects could start to be written off as cash investments are made.

In the longer term, the Institute suggested that the introduction of an allowance for corporate equity in computing taxable profits that would exempt from taxation returns equal to the opportunity cost of equity financing, so that only profits above that rate of return attract tax. It said that the Government could also broaden the corporate income base by reforming the small business tax deduction and increasing the corporate capital gains inclusion rate.

More broadly, the Shadow Budget recommended a reduction in the base amount for the age credit and the elimination of the credit for investment in labour-sponsored venture capital corporations. It also said that the Excise Tax Act should be amended to apply to businesses that supply digital goods and services for consumption within Canada regardless of where the company is located.

Finance Minister Bill Morneau will deliver the 2018 Budget on February 27.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.When, in early 2008, Warid Telecom swaggered into the Ugandan market with a memorable display of fireworks that lit up the skyline over Speke Resort Munyonyo, the then two dominant firms, Zain Uganda (now Airtel Uganda) and MTN Uganda, took note.

A new entrant that could match them, pound for pound, had just made a strong case. Warid quickly embarked on drawing first blood by building its customer base through offerings of cheap calls.

Cutthroat data competition has stifled smaller players in the telecom market

One of its early strategies was to launch a sweet tariff under the guise of it being a promotion  Bang KB for Free. With this, customers would pay for the first two minutes of a Warid to Warid call and enjoy the rest of the minutes free of charge.

Bang KB for Free spread like wildfire. The two main players, MTN Uganda and Zain privately complained at the unfairness of this new price, considering how heavily they had invested in the market. The Uganda Communications Commission listened. But only for a short while.

What was not clear then was that Bang KB for Free became one of the first tests for the regulator, the UCC, on how to impose fair competition during price wars. Uganda is a fully liberalized economy with no price caps anywhere in the economy.

The Uganda Communications Commission ordered that offerings such as Bang KB for Free should not run for more than three months.

The order was that promotions should not be disguised as tariff bands. It was an order that would not hold for long. The market would later regret.

In early 2009, Orange Telecom launched in Uganda. Orange took on a cautious approach, preferring to slug it out in the data segment of the market.

Profit margins were heavily squeezed in the voice market because of all the promotions and cheap tariffs. Considering how much Orange Uganda needed to invest, focusing on the data market looked a better option.

Warid continued to disrupt the voice market. Later in 2009, Warid introduced the Pakalast and the Mega Bonus tariffs, both of which gave customers an opportunity to make calls for less money.

After, the telecom firms started an aggressive price war. Companies shifted from charging calls based on minutes to per second. Prices dropped from Shs 4 per second to nearly Shs 2 per second. Just how low the companies could go became anyones guess.

By this time, the Uganda Communications Commission had thrown in the towel over being caught in the middle of price wars.

The argument, then, was that Ugandans should be given the opportunity to enjoy cheaper telecom services. It was a delicate balance; letting the public enjoy cheaper calls at the risk of crowding out smaller telecom companies.

As beneficial as low call rates were to Ugandan consumers, they sowed the first seeds of a strong duopoly in the market, which would make it hard to be regulated.

One French official from Orange I spoke to privately defined the numerous price wars in the voice market as treading on dangerous ground. Pakalast thrived.

It still thrives up to this day, eight years later. Airtel, which had bought Zain in 2010, later bought Warid Telecom in 2013. With that buyout, Airtel nearly matched the markets bellwether, MTN Uganda. There was no room for any smaller players.

In 2014, with the market getting harsher, Orange Telecom sold its Uganda unit to Africell from Lebanon. The French firm decided to concentrate on Francophone Africa.

Less than a year later, Afrimax launched in Uganda, using the Vodafone brand. Unlike Orange Uganda which ventured into the voice market, Vodafone placed its entire attention on the data segment.

Afrimaxs coming to Ugandas telecom market proved a blunder. There was hardly room in the market. Last week, Afrimax filed for bankruptcy. Although the company had its share of management problems, there is no denying the fact that it struggled to penetrate the data market.

Where did it all go wrong? One needs to go back 10 years to clearly examine the birth of promotions such as Bang KB for Free, which ultimately led to the death of fair competition.

Every market needs strong rules that enforce fair competition, especially when it comes to pricing. Indeed, regulators tend to stamp out rogue behaviours such as the large firms blocking the entry and survival of smaller firms in the market.

And there have been incidences where smaller companies like Ezee Money have dragged bigger firms such as MTN Uganda to court over unfair business practices.

But because Uganda is liberalized, bigger companies have used price wars to crowd out smaller firms, which, for all their intent and purposes, is a practice against fair competition.

In an attempt to allow customers to enjoy cheaper telecom services, Uganda is now left with two large telecom firms, a duopoly. It is going to be hard for a new telecom company to enter Ugandas telecom market under the current conditions.

Spare a thought for the likes of Uganda Telecom Limited, which is trying to revive its long lost glory. It is no wonder utl needs a government directive, which requires all state agencies to subscribe to its services, to be enforced in order for it to survive.

In the long run, we are likely to see both MTN Uganda and Airtel Uganda have the same prices, although this might not be intentional, as they try to maximize profits.

UCC will find it tough to regulate these two large telecom firms because of the sheer might of power they hold.

For now, the competition between MTN Uganda and Airtel is intense because of the jostling in the mobile money market. The fight to control the billion dollar mobile money market is the only ray of hope for Ugandas telecom market to witness some semblance of competition.

Until then, let us enjoy the price wars while they last.

jeff@observer.ug

Twitter: @jeff_mbangaGoogle is officially taking Hangouts Chat out of beta and making it publicly available as a core feature of G Suite. Hangouts Chat is Google's interpretation of team / group communications and seeks to take on the heavy hitters such as Slack and Microsoft Teams.

While Hangouts Chat has a similar concept to Slack, Google is looking to leverage its strengths in artificial intelligence to differentiate itself from the competition. For example, there is a @Meet bot that can schedule meetings and a @Drive bot that keeps track of file access in Google Drive. Additionally, developers can create their own bots to integrate their own services into the platform.

With Hangouts Chat being deeply integrated into G Suite, there is also the ability to start Hangout video conferences, upload files to Google Drive and collaborate across documents, spreadsheets and presentations. Each Hangout Chat "room" can accommodate up to 8,000 users and supports 28 languages.

Advantages in AI and established services will give Google more room to compete. Because Hangouts Chat is part of G Suite, companies who already leverage the platform won't have to pay extra. In fact, Google already has convinced many companies including RingCentral, Kayak, Xero and even Giphy to create their own bots for Hangout Chats. There's even a bot for Jira and Trello, tools made by Atlassian who is competing with Google with their Stride offering.

If you're a G Suite user, look for Hangouts Chat to roll out in the next seven days.Instead of working for the recovery of Venezuelan assets blocked abroad, some opposition politicians seem to want the properties of the Bolivarian people to be controlled by foreign powers,... | Read MoreThe number of people that have been infected with cholera in Hoima district has risen to 812 with the cumulative death toll now standing at 29.



Dr Fred Kugonza, the Hoima district disease surveillance officer, told URN on Tuesday that last week 200 more cases were reported at Sebagoro Reception Centre in Kabwoya sub-county and Kasonga in Kyangwali sub-county.

He says the new cases have been taken to isolation centres at Sebagoro and Kasonga respectively. Dr Kugonza fears that the number could escalate since most of the refugees are still scattered within the host communities.

Refugees receiving treatment at Sebagoro health centre Hoima Uganda. Photo: @kikyjosh

He says the disease has further spread in the landing sites of Kyehoro, Kaiso and Nyawaiga that are in the sub-counties of Buseruka, Kyangwali and Kabwoya. Dr Kugonza said that if the refugees' movement is not regulated, the cases my rise further with more deaths recorded.

He says currently, the district has deployed heath officials at the reception centre in Sebagoro to identify new arrivals with cholera symptoms and immediately take them to the isolation centres for treatment. State minister for Health Sarah Opendi says that since the outbreak was reported earlier this month, a total of 535 suspected cases have been recorded at both Kyangwali and Kyaka II refugee settlements.



So far, 360 people have been discharged from the treatment centers that were set up in the two settlement areas. 50 and 30 bed treatment centers have been set up in Kasongo and Sebagoro landing sites. Opendi says the refugees contracted the infection from their places of origin and along the way to Uganda.



Opendi says that they are working together with the United Nations High Office for Refugees and the Office of the Prime Minister to carry out cholera sensitization campaigns in the area to control the spread of the disease.

"The cholera outbreak has been in the refugee settlements in Kyangwali and Kyaka and of course most of these refugees got a problem along the way while trekking to Uganda. So far we have lost 26 of them and a number of them have been treated and fortunately a good number of them have been discharged," said Opendi.



Opendi says that at the moment they are currently looking for resources to procure cholera treatment drug. According to the World Health Organization it is the best line defense against cholera infection and is recommended for adults between 18 and 64 years of age. The cholera vaccine costs around $240 (about Shs 900,000) on the open market.



Opendi advises the public to maintain proper hygiene in their homes to avoid contracting or spreading the disease from one person to another during the rainy season.

"Our call now is to the population to note that cholera is not now only a problem of the refugees but is also a problem of the country. We now see a number of outbreaks from other districts in the country especially where latrine coverage is low, where the water table is low. The rains have started, please ensure that you consume water that has been boiled. Do not take water that is not fit for consumption because at the end of the day you may contract cholera. And most importantly let us ensure that we wash our hands every time after latrine use and before we eat food."



The fresh cholera outbreak was reported at Sebagoro landing site on the Lake Albert shores in Hoima district on February 11 among the Congolese refugees fleeing tribal clashes in the Eastern part of the Democratic republic of Congo between the Lendu and Hema communities.Police last evening described the cold-blooded killers of the most recent kidnap victim, Susan Magara, as terrorists.

Assistant Inspector General of Police Abasi Byakagaba, former head of counter terrorism and current police director for oil and gas security, suggested to journalists that Susan met a horrific death.

RIP: Susan Magara

She was gruesomely murdered by yet-to-be identified criminals. The body of the late Susan Magara was recovered [a few metres off the road] at Kitiko between Kigo and Kajjansi along Entebbe highway. The body has been taken to Mulago for postmortem, Byakagaba said during a media briefing at police headquarters in Naguru, Kampala.

In the course of the investigation, the Uganda police now has in its possession a voice recording of one of the suspected murderers, he said, before playing back the recording.

A mans voice, speaking in Runyoro (the local language in Hoima where Susans dad has a farm for which she worked), can be heard giving directions of where to find her body:

You go to Namasuba come to Bata Bata, branch off , the voice says.

Police refused to say who this person was talking to when the recording was made. Byakagaba is leading investigations. He said the police has placed a Shs 100 million bounty for anyone with information leading to the identity or capture of the killers.

The bounty sum is unprecedented, five times higher than the Shs 20 million placed for information leading to the capture of whoever assassinated the flamboyant AIGP Andrew Felix Kaweesi, his bodyguard and driver last year.

When asked why this huge sum in relation to the Kaweesi offer, Byakagaba said: That time was that time, this time we have offered Shs 100m and that is it. I beg that we stick to the efforts to get these terrorists who carried out this murder.

Several times, Byakagaba avoided answering follow-up questions. He neither confirmed nor denied talk that the family had paid Susans tormentors half of the alleged $1 million ransom they had demanded.

Byakagaba had a similar response to one claim that the police may have advised the family against paying the ransom.

He rejected reports that the family declined to involve police in the matter, saying that they have been involved since February 7 when Susans disappearance was reported at Old Kampala police stations.

As the hunt for the perpetrators of this most callous, though growing menace, of kidnap-for-ransom proceeds, the police released toll-free lines yesterday through which information can be passed: 0800 199 044 and 0800 199 045.

The 28-year-old Susan Magara was kidnapped three weeks ago. She had been working as a cashier with Bwendero Dairy Farm Hoima at its Kabakanjagala procurement office in Kampala. The farm belongs to her father, John Magara.

She was snatched not very far away from her Lungujja home in Lubaga division where her car, together with hand bag and cellphone, were recovered.

Some relatives have been quoted saying that they were still trying to raise the ransom money by the time the chilling news trickled in that her life had been so cruelly and violently ended by this faceless terror.

The murder of Susan will show just how tightly the country is in the grip of a silent but vicious criminal element. Kidnaps, disappearances and unexplained killings, some of which police theorists attribute to crimes of passion, are on the rise.

At the same time, there has been a spate of politically-motivated kidnaps like the astonishing cases involving New Vision journalist Charles Etukuri, and the freelance radio correspondent Reverend Isaac Bakka who were grabbed by suspected state security forces.

Etukuri was snatched by men dressed in military uniform right outside the New Vision head office in Kampala at lunch time and bundled off. He was held in a safe house for about a week before being released without charge.

Bakka simply vanished and was neither seen nor heard from for over two months. One can only imagine the consternation of his family and friends when the reverends whereabouts recently became apparent upon his being quietly slipped before a magistrate, charged with treason and remanded to Luzira Maximum Security prison

In January, Francis Ekalungar, an accountant at Case hospital, was kidnapped, tortured to death and his body burnt beyond recognition.

A number of suspects have been charged with the Ekalungar crime. Among them is one Huzairu Kyewalabye, brother to Abdallah Kitatta, the patron of the notorious Boda Boda 2010 gang, at whose home the deceaseds car was found.

Kitatta was charged in the General Court Martial with six counts of possession of military equipment. According to police records, 24 cases of kidnap were reported last year. Of these, one person was discovered dead, police rescued 15 alive while eight of those reported missing are yet to be recovered either dead or alive.

bakerbatte@observer.ugDarren Godwell is working hard to ensure educational opportunities abound for indigenous children.

As record numbers of indigenous students head to school in 2018, there are plenty of people preparing to help them have as successful a year as all of their peers.

But one person particularly has his eye on the next stage: helping these students become future leaders.

Darren Godwell is CEO of the Stronger Smarter Institute, a not-for-profit organisation working to improve the educational outcomes of indigenous Australians, and hes spent much of his career working on ensuring indigenous leadership is a real, valid career path.

He admits even the term indigenous leadership is a contested one, although agrees that what it represents has changed over time.The stock staged its biggest drop in more than two decades, so maybe it's time to lay off giving advice to your fellow investors Gerry.

A few years back Harvey managed to offer his usual advice to any investors who are queasy about his forays into these unrelated businesses  "they should sell their shares". And sell they certainly did on Wednesday, after the company announced weaker earnings from its Aussie franchises as well as a $20.6 million write off of its dairy joint venture, Coomboona, following another multimillion-dollar loss.

Part of the fun of being a Harvey Norman shareholder is indulging its billionaire co-founder Gerry Harvey when he decides to go off piste and takes a side bet on odd things like mining camp accommodation - just as the mining boom was about to stumble - and dairy farms.

Judging by Harvey Norman's actions this week, he is clearly preparing to send the dud business to the slaughterhouse.

The Harvey Norman half year accounts make no bones about the fact that relations between the venture partners has deteriorated pretty badly.

Subsequent to the balance date, a dispute has arisen between the HN (Harvey Norman) JV entity and the Eternal Sound JV Entity in relation to a number of matters, including the future direction of the Coomboona JV, it said.

Didnt he tell the AFR just a few months back that Harvey Norman had bought out its venture partner and was open to selling the dairy business?

Never mind.

Harvey Norman now says that on Tuesday, February 27 - the day before the release of its results - it demanded that the Coomboona JV repay outstanding indebtedness due by the Coomboona JV to the HN JV Entity in the sum of $18.51 million".

Harvey Norman says it has commercial loans totalling $28.76 million with Coomboona. Of this, $18.51 million is payable on demand.

It is easy to guess what the next step will be.

Gerrys group holds a 49.9 per cent stake in the venture, his Coomboona partners hold 50.1 per cent which - it is safe to assume - gives them ultimate control of the venture. For now.

But Harvey Normans $18.51 million debt would give Harvey Norman the upper hand in the event of the venture being wound up for non payment of debt.

Gerry would not be drawn on this when CBD's colleague posed the question: Our job now is to try and repair the problem. And over the next couple of weeks well be doing things to repair the problem but I can't go into any specifics at this stage.As if Tuscan wine and villas weren't enough, Italy has a new drawcard for the world's wealthy people: Millionaires from Russia to Norway and the US are now seeking to take advantage of Italy's low tax rates for the super-rich.

Ancient architecture and rich pasta aren't the only drawcards luring the wealthy to Italian towns such as Bologna. Credit:Shutterstock

In an effort to attract capital, Italy unveiled a measure last year allowing ultra-wealthy individuals taking up residency to pay a flat tax of 100,000 euros ($150,000) a year, regardless of their income.

Around 150 people, including some with wealth of above the "hundreds of millions," inquired about the measure, Fabrizio Pagani, head of the office of the Minister of Economy and Finance said in an interview in London.

"We have people from UK, Switzerland, Russia, from US, the usual suspects," Pagani said. "But we have also Norwegians and some Dutch and not necessarily in finance. Some of those people are art collectors. We are talking about very, very rich people."The Tax Office has started undertaking random audits of taxpayers to get a better idea of how much money may be owed by people over-claiming on work expenses.

On Wednesday Tax Commissioner Chris Jordan confirmed that Australian Taxation Office staff had been asked by senior management to undertake random audits in relation to perceived over-claiming of work-related deductions.

Chris Jordan Commissioner of Taxation Credit:Andrew Meares

More than $22 billion was claimed in work-related expenses last financial year, and Mr Jordan said in a National Press Club speech in July that the tax gap for work-related expenses could be as high or higher than the corporate tax gap of $2.5 billion.

Mr Jordan told a Senate Economics Legislation Committee hearing on Wednesday that the random audits started 18 months ago and it had revealed "a number of errors" among work-related expense deductions.In various sandstone cloisters around the nation, highly-paid vice-chancellors are wondering where their next bonus might come from.

A key cog in their money-making machines has just been removed with transitions from international student visas to 457 visas halving last year.

Parliamentary Library researcher Henry Sherrell, who keeps a close watch on matters of visas and immigration, has spotted the quiet release of 457 visa statistics for the December half.

The trend he identified in the September quarter has continued - 457 visa applications for the six month period were down by 34 per cent on the previous corresponding period.MUSICAL

A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC 

Music and Lyrics by Stephen Sondheim; book by Hugh Wheeler; presented by Watch This

National Theatre Melbourne, until March 3

Musical theatre is resource intensive, so it's an uncommon pleasure to see indie companies thrive in the field. Sondheim specialists Watch This have flourished since 2013, creating touring productions of well-known works such as Company, and mounting rarely seen ones like Pacific Overtures and Assassins.

Eddie Muliaumaseali'i and Johanna Allen. Credit:JODIE HUTCHINSON

With A Little Night Music, the company tackles a Sondheim classic with aplomb. Inspired by the Ingmar Bergman film Smiles on a Summer Night, it's a rom-com musical that flirts with romantic disaster. It has the architecture of a Shakespearean comedy, with an intricate Chekhovian filigree, and features characters rescued from every kind of heartbreak, misalliance and Scandinavian folly on one midsummer night's eve where the sun never quite sets.

The show repays all-star casting; regular revivals attract it. I have glittering memories of seeing it in 1997 with Helen Morse (and Ruth Cracknell as her mother), and of Opera Australia's production nearly 10 years ago, where Sigrid Thornton brought her unfadeable glamour to the role of the fading actress, Desiree Armfeldt.The National Gallery of Victoria has ended its contract with Wilson Security following a series of protests by artists over the firm's offshore detention links.

An NGV spokesperson confirmed the decision on Wednesday, announcing SecureCorp as the gallery's new security services provider.

Artists covering a Picasso painting at NGV International in October. Credit:Eddie Jim

"Wilson Security was the NGV's interim security service provider while we were in a Victorian Government procurement process to secure a long-term security services provider," the spokesperson said.

"We have commenced the short transition to our new provider."Moving into a Liverpool boarding house in the late 1970s, Grahame caught the attention of Peter Turner, a much younger working-class actor living with his parents nearby. The two became friends, then lovers.

It's the voice of a star playing another star  specifically, Gloria Grahame, who had a string of successes in 1950s Hollywood before fading from view.

Annette Bening's performance in Film Stars Don't Die In Liverpool begins with the voice: breathy, girlish but of no certain age, a frail instrument so controlled that vulnerability and authority become one.

Annette Bening as Gloria Grahame and Jamie Bell as Peter Turner.

The film shows all this, alternating between Grahame on her death bed in the early 1980s and the energetic, hopeful woman encountered by Turner (Jamie Bell) a couple of years earlier.

As the title implies, at the heart of the film is the romantic dream of rescuing a fallen star. There are complications, though, including the fact that Grahame was never the kind of star associated with conventional glamour. As we're informed, she "always played the tart"  that is, the tart-with-a-heart, a tough cookie undone by love.

Moreover, within the film Grahame's glory days are a distant memory. Director Paul McGuigan makes only limited use of clips of the real Grahame, and when we do see Bening watching "herself" the effect is jarring: there's no sense the two women are one and the same. But this works for the film, the gap between reality and the movie image doubling as the gap between the present and a lost past.

Turner told his story in a 1987 memoir, and a screen adaptation was in development long before the involvement of McGuigan, a jobbing British director whose most notable recent achievements include early episodes of the BBC's Sherlock. He's a flashy craftsman in his own way, with a fondness for impossible transitions  such as when Peter walks away from a beach in Los Angeles and through a door into his Liverpool flat.It was whisky connoisseur and known sexist, Ron Burgundy in the movie Anchorman who said, "I love scotch. Scotchy scotch scotch. Here it goes down, down into my belly". Credit:Frank Masi SMPSP

When news of "Doritos for women" or "lady chips" as they became known, broke around the world earlier this month to everyone's collective dismay, Johnnie Walker, the brand represented by a jolly man walking with a top hat and cane on the label of scotch whisky, obviously did not get the memo.

Diageo, the alcohol beverage company behind Johnnie Walker whisky, has announced that they are launching a limited edition "Jane Walker" brand of whisky, embossed with an image of a woman in a top hat, striding with purpose across the bottle. Just like the little man!

Diageo say that the new branding will celebrate womens progress (oh well done, women!) and that $1 from every bottle made will be donated to organisations that champion womens causes. They are also transparent in saying that they hope this campaign will help attract more female customers.

Forgive us for jumping to conclusions here, but we think this might be Johnnie Walker's "Dorito" moment. In an interview with Time Magazine, Stephanie Jacoby, vice-president of Johnnie Walker, said that Scotch as a category is seen as particularly intimidating by women .A Congolese woman Ngaga Bibiche Bola, who was reportedly kidnapped on February 23 has today afternoon resurfaced at her home in Konge, Lukuli parish in Makindye division.



Ngaga resurfaced this afternoon where the area DPC immediately approached her to record a statement about her alleged abduction. According to police spokesman Emilian Kayima, it has emerged from Ngagas testimony that she was in the hands of Internal Security Operation (ISO) officials.

A happy Ngaga Bibiche Bola resurfaced after being 'kidnapped' 5 days ago allegedly by ISO operatives

She [Ngaga] claims that she was kidnapped by unknown people dressed in military fatigue with assault rifles and was in detention since then till today February 28 after five days, Kayima said.



He added that the area police are investigating the matter to establish who were behind the acts that continue to evoke fear among Ugandans.



We shall continue to work closely to stamp out such acts and all acts of criminality to guarantee citizens safety and security, Kayima said.



Ngagas reemergence comes a day after the body Susan Magara; a cashier with Bwendero Dairy Farm who was kidnapped on February 7 was found dumped in Kitiko in Kigo off the Southern bypass.

In a February 28 press statement, President Museveni said that Magaras murder shows what sort of swine (pigs) we have in Africa that do not value treasures like the beautiful Suzie whom, unfortunately, I had not had the opportunity of meeting.

In a bid to eliminate criminality, Museveni said options of capturing the palm-print of everybody and their DNA need to be explored.



DNA records of everybody are good to compare with blood samples, sweat, sperm etc found at the scene of crime. Palm-prints are better than thumbprints because the criminal may leave the palm-print and not a thumbprint, Museveni said.

nangonzi@observer.ug" Really? Did you really turn out fine, dater of women half your age? Are you actually doing all right, libertarian racist?"

Newton's famous insight, "For every action there is an equal and opposite slew of trend pieces," has never been truer about anything than it is about parenting advice. I feel like every time I hear a catchy phrase like "helicopter parenting," it's a perfect description of exactly what I am not seeing in the real world.

I'm sure over-parenting exists. I have no doubt that some kids could do with a little less attention, or skin on their knees, and perhaps a little more danger in their lives. But I've probably interacted with a couple thousand parents on playgrounds at this point (I have two daughters, ages 8 and 5), and in all that time I don't think I have ever seen a mum or dad go to extraordinary lengths to keep little ones from bonking their heads.

A mum crying "Be careful!" to a kid who wobbles on a swing? Sure. A dad guiding his son as he climbs the monkey bars? Absolutely. But the over-doters we hear so much about, swatting at anything that threatens a single, precious hair on Junior's little head? At the bottom of Loch Ness for all I know.

Maybe it shouldn't be surprising, then, that the term "over-parenting" was lifted into popular usage by John Rosemond, a syndicated columnist and a psychologist who, among other things, doesn't believe in psychology. He does believe in spanking. And forced toilet training. But not in ADHD, or in therapy for an 18-month-old victim of sexual abuse or the existence of mental illness in children.Natural justice demands that everyone deserves the presumption of innocence, and that it must be tested in a court. Natural justice also dictates that alleged victims of crime have the opportunity to be heard in court. In the extraordinary case of a former Melbourne school principal facing 74 charges of rape and other sexual abuse of young girls, natural justice has been unacceptably perverted for a decade.

Former Melbourne school principal Malka Leifer is led into court in Jerusalem on Tuesday. Credit:AP

Dual Australian-Israeli citizen Malka Leifer, who had been in charge of the Adass Israel School, fled to Israel with her husband and their eight children, and with the financial and logistic help of leaders of the ultra-Orthodox Jewish community exclusively served by the school, within hours of the first allegations emerging. She lived with relative impunity until finally being arrested in 2014. She was released on bail after arguing she suffered anxiety and extreme panic attacks.

Thus began a legal strategy that many, including The Age, view with scepticism; every time she was scheduled to face extradition proceedings, her lawyers claimed she was too mentally ill to stand trial. Her case was frozen in 2016, after a judge said she was unfit to stand trial. But she was again arrested last month, with police arguing she was faking her mental illness, after undercover surveillance footage showed her living what appeared a normal daily life in an ultra-Orthodox West Bank settlement.

However, hopes she will finally face justice have been frustrated yet again. Despite a comprehensive psychiatric report stating she is well enough to face trial, her lawyer has delayed extradition, for the moment, on a technicality  that Jerusalems chief psychiatrist did not sign the report, and that the defence team has had insufficient time to study it. The report was prepared by two psychiatrists who have been observing Ms Leifer since her latest arrest two weeks ago at the urging of Australian officials.Several Canberra university students have reached out to advocacy group End Rape on Campus with confronting stories of hazing since a report on residential college traditions was published on Wednesday. The group has received more than 140 disclosures from throughout Australia since reporting kicked off on The Red Zone Report. End Rape on Campus founder and director Sharna Bremner said the figure included students from the Australian National University and the University of Canberra sharing stories from the past and present. Education reporter Emily Baker has the story. 'It's like waiting for a baby': Turtle egg protection program showing positive signs

For years, foxes in the Jerrabomberra?Wetlands have?been digging up turtle nest and eating the eggs, causing a concern for their future.? But an experiment?run by the?Woodlands and Wetlands Trust and researchers to protect the eggs has shown positive signs, program manger Lori Gould said.? They may be small and less than two weeks old, but these baby turtles, 18 to be exact, have a very important role to play. For years, foxes in the Jerrabomberra Wetlands have been digging up turtle nest and eating the eggs, causing a concern for their future. But an experiment run by the Woodlands and Wetlands Trust and researchers to protect the eggs has shown positive signs Read my story here.

National Library of Australia celebrates a new age Director-General of the National Library of Australia, Dr Marie-Louise Ayres. Dr Ayres in front of a display of Fred Ward furniture representing a reading room from the 60s - one of the displays in 1968: Changing Times exhibition which opens on 1 March. Photo: Jamila Toderas Credit:Jamila Toderas When the National Library of Australia opened in 1968 the world was a turbulent place. The Vietnam War was in full swing, Robert Kennedy was gunned down in the kitchen of the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles and Richard Nixon became the 37th President of the United States. Closer to home Prime Minister Harold Holt disappeared in the surf off Cheviot Beach, the anti-war movement was gaining momentum and 200m runner Peter Norman stood on the podium with US athletes at the Mexico Olympics as they raised their fists in protest. A new exhibition at the NLA, 1968: Changing Times, celebrates the seminal year and the opening of a iconic building.

Karen Hardy takes us back in time. New speed sign trial to check drivers are obeying the limit Government switches on new smiley speed sign trial to check drivers are obeying the limit If you're driving down Casey Crescent in Calwell and see a big smiley face as you drive past, congratulations - you're obeying the speed limit. A $40,000 trial of smiley faced speed detection signs will be placed in some of Canberra's busiest residential streets to help combat speedingWhen the National Library of Australia opened in 1968 the world was a turbulent place. The Vietnam War was in full swing, Robert Kennedy was gunned down in the kitchen of the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles and Richard Nixon became the 37th President of the United States.

Closer to home Prime Minister Harold Holt disappeared in the surf off Cheviot Beach, the anti-war movement was gaining momentum and 200m runner Peter Norman stood on the podium with US athletes at the Mexico Olympics as they raised their fists in protest.

Director-General of the National Library of Australia, Dr Marie-Louise Ayres poses in front of a display of Fred Ward furniture representing a reading room from the 1960s. Credit:Jamila Toderas

A new exhibition at the NLA, 1968: Changing Times, celebrates the seminal year and the opening of a iconic building.

For current director-general Dr Marie-Louise Ayres the library is a special place. She's been working there for 16 years, just one year in the top job, and she still loves exploring the quiet places we traditionally associate with libraries.Geocon spokeswoman Jane Seaborn said remediation works had been completed following acoustic tests on the building last year, although did not specify what work had been done.

Residents in Belconnen's Wayfarer building have complained of loud banging noises coming from the building. Credit:Sitthixay Ditthavong

At least one owner moved out of the 330-apartment tower because of ongoing interruptions caused by banging noises coming from the building's roof and wall spaces.

Construction giant Geocon says it has completed remediation works to halt persistent loud banging noises plaguing residents of Belconnen's Wayfarer tower.

There had been no new complaints about the noises since, she said.

Wayfarer residents met with Geocon representatives late last year to voice their concerns about the disturbances, and were told the noises were caused by thermal temperature changes inside the building.

At the time a Geocon spokeswoman said the meeting had been positive and constructive, but refused to detail what was causing the noises.

Geocon boss Nick Georgalis said he understood residents' frustration and the company would fix the source of the noises at its expense, even if the solution is found outside industry warranty periods.

Mr Georgalis has defended the company's response to complaints dating back to earlier in 2017 and said only a small number of rental tenants and owners have been affected.A Maroubra man has been arrested and charged over a brazen drive-by shooting at Mascot, days after police released dramatic CCTV footage showing a ute driver firing a gun into a passing car at close range.

Officers were called to Jackson Drive, just off Kent Road near Sydney Airport, after reports of a shooting about 6pm on January 31.

Witnesses said they saw shots fired from a white Ford Ranger Utility towards a Mazda sedan.

Police renewed calls for information about the shooting when they released video footage of the incident on Monday.A developer proposes to address a lack of affordable housing by constructing a two-storey building with 35 rooms for lodgers, each fully furnished and equipped with a kitchen and bathroom facilities.

But Peter Polgar said the "new generation" boarding house proposed for a residential street in Allambie Heights, as well as others planned for Sydneys Northern Beaches, will destroy the close community and village environment.

An artist's impression of a boarding house proposed for Allambie Heights. Credit:Walsh Architects/Northern Beaches Council

Mr Polgar, a member of the Allambie Heights Action Committee, said the boarding house would lead to congestion as more people moved into the area.

We do not have any idea of the type of characters to take up residency in these developments and, as they will be itinerant, no doubt with no community spirit or general feeling for the community at large, one would suspect, he said.Waverley mayor John Wakefield has thrown down the gauntlet to share bike operators, vowing to seize and impound the wayward bikes littering eastern suburbs footpaths and roads.

"We are going out next week and we are going to pick up the bikes. They are going to be put on trucks, and they are going to be taken for impoundment," Cr Wakefield told Fairfax Media.

Waverley mayor John Wakefield vows to impound wayward share bikes around the eastern suburbs. Credit:Jessica Hormas

He said that although he and the council "support the logic of share bikes", they "frankly had it with promises" from operators and that they had been given enough of a window to sort out the problems.

"There's your notice, guys. We're now about to action it. Get your act together. Stop taking us for a ride."Brisbane City Council has 'its head in the sand' over plans to improve traffic around Indooroopilly's Walter Taylor Bridge, according to Main Roads Minister Mark Bailey.

Brisbane City Council however says it is waiting for clarification of a longer-term proposal to move Indooroopilly's bus station from Indooroopilly Shoppingtown "closer" to the train station.

The RACQ has argued that, in order the stop major congestion in Brisbane's western suburbs, new bridges at both the Centenary Bridge at Jindalee and the Walter Taylor Bridge at Indooroopilly should be planned, designed and built within 10 years.

Mains Roads minister Mark Bailey says his department is now planning a new Centenary Bridge at Jindalee.

Mr Bailey, a former Brisbane City councillor, said his department was now planning for a new Centenary Bridge to replace the four-lane bridge at Jindalee.At the just-ended African Fine Coffee Conference and Exhibition at Kampala Serena Hotel, stakeholders were reminded of the importance of this cash crop to Ugandas economy but also warned about challenges relating to quality and climate change, among others.

The government has been talking up plans to expand coffee production from 3.5 million bags until recently, to 20 million bags within a few years. While this target might appear very ambitious, it is achievable. And if it were achieved, this country would not remain the same.

It is evident that despite the challenges involved in the massive distribution of free coffee seedlings, the level of production has sharply risen and will continue to rise.

After stagnating at not more than 3.5 million 60kg bags for many years, Ugandas annual coffee production shot to 4.7 million in 2017.

According to the national strategy developed by Uganda Coffee Development Authority (UCDA), Uganda aims to produce 5.8 million bags by 2020, and this should bring in $1.1bn. This target is already well within reach.

By 2040, this strategy foresees, Uganda should be producing 12 million bags and earning $2.5bn from it. If you consider that Uganda expects to earn up to $3bn from its much-hyped oil annually, you realise that the real black gold is in coffee.

Uganda has everything it needs to hit the 20 million bags target, and even surpass it, if the challenges highlighted in the conference are tackled.

What Vietnam has achieved, expanding production from one million bags in the 1980s to 26 million bags in 2017, shows that it can be done here too.

While there is much more fuss about oil, it is evident that oil revenues cant trickle down as well as coffee earnings would. Besides, at 20 million bags, Uganda would be earning much more from her coffee than oil. And oil will be gone within 30 years while coffee will always be here!

Therefore, lets invest more in extension services, deal decisively with pests and diseases, put in place irrigation schemes, and fix post-harvest handling, and coffee will become our real black gold.Assistant Commissioner Brett Guerin leaves Media House after an interview at 3AW. Credit:Eddie Jim While revelations about the offensive online rampages by former top police officer Brett Guerin have apparently shocked Victoria Police and the public, there is one group who are all too familiar with this kind of vocabulary and rhetoric. In my research I spoke with and heard the testimonies of many African-background young men, their lawyers and their social workers, who described outlandish acts of gratuitous violence and being persistently hailed by police as either ''black dogs'' or ''black c---s''. For those of us with fair skin and protected, middle class lives, Guerins online ranting seems fantastical and absurd. But for everyone else, I would suggest that Guerins hateful words remain shocking, but not surprising. At the same time as all this has been going on, the parliamentary committee for the states corruption watchdog IBAC has been conducting an inquiry into the possibility of external oversight for VicPol. At a recent hearing of that inquiry, Assistant Commissioner Luke Cornelius decried ''carpetbagger lawyers'' trying to ''lecture'' Victoria Police on reform. This isnt the first time Cornelius has asked lawyers to butt out of police business. Before Brett Guerin headed up the Ethical Standards division, Luke Cornelius had the role for five years. This is how, in February 2014, he came to speak with some authority about the difficulties around the internal disciplinary mechanisms of Victoria Police. Cornelius was fronting an audience predominantly composed of the lawyers and social workers who had driven the landmark Haile-Michael Racial Discrimination case brought against Victoria Police in the Federal Court and a suite of other civil cases against Victoria Police estimated to have cost the organisation well in excess of $3 million. To this audience, Cornelius confided that such was the difficulty of police disciplinary mechanisms that internal management manoeuvres (such as moving on problem officers) were more effective than formal accountability. Loading

Cornelius is a genuinely progressive fellow and an admitted lawyer himself. Like many of his senior police management colleagues he is well-educated and genuinely committed to trying to make positive changes at Victoria Police. In February 2014 I was impressed both by his manner and his candour. But, afterwards, as I walked to the train station, I was treated to an illustration of the disconnect between the senior manager I had just heard beg lawyers for their trust, and the bulk of middle manager sergeants and front line officers. As I neared the station I was startled by a loudly revving engine and squealing tyres as a young male officer driving a divvy van aggressively took off from the traffic light, presumably asserting something about policing or masculinity or maybe both. These are the meatheads that Victoria Police cant seem to weed out, and that one of the strongest unions around, the Police Association, protects. This is the organisation in which someone who spends his down-time engaged in the rankest degree of racist, sexist and homophobic rhetoric, can be protected and promoted, to the position of Ethical Standards Command no less. Graham Ashton and The Age's long-serving crime expert John Silvester have expressed their shock at the apparent disjuncture between the Brett Guerin they knew and worked with and the views he expressed under an alias. Yet I am reminded of the similar management response when police officers from Sunshine were exposed in 2014 for producing racist stubby holders targeting local African people. Then, Chief Commissioner Ken Lay said the incident (alongside a number of others) had exposed to him a ''dark corner'' of Victoria Police which embarrassed and apparently surprised him. Assistant Commissioner Andrew Crisp deplored the stubby holders but also said he didnt see it as part of a systemic problem with Victoria Police. This was despite the exposure, around the same time, of a similar stubby holder apparently mocking Aboriginal people produced by Bairnsdale police. In my view, 2007 reports of a Dandenong area stubby holder with the slogan ''welcome to the jungle'' suggest that the production of stubby holders with racist slogans is both a widespread and persistent expression of the racism that remains unchecked at the station-level of Victoria Police. Despite senior managers apparent continuing desire to handle their undesirables in private, Victoria Police and the community they are sworn to protect have been well-served by the ''carpetbagger lawyers'' and journalists who have worked to expose the many ''dark corners'' of Victoria Police over the last decade.They all took lives  Norwegian mass murderer Anders Breivik, right-wing UK terrorist Thomas Mair and Dunblane school shooter Thomas Hamilton  and they also displayed fixated behaviour in the lead-up to their violent crimes.

Up to 300 people could be assessed by a new Victorian centre aimed at thwarting lone wolves, mass murderers and terrorists before they fully realise their dangerous obsessions.

The Fixated Threat Assessment Centre, which begins operating on Thursday, will be staffed by specialist police and forensic mental health clinicians who will identify and monitor seriously unwell individuals who exhibit extremist ideology, show signs of becoming radicalised, or have fixated grievances.

The Bourke Street tragedy was a catalyst for the $31.6 million centre.Girls in single-sex schools are nearly twice as likely to study VCE chemistry and specialist maths than those in co-ed schools, new research has found.

And a greater proportion of girls in single-sex schools are studying maths methods and physics than their peers in co-ed schools.

The Monash University research will reignite the ongoing debate about whether single-sex or co-ed schools deliver better outcomes.

Year 10 Avila College student Beatrice van Rest is passionate about science Credit:Eddie Jim

It was commissioned by the Alliance of Girls Schools Australasia, which said the findings show girls schools are encouraging women into STEM fields.Andrew Lee, the man who killed teenager Patrick Cronin with a coward punch thrown in a bar brawl, wants his jail term cut because his crime wasn't as serious as another one-punch death, his lawyer has told a court.

Lee was last year jailed for eight years, and to serve five before he became eligible for parole, for striking Mr Cronin during a brawl at The Windy Mile hotel in Diamond Creek in April 2016.

Mr Cronin, 19, was trying to pull friend Anthony Hopkins out of the fight and never saw Lee's punch, died in hospital.

Lee pleaded guilty to manslaughter after his trial on that charge had started, but only when prosecutors agreed to revoke a notice requesting Justice Lex Lasry sentence him under Victoria's one-punch laws, which carry mandatory 10-year jail terms.Page one of today's paper Credit:Craig Butt

The top stories:

Supermarket giant Woolworths' network of pokies-owning pubs faces state and federal investigations in the wake of claims its staff secretly compiled personal details about gamblers to keep them in venues longer. [Read the full story]

Tony Abbott's office helped a billionaire labelled an "agent of a foreign country" to donate to the Liberal Party, even though Mr Abbott had earlier been warned by ASIO about the donor's links to the Chinese Communist Party. [Read the full story]

Girls in single-sex schools are nearly twice as likely to study VCE chemistry and specialist maths than those in co-ed schools, new research has found. [Read the full story]Victorians are paying far too much for gas because of the Andrews governments stubborn refusal to allow onshore exploration, Australias competition watchdog says.

Victorians will pay an extra $2 to $4 per gigajoule because of a looming local supply shortfall that will require more gas to be transported from Queensland this year and beyond, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission said on Wednesday.

Australian liquefied natural gas prices are too high, the ACCC says.

The independent authority attacked Labors moratorium on onshore gas exploration, arguing the ban was standing in the way of opportunities to boost Victorias gas supply and was pushing up bills for households, industry and electricity generators.

The Andrews government last year imposed a moratorium on onshore gas exploration until 2020, and permanently banned fracking for environmental reasons.Canning MP Andrew Hastie has called for local governments to reconsider area names inspired by Aboriginal culture if they're a "syllable soup" for people to pronounce during emergencies.

The parliamentarian's comments came after the tragic death of Kimberley Johnston, who drowned at Dwaarlindjinaap swimming hole near Dwellingup in the Lane Poole Reserve on January 24.

Andrew Hastie has urged caution over changes to place names after the recent drowning death of a woman in Dwellingup.

The 22-year-old was swimming in a rapid with her brother Aaron when the current pulled her underwater and wedged her beneath a rock.

In the critical and panicked moments that followed, bystanders struggled to tell emergency services the name of the swimming hole  Dwaarlindjinaap  due to its length and complexity.Shark Bay Shire is considering a backflip on its decision to protect a critically endangered bird habitat and allow a set of bush tracks to remain open to vehicles despite environmental damage they are causing.

BirdLife Australia has confirmed that as part of the World Heritage listed marine park, Little Lagoon Creek is considered important habitat for four critically endangered bird species, the eastern curlew, the curlew sandpiper, the bar-tailed godwit and the great knot, which breed in the northern hemisphere and winter in the southern.

Critically endangered bar-tailed godwit. Credit:Georgina Steytler

A 2010 rehabilitation master plan was partially completed in terms of providing amenities such as shelters and barbecues, but action on the rehabilitation aspect has been lacking, sparking community concerns about degradation.

In August 2017 the council resolved unanimously to progress the rehabilitation aspect including vehicle track closures, given the impact 4WDs and quad bikes were having upon the fragile environment.After Fairfax Media quizzed several MPs on Wednesday about their receipt of donations from Mr Huang in June 2016, and the role of Mr Abbotts electorate office in soliciting the funds, one of them, Andrew Hastie, revealed he had instructed the WA Liberal Party to return $10,000 after tracing the funds to a company controlled by Mr Huang, Chaoshan 1 Pty Ltd. Liberal MP Andrew Hastie and Shadow Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus during a Parliamentary Joint Committee of Intelligence and Security (PJCIS) hearing on the Review of the Home Affairs and Integrity Agencies Legislation Amendment Bill 2017, at Parliament House in Canberra. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen Mr Hastie is the chair of federal parliaments national security committee, which is reviewing sweeping reforms proposed by Mr Turnbull to counter foreign interference, including via donations and groups involved in Chinese Communist Party lobbying. Since early 2016, Mr Huangs request for Australian citizenship has been stalled by ASIO. Amid an uproar in late 2017 over Mr Huangs relationship with now ex-senator Sam Dastyari, Mr Turnbull described Mr Huang in parliament as an agent of a foreign country. Mr Hasties decision to refund the donation creates a potential precedent for other MPs who have enjoyed Mr Huangs campaign largesse.

In considering his position as Chair of the PJCIS [committee], and having become aware of concerns relating to this donor, Mr Hastie deemed the donation to be inappropriate and instructed for it to be returned, which was subsequently done earlier this year, Mr Hasties spokesman said in a statement. Even though Mr Turnbull has sought to prohibit foreign donations as part of proposed sweeping anti-foreign interference laws introduced in November, the Coalition still accepts overseas donations. The ALP last year banned donations from Mr Huang and a second donor, and in principle backs the proposed ban on overseas donations, although it believes the governments legislation is badly flawed. The payment from Mr Huang's company went to Mr Hastie's Federal Electorate Conference (FEC), managed by the Liberal Party. It was one of several payments by Mr Huang's companies worth $140,000 to various Liberal campaigns ahead of the 2016 election. As well, the billionaire's companies donated $85,000 to Labor in the months before the election. The Hastie chaired Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security, which is reviewing the laws, is set to come under scrutiny amid another revelation that a former staffer for one committee member had links to Chinese Communist Party groups. A high profile submission to the committee in January by professor Clive Hamilton and researcher Alex Joske named Huang Kun as a person involved in the Chinese Communist Party United Front organisations, including groups tied to Huang Xiangmo (who is no relative). United front groups may operate as proxies for Beijings interference operations in Australia.

Clive Hamilton, who has written a book on Chinese Communist Party influence. Credit:Rohan Thomson The allegation about Huang Kun is sensitive because he was, until January, a staffer to Labor senator Jenny McAllister, who is a member of the parliamentary security and intelligence committee. He said he quit as a the senators staffer in January to pursue further study and his political career. Huang Kun, 27, was not interviewed by Mr Hamilton or Mr Joske prior to his naming in their PJCIS submission. He said that if he was, he would have relayed a more nuanced story about his links to CCP groups than that presented at the committee. Huang Kuns story highlights how those seeking leadership roles in Australias disparate Chinese community can come into close contact with people deemed by the Chinese Communist Party to be community leaders. Fairfax Media has no evidence that Huang Kun knew he was involved in United Front groups. Huang Kun believes those operating CCP fronts or seeking to lobby for other nations should be outed.

We should name them as foreign agents, he said. I support the foriegn interference laws. There should be a rule in place so people can say, youre a (agent of influence) ... If a rule is in a place and I am guilty, you can charge me. Councillor Huang Kun of Cumberland Council. Credit:James Brickwood Huang Kun said he risked a backlash online and from sections of the Chinese community in making his comments supporting the new laws. He is one of only a few local Chinese voices in a debate dominated by politicians, journalists, think tanks and officials with a toe in one of two camps: the China hawks, who believe the United Front is deeply involved in Australian politics, and others, who label such suspicions as scaremongering that threatens a vital economic and bilateral partnership. Huang Kun said there was a lack of accountability about who is doing CCP work in Australia and for what reason. He hopes increased accountability  the proposed laws require lobbyists and agents to disclose if they are working for a foreign power  may help Chinese Australians to shake the cloud of suspicion provoked by the debate and which has hovered over Huang Kun himself.

He cautioned that political networking and self-promotion by some Chinese Australians was being unjustly labelled as communisty party political lobbying, and that those proud of Chinas achievements unfairly labelled as CCP cheerleaders. Huang Kun said he marvelled at Chinas economic development while abhorring the CCPs efforts to control information. He urged Australians to look at China from both sides. Huang Kun arrived in Australia when he was nine, hanging out with Aussie kids before gravitating in high school towards what he calls the ABCs  Australian Born Chinese. It wasnt until university that he begun to associate with mainland Chinese and encountered, peripherally he says, the long arm of Beijing. When Kun created a Chinese student group at Macquarie University in 2013, he said he realised the most successful student groups where the Chinese embassy backed CSSAs. He rebadged his student group as a CSSA as a marketing exercise and, by virtue of his position as president, said he was invited onto the NSW CSSA executive, which meets at the Chinese embassy.I am here sitting in this office as deputy speaker; it has stopped making sense to me. All I feel is absolute frustration, said Jacob Oulanyah, speaking to NTV about the nodding syndrome.

Then he added this clincher: A government that does not care about its young people does not deserve its future.

Well-spoken and to the point! But there is a small problem, actually a big one, to which I return below.

Nodding syndrome is a rather mysterious condition that disables and cripples children. It has killed hundreds in northern Uganda in recent years, first reported close to ten years ago.

Although it has been around for over a decade, it was only last year that scientists came to the tentative conclusion that the syndrome is likely caused by a parasitic worm. So, why is Oulanyah so frustrated that his big office as deputy speaker no longer makes sense?

Well, the people he represents in parliament are directly affected and he has to face up to the problem of a deadly health emergency that is not treated as such by the government he serves.

The situation of children battered by nodding syndrome is heartbreaking. Its deeply disturbing yet highly neglected by the government. One may understandably ask if the negligence is because its northern Uganda in the picture.

Second, Oulanyah realizes and is outraged that he presides over passing supplementary budgets for all sorts of things but none for the devastating situation in his backyard.

He references paying foreign electricity-generating companies, never mind Uganda is reportedly producing more power than we consume.

Mr Oulanyah seems to be a compassionate and well-meaning person. On a good day, he speaks his mind and sticks to his conscience. Problem is, there is bound to be a clash of his conscience with the remit handed to him in his job.

If he was honest enough, he would have stated, for example, that the real culprit in budgetary malfeasance is State House where one individual moves with a costly motorcade complete with a mobile toilet.

The job of deputy speaker was handed to Oulanyah by the real holders of power to perform their wishes. It all started in 2005 when heretofore he was a renowned and outspoken member of the opposition party, Uganda Peoples Congress (UPC).

He was drafted into the scheme of entrenching the life presidency as chairman of the legal and parliamentary affairs committee that produced a report paving way for deleting presidential term limits from the constitution.

With that, Oulanyah had embarked on the treacherous path of being coopted into the system in which those who recruited him were always going to see him as a hatchet man.

In 2005, three key outsiders were put to use in the life-presidency scheme: Oulanyah, the then vice president Gilbert Bukenya and speaker Edward Ssekandi.

In more recent years, Oulanyah has found out that those who hired him look up to him to do the dirty work, often with the connivance of current speaker Rebecca Kadaga.

With all his genuine feeling of disappointment about the appalling condition of children in Omoro county and other areas of northern Uganda, Oulanyah has to confront one sad fact: he is part of the pack that has betrayed the country by actively perpetuating one-man rule.

The supplementary budgetary requests from the ministry of Finance are prioritized by individuals who have vested interests and are well-positioned to either cash in directly or protect their positions.

Prioritizing nodding syndrome is not in their orbit because they do not make financial and budgetary decisions on the basis of national rationalization.

Decisions about what to fund and not fund largely depend on what set of actors will be in charge of managing the disbursed funds and the extent to which funding or not funding a particular need directly affects the rulers.

This is the sad reality we face; and Ndugu Oulanyah knows this all too well. He was put in that position to do a job as required, and not to complain about what is not being done right.

The children in Omoro are dying or getting crippled by a ruthless condition because the rulers have distorted the national priorities.

In fact, one can assert that the country moved from national to personal priorities, centering largely on the interests of a cabal that is bent on personalizing the state and pursuing decidedly personal agendas of material accumulation and clinging to power for life.

Mr Oulanyah appears to be a person predisposed to deep introspection and honest self-reflection. He may have to fall on his knees some day and concede his direct complicit in the decay and dysfunction eating away Uganda.

It is not just the nodding syndrome shame Oulanyah stares at even as he wallows in the big office of deputy speaker; it is the long litany of abuses, infractions, and betrayals that the Museveni regime has visited on the country. It is a regime of fraud!

moses.khisa@gmail.com

The author is an assistant professor of political science at North Carolina State University.Barnaby Joyce charged taxpayers nearly $100,000 on printing and communications costs in the 10 weeks between being exposed as a New Zealand dual citizen and forced to a byelection after he was thrown out of Parliament.

The $98,000 in spending between August 14 and October 27 last year represented a dramatic jump in Mr Joyce's usual spending on the entitlement, which MPs use to pay for pamphlets, mailouts, websites and local advertising.

He spent more on the entitlement in those 74 days - when a byelection in his northern NSW seat of New England loomed as a real possibility - than in the first six months of the year.

Earlier expense records dating back to 2014 show Mr Joyce has historically spent between $9000 and $50,000 over three-month periods on the allowance.The corruption watchdog never spoke to the Australian Border Force head Roman Quaedvlieg as it investigated claims he abused his power, while a second inquiry communicated with Mr Quaedvlieg only in writing, Fairfax Media understands.

Mr Quaedvliegs fate is currently in the hands of Attorney-General Christian Porter, who is considering a report on the case provided by the head of the public service and Secretary of the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet, Martin Parkinson.

Mr Quaedvlieg was the subject of a complaint from a Border Force employee that he helped his girlfriend get a job with the agency at Sydney Airport. He has protested his innocence.

But the complaint was referred to the corruption watchdog, the Australian Commission for Law Enforcement Integrity.

It delivered its report to Home Affairs Department head Mike Pezzullo in August, a Senate estimates hearing was told this week. Mr Pezzullo told a separate Senate hearing he and Mr Parkinson agreed that the latter should take over the administrative side of the inquiry.Julie Bishop has claimed $32,000 in taxpayer-funded family travel for her long-term boyfriend but says she is not obliged to disclose his financial interests on the parliamentary register because he is not her "spouse" or de facto partner.

In a case that highlights how a couple who is not married or living together can avoid being classified as a spouse under the parliamentary rules, the Foreign Minister has avoided listing property developer David Panton on her parliamentary register of interests because they do not live together.

Because Mr Panton is not listed as a spouse, Ms Bishop has never declared any complimentary travel, hospitality or flight upgrades he may have received while accompanying her around Australia or on missions abroad.

It also means details of his business interests and property holdings are not disclosed.Turnbull government minister Michaelia Cash was forced to withdraw comments  branded "disgraceful and sexist"  in which she threatened to spread rumours about young women in Opposition Leader Bill Shorten's office.

Just two weeks after Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull called for cultural change in the way women are treated in Parliament House, Labor's Penny Wong accused Senator Cash of an "outrageous slur" on female staffers.

The Minister for Jobs and Innovation made the comments during a heated Senate estimates exchange with Labor's Doug Cameron on Wednesday, giving public glimpse at the growing tensions between the government and opposition over politician's personal lives in the wake of the Barnaby Joyce scandal.

Mr Joyce's extramarital affair prompted Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull to ban sexual relations between ministers and their direct reports. The crackdown has given new life to rumours about sex between MPs, or MPs and their staff, creating a toxic atmosphere of rumour and innuendo in Parliament House.Washington: Hope Hicks, one of US President Donald Trump's longest-serving, most trusted aides, is resigning from her job as White House communications director.

The White House announced she was leaving a day after Hicks, 29, spent nine hours in a closed hearing of the House of Representatives Intelligence Committee on its investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 US presidential election.

White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said Hicks' decision to leave was not related to her appearance before the panel. Lawmakers said Hicks, Trump's spokeswoman during the election campaign, declined to answer questions about the administration.

Hicks' exact departure was unclear but is expected to be sometime over the next few weeks.Technology Transforming the Trucking Industry Panel to be Featured at SXSW







OAKLAND, CA - February 28, 2018: FR8Star, KeepTruckin, Peloton Technology and Daimler Trucks North America announced today that South by Southwest (SXSW) Conference and Festivals will feature a panel Tech and Trucking: Regulations, Ridesharing, and Robots (Startup & Tech Sectors) on March 12 at 2:00 PM at the Downtown Austin Hilton in Salon J.

During this panel, Matt Kropp, CEO of FR8Star; Shoaib Makani, CEO of KeepTruckin; and Josh Switkes, CEO of Peloton Technology, will discuss how technology is changing the way trucking companies find and dispatch loads, monitor driver behavior, and move loads using autonomous technology and truck platooning. The discussion will be moderated by Lori Heino-Royer, Director of Business Development, Daimler Trucks North America.

The digital evolution, or revolution, in the trucking industry is well underway. Over 3.5 million commercial truck drivers have recently been required to deploy electronic logging devices, stated FR8Star CEO and Co-founder Matt Kropp. So, now that every fleet is online, most carriers are looking to innovative tech to improve all parts of their business. Fortunately, there are a number of tech start-ups that address increased regulatory requirements, harness the power of online marketplaces, and automate vehicles to improve efficiencies.

Founded in 1987 in Austin, Texas, SXSW features sessions, showcases, screenings, exhibitions, and a variety of networking opportunities. SXSW proves that the most unexpected discoveries happen when diverse topics and people come together. SXSW will take place March 9-18, 2018.

A recording of the Tech and Trucking panel will be posted on March 14th at: https://fr8star.com/info/sxsw-panel-2018/.

About FR8Star

Founded in 2015, FR8Star develops cloud-based, data-driven tools that improve efficiencies, reduce costs and provide unparalleled transparency in the open deck freight transportation industry. The FR8Star.com marketplace enables shippers to move legal and oversize/overweight loads with reliable pricing estimates, optimal shipping routes and real-time freight tracking. Specialized open deck carriers can easily develop quotes and bid on high-value loads using a free freight rate calculator that factors all third-party expenses including state permit and escort costs. FR8Star eliminates unnecessary factoring fees to carriers by providing fuel advances at pickup and instant pay at drop-off. For more information, visit www.fr8star.com.

About KeepTruckin

KeepTruckin is on a mission to improve the safety and efficiency of America's trucking industry by building great technology products for truck drivers and fleet managers. The company provides drivers with the number one rated Electronic Logbook App for iOS & Android. The KeepTruckin Dashboard for fleets helps teams audit driver logs, manage IFTA fuel taxes, and track vehicles in real-time. KeepTruckin is trusted by over 500,000 drivers and 30,000 fleets. The company is backed by Google Ventures.

About Peloton Technology

Peloton is a connected and automated vehicle technology company dedicated to improving the safety and efficiency of U.S. and global freight transportation. Backed by ten Fortune Global 500 companies, Silicon Valley-based Peloton partners with customers to deliver innovative tools that save fuel, avoid crashes, and improve operational insight through connectivity, automation and advanced data analytics. Pelotons flagship driver-assistive platooning system links the active safety systems of pairs of trucks, enhances driver teamwork, and connects trucks to a cloud-based Network Operations Center which limits platooning to appropriate roads and conditions. Peloton solutions also improve the safety of individual trucks by requiring best-in-class collision avoidance systems and other safety features that are active both in and out of platoon.New Bentley Continental GT to Debut at 2018 Geneva Motor Show +VIDEO

New Bentayga V8 also makes motor show debut

CREWE, England - February 28, 2018: Bentleys new Chairman and CEO, Adrian Hallmark, will use his first public appearance with the luxury British brand to unveil an exciting new model in Geneva.

Alongside this global debut will be the Bentayga V8, which also makes its first motor show appearance. Joining the Bentayga will be the all-new Continental GT, on show in Geneva for the first time.

The Bentley press conference takes place, at 08:40 CET, 6 March, with a live stream available right here on TheAutoChannel.com.

Performance and Precision  The Bentayga V8



On stand at the International Motor Show is the most recent addition to the Bentayga family  the Bentayga V8.

Sitting at the core of the range, the Bentayga V8 features a new-generation 4.0-litre, twin-turbocharged petrol engine which combines immense power with impressive fuel efficiency. The addition of a characteristic V8 burble, stylish twin-quad exhaust pipes and optional carbon-ceramic brakes, reveals more of the luxury SUVs sporting character.

The dynamic unit develops 542 bhp (550 PS) and 568 lb.ft. (770 Nm) of torque, resulting in a top speed of 180 mph (290 km/h) and 0-60 mph in 4.4 seconds (100 km/h in 4.5 seconds).

Inside, customers will recognise Bentleys unique approach to modern luxury tailoring, with the familiar blend of exquisite handcrafted materials and advanced technologies. New styling features include a wood and hide steering wheel and a high-gloss carbon-fibre interior panel finish.

New Continental GT  The Definition of Grand Touring

With European customer deliveries beginning in the summer, the all-new Continental GT is appearing at the Geneva show for the first time. Designed, engineered and handcrafted in Britain, the new third-generation Bentley Continental GT combines spirited, focused performance with handcrafted luxury and cutting-edge technology, to create the finest Grand Tourer ever produced.

The new Continental GT is offered with an enhanced version of Bentleys peerless 6.0-litre, W12 TSI engine that sets a new benchmark in performance.

The interior design of the Continental GT is tailored specifically to the modern luxury customer, with unrivalled attention to detail that creates an effortless ownership experience. The cabin seamlessly integrates cutting-edge onboard technology with the finest handcrafted natural materials. The result is an exquisite, harmonised, connected and luxurious space.

Aniline Leather and Open-Pore Veneers  Flying Spur by Mulliner

Bentleys personal commissioning division, Mulliner, will also showcase a unique Flying Spur W12 at this years show featuring two new and exciting interior finishes: aniline leather and an open pore veneer to the luxury sedan.

Aniline leather is the highest quality leather available, with a unique and distinct texture and natural grain. With no coating on the surface, the Golden Oak hide boasts superior seating comfort as it is able to breathe.

The new open-pore Walnut veneer featured in Flying Spur provides a more natural and authentic look to the interior. Open-pore veneers have three very thin hand-applied layers of lacquer, to ensure that the natural wood grain can be felt and the colour of the wood is highlighted.

Interact with Bentley at Geneva

The Bentley stand provides visitors with interesting, interactive experiences such as a digital car configurator, a Bentley Network app experience and several technical showcases, including an E Mode display, V8 engine and noise isolation cut-away.Two important topics have been framed for debate in the country: public debt and management of land. Ideally, the two are not new but are being debated in a new context.

For example, a lot of borrowing to finance infrastructural projects such as power dams and roads has happened in the last few years in anticipation of an oil boom.

The oil boom hasnt happened yet, but the country is required to begin and continue repaying the debts and the interest accumulated. The countrys financial situation is being made worse by the need for our revolutionary leader to finance his lifestyle and rent support.

That is the context under which you must understand the recent request to borrow Shs 736 billion by the usually-casual Finance minister Matia Kasaija.

For example, before driving to Kiboga to celebrate the removal of presidential age limits from our constitution, each of the 317 NRM MPs was given Shs 60 million. This comes to Shs 19 billion.

In the same week, the revolutionary gave the NRM secretariat Shs 20 billion to meet salaries of party workers who had not been paid for the last nine months.

NRM secretary general Kasule Lumumba says the money given to them was only enough for salaries of seven months. In simple terms, the revolutionary is required to pay Shs 2.8 billion every month to NRM employees, if you divide Shs 20 billion by seven months. That is why many have been laid off.

Most of the individuals that starved themselves almost to death during the five-year Luweero guerilla war because of a common ideological belief have been purged or left the bus by themselves. You now have a new breed threaded together by money and the revolutionary knows it.

To meet the financial needs of these new breed of NRM supporters and leaders, the revolutionary has increased the allocations to departments that he singlehandedly controls.

For example, his residences (State House) budget has grown from less than Shs 100 billion five years ago to nearly Shs 250 billion.

This financial year 2017/18, State House was allocated (actually it allocated itself) Shs 230 billion but it has returned to parliament to solicit permission to spend more! To be specific, State House wants Shs 16 billion more.

Out of this Shs 16 billion, classified expenditure accounts for Shs 13 billion and the rest will be used to finance valuation of land in Amuru district and development of an anti-tick vaccine. Yes, State House develops vaccines!

These are the sort of things for which Finance minister Kasaija wants permission from parliament to borrow from commercial banks. You certainly know how expensive borrowing from commercial banks is.

So far, government has borrowed Shs 12 trillion from commercial banks and pension funds. That is why next years budget is more about paying debts.

The government has presented a budget of Shs 29.2 trillion for processing in parliament. The bigger part of this budget (Shs 15 trillion) will be financed by local revenue through URA. The rest of the money will be borrowed.

What the country should know is that next year we will spend Shs 3.4 trillion on debt repayment. Interest alone, which we will still repay next year, is Shs 2.7 trillion.

By December 2015, the countrys external debt stood at $9.66 billion (Shs 35 trillion) while domestic debt (money borrowed from commercial banks and pension funds) stood at Shs 9.8 trillion.

Today, domestic debt is at Shs 12 trillion, domestic arrears (money owed to suppliers) is at Shs 2.7 trillion and I think external debt is about $12 billion (Shs 43 trillion).

This is what should worry every citizen, especially leaders. But instead of organizing a retreat to discuss a national crisis, NRM MPs descended on Kiboga to roast goats, dance and plan for a referendum to increase the tenure of their master from five to seven years. The economy has slowed down and we are in for hard times.

Finally on land, I want to applaud Justice Catherine Bamugemereires probe committee. It has exposed a racket of well-connected people who are stealing public and private land.

My only worry is that some of its recommendations are rolling back all its achievements. I dont know why the commission thinks Mailo land tenure and district land boards should be abolished.

There are areas in Uganda especially in the north where land is owned by clans. In Buganda, the equivalent of communal (clan) land, the 9,000 square miles, is what is now in the control of district land boards and has unfairly been converted into freehold. That is why for us in Buganda, we are still demanding for the 9,000 square miles.

By its recommendation, the probe committee wants management of this land vested in the Museveni government. This is absurd because land managed by Museveni has been parceled and donated to his cronies under the guise of investment.

I fear the Bamugemereire commission might be helping Museveni achieve what he has all along failed through legislation. Of course such recommendations would require constitutional changes.

semugs@yahoo.com

The author is Kira Municipality MP and opposition chief whip in parliament.12-Year-Old Girl Arrested for Making Social Media Threats to Texas School District

A 12-year-old girl was arrested overnight for allegedly making terroristic threats against schools in Texas.

Hundreds of phone calls poured into the Killeen Independent School District as the threats circulated this week, reported KXXV.

We have been pursuing and investigating threats posted via social media very aggressively the past several days, Superintendent John Craft said. A social media threat made towards Smith Middle School and other KISD schools was investigated yesterday and overnight into early hours of this morning. Working with KISD Police, the Killeen Police Department, federal authorities and officials at Fort Hood, a search warrant was issued. The student was arrested at her residence and has been charged with making terroristic threats.

Craft said that the school district would take whatever disciplinary actions that are allowed under the Student Code of Conduct and the Texas Education Code, officials said.

The girls identity has not been publicly released.

After the threat was made, the military police presence was increased at multiple campuses, reported KXXV.

Officials didnt say whether any weapons were found at the middle schoolers residence.

The student attends Roy J. Smith Middle School, reported Fox7.

The social media posts were shared widely by parents and students and severely disrupted the learning environment at schools, Craft said in a statement. School officials fielded hundreds of phone calls from concerned parents as the threats were being shared across social media.

The threat was investigated by the FBI along with local police officers.

Threats against schools across the nation have been on the rise since the shooting in Florida on Feb. 14.

A shooter opened fire at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, leaving 17 dead and 16 wounded.

Numerous students have been arrested and at least three attacks have since been thwarted, according to the Educators School Safety Network.

From NTD.tv

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Accused Florida Shooters Neighbors Sensed Something Amiss with Cruz from a Young Age12-Year-Old Reported Missing in North Carolina, Police Want Publics Help

Officials in North Carolina are asking the public to help to locate a missing 12-year-old Union County boy.

The Union County Sheriffs Office said Chancellor Chance Ashton Kelly was seen at around 4:40 p.m. on Tuesday, Feb. 27, on Salmon River Drive in the Meriwether neighborhood of Indian Trail, according to WSOC-TV.

He was walking from home toward a pool area, officials said.

Deputies believe that the boy, a student at Sun Valley Middle School, left home voluntarily. He wasnt in class on Wednesday, according to the report.

Police added that theyve searched the area near where he was last seen, but found no trace of him.

Chance is described as black and light skinned, about 4 feet 9 inches tall, and 80 pounds. He was seen wearing khaki pants, black Air Jordan sneakers, and a black shirt.

Chances grandmother told NBC Charlotte that her grandson didnt show any signs of mental illness.

If someone sees Kelly or knows about his whereabouts, theyre urged to call 911.

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How Doctors in China Turn into MurderersDocumented MS-13 gang member Jorge Alexander Cortez (pictured) and Bryan Funes were arrested for attempting to commit murder. (Williamson County Sheriff's Office)

Texas Police Foil MS-13 Execution Plot With 2 Minutes to Spare

Texas police conducting a routine traffic stop inadvertently thwarted the execution of an MS-13 gang member, The Houston Chronicle reported.

Officers arrested Bryan Funes, 17, and Jorge Alexander Cortez, 23, on Feb. 11, minutes before the pair were going to execute another MS-13 member. Melquisedec Steven Lemus-Monje, 19, was also booked on weapons and conspiracy charges.

Funes and Cortez planned to take their intended victim from Austin to Houston to kill him, according to court records obtained by the Chronicle. The gang wanted the man dead because of drug debts and other factors. Police did not clarify if the man was an active member of the gang.

Houston investigators learned of the murder plot through intercepted calls between gang members. Court records show that the men contacted MS-13 gang leaders in El Salvador and Virginia. The leaders gave the murder plot the green light, police say.

Funes and Cortez are both immigrants from El Salvador.

Lemus-Monje at one point used the phrases nine with candies, which police believe refers to a 9 mm pistol.

Using what they gathered from the phone calls, police put out an arrest warrant on suspicion of a murder conspiracy.

Officers with the Texas Department of Public Safety pulled over Lemus-Monje, the target and another MS-13 member on Feb. 11 due to an expired registration. Lemus-Monje was arrested for carrying a 9 mm pistol. Cortez was pulled over in a separate car and released, court records show.

Shortly after, Funes made a call saying that police had pulled him over approximately 2 minutes before they would have killed their target, court papers show.

Isolated MS-13 cells are displaying increased levels of coordination with the help of cellphones and encryption software, according to Steven Dudley, a senior fellow at American Universitys Center for Latin American and Latino Studies and the co-director of InSight Crime.

Its obviously disturbing, Dudley told Chronicle. Because it can give them the kind of reach that they may not have had in the past.

The FBI estimates there are about 10,000 MS-13 gang members in the United States. The gang was founded in Los Angeles in 1980s and spread to El Salvador. MS stands for Mara Salvatrucha. The gang has a long history of Satanism. Its motto is Kill. Rape. Control.

On the campaign trail and after taking office, President Donal Trump vowed to eradicate the transnational gang. The president gave additional resources to Immigrations and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol, but has complained that with such a porous southern border with Mexico, MS-13 members return to the United States with relative ease.

45 year low on illegal border crossings this year. Ice and Border Patrol Agents are doing a great job for our Country. MS-13 thugs being hit hard, Trump wrote on Twitter on Feb. 28.

Since Trump took office, arrests of MS-13 members increased by 83 percent, according to the Daily Signal.

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What is MS-13?3 Muslim Women Forced to Remove Hijabs for Mugshots Get $180,000 Payout from NYC

New York City must pay a total of $180,000 to three Muslim women who were forced to take off their head and face coverings for police mug shots.

According to a Daily News report, the three separate lawsuits that were settled on Monday, Feb. 26, awarded $60,000 to each of the three women for being forced to remove their hijabs.

One of the suits stems from a 2012 incident in which a Brooklyn high school girl identified as G.E. was arrested after getting into an altercation with two girls. The criminal case against the woman was eventually dismissed, but a photo taken during the booking process was central to a civil suit that followed.

It is reported that G.E. was taken to the 62nd Precinct of the New York Police Department, where officers told her she would have to take off her hijab for a mugshot.

The teen reportedly refused to be photographed in the presence of men, and was subsequently taken to a private room where a female officer took the photo, with no male officers present.

But at a central booking in Brooklyn, police told her there werent any female officers to take the photo and the only available camera was stationary and could not be moved from its fixtures, making a private photo impossible.

G.E. alleged a male officer forced her to remove her hijab and took her picture, making her feel exposed, violated and distraught as male police and prisoners looked on.

A change in police procedures took place in 2015, about three years after the incident involving G.E., regarding protocols for mugshots of people who refuse to take off religious headwear.

As of 2015, officers of the NYPD must notify detainees that they have a choice of getting a private photo  without the head covering and with an officer of the same gender.

The lawyer who pleaded G.E. case, Tahanie Aboushi, also filed two similar casesone in 2015 and another in 2016for incidents that happened after the new police rules on head coverings were in force.

One woman said she was forced to remove her head covering at Brooklyn Central Booking.

Another plaintiff claimed her hijab was removed at the scene of her arrest. She also alleged that police at Brooklyn Central Booking refused her request for a female photographer.

All three women have settled for $60,000 each.

Aboushi told the Daily News on Tuesday, Feb. 27, that further directives were adopted by the police in December 2017 on religious headwear. She called it a collaborative effort and a great first step.

We did our best to establish good precedent, said Aboushi. On the one hand, it gives officers guidance, and on the other hand, it protects the exercise of religious freedom.

Aboushi also noted that the practice of head coverings appears in many religions and cultures.

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What is MS-13?4-Year-Old Girl May Be Paralyzed for Life After Performing Dance Stretch in Unlicensed Class

A 4-year-old girl may be paralyzed for life in her lower limbs after performing a risky stretch at an unlicensed dance studio in China.

CCTV footage captured the moments leading up to Xiao Baos injury. The video shows the young girl falling backward after performing a back bridge stretch at a dance studio in Zhengzhou, Henan Province. She later performs two other back stretches, before staying on the floor apparently unable to get up.

Local media reports that Xiao Bao was taken to a hospital after her teachers discovered that she had lost feeling in her legs. She was reportedly also showing signs of incontinence.

Doctors at Zhengzhou Childrens Hospital said the girl had not fractured or dislocated her spine, but had seriously injured it, likely as a result of performing further stretches to the back after the initial fall, reports say.

Head of Neurosurgery, Doctor Qi Lin, told media that the prognosis was not looking good.

Theres a real chance this child could be paralyzed for life in her lower body, she said.

According to reports, Xiao Baos parents only later discovered that the dance studio did not have a license to operate, and neither were the teachers accredited dance trainers.

The Vice-President of the Hunan Dancers Association, Jing Ke, told local outlets that the 4-year-old was performing a move that should only be attempted by children over the age of 7 to 8.

The problem with this dance school arose from how it organized its classes, he said

From the ages of 6 to 8, children are usually unable to perform a back bridge on their own. This move is usually first attempted only after a child turns 7 or 8.

The Daily Mail reported that the dance school offered $1,574 as compensation for the girls injury, but is understood to be increasing the sum.

Xiao Baos parents are reportedly pursuing legal action against the school owners.

From NTD.tv

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How Doctors in China Turn into MurderersThe Central Bureau of Investigation today arrested Former Finance Minister P Chidambaram's son Karti Chidambaram in connection with INX media money laundering case. The investigating agency nabbed Karti Chidambaram at Chennai Airport on his return from London. Reports suggest that junior Chidambaram was arrested for not cooperating with the agency.

Last year in May, the CBI lodged an FIR against Karti Chidambaram for alleged irregularities in Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) clearance to INX Media. It said that INX Media received overseas funds to the tune of Rs 305 crore in 2007 when his father P Chidambaram was the Finance Minister during the then UPA regime.

Not only CBI, the Enforcement Directorate is also probing Karti Chidambaram for money laundering. Last year, the ED registered a case of money laundering against Karti under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act. The ED in its FIR said that Karti received money from INX Media in return for using his influence to manipulate a tax probe against it in a case of violation of Foreign Investment Promotion Board conditions to receive investment from Mauritius.

LIVE UPDATES

10.30pm: Senior lawyer and activist Prashant Bhushan says though the CBI may have evidence against Karti Chidambaram, yet there's no justification to arrest him during the investigation, without a chargesheet, since there is no danger of him fleeing the country.

Though CBI may have evidence against Karti Chidambaram, yet there's no justification to arrest him during investigation, without a charge sheet, since there is no danger of his fleeing the country. This show, while big fish like NiMo, MehulBhai &Mallya are allowed to loot & scoot - Prashant Bhushan (@pbhushan1) February 28, 2018

8.39pm: Karti Chidambaram has been sent to one day police custody by the Delhi's Patiala House Court in the INX Media case.

6.30pm: Earlier Singhvi said the CBI was delaying the hearing of Karti Chidambaram.

Sitting in CBI designated court, room 4 at patiala Hs since 2 pm 2oppose Karti C remand but CBI not produced him yet. Hope they r not waiting for a late evening hearing. Why the delay? They landed frm chennai at 120 pm. No cause for this xcept to go to duty magis post 430 pm. - Abhishek Singhvi (@DrAMSinghvi) February 28, 2018

5.35pm: Senior Congress leader and lawyer Abhishek Singhvi, who will represent Karti, says the CBI has arrested Karti Chidambaram at a time when the Narendra Modi government is being questioned over 'Chhota Modi'.

What a coincidence to have the arrest of #KartiChidambaram at a time when the nation is questioning the Centre on #ChotaModi. - Abhishek Singhvi (@DrAMSinghvi) February 28, 2018

5.29pm: The CBI, during a hearing at a Delhi court, says Karti Chidambaram is evasive in his replies and investigation.

CBI during hearing at a Delhi court says "#KartiChidambaram is evasive in his replies and investigation. He made incorrect statements with respect to evidence. All this delays the conclusion of investigation." - ANI (@ANI) February 28, 2018

5.25pm: The FIR till today does not name Karti Chidambaram as accused, says Congress spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala.

16:35 pm:Karti Chidambaram left CBI headquarters for Patiala House Court. Senior Congress leader and lawyer Abhishek Singhvi will represent

Karti in the Court.



15:15 pm: Karti Chidambaram has been taken to the CBI headquarters for brief questioning. He will be produced in Patiala House Court shortly: Report

14:55 pm: CBI gave him a lot of chances but he continued with his lies even after all evidence was presented against him. He will certainly go to jail & charge-sheet will be filed by CBI. This is a great achievement: Subramanian Swamy on Karti Chidambram arrest



14:34 pm: Congress leader and Senior Advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi to appear for Karti Chidambaram in Delhi's Patiala House Court later today: Report



13:25 pm: Karti Chidambaram lands in Delhi. He will be taken to CBI headquarters for medical examination: Reports

13:05 pm: CBI will inform Court about Indrani Mukerjea's alleged confession that in 2007, the couple took help of Chess Management Service once their application for FIPB clearance of Rs 305 Crore was rejected. FIPB allowed only Rs 5 Crore clearance: ANI quoted CBI sources



12:50 pm: Karti Chidambaram to be produced before special CBI Judge Sunil Rana: Reports



12:02 pm: Karti Chidambaram was destroying evidence related to INX Media case in UK: CBI sources told India Today



11:40 am: CBI claims enough proof to nail Karti in INX media case. 'Have enough documentary proof on kickback," CBI sources told India Today.



11:30 am: Karti Chidambaram is enroute to Delhi. He will be produced in Patiala House Court after 2 PM: Report

Karti Chidambaram's arrest is vendetta vendetta and a diversionary tactic by the Modi government to hide its scams and mal-governance: Congress

11:10 am: Scams worth over Rs 30,000 crore were unearthed in the last 10 days alone. But the Prime Minister has not moved the transition from Maun Modi to Bol Modi. The Prime Minister remains mum about hhota Modi as also Mehul Choksi: Congress' communications in-charge Randeep Surjewala.

The Enforcement Directorate had earlier summoned Karti to appear before the agency on March 1. The CBI and ED have both grilled Karti Chidambaram on multiple occasions. Reacting to Karti Chidambaram's arrest, Subramanian Swamy said that all this will lead to P Chidambaram. "P Chidambaram is the main culprit and Karti Chidambaram is a beneficiary," Swamy said.

Earlier this month, the Enforcement Directorate arrested Karti Chidambaram's Chartered Accountant S Bhaskararaman for not cooperating in the money laundering probe. The agency alleged that Bhaskararaman failed to appear before the investigating team even after several summonses were issued seeking his presence.

The CBI and the ED had carried out a series of raids on the houses and offices owned by the Chidambarams. Karti Chidambaram was questioned several times by the ED.

A lookout notice, which prevents a passenger from travelling abroad, was issued against him as the agencies suspected that he would try to close foreign accounts where he had parked the money from the kickbacks.

In November, the Supreme Court allowed Karti Chidambaram to go to the UK for his daughter's admission in the Cambridge University.

According to the CBI, INX Media clearly states in its records that Rs 10 lakh was given to Advantage Strategic Consulting (P) Limited, a firm "indirectly" owned by Karti, for management consultancy charged towards FIPB notification and clarification.

The FIR also alleges that invoices of approximately Rs 3.5 crore were raised in favour of INX group in the name of other companies in which Karti had substantial interests "directly or indirectly".

The agency has registered an FIR against Karti, his company Chess Management Services, the Mukerjeas, INX Media, Advantage Strategic Consulting Services and its Director Padma Vishwanathan. The allegations levelled by the CBI are based on the information given by "source", the FIR has claimed.

(With inputs from PTI)Ravi Kumar (L) and his bride Neha Kumari after their wedding on Feb. 20, 2018. (Photo via Bhaskar News)

Bride Leaves Groom Mid-Ceremony After He Takes Off His Headdress

A bride in the east of India who was just getting to know her groom, left him mid-ceremony after he took off his ceremonial headdress.

Ravi Kumar, a neurologist in Delhi, traveled over 620 miles to marry a woman in a wedding that had been planned for a year.

According to Bhaskar News, the brides father had stayed with Kumar on three occasions in Delhi, and finding him a good fit for his daughter, gave his blessing to the marriage.

On Feb. 18, Kumar was set to marry the woman.

The wedding party had made it as far as the brides house and they had already exchanged garlands when the wedding procession headed to the wedding pavilion.

When they reached the pavilion, however, the wedding was called off.

There, Kumar reportedly took off his ceremonial headdress, exposing his balding head.

Seeing his lack of hair, his bride refused to marry him, Bhaskar News reports.

Both wedding parties tried to make the bride change her mind, but to no avail.

Not wanting to return home without a bride, Kumars family launched an extensive search, for another bride, reports the Gulf News.

The city council suggested the daughter of a poor farmer, and two days later, Kumar married her.

Kumar and his bride, Neha Kumari, tied the knot at Ramjanki Temple in the village of Sugauli in Bihar.

From NTD.tv

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American Woman Moves to India to Become Rural HousewifeUyghur activists protest against the visit of Chinese regime head Hu Jintao outside of the White House in Washington, DC, on Jan. 19, 2011. A new report says that Uyghurs across the world, including many in the United States, are being spied on by Chinas intelligence services. (Nicholas Kamm/AFP/Getty Images)

Chinas Uyghurs Who Escaped Abroad Are Being Targeted by Chinese Spies, Report Says

A report says that Uyghurs, the Muslim ethnic people in Chinas Xinjiang region that has been among Chinas most heavily persecuted minority groups, are being spied upon by Chinese regimes intelligence services even after theyve escaped China and sought asylum overseas. The report comes at a time when the United States and other nations are growing increasingly alerted to the Chinese regimes efforts to extend its authoritarian control and influence across the world.

The Chinese regime has been rapidly increasing its persecution of the Uyghurs in Xinjiang in recent years, according to various human rights watchers and reports, such as the U.S. State Departments International Religious Freedom Report published last year.

What has not been often discussed, however, is the fact that Chinese regime has also made use of its extensive intelligence network deployed across the world to spy upon and further persecute Uyghurs whove already escaped overseas.

Espionage against the Uyghur community overseas is a priority for the Chinese security services, according to a report published by the U.S.-based organization Uyghur Human Rights Project (UHRP). There have been significant cases of espionage against the Uyghur community in Europe, but communities in North America and Australia are also subjected to Chinese attempts to recruit them as informers.

The report, titled The Fifth Poison: the Harassment of Uyghurs Overseas, was originally published in November 2017 and was presented on Feb. 26 at an event discussing Uyghurs human rights issues that was held at the Cannon House Office Building at the U.S. Congress.

Nicole Morgret, project coordinator of the UHRP who introduced the report, said that the Ministry of State Security, the Chinese regimes spy agencies, and in some cases its Ministry of Foreign Affairs, have been documented as conducting activities against the exiled Uyghurs across various parts of the world ranging from Egypt and Turkey to Western countries like Germany, Sweden, Canada, and Australia.

The Chinese governments effort to spy on dissidents should not be dismissed as irrelevant to national security, the report says. This kind of monitoring is intended not only to gather information on Uyghurs and other dissident groups, but also to intimidate them into not exercising their rights to assembly and speech even in Western countries.

According to Morgret, the Chinese regimes spying on the Uyghurs in the United States has been more under the table compared to its efforts in other countries. However, there were still documented cases of Chinese intelligence officials making remote threats against Uyghurs on U.S. soil, notably in May 2017 when Uyghur students across many countries including the United States received orders to go back to China under the threats that their parents and siblings would be persecuted if they refused to comply.

The harassment of Uyghurs overseas is a longstanding tactic of the Chinese government to attempt to discourage any political activity among them and to monitor those who are or may be inclined to become politically active, the report says.

During a congressional hearing earlier in February, FBI Director Christopher Wray said that the Chinese regime manipulated nontraditional spies in academia, such as professors, scientists, and students to collect intelligence. While Wray did not specify whether such intelligence included the spying of Chinese dissidents like the Uyghurs, he stressed that the regimes efforts stretched across basically every discipline.

Radio Free Asia recently reported that a Uyghur student studying in Virginia was confronted by Han Chinese classmates who threatened to report him to the Chinese embassy for voicing separatist views. The teacher, in this case, backed the Uyghur student and encouraged him to report such abuse to the U.S. authorities, such as the FBI, at which point the Chinese students quickly backed down.Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel speaks to the media while Florida Gov. Rick Scott listens outside Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School one day after a shooting at the school left 17 dead, in Parkland, Fla., Feb. 15, 2018. (Jonathan Drake/Reuters)

Deputy Who Failed to Engage Florida Shooter Could Get $52,000 Pension for Life

The sheriffs deputy who did not engage the school shooter in Florida earlier this month could end up with a $52,000 per year pension for life.

Scot Peterson was on duty when a shooter opened fire on Feb. 14 at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland.

However, the armed school resource officer failed to enter the school to try to find the shooter and stop him.

Peterson was suspended while an investigation went forward. But shortly after he was suspended, Peterson resigned. Several days later, he said through his lawyer that hes not a coward.

The Sun-Sentinel reported that Petersons annual base salary was $75,673 in 2016, citing Broward County Sheriffs Office records.

Overtime and other compensation pushed Petersons salary to $101,013 that year.

Based on the current pension levels for public employees in the county, hes likely to receive a pension of at least $52,000, reported Reason. The actual total is potentially close to $70,000 per year.

In addition, half of Petersons premiums will be covered by taxpayers.

Deputy Who Failed to Engage Parkland Shooter Could Get $52,000 Pension for Life https://t.co/Uajn3FnieC via @reason  Florida Libertarians (@LP_Florida) February 28, 2018

According to Health Data, the current life expectancy in Broward County is about 78 years.

If the 54-year-old lives that long, he would collect more than $1.24 million from Floridas public pension system.

Understanding Petersons specific situation helps shed light on the broader implications of public retirement costs in Florida and around the country. An employee like Peterson, who was by all accounts a typical deputy in the sprawling Broward County Sheriffs Office (BCSO) before his unfortunate rise to national prominence this month, is afforded a retirement package that kicks in at age 52 and allows him to collect a pension even if he pursues other work after his retirement Its vastly different from what most private sector workers can expect to receive. The difference is premised on the idea that Peterson put his life on the line in a high-risk profession, according to Reason.

The payouts are virtually guaranteed, regardless of performance in the line of duty. Under state law, pensions can be forfeited only after a conviction for a narrowly defined list of crimes.

Those crimes are only those related to embezzlement, theft, bribery, and child sexual assault.

At the end of the day, theres really nothing they can do to take those benefits, said Jim Bell, president of the union that represents members of the BCSO, because hes already resigned.

From NTD.tv

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Timelapse Video Captures Ocean of Clouds Over Vancouver, British ColumbiaDetectives Arrive at Stan Lees House After $1.4 Million Goes Missing

Stan Lee, the former Marvel Comics chief and creator of Spider-Man, was reportedly robbed of $1.4 million.

Detectives arrived at the 95-year-olds home in Los Angeles on Friday to look at what happened, TMZ reported.

Lee in December 2017 filed a police report after discovering that $350,000 went missing from his account. Lee in January also claimed that someone stole $850,000 from his account and purchased a condo.

TMZ this week also reported that Lee has been battling pneumonia. I have a little bout of pneumonia Ive been fighting, he said in a video. But it seems to be getting better.

I want you all to know Im thinking of you, of course I always think of the fans, and I hope youre all doing well, and I miss you all. I miss your enthusiasm, I miss all your notes, all your photos and emails, he said. I want you to know that I still love you all.

"I miss your enthusiasm. I miss all the notes and the photos and all the emails I used to get And I want you to know I still love you all." @Marvel icon Stan Lee battling case of pneumonia https://t.co/Q375IkW5M1 pic.twitter.com/NPVt84LUSi  Good Morning America (@GMA) February 28, 2018

Send your condolences to pneumonia, because it's clobberin' time!!! Feel better soon, @TheRealStanLee

Stan Lee Reveals He's Fighting Pneumonia https://t.co/3xG7XgRQq4 via @TMZ  Leonard Pitts, Jr. (@LeonardPittsJr1) February 28, 2018

It comes just weeks after Lee was admitted to the hospital for an irregular heartbeat.

All I really want to do is tell you that Im feeling great, Lee told ABC7. Im glad I spent that evening in the hospital. It did me a lot of good. It probably did my fans a lot of good. It kept me off their backs for the evening. But Im feeling good now and I cant wait to get in there and tangle with all the competition.

Im glad I spent that evening in the hospital, he said, reported the New York Posts Page Six. It did me a lot of good. It probably did my fans a lot of good. It kept me off their backs for the evening. But Im feeling good now and I cant wait to get in there and tangle with all the competition.

Sending big GET WELL wishes to @TheRealStanLee, whos fighting pneumonia  like the heroes he created, hell fight back.#Excelsior pic.twitter.com/TIfqGr2T67  Jake Hamilton (@JakesTakes) February 28, 2018

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How Doctors in China Turn into MurderersDr. Phils Sister-in-Law Reportedly Dies 20 Years After Acid Attack

The family of TV personality Dr. Phil McGraw is in mourning after his sister-in-law died20 years after she suffered an acid attack.

People magazine reported this week that Cindi Broaddus, his in-law, died at the age of 68 on Monday, Feb. 19. And an obituary in Oklahomas The Duncan Banner said a funeral service was held Feb. 23 on her birthday.

Dr. Phil McGraw's Sister-in-Law Dies 17 Years After Surviving a 'Horrible' Random Acid Attack https://t.co/6xlc2rQ71U pic.twitter.com/jfIpY2U9fp  Melissa Lucky (@MelissaLucky5) February 28, 2018

McGraws wife, Robin, posted on Instagram this week, saying her sister had died.

I will celebrate her and her strength and her unwavering support for me the rest of my life. I miss her dearly, the Instagram caption reads. I am so proud of you and Angela and Shelli. We are all heartbroken and will miss her everyday. She was our hero. You 3 all made her life a dream. She lived everyday for her daughters and you always made her the happiest woman ever! she added.

According to Dr. Phils website, Broaddus was the victim of a random acid attack when someone threw a jar of sulfuric acid from an overpass. The acid went through the cars windshield and covered 70 percent of her body.

The acid burned my face, my lips, my cheeks, my chin, my arms. I inhaled acid. It also burned the inside of my mouth, my tongue, and my throat, she said. I remember having my hands in my face thinking I was bleeding, and realizing that was skin in my hands.

I knew I was dying, and I had a very calm peace about me because I had a message that came to me that I had to get through, she said after the attack. She said that she wanted the driver to tell her kids: You have got to tell my children how much I love them and that Im not ready to leave them.

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How Doctors in China Turn into MurderersDriver That Slammed Into Vehicle, Killing Woman and Baby, Was Drunk

The car that slammed into the back of a vehicle, killing a woman and baby in Texas, was drunk, according to officials.

The accident took place shortly before 4 a.m. in Houston, on the Gulf Freeway feeder road southbound near El Dorado Boulevard, reported ABC13.

Officer said a white Lincoln SUV slammed into the back of a dark purple Toyota.

The woman and child were inside the Toyota, and were unconscious when a witness pried open the drivers side door after the crash.

I felt for a pulse, I couldnt find one. We found a very weak one and then it just faded, Christine Moyer told ABC13.

The woman and baby died at the scene.

The driver of the Lincoln and her passenger were rushed to the hospital and are expected to recover.

Moyer said that the driver of the Lincoln, a 20-year-old woman, didnt seem to realize she had hit the Toyota, initially believing she had run out of gas.

She was screaming that she had just come from the bar, Moyer said. I heard her say that. She said they had just come from the bar, that they were out of gas.

Police are investigating the cause of the crash.

Its unclear how fast the Lincoln was going when the driver slammed into the other vehicle.

Lt. Larry Crowson of the Houston Police Department told the Houston Chronicle that speed may have been a factor in the crash.

Police confirmed to KHOU that the female driver of the Lincoln was intoxicated when she slammed into the other vehicle.

The identities of the woman and baby have not been released as of yet.

The feeder road was closed for hours while police investigated the crash and cleared the vehicles from the scene.

From NTD.tv

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Teen Breaks the Ice on Frozen Trampoline in One Epic BounceEntire School District in Maine Closes for a Day After Shooting Threat

An entire school district in Maine is closed on Wednesday after authorities were alerted to a shooting threat.

The MSAD in Skowhegan, which comprises 54 schools, announced the closure.

Police officials said that the shooting threat was made on Facebook and Instagram, depicting a rifle and including the words Skowhegan and youre all dead.

I would personally like to thank the Skowhegan community and other law enforcement agencies who contacted us in reference to this post bringing it to our attention, Skowhegan Police Chief David Bucknam said, reported WCVB. Although the picture does not directly threaten our schools, we take the safety of our community and children as our top priority so as a precautionary measure, the Skowhegan area schools are canceled today.

The threat appeared to be made through a fake account with no profile picture.

Authorities are still working to trace the posts to whoever posted them.

This is the post that Skowhegan police and the FBI are investigating that closed MSAD 54 schools. pic.twitter.com/ps0vWFoKkH  David Charns WMTW (@DavidWMTW) February 28, 2018

A threat on social media closes schools in MSAD 54 district. This affects seven towns and nine campuses. Were hoping to get more information today. @WMTWTV pic.twitter.com/xBx5NbCU67  Kathleen Jordan (@KJordan_WMTW) February 28, 2018

The school district closure was announced late Tuesday.

Schools closed included Canaan Elementary School, Bloomfield Elementary School, Margaret Chase Smith School, Mill Stream Elementary School, North Elementary School, Skowhegan Area Middle School, Skowhegan Area High School, Marti Stevens Learning Center, and Somerset Career & Technical Center, reported WABI.

In total, the closure affected seven towns and nine campuses.

In the original announcement, Superintendent Brent Colbry said that officials made the closure decision after consulting with the police department.

All MSAD 54 schools will be closed tomorrow, February 28th, as a result of a threat posted and distributed through social media and digital communication this evening [2/27/18], he said, reported WGME.

As always, the safety and well-being of our students is our top priority. This decision was made after consulting local law enforcement, who are aware of the situation and are working to determine the credibility of the threat, Colbry said.

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Kayaker Rescues Iguana Swimming Miles From ShoreFlorida Teenager Initially Diagnosed With Flu Finds out He Has Cancer

A Florida teenager who was initially diagnosed with the flu discovered that he actually has cancer.

Hunter Brady, 16, of Tampa, went to the pediatrician in November after experiencing shortness of breath and fatigue.

The pediatrician told him he likely had the flu.

The family returned when the symptoms got worse but the clinic told them that Brady was likely having an allergic reaction to the medication, according to YouCaring. The pediatrician said that the family should have their son stop taking the medication and let the virus run its course.

Several weeks later, things had gotten even worse, so Bradys parents took him to the emergency room.

We werent aware at the time his right lung was collapsed and his left lung was 30 percent collapsed he was having trouble breathing, Hunters mom, Cheryl Brady, told WFTS.

In January, a barrage of tests led to the diagnosis of Hodgkin lymphoma.

He has since had a blood transfusion, a bone marrow biopsy, and surgeries to drain the fluid from his lungs and heart.

According to the American Cancer Society, Hodgkin lymphoma is a type cancer that starts in white blood cells called lymphocytes.

The cancer can start almost anywhere in the body, although it typically starts in the lymph nodes in the upper part of the body such as the chest or neck.

Hodgkin lymphoma most often spreads through the lymph vessels from lymph node to lymph node. Rarely, late in the disease, it can invade the bloodstream and spread to other parts of the body, such as the liver, lungs, and/or bone marrow, the society stated.

Brady is receiving help through the YouCaring fundraiser set up for him and more than a dozen of his classmates shaved their heads in support. Some family members have as well.

Brady is set to undergo several more rounds of chemotherapy and radiation treatment in an effort to defeat the cancer.

Everybody elses support helped me get this far. Without them, I dont know where Id be. I just know I gotta keep staying strong, Brady told WFTS. Im doing good Im going to beat it, I aint giving up.

From NTD.tvFrantic Search for Virginia Mom Who Mysteriously Vanished From Front Yard Amid Sign of Struggle

A frantic search has been launched for a 23-year-old Virginia mom who vanished from her front yard amid signs of a struggle.

TerriLynn St. John was last seen in her front yard early Tuesday, Feb. 27, at her home on Mill Wharf Road in Wake, preparing to take her children to daycare.

The door to her home was found open by her father, who alerted the police.

St. John has two small children, ages one and three, who were alone inside.

Family members said the car was left in the driveway and St. Johns cellphone was found in bushes just outside the home, reported WTVR.

Police said other evidence included a broken necklace in the yard.

They looked through the woods and you could definitely tell there has been a struggle beside my daughters car, her father Terry St. John told WTVR. Jewelry was all around, like it had been broken off, her cell phone was found in the bushes.

Investigators have identified four persons of interest, reported WRIC.

The persons of interest were being interviewed late Tuesday.

Virginia mom mysteriously vanishes from front yard, reports say https://t.co/9Vuz9lL6o2  FOX 5 DC (@fox5dc) February 28, 2018

But Middlesex Sheriffs Major Michael Sampson said on Wednesday that it was too late to say whether St. John was abducted.

This is a missing person, under suspicious circumstances, he said, reported WTVR. A person of interest could be acquaintances, whether they be personal acquaintancesfriends, family. Miss St. John had a boyfriend at the time. He is obviously a person of interest.

A search of the area was conducted by multiple officers, with assistance from drones and dogs.

The Virginia State Police was called in to assist with air surveillance.

Beaches and boat landings in the area were searched as well.

Sr. John recently moved to Wake with her family. Shes described as a white female standing 5 feet 6 inches tall, weighing 130 pounds, with blonde hair and blue eyes.

She has multiple tattoos, including the letters R.J.M. on her right wrist, a princess crown on her left wrist, and a cross on her ring finger.

Anyone with information is urged to call the Middlesex Sheriffs Office at (804) 758-2779 or 911.

From NTD.tv

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Wranglers Wrestle With Alligator to Remove Eggs From NestOakland Mayor Libby Schaaf speaks to students on Jan. 19, 2018, in Oakland, Calif. On Feb. 24, Schaaf warned residents of an impending immigration operation in the area. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

ICE Nets 150 Illegal Immigrants in Oakland Area, Despite Mayors Public Warning

Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf sent out an alert on Feb. 24 to warn illegal immigrants that a federal immigration operation was pending in her jurisdiction.

Despite the alert, since Feb. 25 an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operation in the Oakland area has netted more than 150 individuals who are in violation of immigration laws.

About half of those arrested have criminal convictions, including convictions for assault/battery, crimes against children, weapons charges, and DUI, according to ICE.

Acting ICE Director Tom Homan said that despite the operation, 864 criminal aliens and public safety threats remain at large in the community.

I have to believe that some of them were able to elude us thanks to the mayors irresponsible decision, Homan said in a statement on Feb. 27. Unlike the politicians who attempt to undermine ICEs critical mission, our officers will continue to fulfill their sworn duty to protect public safety.

One of the targets still at large is a Honduran citizen who was previously arrested in San Francisco County multiple times for cocaine possession and transport, probation violations, and sex with a minor under 16, ICE said.

ICE said it has lodged detainers against the Honduran in the past, but local jails have instead ignored them and released the man back into the community.

Schaaf had said she was sharing the information not to panic our residents but to protect them.

I know that Oakland is a city of law-abiding immigrants and families who deserve to live free from the constant threat of arrest and deportation, Schaaf said. I believe it is my duty and moral obligation as mayor to give those families fair warning when that threat appears imminent.

A warning like this from a public official is very irresponsible, said Jessica Vaughan, director for policy at the Washington-based Center for Immigration Studies.

ICE is targeting primarily criminals who have been released by sanctuary policies in the Bay Area, and so the mayor is really tipping off criminals that ICE is seeking, Vaughan said on Feb. 26.

The ironic thing about officials like this mayorwho implement sanctuary policiesis that they say they do it because they want all immigrants in the community to feel safe, she said.

Well this has the opposite effect. They feel less safe because they feel they are vulnerable to an enforcement action that is probably not even directed at them.

More illegal immigrants are at risk of being swept up in collateral arrests by ICE if the agency is forced to conduct at-large arrests in the community, Homan said, especially now that no illegal alien is exempt from enforcement. Under President Barack Obama, ICE was given prosecutorial discretion to only arrest convicted criminals, but President Donald Trump has said ICE is not restricted in arresting any illegal alien.

The Oakland mayors decision to publicize her suspicions about ICE operations further increased that risk for my officers and alerted criminal aliensmaking clear that this reckless decision was based on her political agenda in opposition to the very federal laws that ICE is sworn to uphold, Homan said.

California officially designated itself a sanctuary state as of Jan. 1 and as such, Oakland police officers are prohibited from participating in ICE activities.

Several months ago, Oakland Police Chief Anne Kirkpatrick came under fire for providing traffic control assistance while ICE conducted an operation.

Due to the state law, business owners can now get fined for assisting ICE agents in immigration enforcement, and federal immigration agents are barred from accessing employee-only areas.

My priority is for the well-being and safety of all residentsparticularly our most vulnerableand I know Oakland is safer when we share information, encourage community awareness, and care for our neighbors, Schaff wrote.



Vaughan, said that although this sounds good, the way to keep Oakland safe is to allow the police to share information with ICE.

Her policies prevent thatthe kind of information sharing that actually would help keep everyone in Oakland safe. So its a one-way street for her on information-sharing, Vaughan said.

Whats sad though, is that Oakland has a lot of peopleAmericans and legal immigrants alikewho are negatively affected by illegal immigration. And her open invitation for people to come and reside in Oakland illegally is a slap in the face to them.

Recommended Video:Mr Yaw Osafo-Maafo, the Senior Minister, has said the Governments industrialisation agenda to transform the nation is not mere rhetoric, but has pragmatic policies that would ensure its realisation.



He said government was determined to building an industrial park in each of the 10 regions adding that the Industrial Park for the Greater Accra Region had already started at Dawa.



He said government was undertaking the project in partnership with private investors from Mauritius and that over 600 project proposals under the One District One Factory programme had been received and evaluated, with 170 being rated viable and bankable.



Mr. Osafo-Maafo made this known in a speech read on his behalf by Mr. John-Peter Amewu, the Minister of Lands and Natural Resources, at the 13th Surveyors Week and 49th Annual General Meeting of the Ghana Institution of Surveyors (GIS) in Accra, at the weekend.



The event was held on the theme: Industrialisation and Wealth Creation in Ghana: The Role of the Surveyor.



Mr Osafo-Maafo said over the years surveyors had demonstrated to be professionals who were critical thinkers and reason logically and called for more collaboration between them and government to enhance the fortunes of Ghanaians.



When the International Tribunal on the Law of the Sea (ILOS) ruling was made it was the surveyors who accepted the challenge to breakdown the complex issues so that the ordinary Ghanaian could appreciate what was going on, Mr Osafo-Maafo said.



The Senior Minister commended the Institution for proffering solutions to help address the galamsey menace, build more resilient cities and reduce disasters.



Mr Osafo-Maafo said the professional services of surveyors would be required in infrastructure expansion, land and building acquisition, construction project management, facilities management, project financing, investment advisory services and other areas and, thus, asked them to position themselves to take advantage of those emerging opportunities.



The relationship that government is looking forward to is one that will yield mutually rewarding outcomes to both parties. You have skills and expertise to support government in driving the industrialisation agenda, he noted.



For the past 60 years, he said, Ghanas economic development model had been framed along the simple case of exploiting and harvesting natural resources for sale on the global market.



That approach had not been helpful and sustainable in view of erratic climate change, rapid population growth and global commodity price volatilities.



Mr Osafo-Maafo, therefore, said the surest way for wealth creation and shared prosperity was to anchor the countrys development drive on industrialisation, which would result in value addition and job creation.



Countries which chose the route of industrialisation have made significant progress at developing by creating sustainable jobs, increasing government revenue and providing the needed quality of life for the citizens, he said.



Mr. Egbert Kwadwo Hohoabu, the newly inducted President, in his inaugural address, gave the assurance that the Institution would work collaboratively with government to achieve its industrialisation agenda to propel the development of the country forward.



The Ghana Institution of Surveyors rewarded the Technical Team that worked on the Ghana-Cote dIvoire maritime boundary dispute, which saw Ghana achieving successes at the International Tribunal on the Law of the Sea in Germany last year, with citations and certificates.



Members of the Team include; Emmanuel Mohen, Former Director at the Survey and Mapping Division of the Lands Commission, Reverend Dr. John Aryee, a Senior Lecturer at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), Cosmax Asante, a Lecturer at the Geometric and Engineering Department at the KNUST and Joseph Tetteh Odametey, Former President of the Ghana Institution of Surveyors.



Mr Edwin Addo-Tawiah, the outgoing President of the GIS, symbolically decorated Mr Hohoabu with the Insignia of Office after taking the Oath of Office.

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 statue of Confederate Gen. Stonewall Jackson in Justice Park in Charlottesville, Virginia. is shrouded in black plastic, Aug. 27, 2017. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

Judge Orders Covers Removed From Confederate Statues in Charlottesville, Virginia

A judge ruled on Feb. 27 that tarps covering statues of Confederate officers in two Charlottesville, Virginia, parks have to be removed within 15 days of a court order being signed.

The statues, of Robert E. Lee and Thomas Stonewall Jackson, were covered with black plastic sheeting to signify that the town was in mourning for the death of one demonstrator and two state troopers who died in separate but related incidents on August 12, 2017, NBC reported.

Virginia State Police Lieutenant Jay Cullen, 48, and Trooper-Pilot Berke M.M. Bates, 40, lost their lives when their Bell 407 helicopter crashed into a wooded area in Albemarle County, Virginia on August 12, 2017.

The pair were monitoring the progress of Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe, who was traveling to Charlottesville to survey the scene of a large demonstration there.

According to the Officer Down Memorial page, the helicopter had mechanical issues and crashed soon after taking off.

The other person to die that day was Heather Heyer, 32, who was part of a counter-demonstration opposing a march by people who wanted the statues to remain. Heyer was run over by a car driven by a person who opposed her view that the statues should be removed, according to Heavy.com.

The Charlottesville City Council voted unanimously to shroud the two statues in black plastic as a gesture of sorrow for the lives lost on the day of the demonstration.

Judge Richard Moore of the 16th Judicial Circuit of Virginia ruled on Feb. 27 that the City Council ruling was not intended to be permanent, and that after a court order was prepared and signed, the city would have 15 days to unwrap the statues, NBC reported. The judge also ruled that the protective fencing around the statues should stay in place.

According to NBC, the judge said tourists, historians, and artists should be able to enjoy the statues.

The controversy over that statues started in March 2017, when the city council voted to remove the statue of Lee and later to also to remove the statue of Jackson.

A lawsuit was filed stating that Virginia state law prohibited the removal of monuments or memorials honoring war veterans.

In a statement on its web page, the government of the city of Charlottesville said it was disappointed by the ruling but will respect the courts decision.

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American Mirai Nagasu Makes Figure Skating History at Pyeongchang 2018Sheriff Andy Louderback from Jackson County, Texas, is concerned about the effects of sanctuary cities on public safety in America, in Washington on Feb. 12. (Samira Bouaou/The Epoch Times)

Law Enforcement Shackled by Politicians in Sanctuary Cities

In some cities, peace officers who try to uphold immigration law risk getting fired, jail time, or possible civil action

WASHINGTONDetective Nick Rogers started to see heroin on the streets of Denver beginning in 2006. As he racked up the arrests, he discovered that the heroin was coming from Mexico and the parties selling it were from Mexico and Honduras.

They were mostly young, 18- to 25-year-old, illegal aliens from Mexico, but as the years went by, some started coming from Honduras and Nicaragua, Rogers said at a hearing on sanctuary cities and the opioid crisis on Feb. 15.

They were all in possession of several ounces of heroin and a fake ID from Mexico (Sinaloa was most common). Some of these arrests led to what was known as the office: A location, usually a higher-end apartment, which was used only to stash the heroin and money.

Rogers said many of the offices housed an average of one pound of heroin as well as tens of thousands, or hundreds of thousands, of dollars in cash waiting to be sent back to Mexico.

But Rogers said he started seeing the same suspects popping up againones he had already arrested for dealing narcotics and had placed an immigration detainer on. He had assumed they had been sentenced, served time, and then deported.

But they had failed to turn up in court and were now just living under a new fake identity.

Thats where the relationship with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) became critical.

During an arrest, Rogers would call one of the two local ICE agents, who would respond any time of day or night to assist us.

They would interview the suspects and ultimately put a detainer on those suspects if they were indeed here illegally. They often found that the person they were interviewing had been deported before, sometimes they had been deported several times.

Rogers said the ICE agents were invaluable to us during those early years.

However, in October 2017, everything changed.

The city and county of Denver adopted an ordinance called the Public Safety Enforcement Priorities Act, which placed severe restrictions on ICE and Denver law enforcement officers.

We were informed that if we communicated with ICE, we were subject to discipline, up to and including termination, Rogers said. We were also told that if we violated the ordinance we were subject to criminal prosecution and would be fined up to $999 and a term of incarceration not to exceed 300 days in jail.

Rogers said he can now no longer contact the same ICE agents he has worked with for years. ICE agents are now only granted the same access as the general public to city-owned law enforcement facilities. Rogers said he used to have a briefing with the ICE agents in his office to go over tactical plans for drug arrests involving illegal aliens.

Those ICE agents were welcomed in the front door, he said. They dont even come in the parking lot anymore.

It should be noted that in all the years I have dealt with ICE, I cannot remember a single time our coordinated efforts were targeting minor offenses. In short, the only parties we ever worked together on were felons, who had committed serious crimes.

The Denver City Council estimates that 55,000 illegal aliens live in the city.

At the hearing, Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.) read out a portion of a letter by Rep. Diana DeGette (D-Colo.), which said ICE has access to fingerprint data on every individual booked into the Denver County jail and the agency can obtain a warrant anytime if it has probable cause.

In all the years I have dealt with ICE, I cannot remember a single time our coordinated efforts were targeting minor offenses.  Nick Rogers, detective, Denver Police Department

But Rogers said thats just lawyer spin, rather than reality, on how the system works.

When you arrest someone on the street for selling herointhats never been through the system beforethere is no biometric feed to ICE or the FBI or anybody, he said. The sheriffs take their fingerprints and they become part of a file at that moment, but theyre not magically sent across the country claiming youre legal or not legal.

Proponents for sanctuary policies say the policies keep immigrant communities safe and foster trust between residents and law enforcement officers. A common argument is that not having sanctuary policies creates a chilling effect on communities because illegal immigrants who are victims or witnesses of crimes are less likely to report crime if they think it will make them subject to immigration enforcement.

However, that argument becomes moot because the Department of Homeland Security provides protections (including certain visas) to victims and witnesses of crime.

For Rogers, the real chilling effect is on law enforcements daily operations.

We can no longer call and share information with ICE. They can no longer call and ask for assistance, or ask for intel on suspects involved in criminal activity, he said. The ordinance has created, in my opinion, a city that is much less safe than it was prior to this ordinance.

Rogers is also president of the 1,300-member Denver Police Protective Association, a union-type organization set up in 1908 to protect the rights of law enforcement personnel.

He said the members are not happy with the new ordinance. They feel that theyre being handcuffed, theyre being not allowed to do their jobs.

Anti-Sanctuary Texas

On the other side of the coin, in Texas, is Sheriff Andy Louderback.

At the same time Rogers was being restricted from working with ICE, Texas passed Senate Bill 4 (SB4), which makes it an offense to not work with ICE.

If a law enforcement officer does not honor an ICE detainer in Texas, the officer is eligible for a Class A misdemeanor, Louderback said in an interview on Feb. 12.

A detainer is a request from ICE to a local jail that the jail either inform ICE 48 hours in advance of an inmates release, or that the jail hold the inmate for up to 24 hours longer so ICE can come and take custody.

Travis County in Texas, where Austin sits, was the main county that had been refusing to honor detainers prior to SB4.

We did notice immediately that federal detainers were being honored, Louderback said.

He said it took several sessions in the Texas legislature to get SB4 passed, because there is a concerted effort to undermine the law in this country.

But, he said it came down to public safety.

I wish I had a better understanding of a state that would declare lawlessness on our federal law, he said, referring to Californias new law that designated the whole state a sanctuary as of Jan. 1.

It appears to be a completely lawless move to pass a sanctuary state law, prohibiting cooperation between law enforcement, he said. I dont pick and choose what laws were going to honor.

He said sanctuaries also become magnets for illegal aliens, especially criminals.

If youre a criminal gang, where would you want to go? Where I can set up shop and not be turned over. Its pretty attractive, he said.

Working with ICE and using immigration laws may be the best way to disrupt criminality in some situations, he said.

It may be the only violations that we have in law enforcement to correct the situation in that particular house where MS-13 is located, Louderback said. And yet, by a mayors ruling, or a city council ruling, we cant contact ICE and say Listen, we need some help. We dont have anything on them, but we know that theyre here illegally and we know thats MS-13. How is that public safety?

Louderback said he is supportive of President Donald Trumps immigration position, especially to secure the border.

A border defines a country. Without a border then you dont have a country. You become a complete mix of whatever, you lose your nationality when you do that, he said.

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What is MS-13?Man Accused of Adultery Stoned to Death by ISIS, Images Show

A man accused of adultery was stoned to death by ISIS terrorists in Afghanistan, photos released online show.

Disturbing images, reportedly released by ISISs Khorasan Province branch, show the before and after shots of a man who was executed by public stoning.

One image shows a blindfolded man kneeling down before a large crowd, with what looks like an ISIS flag in the background. Dozens of men in the crowd appear to be holding stones, with piles of stones near at their feet.

The next image depicts the man lying on the ground surrounded by stones, as the mob continues to hurl heavy rocks at him.

A third picture shows what appears to be the lifeless body of the man wrapped up in cloth. Men and boys look at the covered corpse while it is being tied onto a stretcher.

According to users who posted the images to Twitter, the man was executed because he was accused of adultery, the Daily Mail reported.

This is not the first time ISIS has purportedly released images of public stonings of accused adulterers.

In October 2016, two men were reportedly stoned to death by a large crowd at a town square in eastern Syria. The victims were similarly charged with adultery and condemned to be brutally executed under the groups strict interpretation of Shariah law.

Last June, pictures spread online showed four married men being stoned to death for the same adultery charge. In one image, one victim is seen praying on the ground next to a pile of rocks, before the execution begins. The public killing was reported to have taken place in an Iraqi town.

According to the New York Post from an article originally published by The Sun, the stones used in an execution are not large enough to swiftly kill the person. It is therefore used to heighten the victims suffering before death.

These chilling images come less than a week after ISIS released new propaganda material calling adherents to burn America, attack London, and target Russian political and religious leaders.

From NTD.tv

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Trump Calls on Nation to Answer Hate with Love after Florida School Shooting TragedyMan Accused of Trying to Kill 4-Month-Old Baby by Feeding Her Anti-Freeze

A Minnesota man has been charged with the attempted murder of a 4-month-old baby girl after allegedly poisoning the infant.

Jeffrey Ryan Thomas, 23, is accused of feeding the infant anti-freeze or de-icing agent mixed in some baby formula which left her violently ill, according to court documents.

The 23-year-old was charged with first-degree attempted murder with premeditation, second-degree attempted murder without premeditation and first-degree assault to cause great bodily harm, reported Duluth News Tribune.

Police became aware of the 4-month-old infant on Jan. 20 after a pediatrician contacted them regarding concerns for the child, who came into their care and was severely ill. The pediatrician told police that they believed the baby was poisoned by ingesting ethylene glycol, a substance commonly found in anti-freeze and de-icing fluids, and it would have been likely it was provided by her caregivers due to the childs age.

The baby girl was then airlifted from the Cuyuna Regional Medical Centers emergency department to the Minneapolis Childrens Hospitals intensive care unit for further treatment due to her critical condition. After further testing, the hospital confirmed that baby had ingested the suspected substance, reported the newspaper.

According to court documents, prior to being sent to the medical center, the baby girl was being cared for by Thomas and his wife, who is not the babys biological mother. Thomas told police that at 1 a.m. on Jan. 18, he fed the child a bottle and put her to sleep.

The baby woke up about an hour and a half later and vomited a large amount of liquid. Thomas subsequently got up, changed her clothing and bedding and placed her back on her bed.

The next time the baby girl was fed was at 4 a.m., but she did not eat. When she was fed again at 7 a.m., she only ate very little and vomited again.

She continued to be ill throughout the day and was taken to the medical center and eventually airlifted to the childrens hospital later on Jan. 18.

Fortunately, the baby girl recovered and was discharged from the intensive care unit around Jan. 24 and then from hospital on Feb. 9. She has been placed in foster care, reported the newspaper.

During the police investigation, Thomas and his wife told authorities that he did not have any anti-freeze in the home, but during a search, officers located a jug of anti-freeze in the basement of Thomas home.

Investigators from the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension office also discovered that the bottle of formula most recently fed to the baby prior to her hospitalization contained baby formula and ethanol, reported the newspaper.

According to Duluth News Tribune, a bottle of unknown purple liquid was also found outside the home in the yard which after lab tests was found to contain ethanol.

Police also allege Thomas had Googled what does antifreeze do to the human body six days before the girl was rushed to the hospital, reported the Metro UK. The Wikipedia page Thomas had accessed noted that ethanol is a potential antidote for ethylene glycol poisoning, according to court documents.

Investigators also found text messages on Thomass and his wifes cellphones that questioned the paternity of the baby and detailed the womans dislike of the baby, reported Duluth News Tribune, citing court documents.

Thomas is currently being held in the countys jail on a $750,000 bond.

From The Epoch Times

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Man With Life Sentence Breaks From Prison, an Hour Later Hes Found Dead

David Alan Woods, 46, was serving life in prison for being an accomplice to a murder when he managed to escape. But after only about an hour as a fugitive, he was found dead.

Woods was incarcerated at Gaston Correctional Center. On Monday, Feb. 26, he was on a work detail in Lowell, North Carolina, the Gaston Gazette reported.

At 12:57 p.m. Woods stole a Ford truck and sped away.

By 2:15 he had crashed the truck on Interstate 85. The truck rolled several times and Woods was ejected from the vehicle, dying at the scene, according to Gastonia Police.

He was not being pursued at the time, police said.

Woods had been serving a life sentence for second-degree murder since 1995.

On Oct. 31, 1993, he and another man, Jeffrey Dickens, used a hammer to pry open window panes of a trailer, then Dickens hit the occupant, 89-year-old Roseline Murphy in the head with the hammer, killing her, according to court records.

Woods was drunk and on marijuana at the time. After the murder both men went to a known crack house to buy drugs.

Woods pleaded guilty a day before his trial.

Dickens, 44, is serving his life sentence for first-degree murder in a state prison.

The Division of Prisons is investigating the circumstances of Woodss escape, according to Jerry Higgins, spokesman for the North Carolina Department of Public Safety.

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Driver Maxes Out Audi S4 as Police Give ChaseU.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson (L) meeting with Chinese leader Xi Jinping at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, China on Sept. 30, 2017. (Lintao Zhang/Pool/Getty Images)

News Analysis: Why China Is Anxious to Send Diplomats to the US

China is desperate to repair its relationship with the United States.

Within a month, Beijing has sent two high-level officials on diplomatic visits to the U.S. to talk trade and make amends.

On Feb. 8, State Councillor and top diplomat Yang Jiechi visited the U.S. and met with President Donald Trump and State Secretary Rex Tillerson.

Just weeks later, from Feb. 27 to March 3, Liu He, a close ally of Chinese leader Xi Jinping who is slated to be appointed vice-premier, will be visiting. Liu is Xis top economic adviser.

Liu will be missing out on a critical Chinese Communist Party (CCP) meeting known as the third plenary session. It goes to show how urgent Beijing perceives the situation to be.

After the Trump administration called out China for its unfair trade policies publicly, it has taken up action, including by investigating intellectual property theft by the Chinese regime, slapping tariffs on imported solar panelsmost of which are produced in Chinaand proposing tariffs on steel imports from China and 11 other countries.

Trade tensions have reached a new high.

And just a few days ago, Politico reported that current White House trade adviser and known China hawk Peter Navarro will become a direct adviser to the president, which will give him more say over the administrations trade agenda.

The CCPs own media, Xiake Dao, an online publication affiliated with Peoples Daily, stated that sending two high officials to the U.S. in so short a time period is practically unprecedented in history.

Who Loses in a Trade War?

After all, the Chinese regime stands to lose big if an all-out trade war were to occur. The U.S. has a massive trade deficit with Chinatopping $375 billion in 2017, according to data from the U.S. Census Bureaubut Beijing needs the U.S. trade to survive.

As research firm Geopolitical Futures detailed in a report, China would feel the impact of U.S. protectionist measures more than the U.S. would feel any economic retaliation China has at its disposal.

If the U.S. were to stop importing from China completely, about 15 million Chinese workers would stand to lose their jobs.

On the other hand, the U.S. could source Chinas goods from elsewhere or produce them domestically. As The Epoch Times business editor Valentin Schmid explained in an article published in Jan. 2017, it would be more difficult or expensive for the U.S. to do so, but this is a nuisance compared to the impact of leaving 15 million Chinese people unemployed.

As for the possibility of China retaliating with tariffs on American goods, the Geopolitical Futures report noted that the last time that happened in 2009, things didnt go well for China. When then-U.S. President Barack Obama imposed a 35 percent tariff on Chinese tires, the U.S. was able to find suppliers in other countries, but scores of Chinese tire factories shut down and others had to slash prices to stay competitive, according to the report.

China retaliated with tariffs on American chicken meat, but U.S. poultry exports actually increased.

Switching Up Diplomats

And so, Beijing is planning a reshuffle of its top diplomats in order to better deal with the Trump administration, according to a Reuters report on Feb. 27.

Sources familiar to the reshuffle told Reuters that Wang Qishan, a confidant of Xi who was instrumental in helping him get rid of factional enemies through a sweeping anti-corruption campaign, is likely to become vice-chair with a portfolio focused on ties with Washington.

Wang Qishan is a heavyweight. And the Americans respect him, a source with ties to the CCP leadership told Reuters. Hopefully he will be able to temper American hostility.

Meanwhile, current Foreign Minister Wang Yi would replace Yang Jiechi as top diplomat.

Song Tao, current head of the International Liaison Department, would step up to the foreign minister role.

The sources said the personnel selection had not been finalized yet and could change. When the CCP formally announces the appointments during its March Lianghui meetings, perhaps it will become clearer how Beijing plans to handle Sino-Americans ties.

Fang Xiao contributed to this report.Nine Day Bootcamp Is Helping Tech-Addicted Teens Get Back to Reality

Many parents will tell you that getting their teenagers away from the screens is harder than sailing around the world in a yacht.

Some parents in Australia have had enough and are sending their tech-addicted teenagers to boot camp to help kick their technology addiction.

The nine-day boot camp run by ex-service men and women is using both physical and mental military might to train kids to do real stuff and step out of the virtual world, reported 7News.

Glenn Filtness of Veteran Mentors, who is leading the group of soldiers in a bid to transform young Australian lives, said the camp helps children learn important life lessons.

So much of the transformation we see in our Junior Leaders happens around the fire. #veteranmentors #adolescentdevelopment pic.twitter.com/Kvbc2ugNx2  Veteran Mentors (@VetMentorsAU) October 10, 2017

We have kids coming in that are lacking self-confidence and addicted to technology, Filtness told 7News.

It is fun, challenging and can help to arm them with management skills and resilience that will help them forge ahead into adulthood and on into workforce, according to the Veteran Mentors website.

Filtness said that as soon as participants arrive, its strictly no technology.

The second they get on our bus we take their phones and any technology they have off them straight away, Filtness told the news station.

Health and wellbeing play a huge role in our Junior Leader Program.

Here are just a few reasons why. https://t.co/mhySlA7y6Y pic.twitter.com/kDUaLXUWuY  Veteran Mentors (@VetMentorsAU) July 31, 2017

Most of the former Australian soldiers who are running the camp have come straight from the frontline of Afghanistan and Iraq.

The participants are put through rigorous daily routines and activities such as physical training and nutritional education, making beds, polishing their boots, ironing their uniform, cleaning their barracks, and marching.

According to the Veteran Mentors website, the benefits of a digital detox include: additional sleep and exercise, better personal control, increased positivity and confidence, less instance of behavioural issues, heightened social skills and interactions, and increased productivity.

University of Wollongong technology expert Professor Katina Michael told the ABC last year that adolescents are most at risk of social media addiction.

If you ask people to report on how often they use their smartphones, they may under report or they may be missing information and consider themselves average users, she said.

We see others on smartphones at train stations, bus stops and at work and we think its become a normalised activity, she added.

Michael said young people were spending a cumulative 3.5 hours per day on social media, reported the ABC.

I think more and more adolescents are considering that the pressures of social media are so vast that its best to get off, she told the news broadcaster.

[Young people] need to be connected and feel they cant be disconnected, and a quarter of our teens are constantly connected and send about 150 texts per day, she added.

The tech detox, which is held on the Gold Coast, isnt cheap, at more than AU$4,000, however, Filtness said the program is effective.

Its very tough for the participants and thats why its effective  if it wasnt tough it wouldnt work, Filtness told the news station.

From NTD.tv

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Moms Hilarious Reaction to Raptor ScareParents Charged Over Death of Adult Son With Down Snydrome

A couple in Clark County, Kentucky, have been charged with murder over the death of their adult son with down syndrome.

Albert Christy, 61, and Patsy Christy, 65, were both arrested on Monday, Feb. 26, after interviews with detectives from the Clark County Sheriffs Office, the Winchester Sun reported.

Their house is located at 340 Schoolhouse Lane.

Police said they have been investigating the case since the parents 20-year-old son Logan Christy died in December last year, WKYT reported.

Contributing factors to the sons death included neglect, malnutrition, and dehydration, according to a medical examiners report. He also suffered from pneumonia.

The autopsy found that Logan weighed only 61 pounds when he died, according to the Winchester Sun.

It was also revealed that there was nothing inside the victims stomach.

But Patsy denied the accusations, claiming she had fed Logan before calling 911, WKYT reported.

Its a heart-breaking case because its very preventable, Clark County Sheriff Berl Perdue Jr. told the newspaper. Its a case of pure neglect.

The parents received government benefits from their son until he turned 18. However, the parents failed to assist Logan in applying for any additional government benefits after he reached that age.

This is just terrible. The medical examiner said there were no contents in the victim's stomach during the autopsy. https://t.co/1ucRGZSAXy  WKYT (@WKYT) February 27, 2018

Detectives said that Logans room at the residence was nearly unlivable. They said he was only given fluids from a sippy cup.

Perdue said Logan had not been given any insurance or medical care in the past two years, according to the Winchester Sun.

Two other children still live at their parents home. They told WKYT that their parents would never intentionally starve anyone.

The parents are each being held on a $1 million cash bond in the Clark County Detention Center. They are scheduled to be arraigned Wednesday afternoon in Clark District Court.

From NTD.tv

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Police said on Wednesday, Feb. 28, that a teacher is in custody after reports of shots being fired at Dalton High School in Dalton, Georgia.

No children were harmed, WSB-TV reported.

Police in Dalton, located in Whitfield County, said that a teacher was barricaded in a classroom, according to local reports.

Student sent me this snap chat photo of inside Dalton High School. @WRCB pic.twitter.com/UWUlLaNWmt  Kate Smith (@KateWRCB) February 28, 2018

BREAKING: Dalton Police on the scene at Dalton High School on a report of shots fired. Suspect barricade inside a classroom. No kids injured. Were enroute. Heres the info from a police spokesman. More details to come. @wsbtv pic.twitter.com/zbl09aW1ci  Chris Jose (@ChrisJoseWSB) February 28, 2018

The area inside the school was evacuated, and no students were in danger, according to the report. It was also placed on lockdown.

Police havent yet identified the teacher.

The incident took place after 12 p.m. local time, WTVC reported.

Dalton Police spokesman Bruce Frazier said that a student injured their ankle while running in the school during the evacuation.

Police are calling on parents to not go to the school, but they should head to the Northwest Georgia Trade Center to pick up their children.

Dalton Police and the Georgia State Patrol have responded to the incident.

DPD on scene at report of shot or shots fired at Dalton High. NO CHILDREN ARE INJURED OR IN DANGER  Dalton Police (@DaltonPD) February 28, 2018

There is a barricaded subject in a classroom. It is believed to be a teacher.  Dalton Police (@DaltonPD) February 28, 2018

PARENTS DO NOT COME TO DALTON HIGH  Dalton Police (@DaltonPD) February 28, 2018

Students will be taken to the NE GA Trade Center. Parents should go there  Dalton Police (@DaltonPD) February 28, 2018

Repeat: no children hurt, no children in danger.  Dalton Police (@DaltonPD) February 28, 2018

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How Doctors in China Turn into MurderersA Texas farmer caught a group of teenagers damaging his fields with off-road vehicles. Photo of a jeep "mudding." (Martin Brigden/Flickr)

Teens Caught Mudding on Farmers Field Get ChoiceFix the Damage or Face the Police

A Texas farmer caught a group of teens mudding on his property after a rainfall and offered them a choicefix the damage they caused to his fields or face the police.

According to KXAS-TV in Dallas, the teenagers were driving along a road that passes through Clint Rutledges farm in Collin County, spinning their wheels in the muddy soil. The man said that the off-roaders then drove into his field and tore up his land with their vehicles.

Rutledge said that while it may seem like fun for the drivers, it causes damage to the farmland.

He added that instances of inconsiderate mudding in his fields are a regular event after a heavy rainfall, and hes been frustrated by the aftermath many timesruts crisscrossing his fields.

But this time, he caught the thrillseekers kicking up mud on his property and decided to intervene.

I said why dont we teach them a lesson? Rutledge said, according to the station.

So instead of calling the police, he offered them a way off the hookto fill in the wheel tracks they made with their vehicles.

The teens reportedly filled in the ruts they made, working for about an hour and a halfsome with shovels Rutledge provided, some their bare hands.

The farmer told reporters that the experience of fixing the damage they caused would be a better lesson than a fine imposed by the authorities.

Some of these kids these days dont know what hard work and what us farmers go through, he said. So they got a little dose of that on Saturday.

Rutledge said it would take years for the damaged farmland to return to normal.

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Boy Accidentally Razors Off Chunk of Hair During TutorialTexas Doctor Allegedly Shot Couple to Death in Front of Their 3 Sons

A doctor in Texas is accused of shooting a couple to death in front of their three sons.

Robert Edward Fadal II, 56, was a family doctor in Seguin at the time of the shooting.

Police officials said he shot Tiffany Leann Strait, 30, and Anthony Ray Strait, 27, around 11:40 a.m. on Sunday.

Lt. Craig Jones, a spokesman for the Guadalupe County Sheriffs Office, told the San Antonio Express-News that the Straits were at Fadals gated compound helping his mother move furniture.

It was some kind of benevolent action, Jones said. At this time, there are no indications there was a feud, disturbance or anything precipitating or justifying the shooting.

A judge ordered Fadal held on a $2 million bail on Monday, reported KSAT.

The broadcaster said that the Straits and Fadals mother were loading furniture onto the Straits truck when Fadal walked out of the house with a rifle and opened fire.

Anthony Strait was pronounced dead at the scene.

Tiffany Strait was rushed to a hospital, where she was later pronounced dead.



According to a joint Facebook profile, the couple operated a landscaping business together.

Pictures show the couple posing and looking happy.

Several pictures on the profile show the three young sons, who are being taken care of by family members.

Rudy Soto, a neighbor who heard the shots, told KSAT that Fadal is one of the nicest persons.

Its just a big tragedy that happened, and I really dont know whats going to come out of it, Soto said.

Jones told the Seguin Gazette that officers have responded to prior calls to the Fadal compound but that nothing was connected to the shooting.

According to Health Grades, Fadal is a family practice doctor who has been practicing for 28 years.

Fadal graduated from the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio.

From NTD.tv

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Texas Sheriffs Message to Deputies: Go in to Face Shooter or Get Reassigned

A Texas sheriff has told his deputies that its their job to confront criminals, and that if they do not think theyre able to do so they will be reassigned.

Denton County Sheriff Tracy Murphree published a letter sent to all deputies on Facebook.

With the recent tragedy in Florida, I wanted to make clear my policy on responding to an active shooter. All commissioned deputies, if you respond to an active shooter you are expected to take immediate action. We do not stage and wait for SWAT, we do not take cover in a parking lot, and we do not wait for another agency, Murphree wrote.

We go in an do our duty. We go in to engage and stop the shooter and save lives. If for any reason you feel you can not follow this directive please inform your supervisor and we will work to get you reassigned.

The letter came after the Feb. 14 school shooting in Florida.

Nikolas Cruz opened fire at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, leaving 17 dead and 16 wounded.

However, it later emerged that the school resource officer, a Broward County Sheriffs deputy, and three other deputies stood outside for around four minutes before officers from nearby Coral Springs arrived and entered the building to look for the shooter.

Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel said that the actions didnt reflect on his leadership. The sheriffs office could be sued over the failure of the deputies to enter the school.

President Donald Trump revealed his thoughts on the way deputies at the school handled the situation.

I got to watch some deputy sheriffs performing this weekend, Trump said, adding they werent exactly medal of honor winners. The way they performed was, frankly, disgusting.

The resource officer was suspended, then resigned shortly after.

The officer, however, released a statement through his lawyer saying he wasnt a coward.

Let there be no mistake, Mr. Peterson wishes that he could have prevented the untimely passing of the seventeen victims on that day, and his heart goes out to the families of the victims in their time of need, the lawyer, Joseph DiRuzzo III, said.

However, the allegations that Mr. Peterson was a coward and that his performance, under the circumstances, failed to meet the standards of police officers are patently untrue. Mr. Peterson is confident that his actions on that day were appropriate under the circumstances and that the video (together with the eye-witness testimony of those on the scene) will exonerate him of any sub-par performance.

From NTD.tv

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Trump Calls on Nation to Answer Hate with Love after Florida School Shooting TragedyA Utah teacher is shown how to handle a handgun by instructor Clint Simon (R), at a concealed-weapons training class to 200 Utah teachers in West Valley City, Utah on Dec. 27, 2012. (Photo by George Frey/Getty Images)

This Kentucky School District Just Voted to Allow Teachers Carry Concealed Guns

Teachers at a Kentucky school district could be carrying concealed guns soon after a proposal was preliminarily approved this week by a county school board.

The unanimous vote by the Pike County School Board came after parents, teachers, and administrators testified during a town hall meeting about school safety concerns.

The vote also came on the heels of school shootings in recent weeks, including one in Western Kentucky that left two dead at Marshall County High School.

The vote authorizes the boards attorney to work with the Pike County Sheriffs Office to finalize a formal policy, reported the Lexington Herald-Leader.

The sheriffs office would oversee the program.

Pike County Schools Superintendent Reed Adkins said he hopes to have armed teachers in schools by the start of the next school year, if not sooner.

You hope youre making the right decision for kids, but I know right now somethings got to be done, Adkins said. We may be criticized, but at the end of the day Ill take criticism to protect my students.

Finally, a REAL solution. Hope more Ky schools follow. https://t.co/tCoERu25MD  Thomas Massie (@RepThomasMassie) February 27, 2018

Nearly everyone who spoke at the meeting supported arming staffers, who would be trained by the sheriffs office.

State officials in Florida moved a similar motion forward this week, following the Feb. 14 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School that left 17 dead and 16 wounded.

President Donald Trump is among the federal officials who have expressed support for arming teachers, arguing that a lack of armed people on school grounds leaves educators and students defenseless against a shooter.

There are currently no districts in Kentucky that allow teachers to carry guns, but districts in at least eight states do allow teachers to conceal-carry, reported The Wall Street Journal.

The faster we can respond, the more of our babies that are saved, said Christopher Burrows, superintendent in Georgetown Exempted Village Schools, a 1,060-student district in Georgetown, Ohio, where some school employees carry guns. Those folks that are armed are part of our safety team.

From NTD.tv

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Accused Florida Shooters Neighbors Sensed Something Amiss with Cruz from a Young AgePresident Donald Trump announces Johnny Taylor, Jr. as the Chairman of the Presidentas Board of Advisors on Historically Black Colleges and Universities in the Roosevelt Room of the White House in Washington on Feb. 27, 2018. (Samira Bouaou/The Epoch Times)

Trump Has Already Adopted 64 Percent of Conservative Foundations Agenda

Trump ahead of where Reagan was at same point in his term

President Donald Trumps administration has adopted more than two-thirds of the 334 agenda items recommended by the Heritage Foundation, outpacing former President Ronald Reagan who also followed the conservative think tanks recommendations.

In a report released last week, the Heritage Foundation found that Trump has adopted 215 of the recommendations outlined in its Mandate for Leadership handbook. Trumps key achievements include leaving the Paris Climate Accord, ending Net Neutrality, and increasing military spending, the foundation notes.

President Trump had an extraordinarily successful first year, Thomas Binion, director of congressional and executive branch relations at The Heritage Foundation, said in a press release. He put a conservative on the Supreme Court and he enacted historic pro-growth tax reform.

Approximately 70 former Heritage Foundation employees worked for Trumps transition team and his administration. The foundations agenda items stem from core principles including traditional American values, individual freedom, and a strong national defense.

Were blown away, Binion told Washington Examiner. Trump, he said, is very active, very conservative, and very effective.

The president notably covered a vast range of administrative, legislative, and fiscal issues, many of which have been largely ignored by the media, Binion added.

It is a huge volume that his administration has worked on and it is a huge spectrum of issues, Binion said.

The report is in line with a list of 81 major achievements the White House released last year, the Washington Examiner reported.

The achievements add up to a powerful re-election agenda, Binion noted.

It is absolutely a winning agenda, he said.

President Ronald Reagan was the first to embrace an agenda by the Heritage Foundation in 1981. Reagan handed copies of the book to every cabinet member. At the same stage in his presidency, Reagan accomplished 49 percent of the agenda items, compared to Trumps 64 percent.

He has been very, very active, Binion said. He is moving the ball in the conservative direction.

Heritage Foundation highlighted the following Trump policy achievements:

Leaving the Paris Climate Accord: In August 2017, Trump announced the U.S. was ending its funding and membership in the Paris Agreement on Climate Change.

Repealing Net Neutrality: In December 2017, Trumps Federal Communications Commission chairman proposed ending the 2015 network neutrality rules.

Reshaping National Monuments: Heritages recommendation to prohibit Land Acquisition (Cap and Reduce the Size of the Federal Estate) was adopted by Trump when he issued two executive orders effectively shrinking the size of national monuments in Utah.

Reinstating the Mexico City Policy: This executive order prevents taxpayer money from funding international groups involved in abortion and ending funding to the United Nations Population fund. On Jan. 23, 2017, in his first pro-life action, Trump signed an executive order today reinstating the Mexico City Policy.

Increasing Military Spending: Trumps budget calls for a $54 billion increase in military spending to improve capacity, capability, and readiness of Americas armed forces.

Reforming Temporary Assistance for Needy Families Program (TANF): The Trump administration adopted and is in favor of strengthening existing work requirements in order to receive benefits.

Allowing Development of Natural Resources: The Trump administration opened off-shore drilling and on federal lands. Executive Order 13783 directed Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke to commence federal land coal leasing activities.

Reforming Government Agencies: Trump tasked each of his Cabinet secretaries to prepare detailed plans on how they propose to reduce the scope and size of their respective departments while streamlining services and ensuring each department runs more efficiently and handles tax dollars appropriately.

Withdrawing from UNESCO: In October 2017, Trump announced he was putting an end to U.S. membership in the United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).

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US Imposes More North Korea SanctionsAn aluminum foil roll gets lifted at a plant in Binzhou City, Shandong Province, China on May 16, 2017. (Stringer/REUTERS)

US Commerce Department Says China Is Dumping Aluminum Foil Imports

WASHINGTONThe U.S. Commerce Department said on Feb. 27 it had made a final determination that imports of aluminum foil from China are being sold in the United States at less than their fair value and Chinese producers are benefiting from subsidies from Beijing.

It said in a statement that antidumping and countervailing duties would be levied on a number of Chinese firms, with dumping margins ranging from 48.64 percent to 106.09 percent and anti-subsidy rates of 17.14 percent to 80.97 percent.

This Administration is committed to trade that is fair and reciprocal, and we will not allow American workers and businesses to be harmed by unfair imports, said Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross in the statement.

The Chinese regime has expressed strong dissatisfaction with the step and plans to take measures to protect its interests, according to a statement by Chinas Ministry of Commerce.

The duties, which would take effect for five years, remain subject to a finding of injury to U.S. producers by the International Trade Commission (ITC), which is due to announce its decision by March 15.

Amid mounting trade friction with China, U.S. President Donald Trump is due to decide soon whether to impose much broader duties on steel and aluminum imports under a national security investigation.

Three of Trumps top economic aides are expected to meet with Chinese leader Xi Jinpings top economic adviser, Liu He, this week. Chinas Foreign Ministry said on Feb. 26 that Liu will discuss China-U.S. relations and the two countries economic and trade cooperation.

The Commerce Department said the foil case, the first the U.S. aluminum industry has brought against Chinas aluminum sector, would have no bearing on the Section 232 report on aluminum that is under consideration by Trump.

In 2016, imports of aluminum foil from China were valued at an estimated $389 million, Commerce Department figures show.

Foil Producers

Last month, a group of U.S. aluminum foil producers told the ITC their industry had been devastated by Chinese imports and needed anti-dumping duties to survive and invest.

The Aluminum Association and its foil-producing members are extremely pleased with the Commerce Departments final determinations, the groups president, Heidi Brock, said in the statement.

U.S. aluminum foil producers are among the most competitive producers in the world, but they cannot compete against products that are sold at unfairly low prices and subsidized by the Government of China, Brock said.

The Commerce Department said antidumping margins will be set at 48.64 percent for Jiangsu Zhongji Lamination Materials Stock Co.; at 106.09 percent for Hangzhou Dingsheng Import & Export Co. and related companies; 89.54 percent for 14 other companies; and 106.09 percent for the rest of producers in China.

Countervailing duty margins will be 17.14 percent for Jiangsu Zhongji; 19.98 percent for Dingsheng; 80.97 percent for Loften Aluminum (Hong Kong), Manakin Industries, and Suzhou Manakin Aluminum Processing Technology Co.; and 18.56 percent for all other producers in China, it said.

From ReutersUnited Passenger Records Heated Exchange With Rude Airline Workers Over Carry-On Bag

A United Airlines passenger recorded an exchange with workers she called rude in a heated exchange over the size of her carry-on bag.

Airlines set strict limits on carry-on items to prevent people from adding too much weight to the plane, but sometimes allow people to bring bags on even if theyre over the weight or size limits.

Natalia Rutkowski, 27, who was traveling with her mother Anna, 58, said that the limits were totally ignored this time, though, and if the employees had measured the baggage properly it would have met the requirements.

Rutkowski, an account executive in New Jersey, said that her bag fit inside the personal item bin thats put in front of each gate and the check-in lines in airports so people can measure their items to see if theyll be approved to go on board.

I had already checked my bag and was helping my mom to check in on the computer when a prompt on the screen said a United staff member had to swipe, she told SWNS, reported News AU.

At first, an old woman said, No, she is not allowed to take her bag onto the plane. It was a certain dimension that the bag had to fit, but the woman didnt even allow us to put the bag into the personal item bin to show them that it fit inside. She was extremely rude.

Another staff member at the airport, Chicago OHare, then came over and got involved, telling Rutkowski to prove her personal item fit into the specified dimensions.



Watch the latest video at <a href=http://www.foxnews.com>foxnews.com</a>

United passenger records heated exchange with rude airline staff over carry-on bag https://t.co/x1XAnMSfuR  Fox News (@FoxNews) February 28, 2018

She asked me to put the bag into the bin, which I did, and she said, OK, well, the person who swiped has to see it. I said, This is the third time Ive done it.

She claims a third staff member then came over, grabbed the bag, and shoved it in sideways on purpose so it wouldnt fit.

The staff then insist that Rutkowski pay a $25 fee to check the item.

But the woman and her mother refused to give in, and were eventually allowed to board with the item after a fourth United staffer took their side.

Finally, the last person who came over and I put it in and it clearly fit perfectly, and he was like, Oh, yes, it does fit. I dont understand why we have this issue,' she said.

She said she released the footage because the incident left her shaking, sweating, and agitated, and that she wants an apology from United.

An airline spokesperson told Fox News that United has reached out directly to Rutkowski following the incident.

From NTD.tv

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Freshmans Miracle Shot Makes Crowd Go InsaneMitla Cafe, the restaurant that launched a nations late-night food cravings, is a San Bernardino, California, institution. Founded in 1937, located off historic Route 66, owned continuously by the same family, its still serving those original, delicious, ethereally crunchy, satisfying beef tacos. Though Michael Montano, the restaurants third-generation owner, declined to part with Mitlas iconic taco recipeWe already did that once, he said mysteriously.

It's possible he might be referring to how, inspired by a neighborhood Mexican restaurant, a man named Glen Bell decided to sell tacos at his San Bernadino hot dog stand in 1951. He would eventually become the Bell in Taco Bell. A slew of similar taco chains followed, and tacos are now an American staple, defining our Tuesday nights, launching fleets of food trucks, and influencing Michelinstarred chefs.

I talked to Michael Montano and gathered a few tips for making the best Cali-Mexstyle tacos at home.

Be Flexible

When Montanos grandmother, Lucia Montano Rodriguez, opened Mitla Cafe in 1937, she couldnt find many ingredients from her native Mexico. The origins of our taco is based on what she could get. Ground beef. Iceberg lettuce. Yellow cheese, he says. Pure Mexican food is more about soft corn tortillas and the filling inside. Cal-Mex is a fusion of American-style comfort food plus Mexican techniques like frying in lard.

What's the Filling?

There are tacos al pastor, fish tacos, and even Korean tacos, but the original Cal-Mex taco is, quite simply a cheeseburger in a different form, says Montano. Indeed, at Mitla Cafe, ground beef is formed into a sausage-shaped cylinder before being fried. The result is a juicy patty that, unlike crumbled ground beef, doesnt fall out of the shell when you eat it. A shower of chopped iceberg lettuce, tomatoes, and grated cheddar completes the cheeseburger metaphor.

Tacos going home, on a Tuesday. A post shared by Mitla Cafe (@mitla_cafe) on Mar 24, 2015 at 4:06pm PDT

Consider Frying All of It

Montano equates the Cal-Mex taco to the taco dorado (a taco with a hard shell). It should be crunchy, golden, and fried. Gustavo Arellanotaco expert and author of Taco USA, who The New York Times describes as perhaps the greatest (and only) living scholar of Mexican-American fast foodbelieves the ideal Cal-Mex taco is crunchy, freshly fried, with a great shell and moist meat. He fears, however, that the classic hard-shell taco is in danger. [Fewer and fewer] restaurants are serving that type of cuisine, he says. The taco has now come to mean tortilla and the soft shell is dominant.

Dont Take It Too Seriously

Though Cal-Mex tacos have their roots in Mexican food, theyre far from authentic Mexican cuisine, and thats okay. Dont equate this with traditional Mexican food, says Montano. According to Gustavo Arellano, who also appears on Netflix's Ugly Delicious, Traditions are removable. Theres no such thing as authenticity, he says. Mexican food is always changing, always adapting with the times.

In that spirit, here are some inauthentic tacos to take for a spin (or a good deep-fry):

Been to Mitla Cafe? Tell us all about it in the comments!Given this brutal flu season steps for a universal  and more consistently effective  vaccine against the contagious respiratory illness are being taken in multiple sectors.

This week, Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro, (D-CT), introduced the Flu Vaccine Act, which would invest $1 billion toward the development of a universal flu vaccine, which would provide a lifetime of protection after being administered just once or twice.

Every year, more than 200,000 Americans are hospitalized from the flu and flu-related complications, she said in a news release. Nationally, we are losing 4,000 Americans a week to the flu  and we have yet to hit peak flu season. We are not immune to this in Connecticut  this years epidemic is in our state. Statewide emergency department visits are up over 14 percent, which is the highest weekly level since the 2009 H1N1 pandemic. And tragically, we have seen at least 97 influenza-associated deaths in Connecticut  far above the range reported in the last five seasons.

Developing a universal influenza vaccine also is a priority for the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, part of the National Institutes of Health. Writing in the Journal of Infectious Diseases, NIAID officials detail the institutes new plan for addressing the research areas essential to creating a safe and effective universal influenza vaccine. Said vaccine would, in theory, be at least 75 percent effective, protect against group I and II type A influenza, have protection that lasts at least one year and be suitable for all ages.

According to the NIAID, advances in influenza virology, immunology and vaccinology make the development of a universal influenza vaccine more feasible than a decade ago. To develop a universal influenza vaccine, NIAID will focus resources on three key areas of influenza research: improving the understanding of the transmission, natural history and pathogenesis of influenza infection; precisely characterizing how protective influenza immunity occurs and how to tailor vaccination responses to achieve it; and supporting the rational design of universal influenza vaccines, including designing new immunogens and adjuvants to boost immunity and extend the duration of protection.

The authors state that a coordinated effort of guided discovery, facilitated product development and managed progress through iterative clinical testing will be critical to achieving the goal of a universal influenza vaccine. NIAID will establish and support a consortium of scientists to meet designated goals for a universal influenza vaccine and will expand the Institutes research resources by establishing long-term human cohorts, supporting improved animal models of influenza infection and expanding capacity for conducting human challenge studies.NORWALK  Mayor Harry Rilling indicated Wednesday that hell be working with school officials to find a way to come closer to fully funding the Norwalk Board of Educations 2018-19 budget request.

We have to look at finances on the Board-of-Ed side, we have to look at the finances on the city side and look to see how we can get as close as possible to the requested numbers, Rilling said.

The school board has requested $194 million for the fiscal year starting July 1. That would represent an additional $9.9 million, or a 5.4 percent increase.

In numbers not seen in years, parents, teachers, students and school administrators packed the Common Council chambers Tuesday evening and urged elected officials to boost education funding above an additional $5.5 million that was on the table.

Please find a way to come closer to the $9.9 million increase that was requested by the school board, said David Heuvelman, a taxpayer and a parent of a special education student. The bottom line is $5.5 million will translate to cuts in the growth and will cause us to detract from our gains. Remember also that the rainy day fund is tax dollars, my tax dollars.

Im a consumer of education and I like where were going, but lets keep going there, he added.

At the end of the evening, the council set the preliminary expenditures cap on the unfolding 2018-19 operating budget at $336,168,940, representing $353,595,360 in total spending, less estimated state aid and other intergovernmental revenue of $17.4 million. The action adds $5.5 million to the draft budget.

To the $5.5 million, Rilling said the city had identified $1.2 million in rainy day funds for the school boards special education fund, $1.1 million from boards insurance reserves and an additional $382,000 in Education Cost Sharing funding from the state.

That would bring us to about $8.2 million  74 percent of the BOE request and a 4.5 percent year-over-year increase  the same increase as last year, Rilling said. Now having said that, these kinds of discussions continue. We know that Dr. (Steven) Adamowski and his staff, and me and my staff, will continue to meet to determine how we can get closer.

Councilman Greg Burnett Sr., an at-large Democrat who chairs the council's Finance/Claims Committee, indicated elected officials stand ready to provide the school board more money.

In addition to this resolution, which directly relates to the average mill rate increase, the finance committee will be looking at working with you and the finance director for a special appropriation in the budget year 2017-18 for $1.2 million to address the SPED funding, Burnett said. So that is something we would look to have take place in the present budget as well as through the discussions, if necessary, additional drawn downs, if necessary, from the fund balance.

More than 200 people filled the council chambers Tuesday evening, prompting Fire Chief Gino Gatto to ask those standing to keep the aisles open, as the council considered setting a preliminary expenditures cap on Norwalks unfolding 2018-19 operating budget.

Councilman Douglas Hempstead, a District D Republican, said he appreciated the passion of those who spoke during the public participation portion of the meeting.

Ive been through a lot of these, and more than anybody I get it, said Hempstead, a veteran councilman.

The councils Finance/Claims Committee last Thursday recommended a cap that would boost the bottom line of the developing spending plan by $5.5 million.

Norwalk Director of Finance Robert Barron earlier this month recommended $348.1 million in city and school spending for the fiscal year starting July 1. His base budget leaves the school board flat-funded at $184 million and leaves it to the council and Board of Estimate and Taxation to decide how many additional dollars to allocate the board after balancing education needs and taxpayers ability to pay.

Schools Superintendent Steven Adamowski on Tuesday evening labeled that strategy divisive and said the school board now finds itself in a difficult position. He cited school districts that invest more money per student than does Norwalk.

At the end of the day, when our watch is over, it will be more important to future generations that the city be known for the quality of its schools than the size of its fund balance, Adamowski said.

Numerous speakers took aim at Barrons recommendation to draw no more than $2 million from the citys rainy day fund  separate from Rillings commitment of $1.2 million in rainy day funds for special education  to boost the budget without hurting taxpayers.

Bryan Meek, a school board member, rejected Barrons position that a larger drawn-down would harm the citys favorable triple-A credit rating. He labeled such talk a smoke screen and displayed a spreadsheet showing steady growth in the rainy day fund since 2001.

Were at 15 percent of our operating expenses in our reserves, Meek said of the rainy day fund level. Youve got to use this money. Youve got to invest it back in the schools and dont stop at the schools. Do the sidewalks, do senior tax relief, have it all. The city can be great. Use our resources.

School board chairman Michael Barbis said Norwalk schools are part of the city and not a foreign entity.

This is not North Korean versus South Korean. This is Norwalk, Barbis said. I would like to know why we are being punished by the city when we are part of the city.

Barbis said the school board needs a bare minimum of $7 million more to continue progress in education without having to make drastic cuts. He asked the council to boost the expenditures cap on the budget by another $1.5 million.

Kristin Karczmit, budget finance director for Norwalk Public Schools, laid out the districts academic return on investment in numbers.

We are realizing a dramatic return on the citys investment, Karczmit said. This well-thought-out strategic plan is indeed working.

The school board maintains its requested $9.9 million, or 5.4 percent, budget increase is needed for contractual increases related to salaries and health insurance, state mandates, staffing to reduce study hall times and the school districts strategic initiative plan.

The Board of Ed(ucation) is showing accountability  they are closing the achievement gap, said former councilwoman Nora King.

She blamed the citys property assessment system and tax breaks for developers for budgetary pressures.

Stop blaming the Board of Ed and fix these problems, said King, drawing applause.

Barrons recommended base budget would boost the mill rate 1.91 percent and the annual property tax bill on Norwalks median-assessed single-family home ($340,050) by $164. The additional $5.5 million recommended by the finance committee would increase the mill rate by 3.7 percent and the same tax bill by $318.

The expenditures cap will serve as a target when the BET begins a line-by-line review of city and school spending requests and crafts the 2018-19 operating budget. The tax board has scheduled a public hearing for March 21 at Norwalk Concert Hall. It has until May 7 to adopt the new budget and set property tax rates.MARYVILLE -- The Maryville Village Board approved sending one of its police officers to two training conferences.

At the last regular meeting of the full board, Trustees first approved a request to send Maryville Police Sgt. Brandon Ponce to a conference on child abuse.

Ponce will attend the 26th Annual Downstate Conference on Child Abuse in Marion.

The goal of the conference is to provide high-quality and accessible training for law enforcement, prosecutors, mental health professionals, child advocates and other social service workers who see the daily effects of child abuse.

Maryville Police Chief Rob Carpenter said what Ponce learns he will bring back to the department.

Sgt. Ponce is a member of the Southern Illinois Child Death Investigation Task Force, he said. This training fulfills the annual task force training requirement.

The conference presents comprehensive training in every aspect of the issue of child abuse. It includes training in investigation, medical evaluation, mental health assessment and treatment, prosecution and child advocacy.

Trustees authorized an expenditure of expenditure of $93 for a hotel stay. Carpenter said funds will be used from the travel expense fund.

Trustees also approved a request from Carpenter to send Ponce to a firearms instructor course in Lincoln, Ill., in May.

I am requesting to allow Sgt. Ponce to attend a two-day Larry Vickers instructor development course, Carpenter said. Sgt. Ponce is the Maryville Police Department firearms instructor.

The cost of the course plus one nights hotel stay is $750.

Carpenter said Larry Vickers is a U.S. Army Special Operations veteran and an industry leader in terms of firearms and instructor development training.

Many key skills will be obtained attending this course which can be brought back and taught to the officers of the Maryville Police Department, he said.

The expenditure would come from the training fund.

Trustees voted unanimously in favor of sending Ponce to both training sessions.10 hours ago

Biden faces limits of $1.9T COVID aid as some states resist

WASHINGTON (AP)  President Joe Biden entered the White House promising to stop the twin health and economic crises caused by COVID-19, but $1.9 trillion and countless initiatives later hes confronting the limits of what Washington can achieve when some state and local governments are unwilling or unable to step up.

Read ArticleThe following companies are subsidiares of Archer-Daniels-Midland: ADM (Shanghai) Management Co. LTD, ADM (Thailand) Ltd, ADM Ag Holdings Ltd, ADM Agri-Industries Company, ADM Agriculture Limited, ADM Agro Iberica S. L. U., ADM Agro Indust Latur and Vizag Pvt Ltd, ADM Agro Industries India Private Limited, ADM Agro Industries KOTA and AKOLA Pvt. Ltd., ADM Agro SRL, ADM Agroinvestimentos LTDA, ADM Alliance Nutrition of Puerto Rico LLC, ADM Americas S de RL, ADM Andina Peru SRL, ADM Antwerp NV, ADM Arkady Ireland Limited, ADM Asia-Pacific Trading Pte. Ltd., ADM Australia Holdings I PTY Limited, ADM Bio Science And Technology (Tianjin) Co Ltd, ADM Bioproductos SA DE CV, ADM CZERNIN SA, ADM Caribbean Inc, ADM Chile Comercial LTDA, ADM Clinton Bioprocessing Inc, ADM DO Brasil LTDA, ADM Direct Polska SP. 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LTD., Vantage Corn Processors LLC, WILD Amazon Flavors Ltda, WILD Flavors, Wild Flavors Inc., Wild Flavors International GmbH, Wild Flavors Singapore Pte. Ltd., Wild Intermare GmbH, Wild Russia LLC, and Wisium SA (PTY) LTD. American Consumer News, LLC dba MarketBeat 2010-2021. All rights reserved.

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Read MorePhuket rental companies to be fined if found renting to unlicenced drivers

PHUKET: Phuket Provincial Police Deputy Commander Col Sermpan Sirikong has confirmed that vehicle rental operators who allow drivers to rent a vehicle without the required driving licence must be fined B2,000.

accidentscrimetransporttourismdeath

By The Phuket News

Wednesday 28 February 2018, 05:52PM

A growing number of tourists are now renting motorbikes to get around the island. Photo: The Phuket News

Col Sermpan made the announcement yesterday (Feb 27) at a meeting held at Provincial Hall where he, Phuket Governor Norraphat Plodthong, Vice Governor Snith Sriwihok, Phuket Provincial and others discussed vehicle rental operators, especially motorcycle rentals, due to an increasing number of foreigners now using motorbikes as their preferred method of transport when visiting the island.

Col Sermpan told The Phuket News, If any vehicle rental operator allows someone to rent a vehicle without the required driving licence they must be fined B2,000.

I have already informed rental shops on the island of this situation. There will be no exception.

From now on all vehicle rental shops must only rent a vehicle if the person wanting to rent has the correct driving licence. And the vehicle must be legal, he said.

Gov Norraphat added, I have ordered the relevant agencies to be strict on the vehicle rental operators, especially rental motorcycle operators, because nowadays foreign tourists prefer to rent motorcycles to travel.

I have asked to have measures put in place to educate these vehicle rental operators about road laws and regulation, he added.

As the number of tourists who rent vehicles and have accidents has increased, we must be more strict in order to reduce road accidents. Then tourist will be secure to be in Phuket, he said.NEW YORKAmazon.com Inc. has agreed to buy connected-doorbell startup Ring Inc. for about $1 billion (U.S.), a person familiar with the matter said.

The move helps Amazon expand further into the consumer market, including providing security for package deliveries. JPMorgan Chase & Co. advised Ring on the sale, said the person, who asked not to be identified because the matter is private.

Amazon has been pushing for a bigger presence in homes through connected devices such as its Echo smart speaker with the voice-activated assistant named Alexa. Buying Ring gives the e-commerce giant another touch point with customers, said James Cakmak, an analyst at Monness Crespi Hardt & Co.

For this specifically it A) builds connection for further strengthening trust between the brand and consumers, B) increases market for delivery, and in turn, frequency, C) moves company along path to same day/same hour efforts while everyone else is battling the two day war, Cakmak said in an email.

Last year, Amazon introduced Amazon Key, a service that incorporates a smart lock that can open doors for verified delivery drivers to deposit packages directly into a shoppers home. Package thefts from doorsteps have increased in recent years with the spread of online shopping and deliveries.

Ring makes video doorbells and security cameras that connect to users phones or computers, letting them see and speak to anyone on their property from afar. The company, based in Santa Monica, Calif., also sells related products such as security systems and smoke detectors.

Rings home security products and services have delighted customers since day one, an Amazon representative said Tuesday in a joint statement with Ring. Were excited to work with this talented team and help them in their mission to keep homes safe and secure.

A representative for JPMorgan declined to comment.

The acquisition puts Amazon in more direct competition with security-camera makers such as Nest Labs Inc., Honeywell International Inc. and Canary Connect Inc.

Well be able to achieve even more by partnering with an inventive, customer-centric company like Amazon, a representative for Ring said in the joint statement.

The video surveillance industry is seeing a spell of deals. Motorola Solutions Inc. agreed this month to buy commercial security camera and video analytics maker Avigilon Corp. for about $1 billion, including debt.

Read more about:As an author, you sometimes wonder whos reading your books.

This week, courtesy of Google Alerts, I learned that one reader whos apparently warm for my long-form is Timmins arsonist Gerald Caza, 49.

A story published this week in the Timmins Daily Press notes that Caza stole my 2010 book, The Bandido Massacre: A True Story of Bikers, Brotherhood and Betrayal, from the Timmins Public Library, then left it at an arson scene.

Why he stole a book he could have borrowed free from the library intrigued me.

Why he cared about the book at all was also of interest.

He could have taken Fire and Fury by Michael Wolff or Dantes Inferno or Margaret Atwoods poetry collection Morning in the Burned House to make a more obvious statement.

Instead, he chose my non-fiction offering about the 2006 murders of eight men connected to the Bandidos Motorcycle Club near London, Ont. The story has no connection to Timmins  which has no chapters of any outlaw biker club. There are no flames in the title nor on the cover  though there is a bonfire towards the end of the book, if Caza even read to that point. So whats the connection?

I emailed the articles author, Ron Grech, for answers and he quickly replied: It was never spelled out in court but I was left with the impression he dropped the book at the scene as a calling card, the book title itself having a certain degree of menace to it.

He added that perhaps it wasnt just the title that appealed to him.

I didnt include this part in the story, Grech continued, but when Caza was being interviewed by police after his arrest, an officer pulled out the book and noted to Caza that he was seen carrying this item as he entered the building shortly before the fire. Caza remarked to the officer that he had finished reading it.

I wasnt sure whether to be flattered or appalled.

Further investigation showed that Caza has made multiple appearances in the news pages of The Daily Press.

They have all been unsettling. There was a 1999 story which noted Caza was charged with murder and arson with disregard and appeared in court in a torn lumberjack jacket and leg shackles.

He ended up serving more than eight years for manslaughter.

Then there was a 2011 article by Grech headlined, Dressed like a bandit, jailed like one. It describes Caza as walking into a restaurant dressed all in black, with sunglasses, hat, bandana over his nose and mouth.

Just like in the movies, commented judge Ralph Carr, the article notes. Defense lawyer Nancy Cooper tried to explain Cazas attire by saying he covered his face with a bandana because he thinks scarves are too effeminate.

Its part of his fashion, Cooper said.

Assistant Crown attorney Gerrit Verbeek added: Mr. Caza is not too bright if he dresses like that after having a robbery conviction, whether it looks cool or not.

Caza was defiant to the end that day, even after he was sentenced to 45 days in jail and scolded by the judge not to wear a bandana over his face while entering a business establishment.

I dont wear scarves, Caza shot back.

No one is going to force you to wear a scarf, Carr said. Its a free country.

Grech added in his story: However, the judge pointed out that people get uneasy when someone walks into a business dressed like a bandit with a bandana covering the lower part of their face.

It makes people think youre a robber, Carr said.

That brings us to this weeks story by Grech, which describes how Caza set a $30,000 blaze in a two-storey apartment building last summer.

It notes that Caza pleaded guilty in Timmins provincial court on Monday to arson, break and enter to commit an indictable offense, theft and breach of probation.

The theft charge was laid in connection with a book Caza stole from the Timmins Public Library, which he then left on the floor at the scene of the July 1st arson, Grech writes.

The name of the book was The Bandido Massacre.

Caza didnt comment on why he took my book when he tried to explain his actions.

Its drinking that brings me in these courtrooms. I know for a fact, I will have to stay off the booze when I get out.

Caza was sentenced to 5 years in prison this time.

So how much was for the arson and how much was for the theft? asked Star editor Barry Brimbecom.

Im prepared to live with that mystery.OTTAWAThe federal Liberals have proposed a significant boost in grants for science, health and humanities research over the next five years, promising to modernize Ottawas approach to supporting researchers.

The 2018 budget commits $925 million over the next five years for the three main research granting councils, representing a 25-per-cent increase in fundamental research over existing levels by 2021.

In addition, the budget proposed $275 million over the same period for interdisciplinary . . . and higher-risk research, to be administered by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC).

Read more:

Free-spending federal budget contains measures to boost women in the workforce, Indigenous services and science funding

We start with women: 2018 budget unveils new equal-pay law

Opinion | Chantal Hebert: Placeholder budget shows Liberals comfortable running deficit going into next years election

Its the biggest ticket item in the Liberals new push for science and technology development, one of the main themes in Finance Minister Bill Morneaus third budget. Like most other sections of the budget, it also touched on themes of gender equality and diversity.

Budget 2018 represents the single largest investment in fundamental and discovery research in Canadian history, Morneau told the House of Commons Tuesday.

More than that, we will make sure that the new money for research supports the next generation of researchers, so we can build a science community that looks more like Canada: more diverse, with a greater number of women.

The funding will be administered by three arms-length granting councils the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council, the Canadian Institutes of Health Research and the SSHRC.

Were pleasantly surprised, said James Compton, the president of the Canadian Association of University Teachers.

I think its a record amount in a single budget being devoted to basic investigator-led science. Thats a big change, given the last 10 years or so.

The budget also commits $763 million over five years to improve research facilities and labs through the Canada Foundation for Innovation and $572.5 million over the same period to give researchers more access to advanced computing and big-data resources.

Charlotte Kiddell, the national deputy chairperson for the Canadian Federation of Student, also applauded boosted research funding. But she said the budget still did not do enough to remove barriers for people who cant access post secondary education in the first place, particularly for Indigenous students.

(The budget) will help graduate students and faculty members undertake more curiousity-driven research, which this country sorely needs, Kiddell said Tuesday.

However, again, it must be paired with an investment in the core operating costs of universities and the elimination of the upfront barrier of tuition fees to improve access to research and education.

The Liberal budget plan also cuts down on the number of programs giving grants to the private sector, from 92 to roughly 35. That includes bringing regional economic agencies, such as the Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario, under one umbrella.

Read more about:OTTAWAThe federal Liberals will ask a group of advisers, led by Ontarios former health minister, to explore options for a national program to cover the cost of prescription drugs and report back in 2019  ensuring pharmacare becomes a key election campaign issue.

The measure forms a part of a trinity of major drug initiatives in Tuesdays federal budget, the other two being a $231-million package of steps that aims to confront Canadas escalating opioid crisis, including $150 million in emergency funding, and tax changes for cannabis-based pharmaceuticals.

Former Ontario health minister Eric Hoskins will head up an advisory council to come up with options on how to create a national pharmacare program  a program that the parliamentary budget watchdog has warned could cost $19 billion a year.

The work will include consulting with provinces, territories and Indigenous groups about what drugs should be included, and the costs involved for whatever model that we choose, Health Minister Ginette Petitpas Taylor said after the budget speech with Hoskins at her side.

Hoskins wont have to deliver a final report until the spring of 2019, setting the stage for the Liberals to make pharmacare a centrepiece of the partys election campaign and take a key talking point away from NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh.

Following Finance Minister Bill Morneaus speech, Singh seemed unfazed by the prospect, noting that the Liberals were only promising to examine the issue. He even dared the government to steal his partys proposal and implement a national pharmacare plan.

What the government is proposing is not a plan. This is a fantasy, Singh said. We want to introduce a program now.

Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer said Canadians should brace themselves about what might come, because a former Ontario Liberal cabinet minister shouldnt be trusted to craft any kind of plan, never mind one in the health care field.

Read more:

Free-spending federal budget contains measures to boost women in the workforce, Indigenous services and science funding

We start with women: 2018 budget unveils new equal-pay law

Opinion | Chantal Hebert: Placeholder budget shows Liberals comfortable running deficit going into next years election

In the meantime, the Liberals say they wont apply new sales taxes to cannabis-based pharmaceutical products that can be obtained with a prescription.

Nor will taxes be applied to oils that contain low amounts of THC, the primary psychoactive element in marijuana, that are used by children with certain medical conditions.

But those medications represent a minority of those used by patients, according to one group. Canadians for Access to Medical Marijuana also questioned the wording behind a budget promise to consider retroactively reimbursing patients an unspecified amount for taxes already paid on cannabis-based pharmaceuticals.

Exempting a small minority of patients does not address the affordability issue and implies some patients are more legitimate than others. Looking into a reimbursement program implies patients can afford to pay for their medicine in the first instance. They cant, director Jonathan Zaid said in a statement.

The Opposition Conservatives have chided the government for moving too fast on legal pot, suggesting there are outstanding public safety issues that need to be addressed.

The budget outlines $62.5 million over five years beginning this year for public education programs around cannabis use, and a further $20 million over five years for research by the Mental Health Commission of Canada and the Canadian Centre on Substance Use and Addiction.

The Liberals are also spending $80.5 million over five years starting this year to reduce tobacco use, particularly in Indigenous communities, and raising taxes on cigarettes by $1 per carton.

On opioids, provinces and territories will receive $150 million in emergency funding this year to deal with a crisis that is projected to claim more than 4,000 lives this year.

The balance of the $231.4 million will go towards public education campaigns, better access to public health data and new equipment and tools to allow border agents to better detect dangerous opioids like fentanyl before they enter the country.OTTAWA -- Therell be no need for fancy fake lakes at the next G7 summit that Canada hosts in picturesque Charlevoix, Quebec, because this years global gathering will be nestled in rolling hills that border the mighty St-Lawrence River.

But the annual shindig for leaders of the top seven Western economies will still cost a pretty penny.

Canadians will pay nearly $600 million for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to host the G7 summit in June and hold related meetings  money that will be spread over budgets this year and next, and will be spread across a range of departments.

Government officials say the cost actually will cover not just a two-day summit, but also several other meetings Canada will host throughout the year of key G7 ministers responsible for their nations foreign affairs, security, environment and energy, and finances, along with central bank governors.

Overall, the biggest chunk of change will be spent by the RCMP, with nearly $300 million budgeted for the national police forces role  and overtime  in keeping the world leaders secure.

The next biggest spending is by Canadas foreign affairs department, with $100 million of Global Affairs Canadas budget dedicated to pulling off the G7 presidency and shepherding Trudeaus turn to play host.

The public safety department is a close second with planned G7 spending of $99 million.

Beyond that, the budget unveiled Tuesday by Finance Minister Bill Morneau projected other departments spending lesser amounts: National Defence ($35 million); Public Works and Procurement ($34 million); Shared Services Canada ($34 million); Canada Border Services Agency ($1 million); the Canadian Security Intelligence Service ($1 million); the finance department ($2 million); Health Canada ($8 million); Public Health Agency of Canada ($2 million); and Transport Canada ($2 million).

And the budget has set aside another $25 million, as yet unallocated, for other G7 needs.

While the world leaders will meet in Charlevoix, the worlds media will be mostly located far away, in media filing centres in Quebec City.

The last time Canada hosted the global gathering, then-prime minister Stephen Harper held two summits simultaneously: the G8 (which then included Russia, pre-annexation of Crimea) and the G20 in Toronto. It was marred however by violent anti-globalization protests and excessive police security which led to the kettling of more than 1,000 citizens and by a spending scandal that erupted over the Conservatives diversion of border security funds to pay for all kinds of goodies in Tony Clements Muskoka riding  and the likes of fake lakes and gazebos.

Read more about:Canadian businesses are at a growing tax disadvantage vis-a-vis their U.S. counterparts and Tuesdays federal budget did nothing to improve the situation, according to business leaders.

A big worry is what wasnt in the budget  and that is anything to improve Canadas competitiveness relative to the United States on the tax reform front, said Dan Kelly, president, chief executive officer and chair of the Canadian Federation of Independent Business.

We knew they werent going to do anything major there, but we were hoping that they might have started some form of a deduction for capital investments, as has happened in the U.S.

Recent tax cuts in the U.S. have poured billions of dollars into corporate coffers, putting businesses in a position to spend more money on wages, new technology or other capital upgrades.

Across the border, small business owners can deduct up to $1 million (U.S.) in capital or technology improvements in the year they are made, said Kelly. He said Canadian companies can claim only a fraction of that.

As a small-business owner, your U.S. competitor is going to experience a much lighter tax touch than you will, and obviously, if youre trying to compete, especially with the NAFTA uncertainty, that is not a good thing, Kelly said.

John Manley, president and chief executive officer of the Business Council of Canada, also expressed disappointment with Finance Minister Bill Morneaus budget.

I dont think anyone expected the minister to rewrite the tax code overnight, Manley said in a statement.

But this budget all but ignores Canadas serious tax competitiveness challenges, sending an unfortunate signal to entrepreneurs and companies that are looking to invest and grow.

Business leaders were critical of a change that will result in higher taxes for small businesses earning more than $50,000 a year in income from so-called passive investments.

The money is being used right now in one fashion or another. It may be perhaps in a real estate investment; it could be in a stock investment in the firm, so these passive investments are doing some good in the economy, said Kelly, adding that the tax change will cost his constituency $1 billion (Canadian) a year.

The question is, is that $1 billion better in the hands of business owners or in the hands of the federal government? I would argue it is better in the hands of business owners.

Advantages that some businesses can obtain when they pay certain dividends were also curtailed in the budget.

The changes are expected to add $925 million a year to federal tax income by fiscal 2022-23.

We are changing the rules for 3 per cent of private corporations, because the wealthiest Canadians should not be able to use private corporations to pay less tax than the middle class, Morneau said.

Bruce Ball, vice-president of tax for Chartered Professional Accountants Canada, said he was happy that the passive income change was a simpler solution compared with other options.

At the same time, though, we still believe that they should look at taxation of passive income along with a number of other changes as part of a more general tax review, he said.

Retail Council of Canada spokesperson Karl Littler applauded the Liberals decision to allow the Canada Revenue Agency to automatically enrol low-income workers for a tax refund that they previously had to sign up to receive.

I like it from a social policy perspective, and it has some benefit to our members as well because it increases the disposal income of modest-income Canadians, Littler said.

He also praised the governments investment in cybersecurity, which is a concern for retailers.

With files from The Canadian PressOTTAWAThe federal government will pump $50 million into local journalism but industry advocates say it falls short of the infusion needed to help Canadian media transition to a digital future.

As the Star first reported, Tuesdays budget pledged $10 million a year over the next five years  to be handed out by one or more organizations independent of government  to support local journalism in underserved areas.

As well, over the next year, the government will look at new models to enable private giving and philanthropic support for non-profit journalism and local news.

But the governments budget response falls well short of acting on recommendations presented to the government by a parliamentary committee and a detailed report by the Public Policy Forum to address the crisis in Canadian media that has seen newsrooms shuttered.

John Hinds, president and CEO of News Media Canada, an industry association which represents print and digital media, said he was disappointed by the lack of support and said it wont prevent more newspaper closures.

We are concerned that the amount announced is far too little to address the growing challenge of providing local news, Hinds said in a statement.

News Media Canada had proposed remaking the Canadian Periodical Fund into the Canadian Journalism Fund and giving it a new mandate to support local journalism, along with $350 million in funding.

We are concerned that the focus of the funding announcement is on communities that have already lost newspapers and are now underserviced, rather than on supporting existing newspapers and their journalists to allow them to continue to provide local news in their communities, Hinds said.

The annual investment proposed by the government is about the cost of running a single newsroom in a mid-sized community, Hinds said. Having to spread that among many Canadian communities means theres not enough to support local news, he said.

Former journalist and academic Paul Adams said the budget measures seem to signal that the government appears ready to let market forces run their course, even if it means the demise of some outlets.

Theyve decided theyre not interested in saving the newspaper industry . . . theyre going to let it die and theyre putting in place the structures to pick up the pieces, said Adams, a former journalist at CBC News and the Globe and Mail who is now an associate professor at Carleton Universitys School of Journalism.

Theyre looking past the existing industry to establish some kind of policy framework to cope with the day after, Adams said in an interview.

The issue comprised just two paragraphs in the 367-page budget document. And it was silent on remedies endorsed by the industry, such as no longer allowing advertisements bought on foreign-owned websites like Google, Facebook and the New York Times to be tax deductible.

That loophole encourages billions of dollars in ads to flow to foreign internet sites at the expense of Canadian media outlets, said the Friends of Canadian Broadcasting.

Ottawas inaction on this file is pushing Canadian media and journalism closer to the brink. This threatens our civic discourse and with it, our very democracy, said Ian Morrison, spokesperson for the organization.

However, the Canadian Taxpayers Association voiced concern about support that Ottawa did put on the table.

Our position is pretty clear across the board. We just dont support this sort of thing, regardless of the industry, said association president Aaron Wudrick.

He said theres potential that the media outlets that do receive federal funding could be compromised by the financial support.

So if theres any good news here, its that the subsidy is not that substantial. . . . We'll wait and see the details. But in general we oppose corporate welfare, Wudrick said in an interview.

With files from Alex BoutilierOTTAWAThe federal government is pumping more money into its marquee push for Indigenous reconciliation, pledging another $4.8 billion in this years budget on job training, health, childrens services, housing and clean drinking water for Canadas Indigenous people.

The new money will roll out over the next five years and comes after Ottawas Liberal government already earmarked an unprecedented $11.8 billion in long-term spending for First Nations, Metis and Inuit communities in its 2016 and 2017 budgets.

The most important way in which our future needs to be better than our past has to do with the relationship between Canada and Indigenous peoples, Finance Minister Bill Morneau told the House of Commons as he tabled the governments 2018 spending plan Tuesday.

We have a responsibility to do better and to do more.

The biggest chunk of the new money  $2 billion over five years  is slated to fund a revamped Indigenous jobs training program that will focus on helping people find high-quality, well-paying employment instead of prioritizing quick re-entry into the workforce, the budget says. In this way, the government is promising to help 15,000 Indigenous workers find jobs.

Another $1.5 billion will go toward Indigenous health services over the next five years. This includes $498 million to increase access to critical care and establishing 24-hour nursing services in remote communities, as well as $200 million for addictions treatment.

The budget also includes a $1.4 billion infusion of cash for First Nations child and family services, an area where the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal has repeatedly ruled that the federal government is discriminating against Indigenous kids by underfunding services. The new funding is aimed to support single mothers and children in foster care, while also improving services in Indigenous communities so fewer children are removed from their homes and placed in foster care.

More than half the 29,000 kids in private foster care are Indigenous, despite the fact that First Nations, Metis and Inuit children make up less than 8 per cent of kids in Canada, the budget says.

Perry Bellegarde, the national chief of the Assembly of First Nations, said this money means that the federal government has fully implemented its obligations under the orders from the human rights tribunal.

Thats huge for our people, he said, adding that the skills program will result in huge return on investments for the future, given that Indigenous people are the fastest growing segment of the population.

Its moving in the right direction. We see that. But the needs are huge.

Other measures for Indigenous people include another $173 million on top of $1.8 billion already pledged to eliminate all drinking water advisories on reserves by March 2021 and an additional $144 million for the governments ongoing strategy to repair and construct new housing units for Indigenous people.

Another $613 million is earmarked over the next five years to support Indigenous communities in negotiations with Ottawa to reach new treaties and self-determination agreements, as well as support First Nations institutions, administrative capacity and financial management.

Since taking power in 2015, Justin Trudeaus Liberal government has placed reconciliation between Ottawa and Canadas Indigenous people in the upper rung of its priorities. Last summer, the government dissolved the department of Indigenous and Northern Affairs and replaced it with two new entities: Indigenous Services and Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs.

It has also emphasized a devolution of authority for health, education and other services to Indigenous communities, and Trudeau recently announced the start of consultations to create a new framework to ensure that Ottawa recognizes the constitutional and treaty rights of Indigenous people.OTTAWACivil service unions vowed Wednesday to hold the Trudeau governments feet to the fire after the Liberals pledged in their latest budget to replace the troubled Phoenix pay system with a next-generation compensation system that works.

Federal employees rallied in at least a dozen cities across the country to mark the second anniversary of the disastrous launch of Phoenix.

Finance Minister Bill Morneau introduced a federal budget that included plans to spend $16 million over two years exploring options for building a new pay system while eventually scrapping the IBM-built Phoenix program.

The system is clearly not delivering as it was supposed to, Morneau said Wednesday in a post-budget event at the Economic Club of Ottawa.

What weve said over the long term is that we need to find a new approach  a new approach that works.

While many workers said they were encouraged that the pay system will be replaced, their unions were determined not to let their guard down until the government delivers on its pledge.

I see this as a glimmer of hope in a long two years of constant stress and financial worry for our members, said Debi Daviau, president of the Professional Institute of the Public Service of Canada, at a rally in Ottawa.

We need a pay system that works, and we have the people to build it, Daviau said, pointing to the governments benefit distribution system, the NetFile tax filing system and border control systems as prime examples of what her members can do.

These are the same professionals who designed and built virtually every important computer system that the government relies on.

Read more:

Trudeau government commits to move away from Phoenix pay system, look for replacement

Phoenix pay issues leading federal workers to give up promotions, parental leave, union says

Government workers trying to report Phoenix overpayments met with busy signals

The Phoenix pay system has been a nightmare for tens of thousands of civil servants since it was formally launched two years ago.

Fixing the problem, which has left many government employees underpaid, overpaid or not paid at all, is expected to cost upwards of at least $1 billion, with estimates that the final tally could go much higher.

Tuesdays federal budget also provided indications that it could take more than two years to develop, test and ultimately launch a new pay system.

The Public Service Alliance of Canada, which organized the rallies, said its still concerned that the Trudeau government didnt provide an exemption to ensure that employees who were overpaid dont have to return the gross total of those overpayments.

PSAC said its members complied with government instructions to report overpayments by mid-January or risk having to pay back more money than was deposited into their bank accounts. But thousands of civil servants could still be forced to pay back the gross overpayment amounts because of the governments inability to process their reports, the union said.

Too little, too late. Thats what I think about the budget, said PSAC president Robyn Benson.

The government has agreed to consider changing tax laws for the 2018 tax year to allow public servants who were overpaid to repay the net amount, rather than the gross amount.

The budget allocates an additional $431 million over six years to address problems created by Phoenix, plus the $16 million to begin the process of finding a replacement, on top of the $460 million already committed to both implement the pay system and resolve subsequent problems.

And the Canada Revenue Agency will get $5.5 million to conduct income tax reassessments for individuals affected by Phoenix.

But the costs are likely to escalate under a government pledge to also work with the unions on compensating employees for mental and emotional stress caused by the Phoenix foul-ups.

The opposition New Democrats had introduced a motion calling on the government to both compensate and apologize to civil servants, but that motion was defeated Wednesday in the Commons by a margin of 159-135.

When it was approved in 2015 by the previous Conservative government, officials said the Phoenix pay system would save taxpayers about $70 million annually by streamlining and consolidating pay systems across dozens of departments and agencies.

Read more about:OTTAWAJustin Trudeau doubled down Wednesday on his support for a senior government official who suggested factions in the Indian government sabotaged the prime ministers trip to India last week  despite a flat denial from Indias external affairs ministry which labelled the theory baseless and unacceptable.

Trudeaus insistence that the official  revealed by the Conservatives to be the prime ministers national security adviser, Daniel Jean  is a member of the professional, non-partisan public service whose advice should be respected and believed, prompted howls of outrage from opposition parties.

They accused Trudeau of provoking a diplomatic crisis with India in a desperate bid to deflect blame for his trouble-plagued eight-day tour of the country, which hit bottom with the revelation that a convicted attempted murderer and one-time Sikh separatist extremist had been invited to two events with the prime minister.

Read more:

Opinion | Rick Salutin: It was India, maybe they thought no one would notice

Trudeau stands by official who suggested Indian factions sabotaged trip

Who is Jaspal Atwal? Man at centre of controversy over Trudeaus India trip remains a political mystery

There has never been a government, Liberal or Conservative, who has used a national security official to clean up an embarrassing mess that was self-inflicted by this prime minister, Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer told the House of Commons.

NDP foreign affairs critic Helene Laverdiere said Trudeau has managed to make a botched trip even worse by supporting the sabotage theory.

Is the prime minister trying to create an international diplomatic crisis? she asked.

Jaspal Atwal  a B.C. Sikh convicted of trying to kill an Indian cabinet minister in 1986  attended a reception in Mumbai, where he was photographed with Trudeaus wife. An invitation to a later reception in New Delhi was rescinded as soon as news broke that Atwal was on the guest list.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says B.C. MP Randeep Sarai is taking full responsibility for inviting Jaspal Atwal to receptions in Delhi, India. Atwal was convicted of trying to assassinate an Indian cabinet minister in 1986. (The Canadian Press)

In a background briefing arranged by the Prime Ministers Office in the midst of the furor over the invitations, Jean suggested Atwals presence was arranged by factions within the Indian government who want to prevent Prime Minister Narendra Modi from getting too cosy with a foreign government they believe is not committed to a united India.

An official spokesperson for the Indian ministry repudiated that theory Wednesday.

Let me categorically state that the government of India, including the security agencies, had nothing to do with the presence of Jaspal Atwal at the event hosted by the Canadian high commissioner in Mumbai or the invitation issued to him for the Canadian high commissioners reception in New Delhi, Raveesh Kumar said in a brief statement posted on the ministry website.

Any suggestion to the contrary is baseless and unacceptable.

But Trudeau did not back down on his support for Jean, whom he described as a distinguished public servant whos served governments, regardless of their political stripe, for over 35 years. Indeed, he said the previous Conservative government so valued Mr. Jeans service that it chose him to represent Canada in a speech to the United Nations.

Unlike the Conservatives, whom he accused of politicizing the public service at every opportunity, Trudeau asserted that his Liberal government respects and appreciates the work done by professional, non-partisan public servants, particularly those in the national security and information areas.

When they make recommendations or when they make statements to Canadians or to this government, we on this side of the House choose to believe them, he told the Commons. On that (Conservative) side of the House, who knows?

Scheer questioned how Trudeau can simultaneously blame rogue elements in the Indian government for Atwals presence on the trip as well as British Columbia Liberal MP Randeep Sarai, who has taken responsibility for inviting Atwal and apologized for his lack of judgment. Trudeau accepted late Tuesday Sarais resignation as chair of the Liberals B.C. caucus.

Is the prime minister actually saying that (Sarai) has taken sole responsibility for a scheme concocted by the Indian government? ... How can they both be true? Scheer asked.

Conservative MP Deepak Obhrai, a former parliamentary secretary to the minister of foreign affairs who travelled to India twice with former prime minister Stephen Harper, called the Liberals suggestion that someone in the Indian government was behind Atwals attendance nonsense.

Who was responsible for taking the picture with his wife? Who was responsible for taking the picture with (Liberal Infrastructure Minister Amarjeet) Sohi? Who was responsible for sending out that invitation? Are you telling me that the government of India was? No, Obhrai said.

Atwal, a one-time member of a Sikh separatist group that is banned in Canada and India as a terrorist organization, 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.

The Conservatives chose Alberta MP Jim Eglinski to lead off their questions during Wednesdays question period. Eglinski, a former RCMP officer, revealed he was one of the first police officers on the scene after Sidhu was shot.

I helped him and his wife into the ambulance. Its a day Ill never forget, Eglinski said.

The victims of terrorism, they have names, they have faces and they have families. To the prime minister, why would he ever meet with Jaspal Atwal?

With files from Mike Blanchfield

Read more about:The police officer charged in the off-duty beating of Black teen Dafonte Miller is accused of telling Durham police officers an account of the confrontation which was not accurate, according to newly released Toronto police disciplinary documents.

Const. Michael Theriault made his first appearance before the Toronto police misconduct tribunal Tuesday, facing one count of discreditable conduct stemming from his alleged attack on Miller, then 19, on a residential Whitby street in December 2016.

Accompanied by his lawyer, wearing a dark suit with his hands clasped behind his back, Theriault told hearing officer Acting Supt. Richard Hegedus that he understood that he was facing a charge under Ontarios Police Services Act. He did not enter a plea.

According to a document outlining the allegations, Theriaults alleged attack on Miller and subsequent criminal charges  including aggravated assault and assault with a weapon  amount to misconduct in that you did act in a disorderly manner . . . likely to bring discredit upon the reputation of the Toronto Police Service.

The document alleges that after Theriault struck Miller with a weapon and caused serious injury, Theriault provided Durham Regional Police officers who arrived on scene with an account of the confrontation . . . which was not accurate. No further detail about Theriaults version of events is provided.

Read more:

Star launches legal challenge to end secrecy in Ontario tribunals

Opinion | Editorial: End this needless secrecy

Theriault is also facing a criminal charge of public mischief for allegedly attempting to mislead a peace officer into entering upon or continuing an investigation, according to court documents. Those documents, however, did not state explicitly that the brothers were alleged to have misled Durham police, though the date of the alleged public mischief  Dec. 28, 2016  suggested it was the officers responding to the call.

None of the allegations have been proven at the tribunal or in court.

A preliminary inquiry began in Oshawa last week into the criminal charges against Theriault and his younger brother, Christian, who is also accused of aggravated assault, assault with a weapon and public mischief stemming from the alleged attack.

Evidence heard at the preliminary hearing is covered by a court-ordered publication ban.

The Toronto police tribunal document provides a rough sketch of what was previously alleged in a court documents and detailed in a complaint filed to the Office of the Independent Police Review Director by Millers lawyer, Julian Falconer, last summer.

In Falconers document, its alleged that Const. Theriault struck Miller with a metal pipe no fewer than 10 times, but that when Durham police arrived on scene both brothers reported that Miller had struck them repeatedly with the pipe.

Demonstrators protested outside an Oshawa courthouse where a pre-trial hearing was being held for a Toronto police officer and his brother who are charged in assaulting Dafonte Miller. The brothers, Const. Michael Theriault and Christian Theriault, did not appear in person at the on Sept. 7 hearing. (Wendy Gillis/Toronto Star)

The complaint went on to allege there was a deliberate and intentional effort by police to conceal a crime by one of their own. The complaint alleged that the brothers father, John Theriault  a Toronto police officer himself, who was working within Toronto polices professional standards unit at the time  made attempts to conceal his sons alleged crimes.

Toronto police Chief Mark Saunders has denied allegations of a coverup.

On the day of the incident, Durham police initially charged Miller with assault with a weapon, theft under $5,000 and possession of a small amount of marijuana. The charges were later withdrawn by the Crown.

The Theriault brothers were not charged until July 2017, and only after Falconer contacted the Special Investigations Unit (SIU), Ontarios civilian police watchdog, initiating a criminal investigation. In the wake of the alleged beating, neither Toronto nor Durham police had contacted the watchdog.

Saunders has since called in the Waterloo Police Service to conduct an internal probe of the incident. Durham police Chief Paul Martin announced a new policy last fall intended to ensure that the SIU is contacted after serious injuries involving a police officer that happen in Durham, regardless of whether the officer was from his force or off duty at the time.

Theriaults professional misconduct hearing has been put off until the criminal proceedings are complete. The preliminary hearing continues in May.

With Star files Wendy Gillis can be reached at wgillis@thestar.ca

Read more about:As Toronto police continue their probe into alleged serial killer Bruce McArthur, members of the citys LGBTQ and South Asian communities are stressing the importance of an independent investigation into how the force handles missing persons cases  even after the service agreed to release the results of its ongoing internal probe.

Saying it cant trust the police to police itself, the Alliance for South Asian AIDS Prevention (ASAAP) says its vital that there be an independent review.

Citing past probes, including that conducted by retired Supreme Court justice Frank Iacobucci into fatal police encounters with people in crisis, ASAAP board member Shakir Rahim said Toronto police and its board have previously called for third-party probes examining problems affecting certain groups.

Read more:

Opinion | Keenan: What is Chief Saunders thinking, adding insult to gay communitys injury?

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The LGBTQ, South Asian and Middle Eastern communities should be treated no differently, Rahim said. In a January bulletin calling for change in the wake of McArthurs arrest, the group said a review of police handling of missing persons cases tied to the citys Gay Village should consider whether the race or perceived sexuality of the missing men affected the resources and quality of the investigation.

Our position is that we need impartial, third-party oversight, Rahim said in an interview.

Rahim and his group were among those who pushed back Tuesday at comments made by police Chief Mark Saunders in an interview published in the Globe and Mail, in which the chief was quoted as suggesting that the alleged killer might have been arrested sooner if civilians had come forward to police with vital information.

The comments prompted criticism that the police chief was blaming the victims in the case  something Mayor John Tory denied on Saunders behalf Tuesday.

I just want to make it very clear, as mayor, that there is no one who is suggesting any blame belongs on victims of horrific crimes, that we are all grieving as a city with the LGBTQ and Church-Wellesley community generally, Tory told reporters at an event in Scarborough.

In a studio interview with CP24 on Tuesday evening, Saunders said that he doesnt blame the LGBTQ community for not assisting police, and that his comments referred to a lack of response to a wide variety of investigations.

I dont think theres anything I said about civilian fail, community fail, or victim-blaming, Saunders said in reference to the interview.

If his comments to the Globe and Mails editorial board were misconstrued or taken in the wrong context, then I definitely apologize for that he said.

In the CP24 appearance, Saunders stopped short of endorsing an independent review of how Toronto police handle missing persons cases, but said: I would support anything that enhances the trust and accountability factor of our organization. I want to make sure, on the walk forward, that we get it right.

Councillor Chin Lee, acting chair of the Toronto Police Services Board, had defended Saunders on Tuesday, saying the chiefs comments may have been taken out of context.

Both Tory and Lee cited the ongoing internal review of missing persons cases as evidence the service is working to rebuild trust with the affected communities. At its monthly meeting last week, the police board passed a motion brought forward by Tory requiring that Saunders make the results of that internal review public.

The board will then establish a process whereby community feedback can be received on the internal review and on the broader matter of missing persons investigations, the motion stated.

Asked if the board would consider conducting a third-party review, Lee said the board would likely wait for the results of the internal report before deciding on next steps.

Saunders was not able to provide a timeline for the review, but said it would be completed as quickly as possible.

I do want to make it clear for the record that I do want to take an approach to expedite the findings as soon as possible, Saunders told the board.

McArthur, 66, is facing six counts of first-degree murder in an alleged killing spree police believe began in 2010 and continued until June of last year. Almost all of McArthurs alleged victims went missing from the area around the Church-Wellesley Village, where residents and community members had long-held concerns that the disappearances could be linked.

McArthurs arrest has prompted questions from the LGBTQ community on the police handling of missing persons cases. Two of the men McArthur is accused of killing  Majeed Kayhan and Skandaraj (Skanda) Navaratnam  were the subjects of a specialized police project known as Project Houston, which examined the disappearances of three brown-skinned, middle-aged men from the Village between 2010 and 2012 (McArthur is not charged in relation to the disappearance of the third man, Abdulbasir Faizi).

That project began in November 2012 but ended 18 months later without any arrests, with police saying the probe returned no criminal evidence.

With files from David Rider Wendy Gillis can be reached at wgillis@thestar.ca.

Read more about:A Toronto police officer has been charged with careless use of a firearm after he allegedly shot at a man but missed, striking a construction shed.

In a news release Wednesday, Toronto police announced the charge against Const. Jason Levesque, an officer with 11 years with the service who is currently assigned to downtowns 51 Division.

According to police, Levesque was working with his partner on the evening of Nov. 15, 2017 when they were called to investigate an alarm at Queens Quay E. and Yonge St.

The officers were told two men were in a nearby construction site. When they arrived, the officers went on the site to conduct a search, according to the police summary. During that search, Levesque allegedly fired his gun at a man, but hit a construction shed.

The charge against Levesque came as a result of an internal investigation by the Toronto police professional standards unit.

He is due in court on April 4.

Wendy Gillis can be reached at wgillis@thestar.caJust north of the intersection where 11-year-old Duncan Xu was struck and killed by a vehicle, a modest memorial was nestled on the grass, with bouquets of flowers surrounding a large bag of chips, a blue teddy bear and a bottle of Coca-Cola.

R.I.P. read a sign, framed with blue construction paper.

Xu, a student at Kennedy Public School in Scarborough, was on his way home from school at around 3:30 p.m. Tuesday when he was struck at Canongate Tr. and Purcell Sq., near Kennedy Rd. and Steeles Ave. E.

A permanent memorial is in the works, school principal Frank Liu said.

We want to honour his memory and legacy, he was a kid who was taken far too early, Liu said. Duncan was an avid reader, his teachers last memory of him leaving school yesterday, he was laughing.

Xu was rushed to hospital in critical condition, but later died from his injuries. The driver of the vehicle remained on scene after the incident. No charges have been laid.

There have been 10 pedestrian deaths in Toronto this year  with six in Scarborough, including two children.

The Canadian flag at the school, only a block away from where Xu was struck, was at half-mast Wednesday.

The loss of a boy who Liu said was always smiling brought on a day of shock, sadness and grief. Social workers were at the school to provide support and counselling services to staff and students.

This wonderful little 11-year-old boy, hes not in here anymore, and wont come back, Liu said.

Mayor John Tory said he was angry about the incident.

Whatever it is were doing, its still not enough, and weve got to determine other things we can do to improve the level of safety for pedestrians, he said at an unrelated news conference.

Tory said improving road safety starts with people driving cars and trucks.

People should not categorize this in any way as anti-car or anti-truck, cars and trucks need to be a part of the citys life, but people need to pay more attention to safety, Tory said. They are surrounded by one or two tons of steel.

At the school, several measures are in place to make the area safe for students, all of whom walk to school or are dropped off by car.

There is a Kiss N Ride monitored by teachers, a crossing guard at the end of the road, and a sign notifying drivers that the schools street only allows one-way traffic during drop-off and pick-up times.

The intersection where Xu was hit is a four-way stop, with three streets leading into residential areas. Going east, drivers hit the busy Kennedy Rd.

Liu said that non-residents sometimes use Elmsfield Cres., where the school is, as a shortcut.

I think were getting some thorough traffic, not necessarily residents, cutting through this neighbourhood to avoid a left-hand turn at Kennedy and Steeles during rush hours.

Kasia Briegmann-Samson, a spokesperson for Friends and Families for Safe Streets, an organization working to end traffic collisions, called on citizens to seriously reflect on road safety in Toronto.

I think we need to examine our priorities, Briegmann-Samson said. We've put driving convenience above safety and human decency, and the result is Toronto has a shameful road safety track record.

With files from Ben Spurr

Read more about:Rookie candidate Caroline Mulroney has raised more than $700,000 in her bid to succeed Patrick Brown as Progressive Conservative leader, according to an internal campaign memo.

While most Tory insiders agree former MPP Christine Elliott is leading the March 10 contest followed by ex-Toronto city councillor Doug Ford, Mulroneys camp believes she is closing in.

This is a true three-way race  our riding-by-riding voter modelling shows that Caroline is registering close to 35 per cent of first ballot support, says the confidential missive by Mulroney campaign guru Derek Vanstone, a prominent federal and provincial Conservative operative.

Caroline is the leading second-ballot choice for an overwhelming number of Elliott and Ford voters, noted Vanstone in his three-page letter to Mulroney endorsers penned Tuesday, the day after Brown abandoned his leadership bid.

Read more:

Your 4 Ontario PC leadership candidates: A Ford, a Mulroney, an unknown and the favourite

Vic Fedeli says its time to move on from Patrick Brown debacle

Patrick Brown quits Ontario PC leadership race

While you can use this information to inform your calls with your local supporters and in our outreach to Patrick Brown supporters, please do not share copies of this memo, he added.

We have now raised more than $700,000 from more than 2,000 donors.

That is believed to be the most of any candidate. Fundraising tallies from the others were not immediately available Wednesday.

Mulroney, the businesswoman daughter of former prime minister Brian Mulroney and a first-time candidate in York-Simcoe, is stepping up her pitch as leadership hopefuls debate Wednesday night in Ottawa.

Online voting begins Friday and concludes on March 8 with the winner announced March 10 at a party convention in Markham.

Caroline Mulroney says she talked to her mother before entering the Ontario Progressive Conservative leadership race. The daughter of former prime minister Brian Mulroney sought advice on the impact of political life on a family. (The Canadian Press)

The people of Ontario want change, and Caroline is the best leader positioned to do that, wrote Vanstone.

She has a clean record and carries no baggage. Her growth over the last three weeks has been tremendous, and she is getting stronger every day. Even the media are reporting on her growth as a candidate and in her ability to deliver a message.

The political newcomer generated headlines last week when she urged Brown  who resigned on Jan. 25 amid allegations of sexual impropriety  to quit the race for his old job.

But her campaign concedes the bilingual mother of four is probably not the front-runner.

This is a three-way race. One where it is a close race between first and third. However, this race is really coming down to two choices, Caroline or Elliott. Only one of the two of them (can) reach the 50 per cent required to win the race, wrote Vanstone.

We believe that Elliotts support is less committed. Some are viewing her as the default choice; but a reluctance to engage on any of the issues in this election is slowly draining that support, the campaign czar said.

Ford has strong support and is likely to benefit from the second-choice support of the Granic voters, he said, referring to social conservative activist Tanya Granic Allen, who is seen as a long shot.

But we also know there is no scenario where he can hit 50 per cent of the vote. Very few Brown supporters have gone to the Ford camp and his ability to grow is very limited. The only two candidates who have a large enough potential vote pool to win this race are Caroline and Elliott.

Vanstone pointed out that Carolines second-ballot support goes overwhelmingly to Elliott, just as Elliotts second-ballot support goes overwhelmingly to Caroline.

Our goal is to finish ahead of Christine Elliott on the first ballot. If we can achieve that then our likelihood of winning is very high. Given a choice between Caroline or Ford, the Elliott vote breaks overwhelmingly our way.

But there is pressure on the first-time political candidate as she takes the stage in Ottawa on Wednesday night against seasoned veterans Elliott and Ford and the energetic Granic Allen.

She needs to perform well at the debate, acknowledged Vanstone.

With an election set for June 7, Premier Kathleen Wynnes Liberals are closely watching the Conservative race.

While they would have preferred to run against a party led by the wounded Brown  who now sits as an Independent MPP and is vowing to clear his name  they are relishing the chance to take on Ford, the bombastic older brother of the late former crack-smoking Toronto mayor Rob Ford.

There is less enthusiasm in the Liberal ranks to face off against Elliott or Mulroney, though the governing party sees weaknesses in both candidates.

Speaking on condition of anonymity in order to discuss strategy, one senior Liberal pointed out that Elliott has badly lost the PC leadership twice before  including to Brown in 2015  so she has hardly an invincible political force.

And they believe Mulroneys lack of experience, the fact she is a dual Canadian-American citizen, and the potentially polarizing presence of her father could help their re-election chances in June.

About Caroline Mulroney

Read more about:Emmanuel Macrons vision for Europe is unbound by borders, traditions and cultures. But his push to remake the political order is on a collision course with reality.

The 40-year-old president, who won in France with a movement he built from scratch within a year, is planting the seeds of a post-party political system in the European Union. With the EU holding parliamentary elections next year, Macron sees an opportunity to usher in a new era of pan-European governance and disrupt the traditional political parties by tapping into his maverick roots.

Macron, often compared to the 19th-century conqueror Napoleon Bonaparte, is making his move as Europes strongest nations consider paths of further integration and as a broad economic upswing lends them political momentum. But within the EUs corridors of power, Macrons strategy is viewed with skepticism, with no clear plan to navigate the continents sometimes hostile patchwork of political systems.

Read more:

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Macron ramps up expulsions, ID checks as France struggles to deal with migrants

The head of his European Task Force  the tiny group in charge of the strategy within Macrons Republic on the Move party  said in an interview that the political restructuring has already started.

Political groups are divided over what they want for, and from, Europe, Pieyre-Alexandre Anglade, 31, said while travelling on the train between Paris and Brussels, where he lives and does lobbying work. Our ambition is to set foot in several countries and create a European-level ambition for a reforming agenda.

Macron has launched a 15-month campaign to build support before elections to the European Parliament in May 2019. This is a key pillar to bolster his plan to make Europe work for voters and to stem the anti-EU populists who brought about Brexit and want the bloc to fail. While he isnt seeking to recreate his party in other countries, Macron is searching for allies and supporters to spark a grassroots movement.

Macron will seek to discuss his idea of pan-European politics with other EU leaders at a summit on Friday in Brussels that will include German Chancellor Angela Merkel, whose domestic party belongs to Europes Christian Democrats, and Italian Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni, who caucuses with the Socialists. But neither the Christian Democrats nor the Socialists  the two largest blocs in the EU parliament  are willing to change a system that underpins their power.

In fact, earlier this month the EU Parliament distanced itself from the Macron-backed idea of having the empty legislative seats created by Brexit set aside for pan-European lawmakers, a move that would have given his plan a significant boost.

Structural hurdles notwithstanding, Macron is the first French president to take an interest in the 28-nation Parliament and to seek to tap the potential of the EU machine for his own political purpose. And while his infantry is working the base, hes pushing leaders to join his drive for reform.

Macron is focusing his efforts on Poland, Greece, Ireland, Slovakia and the Baltics, according to Anglade, adding that Italy, Luxembourg, Belgium and Spain have been historic French allies, while it has been more difficult making inroads with Germany, the Netherlands and Hungary. Contacts are made either by Macron himself, Anglade or the party chief, Christophe Castaner.

In January, Macron convinced Spain, Greece, Portugal, Malta and Cyprus to sign on to his ideas on a closer European monetary union. These proposals track closely with a September speech he made at the Sorbonne in Paris, where he argued for closer European co-operation on defence, migration and climate change policies, with the aim of laying the foundations for more financial integration within the euro area.

Macrons party is also planning a march across Europe with members of his political party, expected to last for more than a month. While traversing 25 member states  the Netherlands and Hungary may not participate  theyll aim to raise awareness for his group and plant the seed of impending change.

But EU watchers and politicians take the Macron plan with a big pinch of salt and have expressed doubts as to whether he can accomplish his maverick trick in Europe like he did in France: To blow up the traditional party system and jump start an era of pan-European politics.

He may want the end of the conservatives and other big political parties, but those parties have very, very strong alliances and they have no interest whatsoever to follow a Macron, however seducing his ideas may be, said Florian Willermain, a political scientist at the Egmont Royal Institute for International Relations in Brussels. On top of the Europe hurdles, he will have a country-by-country battle. I am eager to see what hell do.

Read more about:WASHINGTONMore than a year after U.S. President Donald Trump abruptly pulled out of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), saying it was a bad deal for the United States, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said on Tuesday that the United States is discussing rejoining the multilateral trade agreement.

Mnuchin, speaking at an investment summit meeting sponsored by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, said that renegotiating the trade agreement was on the table and that he had been in talks with other countries about what it would take for the United States to reverse course.

Trump withdrew from the deal in January 2017, dooming former president Barack Obamas signature trade agreement and leaving the 11 other countries in the pact scrambling to renegotiate the deal on their own. But Trump appears to have found a renewed interest in an agreement that he once described as a rape of our country.

Read more:

Trump signs executive order withdrawing U.S. from TPP

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Five things to know about the Trans-Pacific Partnership

Ive met with several of my counterparties and other people, and weve begun to have very high-level conversations about TPP, Mnuchin said, adding that Trump would still prefer to do one-on-one trade agreements first. Its not a priority at the moment, but it is something the president will consider.

Trump opened the door to taking another look at the agreement in January at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, leading to speculation about whether he was upending his America First trade policy.

If we did a substantially better deal, I would be open to TPP, Trump said during an interview with CNBC.

On Tuesday, Mnuchin said that those comments were quite significant and that they yielded positive reactions around the world.

Many business leaders were disappointed when Trump withdrew from the agreement, arguing that the United States would end up with less favourable terms attempting to broker an array of individual trade pacts and that scrapping the deal would empower China. Republicans in Congress have also been skeptical of Trumps tendencies on trade, and last week 25 Republican senators sent a letter to Trump urging him to re-engage with the pact so that the American people can prosper from the tremendous opportunities that these trading partners bring.

Even if Trump is serious about trying to renegotiate the deal, doing so would be difficult at this point. The remaining 11 countries spent months renegotiating a pact and finally agreed to a sweeping multinational deal this year.

President Michelle Bachelet of Chile told the Nikkei newspaper this week that the United States would be welcome to return to the deal but that it would have to accept the terms of the agreement that the 11 other nations expect to ratify. And Kazuyoshi Umemoto, Japans chief negotiator on the deal, told Reuters this month that renegotiating the agreement would be difficult given that it took months of intensive talks to revise the pact after Trump pulled out.

Scott S. Lincicome, a trade expert at the libertarian Cato Institute, said the deals proponents should not get their hopes up that the United States will rejoin anytime soon. He noted that other countries are probably wary of what they have seen of the renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement and that the United States would have to accede to the demands of the other countries to return.

Trump has also made many threats and promises on trade that he has yet to fulfil.

The president says a lot of things, and the seriousness of those things varies dramatically, Lincicome said. Experienced trade watchers have taken an essentially believe it when we see it attitude.

Read more about:Eight Conservative Party lawmakers have backed an amendment calling for the U.K. to keep close ties to the European Union after it leaves, an attempt to reverse Theresa Mays Brexit policy that could threaten her political survival.

The size of the rebellion is potentially enough to wipe out Mays slim working majority in the House of Commons. The lawmakers want to keep the U.K. in a customs union after Brexit and their number has risen in recent days since the amendment was first published. More could still add their names.

The government relies on a majority of 13 including the 10 lawmakers of Northern Irelands Democratic Unionist Party. If May were to lose the vote  for which no date has yet been set  on a central plank of her legislative program, it could set off a train of events that could topple her government, or at least force a rewrite of her policy.

Read more:

Opinion | Tony Burman: Why Britain is pondering an exit from Brexit

U.K. PM Theresa May to shuffle cabinet as Brexit negotiations enter new phase

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The latest trouble for May comes as the European Unions chief negotiator delivered some stern words for Mays negotiating stance in Brussels. Time is running out for differences to be bridged on the transition deal that businesses are desperate to pin down. Shes also under pressure to make clear exactly what kind of future trading relationship she wants with Europe  and what shes prepared to sacrifice to get it.

A customs union is a distant second-best to staying in the single market for business, but would smooth trade with Europe and keep commerce tariff-free. May rejects it as hardline Brexit backers in her government are keen to strike new trade deals around the world, which wouldnt be possible if the U.K. stays in a customs bloc.

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn declared his support for a customs union this week, arguing its the best way to protect jobs and living standards, and the amendment already has the backing of several Labour lawmakers.

But with a majority so small, every vote matters for the government, and some Labour lawmakers who back Brexit would support May. In the last tight vote, there were two Labour rebels. At least one more Labour member is also on record opposing a customs union.

But more Tories are likely to sign the rebel amendment, including former Attorney General Dominic Grieve, who led a successful rebellion at the end of last year. A widely respected establishment figure, his signature could bring others on board.

The amendment to the Trade Bill calls on the government to take all necessary steps to implement an international trade agreement which enables the U.K. to participate after exit day in a customs union with the EU. It is hard to see how a negotiating position could be written into law, or the government bound by this vote, but supporters of the amendment see it as an opportunity to show that there is parliamentary backing for a customs union.

If theyre right, May could find herself stuck between the the Parliamentary majority for close ties to the EU and the significant number of lawmakers in her own party  at least 60  who want maximum distance. Which is why former Tory leader William Hague had warned Tory rebels earlier in the day against threatening the very existence of a Tory government. Writing in the Daily Telegraph, he urged them against setting off a chain of events that would never be forgiven. Corbyn is a socialist who wants to re-write the rules of business and crank up taxes.

The government has put the vote off, refusing to say when the Trade Bill will return to Parliament.

Earlier, in a speech at Bloombergs European headquarters, International Trade Secretary Liam Fox said he hoped to persuade Tory rebels to change their minds. The pound fell. May is giving a landmark Brexit speech on Friday, which will be watched for overtures to the rebels.

I hope that we will be able to persuade our colleagues as the prime minister sets out the case, Fox said answering questions in London. The approach that the prime minister has set out will actually lead to the greater prosperity and security of the people of this country.

He added: And I hope that they will understand that the drawbacks of the customs union that I set out today would remarkably hinder this country in terms of the future economic opportunities that might otherwise be available.

Read more about:LONDONMuch of Europe woke up to yet another day of a cold spell on Wednesday that may have turned the streets of London, Rome and other capitals into pretty photo scenes but also has cost lives across the continent. Neither London nor Rome usually experience temperatures dropping below freezing during winters.

Europeans seeking to escape the blast of icy air dubbed the Beast from the East to warmer places may want to think about heading north rather than south. As Europe is buried under snow, the Arctic is witnessing one of its warmest winters ever. In fact, parts of the Arctic Circle have been warmer than much of Europe over the past few days.

On Sunday, for example, the temperature in Britain fell to -5 C, while northern Greenland was at 6 C. On Wednesday, temperatures in Polands capital Warsaw reached just -7 C at a time when the town of Sisimiut, to the north of the Arctic Circle in Greenland, still was over -6 C. And while temperatures there are expected to rise to almost 4 C on Thursday, theyll drop to -4 C in Berlin.

Its never been this warm. Its really, really unprecedented, I would say, Ruth Mottram, a climate scientist for the Danish Meteorological Institute, told German broadcaster DW.

While occasional warm winters in the Arctic have been observed since 1896, climate change scientists say that the current string of warm Arctic winters is part of a disturbing new pattern that could be linked to colder European temperatures.

These (winter warming) events are not unusual, but they are happening more frequently and with longer durations, said Robert Graham, a climate scientist at the Norwegian Polar Institute in Tromso, Norway, according to the American Geophysical Union (AGU).

Graham and other scientists recently teamed up for a study on the phenomenon and found that storms may be responsible for the unusual frequency of warming events. In the most recent years of the study, each warming event was associated with a major storm entering the region. During these storms, strong winds from the south blow warm, moist air from the Atlantic into the Arctic, said an AGU summary of Grahams findings. Even though the exact mechanisms that are driving the proliferation of storms are still unknown, the researchers believe that climate change is likely to be blamed.

Storms that make temperatures rise in the Arctic can have the opposite impact in Europe, as they weaken the low-pressure zone known as polar vortex that usually keeps the icy air in the Arctic. Their impact can be felt in both places.

While mayors across Europe are launching emergency schemes to shelter homeless people and prevent more freezing deaths, researchers in the Arctic fear ripple effects, saying that the storms have raised temperatures in the region close to the melting point, hindered sea ice growth while its associated strong winds pushed the sea ice edge back, leading to a record low spring sea ice pack in 2016, according to the researchers quoted on AGUs website.

Scientists fear that the record-low sea ice will speed up the melting of the Arctic permafrost and polar ice caps, eventually leading to sea level rises across the globe, drowning many of the worlds most important cities.

This winter could be even worse, with almost a third of the Bering Seas ice cover vanishing within days.

The warnings do not appear to have triggered much concern in the White House, so far. The United States is now the only nation in the world that rejects the 2015 Paris climate accord, after the other two nations outside of the agreement, Nicaragua and Syria, signed it.

The chief of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has led recent efforts to question the existing climate change science, reflecting skepticism within the U.S. government about the scale of the challenge. The EPA also rejected claims that devastating hurricanes in recent weeks were worsened by climate change.

U.S. President Donald Trumps decision to withdraw from the Paris accord came last summer as the White House was preparing to rewrite Obama-era rules that were supposed to curb greenhouse gas emissions. U.S. officials feared that being part of the Paris climate agreement and seeking to reverse some of those curbs could have weakened the U.S. governments position in future lawsuits.

But climate change researchers and U.S. allies abroad fear that Trump may ultimately come to regret his decision, as the absence of actions repercussions are emerging more clearly.

Read more about:Paul Manafort, the former Trump campaign chairman accused of laundering $30 million (U.S.) to support a lavish lifestyle, pleaded not guilty in his first court appearance since Special Counsel Robert Mueller unveiled two new indictments against him last week.

Manafort, 68, entered his plea in federal court in Washington, where he was initially indicted in October with Rick Gates, his longtime business associate and deputy on the Trump campaign. Manafort previously denied those charges. Now Mueller has intensified the pressure on Manafort by winning a guilty plea and co-operation deal with Gates and filing the new charges against Manafort.

Mueller is investigating Russian collusion with Donald Trumps presidential campaign. He accuses Manafort of conspiring against the U.S., money laundering and acting as an unregistered agent of Ukraine in his work there as a political consultant. In a separate indictment in Virginia, Manafort is charged with tax-related and other crimes.

Prosecutors say Manafort earned tens of millions of dollars over a decade in his Ukrainian work, which he moved to the U.S. through offshore accounts so he could buy real estate, home improvements, luxury cars, expensive suits, landscaping services, artwork and rugs. Manafort moved the money into the U.S. without paying taxes on the income, according to prosecutors.

Manafort will be arraigned Friday in Alexandria, Virginia, on charges of bank fraud, filing false tax returns and hiding offshore accounts from the U.S. Prosecutors say he defrauded lenders of more than $20 million by inflating his companys income and hiding its debt. Those charges couldnt be filed in Washington for technical legal reasons.

Parts of Manaforts alleged fraud took place during and after the several months he spent working on the Trump campaign in 2016. The charges dont relate to the campaign or to colluding with Russia.

Mueller has charged 19 people, including five who pleaded guilty and 13 Russians accused of using social media, fake rallies and secretive operatives in the U.S. to create political intensity among radical groups, opposition social movements and disaffected voters.

Read more:

New charges against Paul Manafort sparks hunt for Europeans paid to lobby

Special counsel brings new charges against ex-Trump associates Manafort and Gates

Mueller and Trump: Born to wealth and raised to lead. Then, they made sharply different choices.

Read more about:DALTON, GA.A social studies teacher barricaded himself inside a classroom at a Georgia high school on Wednesday and fired a handgun, sending students running outside or hunkering down in darkened gym locker rooms, authorities said.

No Dalton High School students were in the classroom when the teacher fired the weapon, and despite the chaotic lockdown and evacuation, the only injury was a student who hurt her ankle running away.

It wasnt immediately clear why the teacher, 53-year-old Jesse Randal Davidson, had the gun. Under questioning by detectives, he refused to discuss what led to the shooting.

Read more:

Florida students return to picture of education in fear as school reopens after shooting

The gunfire erupted with a nation on edge two weeks after a Florida school shooting left 17 students and faculty dead and ignited a new debate over gun control in America. Within minutes of the Dalton shooting, students there took to social media, calling for restricting gun rights. In the afternoon, U.S. President Donald Trump, who has advocated for arming teachers, convened a bipartisan group of lawmakers at the White House to address gun violence.

The teacher was arrested without incident after a 30- to 45-minute standoff with officers, police spokesperson Bruce Frazier said. A teacher since 2004, Davidson also serves as the play-by-play announcer for the high schools football team.

Police noted that Davidson didnt appear to want to hurt the students or faculty. He fired the gun at an exterior window when the principal tried to enter the classroom.

I dont know whether he was just firing the gun off to let people know to back off or what, Frazier said.

The shooting happened about 11:30 a.m. during Davidsons planning period. At first, students tried to get into the classroom, but they couldnt. The students told the principal, who tried to enter.

I didnt get the door open very far, but he slammed the door and hollered Go away, dont come in here. He had some nonsensical noises that were made as well, Principal Steve Bartoo said.

Bartoo returned a short time later and put his key in the door and again he slammed the door before I could open it and he said, Dont come in here, I have a gun.

Thats when Davidson fired and the school was placed on lockdown, authorities said.

Davidson faces six charges, including aggravated assault involving a gun and terroristic threats and acts, jail records showed. Other charges include carrying a weapon in a school safety zone and reckless conduct. Its not clear if he has an attorney.

Chondi Chastain told The Associated Press she was supposed to have Davidsons class at 2:30 p.m.

My favourite teacher at Dalton high school just blockaded his door and proceeded to shoot. We had to run out the back of the school in the rain. Students were being trampled and screaming. I dare you to tell me arming teachers will make us safe, she tweeted in a post that was retweeted 15,000 times within hours.

She said Davidson himself had commented that arming teachers was a bad idea.

I feel like there just shouldnt be guns at school at all, she said. Its our basic student right to feel safe at school and if (teachers were armed), I wouldnt feel safe.

Student Emma Jacobs texted her mother while she hid inside a darkened classroom, said her mother, Annmarie Jacobs. Emma, a junior, said in texts that her teacher had turned the lights off and told the students to sit in a corner.

Then, in an act that brought home the danger of the situation, Emma texted her mother, omg shes putting desk in front of the door.

Nathangel Lopez hunkered down with students and teachers in a gym locker room. While there, he tweeted a photo of teens sitting on benches and called for more gun control.

This shouldnt happen to us, he wrote. I hope a lawmaker somewhere will do something.

When he found out that a teacher was involved, he shifted his stance on arming educators.

At first, I was thinking that that might have been a good idea. I am now totally against it, he said.

Several students said on social media they were outraged that some on Twitter questioned whether the incident was staged.

Davidson was described as laid back and smart. In 2012, he was recognized as the schools top teacher, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported. He moved to Dalton in 1995 and became sports and news director at WBLJ-AM radio.

It was always about the students. He really wanted the students to understand the concept, said 18-year-old senior Rowdy Zeisig.

The principal said Davidson was an excellent teacher who was well thought of, and as far as I know he was fit to be at work.

A week ago, police found a threatening note on the floor of a classroom at Dalton High, but it wasnt related to the shooting Wednesday.

Threats have been made at schools across the country in the wake of the Feb. 14 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida.

Dalton has about 2,000 students, according to its website. It is located about 145 kilometres north of Atlanta.

Dalton is known as the Carpet Capital of the World, since much of the carpet for U.S. and world markets is produced within a 40-kilometre radius of the city.WASHINGTONLegislation in the United States Congress aimed at countering white-supremacist violence cites the killings in a Quebec City mosque as one of several cautionary examples of the threat of domestic terrorism.

The killing of six people in the Canadian mosque last year is among just over a half-dozen incidents cited in a bill introduced this month in the House of Representatives, the companion to a bill introduced earlier in the U.S. Senate.

The text of the legislation refers to a right-wing extremist who had expressed anti-Muslim views being charged with murder for allegedly killing six people and injuring 19 in a shooting rampage at a mosque in Quebec City.

It was the first-ever mass shooting at a mosque in North America, says the text of the legislation for Bill 4918, the Domestic Terrorism Prevention Act of 2018.

Read more:

Parents of alleged Quebec City mosque shooter Alexandre Bissonnette break their silence

Group raises money to fund new home for survivor who was paralyzed after Quebec City mosque shooting

How police responded to Quebec mosque shooting

Prime Minister Trudeau labelled it a terrorist attack.

The bill also mentions a shooting at a Sikh temple in Wisconsin; the Charlottesville white-supremacist rally; a shooting at a Jewish community centre in Kansas; the murder of an African-American man in New York City; and the mass-shooting in a Charleston church.

It cites statistics indicating that since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, far more Americans have been killed by white, right-wing terrorists than by radical Muslims.

The bill would require the federal government to produce annual reports on domestic terrorism, provide training for local law enforcement to better recognize the threat and steer certain law-enforcement funds toward the issue.

The bills sponsor said the problem is worse than commonly recognized.

I urge my colleagues to join me in the urgent effort to address the dramatically rising threat of domestic terrorism, said Brad Schneider, an Illinois Democrat, while introducing the bill in the House of Representatives.

A recent FBI-Department of Homeland Security joint intelligence bulletin found white supremacist organizations were responsible for 49 homicides and 29 attacks from 2000 to 2016  more than any other domestic extremist movement.

The bills chances of adoption are far from assured.

Only a tiny minority of bills introduced in the U.S. Congress become law and this one was introduced by the minority party in both chambers: five Democrats co-sponsored the bill in the House of Representatives, while 13 Democrats co-sponsored it in the Senate.

The U.S. Congress did pass a symbolic resolution last fall in the wake of the Charlottesville incident, urging the president to speak out against hate groups that espouse racism, extremism, xenophobia, anti-Semitism, and white supremacy and to use all resources available to fight those groups.

Also, the new director of the FBI says there are currently 1,000 open investigations into domestic terrorist groups  with a similar number of probes into groups with radical Islamist ideology.

Alexandre Bissonnette faces 12 charges  including six counts of first-degree murder  in connection with the Quebec City attack. His trial is scheduled to begin on March 26.Nearly three months ago in a Toronto library, I stood with El Jones, a devoted activist and professor from Halifax, and asked the federal minister responsible for immigration to stop the deportation of a black youth who grew up in Canada. The exchange I had with Minister Ahmed Hussen that morning was like many with government officials  he asked for more information and agreed to follow up.

I feel responsible for what happens to Abdoul Abdi, 24, a refugee who came to Nova Scotia from Somalia at age 6, was taken into the child welfare system, and never got his citizenship because the government, his legal guardian, never applied for it. Im lucky to be in a position to raise my voice for Abdi, and I have made many sacrifices so I can speak as openly as I need to for Black people across Canada.

I regularly meet Black folks who encourage me to speak out, who say they cannot for fear of compromising themselves, especially in their workplaces. While I truly understand how they feel, I also believe that Abdi is still in Canada because Black Canadians and many others have publicly told the government to stop his deportation. People who are not free to make such demands, or who refuse to, can never propel the libratory changes Black people in Canada need.

A new group calling itself the Federation of Black Canadians (FBC) is led by well-connected Black people who cannot, or who choose not to demand Abdis freedom. I dont believe the judges, police officers and corrections officials who helped create FBC can speak to Abdis particular situation, nor do I think they can openly critique their own institutions  the courts, the prison system, the law enforcement regime  without jeopardizing their careers. This obvious fact, bears repeating given the sudden rise of the previously unknown FBC.

The FBC is led by chairperson Donald McLeod, a sitting judge in the Ontario Court of Justice. Whatever duty McLeod feels to our community, he also has a professional duty to the court. The Ontario Principles of Judicial office state judges must avoid any conflict of interest, or the appearance of any conflict of interest, in the performance of their duties; that a judge must not participate in any partisan political activity; that an Ontario judge should not lend the prestige of their office to fundraising activities.

McLeod has spent the last 18 months building the group now called the Federation. During that time he has held meetings with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Premier Kathleen Wynne, and a host of Liberal cabinet and caucus members, including Hussen.

More shockingly, freelance journalist Ron Fanfair reports that, after high-level meetings with the federal government in 2017, McLeod received a call from Ottawa indicating they would prefer the initiative to be national.

McLeods behaviour, including his reported willingness to take direction from Ottawa about the FBC, gives the strong appearance of conflict of interest and partisanship.

The Federation has no formal bylaws, constitution, or public membership, yet it is asking for donations, with McLeod saying he wants Black people to scrounge up our toonies and loonies and fives and tens to fund the initiative.

Again, this behaviour appears to conflict with the rules of his office. Even if it doesnt conflict, such conduct is not good enough for Black people fighting in our name.

On Sunday, Ebyan Farah left the Federation steering committee  the group claimed her term of service had simply ended. Farah is the spouse of Hussen, and it only took days after I publicized this news for her to leave abruptly, without further explanation.

Imagine Farah, as part of the Federation, wanting to advocate for Abdi but knowing her husband may be ultimately responsible for the refugees fate. This compromised advocacy is what the Federation of Black Canadians is offering us, and we must do better.

Karen Carter took space in this publication Tuesday to criticize me for personally attacking McLeod (I never have).

Interestingly, a Feb. 23 tweet by MP Melanie Joly tweet shows Carter sitting next to McLeod at a meeting with Joly at BAND, Carters Black-owned art gallery. Carter says there are many ways for Black people to advocate, and that all are valid  I disagree.

We can only get free by putting the plight of people like Abdi ahead of our own access to power, safety, and comfort.

Correction  February 28, 2018: This article was edited from a previous version that misstated Karen Carters surname. As well, the previous version misspelled MP Melanie Jolys surname.

Desmond Cole is a freelance journalist, author, and the winner of the 2017 PEN Canada Ken Filkow prize for freedom of expression.Theres an old political adage, attributed to Ronald Reagan, that goes like this: When youre explaining, youre losing.

Toronto Police Chief Mark Saunders has been doing all too much explaining this week in the wake of his comments in another newspaper about the investigation into missing persons in the Church and Wellesley area.

A lot of people in the LGTBQ community took great exception to what they saw as a suggestion by the chief that they were somehow responsible for the fact that a serial killer was able to operate, undetected, for years.

We knew that people were missing and we didnt have the right answers, he said. But nobody was coming to us with anything.

Saunders now says he didnt mean to point fingers and was trying to make a more general observation about such complex investigations. Hes been spending a lot of time explaining his remarks, in other words, and in the process hes been losing credibility with the public. In particular, hes been damaging his forces relationship with a community that is understandably traumatized by the revelations about accused killer Bruce McArthur.

The chief and the police services board urgently need to rebuild trust. They should start by committing to an independent review of how the Toronto force handled its investigations into missing persons in the LGBTQ community in recent years.

Saunders says the force will conduct its own internal investigation and promises to make the findings public.

Thats fine as far as it goes, but it doesnt go far enough. The forces relations with the LGBTQ community have been badly shaken, and it should agree to an independent review. At this point, an internal police probe alone wont be enough to clear the air.

The McArthur case is truly appalling. He has now been charged with six counts of first-degree murder stretching over seven years, and there are fears that more people who went missing over the years around the Church-Wellesley neighbourhood may have fallen victim to a serial killer.

For all sorts of reasons its worth reviewing in detail how the police have handled the case and whether they did enough in response to earlier suspicions that a serial killer might be on the loose around Church and Wellesley. Its not just a matter of assigning blame for any failures; it would be an opportunity to learn everything possible from a major, complicated crime that seems to have stretched over many years.

Chief Saunders himself says he would support anything that enhances the trust and accountability factor of our organization. I want to make sure, on the walk forward, that we get it right.

Given that, he and the police services board would do themselves a favour by embracing rather than resisting calls for an independent review.

Those calls are growing louder as the extent of the McArthur case becomes clearer. A group called the Alliance for South Asian AIDS Prevention, for one, wants a review to consider whether the race or perceived sexuality of men who went missing around Church and Wellesley affected how much effort the police put into figuring out what happened to them.

Thats the kind of question an independent review could credibly address. Even if the Toronto force comes up with its own answer, it wont be fully believed at this point where it matters most  in the very community that was allegedly targeted over many years by a serial killer.

We know how these things generally go: criticism mounts and the pressure builds for some sort of outside review. Finally, the organization at the centre of the controversy (in this case the Toronto police) concedes the need for an investigation.

It would be far better to get ahead of all this and simply do the right thing. The police service should agree to an independent review of everything connected to the McArthur case. It should stop explaining and excusing and start leading.

Read more about:Voter apathy makes losers of everyone, Cohn, Feb. 27

It is disappointing that columnist Martin Regg Cohn relies on a poll rather than research to figure out why people dont vote.

The bulk of non-voters understand that under any winner-take-all voting system, few votes actually count. In a typical Ontario election, seven out of 10 votes have no impact on who goes to Queens Park (they either reinforce the winners margin or go to a losing candidate). Moreover, half the voters arent represented by anyone they voted for.

The one measure shown to improve voter turnout  proportional representation  addresses those issues. Under proportional representation, almost every vote counts and almost every voter is represented by someone they voted for.

Gary Dale, Toronto

I turned 18 more than a year ago so the upcoming provincial and municipal elections will be the first times I am eligible to vote. I am excited but many of my friends are not as enthusiastic. Most of them do not know the leaders, the issues or what they want out of government. About half say they will not even vote.

To see so many of our youth not interested in the political process is deeply concerning. There are massive issues facing my generation  from climate change to social equality. We need our voices heard. We cannot expect change when we dont voice our concerns by voting.

How do we get more young voters out on election day? Do we lower the voting age to 16? Do we make voting compulsory? Do we switch to e-voting? These are serious questions that have yet to be truly answered by politicians.

I think we should lower the voting age to 16. Many people may think that is too young but I disagree. There are unintelligent and immature adults who are allowed to vote.

I also believe voting should be mandatory. In Australia, you must vote in order to renew government documents, such as your drivers license and passport.

Troy Sidarous, University of GuelphPolands Law: Facing up to history, Editorial, Feb. 24

Sadly, your editorial included certain misconceptions and unproven allegations that do not make for a fair and balanced dialogue, which we definitely need.

Your editorial suggests that the new regulations are an ill-conceived attempt to criminalize historical inquiry about the Holocaust. I will answer with a quote taken from the law itself: The perpetrator of an offence (of defamation) is not deemed to have committed a crime if the act is part of their artistic or scientific activities.

A careful reading of the wording helps understand that the law applies only to those who try to attribute the responsibility for the Holocaust to the Polish government or nation as a collectivity.

That much should be more than enough to protect artists and researchers. After all, Poland remains a European Union democracy, offering all the guarantees of fair treatment to anyone involved, including professor Jan Grabowski, whose hypothesis on the great number of Jews allegedly dead because of actions of Poles was quoted in the article next to the tiny total of 6,706 Polish Righteous.

Poland, unlike many, was never an ally of Nazi Germany. Out of the entire German-occupied Europe, it was only there that the Germans murdered any Polish citizen caught helping Jews, along with the family. The vast majority of Poles upheld human values and the Polish Underground State strongly opposed those who let harm Jews.

The first note of the genocide in Auschwitz was prepared by Witold Pilecki who volunteered to the camp, collected intelligence and organized resistance. Polish Government in Exile informed western allies about German camps and appealed to stop the Holocaust, which, remarkably, never happened.

Furthermore, the editorial reads that the Prime Minister of Poland, Mateusz Morawiecki, (drew) an equivalence between a tiny number of Jewish collaborators with the Nazis.

This is another misunderstanding that was promptly explained by his office. The statement, which is easily available, also in English, reads inter alia: Each crime must be judged individually, and no single act of wickedness should burden with responsibility entire nations, which were conquered and enslaved by Nazi Germany . . . Attempts to equate the crimes of Nazi German perpetrators with the actions of their victims  Jewish, Polish, Romani, among others  who struggled for survival should be met with resolute, outright condemnation.

I find in your editorial a call for a free intellectual inquiry on the Holocaust. Needless to say that the challenge requires an unbiased and fair approach. Please, let the Toronto Star be one of its promoters next time you touch upon such sensitive issues.

Krzysztof Grzelczyk, Consul General for Poland in TorontoNovel solution to school safety, Letters, Feb. 26

In response to letter writer Kevin Clinks proposal to re-institute a police presence in schools, I would like to point out that weapons, in the hands of teachers or students, are banned in Ontario schools. This goes a long way to making students and teachers feel safe in schools.

School resource officers were appointed to a minority of high schools in response to an exceptional, and fortunately rare, event, a school shooting many years ago. They were never present in all high schools.

It is time to acknowledge that the presence of police in schools does not make all students feel safe, as recent data gathered by the Toronto District School Board proved. All students have the right to feel safe at school. Nor is there evidence that a police presence in school prevents bullying, stealing or drug use.

Schools are not hives of criminal activity and the constant anticipation of extreme violence, which is rare in this country, is not productive in an educational environment.

Proactive involvement of police through engagement in community recreation centres and events has a more positive outcome than policing schools.

The fear factor generated by media coverage of U.S. mass shootings should not be grounds for reconsidering a program that was reactive in the first place.

Joan McGoey, TorontoIt is hard to know sometimes, when police Chief Mark Saunders opens his mouth to make public statements, what might be running through his mind. Like this week, regarding a group of people who are alienated and grieving and traumatized, did he consciously look around for salt he could use to tend to their wounds? Or was insulting the injured here more a byproduct of some instinct to try to throw blame away from himself?

Either way, the headline on the front page of Tuesdays Globe and Mail, Toronto police chief says civilians failed to help investigation into alleged serial killer, seems a pretty unexpected and misplaced kick at the gay community around Church and Wellesley.

In the story, he says dealing with an alleged serial killer isnt something his force has much experience with, and says that since the arrest of Bruce McArthur in a series of at least six murders, information has been discovered that might have helped catch the alleged killer earlier if it had been known by the police. We knew that people were missing and we didnt have the right answers, he is quoted as saying, among other things. But nobody was coming to us with anything.

Share your thoughts

It certainly sounds like hes placing the blame for this alleged killers horrifying crimes, and the Toronto Police Services failure to catch him earlier, at least partly on the very community McArthur is accused of victimizing.

What the hell is he thinking? I dont know if he has some specific people (people who knew him very well) in mind when he talks about a failure to co-operate. Accomplices, or friends who should have been more suspicious, or something. Who knows what hes referring to?

Its pretty clear, however, what he cant possibly be referring to. He cant be referring to how, for years, people in the gay community feared there might be a serial killer preying on their community, and circulated information about that fear, while the police insisted they could find no connection between the missing persons cases involved.

How members of that community wrote and talked about their suspicions for years in the queer and alternative press.

Chief Saunders cant have been referring to how Sasha Reid, a U of T researcher who studies serial killers, reached out to the police force in the summer of 2017 to tell them she thought data analysis of missing persons cases showed there was a serial killer operating. Back then, Reid offered to share a profile of the person they should be looking for (one that seems to match McArthur in many particulars, though not all of them) and share data analysis, she told the Stars Vjosa Isai. At the time, police basically said thanks, well call you if we need you. And then never did call her.

The chief cant have been referring to how in December 2017, as the Star reported, when members of the LGBT community expressed their great fear that a serial killer was preying on their community and organized safe-walk programs and community meetings to talk about it, Saunders took the time to hold a press conference in which he and his detectives dispelled rumours of a serial killer in the village. There was no evidence, Saunders spokesman stressed, that any of the cases were linked. There is no evidence that a serial killer is responsible for the disappearance of any of the missing males, one detective said then, and no evidence many of the missing people had even been victims of foul play at all.

I mean all this time, you had citizens, members of the community, telling the police directly that they should be looking for a serial killer  and according to the police, offering hundreds of tips and leads and pieces of information. And you had the police, including Chief Saunders personally, telling the community that their fears seemed unfounded.

And now that it turns out that there was, it seems, a serial killer operating all those years, and the police have arrested a suspect, you have the chief saying his force knew something was up, but that nobody was coming to us with anything.

This guy. I dont know, people.

John Tory defended him, as he has been in the habit of doing, saying the chief didnt mean what he appeared to say. I just want to make it very clear, as mayor, that there is no one who is suggesting any blame belongs on victims of horrific crimes, that we are all grieving as a city with the LGBTQ and Church-Wellesley community generally, he told reporters Tuesday morning.

Its not clear why Tory thought he had such a handle on what Saunders meant, since by the end of the business day Tuesday, after activists and politicians spent the entire day demanding the chief clarify his comments if indeed he had failed to make himself understood, he had not publicly done so.

Tuesday evening, Saunders did address the comments in an interview with CP24. The chief denied he blamed the LGBTQ community, and said his comments referred to a wide variety of investigations.

He said if his comments to the Globe were misconstrued or taken in the wrong context, then I definitely apologize for that.

Still, even allowing for possible mitigating contextualization and misunderstandings, this is a situation where the words as Saunders spoke them aggravate an already difficult relationship. For some reasons  possibly understandable ones, investigations are not easy  the police failed to protect a community. A community with which they already have a historically strained relationship, as he acknowledged in his interview with the Globe, and a relationship that has only become more strained in the time Saunders has been chief. (Recall, if you want, the Pride debate of last summer.)

Chief Saunders has never been a strong communicator. In almost three years on the job, he doesnt appear to have gotten much better at that element of the job.

In that time, he seems to have aggravated the departments relations with the Black community through his defence of the carding program and his refusal to meet with Black Lives Matter protesters.

Meanwhile, he seems also to have damaged his own relationship with the union that represents his officers, the Toronto Police Association. When he was appointed to this job (over fellow perceived front-running candidate Peter Sloly), it was widely said that Saunders had been the unions choice for chief. Last week, that union publicized a non-confidence vote in Saunders over his handling of modernization and budget-cutting matters.

Even something as simple as the colour of police cars has been a source of controversy.

And now, another set of ill-conceived comments, further alienating another constituency in a way that aggravates the pain and fear and grief already afflicting that community.

As I say, its hard to know, sometimes, what Chief Saunders is thinking. Hard to know what Mayor Tory is thinking in constantly defending him. Hard to know if Saunders is ever going to get better at managing the communications  listening and talking both  with various constituencies his job requires. Thats not good. Its an urgently important part of an urgently important job.

If there are things that we can do to increase relationship, if there are things to be operationally better, Im willing to hear that, Saunders said in the Globe interview.

Yeah, chief, there are things. If youre willing to hear, just start listening.

Edward Keenan writes on city issues ekeenan@thestar.ca. Follow: @thekeenanwireThe federal Liberals are flirting with pharmacare again. Maybe this time they are serious.

Providing Canadians with pharmacare  a single, universal, publicly funded prescription drug program  should be a no-brainer. Study after study shows it would be cheaper, fairer and more effective than the grab-bag of private and public insurance schemes that characterize the current Canadian system.

And yet no federal government has been willing to tackle the project.

Before the 1997 election, Jean Chretiens Liberal government famously promised to move on pharmacare, establishing the National Forum on Health to look into the idea.

But when the forum reported, the government simply dismissed its recommendations.

Given that track record, it is easy to be skeptical about the surprise decision by Justin Trudeaus Liberal government to reprise pharmacare.

This week, the government hired former Ontario health minister Eric Hoskins to head an advisory council on how best to establish a pharmacare system. The council is supposed to report before the 2019 federal election.

If the Trudeau government is serious, then Hoskins is a wise choice. A physician himself, hes been a fierce advocate for national pharmacare. As Ontario health minister, he oversaw the implementation of a mini-pharmacare scheme to provide drug coverage for those under 25.

While limited in scope, the Ontario scheme is well-designed. Like medicare, it is universal, covering all regardless of income. Again, like medicare, it involves no user fees or co-payments. Young people are covered for 100 per cent of their eligible prescription drug costs.

Although it is relatively cheap (young people tend to be healthy), it does provide a base upon which to build a full-scale pharmacare system.

In designing a truly comprehensive national pharmacare program, Hoskins will face three problems. The first is cost. Although studies show that pharmacare is cheaper overall, it does off-load more of the cost on governments.

A report last fall by the Parliamentary Budget Office calculated that Canadians now pay about $24 billion a year for pharmaceuticals. A federally funded national pharmacare program would save about $4 billion annually. But it would also shift the remaining $20 billion from those who currently pay (employers, individuals, provincial governments) to Ottawa.

And Ottawa is usually wary of that.

The second problem has to do with federal-provincial relations. The provinces, which all offer drug programs to the elderly and poor, are in favour of a national pharmacare program that sees Ottawa picking up more of their costs.

But at the same time, they are jealous of their prerogatives and fearful that Ottawa might yet again stiff them for the cost of an ambitious national social program.

Quebec, for instance, already requires its citizens to have drug coverage either through private plans or the provincial public system. Its a less efficient way to provide drug coverage than a single-pay, pharmacare system, but it is popular with the provinces private insurers.

The third problem is that pharmacare cost savings depend largely on the bulk buying of drugs. In effect a single, national pharmacare system would have enough market power to substantially bargain down drug company prices.

The drug companies dont like that. Traditionally, they have threatened to stop manufacturing drugs in jurisdictions that engage aggressively in bulk buying.

All of this means Hoskins will have his hands full.

Still, if the Liberals are serious (a big if) his appointment is a welcome development. The New Democrats offered a rudimentary, nonuniversal form of pharmacare before the last general election. They are talking about pharmacare again.

But maybe well get lucky this time. Maybe next year well elect a government that delivers this sensible yet long overdue health-care program.

Thomas Walkom appears Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

Read more about:Barely weeks after he was appointed as Ontario health minister, Eric Hoskins attended a private dinner in Banff with his provincial counterparts and Rona Ambrose, then federal health minister.

Although it wasnt on the agenda, the first thing Hoskins did that evening in 2014 was raise the issue of a national pharmacare program. As Ambrose listened attentively, he made a strong plea for such a plan and won the support of many of his colleagues.

It was a brash move for a rookie provincial health minister, who might normally be expected to sit quietly and listen to the wisdom of long-serving ministers.

But it also was a clear sign of the passion and aggressiveness that Hoskins, a medical doctor, would bring to what may be the toughest job these days in the Ontario cabinet.

On Monday, after almost four years in the job, Hoskins suddenly stepped down as health minister and as the MPP for the Toronto riding of St. Pauls.

On Tuesday, he was appointed by Ottawa to head the new Advisory Council on the Implementation of National Pharmacare, which was announced in the federal budget speech. The council is to make its recommendations to Ottawa in 2019, just before the next federal election.

Hoskins is the ideal choice to head the council, given his long-standing drive to see a universal pharmacare program that would provide free prescription drugs for all Canadians.

Thats because Hoskins was the driving force behind Ontarios decision to implement a limited pharmacare program that offers free drug coverage to everyone under the age of 25. The program, which went into effect on Jan. 1, is one of his major achievements and forms a key part of what is an impressive legacy for Hoskins.

Indeed, he was arguably the best Ontario health minister in decades.

Under his predecessor, Deb Matthews, the health-care system had become a true mess. It had undergone major cuts in services, most notably in rehab therapy, that affected tens of thousands of patients. Home-care services were underfunded and over-managed; local hospital beds and programs were being cut; doctors were increasingly furious over moves to trim their fees; and opposition politicians were outraged over the governments handling of the suicide crisis in remote First Nations communities in Northern Ontario.

Slowly and steadily though, Hoskins started to affect real change in the chaotic system.

On community care, he scrapped the 14 controversial and bureaucratically heavy Community Care Access Centres, transferring much of their work to 14 Local Health Integration Networks with the goal of saving millions of dollars and using the money for more front-line care. The initiative still is a work-in-progress, but there are initial signs that its starting to fulfil its mission.

On hospitals, he personally intervened to save some rural hospitals, emergency departments and birthing units. He understood the importance of those local hospitals to their communities, because once lost, those services would never come back.

He stopped the expansion of private clinics, put a halt to medical tourism whereby foreign patients paid big money to get fast services at Ontario hospitals, took a strong stand on high-paid medical specialists, and cracked down on medical excesses, such as overuse of costly MRI tests.

At the same time, he was a doer who sometimes got his elbows up too high and clipped other ministers as he strove to promote often dramatic changes. And yes, he could have been more aware of his cabinet colleagues concerns, but it was in his nature to push hard on reforms he saw as necessary.

True, Hoskins has his critics, including myself at times, who say he didnt do enough, such as on primary care reform, or who felt he was too often a captive of the bloated health ministry that he oversaw.

Still, even some of those critics praise Hoskins for the work he has done. They understood he was hamstrung by the governments fiscal policies, but they also admired his courage and his commitment to the values of universal health care.

Not a bad legacy so far  and one that could grow even more if Ottawa ever does adopt a national pharmacare plan.

Bob Hepburns column appears Thursday. bhepburn@thestar.caWhen it comes to the Jaspal Atwal fiasco, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has made it clear theres lots of blame to go around.

Except none of the blame has ended up at the top, where ultimately blame should go to rest. Its called leadership.

This lack of accountability has now created a diplomatic dust-up with India as the prime minister drags his disastrous trip to that country around with him like some type of leg iron.

Even the old reliable, a federal budget, turned out to be a comet when it came to distractions, briefly shining brightly before flaming out.

When Atwal, a self-proclaimed buddy of the prime minister (denied by his office) and convicted would-be assassin of an Indian cabinet minister attended an official function hosted by the Canadian High Commission in Mumbai last week and showed up on the guest list for another official event in New Delhi, his invitation was rescinded.

Cue the blame game.

First, Trudeau fingered the man who is said to have invited him, British Columbia Liberal backbencher Randeep Sarai who took a minor fall Tuesday evening following a meeting with the prime minister.

In resigning as chair of the Liberal Pacific caucus, Sarai said he wanted to again apologize for my role in recent unfortunate events. Moving forward, I will be exercising better judgment.

There clearly was a lapse in judgment, but there are officials who should correct the lapse so an invitation doesnt become a series of damaging photos.

Sarai may have had the matches, but there are many layers above him responsible for ensuring that spark did not become an inferno.

So the Trudeau government aimed a bit higher.

It trotted out a senior official with the explanation that factions within the Indian government conspired to get Atwal to the events to embarrass a Canadian government thought to be too close to Sikh separatists.

Trudeau would have you believe the official, his security advisor Daniel Jean, is some type of independent truth teller who had to get the information out to Canadians without any involvement of Trudeaus office.

More likely opposition leader Andrew Scheers explanation that Jean was pushed on to the stage to try to change the channel on a brutal news cycle dogging Trudeau.

Trudeau backed Jean Wednesday, but he never explained how Jean ended up briefing reporters on background.

Monday, Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale, perhaps the most trusted hand in Trudeaus cabinet, shot down the conspiracy theory in Trudeaus absence.

The next day, Trudeau had a different story, saying When one of our top diplomats and security officials says something to Canadians, it is because they know it to be true.

He largely maintained that stance Wednesday, repeating his trust and belief in his security officials.

This after a spokesperson for Indias external affairs minister called Trudeaus claim baseless and unacceptable and flatly denied that the India government or its security agencies had anything to do with Atwals presence or invitation to any of Trudeaus events.

As the Times of India put it, India-Canada relations appear headed into rough weather again . . . 

There is a growing checklist of lapses in judgment and inept damage control by Trudeau and his inner circle.

It may not cost him politically, but it is cause for concern.

The lack of judgment that accompanied a decision to spend a holiday on the Aga Khans private island was left to fester for a year and the controversy bookended 2017, ending with the finding that Trudeau violated four conflict of interest provisions.

More recently, Trudeau met with released hostage Joshua Boyle and his family less than two weeks before Boyle was charged with more than a dozen criminal offences, including sexual assault, assault, unlawful confinement and uttering threats.

At that time Trudeau also professed the highest confidence in his national security advisers and intelligence officials.

Maybe it is time the prime minister admitted that confidence is misplaced.

Somebody dropped the ball on the Atwal visit and casting blame from a backbencher to rogue elements in the worlds largest democracy is unbecoming.

It comes with the job of prime minister to take the heat and ultimately agree that you or someone in your office made a mistake.

You can wrongly argue the Aga Khan was a friend and you can tie the can to a backbench MP and you can slide into a diplomatic tiff with an ally.

Or you can be accountable and say the loonie stops here.

Tim Harper writes on national affairs. tjharper77@gmail.com, Twitter: @nutgraf1

Read more about:So Toronto police chief Mark Saunders says it is not the polices fault that alleged serial killer Bruce McArthur was able to kill so many men whose bones were later found in flowerpots. Its the fault of people who knew the man for not approaching the police earlier, which presumably includes some of his eventual victims.

If anyone knew before us, its people who knew [McArthur] very, very well, Saunders told the Globe and Mail. And so that did not come out. If they had voiced their suspicions, I think there is a very strong potential that the outcome could have been different.

Its hard to imagine a worse thing for a police chief to say. It makes policing sound like a TV cop show  one cops called Sit, his partner is called Wait but I havent come up with a title yet  in which police sit back at the station expecting murder leads to come at them like water from a burst pipe.

The phone rings. Sit: Whos gonna get that? Wait: I got the last one. Banter ensues.

Citizens approach a police force they trust. It isnt trusted in Torontos gay village among many other places and its easy to see why. At least one victim had kept his sexual orientation secret from his family. Dare he tell the police his name? Did he fear a police car pulling up at his home, or blackmail? These are the terrors of a powerless person with secrets.

Women tend not to trust police. After a Globe and Mail investigation into sexual assault cases simply dismissed nationwide by the cops, would you report your rape? Look what happened when you reported sexual harassment. Women know that life can always get worse.

Saunders also claimed that serial killing hasnt happened in our city before. Not true. Paul Bernardo prowled Scarborough. Peter Woodcock killed three young Toronto children in the 1950s and a fellow psychiatric patient in 1991.

In 2012, while police were failing to uncover clues about missing gay men, Shawn Lerner approached them about his missing girlfriend, Laura Babcock. Upon hearing that she had briefly worked as an escort, the police showed no interest. Just another missing girl.

They didnt even check her phone records. Her last eight calls were to Dellen Millard, one of the men who killed her and burned her body in an animal incinerator. If the police had made even a token effort at finding Babcock, Millards subsequent victim, Tim Bosma, might still be alive.

My point is not to complain about Chief Saunders. Hes doing his best, as are many other fine police officers, and I thank them. But he is being undermined by the hyper-aggressive Toronto police association and its boss, Mike McCormack. The union is running the show.

I think all workers should unionize, but once done, keep the Toronto police as a model of worst practices. McCormack has ensured that Toronto citizens continue to endure a cacophony of terrible cops: the one with cocaine in his wallet (salary: $119,000), the pair getting so high from stolen pot that one of them climbed a tree in terror, the liars, the brutalizers. Think of Const. James Forcillo and his victim, Sammy Yatim. The union defends them all.

The union opposes cost-cutting and changes to traditional policing. Fair enough, thats union policy. But police  civil servants with guns and now Tasers  have a higher calling: to serve and protect. They have often shredded that slogan, and Saunders shouldnt have helped them do so by attacking innocent citizens rather than lazy policing.

Heres a larger dilemma. I dont think I would trust police enough to call them for help. In fact, there was a violent extended episode in my neighbourhood recently and I perhaps should have called, but didnt. Thats awful.

Now I am solidly middle-class, so boring that my biggest worry is my feud with the lawn care company that broke my driveway. Even having a driveway makes me middle-class. If I wouldnt call police, why would vulnerable citizens?

Theres one thing the police service could do immediately: mandate that police applicants have a university degree. Why not? Police earn fantastically good salaries  more than half earn over $100,000 a year  with enormous responsibilities. A university degree is basic for millennials. Why not for the next cadre of young officers?

You see, a smarter cop would have looked for Laura Babcock.

hmallick@thestar.ca

Read more about:Shares of the U.K. satellite TV operator closed above Comcast's bid on Tuesday and rose further on Wednesday, suggesting that the market expects the media giants to battle it out for Sky.

After Comcast Corp. (CMCSA) - Get Comcast Corporation Class A Report announced a bid to snatch Sky plc from Twenty-First Century Fox Inc. (FOXA) - Get Fox Corporation Class A Report and Walt Disney Co. (DIS) - Get Walt Disney Company Report on Tuesday, investors are apparently anticipating a bidding war for the UK satellite television outfit.

Shares of Sky closed at 13.31 on Tuesday and rose further to 13.48 on Wednesday, well above Action Alerts Plus holding Comcast's offer of 12.50 per share.

"While difficult to call the outcome, bids for Sky from [Comcast and Fox] can go significantly higher if the focus is solely on being [free cash flow] accretive," Jefferies analyst John Janedis wrote in a Tuesday report.

Fox, which owns 39% of Sky, said Tuesday that it "remains committed" to the 10.75 offer for the rest of the satellite television company.

The Sky stake is part of the vast portfolio of Fox film and television assets that Disney is buying for $66 billion.

Sky is more than a throw-in. Disney CEO Bob Eiger described Sky as the "crown jewel" in Fox's portfolio in a December interview with Bloomberg. Janedis suggested that Disney could bid for the 61% stake.

Comcast Chairman and CEO Brian Roberts is also smitten. "We've admired Sky for a long time," he told investors Tuesday, noting that "there is just no comparison" between Sky's set-top box and television platforms and those of U.S. satellite TV companies. Comcast and Sky would have 52 million subscribers, and could leverage their scale to develop new applications and interfaces.

Buying Sky would take Comcast's debt to 3.0 times Ebitda, CFO Michael Cavanagh said in Tuesday's call. "Our strong balance sheet allows for us to take advantage of attractive opportunities like this transaction, and maintaining balance sheet strength will continue to be an important priority," he said, declining to say just how high Comcast would take its debt levels.

While Cavanagh emphasized maintaining a strong balance sheet, Wells Fargo Securities LLC analyst Marci Ryvicker suggested in a Tuesday note that the language was "not strong here" and that the cable operator would be willing to go above 3 times Ebitda to fund a higher offer.

Incidentally, Disney has a similar leverage. Buying Fox without Sky would put its debt at 2.2 times Ebitda, the company said in December, while buying Sky would push it to 2.9 times.

CEO Brian Roberts and Comcast have thrown down with Disney before.

Comcast lodged an unsuccessful hostile bid for Disney in 2004 when Michael Eisner was CEO. Some of the parties that advised Comcast then have ties to the Sky deal.

Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP, which advised Comcast on the hostile bid for Disney and many other transactions, is working with the Philadelphia media company on the bid for Sky.

Editor's note: This article was originally published by The Deal, a sister publication of TheStreet that offers sophisticated insight and analysis on all types of deals, from inception to integration. Click here for a free trial.Bitcoin was trading lower Wednesday, Feb. 28, but prices remained safely above the important $10,000 price threshold. Most of the top cryptocurrencies by market cap were burrowing into the red Wednesday as headlines were mixed. This is what you can't miss in crypto this Wednesday.

JPMorgan Cites Risk

Action Alerts PLUS holding JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM) - Get JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM) Report joined the list of high profile investment banks citing the "disruptive threat" of cryptocurrencies. In a Feb. 27 filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, JPMorgan listed cryptocurrencies under the "competition" subsection of its 10-K filing, writing "Both financial institutions and their non-banking competitors face the risk that payment processing and other services could be disrupted by technologies, such as cryptocurrencies, that require no intermediation." The bank continued to say that the new technologies could "require JPMorgan Chase to spend more to modify or adapt its products to attract and retain clients and customers or to match products and services offered by its competitors, including technology companies."

Bitcoin to $25,000?

Fundstrat's Tom Lee is still pounding the table on the crypto, TheStreet's Brian Sozzi points out. "In 6 of the last 7 years, Bitcoin posted its annual low within the first 60 days, before March -- in 2018, bitcoin was down 50% by Feb 6 (36 days), which falls within that time frame," Lee wrote in a new note. "In other words, as we enter March, this is another reason to view $5,900 as THE LOW for the year and we see bitcoin reaching $20,000 by mid-year and $25,000 by year-end." Judging by the use of capital letters, Lee means business here, Sozzi said. Lee says the growing active user base of crypto is one reason for his ongoing bullishness. He forecasts another "super cycle" in alternative coins like bitcoin by late summer.

CFTC Greenlights Employee Trades

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission has given employees permission to invest in cryptocurrencies, according to Bloomberg. CFTC General Counsel Daniel Davis reportedly gave the green light in a memo earlier this month after receiving "numerous inquiries" from employees. While they can invest in cryptocurrencies, CFTC employees cannot trade crypto futures or margins. The CFTC memo stated the following: "In this environment, the situation is ripe for the public to question the personal ethics of employees engaging in cryptocurrency transactions. Please keep in mind that you must endeavor to avoid any actions creating the appearance that you are violating the law or government and commission ethical standards."

U.S. 'Comprehensive Strategy'

U.S. Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein said the government is working on a "comprehensive strategy" surrounding cryptocurrencies. Speaking at a Financial Services Roundtable, Rosenstein referred to a new cybercrime task force the Justice Department announced last week that will focus on crypto crime enforcement. "A lot of these schemes involve bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies which do not flow through the traditional financial system. What we're working on now with our cybercrime task force is working on a comprehensive strategy to deal with that," Rosenstein said.

Don't miss the latest in crypto from TheStreet:EDWARDSVILLE  A manuscript believed to have been written in longhand by a 19th century surveyor named Benaiah Robinson has been discovered recently in Edwardsville.

Born in 1796, Robinson came to Edwardsville 13 years later with his father, John Robinson Sr.

He became an apprentice surveyor in 1817 and at some point laid out the streets for the original city of Edwardsville, according to Jeff Pauk, who is president of Madison County Surveyors Inc., in Edwardsville, and an expert on Ben Robinsons life.

That document was among several that were found in a storage vault as clerks at the Madison County Recorders Office were auditing and organizing old plats, said Madison County Recorder Amy Meyer. The documents are sprinkled with references to Ninian Edwards, Benjamin Stephenson, Thomas Kirkpatrick and other early settlers of Edwardsville.

These are our founding fathers, not just of Edwardsville but the state of Illinois, Meyer said.

Perhaps the most historically significant document is a notebook written by Benaiah Robinson. Most of the things he is writing about are like physics problems  but I think the whole purpose of it was for him to practice his lettering and penmanship for his drafting, Pauk said.

Pauk owns one of Benaiah Robinsons survey drawings from 1841. Despite growing up in frontier town such as Edwardsville, Benaiah Robinson was considered one of the most educated men in the region. In some of his writings, he talks about characters in Greek mythology and things like that, Pauk says. Even in this notebook, his writings are immaculate.

Robinson left Madison County in 1825, returning a few years later to work as a schoolteacher, among other jobs. Then from 1835 until the 1850s, he served as Madison County Surveyor. He left the area again and began living in Corvalis, Oregon. By then, though, his professional reputation was such that members of the Madison County Board of Surveyors nominated him as a member of their organization. They requested that he mail them a history of the time he spent in Madison County.

His letter speaks volumes about his life and his coming to Edwardsville, Pauk said.

The letter, included in the book History of Madison County, has insight into his early forays into self-education.

In the year 1812, having become desirous of learning the use of figures, I cut a large chip out of a walnut tree out of which a slate is formed; plank could not then be spared to make a blackboard, he wrote. Began to learn what sine, tangent and angle meant in 1817.

Before the city of Edwardsville commemorates the discovery, several preliminary steps need to be taken. First of all, the hope is that the state archives will scan the documents to ensure the information is preserved, Pauk said. The next step would be to place it on permanent loan at the Madison County Historical Museum, in Edwardsville.

Edwardsville Mayor Hal Patton said the documents highlight an important part of the citys early history, particularly the area near where the police and fire departments are now located.HARTFORD  The cause of a Tuesday morning fire that destroyed a home near the former Chemetco facility is under investigation.

No injuries were reported, but Mitchell Fire Chief Joe Lee said the structure in the 3500 block of New Poag Road appeared to be a total loss.

The fire started around 9:30 a.m., about 300 yards east of Illinois Route 3 in Hartford. Lee said nobody was home at the time.

When the first unit arrived it was fully involved, he said. Thats when they called for tankers because there are not many hydrants out there and theyre pretty far away.

The blaze was initially fought by Mitchell, Long Lake and South Roxana firefighters, with Holiday Shores, Troy and State Park providing tanker support. An ambulance was also on scene.

According to witnesses at the scene, the fire started in the north end of the single story wood-frame structure. Lee said strong winds were a problem for firefighters.

Firefighters initially attempted to go inside and attack the fire, but pulled out for safety when flames made way into the attic.

A neighbor said an elderly couple had been living there but moved out several months ago, and that one of the owners relatives had been occasionally staying there.

Reach reporter Scott Cousins at 618-208-6447.EDWARDSVILLE  The Madison County States Attorneys Office has filed a motion to disqualify troubled attorney Thomas Hildebrand from several cases involving a woman with whom he allegedly had sex.

Assistant States Attorney Chad Loughrey claims defendant Amanda Hampton of Alton allowed federal agents to hear a recording, purportedly of she and Hildebrand in a sexual encounter.

The prosecutor said such a relationship with a client would constitute a conflict of interest on the face of it and justification for disqualifying Hildebrand, of Granite City, as her attorney in several felony cases.

The defendants motivations for providing said recording to the FBI are unclear, but the action suggests the defendant believed attorney Hildebrand to be engaged in unethical, if not criminal, behavior.

In order to maintain the integrity of the above-referenced cases before the court it is in the best interests of all parities that attorney Hildebrand be disqualified as counsel for defendant, the motion stated.

Hampton, 40, of the 2700 block of North Street, Alton, was charged Friday with two counts of unlawful possession of a controlled substance, for allegedly possessing cocaine and alprazolam on Feb. 22. Her bail was set Friday at $20,000. Hildebrand has not officially entered an appearance in that case.

The motion to disqualify states Hildebrand represented Hampton in four cases in 2017. She pleaded guilty to two of them and was awaiting sentencing. She was facing trial in two others. She also faces two other charges for which she has not retained a lawyer.

Hampton has a record dating to 2001 when she was convicted in federal court of possession to deliver crack cocaine. She also has federal convictions for violating supervised release. In state court, she has convictions for five counts of possession of a controlled substance, possession of methamphetamine, and theft, in addition to the four cases in 2017 and the one in 2018.

Hildebrand, a former associate judge, could not be reached for comment.

The action taken by the States Attorneys Office Friday is not the first time Hildebrand has been accused of unethical conduct. In 2003, the Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission suspended him for a conflict of interest, for representing defendants in criminal cases while representing witnesses against the defendant.

While on probation for that offense, the ARDC received another complaint that Hildebrand represented parties with conflicting interests. This time, the ARDC recommended suspension, until further order of the court.

In past cases before the commission, he was cited for taking on so many cases that he lost track of the clients who may have created a conflict, and was admonished to create a better filing system.

He was also accused of making false statements to clients, prosecutors and others.

After 10 years of appeals, the Illinois Supreme Court allowed Hildebrand to again practice law in 2016. Many attorneys said when he was suspended until further notice that he would never be allowed to practice again. After he was reinstated, he was at the criminal justice center almost every day representing several criminal defendants.

Reach reporter Sanford Schmidt at 618-208-6449.BT Group plc provides communications services worldwide. Its Consumer segment sells telephones, baby monitors, and Wi-Fi extenders through high street retailers, online BT Shop, and Website BT.com; and offers home phone, copper and fiber broadband, TV, and mobile services in various packages. The company's EE segment offers 2G, 3G, and 4G mobile network services; broadband, fixed-voice, and TV services; and postpaid and prepaid plans, and emergency services network. This segment also sells 4G mobile phones, tablets, connected devices, and mobile broadband devices from various manufacturers. Its Business and Public Sector segment provides fixed voice, mobility, fiber and connectivity, and networked IT services to retailers, utilities, public sector, healthcare, sports, construction, finance, and educational sectors. The company's Global Services segment offers business communications and ICT services comprising BT Connect, BT Security, BT One, BT Contact, BT Compute, BT Advise, and BT for financial markets. This segment serves approximately 5,500 customers in 180 countries. Its Wholesale and Ventures segment enables communications providers and other organizations to provide fixed or mobile phone services. Its ventures provide mass-market services, such as directory enquiries and payphones; and enterprise services comprising BT Fleet and BT Redcare. This segment also provides broadband and Ethernet, voice, hosted communication, mobile virtual network operator, managed solutions, machine-to-machine, roaming, and media services. The company's Openreach segment engages in the provision of services over the local access network; and installation and maintenance of fiber and copper communications networks that connect homes and businesses. The company was formerly known as Newgate Telecommunications Limited and changed its name to BT Group plc in September 2001. BT Group plc was incorporated in 2001 and is headquartered in London, the United Kingdom.

Read More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Aena SME SA, formerly Aena SA, is a Spain-based company primarily engaged in the airports operation. Its activities are divided into four segments: Airports, which comprises Aeronautical subdivision, responsible for the management of airports, jetways, security, handling, cargo and fuel services, among others, as well as Commercial subdivision, including duty-free and specialty stores, restaurant services, car rental, as well as banking services and advertising; Services outside the terminal, which manages real estate assets, such as parking lots, warehouses and lands; International, which comprises operations of Company's subsidiary, Aena Desarrollo Internacional SA, that invests in other airport owners principally in Mexico, Colombia and the United Kingdom; and Others, encompassing corporate activities. It manages tourism, hub and regional airports, as well as heliports and general aviation areas. Furthermore, its destination range comprises Europe, the Americas, Asia and Africa.

Read More American Consumer News, LLC dba MarketBeat 2010-2021. All rights reserved.

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 2021 Market data provided is at least 10-minutes delayed and hosted by Barchart Solutions. Information is provided 'as-is' and solely for informational purposes, not for trading purposes or advice, and is delayed. To see all exchange delays and terms of use please see disclaimer. Fundamental company data provided by Zacks Investment Research.NEW YORK  Defense attorneys in the federal trial of former gubernatorial aide Joe Percoco and three businessmen worked hard Wednesday to tear down the already tattered reputation of prosecution witness Todd Howe, and cast the most favorable light on behavior that prosecutors have described as a classic case of quid pro quo corruption.

"The government wants you to convict on talk about 'ziti,'" said Percoco's attorney Barry Bohrer, referencing Howe and Percoco's term for money as borrowed from the HBO crime drama "The Sopranos."

"You can't convict someone of a crime based on how they talk," Bohrer said in the Manhattan courtroom.

Howe, a former consultant who pleaded guilty to multiple felonies in September 2016 as part of his cooperation agreement with prosecutors, testified for more than a week about his role in what prosecutors have described as a scheme to swap more than $300,000 in bribes for Percoco's considerable influence as Gov. Andrew Cuomo's executive deputy secretary.

Howe's relationships with Percoco and Cuomo go back more than three decades to the administration of the late Gov. Mario Cuomo, and also included service under Andrew Cuomo during his tenure as President Bill Clinton's housing secretary.

Bohrer, the last of four defense attorneys to deliver closing arguments, noted that Howe in his testimony described Percoco as his brother.

"Just as Cain described Abel," Bohrer said.

Percoco stands charged alongside Steve Aiello and Joseph Gerardi of Syracuse-based COR Development and Peter Galbraith Kelly, an executive with Competitive Power Ventures.

Earlier Wednesday, Kelly's attorney Daniel Gitner insisted that CPV's decision to hire Percoco's wife, Lisa Toscano Percoco, was a well-intentioned effort to assist a friend and not a means to camouflage bribery. Prosecution witnesses detailed how CPV sought to conceal Lisa Percoco's salary by routing payments through a Connecticut LLC.

"Lisa may not have been the hardest worker in the world, but that does not mean the job was not bona fide," Gitner said. Attempting to rebut the accusation that the post was a "low-show job," he insisted that her managers at CPV expected her to provide educational programming in exchange for her $90,000-a-year salary.

Bohrer also argued that Lisa Percoco's employment was proper. "The government wants you to think that finding a job for your spouse if you're in public office ... is in itself a crime," he said.

Both attorneys assailed the prosecution argument that Howe's testimony was backed up by an extensive document record, including voluminous emails involving the defendants as well as top officials in state government.

"You can't rely on the emails," Bohrer said. "Todd Howe was the butcher of email: Mr. Cut and Mr. Paste."

Sign up for The Knick  Get the latest news and some area history with our afternoon newsletter.

Howe was taken into federal custody midway through his testimony after Gitner questioned him about his efforts to bilk his credit card company out of the $600 cost of a night's stay at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel  an attempt Howe made just weeks after signing a cooperation agreement that obligated him to stop committing crimes.

"Without Todd Howe, there is no case," Gitner told jurors Wednesday.

After a break for lunch, Bohrer argued at length that during 2014, the Joe and Lisa Percoco's financial status was not one of "desperation," as Howe had said. He noted that the couple had close to $60,000 in a savings account, and despite having an $800,000 balloon payment on their home in South Salem, Westchester County, they both had good credit ratings and were able to refinance.

Bohrer further argued that Percoco had no authority to take official actions while he was working as Cuomo's campaign manager from April through December 2014.

Bohrer closed his lengthy summation by telling the jury at length that convicting Percoco based on the testimony of Howe would be unjust.

"Todd Howe is a malignancy on justice," Borher said.

Asked outside the courthouse why so much of the defense's summations revolved around Howe, Bohrer said, "We think that everything that Mr. Howe touched was colored by his lack of credibility, and that was a point we hope we got across to the jury."

Prosecutors will have the opportunity to respond to issue raised by the defense during their summations beginning at 10 a.m. on Thursday. It was unclear if U.S. District Judge Valerie Caproni's instructions to the jury would be presented Thursday or Friday.NEW YORK  "Herb, where the hell is the ziti?"

That was the first line of the closing argument delivered Tuesday by Assistant U.S. Attorney David Zhou at the federal trial of former top gubernatorial aide Joe Percoco and three business executives who stand accused of swapping bribes for official favors.

The quote was an excerpt from one of the scores of emails entered into evidence during the five-week trial. "Herb" was Percoco's nickname for his friend and benefactor Todd Howe, while "ziti" was Percoco's term for payments from companies with business before the state  a term that, according to testimony, he had borrowed from the HBO crime drama "The Sopranos."

"After hearing all the evidence in this trial, you know what Joseph Percoco was asking for when he was asking for ziti," Zhou said in a Manhattan courtroom. "He was demanding cash bribes."

Percoco, Gov. Andrew Cuomo's longtime confidant and former executive deputy secretary, is alleged to have taken more than $300,000 in bribes from Steve Aiello and Joseph Gerardi of Syracuse-based COR Development and Peter Galbraith Kelly of Competitive Power Ventures.

Zhou addressed the greatest vulnerability in the prosecution's case: the credibility of Howe, another longtime Cuomo associate who in September 2016 admitted to serving as the conduit for the bribes allegedly paid to Percoco by COR, and arranging for Percoco's wife to secure a $90,000-a-year job with a CPV educational program.

"Everyone in this room agrees that Todd Howe is a criminal," Zhou said. He argued that the defendants' use of such a "sleazy" figure as a conduit between business and state government was an indication of their intentions.

Prosecutors have characterized Lisa Percoco's employment as a "low-show" job intended to camouflage the illicit payments from CPV, which was seeking state actions to benefit a power plant it was developing in Orange County.

"You've put more time into this trial than Lisa Percoco put into her $90,000-a-year job," Zhou told the jurors.

He mocked the defense suggestion that Kelly helped Percoco out of genuine friendship that grew from a fishing trip they took together in the summer of 2010. The prosecutor archly noted that a single fishing trip does not in itself signify a deep friendship  especially when its cost is filed as a business expense.

Also, Zhou said, "You don't get a pass on bribery just because you're friends."

Prosecutors have established that the Percocos were facing fiscal distress after moving from Staten Island to a more lavish home in Westchester County in 2012. By 2014, their combined mortgage and credit card debt approached $1 million.

"Desperate for ziti, for more and more cold, hard cash ... (Percoco) sold out the people of New York State," Zhou said.

One of the official actions Percoco took for COR Development involved pressing for the reversal of the state's requirement that the firm seek a "labor peace agreement" in order to secure state funds for its construction of a parking lot adjacent to a hotel being developed at Syracuse's Inner Harbor.

"All it took was $35,000 for Percoco to abandon the labor unions and his principles," Zhou said, referring to funds that were allegedly sent as two checks to Lisa Percoco by a limited liability company operated by Howe.

Howe was placed in federal custody on Feb. 9, just hours after he admitted under cross-examination to attempting to bilk his credit card company out of the cost of a night's stay at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel. Howe, whose lavish spending was a contributing factor to his multiple frauds, made the attempt to save roughly $600 just weeks after signing a cooperation agreement that required him to stop committing crimes.

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Zhou insisted that while Howe's testimony offered an insider's account of how the alleged bribery scheme worked, the most compelling evidence could be found in three categories: the defendants own words, as seen in the extensive record of emails; the timing of official actions when matched to payments made to Percoco; and the efforts on all sides of the alleged scheme to conceal their actions.

"You don't need an insider view to convict these defendants," Zhou said. "They convict themselves."

The first summations from the defense began just after Tuesday's lunch break, and quickly made it clear that Howe's abundant misdeeds should create doubts in the minds of the jury.

"Make no mistake: The government's case is heavily leveraged on Todd Howe," said Milton Williams, the attorney for Gerardi, who also laid out multiple reasons he thinks jurors should be able to form reasonable doubts regarding Gerardi and the other defendants' guilt.

Likening Howe to an unreliable relative, Williams said that the government keeps giving Howe second chances.

Representing Aiello, Stephen Coffey called Howe "the consummate con man, and he played (the government) like he played everyone else.

"Todd Howe is a walking, talking reasonable doubt," Coffey said.WASHINGTON  Distinct from President Donald Trump and other Republicans who express admiration for Russian President Vladimir Putin, Rep. Elise Stefanik is following the Cold-War-era script of Eisenhower Republicans in her condemnation of Russian aggression.

Her exposure to what she views as a serious international threat posed by Russia came in an official weeklong visit to Estonia, Latvia and Ukraine, all of which straddle Russias western border.

A member of the House Armed Services Committee, Stefanik traveled with a Democratic colleague, Rep. Anthony Brown of Maryland, to talk to military leaders and diplomats of those nations, as well as to visit New York National Guard trainers stationed in Ukraine.

The purpose of the trip was to highlight national security concerns in countering Russian aggression, Stefanik said in an interview. The concept of Russian meddling is nothing new to these countries. We can learn a lot from them.

Among other sites in Estonia, Stefanik and Brown visited a NATO Center of Excellence dedicated to countering Russian cyberattacks.

Stefaniks sharp-edged concerns over Russian interference are a contrast to those of Trump, who has called allegations of Russian involvement in getting him elected in 2016 a hoax while repeating Putins denials.

I really believe that when he tells me that, he means it  I think hes very insulted, Trump said last year after an encounter with Putin in Vietnam.

Stefanik has had decidedly mixed feelings about Trump, mindful of her North Country districts strong turnout for the president in 2016 but also determined to chart her own big tent path in Washington.

Ive always had a different perspective on Russia from the president, she said. Ive always viewed Putin as an adversary.

Latvia and Estonia enjoyed a brief period of independence after World War I, only to be seized by the Soviet Union at the beginning of World War II.

They regained independence in the '90s after the Soviet downfall. Ukraine was incorporated into Czarist Russia and the Soviet state until gaining its independence in 1991.

Russia seized Crimea in 2014 and the pro-Western government of Ukraine has had a tenuous relationship with Russia ever since.

Stefanik said that although a cease-fire is in place, Russia has failed to abide by it.

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There are casualties in the Ukraine side, she said.

Estonia and Latvia are NATO members while Ukraine is not.

Stefanik said she and Brown went out of their way to reassure the leaders of the nations they visited that no matter what they read or see coming out of Washington, the U.S. remains a steadfast ally.

She was loath to criticize Trump directly and praised the president for changing his tune on NATO from hostility to reassurance.

Both Latvia and Estonia have chipped in two percent of GDP toward NATO, she said. Trump had complained that the U.S. was bearing too great a financial burden for maintaining NATO and that member countries must contribute more.

I asked in both Latvia and Estonia what they thought of news coverage on Russia meddling in the (U.S. election) process, and they said its something theyve been dealing with for years, she said.

The Russian threat is existential for these nations, she said. Their anxiety is very high.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Colonie

How does the digital age affect the performing arts? What can the Capital Region do to encourage artistic development in the community? What would P.T. Barnum do today to draw audiences to live performances?

"He would've used tech," said Susan Rosko Fogarty, executive director of the Palace Theatre in Albany.

"He would've brought 'Hamilton' to Proctors," said Philip Morris, the theater's CEO.

The leaders of some of the Capital Region's premier performing arts organizations discussed these questions Wednesday at the Hearst Media Center during a panel moderated by Times Union editor Rex Smith. The event is part of the Times Union Leadership Luncheon series, a monthly discussion with community leaders and business executives about issues affecting the Capital Region.

Panelists emphasized the unique experience of attending a live performance surrounded by members of their community  "You sense that human desire for connection," said Elizabeth Sobol, president and CEO of Saratoga Performing Arts Center  while highlighting the advantages and challenges technology poses for the industry.

Sobol and Fogarty expressed concerns about arts education in schools and how "digital everything" affects children's receptivity to art forms, but also noted that technology has also helped expose more young people to the performing arts. All three organizations have prioritized offering programs and events that provide artistic opportunities for the next generation.

"We have to decide as a culture and as a region to support the arts through this time when there are a lot of other distractions," Fogarty said.

Some might be nostalgic over "losing the piano," Morris said, referring to the presence of the instrument in families' homes. But people are continuously creating, making and performing things that reflect the "human effort at expressing personal need, joy and beauty," and "we can honor their linkage," he said.

Asked what the Capital Region could do to support the creative economy , each panelist had a different answer. Sobol encouraged the audience to view the area through a newcomer's eyes, as she had when she moved to the area to lead SPAC, because "there's no place in North America like this region."

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If someone is debating whether to spend the money to attend a live performance, "try it," Fogarty said. Schenectady and Saratoga Springs have been transformed by Proctors and SPAC and "Albany needs to be next," she said.

Morris suggested an event similar to South by Southwest, a festival in Texas, that would focus on climate change and combine engineers and creatives.

"We ought to be talking about the future of the planet in a way that involves what we do best: science and art," he said.

miszler@timesunion.com  518-454-5018  @madisoniszlerLos Angeles

In the thick of the increasingly frenetic haze of the 2016 presidential campaign, writer-producer Jenna Bans landed on an idea for a TV series. She had been absorbed by every development in the news cycle, and she says one thing stood out to her: the treatment of women.

"Maybe this is naive, but I remember calling my mom, who is a lawyer in Minnesota, and having this conversation where I was like, 'I just can't believe all of this sexism I'm seeing is so overt,'" Bans recalls. She was referencing the now-infamous "Access Hollywood" tape from 2005, in which Donald Trump was heard making lewd comments about women.

"There was a long pause," Bans says, "and my mom was like, 'where have you been?'"

It got Bans, whose credits include "Scandal" and "Grey's Anatomy," thinking  about women, about how women are still perceived (or not perceived), and this idea of the so-called "good girls."

"The rule followers," Bans says, "the women who don't rock the boat and do what they're told  and suddenly realize they are in a totally unsustainable situation. That's where I started from."

That internal thought process became "Good Girls." The series, which premiered Monday on NBC, is set in the suburbs of Detroit and follows three lifelong friends  played by Retta ("Parks and Recreation"), Christina Hendricks ("Mad Men") and Mae Whitman ("Parenthood")  who, each fueled by her dedication to her family, rob a local grocery store to help solve their money troubles.

Some have described it as "Breaking Bad" meets "Thelma & Louise"; ask Bans and she adds "Weeds," "Big Little Lies," and a dash of "Parenthood" to the mix.

The series joins a thriving club of TV and film projects that put the female experience in the spotlight. And it arrives at a watershed cultural and political moment for women at least in part fueled by Trump's victory.

"Good Girls'" theme of female empowerment that's tangled up in the moral ambiguity of the characters' actions has Retta, Hendricks and Whitman curious about how the show will be received.

After all, it's one thing for a fictional dad to become a notorious meth dealer to ensure his family's financial security, but moms robbing a grocery store with a toy gun (and the questionable choices that ensue)  pfft!

For some context: Retta plays Ruby, who is married and financially helpless as her daughter suffers from kidney failure; Hendricks plays Ruby's childhood friend, Beth, a mother of four whose philandering husband has bankrupted the family; and Whitman plays Beth's younger sister, Annie, a single mom who works at a grocery store (yes, that one) and is financially strapped in her fight for custody of her daughter.

"It's tricky because we're not advocating, 'Take your power back by committing a crime,'" Whitman says. "It's more metaphorical."

Hendricks, whose role as Joan Holloway on "Mad Men" became something of a feminist hero, nods and adds: "It's a heightened sense of all that. It's almost like a lucid dream."

Beyond the felonies and the lengths to which one will go for their family, "Good Girls" is a testament to the strength of female friendship.

"One of my favorite things to see on screen is two women friends, fighting and calling each other out, and then they come back," Retta says. "They know you screwed up and you can still come back and still be in the same love spot that you were in before the fight."Photographer: Christopher Lovenguth

How can you not be intrigued by a band that titles one of its songs "Pondicherry Surf Goddess"? Having but meager knowledge of Indian geography, it was necessary to Google "Pondicherry" to determine that it is in fact located seaside, so theoretically such a one as the titular person could exist. Bombay Rickey seems to exist in a place all its own: On its website, the Brooklyn-based quintet describes its sound as "covers and original music that borrow equally from the worlds of surf rock, cumbia, spaghetti-Western, and Bollywood, balanced out with soaring operatic vocals." One of the band's musical touchstones is Yma Sumac, a legendary soprano from Peru who became an international star in the 1950s, largely on the strength of her extreme vocal range and what was then described as her "exotic" heritage. Bombay Rickey started out as an Yma Sumac cover band and created an opera cabaret based on Sumac's life for a 2016 New York City festival. According to the band's website, their 2014 album "Cinefonia" was named best debut of the year by New York Music Daily and received the Vox Pop Award for Best Eclectic Album from the International Music Awards. Rickey's female vocalist/ accordionist, Kamala Sankaram, displays a Sumac-esque vocal range and is ably accompanied by Drew Fleming (guitar, vocals), Jeff Hudgins (alto saxophone, vocals), Gil Smuskowitz (upright bass) and Brian Adler (percussion). They have been described as "delightfully outlandish yet never inaccessible ... a true treat for the adventurous ear." If your ears are adventurous, this could be one to see.

 Joseph StalveyGermany's Jews could have spared themselves from "the ovens" had they been packing heat, Alaska's U.S. Rep. Don Young, a longtime National Rifle Association member, told a town hall in Juneau late last week.

Arguing that teachers should be armed in schools, the longtime congressman suggested that Russians, murdered under Stalin and by Nazi occupiers, could have saved their lives had they possessed guns.

"How many millions of people were shot and killed because they were unarmed? Fifty million in Russia, because their citizens weren't armed," Young argued, as related by Alaska Public Media.

"How many Jews were put into the ovens because they were unarmed?"

RELATED: Jayapal forces a House bully, Alaska's Rep. Young, to apologize

The Nazi regime enacted a ban on Jews owning guns in 1938, four years before the Wannsee Conference of senior officials at which the "Final Solution to the Jewish question" was mapped out and launched.

In 2015, the Anti-Defamation League's national director Jonathan Greenblatt wrote that the Nazi comparison "is deeply offensive to Jews, Holocaust survivors and those who valiantly fought against Hitler during World War II."

Rep. Young has served in Congress for 45 years. He is best known as the self-described "porker" who championed Alaska's "Bridges to Nowhere," two projects that would have cost more than $400 million. One would have linked Ketchikan with Gravina Island, site of its airport. A ferry currently makes the six-minute trip.

Young crossed swords with Washington's newly elected Rep. Pramila Jayapal when she spoke against his amendment on wildlife management in Alaska's national preserves. He referred to Jayapal as "young lady" and said she "doesn't know a damned thing."

RELATED: Slurs, slips, ethics probes  Rep. Don Young's colorful political life

Young was forced to retract those remarks. He had to apologize for an interview in which he referred to immigrants from Mexico as "wetbacks." He apologized after using an obscene term for anal sex before a high school audience in Fairbanks.

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Young has, however, never apologized for waving a walrus penis bone at Mollie Beatty, the first woman to head the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, during a hearing.

At the Juneau town hall, he said: "My goal is to keep everybody that wishes to carry arms -- that are legal -- has a right to do so."

If you didn't like what he was saying, Young told his audience, you can vote against him. He is the longest serving member of Congress.

(SeattlePI.com writer Joel Connelly can be reached at 206-448-8160 or joelconnelly@seattlepi.com)BERLIN  A student was detained at Berlin Middle-High School Tuesday after allegedly making a shooting threat, the district superintendent said in announcement posted on the district website.

The student making the threat was located and detained in a secure office until arrival of the New York State Police. Students were boarding the buses at this time and left the school safely at the time of the incident, Superintendent Stephen Young said in the notice.BALLSTON SPA - The Saratoga County Board of Supervisors disregarded the pleas from the public on Tuesday afternoon to break down barriers to voting by supporting Gov. Andrew's Cuomo's call for early voting and automatic voter registration through the DMV.

In a vote 21 to 2, the supervisors rejected the state's call for both reforms because they are too costly, too confusing and, they believe, don't increase voter turnout.

"It's just another unfunded mandate," Hadley Supervisor Arthur "Mo" Wright said. "Voting now is convenient. It's very easy to register. If you can't go to the polls, you can use an absentee ballot. We did our due diligence on this. We support more voter registration. But there is no funding."

But people in the crowd that came to the board's monthly meeting disagreed, saying it's imperative to support early voting and automatic registration to make voting easier. Anything short of support is an attempt to suppress the vote.

"It's your job, your patriotic duty to do this," said Larry Fine of Greenfield. "Do it for your family, your friends, the county. Any reason you chose not to support it, will be remembered."

The Rev. Joseph Cleveland of Wilton said that it's necessary to "enfranchise as many eligible voters as possible."

"These are two important tools to remove barriers to democracy," Cleveland said. "Saratoga County should do all it can to encourage everyone to participate. We need to work to make a place for everyone at our table."

Saratoga Springs Supervisors Tara Gaston and Matthew Veitch were the only two supervisors to vote against the measure.

"We listened to the comments from the public today. We also got 50 emails," Gaston said. "Voting is a hallmark, a benchmark of our democracy. I am proud to say that Supervisor Veitch and I want to make voting easier."

Clifton Park Supervisor Phil Barrett said it's already easy and that it would be a burden on the county to make available one polling place for every 50,000 voters. He mentioned that the one-time $7 million proposed by the state must be shared by every county and that it would be costly for Saratoga County going forward. He also said there is a shortage of poll workers.

Republican Board of Elections Commissioner Roger Schiera, who came at the invitation of Board of Supervisors Chair Ed Kinowski, said it would cost the county between $800,000 to $1 million to implement early voting and automatic registration. He said the changes increase costs for mailers, printed ballots, voting machines and extra election inspectors. He could not supply a cost analysis to Gaston who asked for one.

The vote coincides with the Saratoga County League of Women Voter's event at Skidmore College on Tuesday night. Christopher Deluzio, counsel with the Brennan Center for Justice Democracy Program at New York University Law, spoke on the history of voter suppression in America. Prior to the talk, he said that automatic voter registration, now available in nine states and the District of Columbia, increases turnout. And allowing automatic voter registration to be implemented by DMV is efficient and cost-effective.

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"We support both early voting and automatic registration because there are substantial benefits to both for the voters," Deluzio said. "In Oregon where it was implemented, there was a substantial improvement in voter turnout. There was greater access to the polls."

Deluzio's research also found that it alleviated long lines, reduced poll workers' stress and identified registration errors before election day.

Rick Hasenauer of Saratoga Springs said he questions the motivation of the Board of Supervisors.

"It is disturbing enough that you want to suppress voting potential," he said. "But what is your intent here? I think it deserves close examination."

Chad Radock of Saratoga Springs said he felt strongly about moving the state forward on the issue.

"We currently have a real civic participation problem with our elections," Radock said. "When you only have 37 percent of registered voters participating in elections, you lose legitimacy. No matter what party you belong to, your goal should be to increase voter participation, not actively strive to suppress it."

Wright ended by telling the audience that he is not trying to suppress votes.

"The more votes we get, the more likely we will be sitting in this seat," Wright said. "I never won an election with less than 85 percent of the vote. We want more voters."A 29-year-old wanted by state troopers for allegedly striking a passenger while he drove drunk in Batavia is among the fugitives State Police said they are looking for as part of their Warrant Wednesday effort.

Sean Allen, 29, is wanted by State Police in Batavia on charges of assault and driving while intoxicated. The bench warrant was issued by Batavia Court on Oct. 19, 2010, for charges that stem from an arrest 10 months earlier on allegations he got into a fight with someone in his vehicle while driving drunk.ALBANY  A coalition of state Democratic lawmakers invoked the recent high school shooting in Parkland, Fla., on Tuesday as they unveiled gun-safety measures similar to those announced earlier this month by Senate Democrats.

Several GOP lawmakers, meanwhile, countered with criticism of Gov. Andrew Cuomo for what they described as his administration's failure to distribute most of a $2 billion Smart Schools Bond Act program in 2014 that included safety funding.

Sen. John A. DeFrancisco, a GOP gubernatorial challenger, said the program included funding to "install high-tech security features in school buildings and on school campuses, including but not limited to video surveillance, emergency notification systems, and physical access controls."

The Feb. 14 fatal shootings of 14 students and three teachers at a South Florida high school by a mentally troubled former student has renewed the national debate on gun violence and school safety measures.

On Feb. 6  more than a week before the most recent mass shooting  New York's Senate Democratic Conference laid out a plan for gun safety measures that included prohibiting people convicted of hate crimes or domestic violence from possessing firearms. Other proposals included extending background check deadlines for gun purchases from three to 10 days, and banning the possession of firearms that are undetectable by standard security screening devices such as magnetometers.

"The SAFE Act did include specific provisions and funding to address school safety," state Sen. Brian Kavanagh, D-Manhattan, said Tuesday during a news conference outside the Senate chamber. The SAFE Act, Cuomo's signature gun control measure, was signed into law in 2013, just a month after the killings at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Conn.

Kavanagh, who chairs New York Legislators for Gun Violence Prevention, said the students in South Florida "are calling for change, and here in New York we're answering their call."

"We're always trying to learn about gun violence prevention and safety measures, and if people want to propose funding in the budget to do some things I'm sure a lot of senators would be willing to look at that," he said.

State Sen. James Tedisco, R-Glenville, proposed legislation this week to use proceeds from a dedicated vanity license plate program  dubbed Guardians for Schools  to pay for increased security measures in schools, including armed security guards if that's what specific districts determine is warranted.

Tedisco on Tuesday criticized gun-safety advocates who are calling for restricting or prohibiting the sale of certain firearms while criticizing proposals to harden security at schools by adding armed guards or police officers.

Those advocates "seem to feel very comfortable coming into the Capitol with armed state troopers here and with individuals going through metal detectors," Tedisco said.

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Sen. Kathy Marchione, R-Halfmoon, said a plan supported by the state Sheriffs' Association to station a police officer in every school across the state "is a good start."

"Schools are gun-free zones, so they're targets," said Sen. George Amedore, R-Rotterdam, who said schools are not given enough resources to properly deal with mentally disturbed students.

"You listen to music lyrics you hear the celebration of death," he said. "Where's the value and respect of life? We need to do everything possible to look at ways that we can instill a moral structure back into society."

Rebecca Fischer, executive director of New Yorkers Against Gun Violence, said easy access to firearms is a critical issue, especially in instances of domestic violence and suicide.

"This is not a mental health issue. ... This is a gun issue, and the guns need to be addressed," Fischer said, noting that women who are domestic violence victims in residences that hold firearms are five times more likely to die.HOOSICK FALLS - The Village Board voted on Tuesday night to accept a $330,251 payment from Saint-Gobain Performance Plastics and Honeywell International to reimburse the village for some of the costs associated with the PFOA contamination of its water supply.

The resolution to accept the funds, which passed unanimously, is not a settlement agreement and does not release the companies from future reimbursement costs and damages, said Mayor Robert Allen.

"It's a big step, a good step and a helpful step," Allen said. "It's a huge help to our immediate cash flow. But there are no strings attached. It does not release them from suing them in the future."

Dina Pokedoff, Saint-Gobain's director of communications, said she is pleased that the village accepted the funds.

"Saint-Gobain Performance Plastics and Honeywell have been in continuous dialogue with this administration, as well as the previous administration, to provide reimbursements to the village for the costs it incurred regarding the treatment systems that ensure village residents have access to potable drinking water," Pokedoff said in a prepared statement. "Saint-Gobain Performance Plastics and its employees are an integral part of the village community. Together with Honeywell, we will continue to work with the regulatory agencies under the state's leadership on the investigation and remediation efforts."

The filtration system, which has been in place since the spring of 2016, was paid for by Saint-Gobain and Honeywell. But, Allen said, the village has incurred all of the energy and labor costs to run and maintain the system.

Thus far, the village calculated it has spent $707,392.62 as a result of the seepage of PFOA, a chemical linked to several diseases including cancers, into the aquifer. Allen said the village will continue to fight for the full repayment and for the cost to perpetually mitigate the crisis.

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"The village never intended to take this on," Allen said. "We have an aquifer that is damaged. We will have costs that will be incurred on a regular basis. We want to be made whole."

Last year, Hoosick Falls trustees came close to settling with the companies for just over $1 million, with the caveat that the village would be prohibited from bringing future claims against Saint Gobain and Honeywell related to pollution. That proposed deal sparked outcry from residents as well as state and federal leaders and eventually was rejected.

"People have said we are taking less," Allen said. "There is no comparison. Last year, we were releasing the companies. That was a bad deal. We are not signing away our rights."The Saratoga County Sheriff's Office is searching for four men who they consider to be their most wanted fugitives.

Do not attempt to arrest or detain any of these suspects, as some are considered armed and dangerous. as some may be considered armed and/or dangerous. Anyone with information on their whereabouts is asked to call the sheriff's office at 518-885-6761.

Christopher E. Beauford is wanted in Saratoga County on a Superior Court Warrant for two counts of felony criminal sale of a controlled substance, two counts criminal possession of a controlled substance and two counts of misdemeanor criminal sale of a controlled substance.

Beauford, 45, is described as a 5-foot-9 black man with brown eyes. He has ties to Saratoga Springs and North Carolina but Saratoga County District Attorney's Office officials have said they will extradite him from anywhere in the United States, if he is captured out of state.

Eugene E. Dunn is wanted on a Saratoga County Court probation warrant after failing to report to probation for appointments and absconding from his last known address. He was serving a sentence for felony burglary.

Dunn, 54, is described as a 5-foot-10 white man with brown hair and eyes. He has a beard and weighs about 220 pounds. Dunn's last known address was on Tallow Wood Drive in Clifton Park. He has also lived on Prescott Street in Colonie and Charles Street in Amsterdam.

Serdar D. Ozbay is wanted on a Corinth Town Court warrant for misdemeanor sexual abuse and misdemeanor endangering the welfare of a child. The warrant was issued after police investigated a complaint alleging Ozbay had sexual contact with a 15-year-old child.

Ozbay, 37, is described as a 5-foot-11 Middle Eastern man with brown hair and eyes. He sometimes has a beard and weighs about 190 pounds. His last known address was at the Watertown Apartments in South Glens Falls and he has also lived in Rotterdam and Schenectady. Ozbay is known to travel between New Jersey and South Glens Falls.

Francisco Tolentino is wanted on a Saratoga County Superior Court warrant for two counts of felony burglary, one count of felony assault, one count of misdemeanor assault and one count of misdemeanor endangering the welfare of a child.

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Tolentino was arrested by sheriff's deputies in July 2013 after he allegedly broke into a home in Saratoga and assaulted a man and woman with a glass pitcher. Tolentino is a native of Mexico and is believed to have returned there after being bailed out of the Saratoga County jail by his employer last fall.

Tolentino, 38, is described as a 5-foot Hispanic man with black hair and brown eyes, weighing about 145 pounds. He is a migrant worker who may return to the area for work. Tolentino is an experienced farm hand and had worked at a dairy farm in Saratoga.Welcome Guest! You Are Here:Two State Police pilots who navigated around a fierce winter storm to pluck a pair of stranded hikers off an Adirondack mountaintop were recognized Wednesday with the states inaugural Lifesaving Award.

Technical Lt. Peter R. McLain and Technical Sgt. Brian D. Rumrill of the State Police Aviation Unit piloted the helicopter that saved Maddie Popolizio and Blake Alois of Niskayuna, who were stuck for two days on Algonquin Mountain.

Video of the Dec. 13, 2016, rescue shows the helicopter flying under heavy snow and cloud cover as one of the hikers is airlifted. Two dozen DEC Forest Rangers, members of the State Police Special Operations Response Team, and Aviation Units participated in the search.

The crew made a dozen passes before they caught a break in the dense clouds and wind that allowed them to hover just long enough to hoist the two hikers into the craft.

It was a team effort by everyone involved, said McLain on Wednesday. It was probably my most challenging mission. I remember looking back at Maddie and she just had a smile on her face.

Both men are four-year veterans of the aviation unit.

Popolizio and Alois had gone hiking on Dec. 11, 2016. The couple were experienced winter hikers and had sufficient gear, food and water. But a whiteout rolled through the area and the pair became trapped in several feet of snow as the temperature dropped below zero.

Its such a blessing to be here, Alois said Wednesday. It feels like just a few months ago.

Both hikers fully recovered from their ordeal.

A cellphone ping helped searchers establish a parameter for the search and a local guide eventually found them huddled in a snowbank beneath a tree 265 feet below the 5,115-foot summit of Algonquin.

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The State Police helicopter took the rangers to the stranded couple. Rangers wrapped both of them in blankets and hoisted them aboard the helicopter. The two were treated at a hospital. The State Police team then went back out and lifted out a team of rangers on the other side of the mountain who had spent the night on the mountain as part of the search.

Last March, the state Department of Environmental Conservation recognized McLain and Rumrill with the commissioner's Meritorious Service Awards. The State Police Aviation unit's Bell UH-1 was renamed "Algonquin Angel" for its work in the rescue.

The new award, given by the state Division of Criminal Justice Services, recognizes law enforcement officers who act courageously or unselfishly to save a life. The award will be given to officers who are nominated for the state's Police Office of the Year award. said Michael Green, executive deputy commissioner of the state Department of Criminal Justice Services.

Certainly, the exemplary actions of Technical Lt. McLain and Technical Sgt. Rumrill during the harrowing December 2016 rescue on Algonquin Mountain capture the intended spirit of the Life-Saving Award," he said.ALBANY  The state Senate's Democratic Conference fell short in an attempt Wednesday to force a vote in their chamber on a series of gun-safety bills intended to augment the 2013 SAFE Act.

"The madness has got to stop. We need action, and we need it now," Senate Minority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins said at a press conference outside the Senate chamber on Wednesday morning. "Stopping gun violence should not be a partisan issue."

Stewart-Cousins and 20 members of her conference subsequently entered the Senate chamber and began pushing their legislation on the floor in a series of what are known as hostile amendments - attaching their legislation to an unrelated bill on organ donations.

But when the Democrats asked for a vote by a show of hands, however, they fell short  even with eight votes of support from members of the Independent Democratic Conference  as Republicans in control of the chamber declined to support the measures. Some Republican senators left the chamber prior to voting. Sen. Simcha Felder, a Brooklyn Democrat who often conferences with the Republicans and provides their crucial 32nd vote, opted not to attend the vote.

One of the measures would allow courts to issue "extreme-risk" protection orders prohibiting someone from possessing or purchasing a firearm if they are found, after a hearing, to be at risk of harming themselves or others. The prohibition would be in place for one year and the respondent would be entitled to a second hearing within that one-year period.

Other bills in the Democrats' amendments included banning the sale or possession of bump stocks in New York, strengthening background checks for gun purchasers, and creation of a research institute to study and make policy recommendations on gun violence.

Moments before the Senate Democrats gathered outside their chamber, Gov. Andrew Cuomo, in an unrelated conference call, characterized the problems with gun violence and mass shootings as a national issue.

"I would support those provisions but what we also know is by definition a state law cannot solve this problem because guns come over borders," Cuomo said.

The governor said recent proposals by federal-level Republicans to raise the age for gun purchases to 21 and ban bump stocks are a "political tactic to make it look like you're doing something when it will have no real effect."

"What they're doing here is reprehensible political pandering," Cuomo said.

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The state Senate Democratic lawmakers have invoked the recent high school shooting in Parkland, Fla., in support of their calls for action on strengthening the 2013 SAFE Act, which banned the sale of high-capacity ammunition magazines and certain weapons, among other measures.

Senate Republicans, meanwhile, have said they support proposals to fund the placement of police officers or armed guards in schools.

Sen. Kathy Marchione, R-Halfmoon, characterized the proposal as "a good start."

"We also need to provide schools additional funding for more physical security such as reinforced doors and windows, as well as security cameras and metal detectors," Marchione said in a statement this week. "And we must do more on the critical issue of mental health to ensure that based upon reliable, credible reports of someone being a potential hazard to themselves or to others, our excellent law enforcement officers and school officials have all the support, laws and resources they need to act quickly on that information and take any necessary steps to neutralize a possible threat."

Cuomo countered that mass shootings and other incidents of gun violence are not specific to schools.

"It's a problem of shootings society-wide, in arenas, in conference centers, in transportation facilities .. we've had shootings in hospitals," he said, asking whether the Republicans would also propose arming doctors with guns. "Making a teacher a police officer, in essence, and having shootouts in classrooms is one of the more bizarre concepts I've ever heard."Three Tipperary men are to receive very prestigious awards in Silicon Valley on March 15th as part of a Global Award initiative which recognises entrepreneurial excellence across all technology platforms.

Noel Kenehan, originally from Killoskehane, Barnane, Borrisoleigh is the Vice President and Chief Technical Officer of Ericsson; Tadhg Burke, Clogher, Clonoulty is Director Global Employee Services, Netflix; and Gerard Dwyer is CFO Waymo.

And, the three Premier County men are being honoured along with others at the Stanford Faculty Club, Stanford, California, two days before St Patrick's Day. The Silicon Valley Global Awards brings together the most entrepreneurial minds in Silicon Valley and beyond to honor top Irish and Irish-American executives making a significant impact in their field. A total of fifty executives are selected and honored each year. The event generates rich networking opportunities, and showcases experts and innovators from the ITLG community advancing technology today.



Noel Kenehan

The Tipperary Star caught up with Noel Kenehan this week and the former Drom-Inch hurler was thrilled with the award. A regular visitor home to see his father Noel and his relations and many friends, Noel is a past pupil of Barnane National School and St Joseph's College, Borrisoleigh - his older brother Jim works with Intel and together they stage an annual engineering day in Barnane NS for the current pupils to help inspire the entrepreneurs of the future.

I was in UL (studying electronic engineering) in College with Tadhg Burke and we meet up regularly here in the US, so it's great that we are both being honoured at the same time. What I am at now is a far cry from milking cows before school, but it is very exciting, Noel said.

Established in October 2007 and headquartered in Silicon Valley, the ITLG is a non-profit organization comprised of senior executives from some of the world's leading corporations, each of whom is committed to promoting the technology connection between Ireland and the Silicon Valley.



Tadhg Burke

And, to be honoured by this group is indeed an achievement for Noel, Gerard and Tadhg who are operating at the very cutting edge of the hi-tech industry. Minister for Business, Enterprise and Innovation Heather Humphries is to attend the event in the US and there may be an opportunity for the three Tipperary lads to meet with and greet the Minister.

Noel, who is married to Vera and has one son, does not see himself returning to Ireland in the immediate future. However, he does love to come home and keeps in constant contact with the goings on in Drom-Inch - he captained the senior hurling team during his last season wearing the green and white in 2004 and was regarded as a very determined, committed and competant defender - many of the traits which have helped him to achieve great success in his career also.



Gerard Dwyer

Tadhg and Gerard are also very well known locally and are this week toasting their awards. They too have worked very hard to get to where they are - a long way from Tipperary at this stage - but their links with home remain as strong as ever.

Congrats to these three proud sons of The Premier County - a county which is very proud of them also.Ella McSweeney of RTEs Ear to the Ground leads a stellar cast of national and international speakers and organisations at the annual Feeding Ourselves event in Cloughjordan this Saturday, March 3.

This year's theme is Rural Revitalisation through a Co-operative Approach to Farming and Food.

International guest speakers from the European Parliament, Hannes Lorenzen, and the GROW Observatory, Pavlos Georgiadis, compliment Irish experts from a range of farming, food, environmental and rural development backgrounds.

Topics for the event will be of interest to anyone with a stake in agri-food and rural Ireland. Among the topics will be the benefits of co-operative approaches for rural revitilisation will feature; examples of North Tipperary businesses with elements of the co-operative ethos. These will include Riot Rye Bakehouse and Crawfords Farm, both from Cloughjordan.

Initiatives which may suit specific farms, groups of farmers or communities will be showcased. These include high nature value farming, James Moran; social farming, Aideen McGloin; community-supported agriculture, Pat Malone and Tamara McGinty.

The event is organised by Cloughjordan Community Farm and Cloughjordan ecovillage-based sustainability NGO Cultivate. It is supported by European agri-food policy NGO ARC2020 the Horizon 2020 supported EU innovation project GROW Observatory, UCC Centre for Co-operative Studies, the Night Orchard and the Cloughjordan Ecovillage.

Feeding Ourselves 2018 will be held in St Kierans hall in Cloughjordan.

Registration from 9.30. To book both Feeding Ourselves and speakEATsy, go to nots.ie/courses/feeding-ourselves/Businesses and shops in Tipperary are preparing to batten down the hatches ahead of one of the worst snow storms to hit the county since 1982.

Lidl stores have issued a statement on their planned closure in Munster and Leinster from 3pm tomorrow, March 1, and will remain closed until 1pm Friday March 2.

"Decisions may be taken at individual store level to extend this closure period depending on localised weather conditions," said a spokesperson.

LITs Thurles and Clonmel campuses (and the Questum Enterprise Centre) will close from 3pm this afternoon, and will remain closed on Thursday, March 1st, Friday, March 2nd and Saturday, March 3rd.

Elsewhere the University of Limerick will also close on Thursday, March 1 and Friday, March 2, due to the Status Red snow and ice warning. The university is due to reopen on Saturday, March 3 at 10am, weather conditions permitting.

All on-campus classes, events and activities for Thursday and Friday are cancelled and there will be no access to University Buildings at this time. Student residences will remain open. All student village receptions will remain open and security will be in place to support on-campus residents.

All Clonmel Credit Union offices including Fethard and Mullinahone will close from tomorrow Thursday the 1 March at 2pm, and will remain closed all day Friday. Business is expected to return to normal in all offices on Saturday the 3 of March, weather permitting. Thurles Credit Union will open from 10am to 2pm tomorrow Thursday 1st March, Urlingford office will open from 10am to 1.30pm and the Killenaule office will remain closed.

Nenagh Day Care Centre closed until Monday due to weather conditions.

Boston Scientific Clonmel will be closed Thursday and Friday.

Thurles Leisure Centre will close on Thursday and Friday.

Thurles and Clonmel libraries will close from 3pm this afternoon and will remain closed on Thursday, March 1st, Friday, March 2nd and Saturday, March 3rd.As is the case every year, Alpina is headed to the Geneva Motor Show with a fresh tune of a new BMW model. This year, the new X3 gets the honor of the German tuners time, and once again, Alpina didnt disappoint. This, ladies and gentlemen, is the Alpina XD3. Its a handful in more ways than one, which is typically the case when its Alpina were talking about. After all, this is the same tuner that gave us the B4 Biturbo, the B7 xDrive, and most recently, the B6 xDrive Gran Coupe BMW CCA Edition.

A big part of this program is the aerodynamic body kit that includes a new front bumper that also happens to have the word Alpina on the front lip

As you might expect, Alpina put in some work to give the X3 a new look. A big part of this program is the aerodynamic body kit that includes a new front bumper that also happens to have the word Alpina on the front lip. Theres something to be said for bumpers and lip spoilers that help give a car a sportier and more aggressive look. Thats the case here. The rear bumper is also new. Its not as prominent as its counterpart in the front, but it does provide a good aesthetic balance with the X3s quad exhaust setup. A new set of 22-inch multi-spoke alloy wheels complete the exterior upgrades. The interior also gets its share of upgrades, none more prominent than the Alpina steering wheel thats now sitting in front of the driver.

The interior also gets its share of upgrades, none more prominent than the Alpina steering wheel thats now sitting in front of the driver.

It goes without saying that engine upgrades sit at the heart of every Alpina program for a BMW. The tuner didnt veer away from tradition with the XD3 as the crossover benefits from a hearty slice of engine tuning that results in an output of 338 horsepower and 516 pound-feet of torque coming out of right-hand versions of the X3s 3.0-liter six-cylinder bi-turbo engine. This version allows the XD3 to sprint from 0 to 62 mph in 4.9 seconds, making it 1.4 seconds quicker than the Porsche Macan Diesel S. Customers can also opt for the left-hand drive variant and its more powerful 3.0-liter quad-turbo diesel unit. In this case, the output increases to 384 horsepower and 567 pound-feet of torque, enough to propel the XD3 from an idle position to 62 mph in just 4.6 seconds on its way to a top speed of 165 mph.

The output increases to 384 horsepower and 567 pound-feet of torque, enough to propel the XD3 from an idle position to 62 mph in just 4.6 seconds

All these components paint a picture of what Alpina is capable of. Whats more impressive is that the X3, on its own, is already an impressive piece of machinery. Its engaging to drive and has one of the best chassis of any SUV in its segment. It says a lot of Alpinas capability as a BMW tuner when it can turn what is already a great car and turn it into something better.

References

Read our full review on the 2018 BMW X3.

Read more BMW news.

Read more Geneva Motor Show news.Economic Commission for Africas Executive Secretary, Vera Songwe, on Tuesday met with African Ambassadors in Ethiopia for their 19th quarterly briefing which touched on a number of issues affecting the continent and the work of the ECA in supporting the continents quest for economic and structural transformation.

Ms. Songwe opened the meeting with an overview of the work done by the ECA in the past three months in implementing its work programme for the biennium 2016-2017.

She provided the Ambassadors with some important updates on the ongoing United Nations system-wide management reforms and other matters relevant to the work of the Secretariat.

The ECA Chief and the Ambassadors discussed the forthcoming historic signing of the Continental Free Trade Area in Kigali, Rwanda, in March and the work the ECA continues to do in supporting the African Union Commission and member States in the CFTA negotiations.

Member States, like Ghana, were concerned that it seemed like the private sector was not heavily involved as would be expected to make sure they benefited and entered trade deals that would be benefit the continent and its people once the CFTA was implemented.

Of particular concern to member States were also issues to do with migration and the need to change the narrative to reflect that African migration was more intra-regional than international, and statistics to record the movement of African people within the continent.

Ms. Songwe, supported by Social Development Policy Division Director, Thoko Ruzvidzo, told the Ambassadors about the High Level Panel on Migration (HLPM) which is chaired by former Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf.

The HLPM, which seeks to identify and articulate key issues that form the African migration story, challenges and priorities for the continent, is expected to produce a report in April following its work on migration in Africa.

The Ambassadors were also briefed about consultations on the Global Compact on Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration. They urged the ECA to work closely with its partners, the AUC and the African Development Bank (AfDB), to find ways through which Africa can stop illicit financial flows that are costing the continent an estimated $80 billion annually.

Ms. Songwe urged the Ambassadors to encourage their countries to sign-up to global tax transparency and other relevant legislation to stop the bleeding and to ensure that money and assets siphoned out of the continent illicitly can be brought back once tracked successfully.

As much as we talk about illicit financial flows and we make a lot of fuss about it, many of us have not taken basic steps that are needed and required to ensure that the money doesnt go out, she said.

If you dont close your door and you wake up every day saying your goats have been taken, everybody will say but you didnt close your door. We have a sort of pretend problem because we have not closed our doors. We should start by saying how many countries are still pending in signing this legislation that says close your doors, Ms. Songwe said, adding much more has been lost from Africa since the Thabo Mbeki on Illicit Financial Flows in Africa was released in 2015.

Other subjects that came up during the briefing include the Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs), which are trade and development agreements negotiated between the European Union and the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) partners engaged in regional economic integration processes; Neighbourhood Policy Agreements; the Conference of Ministers which is expected to be held in April; and the UN Peace and Security Council.

The Ambassadors agreed the ECA should continue to support Africa on migration and the EPAs; ensure cohesiveness between Addis Ababa and New York, among other things.The UN Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) Sub-regional Office for Southern Africa (SRO-SA), in collaboration with the African Union Southern Africa Regional Office (AU-SARO), are organising a regional conference on Corruption and the Challenge of Economic Transformation in Southern Africa from 4-6 July, 2018.

The conference will bring together academics, high-level government officials from member States, members of the private sector, CSOs, NGOs, anti-corruption institutions, research institutions, invited legislators and members of the judiciary, as well as regional and international organizations.

Not only timely but of imperative necessity, the conference resonates with the declaration of 2018 by the African Union as the year of anti-corruption on the theme; Winning the Fight against Corruption: A Sustainable Path to Africas Transformation.[1] Although Africa since the 1980s has crafted economic development blueprints like the Lagos Plan of Action and the Final Act of Lagos, the African Alternative Framework to the Structural Adjustment Programme (ALF-SAP), the NEPAD Document, and currently Agenda 2063, bolstered by national development plans in different African countries, the goal of economic transformation remains quite elusive. Issues of policy inconsistency, governance challenges, leadership inertia, and more importantly, corruption have stalled Africas efforts at radical economic transformation.

In its varied forms (state capture, grand and petty), there is mounting evidence labeling corruption as the root of the economic hemorrhage in Africa, engendering rent and unproductive behavior in the economy, capital flight, misallocation and misappropriation of scarce resources, missed investment opportunities, retarded growth, deteriorating social services, worsening inequalities and poor governance culture, all of which undermine the goal of economic transformation in Southern Africa and Africa, in general.[2]

However, there is renewed commitment towards the goal of economic transformation in Africa. Backed by the African Unions Agenda 2063, economic transformation is being progressively adopted by African countries to direct the deployment of factors of production to more productive sectors (industrialization). In this realm, Southern African Development Community (SADC)s Heads of State and Government endorsed the SADC Industrialization Strategy in 2015  demonstrating their readiness to spearhead economic transformation in the sub-region.

Whereas economic transformation in Africa requires massive investment in human capital and infrastructure development, Africas investment has succumbed to corruption-induced illicit financial flows. Estimates by the AU and the ECA in the 2016 Report of the High Level Panel on Illicit Financial Flows from Africa[3] shows that, illicit financial flows in Africa over the past 50 years exceeds $1 trillion (an amount nearly matching the total ODA received by Africa over the same period). Additionally, approximately $50 billion is lost from Africa annually through illicit financial flows instead of augmenting domestic resource mobilization (DRM) and investment. On account of corruption, the average African growth rate of 5% per year since 2000 to around 2012, remains below the 2-digit growth rate which transformed Asian economies.

Noting the grievous welfare and economic effects of corruption, the United Nations enacted the United Nations Convention Against Corruption (UNCAC). At a regional level, AU has set in motion a number of initiatives meant to combat corruption (African Convention on Preventing and Combating Corruption (AUCPCC), AU Advisory Board on Corruption (AUBC) and the African Charter on Democracy, Elections and Governance (ACDEG)). At sub-regional level, SADC introduced the SADC Protocol against Corruption in 2001 as a way of preventing, identifying, penalizing and stamping out corruption. At national level, nearly all Southern African Member States have established bodies, institutions and legislatures meant to eliminate corruption. Despite the concerted effort, corruption in Southern Africa has continued unabatedly.

A 2017 study on the effectiveness of anti-corruption agencies in Southern Africa conducted by the Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa (OSISA)[4] noted that corruption in Southern Africa obstructs transparency in governments revenues and in mining contracts, allows illicit exploitation of minerals and militarization of mining, the smuggling of minerals, political patronage and clientelism, as well as political and electoral corruption. Transparency Internationals Perception Index of 2016 shows that Southern African countries have dropped in their corruption rankings. Against this background, average growth for SADC has continued to fall in the recent past (2.3% in 2015 and 1.4% in 2016). Also, the manufacturing sector which is tipped to be the engine behind economic transformation in the SADC region has been sliding since 2010 (4% in 2010 and 2.6% in 2016). This evidence confirms that endemic corruption in Southern Africa is linked to the poor showing of the economy thus sweeping and radical measures to arrest corruption are highly necessary.

In this anti-corruption year and reflecting on the need to transform economies in Southern Africa, it is unavoidable to pose a number of questions; what forms and dimensions does corruption take in Southern Africa? What are the major drivers and agencies of corruption in the region? How has corruption affected the economy (domestic private investment, foreign direct investment, state revenue, capital formation, and aid flows)? How are illicit financial flows related to investment and economic growth in SADC? How is poverty related to corruption? What is the role of the legislature and judiciary in curbing corruption? Are current corruption measures capturing all the facets of corruption? What are the powers vested in anticorruption institutions and bodies in Southern Africa and how effective are they? What initiatives have been implemented by anti-corruption bodies and what results are there to share? Is there room to improve the effectiveness of anti-corruption institutions? How is the SADC protocol on corruption being implemented? Why is corruption still on the rampage in Southern Africa? What are the key policy interventions  at the national, regional and international levels  necessary in upscaling the fight against corruption and the role of key stakeholders in it? These and more questions will be addressed at the regional Conference (in the context of Southern Africa) through well formulated and methodologically-sound researches.

Sub-themes

The following sub-themes have been identified:

Conceptualization and Theoretical Perspectives on corruption and economic transformation; Governance, Politics, and corruption and its implications; The Economics of Corruption (Corruption, investment, growth, state revenue, capital formation, market trust and confidence, poverty and inequality); State institutions (including state owned enterprises and the public service), the private sector (MNCs and SMEs), international actors and Corruption; Legal and institutional frameworks and state capacity in combating corruption (anticorruption institutions, horizontal accountability and audit institutions, and their practices); Culture, Values and corruption; Illicit financial flows: causes, trends, economic links and remedies; The role of regional bodies in fighting corruption; The future of fighting corruption; and Reversing the scourge of corruption in Southern Africa

Submission of Abstracts

Abstracts for the regional conference, not more than two pages maximum, should be submitted not later than 20th March 2018 to the email addresses below. Successful authors of abstracts will be notified by the end of March 2018.

Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. and CC: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

[1] The theme was declared at the AU 30th Assembly of Heads of State and Government held in Addis Ababa, 22-29 January 2018.

[2] ECA, 2016. African Governance Report IV: Measuring Corruption in Africa: The International Dimensions Matter. https://www.tralac.org/news/article/9386-african-governance-report-iv-rethinking-how-we-measure-corruption.html

[3] See Report of the High Level Panel on Illicit Financial Flows from Africa: Track it! Stop it! Get it!, available at https://www.tralac.org/news/article/6951-report-of-the-high-level-panel-on-illicit-financial-flows-from-africa.html

[4] OSISA, 2017. Effectiveness of Anti Corruption Agencies in Southern Africa: Angola, Botswana, DRC, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland, Zambia and Zimbabwe. A review by Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa (OSISA).South Africas trade deficit hits record high

South Africas trade balance shifted to a R27.7 billion deficit in January of 2018, compared to a downwardly revised R15.31 billion surplus in the previous month, and well below market expectations of a R5.0 billion deficit. It was the highest trade deficit on record.

Exports declined 22.6 percent month-over-month to R80.5 billion in January, mainly due to decreases in precious metals and stones (-34 percent); mineral products (-21 percent); and vehicles and transport equipment (-47 percent). The most important export partners were: China (9.5 percent of total exports); the US (7.0 percent); Germany (5.9 percent); India (5.3 percent) and Japan (5.0 percent).

Imports increased 18.3 percent month-over-month to R108.2 billion, with significant increases in original equipment components (139 percent); precious metals and stones (137 percent); and base metals (56 percent). Main import partners were: China (20.4 percent of total imports); Germany (9.5 percent); Saudi Arabia (6.8 percent); the US (5.0 percent) and India (4.2 percent).

Excluding trade with neighboring Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia and Swaziland (BLNS), the country posted a trade deficit of R33.8 billion in January, swinging from a R7.5 billion deficit in December 2017.

The South African Revenue Service (SARS) today releases trade statistics for January 2018 recording a trade balance deficit of R27.66 billion. These statistics include trade data with Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia and Swaziland (BLNS).

The year-to-date (01 January to 31 January 2018) trade balance deficit of R27.66 billion is a deterioration on the deficit for the comparable period in 2017 of R11.28 billion. Exports year-on-year grew by 0.5% whilst imports for the same period showed an increase of 18.3%.

Including trade data with Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia and Swaziland (BLNS)

The R27.66 billion trade balance deficit for January 2018 is attributable to exports of R80.51 billion and imports of R108.17 billion. Exports decreased from December 2017 to January 2018 by R23.52 billion (22.6%) and imports increased from December 2017 to January 2018 by R19.45 billion (21.9%).

On a year-on-year basis, the R27.66 billion trade balance deficit for January 2018 is a deterioration from the deficit recorded in January 2017 of R11.28 billion. Exports of R80.51 billion are 0.5% more than the exports recorded in January 2017 of R80.14 billion. Imports of R108.17 billion are 18.3% more than the imports recorded in January 2017 of R91.41 billion.

December 2017s trade balance surplus was revised downwards by R0.41 billion from the previous months preliminary surplus of R15.72 billion to a revised surplus of R15.31 billion as a result of ongoing Vouchers of Correction (VOCs).

Trade highlights by category

The main month-on-month export movements (R million) Section: Including BLNS: Precious Metals & Stones -R6 667 -34% Mineral Products -R5 907 -21% Vehicles & Transport Equipment -R5 023 -47% Machinery & Electronics -R1 610 -21% Prepared Foodstuff -R1 195 -27% Total -R20 402 87% Total Movement -R23 517 100%

The main month-on-month import movements (R million) Section: Including BLNS: Original Equipment Components +R4 628 +139% Mineral Products +R3 497 +21% Machinery & Electronics +R2 206 +10% Base Metals +R2 008 +56% Chemical Products +R1 441 +15% Plastics & Rubber +R1 269 +32% Precious Metals & Stones +R1 204 +137% Textiles +R1 015 +39% Total +R17 268 89% Total Movement +R19 454 100%

Trade highlights by world zone

The world zone results from December 2017 (revised) to January 2018 are given below.

Africa:

Exports: R22 101 million  this is a decrease of R3 747 million from December 2017.

Imports: R12 798 million  this is an increase of R4 491 million from December 2017.

Trade Balance surplus: R9 303 million  this is a deterioration of R8 238 million in comparison to the R17 541 million surplus recorded in December 2017.

America:

Exports: R7 072 million  this is a decrease of R2 001 million from December 2017.

Imports: R9 301 million  this is a decrease of R 50 million from December 2017.

Trade Balance deficit: R2 229 million  this is a deterioration of R1 952 million in comparison to the R 277 million deficit recorded in December 2017.

Asia:

Exports: R26 583 million  this is a decrease of R10 695 million from December 2017.

Imports: R51 293 million  this is an increase of R9 081 million from December 2017.

Trade Balance deficit: R24 710 million  this is a deterioration of R19 776 million in comparison to the R4 934 million deficit recorded in December 2017.

Europe:

Exports: R17 040 million  this is a decrease of R5 563 million from December 2017.

Imports: R32 857 million  this is an increase of R5 848 million from December 2017.

Trade Balance deficit: R15 817 million  this is a deterioration of R11 412 million in comparison to the R4 405 million deficit recorded in December 2017.

Oceania:

Exports: R 639 million  this is a decrease of R 139 million from December 2017.

Imports: R1 693 million  this is an increase of R 125 million from December 2017.

Trade Balance deficit: R1 054 million  this is a deterioration of R 264 million in comparison to the R 790 million deficit recorded in December 2017.

Excluding trade data with Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia and Swaziland (BLNS)

The trade data excluding BLNS for January 2018 recorded a trade balance deficit of R33.84 billion. This was a result of exports of R71.42 billion and imports of R105.26 billion.

Exports decreased from December 2017 to January 2018 by R21.70 billion (23.3%) and imports increased from December 2017 to January 2018 by R19.25 billion (22.4%).

The cumulative deficit for 2018 is R33.84 billion compared to R17.72 billion deficit in 2017.

Trade highlights by category

The main month-on-month export movements (R million) Section: Excluding BLNS: Precious Metals & Stones -R6 087 -32% Mineral Products -R5 792 -22% Vehicles & Transport Equipment -R4 993 -51% Machinery & Electronics -R1 546 -25% Prepared Foodstuff -R 929 -30% Total -R19 347 89% Total Movement -R21 702 100%

The main month-on-month import movements (R million) Section: Excluding BLNS: Original Equipment Components +R4 628 +139% Mineral Products +R3 484 +20% Machinery & Electronics +R2 151 +10% Base Metals +R1 985 +56% Chemical Products +R1 672 +18% Plastics & Rubber +R1 257 +32% Textiles +R 969 +42% Total +R16 146 84% Total Movement +R19 255 100%

Trade highlights by world zone

The world zone results for Africa excluding BLNS from December 2017 (Revised) to January 2018 are given below.

Africa:

Exports: R13 020 million  this is a decrease of R1 932 million from December 2017.

Imports: R9 891 million  this is an increase of R4 292 million from December 2017.

Trade Balance surplus: R3 129 million  this is a deterioration of R6 224 million in comparison to the R9 353 million surplus recorded in December 2017.

Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia and Swaziland (Only)

Trade statistics with the BLNS for January 2018 recorded a trade balance surplus of R6.17 billion. This was a result of exports of R9.08 billion and imports of R2.91 billion.

Exports decreased from December 2017 to January 2018 by R1.81 billion (16.7%) and imports increased from December 2017 to January 2018 by R0.20 billion (7.4%).

The cumulative surplus for 2018 is R6.17 billion compared to R6.44 billion in 2017.

Trade Highlights by Category

The main month-on-month export movements (R million) Section: BLNS: Precious Metals & Stones -R 581 - 93% Prepared Foodstuff -R 266 - 19% Base Metals -R 124 - 19% Textiles -R 115 - 23% Mineral Products -R 114 - 7% Miscellaneous Manufactured Articles -R 103 - 34% Plastics & Rubber -R 87 - 19% Footwear & Accessories -R 81 -43% Total -R1 471 81% Total Movement -R1 815 100%The Trade Development Forum began this morning in Kampala: twitter updates @TradeMarkEastA; hashtag #TDF2018

Call for abstracts: Corruption and the challenge of economic transformation in southern Africa

South Africa trade data: January deficit of R27.66 billion (SARS)

The South African Revenue Service has released trade statistics for January 2018 recording a trade balance deficit of R27.66bn. The R27.66bn trade balance deficit for January 2018 is attributable to exports of R80.51bn and imports of R108.17bn. Exports decreased from December 2017 to January 2018 by R23.52bn (22.6%) while imports increased by R19.45bn (21.9%). Profiled trade highlights by world zone: (i) Africa trade balance surplus of R9 303 million  this is a deterioration of R8 238 million in comparison to the R17 541 million surplus recorded in December 2017; (ii) Asia trade balance deficit of R24 710 million  this is a deterioration of R19 776 million in comparison to the R4 934 million deficit recorded in December 2017.

tralacs John Stuart: Openness to trade makes South Africa vulnerable to global shifts (Business Day)

The sectors that are the targets of industrial policy are also lacking in their ability to create jobs at the rate required by the economy. On aggregate, the industrial sectors targeted by the Department of Trade and Industrys industrial policy action plan are becoming more skills intensive, which means they will not be able to absorb unemployed low-and middle-skilled workers even if they grow. This tendency may be acceptable in Europe, where population growth is relatively static and education quality is high, but it is different in SA. It appears our industrial policy is misdirected if it is intended primarily to create the jobs that the economy so desperately needs.

Nigerias Office of Trade Negotiations launches annual Trade Policy Report (ThisDay)

One of the main highlights of the report is the statistics, which shall be used to monitor, assess and re-negotiate Nigerias trading relationship with counterparts. NATPOR statistics indicates that trade activities (import and export) employed over 14% of the Nigerian workforce, equivalent of 10.8 million people. It also notes that trade accounts for 18% of GDP, second only to agriculture (which accounts for 29.1% of the GDP). However, the overall value of Nigerian trade between 2014 and 2015 decreased by approximately 7.4 billion (from about 23.7 billion in 2014, to 16.3 billion in 2015). In terms of percentage, this is a decrease of about 18.5% in trade value between 2014 and 2015. The decrease in 2015 reflected the recession in economic activities due to the sharp decline in oil receipts. There was a slight increase in 2016. Stronger more positive performance is expected with Q4 figure in 2017.

NATPOR also showed that trade statistics for the three quarters of 2017, both in export and import, South Africa remained Nigerias major trading partner in Africa. Within ECOWAS, Cote dIvoire assumed the top position in terms of Nigerias imports from ECOWAS, while Togo maintained top position in terms of Nigerias exports to ECOWAS, in the reported three quarters of 2017. Outside Africa, Europe remains Nigerias major regional trading partner (both in Export and Import) through the three reported quarters of 2017, followed by Asia. Globally, India and the United States are Nigerias two top major trading partners in export through the 3 quarters of 2017, while China and Belgium are Nigerias two top trading partners in import through the 3 quarters of 2017. [Full text of FMITI press release (pdf)]

Vera Songwes meeting with African ambassadors: AfCFTA, migration, illicit financial flows (UNECA)

Ms Songwe opened the meeting with an overview of the work done by the ECA in the past three months in implementing its work programme for the biennium 2016-2017. She provided the Ambassadors with some important updates on the ongoing UN system-wide management reforms and other matters relevant to the work of the Secretariat. The ECA Chief and the Ambassadors discussed the forthcoming historic signing of the Continental Free Trade Area in Kigali in March and the work the ECA continues to do in supporting the AUC and member States in the AfCFTA negotiations. Member States, like Ghana, were concerned that it seemed like the private sector was not heavily involved as would be expected to make sure they benefited and entered trade deals that would be benefit the continent and its people once the AfCFTA was implemented. Ms Songwe urged the Ambassadors to encourage their countries to sign-up to global tax transparency and other relevant legislation to stop the bleeding and to ensure that money and assets siphoned out of the continent illicitly can be brought back once tracked successfully.

Standard Banks Vinod Madhavan: Digitisation will overcome African trade barriers (EA Business Week)

In a globally generalised growth environment Africas demand for trade finance is only likely to increase. This means that 2018 is likely to see Africas bank-intermediated trade finance deficit significantly exceed the AfDBs estimation of a c. $100m shortfall. Given these numbers, using digitisation to increase the efficiency and reduce the cost of trade will be essential if Africa is to  quickly leverage the full potential of this historically unique instance of synchronised global growth. In particular, access to trade finance remains a challenge for Africas small and medium-sized enterprises. Developing effective SME financing able to support the rapid expansion of intra-African trade remains critical to both growth as well as social and political stability.

Trade finance in Africa is currently heavily paper-based and siloed both within and between nations. For a while now African governments have been encouraging digitisation as a way of boosting domestic and global trade in markets that lack traditional domestic and cross-border trade infrastructure. For example, the tea industry in Kenya has adopted a platform that brings buyers and sellers together. Other similar digital platforms in Kenya, Ghana and Tanzania provide services to businesses in the bulk oil importation space. What is immediately obvious is that Africa is being transformed by digitisation on three levels, namely; through the digitisation of the physical supply, the financial supply and also via the documents chain. [The author is Group Head of Trade for Standard Bank Group]

Turkeys Africa initiative sees six-fold rise in trade with continent (Daily Sabah)

Economic relations have been diversified with a win-win approach. In this period, Turkey signed 45 commercial and economic cooperation agreements with the African countries, increasing the number of agreements for the reciprocal protection of investments from six to 26. While Turkish direct investments in Africa were $100m in 2003, they reached $6.5bn in 2017. Turkish entrepreneurs provided employment to 78,000 people throughout the continent and the volume of the projects carried out by the Turkish contracting companies exceeded $55bn. The number of continental embassies rose from 12 in 2003 to 41 in 2017, when the African Expansion Policy was initiated. Turkish Airlines flight traffic reached 52 destinations in 33 countries on the continent. Recep Tayyip Erdogan has paid more than 30 visits to 28 African countries as both prime minister and president in the last 10 years. Foreign Economic Relations Board established business councils with 42 African countries. [Turkish-Algerian Business Forum: Erdogan says Turkish-Algerian trade exchange to hit $10bn]

High costs slow journey to export Ugandas beef (Daily Monitor)

Exorbitant cost of electricity, poor quality of cows and lack of adequate places to seclude (quarantine) sick animals from the healthy ones have made it difficult for a factory commissioned about three years ago to export processed, packaged and branded beef to the rest of the world, Daily Monitor has learnt. Egypt-Uganda Food Security, a modern slaughterhouse commissioned in August 2015 by President Museveni is yet to export any value-added beef despite his remarks then that the country has come of age and as a result it is now in position to export processed and branded beef products. Ideally, commercial operations should have hit high gear by now, but as a result of challenges, most of which are down to the government failure to come clean on its promises, the management of the modern abattoir has found it hard to immediately hit the ground running as earlier anticipated.

Zambia: Minister of Finances statement on the state of the economy (MoF)

I will now clarify the position of Cabinet and the Ministry on the restructuring of debt. This issue is unfortunately being misinterpreted that Government is anticipating challenges in servicing its debt. As announced in the 2018 budget address, the Government has commenced preparations to address the repayment of its Eurobonds through the operationalization of a sinking fund. Part of the process involves addressing liquidity risks at the time of paying/refinancing of the Eurobonds. As part of prudent risk management, the Government decided to reposition some flows falling due during the period of the Eurobonds, by engaging some creditors that may be open to pushing some flows this period forward. We are not contemplating any stock re-profiling but just the flows that fall due in the period of the repayments. China being a natural first creditor and accounting for 28% of our debt was a natural creditor to have a discussion with.

May I emphasize that Zambia does not intend to and will not default on its obligations. Only creditors that will be amenable to the proposal will be engaged and this will be on the basis of willingness. As part of the broader strategy, the Government has since put in place a team of officers from the Bank of Zambia, Ministry of Finance and Ministry of Justice to undertake work that will determine exactly what form of strategy will be adopted for the repayment/redemption of Eurobonds. The work will be completed by the end of the 1st quarter 2018. [Statement by Minister of Finance, Margaret Mwanakatwe] [S&P maintains Zambias stable outlook rating: MoF statement]

South Africa: Poultry producers vow to tackle immoral dumping, incorrect packaging (IOL)

The South African poultry industry on Tuesday met to find lasting solutions to the thorny issues of import tariffs, free trade agreements, immoral dumping and the mis-labelling of packaging. The South African poultry industry is faced with cheap imports from the United States, Brazil and the EU, and with the additional devastation wreaked by the avian flu epidemic. Advocacy group, Fair Play, said that this comprises immoral dumping, and made a recommendation that imports be reduced by as much as 50% while calling for the zero VAT rating of South African poultry products. Another appeal by producers was that the playing field be levelled for everyone including importers, and for the same rules of production and packaging to be applied across the board. The Department of Trade and Industry presented a report that was being tabled simultaneously to the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee giving an update from the poultry task team.

Climate resilience in Africa: the role of cooperation around transboundary waters (World Bank)

This report draws on a substantial body of empirical evidence from five major basins in Africa - including the Nile, Zambezi, Limpopo, Lake Chad, Niger basins - to support the critical role of transboundary cooperation on water resources management to building systemic resilience to climate change in Africa. The case studies underlying this report show that appropriately planned transboundary cooperation can improve the resilience of economies, livelihoods, and ecosystems in Africa. Specifically, the case studies show that...: Extract (pdf): Over 90% of Africas surface water is in transboundary basins and requires transboundary cooperation to manage optimally. In addition to its surface water, Africa has many transboundary aquifers, underlying over 40% of the continent. Some form of cooperation exists for most river basins (although much less for shared aquifers), but cooperation is inevitably complicated by a range of technical, economic, financial, political, and environmental challenges. Options for building resilience to climate change will be considerably smaller if limited to actions undertaken by individual countries only and run the risk of counter-productive investments when viewed at the regional scale.

Conference on Fiscal Management of Mining and Petroleum in West Africa: remarks by IMF Deputy Managing Director, Carla Grasso (IMF, GoG)

Too often, it seems that having natural resources makes very little difference to countries in terms of achieving better developmental outcomes. In some particularly extreme cases, natural resources might even make the situation worse if, for example, these resources lead to violent conflicts or foster corruption. We have also been reminded in recent years that commodity prices are highly cyclical and volatile. For countries in the region that are still dependent on revenue from the mining or petroleum sector, this has led to significant fiscal pressures. There are no simple answers on how to escape the so-called Resource Curse. [UNU-WIDER Blog by Alan R Roe: Information asymmetries in extractive industries  what can be done?]I am on the same page as you. I don't want to pay for something I will not use. The better food will probably be at the small restaurants, and the vendors on the side of the road by the beach. I have stayed both on the beach at Travellers and at a condo near the cliffs. I preferred the beach location, purely due to convenience of having the beach right there and not having to either walk VERY far, or taxi every time to get to the beach.

What I would suggest is to maybe get a place that includes breakfast, that way, you can fill up on a hearty meal before you head out for the day and then eat out wherever you may end up. Travellers has Groupons often, Cocolapalm has some deals with breakfast. WhiteSands is very cheap and has wonderful reviews on TA, and you are in the middle of seven mile beach. The Cliffs area definitely has plenty of options for food (and probably has the better restaurant options in Negril), but you are a $5-10 taxi drive away from the beach.

I never want to be tied down to my hotel bar and restaurant either, I like to get out to the local places and chat with people I never would have met if I just stayed at my hotel. I hope you are able to convince them, Negril is the perfect place to go non-AI.

Also, avoid Rick's Cafe, it's way over priced and way over crowded to enjoy anything. Hit a smaller bar/restaurant for the exact same sunset. And do the One Love Bus Tour. You won't regret it.When is this trip? Your post is pretty vague to be honest. These forums generally work better when people ask questions they want answers to.

Uber is available in Amsterdam but so is a very good public transport system.

Airbnb places are not so common here now because the city council really cracked down on them and people can only rent for 30 days a year. Be careful of places with little or no reviews.

Also apartments in Amsterdam can have VERY steep stairs so if you have any kind of mobility issues then beware. If you climb mountains for a hobby you should be ok though.

If you have some more specific questions then ask away.My husband and I, with our kids who are 5 and 6 years of age, will be traveling to Costa Rica for the first time at the end of June. As of now, we are looking at flying into SJO. We are staying in a beautiful rental home in the town of Escaleras between Dominical and Uvita.

After the plane ride with little ones, I do not want to get in a car and drive 3 hours. I would like to stay somewhere overnight (possibly two nights) and break up the drive. I am not interested in staying in the city. I would love to squeeze in the Volcano and springs but that seems to be the other direction!

I have looked at flying to Liberia but the logistics (fitting in the volcano and driving on to Uvita), still do not seem to be logical with driving time concerns (I guess I have to save the Arenal area for another visit).

Jaco seems to be a half way point, but I am not reading anything exciting about the area?

It doesnt have to be a half-way point, we can drive the following morning 1-3 hours if necessary (just not all in one day after the flight!), but again outside of the city is ideal.

What do you think? Areas or resorts / lodges / hotels to stay? This is a big birthday trip, so I am looking at once-in-a-lifetime, lovely scenery, adventure, and awesome accommodations type thing. ;-) Thanks so much in advance! I appreciate your time and advice!-:- 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.The are no bus ticket counters at SJO. There is no busstop for buses heading away from San Jose at SJO.

Some of the buses to Liberia and Coco stop at a station in Alajuela known as La Radial or Estacion Autobuses del Norte. It is less than 10 minutes from the airport.

i would however check with Pulmitan to verify if the buses do stop in Alajuela...

One thing, if you catch the bus away from the San Jose station it could be full.May weather: .

Average Rainfall by months on the Caribbean coast:

Those are averages, so nothing is guaranteed. Ppl may get days of rain in the dry season and we saw clear Arenal volcano for one full day out of 3 at the end of Aug., when many thought it would just be rain, rain and more rain. - It is just as an example.

"Best beach towns without a car" blog - .

In one week, you can visit 2 destinations. If you are not set on just the beach, you can go to Arenal and then to a beach area. Many combine Arenal with Manuel Antonio for wildlife and beaches. There are ready made 1-wk long itineraries - e.g., . But if you are seeking peace and quiet, you might find it a bit too crowded and popular.

We enjoyed the less developed Caribbean coast, but May, on average, has the 2nd biggest # of days with rain - 16/month. That said, we spent 1/2 July there, when it is the wettest time, and still liked it. But it was not sunny days all the times, but cloudy a lot, rain on and off, at any time, then sun again. Leaving for the day, we carried a folding poncho in our pocket, so we were prepared. It was also very hot and humid. But the beaches are beautiful, though not white sugary sand of some other vacation destinations. And we saw monkeys, sloths, toucans, etc pretty much daily.Leaving in 2 weeks for Vietnam and Cambodia. Have our VOAs done.

How much time will Fast-track save us on arrival ? Have read various opinions.

We are well traveled seniors and used to independent travel but also would pay to avoid LONG lines.

????English is not widely spoken; but service members of hotels can usually understand enough to communicate. I had a bad experience at a homestay at Hoi An, where the lack of English was consequential. So you may wish to keep that in mind.. Same for tour guides; while they speak English (if you book a local tour), they can be difficult to understand at times.

In today's travel world, the old dichotomy between tours and independent travel has almost disappeared. I went on a 'semi-independent' trip to Vietnam on my own, and used a local travel agency to 'build' the trip for me. They did all the bookings (hotels, day tours, transfers, train, domestic flight, etc.), all at my discretion.

If you are interested, I have left a review for them on tripadvisor, they are called Indochina Best Travel.

They seem to attract a largely American/British/Canadian clientele. Prices are very reasonable (otherwise I would have gone elsewhere).

Good luckI am planning a trip from 20/05 to 2/06 in Japan with my 3.5 yr old and husband.

For now tentatively I will be staying in Tokyo for 7 days and 5 days in Osaka. From Osaka if a day trip is possible we will be going to Hiroshima.

I was wondering if I should buy JR Pass since I will be taking Shinkansen from Tokyo to Osaka and back and one from Osaka to Hiro shiva and back. Is the pass of any use then?1. I assume that you should change your currency to USD or JPY in India, but I honestly don't know where exactly.

2. Same answer as 1. Please ask someone who has been to Japan from India, or India-specific Japan tourism information resources.

3. People spend differently and the sky has no limits. I rarely spend 10,000 yen per day while playing around in Tokyo. 6,000-7,000 yen is usually enough for me to have lunch, dinner, buy small items of necessity (and not large shopping)

4. Must visits in Tokyo depends, but I suggest Shibuya and Shinjuku for the contemporary and Asakusa and Akihabara for the traditional or nostalgic feel.

5. Must visits in Kyoto depends, but Fushimi Inari, Kiyozmudera-Yasaka walk, Nijo Castle, Sanju-Sangendo, and Kinkakuji are popular.

6. Kyoto Research Park is near Tanbaguchi Station, not far away from Kyoto Station (can be walked, or bus may be taken, otherwise JR). Depends on where your hotel is located.

7. Not sure for which 3 days or whether you'd economically benefit from any pass within Kyoto (?). You might consider the bus pass for each day (it would take three rides or more to make it economically beneficial).

Edited: 3 years agoDid you look at the web page for Ratu Kini? Also Beachcomber ha some good accommodation now a lot of retirees are going there. Beachfront accom. Dorns still there, seems to get more younger ones around Christmas and Easter. Bounty has some newer bures too.

Hard to get an island in budget the Yasawa islands have budget accom. But it costs so much to get there.

Don't know if First Landing at Vuda Point it does have a white sand beach has anything that will suit the budget.

Good food nice resort. Level walking. Mainland with an usland feel.-:- 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.Your kids are definitely old enough to get very involved in planning - sights, activities, restaurants, etc. We did that with our DDs, 11 and 14 at the time, the first time we took them to London and Paris and they loved being involved, came up with a bunch of suggestions and once we got there they went off and did some teen shopping/ browsing, as well as a repeat visit to the Musee Cluny, on their own while DH and I explored some galleries that did not interest them as much.

They should be well able to check out NYC tourist web sites and should also look at the Let's Go Student Guide as well a a good street map and a subway map.

There are a ton of things in NYC that are free or low cost (but some major sights you should pay to see). Let them all research and hen vote tomake sure everyone's top choices are covered.- A 17-year-old form one student in Kakamega county charged with assaulting and causing grievous harm to her classmate

- The girl claimed to have been pushed into the action by the victim through continuous mockery over her HIV status.

- The girl's charge details indicate that she slapped her severally before taking a machete hidden within her skirt and slashing the victim on both feet, right hand and on the head.

A form one student in Likuyani, Kakamega County has been charged with assaulting his classmate.

While appearing before Chief Magistrate Charles Obulutsa the girl who claimed to be 17- years - old defended her actions, saying her classmate aged 14 had let out a secret that she was HIV positive.

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READ ALSO: Mwalimu Makerere anaswa live akila uroda na mwanafunzi wake

She said the move by her classmate had exposed her to constant mockery and stigmatization leading her to drop out of school.

A 17-year-old girl in Kakamega sued for beating colleague who exposed her HIV stats to classmates. Photo Kennedy Ochieng Okello/ 76 Crimes

READ ALSO: Uhuru to become prime minister and Ruto president in 2022 - Jubilee Party boss

She was arrested in Nakuru over the weekend and accused of attacking her classmate using a panga on February 5, 2018 at 5.00am when she was going to school before disappearing.

"You are reported to have slapped the complainant severally before cutting her on the head, legs and hands making her to bleed excessively..." read the prosecutor.

The accused girl pleaded guilty to the charges but urged the court to pardon her and protect her from stigma, saying if it were not for her friend's action she would have not committed the offense.

READ ALSO: Police officer shoots dead his wife and 5-year-old daughter after a domestic quarrel

"The complainant was my close friend and knew my status but things changed when she went out public and told my classmates to avoid sharing stationery and other material with me because i would infect them," she told the court.

She told the court that she was born with the condition and had never told anyone outside her family except the friend that she schooled with at primary school.

The mother of the attacked girl claimed that the accused was a stubborn girl that had dropped out of school.

READ ALSO: 20 counties to receive heavy rainfall from March 1 as meteorological department sounds warning to residents

"She is stubborn and intentionally hurt my child, she has been a thorn in the flesh of her family members and no one has come to help her out of police custody because they are tired," said the mother of the assaulted girl.

Mr Obulutsa directed the girl be taken for age assessment and detained at the Juvenile Remand Home in Eldoret ahead of the production of probation report, to determine is she will serve a non-custodial sentence.

The matter will be mentioned on March 12 to confirm the findings of the probation report.

Story by Milan Kiplagat, Kakamega County

ALSO WATCH:Do you support Raila Odinga's call for fresh presidential election? on TUKO tv

Source: TukoIn 2017, 346 cases and 367 victims of human trafficking were revealed in Ukraine.

Chief of the National Police of Ukraine Serhiy Kniazev said this, while presenting the annual results of activities to combat human trafficking, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.

"Last year, we identified 346 cases of trafficking in human beings against 115 such cases in 2016. In addition, 367 victims of human trafficking were identified in 2017," Kniazev said.

He added that 161 men, 184 women, 22 minors had been among the victims.

Out of 346 cases of trafficking in human beings recorded in 2017, 163 cases related to drawing into criminal activities, 142 - sexual exploitation, 17 - labor exploitation, 7 - removal of organs, 6  forced begging, 11 - trafficking in children.

In 2018, 51 cases of human trafficking have been already identified, and assistance has been rendered to 44 victims, Kniazev said.

In turn, U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch noted that the United States would continue to support Ukraine in the fight against trafficking in human beings.

"We expect to see even more results [in combating human trafficking] this year," Yovanovitch said.

olRussian-backed militants launched seven attacks on positions of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and a village 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 for over four hours fired mortars of different calibers, grenade launchers, anti-aircraft mounts and heavy machine guns on Ukrainian positions near Svitlodarsk (55km north-west of Donetsk) and shelled more than 200 mortars of different calibers. Terrorists opened fire from 120mm mortars outside Luhanske (59km north-east of Donetsk) and Troitske (69km west of Luhansk). ATO troops also came under 82mm mortar and grenade launcher fire near Novooleksandrivka (65km west of Luhansk).

In addition, Russian-backed militants shelled at least fifteen 120mm and 82mm mortars on the village of Luhanske (59km north-east of Donetsk). Since the bombardment occurred after dark, the consequences of the damage are still unknown. Now the servicemen of the Armed Forces of Ukraine check whether there are destructions of buildings and victims among the civilian population.

No ceasefire violations were recorded in Donetsk region.

As a result of the enemy shelling, one Ukrainian serviceman was wounded.

olThe Finnish military personnel can be members of the peacekeeping mission in Donbas.

Minister of Defense of Finland Jussi Niinisto said this to journalists during a meeting with Ukrainian Defense Minister Stepan Poltorak, the press service of the Defense Ministry reports.

"Minister of Defense of Finland Jussi Niinisto spoke about the possible participation of the Finnish military personnel in the peacekeeping contingent... It's still too early to say how many representatives of Finland could be deployed," the statement reads.

Finnish minister Niinisto also expressed the conviction that such countries as Sweden, Switzerland, Austria and Ireland, which have the appropriate authority and image in the world, could join the formation of the contingent along with Finland.

According to his estimate, the peacekeeping mission in Donbas may consist of more than 10,000 military personnel.

olUkraine expects the first delivery of defensive weapons from the U.S. in a few weeks.

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said this at a press conference on Wednesday, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.

"The first delivery of the weapons [from the U.S.] should be held in a few weeks," the Head of the State said.

He notes that the agreements reached with the American partners provide for a number of deliveries, which will include antisniper complexes, electronic warfare facilities and other types of weapons.

In this context, Poroshenko recalls that many Ukrainian soldiers in Donbas were killed precisely at the hands of Russian snipers.

ishMinister of Energy and Coal Industry of Ukraine Ihor Nasalyk and Ambassador of the Kingdom of Denmark to Ukraine Ruben Madsen signed an agreement on further cooperation in the development and activities of the Ukrainian-Danish Energy Center (UDEC).

This was reported by the Governmental portal.

"I highly appreciate the support of the Kingdom of Denmark in the next stage of the Danish Neighborhood Program for 2017-2021, the official launch of which was announced by Foreign Minister of Denmark Anders Samuelsen during his visit to Ukraine. The program aims to promote economic development, strengthen institutional capacity, increase energy efficiency and attract investments. In turn, I am pleased to announce the launch of the second stage of the Ukrainian-Danish Energy Center Project," Nasalyk said during the signing of the agreement.

He stressed that cooperation within the framework of the Ukrainian-Danish Energy Center was effective and efficient, and he expressed hope for a successful implementation of the second phase of the project.

"At the second stage of our cooperation, we need to attract Danish investors to work in Ukraine, and the Ukrainian-Danish Energy Center will act as a platform for dialogue and cooperation with business representatives, investors, authorities in order to attract investments in the energy sector projects," the minister said.

He informed the Danish side that the Energy and Coal Industry Ministry was ready to begin cooperation with the Danish International Development Agency (DANIDA) under the Danida Finance program and the Danish Investment Fund for Developing Countries (IFU).

ishAs of today, the population of Ukraine consumes 18 billion cubic meters of gas per year.

Ukrainian Vice Prime Minister  Minister of Regional Development, Construction, Housing and Utilities Hennadiy Zubko said this at a government meeting, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.

"Ukraines population consumes 18 billion cubic meters of gas. There is a subsidy program for which UAH 80 billion is spent per year. It's very simple  to file an application and get support. On the other hand, there is more complicated mechanism that provides investments and savings for many years to come," Zubko said.

According to him, within the framework of the Energy Efficiency Fund, households will have the opportunity to obtain a route map in order to select an auditor, project organization and subordinate organization to carry out work and to receive technical support.

ishU.S. Special Representative for Ukraine Negotiations Kurt Volker has said he believes that the Russian side will not make any decisions on the Donbas settlement until the presidential elections in Russia are held.

He said this at a lunch meeting at the Center for the National Interest public policy think tank in Washington on February 26, Ukrinform reports.

"What we have proposed is for a UN mandated peacekeeping force to go in and replace Russian forces and the separatist entities and create a secure space for a period of time where you can have local elections, where amnesty would be granted, where special status is granted," the U.S. diplomat said.

At the end of that process, in accordance with the Minsk agreements, then the territory would be restored back to Ukraine, Volker said. But he stressed that until now, there have been few tangible results.

"We've been at this for about seven months, and I have to say that I'm very pleased with the positioning, but I am not pleased with the results because there are no results," Volker said.

According to him, what is transpiring in Ukraine is anything but a frozen conflict; rather, combat continues.

In his opinion, the fundamental problem is that Moscow is skeptical of Washington and its intentions, particularly with regard to sanctions relief. However, the Trump Administration hopes to offer Russia relief for sanctions that are specifically related to the Minsk agreements. Moreover, there is no clear gain for Russia if it chooses to withdraw - only some of the sanctions would be lifted while Ukraine would continue to drift toward the West.

Meanwhile, it is unclear what approach Moscow might adopt after Russian President Vladimir Putin's reelection campaign.

But no action is likely on the part of Russia until the elections are resolved, according to Volker.

When asked if an all-out Russian escalation might be a possibility, Volker said that he does not believe the Kremlin has the military capacity to launch a full-scale conventional invasion of Ukraine.

"The prospect for increasing the conflict is just too costly for Russia even if you are talking about asymmetric warfare. I just don't see it. Ukraine is a much more resilient country than anyone ever expected," he said.

opFormer Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych will hold a press conference in Moscow on Friday, March 2.

The press conference was announced by Russian state agency TASS.

"Viktor Yanukovych will tell about new evidence of the involvement of representatives of the current Ukrainian authorities in the shooting of protesters on the Maidan, as well as trials initiated by the Kyiv authorities," the statement reads.

The press conference will be held at 2 Tverskoy Boulevard.

Yanukovych last spoke to media representatives in Rostov-on-Don on November 25, 2016, immediately after his interrogation via a video link at the Sviatoshynsky District Court of Kyiv.

opThe Constitutional Court of Ukraine has adopted a decision stipulating that the law on the principles of the state language policy passed in 2012 is recognized as not complying with the Constitution of Ukraine, an employee of the Constitutional Court has told Ukrinform.

"The Constitutional Court, at a meeting on February 28, declared unconstitutional the so-called language law of 'Kivalov-Kolesnichenko,'" he said.

At the same time, a report posted on the website of the Constitutional Court notes that on February 28, at a plenary meeting of the Grand Chamber of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine, the Constitutional Court adopted decision No. 2-r/2018 in the case on a constitutional motion from 57 MPs regarding compliance with the Constitution of Ukraine (constitutionality) of the law on Ukraine on the state language policy.

As reported, the law on the principles of the state language policy, which was submitted by MPs Vadym Kolesnichenko and Serhiy Kivalov, was approved, signed and came into force in 2012. In February 2014, the Verkhovna Rada abolished the law on regional languages, but after that then Acting President Oleksandr Turchynov refused to sign this decision.

So the law is still valid. The law provides for the possibility of official bilingualism in regions where the number of national minorities exceeds 10%.

The approval of this law in 2012 resulted in rallies and protests. After the entry into force of the law, a number of regional and local councils recognized Russian as a regional language. In addition, Hungarian, Moldovan and Romanian were recognized as regional languages in the western regions.

Fifty-seven deputies demanded in 2014 that the Constitutional Court declare unconstitutional the law of Kivalov-Kolesnichenko.

In December 2017, the Constitutional Court of Ukraine moved to the closed part of a plenary meeting for further discussion and adoption of the decision on the constitutional motion.

opCounteraction to Russian aggression and the resulting gross violation of human rights in the occupied territory are Ukraines membership priorities in the United Nations Human Rights Council.

Deputy Foreign Minister of Ukraine Serhiy Kyslytsia said this, speaking at the 37th session of the UN Human Rights Council, the press service of the Foreign Ministry reports.

"A key task of our delegation in the UN Human Rights Council will be to oppose Russian aggression and the resulting gross violation of human rights in the occupied territory of Ukraine. The international community must continue to exert pressure on the Russian Federation to force it to comply with the international obligations, including within the international humanitarian law," the press service of the Foreign Ministry quotes Kyslytsia as saying.

The critical in this context is the access to the peninsula for the international organizations, including the UN, the OSCE, the Council of Europe, which would monitor the observance of human rights by the Russian government, the diplomat noted.

olPresident of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko states that Ukraine will persistently seek the deployment of a peacekeeping mission in Donbas under the terms acceptable to Kyiv.

He said this at a press conference in Kyiv on Wednesday, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.

"We consider the peaceful political and diplomatic way of restoring territorial integrity to be a priority. We will adhere to the Minsk agreements and persistently seek the deployment of the UN peacekeeping mission under the terms acceptable to Ukraine. The peacekeepers are an important component in restoration of sovereignty, territorial integrity and independence of our state. I announced this initiative in February 2015, and, unfortunately, only now it gets more and more support from our partners," Poroshenko said.

olThis year, just like the past one, together with my colleagues from the Ukraine-NATO Solidarity project, we continue holding NATO-Ukraine: Security factor workshops. These measures allow doing some educational work on the issues of "what is NATO", "what are the advantages of Ukraine's membership in the Alliance," "how NATO works and how decisions are made in it," and many others. By busting myths about the Alliance, we understood which ones are most relevant for Ukraine.

Most often, the seminar participants question the possibility of membership in the Alliance while the country is in a state of war. So, I propose to deal with the issue in detail from a legal perspective. The only document defining the procedure for gaining membership in the Alliance is the North Atlantic Treaty of March 21, 1949. I suggest we study its content to answer the question.

Article 1 of the Treaty states that Allies undertake to settle international disputes peacefully and act to this end in accordance with the United Nations Charter. Ukraine has never solved international disputes by military means. In this context, it is very important that, despite the full understanding of Russian aggression in the East and the annexation of Crimea, the state has never declared a state of war. The bet of Ukraine and its western partners is on the Minsk agreements as a mechanism for resolving the conflict in Donbas, which, of course, draws criticism in respect of their impact on the security situation in the ATO zone. At the same time, they fully comply with the terms of Article 1 of the Treaty: it's about resolving the conflict by peaceful means. Similarly, Turkey and Greece have been trying to resolve by peaceful means their territorial disputes over Northern Cyprus (where Turkey had the status of guarantor of the existence of a united Cyprus until 1974).

Article 2 of the Treaty stipulates that Allies contribute toward the development of friendly and peaceful international relations by strengthening their free institutions and stability. They shall seek to eliminate conflict in their international economic policies and will encourage economic collaboration between any or all of them.

Article 3. Member States shall develop their individual and collective capacity to resist armed attack.

For many years, Ukraine has been a reliable partner of the Alliance and participated in many Alliance missions before the war in Donbas. Today, our country is actively cooperating with NATO in the process of rebuilding and strengthening the capabilities of not only the Ukrainian Armed Forces, but also the entire security and defense sector. Priority is to achieve interoperability with Allied forces and compliance with NATO standards by 2020. Thus, Ukraine's policy is in line with this paragraph of the Treaty.

Article 4. Member States shall consult together whenever, in the opinion of any of them, the territorial integrity, political independence or security of any of the Parties is threatened.

Article 5. It's the most prominent one, providing for the use of collective defense in the event of an attack on one of the Allies. But here we also find an important detail. The Treaty requires that the Allies provide assistance individually or collectively, including through the use of armed forces. This means that the Treaty does not contain a direct obligation to use the armed forces of member states for such assistance. According to the regulations and practice, assistance can be provided at the expense of resources, logistics and other kinds (intelligence, technical, etc.) of support. This de jure levels skeptical allegations that Ukraine's accession to the Alliance, provided that the conflict in the East is preserved, will mean the need for an automatic application of Article 5 of the Treaty. Article 5 de jure does not entail an obligation to declare war on the aggressor and necessarily apply force against it.

Moreover, given that the armed conflict in Ukraine does not cover the immediate border with Russia located in the occupied territory, legally, from the point of view of Article 5, Ukraine may resort to treating the situation according to the precedent of 1974, when Article 5 was not applied. Consequently, from the legal point of view, even if the military conflict in the East of Ukraine is preserved, the accession to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization will not automatically lead to drawing other Allies into this war. Such an interpretation of the provisions of the Treaty allows Ukraine focusing on reforming its own security and defense sector without distracting on the problem of Russian aggression as a means of preventing our country from joining NATO and the European Union.

Article 7 emphasizes that the Treaty's Article 5 shall not be applied in the event that a member state carries out peacekeeping measures in accordance with UN decisions.

Article 8 emphasizes that at the time of accession to the Organization, the country must not have international obligations that are in conflict with the Treaty. Ukraine in its foreign policy acts within the framework of the UN Charter, which is a basic document for NATO. Consequently, it does not have any international obligations that contradict the Treaty.

Article 10 of the document states that Member States may invite any other European State to accede to the Treaty (that is, to become a NATO member) and contribute to Euro-Atlantic security. Ukraine is a reliable international partner and is ready to contribute to Euro-Atlantic security, which is evident by its participation in UKRPOLBAT.

Article 11 contains the requirement for ratification of the Treaty by all Member States. This makes any country's accession to the Alliance a purely political issue, as was the case with the decision on Ukraine's associate membership in the EU and liberalization of the visa regime between our state and the European Union.

Thus, the only conditions for the country's membership in the Alliance are envisaged in the preamble of the Treaty. It states that the parties to the Treaty reaffirm their commitment to the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations and their desire to live peacefully with all peoples and governments resolute in the process of safeguarding the freedom, common heritage and civilization of their peoples based on the principles of democracy, individual liberty and the rule of law. They also seek to promote stability and well-being in the North Atlantic area, being resolved to unite their efforts for collective defense and for the preservation of peace and security.

The Revolution of Dignity has confirmed as priority the development of democracy and freedom in Ukraine. We are interested in the stability and well-being of the Euro-Atlantic area and committed to the preservation of peace and security.

Thus, the aggression of the Russian Federation cannot be considered a legal obstacle to Ukraine's accession to the Alliance. The prospect of gaining membership lies exclusively in the political plane. It depends on how quickly and efficiently Ukraine will move on the way toward embracing NATO standards, strengthening democratic institutions and remaining a predictable and stable country of the Euro-Atlantic area.

This does not mean that we have to apply for membership immediately. As a civilized partner who shares the values and visions of NATO, we are convinced that we must first accomplish certain tasks concerning criteria, compatibility and state-political stability that will allow us to finally state: "We are ready and able to pass the test on membership through ratification by partner parliaments".

Iryna Friz is a Head of the Permanent Delegation of Ukraine to the NATO PAThe defense minister said that the operation would need approval from both Russia and Ukraine, and gave no comment on how many troops Finland would be ready to provide.

Finland supports a proposed UN peacekeeping mission in eastern Ukraine but sees problems in narrowing down participants to only selected European Union countries, Defense Minister Jussi Niinisto said on Tuesday.

A report commissioned by former NATO chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen, now an adviser to Ukraines President Petro Poroshenko, proposed earlier this month that the United Nations consider a force of about 20,000 soldiers from non-NATO countries to help resolve the crisis in Ukraine, according to Reuters.

The report listed non-NATO EU countries like Finland, Sweden and Austria taking key roles, along with NATO-countries perceived as friendly by Russia, such as Greece.

"Ideas of labeling some European Union countries as more acceptable than others should be rejected," Niinisto said.

Read alsoFinland ready to join peacekeeping mission in Donbas"Also the composition of any possible peacekeeping operation should be broad-based and take into account operational requirements," Niinisto said at a news conference in Helsinki with his Ukrainian counterpart Stepan Poltorak.

Poltorak was in Helsinki to discuss security in Ukraine with Niinisto and Finlands president.

Sweden, which was suggested as a possible lead nation for a UN force in the Rasmussen report, has said it would be open to providing troops to a peacekeeping mission.

Niinisto said that the operation would need approval from both Russia and Ukraine, and gave no comment on how many troops Finland would be ready to provide.The diplomat has noted that Washington is disappointed and frustrated at Moscow's lack of progress in establishing peace and implementing Minsk agreements.

What is transpiring in Ukraine is anything but a frozen conflict; rather, combat continues, according to a U.S. Special Representative for Ukraine negotiations Kurt Volker who spoke at a lunch meeting at the Center for the National Interest on Feb 26.

Kyiv "loses a soldier about every third day," Volker noted, according to National Interest.

The diplomat has noted that Washington is disappointed and frustrated at Moscows lack of progress in establishing peace and implementing Minsk agreements, according to Voice of America.

Volker recalled that he had already met four times with his Russian counterpart Vladislav Surkov.

Over the past month, the Americans "haven't heard" from the Russians, Volker said, noting that it was expected given the ongoing presidential campaign in Russia.

Russia might intensify Donbas talks following Putin's reelection, Volker suggested.

Read alsoU.S. ready to help stop war in Donbas - VolkerThe diplomat said that the United States has worked with Europe to coordinate those sanctions to have the most direct impact on Moscow and the Kremlins inner circle. Whats more, the Trump administration has approved the sale of lethal weapons to Ukraine.

The reason for the policy change on lethal aid from the U.S. perspective is to demonstrate to Moscow that it will not make further territorial gains in Ukraine without incurring significant cost. Russias not going to make further gains in Ukraine territorially, Volker said. They are where they are.The attacks come as Budapest and Kyiv remain at odds over an education law passed by Ukraine in September 2017.

Hungary's Foreign Ministry has summoned the Ukrainian ambassador to warn against rising "extremism" after an ethnic Hungarian cultural center in western Ukraine was attacked for the second time in a month.

The headquarters of an ethnic Hungarian cultural association was set on fire overnight in Uzhgorod, capital of the Transcarpathia region, according to Hungarian news agency MTI, RFE/RL wrote.

A Molotov cocktail was thrown into the building and caused a fire that destroyed most of the ground floor, MTI said. There were no reports of injuries.

The building also suffered minor damage in an attack on February 4, when an unidentified person threw a Molotov cocktail through the window.

"Extremist political views" are gaining ground in Ukraine and intimidating ethnic Hungarians, Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto told public television channel M1 on February 27.

"All of this is unacceptable." Szijjarto said

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin wrote on Twitter early on February 27, "I firmly denounce yet another provocation in Uzhgorod against the Hungarian minority office."

Read alsoPoland's security forces bust group involved in arson attack on Hungarian culture center in ZakarpattiaMeanwhile, Polish news agency PAP reported on February 27 that Poland's domestic security agency, ABW, had detained three Poles suspected of perpetrating the arson attack against the cultural center in Uzhgorod.

"The ABW is investigating various aspects related to the attempted arson attack against the Hungarian Culture Association's building in Ukraine. International contacts of the detainees are being examined among other things," ABW spokesman Stanislaw Zaryn told PAP.

More than 100,000 ethnic Hungarians live in Transcarpathia, mostly in towns and villages close to the Hungarian border.

Read alsoUkraine on arson attack on Hungarian culture center: "Inciting hatred"The attacks come as Budapest and Kyiv remain at odds over an education law passed by Ukraine in September 2017 that Hungary and Romania say restricts the right of Ukraine's Hungarian and Romanian ethnic minorities to be educated in their native language.

Kyiv maintains the law is meant to ensure that all Ukrainian citizens can speak the state's official language, and it denies that the law is discriminatory.

Ukraine has also criticized Budapest's move to block cooperation between Kyiv and both the European Union and the NATO until the dispute is resolved.

Szijjarto said on February 27 that Ukraine must prove it is able to "keep extremists at bay" if it wants closer ties with NATO and the EU.

Some critics in Ukraine have accused Hungary of acting in the interest of Russia, whose President Vladimir Putin is regularly hosted in Budapest by Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban.According to the president, the bill will streamline cooperation between Ukraine and NATO.

Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Andriy Parubiy says the bill on national security in Ukraine has been tabled in parliament.

"The most important bill on national security has just been submitted to the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine," he said while opening the parliament's session, an UNIAN correspondent reports.

He said the bill is a priority and he was immediately sending it to the committee for consideration.

"And I order to consider it without delay. This [draft] law is very important at a time when Ukraine is fighting against Russian aggression," Parubiy said.

Read alsoBill aimed to enhance U.S.-Ukraine cybersecurity cooperation introduced in U.S. SenateIn his words, the bill is important both for security sector reform and as a significant step towards accession to NATO.

He expressed the hope for early consideration of the draft law, which was submitted by the president.

The parliament's website has already published information about presidential bill on national security of Ukraine (No. 8068) registered today, February 28, but its copy has not yet been made public.

It is the parliament's National Security and Defense Committee that will have its final say on the bill. It will also be considered by the committees on legislative support of law enforcement, regulations, budget issues, preventing and combating corruption, as well as on European integration.

As UNIAN reported earlier, U.S. Secretary of Defense James Mattis at a meeting with Ukrainian Defense Minister Stepan Poltorak in the Pentagon on February 3 called for the adoption of the law "On National Security of Ukraine," containing provisions on the introduction of civilian control over the nation's security and defense sector.

On February 20, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said he would submit a draft law on national security to the Verkhovna Rada within a week. According to the president, the bill will streamline cooperation between Ukraine and NATO.The decision has yet to be approved by the Council of the European Union with subsequent publication in the Official Journal.

The ambassadors of the European Union have decided to prolong sanctions against former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych and his associates.

The relevant decision was made at a Tuesday meeting of the Committee of Permanent Representatives (COREPER), a source in the EU Council told an UNIAN correspondent in Brussels.

Read alsoEU court overturns sanctions against Ukraine's KlyuyevThe Council does not report the number of people on the sanctions list, but according to RFE/RL correspondent in Brussels Rikard Jozwiak, there are 12 people on the list in addition to Yanukovych. However, Member of Parliament Serhiy Kliuyev and ex-Minister of Justice Olena Lukash were removed.

The decision has yet to be approved by the Council of the European Union with subsequent publication in the Official Journal.

According to Jozwiak, the decision on the sanctions against Yanukovych should be confirmed by the ministers on March 5, while the sanctions against 150 separatists and officials from Russia and 38 entities are to be prolonged on March 12.Head of the Austrian government, Sebastian Kurz, says Russia is largely responsible for the situation in eastern Ukraine and Syria.

"We talked of what opportunities are out there to ease tensions, remove the tension between Russia and the EU. First of all, I took my chance to voice our expectations, not only with regard to statehood but also international law. Discussing bilateral relations, relations at the EU-Russia level, we talked about crisis hotspots  for example, eastern Ukraine  as well as about the situation in Syria. Of course, Russia is largely responsible here," Kurz said.

He stressed that it was necessary "to do everything to halt these unbearable developments" in Syria.

Read alsoPutin: Russia "not against" putting occupied Donbas under int'l control"As for Ukraine, we also discussed this. Last year, I had the honor of chairing the OSCE and visiting eastern Ukraine. Our goal is to ensure a ceasefire in eastern Ukraine. We are pleased that the observers' monitoring mission has been doing a very important job along the line of contact. Of course, there is a long way to go toward a political solution. We expect the implementation of Minsk agreements. Before they are embodied, positive steps should also be taken to reduce tensions there, "Kurz said.

He assured that Austria was ready to contribute to and ensure a sustainable peace in the east of Ukraine.Ukraine does not require that anyone tell us whom of Ukrainian heroes to honor, and whom not to. Neither does Ukraine put forward such instructions to other states, President Petro Poroshenko told a press conference in Kyiv Feb 28.

"We don't need anyone to tell us whom of Ukrainian heroes we should honor and whom we should not. We'll figure this out on our own. Just as we don't recommend to anyone, whom Poland should respect, and whom it shouldn't," Poroshenko said, EuroPravda reports.

The president is convinced that the practice of entry bans or research freezing is erroneous. "Politicians should look at the future, while leaving the past to historians. If we stick to this concept, everything will be fine between us and Poland," Poroshenko stressed.

As UNIAN reported earlier, Deputy Prime Minister Pavlo Rozenko paid a visit to Warsaw on February 16, where he held talks with his Polish counterpart Piotr Glinski about the law on the institute of national remembrance that sparked controversy in Ukraine and a number of other countries, including Israel and the U.S.

Read alsoPoland's controversial bill drafted by pro-Russian historians, Kremlin media host  RzeczpospolitaFebruary 17 Polish officials said they were "deeply disappointed" over the outcome of the negotiations between the Ukrainian and Polish vice prime ministers, since Kyiv had not yet made a move to lift the moratorium on the exhumation of Polish graves in Ukraine.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine considers as unreasonable the statement of "deep disappointment".

President Petro Poroshenko said that countries should do everything possible to remove sensitive historical issues from the agenda.A rather rare occasion, the big press conference of Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has over the four years turned from a platform for broad discussions into one of the many PR events for the head of state.

In September 2014, on the eve of Poroshenko's first press conference as President of Ukraine, his administration, the Bankova, several times reiterated that the new team realized that the format of a broad press conference, with participation of both major and regional media, with no restrictions on topics, was the best way to arrange communications. Back then, the Bankova assured journalists that such a format would be respected for the future. Moreover, the president promised to answer all pressing questions almost every quarter.

But four years have passed and promises have sunk to oblivion.

The president now prefers to meet with the media only at times convenient for himself. For example, last year, it happened on the occasion of the start of visa liberalization with the EU. This year, it's the day when the European Commission approved a new EUR 24 million program of financial assistance to Ukraine.

Besides, this time, communication with the press was nothing but "broad discussion" announced four years ago - of the two hours the presser lasted, one-fourth was taken up by... the president's address (in the remaining time, no more than two dozen media outlets have time to ask questions, and in this case it was no exception). So what were the "Challenges-2018" Poroshenko was talking about?

For several years in a row, the main topics remain the same - war, personnel issues, and "unstoppable" reform... He noted high efficiency of cooperation with the Verkhovna Rada. Autumn brought pension, educational, and healthcare reforms, he said. The new Supreme Court has launched its work. Decentralization brings its fruits. Ukrainians were granted visa-free travel across the EU, and half a million citizens have already used it. However, the president admits that "Ukrainians don't feel the effect of most reforms as their lives have not improved". "As a president, I'm not satisfied with the slow pace, either," Poroshenko said.

Staffing issues and NATO in Constitution

One of the important issues noted by the head of state among this year's challenges is the cadres. It is about completing the Constitutional Court of Ukraine, the need to appoint a new head of the National Bank of Ukraine [the Verkhovna Rada is expected to vote in the coming days], resolve the issue with the NABU auditor, and appoint the upgraded Central Election Commission ...

"I am sure that the candidates have been thoroughly discussed in factions. I hope the parliament will make a decision and support my proposal," Poroshenko said.

Incidentally, when answering a question about Mikhail Saakashvili, whose nomination had also been once "thoroughly discussed" (at least at the president's office), the head of state stated that he "was, like most, fascinated by the prospects that Mr. Saakashvili could bring for Ukraine, and I tried to create all opportunities to this end." "We all saw the results. They were none. And when I saw a report from law enforcers about violations in the process of obtaining citizenship, apart from the commission report, I had no other models of how to terminate citizenship in full compliance with the Constitution. Who knows, maybe, had there been no such vetting, dreams and ideals would have remained. Unfortunately, Mikheil has destroyed them, himself, and I regret it. I don't believe he is now a happy man, but it's his problems and his business to deal with," Poroshenko stressed.

"I can note that the issues of readmission to Poland after the violation of law by Saakashvili and a group of other people at the border crossing, confirmed in court, were legally flawless in terms of Ukrainian legislation and Ukraine's international obligations, as well as from the point of view of the rule of law. This is absolutely obvious today. Otherwise, he wouldnt have been readmitted, and there would be a different reaction," the head of state summed up.

Further, as regards personnel issues, he said that, despite the war in the east of Ukraine and the occupation of Crimea by Russia, there is a need to appoint a civilian defense minister. "I hesitated for a long time but decided that even at the time of war we must accept the appointment of a civilian defense minister. That is, to separate positions of commander-in-chief and chief of General Staff; to introduce a number of tremendous reforms in order to switch the country to NATO standards and implement the norms that I noted in the Strategic Defense Bulletin," he said, adding that he submitted to the Verkhovna Rada a Bill on National Security of Ukraine, which provides for the transition of the Ukrainian sector security to NATO standards.

The document's key provision, according to the president, is the introduction of "democratic civil control over the army, law enforcement agencies, and special services."

In general, strengthening the army is another top issue, which was voiced at the Poroshenko press conference. According to the president, thanks to the bolstering of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and continued sanctions policy against the Kremlin, the price of aggression has been increasing for the aggressor state: "This significantly reduces the risk of Russia's full-scale aggression in all azimuths, but I would like to emphasize that this does not reduce the threat to zero. Therefore, our army must ensure security along the entire line of the state border. Strengthening its combat capability will remain my top priority."

This can be facilitated, among other things, by lethal defensive weapons expected to come from the United States (in particular, sniper complexes). The first delivery should be carried out "in a few weeks".

At the same time, the head of state says that currently there is no alternative to peaceful political and diplomatic means of restoring territorial integrity: "We will observe Minsk agreements and persistently seek the deployment of UN peacekeepers on conditions acceptable to Ukraine."

As something that evidences to the viability of Minsk agreements, the president noted that, in the framework of ongoing talks, by the end of this week, "we will be able to return [to Ukraine] two hostages", now held in Russia.

In addition, Poroshenko said that the ideas of European and Euro-Atlantic integration would be great to enshrine in the Constitution of Ukraine. "Seeking EU and NATO membership could be envisaged in the preamble of the Constitution. The support by two-thirds of the constitutional composition of the Verkhovna Rada would be enough to ensure that this happens. And those bills on national defense and security issues that are now in the voting stage give me grounds for restrained optimism," the president said.

However, he chose not to elaborate on how he would find 300 votes to safeguard passing of Constitutional amendments and even more so, to ensure an effective vote (one year before the elections) at two parliamentary sessions.

Elections and fighting corruption

Another top issue was anti-corruption legislation. Of course, this is a bill on the anti-corruption court, as well as a bill on the abolition of electronic declaration of assets for anti-graft activists. "It is not easy to collect votes for these drafts. For my part, I've done everything depending on me. I appeal to the Verkhovna Rada, I appeal to the coalition to convince people's deputies to support these extremely important decisions. I also rely heavily on the support of the activists themselves," Poroshenko said.

"We should make a step toward civil society as soon as possible. I stressed several times that the bills I'd submitted to the Verkhovna Rada last summer provide for the replacement of the principles of electronic declaration of assets for anti-corruption activists, abolition of criminal responsibility, and transition to the European reporting principles. And there is nowhere to delay the corresponding decision," he added.

Despite the fact that it's the Bankova where the issue of possible early parliamentary elections has started spinning from, Petro Poroshenko, when answering a question on whether he has reached an agreement with political partners from the Popular Front, Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman, and Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko on creating a single political project before the presidential and parliamentary elections, said: "I'm not going to participate in parliamentary elections. Therefore, the issue of political alliances is a very important issue in order to coordinate efforts, including within the framework of the current coalition, to strengthen relations between the government and coalition, and to maintain and improve the efficiency of both the Verkhovna Rada and the coalition."

According to Poroshenko, he is completely satisfied with the pace of parliament's work  "plenty of reforms have been passed ". "I will do everything possible to ensure effective coordination of the efforts by president, government, parliamentary coalition, and parliament. When conditions are different, we will then discuss this [the dissolution of parliament]," he said.

As for the presidential elections and his participation in them, Poroshenko, firstly, said that he is currently engaged in "state transformation, reform, defense, and foreign policy rather than ratings", and the decision to participate in the election campaign will then be taken "when the campaign begins".

Secondly, in the context of a possible loss in the presidential race, he says he does not understand the rumors about some kind of Plan "B", adding that he hasn't lost a single campaign in his life. Speaking today about his participation in the presidential elections, he said he will "participate 100%, as a voter".

Life is no sugar

An experienced orator, Poroshenko has reduced the whole issue of his Maldivian vacation to claiming he has not delegated his powers to anyone over the past four years and, resting in the Maldives, continued fulfilling duties of a president and supreme commander-in-chief. In addition, he stressed that he had earned enough to fly to the Maldives and that he would reflect these expenditures in his asset declaration. "I emphasize that not a kopiyka was spent from the Ukrainian budget," Poroshenko concluded.

At the same time, the president noted that at the time he was elected president, he had much more assets than today. "I am the only president with such dynamics," he said.

"I'd rather not discuss my personal life now but, believe me, it's no sugar," added Poroshenko.

Among other things, the president vowed to "protect the country from irresponsible populists", continue working toward the recovery of assets stolen by fugitive corrupt ex-officials, and resist populism. "Populism and "atamanship" [deriving from "ataman"  lower-rank Cossack and haidamak leaders of various kinds are another two challenges that we face as sharply as 100 years ago, when Ukraine, because of a lack of internal unity, fell prey to the aggressor and lost its independence. My mission, the mission of my team, of all authorities, is to prevent those mistakes from repeating themselves. I'm sure this mission is possible, moreover - this mission is inevitable and it has no alternative," Poroshenko stressed.

At the same time, he said he was not worried about the ratings. "That's because there are two choices: either you implement reforms, or you are worried about elections. Those who are worried about ratings are called populists. Those who implement reforms should change the state, change society, which my team and I, all together, have been doing this for almost four years," the president said.

"You know, there is a very strange situation in the country. We don't currently have a politician with an overwhelming majority of votes. There's war of all against all. Suitcases full of compromising materials are often not confirmed by anyone. Depression and despondency are what they want to sow in Ukrainian society, including those beyond the country's borders. Social networking programs, fake news are an integral part of this all, and I am sure that we, the government, the society, and the fourth power  journalists - simply need to have certain standards, check the information we have at our disposal, and introduce standards embraced by civilized countries," added Poroshenko.

In general, the two-hour press conference seemed like an event held simply to put a "check" mark in the president's schedule, only to be able for yet another year to pretend that he spoke with Ukrainians, responding to the allegedly sharp questions.

UNIAN

If you see a spelling error on our site, select it and press Ctrl+EnterThe misinformation is explained by a mistake in the documents.

Dmitry Dinze, the lawyer of Ukrainian filmmaker Oleh Sentsov, who is serving a 20-year prison term in Russia, has said his client remains in the penal colony in the town of Labytnangi.

"I got into contact with official representatives of the colony. They told me Sentsov had not been moved to anywhere and is now in the colony," the lawyer said, referring to the facility's administration, RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service reports.

Read alsoUkraine ready to swap Russian military serviceman Ageyev - lawyerSentsov's sister, Natalia Kaplan, wrote on Facebook that the information about Sentsov's absence in Labytnangi was explained by a mistake in the documents.

Earlier, it was reported that Sentsov had disappeared from Penal Colony No. 8 in the city of Labytnangi in the Urals despite the fact that he was supposed to be there.

As UNIAN reported earlier, Sentsov together with Oleksandr Kolchenko was detained by Russian security forces in occupied Crimea in May 2014 on charges of organizing terrorist attacks on the peninsula.

In August 2015, the North Caucasus District Military Court in Russia's Rostov-on-Don sentenced Sentsov to 20 years in a high-security penal colony. Kolchenko was sentenced to 10 years in prison. Both men pleaded not guilty.Kadyrov is charged with public calls for the violation of Russia's territorial integrity.

A prosecutor in Russian-controlled Crimea has asked a court to sentence a Crimean Tatar activist who opposes Moscow's rule over the Ukrainian region to a suspended sentence of three years.

At a hearing in the city of Feodosia on February 28, the prosecutor also asked the court to bar Suleyman Kadyrov from "public activities" for two years  a sentence that would prevent him from demonstrating, Radio Liberty reported.

Kadyrov is charged with public calls for the violation of Russia's territorial integrity.

The charge stems from his Facebook post of a video about a pro-Ukrainian volunteer military unit and a comment in which he wrote, "Crimea was, is, and will always be Ukraine!"

Read alsoPolice detain Crimean Tatar woman staging single-person pickets near Khan's Palace in BakhchisarayKadyrov says he is not guilty, arguing that he has the right to express his opinion.

"I have never concealed my pro-Ukrainian position, I have always expressed it openly as it is my right, the right of a human being and a citizen," he said. "I do not hide it. I do not consider myself guilty."

Rights groups and Western governments have denounced what they call a campaign of oppression targeting members of the Turkic-speaking Crimean Tatar minority and others who opposed Moscow's seizure of the Black Sea peninsula in March 2014.

The majority of Crimean Tatars opposed the Russian takeover of their historic homeland.

In March 2017, the European Parliament called on Russia to free more than 30 Ukrainian citizens it said were in prison or other conditions of restricted freedom in Russia, Crimea, and parts of eastern Ukraine that are controlled by Russia-backed separatists.Kateryna Amosova, the suspended rector of Bogomolets National Medical University, has urged to call off a strike and resume the educational process.

Bogomolets National Medical University (NMU) has announced the end of the strike.

"We're calling off a strike. We've been heard. Yesterday, the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Health Care unanimously supported all our demands. We are sure the victory will be for NMU. Thanks to all those who stood up to defend the dignity and independence of the university. NMU is the best," according to a video address of the strike participants, published on the university's website.

At the same time, the participants in the strike did not specify when the educational process was going to resume.

Earlier on that day, Kateryna Amosova, the suspended rector of Bogomolets National Medical University, urged to call off the strike and resume the educational process.

As UNIAN reported earlier, students and lecturers of Bogomolets National Medical University on Monday, February 26, announced a strike for an indefinite period.

"The strike has been announced in connection with unprecedented gross and unlawful interference by senior officials of the Health Ministry of Ukraine in the independent and self-regulated work of Bogomolets National Medical University," the University wrote on Facebook.

Ukraine's Health Ministry suspended Amosova on February 20 due to her failure to organize an exam for dentists. She was removed for the period of a probe into the incident.

The ministry alleged the University's administration had instigated the strike.The head of state underlines that the use of unregistered weapons must entail liability.

Speaking at a big press conference in Kyiv Feb 28, President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko emphasized that the state has a monopoly over power and weapons, while illegal groups whose members bear unregistered weapons only destabilize the situation, an UNIAN correspondent reports.

"Monopoly over power and monopoly over weapons belongs to the state," the president said, answering a question on his attitude toward shady "activist" organizations making Ukrainian anxious and presenting Ukraine in the international arena in an unfavorable light.

Read alsoUkraine's Interior Ministry elaborates on duties of newly created 'national militia units' (Video)"If someone uses unregistered weapons, there must be an inevitable responsibility for this, and I demand it from law enforcement bodies," Poroshenko said.

"Please, tell me, did anyone feel safer watching the so-called 'National Squads' on Khreshchatyk? Monopoly over power, monopoly over arms belongs to the state," he said.

According to the head of state, in the latest clashes outside the Rada in Kyiv, the law-enforcers acted in line with the law, unlike a group of provocateurs from among the protesters.Since the start of confrontation with Russia, Ukraines defense spending has increased several times.

It is indisputable that the main criterion for assessing the armed forces of any country is its ability to effectively perform tasks under wartime conditions, stresses Mykola Bielieskov, a Deputy Director of the Institute of World Policy in Kyiv, Ukraine.

"Nevertheless, the ability to use the defense budget as efficiently as possible can be an equally important way of assessmentwhen each unit of investment can achieve the greatest possible positive net effect," he wrote in a column for the National Interest.

This approach is especially useful to understand the changes that have taken place in Ukraines armed forces since 2014.

Read alsoUkraine's Gen. Staff says ATO over, new Operation in Donbas kicking offSince the start of confrontation with Russia, Ukraines defense spending has increased several times. In 2013, the army budget stood at UAH 15.2 billion; in 2017, the figure rose to UAH 64.4 billion. In 2018, Ukraine has allocated a record UAH 86.14 billion to bolster its defenses.

However, looking at the dynamics in dollar terms, the budget has seen no significant increased over the last four years, rising from $1.9 billion in 2013 and $2.35 billion in 2017 to $3.02 billion in 2018.

However, compared to early 2014, Ukraines armed forces have improved considerably. First of all, the Ukrainian Army is now a 250,000-strong force against a modest 157,000 troops back in 2014.

At the same time, at the beginning of Russian aggression, only some 6,000 militaryright about a size of a single brigadewere in fully combat-ready and resolute to execute the political leaderships orders. While no drills were held at brigade or regimental levels in 2013, the White Book of Ukraines ministry of defense logged 20 brigade-level exercises inn 2016, while ground forces conducted 26 exercises at the brigade level in 2017.

Since 2014, when a large number of tanks were inoperable, there has been a strong drive to purchase new or modernize old tanks and armored vehicles. The armed forces received a total of 4,142 tanks and armored vehicles in 2014; 3,227 units in 2015; and 530 units in 2016. Today, Ukraine has covered its needs for tanks and armored vehicles.

The quality of Ukraines Air Force has also changed for the better. Today, the air force has as many as 71 fully functioning fourth-generation fighters (Su-27s and MiG-29s). Between 2014 and 2017, up to sixty fighters and bombers were modernized or repaired. By mid-2017, up to 65 percent of S-300PS/PT1s and 20 percent of Buk-M1 air defense systems were repaired. Today the armed forces include 25 divisions of the S-300PS/PT1 systems, 10 Buk-M1 divisions, and an S-300V1 division.

Read alsoNational security bill tabled in Ukraine's parliamentSuccess in missile development is also worth noting. Test launches of the Vilkha missiles are planned for March 2018. This surface-to-surface system was developed on the basis of the Smerch multiple-launch rocket launcher. It will allow Ukraines armed forces to hit targets with high precision at a range of up to 120 km and replace the outdated tactical missile complex Tochka-U. Development of the Neptune anti-vessel cruise missile is also underway. The missiles first public tests were conducted in January this year.

Read alsoUkraine offers latest weapons and equipment at NATO HQ for first time (photo)Over the past four years, Ukraine has managed to strengthen its defensive capabilities without a radical increase in funding. One reason for this is that the proportions of the defense budget distribution have changed: the share for procurement and modernization for weapons increased by 10% since 2014. To understand how allocated funds are spent, it should be mentioned that in 2013, Ukraine spent 10% ($190 million) of its military budget on procurementonly got two modernized airplanes, five different radar systems, a training complex for pilots, 194 navigation devices and 28 radios. Another reason is the development of an internal audit and control systemas stipulated in the Strategic Defense Bulletinwhich helps to effectively utilize scarce resources. Overall, available resources are being marshalled more efficiently. Ukraine has made more strides to eliminate gaps in combat readiness in four years than in the previous twenty.No ceasefire violations have been recorded in the Donetsk sector.

Russia's hybrid military forces lobbed at least fifteen 120mm and 82mm mortar shells into civilian areas in the village of Luhanske in Donbas in the evening, as a result of which one Ukrainian soldier was wounded.

"Since the attack occurred after dark, the scale of the damage is being assessed. Members of the Armed Forces of Ukraine are currently examining whether there are destructions of buildings and civilian casualties," the press center of the headquarters of Ukraine's military operations reported on Facebook on Wednesday morning.

Read alsoUkraine reports 3 WIA's amid five enemy attacks in last day"In the Luhansk sector, the enemy was active at the Svitlodarska Duha bulge. Here, the Russian occupation forces had been firing mortars of various calibers, grenade launchers, anti-aircraft guns and heavy machine guns at our positions near the town of Svitlodarsk for more than four hours. They launched over 200 shells of different calibers. In addition, the invaders used mortars near the villages of Luhanske and Troyitske, as well as 82mm mortars and grenade launchers not far from the village of Novo-Oleksandrivka," the report says.

No ceasefire violations have been recorded in the Donetsk sector.

In total, seven attacks on the Ukrainian army were recorded in the past 24 hours.Ukraine's General Staff has several scenarios for liberation of the occupied areas in Donbas.

Ukrainian MP and leader of the Information Resistance information community Dmytro Tymchuk forecasts that the so-called "Donetsk People's Republic" ("DPR") and "Luhansk People's Republic" ("LPR"), the two Russia-backed self-proclaimed republics in Ukraine's east, may vanish within a few months if the border with Russia is sealed.

"The conflict in Donbas has one specific feature: if to really seal the uncontrolled stretch of the border with Russia and end the supply of materials, equipment, weapons, military hardware, Russian fighters to the territory of Donbas, the existence of the so-called 'LPR' and 'DPR' is a matter of a few weeks, probably, months," he said in an op-ed material posted by Ukraine's news outlet Apostrophe.

Read also"DPR" detains 22 "energy ministry" officials on embezzlement chargesAccording to Tymchuk, a possible peacekeeping operation in Donbas can succeed but only if the Ukrainian-Russian border is sealed and taken under control.

Tymchuk also said the General Staff has several scenarios for liberation of the occupied areas in Donbas, and the use of force is only one of them and it is not a priority one.

"Ukraine adheres to a peaceful, political and diplomatic solution of the conflict. The military scenario for retaking the territory is not being considered now. As far as I know, the General Staff has different options for conducting the peacekeeping operation, but which one will be used and whether it will be used at all is a decision to be made by Ukraine's military and political top brass," the expert added.Votel said Russia had failed to rein in its Syrian ally.

A senior U.S. general accused Russia on Tuesday of playing a destabilizing role in Syria and acting as "both arsonist and firefighter," as a brief truce unilaterally declared by Moscow in the eastern Ghouta region collapsed.

The United States and Russia have been on different sides of the seven-year-old war, with Moscow heavily backing Syrian President Bashar al-Assad whose forces are besieging eastern Ghouta, a rebel-held area near Damascus, as reported by Reuters.

"Diplomatically and militarily, Moscow plays both arsonist and firefighter, fueling tensions among all parties in Syria... then serving as an arbitrator, to resolve disputes, attempting to undermine and weaken each party's bargaining positions," said U.S. Army General Joseph Votel.

Votel is the head of the U.S. military's Central Command. He was speaking to a House of Representatives Armed Services Committee hearing.

Over the past week, Syria's army and its allies have subjected eastern Ghouta to one of the heaviest bombardments of the war, killing hundreds.

A Russian call for a five-hour truce on Tuesday failed to halt the bombing, with residents saying that government warplanes had resumed striking the region after a brief lull.

The United Nations said it was proving impossible to aid civilians or evacuate the wounded, and said all sides must instead abide by a full 30-day ceasefire demanded by the U.N. Security Council.

On Tuesday, State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said Russia was failing to abide by the ceasefire.

"They're not adhering to the ceasefire because they continue to sponsor and back Bashar al-Assad's government. That is tragic," Nauert said, pointing to the rising death toll among civilians and children.

She said the attacks in eastern Ghouta were "horrific" and likened the devastation there to the assault last year on Aleppo.

Votel said Russia had failed to rein in its Syrian ally.

"I think either Russia has to admit that it is not capable, or it doesn't want to play a role in ending the Syrian conflict. I think their role is incredibly destabilizing at this point."

Read alsoChemical attacks in Syria: How will the West reactHe added that Moscow was using Syria to test new weapons and military tactics, and it had increased its surface-to-air missiles in the region that threatened the United States' ability to "dominate the airspace."

As Islamic State militants near defeat in Syria, tensions between the United States and Russia have risen and added uncertainty to an already complex battlefield of opposing local fighters and their international backers, which also include Turkey and Iran.

Votel became the latest in a string of senior U.S. defense officials to decline public comment on whether Russian civilian contractors were involved in a Feb. 7 attack on U.S. and U.S.-backed forces in Syria.

U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis has said that the United States is still unsure who directed the attack.

Reuters has reported that about 300 men working for a Kremlin-linked Russian private military firm were either killed or injured in Syria.

U.S. Senator Chris Coons told reporters on Tuesday there were "a fair number of Russian and Iranian and Syrian casualties."

Separately, Votel said the U.S. military was seeing some "positive indicators" from Pakistan, showing it is becoming more responsive to U.S. concerns about militant safe havens.

Relations between the allies have plummeted recently and last week Washington persuaded member states of the Financial Action Task Force to put Pakistan back on the watchlist of nations with inadequate terrorist financing or money laundering controls.

"It does not yet equal the decisive action that we would like to see them take in terms of a strategic shift, but they are positive indicators," Votel said.UNICEF is committed to addressing the needs of mothers, newborns and children, and ensuring they have access to affordable, quality health care, good nutrition and clean water.

We work closely with Governments, partners and communities to combat common infectious childhood diseases and end preventable maternal, newborn and child deaths. And we help countries reach more children and women  especially the most vulnerable  with essential health services.



UNICEF and partners help save the lives of mothers, newborns and children and address preventable stillbirths by supporting high-quality, evidence-based, equitable and low-cost care and services before, during and after birth  at health facilities and at home. We also work towards the final elimination of maternal and newborn tetanus across the globe.

Despite being entirely preventable and treatable, common infectious diseases still kill children in large numbers. UNICEF supports countries to provide preventative and curative services for pneumonia, diarrhoea, malaria and other health conditions.



UNICEF and partners support immunization programmes in over 100 countries to help children survive and lead healthy lives. Our efforts include engaging communities to create vaccine demand, procuring and distributing vaccines, and keeping vaccines safe and effective.(@FahadShabbir)

Pakistan's economic woes have worsened five months before national polls, according to a report by Bloomberg

Beijing, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 28th Feb, 2018) : Pakistan's economic woes have worsened five months before national polls, according to a report by Bloomberg. China will likely be willing to offer more assistance to help its neighbor improve economic conditions, but the question is how to find an effective way, reports Global Times on Wednesday.

Pakistan's trade deficits are hitting records while its foreign exchange reserves continue to fall, Bloomberg reported. Pakistan's economy is facing chronic problems for many reasons, but the fact that Pakistan's GDP grew 5.3 percent in fiscal 2017 - the fastest pace in a decade - can't be ignored.

Quoting official sources, the report says, the two countries will move ahead with the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), which has become a driving force for Pakistan's economic growth. The question is how its investment-driven growth can be transformed into internal momentum for economic expansion.

While the first phase of the CPEC concentrated on infrastructure projects, the second part should focus on setting up special economic zones and establishing mutual connectivity to support economic integration.

Pakistan's strategic location is a major attraction for companies to invest in and obtain lucrative returns.

Now, the nation must give full play to its advantages. The most important maritime trade route that China has now is through the South China Sea and the Strait of Malacca.

The CPEC is designed to connect Gwadar Port in Southwest Pakistan with China's inland areas, offering another route for Chinese importers and exporters. Improvements in Pakistan's trade-related sectors, such as warehousing, logistics, integrated services and e-commerce, can turn the nation into a new transshipment point for exports to China.

Efforts to upgrade the bilateral free trade agreement will also help realize economic potential. Trade and financial deficits have long been seen by some observers as the thorniest issues faced by the South Asian country.

Making Pakistan a new transshipment point will help the nation boost exports and slash its trade deficit with China. This situation may also help Pakistan conserve its foreign exchange reserves.

China is expected to continue to encourage outbound investment, but investors should also be reminded to exercise caution. The CPEC is one of the flagship projects in China's Belt and Road initiative. The Chinese government should give more guidance to companies with an eye to the South Asian country to reduce the risk of inefficient investment.(@rukhshanmir)

Meezan Bank, Pakistans first and largest Islamic bank recently signed a fee collection agreement with the Institute of Business Administration, Karachi (IBA)

Karachi, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 28th Feb, 2018 ) Meezan Bank, Pakistans first and largest Islamic bank recently signed a fee collection agreement with the Institute of business Administration, Karachi (IBA). Under this agreement, the Bank will provide Payments & Cash Management servicesto IBAthrough the Banksstate-of-the-art web based electronic solution eBiz+.

The agreement was signed by Mr. Ijaz Farooq, Group Head Retail Banking- Meezan Bank and Mr. Moeid Sultan, Director Finance- IBA.

This agreement between IBA Karachi and Meezan Bank is a testimony of the Banks expertise in the field of payment and cash management services through which the Bank provides digitalized collections solutions to its clients for a hassle-free banking experience.(@ChaudhryMAli88)

WWF-Pakistan conducted a two-day capacity building session for stakeholders on compliance to national and international environmental laws, standards and obligations along with associated economic aspects

Lahore,(UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 28th Feb, 2018 ) WWF-Pakistan conducted a two-day capacity building session for stakeholders on compliance to national and international environmental laws, standards and obligations along with associated economic aspects.

This workshop was conducted under the project titled International Labour and Environmental Standards (ILES), Application in Pakistans Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) at a local hotel in Lahore.

On the first day, while presenting about Multi-lateral Environmental Agreements (MEAs) and effect of non-compliance of national environmental laws, Raffay Alam, Environmental Lawyer, said that the judiciary has played an important role in introducing environmental laws.

He quoted the example of clean drinking water, which was declared a fundamental right. Junaid Ahmed, Environmental Economist, while presenting about the cost of pollution and valuation of non-compliance; informed participants about the cost associated of pollution through Disability-Adjusted Life Year (DALY).

Shafqat Abbas, Ministry of Climate Change, Government of Pakistan said, The textile and leather sectors represent the largest domain of the industrial base and play a key role in the countrys economy and are also key contributors of carbon emissions in the country.

There is a dire need for proper incorporation and implementation of Multilateral Environmental Agreements (MEAs), within local laws. In addition, Dr Javed Iqbal, Director Projects, Environmental Protection Department (EPD) Punjab, speaking at the event as a Guest of Honour of the first day, said that Pakistan is a water-stressed country and is nearing the threshold of water scarcity.

Access to safe drinking water in rural and urban areas is declining and provision of potable water is a key issue that people face. He added that laws are already in place to tackle these issues but lack of acceptance from the public makes it more difficult for regulatory bodies to properly implement the environmental laws.

On the second day, Arjmand Qayyum Amjad trained the participants about Smart Environmental Management Practices (SEMPs) in the textile value chain, through three module sessions. He informed the audience about the main issues in the SMEs including, cleaner production practices, energy efficiency, and chemical management in the processes.

He said that it is better to reduce the consumption of water at the start of the pipeline than to treat wastewater at the end of the pipeline, as it is also more expensive than water conservation.

Speaking at the event as a Guest of Honour on the second day, Engr. Ghulam Zakir Hassan Sial, Director Irrigation Research Institute, Irrigation Department, Punjab said that safe drinking water is not available to the city of Lahore, and groundwater is depleting at a rate of 2.5 feet/year.

If this rate continues a time will come when there will be no safe water available for future generations of Lahore. Government departments including Pakistan Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (PCSIR), Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), University of Engineering and Technology (UET), National Engineering Services Pakistan (NESPAK), Punjab Saaf Pani Company (PSPC), Al Jazari academy, Water and Sanitation Agency (WASA), Ozkartallar Campak Joint Venture (OZPAK), Punjab Public Health Authority, Lahore Waste Management Company (LWMC), Pakistan Council of Research in Water Resources (PCRWR), The Urban Unit, Ministry of Climate Change, Industry Commerce and Investment Department, Infrastructure Development Authority Punjab, and many others participated in the two-day event.

The six-year ILES project, funded by the European Union, is jointly being implemented by WWF-Pakistan with the International Labour Organization (ILO) in Lahore, Karachi, Sialkot and Faisalabad.

The project aims to implement international labour and environmental standards in Pakistan in order to improve the capacity of the public sector to implement Multi-lateral Environmental Agreements (MEAs) and national environmental laws and standards in Pakistan.

The project involves building capacity of the textile and leather sector to adopt Smart Environmental Management Practices (SEMPs) in order to efficiently use water and energy resources and reduce the use of hazardous chemicals by 15 to 20 per cent.

Further, the project aims to contribute to improvement in industry based laws so that Pakistans export market can compete with international labour and environmental standards.Allama Iqbal Open University (AIOU) here on Wednesday organized a seminar at its main campus to create awareness about the hazardous impact of cyber crimes on national security

Islamabad, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 28th Feb, 2018) : Allama Iqbal Open University (AIOU) here on Wednesday organized a seminar at its main campus to create awareness about the hazardous impact of cyber crimes on national security.

The event was arranged by the office of Research, Innovation and Commercialization in collaboration with Federal Investigation Agency (FIA). It was part of the University's ongoing activities, keeping its students and the Faculty well aware of the socio-economic issues and their responsibilities towards the society to this effect.

Vice Chancellor Professor Dr. Shahid Siddiqui said on the occasion that the University will continue its efforts to expose social crimes through academic and social activities. The common perception that cyberncrimes are low-level crimes must be removed since, in reality, they are as dangerous as other conventional crimes.

A senior official of the FIA (Cyber Crimes Wing) Attiq Javed spoke in details about various elements and categories of Cyber crimes.

He briefed the audience about the prevailing law on the subject.

He also highlighted the role and achievements of the FIA in curbing menace of internet crimes that are mainly carried out through social media. He also spoke about the implications and challenges of this crime.

He also underlined the major aspects of cyber crime law, according to which a citizen can lodge a complaint to Federal Intelligence Agency (FIA) with relevant proofs for further investigation and punishment (if proven guilty).

Dean Sciences Dr. Nagmana Rashid who presided over the event spoke about the University's continuous endeavor to purge the society of social evils. She also highlighted the initiatives taken by the Vice Chancellor for promoting the AIOU as a hub social, literacy and academic activities.(@rukhshanmir)

The education policy of Punjab Government has ensured enhanced female enrollment particularly in public sector schools of the province said Chairman, Punjab Education Foundation (PEF) and Member Punjab Assembly Engineer Qamar ul Islam.

RAWALPINDI, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 28th Feb, 2018 ) :The education policy of Punjab Government has ensured enhanced female enrollment particularly in public sector schools of the province said Chairman, Punjab Education Foundation (PEF) and Member Punjab Assembly Engineer Qamar ul Islam.

He said, the Punjab Government was giving special attention to the education of girls due to which the enrollment percentage of girls in government schools has improved and even noticed an upward trend in remote areas.

The Chairman said the scholarships of billions of rupees have been given to needy and intelligent students and many of them have completed their education and joined the professional life. The Chairman expressed these views at prize distribution ceremony held at Government Girls High school Aarazi, Rawalpindi.

Principal Fauzia Naheed, teachers and a large number of students were present on the occasion. Eng. Qamar ul islam said that the female students in 16 districts of South Punjab were encouraged to get education through 'Khadim-e-Punjab Zewar-e-Taleem Program' for which billions of rupees were spent.

They are being provided a stipend of Rs1200 per month after ensuring 80 percent attendance in school, he added. He said, intelligent students in Punjab are provided opportunities to get quality education.

Poor and deserving students after revolutionary measures taken by the Punjab government particularly in the field of education, are being encouraged and provided financial assistance so they could not quit education due to financial constraints, he added.

Fauzia Naheed addressing the participants said that the women have proved their talent in every field of life and due to solid steps taken by the Punjab government, the girls enrollment in educational institutions has increased considerably. She said, female students outshine boys in examination of educational boards every year and their success ratio has also improved.(@ChaudhryMAli88)

Federal Education and Professional Training has initiated a joint project of publication of selected folk-lore of Belarus and Pakistan to translate them in Urdu and Belarusian to promote culture and language

ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 28th Feb, 2018 ) :Federal education and Professional Training has initiated a joint project of publication of selected folk-lore of Belarus and Pakistan to translate them in urdu and Belarusian to promote culture and language.

Under the project, the selected folk-lore of Belarus and Pakistan is also being translated in English and Russian. Official sources on Wednesday said a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between National University of Modern Languages (NUML) and Minsk State Linguistics University (MSLU), Belarus was signed during visit of former Prime Minister, Muhammad Nawaz Sharif to Belarus which covered the actionable points including collaboration in establishment of Urdu Language Department at MSLU.

The NUML will assist in providing Urdu language teacher and teaching material, promote faculty and student exchange and conduct activities including short courses, cultural projects, summer camp, and study tours and exchange visits by leaders and negotiation of other feasible exchange/cooperation projects.

The sources said on basis of MoU and a protocol of mutual cooperation between the Ministries of Education of two countries, an agreement for establishment of Urdu and Belarusian language chairs (on reciprocal basis) was signed during visit of President of Belarus to Pakistan on October 6, 2016.

Belarusian Language and Culture Chair was established in NUML and inaugurated on October 3, 2016 by Mikhail A. Zhuravkov, Minister of Education of Republic of Belarus. Moreover, Ambassador of Belarus to Pakistan, Andrei Ermolovich visited NUML to meet higher officials and deliver a talk to students on Pakistan Belarusian Relationship.

A delegation comprising Siarhei Aleinik, Head of Oriental Languages Department and Mr. Aliaksandr Zhyhunou, Lecturer (nominated by MSLU for Belarusian Language and Culture Chair) from MSLU also visited NUML.

Pakistan Urdu Chair has been established in MSLU and inaugurated by Rector NUML during visit of delegation of VCs/Rectors of Pakistani Universities. Both sides i.e. NUML and MSLU have nominated faculty members for their chairs and are waiting for respective government approval regarding issuance of funds etc.

List of major events/activities planned by NUML for year 2018 has been shared with MSLU for attendance by Belarusian Faculty members and researchers. The sources said a proposal for faculty/students visit on reciprocal basis during summer vacations has been forwarded, whereby, hostel/dormitory accommodation may be provided to visiting teams on gratis basis.(@FahadShabbir)

The 39th meeting of the academic council of University of Sindh held Wednesday under the chair of the Vice-Chancellor Prof. Dr. Fateh Muhammad Burfat. According to university spokesman, the meeting accorded its unanimous approval of the decisions the Vice-Chancellor had earlier taken in exercise of the emergency powers vested on him as per rules.

HYDERABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 28th Feb, 2018 ) :The 39th meeting of the academic council of University of Sindh held Wednesday under the chair of the Vice-Chancellor Prof. Dr. Fateh Muhammad Burfat.

According to university spokesman, the meeting accorded its unanimous approval of the decisions the Vice-Chancellor had earlier taken in exercise of the emergency powers vested on him as per rules.

The meeting also constituted various committees to investigate some academic proposals in veracity of the already submitted enterprises. Addressing the participants of the meeting, the Vice Chancellor academic council was one of the most important bodies of the varsity to resolve academic matters, ponder over new proposals, innovate on various teaching-learning programmes, initiate brand new academic projects and critically review all matters relating to learning and pedagogy.

Dr. Burfat underlined the significant role the varsity faculty was playing to preserve and promote the image and standard of the university. "We would, as always, continue convening meetings of all statutory bodies of the university regularly including that of its academic council", he said and added that it would facilitate the university management in achieving target objectives.

Earlier, the participants offered fateha for deceased varsity teachers, officers, employees and students. Among others, Registrar, Pro-Vice-Chancellors of various campuses, deans of faculties and academic heads participated in the meeting.Sardar Masood Khan, President of Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) said Wednesday that China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) was a transformative mega-project and it was already delivering dividends in the form of the completion and early harvest projects related to Gwadar Port, infrastructure, energy, and industrial development.

MIRPUR (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 28th Feb, 2018 ) , :Sardar Masood Khan, President of Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) said Wednesday that China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) was a transformative mega-project and it was already delivering dividends in the form of the completion and early harvest projects related to Gwadar Port, infrastructure, energy, and industrial development.

The project is creating new jobs and businesses on a massive scale, he said during an interactive discussion with students at the University College London on the impact of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and CPEC, according to a message received here Wednesday.

Students for the school of Oriental and African Studies also joined the discussion. The event was organized by UCL's Pakistan Society. The BRI is China's trans-continental initiative for promoting economic connectivity between Asia, Europe and Africa.

Some 65 countries, including Pakistan, are participating in it; and China plans to invest around US $ 1 trillion in this project. The President said that the CPEC has created huge opportunities for Pakistan and both Pakistan and China were successfully managing associated risks related to security and political consensus within the country around the mega-project.

"The project is a huge catalyst and not a substitute for Pakistan's overall economic development, because Pakistan is an emerging economy in its own right destined to be one of top leading economies in the 21st century", he sad.

Brushing aside India's objections to the CPEC as "disingenuous", the President said that India is concerned that the project passes through the disputed territory of Jammu and Kashmir but has shown no inclination to resolve the issue.

The President said that Pakistan and the United States should remove misgivings and restore the vitality of their relationship. Pakistan, he said, was facing pressure from Washington in regard to the war on terrorism in Afghanistan and it was having impact on the CPEC and the BRI-related activities.

But the US should understand that CPEC is designed for connecting countries, building transnational communities for prosperity, and creating conditions for peaceful neighborhoods, Masood added.

Some countries led by India, Masood Khan said, were painting the CPEC and the BRI as "disruptive transitions", whereas these are in fact benign, productive and constructive transformations that would usher in an era of prosperity for half of the world's population and shape a new global architecture for geopolitical stability.

The initiatives are inclusive, not exclusive, he said. China, as a trusted ally, "walks the talk", and Pakistan works with China as an equal partner, the President said and trashed observations that the BRI and CPEC could somehow lead to "neo-colonialism" and "land grab".

"The era of physical or virtual colonialism is gone; and independent countries are making their own conscious choices for collective, cohesive development. Retrogressive forces cannot halt or slow down this march of history", President said.

The people of Azad Kashmir and Pakistan, he said, are cheerleaders of the CPEC and the spirit of BRI. The President said that Pakistan was proud of the role of the armed forces of Pakistan in its relentless war against terrorism and paid tribute to the thousands of soldiers and civilians who had laid down their lives to make the world safe and secure.

He also highlighted the sacrifices of the armed forces of Pakistan in defending civilians on both sides of line of control against India's hostile fire. When it come to retaliating Indian fire, Pakistan armed forces show restraint so that civilians on the other side are not killed or harmed.

Responding to a question, the President said the 700,000 occupation forces in the occupied Kashmir should stop killing, maiming, and torturing Kashmiri Muslims to impose India's illegal writ on the territory.

When asked about "political uncertainty" in Pakistan and its impact on CPEC, he said there would be political stability and continuity and all sate institutions are establishing checks and balances which are a requisite for a vibrant democratic system.

China, he said, knows Pakistan well and will continue to invest in Pakistan which is evident from the launch of the Long Term Plan taking the US $ 62 million project to 2030. "That shows full confidence of both sides in CPEC", President said.Prime Minister of Azad Jammu and Kashmir, Raja Muhammad Farooq Haider Khan has said that all political parties in Pakistan should have unified policy on National affairs.

MIRPUR (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 28th Feb, 2018 ) , :Prime Minister of Azad Jammu and Kashmir, Raja Muhammad Farooq Haider Khan has said that all political parties in Pakistan should have unified policy on National affairs.

Prime Minister made these assertion while addressing a Conference regarding ideology of Pakistan under the aegis of Ideology of Pakistan Trust on Wednesday. The right to rule in Pakistan is through Parliament and masses of Pakistan have this right to elect the suitable one through their votes, "dignity of Parliament and Judiciary must be maintained" he said.

Pakistan is renowned for Muslim community around the world having its recognition as first Islamic State globally, he lamented that East Pakistan separated from us due to our mistakes. "The process of certifying traitors or patriotic must be terminated and Judiciary and Parliament must work together to implement national security policy" PM AJK opinionated.

He said that the differences of opinions were everywhere, but everything should be settled on discussion tables. Talking on the Kashmir issue and constitutional amendments, PM AJK said that Kashmiris had decided to join Pakistan before formation of Pakistan and are still struggling and sacrificing their lives for this affiliation.

"Kashmir is not a struggle against Hindus, our struggle is to liberate Kashmir from Indian occupation," Farooq added.

"Our war is against the Hindu imperialist rule, which are 5% of Indian population and these Brahmans have occupied the whole India, not only minorities living in India are exploited, but lower caste Hindus are also suffering from Brahman regime" he added.

The PM voiced that India wass making dams in occupied Kashmir and diverting the water towards India and breaching the Indus water treaty due to which Pakistani were facing shortage of water. He said, "India has illegally occupied Kashmir and Kashmiri do not accept this occupation, the only solution of Kashmir dispute is according to the resolutions of United Nations." He maintained that Pakistan and Kashmir had an uninterrupted relationship adding that Kashmiris had an ancient and historic relationship with Pakistan especially with Lahore.

Moreover, he said that Punjab had been the center for Kashmiris'. Allama Muhammad Iqbal remained President and Secretary General of Kashmir Committee. The Federal government had given a positive message to the people across the Line of Control by supportive stance for the amendments in AJK interim constitution Act 1974.

The Prime Minister added that the government of Pakistan was serious for strengthening the legislative assembly and the state government, whose motivational results are being observed.The 10th Round of Bilateral Political Consultations between Pakistan and Switzerland was held in Berne on Feb, 26-27 where two sides reviewed all aspects of bilateral relations, including political economic trade, investment and cooperation in the fields of education, science and technology, agriculture and defence.

ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 28th Feb, 2018 ) :The 10th Round of Bilateral Political Consultations between Pakistan and Switzerland was held in Berne on Feb, 26-27 where two sides reviewed all aspects of bilateral relations, including political economic trade, investment and cooperation in the fields of education, science and technology, agriculture and defence.

Ambassador Zaheer A. Janjua, Additional Secretary (Europe), led the Pakistan delegation, while the Swiss side was headed by Ambassador Johannes Matyassy, Assistant State of Secretary for Asia and Pacific Division, Federal Department of Foreign Affairs (FDFA), said a message received from foreign office here on Wednesday.

They also discussed multilateral cooperation on key areas of interest and exchanged views on important global and regional developments. Additional Secretary (Europe) briefed the Swiss side on the progress made by the government on strengthening democracy, reviving the economy and improvement in law and order situation in the country.

The successes achieved in the fight against terrorism were also highlighted, FO said. Both sides recognised the vast potential of the two economies for mutually beneficial cooperation. They agreed to take concrete steps, including exchange of business delegations and supporting SMEs, to further enhance and expand bilateral economic and commercial interaction.

Bilateral trade between Pakistan and Switzerland crossed US$ 500 million in 2017. Pakistan and Switzerland enjoy close and friendly relations, and cooperate closely at multilateral fora. Switzerland is an important development partner of Pakistan.

The mechanism of Bilateral Political Consultations provides a useful platform to review bilateral relations and discusses future areas of cooperation. The next session of the Consultations will be held in Islamabad at mutually convenient dates in 2019.World renowned philanthropist Abdul Sattar Edhi was remembered on the occasion of his 89th birth anniversary.

ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 28th Feb, 2018 ) :World renowned philanthropist Abdul Sattar Edhi was remembered on the occasion of his 89th birth anniversary. Google honoured him with a doodle of the man who was fondly known as the 'Angel of Mercy', on Tuesday.

Abdul Sattar Edhi was born on February 28, 1928 in Gujarat but then migrated to Karachi after partition. After noticing that people in Pakistan were without shelter, food medicine and clothing, he begged people for donations.

Edhi was able to convert a small room he had into a dispensary which serviced the poor. Very soon, people began to trust him and provided him with donations to help the poor, hungry and destitute in Pakistan.

Paying tributes to Abdul Sattar Edhi google wrote: "In 1951, he established the Edhi foundation, which is funded solely by private donations.

The foundation, which operates 24 hours a day, provides a variety of social services from homeless shelters to medical care - all free of charge - and has helped thousands of people around the world in times of need.

Most notably, the foundation operates the world's largest volunteer ambulance network in Pakistan. "In my entire life I have driven no other car except my ambulance," Edhi said. Abdul Sattar Edhi expired on July 8, 2016 from kidney failure.

During the last days of his illness, Edhi stated that he preferred to be treated in Pakistan rather than abroad and earned further laurels from the general masses.(@FahadShabbir)

Chief Justice Mian Saqib Nisar said Monday that the role of bars was imperative for administration of justice and without their cooperation, this goal could not be achieved.

ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 28th Feb, 2018 ) :Chief Justice Mian Saqib Nisar said Monday that the role of bars was imperative for administration of justice and without their cooperation, this goal could not be achieved.

According to press release issued here, Chief Justice acknowledged this while talking to an 8 member delegation of High Court Bar Association that called on him here.

The delegation was led by its president Syed Javed Akbar, while other members included, Riyasat Ali Azad, President District Bar Association and other office bearers.

The Chief Justice said, "Both Bench and Bar must work with full passion and dedication for the dispensation of justice." The delegation also discussed issues being faced by them. Chief Justice assured them of his full support to resolve their issues.(@rukhshanmir)

Dr Junaid Ahmad, an accomplished academician took upon himself the task to expose the true face of India and in his well researched book he came to the conclusion that India had emerged as an apartheid state totally dominated by the Hindu fundamentalists.

ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 28th Feb, 2018 ) :Dr Junaid Ahmad, an accomplished academician took upon himself the task to expose the true face of India and in his well researched book he came to the conclusion that India had emerged as an apartheid state totally dominated by the Hindu fundamentalists.

The Readers Club launched Dr Junaid's book "India an Apartheid State" at an event here on Wednesday where the book was critically reviewed and discussed by seasoned diplomats Riaz Hussain Khokhar, Abdul Basit and well known security analyst Ikram Sehgal.

The main theme of the book was that India claimed itself to be a secular country but practically it was a Hindu state with a caste system which basically promoted inequality and apartheid. The critics appreciated the fact that the book was conclusive and based on well documented facts and references.

Talking about his book, Dr Junaid said there had been thousands of riots in India since its establishment in 1947. Hindus committed atrocities against Dalits, Muslims, Christians and Sikhs in the bloody riots spread over decades.

He was of the view that the ongoing insurgencies in numerous states of India will eventually implode the country from within. Former ambassador Riaz Hussain Khokhar said India's secularism was a fraud and its democracy was limping.

India was a very, communalized, classified and stratified society, he said adding India had calculated approach of subversion towards its neighbours. He said India devised a plan to dismember Pakistan in 1970 and also interfered in internal matters of its neighbours.

"We need to know our adversary. We got to watch every step of India," he said adding Hindutva, as a political movement was an effort to reshape India. Giving a different perspective on the state of India, former ambassador Abdul Basit said there was no doubt that India was stratified but the element of apartheid was a cultural issue and at least state's constitution protected rights of minorities.

However, he agreed that India's claims of a secular state did not match what was actually happening to the minorities and in different states with hostile populations. A short video was also shown that exposed how Hindus were mistreating minorities in India, where the society was built on a decaying caste system.

In the video, B R Ambedkar, author of India's constitution was quoted as saying, "If Hindu Raj does become a fact, it will, no doubt be the greatest calamity for this country. No matter what the Hindus say, Hinduism is a menace to liberty, equality and fraternity.

It is incompatible with democracy. Hindu raj must be prevented at any cost." While on one occasion, Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru had said, "The ideology of Hindu Dharma is completely out of tune with the present times and if it took root in India, it would smash the country to pieces." Former Indian Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh on December 27, 2006 had stated, "Dalits have faced a unique discrimination in our society that is fundamentally different from the problems of minority groups in general.

The only parallel to the practice of untouchability was apartheid in South Africa. Untouchability is not just a social discrimination. It is a blot on humanity." President Readers Club Sabuha Khan through a video link highlighted different themes touched upon in the book.

In his closing remarks, Dr Junaid said his book on Indian state was tip of the iceberg and a detailed study was needed to expose Hindutva, an ideology seeking to establish the hegemony of Hindus. Dr Junaid Ahmed is a teacher and researcher and has over two decades of teaching experience in Canada and Pakistan.The district administration intensified campaign against encroachment by bulldozing over 200 shops and cabins illegally constructed at Dir Upper Kohistan and Patrak bazaar here on Wednesday

DIR UPPER, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 28th Feb, 2018 ) :The district administration intensified campaign against encroachment by bulldozing over 200 shops and cabins illegally constructed at Dir Upper Kohistan and Patrak bazaar here on Wednesday.

On the directives of Deputy Commissioner Dir Upper, Usman Mehsood, Additional Deputy Commissioner Dir Malik Dilnawaz Khan and Assistant Commissioner Shringal, Tanvir Ahmed Khan supervised operation against encroachment in their respective areas.

Despite several notices, the shopkeepers did not remove illegal structure, leaving no option with the management but to raze all illegally constructed shops and cabins to ground with an objective at to ensure smooth flow of traffic.HYDERABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 28th Feb, 2018 ) :Hindu community of Hyderabad is celebrating their religious and colorful festival for two days with religious fervor here. A special prayer, Holi procession are being held in temples.

Talking to APP here on Wednesday, member of the Hidu Panchayet Association Advocate M. Parkash said that our Government had provided the maximum facilities possible to all minorities and government planned to restore almost all minority religious sites in the country.

Vice Chancellor Liquat Medical University of Medical & Health Sciences Professor Bikha Ram Devrajani said that the Hindu community, played vital role in prosperity of Pakistan. Professor Bikha Ram Devrajani strongly criticized the extremism and terrorism, terming it against the code of conduct of any religion.

Program Manager at Development, Awareness and Management of Natural Resource (DAMAN) Krishna Kumari also underlined the need of forging unity irrespective of religion, creed and caste and joint struggle with hardworking, sincerity and honesty for the progress and development of the country.

Krishna Kumari explained that Holi is played with colours from 6am till 6pm. A devotee Shanti Maheshwari, who has been visiting the Shri Lakshmi Narayan temple every year since her childhood, said that they feel happy to celebrate Holi freely in Pakistan and never felt like a minority in the country, added. APP/fas/maq/Five alleged accused were arrested and arms were recovered from them in a crackdown by the Sharafi goth police here on Wednesday.

KARACHI, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 28th Feb, 2018 ) :Five alleged accused were arrested and arms were recovered from them in a crackdown by the Sharafi goth police here on Wednesday. The police have recovered one riffle and two pistols from the accused named Nadeem, Jameel, Khalid, Baber and Asad, claimed police sources.

Meanwhile, one person identified as Aamir son of Zeeshan was arrested by police for charge of man-handling Lifting Officer ASI Kafeel in Risala Traffic Section.Frontier Corps (FC) seized a large number of ammunition including suicide jackets and improvised explosive devices (IEDs) in respective areas of Balochistan under Operation Radd-ul- Fasaad (RuF).

QUETTA, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 01st Mar, 2018 ) :Frontier Corps (FC) seized a large number of ammunition including suicide jackets and improvised explosive devices (IEDs) in respective areas of Balochistan under Operation Radd-ul- Fasaad (RuF).

According to FC sources, FC personnel carried out operations in Sibi, Chaman, Uch and Kohlu area of Balochistan and recovered a large number of ammunitions including suicide jackets, RPG rockets, sub machine guns, mines, detonators and IEDs. The FC sources said that this ammunition was to be utilized for sabotage activities in the country by unknown suspects.The government of Japan has provided four ambulances and financial assistance of $71,501 to the Pakistan Red Crescent Society (PRCS) to further enhance its outreach capacity and coverage in provision of assistance in the wake of unexpected calamities and emergencies.

ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 28th Feb, 2018 ) :The government of Japan has provided four ambulances and financial assistance of $71,501 to the Pakistan Red Crescent Society (PRCS) to further enhance its outreach capacity and coverage in provision of assistance in the wake of unexpected calamities and emergencies.

Agreement for this project was signed here on Wednesday between the Ambassador of Japan to Pakistan, Takashi Kurai and the Chairman of the PRCS, Dr Saeed Elahi. The Mayor of Islamabad, Sheikh Anser Aziz also attended the signing ceremony.

Under the said agreement, the government of Japan will give four ambulances to PRCS to operate in Islamabad and Rawalpindi. In addition to the ambulances, a grant of $71,501 will be utilized for transportation cost of ambulances from Japan to Pakistan, their re-conditioning, installation of first aid equipment as well as training of PRCS staff in Islamabad.

These four re-conditioned and fully equipped ambulances will sufficiently add up PRCS outreach capacity and coverage in twin cities in the wake of unexpected calamities and emergencies. Speaking on the occasion, Ambassador of Japan to Pakistan, Takashi 'Kurai 'expressed his hope that the addition of four ambulances to the PRCS fleet will enable the organization to even more quickly respond to emergencies and outreach the 'people who 'are in 'immediate 'need 'of 'first aid.'Japan will continue to support the people of Pakistan to improve their living standards, the ambassador added.' Chairman of PRCS, Dr Saeed Elahi appreciated the assistance provided by the government of Japan for improving the operational capabilities of the Pakistan Red Crescent Society.

He thanked the Embassy of Japan for extending this helping hand to effectively address the calamities and emergencies in the twin cities.Additional district and sessions judge, Shakeel Ahmad Sipra on Wednesday handed down life term to a man involved in a murder case.

FAISALABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 28th Feb, 2018 ) :Additional district and sessions judge, Shakeel Ahmad Sipra on Wednesday handed down life term to a man involved in a murder case. According to the prosecution, convict Muhammad Aslam had stabbed to death Bakhat Bibi over a minor dispute in 2015.

The court ordered the convict to pay Rs 200,000 as compensation to the legal heirs of the victim.Ministry of Information Technology and Telecommunication joined hands with Telecommunication company Huawei to contribute towards digital development in the country via USF programs through appropriate utilization of its expertise.

ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 28th Feb, 2018 ) :Ministry of Information Technology and Telecommunication joined hands with Telecommunication company Huawei to contribute towards digital development in the country via USF programs through appropriate utilization of its expertise.

Ministry of IT & Telecom through the USF signed an MOU with Huawei at the mobile World Congress 2018 in Barcelona, under which they will cooperate in spheres of program designing, training and sharing successful experiences with regard to broadband services, vertical public services and intelligent digital platforms.

Speaking on the occasion, Minister for IT & Telecom Anusha Rehman said that through this MOU, Huawei will provide the requisite expertise to MoIT through' USF.

She said it will help develop National ICT services execution strategy, support Joint Innovation center (JIC) for empowering women who are benefiting from the USF ICT for Girls program.

She expressed her support and encouragement for the top three best performing graduates. She added that this will ensure that the top performer girls from lower strata of the society will continue to pursue technology based empowerment.

She also said that partnership of Huawei will further enhance the effectiveness of the projects and will go a long way in socio-economic development of the people of Pakistan.(@ChaudhryMAli88)

Punjab Minister for Human Rights and Minorities Affairs (HR&MA) Khalil Tahir Sandhu has ruled out the allegations of PPP's Jahan Ara that Pakistan Muslim League (PML-N) government has not provided justice and ignored the minorities of the province.

Lahore, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 28th Feb, 2018) : Punjab Minister for Human Rights and Minorities Affairs (HR&MA) Khalil Tahir Sandhu has ruled out the allegations of PPP's Jahan Ara that Pakistan Muslim League (PML-N) government has not provided justice and ignored the minorities of the province.

In a clarification statement here on Wednesday, Khalil Tahir Sandhu said that the provincial government is committed to protect the rights of minorities as well as human rights throughout the province.

He said under the leadership of CM Punjab Shahbaz Sharif and Provincial Minister for Law Rana Sanaullah, number of concrete steps have been taken besides legislation and execution of special initiatives for the purpose of safety of minorities.

The Minister HR&MA said that Punjab government has established Task force at provincial level and expanded network at District level to protect the Minorities.

He said in the tenure of PML-N special attention paid to flood affected Minorities families of south Punjab, many MoUs signed with Universities, Baitul Mal, social Institutions, Tevta, Prison Department and with international social institutions for the betterment of Minorities.

Khalil Tahir Sandhu said that millions of rupees had been spent on the welfare of minorities and in the first time of the history a special grant paid to missionaries Hospital. Under the CM's leadership, the Punjab government done lot for development of province and to improve living standard of masses, that's why opponents are frightened, he added.(@rukhshanmir)

Sardar Ayaz Sadiq, Speaker National Assembly has greeted Hindu Parliamentarians and the Hindu Community on the eve of Holi which is being celebrated on March 1

ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 28th Feb, 2018 ) :Sardar Ayaz Sadiq, Speaker National Assembly has greeted Hindu Parliamentarians and the Hindu Community on the eve of Holi which is being celebrated on March 1.

Sardar Ayaz Sadiq said that he was delighted to extend his warmest greetings to Hindu Parliamentarians and everyone in Hindu Community on this eve of colours and lights.

In his message, the Speaker also commended the contributions of Pakistani Hindu Community to the prosperity and progress of the country.

He said that their contributions in every sphere of our national life were extremely laudable. Murtaza Javed Abbasi, Deputy Speaker National Assembly also conveyed his sincere and warm greetings on the eve of Holi to his fellow Hindu Members of the National Assembly. He also appreciated their contributions in national development, fostering national unity and cohesion.Ambassador of Republic of Turkey to Pakistan Ishan Mustafa Yurdakul called on Punjab Chief Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif here on Wednesday.

LAHORE, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 28th Feb, 2018 ) :Ambassador of Republic of Turkey to Pakistan Ishan Mustafa Yurdakul called on Punjab Chief Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif here on Wednesday.

He congratulated Shehbaz Sharif over becoming the PML-N President. He said that Shehbaz Sharif had played a marvelous role in strengthening Pakistan-Turkey friendship and Turkish leadership appreciated these efforts in this regard.

He said that Shehbaz Sharif had surprised every body by completing development projects with unprecedented speed and everyone recognized the untiring efforts and steps taken for public welfare." Your speed to perform different assignments is unusual and unique and no one can compete with your fast pace, your pace of work is unprecedented, he added.

He said that Turkey would adopt different steps to further promote trade and investment with the Punjab government in future. Pakistan is my second home and we shall speedily move further to further promote Turk-Pak friendship as you have provided every possible cooperation to Turkish investors.

Shehbaz Sharif congratulated Ishan Mustafa Yurdakul over his posting and expressed good wishes for his success. He said that Pak-Turk friendship is tied in historically important relations of brotherhood, mutual love and harmony.

He said that Turkish leadership had also extended unconditional support to Pakistan at the diplomatic level. It is noteworthy that a number of projects have been carried out in Punjab with Turkish collaboration and the Turkish support in health, solid waste management and other sectors is praiseworthy.

He said that cooperation will be promoted in future with Turkey in water and sanitation, low-cost housing schemes and other sectors. Turkish investors, Provincial Ministers Ayesha Ghaus Pasha and Kh. Imran Nazir, Chief Secretary, PML-N Leader Khawaja Ahmad Hassaan, Lord Mayor Lahore and others were present on the occasion.United States will explore the ways and means to assist Power Division in establishment of Pakistan's First Renewable Energy Institute and also share the expertise of the US National Renewable Energy Laboratory to enable its working as per international standards.

ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 27th Feb, 2018 ) :United States will explore the ways and means to assist Power Division in establishment of Pakistan's First Renewable Energy Institute and also share the expertise of the US National Renewable Energy Laboratory to enable its working as per international standards.

The US will also consider assisting Pakistan in the formulation of National Energy Policy and National Electricity Plan. This was revealed by the US Ambassador to Pakistan, David Hale who met Federal Minister for Power Division, Sardar Awais Ahmed Khan Leghari here Tuesday.

During the meeting the Minister for Power Division informed the US Ambassador that the government has initiated the process of interaction with all the provinces and the federating units for formulation of Energy Policy and National Electricity Plan.

In this regard the Government has also decided to take into consideration various proposals of the power sector potential stakeholders including the service providers during the formulation of the policy and plan.

The Minister appreciated the US General Electric Company for its Repowering Initiative proposal that includes conversion or rehabilitation of the existing power generation units across Pakistan.

He said that he has asked the GE to be part of the process of energy policy and electricity plan so that their proposal can be materialized based on the decisions taken. The Minister underscored the need of deep cooperation between Pakistan and USA in the renewable energy sector.

He said that renewable energy is the only way forward to meet the energy requirements of Pakistan. The Minister also informed the US Ambassador on the progress made so far by the Power Division for establishment of Pakistan First Renewable Energy Institute.

He said that LUMS has also shown keen interest to house the institute, and has sent its proposal in this regard. He said that HEC and AEDB are finalizing to identify the University in Pakistan to house the Institute.

The US ambassador appreciated the Power Division initiative for establishment of the Renewable Energy Institute. He also underscored enhanced cooperation between the two countries in the energy sector.

The US ambassador also assured to soon appoint focal person for energy in the US Embassy who will frequently interact with his counterpart at the Power Division regarding cooperation in the sector.Like other parts of the globe, World Zero Discrimination Day will be observed here on March 1st to promote diversity and recognize that everyone counts.

ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 28th Feb, 2018 ) :Like other parts of the globe, World Zero Discrimination Day will be observed here on March 1st to promote diversity and recognize that everyone counts.

Organizations like the United Nations (UN) would actively promote the day with various activities to celebrate everyone's right to live a full life with dignity regardless of age, gender, sexuality, nationality, ethnicity, skin color, height, weight, profession, education, and beliefs.

Many countries have laws against discrimination but it's still a problem in all layers of society in every country in the world.

Many countries have and still use discrimination as a way of governing.

The symbol for Zero Discrimination Day is the butterfly, widely used by people to share their stories and photos as a way to end discrimination and work towards positive transformation. The UN first celebrated Zero Discrimination Day on March 1, 2014, after UNAIDS, a UN program on human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS), launched its Zero Discrimination Campaign on World AIDS Day in December 2013.China and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) will hold the 23rd Joint Working Group meeting on the Implementation of the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea (DOC) from March 1-2 in Nha Trang, Vietnam.

BEIJING, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 28th Feb, 2018 ) :China and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) will hold the 23rd Joint Working Group meeting on the Implementation of the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea (DOC) from March 1-2 in Nha Trang, Vietnam.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lu Kang told a daily news briefing that relevant parties will exchange views on implementing the DOC, promoting maritime cooperation as well as consulting on the Code of Conduct (COC) in the South China Sea.

Currently the situation in the South China Sea has been stabilized due to the efforts of China and regional countries, Lu said. "China and ASEAN countries have the will and confidence to continue dialogue and cooperation, strive for more progress and consolidate the improving situation in the area," Lu said.(@FahadShabbir)

China's renewable energy registered an installed capacity of 650 million kilowatts in 2017, a record high, according to a senior energy official.

BEIJING, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 28th Feb, 2018 ) :China's renewable energy registered an installed capacity of 650 million kilowatts in 2017, a record high, according to a senior energy official.

The renewable energy made up 36.6 percent of the country's total installed capacity of power and generated electricity of 1.7 trillion kilowatt hours last year, according to Liu Baohua, deputy head of the National Energy Administration.

China made better use of renewable energy with less waste last year. The Utilization rate of hydraulic power reached about 96 percent while curtailment rates of wind power and photovoltaic power dropped by 5.

2 percentage points and 4.3 percentage points, respectively.

The country plans to raise the percentage of non-fossil fuel power consumption to 15 percent of the total energy mix by 2020 and to 20 percent by 2030. "China still has much room for improvement in power utilization and the government aims to control waste of renewable power to within a reasonable range in three years," Liu said.(@ChaudhryMAli88)

The main opposition party in Equatorial Guinea has been dissolved by a court that also jailed 21 of its activists for more than 30 years, state media reported on Tuesday.

Malabo, Equatorial Guinea, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 27th Feb, 2018 ) :The main opposition party in Equatorial Guinea has been dissolved by a court that also jailed 21 of its activists for more than 30 years, state media reported on Tuesday.

The Citizens for Innovation (CI) party will be "withdrawn (from) the register of political parties in the country", the presiding judge at the court in Mongomo, Jose Rafael Nguema, said on TVGE state television.

The rulings were made Monday during the trial of 147 CI activists accused of "rebellion" in the small, oil-rich central African nation, ruled by unbending strongman President Teodoro Obiang Nguema since he seized power in 1979.

"The dissolution is the consequence of (...) undermining state security, because according to the law governing political parties, any party that commits this offence is dissolved," deputy chief prosecutor Anatalio Nzang said on TVGE.

In an election last November, the CI won the only parliamentary seat that was not taken by Obiang's ruling Democratic Party of Equatorial Guinea (PDGE), which claimed 99 of 100 seats. The trial was linked to scuffles that occurred a week before the vote, when police tried to stop a CI rally in Aconibe, hometown of party leader Gabriel Nse Obiang Obono.

Three police officers were hurt and their weapons -- three AK-47 assault rifles and a pistol -- were seized. - Jailed for 'sedition' - Since the vote, "restrictions on freedom and arrests, particularly of political opposition figures, have ceaselessly continued," according to European Union observers.

The 147 CI activists have been on trial since mid-February in Mongomo, Obiang's hometown and fiefdom in the continental part of the former Spanish colony, which also includes Bioko island to the northwest in the Gulf of Guinea.

"In the name of the head of state, first magistrate of the nation," the court convicted 21 members of the group and ordered them to serve "26 years in prison for sedition, 10 years in prison for undermining authority (with) a fine of 50,000 CFA francs (76 Euros / $94) to be paid by each one, four years in prison for damage and four months for physical injury," according to state television.

Prosecutors had sought the death penalty, according to CI members and their lawyer, but the state denied this, citing a moratorium on capital punishment in force "for about 15 years", though courts have still handed down death sentences.

The court ordered the release of the other activists in the dock. The convicted men were also "condemned with their CI party to pay 138 million CFA francs (210,000 euros / $259,000) to the state", according to the television report.

This is "an astronomical sum in the context of the miserable wages paid in Equatorial Guinea," a foreign diplomat in the region commented. Since the discovery of considerable oil reserves in 1996, Obiang has come to preside over one of the main oil exporters in sub-Saharan Africa, but most of the 1.2 million inhabitants still live in poverty.(@rukhshanmir)

Britain's ambassador to South Korea said Wednesday he believes in the power of dialogue when it comes to how to resolve North Korea's nuclear issue.

SEOUL, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 28th Feb, 2018 ) :Britain's ambassador to South Korea said Wednesday he believes in the power of dialogue when it comes to how to resolve North Korea's nuclear issue.

"As a professional diplomat, I am a fundamental believer in the power of dialogue," Charles Hay said during a press conference ahead of his departure from South Korea this weekend. His three-year term as the top British envoy to South Korea ends this week.

"If you think about the twin tracks which are pressure/sanctions and dialogue, one very important aspect of these is that there should be no release of pressure until there's some real substantive progress (on ending North Korea's nuclear weapons development)," the outgoing ambassador said.

For talks with North Korea to happen, both the North Korea side and the South Korea-United States side need to approach dialogue "in a spirit of wanting progress," he said. "(But) it's too soon to say whether or not that spirit exists on the side of the North," Hay said, adding that, "So far, they have given no indications that they are willing to change their direction.

" The ambassador said "everybody who loves Korea have their fingers crossed that what we are seeing now is the start of a process that will lead to a better future," referring to a series of inter-Korean dialogues that have taken place throughout February.

Looking back on his past three years of diplomatic service in South Korea, the ambassador said the two countries have fortunately had no special bilateral problems. Trade and cooperation in the defense sector have seen steady growth over the past three years, he said.

Still, the countries have room to develop their cooperation further in the service sector, the ambassador noted. "Most British exports to Korea are goods and not services ... South Korea's goods sector is world class, but the Korean service sector could be developed further," he said, adding, "So there's a lot we can do to be more open in terms of services exports."Page Content

Three choirs at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point will perform together in March, singing about the natural world, Irish poems and lost love.

A Combined Choirs Concert will be held at 7:30 p.m. Friday, March 9, in Michelsen Hall of the Noel Fine Arts Center. It will include the Women's Choir, conducted by adjunct lecturer James Carpenter, and the Concert Choir and Choral Union, conducted by Professor Lucinda Thayer. Piano accompaniment will be provided by Mary Ellen Mitchell.

The Women's Choir will perform "The Lake Isle of Innisfree" by Eleanor Daley, "Lift Thine Eyes to the Mountains" from "Elijah" by Felix Mendelssohn and "The Peace of Wild Things" by Joan Szymko.

The Concert Choir will perform two selections from "Three Reincarnations" by Irish composer Samuel Barber and based on poems by James Stephens, "Love Lost  Four Satirical Poems on Love" by Paul Sjolund, "Please Stay" by Jake Runestad and featuring soloist Alyssa Eiden, and "I Carry Your Heart" by Abbie Betinis.

The Choral Union will perform the traditional Shaker tune "Gift To Be Simple," "God is Seen" and "I Will Arise" arranged by Alice Parker, "Earth Song" by Frank Ticheli and "Sure on This Shining Night" by Morten Lauridsen.

Tickets are $10 for adults, $7 for senior citizens, $5 for UW-Stevens Point students, faculty and youth and free the day of the concert for students with a UW-Stevens Point I.D. if not sold out. Tickets are available at the University Information and Tickets Office in the Dreyfus University Center, by calling 715-346-4100 or 800-838-3378 or at http://tickets.uwsp.edu. Tickets also may be purchased at the door if available. Proceeds benefit student scholarships.







Fingerprinting Express, the superior industry leader in digital fingerprint background checks, donated more than $60,000 in services and fees in the years 2016-17 with its Culture to Care program. The local family owned company, led by CEO, Monica Pappas, is known for its responsible philanthropy and mission to protect customers identity and personal information through its reputable business practices.

Conveniently located in clean and convenient locations, Fingerprinting Express employees, ensure priority in service care, by offering low wait times, and education by advising its customers of the ideal processes best suited for their business and personal needs.

We are pleased to continue to give back to the community who have welcomed Fingerprinting Express with open arms said Monica Pappas, president of Fingerprinting Express. We strive to provide high standards of service and technology to protect our customers and continue to offer discounted fingerprinting fees to volunteers, active military, teachers and non-profits as part of our Culture to Care philosophy since our inception in 2003.

The award winning Fingerprinting Express offers state-of-the-art technology using Livescan fingerprinting systems, which is recognized as the most accurate form of background checks available allowing for faster background check results. Due to its long-term partnership with regulatory government agencies and private vendors, Fingerprinting Express has the quick ability to send Livescan fingerprints electronically to both the State of Nevada and the FBI, which offers expedited results to its applicants and they can also generate hard fingerprint cards. Additionally, all database information is never sold or traded for any purpose, other than performing authorized background checks, making it a dependent and reliable facility.

Fingerprinting Express services include notary services, secure document shredding, passport and employment licensing photo services and more. Due to high demands, Fingerprinting Express, conveniently located with three locations statewide, is also opening its fourth retail center in southern Nevada at 1350 E. Flamingo Road, Las Vegas in March 2018.Shaka Ssali discusses Ethiopias future with Solomon Abate Gebremariam, VOA Horn of Africa Correspondent, Professor Berhanu Nega, Economics Professor and Chairman of Patriotic Ginbot Seven, Dr. Yohannes Zeleke, Research Associate at the Smithsonian Natural History Museum, and with Mohammed Ademo, Freelance Journalist and Founder & Editor of OPRIDE.COM.Three astronauts returned from the International Space Station to the snowy, bitingly cold flat lands of Central Asia, ending a 5-month mission highlighted by robotic renovations, schoolteacher pep talks and heavenly greetings from Pope Francis.

The two Americans and one Russian landed in a Soyuz capsule shortly after sunrise Wednesday, local time, in Kazakhstan, where the temperature was below freezing. Flight controllers feared snow and freezing rain might hamper recovery efforts, but NASA said the weather wasnt nearly as bad as had been feared and the pickup teams got to where they needed to be.

NASAs Joe Acaba and Mark Vande Hei, and Russias Alexander Misurkin emerged from the capsule one by one, smiling, waving and pumping their fists in the air as they were carried to outdoor chairs. Medical staff wrapped them in thick blankets, while taking their pulse and making sure they were fine.

The astronauts checked out of the space station just a few hours earlier, hugging the three men remaining behind.

Were already missing you, radioed station commander Anton Shkaplerov as the capsule backed away.

McAuliffe experiments

In handing over the skippers job to Shkaplerov, Misurkin joked that at least he and his two crewmates didnt break anything and hopefully accomplished some good science. Theyd lived on the space station since September.

Acaba is the first astronaut of Puerto Rican heritage and a former schoolteacher. He teamed up with another educator-astronaut, Ricky Arnold, whos launching in three weeks, to perform the science lessons prepared by Christa McAuliffe 32 years ago. She died in the shuttle Challenger launch disaster.

During a series of spacewalks spanning months, Acaba and Vande Hei helped replace the aging mechanical hands of the stations big robot arm. And last fall, they had a chance to chat with Pope Francis, discussing the beauty and fragility of the home planet.

As is customary, NASA planned to hustle Acaba and Vande Hei back to Houston, with Misurkin heading to cosmonaut headquarters at Star City, Russia.

A replacement crew, including former teacher Arnold, will lift off from Kazakhstan on March 21 and bring the space station back up to a full crew of six.Fernando Segovia, the director general of Brazil's federal police who spearheaded the country's sprawling corruption cases, was replaced Tuesday, the press office of the newly created Public Security Ministry said in a statement.

Segovia, who took office in November, came under pressure from prosecutors, federal police investigators and local media after he told Reuters in an interview earlier this month that a bribery investigation into President Michel Temer had found no evidence of corruption.

Segovia was told by Raul Jungmann, the former defense minister who on Tuesday was sworn in as minister of public security, that he was being replaced by Rogerio Galloro, who has spent more than two decades with the federal police, including a 2011-2013 stint as the organization's representative in the United States.

Reuters was not immediately able to contact Segovia for comment.

Brazil's crackdown on graft in recent years has led to scores of convictions of senior politicians, government officials and corporate executives, inspiring many Brazilians to believe that a longstanding culture of impunity was changing.

It also helped spawn similar crackdowns elsewhere in Latin America.

But criticism of Segovia has been sharp since he was nominated to the position by Temer in November.

Raquel Dodge, Brazil's top prosecutor, on Monday requested the Supreme Court issue an order to prevent Segovia from interfering in the criminal investigation that could result in new corruption charges against Temer.

Charges against Temer

That request related to the investigation Segovia discussed in his interview with Reuters. Authorities are probing whether Temer accepted bribes in exchange for extending a concession last year for operating services in the Port of Santos, Latin America's busiest container port.

The port investigation is separate from other corruption cases that have resulted in charges, but no trials or convictions, against Temer.

Congress voted twice to block him from standing trial on those prior charges while in office. Temer could face trial once he leaves the presidency.

Brazil's former top prosecutor, Rodrigo Janot, under whom the country's unprecedented anti-corruption push began, told Reuters in a December interview that "Segovia was named to complete a mission  to divert the focus of the investigations."

Segovia rejected the criticism at that time and said he would strengthen the fight against corruption.A California man has been charged with trying to travel to Libya to join Islamic State, New York federal prosecutors announced Tuesday.

In a criminal complaint unsealed in Brooklyn federal court, prosecutors said that Bernard Augustine, 21, traveled to Tunisia in February 2016 and from there attempted to reach Islamic State-controlled territory in Libya.

Augustine, of Keyes, California, has been charged with attempting to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization. He faces up to 20 years in prison if convicted, prosecutors said.

A lawyer for Augustine could not immediately be identified.

Prosecutors said that Augustine was arrested and imprisoned in Tunisia before Tunisian authorities turned him over to the United States.

In March 2016, U.S. authorities searched Augustine's laptop and found that he had viewed Islamic State videos in the months leading up to his trip and made online postings supporting the group.

Authorities also interviewed a person who lived with Augustine, who told them Augustine was constantly on the internet and that he had no legitimate reason to travel to Tunisia, according to the complaint.

As of January, 157 people had been charged in the United States in connection with Islamic State, according to the Program on Extremism at George Washington University. The militant group has lost most of the territory it once controlled in Iraq and Syria.The Church of the Holy Sepulcher has reopened three days after Christian leaders shut it down in protest over Israeli plans to impose taxes on church-owned real estate.

The Jerusalem Municipality says commercial church properties such as hotels and shops should not be exempt, and it claimed that churches owed the city $180 million in back taxes.

The leaders of the Catholic, Greek Orthodox and Armenian churches were outraged by the tax plan, charging that Israel was attempting to weaken the Christian presence in Jerusalem.

Israeli Parliament member Rachel Azaria denies that charge.

"I think that we need to make it very, very clear and loud that the churches are very welcome in Jerusalem," Azaria said. "Jerusalem is the city that is holy for the three monotheistic religions and we need to make sure that everyone feels comfortable here."

The Holy Sepulcher is the traditional site of Jesus' crucifixion and resurrection, and a highlight of every Christian pilgrimage to the Holy Land. Fearing that the closure would harm tourism and Israel's image abroad, the Jerusalem Municipality suspended plans to tax the churches, and the ancient doors of the Holy Sepulcher swung open Wednesday.

An American pilgrim named Laurie breathed a sigh of relief.

"We were very, very heartbroken to think that the church is going to be closed," she said. "It is one of the holiest sites for our religion, and we prayed very hard these last three days that things would change and it would be open for us to be able to go in."

Zach Li Nicholas, who came from Chicago, says it was worth the wait.

"It is exciting because I was really excited to pray at the tomb of Jesus Christ, something that I have not been able to do yet," he said.

Israeli officials and church representatives have agreed to open negotiations to seek a solution to the tax dispute, saying Jews, Muslims and Christians must work together to live in peace.2 A campaign banner along the Nile urges voters to re-elect President Sissi in next month's elections. Ethiopia embarked on construction of the gigantic dam as Egypt was embroiled in the political turmoil of the 2011 revolution that toppled longtime ruler Hosni Mubarak.A suicide bomb attack near Pakistan's southwestern city of Quetta has killed at least four paramilitary soldiers and wounded about eight others.

Officials said the bomber struck a security post of the Frontier Corps force Wednesday night, about 20 kilometers from the capital of Baluchistan province.

The attacker had strapped up to 10 kilograms of explosives around his body.

Earlier in the day, gunmen on motorbike ambushed a vehicle carrying a senior police officer in Quetta and sprayed it with bullets. The attack killed two security guards, but the senior police officer survived.

The outlawed Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility for both attacks.

Border clashes

Meanwhile, two Pakistani soldiers were killed in a fresh round of skirmishes with Indian forces in the Bhimber sector of the divided Kashmir region.

A military statement issued late Wednesday said Indian forces initiated the fire across the Line of Control, which separates Pakistani and Indian portions of the Himalayan region. It said that retaliatory fire inflicted "substantial damage" on Indian outposts.

There was no immediate reaction from India.Should any of this year's winners at the Oscars use the occasion to promote a political cause, you can thank  or blame  Marlon Brando.

Brando's role as Vito Corleone in The Godfather remains a signature performance in movie history. But his response to winning an Academy Award was truly groundbreaking.

Upending a decades-long tradition of tears, nervous humor, thank-yous and general goodwill, he sent actress Sacheen Littlefeather in his place to the 1973 ceremony to protest Hollywood's treatment of American Indians.

In the years since, winners have brought up everything from climate change (Leonardo DiCaprio, The Revenant, 2016) to abortion (John Irving, screenplay winner in 2000) to equal pay for women (Patricia Arquette, best supporting actress winner in 2015 for Boyhood).

"Speeches for a long time were relatively quiet in part because of the control of the studio system," said James Piazza, who with Gail Kinn wrote The Academy Awards: The Complete History of Oscar, published in 2002. "There had been some controversy, like when George C. Scott refused his Oscar for Patton [which came out in 1970]. But Brando's speech really broke the mold."

Producers for this year's Oscars show have said they want to emphasize the movies themselves, but between the #MeToo movement and Hollywood's general disdain for President Donald Trump, political or social statements appear likely at the March 4 ceremony.

Salutes for speaking out

Winners at January's Golden Globes citing the treatment of women included Laura Dern and Reese Witherspoon, who thanked "everyone who broke their silence this year." Honorary Globe winner Oprah Winfrey, in a speech that had some encouraging her to run for president, noted that "women have not been heard or believed if they dare speak the truth to the power of those men. But their time is up. Their time is up. Their time is up."

Before Brando, winners avoided making news even if the time was right and the audience never bigger. Gregory Peck, who won for best actor in 1963 as Atticus Finch in To Kill a Mockingbird, said nothing about the film's racial theme even though he frequently spoke about it in interviews. When Sidney Poitier became the first black to win best actor, for Lilies of the Field in 1964, he spoke of the "long journey" that brought him to the stage, but otherwise made no comment on his milestone.

When Jane Fonda, the most politicized of actresses, won for Klute in 1972, her speech was brief and uneventful. "There's a great deal to say, but I'm not going to say it tonight," she stated. "I would just like to thank you very much."

Political movements from anti-communism to civil rights were mostly ignored in their time. According to the movie academy's database of Oscar speeches, the term "McCarthyism" was not used until 2014, when Harry Belafonte mentioned it upon receiving the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award. "Vietnam" was not spoken until the ceremony held April 8, 1975, just weeks before North Vietnamese troops overran Saigon.

No winner said the words "civil rights" until George Clooney in 2006, as he accepted a supporting actor Oscar for Syriana. Vanessa Redgrave's fiery 1978 acceptance speech was the first time a winner said "fascism" or "anti-Semitism."

Comments linked to movies

Political or social comments were often safely connected to the movie. Celeste Holm, who won best supporting actress in 1948 for Gentleman's Agreement, referred indirectly to the film's message of religious tolerance. Rod Steiger won best actor in 1968 for the racial drama In the Heat of the Night and thanked his co-star, Poitier, for giving him the "knowledge and understanding of prejudice." The ceremony was held just days after the assassination of the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr., whose name was never cited by Oscar winners in his lifetime, and Steiger ended by invoking a civil rights anthem: "And we shall overcome."

Hollywood is liberal-land, but the academy often squirms at political speeches. Redgrave was greeted with boos when she assailed "Zionist hoodlums" while accepting the Oscar for Julia, a response to criticism from far-right Jews for narrating a documentary about the Palestinians. She was rebutted the same night: Paddy Chayevsky, giving the award for best screenplay, declared that he was "sick and tired of people exploiting the Academy Awards for the propagation of their own propaganda."

Producer Bert Schneider and director Peter Davis, collaborators on the 1974 Oscar-winning Vietnam War documentary Hearts and Minds, both condemned the war by name (they were the first winners to do so), welcomed North Vietnam's impending victory and even read a telegram from the Viet Cong. An enraged Bob Hope, an Oscar presenter and longtime Republican, prepared a statement and gave it to Frank Sinatra, who was to introduce the screenplay award: "The academy is saying, 'We are not responsible for any political references made on the program, and we are sorry they had to take place this evening.' "

Moore draws boos

In 2003, Michael Moore received a mixed response after his documentary on guns, Bowling for Columbine, won for best documentary. The filmmaker ascended the stage to a standing ovation, but the mood soon shifted as he attacked George W. Bush as a "fictitious president" and charged him with sending soldiers to Iraq for "fictitious reasons." The boos were loud enough for host Steve Martin to joke that "right now, the teamsters are helping Michael Moore into the trunk of his limo."

Sometimes, the academy tries to head off any statements before they're made. Whoopi Goldberg, host of the 1994 show, hurried out a list of causes during her opening monologue.

"Save the whales. Save the spotted owl. Gay rights. Men's rights. Women's rights. Human rights. Feed the homeless. More gun control. Free the Chinese dissidents. Peace in Bosnia. Health care reform. Choose choice. ACT UP. More AIDS research," she said, before throwing in jokes about Sinatra, Lorena Bobbitt and earthquakes.

The audience laughed and cheered.A faulty dengue fever vaccine has set off mass panic over immunization shots and a political storm in the Philippines following the deaths of three children.

The dengue fever vaccine Dengvaxia poses health risks to more than 700,000 schoolchildren who were inoculated, the Philippine House of Representatives public affairs bureau said Monday as it opened hearings on the issue.

The mosquito-borne disease has killed three children despite use of the vaccine, which the government ultimately banned, media outlets in the Southeast Asian country say. Manila also has asked French vaccine manufacturer Sanofi Pasteur for a refund.

Ex-president Benigno Aquino, whose government approved the 3.5 billion-peso ($67 million) purchase that took place half a year before he stepped down due to term limits in June 2016, attended a congressional hearing Monday along with former budget and health secretaries.

Filipinos have quit vaccinating their children until they get clearer information about what happened, said Renato Reyes, secretary general of the Manila-based Bagong Alyansang Makabaya alliance of social causes.

Its a serious issue, given that kids who had no previous experience with dengue may develop a severe form of dengue if they get infected now after the vaccination, Reyes said.

It has become a great cause of concern, so much so that one of the unintended consequences of the whole issue is theres been a drop in people availing themselves of the vaccination program, because theres like fear that all kinds of vaccine, not just the dengue vaccination, will have adverse effects on children, he said.

People feel confused because no single government report or finding has given consistent guidance, Reyes said.

Panic began in 2017

Aquinos government ordered vaccines from Sanofi Pasteur after his country took part with nine others in 2014 clinical studies. The manufacturer said in November that people never before infected by dengue faced higher risk of contracting it after taking the vaccination, CNN Philippines reported.

The World Health Organization also warned in December that people who have never been infected should avoid Denguevaxia. That month, current President Rodrigo Dutertes health secretary ordered the vaccinations to stop and remaining stocks returned to the pharmaceutical company.



Sanofi Pasteur has refused to refund money for used vaccinations, domestic news website Inquirer.net said last week.

Sanofi Pasteur said in a statement for this report that people aged 9 years and older have a lower risk of hospitalization due to dengue, if vaccinated, compared to people of the same age without a vaccination.

"Sanofi Pasteur stands behind the quality, safety, and the overall public health benefit of the vaccine to reduce overall dengue burden in these populations," the statement says.

Filipinos are correct to demand that the Aquino government be accountable and that Sanofi give a refund, said Maria Ela Atienza, political science professor at University of the Philippines Diliman.

Scramble for information

Statements from the Philippine Public Attorneys Office have sown some of the panic among common people, she said, but it's not clear how much information the office has. Dozens have fallen dangerously ill since taking the vaccination, Philippine media say.

They really need expertise, so these government agencies must work together to determine if the children who died, that their deaths are actually results of being injected with the vaccine, Atienza said.

Dengue is common in the Philippines as well as much of tropical Asia. About 96 million people get sick with the virus. They normally show intense flu-like symptoms before recovery.

Vaccinations are free for many Filipino schoolchildren, but the Denguevaxia case has made parents fear shots for any disease, said Rhona Canoy, president of International School Cagayan de Oro in the southern Philippines.

Health and education officials are working together to monitor thousands of students who took Dengvaxia, the office of current president Rodrigo Dutere said on its website in December. We call on all citizens not to spread information that may cause undue alarm, the presidential website added.

Congressional hearings

Legislators are probing whether former officials misused public money to get the vaccines. The lower houses committees on good government and health on Monday raised what they call a technical malversation case against Aquino.

That type of case refers to officials who use public funds for expenses other than those originally covered by law, the houses public affairs bureau said Monday.

Aquino made a name over his six-year term for standing up to China over competing maritime sovereignty claims and raising the budget for public infrastructure.

Aquino rushed the vaccine order to prove in an election year that he had taken a tough stand against dengue fever, said Dexter Feliciano, a Filipino voter who runs a legal startup in Metro Manila.

They railroaded this vaccine, he said. And another thing, Sanofi should have paid us because this is a trial. Its not yet finished.

Funding for the vaccination program came from the Miscellaneous Personnel Benefits Fund and Pension Gratuity Fund savings, the congressional statement said.

Legislators want to know about the legality of the procurement process and use of public funds relative to the school-based dengue immunization programas well as the efficacy and safety of the vaccine procured, it said.

Aquino said Monday he had done all he could to fight dengue fever in his term based on advice from experts, the statement said.

Former health secretary Janette Garin has filed a libel lawsuit against her successor, Paulyn Jean Ubial, over being blamed for the vaccination scandal, the health department website says.Irans justice minister, a sanctioned human rights violator, unapologetically took the podium at the U.N.s top human rights body Tuesday to berate U.S. and Saudi policies, defying calls for him to stay away in a visit a top U.S. diplomat said made a mockery of the body.

Justice Minister Seyyed Alireza Avaeis visit has been criticized because hes faced EU sanctions for six years for his role in arbitrary arrests, denying prisoners rights, and increasing executions in Iran. Switzerland, which hosts a key U.N. office and the council, has also handed him economic sanctions  but not banned him from visiting.

U.N. Geneva spokeswoman Alessandra Vellucci said Avaei did not face any U.N. sanctions.

That did not deter other critics of Avaei's visit. He was on hand Tuesday for the councils high-level segment, a highlight to its March session, which this year is bringing together nearly 100 dignitaries  including many minsters and a few heads of state.

The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, said Sunday the rights council be ashamed to allow Mr. Avaei to address its membership. Haley used the chance to again criticize alleged shortcomings of the council that she had laid out in speeches in Geneva in June.

Yet again the council discredits itself by allowing serial human rights abusers to highjack its work and make a mockery of its mandate to promote universal human rights, Haley said. This does nothing but reinforce the United States call for much needed reforms at the council for it to be viewed as a good investment of our time and money.

Council spokesman Rolando Gomez said nations can choose who they want to represent them at the 47-member body.

The U.S. delegation to the council doubled down on Tuesday, saying he oversaw the summary executions of Iranians in the late 1980s. Today, it said, he oversees arbitrary arrests and imprisonment in a network of facilities notorious for suspicious deaths, the use of torture, and denial of medical care.

The National Council of Resistance of Iran, a leading group of exile and expatriate opponents of Irans Islamic government, staged a noisy and well-orchestrated protest  if small, at about 100 people  outside the gates of the U.N. building shortly before Avaei addressed the council.

Protester Nasser Razi, a member of the NCRI's foreign affairs committee, said Avaei was involved in the execution of thousands of prisoners at the end of Irans war with Iraq in 1988. International rights groups estimate that as many as 5,000 people were executed, while the NCRI puts the number at more than 30,000.

In his speech, Avaei blasted the U.S. decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israels capital, calling it illustrative of gross violation of human rights of Palestinians. He criticized a blockade of Yemen by a Saudi-led coalition involved in a three-year war of aggression there.

And in an unmistakable  if indirect  allusion to the U.S., he said: These self-proclaimed champions of human rights, through finger-pointing, unjustly and widely blame others for violation of human rights, while certain parts of their population, especially blacks, immigrants, foreigners and indigenous people grievously suffer from human rights violations under their watch.

Shortly before Avaei spoke, the U.N. publicly released a report from the U.N. Secretary-General's office on Irans human rights record, as requested by the General Assembly. It raised concerns about arbitrary detention, executions of juvenile defenders, and limits on rights of freedom of assembly in Iran.

Most of the report's strongest recommendations had to do with Irans use of the death penalty.

In his address, Avaei touted domestic reforms of the legal code that were aimed to provide effective mechanisms in safeguarding the rights of accused persons. He also noted that Irans counter-narcotics law has been amended, and as a result, executions related to drug crimes will decrease remarkably.

All execution verdicts in this respect have been stopped ... and are now being re-considered, he said.

Avaei declined to answer a journalists question after he finished his speech.The Russian Embassy in Washington has a new address, at least symbolically.

A one-block section of Wisconsin Avenue directly in front of the embassy was officially renamed Boris Nemtsov Plaza on Tuesday, in what amounts to a D.C.-sponsored effort to troll the Russian government.

A former deputy prime minister, Nemtsov became an opposition activist and vocal public critic of President Vladimir Putin. He was shot dead while walking on a bridge near the Kremlin three years ago.

WATCH: Street Section Outside Russian Embassy Dedicated to Fallen Opposition Leader

The move to rename the street started in the U.S. Congress at the urging of Senator Marco Rubio, a Florida Republican, and others.

"This serves as an enduring reminder to Vladimir Putin and those who support him that they cannot use murder and intimidation to suppress dissent,'' Rubio said.

Such politicized street-naming games are not new to Washington. In recent years, there have been moves to name the street on which China's embassy is located after famed Chinese dissident and Nobel Peace laureate Liu Xiaobo, who died in prison in 2017. Members of Congress have also supported a similar effort to rename a portion of the road that is home to Cuba's embassy after Oswaldo Paya, a pro-democracy activist who died in a 2012 car accident that some believe may have been set up by the Cuban government.

Tribute to Sakharov

And this isn't even the first time that Russia has been targeted by provocative street naming. Back in the Cold War days, when what was then the Soviet embassy was located on 16th Street, the city named a portion of the street after famed dissident Andrei Sakharov.

The United States is not alone in such trolling. There is a long history of both national and municipal governments trying to score political points by renaming streets to irritate other countries.

During the Vietnam War, India renamed the street where the U.S. consulate in Kolkata is located after North Vietnamese leader Ho Chi Minh. Iran and Egypt had no diplomatic ties for decades, and restored them only after Iranian officials agreed in 2004 to change the name of a Tehran street that had been named after the man who assassinated Egyptian President Anwar Sadat.

More recently, some Russian politicians have suggested retaliating for the Nemtsov change by renaming a street outside the U.S. Embassy in Moscow "North American Dead End.''

The decision to create Boris Nemtsov Plaza also represents a rare moment of harmony between Congress and Washington's city government, which normally chafes under the federal government's oversight power over all District of Columbia decisions.

Turned to D.C. Council

When the original street-renaming bill stalled in the Senate, Rubio turned to the D.C. Council for help. Councilwoman Mary Cheh agreed to sponsor the bill, which breezed through the council in January after public hearings that included testimony from Nemtsov's daughter, Zhanna Nemtsova.

Cheh on Tuesday noted that Moscow police have prevented Nemtsov supporters from maintaining a shrine at the site of his killing, repeatedly clearing away candles and flowers from the bridge.

"This commemoration will not be removed,'' Cheh said. "Let them steal the candles. Let them steal the flowers. They can never steal his memory.''

Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton, the nonvoting representative of Washington in Congress, noted with satisfaction that the council was able to quickly accomplish what the Senate couldn't.

"We might have been here in time for next year's anniversary [of Nemtsov's killing] if we were dependent on the Congress,'' she said.

Several speakers, including Rubio, took the opportunity to criticize Putin, not only for his repression of dissent but also for Russia's interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.

Rubio condemned both Putin's "aggressive policies inside Russia'' and his "effort to interfere in the democratic process inside the United States.''U.S. President Donald Trump is praising a decision allowing construction of the wall he wants built along the U.S.-Mexican border, a ruling handed down by the same federal judge he ridiculed during the presidential campaign because of the jurist's Mexican heritage.

The U.S. leader, in a Twitter comment, said the decision by Judge Gonzalo Curiel on Tuesday was a "big victory." He also said, "OUR COUNTRY MUST HAVE BORDER SECURITY." Trump did not mention his previous criticism of the jurist.

Trump said despite the court ruling in his favor, he would not build parts of the wall until the entire structure along the 3,200-kilometer border with Mexico is approved by Congress, minus areas where the natural terrain makes a barrier unnecessary. But Congress has yet to approve funding for the wall, which could cost more than $20 billion.

Trump said California wanted construction to start; however, the western state was one of the groups that unsuccessfully sought to block the wall and said it is now considering whether to appeal the ruling. Another of the opponents, the Center for Biological Diversity, said it would appeal.

The Senate earlier in February defeated proposals to fund construction of at least part of the wall, coupled with other immigration policy changes. Trump supported a measure calling for $18 billion in funding for the wall, sharp cuts in legal immigration to the United States, and protection against deportation for hundreds of thousands of young immigrants who years ago were brought illegally into the country. That legislation fell far short of advancing.

Curiel wrote that the opponents of the wall in the court case failed to prove the Trump administration overstepped its legal authority by ordering the wall.

The judge said, "The court cannot and does not consider whether the underlying decisions to construct border barriers are politically wise or prudent."

California and other groups opposed to the wall had argued the project violates environmental rules and the rights of states to decide whether they want the wall on their side of the border.

The Department of Homeland Security praised the ruling.

"Border walls have proven to be extremely effective in preventing the flow of drugs and illegal aliens across our borders," according to Homeland Security. "Walls have worked in Yuma, Arizona and San Diego, California, where both areas have seen a 95 percent drop in attempted illegal border crossings. Simply put, walls work. The Department of Homeland Security looks forward to building the wall where our frontline operators say it is needed and in accordance with all applicable laws."

Curiel, during the 2016 presidential campaign, oversaw lawsuits of alleged fraud by Trump University, which marketed instructional classes on real estate deals. Trump, then a Republican candidate, ridiculed the U.S.-born judge over his Mexican heritage and accused him of bias in rulings against him.

Trump defended the school against the fraud claims but, just before he took office last year, agreed to a $25 million settlement with former students without admitting guilt.Iran is a major threat to U.S. interests and the long-term stability of the Mideast, the head of U.S. military's Central Command warned U.S lawmakers Tuesday.

"Iran is generating instability across the region, and the Iranian Threat Network continues to increase in strength, enhancing its capacity to threaten U.S. and partner nation interests," General Joe Votel said in a 45-page set of prepared remarks he presented to the House Armed Services Committee during a hearing on terrorism.

Votel said the U.S.-led coalition fighting Islamic State has made significant gains over the last three years, and the terror group has lost control of more than 98 percent of territory it once controlled in Iraq and Syria.

With these gains, Votel said, the U.S. military's focus will be to "neutralize, counterbalance and shape the destabilizing impact that Iran has across the region"; complete the campaign to defeat IS in Iraq and Syria; and enforce the implementation of the South Asia strategy in Afghanistan to help the Afghan government consolidate its control.

Iran over the years has attempted to use instability in the Middle East as a springboard to gain power beyond its border. The events subsequent to the Arab Spring in 2011 and the emergence of IS have helped Tehran establish a foothold in several neighboring countries, including Iraq, Syria and Yemen. An assessment by the U.S. intelligence community this month asserted that Iran remained the most prominent state sponsor of terrorism and was trying to expand its influence in those three countries.

'Shiite crescent'

The report said Iran could attempt to exploit the fight against IS to translate its battlefield gains into political, security and economic agreements with other actors in the region. It said Tehran was seeking to establish a corridor, or "Shiite Crescent," across the Middle East.

U.S. officials have said they intend to keep troops in Iraq and Syria even after IS is completely defeated, not only to prevent the re-emergence of the militant group but also to disrupt an Iranian dominance and threat to the U.S. allies in the region.

"U.S. disengagement from Syria would provide Iran the opportunity to further strengthen its position in Syria," said U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson last month as he laid out a U.S. strategy in Syria after the removal of IS.

"As we have seen from Iran's proxy wars and public announcements, Iran seeks dominance in the Middle East and the destruction of our ally, Israel. As a destabilized nation and one bordering Israel, Syria presents an opportunity that Iran is all too eager to exploit."

Israel and Iran are already in a standoff over Tehran's presence in Syria and Lebanon.

The tension further escalated this month after Israel's military shot down an Iranian drone and bombed a control unit in Syria. The Syrian government responded by shooting down an Israeli jet involved in the operation.

While things have calmed down, U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina Republican, warned Tuesday that Lebanon could soon become a battlefield between Israel and Iran over a Hezbollah rocket factory on Israel's border.

"Southern Lebanon is where the next war is coming," Graham told reporters Tuesday at a news conference after a trip last week to the Middle East.Afghanistans President Ashraf Ghani has offered unconditional peace talks to the Taliban, as well as the chance of recognizing them as a legitimate political party and withdrawing their names from international sanctions lists, if they agreed to join a peace process and give up violence.

Addressing the second Kabul Process conference Wednesday morning, Ghani said the Talibans demands of reviewing the constitution could also be entertained during the process. However, womens rights would be protected.

The peace process will be held in three stages of negotiations, approval, and implementation. In all stages women will be represented and consulted, he said.

He also offered to help former fighters reintegrate into society and find jobs.

Taliban negotiating position

The offer comes at a time when Taliban leaders have indicated they would be willing to talk directly to the United States.

The Political Office of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan [the Taliban] calls on American officials to talk directly to the Political Office of Islamic Emirate regarding a peaceful solution to the Afghan quandary, the statement said, referring to the Qatar-based Taliban office.

However, the Taliban has so far refused to negotiate with the government in Kabul, calling them puppets of the Americans.

Presidential spokesman Haroon Chakhansuri said the proposed peace plan was prepared after months of consultations and input from all segments across the Afghan society. President Ghani said the entire country had a consensus on the proposal.

The Kabul Process, designed to map out a plan to end a war that is now in its 17th year, started last July.

US military involvement



The current round is taking place at a time when the U.S. military has stepped up airstrikes in support of Afghan ground security forces to break the battlefield stalemate and pressure the Taliban to come to the negotiating table.

The Taliban control, or have influence over, most of Afghanistan and have been able to inflict severe damage to the Afghan forces.

They also claimed responsibility for two bloody attacks in the heart of Kabul that killed hundreds of people.

Representatives from 25 countries as well as the United Nations and NATO are attending the Kabul Process.U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley pledged on Tuesday to raise the problem of drug trafficking at the United Nations after visiting Honduras and Guatemala this week and appeared to finesse a threat made by President Donald Trump to cut aid over the flow of drugs into the United States.

Trump this month criticized countries he did not name for pouring drugs into the United States and called for aid to be stopped. Trump made his remarks after a U.S. Customs and Border Protection official told him cocaine was primarily coming from Colombia and Peru, trafficked through Mexico and Central America.

Its everywhere and everyones feeling it, said the usually tough-talking Haley, a former South Carolina governor, while in the Honduran capital Tegucigalpa on Tuesday.

It is a conversation that needs to be taking place internationally. Haley said. We cant just focus on the countries producing it, we do have to focus on the countries moving it and are we doing enough in the international community to stop it.

As a high-profile cabinet member  in a role that has traditionally been shadowed by the secretary of state  Haleys first visit to Central America is also shedding light on U.S. foreign policy for the second year of Trumps administration.

This is the year of the Americas, Haley told reporters after meeting with Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez.

You will see multiple members of the presidents cabinet making visits to Latin America to really talk about ... what else we can be doing and how else we can be partnering.

Her trip follows a visit by Secretary of State Rex Tillerson to Peru and Colombia earlier this month.

Haley held up Colombia as an example for other countries in the region on how to tackle the drug problem and said she would discuss how that could be mirrored throughout the region with counterparts at the United Nations.

She said Hernandez did not mention Trumps remarks about drug trafficking during their meeting.

She also praised Hernandez  and plans to do the same with Guatemalan President Jimmy Morales on Wednesday  for their opposition to a U.N. General Assembly resolution in December that called for Washington to drop its recognition of Jerusalem as Israels capital.

That was one that was not an easy decision for any country to have to vote on. But the people of Honduras stood with us in being able to make that decision for ourselves, Haley told reporters as Hernandez stood beside her.

Guatemala and Honduras were among eight countries  and the only nations in the Americas  to vote no with the United States to reject the U.N. resolution, which was adopted with the support of more than 120 countries.

Hernandez said he had not yet decided on whether to move the Honduran embassy to Jerusalem, a move that Guatemala has said it would make. When asked if he expected anything from the United States in return for the support of Honduras on the issue, he said: No, not at all, the same treatment as a sovereign nation.U.S. Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke's plan for a major realignment to put more of his department's decision-makers in the field has a fundamental flaw, in the eyes of some who spent their careers making those decisions: They're already out there.

Eleven former Interior Department officials with decades of experience in both Washington and in local offices told The Associated Press the agency already has a well-established system for decentralized decision-making.

"Ninety percent-plus of the decisions that get made get made at the local level," said Scott Florence, who retired after 38 years with the Bureau of Land Management, the Interior Department's second-largest branch.

The problem, some said, is that over the past few years, an increasing number of decisions that should have been made locally were ultimately decided in Washington because of political pressure, under both Democratic and Republican administrations.

And since 91.5 percent of the department's workforce of about 70,000 is already based outside the Washington area, most of the former interior employees said they doubted pushing more employees out of Washington would improve things.

Zinke has made the overhaul of the Interior Department - which manages 780,000 square miles (2 million square kilometers) of public lands, mostly in the West - a signature mission since taking over the agency a year ago. He says it would streamline bureaucracy and lead to better decisions made closer to the field.

Parts of his realignment proposal have run into resistance from some politicians from both parties, particularly in the West, who fear it will disrupt relationships between state and federal officials. That criticism echoes a 2015 letter sent to leaders of the Bureau of Land Management, objecting to a far more modest proposal to combine the bureau offices in New Mexico and Arizona.

The letter from 13 members of Congress - including Zinke, then a Republican congressman representing his home state of Montana - also expressed fear the proposal was part of a larger plan to create more multistate offices in the bureau.

"We believe this is a poor model and should be abandoned," the lawmakers wrote.

The Interior Department eventually dropped the idea in the face of opposition from both Democrats and Republicans.

Interior Department spokeswoman Heather Smith said Zinke's reorganization proposal, which includes appointing 13 new regional directors, is different than the attempted merger of the two offices in 2015.

State-federal relationships would be strengthened under his proposal because governors and other officials could contact regional officials, she said.

"More decisions and authority will be at the regional level, with fewer decisions kicked up to Washington, so the ability of governors to reach key decision makers will be enhanced by the secretary's proposal," she said.

The 11 former Interior Department officials who spoke with the AP came mostly from the Bureau of Land Management but also the National Park Service and the Fish and Wildlife Service. Their job experiences ranged from park ranger to director of the Fish and Wildlife Service. Each spoke on the record.

Their opinions on Zinke's proposal ranged from skepticism to strong opposition, and all said they knew of no former Interior Department employees who supported it. But one of the 11 - Dan Ashe, the former Fish and Wildlife Service director - said reorganizations are almost always unpopular.

Some worried moving more career employees with field experience out of Washington would make things worse.

"By having those people there, they at least have some influence on the decisions that are being made in Washington," said Mike Ferguson, a wildlife biologist who became the Bureau of Land Management's top financial officer before he retired.

"If you move them west, you break that link, but the decisions are still going to be made in Washington," he said.

Some said the problem with the department's current structure is that a growing number of local decisions are being made in Washington by political appointees for political reasons. The trend has continued under both Republican and Democratic administrations, they said.

Washington officials once dictated to Interior Department workers in Idaho what kind of vegetation they could plant after a wildfire on federal land, said Steve Ellis, who retired in 2016 as deputy director of the Bureau of Land Management.

"That is a field-level decision," he said. "But it became very political," probably because the livestock industry wanted a specific kind of grass for cattle.

Swift said the former employees have the same concerns as Zinke about decisions being made in Washington, not locally.

But restructuring the agency and moving employees aren't the solution, Ferguson said.

"It's not a matter of changing the organization. It's a matter of allowing the employees in the organization to do the job that they were hired to do," he said.His political obituary has been written many times over but Silvio Berlusconi is set once again to become the grand ringmaster of Italian politics.

But he will have to contend with Matteo Salvini, whose anti-migrant, euro-skeptic Lega party is in a rightwing electoral alliance with Berlusconis party, Forza Italia. Salvini is vying for the top job as prime minister and hes unlikely, say insiders, to follow instructions meekly from the 81-year-old Berlusconi.

The alliance, which includes Fratelli d'Italia (Brothers of Italy), is likely to emerge as the largest political force in parliamentary elections Sunday and it may secure sufficient seats to form a majority government  or at least be close enough to be able to woo defectors from the ranks of rival parties with promises of government posts, say analysts.

Anti-migrant vote



On the election hustings, Salvini has been turning up the heat courting the anti-migrant vote with demands for the mass expulsion of the 600,000 asylum-seekers who have arrived in Italy in the past two years. He says they should be cleared out street by street, neighborhood by neighborhood.

And the Legas bellicose talk is seemingly helping it make inroads in the south of the country  a remarkable achievement for what was once a secessionist northern party that disparaged southerners as parasites.

Salvini has made no secret of his ambition to be Italys next prime minister and replace left-wing Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni, whose Democratic Party looks set to secure less than 20 percent of the vote on Sunday. And if Salvinis party can secure more seats than Forza Italia on March 4, even the master political manipulator Berlusconi himself will struggle to block him or control him, analysts predict.

European populist movement



How the personal relationship will unfold between the octogenarian television and property magnate, who left office in disgrace, and his 44-year-old supposed election ally, a friend of Frances National Front leader Marine Le Pen and Belgiums populist Geert Wilders, could well dictate the fate of Italian politics for years to come.

Italian politics is nothing if not operatic. Cast members, driven by personal animosities and ambition, all too often stray from agreed scripts as they seek the limelight. And the signs are that Berlusconi and Salvini just dont like each other, avoid socializing and may be heading for a political collision later that could upend the agreed script of right-wing triumph.

Last year, a magazine owned by Berlusconi embarrassed Salvini, publishing on its cover a photograph of his fiancee in an amorous embrace with another man in Ibiza. The unsubtle headline screamed: She loves another!

Economic issues



On the campaign trail, Berlusconi, who was once seen, especially in Brussels, as a possible moderating force on the more iconoclastic Salvini, has, with the exception of the EU, been keen to match the younger man in terms of tough talk, especially when it comes to what should be done with migrants, the key issue of this election, and one that has distracted from any serious public debate about Italys fundamental problems of low growth, high unemployment and a bloated, and often inefficient, public bureaucracy.

Last week, during a show on Romes Radio Capital, Berlusconi, who is banned from holding office until 2019 because of a tax fraud conviction, dryly commented, Salvini is sometimes a little pyrotechnical. He offered a meek defense of the firebrand Salvini when the interviewer accused the Lega leader of violent rhetoric, suggesting that he could be more bellicose than he should, but that the maverick Five Star Movement was worse.

Berlusconi is keen to maneuver into Palazzo Chigi, the prime ministers residence, someone who will give way to him when his ban expires in 2019 and has been advocating for the job Antonio Tajani, the current president of the European Parliament, who served as Berlusconis spokesmen during his first administration.

He is a good candidate, he could assert Italy's interests in the EU. We need a stable Italy and we need a friendly Europe, Berlusconi said.



Man of many political comebacks

That the man who is nicknamed Il Cavaliere (The Knight) is back knocking on the door of Palazzo Chigi is remarkable in itself but throughout his lengthy career, Berlusconi has demonstrated an unmatched talent at pulling off surprises. His political career appeared over half-a-decade ago engulfed by court cases amid sex and Mafia-linked corruption scandals, forcing him to resign in disgrace. In June he underwent open heart surgery and since then has taken to say that he still chases after women but he no longer knows what to do with them when he gets them,

Few predicted he would forge an improbable political comeback, one thats enraged his foes and delighted his followers. He is appealing his ban from public office and a European court is currently reviewing it.

Berlusconi nonchalantly dismisses any interest in whether the court finds in his favor or not, saying last week in a broadcast interview, me ne frego" [I do not care]. He accompanied the remark with a characteristic hand gesture of disdain, flicking the fingers under his chin with the back of his hand to his interviewer.

The comment was vintage Berlusconi. It was carefully calibrated to appeal to Salvinis followers, many who have their roots in Italian Neo-Fascism, and to boost Forza Italias vote at the expense of its election partner, the Lega. The phrase is associated with the warrior-poet Gabriele dAnnunzio, became popular with front line Italian soldiers in World War I as an expression of bravado and was adopted as a motto by Benito Mussolini's Black Shirts and squadristi.

On the campaign trail, Berlusconi, who was once seen, especially in Brussels, as a possible moderating force on the more iconoclastic Salvini, has, with the exception of the EU, been keen to match the younger man in terms of tour talk, especially when it comes to what should be done with migrants, the key issue of this election, and one that has distracted from any serious public debate about Italys fundamental problems of low growth, high unemployment and a bloated, and often inefficient, public bureaucracy.

Berlusconi has played down any presidential ambitions, saying he doesnt plan on running for the head of states job later.

I do not think so, he said when queried last week. But then he noted surprisingly, I've never had political ambitions. I do not like politics.

A close adviser and friend told VOA that isnt what he is discussing in private. He intends to become the force behind a right-wing government  that is, until he can become the force at the helm of the government.The same federal judge who President Donald Trump derided during the presidential campaign because of his Mexican heritage ruled in favor of Trump's desire for a wall along the Mexican border.

Judge Gonzalo Curiel on Tuesday dismissed legal challenges to the wall by the state of California and a number of environmental groups.

President Donald Trump praised the ruling, calling it a "big legal win."

The judge wrote that the plaintiffs failed to prove the administration overstepped its legal authority by ordering the wall.

They had argued the project violates environmental rules and the rights of states to decide whether it wants the wall on their side of the border.

Curiel said his decision was not based on whether building the wall was "politically wise or prudent."

Curiel oversaw lawsuits of alleged fraud by Trump University during the 2016 presidential campaign. Trump, then a Republican candidate, ridiculed the U.S.-born judge over his Mexican heritage and accused him of bias.

Trump paid a multimillion-dollar settlement in the university fraud case without admitting guilt.U.S. senators who just returned from a trip to Israel called Tuesday for an increase in the $38 billion in military aid the United States is currently providing Israel, signaling support for more funds for Israeli missile systems.

Senators Lindsey Graham, a leading Republican foreign policy voice, and Chris Coons, a Democratic member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said they considered the provision of $38 billion over 10 years "a floor."

Graham said during a meeting with reporters that he thought provisions in the agreement phasing out an arrangement in which Israel could spend U.S. funds on its own defense industry and the provision of just $500 million in missile defense funding were "short-sighted."

Coons said tensions in the broader region supported the idea of more funding for Israel, citing the ongoing war in Syria and Iran's recent use of a stealth drone.

The United States and Israel signed an agreement in September 2016 to give Israel $38 billion in military assistance over the next decade, the largest such aid package in U.S. history but one that included concessions by Israel's government.President Donald Trump's former campaign chairman Paul Manafort has pleaded not guilty to a combined set of charges that were filed against him last week by special counsel Robert Mueller, who has been probing Russian interference in the U.S. election.

A trial date has been set for September 17.

Among the new charges are accusations that Manafort, along with former Trump campaign aide Rick Gates' help, laundered more than $30 million through hidden offshore accounts and "used his hidden overseas wealth to enjoy a lavish lifestyle in the United States without paying taxes on that income."

The two allegedly disguised the money earned from their work in Ukraine as "loans" to avoid taxes, and they doctored financial documents to overstate their income to obtain additional loans.

The indictment says they used the money to buy real estate, make home improvements, and in Gates' case, pay for his children's school tuition.

Gates pleaded guilty last week to financial fraud and lying to investigators in connection with his lobbying efforts for the Moscow-backed government in Ukraine that predated his role in the U.S. political race.

Mueller also has secured guilty pleas from Trump's former national security adviser, Michael Flynn, and former foreign affairs adviser George Papadopoulos for lying to investigators about their Russia contacts.Montenegrin Defense Minister Predrag Boskovic says the country is on target to spend 2 percent of annual economic output on defense by 2024, in keeping with a promise to expand military budgets as the United States offers an increase in its own defense spending in Europe.

Boskovic met with U.S. Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis on Tuesday, his first visit to the Pentagon since Montenegro became the 29th member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in June 2017.

"Montenegro, as a new member, will reach that target by 2024," Boskovic said in an interview with VOA's Serbian Service, after meeting with Mattis. "We are spending 1.7 percent already this year, and I think we can reach 2 percent level without any great effort."

U.S. President Donald Trump has repeatedly criticized NATO allies for not spending enough on defense, claiming it is unfair to taxpayers in the United States. Earlier this month in Brussels, Mattis pressed European allies to stick to a promise to increase military budgets in lockstep with increased U.S. spending.

Fifteen of 28 NATO countries, excluding the United States, now have a strategy to meet a NATO benchmark first agreed to in 2014 in response to Russia's annexation of Ukraine's Crimea region, following years of cuts to European defense budgets.

Afghanistan, Kosovo

Boskovic also announced that his country is planning to increase its troop presence in Afghanistan, where Montenegro currently has 18 soldiers participating in Operation Resolute Support, a NATO-led training and advisory mission with more than 13,000 soldiers.

The mission has been engaged in Afghanistan since 2015.

"We have already made a decision to increase the number of our soldiers in Afghanistan, which needs to be approved by the parliament, and I don't doubt that by next rotation, we'll have more troops in the country," Boskovic told VOA.

Mattis, according to the readout of Tuesday's meeting, praised the "significant contributions Montenegro has made to the Resolute Support mission in Afghanistan, and lauded the country's plan to meet the Wales Summit defense spending pledge by 2024."

Montenegro has also decided to send members of its armed forces to the NATO-led international peacekeeping force in Kosovo, known as KFOR. Montenegro's plan to participate in the KFOR mission in Kosovo has been criticized by some officials in Serbia, which does not recognize Kosovo's independence.

Two officers are expected to join KFOR by the end of the year, Boskovic told VOA.French far-right leader Marine Le Pen's plan to change the National Front's name amounts to political suicide, its founder, her father Jean-Marie Le Pen told Reuters, warning that his daughter was cutting herself off from the party's roots.

Le Pen father and daughter have been at odds since she kicked him out of the party in 2015 in a bid to distance herself from his frequent inflammatory remarks, which put off a large part of the electorate.

Now she wants to go a step further and rebrand the 45-year-old party after she lost the presidential election last year to centrist Emmanuel Macron.

At a congress mid-March she will ask cardholders to agree to drop the National Front's name, a trademark well known in France and abroad but which party insiders say puts off potential voters and is an obstacle to alliances with other groups.

This initiative is suicidal. That would be so for a company, and that is obviously also the case in politics, the 89-year old far-right veteran, who has been involved in French politics for over 60 years and is still an EU lawmaker, said in an interview in his mansion on the outskirts of Paris.

It takes years, decades, to build a credible political name. Wanting to change it is ... inexplicable, he said.

Already a best seller

No names have been floated yet. Marine Le Pen said she would propose a name at the congress. All party members will be eligible to vote.

Jean-Marie Le Pen, who led the National Front (FN) for nearly four decades before passing on the leadership to his daughter in 2011, is publishing on Thursday the first volume of his memoirs, in which he writes that he pities his daughter for losing last years election to President Emmanuel Macron.

The memoirs, which can be pre-ordered online, are the top selling book on Amazon in France.

Her failure comes from strategic and tactical errors ... from pushing the fight against immigration aside and focusing on the fight against the euro and Europe, Le Pen senior said in the interview.

Although she lost last years election, Marine Le Pens efforts to clean up the party's image have paid off to some extent. She won a third of the vote in the run-off, almost double her fathers best showing in his 40 years at the partys helm.

Jean-Marie Le Pen too made it once to the second round of the presidential election, but his surprise qualification for the run-off in 2002 triggered a huge backlash, and he won less than 18 percent of the vote.

Marine Le Pen watered down her anti-euro stance, which has proved unpopular beyond the partys core fans, after the election, refocusing the party on migration and security as other far-right parties in Europe have done.

The March 10-11 congress in the northern France city of Lille is meant to back that change of focus and give her a new mandate at the helm of the party.

No regrets

While Jean-Marie Le Pen still has a loyal following among veteran party members, younger cardholders say they are more comfortable with his daughter's less provocative brand of politics.

His memoirs dwell mostly on the first part of his life, before the FN was set up.

He rejects allegations that he practiced torture while a French soldier in Algeria during the north African countrys independence war, but says that beatings and electric shocks were carried out by others and were necessary to obtain information.

His expulsion from the FN came after he reiterated past comments that World War Two gas chambers were a detail of history. He has also defended France's WWII leader Philippe Petain, who died in jail after being condemned for high treason for his collaboration with Nazi Germany.

Le Pen, who has been convicted several times for incitement to racial hatred, said in the interview that he had no regrets.

Describing himself as a whistleblower warning against immigration, he accused French judges of being politicised and said he stood by his remarks on Nazi gas chambers, for which he was also convicted.

Why would I have any regret or any remorse when Ive got nothing to be blamed for? he said.Wes Studi will take the stage at Sunday's Oscars to present an award. But as one of the few Native Americans to be included in the ceremony's 90-year history, he has reason to feel like a winner.

Studi says he sees the invitation as recognition of his work over the years. The veteran actor's credits include "Avatar," "The Last of the Mohicans" and "Dances with Wolves."



Participating in the Oscars also signifies something larger, Studi says: a time when diversity is being embraced and Hollywood is reflecting that.



The Oscars will air at 8 p.m. Eastern Sunday on ABC, with Jimmy Kimmel hosting.Nigeria's government said Tuesday it had set up a panel to investigate the abduction of 110 girls from their school last week by suspected members of the extremist Boko Haram group.

Information and Culture Minister Lai Mohammed said a major general would head the panel of Nigerian security agencies that will examine what security was in place at the school and in its northern town, Dapchi in Yobe State, before the attack.

The military had withdrawn from Dapchi weeks before the February 19 attack, saying its troops were needed elsewhere and claiming that security was handed over to police.

Police deny that, saying the military never entrusted security to it.

Nigeria said the girls missing from the Government Girls Science and Technical College range in age from 11 to 19.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called for "the immediate and unconditional release of all missing girls and for their safe return to their families,'' U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said.

The U.N. chief urged Nigerian authorities to swiftly bring those responsible for their abduction to justice, Dujarric said, and he reiterated the U.N.'s support to Nigeria and countries in the region in their fight against terrorism.Emergency teams in Papua New Guinea are continuing to asses the damage from Monday's powerful earthquake that killed at least 15 people.

The 7.5 magnitude quake, which struck about 90 kilometers south of the town of Porgera, triggered landslides that knocked out power lines and damaged roads across the small Pacific island, cutting off access and communications to the interior highlands region, which is believed to have sustained the brunt of the damage.

Authorities have dispatched emergency teams to Hela province by helicopter to assess the damage and confirm reports of any casualties.

Officials in the Southern Highlands say many of the reported fatalities occurred in the provincial capital of Mendi, where several homes were flattened by the quake.

Australia has sent a C-130 military transport plane to Papua New Guinea to conduct aerial surveillance and provide logistical support. "Given the challenging terrain

and remoteness of the area, we expect that the extent of the damage will become clearer in coming days," Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop said in a written statement.

The earthquake forced ExxonMobil to shut down operations at its Hides liquefied natural gas plant located near Port Moresby, and has disrupted activity at other mining, oil and natural gas plants on the island.

Papua New Guinea is one of many nations that sits along the Pacific Ocean's "Ring of Fire," a line of seismic faults in the Pacific Ocean that is prone to earthquakes and volcanic activity.The Philippines will allow an investigation into alleged human rights abuses in its bloody war on drugs, but not if it is conducted by the United Nations current special rapporteur on extrajudicial killings, a senior official said Tuesday.

More than 30 mostly Western countries have called on the Philippines to allow the U.N. expert, Agnes Callamard, to look into the thousands of killings in President Rodrigo Duterte brutal 19 month-old crackdown.

Callamards specialist areas under the United Nations are extrajudicial killings, summary and arbitrary executions.

Dutertes spokesman, Harry Roque, a lawyer, said the Philippines welcomed any investigation provided that the United Nations sends a credible, objective and unbiased rapporteur, who is also an authority in the field that they seek to investigate.

Callamard does not fit that description, he said. Definitely, not Agnes Callamard, Roque told a regular news briefing. Its her fault the home state does not want her in.

Thousands dead

More than 4,000 Filipinos have been killed by police during the drugs war and hundreds, possibly several thousand, more by unidentified armed men.

Human rights groups and Dutertes political opponents say executions of drug users and small-time peddlers are widespread and systematic. The authorities deny that and say those killed were all dealers who put up violent resistance.

Last week, Amnesty International in the Philippines said meaningful investigations into such killings had failed to take place.

A prosecutor at the International Criminal Court in the Hague earlier this month started a preliminary examination into a complaint accusing Duterte and at least 11 officials of crimes against humanity. Duterte has welcomed that.

Speech irked government

Roque said he had a lawyer in mind who could do the job instead of Callamard, but would not say who.

Duterte has previously said he would welcome a probe by Callamard on the condition she agreed to have a public debate with him.

She irked the government in May last year when she gave a speech at a policy forum during a visit in an unofficial capacity.

Speaking before the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva, Philippine Foreign Secretary Alan Peter Cayetano on Tuesday said Callamard was like the queen in Alice in Wonderland and it was in the councils interests to choose someone else and ensure the integrity and effectiveness of its special procedures.

All we ask for is fairness. There are 7.5 billion people in the world, he said. Send us anyone except one who has already prejudged us, and one who by any measure cannot be considered independent, nor objective.The chairman of the U.S. House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee said Tuesday that there was not enough support in Congress to move forward with a plan backed by President Donald Trump to privatize the air traffic control system.

Republican Representative Bill Shuster of Pennsylvania said in a statement that the "air traffic control reform provisions did not reach the obvious level of support needed to pass Congress."

But Shuster vowed to work with the Senate to move forward with legislation to reauthorize the Federal Aviation Administration, which expires at the end of March. Without authorization, the FAA would not be able to collect aviation taxes, and many of its employees would have to be laid off.

In June, Trump unveiled a plan to privatize air traffic control, saying it would modernize the system and lower flying costs.

Democrats contended it would hand control of a key asset to special interests and big airlines, and some Republicans opposed it.

On Tuesday, the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association, nearly 250 general aviation organizations, state and local aviation officials, labor unions, consumer groups and airports said they had sent a letter to congressional leaders vowing to oppose any effort to privatize air traffic control.

United Airlines, Hawaiian Airlines, American Airlines and Southwest Airlines, all represented by the Airlines for America lobbying group, backed the plan.

Under the proposal, air traffic control would be spun off from the FAA and put under the oversight of a nonprofit corporation.

The FAA spends nearly $10 billion a year on air traffic control funded largely through passenger user fees, and has spent more than $7.5 billion on next-generation air traffic control reforms in recent years.

Trump has said current air traffic reform efforts have failed and were a "total waste of money."

Opponents said the U.S. system is so large that privatization would not save money, would drive up ticket costs and could create a national security risk. Opponents also said technology upgrades would be sidetracked while the private entity was set up, potentially adding years to awarding contracts.A commander allied to South Sudanese rebel leader Riek Machar was killed during clashes in Yei River state on Monday.

A rebel spokesman said Felix Likambu Faustino, the SPLA-IO base commander for Yankonye village, was killed when government forces attacked his troops.



Col. Lam Paul Gabriel, the deputy military spokesman of the Machar faction, said government forces attacked their positions along the Yei-Maridi road, leading to clashes that lasted several hours.

Government military spokesman Brig. Gen. Lul Ruai Koang denied that government forces attacked the rebels positions, saying the clashes were between rival opposition forces operating in the area.

There was no engagement between SPLA forces and different rebel groups. The reports we have been getting for the last three days indicated that the rebel groups loyal to [Thomas] Cirilo and Riek Machar have been fighting among themselves, Koang told VOA's South Sudan in Focus.

Bishop Hillary Adeba of Yei Diocese of the Episcopal Church of South Sudan confirmed fighting occurred on the outskirts of Yei town.

We are very shocked and worried, because we have been hearing violations of the [recent cease-fire] through gunshots around Yei. The warring parties should observe the cessation of hostilities agreement because people in the rural areas are very tired throughout the four years [of war]," Adeba told South Sudan in Focus.

Adeba said the civilians need peace so they can begin rebuilding their lives.

Gabriel said the SPLA-IO is committed to adhering to the cessation of hostilities agreement signed in December at a conference aimed at reviving the collapsed 2015 peace agreement.

Kuong also said his forces are committed to the cessation agreement.Native Americans are underrepresented in Washington's corridors of power. Three known Native Americans have served in the Senate and fewer than 20 in the House of Representatives. But three Native American women are running in 2018 midterm elections, widely viewed as a pivotal vote that could not only tip the balance of power but strengthen Native American voices in lawmaking.



Debra Haaland

Debra Haaland, 57, a Democrat and member of the San Felipe Pueblo, hopes to represent New Mexicos 1st Congressional District in Congress.

Haaland served as the states Native American vote director during then-President Barack Obamas 2012 campaign. She is credited with getting a 60 percent voter turnout from Native American precincts, nearly 90 percent of which voted for Obama.

Haaland went on to become the first Native American woman to chair the Democratic Party of New Mexico. In 2014, she failed in a bid to become New Mexicos lieutenant governor, losing to the Republican incumbent.

Haaland has served as the San Felipe Pueblos tribal administrator and was the first woman on the Laguna Development Corporation's board of directors in Albuquerque.

Haaland is an outspoken critic of U.S. President Donald Trump.

The Trump administration is the worst nightmare to happen to the environment in decades, she said. And then weve got the Bureau of Land Management working overtime to sell off leases to lands so that people can frack. And theyre doing that near Chaco Canyon, my ancestral homeland and a treasure to every single New Mexican and every single American.

This University of New Mexico law school graduate is also critical of Trumps immigration policy.

Im ready to go to bat for any immigrant in my community who is in fear of being deported, she said. The worst thing about this whole turning ICE [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] on communities is that it splits up families. And I come from a community of people whose families have been split up enough by governmental policies, and that should never happen.



Sharice Davids

Sharice Davids, 37, is a member of the Ho-Chunk Nation of Wisconsin and a Democrat. She is among seven candidates looking to represent Kansas Third Congressional District in Washington. A graduate of Cornell Law school, she began her career as a corporate transactional attorney and later moved to the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota, where she developed an entrepreneurship curriculum for the Red Cloud Indian School and served as deputy director of the Thunder Valley Community Development Corporation. She also started a Native American-owned and operated coffee company.

We found a way to source the coffee from small farms that were co-oped and from indigenous coffee growers, she said. And we also focused on teaching women entrepreneurial and leadership skills.

In 2016, Davids served as a White House Fellow, assigned to the Department of Transportation.

I worked on a number of community engagement, transparency and community education initiatives aimed at helping inform people on how decisions are made, who makes the decisions, how can they get involved in the decision making process. She said the knowledge will serve her well in Congress.

In Washington, Davids said she would work to protect undocumented immigrants who have worked and contributed to U.S. communities. She would also focus on protecting natural resources and implementing gun safety laws to avoid tragedies such as the recent school shooting in Florida.



Eve Reyes-Aguirre

Eve Reyes-Aguirre, 42, an Izkaloteka Mexican Native from Phoenix, is the Green Party candidate for U.S. Senate. She calls herself an unconventional politician, and refuses to accept funding from corporate giants or special interest groups.

Its not about me as an individual or even as a candidate. Its about the issues that are affecting our communities, our families, everyday citizens and even non-citizens alike, she said.

The environment figures heavily in her platform.

I think people dont grasp the gravity of deregulating and opening up areas to mining and fossil fuel extraction. As an indigenous woman, thats been something that we have been fighting against for many generations.

But this isnt just an indigenous issue, she said.

We are seeing how corporations and the lack of regulation are affecting the drinking water for everybody. These are human issues. And they are issues that are going to affect our children and their children if we dont do something about it, she said.

Reyes-Aguirre said she believes that in tackling immigration, the U.S. government should look at some of its own policies.

Weve noticed an influx of migration, particularly from Mexico and the South. I think that we need to start looking at the root problems and not just try to fix those issues with band aids, like the wall, she said. Those folks who are fleeing from violence, I call them economic refugees because of trade agreements that U.S. corporations are benefiting from.

Reyes-Aguirre has never held political office, but represented the women of her community at the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues from 2009 to 2017 and co-chaired the Global Indigenous Womens Caucus until last year.

The 2018 midterm election will decide all 435 seats in the U.S. House of Representatives and 34 of 100 U.S. Senate seats. It is widely viewed as a critical test of Trump and the conservative legislative agenda.When refugees arrive in a new country, they bring little to no material possessions. But many bring something more valuable: their talent and skills. Twenty refugee women and asylum seekers from different parts of the world recently came together at a pop-up store in Phoenix, Arizona, to display their homemade products and tell their compelling stories. VOA's June Soh spoke with some of the women in this report narrated by Carol Pearson.The first Rohingya refugees who arrived on Jorina Katuns farmland in Bangladesh last year were worn out and traumatized after fleeing violence in neighboring Myanmar. They wept and begged to stay, and Katun, moved by their plight, said yes.

I really regret that, she said. They said they would stay for only a month. Theyre still here and more are coming. Katun now has 25 Rohingya families living on a patch of land where she used to grow rice and vegetables.

Since August, nearly 700,000 Rohingya have crossed from Myanmars Rakhine State into Bangladesh. Makeshift camps housing the Rohingya sprawl across thousands of acres of what was once a government forest reserve, butting up against, and sometimes overwhelming, Bangladeshi homes and land. Jorina Katun lives on the edge of the largest such camp.

Officials and aid workers fear that the welcome is wearing thin, because of the unprecedented number of refugees and growing doubts over whether Myanmar will ever take them back.

Repatriation was to begin in January under an agreement signed by Myanmar and Bangladesh. But the plan has stalled because of safety and logistical concerns, and meanwhile Rohingya continue to flee across the border.

How much longer?

Weve accommodated them, but for how long? said Kazi Abdur Rahman, a deputy district administrator in Coxs Bazar. Our crop fields are destroyed. Our forests are destroyed. ... Its a huge impact for the whole community.

So far, local people have been remarkably tolerant, with many feeling duty-bound to help fellow Muslims they see as being oppressed because of their religion. There have only been a handful of anti-Rohingya protest, all small and peaceful.

But many also blame the Rohingya for driving up food prices and stealing jobs, and officials worry that the refugees bring with them an increased risk of disease, militant activity and drug trafficking.

Residents have been told to report any Rohingya seen outside the camps, Rahman said. Its for our security, so they cant get up to any terrorist activity, he said.

He said he had no evidence that the Rohingya were involved in crime, but noted they were poor, desperate and very vulnerable to evil forces.

The cheapest worker

Before the current crisis, Bangladesh was already home to 300,000 Rohingya refugees who had fled previous bouts of violence in Myanmar. Now, in Ukhia and Teknaf, two sub-districts near the Myanmar border, Rohingya outnumber local people by about two to one.

Residents of Ukhia and Teknaf were already among Bangladeshs poorest and by some measures as deprived as the refugees, according to ACAPS, a Geneva-based think-tank that analyzes humanitarian responses.

Seven in 10 families, both Bangladeshi and Rohingya, struggled to get enough to eat, ACAPS found.

Little of the land around Coxs Bazar is suitable for farming, so Bangladeshis have to buy about 80 percent of their food in local markets, said ACAPS.

The price of that food is rising, said Hamidul Hoque Chowdhury, a college principal who heads the Ukhia branch of the Awami League, the party of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.

Six months ago, 1 kg of potatoes cost 20 taka ($0.24); it has since tripled in price to 60 or 70 taka. The price of fish has doubled, he said.

The local people are now silent. Theyre not shouting now. But theyre not happy, Chowdhury said. Tensions will definitely rise.

Chowdhury, who helped organize a small anti-Rohingya protest in Ukhia in January, said Rohingya were competing with Bangladeshis for unskilled labor jobs, the main source of income for about half the local population.

Faruk Ahmed, 73, a local farmer, said he hired Rohingya laborers because they were cheap, plentiful and hard-working.

Bangladeshis want 500 taka ($6) a day, but Rohingya will take 300 taka, he said. Ill hire the cheapest worker.

Rohingya island

Partly to ease the congestion at the camps, Bangladesh is accelerating a controversial plan to temporarily relocate 100,000 Rohingya on a remote island in the Bay of Bengal.

H.T. Imam, an adviser of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, said the refugees must be kept apart from Bangladeshis.

In the past the Rohingya spread out and caused serious law and order problems, he said.

Humanitarian groups said they were also looking for ways to support the Bangladeshi community.

Of the $950 million budget currently being requested from donors for March to December, a quarter had been earmarked for projects that will directly benefit Bangladeshis, said U.N. host community liaison Maurice Dewulf.

There are no major signals yet of problems between Bangladeshis and locals in Coxs Bazar, Dewulf said, but such problems become more likely the longer a refugee crisis lasts.

The Rohingya families camped out on Jorina Katuns land are also doing what they can to keep the peace, paying Katun between 300 and 600 taka ($3.50 to $7) a month in rent, says refugee Bodi Alam.

The Bangladesh Army, which oversees security in the area, said it forbids local people to charge rent.

But we still pay, Alam said.

Without such payments, there would be quarrels with the Bangladeshis. They will say go from here, this is our area, these are our houses, this is our land, he said.The will of "To Kill a Mockingbird" author Harper Lee is public following a lawsuit by The New York Times, but details on her estate remain a secret.

The Times reports the will unsealed Tuesday shows most of Lee's assets were transferred into a trust days before her death two years ago in her hometown of Monroeville, Alabama.



But the contents of her estate remain private because trust documents are private.



A probate court sealed the will of the famously private writer following her death, and the newspaper filed suit in 2016 to have the document made public. The suit argued that Lee's desire for privacy wasn't sufficient legal reason to keep her will hidden from public view.



Records show the estate recently dropped its opposition to unsealing the will.Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Wednesday rebels in the eastern Ghouta area of Syria are blocking aid deliveries and preventing people from leaving during what Russia has called a daily "humanitarian pause" in its military operations.

The Russian plan is meant to give a five-hour window for people to get help or get out of the rebel-held area that pro-government forces have besieged since 2013.

Syrian state media also blamed opposition fighters for hindering evacuations for a second consecutive day. No civilians have yet left the area, which is home to about 400,000 people.

Rebels rejected the accusations during the first day of the limited truce on Tuesday, which included the two sides exchanging blame for continuing violence.

Mohammed Alloush, head of the largest insurgent group in eastern Ghouta, called for Russia to stop its aerial attacks on the rebels and honor a nationwide 30-day cease-fire resolution it voted for at the U.N. Security Council last week.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported more fighting Wednesday in eastern Ghouta.

"There are some very bad actors involved on the ground, notably the Syrian government of Bashar al-Assad, but also a number of the rebel groups and others who have taken refuge within populated areas like the eastern Ghouta suburbs," said David Mack, a former ambassador and scholar at the Washington-based Middle East Institute.

Mack told VOA the Syrian government is taking advantage of the Russian plan in order to continue its efforts to oust opposition fighters from one of their last remaining strongholds.

United Nations officials have expressed concern about the humanitarian situation while insisting aid deliveries be allowed to reach those in need.

"The U.N. is ready to immediately support life-saving aid convoys and to support medical evacuations," the U.N. humanitarian office said Wednesday. "But the fighting must stop and approvals from all parties to deliver must be granted."

More than 550 civilians, almost a quarter of them children, have been killed in the last two weeks during the Russian and Syrian attacks on eastern Ghouta, one of the most violent episodes in Syria's seven-year civil war.

In Washington, a top U.S. commander, General Joe Votel, who heads the military's Central Command, accused Russia of playing an "incredibly destabilizing" role in Syria.

"Diplomatically and militarily, Moscow plays both arsonist and firefighter, fueling tensions among all parties in Syria," Votel told the House Armed Services Committee.

"Moscow continues to advocate for alternate diplomatic initiatives to Western-led political negotiations in Syria and Afghan-led peace processes in Afghanistan, attempting to thwart the U.N.'s role and limit the advance of American influence," Votel said.

Victor Beattie contributed to this report.Three of President Donald Trump's senior economic aides are expected to meet this week with a top Chinese economic official to discuss trade disputes between the United States and China.

White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders told Reuters that Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and Trump's economic adviser, Gary Cohn, are expected to meet Chinese economic adviser Liu He in Washington.

The talks are likely to cover a range of differences including intellectual property and steel.

Trump has long called for a more balanced trade relationship with China and threatened to impose a big "fine" against China to protect American intellectual property. U.S. officials said Trump has been discussing imposing a global tariff on imports of steel from China, the world's largest steel producer, and other countries.

The talks with Liu may help determine the trajectory of the U.S.-Chinese trade relationship, which Trump believes is heavily tilted in favor of China.

A senior U.S. official said there was skepticism on the U.S. side that a trade breakthrough could be achieved any time soon.

"We're trying to treat this with an open mind. But the Chinese don't really want to make a deal. They like the status quo," the official said.

There was no plan for Trump himself to meet Liu, but officials did not rule it out if progress was being made.

Liu, a Harvard-trained economist and trusted confidant of Chinese President Xi Jinping, has emerged as the front-runner to be the next governor of China's central bank, according to sources with knowledge of the situation. Liu is the top adviser to Xi on economic policy and is also expected to become vice premier overseeing the Chinese economy.

Steel

A source close to the White House said Trump had expressed interest in imposing a tariff on steel imports of at least 24 percent. The White House said no final decision had been made.

The Commerce Department on Feb. 16 recommended that Trump impose stiff curbs on steel imports from China and other countries and offered the president several options ranging from global and country-specific tariffs to broad import quotas.

A blanket tariff on steel would cover every steel and aluminum product entering the American market from China.

China has expressed concerns over excessive protectionism in the U.S. steel sector and urged restraint. It has also said it will oppose any "unfair and unreasonable" trade measures by countries such as the United States.South Africa's parliament voted Tuesday to examine how to amend the constitution to allow land seizures without compensation, a move that resonates deeply in a nation where the white minority still controls much of the farmland.

But the strongest proponent of the motion immediately sought to reassure the nation that nothing too drastic would come of it.

"No one is going to lose his or her house, no one is going to lose his or her flat, no one is going to lose his or her factory or industry," Julius Malema, who leads the far-left Economic Freedom Fighters party, said immediately following the vote. "All we are saying is they will not have the ownership of the land, they will have a lease, depending on what is the arrangement, particularly as it relates to the outcome of the Constitutional review process."

Another Zimbabwe?

There are fears the vote will put South Africa on the same path as neighboring Zimbabwe, where forceful, violent seizures of white-owned farms in the early 2000s were blamed for the nation's economic freefall and political instability.

The ruling African National Congress also supported Tuesday's motion, but with the provision that land seizures cannot hurt agricultural production, economic stability or political stability  a fairly large and vague loophole, analysts say.

The loudest group in support of land seizures, the Black First Land First Movement, has denounced the motion as nothing but an "electioneering gimmick" by the ANC.

"Black First Land First is concerned that the Economic Freedom Fighters and the African National Congress are not serious about land expropriation without compensation," the group said in a statement.

Painful history

But as Malema knows, South Africa's soil is stained by hundreds of years of colonial exploitation, by the blood and sweat shed by underpaid, mostly black laborers working for white bosses. Today, black South Africans, who are the majority of the population, remain on average significantly poorer than white South Africans.

With a critical national election looming, Malema used this emotional pull to full effect when arguing in favor of the motion in parliament:

"The time for reconciliation is over," he said. "Now is the time for justice. If the grandchildren of [early Dutch settler] Jan van Riebeeck have not understood that we need our land, that over and above it is about our humanity, then they have failed to receive the gift of humanity."

The opposition Democratic Alliance voted against the measure, and blames the slow pace of land redistribution on the ANC, which has ruled since the end of apartheid in 1994, but now faces a tough election next year as it has slowly lost ground to the opposition.

Democratic Alliance Shadow Deputy Minister of Rural Development and Land Reform, Ken Robertson, began his speech by exhorting in Zulu, "People are suffering."

"The ANC government does not have a land problem, we have a problem with the way the ANC are handling land," he said. "People were dispossessed of their land and their dignity by the discriminatory laws of the past, the painful past that can never be forgotten. The ANC's call for expropriation without compensation is a lazy attempt to divert attention away from the real reasons that lie at the heart of the slow pace of meaningful land reform and restitution."

Missing facts

While this debate has no shortage of fiery rhetoric, what it lacks, says analyst Ebrahim Fakir, is any concrete details.

Because of a general lack of facts and an abundance of rhetoric, Fakir was one of several analysts who told VOA that recent developments have left them confused.

"At present, all bets are off," he said. "No one knows how and what this could mean. Theoretically, it could even mean that it does actually end up denying a regime of protection of private property."

No reliable figures on land ownership in South Africa exist, although a recent government study found that only a third of the nation's land is privately owned.

Furthermore, it's unclear how the constitution would be changed, if at all. Tuesday's vote mobilized parliament's Constitutional Review Committee to deliver a report on the topic by August 30. Any changes to the constitution require a 75 percent vote.South Korea summoned the Chinese ambassador Tuesday to lodge a complaint over a Chinese military aircraft entering the Souths air defense territory, the second such incident this year, the foreign ministry said Wednesday.

The Chinese aircraft flew for more than four hours inside South Koreas air defense identification zone (KADIZ) Tuesday, prompting the South to scramble multiple fighter jets to track it, a South Korean defense official told Reuters.

Chinas Ambassador Qiu Guohong was told the military jets flight into South Korean airspace had been unfortunate and urged to prevent similar instances from occurring again, the ministry said in a statement.

Three other Chinese officials based in South Korea had been summoned to the defense ministry earlier in the day for the incident, which occurred near South Koreas island of Ulleungdo off its east coast.

The aircraft was told to halt its threatening flight and any other actions that could raise the possibility of sudden conflict, said the South Korean defense official, adding Chinese officials told South Koreas military the aircrafts movements had been part of regular military exercises.

The aircraft was told to halt its threatening flight and any other actions that could raise the possibility of sudden conflict, said the South Korean defense official, adding Chinese officials told South Koreas military the aircrafts movements had been part of regular military exercises.

Speaking in Beijing, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang said Chinas sending of an aircraft for training in the relevant air space was completely in line with international law and practice.

Air defense identification zones are not territorial air space. There is absolutely no justification for South Korea to criticize China on the basis of a so-called ADIZ, Lu told a daily news briefing.

A Chinese military aircraft entered the KADIZ on Jan. 29 while two similar instances were observed in 2017.Students who survived one of the deadliest mass shootings in U.S. history returned to classes Wednesday, as federal and state lawmakers continue to debate how to prevent young people from losing their lives in what they all agree should be the safe confines of the nation's schools.

There had been no classes at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, since a gunman killed 17 people there two weeks ago. As students returned, they were greeted by throngs of well-wishers passing out flowers and holding signs, one saying "free kisses."

But students also passed through cordons of police officers armed with military-style rifles, having an unsettling effect on some.

"This is a picture of education in fear in this country," said David Hogg, a student survivor who has emerged as a leading voice in the students' movement to control assault weapons. "The [National Rifle Association] wants more people like this, with that exact same firearm, to scare more people and sell more guns."

Broward County Schools Superintendent Robert Runcie said grief counselors are also on campus to provide "a lot of love, a lot of understanding" and to help students "ease back" into their routines.

But grim reminders of the massacre were evident. The freshmen building where the killings occurred remains cordoned off. And Wednesday's classes did not begin until fourth period, so students and teachers could first reunite with the people they were with when the shootings occurred.

"It's not how you go down. It's how you get back up," said 17-year-old junior Casey Sherman, who said she stayed up late Tuesday night to prepare for the March 14 national school walkout against gun violence.

Gun control

The massacre has reignited the long-running debate over gun laws. House Speaker Paul Ryan told reporters Tuesday a "gap" in the nation's background check system for gun buyers must be filled, and called for the implementation of "sweeping mental health reform."

"These are the kinds of things that we are going to be discussing with our members, with the Senate, and with the president," Ryan said.

What Ryan and other Republican lawmakers have not proposed is a ban on guns, including semi-automatic AR-15 assault rifles like the one used in the Florida school attack.

"We shouldn't be banning guns for law-abiding citizens. We should be focusing on making sure that citizens who should not get guns in the first place don't get those guns," Ryan said.

The NRA and other gun-rights groups are strongly opposed to preventing Americans from owning certain types of weapons. As such, Republican leaders in Congress are unlikely to support U.S. President Donald Trump's proposals to raise the minimum age for buying semi-automatic rifles, ban "bump stocks" that enable semi-automatic rifles to fire hundreds of rounds per minute, and have more stringent background checks.

Trump, who has also called for teachers to be allowed to carry firearms in the classroom, said after meeting Monday with the nation's governors that "half of you are so afraid of the NRA. If [the NRA] is not with you, we have to fight them every once in a while."

Trump was set to convene a bipartisan group of legislators Wednesday at the White House to discuss school safety.

For years, Democrats have pressed for a universal background check system, including investigations into online and gun show purchases.

Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer said Monday that if Congress passes only a bipartisan bill to strengthen the National Instant Criminal Background Check System, known as "Fix NICS" legislation, "it would be an abject failure and a dereliction of duty."

Many House Democratic members want to reinstate an assault weapons ban that expired more than a decade ago, but House Republican leaders maintain the Senate has the responsibility to take the next steps.

Florida action

The mass shooting has pushed the Florida state legislature to consider measures to ensure school safety. The victims' relatives pressured state lawmakers Tuesday with emotional testimony, prior to a House committee approving a bill to raise the age limit to purchase long guns from 18 to 21.

The measure would also create a program that would allow teachers to carry concealed weapons in classrooms if their school districts allow it, and if they are properly trained and deputized by the local sheriff's office.

School superintendent Runcie is opposed to arming teachers, and Hogg believes the idea is misguided.

Florida Governor Rick Scott said he hopes legislation is passed before state lawmakers adjourn March 9. Scott's proposals did not include arming teachers, but he declined to say if he would veto a bill if it includes that provision.Hundreds of Iraqi families forced to flee last year's fighting in Mosul are being prevented from returning home by their communities because they had a relative who joined Islamic State, an aid worker said Tuesday.

Communities are also barring some families from accessing aid for the same reason, said Omar Ali, Iraq country director of British charity Human Appeal.

Others have had "ISIS family" daubed on their old homes, jeopardizing their safety, he told Reuters on the sidelines of the Bond international development conference in London.

"There's a real social cohesion challenge for the future," said the British aid worker who set up Human Appeal's operations in Iraq 14 months ago as fighting raged in Mosul.

Hundreds of thousands of people are still living in camps around Mosul after fleeing Iraq's second largest city at the bloody end of the militants' rule.

Islamic State, also known as ISIS, seized nearly a third of the country in 2014. Iraq declared victory in December.

Ali said thousands of people had been ostracized by their communities even though they never supported the militants.

"You have a family of 50, with just one man who joined ISIS, but the whole family, despite reporting that individual, is now stigmatized  and they are scared to return," he said.

No papers

Ali warned that there was also potential for land and property disputes as families return home because so few people have papers to prove ownership.

He said IS had confiscated people's identity papers, creating a "massive problem."

"There are huge issues with civilian ID  many people have no birth certificates, marriage certificates or property ownership certificates," Ali said. "This means people can't access assistance from the government and they can't go back to their houses because they can't prove ownership."

Ali said the war had left many women as head of their household, but many were illiterate and did not know how to obtain identity documents to access government help or food aid.

Human Appeal and the United Nations refugee agency have opened centers staffed by lawyers to address such problems.

The war has also left many households headed by children.

"You get eight or nine children being looked after by a 14- or 15-year-old boy or girl who is at the complete mercy of whoever has taken control of their guardianship," Ali said.

'Utter devastation'

He said the challenges in Iraq were enormous but aid agencies were "working their socks off" and the government was supportive.

"Western Mosul is complete and utter devastation, everything is destroyed, everything is rubble," he added. "Hospitals are decimated and lack medicines, and many children have been out of school for three years."

Although the government has promised people compensation to rebuild homes, Ali said it was "not coming any time soon."

Despite the militants' defeat, he said violence continued in the northern city due to IS sleeper cells.

Iraq's allies promised Baghdad $30 billion this month to recover from the war. Baghdad has said it needs $88 billion.U.S. President Donald Trump led dignitaries Wednesday in honoring American evangelist Billy Graham, whose body laid in state in the U.S. Capitol Rotunda, following his death last week at the age of 99.

Trump said the life of Graham and his conservative Christian message "changed our country, and it changed, in fact, the entire world."

The U.S. leader said, "We can only imagine the number of lives touched by the preaching and the prayers of Billy Graham - the hearts he changed, the sorrows he eased, and the joy he brought to so many. The testimony is endless."

WATCH: Trump Leads Tribute to Late Evangelist Billy Graham

"Today, we give thanks for this extraordinary life," Trump said. "And it's very fitting that we do so right here in the Rotunda of the United States Capitol, where the memory of the American people is enshrined."

With Graham's pine casket positioned in the center of the Rotunda, the man known as "America's Pastor" is getting a rare honor, last given to civil rights icon Rosa Parks upon her death in 2005.

Members of Graham's family joined congressional leaders, as well as Trump and his wife, first lady Melania Trump, to watch as the casket was carried into the Capitol.

After the short ceremony, members of the public started to stroll by the casket to pay their respects.

Graham's funeral will take place Friday in Charlotte, North Carolina, which Trump plans to attend.

The evangelist was a spiritual adviser and acquaintance of every U.S. president from Harry Truman in the 1940s to Barack Obama in the 21st century. Graham was often asked to pray or preach at public national U.S. events, such as inaugurations of new presidents.

He preached to more than 200 million people in 185 countries and territories. He staged massive rallies, called the Billy Graham Crusades, that were attended by thousands of people, and reached millions through television, radio and satellite.

Graham's Christian rallies presaged that of other U.S. televangelists, although none has reached his prominence.

But he was not above criticism. He generally stayed on the sidelines of the civil rights movement of the 1960s and did not attend marches that included many religious leaders - something he later said he regretted.

Graham was caught on tape telling his close friend President Richard Nixon that "Jews don't know how I really feel about what they're doing to this country." He was remorseful and apologized for his remarks when they were revealed.

Graham's literal interpretation of the Bible led him to oppose gay rights and condemn homosexuality as a "sinister form of perversion."U.S. President Donald Trump discussed Irans destabilizing activities and other security and economic issues in separate telephone calls with senior Saudi and Emirati leaders Tuesday, the White House said.

In calls with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahyan of the United Arab Emirates, Trump thanked them for highlighting ways that Gulf Arab states can better counter Iranian destabilizing activities and defeat terrorists and extremists, the White House said.

Saudi Arabia and the UAE, along with Bahrain and Egypt, cut off travel and trade ties with Qatar in June, accusing it of supporting terrorism and their archrival Iran. The United States is trying to resolve the dispute.

Qatar denies the charges and says the four Arab countries aim to curtail its sovereignty.

The two crown princes, as well as Qatars Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, are planning to visit Trump for bilateral meetings in March and April, a senior U.S. official said Friday.

The agenda for the meetings will include setting up a summit of the six-member Gulf Cooperation Council, the official said, which Washington hopes will be held later this year, as well as Middle East peace and Iran.

Trump also discussed enhancing bilateral partnerships on security and economic issues with the Saudi and Abu Dhabi crown princes, the White House said.U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions pushed back at President Donald Trump on Wednesday after Trump said it was "disgraceful" that Sessions had called for an internal investigation of how officials sought approval for clandestine surveillance of a former Trump campaign aide.

In a rare public dispute between a U.S. president and one of the Cabinet members he had appointed, Sessions said his naming of an investigative watchdog, the inspector general at the Department of Justice, was "the appropriate process" to determine whether the FBI abused normal practices in securing approval from a surveillance court to monitor former Trump aide Carter Page.

"As long as I am the attorney general," Sessions said, "I will continue to discharge my duties with integrity and honor, and this department will continue to do its work in a fair and impartial manner according to the law and Constitution."

Trump has seethed at Sessions, but not moved to fire him, ever since Sessions last year removed himself from oversight of the agency's investigation of Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election because of his own contacts with Russia's then-ambassador to Washington, Sergey Kislyak, in the midst of the campaign. Sessions' recusal from the case led to the appointment of special counsel Robert Mueller, whose criminal investigation of Trump campaign links to Russia has for months clouded his presidency.

But until Wednesday, Sessions had largely kept quiet when Trump leveled criticism at him, at one point calling him "beleaguered."

The U.S. leader berated Sessions for asking Justice Department inspector general Michael Horowitz to "investigate potentially massive ... abuse" in surveillance applications to the Federal Intelligence Surveillance Court.

Trump, a Republican, claimed an inspector general's investigation "will take forever," and noted that Horowitz "has no prosecutorial power" and was appointed by former President Barack Obama, a Democrat. Trump said Horowitz was "already late" with finishing a report on alleged misconduct by former FBI Director James Comey in his handling of a 2016 investigation into the email practices of Democrat Hillary Clinton, Trump's 2016 opponent.

"Why not use Justice Department lawyers? DISGRACEFUL!" Trump said in a Twitter comment.

Trump's attack came after Sessions on Tuesday said that Horowitz's office would probe FBI agents' actions in securing court approval for surveillance of Page and his links to Russia. The surveillance of Page was part of the long-running criminal investigation into alleged Trump campaign ties to Russia during his winning 2016 bid for the White House.

The surveillance of Page has generated weeks of controversy in Washington. The majority Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee, led by California Congressman Devin Nunes, have claimed that Federal Bureau of Investigation agents relied essentially on a controversial dossier crafted by a former British intelligence officer, Christopher Steele, about Trump's links to Russia to win approval from the surveillance court to monitor Page.

Rival Democrats, led by the committee's top Democrat, California Congressman Adam Schiff, last weekend released a rebuttal. They said that other evidence besides the Steele dossier was submitted to the court in support of the Page surveillance and that the investigation of him was started seven weeks before investigators even learned of the dossier's existence.

Sessions, formerly a senator from the southern state of Alabama, was the most prominent political figure to endorse Trump's candidacy in the early stages of the 2016 contest. But Trump has since said he would never have appointed Sessions as attorney general if he knew he would recuse himself from oversight of the Russia probe.

Oversight of the investigation then fell to Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who named Mueller, another former FBI director, to lead the Russia probe shortly after Trump fired Comey last May. Mueller has already secured guilty pleas from two former Trump aides for lying to investigators about their contacts with Russia.

The Washington Post reported Wednesday that Mueller is investigating that period when Trump seemed determined to push sessions to resign. According to the Post, citing unnamed sources, the special counsel is looking into whether Trump's private remarks and public tweets at that time were an attempt to drive Sessions out and were part of a pattern of obstruction of justice.

Commenting on the latest Trump attack on Sessions, Bradley Moss, deputy executive director of the James Madison Project, told VOA that if Mueller is "truly investigating the president for potential obstruction of justice, these types of inflammatory remarks could collectively serve as circumstantial evidence of the president's corrupt intent. Needless to say, it is unlikely the president's lawyers would want him tweeting these types of things if they had any control over what he said."

VOA White House correspondent Steve Herman contributed to this report.

Turkey's parliament stripped two lawmakers from a pro-Kurdish party of their parliamentary status on Tuesday for insulting President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and sharing a picture of a fighter who fought alongside a Kurdish militia in Syria.

The move further reduced the parliamentary strength of the Democratic People's Party (HDP), the second-largest opposition party in the chamber. The party's seats fell to 50 from 59 it won in the last election, and nine other HDP lawmakers are in detention and could also be stripped of their status.

Ahmet Yildirim, member of parliament for the eastern province of Mus, lost his seat after he was jailed for 14 months for insulting Erdogan.

Ibrahim Ayhan, a representative of the southeastern town of Sanliurfa, was sentenced to 15 months in prison for sharing online the photo of a Turkish citizen who died in the Syrian Kurdish town of Kobane while fighting Islamic State. He was convicted of sharing terrorist propaganda.

The court rulings to strip the two lawmakers of their status were read out in parliament following their conviction.

"Our people will not accept this!" the HDP said in a tweet.

The government says the HDP is an affiliate of the militant Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which has waged an armed insurgency in the largely Kurdish southeast for more than three decades. The HDP denies direct links to the PKK.Turkey is pushing back against international calls for it to abide by a U.N.-backed cease-fire in Syria. The U.N. call for a truce comes as Ankara continues to escalate its offensive in the Syrian enclave of Afrin against the YPG Kurdish militia.

Baseless, Turkish Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamdi Aksoy called comments by U.S. State Department spokesperson Heather Nauert, who said that the U.N. cease-fire applies to Turkish forces.

Turkey is more than welcome to go back and read the exact text of this U.N. Security Council resolution, and (I) would suggest that they do so, Nauert said Tuesday.

We urge the U.S. to focus on stopping the regime from attacking innocent civilians instead of making statements that help terrorists, the Turkish Foreign Ministry shot back in a statement.



Equally strong language was aimed at Paris, with Ankara rejecting a French Foreign Ministry statement that President Emmanuel Macron had also called for Turkey to observe the U.N. cease-fire during a call to Turkey's president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Dishonest, said Turkish Foreign Ministry spokesman Aksoy of the Paris claims, adding the French readout of the presidential conversation was giving false information to the public.

Ankara has found itself alone

Its not just Paris and Washington. Russia has made a statement on this (abiding by the U.N. cease-fire). Iran could jump in. Ankara has found itself alone and they didnt see this coming, claims political columnist Semih Idiz, of the Al Monitor website.

But Ankara will continue the [military] operation because it's too far gone to declare a cease-fire. Because they (Ankara) also fear if they stop for 30 days, they may find it diplomatically difficult to restart. This operation is too important for Ankara. They believe they are facing an existential threat, Idiz added.

Turkish-led forces in Operation Olive Branch are targeting the YPG Kurdish militia, which Turkey accuses of being linked to a decades-long Kurdish insurgency inside Turkey. The YPG is a key ally of Washington in its war against Islamic State. Despite international calls for a cease-fire and de-escalation in fighting in Syria, Erdogan announced a ratcheting up of the offensive, claiming it was about to enter a new phase. Let everyone be ready for conscription, though the need is not immediate. We are just before a new resurrection, said Erdogan at a rally.

It's like in Vietnam (referring to the U.S. war in Vietnam), says political scientist Cengiz Aktar. This operation is prone for more escalation. There is no way the Turkish government can dare to lose Afrin. I think it will be an all-out war to ensure Afrin will be properly occupied.

Ankara has announced the sending of special forces drawn from both the paramilitary police and army to Syria. Their deployment is part of preparations for an eventual assault on Afrins main city, also called Afrin. Turkish forces have experience in urban warfare, having spent months removing insurgents from towns and cities across Turkeys predominantly Kurdish southeast two years ago. The fighting claimed many civilian lives and caused major destruction and displacement of an estimated half-million people.

Turkish ministers claim the experience gained from the fighting means its forces are well prepared for any assault in Afrin. But urban operations inside Turkey were mainly against largely poorly trained and armed fighters, many of whom were teenagers.

Very messy situation

Analysts warn any assault on Afrin, home to several hundred thousand people, is likely to be a very different proposition. There will be significant defensive preparations. Of course Turkish special forces have some experience, but they will be facing very battle-hardened fighters, armed and backed by at least one superpower or possibly two superpowers, Idiz pointed out.

"Turkey will face a very messy situation, Idiz warned. It will have street-to-street war. It's a very dangerous situation, with the risk of high casualties and the risk of collateral damage. This will carry the conflict to a new level. Obviously, the international community will weigh in, added Idiz.

Observers suggest the Turkish military buildup could be a ploy to force the YPG Kurdish militia to quit Afrin. But an expert on Kurdish affairs, speaking anonymously, warned the militia will likely fight to the end, due to the citys important symbolism to the Kurdish movement. It will be their Stalingrad, the expert said, referring to the bitter World War II battle between Russian and German forces in which over 1 million people died.



The Turkish president, too, is drawing on history, equating the current Syrian operation to Turkeys independence war. Analysts suggest Erdogan will likely remain impervious to international pressure, especially with general and presidential elections due within 18 months.

Erdogan will dare to escalate the military operation in order to get a much better position domestically, predicts international relations professor Huseyin Bagci of Ankaras Middle East Technical University. But at the end of day, Turkey will suffer financially, diplomatically and militarily. Turkey cannot win this war.U.N. envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura says the world body "has not and will not" give up in demanding implementation of a 30-day cease-fire across Syria.

Speaking Thursday in Geneva, de Mistura said both pro-government and opposition forces must stop shelling each other and allow for aid convoys to reach civilians, particularly in the rebel-held eastern Ghouta area.

"We dont have and we cannot afford to have the luxury of giving up, so any type of feeling that the U.N. is frustrated, forget it. We are not frustrated, we are determined, because this otherwise becomes the copycat of Aleppo," de Mistura said.

The U.N. Security Council resolution on Saturday demanding the month-long cessation of hostilities to allow aid in and evacuate the critically sick and wounded, especially from eastern Ghouta, which has been under siege since 2013.

U.N. aid chief Mark Lowcock asked Wednesday when the halt in fighting will be put into effect.

"So if there has been no humanitarian access since the resolution on Saturday, what has happened in the last few days?" Lowcock rhetorically asked. "More bombing. More fighting. More death. More destruction. More maiming of women and children. More hunger. More misery. More, in other words, of the same," he said.

Lowcock said the United Nations and its partners were ready with trucks full of humanitarian aid and medical evacuation plans and could begin work once the guns fall silent and access is granted in Syria.

He cited reports of government airstrikes, barrel bombs and shelling across eastern Ghouta and a dozen other districts two days after the cease-fire was adopted. Lowcock said shells fired from eastern Ghouta had also reportedly continued to fall in the Syrian capital.

"Over 580 people since 18 February are now reported to have been killed due to air- and ground-based strikes in eastern Ghouta, with well over 1,000 people injured," he said. "At the same time, hundreds of rockets from eastern Ghouta into Damascus have reportedly killed 15 people, and injured over 200."

Russian 'pause'

Russia, which supported the cease-fire resolution, said it would implement a daily five-hour "humanitarian pause" in its military operations around eastern Ghouta, where 400,000 civilians are besieged.

Lowcock said that wouldn't provide enough time for humanitarians to deliver aid and conduct medical evacuations.

Several council members criticized the Russian proposal.

"This is cynical, callous and in flagrant defiance of the demands of [Resolution] 2401," said U.S. envoy Kelley Currie. "The cessation of hostilities is for at least 30 days, every day, all day. Russia does not get to unilaterally rewrite the terms of the resolution they negotiated and they sat here and voted for."

The sentiment was shared by Britain's U.N. ambassador.

"Humanitarian pauses of a few meager hours are no substitute for a sustained cease-fire, which is vital to ensure delivery of lifesaving humanitarian assistance and medical evacuations," British envoy Jonathan Allen said. "If Russia is able to deliver a five-hour pause, let it deliver a 24-hour one, as they agreed on Saturday."

Russia's envoy responds

"Only our country is called upon to implement Resolution 2401," Russian Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia said with visible irritation. "We are criticized for humanitarian pauses. There are assertions that there are insufficient numbers of them. There are demands, demands, demands. For some reason, someone is always demanding something in an authoritative tone from the Russian Federation."

Nebenzia accused council members of misinterpreting the resolution, saying pauses must be preceded by an agreement of the parties on the ground for de-escalation.

Armed groups

The main armed groups in eastern Ghouta sent a letter to the U.N. Security Council on Tuesday saying they were ready to abide by the cease-fire and guarantee protection for aid convoys to their areas.

Representatives of Jaish al-Islam, Failaq al-Rahman and Ahrar al-Sham also agreed to expel, within 15 days of the truce going into effect, elements of banned groups Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham, the Nusra Front and al-Qaida who have taken refuge in eastern Ghouta.

Several Security Council members welcomed this as a positive move.

Meanwhile, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported more fighting Wednesday in eastern Ghouta.With no end in sight to the Rohingya refugee crisis, faith leaders and advocacy groups fanned out across Capitol Hill on Wednesday to pressure U.S. lawmakers to fast-track legislation punishing Myanmar's government and demanding better treatment of the country's Muslim minority.

"America has the power and only America can stop the genocide," said Karim Yakub, a Rohingya refugee who has lived in the United States since 2015.

"How can America not pressure?" Shala Shamim of the Islamic Center of Maryland said. "Stop the [U.S.] aid going to Burma, put sanctions on them. There are lots of ways of pressuring them."

Similar bills before the House of Representatives and Senate would limit U.S. military aid to Naypyidaw and impose restrictions on jadeite and rubies originating in Myanmar, also known as Burma.

The bills demand that Myanmar complete a transition to democracy, allow displaced Rohingya people to return to their homes, allow humanitarian relief to affected regions, provide access to full citizenship for the Rohingya population, and hold accountable those responsible for ethnic cleansing, crimes against humanity and genocide.

"We are here because the Rohingya people are facing genocide, and we want Congress to know what is happening right now to the Rohingya people," Yakub said. "The Burmese government forces are murdering, Rohingya houses are burned. So we are here today to stop the genocide, and for the United States of America to take stronger action with the Burmese government."

Lawmakers of both political parties have condemned the slaughter and displacement of Rohingya Muslims and echoed calls for action. Few, however, believe Congress will act soon.

Looking at options

"I think at this point we are still examining options," Republican Senator James Risch of Idaho, who serves on the Foreign Relations Committee, told VOA. "What's happened there is just despicable, and it needs to be addressed and it will be. But at this point, I can't tell you where it's going to land."

Risch said America's options are limited and anything Washington does to pressure Naypyidaw will take time.

"They [Rohingya Muslims] are there, we're here. If you're talking about military action, those things don't happen instantly, and it's unlikely there would be military action in any event. It would be other things such as sanctions and pressure on the government  they always take time," the senator said.

News reports say efforts to repatriate Rohingya refugees have stalled, leaving hundreds of thousands who fled to Bangladesh last year in limbo as conditions worsen at sprawling camps.

Yakub said he witnessed Rohingya villages being razed and fears for family members who stayed behind in Myanmar.

"They burned down our villages, nobody helped," he said. "My family is still in Burma. For them, life is like a prison and hell  nowhere to go, nothing to do, no citizenship. They are not safe in Burma. So I cannot be silent. I have to speak up for my family, for all the Rohingya people."

The Rohingya are one of Myanmar's many ethnic minorities in the Buddhist-majority nation. The Myanmar government considers the Rohingya to be economic migrants from Bangladesh and has never granted them citizenship, even though most can show their families have been in the country for generations.A top U.S. general is accusing Russia of sowing the seeds of instability in Syria and across the greater Middle East, part of an ongoing attempt to expand its influence at the expense of the United States and the international community.

"Diplomatically and militarily, Moscow plays both arsonist and firefighter, fueling tensions among all parties in Syria," the commander of U.S. Central Command, Gen. Joseph Votel, told lawmakers Tuesday.

Votel further accused Russia of then offering to serve as a mediator in an effort to "undermine and weaken each party's bargaining position."

The criticism, though worded more sharply than in the past, is in line with previous warnings from U.S. and Western intelligence officials, who have said Russia views Syria as an opportunity to reassert Moscow's central place on the world stage.

It also echoes concerns laid out in the most recent U.S. National Security Strategy, which called Russia a "revisionist power" intent on tearing down the current international order.

"It is clear that Russia's interests in Syria are Russia's interests and not those of the wider international community," Votel said. "Their role is incredibly destabilizing at this point."

But the general's words may also reflect a growing disconnect with the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump, which has often sought to emphasize areas of cooperation.

While administration officials say there are areas in which Russian activity is impinging on U.S. interests, and in which the U.S. is pushing back, they say the Middle East is not one of them.

"Is there a threat to us, a direct threat to us from Russia emanating from the Middle East? Obviously, the threat there is the terrorist threat and Iran," a senior administration official said recently on the condition of anonymity.

Blaming Russia

In Syria, the U.S. and Russia have found themselves on different sides of the ongoing Syrian conflict, with Moscow backing the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and the U.S. backing the Syrian Democratic Forces, a group of moderate rebels, who have until recently largely been focused on efforts to defeat the Islamic State terror group.

Both Washington and Moscow have made concerted efforts to avoid conflict, setting up a deconfliction line in order to make sure their forces on the ground in Syria did not engage each other by mistake.

Still, Central Command's Votel said Russia's actions in Syria are actively undermining efforts to roll back IS and, ultimately, find a political solution to the larger conflict.

"Russia has placed this progress at risk with their activities which are not focused on defeating ISIS but rather on preserving its own influence and control over the outcome," Votel said, using an acronym for Islamic State.

Votel also criticized Russia for its failure to follow through on its self-declared "humanitarian pause" in Syria's eastern region of Ghouta on Tuesday.

Residents said at least six civilians were killed after just a brief pause in fighting, when Syrian government warplanes resumed their bombing of the region.

Russian officials blamed the resumption of fighting on rebel groups, but the U.S. State Department put the blame on Moscow.

"They're not adhering to the cease-fire because they continue to sponsor and back Bashar al-Assad's government. That is tragic," the State Department's Heather Nauert told reporters.

In his testimony Tuesday before the House Armed Services Committee, U.S. Central Command's Votel was equally blunt.

"Either Russia has to admit it is not capable or that it doesn't want to play a role in ending the Syrian conflict," Votel said.

'Clever game'

There are also concerns Russia is increasingly willing to use proxies and allies in Syria and across the Middle East to confront the U.S. as part of a larger, great power competition with the U.S.

Earlier this month, pro-Assad forces attacked U.S. and U.S.-backed forces in Syria.

U.S. defense officials have refused to comment on who directed the attack. But audio recordings obtained from a source close to Kremlin by Polygraph.info, a fact-checking project by Voice of America, indicate some of the forces were part of CHVK Wagner, a Kremlin-linked private military company.

Analysts also see Russia's hand in Turkey's decision to launch an incursion into the Afrin region of northern Syria last month.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said at the time that Ankara had a deal with Moscow, and Russian media reported Russian troops in the area had withdrawn prior to the incursion.

"Russia's played a very clever game here by being the newfound friend of Erdogan," said Luke Coffey, a former British defense adviser now with the Washington-based Heritage Foundation. "Then, of course, you throw Iran into this and [Syria's] Assad and you see this sort of deadly cocktail that is present that makes it more difficult for the U.S. to act and act in a coherent and strategic manner."

Top U.S. defense officials, like Votel, worry that with Moscow's help, the stage is being set for more and bigger problems.

"Russia is a party to this and they have responsibilities to ensure that the tractable partners that may be in this area are under control," he said Tuesday.

Still, there are those who worry that as long as Trump administration officials are more focused on terrorist groups like IS and al-Qaida, and on Iran, Russia has the upper hand.

"We never saw what's happening in Syria as a [great power] competition, but [Russian President Vladimir] Putin always did," said Anna Borshchevskaya, a fellow specializing in Russian Middle East policy at The Washington Institute.

"We basically ceded Syria to him without even realizing it," she said. "With dictators, you always have to show strength. Putin will push until someone pushes back."Venezuela's foreign minister said Tuesday that U.S. sanctions against the ailing oil nation were making foreign debt renegotiation more difficult and causing "panic" at global banks.

Venezuela is undergoing a major economic crisis, with millions dealing with food and medicine shortages, and President Nicolas Maduro's socialist government is late in paying interest of $1.9 billion on its debt.

The U.S. government imposed financial sanctions on Venezuela in August, prohibiting dealing in new debt from the Venezuelan government or state oil company PDVSA, in an effort to halt financing that Washington said fuels a "dictatorship."

Venezuela has repeatedly said Washington is trying to force a default.

"The renegotiation of external debt is underway, but it has been made more difficult by U.S. sanctions," Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza told reporters in Geneva. "It's incredible how global banks have reacted with panic. If a bank somewhere in the world works with Venezuela, they feel they are going to be sanctioned."

According to Arreaza, global banks have opted to close accounts belonging to the government, business people and embassies. He added that some U.S. companies were unable to pay for Venezuelan oil.

Earlier this month, U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson raised the specter of sanctions on Venezuela's oil industry. The OPEC nation obtains 95 percent of its export revenue from oil, though production is down significantly in recent months.

"If the international financial system blocks Venezuela, we are working with Russia, China and Turkey to find new mechanisms," said Arreaza.Venezuela's opposition coalition decried a decision by a former state governor to run against President Nicolas Maduro in elections in April, accusing him on Wednesday of undercutting their strategy of boycotting the vote.

Henri Falcon, 56, a former military man who broke with the ruling socialists in 2010 to join the opposition, launched his candidacy in defiance of the Democratic Unity coalition's policy of not fielding candidates to isolate Maduro.

"With this step, Henri Falcon abandons the (Democratic) Unity and the Venezuelan people's democratic sentiment," the coalition said in a series of angry tweets.

"We cannot legitimize a fraudulent election system. We call on Venezuelans to keep fighting for democratic change."

Opponents say Maduro, 55, has rigged the April 22 presidential vote by ensuring his most popular rivals  Leopoldo Lopez and Henrique Capriles - are barred from standing.

Hard-line protest leader Lopez is under house arrest accused of fomenting violence in anti-Maduro demonstrations in 2014, while Capriles is prohibited from holding offices on a charge of "administrative irregularities" when he was a state governor.

Both men say the accusations were made up to sideline them. Critics also accuse authorities of skewing the field by barring opposition parties from using their party names, failing to reform the pro-Maduro election board, and keeping hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans abroad off the electoral register.

Falcon, however, has decided to challenge the president he calls the "hunger candidate" in reference to Venezuela's dire economic crisis. He hopes to benefit from widespread dissatisfaction with Maduro and the ruling Socialist Party during a fifth year of recession that has left millions hungry, caused widespread shortages, and fueled a migration exodus.



'Horrible misery'

"I speak in the name of millions of Venezuelans whom the government promised paradise but gave hell, with a failed and illegitimate model that has plunged us into the most horrible misery of the last 100 years," Falcon said on Wednesday.

"We must win this election because people do not surrender. They fight, suffer and rise up."

Given his roots within "Chavismo" - as the ruling movement is known after former President Hugo Chavez - Falcon may appeal to some government supporters, although many also view him as a traitor for having jumped to the opposition eight years ago.

On the other hand, many opposition supporters are also angry with Falcon for deciding to run, saying he is a sellout who is being exploited by Maduro to give legitimacy to a sham election.

One recent poll, however, bucked the consensus of most political analysts by showing Falcon would in fact have a real chance of defeating Maduro.

The survey of 1,000 people in early February, by local pollster Datanalisis for Wall Street investment bank Torino Capital, said that in a two-way race Falcon would defeat Maduro by 45.8 percent to 32.2 percent of likely voters.

Several other minor figures have registered for the election, but have little chance of making an impact.

Maduro's overall approval rating was up 4.4 points to 26.1 percent, the poll showed, citing the impact of government handouts including food bags, while Falcon's rating was 38.7 percent.

Falcon styles himself a center-leftist, seeking to combine business-friendly economic policies with strong welfare programs.

Western nations and a dozen Latin American neighbors have been highly critical of the April election, saying Maduro was depriving Venezuelans of fair voting conditions.

Washington is considering slapping oil sanctions on the OPEC nation if Maduro presses ahead without reforms.

Maduro says Venezuela's election system is clean, and accuses the United States of leading a right-wing international conspiracy to end socialism and take over his nation's oil.Aid agencies are reinforcing shelters, moving latrines and providing search and rescue training in the world's biggest refugee settlement in Bangladesh before monsoon rains strike in April, bringing deadly landslides and floods.

The United Nations migration agency warned that flash floods could wash away fragile shelters, housing about 100,000 refugees and local families, in congested camps in Cox's Bazar providing sanctuary for Rohingya who have fled neighboring Myanmar.

"The message on this has to be really clear: we cannot keep everyone safe," Fiona MacGregor, a spokeswoman for the International Organization for Migration (IOM), told the Thomson Reuters Foundation by phone on Tuesday from Cox's Bazar.

She warned of a "real possibility" that the approaching monsoon rains would lead to deaths in the camps, with thousands more refugees at risk from disease and aid shortages if flooding cuts off access to parts of the settlement.

Nearly 700,000 Rohingya have crossed into Bangladesh since violence flared in August and live on slopes that will quickly turn to mud when the cyclone season hits, IOM said.

Natural defenses such as trees and other vegetation have been stripped to make room for shelters in Cox's Bazar, which is home to more than 900,000 Rohingyas, it said.

Shelters constructed from tarpaulin and bamboo are being strengthened with additional coverings, ropes and sandbags to make them more resilient, said MacGregor.

"One of the big problems we have here are quite a lot of people have dug their shelters at 90-degree angles at the slopes so these are the ones at risk of coming crashing down," said MacGregor.

Aid agencies are providing machinery to keep roads clear to allow food and medicine to get through, setting up emergency medical centers and moving latrines to higher ground to prevent floods spreading disease, she said.

"The risk of things like diarrhea, dysentery, mosquito-borne diseases like dengue, malaria, and others are going to be a huge risk to the population," Tony Stewart of the World Health Organization in Cox's Bazar said in a statement.

Some 650 local people and refugees are also being trained in search and rescue by the IOM and Bangladesh's fire service and civil protection department.

Aid workers have criticized plans to move some Rohingya from the overcrowded camps to an uninhabited island about 30 km (21 miles) from the mainland, saying that it is vulnerable to cyclones.White House Communications Director Hope Hicks, who has been one of President Donald Trumps closest confidantes since before his election, is quitting.

Hope is outstanding and has done great work for the last three years, Trump said in a statement issued late Wednesday afternoon. She is as smart and thoughtful as they come, a truly great person. I will miss having her by my side, but when she approached me about pursuing other opportunities, I totally understood. I am sure we will work together again in the future.

Hicks, 29, who is the youngest-ever White House communications director, refused to answer numerous questions Tuesday in a closed session of the House Intelligence Committee.

Hicks told the panel, according to lawmakers, she had occasionally been required to tell white lies. However, she insisted that she had never been untruthful about anything connected to the investigation into Russias interference in the 2016 presidential election, in which Republican nominee Trump defeated the Democratic contender, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

Sources say that Hicks was nervous and shaken by the experience of Tuesdays all-day grilling before the committee.

Hicks has also previously been interviewed by the special counsel's team overseeing the Russia investigation.

There are no words to adequately express my gratitude to President Trump. I wish the President and his administration the very best as he continues to lead our country, Hicks said in a statement.

Although Hicks had a very low public profile in what normally is a high visibility position, she oversaw a press office with dozens of people, and for years has been seen constantly by Trumps side.

The former model, who had no political experience before the presidential campaign, joined the Trump Organization in 2014 after modeling for the online store run by Ivanka Trump, the presidents daughter.

White House Chief of Staff John Kelly, in a statement released with Hicks resignation announcement, praised her as a trusted adviser and counselor, and did a tremendous job overseeing the communications for the Presidents agenda, including the passage of historic tax reform.

Kelly said Hicks has served her country with great distinction. To say that she will be missed, is an understatement.

Hicks is the fifth person to have held the title of White House communications director during the 14 months of the Trump administration.

Hedge fund millionaire Anthony Scaramucci, who was Hicks predecessor, lasted just 10 days in the job. He was fired by Kelly after an expletive-laden interview was published in which Scaramucci criticized several other high-level White House officials.

Hicks, according to White House sources, had been considering departing for months, and her departure was not triggered by Tuesdays congressional testimony or publicity about former White House aide Rob Porter, who had been in a romantic relationship with her.

Porter, who was White House staff secretary, became enmeshed in scandal after his two former wives accused him of physical abuse.



Hicks is the Presidents longest-serving aide, having worked with him before he announced his candidacy, through the campaign and into the second year of his administration, said White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders in a statement. After three years, she approached the President and told him she wanted to leave, so she could start exploring opportunities outside of the White House.

According to Sanders, Hicks precise departure date is to be determined, but it will be sometime in the next few weeks.The head of the World Trade Organization diplomatically took issue with U.S. President Donald Trumps description of the WTO as a catastrophe on Tuesday, pointing out that the United States actually had a better deal than other countries in the club.

World Trade Organization  a catastrophe, Trump said on Monday at a meeting with U.S. governors, according to a White House transcript.

The World Trade Organization makes it almost impossible for us to do good business. We lose the cases, we dont have the judges. We have a minority of judges. Its almost as bad as the 9th Circuit, Trump said.

Asked about Trumps remarks, WTO Director General Roberto Azevedo, a former Brazilian trade negotiator, told reporters in Sofia that it was not news that the United States had concerns about the work of the WTO.

Just one clarification, he said.

No member has more than one judge at the WTO. The members of the Appellate Body, they are seven, and they come from different regions, so no country has a majority there. The United States, in fact, has always had one of the Appellate Body members with U.S. nationality, which is very unusual, but it is the situation.

Since last year, the United States has been vetoing the appointment of new judges to the WTOs Appellate Body, in effect the supreme court of world trade.

The lack of judges has slowed down the handling of trade disputes and could halt the appeals process altogether after the next judge retires in September.

Trump has said he thinks the United States does not get a fair deal, but trade negotiators from other countries say he has not yet set any conditions for resuming judicial appointments, making it impossible to meet U.S. demands.

This is a very serious situation that we are trying to discuss with members, to see how we can overcome this, Azevedo said.

Former WTO chief Pascal Lamy said last week that Trump's view of trade was medieval, and the U.S. win/lose rate in WTO disputes was similar to that of other countries.

The question is whether the U.S. problem is trying to fix a number of issues or whether the U.S. strategy is trying to wreck the system, Lamy said.South Africa took a step Tuesday to hasten the transfer of land from white to black owners when parliament backed a motion seeking to change the constitution to allow land expropriation without compensation.

The ruling African National Congress has long promised reforms to redress racial disparities in land ownership, and the subject remains highly emotive more than two decades after the end of apartheid. Whites still own most of South Africa's land following centuries of brutal colonial dispossession.

Tuesday's motion was brought by the radical left Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) party but was supported by the ANC, which controls almost two-thirds of the parliament compared with EFF's 6 percent.

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said after his inauguration two weeks ago that he would speed up the transfer of land to black people, although he stressed that food production and security must be preserved.

Launching a debate on the motion in parliament, EFF leader Julius Malema said "it was time for justice" on the land issue.

"We must ensure that we restore the dignity of our people without compensating the criminals who stole our land," he said.

The motion was passed 241-83. Parliament then instructed a committee to review the constitution and report back to it by August 30.

It was not clear when any change to Section 25 of the constitution to allow expropriation of land without compensation would take place. Together, the ANC, EFF and other small opposition parties could muster the two-thirds majority needed for a constitutional change.

The ANC supported the motion with some amendments. Its deputy chief whip, Dorries Dlakude, said the party "recognizes that the current policy instruments ... may be hindering effective land reform."



Expropriation

The official opposition Democratic Alliance party (DA) opposed the motion, arguing that changes to Section 25 would undermine property rights and scare off potential investors.

The DA's Thandeka Mbabama told parliament that expropriation without compensation was a way to divert attention from the failure by successive ANC-led governments to come to grips with the issue. Corruption and lack of farmer training and capacity remain obstacles to land redistribution.

"It is shocking that at the current rate it will take 35 years to finalize [land] restitution claims lodged before 1998," said Mbabama, who is deputy shadow minister for rural development and land reform.

In his first state of the nation address two weeks ago, Ramaphosa appealed directly to poorer black voters  the core of the ANC's electoral support base  saying he would aim to speed up the transfer of land to black people as a general election looms in 2019.

Ramaphosa said earlier Tuesday he would pursue expropriation of land without compensation, but reiterated that this should be done in a way that increases agricultural production and improves food security.

Among the main criticisms leveled at government's land reform policy over the years has been that many farms transferred to emerging black farmers lay fallow and unproductive.

Land expropriations would trigger legal challenges, said Ralph Mathekga, an independent political analyst.

"This thing is going to court, make no mistake. The motion today means land has been elevated even higher as a political issue to code red from code amber," he said.The state-controlled Herald newspaper reports that Zimbabwean-born Ms. Nomsa Ncube, who posed in a photograph next to the late Movement for Democratic Change founding president Morgan Tsvangirai lying in a hospital bed in South Africa, has died.

According to the newspaper, Ms. Ncube was found dead in her apartment a few days ago. Police are investigating the issue.

The photograph went viral on social media with some people, including a registered Zimbabwean nurse working in South Africa, urging relevant authorities to take drastic action against Ncube, claiming that her actions were unethical.

The newspaper quoted Zimbabwes consul general to South Africa, Batiraishe Mukonoweshuro, confirming Ms. Ncubes death, adding that I am told that the South African Police Service is still dealing with the case and ascertaining the circumstances around how she passed on  No information has been available as to how she died, purportedly on Sunday 18 February in the evening.

The newspaper reported that a representative of the Wits Donald Gordon Medical Centre, where Tsvangirai was being treated for cancer of the colon, declined to comment.

Tsvangirai, one of Zimbabwes most feared opposition leaders, was laid to rest last Tuesday.

Ncubes family was not reachable for commentThe Zimbabwean government has barred cultural activists from installing a Ndebele king this weekend saying the move is unconstitutional.

The organizers of the event, which was expected to attract thousands of people from Zimbabwe, South Africa, Swaziland, Lesotho, Botswana, United Kingdom and other nations, were informed today to shelve the installation of Prince Bulelani Lobhengula Khumalo as king of the Ndebeles.

Local Government Minister July Moyo informed the Crown Prince Council chairperson Chief Mathema that the intended installation of the crown prince to the throne left vacant by King Lobhengula Khumalo cannot go as planned at Barbourfields Stadium on Saturday.

We aknowledge receipt of your letter notifying my ministry of your intention to install a Crown Prince to the throne of King Lobhengula on the 3rd of March 2018 and would like to advice you that it is unconstitutional to resuscitate and install a Crown Prince of King in Zimbabwe and therefore you should cancel your intended installation of Crown Prince Bulelani Lobhengula scheduled for 3rd March 2018 in Bulawayo because if it is unconstitutional and therefore illegal to do so.

Chief Mathema and spokesperson Effie Dlela Ncube of the Crown Prince Council were not available for comment.

Legal experts say the Zimbabwean constitution is silent on the installation of a king and therefore the government has erred in blocking the coronation of a Ndebele king.Please enable cookies on your web browser in order to continue.

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By signing up you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy PolicyThe chancellors departure delivers a political blow to Bowser, whose selection of Wilson, an outsider, was one of the most important and high-profile appointments of her tenure. Bowser is up for reelection this year, though she faces no credible challengers so far.Baker  who wrested control of the troubled system from the countys elected school board during his first term  has been sharply criticized by the county teachers union and by his potential gubernatorial rivals. The Prince Georges County Educators Association in a vote last week indicated its lack of confidence in the school boards current structure and asked the state legislature to strip Baker of the power to appoint members.Despite the wariness, legislators  who must approve the proposed tax incentives for them to be offered  were enthusiastic about the prospect of winning a nationwide contest for the Amazon project and up to 50,000 good-paying jobs. There was no criticism of the bill at the Senate committee hearing, and witnesses at both sessions called it a once in a generation economic development opportunity.Capt. OBrien  known to colleagues as Obie  joined NASA in 1994 after a nearly three-decade military career. In Navy roles that prepared him for his diplomatic duties at the space agency, he served as an international political and military adviser to the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and his duties included travel to Persian Gulf countries for bilateral discussions in the lead-up to the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 1991.Manafort attorney Kevin Downing indicated that he was prepared to fight both cases. A trial date has not been set in the Virginia case, although the Eastern District of Virginia is so well known for its rapid proceedings that it is nicknamed for its rocket docket.The couple, who have a boy named Archie, announced on Jan. 8 that they would step back from being royals, become financially independent, and split their time between North America and the United Kingdom.Loesch herself was happy to serve as a regular contributor to a major media outlet such as CNN, of which she remarked in 2011: Im excited to be working with CNN and am appreciative of their efforts to showcase diverse political thought on their airwaves. I look forward to the discussions. One wonders if Loesch numbered among those in the legacy media who love mass shootings at that time, or if she was perhaps grateful for the opportunity to help the public think through and learn about these terrible crimes while deeply disturbed by the crimes themselves, as I suspect most in the media are. But maybe not. Its all just business, after all, and reminding the public that the media is comprised of for-profit companies is a go-to conservative tactic in the Trump era. Under normal circumstances  if instead of a shooting, we were talking about a case of corruption or graft  one might have dismissed Loeschs you-love-it shtick as a boring page out of the presidents playbook: If you cant beat the rap, beat the media.What I see on the Cyber Command side leads me to believe that if we dont change the dynamic here, that this is going to continue, and 2016 wont be viewed as isolated, he said. This is something that will be sustained over time.WSU Professors Study How Literature Boosts the Brain, the Classroom and Empathy

February 28, 2018

OGDEN, Utah  National Reading Month and Brain Awareness Week are both in March, and that makes perfect sense to two Weber State University professors who are using the words of novelists, poets, essayists and screenwriters to teach students about psychology and neuroscience.

Psychology and neuroscience professor Lauren Fowler and English professor Sally Shigley have combined science and the humanities in a course called The Story and the Brain. The interdisciplinary class helps students learn the difficult concepts associated with psychology and neuroscience through literature rather than textbooks.

Lauren Fowler

Learning psychological and neuroscientific concepts can often be overwhelming for students, as it requires them to integrate large amounts of information with their own experiences in the real world, Fowler said. When literature is used as a teaching strategy, it aids in student learning, as it helps the students place themselves into the position of the characters in the story. This allows the students to learn about and explore psychology and neuroscience in a safe and nonthreatening way, while also allowing them to explore novel situations.

The class kicked off its reading with Frances E. Jensens The Teenage Brain to learn about brain basics and development and then delved into Mark Haddons The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, a mystery in which the main character exhibits behavior associated with Aspergers syndrome, a subtype of autism. Students also read Stevie Smiths poem Not Waving but Drowning to talk about depression. Neil Hilborns video poem OCD was used before students tackled the official book of psychological issues titled Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders.

Sally Shigley

According to Fowler and Shigley, there are plenty of reasons to teach using literature, one of which is that it increases brain activity in regions not normally associated with reading textbooks. In a study conducted by scientists at Liverpool University, in which participants read the challenging prose and poetry of William Shakespeare, William Wordsworth, T.S. Eliot and more, then read simpler versions of the text, it was found the literature helped readers shift mental pathways and create new thoughts and connections.

Reading requires us to use the visual areas of the brain, as well as engage our frontal cortex to make meaning out of what were reading, Fowler said. Reading literature increases connectivity in brain regions to a much greater extent than reading plain, literal text.

In addition, reading literature is a good way to elicit empathy, a subject that Fowler and Shigley teamed up to study several years ago.

During their research on empathy, Fowler and Shigley used Margaret Edsons Pulitzer Prize-winning play Wit, about a woman being treated for stage-four cancer. The story directly addresses the issue of empathy.

Study participants read Wit and were asked to report when they felt an emotional response. At the same time, physiological signs of empathy were measured by monitoring the activity of certain facial muscles. Galvanic skin response machines were used to measure physical responses such as skin temperature and heart rate.

After the participants finished reading, Fowler and Shigley compared their perceived empathic responses to their physiological responses. The results of their study demonstrated that reading increased empathic responses in test participants. The two have presented their empathy research at several conferences, including one at Oxford University. It has also been published in two books.

Literature allows you to put yourself in somebody elses shoes in a very portable, very safe sort of way, Shigley said. In an era where empathy is perhaps very much necessary, literature is a place to go find a kind of connection that you cant get with other kinds of reading.

Fowler and Shigley also used Wit in The Story and the Brain course. As one of their assignments, students wrote poems that explored a psychological or neuroscientific concept. They also had to include an interpretation of their poem. One student wrote: At a cliff I stand on the edge. Looking below; darkness, emptiness, a mirror to my soul. Falling, my heart races, my stomach flutters. Falling, faster. I cant move. I cant, breathe. I open my eyes. At a cliff I stand on the edge. My heart empty, it pulls me like lead. But I never fall.

The student explained that the speaker is at the edge of a cliff, a symbol of being on the brink of having a breakdown from severe anxiety.

Weve gotten great responses from our students, Fowler said. Using literature not only enhanced their experiences in the classroom, it also enhanced the experience for me and Dr. Shigley.When Alainna McDonald did not receive the US$180 blanket she ordered before Christmas from a sponsored advertiser on Facebook, she emailed them looking for an explanation and they responded.

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This article was published 28/2/2018 (1297 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

When Alainna McDonald did not receive the US$180 blanket she ordered before Christmas from a sponsored advertiser on Facebook, she emailed them looking for an explanation and they responded.

When she still didnt get her package, she wrote to the website  called looselystore.com  again and she got another automated response.

"They are so good," she said. "The people who run that website are probably making a lot of money."

But they are scamming people.

McDonald, 22, who works at Settlement Services in Virden, Man., is one of only five per cent of victims of online and other kinds of scams who actually report the incidents.

"Its embarrassing," she said. "Why would you want to tell people that someone tricked you into sending them money?"

But she saw that the site had a lot of traffic and she also saw online comments from others complaining of poor treatment, comments that were quickly deleted. Thats why she figured a note to the Better Business Bureau (BBB) might warn at least some people to stay away.

The BBB knows how prevalent and invasive these kinds of scams are becoming and they believe the only way to combat the problem is for individuals to learn how to spot them.

"We encourage people to educate themselves on protection. Its the only way we are going to win against it," said Len Andrusiak, president and CEO of the Better Business Bureau of Manitoba and Northwest Ontario. "The criminal justice system is strapped as it is. Imagine if they are inundated with thousands of calls for petty crimes on an annual basis."

Tony Havelka, owner of a Winnipeg technology products company whos been doing business on the internet since its early days, did not lose any money, but said he received one of those threatening calls from someone claiming to be from Canada Revenue Agency (CRA).

He uses tools like crowdsourcing security intelligence and email spam filters, but he believes there is also a common sense approach that can work against online and telephone scammers.

"Be skeptical," he said.

"A lot of people just arent skeptical and they are falling for it."

For instance, he said, if he gets a large order with a billing address in Virginia, but the product is to be shipped to Korea, red flags go up.

Eric Gay / The Canadian Press files Canadians were swindled out of more than $1.7 million via scams involving cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin in 2017.

"There is credit card fraud all the time," he said. "We are always on the lookout."

The BBB says scammers made off with about $95 million from Canadians last year, but thats only from the estimated five per cent who report the losses. Most believe the numbers are much higher.

The BBB encourages consumers to use its free Scam Tracker mobile app that lets people report scams and search to see what is being perpetrated in their area, or track a particular type of scam, or even see how much money has been lost.

"The problem, as I see it, is that technology and the ability to communicate electronically has created a massive problem that is almost out of control," Andrusiak said.

"I cant see how law enforcement can possibly keep on top of all the different scams out there."

For instance, he said, "How does the Winnipeg police department chase fraud for $170 in Kazakhstan? Its just not possible."

When people like McDonald fall victim to these scams they typically dont want anyone to know about it.

"I was so disappointed in myself," she said.

"Am I really so stupid to fall for this? But then I realized there are many others and I am not the only the only one."

She said she inspected the website and it looked professional, which is another vexing part about how to avoid it  sometimes the scammers are just that good and their sites mimic legitimate e-commerce sites.

But Havelka said if you take a moment, you will realize there are reasonable actions that can be taken before "you send $700 in iTunes gift cards" to a phony CRA agent pay off a tax bill.

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For one thing, if you used a some kind of professional service to do your tax return, you can call that person.

"In my dealings with the CRA they have always been friendly and up front," said Havelka, who uses scientific research and experimental development tax credits and has been audited in the past.

"They dont come in like beasts looking to tear your company apart. That is not what they want to do."

The BBB advice includes: be wary of offers that are too good to be true; be careful about giving out personal information such as email or phone contacts; look for poor grammar, lack of job details, and over-the-top pay scale numbers on employment sites; the cryptocurrency marketplace has an elevated risk of fraud and manipulation; the CRA does not make threatening phone calls or solicit personal information over the phone or by email and does not accept payment in Bitcoin or gift cards.

martin.cash@freepress.mb.caYoung people in Manitoba need more access to mental-health services, drug-treatment programs and family supports if officials hope to address high rates of missing-person reports arising from child-welfare agencies, Manitoba's Children's Advocate says.

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This article was published 27/2/2018 (1298 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Young people in Manitoba need more access to mental-health services, drug-treatment programs and family supports if officials hope to address high rates of missing-person reports arising from child-welfare agencies, Manitoba's Children's Advocate says.

Daphne Penrose said she'll keep a close eye on what changes will happen amid some "good movement" toward more collaboration between Child and Family Services and other local organizations.

BORIS MINKEVICH / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Daphne Penrose at the Office of the Childrens Advocate.

"I think Ive been pretty vocal about our need for systems to come together to provide the services that these kids need around the areas of mental health and addictions, family contact and support from CFS. I think that a lot of those services and supports need to be in place. Those departments and those organizations need to be able to provide those services in a robust way so that children can go there," Penrose said, speaking to the Free Press after a Freedom of Information request revealed the majority of missing-persons reports in Winnipeg have for years come from Child and Family Services agencies.

"Theres some good movement in the system right now around trying to make some changes, and were going to watch carefully about how that happens for children and listen to children and see if we see some of those services more accessible for kids and more available," she said.

Last year, missing persons reports for youth in the care of Child and Family Services accounted for 63 per cent of all missing persons reports received by the Winnipeg Police Service, according to data compiled in consultation with the WPS crime analysis and missing persons units in response to the Free Press request. In 2016, that proportion reached 70 per cent, a jump from 53 per cent in 2015. Data from previous years was unavailable on the number of missing-person reports for CFS youth, but it's clear they account for hundreds of reports to police each month.

The Winnipeg Police Service has said it's working with CFS agencies on a more collaborative approach to help investigators handle missing-persons reports, aiming to reduce the numbers.

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Collaboration is key, but an over-broad policy isn't the answer, Penrose said. Sometimes when a child is reported missing from CFS care, she said, child-welfare workers will have some idea where they are -- "and sometimes that place is really not safe."

"The collaboration between the police and the (CFS) system is a really good start, and being able to identify the level of vulnerability or risk of the child thats missing," she said. "You would hate to say, if you know where the child is, the child isnt really missing, therefore we shouldnt call in a missing persons report on that child. You would hate to make a blanket policy like that, because then you run the risk of a child who really isnt where theyre supposed to be and is somewhere else and in danger, and then nobodys looking for that child."

Kids leave their CFS placements for a variety of reasons, whether they want to be with their families, they're caught up in drug addiction or they just don't like their placements, Penrose said. Whatever their reason, they need a place to go, and they need support to get there, Penrose said, referring to work done by community organizations such as Street Reach to track down vulnerable kids.

"Kids will vote with their feet when they really want something. And thats why its so important to involve a youth in the planning for them. When we do make plans for youth about where kids are going to stay and where theyre going to go, its important to hear their voice when were moving forward to create a plan for them."

katie.may@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @thatkatiemayAn asylum-seeker who suffered frostbite on both his hands while crossing the U.S. border into Canada in early January has lost parts of three fingers.

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 28/2/2018 (1297 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

An asylum-seeker who suffered frostbite on both his hands while crossing the U.S. border into Canada in early January has lost parts of three fingers.

Kangni Kouevi, who is originally from Togo, walked for more than three hours in the bitter cold (-31 C with the wind chill) on Jan. 5 to cross into Canada near the Manitoba border community of Emerson.

After he called 911 on his cellphone, the RCMP picked him up and took him to the Canada Border Services Agency at Emerson. Officials there sent him on to the hospital in Morris. Days later, his hands were still so badly injured, blistered and oozing CBSA officials couldn't take his fingerprints.

He is on the mend while he awaits his Immigration and Refugee Board hearing, said the director of settlement services for Hospitality House Refugee Ministry, which has provided a home for the 36-year-old francophone since he got to Canada.

"His right hand healed," said Karin Gordon.

On his left hand, Kouevi has had to have parts of three of his fingers amputated, said Gordon, who went with him to visit his plastic surgeon Monday in Winnipeg.

"He's healing very well," said Gordon, who helped Kouevi through the registration process so he could get interim federal health benefits.

He is the third person in a year to be badly injured by the freezing cold while walking through U.S. farm fields into Canada near Emerson. Two Ghanaian men lost their fingers to frostbite in January 2017.

In May 2017, Mavis Otuteye, a 57-year-old Ghanaian woman, died of hypothermia less than a kilometre south of the Canadian border in Minnesota while attempting to cross the border.

Kouevi doesn't yet know if he will be granted refugee protection in Canada. His board hearing is scheduled for June, said Gordon.

Kouevi fled Lome, the capital of Togo, because he faced death threats after converting to Christianity and couldnt count on authorities to protect him, he said through an interpreter in a previous interview.

Friends in the U.S. chipped in to help him flee Togo, Kouevi said. He asked for asylum in America and was put in an immigration prison for 11 months before his claim was rejected. He was released and told to await his removal to Togo. Instead, he headed north, hoping Canada would grant him protection.

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His June hearing in Winnipeg will likely be postponed, however, thanks to an influx of such claims in Canada in the last year, said Gordon.

For now, Kouevi is learning to speak English and waiting to get a work permit and a Manitoba Health card so he can sign up with the Society for Manitobans with Disabilities to get specialized training that will help him find a job, Gordon said.

"He's such a great guy," said the 72-year-old, who became the refugee ministry's settlement director after retiring from the Health Sciences Centre.

Kouevi lives at the charity's residence with other African newcomers who have taken him under their wing, as well.

"I am not the only one providing care for him," said Gordon.

carol.sanders@freepress.mb.caFour ride-hailing companies are currently in discussion with MPI to bring their services to Manitoba, with one set to roll out its Winnipeg operation Friday.

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This article was published 27/2/2018 (1298 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Four ride-hailing companies are currently in discussion with MPI to bring their services to Manitoba, with one set to roll out its Winnipeg operation Friday.

But when the provinces vehicles-for-hire act goes into effect Thursday  meaning ride-hailing can officially begin  two notable players will be on the outside looking in: Uber and Lyft.

Edmonton-based TappCar announced it will be the first ride-hailing service operating in the city, with their drivers ready to start collecting fares Friday. (Boris Minkevich / Winnipeg Free Press files)

The two industry giants have rebuffed Manitoba Public Insurances plan for ride-hailing service drivers, saying it makes operating in the province economically unfeasible.

'The framework is in place, the door is open and we look forward to ride-hailing coming to Manitoba in the next few days'  Minister of Crown Services Cliff Cullen

The stance has left a market vacuum lesser-known ride-hailing outfits hope to fill.

"We made a commitment as a government to provide Manitobans with options, as far as ride-hailing, and weve delivered on that commitment," Minister of Crown Services Cliff Cullen said Tuesday. "The framework is in place, the door is open and we look forward to ride-hailing coming to Manitoba in the next few days."

Edmonton-based TappCar announced it will be the first ride-hailing service operating in the city, with its drivers ready to start collecting fares Friday. More than 300 people have applied to join the company, although it remains unclear how many drivers it will have trained by Friday.

In addition, Cullen said InstaRyde, Cowboy Taxi and U2GO are all working with MPI to get vehicles insured and under their banners.

A spokesman for MPI said the Crown corporation had no intention of changing the coverage offer on the table for companies such as Uber and Lyft  a sentiment echoed by Cullen.

When asked if the message to Uber and Lyft  the No. 1 and 2 companies in terms of U.S. market share, respectively  was take it or leave it, Cullen responded: "Their competition is here and theyre going to be doing business. Its up to Uber and Lyft to make that decision.

"Weve got what we think is fairly balanced and comprehensive coverage in place  fairly affordable coverage, as well. Clearly, four other companies agree with what weve got on the table," he said.

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Legislative changes approved by the province pave the way for municipalities to customize their own bylaw requirements for ride-hailing services.

In other jurisdictions, ride-hailing services can buy blanket coverage from independent companies. Manitobas public model is based on individual driver ratings.

The province will offer four coverage "time bands" drivers will be able to select from. This will allow drivers to tailor their insurance coverage to the time periods they want to work  or if they want to make it a full-time job, theyll be able to select all four time bands, according to MPI.

"I think its very reasonable because the maximum it can cost the driver, if they want to go 24-7, is affordable," said George Demarchi, chief executive officer of U2GO Enterprises Inc. "U2GO is not being prescriptive; some people will make it a full-time job, some people use it to supplement their income. Its for the driver to buy those time bands."

While TappCar said it will pick up Winnipeg customers starting Friday, it remains unclear when the three other ride-hailing services will be approved to begin operations.

ryan.thorpe@freepress.mb.caTwitter: @rk_thorpeSome 44 per cent of Manitobans believe the Gerald Stanley trial verdict -- in which a white, Saskatchewan farmer was acquitted in the shooting death of a Cree man -- was fair and just, according to a new Angus Reid poll.

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This article was published 27/2/2018 (1298 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Some 44 per cent of Manitobans believe the Gerald Stanley trial verdict -- in which a white, Saskatchewan farmer was acquitted in the shooting death of a Cree man -- was "fair and just," according to a new Angus Reid poll.

"In terms of the Manitoba results, there are some very regional aspects to opinions to this (poll)," Angus Reid spokeswoman Shachi Kurl said in a phone interview Tuesday.

People take part in a vigil in support of Colten Boushie's family, following the acquittal of Saskatchewan farmer Gerald Stanley on charges in connection with Boushie's death, Tuesday, February 13, 2018 in Montreal. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Ryan Remiorz

The Manitoba results were tied with Alberta for the second-highest percentage by region. Saskatchewan was way ahead, with 63 per cent of respondents polled agreeing the verdict was "fair and just."

Twenty-six per cent of Manitoba respondents said the verdict was "flawed and wrong;" for Saskatchewan respondents, that number was 17 per cent.

"In Saskatchewan, you had some feelings that are notably different from other parts of the country. The further away you get from the place where this happened, the more the opinions diverge," Kurl said.

The acquittal Feb. 9 of Stanley -- a Biggar, Sask.-area farmer who stood trial for second-degree murder in the 2016 shooting death of 22-year-old Colten Boushie -- prompted a national debate on about how the Canadian justice system handles cases involving Indigenous people.

Across Canada, opinion is split, according to the polls findings. Angus Reid called the verdict a "powder keg," in statements that accompanied the report's release.

Some 30 per cent thought the verdict was "fair and just." Another 32 per cent responded it was "wrong and flawed." Some 38 per cent of Canadians didnt know what to think. They said they were unsure about the verdict.

Regionally, the divisions are a lot easier to see.

"Forty-four per cent of Albertans (and Manitobans) thought the verdict was fair. Thats higher than in British Columbia, Quebec, Ontario and Atlantic Canada, but not as high as Saskatchewan," Kurl said. "They tend to fall out along political lines and some other lines."

Kurl said the sample size in Manitoba was 180 respondents, more or less the usual number and typical of samples for the pollsters national polls.

"Its general population. Its rural and its urban. There may be some farmers, but I cant tell you how many," Kurl said of the Manitoba sample.

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Meanwhile, the poll also found six out of 10 Canadians agree reforms are needed to ensure juries better reflect the communities they come from. And 46 per cent turned thumbs down on post-verdict comments made by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

"Trudeau has faced significant criticism for appearing to question the jurys decision in the case and asserting that Canada must "do better" in the future. The poll didnt ask about similar comments from federal Justice Minister Jody Wilson Raybould.

Both the PM and the Justice Minister met with Colten Boushies family; Trudeau described his meeting as very emotional.

The poll was an online survey from Feb. 15 to 19, of a representative sample of 2,501 Canadian adults who are members of the Angus Reid Forum. The sample plan included large oversamples in specific regions which were then weighted down to provide a national snapshot. For comparison purposes only, a probability sample of this size, with this sample plan, would carry a margin of error of plus or minus 2.5 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.

The Manitoba Indigenous leaders who organized rallies and brought hundreds out to the streets in the wake of Stanley's acquittal, and again after the not-guilty verdict in the second-degree murder trial of Raymond Cormier in the death of 15-year-old First Nations girl Tina Fontaine, did not respond to a request for comment on the poll.

alexandra.paul@freepress.mb.caA former Manitoba marriage commissioner who argued the courts were creating a "hierarchy of rights" by requiring him to perform same-sex civil unions or turn in his licence has lost his appeal in Manitoba's top court.

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This article was published 28/2/2018 (1297 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A former Manitoba marriage commissioner who argued the courts were creating a "hierarchy of rights" by requiring him to perform same-sex civil unions or turn in his licence has lost his appeal in Manitoba's top court.

The Court of Appeal dismissed a court challenge earlier this month from Kevin Kisilowsky, a Stonewall Christian missionary evangelist who wanted to perform opposite sex, Christian marriages only and argued a requirement to do otherwise infringed upon his religious freedoms guaranteed under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

In November 2016, he lost his bid to have Manitoba's Court of Queen's Bench declare that his religious freedoms were violated by Manitoba's requirement that all civil marriage commissioners agree to perform same-sex marriages. On Feb. 12, the Appeal Court also ruled against him.

Both levels of court considered that Kisilowsky can still perform civil marriage ceremonies by getting a temporary licence, which he has done, or he could become an ordained minister or establish his own religious denomination so that he could perform religious marriage ceremonies, which would give him the ability to select, based on his religious beliefs, the couples he would marry.

But as a licenced civil marriage commissioner for the province, he was bound to follow anti-discrimination laws, Court of Queen's Bench Justice Karen Simonsen ruled in her 2016 decision.

Simonsen's analysis of the case "clearly indicates that a balancing of rights occurred, as opposed to the creation of a hierarchy," Court of Appeal Justice Diana Cameron wrote in the Feb. 12 decision.

"The fundamental issue in this case concerns the applicant's ability to exercise his section 2(a) (charter) rights by solemnizing marriages for persons of his choice. He continues to be able to do that," Cameron wrote.

Kisilowsky, who previously told the court he ministers to outlaw motorcycle gang members, inner-city youth, street people, prison inmates and people who shy away from organized religion, got his licence to perform civil marriages in 2003. At the time, he was placed on a private list of marriage commissioners whose names weren't shared publicly. That private list no longer exists.

On Sept. 16, 2004, the province changed its definition of marriage from a union between a man and a woman to "the union of two persons, to the exclusion of all others," based on a Manitoba court ruling.

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That same day, the provincial Vital Statistics branch sent all marriage commissioners a letter notifying them of the change to the law, saying they acted on behalf of the province and were expected to comply with the new definition.

"In the event you are opposed to performing marriages for same-sex couples, please return your certificate of registration to solemnize marriages so we may cancel your registration," the letter stated.

Kisilowsky refused to turn in his licence, and it was revoked when he tried to renew it in 2005.

He launched a human rights complaint, but it was eventually dismissed due to insufficient evidence. He filed this charter challenge in Court of Queens Bench in 2014, arguing his licence should be reinstated, and he should be allowed to choose which couples he will marry. He took the challenge to the Court of Appeal after it was dismissed in 2016.

katie.may@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @thatkatiemayHey there, time traveller!

This article was published 28/2/2018 (1297 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Bill Gade had a plan to defeat the black-market cannabis trade in rural Manitoba.

Gade, who lives outside the rural community of Benito, two kilometres from the Manitoba-Saskatchewan border, works as a general manager at 83 North, a diversified company in the nearby town of Swan River.

The way he sees it, cities such as Winnipeg and Brandon will be saturated with cannabis stores after legalization.

"And I don't think that anyone will ever propose that you could put a full-service cannabis store in Benito," Gade says. "But yet, as we speak today, there's four guys in Benito that sell cannabis all day long."

Responding to the Manitoba government's request for proposals to operate retail cannabis stores in the province, 83 North outlined a plan that would have used rural grocery stores as authorized distributors for mail-order packages of legal cannabis. The company went as far as finding a low-cost cannabis supplier to ensure rural Manitobans could access an affordable product from someone other than their illegal dealers.

"We thought we had a good idea. We recognized it was an out-of-the-box idea, it wasn't exactly what they asked for... it was either going to be boom or bust," Gade says.

It was a bust. With more than 100 applicants competing to be one of just four retail cannabis operators in Manitoba immediately after legalization, there were always going to be plenty of also-rans.

The four winning bids were announced Feb. 16. All four winners are partnerships of one kind or another, and all include at least one Manitoba business or First Nation and at least one larger partner based outside the province. In each consortium, at least one partner has previous experience in some part of the cannabis business.

Some local RFP applicants expressed concern that non-Manitobans were among those who won the first opportunity to sell cannabis legally in Manitoba.

Ashok Chopra, a Winnipeg businessman and hotel owner who applied with a group called Mana Cannabis, says he and other local business owners "create more jobs than anybody else."

"I think, personally, they should have given the opportunity to Manitobans to do business in Manitoba," he says.

That sentiment is echoed by Rick Macl, who owns and operates Growers N' Smokers, a cannabis-growing equipment store and head shop in Brandon.

"They keep on saying they're trying to help private business, this is going to help private business," says Macl. "They're not... they haven't helped one business that's been in this business from the beginning."

Even though the provincial government plans to open the retail cannabis market to new players in the future, Macl is pessimistic about his chances of competing with the first movers.

If those initial retailers have "a year to do whatever they want, there's going to be no room for any of us," he says. "There isn't. It's just common sense, it's business."

Macl applied for the RFP in partnership with Seven Oaks, a Manitoba Metis business seeking opportunities in the cannabis sector. Managing director Grant McLeod says although he feels the RFP process was conducted fairly, he is disappointed in what he considers a lack of local representation.

"This is the one thing that we were really proud of, as applicants, is the fact that we took a local approach, that we went out to Thompson, we went out to Dauphin, we went out to Selkirk and Portage and met with current, local community retailers who were involved in the cannabis space," McLeod says.

By selecting partnerships between Manitoba entities and larger, out-of-province partners with previous cannabis experience, the province took "what might look, objectively, as being the safe route," he says.

"But certainly they had other options, I think."

The Manitoba Metis Federation also responded to the province's RFP for cannabis stores through its business arm, Metis N4 Construction, says Jack Park, the MMF's minister of energy and infrastructure. The proposal, which included partners in Ontario, involved a cannabis-production facility in Manitoba that would employ Metis people.

Metis people, Park says, are "willing to contribute to Manitoba's economy, and every time we get the opportunity to do so, they don't consider our proposals at all. It seems that way, anyway."

Park acknowledges that other Indigenous groups in Manitoba succeeded with their RFP applications. (The RFP's 100-point scoring system offered five points to "Manitoba Indigenous business" applicants, as well as five points to "Canadian Indigenous business" applicants.)

"We're happy for them," he says. "But don't forget the Metis, as well."

Some unsuccessful RFP applicants say they plan to try again when the next RFP is issued.

"Honestly, it's our thought that the reason we weren't chosen was because they could only choose four, and there were many good proposals to choose from," says Ariel Glinter, director of business development and regulatory compliance with The Joint, which operates head shops in Manitoba and Saskatchewan. The Joint's proposal would have seen those existing tobacco- and cannabis-accessory stores converted to legal dispensaries.

"We believe that this is just the beginning and that there will be many opportunities in the future," Glinter says, adding the provincial government deserves credit for opening the retail cannabis market to private enterprise in the first place.

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Ontario and Quebec are restricting legal marijuana sales to government-owned corporations.

The Manitoba government's private-sector cannabis push is "refreshingly progressive," says Preston Drummond, founder and executive chairman of Toronto-based Modern Leaf Group, which he describes as an "education-first cannabis business."

"Even though we didn't win the RFP, we are still looking to do something great in Manitoba," he says, adding Modern Leaf is currently working on building a cannabis education centre in Winnipeg.

"I'm sure it was a difficult choice for them, and when there's only four (RFP winners), Manitobans are going to be served well," he says. "Because it was a tough process to get through, rightfully so."

solomon.israel@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @sol_israelTo the dismay of comedians across the country, cooler heads have prevailed. Alberta Premier Rachel Notley has rescinded her boldly comic move to single-handedly rescue the wine industry in British Columbia by blocking sale of its beverages from her province. Covering herself with the fig leaf of letting the courts rule on B.C.s right to block the Kinder Morgan Trans Mountain pipeline, she has (for now) escaped further ridicule.

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 28/2/2018 (1297 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Opinion

To the dismay of comedians across the country, cooler heads have prevailed. Alberta Premier Rachel Notley has rescinded her boldly comic move to single-handedly rescue the wine industry in British Columbia by blocking sale of its beverages from her province. Covering herself with the fig leaf of letting the courts rule on B.C.s right to block the Kinder Morgan Trans Mountain pipeline, she has (for now) escaped further ridicule.

After years of drought, forest fires and uncertainty about who wanted to drink Okanagan anyway, Notleys boycott of B.C. wines was an answer to a prayer. Only the unfortunate timing of the NDP National Convention, Feb. 16-18, spoiled things. No doubt, after NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh contemplated the mutually assured destruction of his partys only two provincial governments, the two leaders were convinced to sit down for a cup of some neutral beverage and talk.

Going back a week, after B.C. Premier John Horgan inexplicably fulfilled an election promise to block the Trans Mountain pipeline, Notley took out her frustration on a handful of Albertans in petulant fashion, banning B.C. wines in Alberta and declaring, "Let them drink beer!"

Speaking as a native-born Albertan and an environmentalist (not the oxymoron Notley seems to think it is), the boycott made no sense. There is no wine bar on Chuckwagon Row at the Calgary Stampede, so most Albertans would not feel the loss.

I suspect the $70-million B.C. winery bill was being paid by ex-pats from other places, people with more money than judgment. The few local Albertan wine-drinkers only drank B.C. vintages because they found it hard to swallow wine (or anything else) from Ontario. They would be the only ones crying in their beer.

In fact, Albertas premier has given the B.C. wine industry tons of free advertising ("They seriously make wine in British Columbia?") and, even more importantly, a huge reason for many Canadians and others to pick some up at their local liquor store.

What better way to twist the lions tail than to serve B.C. wine at every Liberal Party function across the country? Serve it guerrilla-style at banquets, get a photo of Prime Minister Trudeau quaffing a glass and then post it on social media next to the B.C. bottle? Tweet that picture to Rachel Notley?

The comic possibilities were endless. After her announcement, I immediately bought my first bottle of B.C. wine in years, a quaintly labelled "Reincarnation" by the Diabolica label, for my initial glass of Liberal red protest.

Since we are only on pause until the courts offer B.C. some vaguely apologetic constitutional refusal, we might as well share the experience with the hashtag #PinotBeforePipelines. Perhaps paparazzi could follow "Minister of Pipelines" Jim Carr around town, hoping to catch a picture of him toasting his own protest against Notley over dinner?

So, its game on. Serve a Liberal politician (hey, any federal politician!) wine from B.C. and post it. Pose with your friends and do the same. Rescue the B.C. wine industry from forest fires, drought and the politics of pipeline petulance.

After all, the prime minister himself dismissed B.C.s objections in Marie Antoinette-ish fashion, saying the pipeline will be built, whatever they say or do, so this is only a momentary reprieve. We might as well get started.

The bitter irony in targeting the B.C. wine industry over the pipeline dispute  Albertas best efforts to terminate life on Earth by burning up the tar sands  is that climate change already threatens grape growers in the drier parts of the province.

#PinotBeforePipelines is actually iconic, a symbol of what precisely is at stake in a warming world threatened by governments that insist on subsidizing the fossil fuel industry, rather than finding ways to leave it in the ground.

Constructing more pipelines wastes public money, jeopardizes the environment and provides long-term jobs only for cleaning up the inevitable spills. Pipeline mania guarantees that whatever solutions for creating a sustainable future are found elsewhere, Canadians will be on the side of the fossils, promoting obsolete technology and behaving like lemmings jumping off a carbon cliff.

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Premier John Horgan responded with dignity and restraint to the wine boycott. He could easily have engaged in trade retaliation, though he may be waiting until the federal government finally finishes the process of legalizing the sale of marijuana.

Rachel Notley is clearly anxious about winning her next election, if the Kinder Morgan Trans Mountain pipeline does not go through. Imagine her precarious political position if, because of some escalating trade war, B.C. bans the sale to Alberta of B.C.s No. 1 cash crop?

That would be the "hash"-tag of nightmares for Premier Notley.

#PotBeforePipelines would sweep her and the Alberta NDP out of office for a few million years, until the next batch of Alberta crude forms under her successors feet.

It would certainly put Prime Minister Trudeau in an amusingly awkward position, too.

Peter Denton is a writer and local sustainability activist.In his book The Evolution of Beauty, biologist Richard Prum quotes former U.S. Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke to illustrate what he considers an erroneous view of life. Physical beauty is evolutions way of assuring us that the other person doesnt have too many intestinal parasites, Bernanke told Princetons graduating class of 2013.

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 28/2/2018 (1297 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Opinion

In his book The Evolution of Beauty, biologist Richard Prum quotes former U.S. Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke to illustrate what he considers an erroneous view of life. "Physical beauty is evolutions way of assuring us that the other person doesnt have too many intestinal parasites," Bernanke told Princetons graduating class of 2013.

Prum sees this statement as a relic of a 20th-century worship of utility. People, including scientists, believed that beauty in nature must be backed by some bedrock of objective quality or value. The belief plays out in economics in the gold standard, he said, and in the theory of a rational market. In biology, it plays out as the assumption that beauty in humans and other animals is a proxy for health and fertility. Prum makes a case that nature isnt always so practical. Sometimes it can be downright frivolous.

While much of his book deals with love among the birds, it ends with a message to our species: those lacking whatever passes for perfect body proportions or facial symmetry arent lower-quality humans. And not fitting societal standards of beauty doesnt mean you have more parasites than the next person.

The idea that beauty may be disconnected from survival goes back to Charles Darwin. Soon after On the Origin of Species was published in 1859, Darwin famously wrote that he was made sick by the sight of a peacocks exuberantly beautiful tail because it was so poorly explained by his theory of natural selection. Those tails were a hindrance, and an advertisement to predators.

Darwin eventually came up with another theory, sexual selection, which posited that a trait that didnt help an organisms ability to survive might still spread if the opposite sex preferred it. Once a preference, for, say, an elaborate tail gets widespread enough, then its not only a disadvantage to have an ordinary tail, its also a disadvantage for you to prefer one  since the resulting offspring will be unpopular and might not propagate your genes.

But in subsequent years, scientists, in their quest for streamlining and unification, treated sexual selection as a form of natural selection, which they considered to be the primary driving force in biology. Survival was key, the thinking went, and ornaments or bright colours or beautiful songs evolved as ways to advertise that an animal or person had genes that were good for survival.

That idea eventually seeped into the popular culture, Prum said. Evolutionary psychologists have promoted the idea that for women, facial symmetry and the ratio of waistline to hips are indicators of health and fertility. Prum is not convinced theres enough evidence to tie these traits to fertility or health. They might be indicators of youth, he said, but the evidence of a connection to "good" genes is weak.

If in fact Darwin was right all along and evolution is shaped by different forces, then wildly impractical traits can propagate for no particular reason beyond their perceived desirability.

To illustrate the capricious nature of human desires, Prums book resurrects an infamous 2010 incident in which the website Gawker published the account of an anonymous sources alleged encounter with an unmarried female politician. The source objected to her body hair, saying, "Obviously, that was a big turnoff, and I quickly lost interest."

To Prum, the relevant part was that the anonymous person was so sure his taste in body hair was something that others would "obviously" share. Though beauty standards vary by time and place, the certainty that ones own standards are "correct" is pretty constant. He cites examples of cultures in Suriname and Mauritania, where obese women are considered far sexier than those in the healthy range (as defined by doctors).

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Scientists have traditionally believed that human beings are uniquely intelligent, discerning and sensitive to beauty. When naturalist William Beebe, for example, observed the mating dance in a type of pheasant called the great argus, he thought he had a better eye for bird beauty than the birds did.

During the dance, the male displays elaborately patterned tail feathers. Beebe suggested the female was a little dumb for not reacting with wonder, the way he did. But as Prum points out, such a tail would not exist without generations of cool, careful discernment on the part of female connoisseurs, who essentially created the tails beauty through their own mating preferences.

The fact that these birds move and inspire humans speaks more to our connection to animals than to our separateness. People often try to define art as something that sets humans apart from other creatures, or from nature, said David Rothenberg, a philosopher who studies esthetics at the New Jersey Institute of Technology. But thats starting to change as people realize our esthetic sense is, like everything else, a product of evolution, and the fact that we share common ancestry and common brain structures with other animals means we can derive profound joy from the sight and sounds of other living things. Focusing on what makes us unique can be limiting.

Beauty, in his view, isnt completely arbitrary, but it may be a quality in itself, rather than a signifier for some more practical form of quality. Nature, he said, "sometimes creates weird, cool, beautiful stuff for no reason other than that its weird or cool or beautiful."

Faye Flam has written for the Economist, the New York Times, the Washington Post, Psychology Today, Science, New Scientist and other publications.

 BloombergOn Saturday, Left Party parliamentary leader Sahra Wagenknecht defended the decision of Essen Tafel to limit its food handouts to Germans. This puts her in the front ranks of the anti-refugee campaign that blames the social crisis in Germany on impoverished foreigners.

The Essen branch of the volunteer aid organization Tafel, which collects leftover food and distributes it to the needy, announced in December that it would register only German citizens at its issuing offices. The decision was implemented on January 10.

The chairman of Essen Tafel, Jorg Sartor, justified the discriminatory decision on openly xenophobic grounds. German pensioners were avoiding coming to get the handouts because foreigners had not behaved properly, he claimed. There was a taker gene among the Syrians and Russian Germans, Sartor told newsweekly Der Spiegel. Some would jostle and push, he said, and they lacked a culture of queuing.

While other branches of the Tafel organisation and representatives of many other relief organizations were outraged by the discrimination in Essen, a nasty campaign was started by the media and political circles to defend the preferential treatment being shown to those in need who have a German passport. The Left Party has now taken the lead in this xenophobic campaign.

In an interview with broadcaster Deutschlandfunk, Wagenknecht described the criticism of the decision in Essen, much of which had come from Tafel members, as a moralized debate that was unduly hypocritical. Although no one should starve, she said, certain groups were in a special position. I would prefer, she declared, that people who live in Germany, some of whom have been living here for a long time, often having paid contributions, who have also worked here, are not brought into such a competitive situation.

While she referred only generally to poverty in the interview, Wagenknecht cited the admission of refugees as the main cause of the worsening social situation in Germany. In the manner of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), the leader of the Left Party parliamentary faction blamed the refugee crisis for almost all social problems, stating: The Tafel is just one part, there are many others. There are overburdened schools, there are housing problems. There are very many problems that have become more acute through the refugee crisis.

She left open whether she would take offense at the exclusion of foreign students from schools or the refusal to rent apartments to those without a German passport.

Wagenknechts formulations echo those used by right-wing extremist circles. They are designed to shield those responsible for the social misery while scapegoating the weakest and most vulnerable members of society. Instead of attacking the billionaires, who in recent years have enriched themselves obscenely at the expense of workers, she points the finger at the poorest of the poor.

In a previous interview with Business Insider, Wagenknecht fanned fears of hate preachers in the environment of certain mosques in order to call for a restrictive refugee policy. She told Cicero magazine that an open border policy was the opposite of what is left-wing, arguing that there was not an unlimited housing supply and that more residents led to greater wage competition.

In fact, the Left Party itself has vigorously supported the policy of wealth redistribution over the past 25 years from the bottom to those at the top. Wherever the Left Party has held government office, it has overseen vicious social attacks. In the ten years of the Social Democratic Party-Left Party state executive in Berlin, it cut public-sector wages by 10 percent, sold off public housing to hedge funds, halted construction of new public housing and introduced low-wage jobs on a massive scale.

In North Rhine-Westphalia, where Essen Tafel has taken its xenophobic decision, the Left Party supported two austerity budgets of SPD-Green Party state governments, in 2010 and 2011, resulting in many social cuts. At the federal level, the Left Party voted in favour of the bank rescue package that handed over billions of euros to the banks.

Now, its parliamentary group leader declares that the intake of desperate war refugees is the cause of the catastrophic consequences of its own policy of social devastation. There is no significant difference between her line and that of the AfD.

For this reason, Wagenknecht has advocated parliamentary cooperation with the right-wing extremists and insisted that they chair critical committees in the Bundestag (parliament). I think the AfD is entitled to undertake these functions, she said on the ARD talk show Maischberger. She added, That is parliamentary custom.

The closer and closer the Left Party moves to the rhetoric of the AfD the less it is able to cloak its right-wing programme with left phrases. This applies not only to social attacks, but also to the rearmament plans of the new Christian Democratic-Social Democratic coalition government preparing to assume power.

As soon as negotiations on a coalition between the Christian Democrats, the Free Democratic Party and the Greens broke down last November, Wagenknecht ruled out new elections. Instead, she called on the Social Democrats (SPD) to quickly reach an agreement with the Christian Democrats (CDU/CSU).

Once the CDU/CSU and SPD had settled on a coalition agreement that provides for a massive increase in the defence budget, Wagenknecht tweeted an image of a rising armament budget with the text: Bundeswehr (Armed Forces): mismanagement and leadership failure. Almost 20 percent more money, but not enough for socks and winter coats?

The Left Party representative on the parliamentary Foreign Affairs Committee, Stefan Liebich, explicitly supported the speech at the Munich Security Conference by SPD Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel, who declared that Germany had to become a foreign policy carnivore.

Support for social attacks and German imperialism goes hand in hand with extreme right-wing politics. For this reason, Wagenknecht advocates positions akin to those of the AfD and calls for cooperation with the right-wing extremist party.

The Sozialistische Gleichheitspartei (Socialist Equality Party) opposes the right-wing party cartel with a socialist perspective. We stand for the unity of all workers in the fight against social cuts, war and capitalism. That is the only basis on which the interests of workers can be defended against all the parties in the Bundestag.Teachers reported late Wednesday that the strike by West Virginia teachers will continue into Thursday, in defiance of a back-to-work order delivered by the unions and Governor Jim Justice on Tuesday. Teachers have rejected with contempt the lie that this backroom deal meets the needs of teachers, school employees and other state workers.

The attempt by the West Virginia Education Association (WVEA) and American Federation of Teachers-West Virginia (AFT-WV) to shut down the strikeright at the point when it is winning support from workers and young people throughout the state and nationallyexposes the basic purpose of these organizations: to suppress the uprising of teachers and get them back to work.

School employees have not united in all 55 counties and waged this battle only to capitulate before the worthless promises of a billionaire governor. Teachers know that even if the proposal for a wholly inadequate 5 percent raise passed the state legislaturewhich is far from certainteachers and other public employees will still be condemned to poverty pay, crushing medical costs and deteriorating teaching conditions.

WVEA President Dale Lee and AFT-WV President Christine Campbell claim that they answer to the democratic will of the membership. But they unilaterally ordered an end the strike without the slightest input from rank-and-file teachers and school employees. Through this action, they have made clear that they have no right to speak for teachers.

The continuation of the strike raises the urgent need for the formation of rank-and-file committees to take conduct of the struggle out of the hands of the AFT-VW and the WVEA. Meetings controlled by rank-and-file teachers themselves should be organized in every county in the state to discuss a strategy to mobilize broader support among teachers and the entire working class.

The demand must be raised: No return to work without a state-wide vote of all teachers!

Teachers, you have powerful allies! It is to the mass of the working class that it is necessary to turn: To teachers and school employees in Pittsburgh, Los Angeles, Florida, New Jersey, Oklahoma, Arizona and other cities and states that are preparing to fight. To graduate students at the University of Illinois who began a strike on Monday. To 40,000 lecturers in England striking for improved pensions and to oppose plans to privatize the public university system. To the 9,300 public school teachers in Nova Scotia, Canada who are threatening to walk out in defiance of the provinces anti-strike laws.

The teachers union in Pittsburgh announced yesterday that they will not call a strike despite overwhelming support for strike action. A specific appeal should be directed to Pittsburgh teachers to take action over the heads of the union and unite with West Virginia teachers.

All sections of the working classstate employees, coal miners, hospital workers, factory workers and students and young peopleface the same issues. Any threats of injunctions, fines or arrests should be answered with collective action by the working class throughout the state, based on the principle that An injury to one, is an injury to all! Plans for a general strike should be discussed at workers meetings.

The events of the past week have proven that teachers are locked in a political battle against the state and both big business parties, with which the unions are collaborating behind their backs.

Announcing the deal, Justice, the billionaire Democrat turned Republican, praised the wonderful union reps and rewarded them with positions on a task force on the PEIA. While this might pad the already bloated salaries of the union execs, it will do nothing for public employees who have heard the same tired, promises for decades.

The unions claim the election of more Democrats will help teachers. But the Democrats have controlled the governors mansion for 32 of the last 40 years, and every one of them who were endorsed by the unions have starved public services of needed funds, just like the Republicans. On a national level, the Obama administration spearheaded the attack on teachers and public education with his pro-corporate school reform agenda and Race to the Top scheme that scapegoated teachers and sharply expanded charter schools and other for-profit education businesses.

Now, two billionairesTrump and his education secretary Betsy DeVoswant to slash billions from education and deprive millions more of health care. Whether it is a Democrat or Republican in the White House, they all want to rob the working class to fund Wall Street bailouts, corporate tax cuts, and endless wars.

The Socialist Equality Party (SEP) calls for rank-and-file committees of teachers to demand:

An immediate 50 percent across-the-board wage increase for all teachers and public employees.

Abolition of all co-pays, deductibles and premiums, and the implementation of a fully state-paid health care and pension system. Not phony task forces but guaranteed health care!

A massive increase in state funding to hire more educators, build modern, well-equipped schools, and employ specialists to address the educational challenges associated with poverty, ill health, and the opioid crisis.

To meet these basic rights, the SEP calls for:

The confiscation of the personal fortunes of the eight billionaires who control the same amount of wealth as half the worlds population, or 3.5 billion people.

Sharply increase taxes on the coal, gas, chemical, biotech and timber industries and demand restitution for the lost revenue from decades of bipartisan tax cuts and the huge corporate tax breaks just passed by the Trump administration.

Seize and transform into publicly owned utilities the energy giants and the giant drug companies that have poisoned the state by pouring tens of millions of opioid pills into small towns.

Redirect the massive $700 billion a year the Democrats and Republicans just authorized to wage war and plunder all over the world.

This struggle raises a fundamental question: Who has the right to determine how societys resources are spent? To secure its rights, the working class must take power in its own hands, and break the dictatorial control of the corporations and banks over society. The SEP is building a mass political movement of the working class, independent of the two capitalist parties, to fight for socialism and the reorganization of economic life on the basis of human need, not corporate profit.

The WSWS Teacher Newsletter will do everything possible to assist in the formation of rank-and-file committees, establish lines of communication to unite teachers and public-sector workers with their brothers and sisters throughout the US and internationally, and to take forward this struggle. We urge teachers to contact us, subscribe to our newsletter and take up this fight.Mutant Year Zero: Road to Eden's New Trailer Tells You What It IsChris Pratt is facing backlash from social media users after he posted a tweet in which he sent prayers to Kevin Smith following a heart attack. Pratt wrote that Smiths Clerks inspired him when he was a senior in high school and included the line praying for you. Smith suffered a heart attack on February 25 following a comedy show in California. The director said he almost died.

Read More:Kevin Smith Suffered Massive Heart Attack After Filming New Standup Special

Many Twitter users responded in fury to Pratts well-wishes, mocking the fact he was praying for Smith. The backlash cited the politicians who sent prayers and thoughts to the survivors of the Parkland, Florida high school shooting while not actually attempting to enforce changes to gun control laws. James Gunn, Pratts director on the Guardians of the Galaxy films, quickly came to the actors defense. In a lengthy Twitter thread, Gunn attempted to explain the differences between the connotation of praying in these two examples.

I think people misunderstand the backlash against thoughts & prayers,' Gunn wrote. There is nothing wrong with sending someone positive thoughts & prayers. But when this is coupled with inaction when action will benefit the situation, its empty.

If youre offering Parkland shooting survivors prayers, but are unwilling to deal with the problems of gun violence in this country in a practical way, those prayers are empty, he continued. But no one expects Chris Pratt to shoulder doctors out of the way and perform heart surgery on Kevin Smith. Nor does Kevin need Chris to pay his medical bills. So I think his prayers are appreciated, and about all he can do.

You can read Gunns defense in the entire Twitter thread below. The director is set to reunite with Pratt on a third Guardians film.

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James Gunn Will Donate $100,000 to Charity if Donald Trump Reveals His Accurate WeightDonald Trump today named his 2016 campaign digital director Brad Parscale to be his re-election campaign manager.

Parscale, who never worked in politics before joining the Trump campaign, did web design for some Trump properties. He began working for Trump Organization in 2011, developing websites and creating and managing digital media strategies. During Trumps first White House run, Parscales role expanded and he also began directing campaign spending on TV ads.

Since Trumps inauguration, Parscale has been busy with America First Policies and promoting Trump. Todays news not such a big surprise given that Parscale told 60 Minutes Leslie Stahl in October that he already was working on Trumps 2020 re-election bid. In that interview, Parscale said candidate Trump once questioned the campaigns digital spending, saying, I dont believe in this mumbo-jumbo digital stuff. But Trump became a convert, Parscale told Stahl, when, during the last week of the campaign, he took every nickel and dime I could out of anywhere else, and I moved it to Michigan and Wisconsin to buy advertising  digital, TV.

Yes, its very early for POTUS to be announcing his re-election team leader, little more than one year into his first term. But Trump love campaigning. And, of course, Trump plowed through three campaign managers during his first presidential bid.

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Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 has a great cast, but theres one clear star: Baby Groot.

Voiced by Vin Diesel, the tiny version of the bounty-hunting plant creature and partner of Rocket Raccoon (voiced by Bradley Cooper) is super cute, and Groot has most of the best comedy moments in the movie.

Baby Groot resulted from Groots heroic sacrifice toward the end of the first Guardians of the Galaxy. During that movie, the tree creature used his ability to grow branches to encircle the other Guardians and protect them as the ship they were aboard crashed. Everyone survived, but Groots body was destroyed  all except a small twig clipping, which Rocket grew in a pot into a new Groot.

Also Read:All 46 Marvel Movies Ranked From Worst to Best, Including 'Guardians of the Galaxy vol. 2' (Photos)

But is the new Baby Groot the same person as the original Groot? It seems the answer is, somewhat definitively, no.

Baby Groot still seems to be very much Groot in many respects. Physically, he has a lot of the same characteristics, such as the shape of his face. His personality seems to be similar, and theres the fact that he still communicates by saying only I am Groot.

But Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 director James Gunn seems to have confirmed the fact the pair are not the same person. During a conversation on Twitter nearly, he said it in plain terms: the original Groot is dead.

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Gunn statements on Twitter closer to the release of the movie were a little more ambiguous, but did let on that Groot changed significantly from who he was in the first movie. Answering fan questions about the new movie on Twitter, Gunn said that Baby Groot doesnt have the same memories the original Groot did.

Also Read:'Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2' Post-Credits Scene Explained: Who is 'Adam'?

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Marvel Studios boss Kevin Feiges statements on the state of Groot differ a bit from Gunns, though. Feige said at San Diego International Comic-Con in 2016 that Groot might be a baby physically, but he isnt one mentally. (Contrary to Gunn, Feige also stated Baby Groot has Original Groots memories.) If we go by Gunns latest assertion, though, the two Groots are two different characters.

It follows then that Baby Groot is actually growing up during the movies. after regenerating also affects In Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, Baby Groot has all the childish inclinations his name suggests.

We also see him growing up to be something of a teenager in one of the movies post-credits scenes, with all the stereotypical annoyance with authority and messiness that goes with that age. So while Groot has some of the same characteristics, with the same dedication to his friends and general confusion about objects, colors and people as the original Groot, hes also a different, developing person.

Also Read:A Complete Timeline of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (Photos)

And that suggests we might see some other interesting changes in Groots character next time the Guardians show up. The teams next appearance seems likely to be in 2018, when Avengers: Infinity War kicks off.

By then, Groot may well be back to fully grown  while the first two Guardians of the Galaxy movies are set back in 2014, the Guardians will catch up to the present of the Marvel Cinematic Universe timeline when all the current MCU story lines converge in Infinity War.

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Every Marvel Post-Credits Scene Leading Up to 'Thor: Ragnarok' (Videos)After nearly 30 years of marriage, Tisha Campbell-Martin and husband Duane Martin are divorcing  and a source says no singular issue drove them apart.

I know that its been coming. Its not anything thats new, the source tells PEOPLE. Its been getting harder and harder for them for the last two years. But it just got to the breaking point recently. Its one of those things where theyve been talking about it and fighting it out and trying to come to a conscious uncoupling.

The couple wed in 1996 and share two children: Xen, 16, and Ezekiel, 8.

Real Husbands of Hollywood actor Duane has always been very laid-back, fun loving, sweet, a gentleman, a good guy, funny without trying, and drive, while Martin star Tisha was always the quintessential actress, the source adds. But she was always outgoing and gregarious. She was super cool, but very focused and high energy.  When they got together, I definitely saw why. It wasnt even an opposites attract  it was a complementary kind of thing. They made a good match for a while.

But the Tisha, 49, and Duane, 52, had their challenges, including Xens diagnosis of autism at 18 months old, the source explains.

I was crying, Why is this happening to my baby? Tisha previously told PEOPLE. Will he be able to hear me? Will he be able to say, I love you? Will he be independent?

However, a second source tells PEOPLE that Xens autism had nothing to do with the breakup.

She did consider conscious uncoupling and she was going to do that until the kids got a little bit older, but ultimately she decided to move forward with the divorce from him, that insider says. Shes just been cast in a new dramatic pilot on ABC. Moving forward, they both plan to be very involved in continuing to raise their two children.

In 2016, the Martins filed for $14.5 million in bankruptcy, telling E! News, We got involved with some loans before the crash, couldnt agree to a settlement with the banks, so we filed to reorganize.

Whats the straw that broke the camels back, I dont know, but I know that with their kid and schedules and money issues, it all played into it, the first source says. Theyve been through a lot of different stress tests. Sometimes couples just fall out of love.Like mother, like daughter.

New mom of three Kim Kardashian West took to Instagram on Monday to share the first official photo of her 6-week-old daughter.

Baby Chicago, Kardashian West, 37, wrote alongside the image of her cradling her baby girl, whos sporting the same bear filter as her mama.

Want all the latest pregnancy and birth announcements, plus celebrity mom blogs? Click here to get those and more in the PEOPLE Babies newsletter.

Near the end of the touching tribute, which Jenner sweetly titled To Our Daughter, Kardashian West sat by her younger sister while the Lip Kit mogul held Chicago.

She looks completely different, Jenner exclaimed. Shes so little.

Off camera, Jenners BFF Jordyn Woods could be heard asking the reality star if she and her husband had decided on a name for their child yet.

I think were gonna go with Chicago, Kardashian West replied.

I love Chicago, Jenner added.

For more coverage, follow our babies magazine on Flipboard.

Kardashian West and husband Kanye West welcomed Chicago via surrogate in January. The couple are already parents to son Saint, 2, and daughter North, 4.

On Saturday, the makeup mogul was in attendance at the Create & Cultivate event in Los Angeles, where she dished to best friend Allison Statter about carving out time with her kids sans distractions.

One of the rules I have about being present with my kids is I dont have my phone when Im with them. So, like story time at night, in the mornings getting ready, I just dont have my phone, explained Kardashian West.Lisa Marie Presley says shes broke. (Photo: Getty Images)

Studies have shown that life gets better at 50, so heres hoping some of that reaches Lisa Marie Presley.

Having hit that milestone age earlier this month, the only daughter of the late Elvis Presley has had her share of ups and downs  from her fathers death when she was 9, to early substance abuse issues and marriages that made for tabloid fodder. (She shared a bed with Michael Jackson after all.) But with age comes more drama for the songstress and mom of four. Not only has she blown her fortune (she says shes $16 million in debt), but shes locked in a bitter divorce with her fourth husband, which has led to the revelation of her extensive substance abuse issues.

Right now shes in the middle of multiple legal battles. The first is with Michael Lockwood, whom she announced she was divorcing in June 2016 after a decade of marriage. Hes demanding a share of her fortune, which at one point was more than $100 million as her megastar dads sole heir. Hes also demanding she pay for some of his legal fees, and claims shes lying about her financial woes. Youll probably remember that following initial news of their split, Presley accused him of having disturbing images on his computer, and they were both stripped of custody of their 9-year-old twin daughters, Harper and Finley. (Presleys mom, Priscilla, briefly stepped in to take custody of the girls.)

The August deposition from Presley and Lockwoods divorce has recently been obtained by the tabloid Radar. In it, she admits to abusing cocaine terribly during the last few years of marriage and mixing alcohol and pills. (As a teen, Lisa Marie was treated at the Castle, a Scientology center in Hollywood, ABC News reported in 2003. She remained a member of the controversial organization until 2012.)

The last three years I  had to go to rehab several times, she said, later putting the number at somewhere between three and five stints in a Mexican treatment facility. I was a mess. I couldnt stop. Pressed for specifically what she was taking, she said painkillers, opioids, and alcohol, but noted that booze was not my favorite thing.

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Wed say this was a photo of Lisa Marie Presley and Michael Lockwood in happier times, but it was from 2015  during the last year of their marriage, and she said she was abusing cocaine terribly during this period in addition to spending as many as five stints in rehab. (Photo: Getty Images)

The last year of our marriage, I was abusing cocaine terribly, she said, according to the court documents. Asked if her drug use was heavy, she said, It was bad, yeah. The mixing came the last few years: I didnt mix the pills and alcohol until, like, the last two years, she said.

Amid this battle with Lockwood over money  and tied to it  shes also suing a former business manager, Barry Siegel, who she alleges squandered her $100 million fortune, leaving her with only $14,000 in cash, $500,000 in credit card debt, unspecified unpaid taxes, and a mansion in England in foreclosure.

Some history: Lisa Marie inherited her fathers estate, worth an estimated $100 million, when she was 25. Thanks to Graceland and licensing of her fathers image, the business continued to make approximately $40 million a year. In 2005, after a few bad business moves, she decided to sell 85 percent of the stake in Elvis Presley Enterprises. We took on more debt than I felt comfortable with, she told Fortune at the time. However, her spending habits were an issue, according to the magazine, with Presley running through $5 million to $7 million a year, amounts that closely matched the annual net income of the business. With the sale, Presley was paid out $100 million  $53 million in cash, the erasure of a $25 million debt she owed, and stock worth $20 million. She retained the 15 percent stake and owns Graceland and its original items, despite its being run by the new company.

Lisa Marie Presley briefly lost custody of her her twin daughters, Finley and Harper, but she was with them as well as older daughter Riley Keough at an Elle event on Oct. 16, 2017. (Photo: Getty Images)

That brings us to Siegel. Lisa Marie says that he was reckless and negligent in his mismanagement of her inherited estate. She claims he spent 11 years depleting the $100 million trust she inherited after Elviss 1977 death for his self-serving ambition. However, much of the misconduct began in 2005, when Siegel sold Presleys interest in EPE to align himself with a famous investor tied to the holding company of American Idol, she said. Presley alleged that when that didnt work, Siegel 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.

Presley also claims Siegel bought a $9 million English home using her trusts money, pledging the trust as collateral when he couldnt make the $6.7 million balloon payment. And by 2016, she claims, he had liquidated almost all the trusts remaining principal  especially after the Idol holding company went bankrupt. That brought her assets to $14,000 in cash and her credit card debt to more than $500,000, according to her filings. Thats what led her to sue for breach of trust, negligence, constructive fraud, and recompense for the tens of millions of dollars that Siegel  cost her through reckless mismanagement.

Of course, he has a different take, according to the legal docs. He says she twice squandered her fathers fortune after she inherited it  counting her 2005 payout as the second time  and is looking to blame others instead of taking responsibility for her actions.

So what is Lisa Marie, who has released three albums since 2003, working with in addition to the $14,000 in cash and extreme amount of debt? In court documents related to her divorce, Presley listed her income as a monthly salary of $4,361 from her fathers estate, as well as $100,000 in dividends and interest from investments.

Needless to say, being in the middle of two different lawsuits isnt helping her financial situation either  or her personal woes. But shes always been tough. She didnt inherit Elviss sneer for nothing. And on her second album, she sang, Ill Figure It Out, and she will. But this no doubt has been a hard lesson. Both in love and life.

Read more on Yahoo Entertainment:Meghan Markle Says Her Bond With Royal Family is 'Togetherness at Its Finest'

Meghan Markle is getting along nicely with her future in-laws.

The 36-year-old actress joined her fiance, Prince Harry, and his brother and sister-in-law, Prince William and Kate Middleton, for the inaugural Royal Foundation Forum on Wednesday in London, England, and opened up about the bond she already shares with the royal family.

After talking about their philanthropic efforts and what they hope to achieve with their new organization, the couples were asked if they have disagreements when working with one another.

Chris Jackson - WPA Pool/Getty Images

Getty Images

"Oh yes," William, 35, quipped. "Healthy disagreements," Harry chimed in.

"I think it's really good we've got four different personalities," he noted. "We've all got that same passion to want to make a difference, but different opinions. I think those opinions work really, really well. Working as family does have its challenges, of course. The fact that everyone's laughing shows that everyone knows exactly what it's like."

Harry, 33, jokingly added, "We're stuck together for the rest of our lives."

Meghan -- whose been living in the U.K. for three months -- replied, "Togetherness at its finest."

The foursome's appearance marks the first time they've all been together for an official royal appearance. They were, however, spotted together over Christmas.

Watch The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, Prince Harry and Ms. Meghan Markle discuss the inspiration behind The Royal... Posted by The Royal Family on Wednesday, February 28, 2018

Meghan -- who looked trendy in a belted navy Jason Wu dress and black strappy heels -- also spoke about women empowerment during the panel discussion.

Getty Images

The Suits star then hinted that she's been busy planning for her and Harry's May wedding, adding, "Yeah, I guess we wait a couple months and then we hit the ground running."

Here's what we know so far about the couple's highly anticipated nuptials.

Story continues

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Related Articles:Kate Middleton had a sweet reunion with a midwife who helped welcome Princess Charlotte into the world.

Kate, who is currently in her third trimester, visited the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG) on Tuesday to learn more about the colleges global health programs aimed to reduce maternal and newborn mortality worldwide.

During the event, the royal mom shared an emotional embrace with Professor Dunkley-Bent, who assisted with the delivery of Princess Charlotte, who was born in May 2015 at St. Marys Hospital. And Dunkley-Bent couldnt hide her excitement as the two greeted each other.

Kate, who is expecting her third child in April, was also announced as the new patron of RCOG. Of Kates patronage, Professor Lesley Regan  the president of the RCOG  said in a statement that he was absolutely thrilled.

As she left, Kate thanked Regan and said, It was so great to see Jacqui as well.

Dunkley-Bent, Head of Maternity, Children & Young People at NHS England, said, It was a surprise and an absolute pleasure to be reunited with Kate again today. Supporting families at the birth of their baby  including future kings and queens  is hugely rewarding and were very grateful to have the Duchess of Cambridges support for the nursing profession.

Last year, Kate opened up about the realities of motherhood in a powerful speech. While Kate said being a parent is rewarding and wonderful, she also acknowledged that even she has difficult moments, despite the support she has with Prince George, 4, and Princess Charlotte, 2.

Nothing can really prepare you for you the sheer overwhelming experience of what it means to become a mother. It is full of complex emotions of joy, exhaustion, love, and worry, all mixed together, she said. Your fundamental identity changes overnight. You go from thinking of yourself as primarily an individual, to suddenly being a mother, first and foremost.

Kate said that those challenges have led her to feel, at times, a lack of confidence and feelings of ignorance. She then went on to discuss the importance of destigmatizing mental health, in particular, when it comes to new parents.

Later in the day, Kate launched the Nursing Now campaign, aimed at raising the profile and status of nursing worldwide, so that nurses can make an even greater contribution at the heart of efforts to tackle rising burdens of disease.

This campaign means a lot to me personally. My great-grandmother and grandmother were both volunteer nurses, she said in a speech. They would have learned first-hand from working with the Voluntary Aid Detachment and the Red Cross about the care and compassion that sometimes only nurses can provide.Programs helping the poor generally include things like

housing, food and education assistancenot elective cosmetic surgery. However,

a clinic in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu just announced that it will be offering free breast implants to men and women of low income, The Guardianreports.

You May Also Like: What You Should Know Before Breast Implants

The

free service was announced by the Tamil Nadu state health department and will

be offered at a clinic in Chennai. While this clinic has already been offering

breast reconstruction surgery for cancer patients, it'll now be giving both reductions and implants

for those looking for a cosmetic fix. Why should beauty treatment not be available to

the poor? said C Vijaya Baskar, the state health minister. If we dont

offer [the procedure for free], they may opt for dangerous methods or take huge

loans for it.

Dr. V

Ramadevi, head of plastic surgery at the clinic, claims this access

to cosmetic surgery is important for patients, especially those looking to

reduce their breast size. There is a psychological benefit. Many girls who have larger

breasts dont like to go out, she says, adding that breast reduction surgeries can be vital in alleviating shoulder and back pain for many women. There is no reason this surgery

should be restricted from the poor.

Althoughspeaking purely from a cosmetic perspectiveMiami plastic surgeon Sean Simon, MD argues that this publicly funded service

isnt a smart move for the clinic, calling it a waste of resources. Breast augmentation has been proven to have psychological benefits for patients such as feelings of well-being, self confidence and self esteem, however this [program] discusses performing free breast augmentations for members of the poor population in India," says Dr. Simon. "Using valuable and scarce resources on breast augmentations is an absurd idea and these resources would be better spent on food, shelter, education, improving overall living conditions, and jobs."

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Dr. Simon isn't the only one to feel this way, as the decision is causing also controversy in India. The

former health director for the state, Dr. Sukanya Elango, told the Times of India

that this is not an ideal public health program, adding that these state

funds are required for medications and treatments to eradicate emerging diseases. "It is sad that we are now focusing on beauty instead of

life-saving surgeries," he argues.

Obviously it's important for resources to be allocated to life-saving treatments and surgeries, however, it's proven that breast augmentations can have health benefits outside of cosmetic enhancement. Plus, it's unknown how many people turn to the black market to get breast augmentations, therefore these free surgeries may end up being a roundabout way of potentially saving the lives of those who would normally opt for risky, under-the-radar procedures. Ultimately, only time will tell if this service will have a positive impact on women in Chennai.Demi Lovato and students who survived the Parkland shooting

On Monday night, Demi Lovato kicked off her Tell Me You Love Me tour with more than just her hits. During the concert in San Diego, she invited students who had survived the Parkland shooting to join her on stage  and dedicated her song Warrior to them.

On February 14, 17 students lost their lives after a gunman entered Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. Lovato personally reached out to several students on social media and invited them to her concert.

Seeing something that disturbing is just painful to watch, and my heart goes out to them, she told CBS This Morning, about her decision to reach out to the students, adding:

It has nothing to do with politics. Its about healing. How can we help these students heal from what theyve been through These students who came here today and shared their stories are so incredibly brave and courageous, and they really are warriors in my eyes.

Related: These Stereotypes Are Hurting Boys

Demi Lovato on stage with Parkland shooting survivors

The Parkland students on stage with Demi Lovato.

Related: 4 Ways I Get Through the Holidays as Someone Who Experienced Childhood Trauma

While the students were on stage, she also urged concert-goers to donate money to help provide mental health services to the Parkland community. On a big screen behind her piano, fans could donate $10 to the CAST Foundation  which will apply that money towards mental health resources for the students.

Lovato has long been open about her journey with bipolar disorder and addiction. In January, she announced that all ticket-holders would be able to attend group therapy and CAST Centers wellness workshops as part of her tour.

[Its] basically like a therapy session before the concerts and we have speakers from all over and were also helping out with different charities from around the country, Lovato told Good Morning America. So itll be an incredible, very moving and inspiring experience.

In a press release, Lovato said the first night of her tour was incredibly special, adding it was an honor to hear the survivors stories. She said, I want to make sure their voices are being heard and we can provide them with the mental health and post-trauma care they need.

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Related: If You Feel Alone Taking Mental Health Medication, This Hashtag Is for You

Images via Getty image

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To the People Who Don't Understand Why Mental Illness Makes Me So TiredOne of President Trump's most loyal aides is appearing before lawmakers Tuesday to testify as part of the U.S. House of Representatives into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.

White House Communications Director Hope Hicks will be questioned by members of the House Intelligence Committee on a closed door meeting. The testimony was originally supposed to take place in January, but it got postponed because the White House counsel and the committee needed to determine the scope of her testimony.

Hicks has an unique relationship with President Trump and has been by his side through his presidential campaign, the transition period, and his time in the White House. Her role as a right-hand woman and confidante has made her an essential witness, who could shine light on whether anyone in the Trump campaign had contact with Russian agents during the 2016 presidential election.

Though it's unclear what limitations, if any, the White House impose on Hicks' testimony, one of the key issues that might be addressed during her meeting with lawmakers is related to the controversial Trump Tower meeting between a Kremlin-connected lawyer, Donald Trump Jr., and Jared Kushner in June 2016.

Hicks was on board at the Air Force One when the initial response from the White House  which falsely claimed the meeting was about an adoption policy related to Russia and not about obtaining political dirt on Trump's opponent Hillary Clinton. According to The New York Times, Mark Corallo, a former spokesman for President Trump's legal team, alleges that Hicks said on a conference call that emails written by Trump Jr. about the meeting "will never get out." (He released the emails last July, a few days after the 2016 meeting was reported.)

Hicks' lawyer Robert Trout denied the claims.

"As most reporters know, its not my practice to comment in response to questions from the media. But this warrants a response," he told The Times. "She never said that. And the idea that Hope Hicks ever suggested that emails or other documents would be concealed or destroyed is completely false."

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Hicks has also been questioned as part of the investigations by Special Counsel Robert Mueller and the Senate Intelligence Committee.

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Jared Kushner, the senior White House adviser who combines the policy bona fides of a mediocre real-estate investor with the day-to-day aesthetic of a porcelain doll, has finally lost his interim top-secret security clearance. Honestly, the notion that this person has access to any more information that the average U.S. smartphone user who has enabled New York Times push alerts is still problematic, but this is at least a move in the right direction.

Kushner has relied on this interim clearance for the entirety of his tenure in the Trump administration, ostensibly while waiting for the FBI to complete its background check. And while the precise reasons for the delay have never been fully explained, it may be related to the fact that he couldn't stop omitting problematic foreign contacts on his mandatory disclosure forms, or that his name kept coming up at the center of scary-sounding investigations, or that his company has a $1.2 billion debt coming due next year with no obvious way to pay it, or that he reportedly withheld documents from Capitol Hill investigators regarding a "Russian backdoor overture and dinner invite" received during the campaign, or that he apparently has a set of murky yet lucrative business deals in Russia at a time when there is a lot of scrutiny on executive branch officials with murky yet lucrative business deals in Russia. Any one of those things, really, could have contributed to the law enforcement community's reluctance to conclude that Jared Kushner is a person who, at all times, makes decisions in the best interests of his country, and definitely on no other basis whatsoever.

Lest you wonder whether such a drastic step was really necessary, the Washington Post is reporting that U.S. officials have learned that their counterparts in at least four countries, including the United Arab Emirates, China, Israel and Mexico, have privately discussed strategies for taking advantage of Kushner's "complex business arrangements, financial difficulties, and lack of foreign policy experience."

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Officials in the White House were concerned that Kushner was naive and being tricked in conversations with foreign officials, some of whom said they wanted to deal only with Kushner directly and not more experienced personnel, said one former White House official.

Other than that, though, he seems like he was probably a great fit for the job!

From this point forward, though, the president's son-in-law will have to attend to his portfolio of brokering peace in the Middle East, managing the country's relationship with Mexico, and reorganizing the entire federal government without being able to view this country's most sensitive intelligence information. The news also means that he will no longer have direct access to the Presidential Daily Briefing, which actually isn't the biggest deal, if you think about, since it isn't as if any other members of his family read the thing anyway.At a bustling New York City movie theater, invitees gathered for the US premiere of Red Sparrow, a new film starring Jennifer Lawrence. Red Sparrow follows the expedition of a young Russian ballerina-turned-spy played by Lawrence who is trained to seduce and manipulate an American spy, played by Joel Edgerton. Its an action movie filled with double-crossing spies, European exoticism, car chases, and impeccable style. Equal parts femme fatale and black widow, Jennifer Lawrence uses her sexuality to conquer her enemies. While the movie is a serious, edge-of-your-seat thriller, the red carpet was all cheers and levity.

As guests collected their bags of popcorn and sauntered toward their seats, movie stars like Jennifer Lawrence, Joel Edgerton in Brunello Cucinelli, and Mary Louise Parker stepped onto the red carpet. Also in attendance was the movies director Frances Lawrence. On why he decided to take on Red Sparrow, he explained, I fell in love with the character Dominika. I am very attracted to lonely characters and isolated journeys. I also love survival stories and though the spy genre is a very well-worn genre, I think that they tend to often be very political, or mission and action-based. This was a very different and easy way in. I was drawn to the character and the world I got to build, and the unique qualities of it.

On the Red Sparrow red carpet, Jennifer Lawrence wore a sheer black Dior haute couture gown and Lorraine Schwartz emerald jewelry. Lawrence explained that a large part of getting into character was about the costumes. For me, the costumes are always incredibly important for building the character. Thats when I really start figuring out and feeling somebody, through the clothes. Its paramount for me to have a good costume designer.

Aside from costumes and her Russian accent, physically preparing for Red Sparrow was no small feat for the talented actress. It was a lot of training. I had to really put the work in and I had an amazing instructor. He taught me how to move my body completely differently. We worked for 3 months to literally move my arm differently. That instructor was Kurt Froman, who also joined for the evenings festivities. In collaboration with choreographer Justin Peck and American Ballet Theater principal dancer Isabella Boylston, Froman trained Jennifer for her ballet routines. He explained: Because Jen didnt have any ballet training, we started from square one: alignment, where her arms needed to be, what angle was more beautiful. I explained the art form in the most basic language possible. This also included extensive training on how to position her posture, fundamental ballet moves, and meetings with a nutritionist. For routines that were particularly challenging, Boylston stepped in as Jennifers dance double. On the red carpet wearing a pink Valentino gown, Isabella Boylston remarked how impressed she was by Jennifers dance. She literally had to learn the choreography and had to perform in front of an audience. I cant imagine how terrifying that would be. Its terrifying for me sometimes, and Ive been doing this since I was three! I really admire her gusto and willingness to go for it and try something new.

Watch the Red Sparrow trailer here.Damaged luggage of musician Katei Chang after a flight from Bali to Singapore. (PHOTO: Katei Chang / Facebook)

A rock violinists angry post about finding his luggage damaged after flying from Bali to Singapore has gone viral.

Katei Chang, 34, said on Facebook on Monday (26 February) that after a flight from Bali to Singapore on Singapore Airlines, he picked up his luggage at Changi Airport only to realise that the lock has been ripped off and my suitcase broken into.

The Japan-born musician who lives in Australia posted an accompanying photo of the damaged luggage, adding that you can tell by the picture that it was broken into with a lot of force.

Nothing was stolen but his items, mainly CDs and sheet music, had been opened and tampered with. He reported the matter to the relevant airport services.

Chang also stated in his post that three other passengers from the same flight had the same issue.

A guest entertainer who performs on ships around the world, Chang said he flew 78 flights last year and never came across anything disgusting like this.

In his Facebook post laced with vulgarities, he questioned Balis international airport as to whether they did background checks on their staff internally.

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Since Monday, his post has gone viral with over 2,000 shares and 400 comments.

However, some netizens questioned him  from his bag choice to how he knew that the tampering happened in Bali and not in Singapore. Other netizens went on to badmouth the countries involved and argue with each other.

In additional updates to the Facebook post, Chang said that the issue was not about the countries but about the s**m that broke into peoples bags and it just happened to be in Bali-Singapore.

He also said that the director of the Bali airport and the operator company in Indonesian airports had reached out to him. They were investigating the matter and checking CCTV footage in Bali. Singapore Airlines baggage service in Changi Airport had also submitted a report internally.

Chang is currently waiting to hear from them about the results of their investigation.

Speaking with Yahoo Lifestyle Singapore, Chang said he posted on social media about this situation because he believes travellers need to be extra careful and airports also need to up their security levels for workers too.

Follow Yahoo Lifestyle Singapore on Facebook.In Saudi Arabia, the ruling powers that be have steadily been offering what can be described as advances for women in the Muslim country since 2017. One of the first such moves was a royal decree allowing women to drive, which came in September. Following that was the passage of a law that was the first of its kind  to address sexual harassment by mandating that anyone found guilty of the crime be flogged or imprisoned.

And now, just this week, the Saudi government has declared it will allow women to serve in the military.

Women will be limited to domestic security functions and banned from combat roles, but the move indeed appears to be a game changer in a country that has embraced the ultraconservative Wahhabism strain of Islam for well over 150 years. In order to qualify for service, women must meet a dozen different requirements, not the least of which is having a male guardian  a staple of Saudi society that requires women have guardians who oversee their access to employment, travel, health care, and freedom of movement within the male-dominated society.

Its why, even with the series of legal advances, there are many who remain doubtful of how far womens rights can truly go.

Human rights organizations, in fact, point to the male guardianship system as proof that women in Saudi Arabia still face stringent discrimination and a lack of freedom. Organizations such as Human Rights Watch point out that the Saudi government continues to punish and jail human rights activists who criticize the government, particularly on behalf of religious minorities and women.

Now shedding further light on the challenges women face in Saudi society are many of the women themselves, thanks to a recent swell of brave tweeters calling out sexual harassment in the midst of holy pilgrimages.

Inspired in part by the #MeToo movement, and certainly emboldened by the handful of changes for womens access to basic human rights, a surge of Saudis speaking up about groping and assault in the holy city of Mecca is rallying around its own social media hashtag: #MosqueMeToo, created by feminist writer Mona Eltahawy, and as detailed in recent reports, including one on NPR.

Story continues

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The hashtag movement underlines how tricky it can be for women both to stand up for ones rights and to be a part of a demonized religion and culture. Not only is speaking up taboo, but the notion of speaking out about sexual harassment is doubly so, an issue partially addressed by the new law from December. The women speaking out about their #MeToo moments in the pilgrimage to Mecca have also expressed concern that their efforts could backfire, both with reactions of Islamophobia and from conservative clerics and their followers who already chafe at the mingling of the sexes in the public space.

The danger is that people could use this to try to separate men from women, which could be a disaster, activist Daisy Khan told NPR. We have enjoyed [praying] in the same space together for [more than 1,400 years].

Read more from Yahoo Lifestyle

Follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter for nonstop inspiration delivered fresh to your feed, every day.Spice Girls

Stop right now! The Spice Girls, yesthe Spice Girlswill be performing at Meghan Markle and Prince Harrys upcoming wedding, according to a Spice Girl (Scary Spice to be exact) who revealed the shocking news on Tuesday, February 27.

Mel B stopped by The Real, where she confirmed the rather exciting news to the co-hosts. Why am I so honest? she asked herself. All five Spice Girls (including Victoria Beckham, Geri Halliwell, Mel C, and Emma Bunton) are invited to attend the nuptials at St. Georges Chapel at Windsor Castle, which will begin promptly at noon local time on May 19.

They will then perform at the reception before an intimate group of family members and guests. Prince Harry is a longtime fan of the Spice Girls, and memorably attended a show in Johannesburg, South Africa, during his teenage years.

Prince Harry, youngest son of Britains Prince of Wales and the late Diana Princess of Wales, enjoys the company of Spice Girls (l/r) Mel B, Emma and Victoria, when the young prince met the female entertainers while attending their concert in Johannesburg, South Africa. (Photo by John Stillwell  PA Images/PA Images via Getty Images)

Mel B also touched on the topic of the royal couples wedding invitations. Its fancy. Very fancy she said of the stationery and its packaging. Proper. Im not saying any more.

That was all she disclosed during the appearance. Speculation regarding a Spice Girls reunion tour reached fever pitch recently after Victoria Beckham posted a photo with her fellow girl group members.

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Previously, it was speculated that Ed Sheeran would perform, which he denied in an interview last week. They asked, If you were asked, would you say yes? he told BBC. And I was like, Of course. But journalists like, everyones like, Hes playing it! But no ones looked at my tour dates. Im in Ireland, I cant do it. I havent been asked either.

To get ready for this mega event, check out The Knots playlist of Spice Girls songs essential to the bachelorette party.

Related ArticlesCanadas Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Minister of Finance Bill Morneau walk to the House of Commons to deliver the budget on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, February 27, 2018. (REUTERS/Blair Gable)

Small business owners across Canada were breathing a bit easier on Tuesday as this years federal budget toned down some of last years dramatic changes that were proposed to the countrys tax laws.

The Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB) says that while better than originally thought, the new budget still poses some significant setbacks for small business owners.

The government did make some improvements, so we give them credit for that. It was clear that the heat that they felt over the course of the last eight months certainly caused them to rethink some of their plans, CFIB president Dan Kelly told Yahoo Canada Finance. It certainly is not a win in so far as the business environment is getting worse not better. Its just getting less worse than what would have been the case if the original proposal went through.

The original proposal in July was sharply criticized for being overly complex and unfairly targeting small business owners. After opening a dialogue on the proposed changes, the government made further amendments to the proposal in October.

The 2018 budget restates some previous announcements from Octobers proposal, including cutting taxes for small businesses to nine per cent, down from 10.5 per cent. It also makes it clear that the government isnt giving up on efforts to prevent the lower small business tax rate from being used to gain a personal tax advantage for a very small number of wealthy individuals.

The budget now includes a proposal for another eligibility mechanism, which slowly reduces access to the small business tax rate for businesses that have a significant amount of passive investment income. This is a change to a July proposal that called for cutting access to refundable taxes.

Kelly says what made it into this years budget is even better than what was announced last October but he had hoped passive income provisions would have been dropped altogether.

U.S. relationship still in question

Story continues

The CFIB believes the budget also disappointed on keeping up with tax reforms seen south of the border.

Theres virtually nothing in the budget to improve the competitiveness of Canadian businessesand yet, weve seen the United States take some big strides forward, he said.

All we were hoping for in the budget was some signal that the federal government was taking it seriously and making a start in addressing the competitiveness gap that is starting to happen between Canada and the U.S.

One provision the CFIB hoped the government would consider was one that would allow businesses to write off capital investments in the same year, which they say doesnt exist in Canada at all.

Instead, they say in a time where NAFTA is uncertain, the country needs to improve its tax competitiveness, but the budget has made it worse.

The tax changes they made on the small business side will still suck out another billion dollars a year out of the pockets of small business owners, and yet in the U.S., most business owners are seeing a giant cut in their taxes, and thats not a good thing, Kelly said.

Giving women a boost

Something the CFIB is looking forward to in the new budget is its focus on women entrepreneurs. The budget includes a new Women Entrepreneurship Strategy, which aims to reduce barriers and fuel funding for entrepreneurship, mentorship and skills training agencies aimed at women.

In terms of the gender lens that was taken in the budget, I think it was entirely appropriate that the government look at ensuring that we can increase participation among women in small business ownership, Kelly said. We welcome those ideas and are prepared to work with the government into fleshing them out.

While the budget was only released yesterday, the CFIB says it already has plans to lobby for further changes to tax rules, including for issues like income splitting. Kelly says they will continue to target members of parliament and lobby the senate aggressively.

Were not done. The budget isnt in law yet. They still have to go through the budget implementation process, Kelly said.

We have not given up the battle.

Download the Yahoo Finance app, available for Apple and Android.(WICHITA, Kan.)  The stepmother of a missing 5-year-old Kansas boy was criminally charged Monday with endangering a child while the search for the boy stretched into its second week.

Emily Glass, 26, stepmother of Lucas Hernandez, made a brief appearance via video conference to hear the charge against her. She will continue to be held on $50,000 bond. She said she planned to hire her own attorney before her next court appearance March 13.

Glass was originally booked into jail Feb. 21 on two counts of child endangerment, with police saying the counts related to Lucas and a 1-year-old child. It wasnt immediately clear Monday if the child endangerment charge was related to Lucas or the other child.

The boy has been missing since Feb. 17, when Glass reported he disappeared while she showered and took a nap in their Wichita home.

Extensive searches involving more than 100 officers, along with dogs and helicopters, have been conducted in Wichita parks, nearby streams and the neighborhood where Glass lived. Citizens groups joined the search on Monday but have found no sign of the boy. Police have not said why they focused on the parks.

Investigators have said they found no evidence the boy was abducted.

Police reports show officers have been called to the familys home in the past when the boys father and stepmother fought. Relatives have alleged that Lucas was abused but no other charges have been filed in the boys disappearance.

Lucas has brown hair and brown eyes, is about 4-feet tall and weighs about 60 pounds. He was last seen wearing black sweats, white socks and a gray shirt with a bear on it.Levi Sanders, the son of independent Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, announced he will seek to join his father in Congress.

In a statement on his campaign website, Sanders said he will run in New Hampshires 1st Congressional District for a seat currently held by Rep. Carol Shea-Porter, a Democrat. Shea-Porter announced last October that she would not be running for re-election.

Here are 5 things to know about Sanders, 48, as he enters the race:

Hes living up to the Sanders brand

Sanders is running on a platform that mirrors, in part, that of his father, who defeated Clinton in the New Hampshire primary in 2016. The basic difference is that Im a vegetarian and hes not, Sanders told Vice News, which had earlier reported that Sanders was considering a run. But Sanders told Vice hell be running his own race.

According to his campaign website, he touts the need for a Medicare For All health care system, tuition-free public college and a boost to the minimum wage.Sanders also calls for urgent action to address the opioid epidemic, which he says is at a crisis level in the Granite State, equal pay for women and sensible gun laws.

For 15 years, New Hampshire has been my familys home, Sanders statement reads. For over 17 years, I have represented the working class who have been beaten up by the system. It is time to demand that we have a system which represents the 99% and not the 1% who have never had it so good.

He doesnt live in the district

Its worth noting that although Sanders is running in the New Hampshire 1st, he resides in Claremont, which is in the states 2nd Congressional District. Rep. Ann Kuster, a Democrat, represents the 2nd District and she is running for re-election. (Candidates are only required to live in the state, not the district, to run for office). Sanders has three kids, all adopted from China, with his wife, Raine Riggs.

He has never held public office

But the 48-year-old has tried. According to the New York Times, Levi ran for city council in Claremont at age 40 but finished 7th out of nine candidates. He has worked with his father on his political campaigns, serving as a senior aide during his 2016 campaign for the presidency and as a consultant on his bid for the Senate, according to what appears to be his Linkedin page. Levi however, has spent the bulk of his career working as a Social Security benefits specialist.

Story continues

The race will be tough

The race to fill the seat is gearing up to be competitive. With Sanders jumping into the race, there are now eight Democratic candidates in the race and three Republicans. Some of the organizations that supported the elder Sanders in the 2016 primary have already lined up behind other candidates in the race. The seat itself has bounced back and forth between Democratic and Republican control over the past few election cycles: in 2012, Shea-Porter beat out incumbent Frank Guinta, a Republican, only to lose to him in 2014. And although the Democrat narrowly beat out Guinta again in 2016, the district favored Donald Trump over Hillary Clinton at the top of the ticket. The Cook Political Report and Larry Sabato of the University of Virginias Center for Politics have labeled the 2018 race a toss-up.

Hes not the only Sanders running for higher office

Sanders step-sister Carina Driscoll recently announced that she is running for mayor in Burlington  the position that launched Sen. Bernie Sanders political career. Driscoll, who served as a city council member and state legislator, is reportedly also tapping into the power of the Vermont Senator in her efforts  though she, too, insists that shes running her own race. Being Bernies daughter is one small piece, but its an important piece because it helps people understand the vision for Burlington that Im talking about, she told the Associated Press.5G wireless connectivity is coming this year, and companies are running a full-court press to make sure you know about it.

BARCELONA  5G wireless is coming faster than you might think. But as the advent of this next generation of over-the-air broadband draws near, the hype surrounding it is starting to ebb.

Last year, a typical quote about 5G might have sounded like the declaration that Meredith Attwell Baker, president of the wireless trade group CTIA, made at a conference in September: 5G will make every industry and every part of our lives better.

And now? The rhetoric is a bit more subdued. 5G is going to be an incremental upgrade, T-Mobile (TMUS) chief technical officer Neville Ray said at a press conference Tuesday night at Mobile World Congress 2018.

Yes, 5G will eventually bring much faster downloads and much lower latency  but its not going to replace 4G the way 4G wiped 3G off the map. And it wont come to smartphones until after it reaches other, larger devices.

Not just vaporware

Signs of 5Gs progress from marketing visions and bulky testing gear to deployment schedules and early versions of consumer hardware were all over the floor here at MWC.

On the left is an example of Qualcomms early 5G equipment. On the right is its smartphone chip.

Qualcomm (QCOM), for instance, showed off prototypes of the X50 5G chipset it will make for 5G smartphones that will ship next year. A model running a network-bandwidth test showed download speeds hovering at around 4 gigabits per second, about 100 times faster than 4G LTE.

And all four national U.S. carriers are advertising 5G availability timetables.

Verizon (VZ) looks to be first. In November, the carrier announced it will launch fixed wireless residential 5G in Sacramento, Calif., in the second half of this year, with two to four other cities following. In an interview Tuesday, chief network engineering officer Nicola Palmer reiterated that schedule and said a mobile 5G service will quickly follow.

AT&T (T) released its own 5G timeline last week, touting plans to deliver mobile 5G to a dozen cities (with only Georgia, Dallas and Waco, Tex., named) by the end of 2018. What that press release didnt spell out: This access will initially be confined to mobile hotspots, because no 5G smartphones will ship until 2019.

Story continues

Sprint (S) said Tuesday that it will launch mobile 5G service in the first half of 2019, while customers in Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Los Angeles and Washington will get 5G-like service this year as it upgrades its network to prepare for 5G.

Later Tuesday, T-Mobile announced that it will build 5G networks in 30 cities, with smartphone service due next year in Dallas, Los Angeles, New York, and Las Vegas.

A shot of Qualcomms X50 5G modem.

5G is happening fast  even faster than we or anyone else expected, Nokia CEO Rajeev Suri summed up at a press conference Sunday.

Different flavors of 5G

Beyond the residential, hotspot and smartphone 5G services well see, its also important to remember that 5G will come over three main sets of frequencies with their own trade-offs.

The fastest 5G, like what that Qualcomm chipset showed off, will come via millimeter-wave frequencies at 24 GHz and above  far higher than todays LTE bands. The tradeoff there: They wont cover as much distance. Its similar to how a 5-GHz Wi-Fi signal wont reach as far as across your house as a 2.4-GHz network.

Millimeter-wave 5G will require building out many new cell sites, each with their own power and backhaul broadband link to the rest of the Internet. But carriers voiced cautious optimism that they wont need quite as many of them as once feared.

At a lunch briefing Tuesday, Gordon Mansfield, an AT&T vice president, noted that beam forming  electronically steering a signal  is allowing the carrier to cover more ground from the millimeter-wave stations that will serve up its initial 5G service.

Verizons Palmer said the carrier is seeing ranges of about 2,000 feet, which is on the high end of what we thought. Then again, its initial fixed-wireless deployment will require professional installers to visit a customers home to position the antenna properly.

5G will come in different flavors with different capabilities.

Sprint and T-Mobile, meanwhile, will light up 5G on lower-frequency bands  2.5 GHz for Sprint, 600 MHz for T-Mobile  that should cover more ground but provide lower speeds.

At Tuesdays event, T-Mobiles Ray observed that millimeter-wave service will never be able to cover all the non-urban expanses of the U.S. LTE will persist there and then be complemented by 5G over lower frequencies.

More work to do

While carriers dont agree on how to bring 5G to the market, they do agree that they could use more airwaves to deliver it. As Ray said Tuesday: The U.S. industry needs more spectrum.

At a panel discussion Monday evening, Sprint CEO Marcelo Claure complained about the time and expense of adding small cell sites, saying that threatened 5Gs advance: Im afraid that the U.S. is gonna be late.

Another speaker on that panel, Federal Communications Commission chairman Ajit Pai, said the FCC was moving to remove regulations that impede wireless infrastructure and was readying an auction of 5G-friendly 24 and 28 GHz spectrum  but that Congress needed to pass enabling legislation by May for this auction to happen in November.

Saying we aspire to lead the world in 5G, Pai also defended his repeal of net-neutrality rules as essential to 5Gs fortunes.

The audience sat silent, reserving its applause for another panelist who disagreed with Pai. European Union digital-single-market commissioner Andrus Ansip said the EU would stick to its net-neutrality rules even as 5G arrives: Internet providers must treat all traffic equally; no blocking, throttling or discrimination.

(Disclosure: Verizon is the parent company of Yahoo Finance.)

More from Rob:

Email Rob at rob@robpegoraro.com; follow him on Twitter at @robpegoraro.

Follow Yahoo Finance on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedInKabul (AFP) - Afghan President Ashraf Ghani on Wednesday unveiled a plan to open peace talks with the Taliban, including eventually recognising them as a political party, days after the militants called for direct negotiations with the US.

The apparent openness by both sides to some form of negotiations came as civilian casualties have soared in recent months, with the Taliban increasingly targeting towns and cities in response to a new and more aggressive US military policy ordered by President Donald Trump.

Ghani disclosed the framework at the Kabul Process, a regional conference in the Afghan capital focused on bringing peace to the country. He called for a truce, after which the Taliban could become a political party and contest elections.

"A ceasefire should be held, the Taliban should be recognised as a political party and trust-building process should be initiated," said Ghani, in remarks similar to past offers.

"Now the decision is in your hands, accept peace... and let's bring stability to this country," he added.

In return, Ghani said the militants should officially recognise the Afghan government and constitution, a perennial sticking point in past attempts to open talks.

There was no immediate response to Ghani's offer from the Taliban.

However the group's spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid maligned the Kabul Process, tweeting that the conference sought the Taliban's "surrender" at a time when it is "without a doubt a force that has defeated an international arrogant power like America with all its allies and tools at disposal".

His statement was part of a written response from the Taliban to a New Yorker article chronicling efforts towards peace talks by an American expert on Afghanistan, Barnett Rubin.

On Monday the Taliban said it was prepared to enter direct talks with the US to find a "peaceful solution" to more than 16 years of war.

That statement however made no mention of negotiating with the Afghan government -- a condition which the US has long stated is vital to any peace process.

Story continues

- Clean peace plan -

Observers were cautious about the impact of Ghani's proposal, which includes offers previously made to the Taliban -- though this is the first time they have been arranged in a "clean peace plan" and announced at a multi-national conference, noted Afghan political analyst Abdul Bari.

"The timing is important... the Taliban might reject the offer, as they have done in the past, but at least it seems the peace process (which) stopped for a while may get back on track," he told AFP.

Pakistani journalist and Taliban expert Rahimullah Yusufzai said the insurgents' leadership remained committed to the US-only position, but others in the movement were less dogmatic about talking with Kabul.

"There are some people among the Taliban who believe that they will have to negotiate with the Afghan government," said Yusufzai.

He added that the militants have suffered heavy casualties under the new US strategy of increased airstrikes and commando raids.

Despite the losses, Yusufzai said the group would continue the insurgency. "They derive their power from their ability to keep fighting," he said.

Kabul is hosting the second round of the peace conference at which representatives from 25 countries will discuss counter-terrorism and conflict resolution strategies. US officials have described the current situation in the war as a stalemate.

The fighting continued elsewhere in the country Wednesday.

Officials in southern Kandahar and Uruzgan accused the Taliban of attacking a police checkpoint between the two provinces, killing five people and kidnapping at least 19 car passengers.

"We have launched an operation to find them," said Zia Durrani, the Kandahar police spokesman, who blamed the militant group for the attack. Dost Mohammad Nayeb, spokesman for governor of Uruzgan, confirmed the incident.

No group has yet issued any claim of responsibility for the attack.By James Mackenzie and Hamid Shalizi

KABUL, Feb 27 (Reuters) - Suicide attacks which killed around 150 people in Kabul last month have added urgency to diplomatic efforts to end more than 16 years of war in Afghanistan through talks with the Taliban.

Officials from around 25 countries in the "Kabul Process" are due to meet in the Afghan capital on Wednesday, giving President Ashraf Ghani a chance to present a vision for the way forward and lay out issues he may be willing to negotiate on.

"We are ready for unconditional peace negotiations with them," Sayed Ehsan Tahiri, spokesman for the High Peace Council, the body overseeing efforts for starting peace talks, said.

January's attack on the Kabul Intercontinental Hotel, followed a week later by another in which an explosives-packed ambulance killed more than 100 people not far from where the meeting will be held, underlined what is at stake for Afghans.

But a long record of unsuccessful attempts to start a peace process demonstrates how complicated and slow-moving it is likely to be. The only time direct talks between the government and the Taliban have been held, in 2015, they broke down almost immediately.

In the past two weeks, the insurgents have issued two statements, including what they called an open letter to the American people, calling for talks with the United States to find a peaceful solution.

There has been a very cautious reaction. By focusing on talks with Washington, diplomats say the Taliban have sought to push forward their claim that they, rather than the Western-backed government, represent the Afghan people.

"It's the Taliban who have refused to engage in direct negotiations with the Afghan government ... the legitimate recognised government for the international community," Alice Wells, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary in the U.S. State Department's Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs, said.

ACCEPTING NEGOTIATIONS

The new U.S. strategy in Afghanistan, announced last year and based around stepped-up support for the army and greatly increased air strikes against the militants, is intended to pressure the Taliban into talks.

Story continues

U.S. and Afghan officials say it is hitting them hard but that any talks must be between the government and the Taliban.

"Whatever door the Taliban knock on for peace talks, they will be referred back to talk to the Afghan government and Afghan people," Tahiri said.

Western diplomats say that even neighbouring countries with better relations with the Taliban than the United States and its NATO allies have been increasingly pressing for talks to end the violence and instability.

Two senior members of the Taliban, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media, said the recent statements reflected a concern not to be seen by friendly powers to be obstructing peace.

One said the movement had no desire to "waste time in useless talks" with Kabul but added: "There is a growing demand and pressure from some of our friends around the world that we should negotiate with the Afghan government."

Earlier this month, the Russian foreign ministry complained that Washington was ignoring its offer of brokering talks between the Taliban and the Afghan government.

Afghan officials also say that Pakistan's increasing fear of international isolation over allegations that it supports the Taliban may be persuading it to put pressure on the insurgents to show more willingness to compromise.

"Our understanding is that Pakistan is pushing their leaders to show some willingness for talks because Pakistan is under enormous international pressure," one senior Afghan official who is close to the process said.

U.S. Permanent Representative to NATO, Kay Bailey Hutchison said on Saturday some contacts with the Taliban were already underway "in a very beginning stage", aimed largely at exploring a framework for possible discussions. (Additional reporting by Jibran Ahmad in PESHAWAR and Jonathan Landay in WASHINGTON Editing by Alexander Smith)AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - Air France KLM flights at Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport, Europe's third largest, were halted on Wednesday by a power outage, an official said.

Other airlines were not directly impacted by the outage, an airport spokeswoman said, but some flights of partner airlines were delayed.

Flights in several European countries were cancelled or delayed due to freezing temperatures, but an Air France KLM spokeswoman was unable to say if there was a connection.

The airline said it was working to resolve the outage, the cause of which was unclear.

A Siberian weather system forecasters have called the "beast from the east" brought the coldest temperatures for years to much of Europe.

Air France KLM operates hundreds of daily flights out of Schiphol, dozens of which delayed by Wednesday's outage.

(Reporting by Bart Meijer; editing by Jason Neely and Louise Heavens)In December, 1992, I was 17 years old. I remember vividly the experience of hiding from an active shooter on campus at Simons Rock College in Great Barrington, Mass. It was the longest hour of my life. We hid in my friends bedroom, where a few of us had gathered to study for finals. We hunched down below the windows and barricaded the door and waited  angry and terrified. My friend, Galen Gibson, and our professor, Nacunan Saez, were murdered.

The shooter had enough ammunition to kill every one of the 300 students at our small liberal arts college, a haven for kids who needed an early exit from high school. Most of us were saved by his gun jamming.

But this is not about me. This is about hope  and maybe, finally, a chance for change.

By now youve heard of Emma Gonzalez, a remarkable young woman who has helped light the spark of a movement that I hope will deliver lasting change to how we prevent school shootings. A student of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, she and her classmates are standing up to the gun lobby, the NRA and the politicians who support them.

She led a crowd at a rally in the forceful incantation, We call B.S.!

A mixture of grief and anger in her voice, she somehow spoke with a clarity we havent seen on this issue. It felt like a turning point in U.S. history.

At least I hope it is.

Where Inaction Leads

After I survived the shooting, I withdrew into my trauma. Meanwhile, Gregory Gibson, the father of our murdered classmate, has worked tirelessly alongside many others to create change. But I just wept at the grave of my friend and listened to other students in my dormitory cry themselves to sleep in the cold nights after the murders.

I am ashamed of my inaction for the past 25 years.

Sure, I was just a 17-year-old kid. Life was normal, and then suddenly it wasnt. But every shooting makes me think of my incredible, beautiful, brilliant friend Galen.

My heart breaks again and again when I read about the traumatized survivors of mass shootings at Columbine and Virginia Tech and Umpqua and Stoneman Douglas. When I see people struggling to pay for long-term care costs and raising money to pay for their injuries and rehab, I cant believe we as a society are willing to accept these losses in the name of the Second Amendment. Our policies have so little empathy that mass shooting survivors, incapacitated by devastating injuries, can be left to fundraise for their own recovery. We guarantee the protection of guns, but not the protection of health care.

Story continues

Old Questions, New Energy

People are starting to question why  not just on social media, but straight to the seats of power.

In a listening session at the White House, Stoneman Douglas student Sam Zeif asked our President, How is it that easy to buy this type of weapon? How did we not stop this after Columbine? After Sandy Hook?

At a town hall later that evening broadcast by CNN, a student survivor from Stoneman Douglas, Cameron Kasky, challenged Florida Senator Marco Rubio to change: Can you tell me right now that you will not accept a single donation from the NRA in the future?

Emma, Sam, Cameron  they and the other survivors are now part of a club that no one wants to join. But when I watch these survivors come together, I feel hopeful.

The Trauma Doesnt Go Away

I wish I could tell these young people that the trauma goes away. But I see how 25 years later, many of the friends I was with that night are still sad and traumatized again when each December rolls around  and with every milestone in our lives. Graduating. Starting a first job. Having a baby. At every step, you know that your friends were robbed of possibility.

The Simons Rock killer says that if he hadnt been able to get a gun so easily, he wouldnt have been able to do what he did. If there is any chance that making it harder to get guns could have kept Galen Gibson and Nacunan Saez alive in 1992, how can we not fight for that? If it could have spared the survivors their physical injuries and emotional pain, how can we not speak up for that?

My son, who just turned nine, doesnt know my story. Not yet. He was four when the Sandy Hook massacre happened, and all I wanted was for him not to be part of the the assembly where the kids at his Pre-K8 school wrote cards for the people of Newtown. I couldnt imagine that there was a right way to tell a 4-year-old about a bad man coming into a school and shooting children. The day after the Parkland shooting, a mother in Ohio got news that her child was in a school on lockdown. By her description in a Facebook post, she found herself on the floor, dizzy and disoriented. Reading her account gave me vertigo.

A New Narrative from a New Generation

To Emma Gonzalez, Sam Zeif, Cameron Kasky and the Stoneman Douglas students standing up with them:

Dont listen when adults tell you something cant change. Even though supposedly nothing has changed and it is still way too easy to get guns, a lot of other things have changed. One example: In the early 90s, when I attended Simons Rock, it seemed like everyone smoked. But 25 years later, I cant remember the last time Ive seen someone smoking a cigarette. Another example: My kid is confident and comfortable with using they as a pronoun for the people in his life who have non-binary genders. Change happens.

You are right to call B.S. on the idea that nothing can be done.

You have inspired me. As a mother, as an educator, as someone who is fundamentally optimistic about the ways young people can create change, I am excited to see what you will do.

You are part of a continuum of young activists that includes the Dreamers and the Movement for Black Lives. Your generation has the savvy and the tools and the motivation. Rise up. Fight back. Show up  whether its in Tallahassee, in D.C. or on social media. Channel your grief and frustration and rage into action. This is going to be a long struggle and the trauma of your losses may overwhelm you at times. Stay strong. Take care of each other. Love each other. We are listening. We are here with you.American workers will see only a small portion of the massive windfall of money going to companies following corporate tax reform, according to a new analysis from JUST Capital.

With the corporate tax rate dropping from 35% to 21%, many companies have announced plans to hike wages and give out bonuses. Yahoo Finance has compiled a list of names. This year, JUST Capital estimates that the Russell 1000 companies it follows will see $150 billion in tax-related income.

Of the 90 of the largest publicly-traded companies that have announced plans an average of 6% of that tax-related income will go to workers, according to JUST Capitals analysis.

Perhaps most concerning is if we assume that all proceeds not already earmarked for other uses actually flow to management and shareholders in the form of stock buybacks or direct distributions, then 58% of corporate spending will be running counter to the publics definition of what is just, the report said.

JUST Capital found that an average of 6% of the tax-related income will go to American workers.

That said, there are some standouts with some companies investing heavily in their workers, according to the report. Some of those names include Boeing (BA), FedEx (FDX), Apple (AAPL), and JPMorgan Chase (JPM).

This tax cut presents one of the biggest opportunities in recent history for corporate leaders to align with the priorities of ordinary Americans, said Martin Whittaker, the CEO of JUST Capital. As executives everywhere grapple with how to allocate this money, they would do well to listen to the American people and reinvest in improving pay and conditions for workers, generating good jobs, and strengthening the communities where they operate.

JUST Capital  a non-profit founded in 2013 by Paul Tudor Jones, Deepak Chopra, Rinaldo Brutoco, Arianna Huffington, Paul Scialla, and more  has a mission of promoting economic justice by engaging the publics input for what that means. After surveying thousands of Americans, JUST then compiles a list of the 100 most just companies. Every year, the top priorities for Americans have been worker pay and treatment.

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Julia La Roche is a finance reporter at Yahoo Finance. Follow her on Twitter.Anti-Semitic incidents in the United States increased nearly 60% from 2016 to 2017, according to a new report from the Anti-Defamation League  the largest one year increase since the organization began tracking the information nearly four decades ago.

There were 1,986 incidents of anti-semitism in the United States in 2017, the ADL found, which included vandalism and physical assaults. The incidents occurred in all 50 states, and the spike was the highest during the first three months of the year.

During 2017, Jewish cemeteries across the country were vandalized, Jewish community centers were evacuated due to bomb threats, and a white nationalist march in Charlottesville that turned deadly filled with protesters shouting Jews will not replace us. The ADL counted 163 instances of bomb threats against Jewish institutions, a 41% increase from 2016.

Jonathan Greenblatt, the CEO and National Director of the ADL, said all of these incidents factored into the rise in attacks.

These incidents came at a time when we saw a rising climate of incivility, the emboldening of hate groups and widening divisions in society. In reflecting on this time and understanding it better with this new data, we feel even more committed to our century-old mission to stop the defamation of the Jewish people, and to secure justice and fair treatment to all, Greenblatt said in a statement accompanying the report.New York (AFP) - The United States saw a near 60 percent increase in the number of anti-Semitic incidents recorded last year with a particularly disturbing rise at schools and universities, the Anti-Defamation League said Tuesday.

The ADL, which fights anti-Semitism, said it was the biggest increase in a single year since the organization began tracking data in 1970s. For the first time in at least eight years, every single US state was also affected, its annual report added.

The group identified 1,986 anti-Semitic incidents perpetrated throughout the country in 2017, an increase of 57 percent over the 1,267 incidents reported in 2016.

"A confluence of events in 2017 led to a surge in attacks on our community -- from bomb threats, cemetery desecrations, white supremacists marching in Charlottesville, and children harassing children at school," said ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt.

"These incidents came at a time when we saw a rising climate of incivility, the emboldening of hate groups and widening divisions in society."

President Donald Trump came under heavy criticism last February for remaining silent for several days over more than 100 threats made just weeks apart against Jewish schools and other institutions. He later condemned them as "horrible" and "painful."

Critics say his November 2016 election and rise to office has emboldened extreme right, neo-Nazi groups and those with racist agendas.

The ADL said the highest concentration of recorded anti-Semitism took place in New York, California and New Jersey, home to large Jewish populations.

There was an 86 percent increase in incidents of vandalism and harassment was up 41 percent, including the spree of bomb threats in early 2017, it added.

While the number of assaults fell by 47 percent to 19 in 2017, the ADL's annual report noted a dramatic increase in anti-Semitism at schools from kindergarten through grade 12.

In 2017, those schools surpassed public areas as the place recording the most anti-Semitism. The number of incidents at schools rose 94 percent over 235 incidents recorded at grade schools in 2016, the report found.

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Anti-Semitic incidents on college and university campuses were up 89 percent.

"The consistent increase of anti-Semitic incidents against students of all ages is deeply troubling," Greenblatt said. "For every incident thats reported, it is likely there's another that goes unreported."

A former journalist from Missouri was jailed last December for making a dozen hoax threats to Jewish community centers. A Jewish teenager in Israel was also charged in connection with making the threats.Stacey Dash, an actor-turned-conservative commentator and author who is best known for starring in the 90s cult classic Clueless, has officially filed paperwork to run for Congressional office in California.

Dash has filed to run as a Republican in the 44th Congressional District, according to a filing on the Federal Election Commission website. The 44th District is located in southern California and includes the cities of Compton, Lynwood and Carson in Los Angeles County. The website dashtodc.com has also been established, though there is no information on the site other than what appears to be a logo.

The House seat Dash is seeking is currently held by Democratic Rep. Nanette Barragan, who worked on Barack Obamas reelection campaign in Florida in 2012 and was later the first Latina to serve on the Hermosa Beach City Council. The District has had a Democratic representative since 2012. The area also voted overwhelmingly for Hillary Clinton in the 2016 presidential election.

Dash has been publicly mulling a run for office in recent weeks, posing the question of if she should do it to her 564,000 Twitter followers in early February.

This content is not available due to your privacy preferences. Update your settings here to see it.

Dash is a vocal supporter of President Donald Trump and has been known as an outspoken conservative since she threw her support behind Mitt Romney in 2012. In recent years, she has also been no stranger to controversy, particularly during her time as a commentator on Fox News.

She made headlines in 2016 for saying that transgender people should go in the bushes if they need to use the restroom in public. That same year, she said  if we dont want segregation then channels like BET and award shows like the NAACP Image Awards should be abolished.A prominent animal behaviorist known as the lion whisperer is breaking his silence after a lioness under his care killed a 22-year-old woman at a private game reserve in South Africa.

Kevin Richardson said he was saddened and shocked by the death, which made headlines on Tuesday. He explained in a statement that he and a colleague had taken three lions out for their weekly exercise before the attack occurred.

Myself and an experienced colleague took three lions walking in the reserve, as we do on a weekly basis, as part of their exercise and stimulation regimen, he said, adding that he followed proper notification procedures.

Trending: Even Bill Clinton's Calligrapher Had Better White House Security Clearance Than Jared Kushner

One of the lionesses charged off after an impala and must have run [about a mile], where she encountered the 22-year-old outside the car, he said.

The victim was not a guest at the camp and was instead visiting to conduct an interview for an assignment, Richardson said. He offered his condolences and heartfelt sympathies to the womans family.

The mauling happened Tuesday afternoon local time. South African news outlet Eyewitness News reported that the Gauteng Department of Agriculture was investigating the incident.

Don't miss: Steve Mnuchin Asked UCLA Not To Share Video Of College Students Heckling Him And Being Dragged Away By Police

It is indeed very sad and regrettable, said Loyiso Mkwana, director-general of natural resources at Gauteng Department of Agriculture, according to the news outlet. We are with the members of the family of the deceased. These kinds of incidents, we should not have them, and we should always have vicious, dangerous animals like lions under control.

Richardson is the founder of the Kevin Richardson Wildlife Sanctuary, an organization that seeks to provide a self-sustaining African carnivore sanctuary to help mitigate damage done by habitat loss and illegal trade, according to the sanctuarys mission statement. This is the first time a person has been killed at the South African sanctuary.

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Fewer than 100 people are killed by lions each year, according to the World Health Organization.

This article was first written by Newsweek

More from NewsweekParis (AFP) - A signal from the Universe's first stars, born a cosmic heartbeat after the Big Bang, has been detected for the first time, astronomers said Wednesday, setting the science world aflutter.

The observation came after a decade-long quest, years earlier than expected, and was described by one excited observer as the biggest astronomical breakthrough since the Nobel-capped detection of gravitational waves in 2015.

The findings have to be confirmed by other experiments.

Crucially, it is hoped the discovery will shed light on dark matter -- an invisible, mysterious substance thought to make up a large share of the Universe.

"Finding this miniscule signal has opened a new window on the early Universe," said Arizona State University astronomer Judd Bowman, the project's lead investigator.

"Telescopes cannot see far enough to directly image such ancient stars, but we've seen when they turned on" -- that is, sparked to life -- "in radio waves arriving from space."

Fingerprints of the stars, already active 13.6 billion years ago -- a mere 180 million years after the Big Bang gave rise to the Universe -- were picked up by a dining table-sized radio spectrometer in the Australian desert.

Such evidence had been expected, but not for years to come.

To everyone's surprise, and delight, the signal contained something curious.

The early Universe, the data showed, appears to have been twice as cold as previously estimated, at minus 270 degrees Celsius (-454 degrees Fahrenheit), according to the study in Nature.

Some suggested a role for dark matter -- the theme of an accompanying science paper published by the same journal.

- 'Wow!' -

The author of that study, Rennan Barkana of Tel Aviv University, said the freeze might be explained by ordinary matter interacting with, and losing energy to, dark matter.

"If Barkana's idea is confirmed then we've learnt something new and fundamental about the mysterious dark matter that makes up 85 percent of the matter in the Universe, providing the first glimpse of physics beyond the Standard Model," said Bowman.

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Data from the Planck satellite showed in 2013 that ordinary matter -- which makes up everything we can touch and see -- comprises a mere 4.9 precent of the Universe, and dark matter 26.8 percent.

The other 68.3 percent is dark energy.

Invisible to telescopes, dark matter is perceived through its gravitational pull on other objects in the cosmos.

But its existence is not explained by the Standard Model of physics -- the mainstream theory of the fundamental particles that make up matter and the forces that govern them.

Finding dark matter particles could require updating the Standard Model with futuristic theories such as "supersymmetry", which postulates the existence of a heavier sibling for every particle in the Universe, or extra dimensions.

Expert observers' reactions ranged from "a truly amazing result", and "wow!", to advising caution.

"The apparent detection of the signature of the first stars in the Universe will be a revolutionary discovery if it stands the tests of time," said Nobel Prize-awarded astrophysicist Brian Schmidt of The Australian National University.

- Window on the Universe -

"Astronomers worldwide will be holding their breath until the result is confirmed by an independent experiment," added Karl Glazebrook of the Swinburne University of Technology in comments via the Science Media Centre in Australia.

If it is, it would open "a new window on the early Universe and potentially a new understanding of the nature of dark matter."

Described as technically robust by expert commentators, the findings must nevertheless be confirmed by independent experiments.

Scientists believe that for about 400,000 years after the Big Bang, the Universe was dark -- filled primarily with hydrogen.

Gravity slowly pulled the densest regions of gas together to form stars, according to the Arizona State University's School of Earth and Space Exploration.

The signals detected in the study came from primordial hydrogen, at a time that light from the first stars made the gas detectible for the first time.

Our own Sun and Solar System was formed about nine billion years later.

The earliest stars were the source of all heavy elements in the Universe, including those necessary for life to exist.Bernie Sanders with local activists in Flint, Mich. (Photo: Twitter.com/TezlynFigaro)

Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders fulfilled a pledge he made during his 2016 presidential campaign and returned to the city of Flint, Mich., on Feb. 25. During his visit to the city, which has not previously been reported, Sanders met with local community members and activists who are dealing with the lead poisoning crisis that has affected the citys water supply since 2014.

In a statement to Yahoo News, Sanders said the situation remains dire and the government response has been inadequate.

On my return to Flint this week, I once again saw a community that is economically and socially oppressed and in desperate need of our help. I also saw some beautiful and strong people of all ages working tirelessly to improve that community, Sanders said, adding, The impact of the water crisis continues to be enormous, and government at all levels is not doing enough. The work of Pastor Tillman and all those I met in Flint is extraordinary, and I look forward to continuing to work with them.

The residents of Flint, which is the seventh-largest city in Michigan and has a predominantly African-American population, have been exposed to high levels of lead since their drinking water source was changed to a local river in 2014. Flints water crisis became a major issue during the 2016 presidential race. As candidates, President Trump and Sanders both visited the city. Sanders also had a campaign office in Flint and its workers got involved in bottled water distribution efforts.

Sanders said he would return to Flint when he came to the city on Feb. 25, 2016. Two years to the day, he kept that promise. Sanders, who is reportedly considering another run for president in 2020, came back to Flint at the tail end of a trip to Michigan, where he campaigned on behalf of congressional candidates hes endorsed and against President Trumps tax plan.

On this weekends visit, he was accompanied by Ohio state Sen. Nina Turner, who is the president of Our Revolution, the political group that is the successor to Sanderss presidential campaign. Yahoo News learned of the visit via a tweet from Turners spokeswoman Tezlyn Figaro, who posted photos of Turner and Sanders meeting with Flint residents.

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Sen. Bernie Sanders (Photo: Susan Walsh/AP)

Turner told Yahoo News that she and Sanders participated in a private meeting that included Pastor Ezra Tillman of Flints First Trinity Missionary Baptist Church, Tillmans wife and environmental activist Guy Williams. She said they also held a larger meeting with younger local activists.

People were crying in those meetings, said Turner, adding, So many felt they were used as props in the 2016 election cycle and that most politicians only want to be affiliated with them when theres cameras, and it was so refreshing to have him back there to have deep meetings about their suffering.

Tillman told Yahoo News that the participants in the meeting discussed ongoing concerns for Flint, including long-term health issues faced by the residents. Questions remain about children who may have suffered developmental issues related to lead poisoning. He also said there are food deserts in the area in which residents are unable to access fresh produce that could help mitigate the effects of the poisoned water supply. Tillman also said there are issues around how federal funds allocated for the crisis were spent.

The pipes have still not been fixed in certain areas, a very small number of the pipes have been fixed, Tillman said. The money has not been accounted for properly.

According to the Environmental Protection Agency, Flints water quality continues to improve. However, Flints residents are still advised to use filtered or bottled water for drinking, cooking and brushing teeth.

Tillman also said the locals told Sanders about rumors that the current bottled water distribution programs in the city may be reduced. The EPA referred Yahoo News to Michigans Department of Environmental Quality for questions about bottle water distribution in Flint. That agencys public information officer would not confirm or deny rumors that the distribution program was ending.

At this point the state has not made an announcement relating to the end of bottled water, DEQ spokeswoman Tiffany Brown told Yahoo News.

Overall, Tillman said Sanders was really concerned and moved by the meeting. He said he was pleased Sanders returned but wasnt shocked to see Sanders back in Flint given the work the senators presidential campaign volunteers did in the city.

I understood that he was committed to doing more than speaking it over the microphone, Tillman said of Sanders. He was definitely committed to Flint.

Read more from Yahoo News:DUBAI (Reuters) - Dubai has handed over the body of legendary Indian actress Sridevi to Indian authorities for it to be returned home, an Indian embassy official said on Tuesday. The official said the body had been "received, embalmed and taken on its way to India", the official, who asked not to be identified, told Reuters. Police said on Monday that a post mortem had shown that Sridevi, who died on Saturday, had drowned at her Dubai hotel room bathtub during a visit to the Gulf Arab emirate to attend a family wedding. Media reports had earlier said the 54-year-old had died of cardiac arrest. (Reporting by Stanley Carvahlo; Aditional reporting by Shilpa JamkhandikarWriting by Sami Aboudi; Editing by Sanjeev Miglani and Nick Macfie)The Daily Beast

REUTERSJust a day after testing positive for COVID-19, a Florida Republican official who battled against mask mandates, attacked the vaccine, and railed at CDC officials has died in Tampa.Gregg Prentice, who was 61, led the Hillsborough County Election Integrity Committeeand his sudden death has sent the local GOP scrambling as it no longer has access to essential campaign finance software without his help.In a Sept. 14 letter to the Federal Election Commission, the Hillsborough County RepublicBy Michael Holden LONDON (Reuters) - U.S. actress Meghan Markle made an official appearance alongside fiance Prince Harry and his elder brother William and wife Kate on Wednesday, the first time Britain's royal "Fab Four" have carried out an engagement together. Queen Elizabeth's grandson Harry, 33 and Markle, 36, have attracted huge attention since they announced last November they were getting married while William, 35 and Kate, 36, have been a major media draw since their wedding in 2011. The quartet appeared on stage together to take part in the Royal Foundation forum, a new annual event to showcase the projects run or launched by the royals' main charitable and philanthropic vehicle which William and Harry set up in 2011. "Catherine, Harry and I are delighted to be here this morning," William told an audience at the London offices of insurer Aviva. "And we are particularly happy to be at our first Royal Foundation event with Meghan." Markle, 36, will become the Foundation's fourth patron after she marries Harry at the queen's Windsor Castle residence on May 19. She has previously announced she is quitting her acting career and stepping down from her existing charitable work. "We wait a couple of months and then we can hit the ground running but up until then I'm pretty excited," she said. "Harry and I see the world so similarly in our approach of being very hands-on with things. I have been fortunate enough to meet with some incredible women and organizations in the UK that are doing work here, but also knowing that some of the work I've done in the past has been in Commonwealth countries." The Royal Foundation focuses on issues such as helping young people, wildlife conservation, cyberbullying and supporting the military, most notably through the Invictus Games for wounded or disabled veterans which Harry founded. Last year, the princes were widely praised for leading a campaign to tackle the stigma of mental health illness and speaking out about how they had personally suffered following the death of their mother Princess Diana in a Paris car crash in 1997. "We're pretty tied up with planning a wedding at the moment but we're really looking forward to working as a pair and as a four going forward and hoping to make as much of a difference where we can," Harry said. The four were pictured together leaving a service on Christmas Day on the queen's Sandringham estate but the event on Wednesday marked the first time the group - dubbed the "Fab Four" by media - had all attended an official event. Asked if there were any disagreements with the family working closely together, William joked: "Oh, yes!" Harry added: "They come so thick and fast. Working as family does have its challenges, of course it does. But we're stuck together for the rest of our lives." (Editing by Stephen Addison)By Vivian Sequera and Ana Isabel Martinez CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuelan politician Henri Falcon on Tuesday defied a call by the country's political opposition to boycott an April presidential election and said he would run against President Nicolas Maduro. "The government promised a paradise to millions of Venezuelans, but they gave them a hell," Falcon told reporters. He called Maduro the "hunger candidate" in reference to an economic crisis that has brought a crippling recession, widespread shortages and an exodus of migrants from the oil-producing country. The opposition coalition is boycotting the April 22 election because its two most popular leaders - Leopoldo Lopez and Henrique Capriles - are prohibited from running, various parties have been outlawed and the election board is pro-Maduro. http://reut.rs/2oFvMVA Falcon defended his decision, saying he operates independently of the opposition coalition Democratic Unity. The opposition, which considers the vote a farce meant to consolidate Maduro's power, accused him of trying to grab the spotlight. Maduro formally presented his candidacy for the vote at the national election board in Caracas before joining a rally of supporters. "I will be loyal to the legacy of the giant Hugo Chavez!" he said, dancing reggaeton on stage with his wife, Cilia Flores, before a large banner depicting him and Chavez, his predecessor as president. Before Falcon's announcement, Maduro faced just one confirmed candidate, a little-known evangelical pastor named Javier Bertucci. Although once seen as a possible transition figure after nearly two decades of socialist rule, Falcon, 56, has little chance of defeating Maduro. A former stalwart of the ruling Chavismo movement, Falcon, a former mayor and state governor, defected from the governing Socialist Party in 2010. Many government supporters view him as a traitor for abandoning the party, while members of the opposition view his roots with suspicion. "Elections in these conditions will not solve anything," the coalition said in a statement. Falcon called on authorities to delay the election to a date when its result would be more credible. In his speech, Maduro urged opponents not to be "cowards" and stand against him, saying they were only boycotting the vote because they were scared of losing. Maduro said he hoped his campaign would be blessed by Jesus Christ, Chavez and Venezuelan independence hero Simon Bolivar. "I am the people's president, the oligarchy have under-estimated me," said Maduro, a former bus driver and union activist. Falcon's decision to break with the opposition coalitions boycott of the April 22 vote means he will not be able to count on it to mobilize voters, and grassroots opposition backers are likely to be alienated. Falcon, a former military officer, styles himself a center-leftist, seeking to combine business-friendly economic policies with strong social welfare programs. Maduro narrowly won election after Chavez's 2013 death from cancer but has seen his popularity plunge during the economic crisis. Maduro has blamed a U.S.-led "economic war," including financial sanctions imposed by President Donald Trump. Critics have said that incompetent policies, such as dysfunctional currency and price controls, and rampant graft are behind the crisis. The United States has said Venezuela's election plan is undemocratic, and it and Colombia have said the results will not be accepted as legitimate. (Reporting by Vivian Sequera, Ana Isabel Martinez, Corina Pons and Girish Gupta; Editing by Andrew Cawthorne and Cynthia Osterman)BEIJING (Reuters) - China's ruling Communist Party agreed on Wednesday to deepen reform of party and government departments to improve their function and to push for high quality development, but gave no details of an unexpected shake up of ministries. A statement following the three-day closed-door meeting of the party's Central Committee, released by the official Xinhua news agency, said the reform plan would be put to the largely rubber stamp parliament, which opens on March 5."Transforming government functions and optimizing the settings of government bodies and deployment of their functions is an important mission for deepening party and national department reform," Xinhua said in a long, dry piece full of Communist terminology. While the statement did not give details on which government departments may be merged, reorganized or gotten rid of, it did say they will strengthen market supervision and management of natural resources and environmental protection. One line about defense said the party would increase the military's fighting ability, but also did not elaborate. President Xi Jinping, who spoke at the meeting, is overseeing an ambitious military modernization plan that has included reorganizing how it is run to make it more effective and less like the old-Soviet era it once followed. The party also agreed that local governments would be given more power to make decisions for themselves, as long as they are in line with central government, Xinhua said. However, the party's supremacy will not be challenged. The primary task of deepening reform is to ensure the party's leadership is all encompassing and becomes ever stronger, Xinhua said. Details are expected to be released during parliament, as they will need to be formally approved by lawmakers, who will also have to sign off on a wide-ranging re-shuffle of senior government positions, like the head of the central bank. Xinhua said the party had submitted a name list of candidates. Parliament will not block or vote down the party's pre-selected candidates or its government reform plans as the body is stacked with party members chosen specifically for their loyalty. Another major focus of parliament will be to pass amendments to the state constitution which will include lifting a two-term limit on the presidency, meaning Xi can effectively stay in power for ever if he wants. (Reporting by Ben Blanchard and Yawen Chen; Editing by Nick Macfie)By Patricia Zengerle WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Hope Hicks, a close aide to President Donald Trump, declined to answer questions about the administration on Tuesday from members of the U.S. House of Representatives Intelligence Committee investigating Russia and the 2016 U.S. election, lawmakers said. Hicks, the White House communications director, was Trump's spokeswoman during the 2016 election campaign. The president seemed to defend her shortly before her House appearance, taking to Twitter early on Tuesday to say: "WITCH HUNT," a phrase he has used in the past to describe the Russia investigations. Hicks answered every question lawmakers asked about her time with the campaign, and most about the transition, the months between Trump's victory in November 2016 and his January 2017 inauguration, Republican and Democratic committee members said. But she refused to discuss her role in the administration, including her part in drafting a statement in July 2017 misrepresenting a July 2016 meeting at Trump Tower that included the president's eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., other Trump associates and Natalia Veselnitskaya, a Russian official. Trump Jr. said initially the meeting was about adoptions, but said later that Veselnitskaya had promised damaging information about his father's presidential opponent, Democrat Hillary Clinton. That meeting has been a focus of investigations by House Intelligence and two other congressional committees. Special Prosecutor Robert Mueller is also probing the issue. On Friday, Rick Gates, a former senior Trump campaign official who is cooperating with Mueller's investigation, pleaded guilty to charges including conspiracy against the United States. BANNON RULE Other Trump associates, such as former White House adviser Steve Bannon, also have declined to answer House intelligence panel questions about their time in the White House, citing White House orders. "This is not executive privilege, this is executive stonewalling," Representative Adam Schiff, the committee's top Democrat, told reporters after Hicks' testimony. He said Hicks declined to say whether she had refused to answer the same questions from Mueller's team. Schiff said committee Democrats wanted Hicks to be subpoenaed, but Republicans refused. Trump's fellow Republicans have majorities in both houses of Congress, and thus control the congressional investigations. Republicans agreed to on-the-spot subpoenas of Bannon during his testimony, and Schiff expressed frustration with the difference. Representative Thomas Rooney, a Republican leader of the committee's Russia probe, told reporters he thought Hicks had been "very forthright" when she answered questions. He said he did not think Hicks should be subpoenaed. Hicks arrived about 10 a.m. for a closed-door session with the panel. She left around 7 p.m. The committee is investigating allegations that Russia sought to interfere in 2016 to boost Trump, and whether his associates colluded with Russia. Hicks did not speak to reporters. Trump has repeatedly denied collusion with Russia, and Moscow has denied attempting to meddle in the U.S. campaign. White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders declined to discuss Hicks' refusal to respond to some questions, telling reporters the White House would not comment on any individual's interactions with the intelligence committee. (Additional reporting by Doina Chiacu; Editing by Phil Berlowitz and Peter Cooney)By Patricia Zengerle WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Hope Hicks, a close aide to President Donald Trump, declined to answer questions about her time in the White House from members of the U.S. House of Representatives Intelligence Committee as she testified on Tuesday in its investigation of Russia and the 2016 U.S. election, lawmakers said. White House communications director Hicks was Trump's spokeswoman during the 2016 election campaign. She answered questions about the campaign and some about the transition, the months between Trump's victory in November 2016 and his January 2017 inauguration, Representative Thomas Rooney, a Republican who is one of the leaders of the committee's Russia probe, told reporters. Other Trump aides, such as former White House adviser Steve Bannon, also have declined to answer many of the committee's questions, citing White House orders. Hicks arrived at about 10 a.m. EST (1500 GMT) for a closed door session with the panel, which is conducting one of three main congressional probes of allegations that Russia sought to interfere in the 2016 election to boost Trump's chances of victory, and whether his associates colluded with Russia. Hicks did not speak to reporters as she came in. Rooney said members were pressing Hicks to respond to the same questions in her House testimony as she had when she spoke to the Senate Intelligence Committee, one of the other congressional panels looking into the issue. Shortly before Hicks' testimony, Trump took to Twitter to comment on the investigation, tweeting "WITCH HUNT." Trump has repeatedly denied any collusion with Russia, and Moscow has denied attempting to meddle in the U.S. campaign. White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders declined to comment on Hicks' reported refusal to respond to some questions, telling reporters the White House would not comment on any individual's interactions with the intelligence committee. (Additional reporting by Doina Chiacu; editing by David Gregorio and Phil Berlowitz)WASHINGTON  The Trump administration has to stop revoking undocumented young peoples deportation protections without due process, a federal judge ruled on Monday.

The new order does not affect President Donald Trumps effort  launched in September but currently on hold because of a separate court ruling  to end the broader Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program.

Thats because in addition to rescinding DACA as a whole, the Trump administration has repeatedly terminated individual undocumented immigrants deportation protections without providing notice or a chance to respond.

On Monday, U.S. District Judge Philip Gutierrez issued a preliminary injunction to halt that practice. Under the order, the government must reinstate deportation protections for certain individuals and cannot revoke them from others unless it first notifies those people, offers an explanation and allows them to respond.

If the government had done that, Jose Gil Robles, a 25-year-old undocumented immigrant who came to the U.S. at age five, wouldnt have lost his status in the first place, according to the suit.

Gil, one of the plaintiffs represented by the American Civil Liberties Union, was arrested in September for driving with a canceled license. In Minnesota, where Gil lives, DACA recipients have to go to the DMV to show their new paperwork when they renew their protections if they want to maintain their drivers license, and Gil hadnt done it after his latest DACA renewal. It slipped his mind, he said. He was released the next day, sorted out his drivers license soon after and went about his life working and helping out with his five younger siblings.

A month later, Immigration and Customs Enforcement showed up at Gils work and detained him, ultimately opting to hold him for more than a month. While he was in detention, ICE issued him a notice to appear, a document that tells an immigrant they are in removal proceedings. U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services informed Gil that it had revoked his DACA protections when it issued the notice to appear, without notifying him beforehand that he was at risk of losing his status.

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Now Gil is out of detention, but he no longer has DACA, even though his misdemeanor driving charge is not something that should make him ineligible for the program, ACLU attorney Katrina Eiland said. Government attorneys said in court during the class-action lawsuit that Gil had been arrested and charged with two felonies  something the ACLU demonstrated was incorrect. Because he was given no explanation for his DACA revocation or a chance to respond, Gil wasnt able to correct the record before losing his protections, Eiland said.

The ACLU argued against the governments practice of automatically terminating DACA status for individuals given a notice to appear  after all, anyone eligible for DACA is in the U.S. without legal status and by definition could be issued such a notice. The judge sided with the ACLU, and temporarily barred the government from revoking someones DACA protections solely because theyd been issued a notice to appear in court over their undocumented status.

The government now has 14 days to tell the court whose DACA status it has terminated since last Jan. 19  the day before Trump became president  without providing them notice. The Trump administration must then reinstate DACA status and work permits for those individuals unless they have been convicted of a criminal offense that disqualifies them from the program, according to the injunction.

The ACLU identified 22 young undocumented immigrants who lost their DACA status without notice in the past year, but Eiland said there could be dozens more  not to mention many others who would, should the injunction become permanent, be spared from seeing their own protections similarly terminated in the future. Although Trump rescinded DACA last September, individuals can still renew their protections under a court order.

The Department of Justice did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the Monday order on DACA revocations.

Gil is hoping that once he gets his DACA status back, he can work and then go to college, although hes not sure yet what he would like to study.

I just want to go back to school, make something of myself and show [that I] can contribute to this country, he said.

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April 2015

At an event hosted by Texas Patriots PAC: Everythings coming across the border: the illegals, the cars, the whole thing. Its like a big mess. Blah. Its like vomit.

June 2015

At a speech announcing his campaign: "When Mexico sends its people, theyre not sending their best. Theyre not sending you. Theyre not sending you. Theyre sending people that have lots of problems, and theyre bringing those problems with us. Theyre bringing drugs. Theyre bringing crime. Theyre rapists. And some, I assume, are good people."

August 2015

On NBC's "Meet the Press": Were going to keep the families together, we have to keep the families together, but they have to go."

September 2015

On CBS's "60 Minutes": Were rounding em up in a very humane way, in a very nice way. And theyre going to be happy because they want to be legalized. And, by the way, I know it doesnt sound nice. But not everything is nice.

November 2015

On MSNBC's "Morning Joe": You are going to have a deportation force, and you are going to do it humanely."

February 2016

At a GOP primary debate: We have at least 11 million people in this country that came in illegally. They will go out. They will come back  some will come back, the best, through a process.

March 2016

At a press conference when asked if he would consider allowing undocumented immigrants to stay: "We either have a country or we dont. We either have a country or we dont. We have borders or we dont have borders. And at this moment, the answer is absolutely not.

April 2016

At an event hosted by NBC's "Today Show": Theyre going to go, and were going to create a path where we can get them into this country legally, OK? But it has to be done legally. ... Theyre going to go, and then come back and come back legally.

July 2016

At the Republican National Convention: "Tonight, I want every American whose demands for immigration security have been denied  and every politician who has denied them  to listen very closely to the words I am about to say. On January 21st of 2017, the day after I take the oath of office, Americans will finally wake up in a country where the laws of the United States are enforced."

September 2016

At a rally: Anyone who has entered the United States illegally is subject to deportation. That is what it means to have laws and to have a country. Otherwise we dont have a country.

September 2016

On "The Dr. Oz Show": Well, under my plan the undocumented or, as you would say, illegal immigrant wouldnt be in the country. They only come in the country legally.

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This article originally appeared on HuffPost.bitcoin price crash hold sell cryptocurrency

Craig Wright, the self-proclaimed creator of virtual currency bitcoin, is being sued for $10 billion by the estate of his deceased former business partner, Dave Kleiman.

Court documents filed in a U.S. district court in Florida on February 14 revealed claims that Wright, an Australian citizen, perpetrated a scheme against Daves estate to seize Daves bitcoins and his rights to certain intellectual property associated with the bitcoin technology.

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In 2016, Wright was the center of mass media attention after claiming to have created the cryptocurrency. The year prior, Kleiman, a paraplegic U.S veteran and computer expert who died in 2013, was named alongside Wright as having possible involvement in the murky origins of the currency in separate articles by Wired and Gizmodo.

bitcoin cryptocurrency cryptonick price fall

REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration

The lawsuit, filed by Kleimans brother Ira, explained how Wright, 46, and Kleiman had shared a mutual obsession with cryptography and data security but acknowledged that the pair seemingly chose to keep their involvement in bitcoin hidden from friends and family.

It is undeniable, however, that Craig and Dave were involved in bitcoin from its inception and that they both accumulated a vast wealth of bitcoins from 2009 through 2013, it read. The existence of the complaint was first reported by technology website Motherboard.

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Last year, the value of bitcoin spiked. Within 12 months, it rocketed from $1,000 per coin to more than $19,000. Financial experts warned the situation was a bubble. The currency is mined using computing power and is solely traded on the internet. Its complex origin is still hotly debated, and not everyone believes Wright is the mythical founder, known only as Satoshi Nakamoto.

Story continues

According to the lawsuit, the two men, who met in 2003, ran a Florida-based company called W&K Info Defense Research LLC and used computers in the district to mine the currency. It alleged the firm was solely formed by Kleiman.

It states: After Daves death, Craig concocted a scheme to claim sole ownership of all bitcoins owned by Dave, to steal Daves share of IP assets that belonged to Dave and Craig jointly through W&K. It further alleged Wright had admitted to using computer generated signatures posing as Kleiman to make fraudulent contracts.

Untitled

Lawsuit, Wright-Kleiman

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The filing said that the exact number of bitcoins owed to Kleiman remains to be determined, but maintained the estate is entitled to coins worth approximately $10 billion. Ira has demanded that Craig return these bitcoins, but Craig has not done so, it read, further alleging that Wright has since moved the funds into other accounts.

Wright currently works for UK-based blockchain company nChain and does not appear worried about the potential legal case. In a brief Twitter exchange on Monday, February 26, he indicated that he would be attending a bitcoin conference in Tokyo this coming March. When a commentor brought up the filing, he replied: I am fine.

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For the community at large, the debate over bitcoin's founder rages on. Bitcoin's origins are a bit of a mystery however it is very likely that Satoshi Nakamoto was a cypher punk as the whitepaper was first made public in a cypher punk mailing list, Charles Hayter, CEO of CryptoCompare, told Newsweek via email.

Many believe it to be Nick Szabo and Dominic Frisby makes a convincing case for this in his book Bitcoin:The Future of Money?. The probability of Craig Wright being Satoshi is low as it was a very simplistic proof he needed to perform in signing a transaction. It was a great mind who managed to cobble together all the elements that went into bitcoin. It is now a community effort.

This article was first written by Newsweek

More from NewsweekDelta Air Lines relationship with its home state of Georgia has been souring in recent days, after Delta announced it would end its discount program for National Rifle Association members and Republican Party leaders in the state responded by threatening to kill a tax break that benefits Delta.

But top officials from Democratic states have a different message for Delta: move here. Virginia Governor Ralph Northam and New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, as well as the lieutenant governors of New York and Washington states, have told the Atlanta-based carrier that it can move its headquarters to their states if Delta no longer feels welcome in Georgia.

On Monday, Georgia Lieutenant Governor Casey Cagle, who is running for governor, said on Twitter that he would kill any tax legislation that benefits @Delta unless the company changes its position and fully reinstates its relationship with [the] @NRA.

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Virginia, New York and Washington officials all tweeted at Delta with a lifeline.

Hey @deltaVirginia is for lovers and airline hubs. Youre welcome here any time, wrote Northam said Tuesday morning.

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.@Delta, if Georgia politicians disagree with your stand against gun violence, we invite you to move your headquarters to New York, Cuomo added Tuesday afternoon.

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.@Delta, as one of your most frequent flyers, know that the NY LG admires your principled stance, New York Lieutenant Governor Kathy Hochul said Monday afternoon. Lets continue our great relationship. NY is open for business & [loves] Delta  move HQ to where youre appreciated?

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With all due respect to my fellow LG from Georgia, Id like to thank @Delta for joining the many companies that have ended their partnerships with the NRA, and let them know that they are certainly welcome in our state, Washington Lieutenant Governor Cyrus Habib said later Monday night.

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Deltas move to end discounts for NRA members came in the wake of this months deadly school shooting in Parkland, Florida, which left 17 people dead and reignited the gun control debate in America.

Story continues

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The company also professed its neutrality in a statement Saturday: Out of respect for our customers and employees on both sides, Delta has taken this action to refrain from entering this debate and focus on its business. Delta continues to support the 2nd Amendment.

Delta Air Lines is not the only corporation to break ties with the National Rifle Association following the Florida shooting. Competing carrier United, as well as major businesses like MetLife and Enterprise Rent-A-Car, have ended discount programs for NRA members.Joseph Yun, the U.S. special representative for North Korea, is set to step down, the State Department said on Monday, in a move that comes as Kim Jong Uns regime says its willing to hold talks with Washington.

With no ambassador in place in Seoul, Yuns departure for personal reasons after more than 30 years of service leaves another hole in the American diplomatic service at a critical time. A North Korean official told South Korea this week that the door was open for dialogue, and Washington said it was willing to talk while maintaining its stance of maximum pressure on Pyongyang.

The State Department also does not have a confirmed assistant secretary for East Asian and Pacific Affairs.

Yun, who took up his post in 2016, advocated engagement with North Korea, even when the isolated regime launched sophisticated missiles and conducted underground nuclear tests. During his tenure, he helped to secure the release of Otto Warmbier, an American student detained by the North. He died shortly after returning to the U.S. Doctors said he had suffered a severe neurological injury of unknown cause while in North Korean custody.

We are sorry to see him retire, but our diplomatic efforts regarding North Korea will continue based on our maximum pressure campaign to isolate the DPRK until it agrees to begin credible talks toward a denuclearized Korean peninsula, State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said.

Yuns resignation raises further questions over the Trump administrations North Korea policy. Victor Cha, Trumps original choice to be U.S. ambassador to South Korea, was dropped as a candidate after it was reported that he had privately expressed disagreement with the administrations North Korea policy.

Cha, a former White House official, warned in an essay last month against hitting the Kim regime with a targeted military strike,  a bloody nose. There were reports that a limited strike was under consideration to counter the Norths nuclear threat. But earlier this month, National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster denied that such a strategy existed.Matt Drudge announced his scoop with the level of understatement one would expect from the king of digital tabloid news.

TRUMP SET FOR SHOCK ANNOUNCEMENT, he tweeted from his own personal account, his keyboards capital letter button held firmly down. Shortly afterwards, he followed up from the Drudge Reports handle: WORLD EXCLUSIVE - Just one year into his Presidency, Trump will stun the political world by announcing he is running for re-election in 2020. Digital guru Brad Parscale will be named campaign manager, DRUDGE REPORT has learned.

In truth, few people doubted Donald Trump would not be up for a second term in the White House. Some of his critics both within the Republican Party and outside might have pondered, or rather, fantasied, that the 71-year-old might, for whatever reasons, quietly bow out after one term, after deciding there was nothing more he could do for the country.

But those were in the minority. Everything we have learned about Donald John Trump, from his days as an 80s tabloid fixture all the way through to his surprise entry into the White House in January 2017, is that he is not a man to give up gracefully. Neither is he an individual to admit defeat. Others also pointed out that the day after his 2017 inauguration, he formally filed paperwork for his re-election committee.

Despite that, Trumps confirmation that Parscale, a former digital adviser, will lead his re-election campaign, represents the first official confirmation from the President that he is seeking a second term.

Now, the question is, can Trump do it again? And to the horror of Democrats, progressives and others who loathe him, the answer is: very possibly.

A flurry of caveats need to be laid out straight away. No one can possibly know the political environment in 2020, Trump may have been indicted by Robert Mueller and heading for impeachment, or Trump may have been defeated by a Republican primary challenger. And while the Presidents White House doctor gave him a very clean bill of health, it is always possible he forced to stand aside because of poor health, or worse. John F Kennedy was assassinated during his first term; Franklin D Roosevelt died of a cerebral haemorrhage shortly into his fourth. (Two-term limits were introduced shortly afterwards.)

Story continues

There is much that might point against a Trump re-election. Records suggest the former reality television star is the most unpopular president of all time. For much of his first term, his approval ratings have trudged along in the mid-30s. They jumped after the passage of his tax bill late last year, but then slipped down again.

Real Clear Politics, which collects and collates various polls, suggests it currently stands at 41 per cent, though it notes there is a spread of 13 points. And dont the Democrats expect to do well in the midterms? A recent poll by CNN found suggested registered voters were planning to vote 54-38 in favour the Democrats. If that proved to the case, the Democrats would have the sort of numbers they have not enjoyed since 2006 when they secured both the House and the Senate.

Yet while his opponents may loathe to admit it, Trump has a lot going for him  as evidenced by the odds of two-to-one listed by oddschecker.com, which aggregates various betting shops odds. (The closest rivals are Elizabeth Warren, Kamala Harris and Bernie Sanders at 11 to one.)

Firstly, Trump is the incumbent, and incumbent presidents usually win when they run for re-election. Individuals such as George HW Bush, who lost to Bill Clinton in 1992 after reneging on a promise not to increase taxes, are the exception to the rule.

The office brings huge advantage in terms of media coverage, name recognition and the ability to raise money.

The second thing Trump has in his favour is that, to the people who voted for him and gave him that stunning win, think of him as nothing less than a hero. A poll taken on the anniversary of his election found that 82 per cent of those who supported him would do so again.

But it is not just among his hardcore supporters that Trump has sold support. Following a first term in which Trump rowed back on regulations Barack Obama had introduced at the Environmental Protection Agency, cracked down on immigration, enacted a version of his travel ban, got Neil Gorsuch confirmed on the Supreme Court and, crucially, oversaw a tax reform package the Republicans had not seen for 30 years, Trump can present himself to the GOP as a man who has delivered on his promises.

In a recent article headlined Republicans Are Coming Home To Trump, the polling and politics website FiveThirtyEight reported that a Gallup poll put Trumps approval rating among self-identified Republicans at 86 per cent. It was the third straight week that his rating was above 85 per cent  an improvement compared with 2017, it said.

For all the major issues facing the US  climate change, inequality, racial tension, gender struggles and Trumps puerile and bullying use of social media  when it comes to voting, for most Americans no issue is more important than that of their wallets.

If people feel the economy is doing well, that their job is safe, that they have a little more money left over at the end of the month, then they typically tend to vote not to change that.

Right now, unemployment stands at 4.1 per cent, a 10-year low. While much of the credit for that belongs to Barack Obama, Trump has already seized it as his victory. Wages in the United States increased 4.4 per cent in November of 2017 over the same month in the previous year, and they seem set to continue  a figure that could equal anything during Obamas term.

The other, crucial thing the President has in his favour is that for all of the anti-Trump sentiment that exists in the country, the Democrats do not look battle-ready.

A series of special elections have revealed that the party has not agreed to a solid or substantial platform other than opposing Trump. As many party figures have said, they need to offer voters a genuine alternative message, especially on economics.

Indeed, often it seems the party is still having the same fight over which it split in 2016, as it sought to decide whether to opt for the cautious incrementalism represented by Hillary Clinton or the more radical change proposed by Sanders. And while there are a lot of very good, quality candidates within the party, the fact that the generation of yesteryear  68-year-old Warren, Sanders, 76, and 75-year-old Joe Biden  are topping the polls offers little hope to those looking for new ideas. Nothing underscored the partys haplessness more than the recent suggestion that Oprah Winfrey may do battle against Trump.

All of this is does not represent an endorsement of Donald Trump. From the perspective of anyone who values progressive ideas, who believes in science and empiricism rather than Chinese hoaxes, who supports the Paris Accord, who believes America is a nation of immigrants of all colours and all faiths and is a better place for it, who believes women should be respected and valued rather than insulted, and who thinks tax cuts should help the poor and not just the wealthy, then Donald Trumps first term has so far been an abomination.

But that does not mean he is not going to win a second.The majority of Americans say President Donald Trump isnt doing enough to protect U.S. elections from outside meddling, a new poll has found.

Some six in 10 Americans said they were not at all or not too confident that Trump is taking the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election seriously enough, or taking steps to prevent a similar foreign influence campaign on future elections, according to a CNN/SSRS poll published on Tuesday. Just 37 percent of respondents said they were very or somewhat confident that Trump was doing enough to protect upcoming elections.

Democrats were significantly more concerned with foreign meddling efforts than Republicans and independents. Nine out of 10 Democrats said they were worried about election interference, while 68 percent of independents and 53 percent of Republican respondents said the same, the poll found.

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Pollsters interviewed 1,016 adults between February 20 to February 23just days after special counsel Robert Mueller, who is investigating Russian meddling in the 2016 election and possible collusion with the Trump campaign, announced the indictment of 13 Russian nationals for interfering with the election. The indictments alleged the Russians spread false information via social media and communicated with unwitting Trump campaign aides.

The majority of respondents, 55 percent, also said they think Trump has tried to interfere with the Russia investigation. Only 30 percent said they approve of how Trump has handled the investigation.

GettyImages-872780694

MIKHAIL KLIMENTYEV/AFP/Getty Images

Story continues

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Those polled were largely split along partisan lines over whether the Russian contact with members of the Trump campaign is alarming. Sixty-six percent of all respondents said they were concerned about the communications, with 91 percent of Democrats saying socompared with 36 percent of Republicans, according to the poll.

Respondents were also skeptical about whether Congress, Google or major social media platforms were doing enough to prevent another foreign-influence campaign on U.S. elections. Only 37 percent said they trusted Congress to take care of it while just 32 percent said the same for Google, Facebook and Twitter.

This article was first written by Newsweek

More from NewsweekPresident Donald Trump criticized police for not doing more to prevent a mass shooting at a Florida high school, arguing they should have taken the shooters guns away whether they had the right or not.

During a bipartisan meeting with lawmakers on gun control Wednesday, Trump suggested guns should be taken away immediately from people that you can judge easily are mentally ill, alluding to the Florida shooter, who had undergone a psychiatric evaluation in 2016 but was ultimately not hospitalized.

The police saw that he was a problem, they didnt take any guns away, Trump said. Now that could have been policing, but they should have taken them away anyway, whether they had the right or not.

He doubled down on the claim later in the meeting after Vice President Mike Pence spoke about due process and giving local law enforcement more leeway to obtain a court order to collect firearms from potentially dangerous people.

Mike, take the firearms first and then go to court, because thats another system, Trump said. A lot of times, by the time you go to court, it takes so long to go to court, to get the due process procedures. I like taking the guns early.

Trump often seemed to be more in agreement with Democrats than Republicans during the meeting, as was clear by Sen. Dianne Feinsteins (D-Calif.) delighted expression during much of the event.

Trump shot down Rep. Steve Scalises (R-La.) suggestion to add concealed carry reciprocity to a background check bill, telling him, Youll never get it passed. He also chided Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) for being afraid of the National Rifle Association.

He was, however, on board with Sen. Amy Klobuchars (D-Minn.) request to provide domestic violence victims with more protections against gun violence, and Feinsteins suggestion to add an assault weapons ban to legislation.

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Trump also repeatedly questioned former President Barack Obamas efforts on gun control on Wednesday. He kicked off the meeting by listing mass shootings that had taken place under other presidents, and called out Obama by name while discussing the Manchin-Toomey bill.

Story continues

Trump didnt appear knowledgeable about that bill, which failed in the Senate in 2013 despite widespread public support and has been debated regularly ever since.

He asked Toomey, who introduced the bill with Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), if the bill had bipartisan support and suggested it didnt have a lot of presidential backing. He also argued Obama was not proactive in trying to pass a bill to strengthen background checks, despite Obamas push for gun control reform after the Sandy Hook massacre in 2013.

Hayley Miller contributed to this report.

This story has been updated.

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This article originally appeared on HuffPost.Stunning drone footage captures blue ice stacks in the Straits of Mackinac in Mackinaw City, Michigan, on February 26. The annual phenomenon attracts photographers like Dustin Dilworth, who shot the video, to the location towards the end of winter.

Dilworth told Storyful the ice stacks have been forming over the past couple of days. The ice is being pushed to the shore creating "monstrous stacks as high as 30 feet in the air, " according to Dilworth. Credit: Dustin Dilworth/D3 Imagery via StoryfulCAIRO (Reuters) - Egypt's public prosecutor has told state prosecutors to take legal action against media outlets found to be publishing "false news, statements and rumors," he said in a statement on Wednesday. The statement by Nabil Sadek followed strong official criticism this week of some foreign media coverage in Egypt, where authorities have in the past few months blocked scores of local news sites. The prosecutor said media outlets should be monitored and Egyptian authorities involved with regulating media should also report any "violations of media and press ethics" to the public prosecutor. The order comes a day after Egypt's foreign press center called for officials and prominent individuals to boycott the British Broadcasting Corporation after a report on human rights it said was "flagrantly fraught with lies." "[The decision comes] in light of recent attempts by the forces of evil to undermine the safety and security of the nation by broadcasting and spreading lies," the prosecutor's statement said. The BBC report stirred controversy when a young woman it described as having been disappeared by security forces was interviewed on Monday on a talk show and denied the claim. The BBC said after the boycott call that it stands by the "integrity of our reporting teams." Reuters could not independently verify the woman's claim or the contents of the BBC report. Speaking at the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva on Tuesday, Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry criticized the BBC and other media outlets for "relying on fabricated sources for political purposes," according to a Twitter post from the ministry's spokesman. Rights groups say there is a growing crackdown against political opponents ahead of a presidential vote in March when President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi will stand for re-election virtually unopposed. A high-profile politician and former presidential candidate was arrested this month after he gave an interview critical of Sisi to Al Jazeera, a Qatar-based channel banned in Egypt. (Reporting by Ahmed Tolba and Eric Knecht; Writing by Nadine Awadalla; Editing by Giles Elgood)Nouakchott (AFP) - Recep Tayyip Erdogan landed in Mauritania on Wednesday flanked by businessmen and primed to sign several cooperation deals in the first visit by a Turkish president to Nouakchott.

He is undertaking a four-nation African tour to ramp up Turkey's growing influence throughout the continent, where it is heavily involved in energy and construction.

The Turkish leader, who arrived from Algeria, was met at the airport by Mauritanian President Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz and was expected to seal the accords at the West African leader's palace.

The agreements are expected to incorporate the fishing, tourism, agriculture and energy sectors.

He was to leave Wednesday evening for Senegal, Mauritania's more liberal and more populous neighbour, before heading to Mali on Friday.

An infrequent visitor to Europe while ties are strained with the West, Erdogan has made repeated trips to Africa since becoming president in 2014.

Turkey currently has 41 embassies in Africa, up from 12 in 2009, and wants to eventually have top-level representation in all 54 nations on the continent, according to state media.

Aside from bolstering trade and political ties, a major priority for Erdogan has been to stamp out the influence of a network run by Fethullah Gulen, the preacher exiled in the US whom Ankara blames for a failed coup in 2016.

Gulen ran schools on the continent, including in Nouakchott, which were closed on the orders of the Turkish state 18 months ago.

A Turkish government-run school has since opened in the Mauritanian capital.By Gabriela Baczynska and Jan Strupczewski BRUSSELS (Reuters) - EU negotiator Michel Barnier accused the British government on Tuesday of clinging to "illusion" while time runs out for a Brexit deal to avoid massive disruption when Britain leaves the European Union next year. Speaking after briefing ministers from the other 27 EU states and ahead of publication on Wednesday of a first draft of a withdrawal treaty that officials say will cross many British red lines, Barnier returned to a familiar mantra that had become muted after an interim deal with London two months ago. "The clock is ticking. I am worried by the time, which is short," he told reporters, referring to an October target for agreeing a treaty, including a transition period, in time for it to be ratified before Brexit in March 2019. With British politics still in turmoil over Brexit, a mammoth project rejected by nearly half the country in a 2016 referendum, there has been a sharpening of tone on both sides. British officials accuse Brussels of eschewing creative solutions to avoid trade disruption, while EU leaders complain that Prime Minister Theresa May's divided government is failing to make its intentions clear. Asked about a comment by the EU summit chair last week that ideas for a future trade pact being floated ahead of a key May speech on Friday were "pure illusion", Barnier said he agreed with Donald Tusk. "It is illusory to imagine we will accept cherry-picking," he said of the idea that Britain could maintain EU regulations in some sectors, while diverging in others. Barnier also renewed his warning that a status quo for business for a couple of years after Brexit could not yet be taken for granted, given outstanding differences. And warning of a lack of progress in other areas of the talks, he said he was ready to meet his British counterpart David Davis urgently. Both sides had hoped an interim accord in December on how much Britain would pay Brussels and how expatriate citizens' rights would be protected would lead to a quick agreement by next month on a transition period, during which Britain would remain bound by EU rules, giving businesses time to adjust. However, May has pushed back on some EU proposals, such as rights for EU citizens arriving to live in Britain during the transition and mechanisms to hold London to EU law, while London is also seeking some flexibility up-front in the EU's proposal to complete its separation at the end of 2020. Barnier spoke of "significant points of disagreement" on the transition, and suggested Britain was trying to keep it open-ended. EU governments are keen that it does not become a long-term arrangement, though most are willing to consider extending it into 2021 if a future trade deal takes longer to take effect. May's spokesman played down the differences. "During a negotiation you would not expect both sides to immediately agree on everything. What's absolutely clear is that both the UK and the EU agree that an implementation period is beneficial and we're working to reach agreement in March," he said. WITHDRAWAL DRAFT Among controversial elements of the draft withdrawal treaty to be agreed by the executive European Commission on Wednesday are clauses on the enforcement of its terms for years to come by the EU court and on preventing "regulatory divergence" across the Irish border. British Brexit campaigners have already spoken out against what they expect the EU text to say. British officials stress that the text will reflect only an EU negotiating gambit in some cases, although other passages will translate into legal terms the agreements reached by both sides two months ago. Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson dismissed the EU's plan to hold Britain to judgments in the European Court of Justice, though EU officials say they have yet to hear a clear alternative from London on how to settle disputes. British officials are also uneasy about the EU writing into the draft that London will maintain regulations in Northern Ireland to avoid diverging from EU rules in the Irish Republic and so avoid a "hard border" that could disrupt the peace. EU officials acknowledge that Britain has said there may be other ways to avoid border friction -- but has yet to offer details. Brussels is awaiting May's proposals for a future trade relationship on Friday. EU leaders plan to approve a negotiating mandate for Barnier on those trade talks when they next meet in Brussels on March 22-23. The aim would be to agree a broad "political declaration" on the future to accompany the withdrawal treaty and to have a trade pact ready for 2021. May has ruled out remaining in the EU single market or customs union. Her Labour opponent Jeremy Corbyn outlined a plan on Monday to stay in a customs union, opening up a gap between the two big parties on Brexit that raised questions on whether May can pass her Brexit legislation, given her narrow majority. May's trade minister, Brexit campaigner Liam Fox, dismissed the Labour proposal as a "sell-out" as it would bind Britain to many EU rules while preventing it striking its own trade deals. Adding to doubts about how Britain will implement Brexit, the Scottish government confirmed plans for its own legislation on the withdrawal, a plan to be emulated in Wales. (Additional reporting by Phillip Blenkinsop and Samantha Koester in Brussels, Elisabeth O'Leary in Edinburgh and William James and Andrew MacAskill in London; Writing by Alastair Macdonald @macdonaldrtr; Editing by Gareth Jones)By Alastair Macdonald and Gabriela Baczynska BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Union on Wednesday laid out how it would regulate Northern Ireland's trade if no better solution was found in the fast-closing window before Britain's departure from the EU, prompting furious reactions in London and Belfast. Brussels' chief negotiator Michel Barnier, presenting the EU's draft of an exit treaty for Britain, denied that the proposal, intended to avoid a disruptive EU-UK "hard border" on the island of Ireland, would loosen Northern Ireland's constitutional ties to the rest of the United Kingdom. But British leader Theresa May told her parliament that no prime minister could ever agree to these terms as they would "threaten the constitutional integrity of the UK". The hardline Democratic Unionist (DUP) allies in Belfast on whom she relies for a slim majority denounced the EU draft as "constitutionally unacceptable" and "economically catastrophic" as it would distance Northern Ireland from mainland Britain. Establishing a "common regulatory area" with Ireland and 26 other EU states, as the draft treaty proposes, would in effect keep the British province in a customs union with the bloc. "Northern Ireland shall be considered to be part of the customs territory of the Union," read the draft, which some diplomats characterized as a clear bid by Brussels to seize the initiative and drive negotiations forward on its terms. Barnier said Britons should not be surprised by a text that merely translated an interim accord with London into legal language. And he said the border proposal was only a "backstop" solution, which could be changed if Britain offered alternatives along the lines of those it hinted at during talks in December. NORTHERN IRELAND PEACE SETTLEMENT Britain's vote to leave the EU has undermined one of the pillars of a 1998 settlement that ended decades of violence in Northern Ireland between mostly Catholic Irish nationalists and Protestant unionists favoring continued union with Britain. In Dublin, Foreign Minister Simon Coveney echoed Barnier, saying the draft was "absolutely faithful" to the December accord and "should not be a surprise to anybody". Prime Minister Leo Varadkar said it was up to May and the DUP to come up with their own solutions if they did not like it. Barnier rammed home that "time is short" before Britain will be out of the EU in exactly 13 months. He called on May to "pick up the pace" of negotiations so that a withdrawal treaty, including terms for keeping the status quo during a two-year transition, could be agreed this autumn and ratified by March. As the rhetoric on both sides has taken a more irritable turn, and negotiations have stalled since the interim accords in December, Barnier said he was "preparing for every situation" in case Britain, the continent's second-biggest economy, lurches out of the Union without a deal after 46 years. One EU diplomat said Barnier and his team had "switched gear into attack mode" and had agreed with Dublin on a tactic to push Britain on from December's fudge on the Irish border. Britain wants the border issue settled as part of an overall EU-UK trade deal which Brussels will only start discussing with it in April. May, who will lay out her vision for the future trading relationship with the EU on Friday, said she would work to protect UK unity in the negotiations. She again ruled out an EU-UK customs union - something that her Labour opponents advocate as a way to avoid disruptive controls at the Irish land border. "Overall the work has been progressing well in recent weeks," her spokesman said. "This is just a draft document ... and we will be having discussions where we don't agree in the coming months." Unionists fear new barriers with the British mainland could increase the chances of Ireland, which broke from British rule a century ago, absorbing Northern Ireland, most of whose 1.8 million people are entitled to Irish, and hence EU, citizenship. Barnier conceded there might be new checks on trade between Northern Ireland and the mainland - but definitely no "border". "NO ARROGANCE HERE" The Democratic Unionist Party's Nigel Dodds, however, said Barnier's "ludicrous" plan "will not go anywhere". Barnier dismissed suggestions that the draft was an attempt to "shock" Britons into concluding a deal, insisting that his sole goal was to avoid a disorderly divorce. "There is no arrogance here," he said. The draft treaty sees a joint EU-British committee overseeing the arrangements but the European Court of Justice remaining the ultimate authority to resolve disputes. Asked why the draft made no mention of a section in December's EU-UK joint report that there should be no regulatory divergence between Great Britain and Northern Ireland, Barnier said it was because that was an internal British matter. He restated his view that the proposals for future trade that May is expected to make on Friday - to maintain a mixture of common and different regulations with the EU - were not acceptable. "There will be no cherry-picking," he said. Barnier said he would engage in a new round of negotiations next week and would also meet leaders of Northern Ireland. He also said "significant divergences" remained in talks on a transition period, and so a deal, which both sides hope to clinch in March to calm business nerves, was "not a given". Supporters of Brexit argue that Britain will benefit from no longer being bound by EU rules and can do more trade with the rest of the world, while opponents say the prospect of new barriers to trade in Europe is already damaging its economy. May's government got a boost on Wednesday when Japanese carmaker Toyota confirmed plans to build a new model in England. (Additional reporting by Philip Blenkinsop, Jan Strupczewski, Robert-Jan Bartunek, Robin Emmott and Samantha Koester in Brussels, William James and Elizabeth Piper in London and Padraic Halpin in Dublin; Editing by Mark Heinrich)Brussels (AFP) - The EU has pressed Russia, Iran and Turkey to do what they can to get the Syrian government to halt its offensive in Eastern Ghouta to let aid enter and civilians evacuate.

The bloc's diplomatic chief Federica Mogherini said on Monday she would write to Moscow, Tehran and Ankara to ask them to enforce the de-escalation zones they agreed to create in Syria as part of talks held in Astana.

"The civilian population in Syria, and in particular in Eastern Ghouta, has already suffered too much. They deserve to receive relief from the fighting," Mogherini wrote in the letter, seen Wednesday by AFP.

"We call on you... to take all necessary steps to ensure that the fighting stops, that the Syrian people are protected, and finally that urgent humanitarian access and necessary medical evacuations are taking place."

Russia -- a key ally of the Syrian government -- on Monday announced a "humanitarian pause" of a few hours a day in the bombardment of the rebel-held enclave near Damascus, but residents have rejected the offer of safe passage and aid convoys have not entered.

The EU, which is hosting a conference on the future of Syria in Brussels on April 24 and 25, has repeatedly stressed it believes UN-led talks in Geneva are the only way to resolve Syria's nearly seven-year civil war.BERLIN (Reuters) - European and U.S. officials are planning to meet in Berlin in March for talks on Iran's 2015 nuclear deal with world powers, a German Foreign Ministry source said on Wednesday. Another European diplomat said the meeting would take place on March 15. Hailed as key to stopping Iran from building a nuclear bomb, the deal lifted economic sanctions in exchange for Tehran limiting its nuclear program. It was signed by the United States, China, France, Russia, Britain, Germany and the European Union. But U.S. President Donald Trump has long railed against the deal for reasons including its limited duration and the fact it does not cover Iran's ballistic missile program. Trump has threatened to pull out of the agreement unless European allies help "fix" it with a follow-up accord. Britain, France and Germany have called on Trump to uphold the pact. [nL8N1P61V9] Iran says its nuclear program is only for peaceful purposes and that it will stick to the accord as long as the other signatories respect it but will "shred" the deal if Washington pulls out. (Reporting by Sabine Siebold and John Irish; Writing by Paul Carrel; Editing by Catherine Evans)By Ben Blanchard, Benjamin Kang Lim and Philip Wen BEIJING (Reuters) - A vice minister of public security, a close confidant of President Xi Jinping, is tipped to take over as China's spy master, five sources said, as the country looks to clean up its security apparatus and plug intelligence gaps. China has poured billions of yuan into domestic security, but the secretive Ministry of State Security and the Ministry of Public Security in recent years have been hit with high-level corruption scandals and intelligence failings. Wang Xiaohong, 60, a vice minister of public security, will replace Chen Wenqing as minister of state security during the session of parliament which begins on March 5, three sources with ties to the leadership and two foreign diplomats said. Chen, 58, will become the country's top prosecutor after a little more than a year as minister of state security, three of the sources said. The ministry is responsible for counter-intelligence, foreign intelligence and national security. The change of guard is part of a broader cabinet reshuffle during the two-week parliamentary session. Wang and President Xi have long-standing ties. Wang is a native of the southeastern province of Fujian, where Xi spent 17 years cutting his teeth from 1985 to 2002. Wang was deputy director of the Public Security Bureau of Fuzhou, the provincial capital of Fujian, from 1993 to 1998 and the city's top police official from 1998 to 2002. Xi was Fuzhou party boss from 1990 to 1996 and provincial deputy party secretary until 2002. "They are very close," a source with leadership ties said. "Wang Xiaohong used to help look after Xi Jinping's daughter." A second source with leadership ties said Wang's rise had been fast-tracked in the same vein as other allies whose careers had overlapped with Xi in Fujian, most notably the Beijing party secretary Cai Qi, and Huang Kunming, who was promoted to head the central propaganda department late last year. Wang, a one-time fan factory worker joined the police force in Minhou county in Fujian in 1979. Neither the Communist Party's Organisation Department, which oversees personnel decisions, nor the State Council Information Office, which doubles as the party spokesman's office, responded to a request for comment. The Ministry of State Security does not have publicly listed contacts. Xi has made bolstering security, both domestic and overseas, a priority. In 2013, a year after Xi assumed power, China set up a new national security commission, which Xi also heads. While details of exactly how it operates and what it does are sketchy, the government has implied it has more of a domestic focus. Experts say it is based on the National Security Council in the United States and would increase coordination among the various wings of China's security bureaucracy, split now among the police, military, intelligence and diplomatic services. Possible international flashpoints for China include North Korea, Taiwan and the South China Sea. The Ministry of State Security is also still recovering from a graft scandal. In 2015, Ma Jian, then counter-intelligence chief at the ministry, was put under investigation for corruption and expelled from the party the following year. There has been no official update on his case since February last year, when China's judiciary said it would prosecute him for suspected bribery. A video confession surfaced on Chinese websites and social media in April in which Ma admitted to accepting bribes. He also said he abused his position to help China's highest profile fugitive, Guo Wengui, an exiled U.S.-based billionaire who has made incendiary claims of corruption at the highest levels of the Chinese government. Guo has denied Ma's allegations. Ma, once a vice minister of state security, is the most senior security official to be investigated since the former domestic security tsar Zhou Yongkang was ensnared in a graft scandal and jailed for life in 2015. The government announced in February last year that Ma would be prosecuted, but has given no other information since. "He's coming in to sort out the mess Ma left behind," said one Asian diplomat, speaking of Wang, the likely new minister. While China's domestic security spending outstrips defense spending, though the government stopped providing exact figures four years ago, it has also struggled with some pointed intelligence failures. One of those has been to prevent Uighurs, a Muslim people from China's far western region of Xinjiang, from traveling clandestinely to Turkey via Southeast Asia, where China says some of them have joined militant groups in Syria and Iraq. "China has poor intelligence on their movements and has been unable to produce much evidence" that they are indeed involved in militancy, said another diplomatic source, who is familiar with Chinese efforts to prevent the Uighurs from leaving and then trying and get them deported back to China. (Reporting by Benjamin Kang Lim, Ben Blanchard and Philip Wen; Editing by Philip McClellan)By Jarrett Renshaw (Reuters) - U.S. farm groups urged President Donald Trump in a letter on Monday not to weaken the nation's biofuels policy requiring corn-based ethanol to be blended into gasoline, calling it a critical engine of rural American jobs. Trump is due to meet with senators and cabinet members on Tuesday to discuss potential tweaks to the law, called the Renewable Fuel Standard, that would help oil refiners who have increasingly complained the program costs them a fortune. "As you meet this week to discuss these issues, we ask that you not entertain proposals that would undermine the purpose and intent of the RFS," according to the letter, signed by the heads of six farm groups, including the National Corn Growers Association and the American Farm Bureau Federation. "Any action that seeks to weaken the RFS for the benefit of a handful of refiners will, by extension, be borne on the backs of our farmers," according to the letter, a copy of which was seen by Reuters. The RFS requires oil refiners to cover the cost of blending increasing amounts of ethanol and other biofuels into the nation's fuels each year. The policy was adopted during President George W. Bush's administration to help farmers, cut petroleum imports and lower pollutant emissions. Under the program, refiners must earn or purchase biofuel blending credits called RINs to prove that they are complying. As biofuels volume quotas have increased over the years, so have prices for the credits  meaning refiners that must buy them are facing rising costs. Oil refiner Philadelphia Energy Solutions (PES), which employs more than a thousand people in Philadelphia, declared bankruptcy last month and blamed the regulation for its demise. Reuters reported other factors may also have played a role in the company's bankruptcy, including the withdrawal of more than $590 million in dividend-style payments from the refinery by its investor owners. Trump is due to discuss potential changes to the RFS on Tuesday with Republican Senators Ted Cruz of Texas, Chuck Grassley and Joni Ernst of corn state Iowa, along with Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt, Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue, and potentially Energy Secretary Rick Perry, according to sources familiar with the matter. While a handful of proposals will be considered, the sources said, past efforts to change the RFS have been stymied by strong opposition by corn lobbyists. (Writing by Richard Valdmanis; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)Officials at the Department of Housing and Urban Development reportedly spent $31,000 on office furniture for Secretary Ben Carson even as the White House sought to cut his agencys spending.

The purchased covered a hardwood table and a set of chairs, according to procurement records obtained by the New York Times.

In a statement to the Times, Housing and Urban Development spokesman Raffi Williams said Mr Carson was unaware of the table being purchased but did not intend to return it.

A senior official in the housing agency had filed a complaint alleging she was punished after telling her superiors there were legal limits on how much could be spent on office furniture, according to the Guardian.

Before Mr Trump tapped him to run the housing agency, Mr Carson had no significant government experience. He rose to fame as a surgeon before launching an unsuccessful presidential campaign, during which he ran as a Republican.

He faced criticism earlier last year for suggesting government-funded housing should not be too accommodating, warning against providing a comfortable setting that would make somebody want to say: Ill just stay here. They will take care of me.

Spending habits have already led to the ouster of one Trump cabinet official, former Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price, who stepped down amid revelations that he had flown on taxpayer-funded private charter planes.

Related Video:FedEx Corp. is maintaining discounts for members of the National Rifle Association, even as calls for a boycott mount on social media after a deadly school shooting in Florida.

The courier said it 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. The NRA is one of hundreds of organizations in its alliance programs, FedEx said Monday in its first public comment on the matter.

Since Sunday, the #BoycottFedEx hashtag has been included in more than 700 posts on Twitter, including one by Marjory Stoneman Douglas high school student David Hogg that has been shared more than 13,000 times. Hogg  who now has more than 330,000 followers on Twitter  and peers at Stoneman Douglas have gained national attention as advocates for gun-law reforms since a Feb. 14 attack at the school left 17 students and teachers dead.

FedEx said its views on firearms policy differ from the NRAs. While the company said it supports the constitutional right of U.S. citizens to own firearms, subject to appropriate background checks, it supports keeping assault rifles out of civilian hands.

Inherent Danger

Assault rifles and large capacity magazines are an inherent danger to schools, workplaces and communities when such weapons are misused, FedEx said in the statement. We therefore support restricting them to the military.

Shares of the Memphis, Tennessee-based company rose less than 1 percent to $254.51 at the close in New York. They were unchanged in late trading, following the companys statement on the NRA.

FedEx is part of the NRA Business Alliance and offers discounts through its FedEx Advantage program for shipping by FedEx Ground and FedEx Express and some services at FedEx Office, according to company and NRA websites. NRA officials also didnt immediately respond to a request for comment.

Delta Air Lines Inc. and United Continental Holdings Inc. are among companies that cut ties with the NRA following online calls to boycott the gun lobbying group. Symantec Corp., owner of Lifelock and Simplisafe Inc.; rental car companies Hertz Global Holdings Inc. and Avis Budget Group Inc. and insurer MetLife Inc. all have cut ties to the NRA. Apple Inc. and Amazon.com Inc. were among companies being pressured Monday on social media to drop the lobbying groups streaming TV channel.

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For a look at why Delta, Hertz have more to lose from NRA ties, click here

Supporters of the NRA, however, were mounting their own campaigns. Georgia Lieutenant Governor Casey Cagle, a Republican who is running for governor, on Monday threatened to kill tax legislation that would benefit Delta unless it reinstates its relationship with the NRA. A bill before the states General Assembly would exempt jet fuel from sales tax, benefiting the airline.

Corporations cannot attack conservatives and expect us not to fight back, Cagle wrote on Twitter.

Delta said Saturday it would end an NRA contract for discounted rates on flights to the groups annual meeting. The airline also asked to have its name removed from the NRAs meeting website.Florida state lawmakers voted in favor of a bill that would arm teachers, despite the objections from officials at the Parkland high school where a mass shooting set off a national conversation on gun control.

The Tuesday vote came nearly two weeks after a 19-year-old killed 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School with an AR-15 rifle. In the days following the tragedy, politicians, including President Donald Trump, have backed the controversial proposal to arm teachers.

On Tuesday, Floridas House Appropriations Committee voted along party lines to move forward with a bill that would require sheriffs departments to offer teachers training on carrying guns in the classroom, the Tampa Bay Times reported. Participation would be subject to school district superintendents approval.

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The state Senate passed a similar bill on TuesdayBill 7026, The Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety Act. It gives both superintendents and sheriffs the option to participate, the Sun Sentinel reported.

The votes to advance the bills come after officials at the Stoneman Douglas school voiced their opposition to arming teachers.

At a CNN televised town hall, Robert Runcie, the superintendent of the Broward County Public Schools district, where Stoneman Douglas is located, spoke out against the proposal a week after the shooting.

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Scott Olson/Getty Images

"We don't need to put guns in the hands of teachers, he told the crowd, to a sustained standing ovation.

On Wednesday, National Education Association President Lily Eskelsen Garcia excoriated the lawmakers who backed the Florida bills.

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Im furious. Parents know this is a bad idea, teachers know this is a bad idea, the school custodian knows this is a bad idea, the superintendents know this is a bad idea, she told Newsweek. More guns in the school is dangerous.

This is a cynical distraction. [Politicians] know exactly what the problems is, she continued. Politicians and the NRA know dangerous weapons are easily accessible to dangerous people, but they keep saying, Look over here! Lets give teachers more guns.

Garcia said the call to arm teachers is merely political sleight of hand to avoid talking about substantive gun control measures. Last week, the Florida House voted 71-36 to not hear a bill that would ban assault rifles.

They also don't want to talk about that this is not just a school issue, Garcia said. What about concerts in Las Vegas and churches in Texas and movie houses in Colorado and, by the way, medical buildings in Fort Hood [the Texas military base]? Last time I checked, theres a lot of soldiers with guns there.

A vote for final passage of the Florida bills could be held as early as Thursday or Friday.

This article was first written by Newsweek

More from NewsweekIn an emotional press conference, a first responder who saved a student at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School has described a tense series of events that began with thinking the patient had already died and ended as an uplifting story of hope.

Coral Springs Fire Department Lieutenant Laz Ojeda, sitting at a table alongside victim Maddy Wilford, said that he originally thought the 17-year-old was dead when he entered the school after the mass shooting. She was pale, he said, but a nudge from another first responder elicited a small response.

I believe she gasped or she moved. But, she made signs of life, Mr Ojeda said, describing the overall scene as "organised chaos".

He and other first responders immediately moved to save her life and keep her from becoming one of the 17 individuals who ultimately lost their lives. They put a chest seal on her wound, which Mr Ojeda believes may have alleviated symptoms associated with a punctured lung.

Once in emergency transport, Mr Ojeda said they gave Ms Wilford oxygen and fluids. He said the crew was en-route to a hospital 30 miles away, but that he decided to re-route to a closer hospital after she once again showed signs of life.

I looked at her. I gave her a sternal rub and I said, hey how old are you? Mr Ojeda said, his eyes welling with tears. Second sternal rub, I said, hey, how old are you? She came around. She told me she was 17. So at this point, I look at [another responder] and said, Were going to North Broward [hospital].

Ms Wilford survived after several surgeries, and attended the press conference with Mr Ojeda, and her parents. Her father, taking moments to look at his daughter and smile, said that he is grateful that his daughters life was spared.

Its hard for me to feel anything but gratitude, and thats for the miracle that has happened to her, and the way that shes been blessed, David Wilford said.

This really has been a miracle. And, I just have to give a lot of gratitude and thanks, Mr Wilford continued. And, I have a lot of sympathy for her classmates, and the other parents whose children were injured, and whose children didnt make it.NIAMEY (Reuters) - Four U.N. peacekeepers were killed and four others seriously wounded on Wednesday when the vehicle they were in hit a mine in central Mali, the West African nation's U.N. mission said. The troops were driving on a road linking the towns of Boni and Douentza in the Mopti region, where six Malian soldiers were killed in a similar incident a day earlier, the mission (MINUSMA) said in a statement. It said the death toll was provisional and could rise further. It declined to immediately give the nationalities of the victims. The statement said MINUSMA was reinforcing its security presence in central Mali, which has seen a surge in violence by Islamist militants, in cooperation with the country's army as well as regional and international forces. "These acts demonstrate (the militants') disarray and in no way affect MINUSMA's determination to carry out its mandate," said Mahamat Saleh Annadif, who heads the U.N. mission. (Reporting by Souleymane Ag Anara; Writing by Joe Bavier; Editing by Aaron Ross and Alison Williams)Bamako (AFP) - Four UN peacekeepers were killed on Wednesday when a mine exploded under their vehicle in central Mali in a deliberate attack, capping a bloody week for civilians and security forces in the West African nation.

Jihadists have ramped up their activities in central Mali in recent months, targeting domestic and foreign forces in violence once confined to the restive north.

The UN said in a statement that the "explosion of a mine or IED against a MINUSMA vehicle on the Boni-Douentza road" in the Mopti region killed the four peacekeepers and wounded four more.

Secretary-General Antonio Guterres "strongly condemned" the attack, his spokesman Stephane Dujarric said.

"These cowardly acts will not deter MINUSMA's determination to support the Malian authorities in their efforts to protect civilians and accompany the Malian people in their quest for peace and stability," Dujarric added.

The mission, known by the acronym MINUSMA, counts almost 11,000 peacekeepers and has been deployed in Mali since 2013 to counter a jihadist insurgency and general lawlessness.

"MINUSMA is currently upgrading its security presence in central Mali," Mission chief Mahamat Saleh Annadif said. "Cornered, the terrorists are multiplying their attacks."

Six Malian soldiers were killed on Tuesday when their vehicle struck a mine, the army said on Wednesday, and a forest ranger was gunned down in a third incident blamed on jihadists.

- Enquiry into security forces' abuses -

Mali's military is frequently accused of abuses, with families on Wednesday pointing the finger at the army in the killing of seven civilians during an operation in the same area a week ago.

A UN report published this month found that "at least 20 percent" of recorded incidents in 2016 and in the first of half of 2017 that endangered civilian lives involved the Malian authorities -- essentially the security forces.

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Nouhoun Sarr, the nephew of one of seven men killed on February 21 after their arrest by the military, said the authorities informed him on Wednesday morning of his uncle's fate.

"They called us to tell us our relatives were killed during the operation, without elaborating," he told AFP.

Yehia Ag Mohamed Ali, a former minister and member of the opposition Sadi party, told AFP: "According to our information, the seven civilians arrested on February 21 by the Malian army in Sokolo were killed by soldiers."

The government said in a statement on Wednesday that the army was "carrying out reconnaissance missions and searches in the Sokolo area, during which civilians unfortunately lost their lives".

"An enquiry has been opened," it added.

Islamic extremists linked to Al-Qaeda took control of the desert north of Mali in early 2012, but were largely driven out in a French-led military operation launched in January 2013.

In June 2015, Mali's government signed a peace agreement with coalitions of armed groups. But the jihadists remain active, and large tracts of the country are lawless.By Suzannah Gonzales

(Reuters) - An armed high school teacher in Georgia barricaded himself alone inside his classroom on Wednesday and fired a gunshot when the principal tried to force open the door, but no one was seriously injured, police said after the instructor was arrested.

The incident unfolded as schools around the country remain on edge from a shooting rampage at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, in which 17 students and educators were killed.

In response to that massacre, allegedly carried out by a former student, U.S. President Donald Trump has said teachers should be allowed to carry concealed firearms on school campuses.

The incident at Dalton High School, about 90 miles (145 km) north of Atlanta, the Georgia capital, began when a group of students tried to enter a classroom and found that their teacher would not let them in, Bruce Frazier of the Dalton Police Department said.

When the principal arrived and tried opening the door with a key, a single gunshot was heard from inside the room, prompting a security lockdown and evacuation of the school as police were notified and the schools resource officer was summoned, Frazier said.

Responding to reports of gunfire at the school, officers from the Dalton Police Department found the teacher holed up inside the classroom. He was taken into custody about 30 to 45 minutes later, police spokesman Bruce Frazier told reporters.

The suspect was identified as Jesse Randall Davidson, 53, a social studies teacher at the school who police said also serves as the play-by-play announcer for the Dalton High School football team.

Only one minor injury was reported on Wednesday - a girl who hurt her ankle while fleeing in the pandemonium, Frazier said.

Frazier said he had no immediate explanation of what may have precipitated the incident, and he declined to say whether he believed it stemmed from a suicide attempt.

"This teacher apparently did not want to involve students in this incident in any way," Frazier added.

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Dalton High School Principal Steve Bartoo said at an afternoon press conference that Davidson was considered an excellent teacher who was well thought of and "fit to work" at the school.

Our teachers care about our kids, they love our kids, they take care of our kids, and its certainly shocking to me, probably shocking to any school principal if one of their staff members you know pulled a gun out in a classroom and fired, Bartoo told reporters.

Frazier said it was not immediately clear whether any students had previously been in a classroom with the teacher while he was armed. The weapon involved was a handgun, he said.

Students at the high school, which has an enrollment of about 2,000 pupils, were taken to a nearby convention center after the evacuation, authorities said.

"It is really serious after so many things have happened all over the country," student Ricardo Perez told television station WTVC-TV in a telephone interview after the incident. "I'm shocked, I can't believe it. I thought it was a dream."

(Reporting by Jonathan Allen, Joseph Ax, Gina Cherelus and Peter Szekely in New York; Suzannah Gonzales in Chicago and Keith Coffman in Denver; writing by Steve Gorman and Dan Whitcomb; editing by Jonathan Oatis and Tom Brown)The GOPs first African-American chairman, Michael Steele, says he wasnt invited to a party event Monday honouring the achievements of prominent black Republicans.

The news comes after Steelewho chaired the Republican National Committee (RNC) from 2009 to 2011condemned racially charged comments that he was chosen to lead the party because hes a black guy at the Conservative Political Action Conference last week.

It is true, I did not receive an invitation but had no expectation of receiving one as I was unaware of the event occurring, Steele told Newsweek of the Black Republican Trailblazer Awards held Monday.

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02_27_Steele

Patrick T. Fallon/Reuters

It is what it is: however, I was pleased to receive a personal call from Chairwoman [Ronna] McDanielwhom Ive known and worked with for a whileexpressing her regret for the mistake, Steele said. To be honest, at this point, I have no feelings one way or the other about such things, he said, noting there are many party events he hasnt been invited to since he was chairman. The RNC did not respond to a request for comment.

Last weekend Steele spoke out after CPAC communications director Ian Walters told the annual gathering of conservatives that we elected Mike Steele to be the RNC chair because he's a black guy, that was the wrong thing to do. Walters said electing Steele to head the party was merely a reaction to President Barack Obama becoming the first African-American president.

Walterss comments were painfully stupid Steele told the Observer afterward.

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The question I have today is, what would a 17-year-old African-American male or female think about the Republican Party in joining it in 2018? Steele asked Saturday on Steele and Ungar, the SiriusXM radio show he co-hosts.

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It does reflect a certain attitude that folks inside the party are seemingly more comfortable with right now, he said of Walterss remarks.

Steele has indicated the tone in the party is being set at the top. In early January Steele told MSNBC he believes President Donald Trump is racist following a report in The Washington Post and other outlets that the president had called African nations and others shithole countries during a bipartisan meeting on immigration.

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I think at this point the evidence is incontrovertible. Its right there, Steele said of the story.

This content is not available due to your privacy preferences. Update your settings here to see it.

During the awards on Monday GOP Chairwoman McDaniel defended Steele and his tenure. Im proud that our party elected a black chairman, she said, according to The Washington Free Beacon, noting that she and Steele may not always agree on policy these days.

For anyone to say we shouldnt have or that electing him was a mistake just because of the color of his skin has no place in this party, McDaniel said. Its like saying I shouldnt be the chair because Im a woman. Its ridiculous.

The TrailBlazer awards were given out Monday to Dr. Leonard Haynes, who has served in senior posts in the U.S. Department of Education and Kay Coles James, president of the conservative Heritage Foundation.

This article was first written by Newsweek

More from NewsweekHMD Global, which operates the Nokia smartphone brand worldwide, unveiled four new phones on Sunday in Spain. The companys press conference took place after Huaweis smartphone-less press event, and right before Samsungs Galaxy S9 keynote, the event that everyone in Barcelona was actually waiting for.

Just like last year, three of these devices are Android-powered beasts, including the hottest Nokia-branded handset Ive ever seen. The fourth is a dumber model, but its one thatll put a smile on everyones face. The new Nokia 8110 is, like last years 3310, is a great marketing gimmick that will remind everyone and their grandmothers that Nokia is back in town.

But unlike last years budget phone, the new retro handset from Nokia is more than just a clever marketing gimmick. It has a bunch of features not seen on any banana phones before, including one feature that I would actually use.

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Nokia has a huge booth at MWC 2018, but HMD Global only owns a tiny portion of that. Yet, thats where plenty of people lined up to try out the new devices.

Unsurprisingly, the Nokia 81110 gets even more attention than Nokias more capable devices  and I can confirm thats the first phone I wanted to get my hands on. And yes, HMD did have plenty of real bananas on hand at its booth.

It looks plasticky and it feels cheap. After all, HMD plans to sell this baby for just 79 when it launches in March. Its a blast from the past with a tiny, non-touch screen and a 0-9 keypad. Ew! Navigating it is just as hard as youd expect until you remember you actually owned Nokia devices 15 years ago. Thankfully, that unsightly top antenna from the original phone is gone for good.

Its also got that slide-out keypad cover that you can use to answer and reject phone calls. And itll remind you of the phone from a certain movie.

But this tiny device that Id normally ignore a few minutes after trying it out does have a feature that appeals to me. Its got a 4G LTE chip inside. While browsing the web, using Google services (Search, Maps, and Assistant), or Facebook isnt appealing on that tiny display, turning the phone into a 4G mobile hotspot is not a bad proposition for 79. If youre traveling the world and looking for mobile hotspot devices, the Nokia 8810 might be a great option because it can also handle calls and messages, all on the same local SIM card. The battery should also help with that  expect 9 hours of call time or 25 days on standby.

Story continues

You shouldnt even care about this phones specs because it isnt a smartphone, so specs dont really matter. Were looking at a 2.4-inch display, Snapdragon 205 processor, 512MB of RAM, 4GB of built-in storage, 2-megapixel camera, and 1,500 mAh battery. Finally, the phone will have dual-SIM support in certain markets, and the battery is removable. You know, like in the good old Nokia days.

In closing, check out this video at around the 30-second mark

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See the original version of this article on BGR.comHillary Clinton speaks onstage at LA Promise Fund's 'Girls Build Leadership Summit' at Los Angeles Convention Center: Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images

Former Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton says that the Russians are going to try and manipulate US elections again regardless of whether President Donald Trump decides to address the issue or not.

Ms Clinton, noting her previous role as secretary of State, spoke out after Americas National Security Agency director, Adm Michael S Rogers, told told the Senate Armed Services Committee that he had not been authorised to change overall strategy on Americas efforts to curb Russian election meddling.

I say this as a former Secretary of State and as an American: the Russians are still coming, Ms Clinton said. Our intelligence professionals are imploring Trump to act. Will he continue to ignore & surrender, or protect our country?

Mr Rogers had told the Senate committee that the US intelligence community is doing what it can, but that he does not think that it is enough to convince Russian President Vladimir Putin to think twice about attacking American electoral systems.

Were taking steps, but were probably not doing enough, Mr Rogers said. He added that Mr Putin has clearly come to the conclusion that theres little price to pay here and therefore I can continue this activity.

If we dont change the dynamic here, this is going continue, he continued.

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Mr Trump has caught criticism for the way he discusses Russian meddling, frequently undermining the message from the intelligence community on the issue. While Trump allies say that the President has publicly recognised that Russia meddled in the 2016 election, his critics note that the President has frequently categorised the special counsel investigating the matter as a witch hunt.

The Presidents campaign is a point of interest in that investigation, and several former members of his team have been charged with alleged crimes discovered during the investigation.

Several members of the Trump administration have also been contacted for interviews by the investigators, including Mr Trump himself, though it is not clear if anyone in Mr Trumps campaign has been connected to Russias meddling in the 2016 election in a criminal way.(ATLANTA)  It was the summer of 1946 when two young black couples riding along a rural road were stopped by a white mob in Georgia at Moores Ford Bridge, overlooking the Apalachee River. The mob dragged the victims from the vehicle, led them to the riverbank and shot them multiple times.

The brazen lynching of the four sharecroppers horrified the country that year. President Harry Truman sent the FBI to the site in rural Walton County. Months of investigation yielded dozens of possible suspects. But a federal grand jury failed to indict anyone. The case was revisited several times decades later, and just last month Georgias top law enforcement agency closed its latest investigation not long after the FBI concluded its latest review, saying no one remained to prosecute because all the likely killers were dead.

Despite all that, activists and others who spent countless hours studying the slayings and trying to raise awareness still hope answers will surface.

We want to perfect the record for historys sake, to make sure this case is never forgotten, said Tyrone Brooks, a veteran civil rights activist who began looking into the lynching in 1968 at the request of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.

Even if no one is ultimately prosecuted for the deaths of Roger and Dorothy Malcom and George and Mae Murray Dorsey, its important to know what happened and who was involved, said Brooks, a former state lawmaker.

Particularly in recent decades, hopes of cracking the case have led civil rights activists, journalists, students, cold case groups and historians to the bridge and surrounding towns, about 50 miles (80 kilometers) east of Atlanta, seeking clues or trying to coax people into talking. But the communitys hesitancy to talk  out of fear or unwillingness  has persisted, much as it stymied investigators long ago.

Nonetheless, Brooks said the closure of the investigations wont stop him.

Our resolve is as strong as its ever been, he said.

Story continues

And each July since 2005, he has helped organized a reenactment of the lynching to raise public awareness that the case remains unsolved.

It all began after Roger Malcom, 24, had been jailed after stabbing and injuring a white man, Barnett Hester, during an argument. Witnesses told authorities Malcom suspected Hester was sleeping with his wife.

Loy Harrison, a white farmer, paid $600 to bail Malcom out on July 25, 1946, and was driving Malcom, his wife and the other couple home when  he told investigators  he was ambushed by a mob.

Harrison, who was unharmed, told authorities he didnt recognize anyone in the mob, which the FBI numbered at 20 to 25 people. An FBI report noted Harrison was a former Ku Klux Klansman and well-known bootlegger. The initial investigation lasted roughly six months and yielded dozens of possible suspects, some simply because they were Hesters relatives, friends or neighbors, or because they had no alibis. Ultimately, there were no indictments.

Law enforcement revisited the case in the 1990s after people came forward promising new information, though investigators said they still couldnt prosecute anyone. In June 2000, then-Gov. Roy Barnes ordered the Georgia Bureau of Investigation to reopen the case. That investigation closed in January and the bureau made public its redacted case file, including interviews, leads followed, case summaries and press clippings.

Laura Wexler, who wrote on the killings in Fire in a Canebrake: The Last Mass Lynching in America, said she experienced the communitys reluctance to talk when she began researching her book in 1997. When people did talk, she said, she heard different versions of the circumstances surrounding the lynching, often split along racial lines.

Unfortunately, when these histories divide, what you get is a hole in the center where the truth should be, she said. To me, the closure of the case with nobody held accountable is not surprising. I think its a demonstration of the power of race to distort even the best intentions to get at the truth.

Vivian James was a Kennesaw State University anthropology student when she participated in an excavation about seven years ago. The sleuthing uncovered dozens of bullets and casings and yielded a preliminary ballistics analysis.

She said she understands law enforcement cant continue committing resources to investigations if they feel theres no possibility of bringing someone to trial. But the case is still important, she said, both for personal closure for some and  more broadly  to ensure such atrocities never happen again.

Janis McDonald, co-director of the Cold Case Justice Initiative at Syracuse University College of Law, said some of her students worked on the case in 2015. She said that at least with the investigative files now publicly released, a fresh set of eyes might find something new.

She said it was vital to keep studying this and other big cold cases.

The reason this is so important is that were still facing all this racial conflict, and acknowledgement is the only real key to healing, McDonald said. Youve got to acknowledge that the wound is there, and that hasnt happened here.Hope Hicks, the White House communications director, gave a private nine-hour testimony before the House Intelligence Committee on Tuesday during which she reportedly admitted that she sometimes tells white lies for the president as part of her job.

Hicks insisted that she has not lied on President Trumps behalf about anything important, the New York Times reports.

White House Communications Director Hope Hicks (right) with White House press secretary Sara Sanders. (Photo: Getty Images)

The panel Hicks testified before is investigating Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election, as well as any contact the Trump campaign may have had with Russia. After the testimony, Republican committee member Tom Rooney told reporters, according to the Independent, that Hicks made it clear that while she told white lies on occasion, she did not lie about things of major significance. When specifically asked whether or not she was instructed to lie by the president, or the candidate, with regard to Russia, the investigation or our investigation, the answer to that question was no, Rooney said. And thats our jurisdiction. Not whether or not he asked her to cancel a meeting for him or something like that.

However, people on social media still seem pretty upset about the white lies comment:

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White lies, which are lies that are generally thought to be harmless or trivial, are pretty common, Josh Klapow, PhD, a clinical psychologist with the University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Public Health, tells Yahoo Lifestyle. These fibs generally include comments like Ill be there in five minutes, I love the gift, and Im fine.

White lies generally fall into the category of altruistic lying, meaning that you avoid telling the truth to try to protect someone or not hurt their feelings, Klapow says. Theyre usually done to avoid conflict, he adds. However, white lies arent altruistic all the time.

In general, white lies are not that big of a deal, but context means a lot, Klapow says. For example, if youre in a position of power and you tell a white lie, it can actually have much bigger ramifications than saying youre doing great when youre actually having a bad day. At higher levels of power, it can affect more people, Klapow says, which is why he cautions against doing this in the workplace if you have a senior position.

Story continues

White lies can also lead to a string of lies if youre not careful, Klapow says. Thats why he stresses trying to think about what you say before you actually tell a white lie. Otherwise, you could end up eating the same crummy meal every week, instead of just once, had you been honest about how it really tasted.

Bottom line: In general, white lies are pretty harmless, but context is everything. Now if only we had the context for the white lies Hope Hicks told.

Read more from Yahoo Lifestyle:

Follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter for nonstop inspiration delivered fresh to your feed, every day.



Donald Trump's long-time aide Hope Hicks has reportedly admitted telling white lies for the President on occasion.

But the White House communications director declined to answer questions about her time working for Mr Trump since his inauguration, saying lawyers had advised her not to do so.

In a private nine-hour testimony to the House intelligence committee, Ms Hicks insisted she had not lied on the Presidents behalf about anything substantive. She was spokeswoman for Mr Trump during the 2016 election campaign, and as one of his closest aides, she is a key witness to his actions.

The panel is investigating Russian interference in the election and any contacts between the Trump campaign and Russia.

The top Democrat on the panel, Adam Schiff, said afterwards that Ms Hicks had answered questions about the election campaign and had answered some questions about the transition period between the election and the inauguration - but that she would not answer any questions about events since the Republican took the oath of office, similar to some other White House officials who have given evidence.

Mr Schiff said Ms Hicks did not assert any type of executive privilege, but that she said had received legal advice not to answer.

Another committee member, Republican Tom Rooney, said Ms Hicks's answer was completely unrelated to the Russia investigation.

When specifically asked whether or not she was instructed to lie by the President, or the candidate, with regard to Russia, the investigation or our investigation, the answer to that question was no, Mr Rooney said.

And that's our jurisdiction. Not whether or not he asked her to cancel a meeting for him, or something like that.

In a series of tweets before the hearing, Mr Trump quoted cable news commentators who said they had not seen evidence of collusion between him and Russia. One tweet encouraged investigations of rival candidate Hillary Clinton. Another said: WITCH HUNT!

Story continues

The White House has said the President was involved in drafting a statement last summer after it was revealed that campaign officials and Russians held a meeting in 2016.

The statement said the meeting primarily concerned a Russian adoption scheme, though emails released later showed that Mr Trump's eldest son, Donald Trump Jr, enthusiastically agreed to talk to a Russian lawyer and others after he was promised dirt on Mrs Clinton. Ms Hicks was with the president on Air Force One while they were writing the initial statement.

All of our questions about what went into that statement went unanswered, Mr Schiff said.

As the interview wore on, Ms Hicks and her lawyer relented, after speaking to the White House, on one area of questioning - the transition period between the election and the inauguration.

She initially refused to answer questions on it, but Mr Schiff said it became clear that she had talked about that period to the Senate intelligence panel. That committee is also investigating the meddling and spoke to Ms Hicks several months ago.

Republicans on the committee subpoenaed Steve Bannon, Mr Trumps former chief strategist, when he had similarly declined to answer questions about the transition period. Mr Bannon had accused the Presidents son and others of treasonous behaviour for agreeing to the meeting with Russians in 2016.

Asked about Ms Hicks's refusal to answer some questions, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said: We are cooperating, because as the president has said repeatedly, there is no collusion, and we're going to continue to cooperate, and hopefully they'll wrap this up soon.

AP contributed to this report.One of President Donald Trumps closest personal aides throughout the 2016 election campaign and into his presidency is expected to appear before the House Intelligence Committee Tuesday morning.

During a closed-door interview, White House Communications Director Hope Hicks will face questions in its probe examining whether Trumps campaign colluded with Russian attempts to meddle in the 2016 election. Two House officials confirmed Hickss appearance before the committee at 10 a.m. to Bloomberg. Multiple sources also confirmed the interview to CBS News and ABC News.

The committees top Democrat, Representative Adam Schiff, said Hicks would appear relatively soon. He would not confirm the interview. The question is: When she does come in, will she be prepared to answer all of our questions? Schiff told ABC News.

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02_27_Hicks

Olivier Douliery/Getty Images

It is not known whether Hicks, 29, has received any instructions from the White House about how to respond to questions. Schiff said other officials have cooperated fully with the committees investigation.

Yet former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon and Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski have both refused to answer questions before the committee, according to Schiff.

Since early 2017, the committee has been part of multiple ongoing congressional probes into Russias election interference. On February 16, special counsel Robert Mueller indicted 13 Russians who allegedly waged information warfare on the U.S. in the form of online and real-world misinformation campaigns.

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Alongside Muellers investigation, Congress has been examining the scope of these campaigns and whether the Trump campaign played a part in helping the Kremlin. Trump has repeatedly denied any connection between his campaign and Russian meddling.

Story continues

During the 2016 campaign, Hicks served as Trumps campaign press secretary. She replaced Anthony Scaramucci as head of the Trump White House communications team last August.

Read more: Trump aide Hope Hicks allegedly pledged emails about Trump Tower Russia meeting would never get out

In late January, The New York Times reported that Mark Corallo, a former spokesman for the presidents legal team, would soon speak with Mueller about a concerning phone call he had with Hicks and Trump last summer.

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The call came in the wake of revelations that Donald Trump Jr. had accepted an offer in June 2016 to meet with a Russian lawyer after allegedly being promised dirt on Hillary Clinton that came from the Russian government.

Corallo reportedly told three colleagues at the time that Hicks said the emails setting up the meeting will never get out. A lawyer for Hicks, Robert Trout, told the Times the suggestion that emails or other documents would be concealed or destroyed is completely false.

The committee is expected to ask Hicks about the conversation and answer questions about what she saw during the Trump campaign and transition period where she served as national press secretary.

Last week GQ magazine named Hicks the most powerful person in Washington, apart from the president. She was originally scheduled to appear before the House Intelligence Committee in January, but the interview was postponed.

This article was first written by Newsweek

More from NewsweekWhite House Communications Director Hope Hicks has said part of her role working for President Donald Trump involves occasionally telling white lies.

The 29-year-old made the comments as she appeared before the House Intelligence Committee on Tuesday, during her eight hours of testimony, The New York Times reported.

But despite acknowledging that she was required to tell white lies on occasion, she said she had not lied about matters linked to the investigation into Russias alleged attempt to influence the outcome of the U.S. election.

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And, according to Bloomberg, the first 20 minutes of Hickss interview consisted of the subject areas she would rather avoid talking about, including questions about the Trump transition period and her time working in the Trump White House.

Indeed, although Hicks did not invoke executive privilege, she declined to answer a number of questions related to the topics she outlined at the beginning of the session, informing the committee the White House had requested she speak only about her time on the campaign.

02_27_Hicks

Olivier Douliery/Getty Images

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Once she was given the go-ahead by the White House, The Hill reported Hicks did consent to answering some questions about the transition period.

However, the top Democrat on the committee, Adam Schiff, said Hicks had refused to comment on "key events such as the fabrication of that statement about the Trump Tower meeting.

Thats an overly broad claim of privilege that I dont think any court of law would sustain. And I think the White House knows that, Schiff said. This is not executive privilege, it is executive stone-walling

Story continues

Hicks is suspected of promising that the emails Donald Trump Jr. received offering dirt on Hillary Clinton would "never get out, reportedly making the comment during a conference call with Trump and Mark Corallo, a former spokesman for Trump's legal team who had been interviewed by special counsel Robert Mueller.

This article was first written by Newsweek

More from NewsweekWASHINGTON (Reuters) - Three U.S. Marines have been released after being evaluated for symptoms that began after a letter was opened at a military base in Arlington, Virginia, a base spokeswoman said on Wednesday. Eleven people began feeling ill on Tuesday after a letter containing an unknown substance was opened on the Marine Corps side of the Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall. The Naval Criminal Investigative Service and the Federal Bureau of Investigation are investigating the incident. Three Marines were released from the hospital on Tuesday night after additional medical evaluations, said Leah Rubalcaba, a spokeswoman for the base outside Washington. She said symptoms included dizziness, nausea and nosebleeds in some cases. (Reporting by Doina Chiacu; Editing by David Gregorio)A Sacremento mother of three who has survived two forms of cancer has been given days to leave the United States, where she has lived for nearly three decades.

Lawyers for Martha Lozano, 52, have said they do not understand why she would be a priority for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), which has warned Lozano that if she does not leave the country by Thursday, she will be deported back to Mexico, according to CBS Sacramento.

Lozano, who recently became a grandmother, said she has never had a criminal recordincluding even a parking ticket.

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GettyImages-79930321 (1)

Joe Raedle/Getty

Im scared that I have to leave and that my children will have to stay here alone, without any of their parents to care for them, said Lozano, who has lived in Modesto for almost 30 years.

Her husband was already been forced to leave the country nearly a decade ago after he was pulled over and arrested by ICE agents on a day when his wife was on her way to a local hospital for surgery. All three of the couple's children are U.S. citizens.

One of Lozano's children, Jonathan, told CBS he does not understand why ICE has decided to go after his mother.

We dont really see the reason why. Its just like your time is up and thats it. They dont really give any explanation of why or how come, they just dont want to extend her period of time here anymore, Jonathan said.

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Lozano said she has been requesting a stay of deportation for the last nine years, but that this year, ICE denied her request, despite doctors writing a letter to ICE in January saying her health could be put at risk without consistent medical follow up.

Story continues

However, ICE determined that Lozano, whose cancers have been in remission for several years, was healthy enough to return to Mexico, according to the FresnoBee.

Plans to deport Lozano come amid a crackdown in California by ICE that has reportedly seen more than 150 people detained.

ICE agents swept through northern California as part of "targeted immigration enforcement operations," the agency told Fox News on Tuesday.

The agency claimed roughly half of those arrested had convictions for assault and battery, crimes against children, weapons charges and DUI charges.

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ICE did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Newsweek.

The arrests came following a warning from Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf, who put out a press release warning residents that she had been informed by "multiple credible sources" that ICE would be conducting a raid in the Bay Area this week.

Schaaf said she felt a "moral obligation" to warn and "protect" residents, writing: I know that Oakland is a city of law-abiding immigrants and families who deserve to live free from the constant threat of arrest and deportation."

President Donald Trump recently hit out at California, calling its sanctuary cities " a disgrace." The U.S. leader threatened to pull ICE agents out of the state and accused it of doing a "lousy management job."

The president said the state would become a "crime nest" without ICE's presence.

The threat came amid the Trump administration's efforts to put pressure on sanctuary jurisdictions, with the Justice Department recently threatening to withhold millions of dollars in federal grant money to communities that refuse to cooperate with federal law enforcement.

This article was first written by Newsweek

More from NewsweekA group hoping to create a third political force in America  one with some of the trappings of a party but thus far operating outside of partisan politics  on Tuesday named the two candidates it plans to run for the U.S. Senate in November.

In forming the Centrist Project last year, senior strategist Joel Searby had targeted Senate seats in seven states. Tuesdays announcement  which included news that the group had changed its name to Unite America  introduced Craig ODear, a candidate in Missouri for the seat now held by Democrat Claire McCaskill, and Neal Simon, who is running for Democrat Ben Cardins seat in Maryland.

Unite America is also endorsing three gubernatorial candidates, including one incumbent, Alaska Gov. Bill Walker, who was elected as an Independent but faces dismal approval ratings in his state.

The groups goal was to win enough Senate seats to deprive either major party of a majority, forcing them to compromise with each other and to cooperate with Unite America. They ask candidates to endorse their five principles and to pledge that if elected to the Senate they will not caucus with either party.

The end goal emphatically is better governance, said Dartmouth public policy professor Charles Wheelan, whose 2013 book The Centrist Manifesto helped inspire the movement. Everybody is about winning elections and they seem to forget that the purpose of winning is to govern.

But the group has discovered that building a movement is difficult without an infrastructure to support candidates, from money to data to campaign advisers to a national message. The group ended 2017 with $258,120 on hand.

Something weve been learning is it is not a process where you can handpick someone and go create a senate or gubernatorial candidate out of thin air, said Searby.

Now that the word is getting out that we do have an infrastructure, that there [are] over 20,000 people in our grassroots and hundreds of thousands of Facebook followers, people are saying this is maybe something I want to be a part of, Searby said.

Story continues

But Unite Americas executive director, Nick Troiano, refuses to identify the groups work as party building.

The aspiration is not to become a political party, Troiano said, adding that he sees parties as part of the problem.

He then added, Pragmatically speaking, to elect candidates to office  we have to be able to replicate some of the structures that parties have.

The other independent candidates running for governor with the backing of the group are Greg Orman of Kansas, who mounted a competitive but unsuccessful campaign for the U.S. Senate in 2014, and Maine Treasurer Terry Hayes, a former Democrat.

Orman said in his remarks that about half the country thinks we need a third party. And he described the need for a preexisting apparatus that provides personnel, data and messaging.

Wheelan said in an interview Tuesday that we certainly are building a party apparatus but without a lot of the baggage.

Talk of a third party has simmered with increasing frequency since Donald Trump took over the Republican Party. New York Times columnist David Brooks wrote in favor of a third party earlier this month. Its time for something new, Brooks said.

Juleanna Glover, a veteran Republican operative who worked for former Vice President Dick Cheney, also wrote a New York Times op-ed recently in favor of a third party, and pointed out that 61 percent of Americans support the formation of another party, according to Gallup.

Unite Americas core message has broad appeal.

Orman said they want to upend a system in which you win elections by painting your opponent as the most extreme version of themselves and trying to make voters afraid of them or hate them.

We can find common ground on almost every major issue that divides us, he said.

But the test for Unite America will be how many elections they win. And if their candidates are successful, then their challenge will be keeping those elected officials from joining one of the two parties in exchange for help in getting things done.

Read more from Yahoo News:MOSCOW (Reuters) - Baghdad is open to business with any company interested in supporting the country, Iraqi Foreign Minister Ibrahim al-Jafari said in Moscow on Wednesday, answering a question about the activities of Russia's Rosneft in the region. "We are not closing doors for any company, which wants to help us," he told a news conference, responding to a question about a report in Russian media that Igor Sechin, the head of oil giant Rosneft, may visit Iraq. Rosneft has contracts in the region of Kurdistan where a controversial independence referendum has sparked tensions with Baghdad. (Reporting by Denis Pinchuk; Writing by Maria Tsvetkova; Editing by Polina Ivanova)Do you have an unresolved tax issue but cant get a hold of the IRS? During this busy filing season, the IRS estimates that the agency is only able to answer six out of ten calls from taxpayers. Luckily for us, theres a Taxpayer Advocate Service (TAS) within the IRS specifically set up to give voice to your tax concerns. If your refund is held up or youre a victim of identity theft, the TAS is tasked with resolving the tax problems of individuals and small businesses.

Yahoo Finance interviewed Nina Olson, IRS National Taxpayer Advocate, to find out some of the obstacles taxpayers can expect to face this filing season, and how to tackle them.

Scammers are now targeting your employer

Identity thieves get more sophisticated each year. Coming up with new schemes to steal the most data with the least amount of work, Olson warns that scammers are now targeting employers payroll departments.

Typically the scammer, posing as someone from the IRS, will call a payroll employee and ask them to resend their W2 forms, stating the original electronic file has been corrupted. With all those Social Security numbers, names, addresses, and earnings on hand, scammers are able to produce perfectly filed returns and deposit the refunds into their own bank accounts.

If youve determined that more than one return was filed using your SSN, and the one youre trying to file is being rejected as a duplicate, take these 6 steps to protect yourself:

File a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission Alert the major credit bureaus Check your credit report for accounts opened without your authorization Fill out IRS Identity Theft Affidavit, form 14039 Send in a paper tax return Set up spending alerts on your bank and credit card accounts

Scammers are targeting tax preparers

Hackers are also targeting tax preparers who are ill-prepared for a security breach. Carefully crafted phishing emails that look official, but are ripe with malicious links, are being sent to accountants and tax professionals across the country.

Story continues

There are different twists to this new filing scam. In one scenario, the scammer uses the taxpayers real bank accounts for the deposit and then calls the taxpayer, posing as an official debt collection agent. On this call, the scammer typically says the refund was deposited in error, and requests the money forwarded to a new account.

In todays day and age of rampant ID theft, Olson advises that before you hire someone to do your taxes, find out what measures they have in place to safeguard their clients information, what security software is used, how sensitive electronic files are securely shared, and where all your information is being stored.

You may have to file an amended return

By mid-February, 32 million Americans have already filed their taxes, but some may need to amend their returns in order to claim their full benefit. In the Budget Bipartisan Act of 2018 that was signed on Feb. 9, there were a number of tax provisions that had expired at the end of 2016, but were retroactively extended through 2017.

Basically what this means is that some deductions, also known as above the line deductions like tuition and mortgage expenses, are available without having to itemize to claim the benefit. But because the forms are outdated, you might need to fill out additional forms when you file.

For taxpayers who have already filed, you may have to file an amended return.

For those in the process of filing now, Olson says the IRS is working to get guidance and information to tax companies so they can reprogram the software and allow people to claim their full benefit for 2017.

Weve had times before where this has happened and its led to a great deal of confusion on taxpayers, says Olson, but you can check the IRSs website for any updated forms as they get revised.

Do you have a question about your taxes? Email them to us at moneyquestions@yahoo.com

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5 secure smartphone settings thatll protect you from hackersThe Church of the Holy Sepulchre has been closed since Sunday - AFP

Israel on Tuesday suspended tax measures and other actions that led to the rare closure of the church built at what is seen as the holiest site in Christianity, shut down all week in protest.

Christian leaders who have kept Jerusalem's Church of the Holy Sepulchre closed since Sunday were yet to respond to the decision and it was not clear whether it would reopen imminently.

The closure has left thousands of pilgrims and tourists seeking to visit the site locked outside, with some kneeling in front of its large wooden doors to pray in Jerusalem's Old City.

Dozens of protesters rallied outside the church on Tuesday afternoon in support of Christian leaders.

A statement from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said a "professional team" would be appointed to come up with a solution to tax measures imposed by Israeli authorities in Jerusalem firmly opposed by Christian leaders.

More than 500,000 Christian tourists visit Israel every year Credit: THOMAS COEX/AFP/Getty Images

"As a result, the Jerusalem municipality is suspending the collection actions it has taken in recent weeks," the statement said.

Israeli Regional Cooperation Minister Tzachi Hanegbi will also look into the issue of land sales in Jerusalem by Christian bodies.

During that time, a proposed law that Christian leaders say would allow Israel to expropriate church land now owned by private investors is to be shelved, the statement said.

The church is built where Christians believe Jesus was crucified, buried and resurrected. Custody of it is shared by the Greek Orthodox, Armenian and Roman Catholic denominations.

Christian leaders are in part angry over attempts by Israeli authorities in Jerusalem to enforce tax collection on church property they consider commercial, saying exemptions only apply to places of worship or religious teaching.Ivanka and Jared must return to NYC and stay out of U.S. politics. Shes qualified, shes designed handbags, stilettos and a wonderful perfume fragrance, Ugh! Newsroom readers are joining the chorus questioning if Ivanka Trump has too much power. The first daughter and adviser to dad President Trump recently traveled to the Winter Olympics in South Korea, the latest eyebrow-raising appearance as part of her controversial post. Pundits and the public have long questioned her role and influence, but now White House chief of staff John Kelly is also said to be concerned. This week he made the call to downgrade the security clearance of Ivankas husband, Jared Kushner. According to a report, Kelly is frustrated and questioning whether the first daughter has the qualifications to represent the administration. Newsroom seems to agree: We have children playing king and queen while poppa plays President, one reader wrote. Another chimed in: To represent the U.S. should be an earned honor, not appointing relatives. What do you think? Does Ivanka deserve her power in the White House? Join the conversation in Newsroom.White House adviser and son-in-law of US President Donald Trump, Jared Kushner has had his security clearance downgraded

Jared Kushner, Donald Trumps son-in-law and the White House adviser, has been denied access to top-secret intelligence after having his security clearance downgraded.

While maintaining the responsibility for trying to broker peace between Israel and Palestinians and other high-profile tasks, Mr Kushner has had his interim security clearance downgraded from top secret to secret, along with a host of others. The change was also confirmed by Mr Kushners lawyer.

All White House aides who had been working on an interim clearance were informed of the change via an internal memo, Politico reported. The document was not signed by Chief of Staff John Kelly, however.

The staffers, all operating on a Top Secret/Secret Compartmentalised Information (SCI) clearance, were taken down to the Secret designation.

The SCI designation meant staffers had access to information that came from sensitive intelligence sources and had to be walled off, according to the news outlet.

Mr Kushner, 37, had been attending Mr Trumps daily briefings from the US intelligence committee, but will no longer have access to those.

The memo appeared to be in response to facts unveiled during the scandal involving former White House Staff Secretary Rob Porter.

Mr Porter resigned from his position earlier this month after it was revealed that his two former wives were accusing him of alleged physical abuse and that was why Mr Porters permanent security clearance had not gone through as yet.

He was one of several White House staff who had not received their permanent clearance but who still had fairly unfettered access to secret information.

Mr Trump has the right to grant Mr Kushner permanent clearance and it remains unclear why he has not done so yet.

On 23 February, the same day of the clearance memo, Mr Trump said he would leave the decision up to Mr Kelly. The former Marine general said that same day in a statement: 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.

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It is unclear whether Mr Kushner needs Top Secret/SCI clearance in order to work on the Middle East peace process or the US relationship with Mexico.

Mr Kushner had repeatedly hit roadblocks on his way to obtaining the permanent security clearance  the former New York real estate broker had to refile his paperwork multiple times.

The chief of the National Investigations Bureau Charles Phalen told a House committee back in October 2017 that he had never seen that level of mistakes made on the form before.

Altogether the form included four addenda and well over 100 errors  whether by omission or mistakenly entered information.

One notable missing item on his initial form was his June 2016 meeting with his brother-in-law Donald Trump Jr, then-Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort, and a Russian lawyer linked with the Kremlin Natalia Veselnitskaya.

The group had reportedly met to talk about adoptions of Russian orphans by US citizens but by Mr Trump Jrs own admission, the meeting had been set up for opposition research - Ms Veselnitskaya had information on 2016 election opponent Hillary Clintons financial dealings in Russia.

White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders would not comment directly on the memo but said during a news conference that Mr Kushner is a valued member of the team and he will continue to do the important work that hes been doing since hes started in the administration.

His attorney Abbe Lowell said in a statement that his client has done more than what is expected of him in [the security clearance] process, adding that the change in clearance level would not affect Mr Kushners ability to continue to do the very important work he has been assigned by the President.

His appointment to the position was met with criticism last year due to his lack of political or government service experience.Meghan Markle sported a Jason Wu dress for her first onstage appearance on Wednesday. She attended the Royal Foundations Make a Difference Together forum with Prince Harry, which marked her "working" debut alongside the Royals.

Markle's choice of designer may have been inspired by Michelle Obama. The former First Lady was fan of Wu's clothing, frequently choosing to wear his dresses to White House events during husband President Barack Obama's tenure.

Markle was raised in Hollywood, California, but her choice of Wu may have been a nod to Canada, Wu's native country. Before moving to the U.K., Markle lived in Toronto, where the USA series Suits is filmed. Markle starred on the show from July 2011 through 2017, and during that time she collaborated with Canadian clothing company Reitmans on a line of women's fashion (released in November 2016). Markle has since announced that she will transition out of acting after her marriage to Prince Harry in May.

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Chris Jackson/WPA Pool/Getty Images

Although Markle has made a limited number of royal appearances with Harry since the couple announced their engagement in November, shes already displayed a preference for Canadian designers, like Line the Label and Smythe and Sentaler.

In addition to making her first onstage appearance with Harry, the forum marked the first event in which she spoke alongside Harrys brother and sister-in-law, Prince William and Kate Middleton, Duchess of Cambridge.

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Launched in 2011 by William, the foundation serves as the primary outlet for the princes charity and philanthropic initiatives. Following her May wedding to Harry, Markle will become the fourth member of the organization.

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While speaking at the event, Markle said that she will use her partnership with the Royal Foundation to empower young girls and women living in the U.K, noting that, thanks to the #MeToo and #TimesUp movements sweeping the globe, there was no better time to "shine a light on women."

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This article was first written by Newsweek

More from NewsweekIn 2016, Jennifer Lawrence got politically vocal.

For years the actor and star of the new film Red Sparrow had avoided politics, but now that has all changed. In an interview with Vanity Fair, Lawrence explained her change of heart. Ive always thought that it was a good idea to stay out of politics, says Lawrence. Twenty-five percent of America identifies as liberal and I need more than 25 percent of America to go see my movies. Its not wise, career-speaking, to talk about politics. When Donald Trump got sworn into office, that fing changed.

Now, she shares her political opinions, whether people want to hear them or not, which she says is just part of her personality. If Im thinking something, Ive made it very clear Im going to talk about it, she says. My family obviously hates every time I talk about politics because its hard to see your kid get criticized and they live in Kentucky, where nobody is really liking what Im saying.

Kentucky overwhelmingly voted for Trump in the 2016 presidential election and while Lawrence doesnt support him, she does understand why her former neighbors might. Heres a big powerful man in a nice suit, pointing at you and going, Im going to make you rich. Its so appealing, she says. The Democrats made a huge mistake by chastising the Trump supporters, and that was disgusting to me. Of course theyre not going to vote for Hillary Clinton; theyre going to vote for Donald Trump. You laughed at them when their plight is very real.

Lawrence, however, was a supporter of Hillary Clinton because of her status as a career politician with a great deal of experience in politics. I wouldnt hire an assistant if they didnt have experience, she said. Were talking about the president of the fing United States!It's no surprise that Last Week Tonight host John Oliver is firmly against President Donald Trump's proposal to arm teachersthere's little about Trump's agenda that Oliver agrees with. The HBO late-night comedian didn't linger too long on the topic Sunday night, but the few minutes he spared for the president and the National Rifle Association were brutal.

Following the deaths of 17 people in the February 14 mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, Trump suggested arming around 20 percent of school teachers to deter future shootings. It's a position the NRA has backed for years.

Oliver played a clip of Trump addressing Parkland survivors at the White House last week, in which the president declared, "We need to let people know coming into our schools that you're going to be dead, and it's going to be fast."

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"OK, so, first thing there," Oliver joked, while the Last Week Tonight's audience booed the president's words, "'You're going to be dead and it's going to be dead and it's going to be fast' is already the slogan for Carl's Jr., so you can't use that!

"Trumps support for this clearly terrible idea seemed to develop over the week," Oliver continued. "He actually focus-grouped it on Wednesday during a listening session featuring survivors of the shootinga session, incidentally, for which his notes including a reminder to say I hear you, which is what you might write down if you were a robot pretending to be a person pretending to be a robot pretending to be a person.

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The crack was a reference to Trump's now infamous "cheat sheet," a list of talking points reminders the president brought with him to the listening session.

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GettyImages-922475254

Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

The comedian further mocked Trump for asking for a show of hands to support giving teachers guns in the room full of survivors. Unsurprisingly, almost no one raised their hand in support. When Trump asked who opposed the idea, many more hands were raised. That is Donald Trump in a nutshell: proposing a terrible idea in a tone-deaf way, then refusing to acknowledge that he just lost the popular vote, Oliver noted wryly.

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"There are clearly multiple issues with the idea of arming teachers," Oliver continued on a more serious note, "from the fact that it is not their job, to the fact that there was an armed deputy in Parkland and that didnt deter or stop the shooter. But even the logistics of this plan are pretty daunting."

Oliver has a point. Arming 20 percent of teachers with guns, per the president's suggestion, would mean roughly 700,000 guns in the hands of teachers, according to 2015 stats from the National Center for Education. While that idea found little support in the listening session, there are others who are into it.

"Its no wonder the NRA likes this solutionit involves buying hundreds of thousands of guns," Oliver observed. "Thats their solution to everything! They probably deal with climate change by pointing a Glock at the ocean and daring that motherfucker to rise."

Finally, Oliver concluded, many teachers strongly oppose arming teachers. The comedian played a clip of National Education Association president Lily Eskelsen Garcia, who recently spoke out against the president's plan on CBS This Morning. "This does not pass any common-sense test whatsoever," Garcia said.

"Donald, your answer doesnt make sense," Oliver said, echoing Garcia's words in his best teacher voice. "Also, we dont actually want less guns in schools, we want fewer guns in schools. DonaldFocus, DonaldOne, two, three all eyes on me!

This article was first written by Newsweek

More from NewsweekCalifornia state Sen. Kevin de Leon and U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, both at the California Democratic Party state convention Feb. 24, 2018. (Photos: Denis Poroy/AP)

LOS ANGELES  Dianne Feinstein has been the senior United States senator from California for the last quarter-century. She is the first and only woman to have chaired the Senate Rules Committee and the Select Committee on Intelligence. Before joining the Senate, she was the first female mayor of San Francisco; before that, she was the first female president of the citys Board of Supervisors. In 1994, Feinstein authored the federal assault weapons ban; during President Obamas first term, she led a groundbreaking investigation into the C.I.A.s controversial post-9/11 interrogation program.

And yet on Saturday night California Democrats gathered at the San Diego Convention Center and voted not to endorse Feinstein for a sixth term, making her the first incumbent senator in decades to compete in a Golden State primary without the official backing of her party.

Instead, Democratic delegates threw most of their support  54 percent versus Feinsteins 37  to challenger Kevin de Leon, a Los Angeles politician 33 years her junior with precisely none of her experience on the national stage.

The result wasnt a total shock, though de Leons share of the vote was bigger than expected. Californias Democratic delegates tend to be progressive activists, and progressive activists, whove badmouthed Feinsteins bipartisan instincts and relatively hawkish foreign-policy views for years, have become especially eager to unseat her since last August, when she refused to call for President Trumps impeachment, arguing instead that he can be a good president if he can learn and change. Also worth noting is the fact that de Leon didnt secure his partys endorsement either. For that, he would have needed 60 percent of the vote.

De Leon at the California Democrats state convention. (Photo: Denis Poroy/AP)

Even so, de Leons strong finish raises an intriguing question: Are Democrats in California  where shifts in American politics tend to happen first  on the verge of tossing out the partys decorous old guard in favor of a new, more pugnacious generation? Is the so-called resistance a threat not only to Trump & Co., but to Democrats like Feinstein too?

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De Leon certainly hopes so; his entire candidacy is premised on that possibility. President pro tempore of the state Senate since 2014  he is the first Latino to hold the position since 1885  he will hit his term limit later this year. With a newly elected senator, Kamala Harris, serving alongside Feinstein; a popular mayor, Eric Garcetti, recently reelected back in Los Angeles; and a 2018 California governors race overstuffed with high-wattage contenders, de Leon is a rising political star with no obvious office to rise into. And so, seizing upon perhaps the only available opportunity, he immediately set about selling himself to a shell-shocked statewide audience in the wake of Trumps election.

That night, the night of Nov. 8, I was stunned, just like so many of my fellow Democrats, de Leon told Yahoo News shortly before Trumps inauguration. But the next morning I got up and got to work.

By getting to work, de Leon means something very specific: in short, doing whatever possible to transform California into ground zero for the resistance  and to cast Kevin de Leon, by extension, as one of the movements leaders. On Nov. 9, de Leon and his counterpart in the state Assembly, Anthony Rendon, released a letter proclaiming that California would lead the resistance to any effort that would shred our social fabric or our Constitution; in January 2017, they hired former Attorney General Eric Holder to shape their legal strategy.

Ever since, de Leon is particular has pushed bill after bill designed to thwart Trumps agenda: SB 54 (aka the California Values Act), which prevents the administration from forcing local police departments to assist in the deportation of undocumented immigrants, thereby transforming the whole of California into a so-called sanctuary state; SB 49 (aka the California Environmental, Public Health, and Workers Defense Act of 2017), which mandates that California enforce environmental and worker protection standards no less stringent than the ones that existed at a federal level before Trump took office; and SB 227 (aka the Protect California Taxpayers Act), which would allow Californians to circumvent Trumps new caps on certain tax deductions by making charitable donations to the state.

Earlier in February, de Leon addresses a press conference held by the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights about immigration sweeps. (Photo: Irfan Khan/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)

Fifteen months later, de Leon can credibly claim that hes done as much as any legislator in the country to oppose the president  and, of course, thats exactly the claim hes making on the campaign trail.

My name is Kevin de Leon, and I am the president of the most progressive legislative house in America, he said at the start of Saturdays convention speech. We carved it in stone: no matter the place of your birth or the hue of your skin, you can live in California in safety, dignity and, yes, sanctuary.

Much of the rest of de Leons address was dedicated to drawing what political consultants like to call contrasts with his primary opponent.

He didnt pull his punches. Feinstein, 84, is currently the oldest sitting U.S. senator; if reelected, she will be 91 when her next term concludes. Twice de Leon mentioned congressional seniority, and the implication was lost on no one.

He went on to say that the days of Democrats biding our time, biting our tongue, and triangulating at the margins are over  a not-so-implicit rebuke of Feinsteins measured approach to politics, which the New Yorker once described as slightly formal in style, with a faithful adherence to procedure and protocol and a belief in settling disputes privately, by argument rather than by force.

At a demonstration outside Feinsteins Los Angeles office in January 2017, protesters demand that Congress refuse to confirm President Trumps Cabinet picks. (Photo: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

De Leon then rattled off all of the insufficiently progressive things Feinstein has done, and that he would never do: I would never oppose card check, and will never vote for school vouchers; I would never vote to allow federal agents to spy on American citizens without warrants: I would never vote to prosecute 13-year-olds as adults; I would never call our country the welfare system for Mexico; I would never vote for two different wars lasting 17 years, costing countless American lives and more than five trillion dollars.

And, lest anyone forget, de Leon made sure to mock Feinsteins gentle comments about Trump.

In your state Senate, Democrats act like Democrats, he said. We demand passion, not patience. We speak truth to power, and weve never been fooled into believing Donald Trump can be a good president.

Even beyond the convention hall in San Diego, de Leon has had some success with this line of attack; two of the states most influential unions, the SEIU and the California Nurses Association, previously endorsed his insurgent bid.

In December, Yahoo News followed de Leon to a series of campaign stops in Orange County and found a candidate convinced that his moment has arrived. Wearing a navy-blue merino sweater, slim gray slacks and a silver Apple Watch, de Leon appeared at least a decade younger than his 51 years; his impossibly black mop top helped to sustain the illusion. He mixed easily with Democratic regulars at the Plumbers, Steamfitters, Welders & Apprentices local in Orange, where he received a poster-size comic book cover depicting Donald Trump as a tyrannical madman; later, he mingled with young, cosmopolitan Democrats sipping cocktails atop a luxury apartment building in Irvine.

As God is my witness, I had no intention of running for U.S. Senate at that moment, de Leon said of the day Feinstein made her remarks about Trump. Im the youngest child of a single immigrant mother who had a third-grade education. I never pined or aspired to be a politician. Its never been part of my DNA. But I made a decision to send out a press release [criticizing her] that day, and I cannot tell you how many phone calls, how many texts I got, even from members of Congress, who always wanted to say this but were always afraid. I was like, Youre afraid to criticize the obvious? Thats stunning to me. And thats why I made the decision  that we need change, that we need a new voice. Not of the past, but of the present and the future.

After the passage of a state law combating wage theft in 2015, de Leon hosted a celebration at the headquarters of a service workers union.

The question now is whether de Leon can convince California. He may be more in tune with the zeitgeist than Feinstein; he may even be more in tune with the most active California Democrats, who have embraced their new role as Trumps top antagonists. But ultimately de Leons candidacy could prove to be a case study in the limitations of resistance politics, rather than its power.

Feinstein is formidable, despite her deviations from current liberal orthodoxy. In an ordinary state, de Leon might have a shot at snatching his partys nomination away from a moderate incumbent by running to her left in the primary. But California has a nonpartisan primary system, which means the top two finishers  likely Feinstein and de Leon  will advance to the general election regardless of which of the two gets more votes on June 5th. After that, moderation tends to be a plus, not a minus.

Meanwhile, Feinstein has rustled up $13 million for her reelection; de Leon has raised $434,000. The latest statewide poll shows her ahead by 29 percentage points (46 percent to 17 percent), up from 24 points in November. De Leon is fighting like mad to raise his profile, and more cash. But so far, he has only slipped further behind.

All of this is symptomatic of a larger reality: Feinstein may not be popular among self-styled resistance fighters, but how many resistance fighters are there, really  even in California? And how many are just as upset about moderate Democrats as they are about Trump Republicans? Enough to unseat a trailblazing woman who has been serving the state for decades and who won reelection in 2012 with more votes (7.75 million) than any other senator in U.S. history? Enough to replace her with a largely unfamiliar legislator who presided over the state senate during a sweeping sexual-harassment scandal?

Feinstein arrives for a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing in December 2017 on firearms regulation. (Photo: Carolyn Kaster/AP)

Recently, Feinstein has started speaking out more forcefully against Trump. In January, she took the extraordinary step of releasing a key transcript from the Senate Judiciary Committees Russia probe without the Republican chairmans approval, earning a nickname from the president in the process: Sneaky Dianne.

I think what were beginning to see is the putting together of a case of obstruction of justice, she said in December.

Whether such boldness is a political gambit meant to neutralize de Leon is difficult to say. But either way, it serves to remind Californians that seniority has its advantages.

To say you would come in as a rookie and be more forceful against Donald Trump than Dianne Feinstein means people are going to care about what the hell you say, because what you do will be marginal, Bill Carrick, Feinsteins longtime strategist, tells Yahoo News. You want to have an influential United States senator? Dianne Feinstein is the ranking member on the Judiciary, where she can actually do something to stop these judges who are outside the mainstream. On the Intelligence Committee, shes a senior member investigating President Trump, particularly on Russian interference. And on the Judiciary Committee shes investigating obstruction of justice. Its campaign rhetoric versus reality. And its pretty preposterous.

Anyone following the California Senate race should expect to hear more of this from Feinstein in the months ahead. Its a canny point: that resistance can take many forms, and that a quieter, more traditional approach may still be more effective. Unless de Leon can prove otherwise, he wont be able to repeat his San Diego upset in November.

De Leon gets a kiss from a supporter during an event held to formally announce his run for U.S. Senate in October 2017. (Photo: Jae C. Hong/AP)

_____

Read more from Yahoo News:Students from Coral Glades High School hold signs as they participate in a school walk for gun law change on Feb. 21. (Photo: RHONA WISE via Getty Images)

My 15-year-old son texted me from the streets of Iowa City last week, as he joined other kids in a walkout to support survivors of the shooting that took place earlier this month at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. By the time they reached the historic Old Capitol of Iowa, their ranks had swelled to hundreds.

A lot of people arent happy with these kids. A school district in Texas announced last week that any students participating in such protests against gun violence would be suspended for three days. A Nevada school district threatened to keep kids from participating in school-sponsored events, including benching school athletes, if they took part in walkouts; a district in Wisconsin issued a blanket unexcused absence for any student engaged in protests during the school day.

On the evening of the walkout my son participated in, our school district sent an email saying he hadnt been in class and asking if we, as parents, would grant permission for an excused absence.

My son didnt need permission, though. He was following the lessons of his history books  and what I believe is our best American tradition for change.

In her extraordinary speech at a rally last week, Stoneman Douglas high school student Emma Gonzalez invoked the actions of an earlier generation of students in Iowa.

Just like Tinker v. Des Moines, we are going to change the law, she said, referring to students who earned the right to protest the Vietnam War at their school. That 1969 Supreme Court ruling affirmed that students do not have to shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate.

Then-Supreme Court Justice Abe Fortas wrote unequivocally:

In our system, state-operated schools may not be enclaves of totalitarianism. School officials do not possess absolute authority over their students. Students in school, as well as out of school, are persons under our Constitution. They are possessed of fundamental rights which the State must respect, just as they themselves must respect their obligations to the State.

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My son also reminded me that his peers actions were not a symbolic gesture of youthfulness. Iowas Republican-controlled legislature passed one of the states most extreme pro-gun bills last year, barring law enforcement from notifying firearms sellers if any gun owners permit has been suspended or revoked. It also allows any kid under the age of 14 to legally shoot pistols or revolvers as long as theyre under the direct supervision of a sober guardian over the age of 21.

In 2011, Iowa passed a law that allows legally blind residents to obtain permits to purchase guns and carry them in public.

High school students march in the streets of Iowa City last week as part of a walkout to call for stricter gun control policies. (Photo: Lindy Rublaitus/The Little Hawk)

Reeling somewhere between rage, incredulousness and grief, my kids and their schoolmates are simply fed up with adults, sober or otherwise, who have thrown up their hands at the seemingly unbreakable grip of the NRA on Iowas legislature.

Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds (R) was a featured speaker at the organizations Womens Leadership Forum Summit last year, and lawmakers such as Sens. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) and Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) have openly accepted massive amounts of campaign contributions from the group. Ernsts last campaign raked in over $3.1 million in gun lobby expenditures alone.

We are going to be the last mass shooting, Parkland students have boldly announced, setting off a ripple effect that challenges this kind of campaign complacency in my generation.

As walkouts take place and are planned across the country  nationwide protests are set to take place in March and April  these kids are not only leading the resistance to the gun lobby in our elections. As a father, journalist and historian, I also realize they are galvanizing the resolve of their parents and communities in a historic moment to find the courage and leadership for a broader change in policy-making.

History reminds us that young people have often played this role as catalysts for resistance.

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Hundreds of high school and middle school students from the District of Columbia, Maryland and Virginia walk from the U.S. Treasury to the White House in support of gun control on Feb. 21. (Photo: OLIVIER DOULIERY via Getty Images)

Two months ago, for example, federal Judge A. Wallace Tashima struck down a 2010 Arizona law that had effectively banned the teaching of Mexican-American studies in a Tucson school district. That historic legal decision was the result of an arduous and long-term campaign of walkouts, protests and teach-ins led by Mexican-American high school students and supporters who continued to confront a law that served an invidious discriminatory racial purpose and a politically partisan purpose, according to the federal ruling. The youth never gave up.

This multiyear resistance campaign by the Tucson students came 50 years after the Birmingham Childrens Crusade in 1963, when young people faced down the police forces of Eugene Bull Connor in order to challenge segregation policies in parks, businesses and neighborhoods. The controversial role of kids in the protests served as a turning point in the civil rights movement.

Defying high-powered water hoses, police dogs and blows from police batons, hundreds of Birmingham kids were arrested, thrusting the brutality of the citys segregationists into the national spotlight. Then-Attorney General Robert Kennedy warned Connor, among others, that an injured, maimed, or dead child is a price that none of us can afford to pay.

Within a week of the childrens arrests, local leaders had negotiated agreements for desegregation at lunch counters and other businesses. Later that year, they had negotiated for desegregation in schools. Similar walkouts led by students in East Los Angeles, California, in 1968 reframed a national discussion on the inequalities of education from those most affected by failed policies: the students.

Decades earlier, in 1903, children joined famed labor leader Mary Mother Jones as she marched from Philadelphia to New York to expose child labor conditions. Although it took years for states, and eventually the federal government, to pass child labor laws, the historic 125-mile march set off the ripple effect that first brought the issue to national attention.

Weve arrived a similar hinge moment in history.

Thanks to the organizing tools of social media, as well as coverage in local and national news outlets, young people from Florida to Iowa to California have made it clear that they dont plan to wait for years for our representatives in office to act on gun control and finally break from the grip of the NRA on state and federal levels.

For that, they sure dont need my permission for an excused absence. Instead, they have my gratitude and respect.

Jeff Biggers is the author of the forthcoming book Resistance: Reclaiming an American Tradition.

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This article originally appeared on HuffPost.North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un used an illegally obtained Brazilian passport to apply for visas to western countries in the 1990s, according to European security services sources quoted by Reuters.

The news agency published a photocopy of two Brazilian passports reportedly used by Kim Jong-Un and his father, Kim Jong-Il, issued by the Brazilian embassy in Prague in 1996. Itamaraty, Brazils foreign ministry, said it was investigating the case. The justice ministry declined a request for comment. Calls to the North Korean embassy in Brasilia went unanswered.

According to the documents in the Reuters story, Kim Jong-Un travelled under the alias of Josef Pwag, who was born in Sao Paulo in 1983. Kim Jong-Il apparently used the name Ijong Tchoi. Before the introduction of digital security measures, Brazilian passports were popular on the global black market due to the Latin American countrys ethnic diversity and political neutrality.By Percy Dabang YOLA, Nigeria (Reuters) - At least 10 people were killed in an attack in a region of northeastern Nigeria that has been a flashpoint for communal clashes between farmers and herders, a military commander and a local politician said. Such clashes have plagued Nigeria's hinterland despite pledges by President Muhammadu Buhari since he took power in 2015 to improve security, especially in the northeast, which also faces an insurgency by the militant Islamist group Boko Haram. Brigadier general Bello Mohammed said on Wednesday soldiers under his command killed 10 herdsmen and arrested seven others after attackers struck a village in the Gwamba region of Adamawa state on Tuesday. The region is a hotspot for violence between Muslim herders and Christian farmers over rights to grazing land and agriculture. Others said the number of people killed was higher. Omayan Tambaya Dilli, a local councillor in the Gwamba region, a few hours after the attack told Reuters 20 people were killed and more than 20 injured after attackers, who he said could be herders, struck. The attackers came in pick-up trucks and riding motorbikes, and razed many buildings, said Dilli and Yanwari Lunakam, a local vigilante from Gwamba. Lunakam said 31 people had died and 24 others were injured. A third person, another vigilante and who declined to be identified, also put the death toll at more than 30. "We tried our best to defend ourselves but their number was overwhelming," the person said. (Reporting by Percy Dabang in Yola; Writing by Paul Carsten; Editing by Alison Williams)A woman was killed Tuesday in South Africa after being attacked by a lion, BBC News reported.

The mauling reportedly occurred at a private game reserve in Pretoria, the administrative capital of the nation. The victim was a 22-year-old woman, authorities said.

"Tragically, the victim had sustained severe injuries and she died at the scene," 911 spokesman Nick Dollman told the BBC.

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Dollman told the news service that bystanders tried to revive the victim with CPR but were not able to save her.

South African news outlet Eyewitness News (EWN) reported the Gauteng Agriculture Department was investigating the incident.

"It is indeed very sad and regrettable," said Loyiso Mkwana, director-general of natural resources, according to EWN. "We are with the members of the family of the deceased. These kinds of incidents we should not have them and we should always have vicious, dangerous animals like lions under control."

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lion

John Moore/Getty Images

While attacks from lions aren't necessarily common, they're not entirely unheard of either. The body of a suspected poacher, for instance, was found in the Ingwelala Private Nature Reserve earlier this month. According to National Geographic, the body was difficult to identifymuch of it had apparently been eaten by a pride of lionsbut it was recovered alongside a hunting rifle and ammunition. An expert on poaching told the outlet lions are typically killed for teeth or claws.

"If you look at the economics of poaching, these guys are taking a risk. It's got to be worth their while," Michael 't Sas-Rolfes of the University of Oxford told National Geographic at the time. "The probability [of being caught] and penalty is about the same... but the price for lion body parts is way lower than rhino horn."

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While the person killed by lions earlier in the month was suspected of poaching, there was no indication Tuesday as to what the caused the attack.

This article was first written by Newsweek

More from NewsweekJeff Daniels and Tahar Rahim in The Looming Tower. (Photo: JoJo Whilden/Hulu)

In The Looming Tower, we see the rise of Osama bin Laden and al-Qaida and witness the efforts of the CIA and the FBI to prevent terrorist attacks. This story peaks with the attack they, and other intelligence sources, didnt prevent, on Sept. 11, 2001. Its a terrible story made dramatic in this 10-part Hulu adaptation of Lawrence Wrights 2006 Pulitzer Prize-winning book of the same name. This Looming Tower lays out how much America knew, and how much it didnt, in the lead-up to this violent tragedy.

Producers Alex Gibney and Dan Futterman stage this story as a struggle between John ONeill, head of the FBIs counterterrorism unit, and Martin Schmidt, head of the CIAs al-Qaida unit. ONeill, played by Jeff Daniels, is depicted as a passionate, flamboyant hothead; Schmidt, played by Peter Sarsgaard, is all fussy reserve. Their essential natures are antithetical to each other  its no wonder one doesnt trust the other; they do everything they can to undercut each other. Yet the show is careful to emphasize that this was no mere battle of egos; each was doing his best to save the United States from what he thought was a highly likely attack.

Three episodes of The Looming Tower were made available for review, and its a big-canvas production with a large cast. Whenever were not witnessing FBI and CIA squabbles, we are most frequently alongside Ali Soufan, a Muslim Lebanese-American FBI agent who senses quicker than most Americans the scope and possibility of terrorism in our homeland. As played by Tahar Rahim, Soufan is a quietly intense young man who eventually becomes ONeills most trusted aide. Bill Camp, fresh from HBOs The Night Of, is excellent as usual, this time as Robert Chesney, a veteran New York FBI counterterrorism expert. And one key scene in the third episode is stolen by Alec Baldwin as a grumpy, decisive George Tenet, director of the CIA. The overall message of The Looming Tower seems to be that America could have prevented the 9/11 attack, but a confluence of warring ideas, contradictory interpretations of intelligence, and a reluctance to make hard decisions made the tragedy almost inevitable.

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Its fascinating to watch the ways these men  and most of the principals were men  gathered information, formed theories and conclusions, and butted heads with one another over plans of action. Its dismaying to absorb one of this miniseries most timely subtexts: that during the most intense time leading up to the 9/11 attack, the American media was distracted by President Bill Clintons Monica Lewinsky scandal. Clearly, one of the lessons we didnt learn from this period of history is that our news media constantly emphasizes the wrong, most superficial things, and leaves Americans gravely ill-informed about whats going on outside of our country.

The Looming Tower is streaming now on Hulu.

Read more from Yahoo Entertainment:President Donald Trump speaks during a meeting at the White House on Feb. 26, 2018. (Photo: Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post via Getty Images)

Most voters believe President Donald Trump should do more to prevent violence against women.

Sixty-eight percent of people in a recent survey from the Center for American Political Studies at Harvard and the Harris Poll believe Trump needs to do and say more on violence against women. Forty-eight percent of GOP voters believe Trump needs to do more on this issue.

Sixty percent of people surveyed said they would support tougher legislation to combat violence against women in the U.S.

The CAPS-Harris Poll asked respondents about various hot-button issues, including sexual violence and the Me Too movement, gun control, Americans relationship with Russia, and Trumps social media habits. The poll, published on Feb. 22, surveyed 2,148 registered voters from around the country.

The president has come in for sharp criticism over how his administration handled the recent allegations of domestic violence against former White House staff secretary Rob Porter. Trump, along with other members of his administration, continued to defend Porter even after he resigned from his position earlier this month following reports that he physically, verbally and emotionally abused both of his ex-wives.

Meanwhile, 13 months into his presidency, Trump still has not nominated a director for the Office on Violence Against Women, an agency within the U.S. Department of Justice.

The CAPS-Harris poll also found that a majority of voters have a favorable impression of the Me Too movement, with 55 percent approving of the movement and 45 percent not approving. Fifty-seven percent of female respondents said they have a favorable impression of the movement.

The Me Too movement took the internet and world by storm last fall when actress Alyssa Milano asked her Twitter followers to share stories of sexual harassment and assault using the hashtag #MeToo. The movement was originally created by the youth organizer Tarana Burke in 2007. Over the past six months, dozens of powerful men, including Harvey Weinstein, Kevin Spacey and Matt Lauer, have been called to account for allegations of sexual harassment and assault.

Story continues

Trump himself has been accused of sexual misconduct  ranging from sexual harassment to assault and rape  by 21 women. Hes denied all allegations against him, tweeting in December that the accusations are fake news. In October, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders suggested that all of Trumps accusers are lying.

In a December poll, half of American voters said they believed Trump should resign over the multiple sexual misconduct allegations against him.

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Need help? In the U.S., call 1-800-799-SAFE (7233) for the National Domestic Violence Hotline.

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This article originally appeared on HuffPost.COLOMBO (Reuters) - Maldives on Wednesday denied a Japanese foreign ministry statement that said a Maldives-flagged vessel was used to illegally transfer goods from a North Korean-flagged tanker in defiance of U.N. Security Council resolutions. The Japanese statement said the "Chon Ma San", designated by the United States as a sanctions target, was spotted by a surveillance plane with the Maldivian-flagged tanker "Xin Yuan 18" some 250 km (160 miles) east of Shanghai on Saturday. It said "Japan strongly suspects that the vessels conducted ship-to-ship transfers" banned by U.N. Security Council resolutions. Maldives government denied that Xin Yuan 18 is of Maldivian origin and said "no such vessel is registered in the country." "We condemn ... the use of our national flag in a manner so as to tarnish the good standing and reputation of our nation," the Maldives government said in a statement. It said Maldives has prioritized the implementation of all U.N. Security Council resolutions including those on North Korea. Authorities do not allow flags of convenience to foreign owned vessels to operate outside Maldivian waters, it said, adding that the government was investigating. "The Maldives will pursue aggressive action against any such acts which affects the national identity in such a detrimental manner," it said. The Maldives is facing a political crisis that has hurt tourism, its main revenue source and any international action could hurt its economy further, analysts say. It is the fourth time Japan has suspected such an illegal transfer in recent weeks and comes as Washington and key Asian allies preparer to expand the interceptions of ships suspected of violating North Korean sanctions. North Korea last year conducted dozens of missile launches and its sixth and largest nuclear test as it pursues its goal of developing a nuclear missile capable of reaching the United States, triggering deeper U.N. Security Council sanctions. Washington on Friday slapped sanctions on dozens more companies and vessels linked to North Korea's shipping trade and urged the United Nations to blacklist some entities to shut down smuggling aimed at obtaining oil and selling coal. (Reporting by Shihar Aneez)BAMAKO (Reuters) - Mali's government has said it is investigating accusations by an opposition party that the army kidnapped and executed seven civilians in the center of the country last week. The opposition SADI party accused the army of executing the men, who had been attending a religious celebration in the village of Nangarabakan in the Segou region on Feb. 21. The victims included an imam and family members of the village chief, SADI said. In a statement late on Tuesday, the government confirmed that civilians had been killed during a search and sweep operation in central Mali, which has been ravaged by Islamist militants' attacks, and that it had ordered an investigation. "The government expresses its condolences to the bereaved families and reiterates its determination to pursue operations ... with strict respect for human rights rules and international humanitarian law," the statement said. Islamist groups seized control of Mali's vast northern territories in 2012 before being driven back by a French-led military intervention. They have since regrouped and spread into the more populated center of the country, winning recruits by playing on local grievances such as rights abuses by the army. A report by campaign group Human Right Watch last September accused the Malian military of conducting extrajudicial killings, kidnappings, torture and arbitrary arrests against suspected sympathizers of jihadist groups. The government has acknowledged some abuses by its forces in the past but also rejects many allegations made by rights groups. Islamist militants have launched increasingly frequent attacks on civilians, Malian troops and U.N. peacekeepers in the center of the country in recent months, expanding their reach beyond their stronghold in the desert north. Six Malian soldiers were killed when their vehicle struck a land mine near the town of Dioura late on Tuesday, the army said in a statement, the latest in a series of mine attacks in the central Mopti region. The army did not say who they believed to be responsible for planting the landmine. (Reporting by Adama Diarra; Additional reporting by Tiemoko Diallo and Souleymane Ag Anara; Writing by Sofia Christensen; Editing by Gareth Jones)Meghan Markle has signalled her support for the Me Too and Time's Up movements, suggesting the younger generation of the Royal Family could harness their momentum to "shine a light" on women's empowerment.

Ms Markle, who appeared on stage with her future husband and in-laws to discuss their charity work, said there was "no better time" to continue to raise the profile of women's voices, as she referenced the high profile movements against sexual harassment by name.

The American former actress, who will become a member of the Royal Family when she marries Prince Harry on May 19th, said she cannot wait to hit the ground running in her official duties, having already spent time meeting with charities behind-the-scenes.

The Prince and Ms Markle undertook their first official speaking engagement with the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge at a forum to discuss their Royal Foundation, the umbrella organisation which coordinates their charity work.

Women dont need to find their voice, they need to feel empowered to use it

Meghan Markle

In a public Q&A, they were invited to lay out their plans for the future as Ms Markle brings her considerable experience in the charity sector to Britain.

Asked about her work campaigning on gender equality issues and women's empowerment, she said of the sector: "You'll often hear people say, 'you're helping women find their voices'.

I fundamentally disagree with that because women don't need to find a voice: they have a voice. They need to feel empowered to use it and people need to be encouraged to listen.

Meghan Markle sits next to her future sister-in-law, the Duchess of Cambridge Credit: Chris Jackson /Getty

"I think right now in the climate we are seeing so many campaigns, I mean Me Too and Time's Up, there is no better time than to really continue to shine a light on women feeling empowered and people really helping to support them, men included in that.

"It makes such a tremendous difference.

Making a small concession to her wedding planning at the prompting of Prince Harry, she added: So I guess we wait a couple of months and then we can get the ground running. We can multitask, thats fine!

Story continues

Prince Harry, Meghan Markle and the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge attend the first annual Royal Foundation Forum Credit: Eddie Mulholland For The Telegraph

Referencing global anti-sexual harassment movements MeToo and Time's Up will be seen as a significant moment for Ms Markle, who has long campaigned for equality issues but is now faced with the restrictions of the Royal Family in avoiding statements that could be construed as political.

The Duchess of Cambridge had faced pressure to wear black to the Baftas in support of Times Up ten days ago, instead choosing to tread a tactful line in dark green with a black ribbon.

Their differing approach is likely to reflect both their natural personalities and their differing public positions, with Prince Harry and Ms Markle enjoying considerably more freedom than the Duke and Duchess, a future king and queen.

Meghan Markle sits between Prince Harry and the Duchess of Cambridge on stage in London Credit: Eddie Mulholland For The Telegraph

All four made an affectionate appearance on stage, appearing united in their approach to their work. The Duke told an audience he and his wife were particularly happy to be at our first Royal Foundation event with Meghan.

The Duchess,who is expecting her third child in April, turned to smile warmly at her future sister-in-law, jokingly offering her a personal round of applause.

The foursome also poked fun at the perils of working together, with Prince Harry admitting plans for their mental health campaign Heads Together were drawn up on the back of a fag packet with family disagreements coming "so thick and fast they cannot keep track.

The Duchess of Cambridge delivering her speech Credit: Chris Jackson /Getty

Working as family does have its challenges of course it does, Prince Harry said, to laughter. Were stuck together forever now.

Ms Markle said each of the four brought their own perspectives to issues, adding: "If everyone's thinking the same way how are you going to push the envelope, how are you really going to break through in a different sort of mindset?

She said her previous charity work had taught her of the benefits of really small grass roots organisations where you can see a higher level of impact, in my opinion because theres a lot less red tape, along with an umbrella organisation like the Foundation to raise their profile.

Meghan Markle and the Duchess of Cambridge watch panellists at the Royal Foundation Forum Credit: Eddie Mulholland for The Telegraph

In a a series of three speeches, the Duke, Duchess and Prince Harry each laid out their vision for how the younger generation of the Royal Family would conduct their charity work, in an era so different from that of the Queen or the Prince of Wales.

Saying they would utilise social media to spread their message further, and harness diversity to find a broad base of young leaders, the Duke explained they would not seek quick wins but strive to make a long and lasting difference.

Meghan Markle and the Duchess of Cambridge share a joke Credit: Eddie Mulholland for The Telegraph

Since our roles are lifetime roles, our commitment to the work we do through The Foundation is genuinely long-term, the Duchess said.

It is an unusual and privileged position to be in, but I do think this long-term view will ultimately help us make a difference in the areas that we care so passionately about.

Meghan Markle grid

Ms Markle will formally become the fourth patron of The Royal Foundation following her wedding to Harry on May 19.

Under the theme Making A Difference Together, the event in central London is showcasing programmes run or initiated by the Royal Foundation such as Heads Together, the Invictus Games, and United For Wildlife.

Launched in 2011, the foundation was set up by William and Harry as the main vehicle to pursue their charitable and philanthropic interests.Standing before a roomful of anti-abortion activists in Nashville on Tuesday, Mike Pence described the great progress made under President Donald Trump to limit womens access to legal abortions in the U.S. and abroad.

He called for the activists in the room to work ever harder to help restore the sanctity of life to the center of American law. He then made a stunning suggestion: that legal abortion could once again be banned in the U.S., and that it could happen in our time.

Speaking at a luncheon hosted by the Susan B. Anthony List and Life Institute, an anti-abortion group, the vice president announced that life is winning in America once again, before ticking off the many policies enacted under Trump aimed at limiting access to abortions.

The President reinstated the Mexico City Policy to prevent American tax dollars from funding organizations that promote or perform abortions beyond our borders, said Pence, a devout Christian whos been described as one of Washingtons most anti-abortion Republicans.

Our administration has stopped U.S. funding of the United Nations Population Fund so American taxpayers are no longer forced to support abortion around the world, the VP added, his words met with loud applause and cheers. And I cant tell you how proud I was in my role as president of the Senate to cast the tie-breaking vote on a bill the President signed to allow states like Tennessee to defund Planned Parenthood.

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In his speech, Pence described Trump as the most pro-life president in American history. Over the years, Trump has had a mixed record on womens reproductive rights. In 1999, he even described himself as very pro-choice, though hes since said that he changed his mind on the issue after meeting the child of a friend who decided not to have an abortion.

Pence said the Trump administration would continue to push measures to restrict abortion access, but he stressed that the opposition is always looking for ways to undo our achievements and urged anti-abortion activists to take action.

Story continues

For all the progress since 1973, he added, referencing the year of the Roe v. Wade decision, I just know in my heart of hearts that this will be the generation that restores life in America.

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Also on HuffPost

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This article originally appeared on HuffPost.Atlanta police elaborated on the conditions surrounding the disappearance of missing CDC epidemiologist Timothy Cunningham on Tuesday, telling reporters at a news conference that the chronic disease researcher was passed up for a promotion at work shortly before he vanished.

"He had been informed the previous Monday (before his disappearance) that he was not getting a promotion, but the explanation occurred on the morning of February 12th," said Major Michael O'Connor of the Atlanta Police. "Shortly after the meeting explaining that, he told his supervisors that he wasn't feeling well and decided to go home."

Cunningham, 35, has been missing since that afternoon. Investigators have repeatedly said that there is no evidence of foul play, but his family said the disappearance is highly unusual for the Harvard graduate, who worked on teams involved in treating the Ebola and Zika crises. The man's keys, cell phone, wallet and identification cards have all been located at his house. Most ominously, his beloved dog was also found home alone.

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Tim never leaves Beau unattended, his father told NBC. He just doesnt do it.

The case has stumped Atlanta investigators and Cunningham's family and colleagues. Since the man's disappearance, police have formed a search party, scouring the woods near his home to no avail.

Timothy Cunningham

Twitter/Atlanta Police Dept.

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"The circumstances of this one, just beyond the fact that he is a CDC employee, just as a general person, are unusual in that everything that you would need to sustain yourself is at his home," O'Connell told reporters. "There is no real explanation for that."

Story continues

O'Connell later added that the department was "looking at everything" and that "nothing had been ruled out." Beyond Cunningham being "disappointed" at losing the promotion, investigators have no reason to suspect that Cunningham's work at the CDC had anything to do with his disappearance.

In a statement made shortly after the disappearance, the agency called Cunningham "a highly respected member of our CDC family."

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Other details in the case have perplexed investigators and family members.

Police said Cunningham called his mother on the morning of February 12, but received no answer and he didn't leave a message. His family rushed to his house later that evening, at which time they first suspected something to be amiss. A witness has come forward and described a bizarre conversation with Cunningham on the day of his disappearance.

He told my husband to tell his wifemeto erase his cell phone number from my cell phone, Viviana Tory told CBS News.

In coordination with Crime Stoppers of Greater Atlanta, Cunningham's family has offered a $10,000 reward for any information that leads to an arrest or indictment, police said. Friends have set up a verified GoFundMe to help his family raise reward money.

This article was first written by Newsweek

More from NewsweekThe resurrection of retro phones has been something of a trend in recent years, with HMD Global leading the charge. Last year, we saw the Nokia 3310 make waves at MWC 2017, reviving one of the most renowned cell phone designs of all time. HMD followed it up with the Nokia 8810 sliding Matrix phone at MWC 2018 this year, but it looks like the Nokia owner may have some competition in the nostalgia market within the next few months.

Speaking with TechRadar this week, Lenovo CEO Yang Yuanqing hinted that the classic Motorola Razr might make a comeback of its own in the near future. Lenovo bought Motorola from Google for around $3 billion back in 2014, and while the purchase never really paid off, Lenovo may as well milk the brand for all its worth.

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With the new technology, particularly foldable screens, I think you will see more and more innovation on our smartphone design, Yuanqing told TechRadar when asked about the return of the Razr. So hopefully what you just described [the Motorola Razr brand] will be developed or realized very soon.

As TechRadar points out, Yuanqing told CNBC last year that Lenovo would consider bringing the Razr back from the dead if its something Motorola fans remember and would enjoy. He also said that if Lenovo does revive a device that fans have fond memories of, it will be a stronger product than the original.

Yuanqing stopped short of confirming that the iconic flip phone will ever see the light of day, but theres no question that it would generate buzz if Lenovo were to revive it. Heres hoping we see it by next MWC.

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See the original version of this article on BGR.comThe New Jersey Senate has passed a bill that would allow cities to establish charitable funds to accept property taxes so homeowners could get around a new federal law by declaring them deductible charitable contributions.

The new federal tax law caps the deduction for all state and local income, property and other taxes at $10,000, which is well below the level that many property owners pay in high-tax states like New Jersey. The deduction was previously unlimited.

State officials have been debating since the federal tax law was passed in December about how to help their taxpayers not get dinged with bigger federal tax bills that will fall heaviest on certain states.

New Jerseys Senate passed the measure, S1893, on a 28-9 vote Monday. It would allow municipalities to set up charitable funds for taxes. Local governments could give tax credits to residents who contribute to the fund, allowing them to offset almost all of their property tax bill  likely around 90 percent. Then residents would take a charity write-off for their property taxes on their federal income taxes.

California, Nebraska, Virginia and Washington state are considering similar workaround legislation, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

The New Jersey bills sponsor, Sen. Paul Sarlo (D-Bergen), called it a short-term measure to deal with how New Jersey taxpayers got their teeth kicked in by Congress, the New Jersey Advance reported.

Congress made the decision to favor some states over others, Sarlo said at the hearing for the bill. The net effect is the so-called Tax Cuts and Jobs Act actually raises taxes for states like New Jersey.

The state Assembly must pass the bill for it to become law. Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy has said he supports the measure. Murphy has called the federal tax law a gut punch to the middle class of his state.

Some lawmakers railed against the law, saying the Internal Revenue Service would never accept it. Its uncertain that such a law would withstand a legal challenge by the IRS.

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But if New Jersey and other states succeed with their federal tax workaround plans, the federal government could lose billions of dollars expected to come into the treasury from capping state deductions.

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin last month called state plans for property tax charitable deductions ridiculous and said he hoped states spend more time on cutting their budgets and taxes instead of trying to dodge the new federal law.

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This article originally appeared on HuffPost.By Ingrid Melander and Simon Carraud SAINT-CLOUD, France (Reuters) - French far-right leader Marine Le Pen's plan to change the National Front's name amounts to political suicide, its founder, her father Jean-Marie Le Pen told Reuters, warning that his daughter was cutting herself off from the party's roots. Le Pen father and daughter have been at odds since she kicked him out of the party in 2015 in a bid to distance herself from his frequent inflammatory remarks, which put off a large part of the electorate. Now she wants to go a step further and rebrand the 45-year-old party after she lost the presidential election last year to centrist Emmanuel Macron. At a congress mid-March she will ask cardholders to agree to drop the National Front's name, a trademark well known in France and abroad but which party insiders say puts off potential voters and is an obstacle to alliances with other groups. "This initiative is suicidal. That would be so for a company, and that is obviously also the case in politics," the 89-year old far-right veteran, who has been involved in French politics for over 60 years and is still an EU lawmaker, said in an interview in his mansion on the outskirts of Paris. "It takes years, decades, to build a credible political name. Wanting to change it is ... inexplicable," he said. No names have been floated yet. Marine Le Pen said she would propose a name at the congress. All party members will be eligible to vote. Jean-Marie Le Pen, who led the National Front (FN) for nearly four decades before passing on the leadership to his daughter in 2011, is publishing on Thursday the first volume of his memoirs, in which he writes that he pities his daughter for losing last year's election to President Emmanuel Macron. The memoirs, which can be pre-ordered online, are the top selling book on Amazon in France. "Her failure comes from strategic and tactical errors ... from pushing the fight against immigration aside and focusing on the fight against the euro and Europe," Le Pen senior said in the interview. Although she lost last year's election, Marine Le Pen's efforts to clean up the party's image have paid off to some extent. She won a third of the vote in the run-off, almost double her father's best showing in his 40 years at the party's helm. Jean-Marie Le Pen too made it once to the second round of the presidential election, but his surprise qualification for the run-off in 2002 triggered a huge backlash, and he won less than 18 percent of the vote. Marine Le Pen watered down her anti-euro stance, which has proved unpopular beyond the party's core fans, after the election, refocusing the party on migration and security as other far-right parties in Europe have done. The March 10-11 congress in the northern France city of Lille is meant to back that change of focus and give her a new mandate at the helm of the party. NO REGRETS While Jean-Marie Le Pen still has a loyal following among veteran party members, younger cardholders say they are more comfortable with his daughter's less provocative brand of politics. His memoirs dwell mostly on the first part of his life, before the FN was set up. He rejects allegations that he practiced torture while a French soldier in Algeria during the north African country's independence war, but says that beatings and electric shocks were carried out by others and were necessary to obtain information. His expulsion from the FN came after he reiterated past comments that World War Two gas chambers were a "detail" of history. He has also defended France's WWII leader Philippe Petain, who died in jail after being condemned for high treason for his collaboration with Nazi Germany. Le Pen, who has been convicted several times for incitement to racial hatred, said in the interview that he had no regrets. Describing himself as a whistleblower warning against immigration, he accused French judges of being politicized and said he stood by his remarks on Nazi gas chambers, for which he was also convicted. "Why would I have any regret or any remorse when I've got nothing to be blamed for?" he said. (Writing by Ingrid Melander; Editing by Raissa Kasolowsky)Photo credit: Getty

From Popular Mechanics

The U.S. Navy is sending an aircraft carrier to Vietnam for the first time since the Vietnam War more than forty years ago. The reason for this courtship is an attempt to woo one of Chinas neighbors and rivals to counter rising Chinese military influence in the region.

The USS Carl Vinson, part of the U.S. Navys Third Fleet, will visit Vietnam in early March. US Navy aircraft carriers were a frequent sight off the coast of Vietnam in the 1960s and 1970s, during the Vietnam War. North Vietnams victory in 1975 means that, in effect, Carl Vinson will be visiting the same government that the Navy bombed during the war. Relations between the United States and Vietnam were normalized in 1995, and Washington lifted the embargo on weapons sales to the country in 2016.

Photo credit: Therence Koh - Getty

Vietnam, which shares a border with China, has long resisted the power and influence of its much larger neighbor. Hanoi has had several wars with Beijing over the past two thousand years to maintain its political independence, the latest taking place in 1979.

Beijings insistence that it controls 90 percent of the South China Sea has trampled competing claims by its neighbors, including Vietnam. The United States, which opposes Beijings claims, has been soft-selling the idea of military ties to many of Chinas neighbors, Vietnam included.

Meanwhile, this summer the hospital ship USNS Mercy will visit Vietnam as part of a broader tour of Southeast Asia. A report in Defense News says the Mercy will visit Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, and Vietnam as part of the Pacific Partnership program, an annual program that provides free medical and humanitarian services to remote communities throughout southeast Asia. While the services the Pacific Partnership program are important to these communities, the program does raise the profile of the United States throughout the region and generate positive publicity.

You Might Also LikeBy Ruma Paul DHAKA (Reuters) - Three Nobel peace laureates urged Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi and the military on Wednesday to end the "genocide" of Rohingya Muslims now or face prosecution. The United Nations and human rights organizations have collected evidence of widespread abuses by the Myanmar military against the largely stateless Rohingya, including murder, rape and arson, prompting nearly 700,000 to flee to neighboring Bangladesh, and have called the crackdown ethnic cleansing. "She (Suu Kyi) must stop turning a deaf ear to the persecution of the Rohingya or risk being complicit in the crimes," Yemeni activist Tawakkol Karman told a press conference in Dhaka after visiting refugee camps at Cox's Bazar on the southern tip of Bangladesh. "Wake up or face prosecution," said Karman, who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2011. "If she fails to do so, her choice is clear: resign or be held accountable, along with the army commanders, for the crimes committed," she added. Since coming to power in 2016, Suu Kyi - who won the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize for her decades-long pro-democracy fight - has failed to condemn abuses against the Rohingya which began on Aug. 25 after insurgents attacked police and military outposts. Buddhist-majority Myanmar denies the abuse charges and says its security forces are fighting a legitimate campaign against "terrorists" it blames for the attacks on the security forces. Northern Irish activist Mairead Maguire said she heard accounts of women who had been raped repeatedly and families murdered and stories of children being thrown into fires and drowned in rivers. "The torture, rape and killing of any one member of our human family must be challenged, as in the case of the Rohingya genocide," said Maguire, who was awarded the Nobel peace prize in 1976. "This is genocide. We can't remain silent. Silence is complicity," she said. The laureates called for those responsible to be brought before the International Criminal Court. "With over a million Rohingya displaced, countless dead or missing, and rape and sexual violence being used as a weapon of war, it is well past the time for the international community to act," said Iranian lawyer Shirin Ebadi, who in 2003 became the first Muslim woman to win the peace prize. Replying to a question, Karman said the three planned to visit Myanmar and they had sent several messages to their friend Suu Kyi but she had not replied. We need to see whats happening there. (Reporting by Ruma Paul)A United Nations panel has accused North Korea of helping Syria produce chemical weapons allegedly used in violent operations to defeat rebels and jihadis outside of Damascus and other parts of the country.

At the heart of the more than 200-page U.N. reportobtained by The New York Timeswas an accusation that North Korea sent Syria supplies associated with the production of chemical weapons such as acid-resistant tiles, valves and thermometers as well as missile technology. North Korea also allegedly sent workers allegedly assisted in the production of chemical weapons. In return, North Korea was able to invest the funds in its nuclear weapons program, according to the report.

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The U.S. has charged Syria, as well as the jihadis it's fighting, with the use of chemical weapons in multiple incidents that have reportedly resulted in civilian deaths. While Syria, along with Russia and Iran, has denied these accusations, the U.S. has led an international campaign to condemn Syria. On Monday, U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Nikki Haley attacked Russia for defending its Syrian and Iranian allies.

Syria has benefitted from its relationship with Russia and Iran, but the new U.N. report focused on its long history of ties with North Korea, a fellow opponent of U.S. foreign policy considered a state sponsor of terrorism by the State Department. Earlier this month, a group of independent U.N. monitors found more than 40 unreported North Korean exports between 2012 and 2017 to Syria's Scientific Studies and Research Center, a government body the report linked to Damascus's chemical weapons program.

President Donald Trump has threatened the government of both countries with military action, but as other longtime U.S. foes such as Russia and Iran grew more powerful on the world stage, North Korean supreme leader Kim Jong Un and Syrian President Bashar al-Assad have claimed major victories of their own in recent years.

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SANA/Reuters

Since North Korean founder Kim Il Sung, supported by China and the Soviet Union, fought a bloody three-year war with U.S.-backed South Korea in the early 1950s, the ruling Kim dynasty has portrayed Washington as its greatest foe. This animosity extended toward Israel, which North Korea joined a number of Arab nations in portraying as a project of U.S. imperialism in the Middle East. North Korea sent pilots to fly with the air forces of Syria and Egypt in the 1967 Six-Day War and 1973 Yom Kippur War fought against Israel.

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As Syrian President Hafez al-Assad rose to power in the early 1970s, he aligned himself firmly with the Soviet Union in the Cold War being waged being Moscow and Washington. Both North Korea and Syria provided assistance to Palestinian, left-wing militant groups opposed to the U.S. and Israel.

Kim Il Sung died in 1994 and was replaced by his son, Kim Jong Il. Six years later, Hafez al-Assad died and was too succeeded by his son, Bashar al-Assad. The two leaders strengthened their ties as they wound up the extended "Axis of Exil" devised by the administration of President George W. Bush. A year after North Korea tested its first nuclear weapon, it was accused by the U.N. of helping to build a nuclear facility in the eastern Syrian province of Deir Ezzor. Israel destroyed the site in 2007.

As young Kim Jong Un became the third generation of his family to take power after his father's death in 2011, Syria fell into turmoil. Protests against Assad devolved into a civil war as rebelsbacked by the U.S., Turkey and Gulf Arab statestook over large parts of the country, much of which would ultimately fall to the Islamic State militant group (ISIS). Since the outbreak of violence there, North Korea's support for Syria appeared to have taken on a different nature.

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KCNA/REUTERS

North Korea was an early supporter of the Syrian government and has praised Bashar al-Assad as the West denounced him. Like China, North Korea's support has officially been limited to diplomatic backing. The U.K-based, pro-opposition Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and Syria's exiled, Saudi-backed opposition have claimed that North Korean forces were deployed to fight alongside the Syrian military and various allied militias, some of which were supported by Irananother nation to which North Korea has grown close. North Korea has also sent tanks and weapons, according to The Diplomat.

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North Korea was a vocal opponent of Trump's cruise missile barrage against a Syrian air base in April 2017. The attack came less than 72 hours after the U.S. accused the Syrian military of conducting a chemical weapons attack in the rebel-held province of Idlib. Just days after Trump's attack on Syria, the Republican leader threatened to send an "armada" of U.S. warships to the Korean Peninsula, sparking a war of words that saw both Trump and Kim Jong Un threaten nuclear war.

Despite intense U.S. pressure on the governments of North Korea and Syria, both have emerged as more powerful in 2017. Kim Jong Un managed to oversee his country's first intercontinental ballistic missiles launches, putting most of the world within range of his weapons, and a hydrogen bomb test.

With help from Russia and Iran, Bashar al-Assad has regained control over most of his country and has even allied with U.S.-backed Kurds seeking to defeat an offensive launched by Turkey, one of the U.S.'s fellow NATO Western military alliance partners and leading partners in the Middle East. The complex, shifting dynamics of Syria's war have allowed Russia and Iran to emerge as leading influencers in the region and beyond, potentially emboldening the North Korea-Syria relationship that both nations have already been touting.

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Stringer/AFP/Getty Images

"The DPRK government will as ever extend invariable support and encouragement to the righteous struggle of the Syrian government and people to smash the aggression moves of the U.S. imperialists and Zionists and defend the sovereignty, stability and territorial integrity of the country," the official Korean Central News Agency wrote last week, referring to the country by its official title: the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, during a reception at the Syrian embassy in Pyongyang.

"The DPRK and Syria are in one trench against a common enemy," Syrian parliamentary speaker Hammouda Sabbagh said during a meeting with the North Korean ambassador earlier this month, according to the official Syrian Arab News Agency.

"The more terrorists that fall under the blows of the Syrian Arab Army, the faster the Zionist enemy, the United States and their agents in the region rush desperately to strike Syria," he added. "So the response to these attempts were qualitative and will be harsher and more qualitative if the enemy once again considers an attack on Syrian sovereignty."

This article was first written by Newsweek

More from NewsweekWhite House communications director Hope Hicks reportedly remained tight-lipped during her much-anticipated closed-door interview with the House Intelligence Committee on Tuesday, refusing to answer many of the committee members' questions about the Trump campaign's ties to Russia.

In fact, the first 20 minutes of her interview with the committee involved laying out what subject areas Hicks would be avoiding during their conversation, according to Bloomberg.

Off limits? Any questions about the Trump transition period and her time working in the Trump White House.

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The 29-year-old is suspected of promising that the emails Donald Trump Jr. received offering dirt on Hillary Clinton would "never get out."

Hicks apparently made the comment during a conference call with the president as well as Mark Corallo, a former spokesman for Trump's legal team, whom special counsel Robert Mueller interviewed on February 15. News outlets reported that Corallo's more than two-hour-long conversation with Mueller likely included talk of obstruction of justice, Trump's top advisers and the phone conversation implicating Hicks, who served as Trump's spokeswoman during his presidential campaign.

"We got Bannoned!" Democratic Representative Denny Heck declared after Tuesday's interview, referring to former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon, who also refused to answer questions from the committee earlier this month. Bannon's refusal came during a ten-hour closed-door interview after reportedly being instructed by the White House to "invoke executive privilege on behalf of President Donald Trump," according to CNN. Bannon had only been authorized to answer 25 of the committee's questions and responded "no" to all of them.



At least one member of the committee has called for the body to consider holding Bannon in contempt.

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Hope-Hicks-Steve-Bannon

Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

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Hicks and Bannon aren't the only ones to refuse to answer a congressional committee's questions on the Trump campaign and transition team's activities.

When NSA director Mike Rogers and Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats appeared before the Senate intelligence committee in June, both men avoided questions about whether the president asked them to interfere with the FBI's Russia investigation. "I'm not prepared to answer your question today," Coats said when asked directly about it.

"Your unwillingness to answer basic questions speaks volumes," Democratic Senator Martin Heinrich told Coats in response.

FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, meanwhile, wouldn't say if former FBI Director James Comey had told him about his concerns that Trump was trying to put an end to his Russia investigation, telling the committee last May that answering the question could interfere with Mueller's current investigation.

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During his own interview with the Senate intelligence committee in October, Attorney General Jeff Sessions refused to respond to the committee's line of questioning about Comey's firing, also citing his executive privilege. At the time, Connecticut's Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal argued that Sessions had "stretched this concept [of executive privilege] to the breaking point."

Hicks has also been interviewed by the Senate intelligence committee, according to CNN, and met in 2017 with Mueller for the Russia investigation.

As Mueller gradually picks off Trump's inner circle, anticipation mounts for an interview with the president himself. Trumpwho has repeatedly insisted Mueller's investigation into his campaign's possible collusion with Russia is nothing more than a "witch hunt"has said he's "looking forward" to a sit-down with the special counsel, but so far no such meeting has occurred.

Trump, like Hicks, could agree to talk to Mueller and his team voluntarily. If he doesn't, Mueller could issue a grand jury subpoena in attempts to force the president to appear and take an oath before a jury.

But Trumpnot because he's the president, but because he's an American with the right to remain silentcould still evade Mueller's probing questions by keeping his mouth shut.

This article was first written by Newsweek

More from NewsweekA notorious website that was shut down from Instagram has been reinstated. (Photo: Instagram/candyshopmansion)

A notorious Instagram account that was taken down for inappropriate content has just been reinstated.

The account, Candy Man Mansion, is owned by infamous playboy Travers Beynon, the managing director of FreeChoice tobacco in Australia.

The billionaire, described as Australias answer to Hugh Hefner, lives on the Gold Coast,and is known for the wildly decadent and risque parties he throws at his Candy Shop Mansion home.

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For years, it has been a hushed hot spot of the elite, a haven to escape normality and enter a world of fantasy and freedom, the Candy Shop Mansions website says of its parties.

Though Beynon is married with four children, he claims to have 10 girlfriends and has previously discussed sleeping with four women in his bed at night.

According to the Telegraph, he described himself as a cross between the Great Gatsby, Hugh Hefner, the Wolf of Wall Street, and Tony Stark, with a taste for Versace, who can easily turn into a Willy Wonka character.

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The Instagram account, which has 773,000 followers, often features images of scantily dressed women, including shots of women showering.

Earlier this year Beynon was also accused of branding and objectifying women after sharing photographs of women with matching tattoos of his company logo.

In early February the infamous account was shut down, and though a reason was allegedly not given, it is suspected inappropriate content could have been behind the decision.

Its been destructive for us because we were just about to roll out more marketing, Candy Shop Mansion event manager Belinda Gavin told Daily Mail Australia.

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A message on the website about the closure read: Cant find us on Instagram? They deleted the Candy Shop Mansion account! Stay tuned for more. In the mean time our Snapchat is the place to get your fix.

But according to Daily Mail Australia the account has now been reinstated after a two-week suspension. There has already been a new post.

Why dont the women leave the kitchen? Thats not the point Im back bitches, Beynon wrote in a typically brazen post.

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The accompanying image features the former model turned businessman surrounded by scantily clad women in the kitchen of his multimillion-dollar home.

And it seems some fans are glad to have the account back  the image has already been liked almost 18K times.

Read more from Yahoo Lifestyle:

Follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter for nonstop inspiration delivered fresh to your feed, every day.On Tuesday, dozens of protesters gathered in Hong Kong to voice their opposition to possible changes to China's constitution. The ruling Communist Party proposed on Sunday to remove a constitutional clause that limits presidents to two terms in office. This would enable President Xi Jinping to remain in office indefinitely. And a new official political theory bearing Xi's name is expected to be written into the party's constitution, one that's similar to President Trump's promise to "Make America Great Again." How would Xi make China Great Again?Mike Rogers: Clearly what weve done hasnt been enough

NSA chief says Putin has concluded there was little price to pay

A top national security official told lawmakers on Tuesday he had not been directed by Donald Trump to disrupt Russian efforts to meddle in US elections, and that Vladimir Putin had come to the conclusion there was little price to pay for such actions.

Adm Mike Rogers, director of the National Security Agency and chief of US Cyber Command, told the Senate armed services committee: Clearly, what weve done hasnt been enough.

Asked if he had been granted the authority by Trump to counter Russian cyber-attacks at source, Rogers said: No, I have not.

He added: I need a policy decision that indicates there is specific direction to do that. The president ultimately would make this decision in accordance with a recommendation from the secretary of defense.

Trump has dismissed investigations into Russian interference in the US election  and potential collusion between Trump aides and Moscow  as a partisan exercise.

The president spent part of Tuesday morning tweeting quotes from conservatives who defended his campaign on Fox News. The president capped off the tweet storm by writing: WITCH HUNT!

Trump has repeatedly refused to acknowledge the consensus of the US intelligence community and its allies that Moscow meddled in the 2016 election in an attempt to defeat his opponent, Hillary Clinton.

The president also insisted last week that the facts proved he had been tougher on Russia than his predecessor, Barack Obama.

Rogers had a different view, suggesting to lawmakers that the Russians havent paid a price, at least, that has significantly changed their behavior.

Rogers cited Trumps decision in January to delay the implementation of new sanctions against Russia that Congress passed on an overwhelmingly bipartisan basis last year.

I believe that President Putin has clearly come to the conclusion theres little price to pay here, and that therefore I can continue this activity, Rogers said.

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Everything, both as the director of NSA and what I see on the cyber command side, leads me to believe that if we dont change the dynamic here, this is going to continue and 2016 wont be viewed as something isolated.

This is something that will be sustained over time.

The Trump administration delayed sanctions against Russia even as top intelligence officials testified that Moscow was seeking to disrupt the 2018 midterm elections.

Dan Coats, the director of national intelligence, has told lawmakers US officials he expects Russia to again spread propaganda and utilize social media to disseminate fake news, to try to build on its wide range of operations and exacerbate social and political fissures in the United States.

Congress passed the sanctions against Russia last August, in response to Moscows election meddling in the US and other countries, as well as its aggression in Ukraine. The Trump administration tried to weaken the legislation but was thwarted by Congress, forcing the president to sign the measures into law.

Democrats in Congress are now seeking to force Trump to implement the sanctions.

We need to put our foot to the gas pedal, Gerry Connolly, a Democrat from Virginia who introduced a bill in the House, said on Tuesday.

If the president is not going to do it, then Congress needs to.Bogota (AFP) - An influential Colombian senator was sentenced to six years and eight months in prison Wednesday for his role in a corruption scandal which has ensnared politicians throughout Latin America.

The Supreme Court of Justice said Bernardo Miguel Elias was guilty of bribery and influence peddling.

Elias, from the ruling Social Party of National Unity, was convicted of accepting bribes from Odebrecht to win public works contracts in the country.

He still faces other judicial proceedings related to the same case.

A Colombian prosecutor said last July that Odebrecht paid more than $27.7 million in bribes in his country, including $11.1 million the United States has identified.

The prosecutor said four senators including Elias were under investigation in connection with the payments.

Odebrecht, which was probed by the US Justice Department, agreed to pay a $3.5 billion fine after admitting to giving $788 million in bribes across 12 countries to secure contracts.

The scandal has also touched politicians in Mexico, Peru, Panama and Venezuela.Anastasia Vashukevich is seen on a yacht allegedly belonging to oligarch Oleg Deripaska, whom she filmed discussing US relations with a top Russian official - Instagram

A model embroiled in a Russian oligarch scandal has asked the US embassy in Thailand for political asylum, promising information on Donald Trump's ties to Moscow if she can avoid extradition to Russia.

Anastasia Vashukevich and nine other Russians were arrested for working illigally in Thaliand on Monday after police burst into a sex training she was holding at a hotel in the resort city of Pattaya. The Kremlin's top security official arrived in Thailand the next day.

A representative of Ms Vashukevich told The Telegraph on Wednesday that she would be extradited to Russia in 48 hours.

Ms Vashukevich caused a scandal by posting Instagram videos in which it is claimed Oleg Deripaska, the metals tycoon, is seen discussing US relations with deputy prime minister Sergei Prikhodko, on a yacht. The clips were published online by opposition leader Alexei Navalny.

The meeting reportedly happened in August 2016, a month after Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort offered Mr Deripaska private briefings in an email seen by US media.

A still from Ms Vashukevich's video of Oleg Deripaska and Sergei Prikhodko discussing US relations on a yacht, which Instagram later removed Credit: Instagram

Mr Deripaska has said he previously employed Mr Manafort but did not receive briefings. He has sued Ms Vashukevich and Mr Kirillov for violating his privacy.

In a letter to the US consul seen by The Telegraph, Ms Vashukevich's partner, Alexander Kirillov, claims Ms Vashukevich had been Mr Deripaska's mistress for a year and alleges she has important information about the crimes of the Russian government.

A spokesperson for Mr Deripaska denied she had been his mistress and said her claims were an attempt to politicise the accusations of the Thai police. Her endless fictitious stories distracted from her real violations, the spokesperson said.

Oligarch Oleg Deripaska, who caused a stir by hosting Lord Mandelson and then-shadow-chancellor George Osborne on his yacht in 2008, is seen in 2017 Credit: Sergei Karpukhin/Reuters

Ms Vashukevich, a self-proclaimed seduction expert from Belarus more widely known as Rybka, or little fish, suggested she had evidence of Moscow's activities during the US election in a Tuesday Instagram post.

I'm ready to tell you about all the unsolved puzzles that you didn't have before, to confirm them with audio and video, relating to our honourable parliamentarians' ties with Manafort, Trump and all the clamour around the election in the United States. I know a lot, she said.

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Her representative said he had handed the letter to an employee at the US embassy in Bangkok. The US state department referred requests for comment to the department of homeland security, which could not immediately be reached.

Ms Vashukevich and the nine other Russians have been charged with working illegally in Thailand.

Ms Vashukevich poses in an Instagram photo Credit: Instagram

Mr Navalny asked the UK serious fraud office this month to investigate Mr Deripaska, whose EN+ company raised 1 billion in a London stock offering in November, for possibly violating the bribery act by taking Mr Prikhodko on the yacht with young women.Oregon Police Troll Chase Suspect via Facebook

With little doubt as to identity of a chase suspect, law enforcement has some fun contacting the Oregon man on Facebook.

Police in Hermiston, Oregon have taken to trolling a man on Facebook who allegedly led officers on a high-speed chase through town while mounted on an old Gold Wing.

More Police Chase Stuff: POV Pursuit Footage

According to the East Oregonian, the pursuit began around 9:45 a.m. on February 26 after an officer spotted a blue Honda Gold Wing with registration thatd been expired since 2016. When the cop lit up the unregistered bike, the rider took off, sparking a chase that reached speeds of up to 80 miles per hour. After around fifteen minutes of leading the cops on a merry chase, the rider ditched the Gold Wing and successfully fled the scene on foot.

The Goldwing used in Monday morning's pursuit.

When police impounded the bike, they found evidence that lead them to a suspecta known local scofflaw named Corey Timothy Gray. After several hours with no arrest, Lt. Randy Studebaker of the Hermiston PD hopped on Facebook to reach out to Gray in a 350-word post outlining the department's reasoning for suspecting him.

The post begins with a short retelling of the chasejust in case there's any confusion as to what he's being contacted aboutbefore proceeding to provide the three main bullet-points for suspecting Gray of Monday's crime:

1. Your identification was found in a wallet on the motorcycle, along with a small amount of what we suspect to be controlled substance.

2. The motorcycle was ditched near the home of somebody we believe to be one of your associates.

3. At various points the chase passed marked police vehicles, unmarked police vehicles, and off duty police officers who were not involved in the chase. Some of these encounters were at slow enough speeds for the officers to get a good look at the motorcyclist. The cyclist's helmet did not cover his whole face, and we feel he bore a striking resemblance to you.

Weird, huh?

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Gray's mugshot which was included in the HPD's Facebook post.

Studebaker included a mugshot of Gray along with a photo of the bike so there wont be any doubt as to which 40-year-old Corey Timothy Gray of Heppner, Oregon police are attempting to reach. The post concludes with Lt. Studebaker stating, Our records indicate that prior to this incident, you allegedly failed to check in with your probation officer. We are happy to help you with that issue as well. Please give us a call or stop by the police department at your earliest convenience. Any of our officers would be happy to assist you.

Sincerely,

Lieutenant Randy Studebaker

Even More Police Chase Stuff: Galveston PD chases riders

According to Studebakert, this isnt the first time his department has reached out to suspects via Facebook and he claims that hes had success with the tactic in the past. A quick search of the departments Facebook page reveals that Lt. Studebaker isnt lying.

As technology becomes more prevalent you can either adapt, learn how to do things a new way or you fall behind, HPD Detective Bill Osborne told a local TV back in 2012. If theyre willing to provide us with info, Im willing to take that and help solve the case.

Photos: Herminston, Oregon, Police Department.Istanbul (AFP) - A Turkish television anchor was charged with inciting hatred Wednesday over comments defending Turkey's Syria operation, saying if the military had wanted to kill civilians it would have started with staunchly-secular areas in Istanbul.

The comments by Ahmet Keser, an anchor on the pro-government Akit TV, sparked outrage among both opposition critics and ruling party officials, while Istanbul prosecutors moved quickly to charge him.

Keser, a presenter on breakfast TV, made the comments while rejecting claims civilians had been killed in Turkey's operation against Kurdish militia in Syria.

Asking why the Turkish army would target civilians, he said: "If we were going to kill civilians, then we would start with Cihangir, Nisantasi and Etiler, there are plenty of traitors there. And there's also the Turkish parliament."

Cihangir, Nisantasi and Etiler are three upscale neighbourhoods in Istanbul where residents are predominantly secular, hostile to the government and enjoy a European lifestyle with coffee shops and bars.

Istanbul prosecutors charged him with inciting hatred and hostility, state media said.

If convicted, he could face a jail sentence of between 18 months and four-and-a-half years.

- 'Sabotaging national unity' -

Speaking to Turkey's NTV channel, Mahir Unal, spokesman for ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), described Keser's remarks as an "open provocation" which would damage national unity.

"Who are you? We are not going to agree or approve of this. It's a stupid sabotage of Turkey's unity," he said.

In response, Akit TV issued a statement saying it did not approve of Keser's comments and that he had resigned to avoid any "pretext" for public criticism of the channel.

Eren Erdem, the Istanbul MP for the opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) who lodged the original complaint, praised prosecutors for opening an investigation.

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"I hope the investigation is completed quickly and the necessary punishment is given," he said.

- 'Ready to be a martyr' -

The controversy erupted as Turkey presses a military campaign in northern Syria aimed at dislodging a Kurdish militia deemed by Ankara to be terrorists.

With the campaign now in its second month, the authorities have made clear that public criticism of its aims amounts to treachery, arresting 845 people for protesting or "spreading propaganda" about it.

So far, 33 Turkish soldiers have been killed in the offensive, all hailed by media and officials as "martyrs" for Islam.

But it has raised tensions in Turkey's increasingly-polarised society ahead of 2019 elections, with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan inspiring devotion and opposition in equal measure.

In a weekend speech in the eastern Kahramanmaras region, Erdogan raised eyebrows by inviting a young girl dressed in military uniform on stage and evoking the idea she could become a "martyr".

"I hope that if you become a martyr they will drape you with the Turkish flag. Be ready for anything" said Erdogan.

"Yes," replied the little girl, who was weeping.

The gesture drew sharp criticism on social media, with some users saying the girl, reportedly just 6, was clearly in distress and asking if Erdogan would be ready to send his own children to the front.

Despite widespread media coverage, the stunt stoked little political debate in a country where the issue of military martyrs hugely sensitive, particularly during the Syria campaign.London (AFP) - A Pablo Picasso painting depicting his muse Marie-Therese Walter with future lover Dora Maar emerging from the shadows beat expectations to sell for an eye-watering 50 million (56 million euros, $69 million) at a London sale Wednesday.

The 1937 "Femme au Beret et a la Robe Quadrillee (Marie-Therese Walter)" was estimated to fetch 36 million (41 million euros, $50 million) at the sale of impressionist, surrealist and modern art at prestigious London auction house Sotheby's.

It was the first time the portrait had emerged on the international art market and headlined the auctioneer's first major sale of the year, Sotheby's said.

The identity of the seller, and its new owner, were not released.

"It's an incredibly important museum quality picture," James Mackie, director of the impressionist and modern art department at Sotheby's, told AFP last week.

"It comes from a key era in Picasso's career, 1937, when he makes the great painting 'Guernica'," he added, referring to the masterpiece which portrayed the horrors of the Nazi bombardment of a Basque city during the Spanish civil war.

The painting also has a strong autobiographical appeal, according to Mackie.

The main subject, Marie-Therese Walter, was the Spanish painter's "long time lover and muse".

But the looming figure of Dora Maar, whom he met in 1936, emerges in the shadows behind Marie-Therese, explained Mackie.

Several masterpieces have reached astronomical prices at recent auctions, fuelled by the opening of major museums in the Gulf and the purchasing power of collectors from emerging countries.

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman acquired Leonardo da Vinci work "Salvator Mundi" for $450 million in November 2017.

"The market for masterpieces is at an unprecedented levels, and this picture certainly sits very much in that masterpiece category," said Mackie.

Three other Picasso works also went under the hammer, including "Le Matador", which sold for 16.5 million (18.6 million euros, $22.7 million).By Gabriela Baczynska BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Western EU states told Poland on Tuesday that time was running out for it to address concerns in a dispute over democratic freedoms, but held off from further action as a deadline for a response from Warsaw approaches. In a long-running and bruising clash, the executive European Commission has accused Poland's nationalist Law and Justice (PiS) party of undermining the rule of law with reforms to the judiciary and state media since taking power in late 2015. After repeatedly declining to backtrack on its judicial reforms, Warsaw has now sat down to negotiations as paralell talks on the bloc's next joint budget starting in 2021 get under way. EU ministers held their third debate on the matter in Brussels on Tuesday, with Germany and France warning Poland against using discussions with the Commission as a smokescreen. "The clock is ticking. The European Commission and a series of EU members are very concerned about the rule of law situation, particularly the independence of the judiciary," said Michael Roth, Germany's minister for EU affairs. "In recent days I have noticed positive signals of willingness (from Poland) to engage in dialogue. That's an important point, but at the end it's not about promises but concrete acts," Roth told reporters. Brussels has recommended that the bloc launch an unprecedented Article 7 punitive procedure against Warsaw - which could lead to suspending Poland's voting rights in the EU - unless it concedes ground by March 20. "JUDICIARY SHOULD BE INDEPENDENT" Poland's Deputy Foreign Minister Konrad Szymanski said Warsaw would soon publish an explanation of some 13 laws PiS has passed on the court system to demonstrate to other EU states it acted to rid Poland of the vestiges of communist rule. "We expect member states to make their own assessment of this situation and really consider whether there is any serious risk of a serious breach of the rule of law. In our view, there is no such serious risk," he said. The Commission and the bloc's founding members - which include the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg and Italy as well as France and Germany - say the PiS measures risk undermining the EU's internal market and judicial cooperation. "The need for reform of the judiciary can never be an excuse to enhance political control over the judiciary. The judiciary should be independent. The separation of powers is a fundamental principle," Commission deputy head Frans Timmermans said. Timmermans said he would assess the new Polish document when it comes to see whether it was promising enough to continue talks, or else ask EU states to take action against Warsaw. Stripping Poland of its voting rights is highly unlikely to occur because it would require unanimity, and Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orban has promised to block any such action against his Polish ally. But the dispute could badly hurt Poland if other member states move to cut vital funding in the looming budget talks. Poland is currently the biggest beneficiary of the EU budget. Senior Polish officials have hinted Warsaw could tweak some of the new judiciary laws, though details have yet to be agreed. The ministerial session on Tuesday ran for longer than planned, suggesting a lively discussion. Some of Poland's fellow ex-communist neighbors said the Commission should not push Warsaw too hard. "Today is no time for decisions," said Deputy Prime Minister Ekaterina Zakharieva of Bulgaria, which holds the EU's rotating presidency, adding that Poland's willingness to enter again into talks with Brussels represented "huge progress". (Additional reporting by Robert-Jan Bartunek, Philip Blenkinsop and Alastair Macdonald; editing by Gareth Jones)Most voters think the National Rifle Association supports policies that are bad for the country, new polling finds, as an increasing share favor stricter gun laws.

In a Quinnipiac University National Poll conducted after the mass shooting in Parkland, Florida, 51 percent of voters said the NRA supports policies that are bad for the U.S. Thats an uptick from October, when the poll found that 47 percent of respondents thought the NRA supported bad policies.

Conversely, the share of respondents who said the NRA supports policies that are good for the U.S. fell from 43 percent in Octobers poll to 38 percent in Februarys poll.

Perception of the NRA is strongly partisan. Eighty percent of Republicans believe the NRA supports policies that are good for the U.S., while just 8 percent believe the opposite, according to Quinnipiac. Among Democrats, those proportions are nearly inverted, with only 9 percent saying the NRA supports policies that are good for the country and 83 percent saying the opposite. The NRA also has a notably higher unfavorable rating among black people than among whites in the Quinnipiac poll: Eighty percent of black people said the group supports policies that are bad for the U.S., compared to 48 percent of white people.

Meanwhile, an SSRS poll conducted for CNN in the wake of the Parkland shooting found a more even split in the publics current thoughts on the gun-rights group: Forty-nine percent said their opinion of the NRA is generally unfavorable, while 46 percent said it is generally favorable.

The results come less than two weeks after a gunman killed 17 students and adults at Floridas Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School on Feb. 14, using an AR-15 rifle he purchased legally. The shooting has sparked a nationwide debate, led by many passionate young activists, on how to prevent such tragedies in the future.

Both polls tracked conspicuous highs in support for stricter gun control laws.

In the Quinnipiac poll, 66 percent of respondents favored stricter laws, up from 60 percent who responded favorably in October.

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CNNs poll found even more support for stronger gun control laws, with 70 percent of respondents saying they would favor such reform. Thats the highest proportion of respondents favoring stricter gun control the poll has found in the past five years, and a sharp increase from October, when just 52 percent of those polled supported more restrictions.

Public opinion also seems to be leaning against the sale of assault-style weapons.

Asked whether they would support or oppose a nationwide ban on the sale of assault weapons, 67 percent of respondents in the Quinnipiac poll said they would favor such a move  a record high since Quinnipiac began polling on this question in the wake of the December 2012 massacre in Newtown, Connecticut.

CNN opted for a more specific line of questioning, asking respondents whether they would favor or oppose a ban on the manufacture, sale and possession of rifles capable of semi-automatic fire, such as the AR-15. Fifty-seven percent said they would favor a ban. Thats up from October, when 49 percent of respondents said they would favor it.

Quinnipiac surveyed 1,249 voters across the U.S. between Feb. 16 and Feb. 19. The CNN/SSRS poll surveyed 1,016 Americans between Feb. 20 and Feb. 23.

Both polls questioned respondents via landlines and cellphones.

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This article originally appeared on HuffPost.WASHINGTON  The Me Too movement has a pattern: Someone accuses a powerful man of sexual misconduct. He apologizes (or not). He leaves his job. Victims see justice; opponents say the movement has gone too far.

But theres a possible step that isnt widely discussed: Men who lose their jobs over harassment, particularly those in top-level positions, can still get big financial payouts. And if they do get a sizable sum, the public wont necessarily find out.

Steve Wynn, the Las Vegas casino mogul accused of pressuring workers to perform sex acts, made news earlier this month  not because hes getting a severance payment, but because hes not. (He does have company stock worth billions.) But it was reported that former Fox News host Bill OReilly received up to $25 million in severance, while late Fox founder Roger Ailes received $40 million. NBC apparently did not plan to give a payout to Matt Lauer, but the network was reportedly considering a severance package for his onetime booker Matt Zimmerman, who was also dismissed over inappropriate conduct. NBC did not respond to a request for comment.

HuffPost asked more than a half-dozen employers, including Nickelodeon, Amazon and Vice, that have seen high-profile employees depart in the past few months, about severance packages for accused harassers. Spokespeople for these employers also did not respond, or declined to speak. (Some ousted men do not appear to have received severance packages, including AlterNets Don Hazen, Long Wharf Theatres Gordon Edelstein and NPRs Michael Oreskes.)

Public officials who leave amid stomach-churning scandals may also receive a different kind of benefits. Trent Franks, the millionaire Republican congressman who resigned in December after he was accused of offering a female employee $5 million to impregnate her, is currently on the Office of Personnel Managements retirement rolls, an OPM spokesperson told HuffPost. So is former Democratic Rep. John Conyers, who allegedly made sexual advances, including requests for sex acts, to female staff. The OPM spokesperson declined to comment on detailed questions regarding pensions, citing privacy regulations.

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Former U.S. appeals court judge Alex Kozinski retired after multiple women accused him of inappropriate behavior. His retirement left him eligible for an annual pension of $217,600. And on the local level, a former superintendent in Illinois accused of sexual harassment reportedly received a $127,000 separation agreement, prompting state lawmakers this month to push for disclosure of severances for government employees accused of sexual misconduct or discrimination.

In the private sphere, it is difficult to generalize about severance agreements because theyre often privately negotiated and confidential. And the fact that companies arent talking about personnel issues isnt surprising. But high-profile terminations have launched a national conversation about issues of power, consent and accountability, and this part of the story is often missing.

Across the board, women already face a significant gender wage gap, may leave jobs because of discrimination, and are not nearly as likely to hold chief executive positions at Fortune 1000 companies. The same power structures that allow abusive men to climb the workplace ladder at the expense of female colleagues, can reward them after theyre caught.

Employers arent legally required to pay severance, though if an employees contract requires it, they must honor that, with some exceptions  like if the termination is for cause  which can include sexual harassment. Nonetheless, companies may decide to offer severance in exchange for release of liability, or to keep a powerful harasser from talking.

It is more likely to see a severance payment made to a senior executive who has been accused of sexual harassment than to a junior level employee who is accused of the same misconduct, attorney Gloria Allred told HuffPost in an email.

Each company is going to handle the situation in the way they see fit, explained David Gottlieb, an attorney who advocates for employees subjected to harassment and discrimination.

Generally speaking, the calculus is not going to be, What do we think is right? Generally, companies are going to do what is in their best financial interest, he said.

A woman who is being harassed may also be offered a severance payment, and choose to take that rather than risk a painful lawsuit she might lose. NBC reportedly paid out severance to a staffer who accused Chris Matthews of making inappropriate comments. Conyers also made a payment of about $27,000 to a former aide who accused him of harassment.

Historically, if a victim of sexual harassment does get severance, it wont necessarily be anything like the big executive who is the one doing the harassment, said Tom Spiggle, an attorney who represents clients facing workplace issues, including discrimination.

As the Me Too movement marches on, its possible companies might be more inclined to make a standand win PR pointsby making it clear that a harasser wont get on a gravy train.

The more traditional route has been like what weve seen at Fox, where a company pays a head honcho a big chunk of change to get the relief, to keep them quiet, Spiggle said.

I suspect well see that change somewhat.

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This article originally appeared on HuffPost.Geneva (AFP) - Demonstrators gathered outside the UN in Geneva Tuesday and some diplomats left in protest over an address by Iran's justice minister to the rights council, despite facing Swiss and EU sanctions over rights violations.

Alireza Avaie took the podium at the Human Rights Council, slamming "appalling deficiencies" there and in other UN rights mechanisms, and accusing Washington and others of "exploiting human rights for their political ends".

But even before he spoke, his mere presence spurred up to 150 demonstrators to gather outside the UN's European headquarters, waving flags used by exiled Iranian opposition groups and signs reading "Arrest Avaie".

Standing near a large pyramid of shoes meant to represent the thousands killed in a 1988 massacre of political prisoners, demonstrator Safora Mohammadi, a 35-year-old law student, insisted Avaie was "a killer".

"He's a murderer and actually I was shocked that the United Nations invited him to be present in a conference for human rights," he told AFP.

Avaie is perhaps the most controversial of the around 100 dignitaries addressing the opening of rights council's main annual session this week.

Brussels and Bern have slapped sanctions on him, maintaining that as Tehran's former top prosecutor he was "responsible for human rights violations, arbitrary arrests, denials of prisoners' rights and an increase in executions".

According to exiled members of the Iranian opposition, he played a key role in a 1988 massacre of political prisoners.

Amnesty International has said nearly 5,000 prisoners were executed in a matter of months, while Iranian opposition groups put the figure closer to 30,000.

- 'A mockery' -

Before Avaie took the floor, a handful of diplomats left the room in a discrete protest against his presence.

When approached by journalists after his speech and asked about the criticism, Avaie walked by stone-faced without responding.

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Earlier this week, Washington's UN ambassador Nikki Haley also slammed the rights council for allowing him to participate, accusing him of "some of the worst human rights violations in Iran".

The council "should be ashamed", she said in a statement, and warned the move made "a mockery of its mandate to promote universal human rights".

As Avaie arrived in Switzerland Monday, a Swiss lawyer filed a complaint on behalf of the National Council of Resistance of Iran, asking the Swiss attorney general to prosecute the Iranian minister for crimes against humanity.

The attorney general's office confirmed to AFP that it had received the complaint, but did not say whether it would press charges.

The EU sanctions bar Avaie from travel to the EU and freeze any assets he might hold in the bloc, while Swiss authorities told AFP their sanctions against him were only financial.

Avaie is not on the Security Council's sanctions list.Meet Ron, Elkanah and Abishai  a rare set of identical triplets born in Kansas City, Mo., last week.

The trio, born six weeks premature, is still learning life skills like eating and breathing in the Truman Medical Centers NICU, but theyre doing very well, neonatologist Dr. Josh Petrikin told InsideEdition.com.

When you come a month and a half early, youre at risk for all sorts of complications, said Petrikin, who also practices at Childrens Mercy Kansas City. These boys dont seem to realize that and are doing better than expected for their gestational age.

While statistics vary, Petrikin estimates the likelihood of identical triplets is one in a million.

Parents Nicole and Caleb Choge said they learned of the pregnancy during an ultrasound while they were living in Kenya.

"My mind as the dad was very excited," Caleb said in an interview with KCTV. "My first thought is, Our car doesnt fit. I need a bigger car.'"

The pair, who met in college in Florida and decided to move to Kenya shortly after, said they decided to uproot to Kansas where Nicole has family when they realized they would be going through a high-risk pregnancy.

Fortunately, all three were growing in separate amniotic sacs, bringing down the likelihood of complications during the pregnancy.

Petrikin said Nicole and Caleb were lucky enough to not have encountered any complications, and were even able to deliver all three vaginally even though they were warned a C-section could have been safer.

I met the parents after the babies were born and they seemed quite strong and at ease  they seemed to take all of this in stride," said Petrikin, who is caring for newborn triplets for the first time in his 20-year medical career.

In fact, Caleb, who also has a 2-year-old son with Nicole, said he is already planning the many bonding activities he wants to do with his sons when they get older.

I have four men in my house, the things we can do as men, Caleb said. When they grow older, we can go camping. When they grow older they can go back to Kenya with me. We can do safari, we can do mission trips together. I thought ahead many years and see what they could possibly be in 20, 25 years from now, and now thinking of how we can prepare them for that.

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To support the growing family, visit their GoFundMe page.

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Related Articles:Washington (AFP) - The son of 2016 US presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders has announced he is running for Congress in the state of New Hampshire, pushing a liberal platform similar to that of his senator father.

Levi Sanders announced late Monday that he was entering the race for New Hampshire's open District 1 seat, which is held by a Democrat who is not seeking re-election.

"This is a unique opportunity to listen to the hard working men and women of New Hampshire about the issues that matter to them," Sanders said in a statement on his campaign website.

Sanders, 48, describes himself as a political and legal analyst.

"For over 17 years, I have represented the working class who have been beaten up by the system," he said on his website.

"It is time to demand that we have a system which represents the 99 percent and not the 1 percent who have never had it so good."

Sanders joins a crowded field including seven other Democrats in their party's primary to be held on September 11, less than two months before the November mid-term congressional elections.

Three Republicans are also running for the open seat, which has emerged as one of the most competitive races in the country.

The younger Sanders' politics lean left like those of his father, who represents neighboring Vermont as an independent in the US Senate.

Levi Sanders supports a "Medicare for All healthcare system," tuition-free college, equal pay for women, and a minimum wage "which allows people to work 40 hours a week without being in poverty."

He is also demanding urgent action to address the opioid abuse crisis, and backs "sensible gun legislation."

It is not just the politics that are similar. Levi's eyes and receding hairline are mirror images of his father's and he looks about as rumpled in a suit as the famously disheveled Bernie.By Clare Baldwin and Andrew R.C. Marshall KUTUPALONG REFUGEE CAMP, Bangladesh (Reuters) - The first Rohingya refugees who arrived on Jorina Katun's farmland in Bangladesh last year were worn out and traumatized after fleeing violence in neighboring Myanmar. They wept and begged to stay, and Katun, moved by their plight, said yes. "I really regret that," she said. "They said they would stay for only a month. They're still here and more are coming." Katun now has 25 Rohingya families living on a patch of land where she used to grow rice and vegetables. Since August, nearly 700,000 Rohingya have crossed from Myanmar's Rakhine State into Bangladesh. Makeshift camps housing the Rohingya sprawl across thousands of acres of what was once a government forest reserve, butting up against - and sometimes overwhelming - Bangladeshi homes and land. Jorina Katun lives on the edge of the largest such camp. Officials and aid workers fear that the welcome is wearing thin, due to the unprecedented number of refugees and growing doubts over whether Myanmar will ever take them back. Repatriation was due to begin in January under an agreement signed by Myanmar and Bangladesh. But the plan has stalled due to safety and logistical concerns, and meanwhile Rohingya continue to flee across the border. "We've accommodated them, but for how long?" said Kazi Abdur Rahman, a deputy district administrator in Cox's Bazar. "Our crop fields are destroyed. Our forests are destroyed...It's a huge impact for the whole community." So far, local people have been remarkably tolerant, with many feeling duty-bound to help fellow Muslims they see as being oppressed because of their religion. There have only been a handful of anti-Rohingya protest, all small and peaceful. But many also blame the Rohingya for driving up food prices and stealing jobs, and officials worry that the refugees bring with them an increased risk of disease, militant activity and drug trafficking. Residents have been told to report any Rohingya seen outside the camps, said Rahman. "It's for our security, so they can't get up to any terrorist activity," he said. He said he had no evidence that the Rohingya were involved in crime, but noted they were poor, desperate and "very vulnerable to evil forces". THE CHEAPEST WORKER Before the current crisis, Bangladesh was already home to 300,000 Rohingya refugees who had fled previous bouts of violence in Myanmar. Now, in Ukhia and Teknaf, two sub-districts near the Myanmar border, Rohingya outnumber local people by about two to one. Residents of Ukhia and Teknaf were already among Bangladesh's poorest and by some measures as deprived as the refugees, according to ACAPS, a Geneva-based think-tank which analyses humanitarian responses. Seven in 10 families  both Bangladeshi and Rohingya  struggled to get enough to eat, ACAPS found. Little of the land around Cox's Bazar is suitable for farming, so Bangladeshis have to buy about 80 percent of their food in local markets, said ACAPS. The price of that food is rising, said Hamidul Hoque Chowdhury, a college principal who heads the Ukhia branch of the Awami League, the party of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. Six months ago, 1 kg of potatoes cost 20 taka ($0.24); it has since tripled in price to 60 or 70 taka. The price of fish has doubled, he said. "The local people are now silent. They're not shouting now. But they're not happy," said Chowdhury. "Tensions will definitely rise." Chowdhury, who helped organize a small anti-Rohingya protest in Ukhia in January, said Rohingya were competing with Bangladeshis for unskilled labor jobs, the main source of income for about half the local population. Faruk Ahmed, 73, a local farmer, said he hired Rohingya laborers because they were cheap, plentiful and hard-working. "Bangladeshis want 500 taka ($6) a day, but Rohingya will take 300 taka," he said. "I'll hire the cheapest worker." ROHINGYA ISLAND Partly to ease the congestion at the camps, Bangladesh is accelerating a controversial plan to temporarily relocate 100,000 Rohingya on a remote island in the Bay of Bengal. H.T. Imam, an advisor of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, said the refugees must be kept apart from Bangladeshis. "In the past the Rohingya spread out and caused serious law and order problems," he said. Humanitarian groups said they were also looking for ways to support the Bangladeshi community. Of the $950 million budget currently being requested from donors for March to December, a quarter had been earmarked for projects that will directly benefit Bangladeshis, said UN host community liaison Maurice Dewulf. There are "no major signals yet" of problems between Bangladeshis and locals in Cox's Bazar, Dewulf said, but such problems become more likely the longer a refugee crisis lasts. The Rohingya families camped out on Jorina Katun's land are also doing what they can to keep the peace, paying Katun between 300 and 600 taka ($3.50 to $7) a month in rent, says refugee Bodi Alam. The Bangladesh Army, which oversees security in the area, said it forbids local people to charge rent. "But we still pay," said Alam. Without such payments, there would be quarrels with the Bangladeshis. "They will say 'go from here, this is our area, these are our houses, this is our land,'" he said. (Reporting by Clare Baldwin and Andrew R.C. Marshall in KUTUPALONG REFUGEE CAMP; Additional reporting by Ruma Paul in DHAKA; Editing by Alex Richardson)Bucharest (AFP) - Romania's anti-corruption agency investigated a record number of cases in 2017, despite "unprecedented attacks" by political authorities, its chief prosecutor said Wednesday.

Last year the DNA anti-corruption body faced "attempts to amend legislation and unprecedented attacks targeting us," said Laura Codruta Kovesi.

The 44-year-old magistrate, a popular figure in Romania, faces a dismissal procedure launched by the country's justice minister last week, but has won the backing of the country's top judicial body, the Supreme Council of Magistrates.

Kovesi has helped bring a raft of corrupt officials to justice in recent years in one of the EU's most graft-ridden countries.

During an annual report of its services, presented in front of the country's president Klaus Iohannis and judges on Wednesday, she said 3,800 cases had been investigated in 2017.

Despite the "challenges", the DNA sent 1,000 people, including three ministers, five MPs and a senator to the courts, she added.

The final decision on her fate lies with president Iohannis, who is from the centre-right and who has said on several occasions that he supports both Kovesi and the DNA.BUCHAREST (Reuters) - Romanian President Klaus Iohannis said on Wednesday a dismissal of the chief of the anti-corruption prosecutors was "increasingly farther away", as the agency's annual report showed more than 700 officials had been convicted of graft. The DNA agency report comes a week after Justice Minister Tudorel Toader called for Laura Codruta Kovesi's dismissal, saying she had exceeded her authority and damaged the country's image abroad. Toader's request drew thousands of anti-corruption protesters onto the streets. The country's judicial watchdog, which must discuss any such dismissal, rejected his request. The president has the final say and has backed Kovesi. DNA sent roughly 1,000 people to trial last year, Kovesi said, including three ministers, six lawmakers and two deputy ministers. A third of defendants were accused of European Union funds fraud. At the same time, DNA prosecutors won 713 convictions, including for four lawmakers, 28 mayors and 30 managers of state institutions and companies. Some trials were years old. The numbers were slightly lower than the year before. "Under the given conditions, it is obvious we are far away from a dismissal. Increasingly farther away," Iohannis told reporters. "The figures don't lie, they are cold and objective." "We're witnessing an attempt ... to manipulate with an aim of discrediting DNA and to subordinate the justice system to politics. That is inadmissible." Transparency International ranks Romania among the European Union's most corrupt states and Brussels, which keeps its justice system under special monitoring, has praised magistrates for their efforts to curb graft. Investigations have shown some public works contracts are overpriced, and some payments are made for fictitious works. "Although we uncover and send to trial more defendants for corruption deeds, public budgets fraud continues," Kovesi said. (Reporting by Luiza Ilie; Editing by Alison Williams)One of the most senior generals in the U.S. suggested America faces losing influence in the world because its partners are looking to buy military equipment and training from its rivals, particularly Russia and China, who offer cheaper weapons and can supply them faster.

In a statement to the House Armed Services Committee, General Joseph L. Votel, commander of the U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM), warned that some of our partners are seeking alternate sources of military equipment from near-peer competitors like Russia and China.

Votel said the U.S. increasingly relies on interoperability in its military operationsusing its allies to accomplish common objectivesand so its programs to supply partners with the equipment and training they need are vital in maintaining this cooperation.

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Joseph Votel

REUTERS/Yuri Gripas

He made reference to U.S. government-funded Building Partner Capacity (BPC) programs, which encompass security cooperation and security assistance activities, and Foreign Military Sales (FMS).

However, due to political considerations, cost, or delivery speed, some of our partners are seeking alternate sources of military equipment from near-peer competitors like Russia and China, Votel said. When our partners go elsewhere, it reduces our interoperability and challenges our ability to incorporate their contributions into theater efforts.

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In 2017, the U.S. State Department spent $5.7bn on Foreign Military Financing, according to a data guide published by the Security Assistance Monitor group, around the average spend in recent years. That military aid went to 53 countries, including $150m for Iraq, $350m for Jordan, and $3.1bn for Israel.

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In his wide-ranging statement, laying out CENTCOMs view of U.S. defense challenges in the Middle East, Votel accused Russia of acting as arsonist and firefighter in Syria by fueling the conflict in Syria between the Syrian Regime, YPG, and Turkey, then claiming to serve as an arbiter to resolve the dispute.

Moscow continues to advocate for alternate diplomatic initiatives to Western-led political negotiations in Syria and Afghan-led peace processes in Afghanistan, attempting to thwart the UNs role and limit the advance of American influence, he added.

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He also said Russias role in Syria, militarily supporting the Assad regime in its brutal fight against jihadists and rebel forces, established Moscow as a long-term player in the region, and the Kremlin is using the conflict in Syria to test and exercise new weapons and tactics, often with little regard for collateral damage or civilian casualties.

Votel warned: An increase in Russian surface-to-air missile systems in the region threatens our access and ability to dominate the airspace.

Russia is accused of helping Assads forces carry out atrocities against civilians, though both Moscow and Damascus deny this. Among those atrocities is a chemical attack on the residents of Khan Sheikhoun on April 4, 2017, which killed at least 74 people after a missile containing sarin gas allegedly hit the town.

Syria denies possessing chemical weapons. The regime claims a missile hit a chemical weapons depot in Khan Sheikhoun held by the now-disbanded Al-Qaeda affiliate known as the Nusra Front.

But the U.N. and others, including the U.S. and U.K., say the evidence points to Damascus being responsible for the chemical attack. In response, President Donald Trump authorized a missile strike on the Syrian air base thought to be the launch base for the sarin gas attack, destroying a number of military planes and buildings.

This article was first written by Newsweek

More from NewsweekIgor Delanoe

Security, Europe

Moscow has three lines of defense.

Russia Has a Deadly Plan to Defend the Black Sea

As the State Armament Program (SAP) 20112020 is coming to an end, Moscow has floated a new military program for the 20182027 period. Despite the sanctions, economic difficulties and the collapse of oil revenues, the Russian Navy has demonstrated that it can contribute to Russias international posture, as demonstrated during the Moscows Syrian campaign. Among the five Russian naval formationsnamely the Northern, Baltic, Black Sea, and Pacific fleets as well the Caspian flotillathe Black Sea fleet has undergone the most remarkable changes since 2010. Although modest by their number and their tonnage, its units are involved in operations in the Black Sea basin, the Mediterranean, and more sporadically, beyond the Suez Canal and the Gibraltar Straits, in the World Ocean. New platforms inducted in the course of the 20112020 SAP have provided the Black Sea fleet with enhanced multirole capabilities, in spite of difficulties experienced by the VPKthe Russian military-industrial complexto meet the objectives outlined in the armament program. While the Black Sea Fleet is inexorably transitioning to a green-water force, it features a growing ability to carry out cruise-missile strikes way beyond Russias immediate neighborhood. Furthermore, it retains the ability to operate in remote maritime areas, such as the Levant.

Revamping the Black Sea Fleet: Half a Success

The modernization plan of Russias Black Sea Fleet outlined in the 20112020 SAP has not been fulfilled as originally thought. However, it has already produced tangible results, the first of which being the end of the continuing attrition of the operational capacities that affected the Russian navy during the 1990s and most of the 2000s. However, the Euro-Atlantic sanctions, on the one hand, and the rupture of the cooperation between the Russian VPK and Western and Ukrainian defense industries, on the other hand, have jeopardized the construction of some platforms, while delaying the completion of other new units. From the six initially planned Project 11356M frigates (Admiral Grigorovicth type), only three have been commissioned, whereas the three others have been left without their Ukrainian made turbines. Russia is waiting for Saturna Russian company based in Rybinskto come up with a national replacement solution, something that could be done in 2018. The Project 21631 small missiles ships and the Project 21980 anti-saboteur boats received until 2014 their German made engines, manufactured by MTU. Russian VPK have had to turn to China after the Ukrainian crisis to find a replacement solution after Germany ceased its cooperation with Russia. Chinese turbines are problematic, since the they do not seem powerful enough. Only the five first units of the Project 21631 have received their German turbines. Three of them have been assigned to the Caspian flotilla, which is regrouped together with the Black Sea Fleet in the Southern Military District. The two other missiles ships have been transferred to the Baltic Fleet. Russias objectives to enhance its submarine capabilities in the Black Sea have been met successfully; the six planned Project 0636.3 conventional submarines have all been inducted in the fleet. They carry Kalibr cruise missiles, and together with the new Project 11356M frigates and Project 21631 small missiles ships, they have carried out cruise missiles strikes in Syria from the Eastern Mediterranean. Dispatched in the Levant and in the Black Sea basin, these platforms can hit targets in most of Europe, North Africa, the Middle East and parts of Central Asia.

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Acknowledging the technical and financial difficulties raised by the sanctions and the cessation of industrial cooperation with foreign actors, Russia decided in 20142015 to launch two new construction programs for the Black Sea Fleet: small missiles ships of the Project 22800 and small patrol boats of the Project 22160. The Project 22800 features Kalibr cruise missiles while being a very light surface platform at only 800 tons. Seven units have already been laid down, all slated for the Black Sea Fleet, with the lead ship scheduled to be commissioned in 2018. Meanwhile, the Black Sea Fleets only high sea vessel, the Soviet-era missiles cruiser Moskva (Project 1164), should undergo a reparation and deep-modernization cycle in the near future, possibly at Sevastopol shipyard. The SAP 20112020 does not include any refreshment, let alone expansion, of the blue water capacities of the Russian navy at all.

Singularity of the Black Sea Naval Theater: Russia's Need for a Multidirectional Defense

Contrary to the other naval theatres, in the Black Sea, Russia has to maintain a multidirectional defense. From Moscows view, the two main maritime threats identified in the Black Sea basin are emanating from NATO navies activity, on the one hand, and Ukraine, on the other hand. The first one is immediate and limited to the Black Sea waters. The second could take shape in the middle term and emanate from the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov. Whereas Russia intends to contend with the security challenges posed by NATO activity through asymmetric defensive capabilities (A2/AD) and conventional deterrence (Kalibr), the future potential threat posed by the resurgence of a modest Ukrainian naval force calls for different solutions. First, it should be underlined that the Black Sea/Sea of Azov is the only naval theatre where Russia faces a openly hostile neighbor, with which it is in a quasi-open war. Second, Kiev has displayed a willingness to create in the years to come a mosquito fleet of small artillery and small missiles ships, that is, to pose an asymmetric challenge to a locally more powerful Russian navy. Therefore, the small missile ships Russia has decided to build are primarily intended to handle this perceived threat, especially in the Sea of Azov where their light tonnage and their speed are designed to counter any sabotage-type operation. Moscow is especially concerned that the Kerch Bridge, which is being built across the Kerch Strait between mainland Russia and Crimea, could be the target of saboteurs or of provocative actions.

Several Russian lines of defense are therefore taking shapes in the Black Sea basin. The first one would cross the Sea of Azov and the Black Sea maritime space between Crimea and Ukraine, where Russian naval plans are aimed at contending with a future asymmetric threat posed by the potential resurgence of Ukrainian mosquito naval forces. Fast attack boats of Raptor type, small patrol boat of Project 22160 and small missiles ships of Project 22800 are likely to complement coastal artillery and air assets to counter this first challenged. It should be underlined that, in the Black Sea Fleet, just like in the Baltic and Northern Fleet, the coastal troops have been regrouped in an army corps, providing them with an enhanced autonomy and a greater agility. The second line of defense spans across the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov and is designed to face NATO. Russia claims a naval supremacy in the Black Sea basin and seeks to be able to lock the area through various asymmetric capacities designed at deterring NATO navies. The aforementioned platform, Admiral Grigorovitch frigates, Kilo-class subs and the missile ships of Project 21631 are assigned to fulfill this mission. Both lines of defense could also be complimented with platforms dispatched on Russian rivers (Volga or Don) and in the Caspian Sea. The third line of defense is in the Eastern Mediterranean, where a Russian naval task force has been permanently cruising since the beginning of the 2010s. The Black Sea fleet provides the bulk of the units that are assigned to the East Mediterranean on a rotational basis. Since its military intervention in Syria, Russia has secured naval and air assets on Syrian shores. Having dispatched anti-air complexes (S-300 and S-400) and anti-ships capabilities (Bastion battery), its taskforce can sail in a relatively safe environment. Project 11356M frigates, Project 0636.3 submarines and the Moskva cruiser have formed the backbone of the task force since 2015. Constrained by the terms of the Montreux Convention (1936) on the Turkish Straits, Moscow cannot send have its conventional subs going back and forth from the Black Sea for combat duty. Therefore, it should be expected to see at least one or two of new Kilo-type submarines based in Tartus, Syria. This would require Russia to upgrade its naval infrastructures in Tartus to properly accommodate the submarines. This third line of defense is nothing but the demonstration of Russias ability to project littoral warfare in a remote maritime area. However, whether Moscow would need and would be able to recreate such a favorable environment in another part of the world remains to be seen.

The "Littoralization" and The "Kalibrization" of the Black Sea Fleet

Moscow aims to exert naval supremacy in the Black Sea by fielding a range of advanced nuclear, conventional and asymmetric capabilities to balance its perception of a strategic military inferiority vis-a-vis NATO. At the core of the three-layered multidirectional defense line lies the Kalibr cruise missile, which allows Russia to exert a conventional deterrence. Due to the difficulty in fielding new frigates and heavy corvettes, Moscow has embarked on a construction program of light tonnage vessels which are nevertheless heavily armed. The Russian Minister of Defense is set to place orders for this type of light vessels in the next armament program (20182027). One can expect new missiles ships (like those from the Project 21631 or, more likely, from the Project 22800) will be inducted in the Black Sea Fleet. So far, Russia has not displayed any intention of renewing the Black Sea Fleets amphibious componenteven though it has relied upon it to support the Syrian regime since the beginning of the 2010s. These old Soviet-era amphibious platforms (Project 775 and Project 1171) are nevertheless relatively inexpensive to maintain and easy to repair.

The progressive littoralization and the kalibrization of the Black Sea Fleet reflects, at a smaller scale, the overall limits of the Russian surface navy. There are no plans to update high sea capabilities and the 20182027 armament program is instead exploring the possibility of building Super Gorshkov frigates (Project 22350M) and heavy missiles corvettes (Project 20386). Considering that Russias core interests lie in the former Soviet space, there is no need to build a costly new blue-water navy. Moscow could not afford such a fleet and Russian shipyards would not be up to the task. In the Black Sea, Russia will aim to retain a comparative advantage against potentially hostile navies by accounting for the terms of the Montreux Convention, fortifying Crimea and building its fleet around Kalibr.

Dr. Igor Delanoe is Deputy-Head of the French-Russian Analytical Center Observo (Moscow, French-Russian Chamber of Commerce). He holds a PhD in History (University of Nice-Sophia Antipolis, France). His primary areas of research interest concern Russian defense and foreign policy issues, Russia interests in the Mediterranean and in the Middle East, as well as the geopolitics of the Black Sea region. He is a Research Associate at the Center for International and European Studies (Kadir Has University, Istanbul) and at the University of Nice-Sophia Antipolis.

Image: Wikimedia Commons

Read full articleBy Paul Carrel and Andrea Shalal BERLIN (Reuters) - Germany said on Wednesday hackers had breached its government computer network with an isolated attack that had been brought under control and which security officials were investigating. A spokesman for the German Interior Ministry said the affected government agencies had taken appropriate measures to investigate the incident and protect data. "The attack was isolated and brought under control within the federal administration," which oversees government computer networks, he said in a statement, adding that the authorities were addressing the incident "with high priority and significant resources". The spokesman said he could give no further details immediately due to security and analysis measures that were still under way. He did not comment on German media reports that the attack was launched by Russian hacker group APT28, which had already attacked the German parliament in 2015. The reports said the group managed to steal data from the Foreign and Defence Ministries in the latest attack. The ministry did not say when the attack took place. German media reported it happened in December. German security sources said authorities had been aware of the incident for some time, but the Defence Ministry and the German military were not affected. Jens Zimmermann, the Social Democrats' (SPD) spokesman for digital issues, said the German parliament's Digital Agenda committee had agreed unanimously to hold an extraordinary meeting, likely to be on Thursday. "The federal government must inform parliament comprehensively," he tweeted. German Defence Minister Ursula von der Leyen declined to comment about the reports during an appearance in London. News of the attack on German government computers comes after repeated warnings by German intelligence officials about possible meddling by Russia in last year's federal election. The head of the German domestic intelligence agency last year said such attacks had not occurred, but the risk of interference remained until a new government is in place. Germany's Social Democrats are voting by postal ballot on an agreement to form another "grand coalition" with Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservatives, with the results to be made public on Sunday. If they reject the tie-up, Germany could face new elections or the formation of a minority government for the first time in its post-war history. Western governments and security experts have linked the hacking group known as APT28 or Fancy Bear to a Russian spy agency, and have blamed it for operations including an attack on the Democratic National Committee ahead of the 2016 U.S. elections and the German lower house of parliament in 2015. German officials have blamed APT28 for the May 2015 hack of the German lower house of parliament, the Bundestag, and other cyber attacks aimed at political groups, Merkel and other individuals, or institutions. Moscow has previously denied in any way having been involved in cyber attacks on the German political establishment. Top German intelligence officials have urged lawmakers to give them greater legal authority to "hack back" in the event of cyber attacks from foreign powers. (Additional reporting by Sabine Siebold and Thorsten Severin; Editing by Alison Williams)United Nations (United States) (AFP) - The United States and three European allies condemned Iran on Tuesday after the United Nations found Tehran had violated the arms embargo on Yemen by failing to block supplies of missiles and drones to Huthi rebels.

Britain, France, Germany and the United States urged Iran to "immediately cease all activities that are inconsistent or would violate" the UN resolution that established the arms embargo in 2015.

The joint condemnation came a day after Russia vetoed a British-drafted resolution renewing sanctions on Yemen and citing "particular concern" about a report's findings on Iran.

The report by a UN panel of experts in January concluded that Iran was in violation after determining that missiles fired by the Huthis at Saudi Arabia last year were made in Iran.

Russia, however, questioned the findings and blocked the resolution, saying the report did not contain conclusive evidence of Iran's violation of the arms embargo.

"We condemn Iran's non-compliance, as described by the panel, which poses serious risks to peace and stability in the region," said the joint statement released by the US mission.

All four countries are signatories to the Iran nuclear deal of 2015.

In response to Tuesday's condemnation, the Iranian Foreign Ministry said in a statement, "for three years now the behavior of the United States and Britain at the UN Security Council has been harmful, and tantamount to legitimizing the aggressors in Yemen."

The statement said these countries were stoking "Saudi aggression" in Yemen by acting as the kingdom's main backers and arms suppliers.

The Russia veto was a setback for the United States as it pushes the Security Council to take a stronger stance toward Iran over its role in regional conflicts and missile tests.

The US administration maintains that Iran is not living up to its commitments under the nuclear deal, which President Donald Trump has criticized as the "worst ever."

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The British-drafted resolution that was strongly backed by the United States was vetoed by Russia after 11 countries voted in favor at the 15-member Security Council.

China and Kazakhstan abstained and Bolivia voted against it.

A Saudi-led coalition supporting Yemen's government has been fighting the Huthis since 2015 in a war that has created what the United Nations describes as the world's worst humanitarian crisis.

The council earlier heard the UN director of aid operations, John Ging, describe living conditions in Yemen as "catastrophic", with a growing risk of famine and a severe outbreak of cholera.Something is happening beneath the ice on Saturn's moon Enceladus.

Scientists have long-thought that the icy world could possibly play host to microbial life within the subsurface ocean, which is hidden under a shell of ice. Now, thanks to some new Earthly research published this week in the journal Nature Communications, researchers have a little more proof that microbes could potentially thrive in that ocean's briny water.

Before the Cassini spacecraft plunged to its death in 2017, it flew through plumes of ice, water vapor, and gases being ejected near Enceladus's south pole. The spacecraft found traces of methane gas in that material.

SEE ALSO: Finding alien life probably won't drive us into panic and chaos

While methane can be produced through normal geological processes, it's also possible that microbes called methanogens could create that gas biologically.

On Earth, methanogens can survive in a wide range of harsh temperatures  more than any other known life. But the real question is: Could methanogens that we know of on Earth survive the moon's harsh conditions, and what could that tell us about Enceladus?

"Only they [methanogens] can cover the whole temperature range in which water is almost frozen to almost boiling," Simon Rittmann, who studies ancient bacteria (or archaebacteria) at the University of Vienna, said in an interview. "No other microbial group is known to be able to do this today."

NASA's Cassini spacecraft observed over 30 jets spraying ice and water vapor on Enceladus.

Image: nasa

In the study, Rittmann and his team exposed three species of these methane-producing microbes  one of which (M. okinawensis) came from a deep-sea vent in the Pacific Ocean that thrives at around 140 degrees Fahrenheit  to a variety of pressures, temperatures, and levels of acidity that are thought to exist on Enceladus.

The idea was to expose Earth's methanogens to a wide array of environmental conditions, because it's unknown what exactly lurks beneath Enceladus' ice  and what conditions might exist there.

Story continues

In their laboratory, M. okinawensis survived all the Enceladus-like test conditions, even in the presence of hostile compounds like formaldehyde and carbon monoxide  both of which are thought to exist on Saturn's moon.

Critically, Rittmann's team tested the microbes in oxygen-free conditions, as there's no evidence oxygen exists inside Enceladus. Instead, any life there must get their nutrients from non-living, or abiotic means  like hydrogen coming out of a volcanic vent.

"This is specifically important because on Enceladus you cant assume that there's a lot of photosynthesis going on," said Rittmann.

A graphic showing the suspected inner geology of Enceladus, with its ice shell and 40 mile-deep ocean.

Image: nasa

On Earth, methanogens living around deep-sea vents "eat" things like hydrogen and carbon-dioxide to survive  because there's little else that can persist under such heavy pressure, darkness, and cold. The product, or output from consuming these compounds, is methane. According to the study, similar microbes might do the same in the sea sloshing beneath Enceladus' ice shell.

"I think there is definitely potential there for methanogens," said Jennifer Glass, who studies astrobiology at the Georgia Institute of Technology, in an interview.

"We dont know exactly what type [of methanogen]  but there could be life that makes methane present inside Enceladus," Glass, who was not involved in the new study, said.

Glass says that Enceladus' ocean could be quite similar to Earth's, except that it probably has a higher pH level, meaning it's less acidic.

Herein lies a limitation of Rittmann's study: The researchers didn't run experiments with a species of methanogen that can survive "at a really high pH"  and such conditions might exist in Enceladus' sea.

Still, Glass found the environmental conditions that the researchers studied to be scientifically solid. "The data quality and number of experiments are enormous and impressive," she said of the new work.

But although methane gas is shooting out of plumes on Enceladus, it certainly doesn't mean that it's coming from microbes.

"The question in the first place is, does the methane have to be biological?" she asked.

In 2017, the Cassini spacecraft caught an image of Enceladus setting behind Saturn.

Image: nasa/jpl

The answer is no. The gas could come from geologic processes deep inside the moon.

On the other hand, microbes on Earth have been feeding off of hydrogen and carbon dioxide for millennia  so they could very well do the same on another world.

"This can come out of vents or volcanoes," Glass said. "So, it's a good model for other planetary bodies where we think there could be life."

Finding out if Enceladus' methane comes from microbes or geology, however, will be difficult.

"It's very challenging to sort out a biosignature to definitively prove that the methane is biological," Glass said.

To do it, Rittmann said another probe would likely have to be sent to Enceladus, some 750 million miles away, to get a more detailed picture of the methane being ejected from Enceladus.

But Rittmann said it's probably smarter to fly through the plumes, rather than actually landing on the moon and contaminating Enceladus with our own microbes.

"If we land there we might ruin the whole experiment," he said.

Update: This article has been updated to clarify what experiments the researchers performed in the study.Riyadh (AFP) - Saudi Arabia's sudden overhaul of military commanders is the latest power play by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman as he looks to revamp forces currently bogged down in Yemen.

A dramatic shake-up announced in royal decrees late Monday saw top brass, including the chief of staff and heads of the ground forces and air defence, replaced and a broad defence reform plan approved.

The changing of the guard comes just a month shy of the third anniversary of the launch of a Saudi-led intervention to fight Iran-backed Huthi rebels in Yemen.

Prince Mohammed has been the main driver of the once-staid kingdom's more aggressive regional push since he took over as defence minister in early 2015.

But despite a multi-billion dollar military campaign, the coalition has failed to defeat the Huthis in a conflict that United Nations says has created the world's worst humanitarian crisis.

The war's failures have exposed the limitations of Saudi Arabia's military might and accelerated the need to reform what is seen as a sclerotic military establishment.

"This plan seeks to reform the Saudi armed forces from a large, inefficient fighting force full of top-level bloat to a streamlined and professionalised military," Becca Wasser, a policy analyst at the US-based RAND Corporation, told AFP.

"The armed forces have been plagued by wasteful spending, incoherent resource allocation, and unmeritocratic personnel policies, with the different services acting as mini-fiefdoms rather than a coherent whole."

- 'Dead weight' -

Prince Mohammed's military reshuffle comes after he sidelined political rivals to become heir to the throne last June and orchestrated an unprecedented royal purge in November.

The 32-year-old prince has amassed a level of power unseen by previous rulers as he oversees a sweeping programme of modernisation aimed at preparing Saudi Arabia for a post-oil era.

Now the military reform plan appears geared towards reducing inefficient spending and turning the armed forces into a meritocracy, both gargantuan tasks in an institution widely seen as resistant to change.

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Some of the command shifts saw the removal of "dead weight" from top ranks, Wasser said -- military leaders opposed to change who were sent into retirement.

They were replaced largely with younger, more flexible leaders loyal to Prince Mohammed, further consolidating his control within the military.

Those retired include veteran General Abdul Rahman bin Saleh al-Bunyan, who was replaced as the chief of staff by Fayyad al-Ruwaili.

Government officials insist the revamp is not prompted by the short-term problems facing the military in Yemen but is part of a long-term strategy that has been years in the making.

"The most significant order issued by King Salman was approval of the Ministry of Defence development plan," tweeted Faisal bin Farhan, a senior adviser at the Saudi embassy in Washington, referring to Monday's royal decrees.

"This multiyear effort, which had been under review for months encompasses all elements of the ministry including organisation, force structure and long term procurement."

- 'Major player' -

The overhaul to reinvigorate the military comes as Riyadh is looking to breathe life into attempts to establish its own arms industry.

Saudi Arabia has long been a major global arms importer -- but some countries now refuse to sell weapons over the kingdom's role in the crisis gripping Yemen.

In a sign of its ambitions Riyadh this week held an arms exhibition by state-owned Saudi Arabian Military Industries (SAMI) that drew several global firms.

SAMI's goal is to become a "major player in the global defence industry" and "localise more than 50 percent of the military spending" by 2030, according to its website.

It aims to create 40,000 direct jobs and contribute 14 billion riyals ($3.7 billion) to the kingdom's gross domestic product by 2030.

"The military shake-up is aimed at cleaning up and reinvigorating the structure as Saudi Arabia tries to create a viable, sustainable and eventually an export-oriented military industry," Mohammed Alyahya, a non-resident fellow at the Atlantic Council, told AFP.

"Projecting military strength is a key part of the strategy."

While the revamp announced might be aimed at transforming the armed forces in the long-haul, experts say it could well have far-reaching implications on the conflict in Yemen.

"While the military transformation plan was not driven by the Yemen war, the war has dragged on for nearly three years," said Wasser.

"All of these (changes) could have knock-on effects for the Saudi military performance in Yemen".Riyadh (AFP) - Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is to visit the United States from March 19-22, for the first time as heir to the throne, a Saudi government source told AFP on Wednesday.

The much anticipated trip to Washington will follow a visit to Britain on March 7 for talks with Prime Minister Theresa May.

US President Donald Trump hosted Prince Mohammed in March 2017, just weeks after taking office, and he chose Saudi Arabia for his first official overseas visit as president.

Prince Mohammed, who was named heir in June 2017, is also expected to visit France in the coming weeks.

The government source did not comment on Prince Mohammed's schedule in Washington.

Saudi Arabia has grown close to its longtime ally Washington under Trump, whose harder line on its arch-rival Iran and softer stance on arms sales are a welcome shift in policy for Riyadh.

Saudi Arabia viewed Trump's predecessor president Barack Obama as too accommodating towards Iran -- particularly on negotiating a 2015 nuclear deal.Sweeping overhauls of key personnel have become a hallmark of King Salman's reign - Anadolu

King Salman of Saudi Arabia has sacked his most senior military commanders, including the chief of staff, according to state media, with a series of late-night royal decrees.

He also replaced the heads of the ground forces and air defences, as well as civilian officials including several deputy ministers.

No official reason was given for the overhaul, but it comes as Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman pursues military reform and as a bloody campaign against Yemen's Iran-aligned Houthi rebels nears the end of its third year.

The sudden, sweeping shake-up fits similar moves in other areas of public life and has become the hallmark of King Salman's reign.

He is expected to visit the UK next month and could face protests about his armed forces' actions in Yemen.

Yemenis inspect the damage of a Saudi air strike in Saada least week Credit: Reuters

"Termination of the services of General Abdul Rahman bin Saleh al-Bunyan, Chief of Staff," the official Saudi Press Agency (SPA) announced, adding that Fayyad al-Ruwaili had been appointed as his replacement.

Al-Bunyan was retired after he inaugurated an arms exhibition this week in Riyadh by the Saudi Arabian Military Industries (SAMI), the state-owned defence company, which has drawn several global defence firms.

"A military transformation is under way in Saudi Arabia," Theodore Karasik, a senior adviser at the consultancy Gulf States Analytics, told AFP.

"The changes come on the heels of the SAMI exhibition, which is a critical part of the Prince Mohammed's reform plan to create an indigenous defence program," he added.

Crown Prince Mohammed, the son of the monarch and heir to the throne, is the country's defence minister and has been consolidating his grip on power in recent months while pushing major economic and social reforms.

Profile | Mohammad bin Salman

The young prince has pursued an assertive regional policy, including leading a military intervention in neighbouring Yemen since 2015 that is seen as a proxy war with arch-rival Iran.

Story continues

The Yemen conflict has led to what the UN describes as the world's worst humanitarian crisis.

More than 9,200 people have been killed in the conflict and another nearly 2,200 Yemenis have died of cholera, according to the World Health Organisation.

King Salman also decreed a series of civilian appointments that saw younger officials being elevated to key positions as deputy ministers, deputy provincial governors and royal court advisers.

Tamadar bint Yousef al-Ramah was appointed the deputy minister of labour and social development, a rare senior government post for a woman in the conservative kingdom.

Prince Turki bin Talal, the brother of billionaire Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal, was appointed deputy governor of the southern Assir Province.

Prince Waleed, the Saudi Warren Buffet

Prince Al-Waleed, dubbed the Warren Buffett of Saudi Arabia, was among princes, ministers and tycoons detained in Riyadh's luxury Ritz-Carlton hotel in an unprecedented crackdown on what the government calls elite corruption.

The Ritz-Carlton reopened for business on February 11, more than three months after becoming a gilded prison for Saudi elites.The Department of Housing and Urban Development spent more than $31,000 on a new dining set for Secretary Ben Carsons office last year, according to procurement documents obtained by The New York Times.

The new furniture, which has yet to be delivered, includes a custom table, chairs and hutch. It was purchased by a staffer in Carsons office shortly after another HUD employee expressed concerns over a costly redecoration request that wouldve exceeded federal limits. Tuesdays report also comes as HUD is facing a $6.8 billion cut to its fiscal budget that would affect elderly and poor Americans.

A HUD spokesperson said Carson didnt know about the requisition of the furniture at the time but said the secretary didnt believe it was too expensive and would not be returning it.

In general, the secretary does want to be as fiscally prudent as possible with the taxpayers money, the spokesman, Raffi Williams, told The New York Times. He noted that the agency didnt seek approval from congressional appropriations committees for the purchase, which is legally required for redecoration costs exceeding $5,000, because it served a building-wide need.

The Times clarified that the table will be placed in Carsons office.

The Guardian reported later that day that Williams initially denied that a dining table had been purchased, telling the outlet last Friday that the only money HUD spent was $3,200 to put up new blinds.

Earlier on Tuesday, the Guardian reported that another HUD official, Helen Foster, alleged she was demoted after she expressed concerns over expensive plans to redecorate Carsons office. The news outlet obtained a copy of a complaint filed by Foster in which she states she was asked by then-acting HUD Secretary Craig Clemmensen to help find money to revamp the office before Carson was confirmed to take over the agency. When she informed Clemmensen that there was a statutory limit on such expenditures, she said, he told her officials had always found ways around that in the past and that $5,000 will not even buy a decent chair.

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She lodged an official complaint at the time to HUDs budget director about being asked to violate the spending limits, but, she said, she was removed from the post and made the head of the unit overseeing Freedom of Information Act requests.

In April 2017, Carson said in an interview that he was putting in place a structure so that we can monitor where every penny goes.

You know, when I started doing that, these people looked at me like I had six heads, Carson told radio host Hugh Hewitt.

Love HuffPost? Become a founding member of HuffPost Plus today.

This article originally appeared on HuffPost.By David Brunnstrom and Matt Spetalnick WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. special envoy for North Korea plans to retire on Friday, the State Department said just hours after President Donald Trump again rejected talks to resolve the North Korean nuclear crisis unless conditions are met. South Korean-born Joseph Yun, a strong advocate for engagement with Pyongyang, has led U.S. contact with North Korea, quietly pursuing direct diplomacy since taking his post under former President Barack Obama in 2016. Yun's departure leaves the State Department without a point person for North Korea policy at a time Pyongyang has signaled it may be willing to talk to the United States after a period of diplomatic contacts with South Korea during the Winter Olympics. The special envoy's authority to engage with North Korea appeared to be undercut by a tug-of-war between the White House and State Department over North Korea policy under Trump. While his tenure was praised publicly by the State Department, one senior administration official said Yun would not be missed because he contradicted Trump's policies, while at a daily press briefing White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders brushed off questions about the impact of Yun's departure. Yun, a 32-year foreign service veteran, told U.S. media his retirement was a personal decision and that Secretary of State Rex Tillerson had tried to persuade him to stay. "It is really my decision. The time, I thought, was right," he told CBS News. "There is a bit of a lull in activity and I thought it would be a good (time) to get out." Yun did not respond to Reuters requests for comment. In the CBS interview, Yun noted that North Korea had "stopped nuclear and missile tests." Pyongyang conducted its biggest and most recent nuclear bomb test in September and its largest and latest missile test in late November. Some East Asia analysts called Yun's departure a big blow to attempts to use diplomacy to resolve the crisis over North Korea's development of nuclear missiles capable of hitting the United States, which has raised fears of war. "This is exceptionally bad news," Frank Jannuzi, an East Asia expert who heads the Mansfield Foundation, said on Twitter. "Joe Yun is the only senior official left at State who has experience dealing with the complexities of North Korea policy." Former deputy assistant secretary of defense for East Asia Abraham Denmark called Yun's departure "a huge loss for the U.S. government at a critical moment." CBS quoted Yun as saying there were no policy differences "per se," but officials he has dealt with in South Korea told Reuters he had appeared increasingly frustrated with conflicting views within the administration on how to deal with the crisis. Yun nevertheless appeared in step with recent administration positions when speaking to CBS. "We need to get it right," he was quoted as saying. "We need to make sure if there are talks it will lead to denuclearization. We need a whole of government approach." NO POLICY CHANGE The U.S. State Department said Tillerson had "reluctantly accepted his decision." Spokeswoman Heather Nauert said the denuclearization of North Korea remained the top U.S. national security priority and Washington's "maximum pressure" campaign to bring that about was succeeding. "If someone chooses to retire, that does not change our policy," Nauert told a regular news briefing. "I feel fully confident we have the appropriate people in place who can handle everything he did and more." South Korea this week urged Washington and Pyongyang to give ground to allow for talks. Trump on Monday reiterated his willingness to talk, but only under the right conditions. Washington has said repeatedly that any talks must be aimed at North Korea giving up its nuclear weapons, something North Korea has rejected. Yun told South Korea's Yonhap news agency he was "very hopeful about talks." "I hope there is a good dialogue, there is a peaceful resolution," Yonhap quoted him as saying. On Friday, Washington announced its largest package of sanctions yet on North Korea. Trump warned of a "phase two" that could be "very, very unfortunate for the world" if the steps did not work, an apparent reference to military options his administration says remain on the table. In another reference to the risk of war, Trump said on Monday: "We're talking about tremendous potential loss of lives, numbers that nobody's even contemplated, never thought of." In Geneva on Tuesday, North Korea's envoy to the U.N. Conference on Disarmament Han Tae Song dismissed sanctions as ineffective and said plans by Seoul and Washington to resume joint military exercises would harm "the current positive process of improved inter-Korean relations." A senior State Department official told Reuters late last year that Yun had sought direct diplomacy with North Korean officials at the United Nations in the hope of lowering the temperature in U.S.-North Korean tensions. Most were deeply skeptical about his chances. "Hes such a dreamer," a White House official said at the time, with a note of sarcasm. Yun traveled to North Korea last June to help secure the release of comatose American student Otto Warmbier, whose detention and subsequent death further soured relations. Meanwhile, Trump has yet to nominate an ambassador to South Korea, a post vacant for over a year. Congress, former U.S. officials and foreign policy experts have criticized the administrations failure to fill this and other positions. (Reporting by David Brunnstrom and Matt Spetalnick; Additional reporting Josh Smith, Hyonhee Shin and Heekyong Yang in Seoul and Steve Holland and David Alexander in Washington; Editing by Michael Perry, James Dalgleish and Grant McCool)Ryan Seacrest has declined to answer questions about the growing scandal surrounding allegations he sexually assaulted a former stylist.

Seacrest was asked by a photographer whether he feared the controversy might ignite a backlash on the Oscars red carpet, where the TV personality is usually considered the go-to interviewer for Hollywood's brightest stars.

"Morning guys. How are you?" Seacrest told photographers.

Seacrest has denied all claims made by the accuser, Suzie Hardy.

But now comes word that some top Hollywood publicists may steer their clients away from Seacrest when he hosts E! News Oscar coverage at the Dolby Theatre on Sunday night.

"Usually Ryan is the one you want... but there are so many outlets on that carpet  why risk it? There's plenty of other places for clients to get the exposure," one PR agent reportedly told the New York Post's Page Six.

Today a new witness came forward, telling Inside Edition he witnessed three incidents of misbehavior by Seacrest and informed E! News that he saw the host in his underwear with an erect penis grab Hardy in a bear hug as she yelled, "Get off of me!"

The witness also claims he was there after Seacrest "slapped Hardy on the butt so hard it left a red mark" and says he once saw Seacrest "push her head towards his crotch while she tied his shoes."

Also today, Seacrest's Live With Kelly and Ryan co-host, Kelly Ripa, appeared to take a dig at Seacrest over the alleged shoe-tying incident.

"Do you want me to put your shoes back on for you?" Ripa asked.

"You don't mind, do you?" was Seacrest's reply, though the joke appeared to catch him off guard.

Seacrest has denied all allegations and his attorney says a witness who's come forward is a disgruntled employee.

Seacrest said in a statement:

"This person who has accused me of horrible things has offered on multiple occasions to withdraw her claims if I paid her millions of dollars. I refused I have worked extremely hard to achieve my success and I don't take my opportunities for granted. I don't want to accuse anyone of not telling the truth, but in this case, I have no choice but to again deny the claims against me, remind people that I was recused of any wrongdoing, and put the matter to rest."

Story continues

Seacrest is set to host the reboot of American Idol which premiers March 11 on ABC.

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Related Articles:By Guy Faulconbridge and Padraic Halpin LONDON/DUBLIN (Reuters) - Much of Britain and Ireland was blanketed in snow on Wednesday as freezing Siberian weather dubbed "the Beast from the East" disrupted the travel plans of thousands. Hundreds of schools were closed and there were delays on roads, railways and at airports on one of the coldest days Britain has experienced at this time of the year for almost three decades. Temperatures fell to minus 12 Celsius (10 degrees Farenheit) in some rural areas while Britain's weather service warned of up to 40 cm of snow in higher areas of Scotland. "It is the coldest air we have seen over the UK at this time of the year since around 1991," Becky Mitchell, a meteorologist at Britain's Met Office, said. "It is all tied in with the Beast from the East." Ireland, bracing for the biggest snowfall since 1982, urged people to stay indoors from 1600 GMT on Thursday until 1200 on Friday in the southern province of Munster and eastern province of Leinster when the most severe weather is expected. Scottish police advised motorists to avoid non-essential travel. The cold spell has been caused by a jump in temperatures high over the Arctic, known by meteorologists as sudden stratospheric warming, which has weakened the jet stream that brings warm air in from the Atlantic to Ireland and Britain. "The Jet Stream weakens and so we tend to get a strong easterly flow of air and that air is really originating right from over in Siberia - so very dry, cold continental air," Mitchell said. The unusual weather could continue as Storm Emma, packing more snow and ice, approaches western England from Portugal and France. Across London, there were severe delays on public transport. Europe's biggest airport, Heathrow, said its runways were fully operational, although its website showed that dozens of flights had been delayed or canceled due to disruption at other airports. Britain's weather service issued a severe weather warning for snow in parts of Scotland where schools were closed and council offices shut. Ireland's weather service issued a status red warning - the highest level of alert - for five countries in the east, including the capital Dublin after heavy overnight snowfall led to accumulations of 5 to 10 cm. Total snowfall may reach 25 cm (10 inches) by Thursday, it added, prompting the closure of many schools and universities. Businesses advised workers to stay at home with some roads inaccessible and public transport operating a limited service. The chief executive of Irish insurer FBD said on Tuesday she expected the snowfall would be an event for the industry, leading to frozen pipes and possible accidents, though not as severe as Tropical Storm Ophelia which battered Ireland in October. (Writing by Guy Faulconbridge and Padraic Halpin; editing by John Stonestreet, William Maclean)SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korea summoned the Chinese ambassador on Tuesday to lodge a complaint over a Chinese military aircraft entering the South's air defence territory, the second such incident this year, the foreign ministry said on Wednesday. The Chinese aircraft flew for more than four hours inside South Korea's air defence identification zone (KADIZ) on Tuesday, prompting the South to scramble multiple fighter jets to track it, a South Korean defence official told Reuters. China's Ambassador Qiu Guohong was told the military jet's flight into South Korean airspace had been "unfortunate" and urged to prevent similar instances from occurring again, the ministry said in a statement. Three other Chinese officials based in South Korea had been summoned to the defence ministry earlier in the day for the incident, which occurred near South Korea's island of Ulleungdo off its east coast. The aircraft was told to "halt its threatening flight" and "any other actions that could raise the possibility of sudden conflict", said the South Korean defence official, adding Chinese officials told South Korea's military the aircraft's movements had been part of regular military exercises. Speaking in Beijing, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang said China's sending of an aircraft for training in the "relevant air space" was completely in line with international law and practice. "Air defence identification zones are not territorial air space. There is absolutely no justification for South Korea to criticise China on the basis of a so-called ADIZ," Lu told a daily news briefing. A Chinese military aircraft entered the KADIZ on Jan. 29, while two similar instances were observed in 2017. (Reporting by Christine Kim, Additional reporting by Ben Blanchard in BEIJING, Editing by Michael Perry and Muralikumar Anantharaman)Spending is in addition to $31,000 dining set for Ben Carsons office



Proposed budget cuts would affect poor and homeless Americans

Ben Carson, the secretary for housing and urban development, has gained a $31,000 dining set but lost a senior official who refused to authorise its purchase. Photograph: Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP

The US Department of Housing and Urban Development (Hud) has agreed to spend $165,000 on lounge furniture for its Washington headquarters, in addition to a $31,000 dining set purchased for housing secretary Ben Carsons office.

The revelations on Tuesday of Carsons expensive decor spending come as Donald Trumps administration has proposed a cut of $6.8bn to Huds annual budget, or roughly 14% of its total spending, which would lead to reductions in programs aimed at poor and homeless Americans.



Department officials signed a contract last September with an Indiana-based seller for the furniture, according to a federal procurement record.

Raffi Williams, a spokesman for Hud, said in an email on Tuesday evening that further records on the lounge furniture contract were not immediately available.

Earlier on Tuesday it emerged that the department had agreed to spend $31,000 on a dining table and accompanying items for Carsons offices. Last week, Williams falsely denied to the Guardian that such a table had been bought.

Details of the furniture purchases were revealed after a senior career official at Hud alleged in a complaint to a federal watchdog that she was demoted after refusing to break a $5,000 spending limit for improvements to Carsons office.

Helen Foster said she was told $5,000 will not even buy a decent chair after informing her bosses that this was the legal price limit for improvements to Carsons suite of offices. Her complaint was filed to the office of special counsel (OSC).

Williams made false statements to the Guardian in emails last Friday while an article on Fosters claims was being prepared.

When it comes to the secretarys office, the only money HUD spent was $3,200 to put up new blinds in his office and the deputy secretarys office, Williams said in an email, declaring this information to be on background without prior agreement.

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Asked to confirm, as the Guardian had been told by a source, that a new dining-room-style table was also purchased, Williams replied: Yeah, thats inaccurate. After news of Fosters complaint was followed by US media, Williams confirmed on Tuesday that $31,000 was in fact spent on a new dining set for Carsons offices.

A separate federal procurement record states that Hud agreed last December to pay $31,561 to Sebree & Associates, a Baltimore-based furniture seller. The contract is described as being for secretarys furniture.

Williams, 29, is a former spokesman for the Republican National Committee, where he served as a deputy to Sean Spicer, Trumps former White House press secretary. Williams is the son of the Fox News presenter Juan Williams.



When asked on Tuesday to explain his misleading statement, Williams falsely stated that he had been asked only about spending on improvements to Carsons office from what he called the decorating budget.



Thats what you were asking about, was the decorating budget, and no table was bought with the decorating budget, said Williams. He then claimed he had actually been unaware a table had even been bought. I walked over there and there was no new table there, so I did not know, he said. I did not find out until much later.



Williams then said that he had another phone call coming in and terminated the interview.Photo: Getty Images

The internet has said a lot about Steve Bannon. It has questioned why he layers his shirts so strangely and why he has a Nazi face, and it has parodied him as the Grim Reaper. But what the internet hasnt called Bannon is a feminist.

That is still the case, but something about the former White House chief of staffs recent time spent away from President Trump and the day-to-day operations of his administration has left Bannon especially attuned to what much of the country is discussing: the groundswell #MeToo and #TimesUp movements.

In a new interview with GQ, Bannon admits to absolutely studying how the movement and its leaders have been able to harness limitless political power in efforts to end sexual harassment and assault.

MeToo is about sexual predators and everything like that. The Times Up movement is much more fundamental and actually many steps above MeToo. Its basically going against 10,000 years of recorded history. Thats the power of it, Bannon said. You see here something thats in a very early, raw stage, but Ive never seen such potential power in something.

He continued: Its something that is more fundamental and more primal, right? Quite powerful. I respect it. I dont agree with it, but I respect it. Thats going to become powerful, and Ill tell you why. They had a million people in the streets throughout the nation [for the second Womens March].

Bannons comments echo what hed expressed previously about the movement, first published in the New Yorker in early February.

Its even more powerful than populism. Its deeper. Its primal. Its elemental. The long black dresses and all that [referring to the Golden Globes]  this is the Puritans. Its anti-patriarchy, and You watch. The time has come. Women are gonna take charge of society. And they couldnt juxtapose a better villain than Trump. He is the patriarch. This is a definitional moment in the culture. Itll never be the same going forward. . . . The anti-patriarchy movement is going to undo ten thousand years of recorded history.

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All of thats in stark contrast to the relatively muted responses from those still working within the Trump administration about #MeToo. Itd be inaccurate to say Bannons a #MeToo ally, but he at least acknowledges the movement more so than his old boss.

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The fissure between Trump and Bannon extends beyond just #MeToo. When Michael Wolffs much-discussed book Fire and Fury debuted, Bannon was attributed as having disparaged both the president and his son Donald Jr. That reportedly led to Bannons ousting from Breitbart News in January.

While Bannon was at the helm, Breitbart reported on #MeToo, most often focusing on how left-wing lawmakers like Elizabeth Warren participated in the movement.

In the GQ interview, Bannon says he is opposed to #MeToo because he perceives it as coming from the left, a direct response to the populist surge of the 2016 presidential election and Trumps win. Bannon wont be donning a #TimesUp pin any time soon, but that doesnt mean he does not recognize the reckoning, as its been called.

The most powerful thing to this [womens] movement is not Oprah Winfrey, he said in GQ. The most powerful thing is a million people [in the streets] on a Saturday. Thats power.

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Follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter for nonstop inspiration delivered fresh to your feed, every day.West Virginia Governor Jim Justice, a billionaire coal magnate, told striking public school teachers Monday that they would only be able to mitigate their low salaries and rising healthcare costs by advocating for a tax on natural gas collection.

West Virginia's 20,000 teachers and 13,000 school service employees announced a work stoppage last Thursday to protest for higher wages and better benefits. Tuesday marks their fourth day on the picket lines, with schools in all 55 counties closed. The states educators are among the lowest paid in the country and face rising out-of-pocket healthcare costs.

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Justice recently approved a pay raise of 2 percent for educators next year and 1 percent over the following two years, but teachers say they need more.

The Republican governor held three town hall meetings with teachers on Monday under the guise of working towards a solution, but ultimately told the states educators repeatedly that they would only see an increase in their funds if they first fixed gas. He called on the teachers present, rather than elected officials, to make the change. Solve the gas issue. Solve it, he told them.

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Justices idea of linking teacher salaries to natural gas policy stems from his objection to state co-tenancy legislation that would let 75 percent of property owners on a parcel of land allow the property to be developed for oil or gas drilling. Currently, every owner must agree before any development takes place. The bill passed the State House in February and is currently making its way through Senate.

Prior to taking his post at the Governors mansion, Justice made his $1.74 billion fortune through a coal business he inherited from his father. The governor still owns mines in five states. But over the past decade, U.S. coal power production has fallen by 44 percent while inexpensive natural gas production has increased by 45 percent.

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He told teachers that he wanted the Senate to vote down the legislation and then call for a special session to rehash the bill. He also said he would strongly consider a veto against the bill if it passed unchanged.

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"I promise you I will call a special session on the natural gas issue, period," he said. The session would take place later this year, after primaries. He added that once the natural gas problem is hashed out, if monies come and we can generate additional severance dollars from gas, I will dedicate whatever portion it needs to be dedicated to fix [teachers health insurance] permanently.

At the Town Hall, teachers pointed out that the governor was able to justify an additional $20 million investment in tourism advertising and $1.6 billion in bonds for roads and bridge construction projects throughout the state, but would not find money for teachers. Another educator mentioned a $140 million business inventory tax cut had been proposed this year. Yet the governor insisted that the only money available for teachers would have to come through a natural gas tax.

The Governor has decided to interject this unrelated dispute into the current discussion regarding teacher pay and benefits and the Public Employees Insurance Agency in an apparent attempt to convince our teachers and public employees to support such a plan. I believe this course is headed for disaster, said West Virginia House Speaker Tim Armstead, a Republican.

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The Governor did not address his plans with Statehouse representatives before the town hall, said Jared Hunt, communications director for the West Virginia House of Delegates. It took three years to get to a point where we could get this bill passed, and lawmakers are angry that it could be torpedoed," he said. "Everyone is sort of suggesting whats happening because were getting second-hand news. Were reading tweets and trying to interpret what the governor is doing.

Still, educators are willing to hear the proposal and give it fair consideration. Any dollar we can get our hands on helps. While it may not be perfect, were open to it, said Jennifer Wood, spokesperson for the West Virginia American Federation of Teachers. Still, she remained cautious. There has been no actual proposal regarding the gas tax to fund these issues, its just gossip at this point. Our governor tends to spout off sometimes.

During the walkout, teachers could be heard chanting severance tax and tax our gas!

But some are conflicted, I agree that thats a viable solution if you take natural resources from our state you should have to pay a little bit to help out with the communities here, said Brian Bowman, an English teacher at Independence High School in Coal City, West Virginia. But by tying teachers livelihoods to a controversial natural gas bill, youre putting them in a hard place. They shouldnt have to make that decision.

Charlie Bird, executive director of the Independent Oil and Gas Association of West Virginia is quick to point out that the state already has a natural gas severance tax of 5 percent, higher than most of its neighboring states. The governor has not had dialogue with us, he said.

The criticism came, too, from the other side of the oil and gas debate. Lissa Lucas, a candidate for West Virginia Statehouse who was recently removed from a hearing for listing oil-and-gas donations to lawmakers campaigns, is vehemently against the co-tenancy legislation but doesnt think fair pay for teachers should be dependent on energy policy.

Our government is not a Democratic government or a Republican government, its been a corporate government, said Lissa Lucas, a candidate for West Virginia Statehouse who was recently removed from a hearing for listing oil-and-gas donations to lawmakers campaigns. I dont know how serious he is about this, or what his true motives are, but you shouldnt have to tie education to gas policy, it isnt right."

Multiple requests for comment to the governor's office went unreturned

This article was first written by Newsweek

More from NewsweekParkland (United States) (AFP) - President Donald Trump has surprised lawmakers by embracing gun control measures that are tougher than usually supported by his party, as students returned to the site of America's latest horrific school shooting.

"We have to do something about it. We have to act," Trump said, voicing support for expanded background checks, more secure schools, curbs on the ability of the mentally ill to buy firearms and raising to 21 the age for buying certain guns.

"We can't wait and play games and nothing gets done," Trump said at a meeting with lawmakers from both parties.

At one point, he turned to a Republican senator and said: "You're afraid of the NRA," referring to the National Rifle Association, the premier and powerful US gun lobby.

"He surprised me," Democratic Senator Chris Murphy later told AFP. "He committed very forcefully and very clearly to comprehensive background checks, raising the age on purchase of assault weapons, and protective orders."

With tears, fears and defiance, students also made an emotional return Wednesday to their Florida high school where a former classmate went on a shooting rampage two weeks ago, killing 17 people.

Students at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland were greeted by heavy security and scores of well-wishers as they returned to classes.

Dozens of police officers lined the sidewalks saying "Good morning" to each child and retired officers passed out flowers. Former students, neighbors and their children held banners reading "We Love You," "You've Got This" and "We Are With You."

"It's all a little overwhelming," said one 17-year-old student named William, who shared a classroom with two of the young victims, Nicholas Dworet and Meadow Pollack.

"It was just sad to go back there and not have my friends who were in the class with me anymore."

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Likewise, for Kimberly Miller, the first day back meant confronting the absence of her geography teacher, 35-year-old Scott Beigel.

Beigel was one of three staff killed, along with 14 teenagers, when former student Nikolas Cruz entered the school on Valentine's Day and opened fire with a semi-automatic rifle.

"It's pretty upsetting," said the 14-year-old Miller. "But it was also refreshing to talk to everyone because people don't really understand how it feels, no matter how much they try to understand."

While there were few open displays of grief, many students looked somber, speaking in hushed tones with their eyes downcast.

Jonathan Abramchaev, 15, said it was "very emotional" to see his school again.

"Seeing all the flowers by the gate, that really hurt me," he told AFP. "Today we were just discussing and talking out our feelings."

- 'What happens when they go?' -

Some said they felt reassured -- if a little unsettled -- by the heavy police presence.

"I'm not scared," said Stoneman Douglas junior Sean Cummings. "I feel like it's more protected than any other school at this point.

"But it's still weird to see everybody here and all these police officers," said the 16-year-old.

Others -- like senior Carly Novell -- said they were nervous to return.

"I'm really scared to go in," said Novell, who like many others wore a maroon T-shirt, the school colors.

Broward County school superintendent Robert Runcie said grief counselors were on hand for the day.

"We're going to provide as much support as we can," Runcie told CNN. "Students are excited. As a family, they're going to pull through it."

A 15-year-old named Alan said the shooting left him fearful -- even with his school under close watch by police.

"What happens when they go? In a couple of days or weeks when it gets back to normal? It may happen again," he said.

- 'We have to act' -

Since the shooting, Stoneman Douglas students have been lobbying politicians for stricter gun controls both in their home state of Florida and in Washington.

Republican lawmakers, with majorities in the US Congress and the Florida state legislature, have been cool on bringing in major reforms on the sales of firearms.

But Trump upped the pressure on lawmakers to get to work, hosting the bipartisan meeting at the White House where he raised eyebrows with his tough stance.

- 'Last father of a murdered kid' -

Pressure is also growing on businesses.

On Wednesday, Dick's Sporting Goods, a large chain store, announced it would immediately stop selling assault-style rifles and would not sell guns to anyone under the age of 21.

Dick's CEO Edward Stack said Cruz had purchased a shotgun at one of his stores in November and although it wasn't the gun used in the shooting, the chain would no longer sell semi-automatic weapons.

"Our view was if the kids can be brave enough to organize like this, we can be brave enough to take them out of here," Stack said.

Andrew Pollack -- the father of 18-year-old victim Meadow, accompanied by his therapy dog Sunny -- said he was determined to be the "face of the last father of a murdered kid."

"We need to make it that every kid in America, when he goes into a classroom, he knows he's safe," he said.By Yimou Lee and Ben Blanchard TAIPEI/BEIJING (Reuters) - Taiwan on Wednesday warned its companies and people to exercise caution and not rush to China's embrace after Beijing released new measures meant to further ease investment by Taiwan firms. Taiwan companies have flocked to China since the two sides begun a detente in the 1980s, attracted by far lower costs and a common language and culture. China claims sovereignty over self-ruled Taiwan, and has pledged to make life easier for Taiwanese companies and people living in China, who the government views as essentially Chinese citizens. In its latest policy pledge, China's Taiwan Affairs Office said the government would treat Taiwanese companies in certain sectors as equal to Chinese companies to help reduce manufacturing and operating costs. "They are aimed at sharing the opportunities of the mainland's development with Taiwan compatriots," the office said of the measures. However Taiwan's Mainland Affairs Council urged vigilance, warning that China, which has not renounced the use of force to ensure eventual unification, had not changed its policy. China "recently has continued to tighten up and put pressure on us, and at the same time has come out with so-called 'measures to benefit Taiwanese' to entice our people", it said. "The mainland side has for a long time repeatedly put forward many types of similar measures, all of which are aimed at unilaterally enhancing the benefits of its economic development goals and absorbing Taiwan's resources," the council added. Taiwan and China have different systems, laws and values, it added, in a pointed reference to Taiwan's freewheeling democratic system in contrast to China's autocratic form of government. "Before participating, companies and people should cautiously evaluate the risks and effects of the costs." While China has become increasingly hostile towards Taiwan since Tsai Ing-wen from the pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party won the presidency two years ago, it has redoubled efforts to reach out to ordinary Taiwanese. Those have included incentives to young Taiwanese to set up businesses in China. Tsai has repeatedly expressed her goodwill towards China. Beijing, for its part, wants Tsai to acknowledge that Taiwan and China are part of the same country. In a speech to foreign diplomats in Taipei on Tuesday evening, Tsai said she would not change her position of maintaining the current status quo in the Taiwan Strait, a reference to Taiwan not seeking independence and China not seeking to force unification. "But I also want to remind people, maintaining the status quo is not the responsibility of one country. Maintaining the status quo needs the joint efforts of all countries in the whole region," she said. (Reporting by Yimou Lee and Ben Blanchard; Editing by Nick Macfie)By Kim Palmer ZANESVILLE, Ohio (Reuters) - As Republican U.S. Senator Rob Portman spoke to small-business owners over the weekend in his home state of Ohio, he hammered on a major election-year theme for Republicans - that tax cuts are helping the little guy. What did not come up in his talk in Zanesville was the more complicated topic of Republican President Donald Trump, whose victory in Ohio in 2016 helped propel him to the White House. The enactment last year of a huge tax-cut package could offer Republicans in battleground states the chance to campaign in November's congressional elections without the burden of Trump's relatively high unfavorability ratings. The president claimed credit for the tax overhaul he signed into law in December, the biggest in 30 years. But the plan was developed and approved by Republican lawmakers with minimal White House involvement. It was the Republican-controlled Congress' only major accomplishment of 2017. So some Republicans may feel free to leave Trump out of their tax-cut message. Portman, a centrist who is not up for re-election in November, did just that on Friday and Saturday. "We have seen over 350 companies make positive announcements ... they all have a positive story to tell about how they are taking the tax savings and plowing it back into their business," Portman said at GKM Auto Parts on Friday. Portman said a month before the 2016 election that he could not support Trump and said afterward he did not vote for him. Before a small group of business people, GKM owner Kelly Moore praised Portman for helping craft the tax bill that she said let her reinstate healthcare coverage for her employees. On his "Results for the Middle Class Tax Reform Tour," Portman has hosted several other tax-focused events, including ones on Saturday in Cleveland and Mentor. Reports on his official website from the two events made no mention of Trump. DEMOCRATIC CHALLENGE Portman is seeking to promote the tax cuts as a benefit for working Americans, but that view is strongly challenged by Democrats, who say the tax changes mainly benefit corporations and the rich. The issue may not be a sure-fire winner with voters. A Feb. 13-22 Reuters/Ipsos poll found a range of views about the tax legislation, with only 3 percent of respondents saying they had received an actual benefit, like a raise or bonus. Ohio's other U.S. senator, Democrat Sherrod Brown, is seeking re-election this November, with the state likely to be a major electoral battleground as the two parties fight for control of Congress. Portman and Trump are both backing Representative Jim Renacci in the Republican primary race to choose a challenger to Brown. Ohio Democrats accused Portman of skirting questions about the tax bill by staging "PR events with captive audiences." "Portman conveniently forgets to mention that companies Trump touted for giving bonuses have been simultaneously laying off workers, said Ohio Democratic Party Chairman David Pepper. But some Republican strategists said talks like the one Portman gave in Zanesville were helping the party shrink the Democrats' advantage in a generic poll as to which party is favored by voters in congressional elections. The tax cuts are much friendlier territory for Republicans than Trumps tweets, said John Feehery, a lobbyist and former senior Republican aide in the House of Representatives. If we are talking about President Trump and his character, it's probably not a winner for Republicans," Feehery said. (Additional reporting by Susan Cornwell in Washington and Chris Kahn in New York; Editing by Kevin Drawbaugh and Peter Cooney)A teacher at Dalton High School in Georgia has been taken into custody after police said a gun was fired inside of a classroom. (Photo: Google Maps)

A Georgia high school teacher is facing a number of charges after he barricaded himself inside an empty classroom and fired a handgun while students stood outside the door, authorities said Wednesday.

The shooting, which took place around 11:30 a.m. Wednesday, led to a frantic lockdown at Dalton High School. One student suffered a minor ankle injury while running down the halls, police said at a press conference.

Dalton police spokesman Bruce Frazier said the teacher, identified as social studies teacher Jesse Randal Davidson, 53, locked himself inside of the room and refused to allow students inside.

When the principal put a key in the door to try to unlock the classroom, Mr. Davidson apparently fired a shot from a handgun through an exterior window of the classroom. It does not appear that it was aimed at anybody, Frazier said at a press conference.

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Obviously at that point, [the principal] locked down the school, he called all the police in, the school resources in, Frazier said.

Davidson faces charges of aggravated assault, carrying a weapon on school grounds, terroristic threats, reckless conduct, possession of a gun during the commission of a crime, and disrupting public school, police tweeted.

School principal Steve Bartoo expressed surprise over Davidsons behavior, describing him as an excellent teacher who loves his students.

He said, Dont come in here. I have a gun, Bartoo recalled at an afternoon press conference. Its scary, real scary. It took me a moment to collect my thoughts after I heard the gunshot.

Jesse Randal Davidson, 53, is facing a number of charges after accused of firing a gun inside of a high school classroom. (Photo: Whitfield County Sheriffs Office)

Bartoo said it took just a few minutes for law enforcement officers to arrive.

A school resource officer, who police initially said was on campus at the time of the shooting, was visiting the districts junior high school and had to be called over. Bartoo said that officer, who police said is typically always at the high school during school hours, helped negotiate Davidsons surrender.

Were very, very proud of this officer and everything that he did, Bartoo said.

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Police said they are still investigating a motive for the shooting.

As far as I know, he was fit to be at work and Im not aware of any depression, Bartoo said when asked about Davidsons mental health. Davidson has been employed by the school since 2004.

Dalton Assistant Police Chief Cliff Cason said his department had not had contact with Davidson prior to Wednesdays event. Authorities said they are not aware of anything related to his personal life.

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President Donald Trump last week met with survivors of this month's school shooting in Florida and suggested arming teachers and other faculty members to prevent such tragedies from happening again. (Photo: Jonathan Ernst / Reuters)

The frightening incident came the same day that classes resumed at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, where a lone gunman killed 17 people two weeks ago.

It also followed heated debates on gun control across the country.

President Donald Trump, who met with survivors of the Parkland shooting last week, has suggested arming teachers and other faculty members to help prevent school shootings. As an incentive, he suggested giving faculty members extra pay if they agree to be trained to use firearms.

Trump repeated this idea during a meeting with congressional leaders on Wednesday. He suggested hardening schools by allowing people with a certified training, very talented people, to carry firearms.

Floridas House and Senate have also gotten behind the idea, with the states legislature advancing bills this week that would train teachers to carry guns in classrooms.

The idea of arming teachers and other faculty members to prevent school shootings led to renewed ridicule on social media following news of an armed teacher creating the kind of scare that the nation is trying to avoid.

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This story has been updated with additional information from local authorities.

This article originally appeared on HuffPost.High school students in Pittsburgh march in solidarity with Parkland, Fla., students and with other high schools across the country. (Photo: Stephanie Strasburg/Pittsburgh Post-Gazette via AP)

In the two weeks since the slaughter of 17 students and adults in Parkland, Fla., not much has changed in the way the country regulates guns. Anyone who could buy an assault rifle on Feb. 13 still can today. And yet, even with Republicans in control of Congress and the White House, the ground seems to be shifting in the direction of gun safety advocates who have been stymied for years. Whether this shift will last and what its long-term impact will be remain unknown. But the movement that began among the teenage survivors of the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, which hopes to bring as many as a half-million marchers to Washington next month, has become the latest in a long tradition of movements for social change that have transformed the politics of issues that were once seen as set in stone, from slavery to the casual acceptance of sexual harassment.

In the wake of the massacre at Douglas, the grassroots activists are giving a jolt of momentum to gun-safety advocates and putting the National Rifle Association on the defensive. Even if Congress punts on the gun control issue for the rest of the year, the speeches, marches and protests at state capitals in recent days are having an undeniable effect. Even states that have long opposed any gun control measures, such as Florida and Vermont, are actively considering new restrictions on firearms. Not since Bill Clintons first presidential term, when the Brady Bill restricting handgun sales and an assault weapons ban were enacted, have gun control advocates experienced a time so promising for legislative action.

Two employees of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School honor the dead. (Photo: Mike Stocker/South Florida Sun-Sentinel/AP)

From Columbine, Colo., in 1999 to Newtown, Conn., in 2012 to Las Vegas last fall, mass shootings have done little to move the needle on gun control measures. Liberals proposed modest restrictions, and the NRA, with the backing of the Republican Party and some red-state Democrats, prevented them from being adopted. But this time seems different. The students are media-savvy, articulate and have effectively seized the moral high ground based on their first-hand experiences of the terror. They are highly sympathetic and dogged. They have joined the slipstream of activism that was touched off in Newtown, the culmination of anger built up over years of random massacres by assailants who had no business getting their hands on assault-style rifles. The latest young assailant had had numerous brushes with law enforcement and with mental health professionals, had raised alarms with neighbors and acquaintances specifically threatening to shoot up a school, and yet he slipped through the system and was able to buy a weapon designed to kill maximum numbers of people.

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For these reasons, the growing pressure applied by student activists has appeared to pierce the NRAs once-invincible political armor. Rep. Brian Mast, a Republican who represents the adjacent congressional district to the north, an Army bomb technician in Afghanistan who lost both legs in combat, endorsed a list of gun control measures including a ban on assault weapons, putting him at odds with the NRA. Floridas Republican Gov. Rick Scott, who has an A+ rating from the NRA, has also broken with the organization, announcing his support for raising to 21 the minimum age to buy a rifle. Even President Trump has grudgingly committed to a ban on bump stocks (an accessory that turns semi-automatic rifles into machine guns) and floated the prospect that he might support some other modest gun control policies. In 2016, Trump had run for president as the NRAs most vocal supporter and a loud defender of the Second Amendment.

President Trump with Florida Gov. Rick Scott. (Photo: Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images)

Republican Gov. Bill Haslam of Tennessee acknowledged the dilemma facing his fellow Republicans when he explained that in the aftermath of what happened in Florida, people want to see action. The GOPs dominance of state and federal government includes 33 of 50 governor offices, 67 of 99 state legislative chambers and both chambers of Congress and the White House. Republican lawmakers have come under intense pressure to act, or at least to appear to act, on gun issues to keep their majorities in Novembers midterm elections. Recent polls taken after the Douglas High School shooting reveal that public support for new gun safety laws is at its highest level since 1993. And even businesses are feeling pressure from consumers to end ties to the gun industry. Avis, Budget and Hertz rental car agencies; Delta and United Airlines; insurance giant Met Life, and the First National Bank of Omaha have all announced plans to end promotional programs in partnership with the NRA.

The student-led agitation in support of gun law reform is bringing about a nascent political shift on this once-intractable issue. Those in the vanguard of this social movement are drawing on a long tradition in which institutions and laws seemingly impervious to change were challenged, reconsidered and ultimately remade. The grassroots power of social activism has triggered shifts in public views on major issues and forced the parties to reckon with policies and politics in fundamentally fresh ways. Nineteenth-century abolitionism, for example, which historian Adam Rothman called the primordial reform movement of American history, involved African-American activists courageously protesting the evil of slavery while also developing an effective politics. Abolitionists, Rothman writes, engaged in the streets, in the courts, and at the polls. Some dug in on the cultural front, preaching abolition in oratory, literature, and music. And their political impact was notable: Some activists sought to pry open Jacksonian Americas two-party political system by pressuring the Whigs and Democrats from within, or supporting third-party disruptions, beginning with the thoroughly abolitionist Liberty Party in 1840. These efforts finally paid off in the 1850s as the Whigs crumbled and a new antislavery party, the Republicans, arose in the North.

Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School student Emma Gonzalez at a rally for gun control in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. (Photo: Rhona Wise/AFP/Getty Images)

Tinkering with gun permit requirements hardly rises to the level of the struggle to abolish slavery. But like the abolitionists, todays gun control activists are engaged in a form of moral agitation that is forcing political officials to acknowledge their arguments, grapple with their proposals and rethink some of their positions. Similarly, the post-World War II civil rights movement has echoes in the gun control movement of 2018. That earlier movement not only roused the nations conscience about racist laws and institutions but also pioneered a tactic, nonviolent direct action, to pressure local businesses and national elected officials. Perhaps no moment better encapsulated the movements political impact than Lyndon Johnsons 1965 invocation, after the march on Selma, of the anthem We Shall Overcome in his congressional address on voting rights.

Just as a movement led by students organized business boycotts and captured national news attention for a cause; just as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and other protesters grounded their arguments in higher moral appeals and constitutional notions of freedom and equality, todays gun control movement is being led by students, pressuring an older generation of mostly white lawmakers to acknowledge and respond to their claims and couching their appeals in notions of freedom and safety etched in the Declaration of Independences guarantee of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Teenagers and children, they are saying, have a right to go to school free from the terror of gun violence. Todays activists are applying economic pressure to affect social change as well.

Marjory Stoneman Douglas student Cameron Kasky, left, confronts Sen. Marco Rubio at town hall meeting in Sunrise, Fla. (Photo: Michael Laughlin/Pool/Reuters)

The social movement for womens rights during the 1970s sought to raise public awareness about gender inequality, force politicians to grapple with these entrenched disparities, and to achieve legislative and legal remedies. Their moral agitation helped open the upper ranks of law, medicine and politics to women. That legacy is also fueling contemporary debates about womens rights and gender equality, and informing the 2017 Womens March, a surge of women political candidates and the #MeToo movement.

In the 1980s, social activism to increase research on AIDS showed how savvy social movements can thrust previously unacknowledged policy issues to the forefront of American life. In 1985, the gay and lesbian rights activist Cleve Jones asked marchers in San Francisco to write down the names of their friends who had died of AIDS. The project eventually evolved into a quilt that memorialized the thousands of lives lost to the disease, led to protests on the National Mall and at the National Institutes of Health and forced medical researchers and lawmakers to confront AIDS as a major public health problem for the first time.

Protesters rally for gun law reform in Tallahassee, Fla., Feb. 21, 2018. (Photo: Colin Hackley/Reuters)

The fact of agitation around a particular cause doesnt automatically yield legislative victories or shifts in the political climate, of course. Even victorious movements for social change have produced unfinished revolutions and mixed outcomes. The students, parents and teachers from Parkland are plugging into a well-established but not always effective nexus of gun control organizations, including the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence and the Giffords Courage to Fight Gun Violence group, both launched by public figures who were shot in assassination attempts. And despite the movement at the state level toward greater gun control policy, the most likely outcome in Congress is that it will do little to nothing to respond to the demands of the student activists in the near term. Yet, when the history of this moment is written, it may well be that the young agitators will be described as the ones who are pushing the once immovable boulder of gun control off its resting place and pointing it downhill, where it will gain momentum and leave the NRA-dominated gun politics behind in a cloud of dust.

A sign outside Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., Feb. 27, 2018. (Photo: Rhona Wise/AFP/Getty Images)

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Matthew Dallek, an associate professor at George Washington Universitys Graduate School of Political Management, is author, most recently, of Defenseless Under the Night: The Roosevelt Years and the Origins of Homeland Security.

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Read more from Yahoo News:Shoppers in Taiwan have rushed to their supermarkets to get their hands on as many toilet paper rolls as possible amid fears of an impending price hike.

Some shops could not refill the shelves fast enough. Several pictures shared on social media showed empty supermarket aisles, giving the impression of a toilet paper shortage.

The Ministry of Economic Affairs issued a statement on Sunday in an attempt to calm consumers who already pay around 150 New Taiwan dollar (NTD)more than the minimum hourly wage of 140 NDTfor a 12-pack roll of toilet paper.

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"The production supply is normal and there is no shortage," the statement read, saying the ministry consulted with three major domestic toilet paper manufacturers.

02_27_TP_Taiwan

Sam Yeh/AFP/Getty Images

The government also addressed the issue in parliament on Tuesday. "Don't panic," prime minister Lai Ching-te said, quoted in Taiwan's Central News Agency. "Local consumer prices are expected to stay tame," he added.

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The panic buying was prompted by an announcement from toilet paper producers to retailers on Friday saying the cost of the tissues would increase between 10 and 30 percent. They justified the price increase by pointing to a rise in prices of pulp, toilet paper's main component, expected from mid-March on the global markets.

The announcement came a few days after Chinese New Year, a time in which businesses tend to increase their prices and shoppers pay attention to price increases.

"Taiwanese consumers are price-conscious," Shir Bashi, an editor at the English-language newspaper Taipei Times, tells Newsweek. "Taiwan is quite a wealthy place but wages are relatively low. Price rises have quite a disproportionate effect on peoples lives."

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In its statement, the Ministry of Economic Affairs advised consumers to buy toilet paper made with recycled content as a cost-saving measure. It also promised to ask the government's Fair Trade Commission to investigate any reports of abnormal price changes or retailers colluding to drive up prices.

This article was first written by Newsweek

More from NewsweekBEIJING (Reuters) - Chinese President Xi Jinping's top economic adviser, Liu He, will visit the United States this week, China's Foreign Ministry said on Monday, at a time of tension between the two countries over trade. Liu will be in the United States from Feb. 27 to March 3, ministry spokesman Lu Kang told a daily news briefing. Views will be exchanged "on China-U.S. relations and the two countries' economic and trade cooperation", the spokesman said, confirming reports from the United States on the trip, but without giving other details. Liu, a Harvard-trained economist and trusted confidant of President Xi, has emerged as the front-runner to be the next governor of China's central bank, according to sources with knowledge of the situation. Xi's top adviser on economic policy is also expected to become vice premier overseeing the Chinese economy, part of a government reshuffle coinciding with the annual meeting of China's parliament that opens on March 5 and is likely to last about two weeks. A senior U.S. official said last week that there will be discussions on trade disputes with Liu when he visits Washington. On the U.S. side, the talks will be led by President Donald Trump's trade envoy, Robert Lighthizer. The discussions will take place as Donald Trump considers new tariffs on steel imports. Trump has long sought a way to a more balanced trade relationship with China and threatened to impose a big "fine" against China to protect American intellectual property. The U.S. official said Trump had been discussing imposing a global tariff on imports of steel from China and other countries. The U.S. Commerce Department on Feb. 16 recommended that Trump impose stiff curbs on steel imports from China and other countries and offered the president several options, ranging from global and country-specific tariffs to broad import quotas. A blanket tariff on steel would cover every steel and aluminum product entering the United State market from China, the world's largest steel producer. (Reporting by Michael Martina; Writing by Ben Blanchard; Editing by Richard Borsuk)Mike Pence tours the border wall in Hidalgo, Texas: Nathan Lambrecht/The Monitor via AP

A federal judge has ruled the Trump administration has the authority to waive environmental rules as it seeks to construct a border wall with Mexico.

Judge Gonzalo Curiel handed the administration a victory on one of Donald Trumps central campaign promises - a ruling that was all the more striking because Mr Trump had disparaged Mr Curiels ability to be unbiased because of the American judges Mexican heritage.

California and an array of environmental groups filed legal challenges last year to the administrations effort to expedite the walls construction by circumventing a variety of statutes. In announcing the lawsuit, California Attorney General Xavier Becerra suggested Donald Trump had sought to ignore the law.

Mr Curiels acknowledged he was ruling on a politically freighted case, writing in his decision that the wall was the subject of heated political debateas to the need, efficacy and the source of funding for such barriers, but said he was not weighing in on whether underlying decisions to construct the border barriers are politically wise or prudent.

During the presidential campaign, Mr Trump called Mr Curiel - who was then overseeing class-action lawsuits against Trump University - very hostile and repeatedly referred to the Indiana-raised judge's Hispanic roots.

We are building a wall. He's a Mexican. We're building a wall between here and Mexico, Mr Trump said during a June 2016 interview.

This judge is giving us unfair rulings. Now, I say. 'Why?' Well, I'm building a wall, OK? And it's a wall between Mexico. Not another country, Mr Trump added.

Debate over the wall has continued to smoulder in Washington. While the Trump administration requested $18bn (13bn) for the structure's first phase earlier this year, Congress has not yet allocated money to construct a border barrier.

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The walls fate has also become entangled in a broader immigration fight. Mr Trump has sought to extract a deal for more border security funding in exchange for opening a path to citizenship to young immigrants who are in the country illegally. He moved to end a programme that offered them temporary legal status.

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Washington (AFP) - Hope Hicks, one of President Donald Trump's closest aides, appeared at a closed congressional hearing on Russian election meddling Tuesday, but refused to answer many of the questions of the House Intelligence Committee.

The White House's 29-year-old communications director stuck to answering pre-approved questions, according to committee members, as have other Trump inner-circle advisors who have appeared such as his former top strategist Steve Bannon.

That meant avoiding questions about her work and White House contacts with Russia both following the November 8, 2016 presidential election and the January 20, 2017 inauguration, according to Democratic Congressman Mike Quigley.

"They're following the orders of the White House not to answer certain questions," he told reporters.

"We got Bannoned," Democratic panel member Denny Heck told Bloomberg.

The committee has been holding hearings on Russian election interference and the links between the Trump campaign and Moscow, in parallel to special counsel Robert Mueller's Justice Department investigation into the same issue.

But the committee has made little progress for months amid infighting between Republicans loyal to the president and Democrats pressuring the White House.

As a longtime Trump aide, Hicks, who was at the committee voluntarily, could have key information for the investigation.

She drew attention for her role in crafting the White House's response after the revelation of a June 2016 meeting between top campaign officials, including Trump's son Donald Trump Jr and son-in-law Jared Kushner, and a Russian lawyer who had offered them dirt on Trump's Democratic rival Hillary Clinton.

The New York Times has reported that, according to Mark Corallo, a former member of Trump's legal team, Hicks said in a phone call with him and the president that emails written by Trump Jr. about the meeting in question "will never get out."

That, if true, could raise suspicions about attempts to obstruct the Mueller investigation.President Trump and administration officials continue to tout the benefits of the tax cuts: AP

President Donald Trumps tax law that was passed by Republicans with breakneck speed last year is ridden with typos and glitches.

Mr Trump and administration officials continue to tout the benefits of the $1.5 trillion tax cut that he signed into law in December. But whats missing in Mr Trumps rhetoric is any mention of the snafus that could end up costing the federal US government big money, experts warn.

Legislation often contains a few errors, but not of this magnitude, experts have been quick to point out.

The glitches are not just typos. A lot of the discrepancies revolve around actual tax policy questions where there is disagreement between Democrats and Republicans, meaning the errors will be much harder to fix, according to John Wonderlich. Mr Wonderlich is the executive director of the Sunlight Foundation, a nonprofit which advocates for open government.

The amount of errors and unintended consequences in the tax bill is far beyond normal, he told The Independent. He said that eleventh-hour changes to the legislation and the non-transparent process used to pass it contributed to this result.

David Miller, a tax partner at Proskauer Rose, noted to The Independent that the last time Congress passed a sweeping tax bill, in 1986, the legislation had taken three years to develop and had the support of both political parties.

This time the process was done in a matter of months, he said, noting that legislators did not seek outside comments from experts and that the bill was pushed through Congress without a single vote from Democrats.

Thats the reason, I believe, youre seeing many more errors in this tax legislation than normal, he said.

One such glitch blocks restaurants, retailers and even real-estate companies such as Mr Trumps from deducting the costs of renovations over the short term, as Congress intended, the New York Post reported.

Instead, what appears to be a typo could force those businesses to spread out the tax breaks over 39 years.

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Another mistake creates more loopholes that benefit Wall Street hedge funds and private equity firms.

For example, the bill enables wealthy money managers to avoid a crackdown on lucrative tax breaks, allowing them to pay lower taxes on some of their income than ordinary wage earners.

One way the dozens of errors can be fixed is through the passage of new legislation, called a technical corrections bill, that would amend the law.

But to pass such a measure in the Senate, Republicans would need the help of Democrats, who are in no rush to come to the aid of their colleagues across the aisle.

Were not going to say to Republicans, Oh tell us what you want to do, Democratic Senator Sherrod Brown told Politico.

We want to make the bill better, not just correct whatever technical fix is needed, said Mr Brown, who sits on the tax-writing Senate Finance committee.

Another way the glitches can be fixed is by the Treasury Department issuing regulations that correct the errors  but this possible solution has limitations.

If the statute is clear on its face, then its difficult for a regulation to contradict the statute itself, Mr Miller said.

Attempting to use regulations to fix the issue could also result in litigation over the interpretations of the tax act.

If the bill just says something ambiguous, or counter to what the drafters intended, they really need new legislation, Mr Wonderlich said.During a press conference Monday, President Donald Trump slammed Moscow for aiding North Korea.

Questioned about the news that Pyongyang may be willing to enter into negotiations with the United States over its nuclear weapons program, Trump credited Beijing for doing more than ever to pressure the hermit kingdom to negotiate. Russia, on the other hand, is "sending in what China is taking out, Trump said.

The comments called attention to the longstanding suspicion that Russia is carrying out business with North Korean leader Kim Jong Uns rogue regime, despite international sanctions that aim to curb the countrys development of nuclear weapons.

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There is at least some evidence to suggest Russia is in some capacity selling oil to North Korea in violation of UN Security Council resolutions they have signed on to. The challenge is we have no way of knowing if such shipments come at the directive of the Putin government or traders in Russia's Far East smelling profits and are filling the void, Harry Kazianis, director of defense studies at the Center for the National Interest, a public policy think tank in Washington, told Newsweek.

The good news in this situation is that Moscow could never completely fill the oil and natural resources void China is vacating thanks to sanctions, he added.

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KENA BETANCUR/AFP/Getty Images

North Korea is currently subject to a variety of international sanctions, both from the United Nations and the U.S. Treasury. Moscow has agreed to comply with the U.N. sanctions, and in early February Russias Ambassador to North Korea Alexander Matsegora announced that Russia would begin deporting North Korean workers stationed in Russia far easttens of thousands of whom help prop up the region's construction sector.

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Simultaneously, however, reports have emerged that Russia could be supplying oil to North Korea.

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The United Nations Security Council resolutions limit the amount of oil and oil products that can be exported to North Korea. They also prohibit U.N. member states from engaging in ship-to-ship transfers of sanctioned North Korea goods and resources, Lisa Collins, an expert on the Koreas at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, told Newsweek.

There is some evidence that Russia is helping North Korea to evade these sanctions by engaging in ship-to-ship transfers of fuel, Collins added. By helping North Korea to evade sanctions through ship-to-ship transfers of fuel, Russia is relieving some of the economic pressure that Pyongyang might otherwise feel from the international community and Chinas increasing enforcement of UN sanctions.

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KIRILL KUDRYAVTSEV/AFP/Getty Images

Some experts argue that Russia is helping North Korea behind-the-scenes in order to gain leverage over negotiating partners on the international level.

"The Korean Peninsula is something of a second-tier strategic concern for Russia....North Korea's merchandise trade with Russia in recent years has been a tiny fraction of its trade with China," Daniel Wertz, program director of the National Committee on North Korea, told Newsweek.

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"Nonetheless, Russia has been ambivalent about sanctioning North Korea, and has occasionally threatened to play a spoiler role in order to keep a seat at the diplomatic table," Wertz added.

Trump has largely avoided criticizing Moscow throughout his presidency, while he has taken a tough line on North Korea, slinging insults at the countrys leadership via Twitter. If Russia is helping to boost Pyongyangs economy, that could prove to be one of the few serious points of contention between Trump and Russia.

However, some experts noted that Moscow is likely to reject accusations of undercutting international sanctions by doing business with Pyongyang.

"Moscow claims that it has repeatedly demonstrated clear opposition to North Korea's nuclear weapons programme," James Brown, an expert on Russia and the Far East, told Newsweek.

"Yet, while Moscow claims to support sanctions, there continue to be reports that Russian companies are assisting North Korea to evade the punitive measures by illicit transfers of oil products between ships at sea and by trans-shipment of North Korean coal through the Russian port of Nakhodka," Brown added.

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OLIVIER DOULIERY/AFP/Getty Images

On Friday, the Trump administration issued a new set of sanctions that aimed to crack down on North Koreas ability to profit from maritime activities. The new sanctions targeted one person, 27 companies and 28 vessels located or registered in countries such as China, Singapore, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Tanzania and Panama, among others. The sanctions did not target Russia.

Two days later, officials in South Korea announced that high-ranking officials from North Korea said their country's leadership was willing to negotiate with the United States about its nuclear weapons program. For his part, Trump has said he would be willing to speak under the right conditions.

This article was first written by Newsweek

More from NewsweekWASHINGTON  One minute, President Trumps 2020 campaign referred to Jared Kushner as Senior Advisor and Assistant to the President, and President Trumps son-in-law. The next, Kushner became simply President Trumps son-in-law.

Blame the 1939 Act to Prevent Pernicious Political Activities, better known as the Hatch Act. The law imposes limits on what government officials can and cannot do in terms of partisan campaign activities.

The Trump reelection organization appears to have fallen afoul of one of the measures provisions with an early Tuesday statement announcing that digital strategist Brad Parscale would run the 2020 operation.

The statement included praise for Parscale from Jared Kushner, Senior Advisor and Assistant to the President, and President Trumps son-in-law.

Brad was essential in bringing a disciplined technology and data-driven approach to how the 2016 campaign was run. His leadership and expertise will be help [sic] build a best-in-class campaign, Kushner said in the announcement.

As an assistant to the president, Kushner can take part in limited campaign activities while on duty. But the Office of Special Counsel (OSC) that oversees enforcement of the Hatch Act says the law prohibits referring to their official titles or positions while engaged in political activity at any time.

After the original announcement went up, the campaign updated the statement. The new version reads: Jared Kushner, President Trumps son-in-law, said, Brad was essential in bringing a disciplined technology and data-driven approach to how the 2016 campaign was run. His leadership and expertise will be help build a best-in-class campaign.

(The update repeated the earlier apparent typo. But typos are legal.)

Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump at President Trumps State of the Union address. (Photo: Jonathan Ernst/Reuters)

Under President Barack Obama, White House aides received yearly briefings from the Office of White House Counsel about legal restrictions on political activities, among other limits that come with a job at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

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You do have to go. Theres a sign-in sheet at each briefing. You sign at the end so that you cant just sign it and leave. No one else can sign for you, one White House aide explained to Yahoo News last year.

White House press secretary Sarah Sanders told reporters at her daily briefing that senior Trump aides had gone through a similar process.

Asked whether White House officials had received a briefing on the rules, including the prohibition on using formal titles in campaign materials, Sanders replied: I know that both Cabinet and senior staff have been briefed on upcoming midterm elections and what they are allowed to do.

Under Obama, there were two notable instances of senior aides facing charges of improper politicking. Labor Secretary Hilda Solis drew accusations that she engaged in improper fundraising by soliciting subordinates for donations to Obamas 2012 reelection campaign. The OSC closed its probe when she stepped down to run for office in California, but it had referred the matter to the Department of Justice for possible criminal investigation. And the OSC found that Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius had violated the Hatch Act in 2012 by endorsing a Democratic candidate in North Carolina and urging Obamas reelection at a gala where she appeared in her official capacity.

Under the current president, Ben Carson was briefly in trouble after he was introduced at an August 2017 Trump campaign rally as the secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, Dr. Ben Carson. The OSC determined that the renowned surgeon had not done anything to imply that he was speaking in his official capacity.

Kushners status at the White House also made news on Tuesday, when several news outlets reported that his security clearance had been downgraded, paring back his access to some of the nations closest-held secrets. All Trump aides holding interim clearances at the most sensitive level learned in a memo issued Friday that they would be dropped to a lower level. Kushner has played a central role in the administrations Middle East peace push and relations with China, and he previously had access to the Presidents Daily Brief, one of the most sensitive intelligence documents produced for Trump. Politico first reported the change.

Read more from Yahoo News:President Trump on Wednesday lashed out at Attorney General Jeff Sessions, accusing the nations top law enforcement officer of not being aggressive enough in investigating allegations of misconduct in the handling of surveillance of former Trump adviser Carter Page during the 2016 campaign.

Sessions said on Tuesday he would ask the Justice Departments inspector general to look into claims that the FBI and other Obama administration officials misled a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court judge when they applied for the warrant to wiretap Page.

Why is A.G. Jeff Sessions asking the Inspector General to investigate potentially massive FISA abuse, Trump tweeted. Will take forever, has no prosecutorial power and already late with reports on Comey etc. Isnt the I.G. an Obama guy? Why not use Justice Department lawyers? DISGRACEFUL!

Sessions responded in a statement on Wednesday afternoon.

We have initiated the appropriate process that will ensure complaints against this Department will be fully and fairly acted upon as necessary, Sessions said in the statement, first reported by CNN. As long as I am the Attorney General, I will continue to discharge my duties with integrity and honor, and this Department will continue to do its work in a fair and impartial manner according to the law and Constitution.

The alleged massive FISA abuse Trump referred to was a charge leveled in the controversial memo authored by House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes, R-Calif., and authorized for release by the president earlier this month. The memo suggested that the original FISA application relied heavily on the salacious but unverified dossier prepared by former British spy Christopher Steele, and that a Yahoo News article about Steele was used to corroborate the veracity of the dossier.

A redacted version of a response by the Democratic minority on the committee was released last week.

At a press conference Tuesday about the Trump administrations efforts to combat the opioid epidemic, Sessions was asked whether the Justice Department would investigate the Nunes memos claims.

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Attorney General Jeff Sessions speaks at the Public Safety Medal of Valor awards ceremony in the East Room of the White House, Feb. 20, 2018. (AP Photo: Evan Vucci/AP)

We believe the Department of Justice must adhere to the high standards in the FISA court and, yes, it will be investigated, Sessions said. The inspector general will take that as one of the matters theyll deal with.

The inspector general, Michael Horowitz, was sworn into the post in April 2012, during President Barack Obamas second term. Horowitz previously served as a commissioner on the U.S. Sentencing Commission under former President George W. Bush.

In January 2017, Horowitz announced that his office would review broad allegations of misconduct involving then-FBI Director James Comeys handling of the bureaus probe into Hillary Clintons use of a private email server when she was secretary of state.

Wednesdays tweet was far from the first time Sessions has drawn the presidents ire.

Last summer, Trump reportedly considered firing Sessions for recusing himself from all campaign-related investigations, including the probe into allegations of collusion with Russia. Sessions recused himself in March after it was revealed he had undisclosed meetings with the Russian ambassador. His decision put the Russia probe in the hands of Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who appointed Robert Mueller III as special counsel.

And the president has frequently aired his disdain for the nations top law enforcement officer in public.

In July, Trump railed against Sessions for taking a very weak position on Clintons supposed crimes and the leaking of classified intelligence. He also referred to Sessions as beleaguered.

Last week, the president misspelled Sessionss last name while fuming about special counsel Muellers probe of the Trump campaigns contacts with the Kremlin.

If all of the Russian meddling took place during the Obama Administration, right up to January 20th, why arent they the subject of the investigation? Trump tweeted. Why didnt Obama do something about the meddling? Why arent Dem crimes under investigation? Ask Jeff Session!

Read more from Yahoo News:Donald Trump will run for a second term as president and has named Brad Parscale, his 2016 digital strategist, as his campaign manager for 2020.

The naming of Mr Parscale as campaign manager marks the clearest step yet towards defining a framework and strategy for Mr Trump to try and secure a second term, even if the news he is intending to seek re-election may not come as a surprise to most, since he filed paperwork for his 2020 campaign all the way back on Inauguration Day.

Mr Parscales appointment to the top position in the re-election campaign apparatus is likely to indicate that Mr Trump plans on focusing heavily on online strategies to reach voters and get out the vote in three years. Soon after the announcement, Mr Parscale announced two other individuals had been chosen for top leadership positions in the campaign, including Mr Trump's daughter-in-law Lara Trump.

Mr Parscale first began working with the Trump Organisation in 2011, when his San Antonio firm Giles-Parscale was hired to build websites for the real estate company. He was later reported to be one of the first people Mr Trump called in 2015 after he first announced he was running for President.

At the time, Mr Parscale was known for providing Mr Trump with quality websites at a price point that other tech firms in New York City could not match, according to a 2015 article in the San Antonio Business Journal.

During the 2016 campaign, Mr Parscale was also in charge of overseeing the campaigns digital media strategy and its online fundraising campaigns. Mr Trump s campaign ultimately raised just over $333m in 2016, 26 per cent of which came from small individual donors, according to the Centre for Responsive Politics.

Mr Parscales Twitter account lists him as an adivsor to Mr Trumps presidential campaign, though it is unclear when he last updated the profile. He frequently tweets and retweets articles related to the ongoing scandal surrounding Russian hacking of the 2016 election. Mr Parscale, like the President, consistently argues that Russias attempts to influence the campaign through social media bots did not sway the election in Mr Trumps favour.

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The choice in campaign manager shows that Mr Trumps 2020 campaign will rely heavily on using social media and other digital platforms to spread Mr Trumps message. Thats a subject that Mr Parscale himself recently bragged about by saying that he thinks the Trump 2016 campaign digital strategy was much more effective than that of their Democratic opponent Hillary Clinton.

I bet we were 100x to 200x her. We had [cost per thousand]s that were pennies in some cases, Mr Parscale wrote in response to Nicholas Thompson, who recently published an investigation into Facebooks influence on the 2016 election. This is why @realDonaldTrump was a perfect candidate for FaceBook.

Mr Parscales firm ended up charging Mr Trumps campaign $94 million for its work on the 2016 election.

The freshly minted Trump campaign manager has also taken one of the biggest liabilities facing the President: The probe by special counsel Robert Mueller into collusion between the 2016 campaign and Russia.

I would not want a foreign entity to meddle in our election, Mr Parscale said during an interview with 60 Minutes in which he said he was bothered by fact that Facebook admitted Russians spent at least $100,000 on ads to influence the 2016 campaign. Im an American.

Mr Trump had two campaign managers while running in 2016, showing that working for his initial run proved tumultuous for some of those involved.

The first campaign manager was Corey Lewandowski, who was fired from his post after a reported internal power struggle that occurred after he caught criticism for allegedly grabbing a reporter's arm against her will. He was replaced months later by Kellyanne Conway, who is currently a top White House official.

Steve Bannon and Paul Manafort were both also perceived as having had campaign manager-esque influence on the operation, though neither officially held the title. Mr Manafort left the campaign amid concerns in 2016 that his connections to Ukraine could be a political distraction. Mr Bannon served in the White House, but left his post last year after a reported internal struggle.Washington (AFP) - Donald Trump's son-in-law and senior aide Jared Kushner has lost his top-level security clearance, sources familiar with the matter said Tuesday, a decision with potentially profound implications for the US administration.

Two sources, who could not speak on the record because the status of security clearances is classified, confirmed US media reports that the 37-year-old White House aide will no longer be able to access America's most closely guarded secrets.

The White House -- up to and including the president himself -- refused to comment on the record, but officials insisted that the decision would not impact Kushner's role.

Still, Kushner's loss of access to "Top Secret/SCI (Sensitive Compartmented Information)" data casts serious doubt on his status as a powerbroker inside the White House and his ability to negotiate Middle East peace.

Kushner had been an integral part of Trump's election campaign and, among White House advisors, is seen as something like a first among equals.

The soft-spoken aide is married to the president's daughter Ivanka and has been a leading figure in efforts to reach a peace deal between Israelis and Palestinians.

He has also been a strong proponent of Washington's intensified support for the government of embattled Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Politico and CNN first reported that his clearance may have been rescinded late last week.

The decision comes just days before Netanyahu visits the White House.

- Risk of 'losing credibility' -

Former US negotiator Aaron David Miller said Kushner now risks losing "credibility" with interlocutors in the Middle East.

"They know you can't be reading about them," he said, and "you can't possibly know what you don't know."

Kushner's lawyer had earlier admitted that he has not yet completed the formal clearance procedure, despite reportedly getting access to the most secret material contained in the president's daily briefing -- the crown jewels of US intelligence.

Story continues

White House Chief of Staff John Kelly ordered changes to the clearance system after a top aide -- Rob Porter -- worked for months without full clearance because of allegations he abused both his former wives.

"I will not comment on anybody's specific security clearance," Kelly said in a statement.

Kelly has told Kushner he had "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 president's agenda. There is no truth to any suggestion otherwise," Kelly added.

Ivanka Trump's level of security clearance has also been in question.

She recently visited South Korea and briefed that country's president Moon Jae-in on new North Korea sanctions.

For almost any staffer other than Kushner, his future in the White House would now be under serious doubt.

He had already been forced to repeatedly revise statements to US intelligence and law enforcement about his contacts with foreign officials and his business interests.

He put himself firmly in the sights of special prosecutor Robert Mueller after secretly meeting Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak and Sergei Gorkov, a banker with ties to Vladimir Putin, as well as attending a notorious Trump Tower meeting with a Kremlin-connected lawyer.

- Boy wonder -

Even before the security clearance news broke, close Kushner advisor Josh Raffel announced he was leaving the White House and Kushner was accused of breaking the "Hatch Act," which forbids, among other things, White House aides from using their official titles in campaign statements.

Later, The Washington Post reported that at least four foreign governments -- China, Israel, Mexico and the United Arab Emirates -- had considered how to leverage Kushner's business and political vulnerabilities.

That sparked several calls from lawmakers for Kushner to step down.

Congressman Ruben Gallego asked: "what DOES Jared have to do to get fired?"

The answer to that question remains unclear.

Kushner's clearance downgrade "gives new meaning to the term 'overdue,'" Senator Richard Blumenthal said on Twitter.

The move "raises questions about his entanglements with countries like China and potential conflicts of interests while he holds significant foreign policy responsibilities at the White House," Blumenthal said.

Since the first days of this administration, Trump has hinted there was no challenge too confounding, no conflict too intractable for his son-in-law to tackle.

Beyond resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Kushner was handed a to-do list that included solving America's opioid epidemic, prison reform and injecting the nation's bureaucracy with entrepreneurial spirit.

In person, Kushner is polite and self-deprecating, offering little of the hubris the president has shown about his abilities.

"Jared's done an outstanding job. I think he's been treated very unfairly," Trump said Friday.

But Trump also indicated the decision on Kushner's security clearance would be up to Kelly, saying: "I have no doubt he'll make the right decision."Brad Parscale, the Trump campaigns digital director. (Photo: Jabin Botsford/Washington Post via Getty Images)

President Trump announced Tuesday that he was promoting Brad Parscale to serve as his 2020 campaign manager.

But the new role for the man who served as Trumps Facebook guru in the 2016 presidential campaign comes as debate rages over just how much the social media platform may have benefited the Republican candidate.

Formerly a freelance web designer, Parscale rose to become Trumps digital strategist in the 2016 election and oversaw the campaigns mobilization on Facebook, which  coupled with the candidates love of Twitter  has been credited as a key factor in his electoral victory. Parscale was also a marketing entrepreneur based in San Antonio who was reportedly brought into the campaign at the suggestion of Trump son-in-law and White House adviser Jared Kushner.

In a Wired essay published last week, former Facebook employee Antonio Garcia Martinez argues that the social networking site favored Trump in two primary ways. The first was geography: Ad rates in highly populated urban areas  which were targeted by the Clinton campaign  were more expensive than those in rural areas, where voters the Trump campaign was trying to mobilize lived.

Facebooks system also helped Parscales team by rewarding ads that were more likely to be engaged with and shared, whether that meant they were provocative, controversial or outrageous. Trump ads had a greater chance at going viral, therefore they got more digital bang for their buck. As Martinez explained it in his piece:

During the run-up to the election, the Trump and Clinton campaigns bid ruthlessly for the same online real estate in front of the same swing-state voters. But because Trump used provocative content to stoke social media buzz, and he was better able to drive likes, comments, and shares than Clinton, his bids received a boost from Facebooks click model, effectively winning him more media for less money. In essence, Clinton was paying Manhattan prices for the square footage on your smartphones screen, while Trump was paying Detroit prices. Facebook users in swing states who felt Trump had taken over their news feeds may not have been hallucinating.

Story continues

But Facebook is disputing the reporting on its ad rates. Andrew Bosworth, a vice president at the company, tweeted a chart Tuesday afternoon rebutting the Wired story and showing that the Trump campaign, on average, paid more for their ads on the costs per thousand impressions.

Yet Parscale and his former rivals on the Clinton campaign seem to agree with Martinezs view and not Bosworths chart. In response to the Wired story, Parscale wrote on Twitter that the Clinton campaign was paying far more than the Trump campaign for their ads.

I bet we were 100x to 200x her, said Parscale in a tweet posted Saturday. We had CPMs that were pennies in some cases. This is why @realDonaldTrump was a perfect candidate for FaceBook.

Jennifer Palmieri, a former Clinton campaign staffer, replied to say she agreed with Parscales assessment. Parscale also concurred with Wired editor Nicholas Thompsons belief that while many at Facebook wanted Clinton to win, they also understood that Trumps success could be good for future business by showing the power of the platform.

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Parscales dealings with Facebook have brought him to the attention of investigators looking into the potential collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia. Earlier this month, special counsel Robert Mueller issued indictments related to the Internet Research Agency, a Russian troll farm that waged information warfare and meddled in the 2016 election via social media. Parscale spoke to the House Intelligence Committee last October but hasnt been named in any of the indictments and said he was unaware of any Russian involvement. The indictments of the 13 Russian nationals indicated that some Trump campaign aides were unwitting participants in the foreign efforts, but did not name any staffers as co-conspirators.

The only collaboration I am aware of in the Trump digital campaign was with staff provided to the campaign by Facebook, Google and Twitter, said Parscale in a statement last summer. Those experts in digital marketing worked side by side with our teams from Giles-Parscale, the Republican National Committee and Cambridge Analytica to run a professional and winning campaign.

While Parscale was named to his new position on Tuesday, Trump filed the paperwork necessary to run for reelection on the day of his inauguration 13 months ago.

Read more from Yahoo News:



Two men thought to have been stowaways on a US-bound flight from Ecuador have died after they fell from the aircraft, it has been reported.

The Jose Joaquin de Olmedo airport in Guayaquil was closed for an hour and a half as their bodies were removed from the runway.

Employees at the airport noticed three objects falling from the plane and officials believe the pair either fainted or were ejected.

As we approached, we saw two people  one on the runway and the other in the grass area, local prosecutor Carlos Bustamante told El Comercio newspaper. The first one had a pulse, but died minutes later. The other person had died.

What is known is that the plane came from Peru. From the characteristics of the citizens, they may come from Peru, and from here they would go to the United States, to New York, he added.

The third item that was spotted falling from the plane was a suitcase which contained clothes and approximately $20 (14).

The Boeing 767-300, operated by Latam, returned to the airport soon after takeoff before continuing its journey.

Authorities have not ruled out the possibility that other people may have managed to remain smuggled on board, Sky News reported.Tyra Banks celebrates thick fellas. (Photo: Roy Rochlin/Getty Images)

Tyra Banks has nothing but respect for the big-and-tall set.

While the Americas Next Top Model host has long championed curves, plus-size male models finally got their due with the Feb. 27 episode. Banks challenged her female contestants to collaborate with a group of brawny men, who proved that you dont need six-pack abs to seduce the camera or put a smize in Bankss eyes.

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Though one contestant, Rio, complained about working with fat-ass dudes, Bankss latest tweets prove that shes here for the dad bod.

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She also thanked brawny lil boo boo Zach Miko, the first brawny model at IMG Models, for appearing on the episode.

The show of support inspired many men to celebrate their bodies and send in photos  some of which were more suitable for work than others. Women also chimed in to praise the body-positive message and share their own love of fuller figures.

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Maybe all this love for thick fellas will result in a special cycle just for them? We know a few guys ready to compete

Read more from Yahoo Lifestyle:

Follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter for nonstop inspiration delivered fresh to your feed, every day.



By Hyonhee Shin and David Brunnstrom

SEOUL/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. special envoy for North Korea plans to retire on Friday, the State Department said just hours after President Donald Trump again rejected talks to resolve the North Korean nuclear crisis unless conditions are met.

South Korean-born Joseph Yun, a strong advocate for engagement with Pyongyang, has led U.S. contact with North Korea, quietly pursuing direct diplomacy since taking his post under former President Barack Obama in 2016.

Yun's departure leaves the State Department without a point person for North Korea policy at a time Pyongyang has signalled it may be willing to talk to the United States after a period of diplomatic contacts with South Korea during the Winter Olympics.

The special envoy's authority to engage with North Korea appeared to be undercut by a tug-of-war between the White House and State Department over North Korea policy under Trump.

"He was sceptical and wary of the White House's hardline approach toward North Korea from the beginning", a senior South Korean official told Reuters, requesting anonymity due to the sensitivity of the matter.

Another senior South Korean official said Yun had run out of steam amid tension between the White House, which has been carrying out its "maximum pressure" campaign against North Korea, and the State Department, which supported Seoul's efforts to re-engage Pyongyang.

While his tenure was praised publicly by the State Department, one senior administration official said Yun would not be missed because he contradicted Trump's policies, while at a daily press briefing White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders brushed off questions about the impact of Yun's departure.

Yun, a 32-year foreign service veteran, told U.S. media his retirement was a personal decision and that Secretary of State Rex Tillerson had tried to persuade him to stay.

"It is really my decision. The time, I thought, was right," he told CBS News. "There is a bit of a lull in activity and I thought it would be a good (time) to get out."

Story continues

Yun did not respond to Reuters requests for comment.

In the CBS interview, Yun noted North Korea had "stopped nuclear and missile tests". Pyongyang conducted its biggest and most recent nuclear bomb test in September and its largest and latest missile test in late November.

His departure leaves vacant another key position tasked with dealing with the North's nuclear and missile threats.

Trump has yet to nominate an ambassador to South Korea, a post vacant for over a year.

Congress, former U.S. officials and foreign policy experts have criticized the administrations failure to fill this and other positions.

"It's regrettable that Yun is leaving at this critical moment. It could also have policy implications and a message to Pyongyang", a third South Korean official said.

Some East Asia analysts called Yun's departure a big blow to attempts to use diplomacy to resolve the crisis over North Korea's development of nuclear missiles capable of hitting the United States, which has raised fears of war.

"This is exceptionally bad news," Frank Jannuzi, an East Asia expert who heads the Mansfield Foundation, said on Twitter. "Joe Yun is the only senior official left at State who has experience dealing with the complexities of North Korea policy."

Former deputy assistant secretary of defence for East Asia Abraham Denmark called Yun's departure "a huge loss for the U.S. government at a critical moment."

NO POLICY CHANGE

The U.S. State Department said Tillerson had "reluctantly accepted his decision."

Spokeswoman Heather Nauert said the denuclearization of North Korea remained the top U.S. national security priority and Washington's "maximum pressure" campaign to bring that about was succeeding.

"If someone chooses to retire, that does not change our policy," Nauert told a regular news briefing. "I feel fully confident we have the appropriate people in place who can handle everything he did and more."

South Korea this week urged Washington and Pyongyang to give ground to allow for talks.

Trump on Monday reiterated his willingness to talk, but only under the right conditions.

Washington has said repeatedly that any talks must be aimed at North Korea giving up its nuclear weapons, something North Korea has rejected.

Yun told South Korea's Yonhap news agency he was "very hopeful about talks."

"I hope there is a good dialogue, there is a peaceful resolution," Yonhap quoted him as saying.

On Friday, Washington announced its largest package of sanctions yet on North Korea. Trump warned of a "phase two" that could be "very, very unfortunate for the world" if the steps did not work, an apparent reference to military options his administration says remain on the table.

In Geneva on Tuesday, North Korea's envoy to the U.N. Conference on Disarmament Han Tae Song dismissed sanctions as ineffective and said plans by Seoul and Washington to resume joint military exercises would harm "the current positive process of improved inter-Korean relations."

A senior State Department official told Reuters late last year that Yun had sought direct diplomacy with North Korean officials at the United Nations in the hope of lowering the temperature in U.S.-North Korean tensions.

Most were deeply sceptical about his chances.

"Hes such a dreamer," a White House official said at the time, with a note of sarcasm.

Yun travelled to North Korea last June to help secure the release of comatose American student Otto Warmbier, whose detention and subsequent death further soured relations.

(Reporting by David Brunnstrom and Matt Spetalnick in WASHINGTON and Hyonhee Shin in SEOUL; Additional reporting Josh Smith and Heekyong Yang in SEOUL and Steve Holland and David Alexander in WASHINGTON; Editing by Michael Perry, James Dalgleish, Grant McCool and Lincoln Feast)By Hyonhee Shin and David Brunnstrom SEOUL/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. special envoy for North Korea plans to retire on Friday, the State Department said just hours after President Donald Trump again rejected talks to resolve the North Korean nuclear crisis unless conditions are met. South Korean-born Joseph Yun, a strong advocate for engagement with Pyongyang, has led U.S. contact with North Korea, quietly pursuing direct diplomacy since taking his post under former President Barack Obama in 2016. Yun's departure leaves the State Department without a point person for North Korea policy at a time Pyongyang has signaled it may be willing to talk to the United States after a period of diplomatic contacts with South Korea during the Winter Olympics. The special envoy's authority to engage with North Korea appeared to be undercut by a tug-of-war between the White House and State Department over North Korea policy under Trump. "He was skeptical and wary of the White House's hardline approach toward North Korea from the beginning", a senior South Korean official told Reuters, requesting anonymity due to the sensitivity of the matter. Another senior South Korean official said Yun had run out of steam amid tension between the White House, which has been carrying out its "maximum pressure" campaign against North Korea, and the State Department, which supported Seoul's efforts to re-engage Pyongyang. While his tenure was praised publicly by the State Department, one senior administration official said Yun would not be missed because he contradicted Trump's policies, while at a daily press briefing White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders brushed off questions about the impact of Yun's departure. Yun, a 32-year foreign service veteran, told U.S. media his retirement was a personal decision and that Secretary of State Rex Tillerson had tried to persuade him to stay. "It is really my decision. The time, I thought, was right," he told CBS News. "There is a bit of a lull in activity and I thought it would be a good (time) to get out." Yun did not respond to Reuters requests for comment. In the CBS interview, Yun noted North Korea had "stopped nuclear and missile tests". Pyongyang conducted its biggest and most recent nuclear bomb test in September and its largest and latest missile test in late November. His departure leaves vacant another key position tasked with dealing with the North's nuclear and missile threats. Trump has yet to nominate an ambassador to South Korea, a post vacant for over a year. Congress, former U.S. officials and foreign policy experts have criticized the administrations failure to fill this and other positions. "It's regrettable that Yun is leaving at this critical moment. It could also have policy implications and a message to Pyongyang", a third South Korean official said. Some East Asia analysts called Yun's departure a big blow to attempts to use diplomacy to resolve the crisis over North Korea's development of nuclear missiles capable of hitting the United States, which has raised fears of war. "This is exceptionally bad news," Frank Jannuzi, an East Asia expert who heads the Mansfield Foundation, said on Twitter. "Joe Yun is the only senior official left at State who has experience dealing with the complexities of North Korea policy." Former deputy assistant secretary of defense for East Asia Abraham Denmark called Yun's departure "a huge loss for the U.S. government at a critical moment." NO POLICY CHANGE The U.S. State Department said Tillerson had "reluctantly accepted his decision." Spokeswoman Heather Nauert said the denuclearization of North Korea remained the top U.S. national security priority and Washington's "maximum pressure" campaign to bring that about was succeeding. "If someone chooses to retire, that does not change our policy," Nauert told a regular news briefing. "I feel fully confident we have the appropriate people in place who can handle everything he did and more." South Korea this week urged Washington and Pyongyang to give ground to allow for talks. Trump on Monday reiterated his willingness to talk, but only under the right conditions. Washington has said repeatedly that any talks must be aimed at North Korea giving up its nuclear weapons, something North Korea has rejected. Yun told South Korea's Yonhap news agency he was "very hopeful about talks." "I hope there is a good dialogue, there is a peaceful resolution," Yonhap quoted him as saying. On Friday, Washington announced its largest package of sanctions yet on North Korea. Trump warned of a "phase two" that could be "very, very unfortunate for the world" if the steps did not work, an apparent reference to military options his administration says remain on the table. In Geneva on Tuesday, North Korea's envoy to the U.N. Conference on Disarmament Han Tae Song dismissed sanctions as ineffective and said plans by Seoul and Washington to resume joint military exercises would harm "the current positive process of improved inter-Korean relations." A senior State Department official told Reuters late last year that Yun had sought direct diplomacy with North Korean officials at the United Nations in the hope of lowering the temperature in U.S.-North Korean tensions. Most were deeply skeptical about his chances. "Hes such a dreamer," a White House official said at the time, with a note of sarcasm. Yun traveled to North Korea last June to help secure the release of comatose American student Otto Warmbier, whose detention and subsequent death further soured relations. (Reporting by David Brunnstrom and Matt Spetalnick in WASHINGTON and Hyonhee Shin in SEOUL; Additional reporting Josh Smith and Heekyong Yang in SEOUL and Steve Holland and David Alexander in WASHINGTON; Editing by Michael Perry, James Dalgleish, Grant McCool and Lincoln Feast)The U.S. government interfered in the 2016 presidential election more than Russia did, according to Carter Page, a former foreign policy adviser to Donald Trumps campaign who has become a central figure in the special counsels election meddling probe.

All the evidence Ive seen so far, Page said during an interview with CNN Tuesday morning, indicates that there was much more interference by the U.S. government compared to the Russian government. He didnt offer any specifics in the interview.

Page said during the often combative interview that there wasnt real evidence that the Russians were responsible for hacking the Democratic National Committee computer servers during the 2016 presidential campaign because they were examined by outside consultants and not the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

In addition, he argued that the money spent by the Russian government to push fake news or misinformation was dwarfed by the money the U.S. government spends through such outlets as Radio Free Europe, which he said has a budget of about $100 million a year.

A memo released Saturday by Democrats on the House Intelligence Committee said that the FBI had compelling evidence and probable cause to believe Page was knowingly assisting clandestine Russian activities in the U.S. The memo, written to rebut an earlier GOP memo, said that Page has been targeted for recruitment by a Russian intelligence officer, although the date of the effort was redacted.

Fact-Checking the Dueling Memos on Alleged Bias in Russia Probe

Although Page said Tuesday he wouldnt discuss whether he had been interviewed by Special Counsel Robert Muellers team with regard to the Russia election meddling allegations, he did say he has been interrogated over 30 hours in total by both the executive branch and the legislative branch.

The Page interview came as Trump tweeted Tuesday morning about the Russia probe, quoting former special counsel Kenneth Starr and law professor Jonathan Turley saying there isnt evidence showing collusion between Trumps campaign and Russia. WITCH HUNT! Trump tweeted, as he has done previously.

Story continues

Page has become a central figure in the probe because the FBI obtained warrants to surveil him during the campaign, leading to possible evidence being used in the investigation into whether the Trump campaign colluded with Russia to undermine his opponent, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

Your Guide to Understanding the Trump-Russia Saga: QuickTake

Republicans, led by House Intelligence Chairman Devin Nunes, argue officials relied primarily on an unverified dossier prepared by former British spy Christopher Steele to obtain a surveillance warrant on Page. Democrats, led by that panels ranking member Adam Schiff, argue it served as one piece of a larger picture used to justify placing him under surveillance.

The Democratic memo said that the Page surveillance warrant was renewed several times because it produced important investigative information and leads.

I think its a clean-up act a little bit, Page said when asked why authorities decided to investigate him. They went down this path thinking that Mrs. Clinton was going to win. Now theyve got to find something.

He said he was a target for surveillance rather than other campaign officials because of a July 2016 trip he took to Moscow to give a speech, which he maintained was not improper.

If they want to start this Russia collusion theory, what better way of doing that than having a photo of someone actually in Moscow in 2016? he said.

Page said he never colluded with Russia or tried to help the Russian government with the Trump administration. He said he tried to keep a low profile during the trip although acknowledged that as a Trump adviser that it seemed like there was a possibility that someone would try to pin something on me.KIEV (Reuters) - Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said on Wednesday he expected the first shipment of weapons from the United States in the next few weeks. In December, the United States angered Moscow when it approved the provision of weapons to support Ukraine in its nearly four-year-old conflict with pro-Russian rebels. In response to a question about when the delivery would take place, Poroshenko said talks with the United States about this topic had been progressing well. "The first delivery should happen in a very few weeks," he said at a news conference in Kiev. Russian officials have said the decision to supply weapons to Ukraine is dangerous as it would encourage Kiev to use force in the eastern conflict zone. The United States says the weapons it plans to supply, which include Javelin anti-tank missiles, would help stabilize the situation and cannot effectively be used to take territory. More than 10,000 people have been killed since April 2014 in a conflict that pits Ukrainian forces against Russian-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine. Intermittent clashes continue despite a notional ceasefire and diplomatic peace efforts. (Reporting by Margaryta Chornokondratenko and Pavel Polityuk, Writing by Alessandra Prentice, Editing by William Maclean)A popped tire on a United Airlines flight from New Jersey to Oregon gave passengers a fright this weekend, but the flight continued to its final destination.

When United flight 1551 left from Newark Liberty International Airport on Sunday, a tire popped and the plane "shuddered," according to passengers. The plane continued to Portland International Airport, where it landed at about 10:30 p.m. and was greeted by fire, police and emergency crews prepared for a shaky landing. Ultimately, there was no smoke and the passengers and crew deplaned safely.

02_26_UnitedAirlines

GETTY/Justin Sullivan

Trending: The NRA's Dana Loesch Says It Isn't a 'Lobby Group'But It Spent $5 Million on Lobbying Last Year

"When we were taking off out of Newark, the plane kind of shuddered as the nose lifted. After that, everything was fine. About 90 minutes before we landed, the crew came out, made sure everyone was awake. Told us we were going to have a problem with the landing gear and to prepare for the worst," passenger Kyle Hobbs told the Portland CBS affiliate KOIN.

A spokesperson for United Airlines did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

United was recently in the news for cutting some of its ties with the National Rifle Association. The airline on Saturday tweeted, "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."

It joined a host of businesses, including Delta Airlines and Best Western, which canceled discounts for NRA members in the wake of the school shooting in Parkland, Florida that killed 17 people. The NRA responded swiftly, with its national spokesperson, Dana Loesch, saying on Saturday, "I find it interesting that those individuals who simultaneously preach about free speech want to silence the speech of the millions of people who make up NRA membership."

Story continues

This article was first written by Newsweek

More from NewsweekBoa Vista (Brazil) (AFP) - Manuel and his wife never stop coughing but they're happy: at least their baby doesn't have measles anymore.

They're grateful for small mercies these days, but just a few years ago they were part of oil-rich Venezuela's middle class. Today they live with hundreds of others who fled political and economic chaos to seek refuge across the border in Boa Vista, Brazil.

The escapees have transformed the once sleepy town of Boa Vista, capital of Roraima state.

Last year a shelter was opened at a gymnasium but it could not hold the out-of-control influx of Venezuelans seeking refuge wherever they can -- in squares, parks and street corners.

At the Tancredo Neves gymnasium shelter the refugees live in hammocks, or little huts. Clothes hang everywhere and you're considered lucky if you get a mattress.

There's space for 180, according to the UN refugee agency, but an estimated 600 people are now resident there. About 40,000 Venezuelans are scattered across the state, the Boa Vista mayor's office says.

Most are from eastern Venezuela, while more than half a million have fled from the west of the country into Colombia, hoping for a break from the violent unrest and economic meltdown plaguing the country under President Nicolas Maduro.

- Survival -

The smell of wood smoke fills the gymnasium, where many cook, using tins as improvised pots. Some get rice, pasta and vegetables but those who cannot buy food go to a charity kitchen where donated food is served.

The dirt and poor ventilation are overwhelming.

"You can't eat this," said Katiuska, 43, looking into a rice soup cooked in a dirty old tin.

Four months ago she left Venezuela with her husband and two sons "to change our lives," but she's discovered that in Brazil "we don't live -- just survive."

They sleep in a cardboard shelter under a tree. It's actually one of the better spots, offering shade in a city where the thermometer hits 97 F (36 C).

Story continues

It won't do them much good when the rainy season starts, however. The vulnerable migrants are now increasingly at risk of contracting and spreading tropical diseases.

"The Venezuelans' situation is getting worse at this kind of shelter because it's unhealthy and promotes the spread of illnesses," said municipal doctor Raimundo de Sousa.

- Chicken run -

There's still an attempt to keep up morale.

A group of young men boiling water on a fire for coffee joked that a chicken running around the yard was also homeless.

"That chicken's only alive because it's not in Venezuela," where people struggle to get enough food, Luis, 19, said.

Volunteer cooks say they do everything they can to make sure everyone gets a meal. There are never any leftovers.

Monica Becker, 31, was cleaning up her infant son.

She'd come all the way from Puerto La Cruz on Venezuela's Caribbean coast, about 620 miles (1,000 kilometers) away. By the time she reached the border with her two sons, she was out of money and only reached Boa Vista with help of a church group.

Becker is grateful for a place to sleep but wishes the toilets were better -- there are just two for everyone at the center and the smell is powerful.

When she thinks of her mother and brother, who remained in Venezuela, Monica cries. "I didn't want my children to die of hunger, so I came here."

- A ragdoll, and tears -

Norbelys Linares, another migrant, is also feeling overwhelmed by the misery of life in the gymnasium.

It's located in a cramped, poor neighborhood of Boa Vista and police stand outside. They've installed security cameras and monitor who is going in and out.

"It's horrible. I don't want this for my daughters," she said.

Linares, 33, works at a market, earning a little and getting food. When she can she saves six dollars -- roughly what most Venezuelans earn every month in wages and food stamps -- to send home for her nine- and 12-year-old daughters' education.

"I prefer they don't eat if they can still study, so that they can become something in life," she said.

Linares was studying accountancy before she left her country. Now her hope is that she can help her daughters get a better start in life.

In her backpack she carried a rag doll.

"I bought it for them," she said, hugging the doll tearfully. "At least I feel as I have them here with me."After 168 days in space, three astronauts are set to head back to Earth Tuesday night. The astronauts are scheduled to undock from the International Space Station at 6:08 p.m. ET NASA announced in a news release.

Mark Vande Hei and Joe Acaba of NASA and Alexander Misurkin of Roscosmos were expected to land at 8:31 a.m. Wednesday morning in Kazakhstan, or 9:31 p.m. on the East Coast of the United States.

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On Monday, the astronauts on board the ISS completed the change of command ceremony during which Misurkin, the Station Commander for Expedition 54, handed station command over to his colleague Anton Shkaplerov, also of Roscosmos.

The astronauts of Expedition 54 conducted hundreds of hours of research while on board the ISS. The two astronauts from NASA were part of an effort to increase the U.S.' representation at the station so astronauts could spend additional time on research.

Before the astronauts finish their time in space they have to toss on their entry suits and check the Soyuz for any air or pressure leaks.

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Coverage of the undocking of the Soyuz pod that the three astronauts are set to travel back to Earth in was scheduled to begin is 5:45 p.m. ET. The actual undocking of the pod was scheduled for 6:08 p.m. ET and expected to last about 20 minutes.

Once the astronauts undock, they are expected to deorbit from space and go through reentry before landing with the aid of a parachute. Deorbit was scheduled for 8:38 p.m. and the landing was scheduled for 9:31 p.m. ET, according to NASA.

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All of the events will be streamed on NASAs YouTube channel as well as on the NASA website.

Watch the three astronauts return to Earth from the International Space Station:



This article was first written by Newsweek

More from Newsweek(Reuters) - West Virginia teachers on Tuesday ended a four-day strike that had kept more than 277,000 students out of class, after the state's governor agreed to a 5 percent pay raise.

Republican Governor Jim Justice announced the deal after thousands of teachers and their backers descended on the state capitol in Charleston demanding better benefits and a hike in wages now near the bottom among U.S. teachers.

The proposal calls for teachers to get a 5 percent raise in the fiscal year starting in July and other state employees to get a 3 percent hike, Justice told a news conference. The deal requires approval by the Republican-controlled legislature.

"All of it works," said Justice, who had spent much of the day in talks with union leaders. Students will be back in class on Thursday after a "cooling-off" on Wednesday, he said.

Justice said he would appoint a task force to look into the Public Employees Insurance Agency, which runs health programs for public workers. He suggested that a $20 million investment to stabilize the agency could come through an increase in severance taxes on coal and natural gas.

Justice said the raises could be paid for by boosting state revenue estimates by $58 million, based on the impact of federal tax cuts and an improved U.S. economy.

This is the beginning of better things to happen, Christine Campbell, president of the West Virginia Federation of Teachers-West Virginia, was quoted as saying by the MetroNews website.

Teachers walked out on Thursday after Justice signed legislation to give teachers and state police a 2 percent raise. Teachers were also expected to get 1 percent increases in each of the next two fiscal years.

West Virginia ranked 48th among the 50 states in average teacher's salary in 2016, at $45,622, according to National Education Association data.

(Reporting by Ian Simpson in Washington; Editing by Peter Cooney)Nearly 20,000 West Virginia teachers will return to their classrooms on Thursday after the state's governor announced a bump to teachers' salaries Tuesday.

Teachers will now receive a five percent pay raise this year, Governor Jim Justice said. All other state employees will see a three percent increase.

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The numbers still have to be passed by the legislature, according to CNN.

The concession follows a four-day strike that spanned the state's 55 counties and 680 public schools and left more than a quarter of a million students out of school.

The strikethe largest in state history  began after Justice signed a bill last Wednesday mandating a two percent teacher salary raise starting in July, with an additional one percent raise slated for 2020 and 2021.

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The state's teachers, who earn about $45,000 a year on average, said it wasn't enough, and also demanded a fix to health care. Their average salary ranked 48th in the nation in 2016, according to the National Education Association.

Justice on Monday had initially purported that teachers would only be able to mitigate their low salaries by advocating for a tax on natural gas collection.

Schools are "called off on Wednesday for a cooling off period" but will resume Thursday, the West Virginia Education Association wrote in a Facebook post.

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Educators striking outside the state capitol Tuesday had mixed reactions to the news. They cheered the raise but also booed no immediate change to insurance, chanting "Back to the table!" and "Fix it now!" according to CNN.

Story continues

The last statewide raise for West Virginia's teachers was in 2014, when then-Governor Earl Ray Tomblin signed into law $1,000 pay raises to public school teachers and two percent raises to school service personnel.

A 1990 teacher strike that spanned eight school days similarly ended in concessions, including a $5,000 pay raise for teachers over three years.

This article was first written by Newsweek

More from NewsweekWisconsins top election official announced Tuesday that he would step down from his post, ending a confrontation with Republicans who suddenly voted to oust him in retaliation for his work on a government board that investigated Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R).

Republicans in the state Senate voted in January not to officially confirm Wisconsin elections administrator Michael Haas to that role, which hed held since 2016 on an interim basis. They didnt take issue with any of his work overseeing elections, but rather with his work on the Government Accountability Board, a state agency that probed whether Walkers campaign illegally coordinated with outside conservative groups. Information from the probe, which was shut down in 2015, leaked to The Guardian, prompting Attorney General Brad Schimel (R) to investigate and recommend charges against nine people. Haas did not work directly on the probe, nor was he accused of wrongdoing. But that didnt matter to Republican leaders, who said he couldnt be trusted.

Wisconsins six-member bipartisan election commission unanimously picked Haas to be the states election administrator in May 2016. After lawmakers voted not to confirm Haas in January, the commission defied Republicans and voted to retain Haas. Mark Thomsen, a Democrat and the chairman, said at the time that he believed Wisconsin law only granted the commission itself the ability to fire the administrator.

On Tuesday, Haas defended his work on the commission, but said he would resign rather than face an extended legal battle.

Obviously, I strongly disagree with the Senate vote. I am proud of what we have achieved at the WEC and what we have in the works. But the reality is that the Senates action has created a major distraction and an untenable situation for the Commission, Haas wrote in a letter to the commission. It is time for this foolishness to end.

He said he will stay on temporarily as a staff attorney to help with the transition to a new administrator.

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Haas is the only official on the commission with adequate security clearance to receive briefings from the Department of Homeland Security on cybersecurity threats. DHS told Wisconsin last year that it was one of 21 states Russian hackers targeted in the 2016 elections, and top intelligence officials are warning that Russia is likely to interfere again this year.

In a statement, Haas urged the commission to appoint Assistant Administrator Megan Wolfe to be the administrator, and noted she was also in the process of obtaining a similar security clearance from DHS. Haas also urged the commission to work on preparing for upcoming elections, securing funding for staff positions that were cut, and protecting other former GAB employees who Republicans have signaled an interest in targeting.

Jay Heck, the executive director of Common Cause Wisconsin, a watchdog group, called Republicans petty for ousting Haas and said Wisconsin residents could no longer have confidence in the results of their elections.

His petty, hyper-partisan dismissal by Senate Majority Scott Fitzgerald, with the full complicity of Assembly Speaker Robin Vos and their cohorts will be remembered as the final nail in the coffin of honest, accountable, impartial and fair oversight and administration of elections in Wisconsin, Heck said. Citizens now have every right to suspect and expect partisan manipulation of election results in this state.

In addition to voting not to confirm Haas, Republicans moved to oust Brian Bell, the head of the Wisconsin Ethics Commission, for his work on the GAB. Bell left his job in January.

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This article originally appeared on HuffPost.By Karen Freifeld

(Reuters) - New York's state banking regulator asked Deutsche Bank AG and two other lenders for information on their relationships with U.S. President Donald Trump's son-in-law and White House senior adviser Jared Kushner and his family's real estate company, a person familiar with the matter told Reuters.

The New York State Department of Financial Services (DFS) made the requests to Deutsche Bank, Signature Bank and New York Community Bank for information on loans and other financial arrangements including lines of credit and loan guarantees a week ago, the person said.

The regulator also asked for information related to other family members, the person said.

Christine Taylor, a spokeswoman for Kushner Cos, said the company had not received a copy of any letter from the regulator. She described Kushner Cos as a "multibillion enterprise that is extremely financially strong.

"Prior to our CEO voluntarily resigning to serve our country, we never had any type of inquiries," Taylor said in an email. "These types of inquiries appear to be harassment solely for political reasons."

Jared Kushner's representatives did not respond to a request for comment. According to government financial disclosures from last year, he has lines of credit at the three banks, among others.

The New York regulator declined comment, as did Deutsche Bank.

Signature, a New York state-chartered bank, said in an email that, with the permission of its client, it could state that "the Kushner Family and Kushner Co have been clients since 2010." Signature said that, by law, it cannot disclose regulatory or legal inquiries.

New York Community Bank, another New York state-chartered bank, had no immediate comment.

As New York's bank regulator, DFS supervises the New York branch of Deutsche Bank, Germany's flagship lender, along with the two state-chartered lenders.

If DFS finds the loans somehow violate banking law, it could fine the banks or take other corrective action with regard to their business practices, said New York attorney Daniel Alter, former general counsel at DFS.

Story continues

If the regulator finds potential criminal activity by either the borrowers or the banks, it could also refer the matter to prosecutors for further investigation, Alter said.

Last year Kushner, who is married to Trump's daughter Ivanka Trump, resigned from Kushner Cos and sold his stake to a family trust as part of an effort to avoid conflicts of interests in his White House role. The private real estate company owns or partially owns buildings in New York and New Jersey.

Kushner, who had a broad portfolio in the White House, including leading Middle East peace negotiations and an effort to modernize and reduce the size of some government programs, lost his interim top-secret security clearance, two U.S. officials familiar with the matter said on Tuesday.

(Reporting by Karen Freifeld; Editing by Bill Rigby and Grant McCool)Close Get email notifications on {{subject}} daily!

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Email notifications are only sent once a day, and only if there are new matching items.WARSAW - The last surviving Christian Poles who helped Jews during the Holocaust appealed this week to Polish and Israeli authorities to return to a path of "dialogue and reconciliation" amid a diplomatic crisis and a surge of anti-Semitism sparked by a new Polish law that criminalizes some forms of Holocaust speech.

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They made their appeal in an open letter which one of them read out to Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki during a ceremony in Warsaw on Monday attended by six elderly rescuers, most of whom were teenagers who helped their parents shelter Jews during World War II.

The letter, addressed to the Polish and Israeli governments and parliaments, was signed by 50 Poles who describe themselves as the last survivors of the more than 6,700 Poles who have been recognized by Israel's Yad Vashem as "Righteous Among the Nations"gentiles who risked their own lives to hide Jews from the occupying Nazi German forces.

Anna Stupnicka-Bando, 89, reads an open letter signed by 50 Poles recognized as Righteous Among the Nations (Photo: AFP)

Morawiecki thanked them for the letter and paid tribute to them for helping Jews during World War II. He told them they had "served humanity and Poland ... saving our common brothers during the times of the second apocalypse."

The legislation criminalizes falsely attributing the Holocaust crimes of Nazi Germany to Poland. The measure has angered Holocaust survivors and officials in Israel, where it is seen as an attempt to whitewash the actions of Poles who killed Jews during World War II.

Polish officials insist the law won't be used against anyone who speaks the truth, only those who try to defame Poland with lies.

Stupnicka-Bando with Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki (Photo: AP)

Bartosz Cichocki, a deputy foreign minister, said Monday that "the fears expressed by Israel and international opinion" are "completely unfounded."

There has been a resurgence of openly anti-Semitic comments in Polish public life amid the diplomatic crisis, sometimes expressed by elected officials or carried by public media. Leaders in Poland's Jewish community have called it the worst anti-Semitism in Poland in decades and said it has created fears among many members.

Some Jewish officials and groups have also made anti-Polish comments, with the most controversial a video released last week by a US-based philanthropic organization, the Ruderman Family Foundation, which shows people using the historically inaccurate term "Polish Holocaust" in a provocative defiance of the law.

The foundation withdrew that video amid outrage by Poles and Jewish organizations in Poland and elsewhere, which said using the term was wrong and unfair and exacerbated an already difficult situation.

Also Monday, Ronald Lauder, the president of the World Jewish Congress, issued an open letter in The New York Times in which he said the legislation "has created a firestorm of ill will" and urged Polish officials to resume dialogue with Jewish representatives.

"This entire controversy must now be dialed back, and I would like to see Polish and Jewish leaders sit down now and get back to the business of reconciliation and progress," Lauder wrote.JERUSALEM -- Jerusalem's mayor on Tuesday suspended a plan to impose taxes on properties owned by Christian churches (but not the churches themselves -editor), backing away from a move that had enraged religious leaders and led to the closure of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.

In a statement, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said a professional team was being established to negotiate with church officials to "formulate a solution."

"As a result, the Jerusalem Municipality is suspending the collection actions it has taken in recent weeks," it said.

Roman Catholic officials issued a statement saying that Christian leaders were holding consultations and would soon announce their response, including a decision on whether to reopen the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.

Roman Catholic, Greek Orthodox and leaders of other Christian denominations closed the famed church on Sunday to protest an order by Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat to begin taxing their properties.Three days after the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem was shut by church leaders in protest of property tax collection, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat decided Tuesday to create a professional team to find a solution for tax collection on lands owned by churches but that are not active houses of worship.

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Netanyahu and Barkat agreed to appoint Minister for Regional Cooperation Tzachi Hanegbi to head the team, along with representatives from the Finance, Foreign Affairs and Interior Ministries as well as municipality personnel.

"As a result, the Jerusalem municipality is suspending the collection actions it has taken in recent weeks," it said. In addition to suspending tax collection, Netanyahu's office said that proposed legislation governing the sale of church lands in Jerusalem was also being suspended.

Jerusalem Mayor Barkat (L) and PM Netanyahu agreed to create a team to solve the church taxation crisis (Photo: EPA)

demonstrated outside the shuttered church, considered one of the most important in the world and serving as a pilgrimage site for tens of thousands of believers annually.

The Israeli team is set to negotiate with church representatives in an attempt to regulate payments, whereas municipal collection of property taxes will be halted until a final decision is reached.

The crisis began as part of a struggle between the municipality and the Finance Ministry over budgets to the capital, prompting the Jerusalem municipality to announce that it had started collecting property tax debts of more than NIS 650 million from some 887 properties across the city, which belong to churches and United Nations institutions.

Municipality officials said these properties did not include houses of worship, which are exempt from paying property taxes by law, but rather properties used for non-prayer activities, including commercial activities.

Jerusalem's Church of the Holy Sepulchre was shuttered earlier this week in protest (Photo: AFP)

Churches are exempt from paying property taxes as part of an agreement with the state, but the Jerusalem municipality says it is not being compensated by the state for the money it is losing by not collecting these taxes.

PM Netanyahu: 'Israel welcomes Christian friends from around the world'

The Prime Minister's Office said that following the church heads' requests to participate in negotiations over the sale of land in the city, any legislation on the matter will be shelved for the time being.

Netanyahu's office further said that, "Israel is proud to be the only country in the Middle East that affords complete freedom of religion and of worship to Christians and people of all faiths. Israel is home to a thriving Christian community and welcomes Christian friends from around the world."

MK Rachel Azaria (Kulanu), who submitted a bill to nationalize grounds the church has sold in the past, said that her bill was intended to "assist thousands of the city's residents living on lands the church has sold. In the past few years, entrepreneurs who have purchased land on the cheap from churches go door to door and demand 200-500 million shekels for the right to live there."

MK Azaria said her bill did not intend to harm lands owned by the church but rather ones already sold (Photo: Alex Kolomoisky)

Azaria, a former member of Jerusalem's city council, stressed she harbored no intentions of harming the church since her bill had nothing to do with lands it owned, but rather ones it had already sold.

"Nir Barkat harmed dozens of residents when he decided to collect property taxes and place liens on church accounts just now," she added.

Barkat, however, said his decision affected only commercial properties, such as hotels, restaurants and offices, and not houses of worship. He said other cities followed similar practices worldwide.

"As the mayor of the city of Jerusalem, my goal and role is to make sure people pay their taxes," he said in an interview earlier Tuesday. "We have no negative or bad intentions here."

Church leaders said Sunday that, "These actions breach existing agreements and international obligations which guarantee the rights and the privileges of Churches, in what seems as an attempt to weaken the Christian presence in Jerusalem.

Patriarch Theophilos III of Jerusalem (Photo: Reuters)

"This reminds us all of laws of a similar nature which were enacted against the Jews during dark periods in Europe.

Patriarch Theophilos III of Jerusalem speaking about the crisis (: CMC)

X

"This systematic and unprecedented attack against Christians in the Holy Land severely violates the most basic, antique and sovereign rights, trampling on the delicate fabric of relations between the Christian community and the authorities for decades."

Tourism Minister Yariv Levin criticized the church's conduct throughout the crisis. In a Ynet studio interview, he said that the crisis "should be solved through dialogue. I am completely against the church's move of unilaterally shutting the place down.

"Except for hurting the Christian faithful who wish to visit the church, it helps no one. I certainly don't think it's right to conduct negotiations under such pressures."Thirty-three former senior IDF and defense establishment figures announced Tuesday afternoon they have joined the Labor party as part of the "Turnover for Israel" group headed by Brig.-Gen. (res.) Assaf Agmon.

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In a conference held at Beit Sokolov in Tel Aviv, the former commanders stood shoulder to shoulder with party chairman Avi Gabbay, and said, "Today we're standing at the ready on Israel's most important front. We're leading commanders and civilians from different sectors in a joint effort to present Israel with inclusive, moral and experienced leadership."

Labor party Chairman Gabbay with the new additions (Photo: Motti Kimchi)

"Israel's people deserve worthy and honest public officials who see and serve the citizensrather than themselves.

"We have had our fill of elected officials who have forgotten they must care for everyoneHolocaust survivors, the disabled, people with special needs and the weak."

Col. (res.) Dror Aloni, a former commander of the Navy's training camp, said that he "believed Israel was in need of a significant change in leadership and in the manner in which it is led."

"I have served for 23 years as commander and have planned and presided over multiple operations. I was party to defense work in the most sensitive of areas," he added. "We now wish to strengthen the Labor party and the man heading it in order to return Israel to its status as an exemplary country both in governance and in being a national home for all Jews around the world."

(Photo: Motti Kimchi)

Among the commanders who have joined the Labor party along with Agmon and Aloni are Brig.-Gen. Giora Inbar, former commander of the elite Shaldag Unit, Maj.-Gen. Alik Ron, former commander of the police's northern district, and Dr. Avi Weinreb, one of the developers of the Iron Dome system.

Party Chairman Gabbay welcomed the new additions to his party and said, "In such a security reality, a prime minister cannot afford to neglect dealing with such matters, while instead he busies himself with legal consultations with his lawyers on corruption, bribery and breach of trust investigations.

"We must not only prevent the next war, but also seek out political opportunities to increase our security.

Retired police Maj.-Gen. Alik Ron (L) and MK Omer Bar-Lev (Photo: Motti Kimchi)

"We will carry on and ensure the IDF being not only the strongest but also the most moral of armies. In that regard, we must act to defend the IDF from attacks from within.

"We've seen extremely dangerous escalation in statements by rabbis against the chief of staff and integrating women into army service . We now call on hard-line rabbis to recant their deplorable utterances and stop interfering with the army. It's not too late. Return to your role uniting the Israeli people."



Guwahati: In its efforts towards upliftment of the underprivileged, the Red Horns Division of Indian Army under its SADHBHAVNA initiative constructed and dedicated a shelter to Girls Orphanage in New Hathipota village near Bilasipara in Assams Dhubri district.





The project had been conceived considering the lack of infrastructure and poor living conditions of the girls in the orphanage.





Defence PRO Harsh Wardhan Pande said that, in a colourful ceremony on Tuesday, the community hall was inaugurated by Sarfaraz Haque, SDO Bilasipara in the presence of locals and officials of civil administration and Army.





Addressing the locals, SDO Bilasipara acknowledged the efforts of Army in ensuring peace as well as contributing towards the development of society.





He further urged the girls and the orphanage staff to utilise and maintain the infrastructure created for them.





The locals and orphanage staff thanked the Army and civil administration for the assistance which will provide the girls a decent and comfortable habitat.



Israel's African students' association contacted the National Union of Israeli Students recently and asked it to intercede against the expulsion of asylum seekers from Israel. "It's important for us that you support us and demand the country not expel asylum seekers. Give us temporary protection, at least until we graduate," the African students appealed.

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Union Chairman Ram Shefa said in response that he "calls on the state to allow African students to continue and conclude their studies normally. We will do everything to prevent the expulsion of students studying in Israel who were marked for expulsion.

"The state has a moral duty to carefully ascertain the true status of all asylum seekers, and to allow anyone designated a refugee protection in Israel.

IDC student Barik Saleh said testing period was stressful enough as it is

south Tel Aviv residents, as well as of those residing in other places where Israel chooses to houseso as not to say cast awaythe great masses of illegal migrants in Israel."

Of the 37,000 African asylum seekers and work migrants currently in Israel, several dozen study in Israeli academic institutions, including the Interdisciplinary Center in Herzliya, the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv University, Ramat Gan College and elsewhere.

Migrants study towards degrees in such fields as governance and political science, business administration and even law.

The African students' representatives wrote to say, "Most of our students face expulsion to either Rwanda or Uganda under the criteria of the current government plan. We're doing our best to defend our students and give them a chance to live out their academic dream, but these are hard, stressful times."

An anti-deportation protest this past Saturday (Photo: Yariv Katz)

Barik Saleh, a student in the second year of a governance degree at the Interdisciplinary Center, came to Israel ten years ago from Darfur. "The reason I wanted to study governance is that I wanted to make a change," he said Tuesday. "I want to work for values such as democracy, so the next generation is not forced to go through what we have."

Saleh, currently in the middle of a period of tests, may be deported before he has a chance to graduate. "It's very hard going through this period, which is stressful enough as it is, and doubly so when I'm in danger of deportation," he added.

"In six weeks, one of two things will happen: either I manage to renew my visa or I get deported, and then my two years in academia go down the drain," he lamented.

Chairman of the African students' union, Taj Harun, also came to Israel from Darfur a decade ago. He graduated from a Tel Aviv University master's degree program in political science more than a year ago.

"Most African students came here as asylum seekers," he said. "We're exactly the same as Israeli students, and we wanted to let them know that and ask for their support."

Chairman of the African students' union Taj Harun

"We met with representatives from the National Union of Israeli Students about a week ago and discovered some of them were not even aware there were African students in Israel or that we were even allowed to study," he added.

While most of the asylum seekers studying in Israeli academia have a visa, it usually only permits them to stay in Israel for periods no longer than two months, leaving students in constant fear of their visas not being renewed and subsequent deportation.

"Right now we don't know whether we'll be able to graduate, as most of us face deportation," Harun exclaimed.

The National Union of Israeli Students has decided to create a team to examine handling of the issue, and will continue meeting with their African counterparts.

Chairman of the right-wing Im Tirtzu movement Matan Peleg responded to the matter as well, and said, "It's unthinkable for work infiltrators to wish to complete their studies at the taxpayer's expense when they live in a country that they infiltrated. It's adding insult to injury and every proper country would summarily reject it."The pragmatic religious Zionist rabbinic organization Tzohar announced this week that it is launching a kosher supervising entity that will compete with the Chief Rabbinate and offer the Israeli food industry an alternative supervision more convenient than that of the state.

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Tzohar, which gained fame after pushing through a law that allowed couples to marry in any jurisdiction, set itself a goal of having 1,200 restaurants sign up for their new service within three years, which will make them the largest private kashrut organization in Israel.

We are not trying to replace the Chief Rabbinate , but rather to challenge them," said Rabbi Rafi Feuerstein, who will lead the new kashrut body. "This was a difficult decision We will do this free of criticism but rather by improvements. We will change the transparency of the pricing and the general rules, so that they will be clear and universal and not change from rabbi to rabbi and place to place. We will separate the supervisor from the supervised. We hope that in the wake of this, all kashrut supervision agencies will improve their system; that will be our pride.

Tzohar announcing the initiative. (Photo: Moti Kimchi)

In recent years, in light of the disappointment of many business owners with the Rabbinate, and the criticism aimed at the Rabbinate's kashrut body by the courts as well as by the state comptroller, Tzohar considered entering the field to offer an alternative.

They hesitated though because of the complex legal framework: the law forbidding kashrut fraud. Until recently, the law was interpreted as forbidding a business from presenting itself as kosher, or even hinting as such, without an official certificate from the Chief Rabbinate.

The Hashgacha Pratit organization began offering low-priced supervision certificates a few years ago, first in Jerusalem then in other cities, raising the ire of the Rabbinate. Their model combined external supervision with trust of the business owner.

Rabbi Aharon Liebowitz, founder Hashgacha Pratit (Photo: Keren Rosenberg)

The Rabbinate imposed fines on some of those businesses, accusing them of fraud for claiming to be kosher. Two eateries took the case to the Supreme Court, claiming that the existing interpretation was too harsh and violated the freedom of commerce.

Half a year ago, the High Court partially accepted their argument and in an unprecedented decision ruled that businesses can claim that food is supervised according to Jewish law (Halacha) by a private body as long as they did not use the term kosher or any of its derivatives and proclaim that the certificate is unaffiliated with the local Rabbinate body.

The ruling opened the door to Hashgacha Pratit, a relatively small organization, and gave Tzohar the green light to enter the field as well, as a larger and more established organization.

Tzoahr certificate of kashrut

The new body will be called Tzohar Food Supervision and businesses will assert that the food preparation was done according to kosher standards. Tzohar chose not to use terms that insinuate that halacha is followed in the establishment to stay away from further controversy.

A stately approach

The new initiative will act as a private company under the umbrella of Tzohar. Along with Rabbi Feuerstein, who is one of the founders of Tzohar, it will be headed by Rabbi Dr. Oren Duvdevani, who will be responsible for the halachic-professional aspects.

Dozens of kashrut supervisors, including women, will be employed by the new body; some of whom have already undergone training with the organization.

If Hashgacha Pratit operated on the border of legality and did not shy away from conflict with the Rabbinate, Tzohar will take a more cautious approach and maintain a more reserved and stately approach.

The goal of the new body will be to provide supervisory services mainly to businesses that do not currently hold a Rabbinate certificate, or those considering leaving it. The idea is to set standards that will be acceptable to centrists who keep kosher and not just to the more liberal oriented, who are already the target audience of Hashgacha Pratit.

Tzohar will offer services as well to businesses wishing to continue with the state (Rabbinate) kashrut agency, so that they will have two levels or variations of supervision, as is current practice with the Badatzim or Haredi supervising agencies.

Kashrut inspectors

Bypassing the Badatzim

In order to reach their goal of 1,200 businesses within three years and bypass Badatz Edah HacHareidis (currently the largest private agency), Tzohar will cooperate with Israel's Union of Restaurants from the start; its director Shai Berman was at their launch event.

Tzohar rabbis say that they believe in the importance of a central Chief Rabbinate, but the market monopoly needs to be broken. The Rabbinate needs to be the regulator that sets the standards (not the sole provider). The market is already full of private Badatz kashrut agencies, said Rabbi Feuerstein.

Kosher certificate

We do not want to take from the Rabbinate, we want to add more businesses that are not kosher today. I am not naive, and I know some will come over to us, but we will not attempt to take away the livelihood of others, rather that there should be an increase in kashrut in Israel, he added.

The pricing is not expected to vary much from that of the Rabbinate's and therefore not be a major factor for crossing over. Tzohar says that at first the fees will be the same as the Rabbinates during the opening period, and perhaps be lowered at a later stage, when it reaches an economic balance. At first, they will serve only restaurants and eateries and only later move on to food manufacturing.

An important day for the Israeli economy

Shai Berman, Director of the Union of Restaurants, who isn't religious himself, was at the initiatives launch event together with Tzoahrs rabbis. He welcomed the new initiative, saying, This is an important day for Israeli society. We are in favor of bringing peoples hearts together, which this initiative will accomplish, and this is an important day for the Israeli economy, because we know that a monopoly is bad and we want alternatives."

(Photo: Sharon Tzarfati)

The field of kashrut will enjoy transparency and standardization. In any city, they will tell you the same thing. This will bring about lower fees and restaurateurs will know in advance whats allowed and what isn't, allowing them to make more informed decisions that fit their needs, he continued.

He called it the beginning of a new era, where we are not afraid of one authoritative body that makes all the decisions. Now there will be choice. Until now, we had to dance according to the tune played (by the Rabbinate) and suffer from their terror. That situation has ended.

One of the issues Tzohar is excited about is the participation of women as kashrut supervisors, a rarity in the Rabbinate.

Religious women have broken ground in various fields of halacha And we can offer our unique talents to the field of kashrut as well," said Idit Gottlieb, one of the supervisors.

Big potential

A market survey taken before the announcement by Tzohar showed the potential success of the new certification among consumers at restaurants and cafes. It found that 80 percent of Hebrew-speaking Israeli Jews (not including Haredim, who are not Tzohars target audience) expressed willingness to eat at places with the certificate; and 58 percent of those who are not kosher observant would prefer to patronize an establishment supervised by Tzohar than by others. Additionally, 51 percent responded that a certificate issued by the Rabbinate was untrustworthy in their eyes.

The poll was taken by C.I. Market Research for Yahadut Kulanu, founded by MK Elazar Stern (Yesh Atid) together with the Trigoboff Institute.

Stern praised Tzohar for its initiative and added that the current kashrut framework does not bestow pride upon Judaism. It is about time there is a wide range of quality kashrut options that are user friendly and transparent, which can provide for all those who keep kosher and for businesses in Israel, Stern said.Iran has gained another foothold in Syria by establishing a permanent military base outside Damascus, according to a report by Fox News, despite Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's repeated warnings that Israel will not allow any Iranian military entrenchment in the war-torn country.

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Western intelligence officials, the report says, say that the base contains hangars used to stockpile missiles capable of hitting all of Israel.

New reported Iranian base in Syria (Photo: Fox News)

Satellite pictures taken by ImageSat International show what appears to be a new Iranian base located approximately 12 kilometers northwest of Damascus which is believed to be operated by the Quds Forcethe special operations arm of Tehrans Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).

In the pictures, white 18 by 27 meter white hangars for storing short and medium-range missiles can be seen.

The base is similar to that which was established by the Iranians south of the Syrian capital and that was destroyed, according to foreign reports, by Israel last December.

Gen. Joseph L. Votel, head of US Central Commander warned on Tuesday that Iran was increasing the number and quality of its ballistic missiles it was deploying to the region.

Last December, Arab media outlets reported that Israel attacked an Iranian base near the town of al-Kiswah, 15 kilometers southwest of Syrian capital Damascus. Arab-language Sky News reported that Israeli fighter jets launched air-to-surface missiles from Lebanese airspace at the compound.

Reported expansion on the Iranian base (Photo: Digital Globe, McKenze intelligence Services, BBC)

Syrian state television corroborated the report, saying Israeli missiles struck a military position near Damascus overnight and Syria's air defense system thwarted them.

Speaking at the Munich Security Conference earlier this month, Netanyahu told European diplomats and leaders that "Israel will not allow the regime to put a noose of terror around our neck.," threatening to strike Iran directly if forced to.

PM presents piece of an Iranian drone he says Israel shot down on February 10 (Photo: Amos Ben Gershom/GPO)

"We will act if necessary not just against Iran's proxies but against Iran itself," he said, listing the threats that Tehran poses to Israel and the world.

Last week, a New York Times investigative report revealed the scope and depth of Iranian entrenchment in Syria. Iran, through its presence in Syria, was "redrawing the strategic map of the region," as per the paper.

The New York Times' mapping of Iranian presence in Syria

The report detailed Iranian bases and posts inside Syria, presenting a high concentration of Iranian outposts along the border with Israel.

The red squares on the map above represent administrative bases, logistical bases, control centers for UAVs (drones), training centers and more. The map does not, however, include temporary bases established near zones of conflict.The security clearance of White House senior adviser and US President Donald Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner has been downgraded, significantly reducing his access to classified information, according to two people who have been informed of the decision.

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The change was reportedly carried out in light of concerns by US intelligence officials over him being manipulated by foreign officials, including Israelis, due to his current financial difficulties and lack of political experience.

L to R: US Mid-East envoy Jason Greenblatt, Jared Kushner, US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley and Israeli Ambassador to the UN Danny Danon

Tuesdays news set off rampant speculation among Trump allies that Kushners days in the White House might be numbered. On the same day, the departure of a third Kushner ally in the West Wing in as many months was announced. And the selection of a Kushner ally to serve as Trumps 2020 campaign manager appeared to suggest the campaign could provide Kushner with a convenient place to land after his White House duties end.

Kushner lost his access to the nations deepest secrets after chief of staff John Kelly ordered that White House officials with interim clearances pending since before June 1, 2017, be cut off if they hadnt received permanent clearances by last Friday. A White House official confirmed to The Associated Press that Kellys order has been implemented.

President Trump could have reversed Kellys decision and unilaterally offered Kushner a clearance, but deferred to Kelly. Kushner is one of dozens of White House aides who have been working without permanent security clearances for the better part of a year.

His attorney told the AP that Kushners ability to do his job wont be affected by any change to his clearance.

Those involved in the process again have confirmed that there are dozens of people at Mr. Kushners level whose process is delayed, that it is not uncommon for these clearance reviews to take this long in a new administration, and that the current backlogs are now being addressed, said Peter Mirijanian, a Kushner spokesman.

Kushners portfolio once included the US relationships with China and Japan and a host of domestic priorities, including infrastructure, trade and economic development. But his freewheeling reach in the foreign policy spacewhich was viewed as undermining Secretary of State Rex Tillersonalready had been curtailed somewhat under Kelly.

Kushner and Kelly (C)

Still, Kushner is reportedly said to have reviewed the highly secret presidential daily brief and has been in the room for some of Trumps most consequential domestic and foreign policy decisions.

White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders told reporters Tuesday that she would not comment on individual security clearances but called Kushner a valued member of the team, and he will continue to do the important work that hes been doing since he started in the administration.

The Washington Post reported Tuesday that officials in at least four countries had privately discussed ways they could manipulate Kushner by taking advantage of his complex business arrangements, financial difficulties and lack of foreign policy experience.

The nations included the United Arab Emirates, China, Israel and Mexico, the Post reported, citing current and former US officials familiar with intelligence reports on the matter. The newspaper said it was unclear if any of those countries had acted on the discussions, but said Kushners contacts with foreign government officials had raised concerns within the White House and were among the reasons Kushner had not yet been able to obtain a permanent security clearance.

Intelligence officials expressed concern that Kushners business dealings were a topic of discussion in conversations he was having with foreign officials about foreign policy issues of interest to the US government, a former intelligence official said.

The official, who spoke only on condition of anonymity to discuss Kushners security clearance review, said there was a difference of opinion among intelligence officials about the significance.

Some believed Kushner knew his business dealings would likely come up in the conversations and was too naive or inexperienced to know how to exit the topic in light of his position as Trumps adviser, the official said. Others thought Kushner knew the topic would likely surface and used the opportunity while talking to the foreign officials to engage in conversations about his business interests.

Either way, intelligence officials were concerned because there were instances where the discussions either crossed the line or straddled the fence of what would be appropriate given his White House position, the official said.

The official said Kushners conversations themselves were not surveilled, but details about what was discussed in meetings with the presidents son-in-law came from surveillance conducted on certain foreign individuals abroad. According to the official, the information was known from the beginning of the FBIs background investigation work, which started after Kushner joined the White House. In some cases, the intelligence revealed discrepancies in the information Kushner disclosed on his security clearance application about foreign contacts, the official said.

Kushners contacts with foreign officials also have been a part of special counsel Robert Muellers investigation, a former US official told the AP. Muellers team, in its interviews for the ongoing Russia probe, has asked people about the protocols Kushner used when he set up conversations with foreign leaders.

The Kushner Cos., for example, had attempted to raise money for its struggling 666 Fifth Avenue skyscraper in New York from a large Chinese insurer with ties to the ruling Communist Party. Those talks ended after lawmakers and government ethics experts expressed worry that China could be using a deal to curry favor with the White House.

Kushner stepped down as CEO of his familys real estate company to join his father-in-laws administration.

With a top-secret clearance, Kushner would have had access to information about covert operations and intelligence sources and methods. With a secret clearance, he would still have access to intelligence assessments, but not necessarily the information behind why the US knows what is being shared with him.

The downgrade would mean that anyone giving top-secret material to Kushner could be accused of mishandling classified material, according to David Priess, who wrote a history of the Presidents Daily Brief, the highest-level intelligence document produced in the United States. Still, a president has the ultimate authority to classify or declassify information, so he could show the briefcovering hot spots around the globe, US covert operations and intelligence about world leadersto whomever he damn well pleases, Priess tweeted.

The White Houses handling of security clearances has come under intense scrutiny in the wake of revelations that former White House staff secretary Rob Porter had worked for more than a year with only interim clearance. Porter, whose job gave him constant access to the most sensitive of documents, had been accused of domestic abuse by his two ex-wives. The White House has repeatedly changed its timeline about who knew what and when about the allegations.

Kushner has been forced to repeatedly correct omissions in his SF-86, the government-wide form used to apply for clearances, as well as his financial disclosure forms, which experts said could delay or even nix his chances of earning a clearance through the normal process.A Polish delegation headed by Deputy Foreign Minister Bartosz Cichocki will arrive in Israel Wednesday to attempt to reach an understanding regarding the wording of the controversial Polish Holocaust Law which has sparked a diplomatic crisis between the two countries.

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The delegation will meet with a team headed by the Director-General of the Foreign Affairs Ministry Yuval Rotem on Thursday.

Both teams will be composed of notable historians, journalists, jurists and legislators. The Foreign Ministry stated that "the goal of the dialogue is to preserve the historical truth and prevent harm to the freedom of research and expression."

Auschwitz concentration camp (Photo: AP)

The law, which imposes jail terms for suggesting Poland was complicit in the Holocaust, is currently set to take effect on March 1st, but Warsaw has announced that it will not be enforced until the matter is smoothed out with Israel, which described the new legislation as Polish attempts to shirk responsibility for their country's role in the Nazis' Jewish extermination program.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu instructed the Israeli Foreign Ministry to express its reservations about the law, and to arrive at an understanding before the law is implemented.

Polish Foreign Minister Zbigniew Ziobro, who also serves as the countrys state prosecutor, was interviewed on Friday by the Polish news agency PAP and indicated that the law will not be implemented at this stage, despite being ratified, until the Constitutional Court makes a ruling.

The words of the justice minister and the state attorney are binding on the judicial system.

Ziobro sought to highlight during the interview that the law does not prohibit references to crimes committed by individual Poles and groups and added that it will not apply to Holocaust survivors, journalists or academics.

Polish Deputy Foreign Minister Cichocki (Photo: Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs)

Israels Ambassador to Poland Anna Azari met earlier this month with Ziobro where the two agreed to remove barriers preventing delegations from the two sides meeting to discuss the matter.

"This is a significant achievement that came about after continued discussions. We will continue with our dialogue in order to reach an understanding on the matter," Rotem said following the meeting in an official statement by the Foreign Affairs Ministry.There is standard practice in Israel. Its weak, but it definitely exists: Criminal investigations against a prime minister are completed quickly.

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Thats what happened in the Bar-On Hebron scandal in 1997. The affair was first revealed by journalist Ayala Hasson on Channel 1 in late January, and by late April the attorney general and the state attorney had already decided to close the case. They invented the term a public report.

The investigation into former Prime Minister Ehud Baraks party-funding affair took much longer, but at no stage was there a recommendation to indict Barak, and he stepped down in any event in early 2001.

Netanyahu (L) doesnt want and isnt demanding a quick decision in his cases; Mandelblit, it seems, isnt interested in making a quick decision (Photo: Marc Israel Sellem)

In October 2003, in the Greek island affair involving Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and his son Gilad, police recommended against an indictment. State Attorney Edna Arbel was in favor of an indictment, but Attorney General Menachem Mazuz closed the case in April 2004.

In the cash envelopes and Rishon Tours affairs, which led to Ehud Olmerts resignation, Mazuz made a decision to indict the prime minister within four to 10 months, respectively.

Its acceptable to say, and this is what the current attorney generals associates are saying, that in this kind of investigations you have to check every lead, leave no stone unturned, and other cliches. In reality, this is what is happening: Cases 1000 and 2000 have been going on for more than a year. The examination processes ahead of the decision to launch an investigation took a long time; Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit was looking into the recordings of the prime minister and the Yedioth Ahronoth publisher for months without doing a thing.

Now that the investigations have been completed, we are being told that further probes will be needed, and then there will be a gradual process at the State Attorneys Office and at the attorney generals office, which may take nine to 12 months. Considering the fact that every investigation activity in these cases is supervised by representatives from the State Attorneys Office, and that some activities require the attorney generals approval, why does it have to take so long?

This is a major question. In my opinion, there is no factual basis to the harsh accusations that Mandelblit isnt being loyal to his job. But one thing is certain: Both he and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have a clear tactic of avoiding quick decisions. Netanyahu doesnt want and isnt demanding (and he knows how to demand) a quick decision in his cases; and Mandelblit, it seems, isnt interested in making a quick decision. There is time, and permission is granted.

In the affairs that led to Ehud Olmerts resignation, then-Attorney General Mazuz made a decision to indict the prime minister within four to 10 months (Photo: AP)

Well, there is no time. Israel is being plunged into strong whirlpools that are undermining the publics faith in its institutions, diverting the attention from genuinely important matters (like the military preparations in the north) and, most importantly, splitting the Israeli society. The dynamic, in which the head of the system is subject to several criminal investigations, is leading Israel to a dangerous swamp. If the prime minister is convicted, he is expected to receive a jail sentence; a state cant be run reasonably this way.

Years ago, even before the police recommended indicting Olmert, I wrote that even if he is capable of bringing about a peace agreementhe must resign in light of corruption suspicions. Netanyahu should have resigned too, but unlike Olmert, he enjoys significant public support, as well as the support of many spineless and scared politicians. They like criticizing him off the record, but wont voice their criticism in public.

Netanyahu is the first person who should have stood up and demanded a decision in his investigations, but he is playing for time. There is an unfunny joke about a veterinarian who is forced to cut off a dogs tail. Dont worry, he tells the dogs owner, well try to make it painlesswell remove one piece every month over the course of a year.

The attorney general must restore the healthy and necessary practice of avoiding foot-dragging, and make a quick and efficient decision on whether to indict the prime minister or not. Not within a year, and not within six months. Israel cant afford the current madness.Judge Ronit Poznanski-Katz will be suspended from her post as Tel Aviv Magistrates' Court judge until her hearing at the Disciplinary Court on her suspected collusion with prosecutor Eran Shacham-Shavit on remand rulings in the Bezeq affair, also known as Case 4000.

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The suspension was announced Wednesday morning by Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked and Supreme Court Chief Justice Esther Hayut.

Disciplinary investigations were launched against Poznanski-Katz, a Tel Aviv Magistrates' Court judge, and against attorney Shacham-Shavit representing the Israel Securities Authority (ISA), after an exchange of text messages between the two raised suspicions they were coordinating the remand extensions of suspects in the case.

The decision was made based on a recommendation by the state ombudsman, Eliezer Rivlin. Hayut is set to assemble a special Disciplinary Court consisting of three judges of the Supreme Court.

A disciplinary hearing may result in either an acquittal or a recommendation to dismiss the judge. In such a case, the Judicial Selection Committee will be convened to discuss the dismissal.

L to R: Hayut, Poznanski-Katz and Shaked (Photo: Alex Kolomoisky, The Judicial Authority's website)

On Tuesday, Rivlin presented Hayut and Shaked with conclusions from his inquiry into the conduct of Poznanski-Katz. He recommended the judge face a disciplinary hearing but was of the opinion her acts were not criminal.

Former justice Rivlin noted in his report that, "Direct contact between an investigator representing the Securities Authority and a judge overseeing the Authority's cases lasted many days."

"The direct relationship, which began with mere logistical coordination, soon became improper dialogue," he said, clarifying in his report that the texts constituted "improper proximity between a litigant and a judge.

"The proximity between the judge and the prosecution's representative produced contempt. The messages exchanged should not have been written, and would not have been written had the judge not allowed this proximity with the Securities Authority's representative to take place and had she not allowed him to directly contact her. Direct ties between the two should not have been established," Rivlin said.

However, Rivlin unequivocally stated that his inquiry showed that such "secrets" would have been made known to the judge by the prosecution officially sooner or later in any case.

"There was absolutely no miscarriage of justice or a conspiracy between the prosecution and the court here," he concluded.Lebanese Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri arrived in Saudi Arabia, his office said on Wednesday, his first trip to the kingdom since his abrupt resignation during a visit there in November which caused a brief political storm in the region.

At the time Lebanese officials accused Saudi Arabia of forcing long-time ally Hariri to quit, putting him under effective house arrest until France intervened. Riyadh has denied this.

Hariri returned home weeks later and withdrew his resignation, drawing a line under the crisis that had raised fears for Lebanon's economic and political stability.The United Torah Judaism party (UTJ) pledged Wednesday not to support the states 2019 budget unless an IDF conscription bill, that would solicit state recognition of Torah studies to being equal to military service, is brought for a vote and passed in the Knesset.

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"The (amendment to the) Draft Law is an integral part of the coalition agreement and we expect all coalition parties to support it if they want the coalition to last," said party leader and deputy minister Yaakov Litzman.

The IDF draft law which is being promoted by the Ashkenazi Haredi party will not be brought for vote as scheduled at the Knesset Plenum Wednesday.

Despite threats made by UTJ, the coalition insisted that the vote on the bill would be delayed due to an early conclusion of the Knesset plenary session as the country celebrates the festival of Purim.

Yaakov Litzman and PM Netanyahu (Photo: Alex Kolomoisky, Olivier Fitoussi)

On Tuesday, UTJs MK Moshe Gafni, who heads the Knesset's Finance Committee, said he would not vote for any coalition bill proposals if problems arise with the IDF draft law.

Following up on the threat, the party, aware that approving the budget is a supreme interest of both Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon, said that it would not approve it.

UJT accepted the decision Wednesday morning by the Council of Torah Sages demanding that the bill be passed and made a condition for support of the state budget.

The demand, according to UTJ, leaves them with few options but to oblige.

The Council of Torah Sages first exhorted the party a few days ago to make their support dependent on the amendment to the draft law, but UTJ attempted to clarify at the time that this was not an explicit demand that if not followed would result in yet another coalition crisis.

However, matters changed on Wednesday with the party stating that its backing of the state budget entirely hinged on the fate of the draft law.

The UTJ is seeking to rapidly ram the bill through the Knesset in order to obtain, for the first time, official state recognition of Torah studies, in addition to stipulating that Torah studies be mandatory. In doing so, the bill would elevate the status of students of Torah to being equal to that of IDF conscripts.

Haredim at IDF concription center (Photo: Motti Kimchi)

The bill is intended to circumvent a decision by the High Court of Justice which stipulated that the current parameters of the law had to be changed and a new equality in the sharing of the burden in the IDF law would have to be legislated.

The ruling canceled an amendment ratified by the Knesset almost two years ago to the Conscription Law which lowered the annual quota on the number of Haredim required to draft into the IDF.

The new bill proposal, therefore, is an attempt by the UTJ party to bypass the decision and leave the current situation unaltered.

Aware of the sensitivity of the issue which has been an ongoing polarizing issue in Israeli society, Likud and Yisrael Beytenu warned UTJ that the potential fallout outweighed the positive results caused by catalysing the legislative procedure.

In addition, the Likud party is concerned that the bill will play into the hands of Yair Lapids Yesh Atid party, who may launch a rigorous campaign against it. This, the party fears, would only engender further embitterment among the secular members of the public who demand an equal sharing of the burden in military service.

Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman castigated UTJ's attempt to force the approval of a draft bill, calling their proposed legislation a "draft dodging bill." He further slammed their apparent holding of the coalition to ransom by using the state budget as leverage as "no less than extortion using threats."

Lieberman stressed that his party, Yisrael Beytenu, will "not surrender" to the UTJ's pressure and will not allow the bill to pass.Syria's war is not getting worse for anyone except terrorists, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told reporters in Geneva on Wednesday after talks with UN Syria envoy Staffan de Mistura.

"I don't think it's getting worse. It's getting worse for the terrorists from Jabhat al Nusra, who willingly or unwillingly have been sustainably spared by the American coalition," he said.

"We raised this issue with Washington many times but there is no credible answer."



Kohima, February 28 : A Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB) jawan on election duty in Nagaland was died and several others injured in a road mishap on Wednesday morning.





According to the reports, a Tata Sumo pick up vehicle, where the SSB personnel travelled fell down more than 80 ft at Kuthur village area under Tuensang district.





The polling party was travelling from Thokoknyu to Tuensang.





A SSB jawan Atul Kumar died in the road accident and two others received serious injuries.





The reason was that, the driver of the vehicle had felt sleep while driving and he has been driving since last night from 10 pm coming from Thonoknyu assembly constituency.





In the incident, three arms belonging to the SSB personnel were reportedly missing.





On the other hand, over 80 percent voter turnout has been registered in Nagaland while 85 percent registered in Meghalaya.





The assembly polls in both the north eastern Indian states were held on February 27.





Earlier, one person was died and two others injured during clash between the supporters of BJP and ruling Naga Peoples Front in Akuluto assembly constituency in Nagaland on February 27.





A civilian was also injured in a bomb explosion at a polling booth in Nagalands Tizit town on Tuesday morning.





Over 80 percent of 30.21 lakh voters had exercised their franchise to decide the of 565 candidates in both states.



Residents of Jaffa demonstrated during a hearing in the Tel Aviv District Court on the intention to excavate and relocate graves from the Tasso Muslim Cemetery in the city following the purchase of the land for consturction.

The Supreme Court approved the sale of half of the cemetery's land to private developers in January.The High Court of Justice (HCJ) postponed on Wednesday the evacuation of the West Bank Netiv Ha'avot neighborhood in Gush Etzion by three months.

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Part of the neighborhood was slated for evacuation next month in accordance with an order by the HCJ.

The decision came following an extension request by the state to provide more time to reach an agreement with the outpost's residents aimed at facilitating a peaceful evacuation.

(Photo: Ohad Zwigenberg)

In the case before us, even though the ruling gave considerable time (a year-and-a-half) to prepare for the implementation of the demolition order, the states respondents could not finalize a residential alternative for the residents of the buildings on time, wrote Supreme Court Chief Justice Esther Hayut in the ruling.

As decreed, the locating of alternative land for the outposts does not constitute, as a rule, a pretext for an extension for the implementation of orders. However, this custom is not absolute, she stressed.

After I examined the request by the states respondents and the responses by the other sides, I believe that in the current case there are factors that justify granting a short extension for the implementation of the order, even if it falls outside the law.

Gush Etzion Council head Shlomo Ne'eman praised Hayuts decision. I welcome the decision by the court that placed logic before rigid judgements and took into account families and children, he said.

The decision enables the residents to go from the doors of their homes to the doors of their temporary places of residence and caters for humanitarian conditions in an unhumanitarian reality of demolishing their homes, he added.

Residents barricade themselves into structure that was evacuated (Photo: Ohad Zwigenberg)

Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman also praised Hayuts delay. The HCJ accepted our position and postponed the evacuation of homes in Netiv Ha'avot. The HCJ decision will enable us to complete the dialogue with the residents and arrive at an agreement.

Similarly, Education Minister and Bayit Yehudi leader Naftali Bennett, along with Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked from the same party, labelled Hayuts ruling as humanitarian and important.

Of course, it would have been better if the original petition had been rejected out of hand, they added, promising to begin working and laying the groundwork for a new community.

In a sarcastic dig at left-wing organizations, they expressed their gratitude for the original petitions filed seeking the dismantling of settlements, which they said ultimately resulted in the advancement of their political cause.

We are grateful to extremist left-wing organization for their success in establishing a new community in Judea and Samaria, which will not be able to be dismantled again. For every home that is evacuated as a result of extreme left-wing appeals, another community will be established, Bennett and Shaked said in a statement.

On Sunday, the government unanimously approved a building plan for the Netiv Haavot neighborhood, which will include the allocation of funds for the construction of 350 new housing units.The High Court of Justice rejected Wednesday the petitions against the plea deal proposed to the policeman who was documented beating Damas Pakada, an IDF soldier of Ethiopian descent, back in 2015.

As part of the agreement, the policeman was offered to avoid conviction and jail time and only be reprimanded and fined.

In his judgment, Justice Yoram Danziger wrote that even if the plaintiff is correct about the severity of the policeman's actions "this does not justify our intervention in the decision of the Attorney General regarding his handling of the case" because, in his opining, "it is not flawed in an unreasonable degree."

Danziger added that though he rejected the appeals, in hindsight, it might have been right to indict the policeman after all.The High Court of Justice rejected Wednesday petitions against the plea deal proposed to the policeman who was filmed beating Damas Pakada, an IDF soldier of Ethiopian descent, back in 2015.

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As part of the agreement, the policeman will admit to the charges in the draft indictment, but will not be convicted or get any jail time. Instead, he will only be reprimanded and fined.

Footage of police attacking soldier

"Even if there is something to the plaintiff's claims about the severity of the actions attributed to the policeman, it is not enough to justify our intervention in the attorney general's decision on how to handle this matter, because in my view it is not flawed to an unreasonable degree," Justice Yoram Danziger wrote in his ruling.

Damas Pakada (Photo: Haim Zach)

Danziger added that though he rejected the appeals, in hindsight, it might have been right to indict the policeman after all.

"The release of the video documenting the incident by the media has touched a 'nerve' with the Israeli society, which proves beyond any doubt that the public does indeed have a great deal of interest in the matter at hand and its results, and it might have been right to make a different decision about (the policeman's) indictment," he wrote.

Policeman beating Ethiopian soldier

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Danziger noted, though, that the fault for not filing an indictment against the policeman does not lie with the judgment or handling of the case by the previous attorney general, Yehuda Weinstein, but in the prosecution's handling of the case.

In January 2016, current Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit announced that he was considering reopening the investigation against the former police officer following a petition filed by Pakada against Weinstein's decision to close the case. The policeman filed his own petition to the High Court, claiming the court had no authority to reopen the case.

In March, Mandelblit informed the High Court of the deal that was offered to the police officer.

Mandelblit wrote that "a reevaluation of the facts revealed some inaccuracies in the way the chain of events that transpired was described in the previous attorney general's decision." He added that "the use of force in the incident did not begin with Pakada's pushing the policeman, but with the policeman pushing Pakada and his bicycle."

The attorney general added that "even though the policeman allegedly used unnecessary force, no measure was taken against him for this, not even on the police disciplinary level."The US peace plan to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict includes recognizing east Jerusalem as the Palestinian capital, with no right of return and limited sovereignty, the London-based pan-Arab newspaper Asharq Al-Awsat reported on Wednesday, citing diplomatic sources in France.

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According to the diplomats, the United States does not rule out the possibility that east Jerusalem will be the capital of the future Palestinian state, provided the Old City is under international rule.

The diplomats also revealed to the newspaper that the American plan envisions the Palestinian state as having limited, demilitarized sovereignty, but its borders would not be based on the Green Line (the borders set after the 1967 Six-Day War).

In addition, the Jordan Valley will remain under Israeli sovereignty and the large settlement blocs will remain in place, while "small" settlements will be transferred, although it is unclear to where.

At a later stage, the Palestinian Authority will receive additional security and administrative powers in Areas A and B of the West Bank, according to the plan.

The plan includes $40 billion in US aid towards the establishment of a Palestinian state and its institutions.

Israel will maintain responsibility over security on the borders, while in Gaza, Egypt will be involved. With regards to Palestinian refugees, the plan calls on them to remain where they are and receive compensation.

A number of Arab foreign ministers, including the Secretary General of the Arab League Ahmed Abu al-Gheit, met Tuesday with the Foreign Affairs Minister for the EU, Federica Mogherini, and other senior officials to discuss the peace process.

Asharq Al-Awsat reported Wednesday morning that the Arab ministers asked their European counterparts to assist with arbitration between the two sides in light of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's declaration that the US cannot remain as an arbitrator.

However, Arab officials reiterated that Washington still has a role in the peace process, especially considering the fact that it is expected to announce its new peace plan soon.

A European diplomat told the Arabic newspaper that Europe does not believe it can take the place of the Americans, but that they can nevertheless help. Because of the close relationship between Israel and the United States, European leaders believe only the US can pressure Israel into a peace deal.The Tel Aviv Magistrate's Court released Wednesday former Bezeq strategy advisor Eli Kamir, who is suspected of bribery and breach of trust in Case 4000 , to house arrest under restrictive conditions for one week.

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Kamir's remand was extended by five days earlier this week for his "substantial role" in the Bezeq Affair involving Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu which has raised suspicion that the communications companys majority shareholder Shaul Elovitch enjoyed benefits for his firm in return for granting the prime minister and his family favorable coverage on his Walla! News website, which is fully owned by Bezeq.

Eli Kamir (Photo: Yariv Katz)

Kamir is also involved in Case 1270 (concerning the alleged offer to appoint Judge Gerstel to attorney general in return for closing investigations against Sara Netanyahued).

We reached an agreement on a few things, said Kamirs defense attorney. I request that the house arrest is reduced. He is an owner of a business and he has many customers who need him, and his absence for such an extensive period is damaging.

Judge Alaa Masarwa, who replaced Judge Ronit Poznanski-Katz after it emerged that she had been engaged in legal misconduct regarding the main suspects remand, decided however, that Kamir would remain under house arrest for a week.

In the previous hearing, I determined the existence of reasonable suspicion regarding this suspect, Masarwa said, adding that Kamir was forbidden from making any contact with individuals involved in the case for three months, except his business partner.

Masarwa also said that Kamir was not allowed near Bezeq offices for 45 days.

The decision comes two days after the Tel Aviv Magistrates' Court extended the remand of Shaul Elovitch, former advisor to the Netanyahu family Nir Hefetz and Kamir.

On Tuesday, an appeal filed by the defense attorneys for Elovitch and Hefetz against the Monday decision to keep them in custody until next Sunday was rejected Tuesday afternoon by judge Yossi Topf.Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will convene the heads of the ultra-Orthodox parties in his office at 9:30pm Wednesday after they threatened not to back the 2019 state budget in retaliation for the coalition's decision not to put to a vote an IDF draft bill.

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The Knesset plenum finished its discussions earlier on Wednesday because of the Jewish festival of Purim, and the short schedule did not leave time to hold the vote on the legislation, which would solicit state recognition of Torah studies to being equal to military service.

In response, United Torah Judaism (UTJ) leader Yaakov Litzman announced his party won't vote for the new state budget. "The (amendment to the) Draft Law is an integral part of the coalition agreement and we expect all coalition parties to support it if they want the coalition to last," said Litzman, the deputy health minister.

UTJ leader Litzman and Prime Minister Netanyahu (Photo: Alex Kolomoisky, Olivier Fitoussi)

Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman castigated UTJ's attempt to force the approval of the legislation, calling their proposed legislation a "draft dodging bill." He further slammed their apparent holding of the coalition to ransom by using the state budget as leverage as "no less than extortion using threats."

Lieberman that stressed his party, Yisrael Beytenu, will "not surrender" to the UTJ's pressure and will not allow the bill to pass.

UTJ's Council of Torah Sages first exhorted the party a few days ago to make their support dependent on the amendment to the draft law, but UTJ stressed at the time that this was not an explicit demand that could endanger the stability of the coalition.

However, matters changed on Wednesday, with the party stating that its backing of the state budget entirely hinged on the fate of the draft law.

The UTJ is seeking to rapidly ram the bill through the Knesset in order to obtain, for the first time, official state recognition of Torah studies, in addition to stipulating that Torah studies be mandatory. In doing so, the bill would elevate the status of students of Torah to being equal to that of IDF conscripts.

Haredim protest the IDF draft (Photo: Alex Kolomoisky)

The bill is intended to circumvent a decision by the High Court of Justice, which stipulated that the current parameters of the law had to be changed, ordering the Knesset to pass a more equal law.

The ruling canceled an amendment ratified by the Knesset almost two years ago to the Conscription Law, which lowered the annual quota on the number of Haredim required to draft into the IDF.

The new bill proposal, therefore, is an attempt by the UTJ party to bypass the decision and leave the current situation unaltered.

Aware of the sensitivity of the matter, which has been an ongoing polarizing issue in Israeli society, Likud and Yisrael Beytenu warned UTJ that the potential fallout outweighed the positive results caused by catalyzing the legislative procedure.

In addition, the Likud party is concerned that the bill would play into the hands of Yair Lapids Yesh Atid party, which may launch a rigorous campaign against it. This, the party fears, would only engender further embitterment among the secular members of the public who demand an equal sharing of the burden in military service.

"The Haredim continue their threats regarding the draft dodging law, because they now know they could make Netanyahu cave on anything," Lapid said on Wednesday evening. "The defense minister did well to decisively come out against the legislation. Now is the true test of (Education Minister) Bennett and (Finance Minister) Kahlon to stop the extortion. You cannot trample over everything that is holy to the secular, religious and traditional public in the State of Israel in the name of political survival."BERLIN - European and US officials are planning to meet in Berlin in March for talks on Iran's 2015 nuclear deal with world powers, a German Foreign Ministry source said on Wednesday.

Another European diplomat said the meeting would take place on March 15.

Hailed as key to stopping Iran from building a nuclear bomb, the deal lifted economic sanctions in exchange for Tehran limiting its nuclear programme. It was signed by the United States, China, France, Russia, Britain, Germany and the European Union.

But US President Donald Trump has long railed against the deal for reasons including its limited duration and the fact it does not cover Iran's ballistic missile programme.

Trump has threatened to pull out of the agreement unless European allies help "fix" it with a follow-up accord.

Britain, France and Germany have called on Trump to uphold the pact.The nine soldiers seen in CCTV footage beating a Palestinian attacker in Jericho after he was shot and wounded have insisted they did not know he was hit when they were overpowering him.

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A video released by the B'Tselem NGO on Wednesday shows Yassin Omar al-Saradih running towards a group of soldiers while brandishing a large object with three prongs or legs. A squad commander from the Lion of the Valley Battalion shot Saradih in his lower extremity and the attacker fell to the ground.

The footage then shows the commander along with other soldiers kicking and striking Saradih with their weapons. Later in the video they are seen dragging him into a nearby alley and apparently leaving him there for 25 minutes before picking him up by the arms and legs and putting him in an army jeep.

Footage of the incident ( "")

X

Saradih was killed in the Thursday incident, and an autopsy conducted by the Institute of Forensic Medicine the next day determined he died as a result of the gunshot wound.

A source close to the soldiers involved in the incident said that "there was surprise in the army when on Friday the autopsy results revealed the Palestinian died from the shooting."

The IDF's Criminal Investigation Division (CID) launched an investigation into the incident, questioning the squad commander who shot the terrorist as well as a medic who examined him in the field and the platoon commander.

Several of the other soldiers involved were also questioned, telling the CID that they were "operating in complete darkness and in complex operational conditions, in the middle of an arrest raid, while nearby (Palestinians) were throwing stones and Molotov cocktails" at them. They stressed that they "didn't notice any bleeding on his body."

The soldiers also asserted the video shows the Palestinian tried to pull on the legs of one of them and attempted to snatch the squad commander's weapon.

They further claimed the deterioration in Saradih's condition was a result of the beating he received from them and the tear gas he inhaled during the violent rioting ongoing nearby.

IDF officials said it is likely professional flaws would be found in the force's conduct, particularly because two different medics failed to identify the gunshot wound when examining Saradih in the field.

So far, the investigation's findings support the squad commander's version, who said he felt in danger when the Palestinian continued running towards him with a large object even after being ordered to stop. The fact a knife was found in Saradih's possession further bolsters the squad commander's version.

The company commander, who was not in the field on the night of the incident, provided his own testimony to the CID on Wednesday about his company's operations in the Jordan Valley in an effort to determine whether there were shortcomings in the preparations and briefings done before the soldiers went on their mission.

The battalion commander, Lt. Col. Nir Doft, might also be asked to testify.

"You don't have to be smart in hindsight," a source close to the soldiers said. "Even if there is criticism of their professional conduct, they operated within the legitimate limits under these circumstances."

The IDF Spokesman's Office said that "following the incident, and since the terrorist had died while he was already under arrest by IDF forces, a CID investigation has been launched to examine the circumstances behind his death. An autopsy was also carried out. At the same time, the full operational investigation of the incident continues."The Real Estate Buyers Agents Association of Australia (REBAA) is calling on the New South Wales government to include a separate license for buyers agents and selling agents to avoid any potential conflict of interest.

Rich Harvey, president of REBAA, said the proposal was one of the many submitted by its members to the NSW Office of Fair Trading on The Property Stock and Business Agents Amendment (Property Industry Reform) Bill 2017, which will be debated in Parliament later this year.

Harvey said the current minimum training standards were too low and the industry desperately needed more highly qualified and better trained buyers agents.

There is currently a considerable difference in the skill sets of various sales agents and buyers agents, as well as conflicts of interest with agents possibly acting on behalf of both buyers and sellers.

Ideally, the new regulations should clearly define buyers agents, such that the term buyers agent should only be used in reference to agents who are being paid by the buyer and who do not list or sell real estate, Harvey said. Increasingly the waters are becoming muddied by selling agents who are calling themselves buyers agents and being paid by vendors.

There is still some confusion around the term exclusive buyers agents so its important that consumers are aware of the differences and can rely on anyone calling themselves a buyers agent to be legitimate.

Under the proposed reforms, the current restricted buyers agents license in NSW would no longer be sufficient. Henceforth, all agents would be required to hold a complete real estate license.

There would also be stricter minimum mandatory requirements for new buyers agents who want to run their own business.

REBAA supports any improvement to the licensing standards of buyers agents across the board, not only in NSW, Harvey said. Although fast-growing, buyers agents are still a niche industry in Australia, with many consumers now aware of the benefits that they can bring to the purchasing transaction. Having a buyers agent who is more highly trained can only be beneficial to our industry and to consumers who will reap the advantages of having more knowledgeable advocates on their side.



Related Stories:

How Buyers Agents Deliver A Competitive Edge

Property Professionals: Who Do You Trust?



Province-3 Chief Minister Dormani Paudel

Hetauda, Nepal: With the inclusion of four ministers, the Cabinet of Province 3 has got a full shape. Newly appointed four ministers were sworn in amid a function in Hetauda of Makawanpur on Wednesday.





Chief Minister Dormani Paudel administered oath of office and secrecy to the newly appointed ministers.





The newly appointed ministers include Yubaraj Dulal as Minister for Social Development, Arun Nepal as Minister for Industry, Tourism and Environment, Kailash Dhungel as Minister for Financial Affairs and Planning and Dawa Dorje Tamang as Minister for Land Management, Agriculture and Cooperatives from CPN-UML.







Kohima / Shillong : Poll related violence erupted in Nagaland as one person was died and two others injured during clash between the supporters of BJP and ruling Naga Peoples Front in Akuluto assembly constituency.





About 56 percent of the voters in Nagaland and 41 percent in Meghalaya exercised their franchise till 1 pm as polling is underway in the two north eastern Indian states.





According to the reports, Nagaland witnessed several election related violence on the poll day.





Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) of Nagaland Abhijit Sinha said that, one person was died and two others injured during clash between two groups in Akuluto assembly constituency in Zunheboto district at around 11-10 am.





On the other hand, a civilian was injured in a bomb explosion at a polling booth in Nagalands Tizit town on Tuesday morning.





The civilian was injured while miscreants lobbed a hand-made bomb targeting to the polling booth.





Apart from it few more election related violence reports came from Nagaland.





Over 30.21 lakh voters will exercise their franchise to decide the of 565 candidates in both states and polling started from 7 am.





This election has landed a challenged for both the ruling parties in Nagaland and Meghalaya, where as the BJP emerged a strongest opponent in both the states after ties up with regional parties.





Congress has ruled 15-year in Meghalaya, but this time Congress has landed a big threat from the BJP after the saffron party has tied up with National Peoples Party (NPP) founded by former Lok Sabha Speaker Purno Agitok Sangma.





NPP is also an ally partner of NDA and government partner in Manipur also.





In Meghalaya, both BJP and NPP had fielded their candidates separately, but both parties declared to form post-poll alliance.





On the other hand, BJP had dumped its 15-year old alliance partner Naga Peoples Front (NPF) in Nagaland and forged with newly formed political party Nationalist Democratic Progressive Party (NDPP) led by three times former Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio and emerged as a big threat to the ruling party.





The BJP is eying to expand its footprints in entire North East after forming government in Assam, Arunachal Pradesh and Manipur.





The two north east states have a 60-member house each, but voting will be held for 59 constituencies in both states.





Neiphiu Rio had already declared unopposed win from the Northern Angami- II assembly constituency.





In Meghalaya, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) candidate for Williamnagar Jonathone N Sangma was shot dead by the suspected Garo National Liberation Army (GNLA) in East Garo Hills district on February 18 last.



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.Thank you for reading!

Please log in, or sign up for a new account and purchase a subscription to continue reading.Naturalists appeal to the French to stop hunting rare birds such as the Eurasian curlew

Nature organizations appealed to the French to stop hunting rare and protected species of birds, such as the Eurasian curlew - and to remove them from the list of game species. A letter to the French Minister of the Environment was signed by scientists and naturalists from Poland, Belarus and Ukraine.

The letter was signed by scientists and representatives of non-governmental organizations: Institute of Nature Conservation PAS, Museum and Institute of Zoology PAS, Faculty of Biology of the University of Gdansk, Greenmind Foundation, Water Bird Research Group "KULING", Wildlife Society "Stork", Naturalists' Club, Mazowiecko-Swietokrzyskie Ornithological Society, Polish Society for the Protection of Birds, Polish Society for the Protection of Nature "Salamandra", Society for Nature Research and Conservation, Nature Society "Dubelt", West Pomeranian Ornithological Society, Ukrainian Society for the Protection of Birds and Belarusian APB-BirdLife.

"We believe that hunting endangered species is unacceptable and can not be justified with tradition" - they wrote.

The letter was sent to the French Minister of the Environment and the EU Commissioner for the Environment, European scientists and representatives of bird protection organizations.

The letter's authors expect the French government to take measures to quickly stop the hunting of the Eurasian curlew and other rare and protected waders. They also want these species to be removed from the French list of game species.

In the information sent to PAP, President of the Wildlife Society "Stork" Dominik Krupinski emphasises that France is the only European country where the Eurasian curlew it still a game species.

The Eurasian curlew is a wader with a characteristic, long, curved bill. It nests in wet, open areas. In Poland it is threatened with extinction and protected. The Polish population of the curlew shrinks rapidly and reduces its range. In 2003, the estimated number of pairs was 650-700, currently - 200-300 pairs, which means an over 50% decrease within a decade - naturalists remind.

They add that the curlew, threatened with extinction on the scale of the entire continent, is on the European Red List of Birds. Over three-quarters of the world's population of the species nest in Europe. In many countries - including Poland and Germany - there is a negative population trend, especially pronounced on key breeding grounds of the species. Analyses indicate that in the last 15 years its numbers decreased by 26-34 percent in the entire range of the occurrence of the curlew. The main reason for the population decline is extremely low breeding success, which does not guarantee maintaining a stable population.

In Poland, attempts are being made to protect the Eurasian curlew. The Wildlife Society "Stork" implements a protection project (www.ochronakulika.pl) financed from EU funds. It consists of active protection of breeding sites in the most important curlew refuges in Poland, accounting for over 70 percent the national population of the species. As part of the project, young curlews from protected breeding sites are ringed and marked.

"Unfortunately, our efforts to rescue this endangered species are largely destroyed by hunting in France" - note the authors of the letter.

The authors of the letter refer to the report published in 2016 by the French Hunting Office. It shows that in the years 2013-2014 about 7,000 curlews were shot and killed in France. Curlew hunting season lasts from August 8 to January 20, the period when birds from Poland and Germany stay in their wintering grounds.

Naturalists believe that hunting curlews and other species of birds protected by the EU law is contrary to the coherent EU nature protection policy and violates the provisions of the Birds Directive. According to Article 7 of this document, hunting should not jeopardize actions taken to protect the species in the area of its occurrence.

"We have recently received another report on the shooting of a young Polish curlew, and we know from our colleagues that birds from Germany, where active protective measures are also being taken, are also shot in France. The scale of this problem is much larger than the direct numbers resulting from the reports concerning ringed birds would indicate, because not all kills are reported. In addition, only a small number of adult birds are ringed, so we do not know the scale of killing adult birds in France. We can assume that some of them are killed in French wintering grounds, just like juvenile birds, which has certainly contributed to the drastic drop in the population of this species in Poland over the last decades and probably still has a negative impact on the condition of the Polish population" - reads the letter.

Naturalists note that equally disturbing data concern other species of birds wintering in France, which are considered game animals there. This includes plovers, for example lapwings, of which we have lost as much as 70 percent in the last decade, and redshank, whose population has shrunk by 30 percent.

PAP - Science in Poland

zan/ ekr/ kap/

tr. RLIf you are currently a print subscriber but don't have an online account, select this option. You will need to use your 7 digit subscriber account number (with leading zeros) and your last name (in UPPERCASE). Trump White House expresses opposition to sentencing reform part of SRCA of 2017 | Main | "Pharma Bro" Martin Shkreli, facing decades under guidelines, seeks prison sentence of 12-18 months 

February 28, 2018

Entire First Circuit urges Supreme Court to revisit Harmelin's limits on Eighth Amendment challenges to extreme adult prison sentence

A helpful reader made sure I did not miss the remarkable opinion emerging yesterday from the First Circuit in the form of a very lengthy concurrence in the denial of rehearing en banc in United States v. Rivera-Ruperto, No. 12-2364 (1st Cir. Feb 27, 2018) (available here). Last year I noted the panel opinion in this case in this post titled "Extended dissent laments First Circuit panel's rejection of Eighth Amendment attack on 160-year sentence for stash house participant." Interestingly, this time around all the First Circuit judges seem to be on the same page, deciding they lack authority to find Wendell Rivera-Ruperto's extreme sentence unconstitutional, but urging the Supreme Court to revisit the precedent they see as standing improperly in their way.

Judge Barron's lengthy opinion is a must-read for Eighth Amendment fans, and it defies ready summary. To begin, Judge Barron explains why the analytical framework set by Solem v. Helm, 463 U.S. 277 (1983) would lead him to "find that Rivera's mandatory, more-than-century-long sentence was grossly disproportionate and thus in violation of the Eighth Amendment." But, continues Judge Barron, judges must further consider Harmelin v. Michigan, 501 U.S. 957 (1991), and "the Harmelin concurrence controls the outcome here, and ... does so by limiting our inquiry to a consideration of only Solem's first criterion." And, according to Judge Barron, ultimately judges "have no choice but to approve mandatory 'forever' sentences under  924(c) so long as they can hypothesize a rational reason for the legislature to have thought that the underlying criminal conduct was as serious as the large quantity drug possession at issue in Harmelin."

After intricate analysis of these and other Eighth Amendment and related precedents, this remarkable opinion (which, again, was joined by all the First Circuit judges), concludes this way:

Rivera faces the longest and most unforgiving possible prison sentence for conduct that, though serious, is not of the most serious kind. He does so not because the legislature had authorized its imposition and a judge had then considered all of the aggravating and mitigating circumstances and determined that this sentence was appropriate. He does so only because Congress has been deemed to have made a blanket judgment that even an offender like Rivera -- who has no prior criminal record and whose series of related crimes resulted in no harm to an identifiable victim -- should have no hope of ever living free. And he does so even though virtually every comparable jurisdiction punishes comparable criminal conduct less harshly, and even though the federal government itself punishes nearly the same or seemingly worse conduct more leniently. Almost three decades have now passed since the concurring Justices in Harmelin concluded, without reference to real-world comparative benchmarks, that the Eighth Amendment afforded the Michigan legislature the scope to try out what at the time was viewed as a permissible sentencing experiment to address a newly concerning crime problem. In those intervening decades, virtually no jurisdiction has been willing to replicate that state's experiment. In fact, even the state that the Harmelin concurrence permitted to try it has abandoned it. And yet the Harmelin concurrence still controls. In my view, a consequence as grave as the one that Harmelin requires in a case like this should have the imprimatur of more than only a nearly three-decade old, three-Justice concurrence. I thus urge the Supreme Court to consider whether the Eighth Amendment permits, at least in a case such as this, the mandatory stacking of sentences under  924(c) that -- due to their cumulative length -- necessarily results in the imposition of a mandatory sentence of life without parole.

February 28, 2018 at 01:00 PM | Permalink

Comments

A crooked cop--multiple crimes--hmm. Harsh. Unconstitutional---hardly.

Posted by: federalist | Feb 28, 2018 5:12:42 PM

When the Bill of Rights were submitted to the states, Congress in part said:

"THE Conventions of a number of the States, having at the time of their adopting the Constitution, expressed a desire, in order to prevent misconstruction or abuse of its powers, that further declaratory and restrictive clauses should be added: And as extending the ground of public confidence in the Government, will best ensure the beneficent ends of its institution."

Courts -- as noted in communication between Jefferson and Madison -- would play an important role here. Also, as compared to various things, judges do have some special skills and responsibility to consider this specific matter. The opinion here makes a strong case that Harmelin has not been applied the best way over the years.

But, overall, the power of the words of the amendment have some force all the same beyond that, both when judges craft sentences and for others involved in the process. This includes prosecutors who choose who to should get what punishments and legislators when they draw up such laws. They all have a duty including when applying things that in practice are treated as mere political questions.

Anyway, if this conduct warrants life in prison, it arguably somewhat waters down the force of such a punishment in other cases where the crime are more heinous. Even a range of murders, rapes etc. -- above and beyond as required by the Supreme Court -- doesn't get that (or execution) in many cases.

Posted by: Joe | Mar 1, 2018 12:35:27 PM

Nancy Leong Retweeted Joshua Matz [referencing this matter]

This *is* an extraordinary development. As a former 1st Circuit clerk, I can confirm that even though there are only six judges they disagree about All The Things

[and]

My judge (Lipez) has taken senior status now but joined the concurrence because he was part of the original panel, which means that SEVEN of them agreed ZOMG

Posted by: Joe | Mar 1, 2018 2:15:45 PM

8th Amendment jurisprudence is also important because the practice of executive clemency has atrophied for a variety of reasons, to almost nothing.

Posted by: ohwilleke | Mar 1, 2018 7:23:05 PM

Post a comment Will Florida school shooting mass murderer thwart efforts to raise age for limit on application of the death penalty? | Main | New GAO report explores "Federal Prisons: Information on Inmates with Serious Mental Illness and Strategies to Reduce Recidivism" 

February 15, 2018

Interesting statements from Senate Judiciary Committee on Sentencing Reform and Corrections Act of 2017 ... and now passage by 16-5 vote!

As I write this, the Senate Judiciary Committee is in the midst of a discussion of the Sentencing Reform and Corrections Act of 2017, and the discussion is quite interesting (though relatively predictable given the articulated past and present positions of various members). The discussion can be followed at the SJC website here, where one can also find a host of amendments offered by members and Senator Chuck Grassley's official statement. Here is a portion of Senator Grassley's statement, which summarizes the bill and also why Senator Grassley has become its chief advocate:

Today, were also marking up the Sentencing Reform and Corrections Act. This legislation reforms mandatory minimum prison sentences to focus on the most serious drug offenders and violent criminals. This is a bipartisan bill that cuts costs, reduces crime, and optimizes the criminal justice system. It is supported by a diverse array of groups including FreedomWorks, the American Conservative Union, Prison Fellowship, Families against Mandatory Minimums, the NFL, the ACLU, and the NAACP. It is also a bill with policies that enjoy broad national support. A recent poll showed that the American people strongly support improving our criminal justice system. 87% of Americans and 83% of Republicans believe that mandatory minimums for nonviolent offenders should be replaced by a system focused on judicial discretion. 76% of Americans and 68% of Republicans believe the criminal justice system needs significant improvements. 87% of Americans and 80% of Republicans think were spending too much money on prisons that should be used instead for treatment, rehabilitation, law enforcement, and victim services. The bill gives judges additional discretion in sentencing defendants with minimal non-violent criminal histories that may trigger mandatory minimum sentences under current law. It also applies some of these reforms retroactively, including the Fair Sentencing Act. But before this happens, judges must first review eligible inmates individual cases, including criminal histories and conduct while incarcerated to determine whether a sentence reduction is appropriate. Importantly, the bill preserves cooperation incentives to aid law enforcement in tracking down kingpins and stiffens penalties for individuals convicted of serious violent felonies. It also adds new mandatory minimums for certain crimes involving interstate domestic violence and the provision of weapons to terrorists and prohibited countries. Additionally, it creates a new five-year sentencing enhancement for trafficking of heroin laced with fentanyl. In addition, the bill establishes recidivism reduction programs to help prepare low-risk inmates to successfully re-enter society. Qualifying inmates may receive reductions to their sentences through time credits upon successful completion of recidivism reduction programming.... Yesterday, Attorney General Sessions sent us a letter setting forth his views on the Sentencing Reform and Corrections Act. When I read his letter, it was almost as if Senator Sessions was back on the Judiciary Committee. But thats the problem. He is now the Attorney General and is charged with executing the laws that Congress passes, not interfering with the legislative process. Certainly we value input from the Department of Justice, but if General Sessions wanted to be involved in marking up this legislation, maybe he should have quit his job and run for the Republican Senate seat in Alabama. Ive talked to Attorney General Sessions about this bill many times. He opposes the elimination of mandatory minimums, as do I. He believes in being tough on crime, and so do I. But I also believe in being fair. This is a view shared by the last Republican Attorney General, Michael Mukasey, who testified in support of this bill last Congress. So we have one Republican Attorney General who thinks this bill is good policy, and one who has some concerns.... This bill is good public policy. It is the result of years of careful negotiations. Weve demonstrated that this bill has significant bipartisan support. Twenty-two United States Senators are cosponsors, including more than half of the members of this committee. I look forward to continuing to work with the administration and the House on a legislative solution that the President can sign into law.

A few prior related posts:

UPDATE : Around 12noon and after an interesting debate over an amendment proposed by Senator Cruz to strip the SRCA of its retroactivity provisions and other reforms, the full SJC voted finally on the bill as proposed and voted 16-5 in favor of it. Now the issue becomes whether Senate Majority Leader will bring the bill to the Senate Floor for a full vote. I fear he will not, but we shall see.

February 15, 2018 at 11:57 AM | Permalink

Comments

10000 non-violent sex offenders to be released. Get ready for Decarceration Nation, thanks to Swamp Creature Senator Grassley.

https://conservativetribune.com/calif-release-10000-sex-offenders/

Posted by: David Behar | Feb 15, 2018 1:19:15 PM

David, your comment is full of ignorance:

1. This article references a California state ruling about a California state ballot initiative, noted here:

http://sentencing.typepad.com/sentencing_law_and_policy/2018/02/california-judge-rejects-state-efforts-to-limit-reach-of-new-parole-eligibility-rules-approved-by-vo.html

2. That state ruling simply says that a ballot initiative ("California Parole for Non-Violent Criminals and Juvenile Court Trial Requirements Initiative") allowing for consideration for earlier parole for all non-violent offenders also applies to non-violent sex offenders. So we are talking about non-violent sex offenders getting a CHANCE at early release thanks to California voters voting 65% to 35% for all non-violent offenders to get a chance at earlier parole.

3. None of this has anything to do with US Senator Charles Grassley.

Posted by: Doub B. | Feb 15, 2018 2:45:22 PM

It is a package to loose the criminals, in all jurisdictions. California/Congress, a distinction without a difference.

The idea is to increase crime again, to generate make work government jobs, including lawyer jobs. Grassley is not a lawyer, but he has spent too much time in Washington, the capital of rent seeking. If you move to Iran, you will become Iranian after a short time, even if you hate Iran. Humans imitate each other. If you live in Washington DC, you will embrace big government, and rent seeking as a value. There is no other viewpoint there.

There is a time coincidence between a 3% decarceration and a 15% surge in murder in a dozen big cities. Grassley reads the Washington Post and is influenced by the media false propaganda about decarceration.

Grassley is also from Iowa. It is 99% white, with half the crime rate of the US, mostly done by strangers passing through from Chicago. He does not care what happens to black people in Baltimore, or even just two blocks in the wrong direction from the Congress in DC. He does care about increasing government employment.

I care about accuracy. I want dangerous people in prison, and non-dangerous criminals in alternatives. I prefer to eliminate entire crimes. Start with desuetude. That allows the lawyer profession to clean out its laws by prosecutorial discretion to not prosecute an offense, say for 5 years.

Then deter further criminalization by making it a constitutional right to have safe and effective laws. If a law does not result in actual protection of the public, it is unconstitutional, yes, in judicial review. There is a new federal crime added to the books every week, around 50 a year. Nearly all are quackery and unconstitional.

Posted by: David Behar | Feb 15, 2018 3:10:38 PM

Well, step 1 has been taken. Just have to see if the bill comes up for a full vote. Thats a lot of power for the Senate Majority Leader. One would hope a vote is in order, how else can change happen.

Posted by: MidWestGuy | Feb 16, 2018 1:25:24 AM

Someone close to me was recently affected by these mandatory minimums. Charged and convicted of Possession and Distribution of Child Pornography. Sentenced to 12 years for sending 5 photos. Why he was not charged at state level instead of federal originally? Why was possession charge dropped and not the distribution charge? Individual has cognitive issues with IQ of 77. Draconion laws such as these "Manddatory Minimums" are keeping individuals such as the subject of this post in jail instead of receiving treatment. No physical contact with a child but yet sent to jail for lengthy prison sentence. Prosecutors want to appear tough on crime and Judges are locked into mandatory minimums. USA has been getting tough on crime for the last 30 years with longer and longer prison sentences. Two million people incarcerated at this time and billion of dollars wasted. It seems time to take a new look at how we sentence people. Thank you Senator Grassely for taking the time lead an effort to responsibly change minimum sentencing guidelines.

Posted by: Bill | Feb 16, 2018 11:30:55 PM

Seems really interesting that you know so much about Iowa. Where did you get your stats? It seems very intriguingly funny. Iowa is not 99% white, maybe 20 years ago it was, but definitely not now, nor has it been for the last maybe 10 years. Here in Iowa, we do have crime, more than what is talked about or acknowledged. Not as bad as Chicago, but there is definitely crime here, more than I would like and more than it should be for a small town. There needs to be some change to these old laws of lock them up and throw away the key. People are put into the system without rehabilitation and let out on the streets and some with no help or no where to go. Do you think the got rehabilitated in prison with all the cuts that are happening? Programs that are being cut. Most inmates will get out one day and some of them will be no better than when they went in, because they didnt get rehabilitated. The mineframe of peoples thought process should be what is scary. Try fixing the problem versus lets lock them up forever.

Posted by: Jumeka | Feb 18, 2018 6:29:43 PM

I am a student. I am in favor of prison reform. I totally hope this gets passed with sentence reform for federal inmates. Compassion for non violent offenders always.

Posted by: Michelle Welsh | May 31, 2018 4:53:51 PM

Post a comment Entire First Circuit urges Supreme Court to revisit Harmelin's limits on Eighth Amendment challenges to extreme adult prison sentence | Main | Senator Grassley talking up Senate vote on his SRCA bill along with any prison reform bill lacking sentencing reforms 

As reported in this Reuters article, "Martin Shkreli, the former drug company executive convicted of defrauding investors in two hedge funds he ran, has asked a federal judge to sentence him to 12 months to 18 months in prison, much less than suggested federal guidelines." Here is more:

Shkreli, 34, has been in jail since September, when U.S. District Judge Kiyo Matsumoto revoked his bail after he offered a $5,000 bounty for a strand of Hillary Clintons hair in a Facebook post. Matsumoto is scheduled to sentence him on March 9.

Shkrelis lawyers said in a court filing on Tuesday that a sentence of 27 years or more calculated using federal guidelines would be draconian and offensive. The filing included a letter from Shkreli, asking the judge for leniency. I accept the fact that I made serious mistakes, but I still believe that I am a good person with much potential, he said.

In addition to the prison sentence, they proposed Shkreli complete 2,000 hours of community service and undergo court-mandated therapy....

Shkreli, nicknamed Pharma Bro, raised the price of anti-infection drug Daraprim by over 5,000 percent in 2015 while he was chief executive officer of Turing Pharmaceuticals. A jury found him guilty last August of unrelated securities fraud charges. They determined that he lied to investors about the performance of his hedge funds, MSMB Capital and MSMB Healthcare. He also was found guilty of conspiring to manipulate the stock price of a drug company he founded, Retrophin Inc.

Shkrelis investors eventually came out ahead after he paid them in shares of Retrophin, and in some cases through settlement agreements and consulting contracts with the company, according to testimony at trial. However, Matsumoto ruled Monday that he would still be held responsible for defrauding investors out of millions of dollars, because he secured their investments through fraud.

Shkrelis lawyers said in the filing that he made mistakes when communicating with his investors not because he wanted to steal from them, but because he could not bring himself to admit failure. They also tried to counter the view that Shkreli was the greedy Pharma Bro. They pointed to his work at Retrophin to develop a drug for a rare childhood degenerative disease called PKAN that was used to treat some patients in Cyprus, as well as online relationships he has maintained with patients. Even the controversial Daraprim price hike was meant to fund research into rare diseases, they said.

The filing included dozens of letters supporting Shkreli, including from family members and a former Turing employee who praised his altruistic passion. "Pharma Bro" Martin Shkreli, facing decades under guidelines, seeks prison sentence of 12-18 months | Main | "The Politics of Prosecution: Examining the Policymaking Role of Prosecutors" 

February 28, 2018

Senator Grassley talking up Senate vote on his SRCA bill along with any prison reform bill lacking sentencing reforms

As reported in this post, the White House yesterday signaled its disaffinity for key parts of the Sentencing Reform and Corrections Act when an official was quoted as saying the "sentencing reform part still does not have a pathway forward to getting done." But Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Chuck Grassley is seemingly not prepared to give up on his bill, as detailed in this new press article headlined "Grassley: I'll fight for sentencing reforms." Here are the key details:

U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, pledged Wednesday to fight for a criminal justice proposal that includes reducing certain mandatory prison sentences, and he raised the prospect of blocking a package of related reforms the White House and congressional Republicans are said to be interested in if he can't get an agreement.... Late Tuesday, the White House expressed interest in proposals to reduce recidivism among offenders, but not changes to sentences. A White House official who wasn't identified said the sentencing reform piece "does not have a pathway forward to getting done," according to several news reports. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Kentucky, also is said to be an obstacle to getting the legislation to the floor. On a conference call with Iowa reporters Wednesday, Grassley disputed the idea his bill can't pass and said with Democrats and Republicans, there are at least 60 votes for his proposal. The bill passed the Senate Judiciary Committee two weeks ago on a 16-5 bi-partisan vote. Grassley said people pushing for a narrower approach just want to get a bill passed. "Well, if they take up prison reform, theyre going to have to have 60 votes to get prison reform up. And Ill bet weve got, if all the Democrats go along with me, we can stop that from coming up until we get a deal to get a vote on my sentencing reform," Grassley said. Grassley, who chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee and has been a key figure in getting the Trump administration's court picks through the confirmation process, said he planned to talk to Durbin first before deciding whether to take that route....

A few prior related posts:

February 28, 2018 at 05:04 PM | Permalink

Comments

Grassley, not a lawyer. Deep state operative, in Washington way too long. Dismissed.



Posted by: David Behar | Mar 1, 2018 10:52:03 PM

Post a comment New Buried Alive Project taking on LWOP sentences for federal drug offenses | Main | Entire First Circuit urges Supreme Court to revisit Harmelin's limits on Eighth Amendment challenges to extreme adult prison sentence 

February 28, 2018

Trump White House expresses opposition to sentencing reform part of SRCA of 2017

Given that the Sentencing Reform and Corrections Act of 2015 could not even get very far in Congress despite the support of then of the President and Attorney General, I have never been all that optimistic about the prospects for the 2017 version of this bill. Attorney General Sessions has been against it from the get-go, and this new report from the The Hill indicates that the White House has now put its opposition forward. Here are the details:

The White House on Tuesday said it sees no path forward for legislation to reduce mandatory minimum prison sentences, instead throwing its support behind measures aimed at reducing recidivism rates. "The conclusion we reached was that, at this time, it's appropriate for us to go forward with prison reform," a senior administration official said. The White House's position represents a major setback for Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), who has been working to move his criminal justice reform bill through Congress after it stalled last session. The Senate Judiciary Committee advanced the Sentencing Reform and Corrections Act to the floor by a 16-5 vote earlier this month over the objections of Attorney General Jeff Sessions and a few GOP members on the committee.... A senior White House official said the administration respects Grassleys efforts, but sees no path forward for sentencing reform. "The sentencing reform part still does not have a pathway forward to getting done," the official said. "And so what we see now is an environment where the prison reform does have enough support to get done. And we think that by maybe doing this in smaller bits and pushing the prison reform now, we think this has a better chance of getting done." A second official said the White House is instead focused on prison reform legislation like Rep. Doug Collins's (R-Ga.) bipartisan Prison Reform and Redemption Act. That bill, co-sponsored by nine Democrats and seven Republicans, allows prisoners to serve the final days of their sentences in halfway houses or home confinement if they complete evidence-based programs while in prison that have been shown to reduce recidivism rates. Prison programming could include everything from job and vocational skills training to education and drug treatment. "I think that that is a good basis that we can look at and start with," the second senior White House official said of Collins's bill. I do think that as the conversation continues over the coming weeks, there might be additions, changes, amendments, and we want to go through the regular order committee processes. But I do think that that's a big piece of legislation to look at as a starting point." A source familiar with the talks with the White House told The Hill in January that Collinss bill is expected to be marked up in the House Judiciary Committee before the first quarter ends in April. Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn (R-Texas) and Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) have introduced similar legislation in the Senate. Taylor Foy, a spokesman for Grassley, said the chairman is focused on passing sound policy, not the path of least resistance. "Bipartisan support continues to grow in the Senate for comprehensive criminal justice reform, which includes providing additional discretion for judges at sentencing for lower level, non-violent drug crimes," he said. "Chairman Grassleys broadly bipartisan Sentencing Reform and Corrections Act is cosponsored by nearly a quarter of the Senate. Our office continues to have productive conversations with the White House on this issue. A senior White House official said President Trump is planning to sign an executive order Wednesday to revamp the Federal Reentry Council and move it from the Department of Justice to the White House. Under the Obama administration, the interagency council worked to reduce recidivism and improve employment, education, housing, health and child welfare outcomes, according to the Department of Justice website. The White House said Tuesday it sent a list of legislative principles for reform efforts to Congress. In addition to effectively using government resources to reduce crime and incentivize re-entry programs, the White House wants Congress to expand access to prison work programs. It also wants lawmakers to evaluate and facilitate public and private partnerships that improve pre- and post-release employment opportunities for inmates.

I am disappointed but not especially surprised that the White House is indicating that it is only willing to support a more modest prison reform bill rather than all the significant sentencing reforms that appear in the SRCA. Prez Trump has to date only voiced support for prison reform efforts, and he has formally and informally talked up a "tough and tougher" approach to sentencing drug dealers. Those eager to see reductions in federal drug sentences should likely be grateful many leading GOP legislators favor such reforms because otherwise Prez Trump might well be actively advocating for enhancing the severity of federal drug sentences.

I have long been saying that, for various reasons and for lots of offenders, significant prison reform could end up even more consequential than some proposed sentencing reform. Thus, I sincerely hope that everyone interested in the kinds of reforms that the SRCA represent will be prepared to get behind the Prison Reform and Redemption Act (PRRA) and work to make it as effective and expansive and consequential as possible. Some version of the PRRA looks now to be the only significant federal criminal justice reform proposal with a realistic chance of becoming law in 2018.

It has already been nearly a decade since we have seen anything close to significant legislative reforms benefiting federal defendants or prisoners. (I am thinking of the 2010 Fair Sentencing Act as the last big legislative change, though the 2014 "Drugs-2" guideline amendment was also a very big deal.) I want to believe that the passage of something like the PRRA could help create new momentum for a range of reforms bog and small in Congress and elsewhere, and so the fact that the White House is endorsing some reform efforts is still encouraging despite its discouraging view of the SRCA.

A few prior related posts:

February 28, 2018 at 01:36 AM | Permalink

Comments

How about we replace high school with job and vocational skills training, rather than wait until someone's committed a crime to give them it free?

Posted by: Preventative employment | Feb 28, 2018 10:31:17 AM

" (I am thinking of the 2010 Fair Sentencing Act as the last big legislative change, though the 2014 "Drugs-2" guideline amendment was also a very big deal.)"

Thanks to Congress for crafting such things and Obama for supporting them as well.

Posted by: Joe | Feb 28, 2018 12:44:53 PM

Yep, Joe, kudos to Prez Obama for not blocking sentencing changes over his full eight years that collectively are arguably not quite as consequential as the prison reform Prez Trump has now signaled support for in his second year. Then again, Prez Obama had a filibuster-proof majority in his first two years, so I suppose we should not have expected much from him during that period.

Posted by: Doug B. | Feb 28, 2018 4:56:37 PM

"Prez Obama had a filibuster-proof majority in his first two years"

He did not. It was in place for less than two years with the Franken seat in limbo and illness to at least one senator.

And, when he did have it, there were many things that had to be done or were in the process of being done. And, he isn't the prime minister. Every single Democrat wasn't going to support it -- a few are pretty tough on crime types. Republicans however were loathe to give him a victory, even when Obama supported things they themselves did up to and including a Merrick Garland. Anyway, Congress had to fight it out as they do with things & the fact the process has been in place for years & Republicans don't have to worry about helping Obama any more, kinda is important too.

The idea Trump is somehow better than Obama here or anywhere on the same level is almost troll level factoring everything especially when I was sure not to single out Obama alone. I in fact said CONGRESS "crafted" it, which I think is key. I also don't like "Obamacare" in part because CONGRESS (more so the Senate) played a key role. But, all the same, you yourself cited two things that were accomplished. There are others that helped criminal justice reform, but those two were specifically cited.

Posted by: Joe | Feb 28, 2018 8:59:00 PM

Joe, I am not saying "Trump is somehow better than Obama here," I am saying that we could end up getting something more consequential and lasting from Trump and the GOP in his first two years than we got from Obama and Dems over the previous eight. That possibility is a function of a range of realities, many of which are outside the control of a Prez. But it is remarkable sign of the times given that Obama campaigned as a criminal justice reform, while Trump campaigned as a law-and-order candidate.

Posted by: Doug B | Mar 1, 2018 9:52:50 AM

Post a comment

She made the statement after a meeting with Indonesian President Joko Widodo on February 26 to discuss current economic development, Indonesias prospect and preparations for the annual IMF-World Bank meeting in Bali in October.



At the meeting, Lagarde praised President Joko Widodo and his cabinet for their economic management and policies.



"We have also discussed the importance of achieving high economic growth to create jobs and support working generation that keeps growing," she said.



She added to meet the goal, revenues must be used to support development spending and continue reform of products, manpower and financial market.



Regarding the preparation for the annual IMF-World Bank meeting in October, Lagarde thanked all parties for their cooperation so far in preparing the event.-VNADescription Item details

Description

This humorous silk eye mask was inspired by Louise Bourgeois, who was an insomniac for most of her life, and described sleep as paradise. The eye mask features an image of Bourgeoiss own eyes, giving you the wise and watchful eyes of the iconic artist while you sleep. The strap is elasticated to fit comfortably over your head and features the phrase Key to insomnia: peace or trust, which references a note written on the back of one of Bourgeoiss Insomnia drawings from the mid-1990s. The mask is finished with blue and white stripes inspired by Bourgeoiss fabric drawings from 2003.



Louise Bourgeois was a renowned French-American artist and sculptor, best known for her contributions to both modern and contemporary art, and for her spider structures entitled Maman, one of which was on show for the opening of Tate Modern in 2000.



Bourgeois studied mathematics at the Sorbonne before turning to studio arts. In 1938, after marrying Robert Goldwater, an American art historian, critic and curator, she went to New York, where she enrolled in the Art Students League and studied painting for two years. During World War II she worked with Joan Miro, Andre Masson and other European expatriates.



Although Bourgeois exhibited with the Abstract Expressionists, she never became an abstract artist. Instead, she created symbolic objects and drawings expressing themes of loneliness and conflict, frustration and vulnerability.

Item details

Artist Louise Bourgeois

Dimensions 8 x 20 cm

Material 100% silk. Hand wash only.

Reviews

Delivery & returnsForeign Ministry Spokesperson Lu Kang's Regular Press Conference on February 28, 2018

2018/02/28

Q: We have learnt that the 23rd Meeting of the Joint Working Group (JWG) on the Implementation of the Declaration of Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea (DOC) will soon be held. Can you confirm that?

A: As agreed, the 23rd China-ASEAN Joint Working Group (JWG) Meeting on the Implementation of the DOC will be held in Nha Trang, Viet Nam on March 1 and 2. This will be the first meeting of this mechanism to be held this year where various sides will have a full and in-depth exchange of views on implementing the DOC and advancing maritime practical cooperation and consultations on the Code of Conduct (COC) in the South China Sea.

Thanks to the joint efforts of China and ASEAN countries, the current situation in the South China Sea has stablized and taken on a sound momentum. China and ASEAN countries have the willingness and confidence to build on such momentum of dialogue and cooperation to achieve more positive progress and results and further cement the sound situation in the region.

Q: The ROK government today summoned the Chinese ambassador in Seoul to complain about a Chinese military aircraft flying into its Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ). Can you tell us what the ambassador's response was?

A: China carried out flight training in relevant international airspace in complete conformity with international law and practices. I shall stress that the ADIZ is different from territorial airspace. The ROK's accusation against China on the basis of the so-called ADIZ is utterly unjustifiable.

Q: According to Reuters, ROK President Moon Jae-in said that there is a need for the United States to lower the threshold for talks with the DPRK, and in response, the DPRK should show it is willing to denuclearise. It's important that the United States and the DPRK sit down together quickly. How do you comment on that?

A: We believe that President Moon Jae-in's words merit all parties' careful thoughts. As we have stressed many times, the core of the Korean Peninsula nuclear issue is about security, the settlement of which hinges on the US and the DPRK. Thus, direct talks between the two parties are indispensable if the Korean Peninsula nuclear issue is to be resolved and a fundamental turnaround in the Korean Peninsula situation is to be achieved.

You mentioned that President Moon Jae-in said that the US should lower the threshold for dialogue and the DPRK should show its will to denuclearise. In fact, in order to move forward dialogues on this issue, China has proposed to launch bilateral and multilateral dialogues by lowering the threshold and taking synchronized and small steps. By "lowering the threshold" we mean no precondition that the other party finds difficult to accept shall be imposed. In particular, issues that need to be resolved in future talks shall not become preconditions for resuming talks, because after all, nothing will ever change if we don't start talking to one another.

Regarding denuclearization, China's position is consistent and clear. A denuclearized Korean Peninsula serves the interests of all parties. That is also the firm position taken by China and other members of the international community.

As we said before, there have been encouraging and positive signs unfolding on the Peninsula recently. We sincerely hope that with concerted efforts, the positive momentum of improved DPRK-ROK ties would be sustained and lead to direct dialogues between the DPRK and the US and then a comprehensive dialogue on fundamentally resolving the Korean Peninsula issue.

Q: There have been reports from UN diplomats, citing a report of UN experts that the DPRK has been exporting materials to Syria that could be used in the manufacture of chemical weapons in 2016 and 2017. There are also other reports that these shipments were arranged by a Chinese trading company in Pyongyang. I wonder if China is investigating this incident? Is China concerned that the DPRK may be trying to continue to trade weapons illegally and is China actively trying to prevent this from happening?

A: China is a party to the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) as well as a permanent member of the UN Security Council. Our position on the prohibition of chemical weapons is clear to all. China always maintains that Security Council resolutions must be implemented in a strict, comprehensive and accurate manner.

As for the report you just cited, if Chinese entities or individuals did get involved in violation of relevant Security Council resolutions, China would surely handle it seriously as required by those resolutions and its domestic laws. But we also hope that relevant allegation should be based on solid factual evidence rather than hearsay.

Q: According to reports, Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak recently spoke highly of the building of the Belt and Road, saying that Malaysia would benefit a lot from it. He said that Malaysia will continue to welcome Chinese investment, describing China's business community as one of the partners in building the high-income and high-skill Malaysia of the future and the country's cooperation with China has delivered win-win results. What's your comment?

A: We spoke positively of the remarks by Prime Minister Najib Razak. Following the principle of extensive consultation, joint contribution and shared benefits, the Belt and Road Initiative aims for mutual benefit and win-win results. It has gained widespread support and active participation among the international community since it was proposed five years ago.

As friendly neighbors, China and Malaysia have all along maintained close economic and trade cooperation. Malaysia is among the first to participate in the Belt and Road Initiative, and our joint efforts to build the Belt and Road have achieved tangible outcomes and delivered tangible benefits to the two peoples. We stand ready to continue to explore and carry out more mutually beneficial cooperation with Malaysia and other countries along the Belt and Road.The gravity of the existential threat we face from Islamic Jihad is truly of epic proportions. It is essentially a battle pitting free-civilized man against a totalitarian barbarian. What is at stake is the struggle for our very soul - namely who we are and what we represent. The lives that were sacrificed for individual rights and freedoms that we've come to cherish are being chiseled away from right under our noses by the stealth jihadists. And many of us are in denial and totally clueless.



The left's appeasement and pandering to evil is nothing new. What makes their utopian delusions so infuriating and unpardonable is that it is not only they who will have to pay the consequences, and deservedly, so, they are thwarting and undermining our best efforts at resistance and are thus dragging us down in the process as well.







By Peter Lancz,, the head of the Raoul Wallenberg World Campaign Against Racism.The owner of LeBoy is upset over the removal of his ads from city-owned eco bins and said he may sue the city in response.

Im not going to let it slide by, said Sean David, owner of LeBoy, a gay strip club in Fort Lauderdale. The ads went up three weeks before Halloween, on eco bins near Northeast 8 Avenue and Wilton Drive, and were taken down shortly after. David said his money was returned.

David is accusing the city of removing his ads, which featured two shirtless men from the midsection up, while allowing similar ads to remain including one that showed the entire body of a man only wearing a jockstrap. He said someone from Smartlite, the ad company Wilton Manors contracts with to manage the advertising on the eco bins, told him the city was responsible. But he declined to give the name.

David, who said he advertised similar ads before without a problem, said he received his money back but still has never gotten an explanation as to why his ads were removed this time.

My contract requires them to give me a notice and chance to remedy. I received no notice and no chance to remedy anything. I really feel like somebody in the city didnt like it. I was very upset. When I buy a space, that real estate is mine. Nobody talked to me.

Leisure Services Department Director Patrick Caan and City Manager Leigh Ann Henderson both said the city did not make the decision to remove the ads. Henderson and Caan said those decisions are left up to Smartlite.

We dont do any ad reviews, Henderson said.

Davids attorney is Russell Cormican, the law partner of attorney Norm Kent, publisher of the South Florida Gay News. On Feb. 21, he submitted an information request related to any city communications

Smartlite did not return multiple messages requesting an interview.West Palm Beachs first national alternative book fair is coming to life next month.

On March 9 through 11, cultural icons of the punk and queer culture come to celebrate the visions of the past and share their visions for the future at West Palm Beach Alternative Book Fair at The Box Gallery, according to the event page.

From uptown to downtown, high brow to low brow, there will be a series of talks lectures, and presentations that span almost a half of century of documentation beginning from the early 70's to present.

Authors in attendance will include openly gay Paul Zone, author of Playground: Growing Up in the New York Underground. In the 70s he was in American glam/punk band The Fast and in the 80s he was in American Hi-NRG band Man 2 Man.

[My book] really touches on the LGBTQ situations that have gone on through the decades, he said. I knew Marsha P. Johnson, I lived on Christopher St through the 70s and 80s. I was involved with different types of things in New York. Fashion, art, the Warhol scene and the punk scene. I lived through many scenes. Being very sexual was very fun.

Other authors include Sandra Schulman, Tony Arruza, Laurence Gartel, and Rick Rose among other authors. The weekend will also see live performances by DJ Paul Klov of art gallery Bohemia AG, synthpop-industrial band Skoros, musical duo Aceskully and more.

On Friday night there will be at after party at Roosters Club  a lip sync battle hosted by Charlotte Shotgun. Saturdays after party is also at Roosters, a drag show with the First Lady of The Palm Beaches Melissa St. John and friends. Both after parties will be followed by an after-after party at Respectable Street hosted by Zaii Zeus Whatevrr.

The event will be preceded by a pre-event radio broadcast on Tuesday, Feb. 27 from noon to 1 p.m. at Art Radio Network (95.3 FM / 1470 AM). Host Laurence Gartel of G-TALK will be live with event authors such as Zone, Richard Boch, Vera Ramone King and more.

A one-day pass is $10 and the weekend pass is $15. Purchase tickets here.

If You Go:

1st West Palm Beach Alternative Book Fair Weekend

The Box Gallery

March 9-11

811 Belvedere Road

www.TheBoxGallery.infoTheres a particular phrase that gets under Ramin Bastanis skin. And the aggravation can be more than just a mere annoyance when it comes to health care issues.

My dad was diagnosed with cancer years ago and I became his caregiver, said Bastani, the CEO of Los Angeles, California-based Healthvana. There were gaps in the coverage and with the health care provider, and during all the testing and labs and waiting for results Id often hear people say: no news is good news. With my technology background, it made no sense to me, he said.

The phrase, when it comes to lab results, means when a test is negative a patient often wont hear from the provider and has to be more proactive in finding out the result. In general, its only when a result is positive that a patient will be contacted (hopefully quickly) with the results.

Out of the experience with his father, and optimism about what technology can accomplish in the world of health care and testing, Bastani would go on to help create Healthvana  a tech and software company trying to better connect patients and providers so patients can quickly decide what to do next in their care.

Bastani has teamed up with Sunnyvale, California-based Cepheid Inc. and the AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) to bring rapid testing for sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) to South Florida. The tests, which Bastani said would be available in the next month or so, will offer quick lab results (90-minutes versus typically eight days) of chlamydia and gonorrhea  two of the most common STDs in the country. The free tests will be available at the Broward Wellness Center in Fort Lauderdale, where AHF already offers free AIDS tests and other services.

The Wellness Centers run by the AHF, said Bastani, are the first sexual health clinics to incorporate the rapid test technology.

The issue is a big focus because the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said that in 2017, STDs in America reached some of the highest levels ever seen. The organization and others are seeking ways to slow down the epidemic.

The experience is you walk in and register digitally by phone or kiosk, instead of paper and pen, Bastani said. It saves a lot of time and allows [AHF] to see more patients. Afterward, instead of hearing the classic no news is good news, call us back in two weeks,  as soon as the lab is done  it goes to the patient in a really easy way to understand, he said.

Bastani said results are sent through text or email notification. You can also go to a website where youll find a free app. If everything is fine with the lab results, youll see negative. If there is infection, it will say positive, and give you instructions on what to do next.

Healthvana has reduced the time by two full days, Bastani said. It helps patients stay on top of their care, he said.

The testing has been launched in other cities like London, England, and Bastani said the results have been insanely positive.

To the point where people were lining up  800 in one day. People dont have the anxiety once the barriers are reduced, he said.

But Bastani said theres another practical reason for having the test results at your fingertips.

People often ask a potential partner: Have you been tested? Through our technology you can share the test results, Bastani said. He said hes seen people take a screenshot of results (omitting whatever personal information one wishes) and share on dating sites like Tinder.

While the technology has the potential for other health care tests, Bastani said Healthvana works in sexual health, because its where the company started. He said the company is also working in the area of renal (kidney) disease.

Bastani, 42, employs 20 people at Healthvana. He said the company, which launched in 2015, has already received industry kudos. He has presented at the White House, at Stanford University and at the National Library of Medicine in Maryland. Bastani said he started his first technology company after he graduated from the University of Southern California in 1999.

The AHF Wellness Center  Broward is located at 750 SE 3rd Ave. (1st floor) in Ft. Lauderdale. Call 954-767-0273 for more information.The U.S. Militarys first transgender soldier signed on for service since President Donald Trumps military ban was blocked.

In a release, the Pentagon confirmed one transgender soldier has signed on since the Jan. 1 date for transgender people to enlist, according to PinkNews. The person has yet to go through basic training.

[The Pentagon] confirms that as of February 23, 2018 there is one transgender individual under contract for service in the US Military, Maj. Dave Eastburn said in the release.

According to PinkNews, four separate courts blocked the ban. The ban would have purged transgender soldiers from service, which Trump touted in a tweet last summer.

....Transgender individuals to serve in any capacity in the U.S. Military. Our military must be focused on decisive and overwhelming.....  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 26, 2017

Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis released an internal memo last week with guidance on transgender troops which has not been released to the public.

Every single federal court to look at President Trumps policy has already found that it reeks of undisguised and unlawful discrimination against qualified transgender people willing and able to serve our country, and its time to put the nail in the coffin for that policy, Lambda Legal senior attorney Peter Renn said.What do you give a gay man for his 40th birthday when he seems to already have everything? This guy has a loving partner, successful career and supportive parents, but when the 15-year-old son he never knew comes knocking on the door, hes forced to reevaluate his life.

Thats the premise of Philip Middleton Williams award-winning new comedy, All Together Now, receiving its world premiere this weekend at the Willow Theatre at Sugar Sand Park in Boca Raton.

Is it a gay play? I say no, said longtime South Florida resident Williams. Its got gay characters, but when you ask if its a gay play what are you talking about? Is it a coming out story? No, thats been done to death.

The writer did draw on personal experiences when formulating the plot. While he was living in Albuquerque, N.M. in 1999, a lesbian couple asked him to become their sperm donor. They went through the procedure three times without achieving pregnancy.

After returning to Miami two years later, Williams began to wonder what if the procedure had been successful and those musings provided the seed for a play years later.

My take was not just the surprise of a 15-year-old kid showing up out of the blueand on his 40th birthdaybut the impact on him, his partner and parents and the new dynamics becoming a father might have on them, said Williams.

Williams worked on the project intermittently for years until 2016 when Ricky J. Martinez, then artistic director of Miamis New Theater, announced a new play reading seriesa at the company. Within a month, Williams had completed the first draft.

But, it is Joyce Sweeneys The Playgroup LLC that will be presenting the first staged production of All Together Now. Williams play won her companys new play competition last year and was enthusiastically programmed on the three-year-old companys season.

She gets my writing, he said of Sweeney. She understands and is very energetic about it. We have a great cast and, as I sat through the first reading, I knew they were right on the money.

The Playgroups production stars Brenda Aulbach, Eytan Deray, David Ehrlich, Fran Friedman, Patrick Sheehan and Richard Weinstock with set designer Nick LoMonte and stage manager Robin Pauline rounding out the team.

In addition to Williams, the company has also successfully produced new plays by local playwrights Todd Caster, Peter Hawkins, Brian Harris, Joe Feinstein and Tom Andrew.

Even though Williams has been writing for decades and is an advisor to the William Inge Theatre Festival and member of The Dramatists Guild, he still humbly considers himself an emerging playwright. He particularly lauds Sweeney and her board for encouraging other emerging writers.

Im passionate about writing, he said. Its cheaper than therapy and doesnt damage my liver.

The Playgroup LLC presents All Together Now by Philip Middleton Williams on March 2, 3, 9 and 10 at 8 p.m. and March 4 and 11 at 2 p.m. at the Willow Theatre at Sugar Sand Park in Boca Raton. Tickets are $25 at WillowTheatre.org or call 561-347-3948.Much of the U.S. Midwest has received above normal precipitation this winter. A NASA rainfall analysis provided a look at the precipitation that contributed to current flooding.

Recent heavy rainfall and melting snow has caused flooding from eastern Texas to Michigan. Major flooding is expected along the Ohio River in Illinois and Kentucky. On Feb. 23, the National Weather Service noted that several locations along the Ohio River near Louisville were under flood warnings. Parts of Arkansas and Indiana are also preparing for major flooding.

At NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, in Greenbelt, Maryland, a rainfall anomaly analysis was made by comparing rainfall data compiled during the twelve year period from 2001 to 2012 to "near real-time" Multi-satellite Precipitation Analysis (TMPA-RT 3B42RT) data collected from December 21, 2017 to February 23, 2018.

This TMPA rainfall anomaly analysis indicated that parts of the upper Midwest have had 5 mm (0.2 inches) of precipitation per day above normal so far this winter. Much of the U.S. southwest and west were found to have lower than normal amounts of precipitation. Experimental Multi-satellite rainfall anomaly analyses have been automatically calculated and those data shared with the public for over a decade.

The National Weather Service noted on Feb. 23, "The heavy rainfall that began last week and continued over the weekend has brought widespread flooding to the central and southern U.S., from the Gulf Coast to the Great Lakes. Numerous river systems will remain in flood stage this week. Another round of rainfall is forecast across the Lower/Mid-Miss. and Tenn. River Valleys Tuesday into Wednesday, which will exacerbate the ongoing flood threat."

For the National Weather Service website of river observations, visit: http://water.weather.gov/ahps/

Please follow SpaceRef on Twitter and Like us on Facebook.There was a light drizzle in the air as I made my way to Ampere Cafe. It was 6:45 on a Sunday morning, and a quiet rain fell upon the mostly empty streets of Shibuya. The cafe was down an alleyway, a warm glow of orange light against a backdrop of grey concrete.

I yawned. I couldnt help wondering what Id dragged myself out of bed for on an early Sunday morning.

Inside, Eito Ogura and Kazuo Shinbo were preparing coffee and eggs benedict for the sleepy people filtering into Ampere for a weekend breakfastit's this food and drink pairing that sits at the heart of the once-a-month pop-up event called Asagohan, or translated to English, simply breakfast.

Ogura and Shinbo say they want to bring early morning coffee and breakfast culture to Tokyo, having discovered it on exchange study trips to Canada and Australia, where they first met. Upon returning to Tokyo, the two looked for a way to combine their interestscoffee and foodand realized that in their shared love of breakfast culture was an opportunity.

For Japanese people, Ogura says, especially in Tokyo, most people wake up as late as possible, and head straight to work, often without eating breakfast. But when I worked early shifts at cafes in Australia, I noticed lots of people came in early, before work. It was a part of their lifestyle, and I really liked that.

I think both our lives changed by living overseas, adds Shinbo. We experienced new ways of life, and met people who were making a living doing what they wanted. I think we realized we wanted to do that, too.

I chatted with a few other visitors at the eventAsagohans fourth, which featured Sangenjayas Coffee Wrights along with an eggs benedict of smoked salmon and sukiyaki brisketwho were a mixed group of baristas, shop employees, and cafe-hoppers. As we ate and drank, they told me that the getting up part was hard, but that having a kickstart to their Sunday was worth it.

What we want to do, says Ogura, is help make morning culture a part of peoples lives here. If you wake up to a good breakfast, especially on the weekend, you have the whole rest of the day ahead of you. Its a good feeling.

Yeah. I think sometimes Japanese people have a tendency to tilt the work-life balance too far towards work, says Shinbo, who adds that he hopes his dishes help people enjoy their mornings a little more.

Ogura says that their first eventa pairing of avocado toast with Kumamotos AND Coffee Roasterswent much better than expected, and opened the door to collaborations with Glitch Coffee Roasters and Trunk Coffee for breakfast dishes like French toast and omelettes.

And while not having a dedicated space of their own yet sometimes makes preparations complicated for the pair, the flip side of setting up in brand new locations each month means making it easier for new people to attend, and giving regulars the chance to explore a new part of Tokyo on their days off.

And though Ogura and Shinbo talk of someday taking Asagohan to rural parts of Japan and setting up a dedicated restaurant for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, for the time being theyre happy simply developing their Tokyo events and building a community of morning people to help spread the word about breakfast culture.

And this community is perhaps the best thing about the event outside of the food and drink itself; the Asagohan event feels unique for the way it brings people together and encourages them to talk. People sit wherever there is space, and because the meal and the coffee are always set, they make for an easy, gentle springboard into conversation with the people at your table.

And so, while I sat sipping at coffee and chatting with a Malaysian and a Taiwanese barista about weekend plans, I felt awake and pleasantly full of food; satisfied and surrounded in a warm buzz of conversation.

I felt like if this was what morning culture meant to Ogura and Shinbo, then I was starting to understand the appeal of getting up a little earlier on the weekends.

Find out more about Asagohan and keep up to date with their events on Facebook and Instagram.

Hengtee Lim (@Hent03) is a Sprudge.com staff writer based in Tokyo. Read more Hengtee Lim on Sprudge.

Photos courtesy of Kazu_Poon.SXSW is coming! Now in its 31st year, the SXSW Festival (or Southby, which is what everyone involved with Southby calls it) is North America's premiere convergence of the interactive, film, music, progressive education, and cutting-edge food industries, and for the very first time this year it'll host a coffee exhibition. Sprudge has teamed up with the festival to co-curate a brand new Roasters Village zone as the Official Media Partner of SouthBites, SXSWs innovative food programming and flavor culture fest. Service is open from Saturday, March 10th through Monday, March 12th.

We are really excited about all of this! The Roasters Village is starting small in this, its pilot year, with just a dozen or so brands joining us at the festival, including Stumptown Coffee, Deadstock Coffee, Slingshot Coffee, Five Elephant Coffee Intelligentsia Coffee, Swiss Water Decaf, Irving Farm Coffee Roasters, Tweed Coffee Roasters, Upruit, Third Wave Water, Vega, and perhaps a few more surprises to launch at the show. Sprudge Media Network will be there live at the fest bringing coverage of all the coolness, so be sure to watch this space and follow us on Instagram and Twitter all weekend long in March.

And it wouldn't be SXSW, er, Southby without a rocking slate of afterparties. We've teamed up with Austin local heroes Department of Brewology and Caffe Medici, plus everyone's favorite Yemeni coffee wunderkind Mokhtar Alkhanshali of Port of Mokha, for a very special evening of delicious coffee, ice cold beer, convivial hangs and even some live podcast #content. This all happens on Monday, March 12th from 6:00 until 9:00-pm at Caffe Medici Downtown (200 Congress Ave) and it's absolutely free to attend.

See! A collection of Austin coffee pros, out of town festival exhibitors, and Southby attendees who love coffee!

Hear! A very special live taping of the Coffee Sprudgecast featuring Mokhtar Alkhanshali, Department of Brewology, and some very special guests that we are currently confirming, and might indeed be quite special, we assure you!

Drink! An assortment of delicious cold beers for purchase courtesy of our gracious hosts Caffe Medici, who will also be slinging espresso and filter coffee drinks on demand in case you've got like five more parties to go to after this one.

Chill! At this fun, laid-back social occasion that is free to enter, in the heart of Downtown Austin.

Thank you so much to Dept of Brewology's David Salinas for designing this lovely poster, and to our gracious hosts Caffe Medici. We'll see you March 10th-12th in Austin (and before that at Czech Stop).

So much more is available for you to explore at the official SXSW website.For years, professional wrestling legend 'The Nature Boy' Ric Flair has been at the helm or affiliated with a stable of individuals known as The Four Horsemen. On Sunday -- Flair's 69th birthday -- he officially became a horseman as part of a different stable in the harness racing industry.

During Sunday's Dan Patch Awards at the Rosen Shingle Creek resort in Orlando, Florida, Flair was the special guest of the group accepting the award for two-year-old pacing colt Lost In Time. Co-owner Scott Robinson informed those in attendance that it was in fact Flair's birthday and that he had a special gift in store.

"Who would we be as a horse racing community if we didnt get Ric Flair a birthday gift?" Robinson rhetorically asked the audience. "Hes got the best car, the best watch, the best clothes, the best of everything, but theres one thing you dont have Ric Flair. You dont have the best horse. I do!

"But guess what? Ric Flair, my gift to you, you now own a piece of Lost in Time."

An appreciative Flair can be heard saying, "I'm holding you to that!"

After the event, Flair posted a note to his 3.6 million social media followers across Facebook, Instagram and Twitter confirming the news with "Yes, I Am A Horseman! WOOOOO!"

To view the announcement, click the video below.

Robinson told Trot Insider that the plan is to have Flair licensed as a harness horse owner and have him listed on the ownership of Lost In Time when the pacer returns to the racetrack in 2018.Visitation will be held in Montreal on Saturday, March 10 for longtime horseman Claude Emond, who passed away at a health care facility in Joliette this month at the age of 76.

His daughter, Suzanne, a familiar racetrack presence herself as the longtime director of customer service at Hippodrome de Montreal, said her father had a number of health issues over the last decade, including lung cancer. Hed moved in to the same centre as my uncle Guy (a colourful Quebec entertainer) just two weeks prior to passing.

Emond, who did triple duty as trainer, driver and groom, never had a large stable and his victories were scarce at Blue Bonnets, but Suzanne said few people were happier in their work.

He got a horse from his grandmother when he was a kid and that was it. He absolutely loved horses. He got his start in Standardbreds with the Turcotte family. He was a man of few words, but he always got up happy, eager to get started. He told me often, whatever you choose to do, you better like it, because youll work 75 per cent of your life.

Emonds career summaries show 65 wins as a driver and 54 as a trainer. His last drive was in 2004, his final bow as a trainer in 2007.

Emonds best horse was Landry Rapide, a winner of more than $100,000 that he trained from the age of 18 months to age 13. In 1989, when the horse was in the midst of lengthy losing streak, Emond said in a newspaper interview that he preferred to race him in tougher classes than risk losing him in a claiming race.

My problem is that I like my horses too much, he said. The guys who get ahead in this sport are the ones who treat it like a business, buying and getting rid of horses all the time.

Claude Emond is survived by Suzanne, brothers Guy, Jean and Andre, sister Michelle, two grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.

Visitation will be from 1 to 4 p.m. March 10 at Lajeunesse Fortin Cenac, 8005 Notre Dame E., Montreal.

Please join Standardbred Canada in offering condolences to the family and friends of Claude Emond.

(A Trot Insider exclusive by Paul Delean)Law Enforcement Officer Admits the Truth About 'The Madisonville Hoax'

After Government's Eight-year Silence



Contact: Sharon Rondeau, Editor, The Post & Email, 203-987-7948, editor@thepostemail.com



ATHENS, Tenn., Feb. 28, 2018 /Standard Newswire/ -- On Monday, The Post & Email published the first article in what will be a series detailing encounters between Athens, TN resident Walter Francis Fitzpatrick, III and two officers in the Monroe County Sheriff's Office (MCSO) last Friday morning.



Prior to moving to Athens in February 2012, Fitzpatrick lived in Monroe County dating back to 2007. He was jailed on a number of occasions by then-MCSO Sheriff Bill Bivens after attempting to expose corruption within the local grand jury, sheriff's office, local police, Tennessee Bureau of Investigation (TBI) and Knoxville office of the FBI.



The catalyst to his initial arrest was his April 1, 2010 attempt to place the Monroe County grand jury foreman under citizen's arrest, as state law (TCA 22-2-314) prohibits any member of the grand jury from serving consecutive terms. In September 2009, Fitzpatrick inadvertently discovered that in Tennessee, criminal court judges are permitted to hand-pick the grand jury foreman and retain them for whatever time frame the judges wish, the 2008 law cited above notwithstanding. As of early 2010, Fitzpatrick was able to determine that Gary Pettway had been serving for two decades as grand jury foreman, although he later discovered that Pettway actually served for 28 consecutive years.



The practice dates back to at least 1919, when the Tennessee legislature passed a law allowing criminal court judges to select the grand jury foreman in that way despite its unconstitutionality. The U.S. Supreme Court condemned Tennessee judges handpicking grand jury foremen in 1979 and 1987, and yet, the practice continues to this day, along with numerous other constitutional violations.



Fitzpatrick is not alone in his claim that corruption in Monroe County has deprived citizens of their right to due process under the Fifth Amendment. The Post & Email has interviewed a number of local citizens who claimed that they or their loved ones were framed, arrested without cause, denied due process, and put through a sham trial resulting in a conviction and jail or prison time. With government-influenced grand juries, there is no doubt that the system is "hopelessly corrupt," as an attorney for Fitzpatrick in 2010 opined.



Police brutality, particularly on the part of MCSO deputies, has also been credibly reported and corroborated, both within the county jail and externally.



Fitzpatrick has visited the Knoxville office of the FBI on multiple occasions to relate the lawlessness of government in East Tennessee but been spurned.



On April 20, 2010, Fitzpatrick was scheduled for a preliminary arraignment hearing stemming from the citizen's arrest and his own subsequent arrest. From April 1-6, Fitzpatrick was detained in the Monroe County jail, an edifice he termed "the dungeon." A new "Justice Center" is now under construction and will include a new jail, Fitzpatrick informed us in our interview Sunday.



As related in Monday's article, Fitzpatrick visited the MCSO on Friday morning after learning that Bivens, who lost his bid for reelection in 2014, is again seeking the office of sheriff this year. Bivens served two full terms in that capacity between 2006 and 2014 and was therefore in office on April 20, 2010, when the Monroe County government seat and small town of Madisonville was teeming with federal, state, county, and local law-enforcement officers for no discernible reason.



For nearly eight years, Fitzpatrick and other eyewitnesses have insisted, some through sworn affidavits, that "nothing happened" on that day in Madisonville requiring the overwhelming police presence which included snipers on a number of building roofs, SWAT teams, helicopters flying overhead, pole-mounted gigapixel panoramic cameras, and bomb-sniffing dogs which were used on the person and vehicle of Darren Wesley Huff.



Huff left his Georgia home early that morning to attend Fitzpatrick's hearing. Several Tennessee Highway Patrolmen and other unknown police officers stopped Huff outside of Sweetwater (miles away from Madisonville) for allegedly running a stop sign, a claim Huff and other witnesses denied. The THP advised Huff to lock his legally-owned firearms in the toolbox in the bed of his truck before traveling on, which he did in their presence; the police allowed Huff to continue on to Madisonville.



As with many other individuals coming from out of town that day, Huff was unable to attend Fitzpatrick's hearing as a result of heavily-armed guards turning would-be observers away at the courthouse entrance. Every person there to attend Fitzpatrick's hearing was a law-abiding citizen. Many of them were military veterans.



Without bothering to approach the courthouse, Huff and a friend, former Marine Sgt. William Looman, patronized Donna's Old Time Cafe two-tenths of a mile from the courthouse, where they dined and conversed with others until Fitzpatrick arrived.



"No law enforcement official approached any citizen that morning for any reason. There was no reason to approach. Every expectant court-watcher conducted themselves civilly, peacefully, and courteously among themselves, in no way posing a threat by any description to other people or property,' Fitzpatrick recalled of that day.



No one was observed carrying a weapon of any type or kind. No arrests were made, nor were any individuals found to be threatening members of law enforcement or the community. Local media portrayed the event in terms of an averted catastrophe while providing no photographic evidence of anyone actually posing a threat.



On Friday morning, Fitzpatrick located a sheriff's deputy, R. Moses, who said he was present in Madisonville that day on the second floor of the courthouse in a lookout position. According to Fitzpatrick, Moses freely admitted to Fitzpatrick that nothing untoward occurred, terming the huge police turnout and preparations as "good for training."



The costs, individuals responsible, and logistical planning for deploying an inordinate number of FBI agents into Madisonville on April 20, 2010 have never been made public, as neither the FBI nor the U.S. Justice Department would release documents in response to The Post & Email's FOIA request submitted in March 2012. The FBI initially said it possessed no documentation about the event, while the Justice Department, upon our appeal, admitted that it possessed documentation but refused to release it due to "privacy" concerns.



Fully ten days after Fitzpatricks hearing, on April 30, 2010, Huff was arrested and charged with two federal firearms violations based on a sworn affidavit from FBI Special Agent Mark Van Balen, which contained a plethora of errors and perjured claims. Huff's public defender at the time, G. Scott Green, failed to call any exculpatory witnesses to Huff's trial, which ultimately resulted in Huff's acquittal on one charge and conviction on the other, but only after presiding Judge Thomas A. Varlan demonstrated what was a hung jury, sending them back to the jury room to secure Huff's conviction.



An inmate in the Monroe County jail at the time, federal marshals transported Fitzpatrick to the federal courthouse to testify at Huff's trial. However, Green did not call Fitzpatrick to the witness stand. Neither Looman nor other known eyewitnesses with knowledge of Huff's whereabouts that day were subpoenaed, while Bivens and Pettway testified against Navy veteran Huff.



Green is now a judge in Knox County Criminal Court.



Huff spent three and one-half years in federal prison, suffering significant financial and personal losses during that time. Toward the end of his sentence, he revived his childhood talent of color drawings of animals, insects and other items from nature, although it is unclear if he has pursued it since his release in April 2015.



Fitzpatrick termed the false-flag event in Madisonville "The Madisonville Hoax" for which he holds Robert S. Mueller III personally and professionally responsible as then-director of the FBI.



Fitzpatrick has long said that Huff was a "political prisoner" of the Obama regime. Fitzpatrick himself is reviled by certain of Obama's supporters for having filed a formal treason complaint against Obama on March 17, 2009 after Obama's army deployed into Samson, Alabama on a law-enforcement mission in violation of the Posse Comitatus Act.



Those same supporters long ago admitted to their role in The Madisonville Hoax by phoning in false reports to then-Madisonville Mayor Allan Watson's office claiming that Huff and Fitzpatrick intended violence on April 20, 2010. "Obama supporters sounded false alarms in government offices all over East Tennessee warning that I was coming in armed, with trained militias (plural) to take over the courthouse where my hearing was scheduled," Fitzpatrick said.



Also contended in Fitzpatrick's treason complaint was that Obama is a "foreign born domestic enemy," a reference to Obama's unknown origins, allegiance and nationality, questions which in some Americans' minds loom large as the result of a criminal investigation finding that Obama's "long-form" birth certificate and Selective Service registration form are undoubtedly fraudulent.



In relating his Friday encounter with Sheriff Deputy Moses, Fitzpatrick said that Moses's admission is the first confirmation Fitzpatrick has received from a public official, an eye-and-ear-witness, that, in fact, "nothing happened" in Madisonville on April 20, 2010.



Prior to his conversation with MCSO Deputy R. Moses, Fitzpatrick spoke with Capt. Chris White, who said he personally was not serving in the agency in 2010. Fitzpatrick related the events of The Madisonville Hoax, including the filing of Van Balen's false affidavit in federal court in Knoxville.



In response, White claimed that the MCSO did not have "jurisdiction" to reopen the matter. Fitzpatrick said he countered with, "This affidavit details alleged events that happened just feet from here."



White then said that a "statute of limitations" on Fitzpatrick's allegations might apply to his claims against Van Balen and Bivens for his role in it.



Fitzpatrick retorted: "Darren Huff and I are still demonized as 'domestic terrorists.' Darren Huff, an innocent man, suffers the burden of a bogus federal conviction to this day. These crimes are ongoing."



"I also told him about the DVD," Fitzpatrick said, referring to a training program in which he and Huff are depicted as "Sovereign Citizens" with the implication that they are violent and capable of murder. "That comes from what happened in 2010," Fitzpatrick said he told White. "Well, I haven't seen that DVD," Fitzpatrick quoted White as having responded. "I'll get you a copy of it; it's not hard," Fitzpatrick said he responded. "I didn't expect to be here; I'm here now because I'm upset that Bivens is running for office again," Fitzpatrick told White.



On Sunday Fitzpatrick informed The Post & Email that on Saturday, he mailed a package of materials to White containing:

A copy of the witness list from Huff's federal trial



A copy of Van Balen's affidavit



The Sovereign Citizen DVD



A hard copy of the FBI podcast "GOTCHA" bragging that Huff was sentenced to prison and CD of the audio

Fitzpatrick also sent the information to White by email, whose email address is on his business card, and to certain members of the Tennessee Republican Party.

A blog published by Susan Eisen that has columns on all the latest jewelry fashions, news, and store information.Fiesta Hermosa will be back for Labor Day weekend, but with a new local look, slightly different name9-11 anniversary honored Several ceremonies were held Saturday in Lapeer County to commemorate the 20th anniversary of Sept. 11, 2001.

Lawsuit dismissed, marijuana stays on ballot LAPEER  Voters in the city of Lapeer will still decide a Nov. 2 ballot proposal that will ask them if they want to prohibit...Xi term limit proposal sparks rare public dissent in China

Chinese President Xi Jinping reviews a Chinese honour guard during a welcome ceremony for a visiting dignitary at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing.

AP, Beijing :

In a rare public expression of dissent in China, a well-known political commentator and a prominent businesswoman have penned open letters urging lawmakers to reject a plan that would allow President Xi Jinping to rule indefinitely.

Their impassioned statements on a popular messaging app were circulated widely after the ruling Communist Party announced a proposal Sunday to amend the constitution to scrap term limits on the president and vice president.

In a statement Monday on WeChat to Beijing's members of China's rubber-stamp parliament, Li Datong, a former editor for the state-run China Youth Daily, wrote that lifting term limits would "sow the seeds of chaos."

"If there are no term limits on a country's highest leader, then we are returning to an imperial regime," Li told The Associated Press on Tuesday. "My generation has lived through Mao. That era is over. How can we possibly go back to it?"

Wang Ying, a businesswoman who has advocated government reforms, wrote on WeChat that the Communist Party's proposal was "an outright betrayal" and "against the tides."

"I know that you (the government) will dare to do anything," she wrote, "and one ordinary person's voice is certainly useless. But I am a Chinese citizen, and I don't plan on leaving. This is my motherland too!"

In a message that was swiftly deleted, sociologist Li Yinhe called the removal of term limits "unfeasible" and would "return China to the era of Mao."

Li added, however, that delegates to the National People's Congress, China's parliament, are likely to pass the amendment unanimously since "they aren't really elected by the people, therefore they don't represent the people in voting, but will vote according to the leadership's design."

It wasn't clear who deleted Li's message, but official censors have been working assiduously to scrub criticisms of the amendment from the internet.

An official at the information department of the congress' Standing Committee said Tuesday that he was not aware of the open letters. While Xi, 64, is broadly popular in China for his economic stewardship, muscular foreign policy and emphasis on stability, it's difficult to determine how the move to end term limits has been received overall.

Few Chinese dare speak out on political topics, even online, while the media are entirely state controlled and public polling on sensitive issues is nonexistent.

Analysts say the amendment could bring a degree of reassurance initially while leading to long-term uncertainty about Xi's intentions and the succession process. It upends a decades-long push for greater institutionalization and rule of law in the country.

The congress is all but certain to pass the constitutional amendment when it meets for its annual session early next month, at which it will grant Xi a second five-year term and appoint new ministers and other government officials.

Under the 1982 constitution, the president is limited to two five-year terms in office, but Xi - already China's most powerful leader since Mao - is seemingly convinced that he's the only one who can realize his vision for China and wants additional terms to see through his agenda of fighting corruption, eliminating poverty and transforming China into a modern leading nation by midcentury.

A simple thirst for power is another possible motivation.

Government and party spokesmen have yet to offer any detailed explanations of the reasoning behind the dropping of term limits. Nor is it clear whether Xi will seek to remain president for life or will only stay on for a set number of additional terms.

"The fact that this proposal was possible means that Xi Jinping's influence is growing," said Chen Jieren, a Beijing-based independent political scholar. "The party is recognizing his achievements in fighting corruption. People have confidence in and respect for his resoluteness."

But Chen added: "China is not Cuba. Through the past few decades, Chinese people have come to understand that no one should be in power for life."

Foreign ministry spokesman Lu Kang said Monday that the proposal "was made in accordance with the new situation and the practice of upholding and developing socialism with Chinese characteristics in the new era."

In a commentary Tuesday, the official China Daily newspaper mentioned the proposal to strip out language in the constitution limiting the president and vice president to two five-year terms, saying it was "necessitated by the need to perfect the party and the state's leadership system."

While Chinese censors have moved swiftly to delete satirical online commentary on the move, a range of opposition views continue to be shared. The Global Times, a newspaper published by the Communist Party, said "outside forces" were trying to challenge the party's leadership.



6 get life-term for killing student

Chittagong Bureau :

A Chittagong court yesterday sentenced six persons to life-term imprisonment and another to five years rigorous imprisonment for killing an SSC examinee.

Special Judge of Public Safety Tribunal Saiyda Hosney Ara pronounced the verdict convicting Mahabubul Alam, Habibur Rahman, Aminul Hoque, Milon Barua, Abul Kashem and Nurul Alam.The court also fined the convicts Taka 30,000 each, in default, to suffer one year more imprisonment.

The court sentenced Samir Das to five years imprisonment and acquitted Yunus, Abu Sayed, Monir and Selim of the charges.

The prosecution story is, in brief, that the convicts kidnapped and killed SSC examinee Subash Barua, 16,son of Dilip Barua, at Sattarpitua village under Patiya upazila on June 21, 1991. Victim's father Dilip Barua filed a case with Patiya thana on June 22, 1991.

2 snatchers held after gunfight

A Correspondent :

Detective Branch (DB) of Chittagong Metropolitan Police (CMP) arrested two injured snatchers after a gunfight on early Tuesday morning.

They also recovered a hijacked camera of an Asian University for Women (AUW) student from their possession.

The arrestees were identified as Sheikh Farid and M Yousuf, both received bullet injuries.

AAM Humayun Kabir, Additional Deputy Commissioner of DB police, confirmed the news to the journalists.

He said the gunfight took place between police and the snatchers at Ambagar area under Khulshi Thana.

Acting on a tip off, a team of DB police conducted a drive in the area's rail crossing at around 2:00am, Humayun added.

Earlier on February 21, some miscreants snatched AUW student Julia Davies' camera while she was travelling on a rickshaw with her father at Tiger Pass area.Members of Bangladesh Coast Guard arrested six Myanmar people with 3,00000 Yaba tables from Teknaf and Saint Martine yesterday.BD inches towards a prosperous country, lawmakers tell JS

Commerce Minister Tofail Ahmed on Wednesday expected that Bangladesh will be a poverty and starvation free prosperous country soon under the leadership of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.

"Bangladesh once was dubbed as a bottomless basket...but now it has become a role of development under the leadership of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina," said the minister while taking part in the general discussion on thanks giving motion for delivering the address by the President in the first session of 2018.

Tofail said Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman had two ambitions- one to make the independence and other to make the country poverty and starvation free a prosperous Sonar Bangla.

During the regime of BNP, he said country's foreign currency reserve was only US$ 3.48 billion and remittance was only US$ 4.8 billion, but now the foreign currency reserved reached to US$ 33.44 billion and remittance at US$ 13 billion respectively.

Apart from this, Tofail said the digital Bangladesh is no more a dream on Wednesday, but we expect that we will earn at least US$ 5 billion from the sector by 2021.

Quoting World Bank Vice President Kawshik Basu's comment on Bangladesh, the Commerce Minister said "Kawshik Basu visited Bangladesh and admitted that Bangladesh is now being followed by many countries in the world."

He added: "We already have passed India and Pakistan in many development indicators."

Bitterly criticizing the activities of BNP-Jammat government, the senior ruling party leader said BNP-Jammat alliance government had patronized grenade and militant attacks which had been repeatedly carried out across the country during their regime between 2001 and 2008.

Industries Minister Amir Hossen Amu said with the effort of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, the country is shining a dignified country throughout the world.

He alleged that a vested quarter is hatching conspiracy against the country as well as its leader Sheikh Hasina as they are not accepting the growth of the country. The government is establishing an industrial park at Gazaria for manufacturing drug raw materials, he added.

Referring to the Zia orphanage Trust case lodged against Khaleda Zia, he said the BNP chief had delayed the date of the case repeatedly and wanted to prove that the government is politicizing by imposing imprisonment to the BNP chief.

Taking part in the thanks giving motion, leader of the opposition Begum Rawshan Ershad said national consensus is very important for sustainable development of the country. "The present government is working to make a middle income one by 2021 and a developed country by 2041," said the opposition leader.

She urged the government for drawing more investment in industrialization for creating employment as nearly 5crore people are jobless. The government should simplify the investment policy for creating more investment, she added.

The leader of the opposition also bitterly criticized the ongoing question paper leakage scam and the mosquito menace which already hit hard the people.

The lawmakers also thanked the President for giving a timely speech highlighting the success stories of the government and guiding the nation towards peace, progress and prosperity.

Earlier, they paid a rich tribute to the Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman for his contribution to establishing an independent Bangladesh.

Whip ASM Feroz, who moved the thanks giving motion, also spoke on Wednesday in the general discussions where 232 lawmakers participated n the 64-hour discussions.



Non-communicable diseases and pitfalls

Jenny Lei Ravelo :

Ever since the World Health Organization last year announced plans to create an independent high-level commission on noncommunicable diseases, the global health community has been waiting to learn more. Last week, Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus released the full composition of the global commission, a powerhouse cast of public and private sector leaders. The announcement has some feeling encouraged as they prepare for the third high-level meeting on NCDs, expected to be held in September. But it also raises questions of whether this meeting will at last prove a turning point, moving from declarations and acknowledgments to action - even as the burden of such diseases grows ever higher.

Commission co-chairs include three presidents, Uruguay's Tabare Vazquez, Finland's Sauli Niinisto, and Sri Lanka's Maithripala Sirisena. Other notable commission members are former Botswana President Festus Gontebanye Mogae; Chilean President Michelle Bachelet; The Elders' Graca Machel; billionaire philanthropist Michael Bloomberg, who is also WHO's NCDs ambassador; former United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director and now Resolve President and Chief Executive Officer Tom Frieden; and Alibaba founder and Chair Jack Ma.

The presence of high-profile individuals in the commission gives advocates hope that more heads of state will participate, not just health ministers. This will send a strong message of political commitment to reducing the burden of NCDs and gives advocates indications on where NCDs fall within the agenda of heads of states.

Previous meetings have been a disappointment to some NGO leaders.

"In 2014, at the second U.N. meeting on NCDs, not a single head of government or state showed up. If that isn't a signal of political inertia, I don't know what is," NCD Alliance CEO Katie Dain wrote in a blog post in October.

Three years before that, the meeting was a "lost opportunity" in terms of galvanizing support toward the creation of a platform that would act as a dedicated fund financing NCDs work worldwide, according to Jose Luis Castro, president and CEO of Vital Strategies and executive director of the International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease.

"I think that was one of the lost opportunities back in 2011. When the United Nations convened the high-level meeting on AIDS, the Global Fund was created and countries have pledged to support the fund. So that was a major accomplishment," he said. "However, that did not happen in the NCD meeting."

He attributed this, most likely, to economies just starting to bounce back from the economic crisis of 2008-2009.

But he and others are hoping this meeting will be more than just a platform for empty declarations of concern.

"What we hope that this meeting accomplishes is that countries come prepared to show progress that has been made, and also make some solid political commitments, not just to make another declaration that this is a problem that needs to be addressed," Castro said.

This, to Castro, means countries committing to, for example, addressing the issue of commercial products that create harm to health and taxing or regulating them, as well as actually setting a budget to address NCDs.

A strong political commitment at the highest level of government can help unlock financing for NCDs, said Castro, pointing to the case of the Philippines where a "sin tax" on tobacco and alcohol has been used to fund public health programs.

Amid such hopes, however, there is real cause for concern.

In 2017, a progress report revealed how "uneven and insufficient" countries' progress have been in meeting globally agreed targets on NCDs. There are still a considerable number of countries that have not made much progress in developing their NCD national plans and targets.

NCDs also continue to receive little investment. While it's difficult to assess how much money is actually being allotted for NCDs worldwide, given the different contexts in which funding is being disbursed and resources are being invested, some statistics provide stark figures. Organizations such as the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation has put the figure at less than 2 percent of international health assistance. NCDs remains the most underfunded program within WHO as well - under $400 million - based on the latest and available data in its budget portal.

Some also continue to perceive NCDs as a lifestyle disease that do not pose threats to countries' national security, at least not directly.

"They are not," Castro said. "I disagree with that, especially when we start looking at countries and see the number of obese people, of people who are obese and develop diabetes, and then shortly after they'll have amputations. I think that's a disaster looming."

NCDs, according to WHO statistics, kill an estimated 40 million people worldwide, accounting for 70 percent of all deaths globally. Fifteen million of those deaths occur among those aged between 30 and 69 years old, covering mostly people of productive age.

Part of the agenda

Despite the momentum, most of what is to occur at the high-level meeting is still in discussion and preparatory stage, including the exact dates of the meeting.

But amid the uncertainties are some assurances.

The third high-level meeting will for the first time include mental health in the discussions, said Dr. Svetlana Axelrod, WHO assistant director-general for NCDs and mental health. And while it is not designed to be a pledging conference, Axelrod said issues on access to medicines and finance will be tackled by the high-level commissioners and likely inform the report they are expected to produce in time for the event.

In the lead-up to the meeting, WHO is also co-hosting with the government of Denmark a global financing dialogue for the prevention and control of NCDs, taking place from April 9-11 in Copenhagen. This, the assistant director-general said, will be attended by government representatives, civil society actors, and the private sector and help provide input into the high-level meeting.

"Of course one of the points to be discussed is mobilization of resources from different stakeholders. [In addition], we are inviting potential donors [but] as I said, we need to find the balance, because sometimes they are ready to give some additional money, but we want to understand how will it be realized and what kind of projects we can do together," she said.

"As regards the medical access, it's also important. As you know, we now have a new structure of the WHO and the new ADG for medicine access. We are discussing together and creating a common working group related to access to cancer drugs," she added.

How many heads of state will attend is unclear at this point, but the assistant director-general said having a back-to-back high-level meeting on tuberculosis provides huge opportunities to achieve high attendance, and bring attention to both issues of communicable and noncommunicable diseases.

Whether any specific commitments will come out from the meeting remains to be seen. However, Axelrod said that they are suggesting governments pay more attention toward multisectoral collaboration. "It's important that all stakeholders will be involved in the process of implementing the NCD agenda in the countries, because now we see that we have some problems on how we will collaborate with the private sector, the pharma industry, and we have to raise this problem during the high-level meeting to see how we can find a good balance between our collaborations with the government, and other stakeholders," she said.

The WHO director didn't provide concrete examples of these collaboration challenges, but she said that the U.N. health aid agency is starting to explore this and find solutions.

"We have already created the FENSA [Framework of Engagement with Non-State Actors], and we have another global coordination mechanism, which is also geared toward this kind of discussion," she said, noting they just need to explore further models of engagement with the private sector.



(Jenny Lei Ravelo is a Devex Senior Reporter based in Manila).BD doesn't need GSP facility from US anymore: Tofail

Commerce Minister Tofail Ahmed on Wednesday said Bangladesh does not need Generalised System of Preference (GSP) facility from the United States as the country will soon be elevated to the group of developing nations.

"We'll be elevated to a developing nation from the least developed one very soon. So, we don't need the GSP facility from the US now," he said while talking to reporters at the secretariat after a meeting with Japanese Ambassador to Bangladesh Hiroyasu Izumi. "The USA won't give us the GSP, no matter how much we achieve...now we don't expect it either. Our achievements are satisfactory though every year we give $ 900 million to the US as custom duty. I'll make the mater clear in the next trade fair where US representatives will be present," "Now the question of GSP comes with the European Union (UN), we shall demand for GSP-plus from them," Tofail said.

Referring to Japanese investment, Tofail said Bangladesh has signed many agreements with Japan and the country will make 100 percent investment in one of the 100 special economic zones of the country, the minister said.Nobel laureates tell PM: Rohingya repressors must be brought to justice

Describing the atrocities carried out on Rohingyas in Rakhine as genocide, the visiting three female Nobel peace laureates on Wednesday said the perpetrators must be brought to justice.

The three Nobel laureates-Tawakkol Karman of Yemen, Shirin Ebadi of Iran and Mairead Maguire of Northern Ireland-said the Myanmar government must be taken to task for committing genocide in Rakhaine and the world must take a stance against such atrocities. They said this when they met Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina at her official residence Ganobhaban. After the meeting, PM's Press Secretary Ihsanul Karim briefed reporters. He said the three Nobel laureates said it is a systematic policy of ethnic cleansing by the Myanmar government. "The international community should do something in this regard," he quoted the Nobel laureates as saying. They narrated the stories heard from the Rohingya refugees who have taken shelter in Cox's Bazar.

They said they are shocked to hear the atrocities on the Rohingyas as it is simply genocide.

They wondered how the world can remain silent. They thanked the Prime Minister and the people of Bangladesh for standing beside the forcibly displaced Myanmar citizens. They called Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina a 'kind mother'. They mentioned that Bangladesh now needs more international assistance for rehabilitation of the Rohingyas. The Nobel laureates said they met 100 women who were raped in Myanmar before fleeing to Bangladesh and most of the children lost their fathers. It is much more what the media said and the international community should act against it, they said. The Prime Minister narrated how the exodus of Rohingyas into Bangladesh started in 1977. She said Bangladesh has given shelter to the 10,78,000 Rohingyas, fled to Bangladesh after becoming victims of atrocities in Myanmar, on humanitarian grounds.

Sheikh Hasina said, Bangladesh wants to maintain good relations with its neighbours. She said Bangladesh already signed an agreement with Myanmar for repatriation of the Rohingyas. The Prime Minister pointed out that the foreign minister and the home minister visited Myanmar to end the Rohingya crisis.

Hasina reiterated her call to the international community to put extra pressure on Myanmar for solving the crisis. She also described how the influx of Rohingyas is affecting the local people and environment in Cox's Bazar. PM's International Affairs Adviser Dr Gowher Rizvi was present on the occasion.3 female Nobel laureates to Suu Kyi: Wake up or face prosecution

Three visiting female Nobel laureates made the demand at a Press Conference in a city hotel on Wednesday called on the fellow laureate Suu Kyi and Myanmar military to put an end to killings and the prosecution of the Rohingya people.

Staff Reporter :

The three female Nobel Peace laureates--Tawakkol Karman, Shirin Ebadi and Mairead Maguire - on Wednesday called upon Myanmar's leader Aung San Suu Kyi for an immediate end to the "genocide" of the Rohingya people.

"If she fails to do so, her choice is clear; resign or be held accountable, along with the army commanders for the crimes committed," said Tawakkol Karman.

Karman said this when the three Nobel laureates were addressing a press conference in a city hotel in Dhaka with the conclusion of their visit to Bangladesh on the six-month anniversary of the current Rohingya crisis that forced millions to flee into Bangladesh from Rakhine State of Myanmar.

"She (Suu Kyi) must stop turning a deaf ear to the persecution of the Rohingya or risk facing trial," Karman said.

The three Nobel laureates urged Suu Kyi to speak out about violence against the Rohingyas, often dubbed one of the most persecuted minorities in the world.

The laureates are calling on Suu Kyi and the Myanmar military to put an end to the killings and the persecution of the Rohingya people.

As the trio committed to peace, the laureates are urging Aung San Suu Kyi to exercise her personal and moral responsibility to stop the "genocide".

The Nobel laureates came to Bangladesh on Saturday and began a visit to the Rohingya camps to assess the allegations of violence against Rohingya women and the overall refugee situation.

The Nobel Women's Initiative, a platform of six female peace laureates established in 2006, organised the visit in partnership with Naripokkho. On Sunday, they visited the refugee camps in Kutupalang and Balukhali.BNP seeks UN support

Special Correspondent :

Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) has sought the United Nations' support to conduct a fair, peaceful and credible election here.

On Wednesday, BNP sent a letter to the UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres seeking his assistance to create pressure on the government to conduct the next parliamentary elections free, fair and inclusive.

Similar letters have been also sent to the European Union and the special envoy of the Commonwealth Parliament.

BNP's international wing forwarded the letters though the UN's Resident Respresentiave and envoys of European Union in Dhaka singed by the party's secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir.

Fakhrul in the letter urged the UN to play its due 'role' in reinstating democracy in Bangladesh and resolve the ongoing political crisis here.

In the letter, BNP also accused the government of jailing BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia in a false and baseless graft case citing it a conspiring to keep her and BNP out of the election.

It also urged the UN to put pressure on the government so that it sits in a constructive dialogue with major political parties in Bangladesh including BNP to overcome the current political stalemate over the next polls. BNP wants the UN send a representative to Bangladesh to broker the dialogue.

BNP policymakers did not say anything to the media officially about the letter. However, several reliable sources of the party confirmed the matter.

BNP Standing Committee Member Amir Khasru Mahmud Chowdhury told The New Nation on Wednesday night that a letter has been sent to the UN and other international community. But I did not see the context of the letter. When contacted, BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir and Convener of the International Wing Dr Inam Ahmed Chowdhury and member secretary Dr Asaduzzaman Ripon refused to comment on the letter.

BNP sources said the letter also highlighted the current political situation of the country, on next elections, Khaleda Zia's imprisonment, cases against Senior Vice-Chairman Tarique Rahman and other party leaders, human rights situation, extra-judicial killings and many others.

PM slams BNP for putting Tarique at its helm

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Wednesday sharply criticised BNP for dropping section 7 from its charter and making a convict its head.

"What will the party that accepts corruption as policy or support it in its charter, and accepts a corrupt leader work for the wellbeing of people? They (its leaders) can commit only plundering, killing people and corruption," he said at his valedictory speech in the 19th session of the current Parliament. The Prime Minister said BNP chairperson Khaleda Zia might guess before the court's judgment that she would go to the jail and dropped the section 7 from BNP's charter to pave the way for corrupt and convicts to hold her party posts.

"This means BNP has accepted corruption and a convict as its leader," she said. "Immediately after a person (Khaleda Zia) landed in jail after being convicted, another person (Tarique Rahman) was given the charge (of chairman of BNP), who is also a convict and doesn't stay in the country. The fugitive convict who stays abroad taking asylum was given the charge of the party," Sheikh Hasina said. She questioned whether there is any person among the BNP leaders who could be entrusted with the charge. The Prime Minister said Begum Zia might have realised that everyone among those who can be given the charge is facing many graft cases. "All are corrupt and there're cases against all." Mentioning that the government has nothing to do with the court verdict against Khaleda Zia, Hasina said the court awarded the sentence concluding the trial process of the Zia Orphanage graft case that continued for 10 years. "The greed for orphans' money can't be contained. What's the government's fault here?" she said adding that the caretaker government found out the anomaly and the Anti-Corruption Commission filed the graft case. The caretaker government carried out frantic efforts to detect any anomaly in the Bangabandhu Memorial Trust Fund, but found nothing. Now 1600-1700 students get monthly stipend and injured persons in the August 21 grenade attack get assistance from the trust fund, she added. Recalling that the caretaker government filed cases against her, the Prime Minister said she did not allow withdrawing any case, but ordered investigation into every case. "If any allegation is found correct in the investigation, I was ready to face the trial," Hasina said. Pointing out that now some BNP leaders are threatening the judges who delivered the judgment, the Prime Minister said, "Can't we call the thief the thief in Bangladesh and the killer the killer? Is it the lesson?" Claiming that that the ACC is now fully independent, Hasina said it can quiz any ruling party leader, minister or MP if it suspects that he or she is involved in corruption. "The ACC has already done it. We never interfere in the ACC's activities and won't do either."

"If any graft charge is proved against anyone, he or she must face punishment," she said adding that even ministers appear before the court if it summons them because they abide by the law, the court and the rules.

"We want fair politics to prevail in the country where people will exercise their franchise," she told the House.

The Prime Minister said her government will never allow that Bangladesh will be a sanctuary for criminals.

The PM went on saying: "When BNP was in the power, it had created militancy and terrorism. But, we want to make Bangladesh a peaceful country. We'll in no way shelter militants. We're also conducting drives against drugs." The Prime Minister thanked the opposition MPs for upholding proper democratic practices in Parliament. The present opposition, including the Opposition Leader, showed tolerance for the sake of fair democratic practices. Now democracy has taken an institutional shape now." Turning to cases filed against her during the caretaker government, she criticised caretaker government adviser Barrister Mainul Husein not mentioning his name. Pointing finger at him, Hasina said now a gentleman is talking tall talks. "He's a very qualified person. He mentioned in a TV talk-show that he is shocked as educated persons like him was called donkey by the Prime Minister in her remarks in parliament. Hasina alleged that this gentleman along with Bangabandhu's killer Huda and Pasha formed a political party named Progotishil Ganotantrik Shakti in the 1980s and spent tens of thousands of money for the party.

"What were the sources of that money? Now we have to hear talks about democracy from his mouth!" the Prime Minister said.

Before the formation of the last caretaker government, Hasina said, Mainul Husein had requested her so that he could be an adviser. "When we sent names for advisers, we also sent his name. But he arrested me first being the adviser and filed cases against me. He himself phoned me not to return home from abroad during the caretaker government," she said.





Yes, the decision belongs on the local level

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View ResultsThe best bang for your buck! This option enables you to purchase online 24/7 access and receive the Sunday, Tuesday & Thursday print edition at no additional cost * Print edition only available in our carrier delivery area. Allow up to 72 hours for delivery of your print edition to begin. Print edition not available for Day Pass option.Bahrain's Real Estate Regulatory Authority (Rera) is all set to launch its operations from tomorrow (March 1).



The kingdom's Bahrain's real estate watchdog will initially focus on the licensing of real estate service providers and off-plan sale projects.



The regulatory panel will be responsible for licensing all real estate professionals, including developers, brokers and sales agents, as well as all developments, including the advertising of off-plan projects, said its top official.



Rera's launch is a significant milestone in the kingdoms efforts to strengthen the rules governing real estate brokerage, property valuation, real estate property management, and owners associations and gated communities, remarked its CEO Shaikh Mohammed bin Khalifa Al Khalifa while speaking at a press conference.



The Rera, which comprises a carefully selected group of experts, will maximise coordination between the public and private sectors while accounting for the unique challenges of the domestic real estate market, he stated.



Shaikh Mohammed highlighted wider obligations and requirements, in particular those relating to the escrow account.



He highlighted the important efforts of the Government Executive Committee, headed by HRH Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa, the Crown Prince, Deputy Supreme Commander and First Deputy Prime Minister, in supporting the development of the kingdoms real estate sector, noting that the sector forms a key element of the Government Priorities Framework (GPF).



Shaikh Mohammed acknowledged the role of the committee in the establishment of Rera, which has been launched in-line with His Majesty King Hamads commitment to strengthening the kingdoms non-oil sectors in order to benefit Bahrain and its citizens.



He further highlighted that the countrys leadership, with the support of the government led by HRH Prime Minister Prince Khalifa bin Salman Al Khalifa, continues to prioritise the development of the kingdoms real estate sector as an important contributor to the national economy.



He welcomed the support provided by Rera board of directors, headed by its chairman and the president of the Survey and Land Registration Bureau (SLRB), Shaikh Salman bin Abdullah Al Khalifa, to the companys executive management.



Stressing that the introduction of enhanced professional standards was in the interest of all parties involved in the real estate sector and individual development projects, Shaikh Mohammed stated that under Law No. (27) all real estate professionals must obtain a Rera licence by August 31, 2018.



He said Rera was in the process of implementing international best practices in the field of real estate development, while ensuring alignment with the local market.



"Rera board is committed to supporting Bahrains objective of becoming a leading real estate investment destination, both regionally and internationally. By strengthening the regulatory framework governing the real estate sector, Law No. (27) will serve to identify and prohibit unlicensed real estate enterprises," he explained.



Shaikh Mohammed said Rera was committed to building a stronger real estate market and as part of that it will also be providing best-in-class training and development programmes for real estate service providers besides increasing professional standards within the sector to the benefit of all stakeholders.



"Enhancing the efficiency of the real estate sector is our primary focus, and we are confident that by safeguarding the interests of consumers, investors, brokers, developers and all stakeholders in the market, Rera will make an important contribution to Bahrains economic growth and increase foreign investment," he added.-TradeArabia News ServiceBritish group Wescott Industrial Services has bought a 50 per cent share in Total Access Solutions (TAS), one of the leading UAE-based rope access building maintenance and asset integrity management contractors, as part of its regional expansion strategy.



With this move, the Dubai-based group has now been renamed as Wescott Technical Services.



The purchase will enable Wescott to immediately access the lucrative Middle East and North Africa (Mena) market for facility management, fabric maintenance, oil and gas, petrochemical and marine sectors.



Wescotts business development director Mick Flaherty said: "This acquisition is a perfect match for ourselves as it enables us to trade immediately out of the Middle East without the delays and set-up costs most businesses experience  normally a painful six months process at least."



TAS, he stated, has a history of nine years in the UAE and has almost 100 fully trained Irata Rope Access Technicians ready and available to support contracts.



"Simultaneously, we are finalising a joint venture with one of Indias largest NDT companies to add more services to our offering. More importantly, this will add a geographical footprint opportunity throughout the Mena and Far East regions that will increase our exposure as experts in our industry," explained Flaherty.



"Our contribution is a structured business development campaign, operational excellence in project management and quality accreditations which allows us to enter all industry markets and gives us more scope for fabric maintenance and asset integrity management contracts, thereby adding value from all angles," said the top official.



"The new company will now be able enter markets with an aggressive growth strategy far beyond its expectations," he added.



A key player in the region, TAS have an enviable track record with several high profile contracts including a five year contract recognised as the single largest rope access-cleaning contract in the UAE requiring 70 men working six nights 52 weeks of the year.



Similarly the Ferrari World project required 160 men during the construction clean which included the entire outside roof (at the time this was the largest roof of any single building in the world), facade including the six iconic triforms of the roof structure.



TAS also carried out external construction clean of the IMG Theme Park, the largest indoor Theme Park in the world, said Flaherty.



"From the UAE, Wescott will now be targeting asset integrity management sectors in the Mena countries of UAE, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Oman besides India, Sri Lanka, Nigeria and Uganda but particularly Dubai itself as the country gears up for Expo 2020," he added.-TradeArabia News ServiceYusuf Bin Ahmed Kanoo (Holdings), one of the largest, independent family-owned multinational businesses in the Middle East, has appointed Khalid Mohamed Kanoo as the new group chairman.



Khalid Kanoo has a wealth of knowledge and experience, where he held many positions and executive roles within and outside the group, as well as in many boards of directors and government agencies.



He is the founder and president of the Bahrain Family Business Association. He is also a Board Member of several banks and investment houses, and chairs the Board of Trustees of the Yusuf Bin Ahmed Kanoo Award amongst many other leadership roles.



Welcoming the appointment, the YBA Kanoo Group board of directors in a joint statement, said: "We are grateful for the lessons taught by our late group chairman Mubarak Kanoo. As a family, we strive to continue to build upon his legacy in making our company one of the most respected and largest family-owned businesses in the Middle East."



"Khalid Kanoos appointment is a clear reflection of the companys future aspirations to be ready to take on our Vision 2020 program. He has been supporting the group in Bahrain, the GCC and globally for many years as a known and trusted leader both within the Group and the wider business community," he stated.



"He brings with him a wealth of knowledge, experience and dedication to the role and we know that his strong focus on compliance, transparency, governance and fairness will continue to serve our business well. We couldnt be happier with Khalid Kanoo taking the chairmanship of our board and helping our family, management and customers achieve continued success," the board members stated.



On the appointment, Khalid Kanoo said: "I am honoured and humbled to take the torch and continue to grow and nurture our family and businesses through sustainable strategies and sound leadership."



"Succeeding great fore-fathers starting with the founder Haji Yusuf bin Ahmed Kanoo and down to generations of extraordinary leaders who led the way through more than 128 years of successful entrepreneurship is both an exciting challenge and responsibility and I look forward to working with everyone in our family, our communities and business partners to bring further growth and success," he noted.



Khalid Kanoo is also a published author with two books, the first entitled "House of Kanoo" and the second "Bahrain Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the future challenges of the chambers of the Gulf Cooperation Council countries."



He has written many articles on family businesses, lectured and arranged several conferences and seminars on this subject in several countries from within the region and beyond, said the company in its statement.



He is also a visual artist who has taken part in many events in the kingdom, it added.-TradeArabia News ServiceThe Saudi British Bank has joined hands with King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) to launch the second phase of Taqadam program to support university-based entrepreneurs projects that includes 37 teams of students and faculty members from 18 Saudi universities.



This came after the success of the program in its first version.



Taqadam is an example of SABB's major initiatives in support of the Kingdom's Vision 2030 and an aspirations model to support the SME sector in the Saudi economym, said a statement from the Saudi bank.



SABB is providing financial grants for new projects and innovative ideas of the universities students and faculty members and turning them into an emerging companies with promising potential, it stated.



The Taqadam program supports initiatives in various fields such as financial technology, digital solutions, industrial solutions and food and water sustainability, it added.-TradeArabia News ServiceSaudi Arabia-based Bahri, a global leader in transportation and logistics, has accepted the delivery of Qamran, a Very Large Crude-oil Carrier (VLCC), bringing the total number of Bahris fleet to 91 vessels including 44 VLCCs.



The 300,000-DWT carrier is the third VLCC to join Bahris fleet this year, following the delivery of Kassab in January and Lawhah in February.



The new vessel has reinforced the companys position as the largest VLCC owner and operator worldwide. Built by Hyundai Samho Heavy Industries (HSHI), the worlds largest shipbuilding company based in South Korea, the new VLCC features a length of 330 meters and a width of 60 meters.



Bahri took the delivery of Qamran at a ceremony held at the HSHIs Mokpo shipyard in South Jeolla Province, South Korea. The carrier is part of the 10 VLCCs Bahri signed with the South Korean company in May 2015 in line with the Saudi conglomerates strategic long-term maritime growth and expansion plan.



The addition of Qamran to our already strong fleet is a new milestone in our growth journey and a true testament to the robustness of Bahris long-term expansion plans, said Abdullah Aldubaikhi, CEO of Bahri.



In addition to providing a significant boost to our efforts to deliver unprecedented growth and productivity in 2018, the new vessel will further enhance our maritime offering and enable us to expand our customer base by catering to the increased demand for crude-oil transportation across local and international markets. Further, Qamran has solidified our position as a leader in the global maritime sector.



Qamran has renewed our resolve to revolutionize the maritime industry through diversified and innovative solutions designed to meet various needs in the market. More importantly, it has further bolstered Bahris capability to continue our support to the Kingdoms ambitious initiatives such as the Saudi Vision 2030, and contribute to the countrys efforts to reinforce its pre-eminent position as a strategic regional hub and logistics gateway across continents, added Aldubaikhi.  TradeArabia News ServiceEmirates Data Clearing House (EDCH) a business subsidiary of UAE's leading telecom services operator Etisalat, has signed a contract with Saudi Telecommunication Company - Mobile Business Unit (Al Jawal), the sole GSM operator in Saudi Arabia.



As per the agreement, EDCH will provide a single point of support for STC - Al Jawal's mobile roaming facility, bringing simplified roaming, better utilisation of available resources, said a statement from the company.



"This agreement is proof of EDCH's growing reputation amonst regional GSM operatos," remarked Ahmed Almeyhas, the company manager.



"We have nearly doubled our client base in the last 12 to 18 months because GSM operators know they can expect the highest standard of service from us," stated Almehyas.



"The total number of GSM operators using EDCH's services is currently nearly 30, including operators all over Africa and the Middle East," he added.-TradeArabia News ServiceThe worlds most luxurious baby bed  clad in 24-karat gold plating and lined with Swarovski diamond-encrusted quilting  with a cool price tag of $60,000, is making its GCC debut at Index interior design exhibition in Dubai.



The Luulu bed costs more than a years rent on a two-bedroom apartment in the Burj Khalifa, but its designers already have a waiting list of well-heeled families desperate to welcome their newborns into the lap of luxury.



To be unveiled at the Index interior design exhibition, which runs from March 26 to 29 at DWTC Trade Centre Arena, the ultra-modern crib  manufactured by a team of yacht builders  has been designed to mimic the feel of being in the womb, while offering parents a chic, high-end piece of furniture to add to their home.



Billed as being the epitome of diaper-doting luxury, the gold Luulu  which takes 200,000 man hours to plate  is perhaps more suited to the highway than the bedroom, with its soft interior shell lined with the same leather as the seats of Maserati supercars.



However, partners Marta Buzalska and Dariusz Panczyk  who run Luulu from their home in Gdynia, Poland, where they produce three different cot-styles, the gold of which is the most prestigious  actually took inspiration from the cream of the high-seas in dreaming-up the concept for their slick sleep pods.



Marta explained: We came up with the idea while walking around Gdynia Marina, observing the exclusive yachts in the docks, while awaiting the birth of our baby boy Franek, and looking for an ideal cot. There were plenty of beautiful baby beds on the market, yet all of them were of the classic type. We wanted to have something exceptional, almost like the yachts themselves: a bed that would provide our sweetheart with security while looking good in our modern home.



It was from this rather unexpected source of inspiration that the couple got to work in manufacturing what they wanted to be both the most luxurious and most comfortable baby crib imaginable.



"When designing the cot we firstly took into account the needs of the infants born prematurely," remarked Marta. "We created a nacelle where a baby could feel like he or she was still in their mothers womb. We then thought it was important to have a cot that could be adjusted height-wise, and one that was mobile, making it easy to move with the baby inside to any spot in the house," she explained.



"Once we had the logistical side sorted, we focused on its decoration. Not only did we want to make it a beautiful space for a child, but we wanted a piece of furniture that would draw the attention of all who see it. With that in mind, we decided to dress it in exceptional materials," observed Marta.



Its interior is the finest quality leather imported from Italy, more commonly found inside Maserati cars. The quilted interior is seasoned with Swarovski diamonds to look like the stars in the sky, while the mattress itself is flexible, totally natural, ecologic and hyperallergic, and was made according to all binding standards and attestations, she added.



After completing their design, the specifications were given to a local shipyard, who specialise in the production of sailing yachts. Now, every cot is manufactured entirely by hand at the yard, using the same materials as the factorys most exclusive yachts. The Luulu beds mirror the yachts through their modern design, symmetry and elaborate details.



The golden cot, and its more reasonably priced black and white alternatives, will be making their Middle Eastern debut at this months Index, the regions biggest interior design event, in Dubai.



Show director Samantha Kane-Macdonald said: "Our greatest source of pride at Index comes from being able to bring all elements of interior design together, no matter the style, no matter the budget."



"We always have a packed sleep section and this year is certainly no different  but the Luulu bed definitely is!" she added.-TradeArabia News ServiceLockheed Martin said it has joined hands with Wahaj, a subsidiary of Saudi International Petrochemical Company (Sipchem) to set up a production unit for its Paveway II Plus Laser Guided Bomb (LGB) mechanical parts in Saudi Arabia.



The company today (February 28) has signed a teaming agreement with Riyadh-based Wahaj to develop the companys in-country production capability to co-manufacture the Air Foil Group (tailkits) for Paveway II Plus LGBs in the kingdom.



The agreement was signed at the Armed Forces Exhibition for Diversity of Requirements and Capabilities annual conference at the Riyadh International Convention & Exhibition Center.



"Today marks an important day for Saudi Arabia, as we make progress in the localisation essential to a strong defence industry. The team at Wahaj look forward to securing the best local talent to help us meet capacity of future Paveway II Plus LGB manufacturing, remarked Abdulrahman A. Al Saif, the chairman of Wahaj.



Paveway II Plus LGB from Lockheed Martin integrates an advanced guidance system to convert conventional gravity bombs into precision guided munitions and includes an enhanced guidance package that improves accuracy over legacy LGBs.



The three configurations of the Air Foil Group (GBU-10 [MK-84 2,000-lb/907.18-kg], GBU-12 [MK-82 500-lb/336.79-kg] and GBU-16 [MK-83 1,000-lb/453.59-kg]) include extending wings that provide lift and stability.



Paveway II Plus LGBs are cleared for use on US Air Force, US Navy and international aircraft authorized to carry and release LGBs such as the Kingdom of Saudi Arabias F-15s, F-16s and the Tornado.



We are dedicated to supporting the Kingdoms national security objectives defined in the Kingdoms Vision 2030 development plan, remarked Alan Chinoda, the chief executive, Lockheed Martin Saudi Arabia.



By the time production ramps to full operational capability, we envision localization to be upwards of 70 per cent, stated Chinoda.



Lockheed Martin has been a qualified supplier of Paveway II LGB kits since 2001 and has delivered more than 100,000 kits to customers, he added.



Established in 2013, Wahaj is one of Saudi Arabias fastest growing precision engineering company, with expertise in precision CNC machining, tooling design and manufacturing, structure assemblies for the aerospace, Defence, Oil & Gas and Power Industries.-TradeArabia News ServiceThe Arab Petroleum Investments Corporation (Apicorp), a multilateral development bank, has announced its attendance at Iraq Petroleum 2018 being held in Berlin, Germany.



The conference, now in its twelfth year, is one of the energy industrys most prestigious events, bringing together Iraqs oil and gas industry experts to enhance cooperation and integration within the international energy community  in an effort to support the countrys hydrocarbons sector and re-establish its position on the world energy map.



Apicorps chief executive officer Dr Ahmed Ali Attiga and Apicorps senior economist Mustafa Ansari addressed the conference that ran on February 27 and 28.



This years conference is intended to join together Iraqs senior Government Representatives alongside key industry stakeholders to drive the strategy for the year ahead in one of the worlds most important oil and gas markets. The Government of Iraq will highlight the new policies for creating favourable investment conditions for businesses to access joint projects with major growth potential in the country.



Dr Al Attiga said: With over 100 billion dollars being invested in Iraq over the next few years, were very excited to be a part of an event that promotes business in the country and propels its position as the next big oil and gas market.



Iraq is a member country of Apicorp and discussions are underway to explore opportunities for Apicorp to support and finance key investments in the energy sector with public and private sector sponsors.



Apicorp has a long-standing relationship with Iraq, and conducted several large-scale projects in the country prior to 1991. As Iraq emerges from its previous instabilities and seeks to rebuild its energy infrastructure, we truly believe that were at the dawn of a new era. We are delighted to rekindle our relationship with Iraq and support the country in its energy transformation, Dr Attiga added.



As Iraq has returned to a more stable footing, its government has made some progress with upgrading infrastructure and expanding export capacity. A significant portion of growth in recent years is also attributable to improvements in crude quality. However, more investments will be required in order to accommodate future output growth. Securing more natural gas and progressing with water projects will also be instrumental in the recovery and production of additional crude from southern Iraq.



Iraq is the second-largest crude oil producer in the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) after Saudi Arabia.  TradeArabia News ServiceStanding tall at 120 centimeters with sparkling, round eyes and a pleasant voice, Josie Pepper the robot will be answering questions for Lufthansa's passengers at Munich Airport's Terminal 2.



Whether they need directions to their gate or want to stop at a certain restaurant or shop  Pepper will give them a prompt answer.



With the rollout of Pepper, Munich Airport and Lufthansa are breaking new ground: It is the first test of a humanoid robot equipped with artificial intelligence at a German airport.



For the next few weeks, Pepper will welcome travellers to the non-public area of Terminal 2, which is jointly operated by Munich Airport and Lufthansa. In her initial deployment, Pepper, who speaks English, will await passengers at the top of the ramp leading to the shuttle connecting the main terminal to the satellite building. This test phase will be used to show whether Pepper is accepted by passengers.



Peppers "brain" contains a high-performance processor with a WLAN internet access. This creates a connection to a cloud service where speech is processed, interpreted and linked to the airport data. What sets the system apart: When this robot type speaks, it does not just deliver pre-defined texts. With its ability to learn, it answers each question individually. Just like a "real" brain, the system gets steadily better at combining questions with the relevant information to provide more precise replies.



IBM Watson Internet of Things' (IoT) cloud-based, artificial intelligence technologies are behind Peppers capabilities. Pepper was developed by the French company SoftBank Robotics. The lady robot was given the name "Josie" by the staff of Munich Airport and Lufthansa when she arrived at the airport. - TradeArabia News ServiceLeonardo Baiocchi, who was the general manager at Four Seasons Resort Dubai at Jumeirah Beach, has been promoted to the role of regional vice president, effective as of March 1.



He will continue to oversee his current home hotel at Jumeirah Beach, as well as extending his regional responsibilities to supervising hotels in Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Cairo at The First Residence.

Since early 2017, Baiocchi has successfully led Four Seasons Resort Dubai at Jumeirah Beach (a flagship property) as general manager. He arrived in Dubai from Istanbul, where he served both Four Seasons properties as general manager for five years. Under his leadership, Dubai has been continuously recognised as one of the top resorts in the world by well-respected travel authorities, including Forbes Travel Guide and The Gallivanters Guide.



Joining Four Seasons in 1993, Baiocchi boasts a wealth of luxury hospitality and management experience from wide-ranging and far-flung destinations including being a part of opening teams at Four Seasons Resort Chiang Mai, Four Seasons Hotel Chicago, Four Seasons Hotel London at Canary Wharf (formerly a Four Seasons hotel), Four Seasons Resort Sharm El Sheikh, Four Seasons Hotel Gresham Palace Budapest and Four Seasons Hotel Firenze.



I am very excited about my new role as regional vice president. We have exceptional employees across the region and a very bright future ahead. I look forward to working closely with the teams in my new destinations to ensure Four Seasons remains the leader in luxury hospitality, while continuing to uphold and support the success at my home hotel in Dubai, said Baiocchi. - TradeArabia News ServiceAccorHotels has signed agreements with a group of international investors, including Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund (PIF) and Gulf Investment Corporation (GIC), to sell a majority of AccorInvest's capital for 4.4 billion ($5.4 bn).



Under the terms of the agreements, AccorHotels would initially sell 55 per cent of AccorInvest to sovereign funds, namely the Public Investment Fund (PIF) and GIC; institutional investors, namely Credit Agricole Assurances, Colony NorthStar and Amundi, and others. For AccorHotels, the sale would result in a cash contribution of 4.4 billion ($5.4 billion).



Sebastien Bazin, chairman and chief executive officer of AccorHotels, said: These agreements represent a key milestone for the group. Following the separation of AccorInvest into a stand-alone legal entity last summer, we are now gathering a round-table of leading investors, on the basis of a valuation that fully reflects its global leadership and the quality of its assets, while building a long-term relationship between AccorHotels and AccorInvest. These elements were essential to make this operation a success for all stakeholders: teams, partners, as well as present and future shareholders of both entities. The entry of new shareholders and the deconsolidation of AccorInvest will provide AccorHotels with substantial leeway to enhance our dynamic growth and innovation strategy and create value for shareholders. For its part, AccorInvest will take advantage of its new powerful shareholders support, as well as a strengthened financial structure to execute its roadmap and continue to reinforce its portfolio of assets.



The AccorInvest hotels would be operated by AccorHotels under very-long-term contracts, namely 50 years (including a 15-year renewal option) for luxury and upscale hotels and 30 years on average (including a 10-year renewal option) for hotels in the midscale and economy segments. The management contract terms that have been negotiated between the parties are in line with market practices.



With close to 30,000 employees and operations in 27 countries, AccorInvest is a world leader in hotel real estate, with a current portfolio of 891 hotels. The majority of these hotels are located in Europe, in the economy and midscale segments. Of the total, 324 are owned and 567 are operated under fixed or variable-rent leases.



Under the terms of the agreements, the investors made binding undertakings to carry out the transaction and AccorHotels granted them an exclusivity, pending works council consultation. The transaction is also subject to certain anti-trust and regulatory approvals. It will be submitted to a shareholders meeting of AccorHotels for consultation. It is expected to be finalised in the second quarter of 2018. AccorInvest would then be accounted for using the equity method in AccorHotels consolidated financial statements. - TradeArabia News Service

Bangladesh's Regent Airways has launched the first direct flight between Dammam, Saudi Arabia, and its operational hub, Dhaka, said a report.



The new route, which is the result of an alliance between the airline and Riyadh Travel and Tourism Agency, will initially see three direct flights per week operate from King Fahd Airport in Dammam to Dhaka, said a report in Saudi Gazette.



In the near future, the number of flights is expected to increase, moving to a daily service, said Mansour Al Qahtani, chairman of Riyadh Travel and Tourism Company.



The route will be operated by Boeing737 aircraft and Bombardier Dash8 Q300 aircraft, the report said.



According to the schedule, the flight will depart from Dhaka at 9:15 pm and reach Dammam at 12:50 am while return flight will leave Dammam at 1:50 am and reach Dhaka at 9:45 am. All departure and arrivals are in local time.

Furthermore, the airline is preparing to fly to Jeddah, Madinah, Abu Dhabi and Bahrain in the coming months, it said.By Siddhant Mohan, TwoCircles.net

Varanasi police on Tuesday lined with the alleged intimidation practices and threatened Teesta Setalvad, a human rights activist, against conducting a workshop by Citizens for Justice and Peace (CJP) at Mahatma Gandhi Kashi Vidyapeeth in Varanasi.

The workshop titled Mainstream journalism in the age of Social Media was scheduled to take place at 2 pm on February 27, 2018, and Setalvad was in the premises to take part in the same. The press statement released by Citizens for Justice and Peace (CJP) over the same has alleged that the move is yet another example of bullying and strong-arm tactics for which the ABVP, the purported students wing of the BJP and RSS, has gained notoriety.

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CJP has further condemned the overt intimidation of free inquiry and questioning when permission was granted for the workshop many days before the scheduled workshop.

The mentioned workshop was being organised with the help of Student Union at Vidyapeeth which is dominated by socialist and Congress panellists. The university administration cancelled the permission granted to Unions vice president at the last moment, which resulted in chaos in the university premises. Organisers have also released a copy of the permission letter, which can be seen below.

Organisers have claimed that it was Monday, February 26, 2018, when ABVP first threatened to disrupt the workshop, but alleged threats were ignored and organisers decided to go ahead nevertheless. But University administration orally took back the permission on the day of the workshop.

Spectators and witnesses have reported that even before the organisers could reach the spot, a huge chunk of policemen, including the PAC, was stationed in University premises converting it into a war zone, said CJP as well.

Police tried to stop Teesta Setalvad, also the secretary at CJP, the moment she arrived at the university campus. Setalvad was surrounded by the police and stopped even as an inspector suddenly started beating and abusing students.

CJP has provided the names of the individuals who have been roughed by police for no reason which include Harish Mishra, Sooraj Yadav, Roshan Kumar, Gyanu Yadav, Ajit Yadav, Ravindra Verma, Ranjith Seth and many others. The police used force to push everybody out of the University premises. It is only after the police action that the ABVP students started sloganeering.

Thereafter, Teesta spoke to the to media the university gate and accused university administration of being partial in building up an education environment. The Vidyapeeth administration is in question since the month of January when it provided its university ground to Bharatiya Janata Party for conducting Yuva Udghosh rally, allegedly for the exchange of 42,000 Rupees. Congress and National Students Union of India (NSUI) have been questioning the role of the university since then for not providing an equal opportunity to every section of society.

Condemning the impunity of the attack, Teesta Setalvad said, It is extremely condemnable that the administration of an august institution like Kashi Vidyapeeth, inaugurated by Mahatma Gandhi (founded Shiv Prasad Gupt and Bhagwan Das) is today succumbing to an ideology that killed the Mahatma. Only days ago, another large university, the Banaras Hindu University (BHU) allowed the glorification of the killer of Gandhiji. A clear agenda is visible in both central and state universities where students, human rights defenders, those who speak for communal harmony the Constitution are intimidated by violence and threat, whereas a violent fascist ideology is given sanction. Kashi, Banaras and Indian belong to us all. They cannot appropriate our heritage.

It is very clear that ABVP feels emboldened to issue such threats because of the political backing and support that it enjoys, not just from the state government, but also from the Centre, said CJP in the press statement.

However, this is not the first time when UP police have manhandled Teesta and her associates. She has been detained previously on several occasions without assigning any reason to her, or to her counsel.By Ram Puniyani

The decades of the 1980s were a turning point in the history of the country. For the first time, an emotive issue like Ram Temple took the better of social issues related to economic and social justice. On the heels of the opening of the locks of Babri Mosque, Advani of BJP planned his Rath Yatra and in the aftermath of V.P. Singhs implementation of Mandal Commission report, the Yatra was intensified. The Yatra was the first major polarizing event in the history of the country and it left a trail of violence in its aftermath. The demolition of Babri Mosque and the consequent increase of the electoral power of BJP are too well known. BJP which had made the pretence of having the agenda of Gandhian Socialism, had bitten the dust at electoral level. Rath yatra came as a rejuvenating elixir for this party, whose electoral strength saw the steep rise to power with forming a minority Government in 1996, forming alliance Governments NDA from 1998 and then getting the full majority on its own in 2014 general elections.

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The formula of success for BJP has been well internalized by the party; divisive emotive issues, return of Lord Ram in election seasons, supplementing other identity issues like Holy cow, Vande matram, Love jihad etc.; have formed the powerful armamentarium of this party. As we are to face the general elections in a year to come, Lord Ram is being brought back to the social-political scene yet again.

This time around, RSS chief Mohan Bhagawat set the ball rolling with his prodding in Udupi Dharma Sanasad of VHP in November 2017. The cue was taken up by VHP and under the aegis of VHP and Muslim Rashtriya Manch, and yatra started from Ayodhya in UP to Rameshwaram in Tamilnadu. The organization convening the whole exercise is Shri Ramdas Mission Universal Society from Maharashtra. It is having the Rath shaped in the pattern of the proposed temple at Ayodhya. The yatras agenda is politically clear; its major aims reveals yet again as to what do these followers of Hindu nationalism aim at. Their demands include establishing Ram Rajya, a grand temple at Ayodhya, to include Ramayana in school syllabus and to shift the weekly holiday of Sunday to Thursday etc.

While Muslim Rashtriya Manch is an organization handy in for RSS to pretend as if Muslims also support it, the truth is that majority of Muslims by now realize that the religious minorities are being relegated to second-class citizenship, with all the violence around Beef, Love Jihad, Tiranga (tricolour) etc. Surely among the nearly 16 crore Muslim population, there are bound to have the likes of Zafar Sareshwalas, who will like to curry the favours from BJP for various reasons and blow the trumpet of ruling party. Lets have a look at the demands posed by the Yatra. As far as the establishment of Ram Rajya is concerned, the same Ram Rajya can be looked at in various ways. Gandhi tried to look at it in an inclusive way, by seeing the parity of Ram and Rahim, Ishwar and Allah. Ambedkar and Periyar were deeply disturbed by Lord Rams killing of Bali from behind and killing of Dalit Shambuk as he was doing penance, despite caste norms not permitting it. Ram projected by Advani-BJP-RSS is intimidating to minorities and has an exclusive approach.

Many a Muslim majority countries are having weekly off on Friday, on those lines, the demand has been put forward to have it on Thursday. What is to be seen primarily is that India is currently connected with offices worldwide, business offices will have better functioning in keeping with global norms. As far as introducing Ramayana in school syllabus is concerned RSS VHP again seems to have a narrow view. One recalls that ABVP, the student wing of RSS had created ruckus against the seminal essay on Lord Ram by A K Ramanujan, Three Hundred Ramayanas and got it deleted from the syllabus. This essay tells us that there are many versions of Lord Ram story. The telling of these diverse Ramayanas is at variance with each other. For example Ram story, Ramkin prevalent in Thailand, has Lord Hanuman, not as a celibate but a family man. The Ramayana prevalent in parts of Andhra has a version which is from the angle of women. Again Valmiki Ramayana and Tulsidas Ramayana also have some nuanced difference. RSS combine has a single version to uphold. So which Ramayana will be introduced?

As such the issues raised by this combine have no relevance to the needs of Hindus, despite the claims that RSS is for Hindus. What will social and economic goals be achieved by the Ram Temple or Ram Rath yatra? Will it solve the issues of Hindu farmers or Hindu jobless youth? Will this enhance the health and nutritional status of Hindu women and children? Will it address the issues of Dalits who are facing caste atrocities or will it any way help the women, incidents of violence against whom are rising by the day?

The yatra is being taken out at a time when Supreme Court is in the process of hearing the case related to land dispute where the Babri mosque was located. What signal does this Yatra give regarding the upholding the decisions of the Courts? The Hindu nationalists are diverting the social attention and resources in directions which relate purely to emotive aspects of dominant sections of society. Yogi Adityanath in his budget has given provisions for Ram Idol in Ayodhya, allotted money for celebrating Divali and Holi. A state where children have died due to lack of Oxygen cylinders such a budget is an insult to the concept of social welfare. Such Yatras are purely having political goals. If Gandhis Ram is asked what will he prefer to have at the site where Mosque was demolished, surely his answer would be to have a public utility like a Hospital or a University, and not his temple!A 24-hour international English-language news channel based in Istanbul, TRT World, has prepared the material on the situation in the Karabakh conflict zone and genocide in the Azerbaijani city of Khojaly - Khojaly Massacre: Tension rising between Armenia and Azerbaijan. On the frontline, war can break out at any moment between Azerbaijan and Armenia. Tensions remain high on the 26th anniversary of the Khojaly massacre when Armenian soldiers killed hundreds of Azerbaijani civilians.

They should withdraw their troops from the frontline and restore the independence and territorial integrity of Azerbaijan. If it is not done, the Azerbaijani army, which is the strongest army in the Caucasus, is capable of liberating the occupied territories under the leadership of the president, the Supreme Commander, at any moment," Major -General Hikmat Hasanov says.

The standoff over the Karabakh region has lasted over the three decades. The conflict has claimed more than 30,000 lives and displaced over one million people, mainly Azerbaijani.

"We want to give a message to the world that we will never give up our lands, we will always fight for them as long as we live, young and old," Governor of Khojaly, Shahmar Usubov said.

While a ceasefire was signed in 1994, it was only two years ago the two countries last fight over the occupied Karabakh. During four days of heavy fighting in April 2016, Azerbaijan managed to get some of its territories back and capture several strategic positions from the Armenian military. Hundreds of people were killed before both sides agreed to silence their guns.

In Talysh, about two years ago, a fierce fighting with Armenians took place. The line of contact between Azerbaijan and Armenia in no-mans land remains quiet today. But two years ago heavy fighting took place and Azerbaijan successfully captured strategic areas overlooking the Armenian military, " analyst Oubai Shahbandar said.

Despite the four UN Security Council resolutions demanding that Armenia withdraw, the occupation continues. We have seen no positive steps from the opposite side, we still continue our work because we do not want to have another war," MP Rovshan Rzayev said.

As diplomatic efforts falter, Azerbaijan has been rapidly modernizing its armed forces. The recent recovery of oil prices has allowed Baku to start spending more on its military, allocating near $ 1.6 billion on its military budget this year. The guns on both sides of the divided line in occupied Karabakh are silent for now. But that can all change, as officials in Yerevan and Baku remain deadlocked.Saudi Arabia's King Salman has fired his top military commanders and reshuffled his cabinet in a shake-up of key security and government ministries. Those dismissed by royal decree overnight on Tuesday included the Saudi army's chief of staff, and the heads of the ground and air defence forces. As Al Jazeera writes in an article "Saudi Arabia fires top army chiefs in military shake-up", First Lieutenant General Fayyad bin Hamed al-Ruwayli was appointed the new chief of staff, while Tamadur bint Youssef al-Ramah was appointed as deputy labour minister in a rare senior post for a woman in the kingdom.

No official reason has been given for the overhaul, but it comes as Saudi Arabia faces growing criticism against the military coalition it leads in the Yemen war.

The developments also come amid a series of changes led by country's 32-year-old Crown Prince, Mohammed bin Salman (also known as MBS), who has vowed to transform both Saudi Arabia's culture and economy. MBS was appointed crown prince in June 2017 when King Salman, his father, implemented a major government shake-up.

Mahjoob Zweiri, a professor of Arab politics, said that while many see a link between the Saudi reshuffle and the war in Yemen, the move signals changes to come within the kingdom's internal politics. "This development tells us one thing: the new king [MBS] is coming sooner rather than later," Zweiri told Al Jazeera. "It seems that he's setting the platform for his son to rule - we've witnessed serious changes to the economy, attempts to fight corruption and so on," he added.

Zweiri further explained that Saudi Arabia has a strategy it is following in Yemen and that a government reshuffle does not necessarily mean its policy in the war would change. Saudi Arabia entered the Yemen war in 2015 when it launched a military offensive after Houthi rebels took over the capital, Sanaa, and large swathes of the impoverished country a year earlier.

Due to the high civilian death toll, the kingdom has been under fire to alter its strategy in the war.

Commenting on the appointment of Alwaleed's brother, Zweiri said he believes Saudi may be trying to repair its image, after it launched an arrest campaign of royal family members, ministers and top businessmen in November 2017.

More importantly, said Zweiri, the government reshuffle is aimed at bringing those closer to MBS to power in a bid to promote "a new way of thinking".

Since MBS' appointment as crown prince, Saudi announced it would end its long-standing ban on allowing women to drive, and major economic reforms seeking to privatise the economy have been introduced.

"I think we are going to see more changes in personnel both within [the] military as well as civilian administration, simply because he is putting in his own people and he wants to project a certain image of the kingdom," James Dorsey, senior fellow at the S Raja Ratnam School of International Studies, Singapore, told Al Jazeera.

"One has to keep in mind that in effect the crown prince has changed the government structure of Saudi Arabia," he said, adding that it's a one-man rule as opposed to the past when decisions were taken by consensus.Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is on a five-day, four-country visit to Africa this week to look for alternative trading partners to make up for losses in the Middle East and persuade African countries to close down or hand over schools run by U.S.based Turkish preacher Fethullah Gulen.

As Ahval writes in the article Turkey looks to Africa, ''Erdogan is the world leader who visits Africa the most," Erdogans spokesperson Ibrahim Kaln said ahead of the trip to Algeria, Mauritania, Senegal and Mali. The visit will bring to 32 the number of African countries Erdogan has visited out of the 54 states on the continent.

Turkey has been trying to expand its economic presence in Africa since it adopted its African Expansion Plan in 1998 and has held two cooperation summits to promote trade and is to host another next year. Plans to expand business with Africa have received new impetus due to trade losses Turkey has incurred from war or political disputes with Iraq, Syria, Libya, and Egypt in particular, as well as with the Gulf countries, and North Africa.

A member of the African Development Bank, Turkeys total trade volume with Africa rose from $5.4 billion in 2003 to $16.7 billion in 2016, and to nearly $20 billion at the end of 2017. Some $13 billion of this was in exports, while the remaining $7 billion was in imports. Turkey has a trade deficit with the European Union, the United States, Russia, and China, but even so, exports to Africa do not even make up 10% of its total of $157 billion.

Algeria, the first stop on Erdogans tour, made up $5 million of Turkeys export trade in January, Mauritania $324,000, Mali $80,000, and Senegal $855,000, according to Turkish Exporters Assembly data.

Algeria decided to stop importing textiles, food, and some plastic products from Turkey in August last year. Erdogan will try to solve that problem first. Turkeys diplomatic ties with North African countries under Egyptian influence such as Libya, Tunisia, and Algeria have suffered due to Erdogans support for the deposed Muslim Brotherhood president of Egypt, Mohamed Morsi and Islamist rebels in Libya.

Another priority for Erdogan in Africa is the presence of hundreds of schools across the continent run by the Gulen movement that Turkey blames for the 2016 failed coup. With his trips to three or four African countries every few months, Erdogans goal is to purge what Turkey calls the Fethullahist Terrorist Organisation (FETO) from education, from the diplomatic and political relationships, and from the economic and trade arenas of those nations.

The Turkish Confederation of Businessmen and Industrialists (TUSKON), a Gulen-affiliated business group comprising 120,000 firms, was very active in Africa up to the 2016 coup attempt and used some of the profits to help build Gulen schools.

One of Erdogans top demands is to either close the schools affiliated with Gulen or to turn them over to the Turkish state-run educational organisation, the Maarif Foundation. So far, 11 of 113 schools have agreed to the administrative changes. After Erdogans visits to Senegal, Mauritania, Chad, Gabon, Burkina Faso, Sao Tome, Somalia, Guinea, and Niger, those countries also agreed to his request to turn over the schools. Outside of Africa, Pakistan and Afghanistan have made the same agreement.

Two years ago, when the Maarif Foundations Board of Trustees was first formed, Erdogan gave instructions in a speech at its opening ceremony: If they (FETO) say we are established in 170 countries, you then have to be established in all 193 member countries of the UN. Professor Birol Akgun, Chair of the Board of Trustees, replied: This foundation has the power of the people and the state behind it. We will enter the countries of the world like a dervish, like a raider.

The Maarif Foundations goal is to open schools in 20 countries each year, take over existing schools, and replace all educational staff. In addition to this, with the help of the Turkish Cooperation and Development Agency (TIKA), which supports economic investment and foreign aid projects, along with the newly-founded Yunus Emre Institute to promote culture, education and art, Turkey is looking to project both economic and cultural power. TIKA has opened offices in 11 countries, and the Yunus Emre Institute has opened cultural centres in six countries. Together with these two foundations, the Diyanet Vakf, an affiliate of the state Directorate of Religious Affairs, has also increased its presence and activities in Africa.

Alongside its economic expansion into Africa, Turkey has also increased its military presence on the continent, opening a military base in Somalia, signing a deal to restore a naval port in Sudan and agreeing to open another base in Djibouti. With its military cooperation agreement with Qatar and plans to expand its base there, Turkey will have an established military presence in the Red SeaIndian OceanGulf triangle.

As political disputes with its Middle Eastern neighbours sour trade and full EU membership becomes an increasingly distant prospect, it remains to be seen whether Turkey will be able to make that up with its quest for new markets in Africa.Several days ago, with the support of the Israel-Azerbaijan International Association (AzIz), presentation of the novel written by director and playwright Ephraim Abramov and poet Leyla Begim "Black Snowdrops", as well as Gunel Anar's "Karabakh Stories" was held in Prague. Yesterday, the Moscow Jewish Museum of Tolerance hosted the event dedicated to the Khojaly tragedy. Ephraim Abramov discussed the book about the Karabakh events in an interview with Vestnik Kavkaza.

- Is the "Black Snowdrops" novel about the events in Khojaly?

- We often emphasize that Holocaust is the history of Israel; I think that the events that happened Khojaly aren't even history, those are events of today, which we must remember, so that this tragedy will never happen again. President of Israel Reuven Rivlin sain in the UN that the events in Khojaly are a genocide. There's a phrase in the Bible - "Next year - in Jerusalem!" - and I hope that next year we will meet in Shusha.

I usually write love lyrics, poetic things, scenarios about love. Last year, a wonderful poet, playwrighter, my friend and co-author Leyla Begim, who lives in the Czech Republic, called me and said that literature contest on Khojaly topic was announced - it was times to 25th anniversary of those events. Leyla and I already wrote seven plays, one of them is dedicated to the Karabakh events. It's called "Dreaming Boys". It's shown in the Baku Youth Theater and has huge success.

All facts included in the "Black Snowdrops" are real, but we came up with plot line. The events take place in our days in Amsterdam. This is a story about 11-year-old girl, who was blinded during the events in Khojaly; 25 years have passed, she became a famous poetess, but she is tormented by nightmares, so she goes to psychotherapist.

At the same time, her brother - famous journalist - tries to show the international community that it's impossible to leave those who committed crimes in Khojaly unpunished, that it's necessary to bring perpetrators of that massacre to justice. He goes to London to meet with one of famous human rights defenders, but dies in a car accident.

Then psychotherapist, who turns out to be Azerbaijani, goes to London himself to finish what heroine's brother couldn't. Later, it turns out that someone tries to stop heroes of the story.

- Why all those events take place in Europe?

- There was an idea that psychotherapist should live there for a long time under a different name. This story takes place in Amsterdam, but right now we're thinking about shooting a feature film, and we decided to move the story to Prague. It'll be much cheaper. I hope Barrandov Film will support us in some way, help us both technically and with human resources.

This novel has already been published in many places, translated into several languages. It's published in English, Russian, Azerbaijani and Czech.

- Will you continue to work on the Nagorno-Karabakh topic?

- I'm afraid I won't. I just don't have enough emotional strength. Leyla Begim lives in the Czech Republic, I live in Israel, we're actively working together, and have already received hundreds of reviews. Many people can't finish reading this story - they begin to cry. Anton Pavlovich Chekhov said that if you don't worry about your hero, then no one will. Sometimes I try to read this story again, I think that maybe I would like to correct something. But I can't finish it, it's too emotional for me.

It will be very hard to continue this topic. But I promised myself that while I'm still alive, as long as I have strength, as long as I can, we'll make a film based on this story. There is already a group, we're all cinematographers; I hope that we'll be supported and financed.At least 2184 terrorists have been killed in Ankara's Olive Branch Operation in Syria's Afrin, the Turkish military said.

Since the beginning of the operation, 33 Turkish soldiers were killed, and more than 150 others injured, Yeni Safak recalls.

The Olive Branch Operation was launched by Turkey on January 20 to remove the PKK/PYD/YPG/KCK and ISIS terrorists from Afrin in northwestern Syria.The 'Kazakhstan-Russia: An Alliance Looking into the Future' international conference has opened in Astana today.

It is attended by more than 200 participants, including representatives of the leadership of the Eurasian Economic Commission, presidential administrations, foreign affairs agencies of Russia and Kazakhstan, key associations of entrepreneurs of the two countries, heads of foreign diplomatic missions in the capital of Kazakhstan, as well as leading experts and public figures.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said in his greetings to the conference that the ongoing integration processes in the Eurasian Economic Union and furthering of friendship between the people of Kazakhstan and Russia are important to Astana and Moscow, Interfax reported.Czech Foreign Ministry says it rejects any accusations of supporting terrorism in response to Turkish officials' statements.

It added that it didn't violate any international commitments by court decision to release former leader of Syria's Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD) Saleh Muslim.

"If Turkey requests extradition of Muslim, Czech authorities will consider request according to law," Sputnik cited the Foreign Ministry as saying.

On Sunday, Muslim was detained in the Czech capital. The decision to arrest him was made by the Interpol's office in the Czech Republic on February 24 on the basis of Ankara's request. But later a Prague court has released him.

Turkey said a verdict by a Czech court was political and "a clear support for terrorism". Turkish government spokesman Bekir Bozdag said the decision was against international law and would have negative impacts on Turkish-Czech relations and emphasized, that Turkey expects Czech officials to compensate for the "mistake" of releasing Muslim. He said Turkey would implement its legal rights on the issue.Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that "militants entrenched" in Syria's besieged enclave of eastern Ghouta are blocking aid and the evacuation of people who want to leave, despite Moscow's announcement of a humanitarian corridor.

Addressing the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, the minister said Moscow would continue to support the Syrian army in totally defeating the "terrorist threat".

"We call upon the members of the so-called American coalition to ensure same humanitarian access to areas under their control, including Rukban refugee camp and the entire territory surrounding al-Tanf," Reuters cited the top diplomat as saying.

Earlier, it was reported that the second humanitarian pause in Eastern Ghouta in Syria started with a mortar attack by the militants. Reporters working in Syria witnessed the attack. After 09:00 am local time (10:00 Moscow time), the militants continued mortar and small arms fire over positions of the government forces in the humanitarian corridor in the community of Muhayam Al-Vafidin.President of Macedonia Gjorge Ivanov will pay a visit to Azerbaijan in mid-March this year, the Azerbaijani State Committee on Work with Diaspora said in a message.

The Macedonian president will take part in the 6th Global Baku Forum to be held in March 15-18. He is scheduled to address a panel session on Chinas foreign policy, to be held as part of the forum.

The event, organized by the Nizami Ganjavi International Center, will be supported by the Azerbaijani State Committee on Work with Diaspora.Russia is dissatisfied with the remarks that UK Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson was making on the responsibility that Russia was allegedly bearing in connection with developments in Syria, the Russian Ambassador in London, Alexander Yakovenko, said after a meeting with the Minister of State for Europe and the Americas, Sir Alan Duncan.

"The main focus was given to Syria and the steps to be taken in line with the UN Security Councils Resolution 2401. We told the British side outright that we were totally dissatisfied with the statements Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson had made, claiming that Russia and some other countries bore the full brunt of responsibility for the humanitarian situation [in Syria]," Yakovenko said.

"We had a serious enough discussion of the situation in the field," TASS cited the ambassador as saying.

Yakovenko stressed that responsibility for non-fulfillment of the UN Security Council resolution lay on the militant formations, which were not prepared for ceasefire in Eastern Ghouta and kept peaceful civilians hostage, denying them an opportunity to get evacuated and shelling Damascus.The third plenary session of the 19th Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee was held on February 26-28 in Beijing. It approved the draft on revising the structural reform plan of the Party and state institutions of China, according to the resolution adopted following the session.

Earlier, its participants considered the draft amendments to the Constitution of the CRC, proposed by the CPC Central Committee. The leadership of the party proposed to remove the expression that the President and Vice-President of the People's Republic of China 'shall serve no more than two consecutive terms' from the country's Constitution. The proposal must be approved by China's parliament, the National People's Congress, which begins its annual meeting on 5 March but most expect this to be a formality. If approved, President Xi Jinping would seek to extend his presidency beyond 2023.

Also, the CPC Central Committee proposed to include Xi Jinping's proposals in the report titled 'Secure a Decisive Victory in Building a Moderately Prosperous Society in All Respects and Strive for the Great Success of Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era" to the constitutiuon. China's ruling Communist Party also proposed listing the new anti-corruption body, the supervisory commission, as a new state organ in the constitution, TASS notes.

In addition, the plenary session discussed the report of Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, to the 19th CPC National Congress.The international exhibition will feature collaborations with industry experts, as well as a series of complimentary professional seminars on green HVACR technologies and systems.

HVACR Vietnam, the most established international industrial exhibition in the country, will host its latest edition in Hanoi from April 18-20, after 11 earlier editions in Ho Chi Minh City.

The trusted exhibition for Heating, Ventilation, Air Conditioning, Air Filtration and Purification and Refrigeration(HVACR) technology and systems, organised by Informa Exhibitions and VINEXAD, is the ideal platform for international manufacturers and suppliers to launch new products, reach out to buyers, appoint agents and distributors, build brand awareness and establish business networks in Viet Nams booming economy.

Strong support from local and international exhibitors

This year, apart from local exhibitors, the event will also welcome international exhibitors from mainland China, India, Korea, Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey and the United States.

The Korea Building Energy Management System Association and the Taiwan Metal Industry Association are two international groups that will be present.

The China Pavilion will feature more than 40 companies presenting a wide range of HVACR products, with most of them participating in HVACR Vietnam for the first time.

Demand to soar in near future

Exceptional global interest in the annual exhibition has mirrored rocketing local and international demand.

Global revenue for energy-efficient commercial HVAC systems is expected to increase from $22.8 billion in 2015 to $47.5 billion in 2024, according to Navigant Research.

Viet Nams urbanisation rate is expected to increase to 45 per cent by 2020.With it, the cold-chain industry as well as the demand for air conditioning are set to expand considerably in the next few years, reported Vietnam Investment Review in 2017.

Gearing up to go green

There is also a paradigm shift towards energy efficiency and sustainable products and measures. Viet Nams Ministry of Construction has developed a plan to reduce energy consumption per square metre of development by 10- 15 percent compared to 2010 figures. It has also targeted 30 per cent of public buildings and 20 per cent of private buildings to achieve a green status, according to the Vietnam Green Building Council (VGBC).

In May 2017,the Viet Nam Real Estate Association signed a memorandum of understanding with property developers to build green buildings until 2022.

Experts say that the cost of a green building is only two to five per cent higher than that of a normal building, but the many benefits include lower energy expenditure, improved indoor air quality, enhanced home and office comfort, reduced air and moisture infiltration and increased durability of the property as a long-term investment.

As such, HVACR Vietnam will introduce a strong green theme in this years exhibition, featuring collaborations with industry experts, as well as a series of complimentary professional seminars on green HVACR technologies and systems.

Complimentary power-packed professional seminars

Throughout the three-day exhibition, a series of complimentary HVACR and Green Building seminars and technical talks will be held,hosted by HVACR Vietnam as well as its partners - VGBC and Vietnam Energy Efficiency Network (EEN-Vietnam).

EEN-Vietnam is a platform for partnership development and practical knowledge exchange between universities, engineers, energy users, energy consultancies as well as energy efficiency suppliers for the Vietnamese market, to deal with challenges on sustainable energy and adapt energy efficiency use objectives.

VGBC, an international non-profit organisation, was established in 2007 to raise awareness and lead the way for the development of green buildings in the country.

Seminar topics

The HVACR seminars as well as the Green Building seminars will cover a multitude of topics:

Topics for HVACR seminars:

1. Assessments of alternative cooling technologies by Steven Brown, International Institute of Refrigeration.

2. Energy-efficient solution to buildings with all-year round cooling demand by Li Xianting, International Institute of Refrigeration.

3. How intelligent control valve (energy valve) can help in saving energy by Alvin Chan, BELIMO Automation AG, Switzerland.

Topics for Green Building seminars:

1. Dedicated outdoor air systems for green buildings by Umang Sharma, Director & CEO of Bry-Air Malaysia.

2. Designing a building facade with parametric dynamic simulations by Pedro Marques, Manager, R&D Consulting of Boydens Engineering.

3. Technology challenges and opportunities in energy efficiency for buildings and communities by IES VE (Singapore).

All participants who pre-register for the seminars will receive a certificate of attendance; interested parties can register on the official website of HVACR.

New B2B online meeting system

As an added value to exhibitors and buyers, the organizers of HVACR Vietnam 2018 will launch a B2B online meeting system, where both parties will be able to make appointments online before the show and later conduct one-to-one business meetings at the exhibitors stand during the three-day show at the agreed date and time.

This will give an opportunity to the exhibitors and buyers to find potential clients, locate investment opportunities, forge lucrative partnerships, broaden their business network, as well as share and exchange knowledge.

This complimentary service is available to buyers from Hanoi and other Vietnamese cities. Interested buyers can register for this service at https://www.hvacrseries.com/vietnam/, where they will receive a curated list of participants based on their interests. A human concierge will be available to help maximise the attendance value.

HVACR Vietnam 2018 will be held from April 18-20 at the National Exhibition Construction Center in Hanoi.

Visit www.hvacrseries.com/vietnam for more information.Viet Nam Southern Food Corporation (Vinafood 2) will make the first IPO on March 14. The corporation will auction 114.8 million shares, an equivalent to 23 per cent of its charter capital of VN5 trillion. Photo cafef.vn

HA NOI  Three State-owned enterprises (SOEs) will make initial public offerings (IPOs) in March, floating VN2.5 trillion (US$110 million) worth of stakes in the market in the second wave of SOEs IPOs in 2018.

This value is more modest compared to the total VN26 trillion ($1.15 billion) IPOs of five large SOEs in January and early February.

Viet Nam Southern Food Corporation (Vinafood 2) is the biggest company and will make the first IPO on March 14. The corporation will auction 114.8 million shares, an equivalent to 23 per cent of its charter capital of VN5 trillion.

At the minimum bidding price of VN10,100 per share, the State is expected to collect at least VN1.16 trillion from this share sale.

The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development will hold 51 per cent of the companys capital after the IPO and about 25 per cent will be offered to strategic investors in a later move. Only 1 per cent of the capital will be sold to employees.

Only T&T Group has so far filed documents to become Vinafoods strategic investor, but the company operates mainly in real estate, finance, industry and import-export trading market segments.

Vinafood plays a key role in exporting Vietnamese rice. In the first half of 2017, the company earned VN4.43 trillion in revenue but reported a loss of VN118 billion.

The second-biggest company to hold an IPO is Binh Duong Manufacturing & Import Export Corp (Protrade Corp) with 30 million shares, or 10 per cent of its charter capital of VN3 trillion, on offer in its public share sale on March 28.

The starting price for auction will be VN12,000 a share, bringing the State budget at least VN360 billion if all shares are sold.

This is the third company from Binh Duong that has conducted an IPO in recent times. Petrol dealer Thanh Le General Import-Export Trading Corporation (Thalexim) and Investment and Industrial Development Corporation (Becamex IDC) made IPOs in the last quarter of 2017.

Only Thalexim sold all of its share offerings while Becamex IDC sold only 7.7 per cent of its shares in two auctions.

Ha Noi Trade Corporation (Hapro) is the last company to make an IPO on March 30 on the Ha Noi Stock Exchange. The company will float nearly 76 million shares, or 34.51 per cent of its charter capital at the minimum bidding price of VN12,800 per share.

At this price, the company is valued at almost VN2.82 trillion, higher than its charter capital of VN2.2 trillion. The successful sale will bring the company at least VN971 billion.

The State will not hold Hapros capital after the equitisation and about 65 per cent of its stakes will be sold to strategic investors.

Hapro has over 40 member companies with presence in over 70 countries and territories. The IPO is expected to draw many investors as the company owns many commercial premises in prime locations in major cities and provinces.

In 2017, the companys revenue declined 17 per cent year-on-year to VN1.93 trillion. Its profit was also modest at just VN11 billion, equivalent to one-sixth of the 2016s figure.

After three successful IPOs in Januaryof Binh Son Refining and Petrochemical, PV Power and PV Oilthe two latest IPOs of Viet Nam Rubber Group and EVN Generation Corporation 3 have failed to attract investor attention. Thus, the outlook for the next three IPOs is uncertain in the context of the volatile stock market.  VNSHA NOI  The Government will not use public funds to rescue 12 loss-making projects under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT), Deputy Prime Minister Vuong inh Hue said.

He told the ministry on Monday that no additional capital would be provided for these projects and that any further measures to deal with them must be based on market principles. Those which could not be handled would be strictly punished.

Thanks to the efforts from the Viet Nam National Oil and Gas Group (PetroVietnam) and projects of the Viet Nam National Chemical Group (Vinachem), like DAP inh Vu, theyve started to report profit. Viet-Trung Steel Company reported profit in 2017 after prolonged losses in years, he said.

In addition, the deputy PM asked members of the steering committee to clarify difficulties and shortcomings in resolving disputes of engineering-procurement-construction (EPC) agreements with contractors as well as financial issues in order to continue implementing projects in 2018.

Hue said that it was still too early to take such positive results for granted and the challenges remain enormous, so much more effort would be needed to achieve the goal of bringing about fundamental changes to these projects.

He urged the ministry to improve productivity by applying technological innovations and slashing overcapacity.

According to MoITs deputy minister Hoang Quoc, progress has been made in restructuring these big-ticket projects and some have returned to profitability while some have significantly reduced their losses.

At the same time, a number of projects have resumed operation after long periods of delay and suspension.

Bio-fuel plants of PetroVietnam resumed operation and will have consumption products in March. Petrochemical and Textile Fibre Joint Stock Company (PVTex) will resume production at its fibre production factory next month as it signed a contract to sell fibre for local companies.

PetroVietnams general director Nguyen Vu Truong Son said it would take three to six months to resume all operations of PVTex. Currently, PVTexs partners expected that the Government committed to ensuring their rights in the co-operation process, applying technical barriers for polyester imports and ensuring a stable electricity source at inh Vu Industrial Zone.

Deputy minister Vuong said Dung Quat Shipyard Company (DQS) was hiring a unit to implement an audit of its EPC contracts. DQS has been liquidating its unnecessary assets.

He said Vinachems DAP inh Vu Plant had profits of VN16 billion in 2017 and VN66 billion in the first two months of the year.

The plant reported profit after prolonged losses thanks to enhanced administration and reduced production costs.

Vinachems three plants of DAP Lao Cai, Ninh Binh Fertiliser and Ha Bac Fertiliser have maintained production and had higher selling prices, reducing losses.

The Steel Corporation is building the divestment plan at Thai Nguyen Iron and Steel Corporation (TISCO) and seeking approval from the MoIT. It is expected to divest capital from the company in 2018.

At a National Assembly session in December last year, minister of Industry and Trade Tran Tuan Anh said that the handling of these 12 loss-making projects was on the right track and pledged to provide radical solutions to their problems by 2020.

On Tuesday, the supervision team of the National Assembly on implementation of policies and laws on using of State capital and assets at State-owned enterprises (SOEs) and their privatisation in 2011-16 had a meeting with the Government.

The team will supplement and complete the report and submit it to the NAs Standing Committee in April before issuing the supervision resolution at the NA meeting in May.

Minister of Finance inh Tien Dung said the equity scale at wholly State-owned firms had been increased.

The total State equity in 2016 rose by 92 per cent to VN1.39 quadrillion while the total assets rose by 46 per cent to VN3.05 quadrillion from 2011.

However, the production effectiveness of SOEs has been low due to the world economic crisis in 2011-13 period. In 2014-15 period, the SOEs fared better. However, by the end of 2016, there were still SOEs with losses.

Ministries, sectors and SOEs paid attention to sell shares for strategic investors after privatisation. Administration after privatisation has been improved, promoting the development of the stock market and production effectiveness.

Results of 350 SOEs after privatisation in 2015 showed that their average pre-tax profit rose by 49 per cent, State budget contribution 27 per cent, charter capital 72 per cent, revenue 29 per cent and income per capita 33 per cent.  VNS

The National Assembly, in a resolution in November 2016, named five projects that need to be reviewed, including the inh Vu Polyester Fibre Plant, with an investment of VN7 trillion (US$311 million) from PetroVietnam; PVTex; the VN2.2 trillion Dung Quat Bio-Ethanol Plant by PetroVietnam Central Biofuels JSC; Phase 2 of Thai Nguyen Iron and Steel Corporations (TISCO) production expansion project with capital of VN8 trillion, Phuong Nam Paper Mill and Ninh Binh Fertiliser Plant.

The Government also asked the ministry to add seven other projects that have incurred huge losses.

The other projects under the scanner are Ha Bac Fertiliser, DAP Fertiliser 1 Lao Cai, DAP Fertiliser 2 Hai Phong, Binh Phuoc Ethanol, Phu Tho Ethanol, Dung Quat Shipyard and the joint venture between Quy Sa Mine and Lao Cai Cast Iron and Steel Plant. All of these projects have suffered because of bad investment and management decisions by project owners, who are enterprises, groups and corporations under the ministry.HA NOI  The rate of the US dollar continued to soar at local commercial banks on Wednesday.

Vietcombank increased the rate by VN15 against Tuesday, listing the rate at VN22,720 and VN22,790 for buying and selling, respectively.

At BIDV, the US dollar is being traded at VN22,715 and VN22,785, an increase of VN10 in both buying and selling rate compared to February 27.

The green back is being bought at Vietinbank at VN22,712 and sold at VN22,782, both up by VN5.

State Bank of Viet Nam set the daily reference exchange rate at VN22,463 per US dollar on Wednesday, up by VN15 from the previous day. With the current trading band of +/- three per cent, the ceiling rate applied to commercial banks during the day is VN23,136 per US dollar and the floor rate is VN21,792 per US dollar. The opening hour rates at commercial banks continued to rise for another day.

Gold prices fall sharply

Gold prices slumped in the Vietnamese market on Wednesday morning.

The buying and selling price of SJC gold at Sai Gon Jewellery Holdings Co. touched VN36.64 million per tael and VN36.82 million per tael respectively, a fall of VN130,000 per tael and VN120,000 per tael on Wednesday morning compared to the previous session.

In the Ha Noi market, selling price of one tael of gold, or 1.205 ounces, of State-owned SJC declined by VN190,000 to VN36.75 million.

Doji Gold and Jewellery Corporation listed its selling price at VN36.78 million per tael and VN37.08 million per tael, respectively. This is a slight decrease of VN20,000 per tael and VN10,000 per tael compared to the previous session.  VNSHCM CITY  VinaCapital Vietnam Opportunity Fund (VOF), the flagship fund of VinaCapital, has invested US$32.5 million to acquire a significant minority stake in Ba Huan JSC.

VOF may also invest a moderate amount of additional capital during the next 12 months as it delivers on mutually agreed-upon milestones, the company said in its statement.

This private equity investment is consistent with our strategy of focusing on companies operating in the sectors of the economy benefitting from strong domestic growth. Vietnamese food and beverage companies in particular have tremendous growth opportunities ahead of them as consumers spend more on high-quality and healthy products, said Andy Ho, managing director of VOF.

Ho said Ba Huan has become one of the strongest fresh food brands in Viet Nam and the companys growth is due to its reputation for producing high-quality and safe foods.

We look forward to working with Ba Huans management team to help implement new management practices, improve governance, and otherwise help take the company to the next stage of growth, he added.

With a stake of more than 30 per cent in the pasteurised egg market, Ba Huan is a well-known name to Vietnamese consumers. The company operates two fully enclosed industrial poultry farms in the two southern provinces of Binh Duong and Long An.

Each day, Ba Huan supplies over 1.7 million eggs, delivers over 15,000 chickens, and processes over 25 tonnes of fresh poultry meat.

In 2018, the company expects revenue to surpass $90 million.

According to Poultry World, egg consumption is on the rise in Viet Nam, with both chicken and duck eggs high in popularity. Chicken consumption is also increasing, growing at a compound annual growth rate of 8.6 per cent, according to DBS Bank, and local producers have struggled to meet demand.  VNSHA NOI  The Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers (VASEP) will further help Viet Nam overcome the European Commissions illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing (IUU) yellow card on Vietnamese fisheries.

For this purpose, it has asked the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) and the Directorate of Fisheries (DoF) to review the implementation of their tasks and activities

VASEP wanted to collaborate with DoF to organise a conference to assess the shortcomings and difficulties faced by sector, suggesting some immediate measures to overcome the IUU yellow card in February and March this year.

VASEP also proposed that the VASEP IUU Steering Committee join the MARDs working visits to the European Union (EU) and South Korea, and share information and coordinate the handling of the catch certification (c/c) requirements of IUU and EU.

The association will actively coordinate with the DoF in the translation and revision work of the language (English) of the reports or legal documents to conduct relevant works during the "yellow card" period.

The seafood enterprises in VASEPs Commitment Against IUU Fishing Programme have simultaneously hung the commitment to combat IUU fishing (at the gate of the plant), saying they will not purchase, process or export with raw materials originating from IUU fishing.

To follow up on this effect, VASEP has proposed that MARD issue a written directive to the provinces, cities and DoF for propaganda and communication against IUU exploitation.

On October 23 last year, the EC decided to issue a yellow card warning against Vietnamese seafood, on the grounds that Viet Nam was not doing enough to combat IUU fishing.

According to the roadmap, Viet Nam will have six months to implement solutions to overcome the problem, according to the recommendations of the EU.

The EU will evaluate in April 2018 the implementation of policies by Viet Nam to overcome IUU fishing.  VNSLONDON  A British winemaker has begun making sparkling wine in pint-sized bottles, preparing for a post-Brexit future in which the imperial measure favoured by wartime prime minister Winston Churchill could make its return.

Rathfinny Estate, which was founded in 2010, has already laid down more than 800 pint bottles with its 2015 Blanc de Noirs which will be ready for drinking next year, it said in a statement on Tuesday.

"It is such a perfect size  you get four proper glasses from it  as opposed to six from a full bottle, which is often too much for a couple," said Mark Driver, co-owner of the winery.

Pint-sized bottles of Pol Roger champagne were reportedly Churchills favourite tipple.

He once said that his wife Clementine complained that "a full bottle is too much for me" and half a bottle "is insufficient to tease my brains" while a pint was "enough for two at lunch and one at dinner".

EU rules currently limit sparkling wine sales to bottles containing 375 millilitres, 750 ml or multiples of 750 ml and Rathfinny said its bottles would be 500 ml  slightly less than a traditional imperial pint.

Britain is set to leave the bloc on March 29, 2019 but drinkers eager to get their hands on the new bottles may have to be patient because EU rules are likely to remain in place during a post-Brexit transition period.

"Even though the Rathfinny pint will be ready next year, it is unlikely the pint bottles will be on sale before 2021," the winery said in its statement.

"No matter what your thoughts on leaving the EU, one benefit will be the ability to sell sparkling wine in a pint-sized bottle," Driver said.  AFPHA NOI  Le inh Qua, 37, was born in a farmer family in suburban Ha Noi.

His parents are not well-off, but they tried their best to help Qua study in the hope he would have better future than them.

Qua graduated from university and enrolled in the Agricultural Science Institute for Coastal South Central Viet Nam.

Qua then married Le Thi Thanh Thuy, from the central province of Quang Binh, also a worker of the institute. They have a house in Quy Nhon City, the central province of Binh inh and two children.

Qua received a masters degree in 2015 and the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR) Viet Nam Project agreed to grant him scholarship to study for a PhD degree in Australia.

But, in the beginning of 2016, Qua and his wife shockingly decided to sell their house in Quy Nhon City to come to his wifes hometown in Hoa Trach Commune, Bo Trach District to grow safe vegetables.

Le Thi Loi, Quas mother, said, I was panic-stricken when hearing the news, and immediately went to Quang Binh Province.

Loi pitied Qua and his wife, Thuy, who worked hard all day on their 2.5-hectare field.

It is their decision, so I must please them, she said.

Qua told Tien Phong, To make the decision, my wife and I thought carefully after seeing the meals of many families are affected by pesticides. We wanted to do something to help the community and also help ourselves.

Toward safe agriculture

Upon returning to Thuys hometown, they faced a lot of challenges.

All of the nearly VN600 million (US$26,600) from selling their house in Quy Nhon City was enough to buy a 2.5-hectare field in Quang Binh, far from any housing.

Seeing gravels, rocks and stones around, I felt discouraged. When my hands bled as I didnt know how to use a hoe, I burst into tears, said Thuy.

But then I thought about my husbands back being full of sweat on sunny days, I was determined to help him realise his dream, she said.

Overcoming obstacles, Qua and Thuy successfully set up a vegetable farm without using fertilisers or pesticide.

Qua said, Planting safe and clean vegetables, I face a lot of risks and farm productivity is lower. Expenses for net systems and biological traps to prevent insects are high. But on the other hand, the products are safe for everybody, especially children.

It is difficult to plant vegetables on hard soil, and it is even much more difficult to sell them. At first, many people did not believe that the vegetables did not use fertiliser or pesticides. Qua and Thuy went to schools hoping teachers would understand more about safe vegetables and food safety and hygiene.

Qua and his wife also invited principals of schools to visit their farms. Soon, orders for safe vegetables from schools increased.

Selling vegetables in schools is not only work, but also a joy, said Thuy.

The profit is not much, but thinking that the students can use safe and clean vegetables, we work harder, she said.

Thuy hopes that afterwards, their products will supply kitchens of hospitals, as it will be good nutrition for patients.

When the vegetables have a stable position in the local market, Qua and Thuy intend to guide local farmers to plant safe vegetables towards safe agriculture for future generations.

Qua also plans to research planting safe vegetables on hard soil in Quang Binh Province, hoping to expand the model.  VNSBy Linh Giang

HA NAM  Tran Quang Dung, 36, has been paralysed since an illness when he was 2 years old. But he has not only survived and thrived with his disabilityhe has also provided support to disadvantaged people thanks in part to a cherished role model.

Dung, from the northern province of Ha Nam s Duy Tien District, said his childhood was spent inside his house, watching friends who were the same age go to school and play. Recalling the past time, he felt sad and couldnt hold back tears.

Though Dungs grandfather was a well-known herbalist and the best medicine had been applied for him, his condition did not improve.

One day, he was told the story of teacher Nguyen Ngoc Ky who suffered paralysis in both arms after illness as a child. Against all odds, Ky became a good student and taught himself to write with his feet. He triumphed in his career as an educator. He was granted the title of Meritorious Teacher in 1992.

Encouraged by Kys example, Dung asked his parents to let him go to school. But his dream of learning was quickly put off as he felt terrible pain in his legs after attending school for a week.

Traditional medicine family

When he was 16 years old, taking advantage of his familys traditional herbal medicine practices, he started to learn about traditional medicine with the desire to become a good herbalist so that he could heal peoples illness and earn a living at the same time.

In 2002, upon hearing the news that the Vietnam Traditional Medicine Association opened a training course in his hometown, he immediately registered to attend and became the only student with disabilities in the class.

One of my biggest disadvantages is that I couldnt go to school like others at the same age, he said.

Dungs parents bought textbooks and taught him by themselves. Later, they invited some tutors to help him with learning.

Because I didnt enter university, I searched for information on health, science and technology on the internet to gain more knowledge, he said.

After a long period of self-learning, with knowledge handed down from his grandparents and with help from his family, Dung decided to open a clinic on traditional medicine.

At first, the clinic received no customers, he said, saying that he was too young and his disability might have made customers wary.

But gradually he gained their trust as he was always enthusiastic to help the poor and those who shared his circumstances.

Now, the clinic has become famous due to the efficacy of its methods. Local residents and people from neighbouring provinces knew about the clinic through word of mouth, he said.

Recognising the hardship of the disabled, Dung set up a project to establish the Association of People with Disabilities in Ha Nam Province in 2005. It was one of the first provincial-level associations for people with disabilities in the country.

After many efforts, on August 19, 2006, the Association of People with Disabilities in Ha Nam Province held its first meeting and Dung was elected chairman of the association.

Up to now, all six districts and towns of the province have set up the Association of People with Disabilities with the participation of over 1,000 members.

As chairman of the association, Dung is directly involved in the dissemination of the International Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities and policies related to people with disabilities, funded by the Danish Government for 2017-2020 period. The purpose of this activity is to promote the equity and full integration of people with disabilities in the development of society.

For Dung, the biggest happiness of his life is to see people recover from illness.

"Im not lucky since I was born. I was paralysed so I understand the problems patients suffered.

All of my work is aimed at helping those in need, especially the ones who are in similar circumstances. For an herbalist like me, healing human wounds is my happiness as for me saving people means saving ourselves. "

Dung also expressed his hope that more attention would be paid for people with disabilities in terms of vocational training and employment with a view to improve their living conditions and help them easily integrate with society.  VNSDeputy Prime Minister Vu uc am speaks at a ceremony in Ha Noi yesterday to mark Vietnamese Physicians Day.  Photo laodong.vn

HA NOI  Deputy Prime Minister Vu uc am has urged the health sector to continue striving to care for peoples health as this is always among the top priorities in action programmes of the Party and the Government.

Addressing a ceremony yesterday to mark Vietnamese Physicians Day, which falls on February 27, am asked the Party and Government at all levels to support, integrate and facilitate resources and investment so the health sector can carry out its duties.

He called on all people to support and create favourable conditions for medical workers to do their jobs, by which people will also enable them to stay healthy. He urged the immediate and proper implementation of requirements of health institutions and physicians in physical practices, food safety, labour safety, periodic health checks, drug use and specially stressed the need to participate in the health insurance system.

am sent greetings to Vietnamese physicians and medical staff, especially those who are working in remote, border, island and mountainous areas. He also praised the sector for its achievements in recent years, which had helped Viet Nam implement the United Nations Millennium Development Goals in healthcare.

At the ceremony, leaders of the Party, State and the Ministry of Health handed over a copy of a letter late President Ho Chi Minh sent to the Health Officials Conference in early 1955 together with certificates of merit to organisations and individuals who have made excellent achievements in protecting and caring for peoples health.  VNSHA NOI  Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc has asked relevant offices to push for automated toll collection on build-operation-transfer (BOT) highways across the country.

The Prime Minister believes that the automated model will help save time and ensure transparency.

The Ministry of Transport, in collaboration with related ministries and agencies, was tasked with setting up standard rates for toll, which would be used as the foundation to bid for toll tax collectors as per the National Assembly Standing Committees resolution 437/NQ-UBTVQH, dated October 2017.

Besides this, the transport ministry was asked to report to the Prime Minister on a roadmap for shifting to an automated toll collection model on all BOT highways by the first quarter of this year.

The ministry was responsible to support BOT investors and toll tax collectors to apply the model.

The authorities should review legal documents and circulars on implementing the automated model to ensure accuracy, transparency and synchronousity at all toll tax stations.

Each vehicle has only one identity card which is used at all stations nationwide.

The Prime Minister issued decision 07/2017/Q-TTg last year on implementing the model of collecting toll on BOT highways nationwide.

Toll tax collectors were asked to install automated toll collection systems to ensure smooth operations 24x7 and to protect the personal information of clients as per legal regulations.

After a year of implementation, the model has been proved to be effective, although it still has a few shortcomings.

One of the reasons is the lack of legal documents regulating management and operation of the automated system.

Since there is no roapmap for shifting to the new system, it is causing difficulties to toll tax collectors.

Moreover, the launch of the model was not synchronous at all the stations, which caused inconvenience to road users.  VNSHA NOI  Five categories of automobile registration plates are expected to be auctioned online soon to serve people who desire to have their own unique registration plate as well as enrich the State budget.

The types of automobile registration plates proposed for auction include the same five digits, the same four last digits, the same three last digits, steadily increasing digits (for example, 56789), and peoples favourite.

The Ministry of Public Security announced on Tuesday that it had submitted the proposal to the Government for approval.

Le Xuan uc, deputy head of the ministrys Traffic Police Department, said the proposal was finally submitted to the Government after collecting feedback five times from experts, relevant agencies and the public.

He said an online auction was believed to allow easy participation of the public.

The ministry has prepared a system to ensure that the online auction was smooth and transparent. The money from the auction would be sent to the State budget, uc said, adding that the proposal was expected to be welcomed by the public if it gets the Governments green light.

How to participate in the auction

Under the proposal, the registration plates to be auctioned will be published at every station where people register their vehicles, as well as on a website run by the ministry.

Those who want to take part in the auction must have an online account and a vehicle with legal documents.

The auction will comply with the current laws and regulations, including the Law on Road Traffic, the 2017 Law on Management and Use of Public Property, the 2016 Law on Property Auction, as well as regulations issued by the Ministry of Public Security on vehicle registration and management.

Based on the laws and regulations, the registration plate of a car is defined as a public asset under State management.

uc said according to the regulation on vehicle registration, each registration plate was only granted to one vehicle. The winner of the auction would be allowed to use the registration plate for his or her car.

As per regulations, if the car was sold to a new owner in the same locality, the registration plate could be continued to be used for the vehicle. But if the car was sold to a new owner in another locality, the registration plate would need to be changed, uc said.

It is estimated that the State could earn VN5 trillion (US$222.2 million) every year from the auction of vehicle registration plates.  VNSHA NOI  Trained ethnic village birth attendants (TEVAs) have played a remarkable role in reducing maternal and neo-natal mortality rates, especially in the mountainous and remote areas of Viet Nam.

This was said at a ceremony held on Wednesday in Ha Noi to honour TEVAs.

TEVAs are selected from ethnic minority communities and are trained for at least nine months in medical schools to provide services to pregnant women in remote and difficult areas. With an understanding of local cultures and indigenous customs, TEVAs can easily communicate with the ethnic communities and provide safe motherhood services.

Y Ngoc, 38, is a Xe ang ethnic attendant in Kach Lon hamlet in ak Sao Commune. She hails from Tu Mo Rong District in the Central Highlands Kon Tum Province. Her job is to visit pregnant women in their homes to provide pre-natal check-up, consultation and maternal care services.

I send pregnant woman who are at medical risks or those who will soon go into labour to medical stations and sometimes even help them to give birth at home or on the way to a medical station, said Ngoc.

In 2017 alone, she conducted 132 pre-natal check-ups and sent two pregnant women with complications to hospitals for timely examination and treatment in Kach Lon hamlet.

Thanks to Ngocs contribution, the rate of pre-natal check-ups increased from 50 per cent in 2009 to 93 per cent in 2017, while the rate of delivery in health clinics increased from 20 per cent in 2009 to 60.9 per cent in 2017.

Ngoc is among 66 TEVAs, representing nearly 3,000 TEVAs across the country, to be honoured at the ceremony.

Marked improvements in maternal healthcare

Viet Nam still faces challenges in maternal and neo-natal healthcare due to huge gaps in health conditions and maternal and neo-natal mortality between regions and ethnic and minority groups. The maternal and neo-natal mortality rates in the mountainous and remote areas are three to four times higher than those in urban and plain regions, said deputy health minister Nguyen Viet Tien.

Training ethnic village birth attendants in mountainous and difficult areas is a temporary but effective measure to minimise geographical, cultural and financial gaps to help ethnic women get access to pre-natal check-ups, safe delivery options and post-delivery care services, said Tien.

According to the health ministry, the country currently has 2,611 TEVAs working in 8,165 difficult villages and hamlets across the country. TEVAs visit families to provide healthcare consultations and encourage pregnant women to go to health clinics for regular prenatal check-ups as well as for giving births.

Support of the European Union

We are delighted to see that Viet Nam managed to reduce the under-five mortality rate (per 1,000 live births) from 51 in 1990 to 24 in 2013 and the maternal mortality ratio (per 100,000 live births) from 140 in 1990 to 49 in 2013. This decreasing trend continued during 2013-2015, said Stefano Manservisi, director general of the European Unions Directorate for International Cooperation and Development.

The European Unions support has been focused in the poorest of provinces, where mother and child health-related indicators are also low compared to that of the better-off regions. During 2015-2017, with our support, the percentage of deliveries attended by trained health staff has increased significantly, while the infant mortality rate has decreased in all 10 provinces, said Manservisi.

The EU has been the largest ODA (Official Development Assistance) donor and strategic partner of Viet Nams health sector. Under the countrys health policy support programmes, the EU focuses on the poorest provinces and most disadvantaged districts --- home to ethnic minority groups --- helping with the training of health professionals (including TEVAs), provision of essential medical equipment and supplies and standardisation of clinical guidelines for health services.  VNSBy Thu Trang

There is a lot of fire to the votive smoke that rises on every auspicious day in our country, and I guess, other places where this traditional ritual is observed.

The fire has been lit again by the most recent call from senior monks of the Buddhist Sangha, asking people to stop this practice, given the pollution it causes.

But this is not just a habit that dies hard. It is a ritual that has roots in deeply held beliefs going back centuries.

On the first day and 15th day of each lunar month, my mother-in-law carefully arranges offerings, including votive paper money on the ancestral altar, prays and reverently burns the votive paper money.

My mother-in-law, like many other Vietnamese people, believes that when people burn incense, their prayers follow the smoke that rises to the gods and spirits of deceased ancestors. A similar belief is attached to the burning of votive papers and other paper objects. These are offerings made by the living to the buried, for their consumption in the afterlife.

It is a way to communicate with our ancestors. Their spirits can live comfortably there and help us in many aspects in return, she says.

The origins of this ritual are not clear, but explanations are many. Similar to ancient traditions in other civilisations, it targets a comfortable life for the dead in the afterlife, and make symbolic offerings of what would be needed. Thus the living would buy various necessities and luxuries made of paper, particularly of those things that the deceased were partial to while they were living on the earth. These can include cars, villas, motorbikes and even fancy mobile phone models.

This traditional ritual has faced mounting criticism for many years now. It has been called a backward superstition that has no place in modern Vietnamese society. It has been decried as an ostentatious practice that causes air pollution and is an ostentatious waste of resources.

The Viet Nam Buddhist Sangha (VBS) recently sent an official document to its chapters nationwide, calling for a stop to the burning of votive paper offerings at Buddhist worshipping places.

Most Venerable Thich Thanh Nhieu, Permanent Deputy Chairman of the VBSs Executive Council, has asked Sangha chapters in cities and provinces nationwide to direct monks, nuns and Buddhist followers to organise celebrations in a civilised, thrifty and non-ostentatious fashion in accordance with Vietnamese and Buddhist traditions.

Currently, there are still many poor people who do not have enough food to eat. For people to use a lot of money for votive paper offerings at this time is unreasonable, said Most Venerable Thich Thanh Nhieu.

While this proposal is sound, rational and compassionate, there are many who are afraid that discontinuing this practice would affect those who make a living of it.

Tran Thi Bay, who sells votive paper money and paper offerings at the Quan Su Pagoda in Ha Noi, said that her entire family depends on the shop. Selling the votive offerings has supported her family with six members.

How can we live if the burning votive papers is given up? she worried. Her worry is shared by many small traders in Ha Noi and other places.

Then there are whole villages that have taken up making votive paper offering, like Duyen Truong and Phuc Am in Ha Nois Thuong Tin District, and others in the northern province of Bac Ninh. Hundreds of households are making a living thus, and they will be badly affected if their sole source of income dries up.

And it is not easy for millions of people, from the youth to the elderly who have grown up and lived with this tradition, to just give it up.

Nguyen Manh Duy, a Hanoian, said, I am not a superstitious person, but I understand and appreciate the meaning of burning votive papers.

Duys father died when he was a junior secondary student, and since then, he has held to the belief that his father is still by his side, listening to him, guiding him.

Burning votive papers for my father is a spiritual way to confirm that he still exists in my life.

Burning votive papers is certainly a waste (of resources) if we burn so much, but if we see it as a moral, spiritual activity, a customs to honour our ancestors, it is worth maintaining, he said.

Vietnamese who have visited developed countries and territories in Asia including Singapore, Taiwan and Hong Kong have seen locals burning votive paper money and other objects, especially the middle of the seventh lunar month and during the Lunar New Year celebrations. There goes the argument that it is a practice confined to backward, poor nations.

Artist and cultural researcher Pham Huy Hung feels burning votive paper is a fine tradition that is rooted in the idea that death does not mean the end and everything is the same in the living world and the dead world.

It is a commemoration of ancestors and expression of gratitude, so it is a meaningful ritual."

Whether or not votive offerings comfort the dead, it certainly provides some solace to the living. This has a value that cannot be dismissed.

There lies our challenge: preserving the value of a cultural tradition while removing its ostentatious and polluting facets. Making such adjustments to a symbolic practice cannot be too difficult, if we think about how it might have come about, in the first place.

Any ideas, anyone?  VNSSYDNEY  Communication blackouts and blocked roads were hampering rescue efforts Wednesday as Papua New Guinea worked to get a better grasp of the damage wrought by a massive earthquake amid fears of its economic impact.

The 7.5-magnitude tremor struck 90 kilometres (55 miles) south of Porgera in the Pacific nations mountainous Enga province early Monday, with sporadic aftershocks continuing to rumble through the rugged region.

Local media reported that aerial surveys of the worst-hit areas showed countless roads, bridges and infrastructure destroyed, along with private homes.

Access, however, was difficult with roads blocked by landslides and sinkholes.

The PNG Post-Courier newspaper had on Tuesday said more than 30 people may have died, although on Wednesday it reported that only 14 had been confirmed, in the Southern Highlands and Hela province.

All were killed when their houses collapsed as they slept, it said. No official death toll has been provided.

Government assessment teams were at work, with the military mobilised to help restore services.

Australia said it had sent a transport plane to conduct aerial surveillance and provide logistical support to the PNG Defence Force after a request by Port Moresby.

"We are saddened to hear reports of lives lost and many people being injured," said Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop.

"Given the challenging terrain and remoteness of the area, we expect that the extent of the damage will become clearer in coming days."

Hela deputy administrator Eddie Yuwi told The National newspaper the province resembled a war zone.

"Within the periphery of Tari town, we have all the roads affected, buildings destroyed, we have a number of casualties which are yet to be established," he said.

"We have millions of kina (local currency) worth of property destroyed. We have people buried by debris, landslides."

He added that a large crack had opened up at Komo airport, which services crucial nearby gas fields.

Prime Minister Peter ONeill tried to reach Hela on Tuesday but poor weather forced his helicopter to turn back.

Impoverished PNGs economy is heavily dependent on its natural resources and he said the temporary closure of oil and gas fields in the area would be felt.

"The closure of the oil fields and the gas fields is a concern to every one of us," he told reporters, adding that the countrys National Executive Council would meet Wednesday to work out a plan of action.

"It will have a huge impact on our economy, but we will work with experts to see if we can get them operational as quickly as possible."

ONeill added that the government was getting regular reports from ExxonMobil, the operator of the gas fields, and from Australian-listed exploration company Oil Search.

Oil Search has demobilised non-essential staff as it checks for damage, while ExxonMobil has shut down its Hides Gas Conditioning Plant in Hela.

Earthquakes are common in PNG, which sits on the so-called Pacific Ring of Fire, a hotspot for seismic activity.  AFPTWH  The struggle for religious freedom, or freedom from religion, within the U.S. public school system is ongoing. As part of the government system, no preference of one religion over another is permitted on school property or within the buildings. However, in practice that is not always the case and, in areas where religious diversity is increasing, problems and challenges naturally arise.

Today we look at two different cases that have appeared in recent months. Floridas state legislature is considering a bill that would force all schools to display the words In God We Trust prominently, while in Louisiana, school officials in one parish include regular prayers as part of the daily curriculum.

* * *

FLORIDA  Although legislators were unwilling to consider banning assault rifles in the wake of the Parkland school shooting, members of the states house of representatives were overwhelmingly in favor  97 to 10  of requiring the state motto of in god we trust to be prominently displayed in public school buildings.

Sponsored by Jacksonville Democrat Kimberly Daniels, the operative portion of H.B. 839 read:

Each district school board shall adopt rules to require, in all of the schools of the district and in each building used by the district school board, the display of the state motto, In God We Trust, designated under s. 15.0301, in a conspicuous place.Ignalina 2 free of used fuel

27 February 2018

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Ignalina Nuclear Power Plant (INPP) in Lithuania has announced the removal of the last used fuel assembly from the reactor of unit 2. Some of the used fuel was removed from the reactor after its final closure in 2009, but the remainder was left pending the launch of an Interim Spent Fuel Storage Facility (ISFSF).

The Ignalina used furl transfer machine (Image: Ignalina NPP)

INPP restarted unloading of used fuel from the unit 2 in June last year after receiving a licence for the industrial operation of the ISFSF, known as Project B1.

The state-run company said it has unloaded 1134 fuel assemblies from the reactor in a very short time, 15 months ahead of schedule.

It is now focused on accelerating the transfer of used fuel to the ISFSF, with full adherence to international safety standards, and on ensuring the most efficient of state targets for decommissioning.

The B1 project is financially supported by the Ignalina International Decommissioning Support Fund (IIDSF), which is managed by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. The European Union is by far the biggest contributor to the IIDSF, providing 96% of contributions. Other contributors include Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the UK.

Lithuanian State Nuclear Power Safety Inspectorate, Vatesi, said in May last year that it had issued a permit for the start of commercial operation of the ISFSF. The announcement followed INPP's successful completion of hot tests with ten new design casks.

The facility is at the plant site in Visaginas municipality. Used fuel will be stored in specially designed Constor RBMK1500/M2 casks that will each weigh 118 tonnes when fully loaded. It is expected that about 190 containers with 17,000 used fuel rods will be stored in the facility for up to 50 years.

Lithuania agreed to shut down Ignalina units 1 and 2 as a condition of its accession to the European Union. Unit 1 was shut down in December 2004 and unit 2 in December 2009.

Researched and written

by World Nuclear News

Related topicsMONTREAL, QC, February 28, 2018 /24-7PressRelease/ -- Canadian recording artist Prince Amine was born in Morocco but now resides in Montreal. Although he's only 18 years old he's discovered an ingenious way to integrate his multicultural and multilingual background into a unique mix of hip-hop, rap and trap styles which highlights his ability to compose and perform in English, French, Spanish and Arabic with equal ease. On September 16, 2017, the day of his 18th birthday, he released his first album, aptly titled "XVIII", which in only a very short time racked up over one hundred thousand streams on Spotify and Apple Music. Now, less than six months later, Prince Amine proudly debuts a new single called "Fuego".



"Fuego" will get people off their seat and jamming on the dance floor with the kind of energy that only the late, great Michael Jackson was known to deliver. It's so powerful that it caught the attention of Dadju (international recording star Maitre Gims' younger brother) who's just launched his "Gentlemen 2.0" album which is currently a massive success in France. Prince Amine has been invited to open for Dadju when he appears at Montreal's famed Theatre Berri on March 3rd. The two of them are predicted to set the night on five and burn up the stage with their hot performances.



A North American radio and press campaign has been launched to promote "Fuego". This precocious artist is not only expected to hit individual radio station Mainstream R&B/Hip-Hop and Rhythmic charts as he steadily climbs to the top of broadcaster's play lists throughout the USA and Canada, but to also now appear on national radio airplay charts throughout North America. Being the show opener for later this week will only add to the growing heat and excitement Prince Amine is generating. This young man is making temperatures rise and may have to bear a bit of the blame for some recent global warming resulting from the firestorm his music has unleashed.



His press kit will be provided upon request to all members of the media by contacting the representative listed below. Prince Amine is presently available for interviews and/or appearances. Additional news, updates and other information about upcoming events may also be found at: https://www.facebook.com/PrinceAmineOfficial/ When you're as hot as "Fuego" - you're hot!



Media Contact:



Stevie B

Mia Mind Music

Phone: 800-843-8575

Email: [email protected]



# # #Feb 28, 2018 | By Tess

Over the last few years, Naomi SexyCyborg Wu has become one of the most popular makers in the 3D printing community, as well as one of the most outspoken women in the field. Hailing from the Chinese tech hub of Shenzhen, Wu has created and honed a maker brand that combines 3D printing and computer programming with feminine and often provocative wearables.

Her work, at once creative and playful, strives to break down barriers in the tech field and aims to change the dominant perspectives that exist in the industry. 3Ders got the chance to speak with Naomi Wu about her remarkable position within the maker community.

Being from Shenzhen, has technology always been a big part of your life?

Oh, not at all. Being in Shenzhen enabled me and still does, but tech was not really part of my life growing up. I guess its like growing up in L.A. or New York and wanting to be an actor. Its all around you and all the resources are there, but it does not really become part of your daily life until you want it to.

I started learning to code in college because I needed the money, had good math and English, and friends who could point me towards tutorials and later work. I didnt have any real interest in tech until later.

And when did you become interested in 3D printing?

Website development, at least the sort I did, is not really all that satisfying. I did mostly documentation and code cleanup for other coders. Hardware and 3D printing is quite a bit more fun because it gives you something you can hold in your hand or, in my case, wear outside. Its kind of like the difference between writing out recipes and actually baking cookies. The physical results are a lot more enjoyable.

By simply being a prominent female figure in the 3D printing and tech industries, youre helping to break down some pretty rigid barriers. Has yours been a difficult journey as an outspoken woman in the field?

Sure, people were pretty hesitant at first. Anything sexy+tech has pretty much always been bad for women and there was every reason to think the combination always would be.

However, right now we live in a world where clicks determine who hears your message and where men have a near monopoly on directing portrayals of two of the best drivers of traffic: sex and violence. Women are less comfortable with these things: our STEM YouTube channels dont usually have guns, destruction, and explosions, so that leaves sex and/or skin, which have always been used in such an awful way, so its reasonable to dismiss them. Since women often dont capitalize on these traffic drivers (understandably), the general public often misses our message. I play around with that dynamic.

How do you see your role in the 3D printing and tech fields right now?

Historically, exposed skin is something that men have employed in marketing or for their own pleasure. Individual women may use it to self-promote, but a women-in-tech-promoting booth babe who is demonstrably competent and wont be told by anyone what to wear? Its almost unheard of. I dont think its inherently good or badit could be either depending on how its done. You have to stay vigilant and engaged so you dont end up being some sort of example that men use against other women. You have to be careful and focused on the goals of the community, not just self-promotion.

Being Chinese, Im completely at ease getting guidance from older, more experienced women so thats very much part of how I work. Thats worked out quite well, and while I think some people will never be comfortable with how I present myself and my work, Im comfortable that my efforts so far seem to be productive.

How did you react when you first learned about Make: Magazine founder Dale Doughertys unfounded comments about you this past November?

It was shocking that he posted it. Rumors and quietly circulated emailsstuff you cant fight or refuteare usually how it works and had worked up until Dales comments. Dale saying it out in the open like that was pretty surprising.

That being said, had he simply stuck with the existing playbook of running a whisper campaign, as is usually done with non-conforming women, the situation probably would not have been resolved as well as it has been. Since the incident, Make: has followed the negotiated resolution to the letter and received a tremendous amount of good will for it, as they should.

On a more technological note, is there a particular 3D printer you find yourself using on a regular basis? Can you speak a bit about your process?

Im not one of those people who enjoy fiddling with 3D printers a lot. I get the appeal: hours in Simplify3D making custom settings for different layer heights for each different filament, printing out dozens of Benchy boats, and posting that one image of a perfectly calibrated print. It can be fun and rewarding. But honestly, I hate mucking about with settings. I like to just hit print. I dont require stunning 0.1mm prints but I also have no patience for failed printsever. So far, the Flashforge Guider II 3D printer with its FlashPrint software has really hit that sweet spot for me and thats what I use every day. Of course, for absolute print quality, size, or speed there are better 3D printers depending how much you value one attribute over another. But for my needs, I dont know anything better.

And finally, out of all your wearable 3D printed projects, are there any that you regularly make use of?

My boots with 3D printed projectors get a lot of use, at least weekly during warm weather when I go out a lot. I also wear my 3D printed hardware/software hair ties on a regular basis.

As a prolific maker, Naomi SexyCyborg Wu has created a number of highly original designs that she has not only 3D printed but has also worn. From 3D printed hacker-kit heels to a wearable 3D printer, Wu does not shy away from incorporating some fun into her makes.

See some of our favorite 3D printed wearables designed by Wu over the years:

In 2015, Naomi SexyCyborg Wu drew attention from the maker world for her Bluetooth-controlled miniskirt with LED under-lighting, as well as a pair of 3D printed high heels with a penetration test kit embedded into them.

2016 saw her not just wearing 3D printed items but also drones thanks to a 3D printed nano drone wrist mount and a companion controller belt buckle. Wu debuted the 3D printed accessories, complete with Cheerson CX-10D mini drones, at a local FPV drone racing event.

Months later, the Shenzhen-based maker also presented the Infinity Skirt made of 3D printed LED mirror tiles, and a simple but stylish crop top made from LCD Shutter Glass and 3D printed components.

Not a wearable, per se, but one of my personal favorite SexyCyborg makes is her 3D printed hacker kit disguised as a makeup palette. The portable cosmetics case is built to house a Raspberry Pi 3 single board computer that runs Kali Linux, a penetration testing and digital forensics distribution.

Wu made a splash this past summer with a red, white, and blue bikini made entirely from 3D printed components. And while the bathing attire didnt seem quite as comfortable as one of its fabric counterparts, Wu did prove the piece was functional by wearing it in the pool.

What may have seemed like the final frontier for 3D printed wearables was when Wu took to the streets of Shenzhen wearing what else but a 3D printer. The machine, which was mounted on a backpack frame, can be seen in the video above actually printing parts while Wu walks around.

Excitingly for us (and the rest of the maker community), Naomi SexyCyborg Wu is now pursuing her 3D printed projects in a full-time capacity, showing that hard work, talent, and creativity can take you a long way. As she told us, As of this month, Im not coding anymore. Its all vlogging, builds, reviews, and a bit of consulting for Chinese companies.

Be sure to check 3Ders and Wus own platforms regularly to see what she is 3D printing next. Also, tune in next week for the second edition of our Maker Profile series.

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JBWatkins in USA wrote at 4/4/2018 9:31:07 PM:Someone more internet savvy than I, should set up a GouFundMe account for her. With over a quarter million YouTube followers, she could put Vice out of business... Go Girl!!!A Feminist wrote at 4/4/2018 6:52:23 AM:Richard ... she doesn't exist for you to be attracted to her She's awesome the way she is, and your opinion matters little.Your King wrote at 4/3/2018 9:43:51 AM:Vice magazine has put an end to her. Now let's put an end to Vice.Richard wrote at 3/7/2018 6:05:36 AM:Ive seen a few of her videos, and frankly, I found her most sexy dressed in her overalls with her red bandana while working in her shop. Sure, lots of skin gives initial eye candy, but the sexiness that lasts is that of a woman with brains, who speaks three languages (Cantonese, Mandarin, English) with creativity, who could be part of a teamthats the sexiness that attracts again and again.



From BlackPast.Org:

The involvement of African Americans in medicine in the Civil War era is an untold chapter in our history. Up to that time most practitioners had learned medicine by apprenticeship but this began to change in the early Nineteenth Century. James McCune Smith was the first African American to obtain a medical degree when, in 1837, he was graduated from the University of Glasgow in Scotland. In 1847 David James Peck was the first to receive a medical degree in the United States. By the end of the Civil War at least 22 African Americans had obtained degrees and were practicing medicine. At least twelve of these physicians served with the Union Army.

Three men were commissioned officers while the remaining nine served as acting assistant surgeons (contract physicians). Alexander Thomas Augusta from Norfolk, Virginia, was unable to obtain admittance to a United States medical school so he went to Ontario, Canada. There he was successful in gaining admittance to Trinity College, Ontario University. In 1860 he became the first person of African ancestry to receive a medical degree in Canada. He received his commission as a surgeon (with the rank of major) in April 1863 in the 7th United States Colored Infantry (known popularly by the initials, USCT, for U.S. Colored Troops). Augusta was the first African American to obtain this rank in the U. S. Army. At the end of the war he was brevetted to lieutenant colonel, a promotion for meritorious service. When Howard Medical College opened in 1868, he was the only African American on its original faculty. Nine years later he left the medical school for private medical practice in Washington, D.C. Augusta died in 1890 and was the first African American officer to be buried in Arlington National Cemetery.

More here. (Note: Throughout February, at least one post will be dedicated to honor Black History Month)Joshua Leifer at n+1:

ON THE LAST DAY OF AUGUST, Benjamin Netanyahu, dressed in a wide navy suit and flanked by security guards, toured the muggy streets of south Tel Aviv. It had been several years since Netanyahu, whose net worth is an estimated $11 million, last visited the area, home to some of the citys poorest neighborhoods and where tens of thousands of refugees and migrant workers have settled since the 1990s. The purpose of the tour, according to Netanyahus office, was to identify with the residents and to hear their distress. By residents, Netanyahu did not mean the migrant workers and refugees. Our task, he declared, is to return the area to the citizens of Israel.

An estimated 38,000 asylum seekers, mostly from Eritrea and Sudan, live in Israel today. Together with around 100,000 migrant workers, mainly from Eastern Europe and Southeast Asia, they make up Israels population of non-Jewish migrants. Indian, Nepalese, Filipino, and Sri Lankan migrants work as home health aides for elderly Israelis and as domestic workers in Israeli households.

more here.Having grown up Chinese, I am no stranger to exotic flavorsblack sesame, durian, and red bean all flavored the unique "sweets" of my youth. But it wasn't until exploring the icy treats of the Bay Area that I came to know even more curious and alluring scoops.

I also didn't truly know what it meant to be in love with ice cream until I moved here six years ago from Los Angeleswhen it's 60 degrees out here, we line up around the block for a single scoop with perhaps a drizzle of olive oil. Naturally, I queued up to see what the fuss was about and have never looked back. Here are some of the most unique flavors you can get now (most spots have rotating or seasonal menus), from peppercorn to vegan Thai curry.

Charcoal ice cream with blackberry vanilla whipped cream swirl. (@littlegiant_ic)

Little Giant

Good ice cream begins with great dairy. Little Giant sources its milk from Clover Stornetta Farms in Petaluma and then pasteurizes in house at their mini factory in Oakland. There they churn out some of the most flavorful ice creams around. This season's most exotic licks: vegan Thai curry with a coconut-and-almond milk base infused with galangal, lemongrass, kefir lime leaves, lime and Thai chilies; Samovar chai; vegan matcha; and Beez Cheez with Laura Chenel goat cheese, honey and black pepper. // 1951 Telegraph Ave. (Oakland), littlegianticecream.com.





Humphry Slocombe



The OG of wacky flavors, Humphry Slocombe has been scooping delicious weirdness since 2008, earning an obsessive following among food lovers who aren't afraid of ingredients like prosciutto, ancho chilies, foie gras, candy cap mushrooms, and jalapenos in their ice cream. You might even say they started itremember when the bourbon and corn flakes of Secret Breakfast seemed cray? Not so much anymore. This season, the team plays with pepper (pink, cubeb, and Szechuan) along with Maldon sea salt and a hint of vanilla. They've even partnered with Oaktown Spice Shop to create a new Togarashi Tea flavor with oolong tea ice cream and house-made sweet and spicy Shichimi Togarashi (Japanese 7 spice) caramel swirl. It'll be available at all locations through March. Unsure? Feel free to sample. "Welcome to our bizarre, delicious, frozen universe." // 2790A Harrison St. (Mission); One Ferry Building (Ferry Building); and 2335 Broadway (Oakland); humphryslocombe.com.





Tara's Organic Ice Cream

You've likely seen their lavender-hued bicycle carts circling around festivals and at Lake Merritt, doling out ice cream cups, gluten-free brownie sandwiches, and pops. Or perhaps you tasted the goods at 7x7's Big Eat Oakland last year. At Tara's Organic Ice Cream, all the ingredientsdairy, seasonal fruit, fresh herbs and spicesare sourced from local farms; and there are no emulsifiers or stabilizers. With 175 rotating flavors, Tara's slays with some of the most attention-grabbing options around. Swing by now for a taste of lemongrass; berbere (chile peppers, ginger, cloves, coriander, allspice, rue berries, and ajwain); cilantro; Chinese five spice; and avocado. Cones are hand rolled daily, with and without black sesame. // 3173 College Ave. (Berkeley); 4731 Telegraph Ave. (Oakland); tarasorganic.com.





Salt & Straw

Salt & Straw's five-course Thanksgiving ice cream dinner was seriously the strangest we've tried yet, with flavors including buttered mashed potatoes with gravy and salted caramel turkeyTBH, the latter was to die for. Built off a cashed-in 401K and a certifiable zeal for the stuff, Salt & Straw is a go-to for special flavors. Current choices include NeoCocoa's black sesame brittle and brown sugar; and Dandelion's Bean to Bar S'mores, the process of a complex process in which cacao hulls are soaked in ice cream and cocoa liquor for a smoky taste, before the cream is rolled with ground nibs, graham crackers, marshmallow and finished chocolate. // 586 Hayes St. (Hayes Valley) and 2201 Fillmore St. (Pacific Heights), saltandstraw.com.





Bi-Rite

Much has been said of the salted caramel at this quintessential SF scoop shop, but Bi-Rite Creamery is more complex than that. The first to use Straus Family Creamery's organic dairy, Bi-Rite rarely uses more than five ingredients but manages to maximize flavor. Current small batch offerings include orange cardamom and boozy Irish cream with chocolate cake. // 3692 18th St. and 550 Divisadero St., biritecreamery.com

Half Yearly Report

Melbourne, Feb 28, 2018 AEST (ABN Newswire) - Australian Securities and Frankfurt Stock Exchange cross listed iSignthis Ltd ( ASX:ISX ) ( FRA:TA8 ), the global leader in RegTech for identity verification and transactional banking/payments, is pleased to provide the following update for the half year ended 31st December 2017.First Half Highlights:- Revenues for 1HFY18 outperformed expectations, driven by stronger than expected platform usage from existing customers, especially new merchants activated in the December quarter,- Settlement processing for customers commenced in the second half with growth in GTPV exceeding management expectations over this period,- Total audited revenue for the 1H FY18 of A$827k (versus 1H FY17 of A$308k),- Successfully completed a share placement to institutional investors raising $6.5m at $0.19 per share,- iSignthis eMoney Ltd is now a Principal Member of the world's leading card schemes: Visa Inc ( NYSE:V ), Mastercard ( NYSE:MA ), as well as JCB International.Subsequent to the end of the first half the partnership with Worldline, to provide payment settlement services to EU based customers, went "live" in January. Contracting of the first 4 major merchants has since been announced on the 26th February 2018.Operational Trading Outlook:- Growth in settlement processing continues to exceed expectations,- The company guidance is for revenue growth in the March quarter to be at least 50% higher than the December quarter (previously at least 30%) based on actual transactions to 23rd Feb,- Quarterly settlement revenue growth in the March quarter has exceeded overall revenue growth rates, however Tx volumes from one merchant (processing customer only) have been adversely affected due to volatility in the cryptocurrency markets,- Settlement revenues now make up over 65% of our revenue by vertical and will be the primary driver of revenues going forward,- The company updated the annualised GTPV book value to be in excess of $400m from the previously reported $100m in its announcement on the 26th February 2018.BUSINESS UPDATEThe Company is pleased with the continual growth quarter on quarter and the generation of revenue as existing merchant settlement volumes increase. Our pipeline of new merchants remains strong and we will continue to update the market regarding material changes as they occur. The company will provide a more detailed update following the March quarter. The Company is now exploring other eMoney services which it may offer to market under the license conditions afforded to it by its EEA Monetary Financial Institution authorisation.FUTURE REPORTINGThe Company has previously advised that it's subsidiary company iSignthis eMoney Ltd, trading as ISXPay, has been granted an eMoney Institution (EMI) License #115.1.3.17 by the Central Bank of Cyprus (CBC). This allows the Company to operate as a full transactional, deposit taking eMoney Monetary Financial Institution (MFI) in the European Economic Area (EEA).The eMoney MFI license requires the Company to report to the CBC on a monthly basis, as well as providing specific reports on a half yearly and annual basis. The annual reporting includes audited accounts and is based on the standard European timetable of reporting on a calendar year from January to December, as opposed to the July to June financial reporting year that is common place in Australia.To assist with this report, and to avoid multiple audits, the Company will apply to ASIC to change it's reporting date to 31 December as opposed to 30 June, effective for the 2018 calendar year. This change is likely to be implemented in 2018 meaning that the Company's accounts will be audited 30 June 2018 as would normally be the case and we will follow with a second audit as at 31 December 2018, which will then comprise the results of the period from 1st July 2018 - 31st December 2018.Future reporting will then be based on a half year review as at 30 June and a full year audit as at 31 December.To view the report, please visit:About iSignthis Ltd

iSignthis Ltd (ASX:ISX) (FRA:TA8) is a hybrid monetary financial institution and also a RegTech leader in remote identity verification, payment authentication with deposit taking, transactional banking and payment processing capability. iSignthis provides an end-to-end on-boarding service for merchants, with a unified payment, electronic money and identity service via our Paydentity(TM) and ISXPay(R) solutions.

By converging payments and identity, iSignthis delivers regulatory compliance to an enhanced customer due diligence standard, offering global reach to any of the world's 4.2Bn 'bank verified' card or account holders, that can be remotely on-boarded to meet the Customer Due Diligence requirements of AML regulated merchants in as little as 3 to 5 minutes. Paydentity(TM) has now onboarded and verified more than 1.5m persons to an AML KYC standard.

iSignthis Paydentity(TM) service is the trusted back office solution for regulated entities, allowing merchants to stay ahead of the regulatory curve, and focus on growing their core business. iSignthis' subsidiary, iSignthis eMoney Ltd, trades as ISXPay(R), and is an EEA authorised eMoney Monetary Financial Institution, offering card acquiring in the EEA, and Australia.

ISXPay(R) is a principal member of Mastercard Inc, Diners, Discover, (China) Union Pay International and JCB International, an American Express aggregator, and provides merchants with access to payments via alternative methods including SEPA, Poli Payments, Sofort, PRZ24 and others.

Probanx Solutions Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary of iSignthis Ltd, provides API based access to CORE Banking solutions, SEPA Core, SEPA Instant and SEPA business scheme, for neobanks, banks, credit unions and emoney institutions, and provides a bridge to the Eurosystem's Central Bank of Lithuania's CENTROLink service.It has been four years since Chico State nursing student Kristina Chesterman was tragically killed while riding her bicycle home from the library.

Now, her parents, and a handful of Chico State nursing students are making Kristinas dream a reality.

Kristina Chesterman is breathing new life into the community of Ozu Abam in Nigeria.

Even 4 years after her death, the clinic built in honor of the Chico State nursing student is finally complete and already impacting life and health.

Kristinas father David recently returned from the clinic and brought back a story of healing:

I returned from Africa on Thursday night. The Kristina Chesterman Memorial Hospital is officially open for business! It is truly a beautiful facility and is now the primary building of the Upon This Rock Medical Center, providing full operating capabilities. Several nursing students from the current class as well as two of Kristinas classmates attended the two week medical mission in Ozu Abam and tended to well over a thousand patients during their stay, including emergency traumas related to automobile and motorcycle accidents that occurred while we were there. I am in awe of the dedication, skill and kindness of the nurses and am so grateful that they chose to spend their holiday break from school helping those in need. They are true heroes. The pictures show the entrance to the hospital and the waiting room, two operating theatres, the pharmacy, a hallway leading to the dental office, laboratory, eye center and break room. (That was my favorite place.) Many other pics included to give u a flavor for the trip. I want to thank everyone for your support for this effort. Without your support we could not have done this. There are two doctors and five nurses working full time at the hospital providing medical care to thousands who had virtually no access to basic medical care in the recent past, even in the case of accidents and broken bones. We will continue to raise money to pay for the ongoing operational costs, including salaries, for this hospital.

If you would like to be involved with the continued growth of Kristinas legacy, click the link to learn more and donate.Monterrey County District Attorney announced Wednesday that Tami Huntsman entered a guilty plea to all crimes charged against her.

Huntsman will serve consecutive life sentences with no possibility of parole for the murders of Shaun and Delylah Tara, age 6 and 3 at the time of the murders.

She also admitted to torturing both of the children, and their surviving sister Jane Doe who was 9 years old when they rescued her.

As part of the plea Huntsman waived her rights to legally challenge or appeal her conviction and sentence, making it certain that she will die in prisonWASHINGTON (AP) - White House Communications Director Hope Hicks, one of President Donald Trump's most loyal aides, is resigning.

In a statement, the president praises Hicks for her work over the last three years. He says he "will miss having her by my side."

The news comes a day after Hicks was interviewed for nine hours by the panel investigating Russia interference in the 2016 election and contact between Trump's campaign and Russia.

She acknowledged to a House intelligence panel that she has occasionally told "white lies" for Trump. But she said she had not lied about anything relevant to the Russia investigation.

Hicks served as Trump's one-woman communications shop during his winning campaign. She says in a statement, "There are no words to adequately express my gratitude to President Trump."

(Copyright 2018 The Associated Press.)But Employee Benefit Consultants (EBCs) and providers need to enhance their offer to clients as minimum contribution rates increases come into effect, the independent study among EBCs found.



Around 85% of EBCs questioned said auto-enrolment, which has just celebrated its 5th anniversary and seen 8.5 million employees start saving and 800,000 employers sign up, has delivered a step-change in funding for benefits.



However, EBCs admit they need to enhance their offer to clients ahead of the introduction of new minimum contribution rates for employers and employees from April 2018. Employer contributions increase from 1% of salary to 2% while employee contributions rise from 1% to 3%.



MetLifes own research shows employees are more engaged with their benefits - more than half (55%) of employees highly value the benefits they receive at work which was an increase of 25% on a previous study in 2015. Industry data shows predictions that the launch of auto-enrolment would expand the Group Risk market with more employers signing up have proved over-optimistic  the experience has been that existing schemes grew but the new employer market did not. Nearly four out of five (78%) of EBCs believe the rise in auto-enrolment minimum contributions will not lead to cuts in benefit budgets and 34% believe employers will even increase their benefit budgets.



However, 27% of EBCs are concerned that employees will drop out of pensions because of increases in their contributions.



Around one in three (33%) of consultants believe Group Risk providers need to review the products they offer clients as a result of the rise in contributions while 73% of consultants say they are concerned about the rising cost of benefits provision for employers.



Adrian Matthews, Employee Benefits Director, MetLife UK said: The increase in minimum contributions for employers and employees next April is a potential challenge for employee benefits providers and consultants and needs to be addressed.



It is encouraging that EBCs do not believe it will mean a major drop off in employee contributions but providers and consultants need to focus on ensuring the value of benefits is widely understood.



The evidence is that employees are increasingly valuing the benefits they receive at work which creates a real opportunity for businesses to align their benefits strategy with their business strategy.



MetLife is focused on further enhancing strategic partnerships with leading brokers and EBCs as it expands its business among large corporates including multi-national clients as well as SMEs.



It has generated significant momentum in the market thanks to a relentless focus on customer needs, innovative propositions, a culture of continuous improvement and a commitment to building strong partnerships and is established as the UKs third largest Group Life provider by number of schemes it insures3 and the fourth largest Group Income provider.And, yet, the best the AAP can do when providing an "expert" witness is to provide the head of the Michigan AAP who thinks ingesting soluble aluminum and injecting aluminum hydroxide are the same thing, despite extensive research showing the dangers of injected aluminum adjuvant.

OH MY...GOD. If you ever needed an example of the close-minded, ignorant, safety-negligent AAP, here it is. Aluminum science has gone through a revolution in the past decade. Leading scientists of the world are literally screaming for a re-evaluation of the safety of aluminum and showing exactly how injected aluminum from vaccines can cause brain damage.

Note: JB Handley is writing a book that delves into the astonishing science that proves the dangers of using aluminum as an adjuvant in vaccines. Science moves forward - one hopes. As mercury as been removed from the bulk of the pediatric vaccine schedule, this equally nefarious metal has been added. We know for a fact that our children are facing a very different childhood experience. The CDC term "adverse childhood events" is new to the pediatric lexicon. However, while CDC considers outside events only, we need to look at what is going into our children. As so many of us, including JB, founder of Generation Rescue, have been saying for more than a decade. Thank you, JB.

It would be like a psychologist testifying that ulcers are caused by worrying or an oncologist testifying that we still don't know if tobacco causes lung cancer. For parents, this is confusing as hell. Who are they supposed to believe? The pediatrician who believes the risks outweigh the benefits of vaccines 100% of the time, or the leading neurotoxicologists in the world? (I know who I'm going with!)

I have written extensively about the topic of aluminum in vaccines, which is likely a primary cause of all of this brain damage in children, because injected aluminum adjuvant triggers Immune Activation Events, which, if they happen during times of fragile brain development, can have devastating consequences. Here's an article on how absurd the FDA's aluminum "safety" studies are:



A lone FDA scientist could end the autism epidemic

And, here's an article that summarizes all the recent science on aluminum:



Did British scientists just solve the autism puzzle?

And, here are just a few quotes from aluminum scientists worldwide warning about the DANGERS of aluminum adjuvant. Dr. Teresa Holtrop of the Michigan AAP--you are CLUELESS and RECKLESS.

It appears that six scientistsnone Americanhave stepped forward to sound the alarm loudly about the extreme danger of aluminum, and perhaps initiate a reckoning of the true cause of the autism epidemic once and for all. Dr. Chris Exley of Keele University; Drs. Romain Gherardi Guillemette Crepea of Universite Paris Est Creteil; Drs. Christopher Shaw and Lucija Tomljenovic of the University of British Columbia; and Dr. Yehuda Shoenfeld of Tel Aviv University have all contributed to the understanding we now have of aluminum, and the way it appears uniquely able to trigger immune activation events in the brains of certain children, leading to autism. Looking at some of their quotes collectively will help you appreciate how bold their statements really are. This new scientific understanding of aluminum changes everything. For me personally, I feel like I finally have a plausible explanation for what happened to my son.

Now, because I have seen the same cells that we will see at an injection site carrying a cargo of aluminum into the brain tissue of individuals who died with autism I would now say that we have to think very carefully about who receives a vaccine that includes an aluminum adjuvant. We need to think carefully, is this vaccine a life-saving vaccine or not? If it isnt, dont have it with an aluminum adjuvant. - Dr. Chris Exley, Keele University (England), 2017

Concerns about its [alums] safety emerged following recognition of its unexpectedly long-lasting biopersistence within immune cells in some individuals, and reports of chronic fatigue syndrome, cognitive dysfunction, myalgia, dysautonomia and autoimmune/inflammatory features temporally linked to multiple Al-containing vaccine administrationsIn the context of massive development of vaccine-based strategies worldwide, the present study may suggest that aluminium adjuvant toxicokinetics and safety require reevaluation. - Dr. Guillemette Crepeaux, Ecole Nationale Veterinaire dAlfort (France), 2016

Thus alum and other poorly biodegradable materials taken up at the periphery by phagocytes circulate in the lymphatic and blood circulation and can enter the brain using a Trojan horse mechanism similar to that used by infectious particles. Previous experiments have shown that alum administration can cause CNS [central nervous system] dysfunction and damage, casting doubts on the exact level of alum safety.- Dr. Romain K. Gherardi, Universite Paris-Est Creteil (France), 2015

it is somewhat surprising to find that in spite of over 80 years of use, the safety of Al adjuvants continues to rest on assumptions rather than scientific evidence. For example, nothing is known about the toxicology and pharmacokinetics of Al adjuvants in infants and childrenYet, in spite of these observations children continue regularly to be exposed to much higher levels of Al adjuvants than adults, via routine childhood vaccination programmes. - Dr. Chris Shaw, University of British Columbia (Canada), 2012

continuously escalating doses of this poorly biodegradable adjuvant in the population may become insidiously unsafe, especially in the case of overimmunization or immature/altered blood brain barrier. - Dr. Romain Gherardi, Universite Paris-Est Creteil (France), 2013

Experimental research has showed that alum adjuvants have a potential to induce serious immunological disorders in humans. Thus, efforts should be put in clarifying the potential threat of alum-containing vaccines.- Dr. Yehuda Shoenfeld, Tel-Aviv University (Israel), 2013

The problem with vaccine- derived aluminum is really twofold: It drives the immune response even in the absence of a viral or bacterial threat and it can make its way into the central nervous system. It is not really a matter of much debate that aluminum in various forms can be neurotoxic." - Dr. Lucija Tomljenovic, University of British Columbia (Canada), 2013Air cargo demand and revenues improved in January, but it is too early to tell whether this foreshadows another strong year for air cargo.

The latest figures from WorldACD show that worldwide cargo volumes increased by 8.5% year on year in January, compared with growth predictions for the year of around 4.5%.

However, the analyst warned that performance during the first two months of the year is affected by the timing of Chinese New Year. In 2018, the holiday fell on February 16, while last year it landed on January 28.

WorldACD said: Chinese New Year normally has two effects on trade: a spike in trade before, and trade diminishing afterwards. And although the negative influence is usually felt during the two weeks following Chinese New Year, the first four days bear the brunt of the decrease.

Thus, with GDP-growth in the world continuing, one would expect January to be much better in 2018 than in 2017.

But by how much? Based on freight tonne km data for the first three weeks of January, we believe that year on year volume growth in this pre-Chinese New Year-period may well have been in the range of 4%-6%.

A serious growth, surely, but hinting at an overall growth pace lower than the increase shown in the full January-figures.

The analyst said that the fastest growing origins during the month were: in Africa, Ghana (23%), in Asia Pacific from Australia (26%) and Japan (21%), in Latin America from Chile (22%) and Colombia (14%), in Europe from Germany (18%) and the UK (10%), in the Middle East and South Asia from Bangladesh (9%) and India (3%), and in the US from the Midwest (12%) and the Atlantic South (10%).

Air cargo revenues also performed well in January, with US dollar yields increasing by 16.8% compared with January 2017.

However, WorldACD pointed out that the yield increase was helped by a devaluing dollar and that the increase was only 1.6% in euros.

The analyst also continued its look back on 2017 in its monthly market update: Average worldwide yield for special cargo (excl. perishables) was 45% higher than for general cargo; a year earlier, the difference was 50%.

General cargo grew with 11% vs. 7% growth for other cargo categories; the figures for 2016 were 3% and 5% respectively.

High tech, flowers and pharmaceuticals showed the highest absolute growth of all special cargo.

Biggest contributors to the growth in these categories were Hong Kong and Singapore, Colombia and Ecuador, India and Belgium.

Put differently, the biggest contributors to the growth in these three categories, were DB Schenker, Cargomaster and Kuehne + Nagel.

Read more air cargo data news

Share this story



Favorable weather and record yields in soybeans and corn powered Alabama's farms to an almost $100 million increase in value in 2017.

According to the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture, Alabama bucked a national trend which saw a slight decrease. Alabama's crop values were up 11 percent over 2016.

Carla Hornady of the Alabama Farmers Federation said farmers needed higher yields to offset higher prices in seed, fertilizer, equipment and labor. Hornady is director for the Soybean, Cotton and Wheat & Feed Grain division of the federation.

Where were the increases? Soybean production was up 21 percent in 2017, with a record-high yield of 46 bushels an acre. There was also a record high yield in corn, with 167 bushels per acre for 39 million bushels statewide.

Alabama farmers produced 810,000 bales of cotton, up 15 percent over the previous year. They also harvested 704 million pounds of peanuts, a 14 percent increase.

Hay values were up by nearly $21 million over 2016.For 65 years residents of Athens, Alabama, have relied on The Sick Call radio show to find out which deaths, birthdays, anniversaries and special events. On Wednesday, Athens Mayor Willie Marks, presented the show's current hosts with a Key to the City.

A release from the City of Athens notes that the show, which premiered February 15, 1953, got the idea of a '"sick call" from the U.S. Army.

The show started at WJMW, when two local business owners, Buford Romine and J.C. Dobbs, started the program as a promotion for their two businesses: a restaurant and a shoe store.

The show later moved to its current home at WKAC in Athens, where program director Kirk Harvey says it has remained a morning staple for well over 20 years.

"My grandmother listened to to it when I was a kid," Harvey says. "It's been coming on at the same time in the morning for all those years. Back in those days, people didn't have the access to communications that we have now. Even, now that we have all this growth in technology, it's still kicking."

Jay Hudson came on the show as a co-host in 1973. In 2000, his son, Corey Hudson, joined him, making the show's current cast.

According to the City of Athens, many of the show's sponsors have kept their support of the show through several decades, including Dobbs' Shoe Shop, which is in its third generation of ownership.

Radio fans and visitors to the Athens area can catch the program every 8 a.m. from Monday through Saturday on WKAC 1080 AM.A state inmate who fell ill at a Shelby County halfway house and later died may have been under the influence of a dangerous street drug that has grown in popularity over the past several years.

Christopher Turner, a 38-year-old man serving time for theft of property out of Madison County, died Tuesday at Shelby Baptist Medical Center. Turner was being housed as the Alabama Therapeutic Education Facility, along with roughly 299 other state inmates, according to Alabama Department of Corrections spokesman Bob Horton.

Shelby County Coroner Lina Evans said Tuesday that Turner was one of 10 inmates who became ill after they were exposed to a substance. The "exposure" reportedly happened between 9 a.m. and 11 a.m. at the Columbiana facility.

Evans on Wednesday said one of the inmates reported that the substance was flakka, also known as gravel (because of its rock-like appearance) or flocka on the streets. Horton said he had not been made aware of the possibility of flakka being involved.

Flakka is a synthetic drug, somewhat of a newer version of bath salts. It delivers an instant high that can last from several hours to sever days.

Experts say the drug causes psychiatric, physical and cardiac reactions. The psychiatric symptoms include hallucinations, anxiety, and paranoia that can cause extreme aggression and violent behavior, said Shelby County Drug Enforcement Task Force Commander Lt. Clay Hammac. The task force is not involved in the investigation into the inmate's death.

Physical reactions to the drug include a rise in body temperature and dehydration that can cause muscle breakdown and kidney failure. Cardiac complications can include a rapid heart rate and high blood pressure that can cause a stroke, heart attack or death.

Flakka is often mixed with tobacco and marijuana and then smoked. "It's highly potent,'' Hammac said.

He said his investigators have seen some flakka on the streets but, according to their informants, it's most popular in prisons because it's easy to conceal and easy to ingest.

"It is a jailhouse drug,'' Hammac said. "It's dangerous stuff and it can be fatal."

Evans said Wednesday Turner's autopsy is complete, but the cause of death has not yet been determined pending toxicology testing.

ADOC's Horton said they can't confirm the report that flakka may have been ingested. The agency's Investigations and Intelligence Division is investigating the circumstances surrounding the inmate's death.

The other inmates who became ill have since been returned to the Alabama Department of Corrections, he said, where they are undergoing questioning about the incident.

The Alabama Therapeutic Education Facility is a privately-owned residential facility that provides behavioral, vocational, and educational services to eligible inmates before their release.Authorities have now positively identified the body of a man found burning on a Jefferson County roadside over the weekend.

The Jefferson County Sheriff's Office identified the victim as Monty Lewayne Davis. He was 29, and his death is being investigated as a homicide, said Chief Deputy Randy Christian.

Davis's body was discovered about 11:15 pm on Saturday, Feb. 24, when deputies responded to a report of a fire off the side of the road in the 300 block of Mulga Loop Road near the Minor Community. Once the fire was extinguished, deputies discovered the remains.

Family members on Monday posted on Facebook that Davis was missing, and that his mom and sister were worried sick. His sister said she last spoke with Davis Saturday evening when he told her he would be home by 11 p.m. because he had to go to work.

They tried to call him, but said his phone, starting Sunday morning, went straight to voicemail.

Christian said evidence indicates Davis had been shot elsewhere and then dumped off the side of Mulga Loop Road.

"It's unknown if his killer set him on fire for a thrill or to cover up what he did,'' Christian said. "Either way it's a sinister and degraded mind and person we are now searching for. I didn't say smart. "

"Now that we know who the victim is, we can start the process of finding out who he was with before he was found,'' he said. "We will get justice for him and for his family."

The investigation is ongoing. Anyone with information is asked to call the Jefferson County Sheriff's Office at 205-325-1450 or Crime Stoppers at 205-254-7777.Legislation affecting end of life medical care for terminally ill children and how that care would apply to children at school won overwhelming approval today in the Alabama House of Representatives.

The legislation is named after Alex Hoover of Athens, who died last year after striving to attend East Limestone High School with a terminal heart ailment. Alex's mother, Rene Collins, advocated for the legislation as a way to help terminally ill children like Alex attend school with medical orders that they would not receive certain life-sustaining medical interventions.

Rep. April Weaver, R-Brierfield, sponsored the two bills, which both passed the House without a dissenting vote.

"There's a very legitimate need for Alabama families who have terminally ill children to have avenues to work together with school systems to provide the best medical plan for care and also an educational plan for terminally ill children," said Weaver, who has worked with Collins on the legislation for about two years.

Weaver's first bill would create a task force that would help the Department of Public Health develop a form for a palliative and end of life care order for minors.

Parents of a terminally ill child could work with their doctors to write the end of life care orders. They could include "do not attempt resuscitation orders."

Weaver's second bill calls for development of palliative and end of life individual health plans for terminally ill children in school. It would create a task force that would advise the state Board of Education on the development of those individual health plans.

Parents of terminally ill children could work with school nurses to write individual health plans, which would incorporate the end of life care order for the child.

The individual health plans would outline school activities for the terminally ill child and the health care the child would receive.

Collins, Alex Hoover's mother, said it was important for Alex's quality of life to attend school and spend time with his peers.

Weaver said she believes the legislation can benefit other families with terminally ill children who want to stay in school.

"They like to be there with their friends," Weaver said. "They want to learn. They want to be in a school setting."

The bills move to the Senate.State employees would receive their first cost-of-living raise in a decade under a bill approved Tuesday by the Alabama Senate.

Senators voted 28-1 to approve a 3 percent pay raise for state employees. The bill now goes to the Alabama House of Representatives for debate.

"This is a long time in coming. It's been 10 years since we had a cost-of living adjustment for state employees. That being said, we've had some difficult waters economically between then and now," said Republican Sen. Clyde Chambliss of Prattville.

State employees have not had a cost-of-living increase since 2008. However, they have had merit raises.

Lawmakers this session are also expected to approve a 2.5 percent cost-of-living raise for teachers and public education employees. That proposal has cleared the Alabama House of Representatives and is headed to the Senate.

Senators also approved a one-time bonus for retired state and education employees. Retirees would get $1 for every month of service with the state. That measure also now heads to the House of Representatives.

An earlier proposal would have given a $400 bonus. Sen. Gerald Dial of Lineville said state had to work with the available money.

"Everything up here is a compromise. I'd like to give everybody $1,000," Dial said.A man accused of stealing a beer truck in northeast Alabama also faces multiple assault charges for punching and slapping police officers, authorities said.

La Morris Strickland (Collinsville police photo)

La Morris Strickland, a 39-year-old from Roanoke, is held in the DeKalb County Jail with bail set at $52,500. Strickland is charged with felonies first-degree theft, first-degree escape and three counts of assaulting an officer, according to the Collinsville Police Department. Collinsville is a small Sand Mountain town with about 2,000 residents.

Police said they encountered Strickland on Tuesday while investigating the theft of a Supreme Beverage delivery truck at the Mapco on Alabama 68 at Interstate 59. The store clerk told Deputy Chief Rex Leath the truck was stolen and taken across the highway to a Delta Express. Leath said when he found Strickland, the suspect claimed he was making deliveries. But, according to Leath, the actual delivery driver reported that Strickland had stolen the truck.

When Strickland was taken to the town jail on the theft charge, he became "belligerent and noncompliant," Leath said in a news release. After Leath and Reserve Officer Amanda McCormick used a stun gun on Strickland, the suspect punched McCormick in the face and shoved her to the ground, the news release states.

When Strickland ran out the front door of the police department, Leath Tased him, the release says. Strickland then punched and slapped the deputy chief, police said.

"Several bystanders saw what was happening and they tackled Strickland to the ground and he was then cuffed and placed under arrest for other charges," according to the news release. "As Strickland was being placed into the back of the patrol unit he slapped Deputy Chief Leath in the face."

From there, Strickland was taken to the DeKalb County Jail. Sheriff's deputies and Crossville police officers also assisted in the arrest.Update: Escaped inmate Kelvin Scruggs has been recaptured.

Original story: A Madison County inmate escaped from the Decatur Work Release Center Tuesday night, according to the Alabama Department of Corrections.

Kelvin D. Scruggs, 23, left from his assigned job location in Huntsville around 8:20 p.m., corrections officials said.

He was last seen wearing a red toboggan, red T-shirt, blue jeans, a black jacket and white shoes with red trim, officials said.

He was sentenced to 12 years in prison in May 2016 after he was convicted of first-degree assault.

Scruggs is a black male with black hair and brown eyes. He is 5 feet 6 inches tall and weighs about 130 pounds.

Anyone with information about Scruggs' whereabouts should contact the ADOC at 1-800-831-8825.

Updated Feb. 28 to show Scruggs has been recaptured.The Alabama attorney general's office is proposing sweeping changes to the state ethics law in a bill sponsored by Senate President Pro Tem Del Marsh.

The work that produced the 119-page bill started under former Attorney General Luther Strange and continued under Attorney General Steve Marshall.

The Legislature substantially changed the ethics law in 2010 after Republicans won majorities in the State House.

"Nearly a decade after its adoption there is a need to clarify portions of the law and address loopholes which have since been brought to light," Marshall said in an email. "The ethics reform bill is the product of over two years of hard work by the Attorney General's Office in gathering input from all affected parties and translating that feedback into a clearer, more effective ethics law."

The bill addresses, among other things, issues that surfaced during the prosecution and trial of former House Speaker Mike Hubbard, convicted of 12 felony ethics violations in 2016.

Just one of the many notable changes the bill proposes would change how public officials accused of wrongdoing can pay legal fees.

The bill would allow them to set up legal defense funds if they are under investigation or have been indicted or arrested for violations of the ethics law or campaign finance law or are the target of an ethics complaint.

They would have to file a written request with the Alabama Ethics Commission to establish the funds, including a sworn statement that they are under investigation or have been arrested or indicted. They would have to provide monthly public reports listing contributors to their legal defense fund and how much they gave, as well as expenditures.

The funds could not receive money from lobbyists or principals (people and companies that hire lobbyists) or from candidates' campaign accounts or political action committees. The bill would restrict spending from the defense funds to attorney fees and certain other costs that are directly part of the legal defense. It would require that legal defense funds be dissolved once the case is over and that the money be returned to contributors.

Under current law, public officials can use campaign finance funds for their legal defense, as Hubbard and others have done.

"This is an area which should have been addressed in the original ethics law," Marshall said. "There is widespread consensus that politicians should not be allowed to use funds raised in political campaigns for their legal defense. Such funds were never donated to pay a politician's court costs.

"We felt the law should be changed to call for the use of legal defense funds in which a politician could seek donations specifically for legal fees should they be the subject of an investigation. This process would provide greater transparency into the use of such funds."

Marsh, a Republican from Anniston who has led the Senate since 2010, said he was sponsoring the bill at the request of Marshall. Marsh said he encouraged senators to study the lengthy bill and provide him feedback. Marsh said he would meet with Marshall again after hearing from other lawmakers.

"There are about four or five ethics bills out there right now," Marsh said. "I'm told by the attorney general that this bill includes most of those issues in it. But there again, I'm waiting for my colleagues to give me feedback on that. At that point we'll decide whether to move forward with any of these bills."

The bill would amend about two dozen sections of the ethics law and add several new sections.

It would revise the definitions of many terms found in the law, including conflicts of interest, lobbying, minor violations, things of value, principals, and a friendship exception.

Public officials seeking informal advice from the Ethics Commission would be subject to new requirements, including submission of an affidavit saying they were disclosing all the material facts about the circumstances of their request.

The bill would substantially reduce the number of people who have to file statements of economic interests with the Ethics Commission. The statements disclose sources of income, debts, real estate holdings and other information, generally in broad ranges. Current law requires public officials to file the statements annually, as well as public employees who make at least $75,000.

The attorney general's bill would exempt many education employees and law enforcement employees from having to file the annual statements.

"One of the biggest complaints about the original ethics law is its overly broad application of personal reporting requirements for public employees who are not in positions of policy making," Marshall said. "For example, school teachers and law enforcement officers were under the same blanket burden to file income reports as the governor. Under our new ethics reform bill, nearly 50 percent fewer people would be required to file statements of economic interest."

Public officials, however, would be required to file more specific information on their statements of economic interests. Marshall said the current disclosure requirements are too vague.

"Broad categories of reporting effectively hid many potential conflicts," Marshall said. "Under the ethics reform bill, public officials and public employees would be required to disclose all entities for which they perform work and are paid more than $1,500. Furthermore, tough, new enforcement provisions will be implemented to ensure compliance and public disclosure of those who do not."

The bill was introduced relatively late in the legislative session. Tuesday was the 15th day of the maximum 30 meeting days. Legislative leaders have said they hope to end the session early this year, possibly in late March.

Asked if the bill has a chance to pass this session, Marsh said he could not say until he got feedback from other lawmakers.

Marshall said the reform bill would clarify the law and improve enforcement.

"I believe our ethics reform bill will encourage truly dedicated people to serve in public office by clearly defining the lines between legal and illegal behavior, by providing a clear process for Ethics Commission review of individual questions, and by ensuring that every person who violates the public trust will be held accountable," Marshall said.Mary Bahr remembers the bandages.

She was a fresh-faced 23-year-old Air Force intelligence officer during the Vietnam War. She would sometimes visit soldiers under nurses care.

One day, as someone turned off the lights to celebrate a soldiers birthday with a cake and candles, all Bahr saw was the tiny candle flames glow on a mass of white bandages that hid the soldiers damaged face blown by a landmine.

I tell this story now because I think people need to stop romanticizing war, Bahr said, noting she used to never tell it.

Bahr, now 73, was one of three Vietnam War veterans who spoke at 6 p.m. Tuesday at Pugh Hall Ocora for a panel discussion called Revisiting the Vietnam War. About 60 people attended the event, which was co-sponsored by the Bob Graham Center for Public Service and the Samuel Proctor Oral History Program, said Shelby Taylor, a Bob Graham Center spokesperson.

Vietnam is a pivotal moment in our nation's history, Taylor said. It's important to revisit these crucial events and examine how they impact and inform our politics and policy today.

The panelists discussed the role of technology in the war, American involvement and war protests. They also shared their feelings on Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. The conversation was moderated by Matthew Jacobs, a UF history associate professor.

The event was hosted to honor the 50th anniversary of the Tet Offensive, which started at the end of January 1968, Jacobs said. The Tet Offensive was a turning point in the Vietnam War that marked the beginning of American withdrawal.

Paul Ortiz, the UF Samuel Proctor Oral History Program director, said the panelists are all Gainesville residents who volunteered to speak. The panelists have previously worked with the history program, which conducts oral-history interviews with veterans.

In addition to Bahr, the panelists included Cornelius Clayton, a 74-year-old U.S. Army combat veteran, and John LeMoyne, a 74-year-old U.S. Army lieutenant general veteran and Purple Heart recipient.

When Clayton came home from the war, he said he hid his PTSD from everyone and slept with a gun under his pillow.

But after seeking help and finding solace in prayer, his mental health improved significantly.

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The stuff that went through in my head  I couldve blown my brains out, he said. But God kept me on the right side.

LeMoyne said during the war thousands died due to combat, suicide and drug overdose.

Was it worth it? he asked.

Steve Landay, a 75-year-old Gainesville resident, said he attended the event with his wife because they wanted to thank the panelists for their service.

As citizens, we need to question the wars we enter, Landay said. We need to appreciate the young people who are fighting now.

Three Vietnam War veterans spoke at 6 p.m. Tuesday at Pugh Hall Ocora for a panel discussion called Revisiting the Vietnam War. The moderator Matthew Jacobs, a UF history associate professor, spoke to panelists John LeMoyne, Cornelius Clayton and Mary Bahr.Read voraciously and see the arc of their work.

This was the advice given by award-winning poet Brian Turner, the featured speaker for ASUs 22nd Annual Writers Conference in Honor of Elmer Kelton this spring.

If you study the arc of other writers and their paths and journey through life in literature, Turner said, you can sometimes start to develop your own thoughts of how you might spend your time as a writer. There is too much to write about and not enough time. So if youre going to write, what will you write about, and how does one book inform the writing of the other?

Turner made two public appearances during the Writers Conference. The first was a question-and-answer session facilitated by Dr. Chris Ellery of the ASU English faculty, where Turner largely discussed his most recent project, editing a book of short stories titled The Kiss.

I asked writers to write about a profound and meaningful kiss, Turner said. Its not a very romantic book. Its a literary book, so its really about failures and successes of communication. I want to create a conversation, whether its successful or not, and talk about how people might try to come together and be meaningful to each other.

In his second presentation, Turner shared excerpts from his poetry collections, including his award-winning book, Here, Bullet. He has also written a memoir, My Life as a Foreign Country, which made Powells Best Nonfiction of 2014 list. But to his readers, hes primarily known as a poet.

There is too much to write about and not enough time. So if youre going to write, what will you write about, and how does one book inform the writing of the other? Brian Turner

Language is one of the ways I explore the world, he said. Since I was a boy, I was writing stories. In my teens, I started shifting to writing some poetry, mostly lyrics for songs, which I thought were poems. Once I got into college, I started taking some poetry classes. For me, the two art forms, the song lyric and the poem, work very differently.

Turner also served seven years in the U.S. Army, including one year as an infantry team leader in Iraq with the 3rd Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Infantry Division. It was then that his writing started to get noticed.

I wrote my first published book while I was in Iraq, Turner said. If I look at all the poems before that, I can see a very different kind of approach to the poem. The lines are much longer, much more musical. Before I was in the military, I could see the same sort of poetic approach being overlaid on whatever the subject was  so the music seemed the same regardless of the subject, which doesnt make sense.

When I was in Iraq, he continued, because of the many different pressures I put on the pen when I wrote something, it came out different. I tried to learn from that experience.

In addition to Turners presentations, the two-day conference included eight sessions featuring an array of Texas authors and poets who read from their various works. According to Turner, having a variety of authors at writers conferences are the perks of attending.

Writers feel very alone and isolated in their work, he said. Some people dont realize that. As writers, oftentimes youre sitting with a typewriter or computer in a coffee shop or in a home office and staring out. It can be anywhere in the world  its a similar experience.

But sometimes we get together, Turner continued. Its doesnt help with the writing, but it can help with the writing life. There are relationships and friendships that happen at these conferences. You can meet colleagues who may live hundreds of miles apart, but two years from now when you finish a draft of a book, you have a great reader who really understands where youre coming from, and vice versa.Posted on: February 28, 2018 12:55 PM

The vice-chancellor of a university owned by dioceses of the US-based Episcopal Church has sought to reassure students that it has steadfastly stood and continues to stand against sexual misconduct of any sort on the campus and in the workplace. The comment was made by John McCardell, vice-chancellor of Sewanee: The University of the South, in a letter addressed to Members of the University Community. It comes as students and staff continue their calls for the University to rescind an honorary degree granted to disgraced journalist Charlie Rose, who has apologised following claims of sexual harassment.

In his letter, Mr McCardell explains that the universitys ordinances gives the Senate  the Vice-Chancellor, the Provost, the Deans, all full professors, and the Chaplain of the University  the power to originate and discuss any proposal necessary for the good government, academic proficiency, repute, and common weal of the University, which they may think expedient to lay before the Board of Regents. And that it shall approve all candidates for honorary degrees.

He said that at a meeting of the Senate this week, the members voted unanimously to create draft procedures under which honorary degrees, once granted, could be reconsidered. The draft procedures would be taken to the Joint Regent-Senate Committee for discussion and eventual action.

He continued: As a result, there will be a process, where none had existed, for the orderly review of an honorary degree once awarded. The Ordinances of the University currently state that recipients of all honorary degrees must be approved by the Board of Regents  the universitys trustees  For this reason, any new, or revised, process for the granting or the reconsideration of honorary degrees will ultimately require the approval of the Board of Regents. The Senate members of the Honorary Degree Committee will work to ensure that the views of the faculty are solicited and communicated in the course of their work.

He said that the Senate also passed unanimously an advisory motion to rescind immediately the honorary degree awarded to Charlie Rose. This motion will be communicated to the Board of Regents.

A university spokeswoman told the Episcopal News Service that the Regents had no immediate response to the Mr McCardells statement; but that the body may be called together at any time by the chair to consider the Senates motion.

This past week has made us all painfully aware of both our institutional aspirations and the ways in which we still fall short of meeting them, McCardell said, referring to on-going protests about the universitys position. I pledge my own continued involvement and energy in articulating and advancing those aspirations, civilly and respectfully, and those many things we need yet to do to bring us closer to their attainment.

He said that: the university has steadfastly stood and continues to stand against sexual misconduct of any sort on the campus and in the workplace, has clear rules to that effect, and has well-established procedures for dealing with allegations that those rules have been violated.

The university continues actively to work to combat sexual misconduct, and a special task force . . . has been working diligently to . . . make recommendations that will continue to address the issue of campus sexual climate.

As there can be no mistaking the commitment of the university to these matters, so can there also be no mistaking the need for every member of the community to come forward with your own best thinking and suggestions. I know the task force will welcome those ideas; I will, personally, welcome them as well.

Sewanee: The University of the South, is owned by 28 dioceses of the US-based Episcopal Church. Its Board of Regents include the Bishop of Florida, Samuel Johnson Howard, the universitys Chancellor; the Bishop of East Carolina, Robert Skirving; the Bishop of Southwest Florida, Dabney Tyler Smith; and the Bishop of Louisiana, Morris Thompson.Posted on: February 28, 2018 12:06 PM

[Anglican Taonga, by Julanne Clarke-Morris] Eight Anglican bishops have called for a halt to the End of Life Choice Bill, which proposes legalising medically-assisted suicide and euthanasia in Aotearoa New Zealand. In their submission to the Justice Select Committee on the End of Life Choice Bill this week, the bishops recommended no change to existing laws, and called for more funding of palliative care and counselling support for patients and their [family].

Rather than introducing assisted dying as proposed in the Bill, the bishops believe their government should ensure New Zealanders have access to the best quality palliative and psycho-social care when faced with terminal illness. They cite Australian doctor Karen Hitchcock who in her 12 years of work in large public hospitals has often heard patients express a wish to die, but says the cause of that desire is seldom physical pain,

[It] is often because of despair, loneliness, grief, the feeling of worthlessness, meaninglessness or being a burden. I have never seen a patient whose physical suffering was untreatable, she said.

The bishops also point out that many legal care options enable medical staff to assist dying people: such as pain relieving drugs, sedation, and for those in a coma, withdrawal of artificial life support.

Bishop Steven Benford has administered pain medication to the dying on many occasions while serving in his medical vocation as an anaesthetics specialist. As doctors we often administer pain medication for a terminally ill patient  in the pretty sure expectation it could shorten their life, he says. But the matter of intention makes a big difference. When I administered pain medication to a person near death, even though I knew my action may risk hastening death, my intention was not to cause death, but to ease that persons suffering.

It would be very different to know that at the end of that needle in my hand was a substance that guaranteed the person in front of me would be dead in 15 minutes. That would change my intention from improving their quality of life to actively causing death.

That is not a role I think many doctors would choose.

The eight bishops question the mono-cultural character of public conversation on assisted dying, noting Maori voices have been under-represented. They ask whether the law should go ahead without adequate attention to the Treaty principle of Maori input into laws that affect [family and community life].

The eight bishops supporting the joint submission against the End of Life Choice Bill are: the Bishop of Auckland, Ross Bay; the Bishop of Christchurch, Victoria Matthews; the Bishop of Dunedin, Dr Steven Benford; the Bishop of Nelson, Richard Ellena; the Bishop of Te Waipounamu, Richard Wallace, the Bishop of Waiapu, Andrew Hedge; the Bishop of Waikato and Taranaki, Archbishop Philip Richardson, and the Bishop of Wellington, Justin Duckworth.Max Mosley and the right to ask offensive questions

Most of us have never met press reform campaigner Max Mosley (and Im including some members of the spanking community in that) nor his father, the fascist Oswald Mosley who married Diana Mitford in Joseph Goebbels drawing room. She was a woman dubbed Hitlers Angel. Max knew her as mum. My own ancestors living in Londons Stepney and Whitechapel did have a run-in with Mosley Senior a while back, chiefly when in his guise as leader of the Black Shirts, the aristo and former Labour Party government minister wanted to march his gang of booted anti-Semites through Cable Street in East London. The aim was to intimidate the local Jews. Back then lots of people who didnt much like the Nazi-styled Black Shirts disobeyed the law by turning out in force, blocked the march and won the day. Officialdom did sod all to protect them. It was a victory for the united people of the East End.

Our bloodlines, however, have not crossed since. I know what I know of Mosley and his family by reading and hearing about them. Eventually, I might even form an opinion on Max from looking at the press, TV and books. The questions raised by the desire to know are in principle all answerable by common-sense experience and common-sense reasoning, wrote Hannah Arendt. We read a lot of things. We think about them, debate them and, through reason, try to reach the truth.

And today we get to know a bit more about Max Mosley. Hes back in the news. The Times says Mosley is facing questions about whether he lied to the High Court after the discovery of a racist political leaflet published in his name.

The 1961 document links leprosy, venereal disease and tuberculosis to coloured immigration and argues that Jamaicans should be sent back home. Mr Mosley, the former Formula One boss turned press reform campaigner, was questioned about the leaflets during his 2008 High Court privacy case against the News of the World. Under oath, he said that he did not recall putting out election literature urging voters to send black people home. He also explicitly denied that any leaflets from the 1961 campaign accused immigrants of bringing leprosy, syphilis and TB, saying: That is absolute nonsense. Confronted with a copy of one of the leaflets last night, he rejected the offensive suggestion that he lied under oath and appeared to question if it was genuine. If it is genuine, it doesnt reflect my views today, he said during a combative live appearance on Channel 4 News. This was in 1961. I ceased to have any involvement in my fathers movement in 1963.

Here he is on Channel 4 news:

The part about Tom Watson is of interest. The Deputy leader says a Labour Government would set up Leveson II and enforce state-backed press regulation. So much for a free press. The State will decide what is and what is not fit and proper for you to read. No need for reason when the State does the thinking for you. Youll be free to think about other stuff, like How the hell did this happen?, Isnt it great that we all agree on everything and Why is fake news now the only news?

Spotting error is essential to solving problems and progress. Stymie expression  the right to make mistakes  and we are all isolated from one another and diminished. As the philosopher Karl Popper noted:

In spite of everything, and although we have had so many failures, we, the citizens of the western democracies, live in a social order which is better (because more favourably disposed to reform) and more just than any other in recorded history. Further improvements are of the greatest urgency. (Yet improvements that increase the power of the state often bring about the opposite of what we are seeking.)

The story is on the cover of the Mail. It begins with a question. And for what its worth, Id cede to Betteridges Law of headlines: Any headline that ends in a question mark can be answered by the word no.

The Mail focuses on Mosleys relationship with the media:

He has bankrolled Labour deputy leader Tom Watson and Impress  the State-approved media watchdog which critics say opens the door to statutory control of the Press Mr Mosley has also pledged 3.8 million via a family trust to fund Impress, the controversial Press regulator which is underwritten by statute and supported by Mr Watson and the pressure group Hacked Off, but shunned by the newspaper industry which views it as a threat to freedom of expression.

The Guardian notes the response:

It appears that the historical investigation pursued by the Daily Mail is yet another misconceived attempt to intimidate and deter me. I will continue to campaign for the vital reforms needed to protect ordinary people against the bullying of newspapers like the Daily Mail. In response to the leaflet, Watson told the Mail: My views on press regulation are well known and have not changed. The views expressed by Max as a young man are not the views he holds now, just as the Rothermere family no longer uses its newspapers to support fascism.

And so there it is. A free Press is the right to report things people of power and influence dont want you to know. Its the right to cause offence. More power to it. And more power to anyone who can prove it wrong by establishing their facts as authentic and true. After all, our desire is to know the truth and therein become better.

PS:

This just happened at a Jeremy Corbyn speech Q&A:

Rebecca Long-Bailey (ignoring multiple journalists raised hands): Do we have any questions from non-journalists?

Activist: I want to say, please will you hurry up and be our Prime Minister.  Tom Newton Dunn (@tnewtondunn) February 26, 2018

If we are now all citizen journalists  something Jeremy Corbyn is keen to foster as he invites non-journalists from outside the hated mainstream media (see Trump. D) to ask him questions  will each of us with a social media account need to sign up to State regulation for our right to publish tweets and Facebook posts? A vibrant field of open debate will end when the State is the only one holding the mic.

Paul Sorene

Posted: 28th, February 2018 | In: Key Posts, News Comment | TrackBack | PermalinkCAIRO - The Egyptian public prosecutor's office has called for the monitoring of media and social networks to reveal false information that could harm state security. The announcement was in a statement by the prosecutor's office, issued ''in light of recent attempts by the forces of evil to undermine the safety and security of the nation by broadcasting and spreading lies''. Public prosecutor Nabil Ahmed Sadek has tasked magistrates both with ''closely following these media and reporting news, statements and rumors that could harm general security or terrorize Egyptians'' as well as with ''taking necessary measures in line with the criminal code''. The statement said that ''the bodies responsible for information and social media must carry out their nationalistic and professional role and inform the public prosecutor's office of everything that represents a violation'' of information regulations. The announcement was released the day after the press office of the Egyptian government called for a boycott of the BBC, not granting interviews with its journalists, until the British public broadcaster withdraws a report on alleged systematic repression in Egypt. Since President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi took office, at least almost 130 websites and 50,000 Facebook pages have been blocked in the country as part of a crackdown targeting mostly of NGOs and activists.

TUNIS - The Tunisian culture ministry has refused to authorize the screening of the film 'Chiamami Col Tuo Nome' ('Call Me by Your Name'), directed by Luca Guadagnino.



The film was supposed to make its national debut in the country on Wednesday at Tunis's Le Colisee cinema. The announcement of the lack of authorization was made on the cinema's Facebook page. 'Call Me by Your Name' has been nominated for four Oscars: Best Film, Best Original Song (Sufjan Stevens's 'Mistery of Love'), Best Non-Original Screenplay (adapted by James Ivory) and Timothee Chalamet for Best Actor. Shot in the Lombard countryside and based on an adaptation of a novel by the same name by Andre Aciman, it is the story of an Italian summer in which the young Elio, played by Timothee Chamalet, goes through his first sentimental experiences after meeting the American student Oliver (played by Armie Hammer).



Other members of the cast are Michael Stuhlbarg, Amira Casar and Esther Garrel. Local media say that the ministry asked the cinema management to not show the film ''to avoid problems''.



Films dealing with homosexual themes have been banned in the country before, for example with 'La Vie d'Adele' by the French-Tunisian director Abdellatif Kechiche in 2013 and the Tunisian documentary 'Upon the Shadow' by Nada Mezni Hafaiedh, which despite winning the Bronze Tanit at the Carthage Cinema Days last year was not screened in the country's cinemas after that.Algeria, Turkey sign 7 cooperation agreements Bilateral trade to reach 10 bn dollars

(ANSAmed) - TUNIS, FEBRUARY 28 - Turkey and Algeria signed seven cooperation agreements in various sectors on Tuesday during the visit by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to the Algerian capital. These include an important agreement between Algerian state energy company Sonatrach and the Turkish companies Ronensas and Bayegan to strengthen cooperation in the hydrocarbons sector. The visit was also intended to strengthen diplomatic ties between the two countries, including future visa exemptions. During the opening of an Algerian-Turkish business forum Erdogan said that bilateral trade will reach 10 billion dollars in the coming months and invited Turkish entrepreneurs to invest in Algeria, describing it as an "island of political and economic stability in the Mediterranean and in Africa". Erdogan was received by his Algerian counterpart Abdelaziz Bouteflika, with whom he discussed various matters including diplomatic relations between the two countries. (ANSAmed).



AMMAN - Jordan's public debt reached JD27.269 billion ($38.44) in 2017, a staggering %95.3 of the GDP, the Finance Ministry said today.

Meanwhile, the debts of the National Electric Power Company (NEPCO) and the Water Authority of Jordan (WAJ), which are guaranteed by the central government, reached JD7.2 billion ($10 billion) by the end of last year.

Jordan's public debt has the IMF worried after Standard & Poor's downgraded its value last year, putting at risk future commitments of the struggling country. The decision by Standard & Poors prompted authorities to carry out a series of austerity measures to please its creditors.

Prime minister Hani Mulki earlier this year cut subsidies on bread, hiked prices of a large number of commodities and increased taxation, a move that proved provocative in the kingdom's street, triggering wide spread protests. But, IMF has also warned that the measures are not enough as the government needs to tackle issue of taxation and public spending.

Economists say the rise in public debt, verses GDP is remarkable, climbing from %71 in 2011 to %95.3 in 2017, according to economists who are concerned that the kingdom 'might go bankrupt' unless drastic measures are taken.

The recent cut of subsidies and tax hikes are meant to cut down public debt to %77 of GDP by 2021, but observers are concerned the plans are too ambitious in a country riddled with high level corruption and struggling economy that heavily depends on foreign aid.

They say job creation in the public sector to increase the king's popularity among local tribes has backfired, with capital expenditure mounting to more than %80 of the government's annual budget.

Foreign borrowing continues as the government remains committed to maintaining a level of satisfaction among its supporters' base, who make up majority of the security and army institutions, vital to the stability of the regime. But economists have warned that the government could be shooting itself in the foot unless drastic measures are taken including cutting public sector jobs, fighting bloated corruption and ending lavish spending among high ranking officials and the royal court.Egyptian prosecutor orders media monitoring 'Action against those harming state security' after BBC boycott

(ANSAmed) - CAIRO, FEBRUARY 28 - The Egyptian public prosecutor's office has called for the monitoring of media and social networks to reveal false information that could harm state security. The announcement was in a statement by the prosecutor's office, issued ''in light of recent attempts by the forces of evil to undermine the safety and security of the nation by broadcasting and spreading lies''. Public prosecutor Nabil Ahmed Sadek has tasked magistrates both with ''closely following these media and reporting news, statements and rumors that could harm general security or terrorize Egyptians'' as well as with ''taking necessary measures in line with the criminal code''. The statement said that ''the bodies responsible for information and social media must carry out their nationalistic and professional role and inform the public prosecutor's office of everything that represents a violation'' of information regulations. The announcement was released the day after the press office of the Egyptian government called for a boycott of the BBC, not granting interviews with its journalists, until the British public broadcaster withdraws a report on alleged systematic repression in Egypt. Since President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi took office, at least almost 130 websites and 50,000 Facebook pages have been blocked in the country as part of a crackdown targeting mostly of NGOs and activists. (ANSAmed).



Hariri in S. Arabia for first time since Nov crisis Lebanese premier resigned in Riyadh then changed his mind

(ANSAmed) - BEIRUT, FEBRUARY 28 - Lebanese Premier Saad Hariri arrived in Saudi Arabia on Wednesday for a visit marking the rapprochement between the two countries following a crisis triggered last November by his resignation announced by Riyadh and which was subsequently withdrawn.



Hariri is due for talks with King Salman and the young crown prince Mohammad.



The premier said his resignation was intended to provoke a 'positive shock' in Lebanon against its involvement in regional conflicts, denouncing in particular the influence of Iran.



However, the Lebanese authorities including President Michel Aoun accused Saudi Arabia of orchestrating the crisis and of holding Hariri against his will. The Lebanese premier's visit to Riyadh follows a visit by a Saudi envoy to Beirut at the start of the week in a bid to resolve the crisis between the countries. Hariri withdrew his resignation following his return from Riyadh in November after receiving reassurances from all the political-confessional groups in the country, and in particular from the pro-Iran Hezbollah, concerning a policy of 'disassociation' from regional conflicts. (ANSAmed).



A new dawn for aviation in Saudi Arabia  and a further indication that greater liberalisation in the kingdom is gaining pace  came when CAE and the Saudi National Company of Aviation (SNCA) announced they are to open a new CAE authorised training centre in Damman to train both Saudi and non-Saudi commercial pilots.

Although there are already training academies within Saudi Arabia, the new Damman base has promised to train both men and women pilots on the same curriculum.

It was only in September last year that it was announced that women could now drive in the kingdom.

The new centre will be funded by SNCA, with CAE providing all the training elements under its Oxford Aviation Academy. It will be located at King Fahad International Airport on a dedicated 40,000sqm site.

Developing the pilots of tomorrow is our priority and, as the leading worldwide training organisation, CAE is the most suitable partner to help us with the launch of this project and to accompany us on this journey, said SNCA president and chief executive, Othman Al Moutairi.

This centre gives us the ability to supply locally trained pilots to our growing regional and global airlines, while also providing a highly skilled career opportunity for students.

Nick Leontidis, CAE Group president of civil aviation training, said: We are honoured to support our partners in the aviation industry to establish new training centres. This new centre is testament to our commitment to shaping the future of pilot training.

The announcement follows a decision by Saudi Arabian Airlines, the kingdoms national carrier, to consider sending qualified women on scholarships to study to become pilots abroad.

Dubai newspaper, Gulf News, reported an airline source saying that the move would help shatter taboos that stood for decades, relating it to the decision of Saudi women gaining the right to drive in the kingdom.

No law existed preventing women from becoming pilots. However, social and cultural taboos, as well as meagre job prospects, held them back from embracing a career in aviation. Nonetheless several succeeded where others feared to tread.

Hanadi Al-Hindi received her pilots license in 2006, after completing her training in Jordan. However, she wasnt able to find work or fly within in the kingdom until 2014, when she was hired by Prince Al Waleed Bin Talals Kingdom Holding Company. That was really difficult, being a pilot who cannot fly in her own country, Hindi told the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) in an interview.

According to Al Moutairi: Men and women will be taught the same curriculum in the academy and we do have future plans to have female instructors and aviation trainers.

The academy is a private entity but there are numerous financial aids. We have a number of partnering banks and companies who are willing to give interest-free loans,.

The academy completely adheres the standards of the General Authority for Civil Aviation. Only 40% of pilots in the Saudi job market are Saudis and only two of them are women. We aspire to have 60,000 pilots and technicians over the next 20 years.

Latest News

Recaro Aircraft Seating to outfit Qatar Airways with new economy class seat Recaro Aircraft Seating (Recaro) is to equip Qatar Airways with its brand-new CL3810 economy class seat. Starting at the end of 2022, twenty shipsets of the CL3810 will be installed on the new A321neo fleet.

Emirates seeks 3,000 cabin crew and 500 airport services employees Emirates has begun a worldwide campaign to recruit 3,000 cabin crew and 500 airport services employees to join its Dubai hub over the next six months.

AERALIS secures investment from Middle Eastern sovereign wealth fund UK aerospace start-up AERALIS and a Middle Eastern sovereign wealth fund signed an investment agreement at Londons DSEI show as part of developing AERALISs innovative modular aircraft system for transforming the defence light jet

Qatar Airways joins ICAO Global Coalition for sustainable aviation Qatar Airways has announced its participation on the Global Coalition for Sustainable Aviation of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), becoming the first airline in the Middle East to join the global coalition.

Flydubai celebrates ten years of flying to Ukraine Flydubai is celebrating ten years since its first commercial flight to Ukraine in 2011.Just months after killing off plans for the Falcon 5X following the ongoing failure of the Safran Silvercrest engine the French manufacturer Dassault Aviation has unveiled the Falcon 6X, featuring many of the design attractions of the 5X but with a larger cabin and more powerful engines.

The new 5,500 nm aircraft was unveiled in Paris this morning and will make its first flight in early 2021 and begin deliveries in 2022.

Pratt & Whitney Canada's PurePower PW800 engines have been selected to power the aircraft which offers more cabin volume than any other Falcon ever designed.

The 6X is largely based on the Falcon 5X aerodynamics and system features which were validated during the 5X preliminary flight test program. It has been optimized to take advantage of the new engine, offering a greater range and a longer cabin.

"The industry has been moving towards ever wider and higher interiors, and customers told us what they wanted most in our new Falcons was more space," said Dassault CEO Eric Trappier. "So we designed the Falcon 6X from the cabin out, making it as passenger-centric as we could while still delivering the high performance and other flying qualities that customers value in Falcons."

The 6X will have top speed of Mach 0.90 and a maximum range of 5,500 nautical miles (10,186 km), and can fly directly from Los Angeles to Geneva, Beijing to San Francisco or Moscow to Singapore at long range cruise speed. It can also connect New York to Moscow, Paris to Beijing or Los Angeles to London at a cruise of Mach 0.85.

The aircraft also comes with noise suppression systems, based heavily on experience with the new Falcon 8X - claimed by the company to be the current benchmark in noise comfort - and an all-new cockpit and third generation EASy III all digital flight deck.

It will be delivered with a full package of equipment, including Dassault's FalconSphere II electronic flight bag and the revolutionary FalconEye Combined Vision System - the first head up display to combine enhanced and synthetic vision capabilities.

The Falcon 6X is equipped with an ultra-efficient wing that minimizes the impact of turbulence and a next generation digital flight control system that controls all moving surfaces, including a novel control surface called a flaperon. The 6X is the first business jet to use a flaperon, which considerably improves control during approach, especially on steep descents.

Eric Trappier told Arabian Aerospace that "Dassault Aviation is confident and optimistic that the 6X will interest a worldwide market. " He added that Dassault Aviation will be able to deliver two aircraft per month depending on the market evolution. " We will need to be very reactive, flexible and adapt our production capacity. We hope to get contracts in the coming days, months and years as we have the best model in this segment. "Emirates Skywards, the award-winning loyalty programme of Emirates airline, has reached 20 million members.

Emirates Skywards will be celebrating with its members. Those travelling from Dubai on Emirates flights during the week beginning 4th March 2018 can look forward to little surprises at check-in, on board and in the lounges for some of its longest-standing members.

In an average month, Emirates Skywards welcomes 220,000 new members across the globe. The top 5 countries with the largest member bases are spread across 4 continents reflecting Emirates six-continent global network. UK has the biggest membership base at 2.6 million, followed by the US with 1.8 million members. Australia has 1.7 million members and India and the UAE, the airlines home base, follow closely with 1.4 million members each.

The programme has evolved in the 17 years since its inception in line with changing travel and lifestyle habits. Emirates Skywards is focussed on delivering ever more personalised experiences for its members. We provide a wide array of earn and redeem options across a number of categories: travel, retail and lifestyle and across geographies, leveraging more than 100 partners worldwide, said Dr Nejib Ben Khedher, Senior Vice President, Emirates Skywards.Oman Air recently exhibited at the Philippines Travel Agencies Association (PTAA) Travel Tour Expo and the Thai International Travel Fair (TITF).

Oman Air representatives welcomed guests at both events with traditional Omani coffee, dates, and flyers as an incentive to travel with Oman Air.

The PTAA Travel Tour Expo is considered to be the Philippines largest annual travel and tourism event and this year celebrated its 25th anniversary. Some 335 companies exhibited at the SMX Convention Center in Pasay City, where more than 140,000 people attended over the course of the three day event.

The interactive exhibition hosted key representatives from airlines, travel agencies, tour operators, hotels, food concessionaires, government agencies and tourist organisations from across the world. The colourful event allowed Oman Air officials the opportunity to promote Oman as a world class destination to the growing Filipino travel market. The airline was able to educate the fellow industry officials and new guests on the airlines world class aircrafts, upcoming routes, flight networks and frequency in general.Pratt & Whitney Canada have announced that a new variant of its ground-breaking PurePower PW800 turbofan engine has been selected to power the new Dassault Falcon 6X business jet, unveiled by Dassault Aviation earlier today.

The PW812D engine, thrust 13,000-14,000 lbs, is set to offer exceptional performance, unparalleled reliability and sustainability. Ready to enter service on other aircraft, the PurePower PW800 engine is optimized for high-flying, fast, long-range business jets and shares the same proven, rigorously-tested core technology used in Pratt & Whitney's award-winning PurePower family of geared turbofan commercial engines. The advanced common core technology, employed in 16 different PurePower engine applications, has amassed more than 585,000 in-service hours.

With the new Falcon 6X, our PurePower PW800 engine once again demonstrates its leadership in the long range business jet category, said Irene Makris, Vice-President, Marketing, Pratt & Whitney Canada. The PW812D offers the highest level of technology available, paired with the reliability provided by an award-winning platform."TAV Airports has signed an agreement to buy IC Ictas shares at Antalya Airport in southern Turkey.

TAV will have equal rights in the management of the airport.

Turkeys global brand in airport operations, TAV Airports is buying IC ictas 49% stake in ICF Antalya, the joint-venture that manages Antalya Airport.

Consequently, the number of airports in TAVs portfolio reaches 18 and the annual number of passengers served increases to approximately 141 million. The share purchase agreement between TAV and IC Ictas will be finalized following the approval by the State Airports Authority (DHMI) and the Competition Authority. As per the agreement, TAV will have co-control of the company and 50% dividend rights. Turkeys second biggest in terms of international passenger traffic, Antalya Airport had served more than 26 million passengers in 2017.

TAV Airports President and CEO Sani Sener said, As TAV, our core business is airport management and we continue to focus on this industry. We will be happy to partner with Fraport in Antalya, one of the most prominent tourism destinations in the Mediterranean. Four years ago, we had shifted our strategy to grow our airport management portfolio while steering our service companies to grow beyond TAV, in order to compensate for the foreseen closure of Istanbul Ataturk. Today, our services and products are used in 77 airports across 19 countries. In our existing airports, we are serving to 115 million passengers and now we add more than 18 million international passengers, with the inclusion of Antalya in our portfolio. Being the second largest airport in turkey in terms of international traffic, Antalya Airport transaction grows our foothold in Turkey and further underlines our commitment to investing in our home country, and to the Turkish aviation market. With our extensive know-how, we aim to work towards strengthening Antalyas true potential. Well continue looking for opportunities on a global scale and growing in the airport management industry.While Bhutan has no diplomatic ties with China, both countries are reportedly engaged in talks over the resolution of the dispute in the area.

Three days after Prime Minister Narendra Modi held talks with his Bhutanese counterpart Tshering Tobgay on the sidelines of the investors summit in Guwahati, February 6-7, Army Chief Gen. Bipin Rawat, foreign secretary Vijay K. Gokhale and national security adviser Ajit Doval proceeded on an initially unreported visit to Bhutan  a rare one and a first of such a combination  during which they held extensive talks with top Bhutanese leaders on strategic issues, including the situation in Doklam.

The two sides reviewed bilateral security and defence cooperation issues with a focus on Chinas increasing military posturing and infrastructure development in the key Doklam plateau. The Bhutanese side apprised the Indians about the status of boundary talks between Bhutan and China and emphasised that Thimphu wants peace in the Doklam tri-junction.

As a close friend and neighbour, Bhutan enjoys diplomatic and military support from India, based on the Treaty of Friendship between India and Bhutan of August 8, 1949, renegotiated and signed as a new treaty of friendship in 2007. The new treaty replaced the provision requiring Bhutan to take Indias guidance on foreign policy with broader sovereignty and not require Bhutan to obtain Indias permission over arms imports.

While Bhutan has no diplomatic ties with China, both countries are reportedly engaged in talks over the resolution of the dispute in the area. Any incursion by China into Doklam is of great concern to India as it is a tri-junction involving the three countries and the Chinese Peoples Liberation Army (PLA) has since past 50 years been ceaselessly making incursions and transgressions across the 4,056-km long Line of Actual Control (LAC), despite peace and tranquility agreements. The 2012 agreement between special representatives of the two countries has been followed up with 20 rounds of talks. The only saving grace so far is that since the bloody 1967 Sino-Indian skirmishes at Nathu La, Sikkim, prolonged stand-off at Sumdorong Chu during 1986-87, many other incursions and transgressions, including Doklam in 2017  50 years since 1967  all have been resolved by dialogue ranging from local commanders to diplomatic levels. But the Chinese modus of constantly trying to push the envelope and test Indias patience, as seasoned writer of Tibetan and Sino-Indian affairs Claude Arpi puts it, have continued, as seen, even after the Doklam stand-down.

The 73-day-long standoff in Doklam beginning from June 16 ended on August 28, 2017 mainly because China did not want to risk Prime Minister Narendra Modis refusal to attend the Brics summit from September 3-5, 2017. That is why it was timed a week before the summit and paid off as it also paved the way for a one-on-one meeting between Mr Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping on September 4. While during the standoff there was much bluster and very strong statements against India by China, put out through its government-controlled media, the resolution was followed by many positive statements. However, this writer is one of some Indian analysts who were not convinced about the post-August 28 thaw/cessation of construction activity at Doklam and withdrawal from it being permanent.

During the pre-Army Day interaction with the media on January 12, 2018, Gen. Rawat, in reply to this writers query, explained the layout of Doklam and the current deployment of the PLA there. He informed that while in North Doklam facing Bhutan, Chinese troops had thinned out  not withdrawn fully  and that they had left all their tents and material intact, whereas in South Doklam, which faces India, they had cleared out.

During the same presser the Army Chief also made a mention that future wars would be fought on difficult terrains and in circumstances that Indian forces would have to be prepared for.

On February 20, 2018, minister of foreign affairs of Bhutan Lyonpo Damcho Dorji was on a three-day official visit to India. External affairs minister Sushma Swaraj held talks with Mr Dorji on February 21, 2018, covering the entire gamut of bilateral relations, including the upcoming high-level exchanges between the two countries. They expressed satisfaction at the excellent state of bilateral ties, which are unique and time tested, and reiterated their commitment to further advance these exemplary ties for mutual benefit. The two leaders reviewed the commemorative activities planned this year to mark the golden jubilee of formal diplomatic relations between India and Bhutan and both the ministers attended a special event hosted by the Royal Bhutanese embassy in New Delhi, as part of the golden jubilee celebrations to coincide with the 38th birthday of His Majesty, the King of Bhutan.

The US geopolitical intelligence company Stratfor, observing the Doklam area has reportedly stated: the imagery confirms that both China and India are pursuing a wide-ranging strategic build-up that has only accelerated in the wake of the 27 August agreement. Stratfors images focus on the accompanying build-up in air power to support ground forces. On the Indian side of the border, imagery of Bagdogra airbase near Siliguri and Hasimara Air Force station shows how India has moved to reinforce its air power close to the Doklam plateau. Bagdogra normally has a transport helicopter unit while Hasimara was the base for MiG-27ML ground attack aircraft until they were phased out at the end of 2017. Stratfors images show that since mid-2017, Indian Air Force has greatly increased the deployment of Su-30MKI jets to these airbases. The advanced BrahMos cruise missile can reach into the Tibet Autonomous Region and counter Chinas elaborate missile deployment along the LAC.

On the Chinese side, Stratfor says: an even greater level of activity is visible from imagery of the Chinese airbases near Lhasa and Shigatse. This expansion may indicate a greater build-up by the Chinese, but Stratfor notes: it could also reflect the more advanced facilities at these bases. Furthermore, unlike India, Chinas lack of airbases close to the LAC forces it to concentrate more of its air power at these airports.

Imagery of the two airbases shows a significant presence of fighter aircraft (which Stratfor says peaked in October 2017) and a notable increase in helicopters, as well as deployments of KJ-500 airborne early warning and command aircraft, components of the HQ-9 long-range surface-to-air missile system and Soar Dragon unmanned aerial vehicles at Shigatse Peace Airport. Immediately after the Doklam standoff, the Chinese upgraded the Shigatse airfield with a new runaway constructed by mid-December and other infrastructure improvements.

The Stratfor analysis concludes: It is only a question of time until a new flashpoint along the LAC emerges, and as the increased activity shows, both sides will have greater capabilities to bring to bear in any future crisis. The fact that for 50 years since 1967, Chinese forces have thousands of times provoked their Indian counterparts with transgressions/incursions across the LAC and often both have at most grappled, wrestled, etc, and negotiated without the Chinese pulling the trigger only means that they have been all along and are still  as in Doklam  mindful of skirmishes at Nathu La and Cho La, Sikkim in 1967, when the PLA suffered about 400 fatal casualties and destruction of a convoy of vehicles and many bunkers. While India has never and most likely will never pull any trigger first, no matter how much more superiority Chinese may have in numbers of troops and weapon systems, it will not be in Chinas interest at all to up the ante again and lead to an armed confrontation.

Meanwhile, India seems fated to keep managing the LAC, albeit assertively, because China does not seem to be inclined so far towards meaningful peace and tranquility.

The writer, a retired Army officer, is a defence and security analyst based in New Delhits vendetta, whole exercise is to politically target my father, says Karti Chidambaram.

Chennai/New Delhi: Karti Chidambaram was on Wednesday arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation at Chennai airport on his arrival from London over its probe into the INX Media case. Karti, son of former Union finance minister P. Chidambaram, was taken into custody by the CBI around 8 am at Chennai airport and put on a flight immediately to New Delhi, where he was taken to the agencys headquarters for some formalities, after which he was produced before a local court.

Later in the evening, a CBI court in New Delhi sent Karti to one-day CBI custody. The Central agency had sought his custody for 15 days, alleging he was not cooperating with the probe. The CBI had registered an FIR on May 15 last year against alleged irregularities in the FIPB clearance to INX Media for receiving overseas funds to the tune of `305 crores in 2007, when Mr Chidambaram was Union finance minister.

Though Karti was arrested in Chennai, the CBI, which has all-India jurisdiction, decided to produce him in a New Delhi court. The duty magistrate, remanding him to one-day CBI custody, asked the agency to produce Karti before the concerned judge on Thursday. When Karti was brought to the Patiala House courts, he told the media: It is absolutely a political vendetta. I will be vindicated. Earlier, Karti wrote on the arrest memo, before signing it: This whole exercise is to politically target my father.

The Congress leader had fought a protracted legal battle seeking permission to travel to London to get his daughter admitted to Cambridge University. The Supreme Court had allowed him to travel to London in November. Karti arrived in Chennai on Wednesday after a visit to the UK last month.

The FIR alleges Karti had got funds to the tune of `10 lakhs for grant of clearance to INX Media and also that he got money from INX Media to scuttle a tax probe. Peter and Indrani Mukerjea, who are now in jail on charges of murdering Indranis daughter Sheena Bora, had then owned INX Media.

Kartis father P. Chidambaram, who had left for London only on Tuesday night, was rushing back to India following his sons arrest. Kartis arrest on Wednesday followed several rounds of raids on the houses and offices owned by the Chidambarams.

A lookout notice, which prevents a passenger from travelling abroad, was issued against him as probe agencies suspected he would try to close foreign accounts where he had parked the money from the kickbacks. In November, the Supreme Court allowed Karti Chidambaram to go to the UK for his daughters admission to Cambridge University.

The Foreign Investment Promotion Board clearance was given to INX Media in 2007 when Mr Chidambaram was finance minister. INX Media had run channels like NewsX, which has now changed hands.

During the New Delhi hearing, CBI prosecutor V.K. Sharma told the court that Karti has not cooperated in the investigation and he was repeatedly travelling abroad which confirmed apprehensions that he will flee from the country. He alleged one of the grounds for arresting Karti was that the CBI had recorded the statement of Indrani Mukerjea before a magistrate on February 17 in which she said Karti had accepted $1 million from INX Media at a hotel here. Opposing the CBIs claims, senior advocate Abhishek Singhvi, appearing for Karti, said it was a bizarre case and that no grounds for arrest were made out. It is a bizarre case at the threshold. It is not a case of arrest, leave aside police custody or judicial custody, Mr Singhvi told the court, opposing the CBIs remand plea. He also argued that Karti was summoned twice by the CBI on August 23 and 28 last year and he was interrogated for 22 hours by the agency. Mr Singhvi said: There are no reasons given for the arrest. It is because you (CBI) want to show it to your bosses that you are doing some work. Unlike others, I (Karti) am not Hindustan leaver and instead I am Hindustan returner, he said, claiming Karti was cooperating with the CBI and the court may impose any condition while releasing him from the agencys custody.BJP leader Subramanian Swamy on the other hand said that the trail would lead to the former finance minister himself.

New Delhi: The Congress on Wednesday took a tough stance on the arrest of former finance minister P. Chidambarams son Karti Chidambaram saying it reeked of vendetta and was a diversionary tactic by the Modi-led BJP government to hide its scams and mal-governance. BJP leader Subramanian Swamy on the other hand said that the trail would lead to the former finance minister himself.

The trail will lead to P. Chidambaram, a confident-sounding Mr Swamy said, adding Karti is a beneficiary of (P) Chidambarams corrupt acts.

The lookout notice was there. He had been lying during the cross-examination. The arrest was expected, it was just a matter of time. He was not forthcoming during questioning. Despite being confronted with evidence, he continued to lie to the CBI and ED (Enforcement Directorate), Mr Swamy further said.

The Union Government on Wednesday said it had no role in the arrest of Karti Chidambaram, while the Congress termed it as diversionary tactic to hide scams that have rocked the NDA dispensation. The chief spokesperson of the Congress Party, Randeep Singh Surjewala said that Karti Chidambarams arrest would not deter the party from speaking the truth to hold the government accountable. Mr Surjewala said that it was a classical diversionary tactic to hide corruption scams, mal-governance and mal-administration that have marred this government.

The Congress party will not be deterred by unleashing of vendetta against Mr P. Chidambaram or his family. We will continue to speak the truth. We will continue to expose the Modi governments corruption and we will continue to hold them accountable to people of the country, he told the media.The BJP along with its allies is in power in 19 states at present, an all-time high for the party.

New Delhi: With barely a year left for the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and party chief Amit Shah on Wednesday asked the chief ministers of BJP-ruled states to start preparing for the electoral in mission mode.

The meeting with chief ministers, held for the first time at the partys newly-inaugurated hea-dquarters at Deen Dayal Upadhyay Marg, was also attended by deputy chief ministers of BJP and NDA ruled states.

Senior Cabinet ministers Arun Jaitley, Rajnath Singh, Sushma Swaraj and Nitin Gadkari also attended the meeting where party top brass asked leaders to create awareness about holding simultaneous polls  from general elections to panchayat polls.

Mr Modi and Mr Shah reviewed the implementation and progress of various Central and state schemes, and pressed that the focus must be on time-bound delivery of the schemes.

BJP top brass reviewed Central schemes like housing for all and the electrification drive, as well as some state specific schemes aimed at improving the health and education of the girl child and the ones aimed at increasing farmers income. Other pro-poor policies of the government were also reviewed. The meeting continued till late Wednesday evening.

The issue of better coordination between the Centre and the states also came up for discussion. The BJP along with its allies is in power in 19 states at present, an all-time high for the party.Mufti assured the delegation that she will raise the issue with the Central government.

Srinagar: The Jammu and Kashmir government has decided to make a formal request to the Centre to allow the states minority brahmins, known as Kashmiri pandits, and other Hindus to use the cross-LoC bus for visiting Sharda Peth, a revered shrine of the community located near Muzaffarbad, the capital of PoK.

Chief minister Mehbooba Mufti on Wednesday assured a delegation of Save Sharda Committee Kashmir (SSCK) that she would be raising this issue with Prime Minister Narendra Modi during their scheduled meeting in New Delhi Wednesday evening.

The delegation told her that allowing the Kashmiri pandits and other Hindus of Jammu and Kashmir to pay pilgrimage visit to Pakistani-occupied-Kash-mir will intensify people to people contact between the two sides which in turn will help towards restoration of peace in the divided State and beyond. A statement issued by the J&K government said that the SSCK headed by its founder member Ravinder Pandita demanded that the ancient Shardha Peth temple across the LoC be thrown open to members of Kashmir Pandit community and also the cross-LoC permits be expanded to include religious and heritage tourism. The delegation pleaded that this will intensify further the people to people contacts across LoC, the state said.

It added that the chief minister, while appreciating the efforts of the committee, asked it to continue with its efforts of reviving their cultural ethos and building bridges of peace through it. She assured the delegation that she will raise the issue with the Central government.

The weekly cross-LoC bus rolled out between Srinagar and Muzaffarabad and Poonch and Rawlakot in 2005 to facilitate travel by the members of the divided families. But strong voices are being raised on both sides that the service may be allowed to be used also for heritage and pilgrimage tourism.

Pandita told this newspaper that the Chief Minister while endorsing the delegations view said that she would be raising the issue with the Prime Minister at their meeting in New Delhi in the evening. He said that the delegation briefed the Chief Minister on recent developments pertaining to possibility of resuming pilgrimage to Sharda from J&K in the backdrop of the Supreme Court of PoKs recent order seeking preservation of the peeth. She was briefed also about the strategic importance of the site by Lt. Gen. (Retd) Ata Hasnain, who is also the founder member of the committee, Pandita said. She was also told that temples including Sharda are not only of religious importance but also hold great value as historical and archaeological sites.Jatropha cultivation was the new bandwagon wherein the Cinderella plant was promised to deliver gold out of barren lands.

India has long been a testing ground for several Western products, particularly in agriculture and medicine  making the most of loose regulations and genetic diversity of a huge population. It is done to help cut research costs dramatically for lucrative products to be sold in the West. The relationship is highly exploitative and many believe it represents a new colonialism.

Encouraging vulnerable and poor people to take risks raises ethical questions. Especially when it is they, and not the outsider, who will pay the price of failure. A painstaking reflection of such interventions needs to be demanded. New agricultural practices are being propagated with enticements of extravagant promises. By manipulating the choices of consumers at the low-income pyramid, they are being disempowered. The damage to the economy and ecology of these already fragile societies is now starkly visible.

In their book Poor Economics, development economists Esther Duflo and Abhijit Banerjee list hundreds of common sense development projects  crop insurance, food aid, microcredit  that either dont help poor people or make them poorer. Many of the serious problems of farmers and the rural poor are largely a result of our misguided projects that have severely impaired the local ecology, leading to soil degradation, acute shortage of water and resistant pests. Monsantos hybrid seeds are just one of many such cases.

It is true that social impact and life-improving technologies  mobile phones and Internet, high-yielding seed varieties, modern drip irrigation and low-cost solar-energy grids  have enormous potential to promote human well-being in ways that simply were not possible a few years ago. They provide abundant affordable products like solar lanterns, non-electric water filters and smoke-reducing stoves, but often the greater challenge is servicing them in a systematic and scalable way. There could be a rock-star engineer from a top university who might have invented the sexiest gadget for use in villages; however, they dont have ecosystems for immediate local servicing of failed products. For a rural customer, a broken product isnt as devastating as no one coming to replace or help with it.

Jatropha cultivation was the new bandwagon wherein the Cinderella plant was promised to deliver gold out of barren lands. An entire generation of development literature proliferated with tall promises of wealth out of waste. Today it has become discredited and in areas like Chhattisgarh, there has been a huge backlash from the tribals who feel they have been cheated and their habitat has surfed damage. The loss is in terms of ecosystem service value  the economic value derived from agricultural products, fresh water, clean air and fertile soil. It has also jeopardised the livelihoods of millions of tribals who depend on forests and natural resources.

A similar monumental failure of alternative energy model was the disastrous end to the National Biogas Plan of India. In what was termed a revolutionary idea that would transform Indias hinterland, huge targets were allocated for the installation of biogas plants and soft loans were doled out like hot snacks. No effort was made to train masons or create a pool of service agents to ensure proper construction and maintenance. The entire programme proved to be a financial tsunami for poor villagers who were left with a legacy of unpaid loans and branded as defaulters.

The loans were written off, but in accordance with the banking norms, the borrowers were no longer entitled to any new loans as they fell into the category of defaulters. They had to pay the penalty for the over-enthusiasm of the staff of development machinery whose promotions were directly linked to the achievement of targets. The National Biogas Plan is the most glaring example of how a top-down approach can play havoc with the life of people whose lot it proposes to improve.

I remember a village called Visakha in remote Gadchiroli district of Maharashtra where all households falling within an eponymous gram panchayat (comprising about five villages) were covered under the programme. There was a recommendation at our zonal headquarter in Nagpur that the concerned development officer should be publicly felicitated. The proposal was almost carried through when a senior officer with vast experience in grassroots programmes strongly insisted that all such recognitions must wait for two years so that a dispassionate evaluation is possible. And after two years, the ghost of National Biogas Plan was haunting the villages like the spectre of drought that sucked hundreds of farmers in its vortex of mass suicides.

In one of the banks in Chandrapur, Maharashtra, hundreds of loans were written off as if a mountain of rotten potatoes was ploughed just to clean the balance sheet and get rid of the toxic assets. In chasing targets, the quality of lending was completely undermined. Working for the poor does not mean indiscriminately thrusting money down their throats. Unfortunately, the worlds largest poverty alleviating programme  the Integrated Rural Development Programme (IRDP)  did precisely that. The abiding legacy of the programme for Indias poor has been that millions have become bank defaulters for no fault of their own. Today, they find it impossible to rejoin the formal credit sector.

A borrower who has defaulted on a loan becomes financially untouchable to the bank. The ripple effect of the default status is still worse. Apart from the borrower, the entire family is deprived of the chance of accessing the formal financial system. Some banks have stretched the definition to include families of those who had stood as a guarantor for the defaulting borrowers. The word default is a highly disputed term in the banking lexicon. Even the distinction between a wilful defaulter and a bonafide defaulter is so blurred that the banks can use their interpretative acumen to use the way it suits them.

Since the participants in these experiments are often poor, ill-educated and unable to read and write, they have little possibility of redress. Development experts must have the humility to accept a fault when it becomes convincingly clear that the logic behind a particular strategy is flawed; unreasonable risk in innovation can sometimes have serious consequences for the poor. Poor households live by the edge; they do not have financial surpluses to experiment with any new programme or innovation. They are a good subject for donor-funded research studies. Development practitioners should exercise great caution in introducing and marketing financial services or agricultural inputs for this class. We must realise that the poor have already paid a great price for development projects. What has been done cannot be undone. The Monsanto evolution has been cited by many experts as the prime driver of farmer suicides.

When conventional wisdom fails and its predictions turn out to be ridiculous and when hopes become cruel illusions, respectable people do not, as a rule, hold up their hands and admit their mistakes. They cannot accept a loss of face and the subsequent denudation of their privileged positions. However, the point to bear in mind is the nature of the beast. Even the most meticulous and conscientious managers will make mistakes. No one is error-proof. In case of the bonafide bloomer, big or small, we must be open. The first instinct of managers is to try and cover up, pretend it never happened and hope it will go undetected. If you have made a mistake, acknowledge it. However, if you are defiant and unapologetic, you are in big trouble.

The writer is a well-known banker, author and Islamic researcher. He can be reached at moinqazi123@gmail.comCBI arrested Karti from Chennai airport on Wednesday morning and he was produced at CBI court in Delhi in the evening.

The ED had filed a case against Karti in May 2017 alleging irregularities in the grant of FIPB clearance to INX Media for receiving foreign investment of over Rs 300 crore in 2007 when his father, P Chidambaram was the union finance minister. (Photo: File/ANI)

Chennai: A Delhi Court on Wednesday sent Karti Chidambaram to one-day police custody in connection with the INX Media case.

Earlier in the day, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) sought 15-day custody of Karti Chidambaram in the remand application.

Another accused in the case, Indrani Mukherjea gave a statement to the CBI that Karti asked for USD one million for Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) clearance, and on this ground, the CBI sought the custody of Karti.

After being arrested by the CBI from Chennai airport on Wednesday morning, Karti Chidambaram was produced at CBI court in Delhi in the evening.

Before being taken to the court, Karti told media that the arrest is an "absolute political vendetta". He added that he will be vindicated.

The CBI court allowed Karti's advocates to interact with him for 10 minutes inside the courtroom.

Also Read: INX media case: Karti Chidambaram's CA sent to 14-day judicial custody

During the hearing at Patila Court in Delhi CBI said, "Karti Chidambaram is evasive in his replies and investigation. He made incorrect statements with respect to evidence. All this delays the conclusion of investigation."

Karti, son of senior Congress leader P Chidambaram, was arrested in connection with the INX money laundering case.

Also Read: Indrani confessed to conspiracy between INX Media, Karti company, CBI to tell court

CBI had summoned Karti for questioning earlier but he had sought stay orders from various courts.

He was taken into custody just after he landed from a flight from London.

Soon after the arrest, Karti was put on a Delhi-bound flight and was brought to Delhi at the CBI headquarters where the investigating agency conducted necessary formalities including a medical test before producing him to the CBI court.

Congress leader and Senior Advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi will appear for Karti Chidambaram in Delhi's Patiala House Court.

The Congress slammed the arrest of Karti Chidambaram terming it as Modi governments diversionary tactic to hide its "corrupt governance".

Classical diversionary tactic to hide Scams and Colossal Corruption that is being exposed on a daily basis, be it NiMo+Choksi, DD Jewellers and Rotomac, Congress spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala tweeted.

"However, it will not stop the Congress from bringing the truth out to the people, he added.

Responding to Congress' allegation, BJP leader Sambit Patra said, "I believe no one should consider oneself above the law of country. If corrupt are being jailed and law is taking its own course, I see no reason why any political party should cry vendetta.This is law, not vendetta."

BJP's Subramanian Swamy called Karti's arrest 'a great achievement' and said, "CBI gave him (Karti Chidambaram) a lot of chances but he continued with his lies even after all evidence was presented against him. He will certainly go to jail and chargesheet will be filed by CBI. This is a great achievement."

Karti's chartered accountant S Bhaskararaman was recently arrested from a five-star hotel in Delhi on February 16 and was later sent to 14-day judicial custody.

The ED had earlier claimed that during the course of investigation, it was revealed that Bhaskararaman, a qualified CA, had been assisting Karti to manage his "ill-gotten wealth" in India and abroad.

Karti's name had cropped up in the case which relates to Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) approval granted in 2007 for receipt of funds by INX Media when his father and senior Congress leader P Chidambaram was the Union finance minister during the previous UPA regime.

The ED had alleged that INX Media had deliberately and in violation of the conditions of the approval made a downstream investment of 26 per cent in the capital of INX News Pvt Ltd without specific approval of FIPB, which included indirect foreign investment by some foreign investors, and generated Rs 305 crore foreign direct investment in INX Media Pvt Ltd against the approved foreign inflow of Rs 4.62 crore.

To wriggle out of the situation without any punitive action, INX Media entered into a criminal conspiracy with Karti, the ED has alleged. The FIPB unit of the finance ministry had not only granted illegal approval but also misinformed the investigation wing of Income Tax Department, it had alleged.

(With agency inputs)The victim took to her Instagram account to share the incidence and demanded an action against it.

The Women Development Cell of the Lady Sri Ram College held a meeting with the students to discuss any such untoward incidents that took place with them in the past. (Photo: AP)

New Delhi: The members of the activist group 'Pinjra Tod' staged a protest on Wednesday against the incidence of flinging semen-filled balloon upon a student of Lady Sri Ram.

The victim took to her Instagram account to share the incidence and demanded an action against it.

She wrote, " I went out with a friend for lunch yesterday to a cafe in the Amar Colony market. It was about five in the evening when we decided to head back. Not a minute of our short Metro ride had passed when there came flying my way a liquid filled balloon of sorts, hitting me square in the hip, where it burst open, its contents seeping into my kurti and leggings. It dried white on my black leggings, and the foreign smell clearly indicated that it wasn't water".

On Tuesday, the Women Development Cell of the Lady Sri Ram College held a meeting with the students to discuss any such untoward incidents that took place with them in the past.

One of the fellow students of Lady Sri Ram told ANI that due to such incidences the female students in the college prefer to stay within the campus during the festival of Holi.

"There is no fun in this incident. As this is being faced by a young generation and inflicted by a younger generation. Usually, the girls prefer to stay on the campus", as told to ANI.

The Pinjra Tod has started a march raising slogans of "Bura Kyon Na Mano" as a protest against the famous slogan "Bura na maano Holi Hai" which has been used as an alibi by the miscreants to resort to improper behavior with the victim.RJD's Tejaswi Yadav welcomed Manjhi to the party and said that he has been an old friend of Lalu Yadav and Rabri Devi.

The announcement was made after Manjhi met RJD chief Lalu Prasad's wife Rabri Devi at her residence on Wednesday. (Photo: ANI/Twitter)

Patna: Former Bihar Chief Minister and Hindustani Awam Morcha (Secular) leader Jitan Ram Manjhi on Wednesday quit National Democratic Alliance (NDA) and joined Bihar's Rashtriya Janata Dal led Grand-Alliance.

The formal announcement of the new political alliance would be made on Thursday, Manjhi told media.

RJD's Tejaswi Yadav welcomed Manjhi to the party and said that he has been an old friend of Lalu Yadav and Rabri Devi.

The announcement was made after Manjhi met RJD chief Lalu Prasad's wife Rabri Devi at her residence on Wednesday.

Manjhi on Sunday demanded that his party be allotted a Rajya Sabha seat in the upcoming elections failing which the party will not support the BJP-led coalition in the next Lok Sabha poll and two Assembly by-polls.

"The NDA must announce at least one Hindustani Awam Morcha Secular (HAMS) leader among its candidates for the six Rajya Sabha seats in Bihar. If that does not happen, our party workers will not campaign for candidates of the coalition in the by-polls," Manjhi said. The Rajya Sabha election is slated for March 23.

Recently, the former chief minister had expressed a wish that his party be allowed to contest the by-poll from the Jehanabad Assembly seat, but withdrew the demand following an alleged cold response from the BJP.

The seat is now being contested by the JDU, which had initially announced that it would not contest any of the three seats going for by-polls.

(With PTI inputs)The Prime Ministers Office in Canada does not allow even the security services track their guest list.

Khalistani terrorist Jaspal Atwal posed with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's wife Sophie Trudeau at an event in Mumbai. (Photo: ANI)

Toronto/New Delhi: Amidst questions over invitation of Khalistani terrorist for Justin Trudeaus reception in India, reports have emerged that the Indian Government authority was also denied access to the guest list, reports CTV News.

On that note, the Prime Ministers Office in Canada does not allow even the security services track their guest list.

Earlier, Canadas Public Safety Minister hailed the security services in relation to the visit.

All Canadians can be assured that our police and our security agencies have done their job in relation to this visit and they have done it very well, said Ralph Goodale, Canadas Public Safety Minister, in the assembly, as quoted by CTV News.

Pro-Khalistani terrorist Jaspal Atwal was invited to dine with Prime Minister Trudeau at a formal event hosted by Canadian High Commissioner to India Nadir Patel. The invite was later rescinded.

Also Read: Trudeau backs official who said India sabotaged trip by giving visa to Atwal

Prime Minister Trudeau also received backlash over his wife Sophie Trudeau's photo with convicted pro-Khalistani terrorist Jaspal Atwal.

Canadian Member of Parliament (MP) Randeep S. Sarai however took responsibility for inviting Atwal to Trudeau's reception dinner in New Delhi.

Jaspal Atwal was convicted of the attempted murder of Punjab minister, Malkiat Singh Sidhu, on Vancouver Island in 1986.According to reports, suspended BJP leader Manoj Baitha will be produced in a court later in the day.

After the arrest, Manoj Baitha was shifted to Patna Medical College & Hospital from Sri Krishna Medical College & Hospital for treatment of the injuries he suffered during the accident. (Photo: ANI)

Patna: A suspended BJP leader who was absconding since Saturday after being accused of crushing nine school children to death and injuring 20 others while driving an SUV in an inebriated state has surrendered in Bihar's Muzaffarpur on Wednesday.

After the arrest, Baitha was shifted to Patna Medical College & Hospital from Sri Krishna Medical College & Hospital for treatment of the injuries he suffered during the accident.

According to a report in NDTV, Baitha will be produced in a court later in the day.

Manoj Baitha had become a source of embarrassment for the BJP, which rules Bihar in alliance with Janata Dal United (JDU) as the opposition launched a scathing political attack over the incident.

Sources say he surrendered after the BJP leadership in the state firmly asked him to do.

At least nine children were killed and about 20 injured when the speeding vehicle, driven by Manoj Baitha, lost control and ploughed through them outside a government school building on the outskirts of Muzaffarpur on Saturday.

The BJP leader from Sitamarhi allegedly got off the car and ran after he hit the children on Saturday. The complaint -- filed by a man who lost five grandchildren in the accident -- also said footage from CCTV cameras in the area showed Baitha was driving the car.

Congress president Rahul Gandhi also took on Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and mocked him over prohibition in the state.

Former Bihar chief minister and RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav's wife Rabri Devi said that until Manoj Baitha is arrested, her party will not allow the Bihar Assembly to run. She said, "The government should be ashamed, there is no complete ban on liquor, it is available easily. Until Manoj Baitha is arrested we will not let the house (Bihar Assembly) run."

Former deputy chief minister of Bihar and son of Lalu Prasad Yadav, Tejaswi Yadav also reacted strongly against the incident and said, "Prohibition in Bihar is a farce and the ghastly incident of Muzaffarpur, where a drunk BJP leader crushed nine children to death and left more than 20 others injured, proves our point."

Also read: Tejaswi attacks Nitish for his silence over Muzaffarpur hit-and-run case

Opposition parties, on Tuesday, also staged protest outside Bihar Legislative Assembly over the Muzaffarpur hit and run case.

The BJP suspended party leader Manoj Baitha, a district level leader of Sitamarhi, from primary membership of the party for a period of six year.

At least nine children were killed and about 20 injured when the speeding vehicle, driven by Manoj Baitha, lost control and ploughed through them outside a government school building on the outskirts of Muzaffarpur on Saturday.

The BJP leader from Sitamarhi allegedly got off the car and ran after he hit the children on Saturday. The complaint -- filed by a man who lost five grandchildren in the accident -- also said footage from CCTV cameras in the area showed Baitha was driving the car.The focus will be on measures to further deepen the comprehensive strategic partnership.

New Delhi: Defence and trade will be on top of the agenda of Vietnamese President Tran Dai Quang when he arrives in India on a three-day visit beginning March 2. The focus will be on measures to further deepen the comprehensive strategic partnership.

President Tran will be accompanied by an 18-member delegation, including deputy prime minister and foreign minister Pham Binh Minh as well as the ministers for trade and industry and planning and investment.

Indian and Vietnam are likely to sign memorandums of understanding (MoUs) in the areas of nuclear energy, agriculture and trade and investment during the visit, Vietnamese envoy to India, Ton Sinh Thanh told reporters.

The issue of the South China Sea, where China has been showing increasing assertiveness, will also be discussed, the envoy said in response to a question.

On his first visit to India, President Tran will visit the Buddhist religious site Bodh Gaya before flying to New Delhi to hold delegation-level talks with Prime Minister Narendra Modi on March 3. On March 4, the Vietnamese President will deliver an address, which will be an important policy statement, the envoy said.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi had visited Vietnam in 2016, when the two countries agreed to elevate their strategic partnership to a comprehensive strategic partnership.Sources claim leader was upset after BJP turned down RS seat demand.

Patna: Former Bihar chief minister Jitan Ram Manjhi gave a major political jolt to NDA in Bihar by announcing his decision to join Grand Secular Alliance.

Sources claim that HAM president Manjhi was upset after the BJP recently turned down his partys demand for a Rajya Sabha seat. Mr Manjhi had been dropping hints about his discontent with the current political set up within the NDA in Bihar.

Mr Manjhi announced his decision after meeting with RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav on Wednesday. The development may change political equations in Bihar ahead of 2019 Lok Sabha elections and 2020 Assembly elections.

Speculations that Mr Manjhis party could split from NDA was rife ever since BJP declined its demand to field a candidate from Jehanabad constituency for byelections scheduled for March 11.

The similar indication was also given by RLSP recently when it announced candidates for upcoming byelections in Jehanabad and Bhabhua Assembly constituency.

The seat, however, went to the JD(U), which had initially announced that it would not contest from any of the three seats in the byelections.

Our party has decided to quit the NDA and join the grand secular alliance. The decision was taken after party leaders felt that the policies of the state government were hurting the backward and poor. Over 95 per cent of poor belonging to dalit community have been sent to jail after the government imposed the prohibition on liquor in Bihar, Mr Manjhi told reporters in Patna.

The state government has been a failure in generating employment and its sand mine policy has also left labourers jobless in Bihar, he added.

He also announced that his party will campaign for RJD candidates in the coming bypolls after the Holi festival.

Upbeat over Manjhis decision to join the grand secular alliance, Tejashwi addressed him as a father figure, guardian, and champion of social justice.

We welcome Mr Manjhis decision to leave NDA and join grand secular alliance. I also urge other like-minded parties to unite against the BJP, Tejashwi said.

According to political observers, the RJD has been trying to woo few of NDA allies to strengthen its base in Bihar.Naveen Patnaiks BJD beats BJP, Cong by massive margin in Odisha.

Bhopal/Bhubaneswar/New Delhi: The Congress Party on Wednesday retained the Mungaoli and Kolaras Assembly seats in Madhya Pradesh, while Naveen Patnaiks Biju Janata Dal won the Bijepur Assembly bypolls in Odisha, dealing a blow to the Bharatiya Janata Party which had campaigned aggressively in both the states.

The results of the byelections in these two crucial states, close on the heels of the BJPs rout in Rajasthan bypolls, are being viewed as proof of rapid decline in the saffron partys popularity. Together, Odisha, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan account for 75 Lok Sabha seats.

The defeat in Madhya Pradesh is a body blow to chief minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan who had gone all out to wrest the seats from the Congress, and a major boost to the Congress Jyotiraditya Scindia who is keen on being the partys chief ministerial candidate in the Assembly elections due later this year.

I thank everyone from the bottom of my heart. Congratulations to everyone for this victory, said Mr Scindia.

Both the Assembly seats fall under his Guna Lok Sabha constituency.

While the Congress Brijendra Singh Yadav defeated his BJP rival by a narrow margin of 2,124 votes in Mungaoli, Mahendra Singh Yadav defeated the BJPs Devendra Jain in Kolaras by 8,083 votes.

Byelections to Mungaoli and Kolaras Assembly seats were necessitated following the death of sitting Congress candidates Mahendra Singh Kelukheda and Ram Singh Yadav respectively. The Congress had won Mungaoli and Kolaras seats by margins of 20,765 and 24,953 seats respectively in the previous elections.

In Odisha, where the BJP had campaigned aggressively and claimed to be making major inroads, the party lost the Bijepur Assembly berth by a massive margin of 41,0933 votes. Its being viewed as a major victory for chief minister Naveen Patnaik.

The byelection in Odisha was held following the death of three-time Congress MLA Subal Sahu in August last year.

The BJD fielded his widow as its candidate, while Ashok Panigrahi left the BJD and contested on a BJP ticket.

The BJDs Rita Sahu polled 1,02,871 votes, against the BJPs 60,938 votes. The Congress finished a poor third by bagging just 10,274 votes. Voting in the three seats were took place on February 24.

Mr Scindia, who addressed 76 rallies in both the constituencies, had openly declared the election as a Scindia v/s Shivraj battle and targeted the Shivraj Singh Chouhan government for its failure to the address the problems of farmers and provide employment to educated youth.

The chief minister, who had addressed an equal number of rallies in both the constituencies, had fought on the poll plank of development and offered various sops to woo voters.

Since Mr Chouhan was facing massive anti-incumbency sentiment, virtually all the Cabinet ministers from Delhi were put on poll duty.

The results are being seen as an indicator of voters mood ahead of Assembly elections in MP later this year.

In Madhya Pradesh this is the second major victory for the Congress. In November 2017, it had won the Chitrakoot Assembly seat.

Conceding defeat, Mr Chouhan claimed that the absence of the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) in both the seats had helped the Congress.

BSP usually garners 30,000-35,000 votes in each constituency. The victory margins of Congress in both the seats demonstrate that the party had gained by the absence of BSP in the byelections, he said. He claimed that the byelections would not have any impact on the upcoming Assembly elections.

Both the Assembly seats are considered traditional Congress bastions. In 2013 Assembly elections, Congress won the two seats by a margin of over 25,000 votes in each constituency. The victory margins of Congress in the byelections have come down drastically, the chief minister said.

In Odisha, chief minister Naveen Patnaik said the Bijepur bypoll results would have an impact on future elections in the state.

Thanking the people of Bijepur for BJDs massive victory, he said, My deep gratitude to people of Bijepur for showering their blessings generously on BJD. I also thank each and every BJD worker who has worked hard for this astounding victory. We will continue our efforts to build a prosperous and empowered Odisha.

The results in Odisha prove that Mr Patnaiks popularity remains intact despite an aggressive campaign by the BJP, which failed to capitalise on its advantages from the panchayat polls in which it had emerged as a strong second.

While Mr Patnaik led the battle from the front for his party, Union minister Dharmendra Pradhan was spearheading the BJPs campaign in his bid to emerge as the partys chief ministerial candidate in the forthcoming Assembly elections.

At least six Union ministers, including Smriti Irani and Jual Oram, had campaigned for the BJP.

The Congress, on the other hand, failed to put up a spirited fight to defend the seat. Most of its prominent leaders stayed away from the campaigning.

Following the poor show, many in social media platforms posted that Odisha Pradesh Congress Committee (OPCC) president Prasad Harichandan had resigned from his post owning moral responsibility for the debacle. Mr Harichandan could not be reached for his comment.

Conceding defeat, BJP spokesperson Sajjan Sharma said the party could not register victory as Congress voters shifted to the BJD. He also suspected an underhand deal between the BJD and Congress.

While the Congress secured over 57,000 in 2014 Assembly elections, it polled only 10,274 votes this time. This clearly proves that the top Congress leaders of the state were hand-in-glove with the BJD, he said.Congress defeat predicted in Meghalaya.

Guwahati: A few incidents of violence marred the Assembly elections in Nagaland where a turnout of 75 per cent was recorded on Tuesday while voting went off peacefully in Meghalaya that saw a polling percentage of 67 per cent.

In two separate incidents, one person was killed and three others were injured in a clash between supporters of two political parties and a crude bomb blast at a polling booth before the start of voting in Nagaland.

The results of polling in the two states, along with that of Tripura where voting took place on February 18, will be declared on March 3. The majority mark in all three Assemblies with 60 members is 31.

A total of 195 candidates are vying for 59 seats in Nagaland, five of them are women. A total of 361 candidates are in fray in Meghalaya, out of whom just 32 are women.

An exit poll by NewsX-Jan ki Baat projected 35-45 seats for the BJP and its allies in Tripura against the ruling Lefts 14-23 in a 60-member Assembly.

The exit poll also indicated a loss for the ruling Congress in Meghalaya with the National Peoples Party (NPP) getting 23-27 seats, Congress getting 13-17 and the BJP winning 8-12 seats in the Assembly with 60 legislators.

In Nagaland, the exit poll predicted a close fight between the ruling Naga Peoples Front, which is likely to get 20-25 seats, and the BJP and its allies that are likely to get 27-32 seats. The Congress is expected to get 0-2 seats in the 60-member House. The Congress currently has no member in the House as its number has come down from eight after the 2013 polls due to resignations.

In the last Assembly elections in Nagaland the turnout was 90.57 per cent. In Meghalaya, the polling percentage in 2013 was 89 per cent. Officials said that the final voting percentage in both the states on Tuesday is likely to go up as the authorities are yet to get the complete data.

Nagaland and Meghalaya have a 60-member House each but voting was held for 59 constituencies each in these states. While one candidate was declared elected unopposed in Nagaland, election in Meghalayas Williamnagar constituency was countermanded due to the killing of NCP candidate Jonathone N. Sangma in an IED blast on February 18.

In Meghalaya, over 18 lakh voters  more than 9 lakh women and 8.96 lakh Men  are registered in the 59 seats. In Nagaland, there are more than 11.91 lakh electors, of which 6.01 lakh are men and 5.89 are women.

Violence broke out during voting in Nagaland on Tuesday as supporters of the Naga Peoples Front (NPF) and the Nationalist Democratic Progressive Party (NDPP) clashed near a polling booth in Akuluto. The polling process, however, was not disturbed due to violence, police said.

In another incident, a blast was reported from a polling booth at Tizit village in Mon district about an hour before the voting started. Police said that one person was injured in the explosion.

Chief electoral officer Abhijit Sinha said, A crude bomb was lobbed at the polling booth around 5.45 am, in which one village council member, Yanlon, suffered minor injuries in the leg.

Elections in Nagaland this year were a triangular contest with the BJP entering into alliances with NDPP led by three-time chief minister Neiphiu Rio. A group of 10 parties in Nagaland had called for putting off elections till the conclusion of the peace talks in the militancy-hit state.

In Meghalaya, except for the two state parties  the United Democratic Party (UDP) and the Hills State Peoples Democratic Party (HSPDP)  which forged a pre-poll alliance and contested in 45 seats, 13 other political parties contested independently.

The Congress and BJP were pitted against each other with the Congress fielding 59 candidates and the BJP naming candidates for 47 constituencies.

Though they contested the polls separately, in Meghalaya, the NPP of Conrad Sangma, son of former Lok Sabha speaker P. A. Sangma, is BJPs partner in the North East Democratic Alliance (NEDA).Opioids were involved in more than 42,000 overdose deaths in the US in 2016.

Ohio on Monday accused four major pharmaceutical distributors of ignoring their responsibilities to ensure that opioids were not being diverted for improper uses, contributing to a drug abuse epidemic in the state.

The lawsuit by Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine was filed in a state court against McKesson Corp, Cardinal Health Inc, AmerisourceBergen Corp and Miami-Luken Inc and marked the second he has pursued over corporations roles in the opioid crisis.

They knew the amount of opioids allowed to flow into Ohio far exceeded what could be consumed for medically necessary purposes, but they did nothing to stop it, DeWine said in a statement.

The lawsuit seeks compensatory damages for the increased costs Ohio incurred for healthcare, criminal justice, social services and education. It also seeks punitive damages.

The companies have previously denied similar allegations in other cases, and Cardinal Health in a statement on Monday called the lawsuit unfounded.

AmerisourceBergen in a statement said it was committed to mitigating the diversion of opioids without interfering with clinical decisions made by doctors. McKesson said it has in the last year alone reported thousands of suspicious drug orders.

Opioids were involved in more than 42,000 overdose deaths nationwide in 2016, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Hundreds of lawsuits by states, counties and cities have accused drugmakers of pushing addictive painkillers through deceptive marketing and wholesale distributors of failing to report suspicious drug orders.

DeWine previously in May 2017 sued Purdue Pharma LP, Endo International Plc, Johnson & Johnson, Allergan Plc and Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd, accusing them of deceptively marketing opioids. They have denied wrongdoing.King penguins are in fact picky animals and they need tolerable temperature all year round.

King penguins seem to be able to move around quite a lot to find the safest breeding locations when things turn grim. (Photo: Pixabay)

Climate change is likely to have a devastating impact on King penguins if global warming continues at its present rate, scientists warn.

"The main issue is that there is only a handful of islands in the Southern Ocean and not all of them are suitable to sustain large breeding colonies," said Robin Cristofari from the University of Strasbourg in France.

King penguins are in fact picky animals: in order to form a colony where they can mate, lay eggs and rear chicks over a year, they need tolerable temperature all year round, no winter sea ice around the island, and smooth beach of sand or pebbles, researchers said.

However, above all, they need an abundant and reliable source of food close by to feed their chicks.

For millennia, this seabird has relied on the Antarctic Polar Front, an upwelling front in the Southern Ocean concentrating enormous amounts of fish on a relatively small area.

Yet, due to climate change, this area is drifting south, away from the islands where most King penguins currently live.

Parents are then forced to swim farther to find food, while their progeny is waiting, fasting longer and longer on the shore.

The study published in the journal Nature Climate Change predicts that, for most colonies, the length of the parents trips to get food will soon exceed the resistance to starvation of their offspring, leading to massive King penguin crashes in population size, or, hopefully, relocation.

Using the information hidden away in the penguins genome, the research team has reconstructed the changes in the worldwide King penguin population throughout the last 50,000 years.

They discovered that past climatic changes, causing shifts in marine currents, sea-ice distribution and Antarctic Polar Front location, have always been linked to critical episodes for the King penguins.

However, King penguins have already survived such crises several times (the last time was 20 thousand years ago), and they may be particularly good at it, the researchers said.

"Extremely low values in indices of genetic differentiation told us that all colonies are connected by a continuous exchange of individuals," said Emiliano Trucchi, who formerly worked at the University of Vienna.

"In other words, King penguins seem to be able to move around quite a lot to find the safest breeding locations when things turn grim," said Trucchi, one of the coordinator of the study.

However, there is a major difference this time: for the first time in the history of penguins, human activities are leading to rapid and/or irreversible changes in the Earth system, and remote areas are no exception, researchers said.

In addition to the strongest impact of climate change in Polar Regions, Southern Ocean is now subject to industrial fishing, and penguins may soon have a very hard time fighting for their food, they said.

"There are still some islands further south where King penguins may retreat," said Celine Le Bohec from University of Strasbourg.

"But the competition for breeding sites and for food will be harsh, especially with the other penguin species like the Chinstrap, Gentoo or Adelie penguins, even without the fisheries," said Bohec.

"It is difficult to predict the outcome, but there will surely be losses on the way.

If we want to save anything, proactive and efficient conservation efforts but, above all, coordinated global action against global warming should start now," said Bohec.Travel braggers out there take note of these tips.

New Delhi: Gone are the days when travelers could only regale their loved ones with stories of their overseas adventures after returning home. Nowadays, social media has enabled people to travel brag as soon as the vacation starts.

According to Hotels.com's Mobile Travel Tracker, social media devotees in India enjoy travel bragging with selfies (82 percent), photographs with dear ones (69 percent), picture-perfect plates of food (47 percent), beaches (66 percent) and photographs of random people (33 percent)! Sound like someone you know?

Taking into consideration the most popular travel brag themes, here are some rarely explored yet absolutely Insta-worthy moments around the globe. Curated specially for all the travel braggers out there, this list features jaw-dropping natural landscapes and quirky cocktails from towns and cities less traversed.

FOOD

Dine amidst the clouds with CuliAir Sky Dining in Netherlands

A flight on a hot air balloon is in itself, a one-of-a-kind experience, but imagine feasting on a three-course meal prepared onboard by a Michelin chef as well. In the Netherlands, local master chef Angelique Schmeinck has made this a reality with CuliAir, the world's first hot air balloon restaurant. Up to 14 diners can soak up the stunning aerial views of the country's scenic landscape while Schmeinck prepares delectable dishes using regional produce such as wild seabass and guinea fowl in her mini kitchen onboard. Via a pulley system, the food is transported in iron baskets to the ridge of the balloon where the temperature is about 90 degrees Celsius.

After the scrumptious meal, complete the luxurious experience by staying at the Waldorf Astoria Amsterdam from Rs. 26,283 per night.

LANDSCAPES/LANDMARKS

Swing at the End of the World at La Casa Del Arbol (The Treehouse) in Banos, Ecuador

Deep in the central Ecuadorian mountains in Banos are two wooden swings attached to a tiny tree house built 2,600 meters above sea level at the top of a hill. For an inexpensive price of one dollar, daredevils can touch the sky as they swing precariously right off the end of the world. Don't forget to soak in the scenic views from the top!

Cap off the experience and book your accommodation at the very rustic Samari Spa Resort from just Rs. 9,825.

Pose with unique art installations at Gibbs farm in Kaipara Harbor, New Zealand

Sitting in a farm amidst grazing cows in New Zealand's North Island is a humongous 85-meter-long red trumpet, a towering 6-meter-tall giraffe, and what looks like a giant piece of paper floating gently in the wind. These are some of the surreal sculptures within Gibbs farm, a thousand-acre sculpture park where colossal pieces of art intermingle harmoniously with the vast green landscape. Open to the public just twice a month and by an appointment basis only, there are 28 sculptures created by some of the most acclaimed artists globally, including Anish Kapoor and Richard Serra. One can easily spend hours admiring and finding the best angles to snap these Instagram-worthy sculptures.

Book at the Tahi Lodge Matakana Coast for only Rs. 11,102 per night to relax and watch the sunset after a full day of touring and taking selfies.

CITYSCAPE

Soak in the blues at Chefchaouen, Morocco

If you are looking for alternative skyline views during your next trip, then consider Chefchaouen, one of Morocco's best-kept secrets. The ancient city is awash in shades of blue, hence the nickname "the blue pearl of Morocco". Tucked in between the Rif Mountains, the town was said to have been painted blue to mirror the blue sky. Head into the medina and get lost in its labyrinthine lanes to soak up the full beauty of this blue city. Make sure to visit the kasbah (a fortress where the town's ruler once lived), a perfect location to admire and capture snaps of the city from above.

Continue the Insta-worthy snaps at the romantic Lina Ryad and Spa for Rs. 9,201 per night which is also located at Chefchaouen.

BEACH OR WATER BODIES

Hang with the pigs at Pig Beach in Big Major Cay, Bahamas

Here's something you don't see every day: snorting pigs residing on a serene Bahamian island. A sounder of adorable pigs and piglets live on the uninhabited island of Big Major Cay in The Exumas that is part of the Bahamas. There is no official reason as to how the animals landed on the beach, but they sure are a sight to behold. The furry creatures can be found lounging in the sand or dog-paddling in the clear turquoise waters. It won't be hard to snap a wi-fi with the friendly porkers as they are used to the influx of visitors, but do treat them gently and responsibly.

Enjoy more of the island-vibe at The Cove at Atlantis for Rs. 38,449 per night.

Discover tranquility at Red Lotus Sea in Udon Thani, Thailand

The next time you plan a visit to Bangkok, do set aside some time to venture off the beaten track and visit the captivating Red Lotus Sea in northeastern Thailand. The seemingly average water body transforms into a vibrant carpet of pretty pink during the cool season between November and February. The pink is courtesy of the millions of floating lotus flowers that stretch across 26 square miles of the lake. It is recommended to take a boat ride onto the lake in the early hours of the morning when the flowers are in full bloom and picture-perfect for the 'Gram.

Rest those tired feet (and arms!) after a full day of taking photos at the Prajaktra Design Hotel for Rs. 2,426 a night.

DRINKS

Indulge your inner movie geek at AnonymouS Bar, Prague, Czech Republic

Just as its name suggest, the AnonymouS Bar is a hidden den in the historic Old Town of Prague. Visitors can only expect the unexpected as they enter the bar to be greeted by bartenders sporting the iconic Guy Fawkes masks, in ode to the cult film V For Vendetta and Anonymous, the faceless hacking collective. The film plays on loop in the background and the staff promise to create cocktails like nothing you have seen before. The cocktails are served in the most creative of ways imaginable - on top of a volleyball, next to a gun (not real of course) or using a slingshot. Visitors can complete their AnonymouS experience by donning a Guy Fawkes mask and posing with their drinks for that Instagram money shot.

End the long night of drinking and partying at the exquisite Hotel Kings Court for Rs. 7,965.The court further said that MSCW should not be only a complaint centre but also a solution centre.

Mumbai: The Bombay high court has said that awareness programmes against sexual harassment should be conducted in schools. A child should know how to speak and behave with colleagues to produce civilised adults in the country, the court observed. The comment came in the wake of an officer of the Maharashtra State Commission for Women (MSCW) informing the court that sexual harassment awareness programmes are being conducted at the college level.

A division bench of Justice Naresh Patil and Justice G.S. Kulkarni was hearing a PIL pertaining to the appointment of a chairperson and members for the MSCW. The court, last month, had suggested that if the MSCW cannot set up a cell in each district, it could start online registration of complaints so that women do not have to travel all the way to Mumbai to lodge a complaint. Instead of a person coming to Mumbai, there should be a different mechanism, the online aspect to file grievances. The grievances could be sent to Mumbai online. Women community will be very happy with it (sic), the court said.

Accordingly, the MSCW informed the court on Wednesday that it had created a website two years ago and also created an e-mail id for the registration of complaints.

A MSCW officer informed the court that the state had created a mobile application where women can register cases. She also said that the state government is taking steps at the district level with the help of NGOs and the women and child development department to scrutinise complaints and send them to the MSCW.

The court then asked, What type of complaints have you received so far?

To which the officer replied that more domestic violence cases had been registered compared to sexual harassment cases, and that a lot of cases dealt with elderly women complaining about their children not taking care of them.

She also said that awareness about sexual harassment is being created at the college level. Why is awareness not being done in schools? Nowadays, children are smart; they know about the world. College students are adults. They dont listen but the thinking of school children can be changed at the school level, the court said.

The court further said that MSCW should not be only a complaint centre but also a solution centre.DSK and his wife Hemanti were arrested from Delhi on February 17 and were remanded to police custody till February 23.

Mumbai: The Bombay high court refused to grant relief to Deepak Kulkarni, the founder of the DSK Group, who allegedly duped 2,500 investors of more than Rs 200 crore. The Pune Metropolitan Magistrate had sent Kulkarni to police custody till March 1. Kulkarni had challenged the order saying that while the police were seeking his custody, he was in the hospital and was not presented before the court. Hence, Kulkarni claimed that the police custody remand granted to him was illegal.

Justice Nitin Sambre said, If the accused was not present before the court, but his lawyer was in the court and argued the matter against the police custody remand, therefore it doesnt mean police custody remand had been given without informing him (DSK). The special public prosecutor opposed the petition and submitted judgements of the other high courts.

DSK and his wife Hemanti were arrested from Delhi on February 17 and were remanded to police custody till February 23. However, on the night he was arrested, Kulkarni complained of dizziness and fell unconscious in the police custody.

He was first moved to Sassoon hospital, and later was shifted to Deenanath hospital. On last Friday, he was produced before the medical board at Sassoon General Hospital where the doctors found him to be fit for interrogation.CM claims Cong, NCPs policies to blame for Kamala Mills blaze.

Mumbai: Chief minister Devendra Fadnavis on Tuesday announced that a committee comprising a retired judge, retired official of urban development department and an architect would probe the usage of mill land, including the Kamala Mills compound, where a massive fire swept broke out last December, claiming 14 lives.

In a reply to a calling attention motion by Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLA Atul Bhatkhalkar in the Assembly, Mr Fadnavis said that as per the mill land redevelopment policy in 1999, the government had decided to allot a third of the total land each to the Maharashtra Housing And Area Development Authority (Mhada), Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) and mill owners. But, in 2001 the decision was changed and only one third of open land was given to government authorities.

The CM also claimed that the policies of the Congress-Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) government were responsible for the Kamala Mills fire and announced a probe into the procedural lapses. The previous government gave away the entire mill land to the mill owners and developers and ensured that the mill workers did not get their rightful homes. The Kamala Mills fire was due to the sin committed by the previous government, Mr Fadnavis alleged. He claimed that 95,000 square metres of land was given for information technology-related activities. We will probe whether the FSI for IT (activities) was misused at Kamala Mills and other places where mill land redevelopment happened, he added.

The chief minister said that audit and fire compliance of all structures was being done now. Our government has changed the 2001 decision and we will give houses to mill workers from the third of land that is for Mhada, he added. He added that if there were any violations, penalties would be recovered.

Meanwhile, Opposition members protested and got into the Well before the speaker. They created an uproar over the rejection of their adjournment motion regarding non-implementation of the loan waiver scheme. Leader of Oppos-ition Radhakrishna Vikhe-Patil had alleged that only 19 lakh farmers had benefited from the loan waiver and criticised the government for not giving financial relief for farmers affected by hail storms and unseasonal rains earlier this month. The Opposition members also displayed a photograph of Dharma Patil, an 84-year-old farmer who committed suicide at Mantralaya recently.

Speaker Haribhau Bagde subsequently adjourned the House for 20 minutes. The Opposition continued their protest in the Well. A discussion on hailstorm and unseasonal rains in which seven people were killed moved by the treasury benches was postponed by the chair and the House was adjourned for the day.Agreement papers were handed over in presence CM and Piyush Goyal on Tuesday.

Mumbai: Despite opposition from the Shiv Sena, chief minister Devendra Fadnavis has handed over 0.9 hectares of land at Bandra Kurla Complex for the Mumbai-Ahmedabad bullet train underground station. Agreement papers were handed over in presence Mr Fadnavis and railway minister Piyush Goyal on Tuesday.

Despite of the uproar over the bullet train issue, Mr Fadnavis is going ahead with the project and has not considered the objections raised by the Shiv Sena, Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) and opposition parties as well. Railways wants 0.9 hectares of land for the project at BKC to construct an underground station for the bullet train project whereas the state government has plans to construct the International Financial Services Centre (IFSC) on this land. So now railway will complete the underground work considering the construction of towers that have to take place on this land, said senior officials.

The Maharashtra and Gujarat governments have 25 per cent stake each in the bullet train project and Railways has the remaining 50 per cent. The state government has to contribute Rs 5,000 crore against the equity. Land cost of Rs 300 crore will be adjusted against it and the transport department is providing Rs 125 crore as a first instalment for equity which is headed by Shiv Sena leader Diwakar Raote, said sources.

The bullet train project is the dream project of PM Modi. So, Mr Fadnavis has cleared all hurdles in the way of projects without consulting the Shiv Sena. Still, Sena has kept quiet and the opposition is planning to raise the bullet train project issue in the session of the legislature, said senior Opposition leaders.Nepal has already voted in K.P. Sharma Olis Left alliance and the traditionally pro-India Nepal Congress sits on the Opposition benches.

Beyond the enduring and growing all-weather friendship of Pakistan and China, Indias neighbourhood is witnessing a growing resurgence of pro-China politics and dispensations. Armed with a non-judgmental approach, the durable Chinese largesse and its ostensible benignity is a great succour to many desperate regimes whose domestic track records on democracy, human rights and religious tolerance are questionable such as Pakistan, the Maldives, North Korea. A win-win situation emerges for both China and the allying country, where strongmen (or strongwomen) seek an alternative to the moral necessities of pro-West or even pro-India requirements, as that comes with multiple strings attached  while Beijing is happy to oblige, as it fulfils its hegemonic and expansionist instincts without having to resort to non-peaceful means.

One geopolitical spoilsport and the potential rival in Beijings calculus of realising the neologism of the Chinese Century is the parallel emergence of India, replete with economic, military and diplomatic power, fortified with the invaluable demographic dividend (by 2020, the median Indian age is expected to be 28, against 42 years for China) within the base of 1.3 billion Indians. For the Chinese, India needs to be checkmated and the bloody history of the 1962 India-China war, and the reciprocal payback by the Indian defence forces in 1967 at Nathu La and Cho La, are part of an ongoing saga of unsettled borders, covert countermoves and unashamed realpolitik. From trying to strangulate and encircle India with infrastructural sweeps like the String of Pearls and One-Belt-One-Road, or recklessly vetoing Indias case at the UN General Assembly against terrorists like Maulana Masood Azhar, or even testing the reactive impulses at locations like Doklam  the Chinese are relentlessly trying to trip the Indian march.

The recent Maldivian drift from its traditional India-first approach towards the Dragons embrace has been a calculated work-in-progress that has seen an increasing tilt towards the Chinese, at the cost of Indian interests. The rushed late-night signing of the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with China by the Maldivian Majlis (Parliament) was indicative of Chinese power in Male. Similarly, the recent go-slow on the pending Indian project of installing the radar facilities along with the frustrating optics of Chinese warships and submarines in Maldivian waters have been troubling Indian mandarins, who are increasingly alluding to the Chinese land grabbing and a possible Pearl Port in Maldivian waters.

In neighbouring Sri Lanka, the decidedly pro-China regime of previous President Mahinda Rajapaksa is witnessing the green shoots of revival, as Mr Rajapaksa has made a stunning political statement with his electoral showing in the recent polls. Mr Rajapaksas Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) has won a landslide 239 out of 340 seats, whereas the pro-India sitting President Maithripala Srisenas Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) has just won 10 seats! While the Sri Lankan coalition government of Mr Srisena and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe has a mandate till 2020, the sudden revival of

Mr Rajapaksas party that had earlier given away the Pearl Port of Hambantota to China and signed infrastructural projects and investments worth over $2 billion to make China the top investors in the country, is a matter of disquiet and concern in New Delhi.

Nepal has already voted in K.P. Sharma Olis Left alliance and the traditionally pro-India Nepal Congress sits on the Opposition benches. The fear of a nationalistic Nepalese dispensation that is beholden to, enamoured of and increasingly counter-balancing the Chinese interests vis-a-vis India, looms large for New Delhi. Wounded by the popular perceptions of the big brother attitude by India during the Madhesi unrest, the mood in Kathmandu to get even by cozying up to the Chinese is irresistible. Like in the Maldives, the Chinese will make counter-economic-offers to the new Nepalese government. The PM, Mr Oli, in his earlier stint had signed the Trade and Transit Agreement with China to reduce dependence on India.

Bangladesh is an embattled democracy and for now the Awami Leagues Sheikh Hasina is on top, with the conviction of the Opposition leader, Bangladesh Nationalist Partys Begum Khaleda Zia. While in very simple terms, Sheikh Hasina is pro-India, this has not stopped her from getting lured by a $24 billion credit line from China (India offered $2 billion). More worryingly for India, the Chinese have strengthened their military equations with Bangladeshi forces by holding joint exercises and Dhaka has got two submarines from China. In the real world, the efficacy of the Chinese chequebook diplomacy can buy out any rival, historical or emotional considerations. The Chinese have also wedged themselves into the possible peace talks in Afghanistan, besides dangling the economic carrots to the beleaguered and depleted Afghan regime. However, Beijings known proximity to Islamabad could militate against Afghan sensibilities. Similarly, the pro-China Myanmarese junta is down but not completely out in domestic affairs, as the timely loosening of purse strings by Beijing towards the hybrid NLD government could ensure the invaluable relevance of China in Myanmar as well. Finally, within its own immediate geographic reach like the South China Sea, the Chinese simply do not shy away from bullying, unnerving and intimidating neighbours  a lesson that Bhutan learnt in the recent Doklam crisis.

Indias foreign policy and diplomacy vis-a-vis China will be severely tested beyond the obvious flashpoints like Doklam or Male. The emerging bipolarity of the global order into a West democratic bloc versus Sinosphere is affording strong pro-China preferences in the domestic politics of Indias neighbours  this coupled with the aggressive bankrolling and the lure of Chinas economic juggernaut is leading to competitive tension towards pro-China or pro-India sentiments in the neighbourhood.The writer is a former Pakistan high commissioner to India and ambassador to the US and China

Pakistan is not receiving the cooperation it needs for border management and control.

Where autumn follows spring, Nothing comes to fruition

The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) embarrassment, utterly isolating and shameful as it is, has become the norm for Pakistan. Along with so much else that has isolated and humiliated Pakistanis this too was so obviously coming and was so stupidly and irresponsibly ignored. The debt riddled development taking place in Pakistan has been made even more fragile.

Critical commentators are often accused of being unnecessarily bitter about the state of the country. But when the state of governance is so criminal and damaging how else can one accurately depict the truth about our rulers who unhesitatingly make a mockery and laughing stock of the country?

China has gone out of its way to protect Pakistan from international criticism, humiliation, isolation and punishment despite its own grave concerns about the latitude extremists and terrorists enjoy in Pakistan. In this case China once again stood by Pakistan.

But, as a result of an egregiously misleading and triumphant tweet which was apparently against the procedures of FATF, Pakistans inept foreign minister ensured the reversal of a face-saving reprieve for Pakistan. We forfeited, at least for the moment, the confidence of two of our staunchest friends, Saudi Arabia and China itself.

But the rot lies deeper. India has not isolated Pakistan. The US has not isolated Pakistan. Afghanistan has not isolated Pakistan. They cannot. Only Pakistan can isolate itself  and it has done so repeatedly looking towards China to bail it out every time.

Dont we have any consideration for the interests of China which is besieged by US and Indian policies to contain its emergence as a force for Eurasian peace, stability and development and which, moreover, has made Pakistan a cornerstone of its historic initiative in Central and South Asia?

How shamefully many of us reviled our feisty lioness for human rights, development, security and freedom, Asma Jahangir! And those of us who admired and revered her never quite lent her sufficient support for her lifelong struggle. Are we even capable of honouring her memory?

We have a mantra. Pakistan is the biggest victim of terrorism. Pakistan has sacrificed more than any country in the war against terror. Millions of people in Fata have been displaced. Pakistan has taken out several terrorist organisations especially the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan, the militant Islamic State group and Al Qaeda.

Pakistan has banned several domestic extremist organisations, detained their leaders and frozen their accounts. Pakistan cannot become the battleground for an Afghan civil war. Pakistan has an independent judiciary and cannot take actions in violation of its rulings. Pakistan is not receiving the cooperation it needs for border management and control. Neither the US nor the Afghans pick up the extremists whom Pakistan forces back into Afghanistan.

On the contrary, they are sheltered and encouraged to launch attacks on targets inside Pakistan with Indias assistance from Afghan territory. There are no safe havens, sanctuaries or shuras in Pakistan. There are still millions of Afghan refugees who pose serious security and terrorist risks for Pakistan which is being made the scapegoat for American failure in Afghanistan. Moreover an attack on Pakistan is an attack on CPEC and the Belt and Road Initiative which are opposed by the US and India.

Much of the above is true. But it is not the whole truth. It is a half-truth which in many ways is worse than a lie. It hides at least as much as it reveals. The US and India cannot by themselves convince the world to gratuitously isolate Pakistan. Doing some good does not entitle one to do wrong.

The bitter truth is that Pakistans vigorous denials are seen by most countries as blatant lies, and part of a pattern going back decades which reflects a sustained emasculation of the democratic process. While India and the US are often criticised for their domestic and international conduct, and Afghanistan is seen as a failed state, none of this translates into much international sympathy and understanding for Pakistans protestations about its role in Afghanistan and elsewhere.

Why? This is a question that from time to time is discussed in the public realm. But its systematic discussion is not welcomed within the corridors of power. This reflects an aversion to facing plain truths and, accordingly, a general preference to concentrate on details and responses rather than fundamental issues and strategic realities.

All our questions and problems have practical solutions provided the right intentions prevail.

By arrangement with DawnThe Soyuz spacecraft brought back Joe Acaba and Mark Vande Hei, from the NASA, and Alexander Misurkin, from Russian space agency Roscosmos.

The trio had spent five-and-a-half months at the ISS, a $100 billion lab that flies about 250 miles (400 km) above Earth. (Representative Image)

A capsule carrying two US astronauts and a Russian cosmonaut from the International Space Station landed in snowy Kazakhstan on Wednesday after a five-and-a-half month mission, a NASA TV live broadcast showed.

The Soyuz spacecraft brought back Joe Acaba and Mark Vande Hei, from the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration, and Alexander Misurkin, from Russian space agency Roscosmos.

The capsule landed in the snow covered steppe some 90 miles southeast of the central city of Zhezkazgan at 0231 GMT.

Misurkin was the first to emerge from the spacecraft, assisted by members of the Russian search and recovery team, and he was followed by Acaba who smiled and made a thumbs-up gesture.

The trio had spent five-and-a-half months at the ISS, a $100 billion lab that flies about 250 miles (400 km) above Earth.

The trio are due to be replaced by NASAs Andrew Feustel and Richard Arnold, and Oleg Artemyev of Roscosmos, whose spacecraft will blast off from the Baikonur cosmodrome, also in Kazakhstan, on March 21.The hearing would have been the second courtroom appearance for Cruz since the shooting.

19-year-old Nikolas Cruz is accused of carrying out the second-deadliest shooting at a public school in US history after a deal between prosecutors and defence attorneys, the suspect's lawyer said. (Photo: File)

Fort Lauderdale: A Florida court cancelled a hearing scheduled for Tuesday for the 19-year-old man accused of carrying out the second-deadliest shooting at a public school in US history after a deal between prosecutors and defence attorneys, the suspect's lawyer said.

Prosecutors had been scheduled to seek hair and DNA samples from Nikolas Cruz, who faces 17 murder counts for the February 14 rampage at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, an affluent suburb of Fort Lauderdale.

Broward County prosecutors and Cruz's publicly appointed defender, Gordon Weekes, reached a deal late Monday to provide those samples, making the hearing unnecessary, Weekes said.

Also Read: Florida shooting: Armed officer on duty 'never went in' to stop gunman

"There was no reason to push back," Weekes said. "It was a routine motion that the state attorney had filed. We submitted an agreed order and there was no need for a court to hear the motion."

The hearing would have been the second courtroom appearance for Cruz since the shooting.

The massacre, carried out with a legally purchased AR-15 assault rifle, inflamed the long-running US debate on gun rights, which are addressed in the Second Amendment of the US Constitution.

Cruz's case is due to return to court on Wednesday when a hearing will determine whether he has sufficient assets to pay for his own defence, Weekes said.

The shooting has rattled long-drawn political lines on gun rights in the United States, where Republican officials have often opposed efforts by gun control advocates to tighten gun ownership laws, partly out of concern about retribution by the powerful National Rifle Association.

Also Read: Monster under our roof: Foster couple on Florida gunman Nikolas Cruz

US President Donald Trump, a Republican who backed gun rights during and since his 2016 presidential campaign, has been under pressure to show he is responding without alienating Republicans who oppose firearms restrictions.

On Monday, he met with 35 governors, urging them to disregard pressure from the NRA as they seek to address firearms safety and school security.

Trump has embraced the call to safeguard schools by arming teachers but also has voiced support for strengthening background checks for prospective gun buyers - a proposal the NRA has traditionally resisted.Vashukevich better known as Nastya Rybka, had an affair with Deripaska who she alleged hired ex-Trump aide Paul Manafort.

Claiming that she had first hand information on the link between Donald Trump and Kremlin Vashukevich asked for help after being arrested in Thailand. (Photo: Instagram/ nastya_rybka.ru)

Moscow: The ever complicated probe into Russian meddling in US presidential elections 2016 takes another bizzare turn.

Sex expert and escort service worker Anastasia Vashukevich claims she could give US intelligence service information in exchange for help, in the wake of her arrest in Thailand, the Washington Post reported.

(Photo: Instagram/ nastya_rybka.ru)

Vashukevich was earlier in the news for her videos which brought to light the ties between Russian billionaire Oleg Depriska and Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Prikhodko.

Claiming that she had first hand information on the link between Donald Trump and Kremlin Vashukevich asked for help after being arrested in Thailand during a weekend raid on a sex seminar which she was participating in.

Vashukevich better known as Nastya Rybka, had an affair with Deripaska who she alleged hired ex-Trump aide Paul Manafort.

On Tuesday, in a live Instagram video Vashukevich said, "I am the only witness and the missing link in the connection between Russia and the US elections - the long chain of Oleg Deripaska, Prikhodko, Manafort, and Trump."

She is seen being driven off in an open-air police van through a Pattaya resort. "In exchange for help from US intelligence services and a guarantee of my safety, I am prepared to provide the necessary information to America or to Europe or to the country which can buy me out of Thai prison," she said.

In the video, she claims having already given an interview to US broadcaster NBC.

Vashukevich shot to fame in January when Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny broadcast old videos from her Instagram account dating back to August 2016 in which Deripaska and Prikhodko are seen in a yacht.

Navalny used the footage to indicate possible ties between Deripaska, a metals magnate and Russias most influential official Prikhodko alleging that the latter had been bribed with women and a luxury getaway.

He also alleged that the two could have been the link between Trump and Kremlin, pointing to a possible collusion with Russia to influence American votes.

Prikhodko lambasted Navalny calling him a political loser whereas Deripaska rubbished the nationalist democrats claims and sued him for violating his privacy saying, Navalny's allegations have nothing to do with reality.

A court ordered Instagram to remove some of Vashukevich's posts.

Vashukevich who was in Dubai when Navalny made the videos public travelled to Thailand after. On Sunday, according to reports in Russian media, Thai police raided a sex seminar for Russian tourists wherein they arrested her.

Vashukevich and several others had been detained for being part of an "illegal training session," the Russian embassy consul Vladimir Sosnov told Russian state news agency RIA Novosti.

However, the high-society escort claims that the arrests were made under orders from Russian officials in lieu of Deripaska and Prikhodkos videos and that she was expecting to be deported back to Russia, where shed be jailed again.

A post in English on her Instagram account said, "Please USA save us from Russia! All this cases are political repressions!"

Russia's most important security and intelligence officials including Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev, former head of the Federal Security Service were also in Thailand at the time of Vashukevichs arrest.Letter from the Vatican Secretary of State to a congress on palliative care. "Palliative care proves, within clinical practice, the awareness that the limit demands not only to be fought and moved, but also recognized and accepted. And this means not abandoning sick people, but rather being close to them and accompanying them in the difficult test that makes itself present at the end of life".

Vatican City (AsiaNews) - Medicine is not only about defeating diseases, but also taking care of the sick when it is impossible to recover. In this task, palliative care, which is used to combat the pains of the disease, is of particular importance, but if the possibility for the Church to approach the moment of death, sedation, especially when protracted and deep, is also acceptable to the Church , "it is therefore always at least partially unsatisfactory" because "that relational and communicative dimension" that is "crucial in the accompaniment of palliative care" is erased.

The deep sedation, used to alleviate the pains of the terminally ill, "must be considered as an extreme remedy, after having carefully examined and clarified the indications ", writes Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Vatican Secretary of State, in a letter to Msgr. Vincenzo Paglia, president of the Pontifical Academy for Life on the occasion of the opening of the work of the international congress on " Palliative Care: Everywhere and by everyone. Palliative care in every region. Palliative care in every religion or belief, organized by the same Pontifical Academy. During the event, the PAL-Life Project will be officially presented, conceived and created by the Pontifical Academy for Life for the global dissemination of palliative care.

In his letter, card. Parolin stresses that "these are topics that regard the concluding moments of our earthly life and which confront the human being with a limit that seems unsurpassable for freedom, sometimes causing rebellion and anguish. This is why in todays society we try in many ways to avoid it and to remove it, neglecting to listen to the inspired indication of the Psalm: Teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom (90.12). We thus deprive ourselves of the richness that is hidden in finitude, and of an opportunity to develop a more sensible way of living, both on a personal and a social level.

Palliative care, however, does not support this renunciation of the wisdom of finitude, and here is a further reason for the importance of these issues. In fact, they indicate a rediscovery of the deepest vocation of medicine, which consists first of all in caring: its task is to always care for, even if it is not always possible to heal. Certainly the medical enterprise is based on the untiring commitment to acquire new knowledge and to overcome an increasing number of diseases. But palliative care proves, within clinical practice, the awareness that the limit demands not only to be fought and moved, but also recognized and accepted. And this means not abandoning sick people, but rather being close to them and accompanying them in the difficult test that makes itself present at the end of life".

Accompanying people in the final phase of life, recalls the cardinal, if it aims to combat pain, is something different from euthanasia. "Pope Pius XII had clearly legitimized, by distinguishing it from euthanasia, the administration of analgesics to alleviate unbearable pain that is not otherwise treatable, even if, in the phase of imminent death, they may cause a shortening of life (cf Acta Apostolicae Sedis XLIX [1957 ], 129-147). Today, after many years of research, the shortening of life is no longer a frequent side effect, but the same question emerged with new drugs, which act on the state of consciousness and make different forms of sedation possible. The ethical criterion does not change, but the use of these procedures always requires careful discernment and great prudence. Indeed, they are very demanding for the sick, for the family, and for carers: with sedation, especially when protracted and deep, the relational and communicative dimension that we have seen is crucial in accompanying palliative care is cancelled. It is therefore always at least partially unsatisfactory, so it must be considered as an extreme remedy, after having carefully examined and clarified the indications".by Fady Noun

A two-day conference organised by the King Abdallah Centre lays the ground for change in Saudi Arabia at a time when Islam is experiencing a spiritual and institutional crisis. The choice of Austria as neutral ground is not accidental. Rediscovering the transcendental is important even if it has been expelled from European public life. Young people must be taught the concepts of citizenship and nation.

Beirut (AsiaNews)  The King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz International Centre for Interreligious and Intercultural Dialogue (KAICIID) held a two-day conference (26-27 February) at the Hilton Hotel in Vienna to discuss ways to overcome Islams religious crisis and stop the drift towards fundamentalism in the 21st century. A number of prominent civic and religious leaders took part in the event, including Lebanons Maronite Patriarch Card Bechara al-Rahi, who described as very positive the efforts by the KAICIID and Saudi Arabia. The analysis by AsiaNews s correspondent follows.

How to move the Islamic world, its Arab part in particular, into the 21st century with unity in diversity, social cohesion, citizenship, without losing its soul? This is the daunting challenge launched by the King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz International Centre for Interreligious and Intercultural Dialogue (KAICIID), an organisation that would like to be the great minesweeper to smooth the transition of this world towards globalisation.

Whatever one may think of the militant Islam of the Iranian revolution, it must be said that it marked a complex awakening of identity that cannot be swept aside. The collapse of the Ottoman Empire at the end of the First World War, and the related death of the caliphate, sent shock waves across the Islamic world, and launched a challenge that the Brothers Muslims founded in 1928 by Hassan al-Banna, and the Saudi dynasty backed by the Wahhabi doctrine, each in its own way, sought to meet, both spiritually and institutionally, in the early twentieth century.

Egypts aborted revolution, Mohammad Morsis ouster (2013), and the darkness that fell on the Plain of Nineveh, at the brutal start of the twenty-first century, showed the limits of other alternatives that some had in mind. We are now at the third attempt to awaken Sunni Islam, without plunging Muslims into darkness or tyranny. Although the operation may seem simple to some, it is in fact more complex than it appears.

The answer the KAICIID in Vienna wants to bring to this crisis, and that is what it is, is ambiguous. Admittedly, what is possible in Vienna  where the conference ended yesterday  is not possible in Saudi Arabia. To launch such a reform from the neutral grounds of Austria, and dress it up with an international and interreligious coat is, on the part of King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia, a way to show realism and coherence.

However, it is not clear that the answer from Europe, with its successes and oppositions over the years, is quite what is needed. This response is, in fact, a little too marked by a culture of facts and figures, sustainable development, and reproductive health  a secular, if not secularist culture in which God and the transcendental must not meddle in what does not concern them.

By contrast, like it or not, the current crisis of Islam is also spiritual. For Khaled Abdel Shafi (UNDP), who spoke at the conference, "90 per cent of young Arabs consider themselves religious, or partly religious." Speaking after him, Merete Bilde, policy advisor to EU High Representative Federica Mogherini, candidly admitted that "The European Union is not into religion, but it cannot avoid seeing its impact and must look at things realistically."

To fight radicalisation  to fight what continues to fascinate some young Muslims, or what appeals to something deep in them, and sometimes radicalises them  requires something other than social engineering and action programmes focused on social media. What is needed is what the West has removed from public life once and for all, namely a reference to the transcendental. Thus, the answer to the crisis of the Islamic world that is emerging in Vienna, whilst essential, is insufficient on its own. Instead, it must be complemented by a legitimate and recognised historical reflection that would allow Islam to free itself from the impasse in which the codification of the interpretation of the Quran has locked it in since the twelfth century.

Many observers agree that this enterprise, which must go hand in hand with the modernisation of the governance structures of the Arab States, can only be accomplished by Muslims. In this respect, Egypts al-Azhar seems to have done the most advanced work  about which its number 2, Sheikh Abbas Shuman, spoke in detail yesterday  such as promoting the concept of citizenship, and recognising the legitimacy of religious diversity, as well as freedom of belief and worship, albeit with reservations about the Christian mission and conversions to Christianity of Muslims (see al-Azhar's statement on 6 March 2017 on diversity and complementarity).

Alongside these advances, the conference emphasised the vital importance of education about diversity and citizenship, a long-term policy that is beginning to take shape in some countries thanks to the work of private associations like the Adyan Foundation, or through official efforts. For example, Saudi Arabias influential Minister for Islamic Affairs Tawfiq ben Abdelaziz al-Sadiri spoke yesterday of his countrys effort to instill in the minds of young Saudis the notion of the state in lieu of that of the Ummah (community of believers).

A good part of the day, yesterday, was devoted to the art of using social media, of creating, thanks to these psychological and social tools, unsuspected bonds of solidarity. In this regard, the audience was treated to the fascinating story of Saudi social media hero Kawther al-Arbash, whose face still shows the signs of pain for her son who died trying to stop an Islamic State suicide bomber at a mosque in Dammam in May 2015. Along with 29 other women, Kawthar el-Arbash was appointed in 2016 to of Saudi Arabias Shura Council, which was changed by royal decree.

The conference ended yesterday with the launch of an action plan for the Arab world inspired by its objectives and programmes, not without last minute changes after some clerics raised questions about an element in the text that provided for initiatives, within the framework of the plan, to be taken "under the auspices" of the Centre rather than "in collaboration" with it.by Melani Manel Perera

A riot broke out after rumours spread that a Muslim-run hotel served food mixed with sterility pills. Last year marked a rise in Buddhist nationalist sentiment.

Colombo (AsiaNews)  A mosque and several Muslim-owned shops were set on fire by Sinhalese in Ampara, eastern Sri Lanka.

The anti-Muslim anger was triggered by rumours that a hotel run by a Muslim served food tainted with sterility pills to Sinhalese. As a result, a riot broke out on Monday night.

According to press agency reports, a group of young drunken Sinhalese entered the Cassim Hotel, which is owned by a Muslim and located in the D.S. Senanayake Veediya area.

Inside they forced the cashier to admit that food laced with sterility pills had been served to Sinhalese patrons.

Driven by a blind fury, the mob attacked a local mosque, shops and vehicles parked at the edge of the road.

Not even the police intervention managed to contain the anger. Only with the arrival of a special Army Task Force was calm re-established.

The incident of religious violence came a few days after Amnesty International released its annual report for 2017-2018 on the state of human rights.

In it, Sri Lanka appears on the list of the most insecure countries for Muslims. Sri Lanka saw a rise in Buddhist nationalist sentiment, including attacks against Christians and Muslims, says the document.

Following a series of attacks against Muslims and their property, the international community last year condemned the violence and asked the government to protect the rights of minorities and freedom of religion.

Muslims represent about 9 per cent of the population of 21 million inhabitants. About 70 per cent are Buddhist, 13 per cent Hindus, and 7.4 per cent Christian.Anti-dumping measures on Chinese imports with taxes from 48.64 to 106.09%. Verification with the International Trade Commission. "Strong dissatisfaction" of Beijing. This week, Liu He, economic advisor to Xi Jinping, will visit the United States.

Washington (AsiaNews / Agencies) - The US Department of Commerce has acknowledged that aluminum foil imported from China is being sold in the United States at a bargain price. This is due to the fact that the Chinese industries have economic subsidies from their government and overproduction is aimed at export, typical of the Chinese economy.

The Aluminium Association said in a statement that antidumping and countervailing duties would be levied on a number of Chinese firms, with dumping margins ranging from 48.64 % to 106.09 % and anti-subsidy rates of 17.14 % to 80.97 %.

Taxes will be implemented for five years, but for now they are pending, awaiting a decision by the International Trade Commission (ITC), which should verify the damage caused by Chinese dumping on US producers. The decision is expected for March 15th.

Last month, a group of US aluminum producers showed the ITC how much their industry was devastated by Chinese imports and the need for anti-dumping measures.

In 2016, the US imported 389 million dollars of aluminum foil from China.

Beijing has expressed strong dissatisfaction with the United States imposing anti-dumping and countervailing duties on Chinese aluminium foil, the Ministry of Commerce accusses it of "disregard for the rules of the World Trade Organization" and of wanting to apply taxes "without any evidence".

The tension between the United States and China grows and there is a risk of a commercial war. US President Donald Trump has long threatened to impose taxes on imports of aluminum and steel from China, which "destroy the jobs" of the Americans.

This week, Xi Jinping's leading economic advisor, Liu He, will visit the US for an exchange of views "on the China-US relationship and on economic and trade cooperation between the two nations".Netanyahu makes a u-turn and freezes the controversial bill. Christian leaders: We thank God, the Churches will continue to work to protect the Christian presence, still threatened by many difficulties.

Jerusalem (AsiaNews) - The doors of the Holy Sepulcher were reopened at 4.00 am today, after three days of closure. The protest of Christian leaders was interrupted last night, after the u-turn by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who announced in a statement the freezing of the measures criticized by the Churches of Jerusalem.

On 25 February, the Armenian Patriarch Nourhan Manougian, the Greek Orthodox Patriarch Teofilo III and the Custodian of the Holy Land, Fr. Francesco Patton had decided to close the sanctuary in protest against a draft law on the expropriation of land belonging to the Churches and against the mayor's request to pay years of municipal rates, in contravention of the status quo agreements - accepted at the time by Israel - which exempt religious communities from taxes.

In the communique announcing the reopening, the Christian leaders affirm: "We give thanks to God for the statement released earlier today by Prime Minister Netanyahu and offer our gratitude to all those who have worked tirelessly to uphold the Christian presence in Jerusalem and to defend the Status Quo".

Now, "look forward to engaging with Minister Hanegbi [of the Tzachi Regional Cooperation], and with all those who love Jerusalem to ensure that Our Holy City, where our Christian presence continues to face challenges, remains a place where the three Monotheistic faiths may live and thrive together".

Photo by Christian Media Center.Guest Commentary

By Charles Lammam

& Hugh MacIntyre

A key policy announcement in B.C.s 2018 budget is the elimination of Medical Services Premiums (MSP) in 2020 and introduction of a new payroll taxthe employer health tax (EHT).

Some claim this tax swap will lift the financial burden off individual British Columbians and place it on businesses.

In reality, however, the new EHT will ultimately be borne by workers through lower pay.

The EHT will be implemented in 2019, one year before MSP premiums are eliminated. It will apply to businesses with annual payrolls of more than $500,000 and has a maximum tax rate of 1.95 per cent. The rate is phased in as a business annual payroll increases.

And the maximum rate is applied to a business with a payroll of $1.5 million or more.

Again, superficially, replacing the MSP with the EHT makes it seem like workers will generally pay less, since businesses will directly pay the EHT.

But who really pays the cost of a payroll tax?

A payroll tax increases the total cost of labour. Businesses can respond by reducing employment, accepting lower profits, passing the costs to customers, or shifting the costs to workers by reducing their wages or benefits.

Research on who actually incurs the costs of payroll taxes has consistently found that workersnot businessesbear significant part of the tax burden, even if businesses are the ones who directly make the tax payments to the government.

Simply put, businesses look at payroll taxes as part of the overall compensation paid to their workers. As these tax costs are absorbed by businesses, theres less money available for the wages and salaries of their employees. In other words, over time, worker compensation will not grow as fast as it otherwise would without a payroll tax.

Therefore, workers ultimately pay a portion of the cost of a payroll tax such as the EHTa finding confirmed by empirical research.

To understand the magnitude of the possible impact, a recent Fraser Institute study measured the impact of payroll tax hikes on worker wages. It found that a 1 per cent increase in the employer portion of payroll taxes is associated with a 0.03 per cent to 0.14 per cent reduction in the hourly wage rate. In dollar terms, this suggests that a one percentage-point increase in the un-weighted average combined employer-portion payroll tax rate (10.52 per cent) would translate into annual wages that are lower by between $137 and $605.

Bottom line: British Columbian workers will pay for the new employer health tax.

Charles Lammam is Director of Fiscal Studies at the Fraser Institute. Hugh MacIntyre is a Senior Policy Analyst at the Fraser InstituteBy Ted Alcuitas,

Philippine Canadian News

Special to The Post

Last month, Ted Alcuitas travelled to the Philippines on vacation and took time to observe the current situation in the country. He attempted to visit the imprisoned Senator Leila de Lima but was not successful, allegedly because he is not a holder of a Philippine passport. Instead, he visited the senators office and took time to sit on one senate committee hearing.

Here is his story from Manila, Philippines.

Inside Room 342 in the Philippine Senate sits an empty chair.

It is the office of Senator Leila de Lima, arguably the Philippines most famous political prisoner.

On February 24, 2018 she will have served one year in prison.

How did a fast-rising star in the political firmament became a disgraced prisoner?

De Limas ordeal begun before todays current President was elected.

Back in 2009, Rodrigo Duterte was the mayor of the southern city of Davao and de Lima was chair of the Commission on Human Rights.

She had the guts to not only go to Davao to investigate the so-called Davao Death Squads (DDS) but to also publicly berate Duterte for his seeming ignorance of the killings.

That made her a marked person on Dutertes crosshairs.

When Duterte became president in 2016, de Lima was also elected a senator and soon became chair of the powerful Senate committee on justice and human rights.

In mid-July 2016, barely a month after the election, she

introduced a resolution calling for an investigation of the extrajudicial killings (EJKs) under Dutertes drug war.

This was followed by an announcement that the Senate would conduct an inquiry on EKJs and her fate was sealed.

The President accused her of being at the centre of a drug matrix that was responsible for the drug trade in the New Bilibid Prison after she presented surprise witness Edgar Matobato, a confessed hitman of the DDS.

The charge was patently trumped-up because De Lima was known to be the one who exposed the problem and conducted the only successful raid on the penitentiary.

A complicit Senate and House of Representatives, both controlled by Duterte, dismissed the testimony of Matobato but instead accepted the testimonies of convicted felons serving life sentences against De Lima.

These special witnesses were granted privileges in prison, with electronic gadgets, cell phones, air-conditioning units, internet use, smart television sets  privileges not granted to Senator de Lima.

The vendetta against the 58-year old senator included accusations of alleged extra-marital affairs with her driver. The House boys apparently showed great pleasure in watching a so-called sex video of De Lima and her boyfriend.

In addition, she and four others have been charged with conspiring with Muslim officials to free members of the Abu Sayyaf Group bandit group (ASG) from jail.

The Office of the Ombudsman dismissed the case on December 13, 2017.

This was followed by the rejection of three ethics cases against de Lima by the Senate on February 20 for lack of jurisdiction.

With truth on my side, I know that I will be vindicated in time. Sa paglipas ng mga araw, lalong lumilinaw na inosente ako, biktima ng matinding panggigipit. Sa huli, tiwala akong malilinis ang aking pangalan mula sa lahat ng imbentong paratang sa akin ng rehimeng ito, she said.

De Lima, who will soon mark her first year of illegal arrest and unjust detention on Feb. 24, lauded her Senate colleagues for allowing a high sense of fairness and objectivity to finally triumph in handling the preposterous ethics complaints filed against her.

I thank my colleagues for standing up for reason and the clear provision of the rules. It is now evident, as Ive always maintained, that the cases filed against me were frivolous and were merely filed to harass me, she said.

I hope that somehow I have proven my doubters and detractors wrong. From the very start, I have always kept my innocence and in due time, hopefully soon, I will be vindicated from all the fabricated charges, especially the drug cases, filed against me, she added.

Still a sitting senator

Despite being incarcerated and stripped of any privileges, De Lima is still a sitting senator and maintains a full complement of senatorial staff.

From her cell, she communicates by hand-written notes which her staff picks up and types and circulates through social media. Those notes are book-bound by the staff and sits on her desk.

In addition, she is briefed on senate proceedings but cannot participate in debates because she is not provided the electronic means.

World recognition

Her incarceration did not prevent international bodies to recognize her achievements.

Among them, she was recognized as the Leading Global Thinker in 2016 and 2017 and the Prize For Freedom by Liberal International in October last year. It is the federations highest human rights honor. De Lima is the second Filipino to obtain the award after former President Corazon Aquino in 1987.

Amnesty International awarded her the Women Human Rights Defenders for 2017 and chosen by Time Magazine as the Top Most Influential People for 2017.

In solitary and in peace

She is under solitary confinement and under close watch surrounded by a 12-feet high wall with barbed wires on top. Her visitors are frisked, patted down, sanitized and not allowed to take pictures. A closed circuit tv in the receiving room records every happening.

From 5 oclock in the afternoon to the next morning, she is cut off from the rest of humanity, with only the steady whirr of an electric fan to keep her company.

Alone in her cell for most of the year now, she confides to a visitor that she is ready to face her destiny and has found true peace in the narrow confines of isolation.

Will Duterte make good his promise to destroy Senator De Lima and how?

Is he going to do a Ninoy?

We threw this question to the embattled senators chief of staff when we saw him in Vancouver last December.

Atty. Philip Sawali who has worked for the senator for many years, thinks Duterte will not do the unthinkable  order the killing of Senator De Lima.

Another Philippine senator  Benigno Ninoy Aquino, Jr. was assassinated on August 21, 1983 on what many believed was ordered by the dictator Ferdinand Marcos.

Aquino was Marcos fiercest critic just as De Lima is Dutertes fiercest critic today.

The two cases has eerie parallels:

Ninoy was imprisoned and was released for medical reasons and allowed to go abroad only to be killed when he returned.

When de Lima called for an investigation into President Rodrigo Dutertes bloody drug war, he retaliated with a verbal tirade that included threats to make her cry, throw her in jail and destroy her.

Duterte, known to bristle at any kind of criticism, made good on his first two promises. But from her detention cell at police headquarters, Sen. Leila De Lima has vowed not to give him the satisfaction of the third.

Three days from now on February 24, she will have been in solitary for 365 days and counting.

Will she ever return to her empty chair?Photo of Fred Diaz with the Eclipse Cross courtesy of Mitsubishi.

Mitsubishi Motors Corp. has appointed Fred Diaz to succeed Ryujiro Kobashi as president and CEO of Mitsubishi Motors North America Inc. (MMNA).

Diaz, who brings 29 years of sales, marketing, and customer relations experience to the position, previously served in Nissans commercial truck division. He was also previously the CEO of Fiat Chrysler's Ram Truck unit.

Kobashi, officials said, is returning to Mitsubishi Motors headquarters to assume a new role in overseas sales in Tokyo after spending four years as the head of MMNA.

The United States is a strategic market for Mitsubishi Motors in our Drive for Growth plan, said Trevor Mann, MMNA's COO. With his in-depth background and experience in North America, Fred has a strong ability to proactively engage with Mitsubishi Motors' dealers and customers as we aim to expand our dealership network, enhance our brand, and drive sales growth."

The announcement follows MMNA surpassing its 100,000 sales milestone in 2017, making the automaker the fastest growing non-luxury brand in the United States. Under Kobashi's leadership, MMNA was able to rebuild Mitsubishi Motors' sales and launch the Eclipse Cross CUV as well as other important models in North America.

In October, Mitsubishi Motors announced its three-year Drive for Growth plan, which aims to improve the company's U.S. dealership network and grow sales by 30% to 130,000 units per year.Photo courtesy of WestportWiki via Wikimedia

Canadas Competition Bureau has reached a consent agreement with Enterprise Rent-A-Car Canada Company (Enterprise) to correct what the Bureau concluded were misleading advertisements. Enterprise will pay a penalty of $1 million and review its practices to ensure that its advertisements comply with the law.

The Bureau concluded that services were not available to Canadian consumers at the prices advertised by Enterprise because additional mandatory fees were being charged by the company, the Bureau said in a press statement. The Bureau also concluded that this practice resulted in consumers paying higher prices than advertised.

Enterprise Holdings is committed to transparency and to upholding high industry standards regarding pricing, fees, and discounts, Steve Tudela, corporate vice president of Enterprise Holdings Canada said in a statement to Auto Rental News. We are cooperating proactively and voluntarily with CCB to enhance the clarity of our advertising and that of our industry overall.

According to the Bureau's investigation, Enterprise's additional mandatory fees increased the advertised prices by as much as 6% to 48%. The prices were advertised across various media, including online, on mobile applications, and in emails. The statement did not define the nature of the fees.

This is the third time that the Bureau has taken action to resolve similar concerns in the car rental industry. So far, the Bureau's work has led to a total of $5.25 million in administrative monetary penalties against the three largest car rental companies in Canada, the Bureau reported.Sixt celebrated its latest grand opening with the Fort Myers Chamber of Commerce. Photo courtesy of Sixt

At a ribbon-cutting ceremony led by the Greater Fort Myers (Fla.) Chamber of Commerce and the Fort Myers Beach Chamber of Commerce, Sixt Rent-a-Car officially opened its 52nd rental car location at the Fort Myers International Airport.

Sixt Rent-a-Car offers affordable luxury car rental service with more than 2,000 locations in over 100 countries. In the U.S. since just 2011, the company is now the 5th largest provider in the US, with 52 locations in 13 states.

The most recent opening in Fort Myers marks the rapidly-growing companys third grand opening this year.

So far this year, Sixt has opened a new location at Texas San Antonio International Airport and moved into an upgraded facility at Floridas Tampa International Airport.

In 2017, Sixt unveiled a newly-expanded offering at its flagship space in the Miami International Airport and at its Seattle-Tacoma International Airport location, launched a new location at the San Diego International Airport, and moved into its new North American corporate headquarters in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.

Sixt has grown to over 750 employees and serves more than 52 rental locations in California, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Washington, Texas, Connecticut, New Jersey, Minnesota, Pennsylvania, Nevada, Arizona, and Massachusetts.Joseph Luiz can be reached at 395-7368 or by email at jluiz@bakersfield.com. You can also follow him on Twitter @JLuiz_TBC.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.Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School students who returned to school two weeks after 17 students and teachers were killed spent half the day on campus Wednesday.

The students were greeted Wednesday morning by police officers carrying military style rifles and an array of counselors and therapy dogs.

They missed two weeks of school following the Valentines Day mass shooting that took place in a freshman building just before dismissal.

The suspect, 19-year-old Nikolas Cruz, is in the Broward County Jail, charged with 17-counts of first-degree murder. The shooting has thrust many of the surviving students into the center of the nations gun debate.

But Wednesday was all about healing and getting back into a regular routine, albeit a shortened school day.

During the last 14 days, students spent time traveling to Tallahassee to rally lawmakers for changes on gun legislation. And while some students say they feel frustrated going back to school because they had hoped to see more action in Tallahassee, others say returning to class is a first step to healing.

"I think it's really important that we're all together to kind of start the healing process," said Marjory Stoneman Douglas student Dimitri Hoth. "And rebuilding our memories within the halls of this school."

I'm going back to school today and I'm scared, I'm nervous, I'm upset; I honestly feel every feeling you can name right now. But I'm happy that I have my friends by my side through all of this #ProudToBeAnEagle  carly (@car_nove) February 28, 2018

Ive never anticipated a 6:00 AM alarm more in my entire life.#Positive #Passionate #PROUD TO BE AN EAGLE  Cameron Kasky (@cameron_kasky) February 28, 2018

The school's principal Ty Thompson took to Twitter to show his support and said that Wednesday would be the day the "healing process" would begin.

Looking forward to tomorrow Eagles! Remember our focus is on emotional readiness and comfort not curriculum: so there is no need for backpacks. Come ready to start the healing process and #RECLAIMTHENEST   Principal Thompson (@PrincipalMSD) February 27, 2018

Outside the school on Tuesday, people tied poems to the chain-link fence surrounding the school, and dropped off red, heart-shaped balloons.

The building where the shooting occurred was cordoned off, and people signed photographs of the fallen.

Im actually not too scared of going back tomorrow, said junior Sidney Fischer. There is this sort of looming thought that someone will try to perform another shooting but Im sure our school will be riddled with security.

Information from the Associated Press was used in this story.Seventeen Kemps ridley sea turtles returned to the Atlantic Ocean on Wednesday with the help of members from SeaWorld Orlandos rescue team.

17 Kemp's ridley sea turtles returned to ocean

Many were rescued from waters off the New England coast

RELATED: SeaWorld CEO Joel Manby steps down

The endangered turtles were released at Canaveral National Seashore in Titusville.

Most of the turtles were rescued from waters off the New England coast in November. In December, more than 40 of the cold-stunned turtles arrived at Tampa International Airport and were sent to various facilities in Florida for treatment.

The turtles that arrived at SeaWorld Orlando were treated for pneumonia, corneal ulcers and malnutrition. After three months of care, the turtles were cleared for release.

Two green turtles were also returned to the ocean Wednesday morning.

More than 2,000 sea turtles have been rescued by the SeaWorld Orlando team since 1980.A group of east Tampa students stepped back in time during Black History Month to see what life was like in the Bay area before integration.

Students get history lesson about Tampa

Clarence Fort was first black bus driver in city

Marker will soon be placed at the old Woolworth's building

The Middle Magnet School students got a glimpse of what Tampa Bay was like 60 years ago -- a city divided between blacks and whites.

The HART bus tour was narrated by Clarence Fort, a civil rights activist who was the first black bus driver in Tampa. He walked the students through what was once a part of his daily life: boycotts, sit-ins and segregation.

A storefront that used to be the Woolworth department store was one of the many sites of his activism.

"We walked in and they didn't know what to do with us, so they cut all the lights off at the lunch counter," Fort said. "We just sat there and nobody said a word, so after 20 minutes we walked out, and they cut the lights on and we went back in."

Students were also shuttled to Central Avenue, once the hub of black businesses and nightlife.



Students were shuttled to Central Avenue, once the hub of black businesses and nightlife.

Ray Charles and Ella Fitzgerald performed at local clubs on the street which today is memorialized with images of those on the front lines of desegregation. Fort's likeness is among them.

"It's foreign to them," Fort said of the students. "They've always had integration. In fact, one of the questions came up yesterday about segregation and they said, 'What's segregation?'"

It's a way of life the students couldn't comprehend.

"I think it was really brave, because they put their lives and themselves on the line so they can help people after them live a better future," said student Zainab Onafowokam.

Another student, Syncere Jones, said, "I'm real grateful to see how they actually changed it and desegregated all the schools and stuff like that and, allowed us to come to school together black and white."

A marker will soon be placed at the old Woolworth's building acknowledging the work of civil rights activists.

Council For Anti-Trafficking In Person And Anti-Smuggling Of Migrants (MAPO)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.For Immediate Release, February 28, 2018 Contact: Elise Bennett, (727) 755-6950, ebennett@biologicaldiversity.org Lawsuit Launched to Protect Rare Florida Lizard Threatened by Sea-level Rise Five-year Delay Increases Cedar Key Mole Skink's Extinction Risk ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. The Center for Biological Diversity today filed a formal notice of intent to sue the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for failing to protect the Cedar Key mole skink under the Endangered Species Act. The skink, a smooth-scaled lizard with stubby arms and legs, is threatened by coastal development and climate change-driven sea-level rise. It is found only on Cedar Key and nearby islands off Floridas Nature Coast. This rare lizard cant wait any longer for endangered species protections, said Elise Bennett, a Center staff attorney dedicated to protecting imperiled reptiles and amphibians. The remaining populations of Cedar Key mole skink are on track to blink out of existence as coastal development destroys habitat and shorelines are lost to the sea. But the Endangered Species Act could ensure the lizards survival. The Center petitioned to protect the Cedar Key mole skink under the Endangered Species Act in 2012. In 2015 the Service found that protecting the skink may be warranted. The agency was required to make a decision about whether to protect it within one year of the Centers petition, making this crucial decision five years overdue. Long delays in protecting species under the Act have been a persistent problem for decades. At least 42 species have gone extinct awaiting protection. A recent peer-reviewed study found that, on average, species waited 12 years for protection during the Acts 40-plus year history. In 2016 the Service developed a National Listing Workplan intended to prioritize its own workload based on the needs of candidate and petitioned species. According to this workplan, the Cedar Key mole skink should have received a 12-month finding determining whether it would receive protections by the end of fiscal year 2017. This decision has not been made. The Cedar Key mole skinks future looks bleak, but the Endangered Species Act is a proven bastion of protection for imperiled species great and small, Bennett said. Taking bold action to protect Cedar Keys unique pink-tailed lizard and address climate change and sea-level rise will ensure a better world for us all.Nigerian authorities should immediately drop plans to charge Timothy and Daniel Elombah, editor and chief executive respectively, of the independent Elombah news website, the Committee to Protect Journalists said.

 xtockimages via 123RF

Freedom of speech and press is in serious threat in Nigeria, #Press in chains, #Elombah in chains, #FreeElombah . pic.twitter.com/pzsQsc0noB  prince iyke prince (@GTalk2iyke) January 2, 2018

A federal court in Abuja is scheduled to arraign the brothers on cybercrime and terrorism-related offenses on March 1, their lawyer Obunike Ohaegbu told CPJ.Timothy and Daniel Elombah are journalists and not terrorists who should be free to continue their journalism without legal harassment or fear of going to jail, said CPJ Africa program coordinator Angela Quintal from New York. Authorities should drop all legal proceedings against them and review Nigerias cybercrime law to ensure it is constitutional and is not abused to silence the press.Nigerian security forces detained the pair, along with several others, on January 1 for an allegedly defamatory article about Nigerian Inspector-General of Police Ibrahim Idris that was published in the privately owned website Opinion Nigeria , and which the brothers have said they did not write, CPJ documented at the time.Authorities released Daniel Elombah the same day he was arrested; Timothy Elombah was released on 500,000 Nigerian naira (US$1,400) bail after spending 25 days in police custody, according to Ohaegbu.Elombah reports on the extremist group Boko Haram and has written critically about President Muhammadu Buhari's son. Daniel Elombah denied that Elombah had anything to do with the article that police said prompted their arrest.Jeff Okoroafor, the founder and publisher of Opinion Nigeria, told CPJ in January that police requested the article be removed, but that he refused. He said no further action was taken.When CPJ called the headquarters of the Nigeria police in Abuja, the person who answered the phone said that he was not allowed to speak to journalists, and hung up.If found guilty, the brothers could each face up to 10 years in jail under the Cybercrime Act, Daniel Elombah told CPJ. At least four bloggers have been prosecuted under the Cybercrime Act since 2015, according to CPJ researchOn Friday 23 February 2018, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, Minister of Information and Culture in Nigeria, revealed that the Digital Switch Over (DSO) taking place in Nigeria is the first step of the nation's goal of building Africa's biggest and most lucrative free-to-air television platform.

 dvarg via 123RF

The revelation was made by the minister in Osogbo, at the launch of DSO for Osun State. He added that with over 24 million TV households and being the capital of African creativity in music and film, Nigeria would become the capital of television in Africa within the next few years.Mohammed congratulated the stakeholders on the successful transition from analogue to digital terrestrial broadcasting and invited all the players to join the unstoppable train.The DSO train, which took off in Jos, Plateau State, in April 2016, has now arrived in Osun State. From Plateau, the train has traversed the Federal Capital Territory, Kwara, Kaduna and Enugu states. The State of Osun, therefore, becomes the sixth and the latest state in which we have launched the DSO. I congratulate the people of this state, who will now have access to more than 30 digital channels, with crystal clear pictures and Hi Fidelity audio, once they procure our most affordable Set Top Box, he said.The minister noted that with DSO, stakeholders, including mobile phone companies, advertisers, content producers and electronics manufacturers will benefit from the switch.Mohammed concluded by stating that the move to DSO will see Nollywood movies sold directly to homes without the need of a VCD, DVD or even the internet, while the government could use the platform to engage and inform their people.Convicted fraudster Rubben Mohlaloga has been given five days to say why he should not be removed from his post as chairman of the Independent Communications Authority of SA (Icasa).

The parliamentary portfolio committee on communications said on Tuesday, 27 Februar it would begin the process of axing Mohlaloga from the state regulatory body following his conviction for fraud and money laundering in mid-January."Out of respect for the rule of natural justice, the committee will inform him [Mohlaloga] about the decision [to remove him] and give him five working days to explain why he should not be removed from Icasa," said the committee's chairman, Humphrey Maxegwana.Business Day understands that the committee had been waiting for legal advice on the correct procedure to follow before starting the process.This followed a recommendation by former communications minister Mmamoloko Kubayi-Ngubane in late January that the National Assembly should remove Mohlaloga.National Assembly Speaker Baleka Mbete then instructed the portfolio committee to start the process.Icasa rules stipulate that a person convicted of fraud is not allowed to be a councillor of the industry body, although Parliament is the only entity with the power to remove such an individual. In response to a question on whether Mohlaloga was still attending board meetings and earning a full salary, an Icasa spokesman said Mohlaloga was "still an appointed chairperson of Icasa".In January, the Hawks announced that Mohlaloga and three others - including former Land Bank CEO Philemon Radichaba Mohlahlane - had been found guilty of defrauding the Land Bank of about R6min 2008.Members of the group, who are due to be sentenced in April, siphoned the cash from an agricultural-focused broad-based black economic empowerment entity, and the money was never used for the benefit of farm workers or emerging farmers, according to the Hawks.Mohlaloga, a former ANC MP, was chairman of Parliament's portfolio committee on agriculture at the time.He later joined the Icasa council in mid-2013 and became acting chairman in 2016, though his term expired in August 2017.He was replaced by Paris Mashile, who also held the position of acting chairman.Mohlaloga's appointment as full-time Icasa chairman, effective from December 2017, was approved by former president Jacob Zuma.Some opposition parties said at the time they did not support his appointment.Mahlolaga told Business Day on Tuesday he had not yet received notice that he had five days to state his case.In what looks set to be an extremely drawn-out affair, the Competition Commission has referred 28 media companies to the Competition Tribunal for prosecution on charges of price fixing and the fixing of trading conditions, in contravention of the Competition Act.

In what looks set to be an extremely drawn-out affair, the Competition Commission has referred 28 media companies to the Competition Tribunal for prosecution on charges of price fixing and the fixing of trading conditions, in contravention of the Competition Act.The case relates to an investigation initiated by the commission in 2011, which found that Media Credit Co-Ordinators (MCC) provided a percentage discount to a negotiated price for advertising to agencies that placed their adverts with MCC members. MCC-accredited agencies were offered a 16.5% discount while nonmembers were offered 15%.The commission has already reached a settlement with MultiChoice, Caxton and the Independent Group.Sipho Ngwema, head of communications at the commission, said it was not inevitable that the proceedings would be drawn out. "The facts are similar in all of the cases, they are clear and straightforward," he said.Ngwema said that a few of the 28 had already come forward to initiate settlement discussions. He also confirmed that although on the list, The Citizen and Avusa Media (now Tiso Blackstar) face no charges.Any company found guilty of contravening the act could be slapped with a fine of up to 10% of its annual turnover. The names on the list vary from major players such as SABC, Media24 and Primedia to less well known entities such as Lugan Investments and Trudon.One competition lawyer said it was possible that not all of the28 companies realised that they were on the list and were likely to settle quickly. "However, for some, the possibility of being charged with contravention of the act is not lightly considered so they are prepared to get involved in a long drawn-out bid to clear their name."The cost to reinstate the 700 workers who were fired by the Passenger Rail of South Africa (Prasa) after a protected strike five years ago will amount to over R1-billion.

Two weeks ago, the Constitutional Court dismissed an appeal by Prasa which had sought to appeal against a Labour Appeal Court judgment last year ordering the reinstatement of the workers.The workers, belonging to the National Transport Movement, were dismissed after Prasa accused them of burning trains worth about R42m during the strike.Prasa had sent workers notices asking them to make representations why they should not be fired for a number of incidents at stations and depots during January 2013.Prasa was not satisfied with the explanations provided by the NTM and dismissed the employees.While the Labour Court found that the dismissals were justified, the Labour Appeal Court found their dismissal to be procedurally and substantively unfair.It ordered Prasa to reinstate them retrospectively to the date of dismissal.An appeal by Prasa to the Supreme Court of Appeal was dismissed last month.Prasa said it would fully comply with the judgment to reinstate all the workers."Prasa has, as a result started planning for the reinstatement of the employees along with the re-training for train drivers in order to renew their train driver licences which must be renewed every six months."Prasa said all employees would be re-instated with full pay as of the day the judgement was made and all would receive their lump sum back pay minus the statutory deductions such as unemployment insurance and pension funds."The collective cost to company is approximately R1-billion. Prasa will engage in dialogue with both the unions and the affected employees on the details of the reinstatements."NTM spokesman Ronnie Ramothina said workers were in negotiation with the employer on when to return to work.He said workers spent just over five years waiting for the case to run its full course.Ramothina said this period had been hard for the workers."Some lost everything, including their houses. Some had their children kicked out from schools," Ramothina said.He said of the workers who were dismissed, 45 had died and 700 remained.Former SAA chairwoman Dudu Myeni could face a summons if she once again fails to appear before the parliamentary inquiry into state capture next week.

 Richard Van der Spuy  123RF.com

Myeni was invited by the portfolio committee on public enterprises, which is conducting the inquiry, to appear on Wednesday but did not show up.One of her reasons for her non-appearance - conveyed by SMS - was that her lawyer was not available or that she needed guidance from her lawyer on how to respond to the invitation.Inquiry chairwoman Zukiswa Rantho said Myeni had explained that her lawyer would look into the legalities of her appearance before the committee.Rantho said Myeni had been given sufficient time to respond to the invitation to attend the hearing.Myeni is required to answer to allegations by former Eskom chairman Zola Tsotsi that Tsotsi was given an instruction by her to suspend three senior Eskom executives, including former Eskom CEO Tshediso Matona.Former president Jacob Zuma allegedly made an appearance at the meeting between Tsotsi and Myeni.Committee members were divided over whether Myeni should be immediately issued with a summons, or whether she should be given one more opportunity to appear voluntarily before a summons is issued to force her to do so.Rantho said the way to proceed would be discussed with evidence leader Ntuthuzelo Vanara and the legal team.ACDP MP Steve Swart and DA spokeswoman on public enterprises Natasha Mazzone both felt that Myeni's nonappearance was an unacceptable delaying tactic and that she should be subpoenaed immediately.IFP MP Narend Singh and ANC MP Zukile Luyenge believed Myeni should be given an opportunity to appear voluntarily, failing which she should be issued with a summons.Source: BDproThe Department of Basic Education has assured parents and communities that it is all systems go for School Governing Body (SGB) elections, which will take place from 1 to 31 March 2018.

SGB task teams have been set up at both national and provincial levels. Election guidelines have been established and training manuals for election officers have been developed. Election dates have been set, provincial and district electoral officers have been appointed and circulars have been sent out to schools, said Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga.The department, led by the Minister, Deputy Minister Enver Surty and Director-General Mathanzima Mweli made the announcement when it briefed Parliaments Portfolio Committee for Basic Education on its state of readiness.The SGB elections, which begin tomorrow, are the largest election process outside of the Local Government Elections and take place in over 25,000 public schools.SGBs serve their schools for a three-year cycle wherein they make important decisions regarding issues around discipline in schools and codes of conduct, to language and admissions policies at a school level.The importance of this structure in our schools emanates from the important role parents and communities need to play in the education of their children, said the department.According to the department, the election of SGBs is one of the flagships of the education sector that has to be prioritised by all provinces in terms of planning, budget allocation and the allocation of both physical human resources.Governing bodies have a strategic significance, as identified by the National Development Plan (NDP), which calls for the alignment of the interests of all stakeholders to support the common goal of achieving good educational outcomes that are responsive to community needs and economic development, said Minister Motshekga.The department encouraged parents to participate in the elections, adding that they contribute to the development of a strong sense of community ownership.The performance of schools tends to improve when parents are actively involved and take an interest in the affairs of the school.The most important thing now is for parents to turn up in their numbers to meet the required meeting thresholds so that the elections can take place and adequately represent the school community, said the Minister.Namibia is one of the AU member states which has not yet signed the commitment, despite showing interest in having a unified African air transport market.



Botswana, Mali, Kenya, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, South Africa and Zimbabwe are among the 23 African countries that have signed the agreement. Ministry of Works and Transport spokesperson Julius Ngweda explained to Nampa recently that Namibia could not commit to the SAATM agreement until a number of issues are discussed and addressed with the relevant stakeholders in the aviation sector.



These issues include capacity, aviation safety and security, frequencies, tariffs and mechanisms for fair competition.





So far, the ministry held its first consultative meeting on 15 February 2015 with the Namibia Civil Aviation Authority, Namibia Central Intelligence Service, Air Namibia and the ministries of defence, safety and security, home affairs and immigration, and public enterprises.



Meanwhile, Air Namibia's corporate communications, external and public relations officer, Twaku Kayofa said if the government signs the agreement and the airline would participate as it would have easy access to markets it currently does not have access to.



"Namibia is a small market, with only one million worldwide passengers travelling per year, and Air Namibia carries 50% of those passengers," he explained.



"Opportunities in other markets much bigger"

Opportunities in other markets are much bigger, and as an established airline, it would use its existing capacity to tap into other markets.



"It will enhance interconnectivity, smooth facilitation of trade and tourism revenue increase," said Kayofa.



He noted that the more African airlines have to fly to more African countries, the more competition would increase, reducing fares and improved service offerings to travellers.



"Other regions of the world such as the European Union, North America and Latin America have their skies opened for themselves - there is no harm for Africa doing the same," he added.



- Nampa

I grew up in a world far removed from the one known by my parents, a world where instant gratification and self-validation through my peers are at the core of my being. As a millennial there is a difficult balance between what I am told by my elders and what I know to be true, where previous generations have grown up understanding that all things come in good time, I see the world through a screen and gratification comes through the push of a "button" so to speak.

 Cathy Yeulet via 123RF.com

Instant gratification

Crowdfunding  A viable solution to our future

Obtaining finance. Crowdfunding is a means of obtaining finance for your idea without the pressure of debt, but rather the responsibility of delivering on your promises within a predetermined time frame that you have set.

Gaining media exposure. One of the many benefits of crowdfunding is that it offers the key principles of e-commerce with the added benefit of a unique story attached to it. Making use of crowdfunding means that you are not completely on your own, and are working with an established brand to build the credibility of your own. Crowdfunding platforms will also have various media contacts that can be leveraged to help give exposure to your project, of course, there is never a 100% guarantee.

Testing the market. When it comes to launching a new product or service there is not always a sure way of knowing if it is needed in the market enough to be feasible. On the other hand, there may very well be a profitable market out there that you have yet to identify, and may waste all your efforts in the wrong place, costing you time and valuable resources.

Rewards-based crowdfunding

Fokofpolisiekar

Asset-based crowdfunding

Sugarbird Gin

Thundafund.com

Everywhere I look I see how millennials are going to struggle in adapting to the real world, how the need for instant gratification will be our greatest weakness. For a while, I accepted this to be true, as I could see their point and see how this could all be the start of a downward spiral for my generation. However, after several weeks of contemplation, it became quite clear that yes these undesirable characteristics may not work in the real world, but maybe that is because the real world is out of date to some degree and potentially that is what needs to be rectified.Life is not the same as when my parents started out, the world has changed and continues to do so. Everything that was once easy to achieve (university acceptance, bank loans, etc) have only become more challenging, so I am proposing that it is time to start looking at alternatives to what we view as traditional/conventional methods of achieving goals, ways that introduce the norms of impatience and instant gratification into this system we call life. I think if you ask most millennials what they want to do with their lives they will tell you that they want to make a difference, affect change, be an entrepreneur, but the big question is always how. Now, I may not have all the answers, few do, but I have some thoughts.I truly think that we millennials will be just fine. There really is no other alternative if the world is to continue spinning. Though to be fine we are going to have to embrace our so-called flaws and channel them into making this change we want to affect a reality. How great would it be to gain that bliss of instant gratification from something positive/productive instead of through a new follower on Instagram or another like on a photo of your morning latte?We live in the 21st century where almost anything is possible, where innovation is part of everyday life, and where we dont need to ask what if but rather when will. As a species, we have never had the luxury of taking such immediate action until now, in almost every aspect of our lives we have grown accustomed to instant gratification. Why should the world of business and innovation be any different? It is no secret that starting a business or creating new and innovative ideas has become increasingly expensive, we also know that the traditional means of obtaining finance have become virtually impossible, and even if you obtain this finance its just riddled with debt, basically setting you up to fail from day one. Now, what if we look at a way to take this new and innovative world that we live in and merge it with the art of obtaining a debt-free version of traditional finance.Crowdfunding is a term that most people would have heard of, but might not always grasp what it is at its core. I stumbled upon crowdfunding by accident one day when I was partaking in every millennials worst nightmare, the job hunt. I decided to learn a bit more about this job I was applying for and realised that it was actually a game-changing industry for many people just like me, who are not necessarily lazy or unmotivated but unable to fake enthusiasm over something that we have no passion for. It sparked my interest, which few things do, so I applied and to my surprise, I got the job. I began to learn the ins and outs of this industry and realised that as an industry it evolved so quickly, with new projects coming in and out, the joy of seeing them succeed, and the motivation and learning that I got out of watching them fail.It is a shame to see potential go to waste, but it is a great comfort to know that there is some hope at the end of the tunnel, that all of the misunderstood talents of this generation does not have to go to waste due to obstacles like money. Which is the reason I am writing this, to hopefully inspire some of my peers to do what they are passionate about, to prove the world wrong, and to show everyone a new way of doing things in a headstrong world stuck on old traditions.Crowdfunding offers a combination of obtaining finance, gaining media exposure, and testing new ideas in a real market. In any new business, one of the first things that come to mind are the costs associated with getting it off the ground, not to mention the hassle and stress involved in obtaining a loan. Other concerns that are inherently involved with getting traditional forms of finance include debt repayment, which creates the pressure caused by the potential for failure, and the stresses of implementation. Crowdfunding is a solution to these problems, crowdfunding provides the opportunity to be proactive in avoiding these issues.There are various forms of crowdfunding available to entrepreneurs from the more traditional rewards-based to the newer asset-based crowdfunding. While both of these can work in unison during the same campaign, sometimes one is more than enough to provide you with what you need to launch your brand and idea.The best way to look at rewards-based crowdfunding in terms of a concept that South Africans are familiar with is e-commerce. Rewards-based crowdfunding allows the project creators/entrepreneurs to pre-sell their products/services to their potential/ideal market. How this differs from doing this on your own standalone website is that doing it through crowdfunding provides an indication to the buyer that the product is not yet ready, it also provides much-needed trust and transparency. Unlike a normal e-commerce site, crowdfunding gives the buyer a detailed look at who you are and what you are doing. The project page allows them to connect with you on a personal level, as well as understand and connect with your brand and products. If they can buy into your story they will be more than happy to buy what you are selling and be loyal customers long after your campaign has ended.South African rock band Fokofpolisiekar launched a campaign Fokof Crowdfunding at the beginning of 2017 to record and independently release their third studio album Selfmedikasie. This album caused a lot of excitement as it was their first album to be released in 11 years since their sophomore album was released back in 2006. This campaign was an instant hit amongst fans, as could be seen when they reached their dream goal of R500,000 in only a week. This campaign was the first of the year to break South African rewards-based crowdfunding records, raising R1,081,010 through the campaign.The overwhelming success that this campaign had was a result of three main factors; the bands network, their project and their rewards, but most importantly how these three factors all worked together. In crowdfunding, these are known as the three pillars of success, and by tapping into even one of these can make a campaign successful. Fokofpolisiekar hit a sweet spot, with a network of fans longing for a new album, and excited about any merchandise that they could purchase as rewards through the campaign. Throughout this project the rewards were constantly updated, bringing new life into the campaign and reigniting excitement. Here we can see how the story added to the value of the rewards, as Fokof merchandise had been available before, but the key reason to buy was due to the demand for the project. A win for both the band and the backers of the campaign, great rewards contributing to a common goal.Asset-based crowdfunding is, in essence, a short-term investment in a particular product, which can run hand in hand with a rewards-based campaign. This type of crowdfunding is best utilised with a product that is made using mass production. This works where an investor will front you the finance to produce a large volume of your product in exchange for their investment back and return on their investment through a percentage of the profits made. A riskier reward to add to a campaign for both project creator and investor, but with the potential to show massive profits when done correctly.Sugarbird Gin is a new craft gin brand on the market in South Africa, it was founded out of a love for just good gin. This is their mantra, not to be the best but the favourite, to be top of mind among South Africans. Craft gin is a fast-emerging market in South Africa, and there is an ever-growing array of options to choose from. Sugarbird saw this barrier to entry as an opportunity to stand out amongst the clutter in the category. It was this that led them to their record-breaking crowdfunding campaign. Raising an astonishing R1,086,973 during their campaign they proved that crowdfunding is more than just a method of obtaining capital for a new business, but can be a great method of introducing yourself to the market.Creating a campaign as a new brand that breaks records is no easy task, Sugarbird proved that it takes hard work, innovative thinking and a strong team to accomplish such feats. Throughout the campaign this brand continued to create exciting and relevant content to update people on the progress of their campaign, they took risks and broke down barriers by offering rewards never before seen on Thundafund. Their most innovative offering utilised asset-based crowdfunding by allowing people to get in on the action and buy a batch for which they would receive a 25% return on investment within 6 months. This proved to be a huge success and ultimately set them over the top, sealing their spot in the crowdfunding hall of fame.Now obviously there are many different options when selecting a crowdfunding platform, but as a South African I like to keep it local, so Im going to talk about the leading South African crowdfunding platform for entrepreneurs and innovative individuals.Understandably whenever money is involved people are sceptical, it seems that someone is always trying to take advantage of someone else when finance is involved. Banks and other credit provider promise the world to you and always leave out the fine print, effectively bleeding your wallet dry. This shouldnt ever be the case with crowdfunding, crowdfunding is a powerful method of uniting people together to support a common goal, which is why trust plays such a huge part in it. This is why Thundafund has implemented an all or nothing system, that means that should you not make enough money to actually do what your project says, the money is given back, and neither party makes a cent. Personally, I find this honesty in business rather refreshing, especially when living in a world that is so full of hypocrites and fake social media lives, which only create more anxiety and depression among todays youth.The truth is we all know that life is unfair, some are blessed with gifts and opportunities that fit right into society as is, while for others have to fight just to be heard. That is what crowdfunding is to me, its a voice for those who are unheard and an opportunity to excel beyond what is currently possible. To live your best life and celebrate the brilliance of each individual.In 2018 I hope to see many more people take over the world and prove the naysayers wrong. I truly believe that together we can make this world a better and more fair place, one dreamer at a time.Bean There Coffee Company, South Africa's first roaster of certified direct fair trade coffee, was launched on the back of the stock market crash in 2001, a 27,000-kilometre backpacking trip across two continents, and a chance encounter with fair trade protagonist Hugo Ciro, founder of Level Ground Trading.

Jonathan Robinson

Ending the cycle of exploitation

Ethiopia

The story of Agnes Wairimu Kanja

Robinson with Agnes Wairimu Kanja and family (Kenya).

The search for great coffee

Founder Jonathan Robinson's interest in coffee was sparked by his beloved grandmother. My grandmother Olga introduced me to coffee when I was about 12. She used to drink it black with a square of dark chocolate. Shed say to us as kids, try coffee without sugar, youll taste the flavours. It will revolutionise your life. It did, Robinson explains.Launched in 2005 from Robinsons garage, Bean There now operates out of three roasteries; two in Joburg and one in Cape Town. Each year, more than 120 tonnes of fair trade coffee is sourced from small-scale farmers in Ethiopia, Rwanda, Kenya, Burundi, Tanzania and the Democratic Republic of Congo.Unique to Bean Theres model is that they source all of their coffee directly. Not many companies do fair trade as an overall buying philosophy, as we do. A lot of companies will add one fair trade coffee to their trade and the rest is commercial. I know of a few others who offer fair trade, but even then, only for a portion of their coffee.According to the company, the coffee trade is a perfect example of how, for decades, the first world has exploited the third world, starting with plantations worked by thousands of African slaves. Much of the coffee sold around the world today still comes from plantations where workers are exploited. In Robinsons view, this model must go. By building sustainable relationships with our producers, we can offer the farmers a higher price, regardless of negative market fluctuations.Wherever we work, we work with co-operatives who represent anything from 600 to 4,000 farmers. We dont work with any one farmer as theyre all too small to supply coffee to us by themselves. They group themselves together into a co-operative and set up a washing station where they process the coffee. All the farmers in the area bring their yield to a central place where it is processed. The advantage of being in a cooperative is that not only do they get fair trade prices, but they also get the benefit of a second payment if theres a profit. This profit is shared among the co-operative members.Robinson visits his producers regularly and works with them to improve their crops. A typical visit sees him meeting with the leaders of the co-operative as well as individual farmers. They are small-scale farmers themselves but like anyone they can land up being corrupted. Its no different to any other industry. I always meet them first, then I go and randomly interview farmers, to make sure that what the co-operative leaders tell me is what the farmers are telling me and to get a sense of any issues.To demonstrate why hes determined to continue with fair trade, Robinson cites the story of Agnes Wairimu Kanja. She is from Kenya. I met her in 2007. She lived in a mud hut. She had two kids, a son and daughter. One was in school and other, she had no school fees for. I immediately thought what can I do to fix this problem? I could have paid the school fees, but I would have just perpetuated a cycle of aid. The real benefit of fair trade is saying, Agnes, you make amazing coffee. Well buy your coffee at a great price and that enables you to sort out your own life.Bean Theres purchase of her coffee helped Agnes to go for agronomy training, which resulted in an increase in her coffee yields. Then she started training farmers in her area and was identified as a leader in the community.The change in Agnes life since I met her has been phenomenal. When I saw her last in February 2017, she had a brick house and roof gutters. We sat on the couch in her lounge, with Batman playing on television in the background and looked at some of her Facebook photos on her iPhone. Agnes has taken control of her own life, coffee has played a big part.Robinson does not have any plans at present to expand Bean There into any more countries. A key long-term plan is to get even closer to the producer side. I have a few ideas on how to do this through a new programme, focussing on education and agronomy training within the communities we work with. If we do both, well cover both ends of the spectrum.Consulting widely to assess where and how to source coffee and do fair trade, Robinsons main priority is to find great coffee. Although fair trade is why we are in business, we dont lead with fair trade ever. We lead with quality coffee. People dont buy coffee because it is fair trade, they buy it because it is amazing and thats how it should always be. I never wanted our coffee purchases to be done out of charity, it disrespects the incredible coffee and the farmers that work so hard to produce it.Going back to where it all started, Bean There launched its first Olgas Reserve in 2010, in honour of Robinsons paternal grandmother. We buy between five and ten bags of really amazing coffee from one particular community  and we dont repeat it. Then R40 a kilogram goes back to the community. We have done this a few times with Olgas Reserve and have done all sorts of things for the communities with the money raised over the years, including installing solar panels, putting a roof on a school, supplying farming tools and transforming classrooms.Everything has changed. That is a given. And so when Net#work BBDO moved into their new offices and started unpacking the 27 years of awards haul for the shelves, the leadership team had, well, a meltdown.

An internet imagery.

NEW DELHI (PTI): Freedom of navigation in oceans is governed by rules-based order and no power or group of powers should have the right to change it unilaterally, Indian Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has said.



Sitharam's comments are seen as an oblique reference to China's growing military assertiveness in the disputed South China Sea.



China has territorial disputes over the South China sea with several countries of the region, and India along with other nations have been maintaining that freedom of navigation and over flight must be respected in the area.



"We belong to a multi-polar world, where we want to make it clear that freedom of navigation can never be unilaterally or arbitrarily questioned by anybody.



"And, we are very clear in saying that this is the rules-based order globally, and no one power, or a regional power, or no group of powers or no one, should have the right to unilaterally change this order," she said.



The defence minister on Tuesday was addressing a gathering at the inauguration of the two-day 'Indo-Pacific Regional Dialogue', hosted by the India Navy in partnership with defence think-tank National Maritime Foundation (NMF) at the Manekshaw Centre here.



Navy Chief Admiral Sunil Lanba, Sri Lanka's Chief of Defence Staff Admiral Ravindra C Wijegunaratne, Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Defence in the UK, Stephen Lovegrove, were also present on the dais.



"India, till very recently has long been seen as a regional player, with tactical prowess.... But, I am glad to say that in recent years, India, is now seen as a global influencer of policies, and takes its leadership role globally, seriously," she said.



"We are no longer a regional player, and no longer a regional policy influencer, globally we have a leadership, which is spearheaded within India," Sitharaman asserted.



The defence minster said the freedom of navigation is a "universally accepted" norm that can "never be challenged".



"And, any situation that poses a question about it must be taken up seriously by all of us," she said.



Lanba said the recent churning of global order has also prompted "many nations to pursue aggressive international cooperation and seek new alignments in support of their respective own interests".



And, therefore restoring the faith in a rules-based order, irrespective of who leads that order, is one of the challenges, he said.



Sitharaman also said the Indo-Pacific region is very important and India has a "big role" to play, including in countering piracy, and not as just first responders for humanitarian causes.



Air bases and land bases are important for security, "but we also have Bay of Bengal and Arabian Sea, so maritime security is needed for trade and commerce, and so we talk of SAGAR (Security and Growth for All in the Region)," she said.



She also said costs are unbelievably "very high", when it comes to ensuring regional security, and each country cannot therefore spend on its own expenditure. So, in maritime area, it has to be recognised that the "cost has to be shareable".



The global rules-based order, what the UN is trying to implement, has its own "weak links". Therefore, forming a maritime alliance can only help in rationalising the cost.



Union Minister of Road Transport and Highways and Shipping Nitin Gadkari, in his address, spoke about the Sagarmala initiative and the Mumbai cruise terminal project.



The Sagarmala project has an objective of promoting "port-led development" along India's 7,500-km long coastline for which the Shipping Ministry has been appointed as the nodal ministry.



India's Light combat aircraft, Tejas'.

BENGALURU (PTI): Inching close to Final Operational Clearance (FOC), Hindustan Aeronautics Limited has carried out a hot refueling trial on the indigenous Light Combat Aircraft-Tejas, followed by a sortie at the HAL airport here.



The hot refueling cum sortie of LCA-Tejas was conducted on Monday. The system performance during the refueling session was in-line with design requirements and was satisfactory, HAL said in a release on Tuesday.



In the history of IAF aircraft, LCA would be the first to fly with this unique capability of hot refueling and HAL has successfully demonstrated this on LCA Tejas LSP8 aircraft, it said.



Hot Refueling is a single point pressure refueling of the aircraft with the engine in operation.



It is a process by which a fighter aircraft is refueled (in between sorties) while its engine is in operation, thereby cutting down refueling time by half and turn-around time significantly.



HAL said this capability is highly desired in combat situation,which basically puts aside the need for the pilot to park the aircraft, power down and exit the cockpit for refueling to begin.



Further, with this, a major requirement of LCA Air Force Mk.1A has been achieved, the release said.

New study aims to measure how PTSD affects police officers

This was a drill at the University at Buffalo, but police officers are often called to situations that require them to make critical decisions in the blink of an eye. A new UB study will examine how PTSD affects rapid decision-making in officers. Photo: Meredith Forrest Kulwicki

PTSD is known to affect brain circuits associated with attention, decision-making and inhibitory control. 

Janet Shucard, PhD, associate professor of neurology and associate director of the departments Division of Cognitive and Behavioral Neurosciences in the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences at UB.

BUFFALO, N.Y.  Police officers are often called to situations that require a quick decision: fire a shot and risk harming, or killing, innocent bystanders; dont fire and theres the potential for being killed in the line of duty.

These decisions often are made in the blink of an eye, making it difficult for any officer to accurately process all of the information. But how are the decisions of police with even minor symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) affected? A new study at the University at Buffalo aims to find out.

Researchers are working with a sample of members of the Buffalo Police Department on a three-year $814,000 study being funded by the U.S. Department of Justices National Institute of Justice.

The project is being led by Janet Shucard, PhD, associate professor of neurology and associate director of the departments Division of Cognitive and Behavioral Neurosciences in the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences at UB.

Co-principal investigators include John Violanti, PhD, research professor of epidemiology and environmental health in UBs School of Public Health and Health Professions; David Shucard, PhD, professor of neurology and director of the Division of Cognitive and Behavioral Neuroscience, Department of Neurology; and Thomas Covey, PhD, assistant professor of neurology and member of the Division of Cognitive and Behavioral Neurosciences.

Their study will examine the effects of PTSD symptoms, ranging from mild to severe, on attention and cognitive control in police. Even mild symptoms of PTSD can affect officers mental health, as well as their safety and that of the public, Janet Shucard explains.

Very few studies have examined brain structure and function in police officers. Our study is the only one, to our knowledge, that will examine the neurobiology of rapid decision-making in police officers, she said.

Researchers hope the study findings lead to new training and treatment approaches, as well as early detection of the effects of trauma on police and other groups that are frequently exposed to trauma.

If proper steps are taken by the police organization to help officers with high PTSD symptoms to get help, the number of problematic decisions on the street will be substantially reduced, Violanti said.

Because of the nature of their work and the trauma they are often exposed to  from seeing children harmed or killed, to witnessing a fellow officer injured or killed in the line of duty  police officers have a much higher risk of developing PTSD than civilians not exposed to traumatic events. Those symptoms can cloud their ability to make the right decision, quickly.

PTSD is known to affect brain circuits associated with attention, decision-making and inhibitory control, Shucard explains, adding that officers who have more severe PTSD symptoms likely will have greater dysregulation of the brain systems that control attention and responsivity.

Study participants will include 110 police officers who have been exposed to traumatic experiences and have a range of PTSD symptoms and 55 non-trauma exposed civilian control participants. Researchers will record electrophysiological activity  measurements of the electrical activity of neurons in the brain  while police officers and control participants perform whats known as a go/no-go task.

A go/no-go task is just what it sounds like: participants will be given a task that will require them to either respond quickly and accurately or refrain from responding depending on specific visual stimuli.

Electrophysiological measures of brain activity will be obtained using a 256-channel dense-electrode array data acquisition and analysis system while participants perform the task. Simply put, this system will allow researchers to measure the brains response to the cognitive processes involved in decision making associated with the go/no-go task.

Event-related brain potentials, or ERPs, derived from the scalp-recorded electrophysiology provide a measure of the precise timing of neural activity associated with the decision-making processes required to respond or inhibit responding to specific stimuli, Shucard says. ERPs, coupled with the dense electrical recording methodology, allow us to map brain electrical activity from scalp recordings.

Researchers also will conduct psychological interviews with study participants to measure the presence and severity of PTSD symptoms, as well as depression and anxiety.

Police officers are often called to situations where they have to make a quick decision, one that may be a matter of life or death. Nowhere is this more critical than when officers are faced with the use of firearms, Violanti says.

For example, an officer might arrive at the scene of a crime and find two or three people there. Which one is the perpetrator and which one the victim? Does either have a weapon?

An officer experiencing high levels of PTSD symptoms will have more difficulty in selectively attending to the situation and in making the right decision, Violanti said.

The fact that the officer has to make this decision quickly only adds to the problem. Thats because decisions that involve conflict or uncertainty require more complex brain processes than simple decisions to come to a conclusion and, therefore, more time to make the decision.

When split second decisions are necessary, the officer with PTSD is at a distinct disadvantage, Violanti says.Profile

Seeing the world through Russian eyes

Molly Anderson (center) poses in front of the Kremlin in Ryazan on a winter day.

By MICHAEL ANDREI

It scares me to think who I might be, had I not had these experiences. Because it really changes the way I see all people, from all places and at all levels.  Molly Anderson, executive director Center for Leadership and Organizational Effectiveness

Molly Andersons Russian connection changed her life. Back in 1997, Anderson was director of marketing and development at Houghton College when she received an invitation to speak at an international economics camp in Ryazan, a Russian city located about 122 miles southeast of Moscow. The invitation came from Center Sodruzhestvo, an educational organization whose name, Sodruzhestvo, is translated into English as cooperation and unity. Center Sodruzhestvo is an innovative nonprofit educational center that teaches economics, finance, technology and English language, says Anderson, now executive director of the Center for Leadership and Organizational Effectiveness (CLOE) in the UB School of Management. I was asked to talk about economic education and share some of the resources we were using at the time here in the United States, says Anderson. I felt our work, as I presented it, was valued and appreciated. It was, almost immediately, a great connection. As a result, I returned six months later, and the year after that, and again the next year and on into a relationship that has spanned 21 years, she says. In that time, more than 40 professionals from Western New York have accompanied Anderson on her trips to Russia, as well as two of her four children. We have had business people from all over the region travel with us, she says. This includes faculty from Houghton College, a human resources manager from UPS, the district attorney in Alleghany County, real estate developers, engineers, a journalist and not-for-profit leaders. It probably sounds like it was open to everybody, but we were very selective. And, Anderson says, the groups traveled with the purpose of business education and cultural exchange. However, my invitation to others was more like: Hey, do you want to go to Russia in the middle of winter? It might be 30-below, but youll meet wonderful people and have the trip of a lifetime.

A plaque commemorating the people who have participated in trips to Russia between 1997-2017.

The early years of the partnership, Anderson says, occurred during Russias transition to a market economy. There was a great need for resources to teach economics and English, so we brought textbooks, teaching materials and computers, she says, Most importantly, we brought people, so we could learn from each other. Anderson says that, over the years, the group of people she met in Ryazan became friends and extended family. Back in 2000, upon learning that I was planning to get married, my Russian friends wanted to host my wedding. It was warm, and touching, and it felt like family. We had a Soviet rented limousine, two bands, duck flambe for dinner  it was a special celebration for all of us, she says. That was during a difficult time in their history, when there werent many available resources, sometime even for daily living, she recalls. And the wedding meant so much because of how deeply felt this was for them.

Moscow at sunset.

While I am not of Russian heritage, I now have a Russian brother, a Russian sister, a Russian mother and a Russian father, Anderson says. I dont have another way to express how close I am to them other than calling them family. When not traveling to Russia, Anderson has developed programs to build cross-cultural relationships and understanding, such as a global literacy program offered through AmeriCorps VISTA to educate young people in Western New York about life in Russia. She also has sponsored trips for her Russian colleagues to the United States. Most notable was a trip Center Sodruzhestvos directors made to visit Anderson in 2001. I was a young mother, just making ends meet, with two small children. I was able to sponsor the heads of Center Sodruzhestvo to come and see the U.S. for the first time, she says. We had the opportunity to participate in UBs English Language Institute and they also visited the Pentagon and the World Trade Center, Anderson recalls. This was one month prior to 9/11. They were teachers, so imagine the impact it had when they went home and saw where they just were in the U.S. destroyed, on the news, Anderson says. They had the incredible opportunity to communicate to all of their students, hundreds of them, on what America really is like. What is striking is that while parts of the world were cheering at our tragedy, these friends  Russians, teachers  were saying something entirely different: These are good people, and this is something that breaks our hearts, too. That makes an impact. Anderson says that many, if not most Americans today view Russia as a headline and a major topic. Putting the past 21 years into context  I see it differently. I like Russian people. I want others to see the good, she says. Its sad to see us backtrack in relations between our two countries, but it wont deter my friends in Ryazan and I, as people, from working to have an impact on each others lives. Broadly speaking, Anderson says it is important to seek out opportunities to understand. We get caught up in perceiving what our governments are doing. People are not their governments. My friends in Russia work for great organizations, transforming their communities, leading at home and doing all of the same things we aspire to. They appreciate the arts, poetry and love their children, just like all of us do. It scares me to think who I might be, had I not had these experiences, says Anderson, a former president and CEO of Leadership Niagara with extensive management and leadership training. Because it really changes the way I see all people, from all places and at all levels.

Molly Anderson's children, Michael and Catherine, along with a friend, Anton, in Ryazan.Scott Ditchfield has been appointed Sales Director  Specification at Potterton.

Scott has worked at Potterton for 13 years, latterly as divisional Sales Manager for the Northern specification team, a role in which he also managed relationships with procurement consortia. Previously, he worked for a national Builders Merchants and a large Air Source Heat Pump manufacturer, giving additional knowledge of renewables, as well as understanding the entire supply chain.

Scotts new role is the result of Bill Jones move into a newly created position as Business Development Director. Bill will be using his extensive experience to take advantage of the Government's intention to invest in Affordable Homes and Help to Buy schemes.A severe weather warning for heavy snow has been upgraded for the Burnham-On-Sea area this Thursday and Friday as the so-called Beast from the East continues to make its impact felt.

These are the scenes on Burnham-On-Sea beach today (Wednesday) as a long line of ice and slush has been left along the high tide line amid freezing temperatures that sunk to -5C early this morning.

The Met Office has raised its weather warning to amber for heavy snow and ice between 2pm on Thursday 1st March and 8am on Friday for the whole of the Burnham-On-Sea area. A separate yellow warning is also in force for wind and snow from 9am on Thursday.

A Met Office spokesman told Burnham-On-Sea.com: There is the potential for a spell of snow, moving northwards on Thursday, to intensify and become heavy on Thursday afternoon/evening as it spreads north.

As it does so, some places could also see significant ice build up overnight into Friday. This is likely to be accompanied by strengthening easterly winds.

Pictured: Burnham-On-Seas lighthouse surrounded by snow last night

These photos show the scenes in Burnham-On-Sea last night (Tuesday) after the town saw light snowfall which provided a wintry coating to the beach and pavements.

Pictured: Icy pavements in Burnham-On-Seas Stoddens Road last night

There are only light snow flurries expected in Burnham-On-Sea today (Wednesday), but snow is forecast on Thursday from 1pm through until Friday morning which is expected to lead to some accumulations.

Pictured: College Street in Burnham-On-Sea town centre last night

BBC Points West weather forecaster Ian Fergusson said that there is also a chance that the Burnham-On-Sea area will see freezing rain on Thursday and Friday, creating slippery road and pavement conditions, however he cautioned that the forecast could still change.

The cold weather has been sparked by an area of high pressure moving north into Scandinavia, drawing cold air in from Russia and the east.

Pictured: The sea at Brean has frozen over, leaving a line of ice this week

Public Health England said it is critical to keep an eye on anyone over 65, young children or people with heart or lung conditions.

James Mapstone, Deputy Regional Director for Public Health Englands South region, said: We are expecting some bitter weather over the weekend and early next week which may come as a bit of a shock for some after the more recent mild weather.

Pictured: Frozen plants in Burnham-On-Seas Marine Cove today

The meteorological start of spring is Thursday 1st March  and the date falls right in the middle of the current cold spell.

Mr Mapstone added: We urge people to remember to check weather forecasts and plan their day carefully around the weather. Take extra care if outside to prevent any accidental slips from icy or snowy pavements. Clear paths outside your house if possible.

Pictured: Visitors to Highbridges Apex Park during the fall of snow

Mr Mapstone added: When indoors it is critical that people stay warm, particularly if 65 or over, have long term health conditions or are young children. Wear lots of thin layers, eat regular warm and well-balanced meals, and remember that moving about will help keep you warm.

Staying warm by heating your home to at least 18C can be crucial to stay well.

Pictured: Burnham-On-Sea Pavilion and a frozen pool of water

The amber weather warning covers Burnham-On-Sea, Highbridge, Brent Knoll, Brean and the Huntspills in our area.

The Met Office has warned that there could be delays and cancellations to public transport. It has also cautioned that there could be interruptions to power supplies and other utilities.

Local supermarkets in Burnham-On-Sea and Highbridge have also been busy as residents stock up on essential supplies.

Also see:

Burnham-On-Sea weather forecastDear Reader,

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Digital EditorBharti Airtel is exploring merger and sale options for its mobile towers businesses as Chairman Sunil Bharti Mittal seeks to get out of the infrastructure game and focus on connectivity. Airtel, the world's No.3 mobile operator by subscribers, also wants to float a minority stake in its African operations and sees the London Stock Exchange as a potentially attractive venue. Mittal, briefing reporters at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona on Wednesday, backed the lead set by telcos in the United States, now being followed in Europe, for specialists to roll up and run ...US online retail giant Amazon has launched its Prime Music subscription service in India as it pushes to capture a larger chunk of the fast-growing content streaming market in the country. The service will be available to customers who subscribe to its Prime programme in India at no additional cost and can be accessed via apps on Android, iOS, the web and on Amazon's Fire TV Stick and Echo devices.

Customers of Amazon's Echo devices have got a taste of Prime Music since their launch here, but now it is being rolled out to everyone. Anticipating the challenge, India's ...Hyundai Motor showcased the Next Generation Fuel Cell Electric Vehicle (FCEV) - and Global Electric Vehicle - IONIQ (Battery Powered) during the India Korea Business Summit 2018 held here.

Present at the India Korea Business Summit, S H Kim, Vice President, Namyang R&D Centre, Hyundai Motor Company, said, "We are glad to participate in the 2nd India-Korea Business Summit 2018. Hyundai has a long term commitment towards Make-in-India for the past 20 years and today we are proud to showcase the Next Generation Fuel Cell Electric Vehicle - SUV, for the first time along with Global EV - IONIQ at the India Korea Summit 2018."

"The creation of Fuel Cell Electric Vehicle - SUV and Global EV - IONIQ is a significant leap forward for Hyundai Motor as it intensifies our efforts to produce highly efficient, eco-friendly vehicles. Hyundai as a caring brand is continuously innovating in Clean and Connected Mobility Solutions to make a long-term positive transformation for our future generations," he added.

The Fuel Cell Electric Vehicle - HYUNDAI NEXO SUV model is set to spearhead Hyundai Motor's plans to accelerate development of low emission vehicles globally. The all-new Hyundai NEXO combines the practicality of an SUV with clean advanced fuel cell technology.

The Hyundai NEXO is capable of travelling 609 kilometres (on Korean certificate basis) on a single charge, the best among fuel cell-powered vehicles in the world. This next generation vehicle offers the most advanced technology on the market with various advanced driver assistance systems and the strongest powertrains in the segment.

The showcase of Global Electric Vehicle - IONIQ reflects the commitment of Hyundai towards clean mobility solutions and future readiness with unrivalled global technology in electric vehicles for aspiring customers without compromising on driving dynamics and performance.

The Fuel Cell Electric Vehicle - Hyundai NEXO SUV and Global EV - IONIQ are "futuristic vehicles" that closely represent Hyundai's three visions for future mobility: Connected Mobility, Freedom in Mobility and Clean Mobility.

HYUNDAI NEXO SUV is free from any greenhouse gasses emissions as Vehicle will filter and purify the air during its drive. When Air filters through Hyundai NEXO, 99.9 per cent of particulates are purified and instrument cluster displays how much you have contributed towards cleaning the environment. This process of cleaning the air was demonstrated live at the showcase of Hyundai NEXO during the India Korea Business Summit 2018.Amidst questions over invitation of Khalistani terrorist for Justin Trudeau's reception in India, reports have emerged that the Indian Government authority was also denied access to the guest list, reports CTV News.

On that note, the Prime Minister's Office in Canada does not allow even the security services track their guest list.

Earlier, Canada's Public Safety Minister hailed the security services in relation to the visit.

"All Canadians can be assured that our police and our security agencies have done their job in relation to this visit and they have done it very well", said Ralph Goodale, Canada's Public Safety Minister, in the assembly, as quoted by CTV News.

Pro-Khalistani terrorist was invited to dine with Prime Minister Trudeau at a formal event hosted by Canadian High Commissioner to India Nadir Patel. The invite was later rescinded.

Prime Minister Trudeau also received backlash over his wife Sophie Trudeau's photo with convicted pro-Khalistani terrorist

Canadian Member of Parliament (MP) Randeep S. Sarai however took responsibility for inviting Atwal to Trudeau's reception dinner in New Delhi.

was convicted of the attempted murder of Punjab minister, Malkiat Singh Sidhu, on Vancouver Island in 1986.India might have been snubbed by the Maldives, which on Tuesday declined New Delhi's invitation to participate in the biennial naval exercise MILAN 2018. Meanwhile, the Maldivian envoy has said that his country cannot participate in the naval drills due to the state of emergency in the island nation.

India will be hosting navies from at least 15 nations for the eight-day mega naval exercise, which is set to begin on March 6 at the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. Maldives has been regularly participating in the biennial exercise, which was started in 1995. The development was ...The junior HRD minister, Satyapal Singh, has courted another controversy with his comment that 'mantras' had codified laws of motion before Isaac Newton, even as he sought to clarify his earlier remarks on Darwin's theory that had raised eyebrows, saying it was his "personal opinion".

At a meeting of the Central Advisory Board of Education (CABE) which was chaired by Union HRD Minister Prakash Javadekar, the IPS-turned-politician said that "certain 'mantras' codified the laws of motion much before they were discovered by Isaac Newton, according to the minutes of the meeting held in January.

Singh had also suggested that Vaastu compliance of educational buildings was important for learning.

CABE is the governments highest advisory body for policy making in education.

"Whatever I had said on Darwin was my personal opinion. It has nothing to do with the government or party's line," the minister said at the Science Day event here on Wednesday.

He, however, refused to comment on the controversy over his Newton remarks.

Singh had drawn flak in January when he claimed that Darwin's theory of evolution was incorrect and should not be taught in schools and colleges.

Nobody, including our ancestors, in written or oral, have said they saw an ape turning into a man.... Humans appeared on Earth as humans from the very beginning, he had said at an event in Aurangabad.

Javadekar had asked Singh to refrain from making such comments and leave the science to scientists as it is their domain.Pakistan will continue to face a freeze in US security assistance as it is yet to take "definitive action" against militant groups like the Taliban and the Haqqani network, a senior US commander has said.

General Joseph Votel's remarks came as the US has stepped up pressure on Pakistan to do more in its fight against terrorism.

The US withdrew about $2 billion in security assistance to Pakistan, accusing Islamabad of harbouring terror groups.

"That's the current posture. And I would imagine, hopefully, in the future, well have an opportunity to (review)," Votel, Commander of the US Central Command, told members of the Senate Armed Services Committee when asked about the future of freeze of American security assistance to Pakistan.

Votel said the US has started to see an increase in communication, information sharing and actions on the ground in response to specific US requests.

"These are positive indicators," he said.

"However, ongoing counter-terrorism efforts against anti-Pakistan militants throughout the country have not yet translated into the definitive actions we require Pakistan to take against Afghan Taliban or Haqqani leaders," he added.

"This problem is compounded by increased cross-border terrorist attacks and fires between Pakistan and Afghanistan, which hinders both countries abilities to coordinate on border security," Votel said.

The US, he said, has preserved its valuable military-to-military relationship with Pakistan and attempted to increase transparency and communication with influential military leaders, while pressing its serious concerns about the country's provision of sanctuary and support to militant and terrorist groups that target the US personnel and interests.

"Achieving long-term stability in Afghanistan and defeating the insurgency will be difficult without Pakistan's support and assistance," he said.

Although most security assistance for Pakistan is currently suspended, since 2002 Pakistan has been among the largest recipients of US-provided Foreign Military Financing (FMF) and International Military Education and Training (IMET), the general said.

Votel said to date Pakistan has also been reimbursed hundreds of millions of dollars in Coalition Support Funds (CSF) for counter-insurgency operations that support US security objectives in the region.

The US uses ground and air routes in Pakistan to deliver material to Afghanistan, he said, adding that "we also have options to utilize routes through the other Central Asian nations".

Responding to a question, Votel said the pressure that the Trump administration has put on Pakistan has contributed to the recent positive response from Islamabad.

"I think what is also working right now is the approach that we have in place with them. I think we have tried to be very clear in terms of the things that we Pakistan to do for us. And what I have endeavoured to do -- not always in a public way, but in a private way -- is develop a relationship that allows us to provide feedback with both ways," he said.

There are things, frankly, that Pakistan has asked from the US as well, he said. "So this is a two-way street here. It is my responsibility to make sure that we have feedback loops in place that go back and forth between the things that were doing to try support each other and moving forward in that regard," Votel said.In a latest development in the infamous Gurugram's Ryan International School murder case, a Child Special Court on Wednesday acquitted bus conductor Ashok Kumar in connection with murder of seven-year-old Pradhyumn Thakur.

Pradyuman, a student of Ryan International School was found in a pool of blood, with his throat slit, inside the school premises on September 8 last year.

Following his death, Gurugram Police arrested the bus conductor on the charges of murder of the child.

The case was later handed over to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) who gave clean chit to Ashok and held a class 11 student responsible for the murder.The Union government is planning to take measures to ensure companies do not convert their full-time workers into contract employees by misusing the proposed fixed-term contract framework. We will put in place safeguards for workers in the fixed-term contract system and are working on various options.

One of them is to ensure that permanent employees in an establishment are protected in such a way that they are not converted into fixed-term workers after we bring in the new law, a labour and employment ministry official said on condition of anonymity. Officials ...The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has booked an auto dealer in Jamshedpur for allegedly defrauding the to the tune of Rs 67.7 million (Rs 6.77 crore).

The agency has booked auto dealer Ramnandi Estates Pvt Ltd and its directors Akhouri Gopal, Sanjeeta Akhouri, Akhouri Nishant and Akhouri Nitesh.

An empanelled valuer of the Sanjay Kumar has also been named as accused in the FIR.

A loan of Rs 100 million (Rs 10 crore) was allegedly sanctioned to the company from the zonal office of the bank in Patna for setting up a showroom and service centre in 2014.

It is alleged that the loan was sanctioned on the basis of highly enhanced valuation reports of securities.

The bank has alleged that the accused defaulted on the loan, which was declared Non-Performing Asset in September 2016 causing a loss of Rs 67.7 million (Rs 6.77 crore).

The alleged fraud comes amid CBI's probe into recent complaints of massive frauds in the Punjab National Bank, Bank of Baroda and Oriental Bank of Commerce.The Nirav Modi-Mehul Choksi scam has thrown a long shadow on the diamond polishing and trading industry, with its hub in Surat, Gujarat. Deals are down 8-10 per cent since the incident came to the fore on February 14.

Diamantaires do not want to take chances. Also, now, are tight-fisted about disbursing working capital, especially to diamantaires. This has slowed business by at least 10 per cent, said Kirti Shah, a Surat-based diamond polisher and trader.

To make matters worse, payment cycles, too, have become longer by a fortnight.

Earlier, a trader used to deal with 20-25 industry players; now, they are more cautious and deal with only a handful they trust. This has also slowed down cash flow, Shah added.





ALSO READ: Shift from 'maun Modi to bol Modi': Congress tells PM on PNB scam

Diamond polishers and traders are seeking banks co-operation for disbursement of working capital. The Surat Diamond Association (SDA) is concerned about how the scam will hit credit flows.

 need to be more stringent, but also co-operative in disbursing working capital, said Dinesh Navadia, former president of SDA.



ALSO READ: CBI questions PNB ex-MD Usha Ananthasubramanian, ICICI's ED over Nirav case

According to CARE Ratings, the total outstanding credit to the sector as of December 2017 was Rs 690 billion.

The gems and jewellery sector reported 11.7 per cent stressed advances ratio, which was lower than the sample average, said a report of the ratings agency. The gross non-performing assets ratio of the sector was about 30 per cent.

CARE said the export industry might also be affected by the scam.





Impact on the industry * Foreign trade in gems and jewellery may come down by 5-6% * Sales may be impacted by around 16% * Employment could come down by around 3,000 permanent staff in the 2 firms * Direct and indirect impact on another 7,000-8,000 non-permanent staff * NPA ratio could move up to 30% for the sector from 11.7% as of September 2017

ALSO READ: PNB scam may push up pricing for trade loans as rates rise as much as 0.5%

Gitanjali Gems imported and exported gold and studded jewellery. It also had retail businesses in 200 cities in the country and abroad. Firestar Diamonds derived most of its revenue from diamond cutting and polishing. Its diamond-sorting business catered to some of the largest international players.

The CARE report estimated the shutdown of Nirav Modis and Mehul Choksis firms would have an impact of 5-6 per cent on the diamond and jewellery foreign trade in 2018-19.

In 2015-16, Gitanjali Gems and Firestar Diamonds together accounted for 5.8 per cent of the diamond and jewellery trade in India.

Gitanjali Gems is among the largest jewellery retailers in the country. Gitanjali and Nirav Modi employed 648 and 2,200 people, respectively, according to their filings in March 2017, said a CARE report.

It also said 3,000 people would lose jobs, and another 7,000-8,000 temporary workers at franchisees would also be rendered jobless.US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said on Tuesday he had begun to have very high-level conversations on the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), and rejoining the regional trade pact is an option for US President Donald Trump. Trump repeatedly attacked the TPP deal on the campaign trail and pulled the US out of it soon after he took over.

However, last month he expressed openness to rejoining if the terms were improved. Mnuchin told the US Chamber of Commerce in Washington that this was significant. Hes willing to negotiate, Mnuchin said. ...Extending olive branch, Afghanistan President on Wednesday offered to recognise the Taliban insurgents as a legitimate political group.

Speaking at the 2nd Kabul Process Conference, which is being attended by officials from around 25 countries, Ghani urged the militant group to shun violence and asked them to come forward to accept peace, in order to save the country.

He said that the peace process and a ceasefire must be agreed upon and that the Taliban must be declared a "political group", TOLOnews reported.

The Afghan President tried to woo the Taliban with several offers such as providing security to those who join the peace process, freeing prisoners, removing sanctions against Taliban leaders, providing passports and visas for the Taliban members and their families and opening an "office" for the militant group, including in the capital Kabul.

"The Afghan government must be accepting and we will also work on the list of freeing Taliban prisoners", TOLOnews quoted the Afghan President, as saying.

Ghani thanked the delegates for their support to the peace process in Afghanistan and said that the threats are increasing and the enemies of the country are transnational criminals.

Earlier in his speech, Ghani said that his country was determined to overcome the current threats affecting peace, adding that Kabul was going all out to ensure long-lasting peace in the region.

Afghan Foreign Minister Salahuddin Rabbani earlier said that peace in Afghanistan would benefit the whole region and the world at large.

In a tweet on Tuesday, Ghani stated that his country would present a detailed peace offer to the Taliban and Pakistan on behalf of the Afghan people during the meeting.

"We wish to march toward a lasting peace in #Afghanistan and in the region!" he wrote on Twitter.

The Afghan president also called on Pakistan to sit down for talks for the sake of peace and proposed that the talks could be held in Kabul, adding that he wanted to start afresh and forget about the past.

Kabul, in recent times, has accused Islamabad of supporting cross-border terrorism and harbouring the Taliban.

The ongoing meeting aims to secure support for an agreement to end backing of cross-border terrorism and to find a peaceful solution in ending the decades-long insurgency in Afghanistan.

The conference comes after a series of deadly terrorist attacks that have ravaged the country in recent weeks, killing over 150 people, especially in the capital, Kabul.Hundreds of Rohingya living in no man's land have left their makeshift camp and crossed into Bangladesh after soldiers from Myanmar used loud hailers to threaten them, community leaders said today.

Around 6,000 Rohingya have been living on a thin stretch of land between the two countries since fleeing Myanmar in the wake of a brutal military crackdown on the Muslim minority in late August.

They were among the first to flee Myanmar when the violence erupted last year and set up makeshift shelters in no man's land in the weeks before Bangladesh agreed to let the Rohingya into the country.

In recent weeks they have come under pressure from soldiers who have stepped up patrols along the barbed wire border fence just yards (metres) away from the camp and broadcast messages using loud hailers ordering the Rohingya to leave.

Community leader Dil Mohammad said the messages had spread panic through the camp.

"We can't now sleep peacefully. Most of the Rohingya in the camps now want to flee and take shelter in Bangladesh," Mohammad said.

"Around 150 families have already left the camp for Bangladesh as they were afraid they might be forcefully sent back to Rakhine," he told AFP, referring to the area of Myanmar where the Rohingya used to live.

One Border Guard Bangladesh official said the Myanmar soldiers were playing the announcement at least 10 to 15 times a day.

In it, they urge the Rohingya to leave, saying the land they are on is under their jurisdiction and threatening them with prosecution if they remain.

Last week Bangladesh and Myanmar officials visited the camp and urged the refugees to return to Rakhine.

But community leaders have said they won't go back unless their demands for citizenship and security guarantees are met.

Myanmar views the Rohingya as illegal settlers from Bangladesh and has long denied them citizenship and basic rights.

Nearly 700,000 have fled since the military backed by Buddhist mobs launched a brutal crackdown last year in the wake of militant attacks on police posts.

Doctors without Borders has said 6,700 Rohingya were killed in the first month of the violence alone in a campaign the United Nations has called ethnic cleansing.

Most of the refugees are now living in camps in Bangladesh.

The Bangladesh government has signed an agreement with Myanmar to repatriate them, but the refugees themselves say they do not want to return.

Bangladesh was supposed to start the repatriation process last month but it has been delayed amid concerns over a lack of preparation.

Myanmar forces have also erected a kilometres-long barbed wire fence along the border in recent weeks and installed multiple outposts with armed guards and loudspeakers, the refugees said.Turkey today sharply criticised France and the United States for arguing a ceasefire in Syria should apply to its military operation against Kurdish militia, as new tensions mounted between Ankara and its NATO allies.

The United Nations Security Council, crucially including regime ally Russia, has agreed on a 30-day nationwide ceasefire in Syria although this has yet to be implemented or end the violence in rebel-held Eastern Ghouta.

Turkey has welcomed the ceasefire but repeatedly insisted any truce will not affect its over the month-long operation in the Afrin region against Kurdish militia Ankara believes to be terrorists.

French President Emmanuel Macron told his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan in telephone talks Monday the ceasefire must be applied across the country "including in Afrin," the French presidency said.

But the Turkish foreign ministry Wednesday accused Paris of giving a false readout of the conversation, saying Macron did not refer to Afrin in the discussion on the ceasefire.

It said Turkey had informed the French authorities that their statement showed a "lack of candour" and made the error of "misinforming public opinion."





In Washington meanwhile, US State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert also insisted that the ceasefire did apply to the Afrin operation.

"Turkey is more than welcome to go back and read the exact text of this UN Security Council resolution, and I would suggest that they do so," she said.

Nauert argued that only campaigns against Islamic State jihadists, Al-Qaeda and other extremist Islamist groups were exempted from the ceasefire.

The Turkish foreign ministry said in a separate statement that Nauert's comments were "devoid of any basis", insisting that the Afrin campaign was a fight against "terrorists" and a matter of self-defence for Turkey.

Turkey's operation against the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) militia has raised tensions with Washington, which works closely with the YPG in the fight against jihadists in Syria.

Ankara sees the YPG as the Syrian branch of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which for over three decades has waged an insurgency against the Turkish state and is banned by Turkey, the US and the European Union as a terror group.At least two policemen were killed after unknown assailants opened fire at Quetta's Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Hameedullah Dasti's car this morning.

According to The Express Tribune, the Balochistan police has confirmed the incident and said, "DSP Dasti remained safe in the attack."

Two policemen killed were identified as Muhammad Thair and Ayoub shah.

Balochistan Chief Minister Mir Abdul Quddus Bizenjo condemning the attack called for an immediate probe into the case.

"Terrorists don't deserve any leniency," Bizenjo said.

On February 14, four security personnel were killed in a similar attack carried out on their vehicle.

The assailants have repeatedly targeted security personnel and government officials in Quetta.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)At least nine terrorists belonging to the Islamic State (IS) group have been killed and 13 others got injured after their attack was repulsed by the security forces in the northern Jawzjan province of Afghanistan.

Khaama Press quoted the 209th Shaheen Corps of the Afghan National Army in the North as saying that a large group of IS terrorists attacked the security posts of the Afghan National defense and security forces in Darzad district.

However, the security forces launched a counter-attack.

No insurgent group has commented on the incident, so far.

Earlier this month, at least 25 terrorists belonging to the IS group were killed in the airstrikes carried out by the United States forces in the province.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Senior Congress leader and advocate Abhishekh Manu Singhvi on Wednesday raised question over the 'sudden arrest' of the former Union Finance Minister P Chidambaram's son Karti Chidambaram.

Singhvi, who will represent Karti in court in the INX media case, pointed out that his arrest has come at a time when the Centre is facing flak over the PNB scam involving businessman Nirav Modi.

"What a coincidence to have the arrest of #KartiChidambaram at a time when the nation is questioning the Centre on #ChotaModi," he tweeted.

Karti was arrested by the CBI at Chennai airport earlier today when he returned from London.

Singhvi further questioned as to whether Karti was arrested in the view of Karnataka elections.

"Probably no fir in PC case even at arrest! allegations exist in public domain for over one year with many appearances for questioning; how can sudden custodial interrogation be justified. If no flight risk, no tampering, available 4Qning, how and why arrest? Kant elections?" he tweeted.

However, making a minor correction to his earlier tweet, the Congress leader tweeted, "Correction- FIR recently filed in PC case."

Karti is accused of taking kickbacks worth Rs. 10-lakh to get clearance for INX Media for receiving foreign investments of over Rs. 300 crores in 2007.

The businessman allegedly used the influence of his father P Chidambaram who was the then Union Finance Minister in the UPA II government.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Leading global smartphone brand, Coolpad Group, on Wednesday announced during the ongoing Mobile World Congress 2018 that it will integrate Amazon's voice service, Alexa, across its devices.

Coolpad will be the first Amazon exclusive brand in India which will introduce Alexa in their smartphones.

Amazon Alexa on Coolpad smartphones will give consumers a more complete smart mobile experience as they will be able to use their Coolpad smartphone to access the abundance of Alexa skills with just their voice.

Coolpad smartphone users can give voice command for multiple tasks, using the Coolpad Alexa app and can ask Alexa to play their favorite music, shop from Amazon.in, as well as access information such as weather, calendar, to-do lists and news briefings, that are set up through the Alexa app.

"We are working to immerse more Artificial Intelligence (AI) and tech into smartphones to make the experience more intelligent, friendly and beneficial for the customers. Incorporating Alexa in Coolpad smartphones is one such step in that direction," said CEO, Coolpad India, Syed Tajuddin.

"As Coolpad is looking forward to make smartphones more intelligent and helpful with AI, Alexa is a perfect fit. We will be rolling out Alexa in Cool Play 6, Note 5 and Note 5 via an OTA update and our upcoming devices will have Amazon Alexa pre-installed in them. It will definitely make the Coolpad devices even more convenient and helpful for customers," Tajuddin added.

"Amazon has been our trusted partner over the period of time, since we started our business in India. In the case of Amazon Alexa, Coolpad will be the first Amazon exclusive smartphone brand in India, who will be providing Amazon Alexa in smartphones. Systemic progress to incorporate AI in devices is a common goal for both Coolpad and Amazon and it has brought us together, once again with Amazon Alexa," said executive vice president, Coolpad Group, Brandy Kang.

"We are looking forward to continue this exciting partnership with Amazon in the future as well with some inventive and intelligent tech enhancements. With Amazon Alexa, it's going to be start of an interesting journey in AI and we are looking forward to introduce more exciting tech enhancements in the future as well," Kang added.

Already available in USA, Coolpad will be the first Amazon exclusive smartphone brand in India to introduce Amazon Alexa in there smartphones.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Levi Sanders, the son of Vermont Senator and former Presidential candidate Bernie Sanders, is launching his own congressional career by contesting from New Hampshire.

"After much thought and consultation with my family, friends, and the people of New Hampshire, I am excited to announce today that I am running for Congress in New Hampshire's 1st District," Levi Sanders said in a statement on Tuesday.

"This is a unique opportunity to listen to the hard-working men and women of New Hampshire about the issues that matter to them."

Sanders is running to replace Congresswoman Carol Shea-Porter, who announced her retirement in October.

He is the eighth Democrat to enter the primary race; the filing deadline is in June, and the primary election is in September.

The Senator's son said on his website that he has been a resident of New Hampshire for 15 years.

Sanders also advocates for a universal Medicare system and free college tuition, issues his father has championed, and vowed to address the opioid crisis in the state.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi has approved the proposal for signing two Memoranda of Understanding (MoU) between India and Jordan on cooperation in the field of health and medical science and cooperation and mutual administrative assistance in customs matters.

The MoU on health and medical science covers the following areas of cooperation- Universal Health Coverage (UHC), Health System Governance, Services and Information Technology in Health, Health Research, Health Statistics, Health Finance and Health Economy, Chronic Disease Control, Tobacco Control, Diagnosis, Treatment and Medication in Tuberculosis and Regulation of Pharmaceuticals and Medical Devices.

A working group will be set up to further elaborate the details of cooperation and to oversee the implementation of the MoU.

The MoU on cooperation and mutual administrative assistance in customs matters will help in the availability of relevant information for the prevention and investigation of customs offences.

The agreement is also expected to facilitate trade and ensure efficient clearance of goods traded between the countries.

The agreement would provide a legal framework for sharing of information and intelligence between the customs authorities of the two countries and help in the proper application of customs laws, prevention and investigation of customs offences and the facilitation of legitimate trade.

The draft text of the agreement has been finalised with the concurrence of the two customs administrations.

The draft agreement takes care of Indian customs' concerns and requirements, particularly in the area of exchange of information on the correctness of the customs value, tariff classification and origin of the goods traded between the two countries.

The cabinet also approved the signing of a MoU between India and Vietnam on Economic and Trade Cooperation.

The MoU would expand more bilateral trade and economic cooperation between India and Vietnam.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)A fire broke out here in Narayana Compound loom factory in the wee hours of Wednesday.

Soon after reports of the fire spread, four fire engines were rushed to the spot, along with one water tank to douse the fire, which was reportedly available from a kilometer's distance.

A fire official stated that although the reason for the fire is yet to be ascertained, the situation is under control.

While no causalities have been reported, millions of raw cloths including dozens of power loom machines, warping machines, and cloth threads were destroyed in the flame.

As part of rescue operations, nearly 50 people from a neighbouring building were evacuated after they felt uneasiness in breathing due to the fumes.

Nearly 17 such incidents of blaze have been reported in Maharashtra alone, within months after a major fire in Mumbai's Kamala Mills that killed 14 people.

On Monday, a major fire broke out at the Gokul shopping center in Mumbai's Borivali West.

Meanwhile, fire tenders are attempting to completely douse the flame in the loom factory.

Further details are awaited.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The members of the activist group 'Pinjra Tod' staged a protest on Wednesday against the incidence of flinging semen-filled balloon upon a student of Lady Sri Ram.

The victim took to her Instagram account to share the incidence and demanded an action against it.

She wrote, " I went out with a friend for lunch yesterday to a cafe in the Amar Colony market. It was about five in the evening when we decided to head back. Not a minute of our short Metro ride had passed when there came flying my way a liquid filled balloon of sorts, hitting me square in the hip, where it burst open, its contents seeping into my kurti and leggings. It dried white on my black leggings, and the foreign smell clearly indicated that it wasn't water".

On Tuesday, the Women Development Cell of the Lady Sri Ram College held a meeting with the students to discuss any such untoward incidents that took place with them in the past.

One of the fellow students of Lady Sri Ram told ANI that due to such incidences the female students in the college prefer to stay within the campus during the festival of Holi.

"There is no fun in this incident. As this is being faced by a young generation and inflicted by a younger generation. Usually, the girls prefer to stay on the campus", as told to ANI.

The Pinjra Tod has started a march raising slogans of "Bura Kyon Na Mano" as a protest against the famous slogan "Bura na maano Holi Hai" which has been used as an alibi by the miscreants to resort to improper behavior with the victim.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)IndusInd Bank announced its partnership with Ripple, the enterprise blockchain solution for global payments, to facilitate payments into and out of India.

With this affiliation, RippleNet can now provide instant access in emerging markets such as India, Brazil and China.

In 2017, India saw a total of USD 65 billion move into the country and IndusInd Bank which has significant interests in cross border remittances, plans to harness the power of blockchain technology for facilitating global payments.

"We plan to leverage the Ripple platform to provide an enhanced experience to our clients by delivering instant settlements and atomic confirmations on the back of a highly secure infrastructure. Building a digital platform that enhances client experience is a core part of our strategy and we are confident that our partnership with Ripple is another step in that direction. This will deliver more value to remitters, recipients and our Institutional partners across the world," said senior executive vice president, IndusInd Bank, Ramesh Ganesan.

Head of development, Ripple, Patrick Griffin believes that blockchain solutions can provide a much more significant impact to the customers of financial institutions in emerging markets.

He said, "The payments problem is a global problem, but its negative impact disproportionally affects emerging market. Whether it's an engineer in the U.S. sending money to his family in India, or a small owner in Brazil trying to move money to their suppliers in another country, it's imperative that we connect the world's financial institutions into a payments system that works for their customers, not against them".

The bank plans to leverage the latest technology to build on its existing footprint in the payments through this alliance.

Blockchain technology for payments lowers both costs and transfer times for their customers.

Also, by joining RippleNet, financial institutions are able to communicate information about a payment between each other, and settle payments immediately.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Wednesday arrested Karti Chidambaram, son of former finance minister P Chidambaram in connection with the INX Media case from Chennai airport.

Reportedly, the probe agency took Karti in to its custody as he was not cooperating with the investigating agencies.

Karti was returning from London and was taken into custody as soon as he landed in Chennai.

On February 26, Delhi's Patiala House court sent S Bhaskaran, Karti's chartered accountant (CA), to 14-day judicial custody in connection with the case.

Bhaskararaman was arrested from a five-star hotel in Delhi on February 16.

It has been alleged that Karti illegally took service charges for getting the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) clearance to the INX Media for receiving funds from abroad worth Rs 305 crore in 2007 when P Chidambaram was the finance minister in the Congress-led UPA Government.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Karti Chidambaram's Chartered Accountant (CA) S Bhaskararaman, arrested in connection with the INX Media money laundering case, on Wednesday filed a bail plea in a Delhi court.

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) had arrested S Bhaskararaman from a hotel in Delhi on February 16.

The probe agency will reportedly oppose the bail plea.

On February 26, a Delhi court had sent S Bhaskaran, to 14-days judicial custody in connection with the case.

Earlier in the day, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) arrested Karti Chidambaram, son of former finance minister P Chidambaram from Chennai airport in connection with the same case.

It has been alleged that Karti illegally took service charges for getting the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) clearance to the INX Media for receiving funds from abroad worth Rs 305 crore in 2007 when P Chidambaram was the finance minister in the Congress-led UPA Government.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)ISKCON Food Relief Foundation (annamrita), with the motto of "Food for Life", operates a mid-day meal programme that provides nutritious and hygienic food.

The organisation provides nutritious and hygienic food to 2.5 lakh children in more than two thousand schools everyday in the four districts of Haryana, namely, Gurugram, Palwal, Faridabad and Kurukshetra.

On February 26, a drawing competition with the theme - Mid Day Meal was organised by ISKCON Food Relief Foundation (IFRF), Haryana, at Helymandi (Pataudi), Haryana.

Students from 1st to 8th standard from as many as eight government schools took part in it.

Devotional chants and bhajans with Mridanga and Khartal made the auspicious commencement of the event.

Dressed in the best of their school dress, the students enthusiastically took part in the competition and picturized their brilliant ideas on the canvas beautifully.

Bimla Chaudhary, MLA (Pataudi) presided over the main event accompanied by her son, Ravi Chaudhary along with Suresh, Nagar Palika chairman.

The MLA was greeted by the vice-chairman of IFRF Haryana, Dhananjaya Krishna Das.

"The contribution of ISKCON Food Relief Foundation is really commendable and they are doing a really great work providing nutritious food to the hungry children. I wish their work grows each day," said the MLA.

She recalled "Jaisa ho Ann, Vaisa ho Mann" - "You are what you eat".

Her appreciation of the great charity work done by annamrita was straight from the heart.

She went to the extent of saying, "My Shata- Shata pranaam (hundreds of bows) for such pious and charitable work".

The MLA also wished to be a part of this great work and promised to visit the annamrita's Gurugarm state-of-the-art kitchen soon.

Children of the school went on record in expressing their love for the regular meal and wished for it to continue eternally.

"ISKCON provides nutritious and tasty food on a daily basis and we really love the fact that everyday we get to eat different varieties of food," said Megha, a student of GMS School.

One of the teachers of the school stated, "The food provided by ISKCON is very healthy but other than that it is the positive vibes and the moral values that really makes the food special".

After the successful event, the children were greeted with sumptuous Mid-Day Meal and given a return gift of a beautiful lunch box.

The winners of the competition will be decided by an eminent jury and the awards will be given to the winners in their respective schools.

Healthy food is a right, not a privilege.

Here, at ISKCON Food Relief Foundation, Haryana we strive to bring children into a positive relationship with their health, community and environment.

We follow the belief, "You are what you eat" and try to provide the food so pure that it makes the hearts and minds of the children pure.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The small country of Iceland with a population of 333,000, convicted and jailed 26 bankers from 2010 to 2015 for market manipulation and breach of fiduciary duties. They are doing time in jails for non-violent crimes. Can we ever imagine something like that happening in India with a population of 1.2 billion? The pressure of those 333,000 was so much on law enforcing authorities of Iceland that immediate time bound investigation and sentencing had to be done. But what about the responsibility of sucessive Indian governments? Do the voices of Indians matter so little to them?

Since 1969, the management of Indian banks has come into the hands of the government. While the goals at the time were lofty such as giving credit facilities to agriculture and encouraging new classes of entrepreuners, the past two decades have shown that there are systemic flaws which have been used by crony capitalists to bleed the banks dry. And, it is tax payers who are bailing out these corrupt and inefficient bankers. Punishing them is a far off thing. There has been no real governance of banks for as long as one can recall.

What is the qualification and/or incentive for bank managers of public sector banks for making sound business decisions for the bank, when going against seniors or bully politicians can invite censure? It isnt just fear that led to wrong decisions being taken as is evident from the events of recent weeks with regard to the bank frauds of Nirav Modi and Rotomac. There are security breaches, over reliance on precedence, influence peddling, fudging documents, misleading investigators and more important than all, complete confidence that they will not be going to jail.

The culture in state-owned banks is of "I'll Be Gone, You'll Be Gone" (IIBGYBG) by the time all this comes to light. IIBGYBG is what American hedge fund managers used to say to each other when they played around with an investment mechanism that led to the financial disaster of 2008. Sophisticated derivatives were used to borrow money to make investments that created higher returns in a good market but when the stock market downturned in 2007 the multi-billion-dollar hedge funds faltered and soon enough the U.S. and several other economies were exposed to the domino effect and a biggest global downturn since World War II took place.

The western economies were strong enough to withstand the crisis while their governments bailed out the banks. In the US, 402 individuals face criminal charges including 97 bankers. 222 were sentenced to prison. In the UK 13 were charged, 8 acquitted, 4 found guilty and 1 pleaded guilty.

Where are we headed? Answer: we are headed for elections. That is all that seems to matter. The media will soon lose interest, the bureaucracy will go into a hold mode, while politicians begin their campaigning for state elections and general elections and the banks will continue to do what they do, because they have been given more money to play with.

It is pertinent to remind bankers to recall that they are inheriters of the legacy of Lala Lajpat Rai who was one of the first promoters of Punjab Bank. Or even more recently, of R.K Talwar, the trail blazing chairman of the State Bank of India, who during Emergency in 1976, told Sanjay Gandhi to take a walk! The Prime Minister's son wanted SBI to waive conditions for a loan to a cement making company whose CEO was a pal. Talwar said no and even refused to meet Sanjay Gandhi, saying he had no constitutional authority. Gandhi used every possible tool to fire Talwar, including the CBI (yes that caged parrot) and even a Parliament amendment to sack him.

That is the level of commitment that tax payers in this country deserve from its bankers. Bankers whose salary they pay for with their taxes. And those who have plundered the banks, which is the hard earned money of tax payers need to be brought to book immediately. The rogue bankers should be jailed and made to serve time. We need to see them suffer the consequences of their actions. If this doesn't happen soon, they will continue to gamble with public money.

Because these Public Sectors Banks have the security net of 'being too big to fail', the bankers are supremely confident that whichever government comes to power next, their jobs are safe and they will survive whatever wrong doings they do and abett. Bankers are being compensated for illogical risks they take with with public money, money which is ours, not theirs.

It is high time that their acts are treated as criminal offences, not merely financial irregularities. The abuse of public trust must not go unpunished. We expect this from the NDA government which came to power with the promise of cleaning corruption from governance.

Mr. Prem Prakash is Chairman of Asian News International .

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Karix Mobile, a messaging solution and mobile engagement company (formerly known as mGage India) headquartered in Mumbai, India - announced the launch of its cloud communications platform as a service (CPaaS) - karix.io.

The platform was showcased at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona (Feb 26 - March 1, 2018) and would initially offer programmable SMS APIs that can be integrated into applications by software developers and businesses, to programmatically send messages across 200 countries.

"With rapid proliferation of mobile application and web-based services, customers are no longer restricted to nearby geographies but expand across cities and countries. To service and communicate with a global customer base, businesses have a growing need for reliable and scalable communications partners. With karix.io, businesses and developers with no skills in telecom can build state-of-the-art applications that are capable of sending automated messages such as transaction notifications, billing information, renewal messages, feedback etc. to customers across 200 countries," said CEO of Karix, Jay Sheth.

Deepak Goyal, COO at Karix said, "With karix.io, we will cater to a global clientele. We have made significant investments in the latest cloud technologies to make this platform enterprise grade, secure, scalable and ensuring 99.995 percent availability. We have arrangements with over 800 operators across the globe to ensure that there is enough redundancy built into the network. We are very excited to launch this platform with a free trial, no-strings-attached offer for all users. Customers visiting us at our stand at Mobile World Congress can collect a limited edition trial coupon for USD 50."

While Karix.io will initially offer only inbounds and outbound SMS APIs, the platform has a road map to offer services such as voice and video as well.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Hours after former Union finance minister P Chidambaram's son Karti Chidambaram was arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in connection with a money laundering case, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) said that no one was above the law.

"I believe no one should consider oneself above the law of the country. The corrupt are being sent to jail under the law which is taking its own course in the matter" BJP leader Sambit Patra told ANI.

Snubbing the Congress party for calling Karti's arrest a case of 'vindictive politics' Patra said, "I see no reason why any political party should cry vendetta. This is law, not vendetta".

Karti was arrested by the CBI at Chennai airport earlier today when he returned from London. He was taken to an undisclosed location and will be later brought to Delhi.

He is accused of taking kickbacks worth Rs. 10-lakh to get clearance for INX Media for receiving foreign investments of over Rs. 300 crores in 2007, using the influence of his father P Chidambaram who was the then Union Finance Minister in the UPA II government.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)King Abdullah II of Jordan, who is on a three-day visit to India, will meet Minister of External Affairs Sushma Swaraj on Wednesday.

According to Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), King Abdullah will then visit IIT Delhi today to explore collaboration with Jordan technical institutes.

"During the day, the King will also participate in a CEO Round-table followed by India-Jordan Business Forum jointly organized by FICCI, CII and ASSOCHAM."

King Abdullah II of Jordan, who arrived here on Tuesday along with a business delegation, was received by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

During this visit, "the two sides will discuss the entire gamut of bilateral relations as well as regional and international issues of mutual interest", said MEA.

Apart from official talks by Prime Minister Modi, President Ram Nath Kovind will host a banquet in the King's honour on March 1.

King Abdullah is also scheduled to deliver a special address on the same day, on 'Promoting Understanding and Moderation', organised by India Islamic Center.

During the visit, the two sides are expected to sign MoUs/Agreements in diverse areas of bilateral cooperation.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)At an event with Prince William and Prince Harry discussing charitable work done by the Royal Foundation Forum, Meghan Markle and Kate Middleton made quite the stylish pair in blue.

The Duchess of Cambridge wore a classic blue dress from one of her go-to maternity brands, Seraphine, featuring a two-button detail on the front.

The style is appropriately named the "royal blue tailored maternity dress." She completed her look with a pair of navy suede heels.

On the other hand, the 'Suits' actress, who partook in her first official royal event with her fiance Prince Harry and future in-laws, wore a navy blue trench dress made by American designer Jason Wu. She wore a multi-strap suede pumps from the popular Italian brand Aquazzara Casablanca.

The Kensington Palace shared the moment on their official page on Twitter, writing, "TRH & Ms. Markle spoke to @TinaDaheley about the inspiration behind The Royal Foundation, the issues that are close to their hearts, and their ambitions for the future."

The Royal Foundation was set up by Prince William and Prince Harry as the main vehicle to pursue their charitable interests. The Duchess of Cambridge became a Patron in 2011, and Markle will soon become the fourth Patron.

Meghan is due to marry Prince Harry on May 19 this year. She is a supporter of women empowerment, advocating for women rights and a self-proclaimed feminist.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Former Maldives President Mohamed Nasheed has alleged that President Abdulla Yameen went against the sanctions imposed by the United Nations and allowed the ships to transfer cargo to North Korean ships on the high seas.

Nasheed took to Twitter and said, "It's concerning, but unsurprising, to learn Prez Yameen is again breaking UN sanctions, this time with North Korea. He's getting Maldives flagged ships to transfer cargo to North Korean ships on the high seas. In the 1990s, Prez Yameen did the same with Burmese junta."

Yesterday, Nasheed had claimed that over 50 Maldives "National Defence Force (MNDF) and Police Officers" were detained by the loyalists of President Yameen.

Maldivian Democratic Party member Abdulla Shahid also came to the fore and urged President Yameen to "immediately release" the MPs who were arrested from the peaceful Joint Opposition protest on Monday.

The Maldives is facing political unrest since President Yameen imposed emergency after refusing to implement a Supreme Court order of freeing imprisoned opposition leaders.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti on Wednesday briefed Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the overall situation in the state.

During around one-hour meeting, Mufti briefed Prime Minister Modi on the security situation in the Valley as well as along the Line of Control (LOC) in the backdrop of continuous ceasefire violations by Pakistan.

The Prime Minister was also apprised about the peace initiatives by Dineshwar Sharma, Centre's special representative for Jammu and Kashmir.

Sharma has been tasked to initiate dialogue process with various political parties, socio-cultural organisations, individuals and opinion makers in the Kashmir Valley.

After the meeting, Mufti took to Twitter to say that she also discussed the implementation of Agenda of Alliance (AoA) with Prime Minister Modi.

"Met @PMOIndia @narendramodi to discuss reconciliation between regions, parties & countries. Also spoke about the timely implementation of AoA & how to ensure better coordination in the coalition to further deliver results to the people of J&K (sic)," Mufti tweeted.

Mufti's Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) are the coalition partners in the Jammu and Kashmir government.

The Chief Minister also thanked Prime Minister Modi for reducing airfare for the Hajj pilgrimage.

"I welcome the decision of the Central Government & thank @narendramodi ji for substantially reducing the airfare for Hajj pilgrims from India from this year. This will help many more Muslims experience the holy pilgrimage to Kaaba (sic)," Mufti tweeted.

On Tuesday, Mufti also met Home Minister Rajnath Singh and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley here.

Mufti briefed Rajnath Singh on the security situation in the Valley as well as along the LOC.

During her meeting with Jaitley, Mufti discussed the implementation of Prime Minister's Development Package (PMDP) in the state.

The Chief Minister also demanded swapping of high-interest loans with soft interest loans to reduce repaying burden on the Jammu and Kashmir Government.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Myanmar embassy in London has rejected visas to a British parliamentary delegation, the group said on Tuesday.

"Today, the Burmese Embassy has failed to provide visas for the International Development Committee to travel to Burma [Myanmar]," a statement said.

The cross-party parliament committee's visit was planned as part of the committee's "inquiry into the Department for International Development's work in Bangladesh and Burma".

"We are extremely disappointed. It is hard to escape the conclusion that this is a direct consequence of our report on Rohingyas," Labour MP and committee chair Stephen Twigg said following the refusal of visas.

"Planned meetings with government ministers and military personnel in Nay Pyi Taw, including with State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi, have been cancelled," Twigg said.

"I will be seeking to raise this on the floor of the House [of Commons] tomorrow (Wednesday)."

The committee's first report in this inquiry on the Rohingya Crisis was published on January 2018, expressing "grave concerns over Burma's treatment of the Rohingyas, their mass displacement and plans to repatriate hundreds of thousands of Rohingyas back to Burma without safeguards", Anadolu news agency reported.

The report also highlighted "evidence that sexual violence, including rape, remained a weapon of war used by the Burmese military".

It also said there is a "grave risk" in plans for repatriation for Rohingyas refugees to Myanmar without the understanding of their legal status, destination and willingness to return.

The group said the plans to begin repatriation for the displaced Rohingya people from Bangladesh to Burma are well "underway without evidence of consultation" or involvement with the community.

The report titled "Bangladesh and Burma: the Rohingya crisis" published on Monday suggested that "continuing engagement" with Myanmar "seems to have been interpreted as tacit acceptance of the treatment of the Rohingyas".

"Previous episodes of displacement and return of the Rohingyas and other ethnic minorities over the last 20 years do not inspire confidence," it added.

"It is unacceptable to propose that the Rohingyas be returned to live in Burmese-run internment camps; inevitably to be faced with further privations, potential abuses and uncertain access for outside agencies; and likely only to be displaced once again if there is further violence."

The committee urged British ministers to "reflect on why so much evidence of discrimination, marginalisation, and abuse of the Rohingyas in Myanmar was seemingly ignored for so long, rather than translated into effective action by the international community".

The Rohingyas, described by the UN as the world's most persecuted people, have faced heightened fears of attack since dozens were killed in communal violence in 2012.

About 750,000 refugees, mostly children and women, have fled Myanmar Since August 25 last year when Myanmar forces launched a crackdown on the minority Muslim community, according to the UN.

In a report published on December 12, the global humanitarian organisation said the deaths of 71.7 percent or 6,700 Rohingya were caused by violence. They include 730 children below the age of 5.

The UN has documented mass gang rapes, killings -- including of infants and young children -- brutal beatings, and disappearances committed by security personnel. In a report, UN investigators said such violations may have constituted crimes against humanity.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)A series of international sanctions will likely hit the economy of North Korea into a deeper slump this year and worsen the living conditions of its citizens sharply, according to a report published on Wednesday.

Lee Suk, a senior researcher at the state-run Korea Development Institute (KDI) and one of the report's authors, said the international sanctions clearly dented North Korea's trade last year, stalling its industrial activity and agricultural output.

"The impact of the sanctions doesn't appear to have spilled over into the market yet, but there is a possibility that North Korea may suffer further setbacks in production, trade and consumption, sharply aggravating the welfare of economic actors," Suk was quoted by Yonhap news agency as saying.

Kim Young-hoon of the Korea Rural Economic Institute estimated that North Korea's grain output for 2017 fell to 4.71 million tons, which was a drop by 2 percent from the previous year.

"Pyongyang's farm production didn't increase last year, despite a series of agricultural reform measures since 2012. It is difficult to paint a positive picture of North Korea's food supply and demand this year," Kim said.

North Korea's coal exports to China, its chief economically fell over 75 percent in 2017, with their dollar value tumbling down to 66 percent, according to Lee Jong-kyu, a KDI researcher.

"The plunge contributed nearly 80 percent to the decrease in the value of North Korean trade with China last year," Lee said, predicting tougher international sanctions will give Pyongyang less leeway in its policy options this year.

Lee Suk-ki, a researcher at the Korea Institute for Industrial Economics and Trade, estimated that North Korea's mining, agricultural and construction sectors almost came to a halt in 2017, compared with the previous year.

"The sectors' slack or weaker activity probably resulted from a severe drought, a decline in trade stemming from international economic sanctions and a correction following the previous year's push to ramp up production", Suk-ki said.

The United States and United Nations have imposed tough sanctions on North Korea, owing to its persistent ballistic missile tests last year.

Most recently, US President Donald Trump on Friday slapped new sanctions on North Korea, targeting 56 vessels, shipping companies and trade businesses, of which Chinese firms and personnel are involved.

It 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.

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.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan on Wednesday said that he is baffled by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) not taking action against Foreign Minister Khawaja Asif despite having been provided with ample evidence of his misdoings.

The Express Tribune quoted the PTI Chief as saying that the NAB's silence over proof of corruption and money laundering is baffling and mind-boggling for him.

PTI leader Usman Dar also met with Imran to discuss the NAB's lack of action on PTI's petition against Asif.

Imran as Usman to meet the NAB chairman Javed Iqbal along with a PTI delegation in regard to the situation and claimed that Usman Dar has all the bank transactions of Asif and his wife.

The Islamabad High Court (IHC) is scheduled to hear Asif's Iqama case on March 1.

Earlier on January 30, the PTI had decided to initiate legal proceedings against Asif at different forums, citing the Foreign Minister a security risk.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)United Airlines(NEWARK, N.J.) -- A United Airlines flight from Newark, New Jersey, to Los Angeles was forced to make an emergency landing in Pennsylvania around 9:20 p.m. Tuesday after pilots noticed smoke in the cockpit, according to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).



Flight 1165 was diverted to Lehigh Valley International Airport, about 65 miles northeast of Philadelphia. The plane -- a Boeing 757 -- landed safely, and no injuries were reported, the FAA said.



United confirmed the diversion in a statement late Tuesday, but said the plane had to be diverted "after reports of smoke in the lavatory," not the cockpit.



"The flight landed safely, and we will transport customers back to Newark this evening via bus and provide hotel accommodations, helping customers resume their travels as quickly as possible on Wednesday," United said. "Our maintenance team will inspect the aircraft to determine the cause. We apologize to our customers for this inconvenience."



United and the FAA both said they would investigate the incident.



United passengers experienced a much scarier diversion incident earlier this month when part of a plane's engine fell apart in midair, leaving metal pieces flapping in the wind. The National Transportation Safety Board attributed that incident to an "engine surge and compressor stall" in one of the plane's engines.



That plane -- a Boeing 777 -- landed safely with no injuries, but passengers on the flight said they were terrified.



"I thought we were going to die, and hoped that my kids knew that I loved them," one passenger told ABC News on Feb. 13. "It was horrible. The flight attendants were really professional, but they were scared. You could tell from their face."



Copyright  2018, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.World number two Rafael Nadal has pulled out of the Mexican Open following a right hip injury.

The sixteen-time grand slam champion was slated to face fellow Spaniard Feliciano Lopez in the opening round of the tournament on Wednesday.

The same injury also forced Nadal to withdraw from the Australian Open.

"Tough one, of course. Yesterday in the last practice I felt something... I went to the hospital this morning to check it, to do an MRI and I still have some liquid there, so I need to keep doing tests to know what exactly is going on," Nadal was quoted, as saying by ATP.

He added, "The spot is really similar to Australia, so I need to be sure about what's going on the next couple of days, and then we're going to work hard to try to recover as soon as possible."

Nadal has not played a match since retiring from a match in Melbourne on January 23.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Wednesday stressed on the need to create awareness among the people on the traffic rules and assured that the guilty in the Muzaffarpur hit and run case would be brought to justice.

Speaking at the Bihar Assembly, the Chief Minister said, "Awareness needs to be created about traffic rules. There is need of legal provisions in the issuance of driving licenses. Protest, agitation and statements over an accident are natural, but accused will finally be caught, how much will someone escape?"

The Bihar Government has also planned to constitute a high-level committee constitutes under Development Council to look into actions that needed to be taken in such matters, said the Chief Minister.

"We have constituted a high-level committee under Development Council and have given it the responsibility to study what else is needed to be done in road accidents and monitor implementation of work already instructed for the end of such incidents," he added.

Earlier in the day, the suspended Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Manoj Baitha, who is accused in the Muzaffarpur hit and run case, was shifted from Sri Krishna Medical College and Hospital to Patna Medical College and Hospital for treatment of the injuries he suffered in the accident.

He was suspended from the party's membership for six years for his involvement in the accident.

He is the owner of the SUV that ran over nine children and injured around 20 others outside a government school at Dharampur village in Bihar's Muzaffarpur district on February 24.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Irregularities were conducted in the award of a 2.9 billion dollar contract to a Chinese firm for the construction of a motorway under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) near Multan-Sukkur section, Pakistan's National Highway Authority (NHA) chief has said.

NHA Chairman Jawwad Rafique Malik confessed on Tuesday that concessions worth roughly 200 million dollars given to the China State Construction Engineering Company (CSCEC) were not part of the original bidding documents Pakistan had floated for the construction of the 392-km long section, The Express Tribune reported.

The confession raises transparency concerns in the multi-billion dollar deal, whose contract has been awarded to the Chinese company on an "alternate bid", which the company had submitted after quoting its original bid.

The chairman's statement comes before Tuesday's Senate Standing Committee on Finance and Revenue under the chairmanship of Pakistan Peoples Party Senator Saleem Mandviwalla.

The Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (Ecnec) had approved the Multan-Sukkur project at a cost of Rs259 billion but the lowest bid CSCEC gave amounted to Rs 406 billion, said Malik, adding that CSCEC also submitted an "alternate bid" valued at Rs 339 billion.

Senator Nauman Wazir Khattak from Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf party questioned whether the PPRA Rules of 2004 allowed submission of alternate bids.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Pakistani government and its people have sacrificed enormously in the country's fight against terrorism, a Chinese official said here.

China's Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Lu Kang on Wednesday acknowledged that Islamabad's efforts in terms of ground operations and in the field of combating terror financing need to be seen by all, Radio Pakistan reported.

Addressing a press release here, Lu said Pakistan had made important progress in actively strengthening financial regulations to combat terror financing, and the country's contributions in the area of countering terror financing were obvious.

China hopes that all relevant parties of the international community arrive at an objective and fair conclusion on Pakistan's role in fighting terrorism.

He called on the international community to evaluate the South Asian nation's efforts against militancy in an objective and fair way, instead of just pointing fingers at Pakistan out of bias.

As an all-weather strategic cooperative partner for Pakistan, China will continue to enhance communication, coordination and cooperation on counterterrorism, the official concluded.

The country has several times launched various military operations against militant groups such as Tehreek-e-Taliban, Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, Al Qaeda, the Haqqani network, and the Islamic State.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Saudi crown prince Mohammed bin Salman will visit the United Kingdom (UK) on an official visit from March 7, the Downing Street has announced.

"The visit will also provide an opportunity to enhance our co-operation in tackling international challenges such as terrorism, extremism, the conflict and humanitarian crisis in Yemen and other regional issues such as Iraq and Syria," Al Jazeera quoted a spokesperson for the UK's prime minister Theresa May as saying.

"The visit will also provide an opportunity to enhance our co-operation in tackling international challenges such as terrorism, extremism, the conflict and humanitarian crisis in Yemen and other regional issues such as Iraq and Syria," the statement added.

According to the reports, in a separate statement issued after the meeting with her cabinet, May said the crown prince's visit would allow Britain to talk "frankly and constructively" about areas of concern like Yemen and security in the Middle East.

Meanwhile Reprieve, a UK-based rights group, has objected to the crown prince's visit, saying that, "The close relationship Theresa May trumpets has led to British police officers training Saudi agents in the kind of cyber-monitoring techniques which have been used to justify death sentences."

By Tuesday, more than 11,000 people had signed an online petition calling on May to cancel the crown prince's visit, as per the reports.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Singapore Tourism Board (STB) announced its strategic partnership with Paytm, a homegrown mobile-first financial services platform, thus making STB the first National Tourism Organisation (NTO) to partner with the latter.

As a part of this partnership, would run joint promotions on its platform to promote Singapore tourism. This will bring Singapore's tourism offerings to Paytm's 300 million strong users.

will be offering up to Rs 2,500 cash back on flight tickets to Singapore that are booked through the app. The platform will house a microsite featuring Singapore's new, inside-out, unified brand 'Passion Made Possible' and related branded content. The customised microsite will help entrench the country's Passion Made Possible brand, which was launched in August last year with the Indian visitors.

Under the partnership, STB and Paytm will also embark on a series of print ads and radio buys to promote the three-month campaign and drive travel to Singapore.

With the digital wave transforming and driving a shift in the way commerce functions in India, this partnership will enable STB to increase exposure of Singapore's tourism offerings to Paytm's users and sets the foundation for the potential expansion of the collaboration to feature more Singapore tourism products on the platform.Turns out, social stigma comes in the way of families to ask for outside help for food security - meaning possessing enough money to provide food for family.

According to a Drexel University- study, screening for food insecurity at the pediatrician's office can be quite effective, but fear of Child Protective Services and a complicated referral process could be barriers to food insecure families getting the help they need.

A two-question food insecurity screening was added to the visits of more than 7,000 families at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) over a two-year period to find out how useful it was.

The evaluation of the effort - run by the Center for Hunger-Free Communities of Drexel University's Dornsife School of Public in collaboration with CHOP and Benefits Data Trust - sought to determine what barriers there might be to implementing such screening and how it could be made most successful.

"The screening itself worked very well: Providers could incorporate it into their workflow, and many parents and caregivers responded," said Molly Knowles, who served as the lead author of the study.

More than 1,000 families - roughly 15 percent - of the families involved reported food insecurity (meaning that they did not have enough money for consistent access to food). Of that group, more than half were referred to Benefits Data Trust for further services and resources.

But the challenge came after these initial interactions. It was then that connections were dropped.

"Because of patient privacy and confidentiality protections, there were several steps in between being able to identify a food insecure family and connecting them with resources," Knowles explained. "That meant that parents - more than 60 percent - weren't able to connect with the referral agency."

Red tape wasn't the only major barrier discovered by the study. Parents were also initially reluctant to say that they were struggling to feed their families, for fear that they'd be reported as unfit caregivers.

"Parents know that healthcare providers are mandatory reporters of child abuse and neglect, and although food insecurity is not a form of neglect, many parents described feelings of shame and fear of Child Protective Services involvement," Knowles explained.

The study showed that medical professionals were eager to implement the hunger screening and parents reported interest in being asked about food needs: everything just came down to better communication.

With that, any unfounded fears from parents might be alleviated, and other obstacles could be solved by providers from the outset.

Something that the researchers didn't expect to find was that of those who reported being food insecure and referred for help, 79 percent already participated in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, also known as food stamps).

"Parents recommended connecting families with immediate resources - not only food resources, but other resources that could free up household budgets for food - to supplement any public benefits they may already receive," Knowles said.

So that fewer families are lost between their screening and being referred to an assisting agency, Knowles recommended getting families' consent to share contact info right away at the first screening.

Although this study only took place at CHOP in Philadelphia, its results fall in line with others. The interest is certainly there for screening.

The research is published in the Journal of Care for the Poor and Underserved.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)One of India's leading players in auto-components industry, Steelbird International on Wednesday announced expansion of its manufacturing capacity with a new unit. As per the information provided, the company has invested around Rs 40 crores in the plant and close to 80 percent of the capacity has already been booked.

Spread over 40,000 square feet, this hi-tech plant will come up in the vicinity of Steelbird's existing plants in Pant Nagar (Uttarakhand).

The state-of-the-art plant will be equipped with the latest machinery and comply with the international standards of quality control and pollution norms.

The new facility will complement the company's overall production capacity, which is currently pegged at 60,000 units per day, and will scale it to over 100,000 units, combing air filters, and rubber parts which include dampers, O-rings, oil seals, mattings, dust covers and foot-rest covers for two-wheelers.

"The time right now is rather scary for conventional players in the automotive business, but the next three to five years are still going to see an upward trend. With commitment from our customers, we decided to invest in this new facility with a vision to recover the capital over the next three years," said executive director Steelbird International, Manav Kapur.

"Having over five thousand retail points in the country and five zonal warehouses, network expansion is another focus on our agenda for growth over the next couple of years," he added.

The company has its presence in Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM), export and aftermarket sectors.

Greaves Cotton, Tata Ficosa, Lumax, and Royal Enfield remain its key customers in the OEM space.

Parts are also exported to Italy, Germany and neighbouring countries including Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, and Nepal.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)All-rounder Ben Stokes played an unbeaten knock of 63 runs as England registered a six-wicket victory over New Zealand to level the five match ODI series at 1-1.

Coming in to bat first, the hosts were bundled out on under-par score of 223 after Mitchell Santner scored his maiden ODI half-century. Martin Guptill also stuck a fifty.

Chasing the total, England got off to a poor start as opener Jason Roy got out cheaply on eight to Trent Boult.

In the ninth over, Joe Root was dismissed with Colin de Grandhomme taking a sensational one-hand diving catch off Boult, giving him his second wicket.

Jonny Bairstow was caught out on 37 by third man off Lockie Ferguson.

It was skipper Eoin Morgan and Stokes who then led the counterattack for England.

Stokes put on 88 with Morgan who scored 62 before being dismissed by Colin Munro.

Stokes and Jos Buttler remained unbeaten on 63 and 36 respectively to guide England to victory with 12.1 overs to spare.

Stokes, who was playing in his second international comeback match after five months out, earlier shared two wickets each with Moeen Ali and Chris Woakes.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)External Affairs Minister (EAM) Sushma Swaraj met with King Abdullah II of Jordan and discussed ways to strengthen bilateral ties here on Wednesday.

Ministry of External Affairs, Spokesperson, Raveesh Kumar took to Twitter to inform about the meeting.

"Historical links getting stronger! EAM @SushmaSwaraj calls on His Majesty @KingAbdullahII Ibn Al Hussein, King of #Jordan. Good conversation on strengthening ties across all sectors, specially in trade & investment, defence & security, tourism and people-to-people exchanges," he tweeted.

King Abdullah II of Jordan, who arrived here on Tuesday for a three-day visit, along with a business delegation, was received by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

During this visit, "the two sides will discuss the entire gamut of bilateral relations as well as regional and international issues of mutual interest", said MEA.

Apart from official talks by Prime Minister Modi, President Ram Nath Kovind will host a banquet in the King's honour on March 1.

King Abdullah is also scheduled to deliver a special address on the same day, on 'Promoting Understanding and Moderation', organised by India Islamic Center.

During the visit, the two sides are expected to sign MoUs/Agreements in diverse areas of bilateral cooperation.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)At least five policemen and four others were injured after Taliban insurgents attacked a check post on the Kandahar-Uruzgan highway in Afghanistan on Wednesday, according to local officials.

A source from Kandahar police was quoted by the TOLOnews as saying that the incident took place when a group of Taliban militants wearing Afghan National Army (ANA) uniforms attacked a police check post on the highway attacked the policemen. The militants also attacked an oncoming bus and abducted the passengers as well.

Kandahar Police Chief General Abdul Raziq said that efforts were being made to ensure the safe release of the hostages.

He added that the hostages were mostly policemen and were overpowered after clashing with the militants. However, he did not specify on how many civilians or policemen were abducted.

The Taliban is yet to comment on the incident so far.

This incident comes as the 2nd Kabul Process Conference is underway in Kabul, which is being attended by officials from around 25 countries.

The ongoing meeting aims to secure support for an agreement to end backing of cross-border terrorism and to find a peaceful solution in ending the decades-long insurgency in Afghanistan.

Afghan President Ashraf Ghani has called on the Taliban to sit down for peace talks with his government.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau did not refute the 'conspiracy theory' that Indian government factions sabotaged his trip by approving the visa for Pro-Khalistani terrorist Jaspal Atwal.

Responding to a Conservative leader's question about the "allegations" made by a senior government security source, Trudeau said, "When one of our top diplomats and security officials says something to Canadians it's because they know it to be true." Adding that it was the previous Conservative government that "torqued the public service every possible way they could."

During Prime Minister Trudeau's visit to India, Atwal was invited to dine with him at a formal event hosted by Canadian High Commissioner to India Nadir Patel. The invite was later rescinded.

Prime Minister Trudeau also received backlash over his wife Sophie Trudeau's photo with convicted pro-Khalistani terrorist.

Canadian Member of Parliament (MP) Randeep S. Sarai, however, took responsibility for inviting Atwal to Trudeau's reception dinner in New Delhi.

Jaspal Atwal was convicted of the attempted murder of Punjab minister, Malkiat Singh Sidhu, on Vancouver Island in 1986.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)A federal judge on Tuesday ruled the Trump administration has the authority to waive environmental rules to construct a border wall with Mexico.

Judge Gonzalo Curiel in his order acknowledged the wall was the "subject of heated political debate. as to the need, efficacy and the source of funding for such barriers", and the President's central campaign promise.

California and an array of environmental groups filed legal challenges last year to the administration's effort to expedite the wall's construction by circumventing a variety of statutes, with California Attorney General Xavier Becerra suggesting that Trump had sought to "ignore the law".

The judge said the ruling was on a politically freighted case and that he was not weighing in on whether "underlying decisions to construct the border barriers are politically wise or prudent", The Independent reported.

The order was all the more striking because Trump had disparaged Curiel's ability to be unbiased because of the American judge's Mexican heritage.

Trump during the presidential campaign called Curiel -- who was then overseeing class-action lawsuits against Trump University -- "very hostile" and repeatedly referred to the Indiana-raised judge's Hispanic roots.

"We are building a wall. He's a Mexican. We're building a wall between here and Mexico," Trump had said.

"This judge is giving us unfair rulings. Now, I say. 'Why?' Well, I'm building a wall, OK? And it's a wall between Mexico. Not another country."

The debate over the wall has continued to smoulder in Washington. The Trump administration had earlier this year requested 18 billion dollars for the structure's first phase, but the Congress has not yet allocated money to construct the border barrier.

The wall's fate has also become entangled in a broader immigration fight. Trump has sought to extract a deal for more border security funding in exchange for opening a path to citizenship to young immigrants who are in the country illegally. He moved to end a programme that offered them temporary legal status.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)President Donald Trump has been looking at ways to prevent Russian meddling into the internal affairs of the US, White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said on Tuesday, adding the previous President Barack Obama was responsible for the meddling, if any, and not the Trump administration.

The White House official said, "The US is looking at a number of different ways that we can put pressure (on Russia). This President has been much tougher on Russia than his predecessor. Let's not forget that this happened under Obama. It didn't happen under President Trump. If you want to blame somebody for past problems, then you need to look at the Obama administration."

Talking about Admiral Mike Rogers, the head of the National Security Agency (NSA) staff, who has not been granted any additional authority by the President to confront Russian cyber intrusion, interference with the US' election systems, the Press Secretary replied, "Nobody is denying him the authority."

She said 40 million dollars was given to the Global Engagement Center to begin providing immediate support to private and public partners that expose and counter Russian and Chinese propaganda and disinformation.

Admiral Rogers should go and confront Russian intrusion at the source, the official said, adding the President was looking at all of the different causes and ways that we could prevent it.

She argued that blame lied with the Obama administration for allowing the attacks to happen on its watch and that there were ongoing conversations on this topic at the National Security Council, but no presidential-level meetings scheduled.

Talking about Parkland school shooting, Sanders said the President still supported "raising the age limit to 21 for the purchase of certain firearms".

"The President is going to be meeting with bipartisan lawmakers tomorrow, and that will be another one of those topics discussed, and we'll have further specific policy announcements later this week.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)UClean, an integrated laundry, and cleaning solutions company announced the launch of Mint Clean, an on-demand direct-to-home (DTH) cleaning and home health company, which will offer door-to-door cleaning solutions through a "man and van" model.

The company also raised an initial funding of USD 1 Million from Franchise India, a franchising and licensing solutions company and a US-based angel investor, Anubhav Chopra.

The funds would primarily be deployed towards creating a solid technical platform to facilitate this business, which is predominantly B2B2B and B2B2C in nature. The funds would also be utilised to recruit suitable franchises and then support them with leads through marketing.

"This is a model that we developed basis the overwhelming feedback and encouragement that we received from our UClean customers. At Mint Clean, it's our endeavor to provide women, children and men with a minty clean environment that can create safer indoor havens. We are thankful to our investors who believed in our mission and supported us to kick-start operations. Like UClean, we would be building Mint Clean through the franchise route and would be targeting 100 franchises of Mint Clean by 2020," said UClean Founder and CEO, Arunabh Sinha.

The brand was officially launched in January this year and has commenced pilot operations from Delhi NCR.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Allahabad High Court on Wednesday dismissed a petition filed against the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) investigation in Uttar Pradesh Public Service Commission (UPPSC) recruitment scam.

Earlier on February 3, CBI officials carried out an investigation at the UPPSC in connection with the alleged recruitment scam in competitive exams conducted from April 2012 to March 2017.

The officials, accompanied by a forensic team, collected computer data and sought information about the exams from the Commission staff.

In this case, more than 600 recruits and 45,000 posts in the tenure of the Samajwadi Party (SP) Government are under the scanner.

Especially about 3,000 Provincial Civil Service (PCS) officers and 1,000 posts of Provincial Civil Service-Judicial (PCS-J) recruits have also been under investigation in the case.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Ahead of the festival of Holi, a group of five widows from Vrindavan left for Delhi on Wednesday, to present 11 earthen pots containing 'Gulaal' to Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Chhabi Sharma, one of the widows said, "I never believed we will ever have the opportunity of playing Holi with the Prime Minister."

On their visit, the group will be extending an invitation to Prime Minister Modi to play Holi with them.

Before the group departed for the capital, the widows of Vrindavan also played Holi with colours and flowers.

The widows in Vrindavan began this tradition back in 2013, as a mark to break the societal norms that prohibit a widow from wearing coloured clothes, among other things.

Holi, a festival of colours, will be celebrated on March 2, this year.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Los Angeles based technology startup Vyng, has raised an angel funding round led by Sandeep Soni from the Indian Angel Network (IAN). The company plans to use the investment to bring additional focus to the Indian market.

The investment by IAN was part of a USD 3 million-dollar round, Vyng raised in 2017.

The Vyng app re-kindles human connection by allowing users to place personalised videos of friends, families, and loved ones on the smartphone's lock screen, bringing back those long-forgotten memories and funny moments spent, on each call, every day.

"In today's conveyor belt of identikit smartphones, where there is little scope for innovation, it is interesting and awe-inspiring, to see how something as simple as a phone's lock screen can be transformed into something as disruptive as done by Vyng. It is noteworthy to mention that in a country like India where, user generated content is growing by 30 percent week over week, Vyng is adding over 20 percent users week by week. Clearly, there's immense scope for brands to target consumer's lock screen for content marketing," said lead investor, Indian Angel Network, Sandeep Soni.

"We are incredibly privileged to be invested in by such an amazing set of investors like IAN. We believe that their experience and in-depth knowledge would provide a significant boost to our quest to build, introduce and further expand our innovative offerings not only in the Indian market but also worldwide," said co-founder and CEO, Vyng, Paul Kats.

"There are over eight billion phones calls on smartphones and 22 billion SMS notifications every single day. Vyng can fundamentally improve those experiences and bring value to the user at the very first touch point," Kats added.

Backed by March Capital, a Google Ventures partner, and advised by the founders of Giphy and GroupMe, the company plans to raise additional capital from strategic institutional investors in India.

Since its official launch in early 2017, Vyng boasts of around 500 million videos played across 170 countries.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Atlas Cycles (Haryana) dropped 2.55% to Rs 195 at 13:43 IST on BSE after the company said that its board of directors decided to suspend the manufacturing activity at Sonepat unit of the company.

The announcement was made after market hours yesterday, 27 February 2018.

Meanwhile, the S&P BSE Sensex was down 229.96 points, or 0.67% at 34,116.43. The S&P BSE Small-Cap index was down 67.81 points, or 0.37% at 18,022.32, outperforming the Sensex.

On the BSE, 1,134 shares were traded on the counter so far as against the average daily volumes of 5,583 shares in the past one quarter. The stock had hit a high of Rs 198.80 and a low of Rs 193 so far during the day. The stock had hit a record high of Rs 248 on 2 November 2017 and a 52-week low of Rs 135 on 2 June 2017.

Atlas Cycles (Haryana) said that its board of directors decided to suspend the manufacturing activity at Sonepat unit of the company with immediate effect and the board may in future after re-assessing the situation, may direct for closure of the said unit or otherwise, as it deems fit.

Atlas Cycles (Haryana) is a manufacturer of bicycles. The company manufactures components of bicycles and steel tubes.

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Cipla and Roche Pharma India announced that the two companies have entered in to an agreement under which Cipla will promote and distribute tocilizumab (Actemra) and Syndyma, the 2nd brand of Roche's cancer therapy, bevacizumab (Avastin) in India. This partnership is in line with Cipla and Roche's efforts to improve healthcare and increase access to innovative, life-changing medicines in India, particularly to patients who currently do not have access to them. The announcement was made after market hours yesterday, 27 February 2018.

Umang Vohra, MD & Global CEO Cipla said that the prevalence of cancer and rheumatoid arthritis is widely spread across India, and Cipla can contribute to provide broader access to innovative medicines like tocilizumab and bevacizumab.

Tata Consultancy Services announced that Bank Muscat, the flagship financial services provider in the Sultanate of Oman, has gone live with TCS BaNCS Universal Banking for its fund and investment banking operations. This deployment is a strategic upgrade to its earlier platform solution and will provide extensive capabilities for multiple asset classes such as funds, equities, fixed income and money markets. The announcement was made after market hours yesterday, 27 February 2018.

TCS Financial Solutions has been a strategic partner of Bank Muscat for the past 15 years and TCS BaNCS' advanced breadth and depth of this additional functionality will position the bank for higher growth and operational efficiency. This TCS BaNCS' upgrade will optimize the Bank's operational efficiency and processes. The new solution will both enhance workflows and reduce time taken on fund and investment banking operations.

Spice Mobility said that Spice Labs, a step down subsidiary of the company, has divested its entire stake in Exponentially I Mobility, a Limited Liability Partnership (LLP). Consequent to this disinvestment, Spice Labs, ceased to be a partner in the said LLP. The announcement was made after market hours yesterday, 27 February 2018.

Tata Communications, the official connectivity provider to Formula 1, is powering the new F1 TV mobile app, which will transform how people are able to watch and engage with the sport. Starting with the 2018 season, Formula 1 will use the app to deliver the action live from every race to fans directly, and expand its reach to new audiences. The announcement was made after market hours yesterday, 27 February 2018.

Indiabulls Housing Finance said that the bond issue committee of the board of directors of the company approved, the final terms and conditions of issue of Rs 315 crore Social Affordable Housing Masala Bonds. The bonds mature in February 2021 and have a yield of 7.8%. The announcement was made after market hours yesterday, 27 February 2018.

ABC India said that it has been awarded an order of Rs 141.93 crore from BHEL for multimodal transportation of export project cargo from India to the MSTPP Rampal project in Bangladesh. The announcement was made after market hours yesterday, 27 February 2018.

Shriram Transport Finance Company said that it is considering raising of funds through various options of borrowings including by way of issue of securities in onshore/offshore market on public / private placement basis. Based on the market conditions the meeting(s) of Banking and Finance Committee/Debt Issuance Committee will be held during the month of March 2018 to consider and approve the terms and conditions of such borrowings. The announcement was made after market hours yesterday, 27 February 2018.

Kridhan Infra announced that it has completed the acquisition of 31.5% stake in Vijay Nirman Company. The company has allotted 76.79 lakh equity shares to the institutional shareholders of VNC on preferential basis and all the required approvals are received from BSE and NSE. After this acquisition the VNC has become an associate company of KIL. The company had also signed an SSA for increasing its stake to 50.5% and the process is on to complete that transaction. The announcement was made after market hours yesterday, 27 February 2018.

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Granules India gained 1.32% to Rs 118.80 at 13:20 IST on BSE after the company announced that US drug regulator issued Establishment Inspection Report for its wholly owned foreign subsidiary in USA.

The announcement was made during market hours today, 28 February 2018.

Meanwhile, the S&P BSE Sensex was down 228.51 points, or 0.67% to 34,117.88. The S&P BSE Mid-Cap index was down 133.45 points, or 0.8% to 16,467.60, underperforming the Sensex.

On the BSE, 1.3 lakh shares were traded in the counter so far, compared with average daily volumes of 1.18 lakh shares in the past two weeks. The stock had hit a high of Rs 119.30 and a low of Rs 114.90 so far during the day. The stock had hit a 52-week high of Rs 157 on 18 May 2017. The stock had hit a 52-week low of Rs 101.95 on 11 August 2017.

Granules India announced that US Food and Drug Administration (USFDA) has issued Establishment Inspection Report (EIR) for Granules Pharmaceuticals, Inc. facility, a wholly owned foreign subsidiary of the company located in Chantilly, Virginia, USA.

The facility was inspected by USFDA in December 2017 and there was one observation during the inspection. The company has responded to the observation within the stipulated timeframe.

Granules India is a vertically integrated pharmaceutical company, headquartered in Hyderabad, India.

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)According to Mr. Anant Gangaram Geete, Minister for Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises, Government of India, it is the Government's endeavor to make the New Auto Policy industry-friendly. We are trying to make a foolproof policy, to ensure the success of Make in India, he added.

The Minister stated that it would be his Ministry's endeavor to continuously adapt and modify the policy so as to keep up with the changing times. Inviting Korean companies to invest in India, the Minister stated that Korean companies could consider developing technology in India.

Dr. Asha Ram Sihag, Secretary, Department of Heavy Industry, stated that his Department is in the process of finalizing the National Automotive Policy which would help create a more enabling environment for the sector. It provides the policy stability that overseas investors seek.

Mr Vishvajit Sahay, Joint Secretary, Department of Heavy Industry, stated that the automotive industry contributes 7.1% of GDP & 49% of Manufacturing GDP.

It also accounts for 8% of India's exports & 7-8% of employment.

While giving an overview of the Indian Automotive Industry, Dr. Pawan Goenka, Managing Director, Mahindra Group, stated that Indian and Korean automotive companies could work together in terms of investing in R&D, sourcing of auto components from India, tooling & advanced materials as well as software development.

Mr. Nirmal Minda, President, Automotive Component Manufacturers Association (ACMA) stated that auto components sector is the flagship manufacturing sector in India accounting for 49% of the overall manufacturing output in the country. It is the largest employment creator and exports 25% of its output.

Mr. Vikas Jain, Assistant Vice President, Hyundai Motors India and Mr. Manohar Bhat, Head of Marketing and Sales, highlighted their respective companies' experience of investing in India.

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has issued Letter of Award for construction of the proposed Srinagar Ring Road/Bypass from Galander to Crossing of Sumbel Road on the Jammu-Srinagar highway (NH-1A). The Project would be implemented on Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) Mode with construction period of 36 months.

The details of the project are as under:

Section Length Project Cost (Rs. in crores) ContractorStand alone Ring Road / Bypass around Srinagar City 42.10 km 939.41 M/s Ramky Infrastructure Ltd.

The entire greenfield alignment has been proposed on the western side of Srinagar City to cater to/provide connectivity to the habitation on that side.

It will also provide smooth and easy traffic flow in and around Srinagar City. Vehicles carrying heavy machinery to border/strategic areas of Baramula, Uri, Kupwara, Bandipora and Gandarbal will have an easier, congestion free passage along this route. The Ring Road/ Bypass will traverse through 52 villages and 5 Districts (Phulwama, Budgaon, Baramula, Srinagar & Bandipora).

The Ring Road/ Bypass will also lead to substantial socio-economic growth of the area

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Two persons were injured when a team of a Delhi-based power distribution company (discom) making a routine check of power theft was allegedly attacked by a mob in the Kamruddin Nagar area of the capital, the company said on Wednesday.

Describing the locality as a "high power theft area in West Delhi", BSES said it is infested with illegal plastic factories causing heavy pollution.

"Yesterday (Tuesday), a 20-member BSES team, including two women, was undertaking a routine loss reduction/system improvement exercise in Kamruddin Nagar (Mundka), a high power theft area in West Delhi," the statement said, adding that the team was also accompanied by Delhi Police.

"A mob of around 15-20 unscrupulous elements gathered and a few amongst it brutally attacked the team with iron rods. In the ensuing melee, a BSES official and a retired Delhi Police ACP Santosh Kumar Singh sustained serious head injuries," it said.

A FIR has been filed at the Nihal Vihar Police Station, the statement added.

According to the police, the team was attacked when two police personnel accompanying it had gone for lunch.

"This is not an isolated incident. Efforts of discom teams to check the irregularities are often thwarted by the law-defying people who function like organised gangs," a BSES spokesperson said.

"Power theft has taken shape of organised crime and more active police support is needed to curb this menace," he added.

During an anti-power theft drive by BSES in July 2017, a young engineer lost his life and four other officials were seriously injured when they were attacked by "power thieves" in Jhul Jhuli village in South West Delhi.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Three astronauts have landed safely in Kazakhstan on Wednesday after five-and-a-half-month of performing research and spacewalks in low-Earth orbit.

The Soyuz spacecraft with NASA astronauts Mark Vande Hei and Joe Acaba, and cosmonaut Alexander Misurkin of the Russian space agency Roscosmos landed at 8.31 a.m. in Kazakhstan, NASA said.

The three were part of the Expedition 54 crew aboard the International Space Station (ISS).

Vande Hei ventured outside the space station on four spacewalks to perform work that included replacing and lubricating the Latching End Effectors on both ends of the Canadarm2.

Acaba completed one spacewalk to lubricate an end effector and install new cameras on the station's arm and truss. He now has accrued 306 days in space on three flights.

Acaba and Vande Hei also participated in dozens of educational events while in space as part of NASA's Year of Education on Station.

Misurkin conducted one record-setting spacewalk with fellow cosmonaut Anton Shkaplerov to replace an electronics box for a high-gain communications antenna on the Zvezda service module in February.

The spacewalk timed out at eight hours and 13 minutes, the longest in Russian space programme history. Misurkin now has spent 334 days in space on two flights.

Now operating the station are Expedition 55 crew members Commander Anton Shkaplerov of Roscosmos and Flight Engineers Scott Tingle of NASA and Norishige Kanai of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency.

Astronauts Ricky Arnold and Drew Feustel of NASA, and Oleg Artemyev of Roscosmos are scheduled to launch on March 21 and arrive at the space station two days later, returning the crew size to six, according to NASA.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)A week after the Income Tax Department evinced interest in a firm linked to Punjab National Bank (PNB) fraud accused Nirav Modi's sister in Singapore, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) is also now on its trail.

Sources said the ED was looking into Islington International Pte Ltd, a Singapore-based company whose beneficiary owner is stated to be Modi's sister Purvi Mehta.

Modi's Firestar International had received foreign funds worth Rs 271 crore from Islington International Pte Ltd, and the IT Department had earlier said the firm had not been able to provide necessary supporting documents of creditworthiness of Purvi Mehta or Islington.

"The source of funds also remains suspicious," a report by the investigative arm of the department had said.

Based on the documents seized during searches last year, IT officials have claimed that Firestar International also received Rs 284 crore from two companies in Cyprus and Mauritius between 2013 and 2014 in the form of share capital and high-share premium.

The department found evidence during the searches that showed that documents claimed to be submitted by these foreign entities were prepared in Modi's office. The source of funds and creditworthiness of the overseas companies were not explained properly, the IT Department said in its report.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Australia on Wednesday ordered a compulsory recall of 2.3 million vehicles over a possible defect in their airbag systems installed by Japanese company Takata, that has caused the death of 20 people worldwide.

According to the Australian government, at least one person died in the country after the system had exploded at the time of activation, Efe reported.

"It's the safety of all Australians which is the first priority of this government," said Michael Sukkar, Assistant Minister to the Treasurer, adding that previous voluntary recalls have been ineffective.

The compulsory recall will require vehicle manufacturers, dealers, importers and other suppliers to locate and replace the Takata airbags as quickly as possible.

It will apply to vehicles of the brands identified earlier - Toyota, Mazda, Honda, BMW, Chrysler, Lexus, Mitsubishi, Nissan, Subaru, among others - and adds more than half a dozen manufacturers like Ford, GM Holden, Mercedes Benz, Tesla, Jaguar, Land Rover, Volkswagen, Audi and Skoda.

Sukkar also ordered the manufacturers to replace the units for free within two years, prioritizing airbags that were older and have been exposed to heat and humidity longer.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Oman's flagship financial services provider Bank Muscat began using the universal banking software product (Bancs) of Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) for its fund and investment operations, said the IT bellwether on Wednesday.

"Bank Muscat has started using our Bancs universal banking software solution for its fund and investment operations. The upgrade provides extensive capabilities for its multiple asset classes," said the Mumbai-based IT firm in a statement here.

As technology partner, TCS will position the bank for higher growth and operational efficiency with the upgrade optimising its operational efficiency and processes.

"The new solution will enhance workflows and reduce time spent on fund and investment banking operations," it said.

According to TCS Financial Solutions Vice President R. Vivekananda, the bank will be able to leverage improvements in cross-asset, mid-to-back-office capabilities for fund and investment banking and enhance its stature in the region.

"The deployment reinforces our banking product's leadership and customer footprint throughout the Gulf region," said Vivekananda.

With $31-billion worth assets, Bank Muscat has a strong presence in corporate, retail, investment, Islamic, treasury and private banking and asset management.

The bank also has the largest network of 149 branches, 630 ATMs and 14,000 PoS (Point of Sale) terminals.

The bank's international operations consist of a branch in Riyadh in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait and a representative Office in Dubai and Singapore.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Business Aircraft Operators Association (BAOA) will discuss various issues connected to the Business and General Aviation (BA/GA) industry at the fourth edition of the BizAVIndia Conference here on March 7, the association said on Wednesday.

'Emerging opportunities for air connectivity: Navigating the future for Business and General Aviation Industry in India' is the theme of the conference to be held on the eve of WINGS India, scheduled to be held from March 8-11.

BAOA wishes to dive deeper into what the future holds for BA/GA industry in India, as the country is poised to be the world's third largest aviation market by 2022, the association said in a statement.

"The utility of Business Aviation, as a productivity tool and a contributor to economic development, is becoming more evident and should serve as the prime rationale to put in place an appropriate framework enabling industry's growth and its role in channelising economic and social benefits throughout India," said Rohit Kapur, President BAOA.

The conference will bring together all the key stakeholders in the industry for a unique knowledge-exchange and networking platform.

Minister of State for Civil Aviation Shri Jayant Sinha will deliver the inaugural address.

The conference will also be attended by key Officials including Usha Padhee, Joint Secretary from the Ministry of Civil Aviation; Captain Atul Chandra and Captain Pankaj Anand, CFOI and Deputy CFOI, respectively from Director General of Civil Aviation and G.K. Chaukiyal, Executive Director (RCS) Airport Authority of India.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Union Cabinet, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, on Wednesday finalised four agreements to be signed with Jordan in the fields of health, customs, manpower and setting up of a fertiliser facility in the Arab nation.

Under the agreement on health and medical science, the countries will seek each other's cooperation in universal health coverage, health system governance, services and IT in health, health research, national health statistics, health finance and health economy, chronic disease control, tobacco control, diagnosis, treatment and medication in tuberculosis, and regulation of pharmaceuticals and medical equipment.

The Memorandum of Understanding on manpower will seek to enable a healthy "administration of contractual employment" and enhancement of "protection and welfare of Indian workers in Jordan".

On "customs matters", the two countries will help each other in "the availability of relevant information for the prevention and investigation of customs offences".

"The agreement is also expected to facilitate trade and ensure efficient clearance of goods traded between the countries," read a government statement.

Another agreement laid the groundwork for "mining and beneficiation" of rock phosphate and MOP (Muriate of phosphate or Potassium chloride, most common potash fertiliser used in agriculture) and "setting up (of) production facility in Jordan for Phosphoric Acid/DAP/NPK Fertilisers with a long term agreement for 100 per cent off-take to India".

"The MoU would ensure consistent supply of raw material, intermediaries and finished P&K fertilisers to cater to the needs of the country at a reasonable price," the statement said.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has arrested an internal chief auditor of Punjab National Bank (PNB) in its ongoing probe into Rs 12,600 crore bank fraud case.

"CBI has on Wednesday arrested an Internal Chief Auditor of Punjab National Bank in an ongoing investigation of the cases related to Nirav Modi group and Gitanjali group," a CBI official said.

The official also said that the arrested auditor has been identified as MK Sharma, Chief Manager rank of PNB.

According to the CBI official, Sharma was allegedly responsible for auditing the systems and practices of PNB, Brady House Branch in Mumbai and report the deficiencies to Zonal Audit Office.

The CBI official also said that Sharma would be produced in a court in Mumbai on Thursday.

Diamond trader Modi and owner of Gitanjali Gems, Mehul Choksi have been accused of defrauding the PNB of Rs 12,600 crore, with Rs 1,300 being added to the fraud kitty on Monday night.

Earlier, the amount stood at Rs 11,300 crore.

The CBI had filed the first FIR in the scam on February 14 against Nirav Modi, his wife Ami, brother Nishal, uncle Choksi and his firms Diamond R US, Solar Exports and Stellar Diamond.

The agency stated that the fraud involved an amount of around Rs 6,400 crore.

Modi, his family and Choksi left the country in early January.

The CBI filed a second FIR on February 15 for Rs 4,886.72 crore fraud against Choksi's Gitanjali Group.

To date, 12 persons have been arrested by the CBI in connection with the case. The Enforcement Directorate has claimed to have attached properties worth Rs 6,000 crore.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Karti Chidambaram, son of former Finance Minister P. Chidambaram was arrested by the CBI from Chennai in connection with its ongoing probe into the INX media case, an official said on Wednesday.

The Central Bureau of Investigation official said that he was arrested from the Chennai airport after he returned from London. He will be brought to Delhi later in the day.

On May 15, 2017, the CBI had registered an FIR against Karti Chidambaram on charges of criminal conspiracy, cheating, accepting gratification by corrupt or illegal means, influencing public servants and criminal misconduct.

Karti Chidambaram allegedly received Rs 3.5 crore from the Mumbai-based INX media, now 9X Media, for helping it get Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) clearance, when it was run by Peter and Indrani Mukerjea, both accused in the Sheena Bora murder case.

The FIR does not mention Chidambaram senior, though it said he cleared the FIPB approval for Rs 4.62 crore Foreign Direct Investment in the firm at an FIPB meeting on May 18, 2007.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Wednesday booked a city-based computer company RP Info Systems and its directors for allegedly defrauding a consortium of 10 banks of Rs 515.15 crore, an official said.

State-run Canara Bank had on Monday lodged a complaint with the investigation agency alleging that the directors of the company -- Shivaji Panja, Kaustuv Ray and Vinay Bafna -- and its Vice President (Finance) Debnath Pal cheated the Banglaore-based lender and nine other consortium member banks to the tune of Rs 515.15 crore.

The CBI had booked the company, which was involved in manufacturing and trading of computers in the name "Chirag" brand, in June 2015 following an IDBI Bank's complaint.

"During 2013, IDBI Bank relinquished their position as consortium leader after the deliberations with RBI (Reserve Bank of India). It is learnt that in the month of December 2013, IDBI Bank lodged a complaint regarding the fraud committed on their bank alone to the CBI and the CBI investigated only the exposure of IDBI Bank," a complaint by Canara Bank said.

The other banks constituting the consortium were the State Bank of India, State Bank of Bikaner and Jaipur, State Bank of Patiala (both now part of the SBI), Union Bank of India, Allahabad Bank, Oriental Bank of Commerce, Central Bank of India, Punjab National Bank and the Federal Bank.

The lender alleged the company had availed bank loans -- which have become non-performing assets (NPAs) now -- from 2012 onwards by submitting fabricated statements.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Aam Aadmi Party on Wednesday attacked the IAS Association and certain civil servants for what it called "illegally making remarks against the Delhi government" that were against civil service conduct rules.

Citing tweets of bureaucrats like Amitabh Kant, Varsha Joshi, and others, AAP leader Ashutosh told the media here: "They have been clearly criticising the Delhi government against rules. Why shouldn't action be taken against them?"

According to the All India Services (Conduct) Rules, 1968, no member of the service can make any statement or fact or opinion, which has the effect of an adverse criticism of any current or recent policy or action of the government or which is capable of embarrassing the relations between the central and state governments.

The bureaucrats statements came in the wake of the alleged attack on Delhi Chief Secretary Anshu Prakash on February 19 night at Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's residence here in the latter's presence.

Ashutosh said the bureaucrats didn't condemn the attack on AAP leaders Imran Hussain and Ashish Khetan at the Delhi Secretariat on Tuesday when the Chief Secretary made the attack allegation. "Has any of the senior officers condemned that?" he asked.

Last week, the IAS Association said its members will not meet or talk to Ministers or AAP MLAs till Kejriwal apologised for the alleged attack on Anshu Prakash.

The top bureaucrat was allegedly assaulted by AAP MLAs Amanatullah Khan and Prakash Jarwal.

The AAP leader said the assault case is pending in court and the two accused MLAs are in judicial custody. "Let the court decide. Why aren't these officers working? Under whose influence are they shirking their duties?

Pointing out that bureaucrats have been holding press conferences at the Delhi Secretariat, Ashutosh said government offices are meant for work and not making political statements.

Hinting at the Bharatiya Janata Party's hand in the IAS Association's protest, Ashutosh demanded that the call details of the senior bureaucrats be made public.

The calls should be analysed to find out who is influencing them to go against the state government, he said.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Union Women and Child Development Minister Maneka Gandhi on Wednesday said that although she does not know how "illegal" brothels are running in the Capital and elsewhere in India, but a new legislation her Ministry is bringing would help address the issue.

Terming the 'Trafficking of Persons (Prevention, Protection and Rehabilitation) Bill, 2018' - cleared by the Union Cabinet on Wednesday - as "one of the best piece of laws in the world on human trafficking", Maneka Gandhi said it would plug the loopholes in earlier anti-trafficking laws and help tackle the menace of human trafficking as also the festering issue of illegal brothels by equipping the law enforcement agencies with more ammunition.

The Minister pointed out that the Immoral Traffic Prevention Act (ITPA), 1956, criminalises sexual exploitation or abuse of persons for commercial purposes but it neither legalises nor criminalises the sex trade, if taken up with free will.

As per the new Bill, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) would also act as the Anti-Trafficking Bureau and the NIA Act is being amended separately for the purpose, she said.

The Bill provides stringent punishment (upto 7-10 years of imprisonment) for buying or selling any person per se (and not just for prostitution, as provided by the existing laws); time bound in-camera trial and repatriation; monetary relief and compensation to the victims and also immunity to the victims in some cases.

She said that the Bill was in conformity with the International Conventions and Protocols on Trafficking (UNTOC).

As per the Bill, the rescued adults would be given an opportunity before the Magistrate if they want to stay in protection homes or go to their native places, she said.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Gerard Moreno's goal in stoppage time gave hosts Espanyol a 1-0 victory here over Real Madrid, whose La Liga woes continue.

The loss on Tuesday leaves the Blancos with 51 points from 26 matches, seven behind second-place Atletico Madrid and 14 fewer than leaders Barcelona. And Barca and Atleti each have a game in hand, reports Efe.

The visitors began confidently and created their first chance just seven minutes into the match, as a Lucas Vazquez cross found Gareth Bale's head and the Welsh international delivered a shot on target - though it was also straight into the hands of Espanyol keeper Diego Lopez.

Real Madrid threatened again twice on successive corners against a home side that struggled to keep their shape or play out of their own end until the 26th minute, when Moreno found himself alone with ball in front of Blancos keeper Keylor Navas, who managed to stick out his leg in time to send the shot wide.

Moreno thought he had scored on the next sequence of play, but the goal was disallowed on a controversial offside call.

Espanyol delivered some excitement early in the second half, as Navas was forced to deflect a strike from Sergio Garcia for a corner and got help from the cross-bar with a header by Oscar Duarte.

The match then settled into a period with no clear opportunities for either team.

Navas stopped a Moreno header in the 77th minute and Garcia's effort from outside the 18-yard box failed to hit the mark.

Both teams pressed forward in the closing minutes and the match was up for grabs, but Moreno finally got a reward for his persistence, surprising Navas in the 93rd minute to secure the three points for Espanyol, who climb to 13th place.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)A retired judge of the Supreme Court Justice S. Ratnavel Pandian died here on Wednesday. He was 89.

He died due age-related problems, a family member said. His last rites are to be held on Friday here.

Pandian's son R. Subbiah is a sitting judge of the Madras High Court.

Born on February 13, 1929, at Thiruppudaimarudhur village in Tirunelveli district, Pandian graduated from St. Xavier's College in Palayamkottai.

He passed his law exams from Madras Law College in 1954 and was appointed as the Public Prosecutor in the Madras High Court 1972. He was elevated as a judge in 1974.

He acted as the Chief Justice of Madras High Court for a brief period in 1988.

Later that year he became a judge of the Supreme Court. He demitted office in 1994. Subsequently, he headed the Fifth Pay Commission for central government employees and was appointed the Chairman of the National Commission for Backward Classes in 2006.

Before being elevated to the High Court Bench, Pandian was General secretary of the DMK of the undivided Tirunelveli district in Tamil Nadu.

DMK leader M.K.Stalin in a statement said as member of the Constitution Bench, Pandian gave the historic judgement upholding the central government's decision to provide 27 per cent reservation in jobs for backward communities.

Stalin said Pandian was instrumental in getting the National Commission for Backward Classes the status of a Constitutional body.

PMK leader S. Ramadoss in his condolence message said Pandian rose to become a judge of the apex court from being a lawyer and a office bearer in the DMK party.

Ramadoss said many a judgement delivered by Justice Pandian as a judge of Supreme Court were very important.

The PMK leader said as the head of the Fifth Pay Commission Justice Pandian sorted out the differences in the central government's pay scales.

MDMK leader Vaiko also condoled the death of Justice Pandian.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)A magnitude-6 earthquake shook the interior of Papua New Guinea on Wednesday, two days after another magnitude-7.5 earthquake in the same region caused landslides that left at least 31 people dead and another 300 injured.

The US Geological Survey (USGS), which records seismic activity around the world, placed the hypocenter of the earthquake at a depth of 10 km and its epicentre at 90 km from Mendi, the provincial capital of the Southern Highlands Province.

At least 13 people were killed in Mendi after the first earthquake and another 18 in the regions of Kutuku and Bosave.

The police said that up to 400,000 people in four provinces had been affected by the quakes, which hit the region early Monday.

The Ok Tedi Mine and ExxonMobil-operated gas conditioning plant in Hides gas field, Hela Province, had been shut down as a precautionary measure to assess possible damage to the facilities.

The country is located on the so-called Pacific Ring of Fire, an area of intense seismic and volcanic activity due to friction between tectonic plates.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)A special court here on Wednesday acquitted 44-year-old Ashok Kumar, the bus conductor of a private school where a Class 2 student was murdered in September last year.

Kumar was arrested as the main accused in the case but the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) gave him a clean chit in its primary chargesheet filed in the court on February 5.

The Special Children Court of Additional Sessions Judge Jasbir Singh Kundu acquitted Kumar and ordered to merge the FIRs by police and the CBI. It asked that the final chargesheet be filed by April 10.

Two officials of the school -- Francis Thomas and Jayesh Thomas -- booked under section 75 of the Juvenile Justice Act for negligence in the safety and security of children in the school were also directed to appear before the court on April 10. They are currently out on bail.

On September 8, Kumar was arrested and booked under section 302 (murder) of the Indian Penal Code, 25 of Arms Act and 12 of Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act for allegedly brutally murdering the seven-year-old student in the washroom of the school in Bhondsi on Sohna road.

The case was handed over to the CBI on September 22. It did not find any evidence against Kumar and on November 8, took a Class 11 student (nearly 17 years old) into custody.

Kumar got bail on November 21.

CBI officials said the accused murdered the boy just to defer a unit test and a scheduled parent-teacher meeting.

The Gurugram Juvenile Justice Board on December 20 ordered that the accused, who is in an observation home in Faridabad in Haryana, be tried as an adult.

Earlier, the court had barred the media from using the name of the 17-year-old accused in the case and asked it to use fictitious names instead.

While the victim was named "Prince" by the court, the juvenile accused was named "Bholu" and the private school in Bhondsi was referred to as "Vidyalaya".

A bail plea for the minor accused was rejected on January 8.

The court also slapped a Rs 21,000 fine on the defence for filing "unnecessary" applications and "wasting the time" of the court.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)His salary is "less than that of an Indian postman", but it is his task to communicate his community's desire for liberty across the globe. And Lobsang Sangay, the 49-year-old Central Tibetan Administration (CTA) President, has a packed agenda, including convincing Beijing to have dialogue with the Tibetans on their rights.

"The current year is a year to engage, educate and empower ourselves and the movement," the political successor to the Dalai Lama, the Nobel laureate and global face of the Tibetan movement, told IANS in an interview here. It is also significant as March 31 will mark the beginning of the 60th year of the Dalai Lama stepping on Indian soil.

Though he has returned to his second home where he was born and brought up after spending 15 years at Harvard University, the financial constraints don't really matter.

"I am getting a salary less than an Indian postman," Sangay told IANS.

"I am here to lead a movement that campaigns globally for rights of my brothers and sisters, both in exile and Tibet," said the democratically-elected CTA President -- a position often referred to as Prime Minister of the Tibetan government-in-exile

Sixty years ago, some 80,000 Tibetans, along with their spiritual leader the Dalai Lama, left Lhasa after a failed uprising against Communist rule over Tibet and fled to India. The Tibetan exile administration, called the CTA, is based in this northern Indian hill town, where the spiritual leader also lives.

Sangay, who normally dons a achuba -- a loose cloak worn by both Tibetan men and women -- believes education is the most potent and realistic investment and a tool.

He took the oath of office for his second consecutive term in May 2016. China, however, doesn't recognise his government-in-exile and hasn't held any talks with the Dalai Lama's envoys since January 2010 to resolve the Tibetan issue.

"In the past six-and-a-half years, I have been to almost all the Tibetan settlements across India, North America and Europe. Our basic purpose is to educate our younger generation -- the more skilfully we educate them, the more successfully we will develop strong foundations for the future," Sangay said.

With the Dalai Lama stepping down from diplomacy and active politics, the elected leader of Tibetan people, also known as Sikyong, has acquired added stature.

Sangay normally attends office daily from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. After finishing his work, he informally interacts with the local Tibetan communities from his two-bedroom apartment here. His cabinet meets twice a week -- every Tuesday and Friday, even in his absence.

Born in 1968 in India, Sangay pursues the Dalai Lama's advocacy of genuine autonomy for the people of Tibet.

"We do believe in the middle-way approach that international leaders and even many Chinese intellectuals support," he said. "As long as human rights violations continue, there will be resistance from our people in Tibet."

"I hope China will accept dialogue as the only way to resolve the issue peacefully".

The Tibetan administration is launching a round-the-year campaign in India on March 17 from Arunachal Pradesh to reach out to the Indian community through "Thank You India" events.

The spiritual leader entered India on March 31, 1959, through Arunachal Pradesh, along with his followers.

"It also marks 60 years of Tibet under China which is a sad and tragic chapter of Tibet's history. However, the last 60 years of the Tibetan community in exile has also been a story of success," Sangay said.

He jokingly referred the Tibetan movement as "the first and original product of India's 'Make in India' initiative".

Expressing gratitude, he said: "His Holiness the Dalai Lama calls himself as a 'son of India' because he has survived on the nutritious Indian dal-roti and also because his mind is filled with the rich knowledge of ancient India."

Around 140,000 Tibetans now live in exile, over 100,000 of them in different parts of India. Over six million Tibetans live in Tibet.

(Vishal Gulati can be contacted atAvishal.g@ians.in)

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)A meeting of the Indo-Russian inter-governmental committee on military-technical co-operation, which is currently underway in Goa, discussed issues related to speedy support mechanisms for aircraft carrier Vikramaditya, said a statement issued by the Indian Navy on Wednesday.

The statement also said they discussed about the refits of EKM Submarines and enhancing the reliability of aircraft and missile systems on-board other ships and submarines.

"The two sides discussed a number of aspects related to enhancing operational availability and life cycle support of the naval acquisitions from Russia. Notably, the sides deliberated mechanisms for speedy support of aircraft carrier Vikramaditya, refits of EKM Submarines and enhancing the reliability of aircrafts and missile systems on-board ships and submarines," the official statement said.

The statement also said that the four-day meet, which concludes on March 1, is being chaired by senior officials from the two navies, including Vice Admiral G.S. Pabby from the Indian Navy and Vice Admiral V.I. Bursuk from the Russian Navy. It was attended by 65 original equipment manufacturers from Russia which "facilitated direct interaction on various technical issues between the departments of Indian Navy and the Russian OEMs".

"The committee is a forum to discuss various aspects related to acquisition and product support of military equipment on-board Indian naval ships, submarines, and aircraft acquired from Russia. The Russian delegation comprised of more than 120 delegates representing the Russian Navy, Russian government departments and other directors and senior representatives of the Russian industry," the statement said.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The "synergies" that he sees between Jordan and India, and the consequent "opening of opportunities" bilaterally, during his ongoing visit to India prompted King Abdullah II to say on Wednesday that he looks forward to making such visits to the country an annual affair.

Addressing the India-Jordan business Forum here organised by industry chambers Ficci, Assocham and CII, the King of Jordan, whose last state visit to India took place in 2006, also said he hoped that the current visit would herald a new start to the historic relationship between the two countries.

"Jordan is situated with the opportunity with not only the free trade agreements for North America but Europe, the Middle East and the new development of our opening relationship with East Africa has opportunities for many people," said the King, whose delegation includes representatives of over 50 Jordanian companies.

Jordan, which has traditionally been the major source of phosphates and fertilisers for India, now offers major opportunities for collaboration with its IT and ITes sectors, he said.

Abdullah II also made a reference to the challenges that his country faces owing to the widespread political instability in the Middle East.

"We have many challenges ahead of us, as was alluded to with the instability that the world has given us.

"Unfortunately, with difficult people that we have to deal with, it is more important that people of different cultures and different backgrounds energise each other and come closer together," he said.

On the occasion of the state visit, Jordan has announced visa on arrival facility for Indians and the formal visa waiver agreement will be signed between the King and Prime Minister Narendra Modi after bilateral talks on Thursday.

In this connection, The King said that he had asked the Indian Ambassador in Amman to convey any challenges faced by Indians who are willing to come to Jordan.

"We will personally look into it to make sure that the smoothest welcome is given to our Indian compatriots," he said.

Addressing the forum earlier, Indian Commerce Minister Suresh Prabhu thanked the King for Jordan being a key part of India's food security programme through its fertiliser exports over many years.

Modi on Tuesday broke protocol and received the Jordanian King, who arrived here on a three-day state visit, at the airport. Earlier this month, King Abdullah hosted Modi at his residence in Amman.

India-Jordan trade stood at $1.35 billion in 2016-17, according to figures provided by the Indian External Affairs Ministry.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Jayendra Saraswati, who broad based the activities of the Sankara Mutt with inclusive activities, died here on Wednesday in a private hospital. He was 82.

The 69th pontiff of the Mutt, established by Adi Shankaracharya in the 8th century, was ailing for quite some time. He was admitted to a private hospital here early on Wednesday after he complained of breathlessness.

Doctors said the pontiff died following cardiac arrest. His last rites will be conducted on Thursday and his body will be interred in the Mutt premises itself in accordance with traditions followed for Hindu seers.

The mortal remains of Jayendra Saraswati were kept at the Nandavanam in Kanchi mutt for devotees to offer their prayers.

He would be given 'maha samadhi' at the Nandavanam, near the Chandrasekarendra Sarawathi Swami's. Meanwhile, junior pontiff Vijayendra Sarawati was elevated and given the charge of heading the mutt.

Born Subramaniyam Mahadevan on July 18, 1935, in Irulneekki in erstwhile Thanjavur district, Jayendra Saraswathi was anointed successor to the Mutt by Sri Chandrasekarendra Saraswati Swamigal and was given the title Sri Jayendra Saraswati on March 22, 1954.

Jayendra Saraswati had a huge following in South India and had sought to play the role of a mediator in the Ram Janmabhoomi dispute during the BJP governments headed by Atal Bihari Vajpayee between 1998 and 2004.

He was also mired in controversy when he was arrested in 2004 during the regime of late J. Jayalalithaa and made an accused in the murder of Sankararaman, an official of the famous Varadharaja Perumal Temple in Kanchipuram.

He, along with junior pontiff of the Mutt Vijayendra Saraswati and 21 others, was acquitted by a court in 2013 in neighbouring Puducherry where the case was transferred from Tamil Nadu.

Another controversy in which he was involved was in August 1987 when Jayendra Saraswati suddenly decided to leave the mutt. After spending 17 days in Tala Cauvery in Kodagu in Karnataka, he returned to the Mutt to a warm welcome by thousands of devotees. He then kick-started his social organisation, Jana Kalyan.

Jayendra Saraswati sought to diversify the activities of the Sankara Mutt, which was largely run on orthodox lines for long, by entering into charitable activities. It ran several schools, eye clinics and hospitals.

He had his spiritual tutelage from 'Maha Periyava' Chandrasekarendra Saraswati and travelled the length and breadth of the country with his guru.

In January 1994, when Chandrasekharendra Saraswati attained siddhi, Jayendra Saraswati formally took over as the head of the Kanchi Mutt. There began a spiritual journey that saw several highs and lows for the institution.

As news of his death spread, a pall of gloom decended on the Kanchi mutt with hundreds of his followers thronging the mutt to pay their homage.

A host of national leaders and even political leaders in Tamil Nadu, who had differences with Jayendra Saraswati and the Mutt, condoled his demise.

President Ram Nath Kovind, Vice President M. Venkaiah Naidu and Prime Minister Narendra Modi were among those who expressed their condolences.

Meanwhile, the mortal remains of the seer are kept in the Sankara Mutt in Kanchipuram so that people can pay homage.

Expressing his condolences, President Ram Nath Kovind tweeted: "Sad to hear of the passing of Jayendra Saraswatiji, the Shankaracharya of Kanchi Kamakoti Peetam. Our country has lost a spiritual leader and social reformer of rare eminence. My condolences to his countless disciples and followers."

Prime Minister Modi also shared on the social media an old picture of his with the seer along with a condolence message.

"Deeply anguished by the passing away of Acharya of Sri Kanchi Kamakoti Peetam Jagadguru Pujyashri Jayendra Saraswati Shankaracharya. He will live on in the hearts and minds of lakhs of devotees due to his exemplary service and noblest thoughts. Om Shanti to the departed soul," Modi said.

"Jagadguru Pujyashri Jayendra Saraswathi Shankaracharya was at the forefront of innumerable community service initiatives. He nurtured institutions which transformed the lives of the poor and downtrodden," he added.

Congress President Rahul Gandhi said he was "saddened" to hear about the death of the Kanchi seer.

"I am saddened to hear about the death of Jagadguru Pujyashri Jayendra Saraswati Shankaracharya of the Kanchi Kamakoti Peetham," Gandhi wrote on Twitter.

"He was revered by lakhs of believers all over the world for his teachings. May his soul rest in peace," the Congress President added.

Senior BJP leader and former Union Home Minister L.K. Advani in his condolence message said that he knew the seer closely who played a key role in defusing acrimony between the Hindu and Muslim communities over the Babri Masjid dispute.

"I had the privilege of knowing Jayendra Saraswati Swamiji very closely. Our association became closer during the rule of NDA-I, when I was the Minister of Home Affairs in the government headed by Atal Bihari Vajpayeeji," Advani said in a written message.

"Swamiji proactively initiated a dialogue with various religious and social leaders of the Muslim community to evolve an amicable solution to the Ayodhya dispute. This dialogue helped a lot in promoting mutual trust and goodwill between Hindu and Muslim communities," he added.

The BJP veteran said he joined millions of devotees of the Kanchi Kamakoti Mutt in "offering prayers to the Almighty and in seeking peace to the departed soul".

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said: "Deeply saddened by the demise of Jayendra Saraswatiji, the Shankaracharya of the Kanchipuram Kamakoti Peetam math. With his demise we have lost a great saint of present times, who has been a guiding force for the millions. My prayers for the liberated soul."

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee tweeted: "Saddened at the Mahasamadhi of Kanchi Acharya Pujya Jayendra Saraswatiji."

Tamil Nadu Governor Banwarilal Purohit and leaders of political parties on Wednesday expressed their condolences.

In a statement, Purohit said: "Yesterday only I have met him and got blessings of Sankaracharyaji.

"During his period, Jagadguru Sankaracharya had started many schools, eye clinics and hospital, Childs Trust Hospital, Hindu Mission Hospital, Tamil Nadu Hospital and other public welfare institutions for the welfare of the society. His death is a great loss to the society particularly to his followers," he added.

Former Union Minister and PMK leader Anbumani Ramadoss said the pontiff had moved well with the people and his death is a great loss to those who are associated with him.

DMK leader M.K.Stalin, in his message, condoled the demise of Sankara Mutt pontiff and conveyed his condolences to those who are close to Jayendra Saraswati.

The Tamil Nadu unit Chief of BJP Tamilisai Soundararajan said the nation has lost a spiritual leader with a nationalist outlook.

She said the seer got down to the ground and worked against the conversion of downtrodden people.

He also set up several educational institutions and hospitals by going beyond the spiritual calling, she said.

The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) condoled the seer's death and said Jayendra Saraswati served for protection of Hindu Dharma, Hindu culture and uplift of Hindu society. It is a great loss not only to Tamil Nadu but also to the entire Hindu society.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)After the last rites of actress Sridevi were completed on Wednesday, her family released an emotional statement thanking all her fans for their support and urged the media to respect their privacy and let them grieve in peace.

Lakhs of people joined film stars and celebrities to bid adieu to the first lady superstar of India, who was cremated here with state honours amid outpouring of grief by her fans.

In a media statement, Kapoor, Marwah and her Ayyaapan family appreciated the support and love they received from her many colleagues and innumerable fans, her caring friends and loving family from across the country and the world.

Remembering Sridevi's undeniable talent, unmatched beauty and her legendary ability to connect with the audience, they said: "This outpouring of love is the memory that we would like Khushi and Janhvi to have of their mother, a woman who was loved unquestionably by everyone."

"To the members of the media, we ask that you respect the privacy of the family and allow us the space to grieve. Sri lived her life with dignity and we implore that you give her the same respect."

Sridevi passed away following an accidental drowning in a bathtub in her hotel room in Dubai around 11 p.m. on February 24.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)A man was shot at by two robbers who attempted to rob him near a bank in Delhi's Connaught Place area on Wednesday, police said.

The incident occurred near Block-A in Connaught Place at around 10.45 a.m.. The victim, identified as Tasveer Singh, was rushed to the RML hospital, where his condition was termed out of danger.

"The persons who attacked him have escaped. We are investigating the case," a police official said.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Praising the Indian Jute Industries' Research Association (IJIRA) for developing low-cost jute-based sanitary napkins, Union Textiles Minister Smriti Irani on Wednesday urged the research organisation to take steps to promote women entrepreneurship.

"Most of the sanitary napkins which are available in the market today have chemical content in it. The fact is that jute has been used to reduce the chemical intervention in the sanitary napkin. The manufacturing of the jute-based napkin can lead to the development of women entrepreneurs," she said.

"I am thrilled to see IJIRA's work in establishing women-centric employment opportunity in the production of the sanitary napkin," she said at the 27th Technological Conference organised by IJIRA.

The Minister requested the Director of IJIRA to give a demonstration to the Ministry of Women and Childcare, Rural Development and other Ministries, which are supporting women entrepreneurs.

The cost of the machinery for manufacturing these jute-based sanitary napkins would be up to about Rs 10 lakh and the potential entrepreneurs can benefit from the Mudra loan scheme of the government, she said.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Minister of State for Higher Education, Satyapal Singh, on Wednesday declined to respond to questions relating to his earlier comment on Isaac Newton's Laws of Motion, which the minister said had been codified by ancient India, much before the scientist did.

According to a news report which attributed the facts to the minutes of Central Advisory Board of (CABE) meeting held last month, where Satyapal Singh reportedly said that the laws of motion were codified earlier in Indian 'mantras'.

"There are mantras which codified 'laws of motion' much before it was discovered by Newton. Hence it is essential that traditional knowledge must be incorporated in our curriculum," the Minister in the Human Resource Development ministry was quoted by the Hindustan Times as having said during the meeting attended by academics and ministry officials to deliberate on policymaking.

When approached by journalists on Wednesday at the Indian National Science Academy (INSA) where he gave a lecture on the National Science Day, Satyapal Singh refused to take any questions on the issue.

Before his comment on Newton, the minister had disparaged Charles Darwin's pioneering work on evolution saying the theory was "scientifically wrong" and advocated for change in the curriculum to reflect that.

In his lecture at the INSA on Wednesday, Satyapal Singh spoke about the need for instilling a scientific temper among students and also of acquainting them with science of "spirituality" so that they could cope better with lifer.

"The other day I was saying... that the number of suicides in Delhi, Mumbai are more than the number of murders. It is science which teaches us the cost of human life. Will science teach us this value of life? It won't happen till we speak about spiritual science. We should be taught science of intellect," the minister said, addressing students and academics from the science community.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday mourned the death of Jayendra Saraswathi, the 69th pontiff of the Sankara Mutt in Kanchipuram in Tamil Nadu.

Saraswathi passed away at a private hospital in Kanchipuram on Wednesday. He was 82. He was ailing for some time and was admitted to the hospital early on Wednesday.

Modi said he was "deeply anguished" by the passing away of the pontiff of the Kanchi Kamakoti Peetham.

"He will live on in the hearts and minds of lakhs of devotees due to his exemplary service and noblest thoughts. Om Shanti to the departed soul," Modi tweeted along with his pictures with the pontiff.

He said that Saraswathi was at the forefront of "innumerable community service initiatives".

"He nurtured institutions which transformed the lives of the poor and downtrodden," Modi said.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Gandhian and anti-corruption crusader has accused prime minister Narendra Modi of not being interested in appointment of the Lokpal at the centre. Having hit the road in the run up to the mega show of strength at the Ramlila Maidan in New Delhi on March 23, the veteran crusader says Modi was "never serious about Lokpal".

The reason behind the delay in appointment of a Lokpal, he points out, is because the prime minister is afraid that once this becomes a reality his office as well as that of his cabinet members would also come under its purview.

"Panth Pradhan ka office bhi Lokpal ke neeche aa jayega, ye bhay unko satata hai" (The PMO will also come under the ambit of Lokpal and his fear stalks the PM), he said during a free wheeling interview with IANS at the VVIP guest house in the state capital.

Sipping hot green tea to fight off the signs of tiredness from his visit to Sitapur, where he addressed a well-attended public rally, the 80-year-old informs that he has written 22 letters to the prime minister in the past four years but has got a reply to even one. Even as chief minister of Gujarat, Modi tried to cold shoulder the appointment of a Lokayukta in the state, he added.

He cites the section 4 clause 2 of the Lokpal Act wherein it is specifically said that in case the appointment of Lokpal is made with some members of the select panel not being there, it is in principle binding. "This government says there is no leader of opposition hence Lokpal cannot be appointed. This is all hogwash," Hazare says

Ask him if graft has come down under the watch of Modi and he smiles. "Wo bolta acche hai, isliye bhrastachaar ki baat chup jaati hai par vaisa hai nahin. Aaj bhi aam aadmi bhrastachar se bahut peedit hai" (He (Modi) is a good orator, hence the issue of graft is overshadowed but the reality is that the common man continues to bear the brunt of graft), he says while pointing out how the entire political system was scared of a full-fledged and effective Lokpal.

Having addressed more than 50 rallies since he started the renewed mission from November 22 last year, Hazare bubbles with energy when one mentions how his 'andolan' in 2011 had spurred the youth of the nation.

He is quick to inform that thousands of volunteers in the movement this time around too are putting in their whole effort so that the nation could be freed from the clutches of corruption. "If the youth gets up, the fate of the nation will change for good" he says while pointing out on how his rallies in Aurnachal Pradesh, Assam, MP, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Karnataka and Haryana in the past few months had garnered immense support of women and the youth.

But how would the movement be different this time round?

"See, the last time we were successful in ensuring that a legislation which was put on the back burner and resisted by the political establishment for so many decades was passed by the parliament. This time we will ensure that it is implemented in letter and spirit, he proclaims as a group of youngsters who have come to meet him and seek his blessings breaks into a spontaneous applause. Broach the name of Arvind Kejriwal and a sadness creases his face. He informs that he had cautioned the Delhi chief minister many a times that he should not "be tempted by power" but he did not pay heed.

Kejriwal, who has many times called Hazare his mentor and guru and he have not spoken for the last many years.

Once bitten twice shy, the octogenarian has now enforced a strict rule that any body who becomes part of the outfit taking forward the anti-graft crusade will have to sign an affidavit promising no role in active Over 5,000 people have already signed it, informs an aide while adding that in case someone breaches the contract, Anna can take the person to court.

Quoting the teachings of eminent Maharashtrian saint Tukaram, Hazare says the greed of power and attachment can be a great road block in national service. "I have not met my biological family for the last 45 years, I lead a simple life, don't even know what my account holds in terms of savings....my only mission is to see this country free of corruption" he muses.

As him if this much traveling doesn't trouble his aging bones and he snaps back with a smile. "At 80, I feel younger than many teenagers. Its all about 'mann' (mind and heart)" he says while pointing out how his meals are simple and fast food like burgers are strictly out.

He informs that his day starts with pranayam, followed by sprouts as breakfast and two phulka (roti) and vegetables for lunch. There is no dinner, only fresh fruit juice. He vows that "till mylast breath" he will continue his struggle against graft and that he is very optimistic that the 'Jan Sansad' (peoples' parliament) will make this happen.

(Mohit Dubey can be contacted at mohit.d@ians.in)

--IANS

md/hs

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Gandhian and anti-corruption crusader has accused prime minister Narendra Modi of not being interested in appointment of the Lokpal at the centre. Having hit the road in the run up to the mega show of strength at the Ramlila Maidan in New Delhi on March 23, the veteran crusader Anna Hazare says Modi was "never serious about Lokpal".

The reason behind the delay in appointment of a Lokpal, he points out, is because the prime minister is afraid that once this becomes a reality his office as well as that of his cabinet members would also come under its purview.

"Panth Pradhan ka office bhi Lokpal ke neeche aa jayega, ye bhay unko satata hai" (The PMO will also come under the ambit of Lokpal and his fear stalks the PM), Hazare said during a free wheeling interview with IANS at the VVIP guest house in the state capital.

Sipping hot green tea to fight off the signs of tiredness from his visit to Sitapur, where he addressed a well-attended public rally, the 80-year-old informs that he has written 22 letters to the prime minister in the past four years but has got a reply to even one. Even as chief minister of Gujarat, Modi tried to cold shoulder the appointment of a Lokayukta in the state, he added.

He cites the section 4 clause 2 of the Lokpal Act wherein it is specifically said that in case the appointment of Lokpal is made with some members of the select panel not being there, it is in principle binding. "This government says there is no leader of opposition hence Lokpal cannot be appointed. This is all hogwash," Hazare says

Ask him if graft has come down under the watch of Modi and he smiles. "Wo bolta acche hai, isliye bhrastachaar ki baat chup jaati hai par vaisa hai nahin. Aaj bhi aam aadmi bhrastachar se bahut peedit hai" (He (Modi) is a good orator, hence the issue of graft is overshadowed but the reality is that the common man continues to bear the brunt of graft), he says while pointing out how the entire political system was scared of a full-fledged and effective Lokpal.

Having addressed more than 50 rallies since he started the renewed mission from November 22 last year, Hazare bubbles with energy when one mentions how his 'andolan' in 2011 had spurred the youth of the nation.

He is quick to inform that thousands of volunteers in the movement this time around too are putting in their whole effort so that the nation could be freed from the clutches of corruption. "If the youth gets up, the fate of the nation will change for good" he says while pointing out on how his rallies in Aurnachal Pradesh, Assam, MP, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Karnataka and Haryana in the past few months had garnered immense support of women and the youth.

But how would the movement be different this time round?

"See, the last time we were successful in ensuring that a legislation which was put on the back burner and resisted by the political establishment for so many decades was passed by the parliament. This time we will ensure that it is implemented in letter and spirit, he proclaims as a group of youngsters who have come to meet him and seek his blessings breaks into a spontaneous applause. Broach the name of Arvind Kejriwal and a sadness creases his face. He informs that he had cautioned the Delhi chief minister many a times that he should not "be tempted by power" but he did not pay heed.

Kejriwal, who has many times called Hazare his mentor and guru and he have not spoken for the last many years.

Once bitten twice shy, the octogenarian has now enforced a strict rule that any body who becomes part of the outfit taking forward the anti-graft crusade will have to sign an affidavit promising no role in active Over 5,000 people have already signed it, informs an aide while adding that in case someone breaches the contract, Anna can take the person to court.

Quoting the teachings of eminent Maharashtrian saint Tukaram, Hazare says the greed of power and attachment can be a great road block in national service. "I have not met my biological family for the last 45 years, I lead a simple life, don't even know what my account holds in terms of savings....my only mission is to see this country free of corruption" he muses.

As him if this much traveling doesn't trouble his aging bones and he snaps back with a smile. "At 80, I feel younger than many teenagers. Its all about 'mann' (mind and heart)" he says while pointing out how his meals are simple and fast food like burgers are strictly out.

He informs that his day starts with pranayam, followed by sprouts as breakfast and two phulka (roti) and vegetables for lunch. There is no dinner, only fresh fruit juice. He vows that "till mylast breath" he will continue his struggle against graft and that he is very optimistic that the 'Jan Sansad' (peoples' parliament) will make this happen.

(Mohit Dubey can be contacted at mohit.d@ians.in)

--IANS

md/hs

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Wednesday said there is a great need to evolve India into an insured society and to provide income security and pension facility to its senior citizens.

Speaking at the fourth Annual Pension Conference here, the Finance Minister said there was a need to provide for old-age income security and pension facility to the citizens in view of the evolving demographic profile, changing socio-economic structure and limitations on the fiscal resources.

He added that dependency of senior citizens was a grave challenge for the society and that it could be met with evolution of concept of pension and its expansion.

During the event, Jaitley also inaugurated the Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority's (PFRDA) website on financial literacy and pension planning.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)In another administrative reshuffle, nine including six district police chiefs were shifted by the government late on Monday night.

According to an official release, SSP Meerut, Ajay Sahni has been shifted to Jaunpur in the same capacity, while SP, Jaunpur, Raj Karan Nayyar, was shifted in the same capacity to DGP headquarters.

Similarly, Moradabad SSP Prabhakar Chaudhary was given the charge of Meerut SSP while Pawan Kumar who was on waiting list, has been posted as new Moradabad SSP.

PAC commandant Agra, Poonam is the new Amroha SP, while Amroha SP Suniti has been shifted to DGP headquarters in Lucknow.

SP, Kaushambhi Abhinandan is the new SP of Banda, while SP, Banda Siddharth Meena is now SP, Railways in Prayagraj. SP, rules and manuals, Radhe Shyam is the new SP, Kaushambhi.

--IANS

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(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The government on Wednesday rejected Congress party's allegation of vendetta in the arrest of Karti Chidambaram and said that the law is taking its course.

"The law is taking its course and the law must take its course. The CBI will explain all details. The government has no hand in the issue," Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad told the media when asked about the Congress charge after Karti's arrest in a case related to INX Media.

He said in such cases, issues are raised but evidence available against the accused speaks for themselves and not the alibis of the offender.

--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 on Wednesday said it had nothing to do with the presence of Jaspal Atwal, convicted for an attempt on life of then Punjab Minister Malkiat Singh Sidhu, at an event hosted by the Canadian High Commissioner in Mumbai and any suggestion to the contrary is "unacceptable and baseless".

External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Raveesh Kumar made the remarks in response to a media query after reports that Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau had stood by a senior government official who floated the theory that "rogue political factions" in the Indian establishment "orchestrated" the embarrassing invitation to Atwal to make the Canadian government appear sympathetic to Sikh extremism.

"We have seen the exchange in Canadian Parliament on the two invitations issued to Jaspal Atwal by the Canadian High Commissioner, for functions hosted in honour of the then visiting Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to India.

"Let me categorically state that the government of India, including security agencies, had nothing to do with the presence of Jaspal Atwal at the event hosted by the Canadian High Commissioner in Mumbai or the invitation issued to him for the Canadian High Commissioner's reception in New Delhi. Any suggestion to the contrary is baseless and unacceptable," External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Raveesh Kumar told the media here.

The invitation to Atwal for the Delhi reception was later rescinded.

Atwal was convicted in the attempt on the life of Punjab Minister Malkiat Singh Sidhu in 1986 when he was visiting relatives in Canada. Atwal was also charged -- but not convicted -- in the 1985 attack on Ujjal Dosanjh, who later became British Columbia premier and a federal Liberal Cabinet minister.

The Canadian media had reported that Trudeau stood by the senior government official regarding his remarks on the embarrasing invitation to Atwal.

The Opposition in Canada hit out at Trudeau in Parliament on Tuesday -- his first since his India trip -- over how Atwal was invited to the reception at Canadian High Commissioner Nadir Patel's residence in New Delhi.

Trudeau responded by saying: "When one of our top diplomats and security officials says something to the Canadians, it's because they know it to be true."

In a background briefing arranged by the Canadian Prime Minister's Office, a senior government official last week suggested that Atwal's presence "was arranged by factions within the Indian government".

The Canadian media identified the official as Trudeau's National Security Adviser Daniel Jean. The opposition pressed Trudeau to say whether he agreed with Jean's "conspiracy theory".

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday reviewed the progress of several projects and the implementation of government schemes through PRAGATI - the ICT-based, multi-modal platform for Pro-Active Governance and Timely Implementation.

Modi chaired his 24th interaction through PRAGATI, during which reconstruction work at Kedarnath in Uttarakhand was among the projects reviewed.

"The first 23 meetings of PRAGATI have seen a cumulative review of 208 projects with a total investment of Rs 9.46 lakh crore. Resolution of public grievances has also been reviewed in 17 sectors," a statement from the Prime Minister's Office said.

"In the 24th meeting on Wednesday, the Prime Minister reviewed the progress of the Kedarnath reconstruction work. The state government presented the progress in work through drone imagery," it added.

The Prime Minister also reviewed the progress towards handling and resolution of grievances related to Delhi Police. He stressed on the importance of improving the quality of disposal of grievances, read the PMO statement.

"The Prime Minister reviewed the progress of 10 infrastructure projects in railway, road, power, petroleum and coal sectors, spread over several states, including Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, and Kerala," it added.

These projects are worth over Rs 40,000 crore.

The statement said Modi also reviewed the progress in the implementation of the Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana and the Pradhan Mantri Matri Vandana Yojana.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)President Ram Nath Kovind, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Congress President Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday condoled the demise of Jayendra Saraswathi, the 69th pontiff of the Sankara Mutt Kanchipuram in Tamil Nadu.

Expressing his condolences, President Kovind wrote on Twitter: "Sad to hear of the passing of Jayendra Saraswatiji, the Shankaracharya of Kanchi Kamakoti Peetam. Our country has lost a spiritual leader and social reformer of rare eminence. My condolences to his countless disciples and followers."

Prime Minister Modi also shared on social media an old picture of his with the seer along with a condolence message.

"Deeply anguished by the passing away of Acharya of Sri Kanchi Kamakoti Peetam Jagadguru Pujyashri Jayendra Saraswathi Shankaracharya. He will live on in the hearts and minds of lakhs of devotees due to his exemplary service and noblest thoughts. Om Shanti to the departed soul," Modi said.

"Jagadguru Pujyashri Jayendra Saraswathi Shankaracharya was at the forefront of innumerable community service initiatives. He nurtured institutions which transformed the lives of the poor and downtrodden," he added.

Rahul Gandhi said he was "saddened" to hear about the death of the Kanchi seer.

"I am saddened to hear about the death of Jagadguru Pujyashri Jayendra Saraswathi Shankaracharya of the Kanchi Kamakoti Peetham," Gandhi wrote on Twitter.

"He was revered by lakhs of believers all over the world for his teachings. May his soul rest in peace," the Congress President added.

Senior BJP leader and former Union Home Minister L.K. Advani in his condolence message said that he knew the seer closely who played a key role in defusing acrimony between the Hindu and Muslim communities over the Babri Masjid dispute.

"I had the privilege of knowing Jayendra Saraswathi Swami ji very closely. Our association became closer during the rule of NDA-I, when I was the Minister of Home Affairs in the government headed by Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee ji," Advani said in a written message.

"Swami ji proactively initiated a dialogue with various religious and social leaders of the Muslim community to evolve an amicable solution to the Ayodhya dispute. This dialogue helped a lot in promoting mutual trust and goodwill between Hindu and Muslim communities," he added.

The BJP veteran said he joined millions of devotees of the Kanchi Kamakoti Mutt in "offering prayers to the Almighty and in seeking peace to the departed soul".

Saraswathi, the 69th pontiff of the Sankara Mutt in Kanchipuram passed away in Kanchipuram in a private hospital where he was admitted early on Wednesday. The 82-year-old pontiff was ailing for some time.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The BJP's Rajasthan unit will extend invitations to people for Prime Minister Narendra Modi's March 8 rally in Jhunjhunu by offering them yellow rice, considered auspicious, an official said here on Wednesday.

In a meeting here, state Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)'s Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao cell President Meena Asopa urged all members to attend the Prime Minister's rally.

Cell's co-chief Ashish Gupta said a state-level meeting will be organised in Sikar and Jhunjhunu on March 4.

Besides, a vehicle rally will be taken out on March 7 in Jhunjhunu where people will be invited for Modi's rally by giving them "peele chaval" (yellow coloured rice).

Asopa directed the members concerned to organise programmes such as painting, vehicle rally, cooking and debates that portray the message of Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Russia on Wednesday called on Syrian rebels to heed the five-hour daily truce in the rebel-held enclave of Eastern Ghouta, after at least 500 people were killed in over a week of intense bombing by the Syrian government and its allies in the besieged area outside the capital Damascus.

Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov made these remarks while addressing the 37th session of the UN Human Rights Council, following Monday's call by Russia - which backs the Syrian government - for a pause in fighting from 9 a.m .to 2 p.m. each day to allow civilians to leave Eastern Ghouta, Efe reported.

"Russia, alongside the Syrian government, has already announced humanitarian corridors in Eastern Ghouta. Now it is time for the rebels to act," he said.

He pointed out that Saturday's UN Security Council resolution approving a 30-day ceasefire across Syria was the basis for an agreement to end the suffering of the UN-estimated 400,000 civilians trapped in Eastern Ghouta, which has been under siege by the Syrian government since 2014.

However, he claimed that opposition militias and extremist groups controlling Eastern Ghouta had blocked civilian evacuations and aid distribution, and continued to carry out attacks on Damascus.

Addressing reporters after the session, Lavrov questioned whether rebel groups would allow humanitarian aid to be distributed in Eastern Ghouta.

Lavrov said Russia is set to continue supporting the Syrian army until they eliminate the "terror threat."

He also called on the United States-led international coalition to back the ceasefire.

"We demand the members of the so-called American coalition to secure the same humanitarian access to the localities they control," he added.

Later on, Lavrov discussed the need to advance the peace process with the UN special envoy for Syria, Staffan de Mistura.

"We discussed what happened since the Sochi conference, and de Mistura stressed the importance of that meeting to consolidate the bases so he can re-launch negotiations," Lavrov added.

The Russian resort town of Sochi hosted a Russian-organised conference last month in a bid to resume the peace process.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)With 21 per cent market share, Samsung retained the top spot in the 4G LTE device shipments in 2017 while Chinese handset maker Xiaomi stood second with 18 per cent share, market research firm CyberMedia Research (CMR) said on Wednesday.

The 4G LTE shipments in India grew 80 per cent in 2017 Year-on-Year (YoY), with total shipments reaching 148.3 million units, according to CMR's annual "4G LTE Devices India Market Review" report.

"In 2017, Chinese brands grew aggressively with 143 per cent sequential growth, thereby, contributing to one in every 2 4G LTE device shipped in India," Prabhu Ram, Head-Industry Intelligence Group, CMR, said in a statement.

"The Chinese success story can be traced to their keen and clear understanding of the needs of the discerning Indian customers, and offering them, with the latest specs at affordable prices," Ram added.

Reliance Retail's smartphone brand LYF was the only domestic brand among the top three 4G LTE mobile handsets makers with 14 per cent market share.

"Reliance Jio's JioFi devices shook the 4G data card market in CY2017, contributing to extraordinary availability of LTE. On the back of Reliance Jio, 4G in India will continue to grow in an upward trajectory, with India becoming a fully-developed 4G nation this year," Prabhu added.

In the tablet category, Lenovo lead the 4G tablet shipments in 2017 and contributed 47 per cent to the total shipments, followed by Samsung with 19 per cent and iBall with 15 per cent shipments.

"(The year) 2018 will further see 4G technology adoption continuing to gain traction in India. This will be largely driven by adoption of 4G smartphones. The recent trend of 4G feature phones, and bundled offerings at the entry-level price band will further see 4G LTE device shipments grow," said Narinder Kumar, Lead Analyst, CMR.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Pitching for diversification of jute products, Union Textiles Minister Smriti Irani on Wednesday said there is a need to look at the potential of jute for the building of smart cities and infrastructure.

"Today, when we talk about diversification of jute products, we look at not only card holder, shopping bag, etc., but also look at the potential of jute for building of smart cities and infrastructure," she said at the 27th Technological Conference organised by the Indian Jute Industries' Research Association (IJIRA).

According to her, the industry stands at Rs 10,000 crore at valuation but has a huge potential to grow.

Emphasising on the need for research and development in geo-textiles, she said the scientific data can infuse confidence in industry partners and ministries like Road Transport and also provide enough impetus to include geo-textiles for building infrastructure.

With the intervention of IJIRA's 'Subhra', a biochemical formulation, the industry has seen the faster jute retting process and the labour intensity for retting has come down to 7-10 days, Irani said.

Along with the reducing number of manhours in the retting process, the formulation ensured the grade of jute output has increased by 1-1.5 times, she said.

She also touched upon the need for improvement of quality raw jute.

"We are the biggest producer of jute. But why would not we compete at the same level with Bangladesh? If you look at the Bangladesh business model, they have diversified jute products," she said.

Speaking at an interactive session here on Tuesday late evening, she said, "On the Indian Jute Industry, why would not you diversify in terms of product range as much as Bangladesh does? The industry said the problem begins with the quality of raw jute."

According to Irani, jute has been used for the building of roads and studies have validated the life-span of the roads increases with the use of jute materials. The golden fibre has also been effective in checking soil erosion.

"We need to emphasise on jute to be used for purposes of building infrastructure purposes, like roads and river embankment," she said.

In 2017-18 for the minimum support price operation, the Jute Corporation of India has spent Rs 46.78 crore till now.

The Ministry has a scheme for promoting the use of geo-textiles in the northeast and has sanctioned close to Rs 427 crore especially for this initiative, she said.

Irani also said she was in favour of standardisation of technical textiles.

"Our definition of technical textiles varies from the international definition. Hence, I have asked industry associations to come up with definition, parameters which are applicable and acceptable internationally.

"When we talk about influencing the global markets, your standard has to be same with international standard. Then, the acceptability increases," she added.

--IANS

bdc/and/bg

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)For full appraisal of our lives, we must learn science of spirituality, involving soul and intellect, Minister of State of Human Resource Development (HRD) Satyapal Singh said here on Wednesday.

Speaking at the inaugural of National Science Day at the Indian National Science Academy (INSA), Singh expressed gratitude to scientists of the country and spoke for the need for instilling scientific temper among students.

"The other day I was saying... that the number of suicides in Delhi, Mumbai are more than the number of murders. It is the science which teaches us the cost of human life. Will science teach us this value of life? It won't happen till we speak about spiritual science. We should be taught science of intellect," the minister said addressing students and academics from the science community.

"So much science that world is becoming a global village. We are connected to the world but are getting disconnected with ourselves ... We must discuss the science of life... medical science is progressing rapidly. Will we along with it (medicine) discuss science of mind and intellect too?" he said.

The minister said one of the first condition for scientific temper is to "question yourself" and "let others question your belief"

The same minister had last month dubbed Charles Darwin's theory of evolution as "scientifically wrong", and had called for changing Darwin's theory in school and college curriculum as he argued there is no "evidence" that they evolved from apes.

"Our ancestors haven't mentioned anywhere that they ever saw an ape turning into a human being," the minister had then said.

His comments had elicited opposition from scientists across the board and INSA, along with other top two science academies of the country, had issued a statement arguing that implementation of what minister said would be a "retrograde step" and evolution theory was "well established".

National Science Day is celebrated on every February 28 to mark the discovery of 'Raman Effect' by Nobel Prize winning Indian physicist C.V. Raman.

--IANS

vn/nks/dg

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj on Wednesday called on visiting King of Jordan Abdullah II bin Al-Hussein and discussed strengthening of bilateral ties across all sectors.

"Historical links getting stronger!" External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Raveesh Kumar tweeted while saying that Sushma Swaraj called on the visiting dignitary.

"Good conversation on strengthening ties across all sectors, specially in trade and investment, defence and security, tourism and people-to-people exchanges," Kumar said.

On Tuesday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi broke protocol and received King Abdullah -- who arrived here on a three-day state visit to India -- at the airport.

Modi welcomed King Abdullah with a warm hug as he alighted from the aircraft

This is King Abdullah's second visit to India after his visit along with Queen Rania in 2006.

Later on Wednesday, the King will visit IIT Delhi to explore collaboration with Jordan's technical institutes.

He will also participate in a CEO Round-table followed by India-Jordan Business Forum jointly organised by Industry bodies Ficci, CII and Assocham.

King Abdullah will hold talks with Modi on Thursday during the course of which the two sides will discuss the entire gamut of bilateral relations as well as regional and international issues of mutual interest.

President Ram Nath Kovind will host a banquet in honour of the King on Thursday while Vice President M. Venkaiah Naidu will also call on the visiting dignitary.

The King will also deliver a special address on "Promoting Understanding and Moderation", organised by the India Islamic Centre at Vigyan Bhawan.

India-Jordan trade stood at $1.35 billion in 2016-17, according to figures provided by the External Affairs Ministry.

Earlier this month, King Abdullah hosted Modi at his residence in Amman. Jordan had facilitated Modi's transit to Palestine in what was the first ever prime ministerial visit from India to that West Asian nation.

--IANS

ab/dg

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Taliban have kidnapped 25 bus and car passengers, killed five police officers and injured six more on a highway connecting the southern Urozgan and Kandahar provinces of Afghanistan, an official told Efe on Wednesday.

The spokesperson of the governor of Urozgan, Dost Mohammad Nayaab, told Efe that at least 25 people had been kidnapped by the Taliban.

Kandahar Police spokesperson Zia Durranai said the incident occurred when dozens of rebels intercepted cars and buses between the two provinces on Tuesday night.

The kidnapped people include a number of off-duty police officers, he added.

Five police officers were killed and six were injured during a clash between the Taliban and the security forces at a nearby check-post, Durranai said.

The spokesperson said that the Taliban rebels were wearing military uniforms to deceive passengers and security forces and, after kidnapping the passengers, took them to an unknown location between the provinces of Urozgan and Kandahar.

The highway passes through an unsafe region of Urozgan where the Taliban control most of the area.

Afghan President Ashraf Ghani on Wednesday offered to recognize the Taliban as a legitimate political group as part of a proposal to start negotiations to end more than 16 years of conflict.

Ghani's announcement came two days after the insurgent group proposed a direct dialogue with the US, the first offer of its kind made publicly by the militants, who have refused to talk with the Afghan government and the US for years.

Afghanistan is witnessing one its bloodiest periods since the end of the NATO combat mission in 2015.

--IANS

ahm/bg

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Canadian Prime Minister is standing by a senior government official who floated the theory that "rogue political factions" in the Indian establishment "orchestrated" the embarrassing invitation of a convicted Khalistani separatist to a formal dinner in India to make the Canadian government appear sympathetic to Sikh extremism, the media reported.

The Opposition hit Trudeau hard during question period on Tuesday -- his first since his India trip -- over how Jaspal Atwal was invited to the reception at the residence of Canadian High Commissioner Nadir Patel in India, the Post reported.

Atwal was convicted of attempting to assassinate Indian Cabinet minister Malkiat Singh Sidhu in 1986 when he was visiting relatives in Canada. He was also charged -- but not convicted -- in the 1985 attack on Ujjal Dosanjh, who later became British Columbia premier and a federal Liberal Cabinet minister.

In a background briefing arranged by the Prime Minister's Office, a senior government official last week suggested that Atwal's presence "was arranged by factions within the Indian government".

According to the Canadian media, the official was identified as Trudeau's Security Adviser Daniel Jean and the opposition pressed Trudeau to say whether he agreed with Jean's "conspiracy theory".

Trudeau responded by saying: "When one of our top diplomats and security officials says something to Canadians, it's because they know it to be true."

The opposition reasoned that Trudeau must, then, believe that "the Indian government helped sabotage his trip". Trudeau did not stand up to contradict this interpretation.

Conservative MPs pressed Trudeau to provide evidence to back the assertion. "Before our Prime Minister destroys our relationship with our ally, the government and country of India, will he please tell this House what proof he has of that allegation?" asked Tory MP Candice Bergen.

New Democrat MP Charlie Angus asserted that Atwal -- who had been photographed over the years posing with various Liberal MPs, ministers and leaders, including Trudeau himself -- turned up on the trip because his presence was "useful" to local Liberals back in Canada.

And he accused Trudeau of using a senior civil servant to "spin a conspiracy theory that somehow the Indian government is trying to make the Liberals look bad."

Atwal was photographed with Trudeau's wife, Sophie Gregoire Trudeau, and with Infrastructure Minister Amarjeet Sohi at a Mumbai event last week, before the Prime Minister's office said an invitation to a subsequent dinner was flagged and rescinded.

Liberal British Columbia MP Randeep Sarai "took full responsibility" for putting Atwal's name on a list of prospective invites provided to the High Commission, the Canadian Prime Minister said.Dubai, Feb 28 (IANS/WAM) US President Donald Trump and Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al-Nahyan on Wednesday discussed ways to enhance "friendship and cooperation" between the US and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), during a phone call.

"The US President thanked Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al-Nahyan for his leadership role in mobilizing regional and international support in effectively countering the destabilizing activities of Iran, while the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi thanked President Trump for his key role in combating extremism and terrorism," a WAM report said.

The two sides also agreed on the importance of regional cooperation and the role of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) in reducing regional threats and ensuring the economic prosperity of the region.

Founded in 1981, the GCC comprises Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the UAE, Kuwait, Bahrain and Oman.

Last year, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain, and Egypt accused Qatar of "supporting terrorism" and "undermining regional security" by seeking closer ties with Iran.

Qatar strongly denied what it called the "unjustified" and "baseless" accusations.

The standoff, rather than showing any signs of abating, has been exacerbated by Trump's remarks in June that Qatar had funded terrorism "at a very high level".

--IANS/WAM

ahm/bg

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The UN special envoy for Yemen on Tuesday called for the political will of the decision-makers in Yemen to end the war, which has resulted in the world's worst humanitarian crisis.

"Only Yemeni decision-makers are able to stop the war and the bloodshed," Xinhua quoted Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed, UN Secretary-General's special envoy for Yemen, as saying.

He said the parties backed away from a peace proposal at the last minute due to lack of political will.

"I would like to announce, for the first time, that we were about to reach agreement on a peace proposal developed in consultation with the parties, but they refused to sign in the last minute," said Cheikh Ahmed.

"In the end of the consultations, it became clear that the Houthis were not prepared to make concessions on the proposed security arrangements. This has been a major stumbling block toward reaching a negotiated solution," he said.

Decision-makers in this conflict perceive concessions as weakness and dissent as a threat, he noted.

Regrettably they have consistently taken irresponsible and provocative actions, disregarding the daily suffering of Yemenis, he said.

"We do have a peace roadmap for Yemen. The practical suggestions to launch it and build confidence among the parties have been agreed upon. The only part missing is the commitment of parties to make concessions and give priority to the national interests. This is what makes us doubtful of their real intention to end this war," he added.

He called on the parties to cease hostilities, reactivate negotiations, make the culture of coexistence prevail over the language of war so that Yemen becomes a beacon of light in the Middle East and a model for peace and security.

--IANS

sku/

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)With Indian industry calling for adopting hi-tech control systems to check financial frauds, a foreign data protection expert has suggested that blockchain technology is used to prevent scams like the one unearthed in Punjab Bank.

"Blockchain is the underlying technology of Bitcoin (and other cryptocurrencies) which gets its name from the mathematical representations of blocks of transaction data, chained together to guarantee immutability of stored information," Russian born Singaporean businessman, Serguei Beloussov told IANS in an interview.

The Indian government has sounded an alarm likening cryptocurrencies to Ponzi schemes designed to dupe gullible investors. However, experts advise that the technology underlying such cryptocurrencies can be put to good use. The benefits of Blockchain for users include those of "data unmutability, verifiability, security and privacy," Beloussov said.

The Rs 114 billion scam in state-run Punjab Bank (PNB) in the Nirav Modi case involved using Letters of Undertaking (LoUs) which were issued in favour of the accused by bank employees who misused their access to PNB's SWIFT - the electronic messaging system used for overseas funds transfers. None of these fraudulent transactions were registered on the bank's internal transaction messaging system, the Core Banking Solution (CBS), enabling the fraud to go undetected for long.

While standard encryption is applied to messages sent via the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunications (SWIFT), the system is not infallible and is vulnerable to hacking, according to Beloussov, chairman of the Russian Quantum Center (RQC), and Co-founder and Chief Executive of Acronis, a data protection multinational headquartered in Singapore.

A Phd from the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, Beloussov said it was the very success of cryptocurrencies, ironically, that had sidelined blockchain somewhat. "People were thinking that 2017 will be the year of blockchain...that the technology would get decoupled from Bitcoin and would be used everywhere," he said.

He offered the best analogy for the current state of Blockchain as being "the early internet days when the internet was just one of the networks you could use to access information."

Besides cryptocurrencies, Beloussov, pointed to smart contracts as another growing area of blockchain application. "Many blockchain implementations now include smart contracts as part of the platform," he said.

"It allows storing computer code in the blockchain that could act on any digital assets recorded on the platform, verify that specified contractual conditions are met and automatically perform or roll-back transactions with these digital assets," he added.

Blockchain technology allows entrepreneurs to incorporate their businesses on a digital distributed ledger, removing intermediaries in traditional processes and reducing friction, he said.

"In tomorrow's digital world, these assets do not have to be purely monetary. It could be education record and certificates, company structure and governance or simply your digital identity that could be portable between banks and corporations and yet remain private and secure," he said.

Last week, the top industry chambers called for basic changes in the banking sector to prevent scams, including bringing in the latest technology.

"Government, regulators and industry must act fast to address systemic risks in the financial sector. The key solutions for the banking sector are better management and operational efficiencies, use of technology such as blockchain and big data analytics, and lowering government shareholding in public sector banks," Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) President Shobana Kamineni said in a statement earlier.

She noted that "some banks are already deploying artificial intelligence, big data and blockchain technologies to better regulate their operations."

While blockchain secures data with traditional digital signatures, the Russian Quantum Centre (RQC) has taken a step ahead into the future by developing quantum communications or quantum cryptography, to secure systems against the threat posed by quantum computers.

While a normal computer makes calculations sequentially, one at a time, a quantum computer would be able to process information simultaneously, thus making it much more powerful.

Last year, Russia announced the development of the world's first quantum blockchain which allows using a quantum cryptography and quantum data transfer system to protect databases from hacking. RQC says this device will be ready for industrial use by this year.

The quantum-secured blockchain works as a decentralised distribted database to protect against malicious modifications of things like cryptocurrencies and smart contracts.

The technology has already been tested by the RQC in one of Russia's largest banks -- Gazprombank, by creating a three-node quantum network between the branches of the bank in the Moscow region.Can a Facebook-like platform be created in India? The answer is a sad NO. Even though it is not difficult to create a Facebook or an Alibaba as far as the technology or business expertise are concerned. The problem lies elsewhere. Facebook allows free access to everyone including possible terrorists to interface with the world. But in India, if any unlawful chat happens at some local site, the website owner is sure to receive a police call.

End of business. If the US applied these laws, Facebook would be history. But Mr. Zuckerberg does not need to bother. You cannot screen a ...Prime Minister Narendra Modi has not told the "truth" to the opposition about the conversations he has had with the Pakistani leadership and the government's policy vis-a-vis the neighbouring country had reached a "dead end", says former External Affairs Minister

He also feels India is losing its grip on the world in foreign policy and has gone into the US camp with very little returns.

"Our policy on Pakistan is at a dead end. We are losing people every day. We keep saying we are giving it back to them. Years of losing civilians and soldiers and years of saying we are giving it back to them isn't really my idea of a good foreign policy," Khurshid told IANS in an interview.

"Pakistan is a slippery, difficult creature and (dealing with) that is what diplomacy is about," he added.

Khurshid, a senior Congress leader, said it was more than clear that "we do not have a war option with Pakistan".

"So our failure is writ large. We have to find a solution. It is not our job in the opposition to give him a solution unless he consults with us. Unless he asks us what can be done. But this is not something that can be allowed to go on indefinitely," he said.

Asked if the Congress party had any suggestions for the government, he said, "We have no suggestions except that he should first tell us to the truth".

"He has never told us the truth about Pakistan; what he has said to them, what does he do (in) meetings with them, what does he share, what do they promise. He must share with us something before we can tell him what to do," Khurshid said.

The former minister said India has been unable to go "beyond a certain point with our agenda as far as the US is concerned".

"Yes, I certainly think we have gone into the US camp. We have got very little in return. We used to get concrete results from being with the (erstwhile) Soviet Union -- not just with it, but with the rest of the world that was aligned towards socialism. So I think there are major issues there. And we have gone in blind, we haven't calculated properly."

Khurshid, whose latest book "Triple Talaq: Examining Faith" has hit the stands, said India was getting global attention not because of its foreign policy but because of its economic potential.

"Our markets are forcing people to show interest and the Indian diaspora is playing an increasingly important role in the world. These things give us stature.

"This is not the kind of stature we had when India provided leadership to the Third World under (Prime Minister Jawaharlal) Nehru and the comfort India had when the Soviet Union stood strongly with India and India was an exponent of non-alignment," he said.

He said Modi has shown an "enormous amount of energy of salesmanship" and has done a reasonably effective job in this respect because of his oratory.

"I don't think in foreign policy, if you look around the neighbourhood, if you look around West Asia, if you look around Europe, if you look at Africa, I don't think we have a consistently coordinated foreign policy posture that will be appreciated in the world. The way we are jumping from leg to leg on Israel and Palestine, the way we are dealing with China vis-a-vis Japan and China itself, the way we are keeping a very low relationship with Russia," he said.

Khurshid, who was External Affairs Minister in the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government, said India was consulted on major international flashpoints in the past -- but that was no longer the case.

"In the past, nothing moved without India being consulted. Today, in Syria nobody wants to know what India thinks, in Iraq nobody wants to know what India thinks. I think we are losing our grip on the world as far as foreign policy is concerned," he said.The Congress today labelled the arrest of senior leader P Chidambaram's son vendettaand a diversionary tactic by the Modi government to hide its scams and "mal-governance".

Karti Chidambaram's arrest would not deter the party from speaking the truth to hold the government accountable, the party's communications in-charge Randeep Surjewala said.

It was a classical diversionary tactic to hide corruption scams, mal-governance and mal-administration that have marred this government, Surjewala said.

The Congress party will not be deterred by unleashing of vendetta against Mr P Chidambaram or his family. We will continue to speak the truth. We will continue to expose the Modi governments corruption and we will continue to hold them accountable to people of the country, he told reporters.

was arrested at Chennai airport around 8 am when he returned from the United Kingdom.

An FIR filed by the CBI on May 15 last year had alleged irregularities in the FIPB clearance to INX Media for receiving overseas funds to the tune of Rs 3.05 billion in 2007 when Chidambaram was Union finance minister.

It is alleged that received funds to the tune of Rs 1 million in the case, officials said.

Surjewala said scams worth over Rs 300 billion were unearthed in the last 10 days alone. But the prime minister has not moved the transition from Maun Modi to Bol Modi. The prime minister remains mum about hhota Modi as also Mehul Choksi, he said.

He cited the cases of designer jeweller Nirav Modi and his uncle Mehul Choksi, Rotomac and Durga Das Seth jeweller to say that fresh scams were being unearthed everyday but the prime minister was keeping quiet.

His party colleague, AICC general secretary Ashok Gehlot, said Karti Chidambaram was arrested to divert attention from the big issues and the bank scam facing the NDA government.

Gehlot said on Twitter, Mr Karti Chidambaram was arrested when he landed at Chennai airport, he was not trying to escape from India like Nirav Modi then arresting him on his arrival at airport is funny. Karti Chidambaram was cooperating with the CBI, the CBI could have summoned him.At least 13 people have been killed in clashes between Christian and Muslim youths in central Nigeria, police said today, in the latest violence to hit the region.

Fighting broke out on Monday in Kasuwan Magani community in Kaduna state, about 45 kilometres by road from the state capital, Kaduna city.

"The mayhem led to the death of 13 people with many houses and shops burnt," Kaduna state police commissioner Austin Iwar told AFP by telephone.

Local reports gave a higher death toll. Iwar said 20 suspects have been arrested, and troops and police had been deployed to quell the violence.

"The place is now calm. I was in the village yesterday to implore the community and traditional leaders to appeal to the warring youths to sheath their swords," he added.

An investigation has been launched into the incident.

"We don't want to jump into conclusion as to what led to the mayhem. The speculation was that some Christian boys were not happy that their girls are befriending Muslim boys," Iwar said.

Central Nigeria is where the country's mainly Muslim north meets it largely Christian south, and tensions between the two communities have frequently boiled over into deadly violence.

The region has also seen a resurgence in violence between nomadic Muslim herders and mainly Christian farmers in recent months, although those clashes are primarily about resources.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Around 135 cases related to militancy incidents and cross-border firing were cleared for compensation, relief and employment in Jammu and Kashmir's Rajouri district, a government official said today.

The cases were cleared at a meeting of district level coordination cum screening committee (DLCSC) chaired by District Magistrate, Rajouri, Shahid Iqbal Choudhary, the official said.

Senior Army, BSF, police and civil officers attended the meeting, approving compensation in 17 pending cases of militancy-related incidents pertaining to various years from 1998 to 2011.

The committee approved employment in favour of 12 cases and cash compensation of Rs four Lakhs in remaining five cases, the official said, adding with this all the militancy related cases have been settled in the district.

Twenty-eight cases approved earlier by the committee for payment of cash compensation were decided to be submitted to general administration department in view of reluctance of next of kin for receiving cash compensation.

The families of the victims are demanding government jobs instead of cash compensation, the official said. He said the meeting approved compensation to victims of Pakistani shelling along the Line of Control (LoC) as per norms.

These included one death case, six injured, 51 cases of houses damaged and 33 cases of livestock killed due to cross-border shelling, the official said.

The official said most of the cases were either pending for want of minor formalities or rejected earlier for shortage of documents which the officials processed as per decisions of DLCSC, the spokesman said.

Meanwhile, the official said that the district magistrate provided Rs 20,000 cash award to section officer relief and equivalent amount for lower staff in view of exceptional work for clearance of all the pending cases.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)At least 14 people are feared drowned after two overcrowded, rickety boats sank in the River Congo, the interior minister of DR Congo told AFP today, though local sources fear the toll could be much higher.

"Fourteen missing, 108 survived," the Democratic Republic of Congo's interior minister, Henri Mova, said in an email, after the two vessels sank in the river in the southwestern province of Mai-Ndombe.

Local official Didace Pembe said many more people may have died.

"The crowded vessels were sailing at night, and they were suddenly hit by strong winds. Many more went missing in this accident than those who survived," Pembe said.

Local fisherman Leon Bateko told AFP by phone that weather conditions on the powerful river "were extremely bad", hampering the rescue efforts.

"The truth about the toll will never been known because there are no lists that can tell us how many people were actually on board," Claude Bononge, who manages several privately-owned ports in DR Congo, told AFP.

Makeshift boats are forbidden from sailing at night on Congolese waters. "How were they able to sidestep the ban?" Bononge asked.

Boat accidents occur frequently in DR Congo, both in the vast country's lakes and on its rivers. Waterways are a substitute for travelling by road -- the country has few highways, and they are often poorly maintained.

The number of victims can be high because boats can be overcrowded and lack life jackets, and passengers routinely do not know how to swim.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Gujarat Assembly Speaker Rajendra Trivedi today suspended around 15 Congress MLAs for a day after they sat in the well and shouted slogans against the ruling BJP over VAT being charged on fuel by the state government.

Besides these, another Congress MLA was suspended for two days by the Speaker.

The exact number of MLAs suspended from the Assembly for a day was not immediately clear.

Following the suspension and eviction, nearly 50 other Congress MLAs staged a walkout from the Legislative Assembly.

Earlier during the Question Hour, Congress MLA Vimal Chudasama sought details about the Value Added Tax (VAT) being charged on petrol and diesel by the BJP government.

The MLA also asked if the government plans to reduce the taxes on fuel to give relief to the people.

In his reply, Deputy Chief Minister Nitin Patel said the government charges 20 per cent VAT on fuel.

He then compared Congress-ruled states like Punjab and Karnataka with Gujarat and claimed both these states charge 28 and 30 per cent tax respectively is much higher than Gujarat.

Irked by the comparison, Leader of Opposition Paresh Dhanani asked Patel to stick to Gujarat and have a debate on it.

When Speaker Trivedi stopped him from making further comments, all Congress MLAs started shouting slogans against the BJP government.

As around 15 Congress MLAs sat in the well, the Speaker first suspended them for the day and called in marshalls to evict them.

While the MLAs were walking out of the House, the Speaker took a serious note of Congress' Unjha MLA Asha Patel's sloganeering. Speaker Trivedi termed the words "BJP Hooligans" said by Asha Patel derogatory and suspended her for two days.

After coming out of the Assembly, Congress MLAs sat outside the Speaker's chamber for about an hour and raised slogans against him.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)At least 15 people were killed and 40 others injured today when a passenger train collided with a freight train in Egypt, officials said, the latest deadly rail accident in the North African country.

The passenger train collided with the goods train near Kom Hamada station in northern Behira governorate.

At least 15 people were killed and 40 others injured in the accident, according to the Ministry of Transportation.

The injured were taken to nearby hospitals.

The cause of the accident was not immediately known. The passenger train was en route to Alexandria while the cargo train was heading to Cairo, local media reported.

Egypt's railway system has a poor safety record, mostly blamed on decades of badly maintained equipment and poor management.

Deadly accidents have claimed hundreds of lives over the years. According to latest figures by the state's statistics agency, 1,249 train accidents took place last year, the highest since 2009 when the number reached 1,577.

In August, 43 people died in a train collision near the coastal city of Alexandria. In 2016, at least 51 people were killed when two commuter trains collided near Cairo.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Shivanand Jha, a 1983 batch Indian Police Service officer, was today appointed as the new Director General of Police (DGP) of Gujarat through a notification issued by the state home department today.

"The government is pleased to appoint Shivanand Jha, IPS (GJ-1983) on a vacant post of DGP," the notification said.

With this, Jha will be be the first full-time DGP to be appointed in the state since April 15, 2016, when the incumbent P C Thakur was transferred and replaced by an in-charge DGP P P Pandey.

Jha, who was heading the CID (Intelligence) as its DGP, was appointed to the top post after in-charge DGP Pramod Kumar retired. Kumar himself followed another in-charge DGP, Geeta Johri, who retired after serving on the post for a month.

A petition in the Supreme Court by former state DGP Julio Ribeiro had led to the state government revoking the appointment of Pandey, following which Johri was appointed in November last year.

Jha was also a member of the Supreme Court-appointed Special Investigation Team (SIT) to probe the 2002 riots and served as the police commissioner of Ahmedabad and Surat.

Spelling out his priorities, Jha told reporters that his focus would be on the safety of women, improvement in the prevention and detection of crime and resolution of issues regarding the promotions of the constabulary.

"This is your (people's) department, and I will work for you, and will remain at your service 24 hours," Jha said.

"We will take special care of women. We will remove our faults and will try to serve you better. We expect help from the people and media," he said.

"Our focus will also be on the preventive and detection of crime. We will also resolve the issues of promotion of constables and head constables," he said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Former Bihar Chief Minister Jitan Ram Manjhi today broke away from the NDA to join the RJD-led Grand Alliance, while four out of six Congress MLCs said they would join Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's Janata Dal (United).

Manjhi announced his decision in presence of RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav.

Within hours, former Bihar Congress chief Ashok Choudhary, along with three other party MLCs, announced they they would quit the party and accused its general secretary C P Joshi of having treated them as "objects" that were supposed to be "used and thrown".

"Joshi was kind of pushing me out of the Congress," Choudhary alleged.

"Ashok Choudhary and his three associates, Dilip Choudhary, Ramchandra Bharati and Tanweer Akhtar, has already been expelled from the party this evening for anti-party activities and they are now trying to save their face by making baseless allegations against the party leadership," acting state Congress president Kaukab Qadri said.

Reacting to Qadri's claim, Choudhary said, "A letter expressing our desire to join the JD(U) was handed over to the officiating chairman of the Legislative Council, Haroon Rashid, hours before the so-called letter of expulsion was issued by Qadri."



He also claimed that a number of party MLAs were in touch with him and were likely to follow his suit.

"We are going to join the JD(U) led by Nitish Kumar as he is the finest chief minister that Bihar has so far had," Choudhary said, adding Congress president Rahul Gandhi was "one of the finest persons I have ever met" but he was surrounded by people like Joshi.

He alleged that, earlier, several Congress leaders from the state such as Anil Sharma, Mehboob Ali Qaisar and Ram Jatan Sinha had been meted out shabby treatment.

Choudhary said when Nitish Kumar was heading the Grand Alliance government, he was asked by the Congress to have a close relationship with Kumar.

"I proved my loyalty by my stand against Nitish Kumar when he rejoined the NDA to form a government with the BJP. As Bihar Congress president, I had led the party to a spectacular success in the 2015 Assembly polls, but humiliation is the only reward given to me," he claimed.

Meanwhile, Manjhi, while addressing a press conference in the evening, spoke elaborately on the reasons behind his decision to quit the NDA.

He alleged that the "faulty" sand mining policy of the Nitish Kumar government had stalled construction activities thus adversely affecting workers from the Mahadalit section.

"Mahadalits are also getting a rough deal under the prohibition law. But, whenever I tried to take up the matter with the chief minister, he made fun of me," Manjhi alleged.

He said it was necessary to strengthen the hands of a secular leader like RJD supremo Lalu Prasad.

Manji also claimed that the BJP had made no effort to save his government when he had fallen out with Nitish Kumard.

"Rather, the BJP set up rebel candidates against my party nominees, including my son, in the last Assembly polls, resulting in their defeat," the former chief minister said.

Reacting to Manji's decision, JD(U) Spokesman Sanjay Singh said, "His exit will have no impact at all as he already stood defamed because of his political inconsistency."



Manjhi had earlier served an ultimatum to the NDA and had said that he would not campaign for the alliance in the upcoming bypolls to one Lok Sabha and two Assembly seats, if he was not given at least one of the six Rajya Sabha seats in the biennial elections scheduled to be held next month.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)At least four paramilitary soldiers were killed today in a bomb attack at a security check point in Pakistan's south-western province of Balochistan, a security official said.

A security official said that six security men were injured in the blast, which appeared to be a suicide attack, targeting a Frontier Corps (FC) post in the Darvaish Belili area of provincial capital Quetta.

"We are still investigating the incident and the exact nature of bombing will be determined after the report by bomb disposal experts," he said on anonymity.

The injured were shifted to Civil Hospital Quetta for treatment, as forces started search operation in the area.

Nobody so far claimed responsibility of the attack but Baloch nationalists and Taliban militants regularly target the forces in the province.

It was second attack at the security forces in Quetta during the day, as two policemen were killed earlier today when gunmen opened indiscriminate firing at vehicle of Deputy Superintendent Police Hameedullah Dasti on Samungli Road of the city.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)During his visit to Pakistan's Punjab Province in 2004, Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh received an unusual gift from his counterpart, Pervaiz Elahi.

It was a mighty horse, named Sultan (the powerful). Unfortunately, the animal, who had to be quarantined on his arrival in India, did not live long, officials said.

Elahi, the former deputy prime minister of Pakistan, was evidently unhappy that his first gift to Amarinder had not lasted long, so he decided to replace it with another horse -- Sunny Kid.

Fourteen galloping years later, today, when Amarinder visited the Punjab Police Academy (PPA) at Phagwara, he made it a point to meet Sunny Kid.

The chief minister, who had given Sunny Kid to the PPA, asked about the horse the moment he reached the complex for the passing out parade and investiture ceremony.

He asked detail questions about Sunny Kid's health and upkeep, and made it a point to meet him, remembering that the horse had hurt himself in the leg all those years ago, officials said.

The meeting was brief but turned out to be a trip down nostalgia lane for the chief minister, officials said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Uttar Pradesh government today ordered a probe into alleged irregularities in recruitment of trainee junior engineers in the state power corporation by Special Task Force (STF).

"The chief minister has ordered a STF probe into alleged discrepancies in recruitment of trainee junior engineers in UP power corporation. The online examinations for this was held in Feb 11," an official spokesman said here.

Quoting Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, he said, the state government has zero tolerance against corruption and for a transparent and clean image, a time bound probe is necessary.

UP Energy Minister Shrikant Sharma had written a letter to the chief minister seeking a probe in the alleged discrepancies after he received several complaints.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Anti-Corruption Bureau arrested an agriculture officer and two others for allegedly taking Rs 5 lakh bribe from a farmer while promising him a better compensation for his trees cut for road construction.

According to the ACB police inspector, Ajinath Kashinath, the complainant farmer's land had been acquired for construction of the Nagpur-Mumbai Expressway at Mauj Deualgaon village in Jalna.

Around 1,000 mango trees which were cut on the land were valued at around Rs 3 crore.

The complainant had submitted an application to the tehsil agriculture officer, Rameshwar Annasaheb Rodge (48), for a revaluation of the compensation.

Rodge allegedly demanded Rs 20 lakh as bribe for the purpose, the ACB inspector said.

The victim then approached the city police's ACB which laid a trap and caught Rodge and the two middlemen in Nutan Vasahat area yesterday while they were allegedly taking Rs 5 lakh as the first instalment of bribe from the complainant, Kashinath said.

The police also seized a car in which the accused had come to the spot and a revolver kept in the vehicle, he said.

A case was registered against the arrested persons under relevant sections, he added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Malaysian billionaire T Ananda Krishnan's mobile firm Aircel today filed for bankruptcy protection from creditors, saying high debt and mounting losses, following a price war triggered by a new entrant, have led the company to troubled times.

Aircel, 74 per cent owned by Malaysia's Maxis Communications Bhd, first tried a merger with Reliance Communications Ltd but the plan failed late last year due to regulatory and legal uncertainties. Later, it tried to unsuccessfully restructure its Rs 15,500 crore debt.

After failing on all options, it filed for bankruptcy with the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT), Mumbai.

In a statement, Aircel said that intense competition following the disruptive entry of a new player, legal and regulatory challenges, high level of unsustainable debt and increased losses had together caused significant "negative business and reputational impact" on the company.

"The Board of Directors of the Corporate Debtor today announced that they have filed an application under Section 10 of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code 2016 for undertaking Corporate Insolvency Resolution Process for the respective companies: Aircel Cellular, Dishnet Wireless, Aircel Ltd," it said.

Krishnan, Malaysia's third-richest man, had entered India in 2005 when his firm bought a majority stake in Aircel for about USD 1 billion and infused money to build the business. Aircel had 85 million subscribers as of end-December and was ranked India's sixth-largest operator.

"The Board of Directors acknowledged that it has been facing troubled times in a highly financially stressed industry, owing to intense competition following the disruptive entry of a new player, legal and regulatory challenges, high level of unsustainable debt and increased losses," Aircel said.

This, it added, caused significant negative business and reputational impact on the company.

Aircel had recently shut its services in six circles - Gujarat, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh (West).

The company, last week, wrote to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) admitting that is undergoing "deep financial stress" and that it has been severely impacted by a major infrastructure provider GTL Infra shutting off as much as a third of its total sites in different circles or telecom service areas across the country.

The disruption of its services in the licensed service areas -- Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Bihar, Delhi, Jammu & Kashmir, Karnataka, Kerala, Kolkata, Mumbai, North East, Odisha, Punjab, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh (East) and West Bengal, had inconvenienced a large number of subscribers, who faced difficulties in services and in porting their mobile number to another operator.

This prompted Trai yesterday to issue a directive to Aircel allotting it additional port out codes to enable smooth migration of its subscribers to other networks without changing mobile numbers.

Adding to its woes, Idea Cellular in early February snapped interconnect services with Aircel, citing non-payment of dues. Vodafone too is learnt to have suspended most inter-circle interconnect services like messaging, local and international calling facility with Aircel on account of outstanding dues.

Aircel statement today stressed that the Corporate Insolvency Resolution Process is not a proceeding for liquidation.

"...rather is a process to find best possible resolution for the current situation and that would be in the best interest of everyone (vendors, distributors, employees, etc.) to protect and preserve the value of the company and manage the operations," it added.

The company sought co-operation from vendors and channels partners, while the IBC process is underway, urging them to continue their services for its ongoing business.

"The company would like to communicate to all the customers that it would strive hard to provide uninterrupted service connectivity to them and appeals to them for their support during the current difficult period," Aircel added.

The entry of aggressive newcomer Reliance Jio and its disruptive offerings have forced mobile operators to respond with matching tariffs, hurting their financials and increasing their debt burden.

Many of the smaller operators have succumbed to market pressure and opted to merge or get acquired by larger players.

Telenor agreed to sell its India business to Bharti Airtel, and the Sunil Mittal-owned company has also announced that it will acquire the consumer mobile business of Tata Teleservices on debt-free cash-free basis.

In December 2017, billionaire Mukesh Ambani stepped in to bail out younger brother Anil Ambani's debt-ridden Reliance Communications by acquiring spectrum, tower, optical fibre network and other wireless assets.

The spate of consolidation is expected to leave the Indian mobile market with just about four operators as Vodafone and Idea Cellular are in the process of merging their businesses.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Peasant leader Akhil Gogoi today threw his support behind the agitating students of Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) protesting against the withdrawal of scholarships.

"We have full support for your agitation. KMSS will always be with you. Our cadres, farmers and general people will always be with you in all your protests," said Gogoi, the Adviser to the farmers organisation Krishak Mukti Sangram Samiti (KMSS).

Addressing a gathering during a Citizen's meet against privatisation of and withdrawal of scholarships to SC, ST and OBC scholars at TISS, Gogoi said the entire system is slowly being controlled by the corporates.

"KMSS tries to prevent capitalism and build a socialist system. In the current scenario, development has completely stopped and to divert the peoples' attention, communal tension are being created like eating of beef," the RTI activist said.

Speaking on the occasion, noted educationist and intellectual Hiren Gohain said the Indian Commission under the Chairmanship of D S Kothari had recommended in 1966 that six per cent of the GDP should be spent on education, but it has not been done even after 50 years of the report.

"The highest we achieved was in 2011-12 with just 3.3 per cent. It is about social justice to provide opportunity to everyone to the best of ability. This has been brushed aside by the new rulers of the country. The basic principle of the Constitution of equality is now being reversed," he added.

Slamming the government's decision to withdraw aid, the former Gauhati University Professor Gohain said educational institutes have been turned into business enterprises.

He also attacked the government's appointment policy.

Former Principal of B Barooah College Dinesh Baishya said stopping of scholarship in TISS was "arbitrary, undemocratic, illegal and unethical".

"Students took admission after getting the scholarships. If now MHRD stops the financial support in between their course without consulting teachers and students, how will one manage? We are planning for an all India students convention in Guwahati in coming days to highlight the Centre's anti- student policies," he added.

The students of all the campuses of TISS have been protesting since February 21 against the administration demanding tuition, dining hall and hostel fees for scholarship students.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The story of director Utpal Borpujari's debut film "Ishu" may have been told from a child's perspective but it is not a fairytale.

The Assamese film, which will be showcased at the ongoing Bengaluru International Film Festival, deals with the demonic custom of witch-hunting prevalent in tribal areas of the country.

"You sometimes get a fresh perspective when you try viewing a story through a kid's perspective... How a child can bring about a change through his innocence.

"Seeing a child do something you look at yourself imagining how you could have done things differently. Maybe you can still bring out the child in you. Sometimes we become cynical as adults," Borpujari told PTI in an interview on the sidelines of the ongoing Bengaluru International Film Festival.

The film-maker, who is also a film critic and former journalist, added that children's films such as "Harry Potter" series and the most recent "Black Panther" deliver strong, layered messages through their fantasy and children-friendly narratives.

"When subtle messages come through children and youth, the stories leave a deep impact on you," he said.

Produced by Children's Film Society, India (CFSI), the film has dealt with violence inherent to the issue in a subtle manner through indicative sound techniques.

"Ishu" is based on renowned Assamese writer Manikuntala Bhattacharjya's popular novel of the same name. Its cast include Kapil Garo, Bishnu Khargoria, Leishangthem Devi, Chetana Das among others.

The medieval practice continues to fester like a wound in lots of tribal societies in India such as West Bengal, Odisha, Jharkhand, MP, Chhattisgarh and in some cases even in Gujarat and Maharashtra.

"Usually a lonely woman, maybe a young or an old widow or a woman who has some property are declared as witches. Mostly it's either the property angle or the sexual angle. Once she's branded a witch either she's beaten and thrown out of the village or she's killed, which happens a lot.

"In some cases, the entire family is declared to be practising witchcraft. Now, because of the illiteracy the village people are superstitious. That makes it easy for them to be convinced that all the diseases have occasional due to someone's spell, not because there is dirty water they drink... That there are no health facilities in the interiors of the country," he rued.

The cases of witch-hunting have grown in the last two decades in Assam, he said.

"A bill has been passed by the state Assembly against witch-hunting but it is awaiting the President's assent," the director emphasised.

When asked about the witch-hunting that trolls indulge in on social media, Borpujari said it is unfortunate how it has reared its ugly head even on the Internet.

The film-maker likened the social media trolls to those elements who incite illiterate and uneducated masses to kill women labelling them as "witches".

"The trolls on social media do another kind of witch-hunting. They are also illiterate in a way. They are also feeding off the lack of educated people who are on the Internet. Just because you have a smartphone and can use different apps doesn't make you literate or educated. Most of the trolling happens against women. It is vicious.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Austrian government MPs presented a bill today which would continue to allow smoking in bars and restaurants, despite a huge groundswell of opposition.

The bill, which would overturn a ban due to come into force on May 1, was branded a "huge step backwards for public health" by the opposition.

The far-right Freedom Party (FPOe) insisted on the ban being dropped as a condition of entering government with the centre-right People's Party (OeVP) of Chancellor Sebastian Kurz after elections last year.

A petition to keep the planned ban launched by Austria's medical association has now been signed by 420,000 people -- almost five percent of Austria's population.

The opposition Social Democrat Party (SPOe) has asked health minister Beate Hartinger-Klein to explain how the bill is compatible with Austria's commitments to the World Health Organization.

Several prominent figures within Kurz's own party, including former leader Reinhold Mitterlehner, have expressed their opposition to the ban being repealed. The OeVP supported the ban under the last government.

But Kurz, despite being a non-smoker and having supported the law under the previous government, says he is bound by his coalition agreement with the FPOe.

FPOe leader Heinz-Christian Strache has defended his opposition to the ban, saying it infringes on "freedom of choice" and saying the new plan would protect "smokers, non-smokers and restaurant owners", whose businesses he says would be hit by a ban.

Under current law smokers in bars and restaurants have to be seated in a separate area -- although this is not always rigidly implemented.

But no separate area is necessary in establishments smaller than 50 square metres (540 square feet) if the owner is happy to allow smoking on the premises.

Some 13,000 people die of tobacco-related causes in Austria each year. The country has the third-highest proportion of smokers in the EU (30 percent of those over 15), according to Eurostat.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Med-tech startup Axio Biosolutions today said it has received US health regulator's approval for its first aid dressing product Axiostat that stops bleeding within 2-3 minutes of its application.

Axiostat has become the first Indian wound care product to receive 510(K) FDA clearance in the US for its pioneering haemostatic dressing, the company said in a statement.

The United States Food and Drug Administration (USFDA) clearance allows Axiostat to be marketed in the US as over-the-counter (OTC) product.

"This is a validation of the performance, safety and efficacy of Axiostat in bleeding control. We developed Axiostat to be a world-class quality product and this clearance reiterates that," Axio Biosolutions CEO Leo Mavely said.

Earlier this year, Axio Biosolutions had raised USD 7.4 million in a Series B funding round led by Ratan Tata's UC- RNT, along with existing investors Accel Partners and IDG Ventures India.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Suspended BJP leader Manoj Baitha, accused of mowing down nine school children in Muzaffarpur last week, has surrendered before police, a senior official said today.

"Baitha surrendered at my official residence at about 1 AM," Senior Superintendent of Police, Muzaffarpur, Vivek Kumar told PTI over phone.

Baitha had sustained injuries on his hand after his vehicle rammed into a wall after ploughing through a group of school children, killing nine of them, Kumar said.

He was taken to the Sadar Hospital at Muzaffarpur for treatment where doctors referred him to the PMCH at Patna, the police official said.

"He has been admitted to the PMCH where a police party is keeping a close watch. Further action will be taken in due course", he said.

A former district level worker from Sitamarhi district, Baitha was suspended from the BJP on Monday after the hit-and-run case that took place in Minapur police station area of Muzaffarpur on Saturday.

The opposition RJD has alleged that Baitha was in an inebriated state while driving the vehicle, in flagrant violation of the ban on sale and consumption of alcohol in Bihar, and that the ruling dispensation was trying to "shield" him.

Meanwhile, in a statement issued here, spokesman of the ruling JD(U) Neeraj Kumar said "the canards of the opposition now stand exposed. They should now apologize for indulging in politics over the tragic death of innocent children.

"Our government neither frames anybody in false cases nor does it patronize those accused of any crime.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Social activist Anna Hazare, who spearheaded nation-wide anti-graft protests in 2011, is again set to launch a 'satyagraha' in Delhi next month, but those wanting to join his campaign have to fulfil one mandatory condition - a vow they will not join electoral



The 80-year-old anti-corruption crusader, whose previous agitation propelled many leaders, including Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, to the national limelight has decided that those who wish to associate with him now will have to swear in an affidavit that they will not join in future.

"During past agitations, among those who associated with me, one is a chief minister, another is a governor and yet another is a minister. Now if anyone associated with me joins in future, I will take him to the court. We are taking affidavits from those joining my agitation that they will not enter electoral politics," Hazare told PTI.

Apart from Kejriwal, Puducherry Lieutenant Governor Kiran Bedi and Union Minister V K Singh were among those closely associated with Hazare during his previous agitation in the national capital.

"Gandhiji used to say that every agitation should have a character. Now a days, nothing is based on character. The only objective is to catapult one to power. Anti-social and unscrupulous elements have entered politics and are being given tickets. We have to see quality of agitations and not go by the numbers," said Hazare, explaining the reason for the condition that he has laid for those desirous of joining him.

Hazare, who was on a two-day visit to Uttar Pradesh to garner support for his proposed satyagraha from March 23 in Delhi to highlight farmers' issues, Jan Lokpal issue and the need for electoral reforms, expressed disagreement with the demand to hold elections using paper ballots instead of electronic voting machines (EVMs).

"I don't agree with the demand of holding elections with paper ballots instead of EVMs. When the world is moving ahead, why should we move backward. However, totaliser machines should be used to ensure fairness of EVMs," he said.

Totaliser machines are used to mix votes before counting to prevent disclosure of voting patterns, thereby allaying fears of any post-poll victimisation of any section. BSP supremo Mayawati and SP chief Akhilesh Yadav have been demanding the use of paper ballots in future elections, alleging that EVMs were tampered with to benefit the BJP.

Asked why he needed to undertake a tour to garner support this time unlike in 2011 when he took the country by storm, Hazare said a lot of time has passed and people were thinking the "agitation has petered out."



I am going to the masses to change the mind set of the people, he said.

Also, the BJP had made a lot of promises during elections, but people are still waiting for the 'acchey din' even though its government's term is approaching its end, he said.

There is no difference between the BJP and the Congress as far as matter of corruption are concerned, he alleged.

"The Modi government has weakened Lokpal. The government talks about corruption-free system but, it seems it has no intention of bringing a strong Lokpal. Under section 44 of the Lokpal Act, there is a provision for government officers to give details of their properties every year but this was amended and it's not compulsory now."



He added that a long time had passed since demonetisation but the government has not been able to tell how much black money had returned.

"Both the Congress and the BJP are after grabbing power and money. They are only concerned about strengthening their parties," Hazare said.

He also attacked the previous UPA government for not bringing Lokpal Bill adding that "despite a promise, former PM Manmohan Singh did not enact the law".

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The arrest of senior Congress leader P Chidambaram's son Karti Chidambaram today led to a political slugfest between the Congress and the BJP.

While the Congress accused the BJP-led government of indulging in "political vendetta" and using the arrest as a "tactic" to divert attention from banking and other scams, the saffron party rejected the charge, saying there was no interference from the government and the law was taking its own course.

Congress communications in-charge Randeep Surjewala said it was a classic diversionary tactic to hide "corruption scams, mal-governance and mal-administration that have marred this government".

"The Congress party will not be deterred by the unleashing of vendetta against P Chidambaram or his family. We will continue to speak the truth. We will continue to expose the (Narendra) Modi governments corruption and continue to hold them accountable to the people of the country," he told reporters here.

"To divert attention and distract the narrative, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his government are following their old trick of using a political witch-hunt, vendetta and malicious intent to deflect the heat from the unprecedented bank scams and loss to the public exchequer caused by the culture of crony capitalism," Surjewala alleged.

Countering the charge, Law Minister and BJP leader Ravi Shankar Prasad said the nature of evidence available against the offender must speak for itself and not the claim of revenge.

"...I will only make one observation. When such issues are raised, what is important is that the nature of evidence available against the offender must speak for itself and not the alibi of vendetta," he told reporters here.

Karti, 46, was arrested by a CBI team this morning on his return from London in connection with its probe in the INX Media case.

Prasad said there was no interference from the government and that the law must take its course.

"The law is taking its course. The law must take its course. The CBI will explain all the details. We do not wish to interfere. There is no interference of the government," he said.

A band of Congress leaders, including Kapil Sibal and Abhishek Singhvi, came out in support of Karti Chidambaram, sharply criticising his arrest.

Senior Congress leader Sibal termed the arrest "malafide" and claimed that it was done to harass P Chidambaram.

"This is complete vendetta This is completely malafide," he said.

An FIR filed by the CBI on May 15 last year had alleged irregularities in an FIPB clearance granted to INX Media for receiving overseas funds of Rs 305 crore in 2007, when P Chidambaram was the Union finance minister.

"But the prime minister has not made the transition from 'Maun Modi' to 'Bol Modi'. The prime minister remains mum about 'hhota Modi' as also Mehul Choksi," Surjewala said, referring to Nirav Modi, the diamantaire allegedly involved in a mega bank fraud with his uncle, Choksi.

He said the government was seeking "political vendetta" to mask the "culture of colossal corruption and cronyism" flourishing unchecked and the "puppet CBI and ED" were being used to "divert, deflect and distract" attention from scams worth Rs 31,691 crore exposed in the last 10 days.

The government's "mask of a corruption crusader" was in shambles with successive scams getting uncovered over the last 45 months and "zero action" being taken against the fraudsters, he said.

Surjewala said the "political persecution" of P Chidambaram and the arrest of his son by a "puppet CBI", acting to "serve the agenda of its political masters", were the "cogs in this wheel".

"Facts of the case completely uncover the sinister diversionary tactics of the Modi government," he said.

Congress spokesperson Singhvi said Karti Chidambaram's arrest showed the government's "double standards".

While Nirav Modi and Vijay Mallya were not stopped from fleeing the country, Karti Chidambaram was arrested after he returned from a foreign tour, he said.

Singhvi also questioned the timing of the arrest, wondering if it had anything to do with the upcoming Karnataka Assembly election and whether it was aimed at deflecting attention from the Nirav Modi case.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)A bridegroom was killed allegedly in a celebratory fire during a marriage procession in Seemapuri area of the city, the police said today.

The marriage procession was taken out from Kalandar Colony yesterday evening and was headed towards Faridabad.

During the procession, the bridegroom's nephew fired from a gun to celebrate the occasion. One of the shots hit the bridegroom Dipak (23) and he fell down from the horse, the police said.

He was rushed to GTB hospital with a gunshot injury in the head, and he died around 2 am, a senior police officer said, adding the accused is absconding.

Dipak worked as as a helper on a bus at Anand Vihar inter state bus terminal.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Union Cabinet today gave its nod to sign a host of pacts with Jordan, including cooperation in the field of health, manpower, customs and mining.

It approved signing an MoU with Jordan on cooperation and mutual administrative assistance in customs matters. This will help in availability of relevant information for prevention and investigation of offences related to customs violation.

"The agreement is also expected to facilitate trade and ensure efficient clearance of goods traded between the countries," an official statement said.

Jordan's King Abdullah II arrived here last evening on a three-day visit which is aimed at taking bilateral relations to a "new high".

The Union Cabinet, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, also gave its approval for a pact for cooperation between India and Jordan in the field of manpower.

The pact aims at enhancing collaboration between the two sides in promoting best practices in administration of contractual employment, reflect the latest reforms in recruitment processes and enhance protection and welfare of Indian workers in Jordan.

"Collaboration between the two sides in use of online portal for recruitment of Indian manpower is expected to usher in greater transparency and curb malpractices in the recruitment process," the statement said.

The Cabinet also gave its approval for cooperation between the two countries in health and medical science, and will cover areas like Universal Health Coverage (UHC), health system governance, services and information technology in health, among others.

The areas also include health research, national health statistics, health finance and economy, chronic disease control, tobacco control, diagnosis, treatment and medication in tuberculosis and regulation of pharmaceuticals and medical devices.

"A working group will be set up to further elaborate the details of cooperation and to oversee the implementation of this Memorandum of Understanding (MoU)," said the statement.

"The Union Cabinet has approved the signing of MoU between India and Jordan for mining and beneficiation of Rock Phosphate and MOP and setting up production facility in Jordan for Phosphoric Acid/DAP/NPK Fertilisers with a long term agreement for 100 per cent off-take to India," it said.

The MoU would ensure consistent supply of raw material, intermediaries and finish P&K fertilisers to cater to the needs of the country at a reasonable price," the statement said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Union Cabinet today gave its nod to signing of a pact between India and Macedonia on cooperation in health sector.

The pact will cover a host of sectors including cooperation in capacity building and short-term training of human resources in health and, exchange and training of doctors, officials, other health professionals and experts.

It will also cover areas like assistance in development of human resources and setting up of healthcare facilities.

"A working group will be set up to further elaborate the details of cooperation and to oversee the implementation," an official statement said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Perturbed over the spate of banking frauds, the Union Cabinet is likely to consider tomorrow measures to strengthen the regulatory regime for auditors to prevent such incidents in the future.

The Cabinet headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be meeting again tomorrow and is reported to have only one item on the agenda, sources said.

According to them, the meeting may consider setting up of National Financial Reporting Authority (NAFRA) as envisaged in the Companies Act, 2013.

NAFRA will look into accounting and auditing standards, among others.

With the Rs 12,700 crore fraud at Punjab National Bank also bringing the role of auditors into focus, the corporate affairs ministry is keen to push NAFRA, sources said.

While most provisions of the new Companies Act came into force from April 1, 2014, the section pertaining to NAFRA is yet to be implemented.

Last week, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley expressed his displeausre over laxity in the regulatory oversight by auditors in the backdrop of the scam at Punjab National Bank.

"Both internal and external auditors really have looked the other way or failed to detect," said Jaitley, who is also the Corporate Affairs Minister.

Chartered accountants and those who control the discipline, should start introspection and "say what legitimate actions are to be taken", he had said.

Yesterday, the finance ministry asked all state-owned banks to scrutinise NPA accounts above Rs 50 crore for possible fraud and accordingly report the matter to CBI.

The CBI today arrested auditor of Punjab National Bank in the fraud, mainly perpetrated by jewellers Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi in connivance with the bank officials.

Besides Punjab National Bank, several other lenders, including Bank of Baroda, Oriental Bank of Commerce and Corporation Bank, have reported instances of frauds.

In the Rs 12,700 crore fraud case, chartered accountants' body Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) has issued show cause notices to the auditors of Punjab National Bank and Gitanjali Gems.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Calcutta High Court today gave permission to 218 students of a girls college to sit for their examination which had been refused by the Calcutta University on the ground that the institution had exceeded its intake capacity at the time of enrolment.

The fate of the undergraduate students had been hanging in the balance following the university's decision to refuse their registration over its claim that the college had admitted 10 students in excess of its intake capacity in five honours subjects.

In an interim order, Justice Arindam Sinha directed CU to complete registration process of all the 218 students and allow them to sit for the Part-I Honours subjects which they have studied for.

The Part-I examination of the university is scheduled to commence from March 6.

Moving the petition in person on behalf of the students, Barisha Vivekananda College for Women principal Soma Bhattacharya claimed before the court that registration was denied despite the college having abided by the rules of the university.

With no lawyer appearing for hearings in the high court owing to an ongoing ceasework by the advocates, the principal of the West Bengal government-aided college submitted before the court that CU had on March 27, 2017 asked for admission intake capacity of all its affiliate colleges.

Stating that since no specific academic year was mentioned in the circular, the college authorities provided details of its intake capacity for the then running year 2016-17.

Bhattacharya said that on May 30, 2017 the university published the revised admission capacity list of colleges for 2017-18, in which it was found that for her college, the capacity mentioned was that of what it provided for in 2016-17.

She submitted that the college had hiked seats in different subjects on the basis of a government circular of 2013-14 to increase the number of students in each institution by 17 per cent by 2019-2020 and that the college had informed about it in time.

The court noted that the university had allowed colleges to revise their admission capacity and to inform it, which the principal said was done by the college.

A communique was sent to the CU authorities by the college indicating the mistake and sought rectification.

However, this had not been done and the authorities refused registration of all 218 students in the five streams of Bengali, History, Political Science, and Botany over its claim that 10 students had been admitted in excess of capacity.

Justice Sinha asked the deputy inspector of colleges Nishad Alam, who appeared on behalf of the university, to give a reason for the refusal. Alam could only tell the court that it was the decision of the syndicate.

The officer also offered three options for the affected students - that they change their honours subjects or they change to general pass graduation course or they get admitted to some other college affiliated to CU.

The principal objected saying that none of the options were acceptable as the Part-I examination commences from March 6 and submitted that accepting any of these would severely affect the career of the students.

Noting the plight of the students, the judge in an interim order, directed CU authorities to grant registration to all the 218 students and to allow them to appear for the examination.

The court directed that all these students would have to abide by the final order on the petition and fixed the next date of hearing on March 21.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is standing by a senior government official who suggested that a convicted Sikh terrorist's presence at a formal dinner was arranged by "factions within the Indian government to sabotage" his visit to India, according to media reports today.

During his first question period since arriving back in Canada, opposition MPs grilled Trudeau yesterday about invitations issued to Jaspal Atwal - a Sikh convicted of attempting to assassinate an Indian cabinet minister in 1986 - to attend two events with him in India, The Star reported today.

In a background briefing arranged by the Prime Minister's Office, a government official last week suggested that Atwal's presence was arranged by "factions within the Indian government who want to prevent Prime Minister Narendra Modi from getting too cosy with a foreign government they believe is not committed to a united India," the paper said.

Conservatives identified the official as Trudeau's national security adviser, Daniel Jean, and they pressed Trudeau to say whether he agrees with Jean's "conspiracy theory", it said.

"A senior security official made these allegations. Does the prime minister agree or disavow those allegations?" asked Opposition Leader Andrew Scheer.

Trudeau defended the official as a member of the professional, non-partisan public service that provides quality advice, the paper said.

He accused the previous Conservative government of using the public service for partisan ends, saying "they torqued the public service every possible way they could."



"And they do not understand that our professional, non-partisan public service does high quality work. And when one of our top diplomats and security officials says something to Canadians, it's because they know it to be true."



Conservative MPs pressed Trudeau to provide evidence to back the assertion, but it was left to Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale to field those questions.

"Before our prime minister destroys our relationship with our ally, the government and country of India, will he please tell this House what proof he has of that allegation?" asked Tory MP Candice Bergen.

Goodale said Bergen was providing "her interpretation of events" and said "her insinuations and her accusations are false."



New Democrat MP Charlie Angus asserted that Atwal who has been photographed over the years posing with various Liberal MPs, ministers and leaders, including Trudeau himself turned up on the trip because his presence was "useful" to local Liberals back in Canada.

He accused Trudeau of using a senior civil servant to "spin a conspiracy theory that somehow the Indian government is trying to make the Liberals look bad."



"What was the prime minister thinking, putting the interests of the Liberal machine ahead of national security, international relations and Canadas reputation?" Angus demanded.

Atwal, a one-time member of a Sikh separatist group that is banned in Canada and India as a terrorist organisation, 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.

Trudeaus office says Atwal's 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.

Shortly after endorsing the officials theory that factions in the Indian government arranged Atwals presence to embarrass Trudeau, the prime minister met with Liberal MP Randeep Sarai late yesterday.

Sarai, who had put Atwal on the guest list for a reception at the residence of Canadian High Commissioner Nadir Patel in India, offered to resign as the chair of the party's Pacific caucus after the controversy. Trudeau accepted Sarai's offer.

of Atwal's presence was an embarrassing setback for Trudeau, who had spent much of his trip trying to reassure Indian political leaders that Canada does not support separatist Sikh extremists.

Infrastructure Minister Amarjeet Sohi, who was also photographed with Atwal in Mumbai, said he had no idea who Atwal was and simply posed for a picture when asked.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Karti Chidambaram, arrested by the CBI in connection with the probe into the INX Media case, was today sent for one-day custodial interrogation by a Delhi court.

Though the CBI had sought 15-day remand for the custodial interrogation of Karti, duty magistrate Sumeet Anand granted a day's custody, making it clear that he should be produced before the concerned special judge tomorrow at 2.30 pm.

Duty magistrate is a judge before whom an accused is produced when the concerned judge is not available or when any accused is produced after the regular court hours. In this case, the concerned special judge had left the court premises at around 4.30 pm, about 20 minutes before Karti was brought to the court.

46-year-old Karti, who was arrested in the morning at Chennai airport after he landed there from London, was produced before Metropolitan Magistrate Sumeet Anand at around 4.50 pm when the CBI sought his custody to quiz him for unearthing the "total conspiracy" in the case claiming he was not cooperating in the probe.

During the hearing, CBI's prosecutor V K Sharma told the court that Karti has not cooperated in the investigation and he has been repeatedly travelling abroad which "confirmed apprehensions" that "he will flee" from the country.

He alleged that one of the grounds for arresting Karti was that the CBI had recorded statement of Indrani Mukerjea, former Director of INX Media (P) Ltd, before a magistrate on February 17 in which she had said that Karti had "accepted one million dollars from INX Media" at the Hyatt Hotel here.

Opposing the CBI's contentions, senior advocate A M Singhvi, appearing for Karti, said it was a "bizzare" case and no grounds for arrest were made out.

"It is a bizzare case at the threshhold. It is not a case of arrest, leave aside police custody or judicial custody," Singhvi told the court while opposing the CBI's remand plea.

He also argued that Karti was summoned twice by the CBI on August 23 and 28 last year and he was interrogated for 22 hours by the agency.

Singhvi said, "there are no reasons given for the arrest. It is because you (CBI) want to show it to your bosses that you are doing some work."



"Unlike others, I (Karti) am not 'Hindustan leaver' and instead I am 'Hindustan returner'," he said and claimed that Karti was cooperating with the CBI and the court might impose any condition while releasing him from the agency's custody.

"I (Karti) am not a fugitive," Singhvi, who was assisted by senior advocates Dayan Krishnan and Mohit Mathur, told the court.

The CBI, in its remand plea, has alleged that Karti had not cooperated in the investigation by joining the same "until compelled to do so by the Supreme Court" and he "vehemently denied that he or his company had any interaction with INX Media on any matter including FIPB related matter despite evidence to the contrary".

"Thus, Karti Chidambaram needs to be subjected to sustained interrogation for unearthing the total conspiracy hatched in the case and also to find out the details of overseas payments received by him from INX Media as a quid pro quo for influence exercised by him over the public servants to scuttle the punitive action required to be taken against M/s INX Media (P) Ltd for the illegal acts of receiving excess investment than the approved FDI and also for making of downstream investment without the FIPB approval. For this purpose, his police custody remand for a period of 15 days is considered essential," the remand plea said.

The agency claimed that Karti's "frequent" visits abroad has confirmed "apprehensions of his tampering with the evidence lying abroad against him and others in the form of secret note received from the Ministry of Finance".

It said the "secret note" received from the Finance Ministry was also shown in a sealed cover to the apex court and the Madras High Court while objecting to Karti's foreign visits and justifying the look out circular (LoC) issued against him.

At the outset, the court allowed the request of Karti's lawyers to have an interaction with him inside the court room for 10 minutes, after which the proceedings resumed.

When Karti was brought from CBI headquarters here to the Patiala House court premises and taken to the courtroom, he told waiting scribes, "It's absolutely a political vendetta. I will be vindicated".

Earlier in the day, Karti was taken into custody by a team of CBI officials at the Chennai airport on his return from the United Kingdom.

The CBI had lodged an FIR on May 15 last year alleging irregularities in the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) clearance to INX Media for receiving overseas funds to the tune of Rs 305 crore in 2007 when P Chidambaram was the Union finance minister. It also alleged that Karti had received funds to the tune of Rs 10 lakh in the case.

The case was lodged by CBI for alleged offences under sections 120-B (criminal conspiracy) read with 420 (cheating) of the IPC and under relevant provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act.

CBI also alleged that Karti had also received money from INX Media to scuttle a tax probe. The firm was owned at the time by Peter and Indrani Mukerjea, who are currently in jail on charges of allegedly murdering Indrani's daughter Sheena Bora. The Enforcement Directorate has also registered a money laundering case in the INX Media matter.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The CBI today justified Karti Chidambaram's arrest in the INX Media case in a Delhi court by taking the ground of his non-cooperation and frequent foreign visits, which was vehemently opposed by the defence counsel, who said his client was not summoned by the central probe agency in the last six months.

Seeking a 15-day custody of the son of senior Congress leader P Chidambaram, the CBI prosecutors contended before duty magistrate Sumeet Anand that Karti had not cooperated in the investigation and he had been repeatedly travelling abroad, which "confirmed the apprehensions of his tampering with the evidence lying abroad against him and others in the form of secret note received from the Ministry of Finance".

CBI prosecutors V K Sharma and Padmini Singh argued that one of the grounds for arresting Karti was that the agency had recorded the statement of Indrani Mukerjea, former director of INX Media (P) Ltd, before a magistrate on February 17, in which she had said an amount of USD 1 million was paid to Karti on behalf of INX Media at the Hyatt hotel here.

Opposing the CBI's arguments, senior advocate A M Singhvi, appearing for Karti, said it was a "bizarre" case and that no grounds for arrest were made out.

"It is a bizarre case at the threshhold. It is not a case of arrest, leave aside police custody or judicial custody," Singhvi told the court while opposing the CBI's remand plea.

He also argued that Karti was summoned twice by the CBI on August 23 and 28 last year and that he was interrogated for 22 hours by the agency, during which he answered all the questions.

"After those two days, I have not received any single summons from the CBI. It is a 180-day silence and then they say, I am not cooperating. The fact is that they do not have anything to ask me now," Singhvi said.

Claiming that no reason was given for the arrest, he said, "It is because you (CBI) want to show it to your bosses that you are doing some work."



"Unlike others, I (Karti) am not a 'Hindustan leaver' and instead, I am a 'Hindustan returner'," Singhvi said, adding that Karti was cooperating with the CBI and that the court might impose any condition while releasing him from the agency's custody.

"Am I (Karti) a fugitive from justice," Singhvi, who was assisted by senior advocates Dayan Krishnan and Mohit Mathur, told the court.

The defence counsel argued that the CBI had tried to stop Karti's foreign visits, but he went abroad twice on court orders and another of his visits outside the country was prior to the issuance of the Look-Out Circular.

"Is it fair to say to the court that I am not cooperating? It is only to prejudice the court. It is a clear misrepresentation and distortion of facts by the CBI. They did not apprehend anything while I was going out, but arrested me on my return," he said.

Singhvi further said Karti had gone to the UK after taking the Madras High Court's permission and that he was ready to abide by any condition, including surrendering his passport, daily visits to the CBI office and confinement to a city.

"I am not filing any formal bail application, but opposing the remand application. They should have issued a fresh summons and test my non-cooperation, but they arrested me when I landed at the Chennai airport today at 9 am. There is no allegation of violation of any conditions imposed by the high court," the counsel argued, adding that the arrest was mala fide.

Singhvi further said it was not even an open-and-shut case, but someone struggling to open a 10-year-old case.

He told the court that Karti appeared before the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in a case filed on similar allegations by the agency as late as 10 days back and that he was not a repeat offender and remanding him to police custody would add more insult to the injury.

The CBI prosecutors rebutted, saying Singhvi's arguments were false and that Karti had joined the probe only after the Supreme Court's intervention.

They said all the procedures were followed and Karti was informed about the grounds of his arrest. They further argued that Karti had not complied with the Madras High Court's direction to give the itinerary of his stay abroad.

Regarding the defence counsel's argument that the CBI had not filed a status report in any court, claiming that Karti had not cooperated, the prosecutor said the agency was never directed by any court to file any such report.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Centre has extended the tenure of Additional Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, who was recently named the special public prosecutor for 2G spectrum scam cases, till June 2020, according to an official order.

The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet has approved extensions in the tenure of four additional solicitor generals of India - Mehta, Maninder Singh, P S Narsimha and Pinky Anand - till June 30, 2020, it said, without giving other details.

Mehta's appointment as special public prosecutor in the 2G cases on February 8 follows the acquittal of all 19 accused, including former telecom minister A Raja and DMK lawmaker Kanimozhi, in 2G spectrum scam by a CBI court here on December 21 last year.

The ACC has also approved appointments of senior advocates Vikramjit Banerjee, Aman Lekhi and Sandeep Sethi as the ASG till June 2020, the order issued by the personnel ministry said.

The committee has also approved appointment of senior advocate Maninder Acharya as additional solicitor general of India for the Delhi High Court, till June 30, 2020, it said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Karti Chidambaram was arrested by the CBI today on the basis of confessional statements of INX Media Limited directors Peter and Indrani Mukerjea, alleging that they paid USD 7 lakh to him on the instructions of his father P Chidamabaram, as quid pro quo for a FIPB clearance, officials said.

The statements of the Mukerjeas were recorded by the Enforcement Directorate (ED), which is probing the money laundering angle in the case, while the CBI had only recorded Indrani's statement before a magistrate as per section 164 of the CrPC, they said.

Karti (46) was arrested by the CBI from the Chennai airport on his return from London in connection with the agency's probe in the INX Media case.

Both Peter and Indrani had alleged that they met the then Finance Minister P Chidambaram at his North Block office, seeking clearance for foreign investments in their media company after the Income Tax department detected irregularities in these instances, in 20o7.

Chidambaram had then asked them to "help the business of his son and make foreign remittances for the purpose," the officials said, quoting from the statements of the Mukerjeas.

The couple had also admitted that they subsequently met Karti at a five-star hotel in Delhi, where he allegedly made a demand of USD 1 million, they said, adding that this was reiterated by Indrani before the magistrate as well.

Indrani, they said, had confirmed in her statement to the CBI and ED that a payment of USD 7 lakh was made to the bank accounts of overseas firms linked to Karti.

Peter and Indrani, facing trial for allegedly killing their daughter Sheena Bora, had said in their statement that Karti "suggested" to them the names of firms such as Chess Management and Advantage Strategic for the payments.

The Sheena Bora murder case is being probed by the CBI.

INX Media, as part of the alleged quid pro quo (a Latin term, meaning "something for something"), had made a payment of over Rs 9.96 lakh to Advantage Strategic Consulting Private Limited (ASCPL), a firm allegedly controlled by Karti, by a cheque issued on July 15, 2008, the officials said.

While the invoice issued by ASCPL claimed that the service rendered by it to INX Media was management consultancy, the "ledger extract" sent by the latter to the probe agencies showed that the payment was made for replying "towards FIPB notification and clarification", they added.

The ED, they said, had seized four invoices of USD 7 lakh, drawn by ASCPL, its Singapore subsidiary, another linked company identified as NorthStar Software Solutions Pvt Ltd and Geben Trading Ltd, after it recently raided the offices of Karti and his chartered accountant, Bhaskararaman.

During the raids, the ED had also recovered "digital evidence" and invoices raised on INX Media Limited, sources said.

They added that ASCPL had also received payments "on behalf" of Karti in other cases, where money was paid in "proximity to approvals given by the Ministry of Finance", including from Aircel Televentures Limited for an FIPB approval for the sale of its shares in Aircel Limited to Maxis in March, 2006.

The Congress said Karti's arrest was "vendetta" and a "diversionary tactic" of the BJP-led central government to hide its "scams" and "mal-governance".

Party spokesperson Randeep Surjewala said the government was seeking "political vendetta" to mask the "culture of colossal corruption and cronyism" flourishing unchecked, and that "puppet CBI and ED" were being used to "divert, deflect and distract" attention from scams worth Rs 31,691 crore exposed in the last 10 days.

The government's "mask of a corruption crusader" was in shambles with successive scams getting uncovered over the last 45 months and "zero action" being taken against the fraudsters, he added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)An upcoming Chinese ocean observation station in the Maldives, not far off from the Indian coast, has neither a military application nor meant to be a submarine base, according to Chinese analysts.

China and the Maldives had signed a protocol to build the joint ocean observation station during the visit of Maldives President Abdulla Yameen here in December last.

The station which will come at Makunudhoo island of the Maldives is not far from Kerala and Sri Lankan coast.

"The two countries would accelerate the plan to build the station to observe the climate and the ocean, and deepen cooperation in marine ecology preservation, prevention of marine disasters and marine scientific research," the state-run Global Times said today, quoting the China's State Oceanic Administration as saying about the station.

Though the visit took place in December last, during which Yameen, who is accused of pursuing pro-China polices also signed the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) sparking concerns in India, this is the first-time Chinese official media made mention of the station.

Today's report comes in the backdrop of the political crisis in Maldives following stern measures like detention of Supreme Court judges, opposition leaders and the imposition of emergency by Yameen.

While India and the international community including the US and the UN has called for restoration of democracy in Maldives by lifting the emergency, China has opposed any external interferences saying that the crisis should be resolved by relevant parties within the country.

While mentioning the protocol to establish the station, the newspaper quoted the Chinese analysts refuting the perception that it has a military application or a submarine base.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Courts in China dealt with over 2.13 lakh cases of infringement of intellectual property rights (IPR) last year, double the number as compared to 2013, a top judicial official said.

A total of 213,480 cases which courts dealt with was about 40.4 per cent more as compared to 2016 and double as compared to 2013, said Tao Kaiyuan, vice president of the Supreme People's Court (SPC).

The rise in numbers also reflects the concerns over IPR violations in China, which has emerged as the worlds second largest economy.

Even the British Broadcasting Company (BBC) had filed a lawsuit recently against a Chinese company for using its name to promote an English learning app.

The trademark infringement lawsuit, announced by a Beijing district court, has accused a Beijing-based language learning firm iYuba of using BBC's trademark and content on its apps, websites and social media without any authorisation.

As of the end of 2017, the SPC had published 36 items of judicial interpretation on IPR, Tao told at a press conference.

China has more than 300 IPR tribunals, and about 3,000 judge and 2,000 judicial assistants working on IPR, the state-run Xinhua agency reported today.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)A group of 10 Chinese sailors were allowed to make a stopover in Mumbai for rest for the first time after the 2008 terror attack, official media here reported today.

The sailors from cargo vessel "Houston" received a warm welcome on Sunday last at Mumbai when their ship arrived there, the Peoples' Daily reported.

Due to terrorism and other issues, sailors of the vessels from several countries, including China and Pakistan, were excluded from landing at any Indian port in the last 10 years.

The facility for the rest for the sailors has been restored following an understanding between the two countries, it said.

It is very necessary to land and have a rest after a long journey, Captain of the ship 'Houston' Qiao Qinming told the newspaper.

"Thanks to the negotiations between the two countries, we are glad to be the first batch of sailors to land at an Indian port, he said.

Last year China and India had agreed to allow Chinese sailors at any Indian port for a rest, said Zheng Xiyuan, Chinese general consul in Mumbai.

The welcome ceremony was seen as a special Spring Festival celebration for Chinese sailors, the report said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Even as Bollywood diva Sridevi was cremated today, activists based here were divided over whether her death should be probed by the Mumbai police despite the Dubai police closing the case.

Sridevi passed away on Saturday night at a hotel room in Dubai where she, along with the entire Kapoor clan and a host of Bollywood celebrities, had gone for the wedding of nephew Mohit Marwah.

Dubai Public Prosecutor's Office yesterday put an end to speculation about the cause of her death, saying she accidentally drowned in the bathtub following loss of consciousness, and that the "case was now closed".

However, some activists here feel that there should be further probe to find out the circumstances in which the stunning actress died.

On the other hand, some other activists are of the view that there is no scope for any further investigation after the probe by Dubai police.

The legal head of the NGO "Jai Ho Foundation" advocate Adil Khatri has sent an email to Mumbai Police Commissioner Dattatrey Padsalgikar requesting a thorough investigation under Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC).

"Why should one believe everything what the Dubai police is telling? In the interest of justice, to put this entire speculation to rest, Mumbai police must exhaustively investigate the entire mysterious death of our beloved Indian actor Sridevi. Mumbai Police has the power to launch an extra terrestrial investigation," he wrote.

"The circumstances of accidental death are unclear and it has witnessed several turning points. Internationally, in the past, there have been inquiries in death of famous personalities like Michael Jackson, Princess Diana etc. This case also deserves a fair probe," Khatri added.

Talking to PTI, he claimed that the Police Commissioner has forwarded his request to Joint CP (Law and Order), "which means that the Commissioner has given attention to my request."



However, the Police Commissioner did not respond to a message seeking his comment on the demand for probe.

Social activist and lawyer S Balakrishnan has made a similar demand in a letter to Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis.

"Even though the death took place in Dubai, nothing prevents the Mumbai police from suo motuconducting parallel investigation since Sridevi was domiciled in the city and was a celebrity with a huge following," he said.

"Initial reports emerging from Dubai said categorically that she had died of a massive cardiac arrest. And now it is stated that she died of accidental drowning. This is absurd because no forensic doctor will state the cause as accidental drowning and therefore, it is the job of the Mumbai police to find out if it was an accident or murder," he added.

"I have sent an email to the chief minister, underlining how her death has left so many questions," he said.

On the other hand, noted lawyer and human rights activist Abha Singh felt that there was no case worth investigating.

"It is natural and accidental death with no foul play suggested," she said.

She said some people were equating Sridevi's death case with that of Sunanda Pushkar, wife of Congress leader Shashi Tharoor, but the two cases were different.

The actress did not die within seven years of marriage, unlike Sunanda, Singh pointed out.

"Additionally, the Dubai police has gone by the law and therefore, I do not find any substance why Mumbai police should still conduct investigation," she added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Opposition Congress in Uttarakhand is preparing to corner the BJP government in the state over its alleged failure to honour its commitments, including a CBI probe into the NH-74 scam and the passage of the Lokayukta bill, when the forthcoming budget session of the state Assembly gets underway on March 20.

The decision to attack the government on the floor of the House was taken at a meeting of the Congress Legislature Party, chaired by Leader of Opposition Indira Hridayesh, yesterday.

"Shying away from an investigation into the NH-74 scam by the apex agency, despite the chief minister stating in the House earlier that a CBI probe will be ordered into it, is not acceptable. We will raise the issue aggressively in the House during the budget session," Hridayesh said.

It also went against the state government's "much-hyped" policy of "zero tolerance" to corruption, she added.

A special investigation team (SIT), constituted by the state government, is currently probing the scam.

The inordinate delay in the passage of the Lokayukta bill and alleged financial mismanagement of the state government would be the other issues to be raised by the opposition, Hridayesh said.

The passage of the Lokayukta bill is still awaited in Uttarakhand, in spite of it being a major commitment of the BJP in its vision document for the 2017 state Assembly polls.

"The fate of the Lokayukta bill hangs fire, despite the fact that the opposition is entirely with the government over constituting the anti-corruption body," Hridayesh said.

Charging the BJP regime with failure in fiscal management, she said for the first time, the state government had to take loan to pay salaries to its employees and still, many of them in various departments were yet to get their dues for months.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Congress will take the lead in resolving the issues faced by fishermen and fight for their rights across the country, party chief Rahul Gandhi said today.

He was addressing the first national executive committee meeting of the newly-formed All India Fishermen Congress here.

The national chairman of the All India Fishermen Congress, T N Prathapan, presided over the meeting.

Gandhi accused the BJP-led central government of denying the rights of fishermen to live on their own land.

He said the fishermen were facing serious difficulties in fishing due to the arbitrary price hike of kerosene and diesel.

According to a Congress statement, Gandhi said the Centre was not ready to intervene in the issues of the fishermen, who were imprisoned in Pakistan and Sri Lanka.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who travelled abroad frequently, had not raised the important issues concerning the fishermen, he said, adding that instead, the PM was only taking up the issues of corporates and multi-millionaires.

The Congress president told the meeting that a lot of fishermen were imprisoned in various foreign jails after they inadvertently crossed over the international borders in the high waters.

He said when his party would come to power, it would set up an independent fisheries ministry and appoint an independent cabinet minister to it.

The Congress would bring the ordinary and poor fishermen to the frontline of the political mainstream, he said.

Gandhi also launched the website of the All India Fishermen Congress.

AICC general secretaries Mohan Prakash and PC Chacko and party leader K Raju also addressed the fishermen.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)A consumer court here has slapped a Rs 25,000 fine on Britannia Industries for selling biscuit packets weighing less than what was printed on them.

The Ahmedabad branch of Consumer Dispute Redressal Forum also asked the company to deposit the amount with the Consumer Welfare Fund.

Apart from the Rs 25,000 fine, the forum also directed the company to pay Rs 6,000 to complainant Lalji Patel.

Patel had moved the forum after finding that the four biscuit packets he purchased in 2012 weighed less than 122.5 grams, which was printed on them.

He found this after verifying it with a local ISO 9001 certified laboratory.

Patel had contended that all the four packets of biscuits that he purchased weighed less than the printed 122.5 grams. They weighed 104 grams, 112 grams, 114 grams, and 117 grams.

Despite this, the packets were neither replaced nor was he refunded, the complainant contended.

He moved the consumer court which issued notices to the company as well as the dealer and owner of the retail shop on October 20, 2012.

The company had argued that it has "sophisticated manufacturing plant" where the biscuits are packed in order to maintain international standard.

It had said that variation in weight could be caused due to transportation and weather conditions.

The court in its order said that the difference in actual and printed weights on the packets was not negligible and was more than the maximum permissible error and hence came under "unfair trade practise" and malpractice with consumers.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)A sea of humanity emerged on the roads as the truck carrying the mortal remains of Bollywood diva Sridevi wound its way to a crematorium in suburban Vile Parle this afternoon.

Be it senior citizens, youngsters or housewives, people of all ages and from all walks of lives thronged the streets to bid adieu to their beloved actor.

Some followed the truck while others ran helter-skelter, hoping to catch a glimpse of her.

Many people were perched on dividers of roads leading to the crematorium from the actor's residence in Lokhandwala Complex. Some had parked themselves on terraces of roadside buildings.

Police had a tough time manging the crowds and ensuring smooth passage for the truck, which took one hour and forty minutes to cover the distance of about 5 km.

The frenzy reached the crescendo at the crematorium where people were seen jostling to catch a glimpse of members of the film fraternity who were arriving.

Despite the barricades put up by police along the stretch leading to the crematorium, people entered the area. Police had to make repeated appeals on microphone to clear them.

At one point, a mad scramble was witnessed on the foot-over bridge leading to the



Vile Parle railway station, which is nearby.

"It feels like I have lost my mother," said Atul, a midget actor who had worked with Sridevi in her last film, "Mom".

"She used to take a good care of us, and even supported us financially," said Atul.

Jai Kishan, a theatre artist, said he had come from Ujjain in Madhya Pradesh. "I'm a big fan of her, and I have come all the way from MP to pay my homage," he said.

Babu Pawar, a resident of Thane, said he didn't believe the of Sridevi's death at first last Saturday. "I thought it was a joke. I was left numb and started crying after I saw the on TV," he said.

Amol Pawar from Dombivili said he and his wife came to Vile Parle because his wife wanted to see Sridevi for one last time. "My wife is a big fan of Sridevi's. She has watched almost all her movies," he said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)All Delhi government employees, including Chief Secretary Anshu Prakash, today carried out a candlelight march from the secretariat to Rajghat in protest against the alleged attack on the top bureaucrat by ruling AAP MLAs last week.

Around 500 employees of the Delhi government participated in the candlelight march and observed silence for a while at Rajghat here, They vowed to work "extra" hours so that the general public don't suffer because of the ongoing tussle between the bureaucracy and the AAP dispensation.

As all officers reached Rajghat, they sat and sang the bhajan of Mahatma Gandhi - 'Raghupati Raghav Raja Ram'.

Other than Delhi government chief secretary Prakash, Home Secretary Manoj Kumar Parida and Finance Secretary S N Sahai were among the officers who participated in the march.

Earlier today, the joint forum of Delhi government employees in a press statement condemned the remarks of Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia at the National Seminar in connection with secretary and director of the education department.

"Such loose comments regarding the bureaucracy and the current situation are extremely gender insensitive and reprehensible, especially when coming from minister Women and Child Development, a constitutional authority," it said.

Sisodia holds the portfolio of women and child development.

In solidarity with Prakash, all IAS and DANICS officers have been boycotting meetings with Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and his cabinet colleagues and only maintaining written communication with them.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)A month after he debunked Darwin's theory of evolution, Union minister Satya Pal Singh today called for inculcating scientific temper and curiosity among students.

Speaking at a National Science Day function here, the Union Minister of State for Human Resource Development(HRD) also said that Indian religion follows the natural laws.

"Whatever is taught in our schools, colleges and universities, should promote scientific temper and curiosity among the students.

The IPS officer turned politician had claimed in Aurangabad last month that Charles Darwin's theory of evolution of man was "scientifically wrong" and it needed to be changed in school and college curriculum.

"Darwin's theory of evolution is wrong. It has already been rejected by scientists some 30-35 years back. It is wrong to say that humans evolved from monkeys and such references should be removed from the science and history school textbooks," Singh had said at the All India Vaidik Sammelan in Aurangabad in Maharashtra.

He said that, in Europe, there was a long struggle between science and religion, but it was not so in our country.

"According to the definition of our religion (Dharma), knowing and following natural laws is Dharma."



Emphasising on the need to develop a scientific temperament, he said that questioning others as well as oneself is the first step towards it.

"Science grows in opposite ideas and sometimes with wrong ideas," he said.

Claiming that suicides in cities like Delhi and Mumbai are six times more than the murders registered there, Singh stressed on spiritual science and science of intellect.

"Will this growing science teach us values. It will not happen unless we talk about spiritual science. Spiritual science should be there, we should also teach science of intellect," he said addressing the gathering of students from DU, JNU and IIT attending the function.

The minister lauded scientists for making possible revolutions in the field of milk, meat and fish production in the country.

He also said that every child in the country should be trained in basic science.

On the sidelines of the function, the minister refused to comment when asked about a media report that he had claimed that mantras codified the laws of motion before its discovery by Isaac Newton.

Singh was invited as the chief guest at the National Science Day function organised here by Indian National Science Academy, Delhi, and Indian Academy of Sciences, Bengaluru.

The inaugural session was followed by sessions on topics 'Why evolution is central to both biology and our lives' and "Science and mathematics in Ancient India."



National Science Day is celebrated across India on February 28. Indian scientist Sir C V Raman had discovered the Raman Effect on this day in 1928. For this discovery, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1930.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)is working with international bourses and index providers to facilitate an orderly transition that is not disruptive to the and stakeholders, its chief Vikram Limaye said on Wednesday.

Top officials of visited USA and other countries this week to address their concerns of wide range of stakeholders including the market participants.

"The visit was organised with an objective to reassure all stakeholders that the exchange is working with them to facilitate an orderly transition that is not disruptive to the and stakeholders.

"This engagement with various stakeholders will continue going forward to address any concerns," Limaye, who is the managing director and chief executive at NSE, told PTI here.

His comments come days after after top bourses NSE, BSE and Metropolitan Stock Exchange on February 9 terminated agreements that allowed their index derivatives to be traded on overseas bourses and data vendors from providing data to entities which would use it to trade on international bourses.

The chief also said the move by Indian stock exchanges to restrict data feeds is not anti-competitive as the decision is consistent with the policies adopted across by every international exchange.

"It is very common to find other exchanges around the world not licensing indices or data in any of their core contracts if it is being used to fragment liquidity and build liquidity outside their market, Limaye said.

He also said that NSE will continue to provide market data to market participants and index providers including MSCI to help them raise money for exchange traded funds (ETFs) as long as the data is not used to price and trade a derivatives contract on Indian securities on an offshore exchange.

The National Stock Exchange (NSE) said that stock prices would be shared with everybody including index constructors and they can construct India indices based on the data provided.

"We have had several conversations with MSCI and are working with them to help them make transition changes. Indian are open and continue to provide easy, simple access to all foreign investors who can trade in India or in GIFT city. Also licensing of indices and data is a commercial matter and should be viewed as such," Limaye said.

MSCI, earlier this month, had termed the move by Indian stock exchanges to restrict derivatives trading and data feeds overseas as anti-competitive.

NSE said it is also working with the regulators to further enhance the attractiveness and competitiveness of the Indian markets for accessing and trading India related products.

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Delhi government has decided to set up its State Sanskrit Council to improve the state of formal of the language in the national capital.

Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia has directed the department to examine various representations received by the Delhi government pertaining to Sanskrit education in schools and colleges.

"Formal education of Sanskrit language in Delhi is a mess. I keep receiving representations from various people on issues pertaining to Sanskrit education in schools, colleges and universities. The main reason behind this is that Delhi does not have a Sanskrit Education Council," he said in an official order.

"The department may examine the representations and do the needful to set up a Delhi State Sanskrit Education Council. A detailed step-by-step programme about actions to be taken should be submitted to me as soon as possible," Sisodia said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The last book in the Harry Potter series by J K Rowling was released in 2007, but the fandom for the fantasy fiction has refused to wane out even a decade later.

Keeping the memories of the tale that shaped almost every 90's kid's childhood, a special exhibition by The British Library -- "Harry Potter: A History of Magic" can now be viewed online with Google Arts & Culture.

The exhibition that features Harry Potter artifacts, including original sketches by Rowling as well as illustrations by Jim Kay, are part of The British Library collections on the application.

"The British Library exhibit has proven that interest in magic is a real global phenomenon, and has fascinated people for thousands of years," says Julian Harrison, lead curator for Medieval Historical Manuscripts and "Harry Potter: A History of Magic".

She adds that the library was "thrilled" that its exhibition can now be accessed by fans across the globe, who can dive in and discover the history of magic through the eyes of Harry Potter.

To bring the Harry Potter magic to more fans around the world, hundreds of the exhibition treasures from London.

From taking a Herbology class with Culpepper's Herbal, to Rowling's original sketch of the Hogwarts' grounds, with her meticulous notes; from the original synopsis of the first Harry Potter book, to exploring The Ripley Scroll, which describes how to make the fabled Philosopher's Stone, the exhibition is a treasure trove for Potterheads.

A 360-degree tour of the Divination room is also on offer.

Other exhibits include medieval manuscripts, precious printed books and Chinese oracle bones to explore magical traditions, from the making of potions to the harvesting of poisonous plants, and from the study of the night sky to the uses of unicorns.

15 online exhibits will also be available in six languages -- English, Spanish, French, German, Hindi and Brazilian Portuguese.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Election Commission of India has sought dismissal of plea in the Supreme Court against Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, terming it "not maintainable" and "an abuse of the process of the court".

In its reply to the petition seeking cancellation of Kumar's membership of the state Legislative Council on the ground that he had allegedly concealed information about a pending criminal case against him, the Election Commission of India (ECI) said that no fundamental rights of citizens had been violated.

"It is submitted at the outset that the present writ petition is not maintainable before this court as a perusal of the contents of the said writ petition and the reliefs prayed for as above, clearly reveal that no fundamental rights of the petitioner or of the citizens of this country has been violated in any manner whatsoever so as to merit the interference of this court under Article 32 of the Constitution," the affidavit filed through advocate Amit Sharma said.

The apex court is likely to hear the matter on March 19.

The ECI said that petitioner advocate M L Sharma had made a bald assertion in the writ petition alleging that the plea has been filed to protect the fundamental rights of the citizens but has deliberately not mentioned as to what fundamental right is sought to be protected.

"However, in the present writ petition, the petitioner has failed to disclose the violation of any fundamental rights so as to warrant the interference of this court under Article 32 of the Constitution. Thus the writ petition ought to be dismissed on the grounds of maintainability alone," it said.

The commission said the plea was not maintainable as Sharma had "willfully" and "deliberately" chosen not to avail of the specific statutory remedy provided under the law.

It said the law provides that any person, who is aware of any information or have evidence with regard to concealing information or giving any false information, can approach police for taking lawful action against the candidate.

"It is further submitted that in the present case, the petitioner deliberately chose not to avail of the aforesaid remedy under section 125A of the Representation of the People Act, 1951 but instead directly approach the election commission of India," the commission said.

It added that the ECI is not an investigative agency or authority and does not either possess the means or is responsible for conducting an enquiry in order to ascertain if the disclosures made by a particular candidates are true and correct.

Terming the allegations levelled by Sharma as completely baseless, unjustified and unverified, the commission said that such unwarranted and unjustified criticism not only undermined its credibility in the eyes of the general public but also shakes the confidence of citizens of this country in the electoral process of this country.

"It is respectfully submitted that present writ petition is nothing but an abuse of the process of this court and ought not to be entertained at all by this court and therefore may be dismissed with exemplary cost," it said.

The apex court had on September 11, 2017, without issuing notice, had sought a response from the ECI on the plea filed by Sharma.

The PIL had alleged that there was a criminal case against the JD(U) leader in which he was accused of killing a local Congress leader Sitaram Singh and injuring four others ahead of the Lok Sabha by-election from Bihar's Barh constituency in 1991. It had also sought a direction to the CBI to register an FIR against Kumar in the case.

The lawyer has sought cancellation of Kumar's membership as per the Election Commission's 2002 order stating it was mandatory for candidates to disclose criminal cases against them in their affidavits annexed to the nomination papers.

He claimed that the Bihar chief minister did not disclose the criminal case pending against him in affidavits since 2004, except for 2012.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Cheering the five-quarter high 7.2 per cent GDP growth in the October-December period, India Inc today said the economy is on the cusp of a sustained rebound and expressed hope that it will gather a good pace in the next fiscal beginning April.

The country's economy is expected to grow at 6.6 per cent in the current fiscal ending March 31, as per the second advanced estimates of the Central Statistics Office (CSO), compared to 7.1 per cent in 2016-17. The earlier estimate was 6.5 per cent.

The significant improvement in GDP growth, which has accelerated to a robust 7.2 per cent in the third quarter as against 6.5 per cent in the previous quarter is noteworthy and strengthens the perception that the Indian economy is at the threshold of a sustained rebound in growth," CII Director General Chandrajit Banerjee said.

Assocham said the third quarter GDP numbers paint a "pretty good macro picture" for Indian economy.

The 7.2 per cent growth in GDP for Q3 also highlights an improvement in investment, manufacturing and construction thereby giving hope for a good pace of economic growth in the next fiscal, as the stage is now set in 2017-18.

However, the gross value addition (GVA), which is net of taxes, is not as good as GDP, underscoring the fact much more needs to be done in terms of sustainable growth," Assocham Secretary General DS Rawat said.

PHD Chamber of Commerce President Anil Khaitan said the GDP growth at 7.2 per cent in Q3 of 2017-18 is inspiring and strong signs of economic revival are visible.

The growth for the second quarter (July-September) has been revised upwards to 6.5 per cent, from 6.3 per cent estimated earlier by the CSO.

The previous high was recorded at 7.5 per cent in the July-September quarter of 2016-17.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Egypt's state prosecution today said it would monitor media for "false" and take "necessary" action, after the government demanded the BBC retract a report on rights abuses in the country.

The report, aired over the weekend, mentioned the case of a young woman whose mother said she had been the victim of an enforced disappearance.

The woman later appeared on a local television show saying she had run away from her mother, married, and had a child.

The prosecution said in a statement its head had tasked lawyers with monitoring outlets and social media "in light of recent observed attempts to harm the security and safety of the homeland by publishing lies and false "



He instructed them to "take the necessary measures under the criminal law" against "false statements, and rumours that harm public safety or bring terror into the hearts of individuals."



Egypt's State Information Service, which regulates foreign media in the country, has called on the BBC to retract its story or face a government boycott.

A BBC spokesperson said that "we are aware of the reports about this BBC story on Egyptian TV and of the comments of the head of the State Information Service. We stand by the integrity of our reporting teams."



The State Information Service has repeatedly complained about media using anonymous sources.

Many journalists, however, complain that it is difficult to find sources, especially officials, who agree to be quoted by name.

An Egyptian anti-terrorism law criminalises the publication of tolls relating to militant attacks that contradict official numbers.

Egypt is currently gearing up for presidential elections on March 26-28 that President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi looks certain to win.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Election to a Rajya Sabha seat from Uttarakhand, which had fallen vacant in April, will be held on March 23, an official said here today.

The Election Commission has already announced that voting for 58 Rajya Sabha seat will be held on March 23 and the single vacant Uttarakhand seat will also be a part of this lot.

The election to the seat will be notified on March 5, the last date for filing nominations is March 12 followed by scrutiny on March 13, Chief Election Officer Saujanya said citing the schedule released by the Election Commission of India.

March 15 will be the last date for withdrawal of nominations and election to the seat will be held on March 23, if necessary, she said.

Counting will take place the same day in the evening, the official said.

The seat had fallen vacant on April 2 when Congress MP Mahendra Singh Mahra's tenure ended.

There are three Rajya Sabha seats in Uttarakhand all of which were held by the Congress. Apart from Mahra, the other two MPs from the state are Uttar Pradesh Congress president Raj Babbar and Pradeep Tamta.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Representatives for thousands of Ethiopian Jews say they will stage a mass hunger strike if Israel eliminates funding to allow them to join their families in that country.

Hundreds gathered at a synagogue in Ethiopia's capital today to express concern that Israel's proposed budget removes the funding to help them immigrate to reunite with relatives.

Most of the nearly 8,000 Ethiopian Jews in the East African nation are said to have family members already in Israel. Some tell The Associated Press they have been separated for more than a decade.

Activists say Israel's government in 2015 pledged to bring the remaining Ethiopian Jews to Israel.

Ethiopians currently are prohibited from holding protests under the country's latest state of emergency, imposed after the most severe anti-government demonstrations in a quarter-century.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The EU today mounted pressure on the UK with the publication of its first draft legal agreement on Britain's exit plans from the 28-member bloc, which Prime Minister Theresa May dismissed on grounds that it threatens the "constitutional integrity" of the United Kingdom.

Michel Barnier, the European Union (EU)'s chief negotiator, proposed a "common regulatory area" on the island of Ireland after if solutions cannot be found, as he launched the new 120-page document in Brussels.

Such a measure would mean that the UK could impose customs checks between Great Britain and Northern Ireland to solve the issue of a border with Ireland - which will remain an EU member while the neighbouring UK territory Northern Ireland would not after March 2019.

Barnier told reporters in Brussels that he did not believe such checks would amount to a border across British territory, adding: "Somewhere in airports and ports there would be controls, but I would not refer to a border".

The plan involves keeping Northern Ireland in the EU Customs Union and Single Market, effectively subject to the rules applicable to all member-countries.

He claimed that the EU was offering this as a "backstop option", which is not intended to "provoke" the UK but to encourage it to come up with workable alternatives.

However, May shot the option down during Prime Minister's Questions session in the House of Commons soon after.

"The draft legal text the commission has published would, if implemented, undermine the UK common market and threaten the constitutional integrity of the UK by creating a customs and regulatory border down the Irish Sea, and no UK Prime Minster could ever agree to it," she said.

There are fears that could lead to the return of border checks between Ireland and Northern Ireland, which would threaten cross-border trade. Such checks are, according to the EU, needed because Britain will no longer be subject to the bloc's rules on, for example, animal health and other standards and Brexit will create a land border with the EU.

The Irish government said that the option offered in the draft was "very much a default and would only apply should it prove necessary".

Ireland's Indian-origin Prime Minister Leo Varadkar hit back at hard Brexiteers like UK Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson for failing to come up with any workable solution to the border issue.

"It's really up to those who can't accept the backstop to actually come up with those alternative solutions. It can't be theoretical stuff," he said.

Johnson reacted by accusing the EU of politically using the issue of the Northern Irish border "to try and keep the UK in the customs union effectively the single market so we cannot really leave the EU".

Britain's Opposition Labour party said it would solve the Irish border question by entering into a new customs union with the EU, meaning checks are not needed as people and goods pass between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.

The timing of the EU's draft text is being seen as the 28-nation economic bloc's attempt to put pressure on May to spell out the exact nature of a future relationship between Britain and the EU as she gets set to deliver a key Brexit policy speech on Friday.

Donald Tusk, the president of the European Council, is set to travel to London tomorrow to pile yet more pressure on May to explain in her speech how she plans to solve the numerous Brexit challenges.

There is also opposition in Britain to any role for the European Court of Justice after Brexit, while the EU is proposing that disputes over the Brexit agreement in future years be settled by a "joint committee" which can refer to the EU's court for a binding decision.

Meanwhile, former British prime minister John Major made a significant intervention with a speech today, calling for a second referendum to allow the public to change its mind.

Major, who led the Conservative Party between 1990 and 1997, said May should offer British MPs a free vote on the final deal, with the option of putting it to the public in a second referendum.

"Many electors know they were misled. Many more are beginning to realise it. So, the electorate has every right to reconsider their decision," he said.

Last week, May had finally succeeded in uniting the Remainers and Leavers in her own Brexit war Cabinet to some degree after a gruelling session of discussions and presentations.

Her much-anticipated policy speech on Friday is expected to lay out the tone for trade negotiations with the EU to begin in April.Mumbai Congress chief has said that every person living in Maharashtra should speak Marathi and make an "honest and sincere" attempt to keep the language alive.

His remarks came against the backdrop of the goof-up in translation during Governor Ch Vidyasagar Rao's address to the Maharashtra legislature on Monday.

A similar glitch happened yesterday when the last stanza of 'Marathi Abhimaan Geet' wasn't played in the Vidhan Bhavan premises on the occasion of 'Marathi Bhasha Gaurav Din', inviting the opposition's ire.

Nirupam said Marathi is the state language of Maharashtra and it is important that every person living in the state speak the language.

"Everybody should make an honest and sincere attempt to keep the language, its literature and beauty alive. This is the responsibility of each and every person who lives in Maharashtra," he said in a statement today.

In a state where several electioneering slogans are raised over Marathi, not much has been done by the BJP government for the language, he rued.

NCP leader Jayant Patil yesterday sought to know in the state Assembly about the demand for giving Marathi, the status of a classical language.

Nirupam said even the promise made three-and-a-half years ago by the state government to set up a 'Marathi Bhavan' has not been fulfilled.

The Congress has been at the forefront of promoting the Marathi language and ensuring that it is given its due importance, he said.

The state education minister, Vinod Tawde, told the Legislative Council yesterday that the government is considering to make Marathi language a compulsory subject up to class 10 in CBSE and CISCE schools.

At present, Marathi is a compulsory subject up to class 8 in schools run by the Central Board of Secondary Education, and the Council for the Indian School Certificate Examinations, a private board which conducts the Indian Certificate of Secondary Education examination.Three-time chief minister of Nagaland, Neiphiu Rio, who has recently elected unopposed in Nagaland Assembly elections, has resigned from his Lok Sabha seat.

The resignation of 67-year-old Rio has been accepted by Speaker Sumitra Mahajan.

"Neiphiu Rio, an elected member of Lok Sabha from Nagaland parliamentary constituency of Nagaland, has resigned his seat in Lok Sabha and his resignation has been accepted by the Speaker with effect from February 22, 2018," an official notification said.

He was declared winner from the Northern Angami-II assembly seat in Kohima district earlier this month after his rival withdrew his nomination.

Rio has quit the Naga Peoples Front, the party he had formed after leaving the Congress in 2002, and joined a new party-Nationalist Democratic Progressive Party (NDPP) to contest the assembly polls held yesterday,



The NDPP has tied up with the BJP and is contesting in 40 seats in the 60-member assembly, while the BJP is fighting in the remaining 20 seats. Results of the polls will be declared on March 3.

Rio was the chief minister of Nagaland for three terms - 200308, 200813 and 201314. He was elected from the lone Lok Sabha seat in Nagaland in 2014.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.): Former Sri Lanka President Mahinda Rajapaksa today offered prayers at the famous hill shrine of Lord Venkateswara at nearby Tirumala.

Rajapaksa, an ardent devotee of Lord Venkateswara, who had visited the temple several times in the past, flew in here last evening and later reached the Tirumala hills by road.

After an overnight stay at a TTD Guest House on the hills, Rajapaksa offered prayers to the presiding deity of Lord Venkateswara this morning and was in the temple for about 20 minutes, temples sources PTI.

The Sri Lankan leader had last visited the temple on December 10, 2014, a day after filing his nomination papers for the then presidential elections, seeking a third term. However, Rajapaksa had lost the elections.

Tight security was put in place on the hills for Rajapaksa's visit, which comes amid a political crisis in Sri Lanka following the local council elections in which his party SLPP registered a landslide victory recently.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)President Donald Trump's former campaign chairman was reprimanded by a federal judge today for speaking publicly in violation of her gag order in his criminal case.

The rebuke of Paul Manafort came as he pleaded innocent to the latest charges brought by special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia investigators.

Manafort appeared at the federal courthouse to enter a formal plea to a second indictment accusing him of acting as an unregistered foreign agent and directing an international money-laundering conspiracy stemming from his political work in Ukraine.

It was his first court appearance since his co-defendant and longtime business associate, Rick Gates, pleaded guilty and agreed to cooperate with prosecutors.

Manafort had previously pleaded not guilty in the case, but the latest indictment, which mirrored the charges filed against him last October, required him to formally enter a second plea.

Manafort also faces charges in Virginia accusing him of tax evasion and bank fraud.

During the hearing, Judge Amy Berman Jackson set a Sept. 17 trial date for Manafort and reprimanded him for making a public statement last week about Gates' plea. She said his statement violated a gag order she put in place early in the case.

"I can certainly understand the impulse to not let that go by without asserting your innocence," Jackson told Manafort, referring to Gates' plea and "hundreds" of articles about it. But it can't happen again, she said, or she could hold him in contempt.

Manafort's lawyer, Kevin Downing, told the judge his client would appreciate more guidance from the judge on what he can and can't say publicly. Downing also said he plans to file a motion challenging her order.

Manafort's statement last week took aim at the prosecution, saying Gates' plea didn't change his commitment to defend himself against "the untrue piled-up charges contained in the indictments against me." Manafort also said he had hoped and "expected" Gates would have had "the strength to continue the battle to prove out innocence." "For reasons yet to surface he chose to do otherwise," Manafort said.

Manafort is due back in court later this week, this time in Virginia, where he faces a separate indictment involving bank fraud and tax charges.

The allegations stem from much of the same conduct outlined in the Washington case, and prosecutors attempted to have all the charges brought in the pending case there. But Manafort objected, resulting in his facing two indictments in two different places at the same time.

Today, Jackson said the situation could lead to a lot of duplication for both sides.

Prosecutor Greg Andres acknowledged the overlap in the two indictments but said any request to combine the case would be Manafort's to make.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Bombay High Court today summoned senior officials from the Maharashtra government's public health and, food and civil supplies department over a plea alleging use of excess amount of pesticides and antibiotics in fruits, vegetables, and poultry sold across the state.

It also summoned senior officials of the health department of the Mumbai civic body.

A bench of Justices Naresh Patil and G S Kulkarni directed the authorities concerned to list the steps being taken to check the use of excess pesticides in fruits and vegetables, and the adulteration of milk, and other food items sold across the state.

The bench was hearing a PIL filed by an NGO from the city seeking directions for prohibiting usage of excess amounts of pesticides by farmers, usage of chemicals by retailers for ripening of fruits and vegetables, and use of antibiotics and growth hormones for poultry.

The plea also sought a complete ban on sale of genetically-treated chicken and those containing antibiotics being sold by some fast food retailers.

The counsel of the Union government, which was made a party in the matter, told the High Court that the Centre had already prescribed standards for usage of pesticides, preservatives and other such items.

It was up to the state authorities to implement such standards and ensure that the prescribed rules were not being breached, he said.

The HC has now directed the officials concerned to remain present in court next Wednesday.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Srinagar Lok Sabha MP and National Conference president Farooq Abdullah today took stock of various issues related to Srinagar airport at a meeting held here, a party spokesperson said.

Abdullah, who is the chairman of the airport's advisory committee, discussed about late-night flight operations and operation of international flights from the airport.

He took note about passenger amenities, widening of the approach road to the airport and land acquisition for the same, the NC spokesperson said in a statement.

The meeting was attended by senior officers of the Airports Authority of India, the state administration, Indian Air Force, CRPF, J&K police, as well as the representatives of various travel bodies and officials of the airlines operating from the airport, the spokesperson said.

The former chief minister also took note of the formal naming of the airport as Sheikh-ul-Alam International Airport and the preponing of the Modernisation of Airfield Infrastructure (MAFI) project, he said.

Abdullah issued orders for the release of Rs 35 lakh from his MPLAD funds for the acquisition of a state-of-the art, fully-equipped ambulance for the airport, he added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)A 10-member delegation led by National Conference president Farooq Abdullah today called on Jammu and Kashmir Governor N N Vohra here and sought his intervention in addressing various issues pertaining to the people living in the far-flung areas of the state.

Abdullah, accompanied by NC provisional president Devender Singh Rana and leaders from Nowshera, Sunderbani and Kalakote constituencies of Rajouri district, flagged the delay in setting up administrative units, which were sanctioned by the previous government in 2014, officials said.

"It was complained that the government has so far been taking the position in the state Assembly that new administrative units will be set up when the required funds become available," the spokesperson said.

In this context, the delegation demanded that the geographically difficult and relatively underdeveloped areas of Nowshera, Kalakote and Sunderbani sub-divisions call for much greater attention, the official said.

He informed that the delegation also underlined the need for an additional deputy commissioner at a suitable agreed station to look after this entire area.

Residents of the three sub-divisions are on an indefinite strike since February 16 in support of their demand for the sanction of additional deputy commissioner's post.

Vohra assured the delegation that he would discuss their demands with Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti, the official said.

The delegation also complained about the "unilateral" decision of the state government to post an additional deputy commissioner to supervise the functioning of the Kotranka sub-division in Rajouri district, he added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Following are the top foreign stories at 2000 hours



FGN21 CHINA-MALDIVES-STATION



China's ocean observation station at Maldives not a submarine base: Chinese mediaBeijing: An upcoming Chinese ocean observation station in the Maldives, not far off from the Indian coast, has neither a military application nor meant to be a submarine base, according to Chinese analysts. By K J M VarmaFGN20 CANADA-MP-RESIGNSIndian-origin Liberal MP quits as chair of party's Pacific Caucus over Atwal controversyOttawa: Indian-origin Randeep Sarai, a Canadian MP who had invited a convicted Sikh terrorist to a formal dinner during Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's visit to India, has quit as chair of the Liberal party's Pacific Caucus, taking responsibility for the goof-up, a media report says.

FGN18 CANADA-INDIA-TRUDEAU



Canadian PM stands by official who suggested 'factions' in India 'sabotaged' his trip



Ottawa: Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is standing by a senior government official who suggested that a convicted Sikh terrorist's presence at a formal dinner was arranged by "factions within the Indian government to sabotage" his visit to India, according to media reports.

FGN17 SRIDEVI-SLEEPINGBEAUTY



Sridevi 'looked like a sleeping beauty': social worker



Dubai: Sridevi looked like a "sleeping beauty" on her final journey home from Dubai, an Indian social worker who was involved in the process to repatriate the Bollywood diva's body to India says.

FGN14 US-CHINA



China rewriting norms that does not trend in its favour: US general



Washington: China is trying to rewrite norms that it perceives do not trend in its favour and showing worrying tendency to challenge the existing rules-based order from which it has been a major beneficiary, a top US commander says. By Lalit K Jha



FGN12 US-KUSHNER-2NDLD SECURITY



Jared Kushner's access to top secrets withdrawn: Reports



Washington: US President Donald Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner has been stripped of his top-secret security clearance, limiting his unfettered access to see the country's top secrets, media reports say. By Lalit K Jha



FGN9 US-2NDLD PAK



Pak is yet to take decisive actions against terrorists: US general



Washington: Pakistan will continue to face a freeze in US security assistance as it is yet to take "definitive action" against militant groups like the Taliban and the Haqqani network, a senior US commander has said. By Lalit K Jha



FGN5 US-TALIBAN



Taliban doesn't seem to be ready for peace talks: US



Washington: The Taliban in Afghanistan does not seem to be ready for peace talks, the Trump administration says, asserting that any such talks have to be "Afghan-led and Afghan-owned". By Lalit K Jha



FGN19 EU-BREXIT-NIRELAND



EU Brexit treaty says N Ireland could stay in customs union



Brussels: The EU says that British-ruled Northern Ireland could stay part of a customs union with the bloc after Brexit if a better solution is not found. (AFP)



FGN15 BANGLA-NOBEL-ROHINGYA



3 Nobel laureates blame Suu Kyi for Rohingya crisis



Dhaka: Three Nobel Peace laureates accuse Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi and the nation's military of genocide for their role in violence that has forced hundreds of thousands of Rohingya Muslims to flee to Bangladesh. (AP)



FGN13 MALDIVES-LAWYERS



Maldives detains and deports international lawyers



Colombo: The Maldives detained and deported a group of international lawyers who travelled to the troubled honeymoon islands to study the impact of emergency rule, their organisation say. (AFP)



FGN11 ISRAEL-2NDLD CHURCH



Church at Jesus's traditional burial site reopens after protest



Jerusalem: The Jerusalem church built at the site many see as the holiest in Christianity reopens after a three-day closure to protest against Israeli measures had left thousands of visitors locked outside.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Following is the chronology of events relating to INX Media case in which Congress leader and former Union Finance Minister P Chidambaram's son Karti Chidambaram was today arrested and sent to one-day CBI custody by a Delhi court:



*May 15, 2017: CBI files FIR, alleging irregularities in Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) clearance to INX Media for receiving overseas funds to the tune of Rs 305 crore in 2007 when Karti's father was the Union Finance Minister.

*June 16, 2017: The Foreigner Regional Registration Officer (FRRO) and Bureau of Immigration, under Union Home Ministry, issues look out circular (LOC) against Karti.

*Aug 10: Madras HC stays the LOCs issued against Karti and four others holding that they were prima facie "unwarranted".

*Aug 14: The Supreme Court stays Madras HC order staying Centre's LOC issued against Karti.

*Aug 18: SC asks Karti to appear before CBI on August 23.

*Sep 11: CBI tells SC it has furnished details in a sealed cover on the probe about "possible transactions" in foreign countries and 25 alleged offshore properties of Karti Chidambaram.

*Sep 22: CBI tells SC that Karti was prevented from travelling abroad as he was allegedly closing several of his foreign bank accounts.

*Oct 9: Karti seeks SC's nod to visit the United Kingdom to get his daughter admitted at the Cambridge University and expresses willingness to undertake that he would not visit any bank there.

*Oct 9: P Chidambaram tells SC that the BJP-led government has been carrying on a "politically-motivated vendetta" against him and his son.

*Nov 20: SC allows Karti to visit UK for daughter's admission.

*Dec 8: Karti moves SC challenging the summons issued by the CBI against him in the Aircel-Maxis deal case.

*Jan 31, 2018: SC remands back to the Madras HC, the pleas relating to issuance of two LOCs against Karti and others.

*Feb 16: Karti's CA S Bhaskararaman arrested for allegedly assisting him to manage his "ill-gotten wealth" in India and abroad.

*Feb 28: Karti arrested by CBI at Chennai aiport and brought to Delhi. Delhi court sends him to one-day police custody.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale called on President Ashraf Ghani and held meetings with the top brass of the Afghan government during which he conveyed India's unflinching support for a peaceful, stable and inclusive Afghanistan.

During his two-day Afghan visit that began yesterday, Gokhale handed over a letter from Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Ghani, the external affairs ministry said.

In his meetings with Afghan leaders and addressing a meeting of 'Kabul Process', Gokhale emphasised India's position that there can be no compromise with terrorism and action must be taken against those who provide safe havens and sanctuaries to terrorists, in a clear reference to Pakistan.

The foreign secretary met Afghan National Security Adviser Hanif Atmar, Foreign Minister Salahuddin Rabbani and Deputy Foreign Minister Hekmat Karzai and attended the second meeting of the Kabul Process on 'Peace and Security Cooperation'.

The external affairs ministry said that in his meetings with the Afghan leadership and Statement at the Kabul Process meeting, Gokhale conveyed India's support to Afghan government to build a peaceful, stable, democratic and pluralistic Afghanistan, "free from the shadow of terrorism."



It said the foreign secretary conveyed that India welcomed the Afghan Government's call to armed groups to cease violence and join national peace and reconciliation process that would protect the rights of all Afghans, including the women, children and the minorities.

"Further, there can be no compromise with terrorism and action must be taken against those who continue down the path of violence and those who finance them and provide safe havens and sanctuaries," the MEA said.

It said the leadership of Afghanistan deeply appreciated the continued Indian support for peace, development and prosperity of Afghanistan, including the efforts to operationalise Chahbahar Port and establishment of Air Freight Corridors between various cities of India and Afghanistan.

"It was agreed to work together for implementation of the New Development Partnership," said the MEA.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Four Indians including three women have been arrested in Nepal from a Hong Kong-bound plane for illegally boarding the aircraft, officials said today.

An immigration official stopped the Nepal Airlines plane just before take-off following a tip-off that some passengers had illegally boarded the aircraft, according to officials.

Janak Rai, Amrita Lama, Soni Rai and Anusha Tamang, all Nepalese-origin Indian nationals, were about to fly to Hong Kong illegally by using tourist visas when they were arrested.

They had reached Kathmandu from India by road.

According to the existing rules, any Indian national wising to visit a third country via Nepal needs to get a no-objection letter from Indian Embassy in Kathmandu.

None of them had received the no-objection letter, the officials said, adding that two of the four Indian nationals had Indian passports with Nepalese cover.

The four persons were travelling to Hong Kong with illegal travel documents with the help of human traffickers, an Immigration Department official said.

In the recent past, there have been several attempts of trafficking Indian labourers to the Gulf countries via Nepal through illegal channels in collaboration with some immigration officials.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)A "humanitarian pause" announced by Russia in Syria's deadly bombardment of Eastern Ghouta failed to end violence, with fresh bloodshed and no sign of aid deliveries or residents leaving the besieged enclave.

Nine days after Russian-backed regime forces intensified their campaign against the rebel-held enclave, the deal offered some respite to civilians who had been hiding in their basements.

But the first day of a five-hour daily "pause" that was ordered by President Vladimir Putin on Sunday and kicked off at 9:00 am was marred by violence that saw seven people killed yesterday.

Moscow's plan falls short of a broader 30-day ceasefire it agreed to at the United Nations Security Council but which has yet to take effect, and has inspired little trust from among the besieged enclave's 400,000 residents.

The regime deployed buses at the Al-Wafideen checkpoint to transport residents wanting to use a humanitarian corridor to flee what UN chief Antonio Guterres last called "hell on Earth".

But no civilians were seen venturing towards the regime forces guarding the checkpoint, where large portraits of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and Putin could be seen side-by-side.

The "humanitarian pause" ordered by Putin echoed a similar tactic employed by Russia and Syrian regime during the ferocious battle to force rebels out of Aleppo in 2016.

Russia's defence ministry accused armed groups in Eastern Ghouta of shelling the corridor, and said rebel fighters had "continued attacking the positions of the government forces" and "went on the offensive in other directions too".

Syrian state agency SANA said a former Al-Qaeda affiliate present in the enclave was blocking civilians "to use them as human shields".

Some residents left the basements they had been cowering in for days to check on their property and buy food.

But many in the enclave, which lies on the eastern outskirts of the Syrian capital, appeared distrustful of a "pause" announced by Damascus's main ally.

"This Russian truce is a farce. Russia is killing us and bombing us every day," said Samer al-Buaidhani, a 25-year-old from Douma, Eastern Ghouta's main hub.

"I don't believe it's safe for me or my family to leave by this system," he told AFP.

International Committee of the Red Cross spokeswoman Iolanda Jaquemet said any evacuation needed deeper coordination.

"Under international humanitarian law, humanitarian corridors are things which need to be well planned and must be implemented with the consent of parties on all sides, not only with one side," she told AFP.

Violence levels were significantly lower on Tuesday as the "humanitarian pause" kicked in but seven civilians were killed by regime bombardment, including two children, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor.

The bombardment intensified again after 2:00 pm, the Britain-based group said.

Since February 18, 582 civilians, almost a quarter of them children, have been killed in the Syrian and Russian bombardment of Eastern Ghouta, making it one of the bloodiest episodes of the country's seven-year-old conflict.

Fourteen of the dead, including five children, were pulled from the rubble yesterday after being killed in the past two days, said the Observatory.

In Damascus, the state agency said, a civilian was killed and five others wounded by shelling from "terrorist organisations".

In Hammuriyeh, another town in the sprawling semi-rural enclave, Mohammed Abdullah said the pause left civilians with a choice between two evils.

"The truce is not in the people's interest, we have two options: death or displacement," said the 30-year-old.

"The campaign we were targeted with was an extermination campaign, not a simple bombardment. What we want is a full and permanent ceasefire for all of Ghouta," he said.

That sentiment was echoed by the dominant rebel groups in Eastern Ghouta, who sent a letter to the United Nations stating their willingness to expel jihadists as soon as a full ceasefire takes effect.

The letter said such an evacuation, which has been discussed previously but never yielded any result, would take 15 days and start when a UN truce takes effect.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov reacted cautiously to the statement and said after meeting French counterpart Jean-Yves Le Drian that the ball was in the rebel groups' court.

"We shall see in practice whether the pleas by the three illegal armed groups... to carry out the UNSC resolution correspond with their intentions," he said.

A top US general accused Moscow of playing an "incredibly destabilising" role in Syria by claiming it wants to settle the civil war while at the same time stoking the conflict.

The UN Security Council will meet Wednesday afternoon to discuss the humanitarian situation and hear from UN aid chief Mark Lowcock.

The Syrian government lost control of Eastern Ghouta in 2012 and has besieged it almost ever since.

The latest scenario put in place by the regime and its Russian ally was reminiscent of the deal that ended the battle of Aleppo in 2016.

Few civilians back then initially used the Aleppo corridors unilaterally announced by Russia.

Some started fleeing after renewed bombardment and the rest eventually evacuated when a multilateral deal was reached with Turkey.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)US-based nutraceuticals retailer GNC (General Nutrition Centre) is looking to strengthen its presence in India with plans to retail its products through 4,000 stores by 2020.

The company, which operates here as GNC India, also announced its plans to set up a manufacturing capacity in the country this year.

It has tied up with health and wellness products retailer Guardian Healthcare Services Pvt Ltd, which is the master franchise for GNC with exclusive distribution and marketing rights.

"Today our products are sold from 50 odd outlets through Guardian-owned outlets across all big cities in India and we are planning to expand this whole distribution to almost 4,000 outlets by 2020 through multi-brand outlets," GNC India CEO Shadab Khan told PTI.

"Starting with 2018, we are targeting to be present in about 1,000 outlets, mostly in metros and tier I towns," he added.

The products will also be sold through the company's website as also the other e-commerce players.

GNC's portfolio of products include health, wellness and performance products, including protein, performance supplements, weight management supplements, vitamins, herbs and greens and wellness supplements.

With regard to manufacturing in India, Khan said: "We are working closely with some of the Indian contract manufacturers and in 2018 we will have a significant part of our portfolio which will be manufactured in India."



When asked about the investment in India, he said, the company will be investing in retail expansion, quality ingredient, hiring right talent and on awareness campaigns, among others.

"It will be several hundreds of crores if I share the next five year plan but we don't have an exact number to share as yet," he added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The government today approved an action plan for 12 'champion' services sectors, including IT, tourism and hospitality, for realising their potential through establishment of a Rs 5,000 crore dedicated fund.

The fund, once set up, will support initiatives for sectoral action plans of the 'champion sectors'.

The decision to clear the proposal of the Department of Commerce was taken at a meeting of the Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi here.

The Cabinet has also directed the ministries/ Departments concerned with these sectors to utilise the available draft sectoral plans to finalise and implement the action plans for the identified Champion Services Sectors, an official statement said.

Moreover, the respective line Ministries/Departments shall finalise the Action Plans and the implementation time-lines along with a monitoring mechanism to monitor implementation under the overall guidance of the Committee of Secretaries (CoS) under Cabinet Secretary.

The 12 sectors include Information Technology & Information Technology enabled Services (IT & ITeS), Tourism and Hospitality Services, Medical Value Travel, Transport and Logistics Services, Accounting and Finance Services, Audio Visual Services, Legal Services, Communication Services, Construction and Related Engineering Services, Environmental Services, Financial Services and Education Services.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Gujarat Congress today moved a no-confidence motion against state Assembly Speaker Rajendra Trivedi, after accusing him of behaving in a partisan manner.

The no-confidence motion comes in the second week after Trivedi, an MLA from Raopura in Vadodara, was unanimously elected to the post on February 19.

"We have submitted a no-confidence motion against the Speaker to the Assembly Secretary today," senior Congress MLA Shailesh Parmar told PTI.

Earlier, addressing mediapersons here, Leader of the Opposition Paresh Dhanani said the Speaker had been behaving in a "totally partisan" manner.

"At the start of this (assembly) session (first after the December 2017 election) we (Congress) had not put up any candidate against the BJP's candidate for the post of Speaker and he was elected unanimously," Dhanani said.

"However, the Speaker is acting like he is a member of the BJP. He is not allowing opposition members to speak in the House. He is suspending MLAs from the session at will. To save democracy, we have decided to move a no-confidence motion," he said.

Earlier in the day, Trivedi had suspended 15 Congress MLAs for a day, and another MLA Asha Patel for two days, for rushing to the Well of the House and raising slogans.

Dhanani said earlier too, the Speaker had suspended Congress MLAs.

He also alleged that Congress members were not allowed to speak due to the BJP's majority in the house.

As per Rule 103 of the state Legislative Assembly, the motion can be taken up for voting in a week's time after 14 days from the day of submission.

The BJP has 99 MLAs while the Congress has 77 members in the Assembly.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti today welcomed the Centre's decision to slash airfare for Hajj pilgrimage this year.

The reduction, announced by the Union Minority Affairs Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi yesterday, will be applicable to passages on Air India, Saudi Airlines and Flynas, an air carrier based in Saudi Arabia, to Jeddah and Medina from 21 airports in India.

"I welcome the decision of the central government and thank @narendramodi ji for substantially reducing the airfare for Hajj pilgrims from India from this year," Mehbooba tweeted.

The chief minister said this will help many more Muslims "experience the holy pilgrimage to Kaaba".

Notably, the central government in January had abolished subsidies given to those on the pilgrimage in view of a 2012 Supreme Court order.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Attacking the Narendra Modi led government at the Centre for not appointing a Lokpal, social activist Anna Hazare said today he would raise this issue along with farmers' problems and the need for electoral reforms when he begins his 'Satyagraha' in the national capital on March 23.

"I will sit on a fast during the proposed Satyagraha at Ramlila maidan in New Delhi on Mar 23 to press for my demands", Hazare, who was here on a two day visit from Feb 26 said.

The face of the Jan Lokpal movement in 2011, the 80-year-old chose March 23 to launch the agitation as it happens to be the Shaheed Diwas (Martyr's Day).

The Satyagrah will highlight the problems faced by the farmers, Jan Lokpal and for electoral reforms, he said.

"After 2011 agitation we get a legislation passed now we will ensure that it (Lokpal) is implemented," Hazare said.

He hit out at the Narendra Modi government for not appointing Lokpal at the Centre.

The BJP had made a lot of promises during elections, but people are still waiting for the 'acchey din' even though its government's term is approaching its end, he said.

There is no difference between the BJP and the Congress as far as the issue of corruption is concerned, he alleged.

"The Modi government has weakened Lokpal. The government talks about corruption-free system but, it seems it has no intention of bringing a strong Lokpal. Under section 44 of the Lokpal Act, there is a provision for government officers to give details of their properties every year but this was amended and it's not compulsory now," he said.

He added that a long time had passed since demonetisation but the government has not been able to tell how much black money had returned.

"Both the Congress and the BJP are after grabbing power and money. They are only concerned about strengthening their parties," Hazare said.

Those associated with Anna claimed that his rallies got tremendous response from youths in UP and earlier in Aurnachal Pradesh, MP, Maharastra, Karnataka, Assam, Rajasthan in the past few months.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Delhi High Court today reserved its order on 20 Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MLAs' plea challenging their disqualification in office-of-profit case.

A bench of justices Sanjiv Khanna and Chander Shekhar kept its decision pending after the MLAs, Election Commission of India (EC) and other parties concerned concluded their arguments.

"Arguments heard. Judgement reserved," the bench said.

The MLAs had yesterday told the court that EC's order disqualifying them for allegedly holding office-of-profit was passed in "complete violation of natural justice" as they were not given the opportunity to explain their stand before the poll panel.

The bench was also requested by the legislators to remand their case back to the poll panel with a direction to hear the matter afresh.

The MLAs had approached the high court challenging their disqualification after President Ram Nath Kovind gave his nod to the EC's recommendation.

Backing its recommendation to the President for MLAs' disqualification, the poll panel had submitted that the legislators cannot claim that they were not holding office-of-profit.

The EC had earlier claimed that the disqualified MLAs' plea was not maintainable and was liable to be dismissed.

The high court was hearing the plea on a day-to-day basis since February 7.

The high court had on January 24 refused to stay the Centre's notification disqualifying them, but had restrained the poll panel from taking any "precipitate measures" such as announcing dates for by polls to fill the vacancies.

The EC had on January 19 recommended the disqualification of 20 MLAs - Alka Lamba, Adarsh Shastri, Sanjeev Jha, Rajesh Gupta, Kailash Gahlot, Vijendra Garg, Praveen Kumar, Sharad Kumar, Madan Lal Khufiya, Shiv Charan Goyal, Sarita Singh, Naresh Yadav, Rajesh Rishi, Anil Kumar, Som Dutt, Avtar Singh, Sukhvir Singh Dala, Manoj Kumar, Nitin Tyagi and Jarnail Singh.

The president had accepted the EC's opinion the next day.The Health Ministry has launched a digital competition to design the logo and tagline for the Ayushman Bharat programme announced in the general budget this year, according to an official statement released today.

The competition will be organised through a digital crowd sourcing campaign on MyGov portal.

"The competition was launched on February 19, 2018 and will conclude on March 6 this year. The main aim of the competition is to generate awareness among the population about these health sector initiatives and engage them towards ownership in shaping a healthy India," the statement said.

The winner of the competition will be awarded a prize money of Rs 25,000 while the runner-up will be awarded Rs 10,000.

"The main theme of the logo shall be 'Ayushman Bharat' and the guiding principle will be 'Sarve Bhavantu Sukhinah, Sarve Santu Niramayah'," it said.

In the budget, the government had announced two major initiatives in health sector as part of the Ayushman Bharat programme - creation of health and wellness centres and the National Health Protection Scheme.

The programme aims to address health holistically, impacting primary, secondary and tertiary care systems, covering both prevention and health promotion.

The 1.5 lakh health and wellness centres will provide people-centric comprehensive primary health care including for common non-communicable diseases closer to the homes of people including providing free essential drugs and diagnostics.

The National Health Protection Scheme will provide over 10 crore poor and vulnerable families treatment coverage up to Rs 5 lakh per family per year for secondary and tertiary care hospitalisation.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

Over 200 men, women and children blocked the road in front of the Hiranagar Police station in Kathua district as a protest against the PDP-BJP government alleging harassment and mass detentions by the Jammu and Kashmir Police's Crime Branch which is probing the killing of an eight-year old girl.

A senior crime branch official denied that there was any harassment caused to the villagers.

The villagers, however, alleged torture and harassment of their children by the crime branch and demanded a CBI probe in the case.

They also demanded the release of scores of villagers including women and sarpanches detained by the Police.

Police personnel warned them through load speakers that restriction under section 144 of the CrPc were in place in Hiranagar.

Yesterday, residents of village Rasana had alleged detention, torture and harassment of their children by the crime branch and left their homes.

Villagers, including women and young children, were living under constant fear due to random detention of young children in the name of questioning and refused to return to their native village, they alleged.

Hundreds of people of adjoining villages joined them to express solidarity.

Vijay Sharma, president of an organisation called the Hindu Ekta claimed the villagers did not have faith in the crime branch.

He said that the families of Rasana village and many families from the adjoining Dhamyal village had migrated to Kootah on the Jammu-Pathankot highway as they have been living under constant fear.

Sharma said that they want in-depth investigation to punish the culrpits involve in the case but harassment and torture and repeated detention cannot be tolerated.

The body of the minor girl from the Bakerwal community was found from a forest area in Rasana village on January 17 after she went missing for a few days.

J&K government ordered a crime branch probe and three persons, including two Special Police Officers and a juvenile, have been arrested so far.

Alok Puri, Additional Director General of Police, Crime Branch, said it was a part of investigation to call people for questioning and denied any harassment. Crime Branch has so far arrested only three persons and no other person has been detained", he said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Women experience less pain when holding the hand of a person they love, a study claims.

Researchers, including those from the University of Colorado in the US, exposed women to some degree of pain and then asked them to report how painful it felt under different conditions.

They enlisted the assistance of 20 couples willing to undergo several experiments, consisting of having the women hold onto a tube through which hot water could be pumped to induce pain.

In the study published in the journal PNAS, the women and their significant others were placed in different sorts of situations.

In some, the man held the woman's hand as the hot water was applied; in others, the man sat nearby but did not offer a hand.

In all of the cases, both volunteers were asked to rate the degree of pain the woman was experiencing, 'Medical Xpress' reported.

Researchers found that the women reported on average experiencing less than half as much pain when they were holding their loved one's hand.

They suggest that hand holding can offer two types of benefits to a person in pain.

The first is that touching or being touched releases chemicals in the brain that make pain easier to bear, researchers said.

The second is that there appeared to be some sort of synchronising going on in the brains of the couples that offered an analgesic-like effect, they said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Income Tax Department today attached diamantaire Nirav Modi's four immovable assets, including a farm house and a solar power plant, worth Rs 70 crore in connection with a tax evasion probe against him and his companies, officials said.

The department said it has also got issued a Look Out Circular (LoC), also known as a blue corner notice, against Modi and his uncle Mehul Choksi, the promoter of Gitanjali Gems, to keep a tab on their entry at all land, air and sea ports in the country.

According to the officials, Modi's farm house in Alibaug, near Mumbai, valued at Rs 13 crore, the 5.24 MW solar power plant spread in 135 acres land in Karjat in Maharashtra's Ahmednagar district, along with two other properties, have been provisionally attached by the department.

"The total value of these attached assets is Rs 70 crore," a senior official said.

The department also attached 34 bank accounts and fixed deposits, valued at Rs 1.45 crore, of the Gitanjali group.

Modi, Choksi and others are being investigated by multiple probe agencies after the Punjab National Bank (PNB) disclosed a fraud, valued at close to UDS 2 billion, wherein they allegedly acquired fraudulent letters of undertaking (LoUs) from its Brady House branch in Fort area for overseas credit from other lenders.

Earlier this week, PNB had said the amount of unauthorised transactions could go up by more than Rs 1,300 crore from earlier estimate of Rs 11,400 crore.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the Enforcement Directorate (ED) have registered two FIRs each in this case.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Former president Pranab Mukherjee today expressed hope that India's economy will inch towards 8 per cent growth in 2018-19 fiscal and onwards.

Mukherjee, however, said that to sustain such a growth rate for the longer term, the country will need to address issues like employability for the youth and boosting the rural economy.

"It may be in 2018-19 and onwards, it (India) will move towards 8 per cent annual GDP growth if there is no eventual setback from unexpected quarters," he said at a session organised by the Calcutta Chamber of Commerce here.

Mukherjee said the agriculture sector needs focus, along with allied areas like rural infrastructure, rural health, rural education, rural sanitation and rural housing.

He said empowering the growing young population of India and preparing them for employability was of paramount importance.

"In a short of span of time, 48 per cent of India's population is going to be below the age of 40 ... unless you give them employment, enhance employability, train them, make them available to the world labour market ... this is a challenge in the growth of GDP on a sustainable basis," the former finance minister said.

Mukherjee exuded confidence that the Indian economy has the resilience to address challenges, find out appropriate solutions and take corrective measures.

"But mere policy formations are not adequate, it needs effective implementation," he added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Amid continuing cross-border firing and infiltration from Pakistan, India and Israel have discussed how to ensure foolproof security along the international border by using sophisticated technology, besides enhancing security cooperation, officials said.

The two-day meetings of the India-Israel joint steering committee on homeland and public security, which concluded today, also discussed how to step up cooperation to deal with the grave threat that terrorism poses, including by non-state actors, to peace and security.

India and Israel discussed threadbare how to ensure proper security along the international borders by using modern gadgets like electro-optical sensors and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), a Home Ministry official said.

Following the September 2016 terror attack on an army camp in Uri, Israel had offered India its expertise for strengthening border fencing, stressing that the two countries share similar challenges on many fronts, including cross-border terrorism.

In a statement, the home ministry today said the objectives of the meetings were capacity building and modernisation in the police forces besides border management.

"Both sides agreed to work out the modalities to address these issues. The discussions were held in a friendly atmosphere and it was agreed to maintain sustained interactions to enhance security cooperation between the countries," it said.

The meeting follows the resolve of the prime ministers of both the countries to combat the grave threat that terrorism poses to peace and security including from non-state actors, and with an aim to enhance cooperation and boost the bilateral relations, the statement said.

Israel's Ambassador to India Daniel Carmon, who led the Israeli delegation, tweeted: "Just concluded 2successful days of #Homeland and #PublicSecurity ,#steeringcommittee, #workinggroups ,w/field trips near #Delhi.Strong participation of #MHA & #InterMinisterial teams from both countries.We can all be very proud of our respective pros & experts".

The Indian team was headed by additional secretary in the home ministry T V S N Prasad.

During a trip to Israel in 2014, Home Minister Rajnath Singh had visited one of the border out-posts in Gaza and praised that country's border management plans.

Israel is now using electro-optical sensors to collect information via UAVs, an official said.

Sensors are used to collect data and information from towers along borders. The sensors were integrated with a command and control room operated by an officer, who directs the Israeli special forces in order to mitigate incoming threats.

There were 515 infiltration incidents in Jammu and Kashmir in 2017 in which 75 militants were killed. In 2016, there were 454 cases of infiltration in which 45 militants were killed.

In January alone, eight civilians and six security personnel were killed and around 70 injured in ceasefire violations by Pakistan troops along Indo-Pak border in Jammu region.

Pakistani troops carried out intense shelling along the IB in Jammu, Kathua and Samba districts and from across the LoC in Poonch and Rajouri districts from January 18 to 22.

While there were no ceasefire violations by Pakistan reported along the IB since January 22, intermittent shelling has taken place along the LoC.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Seeking to come up with a standardised "India size chart" for the garment industry, the NIFT, under the aegis of the ministry of textiles, will soon begin a national survey that will sample 25,000 people using high-tech 3D whole body scanners.

"The National Sizing Survey will cost nearly Rs 30 crore and entail studying a population, aged 15-65 across six cities, with men and women in equal numbers", Director General of the National Institute of Fashion Technology, Sarada Muraleedharan, today said.

At a press conference held at the NIFT-New Delhi campus, she also said the project would be conducted over a period 2-3 years.

"This would be a scientific exercise where anthropometric data will be collected from a sample population of 25,000 to create a database of measurements that will culminate in a standardised size chart, truly be representative of the Indian population, which can then be adopted by the entire apparel industry," said Noopur Anand, professor at NIFT-Delhi and the principle investigator of the project.

"The final outcome will be in numerical value. We don't know yet, if we would be having just a single numerical marker or the more than one. Also, about 120 different anthropometric elements, including, height, weight, waist-size, hip-size, bust-size, would be included in the survey," she said.

Rajesh Shah, chairman of the Board of Governors of the NIFT, said once a uniform India size is arrived at, "even foreign brands in India would also carry it. Besides, our diaspora can then also order any wear based on that standard size".

The project, recently approved by government of India, will be carried out in six cities spread across six regions of the country -- Kolkata (east), Mumbai (west), New Delhi (north), Hyderabad (centre), Bengaluru (south), and Shillong (northeast) using 3D whole body scanners.

"The NIFT had been toying with this idea since 2006. But you can say the stars finally aligned, and with the support of the Ministry of Textiles, we are ready for this exercise. Of the Rs 30 crore, the ministry will give Rs 21 crore and the NIFT will pitch in with about Rs 9 crore," Muraleedharan said.

In India, either the US or the UK system of 'Small, Medium, Large, Extra Large' has been used, and people then go for fitting accordingly. But, after this uniform size chart is available, whole country will have a "standard reference point" for ready-to-wear industry, Anand said.

"That means, all India brands will have the same size for a person," she said.

The NIFT is the implementing agency for the survey, and will be pressing its centres across the country including faculty and students from various campuses, for it.

"Support of national and international experts with experience in sizing surveys is being taken for the exercise," the NIFT DG said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)An Indian man was crushed to death in a car accident in the UAE and the Asian driver who knocked him down has been arrested, minutes before he could flee the country, a media report said today.

The unidentified Indian man was killed on Monday as he was crossing the road near Al Mafraq bridge towards Dubai. After knocking him down, the Asian driver, whose identity was not revealed, fled the spot and left his vehicle behind, Khaleej Times reported.

He rushed to the airport and booked a flight in a bid to escape from the country. However, the Abu Dhabi Police nabbed the Asian 30 minutes before the flight's departure, it quoted Al Bayan Arabic newspaper as reporting.

Brigadier Ali Khalfan Al Dhaheri, director-general of central operations, said that they received information on Monday that a man had been rammed by a vehicle.

Police teams swung into action and reached the site, only to find that the driver had fled.

The Indian man was provided first aid. However, he succumbed to his injuries.

Initial reports showed that the accident was caused due to jaywalking. It indicated that the Indian man had tried to cross the road from a place not designated for pedestrians crossing, after jumping over the iron fence.

Al Dhaheri said that police teams launched a manhunt for the Asian driver and tracked him in less than two hours of the accident. He was arrested 30 minutes before he could board the plane.

Al Dhaheri said that escaping from the accident site means that the Asian was involved in the crime. He explained that if the motorist had stopped and contacted the police, the Indian could have been saved.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Industrial real estate and logistics park developer IndoSpace has acquired around 1.3 million square feet of land for an undisclosed amount in Sri City, an integrated business city in Andhra Pradesh.

With this acquisition, IndoSpace's total portfolio has increased to 30 million sq ft of developed, under-development, and planned modern logistics and light manufacturing space in India, the company said in a statement.

IndoSpace is a joint venture between the Everstone Group, a leading India and southeast Asia-focused multi-asset business group, and Realterm, a US-based global industrial real estate leader.

"We are excited to enter one of the fastest growing industrial zones in partnership with Sri City as we continue to expand in key regions across the country," said Rajesh Jaggi, managing partner, real estate, Everstone Group.

Improved road connectivity, the government's Make in India initiative and the implementation of GST, has led to a surge in demand for quality logistic facilities in India.

"The company was significantly growing its warehousing and light manufacturing facilities to meet this demand across multiple sectors," he said.

The acquisition comes on the back of IndoSpace launching five new mega parks, one in Bengaluru's Narasapura, two in Badli and Bhaproda in the NCR and two in Khopoli in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region, in December.

It had also announced the expansion and development of its existing Ranjangaon park in Pune.

"We are confident, IndoSpace will facilitate the manufacturing supply chain system, benefiting not only the manufacturing units in the region, but also the neighbouring ports, and create more job opportunities," said Ravindra Sannareddy, founder and managing director, Sri City.

Sri City is an integrated business city situated in Chennai with dedicated zones for industry and business services, and includes zones for residences, retail, healthcare and education.

IndoSpace currently has a portfolio of 28 logistics and industrial parks across the country including developed parks, as well as parks under various stages of development.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Senior Congress leader P Chidambaram's apprehension of "continued harassment" to him and his family members in a petition he filed recently in the Supreme Court, turned out to be true with the CBI arresting his son Karti Chidambaram in connection with the probe into the grant of FIPB approval in INX Media case.

Chidambaram, who was closely monitoring the case of his son in the Supreme Court which was argued by his party colleague and senior advocate Kapil Sibal, had sprung a surprise last week by filing a petition on his own accusing the CBI and the ED of carrying out a political vendetta against him and his family.

In his petition, Chidambaram has sought the apex court's direction prohibiting the CBI and Enforcement Directorate (ED) from continuing their "illegal investigations" and from acting in any manner "causing repeated harassment" to him and his family members, including his son.

However, the CBI swung into action even before his petition could come up for hearing before the top court by arresting Karti today.

In his plea, Chidambaram, himself a senior advocate, has said that the position in the INX Media case was "worse" as, though the CBI had lodged an FIR in May 2017, the probe agencies have not filed any report "concluding that any criminal offence had been committed or that any proceeds of crime had arisen out of that criminal offence".

An FIR, filed by the CBI on May 15 last year, had alleged irregularities in the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) clearance to INX Media for receiving overseas funds to the tune of Rs 305 crore in 2007 when Chidambaram was the Union finance minister.

While the CBI has alleged that Karti had received funds to the tune of Rs 10 lakh in the case, the ED has also registered a money laundering case in the matter.

Chidambaram, in his petition before the apex court, has said that his fundamental rights were being violated due to "illegal" investigations being carried out by the CBI and the ED and the central government has been "misusing" its probe agencies.

He has said that being the Finance Minister then, he had granted FIPB approvals in the INX Media case and the Aircel-Maxis case in the "normal course of official business". In discharge of his functions, he has "never allowed any member of his family, including his son, or any other person to interfere with or influence the conduct of official business".

Chidambaram has said that the CBI and ED cannot "harass" Karti and others, who were totally unconnected with the FIPB approval by issuing repeated summons to them.

"The petitioner (Chidambaram) feels sad that his son and his business friends are being targeted," the plea said, adding, "The entire investigation being conducted by the CBI and ED is a total farce and is being made only to malign the name of the petitioner and his son in the eyes of the public".

He has also sought the apex court's direction declaring that the proceedings emanating from FIR registered by CBI in the INX Media case as well as the "premature investigation" being conducted by the ED, were "without jurisdiction, an abuse of authority, and violative of Articles 14 (equality before law), 19 (freedom of speech and expression) and 21 (right to life and personal liberty) of the Constitution which inhere in the petitioner and the members of his family, and declare the said proceedings and investigations as null and void".

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Senior Congress leader P Chidambaram appeared to have a premonition of the arrest of his son Karti when he filed a petition recently in the Supreme Court apprehending continued harassment to him and his family members.

Karti was arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Wednesday on his arrival from London, even before Chidambarams petition could be listed for hearing by the top court.

Chidambaram, who has been closely monitoring the case of his son in the Supreme Court which is argued by his party colleague and senior advocate Kapil Sibal, had sprung a surprise last week by filing a petition on his own accusing the CBI and the Enforcement Directorate (ED) of carrying out a political vendetta against him and his family.

In his petition, Chidambaram has sought the apex courts direction prohibiting the CBI and ED from continuing their illegal investigations and from acting in any manner causing repeated harassment to him and his family members, including his son.





ALSO READ: Karti Chidambaram held, taken to Patiala House Court: Top 10 developments

However, the CBI swung into action by arresting Karti on Wednesday even before the petition was heard by the top court.

In his plea, Chidambaram, himself a senior advocate, has said that the position in the was worse as, though the CBI had lodged a first information report (FIR) in May 2017, the probe agencies have not filed any report concluding that any criminal offence had been committed or that any proceeds of crime had arisen out of that criminal offence.



ALSO READ: INX Media case: CBI detains Karti Chidambaram for manipulating tax probe

An FIR, filed by the CBI on May 15 last year, had alleged irregularities in the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) clearance to INX Media for receiving overseas funds to the tune of Rs 3.05 billion in 2007 when Chidambaram was the Union finance minister.

While the CBI has alleged that Karti had received funds to the tune of Rs 1 million in the case, the ED has also registered a money laundering case in the matter.

Chidambaram, in his petition before the apex court, has said that his fundamental rights were being violated due to illegal investigations being carried out by the CBI and the ED and the central government has been misusing its probe agencies.





ALSO READ: INX case: Karti's arrest vendetta, diversionary tactic by govt, says Cong

He has said that being the finance minister then, he had granted FIPB approvals in the and the Aircel-Maxis case in the normal course of official business. In the discharge of his functions, he has never allowed any member of his family, including his son, or any other person to interfere with or influence the conduct of official business.

Chidambaram has said that the CBI and ED cannot harass Karti and others, who were totally unconnected with the FIPB approval by issuing repeated summons to them.

The petitioner (Chidambaram) feels sad that his son and his business friends are being targeted, the plea said, adding, The entire investigation being conducted by the CBI and ED is a total farce and is being made only to malign the name of the petitioner and his son in the eyes of the public.



He has also sought the apex courts direction declaring that the proceedings emanating from FIR registered by CBI in the as well as the premature investigation being conducted by the ED, were without jurisdiction, an abuse of authority, and violative of Articles 14 (equality before law), 19 (freedom of speech and expression), and 21 (right to life and personal liberty) of the Constitution which inhere in the petitioner and the members of his family, and declare the said proceedings and investigations as null and void.

The Congress on Wednesday labelled the arrest of senior leader P Chidambarams son Karti Chidambaram vendetta and a diversionary tactic by the Modi government to hide its scams and mal-governance.

Karti Chidambarams arrest would not deter the party from speaking the truth to hold the government accountable, the partys communications in-charge Randeep Surjewala said.

It was a classical diversionary tactic to hide corruption scams, mal-governance and mal-administration that have marred this government, Surjewala said.

The Congress party will not be deterred by unleashing of vendetta against Chidambaram or his family. We will continue to speak the truth. We will continue to expose the Modi governments corruption and we will continue to hold them accountable to people of the country, he told reporters.

Karti Chidambaram was arrested at Chennai airport around 8 am when he returned from the UK.

An FIR filed by the CBI on May 15 last year had alleged irregularities in the FIPB clearance to INX Media for receiving overseas funds to the tune of Rs 3.05 billion in 2007 when Chidambaram was Union finance minister.

It is alleged that Karti Chidambaram received funds to the tune of Rs 1 million in the case, officials said.

Surjewala said scams worth over Rs 300 billion were unearthed in the last 10 days alone. But the Prime Minister has not moved the transition from Maun Modi to Bol Modi. The Prime Minister remains mum about Chhota Modi as also Mehul Choksi, he said.

He cited the cases of designer jeweller Nirav Modi and his uncle Mehul Choksi, Rotomac, and Durga Das Seth jeweller to say that fresh scams were being unearthed everyday but the Prime Minister was keeping quiet.

His party colleague, AICC general secretary Ashok Gehlot, said Karti was arrested to divert attention from the big issues and the bank scam facing the Democratic Alliance government.



Gehlot said on Twitter, Karti was arrested when he landed at Chennai airport. He was not trying to escape from India like Nirav Modi. Arresting him on his arrival at the airport is funny. Karti was cooperating with the CBI. The CBI could have summoned him.Union minister Smriti Irani has called for an improvement in raw jute quality so that the Indian industry is able to compete with neighbouring Bangladesh.

For the purpose, farmers will have to be given good seeds which would also raise productivity and their income level, the textile minister said at an ICC event here last evening.

Irani, who also holds the I&B portfolio, said India was not able to compete with Bangladesh in diversified jute products.

"This is a pressure on the jute industry here and the issues are related to the quality of raw jute. The quality can be improved by using good quality seeds," she said.

The minister also urged the industry to pay the dues of the labourers. It would make the industry to pick up any amount of government orders it wanted.

Irani also advocated the use of jute in building road infrastructure.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)US President Donald Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner has been stripped of his top-secret security clearance that will limit his ability to view highly classified information, media reports said today.

The security clearance of 47-year-old Kushner, who is also Trump's senior adviser, was downgraded after months of delays in completing his background check, reports said.

Kushner was notified of the downgrade in a memo on Friday, along with other White House aides who had access to the highest-level interim clearances, Politico and others reported.

Kushner and the aides previously held what is known as 'Top Secret/SCI-level' clearances, which provided them with unfettered access to classified information and some of the countrys most guarded secrets.

The president has the unilateral authority to share classified information as he sees fit, including with his son-in-law, despite the clearance downgrade.

Kushner and his wife Ivanka Trump, the presidents eldest daughter, have enjoyed a special status within the White House as both family members and assistants to the president.

Kushner recently has embraced a lower profile as more questions have been raised about his interactions with foreign officials and about his financial entanglements.

The White House did not comment on the memo on security clearance to Kushner.

"We do not comment on individual security clearances. We actually haven't commented on Jared's. But we have commented on his ability to do his job, which he's a valued member of the team, and he will continue to do the important work that he's been doing since he started in the administration," White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders told reporters.

According to Politico, Kushners security level has been downgraded from the top secret to secret level.

Abbe Lowell, an attorney for Kushner, said that he "has done more than what is expected of him in this process."



The changes would "not affect Mr Kushner's ability to continue to do the very important work he has been assigned by the president."



Kushner is currently in charge of the Middle East Peace process.

The decision to reduce Kushner's access to classified information was made after John F Kelly, the White House chief of staff, announced plans to overhaul the security clearance process at the White House



Last week Kelly in a statement has said that Kushner would be able to continue his work unabated.

"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," Kelly said in the statement.

Last week, Trump had expressed his frustration over the current process of security clearances.

Kushners business background, and the well-publicised financial woes of his family's real estate empire, have long raised concerns in American security agencies that foreign governments might try to gain influence inside the Trump White House by trying to do business with the presidents son-in-law, The New York Times said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)US President Donald Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner has been stripped of his top-secret security clearance, limiting his unfettered access to see the country's top secrets, media reports said today.

The decision made by White House chief of staff John Kelly came as the Trump administration struggles with claims of intelligence leaks.

Kushner, along with other White House officials who had been operating on interim clearances, had their access altered last week after Kelly stipulated new changes to the security clearance system, Politico and other media outlets reported.

The security clearance of 37-year-old Kushner, who is also Trump's senior adviser, was downgraded after months of delays in completing his background check, the reports said.

Kushner, who is married to Trump's eldest daughter Ivanka, had access to the President's Daily Brief, a secret intelligence report.

Kushner was notified of the downgrade in a memo last Friday, the reports said.

Kushner and the aides previously held what is known as 'Top Secret/SCI-level' clearances, which provided them with unfettered access to classified information and some of the country's most guarded secrets.

Despite the clearance downgrade, the president has the unilateral authority to share classified information as he sees fit, including with his son-in-law.

Kushner and his wife Ivanka have enjoyed a special status within the White House as both family members are assistants to the president.

Kushner recently has embraced a lower profile as more questions have been raised about his interactions with foreign officials and about his financial entanglements.

The White House did not immediately comment on the memo on downgrading the security clearance to Kushner.

"We do not comment on individual security clearances. We actually haven't commented on Jared's. But we have commented on his ability to do his job, which he's a valued member of the team, and he will continue to do the important work that he's been doing since he started in the administration," White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders told reporters.

According to Politico, Kushner's security level has been downgraded from the top secret to secret level.

Abbe Lowell, an attorney for Kushner, said that he "has done more than what is expected of him in this process."



The changes would "not affect Mr Kushner's ability to continue to do the very important work he has been assigned by the president."



Kushner is currently in charge of the vexed Middle East peace process.

The decision to reduce Kushner's access to classified information was made after John F Kelly, the White House chief of staff, announced plans to overhaul the security clearance process at the White House.

Last week, Kelly in a statement has said that Kushner would be able to continue his work unabated.

"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," Kelly had said in the statement.

Last week, Trump had expressed his frustration over the current process of security clearances.

Kushner's business background, and the well-publicised financial woes of his family's real estate empire, have long raised concerns in American security agencies that foreign governments might try to gain influence inside the Trump White House by trying to do business with the president's son-in-law, The New York Times said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Actor Jennifer Lawrence has defended her to decision to do nude scenes for "Red Sparrow", saying she felt it fit in the narrative of the film.

The 27-year-old actor plays the Russian prima ballerina turned Soviet operative Dominika Egorova in the Francis Lawrence-directed film, which is based on a best-selling novel by former C.I.A. agent Jason Matthews.

"'Red Sparrow' really scared the hell out of me because I get nude. I tried to do the movie without nudity but realized it just wouldn't be right to put the character through something that I, myself, am not willing to go through," Lawrence said.

The "Mother!" actor, who was a victim of the 2014 phone hack in which her private nude photos were leaked to the internet, said she feared backlash for her choice.

"My biggest fear was that people would say, 'Oh, how can you complain about the hack if you're going to get nude anyway?'," Lawrence told Vanity Fair.

Lawrence said that the movie presented her an opportunity to reclaim her sexual empowerment as she made a contrast between the hack and her choice to bare all for a film.

"One is my choice. I got something back that was taken from me, and it also felt normal," Lawrence added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)King Abdullah II bin Al-Hussein, who arrived here on Tuesady on a three-day visit, was accorded a grand welcome with Prime Minister Narendra Modi receiving him at the airport, in a special gesture. The Jordanian King's visit here comes nearly three weeks after Modi travelled to Jordan as part of his trip to West Asia, including Palestine. "Welcomed His Majesty King Abdullah II to Delhi. Its wonderful to meet him again, after my brief halt at Amman earlier this month. His visit to India will further deepen bilateral ties between our nations. I look forward to our talks on Thursday," Modi tweeted. The Prime Minister and the King will hold extensive talks on Thursday covering entire expanse of bilateral ties, official sources said adding, the Palestinian issue and ways to deal with terrorism, radicalisation and extremism are likely to figure prominently in the deliberations. "India welcomes His Majesty @KingAbdullahII Ibn Al Hussein, King of the Hashemite Kingdom of #Jordan on his State Visit. Deviating from protocol, PM @narendramodi welcomes His Majesty at the Airport.

India attaches great importance to its ties with Jordan," External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Raveesh Kumar tweeted. Meeting with Sushma Swaraj King Abdullah II of Jordan will meet Minister of External Affairs Sushma Swaraj on Wednesday. According to Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), King Abdullah will then visit IIT Delhi today to explore collaboration with Jordan technical institutes. "During the day, the King will also participate in a CEO Round-table followed by India-Jordan Business Forum jointly organized by FICCI, CII and ASSOCHAM." Meeting with President Ram Nath Kovind President Ram Nath Kovind will host a banquet in honour of King Abdullah while Vice President M. Venkaiah Naidu and External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj will call on the visiting dignitary. On Wednesday, the King will visit IIT Delhi to explore collaboration with Jordan technical institutes. India, Jordan on defence framework agreement

As per sources, security dialogue is on the cards between India and Jordan, and both countries are working to forge a defence framework agreement.

Security dialogue between the two countries was also held in July 2016.

Sources suggest that New Delhi is keen to learn from Jordan's experience of handling Syrian migration crisis and tackling ISIS, and is looking forward for synergy in this field.

Having served in the army, the Jordanian King has hands-on experience in matters related to defence and security. King Abdullah II binAl-Hussein is also a custodian of the Al-Aqsa mosque. India and Jordan have so far shared strong trading and business ties. Taking advantage of Jordan's strategic location and free trade agreements with United States, Europe and Gulf, Indian businesses have set up units in Jordan.

Cooperation in the field of defence and security will be a new area that both countries are keen to explore.

A special address on Islamic heritage and promoting moderation is also one of the major highlights of Jordanian king's visit.

According to Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), during this visit, "the two sides will discuss the entire gamut of bilateral relations as well as regional and international issues of mutual interest".

Modi received the Jordanian King at the airport, a week after his absence there to welcome Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau had triggered questions over whether it was a snub by India to the visiting leader.The King, a 41st generation direct descendant of Prophet Muhammad, will also deliver a special address on Islamic heritage and promoting moderation on Thursday morning which is expected to be attended by Modi.Diplomats, representatives from Islamic institutions of all denominations, academicians, think-tanks and representatives from across the country are expected to attend the event.The King is known for his global initiative to fight radicalisation and terrorism. He is also the custodian of the Al-Aqsa mosque, the third holiest site in Islam, located in the Old City of Jerusalem.India considers Jordan an "oasis of stability and harmony" in conflict-ridden West Asia and New Delhi would like to deepen bilateral ties with the country during the King's visit, official sources said.The sources said both sides are expected to ink a number of agreements to expand cooperation in several key sectors including healthcare, IT, customs and will look to firm up a framework pact for defence and security cooperation.In their talks, Modi and the King are also likely to explore ways of deepening trade ties. Twenty textile industries from India have invested around USD 300 million in Jordan.Jordan's royal helicopters had flown Modi and his delegation from Amman to Ramallah and back during the visit.The Jordanian King is accompanied by a high-level business delegation.The Palestinian issue, ways to deal with terrorism, radicalisation and extremism are likely to figure, apart from key bilateral and regional matters, in talks between the king and Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday, they said.The officials said PM Modi, diplomats, representatives from Islamic institutions of all denominations, academicians, think-tanks and representatives from across the country are expected to attend the special address by the Jordanian king at Vigyan Bhavan on Thursday.The topic  ' Islamic heritage; Promoting Understanding and Moderation' -- has been selected by the king himself, the sources said.A number of representatives from a number of Arab countries may also attend the lecture.A translation of a book "A Thinking Person's Guide to Islam  the Essence of Islam in 12 versus from the Quran" will also be released at the event, being organised by the India Islamic Cultural Centre.

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Jordan's King Abdullah II, who is a 41st generation direct descendant of Prophet Muhammad and is known for his global initiative to fight radicalisation, will deliver a lecture on Islamic heritage and promoting understanding and moderation at a conference here tomorrow.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, diplomats, representatives from a wide range of Islamic institutions, academicians and think-tanks will attend the event to be held at Vigyan Bhavan, officials said.

India has around 17 crore Muslims which is around 15 per cent of the country's total population. The Muslim population in India is one of the largest globally.

The Jordanian King arrived here last evening on a three-day visit which is aimed at taking bilateral relations to a "new high".

Reflecting the importance of his visit, Modi received King Abdullah II bin Al-Hussein at the airport, in a special gesture.

Tomorrow's event will also witness the release of the Urdu translation of a book titled 'A Thinking Person's Guide to Islam' authored by Prince Ghazi bin Muhammad bin Talal, a cousin of the King.

Prince Ghazi, a well-known scholar, is also the Chief Advisor for Religious and Cultural Affairs in Jordan.

The book is an attempt to interpret the real meaning of Islam and to wean it away from those that have been distorting its philosophy and seeking to bring it into perpetual conflict with the rest of the world, said an expert in Islamic studies.

"Because of their actions, very few non-Muslims understand the real difference between Islam as it has always been, and the distorted perversions of the religion today," he said.

"So, this book is an attempt to positively say what Islam actually is- and always was- as well as what it is not. The book is split into twelve thematic chapters, each beginning with and centered around a key Quranic verse," he said.

Prince Ghazi bin Muhammad had studied at Harrow School in UK and Princeton University, the US.

He had received his first PhD from Trinity College, Cambridge University, and his second PhD from Al-Azhar University, Cairo.

The King's visit comes nearly three weeks after Modi travelled to Jordan as part of his trip to West Asia, including Palestine.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)King of Jordan Abdullah II bin Al-Hussein, who is on a three-day visit to India, today visited the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) here to explore collaboration with Jordanian technical institutes.

During his half-an-hour visit to the premiere institute, King Abdullah met IIT-Delhi Director V Ramgopal Rao and deans of various departments to discuss the areas in which they can enter into collaboration, including artificial intelligence.

IIT officials did not divulge details about the meeting, saying it was a closed-door event.

King Abdullah, accompanied by a business delegation, arrived here yesterday and was received by Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the airport.

The Jordanian King's visit here comes nearly three weeks after Modi travelled to Jordan as part of his trip to West Asia, including Palestine.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Jordan King Abdullah II bin Al-Hussein today said he is truly delighted with the warm welcome that he has received in India, and hoped that the visit will herald a new start to the historic chapter of relationship between the two countries.

Hussein, who is currently on a three-day visit to India, said he sees a lot of opportunities for Jordanian companies to come to the country and work with their counterparts here.

However, in an apparent reference to the influx of Syrian refugees in Jordan, King Abdullah II said the country is faced with several challenges owing to the instability given to it by the world, and is having to deal with difficult people.

We have many challenges ahead of us as was alluded to with the instability that the world has given us. Unfortunately, with difficult people that we have to deal with. It is more important that people of different cultures and different backgrounds energise each other and come closer together, Al-Hussein said.

The King said he was truly delighted with the warm welcome that he has received in India since his arrival, hoping that the visit will herald a new start to the relationship between the two countries.

Jordan is situated with the opportunity with not only the free trade agreements for North America but Europe, the Middle East and the new development of our opening relationship with East Africa has opportunities for many people, Al-Hussein said.

The King shared that he asked the Jordanian Ambassador in Amman to convey any challenges faced by Indians who are willing to come to Jordan.

We in Morocco will personally look into it to make sure that the smoothest welcome is given to our Indian compatriots, Al-Hussein said while addressing the India-Jordan Business Forum here.

Union Commerce & Industry Minister Suresh Prabhu, who was also present on the occasion, stressed on the need to bring businesses together to take India-Jordan relationship to its true potential.

We are encouraging that Businesses must come together and interact with each other, try to give ideas and then it becomes the job of the government to ensure that the ideas are implemented without any hindrance, Prabhu said.

The minister said he sees businesses from the two nations growing to an exponential level when they come together.

We are witnessing a changing profile of global trade. The countries which are trying to create barriers, the countries which are no longer open to free trade ideas.

Here in India as well as Jordan we all share the same vision, that if global trade expands it benefits all including those countries who are proponents of it, Prabhu said.

The Commerce & Industry Minister assured that the government will do everything possible to promote the bilateral relationship with Jordan further. Prabhu said he would like to lead a delegation to explore the possibilities for taking them forward.

He said he was thankful to Jordan for being part of a good security programme because the fertiliser that India imports guarantees food security for the country.

King Abdullah said that new opportunities had opened for Indian investors following Jordans FTAs with the US, Canada, the EU and the Arab countries. He saw huge scope for collaborative ventures between Jordanian and Indian companies in the fields of ICT and agri-business.

Lets get things done; do not be bashful in talking to my ministers about the problems you face, he told representatives of Indian industry.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Kanchi Shankaracharya Jayendra Saraswathi, regarded as one of the most influential spiritual leaders of his time but whose shock arrest in a murder case robbed the spiritual shine of the Kanchi mutt, died here today. He was 82.

The seer, who had been unwell for the past few months, had complained of uneasiness this morning and was rushed to the nearby medical facility sponsored by the Kanchi Kamakoti Peetam.

Jayendra Saraswathi died of cardiac arrest, said sources at the Adi Bhagavadpada Cardiac and Dialysis Centre.

A pall of gloom descended on this temple town, 75 km from Chennai, as soon as the of the death of the 69th pontiff of Kanchi Sankara Mutt established by Adi Shankaracharya in the 8th century spread.

The seer is credited with taking social outreach programmes to the common people and who wielded enormous influence in matters affecting the Hindu religion in the country including the vexed Ayodhya issue.

His face in repose, eyes closed and hands folded, the body was brought in a chair to a hall in the mutt as grieving devotees began to pay their last respects to the revered Hindu seer.

Followers wept as the body of the Shankaracharya was placed at a vantage spot in the Sri Kanchi Kamakoti Peetam so that his legion of followers could bid him goodbye.

"He was the 'jagatguru' (guru of the world)," a distraught woman devotee said.

The Shankaracharya's forehead was smeared with vibuthi (holy ash) and dotted with red kumkum and strings of garlands were wreathed around his neck.

According to officials, the body will be kept for public view till tomorrow morning after which the last rites will be conducted amid vedic rituals. The rites have been described as 'Brindavana Pravesha Karyakramam' in vedic parlance.

The saint will be laid to rest adjacent to his predecessor within the mutt premises tomorrow, its manager Sundaresa Iyer said.

The junior pontiff Vijayendra Saraswathi will succeed Jayendra Saraswathi, who was heading the mutt since 1994 after receiving the traditional mantle from his predecessor, the late Sri Chandrasekarendra Saraswathi.

Born as Subramanian in Irulneeki village in Tiruvarur district in Tamil Nadu, Jayendra Saraswathi was appointed as junior pontiff of the Kanchi Kamakoti Peetam in 1954 by Chandrasekarendra Saraswathi at a young age of 19.

He had his share of both glory and controversy, with the seer managing to overcome the ordeal of the infamous Sankarraman murder case.

Jayendra Saraswathi's most challenging period came in 2004 when he was arrested on the eve of Diwali in connection with a murder of a temple manager, A Sankararaman, during the Jayalalithaa regime, sending shockwaves.

The trial court had later acquitted him and others including his deputy Vijayendra Saraswathi in the case.

Sankararaman, manager of the Sri Varadarajaperumal temple here, was brutally murdered in his office room in the temple on September 3, 2004, by assailants using sharp-edged weapons.

He had levelled charges of financial misappropriation in the mutt administration against Jayendra Saraswathi and Vijayendra Saraswathi.

The seer was arrested on November 11, 2004, from Mahbubnagar in Andhra Pradesh on charges of conspiring to murder Sankararaman.

The two seers were booked for murder and criminal conspiracy under the Indian Penal Code. They rejected the charges.

The senior pontiff was granted bail by the Supreme Court on January 10,2005, after he had spent two months in Vellore jail. Vijayendra Saraswathi was arrested from the mutt on January 10, 2005 and was released on bail a month later.

They later moved the Supreme Court and got the case transferred to Puducherry in 2005 on the ground that the atmosphere in Tamil Nadu was vitiated and there may not be free and fair trial.

In November 2013, the Puducherry Sessions Court acquitted both the seers. Besides them, 21 other accused were also acquitted.

President Ram Nath Kovind, Vice-President M Venkaiah Naidu, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Congress President Rahul Gandhi were among a string of leaders who condoled the death of the seer.

"Our country has lost a spiritual leader and social reformer of rare eminence," Kovind said on Twitter



"He will live on in the hearts and minds of lakhs of devotees due to his exemplary service and noblest thoughts. Om Shanti to the departed soul," Modi tweeted.

The pontiff had courted controversy in 1987 when he suddenly disappeared from the mutt. After 17 days, he had his homecoming, and was welcomed by thousands of devotees. He then kickstarted his social organisation, Jana Kalyan.

Jayendra Saraswathi was once considered close to the late chief minister J Jayalalithaa.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Congress today dubbed the arrest of senior leader P Chidambaram's son Karti Chidambaram a "diversionary tactic" by the government to hide its scams and said "vendetta" would not deter the party from speaking the truth.

Several Congress leaders, including the party's communications in-charge Randeep Surjewala, Kapil Sibal and Abhishek Singhvi, spoke out against Karti Chidambaram's arrest.

It was a "classical diversionary tactic" to hide "corruption scams, mal-governance and mal-administration that have marred this government", Surjewala said.

"The Congress party will not be deterred by unleashing of vendetta against Mr P Chidambaram or his family. We will continue to speak the truth. We will continue to expose the Modi governments corruption and we will continue to hold them accountable to people of the country," he told reporters.

Senior Congress leader Sibal also termed the arrest "malafide" and said it was done to harass P Chidambaram.

"This is complete vendetta politics, this is completely malafide," he said.

Sibal challenged the agencies to produce evidence against Karti Chidambaram. "They are always misusing the law," he said.

Karti Chidambaram was arrested at Chennai airport around 8 am when he returned from the United Kingdom.

An FIR filed by the CBI on May 15 last year had alleged irregularities in the FIPB clearance to INX Media for receiving overseas funds to the tune of Rs 305 crore in 2007 when Chidambaram was Union finance minister.

It is alleged that Karti Chidambaram received funds to the tune of Rs 10 lakh in the case, officials said.

Surjewala said scams worth over Rs 30,000 crore were unearthed in the last 10 days alone. But the prime minister has not moved the transition from Maun Modi to Bol Modi. The prime minister remains mum about hhota Modi as also Mehul Choksi, he said.

He cited the cases of designer jeweller Nirav Modi and his uncle Mehul Choksi, Rotomac and Durga Das Seth jeweller to say that fresh scams were being unearthed everyday but the prime minister was keeping quiet.

According to party spokesperson Singhvi, Karti Chidambaram's arrest showed the government's "double standards". While Nirav Modi and Vijay Mallya were not stopped from fleeing the country, Karti Chidambaram was arrested even when he returned from a foreign tour, he said.

He also questioned the timing of the arrest, asking if it had anything to do with the Karnataka elections and whether it was aimed at deflecting attention from the Nirav Modi fraud case. The nation, he added, was questioning the Centre on "Chhota Modi".

"Fantastic double standards. Amazing selectivity. Nirav; Lalit and Mallya not stopped from fleeing; Karti arrested on arrival, returning after repeated foreign trips. Few lakhs become 80 crore in few months in Jai Ho case no raid no arrest, instead gag order. 10 lakh allegation and arrest!" he said on Twitter.

"FIR recently filed in PC case. Allegations exist in public domain for over one year with many appearances for questioning; how can sudden custodial interrogation be justified. If no flight risk, no tampering, available for questioning, how and why arrest? Karnataka elections?" he added.

AICC general secretary Ashok Gehlot said Karti Chidambaram was arrested to divert attention from the big issues and the bank scam facing the NDA government.

Gehlot said on Twitter, Mr Karti Chidambaram was arrested when he landed at Chennai airport, he was not trying to escape from India like Nirav Modi then arresting him on his arrival at airport is funny. Karti Chidambaram was cooperating with the CBI, the CBI could have summoned him.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Maharashtra Congress today slammed the Narendra Modi government after the CBI arrested Karti Chidambaram, son of former Finance Minister P Chidambaram, saying the action was aimed at intimidating and browbeating the opposition.

Karti Chidambaram was arrested by the CBI this morning at Chennai airport in connection with its probe in the INX media case. The 46-year-old was placed under arrest by a CBI team on his return from London.

"The arrest of the son of the senior Congress leader, who has been very vocal against the Narendra Modi government, is a ploy to intimidate and browbeat the opposition and also an attempt to divert the public attention from the huge banking scam," senior Congress leader and former Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan told PTI.

"Karti was arrested for violating the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA). To the best of my knowledge, FEMA is a civilian offence, not a criminal one," he said.

An FIR filed by the CBI on May 15 last year had alleged irregularities in the FIPB clearance to INX Media for receiving overseas funds to the tune of Rs 305 crore in 2007 when P Chidambaram was the Union finance minister.

It has been alleged that Karti Chidambaram received funds to the tune of Rs 10 lakh in the case, officials said.

Questioning the arrest, Chavan said, "If the Modi government has anything concrete against him, they should file a chargesheet and prosecute him. If they apprehend that he will flee the country, his passport could be seized. But why arrest him."



According to Chavan, a former Union minister, the Congress won't be cowed down by such intimidating tactics.

"The BJP-led government should remember that Nirav Modi, accused of pulling off possibly India's biggest bank fraud, was posing for pictures with Prime Minister Narendra Modi last month," Chavan said.

He alleged "proximity" between the prime minister and the PNB scam accused Nirav Modi, a billionaire diamond merchant, and Mehul Choksi.

Nirav Modi was a part of the delegation of Indian businessmen and corporate leaders at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Chavan claimed.

Mumbai Congress chief Sanjay Nirupam, too, termed Karti Chidambaram's arrest a case of political vendetta by the BJP.

"Karti's arrest is a case of political vendetta by the BJP. The truth will come out and these dirty tactics will be exposed," Nirupam said in a statement.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Karti Chidambaram, son of former Finance Minister P Chidambaram, was today arrested by the CBI in connection with its probe in the INX media case, officials here said.

Karti was taken into custody by a team of CBI officials at the Chennai airport on his return from the United Kingdom, they said.

After completing necessary formalities, the 46-year-old Karti was put on a domestic flight to the national capital where he would be produced before a designated court in the late afternoon.

The agency had summoned Karti for questioning earlier but he had sought stay orders from various courts



An FIR filed by the CBI on May 15 last year had alleged irregularities in the FIPB clearance to INX Media for receiving overseas funds to the tune of Rs 305 crore in 2007 when Chidambaram was the Union finance minister. It is alleged Karti had received funds to the tune of Rs 10 lakh in the case, they said.

The CBI alleged Karti also received money from INX media to scuttle a tax probe. The firm was owned at the time by Peter and Indrani Mukerjea, who are currently in jail on charges of murdering Indrani's daughter Sheena Bora.

The Enforcement Directorate has also registered a money laundering case.

The CBI and the ED had carried out a series of raids on the houses and offices owned by the Chidambarams. Karti Chidambaram was questioned several times by the ED.

A lookout notice, which prevents a passenger from traveling abroad, was issued against him as the agencies suspected that he would try to close the foreign accounts where he had parked the money from the kickbacks. In November, the Supreme Court allowed Karti Chidambaram to go to the UK for his daughter's admission in the Cambridge University.

His father was not available for comments but had earlier denied involvement of his son in any case.

The CBI is also probing the alleged irregularities in grant of the FIPB clearance to the Aircel-Maxis deal in 2006.

The arrest of Karti drew angry reactions from the Congress party which labelled his arrest as "vendetta" and "diversionary tactic" by the Modi government to hide its scams and "mal-governance".

Karti Chidambaram's arrest would not deter the party from speaking the truth to hold the government accountable, the party's communications in-charge Randeep Surjewala said.

According to the CBI, INX Media clearly states in its records that Rs 10 lakh was given to Advantage Strategic Consulting (P) Limited, a firm "indirectly" owned by Karti, for management consultancy charged towards FIPB notification and clarification.

The FIR also alleges that invoices of approximately Rs 3.5 crore were raised in favour of INX group in the name of other companies in which Karti had substantial interests "directly or indirectly".

The agency has registered an FIR against Karti, his company Chess Management Services, the Mukerjeas, INX Media, Advantage Strategic Consulting Services and its Director Padma Vishwanathan.

The allegations levelled by the CBI are based on the information given by "source", the FIR has claimed.

INX Media was seeking investment from Mauritius, an official explained.

The investment was allowed by the FIPB board and the then Finance Minister with the condition that only Rs 4.62 crore could be received and for investment in INX Pvt Ltd, a separate proposal was required.

The company allegedly violated the conditions set by the FIPB and received investment to the tune of 26 per cent in the capital of INX which included foreign investment.

It allegedly generated more than Rs 305 crore of FDI in INX Media against the approved inflow of Rs 4.62 crore by issuing shares to foreign investors at a premium of more than Rs 800 per share.

The violation prompted an Income Tax department probe. INX Media claimed that the investment was done as per FIPB conditions.

In order to wriggle out of the situation without any punitive action, INX Media entered into criminal conspiracy with Karti whose father was the Finance Minister of the country, the agency alleged.

It said officials, by virtue of the influence exercised over them by Karti, not only allegedly ignored serious illegalities on the part of INX Media but also showed undue favours by abusing their official position and advised the company to file for fresh clearance.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Karti Chidambaram, son of former Finance Minister P Chidambaram, was arrested today by the CBI at Chennai Airport in connection with its probe in the INX media case, officials here said.

The 46-year-old Karti was placed under arrest by a CBI team on his return from London.

He was put on a Delhi-bound flight and brought to the agency headquarters where the CBI is completing necessary formalities including a medical test before producing him before a designated CBI court here in the evening.

The agency did not produce him for before a local magistrate in Chennai for his transit remand since the probe agency has an all-India jurisdiction.

The CBI had registered an FIR on May 15 last year against alleged irregularities in the FIPB clearance to INX Media for receiving overseas funds to the tune of Rs 305 crore in 2007 when Chidambaram was the Union finance minister. It is alleged that Karti had received funds to the tune of Rs 10 lakh in the case, they said.

The CBI alleged Karti also received money from INX media to scuttle a tax probe. The firm was owned at the time by Peter and Indrani Mukerjea, who are currently in jail on charges of murdering Indrani's daughter Sheena Bora.

The Enforcement Directorate has also registered a money laundering case.

The CBI and the ED had carried out a series of raids on the houses and offices owned by the Chidambarams. Karti Chidambaram was questioned several times by the ED.

A lookout notice, which prevents a passenger from travelling abroad, was issued against him as the agencies suspected that he would try to close foreign accounts where he had parked the money from the kickbacks. In November, the Supreme Court allowed Karti Chidambaram to go to the UK for his daughter's admission in the Cambridge University.

His father was not available for comments but he had earlier denied involvement of his son in any case.

The Congress labelled his arrest as "vendetta" and "diversionary tactic" by the Modi government to hide its scams and "mal-governance".

Karti Chidambaram's arrest would not deter the party from speaking the truth to hold the government accountable, the party's communications in-charge Randeep Surjewala said.

The CBI is also probing the alleged irregularities in grant of the FIPB clearance to the Aircel-Maxis deal in 2006.

According to the CBI, INX Media clearly states in its records that Rs 10 lakh was given to Advantage Strategic Consulting (P) Limited, a firm "indirectly" owned by Karti, for management consultancy charged towards FIPB notification and clarification.

The FIR also alleges that invoices of approximately Rs 3.5 crore were raised in favour of INX group in the name of other companies in which Karti had substantial interests "directly or indirectly".

The agency has registered an FIR against Karti, his company Chess Management Services, the Mukerjeas, INX Media, Advantage Strategic Consulting Services and its Director Padma Vishwanathan.

The allegations levelled by the CBI are based on the information given by "source", the FIR has claimed.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Karti Chidambaram, arrested by the CBI in connection with the probe into the INX Media case, was today produced before a Delhi court.

46-year-old Karti, son of former Finance Minister P Chidambaram, was produced before Metropolitan Magistrate Sumeet Anand who allowed the request of his lawyers to have an interaction with the accused inside the court room.

The court allowed Karti and his lawyers to interact for 10 minutes, after which the proceedings resumed.

Earlier in the day, Karti was taken into custody by a team of CBI officials at the Chennai airport on his return from the United Kingdom.

The CBI had lodged an FIR on May 15 last year alleging irregularities in the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) clearance to INX Media for receiving overseas funds to the tune of Rs 305 crore in 2007 when P Chidambaram was the Union finance minister.

The agency has alleged that Karti had received funds to the tune of Rs 10 lakh in the case.

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has also registered a money laundering case in the INX Media case.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Karti Chidambaram's apprehension in the Supreme Court last week that he will be arrested on his return from London turned out to be true with the CBI taking him into custody in connection with INX media case as soon as he landed at the Chennai airport today.

Karti, son of former union minister P Chidambaram, had vehemently pleaded in the apex court for staying or postponing the Enforcement Directorate's summon issued against him for his appearance on March 1 in connection with the money laundering case of INX Media, even as the CBI had said he was "not a common criminal".

During the hearing before a bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra on February 23, Karti's counsel Kapil Sibal had perhaps realised the intention of the investigating agencies and wondered whether the CBI planning to arrest his client.

"So, are you planning to arrest him," Sibal had asked the agencies.

CBI's counsel Tushar Mehta had then shot back "I am not saying that he will be arrested" but the call has to be taken by the investigating agency.

Mehta, an Additional Solicitor General, had also opposed Karti when during the hearing of the CBI case, he had sought a stay or postponement of the summons issued to him in the ED case.

The apex court was hearing the pleas of both CBI and Karti against the Madras High Court order of August 22, 2017, by which it had refrained itself from going into the merit of issue of quashing the FIR lodged in the INX Media case but rejecting the investigating agency's ground of maintainability due to lack of territorial jurisdiction.

The Madras High Court had however held that it was inclined to adopt the 'doctrine of forum of convenience' so that the parties could move the convenient court. It directed the court registry to return all the papers in the case to Karti to enable him approach the Delhi High Court, which has superintendence powers in the matter.

The apex court bench also comprising Justices Amitava Roy (since retired) and D Y Chandrachud had on February 23, adjourned the matter to March 6, while noting the submissions of Sibal and senior advocate Gopal Subramaniam, appearing for Karti, that they intended to seek time from the competent authority to appear before it.

The court had, however, made it clear that it has not dealt with the issue of maintainability of the applications moved by Karti against the ED's summon.

Karti was allowed to travel to United Kingdom and France by Madras High Court on February 16, in connection with his business activities in those countries.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Karti Chidambaram, arrested in connection with the INX Media case, was today sent to one-day CBI custody by a Delhi court after the agency claimed his custodial interrogation was needed to unearth the conspiracy over alleged payment of USD one million bribe to him by the media company through foreign entities.

The fresh evidence in the case, which triggered the arrest of Karti, son of senior Congress leader P Chidambaram, was based on the statement of Indrani Mukerjea, former Director of INX Media (P) Ltd, who recorded it under section 164 of CrPC before a magistrate on February 17.

In the statement under this section, which is like a confessional statement before a judicial magistrate, Indrani has stated that she and her husband Peter Mukerjea had acceded to Karti's demand of one million dollars for allegedly fixing the violations done in the FIPB clearance.

46-year-old Karti, who was arrested this morning at Chennai airport soon after he returned from the United Kingdom, was brought to Delhi and produced before a duty magistrate here.

The CBI sought his custodial interrogation for 15 days but duty magistrate Sumeet Anand granted a day's custody, making it clear that Karti has to be produced before the concerned special judge tomorrow at 2.30 pm.

Duty magistrate is a judge before whom the accused is produced when the concerned judge is not available or when any accused is produced after the regular court hours and in this case, the concerned special judge had left the court premises after around 4.30 pm. Karti was produced before the duty magistrate at around 4.50 pm.

During the proceedings, CBI prosecutor V K Sharma told the court that "Indrani's statement under section 164 CrPC was recorded before a magistrate on February 17 in which she told the magistrate that in a meeting at a five-star hotel here, she and Peter met Karti and he demanded USD one million."



"The money was later paid by Peter on behalf of INX Media through off-shore entities and it is being investigated," the CBI claimed, adding "this was done to fix the violations done in FIPB clearance".

The prosecutor said Karti was needed to be quizzed to unearth the "total conspiracy" and claimed he was not cooperating in the probe and was repeatedly travelling abroad which "confirmed apprehensions" that "he will flee" from India.

Senior advocate A M Singhvi, appearing for Karti, said it was a "bizzare" case and no grounds for arrest were made out. "It is a bizzare case at the threshhold. It is not a case of arrest, leave aside police custody or judicial custody," he told the court while opposing the CBI's remand plea.

He also argued that Karti was summoned twice by CBI on August 23 and 28 last year and was interrogated for 22 hours.

The ED had also summoned him in the money laundering case related to INX Media and he had joined the probe on various occasions, including 10 days ago, Sinhgvi said.

He said, "there are no reasons given for the arrest. It is because you (CBI) want to show it to your bosses that you are doing some work."



"Unlike others, I (Karti) am not 'Hindustan leaver' and instead I am 'Hindustan returner'," he said and claimed that Karti was cooperating with CBI and the court might impose any condition while releasing him from the agency's custody.

"I (Karti) am not a fugitive," Singhvi, assisted by senior advocates Dayan Krishnan and Mohit Mathur, said.

CBI alleged that Karti had not cooperated in the investigation "until compelled to do so by the Supreme Court" and he had "vehemently denied that he or his company had any interaction with INX Media on any matter including FIPB related matter despite evidence to the contrary".

"Thus, Karti Chidambaram needs to be subjected to sustained interrogation for unearthing the total conspiracy hatched in the case and also to find out the details of overseas payments received by him from INX Media as a quid pro quo for influence exercised by him over the public servants to scuttle the punitive action required to be taken against M/s INX Media (P) Ltd for the illegal acts of receiving excess investment than the approved FDI and also for making of downstream investment without the FIPB approval," it said.

The agency claimed that Karti's frequent foreign visits have confirmed the "apprehensions of his tampering with the evidence lying abroad against him and others in the form of secret note received from the Ministry of Finance".

It said that a "secret note" received from the Finance Ministry was also shown in a sealed cover to the apex court and the Madras High Court while objecting to Karti's foreign visits in justification of the look out circular (LoC) issued against him.

CBI said that Karti had gone to the United Kingdom (UK) from June 15 to July 13 last year and again travelled to UK from December 1 to December 10 last year. Thereafter, Karti again went to the UK and France on February 18 and returned today, it said.

The CBI had lodged an FIR on May 15 last year alleging irregularities in the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) clearance to INX Media for receiving overseas funds to the tune of Rs 305 crore in 2007 when P Chidambaram was the union finance minister.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Union territory of Lakshadweep today joined UDAY scheme, which is meant for revival of debt stressed power distribution companies (discoms) in the country.

"The Government of India and the Union Territory of Lakshadweep signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) under the Scheme Ujwal DISCOM Assurance Yojana (UDAY) today, for operational turnaround of the Union Territorys Electricity Department," a Power Ministry statement said.

According to the statement, an overall net benefit of approximately Rs 8 crore would accrue to Lakshadweep by participating in UDAY, by way of cheaper funds, reduction in AT&C losses, interventions in energy efficiency, etc. during the period of turnaround and will continue in future years.

The MoU paves way for improving operational efficiency of the Electricity Department of the Union Territory (UT).

Through compulsory Distribution Transformer metering, consumer indexing & GIS mapping of losses, upgrade/change transformers, smart metering of high-end consumers, feeder audit etc., AT&C losses and transmission losses would be brought down, besides eliminating the gap between cost of supply of power and realisation.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Sri Lanka's Northern Province Council has passed a resolution requesting the UN Human Right Council to establish an International Court to investigate allegations of war crimes against the armed forces during the decade-long civil war between the LTTE and the Army.

The resolution, which was submitted by the Northern Provincial Councilor MK Shivajilingam, was passed with a majority at the 117th council session held yesterday, Tamil political sources said.

Shivajilingam said the government had failed to take action to probe into war crime charges despite the UNHRC resolutions passed since 2013.

"A probe by the government to solve human rights violations cannot be trusted. Since the latest UNHRC session has begun, a resolution should be sent to it," he said



"This council calls upon the UN and the international community to require Sri Lanka to ratify the Rome statute as recommended by the OHCHR investigation on Sri Lanka," the resolution said.

It also urged India, US and European Union to mediate a political solution in Sri Lanka "recognising that the Tamil people are a Nation with their traditional homeland in the contiguous north East region of Sri Lanka."



The council resolution came as the UNHRC began its 37th session on February 26. A report submitted by its chief Zeid Raad Al Hussein advocated application of universal jurisdiction on Sri Lanka to ensure accountability.

Sri Lankan troops and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) have faced international condemnation for alleged human rights violations during the long-drawn conflict.

The UNHRC in three successive resolutions has urged for independent international investigation into alleged abuses blamed on both sides.

Sri Lanka is averse to setting up of an international hybrid court with local and foreign judges to investigate the alleged war crimes committed by the government troops and the LTTE in the last phase of the conflict.

The island country has a population of 18.5 million of whom the majority are Sinhalese (74 per cent). Other ethnic groups are made up of Sri Lankan Tamils (12.6 per cent), Indian Tamils (5.5 per cent).

According to the government figures, around 20,000 people are missing due to various conflicts, including the civil war with Lankan Tamils in the north and east which claimed at least 1,00,000 lives.

The LTTE, which led the separatist war for a separate Tamil homeland, was finally crushed by the Lankan military in 2009 with the death its supremo Velupillai Prabhakaran.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said today that rebels in Syria's Eastern Ghouta were responsible for ensuring that a "humanitarian pause" in the area delivers relief for devastated civilians.

"Russia together with the Syrian government have already announced the establishment of humanitarian corridors in Eastern Ghouta," Lavrov told the UN Human Rights Council.

"Now, it is the turn for the militants and their sponsors to act, militants entrenched there who still continue shelling Damascus, blocking aid deliveries and the evacuation of those wishing to leave," he added.

Tuesday was the first day of the five-hour daily "pause" in rebel-held Eastern Ghouta that was ordered by President Vladimir Putin, the Syrian regime's main ally.

But the truce was marred by violence, with Moscow and Damascus accusing armed groups of shelling the purported humanitarian corridor.

The Eastern Ghouta truce falls far short of a broader 30-day ceasefire Russia agreed to at the UN Security Council on Saturday but which has yet to take effect.

Lavrov said the Security Council resolution could offer reprieve to those suffering across Syria, but indicated the ball was in the court of the opposition and its allies in Washington.

"The people of Syria today face the most dire humanitarian crisis. UN Security Council resolution 2401 has established a framework for all parties to agree upon conditions to alleviate the plight of civilians throughout the territory of the country," he said.

"We call upon the members of the so-called American coalition to ensure the same humanitarian access to the areas in Syria under their control.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Veteran communist leader Suravaram Sudhakar Reddy today expressed doubts over the two exit polls which predicted the BJP's win in Tripura elections, and said the Left front is confident of returning to power.

Noting that some exit polls after the last Assembly elections in Bihar and Delhi had gone awry, the CPI general secretary said he has his own doubts about the latest ones on the north eastern state's poll.

He pointed out that one exit poll has given the BJP-IPFT alliance a vote share of 51 per cent, while another has given the ruling Left front 45-46 per cent, terming the difference in percentage "a little".

Reddyalso said that the C-Voter exit poll has given the "advantage" to the Left front.

The C-Voter exit poll has predicted a close finish in Tripura, with the CPI-M likely to get 26 to 34 seats with 44.3 per cent vote share, the BJP and its allies to get 24 to 32 seats with a vote share of 42.8 per cent, while the Congress may win only around two seats with a vote share of 7.2 per cent.

"I don't think that the BJP can win in Tripura. We are very confident the Left will win," Reddy said.

"Yes, it's possible some sort of an anti-incumbency in some sections may be there but most of the people are happy and satisfied with the government," he said.

On February 18, voting was held in 59 of the total 60 seats in Tripura Assembly.

The polling could not be held in the Charilam constituency due to the death of CPI(M) candidate Ramendra Narayan Deb Barma earlier this month. The constituency will go to polls on March 12.

The BJP, hitherto an "also-ran" in the north-eastern state, is making a determined bid to demolish the red bastion of 25 years, with stalwarts like Prime Minister Narendra Modi and party president Amit Shah leading the charge.

The saffron party, which had forged a pre-poll alliance with the tribal outfit Indigenous People's Front of Tripura (IPFT), had fielded 51 candidates. The IPFT, an anti-Left party, contested from the remaining nine seats.

The Congress went it all alone in Tripura this time and contested from 59 seats. The party had not fielded a candidate from the Kakrabon constituency in Gomati district.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)A group of Muslims here today paid last respects to Kanchi Shankaracharya Jayendra Saraswathi by observing a minute's silence, underlining the pan-religious ties maintained by the Sankara mutt's seers.

The group led by the head of local Jummah masjid, the largest in this town, visited the mutt and stood in silence in front of the mortal remains of the seer.

After paying their last respects, they met Vijayendra Saraswathi, the junior pontiff, and expressed their condolences on the senior acharya's death.

Earlier, they were received by the mutt officials.

Speaking to PTI, J Mohammed, head of the mosque said, "We have cordial relations with the mutt since the times of Sri Chandrasekharendra Saraswathi (predecessor of Jayendra Saraswathi).

"When some objected to the presence of a mosque in the vicinity of the mutt decades ago, Chandrasekharendra Saraswathi had said a mosque is a house of God and there should be no objection to it," he recalled.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Terming India a "crucial strategic partner", a top Moroccan diplomat today said the North African country is looking for comprehensive cooperation with New Delhi in a range of sectors, including security, economy and tourism.

Dr Assia Ben Salah Alaoui, the Ambassador at Large of Moroccan King Mohammed VI, said bilateral ties have strengthened since the two countries decided to elevate the ties to strategic partnership during the visit of Moroccan King Mohammed VI to India in 2015.

"India is a very crucial partner of Morocco and we are looking to have a comprehensive cooperation. India is an emerging power and the two countries have a huge potential for cooperation in many sectors like security, economy and tourism," Alaoui told PTI.

"Our ambition is to improve south-south cooperation so that we can have a common say in front of all world powers," she said on the sidelines of a seminar -- 'Morocco's security strategy: Preventing terrorism and countering extremism'.

SouthSouth Cooperation refers to exchange of resources, technology and knowledge between developing countries, also known as countries of the Global South.

Alaoui told envoys of Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Algeria and top Indian officials that south-south cooperation is enhancing and it can play a key role in countering terrorism.

"Morocco's innovations has enabled the Kingdom to diversify its strategic partnerships and enhance international security cooperation. It is playing an important role in fighting terrorism," she said.

Morocco and Spain have been closely associated in dismantling sleeper cells and arresting militants, Alaoui said, adding that Moroccan intelligence has been "extremely efficient" and successful in foiling certain terror attacks in Europe.

"The other international cooperation that is expanding is religious cooperation. It is probably one of the most successful cooperation," she said.

"Morocco's aim is to promote moderate Islam and all Muslim-majority countries are collaborating in fighting terror, because they are the first victims of terrorism," the diplomat said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Maharashtra government may consider making amendments in law to protect depositors and keep a check on companies duping investors with fraudulent schemes, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said today.

The chief minister was responding to a Calling Attention motion moved in the state Legislative Council by Congress member Satej Patil over Pancard Clubs, a private company running collective investment schemes, termed illegal by the market watchdog Sebi.

The Pancard Clubs has allegedly trapped over 51 lakh investors, he said, adding that the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) and the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) have collectively attached its properties worth over Rs 4,500 crore.

The SEBI and the EOW are in the process of liquidating the company's assets to pay back the duped investors, he said.

The money trail of the accused is being investigated to make the case stronger against them, Fadnavis said.

Jayant Patil (of the Peasants and Workers Party) then sought to know if the government would bring about a law to keep a check on firms that crop up to gobble up the investors' funds through fraudulent schemes and later disappear.

Responding to him, Fadnavis said, "We will see if amendments can be made to the existing Maharashtra Protection of Interest of Depositors In Financial Establishments (MPID) Act to bring such companies under its ambit."



He said that strict action will also be taken against those companies which place advertisements in newspapers to lure people to invest in their fraudulent schemes.

The Pancard Clubs had failed to comply with Sebi's direction in February 2016 ordering it to refund to investors over Rs 7,000 crore, raised through illegal collective investment schemes.

The company had mobilised Rs 7,035 crore from 51,55,516 investors from 2002-03 to 2013-14 through its various holiday schemes.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Families today accused Mali's military of killing seven civilians during an operation in the centre of the country a week earlier, as the government opened an enquiry into the deaths.

In a separate incident in the same region, six Malian soldiers were killed on Tuesday when their vehicle struck a mine, the army said today.

Malian soldiers and international forces are battling jihadists and criminal gangs in the north and centre, where an Islamist insurgency has taken root and the state is largely absent.

Nouhoun Sarr, the nephew of one of seven men killed on February 21 after their arrest by the military, said the authorities informed him on Wednesday morning of his uncle's fate.

"They called us to tell us our relatives were killed during the operation, without elaborating," he told AFP.

A UN report published this month found that "at least 20 percent" of recorded incidents in 2016 and in the first of half of 2017 that endangered civilian lives involved the Malian authorities -- essentially the security forces.

"According to our information, the seven civilians arrested on February 21 by the Malian army in Sokolo were killed by soldiers," said Yehia Ag Mohamed Ali, a former minister and member of the opposition Sadi party.

The government said in a statement on Wednesday that the army was "carrying out reconnaissance missions and searches in the Sokolo area, during which civilians unfortunately lost their lives.

"An enquiry has been opened," it added.

The army suffers losses on a weekly basis at the hands of jiahdists, and on Tuesday a lieutenant was among the six killed, an army statement said.

The soldiers were travelling in the Segou region when they "triggered an improvised explosive device" at 6:30pm (1830 GMT) on Tuesday, according to the statement.

Islamic extremists linked to Al-Qaeda took control of the desert north of Mali in early 2012, but were largely driven out in a French-led military operation launched in January 2013.

In June 2015, Mali's government signed a peace agreement with coalitions of armed groups. But the jihadists remain active, and large tracts of the country are lawless.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee today asked his officials to expedite the repair works of former CM Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee's residence in South Kolkata and clean up the area promptly.

Banerjee also asked his officials to expedite handing over ownership rights of the flats among all residents in the government housing estate, where Bhattacharjee resides with his wife Mira Bhattacharjee.

The Bhattacharjee household had earlier complained of disrepair of the housing estate where he lives in a rented flat.

A local reporter today pointed out to Banerjee that no repair work was taken up at the former chief minister's house.

"I don't know why this has happened. This should'nt have been done. He (Buddhadeb) is sick and he needs comfort," Mamata told reporters at her office in the Assembly today.

"I signed the file six months back for giving ownership rights to all residents of that government estate," she said.

Bhattacharjee, who is unwell of late, resided in the same flat even before he became the chief minister.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Police had a tough time in arresting an accused in a murder case, who perched dangerously on the top of a four-storey building in outer Delhi while trying to escape.

Yesterday, a team of police personnel went to serve summons of Rohini Court to the accused Brijesh (38) in connection with a case registered against him at Kanjhawala police station, additional DCP(outer) Rajender Singh Sagar said.

When they reached Patel Apartments in Sector 13 of Rohini, where Brijesh lived, they received information that he was also wanted in a case of kidnapping and murder registered at Begumpur police station, the officer said.

As the policemen knocked on the door of the flat, he tried to escape and climbed on a fiber sheet installed on the wall of building, Sagar said.

Meanwhile, a team from Kanjhawala police station also reached there. The policemen asked Brijesh to come down but he refused. Later, fire services were informed and a team of District Disaster Management Authority also reached their to help the police in bringing Brijesh down, he said



After four hours, the accused was arrested, the police officer said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Philippines today hailed Washington's decision to blacklist two local pro-Islamic State groups, including one which occupied the southern city of Marawi last year, triggering a months-long battle.

The US State Department and the Department of Treasury designated the Maute group and the Dawlatul Islamiyah Waliyatul Masrik as "terrorist organisations" yesterday, blocking US-based assets belonging to them or their supporters and barring Americans from dealing with them.

"The (move) is an affirmation of what Philippine authorities already know -- that the Maute Group and the Dawlah-Islamiya are terrorist groups that need to be dealt with decisively using the full force of the law," a statement by the defence ministry in Manila said.

"They will be denied access to the US financial system and will face sanctions as may be deemed appropriate, making it more difficult for them to conduct their activities in the Philippines and abroad."



Militants from the Maute group were routed from Marawi last October after a five-month battle sparked by its bid to establish an IS caliphate in the largely Catholic country's southern Mindanao region.

The US, a long-time defence ally, helped Philippine forces with intelligence input, including reconnaissance flights, during the fighting which claimed more than 1,100 lives and reduced large parts of the city to rubble.

However the Philippine military warned last week that remaining members of the group have recruited about 200 gunmen to mount another attempt.

The Dawlatul Islamiyah, or Dawlah-Islamiya as designated by the Philippine defence ministry, is a smaller faction also based in Mindanao.

"We are profoundly committed to preventing ISIS from gaining (a) foothold in the Philippines and in Southeast Asia, and we should continue working together on this objective," Philippine Foreign Undersecretary Ernesto Abella told reporters, using an acronym for IS.

Brigadier-General Bienvenido Datuin, spokesman for the Philippine military, said the US move would boost local counter-terrorism efforts.

"(A) specific advantage... is the checking of money trail, financial sources, logistics lines and conduits of terror groups in foreign countries that may have connections with local violent extremists," he said.

Other armed Philippine groups that have made the US terror blacklist in previous years include the New People's Army, waging a decades-old Maoist armed rebellion, and the Abu Sayyaf, which linked up with the Maute gunmen in Marawi last year.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Certain 'mantras' codified the laws of motion much before they were discovered by Isaac Newton, according to Minister of State for Human Resource Development Satyapal Singh.

He made the comments at the 65th meeting of the Central Advisory Board of Education (CABE) which was chaired by Union HRD Minister Prakash Javadekar last month.

"There are mantras which codified 'laws of motion' much before it was discovered by Newton. Hence it is essential that traditional knowledge must be incorporated in our curriculum," according to the minutes of the meeting.

Singh also suggested that Vaastu compliance of educational buildings was important for learning, according to the minutes of the meeting of the governments highest advisory body for policy making in education.

The IPS-turned-politican today attended the National Science Day event in the national capital where he was asked about his remarks by reporters but he refused to comment.

Singh had also landed in a controversy last month when he had claimed that Darwin's theory of evolution was incorrect and should not be taught in schools and colleges.

Nobody, including our ancestors, in written or oral, have said they saw an ape turning into a man.... Humans appeared on Earth as humans from the very beginning, he had said at an event in Aurangabad.

Javadekar had asked Singh to refrain from making such comments and leave the science to scientists as it is their domain.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The vice-president of Uttar Pradesh BJP unit, Dayashankar Singh, today renewed his attack on Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati, terming her a "stubborn woman" and calling her party a "shop".

"Even a stubborn woman like Mayawati had to back off only because of the massive support I got from the people," Singh, who had caused a massive furore in 2016 for his alleged derogatory remarks against the BSP supremo, said here.

Singh was speaking at a function organised by the local party leaders to welcome him to his home town after being made the state BJP vice-president early this month.

"BSP is not a political party, but a shop," he told media persons later in an interaction.

He also attacked the Samajwadi Party and Congress, terming them a party of "baap-beta" and "ma-beta" respectively.

In 2016, Singh was caught on camera alleging t*-hat Mayawati was distributing party tickets on the basis of the amount of money paid to her and made some objectionable comments against her.

Singh's statement had led to a major controversy with a case being registered against him. The BJP had expelled Singh for his comments. After absconding for more than 10 days, he was arrested on July 29 that year from Bihar's Buxar town.

Singh was later granted bail and the party revoked the expulsion.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Bahujan Samaj Party supremo Mayawati will visit Chandigarh on March 15 to address a rally of party workers, a BSP leader said today.

Punjab BSP chief Rashpal Singh Raju said the rally was being held to commemorate the birth anniversary of BSP founder Kanshi Ram.

Raju claimed over five lakh workers from Punjab will take part in it.

The rally will be a forerunner for the victory of BSP in 2019 Lok Sabha polls to make Mayawati the prime minister of the country, he remarked.

Attacking rival parties, he said the country should be "ridden of divisive forces represented by Bharatiya Janata Party and Congress".

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Meghan Markle, the American actress and fiancee of Prince Harry, today made her working debut in London by joining forces with her husband-to-be's brother Prince William and sister-in-law Kate Middleton to create what is being dubbed by the British media as a "Fab Four".

Launched in 2011, the Royal Foundation was set up by William and Harry as the main vehicle to pursue their charitable and philanthropic interests.

Kate became a formal member after her wedding to William in April, 2011 and Meghan will be enrolled as a patron after her wedding to Harry on May 19 at Windsor Castle.

Meghan joined Harry, William and Kate at an event for their personal charity, the Royal Foundation, to set out the collective charitable vision of the younger royals.

"We've all got that same passion to want to make a difference. For me it's very important to want to hit the ground running," Meghan said, adding that women's issues would be at the heart of her work with the foundation.

"There is no better time to really continue to shine a light on women feeling empowered, and people really helping to support them men included," she said.

Opening the event, William, the Duke of Cambridge, welcomed Meghan to the royal fold and said that the foursome intended to work for long-term charitable goals.

"We would not seek quick wins, but would strive to make a real and lasting difference. All of the projects have seen us working to change mindsets to make a real and lasting difference.

"They have all seen us trying to tackle the biggest challenges of the day and they have all seen us uniting people, forming teams and coalitions, to work to make a difference together," William said.

Kate, the Duchess of Cambridge, who is pregnant with her third child, spoke about parenthood influencing her charitable work.

"The work we do can, and should, have a long-lasting resonance. For this reason, we are able to support causes which we're passionate about for decades into the future. Rather than just for a few months or years," she said.

Harry said that he hoped to focus on sustainable tourism as part of the foundation.

"We have different opinions and they work really well (together). Working as a family does have its challenges... But we are stuck together for the rest of our lives," he said, on a lighthearted note.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti called on Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi today to apprise him of the overall situation in the state and stress the need to de-escalate the situation along the border.

Mehbooba called on Modi in the national capital this evening, state government officials said.

"During the meeting, the chief minister apprised the prime minister about the overall situation in the state. She informed the prime minister that the people of Jammu and Kashmir were suffering immensely due to the precarious situation for decades," the officials added.

They said Mehbooba also brought to Modi's notice the recent escalation of violence along the international border, which has forced thousands of people to leave their homes, hearths and daily routine.

She said the dire need of the time was to de-escalate this situation of violence and uncertainty and adopt the path of reconciliation, as envisioned in the Agenda of Alliance of the PDP-BJP government in Jammu and Kashmir, the officials said.

"A threadbare discussion on the Agenda of Alliance also took place during the meeting and the need was felt to ensure a time-bound progress on all the items, including reconciliation between groups, regions and countries and return back of power projects," they added.

A better coordination between the coalition partners was also stressed during the meeting, so that better results were delivered to the people of the state, the officials said.

Mehbooba also informed the prime minister about the execution of the Rs 1 Lakh crore Prime Minister's Development Package in the state, while underlining the need for public outreach for effectively percolating down the benefits of such a package.

She said the benefits of any development initiative in the state got unfortunately overshadowed due to the absence of any fruitful public outreach.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Claiming an "inordinate delay" in the appointment of judges to the Calcutta High Court by the Centre, despite the Supreme Court collegium clearing five names, lawyers' bodies on Thursday alleged that the indifference of the Union law ministry had led to the extension of their ongoing ceasework.

Stating that the Supreme Court collegium had cleared the names of five persons on December 4, 2017 for appointment to the post of judges, three lawyers' associations at the high court said the silence of the government on the issue was "surprising".

"The government is sitting on the recommendations of the apex court even as the number of sitting judges at the high court has gone down to only 35 per cent of its sanctioned strength," Calcutta High Court Incorporated Law Society president Mukul Lahiri said.

Addressing a joint conference of the three associations, he said, "The inordinate delay in taking forward the recommendations of the Supreme Court by the Centre amounts to a contravention of the constitutional obligation of ensuring justice to all."



The high court now has only 30 judges, of whom two are always on rotation at the Andaman and Nicobar Circuit Bench, as against the sanctioned strength of 72.

High Court Bar Association president Uttam Majumdar said the severely depleted number was equally affecting the litigants, the sitting judges and the lawyers.

"While the litigants are failing to get justice in time, owing to the delay in the hearing of petitions, the judges are saddled with a huge number of cases. The lawyers are also at their wits' end on how to ensure a speedy disposal of their clients' cases," he said.

Stating that the decision to go on a ceasework was not an off-the-cuff action on the part of the lawyers, Majumdar said the lawyers' bodies had time and again sent representations demanding an expeditious appointment of judges over the last several months.

Members of the three associations went on ceasework from February 19 over their demand for appointment of judges as well as a permanent chief justice to the high court, which had had acting chief justices for the last three years, except for a brief three-month period, Bar Library Club vice-president Farooq Razzaq said.

"Initially, the ceasework was called for five days, but since it did not have the desired effect, it was extended till March 5," he added.

The future course of action would be decided upon at a joint meeting of the three associations on March 5.

Other than one or two cases that were moved personally by the petitioners, no hearing has been held before any bench of the court since February 19 as no lawyer appeared.A monkey, which got tangled in a telephone line on a tree outside Udyog Bhawan here, was today rescued by a wildlife conservation NGO.

According to the NGO -- Wildlife SOS -- the animal was rescued after 72 hours, when they received a call from a passerby on its helpline number.

In a statement, its stated that the personnel from the fire department aided its rescue team in the operation. Police were also pressed into service to control the crowd that gathered there.

"We are grateful to the fire department and the police for their support in carrying out this rescue," Kartick Satyanarayan, CEO of Wildlife SOS, said in the statement.

The monkey is currently under treatment and observation. Upon recovery, it will be released back into its natural habitat, the Wildlife SOS said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Bombay High Court today said that Mumbai police had an obligation to assist the staff of the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai (MCGM) whenever the latter sought its aid in implementing civic rules, or exercising its legal powers.

A bench of justices AS Oka and R I Chagla also directed the Mumbai police commissioner to constitute a nodal committee to ensure that its officials were available to assist the MCGM staff in the discharge of their official duties.

The directions came while the bench was hearing a petition filed by MCGM seeking that it be exempted from paying a fee to the Mumbai police each time that the latter's personnel accompanied civic staff for demolition or removal of dilapidated buildings, illegal structures etc.

MCGM had said that the police often express reluctance in sending its officials to accompany civic staff on demolition assignments citing non-payment or delay in payment of a fee in lieu of its services.

On the last hearing yesterday, the bench had directed the Maharashtra government to clarify the legal provisions that entitled the police to demand such fee from the MCGM.

However, the state's counsel today submitted that he was yet to receive instructions on the above from the Maharashtra government.

The bench thus directed the state government, the Mumbai police commissioner and the MCGM commissioner to conduct a joint meeting and resolve the issue of fees while ensuring that there was no unwarranted or excess burden imposed upon the state exchequer.

"However, we must clarify that the police cannot refuse to extend aid to the civic staff if a demand of reasonable assistance is made to maintain order and to exercise its legal powers," the bench noted.

"The commissioner of police, and all other concerned police officials have a legal obligation to extend aid to MCGM for maintaining law and order, and for implementing the rules of the civic body," it said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The National Green Tribunal today directed the Haryana government to submit an action plan to address the issue of ammonia and other pollutants in river Yamuna.

A bench headed by Justice Jawad Rahim asked the state government to file an affidavit stating short and long term measures which it proposes to combat the pollution in the river.

The green panel also asked the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) to monitor the water at Wazirabad barrage and take remedial action if required.

During the proceedings, the CPCB submitted a report with regard to pollution levels of ammonia downstream at Khojkipur drain No 2 and Khojkipur drain.

The matter will be heard next on March 5.

The NGT had earlier directed the Delhi and Haryana governments to identify and address the sources of pollution in river Yamuna.

It had earlier ordered Delhi and Haryana governments to hold a meeting to resolve the issue of high ammonia content in the water being provided to the national capital.

Delhi Jal Board (DJB) had moved a plea in the tribunal plea alleging high ammonia in water being provided by the Haryana government to Delhi.

CPCB had submitted its analysis report of ammonia at Tajewala in Haryana, Wazirabad water treatment plant, Okhla and ITO barrage in Delhi.

According to the report, ammonia level at Hathnikund Barrage 0.6 mg per litre, 1.9 mg per litre at Wazirabad, 24.9 at ITO barrage on February 14 while at Okhla water treatment plant it was 0.8 mg per litre on February 15.

Acting on concerns over the health of the people of Delhi, the tribunal had directed the CPCB to analyse the samples of Yamuna water at the four points on DJB's plea alleging high ammonia content in the water being provided by Haryana to Delhi.

While DJB had alleged that Haryana was supplying "poisoned sewage water" to the national capital which had 2.6 parts per million of ammonia, the counsel for Haryana had refuted the contention and said there was no breach of any agreement.

DJB, which supplies water to the city, had approached the tribunal demanding that Haryana be asked to take urgent steps to check the "dangerous level of ammonia" in river Yamuna.

Claiming that the water being released by the state was so polluted that it cannot be treated for drinking, the DJB had said it may cause "a huge and irreparable loss to the citizens of Delhi and has a potential for a grave health crisis and water crisis in the National Capital Region (NCR)."



The petition also claimed that when the water enters Haryana, the ammonia level is nil and very much treatable, whereas when the water enters Delhi, the level is very high.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Nine Naxals were today arrested during a search operation by security forces in Chhattisgarhs insurgency-hit Sukma district, police said.

The operation, which was carried out in Bhejji area of the district, was conducted jointly by personnel from the District Reserve Guard (DRG), District Force (DF), Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) and its elite CoBRA battalion, a senior police official told PTI.

Those arrested were identified as Muchaki Lakhma (22), Muchaki Kosa (25), Mandvi Lakhma (25), Nuppo Latham (37), Nuppo Ganga (30), Sodi Hidma (30), Nuppo Dual (55), Sodi Mukka Hidma (50) and Sodi Joga (19), all belonging to the lower rung of the outlawed Communist Party of India (Maoist), he said.

Muchaki Lakhma had arrest warrants pending against him in Bhejji and Konta police stations, the official informed.

Police said that they were allegedly involved in the attack on a police team inElarmadgu forest of Bhejji on February 18 this year in which two personnel were killed and six others were injured.

They were also involved in an incident on the same day in which a labourer was killed and construction equipment and vehicles engaged in road construction were torched, he said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)There is no interference from the government and the law must take its course, Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad on Wednesday said after Karti Chidambaram, son of former finance minister P Chidambaram, was arrested by the CBI in connection with its probe in the

Karti, 46, was placed under arrest by a CBI team on his return from London.

The law minister said that the nature of the evidence available against the offender must speak for itself and not the "alibi" of vendetta.

"The law is taking its course. The law must take its course. The CBI will explain all the details. We do not wish to interfere. There is no interference of the government," he told reporters.

The CBI has sought 15-days remand of Karti Chidambaram for custodial interrogation.

"But I will only make one observation. When such issues are raised, what is important is that the nature of the evidence available against the offender must speak for itself and not the alibi of vendetta," he said.

The Congress today dubbed the arrest of Karti Chidambaram a "diversionary tactic" by the government to hide its scams and said "vendetta" would not deter the party from speaking the truth.The government today rejected the Congress allegation that the arrest of Karti Chidambaram was "vendetta" and said the nature of evidence available must speak for itself.

"...I will only make one observation. When such issues are raised, what is important is that the nature of evidence available against the offender must speak for itself and not the alibi of vendetta," Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad told reporters here.

Karti, 46, the son of former minister P Chidambaram, was placed under arrest by a CBI team today on his return from London in connection with its probe into the INX media case.

Prasad said there was no interference from the government and the law would take its course.

"The law is taking its course. The law must take its course. The CBI will explain all the details. We do not wish to interfere. There is no interference of the government," he said.

While the CBI had sought a 15-day remand of Karti Chidambaram for custodial interrogation, it was given one day's custody.

The Congress has dubbed the arrest a vendetta and a "diversionary tactic" by the government to hide its scams.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)India today said it had nothing to do with the presence of convicted Khalistan terrorist Jaspal Atwal at an event hosted by the Canadian High Commissioner in Mumbai or the invitation extended to him for a reception by the envoy here, asserting that any suggestion to the contrary is "baseless and unacceptable".

India's firm assertion on the issue came a day after Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau faced questions from opposition in the Canadian Parliament over the controversy and reports that he was standing by a senior who suggested that factions within the Indian government were trying to sabotage his recent India visit.

"We have seen the recent exchange in the Parliament of Canada regarding two invitations issued to Jaspal Atwal by the Canadian High Commissioner, for functions hosted in honour of the Canadian Prime Minister in India.

"Let me categorically state that the Government of India, including the security agencies, had nothing to do with the presence of Jaspal Atwal at the event hosted by the Canadian High Commissioner in Mumbai or the invitation issued to him for the Canadian High Commissioner's reception in New Delhi," External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said.

He added, "Any suggestion to the contrary is baseless and unacceptable."



Kumar said this in response to a query on the controversy which erupted last week after Atwal was photographed with Trudeau's wife Sophie Gregoire at the event in Mumbai and then an invite extended to him to the dinner reception at the Canadian High Commissioner's residence in Delhi.

As the invite for the reception to the convicted Khalistan terrorist triggered a huge controversy in the midst of Trudeau's visit, Canadian High Commissioner Nadir Patel cancelled the invite to Atwal.

According to a report in Canadian newspaper 'The Star', Trudeau is standing by a senior government official who suggested factions within the Indian government were involved in sabotaging the prime minister's visit to India.

It said, however, Trudeau accepted the offer of Liberal MP Randeep Sarai to step down as chair of the Pacific Caucus, taking responsibility for the invite to Atwal.

A report in Vancouver Sun said that in a background briefing arranged by the Prime Minister's Office, a government official last week suggested that Atwal's presence was arranged by factions within the Indian government who wanted to prevent Prime Minister Narendra Modi from getting too cosy with the Canadian government, believing that it is not committed to a united India.

Atwal was a Sikh separatist active in the banned International Sikh Youth Federation when he was convicted for attempting to murder Punjab minister Malkiat Singh Sidhu in Vancouver in 1986.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Numetal, with the help of Russia-based engineering expert Tyazhpromexport, is confident of turning around debt-laden Essar Steel, which is undergoing insolvency proceedings.

Mauritius-based Numetal is one of the bidder of Essar Steel, besides Luxemburg-based ArcelorMittal.

Essar Steel was among the initial 12 companies which the the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) referred to NCLT.

"Tyazhpromexport JSC (TPE), a shareholder in Numetal which has bid for Essar Steel is committed to ensure a quick turnaround of the Essar Steel Plant," the Mauritian firm said in a statement.

TPE is a leading engineering agency in Russia in ferrous and non-ferrous metallurgy project operations and construction, with experience of over 60 years and wholly-owned by USD 19 billion Rostec a Russian State Corporation, Numetal said.

Experts at TPE will help in early restart and fast execution of the projects lying incomplete at Hazira. TPE is committed to taking part in the project as technical and strategic partner to Numetal for revival of Essar Steel, the company said.

As per the plan, TPE will also carry out studies for installation of new facilities in order to maximise production from the profitable routes and optimise production from the loss making lines.

The Russian company will carry out detailed feasibility studies and recommend the optimum plant configuration in line with the above, Numetal added.

Ismail Mazanaev, Managing Director, TPE India, said Indian steel industry prepares to meet the challenge of producing 300 MT of steel by 2030 in line with the National Steel Policy.

TPE believes that with the rich technical experience, backed by strong financial capability and a team with of experts with knowledge of the sector, it can ensure Essar Steel remains one of the key players in the story of growth of steel production in India, he said.

"TPE will continue to expand its collaboration with other Indian steel companies to provide technical expertise and expand operations in India," he added.

TPE is fully geared up to set up a programme for the development of the plant production facilities and provide technical assistance for all available production areas (coke, chemical, sintering, blast furnace, iron smelting, finished products), with the deployment of experts at the Hazira plant, Numetal said.

The company has worked with hundreds of government and private companies from more than 30 countries of Europe, Asia, Africa and Latin America, including integrated steel plants in Egypt, nickel plants in Cuba, several integrated steel plants in China, Turkey, Algeria, Nigeria, Bulgaria, among others.

TPE will be fully involved in reviewing and improving operations and efficiency of the plant as well as advising Numetal on the technical aspects and performance improvement.

TPE has rendered assistance in construction, modernisation, upgrading and operation of about 100 industrial enterprises, including integrated steel plants in Bokaro, Bhilai, Durgapur and Visakhapatnam in India.

On February 12, ArcelorMittal and a consortium led by Russias VTB Group submitted bids to takeover Essar Steel, under insolvency process.

While ArcerlorMittal was said to have taken along Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal Corp for the takeover, VTB used a Mauritius- based investment vehicle Numetal, where Rewant Ruia - Essar Group promoter Ravi Ruias son - held 25 per cent stake.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Only 13 per cent of the tiger conservation areas met the global standards of an accreditation system, the Conservation Assured | Tiger Standards (CA|TS), a new survey of current management methodologies at 112 sites located in 11 tiger-range countries, including India, said.

The survey is the first and largest rapid assessment of site-based tiger conservation across Asia and has been driven by 11 conservation organisations and tiger-range governments that are part of the CA|TS coalition.

Under the accreditation system of CA|TS, tiger conservation areas provide evidence under seven pillars and 17 elements of critical management activity to demonstrate that they meet a range of criteria for effective conservation management.

"To date, three sites -- Lansdowne Forest Division in Uttarakhand, India, Chitwan National Park in Nepal and Sikhote-Alin Nature Reserve in Russia -- have been awarded CA|TS Approved status," a statement said.

The CA|TS was developed in response to the need for stringent conservation procedures for protection of the big cat through a partnership between governments and conservation organisations to assess the levels of effective management, among others.

Of the 112 global sites surveyed, only 12.5 per cent was currently able to meet the full CA|TS criteria.

"Half of the assessed sites (52.5 per cent) report fairly strong management, although there are improvements needed. The remaining 35 per cent (the majority of which are in Southeast Asia) have relatively weak management.

"Basic needs such as enforcement of laws against poaching, engaging local communities and managing conflicts between people and wildlife, remain weak for all areas surveyed," it said.

SP Yadav, assistant secretary general, Global Tiger Forum, said an ineffective management of tiger conservation areas led to the extinction of tigers from certain areas.

"To halt and reverse the decline of wild tigers, effective management is thus the single-most important action.

"To achieve this, long-term investment in tiger conservation areas is absolutely essential and this is a responsibility that must be led by the tiger-range governments, a statement quoted Yadav as saying.

Positive findings highlight the fact that tiger monitoring is being implemented in 87 per cent of the sites and all sites surveyed in South Asian and East Asian countries like Bangladesh, Bhutan, China, India, Nepal and Russia have management plans.

However, several sites in Southeast Asia, including countries such as Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar and Thailand, did not have management plans and about 85 per cent of the sites also had systems for assessing management effectiveness, it said.

"Despite poaching being one of the greatest threats faced by big cats, 85 per cent of the areas surveyed do not have staff capacity to patrol the sites effectively and 61 per cent of the areas in Southeast Asia have a very limited anti-poaching enforcement," it said.

It said that low investment from governments in Southeast Asia was one of the reasons for the lack of management of these supposedly "protected areas".

Michael Blazer, chair of the executive committee of CA|TS, said unless governments committed to sustained investments in the protection of these sites, the tiger population might face the catastrophic decline that they had suffered over the last few decades.

"The accreditation of Lansdowne Forest Division, Uttarakhand, in May 2017, the third CA|TS accredited site globally and the first in India, is significant since it is a crucial link between the Rajaji and Corbett tiger reserves," said Ravi Singh, secretary general and CEO of WWF-India.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Just 19 per cent farmers are practicing organic farming in Rajasthan even as 91 per cent were aware of the ill-effects of chemical farming, a survey has revealed.

The fact came to the fore in a baseline survey conducted by CUTS International among 1,795 consumers, 644 farmers of 192 gram panchayats of 10 districts.

As much as 86 per cent consumers in the state are well aware about organic consumption, the survey stated.

Getting back to the Indian traditional organic farming is in the interest of the coming generations and is the need of the hour, Additional Chief Secretary (Agriculture) Neelkamal Darbari said.

She said that a balanced approach between traditional Indian agriculture value system and modern technology was required in farming.

Director of CUTS International, George Cheriyan said that the consumption of chemical fertilisers in the country has been increasing along with level of agriculture production.

He said that agriculture production increased from 83 million tonnes in the 1960s to 252 million tonnes in 2014-15. Use of chemical fertilisers (Such as those containing Nitrogen, Phosphorus, Potassium) increased from one million tonnes to 25.6 million tonnes in the same period.

SJ Singh, Director, Rajasthan Agriculture Research Institute also appealed farmers to make a shift from conventional farming to organic farming.

In the consultation, officials from the department of Agriculture and Agricultural research Institute, Durgapura, CSOs working for organic farming along with more than 75 volunteers participated.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The opposition Congress and NCP today criticised the BJP-led Maharashtra government in the state Assembly for not providing relief to farmers whose crops were affected by the 'pink bollworm' during the kharif season.

However, the members of the treasury benches alleged that the opposition was "shedding crocodile tears" over farmers' issues.

As soon as the House assembled for the day, Leader of Opposition Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil, Prithviraj Chavan (of the Congress) and Jayant Patil (NCP) sought a discussion on the issue.

They alleged that there were contradictions between the state's assurance during the winter session of the Legislature in December last year and a Government Resolution (GR) issued earlier this month over the compensation issue.

They said their adjournment notice on the issue should be taken up for discussion.

To this, Speaker HaribhauBagde said a debate on the hailstorm and unseasonal rains affecting crops was listed on the agenda, but he was willing to suspend the Question Hour and take up an immediate discussion on the farmers' problems.

However, the opposition members said their issue was specific to the "contradictions" between the GR and the assurance given in the House last year, and not related to the debate initiated by the treasury benches.

Vikhe Patil said the opposition was ready for a debate, but the Congress and the NCP members continued to shout slogans against the government for its alleged apathy towards the farmers.

JayantPatil said there should a debate on their adjournment notice -- of no compensation to farmers whose crops were affected by the pink bollworm (a crop pest) -- and not the one listed on the agenda by the treasury benches.

Amid the din, the speaker rejected their demand and adjourned the House for 10 minutes.

Later, when the House reassembled, the presiding officer again adjourned it for 15 minutes as the opposition members continued to shout slogans against the government.

When the House resumed later, a debate began on the farmers' crops suffering damages due to the unseasonal rains and the hailstorm earlier this month.

The government had in December last year given an assurance in the House that a compensation would be given to farmers whose crops were affected by the pink bollworm during the last kharif season.

Later on February 23, prior to the commencement of the budget session, the revenue department issued a GR saying the compensation would be given from the state disaster relief fund.

Chavan and Vikhe Patail said despite the assurance, the farmers whose crops were affected by the pink bollworm during the last kharif season were yet to get a compensation.

However, the members of the treasury benches said the opposition was shedding crocodile tears over farmers' issues.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Pakistan today vowed to take further actions to address certain "deficiencies" highlighted by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) in its anti-money laundering and counter-terror financing framework.

The 37-nation FATF at its plenary meeting in Paris last week placed Pakistan on a watch list of the countries where terrorist outfits are still allowed to raise funds.

Though Pakistan has not been named, it has to submit the action plan to implement UN Security Council resolutions on anti-money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism by April, failing which it would figure in the list.

Foreign Office spokesman Dr Mohammad Faisal, during his weekly briefing, also confirmed that "Pakistan will be assigned to the 'grey list' in June, once an action plan has been mutually negotiated".

"It (the FATF) has highlighted certain "deficiencies" in the Anti-Money Laundering and Countering of Terrorist Financing (AML/CFT) framework of Pakistan... We will take further actions for addressing any remaining deficiencies," he said.

Faisal said that Pakistan, over the last few years, took a number of measures to address these issues, including through enactment of legislations, issuance of regulations and guidelines to the financial sector, establishment of the Financial Monitoring Unit and implementation of UNSC 1267 sanctions on the entities of concern like Jamat-ud-Dawa (JuD) and Falah-i-Insaaniyat (FIF).

The US officials had said that JuD leader and Mumbai terrorist attack mastermind Hafiz Saeed and his "charities" were top on the list of the groups that the FATF wanted Pakistan to act against.

The statement that Pakistan will be transferred from the 'grey' to the 'black' list in June this year was not true as the FATF website clearly demarcates the countries in the 'black' list as those who are non-cooperative, Faisal said.

Pakistan was in touch with the US, and Lisa Curtis, Senior Director for South and Central Asia at US National Security Council visited Pakistan on February 26 and met Foreign Secretary (Tehmina Janjua), he said.

"We continue to get differing signals from different parts of the US Government... Pakistan has made immense efforts to address issues related to counter-terrorism. We continue to ask the US for actionable evidence," Faisal said.

The UK government confirmed that it would continue to allow trade concessions to Pakistan after Brexit, as is being done by the European Union, he said, adding that the annual trade between Pakistan and the UK stands at about USD 2.5 billion.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Patna High Court today asked former Bihar ministers to vacate ministerial quarters they have been occupying and hand over these within 15 days to the government's building construction department.

"The petitioners shall be granted 15 days further time by the building construction department, government of Bihar, as to vacate the said quarters in question and it shall be incumbent also upon the petitioners to vacate and hand over the quarters within the said period," Justice Sudhir Singh said.

The court passed the direction on petitions filed by former ministers belonging to the RJD challenging the building construction department's letter dated September 20, 2017 to them to vacate and handover the quarters to it.

The former ministers who challenged the letter included Chandrika Ray, Abdul Bari Siddiqui, Abdul Gafoor, Shiv Chandra Ram, Anita Devi, Chandrashekhar, Vijay Prakash and Aalok Kumar Mehta.

The estate officer of building construction department had on December 11, 2015 allotted quarters under the central pool to the petitioners for being ministers in the Bihar government.

The court said that the letters dated 20.09.2017 issued individually to the petitioners by the estate officer of the building construction department do not require any interference of the court.

The judge said, "Since the cessation of their ministership has also been elapsed, therefore, in my considered opinion, the petitioners have no vested or residuary right to remain in occupation of the quarters earlier allotted them under the central pool in capacity of the minister of the state government."



The court also directed the Bihar assembly secretary to find out illegal allotment of quarters made under legislative pool to persons who are disentitled and thereafter take necessary steps in accordance with law to get them vacated.

This exercise must be completed within 60 days from today, the judge said.

The court also observed that while finding out the issue of disentitlement, unauthorised occupation and illegal allotment in terms of the relevant rules, the secretary of Bihar assembly shall examine the respective entitlement of the occupants/allottees with reference to the types of quarter.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)People who use their smartphones while out for dinner with friends and family enjoy themselves less than those who do not, a study has found.

Researchers from the University of British Columbia in Canada looked at the effect of smartphones on face-to-face social interactions.

"As useful as smartphones can be, our findings confirm what many of us likely already suspected," said Ryan Dwyer, PhD student at University of British Columbia.

"When we use our phones while we are spending time with people we care about - apart from offending them - we enjoy the experience less than we would if we put our devices away," said Dwyer, lead author of the study published in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology.

The researchers asked more than 300 people to go to dinner with friends and family at a restaurant.

Participants were randomly assigned to either keep their phones on the table or to put their phones away during the meal.

After the meal, they were asked a variety of questions, including how much they enjoyed the experience.

When phones were present, participants felt more distracted, which reduced how much they enjoyed spending time with their friends and family (about half a point less on a seven-point scale), the researchers found.

Participants also reported feeling slightly more boredom during the meal when their smartphones were present, which the researchers described as surprising.

"We had predicted that people would be less bored when they had access to their smartphones, because they could entertain themselves if there was a lull in the conversation," said Dwyer.

The findings were not only limited to restaurant settings, researchers said.

In a second study involving more than 100 people, participants were sent a survey to their smartphones five times a day for a week that asked how they had been feeling and what they had been doing for the past 15 minutes.

The researchers saw the same pattern, with participants reporting they enjoyed their in-person social interactions less if they had been using their phones.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Allahabad High Court today dismissed a writ petition challenginga CBI inquiry into the selections made by the Uttar Pradesh Public Service Commission ( UPPSC ) between April 2012 and March 2017.

The petition was filed by the UPPSC through its chairman Anirudh Singh Yadav and members.

The Centre on the recommendation of the state government had passed an order for a CBI inquiry into the selections made by the UPPSC during the above-mentioned period.

A bench comprising Chief Justice DB Bhosale and Justice Suneet Kumar after hearing concerned parties had earlier reserved its judgement on the matter.

During a previous hearing, the court had asked the counsel for the state government to apprise it on what basis the state government had recommended a CBI probe in to the selections.

In the petition it was said that the UPPSC was a constitutional body and therefore a notification directing the CBI inquiry was illegal and without jurisdiction. As per the petition, no inquiry against the commission can be directed under existing laws.

Counsel for the state government had opposed the petition andsaid that in case of any allegations of irregularities in selections made, government can recommend a CBI inquiry.

The central government on the recommendation of the state government passed an order for a CBI inquiry in the selections made by the UPPSC between April 2012 and March 2017.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Stating that there was a serious trust deficit between the public and the police in the country, Vice-President M Venkaiah Naidu today stressed on the need for policing with a human touch.

Addressing Indian Police Service probationers of 70 RR (Regular Recruit -2017 Batch) at the Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel National Police Academy here, Naidu said, "There is a serious trust deficit between the public and the police in our country. Police are seen as the last option by the people. The general saying is that one is lucky if one is not required to visit a police station. Instead, police should emerge as the first option to go to in case of any problem."



He asked the young officers to create such a situation and said it was possible if policing was done with a human touch.

"The way the constabulary and officials deal with the public needs to imporve vastly. An element of civility in your interaction with the general public infuses comfort and confidence among them. That is the way police can emerge as the preferred and first choice of those who come to you for the redressal of their grievances," an official release quoted Naidu.

The Vice President further said that policing should have no political interference.

"Police officers should maintain a safe distance from politicians and be seen more with the people. People should not go to a politician before they decide to come to the police station," he said.

He said that participation of ordinary people would increase grassroot intelligence and added that the police's role was vital in effectively dealing with communal conflicts.

He added that good policing was important for a vibrant democracy, adding that it also quickened the pace of development.

"The biggest threat our country faces is terrorism - be it in J&K, North-East or Naxalisam. Police forces have been at the center of India's response to counter this multi-headed monster. While the state response should be strong and appropriate, experience shows that there are numerous challenges," he said.

"While there cannot be any compromise on security, we have to ensure freedom to the people at same time. The time has come when use of force by the police has to be circumscribed by the ideals of the rule of law, whatever be the provocation,' he added.

He said that nudging people on the fringes of criminality to become law-abiding citizens and taking exemplary action against habitual offenders should be the order of the day.

The Vice-President further said crimes against women and children were a great cause for concern and stressed on the need to address these crimes with a heavy hand but with utmost sensitivity towards the victims.

"Problems related to the atrocities on Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and other vulnerable sections of society need to be dealt with sternly," he said.

Naidu also called uponthe police force to train itself to develop the competence in handling cyber crimes intelligently.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Shankaracharya Jayendra Saraswati of Kanchi Sri Sankara Mutt is credited with taking the highly revered religious institution to new heights in the sphere of spiritualism, community service, education and health care.

The Shankaracharya, who died of heart attack today aged 82, had made a vain bid to resolve the vexatious Ayodhya temple issue by mediating in 2002.

Jayendra Saraswati, anointed the 69th pontiff of the mutt in 1994 succeeding Sri Chandrasekharendra Saraswathi Swamigal, was considered a transformative force who reached out to all sections of people, including Dalits, and undertook social service.

He also strived to reach out to the underprivileged sections of the society and founded two outfits -- 'Jan Kalyan' and 'Jan Jaghran' -- with the objective of carrying out service-oriented activities.

The bodies supported renovation of temples in Dalit neighbourhoods besides setting up new ones.

The mutt, under his charge, focused on welfare assistance for the destitute women and free tuition for underprivileged students.

He was instrumental in establishing a string of (Shankara) schools under the aegis of Shankara Educational Trust.

A deemed university for Ayurveda was also being run by the mutt, V R V Ramanujan, closely associated with 'Jan Kalyan' movement, said.

T G Ganesan, a spiritual activist associated with the mutt said, "He (Jayendrar) was the first pontiff from Kanchi mutt to make it a regular practice to meet the common people, especially Dalits in their dwellings."



"In 1982, when a section of people decided to quit Hinduism and embrace another religion in (Meenakshipuram) Tirunelveli district, the pontiff reached out to them and took conciliatory efforts to settle the caste related issues and promote peace," he said.

He also established hospitals, including in Assam (Shanakara Devanetralaya) and Andhra Pradesh.

In, Meghalaya and Andaman and Nicobar islands the mutt was engaged in community service currently.

An 'Aagamapaadasala' (school for grooming priests) in Seerkazhi and a 'Tamil Paadasala' in Chetpet, Chennai, were established, mutt manager Sundaresa Iyer said.

Prayer services for the sick were organised through 'Hindu Samayamandram.'



On the historical significance of the mutt, historian and Archaeologist S Ramachandran said, inscriptions relating to the pontiff of the mutt dating back to 14th century AD were found in the Kamakshi temple in Kancheepuram and Shiva temple in Vandavasi.

Asked why the mutt is sometimes referred to as Kumbakonam Mutt, he said during the late 17th century, it shifted to the southern town which was under the Maratha rule at that time.

"They were believed to have shifted because Kancheepuram and some other parts of Tamil Nadu came under the control of Mughal ruler Aurangazeb's army general Zulfikar Khan," he said.

The mutt, which has got a long tradition of propagating Shankaracharya's preachings, came back to Kancheepuram in mid 19th century.

Controversies:



In 1987, Jayendra Saraswathi mysteriously went missing for three days and was found at Thala Cauvery, the origin of Cauvery river in Karnataka.

In 2004, he was arrested in a case relating to the murder of Sankararaman, a devotee of the Mutt and the manager of Varadaraja Perumal temple in Kancheepuram. Later, he and other accused, including his junior Vijayendra Saraswathi, were acquitted in 2013.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)President Ram Nath Kovind, Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Congress president Rahul Gandhi and a host of other leaders expressed their deep condolences at the demise of Kanchi Shankaracharya Jayendra Saraswathi today.

"Sad to hear of the passing of Jayendra Saraswatiji, the Shankaracharya of Kanchi Kamakoti Peetam. Our country has lost a spiritual leader and social reformer of rare eminence, My condolences to his countless disciples and followers," Kovind said on Twitter.

The senior pontiff of the Kanchi Sankara Mutt passed away in Kancheepuram, Tamil Nadu, today following a cardiac arrest. The 82-year-old seer was rushed to a private hospital after he complained of uneasiness.

Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu and Prime Minister Narendra Modi expressed sadness at the demise of Jayendra Saraswathi, saying he will live on in the hearts and minds of devotees due to his exemplary service to society.

"Pay my respects to Kanchi peethadhipathi Shri Jayendra Saraswati who attained moksha. His contribution for the welfare of mankind and in promoting spirituality will always be an inspiration for others," Naidu tweeted.

"Deeply anguished by the passing away of Acharya of Sri Kanchi Kamakoti Peetam Jagadguru Pujyashri Jayendra Saraswathi Shankaracharya," Modi said in a tweet.

"He will live on in the hearts and minds of lakhs of devotees due to his exemplary service and noblest thoughts. Om Shanti to the departed soul," he said.

Jayendra Saraswathi was at the forefront of innumerable community service initiatives, the prime minister said in a tweet, adding, "he nurtured institutions which transformed the lives of the poor and downtrodden."



Congress president Rahul Gandhi in his message said, Jayendra Saraswathi was revered by lakhs of believers all over the world for his teachings.

"I'm saddened to hear about the death of Jagadguru Pujyashri Jayendra Saraswathi Shankaracharya of the Kanchi Kamakoti Peetham. He was revered by lakhs of believers all over the world for his teachings. May his soul rest in peace", Gandhi said.

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister K Palaniswami in his condolence message said Sankaracharya was appointed as 69th pontiff of the Kanchi Mutt in 1994 following the demise of then pontiff Sri Chandrasekarendra Saraswathi.

"Jayendra Saraswathi showed concern in spiritual as well as social welfare initiatives," he said in a statement.

Expressing condolences at the pontiff's demise, Palaniswami conveyed his sympathies and condolences with the followers of Sankaracharya and the employees of the Kanchi Mutt.

Deputy Chief Minister O Panneerselvam expressed shock over the passing away of of the seer.

DMK working president MK Stalin expressed his "deep condolences" at the demise of Sankaracharya.

Dravidar Kazhagam leader K Veeramani expressed regret over the seer's death. "Dravidar Kazhagam expresses its deep condolences though the party has huge differences with him and the Mutt over their policies," he said in a statement.

BJP Tamil Nadu president Tamilisai Soundararajan, Tamil Nadu Congress Committee president Su Thirunavukkarasar, PMK leader S Ramadoss and DMDK chief Vijaykant also expressed their condolences.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)To ease traffic congestion in Jammu, Inspector General (IG),



Traffic Police, Basant Rath today asked Deputy Commissioner of Jammu and Commissioner, Jammu Municipal Corporation (JMC) to cancel license to operate of banquet halls without adequate parking spaces in Jammu city.

It has been observed that most of the marriage and banquet halls have been permitted to operate without giving the guarantee of enough parking space (in Jammu city), Rath said in a letter.

Rath wrote a letter to the Deputy Commissioner, Jammu, and Commissioner of JMC with regard to the operation of banquet halls in Jammu city without adequate parking space, which causes heavy traffic jams due to parking of vehicles on various road stretches and on highway in Jammu Municipal areas.

There are over 50 banquet halls operating in Jammu municipal area, several among them have not enough parking spaces, an official said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Amid no signs of a thaw in the bitter tussle between the AAP government and its bureaucracy, Delhi Lt Governor Anil Baijal today again asked Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal to reach out to officers boycotting meetings with his ministers over an alleged attack on Chief Secretary Anshu Prakash.

The chief minister today met the Lt governor as part of their weekly meeting on Wednesdays and discussed a range of issues.

Baijal said he had reassured Kejriwal of his support for steps to remove "mistrust" with Delhi government employees.

"Met Hon'ble CM @ArvindKejriwal. Reassured him of my complete support for steps to remove mistrust with Govt. employees. Encouraged again to reach out to them. It is important for all to work together in public interest in a secure and dignified work environment (sic)," Baijal tweeted.

The city administration has plunged into a crisis, with bureaucrats boycotting meetings with AAP ministers since the alleged attack on chief secretary Prakash during an official meeting at Kejriwal's residence on February 19.

In his letter to Kejriwal yesterday, Baijal said the alleged attack on Prakash by AAP MLAs has sent "shock waves" among all sections of government employees across the country and had a demoralising effect on the entire bureaucracy.

Baijal had also said that during his meetings with various services associations, he felt that the government employees in Delhi were feeling "physically insecure".

The joint forum of Delhi government employees, including IAS and Delhi, Andaman and Nicobar Islands Civil Service (DANICS) officers, have been demanding public, written apology from Kejriwal and his deputy Manish Sisodia for the incident.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)PNB MD and CEO Sunil Mehta got chastised from unexpected quarters when a globally acclaimed doctor V Shanta censured him for using the word 'cancer' to describe the Rs 12,717 crore fraud at the bank by billionaire jeweller Nirav Modi and his associates.

Corruption is something to be ashamed of, cancer is not, she said.

"... do not try to find parallels where none exist. Do not mix cancer with corruption. Ever.", said the Ramon Magsaysay Award winner and cancer specialist in a letter to Mehta.

While addressing a press conference in connection with the USD 2 billion scam earlier in the month, the Punjab Nation Bank chief had said: "This cancer, that's been going on since 2011, we have brought it out and we are resolving it."



Strongly objecting to the use of the word 'cancer', the legendary cancer specialist who was awarded Padma Bhushan in 2006 and is currently Chairman of Chennai based Cancer Institute (WIA), said one ought to be ashamed of corruption but not of cancer.

"I was extremely disturbed to read your reference to cancer in the context of the recent scam unearthed at your bank. Corruption is a crime and something to be ashamed of; cancer is not," Shanta said in her letter.

Observing that several cancer patients are cured and lead productive lives, she said, "we do not want the word cancer to be associated with guilt, hopelessness or dread. And definitely not with the shame."



She also appealed to the others not to use the word in cancer in such sense as it could outrage medical personal working in the field of cancer prevention and cure.

The spate of frauds in the banking sector running into thousands of crores or rupees have outraged common people, who often liken deep-rooted corruption to something pernicious as cancer.

The worried government yesterday asked all state-owned banks to scrutinise non performing assets (NPAs) exceeding Rs 50 crore for fraud and accordingly report the matter to Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Patriotic People's Front of Assam (PPFA) has urged the state government to restore and reopen the historic Nabin Chandra Bordoloi hall-cum-library in Guwahati for the benefit of book lovers and common people.

The century-old structure, formerly known as Lord Curzon Hall, had witnessed many historic events in the last century and many Assamese stalwarts, many national heroes such as Rabindranath Tagore, P C Roy, Ashutosh Mukherjee, Subhash Chandra Bose and Jayaprakash Narayan had visited it, a PPFA statement said.

"As the library is named after a great Assamese patriot, socio-political leader and writer Karmavir Nabin Chandra Bordoloi, we must pay due respect to the institution, the statement said.

The Guwahati Municipal Corporation (GMC), which took over the hall in 1969 and decided to restore it, must not end up revealing its apathy and negligence, it said.

"We should not forget that it was an important part of India's freedom struggle led by Mahatma Gandhi, where Karmavir Bardoloi had appealed to the students of the Cotton College to join the freedom movement," the statement added.

The PPFA also proposed for a life size statue of Karmavir at the premises of the library as an honour to the great patriot of Assam.

The statement also said, the PPFA opposes any move to shift the public library from the present location.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Electronics major Samsung will unveil its flagship devices -- Galaxy S9 and S9+ -- in the Indian market on March 6 as it attempts to safeguard its turf in the hyper-competitive Indian smartphone market.

The Korean giant had introduced the latest generation of its premium Galaxy S range a couple of days back in Barcelona, Spain.

According to an invite sent by the company, Samsung will launch its next Galaxy series on March 6 in India. Featuring the number '9', the invite reads "The Camera. Reimagined.".

The phones, which include features like dual aperture and slow motion video options, will compete with high-end devices like Apple's iPhone X and Google's Pixel 2 series. It also has features like dual-stereo speakers and Dolby Atmos surround sound capabilities.

While Samsung has not disclosed the pricing for India yet, industry analysts expect the devices to cost well above Rs 50,000.

The company has already started pre-bookings in India, where interested customers can pre-book their devices by paying Rs 2,000. Customers can also pre-book the Galaxy S9 and S9+ through telecom major Bharti Airtel till March 4.

The Galaxy S9 will come with 5.8-inch display, 4GB RAM, and internal memory options of 64GB, 128GB and 256 GB along with a external memory slot that can support a capacity of up to 400GB. It includes 12MP rear and 8MP front cameras and 3,000 mAh battery.

The Galaxy S9+, on the other hand, features 6.2-inch display, 6GB RAM, 12MP rear and front cameras, and 3,500 mAh battery. Samsung had said the Galaxy S9 and S9+ will be available from March 16 in select markets.

According to research firm Counterpoint, the premium smartphone segment (priced Rs 30,000 onwards) in India witnessed over 20 per cent growth in 2017 over 2016. The Rs 10,000-15,000 category grew at the fastest pace.

The premium category was the second fastest growing segment (20 per cent year-on-year) by volume, while it expanded by 28 per cent in value terms in 2017, Counterpoint said.

The report added that three brands -- Apple, OnePlus and Samsung -- still contribute to 94 per cent of the overall premium market segment.

On an overall level, Xiaomi toppled Samsung to take the numero uno spot as the largest player in India in terms of shipment in the December 2017 quarter with analyst firms like Counterpoint attributing the success to the Chinese player's aggressive pricing and effective channel expansion strategy.

However, Samsung had maintained that it is "India's Number 1 smartphone company by a distance".A gallery, showcasing the history of the College Street area and the world famous book market there, will come up at the 194-year-old Sanskrit College and University, a top university official said.

The gallery will highlight the history of the College Street and the hallowed institutions skirting the street, Vice-Chancellor Paula Banerjee said here on the sidelines of the 194th anniversary celebrations of the Sanskrit College and University here on Monday.

The place is also surrounded by institutions such as the Calcutta University, the Presidency University, the Hare School, the Hindu School and the Coffee House.

"You cannot think about College Street without these institutions and hence the gallery will also refer to these institutions, and how they became an integral part of College Street," she said.

The history behind the name of College Street goes back to the time when the Hindu College was established in 1817 which was later renamed as the Presidency College, she said.

Other educational institutions along the stretch also came up during the 19th century.

While the Calcutta University was established in 1857, the Hindu School came up in 1817, the Hare School in 1818 and the Sanskrit College in 1824.

Banerjee said, "Our teachers and scholars are already doing research work on the past history of the place and the institutions and the luminaries who had been associated with these places.

"We also plan to approach the Curator of Victoria Memorial Jayanta Sengupta, who is an expert in this field, for his inputs to prepare a detailed project report."



The VC said once the project report for the gallery was ready by this year it will be sent to the state Higher department for sanction.

Dotted with makeshift book stalls along both sides of the road, College Street is one-of-a-kind book market in the world that draws locals and tourists alike from every nook and cranny of the globe.

Clothes, hand-made pottery articles and brass ornaments, which were part of the lifestyle of the common people of the 19th century of the city will be put up for display in another part of the gallery, the VC said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is to visit the United States from March 19-22, for the first time as heir to the throne, a Saudi government source said today.

The much anticipated trip to Washington will follow a visit to Britain on March 7 for talks with Prime Minister Theresa May.

US President Donald Trump hosted Prince Mohammed in March 2017, just weeks after taking office, and he chose Saudi Arabia for his first official overseas visit as president.

Prince Mohammed, who was named heir in June 2017, is also expected to visit France in the coming weeks.

The government source did not comment on Prince Mohammed's schedule in Washington.

Saudi Arabia has grown close to its longtime ally Washington under Trump, whose harder line on its arch-rival Iran and softer stance on arms sales are a welcome shift in policy for Riyadh.

Saudi Arabia viewed Trump's predecessor president Barack Obama as too accommodating towards Iran -- particularly on negotiating a 2015 nuclear deal.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The junior doctors of SCB Medical College and Hospital here called off their 10-day-long strike today after the state transferred a senior teacher of the college's Urology department, college officials said.

The students had alleged that the senior professor used to harass them, and therefore they went on strike, demanding his removal from the college, they said.

"Upon the government's acceptance of our long-standing demand to transfer the teacher, Datteswar Hota, from here, we decided to call off the strike and resumed our duties from this evening," the General Secretary of the Junior Doctors' Association (JDA), Phanindra Kumar Swain, said.

He said other doctors, who had stayed away from work in support of our demand, have also resumed their duties.

The state government had yesterday transferred Hota to MKCG Medical College in Berhampur from here, a college official said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)A group of lawmakers from the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) today made a representation to the Supreme Court-appointed Monitoring Committee, seeking relief for traders from the ongoing sealing drive for violation of civic and urban norms, a member of the panel said.

"Politicians are making a beeline to my office. Today, some MLAs from the AAP and some members of the BJP came to our (committee's) office here. They submitted memorandums, requesting relief to the traders from sealing," one of the committee members, Bhure Lal, said.

The committee, comprising K J Rao, former advisor to the Election Commission, Lal, Chairman, Environment Pollution Control Authority (EPCA), and Major General (retd) Som Jhingan, was set up on March 24, 2006, by the apex court.

"We will continue to take action, as mandated by the Supreme Court," Lal said.

Asked about the proposed amendment by the DDA in the Master Plan of Delhi (MPD) 2021, he said, "The amendment is yet to be approved by the urban affairs ministry."



On April 2, the apex court will hear a matter pertaining to the validity of the Delhi Laws (Special Provisions) Act, 2006 and subsequent legislations, which protect unauthorised construction from being sealed in Delhi.

The Delhi Development Authority (DDA) had yesterday approved the proposed amendment to MPD 2021, which includes bringing a uniform floor-area ratio (FAR) for shop-cum-residence plots and complexes at par with residential plots.

The proposed move aims to bring relief to the traders from the sealing drive, which was initiated late December from the Defence Colony market in south Delhi, at the instance of the monitoring committee.

Meanwhile, AAP MLA Somnath Bharti, at a press conference here, said, "I and three other MLAs today met the members of the monitoring committee to verify if the sealing issue has been resolved."



"From the urban affairs ministry to the MCD and DDA, the departments fall under the BJP-rule. So, if any relief can be brought for the traders, it can be done only by the BJP," he said.

Bharti alleged that the BJP had been saying that with these proposed amendments, a relief had been ensured, "but it is merely a lie and and the next step in 'jumlebazi' by it".

"We asked the committee members, will the (proposed amendments) ensure that the sealing will stop and whether a sealed property will be de-sealed, but they remained tight-lipped on it. Also, the matter is to come up before the Supreme Court on April 2," the AAP leader said.

"By bringing a one-page ordinance in the Lok Sabha, the BJP can stop the sealing drive, but it is running away from it. We want to expose it," he added.

Meanwhile, 15 properties were today sealed in areas falling under the jurisdiction of the South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC), the civic body said.

Thirteen units were also sealed in north Delhi, the NDMC said.

Many traders, under the banner of the Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT), burnt effigies in different parts of the city to protest against the sealing drive.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Equating IAS officers association with a "khaap panchayat" which issues "fatwa" against the Delhi government, Deputy Chief Minister today launched a scathing attack on Lt Governor Anil Baijal for "backing" officers boycotting meetings with AAP ministers over the alleged attack on the chief secretary.

Sisodia's remarks came a day after Baijal wrote to Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, saying the alleged assault on Chief Secretary Anshu Prakash by MLAs on February 19 has sent "shock waves" among all sections of government employees across the country and had a demoralising effect on the bureaucracy.

Citing Baijal's letter, Sisodia said when an IAS officer goes to the L-G claiming he was scolded by an AAP minister, he wipes his "tears" and despite his "uselessness", the L-G encourages him to boycott meetings, saying he is standing with him.

"You (L-G) were requested (by the Delhi cabinet) to order some officers two days back to attend meetings, but despite this, you wrote a letter to the chief minister, which suggests that you are openly supporting the fatwa of IAS association under which junior officers are being forced not to attend meetings and speak to ministers..." Sisodia said in his letter to Baijal.

Claiming non-payment of salaries to anganwadi volunteers for three months in his three-page letter in Hindi, Sisodia continued to fire salvo at Baijal, saying: "You are the Lt Governor of Delhi. You have also been an IAS officer, but I request you to stop seeing things through spectacles of an IAS officer."



"Think about a three-year old child who goes to anganwadi, but his teacher has not got salary for the last three months."



Baijal, a former bureaucrat, has also been a former Union home secretary.

In the letter, Sisodia demanded action against officers who are responsible for non-payment of salaries to anganwadi workers.

"I have tried to calmly make them (officers) understand, but they are not relenting. If they would have been sensitive, there would not have been non-payment of salaries to volunteers.

"If I scold them, they would approach you to register their demoralisation in your diary. If we say more, their IAS association issues fatwa against us like a 'khaap panchayat'," he said.

In the letter, the deputy chief minister asked Baijal to understand the truth of system sitting in Rajniwas and Secretariat.

"Attacking officers, Sisodia said, "If IAS officers union comes to you, please ask them how they stand in front of mirror after stopping payment of salaries of 30,000 families who are directly connected with anganwadi," he said.

Earlier in the day, a joint forum of the Delhi government employees also welcomed the L-G for asking the chief minister to take officers in to confidence.

The forum reiterated its demand to seek apology from Kejriwal and Sisodia for the alleged assault on Prakash by some AAP MLAs at the chief minister's residence.

The IAS and Delhi, Andaman and Nicobar Islands Civil Service (DANICS) officers have not been attending meetings with Kejriwal and his cabinet colleagues since the alleged assault on the chief secretary.Mitchell Santner scored his maiden limited overs half-century as the Black Caps' tail wagged against a rampant England in the second one-day international today.

Santner's unbeaten 63 off 52 balls helped New Zealand set a modest but potentially defendable target of 224 after they lost the toss and were put in to bat at Mount Maunganui.

In-form opener Martin Guptill also scored 50 but runs were hard to come by as England stifled New Zealand's batting with a superb display in the field.

The Black Caps were all out for 223 with two balls remaining as Ben Stokes, Chris Woakes and Moeen Ali took two wickets apiece.

England pulled off a string of sharply taken catches and ran out four batsman, ensuring that every chance their bowlers created resulted in a wicket.

The highlight for the Black Caps was a late 69-run partnership between Lockie Ferguson and Santner -- who hit a match-winning 45 in the opening match.

New Zealand never recovered from an early double blow by Woakes, who dismissed Colin Munro for one in his first over then Mark Chapman for the same score in his second.

David Willey's prowess in the field was responsible for Ross Taylor's departure on 10, swooping on the ball at backward point and firing it to Jos Buttler to break the stumps.

The loss of Taylor, a century-maker in the opening fixture, left New Zealand on 48 for three with Guptill holding the first half of the innings together.

His half-century came off 84 balls but he failed to push on and was caught by Jason Roy on 50 trying to sweep Ali's spin over the boundary.

Another well taken Roy catch off Ben Stokes' bowling sent Henry Nicholls on his way, leaving the Black Caps at 82 for five at the 25-over mark.

Colin de Grandhomme contributed 38 but it was then left to Santner to lift New Zealand to a score that looks under par against a strong England batting line-up.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Sridevi looked like a "sleeping beauty" on her final journey home from Dubai, an Indian social worker who was involved in the process to repatriate the Bollywood diva's body to India has said.

Ashraf Thamarassery was among the handful of people who saw Sridevi for the last time before her mortal remains were embalmed and taken to Mumbai in a private jet yesterday, the Gulf reported today.

"She looked like she was sleeping peacefully ... a sleeping beauty," 44-year-old Ashraf, from Kozhikode district in north Kerala, told the paper.

He said the 54-year-old Bollywood icon's face did not look much different than how he had seen her on screen and in photographs. There was no wound on her head as reported by a section of the media, he told PTI on phone.

Ashraf is known as the 'Friend of the Dead' in the UAE for assisting the repatriation of over 4,700 bodies of expatriates from across the world during the past 18 years. He offers his service free of cost.

Ashraf said he was among the few who were present at the embalming room.

Sridevi was wrapped in three white cotton sheets. She was taken in an ordinary wooden coffin that costs Dh 1,840 (approx Rs 32,000), Ashraf, who owns a garage in Ajman, said.

The embalming certificate issued by the Dubai Health Authority bears Ashraf's name.

Sridevi was in Dubai to attend a family wedding. She accidentally drowned in the bathtub in her room at the Jumeirah Emirates Towers hotel late on Saturday, leaving her fans, family and friends stunned.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj today called on Jordan's King Abdullah II bin Al-Hussein and discussed with him ways to enhance bilateral ties in a range of sectors.

The King arrived here yesterday on a three-day visit.

"Historical links getting stronger! EAM @SushmaSwaraj calls on His Majesty @KingAbdullahII Ibn Al Hussein, King of #Jordan. Good conversation on strengthening ties across all sectors, specially in trade & investment, defence & security, tourism and people-to-people exchanges," External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Raveesh Kumar tweeted.

The Jordanian king's visit here comes nearly three weeks after Prime Minister Narendra Modi travelled to Jordan as part of his trip to West Asia, including Palestine.

The prime minister and the king will hold extensive talks tomorrow covering entire expanse of bilateral ties, official sources said, adding, the Palestinian issue and ways to deal with terrorism, radicalisation and extremism are likely to figure prominently in the deliberations.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Taliban as this point of time does not seem to be ready for peace talks, the Trump administration said today, asserting that any such talks have to be "Afghan-led and Afghan-owned".

In a way, the Trump administration, ruled out direct talks with the Taliban, which was being sought by the terrorist outfit in a letter to the US.

"We certainly saw this letter and are aware of this letter. Any peace talks with Afghanistan have to be Afghan-led and Afghan-owned. That has long been our policy," State Department Spokesperson Heather Nauert told reporters at her daily conference.

She said The Taliban, "unfortunately", does not seem ready at this point to sit down and have conversations about peace talks.

"We hope eventually they will, because that is the best way to be able to have peace in Afghanistan," Nauert said responding to a question on the letter released by the Taliban.

"Ultimately, we don't see there being a military solution to the situation in Afghanistan. Ultimately, it has to be a political situation," she said.

"That can best be done," she said if the Taliban was willing to sit down and have talks.

"Certainly the United States could have a role in that. But that's really up to Afghanistan, but it has to be Afghan-led and Afghan-owned," Nauert asserted.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Maharashtra Public Health Minister Deepak Sawant today told the state Assembly that a tuberculosis (TB) research centre would be set up at the state-run JJ hospital here.

He was responding to a calling attention motion raised by the BJP's Vile Parle MLA Parag Alavani today.

Alavani had sought a response from the state's public health ministry on measures it was taking to tackle tuberculosis. The MLA claimed that two lakh fresh cases of TB as well as 1,000 deaths were reported in 2017.

He pointed out that TB was an airborne disease and a huge number of Mumbaikars used the heavily-crowded suburban train network for their daily commute.

Sawant said, "We will set up a TB research centre at J J Hospital in Mumbai. The Centre has also given Maharashtra 117 cartridge-based Nucleic Acid Amplification Testing (CB-NAAT)machines, which detect suspected cases, and this number includes 28 for Mumbai."



NCP leader and former deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar raised an objection, stating that Maharashtra was spending just half of the funds allocated to fight TB.

"As per my information, Rs 2,000 crore is allocated to fight TB but the state manages to spend just 50 per cent of it. This is unacceptable. People are dying due to the disease but the state fails to spend the total allocation," he said.

Congress MLA from Dharavi, Varsha Gaikwad, pointing to PM Narendra Modi's announcement of eradicating TB from the country by 2025, wanted to know whether Sawant's ministry was planning to launch a pilot project in any locality in the state to eradicate TB.

In reply, Sawant said, "As it is an airborne disease, people from your constituency (Dharavi, which has sizable slum pockets) are more likely to suffer from the infection. Mumbai has a significant floating population which makes more people vulnerable to TB. As of now, there is no proposal to launch any pilot project," Sawant said.

Rahul Aher, BJP MLA from Chandwad in Nashik, pointed out that drugs currently being administered to TB patients were not potent enough and the bacteria was becoming increasingly drug-resistant.

Earlier, Sawant in his written reply, stated that, as of 2017, there were a total of 1,23,963 TB patients in Maharashtra out of which 21,706 were from Mumbai.

He added that 5,699 people died due to TB across the state, including 963 in Mumbai, in 2017.

He said that the figures for 2016 were 1,22,602 TB patients in the state and 22,462 in Mumbai.

In 2016, 6,884 TB occurred across the state, including 1,240 in Mumbai.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Uttar Pradesh government today transferred 10 IPS officers, including IG, Women Power Line (1090) Navneit Sikera.

ADG Brijraj, attached to the DGP office, has been made ADG anti-corruption organisation, while ADG crime cell Anju Gupta has been made ADG, Women Power Line (1090).

The Women Power Line (1090) service was set up by the UP government in 2012 to empower women against all forms of harassment and ensure their safety.

ADG (logistics) SK Kaul has been made ADG crime cell and ADG, CB-CID Sunil Gutpa has been sent to the Police Academy, Moradabad, an official release said today.

Sikera has been sent to Allahabad as IG (Building and Welfare), while Vijay Prakash posted as IG (DGP Headquarters) has been made IG (Railways).

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)At least ten members of a gang were nabbed just as they were about to loot a jewellery shop in suburban Dadar here, police said today.

A Crime Branch official said the ten, hailing from Nepal and Jharkhand, were roaming suspiciously in the vicinity of the shop and were nabbed on the basis of specific information. Two people managed to flee under the cover of darkness, the official said.

During interrogation, they confessed that they had planned to rob the jewellery shop after whch they were placed under arrest, said officials. Gas cutters, a dagger and eight choppers were recovered from them, said police.

Their modus operandi was to break the shutters of shops at night and open the safe using gas cutters, he said.

The operation to nab them was carried out by personnel from Unit V of the Crime Branch and the Anti-Extortion Cell, said police.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Security has been tightened with deployment of



6000 policemen for the 'Narsingh Shobha Yatra' to be led by Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Holi here, police said today.

Many drone cameras and CCTV cameras have been installed on the 5 km long route of the yatra.

"The security of 'Shobha Yatra' is divided in seven zones, including three super zones and 19 sectors. The entire route of the yatra will be under close watch with drone cameras. Stones found on terrace of houses will be removed and ATS commandos will be deployed there," the police said.

Barricading will be done at many sensitive places and to avoid any unpleasant incident during the yatra, some religious places will be covered. Care will be taken that no one's religious sentiments get hurt. Holi is a festival of joy and brotherhood and people of all section and religion participate in celebrations," ADG, Gorakhpur, Dawa Sherpa, said.

From more than seven decades lord Narshingh procession is a part of Holi celebrations in Gorakhpur. Every year the chief priest of Gorakhnath Math leads the procession and thousands of people participate in it.

The procession starts from Pandey-ka-hata and moves around the old part of the city and ends at Ghanta Ghar.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Students on strike across four campuses of the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) have refused to call it off even after the institute's administration allowed them to use college facilities despite the pendency of dues.

A section of students have been on strike since February 21 after the TISS administration asked many of them, who have been chosen for government scholarships but are yet to get the money, to clear their dues related to tuitions, dining and hostel fees.

Issuing a statement, TISS said, "Students of the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), who are yet to receive their Government of India Post Matric Scholarship, can continue with their respective courses, stay in TISS hostels and use the dining facilities, despite their dues on account of these charges to the institute."



Over half of the 3500 students in all the four TISS campuses, located in Mumbai and Tuljapur in Maharashtra, Hyderabad in Telangana and Guwahati in Assam are part of the protest, said student union office bearers.

They have also been protesting against the withdrawal of financial aid provided to Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (SC/ST) scholars.

TISS's submission that it did not determine who was eligible for the scholarship, nor did the institute fund it, cut no ice with students, who said they would continue with the strike.

TISS, in its statement, added that it was also financially impacted by these dues.

"In fact, it is TISS which has been financially impacted, laden with dues of over Rs 20 crore since 2012-13, on account of exemption given to SC/ST students for tuition fees, hostel and dining hall charges of students under the Government of Indias Post Matric Scholarship. Still, we are doing our best to provide all facilities," the statement said.

Fahad Ahmed, general secretary, TISS Students Union, told PTI, "This offer does not address our charter of demands. The administration is not bothered about out concerns. Several universities and scholars are supporting us except the TISS administration. We are not going to budge from our stand or our charter of demands."



The union's charter of demands include the rollback of the notification asking students from the 2016-18 and 2017-19 batches eligible for the Post Matric Scholarships to pay their dues and the scrapping of a new rule which stipulates that these students pay their fees upfront.

The union also demanded that SC, ST and OBC students be included in the social protection office of the TISS.

Ahmed also lashed out at the Modi-led union government and said that their fight was not just against the TISS administration, but the Union government as well.

He said, "Prime Minister Narendra Modi played the OBC card in the last elections to come to power, but his policies are now against the marginalised sections."



The institute, however, claimed that admissions and examinations were continuing, as per the regular schedule, in all its campuses.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)A brutal winter blast, named 'Beast from the East' after the direction of the winds, is set to transform into Storm Emma as the UK suffers severe travel disruptions and chaos due to heavy snow.

The Meteorological Office issued a rare red warning, which indicates danger to life, in Scotland after a second day of heavy snow today. Several trains and flights have faced cancellations and delays since the start of this week, as airports around the country suspend operations to clear the snow from runways.

"We are expecting quite wide impacts from (Storm) Emma when she arrives tomorrow night. We are forecasting more snow, strong winds and freezing rain which will make driving conditions extremely dangerous," a Met Office spokesperson said.

Amber warnings, calling for people to be wary, are in place in northern and eastern England, and the East Midlands, with a number of police forces warning against driving because of poor visibility and treacherous conditions, leading to crashes and stranded motorists.

Four people are believed to have died in road crashes directly linked to the severe conditions across Britain.

"The Beast from the East will tighten its grip as the week goes on. Gale-force winds and super-cooled freezing rain could turn parts of the UK into an ice rink by the weekend," said Sara Thornton, director of digital service Weathertrending.

"So far the north and east of the country have borne the brunt of the snow, but now the arrival of Storm Emma will bring the white stuff to millions more of us on Friday. Gales will come with the snow, bringing blizzard conditions to some southern and western parts of the UK that have so far been spared the snow," she said.

The snow has forced the closure of hundreds of schools across the UK, after overnight temperatures dropped to almost -12 degrees Celsius in some areas. There are fears that some rural communities could be cut off as power cuts and mobile phone network interruptions are expected.

The Army has been drafted into Lincolnshire to help emergency services, who have stepped up their official response to "critical".

There are fears that one of this winter's longest big freezes in the UK could result in the highest death toll for 20 years.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Uttar Pradesh Congress chief Raj Babbar today addressed a party workers meeting here ahead of Gorakhpur Lok Sabha bye-election. to motivate them.

Babbar said, "Yogi Adityanath shouldnt get worried as he is the chief minister and has clear mandate and this election is parliamentary bypoll not Assembly election. We are contesting election against the wrong policies of Central government.

What an irony that the thieves are roaming freely and gentlemen are going inside jail. Farmers are committing suicide and big shots are leaving the country after bank scams. We are contesting the election for the vision of our leader Rahul Gandhi as he has challenged BJP for its wrong policies, he said.

On the death of Bollywood icon Sridevi he said, It is very sad and my personal loss as I had good relations with her and her relatives too. She my co-artist in movies. She was a compete artiste. She was the perfect image of the Indian women artiste that we read in literature and I could say that Sri of our industry has gone.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)US Ambassador to India Kenneth Juster today visited the Qutb Shahi tombs Complexhereto witness first-hand the restoration work being carried out at the site by Aga Khan Trust for Culture.

The envoy, accompanied by Katherine Hadda,USConsul General, also met Telangana and Andhra Pradesh Governor ESL Narasimhan at Raj Bhavan here, an official release said.

"Ambassador Kenneth Juster visited the Qutb Shahi tombs Complex. The Ambassador, along with the officials from the Aga Khan Trust for Culture and Telangana government's department of Archaeology and Museums, toured the premises of the Qutb Shahi tombs and had an opportunity to witness firsthand the restoration work being carried out there," it said.

AKTC Project Director Ratish Nanda and Department of Archaeology Director NR Visalatchy briefed the Ambassador on the project.

Juster applauded the team for their passion and dedication in preserving thecity'srich cultural heritage and raising public awareness of it,the release said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Both Houses of the US' Indiana state legislature have unanimously passed resolutions praising the "significant contribution" of Sikh Americans in the country.

The House of Representatives, the lower house passed the Sikh resolution today, within days of the Senate, the upper house, passing a similar resolution.

A Sikh prayer marked the opening of the day's proceedings at the House of Representatives in Indiana, which has a population of about 10,000 Sikhs who own around 3,500 businesses in the state.

Noting that Sikhs in America pursue diverse professions and walks of life, making rich contributions to the economic vibrancy of the US as farmers, engineers, doctors, scientists, and business owners, the resolution said Sikhs continue to make strides toward securing religious liberty as patriotic members of the United States Armed Forces.

It observed that Sikhs have served on local, state, and federal levels of government in the US, and said the community provided significant contributions to and continued to serve the country, state and the communities.

"As such the faithful service of the Sikh community to this state and the country merits appreciation as an integral thread in the fabric of American plurality," said the resolution sponsored by Representative Cindy Kirkhofer and co-authored by House Speaker Brian Bosma.

"Indiana's growing Sikh community continues to make tremendous contributions to our state, and it's an honour to formally recognise them and their efforts today at the Statehouse," Bosma said.

"Thousands of Sikhs call Indiana home, which adds to our state's vibrancy and diversity while strengthening our economic engine," he added.

Asserting that Indiana is home to a large and thriving Sikh community, Kirkhofer said as owners and operators of businesses, Sikhs play a vital role in the state's economy, providing jobs, services and goods to Hoosiers.

"They are also deeply involved in philanthropic and civic activities that make Indiana more vibrant and stronger. I look forward to fostering relationships with the Sikh community as our state continues to grow," the state legislator said.

Earlier the day's proceeding of the Indiana House of Representatives opened with a Sikh prayer by Gurinder Singh Khalsa, founder and head of Sikhs Political Action Committee.

"Sikhs across Indiana are honoured to receive this recognition," Khalsa said. "We are dedicated to the future of Indiana and the United States and we commit ourselves to serving with an open, honest heart," he added.

The House proceedings, he said, was an opportunity for others, perhaps who are not even aware of exactly who the Sikhs are, to hear a little bit about the community.

Acknowledging that the Sikh community has been a victim of maltreatment, because of their traditional attire, Bosma said the religion itself was created as a protector. "We understand here that the (Sikh) community just wants to live the American dream... We can learn about the Indian dream and the Sikh dream as well. It's good for those cultural exchanges," he told PTI.

The Speaker, who is yet to travel to India, said he wants to visit the "largest vibrant democracy" of the world.

"It is the largest democracy, most populated democracy in the world. While we've had some differences here and there, we've been key allies through much of the twentieth century and continues to be key allies through the 21 first century, particularly as the East and the Middle East continues to be a point of conflict, its critical for us to have close ties with India," he said in response to a question.

Bosma said there are some key business ties that are beginning that he is aware of and some that have not yet been announced but are in the works.

"It's exciting for us to continue the strong relationship, a historical relationship that we've had. And we want to expand it, particularly in the economic arena in both directions," he added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The US have begun to see "positive indicators" from Pakistan for some time now, a top general said today, while clarifying that the freeze in American security aid to the country will continue as it is yet to take any decisive action against the Taliban and the Haqqani network.

"That's the current posture. And I would imagine, hopefully, in the future, well have an opportunity to (review)," General Joseph Votel, Commander of the US Central Command, told members of the Senate Armed Services Committee when asked about the future of freeze of American security assistance to Pakistan.

"So, we remain in a posture of discontinuing that support (to Pakistan)," inquired Indiana Senator Jim Banks.

Votel said the US has started to see an increase in communication, information sharing and actions on the ground in response to specific US requests.

"These are positive indicators," he said, adding that "however, ongoing national counter-terrorism efforts against anti-Pakistan militants throughout the country have not yet translated into the definitive actions we require Pakistan to take against Afghan Taliban or Haqqani leaders,"



"This problem is compounded by increasing cross-border terrorist attacks and fires between Pakistan and Afghanistan, which hinders both countries abilities to coordinate on border security," Votel said.

The US, he said, has preserved its valuable military-to-military relationship with Pakistan and attempted to increase transparency and communication with influential military leaders, while pressing its serious concerns about the country's provision of sanctuary and support to militant and terrorist groups that target the US personnel and interests.

"Achieving long-term stability in Afghanistan and defeating the insurgency will be difficult without Pakistan's support and assistance," he said.

Although most security assistance for Pakistan is currently suspended, since 2002 Pakistan has been among the largest recipients of US provided Foreign Military Financing (FMF) and International Military Education and Training (IMET), the general said.

He said to date Pakistan has also been reimbursed hundreds of millions of dollars in Coalition Support Funds (CSF) for counter-insurgency operations that support US security objectives in the region.

The US uses ground and air routes in Pakistan to deliver materiel to Afghanistan, he said, adding that "we also have options to utilize routes through the other Central Asian nations".

Responding to a question from Senator Banks, Votel said the pressure that the Trump Administration has put on Pakistan has contributed to the recent seen positive response from Islamabad.

"I think what is also working right now is the approach that we have in place with them. I think we have tried to be very clear in terms of the things that we Pakistan to do for us. And what I have endeavoured to do -- not always in a public way, but in a private way -- is develop a relationship that allows us to provide feedback both ways," he said.

There are things, frankly, that Pakistan has asked from the US as well, he said. "So this is a two-way street here. It is my responsibility to make sure that we have feedback loops in place that go back and forth between the things that were doing to try support each other and moving forward in that regard," Volte said.

He said it was important to recognise that Pakistan as a country has suffered greatly from terrorism, "perhaps as much as anybody in the region, or maybe as anybody around the world".

"They have taken a number of measures to address terrorism within their borders," the general said.

"That has contributed, over the years, to some increased security in the area. And we have to recognise at up front. So our approach is to continue to be engaged with them. We want to have a candid discussion. We want to have frequent communication. We want to build trust in this relationship," Votel said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)The Maharashtra government today told the Legislative Assembly that vaccination of cattle for the foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) is delayed as it hasn't taken a decision on procurement after an earlier tender was scrapped.

The Opposition had targeted animal husbandry and dairy development minister Mahadev Jankar over the issue during the winter session too.

When Opposition leaders raised the issue today through a calling attention motion, Jankar wasn't present. Minister of state for animal husbandry Arjun Khotkar said, "I am not aware of any tender procedure of this vaccine procurement hence, I cannot say anything about the issue.

"I am aware of the chief minister's assurance during the winter session that he would take some steps, but so far no action has been taken...Hence, the government could not vaccinate the livestock in the state," Khotkar said.

The minister also admitted that the Union government had issued a letter of caution. "I am aware of the letter issued by Union (agriculture) minister Radha Mohan Singh regarding the delay in vaccination against the FMD, which directly affects milk production and which could turn fatal," Khotkar said.

If the government failed to vaccinate cattle in time, the damage due to FMD could be as high as Rs 20,000 crore, the Centre had cautioned, the minister said, adding "but as far as I know, there has been no selection of a company to supply the vaccine."



The minister announced of setting up of a Chief Secretary-level committee to probe the issue.

Opposition leaders including NCP's Ajit Pawar, Bhaskar Jadhav, Congress's Prithviraj Chavan, Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil, Abdul Sattar and others refused to accept the government's explanation.

Pawar said, "The tender procedure was carried out seven times in the last one and a half years only because everybody wants a cut in this deal."



As to Khotkar's announcement of a chief secretary-level probe, Pawar said, "If the chief secretary finds that a minister is involved, how can the secretary probe the minister? We want a judicial inquiry."Jankar himself was responsible for the delay in vaccination, the NCP leader alleged.

The cattle has to be given two doses of the vaccine every year, but through 2017, no vaccination was carried out, Pawar alleged.

As Khotkar refused to announce a judicial probe, Opposition members created a ruckus.

Education minister Vinod Tawde, who is handling the charge of parliamentary affairs temporarily, suggested that as Opposition was firm on demand of judicial probe, the issue could be kept pending and discussed in the presence of chief minister Devendra Fadnavis (upon his return from Delhi). The Opposition accepted the proposal.

A senior officer from the animal husbandry department told PTI that a company earlier selected for the FMD vaccinedistribution was rejected for quoting a higher price in Maharashtra, compared to the price it quoted in Telangana.

Around 2.07 crore milch animals in Maharashtra need FMD vaccine, he said.

A new tender was floated in January when some cases of FMD were detected and another company was chosen for providing the vaccine, but the company which had been selected earlier complained about the shorter tender procedure, and the new tender too was cancelled, the official said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Having only vegetarian menu for mid-day meals served in schools, saying Jai Hind during school attendance and remodelling of NCERT curriculum to ensure value and culture based were among the suggestions received by Central Advisory Body on (CABE).

The suggestions were made during the 65th meeting of CABE, the highest decision-making body on in India, chaired by Union HRD Minister Prakash Javadekar, according to minutes of the meeting



"Uttarakhand Education Minister Arvind Pandey stressed upon having vegetraian menus in the mid-day meal," according to the minutes of the meeting.

Kunwar Vijay Shah, Minister of School Education, Madhya Pradesh, suggested that practice of saying yes sir/yes mam during the school attendance should be replaced with Jai Hind, and flag hoisting and national anthem should be made compulsory in all the school.

Union Culture Minister Mahesh Sharma said that "we are proud of our achievements but our past has never deterred us to do more".

"Can we give our contribution to include value based education and strengthen that. NCERT should remodel the syllabus towards culture based education," he was quoted as saying.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Ahead of his India visit, Vietnam President Tran Dai Quang has strongly advocated enhanced trade ties and boosting maritime and aerial connectivity between the two countries, a push that comes amid increasing Chinese assertiveness in the region.

Tran, who will arrive in India on March 2 on a three-day state visit, also feels that India and Vietnam are "blessed" with strategic locations in South Asia and South East Asia, respectively, and there is immense potential for the two countries to cooperate in different areas.

"Furthermore, both countries are endowed with advantages to develop maritime economy. In this regard, we could increase information exchange and share experience in formulating maritime strategies," Tran told PTI in an interview.

His call for deepening Indo-Vietnam maritime connectivity assumes significance as the US, Japan and a number of other countries have pitched for a greater role for India in the Indo-Pacific region, apparently to contain China's growing influence.

The Vietnamese leader also said both countries have forged a high level of political trust through mutual visits at the high and lower levels, and worked closely for effective implementation of the signed agreements, particularly the Joint Vision Statement on Defense Cooperation for 20152020.

"In order to achieve the target of USD 15 billion of bilateral trade turnover by 2020, both sides need to promote investment in areas where Indias advantages coincide with Vietnam's demands, step up aviation and maritime connectivity, and reduce and work towards abolition of the trade barriers so as to create favorable conditions for the two-way trade," Tran said in the email interview.

The strong pitch by the Vietnamese president for increased aviation and maritime connectivity with India may not go down well with China, which is in conflict with Vietnam and several other countries in the region, including Brunei and the Philippines over maritime claims in the South China Sea.

The presidential visit comes just over a month after Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc's trip to India as one of the chief guests for the Republic Day parade.

Tran also identified defence, security and trade as effective strategic areas of cooperation.

"India and Vietnam are blessed with strategic locations in South Asia and South East Asia, respectively, aside from young population, large workforce, huge markets and rapid economic growth. Hence, the two countries may promote cooperation in such areas as production, manufacturing, infrastructure development, renewable energy, information technology...and new technology application such as biotechnology, green agriculture, nano technology, new materials, among others," he said.

He also asserted that Indian initiatives, including 'Make in India', 'Digital India' and '100 Smart Cities', and India's achievements in developing a knowledge economy offer multiple opportunities for cooperation, investment and doing business for enterprises of both countries.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)Karti Chidambaram today signed the arrest memo by writing on it that all allegations against him were aimed to target his father P Chidambaram, during whose tenure as Union Finance Minister, FIPB clearance was granted to INX media.

"This whole exercise is to politically target my father," Karti wrote on the arrest memo before signing it.

The memo of arrest was placed before duty magistrate Sumeet Anand, before whom Karti, the son of senior Congress leader, was produced after he was brought from Chennai.

While Karti was being taken to the courtroom, he told the waiting media persons that allegations made against him by the CBI were "politically motivated" and he will be "vindicated" in the court.

"All allegations against me are politically motivated and I will be vindicated," he said on being asked about his version by the mediapersons.

Coming out after the court proceedings, Karti repeated that the entire exercise was aimed at targeting his father.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)NEW DELHI (Reuters) - The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has asked jeweller Nirav Modi to join by next week an investigation into an alleged fraud involving his companies and the country's second biggest state lender, Punjab National Bank, a spokesman said on Wednesday.The CBI added that it did not know where Modi was. The agency earlier said he left India in January before the $2 billion fraud, which also involves a firm controlled by his uncle Mehul Choksi, came to light.Modi, to whom CBI sent an email on Wednesday, has denied any wrongdoing. (Reporting by Nigam Prusty; Writing by ...By Clare Jim and Yan JiangHONG KONG (Reuters) - The Chinese buyer of a Hong Kong skyscraper from billionaire Li Ka-shing in a record $5.2 billion deal has pulled out of the deal, according to two people with direct knowledge of the matter. The reason was not immediately clear, but the pullout underscores the difficulty little-known Chinese companies face raising capital offshore, as Chinese regulators restrict capital outflows, including "irrational" outbound investments in sectors such as property.Reuters reported in December the buyer consortium is seeking to borrow as much as 90 percent to ...NEW DELHI (Reuters) - India's cabinet approved on Wednesday doubling state purchases of oilseeds and pulses from farmers, in a bid to boost local output and prevent distressed sales.The amount that state agencies guarantee to buy at pre-set prices will double to 190 billion rupees ($2.9 billion) for a five-year period ending in 2021/22, government spokesman Frank Noronha said in a tweet.India is the world's biggest edible oil buyer and frequently imports pulses, or lentils, because many Indian farmers tend to swing from one commodity to another depending on government incentives, leading to ...By Katya GolubkovaMOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia's use of credit ratings to determine which banks may be trusted to hold state funds should help ensure the health of the banking sector following a clean up by the central bank, the head of Russian rating agency ACRA said.Ekaterina Trofimova also told Reuters last year's rescue of three of the country's biggest private banks -- Otkritie, B&N and Promsvyazbank (PSB) -- showed that deposits and accounts could be at risk even if a lender is relatively large. "After last year's events in the banking sector ... it became clear ... that the size of a bank ...By Dave Graham and Lesley WroughtonMEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexico's trade minister will discuss the threat of U.S. steel import tariffs with U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross on Wednesday, two sources said, adding to trade tensions during the latest push to renegotiate the NAFTA trade deal.The meeting in Washington between Economy Minister Ildefonso Guajardo, who oversees trade, and Ross comes as U.S., Mexican and Canadian officials meet in Mexico City for a seventh round of negotiations to rework the North American Free Trade Agreement.In President Donald Trump's trade policy agenda ...COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP)  Still unable to use jamming technology to stop smuggled cellphones, South Carolinas corrections officials are enlisting State Guardsmen to help them combat the devices they call the top security threat behind bars.

On Tuesday, Gov. Henry McMaster signed an <a target=blank href=http://governor.sc.gov/ExecutiveBranch/Documents/Executive%20Order%202018-10.pdf>executive order</a> allowing South Carolina State Guardsmen to help patrol the perimeters of the states prisons, watching for people trying to smuggle in contraband including cellphones.

The program is starting at one of the states high-security prisons, with the goal of expanding to other facilities. Bryan Stirling, the states Corrections director, said the program will allow him to move his officers back inside the prison, keeping institutions safer.

The partnership is the latest anti-cellphone step taken by Stirling, who has long argued that being able to jam signals from the smuggled phones  used by inmates to plan crimes and acts of violence  would be the best way to keep his employees and the public safer. Each year, Stirlings agency seizes thousands of cellphones, smuggled inside prison by visitors, errant employees, and even delivered by drone.

Wireless service providers have said that, while they support efforts to cut out inmates illegal calls, they worry signal-blocking technologies could thwart legal calls.

The Federal Communications Commission, which regulates the nations airwaves, has said it cant permit jamming in state prisons, citing a decades-old law that prohibits interruption of the airwaves at state-level institutions. But the agency has been softening on the issue, thanks to persistent pleas from officials including Stirling and McMaster, as well as members of Congress including Tennessee Rep. David Kustoff.

Stirling recently met in Washington with his counterparts from other states, along with wireless industry and FCC officials, to discuss ways to potentially use technology like signal jamming to fight the phones.

While continuing to push for that ability, Stirling has implemented increased searches, scanners, and even used dogs specially trained to sniff out cellphones. Last month, he announced a partnership with Richland County Sheriff Leon Lott, paying Lotts deputies to patrol woods near a maximum-security prison in Columbia, arresting people for trying to smuggle in contraband.



Kinnard can be reached at http://twitter.com/MegKinnardAP. Read more of her work at https://apnews.com/search/meg%20kinnard.BELFAST, Maine (AP)  Former neighbors of a couple accused of fatally beating a 10-year-old girl said they heard abuse months ago and reported it to police and the state health and human services officials.

Julio and Sharon Carrillo, of Stockton Springs, were each ordered held Wednesday on $500,000 cash bail during their first court appearance after their arrests.

Theyre charged with murder in the death of Sharon Carrillos 10-year-old daughter, Marrissa Kennedy, in their home. The Carrillos told police theyd beaten the girl for months and that they tried to stage the scene to make it appear her death was an accident before they called 911 Sunday.

Assistant Attorney General Donald Macomber suggested Wednesday that the beatings over an extended period of time amounted to torture.

Attorneys for the couple said they intended to look into the validity of their alleged confessions. The attorneys also said that they may seek psychiatric examinations for the couple.

Theres always a rush to believe the worst and to believe that these people are villainous monsters. But fortunately we have this legal system that is a buffer that allows us to sift through to see what really happened, said Chris MacLean, lawyer for Sharon Carrillo.

Sharon Carrillo, 33, has no criminal record while her husband, 51, had a domestic assault conviction from years ago in Kentucky.

The two had lived in Bangor before moving to Stockton Springs, and some neighbors reported hearing abuse in their home. A spokeswoman for the Maine Department of Health and Human Services said Wednesday night it couldnt comment on the case.

The death of a child under any circumstance is an incredible loss to both loved ones and our state, said DHHS spokeswoman Emily Spencer. As it is with every case, I am not able to comment and I cannot confirm or deny any DHHS involvement as records that contain personally identifiable information are confidential.

Someone dropped the ball here. That little girl shouldnt be dead right now, Dan Whitney, 68, a former neighbor in Bangor, told the Portland Press Herald, noting he saw police visit the Carrillo home numerous times.

Officials at RSU 20, the school district where Marrissa was a student, said they couldnt talk about specifics of the case. But they said a support system was in place for students and staff.CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP)  Three astronauts returned from the International Space Station to the snowy, bitingly cold flat lands of Central Asia, ending a 5 1/2-month mission highlighted by robotic renovations, schoolteacher pep talks and heavenly greetings from Pope Francis.

The two Americans and one Russian landed in a Soyuz capsule shortly after sunrise Wednesday, local time, in Kazakhstan, where the temperature was below freezing. Flight controllers feared snow and freezing rain might hamper recovery efforts, but NASA said the weather wasnt nearly as bad as had been feared and the pickup teams got to where they needed to be.

NASAs Joe Acaba and Mark Vande Hei, and Russias Alexander Misurkin emerged from the capsule one by one, smiling, waving and pumping their fists in the air as they were carried to outdoor chairs. Medical staff wrapped them in thick blankets, while taking their pulse and making sure they were fine.

The astronauts checked out of the space station just a few hours earlier, hugging the three men remaining behind.

Were already missing you, radioed station commander Anton Shkaplerov as the capsule backed away.

In handing over the skippers job to Shkaplerov, Misurkin joked that at least he and his two crewmates didnt break anything and hopefully accomplished some good science. Theyd lived on the space station since September.

Acaba is the first astronaut of Puerto Rican heritage and a former schoolteacher. He teamed up with another educator-astronaut, Ricky Arnold, whos launching in three weeks, to perform the science lessons prepared by Christa McAuliffe 32 years ago. She died in the shuttle Challenger launch disaster.

During a series of spacewalks spanning months, Acaba and Vande Hei helped replace the aging mechanical hands of the stations big robot arm. And last fall, they had a chance to chat with Pope Francis, discussing the beauty and fragility of the home planet.

As is customary, NASA planned to hustle Acaba and Vande Hei back to Houston, with Misurkin heading to cosmonaut headquarters at Star City, Russia.

A replacement crew, including former teacher Arnold, will lift off from Kazakhstan on March 21 and bring the space station back up to a full crew of six.



Online:

NASA: <a target=blank href=https://www.nasa.gov/mission%E2%80%94pages/station/main/index.html>https://www.nasa.gov/missionpages/station/main/index.html</a>DENVER (AP)  U.S. Interior Secretary Ryan Zinkes plan for a major realignment to put more of his departments decision-makers in the field has a fundamental flaw in the eyes of some who spent their careers making those decisions: Theyre already out there.

Eleven former Interior Department officials with decades of experience in both Washington and in local offices told The Associated Press the agency already has a well-established system for decentralized decision-making.

Ninety percent-plus of the decisions that get made get made at the local level, said Scott Florence, who retired after 38 years with the Bureau of Land Management, the Interior Departments second-largest branch.

The problem, some said, is that over the past few years, an increasing number of decisions that should have been made locally were ultimately decided in Washington because of political pressure, under both Democratic and Republican administrations.

And since 91.5 percent of the departments workforce of about 70,000 is already based outside the Washington area, most of the former interior employees said they doubted pushing more employees out of Washington would improve things.

Zinke has made the overhaul of the Interior Department  which manages 780,000 square miles (2 million square kilometers) of public lands, mostly in the West  a signature mission since taking over the agency a year ago. He says it would streamline bureaucracy and lead to better decisions made closer to the field.

Parts of his realignment proposal have run into resistance from some politicians from both parties, particularly in the West, who fear it will disrupt relationships between state and federal officials. That criticism echoes a 2015 <a target=blank href=https://gosar.house.gov/sites/gosar.house.gov/files/blm%20state%20office%20merger%20letter%20signed.pdf>letter</a> sent to leaders of the Bureau of Land Management, objecting to a far more modest proposal to combine the bureau offices in New Mexico and Arizona.

The letter from 13 members of Congress  including Zinke, then a Republican congressman representing his home state of Montana  also expressed fear the proposal was part of a larger plan to create more multistate offices in the bureau.

We believe this is a poor model and should be abandoned, the lawmakers wrote.

The Interior Department eventually dropped the idea in the face of opposition from both Democrats and Republicans.

Interior Department spokeswoman Heather Swift said Zinkes reorganization proposal, which includes appointing 13 new <a target=blank href=https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/4386236/PRESS-DRAFTCommonRegionsMap-21518.pdf>regional directors</a> , is different than the attempted merger of the two offices in 2015.

State-federal relationships would be strengthened under his proposal because governors and other officials could contact regional officials, she said.

More decisions and authority will be at the regional level, with fewer decisions kicked up to Washington, so the ability of governors to reach key decision makers will be enhanced by the secretarys proposal, she said.

The 11 former Interior Department officials who spoke with the AP came mostly from the Bureau of Land Management but also the National Park Service and the Fish and Wildlife Service. Their job experiences ranged from park ranger to director of the Fish and Wildlife Service. Each spoke on the record.

Their opinions on Zinkes proposal ranged from skepticism to strong opposition, and all said they knew of no former Interior Department employees who supported it. But one of the 11  Dan Ashe, the former Fish and Wildlife Service director  said reorganizations are almost always unpopular.

Some worried moving more career employees with field experience out of Washington would make things worse.

By having those people there, they at least have some influence on the decisions that are being made in Washington, said Mike Ferguson, a wildlife biologist who became the Bureau of Land Managements top financial officer before he retired.

If you move them west, you break that link, but the decisions are still going to be made in Washington, he said.

Some said the problem with the departments current structure is that a growing number of local decisions are being made in Washington by political appointees for political reasons. The trend has continued under both Republican and Democratic administrations, they said.

Washington officials once dictated to Interior Department workers in Idaho what kind of vegetation they could plant after a wildfire on federal land, said Steve Ellis, who retired in 2016 as deputy director of the Bureau of Land Management.

That is a field-level decision, he said. But it became very political, probably because the livestock industry wanted a specific kind of grass for cattle.

Swift said the former employees have the same concerns as Zinke about decisions being made in Washington, not locally.

But restructuring the agency and moving employees arent the solution, Ferguson said.

Its not a matter of changing the organization. Its a matter of allowing the employees in the organization to do the job that they were hired to do, he said.



Follow Dan Elliott at http://twitter.com/DanElliottAP. His work can be found at <a target=blank href=https://apnews.com/search/dan%20elliott>https://apnews.com/search/dan%20elliott</a> .



This story has been corrected to show the Interior Department spokeswomans last name is Swift, not Smith.TOKYO (AP)  Japanese police confirmed Thursday the arrest of an American on suspicion of dismembering and abandoning the body of a woman in western Japan.

Hyogo prefectural police said Yevgeniy Vasilievich Bayraktar was arrested Feb. 22 on suspicion of confining the woman, who had been missing for six days.

Police said they added allegations Wednesday of dismembering and abandoning the body. They are also investigating if the suspect killed the woman.

Police would not release the suspects hometown, saying they are still verifying it. Japanese media reports say he is from Long Island, NY.

Police said they found the severed head of the woman, a 27-year-old office worker from Sanda City, in the suspects lodging in Osaka last week. They found other body parts on Sunday in the mountains of Osaka and Kyoto after the suspect identified where he abandoned them, police said. An examination of those parts is still underway.

Japanese media reports say the suspect met the woman on an internet dating site and exchanged messages using Instagram. The woman went missing on Feb. 16 after messaging her friend that she was going to meet someone named Jay.

Investigators believe Bayraktar confined the woman in his lodging in the Higashinari district in Osaka between Feb. 16 and Feb. 18, during which he dismembered the victim and took the head to another room he rented in nearby Nishinari and the remaining parts to the mountains.

Security camera video from the first building showed him entering with a woman, but did not show the woman leaving. It showed the suspect going in and out with a suitcase, police said.

Media reports say Bayraktar entered Japan in January on a tourist visa.



This story has been corrected to fix name order to Yevgeniy Vasilievich Bayraktar.MANILA, Philippines (AP)  The Philippine Supreme Courts chief justice  who has drawn the ire of President Rodrigo Duterte  expects to be impeached by the House next month and will go on leave to prepare for the trial shes confident of winning, her spokesman said Wednesday.

International rights groups and local critics have accused Duterte of drifting toward authoritarianism after declaring martial law in the south. He has overseen a drug war marked by thousands of killings of mostly poor suspects and has publicly threatened his opponents.

Last year, he said he wanted Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno and a top anti-graft prosecutor impeached and accused them of allowing themselves to be used to discredit his administration.

Sereno will start an indefinite leave Thursday but will not resign amid reports that rival justices demanded she quit in a closed-door meeting, her spokesman Jojo Lacanilao said.

There is no body or institution outside of the Senate which can force the chief justice to resign, Lacanilao told a news conference. He added that any action to force Sereno to step down other than by convicting her in a Senate trial would be unconstitutional.

The chief justice has a deep commitment to the constitution, democracy and to the constitutional process, Lacanilao said. If the Senate trial ends and chief justice is convicted, she will not last for a day in her position.

He said Sereno has not committed any wrongdoing and did not do anything that can amount to an impeachable offense and looks forward to the trial, where her defense attorneys could confront her accusers.

The complaint filed by a lawyer cited 27 grounds for impeachment, including alleged corruption and culpable violation of the constitution. She has been accused of not declaring her assets and liabilities as required by the law, buying a luxury vehicle with public funds and deciding without consulting fellow justices.

Sereno has sought dismissal of the complaint, calling the allegations totally false and nothing short of an impeachment exercise based on fake news. A committee in the House of Representatives, which is dominated by Dutertes allies, has preceded with televised impeachment hearings and is expected to cast an initial vote on whether to impeach Sereno next week.

Duterte last year accused the Ombudsman anti-graft agency of allowing the use of illegally obtained or fabricated information to investigate allegations that he kept undeclared wealth in past bank accounts.

The president denied the allegations and challenged Sereno and Ombudsman agency head Conchita Carpio-Morales to resign along with him and to open their bank accounts to scrutiny. Morales and Sereno denied any wrongdoing and rejected Dutertes challenge. The investigation of the alleged undeclared wealth was recently terminated.

Opposition groups and politicians have backed Sereno, who was appointed in 2012 by Dutertes predecessor. A left-wing group of lawyers, the National Union of Peoples Lawyers, expressed concerns over reported efforts by some fellow justices to force Sereno to step down, saying this undermines the high courts integrity and respect for the constitution.

The losing party here is not the chief justice nor any justice of the court, the group said. It is the residual faith of the people in already unresponsive institutions whose roles are being wilted away, willingly or unwillingly, to de facto authoritarianism.Wednesday:

 At 7:00 AM ET, The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) will release the results for the mortgage purchase applications index.



 At 8:30 AM, Gross Domestic Product, 4th quarter 2017 (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: Chicago Purchasing Managers Index for February. The consensus is for a reading of 65.0, down from 65.7 in January.



 At 10:00 AM, Pending Home Sales Index for January. The consensus is for a 0.5% increase in the index.| BY Ricki Green |

Saatchi & Saatchi New Zealand has been appointed as Tourism Fijis global brand agency of record, following a selection process and creative pitch that began in mid 2017.

Saatchi & Saatchi will lead the creation of a revitalised brand platform and global campaign to attract visitors to Fiji from all over the world, focusing on key markets  Australia, New Zealand, North America, Asia and Europe. The agency will work with its network and Publicis Groupe partners to deliver a seamless brand experience across multiple locations.

Tourism is of great importance to the Fijian economy, contributing over 30% of the nations GDP. The tourism industry also provides employment directly and indirectly to an estimated 112,000 Fijians and is the fastest growing industry in terms of employment.

Says Matt Stoeckel, CEO, Tourism Fiji: The standard of pitching from all agencies across the board was very high, but Saatchi & Saatchi quickly showed us they really understood the destination and our vision for the future. We were looking for a long-term partner who would challenge us and we think weve found that in Saatchis.| BY Ricki Green |

Medibank will again highlight the enduring power of a kiss as part of its 2018 Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras sponsorship, using the symbol of a kiss to show how far weve come in celebrating diversity, inclusion and acceptance.

#BetterwithaKiss, developed by B.B.E, builds upon the success of the 2017 campaign and explores whether a kiss can mean more today than it did yesterday as Mardi Gras celebrates 40 years of progress and evolution.

In line with the launch, Medibank has announced the return of its interactive Kiss Cam float for this years parade, encouraging parade-goers to pucker up for the roving cameras with the activation created by Common Project. Through the Kiss Cam, Medibank aims to capture even more embraces between loved ones in the crowd, with each kiss broadcast in real-time on the floats big screens.

The campaign is being fronted by newly announced Medibank Mardi Gras ambassador, entertainer and transgender advocate, Jordan Raskopoulos, who will host a Facebook Live stream of the parade, enabling those watching from home to get involved in the festivities and witness the many kisses being shared on the night.

Bringing the campaign to life on social channels is a variety of supporting content and video  some already live  featuring the personal stories of Raskopoulos, and Medibank employees.

The latest video to be released features the personal stories of members and allies of the LGBTQI+ community, discussing the power of sharing a kiss with the ones they love. Speaking to the theme of evolution, the spot features imagery of members of the community sharing a kiss or an embrace with their partner or loved one  highlighting the endurance of these powerful relationships over time.

Says Fiona Le Brocq, general manager, marketing, Medibank: With the landmark passing of marriage equality in Australia, theres never been a better time to celebrate how far weve come. This progress has been heartening, but we know theres always more that can be done to ensure all Australians feel equal and supported to love who they love.

Last year, we created a platform based on the message that were all better with a kiss with the ones we love, and that every kiss should be equal. This year, in line with the theme of 40 years of evolution, we aim to build on this platform by highlighting the kisss endurance over time, and its power in continuing to stand up for hope, love, equality and acceptance.

Amplifying the campaigns message, Medibank has also launched an integrated partnership with SBS  the official Mardi Gras Broadcast Partner  with the partnership including broadcast advertisements and advertorial online support.

Says Gemma Saunders, head of diversity and inclusion, Medibank: Were excited to be returning to Mardi Gras after a momentous year for our community. We have no doubt that this period will stand out as a unifying moment in our history  one that not only honours equality, but also celebrates the rich diversity that makes up our country.

Launching via B.B.E, Common Project and Carat, #BetterwithaKiss has spanned all Medibank activity for Mardi Gras, kicking off with a competition for 60 employees and members to land a spot in the parade, followed by a Kissing Booth at the festivals Fair Day. Additionally, 50 Medibank members and their partners have also been invited to enjoy the festivities in the parades Grandstand.

Creative and Communications: B.B.E

Activation: Common Project| BY Ricki Green |

Nestle Oceania has announced that it is reviewing media agencies in Australia and New Zealand for the Nestle Oceania portfolio of brands.

Nestle is the worlds largest food and beverage company, with iconic brands including KitKat, Allens, Nescafe, Milo, Maggi, Uncle Tobys, Nespresso and Purina.

Says Therese Kallie, director of communications and marketing services, Nestle Oceania: This does not reflect on the excellent work done by our current agencies. The rate of change and disruption is unprecedented and in this ever evolving media landscape we believe we should periodically re-examine how we manage our media investment choices and requirements such as strategy, planning and buying.

We need to ensure Nestle Oceania is well positioned for now and in the future.

Nestle has invited a number of its aligned agencies to submit credentials, including the incumbent agencies.Notice for the Postmedia Network

This website uses cookies to personalize your content (including ads), and allows us to analyze our traffic. Read more about cookies here. By continuing to use our site, you agree to our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy.Wednesday, February 28, 2018 at 8:53AM

Rascalz, Thurst, Kardinal Offishall and Choclair celebrate 'Northern Touch' at the Sonos Song Stories event in Toronto

By Gadjo Cardenas Sevilla

Toronto - Sonos has sponsored various Song Stories events across the world and in downtown Toronto yesterday, it celebrated 'Northern Touch', a collaborative hip-hop track by artists Rascalz, Kardinal Offishall, Choclair, Checkmate and Thrust, which put the Canadian hip-hop scene on the map even if it got very little airplay or support at home.

The song, which represented various locales in Canada, blew up on American and International radio stations and its video was one of the first works by Little X, who is now known as Director X and is one of the most sought after musiv video directors as well as a feature film director working on a Superfly reboot this year. The Northern Touch video also launched the career of model Melyssa Ford.

Sonos set up a stage with a Sonos One with Alexa smart speaker on the stage of the Drake Hotel's lounge and invited the originators to discuss the making of the song as well as the state of music in Canada at the time.

Sonos One brings together Hip Hop impresarios, rappers and producers

Alexa was used to play various tracks while the artists discussed how that single and subsequent releases that showed of Canadian artists on a global stage.news, latest-news

When the National Library of Australia opened in 1968 the world was a turbulent place. The Vietnam War was in full swing, Robert Kennedy was gunned down in the kitchen of the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles and Richard Nixon became the 37th President of the United States. Closer to home Prime Minister Harold Holt disappeared in the surf off Cheviot Beach, the anti-war movement was gaining momentum and 200m runner Peter Norman stood on the podium with US athletes at the Mexico Olympics as they raised their fists in protest. A new exhibition at the NLA, 1968: Changing Times, celebrates the seminal year and the opening of a iconic building. For current director-general Dr Marie-Louise Ayres the library is a special place. She's been working there for 16 years, just one year in the top job, and she still loves exploring the quiet places we traditionally associate with libraries. "I have many favourite corners," she says. "There's a beautiful quiet corner in the main reading room that looks out towards Commonwealth Avenue Bridge and if I need a little bit of quiet I take myself down there where nobody can find me. "I also love our special collections reading room on the first floor. I've worked with special collections throughout my career and it was my dream to have this beautiful, calm space where people could engage deeply with the primary materials, the pictures, oral histories, manuscripts, the first documents that people want to work on, in a beautiful atmosphere." She's insightful enough to realise the way people engage with the library is ever changing. There were more than 30.6 million visits to nla.gov.au in 2016-17 and 22.23 million visits to the Trove site where you can access more than 565 million online books, images, newspapers and more. More than 38,000 people follow the NLA on Facebook, more than 39,000 on Twitter. There is now 5.69 petabytes of digital storage. And, for the record, 259km of shelves housing 10 million items. "In 1968 the assumption was one came to this building to do that work, that the collection lived here and you came here, to Canberra, to do your research," Dr Ayres says. "What's just exploded in the past 20 or so years is we've become very active in the digital space and we know that our collections are being used by Australians in every corner of this enormous country, and across the world. "The nature of how people use our collections has changed really radically in that period." For the library, the digital space has allowed them to further develop their charter, says Dr Ayres. When the National Library Act was passed in 1960 the terms were "maintaining and developing a national collection of library material, including a comprehensive collection of library material relating to Australia and the Australian people". "There was this grand idea for a library, with a great collection accessible to the people of Australia, who did they have in mind to use the collection?" she says. "We were in a male-dominated world, this is several years before the Public Service Marriage Bar was removed [in 1966], we had a less diverse community, the 1967 Referendum [which gave recognition to indigenous Australians] was years away  "I don't think there was any thinking at the time that we would be a library that would be actively engaging with the indigenous community. "The thing that has changed really dramatically through our digital services, it's not that we can get to many more people, we can get to different people and the questions we're always asking ourselves is who are we not serving, who is not benefiting from our collections who could do so and what do we do about that." There has been a national library as such since 1901 when the Commonwealth Parliamentary Library was established in Melbourne. In 1927 the collections were moved to Canberra and were mainly housed at the West Block offices. In 1907 the Joint Parliamentary Library Committee foreshadowed the idea of a building in the nation's new capital, with chairman Sir Frederick William Holder saying: "The library committee is keeping before it the ideal of building up, for the time when Parliament shall be established in the federal capital, a great public library  such a library, indeed, as shall be worthy of the Australian nation; the home of the literature, not of a state, or of a period, but of the world, and of all time." It's fascinating now, so many years later, how that idea is being put into practice, in a grand building on the shores of Lake Burley Griffin and in the digital space. 1968: Changing Times is an opportunity to revisit the late 60s and celebrate the completion of one of Canberra's great public institutions. The exhibition will run from March 1 to August 12.

/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/silverstone-ct-migration/51bfe4d8-dede-4be0-b49b-35239791fbff/r0_128_2000_1258_w1200_h678_fmax.jpgThe early morning sun beats down brightly as a procession of Y-plated SUVs start to fill the car park, their occupants bounding onto the beach to claim their coveted patch of sand for the day. But for misdirected breaths of air from enthusiastic kids blowing up their inflatable mattresses and pink flamingos, it's perfectly calm. Off in the distance the Tollgate Islands sit like giant emeralds floating in a sparkling sea of blue. Although this scene at Long Beach, on the northern shores of Batemans Bay, is one repeated every sunny summer weekend, you can guarantee most, if not all, of these regular beachgoers are completely oblivious to a long forgotten natural feature that once took pride of place here. From 1942 until at least 1960, a four-metre-long whale jaw bone sat prominently in the grassy dunes near the western end of the beach. It provided a unique bench-style seat for both locals and the occasional adventurous tourist. Now, while a bone bench is unusual in its own right, if local legend is to be believed, its remarkable origins make it one of the most extraordinary coastal chairs in the entire country. Apparently the ''seat'' was the jaw bone of a whale that, wait for it, was accidentally bombed by the RAAF during World War II when pilots mistook it for a raiding Japanese submarine. Really! If you think this tale sounds far-fetched, then join the club. When a photo of the bone bench along with a brief blurb outlining its seemingly spurious origins recently featured on the Long Beach Community Association's Facebook page, I immediately checked if it was April Fools Day. It wasn't. Always keen to uncover the truth, your akubra-clad columnist tracked down Evan Holt, an amateur historian who, in the mid-1980s, after moving to Long Beach and hearing the story for the first time, embarked on a similar mission to confirm the seat's peculiar pedigree. "I spoke to the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) History Unit based in Russell in the ACT and they confirmed it all  that it definitely wasn't a Japanese submarine that the RAAF bombed, rather an unfortunate whale swimming off the nearby coast," said Holt, who promptly prepared a comprehensive report on his findings for the Batemans Bay Historical Society. Unfortunately Holt's findings vanished when several years ago his report was unintentionally tossed out during a clean-out of the society's records. I know what you're thinking, this is starting to sound more and more like an urban legend. Stick with me. Not wanting to sift through tonnes of decaying fish and chip wrappers and other rubbish at the Batemans Bay tip in search of Holt's missing files, I promptly despatched my own request to the Directorate of History - Air Force in Canberra. Earlier this week, the return missive from RAAF Historian Martin James lobbed into my inbox. It read: "A search of the records of RAAF units known to be based and used for anti-submarine patrols along the south eastern coast of Australia has not brought up any record of a bombing of a whale." Aha, so it was a legend after all? But then I read on. "However, one of our researchers was able to locate a narrative reference to a whale attack in the Batemans Bay area on the 22nd of July 1942 in John Lever's book, No.6 OTU, Base Torpedo Unit, and R.A.A.F. Beaufort Torpedo Operations," James said. According to the book, the crew of a Beaufort A9-20 captained by a Flying Officer Schlank had seen the US ''Liberty'' ship William Dawes burning just south of Batemans Bay and starting to sink. In response, Schlank's men dropped messages to the crew of the vessel informing them that help was on the way, then remained to overwatch and report back the situation. However, during this time "a submarine was spotted and attacked with depth chargers". The crew saw oil come to the surface. However, as Lever details, "The next day two Navy Intelligence Officers interviewed the crew and "the verdict was that a whale had been mistaken for a submarine". So a whale swimming near Batemans Bay was in fact mistaken for a Japanese submarine in 1942 and bombed, but was it the same marine mammal whose bones washed up on Long Beach? Without any written record, we can only rely on anecdotal evidence to unravel this final part of the puzzle. Firstly there's Holt's recollections of his research. "Weeks after the accidental bombing, the body of a large whale washed up at the west end of Long Beach, said Holt. "Any long-time local will tell you it was one of the best years for fishing as the whale was stuck in the shallows on the beach, attracting all sorts of feeding fish." Then there's Malcolm Morgan, who along with the whale bone appears in the aforementioned circa-1951 photo with his sister Maree, mother Lorna, and their family's Humber Hawk. Morgan, who now splits his time between Sydney and the coast, said, "When my family first settled [at] that part of Long Beach in 1949, all the locals mentioned the origins of the whale."In fact, according to Morgan, other parts of the whale's skeleton were also innovatively used. "There was a lot of vertebrae still on the beach, they were excellent for sitting around the campfire for stools", Morgan said. "At one point there were ribs of the whale at Birdland and some other parts of the skeleton on display at the [now closed] Lobster Pot restaurant". Morgan believes "the seat is actually the jaw bone of a Southern Right Whale, which is so-named as they were the 'right' whale to catch because it had the 'right' amount of oil and it floated when dead." "Once bombed it would have floated to the surface and then been brought into the bay by wind and tide," Morgan said. So where is the bone bench now? "It disappeared many years ago, probably in the 1960s, someone grabbed it, I'd say," laments Morgan. "It could be anywhere now." Someone must know its whereabouts, a four-metre-long whale bone can't just disappear, can it? In the meantime, if you are among those who make regular pilgrimages to Long Beach, next time you unfold your beach chair you may wish to consider the curious connection this stretch of sand has with World War II. Just don't tell Greenpeace. Long Beach: Located about 11 kilometres north-east of Batemans Bay. William Dawes: The steel US ''Liberty'' ship William Dawes was sunk by torpedoes fired from a Japanese submarine near Tathra on July 22, 1942. Five lives were lost in the attack. Did You Know? At least 19 ships were sunk by enemy torpedoes, shells or mines off the NSW coast 1942-1944. According to the Australian Government ''Historic Shipwrecks Program'', "a further 10 were damaged but managed to limp into port for repairs  and approximately 150 crew were killed in these attacks and the wreck sites today can form war graves." Another whale seat: Several years ago Sam Bright of Tanja stumbled upon this humpback whale skull (below) on a remote stretch of Mimosa National Park near Tathra. "The part of the skull left by the hinge of the lower jaw made for a perfect double seat," reports Bright. However unlike its Long Beach counterpart, this seat has no connection with any accidental bombings. "This poor fella probably just died of natural causes," Bright said. Degree of difficulty: Medium Congratulations to Ian McKenzie of Fisher who was the first reader to correctly identify last week's photo (above), as a sign in Fairbairn Pines near the Air Disaster Memorial. McKenzie just beat perennial runner-up Rob Parnell and David Nott to the prize. Meanwhile, Steven Johnson of Jerrabomberra recognised both the location and the clue which referred to "the ghost of a nurse who is said to appear if you stop your car on the grate of a nearby road." According to Johnson, "she rushes the car and does anything she can to get in to "save" the driver and passenger." "Local legend states she was a first responder at the air crash in 1940 which killed 10 people." How to enter: Email your guess along with your name and address to timtheyowieman@bigpond.com. The first email sent after 10am, Saturday February 24 will win a double pass to Dendy.

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Construction is now under way on a new nurse walk-in centre in Gungahlin - but not everyone is happy about it. It is the third nurse-led centre in Canberra - a model not seen outside the ACT in Australia - offering free one-off treatment from a nurse for people with minor illness and injury. While popular with the public, the centres have been slammed as a waste of money and with no documented public health benefits by doctors and the opposition. Minister for Health Meegan Fitzharris said the centre would be popular in the growing Gungahalin community. "The new Gungahlin Walk-in Centre will be co-located with the existing Gungahlin Community Health Centre on Ernest Cavanagh Street. It will provide the community with access to high quality, extended hours health care services closer to where they live," she said. "The ACT government is investing $2.9 million to build the new walk-in centre, which is due to open in the third quarter of 2018 with a team of highly skilled Advanced Practice Nurses." Australian Nursing & Midwifery Federation ACT branch secretary Matthew Daniel welcomed the new centre. "The ANMF ACT Branch welcomes the development of a new Walk-in Centre at Gunghahlin that will provide access to free health services to people in Canberra's north," he said. "Our highly skilled ACT Nurses are well placed to provide these services, including wound care, treating minor skin conditions and upper respiratory tract infections." The Gungahlin Walk-in Centre will feature four treatment rooms, a high-ceiling corridor to let natural light into the building and easy access from the public car park. Designs for the centre are complete and approved, and are based on the successful design of the Belconnen Walk-in Centre, which has been operating since July 2014. "Our walk-in centres in Belconnen and Tuggeranong are incredibly popular and see more than 36,000 patient presentations every year," Ms Fitzharris said. "Canberra is a city of people who have busy lives and need after-hours options. Walk-in Centres provide an alternative to other public health services and complement the other services on offer. "Walk-in Centre nurses can provide referrals and updates back to a patient's GP to enable them to continue providing treatment and advice for these patients' ongoing health needs." But groups like the AMA and the The Royal Australian College of General Practitioners do not support the nurse-led model, instead supporting a model of integrated centres with nurses and doctors. Dr Thinus van Rensburg, of Tillyard Drive Medical Practice, has been a long time critic of the plan, questioning what evidence the government has to show they are effective and viable. He said the centres were inefficient - costing almost $200 a visit - compared to a bulk billed GP visit costing taxpayers just $38, money better spent on addressing things like specialist waiting times. Figures released by the government show it is spending almost $20,000 a day to run the two existing walk in centres Opposition spokeswoman for health Vicki Dunne said while Ms Fitzharris spruiked the centres as free, they came at a hefty cost to the taxpayer. "The reality is, every visit will cost the taxpayer $188, a fact Minister Fitzharris has failed to disclose," she said. "The nurse led walk-in centres operate under a failed financial model, they will undermine the established GP clinics in Gungahlin."

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The ACT will have an independent integrity commission by the end of the year, however it could have limited powers to look at past scandals. The territory government handed down its response to the findings of select committee into the creation of the independent integrity commission on Monday. Chaired by Greens minister Shane Rattenbury, the committee had urged the for the ICAC-type body to cover all public officials and third parties with government contracts, as well as ACT Policing. The government has agreed the proposed commission should have the power to investigate serious allegations by ACT police officers, pending agreement from the federal government. However the government merely noted the recommendation to extend the commission's jurisdiction to third parties, like private companies working on territory government contracts or providing government-funded services. It also said it believed the commission should focus on prospective or current matters with limited ability to review retrospective or previous matters. The government said this was because of the general principle in the ACT where laws don't apply retrospectively if they would disadvantage someone or impede on their rights. However it could also limit a future commission's ability to look into past matters, like the Dickson land swap. Last Thursday, a scathing Auditor-General report found the deal with the union-linked Tradies Club benefited the club to the tune of up to $2.6 million. At the time, Mr Rattenbury said revelations about the deal were "prime candidates" to be referred to the proposed commission. On Monday, Mr Rattenbury said it was unclear how or why the retrospectivity would be limited, but those details would be "thrashed out" in further conversations. "The committee said in its recommendations it should be largely forward focused but still have the ability to look back," Mr Rattenbury said "I think there'll be disagreement there because this new commission doesn't create new offences, it doesn't change the law, it simply creates a mechanism to investigate breaches of the law so I think there's a misunderstanding in what retrospectivity means." ACT Opposition Leader Alistair Coe said any integrity commission had to be "retrospective and given some teeth". "There does need to be a thorough investigation in to this government and their property deals," Mr Coe said. "If they're not given teeth, the scandals will continue." Acting ACT Chief Minister Yvette Berry said the issue of retrospectivity and third parties would be reassessed during the drafting of the legislation. The bill will go back to the select committee for analysis before it is introduced into parliament before the end of 2018. "The ACT government is keen to work with the select committee, the Liberals, and the ACT Greens in coming towards a consensus in when we develop the legislation that will inform the integrity body," Ms Berry said. Asked if Labor would support the referral of the Dickson land swap to an integrity commission, Ms Berry said the matter had been "scrutinised "in forensic detail" by the Auditor-General. "Once the integrity body commences work and considers its own work plan, that could be considered as part of that along with a number of other items," Ms Berry said. The government agreed that the integrity commission will have the power to investigate serious accusations of corruption against ACT public servants, MLAs and their staffers, as well as statutory officeholders, including boards and committees. It was the second major report handed down by government since Chief Minister Andrew Barr left on an official delegation to the United States last Thursday. However Ms Berry denied Mr Barr was avoiding scrutiny over the topics. "He'll be back soon and you can ask him as many questions as you like," Ms Berry said. Acting Chief Minister Yvette Berry has since stated the integrity commission will likely be operational by mid 2019, due to the complexities around including ACT Policing in its jurisdiction and the recruitment of a commissioner.

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YWCA Canberra has called on the ACT government to work with universities in transforming campus culture, as a new report details confronting hazing traditions at one Canberra institution. End Rape on Campus Australia's The Red Zone Report outlined a ritual at the Australian National University-affiliated John XXIII in which second and third-year students would instruct first-years to climb up a tree and sit on branches of different heights. Students would drink straight liquor and cheap wine then urinate and vomit on each other until someone eventually fell from their branch. The remaining students would then circle the "dead possum" to kick, beat and abuse them. The undated hazing tradition was one of several linked to the ANU. An ANU spokesman said: "Many of the incidents referred to in The Red Zone report are events from previous years, and have been dealt with by the university and the respective residence. "Sexist and harassing behaviour has no place at ANU." The Red Zone Report, published Wednesday, followed the release of the Australian Human Rights Commission's survey into sexual assault and sexual harassment among university communities last year. That report found more than 120 Canberra-based students were sexually assaulted and more than 1000 sexually harassed during the preceding two years, with the ANU emerging as one of the nation's worst institutions for sexually violent behaviour. YWCA Canberra executive director Frances Crimmins noted the ACT government had not made any public commitments towards the safety of Canberra students since meeting with vice-chancellors on the issue last year. "Canberra cannot lay claim to being the education capital of Australia if our universities are not safe for students and staff, with the Australian Human Rights Commission finding that 72 per cent of female ANU students and 67 per cent of University of Canberra students experienced sexual harassment in 2016," Ms Crimmins said. "YWCA Canberra calls on the ACT government to play an active role in making Canberra safer for women, by working with ACT-based universities to end endemic sexual assault and harassment on campus through evidence based primary prevention strategies." The ACT government was contacted for comment Tuesday afternoon. Meanwhile, Canberra Rape Crisis Centre chief executive Chrystina Stanford gave the ANU full marks for being proactive during this year's O Week. "We meet with all layers of the ANU structure regularly and I think they have worked really hard to try and improve the university's level of safety," she said. But Ms Stanford noted the University of Canberra had not been in contact with the Canberra Rape Crisis Centre, "which is really disappointing". A University of Canberra spokeswoman pointed to a suite of initiatives in place at the Belconnen institution, including a healthy relationships program for people in student accommodation, relevant training for students and staff, upgraded security and the introduction of the Consent Matters module. There was also a range of relevant support services and the opportunity for referral to external supports, she said. "We have a strong culture of tolerance, inclusion and respect, and through training and education, we are promoting social change to prevent inappropriate behaviour in our institution," the spokeswoman said. Ms Stanford echoed YWCA Canberra's call for the government to be more engaged in responding to reports of sexual assault and harassment in university communities. "I know the universities meet with ministers regularly, so it would be great to have government work with us and support the fact that young people bring so much to the ACT," she said.

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Despite intensive lobbying by the business sector, the government still faces major obstacles to cutting the large company tax rate to 25 per cent. Large corporations such as Rio Tinto warn leaving the company tax rate at 30 per cent would inevitably lead to moving more of their operations overseas where lower tax rates apply, such as the new rate of 21 per cent in the United States. While more attention is paid to the potential benefits of making Australia a more attractive investment destination, the impact of a lower company tax rate on the Australian share market is also an important issue. Our market received a substantial boost in 1987 when then-Treasurer Paul Keating introduced the imputation credit system of company tax. By granting resident investors a full credit for all company tax paid on dividends received by them, imputation effectively reduced the company tax rate (which was as high as 49 per cent at one stage) to zero but only for residents and only when profits were distributed. Prior to 1987, shareholders paid full personal income tax rates on dividends paid out of profits that had already been subject to company tax. This tax change boosted residents' demand for shares and encouraged companies to increase dividend payouts, adding to the attractions of owning listed shares. Imputation credits are now less valuable at the current 30 per cent tax rate and their value would fall further if the company tax were reduced to 25 per cent. But even at a 25 per cent tax rate, imputation credits would substantially improve the returns for low rate taxpayers. Superannuation and pension funds would continue to receive tax advantages from owning dividend-paying shares. Personal taxpayers, however would, because of their higher marginal tax rates, face additional tax bills on franked dividends they receive. Unless lowering company tax rates boosted company profits before tax is payable, owning shares paying franked dividends would be less attractive to individual shareholders. Lowering the company tax rate would, however, benefit overseas investors not eligible for imputation credits because of the lift to after-tax profits because of lower tax bills. Overall, a lower company tax rate may not be good news for existing resident shareholders unless it lifts company pre-tax profits. There is, however, one bonus for existing shareholders resulting from speculation about a lower company tax rate. Because a lower tax rate will reduce the value of imputation credits, companies are encouraged to distribute existing franking credits as soon as possible to maximise the benefits to resident shareholders. This is the reason many Australian companies pay out (and are likely to continue to do so) a high percentage of their profits as franked dividends. Daryl Dixon is the executive chairman of Dixon Advisory. comments@dixon.com.au

/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/silverstone-ct-migration/db0a93a8-1a09-466c-902a-08c2d17052be/r0_382_4032_2660_w1200_h678_fmax.jpgAt first blush, when I started thinking about all that was planned to honor Billy Graham in his death, I became a little hesitant in thinking about his humility.

This was a man who always portrayed humility whenever in the public eye, but now, what is this public spectacle all about? There will be motorcades, lying in repose for two days at home as thousands of people walk by to reverently look upon his closed casket, and then hearing that he will now be lying in honor for two days at the Capital Rotunda in Washington, D.C., as again throngs of people will walk by to honor him. Sure sounds like, hey, look at me. It just didnt square with me and what I thought I knew about the man.

But thats not what it is at all.

Billy Graham on the topic of death in a 1992 interview with ABCs Diane Sawyer said: I dont want them to say big things about me because I dont deserve them. I want to hear one person say something nice about me, and thats the Lord. Yes, his humility is still intact.

I suddenly realized that these very public displays and events were very likely planned by Billy Graham himself as his parting shot to the world. This is his last chance to make an impact. He is still working from his coffin. Im not done preaching. Im even going to let you lay my dead body out for a while if it produces an opportunity for somebody else to hear the wonderful news of our salvation through Christ.

Billy Graham always used every opportunity to speak about giving our lives to Christ, and this event in his life is no different.

And how did he see his death and subsequent public mourning as being a fruitful event and exercise toward his lifes pursuit of bringing souls to the cross? If any of you watched the news the day he died, you likely saw coverage from all forms of media: TV, newspapers, social media, etc. It was hard to miss.

And with all those reports of his demise, each took a minute to display who this man was, and what his lifes mission was. Video clips were played all day of him preaching the gospel on national and all other types of TV news programs. Audio clips of the same messages were on radio stations. A surge of hits for his sermons on Youtube and other similar sites occurred. Nearly viral postings of his death and who he was flooded social media sites. And all this was just day one!

How many people in just that one day heard this grand old preacher tell them to repent and give their lives to Christ? Now add in the next 10 days or so while all these events take place, which likely will be televised nationally and reported on and posted socially. They will have their own major impact and influence.

Billy Grahams largest crusade in history was May 30 to June 3, 1973. An estimated 3.2 million people attended the Billy Graham Crusade in Seoul, South Korea, with 1.1 million traveling  mostly by foot  to the final service on the airstrip at Yoi-do Plaza. Some 75,000 inquirers made a decision for Christ during that Crusade.

I would estimate that 10 times as many people will hear the unrelenting message of salvation from Billy Graham in some fashion during this death and burial event than did in that entire crusade in Seoul. Just think of the impact!

How many souls will be surrendered to Jesus during the next 10 days? And what of after that? How much more will be set on the path to search out Christ? How many will share what they have now found? A friend of mine told me just today that The fruit is just incalculable when you consider how it was(will be) multiplied.

Billy Graham always achieved an enormous amount of mileage from his preaching in the long-term effects of his crusades. This will be no different. This truly will be his biggest and most productive crusade of all time. His parting words: Farewell, and Seek Christ!Genocide Survivor to Speak in Canon City

Immaculee Ilibagiza, New York Times best-selling author of Left to Tell: Discovering God Amidst the Rwandan Holocaust, will soon be in Canon City to share her amazing story. She survived 91 days in a 3-ft x 4-ft bathroom with seven other women. She faced starvation, embraced silence for fear of being discovered, and endured the cries of friends and family as they were being slaughtered.

In 1994, the Rwandan government unleashed a holocaust of unimaginable evil on an ethnic minority group known as the Tutsis. At that time and in that place, to be Tutsi was a death sentence. In less than 100 days, almost three-quarters of the Tutsi population of Rwanda  nearly one million innocent men, women, and children  were mercilessly tortured, raped, and butchered in what has become known as one of the most vicious attempts of ethnic cleansing in human history. Immaculees own family, along with most of her friends and neighbors were killed. Only she and her brother, who was out of the country at the time, survived.

Immaculee will be sharing a message of Christian hope, forgiveness, and faith. Her gentle yet compelling witness demonstrates the healing capacity of forgiveness and the amazing power of prayer. Last year, during a packed event, St. Michaels Catholic Church was honored to host Immaculee as a guest speaker. Due to her impact on individual lives and her popularity, the community is once again excited to welcome Immaculee back into our lives. Her story is always at the heart of her message. Although she is returning, Immaculees presentation will incorporate themes different from last year. Those who attended in 2017 will still experience something powerfully new. Those attending for the first time are in for a life-changing event.

If youre looking for hope, healing, inspiration, and enlightenment, mark your calendar for March 2 and 3. Due to limited seating, early registration is recommended to save your place. Admission to the two-day event is $57 per person or $76 for two  profits go to Immaculees charitable endeavors. For inquiry or to register, please call Stephanie at (719) 275-7549. You may also register online at https://www.Immaculee .com/collections/retreats.

Municipal Building & Museum Celebrating 90 Years

It seems like only yesterday, the Canon City Municipal Building first opened its doors to the public on March 1, 1928. Hold On! What? That was 90 years ago!

The Old Municipal Building and the History Museum (formerly called the City Municipal Museum) will be celebrating its 90th birthday Thursday with an Open House and Behind the Scenes tour of this local relic.

Exactly 90 years ago to the day, the city opened this building with great fanfare and we hope to commemorate that historic occasion with a birthday cake. The 90th Birthday Open House and Behind the Scenes Tour will be from 6-8 p.m. Just like all those years ago it will be free and open for everyone to enjoy.

During the Open House, the Friends of the Museum will auction off a signed copy of Larry Wards out of print book, Canon City, Colorado: Every Picture Tells A Story in a silent auction. All proceeds from the auction will go to the Friends of the Museum to help with educational programs and protecting historical artifacts.

For more information, visit the Royal Gorge Regional Museum & History Center or call 719-269-9036. The hours of the museum and history center are Wednesday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Daily Record StaffCanon City Workforce Center Job Fair 2018

The Colorado Workforce Centers Job Fair 2018 will be from 9 a.m. to noon March 30 at Pueblo Community College-Fremont Campus, 51320 W. U.S. 50. The aim of the community Job Fair is to bring together qualified applicants and employers who have job openings or will be hiring in the near future. The 2017 Job Fair featured 54 employers and was attended by approximately 300 job seekers.

Employers: Find qualified applicants under one roof; if you have job openings or plan to hire in the near future, reserve your free table by calling the Colorado Workforce Center at 719-275-7408 or emailing canoncity@state.co.us. Please RSVP by March 20.

Job  Seekers: Meet employers and explore job opportunities. Get pre-fair applications at the Canon City Workforce Center, 3224 Independence Road. To expedite sign in, come into the Workforce Center to pick up a key tag before the Job Fair.

Fremont County Democratic Party Announces Dates and Locations for Caucuses and Assemblies

Fremont County Democratic precinct caucuses will be held March 6 at Washington School, located at Ninth Street and College Avenue. West end precincts Nos. 22, 23 and 24 will be held at the Cotopaxi School in the cafeteria in Cotopaxi.

All caucuses are open for registration at 6 p.m. and will begin promptly at 7 p.m. All participants must be present or in line for entry by 7 p.m.

To take part in the Democratic caucuses please visit https://www.coloradodems.org/caucus-locations/ to find the precinct in which you are registered and to determine the caucus location.

We need every eligible voter in our state and our country to be involved, said David Higginbotham, Fremont County Democratic Party Chair. With so much at stake this year, we need everyone who believes in government for the people, not the special interests and the well-connected, to join us for the Democratic caucuses, county and state assemblies this year.

To vote in a precinct caucus, a voter had to be registered with the political party of choice by Jan. 8, and must have resided within the precinct since Feb. 5, unless turning 18 or becoming a naturalized citizen before the caucus of March 6.

Fremont County Assembly will be held March 20 at Washington School. Registration will begin at 5 p.m., with the meeting scheduled for 6 p.m. The Democratic State Assembly will be held April 14 at the 1st Bank Center in Broomfield.

Call for Artists

The entry deadline for the Spring Alive Mixed Media Art Show at the Bell Tower in Florence is April 4. The show runs April 6-May 15. Poppies popping a brilliant red, birds returning to build their nests, the greening of earthSpring Alive is a show for artists to celebrate all that Spring brings to our lives. Visit www.florenceartscouncil.com for details.

Save the date and register to attend Connecting Paradigms with Matt Bennett

Starpoint Early Head Start invites the community to Connecting Paradigms with Matt Bennett, MBA, MA, of Bennett Innovation Group, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. March 15 at Vineyard Church, 245 S. Raynolds. Bennett specializes in the delivery of trauma-informed care, quality improvement, results-based leadership and motivational interviewing. He has successfully combined his academic pursuits as a researcher, blogger and published author with his practical experience in leading nonprofit organizations and educational institutions to develop research-based solutions to improve the health of individuals, organizations and systems. Cost is $10 per participant. Register at eventbrite.com and search Matt Bennett. The Vineyard has an espresso cafe open 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. with espresso drinks and smoothies available to purchase. Complimentary coffee, water and light snacks will be available. Call 719- 275-0550 with questions.

Daily Record StaffAn effort to block Colorados homeowners associations from banning dogs based on their size or breed died Monday in the Democratic-controlled House.

House Bill 1126 went down on a 34-29 tally.

My bill to keep bigger #dogs w/their families so they can live in HOAs failed today but it was well worth it advocating for our canine friends & their humans. Thanks @HumaneSociety @bestfriends for your advocacy for it! #coleg #colopolitics @colo_politics @KDVR @9NEWS @denverpost pic.twitter.com/jVMupuqv3Q  Paul Rosenthal (@Rosenthal5280) February 26, 2018

https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.jsThe measure was backed by Rep. Paul Rosenthal, a Denver Democrat, who ran into a problem several years ago when he had to watch his brothers canine, a Samoyed and golden retriever mix. The legislation would not have affected HOA rules on barking, dog waste or the number of dogs allowed in a home.

HOA groups pushed back against the bill, saying it infringed on homeowners rights.The FBI confirmed on Friday that it is investigating whether a Montrose funeral home paid by grieving families to cremate the remains of their loved ones instead returned to the families cement mix or another foreign substance.

Federal agents raided Sunset Mesa Funeral Directors earlier this month but no charges or formal allegations against the business have been filed.

On Friday, the FBI released a statement asking families who believe they were conned by Sunset Mesa to fill out a questionnaire. The bureau asked people to send an email to sunsetmesa@fbi.gov to receive a link to the questionnaire.

The FBI said it will conduct follow-up interviews with people, that it believes may have information relevant to this investigation. Investigators said they will also test a select set of cremains to determine whether they are human or something else. If the remains are human, the tests will not be able to determine whether they belonged to a particular person, though.

Because the FBI expects to receive more requests for tests than it can perform, the bureau said it is also working with Colorado Mesa University on a separate testing system for the public.

There is a large amount of information to process and the investigation could take some time, the FBI said in the statement.

Sunset Mesa was unique in the nation in that it also hosted a related business, in the same building, that took donated human bodies and sold them to medical research or educational institutions. An investigation by the Reuters news agency, though, raised questions about the two businesses practices, including an allegation from a former employee that gold teeth were removed from one cadaver and used to pay for a family vacation to Disneyland.

State regulators suspended the funeral homes license this month after investigating an incident where Sunset Mesa allegedly provided a family with purported cremains that later tests determined were actually cement. When regulators searched Sunset Mesa on the same day as the FBI raid, they saw bags of cement mix, according to the suspension order.Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper said other gun-control measures should be taken before there is talk of arming teachers as a response to school shootings like the one earlier this month in south Florida.

I think weve got to look at everything on the able, but certainly raising the age where people  where kids  can buy automatic weapons, looking at universal background checks  some of this basic blocking and tackling makes a lot more sense, of really getting that in place, before you start talking about trying to arm people who really in many cases arent cut out for it, the Democrat said in an interview Tuesday morning on National Public Radio. This is not something theyd be good at.

The sale of new automatic weapons in the U.S. has been banned for decades, though there have been recent calls to raised the minimum age to buy semi-automatic, assault-style rifles like the AR-15.

Hickenlooper spoke on the networks Morning Edition program after he and other governors met with President Donald Trump to discuss firearms and school safety.

He certainly spoke a lot about things hed like to see happen, Hickenlooper recounted. He wanted to see a lot more teachers armed. He was very emphatic that he wanted to make sure they were appropriately trained and had the requisite skills. Im not sure he had worked all the way through a coherent, integrated approach

The governor said, however, that when he speaks with educators literally almost no teacher wants to be carrying a weapon.

He did, however, leave open the idea of more gun regulation. Do we need to more? he asked. Of course. I think there is still more to be done.

Last week, Democratic state lawmakers rejected three GOP bills that would have rolled back gun regulations in Colorado.

Democrats at the state legislature have yet to introduce any new, major gun-control bills since this years session began. There is an effort to ban so-called bump stocks  like the ones used by the gunman in Las Vegas mass shooting at a concert last year  but Republicans have voiced disagreement with the measure.For the first time in more than a century, the Colorado General Assembly will vote on whether to expel a lawmaker, a move that comes after five women made 11 credible accusations of sexual harassment against embattled Democratic state Rep. Steve Lebsock.

The Democratic-led House announced Tuesday it would take a vote Friday on a resolution to oust Lebsock, action that requires support from at least two-thirds of the chambers members  or 44 of the 65 lawmakers.

If successful, Lebsock would be the second state legislator in the nation to be expelled since the rise of the #MeToo movement. Arizona ejected a lawmaker earlier this month.

The stunning announcement marked the latest development in a sexual harassment scandal gripping the Colorado Capitol, where at least five state lawmakers have faced formal complaints of sexual harassment in recent months.

The move to expel Lebsock, which represents the most serious action taken against any Colorado legislator accused of misconduct, stands in stark contrast to how complaints have been handled in the GOP-controlled Senate.

Lebsock, a Democratic candidate for state treasurer, remained defiant and declared that he would fight the expulsion resolution.

Im not guilty. Ive done nothing wrong. I have never sexually harassed anyone, the three-term Thornton lawmaker told reporters.

Under the Colorado Constitution, each chamber can vote to remove any member from office for bad behavior, but expulsion has happened only once  the 1915 removal of Rep. William Howland in the wake of a bribery investigation.

House Majority Leader KC Becker, D-Boulder, who says the legislature hasnt considered a resolution for expulsion of a member since then, released the investigations findings to the full House on Tuesday in a tense, hastily called session in that included extra security from two armed state law enforcement officers.

The outside investigator, Employers Council, determined that the allegations against Lebsock were more likely than not to be true. Democratic leaders announced the expulsion vote before Lebsock had seen the final report and before the resolution was finished.

One claim involved an encounter with Rep. Faith Winter, D-Westminster, in which she alleges Lebsock discussed sexual acts and tried to grab her by the elbow and get her to leave a bar with him. A former legislative staffer and lobbyist each filed separate publicized complaints against Lebsock for inappropriate behavior, and two other women made private complaints, which came to light Tuesday.

Becker said she determined the allegations were both serious and egregious in nature, which prompted her to seek Lebsocks expulsion.

His behavior demonstrated a pattern of behavior that not only violates the (workplace harassment) policy, but puts the integrity of this body at risk, Becker told reporters. It is our responsibility to hold our members to higher ethical standards than what I think Rep. Lebsock was demonstrating.

Lebsock suggested the move to expel him is part of a political vendetta, one designed to protect Winter, who is seeking a key state Senate seat that Democrats need to win to secure the chamber majority in November.

Lebsock called the investigation biased and unprofessional, citing numerous instances that led him to believe it was prejudiced against him. And he suggested his accusers were lying, noting that two of the women who accused him changed elements of their stories.

Winter defended the investigation and dismissed the idea that its a he-said/she-said situation. She said the vote to expel Lebsock would send a message to sexual harassment victims. If we dont move forward with his expulsion, she said, we are sending a very dangerous message (that lawmakers are) held above accountability and reproach.

Complaints in Senate

In the Senate, Republican leaders made similar objections about the outside investigations into two state senators facing allegations of misconduct and took a different approach to resolving the complaints.

Senate President Kevin Grantham, R-Canon City, dismissed a substantiated complaint against Sen. Randy Baumgardner, R-Hot Sulphur Springs, citing biases with the investigation.

Baumgardner voluntarily stepped down from one of his three leadership posts earlier this month. Democrats demanded tougher consequences, criticizing Granthams response and called for Baumgardners expulsion in a resolution.

Republicans have refused to introduce the resolution so far, and Grantham said he wont allow Democrats to turn the Senate into a kangaroo court for political purposes.

No formal action has been reported against Sen. Jack Tate, of Centennial, after a report last week that investigators found incidents that a legislative intern reported as misconduct more likely than not happened.

Will there be the votes?

In order to expel Lebsock, at least eight Republicans in the House will need to be on board with the resolution to oust him.

Becker acknowledged she does not know whether she has the votes to expel Lebsock but will allow them to view redacted versions of the investigatory report.

Becker declined to make the documents public on the grounds that she is barred from doing so, but Winter said she would make portions available ahead of the vote.

House Republican leader Patrick Neville, of Castle Rock, said he read the full investigation against Lebsock and it only generated more questions in his mind about the facts of the case. He remains undecided on whether to support Lebsocks expulsion.

I dont think it answered anything for me. If anything, it made me question the process and the investigation, he said in an interview.

Neville said lawmakers considering a vote to expel also need to keep their constituents intent in mind.

The constituents in Rep. Lebsocks district are his bosses, they put him there, like it or not, he said. But, then again, they didnt have this information when they voted in 2016 either. So lots of things to consider at this point.

But Becker said lawmakers needed to respond more urgently.

We, as a General Assembly, have the responsibility to police our own, to hold our own members to a high level of accountability, she said. And thats what were doing with this process.FLORENCE  For some Fremont Elementary School students, walking to class can mean crossing a busy highway with their backs turned to traffic.

Once they make it across Colo. 115, they cross a deteriorating sidewalk to get to another walkway that isnt paved at all.

But with a state grant secured by the City of Florence, officials are seeking to make that trip to school safer.

City officials learned this month they will receive a $95,830 grant from the Colorado Department of Transportations Safe Routes to School program. With a contribution from the Florence-Penrose School District, the city will provide $23,957 to make up a 20 percent cash match to move the crosswalks on Colo. 115, pave sidewalks near the school and create safer crossings overall.

We have a city building and an elementary school, and theres no sidewalk approaches anywhere, almost no sidewalks at all on the main approaches to get there, said Wade Broadhead, the city planning director. So, the main problem was worrying about kids safety.

The project likely will be completed by the end of next year.

For Broadhead, the project has been nearly four years in the making. He said the city has made an attempt to get the grant many times before without any luck.

This time around, though, he said the process has included strong partnerships with the Florence-Penrose School District, which plans to contribute $5,000 to the effort, and Holcim, which is donating $7,800 worth of concrete for paving.

As part of the project, the city plans to relocate the crosswalk at Colo. 115 and Washington Avenue, install sidewalks on both sides of Washington, create new ADA ramps and truncated domes surrounding the school campus and improve the crosswalk at Colo. 115 and Church Avenue.

The crosswalk between Fifth Street and Washington Avenue  the path between FES and the schools detached cafeteria building  also is included in the project. Now, the district shuts down part of Fifth Street during school hours to allow children to cross safely.

In a letter of support for the project, FES Principal Jan Draper wrote that 40 percent of the schools 460 students live within a one-mile radius of the school. Because they live so close, they dont qualify for district busing services.

Crosswalks and sidewalks would create a more safe and pleasurable walk to bike to school for this large number of our students, she wrote.

In addition to the new infrastructure, officials plan to implement educational programs in the school to encourage students to walk and bike to school.

They dont want you just to build these things and nobody use it, Broadhead said. You have to have education. So, Bicycle Colorado in Denver has been helping us.

He also credited JVA Consulting Engineers for helping the city make the plan.

Sara Knuth: 719-276-7644, knuths@canoncitydailyrecord.comFlorence Chamber of Commerce honorees Merchant of the Year: Heartland Enterprises Florence-Penrose School District Classified Employee of the Year: Florence Elementary School Head Custodian Ted Lewis Florence-Penrose School District Teacher of the Year: Florence High School teacher Darin Serfoss City Employees of the Year: Frank Orton and Richard Brown Florence Elks Appreciation Award: Big D Superfoods Nonprofit of the Year: Florence Pioneer Museum Business of the Year: Papas Restaurant Citizen of the Year: Florence City Councilman Richard Upton

FLORENCE  Tom Bruno had to be pulled out of the kitchen Saturday to learn his company, Papas Restaurant, won Business of the Year during the Florence Chamber of Commerces annual banquet.

The nights caterer, Bruno walked out to the crowded room, exclaiming Hey! as everyone got on their feet for a standing ovation.

When he headed back into the kitchen after accepting the award, just a few seconds passed before he was met with a round of cheers from staff and school-age volunteers working in the back.

That was just one of the moments on display during the banquet, hosted at the Florence Elks Lodge. There, a crowded hall of Florence community members gathered to recognize businesses, educators, city workers, nonprofits and more for their 2017 achievements.

Papas Restaurant was opened in 2016 by Bruno and his wife, Elsa Bruno.

Among the nights other honorees was Florence City Councilman Richard Upton, who was selected as the 2017 Citizen of the Year. He was recognized for his vast community involvement.

He has been involved in so many things, said Mollie Vendetti of the Chamber of Commerce. Hes responsible for the Tour De Coal Town Bike Race, the Main Street art show. He has been involved in the Pioneer Museum for years. Ive learned to like and respect this man  hes a true gentleman.

Upton said he moved to Florence with his wife nearly 13 years ago after visiting the town and meeting several people from the area.

We just thought, This is just what were looking for  great town, great people, friendly,' he said. Its just been a tremendous amount of fun to be involved in the community.

Since then, Upton has become a Florence city councilor, been involved with the Pioneer Museum for nearly a decade, worked as the Florence representative for the Gold Belt Byway, organized the Florence Car Show and organized the Tour De Coal Town bike event through Rockvale, Williamsburg and Coal Creek.

Its the community that makes it so great, he said.

Throughout the night, the chamber also honored the Merchant of the Year, Heartland Enterprises, which is owned by Elsie Ore and her husband, Florence Mayor Keith Ore. As part of the company, the couple owns Heartland Classic, Heartland Boutique and Heartland Antiques and Gifts.

Educators also were recognized during the banquet for their work in the Florence-Penrose School District. Ted Lewis, the head custodian of Fremont Elementary School, was named Classified Employee of the Year. Florence High School teacher Darin Serfoss was recognized as the Teacher of the Year.

Additionally, two Florence Public Works Department employees, Frank Orton and Richard Brown, were selected as the City Employees of the Year.

The Nonprofit of the Year was the Florence Pioneer Museum.

The nights host had a chance to honor a guest, as well, with the Florence Elks Appreciation Award, which went to Big D Superfoods.

In addition to awards, the chamber hosted both live and silent auctions. It also received donations as part of the night, which serves as the groups main fundraiser. One donor, who wished to remain anonymous, gave the chamber $2,000.

Looking toward the rest of 2018, the group is working with a new board. Members are Tom Bruno, Brian Allen, Michelle Hosler, Donny Hakes and Susie Jordan. Board directors are Chamber President Mike Vendetti, Vice President Wayne Jennings, Secretary Janna Hagen and Treasurer Barna Kasa.

Sara Knuth: 719-276-7644, knuths@canoncitydailyrecord.comTo the editor:

Gov. Scott is calling for the FBI directors resignation in the aftermath of the Parkland massacre because the FBI allowed a complaint about the shooter to fall through the cracks. Scott had better take a long look in the mirror and then resign himself, along with his merry band of NRA sellouts. Scott has an A+ rating from the NRA, and he is praised by the NRA for having signed more pro-gun bills into law  in one term  than any other governor in Florida history(shareblue.com 2/17/18). State reps Robert Rommel and Byron Donalds and state senator Passidomo receive 93 percent grades from NRA. Marco Rubio 100 percent, Francis Rooney 86 percent, Diaz-Balart 93 percent (all grades from votesmart.org).

This legislative session, the Florida legislature is considering a number of bills that will further weaken gun regulations in a state that is already notorious for its lax gun regulations, this while an assault weapon ban bill languishes. Mental illness reporting in Florida is a joke. Although Nikolas Cruz had been treated for mental illness, this state does not require that private treatment be reported. The ease of obtaining an assault weapon in this state is a joke. Even if there had been a record of mental illness, if a mentally ill person or an underage person privately bought a gun, it would not be reported (2/17/18 Naples Daily News).

We can do something about this. First, for the sake of our children, urge your state senator and representative to pass the assault weapon ban bill, SB 196 in the Senate, HB 219 in the House. Go to FLSenate.gov and MyFloridaHouse.gov and enter your address for your lawmaker contact information.

Second, make your feelings heard at the ballot box.

Banning weapons of mass destruction is not the entire answer, but it is a very big start in protecting our children and ourselves.

Mary Wilson

NaplesIn the wake of a custodial abduction at Oasis Elementary School, the Cape Coral Charter School Authority is re-examining its policies and procedures.

Juliet Odierna, 8, was removed from school Thursday by her stepfather Theodore Moschovas, who police say showed up at Oasis Elementary with lunch, falsely identified himself as the girls father, and then signed out of school under the false ID.

Following an Amber Alert, Juliet was found unharmed early the next morning in Eufaula, Ala., with Moschovas and her mother, Jennifer Moschovas. Jennifer has court-ordered supervised visitation only.

Theodore Moschovas has been charged with interference with custody, a 3rd degree felony, after he intentionally and deliberately, without lawful authority, interfered with the custody of Juliet Odierna by taking her out of school and posing as her biological father.

Pending additional investigation, an arrest warrant was issued for Jennifer Moschovas, who also has been charged with interference with custody.

It is believed that Theodore Moschovas was able to get in through the self check-in kiosk in the main office by signing in as the father with his information.

The abduction was discovered when Robert Odierna , who has full custody, arrived to pick up Juliet, only to learn that his daughter had already been picked up.

Charter Schools Superintendent Jacqueline Collins immediately addressed the sign-in procedures, requiring everyone have an ID when they come in, with no more self check-in. In addition, parental lunches with their children have been suspended at the charter schools.

The school system called a special meeting for Monday to address the matter but cancelled that session until any new procedures are vetted by police.

We are working closely with our police department, city manager, governing board and city officials in order to prevent what happened last Thursday from happening again. Once solutions have been determined, we will make further public comment, said Robert Zivkovic, chairman of the Cape Coral Charter School board, in a statement to parents.

In the meantime, security measures are being addressed.

We need to find out what additional security we need, is it appropriate, is there anything were missing? said City Councilmember and charter school liaison Jennifer Nelson. We need to talk with our security experts, which is law enforcement.

City Councilmember Rick Williams took a similar view.

Im glad it ended with nobody hurt, but there is an issue with security. Theyve tightened things up, but they have to do more, they all do, Williams said. Its new world, so we have to dig in.

Williams said he was surprised there wasnt an extra step involved in self check-in, such as a PIN number.

That the man who came in didnt have a PIN number is strange. All they have to do is look up a students name, check the list of whos allowed and get the pass. If they had PINs, that would have solved the problem. I cant believe they had it so loose, Williams said, adding the schools should hire a security consultant.

Nelson said she believes self check-in was created as a way to expedite the process for parent volunteers who are required to put in hours with the schools, but the system also has the same identification-required policy all Lee County schools use. That method will be used at all times now, officials said.

Nelson said some of the ways the schools within the citys four-school charter system can be better secured is through improved fencing around the schools and limiting entrance and exit to the main office.

I hope we can get some funding to properly fence the schools like Lee County schools. At the charter schools theres an open breezeway and anybody can get in or out, Nelson said. We need a similar system and restrictions.

Charter schools have resource officers from the Cape Coral Police Department, while district schools use deputies from the Sheriffs Office. They are not in front of the building, checking people in, but patrolling the schools.

Zivkovic said there will be a meeting at some point to explain to parents what they plan to do and get input on further measures they can take.

He added that domestic disputes can be problematic, especially when they spill over into the school system.

When a domestic dispute hits campus it becomes our problem, that makes it difficult to plan for everything. But well do the best we can, Zivkovic said

Zivkovic added the security measures in place are like every other school throughout Lee County meaning there is no free access. The challenge is providing a balance between parental access to their children and making school like a prison.

Teachers and staff have badges that open the side doors. Other than that, parents come through the office. The self check-in is only for those parents who have been vetted, Zivkovic said. The only thing we didnt do was require the drivers licenses. We need to upgrade ours with PINs or retina scans, whatever is the best way to do it.For Cape Coral residents, it was an opportunity to learn about the citys official bird, and a lot of other animals as well.

Thousands of people turned out at Rotary Park on Saturday as the Friends of Cape Coral Wildlife hosted the 16th annual Burrowing Owl Festival, which celebrates the threatened species the group has taken a heightened level of concern with.

Pascha Donaldson, president of Friends of Cape Coral Wildlife, said the event celebrates the start of nesting season for the owls, which goes from February to July.

The first time we did this there were about 300 people. Now we expect 3,000. We have more people here, were better organized, have a better venue, more activities, so every year it grows, Donaldson said. We invite people from 2 to 82 to learn about our environment.

Although the event officially started at 10 a.m., there was a lot to do even hours before the start.

There was a photographers bus tour as early as 7:30 p.m.. There was also a wildlife art contest featuring some of the top work from kids of all ages, and Paige the Eagle of Maitland Audubon appeared as a symbol to our country during the National Anthem.

People got to see the Florida butterflies, take a bus tour of owl burrows, which were available all day, and learn about southwest Florida reptiles and amphibians.

Numerous vendors were there, from animal rescues to groups devoted to certain animals, to artists whose theme was owls and other species.

Nick Vidakovic made burrowing owls made of wood for the occasion and was even creating more artwork out of high-quality plywood.

I made the burrowing owls just for this occasion. I go to shows like this and make about one panel a week. They can go from $15 to $1,500, Vidakovic said. The owls are $25.

The kids made artwork as well. Olga Dundas son, Alexander, 10, who attends Christa McAuliffe Elementary School, drew an award-winning burrowing owl carrying a coffee mug that read I Love Bugs and Rodents.

Its supposed to be a joke. Owls are nocturnal, and it looks like this one didnt get enough sleep, he said.

Cherie and Danny Shell came from the Carolinas and said they were enamored by the owls.

We see them all over the roadways and we catch them in the morning, Cherie said. Were really enjoying this.

Its cool because we talk to friends about it who dont live here and they say they have never heard of them, Danny said. We sent them pictures and theyre like Really?'

Among those who came was Mayor Joe Coviello, who has seen the growth of the festival from the close proximity of his home and appreciates the work for those who protects animals.

Friends of Wildlife is a great group supporting the wildlife features of the city, and the Burrowing Owl is one of the top amenities the city has, Coviello said. Development needs to be done, but we need to realize the impact it has on wildlife.The recent failure of efforts to establish a National Historic Register District in the Stage Harbor Road area in Chatham and talk about establishing a historic district in Orleans raised questions about the benefits of historic districts, exactly what they protect and how to go about establishing one.

There are dozens of historic districts Cape-wide. There are two main types of historic district: National Register Districts, established under the National Register of Historic Places, a federal designation administered by the National Park Service; and local historic districts, are administered at the local level and established through a process set down Chapter 40C of the Massachusetts General Laws.

Many of the towns have one of each, if not more, said Sarah Korjeff, historic preservation specialist with the Cape Cod Commission.

There's also a third type of historic district which is established through a separate act of the legislature, a short of niche district. The Chatham Historic Business District is an example, as is the Old King's Highway Historic District that runs along Route 6A from Sandwich to Orleans. Both have a specific purpose  in Chatham's case it was to protect the character of downtown  and were created before Chapter 40C districts were common.

The Old King's Highway district is the only historic district in Orleans. Harwich has a single local historic district in Harwich Center. Chatham has two districts aside from the HBDC  the Old Village National Historic District and the Marconi-RCA Wireless Receiving Station National Historic District.

There are plenty of areas and structures in the three towns, and throughout the Cape, that aren't protected by historic districts. According to the Cape Cod Commission, of the 411 buildings in Chatham that are 100 years old or older, 273 are protected by a historic designation. In Harwich, only 42 of its 317 pre-1917 buildings are protected. Orleans has 317 buildings that are more than 100 years old, and only 59 are protected. The figures apply to buildings that have been inventoried by the Massachusetts Cultural Resources Information System (Chatham recently updated its town-wide inventory). Cape-wide, more than 40 percent of the inventoried structures are not protected.

While local historic commissions have the authority to review demolitions and major changes to historically significant buildings that are 75 years or older, not all have the tools that are available in Chatham and Harwich, chiefly the ability to impose a demolition delay of a year to 18 months. Demolition or substantial changes to the exterior of structures within National Historic Districts are automatically referred to the Cape Cod Commission, which has the authority to prevent the loss of historic buildings.

But a local historic district, such as Harwich's, actually provides greater protection to historic buildings, Korjeff said. Local historic district commissions have the authority to review any exterior changes to a structure that are visible from a public way.

That's the strongest amount of protection you can get for historic properties in Massachusetts, Korjeff said. In Falmouth, a number of special legislation historic districts were transferred to local historic districts because there was greater control, she added.

Chapter 40C's intent was to preserve and protect distinctive characteristics of buildings and places significant to the history of the state and its towns and cities; to maintain and improve the settings of those buildings and places; and to encourage new designs that are compatible with existing buildings in a district.

Historic districts are not intended to freeze a neighborhood or area in time. The intent is to make changes and additions harmonious, and prevent the intrusion of incongruous elements that might detract from the aesthetic and historic value of the district, according to the Massachusetts Historical Commission. Towns can exclude certain elements from review, such as paint color and doors. The purpose of a local historic district, the commission states, is not to halt growth, but to allow for thoughtful consideration of change.

To establish a local historic district, a town must establish a study committee, which develops a report on the historical resources within the district, maps the boundary and determines rules and regulations. After a public hearing, a bylaw establishing the district goes to town meeting for a vote. The first local historic districts were created on Beacon Hill and in Nantucket in 1955. There are more than 200 local historic districts in the state, and a couple dozen on the Cape.

A National Register District provides less protection and requires the assent of property owners within a district, not town meeting. Listing on the National Register requires that a district meet at least one of these criteria: be associated with events that have made a significant contribution to history; be associated with the lives of significant historical figures; embody distinctive characteristics of a type, period or method of construction; or would yield information significant in history or prehistory.

A group of residents or a town agency can nominate a National Register District to the Massachusetts Historical Commission, which determines if an area is eligible. A majority of property owners must be in favor of the designation. If so, a state review board approves a nomination which is sent to the National Park Service.

Benefits of a National Register District include recognition of historical significance, limited protection from federal projects, tax incentives for income-producing properties, and grants for rehabilitation.

Beyond the local historic commission's authority, there's no additional regulatory review of buildings in a National Register District, except, as noted, that full demolitions automatically go before the Cape Cod Commission. If state or federal funds are used or state or federal permits are required to alter a building in a National Register District, the Massachusetts Historical Commission will review the project. We saw that happen with the Mitchell River Drawbridge in Chatham.

The Chatham Historic Commission's recent effort to have the Stage Harbor Road area nominated as a National Historic District shows the pitfalls of the process. While the state historic commission determined the area was eligible for listing, a majority of property owners rejected the proposal, some out of concerns that it would impact the value of their property.

There's evidence, however, that historic preservation has a positive economic impact. According to a 2002 study by the Massachusetts Historical Commission, the annual direct economic benefit of historic preservation, which the study states is calculated conservatively, includes $2.3 billion in spending on rehabilitation of historic structures, while heritage tourism brings in another $2.5 million. That's a combined $4.8 billion, which in 2018 dollars is equal to about $6.5 billion.

Enlisting the backing of property owners is key, said Korjeff. Chatham's Old Village received its designation after residents of the neighborhood worked for several years at gaining support from most property owners. Part of the reason that worked was that the National Register District did not have the same  some would say draconian  consequences of a local district.

It appears as if efforts to establish a National Register District in South Chatham may follow the Old Village model, with more residents backing the plan than those in the Stage Harbor area. A similar effort is underway in West Harwich, where residents are talking about creating a Captains' Row district along Route 28.

The best supported historic districts have been ones where property owners are interested in establishing a district, Korjeff said.I have had the privilege to visit Geneva Switzerland as well as many other European cities but I zero in on Geneva as it more closely relates to Kelowna in a variety of ways.

Geneva's lake is approximately as long as lake Okanagan but much wider. Their lake surround has remained accessible to the public as their government, years ago, decided to limit hotels and apartments along the lake to 5 storeys. Lake Geneva remains clean enough to swim in and views have not been obstructed.

It is a shame that our Council does not follow a plan that would afford the same beauty to these lake shores.

Marlene ChamberlainI have no problem at all with a proposed development in West Kelownas Casa Loma area! Would be great and I would buy there!+

Question I have is, why staff would be spending 5 minutes reviewing the project until it is removed from the ALR?

According to our Mayor, staff is overwhelmed with real and legitimate proposals! (way understaffed he says). Why waste time on a property that is in the land land freeze and according to information from the ALR, has never been formally asked for removal!

You can't rezone a property in the ALR.

Stan Macruger

Photo: RCMP

One man is in custody while another remains at large following a break in at a Lake Country Starbucks Monday morning.

At about 3 a.m., an alarm company notified police of a break in at the coffee shop on Oceola Road. They were able to follow the suspect's movements on surveillance cameras in the store.

Footage showed one man inside the store while the other stood watch outside.

When police arrived, they say a blue van was parked nearby.

"Upon approaching the van, a male driver placed the van into reverse and sped out of the parking lot," said Const. Lesley Smith.

"The officer was unable to stop the van due to its high rate of speed and dangerous driving."

Police service dog ICE was called in and led officers behind a gas station across Highway 97, where they came across the blue van, which had crashed into a parked boat and trailer.

The van was empty, but ICE led officers to a building on Pretty Road a few blocks away, where a suspect was located.

The 52-year-old Calgary man was arrested and remains in custody facing charges of break and enter and failure to stop for police. The second man involved was not apprehended.

Lake Country RCMP is asking anyone with information about this investigation or any other criminal activity to please contact their local RCMP Detachment. If you would like to remain anonymous, call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477.Chantelle Deacon

About 50 students came together for an Okanagan Region B.C. Student Voice Forum in Vernon Tuesday.

Students from grades eight to 12 enjoyed their day listening to guest speakers talk about life lessons, happiness and mental health.

"It's an annual event that we have here," said Lynn Seed, vice principal of WL Seaton Secondary School. "We have students from all over the Vernon school district, all of our five high schools."

"This year we are really excited because we have students from PVSS in Armstong and Rutland Senior Secondary and Kelowna Senior Secondary."

Guest speakers included Judge Richard Hewson, UBC professor Dr. Mark Holder and Charlie Law and Mya Verkirk from Child Youth and Mental Health.

"We get together and discuss issues that are prevalent in society," Seed said. "My group of champions (students) that are on the committee, we decide what we think would be good and get presenters to come in. "It gives them an opportunity just to talk and have opinions and be informed of events."

Seed says during her 25 years of teaching, she has seen mental illness and anxiety in schools dramatically increase.

"The world is a tough place, there is a lot happening and I think that their opinion counts," Seed said. "I think they need to know that they can speak to issues, they can have a say, they can make changes when necessary if they go about it with the correct ways."

Vernon's School District 22 hosted the event at the Schubert Centre.Photo: CTV

A man who was airlifted from the backcountry east of Cherryville Monday is dead, after he was found in a tree well.

The 51-year-old Vancouver man died near Keefer Lake Lodge on Feb. 26.

"The Vernon North Okanagan RCMP, received a report of a backcountry skier that got separated from his group on a ski run near Keefer Lake Lodge while on a Cat-Ski tour of 14 people," said Const. Kelly Brett of the Vernon RCMP.

The ski group found the man in a tree well, shortly after they called police, but he was unresponsive.

The incident was initially reported as an avalanche.

BC Ambulance Service attended the scene and air-lifted the male to the nearest medical facility, however, resuscitation efforts were unsuccessful and the male did not survive the injuries sustained, said Brett.

Police say the death is not suspicious, and the BC Coroner continues to investigate.The Towne Theatre will be showing That Never Happened, a documentary on First World War internment camps from across the nation this evening.

Produced by Ryan Boyko of Armistice Films, the dark history of Canada will on the big screen at 7:15 p.m.

Boyko has produced several documentaries on internment camps, including one that was located in Vernon where WL Seaton Secondary School is now.

Most people say 'Well, I didn't know that happened.' Or, 'No one really talked about that,' said Boyko. I think this is a very important event in Canadian history because it was the first time that people's civil rights were officially suspended by the government, so it's important for us to remember this, it's important to us to think about it and look back as we make policy going forward in the future.Photo: Google Images

The Ogopogo Trail in Knox Mountain Park, will be closed early March through May for improvements to the trail.

The popular trail is a steep uphill climb, which veers off the Pauls Tomb Trail to the east, leads to Magic Estates neighbourhood and the Pavilion Trail.

Upgrades to the trail will include removal and re-installation of existing concrete steps, trail re-alignment, signage and benches.

Construction signage will be posted in the area to assist pedestrians and cyclists. All other trails at Knox Mountain Park are available for use.

For more information and to find alternate parks and pathways during the closure, visit kelowna.ca/parks.Photo: Contributed

A sign of impending spring wine releases at Okanagan wineries? Pruning? Bottling?

Or braving the interior highways to get to Vancouver?

Its a combination of all three. In our recent frigid and snowy weather, dedicated vineyard managers, wine makers, and even winery owners have been out pruning the vines in between inside duties on the bottling line for upcoming vintages.

But a couple of handfuls of Okanagan wineries have packed up this week for the Vancouver International Wine Festival. Now celebrating four decades and at just under two weeks of educational seminars, dinners, galas, and large-scale tastings, the VIWF often heralds the calm before the storm of our full-blown wine tourism season.

While last year VIWF celebrated Canadian wines for our countrys 150th anniversary, this year the festival has two theme countries, Portugal and Spain, under the unofficial umbrella of wines of the Iberian Peninsula.

Why, then, would local wineries take part?

As a wine-producing country, the Okanagan being just one region in Canada where vineyards roll over the landscape, Canada is young. Very young. We are the middle school child just getting used to the complex world of the playground that is wine.

The early days of VIWF provides our winery principals with numerous seminars during the trade days conference. Here, they attend exclusive tastings aimed at educating attendees about wine production and winery management in the theme countries.

Wine geeks from around the world can unite, this year, during Port (Portugals signature fortified wine) and Cava (Spains signature sparkling wine) seminars.

Winemakers also socialize and exchange business cards at receptions at the coveted trade tastings. Coveted because, unlike the evening festival tastings, there are fewer people crowding the tables, and much more time to chat with your cohorts about varietals, yeasts, and barrel aging.

Think of it as professional development. With booze (and plenty of spittoons).

Of the 173 wineries attending this year  pouring 1,450 wines, in case you were wondering  Canada is represented almost exclusively by B.C., including one sake producer.

The lone booth from outside our province is from Nova Scotias sparkling wine region. The lone B.C wine producer from outside the Okanagan is from Vancouver Island, with 23 wineries from the interior ready to pour.

Those of us living here in wine country might be surprised to hear tasters wandering through the 16 countries commenting, Canada makes wine? or Theres HOW many wineries in British Columbia?

Vancouverites attending may not even know that the are a mere four-hour drive to hundreds of wineries in the Okanagan, Similkameen, Shuswap, and Kamloops areas.

But believe it.

Were the new kid on the block and attending the festival to create the Canada area of the tasting room is an opportunity to educate seasoned, worldly wine veterans about what we grow and do here.

It's also to remind our big-city neighbours that even though the Vancouver Wine Festival literature says, the wine world is here, theres a beautiful little corner of that world a short drive or flight away.Photo: Contributed

Federal Conservative North Okanagan-Shuswap MP Mel Arnold didn't hold back any punches when asked his thoughts on the federal liberal 2018 budget.

"Another failure by this Liberal minister to bring a budget together and control this out-of-control spending."

The North OkanaganShuswap Member of Parliment says the Liberals could have worked towards a balanced budget but instead decided to plunge the country a further $18 billion into debt.

"If you break that down, that works out be $514 per every man, woman and child. So for a family of four, it is another $2,000 increase of debt load this year alone."

Arnold says the debt load, coupled with the debt loads of previous budgets, mean every Canadian is saddled with a massive bill that will have to be paid back at some point down the road.

The Liberals said their budget puts people first by investing in what Canadians want.

The budget was heavy on talk of gender equality with measures to boost the number of women entrepreneurs, as well women in trades, science, technology, engineering and math.

The budget also looked at breaking the pattern of stay-at-home mothers by providing new fathers up to five weeks of leave, with benefits at a cost of $1.2 billion over five years.

"Equality and fairness in the workplace should be a priority of any government," said Arnold, not giving a pass to the Liberals. "Equality of everyone in the workforce, or any place in society should be paramount for everyone." Adding, "I'm curious to know why this government felt it was something they needed to highlight. It is something that should be worked towards."

While gender equality was a major theme in the budget, the Liberals also announced more than $230 million over five years to aid in opiate crisis fight.

"I see they have pledged funding towards the opioid crisis," says Arnold. "I'm glad to see there is some funding there, and I'll be following up to make sure that we get some of that funding out to the communities and on the ground where it is needed."

The next step, says Arnold, is to go through the budget and connect the community needs with the actual budget.Photo: District of Summerland

A new development in Trout Creek was given the green light by Summerland District Council by a narrow margin Monday evening.

A 4-3 vote meant the controversial rezoning of 5418 Nixon Road passed, changing the 1.4-hectare plot from A1 agricultural land to a RSD1 medium residential lot. The moves paves the way for a 21-lot development.

Some concerned residents had indicated, at previous meetings about the development and through correspondence sent to council, that they felt the minimum size of a residence allowable on RSD1 land, 460 sq. m., was too small to fit with the neighbourhood. They pushed for RSD2 zoning, which would have bumped the minimum size to 650 sq. m.

However, the developers' plans indicate that their smallest dwelling will be 508 sq. m., and Councillor Doug Holmes, who voted to pass the proposal, said he chose to believe the developer won't change the plans now that the rezoning has been approved.

"You just have to trust the developer sometimes, that they're going to do what they say they will," Holmes said.

Holmes originally voted against the rezoning in an earlier council session, but said that amendments to the size of dwellings proposed as well as newly added landscaping conditions changed his mind.

"People don't want it to be like a moonscape with no vegetation or trees," Holmes said. "So we added a covenant that ensures every house has to plant a tree in its front yard once the house is built."

Mayor Peter Waterman also voted in favour of the rezoning, while councillors Richard Barkwill, Toni Boot and Erin Trainer voting against.

Holmes pointed to revitalization of the neighbourhood as a key reason why the development deserved to go ahead.

"It might not be perfect, but when we're thinking 'We've got to keep that school open,' it's good enough," Holmes said.

The issue is now out of council's hands, and the next step is for the developers to submit applications to city staff for building permits.Photo: Pixabay

The North Okanagan is lacking an online LGBTQ presence.

There are a few lesbian meetup Facebook pages, but there is no LGBTQ organization in the area.

Kelowna has the Gay Okanagan Net and the other end of the valley has the South Okanagan Gay and Lesbian Association and South Okanagan Similkameen PRIDE.

Vernon used to have the North Okanagan Gay and Lesbian Organization, but it no longer exists because of 'political drama,' according to an ex-member of the group.

For many LGBTQ locals, the lack of support throughout the community is apparent.

"I dont know very many LGBT people here, it seemed easier to meet them back home (Red Deer), but maybe I just dont get out much," said Elizabeth Jewall. "We feel welcome, to a point, dont see too many LGBT members, but that could be for a variety of reasons."

She and her partner used the Vernon Community Forum as a means to potentially find a sperm donor, but received harsh criticism from many group members and decided to delete their post.

"I dont know if men in the area actually want to donate," said Elizabeth Jewall. "They have no idea how special it is to a lot of people, like myself."

Castanet searched for an online LGBTQ community in the Vernon area, but was unable to find any active group.

"Creating safe opportunities for connections really matters, said Alison Dennis, a retired teacher who identifies herself as lesbian. "Backlash is all around us."

"A lot of people struggle to get together socially."

Dennis has started a couple Facebook pages to connect local lesbians but says there isn't much else out there, aside from a few other lesbian groups.

One reason Dennis says there could be a lack of an LGBTQ community in the North Okanagan is because people 'don't have the time' to run an organization.Photo: Chelsea Powrie Gas prices in Penticton jumped by eight cents in many locations on Tuesday.

Gas prices in the Okanagan are expected to jump by about nine cents per litre by Wednesday, and they likely won't drop back down by that amount anytime soon.

The jump will be observed in all of Western Canada  with some areas seeing a price jump of up to 15 cents per litre  according to gasbuddy.com spokesman Dan McTeague.

The increase at the pumps is due to a spot market hiccup in the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, he explained.

McTeague added most gas stations in the Okanagan will be at about 126.9, and if they aren't "it's only because they have not completely passed on the increases they were given by their suppliers."

Castanet readers have reported gas prices in Penticton and Kelowna have jumped to 126.9 per litre, after starting the day eight to nine cents cheaper.

One Vernon station is reportedly at 125.9 while many others remain at 116.9 as of early Tuesday evening, according to another tipster.

McTeague said the current prices will likely drop three or four cents by Sunday.

He added, however, that the cost of gas likely won't go below 122.9 in the foreseeable future, as high demand in the U.S. Midwest is the driver that is fuelling the price increase.Photo: Contributed

South OkanaganWest Kootenay MP Richard Cannings doesn't have many good things to say about the newly announced 2018 federal budget.

In this budget, the Liberals had an opportunity to build an economy where everyone benefits, not just the few at the top," Cannings said. The government continues to tell Canadians the economy is strong, but most people are not feeling the benefits."

Cannings, a member of the NDP, criticized the federal Liberals' budget, saying it did not allot enough money for mental health nationwide, and was unclear on the amount of funding that will be available to help rural communities gain access to broadband.

He also expressed concern that no rules were set out requiring companies undergoing bankruptcy to pay workers' benefits and pensions before shareholders and creditors.

Budgets are all about making choices. With this budget the Liberals have chosen to continue giving huge tax breaks to rich CEOs and corporations, while asking everyday Canadians to wait their turn and have faith that the government will keep their promises  Cannings said. A budget of half measures for projects that wont be delivered for years shows that the government doesnt quite get it yet."

Cannings did welcome some educational and environmental funding included in the budget, but also said he would be working with colleagues to improve "half-measure" policies.

"While I welcome the new funding some initiatives such as university research and for the protection of land and water, I cannot overlook some of the important initiatives that are missing," Cannings said.Photo: Contributed

t's a hard scheme to pull off, but when it's done right, a white, monochromatic space looks simply stunning.

It requires thoughtful planning, integration of texture and perfect undertones, smart fabric choices not exactly an easy feat, but if you're brave enough to take the plunge, here are a few things you need to know to make your spaces sizzle in white...

TONE ON TONE

The ultimate rule of doing a white room: Layer. Use varying shades of white, cream, platinum, pearl, and linen. If you don't layer your white tones, you may end up with a hospital room for a living space.

Rooms that lack dimension in the form of tone-on-tone layering often feel stark, harsh, and institutional - so unless you're aiming for an ultra-pure and minimal aesthetic, don't get too matchy with your materials and finishes.

TEXTURES

Crucial in almost every environment (not just the white ones), texture is a perfect way to add depth and interest to your monochromatic palette. Play up combinations of glossy, ruddy, knubby, sleek, watery, shimmery, organic, leathery, woody, knotty, and cozy for a warm and inviting atmosphere... vital again when trying to avoid stark and cold design.

THE PERFECT WHITES

I have a go-to white I use in almost all of my spaces that require a soft, pure shade: OC-65 Chantilly Lace by Benjamin Moore is a design favourite across the board, and it's no secret why.

When paired with other colours, it still retains its 'whiteness', while melding softly into the colour scheme. When used in contrast with other finishes, OC-60 will act as the perfect backdrop.

Another few favourites you'll often see in magazines are:

OC-17 White Dove (Benjamin Moore),

Swiss Coffee 1812 (Behr)

Powderface CLW 1034W (General Paint),

Antique White (CIL RM 43YY 78/053).

NOT EXACTLY KID FRIENDLY

Sadly, there is a catch 22. Children  as loveable and adorable as they are  do not make great low-maintenance accessories to the all-white room. So for those of you eyeing the cotton duck sofa or pearly cashmere pillows, perhaps it might be wise to consider a slightly warmer or darker option.

I love beautiful looking spaces, but it's not all that fair to constantly be hawking and keeping your kids out of any space in your home for the sake of its design integrity. Something to definitely consider... decide on warmer and more texturized pieces (so wear and tear over time is camouflaged best), or wait until university.

COMMIT

You can't pull this look off if you only go half way with it... otherwise you might end up with a confusing mess of a colour scheme. If you want to add some pops of colour here and there absolutely do so, but stick to the 80:20 ratio: 80 per cent white and tones of white, and 20 per cent accent colour(s).

Take the white throughout for walls, furniture, drapes, and maybe even flooring if youre feeling brave, but you can then add in a hit of colour with the odd pillow, frame, throw, lamp shade, or small decor item.

I once test-painted a large blob of off-white paint over the existing living room wall colour (which happened to be a golden wheat colour at the time we moved in), just to see if I could handle the huge change from dark to light. It's a major jump to instantly go from what youve been comfortable with to something you think you want

Design Tip:Photo: The Canadian Press A man views a house that collapsed in a strong earthquake, Tuesday, Feb. 27, 2018, in Halagoli, Hela Province, Papua New Guinea.

The governor of the central Papua New Guinea region hit by an earthquake this week says at least 15 people were killed and the toll may rise.

Southern Highlands Governor William Powi told The Associated Press that communication remains difficult and authorities are still trying to assess the extent of the damage caused by Monday's magnitude-7.5 earthquake.

Powi said Wednesday that four people in the capital, Mendi, were killed when their house collapsed on them and three were killed when their home was struck by a landslide. He says eight others were killed elsewhere. Dozens more were injured.

Three oil fields and a liquefied natural gas plant have shut. Powi says the quake caused "catastrophic havoc and destruction" and people remain traumatized.Photo: The Canadian Press

A judge who was taunted by Donald Trump during the presidential campaign sided with the president Tuesday on a challenge to building a border wall with Mexico, removing what could have been a major obstacle to the signature campaign pledge.

U.S. District Judge Gonzalo Curiel rejected arguments by the state of California and advocacy groups that the administration overreached by waiving laws requiring environmental and other reviews before construction can begin. Plaintiffs in the lawsuit said a 2005 a law that gave the Homeland Security secretary broad authority to waive the reviews had expired.

"Big legal win today," Trump tweeted in response to the ruling. He didn't mention his prior remarks about the judge.

Trump berated Curiel during the campaign for his handling of fraud allegations against now-defunct Trump University, suggesting the Indiana-born judge's Mexican heritage reflected a bias.

Curiel mentioned his roots in his 101-page ruling Tuesday when he cited another native of the state, U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts, who wrote in another case that courts should not make policy judgments.

"The court cannot and does not consider whether the underlying decisions to construct border barriers are politically wise or prudent," Curiel wrote.

The lawsuit was the first major legal challenge to the wall under Trump and the latest legal challenge to fail over the years.

The Center for Biological Diversity, which sued along with the state of California and three advocacy groups, said it would appeal.

"They're giving unprecedented, sweeping power to an unelected agency chief to ignore dozens of laws and crash through hundreds of miles of spectacular borderlands," attorney Brian Segee said, referring to the head of Homeland Security. "This is unconstitutional and shouldn't be allowed to stand."

California Attorney General Xavier Becerra said, "We will evaluate all of our options and are prepared to do what is necessary to protect our people, our values, and our economy from federal overreach."

The Animal Legal Defence Fund said it may ask the U.S. Supreme Court to intervene. The Sierra Club said the environmental and other reviews are critical to protecting border communities, but the group didn't discuss its next step.

U.S. Justice Department spokesman Devin O'Malley welcomed the decision, saying Congress granted authority to build a wall without delay and that the administration is pleased it can continue "this important work vital to our nation's interests."Photo: The Canadian Press Minister of Finance Bill Morneau walks with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau before tabling the budget in the House of Commons on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on Tuesday.

The call of the wild is echoing through Tuesday's federal budget, which some environmental groups are calling a "game changer" for nature conservation across Canada.

The Liberals have earmarked $1.3 billion over five years to expand protected areas and help endangered and threatened species  a move that reflects its pledge to safeguard at least 17 per cent of Canada's land and inland waters by 2020.

"Canada is one of the most beautiful places on Earth," Finance Minister Bill Morneau said in his budget speech to the House of Commons. "It's up to all of us to help keep it that way."

The budget commits $500 billion to a nature fund aimed at protecting sensitive ecosystems, expanding species protection and helping Indigenous groups play a role in conservation efforts. The initiative is expected to leverage an additional $500 million from the private sector and other levels of government.

Expanded measures to include Indigenous Peoples in the creation and management of protected areas is encouraging, said Valerie Courtois, director of the Indigenous Leadership Initiative.

She pointed to the leadership role Indigenous governments have played in the creation of protected areas across the country, from Gwaii Haanas National Park Reserve off British Columbia's northern coast to the Torngat Mountains National Park in Labrador.

Graham Saul, head of Nature Canada, described the conservation measures as a billion-dollar breakthrough.

"This budget is a game-changer," Saul said. "We think that Canada's wildlife would also applaud."

The Nature Conservancy of Canada welcomed the new measures, as did the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society.

Steve Cornish, CEO of the David Suzuki Foundation, described the funding as urgently needed to address Canada's biodiversity crisis.

"It's great to see money for protected areas and species at risk," Cornish said. "This budget recognizes that nature is an important part of the Canadian identity."

While the government has received widespread praise for its conservation measures, some critics have raised concerns about an absence of funding for fighting climate change.

Greenpeace Canada's Mike Hudema said it is worrisome that the government is not proposing new measures to break the country's "fossil fuel addiction" and speed the transition a renewable-energy economy.

Green party Leader Elizabeth May called the government irresponsible for failing to act on what she described as a climate crisis, deriding the Liberals for pushing back plans to implement their carbon-pricing system until the beginning of 2019.

The budget references the government's plan to price carbon pollution, which will be imposed on any province and territory that fails to bring in an equivalent system before the end of the year.

Any money collected from the federal price on carbon pollution will go back to the province or territory where it was collected, and the budget promises $109 million over the next five years to help Environment Canada and the Canada Revenue Agency enforce that pledge.Photo: CTV

About 50 uniformed officers marched into Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School early Wednesday, just one aspect of the heavy security as classes resumed for the first time since 17 students and teachers were killed by a troubled teenager with an AR-15, thrusting them into the centre of the nation's gun debate.

The heavily armed police presence, designed to make the community feel secure, is also disturbing in itself, some students said.

"This is a picture of education in fear in this country. The NRA wants more people just like this, with that exact firearm to scare more people and sell more guns," said David Hogg, who has become a leading voice in the students' movement to control assault weapons. "I know one of those bullets could be shredding through me if I was misidentified as a school shooter," Hogg added.

Grief counsellors are on campus as well "to provide a lot of love, a lot of understanding" and help students "ease back" into their school routines, Broward Schools Superintendent Robert Runcie said. Officers with therapy dogs also stood outside.

Wednesday's class schedule started with 4th period, so that students and teachers could return to the people they were with during the shooting. The freshman building where the massacre took place remains cordoned off.

Casey Sherman, a 17-year-old junior, thinks the schedule was a good idea so kids can "get it over with," and not worry about it all day. Up until 11:30 p.m. working on preparations for the March 14 national school walkout against gun violence, she said she's not afraid to be returning, "just nervous."

"We did go through a tragedy," said Sherman, who walked in holding hands with her boyfriend. "It was terrible but if you let it stop you ... it's not how you go down, it's how you get back up."

A long line of cars circled the school and dozens of television trucks and vehicles were camped out nearby as students, parents and staff were ushered through a security cordon, past a "Welcome Eagles" banner and a walkway lined with flowers, photographs and other memorials. Some were returning despite severe gun wounds, but even those who weren't hit by bullets spoke of emotional trauma.

Alexis Grogan, a 15-year-old sophomore, planned to wear a Stoneman Douglas colour  maroon  on the first day back to class Wednesday, plus sneakers that say "MSD Strong, be positive, be passionate, be proud to be an eagle" and "2/14/18" in honour of those who died.

She feels nervous, like it might be too soon to go on as usual without slain friends like Luke Hoyer, who sat two seats behind her in Spanish. Still, the support from her fellow students, and their fight to strengthen gun control laws have buoyed her spirits.

"I am so proud of how the kids at my school have been fighting because we all want change to happen and, as we see the progression, it really shows us that people do care and they do hear what we have to say," Grogan said in a text message.

The victims' relatives kept up the pressure in Florida's capital Tuesday, with emotional testimony during a legislative hearing on a bill to raise the age limit to buy long guns from 18 to 21, and create a program allowing teachers to carry concealed weapons in their classrooms, if their school district allows it, they get law-enforcement training and are deputized by the local sheriff's office.

The Broward superintendent has spoken out firmly against the idea of arming teachers. Hogg also thinks the idea is misguided.

The House Appropriations Committee's 23-6 vote in favour of the bill Tuesday followed more than four hours of emotional discussion with the parents of some of the 17 killed, and nearly two weeks of activism by students on social media and in televised debates.

Gov. Rick Scott, who met with officials in Miami-Dade County on Tuesday, said at a news conference that he hopes a gun and school-safety bill is passed before Florida's annual legislative session ends on March 9. He had proposed measures that overlap with the Legislature's plan but did not include arming teachers. However, he declined to say Tuesday whether he would veto the sweeping package if it included that provision.

The Senate's version of the school-safety bill was approved by a second committee on a 13-7 vote Tuesday evening. Sen. Bill Galvano, who is designated to become the next Senate president and is ushering through the bill, said the earliest it will be considered by the full Senate is Friday.

Marion Hammer, a lobbyist for the National Rifle Association and Unified Sportsmen of Florida, told the House Appropriations Committee that she supports tightening school security and keeping guns out of the hands of the mentally ill, but not the House bill's gun-ownership restrictions, which she later said would not have stopped the Parkland shooting.

"Part of what we need to do is make people understand that guns are not the problem," she said after the hearing. "So passing more laws dealing with guns as a solution to a problem that exists within the enforcement of laws is just kind of silly."

Max Schachter, father of 14-year-old victim Alex Schachter, said the bill the House committee eventually approved doesn't go far enough  but could have saved his son.

"If we would have had these measures in place, I would not have had to bury my son next to his mother a week and a half ago. ... I'm pleading for your help. I'm willing to compromise. Are you?" he asked.

___

Associated Press writers Brendan Farrington in Tallahassee and Curt Anderson in Miami contributed to this report.

___

Follow the AP's complete coverage of the Florida school shooting here: https://apnews.com/tag/FloridaschoolshootingPhoto: Melissa Rainkle

West Kelowna's celebrity moose, Millie, was spotted again this morning this time in the Springer Road area.

Elizabeth Noble tells Castanet, "I just woke up and looked out the window and spotted Millie moving through the yard. She looks sad, I hope she's ok?"

Millie has been spotted all over West Kelowna for the past month or so. She hasn't caused any trouble so far except for one incident where she kicked at a family dog. Conservation officer's tell Castanet Moose can confuse small domestic pets for wolves and will protect themselves.

Still no word on what Millie is looking for.

Although she has been spotted by Melissa Rainkle, cruising through the drive-thru DQ in West Kelowna yesterday and earlier in the week she was spotted at Buckerfields Country store inside their warehouse on Main Street in West Kelowna.

Perhaps she's hungry or lonely. Poor lost Millie, maybe she just needs a hug on Pink Shirt day.Photo: Contributed

Vernon-based Tolko Industries is partnering with Louisiana-based Hunt Forest Products to build a state-of-the-art sawmill near Urania, La.

This is our first venture into the United States, said Brad Thorlakson, Tolko president and CEO, and we are thrilled to be in Louisiana with Hunt Forest Products, a family-owned company like ours, and one that has played a vital, reliable role in Louisianas forestry industry for more than a century.

Construction of the approximately USD $115 million project is expected to begin in April and be completed by December 2018.

It will employ about 110 people and will produce southern yellow pine lumber from timber harvested in the surrounding area.

The LaSalle Lumber Company, the joint-venture company building and operating the new mill, is named after LaSalle Parish, the county in Louisiana where the mill will be built.

The scope of the project includes a 200 Million-board-foot facility that will consume approximately 850,000 tons of timber annually, three continuous dry kilns and a planer facility.

Wood chips, sawdust, planer shavings and hog fuel will be contracted to Drax Biomass, which operates a 450,000-ton wood pellet facility adjacent to the sawmill.

Tolko manufacturers of a wide range of forest products for customers around the world. The family-owned company has been in operation for more than 60 years.Photo: Sheree Simon

A family in Merritt who billet three players from the local BCHL team are picking up the pieces after their home burned down on the weekend.

Rich and Jessica Culbertson, daughter Emily and three Merritt Centennials players awoke to their home on Coldwater Avenue burning at about 6 a.m. on Saturday.

They all escaped unscathed before the flames gutted the home.

"A kind neighbour invited them inside his home, provided them with clothes, shoes and shelter, while reality began to set in. They lost everything," Merritt resident Sheree Simon said online about the incident.

Simon created a GoFundMe page on Tuesday to help the Culbertson family and the three Cents players get back on their feet.

The online fundraiser raised more than $10,600 in its first full day.

The tragedy was a stark contrast for the Culbertson's after Jessica reportedly won $10,000 at the final Cents home game of the regular season the night before.

Many current and former Cents players expressed condolences online for the Culbertson's, who have been a billet family for the team for years.

Merritt begins the first round of the playoffs on Thursday, when they hit the road to face the Wenatchee Wild  the BCHL's only American team.

Among many other possessions, the three players billeted in the Culbertson home reportedly lost their passports in last weekend's blaze.Contributed

A Wilson's Transportation passenger bus caught fire at Blanshard and Fort St. in downtown Victoria Wednesday morning.

The driver was the only one in the bus at the time, and was able to get to safety before the vehicle became fully engulfed.

Photos and videos of the incident starting streaming in on social media around 8:30 a.m.

A large plume of black smoke was visible around the city.

The incident shut down Blanshard at Fort as crews tried to get a handle on the blaze. The route was re-opened just before 10 a.m.

-with files from CTV VancouverPhoto: Contributed

The man who allegedly robbed a Vernon Tim Hortons on Valentines Day has been arrested by Vernon RCMP.

The alleged robbery occurred at the 3905 32 St. Tim Hortons on Feb. 14 just before 11 p.m.

The man, 32, from Lethbridge, was asked to leave the store at closing time but he then approached the till and allegedly demanded cash while threatening the store employee.

The suspect made off with an undisclosed amount of cash and fled the area on foot.

"It was the observant nature and quick thinking of the loss prevention officer that lead police to the suspect," said Const. Kelly Brett. "Our officers work closely with loss prevention officers within the community and in this particular case the sharing of information and a photograph paid off as the loss prevention officer was able to make a clear identification."

On Feb. 22 the Vernon North Okanagan RCMP received a report from a loss prevention officer who saw a man matching the description of the robbery suspect entering a store.

Police arrived at the location and found the suspect exiting the stores washroom.

Further investigation connected the man to a number of other crimes within the Vernon area.

He is now facing multiple charges including theft of motor vehicle, fraud, theft, possession property obtained by crime and break and enter.

The man remains in custody to face the pending charges.Photo: City of Vernon

The proposed Parks Development Cost Charges (DCC) Bylaw will be the topic of an information session in mid March.

The City of Vernon invites the public to learn more about the proposed Parks DCC bylaw that will go into affect this year.

DCC are charges collected from land developers by the City to help pay for infrastructure projects required to service new growth.

The Parks DCC Bylaw will provide a project list and rates to allow the City of Vernon to collect DCC charges for its parks.

The City will also be hosting a session specifically for members of the development community.

The information session will be held at the Council Chambers on March 15 from 5 to 7 p.m.

The public is encouraged to attend and provide feedback on the new program.Photo: Contributed Gareth Jones gives a local resident with some exercise tips to prevent frailty.

An UBC-Okanagan professor is trying to fix the disconnect when it comes to the amount of physical activity people older than 65 get on a regular basis.

Asst. Prof Gareth Jones, who teaches in the School of Health and Exercise Sciences at UBCs Okanagan campus, says according to Statistics Canada fewer than 12 per cent of people 65 or older meet the minimum physical activity requirements to maintain health.

Its really quite sad, says Jones. We have developed physical activity guidelines and resources, but we havent gone far enough to figure out how to give this information effectively to the end usersthis particular population group. Its gut-wrenching that we have all these wonderful resources and really we havent been able to improve the physical activity levels for this age group during the past 10 years.

The Canadian Physical Activity Guidelines for this age group suggest a minimum of 150 minutes of moderate to vigorous aerobic exercise each week, plus at least two days of resistance training to strengthen muscle and bone. That is the absolute minimum that is recommended, says Jones.

There is a definite connection for people 65 or older between physical activity and creating a level of protection from chronic disease, frailty and disability, says Jones. At this stage in life, meeting the established physical activity guidelines is crucial for maintaining health and physical independence.

Jones says after an eight-week trial he held four years ago, more than 76 per cent of the participantswho had received a weekly education program on physical activity, plus an exercise program completed three times a weekcontinued to meet the prescribed physical activity requirements one year after the study. In a second group not given the educational training, just exercise, the number who continued exercising dropped below 50 per cent.

Thats where physical literacy comes in.

Physical literacy is the motivation, confidence, physical competence, knowledge and understanding to value and take responsibility for engagement in physical activities for life, Jones explains. What do they need to do to maintain functional independence as an older adult? We want to give them the motivation, confidence, skill competence and knowledge that can lead them to become physically active on their own.

The next step, says Jones, is to examine physical literacy through sport participants in this age group to better understand what factors influence lifelong physical activity and sport participation.

Masters athletes may provide insight into psychological and physical factors that enable long-term maintenance of physical activity and sport participation, and we hope to transfer these factors to the general population, Jones says.

Jones is also a proponent of local governments looking at urban planning as an opportunity to make communities more exercise friendly for seniors, such as dedicated bike lanes and indoor cushioned walking tracks.Photo: Vernon RCMP

An impaired driver, with a blood reading three times the legal limit, has been arrested after crashing into a pole.

Vernon RCMP responded to vehicle crash just before 7 p.m. yesterday evening in the 3700 block of Alexis Park Drive.

After arriving on scene police found a 40 year old woman driver acting clearly intoxicated.

The local woman was arrested on scene for impaired operation of a motor vehicle.

She was transported by ambulance to the nearest medical centre but was later released and escorted to the RCMP detachment where she provided two samples of her breath that were both three times over the legal limit.

The woman had no serious injuries but her vehicle suffered severe damage.

"This was a very serious collision and the vehicle sustained significant damage," said Const. Kelly Brett. "Not only is the driver fortunate to have sustained only minor injuries, but that no one else was seriously injured as a result."

The woman now faces charges of impaired operation of a motor vehicle and is scheduled to appear in court April 26.

Impaired driving is an entirely preventable cause of death and injuries, with immense costs and devastating effects on communities.

The number of people killed in impaired-related crashes each year has significantly dropped with 40 years of Counterattack, but impaired driving remains a top contributing factor in B.C., according to Vernon RCMP.

RCMP remind the public theres no excuse to drink and drive.

If you plan to drink, leave your car at home.The MPC shall have responsibility within the Bank for formulating monetary and credit policy

The appointment of a member of the MPC pursuant to sub-section 2 (d) and (e) of this section, the remuneration , filling of temporary vacancies,Exchange of experience at the end of a productive day, from left to right: Helga Dogg Flosadottir (CEO Atmonia ehf, Iceland), Dr. Michael Brandkamp (Managing Director of High-Tech Grunderfonds Management GmbH, Germany), moderator dr. David Eckensberger of the Diamond Sponsor (Hessen Trade & Invest GmbH), Guy Helin (Managing Director of Syngulon SA, Belgium), Dr. Christoph Jung (Polymaterials GmbH, Germany), Rob van der Meij (Capricorn Venture Partners, Belgium).

The European Chemistry Partnering, ECP, took place for the second time on 23rd February 2018. The concept of industry speed dating for the chemical industry and its user industries was very well received: More than 500 participants from 31 countries. 106 presentations by chemical Start-ups, SMEs and large companies. More than 1,200 partnering meetings and 53 exhibitors. The ECP will take place twice a year from now on.

"My passion is to bring together decision-makers from all parts of the chemical industry, across borders, to talk about innovations," says Holger Bengs, the initiator of the European Chemistry Partnering. "Get out of the daily business routine and refuel for a whole day. Exchanges at the ECP can lead to tomorrow's business. Putting one and one and one together doesnt make three - but 111. The delegates were very enthusiastic because of the high ratio of industrial participation."

From now on, the European Chemistry Partnering will be held twice a year to encourage regular exchange. For the first time, on 25th September 2018, there will be an ECP Summer Summit. The main sponsor will be the consumer goods manufacturer Henkel. The September venue is the headquarters of Henkel in Dusseldorf. On 26th February 2019, the 3rd European Chemistry Partnering will take place again at the Kap Europa in Frankfurt.Supervisors, School Board pitch SRP fix, new schools Five years after a $99 million hole in the county school systems supplemental retirement plan touched off a financial tug-of-war between Chesterfields Board of Supervisors and School Board, an unexpected...

Local groups rally support for Afghan refugees Tens of thousands of Afghan civilians abandoned their homes, families and belongings to flee Taliban rule in Kabul as U.S. troops withdrew from Afghanistan last month. Under Operation Allies Welcome,...

GRTC offers direct bus line from Richmond to Chester Chesterfield County announced Monday that the GRTC Transit System is merging bus Route 111 with Route 3B, which will provide continuous bus service along U.S. Route 1 in Chesterfield to...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...Barco, 18, suffered a right quad strain during training on Tuesday. The Argentinian arrived in Atlanta from Independiente as the most expensive transfer in MLS history.The approximately 130,000-square-foot Medinah Temple building, known for its onion domes, became a Chicago landmark in 2001. The opening of the Bloomingdales store in the redeveloped structure in 2003 was a big deal not only because it helped save the building from the wrecking ball. It also was Bloomingdales first standalone home furnishings store, a concept it previously had tried only within shopping malls.Come late summer, the Berghoff plans to introduce its new 10-barrel brewing system, which will take up space on three floors of the 143-year-old building. The brewery will produce a various styles of beer year-round for its restaurant in the Loop and its cafe at OHare International Airport. The beers will pay homage to the restaurants history and past employees, but the name of the brewery is yet to be determined  it wont be Berghoff, as the family sold its stake in Berghoff-branded beer years ago.The Chicago Loop Alliance, the main advocate for the downtown business district, contracted with HLSA Security for the guards. They will patrol between Wacker Drive and Congress Parkway on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays, for eight hours each day at various times around midday and in the evening.Bill Rancic has long specialized in renovating and selling real estate; the Rancics are also partners at two Chicago restaurants, RPM Italian and RPM Steak. Now, he and his wife are seeking a buyer for their Gold Coast home less than four years after they paid $2.125 million for it. Since that time, they have renovated the Victorian-style mansion down to the studs.I dare to believe all Southerners are a family, Twitty writes in his introduction. We are not merely Native, European, and African. We are Middle Eastern and South Asian and East Asian and Latin American, now. We are a dysfunctional family, but we are family. We are unwitting inheritors of a story with many sins that bears the fruit of the possibility of ten times the redemption. One way is through reconnection with the culinary culture of the enslaved, our common ancestors, and restoring their names on the roots of the Southern tree and the table those roots support.The men behind Desert Door Texas Sotol, however, make the case that the desert spoon plant has been growing in their part of the world for thousands of years. As kids, they knew neighborhood guys who moonshined the spirit known as sotol, made from the desert spoon. Its understandable to contend that both spirit and plant are as much Texan as they are Mexican.Royal Flush, though it originated at the Nasher Museum in North Carolina, feels especially important to have here in Chicago at our central municipal cultural space. Not just because Abney hails from Harvey, a south suburb, but because Chicago has also been home to so much of the racial injustice she portrays. The exhibition catalogue makes the point overtly with an essay by local reporter Natalie Y. Moore describing Barack Obamas victory speech in Grant Park and the subsequent strengthening of the alt-right; the shooting of Laquan McDonald, among other young black men, and the demands for police accountability that followed; and the ways in which violence against black women has been ignored, making them victims of both racism and sexism. Abney has been called an artist of #BlackLivesMatter, but just as many of her paintings could be banners for #SayHerName, which campaigns for the full recognition of women and girls in the movement for black lives. Other canvases call no hashtag to mind at all  just the strange awfulness of being alive now.Sacrifices were prepared and displayed in temples and halls built for the ancestors, with the exception of holocausts, which took place in the open air, Wang writes in his catalog essay explaining How to Read Ancient Chinese Bronzes. The animals and human victims were slaughtered and dismembered (using bronze axes and knives) and then cooked and offered to the ancestors in different bronze tripods. Similarly, cooked grains and vegetables were placed in bronze gui containers, and fragrant wine was brought in bronze you jars and served in jue and jia goblets. This is why these vessels are also known as ritual bronzes. They werent about to waste any more time: three weeks after finishing writing, the band enlisted producer Ethan Johns (Ryan Adams, Ray LaMontagne) and, in January 2016, they decamped to London for three intense weeks spent recording in the Wood Room at Real World Studios. Much like their earliest days, the trio had to acclimate to working with the producer. I think it took us a week of just doing it to kind of figure out our vibes, Jarosz remembers of them feeling out Johns. We had to figure out what he was looking for and allow him to also find out what we were about as a band.A girlfriend tells Amar, "Once we know the end of an unfortunate story, it's tempting to ask why its protagonist did not do better to swerve his fate." Deprived temporarily of his freedom, Amar contemplates what he knows and has failed to learn, the violence of other places, the constant of war, the absurdity of his situation. He considers the writing of Stephen Crane: "It perhaps might be said - if anyone dared - that the most worthless literature of the world has been that which has been written by men of one nation concerning the men of another." Which is precisely what Halliday is doing.Ive read clearer explanations, but I get his point. It will be only the most knowledgeable Chicago historians who call him out for calendar hanky-panky. The rest of you readers? If you know when Ruth Snyder was executed  do you even know who Ruth Snyder was?  you may be modestly vexed. Otherwise, carry on through the admirably ambitious book, satisfying on many levels, even offering flashbacks to Mikes time as a flyer in WWI. Here, for instance, are his thoughts upon seeing a captured German officer sitting in a barn: "All the American fliers recognized his state; and all knew not that it might be, but that it most likely would one day be them, their disgrace and captivity the marginally better of the two outcomes of their continued flights."Osteen was less than thrilled, however, to learn from Chicago Inc. about what he says is his unauthorized latest appearance in an ad for the Ellesons. Aired on CNN on Monday night in the Chicago area, it was paid for by John Elleson to promote both his ministry and his run for Congress, a troubling cross into partisan politics by Osteens church that could potentially cost it its religious tax exemption. Elleson says he has checked on the legality of the ad and found that it wouldn't affect his own churchs tax-exempt status.Alas, a CMS spokesman told us, the stripper pole was not purchased by the state for wild nights at the Capitol, but was given to the state for auction by the Transportation Security Administration after it was abandoned by a traveler at OHare International Airport a couple of weeks ago.One of the things that Im most proud of with the plan that were presenting today is that we have made modifications, Jackson said. Ive been in CPS for a long time and have not seen the level of flexibility thats present in the school action plans that were presenting today. Those changes were made because of community input.Within the next three months, the same regional EPA office that prepared the Wisconsin analysis will make a final decision about how much  or how little  Foxconn and other companies must do to curb smog-forming pollution. Only now the Chicago-based office is led by Cathy Stepp, a former top aide to Walker who spent the past three years urging EPA officials to exempt Wisconsin from the smog regulations.It is incumbent upon our city to find solutions that get to the same intent without perpetuating inequity, said Niketa Brar, the groups executive director and a former policy director to city Treasurer Kurt Summers. Were talking about one group of people that are being marginalized by this plan, with the intention that there be this new high school. You can get to that same good intention in multiple ways.After his arrest Monday night, border control agents discovered Rodriguez-Valencia's fingerprints and photo matched those of a suspect with an active felony arrest warrant in Chicago, involving a killing with a knife, according to the news release.The Tribune has previously written about Ruiz being a fugitive as part of a 2011 series on fugitives from justice. Ruiz, formerly of the 2400 block of South Drake Street, is believed to have fled Chicago in August 1982, just before he was charged with first-degree murder in the beating and stabbing death of Robledo, the FBI said in a 2011 alert.After Bauer's killing, the original owner of the 9 mm Glock handgun watched news coverage of the mournful police procession that carried Bauer's body to the morgue. On Feb. 14, ATF agents knocked on his door with the news that the same gun had been used in a high-profile incident in Chicago  a reference he later realized was to Bauer's killing. It was difficult to fathom, he said, that the gun he'd sold to a fellow member of his shooting club in 2015 wound up causing such a horrific and violent act in Chicago a few years later.Brown has repeatedly denied wrongdoing and has not been charged despite an investigation that has been underway for nearly five years. She won a fifth term as clerk in 2016 even though the Cook County Democratic Party had dropped its endorsement of her after the federal investigation was disclosed.Krystal Cazares said the settlement in the death of her brother Andrew Cazares and his friend Fausto Manzera is part of a movement to hold police accountable despite attempts to cover for their colleagues. Lawyers for the families alleged in their wrongful death lawsuit that a police code of silence protected Detective Joseph Frugoli and caused him to think he could drink and drive without fear of consequences.The survey, conducted Feb. 19 through Sunday, was made up of registered voters who identified their party preference to poll takers and said they were likely to vote in the March 20 primary. The sample was not weighted to reflect voters more likely to go to the polls based on past voting history and was not adjusted for historical racial and age demographics or turnout.We are fortunate that the monster that committed this act of barbarism is in a jail cell. It is my hope that he never sees the light of day, Johnson said of Shomari Legghette, who faces charges in the slaying. At the same time, I do believe its important that we do everything in our power to ensure that these types of acts dont occur again.Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner largely has avoided weighing in on specific gun proposals, saying its a matter for the federal government. He may have to soon, though, now that the House voted Wednesday to put on his desk a bill that would require gun retailers to get state licenses. Once the legislation arrives in Rauners office, he will have 60 days to act. That means he will not have to make a decision until after the March 20 primary election in which he faces Rep. Jeanne Ives of Wheaton, who voted against the bill.The expansion of the 73-year-old O'Hare seeks to transform an airport long known for gridlock and delays by speeding up growth in international flights and creating more room for domestic carriers. Emanuel has said no taxpayer money or federal dollars would be needed to be pay for the plan, which he said the city would bankroll by borrowing against a future increase in airport fees and revenue generated by the expansion and new airport lease.What it says is that our office has been available for those that wish to file complaints, and that weve done it according to protocol and according to statute, Madigan said. Our commitment to everybody is that we are going to continue to do things in a proper manner, and we are going to continue to work with all interested parties to move toward a change in culture around the Capitol building and in the politics of Illinois.Asked later by a reporter if he was claiming he was the only moral candidate in the contest, Kennedy said, "I claim no morality myself." But in earlier remarks, he said of himself, "Do you want someone to lead this state who's prepared to lead, who has a moral framework and ethical background who understands the difference between right and wrong?" (Rick Pearson)National Security Agency Director Mike Rogers, joined by top intelligence officials, testifies before the Senate Intelligence Committee for a hearing focusing on global threats on Feb. 13, 2018, in Washington. (Olivier Douliery / Tribune News Service)White House adviser Jared Kushner watches as President Trump signs an executive order on Jan. 9, 2018, at the White House. Foreign officials have privately discussed ways they can manipulate Kushner by taking advantage of his complex business arrangements, according to current and former U.S. officials. (Jabin Botsford / The Washington Post)Trump says he has handed day-to-day control over his businesses to his adult sons. But Trump still owns his businesses - including the one that manages the Trump hotel in Panama - and can withdraw money from them at any time. Trump's most recent financial disclosure listed $810,000 in revenue from the Panama hotel, over a period of 15 and a half months.One major retailer, Dicks Sporting goods, announced it was halting sales of assault-style rifles and high-capacity magazines at all of its stores and banning the sale of all guns to anyone under 21. Trump had floated the idea of an age restriction immediately after the Florida shooting but has not talked about it in recent days. Trump lunched recently with leaders of the National Rifle Association, which opposes the proposal.The first group of scholars will be selected by administrators from both the university and foundation, officials said. The program is designed to attract community leaders, entrepreneurs, people who work in public service and others who are working with the goal of improving an entire locale. The experience has been tailored to groom the participants so their community work will be accelerated.Illinois gun owners and supporters fill out National Rifle Association applications while participating in an Illinois Gun Owners Lobby Day convention in Springfield in 2012. (Seth Perlman / AP)CPS made promises during its 2013 closures as well, saying shutdowns would remedy large class sizes at underutilized elementary schools, but Illinois Report Card data from the State Board of Education show that class sizes across CPS have actually climbed to among the highest in Illinois, especially in the early grades. In 2013, CPS also promised more funding for students impacted by closures  funding that paled in comparison to the amounts allocated to selective-enrollment schools and charters. Schools designated as receiving schools after the 2013 closures continue to confront enrollment drops, and CPS continues to slash their funding, fomenting an inevitable downward spiral in resources and enrollment.Despite her efforts, the picture today is much the same  a national survey included in a 2017 report by the American Alliance of Museums reveals that whites hold 84 percent of curator, conservator, educator and other leadership positions in American museums. These jobs are critical; individuals with such titles build the collections and determine the topics of the exhibits and programs that are the central activities of cultural institutions. And pipelines are part of the problem: Nationally, 80 percent of museum studies students are white.Five years is a long time for the circuit court clerks office to be under suspicion and investigation. But so far it hasnt hurt Brown at the polls. In 2016, she won re-election handily. That victory came even after the Cook County Democratic Party dropped its primary endorsement of her when news broke that the FBI had seized her work cellphone.82nd District: Last July was a disunited moment for Illinois House Republicans. Instead of standing firm against a Democrat-proposed tax hike, they splintered. Fifteen GOP members voted, some twice, to approve a 32 percent income tax hike as part of a budget agreement. The vote frustrated Burr Ridge Mayor Michael Mickey Straub and other fiscal conservatives who blamed weak leadership from Gov. Bruce Rauner and House Minority Leader Jim Durkin of Western Springs. Straub decided to challenge Durkin for his seat. The race has been ugly and mean-spirited. Straubs mission is misguided. His problem is with Durkins leadership of the GOP caucus, not Durkins legislative record. Straub cant point to many votes where he would have disagreed with Durkin. Durkin voted against that tax hike, against expanding public funding of abortions, against unbalanced budgets, and in favor of cost-saving pension reforms, limits on public employee unions and for school choice. Conservatives should build consensus for a leadership change in the caucus if thats what they want. A scorched-earth campaign to oust Durkin? Wrong move. Durkin is endorsed.Its also hard to find fault in the foundations vision for programming at the center: internships that forge future leaders and community organizers, coding programs that ready South Side youths for an information technology-oriented economy, a recording studio that, as Obama notes, could enlist Chance the Rapper or Bruce Springsteen to mentor budding artists. Twenty years from now, 30 years from now, I want young people from across the South Side, from across Chicago, to look at this center and say, This is a sign that I count. This is a sign that I can change the world, Obama told a crowd at McCormick Place.According to the ACLU lawsuit, Ms. L fled Congo, formerly Zaire, fearing near certain death and arrived at a U.S. port of entry near San Diego on Nov. 1. She and her daughter did not try to sneak in. They went directly to border agents, and the mother communicated that she was seeking asylum, which can be granted to people who have suffered persecution or fear persecution due to race, religion, nationality, political opinion or membership in a particular social group.According to the nonprofit Gun Violence Archive, there have been 35 mass shooting in America since the beginning of 2018 including the massacre in Florida (a mass shooting being defined as the killing or injuring of three or more people in the same public place). That comes to a mass shooting every other day. If this rate continues, with approximately eight months before the midterms, we should expect to see roughly 125 more mass killings before the election. Killings, not casualties.Thousands of Haitian migrants have assembled under and around a bridge in a small Texas border town as chaos unfolded Friday and presented the Biden administration with a new challenge as it tries to manage large numbers of asylum-seekers who have been reaching U.S. soil."The village board and I have received much communication and feedback from residents over the past two weeks after the tragic events in Parkland, Fla., and it is clear that this is an issue that is important to our community," Hayes said. "This letter reflects our views as a village board and we believe the time is right to communicate them to state leadership."The sentry statue that was once atop the building was taken down more than 10 years ago and is being stored in a vault by a historic preservationist in Chicago. He has estimated it would cost $45,000 for refurbishing the sentry and getting it back on top of the museum building.Johnson said for years Oswego had been told the only alternative to well water was using water from the Fox River. She said village officials were told it would be too expensive to use Lake Michigan water. However, a new study has shown it may not be so cost prohibitive, she said.Nick Surak, vice president of development for the Woda Group Inc. from Indianapolis, said the company owns and manages Deer Run Apartments, an 18-unit apartment neighborhood at 250 S. Louis St. This complex is for seniors 62 years of age or older and for handicapped and disabled residents. They also own and manage Kingsfield Apartments, a 24-unit two-story affordable apartment community for families at 300 Louis St. which was built in 1975.In 2016, a law took effect that was designed in part to limit discipline that removes students from school. Under the law, certain types of discipline  including expulsions, longer suspensions or placement in an alternative school  can be used only if a student's presence in class is deemed a significant disruption or threat, or if administrators have tried other measures. It also prohibits zero-tolerance policies that lead to automatic suspensions or expulsions for certain behavior, and sets other requirements.The city in 2011 and 2014 filed lawsuits against Fidelity to get infrastructure including roads in the subdivision completed. The city has done patch work as an interim solution for the completed roads in the neighborhood.Many politicians talk about reducing property taxes. Kennedy knows that such a reduction will only come when Illinois changes how it funds public schools. And he is realistic regarding the pension crisis facing the state. It's an obligation that has to be paid. That's the first step to realistically dealing with the issue, instead of kicking it down the road  as every Illinois politician has done since someone first warned of the impending problem."Over time," Gladstone said he has had to reconcile some anger and resentment about such historical facts because of the effect of the diseases brought by Europeans which eventually wiped out a high percentage of the Native Americans and the slaughter and decimation of the buffalo population which "was really the core of our cultural vitality."Angie Britch said her son, Bailey, became a resident at Mothers House last Dec. 7 and, although she lives more than two hours from the center, visited regularly. In one visit, she said, she used a washroom that she later found out was intended for the residents' use and found it lacked hot water, toilet paper and paper towels, and that her son, who has autism, had complained to her he couldn't shower due to a lack of hot water.According to the Illinois Department of Natural Resources, the "slow, secretive and solitary" opossum isn't generally known as a fighter. It's more likely to respond to threats by climbing trees, hiding in brush heaps and, as a last resort, playing possum  a temporary catatonic state that includes emitting a pungent odor, the agency's website states."We don't live in a perfect world. We are vulnerable not only in schools, but also in movie theaters, at concerts, in shopping malls and all public spaces. We will continue to do our very best to keep our campus safe and our community united in this desire.""Candidates Wednesday will give a three-minute opening statement, followed by two-minute responses to written questions from the moderator and the audience. The number of questions taken depends on the number of candidates at the forum, as time allows," Grom said.To take part in the effort, the generators would have to be upgraded to meet criteria established by the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency for air quality. The meeting material states that the upgrades would run about $72,000 and be designed, contracted and financed by EnerNOC and paid for using the Elgin's profits from the first two years of participation in the program."It's always humbling and eye opening," said Perryman, a former Illinois Teacher of the Year. "If you had asked (Elgin High School teacher Brigid Trimble) and I when we first started this idea, we probably would have not believed it. We didn't anticipate this. We thought we would be lucky if we had 50 viewers. We thought we'd be lucky if the webinars worked."Police said as the suspect drove off, he crashed into another vehicle, but continued driving. The suspect's vehicle was later recovered in Chicago, following a pursuit involving several police agencies intermittently."Our legal counsel looks at that and tries to determine, if we were to do something like this, what's the potential legal cost to the city?" Hagerty said. "Because if you do try to do that, the NRA is going to sue you."Wynne, who is also chair of the Planning and Development Committee that halted the request, said "we have fairly high standards" for granting a special use permit. The alderman said at the Feb. 12 committee meeting, which was held before the regular City Council meeting, that she did not feel Crayton met the criteria.Rocha said she was notified by her older sister that her brother had been stabbed, and that she immediately drove to Vista Medical Center East, where she was able to see him before he died. But, she added, he never regained consciousness while she was there.One concept he stresses is "You've got to put time in on your instrument so you become proficient enough to be able to play jazz or classical. There comes a time when you start to realize whether you're serious or not. I just wanted it to so bad, there was never a question for me."With the help of surrounding police agencies like Round Lake and Round Lake Beach, Filenko added, a perimeter was set up, and police tried to make contact with the suspect through a public address system. After that was unsuccessful, he said, a NIPAS tactical team was called in, and its officers also tried to use a public address system to get the suspect to surrender, but he would not respond."She needed help reading her assignments, and more direction on what she needed to do," the parent wrote. "I certainly didn't mind helping, but I was trying to work as well, which made my day much more difficult and less productive. I think it is a great program, but would be easier to do with older children."In all, the couple misused at least $3.7 million in loans for their personal use, the charges alleged. About $238,000 went to cover expenses at the stable, while tens of thousands of dollars more were used to pay off Houck's various credit cards, according to the filing."That allows us, as the so-called giver, to stand in a position of power where we're the ones who are literally on the stage. We get to reach out to poor folks and help them and heal them. And we get to leave; we get to go back to home. We get to stay protected by our privilege," he said.AT&T has copper cables running on the bridge, and originally the company planned to have enough slack in the cables to pull the wires up and over the railing of the bridge, Farmer said. When the company began work before the initial bridge closing date, workers found that the angle of the cable did not allow for extra slack, he said."There's also been talk about 5G, which we don't have, yet, but this new tower will also help to prepare for the future," she said.Moore "got out of the vehicle and ran down the street," where police found him shot in the "upper right side of the chest," according to the affidavit.Diaz killed Berrios, who Diaz "believed was associated with a rival gang member," while Diaz was with two other Latin Dragon Nation members on Sept. 30, according to the indictment.



Diaz-Corral fatally shot Cruz, who Diaz-Corral "believed to be a rival gang member," on Nov. 20, 2016, the indictment states.



That same month, Diaz-Corral asked a fellow gang member to kill a person Diaz-Corral "believed was providing law enforcement with information on the Paul Cruz murder," court records show.



In 2014, Mendez assaulted victims in August and shot others in October and November who he suspected of being rival gang members, according to the indictment.



Last November, Mendez is possessed a firearm that "had been used in a drive-by shooting in a rival gang neighborhood in Chicago," the indictment states.



Roggenkamp possessed a firearm in April "that was used in a shooting in East Chicago" the month before, court records show.



In November, Roggenkamp also threatened a person he "believed was providing law enforcement with information on the Charles Berrios murder," according to the indictment.



And on multiple occasions in 2016, Roggenkamp distributed marijuana, court records state.



The Latin Dragon Nation is a "Chicago-based criminal street gang" with "sets" in Northwest Indiana, southeast Chicago and Chicago's southeast suburbs, the indictment states.



Prospective members, or "shorties," are required "to prove themselves by committing various criminal acts such as drug sales and shooting at rival gang members in support of the gang," court records show. When given a "violation," the prospective member is beaten by multiple members for a certain number of minutes," the indictment states.



"The enterprise enforced what is referred to as a 'SOS,' or shoot on sight order, or also known as 'KOS,' or kill on sight, against Latin Dragon Nation members who were suspected of having cooperated with law enforcement," the indictment states.



Members are expected to follow "various prayers, codes of behavior and rituals" in a written "bible" distributed to them, according to the indictment.



Their rivals include Latin Kings, Ambrose, Spanish Gangster Disciple, Black P Stone and Spanish Vice Lords, the indictment states.



Diaz-Corral and Mendez made initial court appearances Tuesday and were ordered detained pending dention hearings Friday, records show.



Diaz is scheduled to appear in court Wednesday.



"We will never tolerate gang violence and will do everything possible to deter and defeat it," Kirsch said.



The FBI, ATF, along with Hammond, East Chicago, Chicago, Calumet City and Illinois police investigated.



rejacobs@post-trib.com



Twitter @ruthyjacobsThe Hammond Education Foundation will host its 35th annual Celebrating Extraordinary Educators dinner beginning at 5 p.m. March 15 at Dynasty Banquet Center, 4141 Calumet Ave., Hammond. One teacher from each school in the School City of Hammond will be named Outstanding Educator, while several others will be recognized as Outstanding Support Staff Members. Outstanding Administrators also will be announced, of which one will be named Administrator of the Year. Tickets are $50 and must be purchased in advance at www.hammondeducationfoundation.org. Those unable to attend who wish to sponsor or buy an ad for the event can do so at www.hammondeducationfoundation.org.Police have filed charges against a 15-year-old female Crown Point High School student for allegedly sending a bomb threat against the school via mass text last week, authorities said.



The student faces charges of felony intimidation and misdemeanor intimidation for using a cellphone to send the threat to at least 29 people on Feb. 19, police said in a news press release.



According to athe release, the text read, "I'm blowing up the school. This is a threat."



Police have not identified the student, who is a juvenile.



After the initial text, police said, a follow-up text was sent shortly after from a different number downplaying the threat, police said.



The second sender, according to the statement, identified herself as a Lake Central student, claiming she made the threat for a friend"friend who is a freshman" at Crown Point High School.



The second text said the original sender was "sorry" and "nothing was going to happen," police said.



Crown Point police later clarified no Lake Central students were actually involved in the incident. Police traced both numbers, which had been disguised through mobile apps.



Lake County Dispatch traced both numbers through bandwith.com, a VoIP website, to Pinger, Inc.  a mobile app company that provides decoy phone numbers commonly used to disguise an original cellphone number, police said.



Both companies cooperated with police to confirm where the texts originated, police said.The project will cost the city between $6 million and $6.5 million, and work on one of the earliest steps in the project, building Poplar Street from Central Avenue north to Evergreen Street, to create an alternative traffic route, could begin this fall, officials said."It's very different," said Franco. "We had a lot of deep reds and burgundies and greens in the scheme and we've gone to navy, grays and browns. You always have to invest in the way your restaurant looks and stay ahead of the times. You want to keep attracting people and stay up with the current trends.""I ran on the issue of reaching a stormwater resolution," he said. "I feel like we're heading towards action which is going to address as many homes in the village as possible, but will do it in a way that's going to be fiscally responsible."Cheesecake by Thomas is offering the full 'cheesecake experience'

Thomas Cosgrove began his cheesecake business to help Puebloans feel good following city's 19th-place listing among worst places to live in America.By Paul Dwyer, Director, Head of International Tax and Transfer Pricing

Chinas State Administration of Taxation (SAT) released the long-awaited Public Notice [2018] No.9 (Public Notice 9) on February 3, 2018.

Public Notice 9 provides additional guidance on assessing the beneficial ownership status for the purpose of enjoying the treaty benefits under Chinas tax treaties, including the China-Hong Kong Double Tax Agreement. Public Notice 9 will take effect from April 1, 2018.

Public Notice 9 introduces two favorable changes for claiming treaty benefits on dividends received from China. These are:

Extending the scope of the safe harbor rule stipulated in the SAT Public Notice [2012] No.30 (Public Notice 30) such that it now does not only apply in respect of listed companies, but also governments and individuals; and Introducing the new same jurisdiction/same treaty benefit rule in respect of multi-tier holding structures.

Public Notice 9 has, however, tightened two of the seven unfavorable factors set out in Guoshuihan [2009] No.601 (Circular 601) for assessing beneficial ownership status.

The extended safe harbor rule

Public Notice 9 extends the scope of safe harbor rule in respect of dividend income such that the rule now applies to treaty benefit applicants, which are:

A listed company, a government, or an individual who is a resident of tax treaty jurisdiction; or A company wholly owned directly or indirectly by such listed company, government, or individual.

The new same jurisdiction rule

Under the same jurisdiction rule, any intermediate shareholder(s) in a multi-tier holding structure need not be a Hong Kong tax resident if:

The shareholder directly or indirectly holding 100 percent equity interest of the Hong Kong applicant qualifies as a Beneficial Owner (BO) upon assessment based on the five unfavorable factors of Public Notice 9; and Both the shareholder and the Hong Kong applicant are tax residents of Hong Kong, the Hong Kong applicant will be treated as the BO of the dividends.

The new same treaty benefit rule

Hong Kong applicants will be treated as the BO of the dividends if:

The shareholder directly or indirectly holding 100 percent equity interest of the Hong Kong applicant qualifies as a BO upon assessment based on the five unfavorable factors in Public Notice 9; and Such shareholder and all the intermediate shareholder(s) (if any) in the multi-tier holding structure of the Hong Kong applicant are residents of a tax treaty jurisdiction that enjoys the same or better treaty benefit with respect to the dividends received from China as compared to that is entitled by the Hong Kong applicant.

Public Notice 9 also specifies that the shareholding percentage in the safe harbor rule and the above two scenarios shall be met at all times during the 12 consecutive months before dividends are received, which reflects the shareholding continuity requirements.

Changes to the unfavorable factors for BO assessment

Public Notice 9 makes some amendments to the seven unfavorable factors in Circular 601. This has been done by tightening the first and second factors, deleting the third and fourth factors, and retaining factors five to seven.

The amendment to the first unfavorable factor indicates that the SAT will not only consider the legal or contractual payment obligation, but also examine whether any payment is carried out based on the factual circumstances.

According to the interpretation notes of Public Notice 9, even if the applicant has not made any cash payment, certain inter-company transactions such as netting off of inter-company payable/receivable or other genuine commercial arrangements (e.g. providing a loan to a group company after receiving the income from China) may be considered as a payment made that may affect the BO status of the applicant.

As for the second unfavorable factor, the interpretation notes of Public Notice 9 provide (1) further guidance on what investment and management activities are; and (2) a few examples to illustrate the SATs view on substantive business activities.

For the situation where an applicant carries out both non-substantive investment/management activities and other business activities, the explanatory notes indicate that where the income generated from the other business activities by the applicant is less than 8 percent of its total income, the other business activities are regarded as insignificant.

Tax residency certificate requirement

Public Notice 9 also specifies the tax residency certificate (TRC) requirements for treaty benefits claims in the following circumstances:

Under the extended safe harbor rule, the treaty applicant (i.e. the Hong Kong applicant) as well as the ultimate and intermediate 100 percent shareholders of the Hong Kong applicant need to provide a Hong Kong TRC;

Under the same jurisdiction rule, both the treaty benefit applicant (i.e. the Hong Kong applicant) and the 100 percent shareholder of the Hong Kong applicant that qualifies as BO need to obtain a Hong Kong TRC; and

Under the same treaty benefit rule, the treaty benefit applicant (i.e. the Hong Kong applicant), the 100 percent shareholder of the Hong Kong applicant that qualifies as a BO and all the intermediate 100 percent shareholders (if any) need to obtain a TRC for the relevant tax treaty jurisdictions.

The TRC must show the residence status for the year in which the income was received or for the previous year.

Favorable changes

Companies investing through a holding company located in a jurisdiction that holds a treaty agreement with China should review whether the extended safe harbor rule or the same jurisdiction/same treaty benefit rule in Public Notice 9 allow them enjoy treaty benefits.

This includes Hong Kong-based holding companies, which may be able to benefit from the dividends article of the China-Hong Kong Double Tax Agreement depending on their existing investment/business structure.

One the other hand, it is critical to note that the Public Notice 9 makes it clear that even if an applicant is a BO, the Chinese tax authorities can still initiate a GAAR investigation to deny treaty benefits, based on a Main Purpose Test or Principle Purpose Test under some tax treaties.

It is therefore advisable to review the existing investment holding structure to avoid any potential tax challenges.An event celebrating the Chinese New Year was held at the New Zealand parliament on Tuesday.

"Chinese New Year is celebrated around the globe wherever Chinese people have settled and started communities and it's no different here in Aotearoa (New Zealand)," said Minister for Ethnic Communities Jenny Salesa who hosted the event.

Guest speakers of the event included New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Political Counsellor at the Chinese Embassy Qu Guangzhou.

Chinese New Zealanders account for 4 percent of New Zealand's total population and are the third largest ethnic group in New Zealand, Salesa said.

The first Chinese New Year event was celebrated at the parliament in 2002, and has been celebrated annually since then, she said.A notice released from China's Ministry of Education has ordered primary and middle schools to stop favoring applicants with special talents, such as those in sports.



The notice asked schools to stop enrolling students based on their special talents and to cancel such admission projects by 2020.

It's seen as a response to growing calls for a fair education system, since the program allows a certain number of students to win extra points for special skills, which is seen as a shortcut by some parents to make their children get ahead of other students.

In 2014, the ministry issued a document, requiring schools to downsize the proportion of enrolled students to 5 percent to junior middle schools.

I think the new requirement will upset some parents who spent a lot of time developing their child's special talents, but I hope it could be implemented as soon as possible, said Amy Yang, a primary school teacher in central China's Hubei Province.

The pro-talent program makes it unfair for those who study harder to improve their academic scores, Yang added.

The initial purpose of the program was to encourage more students to make the best of their talents, but it seems more like a burden for their parents.

Jason Wong, a father of an 11-year-old boy, said his son had been learning Chinese painting and piano. The cost of the lessons for a month can reach 3,000 yuan (roughly $475).

Wong said he has to put up with the burden, as half of his son's classmates were developing their talents. He added he doesn't want his son to lag behind other students.The Chinese version of American investor Ray Dalio's new book entitled "Principles: Life and Work" was released in China on Feb. 27.



In the book, the founder of investment management firm Bridgewater Associates shares the principles that he has developed, refined and used over the past four decades.

Dalio wrote the book because, in his own words, he is in a transition from a phase where he was trying to become successful to one where he has the responsibility to help others succeed.

In a speech at Tuesday's book-launch ceremony in Beijing, he stressed the importance of asking, "How do I know I'm right?" rather than thinking, "I'm right."

The approach to finding the answer to that question is "building an organization where there is thoughtful disagreement and the best idea will win out."

To let the best idea win out, you need to put honest thoughts on the table, express thoughtful disagreement and get past disagreement through effective means, he said.

Asked which overarching principles from the hundreds in his book he will tell his four children, Dalio said the most important principle is to think independently and develop principles that work for yourself.

Published in America last September, the 592-page English version of the book topped the New York Times Bestseller List and was designated the Amazon Business Book of the Year.

Dalio is now working on a second book, called "Principles: Economic and Investment," in which he will elaborate his philosophy for investment and corporate management.

Founded in 1975, Bridgewater Associates is famous for anticipating the global financial crisis of 2008-2009. It became the world's largest hedge fund in 2012, and as of October 2014, there were over US$160 billion in assets under its management.

The release ceremony was organized by Caijing, a weekly business magazine based in Beijing.You are here: Business

Chinese conglomerate Fosun International Limited announced Tuesday it had acquired a Brazilian institutional brokerage and wealth management firm.

Fosun said it would pay about 52 million U.S. dollars for the acquisition of Guide Investimentos, based in Sao Paulo, and up to an additional 37 million dollars depending of the company's future performance.

Guide Investimentos, founded in 1967, was a subsidiary of a Brazilian bank, Banco Indusval. The bank will continue to own up to a 20-percent stake in Guide Investimentos after the transaction.

Shanghai-based Fosun said the purchase is in line with the company's strategy to invest in emerging countries, especially in Latin America. In 2016, Fosun purchased Brazilian asset management company Rio Bravo.

The acquisition of Guide Investimentos will help Fosun build a financial group platform in Brazil, serving the country's customers with richer investment products and services.

Completion of the acquisition is pending approval from the Central Bank of Brazil.Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei is set to help Algeria build e-government by digitizing a large volume of official documents of various ministries, a senior manager from Huawei told Xinhua in a recent interview.





"Algeria has launched a performance improvement program of its administration, and Huawei hopes to participate in this project with local partners," said Gao Jie, the general manager of Huawei Telecoms Algeria.





The use of information and communications technology by government, commonly known as e-government, aims at making public services more accessible to customers and improving their internal operations.





Many Algerian ministries, such as the defense ministry, the interior ministry and foreign ministry, are working to these ends and some of them have made remarkable advances.





For Huawei Algeria, it is also interested in the ambitious projects of e-commerce and e-banking in the North African country.





"Such projects require the existence of a very high-speed internet hitting 20 megabits per second instead of the current 1 or 2 megabits that most Internet users in Algeria have," Gao noted.





"Once all platforms required for online commerce are deployed, Algerians will be able to do business transactions with a single click on their personal computers or smartphones," he added.





According to Gao, only some large state-run companies, such as Air Algeria, Algeria Telecom and Sonelgaz, are offering this service to their customers.





Another project on which Huawei Algeria is working is deployment of infrastructure networks in the country, he said.





Huawei Algeria, which employs 100 Chinese and 400 Algerians, entered the country in 2008, and has since been in close cooperation with local phone operators.





In addition to solutions and services, Huawei Algeria also provides high-level training programs to Algerian engineers and university teachers.





HuaWei trained more than 2,000 young Algerians in 2017 alone, Gao said, adding that his company also selects 10 local engineers every year for further training in China.





Citing multiple projects underway or under consideration, Gao revealed that Huawei is now studying the possibility of establishing a smartphone assembly plant in the North African country.



You are here: Business

The French luxury department store Galeries Lafayette will open a store in Shanghai, its second outlet in China.





The store will be located in Lujiazui, a commercial and financial center, and is expected to open within the year, said Lu Qixing, deputy director of the commerce commission of Shanghai Pudong New Area, Tuesday.





The outlet, covering about 23,000 square meters, will sit in a shopping mall in Lujiazui, according to a cooperation agreement signed between Galeries Lafayette (China) Limited and Shanghai Lujiazui Finance and Trade Zone Development Co., Ltd, a local property company.





The cooperation will last 19 years and 11 months, the agreement said.





Galeries Lafayette opened its first China store in Beijing in 2013. The six-floor facility, covering 47,000 square meters, is in Xi'dan, a vibrant shopping area.



China's anti-graft system will see a fundamental change as the top legislature is scheduled to review a draft amendment to the Constitution and the country's first law on supervision to give legal footing to a new national supervisory commission.





Some 2,980 deputies attending the first plenary session of the 13th National People's Congress, starting on Monday, will deliberate on the two draft measures, according to the agenda.





Only a plenary meeting of the NPC can adopt amendments to the Constitution and laws related to the country's fundamental systems.





A major change proposed to the Constitution is to list the supervisory commissions as a new type of State organ.





The proposal says supervisory organs will be listed together with administrative, judicial and procuratorial organs of the State, all of which are created by the people's congresses, to which they are responsible and by which they are supervised.





The supervisory commissions will independently exercise their power of oversight and not be subject to interference by any administrative organ, public organization or individual, the proposal says.





The draft supervision law, reviewed by the NPC Standing Committee twice, in June and December, details how the supervisory commissions work, as well as their duties and obligations.





The law applies to all public officers, including civil servants and those working for public schools and medical institutes, which means that the nation's fight against corruption covers every public corner, experts said.





To better study how to operate the system, pilot supervisory commissions were set up in Beijing and in Shanxi and Zhejiang provinces in 2016. In October, the test was extended across the country.





By Sunday, the nation's 31 provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions had elected directors of their supervisory commissions.





The commission at each level integrates forces to fight corruption in government authorities, including anti-graft bureaus in people's procuratorates, and then works together with local disciplinary authorities of the Communist Party of China.





Such joint efforts have brought more public officers under supervision. For instance, about 2 million public officers are now under supervision in Henan province, up from 908,000 before the reform.





"The establishment of such commissions at provincial, city and county levels is a foundation to set up a national supervisory commission," said Ma Huaide, vice-president of China University of Political Science and Law.





He added that the draft, as well as the pilot program, will use the rule of law to guide the anti-corruption fight.





The draft has received lots of attention since it is designed to replace the practice of shuanggui, an intra-Party disciplinary practice in which CPC members under investigation must cooperate with questioning at a set time and place.





The decision to replace shuanggui with detention was declared during the 19th CPC National Congress in October to deepen reform of the country's supervision system.





Compared with the first version in June, the latest draft has specified procedures for detention and improved protection of the legitimate rights of graft suspects.





For example, the family and employers of detainees should be informed within 24 hours, and frozen assets should be released within three days of being found irrelevant to the case, according to the draft.





Guo Yong, a law professor at Tsinghua University, said such detailed rules can safeguard suspects' legitimate rights while also raising requirements for law enforcers.





Ma and Guo said the new mechanism will be crucial to boosting the country's fight against corruption.



Editor's Note:Although Yunnan province is less developed economically, when compared with Chinas eastern provinces, its tourism resources are so rich that one should not explore China without visiting Yunnan. From the world-renowned Lijiang, to numerous small ancient towns; From the amazing Karst formations to the newly listed World Heritage Site Hani Terrace, Yunnan can be a complete eye-opener for even the most discerning travelers. Here are eight Yunnan destinations not to be missed.

1 The Old Town of Lijiang

The Old Town of Lijiang, located in the Lijiang Autonomous County of the Naxi Ethnic Minority, Southwest Chinas Yunnan province, is one of the last surviving ancient towns in China.

Lying in a broad, fertile valley in the northwest of Yunnan Province, the Old Town of Lijiang has been a commercial, political and cultural center of the Naxi people and other ethnic minorities for over eight centuries.

Designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1997, Lijiang's Naxi people still preserve much of their native Dongba culture and deep spiritual connection to nature.[Photo/China.org.cn] Flash

The visa-free tourist flow from China to Russia rose 23 percent year on year to 944,000 people in 2017, the Russian travel association "World without borders" said Tuesday.





A total of 1.24 million Chinese tourists visited Russia in the first nine months of 2017, it said in a statement.





Group tourists from China and Russia can visit each other's country visa-free.





"China is our strategic partner in the sphere of tourism and the leader in terms of visitor numbers," the statement quoted Oleg Safonov, head of the Russian Federal Agency for Tourism, as saying.





"We pay great attention to the creation of comfortable travel conditions for Chinese citizens in our country, developing special routes and programs for them and training Chinese-speaking guides," he added.





According to the association, the most popular routes among Chinese tourists on the visa-free basis were Moscow and the second-largest city St. Petersburg, which attracted 52 percent of the visitors, followed by border regions and some parts of Siberia.





The number of Russians who visited China visa-free last year was 415,000, an increase of 20 percent from a year ago, it said, adding that most of them were residents of the bordering regions.







 Flash

China said Tuesday that it hopes for direct dialogue between the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) and the United States, and hopes such dialogue will commence soon.





Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang made the comment responding to reports that U.S. President Donald Trump said Monday that talks with the DPRK would be possible "only under the right conditions," after the DPRK side expressed its willingness to talk with the United States.





Lu said that there is a relaxation of tension on the Korean Peninsula recently, and China hopes that the detente could be sustained after the Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games, which conforms to the common aspiration of the DPRK and ROK, countries in the region and the international community, and will help push relevant parties back to the track of solving Peninsula nuclear issue via negotiations.





China hopes the dialogue between the DPRK and the ROK could be expanded to direct dialogue between the U.S. and the DPRK, Lu told a routine news briefing. "After all, the core of the Korean Peninsula issue is about security, and the U.S. and the DPRK hold the key to solving the issue."





"The dialogue between the U.S. and the DPRK is not only China's hope, but the common wish of the international community," Lu said. "We hope such dialogues can be held at an early date, and that the U.S. and the DPRK will work together towards achieving beneficial results through effective dialogues."You are here: World

 Flash

Eleven people fell ill after a suspicious envelope containing an unknown substance was opened Tuesday at a U.S. military base in the state of Virginia, local authorities said.

The Arlington County Fire Department tweeted that the hazmat scare occurred at an administrative building at Base Myer-Henderson Hall, previously known as Fort Myer Base.

The facility is next to Arlington National Cemetery and close to the Pentagon.

Three people were taken to hospital and are in stable condition, the fire department said in another tweet.

The U.S. Marines said in a tweet that the suspicious envelope was received at Fort Myer and the building where it was opened was evacuated in precaution.

Officials of the military base are coordinating with local hazmat teams and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. No additional details are immediately available as the probe is ongoing. Flash

Turkey has sent hundreds of police and gendarmerie special forces to northern Syria, signaling a new stage in its major offensive against the Kurdish militia as urban fighting looms.



Turkey's latest military deployment is aimed at creating a safe zone along its border with Syria.

Turkish forces and their Syrian rebel allies have launched an air-ground campaign dubbed Operation Olive Branch into the Afrin region in Syria since Jan. 20. It aims to clear the Turkish border of the People's Protection Units (YPG), regarded by Ankara as the Syrian affiliate of the banned Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).

"The special forces is in preparation for the new battle that is approaching," Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Bekir Bozdag told NTV news channel.

"The fight will shift to places where there are civilians, as the zone of fighting narrows," he said, adding that the special forces units have experience in fighting militants in residential areas.

Gendarmerie and police special forces would take part in urban fighting and holding villages which Turkish forces have already seized, defying international warnings.

Most of the larger towns in Afrin region, including the town of Afrin itself, remain under YPG control and the advance of Turkish troops could lead to some urban clashes, said observers.

"A new stage of the fight is looming because, after having captured small villages, there are bigger and more populated settlements on the way of the soldiers now," said political commentator and Hurriyet daily columnist Deniz Zeyrek.

Turkey forms "crescent" in Syria



Turkish state media also confirmed that the Turkish army took control of the outer edge of Syria's Afrin region, creating thus a de facto safe border zone and a "crescent" of control on Syria's side of the border.

While Turkish troops are progressing in Syria in an open-ended incursion, Turkey said that Saturday's UN Security Council demand for a 30-day truce across Syria does not apply to its offensive in Afrin.

"Some regions such as eastern Ghouta are part of the UN cease-fire decision in Syria, but Afrin is not one of them," said Bozdag, who is also the government spokesman.

The cease-fire does not apply to military operations against Islamic State (IS), al-Qaida and groups associated with them or other groups designated as terrorist organizations by the Security Council.

But French President Emmanuel Macron, in a phone conversation with his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Monday, insisted that the Turkish operation should fall within the realms of the UN decision.

Turkey regards the YPG as an extension of the PKK which has waged a three-decade-old insurgency in the southeast of Turkey. The PKK is listed as terror group by the United States and European Union, but the YPG is Washington's main ally in the fight against IS in northeast Syria.

Washington's military support to the YPG has severally strained the relations between Turkey and the United States.

The two sides decided during Secretary of State Rex Tillerson's crucial visit to Ankara to normalize ties and create tension diffusing mechanisms.

Turkey could refrain from entering Afrin



Some experts, however, argued that Turkey will eventually have to yield to international pressure and refrain from entering the town of Afrin.

Kerim Has, a Turkish academic who lectures at Moscow State Academy, said neither Russia nor the U.S. wishes the Turkish operation turns into an urban warfare.

Russia, a major player and military supporter to the Syrian regime, will tolerate only for some time the Turkish military near Afrin town, Has said.

"Russia will then push Ankara and Damascus towards dialogue and a deal," Has said, noting that Moscow gave a green light to the Turkish offensive solely in order to establish first a rapprochement between Ankara and Damascus, and then a reconciliation, in line with Moscow's policy to prevent Ankara falling on Washington's side in the Syrian crisis.

Turke severed all cordial ties with the Syrian regime at the beginning of the civil war in Syria and was adamant in ousting Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

But for the moment the Turkish operation has raised tensions between Ankara and Damascus. The Syrian government has condemned the operation as a violation of the country's sovereignty and sent militia to Afrin to reinforce the Kurds in their resistance against Turkish troops.

The reports were disputed by Ankara, which said the pro-government forces were prevented from entering the region.

Erdogan has signaled that the Turkish operation would last for months, though it was initially supposed to last for only a few weeks.

He also repeated that the siege of Afrin's town center was imminent in front of a crowd of his supporters hailing Turkish troops advance.

"We are on the eve of a new resurrection," said Erdogan during a rally in the southeastern city of Kahramanmaras.

To help the Turkish forces, a 600-strong Kurdish force trained by the army in Turkey, the Kurdish Falcons, has also been deployed in the Afrin region under the leadership of the Turkey-backed Syrian Rebels.

Apart from valuable military engagement, the Kurdish unit would also provide language assistance in the event of an urban assault, according to warfare specialists.

Turkish officials have vehemently rejected concerns over civilian casualties voiced mostly by the YPG, claiming that utmost care is being taken to prevent collateral damage. Flash

London police issued a public appeal Tuesday to find a missing Chinese student.



Yan Sihong, 35, was reported missing to police on Monday. The Westminster police said they are growing increasingly concerned for the welfare of the missing college student.

Yan was last seen at noon time on Feb. 14 at her university, King's College London, by her friend, according to police.

"She is a Chinese female, around 5ft 5ins tall, slim build, with black hair," the appeal said, attaching a picture of her.

Police said Yan suffers with a long-term back condition which sometime does cause her mobility issues, but there are no other known issues at this time.

Officers urge anyone with information on her whereabouts to call police on 101 or Missing People on 116000.

The Chinese embassy in Britain confirmed in a statement Tuesday that Yan's family has turned to the embassy for help and already reported to the British police.

"The embassy will continue to pay close attention to the case, to coordinate with students unions to help find the missing student, as well as to keep in touch with her family member and the British police," it said. Flash

A teenage Boko Haram fighter clutching an AK-47 assault rifle was among the abductors of 110 schoolgirls in Nigeria's northeastern state of Yobe on Feb. 19, four students and a local guard who witnessed the incident said on Tuesday.

The teenage Boko Haram fighter shot sporadically in the air and ordered the students of the Government Girls Science and Technical College in Dapchi area of Yobe to hop into three waiting trucks stationed by the terror group at the entrance of the school on the day of the incident, one of the four students said.

"The boy looked like a 13-year-old. If not that he was holding a gun and shooting it so easily, I would have held and overpowered him," said the 14-year-old student.

Three other girls, all students of the all-girl college, corroborated this narration.

The four girls were among 48 girls who escaped by jumping over the fence and fled to a nearby bush, about five kilometers away from the school, on the day of the attack.

"The three trucks were parked at the school's main gate and manned by some of the attackers, while several others stood at strategic points to capture the distraught students and teachers.

"The teenage Boko Haram fighter and a few others marched to our hostels while shooting endlessly to scare us all," said the students, in the local Hausa language widely spoken across many African countries.

According to them, the attackers did not hurt any of the students or teachers but the fear of imminent abduction made most of the students and local school workers to run in different directions.

The school's 58-year-old guard Halilu Adamu said he fled the scene upon sighting the three trucks stationed at the main gate.

"I saw the boy, young enough to be my grandson, wielding a big gun. From the way he moved, it was obvious that the gun's weight was too much for him," Adamu said.

Many young boys had been taken by Boko Haram in the past and following their conscription into the terror group, they're being used as either suicide bombers or trained to handle firearms during attacks, Afolabi Adewuyi, a Nigerian security expert in the Yobe State capital, told Xinhua by telephone.

Nigerian authorities on Tuesday gave a description of each of the 110 missing schoolgirls, saying the girls' ages range from 11 to 19 years.

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.

Only 107 of the Chibok girls have been rescued or returned amid ongoing government negotiation with Boko Haram.

The United Nations believes Boko Haram has killed more than 20,000 innocent people since 2009 through terror attacks. Flash

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Tuesday warned of dangers which may emanate from a revision of the Iran nuclear deal.

"We, like France, consider it necessary to fully implement the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) and it would be extremely dangerous to break the deal," Lavrov said at a press conference following talks with his French counterpart, Jean-Yves Le Drian.

"If there is a desire to discuss some issues concerning Iran in the same format that coordinated the JCPOA, or some other format, it should be done with the obligatory participation of Iran and on the principle of consensus, not ultimatums," he added.

Iran and six international mediators -- Russia, the United States, Britain, China, France and Germany -- in 2015 reached the historic agreement on the settlement of the long-standing problem of Iran's nuclear energy.

Under the JCPOA, Iran agreed to halt its nuclear weapons program in exchange for economic aid and the lifting of international sanctions.

However, U.S. President Donald Trump has repeatedly accused Iran of violating the deal and threatened to abandon the pact unless it was revised.

Despite the Iran nuclear deal, the United States has kept on slapping separate sanctions on Iran, accusing the country of having a ballistic missiles program as well as human rights abuses.

At Tuesday's press conference, Le Drian expressed Paris' concern about Iran's missile program.

"As for ballistic missiles, I'm talking about Iran, this situation worries us very much. I will soon go to Tehran, next Monday," he said.

"I will clearly tell the Tehran authorities: This is a treaty and it must be implemented. Secondly, there is a risk and it is necessary to do everything to avoid this risk," Le Drian said.

After signing the JCPOA, Iran has conducted several ballistic missile tests, repeatedly stressing that its missile program was purely defensive and that Tehran was not going to discuss with anyone issues related to its defense.You are here: World

 Flash

Turkey has not been engaged in any diplomatic talks with the U.S. over the ongoing military operation in Syria's Afrin, the Turkish Foreign Ministry spokesperson said Tuesday.

Spokesperson Hami Aksoy told reporters that the Pentagon's statement regarding Syria's Afrin is not true.

On Monday, The U.S. Defense Department spokesperson Adrian Galloway said that Ankara and Washington are holding diplomatic talks to ease tensions in Afrin.

"There are diplomatic discussions ongoing right now to de-escalate the situation in Afrin," he told reporters in a press briefing, adding the move is "to focus on the fight against the Islamic State(IS)."

During U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson's visit to Ankara on Feb. 15-16, the two countries agreed to establish a new mechanism to handle problematic areas, including Syria issue.

The two sides will hold first working group meeting by mid-March as part of the mechanisms.

Manbij will be on the top of the agenda of bilateral talks, according to the joint statement.

On Jan. 20, Turkey launched Operation Olive Branch to clear the People's Protection Units (YPG) militia from Syria's Afrin.

Ankara sees YPG as the Syrian affiliates of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), a terrorist organization listed by Turkey. Flash

At least four civilians have been killed during a truce as Syrian government forces launched fresh attacks in the rebel-held Damascus suburb, reported Al Jazeera citing a source from Syria's Civil Defense.



According to Mahmoud Adam, a spokesman for Syria's Civil Defense, four people, including a woman, died and several others have been wounded.

A local activist said the attacks began at9:30 am (7:30 GMT) on Tuesday, 30 minutes after a Russia-backed ceasefire began.

Since a Russian-backed "pause" went into effect  there were reports of shelling along a corridor in east Ghouta, which was supposed to be a way out for trapped civilians.

Russia was looking to establish safe exit corridors, and halted the fighting for a five-hour window every day, to give trapped civilians a safe passage out of the war zone.

But as the day ended, no civilians had left.

The Syrian army, which is manning the crossing point, told CGTN the rebels fired several mortars down on civilians who were trying to leave.

The government has often accused the rebels of using civilians as human shields.

"We believe that creating favorable conditions for the people of eastern Ghouta to leave for safe places is the way to implement international legitimacy and allow the Syrian forces to get rid of these terrorist elements that have taken civilians hostages for many years," Syrian Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad said.

The rebels, on the other hand, had a different plan.

On Tuesday, a spokesman for Jaish Al-Islam  one of the three main factions inside the embattled enclave  told CGTN they would agree to an arrangement in which militants from Al-Qaeda's affiliate in Syria would be evacuated in exchange for a 15-day ceasefire.

The same source said that forcing civilians out of their homes was never part of the United Nations Security Council's resolution. Rather, it called for the evacuation of the sick and wounded only, as well as allowing humanitarian aid in, and accused the government of not abiding by UNSC resolution 2401.

Buses carrying civilians out of Eastern Ghouta were supposed to travel down a main road to bring families to safety  but that never happened.

Syrian officials say the civilians will come out at some point, and when they do, the Syrian military says retaking Ghouta will only take a matter of days.Premier notes role of two countries in 'new wave' of technology revolution

China and Germany will strengthen cooperation in scientific fields to tackle global issues and help achieve green and sustainable socioeconomic development through innovation, officials from both countries said on Tuesday.

This year marks the 40th anniversary of the signing of the Sino-German Intergovernmental Scientific and Technological Cooperation Agreement - a key platform for scientific collaboration between the two nations.The United Nations Security Council has adopted a Russian-drafted resolution on a technical rollover of the Yemen sanctions regime, Xinhua News Agency reported.

The unanimous vote on Monday followed a Russian veto of a text drafted by the United Kingdom which contained language regarding Iranian "noncompliance" with the UN sanctions against individuals and entities deemed to be engaging in or providing support for acts that threaten the peace, security or stability of Yemen.

In the vote on the UK-drafted text, 11 members of the council were in favor, Russia and Bolivia were against, and China and Kazakhstan abstained.Lantern Festival celebrations span the Straits ( chinadaily.com.cn ) Updated: 2018-02-27

The switch-on ceremony of the 16th Mawei-Matsu Lantern Festival was held in Fuzhou, capital city of Fujian province last Sunday night, five days ahead of the Lantern Festival.

China's Lantern Festival, which falls on March 2 this year, is considered as the curtain-closer for Spring Festival. Every year, people in Mawei district - in Fujian - and Matsu Island in Taiwan have been sharing the holiday spirit by jointly launching a lantern show and switching lanterns across the Strait.

This year, a total of 53 sets of lanterns were lit up at Fuzhou's East Riverside Park, attracting more than 10,000 local residents to come and admire it on the first night.

The lanterns, designed in different shapes and styles, featured Mawei's achievements over the past five years, the cross-Straits strong ties as well as the Spring Festival celebrations, stretching along a one-km-long street in the park.

Meanwhile, 35 sets of intricately-designed lanterns will make their way from Mawei to Matsu on Tuesday along with some local folk customs performances like the Fujian Opera.

According to the event's organizing committee, the lanterns to be sent to Matsu integrate some local folk beliefs and customs and express Mawei people's best wishes for the compatriots living on the island.

This gesture of cross-Strait friendship was initiated in 2003. It also marks the first national intangible cultural heritage co-application by the mainland and Taiwan.

The switch-on ceremony of the 16th Mawei-Matsu Lantern Festival is held in Fuzhou, capital city of Fujian province last Sunday night. [Photo/fjsen.com]Georgia state senators recently signed a bill that protects the right of faith-based adoption agencies to reject same-sex couples, single parents and unwed partners who want to have kids. Opponents of the bill, however, raised concerns about the potential discrimination it might cause.

The state senators voted 35-19 on SB 375 last Friday following an hour of debate and discussions. The bill, however, will still go through Congress and requires the approval of Gov. Nathan Deal before it becomes a law.

Supporters of the bill said that the approval of SB 375 would encourage more faith-based adoption agencies, which could legally choose their clients, to set up or expand its operations in the state and help thousands of children. It should be reiterated that Georgia laws do not consider rejection or discrimination because of sexual orientation as illegal.

"We're failing these children by not doing everything that we can do to ensure every door of opportunity is open and available to them for placement," one of the bill's sponsors, Republican Sen. William Ligon, said. "There are agencies that are willing to do this if they're given legal certainty."

But many Democratic senators criticized the proposal. Some of those who opposed the bill stated that Georgia might lose key businesses that support LGBT communities, such as a progressive company like Amazon, that is planning to open its second headquarters.

"The language of the statute ... tends to put these adoption agencies before the best interests of the child," Democratic Sen. Jen Jordan stated. Democratic Sen. Nan Orrock also pointed out that if the state wanted to help the 13,000 children in foster care, preventing LGBT families from adopting would not be the solution.

In 2016, Georgia's Republican governor vetoed a similar bill that was supposed to provide religious liberties to faith-based organizations. Deal said it was not necessary to define these rights in a statute since religious liberties were already protected under the First Amendment."Game of Thrones" fans might recognize James Faulkner as the Lord of Horn Hill, Randyll Tarly, or the character who burned to death because he did not bend the knee for Daenerys Targaryen. The actor recently finished filming a faith-based movie named "Paul, Apostle of Christ," where he played the titular role.

Faulkner, who is an Anglican, told the Catholic News Service that he knew of the apostle's life and story before doing the movie. He was quite "familiar with the New Testament" as a schoolboy, and work on the film, including the preparations, was swift.

The actor shared that he was the last person cast for the project. His manager had been holding on to the script for months but knew that Faulkner was the right person for the part.

Faulkner revealed that work on "Paul, Apostle of Christ" was a transforming experience. Though he continued to read the letters of the apostle in-between takes, he credited screenplay writer and director Andrew Hyatt for helping him do justice to the role because of his notes and insights into the character.

"I didn't play Paul, it played me," the actor said. "I was imbued with the spirit of Paul."

The movie centers on the dynamics of Paul and Luke's (played by Jim Caviezel) relationship as believers and apostles of Jesus Christ during the Roman period, when Christians were heavily persecuted. Their story opens with Paul's capture and imprisonment under King Nero, with both Paul and Luke risking their lives for their faith.

Faulkner shared that it was his first time working with Caviezel, who was best known for playing Jesus in "The Passion of Christ" (2004), and Olivier Martinez, who played the prison warden Mauritius. Faulkner said they did a table read before filming but the whole production process took just 23 days in Malta.

Paul, was perhaps the most important convert of Christianity, and had never met Jesus while He lived. Instead, a resurrected Jesus came to him via a bright light that blinded him. When he regained his eyesight, Paul started teaching about the Gospel and wrote most of the passages in the Acts of the Apostles.

"We committed to create a film true to the biblical account of Paul's life but also one that is dramatic and engaging," film producer T.J. Berden stated in a press release. "The trials faced by early Christians and their faith and bravery in spite of them will amaze audiences."

"Paul, Apostle of Christ" opens in theaters Friday, March 23.Leaders of the Islamic State have called on its followers to kidnap and murder Christians who live in "Russian-occupied Muslim areas," a new report revealed. The order came just days after ISIS claimed responsibility over the shooting that took place inside a Catholic church in Dagestan.

A letter obtained by the SITE Intelligence Group revealed that ISIS had asked its followers to attack Christians in Russia. The document, titled "Strike Their Necks and Strike Each One of Their Sons," said Christian Russians had purposely occupied Muslim sites in Central Asia to convert people to Christianity or displace their group, thus ISIS supporters must kidnap and kill them. The letter identified those particular sites as Chechnya, Ingushetia and Dagestan.

The letter also referred to the attack on Dagestan as a hint of what ISIS members must follow, where a masked killer used a hunting rifle to open fire at devotees observing the Maslenitsa, a pre-Lenten festival at the Cathedral of St. George. The gunman, whom ISIS described as one of the "zealous soldiers of Islam," allegedly shouted "Allahu Akbar" as he attacked. Five people died from the incident, while the 22-year-old shooter also perished when the police arrived.

"Allah permitting, this will be the spark for more bloody attacks that will destroy a larger number of the Christian combatants in all the Russian-occupied Muslim areas," the message to ISIS followers read. "Many of them will be killed as a punishment for their disbelief in Allah the Great, and it will plant fear and horror inside the hearts of hundreds of thousands of their brothers and make them flee with fear."

Russia has been helping President Basher al-Assad in the fight against the Islamic State in Syria. The letter, however, did not say anything about Russia's participation in the numerous strikes against their group in this region. Russia and Syria have been at war with ISIS for more than five years.NBC anchor Megyn Kelly has revealed she talks about God with Kathy Lee Gifford when they are behind the cameras. The two talk show hosts recently got together to honor evangelist Billy Graham, who passed away peacefully at the age of 99.

In the interview, Kelly revealed that she looks up to Gifford in the same way that she admired Graham. She also noted though that the reverend, who gave advice to many U.S. Presidents, was one of a kind.

"You and I have been having an ongoing conversation about faith and a connection with God," Kelly told Gifford while they discussed Graham's impact and legacy to Americans on the show "Megyn Kelly TODAY." The former also reflected on the evangelist's nonpartisan views despite having helped many figureheads in politics as well as the fact that the reverend had not been involved in scandals.

Meanwhile, Gifford shared that Graham had brought her whole Judeo-Christian family to Jesus. In a fitting tribute, the "TODAY Show" host said that she knew him and had watched his services at age 12. The pastor had helped her understand her religious traditions with a Jewish father and a Christian mother, and since then, Graham forged a friendship with her family that lasted for 50 years.

Gifford proceeded to discuss what understanding the Gospel means for her based on what she learned from Graham. She said she feels privileged to discuss the good news with other people, including Kelly.

"I'm not talking about a religion," Gifford said, adding the world had no need for "more religion." "I'm talking about a relationship with the living God. They are so different."

Graham, an ordained Southern Baptist minister, earned international fame as an evangelist since the 1940s. He preached the Word of God on television for six decades, which reached over 185 countries. He retired at 86 years old in 2005 but continued to give counsel to America's leaders at his home in North Carolina.The Vatican is launching a training course on exorcism amid a rising need in Italy. According to Father Benigno Palilla, there have been at least 500,000 cases that need an exorcist each year and they have to be able to service these requests.

Palilla told the Vatican Radio that the spike in the number of requests was not specifically connected to demonic possessions and that many Italians have been seeking Tarot readers or fortune tellers for their spiritual and psychological problems. The Sicilian priest and trained exorcist said that these practices "open the door to the devil and to possession."

The priest recently came from a four-day conference on sects and Satanism that revealed its findings on the rising numbers. A study from Codacons revealed that at least 13 million Italians as of 2017 habitually consulted with astrologers, fortune tellers and Tarot card readers for their life struggles.

The church's concern also grew particularly pertinent because there have been fewer priests adept at exorcism techniques.

"We priests, very often, do not know how to deal with the concrete cases presented to us: in the preparation for the priesthood, we do not talk about these things," Palilla said. He also said that a self-taught exorcist could be just as dangerous and emphasized that exorcism should require a period of apprenticeship.

The Vatican plans to hold the training course for a week in April with Palilla. It will take place at the Pontifical Athenaeum Regina Apostolorum in Rome.

The Catholic Church recognized exorcism in its Code of Canon Law in special circumstances. It also supported some 400 trained members of the International Association of Exorcists, which Father Gabriele Amorth, the Vatican's former chief exorcist, founded in 2014. The members, however, can perform exorcism only after following a chain of approval from senior priests.

Exorcism has been a Catholic ritual for over 400 years and its guidelines were last revised in 1999 under Pope John Paul II.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.The overwhelming majority of evangelical believers in the US today still see the importance of sharing the gospel with the Jewish community. But theyre less likely to agree on the relationship between Jewish evangelism and the end times, which once was a significant motivator of such outreach.

In a survey released today at the National Religious Broadcasters convention in Nashville, LifeWay Research found that 87 percent of Americans with evangelical beliefs agree that sharing the gospel with Jewish people is important, with just 3 percent disagreeing and 11 percent unsure [infographic below].

According to the Great Commission, Jews need the gospel as much as everybody else and therefore should not be excluded from evangelism, said Tuvya Zaretsky, president of the Lausanne Consultation on Jewish Evangelism (LCJE) and a longtime leader with Jews for Jesus.

As CT previously examined, the Lausanne Movement and the World Evangelical Alliance in 1989 endorsed the call to evangelize to Jewish people, rather than supporting a two covenant theology that views God as having his own covenant with the Jews, who therefore do not need to claim Christ. Many denominations agree, including the Southern Baptist Convention, the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA), and the Lutheran ChurchMissouri Synod.

The gospel is the only hope of salvation for all people, first proclaimed among the Jewish people, and nothings changed about that, said Zaretsky, a Messanic Jew who came to faith in 1970.

When Jesus spoke the words recorded in John 14:6I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through mehe was speaking to a group of Jewish people at a Passover celebration. He didnt make it exclusively for the Jews, but he certainly didnt exclude Jewish people.

Still, in the 21st century, Jewish evangelism can have social and historical baggage; even Christians who support Jewish evangelism theologically may be concerned about the backdrop of anti-Semitism, which pervaded the history of Christianity from the early centuries and culminated in the horrific event of the Holocaust (conducted in a nation which understood itself as Christian).

Chosen People Ministries, which sponsored the LifeWay survey along with author Joel C. Rosenberg, acknowledges how anti-Jewish teaching and rhetoric from the early church fathers to the American church has discouraged Jewish interest in Christ as the Messiah.

Two years ago, the Catholic Church released a statement explaining its stance that mission work targeting Jews, unlike engagement with other religions and worldviews, was insensitive and unnecessary. The Vatican stated:

The Church is therefore obliged to view evangelisation to Jews, who believe in the one God, in a different manner from that to people of other religions and world views. In concrete terms this means that the Catholic Church neither conducts nor supports any specific institutional mission work directed towards Jews. While there is a principled rejection of an institutional Jewish mission, Christians are nonetheless called to bear witness to their faith in Jesus Christ also to Jews, although they should do so in a humble and sensitive manner, acknowledging that Jews are bearers of Gods Word, and particularly in view of the great tragedy of the Shoah.

Bernard N. Howard, himself a Jewish believer and pastor of Good Shepherd Anglican Church in New York, reiterated the need for Jewish evangelism in a response at The Gospel Coalition.

I certainly hope that Bible-believing evangelical Christians wont go down the route of the Roman Catholic Church in steering clear of mission to the Jewish people, Howard told CT. I havent seen a momentum in that direction.  The danger is more of a case of a Gentile Christian being a little fearful of reaching out to Jewish people.

Older evangelicals are most supportive of Jewish evangelism: 91 percent of those over 65 see it as important, compared to about 83 percent of Gen Xers and millennials (those under 50), LifeWay reported.

According to LifeWay, only 2 percent of evangelicals (measured by four belief statements) have a Jewish parent or grandparent, while 30 percent have Jewish friends.

Of those with Jewish connections, about a third have shared the gospel with their Jewish friends in the past year, while 60 percent had not. They were about as likely to have prayed in the past week for their salvation.

Jewish evangelism is something that not necessarily every Christian should be actively engaged in, but I think its something every Christian person should take an interest in and help in some way, Howard said, even if thats praying, making a regular donation to a Jewish outreach organization, or encouraging someone they know thats engaging in the work.

Todays evangelical believers are mostly in agreement on the importance of Jewish outreach, but show less consensus over how those efforts relate to biblical eschatology and the modern state of Israel.

According to the survey, 55 percent believe that the Bible teaches that one day most Jewish people will claim Christ, while 47 percent believe Jesus will return when the Jewish people accept him as Savior. About 3 in 10 werent sure how to respond to either position.

Even evangelistic groups such as Jews for Jesus and LCJE include Christians with a range of eschatological views on such verses, Zaretsky said.

Some read New Testament passages as indicating conditions of Jesus return and Gods plan for salvation. For example, Romans 11:25-26 states, Israel has experienced a hardening in part until the full number of the Gentiles has come in, and in this way all Israel will be saved. And Acts 15:16-18 often gets cited for its mention of restoration and a remnant.

I would encourage people involved in outreach to Jewish people to focus more on sharing the gospel now and perhaps a little less on speculative end times theology, said Howard, who received Christ just a couple years after his bar mitzvah.

I think that kind of dialing down on end-times theology is underway, he said. I hear it less about that than I used to, and probably it was at its height 30 years ago and has been on the decline since then.

A majority of older generations62 percent of evangelicals over 65 and 59 percent of evangelicals over 50expect that all or most of the Jewish population will one day turn to Christ; however, fewer than half of those under 50 (47%) agree.

Over the decades, evangelicals have been drawn to Jewish evangelism by their end-times beliefs, their support for the state of Israel, and often a conflation of the two. Zaretsky pointed to the popularity of Hal Lindsey, a premillennial dispensationalist who saw the development of a Jewish state as part of Gods timetable for the second coming.

Some Christians get caught up in the politics and dont distinguish between Israel as a peoplebiblical, historical, globaland the political state of Israel, Zaretsky said.

The Washington Postreported last month on the long, uneasy love affair between Israel and American evangelicals, referencing the unease among some Jews over evangelical missionary work and Messianic Jewish identity evolving into a greater openness toward their friendship and financial backing.

Jews started to realize that they were friends of Israel, and then the Jewish community by and large became very myopic in their thinking, Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein, founder of the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews, told The Post. They are good for Israel, they are giving them money for their projects. For a lot of Jews it was, lets call it utilitarian.

Americans with evangelical beliefs in particular continue to show strong support for the Israeli state: 73 percent of white evangelicals believe the Jewish people have a historic right to Israel, as do 71 percent of Hispanic evangelicals, LifeWay found. But only 54 percent of African American evangelicals believe the same.

As CT reported last year, Hispanic church leaders are increasingly rallying support for Israel, and the face of Christian Zionism is becoming more diverse.

Christians involved in Jewish evangelism point to the openness and opportunity among todays Jews.

Because of increasing rates of intermarriage and shifting spiritual ties, Zaretsky said, American Jews have grown more receptive to the gospel message. A Barna Group survey the organization sponsored last year even found that 23 percent of Jewish millennials believe Jesus was God in human form.

There is a phenomenal openness today among Jewish people, and I think the intimidation factor is an old impression, he said. Theyre looking for God and real spiritual answers.We're always interested in hearing about news in our community. Let us know what's going on!

Go to formAKRON, Ohio - Big changes are coming to Akron's neighborhood business districts, the city's economic development structure and its recreational offerings through new city-led initiatives.

Mayor Dan Horrigan announced the new programs -- and discussed ongoing efforts designed to make Akron a "Thriving City" -- during his State of the City address Wednesday at the John S. Knight Center.

Here are the details on the new initiatives:

Great Streets Akron

Designed to empower, connect and develop Akron neighborhoods, Great Streets Akron will use city resources and partnerships to make long-term investments in 10 targeted business districts, which can be viewed here. The city will reach out to the neighborhoods to identify organizations that want to partner and provide resources and support.

City resources will include grants to improve facades, revolving loans and money for community development support. The city plans to communicate with businesses and residents to better understand what they want to see in their neighborhoods, said Horrigan.

"As we work with these communities to breathe new life into these corridors, we expect to see a positive ripple effect throughout each and every neighborhood," the mayor said.

Technical assistance will be able through several city departments from planning and zoning help to public safety support and grant-writing assistance.

Office of Integrated Development

The new Office of Integrated Development will merge the city Planning and Economic Development operations (and parts of the Engineering Bureau) into a single city department. It will be led the city's Chief of Staff James Hardy. He will be Akron's first Deputy Mayor for Integrated Development.

The goal is to reorganize the way the city does business and the way it "creates a sense of place in our neighborhoods," said Horrigan.

"In coming together, the city will better focus its human and financial capital to generate greater community impact," he said. "We have to become more intentional with our efforts and more strategic in our investments."

The merger is the outcome of an evaluation by the Akron Growth Council to find ways to promote a more prosperous and inclusive economy.

Recreational opportunities

Horrigian said the city's Department of Neighborhood Assistance and the Recreation Bureau will reexamine how Akron provides recreational opportunities to the community. A city report in 1969 recommended development of a new master plan for the city.

"Since then, so much has changed in the way people of all backgrounds engage in public life," Horrigan said. "A new vision and new direction is now needed."

The city will gather input from all areas of the community during 2018, as it undertakes a strategic planning process for new recreational amenities.

Horrigan also said there are many efforts underway in Akron to promote entrepreneurism, increase neighborhood connections and development, and boost population.

But Akron still carries debt that could burden its future. Like cities across the nation, cuts in state and federal funding are damaging, he said.

"The reality is that this devastating loss of funding is likely a permanent change," Horrigan said. "The harsh truth is that no one is coming to help us."

Even so, Akron's economy is strong, Horrigan. The city's gross domestic product - the value of its goods and services - grew at a faster rate than any other Ohio city in 2016, he said.

History of innovation

Akron has a long history of innovation -- from trucking to cereal to the rubber industry, and the city will continue to promote startups and entrepreneurship, he said.

Bounce, Akron's innovation hub, will be viewed as the "front door" for those who want to help the city advance startups, small businesses and entrepreneurs.

eBay's recently launched Retail Revival, offering about 120 businesses tools and support to succeed in the online marketplace, will further support Akron's small businesses, the mayor said.

But the city and its institutions need to realign and evolve to stay viable, Horrigan said, and the time is now because Akron is undergoing a "great renaissance."

To signal that, the city plans to install four, locally hand-crafted "Welcome to Akron" sculptures rather than traditional city signs at four central gateways into the city.

"This stunning public art will ensure that residents and visitors alike know that, when you've entered Akron, you have arrived in a city that values arts and culture," he said.

The city also plans to create more financial empowerment centers around Akron, through the Bank On Rubber City initiative launched last year in Kenmore.

Today, 13 percent of Akron households are unbanked, which is twice the national average, and 21 percent are underbanked, which makes people vulnerable to predatory pay-day lenders, he said.

The city partnered with United Way of Summit County and Huntington National Bank to create the financial empowerment center. Its goal is to help residents build assets, reduce debt, budget for the future, improve their credit scores and access safe and affordable banking services -- all at no charge.

The city also has planned out much of its spending for 2018, using Issue 4 income tax funds, Akron voters approved last November. The city's .25 percent income tax increase will pay for:

50 new vehicles, safety gear, body-worn camera storage , video equipment for cruisers and new officers for the Akron Police Department.

Improved fire services, including replacement of Station #2, a ladder truck, protective gear for all 275 firefighters and extractor machines to remove toxins from clothing.

Paving for 54 miles of roadway.

Horrigan signed off his address calling for attendees to ask "Why Not Akron," which has become the catchphrase of his administration. If Akron doesn't get with the changes in the world, he said, the city will fall into further decline with a sluggish economy and diminishing population.

"I don't know about you, but I refuse to manage this city's or my own decline. Akron will not write that story, not while I'm mayor," he told the crowd. "But if we face this new, modern reality with a commitment to do whatever it takes to thrive, I firmly believe that our potential is unlimited."

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 -- No arrests have been made in the abduction of a 10-year-old girl who was released unharmed several minutes after a man grabbed her and dragged her into a van Tuesday in Akron, police said.

Update March 1: Investigators determined the abduction was fabricated.

Detectives have not determined why the man grabbed the girl just after 2:30 p.m. on Ardella Avenue near Austin Avenue. He took the girl into a black van but did not harm her before he dropped her off on East Wilbeth Road near South Arlington Street, Akron Police Capt. David Laughlin said.

The girl was walking home from the nearby David Hill Elementary School when the abduction occurred, Laughlin said.

Detectives are asking nearby businesses for security video that could help them identify the man or the van, Laughlin said.

There have not been any reports of similar incidents in Akron or any nearby communities, Laughlin said.

To comment on this story, visit Wednesday's crime and courts comments page.CLEVELAND, Ohio -- An Akron federal judge on Wednesday threw out a lawsuit filed by liberal blog Plunderbund and the Portage County Tea Party that challenged an Ohio internet harassment law.

The lawsuit, filed in May, challenged a law passed in April 2016 that says "no person shall knowingly post a text or audio statement or an image on an internet web site or web page for the purpose of abusing, threatening or harassing another person."

A first-time violation of this law is considered a first-degree misdemeanor.

Plunderbund and the Portage County Tea Party claimed the law's language is overly broad and infringes on the First Amendment by prohibiting critical speech of public officials. Both groups publish criticism of public officials online and their court filings say they are not covered under an exception in Ohio law provided for media outlets.

U.S. District Judge Sara Lioi, however, wrote that the plaintiffs, which also includes then-Plunderbund writer John Spinelli and Portage County Tea Party head Tom Zawistowski, did not say they intend to violate the law as written.

The law "does not expressly prohibit or proscribe political expression," nor does it bar statements online that criticize or mock government officials or public figures, she wrote. Rather, the law only prohibits online speech posted specifically to abuse or harass someone.

Lioi wrote that the plaintiffs lack standing to challenge the law because they did not show they intended to post things that expressly violated the law. They also didn't show a reasonable fear they would be prosecuted for violating the law, the judge wrote.

The law was sponsored by Ohio Rep. Marlene Anielski, a Walton Hills Republican. It was inspired by Broadview Heights resident Lori Siwik, who said she and her family were victims of harassment and stalking in 2005 and 2006.

Siwik said a neighbor created a website to harass her and her husband. Siwik said police told her there was nothing they could do.

The Ohio Attorney General's Office, which defended the law in court, "agrees with the decision and is pleased with this outcome," spokesman Dan Tierney said.

Eugene Volokh, a University of California, Los Angeles law professor representing the plaintiffs, said he will likely appeal Lioi's decision.

He said the judge dismissed the suit on procedural grounds and left open the issue of whether a prosecutor may find posts from his clients to be abusive or harassing.

"My clients know what they are writing is written with good intentions," Volokh said. "It's hard to tell how somebody else would perceive it."

Updated with statements from the platintiffs' attorney. This article was also updated to clarify that Spinelli said he no longer writes for Plunderbund.CLEVELAND, Ohio - The administration of Cuyahoga County Executive Armond Budish continued Tuesday to push for the authority to pay overtime to salaried employees despite opposition from some County Council members.

Fiscal Officer Dennis Kennedy told a council committee that the administration needs the ability to pay salaried workers who work more than 40 hours a week in order to be able to complete projects in a timely manner.

But several council members have publicly opposed paying salaried workers overtime, saying salaried employees should understand that they are paid to work as many hours as needed to get the job done.

The county's internal auditor also concluded last year that Budish did not have the discretion under the current handbook to set policies for administrative hires and pay.

County Prosecutor Michael O'Malley ruled last November that Budish's administration violated the county charter by paying $1.7 million in overtime to salaried employees and providing special compensation to certain employees.

Kennedy was one of several officials who appeared Tuesday before council's Human Resources Committee.

The committee is considering revisions to the employee handbook, which will replace the current Personnel Policies and Procedures Manual, last updated in 2013. That handbook does not allow salaried employees to receive overtime, only exchange time that can be used later.

Budish's administration has been working on a new handbook since the county's internal auditor ruled on overtime and also concluded that Budish did not have the discretion under the current handbook to set other policies for administrative hires and pay.

Budish and his staff, however, included all his proposals in the draft handbook. And council strongly objected at a Feb. 20 meeting to a proposal to offer bonuses, performance pay and other perks to attract and retain employees.

Budish said after that meeting that he would not pursue those provisions.

But Chief Talent Officer Douglas Dykes told the committee Tuesday that the proposed provision to pay salaried workers beyond 40 hours should be in the new handbook.

Officials from the four departments that have used or continue to provide extra pay spoke to the committee.

Here's what they said:

Kennedy: He said he is currently paying four people supervising the property appraisals for hours they work beyond 45 hours a week. They are paid at their hourly rate, he said.

"For these folks, it is imperative to have the ability to do that. And if we hold them to a ceiling there is no incentive for them to keep working."The four supervisors who are coordinating and overseeing the six-year property appraisal.

The county has saved millions by not contracting out the appraisal work, he said.

In 2017, Franklin County paid $9.1 million and Hamilton County paid $6.3 million, he said. Cuyahoga County's costs will be a little over $4 million.

in response to questions, Kennedy said he couldn't hire extra workers because they didn't have the institutional knowledge. He said the four employees can't take exchange time because they are needed for the project.

Kennedy said he would only pay workers extra for a specific project.

Council member Michael Gallagher said he supports adding a provision to the handbook to allow employees to work four 10-hour days, which might alleviate the need for overtime.

"I have a problem defining who counts and who doesn't," he said. "Can we get to a point where everyone is treated equally regardless of position and move forward?"

Dykes said he is not opposed the option of a four-day week.

Melinda Burt, deputy director of public safety and justice services: Supervisors at the Cuyahoga Emergency Communications System, a 24-hour, seven day a week operation that handles 911 calls, have to oversee call takers and dispatchers.

They often have to work beyond 40 hours to make sure all the shifts are covered.

Walter Parfejewiec, interim director of the Department of Health and Human Services: The department is not currently paying salaried employees beyond 40 hours, but it has in the past and the practice is needed, he said.

Most supervisors have 16 to 21 years of service and don't want exchange time, they want extra pay, he said.

The workers are not underpaid, they just want the option to be paid beyond 40 hours, he said.

The reason they are working beyond 40 hours is because his department is understaffed. There is a vacancy rate of four to seven percent in each division.

"The real answer is to fill the vacancy slots," council member Jack Schron said.

Dr. Thomas Gilson, the medical examiner: He has had to pay straight pay for overtime for forensic staff scientists and other salaried workers because of the increasing caseload due to the opioid crisis.

The department needs to reduce its backload to maintain accreditation. He has lost staff to the Bureau of Criminal Identification because it pays overtime, he said.

In 2017, his department paid about $80,000 in extra straight time.

He said could use more staff but new hires take months to train.

If he has enough staff, he said he can offset overtime or salaries through grants and outside projects.

"Your department has a revenue source that may cover the overtime," Schron said.

Council is expected to amend the handbook and continue discussing it in future meetings.CLEVELAND, Ohio - The Cleveland Clinic achieved a 35 percent increase in operating income in 2017, rebounding to $328 million after a major drop to $243 million the previous year, according to numbers released Wednesday.

Figures still remain shy of the record high $481 million the Clinic recorded in 2015, but CEO Dr. Tom Mihaljevic is optimistic the system will continue its upward trajectory thanks to its efforts to improve efficiency. The Clinic's operating margin in 2017 was 3.9 percent, compared to 3 percent the previous year.

"We have to do financially well to do good," Mihaljevic said in an interview with reporters after his first State of the Clinic address this morning, committing the system to "responsible growth." Mihaljevic took over as CEO and president of the Clinic on Jan. 1.

He pointed to the $800 million the Clinic has cut from its budget the past few years, a portion of which came from the MyTwoCents program, an employee-driven process improvement effort.

"We've worked more efficiently and gotten bigger," former Clinic CEO Toby Cosgrove said after the event, noting the success of the Clinic's expansion into Abu Dhabi. The Middle East accounts for 41 percent of the system's international patients.

The Clinic also plans to open a new 200-room hospital in London in 2021, which will be the Clinic's centennial anniversary.

"On that date, we will have made a remarkable journey, from a four-story outpatient clinic on Euclid Avenue to the back yard of Buckingham Palace," Mihaljevic said.

Despite the Clinic's international growth, the system remains committed to Cleveland and its "grit," Mihaljevic said.

"Everything that we do internationally comes back to Cleveland. Our global brand places the name 'Cleveland' in the most vibrant and dynamic cities on earth," Mihaljevic said.

The Clinic is the largest employer locally and is the second largest in the state. In 2017, its market share in Cuyahoga County grew to 47 percent, the highest in about six years.

.@ClevelandClinic CEO Tom Mihaljevic: We're not the organization that simply conforms to the changes around us. We're the organization that is shaping the changes around us." #stateoftheclinic  Ginger Christ (@GChristCLE) February 28, 2018

Outpatient visits increased 7 percent to 7.6 million in 2017, while its emergency department visits fell 1 percent to 645,000, a decline the Clinic attributed to the growth of virtual and Express Care visits.

Virtual visits skyrocketed 163 percent to 25,502 in 2017, and Express Care visits climbed 32 percent to 261,879. Mihaljevic said the system is banking heavily on digital healthcare initiatives for the future, with telemedicine already the Clinic's fastest growing area.

"We're not the organization that simply conforms to the changes around us; we're the organization that is shaping the changes around us," Mihaljevic said.

During the event, the CEO also announced a new office of caregiver experience that will focus on reducing employee burnout, improving wellness and career development. A recent report published by Clinic doctors and researchers found one in three Clinic physicians surveyed met burn out criteria.

"Our caregivers provide outstanding care under demanding conditions. There is a potential for stress and burnout. We can't let this happen," Mihaljevic said.PAINESVILLE, Ohio - - Time has been kind to Kathleen Cotter's 1890s home in Painesville.

The years haven't dimmed the brilliant, original stained glass windows, nor chipped away at the beveled glass.

Natural wood - from the floors to the split-level staircase, to the pocket doors and built-in bookcases - retains its rich, natural glow. Six fireplaces, these days just for show, are unblemished.

And in this architectural renovation era of knocking down walls to create large, open space, the first floor of the home remains sectioned into separate, parlor-like rooms that nod to a time when families cooked in one room, dined in another, curled up with a book in yet another, and so on.

"I like sharing a space where people lived in the 1890s," says Cotter, co-owner of the home with two siblings, who live elsewhere. "It just feels good to be here."

Cotter came full circle to live in her three-story, red brick and green-shingled home, with its white wrap-around porch. Her parents, Thomas and Margaret, bought the home in 1955, making them the third owners. Kathleen was a teen and a student at Riverside High School at the time.

The previous owners bought the home from the original family, the Collacotts. The patriarch had a high-level position with Standard Oil, Cotter says. The family also created the Wildwood Center in Mentor, she adds.

Kathleen and her siblings eventually moved on, but when her mother, Margaret, fell ill in 2005, she moved back home to care for her until she died in 2009 at age 98. Her father, Thomas, was previously deceased.

Although living there alone, Cotter, who is in real estate, thought the home was too lovely and structurally sound to let go.

"You just don't find these kinds of features and workmanship anymore," she says.

At the landing of the wide, handsome oak staircase are stained-glass windows that stretch nearly floor-to-ceiling. Except for the maple kitchen floor, all of the floors are oak.

Wainscoting and crown molding is decoratively carved. Each room on the first floor closes off with pocket doors, made of White Oak, Red Oak or Bird's Eye Maple. The wood that fills each room mirrors the pocket doors, lending each its own character.

The living room has a bay window, as do two bedrooms on the second floor. These rooms offer a view of the Grand River through leaded glass.

Behind the home is a two-story brick carriage house with a basement, built in 1890. It still has the cleated stairway that led horses down to the stalls, and pot-bellied stove that warmed stable hands.

At one point, the second floor maid's quarters was converted into a cozy apartment with a small living room, kitchenette, and a bath with the original claw-footed tub. Family friend Kevin Spence, 49, moved into the apartment in August, 2017, while he works on his doctorate in higher education administration at Kent State University.

Spence filled his space with art that he collected during his travels to 18 countries, and his own photographs.

"I love living in a historic home that has been preserved," says Spence, who is a member of the Downtown Painesville Organization. "I am originally from Painesville and I'm really proud of its historic features, and happy to be back here."

Says Cotter, "Even though it's kind of big, this was my mother's and father's home, and I don't want to move."CLEVELAND, Ohio - A public records administrator for the city claims in a sworn statement that information about how the city handles record requests and about how long it takes to turn over records is confidential - an assertion that an expert in public-records law describes as "laughable."

The statement by Kimberly Roberson, who has served as a public records administrator for nearly two decades, is included in a motion arguing that some information gathered in a lawsuit against the city was gathered unethically and should be suppressed.

Roberson, who is not a lawyer, contends in her sworn statement that the "confidential information" includes "how long it typically takes the City to respond to public records requests, the Department of Law's involvement with the requests, and the manner in which the City processes requests."

Attorney David Marburger, who co-authored a book on Ohio public records law in 2011, said state laws that require government records be open to the public would not provide an exemption for the information cited by Roberson.

Material involving conversations between city lawyers and clients could be confidential, Marburger said. But a record showing how long it takes the city to respond to a request or how it responds to requests would not be confidential.

"That's laughable," Marburger said. "This is just methodology."

A spokesman for the city declined to comment when asked about Roberson's statement, citing a policy of not speaking about ongoing litigation.

Law Director Barbara Langhenry later said that she would not agree that all the information was confidential. The records, though, include some notes from attorneys and communications with clients that she would defend as private.

What's the lawsuit about?

Roberson's sworn statement was submitted to a U.S. District Court last week by lawyers defending the city against a lawsuit filed by Sean DeCrane, a former battalion chief with the city fire department.

Assistant Safety Director Edward Eckart and two officers from the Public Safety Department's Office of Integrity Control, James Votypka and Christopher Chumita, also are named as defendants.

DeCrane sued the city in 2016 shortly after leaving the fire department.

He contends in his lawsuit that the city passed him over for promotions and targeted him for retaliation based on a mistaken belief that in 2013 he had leaked embarrassing information about then-Fire Chief Daryl McGinnis.

Lawyers for Zashin & Rich, the firm assisting the city on the case, asked the court to suppress some information collected by The Chandra Law Firm on behalf of DeCrane.

Zashin & Rich also asked the federal judge to remove the Chandra firm from the case.

Among the claims the lawyers for Cleveland make is that the Chandra firm's intern was exposed to confidential materials during a previous internship in Cleveland's Law Department and that his participation in the DeCrane case is unethical.

The materials Roberson described as confidential were among the materials that the intern would have had access to, Roberson testified.

Subodh Chandra, the founder of the firm and a former city law director, has said it can prove that the allegations of improper behavior are not true. The judge has yet to rule on the motion.

Why is Roberson's statement significant?

Ohio law requires that public records be "promptly prepared and made available for inspection to any person at all reasonable times during regular business hours." Copies must be provided "within a reasonable period of time."

A coalition of news organizations, including cleveland.com, has contemplated suing the city, contending that it is obstructing state law through its notoriously slow response to records requests.

Mayor Frank Jackson, in turn, publicly pledged last fall to improve the way his administration deals with records requests.

As part of that pledge, the city launched a records-management system. The system, GovQA, made accessible last November through the city's website, allows records requests to be filed through an online portal. People making requests can track the city's progress toward providing public documents and receive updates via email.

But that online system also has sparked complaints. For example, the city took nearly a month to provide a copy of a simple City Hall phone list that cleveland.com requested through the portal in December.CLEVELAND, Ohio -- The remarkable recovery of bald eagles in Ohio has reached a new milestone with the discovery of the first active nest in Cleveland in more than a century.

The nest is located in the Ohio & Erie Canal Reservation, a narrow stretch of green space situated in the heart of the city's industrial valley, amid factories, highways and landfills.

The nest was first discovered last year when Karen Lakus, an historical interpreter for the Cleveland Metroparks, noticed a pair of eagles carrying sticks into the limbs of a tall cottonwood tree on a bluff above the Cuyahoga River.

Lakus and Jo Ann Kubicki, an information specialist at the nearby CanalWay Visitor Center, continued to monitor the nest-building during the winter months, and recently watched as the eagles began roosting on the nest and engaging in courtship activity, although egg-laying has not occurred.

The eagle nest is a symbol of resilience, according to Wendy Weirich, the Metroparks' director of Outdoor Experiences.

A bald eagle perches near its nest Tuesday in the Ohio & Erie Canal Reservation. The eagle nest is the first in Cleveland in more than a century.

"Look at where these birds have chosen to build their nest, not that far from where the debris on the river caught fire nearly 50 years ago in 1969," Weirich said.

Harvey Webster, the chief wildlife officer and museum ambassador at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History, said he was thrilled at the discovery, but not surprised.

"These are amazing times," Webster said. "Eagles have proven themselves to be so adaptable and opportunistic to the point where they can thrive in the world of human activity. It seems the human landscape is an ideal habitat for eagles to exist in, just look how far they've come."

The bald eagle's return from the brink of extinction can be traced to 1979, when there were only four nesting pairs in Ohio. With the banning of the pesticide DDT, the cleansing of the environment and expanded habitat, the eagles have thrived to where surveys found an estimated 221 nesting pairs in Ohio last year. Those birds produced an estimated 312 young eagles, slightly fewer than the 327 in 2016.

Eagle sightings are now common in Northeast Ohio. Other nests have been found in Eastlake, at the Mentor Marsh, in the Cuyahoga Valley National Park near Brecksville, at the Rocky River Reservation, the Sandy Ridge Reservation in North Ridgeville, at Chippewa Lake, Lake Rockwell in Kent, Avon Lake, and at the Bath Nature Preserve.

The new bald eagle nest can be viewed from the Ohio & Erie Canal Towpath, about one mile south of the Harvard Road Traihead parking area, near a large power line base. The nest is on the opposite - west - bank of the river and until trees leaf out in the spring, trail users have a good view of the nest and eagle activity.

Around this time of the late winter, eagles typically lay from one to three eggs, and incubate them for approximately 35 days. The eggs are extremely sensitive to cold temperatures, so the adults must remain on the nest constantly - thus the need to protect against human disturbances.

The nest at the Pinery Narrows swamp in the national park has been active since 2006, and marked the first pair of the once-endangered raptors to nest in the Cuyahoga Valley in 70 years. Fourteen eaglets have hatched there since 2007.

They're back again this year, and national park officials have closed access to the area surrounding the nest tree to protect the eagles from human disturbance until the end of July.

Close-in access to the Ohio & Erie Canal nest is limited by the Cuyahoga River on one side, and privately owned woodlands on the other side. But until the trees leaf out, the nest should be easily viewable from the Towpath Trail with the aid of binoculars or a spotting scope.

Visitors are advised to park at the Harvard Road Trailhead and walk south on the Towpath for about one half mile. The nest is on the west side of the river.

Weirich said plans already are being discussed to set up scopes at the best nest-viewing sites on the Towpath after the egg-laying and incubation commences. She's not worried about them being disturbed by groups of bird-watchers, and actually will encourage observers to visit the location.

"Like any true Clevelander, they're going to be fine," Weirich said. "They won't need us to baby them. We can't hurt them."CLEVELAND, Ohio -- A California pilot was sentenced Wednesday to 18 months in prison for driving from Akron to a Newburgh Heights park to meet what he thought was a 13-year-old girl for sex.

Ryan Christopher Johnson also must register as a sex offender every 180 days for 25 years after he pleaded guilty last month to attempted unlawful sexual contact with a minor.

Johnson, a pilot for a private company, flew a plane to Akron on business, then borrowed a car from his employer to meet up with the girl he contacted through Gmail's chat feature, Sullivan said.

Johnson then exchanged explicit messages, asking the girl whether or not she was a virgin and explaining what he would do to her when he arrived, Sullivan said.

The girl actually turned out to be an undercover Newburgh Heights police officer on the Ohio Internet Crimes Against Children task force.

Johnson agreed to meet the girl at Newburgh Heights park. Investigators were waiting and arrested him. He had three condoms, body lotion, a hotel key card and wallet with him in the car, investigators said.

To comment on this story, please visit Wednesday's crime and courts comments page.CLEVELAND, Ohio - Cleveland Municipal Court officials failed to upload the names of felons to a countrywide database used to conduct background checks, which might have allowed those barred from owning weapons to purchase them, a report said.

In a review of the Ohio Attorney General's Office records by the Cincinnati Enquirer, they found that the state's courts have failed to put names in the country's gun-purchasing background check system.

The story was published on Enquirer's website, Cincinnati.com.

"State law requires courts to update the list of individuals barred from buying firearms at least once a week. But some courts went months or years without an update - without facing any repercussions, according to audits from the Ohio attorney general's office," the newspaper reported.

It's unknown how many have not been added over the years, but chances increase that a weapon has been purchased by a felon who should not have owned a gun if names were added to the system.

In Ohio, at least 90 courts have gone months without reporting and uploading names to the system over the past three years. Court officials said they were either too busy, didn't have the resources or in Cleveland's case, the password expired, reported the newspaper.

An official in East Cleveland said she was too busy to report those who are banned from owning a gun and wouldn't allow state officials to pick up the paperwork to enter names in the system manually, reported Cincinnati.com

"It would take too much time to go through the paperwork and her court does not have the money to make that many copies," a state audit reported in March 2017, according to the Enquirer.

Convictions were not reported at Cleveland Municipal Court because the password expired, according to a review of state records from November 2016 by the publication.

In a statement provided to cleveland.com, court officials said as soon as the problem was discovered it was fixed.

"In 2016, there was an interruption of transmissions because of a password problem. As soon as the problem was discovered, it was corrected. The court has installed backup systems to prevent similar interruptions in the future," the statement said. "The court does not handle felony convictions, as felony cases are transferred to Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court."

Ohio laws ban the right for a person to purchase a gun if they are accused of a violent crime, convicted of a drug offense, an alcoholic or sentenced for a domestic violence incident.

Local courts are supposed to report the name of a person who has been convicted of a crime to the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation within a week. The online system takes about five minutes to complete, the newspaper reported.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation uses that state database for its background checks on guns.

The database is also used in background checks for schools, foster parents, concealed handgun licenses and private employers.

To comment on this story, visit the crime and courts comments page.CLEVELAND, Ohio - Cleveland State, Case Western Reserve and Mercyhurst universities have formed the North Coast Cyber Research and Training Alliance to develop cybersecurity education, research and training programs in western Pennsylvania and Northeast Ohio.

While each institution maintains nationally recognized programs in cybersecurity, the schools said in a joint statement that the agreement will leverage the combination of strengths of the three:

Cyber intelligence threat analysis and analytics:

Cyber engineering and hardware solutions,

Cyber regulatory and policy analysis,

"The alliance opens the door to a variety of intriguing projects and new funding opportunities that will enable students to confront authentic problems across the full range of cyber disciplines," Caleb Pifer, vice president for external relations and advancement at Mercyhurst, said in the news release.

A cybersecurity lab and network-operations center, funded by Cleveland-based national technology company MCPc, is being built at Mercyhurst. The lab will support two new master's programs in cyber security and cyber-risk management.

"We are pleased to contribute our strengths in legal technology and policy to the new alliance," Lee Fisher, dean of CSU's law school, said in the release. "The collaboration will prepare students for a cyber workforce in which complex problems will need to be solved at the intersection of disciplines and sectors."

The multidisciplinary collaboration provides the expertise required to address complex cybersecurity concerns across a variety of application areas, Ken Loparo, the Nord professor of engineering in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at CWRU, said in the release.

"Case Western Reserve's Case School of Engineering provides expertise in the security of embedded devices and wired/wireless networks, secure-cloud computing and systems-level operational security for cyber-physical systems," he said.CLEVELAND, Ohio -- I find myself thinking a lot about John Wayne's movie "The Shootist" lately, since our president, Donald Trump, started pushing the idea of arming teachers as a way to eliminate mass school shootings.

His thought is that 10 to 20 percent of teachers are "adept" with firearms. So they should carry guns on the job and be ready to shoot it out with any mass murderer who comes into their school.

Here's where John Wayne comes in.

In "The Shootist," Wayne plays the deadly pistoleer, John Bernard Books, who is battling cancer. Instead of hanging around the boarding house, waiting to die, he decides to go out in a blaze of glory by ridding Carson City of its gun-fighter wannabe riffraff.

One day he gives a shooting lesson to a young Ron Howard, who plays his landlady's son. As they head out to a field, Howard says: "Bat Masterson said that a man has to have guts, deliberation and a proficiency with firearms."

After they blast off a few rounds at a distant tree, Howard looks at the close grouping of their shots and says: "How could you get into so many fights and always come out on top? I nearly tied you shooting."

Wayne replies, pointing at the field: "Friend, there's nobody up there shooting back at you. It isn't always being fast or even accurate that counts. It's being willing. I found out early that most men, regardless of cause or need, aren't willing. They'll blink an eye or draw a breath before they pull the trigger. I won't."

In other words, it takes nerves of steel and deadly instinct to win a gunfight, and I can assure you that The Ohio State University Department of Education never offered a course in that.

I am not saying that a piece of movie dialogue is the last word on gunfighting or protecting students, but it matches the common-sense view that a "proficiency with firearms" is one thing, while shooting it out face-to-face with a crazed killer is quite another.

Mr. President: Teachers are not shootists! Not gunfighters! Not deadly Wild West pistoleers!

Even some armed, trained deputies on the scene in Parkland, Florida, didn't rush to face the gunman, so it's beyond belief to me that an English teacher would fearlessly -- and accurately -- blaze away with a Glock in one hand and "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" in the other.

Good-quality western movies often show that even a tough guy has qualms about killing.

In "Unforgiven" the Schofield Kid is giddy at the prospect of shooting someone. But when he finally does, he weeps and gives his gun away. I believe his final word on the topic is, "I ain't no killer."

Gary Cooper in "High Noon" plays the firearms-proficient town sheriff, but he's not excited to learn that gunmen are coming after him. In fact, when he realizes no one's going to help, he looks like like he might have a stroke.

And in "The Shootist" Ron Howard's character ends up killing someone in defense of John Bernard Books, and as soon as the person falls dead, Howard throws the gun across the barroom in disgust.

Confession: I was a high school teacher for two years. Was I ready to face down an armed lunatic?

I should have been, according to Trump. I had been shooting guns since I was a kid: BB guns, rifles, pistols, shotguns ... you name it. In fact, I was one of the most fearless tin-can killers in Ashtabula County.

But as the shootist pointed out, those cans never shot back.NORTHFIELD, Ohio - A Cuyahoga Falls man led police officers on a 50-minute chase that passed through at least nine communities, then stabbed himself in the abdomen before he surrendered, police said.

The 33-year-old man is believed to have been suicidal and on drugs during the chase that began late Tuesday outside a Northfield Village apartment building and ended early Wednesday in a two-hour standoff in Broadview Heights, police said.

The man is also accused of ramming a pair of police cruisers during the chase, Northfield Village Police Chief John Zolgus said.

A 49-year-old passenger in the man's car jumped out when the car slowed down in Twinsburg, Zolgus said. The woman was not seriously hurt.

No police officers were harmed in the incident.

Zolgus said he is still reviewing the chase but believes officers acted properly throughout the incident. Traffic was light at the time and a Northfield Village sergeant monitored the chase in case it needed to be called off, Zolgus said.

"From everything I've seen so far, everything was done safely," Zolgus said.

He could not immediately say how many cruisers were involved in the chase.

Cleveland.com has requested a copy of dashboard camera video from the incident.

The Cuyahoga Falls man is recovering in a hospital and has not yet been charged in the incident, Zolgus said.

A Northfield Village police officer became suspicious just after 10:40 p.m. when he spotted a 2007 Saturn idling outside an apartment building on Ledge Road near Northfield Road. The officer called for backup, but the car drove away before backup arrived, Zolgus said.

The officer tried to stop the car on Ledge Road, but it sped away into Macedonia. The officer eventually followed the car onto Ohio 82, and the chase reached its maximum speed of 80 mph, Zolgus said.

The car eventually pulled into a parking lot in Twinsburg, where it rammed a Northfield Village cruiser and sped away, Zolgus said.

The woman jumped out of the car when it slowed and told police officers the man used heroin and might be suicidal, Zolgus said.

The car continued along Ohio 82 to Aurora before turning south toward Streetsboro. The Streetsboro Police Department laid out stop sticks that damaged the car's tires, but the driver did not stop, Zolgus said.

The driver headed back to Ohio 82 and passed through Northfield Center, Sagamore Hills and Brecksville before reaching Broadview Heights. Several cruisers blocked the driver in on Royalton Road near Broadview Road, but the driver rammed a Broadview Heights cruiser before coming to a stop, Zolgus said.

Officers negotiated with the man for approximately two hours as he threatened to stab himself, Zolgus said. The man did stab himself at least once in the abdomen before he surrendered about 1:30 a.m., Zolgus said.

A medical helicopter then took the man to a hospital for treatment. His condition was not immediately available Wednesday morning.

To comment on this story, visit Wednesday's crime and courts comments page.WASHINGTON - The U.S. House of Representatives adopted a measure Tuesday that would close a legal loophole that has let websites like Backpage.com avoid criminal prosecution and lawsuits for facilitating sex trafficking.

The bill adopted by a 388 to 25 margin would clarify that existing communication laws don't protect websites that "unlawfully promote and facilitate prostitution and contribute to sex trafficking." It would also establish prison sentences of up to 25 years for some online sex traffickers.

Courts previously ruled the Communications Decency Act of 1996 shielded the websites from liability because they merely hosted third-party content and didn't create it.

The bill's sponsor, Missouri Republican Ann Wagner, said it would "empower victims, equip state and local prosecutors, and ensure websites can no longer traffic children with impunity."

"In recent years, sex trafficking has moved from the streets to the Internet," Wagner said on the House floor. "I find it hard to imagine that if a neighborhood business hosted a slave auction, the auctioneer would not be considered liable."

The lead Democrat on the bill, Rep. Joyce Beatty of Columbus, said it would provide "urgently needed" clarification of the law, while safeguarding Internet freedom.

All Ohio congress members backed the bill except for Miami County GOP Rep. Warren Davidson. Although Davidson was an original cosponsor of the bill and fully supports efforts to fight use of websites that facilitate sex trafficking, a spokesman said he believes the bill's current incarnation "blurs the lines to benefit trial lawyers instead of combating sex trafficking."

Davidson's spokesman noted the Justice Department has expressed several concerns about the bill, including the fact that its provisions would violate the U.S. Constitution's "Ex Post Facto Clause" by making behavior that occurred before its passage illegal.

A White House statement applauded the bill's passage but said the Trump administration "remains concerned" about parts the bill the Justice Department flagged.

"The President looks forward to continuing to work with Congress in order to hold people who participate in human trafficking accountable for their horrific crimes," the statement continued.

The House measure includes provisions of an anti-sex trafficking bill that Ohio Republican Rob Portman introduced in the Senate. His bill has been approved by the Senate Commerce Committee, but has not made it to the Senate floor.

Powerful testimony from Yvonne Ambrose shows why #SESTA is needed: pic.twitter.com/q4kuH3uQ06  Rob Portman (@senrobportman) October 21, 2017

An investigative report from the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, chaired by Portman, found that Backpage.com was aware that sex traffickers and pimps used its services to promote child prostitution, and its claim to be a mere web host for ads "is a fiction."

Portman and the Democratic co-sponsor of his bill, Connecticut Sen. Richard Blumenthal, released a statement that noted their bill "has 67 bipartisan supporters in the Senate, as well as strong support from trafficking survivors, anti-human trafficking advocates and law enforcement, 50 Attorneys General, the civil rights community, faith-based groups, the Internet Association and its member companies like Facebook and Google, and courts and judges who have made clear that it is Congress' responsibility to act to protect online sex trafficking victims."

Portman said "other priorities" have kept the full Senate from voting on his measure, and he hopes the House bill's adoption will prompt action.

"We know what the problem is, we know how federal law can be changed to address the problem and we really have to get it done," Portman said in a conference call with reporters.CLEVELAND, Ohio - A coalition of 66 people from different faiths on Wednesday held a silent protest at the Federal Building in support of the Dreamers, the hundreds of thousands of undocumented immigrants brought to the U.S. as children whose legal status hinges on the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA).

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declined to hear the Trump administration's appeal of a federal ruling that would have shut down DACA by March 5, meaning that the expiration deadline is off the table, for now. That gives Dreamers longer to renew their legal protection, as well as legislators more time to come up with a solution to their temporary status.

Local clergy, residents and immigration supporters convened in the lobby of U.S. Sen. Rob Portman's Cleveland office holding signs and banners saying, "This is about Family," "No Excuses," and "Portman Act Now," asking him to support a legal path to citizenship. They say the Dreamers have done nothing to warrant the sudden increase in deportations under Trump's presidency.

"The vast majority of Americans want Dreamers to stay in our country, and to have a path to citizenship," said Rev. Kelly Burd, pastor of Pilgrim Congregational Church UCC in Tremont. A bill protecting Dreamers would also prevent families from being needlessly torn apart by deportations, she said.

One in four Dreamers now has a family, with spouses, parents, children, and employers. Without a way to become citizens, "everything they worked for is in limbo," she said. "The 700,000 young people under this law live in terror each day about being deported if this law ends," added Rev. Eileen Vizcaino, retired chaplain for students at Church of the Covenant in University Circle.

Portman spokeswoman Emily Benavides said via email that "Senator Portman believes that those in the DACA program are here through no fault of their own, and supports bipartisan efforts to find a permanent legislative solution that will allow those in the DACA program to stay here and continue to contribute to our society while also putting in place measures to strengthen border security and enforcement. That is why Senator Portman introduced legislation to codify the protections for the DACA population while also putting in place stronger border security measures consistent with the president's proposal."

The interfaith group, which said it represents more than 10,000 believers, said: "Senator Portman, we call upon you to lead and not follow," to listen to the Ohio voters who sent him to Washington, D.C., more than his party or his president.

Rabbi Joshua Caruso from Anshe Chesed Fairmount Temple in Beachwood and affiliated with the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism, said that "As Jews, we are deeply attuned to those who have come to America as strangers, for we were once strangers, too. It is our moral obligation to ensure America is a welcoming beacon for the Dreamers brought here in search of a better life. As such, we urge Senator Portman to 'Let My People Stay!'"CLEVELAND, Ohio - More than 200 colleges, including many in Ohio, are supporting high school students who peacefully protest and rally against guns and other issues.

The schools have said they will not penalize students who apply or have been admitted if they protest or are disciplined for their actions.

The high school #NeverAgain movement started after a former student with an assault rifle killed 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida on Feb. 14.

Students in several northeast Ohio high schools, including Westlake, Mentor and Eastlake North, have walked out in solidarity with the Florida students.

After some students in Texas were threatened with suspension if they participated in protests calling for gun law reforms, colleges across the country sent out statements on Twitter and Facebook supporting student activism.

Xavier University in Cincinnati wrote on Twitter Tuesday that it "applauds students who lawfully and thoughtfully act in solidarity with those who are hurting or marginalized."

The university said students who participate in peaceful protests against gun laws and "any other matters of conscience" will not be penalized in the admissions process, even if they are disciplined.

The number of colleges continues to grow, according to a list on a Google document that is tracking responses. The email address on the document belongs to Chris Peterson, admissions officer, instructor, and researcher at the Center for Civic Media at MIT, USA Today reported.

The document also includes a link to the National Association for College Admission Counseling and the Never Again action list of colleges that are committed to defending the #NeverAgain movement.

The Google documents lists these Ohio colleges, with links to their statements of support:

Baldwin Wallace University, Case Western Reserve University, College of Wooster, Denison Univesrity, Kenyon College, Miami University, Oberlin College, Ohio State University, Ohio University, Ohio Wesleyan University, University of Akron, Universityt of Cincinnati, Wittenberg University, Xavier University.

Here's what several northeast Ohio schools said:

Important note from CWRU admission: Case Western Reserve will not penalize applicants for admission--or admitted students--for engaging in a peaceful protest regarding an issue of importance to them. Posted by Undergraduate Admission - Case Western Reserve University on Saturday, February 24, 2018PERRY, Ohio -- The future of the Perry Nuclear Power Plant is open to speculation. Its economic importance to Lake County, on the other hand, is clear, and loss of the plant would be a serious blow.

Because of the plant, FirstEnergy may be the biggest taxpayer in the county.

Perry Joint Fire District Chief James McDonald said the loss or reduction of the revenue stream from plant would have a devastating effect on Lake County and would also be felt elsewhere in the state because of the loss of jobs and tax revenue.

"There is not a lot of heavy industry in Perry," McDonald said. "That (the Perry plant) is our tax base."

From the beginning, the plant has been a major employer. Between 1974, when ground was broken for the Perry plant, and 1987, when it went on line, around 6,700 workers participated in the construction.

The company has 768 employees at the plant. Another 119 work elsewhere in the county on the utility side of the business, which includes power transmission and distribution.

Every other year, 1,000 supplemental workers toil for two to four months on the regularly scheduled refueling outage at the Perry plant. They pump around $8 million into the local economy, according to FirstEnergy spokeswoman Jennifer Young.

The single biggest slice of property and utility taxes from the plant goes to Perry Local schools, which serve Perry Village, North Perry Village and Perry Township.

According to the office of Lake County Auditor Edward Zupancic, the plant's public utility tax bill generated $3.6 million in 2017 for the school district in collection year 2018, and its property taxes for the same period sent an additional $2.2 million.

The district's annual budget is around $24 million, according to Dr. Jack Thompson, the Perry superintendent.

Thompson said loss of the plant would require significant belt tightening within the district, "but we have been belt tightening for several years," because of declining enrollment.

Any additional cost cutting would take the form of reducing staff and cutting back programs, he said

The Perry Joint Fire District serves the same communities as the school system and has an annual budget of around $3 million, according to McDonald.

A third of that comes from the plant's property and utility taxes.

Together, those two revenue streams produce more than $11 million in tax collection year 2018, according to the county, divided among the Perry Schools, Perry Fire and 14 other public entities that include Lakeland Community College (more than $500,000) and the Lake County Crime Lab ($43,000).

FirstEnergy says it has paid $300 million in personal and real property taxes since the plant began operations in 1987.

The company has also contributed $60.3 million to the Lake County economy annually in purchases of local goods and services.

The company and its employees have generated more than $650,000 in charitable giving in Lake County over the last five years, according to Young, including pledges from employees, FirstEnergy Foundation grants and corporate contributions.

The company and its employees have also paid $1 million in payroll and corporate income taxes for 2017. Around 600 First Energy employees live in the county, but not all of them work there.

In addition to the Perry plant, FirstEnergy has the Eastlake power plant, which no longer generates electricity but continues to provide transmission-grid voltage support.

It also has the CEI Concord Service Center, as well as 32 substations, 2,223 miles of distribution lines for moving electricity to consumers and 225 miles of transmission lines that move power from generating facilities to the substations.

There has been talk about a bankruptcy, limited to FirstEnergy Solutions, FirstEnergy's power-generating subsidiary.

If that happens, most agree that the plant will not vanish, because spent fuel from the reactor will have to be stored there. That means it will continue to have some value and the need for security and maintenance employees.

Thompson said such a facility would be substantially devalued.

McDonald said the loss or reduction of the revenue stream from plant would have a devastating effect on Lake County and would also be felt elsewhere in the state because of the loss of jobs and tax revenue.WASHINGTON - Wadsworth Republican Rep. Jim Renacci - currently seeking the GOP nod to run for U.S. Senate against Democrat Sherrod Brown - is among the nation's richest members of Congress, as well as Ohio's wealthiest, according to a new ranking of Congressional riches.

A Capitol Hill publication called Roll Call tallied the wealth of every member of Congress by examining the financial disclosure forms they filed for 2016, and subtracting their listed debts from their assets.

The publication found Renacci is the 16th wealthiest member of Congress, and the wealthiest one from Ohio, with at least $34.4 million in assets. Ohio Republican Sen. Rob Portman ranked 49th nationally, and second in Ohio, with $8.6 million.

Roll Call found that California GOP Rep. Darrell Issa - a Cleveland native who amassed a $283 million fortune by running the company that makes Viper car alarm systems - was the nation's wealthiest member of Congress. He has decided to retire at the end of his current term. The least wealthy member of Congress, according to the Roll Call tally, was California GOP Rep. David Valadeo - who listed minimum assets of $2 million and minimum liabilities of $19.5 million.

None of the Congress members approached the $1.1 billion fortune that President Donald Trump's most recent form described, the publication said.

The publication found the median minimum net worth of today's senators and House members was $511,000, which is five times the 2016 median net worth of American households: $97,300.

The reports that Congress members file only provide a rough measure of their worth. The forms don't list the value of their principal residences or the contents of those residences, but they do list mortgages on the properties. So Roll Call's net worth calculations likely overstate many Congress members' debts because their mortgages aren't offset by the value of their homes.

And instead of providing the precise amounts of their assets and debts, the values are listed in 11 ranges that start at less than $1,000, and top out at $50 million or more. The publication uses the minimum reported value each Congress members assets, minus the minimum reported value of "all immediate family liabilities" to estimate each Congress member's overall wealth. Any debts that were retired during the year are also included.

The below table lists the minimum amount that Ohio members of Congress were worth in 2016, according to a tally compiled by Roll Call, and how their wealth ranks when compared with other members of Congress.

Rank Name Worth 16 Rep. Jim Renacci, R-Wadsworth $34.4 million 49 Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio $8.6 million 132 Rep. Mike Turner, R-Dayton area $2.1 million 134 Rep. Brad Wenstrup, R-Cincinnati area $2.1 million 151 Rep. Bob Latta, R-Bowling Green $1.7 million 165 Rep. Dave Joyce, R-Bainbridge Township $1.6 million 166 Rep. Joyce Beatty, D-Columbus area $1.5 million 183 Rep. Bob Gibbs, R-Holmes County $1.2 million 191 Rep. Warren Davidson, R-Miami County $1.2 million 257 Rep. Steve Chabot, R-Cincinnati area $600,000 296 Rep. Steve Stivers, R-Columbus area $300,000 314 Rep. Marcia Fudge, D-Warrensville Heights $300,000 336 Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio $200,000 355 Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Champaign County $100,000 373 Rep. Tim Ryan, D-Niles area $100,000 391 Rep. Marcy Kaptur, D-Toledo $0 464 Rep. Bill Johnson, R-Marietta - $200,000

An accountant by trade, Renacci has started and run a slew of businesses including a chain of nursing homes, a chain of Harley Davidson dealerships and a financial consultancy for troubled businesses. The publication says Portman inherited most of his money from family-run businesses including a forklift company his father started and a company that owns the Golden Lamb Inn, in Lebanon, Ohio, which is the state's oldest continuously operating business.

The publication's ranks Marietta's Bill Johnson as Ohio's least wealthy member of Congress, with a $300,000 minimum asset value and minimum debts listed at $500,000.

But don't worry too much about Johnson. His financial disclosure form shows that his debts were probably overstated by Roll Call's calculation method. Johnson refinanced his home mortgage in 2016, so his forms list two mortgages valued at between $250,000 and $500,000. Even though one mortgage replaced the other, Roll Call counted them both. So Johnson is actually ahead by at least $50,000, even without including the value of his home.

Toledo Democrat Marcy Kaptur's forms show she's got assets of at least $100,000 and a mortgage debt of between $100,000 and $250,000, as well as a home equity loan of between $15,000 and $50,000. And the value of her home is not included in those calculations. So her worth was estimated at zero.COLUMBUS, Ohio -- The State Highway Patrol has fired a trooper because he is among six men facing federal charges in a drug trafficking scheme in Delaware County, reports say.

Trooper Jason Delcol, 43, was charged Tuesday with distributing controlled substances, distributing human growth hormone and witness tampering, the U.S. Attorney's Office in Columbus tells the Dispatch.

Also charged on Tuesday are Benjamin Owings, 37, of Delaware; Nicholas Glassburn, 47, of Delaware; Carlos Carvalho, 42, of Sandusky; William Covrett, 41, address not available; and Stevedore Crawford, 55, of Columbus.

According to WCMH Channel 4, all are charged with possession with intent to distribute and distribution of controlled substances and other related charges.

An affidavit shows the drugs involved included HGH, testosterone, Xanax, Oxycodone, Percocet, Adderall, Suboxone, cocaine, crack cocaine and marijuana, according to the Dispatch.

A news release from the U.S. attorney's office says Delcol is accused of acting as a middleman for drugs between Glassburn and Owings, and he also intervened in cases against the men, provided information, offered alibis and even gave them ballistic vests.

The Mansfield News Journal reports Delcol was fired less than three hours after the men were arrested on Tuesday.

"Public trust is our No. 1 priority and individuals like Delcol compromise that trust," patrol spokesman Lt. Robert Sellers tells the News Journal.

The Dispatch reports Delcol had been a trooper since 2001 and had received good performance reviews until 2012, when was fired for illegal drug use. Delcol said the drugs were for back pain and was rehired, but he again lost his job in 2014.

An arbitrator ruled in Delcol's favor and he again was rehired, the Dispatch reports.

Five of the six men are in custody and will appear in court at noon Thursday, the U.S. attorney's office says.

If you would like to comment on this story, please visit Tuesday's crime and courts comments section.AKRON, Ohio - The University of Akron is offering a professional social media certificate to address the demand for social media expertise in public relations, communication and related fields.

The 12-credit certificate will cost about $5,000 and will offer instruction in the use social-media tools to communicate with a variety of audiences and create comprehensive campaigns for organizations and clients, according to a news release.

Students in the program will learn to generate social-media content, use analytics to measure social media success, and create a complete social-media campaign for a real client as the final project.

"The number of jobs that request or require skills and knowledge in social media is continuously growing, yet there are still very few educational credentials available to help students demonstrate a mastery of this expertise that organizations need," said Julie Cajigas, associate professor of practice in the School of Communication in the release. "This certificate is a concrete way for current students and professionals already in the field to obtain formal training in social media, as well as gain evidence of their preparation."

The Bureau of Labor Statistics predicts that employment for public relations specialists - a position requiring social-media responsibilities - will continue to grow, the university said. Cajigas noted that social-media capabilities also are being sought in STEM fields, in higher education and in a variety of industries and positions.

Cathy McPhillips, vice president of marketing for the Content Marketing Institute, which will host the Content Marketing World conference in Cleveland this fall, said in the release that students know how to use social media on a personal level, but they don't have skills for using it in a professional context.

"Studying social media theory, applying it in real-life situations and earning a certificate will help them stand out from every other job candidate trying to say they can do social media," she said in the release.

The instruction will be on campus, but the university plans to offer the instruction in an online format in the future.

More information is available at uakron.edu/schlcomm/socialCLEVELAND, Ohio -- Louisiana Congressman Steve Scalise appeared on national television Tuesday morning to comment on the recent school massacre in Florida. Ever since his near-fatal shooting last summer, I've come to view Scalise as a man of genuine convictions even if he remains an unquestioning gun lobby supporter.

Besides, his firearm commentary couldn't have been timelier for a Northeast Ohio audience.

Exactly six years ago Tuesday, T.J. Lane, a 17-year-old boy, took a semi-automatic handgun into Chardon High School in Geauga County. He killed three students and wounded three others. Since Lane's cafeteria rampage, for which he received three life sentences, more than 400 Americans have been shot in 239 school shootings.

Sadly, little has changed in the ensuing years, other than the names of young victims. I paused to listen to Scalise because few leaders in the current Congress have more street credibility in the volatile gun debate. Scalise's mobility continues to be restricted by the attack he suffered.

"What about all of the laws already on the book that were not enforced," Scalise said, when asked what new gun measures Congress intended to take up in the wake of the Florida school massacre.

"The FBI has this guy's name on a silver platter," he continued.

The response was a classic deflection. He then advanced the reflexive pro-gun rights argument that what leads to firearm massacres are breakdowns in law enforcement or mental health detection, or exploitation of loopholes -- not AR-15s in the hands of killers.

It frustrates many that a nearly fatal bullet didn't change Scalise's outlook on the need for stricter gun control laws in America. However, his continuing resolve and informed voice force some of us to listen closely.

Scalise's contention that Nikolas Cruz, the accused Florida high school shooter, should have been identified and stopped before the massacre is a defensible position. So is his argument that the armed sheriff's deputy at the school could and should have done much more to prevent the scale of the carnage.

Furthermore, there was an avalanche of red flags before the attack, including admissions by the accused gunman that he hoped someday to be known as a school shooter. Police, mental health officials and the family that took in Cruz after his adopted mother died could have done much more to recognize the threat he posed. Lives might have been saved if someone had spoken up and taken decisive action.

However, mass killers don't always announce their intentions. That was the case of the killer who opened fire on an outdoor concert on the Las Vegas strip last October.

It was also the case with T.J. Lane. Lane was the quiet kid who apparently seethed with rage and mental health issues that weren't obvious until after the trigger had been pulled and children were dead. All mass killers do not emerge from the same pathological matrix.

As America continues to experience a firearms reckoning, there are questions that the dead and dying would certainly ask of the living. Namely, when will the nation tire of playing Russian roulette with guns and the latent killers who walk among us? How long before our leaders stop treating mass shooting casualties as a natural cause of death?

We have reached the point where it is unclear which is worse: dangerous guns, dangerous people or a dangerous lack of political leadership on America's volatile gun issue.

Meanwhile, the firearm death count grows.CLEVELAND, Ohio - Dr. Jon Heavey, the Rocky River physician attempting to run for governor, filed a lawsuit Tuesday night with the Ohio Supreme Court challenging the secretary of state's decision to keep him off the ballot.

Heavey, a Democrat, surprised political observers by announcing his candidacy with just days before the filing Feb. 7 filing deadline. But the secretary of state's office ruled Heavey did not have the requisite 1,000 signatures to appear on the May ballot.

Making a last-ditch effort to run in the primary, Heavey filed the complaint.

"We're confident we have professional compliance experts working to regain our ballot access," Heavey said in a statement. "We're looking forward to moving on to tackle more pressing concerns in our community."

Heavey named Secretary of State Jon Husted as well as the boards of elections for Cuyahoga, Franklin, Hamilton, Summit and Warren counties.

Heavey states each of the counties invalidated signatures without merit. He submitted several examples as evidence, including multiple instances of the boards disqualifying a signature because the person was not registered when records show they were.

The boards and Husted "collectively erred, disregarded applicable law, and abused their discretion in rejecting at least 146 signatures when each such signatures satisfied all requirements of the law and should have been counted as valid," Heavey states in the suit.

If the 146 signatures were to be validated, Heavey would make the ballot.

Sam Rossi, a spokesman for the secretary of state's office, said the case was clear, adding the county boards of elections are bipartisan bodies.

"It's pretty simple," Rossi said. "Like all prospective candidates for statewide office in Ohio, Mr. Heavey needed at least 1,000 valid signatures to get on the ballot. Of the 2,185 signatures he submitted, only 854 were determined to be valid by the county boards of elections, which include both Democrats and Republicans. Failing to meet the legal requirements, Mr. Heavey was not certified as a candidate."

Read the lawsuit:

Heavey Complaint by srichardson on ScribdCLEVELAND -- The candidate running the smartest campaign for governor of Ohio is unlikely to ever be governor.

But when the subject is Dennis Kucinich, leaving oneself some wiggle room is always advised.

When Kucinich lost the mayoralty of Cleveland to George Voinovich in 1979, there wasn't a political expert or journalist on the planet who did not believe his career was finished.

Thirty-nine years, eight terms in Congress, and two failed runs for president later, he's back.

And, if nothing else, Kucinich's tenacious and astute campaign -- which includes, as always, a fair share of demagoguery -- has gotten the attention of his Democratic opponents, especially frontrunner Richard Cordray.

Sometime between now and the May 8 primary election, Kucinich's campaign will probably hit the wall, courtesy of a television ad campaign that exploits the hefty political baggage he brings to this effort.

But, for now, Kucinich has lifted a page from his 1977 playbook.

He is running for governor the same way he ran for Cleveland mayor 41 years ago, when he narrowly beat fellow Democrat Edward Feighan in one of the most riveting election campaigns in city history.

At age 71, Kucinich is four decades removed from those "boy mayor" days. But his instinct for seizing an issue is unchanged.

In the late 1970s, it was saving Cleveland's city-owned electric system, then known as Muny Light.

In 2018, Kucinich has identified the campaign's defining issue as guns. And he's advocated a total ban on assault weapons.

The two other Democrats worthy of voter consideration are Cordray and Youngstown-area state Sen. Joe Schiavoni. Both have more complicated histories on the gun issue -- histories that don't lend themselves to catching a potential wave in their party's primary.

Cordray, Oxford-educated, super smart and always cautious, supports a bundle of less dramatic measures to curb gun deaths. And Schiavoni, personable and underrated, suggested in an interview that, as governor, he would not oppose any law banning assault weapons.

But in the wake of the latest school massacre that left 17 dead at a south Florida high school, Kucinich's position is in the political sweet spot for a Democrat.

He's right on the issue and left of his opponents.

In 1977, Kucinich criss-crossed the city nightly, making promises tailored to individual neighborhoods. But Cleveland's coffers were empty. And many, maybe most, of those promises were broken.

This campaign has seen more of the same.

In Dayton, Kucinich has railed against the planned closing of a local hospital, advocating legal action, and understandably angering Dayton Mayor Nan Whaley.

In Cincinnati, he's promised to deliver on pressing infrastructure needs.

And in Youngstown, Kucinich has drawn sharp criticism from Schiavoni for predicting a plan to improve city schools may lead to privatization and loss of local control.

Then, in a late January announcement in Columbus, Kucinich promised to phase out all oil and gas drilling in the state, an environmentally friendly idea that's ahead of its time.

One not so minor problem: It would cost thousands of Ohioans their jobs and deprive the state hundreds of millions in tax revenues.

Kucinich's surge guarantees that the Democratic campaign for governor is about to become messy.

The overwhelming majority of the party's political establishment is publicly or privately aligned with Cordray. If polls show Kucinich eating away at Cordray's lead, attack ads will remind voters:

*Kucinich has said nice things about President Donald Trump, including praise for Trump's dark and dangerous inaugural speech.

*Kucinich has suggested former Trump national security adviser Michael Flynn -- who has since pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about his contacts with Russians -- was a victim of scheming by U.S. intelligence agencies.

*Kucinich has cozied up to Syrian President Bashar Assad, a ruthless killer.

*And Kucinich was mayor at a time when Cleveland became the largest American city since the depression to slip into default.

To prevail, Kucinich needs a tidal wave of support from the party's leftists.

But that requirement comes with a problem. Ohio is not a progressive place. It's a no-growth state because it's a backward-looking place.

Kucinich has long delighted in reminding me of my prediction he would lose his job in the mayoral recall election in the summer of 1978.

He survived by 236 votes out of more than 120,000 cast.

Kucinich's life story is one of remarkable achievements. He's been mayor, councilman, clerk of courts, state senator, congressman and, of course, a Plain Dealer copy boy.

He won't be governor.

Brent Larkin was The Plain Dealer's editorial director from 1991 until his retirement in 2009.

To reach Brent Larkin: blarkin@cleveland.com

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).SOLON, Ohio -- The owner of the Aurora Road property sought earlier by Liberty Ford for an offsite auto repair shop has renewed his request for a zoning change.

Darren Guerrini of Reno G Properties returned to the Planning Commission on Feb. 13, saying he's "still not giving up on the previous plan" with the dealership.

A public hearing will be scheduled, with City Planning Director Rob Frankland saying that the city would have until August for City Council to get the "I-3" rezoning initiative forwarded to the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections.

That's right around the time everything fell apart in 2016, when Liberty Ford Vice President Michael Herrick announced that he was leaving town, although he stated at the time that he "wanted to maintain contact with Solon residents."

The property in question is located at 31875-85 Aurora Road near Old South Miles, where Councilman Bob Pelunis, a member of the Planning Commission, has noticed a "Property Available" sign.



"I don't have a problem with this and I would like to help you market the property," Pelunis told Guerrini, asking if he was actively trying to sell.

Guerrini said he has a tenant in one of the buildings who does all of the detailing work for Liberty Ford and the Solon and Maple Heights dealerships.

At the same time, Guerrini is also storing 300 to 500 bedliners for Liberty, as well as three or four lifts, all free of charge.

When asked if rezoning the land and buildings would help him sell, Guerrini and Frankland told the Planning Commission that they really didn't see how it could hurt.

Frankland said that any time uses are added to a property, it can improve the marketability.

"It's exactly like the current 'I-2' zoning, except that it would add auto repair and maintenance, towing and impoundment," Frankland said.

Planning Commissioner Roger Newberry noted that the request already comports with a portion of the city's Master Plan, proposed as the "auto service zoning district."

And there is currently no such zoning in the city, Frankland added, explaining that all auto repair shops in town are considered "non-conforming uses."

The Planning Department will have to notify surrounding property owners of a public hearing, since Swagelok initially sent an attorney to the earlier public hearings.

The industrial mainstay in Solon owned a little under 5 acres across Aurora Road from Guerrini at the time of the last hearing.February 27, 2018

 Two U.S. astronauts and a Russian cosmonaut have returned to Earth after spending 168 days on the International Space Station.



Expedition 54 crewmates Mark Vande Hei and Joe Acaba of NASA and Alexander Misurkin of Russia's federal space agency Roscosmos touched down aboard Russia's Soyuz MS-06 spacecraft Tuesday (Feb. 27). After re-entering the atmosphere, the capsule descended to the ground under a parachute and, slowed by braking thrusters, landed on the snow-dusted, frigid steppe of Kazakhstan at 9:31 p.m. EST (0231 GMT; 8:31 a.m. Kazakh time on Feb. 28).



Vande Hei, Acaba and Misurkin were assisted out of their Soyuz by Russian recovery forces, who along with NASA flight surgeons, provided initial medical checks to the three crew members. Live video broadcast from the landing site showed the trio to be in good spirits as they began their re- adjustment to gravity.







Soyuz MS-06 crew mates Joe Acaba, Alexander Misurkin and Mark Vande Hei are seen after landing, Feb. 27, 2018. (NASA/Bill Ingalls)

Vande Hei, Acaba and Misurkin began their journey home about three hours before they landed with the undocking of their Soyuz from the space station's Poisk module at 6:08 p.m. EST (2308 GMT). Their departure marked the end of Expedition 54, the space station's 54th resident crew since November 2000.



"It was like one day. It looked like it started only yesterday," said Misurkin during a brief change of command ceremony aboard the station on Monday (Feb. 26). "I will never forgot our jobs and staying here."



Anton Shkaplerov of Roscosmos, NASA's Scott Tingle and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut Norishige Kanai, who arrived at the station on Dec. 19 and served on the Expedition 54 crew under Misurkin's command, remain on board the outpost, now as the Expedition 55 crew.



Three more Expedition 55 members  Oleg Artemyev of Roscosmos and Ricky Arnold and Drew Feustel of NASA  are scheduled to launch to the space station on March 21 and arrive two days later.



Vande Hei, Acaba and Misurkin's landing concluded their 168 days in space since launching from Russia's Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on Sep. 12. While in orbit, the three took part in and supported hundreds of investigations in the physical and life sciences.



"We didn't broke [sic] almost anything... and hope we give something  good thing and helpful thing  for science," said Misurkin.



Vande Hei and Acaba were part of the first expedition that began a planned long-term increase in the complement on the U.S. segment of the space station, from three people to four, enabling NASA to double the crew time dedicated to research  surpassing 100 hours in one week.



All three crewmates also conducted spacewalks. Misurkin and Acaba each performed one, the earlier setting a new Russian duration record of 8 hours, 13 minutes. Vande Hei went out on four extravehicular activities (EVAs) in support of replacing the latching end effectors, LEEs or hands, on the space station's Canadarm2 robotic arm.







Soyuz MS-06 crew patch. (Roscosmos/Spacepatches.nl)

Expedition 53/54 marked Vande Hei's first flight into space, Misurkin's second and Acaba's third. Misurkin has logged 334 days off the planet, including a prior space station stay in 2013. Acaba trails Misurkin by a month with 306 days in orbit after a 2009 shuttle flight and 2012 station expedition.



Now back on Earth, the three Soyuz MS-06 crewmates will return to their respective countries after a brief layover in the Kazakh town of Dzhezkazgan. Misurkin will be flown to Star City, outside of Moscow; Vande Hei and Acaba will return on a NASA jet to Johnson Space Center in Houston.



Soyuz MS-06 was the 52nd Soyuz to launch to the space station. It completed 2,688 orbits of Earth, traveling a total of 71.1 million miles (114.5 million kilometers).The past few weeks have seen the release of a ton of rockin new music. From Palms Rock Island to the re-recording and release of Car Seat Headrests Twin Fantasy, theres a lot going on. That being said, youve likely heard of these albums already, or if you havent, you could look them up and read a review by someone far more eloquent than myself. This week, I thought Id throw some of the smaller-time acts Ive really been digging out there, and hopefully youll enjoy them as well.

Haord Records is home to brightly hued, weirdo-freak, synth-rock compositions of acts like Macula Dog and Cabo Boing. Notes of Devo are heavy throughout Cabo Boings  Blob on A Grid, with toy-like synth and robotic vocals. And as the name suggests, abstract beachy elements such as reggae-like upstrokes on the guitar are littered in between the more electronic moments. This record is experimental, playful and slightly demented  everything I could ask for and more. For an R2D2 covers Disneyland music or Kraftwerk plays in Pee Wees playhouse kind of sound, Blob On A Grid is the obvious choice. If youre a fan of this one, check out the rest of Haords releases as well. Theyre equally as wacky and just as fun.

Geckos Enter the Gecko is the only thing they have listed on their Bandcamp page, which makes me sad, but listening to this record makes me happy. Gecko throws together harcore riffs with a lil bit of post-punk dissonance peeking through. Drips and drops of slimey sludginess a la Lumpy and the Dumpers or Toxic State Records seep through to make something gritty, dark and chaotic. Gecko is a local hardcore band, and the art for this tape is pretty dang sick. My personal favorite track is Flowers. Give em a listen and check em out on Bandcamp.

American Pleasure Club is the latest project of Sam Ray, the force behind Teen Suicide and Ricky Eat Acid. Hes had a fair amount of hype in the lo-fi community for quite a while now, touring with acts like Elvis Depressedly. The new record  A Whole Fucking Lifetime Of This, features some heavier, rock-poppier moments among the bands more popular, quieter sound on tracks like this is heaven & id die for it and new years eve. Sam Ray is well known for his all-over-the-place musical stylings, so it comes as no surprise that the record does a complete 180 on tracks like just a mistake, featuring a complete drum and bass, very EDM rhythm. All in all, this record has some really serene, beautiful moments and some completely unexpected, out-there moments as well. Its a weird variety but a nice one. Generally, its nice to hear all of their influences and projects flowing into one record to form something cohesive (in context) and well-rounded.

These records and a bunch more are spinning on Radio 1190. As always, tune in and stop by: 1190 AM, 98.9 FM and online at radio1190.org.

Klefeker is Radio 1190s music director. Read more reviews: coloradodaily.com/columnistsQuesto comunicato e stato pubblicato piu di 1 anno fa. Le informazioni su questa pagina potrebbero non essere attendibili.

Styrenic Polymers Market - Overview

Styrenic Polymers are predominantly utilized in numerous end use industries such as building & construction, automotive, electrical & electronics, food packaging, healthcare, and others. Styrenic Polymers Market is predicted to witness moderate growth on account of their demand in various end use industries. In addition, among the type segment polystyrene accounted for the largest market share owing to their unique properties which make them suitable for manufacturing of automobile parts and various components. Furthermore, Styrene butadiene rubber is estimated to register healthy growth with significant CAGR due to their wide usage in tire industry. Moreover, increasing automobile production and sales in developed and developing regions is estimated to drive the SBR segment in the upcoming years.

Geographically, Asia Pacific emerged as the largest market for Styrenic Polymers followed by North America and Europe. The Asia Pacific Styrenic Polymers Market is expected to witness tremendous growth with a healthy CAGR over the assessment year due to increasing industrial base for many end use industries in these region. Furthermore, the demand for Styrenic Polymers is expected to raise in numerous countries of Asia Pacific such as China, India, Japan, Thailand, Malaysia, and South Korea on account of continuous expansion of automotive sector combined with high adoption rate from wind and marine sector. Apart from this, increasing investment by key market players in their innovation and research & development activities and shifting of Styrenic Polymers manufacturing unit in this region is expected to fuel the styrenic polymers regional market growth. North American market is predicted to witness robust growth due to increasing demand for styrenic polymers in packaging & healthcare. North American market is further segmented into U.S. and Canada, among them U.S. is expected to be the major contributor in the regional market growth owing to strong growth of aerospace and marine sector. European market is estimated to witness above steady growth on account of increasing awareness regarding the benefits associated with the product as well as growing purchasing power of consumer. In addition, developing countries of Latin America and the Middle East & Africa are predicted to witness steady growth due to strong consumer base for automobile and electronics industries.

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Industry/ Innovation/ Related News:

January 2018- Mitsubishi Chemical Corporation announced to start manufacturing of styrenic thermoplastic elastomer (TPS) at its location in Thailand. Companys TPS is extensively used in numerous fields such as building materials, electronic devices, healthcare, food packaging, and automobiles. This capacity expansion will help company to meet the increasing demand for TPS in Southeast Asia.

August 2017- INEOS Styrolution, one of the leading manufacturer of styrenics polymer in U.S. announced to expand its engineering plastics capacity by an additional 34,000 metric tons per annum at their Moxi plant situated in Gujarat, India. This expansion will cost around USD 20 million. This expansion will help company to meet the growing demand for styrenics polymer in India and Asia Pacific and also enhance company position as the market leader for ABS and SAN (styrene acrylonitrile) in India.

May 2017- Ineos Styrolution and Videolar-Innova, a Brazilian petrochemical firm announced to expand their production capacity for acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) and acrylonitrile styrene acrylate (ASA). KT capacity in Altamira, Mexico. The company is planning to build a new 100KT capacity ASA plant in Bayport, Texas. The plant is expected to be completed by 2020. With this capacity, the company will be able to meet the increasing demand for Styrenics Polymer across the North America and Globe.

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The Styrenic Polymers Report has analyzed the level of competition among the key players as well as the sector growth and market scenario. The global styrenic polymers market includes a large number of suppliers operating in the market. Medium-sized and small scale manufacturers from the United Kingdom to China, Singapore, South Korea, India, Indonesia, Thailand, Taiwan, Malaysia , Australia, and Japan. The key players are focused on expanding their product portfolio by strategic acquisition and mergers, joint ventures, product launches, and exclusive agreements.

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This CoolSocial report was updated on 2020-09-25, you can refresh this analysis whenever you want.People have been asking for months when investors will accelerate PDVSA and Venezuela bonds that have fallen into default. Rumor has it that some investors have already done so. But there seems to be a consensus that investors aren't in a hurry. U.S. sanctions prohibit a debt restructuring, and few investors are eager for the legal battle that would follow acceleration. But were wondering if this view misses something important and unique to the Venezuelan crisis. It seems to us that investors who file suit may be able to negate most of the Republic's and PDVSA's restructuring tools, significantly enhancing leverage when a restructuring finally does occur and making it easier to hold out. So were a bit puzzled why some of the more aggressive investors arent already rushing to get judgments.

To explain: Almost every restructuring option available to the government and its state oil company involves exploiting modification provisions in the bond contracts. Most Republic bonds have CACs, which let a supermajority of bondholders in a given series modify payment terms for the entire group, leaving no holdouts. For bonds without CACs--i.e., all PDVSA and a small subset of Republic bonds--the exit consent technique has a smaller bondholder majority accept new bonds and vote to modify the old ones in ways that discourage (but do not eliminate) holdouts.

The problem, as we see it, is that contractual modification provisions do not work against investors who hold money judgments. It isnt that a money judgment extinguishes all contract-based rights. Readers of this blog may remember the me too plaintiffs from the Argentine debt drama. These were holdouts, many holding money judgments, who wanted injunctions similar to the one entered in favor of NML. Judge Griesa gave them what they wanted, rejecting Argentinas argument that their contract rights under the pari passu clause had merged into the judgment they had gotten through litigation. (Heres his opinion, from June 2015.) We disagreed with him on the wisdom of granting the injunction in the first place, but he was probably correct on this question. Some contract rights are plainly intended to persist, even after one party has successfully sued for breach. And a lawsuit based on those rights often involves an entirely different claim than the one that produced the judgment.

But the question here is different: It is whether a party who has lost a breach of contract lawsuit can later reduce the amount of the judgment by modifying the contract. The answer, we think, must be no. To use the Republics CACs as an example: those permit a vote to modify, amend, or supplement the terms of the Notes, including a vote to reduce the principal amount, so long as the relevant voting threshold is reached. But investors holding money judgments are no longer seeking to recover principal under the bonds; they have an independent right to the amount of money specified in the judgment. Even if the CAC (like the pari passu clause) survives a judgment, it doesn't seem to permit a modification of that right. And even if it did, courts have limited power to set aside judgments; a retroactive modification of rights, even if permitted by contract, doesnt seem to be one of them.

If the sanctions weren't in place, we wouldn't be talking about such questions. Litigation takes time, and a vote modifying the bonds would likely occur before entry of a judgment. Knowing this, prospective holdouts would favor bonds that are hard to modify. But here, the sanctions give holdouts plenty of time, although (presumably) not forever. So were wondering why holdouts arent being a bit more aggressive at pressing their claims. Were also wondering whether they really have reason to prefer Republic bonds without CACs, as press reports indicate, and as would be true in a normal debt crisis. Anna has already expressed skepticism that differences among the Republic bonds will matter in a restructuring. This is another reason for skepticism. What good is a CAC if holdouts already have money judgments?

Not much, that we can see.27 Subat 2018 Sal, 13:09

The first reaction from Turkey to the one-month cease fire resolution adopted by the United Nations Security Council has come from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.



The Ministry, in its statement, on the one hand noted the satisfaction with which it greets the ceasefire resolution, and has, on the other hand, signalled that it will continue the Afrin operation despite the UN resolution in stating that it will maintain its efforts directed at combatting the terrorist organisations that threaten Syrias territorial integrity and political unity.



The ministrys statement reads as follows:



We greet with satisfaction the resolution adopted today by the UN Security Council demanding an immediate cessation of hostilities and a humanitarian ceasefire of at least thirty days to permit access to emergency humanitarian aid and medical evacuations in the face of the worsening humanitarian situation in Syria, above all in East Ghouta.



Turkey has been endeavouring on all platforms from the outset for the establishment of a ceasefire, cessation of hostilities and reduction of tension in Syria and supports the steps of the international community in this direction. The six observation points that we have until now established in Idlib are a concrete manifestation of our efforts.



We have expressed in various of our announcements the concern that we feel over the regimes increasing violations in East Ghouta and the worsening humanitarian situation caused by the blockade it is applying against civilians, and have called for an end to be made to these violations. We have also conveyed our concerns in this regard to Russia and Iran, which act as the regimes guarantors, and have pointed out that the regimes attacks on civilians and ceasefire violations have frustrated our joint efforts in de-escalation zones.



Enabling uninterrupted access to humanitarian aid is a requirement of international law. It is unacceptable for condemnation to hunger to be used as a weapon against the civilian population. Our support is total for the call that UN Security Council resolution number 2268, to which reference is also made in todays resolution, be implemented in full.





Turkey will, subsequently as it has done until now, on the one hand, continue its contributions towards assuaging the suffering felt by the Syrian people and to support the efforts of the international community, above all the UN, in this context, and, on the other hand, maintain its efforts directed at ending of the dispute in which the humanitarian crisis in Syria is rooted and combatting the terrorist organisations that threaten Syrias territorial integrity and political unity.Youre Going To Love Your New Kitchen

Bring back the joy of home cooking with a kitchen update from Miracle Method of Boulder. A countertop refinish can...Ministros de Defensa de Peru y Colombia suscriben acuerdo para fortalecer capacitacion en Defensa.There is no doubt that it is heartbreaking, especially when the weather is this harsh, to see a person sleeping rough, bundled up in layers of blankets among cigarette butts and street debris.

Stop to speak to these poor souls and you'll discover tales of neglect and misfortune, often addiction, sometimes abuse. Offer them a cup of hot soup or a coffee and they will gladly accept. Quickly, you see the human being behind the suffering.

There is no crime in being poor or homeless. But lately, a new and different breed has become visible on the streets of Britain: the professional beggar. Criminals who prey on the public's natural desire to help them by giving all the appearance of being homeless and destitute  while they are actually nothing of the kind.

Their victims are not only the tourists and commuters who fall for their pitiful patter; but also the real homeless, who suffer because the fake beggars sap the goodwill of passers-by.

Popular tourist destinations including Cambridge, London, Windsor and Ely  where recent attempts by the authorities to rid the streets of them have made national headlines  are plagued by these charlatans.

A campaign in Torquay has seen people posing as beggars named and shamed on social media. Sarah Vine says: 'Anyone who dares confront the problem risks getting it in the neck from charities with vested interests and from hard-line Left-wingers'

Anyone who dares confront the problem  like the two local business owners in Torquay who exposed those posing as beggars by naming and shaming them on social media  risks getting it in the neck from charities with vested interests and from hard-line Left-wingers.

For these supposed moral guardians, the reality of the situation is irrelevant  just as long as they can parade their concern and highlight the evils of 'austerity Britain' and a heartless Conservative government that doesn't care.

Yet the facts appear indisputable: of the 17 'homeless' identified in Torquay, just two  two!  turned out to be genuine.

And, as Angela Parmenter, Ely's frustrated housing manager, put it, these people don't want her council's support because 'it is possible to earn substantial amounts of money on the streets'.

Of course, organised gangs of beggars  many from Albania or Romania  have long been a problem in poorer European countries such as Italy, Portugal and Greece. There, women with babes in arms will follow you in the street, harass customers in restaurants, or thrust worthless trinkets into your hand, demanding money in exchange.

Often they are bound up in other criminal activities, such as prostitution and drug dealing.

While I don't condone such behaviour, on one level I can at least understand it: such countries have only very basic levels of healthcare, while proper jobs are hard to come by and charities are hopelessly oversubscribed

But in Britain this is simply not the case. We have a generous welfare system, a health service whose workers flog themselves half to death in their dedication to help those in need and a well-funded, highly organised charity sector.

She added: 'Their victims are not only the tourists and commuters who fall for their pitiful patter; but also the real homeless, who suffer because the fake beggars sap the goodwill of passers-by'

We also happen to be very generous to those in need. Which is probably why so many professional beggars have come here from Europe: to them we are a soft-hearted nation whose streets are paved with gold.

We are sops, easy touches and naive trusting mugs like my daughter who, when she started secondary school and began travelling alone by train, was thoroughly taken in by a 'homeless' person at Victoria station.

Like any child would, she believed this woman. More than once she gave her the remainder of her lunch money, until one day she happened to follow her out of the station and saw her emptying her pockets into a rucksack  before climbing into a BMW.

So let's not be fools about this. Genuine homelessness is a tragedy that deserves all our attention. But it should not blind us to the unsavoury reality that for every individual who needs help, there are sadly all too many prepared to exploit their suffering  and our good nature.

No one else is going to say it, so I will. Some people get paid less than others not because they are not posh enough (see Steph McGovern, who claims she is underpaid at the BBC on account of being from Middlesbrough) or a certain gender (Carrie Gracie, former China editor for the BBC who resigned over equal pay), but for the simple reason that they are not as good at their jobs as others.

That is the reality of the jobs market and something we all have to face; quite why women at the BBC should be exempt, I don't know.

It looked pretty consensual to me, Monica!

Monica Lewinsky is the latest woman to climb aboard the #MeToo bandwagon.

In an interview for Vanity Fair magazine, she stops short of accusing former U.S. President Bill Clinton of sexual assault; but nevertheless confesses she is now questioning the issue of consent between them.

Personally, I think Lewinsky, now 44, was treated appallingly by Clinton. But that doesn't mean their relationship was non-consensual.

Ill-advised, probably; reckless, yes; regrettable, certainly. But none of those things are the same as non-consensual.

We all do things when we're young that we come to regret. But if, as a young ambitious woman, I sleep with an older man in the hope of advancement, it does not give my grown-up self permission to re-write history, however much I may despise myself for what I did. Yet this is precisely what the #MeToo campaign seems to be doing.

Monica Lewinsky (pictured) is the latest woman to climb aboard the #MeToo bandwagon

Scores of women are jumping on the post-Weinstein bandwagon as a way of exonerating themselves for past behaviour and passing off their regret as sexual abuse.

This diminishes the real victims of assault and is deeply dishonest and a shameful example of moral cowardice.

Never, in all the accounts of their affair, has Lewinsky questioned whether she consented, until now; if anything, the opposite is true  she always seemed to have a rather farmyard approach to her exploits in the Oval Office.

Why the change of heart? Because the #MeToo movement encourages women to cast themselves as victims, objects at the mercy of men rather than players in the great game of life.

So instead of seeing herself as the woman who almost brought down a president, Lewinsky now prefers to present an image of helplessness.

Not only is this implausible, it is the precise opposite of everything feminism has ever stood for.

A new women-only business club is opening in London. The AllBright is 'a place for women [to] build confidence' and takes its name from the former U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright.

Male members are not allowed  but well-behaved gentleman guests are permitted. The founders insist the club is not 'anti-men', but rather focused on 'celebrating women'.

You might argue the same of the male clubs constantly under attack from the #MeToo brigade. Why does one make you a pioneering feminist, and the other brand you a sexist bigot?

First there was mansplaining  where men spell things out for a woman's simple brain; then teensplaining, when know-it-all teenagers tell their parents how the world works.

Well, I've just discovered mumsplaining, when I explain I don't care what you know, but unless you tidy your room and change into a skirt that doesn't resemble a belt, you're not leaving the house.

I, like many, was shocked when Justin Forsyth stood down from Unicef last week after allegations of sexual misconduct in his previous job as chief executive at Save The Children became public.

Then I read that the 'highly inappropriate' messages which he is supposed to have sent to (anonymous, of course) female colleagues are as follows: 1) 'You look nice today.' 2) 'Shall we go for coffee?' 3) 'You've got a lovely dress on.'

Sorry, but this is pathetic. If this rot doesn't stop soon, the human race will be extinct within 50 years. Either that, or no sane person will ever risk hiring any woman under the age of 40 again.

There is now a 6ft male sex robot. Sarah Vine says: 'Unless he can walk the dog, empty the dishwasher and fix the sink, count me out'

As if the revolting female sex-bots weren't bad enough, now there's a male one, a 6 ft Ken lookalike.

'Henry' is operated via an app, and his talents include telling jokes and making 'sexy noises'  which just goes to show how little the makers know about what women want.

Unless he can walk the dog, empty the dishwasher and fix the sink, count me out.

Here's a thought: American motorists won a $25 billion settlement from Volkswagen for its part in the diesel emissions scandal. That figure relates to around 580,000 cars sold in the U.S.

In the UK, the number of cars affected is twice that at around 1.2 million, for which VW has not yet paid a penny in compensation. By my calculations, if the British were offered similar recompense, VW would owe us in the region of 50 billion.

By happy coincidence, that also happens to be the sum of money Brussels is seeking as a divorce settlement. Poetische Gerechtigkeit  ja?

Why is Justin Welby, the Archbishop of Canterbury, so down on Brexit? After all, if we hadn't broken with Rome in the 16th century, there wouldn't be a Church of England for him to be the head of, would there?We have not had a loss of temper from John Bercow for a few weeks, but yesterday, oooh boy, we had a corker. The House had only been sitting a few minutes when he lost it, badly, at Treasury Questions.

There followed a complete, steaming, purple-gilled, fang-baring, woman-bullying, unbridled bate.

It was like something from a cartoon  the sort in which an authority figure shouts so hard at an underling that his tonsils jump out of his mouth and hang in the open air, waggling.

Treasury Chief Secretary Liz Truss was the initial victim of Speaker Bercows attack. She was answering the first question of the morning which had come from Labour MP Rushanara Ali (Lab, Bethnal Green & Bow). It was about how much money central government gives to local councils.

Mr Bercow had conducted the preliminaries without much charm, but that was par for the course.

Commons Speaker John Bercow (pictured) went tonto during Treasury Questions yesterday according to Quentin Letts

He does often look infuriated by the world  swollen in the face, growly in the voice, the eyes pink at the edges and darting from side to side.

He did his usual, quite unnecessary thing of saying the name and title of the minister.

Previous Speakers would merely nod at an MP or minister to indicate that it was their turn to contribute. But previous Speakers were not so much in love with the sound of their own voices as is Mr Bercow.

Miss Truss, admittedly not the most electrifying of orators, was droning her way through an answer which included a couple of examples about how Labour-run councils wasted money.

This was when Mr Bercow interrupted. He did so with 100 per cent vehemence. In that instant he was completely incensed.

Resume your seat, minister! he bawled. End of it!

He glared at Miss Truss. She declined to glare back. Quite a cool customer, the Trussette. She has had several hiccups in her political career and she has not really let any of them faze her.

You, said Mr Bercow biliously, answer for Government policy. You dont waste the time of the House by launching into rants about policies of other parties.

Rants! But who was ranting here? And were one to be pedantic  which Mr Bercow is, though generally I am not  one might argue that the minister was not criticising Labour policy. She was criticising Labour behaviour. That is not quite the same thing.

Ive made the point, continued the Squeaker, his face twisted with rage. It was at this point that the Chancellor of the Exchequer, who had not yet uttered a word in the session and who had been innocently sitting in his place beside Miss Truss, reading some paperwork, made a small face of bafflement at the Speakers bizarre over-reaction.

He shouted at Liz Truss, pictured, for 'wasting the time of the House by launching into rants about policies of other parties'

This column has not often been supportive of Philip Hammond, as you may have spotted, but it has to be said he barely did anything more than wrinkle his nose a smidgen and pull the slightest of frowns.

It sent Mr Bercow tonto. And if the Chancellor is confused about it, he suddenly screeched, he really is under-informed. I say to him, stick to your abacus, man!

By now Bercow was vermillion, nodding to himself in that way pub brawlers sometimes do. I do believe that if Mr Hammond had been next to him, rather than sitting some three yards away, Mr Bercow would have nutted him.

There was a small aftershock later on when Mr Bercow also had a go at a Labour MP, Graham Jones (Hyndburn), who left the Chamber earlier than was deemed proper after asking a question.

You may recall that only last Wednesday, at Prime Ministers Questions, the same Squeaker rose to his dainty feet and gave MPs a choice lecture on how the public did not like coarse rudeness in the House.

They expected better from their elected representatives. MPs should wise up to the change in political culture on harassment, Mr Bercow said that day.

His behaviour yesterday  to a female minister, moreover  was nastily aggressive. Deranged.A new documentary shows how Bristol detectives investigating an allegation of female genital mutilation were aware of major flaws in the case months before it collapsed at trial.

Cameras spent two years following Detective Chief Inspector Leanne Pook and her team at Avon and Somerset Police as they looked into an accusation made against a 29-year-old taxi driver who was alleged to have caused or allowed his six-year-old daughter to undergo female genital mutilation (FGM).

The team had hoped their case would result in the first successful prosecution against FGM, which has been illegal in the UK since 1985, but the case dramatically fell apart at trial after a judge deemed photos of the girl's injuries were so blurry they were of no value clinically or forensically.

DCI Leanne Pook's team, from Avon and Somerset Police, were trailed by a camera crew for nearly two years while an allegation of female genital mutilation (FGM) came to court

The case against a father accused of attempting to carry out FGM on his six-year-old daughter was brought to Bristol Crown Court but major flaws in evidence - including blurry police photos of the girl's injury - saw the case collapse

DCI Pook works closely with the charity Integrate UK, which campaigns to raise awareness against FGM against young girls

Community work: The documentary featured the police detective marching alongside campaigners in a march against FGM

DCI Pook, also a trustee for FGM charity Integrate UK, was under huge scrutiny following the collapse of the trial, which hinged on medical evidence deemed 'wholly inconclusive at its highest' by Judge Julian Lambert.

The 29-year-old Somali taxi driver had been accused of causing or allowing his six-year-old daughter, who has lifelong anonymity, to undergo FGM, and under child cruelty charges he was acquitted on the orders of the judge at Bristol Crown Court.

The judge was concerned over inconsistencies in the witness statement - an anti-FGM campaigner - and decided to throw out the 'deeply troubling' case, ordering the jury to find a not guilty verdict.

There has yet to be an FGM prosecution in the UK; and this case collapsed based on a lack of evidence after being heard at Bristol Crown Court

The alleged crime was purported to have taken place in the city of Bristol

DCI Leanne Pook (left) and the trail's key witness Sami Ullah (right)

Female genital mutilation has been illegal in the UK since 1985 but there have been no successful prosecutions.

A taboo subject and a hidden form of child abuse, it is extremely difficult to detect but can have a devastating impact on the lives of young victims.

As young girls are often reluctant to report their FGM experiences or testify against their own parents, authorities have to rely on third-party witnesses.

As many as 2,000 young girls in Bristol are at risk of FGM and most are from African or Asian ethnic backgrounds.

The documentary followed the difficulties Pook and her small team had to face as they tried to gather evidence on the alleged FGM crime.

There was a catalogue of difficulties that DCI Pook along with colleagues Detective Sergeant Dave Lewis and Detective Constable Dave Evry encountered, from medical evidence, witness testimony, the Crown Prosecution Service and the unprecedented nature of the case.

Medical evidence

The judge explained that equipment used in the initial examination of the six-year-old girl was 15 years old and the photos so blurry he said they were of no value clinically or forensically.

DCI Pook had sought to find a second doctor who could verify the account given by the witness - Sami Ullah - and corroborate the initial finding of a 'small cut' under the clitoral hood on the girl's clitoris.

Searching for justice: DCI Pook and her team asked a second doctor to examine the six-year-old's vagina after a first found evidence of a small cut - but the two reports couldn't be corroborated

But four months later when the second medical examination was carried out, Pook was left disheartened to learn that the new expert, could not corroborate the initial findings.

DCI Pook, also a trustee for FGM charity Integrate UK, was under huge scrutiny following the collapse of the trial

Pook said: 'This was a hammer blow to our case. I'm disappointed because I think we wont get justice for this little girl.'

Her colleague DC Evry reflected: 'At this point you are thinking right okay weve got something here that we can really develop and maybe take all the way.

'You have the second medical and to be told they werent sure there was an injury was a big knock back.'

However the team didn't give up as the full medical report from the second doctor explained it was possible that she may not have found anything because the 'alleged injury may have healed' .

'The head in my hands moment was over, so I just thought about what else we could do to strengthen the case,' DCI Pook added.

Witness testimony

DCI Pook explained at the beginning of the documentary that she had received a tip about an alleged incident of FGM in Bristol.

She took control of the investigation after anti-FGM campaigner Sami Ullah claimed a taxi driver had told him he had allowed his daughter to undergo the barbaric practice.

Pook and her team explained how they felt with the witness testimony they had enough to warrant a medical examination of the young girl, and to proceed with a criminal investigation into the parents.

She said: 'I am an investigator in a group specialising in this area that spent years being criticised for not ever investigating offences successfully.

'There is a bit of you that is pleased you have got that opportunity.'

But when the case was taken to trial Judge Lambert said that the key witness testimony was 'inconsistent' and 'although honest, had been influenced by his views as an activist for the charity Integrate'.

It was later revealed by the Mail on Sunday that Pook and Mr Ullah were acquaintances, with the detective taking his initial statement.

Concerns about conflict of interest had been raised with local MP Ian Liddell-Grainger calling it in to question: 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 police said that did not involve any conflict of interest. DCI Pooks appointment as a trustee for Integrate was cleared by Avon and Somerset Police.

Crown Prosecution Service (CPS)

The Crown Prosecution Service considered the evidence that DCI Pook's team had been considering for a year

Members of the defendant's family were seen arriving at the court by the documentary's camera crew

After the defendant was found not guilty of FGM, his family said the two-year case had put considerable pressure on them

The investigation went all the way to the top of the Crown Prosecution Service.

With DCI Pook and her team awaiting anxiously, as the CPS consider the evidence the police have been collecting for over a year.

The discussion centred around those who have asked whether the lower level 'type four' cuts should be allowed as part of the cultural practice, where as others have asked whether it amounts to mutilation.

'Thats a nonsense to me actually,' Pook said in the documentary.

'If we had people running around with razor blades taking chunks out of kids If we had a little white girl here and she had the tip of her finger taken off there would be bloody outrage.'

And it's just as much of a concern for DC Evry who added: 'People need to know that these girls are held down by their mother, their grandmother or aunt, and cut on their vagina, even a little nick is painful.'

Eventually a decision is made to go ahead with the prosecution, based on the case they have built so far.

Following the result of trial a spokeswoman for the Crown Prosecution Service described the prosecution against the father for child cruelty in relation to FGM as 'unprecedented'.

If we had people running around with razor blades taking chunks out of kids If we had a little white girl here and she had the tip of her finger taken off there would be bloody outrage. DCI Pook, Avon and Somerset Police

'The CPS considered this case in accordance with the Code for Crown Prosecutors and decided it met the Full Code Test - that there was sufficient evidence to prosecute for an offence of child cruelty and it was in the public interest,' she said.

'The judge at Bristol Crown Court had the opportunity to hear the evidence live and challenged.

'He then made a decision to stop the case. We respect the judges decision and will not be appealing. This was an unusual and unprecedented case for the prosecution.

'Where we feel there is sufficient evidence, and it is in the public interest to pursue, it is right that we put cases before the court so that a decision can be made by judge or jury.'

Trial collapse

Frustration: DCI Pook defended the problems with evidence that the team faced, saying: 'Do I underestimate the impact it's had on the family? Absolutely not. Nonetheless, we have a job to do, we have children to protect. And that's what we were doing'

Following the collapse of the trial, DCI Pook reflected in the programme: 'Largely speaking, this has never happened before, so it was kind of an unknown taking this case to court.'

The family of the six-year-old child said the two-year investigation had placed 'intolerable pressure' on them and they 'hoped that those bringing this prosecution would learn important lessons'.

But DCI Pook defended the investigation: 'There's various processes that go on to assess criminal cases when they get to a point where we decide, where it's decided whether it needs a charging decision.

'We followed all those processes, there were some evidential difficulties, we never denied that.'

She added: 'Do I think weve done the wrong thing of what weve done. No I dont.

'Do I underestimate the impact it's had on the family? Absolutely not. Nonetheless, we have a job to do, we have children to protect. And that's what we were doing'.

The FGM Detectives is available to watch on Channel 4 player All4A teenage social media star has just landed her very own beauty campaign thanks to an usual skill: finger-tutting.

Dytto, who has two million subscribers on YouTube, just partnered with nail polish brand China Glaze to showcase a new Spring 2018 polish collection called Chic Physique.

The social media star's multimedia campaign includes video of the 19-year-old finger-tutting while rocking a slew of different colorful manicures.

Nails: Teenage social media star Dytto, who has earned global fame from finger-tutting, just landed her very own beauty campaign

Partners: Dytto (pictured) just partnered with nail polish brand China Glaze to showcase their new Spring 2018 polish collection Chic Physique

Despite her popularity, many people have still yet to hear of finger-tutting, which is a type of street dance focused on the intricate use of the fingers. People move their fingers robotically to a song.

Those who have heard of it are very familiar with the very skilled teen, whose digital movements are considered the best.

The 19-year-old dancer and social media star is well known for her tutting, which is the latest teen craze. While it may sound strange, not many people can master it. and it's actually quite hard to do  but Dytto is considered one of the best in the world.

Since her hands and fingers are on display at all times, Dytto always has a perfect manicure and extra long tips which elongate her hands and make the tutting videos look better  so teaming up with a nail polish brand was a natural fit.

Star: As part of the campaign, the brand rolled out a video that stars the 19-year-old finger-tutting while rocking a slew of different colorful manicures

Huh? Not many people have heard of finger-tutting, which is a type of street dance focused on the intricate use of the fingers but Dytto is one of the best at it

The new video ad for the brand starts off with Dytto admiring her long nails, which are perfectly painted with the new China Glaze polishes.

Then, the video zooms in on just her face and hands as she starts to meticulously move her fingers in sharp movements at the screen.

She switches her outfits throughout the video to show off the different polishes and goes from a metallic green bomber jacket to a white strappy bra and a baby blue dress.

The China Glaze Chic Physique nail polish collection is available now at Ulta and Sally Beauty stores and online.

Video: The video for the brand starts off with Dytto admiring her long gorgeous nails, which are perfectly painted with the new China Glaze polishes

Robot: Then, the video zooms in on just her face and hands as she starts to meticulously move her fingers in sharp movements at the screen

New: The China Glaze Chic Physique nail polish collection that Dytto wears in the video is available now at Ulta and Sally Beauty stores and online

Her fans, who call themselves the Dyttofam, sometimes refer to her as Barbie Girl because of her first-ever YouTube video, which gained her so much fame.

She didn't actually start off as a finger-tutter, though. Her first video was just of her dancing like a robot to a remix of Barbie Girl by Aqua.

However, once the video got over 17 million views on YouTube (and 40 million altogether on multiple platforms) she started to strictly do finger-tutting video,s combining her robotic dances with the finger jolting moves.

She appeared on the Ellen Degeneres show in 2015 when she was only 17 years old and has also appeared in Target and Puma commercials.

Barbie: Her fans, Dyttofam, sometimes refer to her as Barbie Girl because of her first ever YouTube video gaining so much fame

Famous: With over seven million followers across social media, her fans passionately follow her every move

With over seven million followers across social media, her fans passionately follow her every move.

Born in Florida and raised in Atlanta, Dytto went from being a gymnast to a cheerleader to a professional dancer.

She tried numerous different dance styles but chose to stick with popping and animation because she was good at it, and there was also an opening in this genre within the dance community. Not many people practiced it, which gave her an advantage.

In 2014, different dance styles from popping to robotting and finger-tutting became a bit more popular, and eventually Dytto was doing so well, she moved to Los Angeles.

Since then her fame and popularity has only grown bigger and she is paving the way for future finger-tutting stars.With a third of all Australian travellers admitting to seeking out 'Instagrammable' holiday locations, quirky and shareable accommodation is at the top of of the bucket list for many aspiring tourists.

And according to a survey of travellers by Booking.com, they are most likely to share images of the outside area or view (54 per cent), followed by the lounge (47 per cent), bedroom (38 per cent) and kitchen (23 per cent).

In fact, photos are so important that 56 per cent admit to staying in a property where the photos looked better than it did in reality.

So to help Aussies get the most out of their next holiday, FEMAIL has looked at the some of the accommodation spots deemed 'most Instagrammable in the world' by the site and why each has received the tick of approval from keen jet-setters the world over.

FEMAIL has looked at the some of the accommodation spots deemed 'most Instagrammable in the world'

1. PARK PLAZA WESTMINSTER BRIDGE LONDON

This stunning hotel is located on the south side of Westminster Bridge, with views across the river to the Houses of Parliament and Big Ben.

Conveniently situated on London's South Bank, Park Plaza boasts contemporary design throughout its 1,019 rooms and suites and ideal amenities like the on-site Mandara Spa and a 15 metre swimming pool.

The large, contemporary air-conditioned rooms have modern luxuries, including a flat-screen TV, large desk, mini-bar, fridge and safe and the hotel features the modern, award-winning Brasserie Joel and Ichi Sushi & Sashimi, which specialises in sushi and sashimi.

For those wanting an extra special experience, the Presidential Suite costs $948 per night.

This stunning hotel is located on the south side of Westminster Bridge, with views across the river to the Houses of Parliament and Big Ben

Conveniently situated on London's South Bank, Park Plaza boasts contemporary design throughout its 1,019 rooms and suites and ideal amenities like the on-site Mandara Spa and a 15 metre swimming pool

2. HOTEL HOTEL

This quirky Canberra escape is located 5 minutes from Parliament House and the site of the beautiful Floriade display.

The hotel is described as 'a collaboration between designers, artists, artisans and fantasists' and each room is described as an 'atrium'.

The 'Meandering Atrium' is a low lit and moody space with a king size bed, a little desk, a separate sitting space, double vanity and twin overhead rain showers.

The big, deep, concrete bath tub is the standout feature and prices start at $300 per night.

The hotel's restaurant 'Monster Kitchen' is open every day from 6.30am to 12am and serves local and seasonal produce prepared for sharing.

This quirky Canberra escape is located 5 minutes from Parliament House and the site of the beautiful Floriade display

The hotel is described as 'a collaboration between designers, artists, artisans and fantasists' and each room is described as an 'atrium'

The big, deep, concrete bath tub is the standout feature and prices start at $300 per night

3. RESIDENCE CHARLES FLOQUET

Located in the heart of Paris, Residence Charles Floquet is 50 metres from the Eiffel Tower and a 20 minute walk from the Army Museum.

Set in a renovated, historic building, it offers large, self-catering accommodation with views over the Eiffel Tower.

The Eiffel Tower four bedroom penthouse is on the sixth floor, is tastefully decorated and furnished and costs $1,240 per night.

Its double living room has a spectacular view of the Eiffel Tower, and the dining room is separate.

Located in the heart of Paris, Residence Charles Floquet is 50 metres from the Eiffel Tower and a 20 minute walk from the Army Museum

Set in a renovated, historic building, it offers large, self-catering accommodation with views over the Eiffel Tower

4. GRAN HOTEL CIUDAD DE MEXICO

This five star spot is located in the main square of downtown Mexico City.

It is considered one of the most classic hotels in the country and is recognised for its historic sophistication and elegance of the Old World.

Its Art architecture Nouveau and famous Tiffany stained glass offers the best panoramic views of the historic centre, with interiors offering an Instagrammable moment at every turn.

The stunning stained-glass ceiling in the lobby and gilded open elevators aim to 'transport visitors back to an era of effortless luxury that is still the hallmark of Gran Hotel Ciudad de Mexico today'.

The stunning city view master suite costs $427 per night and offers spectacular views over the Zocalo Plaza.

This five star spot is located in the main square of downtown Mexico City

It is considered one of the most classic hotels in the country and is recognised for its historic sophistication and elegance of the Old World

Its Art architecture Nouveau and famous Tiffany stained glass offers the best panoramic views of the historic centre, with interiors offering an Instagrammable moment at every turn

5. SOFITEL RIO DE JANEIRO IMPANEMA EX CAESAR PARK

This beautiful five star hotel is located in a stately building directly in front of Ipanema Beach, one of the most sophisticated neighbourhoods in Rio de Janeiro.

The hotel has 222 rooms overlooking the best scenery in Rio de Janeiro: the beaches of Arpoador, Ipanema and Leblon, the stunning Two Brothers mountain and the modern city itself; a heavenly combination.

Described as the 'ultimate luxury experience', the hotel promises 'elegant and comfortable suites with the best views of Ipanema beach'.

The luxury room is $499 per night and features sophisticated decor, breathtaking ocean views and WIFI access.

This beautiful five star hotel is located in a stately building directly in front of Ipanema Beach, one of the most sophisticated neighbourhoods in Rio de Janeiro

The hotel has 222 rooms overlooking the best scenery in Rio de Janeiro: the beaches of Arpoador, Ipanema and Leblon, the stunning Two Brothers mountain and the modern city itself; a heavenly combination

Described as the 'ultimate luxury experience', the hotel promises 'elegant and comfortable suites with the best views of Ipanema beach'

6. PANAMERICANO BUENOS AIRES

The history of Buenos Aires can be told from the Panamericano Hotel viewpoint.

Those who stay are treated to the magnificent details of Buenos Aires architecture, domes, century-old buildings, modern skyscrapers, the privileged view of the obelisk, Colon Theatre, the Palace of Justice and 9 de Julio Avenue.

The upper suites feature Dutch wallpapering and Italian marble and the restaurant La Luciernaga is known as one of the most traditional restaurants in Buenos Aires.

The history of Buenos Aires can be told from the Panamericano Hotel viewpoint

Those who stay are treated to the magnificent details of Buenos Aires architecture, domes, century-old buildings, modern skyscrapers, the privileged view of the obelisk, Colon Theatre, the Palace of Justice and 9 de Julio AvenueA teenage girl who was left homeless at 14 revealed how she felt so desperate she was nearly forced to accept free accommodation in exchange for sex.

Chloe, 18, from Sussex, told how she was kicked out of her house four years ago because her parents were so against her relationship at the time.

After failing to secure help from the local council Chloe began trawling classified site Craigslist, where she found landlords who were willing to give her a roof over her head in exchange for sexual favours.

The teenager told reporter Ellie Flynn in BBC Three's Ellie Undercover: Rent For Sex that, although she didn't go through with the plan, she understood why vulnerable young women would consider the proposition.

She said: 'I feel that if you are in a dire situation, they are there and people can help you. I think of it myself as its fair to give them what they want as they are giving me what I want in this situation so I have to look after them.'

Vulnerable: Teenager Chloe, 18, from Sussex, told how she was kicked out of her house four years ago because her parents were so against her relationship at the time. She considered agreeing to a 'room-for-sex exchange because she was so desperate for somewhere to stay

Sleazy: Reporter Ellie Flynn went undercover to investigate the worrying trend. She met with landlords including this man, who offered a place to stay as long as she slept in his bed

Vile: The landlord, who she met through Craigslist, told her she could 'keep her pyjamas on'

Asked whether she thought she would have truly been looked after, Chloe replied: 'Yes because they are putting a roof over my head.'

Chloe is just one of a number of young women who find themselves caught up in the 'room-for-sex' scandal after finding themselves facing homelessness because they cannot afford the cost of rent.

The sleazy marketplace is exposed in the BBC documentary, which sees Ms Flynn speak to landlords and tenants.

One woman who lived with a landlord for free in exchange for sex said she is 'grateful' to have not been raped.

Candid: Chloe, above, said she believed sex for rent was a fair trade in a desperate situation

Investigation: Reporter Ellie Flynn was concerned about the number of vulnerable girls in helpless situations who were being exploited through the phenomenon

'I would just feel almost paralysed every time he tried to touch me but he didn't force himself on me,' the unnamed woman said. 'In a sense I am kind of grateful he didn't do that.'

WHAT IS 'RENT FOR SEX' AND IS IT ILLEGAL? 'Rent for sex' is a new phenomenon that is sweeping areas such across the UK where landlords will offer reduced or free rent in exchange for sex. These lone landlords will list their properties on Craigslist and advertise them under the guise that they are 'rent free' for an 'alternative payment'. This trend comes as 250,000 women in the UK say they have been offered free rent in exchange for sexual favours in the past five years. And 190,000 female tenants say they have been propositioned by prospective landlords in the last year, according to a YouGov poll. It is not illegal for someone to post an advert on websites such as Craigslist about these type of arrangements. But it is illegal for someone to enforce the arrangement under the Sexual Offenses Act 2003. A criminal offence in England and Wales, people can be prosecuted for inciting prostitution, which carries a sentence of up to seven years. Advertisement

The woman added: 'The idea of consent gets mashed up because a woman thinks this is the exchange I have to give this man in order for me to have a roof over my head.'

She revealed one landlord asked for sex 'every second day' in exchange for the room while another said: 'I'm just doing it "cause I just wanna f***".'

Ms Flynn also went undercover to meet rent-for-sex landlords, who claim there is no wrongdoing despite the vulnerable position of their 'tenants'.

One landlord told Ms Flynn that she would be sleeping in a log cabin, adding: 'It's a physical arrangement once a week. We get together, have a bit of fun, that's it.

'Nothing abnormal, nothing strange. I'm a normal guy.'

Another said: 'All I'm asking for is sex in exchange, yeah?'

Sex for rent adverts are on the rise as vulnerable young people and those in low paid jobs are priced out of accommodation.

The law states that a crime is only committed when a person causes of incites somebody to become a prostitute under the Sexual Offences Act 2003.

There are no know prosecutions in relation to sex for rent in the UK due to the phenomenon being so new.

Exploitation: The men Ellie, pictured, claimed no wrongdoing had taken place, despite preying on vulnerable girls desperate for a roof over their heads

Ellie Undercover: Rent For Sex is available to watch on BBC ThreeA New York City publicist has emerged as a stunning doppelganger of Hailey Baldwin, sharing the model's unique facial features and fashion sense.

Haley Anderson, 24, works as an assistant account executive at BPCM, a communications agency in the Big Apple.

The publicist, originally from Tyler, Texas, often shares snapshots of her life with her Instagram followersand in many of the photos, she looks just like Stephen Baldwin's 21-year-old model daughter, with whom shealmostshares a name.

Uncanny: New York City publicist Haley Anderson (left) has emerged as a stunning doppelganger of Hailey Baldwin (right), sharing the model's unique facial features

Mirror: Haley (pictured) often shares snapshots of her life with her Instagram followersand in many of the photos, she looks just like Stephen Baldwin's 21-year-old model daughter

Features: Both women have the same almond-shaped eyes and straight nose, and most strikingly, Haley (left) shares Hailey's plump lips (right)

Journey: Haley and Hailey also share the same place of residence, with Haley (pictured) having moved to New York City from her native Texas after attending the University of Alabama

Both women have the same almond-shaped eyes and straight nose, and most strikingly, Haley shares Hailey's plump lips.

The model's pout has become one of her trademark features, and they have contributed to making many of her modeling snaps instantly recognizable.

Haley and Hailey also share the same place of residence, with Haley having moved to New York City from her native Texas after attending the University of Alabama.

Meanwhile, Hailey, a native of Tucson, Arizona, was raised in Nyack in New York State and is now represented by IMG Models, an agency based in the city.

Both of them also share a noticeable talent for staging arresting social media shots, with Haley chronicling moments of her existence such as Fashion Week shows, nights out in New York City, and a recent meal at Chateau Marmont in Los Angeles.

Glam: Both Haley and Hailey (right) also share a noticeable talent for staging arresting social media shots, with Haley (left) chronicling moments of her existence such as trips abroad

Taking notice: Haley has already been noticed for her resemblance to the model, with one person telling her recently in a comment: 'I thought this was @haileybaldwin'

Style: Hailey (right) and Haley (left) share a similar fashion sense, and have both been pictured modeling black mesh tops in one instance

Part of the squad: Other people have compared Haley (pictured) to Gigi Hadid, 22, who happens to be Hailey's fellow model and friend

Social media: Haley (left) has a bit more than 2,000 followers on Instagram, while Hailey (right) counts 11.2 million subscribers on the platform

While she doesn't yet rival Hailey's impressive 11.2 million followers on the platform, Haley has already been noticed for her resemblance to the model, with one person telling her recently in a comment: 'I thought this was @haileybaldwin.'

In the corresponding black and white photo, Haley can be seen modeling a leather jacket and crystal-encrusted sunglasses, while striking a pose that brings out her likeness to Hailey.

Other people have compared Haley to Gigi Hadid, 22, who happens to be Hailey's fellow model and friend.

Haley even has a modelling background, having once starred in a video ad for Tito's vodka, which saw her securing a pair of sunglasses on her nose, dressed in a mesh top.

As for Hailey, who has just appeared on her first Vogue cover, she is currently busy walking the Fashion Week runway.

She was seen on the Tommy Hilfiger catwalk in Milan on Sunday, donning a bralette and matching shorts underneath a bulky cardigan.Advertisement

As the American Crime Story saga The Assassination Of Gianni Versace continues to rack up great reviews on TV, fans might be wondering: What happened to the palatial Miami estate the tragic designer so loved?

After Gianni was gunned down on the steps of the home by serial killer Andrew Cunanan at age 50 in 1997, the Ocean Drive property remained in the family for just a few years before Gianni's sister Donatella sold it in 2000.

From 2001 to 2009, the home was a members-only club and hotel available for private event hire. But after the property was auctioned in 2013 and sold to the owners of the Hotel Victor next door, it was converted into a luxury hotel called Villa Casa Casuarina.

Famous location: The former home of Gianni Versace has been converted into a luxury hotel called Villa Casa Casuarina

Crown jewel: The designer's master bedroom (pictured) is available to rent as the Villa Suite for $1,799 a night

Fashion icon: The Casa Casuarina property was purchased by Versace in 1992 for $2.95 million and transformed into a palace

The three story mansion-turned-hotel now contains ten suites, one of which was once Versaces master bedroom. The room is now dubbed the Villa Suite, one of four one bedroom suites in the hotel, and runs at $1,799 a night.

Chauncey Copeland, general manager of Villa Casa Casuarina, told New York Daily News that both the Kardashians and Justin Bieber have rented out the room as a part of booking out the whole hotel.

The famous secret passageways that Versace and his guests could use to slip from room to room are closed off, of course, but the property is otherwise intact for patrons to enjoy.

'Its as he left it,' said Copeland. 'We actually have a resident artist on staff who maintains all of the details, from the murals on the walls and the suites, to the 24-karat pool.'

In one piece: The hotel has an artist on staff that looks over the details of the murals and other features of the property

Sit and enjoy: The hotel also boasts a restaurant called Gianni's, which serves a $49 version of Versace's favorite meal, Branzino

Quite a sight: The 24-karat pool is only available to be enjoyed by guests of the hotel

Cheaper rooms in the hotel run at $749 for a Superior Suite, $999 for an Exceptional Suite and $1,199 for one of the other three One Bedroom Suites.

Another new addition to the property is a restaurant appropriately called Gianni's, which boasts Versace's favorite meal, a $49 Branzino, as its signature dish.

The 50-year-old Versace was returning from a morning walk to pick up the morning papers on July 15, 1997, when Andrew Cunanan approached him on the steps of the villa, shooting him twice.

Even 20 years later, it is not known whether the murder was planned or carried out at random, leading to much gossip and speculation.

Eight days after the killing, Cunanan killed himself with the same gun he used to slay Versace, marking the end of a rampage that took the lives of five people.

Tragedy: Gianni Versace (left) was murdered at age 50 by Andrew Cunanan (right), who killed himself eight days later

Paying tribute: The fashion legend was shot twice and killed on the steps of his Miami mansion

Leading role: The murder is the subject of FX Network's new TV series American Crime Story Season 2: The Assassination of Gianni Versace, starring Edgar Ramirez as the designer

The family name: Gianni's sister Donatella Versace has condemned the FX show and the book on which it is based

The current season of American Crime Story examines Cunanan's killing spree as well as aspects of Gianni's personal life and time in the spotlight. The show stars Edgar Ramirez as the designer and Darren Criss as his crazed murderer.

The FX series has been condemned by members of Gianni's family in the month since it debuted, including the designer's sister Donatella.

In an interview with Italian daily la Repubblica earlier this month, Donatella claimed that the book the series is based on, Maureen Orth's Vulgar Favors, is riddled with unconfirmed rumors and inaccuracies.

'I haven't seen (the series) nor will I see it, because after all this time it still hurts to see Gianni represented untruthfully,' Donatella told the paper.SHARE

By of the

The Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District will pay a Paris-based company at least $500 million over 10 years to operate and maintain its two sewage treatment plants and other wastewater facilities, under a contract extension approved Monday by the district's commission.

The 10-year extension for Veolia Water Milwaukee LLC starts March 1, 2018, with an estimated first-year payment of $48 million. The deal was endorsed by the Metropolitan Milwaukee Association of Commerce as well as the four labor unions representing Veolia employees.

"The system here is not broken, and it does not need another fix for the next 10-year period," MMAC President Tim Sheehy said in a statement distributed to commissioners.

One benefit of a private operating contract is that it shelters district taxpayers from "the risk of large, and often unanticipated, operational expenditures," Sheehy said.

MMSD staff and a consultant had studied whether the district would save money by keeping a private operator or taking back responsibility for the operations and maintenance of the two plants, regional sewers, deep-tunnel system and Milorganite fertilizer factory.

Though an analysis found little difference in known costs between the two options, MMSD Executive Director Kevin Shafer recommended a contract extension based on the company's environmental performance in operating the Jones Island and South Shore treatment plants.

Veolia Water has met or exceeded all regulatory permit and district contract standards, according to Shafer.

MMSD is the largest publicly owned wastewater treatment system under private operating contract in the United States.

In March 2008, the company started running MMSD facilities under a 10-year contract valued at an estimated $400 million. At that time, district officials said the agreement would cost $35 million less than returning operating responsibilities to the district.

Veolia Water Milwaukee General Manager Scott Royer told commissioners Monday that the company's success in its first eight years at the controls was due to a partnership with district staff.

"This really is a team sport," Royer said.

"We look forward to the next decade of partnership," and the operating efficiencies that will come out of the contract, Commission Chairman John Hermes said.

Apart from the contract, MMSD continues to manage an industrial waste compliance program, laboratory and water quality research, and Milorganite sales and marketing.

In 2015, Veolia Water Milwaukee was paid a base fee of $41.3 million, plus $320,000 in three performance bonuses. Such annual bonuses are eliminated in the contract extension.

Veolia Water Milwaukee's parent company is Veolia Water North America, a division of Paris-based Veolia Environment.

At a June 22 public hearing, only one person spoke against the contract extension. Lloyd Dobrinska of Greenfield said he opposed hiring a foreign-based company to operate MMSD facilities.Celebrities bring their fashion A-game to red carpet events. Some even swipe their looks straight off of the runways (we're looking at you Tracee Ellis Ross and Michelle Monaghan).

Jennifer Lawrence and Rihanna are just a couple of stars that have stepped out recently in garments we saw during Fashion Week.

Check out other runway to real life examples plus helpful style tips to incorporate into your own repertoire.

Leading lady attire: On Monday (February 26) Jennifer Lawrence attended the 'Red Sparrow' premiere at the Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center in New York City wearing a gorgeous Christian Dior Haute Couture gown. The peek-a-boo look is from the label's spring/summer 2018 collection, which was shown in France on January 22. Jennifer layered the sheer skirt with a black underpinning

On Monday (February 26) Jennifer Lawrence attended the 'Red Sparrow' premiere at the Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center in New York City wearing a gorgeous Christian Dior Haute Couture gown.

The peek-a-boo look is from the label's spring/summer 2018 collection which was shown during Paris Fashion Week on January 22.

While Jennifer layered the sheer skirt with a black underpinning, the dress came down the catwalk sans underlayers. The actress also opted against the eye-mask. Good choice, Jen.

Takeaway tip: It's good to leave something to the imagination

Lighten up: Janelle Monae shocked fans at Disneys A Wrinkle In Time premiere on Monday (February 26) in Los Angeles, California, wearing a hot pink suit by Wolk Morais. The set is a part of the LA-based label's spring 2018 collection. It was shown on the catwalk with dark add-ons, but Janelle opted for a stark white blouse and matching Asos boots

Janelle Monae shocked fans at Disneys A Wrinkle In Time premiere on Monday (February 26) in Los Angeles, California.

The 32-year-old deviated from her traditional black and white color palette and wore a hot pink three-piece suit by Wolk Morais.

The set is a part of the LA-based label's spring 2018 collection. It was shown on the catwalk with dark add-ons, but Janelle opted for a stark white blouse and matching Asos boots.

Takeaway tip: White add-ons brighten up a look

To bling or not to bling: Tracee Ellis Ross attended the 2018 American Black Film Festival Honors Awards on Sunday (February 25) in Beverly Hills, California, wearing a two-tone look by Prabal Gurung. While Tracee kept the look very similar to how it came down the catwalk, the 'Black-ish' star accessorized with dangling diamond earrings and a swipe of pink lipstick

Tracee Ellis Ross attended the 2018 American Black Film Festival Honors Awards on Sunday (February 25) in Beverly Hills, California, wearing a two-tone look by Prabal Gurung.

The velvet ensemble was seen just a few weeks ago on the catwalk during New York Fashion Week.

While Tracee kept the look very similar to how it was shown, the 'Black-ish' star accessorized with dangling diamond earrings and a swipe of pink lipstick.

Takeaway tip: Rich fabrics are their own accessories

Hairy situation: Michelle Monaghan attended the premiere of 'The Vanishing Of Sidney Hall' at ArcLight Hollywood in California on February 22 wearing a fall 2018 look by Carolina Herrera. Unlike the model who wore her hair in a sleek updo, Michelle let her wavy locks fall loosely

Michelle Monaghan attended the premiere of 'The Vanishing Of Sidney Hall' at ArcLight Hollywood in California on February 22 wearing a look by Carolina Herrera.

Michelle plucked the white blouse and dramatic floor-length belted skirt straight off Carolina's fall 2018 runway show on February 12.

Unlike the model who wore her hair in a sleek updo, Michelle let her wavy locks fall loosely.

Takeaway tip: Hairstyles change the overall feel of a look

Dancing shoes: Rihanna celebrated her 30th birthday on February 20 wearing a leg-baring number by Saint Laurent. While it was shown on the runway with furry black boots, Riri appeared party ready in strappy stiletto sandals

Rihanna celebrated her 30th birthday on February 20 wearing a leg-baring number by Saint Laurent.

The look is from the French label's ready-to-wear spring/summer 2018 collection.

While it was shown with furry black boots, Riri appeared party ready in strappy stiletto sandals.

Takeaway tip: Elaborate ensembles do not need elaborate footwearA mother-of-five who was faced with the difficult prospect of buying the perfect gift for her mother-in-law turned to Kmart to create a crafty, one-of-kind, alternative.

Tammie Vicziany, of Western Australia, said that buying for her relative was never easy because she seemed to already 'have two of everything.'

'All I want to do is give her something that reflects how much she not only means to me, but to her son and our children,' she told The Daily Telegraph.

Mother-of-five Tammie Vicziany turned to crafting as a cheap way to make a creative gift for her mother-in-law

With five children on the go, cost was a consideration for the busy mum, who said she often turned to crafting as a way to create budget-friendly gifts.

The 34-year-old said she was struck by inspiration to create the "flip, stir, whisk" jars in a box after she had seen a similar idea on picture sharing site, Pinterest.

The busy mum said in total she spent $35 to buy the items she needed to make the one-of-a-kind gift, and all were readily available through Kmart.

The "flip, stir and whisk' jars in a box cost a total of $35 to create and all the items were bought from Kmart

Two of the items Ms Vicziany used to get started on her project: Whisks from Kmart (pictured left) $1.50 each and jars (pictured right) $2.00 each

The gift was made with three jars at a cost of $2.00 each, two fake hydrangea stems - $3.00 each, a roll of jute rope for $4.00, two coloured whisks priced at $1.50, and a wooden box $7.00.

She also said she used Kmart paints, sponge paint brushes, normal paint brushes, hot glue gun and glue sticks.

The gift was made even more special because she and her children aged 13, 11, nine, seven and 18 months created it together, she added.

Other items Ms Vicziany purchased for her crafty project: a roll of jute $4,00 (pictured left) and two hydrangea stems $3.00 each (pictured right)

The most expensive item the mum-of-five purchased for her present was this box which cost $7.00

'Once we had collected everything that we needed to make the gift, I then set my kids up to paint the three jars and the wooden box over the weekend.'

How to make the 'flip, whisk and stir' box Purchase three jars, jute, two fake flower stems and kitchen utensils Paint jars with craft paint using a paint brush Add 'finish' the jars with a sponge brush The box can also be painted using craft paint, and lightly sanded so it looks aged Finish with box with hand-written detailing Tie bows of jute rope on the jar Advertisement

While the gift was very much a joint effort, Ms Vicziany said it was an easy project, and one she could have let her children complete without her input.

Sharing the creation on social media, Ms Vicziany has been praised by many others for her inspired and budget-friendly one-of-a-kind-creation.

Many commented how beautiful they thought the inexpensive gift was and how keen they would be themselves to try making it.

But Ms Vicziany said the best part of the process was creating a gift with her kids - and despite its imperfections - she is sure its one that will be loved.

'We had a lot of fun making it and I really think my mother-in-law will love it too.'A teenager with alopecia has described how a bare patch on her scalp that was the size of a 5p coin rapidly spread - leaving her virtually bald.

Lucy Brown, now 19, from Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, explained how her hair began falling out when she was just 15 years old.

She described how her problems began when she first noticed a tiny section of bare scalp when she was fiddling with her hair during a class at school.

The part-time waitress said that at the time she had long brown hair which she 'took pride in', adding that losing it was 'horribly isolating'.

As her condition worsened, she was diagnosed with alopecia - and Lucy now wears a wig to help her feel more confident.

Lucy Brown, from Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, explained how her hair began falling out when she was just 15 years old. She is pictured her with her natural hair

As her bald patches spread, a doctor diagnosed her with alopecia. Lucy is pictured here before getting fitted with a wig

Lucy explained how she had been studying for her GCSEs in September 2014 when she first noticed a bald patch on her scalp.

She said that no one had been worried at first when she showed her parents and her uncle, who is a doctor, but the patches soon spread.

'I had long, brown hair, which I straightened, or curled and took pride in. The thought of it falling out was really daunting,' she explained.

About six months later, there were several bald patches, so she saw her GP and was told it was probably a scalp condition  and told her to try various creams, in a bid to stop it spreading.

Lucy says her wig (pictured) gives her more confidence, and feels like her own hair

The problem soon got worse, and she saw a different doctor, who said he thought she had alopecia areata  an autoimmune condition, whereby the immune system attacks hair follicles, causing hair loss - advising her to consider having a wig.

'My reaction was very emotional. I'd googled alopecia areata, fearing I might have it, but had tried to convince myself it wasn't that,' she said.

'As a teenage girl, it was the last thing I wanted to hear.'

She added: 'I had no idea that girls of my age could just start going bald. It was a horribly isolating experience.'

The teenager described how she first noticed a small bald patch when she was fiddling with her hair during a class at school

However, the patches quickly spread until she had several bald patches on her head

Lucy said she hadn't even considered wigs at first, as she hadn't thought she could 'possibly lose all my hair'.

'I tried to find other women my age, going through the same thing, for support, but there weren't any. That's why I'm speaking out - hoping to help other people like me,' she said.

Sent to see a dermatologist, she was put on steroids to help her condition.

'I think they addressed the autoimmune factor,' Lucy said 'I'd just started GCSEs, so the specialist wondered if my alopecia had been triggered by stress, or by my hormones.

Lucy (pictured with her natural locks) described how she previously had taken pride in her long brown locks, before her hair started falling out

The teenager explained how she would often style her own hair prior to her alopecia (pictured)

'Nothing really traumatic had happened, though, so they couldn't really get to the bottom of it.'

On steroids for about eight weeks, they started with a stronger dose, which was effective.

'For the first few weeks they really worked,' said Lucy. 'I got white, fluffy hair on my bald patches, but as the dose decreased, it started to get worse again.

'When I went back to see the dermatologist, bits of hair had regrown, but there were also new bald patches, which was a bit upsetting.

Lucy said she had no idea at the time that girls her age could start going bald

The part-time waitress described her 'emotional' reaction to finding out she had alopecia

Lucy tried various creams, as well as steroids, as her condition worsened over time

'I did go back on steroids  finishing them in about December 2015  as the consultant realised it would be awful to lose all my hair, when I was doing my GCSEs.'

Lucy's parents, Angela, 48, and Rodney, 64, even paid 300 for an appointment with a Harley Street specialist, but they only provided her with information she already had.

'It was a difficult time, as the main thing people say is not to get stressed, but, as a 15-year-old girl, losing all your hair is bound to make you worry,' she said.

'It's the only thing you can do. I was so stressy about it all.'

Lucy later found a specialist salon, run by an alopecia sufferer, that fitted her with a wig

She explained how her hairpiece, built using a special mesh, is fitted individually

Lucy also found it very difficult to talk about what she was going through.

'At the beginning, I told a few girls in my science class, before I knew it was alopecia,' she explained. 'I showed it to them and they all had a laugh at it, which really upset me.

'After that, I was more guarded about who I told. I obviously told my closest friends and family, who were very supportive.'

Throughout 2015, Lucy disguised her bald patches, using various hair products. But as more hair fell out, she resorted to wearing caps and hats.

'I spent hours in the bathroom,' she said. 'I'd wake up an hour and a half before school and would try and plait my hair or style it in a way that would hide it.

Lucy also uses make-up to re-create her eyebrows, which have fallen out due to her condition

The teenager says she is confident to socialise again since being fitted with the hairpiece (pictured)

'My sister Charlie would help me in the morning, trying to disguise all these bald patches, but I got used to it.'

Then, in early 2016, it became impossible to cover-up her increased hair loss.

'The thought of wigs freaked me out, so I didn't know what to do,' she said.

Then her mum, discovered the Lucinda Ellery Consultancy, created by a fellow alopecia sufferer to offer solutions for managing hair loss and hair thinning.

Visiting the London salon, Lucy soon found a hairpiece, built using a special mesh, applied to the wearer's skull and fitted individually, which suited her perfectly.

Lucy, pictured with her natural hair, said she wanted to raise awareness of the condition

The teenager (pictured wearing her wig) described the experience of losing her hair as 'horribly isolating'

Despite costing around 2000, her parents were happy to invest in the hairpiece, which Lucy says has changed her life.

She recalled: 'My hair system is taped to my head and only needs to be changed once a week. I can shower in it and everything.

'It feels like my own hair. The day it was put on, it changed my life.

'Before, I had a month off school, then I had to stop working for a bit, as I had no hair. I didn't feel comfortable going into school, as I was at the age where people can be judgemental, so I worked at home instead.

'After getting my hair system, I felt confident about going back. I also go to parties again now and socialise with friends. My routine has gone back to normal.'

Lucy said she previously had to take time off school as she didn't want to be judged by her fellow pupils

However, she says that her life has now got back to normal since getting her new hair piece

Lucy (pictured with sister Charlie) said she hopes to go to university now she's got her confidence back

And, while Lucy  who has no eyebrows, eyelashes or body hair  said she would have felt too self-conscious to go to university bald, she now plans to study food with nutrition at Bath Spa University in September.

Sadly, she has no idea whether or not her hair will grow back, but she is now determined not to let it hold her back.

She said: 'I still really hope it will grow back, but, annoyingly, it's so unpredictable.

'I'm quite into make-up, which is lucky, so I use all sorts of products to do my brows and use false eyelashes. I have a routine now.

She added: 'Since this started, I have learned a lot. My advice to anyone experiencing hair loss is not to keep it a secret.

'It feels much better when you tell people what's happening.

'Not everyone needs to know, but once you've come out, it's a relief and you may be shocked by how supportive people can be.'British dog breeds are at risk of dying out because owners are opting for trendier foreign breeds, the Kennel Club has warned.

Native breeds including the Sussex spaniel and the Glen of Imaal terrier are among the 36 that have seen their numbers decline to worrying lows over the last decade, as owners increasingly opt for 'trendy' imported breeds like the French bulldog.

Some British breeds are so rarely seen that even dog enthusiasts at Crufts struggle to recognise them, the Kennel Club revealed.

Manchester terrier: Unlike many terriers, the Manchester Terrier has its roots in urban life

Skye terrier: The Skye terrier is also facing mdecline, with just 40 puppies registered last year

Fox Terrier: The sprightly smooth and wire fox terriers both originated in the 19th century

Irish red & white setter: Bred as a hunting dog, the setter is also marked out for its temperment

Deerhound: The majestic deerhound, which can grow to be 2.5ft tall, was bred to hunt red deer

English Bull Terrier: The English Bull Terrier might be more recognisable, but is still at risk

The Otterhound, a scent hound bred for hunting since the early 19th century, is most at risk, with just 24 puppies registered for 2017, a drop of 40 per cent from 2016.

To combat the problem, the Kennel Club is launching its Save the Forgotten Dog Breeds campaign, which aims to encourage the public to get to know some of the nation's forgotten furry friends.

The Otterhound: A scent hound bred for hunting since the early 19th century, the Otterhound is most at risk, with just 24 puppies registered for 2017, a drop of 40 per cent from 2016

Lancashire Heeler: This breed resembles its Corgi cousins and was once used to hunt rats

English Setter: This docile breed dates back to 1825 but is now at risk of becoming extinct

Smooth Collies: This clever breed is a short-coated version of the Rough Collie of Lassie fame

Norwich terrier: They are the smallest of the terrier breeds but with great substance for their size and characters to match

Clumber Spaniel: The Clumber was first seen in the UK at the end of the 18th century and takes its name from Clumber Park in Nottingham

As part of the campaign a special Vulnerable Native British and Irish Breeds competition is being held at Crufts this year.

Caroline Kisko, Kennel Club secretary, urged owners to properly research breeds and consider choosing a British dog, rather than just opting for ones that are 'on trend'.

She said: 'Many of the breeds we consider to be at risk of disappearing due to their low numbers are largely in this position because of the fact they are unrecognisable to the British public and are therefore completely overlooked...

The Glen of Imaal terrier: The Glen of Imaal terrier originated during the reign of Elizabeth I when French and Hessian mercenaries settled in Ireland. It almost died out in the early 20th century and is now under threat again. Last year there were only 48 puppies registered

Curly coated retriever: It has been claimed that the Curly Coated Retriever is the oldest of the Retriever breeds. It is also the tallest

Bloodhound: The breed is famed for its ability to discern human scent over great distances

Sealyham Terrier: This Welsh breed takes its name from the village where it originated, in Pembrokeshire on the river Seal

Irish Water Spaniel: Although the breed is classified as a 'spaniel' the Irish Water Spaniel works as a retriever, particularly in retrieving from water

'We need to keep the rich diversity of breeds, with all of their unique characteristics, so that people can get a dog that is truly right for them.

'We would strongly encourage anyone thinking about getting a dog to consider the lesser known breeds and come to Crufts in Birmingham in March as we have a dedicated Discover Dogs zone where people can meet these breeds first hand and talk to experts about what they are like to live with.'

Field Spaniels: The field spaniel was bred for show in the late 19th and early 20th centuries

Welsh Corgis: The Welsh Corgi is a favourite of the royal family, particularly the QueenOne of the survivors of the Parkland shooting has penned a powerful essay vehemently opposing the idea that teachers might need to carry guns in the classroom to protect their students and themselves against potential attackers.

Emma Gonzalez, 18, was at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School when a mass shooting claimed the lives of 17 people on Valentine's Day.

In the days after the massacre, Emma emerged as one of the leading voices making the case for stricter gun laws, taking President Donald Trump to task in a powerful speech during a rally in Fort Lauderdale.

Speaking out: Parkland shooting survivor Emma Gonzalez, 18, has penned a powerful essay vehemently opposing the idea that teachers might need to carry guns in the classroom

Advcoate: Emma has emerged as one of the leading voices making the case for stricter gun laws, taking President Trump to task in a powerful speech during a rally in Fort Lauderdale

Now, the student has further argued the case for responsible gun ownership, arguing in favor of more thorough checks on those looking to purchase weapons, and describing how schools can create safer environments without arming their teachers.

Emma began her essay in Harper's Bazaar by introducing herself in a few simple words, writing: 'My name is Emma Gonzalez. I'm 18 years old, Cuban and bisexual. I'm so indecisive that I can't pick a favorite color, and I'm allergic to 12 things.

'I draw, paint, crochet, sew, embroideranything productive I can do with my hands while watching Netflix.

'But none of this matters anymore.'

Shen then spoke out against those who 'have become complacent in a senseless injustice that occurs all around them' and politicians who 'have become more easily swayed by money than by the people who voted them into office'.

'What matters is that my friends are dead, along with hundreds upon hundreds of others all over the United States,' she added.

Stance: The student (pictured returning to Majory Stoneman Douglas High School on Sunday) has further argued the case for responsible gun ownership

Position: Specifically, Emma (pictured earlier this month in Fort Lauderdale) spoke out against the president's suggestion that teachers should carry weapons in the classroom

Emma then pointed out that 'it should not be easier to purchase a gun than it is to obtain a driver's license, and military-grade weapons should not be accessible in civilian settings'.

Her essay focused on the AR-15, the semiautomatic rifle that has, along with its other versions by various manufacturers, become a common thread in America's deadliest mass shootings.

Nikolas Cruz, 19, is accused of using an AR-15-style semi-automatic rifle to gun down 14 students and three staff members at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.

'You dont drive a NASCAR on the street, no matter how fun it might be, just like you dont need an AR-15 to protect yourself when walking home at night. No one does,' Emma added.

She clarified that she and her fellow advocates 'don't want people to have their guns taken away', but want people 'to be more responsible'.

Essay: 'Teachers do not need to be armed with guns to protect their classes, they need to be armed with a solid education in order to teach their classes,' Emma (pictured last year) wrote

Measures: The student (pictured earlier this month at a CNN town hall meeting) also called for 'increased mental health care for all those who need it'

Specifically, she spoke out against the president's suggestion that teachers should carry weapons in the classroom in exchange for a bonus.

His daughter Ivanka Trump has backed the idea, saying it was not 'bad' and warranted further discussion.

'Teachers do not need to be armed with guns to protect their classes, they need to be armed with a solid education in order to teach their classes,' Emma wrote.

'That's the only thing that needs to be in their job description. People say metal detectors would help.

'Tell that to the kids who already have metal detectors at school and are still victims of gun violence. If you want to help arm the schools, arm them with school supplies, books, therapists, things they actually need and can make use of.'

The student also called for 'increased mental health care for all those who need itincluding the angry, frustrated men who almost always commit these crimes'.

'Mental illness and gun violence are not directly correlated, but when the two go hand in hand, Americansoften childrenlose their lives,' she added.

'We don't need the NRA's excuses, we need the NRA to finally stand up and use its power to supply the American people with something they deserve.'Steph McGovern hit headlines over the weekend after suggesting her regional accent had held her back in her career.

And now Ben Fogle has weighed in on the debate, revealing he was once told by a producer to attend 'de-elocution lessons' to sound more 'regional'.

The privately-educated presenter, who was born in London, suggested he had been ordered to change his distinctive accent in a series of tweets posted on Wednesday morning.

Fogle has worked for Channel 5, ITV and BBC and did not specify the series he was working on at the time. MailOnline has contacted a representative for Ben for comment.

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Ben Fogle has weighed in on the class debate, revealing his 'posh' accent had held him back. His comments come in the wake of revelations about class and pay by Steph McGovern

Fogle, 44, posted a series of tweets on Wednesday morning in which he revealed he had been told to get 'de-elocution' lessons by a producer to get rid of his 'posh accent'

Father-of-two Fogle, 44, has previously hit out at people who 'judge' him for his 'posh' accent.

Writing in the Telegraph in 2013, London-born presenter said: 'The assumptions we make about people's accents and backgrounds are often, and I've spent 15 years trying to overcome the posh stereotyping.'a

His revelation came just days after BBC Breakfast star Steph McGovern claimed that said 'posh' people earn more than her for doing similar jobs.

The Middlesborough-born BBC presenter received a pay rise following the gender pay gap row but told The Sunday Times she has only 'just now' reached a six-figure salary and that 'posh women [...] are paid a hell of a lot more than me'.

The 35-year-old said while there is a lot of focus on representing different cultures, there needs to be more emphasis on encouraging working class people into broadcasting.

Class row: Steph McGovern hit headlines over the weekend after suggesting her regional accent had held her back in her career

The Middlesborough-born BBC presenter received a pay rise following the gender pay gap row but told The Sunday Times she has only 'just now' reached a six-figure salary

McGovern added: 'Throughout my career I've had to argue about (pay). It's not as simple as a gender issue, it's partly down to class.

'We concentrate too much on ethnic diversity and not enough on class.

'It's dead important to represent loads of different cultures. But what the BBC doesn't do enough of is thinking about getting people from more working-class backgrounds. It's just posh.'

The presenter said 'a lot of people in management are from the same background'.

'We're talking about: 'How do we represent more working class people?' when they themselves are not working class. So how do they know?' she said.

McGovern also recounted an incident where a manager said she was 'too common' to be a presenter.A serial killer who brought fear to the streets of Kansas City, Missouri, for almost two decades has spoken about his heinous crimes for the first time to broadcaster Piers Morgan.

Lorenzo Gilyard, who was jailed for life after being convicted of six counts of murder in March 2007, is confronted by Morgan in the latest episode of his ITV Serial Killer show where he denies his guilt despite solid DNA evidence.

During their chilling encounter Piers asks Gilyard - who preyed on sex workers and was dubbed the 'Kansas City Strangler - how he now feels about the women he 'dragged off the streets and strangled'.

The softly-spoken killer, who is alleged to have raped and murdered 13 women and girls in total between 1977 and 1993, told him: 'I feel bad... but there ain't nothing I can do about it.'

He later adds in the programme that he was innocent: 'Im sorry what happened to them, thats all I can say. I didnt do it, but Im sorry.'

The 53-year-old sanitation worker was foiled when DNA evidence linked a string of 13 murder victims to just one man - him.

Piers Morgan confronts serial killer Lorenzo Gilyard over the crimes he committed during his 17-year murder spree

Catherine Barry, left, was the only woman of the 12 killed by Gilyard who was not a sex worker. Naomi-Kelly was also murdered by the serial killer

Victims from L-R Kellie Ann Ford, Sheila Ingold, Carmeline Hibbs were all preyed upon by the former bin man

When Piers tried to push Gilyard to explain how his semen was found on the victims, the killer insisted he had no idea and that the police had never taken samples from him despite there being a record of one taken in 2004 after he was arrested.

Piers asked Gilyard what his defence of the 13 murders was in court if his claims of innocence were true, which the prisoner said he had no idea.

The presenter snapped: 'You were charged with killing 13 women and you dont know what your defence was? Do you think Im an idiot Lorenzo? Do I look like an idiot to you?'

An angry Gilyard got up and walked out of the interview leaving Piers with unanswered questions.

He was tried on seven counts of murder and convicted on March 16, 2007, and is now serving his life sentences at Missouris Crossroads Correctional Facility.

Gilyard had never spoken about his crimes before Piers set out to discover just what drove this seemingly ordinary man to embark on a killing spree.

At the time of his arrest, Gilyards life could not have appeared more normal.

Happily married and respected at work, nothing suggested that the former bin man was harbouring a terrifying secret: that over a seventeen year period he had preyed on vulnerable women - raping and strangling them, before discarding them on the city streets.

No one suspected Gilyard was the killer.

Gilyard had never spoken about his crimes before Piers set out to discover just what drove this seemingly ordinary man to embark on a killing spree

When Gilyard was finally brought to trial, prosecutors chose to try him for just seven murders

The sex workers he murdered had all been strangled, and evidence showed they had fought desperately for their lives. He would pick them up for sex before strangling them with a shoelace, an electric chord or a piece of clothing.

All of them had had their shoes removed before Gilyard had dumped their bodies across the city.

When Gilyard was finally brought to trial, prosecutors chose to try him for just seven murders  the seven committed in a two-year period at the height of his reign of terror.

He was found guilty of six, and is now serving consecutive life sentences with no possibility of parole.

Gilyard was dubbed the Kansas City Strangler after raping and murdering 13 women and girls in the Missouri city

He was convicted of the murders of Catherine Barry, 34, Naomi Kelly, 23, Ann Barnes, 36, Kellie A. Ford, 20, Sheila Ingold, 36, Carmeline Hibbs, 30, and was acquitted of the murder of Angela Mayhew, 19, due to insufficient evidence.

The other victims he was linked to but were not brought to trial were Stacie L. Swofford, 17, Gwendolyn Kizine, 15, Margaret J. Miller, 17, Debbie Blevins, 32, Helga Kruger, 26, Connie Luther, 29, Paula Beverly Davis, 21, and an unnamed 23-year-old victim.

All were sex workers apart from Ms Barry who lived on the streets after suffering a mental breakdown.

Face-to-face with this killer, Piers laid out the full horror of his crimes, but Gilyard appears to have an answer for everything, until eventually he ran out of excuses and revealed his true nature.

While exploring the disturbing case, Piers also met the daughter of one of Gilyards victims, whose entire adult life has been defined by the brutal murder of her mother.

He also meets Gilyards neighbours and colleagues, who never suspected a thing, and the detectives who finally brought the serial killer to justice.

Serial Killer with Piers Morgan airs Thursday on ITV at 9pmHope Hicks embraced the warm weather and showed off her legs in a mustard yellow skirt as she headed to the White House the day after she admitted to telling white lies for the president.

The 29-year-old White House communications director was seen stepping out of her Washington, D.C. apartment at 8 a.m. on Wednesday, wearing a pale, blueish-gray coat that was a few inches longer than her skirt.

Hope shielded her eyes with a pair of cat-eye sunglasses, possibility anticipating the growing media attention surrounding her following her nine-hour meeting with the House Intelligence Committee on Tuesday.

Out and about: Hope Hicks stepped out of her Washington, D.C. apartment at 8 a.m. on Wednesday morning

Ready for spring: The White House communications director flashed her bare legs in a mustard yellow skirt

The longtime aide of President Donald Trump wore a navy blue top tucked into her skirt, and she topped off her look with a pair of navy blue suede pumps.

Her highlighted brown hair appeared to be freshly blown out and was worn loose around her shoulders.

Although her eyes were covered with dark sunglasses, she was sporting a cheerful pink lip.

Hope looked like she was ready to get back to work, as she had both her cellphone and her black handbag in her hand when she stepped out the glass doors of her apartment building.

She was seen hopping into an Uber as she headed to the White House for work.

Reports reveal that Hope admitted during her closed-door meeting on Tuesday that she sometimes tells lies for President Trump.

AftermathL Hope had a lengthy closed-door meeting with the House Intelligence Committee on Tuesday

Ladylike ensemble: Hope topped of her look with a bluish-gray coat that was a few inches longer than her skirt

Hope refused to answer most questions pertaining to her work in the Trump Administration, according to members of the House Intelligence Committee.

But she did acknowledge that she has occasionally told a white lie for the president.

However, she insisted that she has always told the truth on matters related to the Russia probe, the New York Times reported.

Hope did not answer questions about her time in the White House or her work during the transition after her boss' election win in November 2016.

She also didn't say whether any other Trump aides lie, nor did she implicate any other senior staff members.

Hope, who has been at the center of White House scandal in recent weeks because of her relationship with Rob Porter, was then seen leaving the hearing with the Capitol building in the background.

Incognito: Hope shielded her eyes with a pair of cat-eye sunglasses, possibility anticipating the growing media attention following her nine-hour grilling by lawmakers

Coordinated outfit: The longtime aide of President Donald Trump wore a navy blue top tucked into her skirt, and she topped off her look with a pair of navy blue suede pumps

Sitting pretty: Hope hopped into an Uber as she headed to work at the White House

She refused to answer any questions from waiting reporters  and only spoke to warn a cameraman not to fall over.

Hope cut a striking figure when she first arrived to her meeting with the House Intelligence Committee on Tuesday morning wearing her favorite $555 blazer dress.

The White House Communications director arrived shortly after 10 a.m. in the navy belted dress by Theory, leaving her legs bare and pairing the look with black stilettos.

Hope appears to be especially fond of the navy dress, as she has worn it to the White House twice already over the course of the month.

She donned the same dress with knee-high boots on February 9, when she was pictured with Kellyanne Conway in the Oval Office while the president spoke to reporters.

Done: Hope can be seen leaving Tuesday's meeting with the House Intelligence Committee on Capitol Hill after answering nine hours of questions

Watch out: Hope kept quiet while supporters surrounded her, but she reacted once when she warned a cameraman not to trip over

She's off: Hope was photographed getting into a waiting car after making her way through the crowd

Testimony: Hope cut a striking figure as she arrived to her meeting wearing a $555 blazer dress on Tuesday morning

Meeting: The White House communications director, a longtime aide of President Donald Trump, arrived shortly after 10 a.m. in the navy belted dress by Theory

Look: While Hope did not answer questions from reporters, she glanced at the cameras as she walked in to testify in front of the House Intelligence Committee

A week prior, on February 2, she wore the dress in the Oval Office once more, this time during a meeting with North Korean defectors.

Hope, who came in through a rear entrance and did not answer shouted questions from reporters, was carrying a black purse as she walked in for the meeting.

Her interview, which was conducted behind closed doors, came as part of the House Intelligence Committee's Russia investigation.

The panel is investigating contacts between Trump's campaign and Russia, as is special counsel Robert Mueller. Hope has also been interviewed by Mueller.

House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes, a close ally of President Trump, was also seen on Tuesday preparing to meet with Hope.

As one of Trump's closest aides, Hope is a key eyewitness to his actions over the past several years. She was his spokeswoman during the 2016 presidential campaign before becoming the White House communications director.

Important: As one of Trump's closest aides, Hope, who was his spokeswoman during his presidential campaign in 2016, is a key eyewitness to his actions over the past several years

Probe: Hope's interview, which was conducted behind closed doors, came as part of the House Intelligence Committee's Russia investigation

Break-up: The meeting comes two weeks after Hope stopped dating former staff secretary Rob Porter following his two ex-wives' accusations of domestic violence

Favorite: Hope appears to be fond of the navy dress, and she has worn it to the White House twice already over the course of the month. She donned it with knee-high boots on February 9

Outfit: A week prior, on February 2, she wore the dress in the Oval Office once more, this time during a meeting with North Korean defectors

Others who have worked at the White House, including former adviser Steve Bannon, have refused to answer questions, citing limits on what they can say.

The House is now considering whether to hold Bannon in contempt.

In the hours before Hope's arrival, Trump tweeted twice, quoting cable news commentators who said they hadn't seen evidence of collusion between Trump and Russia.

Another tweet encouraged investigations of his Democratic presidential rival, Hillary Clinton. And a last tweet simply said: 'WITCH HUNT!'

The meeting came just two weeks after Hicks stopped dating former staff secretary Rob Porter following his two ex-wives' accusations of domestic violence.

Hope and Porter had been dating since November 2017, but the relationship came to an end after his first spouse Colbie Holderness and his second wife Jennifer Willoughby told the DailyMail.com he had been abusive towards them.

Porter resigned earlier this month after his two ex-wives came forward with their accusations.A little girl who was relentlessly bullied over her protruding ears has undergone cosmetic surgery to have them pinned back.

Bella Harrington, an 11-year-old from Virginia, underwent the procedure in December, opening up about her reasons to ABC's WRIC in a heart-wrenching interview.

'They would always point it out, but then the more people pointed it out is when I wanted to change it,' she said. 'I thought that they stuck out way too much.'

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Making a change: An 11-year-old from Virginia has undergone plastic surgery on her ears after years of bullying

Sweet smile: Little Bella Harrington suffered teasing over her protruding ears by other kids

Life-changing: Bella underwent the procedure, called an otoplasty, back in December

The little girl grew up extremely self-conscious of her appearance and eventually found herself the target of cruel taunts such as 'elf ears.'

After years of teasing and heartbreak for Bella, her mother Sabrina was convinced that surgery was a worthy investment for her daughter's happiness.

The family went to Dr. Joe Niamtu, a plastic surgeon practicing in Midlothian, who proudly shared the story of Bella's otoplasty on Facebook.

'It was my honor to help this beautiful young lady to escape the effect of peer bullying from her protruding ears,' he wrote.

Positive results: The procedure involves the cutting of the cartilage in the ear to re-shape the folds and set the ears closer to the head

Growing up: Bella's mother Sabrina (left) took her for the procedure after seeing the affect the bullying had on her child

Working hard: Dr. Joe Niamtu, a plastic surgeon practicing in Midlothian, performed the procedure, saying that it is an 'honor' to help kids feel more comfortable with their looks

'Even small facial deformities can produce very negative psychological consequences in childhood that can lead to a lifetime of low self-esteem and negative body image. My biggest reward.'

The procedure itself involves cutting the cartilage of the ear, re-shaping the ear folds and setting the ears closer to the head. It generally lasts 90 minutes and is undertaken under general anesthetic.

The doctor went on to explain to WRIC that such procedures are far from uncommon among children, with children as young has four getting such work down before they even attend school.

Around five per cent of children are born with protruding ears like Bella's and many parents opt to get them surgery early on.

Teary-eyed: Bella becomes weepy as she talks about the teasing she experienced over her ears

Mother's love: Sabrina said that she wishes she had thought of getting Bella the surgery earlier

A big change: Bella has said that she is 'so happy' with the results of her surgery and no longer focuses on others looking at her ears

Dr Niamtu claimed that such early procedures are done to protect the child from bullying that could be prevented.

'The reason is bullying or peer pressure,' he said. 'Its been shown to psychologically to have the ability to affect their self-esteem or body image for the rest of their life.'

Sabrina sees Bella's surgery as 'no different than getting braces,' and claims she wishes she had looked into getting the procedure for her daughter sooner.

'If its going to make you feel better about yourself, so be it,' she said.

Two months after the surgery, Bella and her mother are both over-the-moon with the results, with Bella, happily wearing her hair up, saying she is 'so happy'.The Government has deployed a rapid response team in Nigeria as scientists work round-the-clock to contain Lassa fever.

Health officials in the African country state that 90 people have been killed in the unprecedented outbreak so far this year.

And Public Health England announced it will send four specialists amid fears the crisis could soon spiral out of control.

It is just the sixth time the UK Public Health Rapid Support team has been deployed since it was created two years ago.

Health officials in the African country state that 90 people have been killed in the unprecedented outbreak so far this year

Help was requested directly by the Nigerian Government, which has already praised international aid efforts from the World Health Organization.

In a statement this morning, PHE described the outbreak of Lassa fever - which can cause bleeding from the vagina - as 'unusually severe'.

The announcement comes just a week after the World Health Organization named Lassa fever in its list of pathogens that pose the most 'urgent' threat.

At least 1,081 suspected cases of the killer disease have been recorded since the turn of the year, Nigeria's Center for Disease Control states.

It has nearly doubled in the space of two weeks and this outbreak carries a much higher death toll than the usual one per cent.

WHAT IS MOST LIKELY TO CAUSE THE NEXT EPIDEMIC? In February 2018, The World Health Organization released its annual list of lethal bugs that they warned there is an 'urgent' need to accelerate research into. The ones that they prioritised were: Crimean-Congo haemorrhagic fever

Ebola

Marburg virus disease

Lassa fever

Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV)

Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS)

Nipah and henipaviral diseases

Rift Valley fever (RVF)

Zika

Disease X Advertisement

Professor Daniel Bausch, director of the UK-PHRST warned the 'Lassa fever situation in Nigeria has been worsening'.

He said: '[It] now requires an escalated level of response in order to help the Nigerian government slow transmission and save lives.

Public Health Minister Steve Brine echoed the sentiments. He said: 'Viruses like Lassa fever do not respect borders.

'And it is only right that we share our expertise with countries facing serious outbreaks around the world.'

The UK-PHRST has sent an expert in patient management, two epidemiologists - the art of tracking diseases - and a logistician to Nigeria.

The team, ran in partnership with the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, was created in November 2016.

It was established in the aftermath of the Ebola crisis that was officially declared as over at the start of 2016. The haemorrhagic fever killed at least 11,000 across the world, including one in the US.

Ministers were keen to prevent a similar medical emergency from striking again that could potentially claim millions of lives.

Elsie Ilori, head of the NCDCs Lassa Fever Emergency Operations Centre, described the situation as 'overwhelming' last week.

WHAT IS LASSA FEVER? Scientists first identified the virus causing Lassa fever in 1969. It belongs to the Arenaviridae family. According to the World Health Organization, only 20 per cent of victims will report any symptoms. Lassa fever is endemic in Nigeria and several other countries on the west coast of Africa, including Liberia and Guinea, according to the WHO. Symptoms begin with headaches, sore throats and vomiting, but it can trigger bleeding from the mouth, nose or vagina. However, they gradually progress to shock, seizures, tremors, disorientation and comas without prompt treatment. A quarter of patients will also experience temporary deafness that will eventually return, medical literature states. Pregnant women who contract the disease late in pregnancy face an 80 per cent chance of losing their child or dying themselves. It can either be spread by rats or from person-to-person by exposure to bodily fluids of someone who is infected. Advertisement

In an interview with Bloomberg, she explained that the current outbreak is 'more than what we have seen before'.

WHEN HAS THE UKPHRST BEEN DEPLOYED? The UK Public Health Rapid Support, ran in partnership with the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, was created in November 2016. It was established in the aftermath of the Ebola crisis that was officially declared as over at the start of 2016. The haemorrhagic fever killed at least 11,000 across the world, including one in the US. It has been sent to: APRIL 2017 : Ethiopia (diarrhoea)

: Ethiopia (diarrhoea) APRIL 2017 : Nigeria (meningitis)

: Nigeria (meningitis) AUGUST 2017 : Sierra Leone (cholera)

: Sierra Leone (cholera) OCTOBER 2017 : Madagascar (plague)

: Madagascar (plague) DECEMBER 2017 : Bangladesh (Diptheria)

: Bangladesh (Diptheria) FEBRUARY 2018 : Nigeria (Lassa fever) Advertisement

The Lassa fever outbreak, which has struck 17 of Nigeria's 36 states, has already prompted international aid efforts.

Nigerian officials praised the WHO earlier this week for its efforts in containing the outbreak, despite figures showing cases are on the rise.

Lassa fever is endemic in Nigeria and several other countries on the west coast of Africa, including Liberia and Guinea, according to the WHO.

Symptoms begin with headaches, sore throats and vomiting, but it can trigger bleeding from the mouth, nose or vagina.

However, they gradually progress to shock, seizures, tremors, disorientation and comas without prompt treatment.

A quarter of patients will also experience temporary deafness that will eventually return, medical literature states.

Pregnant women who contract the disease late in pregnancy face an 80 per cent chance of losing their child or dying themselves.

It can either be spread by rats or from person-to-person by exposure to bodily fluids of someone who is infected.A person's sense of smell can predict how they will vote in political elections, a new study suggests.

Researchers at Stockholm University in Sweden found that the way people react to body odor in particular is a psychological indicator of their political preferences.

US participants were given a survey that paired questions about smell with questions about which candidates they planned to vote for in 2016.

The results revealed that people who were more disgusted by certain odors such as urine and sweat were also more likely to vote for Donald Trump than those who were less sensitive.

A survey by researchers at Stockhold University found that US participants who reported higher levels of disgust with bodily odors were more likely to vote for Donald Trump

Sense of smell, or olfaction, has been studied extensively by psychologists, revealing that scents have the power to influence human behavior on an instinctive level.

For this study, the Swedish researchers used a scale for participants to rate their levels of disgust for body odors, both their own and others.

An extensive survey was distributed online in several different countries with questions from the scale alongside questions about participant's political views.

In the US, the researchers added questions regarding how each participant planned to vote in the 2016 presidential election.

According to lead researcher Jonas Olofsson, who studies the link between scent and psychology, the survey results show that from country to country people who easily disgusted by body odors like sweat and urine are also drawn to authoritarian political leaders.

The researchers said this might come from a deep-seated instinct to avoid infectious diseases.

'There was a solid connection between how strongly someone was disgusted by smells and their desire to have a dictator-like leader who can suppress radical protest movements and ensure that different groups "stay in their places."

'That type of society reduces contact among different groups and, at least in theory, decreases the chance of becoming ill,' Olofsson said.

Disgust is a basic emotion that helps humans survive by protecting from dangerous and infectious things that should be avoided.

A previous study by psychologist Johan Lundstrom, PhD, found that the brain processes body odors differently from other smells because of the same evolutionary factors.

Brain scans collected in the study showed that true body odor scents from items like sweaty T-shirts fired up different brain pathways than artificial odors.

The body odors were found to light up regions of the brain used in recognizing familiar and frightening stimuli.

'We believe that throughout evolution, these body odors have been tagged as important stimuli, so they've been given dedicated neural networks to process them,' Lundstrom, a faculty member at the Monell Chemical Senses Center in Philadelphia, said in an article for the American Psychological Association.

Another study by Rice University found that there are individual differences in a person's sensitivity to body odor that are linked to their style of social communication.

The lead researcher Denise Chen, PhD, asked female subjects to sniff three shirts, two that had been worn by strangers and one that had been worn by the subject's roommate.

The study found that women who correctly picked out their roommate's scent scored higher on tests of emotional sensitivity.

In other words, people who were more sensitive to social smells were also more sensitive to emotional signals.

We thought that was interesting because Donald Trump talks frequently about how different people disgust him. - Dr Jonas Olofsson, lead researcher

The study by Stockholm University was designed with previous research on the connection between evolutionary and social factors in mind.

The researchers went into the project with a theory that there would be a connection between feelings of disgust and how a person would want society to be organised.

They thought that people with a strong instinct to distance themselves from unpleasant smells would also prefer a society where different groups are kept separate.

With regard to the US results, Olofsson said he and the other researchers were not surprised to find that people who said they planned to vote for Trump were also more likely to be disgusted by certain odors.

'We thought that was interesting because Donald Trump talks frequently about how different people disgust him,' Olofsson said.

'He thinks that women are disgusting and that immigrants spread disease and it comes up often in his rhetoric.

'It fits with our hypothesis that his supporters would be more easily disgusted themselves.'

However, the findings go against those found in a 2016 study by researchers in Beijing, China, that suggested that the more sensitive a person's olfactory system was, the larger their social circle would be.Thousands of women are having unnecessary treatment after cervical screening, new research suggests.

Women whose results show 'grade 2' abnormalities have to undergo a painful procedure to burn away the pre-cancerous cells. But it is unnecessary in half of cases as the women would never have developed cancer, a major review has found.

The investigation of more than 3,000 patients, led by Imperial College London, suggested regular monitoring could be an alternative to treatment.

Many women undergo painful procedures to burn away pre-cancerous cells. But in half of cases the women would never have developed cancer. Pictured: the HPV virus

Last year, 15,367 women in England had the level of pre-cancerous cells the review talks about, meaning a number of women may have undergone unnecessary treatment.

Lead author Dr Maria Kyrgiou said it was a matter of weighing up the risks. 'All these lesions are not cancer, they are lesions which are being detected to prevent cancer,' she added. 'If we don't identify them and we don't remove them then obviously a significant proportion of the population will develop cancer.

'But equally, we may need to be slightly more conservative in some cases where we think that the woman is young, she hasn't had children, that she's going to be compliant with close monitoring in the future. If we see all of those factors, then we can justify surveillance in some circumstances.'

In the studies, women with the abnormal cells, or lesions were monitored for up to five years.

Researchers found that after two years, half of the lesions had regressed spontaneously, one third stayed the same and just under one in five (18 per cent) progressed to 'grade 3' abnormal cells.

Last year, 15,367 women in England had the level of pre-cancerous cells the review talks about (stock image)

In those under 30, six out of ten saw symptoms disappear while nearly a quarter (23 per cent) stayed the same and 11 per cent developed into more serious lesions.

If abnormal cells are detected, they are offered a procedure called a Lletz  or Large Loop Excision of the Transformation Zone  which cuts away the abnormal cells using an electrical current fed through a loop of wire, under local anaesthetic.

Those who have had the treatment and go on to become pregnant have an increased risk of early birth because it weakens the cervix.

The study suggested that in certain cases, women who have not had children yet may be better suited to regular screenings.

Dr Kyrgiou said: 'It may be justified in selective cases to offer monitoring  bringing these women back for repeat assessments but not immediately treating them.'Patients taking a Chinese medicine to combat their eczema or psoriasis should stop taking it 'immediately', health officials have warned.

Yiganerjing cream has been branded 'dangerous' by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency.

Analysis by the Government-run department found the natural remedy contains a 'potent' steroid called clobetasol propionate.

UK law states it is illegal to sell products containing this ingredient to the public, and it can only be dished out on prescription.

The MHRA also declared the samples of Yiganerjing cream they tested contains two antifungal ingredients - which can lead to heart failure.

Yiganerjing cream - used by some eczema and psoriasis patients - has been branded 'dangerous' by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency

Dr Chris Jones, manager of the Medicines Borderline Section at MHRA, said: 'The sale of potent steroid creams directly to the public is illegal for good reason.

'If used without medical supervision these medicines can be dangerous.

'Our advice to anyone who is using Yiganerjing Cream, particularly on young children and babies, is to discontinue use immediately.'

He added: 'Steroids must be prescribed by healthcare professionals who follow strict criteria when prescribing them and monitoring patients using them.

'They can suppress the skins response to infection, can cause long-term thinning of the skin, and if applied long term over a wide area, particularly in babies and children, can cause other medical problems.'

WHAT IS ECZEMA? Eczema is a condition that causes the skin to become itchy, red, dry and cracked. Atopic eczema is more common in children, often developing before their first birthday. However, it may also develop for the first time in adults. Eczema causes the skin to become itchy, dry, cracked, sore and red. Some people only have small patches of dry skin, but others may experience widespread red, inflamed skin all over the body. Source: NHS UK Advertisement

The MHRA declared it has stopped the sale of Yiganerjing cream by having it taken down from websites and online markets.

But it fears people who purchased the remedy - sold online as not containing any steroids - in the past may still be using it.

Yiganerjing Cream is not a licensed medicine and has been marketed in the UK as a 'natural' Chinese herbal remedy.

It is claimed to help patients with eczema, psoriasis and rosacea - but manufactures believe it can also treat pains and insect bites.

Clobetasol propionate - found in the cream - is the active ingredient in prescription-only drugs used for treating psoriasis and eczema.

In a statement released today, MHRA advisors also warned over the use of Penny Orange Cream - which also contains the steroid.

But it said the product, which was being used at a herbal clinic, is no longer on sale.

Creams containing steroids should be used sparingly. They are contraindicated for children under one year of age.Breastfeeding reduces women's risk of heart disease for up to 15 years, new research suggests.

Among women who had a healthy blood pressure during their pregnancies, breastfeeding for six months or longer significantly increases their so-called 'good cholesterol' levels, as well as lowering their amounts of circulating fat, a study found today.

Feeding naturally also reduces the thickness of the carotid artery, the research adds. This supplies the head and neck with oxygen-rich blood, with wider diameters being associated with stroke.

Lead author Dr Malamo Countouris from the University of Pittsburgh, said: 'The study adds to the evidence that lactation is important not just for the baby but for the mother.

'Breastfeeding seems to be cardioprotective in these women, as evidenced by improved cholesterol and markers of subclinical cardiovascular disease.'

According to the researchers, breastfeeding stimulates the release of the hormone oxytocin, which may play a role in lowering blood pressure.

Around 80 percent of babies born in the US are breastfed to some extent. High blood pressure during pregnancy, known as pre-eclampsia, affects around three per cent of expectant mothers in the US.

Breastfeeding reduces women's risk of heart disease up to 15 years later (stock)

DOES BREASTFEEDING AFFECT WOMEN'S RISK OF CANCER? Breastfeeding reduces a woman's risk of breast cancer, a report suggested in August 2017. For every five months a woman breastfeeds, her risk of developing breast cancer is lowered by two percent, a study review found. Researchers believe breastfeeding protects women against the condition as it makes them temporarily stop getting periods, which reduces their lifetime exposure to the hormone oestrogen. High oestrogen levels have previously been linked to developing breast cancer. Breastfeeding may also help to remove cells with damaged DNA that may otherwise lead to tumor onset. The researchers, from the American Institute for Cancer Research and the World Cancer Research Fund, analysed 18 studies that examined breastfeeding. Of these, 13 investigated the effects of the length of time spent lactating. The report also found that carrying excess weight after menopause increases a woman's risk of developing breast cancer, yet it is protective while women are still able to conceive. For both pre- and postmenopausal women, alcohol increases their risk of breast cancer and exercise reduces it, the report adds. Babies who are breastfed are also less likely to gain weight in later life, the study found. Study author Alice Bender said: 'It isn't always possible for moms to breastfeed but for those who can, know that breastfeeding can offer cancer protection for both the mother and the child.' Advertisement

No benefit among those with high blood pressure

Speaking of the findings, Dr Countouris said: 'There's a lot we still don't understand about the accumulation of cardiovascular risks in women.

'Examining how pregnancy may increase or perhaps mitigate some of that risk can give us insights into the unique presentation and development of heart disease risk in women.'

Results further suggested no evidence of breastfeeding providing a heart-health benefit among those who had high blood pressure while pregnant.

Dr Countouris believes this may be due to the study's size being too small.

The researchers add future studies assessing the link between breastfeeding and heart health in women should be longer than the current trial.

How the research was carried out

The researchers analysed 678 pregnant women who were recruited from 52 clinics across Michigan between 1998 and 2004.

The women were then followed in a health assessment that lasted between seven and 15 years.

During the evaluation, the women were asked how long they breastfed for during each of their pregnancies.

Their blood pressure, cholesterol and circulating fat levels were also measured, as well as the diameter and thickness of their carotid arteries.

Of the participants, 157 never breastfed, 284 breastfed for six months or less and 133 did so for at least half a year.

The women were also separated according to their blood pressure levels during pregnancy.

The findings were presented at the American College of Cardiology's 67th Annual Scientific Session.

Breastfeeding for six months or longer significantly increases certain women's so-called 'good cholesterol' levels, which could reduce their heart-attack risk (stock)

Breastfeeding reduces women's risk of pain after a c-section

This comes after research released in June last year suggested breastfeeding reduces the discomfort of painful Caesarean sections.

Mothers who breastfeed for at least two months after a c-section are three times less likely to experience persistent pain than those who do so for a shorter period of time, the study by Our Lady of Valme hospital in Seville found.

Some 23 percent of women who breastfeed for under two months report pain at the site of their c-section versus just eight percent who do so for longer, the research adds.

Anxiety significantly increases a woman's risk of suffering discomfort after the operation, the study also suggested.

Caesarean sections make up around 25 percent of all births in the UK and US. One in five mothers undergoing the procedure suffer pain that lasts beyond three months.Britain was given a huge Brexit boost today as Japanese car giant Toyota announced it was to build its new generation Auris at its UK car plant.

The company said the decision was a vote of confidence in Britain and its workforce and was welcomed by the Government.

The new model will be produced at Toyotas Burnaston plant in Derbyshire, with engines sourced mainly from the firms Deeside factory in North Wales  giving a boost to Welsh supporters on St Davids Day. The move follows 240 million of investment last year to upgrade the Burnaston site, including 20million from the Government.

Brexit boost: Toyota has confirmed that its next-generation Auris - due to be unveiled next month - will be built at the Burnaston factory (pictured) in the UK

The Toyota announcement flies in the face of critics who feared Britains decision to the leave the European Union would lead to an exodus of car companies from the UK.

It comes as the Toyota prepares to give the world premiere of its new Auris at next weeks Geneva Motor Show, and comes on the eve of the UKs new six-monthly 18 number plate from March 1.

Toyota bosses made the announcement at the UK factory during a visit by Business Secretary Greg Clark and said it would strengthen the global competitiveness of our plants'.

In an official announcement, Toyota president Dr Johan van Zyl said the decision showed confidence in the skills and capabilities of Toyotas UK employees.

As a company, we are doing what we can to secure the competitiveness of our UK operations as a leading manufacturing centre for our European business,' he commented.

With around 85 per cent of our UK vehicle production exported to European markets, continued free and frictionless trade between the UK and Europe will be vital for future success.

President Dr Johan van Zyl said the decision showed confidence in the skills and capabilities of Toyotas UK employees

Business Secretary Greg Clark said the announcement was a welcome vote of confidence in the UKs automotive sector

Toyotas UK managing director Marvin Cooke said: This is excellent news for Toyota Manufacturing UK (TMUK), our local stakeholders and British automotive manufacturing. It signals Toyotas trust in TMUKs ability to build ever-better cars for our customers.

He stressed: The introduction of a new model is a big responsibility and we are committed to building vehicles and engines of the highest quality, at the best cost.

'We will constantly improve our productivity and competitiveness to help secure a bright future.

The Burnaston factory was established in 1989 as Toyotas first major production sites in Europe

Toyota has invested more than 2.75 billion and employs more than 3,000 people at the vehicle production plant

Business Secretary Greg Clark, who visited the Burnaston factory said the announcement was a welcome vote of confidence in the UKs automotive sector.

'It is testament to the highly-skilled and committed workforce that helps make the UKs automotive sector one of the most productive in the world, and this Government will continue work to create the best possible environment to maintain this fruitful relationship,' he said.

Welsh Secretary Alun Cairns added: Toyotas commitment to the UK is an enormous economic boost for Deeside and Wales as a whole.

'Toyota has played a crucial role in helping to demonstrate why Wales continues to be a prime location to invest and do business through its anchor status on Deeside.

As part of the deal, Toyotas UK factory is being upgraded with new equipment, technologies and systems to enable manufacture of vehicles on the companys new flexible global platform.

The Burnaston factory was established in 1989 as Toyotas first major production sites in Europe.

Since the start of production in 1992, the facility has built more than four million vehicles and around five million engines.

Toyota has invested more than 2.75 billion and employs more than 3,000 people at the site.

A spokesman said the UK operation has the distinction of being Toyotas first centre for hybrid vehicle manufacturing in Europe:

It also enjoys global status as a Toyota eco-plant, promoting excellence and best practice in environmental matters, from energy-efficient manufacturing to the on-site harnessing of sustainable energy and the promotion of biodiversity,' he told This is Money.

The Toyota news comes as official as figures from the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) showed UK engine production has hit a record high for the second January in a row as car production remained stable.

Engine output was up 13.6 per cent with 267,060 engines produced in first month of the year, of which exports account for more than half (56.8 per cent).

The number produced for UK car manufacturing is also up up by a fifth as new plant investment continues to boost local supply, said the SMMT.

UK car production held steady in January, with just 72 fewer vehicles produced than in the same month last year.

Although car production for the domestic market fell for the sixth month in a row year-on-year in January  down by six per cent to 28,229 cars  it was off-set by a growth in exports which were up 1.5 per cent to 119,252 cars shipped overseas.Rupert Murdoch's 21st Century Fox is expected to increase its offer for Sky after America's biggest cable TV network launched an audacious 22billion takeover bid.

Fox is understood to be considering a bigger offer for the 61 per cent of the British broadcaster it doesn't own in a bid to put its attempted swoop back on track. The deal would pave the way for Fox to then be taken over by Disney in a 39billion deal.

Yesterday, Murdoch's plan was derailed by Comcast, which owns Universal and NBC, after it put in a 16 per cent bigger offer for Sky. It came after the Mail said in December Comcast was preparing a swoop.

Its offer is thought to be more attractive to smaller shareholders and UK regulators who are concerned about the Murdoch having control of the firm.

New bidder: Comcast said Sky  which shows hit series Game of Thrones (pictured) would be key to its global expansion plans

The news sent shares in the FTSE 100 firm soaring by more than 20 per cent and set the stage for a bidding war.

Comcast said Sky  which shows hit series Game of Thrones would be key to its global expansion plans.

It is offering 1250p per share higher than Fox's offer of 1075p.

It is also not expected to face the regulatory hurdles that have dogged Fox, which were sparked because of Murdoch's ownership of some UK newspapers, with the American firm promising to retain Sky News.

Brian Roberts, chief executive and chairman of Comcast, said it would aim to buy the whole company but could settle for a majority stake.

He promised to keep Sky's HQ in Osterley, west London, and said he had become convinced the deal was the right move after a conversation with a cab driver about the company in November.

The 58-year-old, whose family controls Comcast, said: 'We think Sky is an outstanding company.

'It has 23m customers ... and is a consistent innovator in its use of technology to deliver its customers a great experience. Sky has a proud record of investment in news and programming.

By combining the content, technology expertise and investment of Comcast with the market-leading businesses and talent within Sky, we will create a very exciting platform for growth across Europe.'

No discussions had taken place yet with Sky, he added, and its board was only informed of Comcast's bid moments before it was announced.

Sky said: 'The independent committee of Sky notes today's announcement from Comcast regarding a possible all-cash offer for Sky. A further announcement will be made as and when appropriate.'

HEDGE FUNDS TO MAKE A KILLING Elliott, run by Paul Singer is thought to have amassed 1.29% of Sky Ruthless hedge funds stand to make a killing as rival takeover bids push up the price for Sky. Comcast's bid for the company sent its shares soaring by more than 20 per cent yesterday, as traders anticipated 21st Century Fox or Disney could raise their offers. Funds such as Crispin Odey's firm, Odey Asset Management, and activist US Elliott Management have built stakes in Sky as the takeover story unfolds. Elliott, run by tycoon Paul Singer (pictured), is thought to have amassed 1.29 per cent, or about 22.2m shares. When Sky shares rose 20 per cent, or 226.5p, to 1331.5p yesterday, Elliott made about 49million. It is renowned for buying stakes in vulnerable firms and using its influence to push up the price and stands to pocket at least 280million if Comcast's bid is accepted. Odey, Rupert Murdoch's former son in law, has a 0.9 per cent stake in Sky, or 15.47m shares. Its holding rose 34million  and it stands to make 200million from a Comcast takeover. He said Comcast's move would infuriate Fox. 'This is tanks on their lawn.'

Fox owns 39 per cent of Sky. Its takeover bid was first announced in December 2016 but it has been delayed by regulators.

HOW LONDON CABBIE CLINCHED THE DEAL A cabbie helped Comcast's billionaire boss Brian Roberts make up his mind to put in a bid for Sky. Visiting London in November his taxi driver explained to him the differences in features between Sky and Virgin Media, and Roberts then asked to be dropped off at a shopping centre to try out the Sky Q box, which wowed him. Roberts, who has been boss of Comcast, founded by his father Ralph, since 2002, said: 'We had a fabulous experience. The cab driver was incredibly knowledgeable.'

The Competition and Markets Authority warned that allowing Sky  and particularly Sky News  to be bought by Fox would put too much of the UK's media into Murdoch's hands  he already owns the Sun, The Times and the Sunday Times newspapers.

Fox has suggested keeping Sky News independent. Meanwhile, Disney has weighed in with its offer for Fox  and Sky.

Comcast is expected to face no such regulatory concerns.

Fox has also faced mounting calls to increase its offer price from investors, particularly hedge funds which have bought stakes.

Laith Khalaf, senior analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown, said: 'Sky shares are now trading above the Comcast offer price, so the market clearly smells the scent of some more action before this saga draws to a close.'

Bob Iger, Disney's chief executive, declined to comment on Comcast's offer.Shocked: John Eddom lost 97,000 of his pension as shares were sold to cover unpaid fees he didn't know about

A man who expected to retire with a pension pot worth 100,000 has been left with just 3,000 because his provider sold all his shares to cover unpaid fees  without his permission or knowledge.

Retired businessman John Eddom, 65, fears he will be left struggling in his old age after his nest egg was raided without him realising.

His pot was worth 50,000 when he stopped saving in 2000 and if his investments had been left alone he would be sitting on a fund worth more than 100,000 today.

But without his knowledge, his pension company sold all his shares in 2005, raising 17,000 to pay the annual fees for his plan. John only found out late last year.

Money Mail research found most pension plans contain hidden small print that lets investment firms raid your retirement nest egg for unpaid fees.

Major firms including Aviva, Prudential and Hargreaves Lansdown include clauses in savers' contracts that allow the company to sell your investments to claw back fees they are owed for managing funds.

These draconian terms are usually enacted only as a last resort.

But when they are used, the clauses can deprive savers of lucrative returns. And in the most extreme cases, the practice can empty entire savings pots.

Most at risk are workers who have stopped contributing to their pension or who have moved home without notifying their pension company.

In some cases, they may not realise their investments have been sold until it is too late.

John only discovered last year, just months away from retirement, that his pension firm Rowanmoor had sold his investments years earlier.

He had started saving into the plan in the early Eighties, when he was earning good money from his own haulage business, Eddom.

By 2000 his money was invested in shares such as Amazon, U.S. technology company Qualcomm and blue chips such as United Utilities.

Major firms including Aviva, Prudential and Hargreaves Lansdown include clauses in contracts that allow them to sell your investments to claw back fees they are owed for managing funds

He had stopped paying into the pension in the mid-Nineties when his haulage business ran into trouble, and decided to leave the money alone to give his investments a chance to grow.

However, he didn't budget for the cost of the plan.

The pension, which was taken out with firm James Hay and later bought by Rowanmoor, was charging fees, which over the next 12 years were on average 1,365 a year.

These were usually deducted from a cash fund in his portfolio. Typically, dividend income from his shares would be paid into this account. John could also top it up himself.

By 2005, this cash fund had run out.

John had no idea because he hadn't checked his pension and had moved to Valencia in Spain for a new start after the failure of his business.

Rowanmoor says it tried to contact John when his cash fund ran low so he could pay the fees, but says it did not receive a reply. It says it also tried to contact John before it sold his shares  but again, did not receive a reply.

When John reached the age of 65 last year he received an email from his elderly parents.

Rowanmoor had sent a letter to his parents' address as they were listed as his next of kin on the original pension documents.

The letter asked what John wanted to do with the money left in his fund, which annual charges had shrunk to 3,064.

Among John's shares were some in Amazon that would have been worth almost 70,000

Amazon shares that would be worth 68,400 today

It transpired that Rowanmoor had sold all his shares in 2005, including 75 in technology company Amazon. These would be worth 68,400 alone today.

By John's calculations, his other shareholdings would have taken the overall value of his pension pot above 100,000.

Rowanmoor had left his savings in cash and taken the management fees averaging 1,365 a year.

John says he would have paid the fees from his own pocket if he'd known he owed money.

If I'd known, I would have covered the fees

He says: 'I was shocked and then really angry that they could do that without any contact with me, especially as I had waited so long for the stock markets to recover. It was done without my authorisation. If I'd known, I would have covered the fees.'

When John queried why so little was left, Rowanmoor told him it was within its rights 'to encash the share portfolio . . . to meet the fees that were outstanding'.

John, who still lives in Spain and is married to Julie, 58, says his only other income comes from the British state pension.

'This has a massive financial impact on me and my family,' he says. 'I have three young grandchildren in the UK and we were planning to use the money to make regular trips to see them. Now that's not possible.'

He has lodged a complaint with the Financial Ombudsman Service.

Could your pension provider sell your investments?

Most major investment firms have similar small print. The terms and conditions of Aviva's self-invested pension portfolio say all charges are initially taken from a saver's cash fund.

It adds: 'If there is an insufficient cash balance to pay any charges due we will automatically disinvest an amount to cover the charges by selling across your investments on a proportionate basis.'

Investment firm Hargreaves Lansdown says: 'We have the absolute right of sale of investments in your account to meet amounts you owe to us.'

Prudential's Retirement Account says: 'If the product charge cannot be taken due to insufficient funds it will be taken first using cash . . . or then by selling stocks and shares proportionally.'

Mike Barrett, director at The Lang Cat pensions consultancy, says: 'Virtually all insurers have the right to sell your investment if there's not enough cash to cover fees.

A Rowanmoor spokesman says: 'Rowanmoor denies all wrongdoing in this matter. It is appropriate to let due process take its course before considering any comment on the matter.'

John Lawson, of Aviva, says: 'We have robust processes in place to warn customers of any fund depletion by charges.'

Hargreaves Lansdown says it would write to customers before selling their investments.

A spokesman adds: 'It is only prudent for the customer to make sure they have the cash available to meet the fees which are due.'

A Prudential spokesman says cashing in shares is 'normal practice across the investment sector'.

r.lythe@dailymail.co.ukSuicide vest-detection technology is coming to New York City's Penn Station.

US Sen Chuck Schumer said Monday that the federal Transportation Security Administration (TSA) will start testing the screening equipment on Tuesday.

'At long last and at not a moment too soon, the TSA has agreed to bring this new, potentially life-saving technology to New York City and Penn Station for testing, and so we thank the TSA for heeding the call,' Schumer said.

Suicide vest-detection technology (pcitured) is coming to New York City's Penn Station

US Sen Chuck Schumer said Monday that the federal Transportation Security Administration (TSA) will start testing the screening equipment (pictured) on Tuesday

'At long last and at not a moment too soon, the TSA has agreed to bring this new, potentially life-saving technology (pictured) to New York City and Penn Station for testing, and so we thank the TSA for heeding the call,' Schumer said on Monday

'When I made the push to bring this technology to New York City it was because we need to put it on the fast-track and we need to perfect it, because if it works, this is where we want it: in New York City's busiest transit hubs.'

The Democrat called for the technology to be tested in New York City after a Bangladeshi immigrant injured himself setting off a crude pipe bomb strapped to his chest in December in a subway passageway.

Suspect Akayed Ullah, 27, told investigators at the time that he meant to detonate his homemade pipe bomb in the busy Port Authority subway station after seeing the walls festooned with Christmas posters - in revenge for violence against Muslims all over the world.

While initial reports suggested the crude pipe bomb, made from a pipe, a 9-volt battery, match heads, sugar, Christmas tree lights and screws, had detonated prematurely, Ullah insisted he set off the bomb deliberately.

The bombing attack at the Port Authority Bus Station came just days after President Donald Trump recognized Jerusalem as Israel's capital, sparking violence between Israelis and Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.

Ullah, who was arrested and taken for questioning after the bomb only partially detonated, told police he was walking through the underground tunnel at 7.20am, between the Port Authority station towards Times Square, when he saw the Christmas-themed posters on the wall, which reminded him of ISIS' calls last month for militants and lone wolves to attack holiday markets.

Schumer called for the technology to be tested in New York City after a Bangladeshi immigrant (pictured) injured himself setting off a crude pipe bomb strapped to his chest in December in a subway passageway

Suspect Akayed Ullah (pictured), 27, told investigators at the time that he meant to detonate his homemade pipe bomb in the busy Port Authority subway station after seeing the walls festooned with Christmas posters - in revenge for violence against Muslims all over the world

Pedestrians walk through the new devices designed to detect explosives at New York City's Penn Station on Tuesday

'He acknowledges he purposely set it off then and there,' a senior law enforcement official told the New York Post at the time.

Ullah added that he was specifically inspired by ISIS, 'not Al Qaeda'.

Authorities say that if the explosive had fully detonated in the busy Midtown Manhattan subway station, there would have been more injuries and doubtless loss of life.

According to the TSA, the agency has been working on the new devices, known as stand-off explosive detection units, since 2004 with transit agencies.

The technology has also been used to secure large events like the Super Bowl and has been tested in a Los Angeles transit station.

The machines, mounted on tripods, screen people at a distance without slowing them down.

Several versions are being evaluated.

According to the TSA, the agency has been working on the new devices, known as stand-off explosive detection units, since 2004 with transit agenciesThe Anti-Defamation League is reporting a 57 percent increase in anti-Semitic incidents in the US last year, the highest tally that the Jewish civil rights group has counted in more than two decades, according to data it released Tuesday.

The New York City-based organization found 1,986 anti-Semitic incidents last year, up from 1,267 in 2016.

That's the highest total since 1994 and the largest single-year increase since the group began collecting this data in 1979.

The ADL said the sharp rise includes 952 vandalism incidents, an increase of 86 percent from 2016.

The group also counted 1,015 incidents of harassment, a 41 percent increase from 2016.

ADL national director and CEO Jonathan Greenblatt said the 'alarming' increase appears to be fueled by emboldened far-right extremists as well as the 'divisive state of our national discourse.'

Headstones are seen above in this February 2017 file photo toppled and damaged by vandals at Mount Carmel Cemetery in Philadelphia. The Anti-Defamation League is reporting a 57 percent increase in anti-Semitic incidents in the US last year

'Less civility has led to more intolerance,' he told The Associated Press.

Greenblatt also acknowledged that heightened awareness of the problem likely led to increased reporting of anti-Semitic incidents.

Anti-Semitic incidents at schools and on college campuses nearly doubled for the second year in a row, with 457 such incidents reported in non-Jewish schools last year, the ADL report says.

'We should see this as an alarm, a very loud alarm that should get the attention of all of us,' Greenblatt said.

The ADL and other groups have reported a surge in the number of incidents in which far-right extremist groups have posted racist and anti-Semitic fliers on college campuses.

ADL spokesman Todd Gutnick said the report's tally only counts incidents in which fliers had explicitly anti-Semitic messages.

The ADL also counted 19 anti-Semitic physical assaults last year, a 47 percent decrease from 2016.

The harassment incidents included 169 bomb threats against Jewish institutions, nearly all of them by two men.

The ADL report said more than 150 bomb threats against Jewish community centers and day schools last year were allegedly made by an 18-year-old Israeli-American Jewish hacker, who was arrested in Israel last March.

Separately, a former journalist from St. Louis pleaded guilty to making a string of fake bomb threats to Jewish organizations last year in the name of his ex-girlfriend in an effort to disrupt her life.

In a note about its methodology, the group said, 'ADL is careful to not conflate general criticism of Israel or anti-Israel activism with anti-Semitism.

'However, Israel-related harassment of groups or individuals may be included when the harassment incorporates traditional anti-Jewish references, accusations and conspiracy theories. Also included are cases of picketing of Jewish religious or cultural institutions for purported support for Israel.'

There were six incidents in which Jewish institutions were victims of vandalism and harassment for their purported support of Israel, Gutnick said.

Rabbi Shmuel Herzfeld, of Ohev Sholom-The National Synagogue in Washington, said neo-Nazis in the US are emboldened 'in a way I have not seen in my lifetime.'

'It's scary,' said Herzfeld, whose synagogue received a bomb threat in April.

'I think there is no question that it's on people's minds, and there is more of it out there.'

The ADL is urging Congress to pass legislation to expand federal protections against bomb threats to religious institutions.

The legislation, approved by the US House of Representatives in December, awaits action in the Senate, the ADL said.

Greenblatt also urges 'all public figures' to speak out against anti-Semitism 'whether you're the president of the United States or the head of the local P.T.A.'

President Donald Trump was widely criticized for saying there was 'blame on both sides' after violence erupted in August at a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, where 32-year-old Heather Heyer was killed when a man drove his car into a crowd of demonstrators.

Greenblatt said Trump's statements about the rally were a 'serious failure of moral leadership' and a 'low point' of his presidency.

'There's no question we would love to see the president call out anti-Semitism as consistently and clearly as he does other issues,' Greenblatt said.

The ADL says it compiles its incident data from news reports and information provided by victims, law enforcement and 'community leaders.'

'We just don't report something we've heard. We call, we check and we verify,' Greenblatt said.Civilians are still dying in Syria's bombardment of Eastern Ghouta with no sign of aid deliveries or evacuations despite Russia's promised 'humanitarian pause'.

Seven people died on the ceasefire's first day, which began at 9am local time on Tuesday, after the Russian-backed regime broke the five-hour truce an hour early.

Government forces made significant ground over the course of the day in ferocious street fighting against rebels, advancing through the area's eastern edge.

Civilians are still dying Syria's bombardment of Eastern Ghouta with no sign of aid deliveries or evacuations despite Russia's promised 'humanitarian pause'

A general view taken from a government-held area in Damascus shows smoke rising from the rebel-held enclave of Eastern Ghouta on the outskirts of the Syrian capital

'This Russian truce is a farce. Russia is killing us and bombing us every day,' said Samer al-Buaidhani, a 25-year-old from Douma, Eastern Ghouta's main hub.

'I don't believe it's safe for me or my family to leave by this system.'

The truce had been set up to allow civilians to leave, after a week-long government offensive killed more than 500 people, including more than 120 children.

Residents have spent nine days hiding in their basements, only venturing out on often deadly trips to check if there homes were still standing and to buy food.

Many of the more than 400,000 civilians were trapped in the wreckage of their own homes and bled to death as even rescuers were targeted.

Moscow's plan falls short of a broader 30-day ceasefire it agreed to at the United Nations Security Council but which has yet to take effect, and inspired little trust from among the besieged enclave's residents.

Syria deployed buses to transport residents wanting to use a humanitarian corridor to flee what UN chief Antonio Guterres called 'hell on Earth'.

Since February 18, 582 civilians, almost a quarter of them children, have been killed in the Syrian and Russian bombardment of Eastern Ghouta

Seven people died on the first day of the deal, which began at 9am local time on Tuesday, after the Russian-backed regime broke the five-hour ceasefire an hour early

But no civilians were seen venturing towards the regime forces guarding the checkpoint, where large portraits of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and Russian President Vladimir Putin could be seen side-by-side.

The 'humanitarian pause' echoed a similar tactic employed by Russia and Syrian regime during the ferocious battle to force rebels out of Aleppo in 2016.

Russia's defence ministry accused armed groups in Eastern Ghouta of shelling the corridor, and said rebel fighters had 'continued attacking the positions of the government forces' and 'went on the offensive in other directions too'.

'These are the militants, including terror groups, who counter the government and are creating problems linked to prioritization of this decision,' Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov said.

'There are also forces supporting the anti-government opposition in Syria behind it.'

He said Western countries should 'start with themselves' and fulfill the UN Security Council Resolution 2401 on a humanitarian pause in Syria.

'They continue screaming that it is allegedly impossible to implement in Eastern Ghouta what is written down in the Resolution 2401,' he said.

'The resolution needs to be implemented in full. They should start with themselves. We will constantly repeat to our US and French colleagues - start with yourselves.'

Mr Ryabkov hit back at accusations by the West that Syrian and Russian bombardment of Eastern Ghouta was killing civilians.

'[Those] who divide the world under a friend-or-foe principle regardless of what their people do and the methods they use, whether they are terrorists or not, they will still remain friends for these people,' he said.

The truce had been set up to allow civilians to leave, after a week-long government offensive killed more than 500 people, including more than 120 children

A Syrian fighter jet zooms away after carrying out an airstrike on Eastern Ghouta

US State Department Spokesperson Heather Nauert claimed Russia was not truly committed to any ceasefire.

'They're not adhering to the ceasefire because they continue to sponsor and back Bashar al-Assad's government,' she said.

Syrian state news agency SANA said a former Al-Qaeda affiliate present in the enclave was blocking civilians 'to use them as human shields'.

International Committee of the Red Cross spokeswoman Iolanda Jaquemet said any evacuation needed deeper coordination.

'Under international humanitarian law, humanitarian corridors are things which need to be well planned and must be implemented with the consent of parties on all sides, not only with one side,' she said.

Since February 18, 582 civilians, almost a quarter of them children, have been killed in the Syrian and Russian bombardment of Eastern Ghouta, making it one of the bloodiest episodes of the country's seven-year-old conflict.

Syrian government forces stand at a checkpoint on the outskirts of Damascus neighbouring the rebel-held Eastern Ghouta region on February 27, 2018

Fourteen of the dead, including five children, were pulled from the rubble on Tuesday after being killed in the past two days, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor said.

In Damascus, the state news agency said a civilian was killed and five others wounded by shelling from 'terrorist organisations'.

In Hammuriyeh, another town in the sprawling semi-rural enclave, Mohammed Abdullah said the pause left civilians with a choice between two evils.

'The truce is not in the people's interest, we have two options: death or displacement,' the 30-year-old said.

'The campaign we were targeted with was an extermination campaign, not a simple bombardment. What we want is a full and permanent ceasefire for all of Ghouta,' he said.

That sentiment was echoed by the dominant rebel groups in Eastern Ghouta, who sent a letter to the United Nations stating their willingness to expel jihadists as soon as a full ceasefire takes effect.

The letter said such an evacuation, which has been discussed previously but never yielded any result, would take 15 days and start when a UN truce takes effect.

Residents have spent nine days hiding in their basements, only venturing out on often deadly trips to check if there homes were still standing and to buy food

More than 500 people have been killed in the latest strikes on rebel held Eastern Ghouta

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov reacted cautiously to the statement and said after meeting French counterpart Jean-Yves Le Drian that the ball was in the rebel groups' court.

'We shall see in practice whether the pleas by the three illegal armed groups... to carry out the UNSC resolution correspond with their intentions,' he said.

A top US general accused Moscow of playing an 'incredibly destabilising' role in Syria by claiming it wants to settle the civil war while at the same time stoking the conflict.

The UN Security Council will meet Wednesday afternoon to discuss the humanitarian situation and hear from UN aid chief Mark Lowcock.

The Syrian government lost control of Eastern Ghouta area of Damascus in 2012 and has besieged it almost ever since.

The latest scenario put in place by the regime and its Russian ally was reminiscent of the deal that ended the battle of Aleppo in 2016.

Few civilians back then initially used the Aleppo corridors unilaterally announced by Russia.

Some started fleeing after renewed bombardment and the rest eventually evacuated when a multilateral deal was reached with Turkey.A Chinese man desperately threw out cash in a street as he was suffering a heart attack outside a train station in north China.

Mr Li, unable to call for help or take medication, can be seen spitting blood as he takes out wads of hundred yuan notes in the street, in a bid to ask passersby for help.

An on-duty policeman reached out to the man and fed him the medication. Paramedics arrived and treated the man before sending him off to take the train.

A Chinese man suffering heart attack is spitting blood as he takes out wads of cash in the street

He is asking onlookers to help feed him medication but none can be seen stop by to help

Bodycam footage of the officer captures the moment that took place outside Shijiazhuang train station in Hebei Province on February 24.

Officer Lin Xiangshen told Hebei News that he was patrolling near the plaza when he noticed Mr Li kneeling down and throwing out banknotes.

'I thought he was drunk, but he was spitting blood,' Officer Lin said.

He saw Mr Li holding a bottle of medicines in his right hand and holding money on his left hand.

The passenger felt better after being given the medicine and thanked the officer for helping out, reported Hebei News.

Officer Lin helped out and fed the man a bottle of medication as soon as he found him

Mr Lin was having difficulty in breathing and was unable to take the medicine on his own

Officer Lin said he found the man sitting on a plaza and spitting blood while patrolling nearby

He said there were no onlookers stopped to help him out and he could only think of taking the cash out to draw attention.

Mr Li told the paramedics that he had performed a few cardiac surgeries last year and one stent insertion just a month ago.

'I was rushing to take the train back home in Qinhuangdao, a coastal city in Hebei Province, to visit my ill mother. But my heart was aching so bad when I was outside the station,' Mr Li told Beijng News.

Mr Li recovered few minutes after taking the medication and continued his journey back home under the help of the policeman.

A paramedic arrives minutes after the police officer called and takes vital checks for Mr Li

Mr Li did a few cardiac surgeries last year and it strikes him again when he's rushing to a station

Chinese web users were commenting on Weibo, a Chinese equivalent of Twitter, that it was sad to see cold-hearted onlookers refused to help out people in need.

'Are they all money-deprived? The man is spitting blood and no one cares!' wrote 'nizhemo_s12'.

Some suggested that begging scams were common in China and most onlookers would stay away from them.

'There were just too many scams and you wouldn't know if he was acting or not. Luckily the man is alright now,' commented '154laiyidianfeng'.

Others commented that the man was quick-thinking as he called for help by throwing money out.Robert Ale (pictured) was shot at a Melbourne tattoo parlour last week

The Comanchero bikie gunned down at a Melbourne tattoo parlour has been revealed as high-profile member Robert Ale - the right-hand man of the gang's jailed national president.

Ale, known as the 'Cry Baby Comanchero', is fighting for life in hospital after he was shot nine times during the attempted execution at Nitro Ink in Melbourne's south-east last week.

Police believe the shooting may be linked to the murder of former Comanchero boss Mick Hawi, who was killed outside a Sydney gym on February 15.

Ale, 35, was shot at the same time Hawi's family and friends gathered for his funeral at a Sydney mosque on Thursday.

Ale is a close associate of Mick Murray - current Comanchero boss and former owner of Nitro Ink - who was secretly jailed about a month ago.

Police believe the shooting may be linked to the murder of former Comanchero boss Mick Hawi (pictured with his wife)

Ale, 35, is fighting for life in hospital after he was shot nine times during the attempted execution at Nitro Ink

Police in Melbourne said Ale's (pictured) shooting is being treated as a targeted hit

Police are probing whether rival gangs the Rebels or Bandidos are behind the assassination attempt.

But it is understood an internal dispute between Victoria and New South Wales Comanchero factions may be fuelling the violence, The Age reported.

The internal squabble was sparked after a wild brawl at a Canberra strip club in August last year.

CCTV footage showed bikies, who later refused to cooperate with police, smashing glasses on their own heads and ripping off their shirts.

Murray was seen standing in the background watching the violence unfold, making no attempts to stop it, according to the paper.

Meanwhile, anti-gang police in Melbourne have said Ale's shooting is being treated as a targeted hit.

Ale (second from left) is a close associate of Mick Murray (right of Ale) - Comanchero national president and former owner of Nitro Ink

Ale (pictured centre) stands beside jailed Comanchero president Mick Murray (second from left) and other gang members

Ale was allegedly a major player in a crime syndicate which trafficked drugs and plotted arson attacks on a strip club, a court heard last year, Herald Sun reported.

During a bail hearing at the time, Con Heliotis, QC, said his client was not coping with his first stint in custody.

Mr Heliotis said when Ale was visited by another lawyer in jail, 'he broke down and cried like a baby', according to the paper.

'If left in there, he'll break down,' Mr Heliotis said at the time.

Ale was charged with threatening to kill, drug trafficking, conspiring to commit arson and possession of an unregistered handgun. He was on bail when he was shot.

Inspector Michael Daly, who called Ale's shooting 'very concerning', said police were investigating whether it was gang-related.

The gunmen's bullets went through to neighbouring buildings, but no-one else was hurt.

Asked if the shooting was linked to Hawi's murder, Inspector Daly said detectives for the anti-biker Echo taskforce were probing the possibility.

Murray (pictured) - the national president of the Comanchero and former owner of Nitro Ink - was secretly jailed about a month ago

Police at the scene of a burnt out car in Hampton Park, near the scene of a shooting at a tattoo parlour in Melbourne

Hawi rose to infamy in 2009 for his involvement in the Sydney Airport brawl which resulted in the death of Hells Angel associate Anthony Zervas.

The crime led to a nationwide crackdown on motorcycle gangs.

Hawi was jailed over Zervas' death but was eventually freed on parole after his charge was downgraded to manslaughter.

Around three years after his release, Hawi was shot dead outside the Fitness First gym in Rockdale in Sydney's south.

A week later, two masked men stormed into Nitro Ink and opened fire on Ale.

Family and friends of slain former bikie boss Mick Hawi gather at a Sydney mosque on Thursday

Hawi, a father-of-two, was killed in a hail of bullets outside a Sydney gym on February 15

One witness said there were so many gunshots he couldn't count them.

When questioned at the scene, one man who appeared to work at the parlour told a Herald Sun reporter to 'f*** off'.

Daily Mail Australia's calls to the parlour went unanswered on Thursday evening.

There is no suggestion the parlour is still linked to Murray or the Comancheros and police said they were not aware of any bikie link.

Hawi (left) rose to infamy in 2009 for his involvement in the Sydney Airport brawl which resulted in the death of Hells Angel associate Anthony Zervas (right)

Hawi was shot dead outside the Fitness First gym in Rockdale in Sydney's south. Mourners are pictured during his funeral service last weekFollowing a surge in online shopping and delivery, Australia Post is aiming to launch a new tracking system set to mirror that of ride-sharing app Uber.

The initiative would include a real-time parcel tracking system designed to boost the organisation's credentials in the lucrative world of online shopping.

Uber's current model allows users to see the exact location of their driver on a GPS map, along with minute-by-minute time of pick up.

Australia Post is hoping to use an up-to-the-minute Uber-style tracking system where customers can track a parcel from dispatch to receipt

The development comes following a promising half-year result boosted by both Australia's addiction to online retail and the same-sex marriage plebiscite postal vote.

The goal of the scheme is said to be an up-to-the-minute tracking system where customers can track a parcel from dispatch to receipt - much like that of Uber.

This week Australia Post revealed parcel revenues have risen by eight per cent which contributed to the group's revenue rise by three per cent to $3.6 billion for the half year.

Included in the surge was the busiest December on record with 37 million parcels delivered, which the organisation hopes will offset losses from a recent 10 per cent fall in letter delivery.

The postal service also delivered 16 million Australian Marriage Law Postal survey forms and 12.7 million responses. This equated to a boost of $26.3 million.

The initiative follows the organisation's busiest December on record with over 37 million parcels delivered

The Uber-style delivery is not the first time Australia Post has experimented with technology-driven delivery with the organisation trialling drones in 2016

How will the tracking system work? Australia Post's new tracking system will give a more exact location and time of arrival of packages than the organisation's current model. It is understood the end goal is to have an Uber-style real-time system where customers can track a parcel from dispatch to receipt. Advertisement

Despite the seemingly positive results, Australia Post chief executive Christine Holgate said the second half of the organisation's financial year does not include Christmas and it expects to make a loss over that period.

'Without this survey, letter volumes would have experienced an even sharper decline,' she said.

'The results demonstrate the significant challenge for Australia Post to continue to transform.'A string of poison baiting on pets has continued in North Queensland after three dogs all died from ingesting a poison used to control wild dogs and foxes.

Two nine-month-old terrier pups and a 12-year-old staffy terrier cross - all rescue dogs - died on the weekend.

Maisy the staffy fought hard but ultimately succumbed to the poison early Sunday, the Cairns Post reported.

The three dogs were poisoned with a newly introduced bait poison meant for wild dogs and foxes. The puppies were discovered dead but Maisy (left) fought hard before succumbing early on Sunday while being treated by vets

The dogs were discovered by their owner Jodie Fennell when she arrived at her daughter's Bentley Park home in Cairns on Friday morning.

'We are devastated and the overwhelming feeling of grief and loss is unbearable,' she told the Daily Mail.

'We are angry that someone chose to inflict horrible pain on our babies.'

The RSPCA has recorded 11 cases of poison baiting in the last 12 months in the Cairns region alone.

'We are terrified for other dogs in Cairns and children if they were to touch one of these baits,' she said.

'At the moment we are feeling so many different emotions, it's really hard to explain.'

Tests were done on Maisy's stomach contents and a new poison bait PAP (para-aminopropiophenone) was found inside.

PAPP works by reducing the amount of oxygen in the blood by affecting haemoglobin levels in poisoned animals.

It then causes them to become increasingly tired, lose coordination and lie down.

The poison bait known as PAPP was introduced as a new poison bait to control wild dog and fox populations, it works by reducing the amount of oxygen in the blood by affecting haemoglobin levels in poisoned animals before the lack of oxygen to the brain kills them

Affected animals then lose consciousness and die due to lack of oxygen to the brain and heart.

'They reckon its a humane way to go but if they saw what Maisy went through, it is disgusting,' she said.

'To take them away from us like that is just so cruel.'

Losing a pet to an act of poison is hard enough but to lose three at once is crushing Mrs Fennell said.

'Its just really devastated us  its like losing three family members in one hit and they were family,' she said.

Mrs Fennell said she could not understand why two puppies and their 12-year-old staffy would be targets of such a vile act.

'It wasnt that they barked, there were no complaints. We are just lost,' she said.

Mrs Fennell said the deaths would not have been from the dogs ingesting anything around the home either.

'My family dont use baits in any form or fashion, we dont even use rat bait,' she said.

'We had heard of the baitings in the area and no we had no concerns that this would ever happen to us.'

The RSPCA endorses the use of PAPP as a more humane poison that kills quicker and RSPCA scientist Dr Bidda Jones said a full humaneness assessment was still to be completed

The RSPCA endorses the use of PAPP as a more humane product than the widely used 1080 bait because it kills faster, RSPCA chief science and strategy officer Dr Bidda Jones told the ABC.

'We believe from the available evidence that PAPP is a more humane alternative to 1080, but we are still waiting for a full humaneness assessment to be conducted,' she told ABC News.A controversial plan to drug test welfare recipients is set to be trialed in three locations across Australia.

New laws were set to be introduced to parliament Wednesday after the coalition endorsed new proposed laws.

Social Services Minister Dan Tehan told parliament on Tuesday the trial was 'not about taking away payments', but rather 'helping those people with a problem get treatment'.

Laws to drug test 5000 new Centrelink welfare payment recipients in NSW, QLD and WA over a two-year period will be introduced into parliament on Wednesday (stock image)

'This is about helping them help themselves and then get a job,' Mr Tehan said.

Mr Tehan said an extra $10 million would be set aside for drug and alcohol treatment support at the three trial sites in New South Wales, Queensland and Western Australia.

Sites were set to be established in Canterbury-Bankstown (NSW), Logan (QLD) and Mandurah (WA).

'We will also provide $1 million for an independent, third party to evaluate the trial while it is in operation,' he said.

'If there are serious unintended consequences, the government will act.'

Social Services Minister Dan Tehan told parliament on Tuesday the trial was 'not about taking away payments', but rather 'helping those people with a problem get treatment' (stock image)

The Turnbull government had originally hoped to drug test 5000 Newstart and Youth Allowance recipients from January.

But the government acknowledged in December it did not have the numbers in the Senate to pass it, and the trial was stripped out of a welfare reform bill.

Doctors and community groups were deeply critical of the drug tests, arguing they would prove an expensive, paternalistic and potentially damaging waste of time.

Under the plan, anyone who tested positive would be shunted onto cashless welfare cards, while those who failed more than once would be referred to medical professionals for treatment.

Sites were set to be established in Canterbury-Bankstown (NSW), Logan (QLD) and Mandurah (WA) (stock image)

Mr Tehan said the bill included measures to help victims of domestic violence and the homeless.

'I say to those opposite that this is a trial. We encourage you to work with us,' he said.

Labor said there was no change to its opposition to the proposed laws, while Greens senator Rachel Siewert said the 'overwhelming evidence' from experts showed it would not work.

'It has already been rejected by the Senate, and for good reason,' Senator Siewert said in a statement.

Penington Institute chief executive John Ryan called for the bill to be scrapped.

Social services minister Dan Tehan (pictured) will reintroduce the measure, which was blocked in the Senate last year

'These are people who rely on these social security payments for the bare necessities and this plan risks pushing them into crime or homelessness,' he said.

A Parliamentary Budget Office report found the largest group of new disability support pension recipients were people with psychological conditions, which was often linked with substance misuse.

They were also found to be far younger than average recipients and could receive the pension for more than 20 years.

Previously unpublished data also showed 260 jobseekers had chosen to enter drug and alcohol rehabilitation or treatment instead of finding jobs.

Australian Medical Association president Michael Gannon (pictured) said more people with mental health problems were seeking help because of a lifting stigma

The most 'work ready' unemployed - who were typically on the dole or youth allowance - were allowed to receive addiction treatment in lieu of looking for work as part of the regime introduced on January 1.

Meanwhile, those who were in Stream C - typically receiving the DSP - were already allowed to select this option and were doing so in large numbers.

There were more than 520 welfare recipients in the category receiving treatment, according to The Australian.

Australian Medical Association president Michael Gannon said more people with mental health problems were seeking help because of a lifting stigma.

'But I think we are seeing an increased burden in society more generally and a greater demand for services,' he said.A seventh suspect has been charged over Salim Mehajer's allegedly staged car crash last year.

Investigators confirmed on Wednesday that they arrested a 27-year-old man from Greystanes, western Sydney, in early February in connection with last year's incident.

The man was charged with conspiracy to cheat and defraud and was granted bail on strict conditions, and is set to appear in Burwood Local Court on Wednesday.

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Former Auburn deputy mayor Salim Mehajer was on his way to face court over assault charges when he was involved in a car crash that put him in hospital

Six other people have already received the same charges over the crash, which took place in Lidcombe on October 16.

At the time of the crash, Mehajer - the former deputy mayor of Auburn - was on his way to attend a court hearing where he would defend himself against charges that involved assaulting a taxi driver with an Eftpos machine at The Star Casino.

Mehajer pleaded guilty to those charges on Monday.

The car crash is still being treated as suspicious, however, insofar as it is alleged to have perverted the course of justice and prevented Mehajer from making his previous court date as he was transported to hospital.

Police are alleging that Mehajer colluded with his wedding planner business associate Ahmed Jaghbir in staging the crash.President Donald Trump has expressed his delight that a judge who he once taunted during the presidential campaign ruled against an environmental challenge to his US-Mexico border wall on Tuesday.

US District Judge Gonzalo Curiel rejected arguments by the state of California and advocacy groups that the administration overreached by waiving laws requiring environmental and other reviews before construction can begin.

Plaintiffs in the lawsuit said a 2005 a law that gave the Homeland Security secretary broad authority to waive the reviews had expired.

'Big legal win today,' Trump tweeted in response to the ruling. 'US judge sided with the Trump Administration and rejected the attempt to stop the government from building a great Border Wall on the Southern Border. Now this important project can go forward!'

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President Donald Trump has expressed his delight that US District Judge Gonzalo Curiel (right) who he once taunted during the presidential campaign ruled against an environmental challenge to his US-Mexico border wall on Tuesday

'Big legal win today,' Trump tweeted in response to the ruling

Curiel's ruling may have removed what could have been a major obstacle to Trump's pledge to build the wall.

Trump berated Curiel during the campaign for his handling of fraud allegations against now-defunct Trump University, suggesting the Indiana-born judge's Mexican heritage reflected a bias.

Curiel mentioned his roots in his 101-page ruling Tuesday when he cited another native of the state, US Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts, who wrote in another case that courts should not make policy judgments.

'The court cannot and does not consider whether the underlying decisions to construct border barriers are politically wise or prudent,' Curiel wrote.

The lawsuit was the first major legal challenge to the wall under Trump and the latest legal challenge to fail over the years.

The Center for Biological Diversity, which sued along with the state of California and three advocacy groups, said it would appeal.

'They're giving unprecedented, sweeping power to an unelected agency chief to ignore dozens of laws and crash through hundreds of miles of spectacular borderlands,' attorney Brian Segee said, referring to the head of Homeland Security.

'This is unconstitutional and shouldn't be allowed to stand.'

California Attorney General Xavier Becerra said: 'We will evaluate all of our options and are prepared to do what is necessary to protect our people, our values, and our economy from federal overreach.'

The Animal Legal Defense Fund said it may ask the US Supreme Court to intervene.

And the Sierra Club said the environmental and other reviews are critical to protecting border communities, but the group didn't discuss its next step.

The Center for Biological Diversity, which sued along with the state of California and three advocacy groups, said it would appeal the judge's decision. Pictured are the border wall prototypes

Following the judge's decision, California Attorney General Xavier Becerra said: 'We will evaluate all of our options and are prepared to do what is necessary to protect our people, our values, and our economy from federal overreach.' Wall prototypes are pictured

US Justice Department spokesman Devin O'Malley welcomed the decision, saying Congress granted authority to build a wall without delay and that the administration is pleased it can continue 'this important work vital to our nation's interests'.

Homeland Security spokesman Tyler Houlton added: 'Simply put, walls work.'

The decision came days after construction began on a 30-foot high barrier in Calexico, California, the administration's first wall project outside of eight prototypes in San Diego that were completed in October.

The administration has issued three waivers since August, two to build in parts of California and one in part of New Mexico.

President George W. Bush's administration issued the previous five waivers, allowing the government to quickly extend barriers to about one-third of the border.

The Center for Biological Diversity said in its lawsuit that the waiver authority cannot be interpreted to last forever. California argued that it expired in 2008, when Homeland Security satisfied congressional requirements at the time on how much wall to build.

Homeland Security spokesman Tyler Houlton added: 'Simply put, walls work.' The decision came days after construction began on a 30-foot high barrier in Calexico, California, the administration's first wall project outside of eight prototypes in San Diego

Trump is expected to visit California to view the eight border wall prototypes (pictured) in mid-March

Curiel wrote that the law certainly 'is not a model of legislative precision' and that both sides made plausible arguments.

The judge declined to second-guess the administration's findings that waivers were issued in areas of 'high illegal entry,' a requirement set by Congress. The advocates argued that dramatic declines in border arrests undermined those findings.

During 2.5 hours of arguments this month, the judge peppered both sides with questions about the law's meaning.

He showed strong interest in a requirement tacked on in late 2007 for Homeland Security to consult other federal agencies, state and local governments, Indian tribes and property owners to minimize the impact of construction, which challengers said the administration failed to do.

Curiel said in his ruling that the law's lack of specifics prevented him for concluding that the administration failed to properly consult others.

Trump is seeking $18 billion to extend the wall as the White House and Congress are at an impasse.

Earlier this month, the Senate rejected an administration-backed plan to link funding and sharp cuts to legal immigration to allowing young immigrants to stay in the country after they were temporarily shielded from deportation under an Obama-era program, Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals.

The wall prototypes in San Diego that were built to guide future designs and the wall replacement in Calexico were previously funded.

Curiel was pilloried by Trump over the Trump University lawsuits. The then-presumptive Republican presidential nominee called him a 'hater' of Trump who should be ashamed, calling attention to the judge's Mexican ancestry and Trump's support for a border wall.

Trump settled the lawsuits for $25 million after winning the election, without admitting wrongdoing.The foundation, which helped to identify and encourage young artists and give them training and resources to thrive in the acting industry, was set up in 2011 by Spacey (pictured)

The Kevin Spacey Foundation in the UK will close tomorrow in the wake of sexual harassment allegations against its founder.

Trustees of the charity said the work of the organisation is 'no longer viable'.

The foundation, which helped to identify and encourage young artists and give them training and resources to thrive in the acting industry, was set up in 2011 by Spacey.

A statement posted on its official website explained: 'The trustees have reached the conclusion that the work of the Kevin Spacey Foundation UK is no longer viable and as such the foundation will be closing on the 28 February 2018.

'The Trustees would like to thank all their partners, artists and organisations for the great work that has been done in association with the Foundation.

'The Trustees hope that the objects of the charity will be taken forward by other organisations.'

The foundation is reported to have a branch in the US, but this was not mentioned in the statement.

The Kevin Spacey Foundation UK was run by Steven Winter, who worked with Spacey at the Old Vic theatre in London.

The Oscar-winning actor is being investigated by Scotland Yard over three complaints of sexual assault and was one of the first Hollywood stars to face accusations in the fallout of the Harvey Weinstein scandal.

First to go public with allegations was actor Anthony Rapp, who said he was 14 when Spacey, then 26, made a sexual advance on him in 1986.

A statement posted on its official website explained: 'The trustees have reached the conclusion that the work of the Kevin Spacey Foundation UK is no longer viable and as such the foundation will be closing on the 28 February 2018'

The Oscar-winning actor is being investigated by Scotland Yard over three complaints of sexual assault and was one of the first Hollywood stars to face accusations in the fallout of the Harvey Weinstein (pictured) scandal

Spacey said he did not remember the encounter but apologised for any 'inappropriate drunken behaviour'.

An avalanche of claims followed and the Old Vic theatre, where Spacey was artistic director between 2004 and 2015, found 20 people claimed they had been subjected to inappropriate behaviour from the actor.

Spacey was replaced by Christopher Plummer in Sir Ridley Scott's film All The Money In The World after the allegations came to light.

Netflix series House Of Cards, which previously featured Spacey as the leading character, recently resumed production three months after being frozen.Teresa Warren, 51 (pictured), of Paisley, Florida, was arrested and booked on Sunday on a misdemeanor battery charge after she allegedly beat up her boyfriend when he interrupted sex to check on dinner

A Florida woman was arrested for allegedly beating up her boyfriend because he interrupted sex to check on dinner.

Teresa Warren, 51, was arrested by the Lake County Sheriff's Office on Sunday after deputies received a call about a domestic disturbance.

Warren was found at Paisley Mart while her boyfriend was still at their residence on Pink Panther Road.

Warren told officers that she and her boyfriend were 'drinking alcohol and having a good time' when he suddenly punched her with a closed fist, showing a red mark on her left cheek.

She claimed that she lost consciousness and when she woke up, she ran to her boyfriend's car and drove to the convenience store.

But her boyfriend had a different story. He confirmed to the deputy that the couple was 'drinking alcohol, cooking, watching the Nascar race, and having a good time'.

However, they started having sex when he remembered that he was cooking and he went to go check on the food to make sure it didn't burn.

That's when Warren smashed a TV on the floor. After he asked her what was wrong, she began 'striking him with a closed fist in his face, head, stomach, and legs', reported WTF Florida.

He managed to push her out the front door and told her to leave. Warren went after him again, so he stuck his hand out to block her, which he says created the mark on her cheek.

Warren had gone to Paisley Mart (pictured) after the incident where she met officers who were responding to a domestic disturbance call. She told them that her boyfriend punched her in the face for no reason

She then took his car and sped off.

The boyfriend had a swollen left eye and a red mark on his stomach

Warren was determined to be the primary aggressor and was subsequently arrested on a misdemeanor battery charge and taken to the Lake County Jail. Her bond remains at $2,000.Politician David Seymour has been raked over the coals after posting a picture of himself attending a BBQ in a t-shirt many have deemed sexist.

Mr Seymour, leader of New Zealand's ACT Party, wore a shirt featuring the silhouette of a naked woman with the phrase 'got meat?' below.

Mr Seymour posted the picture of himself attending the function, hosted by the Auckland University Meat Club, to Instagram on Monday.

Politician David Seymour, leader of New Zealand's ACT Party, has been raked over the coals for posting a picture of himself attending a BBQ in a t-shirt many have deemed sexist

In a follow up post to Facebook Mr Seymour showed himself cooking dinner for his partner

Among the negative reactions to the picture was Green MP Golriz Ghahraman who tweeted 'Being part of the problem on campus in a post #metoo world: proving your manhood doesn't require super gross women are pieces of meat and/or boner reference. Just eat your bbq ACT dudes. No one was questioning your manhood and it's not 1954...'

The mission of the club according to their University web page is to 'provide an inexhaustible supply of Meat, thus creating peace and prosperity throughout the world.'

In defending himself to RNZ Mr Seymour said the t-shirt was about the 'idolisation of meat' and that a lot of the reaction on social media was positive.

'Maybe I should have worn the male one I don't know,' he added.

Mr Seymour, who is the ACT Party's leader and only sitting member of Parliament, is also slated to appear on this season of New Zealand's Dancing With The Stars.However, Finch previously said that Galbato suffered a minor heart attack on May 14 and hadn't worked in his office after the medical emergency. The corrected time sheet changed the six-hour shifts on May 15, May 16 and May 17 from "legislative duties" to paid sick time.

Additional records showed Galbato remained on Finch's payroll for while spending winters in Florida. Friends and former neighbors recalled Galbato being a "snowbird" who would spend at least part of the winter in Florida. He owned a house in Fort Pierce before he sold it in 2013. That year, he bought a two-bedroom condominium.

The pension was one of several benefits Galbato received as a state Assembly employee. While his salary was modest  he was due to earn $8,851 in 2017 before his retirement  he had health insurance coverage through the Empire Plan. He also received hundreds of hours of paid time off. During his 15-year stint with Finch, he used 750 hours of vacation leave, 211 hours of sick leave and 34 hours of personal leave.Advertisement

It is a peculiar sight - Ronald Reagan has a large mark on his damaged face, George Washington is missing a piece of his nose, William Taft has a stain trailing from his eye to cheek, Millard Fillmore has a bee's nest inside of his nose and Abraham Lincoln has a gigantic hole in the back of his head, eerily evoking his unfortunate fate.

This is just some of the damage on a few of the 43, 20ft-tall busts of former U.S. presidents that sit shoulder-to-shoulder in the most unlikely of places - a field on a farm in rural Croaker, Virginia.

It may only be two hours away from Washington DC, but it's a world away from the nation's capital.

All the presidents' heads: The 20ft-tall busts of 43 U.S. presidents are sitting shoulder-to-shoulder in the most unlikely of places - a field on a farm in rural Croaker, Virginia. Pictured above is the deteriorated bust of George Washington in 2016

Titled the Presidents' Heads by creator David Adickes, the larger-than-life sculptures have become an eerie sight on businessman Howard Hankins 400-acre property. Pictured above: Far left is the bust of George Washington, center is a restored Andrew Jackson bust and far right is an Abraham Lincoln bust in 2016 on the Virginia farm

The now-derelict statues that weigh up to 20,000 lbs each were once part of the now-failed Presidents' Park in Williamsburg, Virginia. Pictured above left to right are the busts of: Harry S. Truman, William Taft, Lyndon B. Johnson, George W. Bush and Franklin D. Roosevelt

The park was a collaboration between Adickes and landowner Everette 'Haley' Newman. Pictured above left to right: George H. W. Bush, Dwight Eisenhower and John Quincy Adams

The pair opened it in 2004 with hopes that it would attract thousands of visitors yearly after they invested $10million of their own money for it. Pictured front left to right are the busts of: Lyndon B. Johnson, George W. Bush and Franklin D. Roosevelt

Using a mix of concrete and steel, Adickes spent 16 months creating the busts of 43 presidents to go on display inside the Williamsburg Park that opened in 2004. Pictured above is a badly damaged Lincoln in 2016

But it did not attract the of visitors they wished for partly due to its poor location behind a motel off I-64 and being located far from Colonial Williamsburg. Pictured above are the busts of several US presidents lined up neatly on Hankins' property in rows

The Presidents' Park shut down in 2010 with the land being sold off. Newman enlisted the help of Hankins to have the statues, worth an estimated $6.5million in total according to Adickes, demolished. Pictured above is an aerial photograph of Hankins' property showing the busts in 2017

Titled the Presidents' Heads by creator David Adickes, the larger-than-life sculptures have become an eerie sight on businessman Howard Hankins property in Croaker.

The derelict statues that weigh up to 20,000 lbs each were once part of the now-failed Presidents' Park in Williamsburg, Virginia.

The park was a collaboration between Adickes and landowner Everette 'Haley' Newman. They pair opened it in 2004 with hopes that it would attract thousands of visitors yearly after they invested $10million of their own money for it.

Adickes became inspired to build the busts after driving past Mount Rushmore in South Dakota.

'I was really overwhelmed by the scale of it and how great it was,' Adickes told DailyMail.com from his Houston-based art studio. 'But I was disappointed that I couldn't get close to it and really look at it. So then the idea came into my brain, wouldn't it be interesting to do all of the presidents, but not make them as big as Mount Rushmore.'

Using a mix of concrete and steel, Adickes spent 16 months creating the busts of 43 presidents to go on display inside the Williamsburg Park that opened for visitors in 2004.

But it did not attract the hordes of visitors they wished for partly due to its poor location behind a motel off I-64 and being located far from Colonial Williamsburg.

The Presidents' Park shut down in 2010 with the land being sold off. Newman enlisted the help of Hankins to have the statues, worth an estimated $6.5million in total according to Adickes, demolished.

Instead of demolishing them, Hankins paid $50,000 to move the busts to his 400-acre pastoral farm in Croaker for safe-keeping once he figured out what to do with them. Hankins is pictured above in 2016 next to the bust of Abraham Lincoln

'When they asked me to get rid of them, I immediately starting thinking of how I could move them without destroying them,' Hankins, who had helped to construct the Presidents Park, told Richmond.com. Pictured above left is the bust of John F. Kenned and rear right is the bust of Chester A. Arthur

While moving them, Hankins knocked large holes in the tops of the statues (pictured above in 2016) or in the back of their heads to pick them up by their steal frame using a fork lift that loaded them onto a flat bed truck. It took the course of a week to get all of the statues on his property in Croaker

In 2016, Hankins came up with the idea to create his own Presidential Historic Park featuring the busts along with other attractions. Pictured above left to right are the busts of: Theodore Roosevelt, George W. Bush and Ulysses S. Grant

Hankins and his daughter were seeking to raise $500,000 on GoFundMe to repair the damaged statues  which would cost an estimated $10,000 each to. Pictured above is the bust of Lyndon B. Johnson

They wanted to open a 'new modern museum for all to enjoy' so that they could give the busts 'the honor they deserve'. Pictured above are the busts of several US presidents lined up neatly on Hankins' property in rows

'When they asked me to get rid of them, I immediately starting thinking of how I could move them without destroying them,' Hankins, who had helped to construct the Presidents Park, told Richmond.com.

Instead of demolishing them, Hankins paid $50,000 to move the busts to his 400-acre pastoral farm in Croaker for safe-keeping once he figured out what to do with them.

In 2016, Hankins came up with the idea to create his own Presidential Historic Park featuring the busts along with other attractions.

'They need a new home that will draw in a larger crowd and help educate everyone about the lives of our great presidents. We want people to learn things about the presidents that most do not know  from their family lives to their greatest successes and even failures,' reads a description on a GoFundMe fundraising page created in 2016 by Hankins' daughter, Catie Hankins Ashe.

The duo were seeking to raise $500,000 to repair the damaged statues  which would cost an estimated $10,000 each to - and open a 'new modern museum for all to enjoy' so that they could give the busts 'the honor they deserve'.

They had hoped the new attraction would also showcase other exhibits including having two more busts made of presidents Barack Obama and Donald Trump, while also having a White House replica built to scale and that would serve as a hotel be the 'center piece of the park', according to a description on Thepresidentialexperience.com  a website Hankins created with information about his plans for the busts.

Hankins had received quite a bit of buzz thanks to a blitz of media interviews over the statues, but now, two years later, it seems as though Hankins' plans may have fizzled out - as some thought it was too similar to the old park that failed. Pictured above is President's Park in Williamsburg, Virginia where the busts were first on display with a replica Air Force One plane in the mid-2000s

The GoFundMe fundraising page failed to pick up the steam he and his daughter had likely hoped for - only $1,146 has been donated in the past 24 months. Pictured above left to right are ____, ____ and Abraham Lincoln on display inside the President's Park in Williamsburg, Virginia in the mid-2000s

Plus, Hankins has only been able to restore one of the 43 statues. Andrew Jackson's bust is the only giant effigy that's not battered and succumbing to the elements. Pictured above left to right are the bust of John Adams , James Madison and Andrew Jackson on display inside the President's Park in Williamsburg, Virginia in the mid-2000s

It's unclear what Hankins plans to do with the statues or if the Presidential Historic Park is still a project he plans to continue with. Pictured above is the bust of Martin Van Buren and the nose of the Air Force One model plan on display inside the President's Park in Williamsburg, Virginia in the mid-2000s

When contacted by DailyMail.com for interviews about the status of the statues and park, Hankins nor his daughter could be reached. Online reviews from the select few who have tried to see the busts on his property claim the Hankins family are not friendly to visitors. Pictured above is the bust of ______ on display inside the President's Park in the mid-2000s

'My plan is a real White House, actual size, with tours, a ballroomevery event the White House has, I'm going to have it,' he told Travel + Leisure.

'I'm going to have a mini White House, too, with Secret Service training in there for kids, and they're going to come in and play laser tag after they get trained to protect the president. I'm going to have re-enactors for all the events. If they have the turkey thing I'm going to have the turkey thing. When they do the Easter egg hunt I'm going to do one.'

Hankins had received quite a bit of buzz thanks to a blitz of media interviews over the statues and his GoFundMe fundraising campaign.

He solicited donations from many, including then-Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump.

'I did contact him [Trump]. I said, 'I'm building a museum and you're going to pay for it.' I said, 'I'm getting ready to build you two statues, one out of concrete and one out of gold,' he told Travel+ Leisure.

But now, two years later, it seems as though Hankins' plans may have fizzled out. The fundraising page failed to pick up the steam he hoped for - only $1,146 has been donated in the past 24 months.

And Hankins has only been able to restore one of the 43 statues. Andrew Jackson's bust is the only giant effigy that's not battered and succumbing to the elements.

But Adickes, who has several sculptures on display across the country, is disappointed that busts are wasting away on Hankins' land. Pictured above is Adickes in 1998 while building the busts for the Virginia park inside his Houston, Texas studio

'I've seen pictures of them and it is very distressing,' Adickes told DailyMail.com. 'It's very sad. I hate to see that happen to them.' Pictured above are the busts of George H. W. Bush and George Washington being moved in 2010 in Pearland, Texas where another smaller set of Presidents' Heads created by Adickes were on display

Adickes asserted that Hankins 'destroyed' his sculptures when he 'improperly' moved them to his farm. 'I had no idea that he planned to keep them and if I had known, I would have told him how to move them without destroying them,' he stated. Pictured above are workers in 2010 moving a bust of George Washington in the manner Adickes approves of

It's unclear what Hankins plans to do with the statues or if the Presidential Historic Park is still a project he plans to continue with. When contacted by DailyMail.com for interviews about the status of the statues and park, Hankins nor his daughter could be reached.

Online reviews from the select few who have tried to see the busts on his property claim the Hankins family are not friendly to visitors.

'These folks don't want to be bothered,' one review reads.

Another has an even sterner warning and says, 'DO NOT ATTEMPT TO VISIT. The attraction is on a private road and the owners practically chased me off the property. (These folks were NOT friendly - I half expected them to pull a weapon on me.) This is definitely a 'no trespassing' scenario; don't think you can talk them into a special visit. Whoever was there HATED spectators and visitors.'

But Adickes, who has several sculptures on display across the country, is disappointed that busts are wasting away on Hankins' land.

Adickes, who has been working as an artist for the past 70 years creating paintings and large outdoor pieces, said that despite taking 16 months to build the statues in Virginia, at 91 years old he doesn't have the energy or desire to help Hankins fix them. Adickes is pictured above in 2009 near a sculpture of Barack Obama he made that's being moved to his first Presidents Park location near Mount Rushmore in South Dakota

'I wish they would be repaired and shown in good condition, but I have no control over that and actually no real interest about it,' he stated. Pictured above are the disassembled statues of Abraham Lincoln and John F. Kennedy on a flat bed truck in Pearland, Texas in 2010

'I've seen pictures of them and it is very distressing,' Adickes told DailyMail.com. 'It's very sad. I hate to see that happen to them.'

Adickes asserted that Hankins 'destroyed' his sculptures when he 'improperly' moved them to his farm.

'I had no idea that he planned to keep them and if I had known, I would have told him how to move them without destroying them,' he stated.

'He knocked a hole in the back of all their heads and lifted them up with a fork lift, which just destroyed them. And so then he moved them to his farm and they started falling apart even more because the rain and snow has gotten inside of them for years.'

Adickes, who has been working as an artist for the past 70 years creating paintings and large outdoor pieces, said that despite taking 16 months to build the statues in Virginia, at 91 years old he doesn't have the energy or desire to help Hankins fix them.

'I wish they would be repaired and shown in good condition, but I have no control over that and actually no real interest about it,' he stated.

It seems as though 43 of the country's most powerful men will continue to lie in state in Hankins' busted graveyard.At least 11 people have fallen ill on a Virginia military base after a letter was opened containing a suspicious substance.

Staff at the Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall in Arlington suffered nose bleeds and complained or burning sensations after the unidentified chemical sparked a hazmat situation on Tuesday.

Henderson Hall is the headquarters of the US Marine Corps. It is an administrative center that includes both military and civilian personnel.

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Firefighters and emergency hazmat crews rushed to a military base in Virginia on Tuesday after at least 11 people reportedly suffered nose bleeds and burning sensations said to have been caused by a letter containing suspicious material

The emergency was first reported just after 4:30pm at Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall in Arlington on Tuesday

Henderson Hall is the headquarters of the US Marine Corps. It is an administrative center that includes both military and civilian personnel

'An envelope containing an unknown substance was received, today, aboard Joint Base Ft. Myer-Henderson Hall,' a spokesperson for the Marine Corps told CNN.

'Personnel in the affected building took immediate preventative measures by evacuating the building.

'Base officials and are coordinating with local HAZMAT teams and FBI.

'Several Marines are receiving medical care as a result of this incident.

'No additional details are available at this time as the investigation is ongoing.'

Firefighters from Arlington County as well as an EMS task force, which is usually summoned to mass casualty scenes, responded to the call

After the letter in question was opened, the building was promptly evacuated. Authorities also dispatched an emergency contamination unit

Firefighters from Arlington County as well as an EMS task force, which is usually summoned to mass casualty scenes, responded to the call.

After the letter in question was opened, the building was promptly evacuated. Authorities also dispatched an emergency contamination unit.

On February 13, hazmat crews were summoned to the office space used by former President Barack Obama in Washington, DC after a letter said to have contained a white substance was opened.

Fire and EMS Battalion Chief Edward Smith said the powder was delivered in a letter from Hong Kong and had no return address.

The substance was thought to be baby powder.

It is not clear if Obama was at the office at the time.

Obama has been leasing the space since he left the White House in January 2017, and uses it to conduct his business while in the capital.

His office is located about a mile from his home in the nearby neighborhood Kalorama.

The incident came just one day after a white substance was sent along with a threatening note to Donald Trump Jr's wife in New York.

Vanessa Trump was rushed to the hospital as a precaution after she opened the letter and found the white powder.

The letter read: 'You're an awful person and now you get what you deserve.'

The substance turned out to be corn starch.

Both incidences have recalled the scary days after 9/11 when letters containing lethal anthrax spores were sent to the offices of several politicians and media outlets - resulting in five deaths.A daredevil skater has been left battered but lucky to be alive after attempting a dangerous stunt on a bridge that didn't go to plan.

The skateboarder was trying to ride the concrete arches of a bridge in Hamilton, New Zealand, when he came tumbling off the side and almost over the edge.

The stunt was caught on camera by Hamilton man Cameron Ward who happened to be passing by when the man was preparing for the stunt the New Zealand Herald reported.

It isn't the first time the skateboarder has used the bridge to complete stunts.

'I was biking home and passed him with his skateboard, I said 'hello' to him,'' he said.

'And recognised he was the guy who I have seen biking over the humps on his BMX bike, although he nails that.

A passer by was able to capture the failed stunt on his mobile phone after seeing the daredevil gearing up to ride the 70cm wide arches

'So now he has nailed the BMX he has obviously decided to step it up and try it on a skateboard.'

The skateboarder was able to walk away from the fall and Mr Ward said he admired what the skateboarder was attempting to do.

'You wouldn't catch me up there. He is lucky he got up and walked away but you got to admire his ballsyness,' he said.

His failed stunt left him tumbling from the arch and onto the concrete path below, but thankfully he didn't fall over the side of the bridge and into river below

The Fairfield Bridge is known as a hotspot for BMX riders to attempt the same move, however, Mr Ward said it was the first time he had heard of someone attempting it with a skateboard.

'Lots of people recognise the Fairfield Bridge and lots of people have heard myths,' he said.

'Seen people occasionally walk or even bike but no one has seen anyone skate over it, so pretty stoked I caught it on my phone.'

The Fairfield Bridge was opened in 1937 and has been the site of a number of stunts in the past

The Fairfield Bridge crosses the Waikato River which flows through Hamilton and was opened in 1937.

The bridge has featured in other stunt videos in the past when Jonathon Bennett rode his 50cc trial bike over the 70cm-wide arches before being arrested by police.Meghan Markle is facing one last date with another man before her wedding to Prince Harry - an appointment with the US taxman.

The actress, 36, will have to declare any money she and Harry, 33, have made together since they started living together.

And her tax return, which must be submitted to US authorities by April 17, will give the Internal Revenue Service an unprecedented look at the British monarchy's finances.

Tax laws mean that even if Los Angeles-born Meghan lives full-time in the UK, she will still have to file a US return every year.

'Of course this raises the tantalizing prospect of Uncle Sam getting a look behind the velvet curtain - and seeing the private finances of the Royal Family,' US tax specialist Alistair Bambridge, of Bambridge Accountants, told DailyMail.com.

Tell your secrets: Meghan Markle must tell the Internal Revenue Service if Prince Harry or his family are paying her an allowance and the value of any free accommodation she received

Sparkler: Meghan Markle's engagement ring is estimated to be worth more than $100,000 - so has to be declared to the IRS in her latest tax return as a gift from a foreign citizen

With less than three months to go until the royal wedding, Suits star Meghan is thought to be dedicating much of her time to planning her nuptials.

She has to pick which designer will make the royal wedding dress and select her bridesmaids, not to mention the tricky diplomatic challenge of deciding where to seat the heads of state - and celebrities such as Sir Elton John ad the Spice Girls - who will be attending the ceremony in Windsor Castle's St George's Chapel.

Meghan is reportedly living in the UK on a family visa and will become a duchess after the wedding.

But she will have a complicated tax status as long as she remains a US citizen.

The IRS will have to be informed if she receives more than $100,000 (71,600) from her fiance or his family.

Meghan also has to give the US taxman full details of her finances if she and her husband-to-be have joint assets, bank accounts or offshore trusts in excess of $200,000 (143,100).

Perks she receives by joining the Royal Family such as the use of Nottingham Cottage, the grace and favor property in the grounds of Kensington Palace where she will live with Harry, need to be valued and declared, unless she is paying rent herself.

And future TV income, such as repeat fees, will all be taxed by the US as long as she is a citizen.

Bambridge, who has offices in New York, London and Vancouver, explained: 'Duchess or no duchess, when it comes to the IRS, Meghan is like every other American citizen.

'Each year she must file her tax return and pay any tax she owes to Washington.

'The US income tax system is citizenship-based, so as an American it doesn't matter where in the world you live and work - your tax affairs are always Uncle Sam's business.

Must be declared: Meghan Markle is living with Prince Harry in Nottingham Cottage, part of Kensington Palace. Unless she is paying rent herself, she will have to calculate the value of the benefit she receives from living there

Secrets to be disclosed: Meghan Markle's role as Rachel Zane in Suits is over but her income from it must be declared. So too must the value of her engagement ring if she has received gifts totaling $100,000 or more in value from 'foreign citizens'

'Clearly Meghan's case is a unique one, as she may be taxed according to the rental value of a home she lives in for free - Kensington Palace.

'Working out the market rental value of a royal palace is not a task for the fainthearted.'

Also complicated is Markle's engagement ring and, in the next tax year's declaration, her wedding dress.

The diamond engagement ring Prince Harry gave Meghan has been valued at over $100,000 (71,600) by royal watchers.

Because it is classified as a gift 'from a foreign person', Meghan would have to declare it to the IRS on a Form 3520 or suffer a $10,000 (7,160) penalty.

The IRS does not tax its value but all U.S. citizens are told to declare foreign gifts valued above $100,000 or multiple gifts totaling more than $100,000. It allows the tax authorities to see if people are trying to conceal income as gifts to avoid tax.

Lifting the veil: US tax specialist Alistair Bambridge, of Bambridge Accountants, tells DailyMail.com Meghan Markle has not choice but to tell her

The same would apply to her wedding ring and bridal dress if they are foreign gifts valued above $100,000 (71,600) - meaning she will have to know exactly how much each cost.

One high-profile figure who fell afoul of the IRS was British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, who was born in New York, thereby gaining birthright citizenship.

Johnson was hit with a US capital gains tax bill of about $140,000 (100,000) after making a $1m (700,000) profit on the sale of his home in Islington, North London in 2009 - even though he hadn't lived in America since the age of five.

He later renounced his US citizenship, dismissing the tax demand as 'absolutely outrageous'.

If Meghan does give up her US citizenship, she will have to pay a $2,350 administration fee and could be liable for a separate exit tax on the total value of her property and investments in the US and UK if worth more than $2m.

Based on previous history it is likely Meghan will comply with all tax laws in all jurisdictions, as she has done for the past seven years while living in Canada as an employee of an American company.

The seventh season of Suits, Meghan's final, will be aired on US TV from the end of March.Police had to be called to Trump's luxury hotel in Panama Tuesday after rival teams of security guards grappled in a stairwell as a business dispute for control over the property.

Video of the brawl shows a security official work for President Donald Trump's family hotel business screaming 'Out!' in Spanish as condo owners attempted to enter a room filled with computer equipment.

Men in suits wrestled in a stairway before a large man aligned with the Trump Hotel team slapped the phone out of the hand of the person recording the confrontation.

Panama City police responded to calls about the scuffle, which took place in an area belonging to a condo association that operates independently of the hotel but shares the building.

Rival teams of security guards grappled in a stairwell Tuesday as a business dispute for control over the Trump luxury hotel in Panama mounted. Pictured center is the Trump Panama condos

Panama City police have had to respond to similar scuffles at the property at least four times this month. Thy are pictured Tuesday before removing several security guards from the property

One of Trump's guards was escorted by police off the property after the incident, but was not arrested, according to officers on the scene.

The video was taken by someone opposed to Trump, who spoke to the AP on the condition of anonymity out of concern for being drawn into current and future litigation over the property.

The minor brawl was at least the fourth time the police have been called to the property in the last week, and is part of a bitter fight over Trump Hotels' contract to manage a 70-story luxury high rise on Panama's waterfront.

Led by Miami-based private equity fund Ithaca Capital, the owners of the condo-hotel units voted to remove Trump's name from the building and fire his hotel management company.

Panama City police responded to calls about the scuffle, which took place in an area belonging to a condo association that operates independently of the hotel but shares the building

The minor brawl was at least the fourth time the police have been called to the property in the last week, and is part of a bitter fight over Trump Hotels' contract to manage a 70-story luxury high rise on Panama's waterfront

Ithaca's manager, Orestes Fintiklis, has alleged financial misconduct by Trump Hotels dating back years.

He also said Trump's statements on immigration have rendered his brand toxic in Latin America.

Trump Hotels has refused to acknowledge it had been fired, citing a commitment by Fintiklis not to challenge Trump's contract when he bought 202 of the 369 hotel units at the property last year.

When Fintinklis, who is also head of the hotel owners' association, invited a team of Marriott hotel executives to tour the property last year, Trump Hotel staff ran them off.

The dispute over whether the president's company can be fired has already led to legal complaints in Panama, the United States and private arbitration.

But the legal battle has not made much progression in months, with the two sides deadlocked over the selection of the arbitration panel.

The already tense situation deteriorated last week after Fintiklis attempted to fire hotel managers loyal to Trump.

According to two witnesses, private security blocked Fintiklis from delivering the pink slips, and refused to let him check into one of his firm's 202 hotel rooms or eat in the property's restaurant.

Led by Miami-based private equity fund Ithaca Capital, the owners of the condo-hotel units voted to remove Trump's name from the building and fire his hotel management company

Ithica's manager Orestes Fintiklis has alleged financial misconduct and says Trump's anti-immigration rhetoric has made his name a liability in Latin America

On Tuesday, Fintiklis' lawyer told the AP that Fintiklis was physically and verbally abused by 'gorillas' working for Trump.

'We are going to ask for a police search,' attorney Sarai Blaisdell told the AP.

Fintiklis himself filed a complaint with Panamanian police on Friday, alleging that he was blocked from his property and that he and others witnessed Trump staff shredding business records after hours, something Trump Organization general counsel Alan Garten flatly denied.

The Panamanian ministry said on Monday it was investigating Fintiklis' complaint that Trump is illegally refusing to vacate his property.

In a statement issued Monday, Trump Hotels accused Fintiklis of using a 'rogue private security team' to 'physically take over the management of the Hotel.'

According to witnesses and the video obtained by AP, a room containing the hotels' closed circuit television system and various servers was a key point of conflict both over the weekend and on Tuesday.

On Friday, Trump staff locked themselves inside the room - it is located on the condominium owners association's property - the condo association cut power to the room, inadvertently killing the hotel's phone and internet connection. Power was restored to those systems later Friday evening.

Separately, police escorted Panamanian labor ministry staff to the property on Tuesday. The purpose of their visit could not immediately be ascertained.Donald Trump's pledge to visit Australia for the first time since 2011 has been met with furious opposition, with some labelling him a 'dangerous racist' who 'does not pass the visa test'.

The online outrage was sparked after Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull extended an invitation to the U.S. President as the pair met at the White House in Washington last week.

Thousands of Australians have since signed a petition calling on the government to immediately withdraw the invitation and ban the 'out-of-control, disgusting pig' from stepping foot in the country.

Donald Trump's pledge to visit Australia for the first time since 2011 (pictured in Sydney that year) has been met with furious opposition

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull extended an invitation to the U.S. President as the pair met at the White House in Washington last week. They are pictured with First Lady Melania Trump and greet Mr Turnbull's wife, Lucy

Poll Should U.S. President Donald Trump be welcome in Australia? Yes No Should U.S. President Donald Trump be welcome in Australia? Yes 23 votes

No 50 votes Now share your opinion





'His advocacy for the gun lobby and his history of dangerously divisive political rhetoric is not welcome in Australia,' reads the petition, which goes on to describe the president as a 'racist, sexist, divisive world leader'.

'His comments that organised anti-Semites can be "very fine people" and refusal to unequivocally condemn fascist groups have dangerously emboldened a violent far-right both in Australia and abroad.

'Trump's presence in Australia is anathema to our most cherished shared values, and would only create unnecessary tension and hostility here. He should not be afforded or extended an official state visit.'

Around 3,500 had signed the petition as of Wednesday morning, citing reasons including: 'We have enough racists already in Australia.'

Thousands of Australians since signed a petition calling on the government to immediately withdraw the invitation

President Trump and Mr Turnbull shake hands during a news conference at the White House

'Our countries may be allies but this doesn't mean we need to support this particular individual,' another signatory wrote.

'Donald Trump repetitively hurts large groups of people through his insensitive and often racist comments - why would we want to encourage this by having him visit?'

Yet another said: 'Trump is a dangerous and deranged man. He threatens world peace,' while another wrote: 'He's a racist, sexist, ignorant buffoon and a danger to the world.'

Others said they signed the petition in support of the president's planned visit.

The president sat down with Mr Turnbull in the White House Oval Office last week, describing their partnership as 'stronger than ever before'

Around 3,500 had signed the petition as of Wednesday morning, citing reasons including: 'We have enough racists already in Australia'

'He is finally undoing the socialist beliefs in the US. We badly need some of that in Australia,' one said.

The president sat down with Mr Turnbull in the White House Oval Office last week, describing their partnership as 'stronger than ever before'.

Inside the White House, Mr Trump promised the Prime Minister an official visit Down Under, and said: 'We will be there.'

He didn't elaborate on when the visit would be, but remarked that Australia is a 'great place'.

The president promised the Prime Minister an official visit Down Under, and said: 'We will be there'The man who went viral as 'Gary from Chicago' at last year's Academy Awards said his life has been turned upside down because of it.

Gary Alan Coe delighted audiences after he stepped off a Los Angeles tour bus and made a surprise appearance the Oscars last February where he and other tourists were able to meet the celebrities in attendance.

Monday marked the one-year anniversary of Coe's appearance on the Oscars.

However, the next day, his criminal record began to be unearthed by news outlets

The man who went viral as 'Gary from Chicago' (left) at last year's Academy Awards said his life was 'horrible' especially after his criminal record began to be unearthed by news outlets

Coe (left) delighted audiences after he stepped off a Los Angeles tour bus and made a surprise appearance the Oscars last February where he and other tourists were able to meet the celebrities in attendance, including Denzel Washington (center)

'It was horrible,' Coe told The Hollywood Reporter. 'I didn't ask to be put on the Oscars. I was minding my own business, walking down the street.'

Prior to his appearance on the show, Coe had only been been released for three days after serving 20 years in prison.

He'd been sentenced as part of the three-strikes law in California, with one of his arrests for an alleged attempted rape.

The 60-year-old Coe has been accompanied on the surprise trip by his then-fiancee. Denzel Washington, who was seated at the front of the audience, memorably pretended to officiate their wedding during the show.

Within a week of the award show, their engagement had ended. Coe says the Oscars debacle was a factor along with the recent passing of his fiancee's twin brother.

Within a week of the award show, their engagement had ended. Coe says the Oscars debacle was a factor along with the recent passing of his fiancee's twin brother.

However, Coe, says he is currently engaged to another woman. He says the media has attempted to make his Oscar moment 'something ugly.'

'And how about the way it's come down? Look what happened to Harvey Weinstein!' he said.

'Come to find out that the people up in really high places are the ones we should've been watching, and not some poor little black guy that's been locked away in prison for the last 20 years!'

This year's Academy Awards will air on Sunday at 8pm ET on ABC.RSPCA centres across the country are bursting at the seams and refusing to take in any more animals amid the biggest surge in pet surrendering it has ever seen.

Kat Lovell, a vet in Queensland, revealed irresponsible pet owners not having their animals desexed were to blame for the crisis, with many resorting to 'pet dumping'.

She said pregnant cats had become a major problem and revealed some owners had even attempted 'trading in' their adult cats for kittens.

Irresponsible pet owners have resorted to 'pet dumping' amid a nationwide animal population crisis (photo of kittens dumped at Redlands Vet Clinic on Monday)

Kat Lovell, a vet in Queensland, revealed irresponsible pet owners not having their animals desexed were to blame for the crisis

Ms Lovell desperately pleaded for animal owners to have their pets desexed after a box containing a mother cat and her six kittens was dumped outside Redlands Veterinary Clinic on Monday.

'These babies (kittens) were just dumped in a dump and run at the clinic. Left in a box sticky taped together on our driveway. So sad when the answer is so simple - DESEXING pets,' she wrote on Facebook.

'We get over 15 requests a week to take in unwanted adults, often pregnant cats, not to mention hundreds of unwanted kittens. We can't take them all.'

She encouraged people to boycott online sites like Gumtree and Marketplace when looking to buy animals, and emphasised the importance of desexing.

Ms Lovell desperately pleaded animal owners to have their pets desexed after a box containing a mother cat and her six kittens was dumped outside Redlands Veterinary Clinic

She encouraged people to boycott online sites like Gumtree and Marketplace when looking to buy animals, and emphasised the importance of desexing

'Stop supporting the illegal online trade of kittens through sites like Gumtree - these sites do not police kitten trading and kittens are routinely being sold for cheap prices with NO vet work being done,' Ms Lovell told Daily Mail Australia.

'Buying a $50 kitten off Gumtree just encourages irresponsibility and promotes kitten farming.'

Her plea follows a email blast sent to RSPCA centres around Australia ordering them to stop accepting cats and dogs.

An email blast sent to RSPCA centres around Australia ordered them to stop taking in surrendered cats and dogs

The email noted that regional centres were full, with the Wacol centre in Brisbane having a two-month waiting list and a total of 1440 animals in RSPCA across Queensland alone, the Gladstone Observer reported.

Ms Lovell said the first time a pet owner asked to trade their adult cat for a younger model she 'thought it was a joke and laughed.'

'I started to feel like those people thought this was a Toyota dealership,' she told Herald Sun.Boris Johnson lashed back in the Irish border row today accusing Remainers of 'politicising' the Northern Ireland peace process in a bid to keep Britain in the EU.

The Foreign Secretary claimed he was a victim of dirty tricks after documents emerged suggesting he had questioned the importance of the Irish border issue.

In a leaked letter to Theresa May, Boris Johnson suggested he would be willing to accept a so-called 'hard border' between Northern Ireland and the Republic if other solutions failed.

Mrs May has repeatedly insisted she will not accept a hard border involving inspection posts and checkpoints, following warnings this could undermine the Northern Ireland peace process.

But in the letter, Mr Johnson wrote that it was wrong to see the task as maintaining 'no border' on the island of Ireland after Brexit, saying the Government's task was to 'stop this border becoming significantly harder'.

In a leaked letter to Theresa May, Boris Johnson (pictured talking to journalists this morning) suggested he would be willing to accept a so-called 'hard border' between Northern Ireland and the Republic if other solutions failed

Mr Johnson, pictured out running today, insisted his letter to the Cabinet had been twisted by political opponents

He added: 'Even if a hard border is reintroduced, we would expect to see 95 per cent-plus of goods pass the border [without] checks.'

The letter emerged after Mr Johnson faced criticism yesterday for likening the Irish border to the boundaries between London boroughs.

The former London mayor said 'there's no border between Camden and Westminster' as he suggested that goods crossing between the Republic and Northern Ireland could be subject to electronic checks, in an apparent reference to the congestion charge.

But his suggestion was dismissed as 'wilful recklessness' by Labour MPs. In his letter to the Prime Minister, which was obtained by Sky News, Mr Johnson pointed out that there was already a border between north and south, saying it was 'of course a fallacy' that Brexit could see a border re-emerge. Shadow Northern Ireland spokesman Owen Smith said Mr Johnson should be sacked if the letter was genuine.

He said: 'Boris Johnson's recklessness with our relationship with the Republic and the future of the Good Friday Agreement must be addressed by the PM.

'This man's ego and his Brexit-at-any-cost strategy cannot be allowed to jeopardise peace. Mrs May should sack him before he does any more damage.'

However, questioned by journalists as he was out jogging this morning, Mr Johnson said he was a victim of dirty tricks by those who wanted to thwart Brexit.

'The issue of the Northern Ireland border is being used politically to try to keep the UK in the customs union, effectively the single market, so we can't really leave the EU. That's what's going on,' he said.

'What the letter says is that, actually, there are are very good solutions that you could put in place that would obviate, prevent any kind of hard border but would allow goods, people - people of course move totally freely anyway because of the common travel area - allow goods to move freely without let or hindrance whilst allowing the UK to come out of the customs union, take back control of our tariffs schedules, take back control of our commercial policy, take back control of our regulation.

'It is a very positive letter.'

Shadow Northern Ireland spokesman Owen Smith (pictured) said Mr Johnson should be sacked if the letter was genuine

Mr Johnson continued: 'The DUP, as far as I understand the matter, are worried about the possibility of an east-west border which would be necessitated by having a system on the island of Ireland that didn't allow for some sort of verification of traders going north-south, but what the letter points out is that there are all sorts of ways of doing that without having a hard border.'

The Foreign Secretary also repeated comments likening the Irish border to the congestion zones in London, asking a reporter: 'I don't know whether you have ever driven into the congestion charge zone from outside the congestion charge zone - have you?

'Do you slow down? Do you feel any let or hindrance? Do you check your progress? Do you brake? Do you?'

Asked if this meant that Ireland could expect a Transport for London-style border, he replied: 'All I'm saying is there are solutions that we can envisage, we have got to be positive about this.

'We can do this - we can come out of the customs union while solving the Northern Ireland border problem and we must not allow this great sort of inverted pyramid of objections to be built over this problem, which I think is eminently solvable.'

He added: 'I think the particular problem around the Irish border is being used politically to drive the whole Brexit argument and effectively to try and frustrate Brexit.'

Allies of Mr Johnson said the quotes had been plucked selectively from an 18-page letter. One said it was 'disappointing' that a letter sent to ministers on Mrs May's Brexit 'war cabinet' had been leaked.

A spokesman for the Foreign Secretary said: 'This [letter] was designed to outline how a highly facilitated border would work and help to make a successful Brexit. The letter points out there is a border now and the task the committee face is stopping this becoming significantly harder.

'It shows how we could manage a border without infrastructure or related checks and controls while protecting UK, NI, Irish, and EU interests.

'As the PM has previously stated, we will not accept any physical infrastructure at the border and will instead seek alternatives that allow us to leave the customs union and take back control of our money, borders, laws and trading policy.'Kenzie Krogh, 20, a Northwestern University junior, was pronounced dead on Sunday - less than 24 hours after she was taken to the hospital by her friends

Police have launched an investigation into the mysterious death of a 20-year-old Northwestern University student.

Junior Kenzie Krogh, 20, was rushed to hospital on Saturday morning after telling friends she wasnt well.

The student died less than 24 hours after she arrived, and the cause of death is still unknown.

Cops are now looking into her movements in the final hours before she got sick.

But the toxicology reports may not be available for several weeks, according to Fox 32 TV.

Investigators say that Krogh told friends on Saturday morning that she feeling ill.

They then rushed her to St. Francis Hospital, where she died less than 24 hours later, according to police.

Foul play is not suspected, investigators say.

Krogh was a highly regarded student who was active on campus. She was a volunteer and a pledge at the Gamma Phi Beta Sorority.

A native of Durham, North Carolina, Krogh was enrolled at Northwesterns School of Education and Social Policy.

She also worked at a research and teaching assistant at Kellogg School of Management.

She was a remarkable young woman who was animated by a deep intellectual curiosity about the social sciences and the arts, Kellogg School of Management said in a statement.

Investigators say that Krogh told friends on Saturday morning that she feeling ill. They then rushed her to St. Francis Hospital, where she died less than 24 hours later, according to police

A native of Durham, North Carolina, Krogh was enrolled at Northwesterns School of Education and Social Policy. Northwestern's campus in Evanston, Illinois is seen in the above stock image

Her vibrant energy, compassion and kindness will be missed.

In a statement, Kroghs family said it was at the hospital on Sunday when they received the news that she had died.

Kenzie was exceptional in so many ways: In her devotion to her family and friends, her love of animals, and her ability to multi-task and succeed with whatever she put her mind to, the family wrote in the statement.

Her mind was always reaching to find new avenues of learning and discovery, especially when it came to social issues.

Her years at Northwestern University opened up that passion, and her extraordinary professors, mentors, and fellow students gave her the tools, inspiration, and confidence to pursue it.

Kenzie will be remembered with love, laughter, and joy as we remain thankful to have had her love and presence in our lives, the family added.In his letter, Faso, R-Kinderhook, explained to David Kautter, the Treasury Department's assistant secretary for tax policy, that he has received questions from constituents who live in his Hudson Valley district asking whether Cuomo's proposal would comply with federal law.

"Would such payments or contributions meet the test for a charitable deduction since presumably the taxpayer is receiving benefits from the governmental units and school districts for the 'contributions' donated?" he asked.

Faso acknowledged there is "great public interest" in this issue beyond New York. Along with California, Connecticut, New Jersey and other states are considering similar proposals.

With this becoming a potential alternative for states to get around the limits on state and local tax deductability, Faso asked whether the Internal Revenue Service is studying the proposals.

"I believe that it is important that the Treasury and the IRS issue guidance or a formal opinion letter whether taxpayer contributions to state authorized trust funds, partially reimbursed by credits reducing state and local income taxes, will be considered deductible for federal tax purposes," he said.Labor has demanded a formal apology from cabinet minister Michaelia Cash after she withdrew an extraordinary threat to make public "rumours" involving female staffers in Bill Shorten's office.

Senator Cash had threatened to make public 'rumours' involving female staffers in Bill Shorten's office during an 'unacceptable' outburst at a parliamentary hearing.

Senator Cash backed down from the threat on Wednesday after the opposition pressured her to withdraw the "disgraceful" outburst made during a parliamentary inquiry.

The extraordinary threat was made after Labor frontbencher Doug Cameron asked Senator Cash if her newly appointed chief-of-staff, who is yet to start work, was formerly employed in another 'Liberal office'.

'If you want to start discussing staff matters be very, very careful because I'm happy to sit here and name every young woman in Mr Shorten's office over which rumours in this place abound,' Senator Cash told the Senate hearing under parliamentary privilege on Wednesday.

Senator Cash has made threats to name women in Bill Shorten's office 'over which rumours in this place abound'

'Do you want to start naming them? Do you want [me] to start naming them for Mr Shorten to deny any of the rumours that have been circulating in this building now for many, many years?'

Senator Cash angrily brushed off more questions about arrangements in her office, citing conventions about discussing staff.

This was a 'dangerous path', she said, although she was willing to go down it.

Senator Cameron accused Senator Cash of attacking young female staff in a completely unacceptable 'outburst'.

Senator Cash said she was happy to name every female, 'Do you want [me] to start naming them for Mr Shorten to deny any of the rumours'

'I just want to pursue questions which are legitimate questions of the Senate without you having another meltdown and attacking young women in the Leader of the Opposition's office,' he said.

Senator Cameron had earlier told Senator Cash to settle down.

'Take what the young people call a 'chill pill' and you might be OK,' he said.

Labor has been pursuing Senator Cash over raids at Australian Workers Union offices in October last year after details were leaked to the media

Deputy Labor leader Tanya Plibersek called on Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull to ask the WA senator for a proper apology, rather than her "mealy-mouthed weasel" retraction.

'Senator Cash's comments where ghastly, they were sexist, they were a 1950s style throwback,' Ms Plibersek told parliament.

Labor's Senate leader Penny Wong earlier told the Senate hearing the minister had made "outrageous slurs" against female staff working in the opposition leader's office.

'It can't be allowed to stand,' Senator Wong said.

'I think it is disgraceful and sexist and it is impugning of the character of various staff. I would ask the minister to withdraw.'

Labor has demanded a formal apology from cabinet minister Michaelia Cash after she withdrew an extraordinary threat to make public "rumours" involving female staffers in Bill Shorten's office.

Senator Cash disagreed with Senator Wong, arguing she was responding to Senator Cameron maligning her staff.

'The point I was making was rumours circulate in this building - it does not mean they are true,' Senator Cash said.

'If anyone has been offended by my remarks, I withdraw,' Senator Cash said after being asked to withdraw a second time.

Junior minister Michael Sukkar later told Sky News that Labor was not "blameless" when it came to "quite serious allegations".

'The Labor Party have been very, very keen to make hay with the whole Barnaby Joyce issue and I think they would be wise, and I think it would be decent of them, to take a step back," Mr Sukkar said.

'I haven't seen the particular interchange in estimates, but that frustration ... is probably justified.'

Labor has been pursuing Senator Cash over raids at Australian Workers Union offices in October last year.

Details of the police raids were leaked to media by one of her advisers, who later quit.

Mr Shorten's office has been contacted for comment.New Jersey authorities are investigating an officer who was caught on video punching a man in the head 12 times after stopping him on the street.

Edward Minguela, 32, was walking near the Fairview Liquor store in Camden, New Jersey, on Thursday around 8pm when he was stopped by five officers, according to NJ.com.

Minguela told investigators that he heard police yelling for him to put his hands in the air, to which he obliged.

Edward Minguela (pictured with his hands up) said he was walking near a liquor store Thursday night when the officers yelled for him to put his hands in the air

The shocking video that was released this week shows the moment, one of the Camden County officers grabbed Minguela from behind and slammed him on the ground

That same officer (left), who has not been identified, then repeatedly struck Minguela in the head as other officers held him down, according to the surveillance video that was obtained from the liquor store

The shocking video that was released this week shows the moment, one of the Camden County officers grabbed Minguela from behind and slammed him on the ground.

That same officer, who has not been identified, then repeatedly struck Minguela in the head as other officers held him down, according to the surveillance video that was obtained from the liquor store.

'It's traumatizing,' Minguela told NJ.com. 'I just don't know what was going through their minds.

'They shouldn't be working if that's how they treat the people they're supposed to be protecting.'

Minguela, a father-of-three, said he wasn't sure how many times he was hit until he saw the video, because he felt like he was losing consciousness.

Dan Keashen, a spokesman for the Camden County Police Department, told the news site that the video is very troubling and the department immediately provided it to the Camden County Prosecutor's Office for investigation.

Minguela (pictured with his son), a father-of-three, said he wasn't sure how many times he was hit until he saw the video, because he felt like he was losing consciousness

Dan Keashen, a spokesman for the Camden County Police Department, said the video is very troubling and the department immediately provided it to the Camden County Prosecutor's Office for investigation. The cops are seen holding Minguela down as he's struck in the head

According to Keashen, the officers were responding to a report of a man with a gun, and Minguela matched the description given by the caller

'It is not consistent with our policy, training and standards,' Keashen said of the video.

According to Keashen, the officers were responding to a report of a man with a gun, and Minguela matched the description given by the caller.

Keashen told the news site that all three officers involved in the shocking incident have been placed on administrative leave as the investigation continues.

Minguela said he filed an internal affairs complaint last week and the prosecutor's officer did confirm that they were made aware of the video on Monday.

In an interview with NJ.com, Minguela recalled the night of the incident when the cops shouted for him to put his hands up.

'When I turned around, all I see is like a bright light and a cop pointing a gun at me,' he said.

Minguela (pictured) said the officers took him to the emergency room in their cruiser. While at the hospital, the cops reportedly told him that they had approached him because they believed he had a gun

On Thursday, Minguela will appear in court to answer to the charges of resisting arrest and obstruction. Pictured is the area where the incident occurred

Once the officer slammed him to the ground, Minguela said the cop was screaming, 'Stop resisting! Stop resisting!'

Minguela said he 'wasn't even resisting. You can see my hand is in front of my head, I was trying to block it'.

He said the officers took him to the emergency room in their cruiser. While at the hospital, the cops reportedly told him that they had approached him because they believed he had a gun.

'I was like, "Alright, you all could have just searched me, you didn't have to beat me,"' he said.

Minguela said he suffered painful lumps on the back of his head, a sore neck and a wrist injury when he tried to block the blows.

On Thursday, Minguela will appear in court to answer to the charges of resisting arrest and obstruction.A brave 70-year-old woman has been injured while confronting a man armed with an axe who forced his way into her inner north Perth home.

The woman who gave her name as Maureen, was confronted by the intruder at about six o'clock in the morning on 17 February, threatening her and demanding she hand over her car keys.

Maureen was then pushed by the intruder, causing her to fall to the ground and hit her head.

Maureen, 70, (pictured) was injured after an intruder with an axe forced his way into her home

'I went straight towards the back door when I came face-to-face with this guy,' Maureen told 9News.

She knew she wasn't going to give up and let the intruder take her car.

'He grabbed my keys and I wasn't going to give up and let him take my car,' she said.

Maureen followed the intruder outside and as he tried to open the car door she kept pushing it shut.

'I told him, 'you're not taking her, you're not taking her.

'He then shoved me backwards onto the concrete but I eventually got into the backseat of the car.

'As he was trying to use the remote to get the car started, I was sort of slapping him around the face.'

Maureen was pushed onto the ground by the intruder and hit her head on the concrete floor

After a few slaps around the face, the intruder finally left Maureen's property, realising she wasn't going to back down.

'The detective told me what I did is what police do and that's when you know if you're either a fight or flight person.

'She also said that obviously I am a fighter,' Maureen said.

The intruder is described as being in his mid 20s, with dark skin, approximately 160cm tall with a solid build

Daily Mail Australia spoke to West Australia Police who said the suspect was last seen walking down Loftus St towards Beatty Park Leisure Centre.

Police have also released an image of the suspect and have described him as being in his mid 20s, with dark skin, approximately 160cm tall with a solid build.

He was last seen wearing dark coloured shorts and a dark coloured long sleeved top with some red on it

Detectives are asking anyone who was in the area or who may have seen any suspicious persons to contact police or Crime Stoppers.Toronto's police chief has angered the city's gay community by suggesting they did nothing to help catch an alleged serial killer preying on its members.

Bruce McArthur was on February 18 arrested and charged with six counts of first-degree murder over missing persons cases going back years.

Police came under fire for not acting sooner, but Chief Mark Saunders accused people who knew information that would have helped of not coming forward.

Bruce McArthur was on February 18 arrested and charged with six counts of first-degree murder over missing persons cases going back years

Toronto police chief Mark Saunders angered the city's gay community by suggesting they did nothing to help catch the alleged serial killer preying on its members

'We knew that people were missing and we knew we didn't have the right answers. But nobody was coming to us with anything,' he told the Globe and Mail.

'We knew something was up We did not have the evidence. If anyone knew before us, it's people who knew him very, very well. And so that did not come out.'

Chief Saunders claimed there was 'strong potential that the outcome could have been different' if they had more reports.

He said information had been reported after McArthur's arrest that could have helped them catch him years ago.

Haran Vijayanathan, executive director of the Alliance for South Asian AIDS Prevention advocacy group, said Saunders should retract the comments.

'This is actually just going to push that divide a bit further and not allow people to work together. The chief is creating his own problems now,' he said.

Haran Vijayanathan, executive director of the Alliance for South Asian AIDS Prevention advocacy group, said Saunders should retract the comments

To many shocked neighbors, McArthur was a once married, affable father and grandfather who played Santa Claus (right) at Agincourt Mall

Toronto city Councilor Kristyn Wong-Tam, whose district includes Toronto's Gay Village, said she was shocked by the comments and called them inaccurate.

'I know for a fact that the community rallied around asking for additional resources and attention to the missing men (as early as 2010 and 2011),' she said.

Members of the LGBTQ community were long voicing concerns about a potential serial killer and pushing for answers in light of the disappearances, which were deemed suspicious.

Relations between the gay community and police were strained by a long history of bathhouse raids and mistrust activists said made witnesses less likely to come forward.

Bruce McArthur, appeared in court via video link Friday where he was charged with killing his former lover Skandaraj 'Skanda' Navaratnam, 40, (pictured) his sixth alleged victim

This map shows the locations the five known victims were last seen in around Toronto. Kayhan and Esen were last seen around the city's Gay Village area

Police ran a two-year investigation called Project Houston to investigate the 2010 and 2012 disappearances of Skandaraj Navaratnam, 40, Abdulbasir Faizi, 42, and Majeed Kayhan, 58.

The investigation failed to identify McArthur as the alleged murderer and Chief Saunders said as recently as December there was no evidence of a serial killer.

However, he staunchly defended police handling of the case, saying they did everything they could with the information available.

Police found the dismembered remains of six individuals this year in large planters at a home where McArthur did landscaping work and that he used as storage.

Investigators have identified three sets of remains so far - 49-year-old Kinsman, 50-year-old Soroush Mahmudi and 40-year-old Skandaraj Navaratnam.

McArthur is charged with first-degree murder in their deaths, as well as the presumed deaths of 44-year-old Esen, Majeed Kayhan, 58, and Dean Lisowick, either 43 or 44. Police believed there were more victims.

McArthur was arrested on January 18 when cops found a man bound in his apartment

People hold a candlelight vigil on February 13 to remember the victims of alleged serial killer Bruce McArthur in Toronto

The 66-year-old allegedly lured his victims through gay dating sites like SilverDaddies and fetish site Recon where he advertised for 'submissive' men.

Mr Vijayanathan said police didn't get anywhere in their investigations until Andrew Kinsman, 49, a prominent white gay activist, went missing last June.

'Until that point, all the South Asian men that went missing kind of fell by the wayside and nobody paid attention until something happened in the white community,' he said.

McArthur was believed to have chosen victims whose disappearance attracted little attention, including a homeless man, a prostitute and crack cocaine user.

'There's a part of me that says Bruce wanted to get caught because he broke that pattern of preying on the vulnerable,' Mr Vijayanathan said.

McArthur was finally arrested when police found a man tied to the landscaper's bed, but unharmed, and searched his house.

Police admitted to having him under surveillance but only acted when they saw the man enter the house.Council officials in Bristol have ordered a permanent memorial to Edward Colstons victims, fearing they have become invisible in the city

A statue of a notorious slave trader is to have a new plaque dedicated to victims of slavery following pressure from activists.

Council officials in Bristol have ordered a permanent memorial to Edward Colstons victims, fearing they have become invisible in the city.

The new plaque will be installed next to Colstons statue in the city centre. Activists have previously called for the statue to be torn down altogether.

Colston became one of Bristols most generous benefactors thanks to the fortune he made from the transatlantic slave trade between 1672 and 1698.

But his name has been tarred in recent years amid mounting pressure from the Countering Colston campaign group.

Ros Martin, a member of the group, said: The plaque is good but we need it to be part of an ongoing examination of historical narrative and a change of attitudes and culture.

What we want goes beyond tokenism - we want institutions and organisations in the city to examine their history and acknowledge their individual roles in the slave trade and beyond.

Pete Insole, the councils historic environment officer, claimed the victims of Colstons exploits were invisible in Bristol, adding: Slave traders are the most commemorated people in the city. We cant change the past but we can change the present and the future.

Mr Insole is planning a series of events in the summer to draw attention to the citys links to the slave trade. They will culminate in the unveiling of the plaque.

The decision comes after a series of controversial moves to rid Colstons name from the city.

In April, the owners of the citys Colston Hall concert venue decided to rename the building by 2020 to remove the toxic link.

However, Richard Eddy, a Tory councillor in the city, called the decision historically illiterate.

He added: It is a flagrant kowtow to people who dont know the history of the city, but are determined to change it. In October, officials at Colstons Girls School removed any reference to him from a service in his honour.

Instead, the academy schools annual service of commemoration included a clear acknowledgement of the damage done by slavery.

Colston was a key figure in the Royal African Company when it was shipping 100,000 African slaves to the West Indies and America. Pictured: an engraving of captives being marched from the African interior by armed slavers

Colston was a key figure in the Royal African Company when it was shipping 100,000 African slaves to the West Indies and America.

The business held a monopoly over the trade for almost 30 years, until 1698 when a change in the law opened African trade to all English merchants.

Slaves were kept in torrid conditions on ships and suffered dehydration, dysentery and scurvy.

More than 20,000 died during the crossings and their bodies were thrown overboard.

Today Colstons name appears on at least six streets in the city as well as three schools, pubs and student flats and a concert venue.

Former Bristol mayor George Ferguson has said that the citys annual Colston celebrations were perverse. However, a 2014 newspaper poll found almost 60 per cent wanted his statue to stay.A former principal of a Melbourne Jewish school will not be extradited from Jerusalem to face sexual abuse charges because of mental illness, a court has ruled.

Malka Leifer is wanted in Victoria on 74 counts of child sexual abuse after she allegedly exploited at least 15 pupils during private lessons while she was a teacher and principal at Adass Israel School.

Despite claims from the Israeli police that Leifer is faking mental illness, the Jerusalem District Court ruled on Wednesday that she must undergo a further psychiatric evaluation before the court reconsiders her extradition on March 28, according to The Herald Sun.

Malka Leifer (right), a former principal at Melbourne's Adass Israel School, will not be extradited from Jerusalem to face sexual abuse charges because of mental illness, a court ruled on Wednesday

Leifer (centre) is seen being escorted by police as she arrives for a hearing at the District Court in Jerusalem on February 27

Despite claims from the Israeli police that Leifer (pictured) is faking mental illness, the Jerusalem District Court ruled on Wednesday that she must undergo a further psychiatric evaluation before the court reconsiders her extradition on March 28

Leifer, a mother-of-eight who is now aged in her 50s, was first accused back in 2008 but fled Australia in the middle of the night with her family, amid allegations the school helped fund her journey.

A previous extradition attempt between 2014-2016 failed after Leifer was hospitalised in mental institutions and expert opinions determined she was not fit to stand trial.

But undercover private investigators filmed Leifer depositing a cheque at the bank and shopping, prompting Israeli authorities to launch an investigation to see if she was pretending to suffer from mental illness to avoid extradition, leading to her February 12 arrest.

At Tuesday's hearing at the Jerusalem district court, Leifer sat silently, her head bowed and her eyes hid from sight.

An Australian diplomat attended part of the session alongside a few ultra-Orthodox members of Leifer's community.

Prosecutors presented a new psychiatric evaluation determining Leifer could face justice.

'I'm asking the court to accept this evaluation and determine the defendant is fit to stand trial and set a discussion' toward Leifer's extradition, prosecutor Matan Akiva said.

At Tuesday's hearing at the Jerusalem district court, Leifer (centre) sat silently, her head bowed and her eyes hid from sight

Prosecutors presented a new psychiatric evaluation determining Leifer (centre) could face justice

But judge Chana Miriam Lomp accepted the defence's argument that the new evaluation was not acceptable as it lacked the district psychiatrist's signature.

In addition, Leifer's attorney Yehuda Fried said he had not received all the evidence claiming to show his client was faking her mental condition.

Lomp ordered Akiva to hand the defence the evidence used by police to determine their suspicions and said a further hearing would take place in two months.

He ordered her to be detained in a psychiatric institution in the meantime.

Judge Chana Miriam Lomp accepted the defence's argument that the new evaluation was not acceptable as it lacked the district psychiatrist's signature

Speaking with journalists after the hearing, Fried was confident the debate over whether Leifer could be extradited would take 'years,' saying the new psychiatric evaluation 'has no legal value'.

'We'll demand to receive all the investigation materials. After getting all the materials, we will ask for another evaluation,' he said.

'If the court decides to halt the extradition process -- excellent,' Fried said.

'If not, we'll ask to investigate all the experts since 2014 who presented evaluations, and during those investigations we will determine whether or not she is fit to stand trial or not.'

Leifer's case has drawn attention from Australian media since her re-arrest earlier this month, with Victoria state premier Daniel Andrews saying he has lobbied Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu directly on the issue.More than one in five energy customers are now with small and medium-sized suppliers as the 'big six' see their market share fall to a record low, Ofgem figures show.

Some 21 per cent of electricity customers and 22 per cent of gas customers were signed up with smaller suppliers in December, up from 4.7 per cent and five per cent respectively in 2013, the regulator said.

The six largest energy suppliers' market share stood at 79 per cent for electricity and 78 per cent for gas in December, down from 84 per cent for both gas and electricity at the end of 2016.

Last year 5.1 million electricity consumers and 4.1 million gas consumers switched supplier, the highest number for almost a decade.

The six largest energy suppliers' market share stood at 79 per cent for electricity and 78 per cent for gas in December, down from 84 per cent for both gas and electricity at the end of 2016

More than a third of these people switched from one of the big six to rival companies.

Ofgem described the trend as a 'sustained, long-term movement away from the six largest suppliers'.

But it warned that those who have never switched or rarely do so are being overcharged.

The figures come after legislation designed to cap energy prices for 11 million households across Britain was introduced to Parliament on Monday.

The Domestic Gas and Electricity (Tariff Cap) Bill would allow Ofgem to limit tariffs until 2020, with the option to extend the cap annually until 2023.

Ofgem said around 57 per cent of non-prepayment meter consumers were still on poor value standard variable rates, which can be as much as 300 more expensive than the cheapest deals on the market.

Last year 5.1 million electricity consumers and 4.1 million gas consumers switched supplier, the highest number for almost a decade

Ofgem chief executive Dermot Nolan said: 'The largest suppliers are under pressure as more consumers switch away to small and medium sized suppliers.

'With more customers voting with their feet, the message is clear: suppliers need look at what they are offering to their customers or risk losing them.'

Energy Minister Claire Perry said: 'The Government wants a fully working, competitive market that continues to promote competition as the best driver of value and service for customers.

'With more than 60 energy suppliers now competing in the retail energy market, consumers who switch can make significant savings on their annual bills, which is only possible because of market competition.

'But the market isn't working for all consumers, as the Competition and Markets Authority found in its investigation, which is why we have introduced legislation to temporarily cap energy tariffs, which we hope to take effect by the end of 2018.'A recent news report on the ABC has incited the wrath of Israeli and Jewish critics, with some claiming the clip was edited to promote a biased political viewpoint.

The report, which aired on February 20 as part of the ABC's current affairs program 7:30, was about Palestinian protesters in the Israeli-occupied territory of West Bank.

The ten minute segment looked at the case of Ahed Tamimi: a 16-year-old girl facing charges for inciting violence after she pushed, shoved and eventually slapped an Israeli soldier who refused to leave her front yard.

The ABC is receiving backlash over an allegedly biased segment they recently aired on a story associated with the Israel-Palestine conflict

Tamimi's trial has stoked controversy in Israel, with some people viewing the young girl's actions as overly provocative, and others supporting her right to defend her home against military presence.

In the ABC footage, Tamimi justifies her and her family's perennial violent protests on the basis that: 'Trump has declared the [US embassy] decision and they have to take responsibility for whatever our reaction is whether its stabbing attacks, or suicide attacks, or stone throwing.'

16-year-old Ahed Tamimi is facing a total of 12 charges in her home territory of Israeli-occupied West Bank, including inciting violence

Tamimi's lawyer Gaby Lasky says later in the segment: that '[Tamimi] is not saying people should act in that manner or [incite] stabbing people or  terrorist attacks.'

What Tamimi actually went on to say in unaired footage, however, suggested she was advocating Palestinian people take such action.

'Everyone must do things so we can unite this way so we can get our message across in the required way, and get this result, that is the liberation of Palestine, Allah willing' Tamimi declared in the unedited monologue.

Critics have accused the ABC of selectively editing video footage in order to misrepresent Tamimi and make her appear more innocent than she really is

The Jewish-American organisation HonestReporting accused the Australian broadcaster of adopting and promoting an anti-Israel bias via selective editing of what Tamimi said.

'It appears that video footage of Tamimi was deliberately cut mid-sentence,' HonestReporting said. 'Why? To alter the impression that Tamimi was inciting violence  a key allegation in her trial.'

HonestReporting goes on to claim that Sophie McNeill, the journalist who put the segment together, has 'a history of advocacy journalism and vilifying Israel'.

The organisation alleges that McNeill, and in turn the ABC, were 'overtly sympathetic towards Tamimi and her family' in promoting anti-Israel propaganda.

Tamimi faces a total of 12 charges. Her trial is ongoing.A masked vigilante who covered a mobile speed camera with a towel while wearing an empty VB beer carton over his head has drawn the ire of police.

The mystery 'hero', affectionately dubbed 'Demerit Man', took to the streets of Tamworth, northern NSW, on Friday to rid drivers of the scourge of speed cameras.

Footage of the stunt quickly reached viral status online, but police and Roads and Maritime Services were less than impressed - launching an investigation in a bid to identify the man and prosecute him.

A Roads and Maritime Services spokesperson told Daily Mail Australia they would be assisting the NSW Police with their investigation.

Demerit Man, as he has been nicknamed, bids to rid drivers of the scourge of speed cameras

Footage of the prank in Tamworth, northern New South Wales, emerged online on Monday

The footage begins with the man - wearing the photo-proof carton over his head -slowly approaching the back of a speed camera truck parked on the side of a road.

He then covers the speed camera with a tea towel before running away.

Vision originally shared on Snapchat has now been viewed more than 59,000 times on Facebook and Instagram after it was posted on Monday afternoon.

The video was posted to Facebook along with the accompanying caption: 'Not all heroes wear capes'.

The page dubbed him the Demerit Man 'purely as he is stopping infringements'.

'Protected by his photo-proof beer box hat, he swoops in to foil the plans of his arch nemesis,' the page added.

After he completes his mission, the man manages to make it away without being identified and his anonymity still in tact.Two Instagram star cousins thrust into the centre of a bitter bikie feud haven't always lived such colourful lives.

Makeup artists and part-time models Allaina and Rikki-Louise Jones have been at the centre of a vile feud between their bikie partners, Ben 'Notorious' Geppert and Brett 'Kaos' Pechey, over the past week.

But bitter online fighting hasn't always been the norm for the Jones' - whose fathers are brothers - with old photos revealing their lives before the tattoos, plastic surgery and social media stardom.

Scroll down for video

Instagram star cousins Rikki-Louise (left) and Allaina Jones (right), who are central to a bitter bikie feud are a makeup artist and model, who haven't always lived such colourful lives

Old photos uncovered by Daily Mail Australia reveal their lives pre-tattoos, plastic surgery and social media stardom

The cousins have found themselves central to a vile stoush between their two boyfriends - Ben 'Notorious' Geppert (left) and Brett 'Kaos' Pechey (right)

Allaina and Rikki-Louise were thrust into the spotlight last week with their boyfriends - who are members of opposing motorcycle gangs - involved in an Instagram feud.

Ex-Hells Angels member Geppert, 26, accused former Bandidos West End president Pechey, 31, of 'talking to the (police) task force' about his knowledge of bikie gangs.

The public argument came just weeks after the two Queensland-based couples had holidayed together.

Years earlier, the two cousins were almost unrecognisable, with Allaina's red hair and arm of colourful tattoos the only similarity to now.

A fresh faced Rikki-Louise regularly took snaps of the pair before nights out and even side-by-side on Australia Day.

Before her current relationship with Geppert, Allaina dated Bandidos enforcer John 'Brownie' Fahey.

The two cousins pictured long before their current family feud and a combined 200,000 social media followers

Years earlier the two cousins were almost unrecognisable, with Allaina's red hair and colourful tattoos the only similarity

Allaina and Rikki-Louise before many tattoos, plastic surgery and their social media stardom

A fresh faced Rikki-Louise took photos of the pair standing side-by-side before nights out

Then and now: The vastly different appearances of the women before and after finding fame

Rikki-Louise Jones (left) and Allaina Jones (right) are not only both Instagram stars but cousins

Both girls have amassed large Instagram followings in recent years, with Allaina (left) boasting more than 158,000 followers and Rikki-Louise (right) 30,000

Rikki-Louise (left) works as a part-time model, while her cousin Allaina (right) is a makeup artist

She appeared alongside the Bandidos sergeant-at-arms during his court appearances and later gave birth to his child.

A tattoo on Allaina's back reads: 'I am good but I'm not an angel. I do sin but I am not the devil. I am just a small girl in a big world'.

The pair boast a combined Instagram following of nearly 200,000, but both took the step of unfollowing the other this week as their boyfriends argued.

Pechey fled to Thailand when he became the most wanted man in Queensland after a wild fight in 2013 known as the 'Broadbeach bikie brawl'.

That incident saw dozens of bikies surround and punch a number of police officers.

Before her relationship with Geppert, Allaina dated feared Bandidos sergeant-at-arms John Fahey (pictured)

Geppert is an ex-Hells Angels bikie but is believed to have recently patched over to the Finks

Brett 'Kaos' Pechey (right), the ex-president of a Queensland Bandidos chapter, has patched over to Brother's 4 Life

Geppert called heavily-tattooed Pechey a 'weak dog' and accused him of 'speaking to the task force'

Pechey, who was among 18 charged over the attack, fled to Asia in the aftermath but was forced to return to face court a year later after running out of money.

He was also charged with being involved in an extortion ring where he use standover tactics to extort money from gym goers on the Gold Coast.

Pechey is believed to have patched up for Sydney-based gang Brothers 4 Life, posting a number of photos of himself in the group's colours to Instagram.

Geppert has himself jumped between MCs over the years, moving on to the Finks in 2015 after his stint with the Hells Angels.The most recent declaration they highlighted involved severe storms and flooding between May 28 and June 11, 2014, according to FEMA's declaration report mandated by Congress. Eleven counties, including Allegany, Cattaraugus, Chautauqua, Delaware, Herkimer, Lewis, Livingston, Ontario, Otsego, Steuben and Yates, were part of the event and needed approximately $27 million in public assistance. Federal aid was granted in July 2014.

"There seems to be a strong precedent for grouping storms and floods into a single disaster declaration," said Cayuga County Administrator J. Justin Woods, in an email to The Citizen.

Batman said there's no second appeal process.

"Our only option is to turn to our elected officials, most important Congressman (John) Katko, also Sen. (Chuck) Schumer and (Kirsten) Gillibrand, and ask them to go to FEMA and fundamentally say, 'You made a mistake. You applied this information incorrectly, and we would like your reconsideration and approval,'" Batman said. "It's important we move forward with this as aggressively and as soon as we possibly can."

At the full county Legislature meeting Tuesday night, a resolution was presented to call on Katko to intervene with FEMA on behalf of the county. Copies of the resolution would be sent to other state representatives.A charity linked to the BBC last night revealed it had sacked six staff for sexual misconduct.

BBC Media Action, the corporations international development charity, dismissed the workers for sexual harassment or for watching pornography on work computers.

The charity received 70million from the Department for International Development between 2012 and 2017  but did not disclose any of the incidents to ministers.

It is the latest charity to be engulfed in the scandal that erupted earlier this month when it emerged that Oxfam workers used prostitutes while working in Haiti.

BBC Media Action is one of DfIDs 192 partner charities which were given until the start of this week to reveal to officials breaches of child protection.

BBC Media Action, the corporations international development charity, dismissed the workers for sexual harassment or for watching pornography on work computers

Formerly known as the BBC World Service Trust, it trains journalists and produces programmes that are broadcast in some of the worlds poorest regions.

It is run separately from the BBC and is not funded by licence fee payers but is chaired by Fran Unsworth, the BBCs director of news. In a statement, BBC Media Action said: We have reviewed all cases in the last ten years involving or potentially involving sexual misconduct. A total of six people were dismissed. It said staff had been reminded of safeguarding, child protection and whistle-blowing policies.

Pauline Latham, a Tory member of the Commons international development committee, said: This is as shocking as anything else I have heard.

You would have thought that after what the BBC has been through with Jimmy Savile they would have cleaned up their act, and been much more wary of what is happening in anything with their name on it.

A DfID spokesman said last night: DfID does not have a record of any sexual misconduct allegations relating to BBCMedia Action on our Counter Fraud and Whistleblowing system.Police have found human remains at the site where a man claimed to have dumped the body of his former partner, Leeann Lapham.

Graeme Evans, 43, led police towards a dense, steep hillside at Cowley Beach, 20km south of Innisfail in Queensland, about 9.30am Wednesday, Courier Mail reported.

The discovery of the remains followed his guilty plea to manslaughter and interference with a corpse in the Cairns Supreme Court on Tuesday.

Police have found human remains at the site where a man claimed to have dumped the body of his former partner, Leeann Lapham (pictured)

Graeme Evans, 43, led police towards a dense, steep hillside at Cowley Beach, in Queensland

He was arrested more than a year ago over the death of Ms Lapham, 30, who was last seen leaving a room at Innisfail's Riverside Motel in April 2010 with her son.

Bradley was just three weeks old at the time, and due to turn eight soon.

Ms Lapham's mother, Kerry Johnson, was in court Tuesday to witness Mr Evans' admit to killing her daughter.

He was arrested more than a year ago over the death of Ms Lapham (pictured), 30, who was last seen leaving a room at Innisfail's Riverside Motel in April 2010 with her son

Discovery of the remains followed his guilty plea to manslaughter and interference with a corpse in the Cairns Supreme Court on Tuesday

The remains were found about 20km south of Innisfail in Queensland, about 9.30am Wednesday

It was alleged the 43-year-old was the last person to see the mother-of-one at the motel.

The breakthrough in the cold case came after it was reopened a number of times over the years.

One investigation uncovered a major drug and weapons ring that led to the arrest of 25 people.A South Carolina drug dealer is accused of deliberately killing a sorority girl after he supplied her with Oxycodone.

Anthony 'AJ' Hunt, 22, was arraigned on Monday on federal charges in connection to the 2016 homicide of 19-year-old Rachel Bandman.

Bandman allegedly overdosed at her apartment near the University of South Carolina in Columbia, The State reported.

South Carolina drug dealer Anthony 'AJ' Hunt, 22 (left), is accused of deliberately killing Rachel Bandman, 19 (right), after he supplied her with Oxycodone and she overdosed in January 2016

Prosecutors claimed that Hunt intentionally killed the 19-year-old student (right) - but authorities haven't indicated what led them to determine the case was a homicide

Hunt was charged with unlawful distribution of oxycodone, alprazolam (Xanax), and possession of a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime.

'Mr Hunt had every reason to believe that death would occur when he distributed the drug,' Assistant US Attorney Ben Garner said at the hearing.

Oxycodone is a powerful narcotic prescription drug often used illegally to produce a 'high.' It is one of the most popular illegally used drugs in the country and is responsible for hundreds of deaths a year.

Prosecutors claimed that Hunt intentionally killed the 19-year-old student - but authorities haven't indicated what led them to determine the case was a homicide.

Bandman, from Virginia (center), was found unresponsive in January 2016 by her roommate at their apartment about five blocks from campus, police said.

Hunt was charged with unlawful distribution of oxycodone, alprazolam (Xanax), and possession of a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime (Pictured, Bandman on the right)

Bandman, from Virginia, was found unresponsive in January 2016 by her roommate at their apartment about five blocks from campus, police said.

Officials initially ruled the Chi Omega sorority sister's death was 'suspicious but accidental,' according to The State, meaning that circumstances indicated she accidentally had overdosed.

Hunt, who was charged with possession of marijuana with intent to distribute, had been free on $10,000 bond since last March.

He was arrested Friday on the federal charges and is being held until a bond hearing is set.

If convicted, Hunt faces a federal prison sentence of 20 years to life.An 18-year-old British student was beaten and raped by two men in Berlin while visiting the German city on a college trip to a film festival.

She was attacked at a shisha bar after she lost her friends on a night out near the city's Potsdamer Platz.

Sources told the Sun that she was cornered by the men before being locked in a room where they beat her.

The girl had to spend two nights in hospital after the attack because of the severity of the injuries and the trauma caused by it.

An 18-year-old British student was beaten and raped by two men at a shisha bar in Berlin near Potsdamer Platz (stock photo)

She then flew home with her distraught parents on Friday.

A source at her college told the Sun: 'Everyone is so shocked. I hope the police in Berlin find the animals responsible.'

Berlin Police declined to comment or give the location of where the rape happened, and no description of the attackers has been released.

It is unclear if any arrests have been made in the case.It will come as some relief to men up and down the country - although perhaps not to their wives.

The elusive female G-spot may not actually exist at all, according to scientists.

The G-spot is said to be a small area of the female body where nerve endings are concentrated, with the capability to provide intense pleasure, but researchers have failed to find any physical evidence of its existence in the most conclusive study to date.

Dr Nathan Hoag, who led the study on women aged between 32 and 97 in Melbourne, Australia, said that the G-Spot does not exist as an anatomic construct.

The G-spot is said to be a small area of the female body where nerve endings are concentrated, but researchers have failed to find any physical evidence of its existence

Dr Hoag claimed that any pleasurable sensation experienced when stimulating the area occurred only because of its close proximity to the clitoris.

Not everyone agreed that the mysterious sweet spot was nothing more than a myth, however.

Rebecca Dakin, who is also known as The Great British Sexpert, told the Sun: I have no doubt the G-spot exists. Ask any woman and they will tell you the researchers are wrong.

She implied there was a danger men would treat the research as an excuse for poor performance, adding: This study should not be seen as a get out of jail free card for men.

A separate study in 2008, which used ultrasound imaging to look at the vaginal wall, said women who reported having orgasms had thicker tissue around what is considered G-spot area than women who didnt.

Rebecca Dakin, who is also known as The Great British Sexpert, said: I have no doubt the G-spot exists. Ask any woman and they will tell you the researchers are wrong

The G-spot was named after German gynaecologist Ernst Grafenberg, who first noted the area was particularly sensitive to touch in 1950.

The spot, which is thought to measure slightly more than half an inch in diameter, was not known at the G-spot until 1981, however.

Since the idea was first mooted there has been a great deal of speculation about its existence and precise location.

Sex expert Miss Dakin described it as an area on the front vaginal wall, about two inches in, that has a texture like a walnut.The number of middle-aged women coming out is on the rise, according to new research.

Australian woman Jenny Lonergan came out at the age of 51.

'This documentary came on it was a story about lesbians and about halfway through all of a sudden I had this moment where I went bang,' Ms Lonergan told The Feed.

Scroll down for video

Australian woman Jenny Lonergan came out at the age of 51 and is one of many who decide to do so at a later age

'How could I have lived being me for 48 years, and not have known?'

After realising she was gay Ms Lonergan said she felt more at ease with herself.

'The minute I realised it was this complete opening up inside myself and I became a more sexual person,' she said.

Tracie Oldham was married to a man for 18 years and had three kids before she realised she was gay.

The mother-of-three was introduced to a dating site when she was 48 years old after her husband walked out on her family.

She identified with a number of women and their experiences on online forums.

Tracie Oldham was married to a man for 18 years and had three kids before she realised she was gay

Ms Oldham said she was with a female when she was younger.

'I was with a girl when I was young I never really gave it any thought but in hindsight I suppose that's why I felt something was missing,' she said.

Ms Oldham is now happily married to Carole Oldham.

More and more women have been coming out about their relationships with women later in life, and research presented by this year's North American Menopause Society (NAMS) suggests it's not just a fad.

Far more women (as well as men) are attracted to both sexes than are attracted exclusively to people of the same sex, so later relationships don't mean that previous hetero ones should be dismissed.

University of Utah psychologist Dr Lisa Diamond says that more research is needed to understand how social and physiological factors interact to affect a middle aged woman's sexuality.

Non-heterosexuality has also become far more openly socially accepted in recent years than it was 25 years ago, when women who are now post-menopausal were in their twenties.

'Now, you see more discussion of same sex sexuality in general in the media, which allows women to even have a language to talk about it,' Dr Diamond says.

'The fact that they weren't talking about it before doesn't mean that middle-aged women were not attracted to women before, and 'the capacity to express same sex attractions doesn't invalidate previous hetero relationships,' Dr Diamond stresses.Russian-backed hackers gained access to web sites and voter registration systems of seven states just before the 2016 presidential election, it was reported on Tuesday.

The claims being made by officials in the US intelligence community were reported by NBC News.

According to three senior intelligence officials, American spy agencies gathered evidence in January 2017 which indicated that Russian-backed operatives compromised election systems in Alaska, Arizona, California, Florida, Illinois, Texas, and Wisconsin.

The officials say that these states were not told at the time that their databases were being targeted by Russia.

Despite the breach by Russian-backed hackers, the covert effort did not have any impact on the vote count, NBC News reported.

Americans vote at a polling station in Chicago on November 8, 2016. Russian-backed hackers gained access to web sites and voter registration systems of seven states just before the 2016 presidential election, it was reported on Tuesday

The extent of the Russian penetration varied, with some hackers gaining access to voter registration databases.

While federal and state officials agree that the breach had no practical impact on the elections, the US intelligence community believes that these states were compromised  meaning that their systems had been breached by covert operatives.

Despite the findings of the US intelligence community, six of the seven states say they conducted their own cyber investigations.

Those probes failed to turn up evidence of a hack, according to NBC News.

The only state that has acknowledged coming under malicious cyberattack is Illinois, where officials say that voter rolls were accessed but nothing was altered.

Earlier this month, NBC News reported that Russian hackers targeted the voter registration rolls of 21 states during the 2016 presidential election.

The revelations about the extent of Russian hacking were first picked up by US spies during the waning days of the Obama administration

Jeanette Manfra, head of cybersecurity at the Department of Homeland Security, spoke with NBC News and said that of the states targeted, the Russians were able to gain access to the rolls of a 'small number'.

The fear is that if hackers can get into the voter registration rolls, they can remove voters, causing chaos on Election Day and potentially swinging elections.

The revelations about the extent of Russian hacking were first picked up by US spies during the waning days of the Obama administration.

Officials have disagreed as to whether Barack Obama did enough to either deter Russia from attempting to hack into the elections or adequately punished the Russians after the fact.

I think the Obama administration should have been doing much more to push back against the Russians across the board, said Juan Zarate, a former deputy national security adviser for combating terrorism under President George W. Bush.

I think the US was very meek and mild in how we responded to Russian aggression.

But Obamas then-chief of staff, Denis McDonough, denied this.

The administration took a series of steps to push back against the Russians to include far-ranging sanctions, diplomatic steps to push people associated with the Russian effort out of this country and also warning our friends and allies, he said.

Russian hackers targeted the voting registration rolls in these 21 states. US intelligence officials said on Tuesday that they managed to breach the systems of seven states - Alaska, Arizona, California, Florida, Illinois, Texas, and Wisconsin

A top intelligence official said Tuesday that the US response to Russian meddling and disinformation campaigns has not been strong enough to deter Moscow's activities.

'I believe that President Putin has clearly come to the conclusion that there's little price to pay and that therefore, "I can continue this activity,"' Adm. Mike Rogers told Congress.

'Clearly what we have done hasn't been enough.'

Rogers, director of both the US Cyber Command and the National Security Agency, said he's taken steps to respond to the threat, but that neither President Trump nor Defense Secretary James Mattis has granted him any additional authorities to counter Russian efforts to sow discord in the United States.

'I've never been given any specific direction to take additional steps outside my authority. I have taken the steps within my authority, you know, trying to be a good, pro-active commander,' Rogers said at a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing.

'I have not been granted any additional authorities,' he added.

White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders wouldn't discuss what authority Rogers was referencing, but said the president was looking at ways to prevent Russian meddling.

'Nobody is denying him the authority,' Huckabee Sanders said.

'I can tell you that we are taking a number of steps to prevent this and we are looking at a variety of other ways that we're going to continue to implement over the coming weeks and months,' Huckabee Sanders added during Tuesday's press briefing.

Sen. Jack Reed of Rhode Island, the ranking Democrat on the committee, said Rogers' testimony was an indication that the US had not yet taken action against Russia for its meddling.

Adm. Mike Rogers, commander of the United States Cyber Command and director of the National Security Agency, made a fresh warning about Russian meddling when he appeared before the Senate Armed Services Committee on Tuesday

'We're watching them intrude in our elections, spread misinformation, become more sophisticated ... and we're just, essentially, just sitting back and waiting,' Reed said.

Rogers said he didn't fully agree with the characterization that the U.S. was just sitting back and waiting.

But he said: 'It's probably fair to say that we have not opted to engage in some of the same behaviors that we are seeing' from Russia.

Rogers said he doesn't have the day-to-day authority to try to deter Russian activities at their source.

He said that authority is held by Trump and Mattis.

'There are some things I have the authority to do and I'm acting on that authority,' he told lawmakers.

He said US sanctions and recent indictments of Russians have had some impact.

But Rogers said: 'It certainly hasn't generated the change in behavior that, I think we all know we need.'

Rogers is retiring and his appearance before the committee was expected to be his last.The self-proclaimed call girl 'mistress' of a Russian billionaire has claimed she will reveal Moscow's purported connections to the 2016 US presidential elections if America rescues her from a Thailand.

Nastya Rybka was thrust into a corruption scandal in 2016 when she filmed billionaire Oleg Deripaska and Russian Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Prikhodko on Deripaska's private yacht.

She took to Instagram on Tuesday begging the US for help after she and nine others were allegedly arrested in Thailand on Sunday for being sex experts and running a course in 'lovemaking'.

In return for help from the authorities, Rybka said she would hand over information that she claims would expose the ties between the Kremlin and Washington, D.C.

'If we go back to Russia we will die in Russian's prison or they will kill us,' she wrote Tuesday on her Instagram account. 'Please USA help us not to die from Russians!'

Rybka, whose real name is Anastasiya Vashukevich, said she is willing to offer members of the US media information that she claims to posses regarding the ties between Russian lawmakers, President Donald Trump and the US elections.

Nastya Rybka, the 'mistress' of a Russian billionaire has claimed in a video that she will reveal Russian connections to the 2016 US presidential elections if America rescues her from Thailand. Rybka was arrested in Thailand on Sunday

Rybka (pictured in a jail cell in Thailand) claims she 'knows a lot' and has 'audio and video' proof of the alleged Russian connections to the 2016 US elections

These pictures show a notorious Russian sex guru with links to the Kremlin holding a bizarre love-making class - moments before it was raided by police

Rybka and nine others (pictured) were arrested by Thai police for being sex experts running a that were running a course on lovemaking

Two men deliver the supposed course on love-making. They are wearing the same t-shirts as the women locked up with Rybka, which appear to say 'Sex Animation' on the chest with an arrow pointing downwards

She claims she 'knows a lot' and has 'audio and video' proof.

In the video, Rybka said that she and her 'associates' were arrested on someone's order that came from Bangkok.

Rybka claimed that someone was paid off to throw her in jail, in violation of Thai laws.

'If you find me in Thai jail still alive, I would gladly talk to you. I am awaiting your proposals,' she said in the video.

Rybka and nine others were arrested by Thai police for being sex experts running a that were running a course on lovemaking.

Just last week, the 'sex guru' Alex Lesley, 36, claimed to have played a part in the events which led to YouTube and Instagram being threatened with a nationwide ban in Russia.

His 'student' Rybka claimed she and other models were hired to spend time on the yacht off Norway two years ago.

Nastya Rybka, who reportedly filmed billionaire Oleg Deripaska (in blue) and Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Prikhodko (in green) on Deripaska's private yacht in 2016, took to Instagram on Tuesday begging the US for help after she and nine others were arrested in Thailand

The videos and photos of Deripaska and Prikhodko on the yacht first emerged on the social media accounts of Anastasiya Vashukevich (pictured on the yacht with Deripaska), a woman working as an escort under the name Nastya Rybka

A man holding a belt leans over a woman on the floor while another woman has her bottom groped during the lesson

Thorn in Kremlin's side: Navalny produced a report on February 8 accusing the pair of corruption after he tracked down the pictures on Rybka's Instagram account

Lesley encourages his 'students' to film their conquests 'so he can give them advice on where they are going right or wrong', which Rybka did.

Lesley runs a 'sex academy' which offers the chance to turn his 'students' into a 'new generation' of man-hunters.

It's unclear who was arrested alongside Rybka during their lovemaking class in Thailand.

Rybka is the author of tell-all book, Who wants to seduce a billionaire?

Rybka also claims to have had an affair with Deripaska and says she was hired to spend time on the oligarch's yacht

The book and her numerous Instagram posts inadvertently exposed ties to the Kremlin of a Russian billionaire who'd done business with Paul Manafort, Trump's former campaign manager.

The 2016 meeting between Deripaska and Prikhodko that was reportedly recorded by Rybka, is believed to be evidence of corruption and bribery, according to the Russian opposition, led by Alexei Navalny.

In one video, the two men can be heard referring to 'bad relations with America' and 'Nuland', referring to Victoria Nuland, the then Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian affairs in the Obama administration.

Rybka also claims to have had an affair with Deripaska and says she was hired to spend time on the oligarch's yacht.

Rybka, originally from Belarus but now based in Dubai, posted several videos in August 2016 showing Deripaska on his yacht talking with Prikhodko.

The videos were only picked up by Navalny on February 8 as part of an investigation.

In one snippet, Deripaska explains to Rybka why relations between Russia and the US are so bad.

Rybka, originally from Belarus but now based in Dubai, posted several videos in August 2016 showing Deripaska on his yacht talking with Prikhodko

'We've got bad relations with America. Why? Because the friend of Sergey Eduardovich [Prikhodko], Nuland is her name, is responsible for them. When she was young, she spent a month on a Russian whaling boat, and after this, she hates the country.'

Two weeks ago, a Russian court ruled that the videos and images must be removed from social media platforms, Instagram and YouTube, because they invade Deripaska's privacy.

Deripaska won the order from the Ust-Labinsk district court in his native Krasnodar region which demanded that 14 Instagram posts and seven YouTube videos that 'breach his right to privacy' must be removed, according to BloombergQuint.

The videos have since disappeared from both YouTube and Instagram.

Navalny claimed at the time that the videos allegedly showing Rybka, Deripaska and Prikhodo were evidence of government corruption.

He quoted public records suggesting that Prikhodko spent several days on the yacht and was flown there by Deripaska's private jet.

Navalny also speculated whether the meeting had anything to do with the Trump presidential campaign, specifically Deripaska's reported links to former campaign chairman Manafort.

A spokesman for Deripaska rejected Navalny's report, saying: 'These scandalous and mendacious assumptions are driven by sensationalism and we totally refute these outrageous false allegations in the strongest possible way.'

Investigated: Navalny quoted public records suggesting that Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Prikhodko, pictured, spent several days on the yacht and was flown there by Deripaska's private jet

Navalny claims in a YouTube video that the meeting may have had something to do with Manafort's (left) relationship with Deripaska. The Russian duo also discussed Victoria Nuland (right), who was the Ass Secretary of State for European & Eurasian Affairs

Deripaska filed suit after Navlny's investigation and accused Rybka of illegally using private images.

Deripaska is a controversial figure who has been linked to both Russian President Vladimir Putin and Manafort.

Manafort offered to provide briefings on the US Presidential race to Deripaska, according to a Washington Post report from September although there is no evidence such briefings ever took place.

In 2014, Deripaska accused Manafort of owing him nearly $19 million in a Cayman Islands court.

In 2008, he was at the cener of a British political scandal, when it emerged that then-Shadow Chancellor George Osborne, Lord Peter Mandelson and banking heir Nat Rothschild had all spent an evening on his yacht Queen K in Corfu in August.

Navalny, on the other hand, is banned from running in next month's presidential election in Russia. He is known for probing the behavior of well-known Russian figures.A senior Liberal minister has been mocked on social media for his bizarre choice of footwear during a live television appearance.

Clad in a suit and tie, Trade Minister Steven Ciobo completed his outfit with a pair of bulky, desert-coloured boots for the panel discussion in Davos, Switzerland.

One of the first to question Mr Ciobo's unusual footwear was a political rival - Labor senator Murray Watt.

Trade Minister Steven Ciobo wore a pair of bulky, mustard-coloured boots for the panel discussion in Davos, Switzerland

The minister's choice of footwear during the TV appearance was widely spoken about on on social media

'Is this acceptable for a Gold Coast MP?' tweeted Senator Watt, who added several screenshots of the television appearance.

Another commented: 'Poor guy thought he was going to be behind a desk,' while yet another said: 'The Davos dress code: someone missed the memo.'

Yet another questioned: 'He thought his white shoes were inappropriate?'

Mr Ciobo later slammed Senator Watt and the Labor party for focusing on his shoes rather than policy.

'Poor guy thought he was going to be behind a desk,' one remarked, while another said: 'The Davos dress code: someone missed the memo'

After Mr Ciobo slammed Senator Watt as 'vacuous', he tweeted: 'Please don't ask Steven Ciobo about THOSE shoes. He's a little bit sensitive about them'

'How unfortunate that Murray Watt and Labor are so vacuous they focus on something like this,' Mr Ciobo told the Gold Coast Bulletin.

'My attention is on reducing energy costs, creating employment and boosting tourism.

'It is an indictment that Murray Watt is such a complete and utter lightweight.'

Senator Watt later tweeted: 'Please don't ask Steven Ciobo about THOSE shoes. He's a little bit sensitive about them.'Advertisement

Stunning photographs have captured the epic natural phenomenon known as blue ice forming on Michigan's upper and lower peninsulas over the weekend

Photographers flocked to The Great Lake State's shoreline to capture the irregular rectangles towering with the iconic Mackinac Bridge in the background.

Blue ice occurs when snow falls on a glacier, is compressed, and becomes part of the glacier. Air bubbles are squeezed out and ice crystals enlarge, preventing the passage of light and making the ice appear blue.

In the middle of her work shift Sunday morning, mother-of-three Tori Burley received a text message from her father that excited her: 'The blue ice is back!'

Stunning photographs have capture the epic natural phenomenon known as blue ice forming on Michigan's upper and lower peninsulas

Photographers have flocked to The Great Lake State's shoreline to capture the irregular rectangles towering with the iconic Mackinac Bridge in the background

Blue ice occurs when snow falls on a glacier, is compressed, and becomes part of the glacier. Air bubbles are squeezed out and ice crystals enlarge, preventing the passage of light and making the ice appear blue

In the middle of her work shift Sunday morning, mother-of-three Tori Burley received a text message from her father that excited her: 'The blue ice is back!'

It had been seven years since Burley, a freelance photographer who grew up in Mackinaw City, Michigan, spotted blue ice chunks along the Straits of Mackinac, the waterway that flows under the Mackinac Bridge, connecting two Great Lakes - Lake Michigan and Lake Huron

It had been seven years since Burley, a freelance photographer who grew up in Mackinaw City, Michigan, spotted blue ice chunks along the Straits of Mackinac, the waterway that flows under the Mackinac Bridge, connecting two Great Lakes - Lake Michigan and Lake Huron.

'The blue ice is incredible, when it shows up, it's like these mountains of ice just appear on the shores out of nowhere,' Tori Burley told the Detroit Free Press.

'They're huge, I haven't seen a photo that truly does them justice on just how giant they are.'

Dozens of people lined up along the shore to take photos and climb onto the big blocks of ice, some towering over 30 feet tall.

A combination of wind and the current pushed the chunks to shore, where they piled up on top of each other to build 'mountains' of ice.

'The blue ice is incredible, when it shows up, it's like these mountains of ice just appear on the shores out of nowhere,' Tori Burley said

Burley said she advises fellow photographers to shoot at sunrise or just before sunset to get the perfect shot

She said: ''The lower light gives the ice the best blue glow and makes it pop a lot more in photos'

Dozens of people lined up along the shore to take photos and climb onto the big blocks of ice, some towering over 30 feet tall

A combination of wind and the current pushed the chunks to shore, where they piled up on top of each other to build 'mountains' of ice

Jeff Caverly, a photographer from Essexville, said two years ago he and his brother were on the way to Tahquamenon Falls and were at a loss for words when they saw the blue ice under the Mackinac Bridge in the afternoon light.

'We grabbed our cameras and took a hike out on the ice to explore,' Caverly told the Press. 'The ice had piled up and there were great views everywhere.'

'It's way prettier up close. When you're standing there, it's just towering right next to you.'

Jeff Caverly, a photographer from Essexville, said two years ago he and his brother were on the way to Tahquamenon Falls and were at a loss for words when they saw the blue ice under the Mackinac Bridge in the afternoon light.

'We grabbed our cameras and took a hike out on the ice to explore,' Caverly told the Press. 'The ice had piled up and there were great views everywhere'

Another photographer who captured stunning images of the ice formations is Jennifer Cole, the talent behind Jen Cole Photography

A native of Mackinaw City, Cole says there's so much to love about the place where Michigan's two peninsulas meet

'I grew up watching my dad take photos and share that passion with him,' she said. 'I love the beauty of northern Michigan'

Another photographer who captured stunning images of the ice formations is Jennifer Cole, the talent behind Jen Cole Photography.

A native of Mackinaw City, Cole says there's so much to love about the place where Michigan's two peninsulas meet.

'I grew up watching my dad take photos and share that passion with him,' she said. 'I love the beauty of northern Michigan.'

Burley, of trilliumandpine.com, said she advises fellow photographers to shoot at sunrise or just before sunset to get the perfect shot.

'The lower light gives the ice the best blue glow and makes it pop a lot more in photos,' she said.Today's recall will be the biggest election since Joe Biden became president, and its results may hint at the political trajectory of the country.Child protection case managers in the Northern Territory underwent mandatory training four years ago after it was revealed a small number of staff members ignored relationships between young girls and much older men because of Aboriginal cultural practices.

Jodeen Carney, the CEO of the Department of Children and Families at the time, sent an urgent memo in November 2014 ordering all staff to participate in training conducted by social anthropologist Jane Lloyd, according to NT News.

The memo is believed to have been prompted by a staff member's decision to grant permission to let a girl have a relationship with a man, who she also lived with.

NT child protection case managers underwent mandatory training in 2014 after it was reported a small number of staff members had turned a blind eye to relationships between young girls and much older men (pictured is Tennant Creek)

A leaked memo ordering staff to undergo training was released almost two weeks after tensions escalated in Tennant Creek (left) over the alleged sexual assault of a two-year-old (right) girl

Jodeen Carney (pictured), the CEO of the Department of Children and Families at the time, sent an urgent memo in November 2014 ordering all staff to participate in training conducted by social anthropologist Jane Lloyd

'It has come to my attention that a small number of staff misunderstand how some cultural practices in local Aboriginal communities affect their role as child protection practitioners when assessing and managing cases involving sexual exploitation,' Ms Carney said in the memo, the publication reported on Wednesday.

'The age of consent in the Territory is 16 years of age. Children under 16 years of age cannot 'consent' to sexual intercourse.'

Ms Lloyd was hired to educate staff and 'address aspects of classical and contemporary Aboriginal beliefs and customs insofar as they relate to family structures and child safety,' Ms Carney said.

The leaked memo comes after tensions escalated in Tennant Creek over the alleged sexual assault of a two-year-old girl.

The toddler was flown to the Alice Springs Hospital on February 16 before being rushed to the Women's and Children's Hospital in Adelaide, where she was placed in an induced coma because of the severity of her injuries.

A 24-year-old man has since been arrested and charged with sexual assault. He appeared to have been bashed when he appeared in court by video-link last week. He did not apply for bail.

The girl has been released from hospital into the care of her family and will return to the home where the alleged assault occurred, much to the horror of relatives.

Her parents are understood to have troubled pasts, and are known to be heavy consumers of alcohol.

The toddler was flown from Tennant Creek to the Alice Springs Hospital on February 16 before being rushed to the Women's and Children's Hospital in Adelaide

Restrictions on the sale of alcohol in Tennant Creek have been put in place for the next seven days after an increase in alcohol-related offences, particularly domestic violence

It was previously reported a party was held at the home on the same night the two-year-old was allegedly sexually assaulted.

Territory Families received 21 calls to the girl's troubled residence between August 15 and December 17.

Restrictions on the sale of alcohol in Tennant Creek have been put in place for the next seven days after an increase in alcohol-related offences, particularly domestic violence.

Licensing director-general Cinday Bravos says the restrictions will apply to six venues in the town including the Tennant Creek and Goldfields hotels and will limit the amount of takeaway alcohol that can be bought and when it can be purchased.

Hotels will limit the amount of takeaway alcohol that can be bought and when it can be purchased

'I will then assess their effectiveness and the options available for implementing longer-term measures if the restrictions prove to be successful in reducing the levels of harm associated with the consumption of alcohol,' Ms Bravos said in a statement on Tuesday.

Takeaway alcohol will only be sold from 3pm to 6pm, Monday to Saturday, with limits on the amount of beer, wine, fortified wine or mixed drinks that can be purchased in a single transaction.

National domestic violence helpline: 1800 737 732 or 1800RESPECT.Australians are being warned to check their caller ID as a new phone scam threatens to charge you premium rates to return their call.

In the 'wangiri' scam an international number will call you and people are being told specifically not to answer calls from this number: +88199730120.

In the scam the caller will hang up the phone before you have a chance to answer it.

Has this number called you? The government has warned not to call back international numbers you don't recognise

You will then have a missed call on your phone but the Federal government advises that you should not call back.

Their goal is to keep you on the phone as long as possible so that you are charged premium rates.

Wangiri is a Japanese term that means 'one ring and cut'.

The calls come from places such as West African, Cuba and Slovenia.

They have even hit places outside of major cities such as the Illawarra.

The Federal government has released some tips to help people falling prey to these scammers.

You should also block numbers that call you repeatedly and warn your family and friends

The phone calls keep you on the phone as long as you can so you are charged premium rates

They advise that you should not call the number back if you don't recognise it and if they call you repeatedly to block the number.

The government suggests blocking international calls from children's phones to stop them becoming victims as well.

Another tip is to deal with interactions from unknown people via phone, tax or internet as a scam.

Lastly they say you should spread the word.White South African farmers will be removed from their land after a landslide vote in parliament.

The country's constitution is now likely to be amended to allow for the confiscation of white-owned land without compensation, following a motion brought by radical Marxist opposition leader Julius Malema.

It passed by 241 votes for to 83 against after a vote on Tuesday, and the policy was a key factor in new president Cyril Ramaphosa's platform after he took over from Jacob Zuma in February.

Mr Malema said the time for 'reconciliation is over'. 'Now is the time for justice,' News24 reported.

'We must ensure that we restore the dignity of our people without compensating the criminals who stole our land.'

White South African farmers will be removed from their land after a landslide vote in parliament

The country's constitution is now likely to be amended to allow for the confiscation of white-owned land without compensation

A 2017 South African government audit found white people owned 72 per cent of farmland

Mr Malema has a long-standing commitment to land confiscation without compensation. In 2016 he told his supporters he was 'not calling for the slaughter of white people - at least for now'.

A 2017 South African government audit found white people owned 72 per cent of farmland.

Rural affairs minister for the ruling African National Congress party said 'The ANC unequivocally supports the principle of land expropriation without compensation'.

'There is no doubt about it, land shall be expropriated without compensation.'

Freedom Front Plus party leader Pieter Groenewald said the decision to strip white farmers of their land would cause 'unforeseen consequences that is not in the interest of South Africa'.

The deputy chief executive of civil rights group Afriforum said the motion was a violation of agreements made at the end of apartheid.

The deputy chief executive of civil rights group Afriforum said the motion was a violation of agreements made at the end of apartheid

White farmers control 73 percent of arable land compared with 85 percent when apartheid ended in 1994, according to a recent study (South African farmer pictured)

'This motion is based on a distorted image of the past,' Ernst Roets said.

'The term "expropriation without compensation" is a form of semantic fraud. It is nothing more than racist theft.'

The ANC is increasingly under pressure to speed up land redistribution to help shore up its support among poorer black voters ahead of the election next year.

The country's constitution is now likely to be amended to allow for the confiscation of white-owned land following a motion brought by opposition leader Julius Malema

Parliament ordered its constitutional committee to report back on the issue by August 30.

Botched and often violent redistribution of land in neighbouring Zimbabwe under ex-leader Robert Mugabe left many farms in ruins, and the drop in production triggered an economic crisis that still haunts the country.

White farmers control 73 percent of arable land compared with 85 percent when apartheid ended in 1994, according to a recent study.

'The time for reconciliation is over; now is the time for justice,' EFF leader Julius Malema told parliament.

'It is about our dignity. We do not seek revenge... all that our people ever wanted is their land to which their dignity is rooted and founded.'Judge Stephen Hall said the sadistic housemates killed Mr Pajich for pleasure

The pair stabbed the autistic 18-year-old to death and buried him in backyard

Lilley, 26, originally from Lincolnshire, was 'obsessed' with serial killers

Trudi Lenon and Jemma Lilley were given life in jail for murder of Aaron Pajich

A serial killer-obsessed British woman has been jailed for life for the 'thrill kill' murder of an autistic teenager in Perth, Australia.

Jemma Lilley, 26, originally from Stamford, Lincolnshire, was obsessed with ticking a murder 'off her bucket list' before she turned 25.

In June 2016, she murdered 18-year-old Aaron Pajich with the help of her bondage-loving housemate Trudi Lenon, 43.

On Wednesday, the pair were sentenced to life behind bars after facing the Supreme Court of Western Australia on Wednesday.

A serial killer-obsessed woman and her bondage-loving housemate have been given life sentences for the 'thrill kill' murder of an autistic teenager (pictured is Jemma Lilley)

Trudi Lenon (pictured), 43, and Jemma Lilley, 26, stabbed Aaron Pajich, 18, to death and buried him in their Perth backyard in June 2016

Judge Stephen Hall said the pair had violent fantasies about murder and death, and chose their victim because he was vulnerable, WA Today reported.

'Neither of you had any reason or motive for wanting to kill a particular person,' he said.

'The idea of killing another person was something that excited both of you. You killed for your own pleasure.

'This is a very serious case of murder... there are few if any cases in this jurisdiction which are comparable.'

Judge Stephen Hall said the pair had violent fantasies about murder and death, and chose their victim because he was vulnerable (pictured is Aaron Pajich)

Justice Hall said the duo's crime was morally repugnant and one which would provoke feelings of 'horror and revulsion' in normal people (pictured are text messages between the pair)

Justice Hall said the duo's crime was morally repugnant and one which would provoke feelings of 'horror and revulsion' in normal people.

Linney, pictured as a child in her garden in Lincolnshire, became obsessed with serial killers as a child, according to her stepmother

'Your malicious pleasure at public appeals was clear when Mr Pajich was missing,' Justice Hall said.

'The offence is morally repugnant ... all right-thinking people would have feelings of horror and revulsion.

'It was a planned and premeditated killing over weeks, including how it would be carried out, the body disposed of and cleaned up.

'It was a pitiless pursuit of your desire to kill for your own pleasure.'

Lilley, who moved to Australia six years ago, was described in psychiatric reports as a narcissistic sadist who took pleasure in the pain of others.

Lilley's stepmother Nina, 48, who still lives in the UK, said in an interview earlier this year that Lilley had 'always had an obsession with serial killers.

'I always felt on edge with her. I always felt unnerved by her. I don't think she did have empathy'.

Nina said she even left the family home because she could not bear living with Lilley, who she believed was a psychopath and possibly had bipolar depression.

Photographs from inside the home Lilley shared with Lenon show it decorated with horror film paraphernalia.

A block of knives can be seen on what appears to be a kitchen counter, sitting next to a 'Chucky' doll with a sharp knife in its hand

Pictured is a large saucepan containing moulded meat police suspect was used in an experiment with hydrochloric acid

Linney and fellow killer Trudi Lenon, who became obsessed with the Briton, had a secret locked room where they tortured and killed their victim

Linney had built up a collection of knives and scalpels and a bone saw (pictured) which she used to stab Aaron Pajich

Inside the house of horrors, a block of knives can be seen on what appears to be a kitchen counter, sitting next to a 'Chucky' with a sharp knife in its hand.

Pictures show the squalid conditions the pair lived in, including a large saucepan containing moulded meat police suspect was used in an experiment with hydrochloric acid.

Lenon, who Pajich had trusted because of his friendship with her young son, lured the Asperger's syndrome sufferer to a shopping centre and back to their home.

She had been living with Lilley for three months and agreed to help her commit her first murder as her 'submissive'.

Pajich was believed to have been killed just after arriving at the home, and was found buried beneath a concrete slab in the backyard a week after going missing.

When he was eventually found he had multiple stab wounds, had been garrotted and had cling film around his face.

Mother of murdered, Sharon Pajich (pictured), Aaron Pajich watched as her son's killers were sentenced in the Supreme Court in Perth on Wednesday

Mrs Pajich's son had trusted Lenon because of his friendship with her young son

Pajich's step mother Veronica Desmond (pictured) said outside court she hoped Lilley and Lenon would rot for their crimes

'I hope you rot, I hope you live to regret what you've done,' she told reporters

The pair initially denied the killing and blamed each other, but were convicted of murder on Novermber 1 last year following a five week trial.

Lilley originally claimed she didn't know Mr Pajich had been killed and said Lenon must have concealed the murder while she was taking a three-hour nap.

Lenon said she witnessed Lilley stabbing the 18-year-old to death, and claimed she helped conceal the crime out of fear.

Pajich's step mother Veronica Desmond said outside court she hoped Lilley and Lenon would rot for their crimes.

'Such a lovely boy, he really was, so much love for Aaron,' she said.

'I hope you rot, I hope you live to regret what you've done.'The 96-year-old victim of a Melbourne home invasion has spoken about her ordeal in the wake of several similar incidents across the city this week.

Sofia Barbopoulos was asleep when a male intruder 'in dark clothing' broke into her home in St Albans in the city's north-west shortly before 4.30am this morning.

The great-grandmother said she offered the intruder $150 before he demanded a larger sum.

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Sofia Barbopoulos, 96, was awoken by a burglar at her home in St Albans, north-west of Melbourne, shortly before 4.30 am this morning

The thief covered his face and wore 'dark clothing' during the ordeal eventually fled on foot

'He said ''I want big money, big money'', he was taking me around the house asking where all my money was,' Ms Barbopoulos told the Herald Sun.

'He pulled the phone out of the wall so I couldn't call for help.'

The thief eventually fled on foot with a small amount of cash and jewellery.

Despite the invasion, Ms Barbopoulos' son Peter described his mother as an 'independent' woman, and said it was a 'relief the robber did no further harm.

'She totally self-sufficient  a tough old bird,' he told Nine News Melbourne.

The burglary followed a string of home invasions which took place in Melbourne throughout the night.

Shortly before midnight, three masked men forced their way through the front door of a home in Skye, south-east of the city, and confronted a male resident who was asleep.

The man was assaulted and suffered minor injuries before the offenders eventually escaped.

An hour later a man and woman were forced to lock themselves in a bedroom to hide from an invader to their home in Bayswater in the eastern suburbs.

In the early hours of Tuesday morning, a woman who was sleeping the same room as her young son endured a night of terror as one of three masked intruders held a knife to her throat as the others carried out a robbery in her home.

The victim, who lives in Albion in Melbourne's west, was threatened with weapons before the offenders stole two sets of car keys and an iPad, according to Victoria Police.Investigators on Special Counsel Robert Muellers team are probing Donald Trumps business ties to Russia during the period before he ran for president in 2016.

Muellers prosecutors have been asking witnesses in the ongoing probe into alleged Russian meddling in the 2016 elections questions about when Trump decided he would run for president.

They are focused on the 2014 period, when Trump was moving toward making a run  as well as the financials and other matters regarding the 2013 Trump-owned Miss Universe pageant, which was held in Mosco.

Sources close to the investigation said that Mueller wants to know about any potential compromising information that Russia may have about Trump, CNN reported as it revealed the lines of questioning.

Mueller is also inquiring as to why plans for a Trump Tower in Moscow fell through, sources told CNN  while questioners also are trying to explore the possibility that Russians obtained compromising information on the president.

Investigators on Special Counsel Robert Muellers team are taking an interest in Donald Trumps (seen right in Moscow with Miss Universe Gabriela Isler of Venezuela in 2013) business ties to Russia before he ran for president in 2016, it was reported on Tuesday

Mueller wants to know details about a plan by Trump to build a Trump Tower in Moscow together with two Russian real estate developers - Aras Agalarov (seen right with Trump in Moscow in 2013) and his son, Emin Agalarov (left)

Trump has steadfastly denied that his presidential campaign colluded with the Russian government to help him defeat Hillary Clinton.

One witness reportedly told Muellers team that Trump first became serious about running for president in 2014  even though the president tweeted recently that he didnt know he was going to run for the White House until 2015.

Muellers investigators were also said to be interested in any compromising information that Russia may have on Trump  an allegation laid out in the infamous 'Steele dossier' of damaging information about Trump.

Trumps most well-known public appearance in Russia came in 2013, when he served as a judge at the Miss Universe pageant in Moscow.

Last year, Mueller (seen above in 2008) was appointed as special counsel to investigate alleged Russian meddling in the 2016 election

The claims of compromising information are included in the dossier compiled by a former British intelligence agent, Christopher Steele. Passages in the dossier  whose research was funded by the Hillary Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee  describe a stay by Trump at the Ritz Carlton Hotel.

According to the dossier, the contents of which have been vehemently denied by Trump and the Russian government, Trump arranged to stay at the presidential suite where President Barack Obama and his wife, Michelle, had stayed on a prior visit.

During Trumps stay, it is alleged that he watched as prostitutes urinated on one another while on the bed in a golden showers routine.

The dossier alleged that Trumps lewd sexual behavior in Russia was recorded by the Kremlins intelligence agencies and held as kompromat, or damaging information which it has used to blackmail Trump.

Mueller is also reportedly trying to corroborate details from a dossier written by British ex-spy Christopher Steele (above)

Muellers investigators are reportedly interested in the financing of the Miss Universe pageant, an event that was once owned by the Trump Organization.

The Moscow pageant came about as a result of a partnership between Trump and Aras Agalarov, a billionaire real estate developer, and his son, Emin Agalarov.

Last year, Donald Trump Jr told Congress that the Trump Organization and the Agalarovs held preliminary discussions to build a tower in Moscow.

Those plans, however, never came to fruition because of the economic downturn in Russia caused by Western sanctions.

Talks for a potential Trump Tower in Moscow were reportedly re-started by Michael Cohen, the presidents personal lawyer.

But those talks ended in 2016.

While it has been known Trump pursued business opportunities in Russia, he has consistently said that he had nothing to do with Russia.

As recently as Tuesday, he called the Mueller probe a 'WITCH HUNT!'

The relationships between Trump and his associates and officials from the Russian government have attracted scrutiny since the hacking of emails belonging to Democratic Party officials.

US intelligence officials believe that President Vladimir Putin directed Russian hackers to wreak havoc on social media and the internet as part of an overall effort to help Trump and hurt Hillary Clintons campaign.

Russia has denied the allegations.The truck driver who crashed into traffic waiting at a roadworks stop sign, allegedly killing a young couple and injuring 11 others may have fallen asleep at the wheel, a prosecutor alleged.

Robert Crockford, a 50-year-old interstate truck driver from Queensland, was behind the wheel of a semi-trailer when it ploughed into seven cars on the Newell Highway near Dubbo in Central West New South Wales on January 16.

A bail hearing in the NSW Supreme Court heard Crockford had told police and witnesses two different stories for why he failed to stop or even slow down, The Daily Telegraph reported.

Crockford first said his brakes had failed but later changed his story saying he had a coughing fit and blacked out, police said in court.

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Robert Crockford, 50, (pictured) was behind the wheel of a semi-trailer when it ploughed into several cars and allegedly killing a young couple near Dubbo on January 16

The crash allegedly killed a young couple, university student Hannah Ferguson and Reagan Skinner, both aged 19 and injured 11 others including a two-year-old girl.

Mr Crockford allegedly told paramedics at the scene of the crash that his accelerator became jammed and his brakes failed before he smashed into vehicles stopped at roadworks.

But in a recorded interview with the police, Mr Crockford said he experienced a coughing fit and blacked out, the court heard.

Police told the court they also inspected the brakes on Mr Crockford's semi-trailer and found them to be in good working order.

A 50-year-old man has been charged over the horrific crash (pictured) which claimed two lives and injured 10 others in the New South Wales Central West

He was also examined in hospital in relation to the possible coughing fit but the court heard there was no evidence that he had any condition which could have caused an uncontrollable cough.

Crown Prosecutor Paul Leask told the court Crockford was concealing the reason why his truck failed to even decelerate as it travelled for some distance in a straight line into traffic.

'He was unconscious, asleep or not watching the road,' Mr Leask said.

Charles Sturt University student Hannah Ferguson (pictured), 19, died allegedly after the semi-trailer slammed into her car on the Newell Highway near Dubbo

Hannah Ferguson (pictured) was one of the victims of the tragedy near the NSW town of Dubbo

'There is a situation he is denying which goes to the heart of why two people died and several people were injured', the court heard.

Crockford, who broke his leg in the crash and his now in a wheelchair, was charged with 10 offences including two counts of dangerous driving occasioning death.

He was refused bail in Dubbo Local Court earlier this month with police citing his lengthy traffic history which dated back to 1986 and included numerous speeding offences, a negligent driving charge and licence suspensions in New South Wales and Queensland.

Ms Ferguson's 19-year-old boyfriend, Reagan Skinner (pictured) was also killed in the crash

Crockford's lawyer Neha Evans applied for bail on her client's behalf saying his mother was willing to put up her family home as surety while his girlfriend agreed to pay $3000 cash for bail.

Mr Leask opposed bail on the grounds Crockford was a flight risk, may drive again and could interfere with witnesses.

Ms Evans challenged those claims saying he had strong community ties, that there was no evidence he had interfered with witnesses and he couldn't drive even if he wanted to because he was in a wheelchair.

She also defended his traffic record saying: 'It needs to be viewed in terms of his employment as an interstate truck driver' and the fact that he drove 'millions of kilometres' each year.'

Mr Leask said Crockford's traffic history was 'terrible' and was, 'in itself capable of displaying a tendency on his part to drive in a manner which is in contradiction to the road rules.'

'He was a danger to the community before this collision,' he said.

Justice Richard Button will make a decision on whether to grant bail on Friday.

Police will allege the driver of the semi-trailer hit the other vehicles, two trucks and a sedan, while they were stopped at roadworks on the Newell Highway, in Dubbo, on January 16One of Australia's most senior television news executives has pleaded guilty to assaulting his wife just a day after he was arrested.

Rob Raschke, executive editor of Sky News Australia, pleaded guilty to common assault in Sydney's Downing Centre Local Court on Wednesday.

The 52-year-old former director of news at the Seven Network was arrested at 7pm on Tuesday and charged with assaulting his wife Rachel at 2.03am on Saturday, according to court papers.

Television news executive Rob Raschke has pleaded guilty to assaulting his wife Rachel at Alexandria, in Sydney's inner-city at 2.03am last Saturday

Sky News Australia executive editor Robert Raschke must not approach or be in the company of his wife Rachel (pictured) within 12 hours of drinking alcohol or taking illicit drugs

His case was dealt with on Wednesday morning and he will be sentenced on April 11.

Raschke is also the subject of an apprehended violence order that states he must not approach or be in the company of his wife for at least 12 hours after drinking alcohol or taking illicit drugs.

The apprehended violence order also states he must also not assault, threaten, stalk, harass or intimidate his wife or 'intentionally or recklessly destroy or damage any property that belongs to or is in the possession of Rachel Mary Raschke.'

The Raschkes, who live in Sydney's inner-city, married at her sister's home in Rose Bay overlooking the harbour in April 2011.

It was the second marriage for both and they honeymooned in Singapore and Thailand during a television non-ratings period.

'I promised her I'd only look at the BlackBerry once a day while on our honeymoon,' Raschke told the Courier-Mail at the time.

Rob Raschke is one of the most experienced news television producers in Australia

Raschke is also the subject of an apprehended violence order that states he must not approach his wife (both pictured) for at least 12 hours after drinking alcohol or taking illicit drugs

Raschke is one of the most experienced television news directors in the country and was executive producer at Sky News when the channel launched in 1996.

He worked for the Seven Network for almost 19 years, including three years as national director of news and 11 years as director of news in Brisbane.

As an ABC foreign correspondent in the early 1990s Raschke won a Walkley Award for his coverage of a township massacre in South Africa.

When contacted by Daily Mail Australia Raschke said: 'Can't talk to you mate, sorry.'

All Sky News staff were sent an email by Angelos Frangopoulos, CEO of Australian News Channel on Wednesday afternoon.

'Until further notice, Greg Byrnes will be Acting Executive Editor at Australian News Channel,' the email said.

'Rob Raschke is on leave.'



A former staffer at the Department of Housing and Urban development has said she was demoted because she balked at Ben Carson's request to spend more than the legal limit to redecorate his office.

Helen Foster said she refused when she was told to 'find money' beyond the legal $5,000 limit and was 'retaliated against by being taken out of my position.' In her sworn complaint, she said she told her head she wouldn't misuse taxpayer dollars for the project.

In the sworn complaint from November 2017, which was issued to the Office of the Special Counsel and obtained by CNN, Foster said her supervisor once told her '$5,000 will not even buy a decent chair.'

The information emerged after it was revealed by the Guardian that HUD spent taxpayer dollars on a $31,000 dining set for Carson's office.

Helen Foster (left) said she was demoted refused after being told to spend more than the legal $5,000 to redecorate HUD Secretary Ben Carson's office. Carson is pictured right on December 17

She said she was told more than once that Carson's wife Candy wanted to 'help the Secretary redecorate his office suite'. The couple are pictured together in 2015

Foster said she was repeatedly told to 'find money' beyond the legal limit, and that when she refused she was 'retaliated against by being taken out of my position'

About a month before Carson's confirmation in March she said the HUD's Acting Secretary Craig Clemmensen told her Carson's wife Candy wanted to 'help the Secretary redecorate his office suite.'

Foster said HUD Acting Secretary Craig Clemmensen told her in a one-on-one meeting that the administration 'has always found money for this in the past'

She was then assigned to assist Mrs Carson and getting her 'access and funds for the project.'

Foster said that during that conversation she told Clemmensen the department legally could only spend $5,000 on the project. She said she also passed that information to the administrative officer.

She said she was told more than once to 'find money' that wasn't legally allowed for the project and claims Clemmensen told her in a one-on-one meeting the administration 'has always found money for this in the past.'

Each time she felt pressure it was under the guise of 'Mrs Carson wants to do this. We have to find the money,' Foster claims.

'There was a sense of "we are not going to take no for an answer,"' a separate HUD employee told CNN.

'There was a lot of item spent on this. the most frustrating part of all this was spending so much time on this issue.

'Instead of focusing on HUD's mission, we were talking about furniture for the Secretary's office.'

One of the things Foster said the administration wanted her to 'find money' for was a security system to be set up in Carson's home in Washington. Carson is pictured with President Trump on January 12

Foster said at the time she was frustrated and concerned about the pressure she was being put under and reached out to HUD acting assistant CFO for budget, Sarah Lyberg, on February 13, who told her the administration could not exceed the $5,000 budget.

One of the things Foster said the administration wanted her to 'find money' for was a security system to be set up in Carson's home in Washington.

Foster said her supervisors on March 6 told her to write a memo to justify the purchase of the security system and to mention that Carson was either threatened or in danger. She said she refused to write the memo because she did not think it was justified

She said Kenneth Fee, a special agent in charge of HUD's protective services division, emailed her on February 1, 2017, and requested a security system for his home in Vienna, Virginia be paid for with government funds.

In the email he wrote it was a 'single family home with no fence and backed up to a wooded area.'

Days later Foster reached out to Lyberg and HUD's Michael Moran with questions about the request and was told it was not appropriate for the department to foot the bill.

In a February 22 memo it was stated funds could only be made available for security for a government official if they had been threatened or were in danger, and if 'the risk impairs the official's ability to carry out his or her duties and hence adversely affects the efficient function of the agency.'

Foster said her supervisors on March 6 told her to write a memo to justify the purchase of the security system and to make sure she addressed items in the February 22 memo. She said she refused to write the memo because she did not think it was justified.

An HUD official said Fosters account is false.

'When it comes to decorating the Secretary's office, the only money HUD spent was $3,200 to put up new blinds in his office and the Deputy Secretary's Office,' spokesperson Raffi Williams said in a statement to CNN.

'The Secretary's Administrative officer is aware of the limit and ensured that the limit was not exceeded.'

The Department also provided receipts to CNN showing a total of $3,373.

Foster said she reached out to CFO for budget, Sarah Lyberg, on February 13, who told her the administration could not exceed the $5,000 budget. An HUD official said Fosters account is false

These revelations about Carson's spending come after it was revealed the Trump administration proposed cutting $6.8billion to HUD's annual budget

But according to the Guardian, HUD agree to spend $165,000 total on 'lounge furniture' for its headquarters in Washington. That is in addition to $31,000 spent on a dining set for Carson's office.

Last week Williams falsely told the newspaper the table had not been bought.

Another federal procurement record shows HUD agreed in December to pay $31,561 to Sebree and Associates for 'secretary's furniture.'

Department officials signed a contract last September with an Indiana-based furniture company, according to a federal procurement record obtained by the Guardian.

On Tuesday American Oversight sued HUD to find out how much Carson was spending to renovate or redecorate his office.

American Oversight said in November it submitted a Freedom of Information Act for more than 20 agencies, one of which was HUD. The group said HUD never responded to their request.

The revelations about Carson's spending come after it was revealed the Trump administration proposed cutting $6.8billion to HUD's annual budget. That would be roughly 14 percent of its total spending and would cause reductions in programs aimed at poor and homeless Americans.Students have rallied at the University of Sydney in the wake of a shocking report into sexual assault on campus and made the staggering claim that 1036 rapes occurred during orientation week.

The week - which began on February 26 and runs until March 2 - is designed for students to ease into campus life. However, the activists claim it is the most dangerous time of the year for female students.

Protesters say colleges on campus are the site of many sexual assaults and they want changes made to the way they are run in order to make them more accountable.

This poster states that 1036 rape claims were made in University O-week that began last week

At present the colleges are run by bodies separate to the university, and the protesters want the laws changed to completely revamp a system they say gives far too much power to 'old boys' - former male students of Sydney University. This movement comes after a recent Red Zone report.

'We want to see repealment of these acts of parliament. Student representatives are so fed up with these kind of cultures in the colleges, and a lot of them want to see them gone from their campuses,' student Anna Hush told the ABC.

Students held signs reading at the protest reading '1036 students raped in university O week', 'the only people that should be ashamed are USYD management' and 'I was sued for defamation for speaking out about a college covering up rape'.

Students at the University of Sydney held a rally to draw attention to this issue on Wednesday

One in eight students attempted or carried out rapes at the University of Sydney's residential colleges during Orientation Week, according to the Sydney Morning Herald.

The protesters are also calling on the federal government to create a taskforce to tackle sexual assault and harassment at colleges.

Karen Willis, executive officer of Rape and Domestic Violence Services Australia, said there is no need for a calendar to know when O-Week is on because the organisation always has a spike in calls during this time.

Students held signs calling out administration for inaction and claiming that 1036 students were raped during O-Week

A report from the Australian Human Rights Commission revealed that one in five students had been sexually harassed in a university setting.

It also said that between 2015 and 2016 1.6 per cent of students were harassed in a university setting or on their way to or from campus.Nine leaders from automakers elected as deputy to 13th NPC

Shanghai (Gasgoo)- A total of 2,980 deputies to the 13th National People's Congress (NPC), China's national legislature, has been elected. Among them, there are many deputies from China's auto enterprises. It may indicate that the reform of stated-owned auto enterprises will become a hot topic to be discussed during two sessions (NPC and CPPCC) this year.



Hereby, the reporter lists 9 deputies who are core leaders of their auto companies.

From the list, four of them became the deputy of NPC for the first time. They are Xu Liuping, Party Secretary and Chairman of FAW Group Corporation (FAW Group), Yin Tongyue, Party Secretary and Chairman of Chery Automobile Co., Ltd. (Chery Auto), Zhu Huarong, President of Chongqing Changan Automobile Co.,Ltd (Changan Auto) and Li Shufu, Chairman of Zhejiang Geely Holding Group (Geely).

Among these four entrants, Li Shufu is the only deputy who comes from non-state-owned enterprise. Recently, Geely has become the largest single shareholder of German automotive manufacturer Daimler. This was another big move after it became the owner of Swedish automaker Volvo Cars and the largest shareholder of the commercial vehicle manufacturer Volvo Trucks.

Xu Liuping, taking the helm as FAW Group's chairman in September last year, set off a big reform within the group which involved a number of aspects, like organizational structure and human resources, etc. Meanwhile, he announced that the group will concentrate its resources on supporting its Hongqi brand and products.

Chery Auto, led by Yin Tongyue, also had frequent actions recently. In December, 2017, Chery announced that the company had reached a strategic agreement with Baoneng Group in terms of investing in Qoros. In addition, Chery transfered its 51% of stakes in Cowin Auto to Yibin Auto Industry Development Investment Co., Ltd and Sichuang Yibin PUSH Group Co., Ltd.

Both Chen Hong and Zeng Qinghong, have been elected as deputy to NPC for three times. SAIC Motor and GAC Group both had outstanding performances in self-owned PV sales. According to relevant statistics, the sales of SAIC Motor's self-owned PV brands surpassed 520,000 units in 2017, surging 62% year on year. Besides, GAC Group delivered a total of 509,000 vehicles under its self-owned PV marques, leaping 36.7% from a year earlier.A man is clinging to life in hospital after repeatedly stabbing himself before being Tasered by police during a violent confrontation in a shopping centre liquor store in Newcastle.

Police were called to a Charlestown shopping centre just after 1.30pm on Wednesday following reports of a domestic-related incident.

The 22-year-old man was approached by officers outside a liquor store, before he produced a knife and began stabbing himself, NSW Police said in a statement.

A man is clinging to life in hospital after repeatedly stabbing himself before being Tasered by police during a violent confrontation in a shopping centre liquor store in Newcastle

Officers used a Taser to try and stop him.

'Officers commenced CPR before he was taken by NSW Ambulance paramedics to John Hunter Hospital in a critical condition,' the statement said.

A critical incident has been launched to examine police conduct during the event - and will be independently reviewed.

Police are calling for witnesses to come forward.

National domestic violence helpline: 1800 737 732 or 1800RESPECT. In an emergency call triple-zero.

An internal investigation into NSW Police conduct has been launched.

The incident is believed to have occurred outside a Dan Murphy's store (stock image)



A father who assaulted a 15-year-old boy in the street when his car was struck with an egg will not be going to jail, after the man pleaded guilty in court.

28-year-old Matthew Joel Cronk was driving with an unnamed acquaintance in Currimundi, Queensland on August 19, 2017 when an egg shattered against his vehicle.

Pulling over just in time to see a group of teens riding away, the men decided to hide in the bushes and wait to exact their revenge.

Matthew Joel Cronk assaulted a 15-year-old boy after he wrongly thought he had thrown an egg at his car

He pulled over just in time to see a group of teens run off. He decided to hide in the bushes and wait till they came back to get renege

As one of the boys returned, Cronk emerged from his hiding place and seized him, 'manhandling' the 15-year-old to the ground and pinning him there, Sunshine Coast Daily reports.

Cronk's accomplice threw the boy's bike violently against the ground.

The victim of this shocking assault, however, never even threw an egg. The two fully-grown men had accosted a completely innocent boy.

Facing the Maroochydore Magistrates Court on Wednesday morning, Cronk pleaded guilty to one count of assault occasioning bodily harm and willful damage.

When one of the boys returned he 'manhandled' him, pinning him to the ground while his accomplice threw the boys bike violently on the ground

The boy they assaulted was not the one who threw the egg and the two fully grown men had accosted a completely innocent boy

The victim suffered scrapes and bruising as a result of the attack, police prosecutor sergeant Leonie Scott told the court, as detailed in a victim impact statement.

But Cronk's lawyer argued that the egg hitting her client's car 'frightened the life out of him', suggesting that the act of violence was not premeditated but provoked.

'Hiding in the bushes is not provocation, it is making a plan to get him back,' magistrate Matthew McLaughlin told the court.

'The force of the tackle hurt him. It would be terrifying for a young fellow. If this was your child, you would be outraged.'

McLaughlin conceded that Cronk would not go to jail, however, on the basis that he never actually hit the boy.

'I accept you never struck the victim', McLaughlin said. 'If you did, you would be looking at jail time.'

Cronk was fined $500 for both charges, as well as being ordered to pay $500 compensation to the victim and $117.50 in restitution.A 55-year-old man wearing a backpack has been arrested after police received multiple reports he was 'acting erratically' inside Melbourne's Crown Casino.

Victoria Police initiated an emergency response operation at the casino about 3.30pm on Wednesday.

Swarms of armed police surrounded the building and evacuated patrons.

Swarms of armed police surrounded the casino and evacuated patrons from the building

The evacuations caused mass chaos outside the Melbourne Exhibition Centre in Southbank, with large groups of patrons, staff and members of the public gathering outside.

A Victoria Police spokesman said they were called to the casino with reports the 55-year-old man was 'acting and behaving erratically'.

He said specialist resources were called in to deal with the emergency situation including Victoria's bomb response unit.

The police spokesman said there were no injuries to the suspect, police officers or patrons during the operation.

He said he could not elaborate on the situation any further because it was an ongoing investigation.

The casino was declared safe shortly after 7pm on Wednesday.

Police said they were in the process of clearing the scene ahead of re-opening the casino.

A Crown Casino spokesperson confirmed there was an incident involving one person inside the building.

Victoria Roads said Clarendon Street was closed in both directions between Flinders Street and Whiteman Street.

VicRoads urged motorists to use alternative routes to avoid the area.A man from the Northern Territory has replaced the traditional bath time buddy, the rubber ducky, with his baby pet crocodile, Swampy.

The pair got up close and very personal in an intimate moment shared on YouTube.

As they kick back and relax in the bath Swampy's owner serenades him with an original song set to the tune of Slim Dusty's, Duncan.

A man from the Northern Territory got up close and personal with his pet crocodile Swampy

The pair shared a bath together as Swampy's owner serenaded him with a song

'I love to have a bath with Swampy, I love to have a bath with Swamp,' he sings.

'He swims in moderation and I really hope he doesn't chop on my... we love living in Australia, where the atmosphere is great.'

'I love to have a bath with Swampy, cause' Swampy's me mate,' he says.

Swampy seems quite relaxed by the bath time tunes as he sits calmly on his owners chest.

'I went for a bath and in true Aussie fashion I took my pet crocodile Swampy in with me,' ViralHog quoted the man saying.

'I was a little concerned he might attempt to chomp on my tackle but he seemed quite content where he was, even with my terrible singing.'

'He swims in moderation and I really hope he doesn't chop on my...'the man sung as the croc sat calmly on his chest

In the Northern Territory it is legal to keep both fresh and salt water crocodiles as pets

The video which was filmed on February the 28th, got mixed reactions online. Some people expressed serious concern about bath time turning into dinner time in the future.

'When Swampy gets big enough, Swampy will eat you without a second thought,' one user said.

'How the f*** does the tub get that full? Doesn't Australia have those drain halfway up, so it can't overfill? Also, doesn't Australia have CLEANING PRODUCTS!?! That bathroom is nasty,' wrote another.

In the Northern territory both salt and fresh water crocodiles can be kept legally as pets. In urban area, you can only keep a crocodile that is less than 60cm long.Julie Bishop has reportedly claimed $32,000 from the taxpayer for her boyfriend to travel across Australia to visit her - despite claiming they are not in a 'de facto relationship' so he doesn't have to declare his financial interests.

The Foreign Minister named property developer David Panton as her designated family member in 2015, meaning he became entitled to free domestic flights and Comcar rides as part of MPs' family reunification allowance.

But because she does not classify Mr Panton as her spouse, Ms Bishop has never declared any claims for him on the parliamentary register of interests.

Left: Minister for Foreign Affairs Julie Bishop and David Panton arrive for the annual Mid Winter Ball at Parliament House in Canberra in 2016. Right: Julie Bishop and David Panton attend the inaugural Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences (MAAS) Centre for Fashion Bal at Powerhouse Museum on February 1, 2018

This also means she does not have to declare his financial interests in the same way that other MPs have to declare their husbands' and wives' interests.

Details of his income, savings accounts, trust funds, loans and mortgages, properties, shareholdings, directorships, and gifts and hospitality valued above $300 can remain secret.

Ms Bishop lives in Perth while Mr Panton lives in Sydney. She has claimed $32,000 for him to fly across the country and visit her and travel with her on domestic trips from 2015 to 2017, reported the Sydney Morning Herald.

In the first six months of 2015 she allegedly claimed $10,000 in flights and car rides for him.

David Panton (left) and Foreign Minister Julie Bishop pose for a photo with David's two daughters Laura (left) and Sally alongside the Melbourne Cup in the Emirates marquee on Derby Day at Flemington Racecourse in Melbourne, Saturday October 29 2016

On one weekend she flew him to Perth for $3,000 return before the pair were pictured together at the Leeuwin Estate Concert in Margaret River.

Ms Bishop's spokesman told Daily Mail Australia: 'David Panton is the Ministers nominated person for the purpose of domestic travel. The Minister is compliant with the Register of Interests.'

There is no suggestion that Ms Bishop or Mr Panton have broken any rules.An Australian schoolgirl who suffers from a disease so rare and dangerous a bump on the head or the common cold could kill her is in a race against time.

Chloe Saxby, 9, is one of just seven Australians with Vanishing White Matter disease, which affects less than 200 people worldwide.

The young girl's family began fundraising two years ago to find a cure for the terminal illness, but even the million dollars they have raised is still not enough.

The research that may save Chloe's life will cost the family much more, and now they are battling the clock as well as the incurable disease - which has a 100 per cent fatality rate.

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Chloe Saxby has a rare disease called Vanishing White Matter, a deadly illness that has no cure and a 100 per cent fatality rate

Vanishing White Matter, or VWM, is a rare disease that only affects 172 people world-wide, and there are only seven known cases in Australia

'Chloe was three-and-a-half and was a perfectly healthy, happy little girl, swimming, running, dancing and riding her bike,' Chloe's mother Nyree Saxby told Daily Mail Australia.

Mrs Saxby said Chloe had a vomiting virus, became unsteady on her feet, and her hands would also shake.

A week later her health improved, but something more sinister was on the horizon for Chloe.

'She went along to her pre-school day and Chloes teacher called us with concern as Chloe had been stumbling around, very unsteady on her feet and could not get herself out of the sandpit.

'She was screaming as if in pain and said her legs felt like jelly - she couldnt move them properly,' Mrs Saxby revealed.

Within weeks Chloe had been diagnosed with the incredibly rare and incurable Vanishing White Matter disease.

Chloe goes to her Wollongong school across the road from where she lives and is reliant on her parents Nyree and Grant to help her walk

Since diagnosed in 2012 Chloe has had two fevers from sickness and one bump to the head caused which caused her to be wheel chair bound

Vanishing White Matter, or VWM, is a rare disease that only affects 172 people world-wide, and there are only seven known cases in Australia.

The Saxby's life quickly changed to a string of doctors and psychologist appointments, trips to the hospital and a desperate hunt for a cure of VWM.

As Chloe was diagnosed at age three she was told she would only have five to ten years to live. She is now nine and may not make it to her 13th birthday.

Although very unwell, the young girl goes to school in Wollongong, south of Sydney, almost every day.

The Saxby's life quickly changed to a string of doctors and psychologist appointments, trips to the hospital and a desperate hunt for a cure of VWM

Any stresses on her little body, such as high temperature or a bump to the head, can lead to a coma or death

The school is just across the road from her house but she still needs help from her parents Nyree and Grant to get to class every morning.

VWM is a genetic brain disease that deteriorates the central nervous systems.

Any stresses on her little body, such as high temperature or a bump to the head, can lead to a coma or death.

Since being diagnosed in 2012 Chloe has had two fevers from sickness and one bump to the head caused which caused her to be wheelchair-bound.

She now wears a padded cap every day to prevent her from knocking her head again.

At nine she is beginning to have seizures and it is expected to be paralyzed to the point she won't be able to hold her head up, talk, see or eat

This year Chloe has begun to suffer from seizures, and it is expected that her condition will deteriorate further and she will soon be paralysed.

Further down the track it is unlikely the young girl will be able to hold her head up on her own, talk, eat, or even see.

At nine she is beginning to have seizures and it is expected to be paralyzed to the point she won't be able to hold her head up, talk, see or eat.

Because this disease is so rare there is no funding to help find a cure leaving the Saxby family to take matters in to their own hands

Because this disease is so rare there is no funding to help find a cure leaving the Saxby family to take matters in to their own hands.

'To see their kids the same age as Chloe progressing, whereas Chloe is moving backwards in her development is like a knife in my heart every single day,' Mrs Saxby said.

'Chloe is such a loving, caring, beautiful little girl inside and out. I cant help it but I still ask everyday Why Chloe? when she has so much to give.I dont think Ill ever know the answer,' Mrs Saxby said.

With only two doctors in the world working towards a cure of the rare disease one has estimated for the research and pre-clinical trials it will cost $2.6 million.

Donate to help save Chloe on this website.A production editor found hanged at home by her mother had been classified a 'low suicide risk' despite attempting to kill herself three times in four weeks, an inquest heard.

Katie Kemp, 23, was not treated as an urgent case by health workers in Merton, south west London, because she told them she was not planning to harm herself, despite being assessed as a 'high-risk' case days earlier.

Now a coroner has demanded health chiefs come up with an action plan after hearing Miss Kemp died just hours after meeting nurse Dhare Joseph, who sent her home despite her making three suicide attempts in four weeks.

The inquest also heard she had been referred to the mental health in mid May 2017 but an appointment was not scheduled until the end of the month 'because they could not contact her'.

Katie Kemp, 23, pictured left and right, was found hanged at home by her mother after struggling with depression

GP Dr Alexandra Dudley-Cooke had previously assessed her and wrote the referral to the Merton Mental Health Team, run by South West London and St George's Mental Health NHS Trust, due to the seriousness of Katies depression.

Questioning Mr Joseph, coroner Dr Shirley Radcliffe said: A very young girl with three attempts at a suicide in four weeks who says she is suffering from feelings of hopelessness, who has consistent suicidal thoughts.

She has feelings of not just hopelessness but worthlessness and low self-esteem. '

What is it about those features that would suggest that you would consider risk to be low?

I am struggling to understand why these features present would make you think her risk was low.

Mr Joseph replied: I asked her whats your plan today - do you have the intention of killing yourself - and she said "no".

Father Martyn Kemp, told the inquest: We as a family agree, she shouldnt have been allowed to leave the building without someone more senior seeing her.

On the day of Miss Kemp's death she was sent home by a mental health nurse after she was classed as 'low risk'

Dr Radcliffe added: Can you understand the parents concern that she had three suicide attempts, then has an appointment to see you as a result of that referral and essentially youre saying to her - continue the same.

You can understand how she might have felt - that there hadnt been any change or alternative offered as a way forward for her when she feels so utterly helpless.

Mr Joseph had only been working with the mental health team for three weeks before being assigned to Katie, previously he had worked with alcohol and drug addicts.

Dr Dudley-Cooke, had been qualified since 2011 and had six months of psychiatric experience and was 'well aware' of how important it was for Katie to get specialist help, the inquest heard.

Miss Kemp went home with her mother after the appointment on May 30 said she was feeling tired and went up to her bedroom.

An hour later Mrs Kemp went to check on her and found her hanging in her wardrobe.

Dr Radcliffe said: She needed to know that the symptoms she had were being taken seriously and sadly that was not the case.

We do not know if there had been the offer of some assistance that might have changed things.

We have heard from the trust, their investigation and how they are still thinking things through and how to do things better next time.

Miss Kemp, who lived with her family in Merton, was described as intelligent and attractive, she received a first class degree and had been working for a bio medical company.

She was a keen mountaineer and had been travelling with her boyfriend in Central America but had to return home after she attempted suicide, Westminster Coroners Court heard.

Miss Kemp was told by her GP that the Merton Mental Health Team would ring her but when she saw her GP again on 9 May, she said that she had a few missed calls from an unknown number but no messages.

An inquest heard Miss Kemp, pictured, had tried to kill herself three times in four weeks and health bosses in Merton are due to appear in court in April to explain how they intend to improve services

Her GPs referral was received by the mental health team on 11 May and it was allocated to Mr Joseph on 18 May.

There are three categories for referrals - emergency, dealt with in 24 hours; urgent, within a week and routine, within 28 days.

Dr Radcliffe said she was concerned why GPs referral was side-lined as routine when it was clearly urgent and why Mr Joseph was not provided more support from senior clinicians.

Merton Health Officials are due to appear before the court in April to explain how procedures are to be improved.

The coroner concluded that Miss Kemp had committed suicide as a result of her depression.Sydney's most notorious ferry, Ferry McFerryface, has continued its bad run after crashing into Balmain East wharf.

The new ferry, which has been at the centre of controversy for months because of its name, is now being inspected for damages at the Balmain shipyards.

None of the 60 passengers or crew were injured in the crash but Ferry McFerryface suffered minor damages when it collided with the wharf, the Daily Telegraph has reported.

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The Sydney ferry everyone loves to hate has continued its bad run by crashing into a wharf at Balmain

The ferry was given its contentious name after Transport Minister, Andrew Constance, announced that it had won the $100,000 public vote, but it was later revealed that he had picked the name out himself.

After a huge amount of public backlash to the ill-fated captains call it was announced that the ferry will soon be renamed.

The 11am crash meant that passengers travelling on the ferry had to be transferred from Balmain East to Barangaroo and Pyrmont Bay by the vessel Friendship, which was not operating a timetabled service at the time.

'The vessel has returned to the Balmain Shipyard where shipyard staff will inspect the damage,' a spokesperson for Harbour City Ferries said.

'The incident is currently under investigation and crew is undergoing mandatory drug and alcohol testing.'

The Balmain East wharf where ferry Mcferryface crashed. There were 60 people on-board plus crew but all were uninjured

Transport Minister Andrew Constance announced that it had won the public vote but it was later revealed that he had picked the name out himself

Harbour City Ferries says that it is not yet known when the boat will be back in service.

The name Ferry Mcferryface won a mere 182 votes in the public naming competition.

After the name was widely ridiculed, Mr Constance officially renamed the ferry May Gibbs after the children's author. The new name has not come into effect yet.

Once news of the crash broke, people took to social media to comment on the ferry's continuous mishaps.

'So even the ferry didnt want to live with that name,' one user wrote.

'Must of been off his Mcferryface,' said another.This is the mind-boggling moment a woman uses a baby as an umbrella during a rainstorm, sparking outrage on social media.

In night-time video footage, the lady - dressed in shorts and a T-shirt - can be seen holding the little girl above her head as she runs towards a car in a parking lot outside a shopping mall, believed to be in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

She then hesitates and darts back towards the shops, still holding aloft the poor child, who is wearing matching pink T-shirt and shorts, to protect herself from the downpour.

It is not known whether the woman is her mother but she clearly isn't concerned about the child catching a cold - just as long as her hair is kept nice and dry.

The clip, which has had almost 5million views on Twitter, was shot by an astonished onlooker in a car, who simply exclaims: 'Bruh!'

Not surprisingly, the rainstorm clip has generated a different sort of storm on social media.

One poster wrote: 'So instead of covering the baby's head, she just gone cover her head with the baby?'.

A woman was caught on camera using a baby as an umbrella during a rainstorm, sparking outrage on social media. She was seen holding the little girl above her head as she ran towards a car in a parking lot outside a shopping mall, believed to be in Baton Rouge, Louisiana

Another said: 'Wait... she's protecting her hair with who she's suppose to protect!?'

Meanwhile, one posted: 'Damn she low down... u at the store buy a umbrella.'

Finally, the tweet that summed up most people's feelings: 'I've honestly lost faith in the human race.'

Social media went into a frenzy after the 'baby umbrella' clip was postedTheresa May flatly rejected an EU power grab over Northern Ireland today after Brussels unveiled plans for the province to obey Brussels rules.

The Prime Minister gave an angry response as Eurocrats were accused of tabling demands that would effectively 'annex' Northern Ireland.

Mrs May said the proposals would 'undermine' the integrity and constitution of the UK.

'No UK Prime Minister could ever agree to it,' she told the House of Commons.

The backlash came after EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier published 'concrete' plans to avoid a hard Irish border amid a huge political row.

The blueprint would create a 'common regulatory area' on the island of Ireland covering areas such as customs, VAT, energy, environment, agriculture.

It brands the idea the 'default' option in the event no deal can be agreed by the UK and EU.

Democratic Unionist Party leader Arlene Foster condemned the draft as 'constitutionally unacceptable' and potentially 'catastrophic' for Northern Ireland.

Brexit Secretary David Davis wrote to Tory MPs tonight underlining the Government's commitment to protecting Northern Ireland.

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Theresa May gave an angry response at PMQs (pictured) as Eurocrats were accused of tabling demands that would effectively 'annex' Northern Ireland

The UK's preferred options for an open border controlled under a free trade agreement and using technology will not be set out in the draft treaty, published by Michel Barnier (pictured in Brussels today)

Questioned by journalists as he was out jogging this morning, Mr Johnson said he was a victim of dirty tricks by those who wanted to thwart Brexit. Mr Barnier denied that he was trying to shock the UK into staying in the customs union

The controversial idea implies that Northern Ireland will effectively stay inside the EU customs union and Single Market.

At a press conference in Brussels today, Mr Barnier insisted the UK should not be 'surprised' by the move and stressed the document was a 'draft'.

Mr Barnier denied that the plans would impinge on the territorial integrity of the UK, adding that the EU's stance was 'functional and operational'.

'My responsiblity is that we have a proposal for a functioning agreement,' he said. 'We have done this is a practical, pragmatic, legal fashion.'

He added: 'I know the constitutional order of the UK and we all have to respect that.

'We are trying, in practical and pragmatic termto respect institutions. I have listened and will continue to listen.'

Mr Barnier said he was not trying to cause 'shock waves' or throw the process into chaos. 'It was the UK that unilaterally had the referendumthey unilaterally issued the letter to leave in March next year,' he said.

'We are 13 months off that date  I am not trying to provoke anybody. I am not being arrogant in any way.

He said the Brexit negotiations were not about 'fine speeches' but thrashing out a legal treaty.

However, in a further threat Mr Barnier repeated his warning that a transition deal was 'not a given'.

But speaking at PMQs minutes later, Mrs May said: 'The draft legal text the Commission have published would, if implemented, undermine the UK common market and threaten the constitutional integrity of the UK by creating a customs and regulatory border down the Irish Sea.

'No UK prime minster could ever agree to it.

'I will be making it crystal clear to President Juncker and others that we will never do so.'

What are the options for the border between Northern Ireland and the Republic after Brexit? Theresa May and Jean-Claude Juncker agreed the outline of a divorce deal in December Theresa May and the EU effectively fudged the Irish border issue in the Brexit divorce deal before Christmas. But the commitments to leave the EU customs union, keep a soft border, and avoid divisions within the UK were always going to need reconciling at some stage. Currently 110million journeys take place across the border every year. All sides in the negotiations insist they want to avoid a hard border between Northern Ireland and the Republic, but their ideas for how the issues should be solved are very different. If they fail to strike a deal it could mean a hard border on the island - which could potentially put the Good Friday Agreement at risk. The agreement - struck in 1998 after years of tense negotiations and a series of failed ceasefires - brought to an end decades of the Troubles. More than 3,500 people died in the 'low level war' that saw British Army checkpoints manning the border between Northern Ireland and Ireland. Both London and Dublin fear reinstalling a hard border - whether by checkpoints or other means - would raise tensions and provoke a renewal of extremism or even violence if people and goods were not able to freely cross. The DUP - which opposed the Good Friday Agreement - is determined to maintain Northern Ireland inside the UK at all costs, while also insisting it wants an open border. The UK blueprint: The PM has made clear her favoured outcome for Brexit is a deep free trade deal with the EU. The UK side iniset out two options for how the border could look. One would see a highly streamlined customs arrangement, using a combination of technology and goodwill to minimise the checks on trade. There would be no entry or exit declarations for goods at the border, while 'advanced' IT and trusted trader schemes would remove the need for vehicles to be stopped. Boris Johnson has suggested that a slightly 'harder' border might be acceptable, as long as it was invisible and did not inhibit flow of people and goods. However, critics say that cameras to read number plates would constitute physical infrastructure and be unacceptable. The second option has been described as a customs partnership, which would see the UK collect tariffs on behalf of the EU - along with its own tariffs for goods heading into the wider British market. However, this option has been causing deep disquiet among Brexiteers who regard it as experimental. They fear it could become indistinguishable from actual membership of the customs union, and might collapse. Brussels has dismissed both options as 'Narnia' - insisting no-one has shown how they can work with the UK outside an EU customs union. The EU blueprint: The divorce deal set out a 'fallback' option under which the UK would maintain 'full alignment' with enough rules of the customs union and single market to prevent a hard border and protect the Good Friday Agreement. The inclusion of this clause, at the demand of Ireland, almost wrecked the deal until Mrs May added a commitment that there would also be full alignment between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK. But the EU has now translated this option into a legal text - and hardened it further to make clear Northern Ireland would be fully within the EU customs union. Mrs May says no Prime Minister could ever agree to such terms, as they would undermine the constitutional integrity of the UK. A hard border: Neither side wants a hard border between Northern Ireland and the Republic. But they appear to be locked in a cyclical dispute, with each adamant the other's solutions are impossible to accept. If there is no deal and the UK and EU reverts to basic World Trade Organisation (WTO) relationship, theoretically there would need to be physical border posts with customs checks on vehicles and goods. That could prove catastrophic for the Good Friday Agreement, with fears terrorists would resurface and the cycle of violence escalate. Many Brexiteers have suggested Britain could simply refuse to erect a hard border - and dare the EU to put up their own fences. Advertisement

In a letter to Conservative MPs, Mr Davis said: 'The UK Government remains steadfast in its commitment to avoiding a hard border between Northern Ireland and Ireland, but also in its commitment to avoiding any borders within our United Kingdom.

'We continue to stand behind all the commitments we made in December and we will work with the Commission to agree how they should be translated into legal form in the withdrawal agreement.

'But the draft legal text the Commission have published today would, if implemented, undermine the UK common market and constitutional integrity of the UK by creating a customs and regulatory border down the Irish Sea.'

Mrs Foster said: 'EU draft text is constitutionally unacceptable and would be economically catastrophic for Northern Ireland.

'I welcome the Prime Minister's commitment that HMG will not allow any new border in the Irish Sea.

'Northern Ireland must have unfettered access to GB market.'

Democratic Unionist Party leader Arlene Foster condemned the draft as 'constitutionally unacceptable' and potentially 'catastrophic' for Northern Ireland

Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson accused Eurocrats of using the Irish border 'politically' to force the whole UK to stay in the customs union.

David Jones, a former Brexit minister, said Brussels seemed to think it could simply 'annex' Northern Ireland. 'That is what it would amount to,' he said.

Britain accepted continued 'regulatory alignment' if trade talks fail during December's tense talks.

But making it the default choice has enraged Brexiteers.

The UK had indicated its preferred options are to keep the border 'soft' either by striking an overarching free trade agreement with the EU, or using technology such as cameras and electronic records to avoid physical checks.

However, neither option is included in the draft treaty published by Mr Barnier today as Brussels deems they have not been spelled out in enough detail by UK ministers.

The EU text describes a 'common regulatory area' between Northern Ireland and the Republic, covering areas such as customs, VAT, energy, environment, agriculture, product markets and more.

Brexit Secretary David Davis wrote to Tory MPs tonight underlining the Government's commitment to protecting Northern Ireland

The text adds: 'The territory of Northern Ireland, excluding the territorial waters of the United Kingdom... shall be considered to be part of the customs territory of the Union.'

A separate row is brewing over the legal enforcement of the withdrawal deal.

The EU draft states that the European Court of Justice (ECJ) must have the power to 'interpret and enforce' the agreement.

That would leave the UK subject to EU laws for decades - with Tory Brexiteer Jacob Rees-Mogg warning it would turn the UK into not just a 'vassal state' but a 'convict state'.

The document also spells out that sanctions will be imposed if the EU decides Britain has broken the rules during a transition period. 'The Union may suspend certain benefits deriving for the United Kingdom from participation in the internal market,' it says.

The incendiary developments come after a leaked Cabinet letter written by Mr Johnson suggested he had questioned the importance of the Irish border issue.

In the letter the Foreign Secretary raised the prospect of a harder border between Northern Ireland and the Republic if other solutions failed.

Mrs May has repeatedly insisted she will not accept a hard border involving inspection posts and checkpoints, following warnings this could undermine the Northern Ireland peace process.

But in the letter, Mr Johnson wrote that it was wrong to see the task as maintaining 'no border' on the island of Ireland after Brexit, saying the Government's task was to 'stop this border becoming significantly harder'.

Mr Barnier was armed with a sheaf of notes as he took to the stage for his press conference in Brussels today

Mrs May lashed back at Mr Barnier and the EU proposals as she took PMQs in the House of Commons today

Giving evidence to MPs this morning, Northern Ireland Secretary Karen Bradley tried to play down the spat

Brussels has drawn up a plan to put the post-Brexit customs border in the Irish Sea in a move which sets it on a collision course with Theresa May (pictured in Downing Street today)

The EU text sets out a 'common regulatory area' between Northern Ireland and the Republic, covering areas such as customs, VAT, energy, environment, and agriculture

He added: 'Even if a hard border is reintroduced, we would expect to see 95 per cent-plus of goods pass the border [without] checks.'

The missive drew anger from Labour, with shadow Northern Ireland spokesman Owen Smith saying Mr Johnson should be sacked if the letter was genuine.

'Boris Johnson's recklessness with our relationship with the Republic and the future of the Good Friday Agreement must be addressed by the PM,' he said.

But questioned by journalists as he was out jogging this morning, Mr Johnson said he was a victim of dirty tricks by those who wanted to thwart Brexit.

'The issue of the Northern Ireland border is being used politically to try to keep the UK in the customs union, effectively the single market, so we can't really leave the EU. That's what's going on,' he said.

Asked about the issue at PMQs today, Theresa May said: 'The Foreign Secretary and I both committed to ensuring we deliver on no hard border in Northern Ireland.

KEY POINTS IN DIVORCE DEAL TEXT ISSUED BY BRUSSELS The EU's legal draft of the Withdrawal Agreement, the principles of which were outlined by Theresa May and Jean-Claude Juncker before Christmas, is set to cause a series of flaming rows. Northern Ireland The document brands the idea of a 'common regulatory area' the 'default' option in the event no deal can be agreed by the UK and EU. The controversial idea implies that Northern Ireland will effectively stay inside the EU customs union and Single Market. It does not include commitments Mrs May made that there would be no regulatory divergence within the UK. Who enforces the agreement The EU draft states that the European Court of Justice (ECJ) must have the power to 'interpret and enforce' the agreement. That would leave the UK subject to EU laws for decades - with Tory Brexiteer Jacob Rees-Mogg warning it would turn the UK into not just a 'vassal state' but a 'convict state'. Free movement during transition The text states that EU citizens who arrive in the UK before the end of the transition period should keep permanent residency rights. The UK has insisted that ongoing free movement rights should end on the formal Brexit date next March. Sanctions The document spells out that sanctions will be imposed if the EU decides Britain has broken the rules during a transition period. 'The Union may suspend certain benefits deriving for the United Kingdom from participation in the internal market,' it says. Advertisement

'That is the position of the UK government, the parties of Northern Ireland and the position of the Irish Government, and it is what was agreed in December.

'We are all committed to ensuring there is no hard border in Northern Ireland.'

A No10 source said: 'The EU should be absolutely clear the Prime Minister is not going to sign up to anything that threatens the constitutional integrity of the UK or its common market.

'Nor will we accept the ECJ as the final arbiter of the agreement.'

One insider stressed the plan from Brussels is only a 'draft negotiating position by the EU, not a final binding text'.

Mr Jones told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: 'What is proposed is that Northern Ireland should remain part of the customs union, it should effectively be part of the single market, and should, I understand, remain subject to the European court of justice.

'That effectively amounts to an annexure of Northern Ireland by the European Union...

'I think that it would be pretty catastrophic and I think that the European Union in actually proposing this is behaving wholly irresponsibly.'

DUP MP Sammy Wilson said: 'The EU have been trying to manoeuvre the negotiations to ensure that the United Kingdom as a whole stays within the single market and customs union and have been using - or abusing - Northern Ireland to try and bring that situation about.'

Brexiteers are increasingly convinced that Remainers are coordinating their attacks on government policy with Brussels.

Mrs May is facing a potentially catastrophic Commons rebellion after Easter, with Tory rebels pledging to side with Labour to demand a customs union with the EU after Brexit.

Former PM Sir John Major is set to use a speech today to urge pro-Remain MPs to 'show leadership' by rejecting government plans for a clean break with the EU.

Irish Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said the legal text on Britain's withdrawal from the EU states there will not be a hard border with Northern Ireland.

'Some people were trying to suggest in the last couple of weeks that we over-spun, or oversold what was achieved in December. I think people will see today that that charge from the opposition (parties in Ireland) and others is not correct,' he said.

Mr Varadkar told Newstalk radio: 'Option C is how we can avoid a hard border. We set that out in legal terms today, it is very clear. 'In the same way that we have a common travel area between Britain and Ireland we could have a common regulatory area involving Northern Ireland.

WHEN WILL BRITAIN BE OUT OF THE EU? Britain triggered Article 50 on March 29, 2017, starting a two year process for leaving the EU: March 2018: Outline transition deal agreed, running for about two years June 2018: EU summit that Brussels says should consider broad principles of a future trade deal. October 2018: Political agreement on the future partnership due to be reached Early 2019: Major votes in Westminster and Brussels to ratify the deal March 29, 2019: Article 50 expires, Britain leaves the EU. Transition is expected to keep everything the same for about two years December 31, 2020: Transition expected to come to an end and the new relationship - if it has been agreed - should kick in Advertisement

'A lot of the rules of the customs and single market would apply in the north and that means there doesn't have to be a hard border so it is do-able. We've set it out in a legal text.'

Mr Varadkar said his Government would prefer to see what is being classed as 'Option A' - a new relationship between the UK and EU that is so close that a border is unnecessary.

'It's up to the UK to bring proposals to the table to make that possible and I hope that we will see some indication in Theresa May's, the Prime Minister's speech on Friday as to how they intend to do that,' Mr Varadkar said.

'It's not OK for people - whether it's pro-Brexit politicians in Britain or people from parties in Northern Ireland - to just say no now. It's incumbent on them if they can't accept the backstop then they must detail how Option A or B would work.'

Giving evidence to MPs this morning, Northern Ireland Secretary Karen Bradley tried to play down the spat.

'The British government stands resolutely behind the joint report of December,' she said. '

'That means that, as the joint report says very clearly, there will be no hard border.

'We have said that, the Irish government have said that, the EU have said that. No new physical infrastructure at the border.

'And that is north-south, but also east-west. So, to be absolutely clear, the constitutional and economic integrity of the United Kingdom is paramount and something that the United Kingdom government will ensure is what we achieve.'

Mr Johnson, pictured out running today, insisted his letter to the Cabinet had been twisted by political opponents

What customs arrangements do Norway, Turkey and Switzerland have with the EU? Theresa May has insisted Brexit means quitting the EU customs union - so the UK can strike free trade deals with other countries. But this means that customs checks on goods will probably need to be carried out at the border - creating the spectre of long border queues. Critics of the PM's approach say the UK should stay in a customs union with the bloc to avoid these hard border controls. Below are three customs deals the EU has done with countries outside the bloc: The Norway Option: Norway voted narrowly against joining the EU in 1994, but shares a 1000-mile border with Sweden which is in the bloc. The Norwegian government decided to negotiate a deal which gave it very close ties with the EU. It is part of the EU single market which means it must accept EU rules on the free movement of people. But it is not in the customs union - meaning it sets its own tariffs on customs coming from outside the EU and so must carry out border checks. There are some 1,300 customs officials who are involved in policing the border with Sweden, and have invested substantial amounts in technology to make these as quick and smooth as possible. They have IT systems which pre-declare goods to customs and they are developing a system which will allow lorries carrying pre-declared goods to be waved through. Norway also pays large amounts into the EU budget and is governed by the court of the European Free Trade Association (EFTA). Switzerland (border pictured) is not in the EU customs union - which means that checks on goods crossing over the border from non-EU countries are carried The Switzerland Option: Switzerland is one of the EU's longest-standing trading partners, but the country voted against joining the bloc in 2001. It is a member of the EU single market and has signed up to the Schengen area - meaning it must accept free movement rules and does not carry out passport check on other member countries. But it is not in the EU customs union - which means that checks on goods crossing over the border from non-EU countries are carried out. The situation tosses up some anomalies. For instance, a passenger travelling through Geneva Airport can rent a car on the French side of the border for around half of the cost of renting it on the Swiss side. Border checks are carried out on goods but customs officials say they use intelligence to carry out spot checks, which can be carried out several miles from the border. However, there can be long delays as goods are checked at the border. The Turkey Option: Turkey(its border with Bulgaria pictured) has long eyed up membership of the EU and first tried to start the lengthy application process to join in 1987. Turkey has long eyed up membership of the EU and first tried to start the lengthy application process to join in 1987. The country signed a customs union with the bloc in 1995 - a move Turkey's rulers hoped would be a stepping stone on the way to full membership. Turkey's hopes to join the bloc faded over the past few years and have been all but abandoned under President Erdogan after he instigated a major purge of political opponents in the wake of the failed coup against him in 2016. Under its customs union Turkey must follow EU rules on the production of goods without a say in making them. It also means that Turkey can only strike free trade deals on goods which are negotiated by Brussels. Advertisement

WHY DO THE CUSTOMS UNION AND SINGLE MARKET MATTER AND WHAT COULD HAPPEN AFTER BREXIT? When Britain stays in a custom union with Brussels (the European Commissions headquarters is pictured) is one of the main points of Brexit contention The customs union and single market have emerged as crucial battlegrounds in the struggle over Brexit. The customs arrangements could decide the fate of the overall deal - as the UK has already said it will ensure there is no hard border between Northern Ireland and the Republic. Here are the main options for what could happen after Britain leaves the bloc. Staying in the EU single market A Norway-style arrangement would be the deepest possible without formally staying in the EU. The single market rules out tariffs, quotas or taxes on trade, and guarantees free movement of goods, services, capital and - controversially - people. It also seeks to harmonise rules on packaging, safety and standards. Staying in the EU customs union The customs union allows EU states to exchange goods without tariffs, and impose common tariffs on imports from outside the bloc. But they also prevent countries from striking deals outside the union. Theresa May has repeatedly made clear that the UK will be leaving the customs union. Forging a new customs union Some MPs and the Labour leadership have raised the idea of creating a new customs union with the EU. This could be looser than the existing arrangements, but still allow tariff free trade with the bloc. However, many Eurosceptics believe it is impossible to be in a union without hampering the UK's ability to strike trade deals elsewhere. They also complain that it would mean accepting the EU's 'protectionist' tariffs against other parts of the world in areas like agriculture. The PM has also ruled out this option. A customs partnership Less formal than a union, this proposal would seek to cherry pick the elements that facilitate tariff-free trade - without binding the UK's hands when it comes to deals with other countries. One possibility could be keeping the UK and EU connected for trade in goods, but allowing divergence for the services sector. The partnership option was floated by the government in a position paper last year. 'Highly streamlined' customs This scenario would be a 'bare minimum' customs arrangement between the EU and UK. New technology would be deployed alongside a simple agreement to minimise friction. But there are fears that this could hit trade, and it is unclear how the system would work with a 'soft' Irish border. Advertisement

Boris Johnson hits back in Irish border row saying Remainers are 'politicising' the peace process in Northern Ireland

The Foreign Secretary (pictured jogging in London today) claimed he was a victim of dirty tricks after documents emerged suggesting he had questioned the importance of the Irish border issue

Boris Johnson lashed back in the Irish border row today accusing Remainers of 'politicising' the Northern Ireland peace process in a bid to keep Britain in the EU.

The Foreign Secretary claimed he was a victim of dirty tricks after documents emerged suggesting he had questioned the importance of the Irish border issue.

In a leaked letter to Theresa May, Boris Johnson suggested he would be willing to accept a so-called 'hard border' between Northern Ireland and the Republic if other solutions failed.

Mrs May has repeatedly insisted she will not accept a hard border involving inspection posts and checkpoints, following warnings this could undermine the Northern Ireland peace process.

But in the letter, Mr Johnson wrote that it was wrong to see the task as maintaining 'no border' on the island of Ireland after Brexit, saying the Government's task was to 'stop this border becoming significantly harder'.

He added: 'Even if a hard border is reintroduced, we would expect to see 95 per cent-plus of goods pass the border [without] checks.'

The letter emerged after Mr Johnson faced criticism yesterday for likening the Irish border to the boundaries between London boroughs.

The former London mayor said 'there's no border between Camden and Westminster' as he suggested that goods crossing between the Republic and Northern Ireland could be subject to electronic checks, in an apparent reference to the congestion charge.

But his suggestion was dismissed as 'wilful recklessness' by Labour MPs.

In his letter to the Prime Minister, which was obtained by Sky News, Mr Johnson pointed out that there was already a border between north and south, saying it was 'of course a fallacy' that Brexit could see a border re-emerge.

Shadow Northern Ireland spokesman Owen Smith said Mr Johnson should be sacked if the letter was genuine.Geely denies using money from state-owned asset on Daimler stake acquisition

Shanghai (Gasgoo)- On Tuesday, Yang Xueliang, vice president of Geely Automobile Group, restated that the Hangzhou-based company didnt use domestic funds to acquire Daimlers stakes, as a response to the speculations on the fund sources.

Last week, Geely announced that with a 9.7 percent stake in Daimler, it has become the largest shareholder of the German automaker. Based on Daimlers share price, it is calculated that the deal price is about 9 billion dollars, which was denied by Li Donghui, Geelys executive vice president.

Even though Geely has made it clear that the deal is to be completed via overseas investment subjects, kinds of speculation on funds sources follow. Reports said that the capital was mainly from a local state-owned asset with a small amount from overseas. The acquisition is likely to be similar to that of acquiring Volvo Cars eight years ago.

The report also pointed out that Cedarlake Capital, as the fund supporter, helped Geely complete the deal. The investment company was founded in 2016 by Bao Yi, former CEO of Morgan Stanley's Huaxin Securities and Managing Director of Morgan Stanley Asia, and other international investment leaders.

However, Bloomberg quoted the words of people familiar with the matter, saying that Bank of American Corp. led the transaction with the help of Morgan Stanley. Relevant parties declined to comment on the report.More than 150 people have been arrested since the weekend in the greater San Francisco area who are suspected of violating immigration laws.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents say about half of those detained have criminal convictions for assault and battery, crimes against children, weapons charges and DUI.

A top Immigration and Customs Enforcement official quoted by the Los Angeles Times said that he believed others were able to avoid being arrested after the Oakland mayor warned people who were in the area about the forthcoming raids.

ICE officers have been ordered by President Trump to clamp down on illegal immigration in Califronia - he said there would be a crime wave if they did not do their work (file picture)

US Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers say they have arrested are least 150 undocumented immigrants since the weekend in the San Francisco area (file picture, ICE officers)

Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf (left) argued it was her 'ethical obligation' to issue warnings ahead of the raids which are supported by President Trump (right)

Mayor Libby Schaaf said she had heard from multiple sources that immigration agents would be conducting enforcement operations 'starting as soon as within the next 24 hours' and urged those in the area illegally to take precautions.

The message stunned many, The Los Angeles Times said, and on Monday some of that surprise turned to confusion and anger as large-scale immigration sweeps did not materialize.

ICE Deputy Director Thomas D. Homan condemned 'sanctuary laws' in San Francisco and Oakland, saying they endanger immigration officers.

'Sanctuary jurisdictions like San Francisco and Oakland shield dangerous criminal aliens from federal law enforcement at the expense of public safety,' he said.

Protesters against the arrests of illegal immigrants have been held across California in recent months

Protesters say the arrests of illegal migrants are unfair, unethical and discriminatory

Mayor Schaaf (right) has argued that it is Oakland's legal right to be a sanctuary city and her administration had not broken any laws

'Because these jurisdictions prevent ICE from arresting criminal aliens in the secure confines of a jail, they also force ICE officers to make more arrests out in the community, which poses increased risks for law enforcement and the public.'

'The Oakland mayor's decision to publicize her suspicions about ICE operations further increased that risk for my officers and alerted criminal aliens  making clear that this reckless decision was based on her political agenda with the very federal laws that ICE is sworn to uphold.'

Democrat politicians and some Californian officials have expressed strong reservations about President Trump's crackdown on illegal immigration, arguing they are are unfair and discriminatory.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement Acting Director Thomas Homan has strongly condemned Mayor Schaaf's decision to give advance warning of the raids

Tensions have risen in recent weeks as administration officials have talked about targeting California for increased immigration enforcement. Trump last week said he was contemplating a withdrawal of Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents from the state, predicting that in turn could cause a crime wave.

Holman said that 864 immigrants with criminal histories are still at large despite the raids and that 'some of them were able to elude us thanks to the mayor's irresponsible decision'.

Among those on the run are Oakland residents with multiple prior removal orders, said James Schwab, a spokesman for ICE in San Francisco, a field office that spans nearly counties from Bakersfield to the Oregon border.

They include people convicted of carrying a loaded firearm and selling drugs, and another suspected of transporting cocaine and having sex with a minor.

Immigration 'detainers' lodged against them have been 'repeatedly ignored', Schwab said. 'Instead they have been released back into the community to potentially re-offend.'

In a statement Tuesday night, Schaaf stood by her decision to go public.

'My statement on Saturday was meant to give all residents time to learn their rights and know their legal options. It was my intention that one mother, or one father, would use the information to help keep their family together,' the mayor said.

'I do not regret sharing this information. It is Oakland's legal right to be a sanctuary city and we have not broken any laws. We believe our community is safer when families stay together.'

San Francisco Mayor Mark Farrell released a statement saying that the city won't 'cower' as the 'administration pursues their political plan of haphazardly punishing sanctuary cities.'

In fiscal year 2017, ICE arrested 20,201 people across the state, Schwab said. Of those, he said, 81 percent had criminal convictions.

Some of those who were arrested in the latest sweep will be prosecuted for returning to the country after deportation, Schwab said. One person arrested in Bay Point had been removed from the country eight times.

Another, a documented Sureno gang member identified as Armando Nunez-Salgado, has four prior removals, Schwab said. Over the last 18 years, he added, the 38-year-old has been convicted of assault with a deadly weapon, burglary, hit-and-run causing injury and evading a peace officer.

But dozens of people caught in the sweep have no criminal histories, Vcstar.com reported. Although the raids prioritized people who pose a threat, officials said anyone violating immigration laws were subject to arrest.A bridegroom in New Delhi has been killed by a stray bullet after a member of his wedding party opened fire to celebrate the occasion.

Deepak Kumar, 21, was shot while leading the party to his bride's home in the Indian capital on Tuesday evening.

Police said a guest dancing with the wedding party opened fire but a stray round struck the husband-to-be.

A New Delhi wedding ended in tragedy when the groom was hit by a stray celebratory bullet (File picture)

The victim was a bus conductor and the sole breadwinner of his family, it was reported.

'He collapsed and was rushed to hospital where he was declared dead after midnight,' Nupur Prasad, deputy commissioner of Delhi police, told AFP.

Firing weapons in the air at weddings and other festivities is a common celebration across South Asia and is known as 'ghudchadhi' in India.

The practice is illegal in India but remains rife, though fatalities are relatively few.

Prasad said the groom's family had identified the man who fired the bullet.

One of the guests said that firing guns in the air at weddings is a family tradition (File picture)

'It is an ongoing investigation and we are trying to ascertain the source of his weapon,' he said.

Amit, one of the wedding guests, told the Times of India newspaper there 'were a couple of people carrying guns for celebratory firing, which is considered a tradition in the family'.

Police have not yet managed to recover the gun, the paper reported.

The incident was reported around 8.30pm and police arrived at the scene soon after.

The groom's relatives had by then taken him to Guru Teg Bahadur Hospital.

Police are looking to interview the videographer, who left after the shooting, as well as others who attended the wedding, the Times of India said.

In 2016 a groom was accidentally blasted in the head by a guest at his own wedding in India - but somehow survived.A drink driver who was caught taking a shortcut down a flight of steps to avoid a carnival but ended up wedged against a wall has been handed a four-month suspended prison sentence.

The reveller was filmed performing the brainless manoeuvre in his Mercedes after a night out at a Gran Canaria carnival.

He told police who arrested him he had taken the shortcut after discovering a road was closed in the town of Arguineguin because of a carnival procession.

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A drink driver who was caught taking a shortcut down a flight of steps has been handed a four-month suspended prison sentence and slapped with an eight-month driving ban

The unnamed 42-year-old, who comes from the capital Las Palmas, accepted his punishment along with an eight-month driving ban after appearing before a judge on Tuesday.

Footage taken by a passer-by showing him reaching the bottom of the steps in his Mercedes A-class before finding his path blocked by two parked cars.

The driver was sentenced by a criminal court in San Bartolome de Tirajana after admitting his guilt.

A court official, who identified him only by his initials J.L.R, said: 'He has accepted a four month prison sentence, which he won't have to serve because he has got no previous convictions, and an eight month driving ban.'

Revealing he had agreed to the punishment after refusing to take a breath test when he was stopped by police, he added: 'It has been found proven that the accused was driving through Arguineguin on Saturday night and decided to take a short cut down a steep flight of steps when he found the road blocked by a carnival procession.

'He didn't pull the manoeuvre off because he ended up practically trapped against a wall.

The reveller was filmed performing the brainless manoeuvre in his Mercedes after a night out at a Gran Canaria carnival. He told police who arrested him he had taken the shortcut after discovering a road was closed in the town of Arguineguin because of a carnival procession

'When police reached the scene the driver, who was showing obvious signs of being under the influence of drink, refused to take a breath test.

'He appeared in court on Tuesday and admitted his guilt.'

Last July another Spanish drink driver ended up on steps in a pedestrian square nearly 150 miles from his intended destination.

The driver was filmed asking a police officer when he appeared on the scene as he tried to reverse the vehicle whether he had reached Badajoz - despite being in Seville 135 miles south.

The 40-year-old motorist was later found to be four times over the drink-drive limit.A young American tourist was arrested on Wednesday after allegedly raping then stabbing to death a Cambodian masseuse.

Shawn Sanchez, 24, is said to have been in a room with Luk Chak, 27, on Tuesday night at the massage parlour in Kep district, Cambodia.

The mother-of-one was later found dead in a blood bath with her trousers pulled down to her ankles and her top pulled up just after 8pm in the Prey Thom district of the city.

Officers said Sanchez had been seen on CCTV and by witnesses leaving the building, named Lida Khmer Massage.

Shawn Sanchez (left and right) is said to have been in a room with the woman on Tuesday night at the massage parlour in Kep district, Cambodia

Police launched a manhunt checking local bars and hotels.

He was later arrested in neighbouring Kampot province at 8am on Wednesday having allegedly left his guesthouse in a taxi last night.

The tourist from Colorado was pictured at the police station with scratches to the left side of his neck.

One mugshot shows him sitting at a desk in his underpants with a knife allegedly found in his pocket aid out before him.

Officers claim that he was carrying the knife among his belongings which also included two mobile phones, a wallet, Mastercard and around 400 dollars in notes.

Luk Chuk, 27, was later found dead in a pool of blood in the room at the massage parlour

Cambodian police confirmed the arrest over the rape and murder of the young massage girl, who is also a policeman's daughter.

Lt. Col. Man Sour Ov, Kep provincial police commissioner, said Luk Chak had recently started working at the massage shop after giving birth to her young eight-month-old daughter.

He said: 'The victim is the wife of Pok Soun Vibol, 27, a rice farmer, who has an eight-month-old daughter with her.

'The victim's father-in-law, Sok Sam Ath, a lieutenant colonel and a Kep provincial military commander.

Cambodian police confirmed the arrest over the rape and murder of the young massage girl, who is also a policeman's daughter

The mother-of-one was later found dead in a blood bath with her trousers pulled down to her ankles and her top pulled up just after 8pm in the Prey Thom district of the city

'After the murders and the authorities were given a forensic examination, this morning, competent cops finished examining the scene and handed the victim's body to the family for the traditional festivals. '

Police said that two witnesses - the owners of the massage shop and a massage therapist - claim that he was in the massage and killed the young mother.

The taxi driver allegedly said he was the one who had taken Sanchez to the neighbouring city last night.

Lieutenant General Mao Chandemith, Kampot provincial police chief, said that Sanchez had arrived in the region on February 26.

Officers claim that he was carrying the knife among his belongings which also included two mobile phones, a wallet, Mastercard and around 400 dollars in notes

Officers said Sanchez had been seen on CCTV and by witnesses leaving the building, named Lida Khmer Massage

He added: 'Sanchez came to Kep on February 26 and was staying at a guesthouse until February 28 when he left at 8am by taxi to Kampot province.'

Lt. Col. Ieng Sam Ol, provincial police chief of Kep province, confirmed today (Wed) that Sanchez had been arrested over the murder.

He added: 'The case is proceeding with all the evidence being gathered. We believe the man used a knife to kill the woman.

'The victim had been raped and then the perpetrator killed her to silence her.'This is the shocking moment a woman in Saudi Arabia attacked a chef in a restaurant with karate kicks after first throwing her shoe at him.

The man - believed to be working at the Abu Zaid diner in Jeddah - was called from his kitchen to confront the angry customer, dressed all in black.

Without warning, she hurls her footwear at him - which, in Middle Eastern culture, is seen as an incredibly offensive insult.

With lightning-quick reflexes, he ducks to avoid it but is not so lucky when she launches phase two of her assault.

This is the moment a chef (left) - believed to be working at the Abu Zaid diner in Jeddah - was called from his kitchen to confront an angry female customer

The woman was caught on camera hurling her shoe at the man - an action deemed to be an incredibly offensive insult in Middle Eastern culture

Without warning, the woman kicks the man in his stomach, sending him reeling back - and then kicks him again

She immediately executes a ninja-like kick to his stomach, which pushes him backwards as his colleagues look on in amazement.

She kicks him again and then swings her arm wide before throwing a punch, narrowly missing both the chef and a co-worker.

After one final half-hearted kick in his direction, she points her finger as if to scold him.

The clip, which was posted on Liveleak, doesn't make clear why she was so angry.

One would assume it was not to do with the quality of the food, which has a 4.5 star rating on TripAdvisor.

In 2014, several restaurants in Saudi Arabia banned single women from entering because of their 'mentally unstable' behaviour such as flirting, smoking and using mobile phones.

The irate lady then tried to punch the man, while a co-worker looked on in amazement

A number of eateries put up signs that said 'women are not allowed' - in a blow for women's rights in the ultra-conservative Muslim kingdom.

There is no law banning women from travelling alone in Saudi Arabia but deeply-held religious beliefs dictate that they should be accompanied by a male family member when out in public.

The country has recently started to loosen its rules, including allowing women to drive - having been the last country in the world to forbid it - and hosting a mixed-gender national day.Norway plans to ban semi-automatic firearms as of 2021, a decade after right-wing extremist Anders Behring Breivik's mass shooting that left 69 people dead.

A bill proposing the ban was presented last year by the Norwegian government, and there is a parliamentary majority in support ahead of a vote, a lawmaker has said.

Plans for the ban has been underway since 2012, with the delay in drafting the proposal attributed to many hunters in Norway using semi-automatic firearms.

Murderer: The ban on semi-automatic weapons would come into force decade after right-wing extremist Anders Behring Breivik shot and killed 69 people, mostly teenagers, at a youth camp

The bill allows for several exemptions, in particular for shooting sports, but was not immediately clear how the new law would affect hunters.

'Today (Tuesday), it has become clear that there is a parliamentary majority in favour of the government's proposal. Semi-automatic weapons will therefore be banned in Norway,' Peter Frolich, a Conservative member of parliament's standing committee on judicial affairs, told AFP.

The Utoya massacre in Norway took place on July 22, 2011, when Breivik entered a Norway Labour Party youth camp disguised as a police officer.

Armed with a Ruger Mini-14 semi-automatic rifle and a Glock pistol, Breivik killed 69 people, most of them teenagers.

Just a few hours before the camp attack, he had killed eight people in a bombing outside a government building in Oslo.

Plans for the ban has been underway since 2012, with the delay in drafting the proposal attributed to many hunters in Norway using semi-automatic firearms

A report published the following year by a commission tasked with drawing conclusions from the attacks, called for a ban on semi-automatic weapons, one of its 31 recommendations.

'This decision is a very good thing, even if it comes belatedly,' the head of a Utoya victims' support group, Lisbeth Kristine Royneland, said.

Breivik, 39, who now goes by the name Fjotolf Hansen, was sentenced in 2012 to 21 years in prison, which can be extended indefinitely as long as he remains a threat to society.

The ban comes amid renewed debate on semi-automatic weapons in the United States, following the school shooting in Parkland, Florida that claimed the lives of 17 students and teachers on February 14.

A former student, Nikolas Cruz, 19, who authorities say was expelled last year for unspecified disciplinary problems and had numerous run-ins in the law, has been charged with 17 counts of premeditated murder.

He is accused of carrying out the shooting rampage with a semiautomatic AR-15-style assault weapon that he legally purchased from a licensed gun dealer last year, when he was 18 years of age.A teenage model who was sexually assaulted in a busy train station just yards away from her mother has waived her right to anonymity to urge other victims to speak out.

Hariotte Lane was groped as she walked through the barriers at Newcastle Central Station after visiting a friend in Barnsley.

The 16-year-old was no more than 10 feet away from her mother Sarah who was there to collect her when Steven Cartwright, 55, touched her in August last year.

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Hariotte Lane, 16, (pictured) was groped as she walked through the barriers at Newcastle Central Station after visiting a friend in Barnsley

Hariotte (pictured) became a teen beauty queen after being bullied for being six foot tall

It was the first time the current Miss Teen Tyne & Wear Galaxy had been allowed to travel on her own, making her feel 'grown up'.

But as her mother caught sight of her she saw her in floods of tears. Now she says the ordeal has left her feeling 'sick, anxious' and unable to travel alone.

Harriotte, of West Allotment, North Tyneside, explained: 'It was the first time I'd travelled alone and felt really responsible and grown up.

'I'd travelled on trains with my mum so many times for modelling jobs so I knew it wasn't a problem.

'I had my hands full with my suitcase and handbag and walked through the underpass.

'He walked past and grabbed me on my bum, it was humiliating.

The 16-year-old (pictured at home in North Tyneside) was no more than 10 feet away from her mother Sarah who was there to collect her when Steven Cartwright, 55, touched her in August last year

'In that moment I felt disgusted in myself. I instantly got upset and shouted 'you can't do that'. He just walked off, it was overwhelming.

'I didn't realise it was something serious enough to complain about but when mum told me otherwise I felt like something could actually be done about it.'

Harriotte had to go through the station underpass to exit the station building, which is where she was confronted by Cartwright. She was wearing denim cut-off jeans, a sweater and trainers.

After explaining what happened to her mother, Ms Lane shouted at some police officers patrolling the station, who chased after her attacker and arrested him.

Harriotte, who was teased for being six foot tall as a 13-year-old, said the full impact of what happened only hit her a few days later before the incident played out in court - and continues to affect her to this day.

The fashion business and retail student said: 'I was definitely more withdrawn and had bad anxiety because of it.

Now Hariotte (pictured) says the ordeal has left her feeling 'sick, anxious' and unable to travel alone

'I felt sick, dizzy, out of breath and scared. I still can't bear to be in a crowd with people behind me, it freaks me out.

'The first time I went back on a train to go to a modelling job in London a week later, I was in a state as it brought back memories of what happened and made me worried it would happen again.

'Coming back from London, knowing we would be arriving at Newcastle train station, was difficult.

'I was physically sick all the way home from York onwards and just couldn't stop and was shaking.

'I couldn't travel on the train for a good while after that..'

Steven Cartwright of Newton Aycliffe, pleaded guilty to two counts of sexual assault at North Tyneside Magistrates' Court on February 15 2018.

He was sentenced to 250 hours of community service, 20 days of rehabilitation and was ordered to pay 100 compensation and to sign the sex offenders' register for five years.

Harriotte's mother, a marketing director, said the assault had stolen part of her daughter's childhood.

Steven Cartwright of Newton Aycliffe, pleaded guilty to two counts of sexual assault at North Tyneside Magistrates' Court on February 15 2018 after assaulting Harriotte (pictured)

The 44-year-old said: 'I met her at the train station and was smiling and waving at her as I hadn't seen her for a week and was all excited.

'I was waiting on what I thought was the other side of the exit barrier but it wasn't, so Harriotte walked round and had to go under the footbridge.

'The station was absolutely rammed at the time. I was no more than 10ft from the footbridge and she wasn't out of my sight until she had to walk underneath.

'Harriotte had gone from laughing and smiling while walking past the barriers to tears pouring down her face when she came out of the underpass.

'You could see she was distressed and didn't know what to do, she was in a right state.

'When I asked her what had happened she was just shaking her head, then she said 'a man touched me'.

'There was a policeman directly behind me so I shouted over and within minutes they caught him.

Hariotte is pictured with her mother Sarah Lane, who shouted to police officers at the station, who managed to catch and arrest her attacker

'Harriotte first thought was that it wasn't 'enough of an assault' for the police to be involved, it's horrible to think we need a 'quantity' of it.

'She blamed herself and felt she'd maybe got it wrong.

'I felt so angry and upset, I can't even put it into words. It's so disgusting to do it to any human being, it's such a violation.

'It was her first time travelling on her own. It should have been one of those moments of being grown up - getting older and being trusted to go out and about on your own.

'Instead it took away some of her childhood innocence, you don't want to have to explain to your child that kind of thing.'

Harriotte has made the brave decision to share her experience to highlight what she went through and encourage others to speak out.

She said: 'I want to be able to educate people to let them know it's not okay.

'In the moment you need to know that and that the people doing it can't get away with it.

'The more I speak about it and the more people group together and know that, the better.

'I think the Me Too campaign is so inspiring - it's great that everyone involved is taking a stand, showing you don't have to bottle it up and that there's nothing to be embarrassed about.'

Harriotte was always taller than the average height for girls her age when she was growing up - at five she was was three inches taller and by the time she was 10 she was almost six inches taller.

Based on her current growth rate, doctors believe Harriotte - who lives with mother, Sarah, father, Bill, and brother, William, - will grow to be 6ft 3in tall.

Her height has left her suffering with low blood pressure that often leads to blackouts.

She also had to face bullies growing up, but managed to prove her critics wrong by entering several junior beauty pageants.

Detective Chief Superintendent Paul Furnell, head of crime and public protection at British Transport Police, said of the case: 'Tackling sexual offences and any form of abuse on the railway is a priority for British Transport Police.

'We have worked hard in recent years to provide swift support to victims and ensure that any report of an offence of this nature will be taken seriously and will be investigated.

'Our 'Report It To Stop It' campaign aims to encourage victims to report any unwanted sexual behaviour that they may experience on the rail network and I would encourage anyone who is subjected to any form of harassment or abuse to inform us as soon as they reasonably can.

'Time is of the essence, not only for us to respond to your report, but also to get you support should you need it - every report helps us to build a picture of offending behaviour and gives us the ability to target perpetrators.

'We have specially trained officers who work hard to identify and find those who are responsible.

'If you are a victim of a sexual offence or any form of unacceptable behaviour or harassment then please text British Transport Police on 61016 or call 0800 40 50 40.'A headteacher has sparked a fierce debate after telling the parents of children who missed out on a school trip to Wembley that 'disappointment is a fact of life'.

Sixteen pupils from Alice Ingham Primary school in Rochdale are going to London tomorrow to watch their home town club take on Tottenham Hotspur in an FA Cup fifth round replay.

It is only the second time the side have played at Wembley in the club's 111-year history.

Some parents were angry at this letter they received from the headteacher saying 'disappointment is a fact of life' after their children missed out on tickets for the FA Cup

But yesterday dozens more children, some thought to be as young as seven, who applied to go to the match were told they'd missed out on a place.

And in a letter to parents sent home on Monday night, widely shared on Facebook, executive headteacher Monica Walczak wrote it was an 'ideal opportunity' to help those children 'face disappointment and build resilience'.

The letter has split opinion on social media, with some parents saying the kids are too young to be taught such a lesson.

But others have backed the school and accused parents of being over-protective.

Mrs Walczak wrote: 'The positive response to the visit is beyond what we imagined.

'Given the disappointment that this has brought to the children it would have been very easy to have made the decision not to consider this trip.

'However part of our job as educators, both teachers and parents, is to help our children face disappointment and build resilience.

'This project has been an ideal opportunity for that and I hope that the children who are disappointed tonight will be all the stronger for this in the future.

The letter has split opinion on social media, with some parents saying the kids are too young to be taught such a lesson. Pictured: File photo of the Alice Ingham R C Primary School

'In KS2 (Key Stage Two) it is a hard lesson, but as adults know all too well, disappointment is a fact of life.'

Sarah Price has nine-year-old twin boys at Alice Ingham, one of whom wanted to go to Wembley.

She said: 'The way it's been handled is appalling and the wording of the letter home, saying "disappointment is a fact of life", was terrible. The children are not mature enough to understand.'

Rebecca Cooper, whose 11-year-old son attends Alice Ingham, said: 'The way it's been handled is ruthless. It's alright saying disappointment is a fact of life' but these kids are too young for that.'

Mrs Walczak declined to comment when contacted.Advertisement

A second day of heavy snow has sparked travel chaos, with hundreds of schools forced to close across the country.

Despite the inconvenience, MailOnline readers from across the country have seized the chance to take these brilliant images of Britain covered in thick layers of snow.

Readers from Glasgow, Kent and Surrey have sent in their images from around their homes, with thick layers of snow a common feature throughout.

Photographs from Medway, Epsom and Cumbria also feature following a night of sub-zero temperatures and wintry conditions.

The 'Beast from the East' has heaped more misery on commuters, with trains, planes and road traffic also affected by the adverse weather conditions.

** Have you taken pictures of the snow in Britain today? Please email them to: pictures@mailonline.co.uk **

Winter wonderland: This was the scene in Glasgow's west end today and the picture was sent in by Anna Sullivan

Ms Sullivan also sent in this picture of Glasgow

Diva the sausage dog was wrapped up warm today as she braved the elements. Her owner, Charlie Osman, sent this picture in

Ruth Jones from Manchester sent this picture in. Midge the dog enjoyed the snowfall

Thousands of snowmen were built across the country as the UK was blasted by the Beast from the East. This picture was sent in by Gloria Hunter, of Cringleford, near Norwich

This eerie image was sent in by MailOnline reader Amelia Ward. It shows a snowy graveyard in Norwich

Oliver, a Pekingese, was protected from the chilly weather by his long hair. His owner, Lorraine Jessop, sent this snap in from Clacton-on-Sea

Brrrrrr! Despite wearing a coat, Charlie the horse was keen to get back in stable in Hedley on the Hill. His owner, Beverley Phillips, submitted this picture

This stunning picture by Philippa Wilson shows a fountain of a dolphin and child which had frozen overnight near Tower Bridge, London. Not only had the water from the feature frozen into icicles, but so did the pool underneath the figurine

This puppy looks like it enjoyed what would have been one of its first taste of snow in Melmerby, Cumbria. Sent in by MailOnline reader Megan Hammond

These stunning images of a pony and a horse were taken on the Llyn Peninsula in North Wales this morning by James Tatham. The horse on the right heeded the weather warnings and was sure to wrap up in its own coat

Readers wrap up warm and enjoy a snowy day in Richmond Park, London, throwing snow into the air and onto each other. This picture was sent in by Hera Amin

Claire Shaw sent in pictures of young Annabel helped along as she plays in snow for the first time (left). She can't help but smile as she rolls around in the snow

Ryan Adams took this photograph last night as the impending snow storm approached the moonlit, clear sky in Sherburn Hill, County Durham

Ruth Crane's son Mason did not seem to impressed by the weather today. Although it was his idea to go outside, he appears to be regretting his decision

This brilliant picture of Buckingham Palace in the snow was taken by Julia Miller-Bakewell. The snow around the gates of the palace remains untouched as a number of cars pass by

Seven-year-old Nell proudly holds up the huge snowball she had rolled up during a walk in the forest in Holton Le Moor, Lincolnshire. Her mother Louise Smith sent in this brilliant picture

Lisa Finch's photographs from Norfolk show the intense wintry conditions faced by some out in the countryside

A great picture taken by Sue Donovan of a sheep with snow on its face in Bressingham, Norfolk

Pictures of Roker beach and Roker park in Sunderland today covered in snow. The picture was sent in by Malcolm Bramley

Another

Sharon Armstrong and her husband made these three snowman for their grandchildren in Australia this morning

Barkley the Dalmatian would be almost camouflaged were it not for his black spots. Here he is looking content in Kings Hill, Kent. The picture was sent in by Victoria Sircar

Catherine Cornick shares her view from her bedroom window with MailOnline

Karla Voce has sent in a image from her walk along a picturesque footpath in Ealing, West London today

Sarah Railton's images shows the River Tees in Darlington today after a heavy barrage of snow fell overnight. The footpath is barely visible after a layer of the white stuff fell

Kate Bibby sent in this photograph from the back of her house in Norwich this morning

Victoria Mendelssohn's photograph was taken this morning on her walk up to Marden train station (left). Maureen Landau (right) also shared her view from her kitchen window in Teddington

Appropriate painted rock for the arrival of the Beast from the East in Balmullo, Fife, Scotland

Becky West reckons that at least a foot of snow settled overnight in Teeside - and from this picture it might be hard to disagree with her

Carly Mason's image of Banstead, Surrey, follows a similar pattern of extremely wintry conditions which have bombarded the rest of the country

More pictures sent in by Carly Mason from the town of Banstead, Surrey. It is a residential town/village in the borough of Reigate and Banstead in Surrey, England, on the border with London

Lorraine Revett taking her two dogs from their morning walk in Norton Woods, near Bury St Edmunds

Jessica Kent's photographs show the pavement and grass in Ashford, Kent this morning was completely covered by snow

Two great pictures of a little boy wrapped up warm in a blue snow suit which was sent into us by Krystal Larman today. These pictures were taken in Southend-on-Sea

Benjamin Jones shot this brilliant picture using a drone over Combs in the High Peak

Justine McKay (left) sent in this picture of her three-year-old Labrador Cooper out on his walk in Rosewell, Midlothian. Rosemary Miller (right) sent in a similar image of her Westie out for a walk in Norwich

Julia Randall-Edwards's cat seems to have the right idea and decides to sit inside instead of braving the cold

Ten-year-old Tyler Shonhiwa, who attends Swinggate Primary School in Lordswood, Chatham, Medway, makes the most of the thick snow by building a snowman this morning. He's ensured the snowman wraps up warm, giving him a warm scarf and a cap to protect him from the cold. The picture was sent in by Munya Shonhiwa

The view of out Natalya H's window wasn't too great today after the 'Beast from the East' hit Kendal, Cumbria (left). And another picture of the thick snow settled near a gated community sent in to MailOnline (right)

Julia Miller-Bakewell sent in this brilliant picture of her dog, Coco, enjoying the snow today

Pete Hughes captured the huts next to the beach in Westgate-on-Sea in Kent, which may see days where they are in use more than today

Another brilliant picutre of Westgate-on-Sea in Kent, taken by Pete Hughes

Katie Bannister managed to get up close and personal with the aptly-named Rodney Trotter in Pembury, Kent this morning

Jay Commins is a Yorkshireman made of hardy stuff, wearing shorts and enjoying a cocktail as he rests with his feet on a table outside

Nicole Rockett's two twins son march hand-in-hand through the snow in Rotherham wearing matching outfits

Charlie Hare's dogs Lexi and Yogi covered in snow after their walk today. The two dogs did not seem too bothered by the cold weather conditions in Biddenden, Kent

Leanne Todd took this beautiful picture of Brighton this morning. The park overlooking her home is completely covered by snow and the trees are without any of their leaves

Anju Vincent's landscape photograph of London this morning. The red haze in the horizon indicates the sun is not far away from finally breaking into dawn

Mind your step! These set of stairs look like an accident waiting to happen after they have been completely coated in the white stuff in London

Karen McNicholas sent this picture into us of a water bridge crossing which has been covered in snow

G Easby sent in the photo robot spy in his garden

Yasmin Hilton wrapped up warm as she and another person took their dogs for a walk this morning

Jessica Kent made sure her dog was taken for its morning walk despite the slippery conditions outside in Ashford, Kent (left). Meanwhile Missy the British bulldog was taken out by her owner Felicity Rumbold for walkies in Southmister, Essex (right)

Charlies Hare shared this chilling image. According to this thermometer, temperatures plunged to -17.5C in Biddenden, Kent this morning

The roofs of homes in Uckfield, East Sussex, were covered by snow this morning. The picture was taken from the window in Joyee Lau's own home

Norman McIntyre sent in this picture of a huge snow cloud about to descend on the small town of Coupar Angus, Perthshire

The visibility out of Julia Randall-Edwards's front window this morning was severely reduced due to the adverse weather conditions

Lisa Francis sent in a picture of someone frantically trying to shovel snow off the protective covering which goes over Koi fish in Culverstone, Kent

Anju Vincent managed to capture the moment the sun just creeps over a block of apartments in the near distance in London

Angela Pumo and her dog pose for a picture in Glemsford, Suffolk today

Louise Smith's Croatian rescue dog loving the snow this morning in Holton Le Moor, Lincolnshire

Kathleen McGuigan's dog looks pleased with itself after rolling around in the snow up in Bridge of Weir, Scotland

Settled snow in Tunstall Sittingbourn, sent into MailOnline by Sandra Salt today

Anju Vincent (left) basks in Wednesday's fresh snow while out and about in London, while Megan Hammond (right) tries to wade through the thick snow with her two dogs

Anne Walsh sent in a picture of her puppy Eggsy, who has been digging into the snow this morning

Jess Shepherd' view of her garden in London this morning. A layer of the white stuff remains untouched outside

Jonathan Baker's image shows that passengers travelling from Stansted airport this morning were greeted with white snow on the runway as they made their way to their plane

Natalya H woke up to see a blanket of snow from their window this morning in Kendal, Cumbria. Everything in the garden has been completely covered by a thick layer of the white stuff, with both the shed and the bush completely covered

This stunning image sent in by Linda Trence shows the sun rising from behind the leaf-free trees on the frosty morning at a Kent house station. Temperatures plunged to -6C overnight in the area which allowed a layer of snow to form on the tracks and nearby ground

Rosaleen Banham sent in these pictures of two young boys wasting no time as they headed out into the snow. Both of the youngsters made sure to wrap up warm before hitting the white stuff

Mark Casanova-Davies's landscape picture shows the snow in Wymondham College in Norfolk this morning, which was untouched prior to this image

Sandeep Desai sent in this image of a car left by the side of the road in Walderslade, Kent. Despite the road being given some protection by the trees, they were powerless to stop vast amount of the white stuff covering the road and its markings

Glasgow Harbour did not escape the adverse conditions, as seen by these pictures from Gemma Connolly. Her balcony railings were covered by the snow, as were the buildings over the river just before sunrise this morning.

The snow was also lashing down heavily this morning, as a fresh layer began to settle underneath Gemma Connolly's apartment in Glasgow. The untouched snow settled with ease on the pavement and would have sent temperatures in the nearby river towards freezing

Tiina Lugayer's cat named Meeks seemed quite confused as she ventured outside this morning, leaving her footprints behind her as she ambled through the thick layer of snow

Alicia Barber's dog Corby the cavalier King Charles looks royal as he enjoys the snow on Ilkley Moor, West Yorkshire yesterday. The sun is seen trying to creep over the terrain in the background with the rest of the scene completely immersed in the snow

Car tracks have left their mark on the settled snow in Ewell, Surrey, this morning. A couple of footprints are also visible on the road in this picture sent in by Charlie Waterhouse

Another picture taken by Charlie Waterhouse this morning onboard a train which passed Cheam station this morning. The tracks could not avoid the snow although part of the platform covered by the station remained untouched and appeared to be a rare place of refuge from the harsh conditions

If trying to contend with a thick layer of snow wasn't hard enough, Jules Hird from the North East says that she has had to deal with thunder and lightening too. Her garden is completely submerged in by the snow, with just the side of the walls the only thing visible not white in the picture

These two dogs braved the sub-zero conditions to make the most of the white stuff this morning. In Fulham, temperatures dipped to -4C when the picture on the left was taken. Meanwhile the dog on the right, which was pictured by Karen Nicholas this morning, was pictured with his snow all around his mouth

A layer of snow sits on top of the remaining 'Boris Bikes' sat in their docket. Cars and the rest of the street were also covered in Wandsworth, as shown by this picture by Li Tsang

Another picture sent in by Li Tsang shows gritters being sent out in the early hours of this morning along York Road in Wandsworth, London, to try to make it safe for cars

Alicia Barber sent in this picture of Corby the cavalier King Charles enjoying the snow on Ilkley Moor yesterday

This picturesque photograph of Orsett, Essex, was sent in by Craig McEwen, who has captured the village just before sunrise this morning. The quaint house opposite his home along with the street light depict a perfect setting in the countryside

Jodie Speed sent in a picture of a Christmas tree covered in snow in Weybridge this morning

Lisa Hammond captured the moment an oncoming snow storm was about to sweep into Salcombe, Devon at around 8.30am this morning

Michael Ferncombe's garden, this time in Coombe End, Kingston-upon-Thames, which has been covered in snow. Parts of the bush have managed to avoid being covered, although the top is sprinkled with the white stuff

Teena Shami shared an image of her six-month-old Cavapoo Harley, who had his first encounter with the snow in Epsom todayAdvertisement

A luxury yacht has been seized in Indonesia as part of an FBI investigation into alleged multibillion-dollar corruption at a Malaysian state-run investment fund.

Local police and FBI officers were seen onboard the $250million vessel moored off the tourist island of Bali, on Wednesday.

It is owned by Malaysian financier Jho Low, a businessman educated at prestigious British boarding school Harrow, who is friends with Hollywood celebrities like Leonardo Di Caprio.

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Big catch: The $250million luxury yacht, named 'Equanimity', is seen in the Benoa harbor in Bali, Indonesia after it was seized by US and Indonesian authorities

Indonesian officials prepare to board the luxury yacht 'Equanimity', reportedly worth some $250 million and owned by Jho Low, a former unofficial adviser to the Malaysian fund 1MDB, at Benoa Bay in Bali

Investigating: Indonesian police officers are seen on board the luxury yacht 'Equanimity' on Wednesday

Ready for taking: Indonesian police had secured a court order to seize Equanimity and are questioning its 34 crew

Indonesian police officers stand guard as the luxury yacht 'Equanimity' is seen in the background off Bali

The yacht is part of $540 million in assets allegedly embezzled from the Malaysian government fund that the U.S. Justice Department is seeking to recover.

Overall, the Justice Department says more than $4.5 billion was stolen from the fund, set up in 2009 by Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak.

Razak was embroiled in the scandal when it emerged that nearly $1 billion had passed through his personal bank accounts. He and the fund deny any wrongdoing.

Among the assets sought by the U.S. Justice Department is Mr Low's luxury yacht, Equanimity, now seized in Bali.

The lawsuits said Low used proceeds diverted from 1MDB to procure Equanimity, which it described as a 300-foot yacht registered in the Cayman Islands.

It is owned by Malaysian financier Jho Low (left). The U.S. Justice Department says the yacht was purchased with millions in assets embezzled from a Malaysian government fund set up in 2009 by Prime Minister Najib Razak (right)

The vessel has an interior clad in marble and gold leaf, a spa and sauna, a 66-foot swimming pool on deck, a movie theatre, a lift and a helipad, says a website on luxury charters, yachtcharterfleet.com.

Low's whereabouts are unknown and his Hong Kong company has not responded to requests for comment.

Agung Setya, director of economic crimes at Indonesia's national police, told MetroTV that local authorities began working with U.S. authorities a week ago in relation to the vessel.

He said it was located on Tuesday in waters off the island of Lombok, which neighbors Bali, and then shifted to Bali's Tanjung Benoa waters.

'We have legal confirmation that this asset is the result of a crime,' he said.

'Our law stipulates that anyone who hides an asset resulting from the proceeds of crime is committing a money laundering crime.'

The yacht is wanted by U.S. authorities as part of a probe into alleged multibillion-dollar corruption at Malaysian state investment fund 1MBD

The vessel has an interior clad in marble and gold leaf, a spa and sauna, a 66-foot swimming pool on deck, a movie theatre, a lift and a helipad, says a website on luxury charters, yachtcharterfleet.com

The 300-foot yacht is registered in the Cayman Islands. The 34 staff members were questioned after the boat was seized in Bali

A police vessel is seen moored just off the boat in Benoa Bay in Bali on Wednesday

Indonesian officials prepare to board the luxury yacht 'Equanimity' on Wednesday

Setya said police had secured a court order to seize Equanimity and are questioning its 34 crew.

In an emailed statement through his representative in June last year, Low said the DOJ's actions were an example 'of global overreach in pursuit of a deeply flawed case'.

Other assets allegedly bought by Low with stolen 1MDB funds include a private jet, a hotel and real estate in New York, and a $107-million interest in EMI Music Publishing.

Some assets have been returned. Australian model and actress Miranda Kerr handed over millions of dollars worth of jewelry that U.S. authorities say was given to her by Low, including a jewelry set gifted to her during a 2014 excursion on Equanimity.

Actor Leonardo DiCaprio also returned to authorities an Oscar once owned by actor Marlon Brando and other items the United States says were funded with 1MDB money.Tesla fatal crash case in China: company admits the car in autopilot when accident happened

Shanghai (Gasgoo)- A lawsuit about a fatal crash of Tesla in China has a new progress recently. In front of plentiful evidences, Tesla Motors admitted that the vehicle was under "autopilot" condition when the fatal crash happened, according to local reporters who got information from relevant lawyers. Meanwhile, the automaker stated that the investigation report of the accident is incomplete and it will fully cooperate with the court trial until the accrediting agency delivers final results.

On January 20, 2016, a Tesla Model S slammed into a road sweeper on a highway near Handan, a city about 300 miles south of Beijing, which caused the driver Gao Yaning's instant death, according to a report by CCTV. Traffic polices identified that Gao Yaning should bear the main liability for this rear-end accident.

Gao Jubin, the owner of the involved Tesla as well as Gao Yaning's father, sued Tesla China sales company in Chaoyang District People's Court of Beijing for his son being killed while the car's automated driver-assist system was operating and asked for RMB 10,000 as compensation. The case was opened in court on September 20, 2016.

The lawyer for the plaintiff stated that Gao's lawsuit was not about how much compensation he can get, but aimed to warn others that Tesla's "autopilot" system has defectiveness and do not easily try it.

At that time, Tesla said that it had not been able to determine whether "autopilot" function was active when the Handan accident had occurred.

This is not the unique accident that referred to Tesla's autonomous driving system. On May 17th, 2016, a Tesla Model S plowed into the back of a fire truck on a freeway near Culver City, California which killed the driver. This is also the first-reported fatal accident caused by autonomous driving system in the world.Republican House Speaker Paul Ryan has played down suggestions that moves may be taken to introduce radical gun reforms in the wake of the Florida shootings last week in which 17 people were killed.

Ryan and Republicans are promising measures like universal background checks and restrictions for the mentally ill but not the heavier restrictions favored by some students and Democrats.

'We shouldn't be banning guns for law-abiding citizens,' Ryan said ahead of meeting a group of survivors from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.

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Speaker of the House Paul Ryan has been repeatedly questioned about how the House of Representatives plans to address gun reform legislation

Mr Ryan has been accused of issuing placatory statements but not following them up with concrete action

Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting survivor Ryan Deitsch walks with other survivors into the office of the House Speaker Paul Ryan for a meeting in the U.S. Capitol in Washington Tuesday

Students and alumni from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School arrive for a meeting with Speaker Paul Ryan at his offices in the U.S. Capitol on Tuesday - many have accused the Republicans of dragging their feet over the issue

'We should be focusing on making sure that citizens who should not get guns in the first place, don't get those guns.

'And that is why we see a big breakdown in the system here.'

Mr Ryan said that proposals by President Trump - due to be released later this week - to arm teachers and raise the minimum age a person can buy semiautomatic rifles from 18 to 21 to 21 were not likely to be supported by Congress.

Local governments, not Congress, should decide whether to arm teachers, he said.

Ryan said that more aggressive gun limits, like a ban on the military-style rifle used by the 19-year-old Parkland shooter, were also unlikely to gain traction in Congress.

Parkland students who met Ryan pushed for a ban on assault weapons and large-capacity magazines, as well as other school-safety features, said Representative Ted Deutch, a Democrat who represents the district.

'This isn't the last time they they're going to come to Washington,' Deutch said. 'It's really just the beginning of that effort.'

Students grieving for slain classmates are meanwhile preparing for an emotional return Wednesday to their Florida high school where the mass shooting shocked the nation and led teen survivors to spur a growing movement to tighten America's gun laws.

Thousands of students across the country have staged walkouts from their high schools to protest gun violence in the wake of the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School that left 17 dead

Survivors from the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting are bracing themselves to return to school Wednesday

Seventeen people recently dressed as angels to stand at the memorial outside Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida

The community of Parkland, Florida, where residents were plunged into tragedy two weeks ago, steeled itself for the resumption of classes at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, where nearby flower-draped memorials and 17 white crosses pay tribute to the 14 students and three staff members who were murdered by a former student.

'Looking forward to tomorrow Eagles! Remember our focus is on emotional readiness and comfort not curriculum: so there is no need for backpacks,' school principal Ty Thompson tweeted.

'Come ready to start the healing process and #RECLAIMTHENEST.'

Some students were filled with trepidation about the day ahead.

'It's a whole different bunch of emotions. I'm scared but I'm also happy to get back to a sense of normalcy,' 16-year-old Tanzil Philip told AFP.

'I just don't know how I will feel until I get back in there without my parents and we are all sitting down.'

Prosecutors have said Florida gunman Nikolas Cruz used a legally purchased rifle and federal and local law enforcement agencies have acknowledged receiving multiple warnings about his potential for violence.

Trump and his fellow Republicans are under pressure to act following the massacre, but they also must avoid angering Republican voters who broadly support gun rights as well as interest groups like the NRA, which spent $55 million in the 2016 election.The moment a dog is saved by Brazilian villagers from being killed by an anaconda has been captured on video.

At the beginning of the footage, the dog with the deadly snake wrapped around it can be seen by the riverbank.

According to Andrew Barao, who posted the video, the dog went missing from a farm and after a search it was spotted about to become an afternoon snack for an anaconda.

The anaconda with the dog wrapped around it is spotted in the river by a search party (left) and is then grabbed by its tail out of the water

The giant snake then begins to be pulled out of the water, with dog now clearly visible

He said the villagers then rapidly moved into action to save the dog, which would almost certainly have been killed.

In the video, a man from the village grabs the snake by the tail and is helped by another man as they both pull the snake, with the dog firmly in its grasp, out of the water.

As the snake is dragged out of the water, the dog can clearly been seen with the serpents tail around its head.

Three men now drag the snake along the grass, shaking it in a bid to free the dog

Eventually one of the men grabs a stick and begins hitting the anaconda to try and free the dog

The baby anaconda finally frees the dog, which runs around barking for a while

The pair are then dragged up the river bank along the grass, with the two men joined by another and all three begin shaking the snake in a bid to free the dog.

One of the men then tries to pull the dog free from the snake before he eventually grabs a stick and begins hitting it.

After a few hard whacks, the dog manages to scamper free and begins running around, barking at the snake.The parents of a man who burned to death in a house fire have revealed their devastation after learning he was killed in a deliberate act.

Kathleen and Des Lindsell said they feel sick after being told son Jeffrey was killed when someone set his granny flat behind his parent's Sydney home alight on October 7.

Now neither Kathleen nor Des dare look behind the blinds of their kitchen window to see the remains of the flat, which they witnessed their 39-year-old son burst out of engulfed in flames about 1.30am.

The pair say their pain hasn't ended with the horrific memory, but has intensified after police told them their son may have been murdered, Leader reported.

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Kathleen (left) and Des Lindsell (right) have revealed their devastation after learning their son was killed in a deliberately lit blaze

The parents said they feel sick after being told son Jeffrey (pictured) was killed when someone set his granny flat behind his parent's Sydney home alight on October 7

'I've felt sick ever since I was told it may have been deliberately lit,' Mrs Lindsell said on Wednesday.

Mr Lindsell said the memory of his son on fire is 'imprinted' in his mind, while his wife said she doesn't even need to close her eyes to relive the moment.

She added: 'I used to like watching flames. I used to think it was relaxing. Not anymore.'

Their son was killed moments after he returned home from a pub in Gymea, in Sydney's south.

Emergency services immediately took him to hospital but his burns were too severe and he later died.

The Lindsells were left without answers on how the fire started and what happened to their son in the 90 minutes leading up to his death, until this week.

Jeffrey Lindsell (pictured) was killed moments after he returned home from a pub in Gymea, in Sydney's south

Neither Kathleen nor Des look behind the blinds of their kitchen window to see the remains of the flat (pictured), which they witnessed their 39-year-old son burst out of engulfed in flames about 1.30am

Mr Lindsell (pictured) said the memory of his son on fire is 'imprinted' in his mind

The night Jeffrey Lindsell was killed October 7, 2017 Mr Lindsell was at the pub with friends on Friday evening, before leaving alone at midnight 12am: New CCTV footage released by police shows Mr Lindsell leaving the Gymea hotel by himself Mr Lindsell walked home. It is a short 400m walk from the pub to his flat on San Remo Avenue 1.30am: Mr Lindsell's house was on fire. Emergency services arrived and took him to Royal North Shore Hospital where he later died Advertisement

They are now grappling with the knowledge that the fire which killed their son was intentionally lit.

CCTV footage released by police reveals the moment Mr Lindsell walked out of the pub 400m from his home.

Detective Superintendent Linda Howlett said the footage shows him passing a service station at midnight.

'Detectives are still trying to piece together exactly what happened between that time and the arrival of emergency services at his home 90-minutes later,' she said.

After reviewing CCTV, she said it doesn't appear Mr Lindsell was followed home, but she believes someone else was in the flat with him on the night of the fire.

CCTV footage released by police reveals the moment Jeffrey walked out of his local pub, which was 400m from his home. on Friday October 7

Mr Lindsell left Gymea hotel at midnight and started the 400m walk home on San Remo avenue. 90-minutes later his house was on fire

Mrs Lindsell is still coming to terms with the death of her son and hopes anyone who has information talks to police.

'We don't know what happened with Jeff at the pub, or on the way home,' Mrs Lindsell told SMH.

'We're just hoping that someone knows, or at least remembers something that might help give us some answers.'

She added that her son didn't have any enemies, as far as she knew.

A police squad are investigating the events leading up to the fire and Mr Lindsell's death.

Mrs Lindsell is still coming to terms with the death of her son (centre) and hopes anyone who has information talks to police

Emergency services arrived at 1.30am and took Mr Lindsell to Royal North Shore Hospital where he later diedA hero policeman paralysed in the Westminster Bridge terror attack is finally able to tuck his children in bed again thanks to the DIY SOS team.

PC Kris Aves was walking home from a commendation ceremony when he was struck by the car driven by terrorist Khalid Masood in March.

The father-of-two suffered broken legs as well as head, chest and arm injuries plus devastating damage to his spinal cord.

PC Aves, who was left wheelchair-bound and with no mobility from the chest down, had to stay at the Stoke Mandeville Hospital, in Buckinghamshire, as his north London home was unsuitable for his rehabilitation.

PC Kris Aves was mown down by a car driven by terrorist Khalid Masood in March, leaving him with a devastating spinal chord injury

PC Aves' home in East Barnet was modified by the DIY SOS team so he could be reunited with his family

His home had a large front step he couldn't negotiate and he struggled to fit through the narrow doorways.

There was no bathroom on the ground floor and the kitchen needed changing. His modified home also required a lift.

But the hero cop is now home again thanks to the 'biggest response ever' to a DIY SOS appeal with builders, electricians and joiners all working on refurbishment plans by designer Gabrielle Blackman.

In just nine days they made vital changes to his East Barnet home which meant he could finally be reunited with his partner Marissa and his son, six, and daughter, four.

Speaking from his hospital bed before leaving hospital the 35-year-old said: 'I'm worried about getting daddy time back. It's just been taken away from you, and it's not fair.

'I need to rebuild a relationship with my family. It's been too long.'

In just nine days the DIY SOS team made vital changes to his home which meant he could finally be reunited with his partner Marissa and his son, six, and daughter, four

DIY SOS host Nick Knowles said the 'amazing' volunteers' worked round the clock to bring PC Aves home to his family

Nick Knowles said the army of 'amazing volunteers' worked round the clock to bring the hero cop back home to his family

DIY SOS host Nick Knowles said: 'I'm not going to pretend we had to find an army, because the moment people knew what we were doing we had the biggest response ever.'

He said the 'amazing volunteers' worked round the clock to bring PC Aves home to his family.

A volunteer added: 'We want to give back to the people that protect us.'

PC Kris Aves was mown down by a car driven by terrorist Khalid Masood in March, leaving him with a devastating spinal chord injury

PC Aves was walking across the bridge with colleagues PC Roger Smith and PC Bradley Bryant on March 22 when they were hit by the 4x4.

The trio were returning from a ceremony to honour officers who deal with public order issues.

Masood killed four people by ramming them with his car on Westminster Bridge before stabbing to death Keith PC Palmer just inside the grounds of Parliament.

Masood was shot dead by police after attacking PC Palmer.

In total Masood's murderous rampage lasted just 82 seconds.

Mother-of-two Aysha Frade, US tourist Kurt Cochran and retired window cleaner Leslie Rhodes died after Masood drove his car into people on Westminster Bridge.

Romanian tourist Andreea Cristea was knocked into the Thames from the bridge. She died just over two weeks later.

The refurbishment of PC Aves' home will appear on DIY SOS on BBC One, March 7, 8pmA homeless Army veteran with PTSD is trying to track down two Good Samaritans who paid for him to stay in a hotel and gave him 'military-grade' warm clothing after seeing him in a doorway.

Ex-serviceman Ed - who was deployed to Iraq, Afghanistan and Sierra Leone - thought he was being moved on by security when he was approached in Bridgend, south Wales, last week.

Instead the two men, who are also thought to be ex forces, took the 48-year-old for a meal at Wetherspoons and then to a hotel where he stayed for two nights.

Ex-serviceman Ed was approached by the two Good Samaritans in Bridgend, south Wales, last week. He is pictured sleeping in a church in the town this week

They also bought Ed, who suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), 'military-grade' clothing and a sleeping bag which will keep him warm down to temperatures of -25C.

'These two guys came along and said "You can't sleep there", so they took me down to Wetherspoons', said Ed, who has been sleeping rough since he left the Army in 2011.

'Even the staff in the Wyndham Arms were absolutely amazing. They said "Are you hungry?", so I ended up having chips, sausage and egg.

'The chap I was with went to pay and the lady behind the counter said "we've got this".

'I got back the following day and there was this bag of Arctic gear. It's all military-grade -25C go-walking-through-the-Arctic (gear). It's not cheap.

'I don't know how to thank them. I just know they are John and Patrick. I was gobsmacked.'

Ed, a father-of-four who said he served in the Royal Artillery, has no way of contacting the pair, but hopes they will read this story.

He ended up on the streets, travelling from place to place when PTSD caused the breakdown of his marriage.

Instead the two men, who are also thought to be ex forces, took the 48-year-old for a meal at the Wyndham Arms (pictured in a file photo) and then to a hotel where he stayed for two nights

Ed came to Bridgend around six weeks ago to sell the Big Issue, but he said that did not work out.

And with the severe symptoms of PTSD acting as a barrier to finding stable accommodation, he started sleeping in the doorway of an empty town centre shop.

'I have done psychiatrists and all that,' he said. 'I have stayed in hostels in places, but after a while I just get itchy feet.

'It's easy enough saying to do all this, but at three o'clock in the morning you are by yourself.

'I have been trying for years and can't explain it to myself, so I can't explain it to someone else.'

Ed said seeing close friends killed in combat has left him with feelings of guilt, constant questions about why he survived and a fear of getting close to anyone else.

'It's not something I can get my head around. I still wake up in the morning in cold sweats.'A man in China had to rush to a hospital with a three-inch-wide glass ball lodged up in his rectum.

The 31-year-old man claimed to have a severe pain in the abdomen as the object stuck inside him for about seven hours.

Doctor successfully performed a surgery to push the object back to the anus and removed it from his body in an hour.

An abdominal x-ray shows Xiao Ming had a massive glass ball lodged inside his rectum

The patient inserted the glass ball, measuring eight centimetres wide (3.15 inches), for fun

The incident happened recently in Dongguan of Guangdong Province when the patient, known as Xiao Ming, arrived a nearby hospital with a stomachache.

An abdominal x-ray indicated a massive circular object stuck in the rectum, according to Guangdong Public Channels.

Dr Ye performed an exploratory laparotomy, a low-risk operation to examine internal organs, and put his hand outside the patient's large intestines for further inspection.

He explained that the patient failed to retrieve the ball as the ball was too big.

Dr Ye had to push the glass ball towards the anus and removed it using forceps.

Doctors had to use forceps to deliver the ball out from the man's rectum in a one-hour surgery

The patient could have a septic shock or a perforated bowel if he wasn't treat immediately

The glass ball is measured to be eight centimetires wide (3.15 inches).

The patient could end up getting septic shocks and having a perforated bowel if the treatment was delayed, according to Dr Ye.

Xiao Ming told the doctors that he had an addiction to insert objects into the bottom and he was able to retrieve it every time before this incident happened, reported Guangdong Public Channels.Businessman Ashley Sims is vowing to rid Britain's streets of professional beggars

This is the businessman vowing to rid the streets of professional beggars who he claims earn up to 150 per day from kind-hearted shoppers.

Ashley Sims says his campaign to name and shame 'fake homeless' has proved an outstanding success during a trial in Torquay.

Since he began distributing warning posters targeting professional beggars - on lamp-posts and social media sites - he says around a dozen have left the English Riviera to try their luck elsewhere.

He insists his threat to post their photographs  and in some cases full names  have succeeded where police and Torbay Council have failed.

A further seven beggars  whose photos have been passed to Mail Online by Mr Sims  are said to be still operating around the shopping centre.

He has warned that their portraits will appear on social media sites tomorrow morning (March 1st) unless the council checks their identity with the local job centre and hands out letters threatening their benefits.

Mr Sims has taken photographs of people in Torquay he claims are pretending to be homeless in order to earn up to 150-a-day from begging on the streets

Mr Sims claims professional beggars like 'Alan', pictured above, see it as a 'turf war' in which those genuinely in need are pushed out of city centres because they are seen as competition

Mr Sims says that he has taken photographs of 17 supposedly homeless begging around his hometown of Torquay - and says all but two of those pictured have homes to go to

Mr Sims says his campaign will now be rolled out nationally using a network of 270 photographers. He claims it will transform shopping centres bedevilled by the fake homeless.

He told MailOnline: 'I live in Torquay and I'm sick to death of people on benefits taking cash-in-hand jobs and begging in their spare time.

'They are very clever and professional. One guy told me he always wore combat kit because passers-by thought he was ex-services. He claimed it was 'better than having a dog'.

'People have their own patches to work and they will fight a turf war with anyone who interferes. They are not homeless - they're funding drug and alcohol addiction.

Signs have been posted around Torquay by Mr Sims warning professional beggars that their photographs will be taken

'I was working with a local charity, Humanity Torbay, and discovered that the genuinely homeless were getting assaulted on the street by professional beggars. That's how all this started.

'Myself and a colleague have taken photos of them all. Most have now gone but seven are still out there. So far we haven't needed to publish a single photo.

'I've told Torbay Council that if they don't take action against those seven by Thursday their photos will go online.'

Mr Sims, 46, who describes himself as an inventor and product developer, appeared on This Morning today to talk about naming and shaming 'fake beggars'.

He said: 'One thing the fake beggars don't like is being photographed, so I photographed every single one of them and I made it clear I was photographing them as well, as I put signs up that said, 'If you are begging, you'll be photographed and cross-referenced.'

However journalist Matt Broomfield stated that the businessman's investigation was damaging toward those really living rough and reminded him that you don't have to be homeless to be desperate enough to beg.

He said: 'You saying you're doing this to stop the real homeless people from suffering is completely disingenuous.

'People are beaten up by the public, their tents are breeze blocked and urinated on, there's not a culture where everyone thinks people who begging are trustworthy. Everyone already despises them and thinks they're frauds.'

Mr Sims was criticised on This Morning by Matt Broomfield who said the campaign is damaging to the genuinely homeless

Holly Willoughby accused Mr Sims of lacking compassion.

He went on to state that he sent someone undercover to investigate 'fake beggars' and one beggar at the end of night invited his mole home for a spaghetti bolognaise.

Viewers were left fuming by his statements.

One wrote: 'What a vile man!! Disgusting pompous bully. Hardly gonna be millionaires by accepting a blanket or a coffee?! Keep giving peeps! #homelessness #ThisMorning @thismorning'

Another asked: 'What's 'fake beggar' supposed to mean. It's called being desperate. #ThisMorning'

But in Torquay Ellie Waugh, 53, a mother of nine and founder and chairman of Humanity Torbay says the genuinely homeless have welcomed Mr Sims' initiative.

She says aggressive professional beggars see the homeless as competition and bad for business.

'We know for certain that ten of the 17 people Ashley photographed are not homeless,' she said.

Ellie Waugh, founder of Humanity Torbay, says the genuinely homeless have welcomed Mr Sims' initiative. She says aggressive professional beggars see the homeless as competition

Ms Waugh, a mother-of-nine, describes herself as a 'housewife' who set up Humanity Torbay ten months ago - with its flag pictured - to try and relieve poverty around the English Riviera

'How do we know that? Because we've arranged for them to be housed in recent months.

'Ashley is not connected to our charity but we are working with him on this and support 90% of what he's doing.

'He showed us his photographs and after consulting with other charities we believe only two of the 17 are actually living on the streets.

'Ashley has never put up their photographs but his campaign has resulted in a lot of the professional beggars dispersing from Fleet Walk and other town centre sites.

'He is a millionaire businessman who cares about the genuinely homeless, about trade in the town and the effect professional beggars have on shoppers and shop owners.'

Police and other homless charities have accused Mr Sims campaign of being simplistic and based on unreliable information.

Torbay police inspector Si Jenkinson said: 'The dangerous practice of 'outing' people as professional criminals based on often unverifiable information fails to acknowledge the very complex vulnerabilities and chaotic lives of those concerned.'

But Mr Sims' campaign has been blasted by police in Torquay and local councillors, with one homeless charity boss calling 'This persecuting of vulnerable adults on our streets 'a disgrace'

In a strongly-worded condemnation of the businessman Torbay Council also urged him to abandon his campaign.

Its statement said: 'We have very real concern as to the consequences of the 'Fake Homeless' campaign which is currently being undertaken.

'Torbay Council knows that an individual's circumstances can frequently change, sometimes on a daily basis, meaning that being able to make a judgement on whether someone is street homeless or not is in many cases a fact that will remain accurate for only a limited period of time.

'We are already aware of an individual wrongly identified as 'fake homeless,' who has then been the subject of abuse via social media.

'The actions being proposed by this campaign encourages vigilantism and enables anyone so-minded to target people, and is therefore unacceptable.

'Such behaviours cannot be supported or condoned on any level by Torbay Council. We have asked that the campaign be halted, and have invited those involved to meet to discuss how to work together in the future.

'Torbay Council, along with our partners, takes our responsibility towards supporting vulnerable members of the community very seriously. We work in partnership with a range of organisations as part of the Torbay End Street Homelessness (TESH) campaign.

'With our partners we carry out a range activities including locating and providing a warm and safe place for rough sleepers to sleep, providing additional accommodation over the winter period, continued support and housing advice to try and prevent the cycle of homelessness, and addressing a range of complex issues which often accompany homelessness.'Advertisement

At least 24 people have died across Europe as the continent remains in the grip of a Siberian cold snap that has seen snow fall in Spain and southern France.

A woman in her 90s has been found dead in the snow at the gate of her retirement home in France while an 83-year-old in Romania was found buried under a drift in the streets.

In total nine people have died in Poland, four in France, five in Lithuania, three in the Czech Republic, two in Romania and one in Italy.

Cities across the continent have been providing emergency shelter and relief to rough sleepers who have accounted for most of the deaths as temperatures fell as low as -24C in parts of Germany and -29C in Estonia.

Bilbao, Barcelona, Santander and San Sebastian in Spain all awoke to heavy flurries of snow on Wednesday as much of the northern part of the country suffered under an amber weather warning.

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Heavy snow falls on the Guggenheim in Bilbao, Spain, on Wednesday morning as Europe remains gripped in a blast of Siberian weather that has killed at least 24 people

A woman takes a picture of the snow in Bilbao on Wednesday morning. In total 20 Spanish provinces have been put on alert for snow as a front dubbed Storm Emma sweeps across the country

A couple stroll along the snow-covered beach of Sardinero after a snowfall in Santander, northern Spain, on Wednesday

Snow in Santander on Wednesday morning. Much of the north of the country is expected to see a coating of powder on Wednesday, with school transport cancelled across Catalonia

Orange alerts were issued for snow and wind across the Canary Islands, Catalonia, Basque Country, Navarra and Aragon on Wednesday according to Spain's national weather agency (pictured, Santander)

A plough clears the snow covering the square of Virgen Blanca after a snowfall in Vitoria, northern Spain, on Wednesday

A deliveryman makes his way through the snow-covered streets in Vitoria, northern Spain, as Storm Emma combined with the Siberian cold snap to cause travel chaos

Palm trees were coated with snow in Bilbao on Wednesday as northern Spain suffered through the cold snap

Gondolas were coated with powder as the sun rose over Venice on Wednesday following snowfall the night before

Gondolieres spent the morning cleaning snow from their boats in the hopes of attracting some hardy customers

Meanwhile Montpellier in southern France also saw its beaches covered with snow with even the Mediterranean islands of Corsica and Capri getting a dusting.

The frigid weather was set to continue Wednesday, with temperatures down to -12C expected in northern France and -6C in the usually mild south.

More snow was forecast for Spain, including Catalonia where school transport has been cancelled. Classes have also been suspended in the Canary Islands which is being lashed by powerful winds.

In Belgium, towns including Etterbeek, Verviers and Charleroi have resorted to ordering police to detain homeless people if they refuse to go to shelters.

The Red Cross, which has set up emergency teams across Europe, urged people to keep an eye on neighbours and relatives.

This newlywed couple managed to take some truly unique wedding pictures in St Mark's Square, Venice

Usually crowded outdoor seating areas in Venice were left abandoned as tourists stayed indoors away from the cold

In Rome, the temperature was cold enough to freeze the water in the Naiadi fountain, in the Piazza della Repubblica

People pick their way across an icy Palazzo Ducale in Venice on Wednesday after the previous night's snowfall froze

A child adds a carrot nose to this snowman who appears to have frozen solid amid a cold weather snap across Europe

A man stops to take a picture with a snowman in St Mark's Square in Venice which has also been blanketed with snow

The harbour at lake Constance, on the border between Germany and Switzerland, has been encased in ice

A photographer picks his way along the harbour of Constance after it was covered in ice

A man clutches a drink between his legs as catches some rays at the peak of Zugspitze, Germany's highest mountain

A woman takes a walk over the frozen up lake Eibsee in Grainau near Garmisch-Partenkirchen

A lone swimmer crosses Biarritz beach, in southwestern France, having enjoyed a dip in the Atlantic Ocean

A woman walks along a street covered with snow, in Pamplona northern Spain

'Just knocking on someone's door to check they have everything they need can make a huge difference. It could even be the difference between life and death,' it said.

The charity also issued public appeals for 10,000 blankets in France, where about 50 local officials in the Paris region have vowed to spend Tuesday night outdoors to call attention to the plight of those with nowhere to sleep.

'The point is not to stage a show, but to denounce a system that isn't working,' said Mama Sy, a deputy mayor in the Paris suburb of Etampes.

Paris authorities counted 3,000 rough-sleepers in the city's first-ever homeless census this month, warning it was likely significantly underestimated.

In England, where heavy snow was dumped on London Tuesday, tabloids have dubbed the snap 'the Beast from the East', while the Dutch are calling it the 'Siberian bear' and Swedes the 'snow cannon'.

Spray from Lake of Neuchatel freezes to the shore in Gorgier, Switzerland, on Wednesday

Boats anchor at the frozen harbor at Lake Alpnachersee in Alpnach, Switzerland, on Wednesday

A local takes a picture of the snow near Montpellier. Temperatures in the region dipped as low as -3C on Wednesday

Snow even made it as far south as Montpellier, France. Here, a man carried his paddleboard across the snow-covered sands of Palavas Les Flots on Wednesday morning

In Barcelona, Formula 1 crews were confronted with snow during the third day of testing ahead of the Grand Prix

The racetrack in Barcelona is deserted on what should have been a third day of testing for the Grand Prix after snow fell

A coach and a bus sit alongside the motorway in Briscous, near Bayonne, in southwestern France after crashing

Trucks remain stuck at the side of the motorway in southwestern France after heavy snowfall overnight on Tuesday

A snow blower clears a snow covered road during a snowfall in the near of Neuenkirchen, Island Ruegen, northern Germany

A motorist makes their way down freshly cleared roads in northern Germany on Wednesday morning

Traffic snarls to a halt in the Spanish port city of San Sebastian, in Basque Country, amid heavy snow

Motorists are reduced to a walking pace as they try to commute to work early on Wednesday in San Sebastian

A Civil Guard car drives through a road blocked for traffic due to a snowfall in Vigo, province of Galicia, northwestern Spain

The usually balmy island of Corsica, in the Mediterranean, even got a coating of snow on Tuesday. Pictured is the beach in the bay of Palavas Les Flots

British Airways cancelled roughly 60 flights in and out of London Heathrow airport.

The Met Office forecaster said rural communities could be cut off for days by snowdrifts, warning of 'long interruptions to power supplies and other services such as telephone and mobile phone networks.'

Some of the iciest conditions were reported in Italy, where many schools and daycare centres were closed, to the consternation of parents already preparing for closures next week linked to this weekend's general election.

Italians' anger was also growing over nationwide disruptions to rail services as a lack of defrosting equipment on the tracks meant workers having to clear snow and ice by hand.

In Naples, the airport was closed early Tuesday and bus services in the city halted because of ice, though the weather was getting warmer in Rome, where schools were expected to reopen Wednesday.

A driver in Turin got a fright when an ice shard broke off from an overhead bridge and shattered his windshield - though he managed to keep control of his vehicle.

Russia's Gazprom, a major gas supplier to Europe, said it had sent record exports to the continent over the past six days, peaking at 667 million cubic metres (23.6 billion cubic feet) on Monday as people turned up their thermostats.Hundreds of students walked out of class Tuesday to support a teacher who was placed an administrative leave for his comments about school safety in the wake of the Florida shootings.

Cherry Hill High School East history teacher Timothy Locke - a veteran of the Iraq war and a teacher at the school for 17 years - created controversy when he expressed concern that a similar shooting could take place there and that two police officers on campus were not armed.

Last Thursday he was summoned to the principal's office where he was informed that he was being placed on administrative leave and during that time would have to undergo a physical and a psychiatric evaluation.

Protesting students at Cherry Hill High School East say the action taken against Timothy Locke is a form of censorship that has cowed other teachers at the school into silence

More than 100 students walked out of Cherry Hill High School East in Cherry Hill, N.J., on Tuesday in a show of support for AP history teacher, Timothy Locke

The school's decision to suspend Locke, 59, is thought to be because his comments were deemed to have caused unnecessary anxiety among students, CBS News reported. One pupil in his history class was reported to have been made distraught by what he said.

On Tuesday, the students marched along a nearby street and around the school track to support Locke. Some parents attended the march to support the students. They argue that Locke's only crime was to tell the truth about school safety with youngsters in his Advanced Placement History class.

'During the course of the conversation he indicated that he would protect his students if something like (Parkland, Florida) happened here,' parent Eric Ascalon told the Todd Starnes radio show.

'He was raising safety concerns about the school with the students. And the intent of his statement (was that) he would protect his students at all costs.'

The school districts sends him to a shrink. Thats just plumb nuts

The school district has refused to comment on why Locke was placed on administrative leave. He has stopped talking on the advice of his attorney but said earlier that security at his school was 'the bottom line', and his priority was 'the welfare of his students'.

Scores of students staged a protest on campus Monday in which they urged the school to reinstate the teacher.

'A lot of what the school here is doing is trying to shut out what happened in Florida, instead of saying 'this is what we have to do, this is what we're going do next,' how we can fix what we are doing,' sophomore Debbie Goldberg told ABC News.

Another student, senior Justin Prechodko said: 'Mr. Locke, if you're watching, we got your back.'

Locke's suspension has also created much negative media coverage. 'Instead of honoring a war veteran teacher willing to think outside of the box, the school districts sends him to a shrink. Thats just plumb nuts,' a Fox News opinion piece said.

Students meanwhile have pledged to carry on their campaign until Locke is reinstated.

'The students have decided to fight for their teacher and for their security,' High School East Student Representative Lauren Atkin told Philly.com.

Students have been held accountable, Atkin told the board, 'and now we want to hold you accountable for keeping teachers that truly change lives and shape us into the young adults you want us to be'.

The students say the action taken against him was a form of censorship that has cowed other teachers at the school into silence. They also expressed anger at the principal, who they argued has disrespected the students and not been forthcoming about their safety concerns.John Murphy, 66, removed at least seven million miles from his fleet of more than 100 Mercedes which he failed to properly maintain. He is pictured left alongside David Beckham, a customer, at Manchester Piccadilly railway station in November 2015

The boss of one of Britain's biggest VIP chauffeur firms ran an industrial-scale clocking scam that went unchecked for years after police refused to investigate him, it was reported today.

John Murphy, 66, removed at least seven million miles from his fleet of more than 100 Mercedes which he failed to properly maintain, license or insure, leaving celebrity clients including David Beckham and Wayne Rooney at risk.

But Cheshire-based Professional Chauffeur Services (PCS), avoided investigation by Greater Manchester Police because the force was allegedly reluctant to embarrass the firm's corporate business partners.

PCS was found guilty in November of clocking and fined 250,000, while Murphy, the unmarried partner of one of his daughters and three colleagues were jailed nine months earlier for their involvement in the conspiracy, an investigation in The Times revealed today.

Chances to convict him earlier were missed because police and council officers were allegedly worried about upsetting Emirates, the company's largest corporate client and an important in investor in the north of England.

A task force set up two years before Murphy's conviction, which included Manchester airport police, stopped some of his drivers and discovered insurance and licensing offences but failed to prosecute.

Minutes from the meeting, written by an official from Solihull council and seen by The Times, noted the airport police inspector was 'worried about any reputational damage towards Emirates, the airport and the police'.

Cheshire-based Professional Chauffeur Services (PCS) also had some of its cars hired to work for X Factor as seen in this photo from July 2011

The inspector replied: 'During our conversation I did not commit to any involvement in this.

'I need to be clear that my stance remains the same that no airport resources will be utilised in targeting PCS/ Emirates and no activity should take place within the Manchester Airport footprint. This is endorsed by the Airport Police Commander.'

The newspaper investigation also points a finger at Emirates for allegedly ignoring warnings about licensing irregularities and consecutive bankruptcies.

The Dubai-based giant also kept its contract with Murphy going despite his convictions for fraud, drink-driving and tax evasion.

PCS was found guilty in November of clocking and fined 250,000. Its cars are pictured outside Heathrow Terminal One in January 2014

The Times also notes that Northumberland Council issued an operating licence to PCS even though the firm's operating centre was not located there. This was eventually withdrawn.

Transport for London also issued PCS with an operating licence but withdrew this after Murphy and his associates were convicted.

An undated file photo of PCS's headquarters in Runcorn, Cheshire

PCS also worked for X Factor and even managed to win a contract to transport dignitaries at the G8 summit at Lough Erne, Co Fermanagh, in 2013.

Greater Manchester Police said: 'Despite requesting details from the licensing official, insufficient intelligence was supplied to begin a formal investigation.

'We do not take corporate interests into account. We look at the impact of any police or other authority actions on the airport community including the travelling public.

'Any action must be proportionate to the intelligence. We believe correspondence could have been taken out of context.'

Emirates stated it did not request to see the criminal records of suppliers and added: 'We received assurances that PCS Events Ltd held valid licences, and we refute claims we knowingly retained a supplier that did not have the necessary licence to operate.

'We refute any inference that untoward personal relationships were involved in the appointment of PCS Events Ltd and Sapphire Travel Management.'BAIC BJEV sets up new company to expand production of electric powertrains

Shanghai (Gasgoo)- BIAC BJEV plans to establish a subsidiary dubbed Blue Valley Power Company at its existing production base in Caiyu, Beijing, according to Beijing Municipal Environmental Protection Bureau. The first phase of the new power company will achieve an annual production capacity of 100,000 sets of electric vehicle driving system. After it finished construction, the new power company will provide power for the second-gen Senova D70, D50 and X55.



With deliveries of 103,199 units in 2017, BAIC BJEV led the pack in the pure electric vehicle segment for five consecutive years, up 97% over the previous year. To meet the increasing market demands, BAIC BJEV not only built a production base in Beijing, but also cooperated with Changzhou, Laixi city of Qiangdao, Shandong Province and Kunming to set up new NEV production bases.

In terms of technologies, BAIC BJEV has developed and researched super electric drive system called e-Motion Drive all by itself. What's more, it also develops a variety of series products, including EDS, PDU, super motor and high-speed reducer, which will apply in the full lineup of BAIC BJEV models. In the future, the second-gen Senova D70, D50 and X55 are likely to to be equipped with the above mentioned products.

All-new Senova D50

The all-new Senova D50 hit the market in November, 2017. The exterior design of its electric version is expected to retain the design cues of the gasoline-powered version, featuring a multi-bannered intake grille and LED tail lights. Its waistlines stretch from headlights to tail lights. What's more, the model measures 4630mm in length, 1820mm in width and 1480mm in height and sets on a wheelbase of 2670mm.

The interior design of the all-new Senova D50 is also expected to retain the design style of its gasoline version. Besides, the new model features a 9-inch floating multimedia screen, a 12.3-inch electronic LCD instrument cluster and a three-spoke flat-bottom multi-functional steering wheel.

All-new Senova D70

The all-new Senova D70 is a mid-size sedan. From the exposed spy shots, the model features different appearance from the existing model. Featuring the same design style of the hexagonal multi-bannered intake grille with the D50, the D70 boasts dual-light lens inside the headlights and also features LED daytime running lamps around the lens. In terms of the electric version of the D70, the model is expected to retain the same exterior and interior design cues of its gasoline version.

All-new Senova X55

The all-new Senova X55 is a compact SUV under BAIC Senova. Its upgraded model was debuted at Auto Shanghai 2017. The all-new X55 is also expected to inherit the same design style with its gasoline version. Adopting an all-new design language, the new model features a design style with the Offspace D70 concept. With the hexagonal intake grille decorated with chrome trims as well as straight and fashionable waistlines, the new model looks dynamic and premium.A lioness that mauled a woman to death in a South African wildlife park was being taken for a walk by a self-styled 'lion whisperer' when it launched the attack, it has emerged.

The 22-year-old visitor died from devastating injuries after being pounced on by a lioness named Ndira while it was out walking with expert and social media star Kevin Richardson in the Dinokeng Game Reserve.

Mr Richardson, 44, whose intimate interactions with big cats have won him millions of fans around the world, said today: 'I am devastated and my heart goes out to this young woman's family.'

Ndira, who was hand-reared by Mr Richardson, may meet the same fate as her victim after the park admitted 'no decision has been made at this stage about what will happen to her'.

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The 22-year-old visitor died from devastating injuries after being pounced on by a lioness named Ndira as the big cat was out walking with expert Kevin Richardson (pictured)

Richardson explained how he was taking two males and the lioness for their weekly walk in the Dinokeng Game Reserve when Ndira (not pictured) ran off after an antelope

He explained how he was taking two males and the lioness for their weekly walk in the reserve when Ndira ran off after an antelope before coming across her helpless human victim.

The dead woman who was only at the reserve for a short meeting was struck as she stopped to take pictures with a friend as they returned to their car.

After receiving an urgent call about the attack, Mr Richardson - who had pursued the lioness but lost her - then ran more than a mile to reach the victim, attempting to save her life himself while waiting for paramedics to arrive.

His weekly walks with the cats are 'part of their exercise and stimulation regiment,' he explained in a statement, designed to relieve the boredom of living in the sanctuary's enclosures.

The 44-year-old social media star said on Wednesday: 'I am devastated and my heart goes out to this young woman's family.'

Before setting off on the second of two such outings yesterday morning, he said he had notified others on the reserve that the predators would be roaming.

The father-of-two has built a successful business, managed by his wife, on the back of his unique relationship with big cats.

Visitors to his sanctuary, which is just an hour outside Johannesburg, is made up of 13 enclosures housing the cats, many of which he has raised from birth.

Visitors can pay to volunteer, take drives in safari vehicles or stay in the tented camp, near where the victim was taken down.

The website promises 'you will enjoy the spectacular African bush and come face-to-face with majestic lions and hear their magnificent roars at night'.

Last week, he uploaded a picture to social media of his leg boasting vivid marks from a lion's claw which had ripped the hem from his shorts after getting between two fighting males

Mr Richardson said weekly walks with the cats are 'part of their exercise and stimulation regiment' designed to relieve the boredom of living in the sanctuary's enclosures

Only a few weeks ago, Mr Richardson was on set with supermodel Cara Delevingne who was posing with his lion Vayetse for a photoshoot for a luxury watch brand.

The ten year old cat was raised by the 'lion whisperer' from birth and regularly stars in films and adverts, earning huge sums for his owner's business.

His pictures and videos of his intimate relationship with the beasts has won him a massive worldwide following.

Last week, he uploaded a picture to social media of his leg boasting vivid marks from a lion's claw which had ripped the hem from his shorts after getting between two fighting males at his property.

Nick Dollman, spokesman for the paramedics, described the victim's injuries as 'very severe'.

'It was a deadly attack. The friend with the victim watched it happen, but was not hurt, but must have been in a terrible state emotionally. Paramedics attempted CPR, but the injuries were so severe the victim died at the scene,' he said.

Mr Richardson has spoken candidly in the past about the dangers of interacting with the animals

The Dinokeng Game Reserve is thought to be the only free-roaming 'big 5' residential game reserve in the world next to a residential area

The Dinokeng Game Reserve is thought to be the only free-roaming 'big 5' residential game reserve in the world next to a residential area. The big five refers to Africa's most deadly animals.

Mr Richardson has spoken candidly in the past about the dangers of interacting with the animals.

'Obviously one realises the danger when working with animals of this calibre, I've weighed the pros and I've weighed the cons, and the pros far outweigh the cons,' he said.

The police have launched an investigation in the circumstances of the killing and the local authority said it would be looking into what permits are held by Mr Richardson to conduct his business.Joseph Isaacs (pictured) is accused of attempted murder for an attack on 96-year-old Jim Booth at his home in Taunton, Somerset on November 22 last year

A hammer-wielding burglar has admitted attacking a 96-year-old D-Day veteran at home before taking his bank card and splashing out in shops, pubs and Burger King.

Joseph Isaacs, 39, today pleaded guilty to causing grievous bodily harm after the attack on war hero Jim Booth on November 22 last year.

He also admitted aggravated burglary at Mr Booth's home in Taunton, Somerset, as well as seven fraud offences related to the spending spree he went on in the hours after the attack.

Appearing by video link from Long Lartin prison, at Taunton Crown Court, Isaacs denied attempted murder and will now face a three-day trial in May on that charge.

The court heard how Mr Booth suffered serious injuries when he was attacked on his doorstep by a cold caller armed with a hammer.

Isaacs, of no fixed address, has already admitted using the great grandfather's bank card at a Burger King in Bridgwater, Somerset on the same day. The following day he used the same card six more times in shops, pubs and food outlets in Bridgwater and nearby Burnham-On-Sea, Somerset.

Mr Booth is the last surviving member of a secret Second World War mission ahead of the D-Day invasion in June 1944.

After the attack his family paid tribute to him, calling him a 'family hero' and saying he was known as 'The Legend'.

Mr Booth (pictured) is the last surviving member of a secret Second World War mission ahead of the D-Day invasion in June 1944

Judge David Ticehurst told the defendant: 'Joseph Isaacs, the trial is going to take place on May 21.

'It has a likely time estimate of three days. You will remain in custody until then.'

Mr Booth returned home 10 days after the attack and his family said he had been 'enormously uplifted' by cards and good wishes from people 'of all ages and nationalities'.

They said: 'These include a little boy who anonymously sent his 5 Christmas money and the school children from Normandy who drew pictures of his submarine on D-Day.

'He is very touched by the kindness of friends, neighbours and strangers who have offered help and wished him a speedy recovery.'

In August 2015 Mr Booth joined Prince Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall for a reception in the grounds of Westminster Abbey.

Isaacs (pictured in his Royal Navy days) has admitted aggravated burglary, grievous bodily harm and seven counts of fraud after Mr Booth was attacked with a hammer and his bank card was stolen on November 22 last year

And despite being 93, he took to the dance floor with Camilla at the Royal British Legion party.

After the attack his family said: 'Our father is an exceptional person of whom we are all immensely proud.

'He is the head of the family, a dearly loved father to his four children and adored by his grandchildren and great grandchildren, to whom he is simply known as 'The Legend'.

'He is, and always has been, our family hero.

'Our father is not easily defeated and he grows a little stronger each day.

'We are all focused on the long process of recovery, which will be helped by the love and support of all those around him.'

Mr Booth was part of a crack team of submariners who spent five days underwater before the Normandy landings.

He was part of the squad that helped guide Allied landing craft to Sword Beach instead of them drifting on to jaged rocks.

His team spied on Nazi troops across the shoreline before shining beacons across the sea to guide the Allies in.

As a Royal Navy officer he also served in Burma and was awarded the Croix de Guerre medal by the French.

The court heard how Mr Booth suffered serious injuries when he was attacked on his doorstep (pictured) in Taunton, Somerset by a cold caller armed with a hammer

He joined the Senior Service as an 18 year old and served throughout the 1939-45 war.

He became part of the Combined Operations Pilotage and Reconnaissance Parties (COPP) which was set up in 1943.

Aged just 23 he became a submarine pilot for the X craft - tiny submarines that waited on the seabed for days at a time.

They submerged near the landing area on June 4th prior to the invasion on the 5th - but bad weather delayed the operation for 24 hours.

The crew survived the lack of air in cramped conditions by sleeping and talking as little as possible.

The court was told yesterday that Mr Booth may have to give evidence in the trial.

Isaacs was remanded in custody ahead of his trial on May 21.A WWII video showing the dead bodies of dozens of Korean sex slaves who had been raped and killed by Japanese troops was released for the first time yesterday.

The victims were killed by Japanese soldiers at a Chinese village in 1944, according to reports from Korean media.

These sex slaves - euphemistically referred to as 'comfort women' - had been brought to China by the Japanese army during the war to work at military brothels.

The release of the footage was significant at this time because the government of Japan attempts to bury the issue, an expert told MailOnline.

A 19-second video which shows piles of naked dead bodies of Korean sex slaves brought to China by Japanese soldiers during WWII has been released for the first time in Seoul

The Korean sex slaves were killed in group on the day Japan lost a battle in China in 1944

Mainstream historians say up to 200,000 women were forced to work in Japanese military brothels around Asia from 1932 until the end of World War II.

The sex slaves were mostly from Korea. But many were also from China and South-east Asian countries.

According to Korea Times, the never-before-seen footage was taken on September 15, 1944, in Tengchong, China's Yunnan Province.

The Japanese army invaded the area in May, 1944, and lost their battle against the American and Chinese armies on September 13.

Apparently, the sex slaves were killed by the Japanese on the last day of the battle.

The shocking footage was released during a conference on sex slavery organised by the city government of Seoul, the capital of South Korea.

The sex slaves - euphemistically referred to as 'comfort women' - were used by Japanese troops for sexual pleasure. The picture shows Chinese and Malaysian 'comfort women'

The Japanese army took women from Korea, China and South-east Asia and forced them into being their sex slaves. The picture shows a young ethnic Chinese 'comfort woman' interviewed by an Allied officer in Burma in August, 1945

In the 19-second clip, a soldier, said to be Chinese, could be seen taking a sock off a naked corpse. In another part of the video, smoke appears to rise from a large pile of dead bodies.

The footage was discovered last year by a group of Korean scholars in American National Archives and Records Administration, reported Seoul-based Arirang News.

According to the same report, more than 70 Korean women were brought to Tengchong by the Japanese troops. Only 23 of them survived after the American and Chinese armies won the battle.

Kang Sung-hyun, a professor at Sungkonghoe University in Seoul, is quoted by Korea Herald as he commented on the significance of the footage.

'This video shows the situation and reality Korean comfort women faced at the end of the war at a time when the Japanese government denies the killing of comfort women by Japanese troops.'

Park Won-soon, the Mayor of Seoul, is quoted saying: 'We know all too well we shouldn't repeat this tragic history and one part of remembering it is documenting it.'

Hiroka Shoji, a researcher at the Amnesty International, said the video was published at crucial timing because Japan is yet to provide full and effective reparation to any individual who has suffered harm as the direct result of its military sexual slavery system.

Japanese women hold portraits of Chinese, Philippine, South Korean and Taiwanese former comfort women who were sex slaves for Japanese soldiers during World War II, at a protest held in front of the Japanese parliament in Tokyo on 14 June, 2007

Students hold portraits of deceased former South Korean 'comfort women' during a weekly anti-Japan rally in front of Japanese embassy in Seoul, South Korea, on December 30, 2015

Researcher Shoji told MailOnline: 'The Japanese government has made a prolonged and determined effort to hide behind its legal position on the issue.

'Japan has continued to insist that any obligation to provide reparation was settled in the 1951 San Francisco Peace Treaty and other bilateral peace treaties and arrangements.

'This standing point has negatively impacted Japans relation with countries with survivors of Japans military sexual slavery system, including South Korea and China.'

The plight of the 'comfort women' is a hugely emotional issue that has for decades marred ties between Japan and its neighbours, South Korea and China.

In 2015, Tokyo and Seoul agreed to settle the contentious issue through a landmark deal. Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe issued an apology and agreed to create a 6.7 million (1 billion yen) foundation to help provide support for the victims.

A statement by both countries' foreign ministers said Prime Minister Shinzo Abe 'expresses anew his most sincere apologies and remorse to all the women who underwent immeasurable and painful experiences and suffered incurable physical and psychological wounds as comfort women'.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe (file photo) issued an apology in 2015 after Japan and South Korea agreed to settle the contentious issue of 'comfort women' through a deal

Seoul has expressed doubts over the 2015 deal. South Korean President Moon Jae-In (right) vowed to review the agreement - arranged by his now-jailed predecessor Park Geun-Hye (left)

According to researcher Shoji, the 2015 bilateral agreement between Tokyo and Seoul included a provision that the South Korean government should never again raise the issue and that a Peace Monument in Seoul commemorating the survivors of the military sexual slavery system be removed.

'Acknowledging these crimes under international law, and factually recording them in histories for future generations is an important step to ensure non-repetition and end impunity for crimes of sexual violence committed during armed conflicts,' said researcher Shoji.

Last December, Seoul expressed doubts over the 2015 deal with Japan because of an election pledge made by the new government of President Moon Jae-In.

President Moon promised to review the unpopular agreement - arranged by his now-jailed predecessor Park Geun-Hye.Natalia Mulikhova was shot dead for gold and gems worth 180,000

A glamorous jewellery dealer in Russia was shot dead over gold and gems worth 180,000 she was carrying in her bags.

The body of Natalia Mulikhova, 41, was then hidden in a plastic bag and dumped on the ice of a frozen Siberian river.

She had flown thousands of miles to see a client, not realising she was had been set up and was met by contract killers at Irkutsk airport, say police.

The dealer was seen on CCTV emerging from the airport in a fur hat and carrying bags containing her jewellery samples.

This was the last image of her alive.

She was picked up by a man posing as her business contact and a taxi driver who was his accomplice, allege police.

The businesswoman was shot and killed in the car, and her body was then dumped in a black bin liner on the frozen Angara River, which flows out of Lake Baikal, the world's deepest lake.

A large quantity of jewellery - worth a quarter of a million dollars - was stolen in the well-planned criminal operation, say police.

After she failed to answer her phone for two days, the woman's sister called the emergency services, The Siberian Times reported.

The jewellery dealer was seen on CCTV emerging from Irkutsk airport after being lured there to meet a bogus buyer

The body of Natalia Mulikhova was put in a bin liner and dumped into a the frozen Angara River

The area where her body was found is in Siberia. The Angara River flows into Lake Baikal, the world's deepest lake

One of the men suspected of carrying out the killing is arrested in Irkutsk

The suspect with his arms against the wall after being arrested

Police found weapons as well as jewellery when they arrested those accused of carrying out the killing

Another one of the men suspected of being involved with Natalia Mulikhova's killing is led away by police

The mastermind behind the murder of 41-year-old Natalia Mulikhova worked for the same jewellery company

Officers swiftly found her body and tracked her alleged killers, according to accounts citing Russian law enforcement sources.

The taxi driver, aged 49, was detained by armed officers in his underwear, as seen in footage released by police.

Another man aged 42 from Irkutsk region was also held.

They are accused of carrying out the contract killing.

An alleged 35-year-old mastermind of the crime was arrested in Taganrog, some 5,000 miles west of Irkutsk.

He worked for the same jewellery company as the dead dealer and is alleged to have ordered her killing.

'Police confiscated stolen jewellery items worth nearly 14 million roubles when they detained the executor of the murder and alleged murder tool, along with a TT pistol with silencer,' said the Russian Investigative Committee, which probes serious crime.

'All three participants of the criminal conspiracy were detained,' said Interior Ministry spokeswoman Irina Volk.A Russian doctor has been accused of driving around a southwestern city for several days with a dead dog wedged in the front of his car.

Dr Valery Piskovets, who is also a politician, allegedly ran down the stray in Taganrog, near the Ukraine border by the Black Sea.

Witnesses claim that the impact did not kill the animal straight away, and say that for a time Dr Piskovets was driving around with the dog still alive.

Animal cruelty: A photo shows a dead dog stuck in the grill of a car allegedly belonging to Dr Valery Piskovets, a local politician in Taganrog, a city near the Ukraine border in Russia

A video shows the dead dog stuck in the grill of a parked white car, which is said to belong to Mr Piskovets.

Victoria Taranenko, who filmed the shocking sight, said: 'A bastard is driving around the city who knocked over a dog with his car and didn't even bother pulling the poor creature out after it got stuck in the bumper of his car.

Allegations: Dr Piskovets was reportedly driving around with the dog still alive

'The dog was still alive when he knocked it down.

'Many witnesses confirmed that he had been driving with the dog's body like this for several days.'

However, she denied claims the stray might still be alive today.

'A dog can't be asleep for several days in the same position, baring its teeth like only a dead animal,' she said.

Police said: 'A woman complained about a case of animal cruelty that she witnessed.

'Police accepted her claim and started checks.'

They established that the Nissan Tiida belonged to doctor and local politician Valery Piskovets, believed to be in his 40s, a member of Russia's ruling United Russia party.

He is a councillor in his district close to Taganrog, on the Azov Sea.

Investigations are underway, said police.

No denial: Dr Piskovets was reported to police for animal cruelty, but has declined to comment

Dr Piskovets said: 'I am too busy to comment now. I am talking to prosecutors, and to police. We are calmly going through the motions.'

He was quoted by a blogger as adding: 'It happened about a week ago.

'Within an hour this event had turned into some murky situation.'

Asked how the dog became trapped in the front of his car, he said: 'I've got no clue.'

He refused to comment further, saying he was 'extremely busy'.Philip Hammond told Cabinet colleagues he once spent a night sleeping on a beach during talks on homelessness, it was revealed today.

The Chancellor made the startling declaration during yesterday's meeting of senior ministers, which discussed a 28million scheme to help rough sleepers.

Mr Hammond told colleagues he was not considered 'homeless' because he had once been 'sleeping on the beach at midnight on Midsummer's day'.

Labour slammed Mr Hammond for making light of the problem of homelessness today, just days after a rough sleeper died on Parliament's doorstep in Westminster station.

Philip Hammond (file image) revealed to Cabinet colleagues he once spent a night sleeping on a beach during talks on homelessness, it was revealed today

The Daily Telegraph revealed the exchange today and said a Cabinet minister at the meeting joked it was his 'fields of wheat' moment - recalling Theresa May's strange claim about how she misbehaved as a child.

An aide to Mr Hammond denied the Chancellor was dismissing the problem of rough sleeping England.

They said: 'Philip would never be flippant about such a serious matter.

'At the last Budget he announced 28million to spend on homeless people.

Labour's shadow housing secretary John Healey (file image) slammed Mr Hammond for making light of the problem of homelessness

'It is an issue he takes very seriously.'

Shadow Housing Secretary John Healey MP said: 'If true, these comments are inappropriate, and confirm that Conservative ministers just don't grasp how serious the problem of rising rough sleeping is.

'The Chancellor must either repudiate these reports or apologise.'

The number of people sleeping rough in England reached a recorded high of 4,751 in the autumn of last year, new data revealed last month.

Figures from the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government revealed the highest figure in the eight years rough sleeping has been tracked.

It marks another steep rise in the problem in recent years, up 15 per cent from 4,134 in 2016 to the highest point since comparable records began in 2010.

Of the people counted rough sleeping in London there were 1,137. This is an increase of 18 per cent from the 2016 figure of 964.

The number of people sleeping rough in England reached a recorded high of 4,751 in the autumn of last year, new data revealed last month - with almost a quarter in London alone

In 2017 London accounted for 24 per cent of the total England figure, compared to 23 per cent in 2016 and 26 pr cent in 2015

Charity Homeless Link said the homelessness figures amounted to a 73 per cent rise in rough sleeping over the past three years.

It is not the first time Mr Hammond has been accused of making gaffes in Cabinet.

Last summer his aides strongly denied that he had told Cabinet members that driving trains was so easy 'even a woman can do it'.A boy in Year 5 has threatened to slit the throat of an 11-year-old student in the yard of an Adelaide primary school.

The boy has been suspended from the inner suburban school after he brandished a pocket knife during morning recess on Wednesday.

He intimidated his fellow student with the weapon following weeks of schoolyard arguing between two groups of boys, The Advertiser reported.

A boy in Year 5 has been suspended from a primary school in Adelaide's inner suburbs after he threatened a fellow student with a pocket knife during morning recess on Wednesday (stock image)

During one confrontation, the boy said he'd bring a knife to school before following through with the threat, according to sources.

He then pushed over the 11-year-old's bicycle and pulled out a pocket knife, threatening to slash his throat.

Police were then called to the school about 2pm after receiving a report that a student threatened another with a knife.

The school issued a letter to parents explaining disciplinary action was being taken against the boy, and the incident was being treated with 'utmost seriousness'.

The boy intimidated his fellow student with the weapon following weeks of schoolyard arguing between two groups of boys, according to reports (stock image)

'Police have been called in response and the facts relating to the incident are being established,' the school's principal wrote.

'Please refrain from speculating about the nature of the incident while the investigation takes place.'

The principal said the parents of those involved had been notified and support was being made available to students.

A spokesperson from the South Australian Education Department said in a statement: 'Teachers took action immediately on becoming aware of the knife to confiscate it and contacted the student's parents to take the child home.'

Police investigations into the incident are ongoing.James de Hauteville, 47, hurled his wife through her hair salon window as their six-year-old daughter begged him to stop, a court heard

An estranged husband hurled his wife through her hair salon window as their six-year-old daughter begged him to stop, a court heard.

James de Hauteville, 47, allegedly flew into a rage when his wife asked him whether he had found a place to live.

De Hauteville grabbed her by the neck and repeatedly smashed her head into a sofa at her salon in northLondon, the Old Bailey heard.

He then threw her through the front window, it was said.

Mrs de Hauteville suffered a 7cm gash to her right arm during the attack on September 6 last year and was left covered in blood.

However she has refused to give evidence against him in court.

'I don't condone what happened but I will not be testifying against my husband,' she told jurors at the Old Bailey.

'My husband had a mental breakdown and I think his mental health needs to be looked at.

Mrs de Hauteville said their marriage had broken down and her husband had spent the week before the incident living at his sister's.

De Hauteville picked up his daughter from school and dropped her off at the salon before having a heated conversation with his wife.

The court was told how he became angry when Mrs de Hauteville inquired as to where he was living and whether he had the paperwork to get a house.

He left but returned to the salon shortly afterwards. He then picked up a barbershop chair and launched it against a mirror.

Customer Rose Galugbo told the court: 'The man came and dropped off a young girl from school.

'He and my hairdresser [Mrs de Hauteville] had a short conversation and he left.

'The man came back without speaking to anyone swearing and flipped the table before smashing up the shelving and swearing more.

'He picked up the barbershop chair, which is a heavy chair, and threw it at the mirror.

'At that point the woman [Mrs de Hauteville] came back in the salon and asked what he was doing.

'He grabbed her by the neck, called her a "f***ing bitch" and shook her.

'He swung her round into the sofa and punched her in face and his daughter was shouting "Daddy stop, no daddy no."

'He had her by the scruff of the neck and he picked her up and threw her through the window causing it to smash and a 'pap' sound.

'Her arms were bleeding. She had blood running all down her arm and she was crying.'

De Hauteville then fled the scene but was arrested the next day.

Prosecutor Babatunde Alabi said: 'He deliberately threw her through the window. He intended to cause her serious harm when he did so.'

De Hauteville, formerly of north London, but now living in Reading, denies unlawful wounding.

The trial continues.Donald Trump said Wednesday on Twitter that he will not order the construction in California of sections of his long-promised border wall until he has legal authority and funding to complete the entire project.

'I have decided that sections of the Wall that California wants built NOW will not be built until the whole Wall is approved,' the president wrote, boasting of a '[b]ig victory yesterday with ruling from the courts that allows us to proceed.'

'OUR COUNTRY MUST HAVE BORDER SECURITY!' he boomed.

U.S. District Judge Gonzalo Curiel on Tuesday rejected arguments by the state of California and advocacy groups that the administration overreached by waiving laws requiring environmental and other reviews before construction can begin.

That ruling only clears the administration to issue those waivers in California, an outcome that Trump finds inadequate.

The president wants to erect large sections of physical walls along the 1,954-mile border between U.S. and Mexico.

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U.S. District Judge Gonzalo Curiel ruled against a California environmental challenge to his U.S.-Mexico border wall on Tuesday, but now Trump says he'll wait to begin construction until the entire project is approved and funded

'[S]ections of the Wall that California wants built NOW will not be built until the whole Wall is approved,' the president tweeted Wednesday morning

The Center for Biological Diversity, which sued along with the state of California and three advocacy groups, said it would appeal the judge's decision; pictured are the border wall prototypes

Plaintiffs in the lawsuit said a 2005 a law that gave the Homeland Security secretary broad authority to waive the reviews had expired.

'Big legal win today,' Trump tweeted Tuesday night in response to the ruling. 'US judge sided with the Trump Administration and rejected the attempt to stop the government from building a great Border Wall on the Southern Border. Now this important project can go forward!'

U.S. District Court Judge Gonzalo Curiel, whom Trump accused of bias in an unrelated case in 2016, ruled in his favor on Tuesday in a case about environmental challenges to his border wall in California

Curiel's ruling may have removed what could have been a major obstacle to Trump's pledge to build the wall.

Trump berated Curiel during the campaign for his handling of fraud allegations against now-defunct Trump University, suggesting the Indiana-born judge's Mexican heritage reflected a bias.

Curiel mentioned his roots in his 101-page ruling Tuesday when he cited another native of the state, US Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts, who wrote in another case that courts should not make policy judgments.

'The court cannot and does not consider whether the underlying decisions to construct border barriers are politically wise or prudent,' Curiel wrote.

Trump is seeking $18 billion to extend the wall as the White House and Congress are at an impasse.

Earlier this month, the Senate rejected an administration-backed plan to link funding and sharp cuts to legal immigration to allowing young immigrants to stay in the country after they were temporarily shielded from deportation under an Obama-era program, Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals.

The lawsuit was the first major legal challenge to the wall under Trump and the latest legal challenge to fail over the years.

'Big legal win today,' Trump tweeted in response to the ruling onTuesday night

The Center for Biological Diversity, which sued along with the state of California and three advocacy groups, said it would appeal.

'They're giving unprecedented, sweeping power to an unelected agency chief to ignore dozens of laws and crash through hundreds of miles of spectacular borderlands,' attorney Brian Segee said, referring to the head of Homeland Security.

'This is unconstitutional and shouldn't be allowed to stand.'

California Attorney General Xavier Becerra said: 'We will evaluate all of our options and are prepared to do what is necessary to protect our people, our values, and our economy from federal overreach.'

The Animal Legal Defense Fund said it may ask the US Supreme Court to intervene.

And the Sierra Club said the environmental and other reviews are critical to protecting border communities, but the group didn't discuss its next step.

Following the judge's decision, California Attorney General Xavier Becerra said: 'We will evaluate all of our options and are prepared to do what is necessary to protect our people, our values, and our economy from federal overreach.' Wall prototypes are pictured

US Justice Department spokesman Devin O'Malley welcomed the decision, saying Congress granted authority to build a wall without delay and that the administration is pleased it can continue 'this important work vital to our nation's interests'.

Homeland Security spokesman Tyler Houlton added: 'Simply put, walls work.'

The decision came days after construction began on a 30-foot high barrier in Calexico, California, the administration's first wall project outside of eight prototypes in San Diego that were completed in October.

The administration has issued three waivers since August, two to build in parts of California and one in part of New Mexico.

President George W. Bush's administration issued the previous five waivers, allowing the government to quickly extend barriers to about one-third of the border.

The Center for Biological Diversity said in its lawsuit that the waiver authority cannot be interpreted to last forever. California argued that it expired in 2008, when Homeland Security satisfied congressional requirements at the time on how much wall to build.

Homeland Security spokesman Tyler Houlton added: 'Simply put, walls work.' The decision came days after construction began on a 30-foot high barrier in Calexico, California, the administration's first wall project outside of eight prototypes in San Diego

Trump is expected to visit California to view the eight border wall prototypes (pictured) in mid-March

Curiel wrote that the law certainly 'is not a model of legislative precision' and that both sides made plausible arguments.

The judge declined to second-guess the administration's findings that waivers were issued in areas of 'high illegal entry,' a requirement set by Congress. The advocates argued that dramatic declines in border arrests undermined those findings.

During 2.5 hours of arguments this month, the judge peppered both sides with questions about the law's meaning.

He showed strong interest in a requirement tacked on in late 2007 for Homeland Security to consult other federal agencies, state and local governments, Indian tribes and property owners to minimize the impact of construction, which challengers said the administration failed to do.

Curiel said in his ruling that the law's lack of specifics prevented him for concluding that the administration failed to properly consult others.

The wall prototypes in San Diego that were built to guide future designs and the wall replacement in Calexico were previously funded.

Curiel was pilloried by Trump over the Trump University lawsuits. The then-presumptive Republican presidential nominee called him a 'hater' of Trump who should be ashamed, calling attention to the judge's Mexican ancestry and Trump's support for a border wall.

Trump settled the lawsuits for $25 million after winning the election, without admitting wrongdoing.A 26-year-old woman has been arrested over the fatal stabbing of a man in his 70s, who is believed to be her boyfriend.

Police were called to a home in Meadow Heights, in north Melbourne, just after 5.30am, where they found the man's body.

They arrested a woman named Ruby Gold, and a man believed to be her father, aged 57, Nine News reported.

Ruby Gold, 26, was arrested after a man in his 70s, believed to be her boyfriend, was fatally stabbed

Ms Gold was arrested along with another man, believed to be her father (not pictured)

Neighbours said man arrested is believed to have moved in to the public housing unit just before Christmas.

A spokesman for Victoria Police told Daily Mail Australia the man was soon released, pending further inquiries.

The homicide squad spent most of Wednesday investigating the scene of the crime, but no charges have been laid.

The woman remains in custody and is believed to be cooperating with police.

The man believed to be Ms Gold's father moved in just before Christmas, neighbours said

No charges have been laid relating to the stabbing but Ms Gold remains in custody



Dongfeng Nissan to release first pure electric vehicle model in April

Shanghai (Gasgoo)- Dongfeng Nissan's first pure electric vehicle model strongly resembles the all-new Nissan Sylphy, according to its exposed spy shots. The new pure electric model is likely to be the pure electric version of the Nissan Sylphy. The new model is expected to debut at the 2018 Beijing Motor Show.



Retaining Nissan's V-Motion design language and absorbing the design style of the all-new Nissan LEAF in some details, the model features a double-V-shaped front end and may adopt a closed intake grille. What's more, it looks aggressive and sporty with sharply designed headlights which are connected with the intake grille. Thanks to the linear chrome trims below the intake grille, the model looks much multilayered. Moreover, it is likely to offer LED light inside the headlights.

The new pure electric vehicle model also features an unmistakable outline of tail lights as well as masculine lines of the rear end. Different from the Sylphy, the model is more dynamic with the newly-designed rear spoiler and shark-fin-like antenna on the roof.

In terms of the interior, the model also adopts the similar design style to that of the all-new LEAF. However, it features a newly-styled multifunctional flat-bottom steering wheel and offers an interior with two optional colors. Besides, it boasts leather seats. When it comes to some details, the new pure electric vehicle model retains the all-new Sylphy's embedded center console and multifunctional system.

Taking a reference from the all-new Nissan LEAF, the pure electric vehicle model may come with an electric motor with a maximum power output of 110kW and a peak torque of 320Nm, delivering a comprehensive range of 378km. The capacity of its battery reaches 40kWh. Under a normal charging mode, the all-new LEAF can be fully charged in eight hours, and under a mode of quick charging, it only needs 40 minutes to be get 80% charged.Labour have announced they will stop accepting donations from Max Mosley as the party's Tom Watson came under pressure to hand back 540,000 he was given by the F1 tycoon.

Mr Watson, the party's deputy leader, received 40,000 from Mr Mosley in August 2015, 200,000 in June 2016 and a 300,000 donation in February 2017.

He was called upon to return the money following the Daily Mail's revelations that Mr Mosley published a by-election campaign leaflet which blamed non-white immigrants for diseases like tuberculosis, VD and leprosy.

A spokesman for Jeremy Corbyn said today that the party would no longer accept any donations from Mr Mosley in future, but stopped short of calling on Mr Watson to return money donated last year.

Labour deputy leader Tom Watson is under pressure to return money donated by Max Mosley

It emerged last night that Mr Mosley's name was on an electoral leaflet from 1961 which stated: 'Coloured immigration threatens your children's health'. The F1 mogul is pictured today

The spokesman said: 'I don't believe there will be any more payments from Max Mosley to the Labour Party or to Tom Watson.

'We have shifted away from payments and contributions from wealthy donors.'

The spokesman said in future the National Executive Committee and Mr Corbyn's office would assess whether any donations from wealthy individuals were 'ethical and appropriate' for the party to accept.

A source close to Mr Corbyn described the leaflet uncovered by the Mail as utterly repugnant. He added: Large contributions to the Labour Party are a subject of close scrutiny and internal regulation. There will not be any more contributions to the Labour Party or Labour frontbenchers by Max Mosley.

We have moved away from large individual donors and any contributions of that kind will be strictly monitored.

The criteria against which they are being judged and will be judged is whether they are appropriate and ethical.

MPs from both sides of the House today called on Mr Watson to hand back the money donated and distance himself from Mr Mosley.

Labour MP John Mann told MailOnline: 'Obviously he needs to stop using his money immediately.'

Tory MP Henry Smith added: 'The double standards of Labour's deputy leader in refusing to return a significant donation from Max Mosley following his history of racist views is yet another example of the nasty wing that has taken over that party.'

Fellow Tory MP Jacob Rees-Mogg said: If I were Tom Watson I would be so ashamed to be associated with someone so hostile to the British constitution and freedom of speech that I would feel obliged to pay the money back with interest.

Former Cabinet minister Priti Patel said: Labour has got no credibility in being the voice of Britains diverse communities when they are friends of this man that had these abhorrent views about people from other ethnic backgrounds.

The issue was raised at Prime Minister's Questions today, where Mr Watson sat next to Jeremy Corbyn. Theresa May said: 'I think some people would have been surprised to learn of those links with some leading politicians'

Mr Mosley has said the views expressed on the election leaflet are not views he now holds

Tory Party deputy chairman James Cleverly said: Tom Watson should seriously consider distancing himself from Mr Mosley and returning the money. He must avoid the impression of an unhealthy connection between Labours position on Press freedom and a wealthy donor who may find himself embarrassed by reporting of his past actions.

The deputy leader has previously defended the donations, saying: Im proud to call Max Mosley a friend and Im delighted he has made a financial contribution to Labour.

Labour figures  including Shadow Home Secretary Diane Abbott  declined to comment on whether Mr Watson should hand back the cash.

Mr Watson appeared defiant after the leaflet emerged last night, insisting: 'The views expressed by Max as a young man are not the views he holds now.'

Conservative deputy chairman James Cleverly added that Mr Watson should 'seriously consider' returning the money.

He told The Sun: 'He must avoid the impression of an unhealthy connection between Labour's position on press freedom and a wealthy donor who may find himself embarrassed by reporting of his past actions.'

In the House of Commons register of members' interests, Mr Watson said the two biggest donations from Mr Mosley were donated via the Labour Party to support his office. The smallest one was to help fund his campaign to be Labour deputy leader.

The issue was also discussed at Prime Minister's Questions in the House of Commons today, where Mr Watson sat next to Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn.

Tory MP Anne Main asked: 'A free and independent press remains vital to our country  do you share my concerns about the links Max Mosley has with Impress and the links Max Mosley has with some of our leading politicians.'

This pamphlet was produced in support of one Walter Hesketh. In November 1961, Mr Hesketh was the Union Movement's parliamentary candidate for Moss Side

The leaflet was produced in support of 'Union Movement' candidate Walter Hesketh in 1961

Theresa May replied: 'I think some people would have been surprised to learn of those links with some leading politicians.

'I absolutely, absolutely agree with you that a free press is very important, it underpins our democracy.

'And whatever they say about us, whatever they write about us, actually it is important they are able to hold politicians  the powerful  to account.

'They are able to shine a light on some of the darkest corners of our society, and as far as I am concerned, while I am Prime Minister, that will never change.'

Privacy campaigner Max Mosley published the controversial pamphlet supporting a candidate for his father Sir Oswald Mosley's Union Movement in a 1961 parliamentary contest.

The discovery raises questions over evidence which Mr Mosley gave under oath in a High Court trial when he successfully sued the News Of The World in 2008.

Mr Mosley suggested he would continue to support Mr Watson during a TV interview last night

Asked in court about his political activities as a young man, Mr Mosley acknowledged he was election agent for Union Movement candidate Walter Hesketh in the 1961 by-election in Moss Side.

But he said it was 'absolute nonsense' to suggest he had put out leaflets alleging that coloured immigrants brought diseases with them.

And pressed on whether the literature urged voters to 'send blacks home', he replied: 'Not as I recall.'

The election handout found by the Mail states that it was 'published by Max Mosley'.

It includes the warning: 'Protect your health. There is no medical check on immigration. Tuberculosis, VD and other terrible diseases like leprosy are on the increase. Coloured immigration threatens your children's health.'

It also states that 'if enough people vote for me in this election, the government... will be sending coloured immigrants home, instead of bringing more in' and urges voters 'let us give the coloured people a fair deal by sending them back to good jobs and good wages at home in Jamaica'.

This is the Daily Mail photograph from May 1958, which shows Max Mosley's early participation in the thuggish street politics of his father Sir Oswald's Union Movement, which had been founded ten years earlier

Max Mosley, left, with what appears to be a cut on his right knuckle and a plaster on his left, stands next to his clench-fisted brother Alexander during the Notting Hill riots in 1958

The document came to light as Mr Mosley pursues an effort to prevent newspapers from referring to the sex party reported in the News Of The World which prompted the 2008 court case.

The former Formula One boss has campaigned for tighter press regulation since the now-defunct Sunday tabloid wrongly reported the party was 'Nazi-themed', and has donated funds to controversial regulator Impress.

Questioned over the leaflet on Channel 4 News last night, Mr Mosley said: 'This was a statement in a leaflet which I am not even sure is genuine, which would never reflect my view, it would not reflect my view then or now because I simply wouldn't dream of insulting people.'

He added: 'I have never been a racist, I am not a racist, never will be a racist.'

Asked whether he is a fit and proper person to be funding Mr Watson, he replied: 'Absolutely.'

Asked if he would be donating more money, he replied: 'Why should I not support Tom Watson, who is probably one of the most honest and courageous politicians we have got.'A tourist has fallen almost 400ft to his death while trying to take a selfie in a steep canyon in Colombia.

Jonathan Andres Beltran Guzman, 23, was on holiday with his family at the puente natural de Icononzo beauty spot when he plunged to his death at the weekend.

Guzman climbed over a safety barrier on to wet rocks before falling into the Sumapaz River which sits at the bottom of a deep canyon, local media reports.

Jonathan Andres Beltran Guzman, 23, was on holiday with his family and visiting a beauty spot at the top of a steep canyon when he fell 400ft to his death

Guzman is reported to have stepped over a safety barrier and on to wet rocks in an attempt to get a picture before slipping and falling into the river below

The accident happened around 6pm on Saturday and while emergency workers have been searching for his remains ever since, they have yet to find them.

The young man was born in Fusagasuga province but was living in Bogota at the time of his death, where he studied and worked at the same time.

Over the weekend he had traveled to be with his family and they had decided to visit the beauty spot, which is comprised of a natural bridge over the river below.

Officials believe that he hit the rocks before being taken away by the river.

Tolima Civil Defence Director Luis Fernando Velez said that they have brought in a specialised rescue team from Ibague to locate Guzman's body.

He explained that restricted access to the bottom of the narrow canyon as well as rising water levels due to heavy rains in recent days has made the task more difficult.Scotland Yard is investigating a fresh claim of sexual assault against disgraced movie mogul Harvey Weinstein

Scotland Yard is investigating a fresh claim of sexual assault against disgraced movie mogul Harvey Weinstein.

Detectives received an allegation that the former Miramax boss attacked a woman in Westminster in the mid-1990s.

This bring the total number of women who have reported Weinstein to British police to 10.

The Metropolitan Police said: 'Officers from the Met's Child Abuse and Sexual Offences Command have received allegations of sexual assault from 10 victims under Operation Kaguyak.'

It added: 'An allegation was received that the man sexually assaulted a woman (victim 10) in Westminster in the mid-1990s.'

Officers have now received 15 separate allegations of sexual assault on dates ranging from the 1980s to 2015.

Scotland Yard have not named Weinstein, but confirmed officers from Met's Child Abuse and Sexual Offences Command are investigating allegations of sexual assault under Operation Kaguyak.

Police in the UK first confirmed they had opened an investigation into Weinstein in early October after Merseyside Police received an allegation of sexual assault in the London area in the 1980s, and referred it to Scotland Yard.

British actress Lysette Anthony said she had told the Metropolitan Police she was attacked by Weinstein in her London home in the late 1980s.

Rose McGowan is among the actresses who have made allegations against Weinstein (pictured, the pair at a Premiere of Grindhouse in 2007)

Officers in New York and Los Angeles have also opened investigations into allegations made against the movie mogul.

On October 31 last year, an alleged eighth victim told UK police she had been assaulted by Weinstein in Ireland. The allegation has been passed on to Irish police.

Weinstein has denied all allegations of non-consensual sex.The car in which legendary rapper Tupac Shakur was shot dead is up for sale for US$1.5 million - complete with one of the four bullet holes.

The black 1996 BMW 7-Series went on sale this week after being fully restored but with most of its original features still as they were on September 7, 1996.

Tupac was shot four times with a Glock pistol as the car sat at traffic lights in Las Vegas, hours after his posse was involved in a fight at the MGM Grand casino.

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The car in which legendary rapper Tupac Shakur was shot dead is up for sale for US$1.5 million - complete with one of the four bullet holes

Tupac was shot four times with a Glock pistol as the car sat at traffic lights in Las Vegas, hours after his posse was involved in a fight at the MGM Grand casino

Celebrity Cars Las Vegas owner Ryan Hamilton said the custom interior was intact despite the outside restoration, including a secret compartment.

'This is actually just a little open and closed area here that would've been the same on this side, but there was a secret culmination of buttons that he programmed,' he told FOX5 Las Vegas.

'Where he pushed something you know two or three times, and turned a knob and it would pop open, I'm assuming for some sort of weapon since obviously he needed a little protection.'

However, Mr Hamilton did not reveal where the secret compartment was and it, along with the remaining bullet hole, was not highlighted in any photos.

The black 1996 BMW 7-Series went on sale this week after being fully restored but with most of its original features still as they were on September 7, 1996

The car after it was riddled with four bullets when a white four-door Cadillac pulled up alongside them, rolled down the window, and proceeded to rapidly fire gunshots at Tupac

Celebrity Cars, which is selling the car for US$1.5 million (1.08 million), said the car was a rare opportunity own a piece of music history.



'It has been completely restored to the condition it was in before his death and has just received a new coat of paint,' it said in the car's advertisement.

'There is a small indentation where we believe one of the bullet holes was, but it is hard to tell, other than that it is fully restored.

'The wheels have been replaced with the same wheels that it had at the time of the shooting, it runs great and is in excellent condition.

'The new owner will be provided with documentation proving ownership and history. The car has had several owners since the shooting but the most recent put it through a full restoration.'

The four bullet holes in the side of Tupac's car soon after it was riddled with bullets

Celebrity Cars Las Vegas owner Ryan Hamilton said the custom interior was intact despite the outside restoration, including a secret gun compartment

The door through which Tupac was shot as he and driver Suge Knight waited at traffic lights in Las Vegas

Mr Hamilton said the car would have cost US$80,000 to $90,000 new and now had about 120,000 miles on it, but still drove well.

The car was repaired and sold at police auction in California, owned by various drivers who didn't know they were sitting in a music relic.

'Most people would probably prefer it being in the condition with the bullet holes. At the time though, it was in such bad shape that the wheels wouldn't even have rolled,' he said.

BMW made a bulletproof version of the 7-Series which would have saved Tupac's life, but he instead leased the standard version.

The rapper was killed in a drive-by shooting after he, Suge Knight, and others watched Mike Tyson's world title contest against Bruce Seldon.

Tupac (right) was killed in a drive-by shooting after he, Suge Knight (left), and others watched Mike Tyson's world title contest against Bruce Seldon

Celebrity Cars, which is selling the car for US$1.5 million (1.08 million), said the car was a rare opportunity own a piece of music history

Knight, a co-founder of Death Row Records which produced Tupac's music, was driving the car which was leased by the label.

Earlier in the evening, a fracas had broken out at the venue when one of Knight's associates spotted a member of a rival gang who had history with Death Row.

Tupac and Knight were driving down Los Angeles boulevard where they stopped for a red light at the intersection of Flamingo Road and Koval Lane in front of the Maxim Hotel.

A white four-door Cadillac pulled up alongside them, rolled down the window, and proceeded to rapidly fire gunshots at Tupac.

The car was repaired and sold at police auction in California, owned by various drivers who didn't know they were sitting in a music relic

Knight, a co-founder of Death Row Records which produced Tupac's music, was driving the car which was leased by the label (pictured is BMW records showing who the car was leased to)

He was hit four time, twice in the chest, once in the arm and once in the thigh, with one of the bullets penetrating his right lung. Knight was also hit in the head by shrapnel.

Knight managed to drive the pair a mile from the scene before being pulled over by a police bike patrol who alerted paramedics through their radio.

The pair were rushed to University Medical Center of Southern Nevada and Knight was released the next day while Tupac remained on life support.

Tupac was later put in an induced coma after repeatedly trying to get out of bed.

While in the critical care unit September 13, Shakur died of respiratory failure that led to cardiac arrest after removal of his right lung.

The murder was never solved and Knight repeatedly denied any involvement.New York City will have to shell out $180,000 to three Muslim women for forcing them to take off their hijabs for mugshots.

Settled in Brooklyn federal court on Monday, the suits sought to impact the NYPD's policy for taking pictures of people wearing head coverings.

Each woman settled for $60,000, the New York Daily News reported.

Three Muslim women filed lawsuits against New York City and the NYPD for forcing them to take off their hijab while taking mugshots [stock photo]

Dating back to 2012, the cases start with a Brooklyn teen known as 'G.E.' who was arrested after a dispute with two girls.

While the criminal case was dismissed, her mugshot would be the root of the problem.

G.E. was taken to the 62nd Precinct, which covers Bensonhurst, Mapleton and Bath Beach.

Most problems stem from the Brooklyn Central Booking, pictured, where there weren't female officers present to be around for the women

When she got there, she was instructed to remove her hijab.

Refusing, the teen was then taken to a private room and a female officer took the photo away from men.

When she got to Brooklyn central booking, however, she was informed that the camera was in a fixed spot and that there were no women who could take the photo.

G.E. claims that a male officer took her picture, without the hijab.

Tahanie Aboushi represented for the three women

The teen claims to have felt 'exposed, violated and distraught' for having to remove her head piece for approximately 20 minutes while policemen and prisoners watched.

An order was issued in March 2015 which changed the policy for people who refused to take off their headscarves. Officers now have to detail to people that the NYPD provides the choice for private photos - without the hijab - to be taken in another room with an officer of the same gender.

G.E.'s lawyer, Tahanie Aboushi, filed two other cases with women from 2015 and 2016 incidents.

One woman alleges that she was forced to take off her veil at Central Booking and was denied a female officer. Another stated that her hijab was removed at the scene.

'We did our best to establish good precedent,' Aboushi said. 'On the one hand, it gives officers guidance, and on the other hand, it protects the exercise of religious freedom.'New homophobic editorials written by Australia's Deputy Prime Minister have emerged, revealing he attacked gay and lesbian people not once, but repeatedly.

Michael McCormack, who took over as Nationals leader on Monday, was forced to defend himself this week after damning anti-gay editorials he penned in 1992 and 1993 surfaced.

In the now infamous editorials, Mr McCormack said homosexuality was 'sordid' and gay people were responsible for spreading AIDS.

Now more anti-gay editorials written by Mr McCormack while he was the editor at Wagga Wagga's The Daily Advertiser have emerged.

New homophobic editorials written by Australia's Deputy Prime Minister have emerged including a column titled 'Stop pandering to gays' (pictured)

Michael McCormack (pictured), who took over as Nationals leader on Monday, was forced to defend himself this week after damning anti-gay editorials he penned in 1992 and 1993 surfaced

In newly revealed columns titled, 'stop pandering to gays', and 'I'm not sorry, why should I be', Mr McCormack slammed the government's decision to allow gay people to work in the defence force.

'The Government has overturned the prohibition on gays in the Australian Defence Force and now we are told will look at the rights of homosexuals in the public service,' he said.

'What will be next? What is this country coming to?'

In one piece The Daily Telegraph uncovered, Mr McCormack said the acceptance of gay people in the army would 'pervert our armed services'.

He also slammed the idea of recognising gay de facto relationships saying it was simply 'pandering to the whims of the 'limp-wristed' minority'.

The newly revealed columns include titles: Sstop pandering to gays', and 'I'm not sorry, why should I be' (pictured)

Mr McCormack was forced to defend himself again this week, saying his views changed as he grew older and had a family

The following week, Mr McCormack backed his opinion piece, saying: 'I've been labelled homophobic well, if homophobic can be taken as an intense fear of homosexuals then that's fine, call me homophobic'.

Mr McCormack was forced to defend himself again this week, saying his views changed as he grew older and had a family.

'Editorial views expressed more than 25 years ago in no way reflect how my views and community views have changed since publication,' he said.

'Australia in the early 90s was very different to what it is now. I say this not to excuse the culture which once existed but to put the quotes in context.

New editorials have emerged including this one titled 'gay rights and deadly wrongs'

'As people get older and start families, and grow as members of their community, it is completely reasonable their views change over time.'

Mr McCormack, who started as a cadet at Wagga Wagga's The Daily Advertiser newspaper, became the paper's editor by 1991.

At just 27, Mr McCormack was the youngest person in charge of a daily newspaper in Australia.

Mr McCormack took over as Nationals leader after Barnaby Joyce formally stood down this month.

His resignation from the position followed weeks of fall out from his marriage break down and new relationship with a former staffer with whom he is welcoming a new child.A legal defense fund designed to help aides to Donald Trump cover mounting legal fees stemming from the ongoing Russia election meddling probes is now active.

The Patriot Legal Expense Fund Trust opened Tuesday in the state of Delaware.

Set up as a tax-exempt political organization, the fund will assist White House staffers and campaign aides like communications director Hope Hicks with legal costs incurred in the course of special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation and the House and Senate Intelligence probes into the 2016 election.

The fund will assist White House staffers and campaign aides like communications director Hope Hicks with legal costs incurred in the course of the Russia probes

A number of Trump's current and former aides are racking up legal bills as they defend themselves against allegations that they colluded with Russia during the presidential campaign.

Money from the fund will be available to consultants, volunteers and employees of Trump's campaign, as well as transition staff and administration officials, a press release said.

It will be divided into at least two accounts, the release said, creating separate pots of money for government employees and non-government employees.

The president and his immediate family members are not eligible for assistance through the limited liability corporation.

In addition to special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation (pictured), the fund will assist Trump associates with their defense in the House and Senate Intelligence probes

A release announcing the fund explicitly states that criminal charges and indictments outside the purpose of the fund are excluded from payout, as well, seemingly ruling out Paul Manafort and Rick Gates as candidates.

The pair have been charged with financial crimes unrelated to their work on the campaign.

Former White House National Security Adviser Michael Flynn, who was fired for lying about his conversations with the Kremlin during the transition, would not take the money even if it was offered to him, a source told ABC News.

Carter Page, an unpaid adviser to the campaign who the FBI spied on, would be eligible for assistance. Page was revealed in a GOP memo to have been surveiled by the feds after trips to Russia and contact with Kremlin-linked individuals set off alarms.

The Office of Government Ethics upon reviewing the fund determined in January that it would be in compliance with federal regulations, opening it up to current White House staffers.

Hicks, the White House communications director, senior policy advsior Stephen Miller and social media director Dan Scavino are a few of the top Trump aides who could utilize it.

Former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon could also tap the account.

A source close to Bannon tells DailyMail.com that 'he's absolutely not accepting' money from the fund, however, and 'will be covering all of his legal expenses himself.'

Hicks and Bannon are part of a current dispute with lawmakers involved in the House Intelligence Committee's probe over the White House's attempt to exert blanket executive privilege.

Legislators are angry the Trump administration is trying to apply privilege to the period after the election before Trump took the Oath of Office, and Rep. Adam Schiff, the top Democrat on the panel, is threatening to hold Bannon in contempt.

President Trump's legal bills and his son Don Jr's have been covered by the Republican National Committee in the past

According to ABC News, law office Wiley Rein set up the fund on behalf of Trump's campaign with the assistance of the White House.

The fund is being managed at this time by former Republican Rep. Nan Hayworth of New York.

A similar fund, the 'Clinton Legal Expense Trust,' was set up for Bill Clinton staffers caught up in the Whitewater investigation and Paula Jones sexual harassment case creating a precedent for a donation-based account.

President Trump's legal bills, and his son Don Jr's, have been covered by the Republican National Committee and the Trump campaign in the past. In 2017, the RNC and the Trump campaign spent a combined $5.5 million on legal bills, according to Politico.

The president's son-in-law Jared Kushner, who has become a key figure in the allegations of Russian collusion, is technically eligible for assistance through the legal defense fund, although it is unknown whether he'll accept the aid.

A request for comment from Kushner's lawyer did not receive an immediate reply.A nine-year-old boy disappeared from a suburb south of Brisbane on Wednesday afternoon.

Police are seeking public assistance to find the youngster, who was last seen on Civic Parade, where a park and the police station are located.

He was last seen about 4pm, and has not been seen or heard from since.

A nine-year-old boy disappeared from a quiet street south of Brisbane about 4pm on Wednesday

The young boy has pale skin and is about 110cm tall.

He is slim, and has brown hair and brown eyes.

He was last seen wearing a blue shirt, and blue shorts.

Police have said they hold concerns about his welfare due to his young age.

A spokesman for Queensland Police was unable to confirm which part of Civic Parade the boy disappeared from.

If you have any information as to his whereabouts, contact CrimeStoppers on 1800 333 000.A married father-of-three from California who posed as a driver for ride-hailing companies Uber and Lyft has been arrested for allegedly raping at least seven women during a 15-month rampage in Los Angeles County.

The district attorneys office says Nicolas Morales, 44, faces 27 charges including nine counts of forcible oral copulation; six counts of rape; five counts sodomy by use of force; four counts of sexual penetration by foreign object, and one count each of assault with intent to commit a felony; attempted sodomy by use of force and attempted kidnapping to commit another crime.

Morales bail has been set at $10.3million. His arrangement was postponed on Tuesday until March 8, after the attorney his family have retained withdrew from the case after realizing the gravity of the charges.

Nicolas Morales, 44 (left and right) has been charged with raping at least seven women in Los Angeles County over the course of 15 months

The alleged assaults happened across greater Los Angeles from late 2016 until the beginning of this year. Prosecutors say a knife was used in some of the attacks, which allegedly occurred during a 15-month span.

If convicted of the charges against him, Morales could face up to 300 years to life in prison.

In May, police released this sketch based on a description provided by a woman who alleged that a bogus ride-share driver had raped her in Hollywood in January 2017

Prosecutors said from October 2016 to January 2018, Morales is accused of raping and sexually assaulting seven separate women while pretending to be a driver for Uber and Lyft in areas throughout Los Angeles County, including Alhambra, Beverly Hills, West Hollywood and Los Angeles.

Morales has lived for many years in Santa Clarita, where a neighbor revealed that he is married to a nurse and has three young children.

Maria Lineres, who lives next door to that Morales family, told KTLA that the husband and wife seemed like a good Christian couple.

According to a report by the Los Angeles Times, one of the sexual attacks that has been ascribed to Morales took place on January 7, 2017, in Hollywood, where a woman reported getting into a man's four-door sedan outside a nightclub, thinking it was the Uber she had ordered.

The victim said the driver took her to a secluded area and raped her. Based on the woman's description of her attacker, police in May released a composite sketch to the public.

On December 30, 2017, another woman called 911 alleging that a ride-share driver picked her up in Los Angeles and took her to a park in Alhambra, where he sexually assaulted her.

Investigators say they used forensic evidence to track down Morales, who was arrested on February 23.Ex-Prime Minister Sir John Major today called for Parliament to set the terms of Brexit on a free vote or hand the issue back to the voters in a new referendum.

Sir John insisted handing control to Parliament - which is widely thought likely to endorse a soft Brexit or even cancel the referendum result - was necessary to heal divisions in the country.

And he said the electorate has 'every right to reconsider their decision' if the terms of Brexit turn out to damage the country.

The former Tory leader will likely face a huge backlash for slamming the Government's negotiating tactics in a major speech today.

Brexiteers immediately began hitting back at Sir John's incendiary intervention, accusing him of reviving project fear to undermine the referendum result.

Ex-Prime Minister Sir John Major (pictured today at Somerset House) has called for Parliament to set the terms of Brexit on a free vote or hand the deal back to the voters

Theresa May (pictured today at PMQ's) has set out her vision of the road to Brexit but has come under sustained criticism from many on her own side for concessions to Brexiteers

Speaking at Somerset House today, Sir John claimed every promise by Brexit supporters had been proved to be wrong or 'fantasy'.

And he said the economy was already being dragged down by the referendum vote, leaving Britain as the 'laggard' in Europe.

Sir John urged Theresa May's Government to take the 'brave and bold decision' of putting Parliament in charge.

He said: 'They should invite Parliament to accept or reject the final outcome on a free vote.

I know the instinct of every Government is to oppose ''free votes'', but the Government should weigh the advantages of having one very carefully. It may be in their interest to do so.'

He added: 'Brexit is a unique decision. It will affect the lives of the British people for generations to come. If it flops  there will be the most terrible backlash.

'If it is whipped through Parliament, when the public are so divided, voters will know who to blame if they end up poorer and weaker. So, both democracy and prudence suggest a free vote.'

Sir John urged Theresa May's Government to take the 'brave and bold decision' of putting Parliament (pictured today during PMQs) in charge

Sir John claimed it was impossible to 'truly know' the 'will of the people' based only on the 2016 referendum.

He said: 'So, let Parliament decide. Or put the issue back to the people.'

What did we learn from the roadmap to Brexit speeches delivered by May and her Cabinet? Theresa May's Munich Speech The PM made the case for the UK to continued to have a strong security partnership with the EU. She said the UK will stay in the European Arrest Warrant and owuld 'respect' rulings by the European Court of Justice. Boris Johnson's Valentine's Day address The Foreign Secretary outlined his vision for a 'liberal Brexit' which would see Britain be a leading free trading nation. He urged for Remainers and Brexiteers to unite and urged the country to be more upbeat about the looming departure. David Davis The Brexit Secretary made a pitch for an ambitious trade deal which would see the UK and EU have 'mutual recognition' of each others rules and regulations. And he insisted gloomy predictions of Britain's future outside the EU w ere wrong - saying the country will not descend 'into some Mad Max-style dystopia'. David Lidington The Cabinet Office Secretary hit out at SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon for trying to use Brexit to tear the UK apart. And he reassured devolved governments across the UK that most of the powers repatriated from Brussels will go back to them rather than Westminster. Liam Fox he hit out at calls for the UK to stay in a customs union with the EU - warning this would amount to a betrayal of voters. He said staying in a union would leave Britain having to take EU rules without being able to make them. And he said Britain should embrace new opportunities to strike trade deals with growing economies outside the EU. Advertisement

Sir John said Britain would 'get through' Brexit whatever the outcome of the talks, even if the end in no deal.

But he said it was wrong to believe confident Brexiteer promises that 'all will be well', insisting the nation was owed a 'frank assessment of what what leaving Europe may mean'.

The ex-PM said: 'I fear we will be weaker and less prosperous  as a country and as individuals.

'And  although it grieves me to admit it  our divorce from Europe will diminish our international stature. Indeed, it already has.'

Sir John pointed to European economic date suggesting Britain has fallen from the top of growth leagues to the bottom, adding: 'We have become the slowest of the world's big economies, even before we surrender the familiar advantages of the Single Market.'

Sir John insisted he did not doubt the 'convictions' of Boris Johnson or other senior Leave supporters in the Government and elsewhere.

But he branded them 'out of date and in today's world wrong', claiming the Brexit vote could drive 125,000 jobs with Japenese firms out of Britain.

He insisted: 'It is not my purpose to stir controversy, but the truth must be spoken.

'The ultra Brexiteers have been mistaken  wrong  in nearly all they have said or promised to the British people.

'The promises of more hospitals, more schools, lower taxes, more money for transport were electioneering fantasy.

'The 350 million a week for the NHS was a ridiculous phantom: the reality is if our economy weakens  as is forecast  there will not only be less money for the NHS, but for all our public services.'

Jacob Rees-Mogg, the influential chairman of backbench Tory eurosceptics, told MailOnline: 'Did Sir John allow a free vote on Maastricht? No he made it a vote of confidence in the end.'

Senior Tory MP Michael Fabricant said: 'I am saddened by John Major's speech - delivered 18 months too late - which is a bitter denunciation of the people's choice to leave the EU.

'It's as if he is venting all his pent up frustration to no practical end.

'It's merely a bitter rant.'This is the spectacular moment a fighter jet pilot left onlookers in a whirlwind of dust as his plane roared off the runway.

The US Navy F-18 Hornet from the Blue Angels display team created the spectacular cloud as the pilot performed a 'low transition takeoff'.

One plane spotter even ducks in the video because the jet is flying so low.

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This is the spectacular moment a fighter jet pilot left onlookers in a whirlwind of dust as his plane roared off the runway. The US Navy F-18 Hornet from the Blue Angels display team created the cloud as the pilot performed a 'low transition takeoff'

The US Navy F-18 jet was filmed flying very low before pulling up to go vertical

Lieutenant Brandon Hempler from the Blue Angels was preparing for an upcoming airshow season when he gave spectators a taste of what was in store.

Hempler demonstrated a low transition takeoff directly over their heads much to the pleasure of the enthusiastic onlookers.

In performing the low transition take off, Lieutenant Hempler rapidly manoeuvred the jet from horizontal to vertical using the engines powerful thrusters - rather than gradually building altitude like conventional take offs.

This video, recorded by Norman Graf, shows the takeoff, from Naval Air Facility El Centro, in California

Flying near to the ground at low speeds, the jet is seen approaching as the camera-clutching enthusiast film the multi-million pound machinery from afar

The Blue Angels flight demonstration squad was formed in 1946 and are the second oldest flying acrobatics team in the world.

Pilots from the US Navy continue to tour the globe performing more than 70 shows a year, with an estimated 11 million spectators turning out to watch they annually.

The job of piloting in the Blue Angels does not come without risk however, as throughout its 69-year history, 26 pilots have been killed in air show or training accidents.A 56-year-old man has been charged with murder following the death of a 22-year-old male who took himself to hospital in a taxi with stab wounds Wednesday night.

Rey Quintanta was arrested from an apartment in Mueller Place, Tregear, in Sydney's West, and transported to Nepean Hospital before being charged at Mount Druitt Police Station.

The 22-year-old died out the front of Mount Druitt hospital shortly before 5pm after suffering fatal stab wounds to his stomach and chest.

Police alleged the two men were known to each other and have appealed for witnesses or anyone with further information to come forward.

The 22-year-old was left to die out the front of Mount Druitt hospital after he had multiple stab wounds to his stomach and chest

The 56-year-old was refused bail to appear at Mount Druitt Local Court Thursday morning.

Police established a crime scene at his unit, and also at a complex on nearby Balleny Place as it was believed the injured man walked there before getting in a taxi.

Following his release from hospital, the older man was taken to Mount Druitt Police Station where he was charged with murder.

Anyone with information in relation to this incident has been urged to contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.Since creating her Twitter account in the wake of the Parkland shooting, Florida student and campaigner at the helm of the growing pro-gun control youth movement Emma Gonzalez has gained more followers on the social media site than the NRA.

Emma Gonzalez has become one of the most prominent voices weeks after the attack at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, calling for gun control and change in attitudes after the multitude of school shootings that have occurred in the United States.

Since creating her Twitter account, Emma Gonzalez has gained more followers than the NRA

Other Florida shooting survivors like David Hogg, Cameron Kasky and Sarah Chadwick also appear to be rapidly gaining followers by the thousands while they work to command the nations attention after 17 people were killed on February 14, 2018.

In addition to this, the student survivors have called for a boycott of all companies that are affiliated with the NRA in an attempt to cut off the gun lobbys support and this soon led to #BoycottFedEx trending on Twitter.

No matter who you are or what organization are I'd be a huge help if you changed your shipping service over to @USPS or @DHLUS or @UPS in support of us. In fact tweet out at companies that use only use @FedEx and demand action! Let's get this done! #boycottfedex  David Hogg (@davidhogg111) February 26, 2018

FedEx, however, refused to part ways with the National Rifle Association despite more than two dozen companies already cutting ties, including the airlines Delta and United Airlines.

FedEx responds to questions on the National Rifle Association, gun safety and policy https://t.co/qYgmbyQ5jk pic.twitter.com/02q1hD2Q9s  FedEx (@FedEx) February 26, 2018

So far, 20 of the 27 companies that partner with the NRA have divested.

To all companies who severed ties with the NRA, those personally affected by their influence on legislation thank you  https://t.co/Wei4EepNMu  Emma Gonzalez (@Emma4Change) February 25, 2018

David Hogg also asked people to cancel their Amazon Prime memberships in order to pressure Amazon into cutting NRATV from their streaming video service.

So how else should we pressure @FedEx to end their relationship with the NRA? Same question for Amazon also I've been trying to cancel my prime membership along with everyone else that doesn't want to support @NRATV how should we go about that? @amazon  David Hogg (@davidhogg111) February 26, 2018

In response to this, the NRA issued a statement on Twitter criticising companies for cutting ties and referred to this as cowardice and that their members had nothing to do with the Parkland shooting.

The statement read: 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.

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. #StandandFight #NRA #2A https://t.co/4kzNq9GDLq  NRA (@NRA) February 25, 2018

Emma and her peers tweets advocating tougher gun laws have been gaining media attention with celebrities like Jimmy Fallon praising the Parkland students for starting this revolution, but who is Emma Gonzalez?

Jimmy praises Parkland students, will march alongside them in D.C. pic.twitter.com/ppyNyl2wyK  Fallon Tonight (@FallonTonight) February 27, 2018

Who is Emma Gonzalez?

Emma Gonzalez is a senior who survived the shooting at Floridas Marjory Stoneman Douglas school and later, founded the gun control advocacy group Never Again MSD, also known by the hashtag #NeverAgain.

She is expected to graduate from the Parkland school in the spring of 2018 and has plans to study at New College of Florida in Sarasota, Florida.

On the day of the shooting, Emma was in the auditorium when the fire alarm went off and tried to leave through the hallway but was told to remain in the auditorium for two hours until the police allowed students to exit the school.

Emma Gonzalez speeches

Emma drew national attention after she gave an 11-minute speech at a rally against gun violence on February 17, 2018 in Ft. Lauderdale in which she rebuked the thoughts and prayers that Trumps government had offered.

The We call B.S. speech went viral and according to The Washington Post, became emblematic of the new strain of furious advocacy that was seen soon after the shooting. In a interview with Ellen DeGeneres, Emma relayed that she felt that her message would do better through repetition.

I knew I would get my job done properly at that rally if I got people chanting something. And I thought We call B.S. has four syllables, thats good. Ill use that. I didnt want to say the actual curse words...the message doesnt need to be thought of in a negative way at all.

On February 21, Emma and other survivors spoke at the town hall hosted by CNN and criticised the NRA as well as the politicians who accept money from it as being complicit in the Florida attack. Here, Emma pressed the NRA spokesperson Dana Loesch for answers and clarify her position on guns.

Emma asked: Dana Loesch, I want you to know that we will support your two children in the way that you will not. The shooter at our school obtained weapons that he used on us legally. Do you believe that it should be harder to obtain the semi-automatic and...the modifications for these weapons to make them fully automatic like bump stocks?

Danas response was to present the argument that mentally ill people should not have access to weapons, but Emma interjected and repeated her question about bump stocks. After these speeches and appearances in the media, she received some backlash from a number of American politicians and journalists, but a lot of support too.

Emma joined Twitter and gained more followers than Dana and the NRA in less than ten days.

As of today, @Emma4Change now has more followers than the @NRA. It happened in less than two weeks.



This is a movement.

This is the future.

Change is now. pic.twitter.com/8yHSpq9Zac  Beau Willimon (@BeauWillimon) February 24, 2018

Shoutout to @Emma4Change who has amassed more followers than the @NRA.



A kid calling for sensible gun reform has outnumbered the entire NRAin just 10 days.  William LeGate (@williamlegate) February 24, 2018

How many Twitter followers does Emma Gonzalez have?

Emma created her @Emma4Change Twitter account on February 18, four days after the Florida school shooting and since then, has built up a legion of over one million followers.

The NRA, which joined the social media website in 2009 has 594,000 followers. David Hogg has also built up his following to over 384,000 followers and Cameron Kasky has 252,000.

Emma Gonzalez wipes away tears during the CNN town hall meeting on February 21, 2018

Why has Twitter been a good tool for activism?

The students movement has ensured that the subject of school shootings remains in the media and the people of America are continuing to discuss what can be done to prevent events like this happening again.

Daniel Kreiss, a professor at the University of North Carolinas school of journalism said to Politico that periods of sustained mass media attention are more likely to result in policy changes. What I suspect is that the Parkland students Twitter followings will be influential if they can leverage them for journalistic, mass media attention.

So far, Emmas tweets that reflect activism and emotion, have been significant in gathering support for gun control and the attempted boycott of FedEx and Amazon. Twitter has also been used as a way of questioning the US President Donald Trump directly for his lack of action.

When is the #NeverAgain March for Our Lives demonstration?

Never Again MSD was formed by Cameron Kasky and his peers in the first few days after the school shooting. The group created Twitter accounts soon after and announced a nationwide protest that would take place on March 24, 2018.

In three days, #NeverAgain gained over 35,000 followers on Facebook and the students started to give as many interviews as possible in order to promote their cause.

George and Amal Clooney were the first to donate $500,000 to the organisation to help with the cost of the March for Our Lives demonstration and later, Oprah Winfrey, Jeffrey Katzenberg and Steven Spielberg matched their donation.Attorney General stood up to President Trump in an extraordinary response to his boss after the president ripped him online for having an independent internal watchdog review alleged warrant abuse.

Sessions, who has been on the receiving end of multiple presidential online shots throughout his turbulent tenure, defended his own 'integrity and honor' in the face of Trump's attack.

'We have initiated the appropriate process that will ensure complaints against this Department will be fully and fairly acted upon if necessary,' Sessions said in a statement.

Then the former Alabama senator added: As long as I am the attorney general, I will continue to discharge my duties with integrity and honor, and this Department will continue to do its work in a fair and impartial manner according to the law and the Constitution.'

President Trump blasted his own attorney general Jeff Sessions over a probe of alleged FISA court abuse in the Russia probe

His response  and his invocation the non-fixed nature of his position  came after Trump blasted him Wednesday over his handling of a probe of alleged 'potentially massive' surveillance abuse that touched his presidential campaign.

Trump went after Sessions  whom he went after mercilessly on Twitter earlier in his term  a day after Sessions said his agency's internal inspector general would probe the allegations.

'Why is A.G. Jeff Sessions asking the Inspector General to investigate potentially massive FISA abuse,' Trump wrote, leaving out a question mark at the end of his inquiry.

'Will take forever, has no prosecutorial power and already late with reports on Comey etc. Isn't the I.G. an Obama guy? Why not use Justice Department lawyers? DISGRACEFUL!'

AG Jeff Sessions response to Trump attack 'We have initiated the appropriate process that will ensure complaints against this Department will be fully and fairly acted upon if necessary. As long as I am the attorney general, I will continue to discharge my duties with integrity and honor, and this Department will continue to do its work in a fair and impartial manner according to the law and the Constitution.' Advertisement

A Republican-drafted House Intelligence Committee memo charges the FBI improperly got a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court to allow surveillance of former Trump campaign official Carter Page by relying on the infamous Steele dossier, which was mostly funded by Democrats.

Asked Tuesday about whether alleged FISA abuse would be probed, Sessions replied: ''Yes, it will be investigated.'

'We believe the Department of Justice must adhere to the high standard in the FISA court. I think that's just the appropriate thing, the inspector general will take that as one of the matters he'll deal with,' Sessions said.

White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders revealed no such animosity when asked about the probe Tuesday.

President Trump attacked his own attorney general online Wednesday morning

SOMETHING BETWEEN US: Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi, center, and Attorney General Jeff Sessions, right, look on as President Donald Trump speaks during a meeting with state and local officials to discuss school safety, in the Roosevelt Room of the White House, Thursday, Feb. 22, 2018, in Washington

'I think that's the role of the Department of Justice, and we're glad that they're fulfilling that job,' she told reporters.

DOJ's IG, Michael Horowitz, was appointed to his post in 2012 by President Barack Obama  but has had a decades-long career as a Justice Department lawyer and has served under multiple presidents.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions was among cabinet members, including Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, who went to the Capitol pay respects to the late Rev. Billy Graham Wednesday

He worked at the agency from 1991 to 2002, served as an Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York in the 1990s, and was nominated by President George W. Bush and confirmed by the Senate in 2003 as Commissioner on the U.S. Sentencing Commission.

Coming to the IG's aid was Rep. Trey Gowdy, the retiring chair of the House Oversight Committee.

'I have had a number of interactions with Inspector General Horowitz, including as recently as earlier this month. He has been fair, fact centric, and appropriately confidential with his work. He was confirmed by the U.S. Senate without a single dissent. I have complete confidence in him and hope he is given the time, the resources and the independence to complete his work,' said Gowdy.

Trump also went after Sessions publicly a week ago on Twitter in connection with the Russia probe  an inquiry Trump has faulted Sessions from recusing himself from overseeing  pressuring him to investigate Democrats.

'Question: If all of the Russian meddling took place during the Obama Administration, right up to January 20th, why arent they the subject of the investigation? Why didnt Obama do something about the meddling? Why arent Dem crimes under investigation? Ask Jeff Sessions!' Trump wrote.

The IG is already probing the FBI's handling of the Clinton email scandal. That probe is ongoing, although anti-Trump texts between two FBI lovers have already come out after IG investigators uncovered them.

Trump's call for having 'Justice Department lawyers' handle the inquiry could be a call to have a second special counsel handle the matter.

Having a counter investigation running could muddy the public discussion of special counsel Robert Mueller's probe of Russian election meddling and Trump campaign contacts with Russians.

IGs have police powers, and although they issue reports that often include merely recommendations, they also frequently include recommended sanctions and can refer matters for criminal prosecution if they uncover them.

Sessions has previously been silent in the face of Trump's attacks  which have included calling his own top law enforcement officer 'beleaguered.'

Why isnt he sticking up for the department,' asked Jack Goldsmith, former head of the Justice Departments Office of Legal Counsel under President George W. Bush, in a New York Times article earlier this month.

Trump tweeted in July: 'So why aren't the Committees and investigators, and of course our beleaguered A.G., looking into Crooked Hillarys crimes & Russia relations?'Philip Clements says he has found love again, with a 22-year-old biology student from Romania.

A retired vicar who married a male model 54 years younger than him has found love again with an even younger man, he has revealed.

Philip Clements, 79, said he is dating a 22-year-old biology student from Romania who he now hopes will move to the UK to live with him.

The Church of England vicar tied the knot with 24-year-old Florin Marin in April last year after meeting him online in 2015.

He even sold his 215,000 home in Sandwich, Kent, to buy a flat in Bucharest, Romania - where Mr Marin was from - and transferred ownership into his new husband's name.

But the couple split after just a few months because Mr Marin spent most of his time partying in nightclubs without his husband, who came back to Britain with nowhere to live.

Mr Clements, who retired in 1999, said he is now living at a friend's house in Kent, is planning on divorcing his ex, and has fallen in love with another toyboy.

He said: 'I'm optimistic that there is a future beyond this terrible, devastating situation.

'I've got my church, my friends and family.

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Former love: Mr Clements, right, with his husband Florin Marin before their split. He returned to Britain in September homeless after selling up before he left

Mr Clements with Mr Marin on their wedding day. The pair wed to make a stance against Church of England rules that bar clergymen from same-sex marriage

'I've got this new partnership and hopefully he'll be able to to come over here and we can be together.'

Mr Clements revealed he had met his new love online after he contacted him to offer his condolences following his split from Mr Marin.

He said: 'There was something about him that I liked - we got into texting each other and it went from there.'

Mr Marin with Mr Clements before they split (left) and the vicar with his husband outside his home in Ramsgate that he sold for 214,750 (right)

The vicar said he had recently gone to see his new love in the northern Romanian city of lasi - around 2,500 miles from Bucharest, and that his new partner, who he did not name, was coming to the UK in the summer after completing his degree.

He added: 'Age doesn't matter to me.

'He's learning from me about life and I'm learning from him - he preserves my youth.'

Mr Clements was left heartbroken at the end of last year when he learned Mr Marin had found a new boyfriend called Jesus.

Speaking to local media in Romania in December Mr Marin said he 'likes the money' the wealthy dad-of-one Jeronimo Jesus de Vega, 48, provides.

He said: 'Philip knows, I told him I found someone. He said that he would not want to keep in touch with me.

Mr Marin now claims to have found love with wealthy Spanish businessman Jeronimo Jesus de Vega

'He has some business, he is more wealthy than Philip.

'He knows very well that I like the money. I told him all about my husband.'

Mr Marin met Mr Clements online around 2015. At the time, Mr Marin was earning 6.50-an-hour working as a chef in a bar taking home less than 300 per week.

The pair made a stance against Church of England rules that bar clergymen from same-sex marriage and wed in a low-key ceremony at Ramsgate Register Office in April last year.

Mr Clements later told how he felt 'foolish' for marrying Mr Florin and said he bought him a flat as he wanted to ensure the model was set for the future.

He said: 'When things were going well between us I assigned the flat to him legally in order to give him security when I die.

'I'm 79 and can't go on forever and I wanted him to have that security.

'So he has the flat and there is no way I can get it back, even if I wanted it back.'

The couple fell out over Mr Marin's late-night partying which he told his husband 'was not for old people'.

Mr Clements then returned to the UK with nothing and said he was on the verge of a 'nervous breakdown'

But he said his 'supportive' friends stepped in and have offered him a place to stay.A far-right paramilitary group which was present in Charlottesville, Virginia last year as deadly violence unfolded is planning a demonstration this weekend just 40 miles away, DailyMail.com has learned.

The anti-government 'Three Percenters' militia plans to parade Saturday outside the Verona, Virginia offices of a company that provides bonds for federal immigration detainees.

The local sheriff has already asked for assistance from state troopers and other nearby law enforcement, fearing a repeat of the Charlottesville violence last August that left an anti-racism demonstrator dead.

Members of the 'Three Percenters' militia carried military-style rifles on the streets of Charlottesville, Virginia during the August 2016 deadly clashes there between white supremacists and counter-protesters; authorities in a nearby town expect the group to march in a nearby town on Saturday

Members of the group can be identified by uniform patches that include the Roman numeral 'III'

Dr. Cornel West locked arms with other members of the clergy while a man identified by Getty Images as a Three Percenter patrolled during the 'Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville; The group claims it's not racist

The planned protest is targeting Nexus Services, a company that bails some suspected illegal immigrants out of federal detention facilities like this one (pictured) in Adelanto, California

The Southern Poverty Law Center, a left-leaning advocacy group that monitors what it calls 'hate groups,' says the Three Percenters are part of the 'radical right.'

'They are a self-styled militia driven by conspiracy theories on the radical right,' SPLC spokesman Ryan Lenz told The News Virginian in the nearby town of Waynesboro.

Three Percenters members were recognized in Charlottesville by their distinctive patches, which feature a Roman numeral 'III.' Some also include the image of a Confederate battle flag.

They openly carried military-style rifles during the August 'Unite the Right' rally. But the group will not need a permit to hold their next event, the local sheriff told the paper.

The state of Virginia allows residents over the age of 18 to openly carry loaded rifles in public without a special license.

'We are taking this incident seriously and, as a precautionary measure, I have reached out to the Virginia State Police and regional local law enforcement for assistance,' Sheriff Donald Smith said in a press release.

'I want to assure our residents and local businesses that we are diligently working to assess and manage this situation.'

The presence of armed militia members during the Charlottesville rally alarmed some, but Virginia allows people over age 18 to carry loaded rifles in public without a special license

The 'Unite the Right' rally led to the death of one woman when a white nationalist plowed his car into a crowd

Nexus Services posts bond for immigrants who want to get out of federal custody pending their hearings

County authorities hope to avoid a repeat of the clashes last August in Charlottesville that left one woman dead when a white nationalist plowed his Dodge Challenger into a crowd of counter-protesters.

Police have charged 20-year-old Alex Fields, Jr. with second-degree murder.

A few hundred white supremacists, neo-Confederates and other supporters had chanted 'white lives matter' and 'Jews will not replace us' as they marched against the removal of a Confederate memorial.

One former Three Percenter member was reportedly arrested during the march.

The SPLC identifies Chris Hill of Georgia, a former U.S. Marine, as the group's national coordinator.

NBC News spoke to Hill in September 2016 while he led an armed protest of a government meeting about the construction of a Mosque.

'Right over there, this is going to be a future ISIS training group. This is where you're going to see terrorism taking hold in Newton County,' he said then, pointing to the building site.

'It's tied to terrorism, everything from 9/11 to Boston bombings to the Fort Hood shooting, to the coup in Turkey. It's all connected.'

Militia group posing for photos during mosque protest in #Newton County. #11Alive pic.twitter.com/DBzReG0IhP  Chris Hopper (@Chris11Alive) September 14, 2016

During one 2015 anti-refugee rally in Idaho, the state's Three Percenter spokesman shouted that 'refugees coming from Islamic hotbeds of terrorism  don't you think that poses a threat to Idaho communities?'

In February 2017 the SPLC cited another Three Percenter, David Wright, whose anti-Muslim 'Bureau of American Islamic Relations' held an armed demonstration a year earlier near Dallas outside a place of Islamic worship.

Wright wrote on Facebook that his militia 'monitor[s]' Muslims.

'We show up in their neighborhoods armed and let them know they're being watched and if they f**k up my guys will take em out. That's exactly what needs to happen,' he boasted.

Nexus CEO Mike Donovan claimed Monday in a press release that the group stands for 'the right to accumulate weapons of war, and the nationalistic attitude preventing immigrants from preserving their rights.'

The militia's decision to target a company offering immigration bonds without collateral to federal detainees  those who are willing to wear GPS monitors and pay a monthly fee  appears intended to provoke.

Three Percenter national coordinator Chris Hill posted this picture of his Georgia militia on his Facebook page

The 'III% Security Force of Georgia' carries out paramilitary training in rural parts of the state

Hill and his group posed in Atlanta near Olympic Park

The business model is controversial, and detractors range from immigrant advocates who call the costs excessive to anti-immigrant activists who prefer potential deportees stay behind bars.

A congressional mandate requires U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to maintain at least 34,000 beds for use in immigration jails.

But immigration judges can offer bond opportunities to people who are in the country without documents. That's a privilege usually extended to people who have no criminal records and strong family ties in the U.S.

The minimum bond about is $1,500 but the amounts can skyrocket beyond many people's ability to pay.

One 2015 study by a USC law professor found that in central California typical bond amounts ranged from $10,000 to more than $80,000.

Donovan claimed Monday that the impending protest represents 'the forces of hate, ignorance, and white supremacy' that could turn 'hatred and vitriol against a group of people just because of what they look like, what color they are, or where they come from.'

The Three Percenters present a public image that claims to be anti-racist and focused on defending the U.S. Constitution, especially on the hot-button issue of gun rights.

'Now not only are the ultra-liberal elite trying to ban the sale of new semi-automatic rifles but, yes, they are trying to take the old ones too,' one of their bloggers claimed last week following a deadly firearm massacre at a Florida school.

After the clashes in Charlottesville, the group issued a 'stand down order,' blaming Antifa and Black Lives Matter protesters for 'show[ing] up to counter-protest against alt-right white supremacists and Nazi groups.'

The Three Percenters take their name from a mythical 3 percent of colonists who fought against the British during the American Revolution.

Attempts to reach leaders of their Virginia contingent on Wednesday were unsuccessful.

One self-professed Three Percenter adherent, Jerry Drake Varnell, was charged last year with attempting to detonate a half-ton of explosives in a van outside an Oklahoma City bank building.

The FBI had been targeting Varnell, ensuring that what he thought was a bomb was actually a harmless device. His arrest came on the same day white supremacists rallied in Charlottesville.

Speaking to undercover agents last June, he acknowledged that his bomb might be deadly, saying that 'you got to break a couple of eggs to make an omelet,' according to the federal complaint filed against him.

Vardell had reportedly expressed admiration for the 1995 Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh.A California woman accused of running a 150-woman prostitution ring with her son also happens to be an author of feminist erotica.

Fay Ruth Romesburg, 59, is accused of conspiring with 38-year-old David Scott Romesburg in an effort to trap women into doing sex work in the north San Francisco suburb of Rohnert Park.

They would arrange for the women to have three appointments: one in Rohnert Park and two in Santa Rosa.

Fay Ruth Romesburg, 59, is accused of conspiring with 38-year-old David Scott Romesburg in an effort to trap women into doing sex work

The duo would take a cut of whatever profit the women would make.

They were accused of pimping and human trafficking.

David is also accused of making a woman continue her sex work until her debt to him was paid. He would also commonly withhold earnings from others and would force them to have sex with him.

The duo would allegedly arrange for the women to have three appointments: one in Rohnert Park and two in Santa Rosa

Fay was reported to having said that she is 'deeply concerned with female sexual empowerment' and has considered sex work laws as 'continued assault on women's rights.'

But she did reject the notion that her home was the location of prostitution.

Police detailed that the manager of the apartment complex in Rohnert Park had suspected that prostitution was happening at the home.

Five women have also decided to work with prosecution and police in the case. Their ages range from 18 to 50.

Up to 150 women have been said to be in connection to the ring and five have come forward to help authorities. (Fay pictured)

The family members haven't entered a plea deal, seeking more time so that they can hire a private lawyer.

Fay's bail is set for $245,000 and her son's bail is set at $250,000.

'I'm a writer, that's my business,' said Romesburg to the Press Democrat.

'I'm deeply concerned about female empowerment and female sexual empowerment,' she said.

The woman is listed on Amazon as being an author of feminist erotica, having supposedly received an English and Pyschology degree from the University of California at Berkeley

Some of her titles include: Extreme Space I and II, Quantum Afterlife, The Kinky Feminist and more

'We need to stop treating these women as victims. They are highly intelligent and educated.'

Fay denied that prostitution took place in the seven-bedroom Santa Rosa home, adding that the women who did rent out the rooms in the building would have difficulty proving income.

'I may go to prison,' she added, 'but I've only helped women by giving them a safe place to live.'

The woman is listed on Amazon as being an author of feminist erotica, having supposedly received an English and Pyschology degree from the University of California at Berkeley.

Some of her titles include: Extreme Space I and II, Quantum Afterlife, The Kinky Feminist and more.The female Uber driver who drove Nikolas Cruz to Stoneman Douglas High School before he murdered 17 has spoken out for the first time about the trip.

The woman declined to give her name but told CBS Miami she picked Cruz up in Parkland at around 2pm on February 14 to drive him to the school.

She was unaware of what he had planned and thought the large bag he was carrying was a guitar bag, she said.

The bag in fact contained the AR-15 which Cruz used to murder 17 people.

'I saw him with a backpack which I thought was a guitar case. He told me, "I am going to my music class,"' the driver said.

Nikolas Cruz (above in court the day after the shooting) took an Uber to Stoneman Douglas High School on February 14

The female Uber driver who took him to the school spoke out on Wednesday to say he seemed like a 'normal person'. She declined to give her name or be pictured

During the 13 minute ride, she said Cruz, 19, seemed like a 'normal person' and showed no signs he was planning mass murder.

'I didn't see anything strange or something like that,' she said.

The first she heard of the shooting was minutes later on the news, she said.

'I saw the news and I thought 'Oh, I just left someone over there,' the woman recalled.

She then received a call from Broward County Sheriff's Deputies.

They reassured her that she was not in trouble, telling her: 'Don't be afraid. You have nothing to do with this,' she said.

Days after the shooting, the woman received a call to take a passenger to one of the victim's funerals.

She said she wept when she dropped them off and that she feels involved in the killings.

'I made an Uber and I went to a funeral and I started to cry. I don't know. I feel involved with all this tragedy,' the woman said.

She was also lucky to be alive and said she had feared being shot by passengers in the past.

'I have passengers in my car and I'm scared because anybody can have a gun,' she said.

The woman speaks limited English and did not want to be interviewed further.

Police searched the Uber Cruz traveled in after the shooting but they found nothing of note.

He had calmly called it to take him there in the afternoon after refusing to go to his own school that morning.

Students returned to classes for the first time on Wednesday, two weeks after the massacre

Members of the community lined the streets surrounding the school to show students their support

There was heightened security on Wednesday as the teenagers returned to campus

Many of the students wore t-shirts with the school's emblem on them and carried flowers

Cruz threw his gun on the ground then fled with the other students before being caught on February 14

On Wednesday, Stoneman Douglas students returned to campus for the first time since the massacre.

There was heightened security across the campus on Wednesday as the teenagers entered their classrooms.

On Tuesday, law enforcement officials revealed that Cruz had etched swastikas onto his magazines before loading his rifle.

So far no motive for the killing has been given but he was tied to a white supremacist group briefly once his name became public.

Officials cited by CBS say that on February 14, after storming the freshman building, he attempted to create a sniper's nest on the third floor and tried to smash a window to fire down on students beneath him.

Hurricane-proof glass on the window stopped him, they said.

Eventually, Cruz stopped shooting and abandoned his gun to flee the school. He disguised himself among a crowd of fleeing students and managed to get off campus to go to McDonald's afterwards before he was arrested.

Law enforcement officials have since revealed that there were 180 rounds of ammunition in his rifle when they found it discarded in the school.

What prompted him to stop shooting when he did remains unclear. By the time he dropped the gun, he had fired 150 shots.U.S. President Donald Trump's former campaign manager Paul Manafort pleaded not guilty on Wednesday to a new indictment brought against him in the investigation into alleged Russian meddling in the 2016 election and will face trial in September.

Special Counsel Robert Mueller, who is running the Russia probe, is dialing up the legal pressure on Manafort, who has opted not to cooperate with investigators.

Manafort's former business partner Rick Gates, another Trump ex-campaign official, decided last week to cooperate with the investigation.

Manafort is facing two separate indictments on an array of charges, including conspiracy to launder money, filing false tax returns, bank fraud, and failing to register as a foreign agent despite lobbying in the United States for the pro-Kremlin Ukrainian government of former President Viktor Yanukovych.

Showcase trial: Robert Mueller's first criminal trial in his special counsel probe will start in September when Paul Manafort faces a federal jury in Washington D.C. - just as campaigning for the November mid-term elections reaches its final weeks

Flipped: Robert Mueller got a boost when Manafort's ex-deputy Rick Gates pleaded guilty last Friday in a plea deal which is expected to turn him in to a co-operating witness

Manafort's trial is expected to last for several weeks, and could stretch on through November's midterm elections - making headlines at a time when Republicans are fighting to maintain their majority in the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate.

U.S. District Court Judge Amy Berman Jackson set the trial to start September 17 in Washington, D.C.

Prosecutors allege that Manafort, with Gates' assistance, laundered more than $30 million and duped banks into lending money. They say the pair used funds from secret offshore accounts to enjoy a life of luxury.

None of the charges against the pair make reference to alleged Russian interference in the 2016 election nor accusations of collusion between Moscow and Trumps campaign.

Mueller, appointed by the Department of Justice last year to investigate Russia's role in the election and possible collusion by the Trump campaign, has a broad mandate that allows him to look into any wrongdoing he uncovers in the probe.

U.S. intelligence agencies have concluded that Moscow sought to meddle in the campaign to tilt the vote in favor of Trump, the Republican candidate, including by hacking the emails of leading Democrats and distributing disinformation and propaganda online.

Russia has denied the accusations of interference. Trump has said there was no collusion and denied any attempt to obstruct Mueller's probe.

Manafort was Trump's campaign manager for five months in 2016. He was originally indicted last year with Gates, Trump's former deputy campaign manager.

A court filing on Friday charged that between 2008 and 2017, Gates and Manafort devised a scheme to obtain money and property by making false representations to banks and other financial institutions. Toward the end of that period they worked for Trump's campaign.

Guilty pair: Mike Flynn, Trump's disgraced national security adviser (left), and ex-Trump campaign aide George Papadopoloushave both cut deals with Mueller already

Manafort is facing two separate indictments - one filed in the federal court in Washington, D.C., and a second in a federal court in Alexandria, Virginia.

The Washington one charges him with conspiracy to launder money, conspiracy against the United States, making false statements, and charges in connection with failing to register as a foreign agent for Ukraine.

The Virginia indictment charges him with bank fraud, filing false tax returns and failing to report foreign bank accounts to the U.S. government.

Manafort is expected to appear for a second hearing in the Alexandria court on Friday, where he will also plead not guilty to the charges.

The two separate indictments against him in the District of Columbia and Virginia are seen as unusual.

Normally such charges would be consolidated in one court, but Manafort has refused to allow this, which might be a legal tactic meant to make Mueller's case more difficult.

The two parallel cases could complicate matters for both sides, since each indictment to a large extent relies on the same underlying evidence.

Judge Jackson on Wednesday fretted about this, saying dueling cases could lead to a 'duplicative' amount of work, particularly for the defense, and potentially 'inconsistent rulings' by the two judges.

Gates made a plea deal last week to charges that he lied to investigators and conspired against the United States. The move added to pressure on Manafort to cut a deal himself but he has maintained his innocence. (Reporting by Sarah N. Lynch Editing by Susan Heavey and Alistair Bell)U.S. multinational courier company FedEx has insisted that it has no plans to cut its links with the National Rifle Association in the wake of the Florida shooting.

While more than a dozen major U.S. companies have ended business partnerships with the NRA, FedEx says it intends to stick with the gun lobbying group and has not asked to be removed from itss website where members are offered corporate discounts.

The Memphis, Tennessee, delivery company said it differs with the NRA in that it believes weapons like the AR-15 assault-style rifle - that was used to kill 17 people in Florida two weeks ago - should not be owned by civilians.

Scroll down for video

FedEx says that it is a common carrier, and will not deny service based on political views or policy positions.

FedEx's stance has drawn instant reaction across social media from both sides of the gun control issue

Delta Air Lines is one of several companies that has cut ties with the National Rifle Association (Pictured, a Delta Airlines Boeing 717 lands at Los Angeles International Airport in July 2017)

But it says that it's a common carrier, and will not deny service based on political views or policy positions.

The decision drew instant reaction across social media from both sides of the issue and potential backlash from some customers.

One company vowed to take its 100,000 annual shipments elsewhere if FedEx does not end its partnership with the NRA.

'The NRA is supporting stuff that we don't get behind,' said Jeni Britton Bauer, founder of Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams.

'UPS is out there,' she said.

As the gun debate heats up following the massacre at a Florida high school, companies are under growing pressure to pick a side: whether to stand by the National Rifle Association or walk away.

The NRA has urged companies not to be bullied by liberals into abandoning the U.S. constitutional right to bear arms

Some supporters of gun controls say they will move from Fedex to rival couriers including UPS

Metlife, Delta and more than a dozen others have decided to end benefits deals offered to the organization's members. The decision to stay or go for many companies involves walking a fine line that can impact their image for better or worse.

'How well can they position themselves so that they're being viewed as honest and supportive of what is a national crisis and not walking away from the Second Amendment?,' said Robert Passikoff, president of Brand Keys, a consumer research firm.

The calls for boycotts have been cutting both ways, with gun rights and gun-control supporters threatening to take their dollars elsewhere, depending on a company's decision.

FedEx's response - that it supports the right to own firearms, but does not believe civilians should own assault rifles - shows the nuances many companies are dealing with in the current debate over guns. Several other companies have also affirmed support for gun rights, but decided to cut ties with the NRA over its positions.

Over the weekend, Delta said it would end its discount rates deal for NRA members' group travel and requested it be removed from the organization's website. But, it also said it continues to support the Second Amendment.

Delta's balancing act in particular sparked a harsh response from Georgia's Republican Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle. He threatened to use his position to derail the $38 million-per-year sales tax exemption on jet fuel that would primarily benefit Delta Air Lines, calling it an attack on conservatives. Delta is based in Atlanta.

The NRA has also pushed back, calling the departure of its corporate partners a 'shameful display of political and civic cowardice'.

Other companies that have cut ties with the NRA include First National Bank of Omaha, Hertz, Avis, Budget, Enterprise, Best Western, Wyndham, United Airlines, Chubb, and Starkey Hearing Technology. Still, many others have maintained their relationship, including FedEx and the less-well-known Hotel Planner and eHealth.

The decisions come during an uptick in consumer activism, fueled by social media empowering more people to voice their opinions and values. Companies have become more aware of public sentiment that can be amplified over Twitter and other platforms.

Dick's Sporting Goods recently announced that it will immediately end sales of assault-style rifles and high-capacity magazines at all of its stores

The announcement by Dick's comes two weeks after the school massacre in Parkland, Florida

Dick's Sporting Goods recently announced that it will immediately end sales of assault-style rifles and high-capacity magazines at all of its stores and ban the sale of all guns to anyone under 21.

The announcement Wednesday comes two weeks after the school massacre in Parkland, Florida.

'When we saw what the kids were going through and the grief of the parents and the kids who were killed in Parkland, we felt we needed to do something,' Chairman and CEO Edward Stack said on 'Good Morning America.'

Dick's, a major gun retailer, had cut off sales of assault-style weapons at Dick's stores following the Sandy Hook school shooting. But Dick's owns dozens of its Field & Stream stores, where there has been no such ban in place.

In a letter released Wednesday, Stack wrote, 'We support and respect the Second Amendment, and we recognize and appreciate that the vast majority of gun owners in this country are responsible, law-abiding citizens. But we have to help solve the problem that's in front of us. Gun violence is an epidemic that's taking the lives of too many people, including the brightest hope for the future of America - our kids.'

Nikolas Cruz, the gunman who killed 17 people in Florida, mostly students, had purchased a shotgun at a Dick's store in November 2017, Stack said.

'It was not the gun, nor type of gun, he used in the shooting,' Stack wrote. 'But it could have been. Clearly this indicates on so many levels that the systems in place are not effective to protect our kids and our citizens.'A 17-year-old mother allegedly stabbed her baby nine times minutes after she was born and dumped the body in a neighbor's shed.

Erica Gomez gave birth the bathroom of her El Paso, Texas, home on February 9 then wrapped it in a bathrobe, she admitted to police according to court documents.

The teenager said she took the baby girl to the shed 30 yards from her home on Frankie Lane before returning to her room and going to sleep.

Erica Gomez, 17, allegedly stabbed her baby nine times minutes after she was born and dumped the body in a neighbor's shed

Video courtesy of KFOXTV

Her mother noticed she was bleeding and took her to the hospital where a doctor determined she had a miscarriage.

The El Dorado High School student told police she didn't tell her mother or doctors about the birth because she was scared.

The mangled body was discovered by a 13-year-old boy who lived at the neighbor's home about 12 hours after the baby was born.

Police were called to the neighbor's house about 7.30pm and found the body sitting on the kitchen bench with the owner telling officers his son found it.

Police were called to the neighbor's house about 7.30pm and found the body sitting on the kitchen bench with the owner telling officers his son found it

The newborn girl was stabbed three times in the neck, once in the side and five times in the back with forensic examiner Janice Diaz ruling it a murder.

Gomez was arrested weeks later and held at the El Paso County jail on an $800,000 bond charged with capital murder.

Her heartbroken confirmation teacher Erica Martinez said she wished she had done more for the girl and visited her family to offer support.

'I cannot understand what she was thinking or feeling. I'm distraught for her, for her future, for her family,' she told KFOX news.Advertisement

Iran has constructed a new military base in Syria which is being used to store missile capable of striking all of Israel, it has been reported.

Satellite images from ImageSat International show the base, located eight miles north west of Damascus, with newly constructed hangars.

The base is being run by the Quds Force, the special operations arm of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard, according to intelligence experts who spoke to Fox News.

Iran has constructed a new base north west of Damascus in Syria which is being used to house short and medium-range ballistic missiles, it has been reported

The base has existed for some time (in 2013, left) but early this year saw a flurry of activity with new hangars added (right, in February this year)

The channel claimed the two hangars, which measure around30 yards by 20 yards, are being used to store short and medium-range missiles.

A base similar to the one revealed in these new satellite photos was built last year south of Damascus, before being destroyed in December by Israeli surface-to-surface missiles, Fox said.

The images emerged just weeks after Israel's U.N. ambassador warned that Iran is trying to turn Syria into 'the largest military base in the world'.

Danny Danon told the Security Council Thursday that classified information he was releasing showed that 82,000 fighters are currently under Iranian authority in Syria.

He said the fighters include 60,000 Syrians, 9,000 members of Hezbollah, 3,000 Iranian Revolutionary Guard members and '10,000 members of violent Shia militias recruited from across the Middle East, including Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan.'

The hangars are similar to those used to house missiles at other Iranian bases, according to a report published by Fox News

An Israeli jet was shot down earlier this month while attacking what the Jewish state said were Iranian bases inside Syria

After the shooting down of its jet, Israel warned the UN that Iran is trying to turn Syria into 'the largest military base in the world'

The figures could not be independently confirmed, but Danon said the Iranians 'speak about 100,000 troops under their control in Syria.'

In addition, he said, Iran is investing 'hundreds of millions of dollars' in Syria including on land and factories.

It also come after an Israeli warplane was shot down attacking what the Jewish state said was Iranian targets inside Syria.

Israel accused Iran of flying a drone over its territory and said the jets were scrambled to bomb Iranian targets in response.

While returning to base, one of the jets was shot down, marking the first loss of an Israeli jet in combat since the 1980s.

That prompted a multiple rounds of missile strikes by Israel on what it said were more Iranian bases in Syria, before Russia President Vladimir Putin stepped in to calm a potentially dangerous new escalation in the war there.Police are examining whether Max Mosley committed perjury after a Mail investigation exposed his racist past.

A detailed dossier including a bigoted election pamphlet published by the tycoon is being assessed by Scotland Yard.

The leaflet raises the question of whether he lied at his orgy privacy trial. The ex-Formula One chief, who is refusing to apologise for the document, was yesterday dumped as a Labour Party donor.

It was a humiliation for deputy leader Tom Watson, who is now under pressure to return 540,000 the millionaire has paid toward the running of his Commons office.

Prosecutors have asked Scotland Yard to consider whether Max Mosley (pictured today) lied at his orgy privacy trial

The issue was raised at Prime Minister's Questions today, where Tom Watson - who has received donations from Mr Mosley - sat next to Jeremy Corbyn. Theresa May said: 'I think some people would have been surprised to learn of those links with some leading politicians'

The pamphlet, which carried Mr Mosleys name, was circulated during a Manchester Moss Side by-election in 1961. It said coloured immigrants spread terrible diseases like leprosy and should be sent home.

Under oath during his successful High Court trial in 2008 against the News of the World Mr Mosley categorically denied it existed. However the Mail found it in two archives.

In other developments:

Mr Mosley faced a whirlwind of criticism from all sides including community leaders for his racist past;

Theresa May hailed freedom of the Press and said people would be surprised by Mr Mosleys links with some leading politicians;

Press regulator Impress  funded almost entirely by Mr Mosleys millions  refused to either condemn him or stop taking his money;

News Group Newspapers, owner of the now-defunct News of the World, instructed lawyers to consider all our legal options in relation to the landmark privacy trial it lost against Mr Mosley;

The Mail today reveals that Mr Mosley visited the former Nazi concentration camp at Dachau near Munich with a convicted Holocaust denier just weeks before brawling in a Jewish district of London;

We also disclose how he consorted with Waffen-SS at a far-Right conference and that his fists flew at a Jew-baiting rally at which far-Right supporters gave Nazi salutes.

Last night Mr Mosley appeared unrepentant as he issued a statement saying he still did not recognise the 1961 pamphlet, which was unearthed following a painstaking investigation by the Mail.

He conceded it was offensive and divisive and not something I would have ever wished to be associated with. But he failed to apologise for the document, which was published in his name when he was a by-election agent for his father Oswald Mosley, who led the pre-war British Union of Fascists and founded the Union Movement party after the war.

Yesterday the Mail handed a dossier to the Crown Prosecution Service. It included a transcript of Mr Mosleys evidence to the High Court in which he denied the existence of the racist leaflet, and a legally certified copy of the leaflet  which Mr Mosley had tried to suggest might be a fake.

The CPS immediately referred the case to police, and last night Scotland Yard said: This afternoon the CPS forwarded information from the Daily Mail to the Met Police. An assessment will be carried out.

Detectives will decide on launching a full-scale investigation into whether offences were committed. Should such a probe be instigated, then it is likely that Mr Mosley would be interviewed by police.

How justice caught up with two infamous perjurers Former Cabinet minister Aitken was jailed for 18 months in 1999 after admitting he lied on oath during an unsuccessful High Court action Two high-profile perjury cases involved Tory politicians Jeffrey Archer and Jonathan Aitken. Archer was jailed for four years in 2001 for lies he told in a libel action 14 years earlier. In that libel trial, he won 500,000 damages from the Daily Star over claims he slept with a prostitute. But a former friend told the News of the World that he had constructed a false alibi for him. Archer was convicted of two charges of perjury and two of perverting the course of justice. Former Cabinet minister Aitken was jailed for 18 months in 1999 after admitting he lied on oath during an unsuccessful High Court action. He had allowed Saudi royal aides to pay a 1,000 hotel bill during a 1993 stay in Paris. At the time, he was a minister in charge of defence procurement. When The Guardian got a copy of the bill, Mr Aitken told them his wife had paid his part of it using his money. He famously said he would cut out the cancer of bent and twisted journalism in our country with the simple sword of truth and the trusty shield of British fair play. Archer was jailed for four years in 2001 for lies he told in a libel action 14 years earlier But his libel action collapsed after evidence emerged his wife and daughter were in Switzerland when he said they were in Paris. He admitted perjury and attempting to pervert the course of justice. Advertisement

On Tuesday, in a heated showdown on Channel 4 News, Mr Mosley was asked if he had perjured himself in court. He said it was a stupid and offensive question.

At the trial in 2008, he said he did not recall the leaflet before going on to insist it was absolute nonsense to suggest it existed.

The News of the World lost the case and paid damages to Mr Mosley for calling his sadomasochistic orgy with five prostitutes Nazi themed.

The victory set Mr Mosley off on his ten-year campaign to demand greater regulation of the Press.

A major investigation by the Mail last night revealed the racist and thuggish past of ex-Formula One boss Max Mosley

Yesterday residents in Moss Side demanded Mr Mosley say sorry. Nasrullah Khan Moghal, of the Manchester Council for Community Relations, said the tycoon would be held in contempt everywhere if he failed to apologise for the vile racist slurs on the 1961 pamphlet.

Mr Moghal, a former city councillor, said: I lived in Moss Side in the 1960s as a student. There was real tension because black people couldnt get housing, people were living in multiple occupancy, in very bad conditions and the far-Right played on white peoples insecurities.

Perjury law in the United Kingdom In UK law, the crime of perjury refers to statements relevant to proceedings made by an individual who either knows them to be false or does not believe them to be true. It relates to statements wilfully made by a person who has been sworn in as a witness or interpreter in judicial proceedings, which are held before courts, tribunals or somebody with the legal power to hear, receive and examine evidence under oath. Perjury is punishable by prison for up to seven years and/or a fine. The law also applies to people making statements in foreign states. False submissions made with a view to procuring a marriage, or the certificate or licence required are also perjury, as are claims a child born alive was still-born. It also covers statements about the bodies of dead people. Statutory declarations or those made in abstracts, accounts, balance sheets, books, certificates, entries, estimates, inventories, notices, reports, returns, are also subject to perjury rules as are any documents people are authorised or required to make, attest, or verify by any public general Act of Parliament in force. Perjury can also be committed in oral declarations or answers required to be made by, under, or in pursuance of any public general Act of Parliament in force. Anybody who uses false statements to procure or attempt to procure themselves to be registered on any register or roll to practise vocations or callings covered by UK law can be found guilty of perjury. Everyone who aids, abets, counsels, procures, or suborns another person to commit an offence of perjury is also liable. Advertisement

If he wont apologise, we need to name and shame people like that. There is no place for such racist views in our society.

In Mr Watsons constituency West Bromwich East  where three in ten voters are from ethnic minorities  there were calls for him to return Mr Mosleys cash.

This pamphlet was produced in support of one Walter Hesketh. In November 1961, Mr Hesketh was the Union Movement's parliamentary candidate for Moss Side

Mr Mosley  via a family trust  is almost single-handedly bankrolling Impress, the controversial state-approved regulator of the Press. He appeared on Channel 4 News tonight

Max Mosley, left, with what appears to be a cut on his right knuckle and a plaster on his left, stands next to his clench-fisted brother Alexander during the Notting Hill riots in 1958

Colin Rankine, who stood against Mr Watson at the last election as an independent, said the Mails revelations do not make good reading for the MP of a multi-cultural constituency.

Did BBC sideline Mosley revelations? It was the Daily Mails top story and made headlines across other papers yesterday. But Max Mosleys vile, racist election leaflet was barely mentioned on one of the BBCs flagship news broadcasts. Radio 4s Today programme only gave the story airtime as part of its newspaper review. It is understood insiders decided against giving full coverage because Impress  the press regulator bankrolled by Mosley  had not issued a proper response. But Today at least covered the story, unlike the broadcasters main bulletins on radio and TV throughout the day. Coverage did not appear on the BBC News website until midday  and Mosley was then described as a privacy campaigner. In contrast, Mosleys battle to muzzle the press has seen the former fascist supporter repeatedly given airtime on BBC television and radio since his 2008 case against the News of the World. He made several appearances on the Today programme to discuss the Leveson Inquiry into press ethics, defining the right to privacy and his idea of giving people prior notification of publication before critical stories go to press. In a 2009 broadcast for Radio 4s Law In Action programme, he told how he wanted the law changed so journalists who breached privacy could be jailed. Last night a BBC spokesman said: This story was promoted prominently on the front page of the BBC News website and in the Top Stories section of the app and on the Politics index. The corporation also included links to the Daily Mails online coverage of the story. Advertisement

The teacher added: If donations have come from a source who could be deemed to be subversive it seems appropriate to ask Labour  which is supposed to be an inclusive party  to look again at what kind of message accepting this money sends to the community.

Yesterday Mr Mosley was seen outside his 3million Knightsbridge mews house at 7.20am with a sheaf of newspapers.

In a statement to Press Gazette he said: The Daily Mail claim to have unearthed a leaflet said to have been published in 1961 during Walter Heskeths campaign in Moss Side. I was asked about this in the News of the World case. I had absolutely no recollection of it.

My political activities in the 1950s and early 1960s were completely irrelevant to the question of whether the News of the World had illegally invaded my privacy, as it clear from the judgment.

Nevertheless, I knew that if the News of the World thought the leaflet relevant, they would have disclosed it because the courts dont like ambushes.

The fact that they didnt reinforced my view that no such leaflet existed. The suggestion that I lied in court is obviously nonsense.

Now that Ive seen copies of this leaflet, I still do not recognise it. It is not something I would have ever wished to be associated with. It is offensive and divisive.

By contrast, I campaigned to stamp out racism in motor sport.

'The Daily Mails attack over my work for my fathers party, which ended in 1963, is plainly in response to my recent letter of claim.

Like many people, my views have changed over the last half century. Meanwhile, the Mails reporting on immigration and health in far more recent times has been hugely offensive to the UK immigrant communities.

The Mail do this without fear of sanction from a proper regulator. Its easy to see why they are against reform.A famous British woman explorer is tonight marooned on a Siberian Arctic island fending off polar bears after abandoning a daring bid to reach the North Pole.

A Russian helicopter crash landed soon after delivering Hannah McKeand to bleak Golomyanny Island in the Kara Sea, but it is unclear why she and a male Canadian adventurer gave up their planned mission.

Instead, the 44-year-old has made satellite phone pleas to the Russian authorities seeking to be evacuated from the Arctic island from which she had intended to go by boat and foot to the pole.

A Russian helicopter crash landed soon after delivering Hannah McKeand to the island

The 44-year-old experienced explorer is travelling with Canadian Dongsheng Liu

The Bristol-born polar explorer Ms McKeand has skied more times to the South Pole than anyone in history

An rescue bid is due to be made on Thursday to reach the pair and fly them out of the Arctic.

Experienced Bristol-born polar explorer Ms McKeand has skied more times to the South Pole than anyone in history.

She once held the record for the fastest solo unsupported ski journey from the Antarctica coast to the South Pole.

On Saturday, seeking to reach the North Pole from Siberia, she cheated death when her helicopter crash landed on Cape Arctic soon after she and Canadian Dongsheng Liu were safely flown to Golomyanny Island, off the Taymyr peninsula.

Six were on board the Mi-8 including four unidentified extreme tourists who had earlier been with the Briton and her fellow explorer.

A rescue bid to evacuate Ms. McKeand from the Golomyanny Island is due to be made on Thursday

The helicopter crash landed after she and Liu were safely flown to Golomyanny Island, off the Taymyr peninsula

Ms Golomyanny is now marooned on Golomyanny Island in the Kara Sea with polar bears for company

Miraculously all survived despite devastating damage to the KrasAvia helicopter - which lost its blades and is listed as a write-off. All were safely evacuated.

Ms McKeand and her companion are now at a remote Russian meteorological station on the far-flung island, some 560 miles from the North Pole.

In brief Facebook postings, she said without more explanation: 'There have been some complication.

'Living here is an adventure though.

'Huge polar bear around the house last night, looking in the windows.'

She also posted: 'Our expedition will not proceed this year and we are awaiting an exit opportunity.'

Preparations being made for the daring expedition to the North Pole

It is unclear why she and a Canadian adventurer Liu, pictured, gave up their planned mission

Ms McKeand and her companion are now at a remote Russian meteorological station on the far-flung island

The chopper crash plainly was a shock but there are no suggestions this was a factor in abandoning the mission.

Despite this, the reason for not proceeding is unclear.

She posted: 'Dong and I were not on board. And all six people on board survived and were successfully evacuated..

'We are very very relieved that everyone involved is going to be ok.'

An official in regional capital Krasnoyarsk, 1,600 miles south of the icy island, said he had received a barely decipherable satellite phone call from Ms McKeand pleading for evacuation, reported the Siberian Times.

Roman Teleshun said: 'She called from the satellite phone, it worked only from some point where she went out.

'The connection was, in fact, terrible.

'Barely understood what she was saying.'

The Russians confirmed tonight they are are poised to launch a rescue mission on Thursday morning.Another new poll is showing a high water mark for support for stricter gun laws in the wake of the Parkland, Florida school shooting, which left 17 dead.

Politico and Morning Consult's fresh batch of numbers indicate that 68 per cent of registered voters support tougher gun laws, compared to just 25 per cent who disagree.

A number of other surveys taken after the Valentine's Day Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School massacre show modern records for support: with a CNN poll saying that 70 per cent of American adults support gun control measures  a 25-year high  and a USA Today/Suffolk University survey putting that number at 61 per cent.

In the wake of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, pollsters are seeing new highs for support for stricter gun laws. Last week President Trump (left) invited victims of school shootings to a listening session at the White House

A new Politico/Morning Consult survey found that 68 per cent of registered voters now support stricter gun laws. Since the Valentine's Day high school shooting, there have been pro-gun control rallies around the country, including this protest at the State Capitol in St. Paul, Minnesota

Citizens of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania marched down Liberty Avenue last week, showing their support for strengthening gun control laws. Their views are now in the majority, with 53 per cent of Republicans voters even saying they support tighter laws

Students are protesting in Washington, D.C., as well. Surveys show that while Americans want gun control reforms, they are also wary of Congress and don't want lawmakers to impede on people's Second Amendment rights

Politico and Morning Consult had previously asked Americans their views on gun laws on February 20, with support for strengthening gun laws receiving 64 per cent support.

That latest poll, conducted February 22 through 26, shows that support if four points up.

Republican support for gun control has passed the 50 percent threshold, with 53 per cent of GOP respondents saying they were supportive of tightening laws  an 8-point jump from this demographic compared to the Politico/Morning Consult poll conducted last week.

Generally speaking, support for strengthening gun laws tends to be at its highest directly after a mass shooting event, and then wanes.

President Trump has given Republicans in politics some cover on the issue, by suggesting a myriad of ways that the country could tackle the school shooting problem.

He's been most keen, as of late, on the idea of arming teachers, a proposition that 50 per cent, according to the new poll, support.

Republicans liked the idea way more than their Democratic counterparts, the new survey showed.

While 41 per cent of Republicans said they 'strongly' supported arming teachers, just 14 per cent of Democrats agreed.

Overall, 72 per cent of Republican respondents said they 'strongly' or 'somewhat' supported the idea of arming teachers, while just 32 per cent of Democrats concurred.

A number of other gun control proposals that pollsters asked about got above 80 per cent support.

The highest, at 89 per cent agreement, was that individuals should be barred from buying firearms if their mental health provider has alerted law enforcement.

After that, 88 per cent of Americans agreed that background checks should be required on all gun sales.

Eighty-seven per cent said there should be expanded screening and treatment for the mentally ill.

Pollsters found that 84 per cent of respondents said people who have been convicted of violent misdemeanors should not be able to guy a gun.

Another 82 per cent supported closing the so-called 'gun show loophole,' one way buyers can currently get around a background check.

The same percentage of respondents said they believed an individual should be 21 years of age before they're able to buy an assault-style weapon.

This is an idea that President Trump has floated as well, but the National Rifle Association, the country's most powerful gun lobby, is fully against.

And while support for stricter gun laws is at a modern high, Politico and Morning Consult's polling found that Americans don't want Congress to take things too far.

Forty-six per cent of voters said it's more important to protect Americans' rights to own guns  found in the Second Amendment of the United States Constitution  than to limit guns, which has the support of 42 per cent.China's propaganda machine reportedly blocked the letter 'n' to be published on its social media this week in a bid to hush criticism against the nation's President Xi Jinping.

Beijing is seeing an unprecedented outcry after the Communist Party of China proposed to scrap the term limits for President Xi on Sunday, paving way for him to rule the world's second largest economy for life.

In Chinese slang, the English letter 'n' could be used alongside Chinese characters to mean a person has done something for 'many' times.

By banning the letter, the web users would not be able to post things which criticise Xi's 'n' terms or 'n' years of presidency.

The Chinese censors reportedly banned the usage of the letter 'n' on social media this week

The move was aimed to stop people criticising the proposal to extend Xi's presidency term

The censorship of the letter on Weibo, China's equivalent to Twitter, was temporarily and the ban was lifted on Monday, according to US-based internet tracker China Digital Times.

In addition to letter 'n', scores of terms have apparently been blocked by Beijing including 'my emperor', 'ascend the throne', 'I oppose', 'lifelong', and 'Winnie the Pooh' - the portly cartoon bear to which Xi has been compared.

The country has shocked many observers by proposing the constitutional amendment to end the two-term limit for presidents.

The rubber-stamp National People's Congress (NPC) is certain to endorse the move next week, meaning that Xi - already China's most powerful leader in decades - can stay as president beyond 2023.

Xi Jinping's (right) tightening grip on China had already earned the leader comparisons to Mao Zedong (left), but they came into even sharper focus after the party paved the way for him to assume the presidency indefinitely

Xi was formally handed a second term today as the President of China the 19th Communist Party Congress last October. He is seen voting at the closing ceremony of the congress

Li Datong, a former editor at the state-run China Youth Daily, posted a draft letter urging legislators to vote against the move - which would abolish term limits set in 1982 under Deng Xiaoping to prevent a return to the decades of chaos under Mao Zedong.

'It was the highest and most effective legal restriction meant to prevent autocracy or putting individuals above the party and the state,' said the letter. It was not sent to legislators but shared with hundreds of people in a private group on China's WeChat phone messaging app.

'Lifting the term limits of national leaders will be ridiculed by civilised nations all over the world and also sow the seeds of chaos for China,' said the text posted on Monday.

WeChat users trying to share screenshots of the letter saw their posts blocked.

The two-term limit was inserted into the Constitution in 1982 to prevent future leaders from potential dictatorship. The change was made after Mao's (right) one-man rule for some 30 years. Xi, pictured at the Belt and Road Forum last year (right), could be in office beyond 2024

From Mao to Xi: The timeline shows the nine key top leaders of China since 1949

Censors have scrambled to delete all dissenting comments on social media - even the word 'disagree' is blocked - but users of the Twitter-like Weibo website kept speaking out Tuesday, two days after the party Central Committee announcement.

'So pathetic, we have 1.3 billion people, no one can resist,' wrote one user.

Another lamented the lack of political reform: 'I once believed that I could see a president elected by one man, one vote in my lifetime.'

The NPC, at its annual full session starting Monday, will also formally approve a second five-year presidential term for Xi, who is Communist Party chief and head of the armed forces in addition to being head of state.

Legislators will add his eponymous political philosophy to the state constitution.

Xi Jinping (centre) with members of the Politburo Standing Committee meet the press during the 19th Communist Party Congress. The Committee holds the ultimate power in China

Communist Party delegates listen to President Xi Jinping giving a 3.5-hour-long speech during the opening ceremony of the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China

State media defended the amendment in editorials that lavished praise on the communist party's overall leadership.

The English-language China Daily said the lifting of the presidential term limit 'has been necessitated by the need to perfect the Party and the State leadership system'.

The party has always proposed amendments that 'have injected new ideas and concepts about where the country will go and how it will achieve its goal of rejuvenation and ensure people live happier lives,' it said.

The Global Times, a nationalist tabloid, was even more profuse in its praise of the amendment in an editorial entitled 'Constitution change responds to new era'.

Since Xi took power, it wrote, 'the new ruling team has not just been muddling along under the leadership of General Secretary Xi Jinping. Instead, it quickly started to deepen reforms in a comprehensive and magnificent way.'

The newspaper took a shot at the political systems of the United States and Europe.

'It has shaped and affected quite a few Chinese people's mindsets. But some key parts of the Western value system are collapsing. Democracy, which has been explored and practised by Western societies for hundreds of years, is ulcerating,' it said.

'China cannot stop and take a break... our country must not be disturbed by the outside world or lose our confidence as the West grows increasingly vigilant toward China.'

The administration of President Donald Trump, who has called Xi a friend but regularly clashes with Beijing over trade, had a guarded reaction to the Communist Party's move.

'The president has talked about term limits in a number of capacities during the campaign and something that he supports here in the United States, but that's a decision that's up to China,' said White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders.This is the bizarre moment a passenger kicked off a flight at Charlotte Airport stripped to his waist on the tarmac and attacked ground crew.

The man, who has not been identified, was aboard American Airlines flight 5466 from Charlotte, North Carolina, to Cincinnati, Ohio, on February 26 when he reportedly began acting erratically.

Fellow passenger Kelly Smekens said the man was ordered to leave the aircraft.

This is the bizarre moment a passenger kicked off a flight at Charlotte airport stripped to his waist on the tarmac and attacked ground crew

The unruly passenger descended from the plane and was speaking to flight crew and ground staff when he suddenly ripped the shirt over his head, knocking off his cap.

Video, filmed by Smekens from the window of the aircraft, shows the tall, well-built, man towering over staff as he yelled at them.

The traveler then appeared to be ready to leave, grabbing his shirt and backpack from the floor, but moments later he threw them aggressively to the ground and put up his fists like he was preparing to fight.

After stripping off, the man picked up his belongings and stormed off into the distance, with ground control and security following him

When no one emerged to tackle him, he pulled up his trousers, picked up his belongings and stormed off into the distance, with ground control and security following him.

A second video, filmed by another passenger on the flight identified only as Mark, caught up with the man as he was surrounded by ground crew.

The individual, who was holding an unknown item in his hand, suddenly charged at staff and appeared to hit one airport worker with the object.

He began walking off in another direction, but then ran at another member of staff who was trying to reason with the half naked aggressor.

A second video, filmed by another passenger on the flight identified only as Mark, caught up with the man as he charged ground crew

The individual, who was holding an unknown item in his hand, appeared to hit one airport worker with the object

Just a typically day in Charlotte Douglas Airport on American Airlines @AmericanAir, wheres United when you need them? @united Do you think we should ban all traffic batons, @realDonaldTrump? @TODAYshow pic.twitter.com/pMsmn5kR1l  Marck (@therealMarck) February 27, 2018

Passengers revealed that the flight was delayed almost 40 minutes by the drama and eventually set off at around 2.10pm.

American Airlines told DailyMail.com they called the police about the 'disruptive' individual.

'We did have a disruptive passenger on flight 5466, departing for Cincinnati, on the afternoon of February 26,' a representative told us.

'We requested law enforcement assistance.'

It is not yet clear whether the man will face charges over the incident.

DailyMail.com has reached out to Charlotte police for comment.

Charlotte Douglas International Airport representatives declined to comment.The fine art market is going through such a boom that it is only a matter of time before a painting sells for $1 billion (730 million ), experts say.

Driven by the record sale of Leonardo da Vinci's 'Salvator Mundi' to a Saudi prince for $450 million (340 million) in November, the market is rising in a way not seen for three decades, the authoritative Artprice index said.

'The latest spectacular all-time fine art auction record for "Salvator Mundi" represents the beginning of a new era for the art market in which the next big milestone will be the $1 billion threshold,' it said.

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Leonardo da Vinci's 'Salvator Mundi' broke the world record for the most expensive painting

A member of Christie's staff pose for pictures next to Leonardo da Vinci's 'Salvator Mundi'

'In the meantime, we are bound to see results between $179 million and $450 million in 2018,' it predicted.

Artprice founder Thierry Ehrmann explained the revival of the market after two years of falling prices was spectacular, with prices surging across the globe in the second half of the year.

'All the indicators have never been so good for 30 years,' he said, with the report suggesting everything points to 'firm and durable growth'.

Competition for the very best artworks between top museums - with more and more being built across the globe - was also fuelling the boom.

'The real motor of the market's growth is unquestionably the museum industry,' Artprice said.

'For the first time in history, the higher end of the market is being driven not by the whims of billionaires but by acquisition strategies designed to generate future cash from museum visitor flows.'

Bidding representatives react after 'Salvator Mundi' sold at Christie's. Observers have said the art has seen surging prices over the last two years and that is likely to continue

'The art market is now being partly driven by a balance-sheet logic that justifies acquisitions amounting to hundreds of millions of dollars.'

Art sales in America soared by more than a half in the second half of the year, almost the same amount in France, by more than a quarter in Britain and by 20 percent in China.

China remains the world's biggest art marketplace, said Artprice, with $5.1 billion in turnover - more than a third of the global total - with the US only slightly behind with $4.9 billion.

Artprice, which is partnered with the Chinese index Artron, said 'intense competition between China and the US generated explosive growth in the West.

'Art clearly represents an essential element in the soft power arsenals of the US and China,' it added, as well as on a smaller scale in the Gulf, with Qatar and the United Arab Emirates competing with each other by opening big new art museums.

Chinese supremacy was also marked in Artprice's index of the world's top 500 best performing artists at auction last year.

Chinese artists represent 32.4 percent of the total number compared to just 16.4 for American artists.

They made up four of the top 10 highest selling artists - Qi Baishi, Zhang Daqian, Fu Baoshi, Zao Wou-Ki - with Qi coming in fifth overall behind Leonardo, Picasso, Jean-Michel Basquiat and Andy Warhol.

As well as Leonardo, the year also saw new auction records for Basquiat, Qi, Zao, Marc Chagall, Fernand Leger and Brancusi.

Fine art is often defined as paintings, sculptures, drawings, photographs, prints, videos, installations and tapestries, but excludes furniture and traditional cultural artefacts.Both Toys R Us and Maplin have fallen victim to the curse of Amazon and Brexit having collapsed into administration in the midst of the escalating UK retail crisis due to the rise of online shopping and the fall of the pound following the decision to leave the European Union.

Toys R Us going into administration has been blamed on the failure to pay a 15 million VAT bill and not finding a buyer before the payment deadline, but experts claim that the companys inability to compete with the likes of Amazon and supermarkets is the reason for its downfall.

Toys R Us has plunged into administration after the retailer failed to pay a 15million VAT bill

Electronics company Maplin also announced its collapse into administration after the group, owned by Rutland Partners, called in PwC to rescue the chain but failed and became the second retailer of the day to put thousands of jobs at risk.

Prezzo, the restaurant chain, also revealed plans to close a number of outlets across the United Kingdom, but what does going into administration mean?

Toys R Us

Toys R Us plunge into administration has put around 3,000 jobs at risk after the retailer failed to pay a 15 million VAT bill. The administrator Moorfields has been tasked with what is being referred to as an orderly wind-down of the companys store portfolio.

The company is still insisting that it is looking for a buyer, but Michael Mulligan, insolvency specialist at Shakespeare Martineau, said: Toys R Us ultimately failed to adapt to the change in British shopping habits and did not properly invest in its business in order to compete with Amazon and the major supermarkets.

This is not the first high profile retail insolvency of the year and we expect more, particularly in vulnerable sectors such as retail, construction and the restaurant trade. Recent insolvency statistics demonstrate that this is a growing trend and failing to take notice and adapt accordingly to changing consumer behaviour could be deadly for UK retailers.'

All Toys R Us stores will remain open until further notice and products will be subject to clearance and special promotions. Customers are also being asked to redeem gift cards and vouchers, while they attempt to secure a buyer.

The toy seller will not be able to refund any returns but can provide exchanges with a receipt. Online trading stopped on the morning of Wednesday, February 28, 2018.

Maplin

Maplin became the second company of the day to collapse into administration and put another 2,500 jobs at risk. PwC is still trying to find a buyer for the electronics company and Graham Harris, the companys CEO, confirmed that a sale had not been successful.

He added that the store will remain open for business in the near future and the retailer has been struggling to deal with the pounds devaluation post-Brexit as well as a weak consumer environment and lack of credit insurance.

This necessitated an intensive search for new capital that in current market conditions has proved impossible to raise. These macro factors have been the principal challenge, not the Maplin brand or its market differentiation, Graham said.

Edinburgh Woollen Mills Philip Day had been thought to be a potential rescuer for Maplin but talks broke down before a sale was completed.

Maplin has become the second retailer on the same day to collapse into administration

What is administration?

When a company enters into administration, it is protected from legal action by its creditors who, in turn, cannot file a winding up petition against the insolvent company while it is in administration.

The process begins when the companys directors decide to enter administration and they give control to an Insolvency Practitioner who will act as the administrator during the administration period, which can last for several months.

During administration, the directors will work out how to pay the creditors and this could include the sale of company assets or the proposal of a Company Voluntary Arrangement, or CVA. A company with a steady cash flow could have the potential to recover, enter a formal agreement with the creditors and continue trading.

However, the administrator may also determine that the best option is for the creditors to sell assets through a pre-pack administration sale.

How long does going into administration last?

The length of time that the administration process takes is dependent on a number of different issues. Administrators typically take on employment contracts of the company after 14 days, so the company will need to find a buyer within this time.

Insolvency practitioners are not permitted to run the business at a loss and therefore, make the creditors position worse. However, if there are large amounts of money to be collected or substantial assets that still exist, trading can be done for longer periods.

What is pre-pack administration?

Pre-pack administration or administration pre-pack sale has been a common method over the past few years despite the growing media coverage of the dismay of creditors after seeing their debt dumped by a former customers.

During this process, the company will prepare for administration and sell assets to a new company or an existing third party. This can protect the business, but the old company is typically liquidated after.

What is administration followed by Company Voluntary Arrangement, or CVA?

With the CVA, the company would enter administration in order to get protection from creditors and the administrator would work with the company directors to produce administration proposals.

Once these proposals are accepted, control is handed back to the board of the company. This process can be expensive as directors are not in control during the administration period.A woman accused of locking her four-year-old autistic son in a closet without access to food, water or the restroom has pleaded guilty to first-degree child abuse.

Megan Schug, 24, entered her guilty plea on Tuesday in Calhoun County, Michigan circuit court.

She faces the possibility of life in prison when she is sentenced on April 13.

Her defense attorney, Ronald Pichlik, told the Battle Creek Enquirer that Schug did not strike a plea deal with prosecutors for a lesser sentence.

She may testify against her boyfriend, Isaac Miller, at his trial next month and could 'hope for some consideration for her cooperation,' he said.

Megan Schug, 24 (pictured), pleaded guilty to a charge of first-degree child abuse in court on Tuesday

Prosecutors said Schug and Miller tormented Schug's son Maloyd Gaines by making him fight with his half-siblings, who tore clumps out of his hair.

They say Miller, who is the father to two of Schug's four children, singled him out.

In June, Schug wept in court as prosecutors described the condition her son was in when he was rescued.

She took him to hospital on march 22, 2017 because he was having trouble staying awake and was not eating, they said.

Schug (left) and her boyfriend Isaac Miller (right) are accused of locking her son Maloyd Gaines in a closet overnight where he had no access to food, water or the bathroom

Once doctors examined him, they say the abuse was clear and he was taken out of their care.

'He was very thin to the point he was very sickly. He had abrasions and cuts and rashes all over his body.

'His toes were blackened and swollen and his hands also were swollen,' Michael Zaleski, a Child Protection Services case worker who was called to the hospital, told the trial which was attended by The Detroit Free Press. Maloyd later lost several toes to a gangrene infection.

When Zaleski visited the home that night, he found there was no furniture except for a small couch, TV and TV stand and human waste littered the floors.

Once in custody, Maloyd's mother admitted locking him in a closet, sometimes overnight, for punishment.

She told them she carried out the abuse at Miller's request because she was scared he would hurt her if she didn't.

When social workers visited the pair's home in Battle Creek, Michigan (above), last year it was bare except from a TV stand, TV and couch. They found human waste on the ground

Courtesy: WWMT

'At nighttime, they would lock him in the closet and sometime in the morning open the closet,' Detective Ray Strunk said.

Schug said her boyfriend dictated the abuse and claims she went along with it because she was afraid of him

They deprived him from food for a day or two at a time and beat him with wooden slates when he refused to hold a crate as another form of punishment, the detective claimed.

Schug told police that despite her son's filthy condition, she was not allowed to bathe him unless Miller was present, which she claimed was seldom.

Her only apparent attempt to treat him was to rub petroleum jelly on his wounds, the policeman said.

After her arrest in March, Schug's relatives tearfully told local media outlets that they feared for his well-being and had tried to remove him from the couple's care but were denied.

'I asked my sister, can I take my nephew, she said no. I knew he was being beat up by Mike,' Morgan Schug told WWMT.

She claimed to have seen him beating the boy with a switch. It's not clear whether she reported her concerns to police.Police in New Mexico are searching for answers after a 70-year-old lawyer and his 28-year-old transgender tenant who were reported missing in January turned up dead by the side of the road last week.

The bodies were found on February 19 by a rancher in Stanton, a small town in southern Santa Fe County. On Tuesday, police positively identified the victims as Eugene Carrell Ray and Zakaria Fry.

Fry, a transgender woman who was previously known as Zackary Fry and went by the nickname Z, had been renting a room from the elderly attorney in Albuquerque.

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Mystery deaths: New Mexico attorney Eugene Ray (left), 70, and his transgender tenant Zakaria Fry (right), 28, who were reported missing in January turned up dead by the side of the road last week

Resting place: Ray and Fry's remains were discovered 2 miles apart in the area of Stanton, New Mexico (pictured)

Albuquerque police are investigating the deaths as homicides. So far, no arrests have been made and officials have been tight-lipped about the details of the case.

Ray's family filed a missing person report in late January after entering his home in Northeast Albuquerque and finding it in disarray. Some unspecified suspicious items were also observed on the property.

His daughter, Alarie Ray-Garcia, 39, told Albuquerque Journal that she was not aware that her father, a veteran lawyer with a private practice specializing in family law, had been renting out a room to Fry. She also said she does not know how the two met.

The woman, who at one time served as New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson's spokesperson, said the last time she heard from her father was when he posted a meme related to parenting on her Facebook page on January 18.

That same day, Fry's friend got a text message from her. Neither the woman nor her landlord were ever seen or heard from again.

Fry (left and right) was a transgender woman who was previously known as Zackary Fry. She had been renting a room from the elderly attorney in Albuquerque, unbeknownst to his family

Rancher Fidel Montoya made a gruesome discovery when he found a human body, later identified as Fry, inside a plastic bag stuffed into a trash can

A cross marks the site where the 28-year-old's body was found on February 19

When Ray's family could not reach him eight days later, they went over to his house and found it in such a state that it led them to suspect foul play.

The family immediately reported the man missing, and a couple of days later Fry was reported missing as well.

Fry's sister said the 28-year-old had recently moved from Indiana to Albuquerque with her pet Chihuahua-mix named Tinker Bell.

On February 19, rancher Fidel Montoya made a gruesome discovery when he found a human body, later identified as Fry, inside a plastic bag stuffed into a trash can.

Montoya told KOB4 he initially thought it was a dead animal, but when he ripped the bag open and stuck his hands inside, he said: that's when I felt the toes and then the fingers.

Rays body was recovered the following day 2 miles from the first crime scene.An Italian porn star who previously promised to perform a sex act on anyone who voted 'no' in a referendum has been banned from Instagram ahead of the country's general election.

Paola Saulino, 28, says she has been barred from contacting her 430,000 followers over fears she may try and swing the vote, which is due to take place on Sunday.

'No' voters won the referendum, which was held in December last year, with 59 per cent of the ballots.

Paola Saulino, 28, has been removed from Instagram and claims it is because politicians fear she will try to influence the upcoming general election

Saulino previously promised to perform oral sex on anyone who voted 'no' in a referendum, before the 'no' camp swept to victory with 59 per cent of the ballot

The victory prompted Paola to launch the 'Pompa Tour' - which translates as Oral Tour - during which she claimed to have pleasured 700 men.

Now she has told the Daily Star that politicians are worried she could use that influence during the general election.

She said: 'They are scared that I could influence the result of the votes again.

'They are scared that I might launch another Pompa Tour for this election.

'If I influence people thats my business! I don't want pay the price for this.'

Paola completed the Pompa Tour despite being badly injured when a friend's dog bit her on the face.

She had to take a hiatus of several weeks while the wound healed.

She previously told The Sun Online: 'Pompa Tour is still going. I mean Pompa Tour actually is my life-style. It's my way to be free.

'The doctor suggested me to not do big movements with my mouth for several months.

'Reducing physical activity of my face helps it heal better, to cure the scar on the inside.'

Saulino then launched the 'Pompa Tour' - which translates as Oral Tour - during which she claimed to have pleasured 700 men

She posted a photograph of herself on Instagram (left), along with the caption: 'First step of Pompa Tour is gone. A little bit tired, but everthing is okay'

Her face was badly injured when a friend's dog jumped up and bit her in the face as she stroked it on the back at a Halloween party back in October.

Saulino's nose was cut as well as her mouth and lips, but doctors have said the wounds on the inside and outside of her mouth will heal in nine months.

Once she is healed up, she plans on getting back on the horse to continuing her tour and has said she would like to add a British leg to the trip

Paola Saulino burst onto the scene in 2016, saying she was a 'woman of [her] word' after announcing tour dates in 10 Italian cities in December.

She posted a photograph of herself on Instagram along with the caption: 'First step of Pompa Tour is gone. A little bit tired, but everything is okay.'

The actress and glamour model added at the time: 'This year is started in a best way as possible.'

Saulino, whose Instagram page features a number of suggestive shots, had flown from her home in Los Angeles to begin the first leg of her Pompa Tour.

Saulino said she has complained to Instagram about being banned, saying she is paying the price for her lifestyle

She initially made the promise to perform a sex act on everyone who voted no in Italy's referendum on November 23, before announcing tour dates in December.

Ms Saulino said she would be visiting Rome, Florence, Bologna, Verona, Milan, Turin, Naples, Bari, Lecce and Palermo this month for the first leg of her tour, urging people to fill in a booking form if they had voted No.

Some dismissed the tour as a publicity stunt, with several Instagram users asking for 'evidence' that she had kept her promise.

However, others defended the actress and told critics to 'stay quiet' if they didn't know - adding that photographs were not permitted to be shared online.

Italy's Prime Minister Matteo Renzi had called a referendum on constitutional reforms, which became a vote on confidence in his government.Residents of a nude resort in Florida are furious at a U.S. Postal Service employee who they say has refused to deliver mail directly to their homes for months.

Nudists at Eden RV Resort and City Retreat in Hudson claim they have been discriminated against by a female postal worker who they say fears she will be exposed to naked people while on the job.

Disabled veteran and resident at the nude resort, Leonard Rusin, expressed his concerns while speaking to local news station WFLA.

'There's a postal creed and it doesn't say anything about not going into a nudist resort... I pay for a service, and I expect that service,' Ruskin said in the statement.

Residents of a nude resort in Florida are furious at a U.S. Postal Service employee (stock image)

Disabled veteran and resident at the nude resort, Leonard Rusin, (pictured) expressed his concerns while speaking to local news station WFLA

Resident Eileen Hudak (pictured) said she thinks the employee should be fired for not doing her job

Rusin relies on the postal service for his medication and other important items and documents. He said he missed a letter from the IRS recently because he did not receive his mail.

Rusin added: 'If you're given a job, you need to do it. 100 per cent. Not because you don't want to.'

Resident Eileen Hudak said she thinks the employee should be fired for not doing her job.

'It offends me that she did not do her job... because if she can't do her job, she shouldn't be having this job,' Hudak told the news station.

Hudak also showed her support for fellow nudist neighbor, Rusin.

The employee has said she feels uncomfortable entering the nude resort to deliver mail

The employee however is entitled to decline delivering mail inside resort, her manager said (a nudist is shown above at resort)

'Sometimes the mail is important, like with our neighbor, sometimes it's his medication... you can't wait until Monday or Tuesday to go get it.'

The employee however is entitled to decline delivering mail inside resort, her manager confirmed.

Spokeswoman for the U.S. Postal Service, Enola Rice, also released a statement on the matter.

'The mission of the Postal Service is to provide trusted, affordable, universal service to our customers. One of the ways we do this is through centralized delivery, which is the method of delivery for this community. In accordance with postal regulations, all mail is left in the appropriate boxes.

'Packages are left in the large parcel lockers, which, like the mailboxes, are located just outside the entrance to the community. Notices are left for mail requiring signature and items that do not fit in the lockers,' the statement read.

'Carriers are not required to deliver beyond the centralized delivery units... we can assure all customers that mail and packages are being delivered according to national centralized delivery requirements.

'The Postal Service appreciates its customers and strives to provide the best possible service at all times.'A divorcee filled her hotel room to 'bursting' with donations intended for real victims of the Grenfell tower inferno after telling authorities she was a survivor of the disaster just hours after calling up Sky TV to complain about her service, a court heard.

Joyce Msokeri 'feigned trauma convincingly' in the wake of the deadly fire, telling authorities she had lost her husband despite being single and living miles away, prosecutors allege.

She also filled a hotel room 'to bursting' with donations meant for real victims, the court was told.

The 47-year-old is charged with fraudulently claiming cash intended to support those left destitute by the tragedy, as well as a hotel room at the Hilton, food and clothing.

Joyce Msokeri filled her hotel room to 'bursting' with donations intended for real victims after telling authorities she was a survivor of the Grenfell tower disaster, a court heard

The court was told she visited a relief centre in the wake of the fire to claim she was a survivor. But just hours earlier she had been on the phone to Sky TV complaining about her service, it is alleged

On the day after the fire, June 15 2017, the defendant pretended to be her sister and reported herself missing to police, her trial heard.

She then visited the heart of the relief effort at the Westway Centre, where she allegedly claimed to have survived the fire which left 72 dead.

But just hours earlier she had been on the phone to Sky TV complaining about her service, the court was told.

Prosecutor David Jeremy QC told jurors at the start of her trial at Southwark Crown Court: 'Miss Msokeri was able to carry out this deceit because she was a very good actress and I dare say she still is a very good actress.

'She feigned trauma convincingly. She was 'good' with people.

'She was able to relate to them so that they trusted her and she could manipulate them.'

At the time of the fire, he said, 'Miss Msokeri was miles away in her home in Sutton'.

Money, a Hilton hotel room and a free taxi service was provided to her in the days following the disaster, along with a dedicated social worker and personal police family liaison officers.

Msokeri is accused of claiming to have lived in the tower block in west London to scam charities, the Hilton Hotel chain, and the local council out of help meant for survivors

The prosecutor said: 'She was allowed access to the clothes and other goods that had been provided by well-wishers and businesses; in fact she helped herself to so many of the clothes - many of them new that were offered to the victims - that her room at the Hilton became full to bursting, she acquired much more than she would ever need herself and she had to keep a pile of suitcases full of more stuff in the Hilton concierge's room.

'She took the opportunity to grab as much as she could.'

Msokeri, of Sutton, south London, had not guilty pleas entered on her behalf on Tuesday to three counts of fraud against the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea (RBKC), charities and the Hilton hotel respectively, and one count of possessing a false document.

The defendant had first visited the Westway Centre shortly before 4pm on June 15, aware that the huge outpouring of support there was 'ripe for exploitation', Mr Jeremy said.

He told the court: 'She appeared disorientated and badly traumatised and was treated as such.'

Phone records from a mobile found in her possession showed she also rang the Metropolitan Police's missing person hotline on June 15 posing as her sister Gloria, the court heard.

She reported that 'Joy' was missing in the fire as part of a 'calculated' plan to profit from the tragedy, Mr Jeremy said.

It is alleged she also attempted to cash in on her fictitious husband's death by convincing a volunteer to lie to police and say she knew the couple before the fire.

The volunteer eventually admitted her dishonesty and Msokeri was arrested on July 25, but then attempted to continue the con, coercing a vulnerable man into pretending he was her husband, it was heard.

She was arrested a total of three times after twice breaching bail conditions, the final time on September 4.

On Wednesday she appeared in court while sitting in a wheelchair.An Australian survivor of the Bali bombings has hit out at Indonesian officials after he was denied the chance to meet with his attackers at a 'reconciliation' event.

Phil Britten, a former AFL player, was inside the Sari Club in October 2002 when a car bomb detonated outside killing seven of his friends, blowing out his teeth, and leaving him with burns to 60 per cent of his body.

Britten said he does not known whether he would have attended the event, held over three days in Jakarta this week, but he should have been able to make that choice.

Phil Britten, an Australian survivor of the Bali bombing that killed seven of his friends, has hit out at Indonesia officials for failing to invite him to a 'reconciliation' event with his attackers

Britten (pictured in 2012) said he does not know whether he would have attended the event, but added that he has been robbed of the ability to make that decision

He told The Australian: 'The bombers' focus was to get us as supporters of America so I think the invitation should have been extended to us also.'

Of the 202 people killed during the 2002 attack the majority came from outside Indonesia and included 88 Australians - more than any other nationality.

Britten has previously told how he has taken steps towards forgiving his attackers, including attended the trial of 'smiling assassin' Amrozi bin Nurhasyim

Initially Britten said his aim was to shout at Amrozi or attack him in the dock.

But, he said, 'when I got there, all that anger had left because I looked at this person, this poor person who didn't understand the meaning of life, because no one has the right to take another person's life.

'That was the moment that really changed things for me; I started not worrying about what they did or what's going to happen to them because I can't change that. The only thing I can change is me, my attitude.'

In 2002 Islamist attackers killed 202 people including 88 Australians with a double bomb attack on a bar and nightclub in the Kuta neighbourhood of Bali

Britten was inside the Sari Club when a car bomb detonated outside, blowing out his teeth and leaving him with burns to 60 per cent of his body

The official reconciliation event included victims of the 2002 and 2005 bombings, the 2004 Australian embassy attack, and Mariott bombings of 2003 and 2009.

In total 124 former Islamists attended along with 51 victims.

It had been hoped that more victims would attend, but two major Indonesian groups pulled out at the last minute, saying it had been badly organised.

'There are so many of them in the room. We're not ready psychologically,' said Ni Luh Erniati, an adviser to the Indonesian Survivors Foundation, which did not attend.

'We have forgiven them but we cannot predict what would happen if our emotions were ignited.

'We've tried similar smaller-scale events in the past but it was hard even then.'

Officials have billed the event as an important step in combating radicalism and fostering reconciliation.

Three days of meetings kicked off on Monday, with the first two days closed to the media before an open session on Wednesday.

The reconciliation event began on Monday and was closed to the media until Wednesday, when the 121 Islamists and 51 survivors met in front of the camerasUniversities minister Sam Gyimah has urged students to engage with authors branded 'pale, male and stale'

Changing university courses to make them less white risks narrowing students horizons if it means phasing out unpopular or unfashionable topics, Sam Gyimah has warned.

The new universities minister said students must continue to engage with and face up to areas of the curriculum which have been branded pale, male and stale by campaigners.

Some elite universities have begun discussions about decolonising their courses by adding more ethnic minority voices in addition to the traditional European authors and theorists.

It has been in part sparked by a student-led campaign called Why is my curriculum white, which complained classes on great writers such as Shakespeare and Dickens did not capture the ethnic minority experience.

There is no suggestion at present that any of these traditional authors will be removed, but Mr Gyimah said he wanted to caution bosses about the danger of overlooking them.

Speaking at the official launch of the new higher education regulator the Office for Students (OfS), he said student campaigns are what happens in universities as part of a free exchange of ideas.

But he added: What we should be cautious of  and this is caution  is phasing out parts of the curriculum that just happen to be unpopular or unfashionable.

I genuinely believe that part of the university experience is actually facing up to the unpopular, facing up to the unfashionable, engaging with it, challenging it, that is how you widen your horizons.

It comes after Cambridge literature professors discussed proposals to add more ethnic minority authors to the curriculum.

The university made it clear that no white authors would be phased out  it would simply mean more authors being added.

Last week, SOAS confirmed it was also in discussions about decolonising the curriculum, while at Oxford students are campaigning for the same on their campus.

Mr Gyimah, an Oxford graduate who was born to Ghanaian parents himself, said students should expect to be challenged by ideas at university which they dont really understand at all.

In a wide-ranging speech in Westminster yesterday, Mr Gyimah also promised students the OfS will ensure they will get better value-for-money from universities.

He warned institutions not to fight the change and that students now expected an excellent service because they are paying for the majority of their degree themselves.

Gone are the days when students venerated institutions and were thankful to be admitted, he said.

We are in a new age  the age of the student.

He said he wanted universities to have a laser-like focus on students, and must show greater responsibility and accountability towards them.

The universities minister hit out at Jeremy Corbyn after the Labour leader said tutition fees should be abolished

The OfS is due to provide data on average earnings of graduates of each course and university, to help students see which paths lead to the best outcomes.

It will also demand justification from all universities paying their vice chancellor more than 100,000.

Mr Gyimah called on vice chancellors to show restraint when it comes to their expenses after it emerged earlier this week that some have been blowing hundreds per night on lavish hotels.

And he also hit out at Jeremy Corbyn for claiming tuition fees should be abolished, saying it was pure snakeoil as it would mean universities being badly funded and fewer poor students attending.

Mr Gyimah said increasing access for disadvantaged groups  including white working class boys  was a key priority of his.

Asked about the new trend of universities giving out high numbers of unconditional offers to secure students, Mr Gyimah warned it could lead to a slipping of standards.

For universities to really work theyve got to be selecting people who can succeed in a university environment and do well in a university environment, he said.

Unconditional offers should not be used as a way of sidestepping that key criteria.

Ultimately universities are about excellence and you dont want to in any way undermine that.Georgia high school teacher Jesse Randal Davidson, 53 (pictured), was taken into custody after he fired at least one shot and barricaded himself in a classroom on Wednesday morning

Police officers responded Wednesday to a Georgia high school after reports of shots fired and a teacher barricaded in a classroom, authorities said.

Police in Dalton tweeted that the teacher was in custody and no children were ever in danger.

During an afternoon press conference, authorities identified the teacher as Jesse Randal Davidson, 53, who also worked as an announcer during the school's football games.

Dalton police said Davidson has been charged with aggravated assault, carrying a weapon on school grounds, making terroristic threats, reckless conduct, possession of a gun during commission of a crime, and disrupting public school.

Davidson, who teaches social studies and has been with the school since 2004, allegedly barricaded himself inside of a classroom, not allowing students to enter. When the principal came to attempt to unlock the door, a shot was fired.

Students shared videos to Snapchat of fellow students running through the hallways of Dalton High School and being escorted out of the building by police.

A student apparently suffered an ankle injury running inside the school as the building was evacuated.

Dalton police said Davidson has been charged with aggravated assault, carrying a weapon on school grounds, making terroristic threats, reckless conduct, possession of a gun during commission of a crime, and disrupting public school (Pictured, Assistant Chief Cliff Cason speaks at a press conference)

Police say the social studies teacher locked himself in a classroom and wouldn't allow students in and, when the principal unlocked the door, he allegedly fired a shot

Frightening and all too familiar scene unfolded Wednesday at the high school as police scrambled to the scene and students ran for their lives. But this time, a teacher was arrested in the incident

Days after a school shooting in Parkland, Florida, left 17 people dead, Davidson shared this image to his Facebook page

Thankfully no one was shot during the incident, however one student reportedly hurt an ankle running

The incident was reported just after 11.15am on the Dalton Police Department's Twitter account

The incident was reported just after 11.15am on theDalton Police Department's Twitter account, reporting that 'shot or shots' had been fired at the high school on the department's official Twitter account.

Minutes later, DPD added that the armed suspect was barricaded inside a classroom at the school and urged parents not to come to the school.

Davidson was barricaded inside the classroom for about 30 minutes before he was taken into custody.

Police say a 'threatening' note was found last week at the high school.

It wasn't immediately clear whether the note was related to the shooting Wednesday.

Police say the note was found February 21, and mentioned a threat against the school the following day.

Assistant Police Chief Cliff Cason said in a statement at the time that officers planned an increased presence at the city's schools in response to the note.

Police have not said why Davidson fired the gun.

A mother of one of the students says she was terrified as her daughter texted her while hiding inside her darkened classroom as police responded to reports of gunfire inside the school.

Annmarie Jacobs says her daughter Emma texted that her teacher had turned the lights off and told the students to sit in a corner.

Then, in an act that brought home the danger of the situation, her daughter texted, 'omg she's putting desk in front of the door.'

Jacobs said she was about 100 miles away from Dalton High School and driving through Tennessee when she got the texts, and pulled over on the roadside, shaking.

Students were evacuated to the Dalton Convention Center, where parents were instructed to pick up their children.

The incident happened two weeks after a school shooting in Florida left 17 students and faculty dead and put the country on edge.

The high school's website says it has 2,000 students. Dalton is about 90 miles north of Atlanta.

President Trump suggested arming teachers in the wake of a deadly school shooting earlier this month in Parkland, Florida, where 19-year-old Nikolas Cruz stormed his former high school and killed 17 people with an AR-15 semiautomatic rifle.

In this Feb. 24, 2018 photo, the main entrance of Dalton High School is shown, in Dalton, Ga. Police in Georgia say officers are responding to reports of shots fired at the high school and a teacher who may have been barricaded in a classroom is in custody. (AP Photo/Jeff Martin)

People hug one another outside of the Dalton Convention Center on Wednesday after student were evacuated from Dalton High School

Parents, relatives and friends line up inside the Dalton Convention Center to pick up their children on Wednesday

People exit the Dalton Convention Center on Wednesday after students were evacuate there following Davidson firing at least one shot

The president proposed a controversial bill last 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'.

He doubled down on the proposal on Saturday, stating in a tweet: '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.'The conflict between White House chief of staff John Kelly and Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner and his wife Ivanka Trump has has morphed into a pitched battle that only one side can win.

Kelly, who sought to streamline the staff and limit access to the president when he first came on board, was responsible for the new policy that resulted in Kushner losing his top level security clearance last week.

The move is being taken personally  including inside the Trump family.

The president's eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., was angry about the media coverage that Kushner sustained Tuesday night as news broke that he had lost his top clearance, Axios reported.

Trump Jr. feels Kelly is leaving Kushner hanging out to dry, a source familiar with the situation told the publication. 'Javanka and Kelly are locked in a death match. Two enter. Only one survives,' said a White House official.

President Trump's son in law Jared Kushner is having his top-level security clearance downgraded following a review ordered by chief of staff John Kelly

Kushner, meanwhile, is under the impression that Kelly's new policy on security clearances was designed to single him out.

Kushner believes 'everyone is out to get him," a source told CNN. The president's son-in-law has been asking: 'Why is John Kelly doing this?'

The president  who has singled out Kelly for criticism online in the past  also has concluded that Kushner is getting a bad deal, and that the media has been unfair to him, according to the report.

Kushner, a senior White House advisor, had his security clearance downgraded last week following a review ordered by Kelly, it was revealed Tuesday.

Nevertheless, he remains a 'valued member of the team,' White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said at a press briefing Tuesday. The White House cancelled its scheduled Wednesday briefing amid the continued fallout from the story.

The conflict between White House chief of staff John Kelly and Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner and his wife Ivanka Trump has has morphed into a pitched battle

The president's eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., was angry about the media coverage that Kushner sustained Tuesday night, according to a report

The downgrade took place along with other aides who were working on temporary or interim security clearances at the Top Secret/SCI-level level, Politico first reported Tuesday.

It also followed the discovery of efforts by foreign government including Mexico and China to try to manipulate Kushner, the Washington Post revealed.

The foreign governments sought to capitalize on Kushner's novice status to the world of politics and foreign policy  armed with knowledge his family business was anxious to find financial partners to ease overwhelming debt.

As part of the downgrade, he will suffer the loss of access to the president's daily intelligence briefing.

He will now have to work through his extensive portfolio relying on information only at the top secret level.

The change comes after Kelly ordered a new review of clearance policy, following DailyMail.com's report that former White House staff secretary Rob Porter had stayed on staff with interim clearances despite abuse allegations by two ex wives.

Both women had told the FBI information about the allegations during the extensive background check process, but it did not prevent Porter from ferrying top secret information to the president's desk on a daily basis.

The downgrade comes as the Post reported at least four countries privately discussed ways to manipulate Kushner  who was new to government in 2017 and oversaw a real estate empire that took on massive debt.

Among nations trying to work the angle in some cases by dealing directly with Kushner were United Arab Emirates, China, Israel and Mexico, according to the report.

The issue of Kushner's foreign meetings was raised with National Security Advisor H.R. McMaster, who learned that the contacts were not lined up through the NSC. A former White House official told the Post people in the building were concerned Kushner was 'naive and being tricked.'

According to a previous statement issued by Kelly: 'I will not comment on anybody's specific security clearance situation or go beyond the memo released last week. 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.'

LIGHT READING: Jared Kushner, senior advisor to President Donald Trump, departs his home at 7:12 am EST, in Washington, D.C., Monday, Feb. 26, 2018

'Everyone in the White House is grateful for these valuable contributions to furthering the Presidents agenda. There is no truth to any suggestion otherwise,' he said.

The statement did not mention Kushner's work with China, but an official said 'he's involved in the economic dialogue but that's been his role on it for months.'

Meanwhile, Josh Raffel, the spokesman for Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump, is leaving the White House, Axios first reported Tuesday.

Raffel, who was promoted to the position of deputy communications director in the fall, had become the White House's go-to crisis communications guy, while also having his hand in a number of policy areas.

A senior administration official said Tuesday: 'The president said the other day ... he has great faith and confidence in Jared. He feels like he's being treated very unfairly he never gets any credit, he works for nothing and we all know Jared works on major pieces of the president's portfolio, foreign and domestic.'

FALLOUT: Kushner's downgraded clearance is yet more fallout from the DailyMail's report of abuse allegations against former White House Staff Secretary Rob Porter. Here Porter (L) reminds U.S. President Donald Trump he had a bill to sign after he departed quickly following remarks at his golf estate in Bedminster, New Jersey U.S., August 12, 2017

FALLOUT: Kushner's downgraded clearance is yet more fallout from the DailyMail's report of abuse allegations against former White House Staff Secretary Rob Porter. Here is an image of Colbie Holderness, the first wife of Rob Porter, who came forward with abuse allegations

Jenny Willoughby speaks to DailyMail.com about her relationship with White House Staff Secretary Rob Porter, who worked in the White House on a series of temporary security clearances despite abuse allegations against him

A Hollywood public relations executive, Raffel was brought on to lead the communications team for the Office of American Innovation, which Kushner heads.

His position evolved to becoming the spokesperson for the first daughter and her husband, both top White House advisers.

News of Raffel's departure comes as Kushner's ability to tend to his vast portfolio is being questioned, while White House fault lines are spilling into the press, with Kelly reportedly saying privately that Ivanka Trump is merely 'playing government.'

CNN reported that Kelly called one of her main policy proposals, the child tax credit, 'a pet project.'

It was President Trump's idea, according to a senior official from the White House, to send his daughter on the trip.

In another bad break for Kushner, a quote attributed to him that was included on a Trump campaign release Tuesday is in apparent violation of the Hatch Act.

The release naming Brad Parscale as campaign manager for 2020 issued a quote from Kushner praising him under the official government title 'assistant to the president'  which is prohibited.

'Brad was essential in bringing a disciplined technology and data-driven approach to how the 2016 campaign was run. His leadership and expertise will be help build a best-in-class campaign,' Kushner is quoted as saying.

On the business front, Kushner Cos, which Kushner used to run, is in talks to buy the remainder of its stake in flagship property 666 Fifth Avenue

White House Senior Advisor to the President Jared Kushner speaks during a conversation with Haim Saban at Saban Forum, December 3, 2017 in Washington, DC

After the AP asked the campaign about the title, it was removed from the online version Tuesday.

According to a statement by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, 'Two weeks ago we sent a complaint to Chief of Staff John Kelly outlining why it was a national security risk to allow Jared Kushner to continue accessing top secret information while his full security clearance has still not been adjudicated after more than a year, and requesting that his temporary clearance be revoked. We are glad that Kushner and the rest of the White House officials still on interim clearances have now lost access to top secret information.'

The statement continued: 'There continue to be serious questions as to the Trump administrations handling of secure information; failure to at least downgrade Kushners temporary clearance would have set a dangerous precedent by signaling a willingness to tolerate unacceptable national security risks.'

President Trump ignored questions about Kushner during a White House event Tuesday afternoon.

But on the business front, Kushner Cos, which Kushner used to run, is in talks to buy the remainder of its stake in flagship property 666 Fifth Avenue, Reuters reported.

Vornado Realty Trust owns a 49 per cent stake in the Midtown building. Kushner Cos got the building in 2006 for $1.8 billion, but has been investors to inject cash for a major redevelopment project.

A former Qatari prime minister is among those who considered investing millions in the deal.

In the fallout from the Porter scandal, Kelly released a memo telling aides to discontinue the use of interim clearances for people with applications pending since June 1  a group that included Kushner.

On Monday, White House press secretary Sarah Sanders wouldn't reveal whether Kushner or others had lost clearances.

'As we've said many times before, we're not going to discuss individual clearances. That goes to a broader number or an individual number so I'm not going to get into that today just as I haven't in the past,' she said.

On Tuesday, minutes before the news broke, Sanders said: 'He is a valued member of the team and will continue to do the important work he has been doing since he started in the administration.'

Chief of Staff John Kelly (left), according to CNN, was not enthusiastic about sending first daughter and top White House adviser Ivanka Trump (right) as the U.S. delegation's leader to the closing ceremony of the PyeongChang 2018 Olympic Winter Games

White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders (left), who accompanied Ivanka Trump (right) on the South Korea trip, said that both Chief of Staff John Kelly and National Security Advisor H.R. McMaster were ' supportive of the trip since the planning process began'

In yet another blow, chief of staff Kelly was not initially 'enthusiastic' about sending first daughter and top White House adviser Ivanka Trump  Kushner's wife  to South Korea as the leader of the American delegation for the closing ceremony of the Olympic games.

CNN reported that Ivanka Trump's unique position in the White House is ruffling feathers, with Kelly getting increasingly frustrated over the first daughter having it both ways  she'll play the role of White House adviser when it best suits her, and first daughter when being an official doesn't get her what she wants.

Kelly has said privately that Ivanka Trump is merely 'playing government,' CNN said, with the chief of staff calling one of her main policy proposals, the child tax credit, 'a pet project.'Three New York sisters who have found fame by running a bevy of extremely popular Instagram meme accounts have a secret: Their mother, Pam Geller.

The Oshry sisters have avoided public connections to their 'Islamophobe' mother, Geller, who was barred from entering England for hate speech.

Claudia Oshry runs the Instagram Girl With No Job, which has amassed 2.8million followers, Jackie runs the Instagram Jackie O Problems with 94,00 followers, Margo runs Hung Over And Hungry with 102,000 followers, and their sister Olivia acts as a manager.

The young women are often photographed together and reference the importance of family, but their mother, Pamela Geller, is never mentioned specifically, or pictured, ever.

In 2013 Geller was denied entry to England after the British government said having her in the country would 'not be conducive to the public good,' according to the Daily Beast.

L-R Sisters Jackie, Claudia, Margo, Olivia Oshry have created massively popular Instagram meme pages, but avoid directly referencing their alt-right, Islamophobic mother

The Osher sisters' mother, Pamela Geller, is pictured here at an Alt-Right protest. While her daughters have not publicly denounced their mother's extremist views, they appear to be ardent Trump supporters, like their mama

Girl With No Job is run by Claudia, and boasts 2.8million followers, and her husband runs Boy With No Job which has 1.5million

Hung Over and Hungry is the Instagram account by Margo who curates images of food for her 102,000 followers

Jackie posts center on her lifestyle and fashion and she has amassed 94,000 followers

Two years later, Geller hosted a 'Draw the Prophet Muhammad' contest in Garland, Texas. Two gunman were killed by a security guard after plotting to attack the event.

Many Muslims consider depictions of the prophet to be blasphemous.

However, Claudia tells DailyMail.com in a statement: 'We want to be clear to our audience and fans that our political and cultural beliefs are not anti-Muslim or anti-anyone. Our views are separate from our mother's. Being raised by a single parent, we were taught to make our own choices based on our personal beliefs.'

'We are inspired to think for ourselves and we do. We do not condone discrimination or racist beliefs of any kind,' Claudia added.

The Southern Poverty Law Center has described Geller's rhetoric as 'hate speech.'

Geller has acknowledged, and even seems to relish in the provocative, racist monikers she's received.

In an article she wrote about herself, Geller gives this quote, without any attribution: 'Her critics have called her 'the most dangerous woman in America,' 'far-right hate queen,' and 'the anti-Muslim movement's most visible and flamboyant figurehead.'

Through comparisons of the sisters' social media and Geller's they are often all together, just not publicly, and certainly not in the way the young women cross promote each other, and share photos of themselves as a group.

The women were pictured on their mother's balcony this past Thanksgiving. Geller also shared a shot on the same balcony that day.

Geller captioned her balcony photo: 'Thankful for my freedom, the troops, my supporters and @milo.yiannopoulos for publishing my book, FATWA.'

Claudia runs the Instagram site 'Girl With No Job' and has often shown her support of Trump on Snapchat

Jackie, Geller's daughter, lashed out at Obama over Isis, and has been a vocal Trump supporter

Margo attended Trump's inauguration and excitedly shared shots of herself sporting a 'MAGA' hat

Her thank you is to Milo Yiannopoulos who was infamously axed at Breitbart News and is now featured on Alex Jones' InfoWars.

Some of the sisters have at least similar political affiliations as their mother, who is an ardent Donald Trump supporter.

Jackie attended Trump's inauguration and excitedly shared a shot of Melania's powder blue dress and gloves captioning it: 'Jackie O Approved! #MAGA.'

Margo also attended the inauguration and posted photos of herself to Instagram wearing a gold MAGA hat.

'When Trump gives me a reason to Instagram another picture of myself, you know I'm down,' she wrote.

'Listening to Obama talk about ISIS is like listening to me talk about quantum physics,' Claudia tweeted in 2015.

Jackie shared a similar comment on Twitter: 'Listening to Obama talk about ISIS is like listening to me talk about boys. I too don't understand the enemy.'

'Hi @POTUS, Can you reimburse me for all the cabs I'm taking bc your piece sh** of plan to defeat ISIS makes me scared to take the subway? Ty,' Jackie tweeted to Obama in 2015.

Pam Geller, is pictured delivering a speech during a '9-11 Freedom Rally' September 11, 2011 as the public commemorates the 10th anniversary of the World Trade Center attacks

Jackie ranted frequently on Snapchat about Obama and became so outspoken about her support for Trump that followers branded her 'JacKKKie.'

The sisters' meticulously curated images and eagle eyes on their media coverage has ensured that despite vacationing and spending ample time with their mother, that she does not appear anywhere they are, despite her of course being there.

When Claudia married her social media star boyfriend Ben Soffer, also known as 'Boy With No Job,' in 2017, the pair made sure guests did not take their own photos.

When their engagement spread was featured on the wedding site The Knot, she made sure that her mother, who attended her daughter's engagement party and wedding, did not appear in any photos.

None of the girls have spoken out or publicly denounced their mother's extremist views.DS Michael Harrington was jailed for four and-a-half years after admitting 16 counts of theft - all carried out while he was meant to be working

A thieving Detective Sergeant has been jailed for stealing tens of thousands of pounds of cash from holidaymakers at an airport.

Met Police DS Michael Harrington pilfered between 75,000 and 83,000 over the course of five years from unsuspecting passengers at busy Heathrow Airport.

The 58-year-old was jailed for a lengthy four-and-a-half years for admitting 16 counts of theft - all carried out while he was meant to be working.

The financial investigator was tasked with seizing unauthorised cash from passengers travelling in and out of Britain.

But instead of handing the wads over to bosses, crooked Harrington falsely recorded it had been given back to the passengers - and pocketed it himself.

On other occasions, the wrong-un rozzer recorded the amounts seized to be less than they actually were - and kept the cash.

His cruel crimes even ruined two weddings, because his victims were unable to travel with the cash presents they had wanted to give the newlyweds.

Harrington also denied a victim the opportunity to have an interpreter present when confiscating legitimate money.

He was eventually caught, five years after beginning his scam, when victims started to contact his own colleagues about getting their money back.

Harrington had previously failed to turn up to an earlier sentencing hearing, prompting a warrant to be issued for his arrest.

He was sentenced to four years and six months in prison for 16 counts of theft at Southwark Crown Court today.

Riaz Jakhura, from the CPS, said: 'Harrington took advantage of a number of passengers including foreign nationals making their way through Heathrow Airport.

'He abused his position as a financial investigator for the police, contributing to significant stress and financial hardship for some of his victims.

Riaz Jakhura, from the CPS, said: 'Harrington took advantage of a number of passengers including foreign nationals making their way through Heathrow Airport' (pictured)

'He called victims into the police station to discuss his fabricated plans to get their money back - even telling one that he would have to wait up to three years.

'When under pressure he also paid money back to a victim from his own bank account, and attempted to make the transfer look like it came from an official Metropolitan Police Service bank account.

'A number of empty evidence bags used to seize money from passengers passing through Heathrow Airport were also found at his home address.

'The overwhelming evidence against Harrington meant that he had no choice but to admit his crimes.'

Harrington is now the subject of confiscation proceedings.Owner: Aram Kurd, 33, was not present as his home in Leicester was searched by police

Police were this morning searching the home of the owner of the Polish supermarket destroyed in an explosion on Sunday, after arresting three men on suspicion of the manslaughter of the five people killed in the blast.

Officers were seen inside and outside the house of Aram Kurd, 33, a mile from the scene of the blast, hours after they revealed three men in their thirties had been arrested.

Police stationed outside the property refused to say what they were looking for at the house, or whether Mr Kurd was one of the men arrested. None of the house's residents were present during the search.

Mr Kurd, who describes himself on social media as a security worker and translator, was working in the shop at the time of the explosion, and later told how he was trapped in the rubble narrowly avoiding serious injury.

The explosion and subsequent fire destroyed the Zabka Polish supermarket and a flat above it killing Mary Ragoobar, 46, her sons Shane, 18, and Sean, 17, Shane's girlfriend Leah Reek, 18, and 22-year-old shop worker, Viktorija Ljevleva.

Pictured:Krishna Rungen said his brother-in-law lived at the address with his wife Mary (centre) and her three sons

Missing feared dead: Leah Reek, 18, pictured left with boyfriend Shane and shop worker Viktorija Ljevleva have not been found

An aerial view of the scene of the explosion in Leicester, where five people died and a three-storey building was demolished

Mary Ragoobar (pictured), 46, and sons Shane, 18, and Sean, 17, have not been seen since a suspected gas blast destroyed their apartment above a Polish grocery store

Leicester Police earlier confirmed they had arrested three men in their thirties, one each in the East Midlands, the North West of England and East Anglia, on suspicion of manslaughter.

Mrs Ragoobar moved into the two-bedroom property in Leicester four years ago along with her husband, Jose Ragoobeer, 58, and the couple's youngest son, Scotty, 15. Mr Ragoobeer was at work at the time of the incident on Sunday night, while Scotty was pulled from the rubble by a passer-by and is being treated in hospital.

All five victims will officially remain 'missing' until formal identifications take place. But police say this process could take some time.

Announcing the arrests, officers said there remained no evidence the explosion had any connection with terrorism.

Mr Kurd, pictured with his partner, had only opened the Zabka supermarket in December

'No further details will be released about these individuals at this stage. We acknowledge that the terrible events of Sunday night in Hinckley Road have attracted significant public, political and media interest,' the police statement said.

Mr Kurd, who only opened the shop in December, told reporters how he cheated death in the explosion because he had gone to the back of the store to get a crate of beer when the blast happened. His colleague Ms Ljevleva had remained at the till.

He described how he heard a 'loud bang' and found himself thrown several feet before being trapped in rubble. After managing to haul himself free, he shouted out for his colleague but could find no trace of her.

Speaking to ITV Central, he said: 'I was shouting Viktorija! Viktorija! Viktorija!

'I don't know how it happened. It was a big noise. I found myself up and then to the floor, for two or three minutes I couldn't feel anything, I was looking up, my eyes were open.

'I managed to pull himself from the rubble and climbed into the neighbouring garden.'

He said at the time he was unsure about what had happened to the residents of the flat above, but described them as 'good people'.

He added: 'I feel sorry for those people who lost their lives. I don't know if they are kids or young. I don't know who's dead.

'Forget about the money, the most important [thing] is life.'

Earlier his friend Farrah Alli Hameed, 30, told how Mr Kurd opened the shop with a second co-owner.

'It's such a tragedy,' he said. 'I came here hoping to help but because of the cordon I can't do much. I'm not sure if it was a gas explosion, maybe something to do with the electric as they had a lot of spirits in there.'A minister has called for a rethink on using Aboriginal place names after a woman died at a swimming hole while her brother struggled to tell medics where they were.

Kimberley Johnston, 22, died at the Dwaarlindjinaap waterhole last month after getting pulled under by a strong current and trapped under a rock.

Brother Aaron was with her at the time and called 000, but he and bystanders had difficulty pronouncing the name, costing vital moments in the race to save her life.

Kimberley Johnston, 22, died last month at Dwaarlindjinaap swimming hole last month after she was pulled underwater by a current and trapped underneath a rock

Now local MP Andrew Hastie is calling for places to be given universally recognised signage alongside Aboriginal names to avoid the event repeating itself.

His call comes after the City of Mandurah, where Kimberley was from, announced it will be renaming all parks and reserves within its boundaries with Aboriginal-inspired names as part of their reconciliation action plan.

Hastie told WA Today: 'If local governments are going to go for a long name that's complex and difficult to pronounce then I think we should really take seriously [the] suggestion that we implement emergency location signs.

Borther Aaron called 000 but he and bystanders struggled to pronounce the waterhole's name, costing vital moments

'It's not just someone drowning at a watering hole. It could be a child getting a snake bite, it could be someone having a heart attack, it could be an accident on a trail.

'It could be any number of emergencies that we need first responders for. I think it's a really issue and if we can't pronounce it  well then there's a problem.'

Stacy O'Shea, Kimberley's mother, has been advocating for the change in the wake of her daughter's death.

Writing on Facebook after Kimberley passed away, she paid tribute to 'my beautiful, fantastic daughter'.

She said: 'Kim made me laugh and smile every day, she looked after me all the time, from such a young age. Most of all she could talk a lot and shared everything.

'I loved her for it. But I have come to realize how many other people loved and respected her too.

'I'm so proud of my family. My kids loved going out playing together, even at this age.

'I'm so proud of my boys, words can not describe what they did for her on that day and the pain and trauma they are in now. She would be so proud of both of them and how they are looking after me now.

'Dad is so proud of you, so grateful for everything you did for him and has been looking after all of us. We love you Kim and all ways will. You have your fairy wings.'A newborn baby has been found buried in cow dung in a rural village in India.

The baby boy, believed to be no more than 24 hours old, was found dead under a pile of dung in an open field in a village in the Gonda district of Uttar Pradesh, in northern India.

Local farmer Arjun Prasad, 35, was passing the area on his way to work and noticed something sticking out of the mud on Monday at 8am.

He said: 'I was crossing our village when I spotted a pyramid created out of cow dung. I could see something unusual coming out of it.

Local farmer Arjun Prasad, 35, was passing the area on his way to work and noticed something sticking out of the mud on Monday at 8am. Pictured: A crowd at the village after the discovery

The baby boy, believed to be no more than 24 hours old, was found dead under a pile of dung in an open field in a village in the Gonda district of Uttar Pradesh, in northern India

'I went over and started clearing it with my feet to understand what it was and I was shocked to see the results. I spotted a newborn child lying there, dead.'

Arjun ran back to the village and informed locals, who then called the police. Locals quickly gathered to see the newborn lying lifeless in the cow dung. Eventually one person pulled out the child and cleaned him.

'We were shocked to see the cruelty of the parents who decided to dump their child like this. We suspect the child was just a few hours old as the umbilical cord was still attached to him,' Arjun added.

'It was very sad, and it affected us all for the rest of the day.'

The police started an investigation immediately and are currently trying to find the parents and person responsible.

Station Officer Priyamvad Mishra, from Gonda Police Station, said: 'Villagers informed us about the incident.

Arjun ran back to the village and informed locals, who then called the police. Locals quickly gathered to see the newborn lying lifeless in the cow dung. Pictured: Villagers after the shocking discovery

'The baby was dead when we reached the spot. We have sent the body for a post-mortem and we are waiting for the results to confirm the cause of death.

'The investigation has started and we suspect an outsider has possibly dumped their newborn in the cow dung in this village as there is no suspicion among locals in their own village.

'The child was possibly dumped on Sunday night and was found the next morning. We are now interviewing people in neighbouring villages.'President Donald Trump says he will be giving 'very serious thought' to signing legislation that lifts the minimum age for purchasing certain firearms like the AR-15 to 21.

The position is a serious split from the National Rifle Association, a major backer of Trump's and most Republicans.

In a listening session with lawmakers on Wednesday, the president acknowledged that his posture wouldn't be popular with the gun group, but he'll be 'giving it a lot of consideration' anyway.

Trump demanded to know why background check legislation that he wants to use as a vehicle for gun violence prevention measures doesn't already contain the provision.

'You know why? Because you're afraid of the NRA!' the president told Sen. Pat Toomey, the Republican author of the bipartisan bill, with a laugh.

Scroll down for video

President Donald Trump said he will be giving 'very serious thought' to signing legislation that lifts the minimum age for purchasing firearms like the AR-15 to 21 and demanded to know why it wasn't in a bill from five years ago

'You know why? Because you're afraid of the NRA!' the president told Sen. Pat Toomey, the Republican author of the bipartisan bill, with a laugh

The Pennsylvania lawmaker explained that five years ago, when the legislation first came for a vote in the Senate, an age restriction never came up for a vote.

Toomey also argued that the 'vast majority' of teens in his state are non-violent.

'I know where you're coming from, and I understand that,' Trump replied.

But the president made clear that he wants Toomey and cosponsor Joe Manchin, a West Virginia Democrat, to include the measure in the universal background check bill they plan to revive in the Senate.

The measure failed in a Democratically-controlled Senate in 2013, even though it had the backing of 54 senators, because it did not reach the upper chamber's 60-vote threshold.

That was roughly four months after the horrific slaughter of 20 elementary school children in Newtown, Connecticut.

Connecticut Sen. Chris Murphy told Trump on Wednesday not to underestimate the power of the gun lobby as the president said over and over again that he couldn't understand why action was not taken under the previous administration.

'They have great power over you people,' Trump replied. 'Some of you people are petrified of the NRA.'

The president said he told the Second Amendment group, 'We have to do what's right.'

Trump said that he truly believes that the NRA also wants to do 'what's right' for Americans.

'I'm a big fan of the NRA. These are great people. These are great patriots. They love our country. But that doesn't mean we have to agree on everything,' the president told legislators.

Earlier on in the session, Murphy, a Democratic senator from the state that endured the horrible tragedy five years ago that inspired Toomey's failed background check bill, informed Trump that he would have to take on the NRA if he wanted substantive legislation to pass.

'There is no other issue out there with the American public like background checks. Ninety-seven percent of Americans want universal background checks. And yet we can't get it done, there's nothing else like that. Where it works, people want it and we can't do it,' Murphy told the president.

One lawmaker told Trump on Wednesday not to underestimate the power of the gun lobby as the president said over and over again that he couldn't understand why action was not taken under the previous administration

Asked if he'd sign legislation making 21 the floor for buying certain firearms, Trump said,'I'll tell you what, I'm going to give it a lot of consideration, and I'm the one bringing it up, and a lot of people don't even want to bring it up because they're afraid to bring it up

Trump rebutted, 'But you have a different president now.' To which Murphy said, 'The reason that nothing has gotten done here is because the gun lobby has had veto power over any legislation that comes before Congress .

'I wish that wasn't the case, but it is. If all we end up doing is stuff the gun industry supports than this just isn't worth it, we're not going to make a difference,' he told the Republican president, 'so I'm glad that you sat down with the NRA, but we will get 60 votes on a bill that looks like the Manchin-Toomey compromise on background checks if you, Mr. President, support it.'

The Connecticut Democrat told Trump, 'If you come to Congress, if you come to Republicans and say we're going to do a Manchin-Toomey-like bill to get comprehensive background checks, it will pass.

'But if this meeting ends up with just sort of vague notions of future compromise than nothing will happen.'

Murphy explained that comprehensive background check legislation would have to bar criminals, people who are very mentally ill and individuals on the terrorist watchlist from purchasing guns.

'But Mr. President it's going to have to be you that brings the Republicans to the table on this because, right now, the gun lobby would stop it in its tracks,' he said.

Trump told him, 'I like that responsibility Chris, I really do. I think it's time, it's time that a president stepped up. I'm talking Democrat and Republican presidents, they haven't stepped up.'

The president urged lawmakers in the room to come up with compromise legislation that encapsulates universal background checks and strengthens the existing system.

He told them he'd like to see age limits included in the merger, as well.

Asked if he'd sign legislation making 21 the floor for buying certain firearms, Trump said, 'I'll tell you what, I'm going to give it a lot of consideration, and I'm the one bringing it up, and a lot of people don't even want to bring it up because they're afraid to bring it up.

'But I will give very serious thought to it,' he said.

The president urged lawmakers in the room to come up with compromise legislation that encapsulates universal background checks and strengthens the existing system

Wednesday was the first time that Trump heard from federal lawmakers leading the charge for new gun violence prevention measures in person since the Parkland massacre

The president said he wants lawmakers to put together 'something great.'

Making a reference to his proposal to allowed teachers to pack heat, Trump said, 'To me something great, is where you stop it from happening, and I think there's only one way.'

If lawmakers feel that's the wrong way to attack the problem, Trump told them, 'I want a very strong counter punch.'

Trump predicted a 'very successful vote' this time around on gun control legislation.

'Some people aren't going to like that, but you're going to have to look at that very seriously,' he said, returning to age limits. 'And I will sign it, and I will call whoever you want me to if I like what you're doing, and I think I like what you're doing already, but you can add to it.

'But you have to be very, very powerful on background checks - don't be shy - very strong on mentally ill, you have to be very very strong on that, and don't worry about bump stock, we're getting rid of it, I mean you don't have to complicate the bill by adding another two paragraphs.'

The president claimed once again that his administration would be banning the firearms accessory that it plans to recategorize as a machine gun.

'We're getting rid of it. I'll do that myself because I'm able to. Fortunately we're able to do that without going through Congress,' he asserted.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein pressed Trump to endorse an assault weapons ban, but Trump told her she needed to work it out with her colleagues.

He would not go beyond his support for the age restrictions, background checks and concealed carry permits for teachers trained to wield firearms.

'I DON'T KNOW WHY I WASN'T INVITED': President Donald Trump will heard directly from lawmakers leading the charge for new gun violence prevention measures this afternoon at the White House...yet Florida's Democratic senator, Bill Nelson, wasn't invited

Wednesday was the first time that Trump heard from federal lawmakers leading the charge for new gun violence prevention measures in person since the Parkland massacre.

In addition to Machin, Toomey, Feinstein and Murphy, Sen. John Cornyn, the GOP whip in the Senate, and Florida Sen. Marco Rubio also attended.

The Sunshine State's Democratic senator, Bill Nelson, says he was not invited.

A White House spokesperson did not respond to DailyMail.com's request for comment on the snub.

A chagrined Nelson told reporters Wednesday afternoon that he was not invited to the president's chat today with legislators at the White House.

'I don't know why I wasn't invited,' he said, according to ABC News. 'And of course that doesn't foster bipartisanship when you're trying to solve a problem.'

Trump has been holding listening sessions with parents, students, teachers, state and local officials, law enforcement officers and other stakeholders in the gun control debate, including the National Rifle Association, in the weeks since the Marjory Stoneman massacre.

Yesterday, the White House promised to unveil a set of 'school safety' recommendations later this week that will include specific policy initiatives.

The president was already supporting legislation that would incentivize states and agencies to fully comply with existing federal background check mandates. His White House also endorsed a bill this week that funds gun violence prevention training for teachers, law enforcement and students.

Trump last week directed his attorney general to find a way to regulate bump stocks, claiming this week that regardless of what Congress has to say about the matter he's 'getting rid' of the accessory that manipulates semiautomatic rifles.

Other suggestions the president has made had been just that, with the White House pledging hardened stances on Tuesday by the end of the week.

Among those: the proposal to raise the minimum age for some gun purchases and a proposition to allow upwards of 700,000 teachers to carry concealed weapons.

Neither of the proposed remedies to gun violence was gaining traction on Capitol Hill this week as Congress returned from a week-long hiatus.

A top GOP congressional aide told DailyMail.com on Tuesday that the prospects are 'pretty dim,' for age limits that could be why the president appeared to be backing away from it in remarks over the past few days.

'That proposal won't get a lot of traction in Congress,' the source said.

Trump did not put forward the proposal during at Friday speech before conservative activists, and he did not bring it up Monday at a bipartisan meeting with governors at the White House, where gun violence was the top talker during a televised session.

Sources familiar with the White House's discussions with leadership on Capitol Hill told CNN later that Trump was seemingly moving away from his position.

A senior congressional aide told DailyMail.com that discussions about the president's proposals, like allowing teachers to pack heat, were still in their early stages, with Congress having been out of session last week and only just returning on Monday to Washington.

Furthermore, the House will be out from today on as the late evangelical pastor Billy Graham lies in honor in the U.S. Capitol.

The source said that the basic posture of the House is to see what can pass in the GOP-controlled Senate, which is focused this week on nominations.

House Republicans have already passed legislation to strengthen the existing background check system that it paired with a concealed carry provision. The Senate version of the background check bill has lingered in the Senate.

Trump informed GOP Rep. Steve Scalise, the Republican Party's top vote counter in the House, on Wednesday that the measure permitting concealed carry reciprocity between states would have to be cut from the bill now in order to get the base background check bill through the more liberal Senate.

'Let it be a separate bill,' he warned the GOP leader. 'If you add concealed carry to this, you'll never get this passed.'

Trump's administration had cautiously endorsed the Senate legislation that's sponsored by Murphy and Cornyn.

On Monday the bill hit a roadblock in the upper chamber, though, as conservative senator Mike Lee opposed the measure and Democratic senators pushed for more aggressive gun control legislation.

The NRA does not support new age restrictions on firearms sales and its spokeswoman suggested Sunday that Trump was not firmly committed to his position

Democrats want to Congress pass legislation requiring background checks on all firearms sales, eliminating the so-called gun show loophole.

Trump has said he favors comprehensive legislation, but the White House had refused to take a position on universal background checks prior to Trump's assertion on Wednesday that he supports them.

'We'd have to see what it looks like and review that before we make that determination,' press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Monday.

Sanders was equally non-committal on Tuesday in her daily briefing when questioned about the president's support for the bill put together by Manchin and Toomey.

'The President, as I've said, expects to meet with a number of lawmakers tomorrow from both sides of the aisle, and we'll have some more information about specifics after that,' she asserted.

The Trump spokeswoman insisted Tuesday, as she did Monday, that the president remains supportive of the proposition to make sales of the AR-15 and other automatic rifles 21 and over, despite the National Rifle Association's adamant opposition to the measure.

'He knows that everybody doesn't necessarily agree,' Sanders explained. 'We're not going to get into the details on the specifics of what we will propose.'

On Monday, Sanders said that Trump had not 'downgraded' his proposal.

'The president is still supportive of the concept,' she said, as a weekend meeting with the National Rifle Association that was kept off Trump's public schedule came to light.

The NRA does not support new age restrictions on firearms sales and its spokeswoman suggested Sunday that Trump was not firmly committed to his position.

'These are just things that hes discussing right now,' spokesman Dana Loesch said during an appearance on ABC News.

Sanders told reporters on Monday that it 'would be ridiculous' to intimate that Trump had been influenced by the powerful gun group that opposes the restrictions 'considering the number of individuals he's met with that come from both the far left to the far right, and a lot of those in between.'

She said Trump plans to continue his talks with a lawmakers this week in meetings at the White House and would ultimately base his decision on what is outlined in legislative text.

'In concept, the President still supports it, but in terms of legislation, we'd need to see what that looks like before we weigh in further,' Sanders said.New York's state banking regulator asked Deutsche Bank AG and two other lenders for information on their relationships with U.S. President Donald Trump's son-in-law and White House senior adviser Jared Kushner and his family's real estate company, a person familiar with the matter told Reuters.

The New York State Department of Financial Services (DFS) made the requests to Deutsche Bank, Signature Bank and New York Community Bank for information on loans and other financial arrangements including lines of credit and loan guarantees a week ago, the person said.

The regulator also asked for information related to other family members, the person said.

Hand over your banking details: Deutsche, one of the world's largest banks, has been told by New York's banking regulator to hand over details of its dealing with Jared Kushner and his family property empire. One of its properties is 666 Fifth Ave in Manhattan

Family affair: Josh Kushner, Jared's brother, is one of the principals of Kushner Cos, the family real estate firm. Its credit records have been requested by the New York banking regulator

Representatives for Jared Kushner and Kushner Cos, the real estate company he once headed, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

According to government financial disclosures from last year, Kushner has lines of credit at the three banks, among others.

The regulator, Deutsche Bank and Signature Bank all declined to comment. New York Community Bank had no immediate comment.

Last year Kushner resigned from Kushner Cos and sold his stake to a family trust as part of an effort to avoid conflicts of interests in his White House role. The private real estate company owns or partially owns buildings in New York and New Jersey.

Kushner, who had a broad portfolio in the White House, including leading Middle East peace negotiations and an effort to modernize and reduce the size of some government programs, lost his interim top-secret security clearance, two U.S. officials familiar with the matter said on Tuesday.

Kushner, who is married to Trump's daughter Ivanka Trump, has not received his full security clearance because of his extensive financial links, which have taken a long time to examine, officials said.

His lawyer, Abbe Lowell, said in a statement on Tuesday that Kushner 'has done more than what is expected of him in this process.'

Kushner Cos, ia in talks to buy the stake it doesn't already own in its flagship New York City property from Vornado Realty Trust.

The property, a 41-story tower at 666 Fifth Avenue in Midtown Manhattan, has been at the heart of scrutiny over potential conflicts of interest involving Jared Kushner, who is married to Trump's daughter and is a top aide to the president.

Christine Taylor, a spokeswoman for Kushner Cos, said the company was in talks to purchase the 49.5 percent stake in the office portion of the building held by Vornado, confirming an earlier report by the Wall Street Journal.

Taylor did not provide any further information.

Vornado, one of New York's largest property owners, had indicated earlier this month that it planned to sell its stake.

Kushner sold his interests in Kushner Cos to a family trust last year as part of an effort to avoid conflicts of interest, but the building has continued to face scrutiny as a series of foreign investors, including a former Qatari prime minister, considered investing in its planned redevelopment.

In December, a group of Democratic lawmakers wrote to Kushner, asking whether in his talks with foreign officials he had ever discussed financing for the deeply indebted property, citing concern he was using his position for financial gain.

Josh Raffel (right), the spokesman for Jared Kushner (left) and Ivanka Trump is leaving the White House in the next two months, Axios reported Tuesday

And they're gone: Josh Raffel (right) was spotted out in D.C. with White House Communications Director Hope Hicks (center right) and her then-boyfriend Rob Porter (left), who resigned in disgrace over allegations that he abused his two ex-wives. Now both Raffel and Hopes are quitting too

Kushner Cos acquired the building with a full block of prime Fifth Avenue retail frontage in 2006 for $1.8 billion, the most ever paid for a New York office tower at the time.

The 1.4-million-square-foot tower ran into difficulties during the recession and Kushner later refinanced $1.215 billion in debt, which comes due in February 2019. The debt has since ballooned to $1.448 billion.

Vornado acquired its minority stake in 2011, when it helped recapitalize the tower with $70 million. A year later, it bought retail space for $707.8 million.

The banking regulator's demand comes in a week of blows to Kushner.

He will have to push diplomacy on Middle East peace and China without benefit of a top-level security clearance - after he had his security clearance downgraded following a review ordered by White House chief of staff John Kelly.

The downgrade took place along with other aides who were working on temporary or interim security clearances at the Top Secret/SCI-level level, Politico reported Tuesday.

It also followed the discovery of efforts by foreign government including Mexico and China to try to manipulate Kushner, the Washington Post revealed.

The foreign governments sought to capitalize on Kushner's novice status to the world of politics and foreign policy  armed with knowledge his family business was anxious to find financial partners to ease overwhelming debt.

As part of the downgrade, he will suffer the loss of access to the president's daily intelligence briefing.

And his and Ivanka's personal spin doctor, Josh Raffel, announced he was resigning to pursue 'other opportunities'.A three-year-old Ohio girl has died from a suspected drug overdose, two days after her two-year-old sister was hospitalized for ingesting the same medication.

Minnie Maye Riley passed away on Sunday at Akron Children's Hospital. Police say her younger sister, Heavenly Riley, apparently overdosed two days before and remained hospitalized on Wednesday.

Authorities say the Riley family, who are from Ashville, were visiting relatives in Akron, and both girls overdosed in the same house.

Double tragedy: Minnie Riley, 3 (left), passed away from a suspected drug overdose in Ohio on February 25. Two days prior, her 2-year-old sister Heavenly (right) was hospitalized for ingesting the same medicine

The girls' parents, Ashley and Frank Riley (pictured), have two other young daughters

Investigators are waiting on test results to confirm what drug the girls ingested, reported Akron Beacon Journal. So far, no charges have been filed. Police said Tuesday an investigation is ongoing.

According to the description on a GoFundMe page launched by the girls' aunt on February 23, Heavenly was hospitalized after ingesting blood pressure medicine.

Fighter: Heavenly (left) remains at the hospital in Akron, Ohio, on a ventilator after allegedly ingesting the same blood pressure medicine that cause her sister's death

Two days later, at around 1am, Minnie was found unresponsive at the relatives' home in Akron and was also rushed to the hospital, where it was revealed that she, too, had swallowed the same drug.

Despite efforts to revive Minnie, the three-year-old passed away two hours later.

The girls' mother, Ashley Riley, has been posting updates about Heavenly's condition on Facebook and asking for prayers.

On Monday, Riley said in a post that she got to see her daughters big beautiful eyes today a few times and said she was able to move a little, but was still very drowsy.

According to the mother, who is married with four daughters, Heavenly was initially put on a more than a dozen different medications and has been hooked up to a ventilator from the time of her hospitalization.

Doctors have since taken her off some of the medications and she has been showing signs of improvement, despite some setbacks.

My baby is a fighter and her big sister has her wings wrapped around her, Mrs Riley stated.

Angel: Minnie (left and right) was found unresponsive at her relatives' home in Akron on the morning of February 25. Two hours later, she was dead

She also wrote that her two other daughters are aware that their younger sister Minnie has died, but they have drawn pictures hoping to pass them along to the toddler so she does not forget them.

The heartbroken mom added that one of her girls filled in half of a page from a coloring book and left the other half blank for her sister Heavenly to complete when she wakes up.

Minnie and Heavenly are the second and third toddlers that police suspect of overdosing in Akron over a five-day period.A Florida woman left with pus-filed sores covering her face after a chemical peel is suing the clinic where she claims the treatment was provided by an unlicensed skin care worker.

Daria Sinyagovskaya was diagnosed with a blistering infection days after she received the peel at The Cosmetic Institute at Vascular Vein Center in Orlando on September 19, 2016, her attorney, Louiza Tarassova told DailyMail.com.

Now, the 26-year-old is claiming negligence after learning the skin care employee who performed her procedure had been unlicensed in the state at the time.

The woman is seeking more than $15,000 from the institute for medical bills, alleged damages and lost time at her job.

Her skin care worker, identified as Catherine Heideman, just received her license on March 22, 2017, state records reveal.

Natural beauty: Patient Daria Sinyagovskaya, 26, is pictured above before receiving a chemical peel at The Cosmetic Institute at Vascular Vein Centers in Orlando on September 19, 2016

Botched: Days after her skin treatment, Sinyagovskaya developed severe blisters covering her face

Horrific photos of Sinyagovskaya's results following her first peel were provided to DailyMail.com

The Russia-born Sinyagovskaya, who moved to central Florida a few years ago, was initially thrilled to go in for her first peel.

She became concerned when she noticed 'watery, pimple-like burns on her skin' after, Tarassova said. Within a week or so, she had developed lesions.

Horrific photos of Sinyagovskaya's results following the procedure were provided to DailyMail.com.

A doctor at the time was unsure what the nature of the patient's skin condition was, until a dermatologist performed a lab test and confirmed Sinyagovskaya had a bacterial infection called Impetigo.

According to Mayo Clinic, Impetigo is caused after a person becomes 'exposed to bacteria' from 'sores of someone who's infected or with items they've touched  such as clothing, bed linen, towels and even toys.'

Common symptoms of the infection can be seen in disturbing photos taken by Sinyagovskaya afterward.

Blistered: Dermatologists diagnosed her with a blistering bacterial infection called Impetigo days later

The employee, Catherine Heideman, did not have her license at the time she performed the treatment, according to state records

Unlicensed: State records show Heideman had only been licensed since March 22, 2017

No comment: The Cosmetic Institute at Vascular Vein Centers could not speak on the case, citing HIPAA and Florida's patient confidentiality laws

These include 'red sores that quickly rupture, ooze for a few days and then form a yellowish-brown crust,' a Mayo Clinic report reads.

'The sores usually occur around the nose and mouth, but can be spread to other areas of the body by fingers, clothing and towels.'

While the infection is not said to be dangerous, it has put an emotional and painful strain on Sinyagovskaya's day-to-day life.

Tarassova said her client walked into work after having the procedure and was ordered to go home by her boss.

'When it initially opened up, she came into work and her boss asked her to go home for worry that people would be "very scared,"' Tarassova said.

'He told her to "please go home and wait 'til you heal,"' she added.

Sinyagovskaya was left embarrassed - and now fears having any type of cosmetic procedure for what it may result in.

Still not the same: Sinyagovskaya, (shown in a 2015 Facebook photo), who in pictures appears to have had ultra-clear skin prior to the treatment, is still not completely back to normal

'She is still dealing with the emotional aspects of it... she is super scared of going in for any type of cosmetic procedure,' Tarassova said.

Sinyagovskaya, who in photos appears to have had clear skin prior to the treatment, is still not completely back to normal years later.

Her attorney said that while her skin has healed, she still uses makeup to cover some discolored areas around her face and near her eyes.

Sinyagovskaya was not immediately available to speak to DailyMail.com for further comment.

However, she told News 6 WKMG, she had researched Heideman beforehand, who she said appeared to be professional and someone she could trust.

Sinyagovskaya added that when she went in for her consultation, Heideman seemed 'very nice' and even 'convinced' her into having the chemical peel.

Heideman's resume said she performed as many as 1,000 skin consults and facial peels.

Masked: While the 26-year-old's skin has healed, she still has to use makeup to cover some discolored areas on her face and near her eyes (she is pictured in June 2016, two months before the treatment)

The Cosmetic Institute at Vascular Vein Center has filed a response to the lawsuit, denying the negligence claims.

In a phone statement to DailyMail.com, a spokesperson for the institute said his office could not comment on the case at this time.

'Because of federal law and HIPAA, we are not able to discuss anything about a pending litigation,' the spokesperson said.

Initial court hearings have been scheduled for March 7 and March 8.

The Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation website further states that a licensed face specialist must have completed 260 educational hours and 500 training hours.

Tarassova is urging others seeking cosmetic treatments to do their research before allowing anyone to operate or perform on them.

'The scariest thing about this case is that on their website, everything appears legitimate. It's a medical-type looking office... you would never suspect that the person working on you is not licensed to do so,' Tarassova said.

'I would caution people, regardless of how legitimate something looks - it's easy. Go on the state professional business regulation website and just type in their name. That is the message to take away from all of this.'Even before becoming the son-in-law of the worlds most controversial political leader, Jared Kushner wielded significant power in both real estate and media just a few years out of college.

The scion of a successful real estate firm, Kushner was bred for business at a young age. After marrying into the wealthy Trump family and its vast property holdings, Kushner played a key role in his father-in-laws presidential campaign that ultimately led to the most coveted property in the United States: the White House.

But just who is Jared Kushner? What is his net worth? Heres all you need to know about who Jared Kushner is, his age, how he made his money and family.

Jared Kushner currently serves as senior adviser to U.S. President Donald Trump

Who is Jared Kushner?

Jared Kushner is a real estate developer and media publisher who currently serves as the Senior Adviser to the President of the United States, Donald Trump. Kushner is Trumps son-in-law, being married to his daughter Ivanka Trump.

Kushner was born in Livingston, New Jersey on January 10, 1981.

He graduated from Harvard University in 2003 and later earned a JD and MBA from New York University in 2007. He soon went to work for his familys real estate development firm, Kushner Companies, becoming CEO and transforming the company into a major player in the New York City real estate market. He also purchased the New York Observer newspaper in 2006, his first stake in the media and publishing business.

Kushner married Ivanka Trump, daughter of then real estate mogul Donald Trump, in 2009. After Trump announced his 2016 presidential campaign, Kushner played a key role in helming the campaigns digital and social media efforts as well as helping to craft his father-in-laws campaign speeches.

After Trumps surprise victory, he stepped down as the head of Kushner Companies and as publisher of the New York Observer to take a new role as senior adviser to President Trump. He played a key role in promoting peace in the Middle East and political ties to China but has also been the subject of controversy during his tenure, being reportedly a suspect in the Trump campaigns alleged ties to Russia and losing his security clearance in the aftermath of the Rob Porter scandal.

How old is Jared Kushner?

Jared Kushner is 37 years old.

He was born on January 10, 1981.

What is Jared Kushners net worth?

According to Celebrity Net Worth, Jared Kushner is worth approximately $800 million (580 million).

His wife's net worth is estimated to be about $300 million (214 million).

How does Jared Kushner make his money?

Kushner draws his wealth mainly from his familys vast business empire.

He began working for his familys real estate development company, Kushner Companies, shortly after graduating college. He soon became the principal owner of the company and a key player in the New York City real estate world. Kushner also purchased the New York Observer in 2006, boosting the newspapers online presence dramatically.

His family business operates about $7 billion (5 billion) worth of property assets in the United States. Kushner and his wife are also believed to be the beneficiaries of a massive $740 million (537 million) business empire with holdings based on real estate and financial investments.

Who is Jared Kushners wife?

Jared Kushners wife is Ivanka Trump, daughter of current President Donald Trump.

The couple met in 2005 and married on October 25, 2009. They have three children: Arabella Rose Kushner, born on July 17, 2011, Joseph Frederick Kushner, born on October 14, 2013 and Theodore James Kushner, born on March 27, 2016.

What is Ivanka Trump's net worth?

Kushner's wife, Ivanka Trump, also boasts an impressive net wealth.

President Trump's daughter is reportedly worth approximately $300 million (214 million) according to Celebrity Net Worth.The Beast from the East has seen UK weather become particularly trialing in February, blanketing the country in snow and causing travel chaos.

Temperatures as low as -12C have people questioning whether they should even go outside.

And it looks like the answer to it is becoming more and more important with weather warnings being upgraded to red, with Storm Emma expected to hit the UK soon.

Employers may ask employees, given proper notice, to take paid annual leave in bad weather

Here is all the information on the rules and laws surrounding work, travelling during bad weather, how cold does it have to be to not go to work, and in what circumstances you can take unpaid leave.

Can I take the day off due to bad weather?

It is crucial to check the company handbook to see what policies and regulations the company has in place.

If it is safe and reasonable to travel, your boss may expect you to travel to work. However, Acas recommends taking a flexible approach. This includes allowing employees to work from home, come in later than normal or work flexible hours, and even swap shifts or work overtime to make up for lost time.

The exception to this is if the company provides transport for employees and that transport is then cancelled.

The Met Office has activated a red warning with temperatures dropping as low as -12C in areas

Acas also says that employees who cannot get to work due to weather disruption should let their company know as soon as possible.

The government says that in some cases, if employers give proper notice, employees will be asked to take paid holiday.

The proper notice period is double the length of time of the days employers want employees to take. So to request employees take one day off, employers must give two days notice.

However, Acas also stresses that employers must not force employees to attempt to make the journey.

Do I get paid if I cant get to work?

Acas says that employees are not automatically entitled to working time they have missed due to weather disruption.

The only time this doesnt apply is when the company cancels transport when the employee was ready, willing and available to get to work.

It is also possible to make discretionary, informal arrangements.

What if the company closes?

If bad weather forces the company to close and the employee doesnt usually work from home, then 'employers cant usually deduct pay'.

However, the governments website points out that employers might be able to ask staff to go to another workplace or work from home.

What if schools are closed?

Acas says that in situations involving a dependent, employees are allowed to take unpaid time off.

These include school closures, caring arrangements for disabled relatives are cancelled or a partner has been seriously injured due to the bad weather.

Time off in these situations is unpaid unless specified otherwise in the employment contract.

How cold does it have to be to not work?

Temperatures have to be safe for people to carry out their normal work responsibilities.

According to the Health, Safety and Welfare Regulations 1992, although there are no minimum or maximum temperatures as a whole, employers should provide reasonable temperature in the workplace.

However, according to Health and Safety Executive recommendations, temperatures in offices should be at least 16C or 13C if the work is of a physical nature.

In bad weather, Acas recommends for employers to relax dress codes to allow people to wear warmer clothes and to take extra breaks to make hot drinks.Perhaps the most singular of the many omissions from Max Mosleys recent autobiography  or any other public account of his life  is the story of the road trip he took across Europe in 1962 at the wheel of his fathers car.

At his 2008 orgy trial he mocked the defence lawyers for being unable to find anything in his past which I regret saying. He might have added doing. How then would he explain the extraordinary story which we tell for the first time today?

It was not just Maxs companions  leading British neo-fascists  which make their 1,000-mile journey so worth the telling. Nor their destination, Venice, where his father, Sir Oswald Mosley, had organised a conference which was to include the most significant gathering of the far-Right in Europe since World War II.

Max (right) and his father Sir Oswald (left), the former leader of the British Union of Fascists, in a car together

In 1943, Skorzeny (left) he had led the daring prison rescue of deposed Italian fascist dictator Benito Mussolini. Skorzeny and his Waffen SS commandos landed in gliders on the Italian mountaintop where Mussolini was being held. The memoir of Hans-Ulrich Rudel (right) was a bestseller for Sir Oswalds publishing company Euphorian Books in the Fifties

The most compelling aspect is the historic site which Max and his comrades broke their trip to visit.

Dachau was the first of the Nazis concentration camps. Barbaric medical experiments were carried out on prisoners there. Starving inmates were brutally whipped for minor infractions. An estimated 41,000 were murdered; shot, hanged or otherwise abused to death.

The Holocaust would eventually account for the deaths of six million Jews and others considered untermenschen by Adolf Hitler, who attended Maxs parents wedding. But Dachau was the template.

Survivors recall that among the prisoners held there  a majority were political opponents of Nazism  the Jews were treated the worst.

After inspecting the Dachau ovens where inmates corpses were cremated, law student Max and his comrades climbed back into Sir Oswald Mosleys grey Riley Pathfinder and carried on their way over the Alps to Venice. The Holocaust-denying Sir Oswald and some of the most notorious ex-Nazis still at large were awaiting them in the beautiful Italian city.

Before they left Dachau one of Maxs companions had even joked of writing in the Dachau visitors book: Good try, but not good enough!

As we shall see, this symbol of a genocidal horror did not effect a sudden political change of heart in these young neo-fascists.

In fact, within weeks Max would be brawling with anti-fascist protestors in Ridley Road, a Jewish district of East London. Time magazine reported that his fathers diehard anti-Semite supporters of the Union Movement  the reincarnation of Sir Oswalds pre-war British Union of Fascists  chanted Jews Out! as they advanced on Ridley Road, as the BUF had done in the Thirties.

Press photographs show Mosley supporters with their arms raised in the Nazi salute.

Yesterday, we described how two serving British soldiers were last September charged with membership of a proscribed neo-Nazi organisation called National Action. Sir Oswald Mosley is cited by NAs founders as their inspiration, while the group has copied his Union Movement symbol for their own insignia.

After Thomas Mair was charged with the 2016 murder of Labour MP Jo Cox, he shouted in court Death to traitors, freedom for Britain, a slogan which was then adopted by National Action.

Another NA member who idolised Hitler and had a Swastika tattoo was jailed in February last year for having bomb-making instructions on his laptop.

We also revealed how Max Mosley served as the election agent for his fathers party at the Moss Side by-election in November 1961.

Max published a virulently racist election pamphlet which attacked black immigrants  the existence of which he denied under oath at a landmark privacy trial in 2008, but which has been found in archives by the Mail.

The question to Max Mosley today is why would he fail to recall his journey to Dachau and Venice in his 2015 memoir? Who could possibly forget a visit to such a haunting place?

Mosleys visit took place only 17 years after the war and within three months of the end of the trial of Adolf Eichmann, which had brought home to the world for the first time the enormity of the Holocaust.

Barry Ayres showing the original seating plan. MM (circled) is Max Mosley, with (clockwise) leading fascists Adolf von Thadden (AVT), Jean-Francois Thiriart, Giovanni Lanfre (of the Movimento Socialista Italiano), two unnamed MSI officials, Keith Gibson, Barry Ayres and head of the table Oswald Mosley

Eichmann, one of the principal architects of the genocide, was awaiting execution in an Israeli jail when Mosley was at Dachau.

Today, for the first time, we can tell the story of Mosleys London-Dachau-Venice road trip, thanks to the testimony of one of the passengers in the Mosley car.

Barry Ayres is now a retired art dealer. In early 1962 he was the UMs organising secretary and a regular driver for Sir Oswald Mosley. He says he joined the movement as a 19-year-old who had just arrived in London, partly out of loneliness.

The fascist leader had organised the conference in Italy to launch the National Party of Europe; a collaboration of far-Right organisations dedicated to the establishment of a whites-only superstate.

When Sir Oswald had first set out his European vision, his Partys newspaper had thundered: From the very depths of the Germanic blood stream rises the battle cry... ONE RACEONE CULTURE-ONE MOVEMENT-ONE EUROPE. Max and other important young UM figures would go overland from London to Venice in Sir Oswalds car.

Aside from Max and Mr Ayres, the group numbered UM political secretary Keith Gibson and another more junior party activist. All four already had criminal convictions for their parts in neo-fascist disorder or violence.

Ten years earlier, Gibson had been jailed for a month for telling a fascist meeting in London: Hitler had the right idea about the Jews. The Jewish Chronicle [newspaper] stated that six million Jews were exterminated. That is all lies, but even this figure wouldnt have been enough.

He and Max would later become members of the same Territorial Army parachute unit until Gibson resigned and Mosley was given a warning following a War Office investigation into alleged neo- fascist activities by soldiers.

Mr Ayres remembers Sir Oswalds Riley as a beautiful car, very powerful, comfortable and luxurious. One of those cars you get in and the doors closed with a thud of quality. And that lovely smell of leather.

The group caught a cross-Channel ferry and stopped for the first night across the German border.

Mr Ayres recalls: The route was decided totally by Max. He spoke very good German and was very familiar with the roads in Germany. He seemed to know where he was going.

The Riley had a top speed of 100mph and on clear roads they made good progress, chatting amiably in a light-hearted mood.

But near Munich they began to pick up signs to a town they all knew to be associated with the worst Nazi atrocities, Dachau. Mr Ayres recalls: I think Max said: Do you want to go to Dachau?

None of us was in any doubt about the history of Dachau. We said: Yes  fascinating.

Max was curious; it was nothing nasty, just curiosity.

It was an interesting surprise, really. It was a very pretty part of Germany. And then you came to this typically German village. And literally at the end of the road were the gates to Dachau. I think I asked Max what sort of prisoners had been there and he said it was mainly political prisoners. It wasnt a Jewish concentration camp, he said.

(Perhaps Max was unaware that 22,000 Jewish prisoners were recorded as alive in Dachau and its sub-camps on liberation in 1945. Some 60,000 Jews had entered Dachau since it opened.)

We were light-hearted when we entered, says Mr Ayres. We were chatting, laughing, just like a day out, really.

There were huts and a very, very big open space like a parade ground. The bit that was intact, the bit that I think affected us all considerably, was the crematoria. It changed the mood.

You suddenly walk into a room and youve got all these ovens, with stretchers on metal trolleys. Well, that was where the bodies were pushed in.

I said to Max: How many people died here? He didnt answer, but a German who was standing in the room heard me and said Funfzig tausend  50,000.

All of us were quiet, recalls Mr Ayres. Shortly after that, we left because we needed to get on.

As they departed, the group passed the Dachau visitors book. Mr Ayres stopped to read some of the sympathetic comments. It was then that the Holocaust denier Keith Gibson made his grotesque joke.

He laughed and said: Im going to write a comment and its not going to say what a wonderful place. Im going to say it was a good try, but not good enough. 

Otto Scarface Skorzeny, a 6ft 4in former Waffen-SS special forces commander. He is pictured above with Adolf Hitler

Mr Ayres says: In other words, Dachau and the Holocaust was all fake and you havent fooled me. Max was very cross with [Gibson] and said: Dont you (write) anything, were leaving. We all got back in the car and then we drove on and that was that.

Mr Ayres recalls that the group was more sombre after they visited the camp. I dont think Max had any illusion at all: he fully accepted the Holocaust.

If that is so, he was unlike his beloved father in the wars aftermath. Sir Oswald had publicly declared that deaths in Nazi camps were the result of disease and shortages caused by Allied bombing rather than mass murder.

Mr Ayres cannot recall Max being particularly upset by Dachau but, he added: Max is not an emotional person anyway. In some ways he was very like his father, but he didnt have his fathers warmth. I think Max took after his mother (diehard Nazi sympathiser Diana Mitford) who was devoted to him. I always found her rather . . . chilly. She had that sort of English upper-class cool. And Max had a bit of that. He wasnt approachable. He had the same grey eyes as his father. But dead eyes; very hard to read.

In Venice, Mr Ayres made do with bed-and-breakfast accommodation while Max stayed with his father and other senior delegates at the conference venue  the five-star Hotel Europa on the Grand Canal.

According to the Mosley family archive records, now kept at Birmingham University, and other eyewitness accounts, those in attendance were a gruesome bunch. They included:

HANS-ULRICH RUDEL  a Luftwaffe dive bomber ace and rabid post-war neo-Nazi. After 1945, Rudel was a key figure in a network helping German war criminals to escape to South America. Among them was Auschwitz SS physician Dr Josef Mengele, nicknamed the Angel of Death. Rudels memoir was a bestseller for Sir Oswalds publishing company Euphorian Books in the Fifties.

JEAN-FRANCOIS THIRIART  a Belgian former Waffen-SS officer jailed after the war for collaboration. After the war he founded a political organisation called Jeune Europe.

HANS SEVERUS ZIEGLER  A Nazi propagandist who coined the name Hitler Youth and proposed the banning of jazz music which was the glorification of negroidism. He is named on a Venice list now to be found in the Birmingham archive, although it is unclear whether he did attend.

ADOLF VON THADDEN  an aristocratic former Nazi Party member and leader of the far- Right Deutsche Reichspartei.

But the most famous presence at the hotel was OTTO SCARFACE SKORZENY  a 6ft 4in former Waffen-SS special forces commander. In 1943, he had led the daring prison rescue of deposed Italian fascist dictator Benito Mussolini. Skorzeny and his Waffen SS commandos landed in gliders on the Italian mountaintop where Mussolini was being held.

Skorzeny greeted him with the words: Duce, the Fuhrer has sent me to set you free. Mussolini was flown off the mountain and taken to the Reich. It was a major propaganda coup for the Nazis.

After the war Skorzeny helped run rat-lines to South America for fleeing Nazis and became a Mosley family friend. Skorzenys daughter stayed at their London home.

Another conference attendee, who had driven overland in a second UM car, was Walter Hesketh, the Manchester-based UM activist who had stood for parliament in the Moss Side by-election the previous November, with Max as his agent.

Mr Ayres, the retired art dealer, recalls being tasked by Sir Oswald with arranging the final session of the Venice conference in a meeting room in the hotel, on March 4, 1962.

He has kept the original handwritten note of the seating plan he made in pencil on note paper. This sketch represented the inner circle of the conference. One of the nine people seated at the table was Max Mosley.

The plan shows that Sir Oswald sat at one end of the table. To his left was his son Max, then ex-Nazi Von Thadden and former SS officer Thiriart.

The trouble is when you meet people in those circumstances, youre seeing people who . . . have great charm and theyre ordinary people, Mr Ayres tries to explain.

They are wearing suits, with good manners. You then discover people that you thought were benevolent . . . had rather dark and murky pasts.

Hans-Ulrich Rudel, a Luftwaffe dive bomber ace and rabid post-war neo-Nazi. He is pictured above with Adolf Hitler

Some understatement. One is reminded, in reading all this, of Mr Justice Eadys remark in his judgment in favour of Max Mosley at the 2008 News of the World privacy trial.

The judge spoke of the somewhat tenuous link between the Claimant [Mosley] and his fathers notorious activities more than half a century ago.

But then of course Mr Justice Eady knew nothing of Maxs trip to Venice via Dachau nor the true extent of his neo-fascist political activities at the time.

Oswald Mosley thought that Venice was the beginning of a new chapter and the Union Movement would go from strength to strength, Mr Ayres recalls.

But the opposition [to it] became more organised. In his 1968 autobiography entitled My Life, Sir Oswald described Venice as a massive achievement and while in hindsight that is a laughable overstatement, the Venice conference did spark in Jewish communities across Europe genuine fears of a neo-Nazi revival.

There is a final, blackly comic footnote to this extraordinary story. Max Mosleys companion on the journey, Keith Gibson, died in 1995, but his widow Audrey is still alive and remembers Max attending high-level meetings as a legal adviser at the UM HQ in Vauxhall Bridge Road, London, as late as 1964-65.

The Gibsons lived in a flat at the HQ, and kept as a guard dog a huge bull mastiff, which she recalls they named Maximilian Rufus  in honour of the dogged son of Sir Oswald.Cochrane, 32, was a black immigrant from the Caribbean island of Antigua. Notting Hill, then a slum district, was still simmering with racial tension after the previous summers unprecedented race riots

Around midnight, Whit Sunday 1959, a carpenter called Kelso Cochrane was walking home in the Notting Hill district of West London. He had just attended nearby St Marys Hospital after fracturing his left thumb at work.

Aside from that painful accident, his future looked promising. In three weeks he would marry his trainee nurse fiancee. He was saving money to become a lawyer.

But thanks to a confluence of factors, that marriage and legal career will forever remain what-might-have-beens.

Cochrane, 32, was a black immigrant from the Caribbean island of Antigua. Notting Hill, then a slum district, was still simmering with racial tension after the previous summers unprecedented race riots.

The route the carpenter took from hospital to his home brought him past the Earl Of Warwick pub, a favourite of the white neo-fascist supporters of Sir Oswald Mosleys Union Movement (UM), which was actively stoking racial hatred in the area.

Within moments, Kelso Cochrane would be dying of a stab wound to the heart. At least six young white men were involved in the attack, which made headlines around the world.

But no one has ever been charged with, let alone convicted of, the killing. Witnesses fear of the perpetrators, and the incompetence or racism of the police investigators, were at the root of this shaming failure. That scenario should sound familiar to us today.

In 2011, the current Labour shadow Home Secretary, Diane Abbott, wrote about the killing for a Jamaican newspaper.

She said: Kelso Cochrane is an iconic figure in British race relations. He was the Stephen Lawrence of his day: a symbol of racial injustice.

Stephen was the black teenager from South-East London set upon and murdered in the street one night in 1993 by another gang of white racists. The initial police investigation failed due in part to institutional racism, the Macpherson report later found.

Stephen was the black teenager from South-East London set upon and murdered in the street one night in 1993 by another gang of white racists

It was only when this newspaper took up the case and called the suspects Murderers in a famous 1997 front page that the campaign for justice gained traction.

Another young man with a future ahead of him was Max Mosley, youngest son and loyal follower of fascist leader Sir Oswald.

After the riots in the late summer of 1958, Maxs father announced that he was standing in the Kensington North constituency at the General Election the ollowing year. Max would have a minor participatory role in the vitriolic street politics of the UMs opportunistic intervention.

The murder of Kelso Cochrane around midnight on May 16, 1959, was both a culmination and a turning point. The focus of suspicion was on members of a local crime family and their associates, who were not paid-up members of the UM  in spite of a later boast to the contrary by Mosleys West London organiser Peter Dawson  but supported, and were encouraged by, its racist policies.

Many locals considered the identity of the killers to be the worst-kept secret in Notting Hill. But no one would talk, and the police even suggested robbery rather than racism was the motive  at best a shameful and misguided attempt to keep a lid on racial tensions. The police allegedly did the same after the Stephen Lawrence killing.

Sir Oswald was quick to seize upon this, and said that blaming the UM for death and disorder was a Tory smear. He added: The only cure for these troubles is to send the Jamaicans back to a fair deal in their own country. There was no expression of regret for Kelsos murder.

Kelso was buried in June at Kensal Green cemetery, a funeral attended by more than 1,000 people. The UM attacked the Bishop of Kensington for officiating, and challenged him to bury a white man to prove he has no form of racial prejudice.

The same month, a large protest meeting was held outside St Pancras Town Hall. It was addressed by Father Trevor Huddleston, who would found the Anti-Apartheid Movement the following month (in 1961, Max Mosley would be convicted of obstructing a police officer while taking part in a counter-demonstration at a Trafalgar Square anti-apartheid vigil).

Huddleston told the crowd: Within this country we have the seeds of racial discrimination that could be an absolute disaster to the future of Great Britain. Colour discrimination is the supreme issue of our generation.

It was only when this newspaper took up the case and called the suspects Murderers in a famous 1997 front page that the campaign for justice gained traction

Sir Oswalds response? In July, he held a UM meeting on the very spot where Cochrane was murdered.

He also openly demonstrated his support for those who were suspected of being involved in the killing. Three months after the murder, Sir Oswald attended court to support two brothers who had been charged with assaulting and shooting another local black man.

Decades later, one of the men told author Mark Olden, an expert on the case, that Mosley had even paid for their defences.

(When Olden, with Kelsos cousin John Prince and brother, Stanley, attempted to talk to people in Notting Hill as recently as 2004, they found that the wall of silence and fear remained. In 2009, a blue plaque was raised at the spot where the murder took place.)

Sir Oswald lost his deposit in the 1959 General Election. John Prince says: I was proud of the fact that British society eventually rejected him  that ordinary working-class people would stand up to Mosley and his fascists.

Max did not reject, has never rejected, his father or his policies. He has not apologised for his own small role in Notting Hills darkest chapter. In his memoir, he simply states: I tried to help but members of his party conducted the campaign. The result was very poor, a pity . . .

Max was also quoted in an Oxford student newspaper as saying of the Kensington North campaign  which became known as the ugly election: The election was fun, as all elections are.

After graduating  and two-and-a-half years after Cochranes murder  he would be the UMs election agent in Moss Side, Manchester, another urban constituency with a large Afro-Caribbean population.

As the Mail revealed yesterday, a vile racist leaflet was published in his name, accusing black immigrants of spreading disease and calling for them to be sent home.

When asked under oath at his 2008 privacy trial about the existence of such a pamphlet, Mr Mosley replied: Absolute nonsense.A married middle school science teacher has been arrested for allegedly conducting a sexual relationship with a 14-year-old male student.

Stephanie Peterson, 26, was arrested in Wednesday morning in New Smyrna, Florida after the boy allegedly confided in his parents.

The 8th grader told them that Peterson, whose married name is Ferri, picked him up occasionally from their home at 11pm and often spent hours with him in private afterwards.

He also said that she sent him nude photographs of herself and that she had bought him marijuana and a 'bowl to smoke it'.

Stephanie Peterson, 26, has been arrested for an alleged sexual relationship with a male student who is 14

The 26-year-old is pictured in her mugshot on Wednesday, February 28. She is facing one count of lewd and lascivious behavior and one count of transmission of harmful materials to a minor

The boy is said to have told his parents that the relationship made his grades suffer.

Peterson was booked into county jail on a charge of lewd or lascivious battery and one count of transmitting harmful materials to a child.

Volusia County Sheriff's Office announced the arrest on Facebook.

Its investigators alleged that the relationship between Peterson and the boy began in November.

It is not clear if he is one of her students.

Peterson is pictured with her firefighter husband Brandon, 31

She resigned from her job on Monday, a day before she was arrested.

According to the boy, Peterson told him he could not tell anyone about their relationship when she they were together alone.

Peterson and her firefighter husband Brandon have been married since 2015 and do not have any children.

They both deleted their social media profiles as news of her arrest emerged.

Peterson was booked into county jail on a $25,000 bond.President Donald Trump said Wednesday that the Senate should stop working on banning bump stocks  the devices that turn single-shot rifles into rapid-fire machine guns  because 'I'll do that myself.'

'You don't have to complicate the bill by adding another two paragraphs. We're getting rid of it,' he told a bipartisan group of U.S. senators at the White House.

'We can do that with an executive order,'Trump said.

'I'm going to write the bump stock essentially, write it out. So you won't have to worry about bump stocks. Shortly that will be gone. We can focus on other things.'

'We'll have that done pretty quickly. They're working on it right now, the lawyers,' he added.

President Donald Trump said Wednesday that he will ban 'bump stock' devices with an executive order

The president told a bipartisan group of senators not to bother including bump stocks in a larger firearms reform bill since 'I'll do that myself'

The president was responding to Texas Republican Sen. John Cornyn, who had gamely offered to discuss a bump stock ban as part of a larger firearms legislative package because California Democratic Sen Dianne Feinstein 'cares passionately about' it.

Bump stocks essentially grip the rear end of a semi-automatic rifle, allowing a shooter to hold the trigger and rely on the gun's recoil to establish rapid firing.

The powerful National Rifle Association does not support banning them, and Democrats around the table predicted a fierce pushback against any compromise measure unless the president brings Republicans to the table who will defy them.

'I like that responsibility Chris, I really do,' Trump told Connecticut Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy. 'I think it's time. It's time that a president stepped up.'

'I'm talking Democrat and Republican presidents, they haven't stepped up,' he said.

Trump later told Senators not to 'be petrified' of the NRA, claiming that 'they want to do what's right.'

He told a group of governors on Monday that he would unilaterally ban bump stocks, although he had tasked Attorney General Jeff Sessions  who oversees the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms  to deal with it.

'I don't care if Congress does it or not, I'm writing it out myself,' Trump told the governors.

'You put it into the machine gun category, which is what it is. It becomes essentially a machine gun and nobody's gonna be able  it's going to be very hard to get them,' he said.

Sessions told a group of state attorneys general on Tuesday that he believes ATF does have the authority to 'not allow the bump stock to convert a weapon from semi-automatic to fully automatic.'

A bump stock, shown on an AK-47, allows a semi-automatic to fire at a rapid rate much like a fully automatic machine gun

Bump stocks essentially grip the rear end of a semi-automatic rifle, allowing a shooter to hold the trigger and rely on the gun's recoil to establish rapid firing.

Trump's unusually open session was conducted entirely in front of journalists and broadcast live on television and online

He also criticized bump stocks as functionally useless for serious shooters.

'You shoot rapidly but not accurately,' he said. 'The bullets come out fast but you don't know where the hell they're going.'

Trump's press secretary admitted later in the day that he may not have the power to proscribe the firearm accessory by categorizing it as an automatic weapon.

Trump had ordered the Department of Justice and ATF, she said, to 'work on outlawing bump stocks, so we dont have to wait for a legislative fix.'

'However, if we cannot find an administrative fix we would support a legislative solution to complete that,' Sanders added.

Trump also said Monday that he planned to regulate bump stocks into unlawfulness

White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said hours later that Trump might need a legislative solution if he's not legally allowed to ban the devices

The sale of machine guns in the U.S. has been limited to law enforcement and the military since 1968.

ATF has already concluded that bump stocks are an accessory that can't be regulated under its current authority.

A comment period on a proposal to reclassify the items as machine guns based on the existing guidelines ended in January. The agency is currently reviewing more than 100,000 responses.

Bump stocks attracted attention after last year's Las Vegas massacre, where a shooter was found to have one after locking himself into an upper floor casino hotel room and raining fire down on outdoor concertgoers.A small Californian town has now made it illegal to be on a mobile device while crossing the street including texting, taking phone calls or listening to music.

The community of Montclair, California, banned distracted walking while crossing an intersection in an ordinance that went into effect this year.

Pedestrians are no longer allowed to 'cross a street or highway while engaged in a phone call, viewing a mobile device or with both ears covered or obstructed by personal audio equipment.'

The community of Montclair, California, banned distracted walking while crossing an intersection in an ordinance that went into effect this year [stock photo]

First time law violators will be issued a warning. But starting in August, those who do it again will be hit with a $100 fine. Those who repeat offenses risk a $500 fine

'The youth admit that they are distracted by their cell phones,' City Manager Edward Starr explained to the Los Angeles Times. 'This has turned out to be a reminder for them that their lives are on the line.'

First time law violators will be issued a warning. But starting in August, those who do it again will be hit with a $100 fine.

Fines could cost as much as $500 after the first $100 fine is issued.

Not all calls or mobile device functions are prohibited in the town of 38,000 people, however.

Not all calls or mobile device functions are prohibited in the town of 38,000 people, however

Residents will be allowed to make 911 calls, as well as use prescribed hearing aids and respond to emergency crews.

According to city officials, pedestrian related vehicle accidents now account for 15 per cent of all related fatalities.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reported that 5,987 pedestrians were killed in traffic collisions.

Pedestrian mobile ordinances are not a new trend as a distracted walking law legislation was passed in Honolulu, Hawaii.

Their first time offender charge is only $15 to $35.Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigators have been asking witnesses whether Donald Trump knew about the theft of Democratic emails that rocked the 2016 presidential campaign.

Investigators want to know if Trump knew in advance that WikiLeaks had the emails and was preparing to publish them  and whether he was involved with their release, NBC reported, quoting people familiar with the probe.

The timing of the release of the stolen emails was auspicious for Trump's campaign: embarrassing DNC emails filled with infighting came out on the eve of the Democratic National Convention, and emails belonging to Clinton campaign chair John Podesta came out in in the final weeks of the campaign, in October and November.

Probers are also asking about a notorious Trump public comment inviting Russia to hack rival Hillary Clinton's emails in July of 2016. Former White House press secretary Sean Spicer said the comment was a joke. Trump said: 'Russia, if you're listening, I hope you're able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing.'

Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigators have been asking witnesses whether Donald Trump knew about the theft of Democratic emails that rocked the 2016 presidential campaign

The shadowy interactions of longtime Trump advisor Roger Stone have also become a subject of inquiry. Stone testified that he was in contact with WikiLeaks, but only through an intermediary, whom he later identified as a New York comedian.

Stone has advised Trump for decades, and is credited with helping persuade him to run and helping shape the outlines of his political persona.

The Atlantic published newly revealed private Twitter messages between Stone and WikiLeaks, an account thatfounds Julian Assange said is manned by staff.

A person familiar with the line of questioning told NBC investigators wanted to know if Stone had ever met Assange, and whether Stone was in fact working for Trump.

Stone wrote WikiLeaks Oct. 13, 2016: 'Since I was all over national TV, cable and print defending wikileaks and assange against the claim that you are Russian agents and debunking the false charges of sexual assault as trumped up bs you may want to rexamine the strategy of attacking me- cordially R.'

The Wikileaks account responded, according to screen shots published in the article: 'We appreciate that. However, the false claims of association are being used by the democrats to undermine the impact of our publications. Don't go there if you don't want us to correct you .'

Investigators are also interested in longtime Trump advisor Roger Stone's communications with WikiLeaks and his role advising Trump. Here Stone, a former confidant to President Trump speaks to the media after appearing before the House Intelligence Committee during a closed door hearing, September 26, 2017 in Washington, DC

WikiLeaks published Democratic National Committee emails and years of messages from Clinton chief of staff John Podesta during the campiagn

The group also wrote Stone the day after Trump stunned the political world and won the election. ''Happy? We are now more free to communicate,' said the message.

With respect to Stone, an avid defender of Trump's who says he helped design his run for president, investigators are probing the longtime connection between the two men and whether Stone was still working for Trump after the campaign said he was no longer associated with it.

'They wanted to see if there was a scheme. Was Stone working on the side for Trump?' said one person who was interviewed, saying investigators wanted to know, 'Was this a big plot?'

At the same time, investigators on Special Counsel Robert Mueller's team are investigating Trump's business ties to Russia during the period before he ran for president in 2016.

Mueller's prosecutors have been asking witnesses in the ongoing probe into alleged Russian meddling in the 2016 elections questions about when Trump decided he would run for president.

Investigators on Special Counsel Robert Mueller's team are taking an interest in Donald Trump's (seen right in Moscow with Miss Universe Gabriela Isler of Venezuela in 2013) business ties to Russia before he ran for president in 2016, it was reported on Tuesday

They are focused on the 2014 period, when Trump was moving toward making a run  as well as the financials and other matters regarding the 2013 Trump-owned Miss Universe pageant, which was held in Mosco.

Sources close to the investigation said that Mueller wants to know about any potential compromising information that Russia may have about Trump, CNN reported as it revealed the lines of questioning.

Mueller is also inquiring as to why plans for a Trump Tower in Moscow fell through, sources told CNN  while questioners also are trying to explore the possibility that Russians obtained compromising information on the president.

Mueller wants to know details about a plan by Trump to build a Trump Tower in Moscow together with two Russian real estate developers - Aras Agalarov (seen right with Trump in Moscow in 2013) and his son, Emin Agalarov (left)

Trump has steadfastly denied that his presidential campaign colluded with the Russian government to help him defeat Hillary Clinton.

One witness reportedly told Mueller's team that Trump first became serious about running for president in 2014  even though the president tweeted recently that he 'didn't know' he was going to run for the White House until 2015.

Mueller's investigators were also said to be interested in any compromising information that Russia may have on Trump  an allegation laid out in the infamous 'Steele dossier' of damaging information about Trump.

Trump's most well-known public appearance in Russia came in 2013, when he served as a judge at the Miss Universe pageant in Moscow.

Last year, Mueller (seen above in 2008) was appointed as special counsel to investigate alleged Russian meddling in the 2016 election

The claims of compromising information are included in the dossier compiled by a former British intelligence agent, Christopher Steele. Passages in the dossier  whose research was funded by the Hillary Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee  describe a stay by Trump at the Ritz Carlton Hotel.

According to the dossier, the contents of which have been vehemently denied by Trump and the Russian government, Trump arranged to stay at the presidential suite where President Barack Obama and his wife, Michelle, had stayed on a prior visit.

During Trump's stay, it is alleged that he watched as prostitutes urinated on one another while on the bed in a 'golden showers' routine.

The dossier alleged that Trump's lewd sexual behavior in Russia was recorded by the Kremlin's intelligence agencies and held as 'kompromat', or damaging information which it has used to blackmail Trump.

Mueller is also reportedly trying to corroborate details from a dossier written by British ex-spy Christopher Steele (above)

Mueller's investigators are reportedly interested in the financing of the Miss Universe pageant, an event that was once owned by the Trump Organization.

The Moscow pageant came about as a result of a partnership between Trump and Aras Agalarov, a billionaire real estate developer, and his son, Emin Agalarov.

Last year, Donald Trump Jr told Congress that the Trump Organization and the Agalarovs held 'preliminary discussions' to build a tower in Moscow.

Those plans, however, never came to fruition because of the economic downturn in Russia caused by Western sanctions.

Talks for a potential Trump Tower in Moscow were reportedly re-started by Michael Cohen, the president's personal lawyer.

But those talks ended in 2016.

While it has been known Trump pursued business opportunities in Russia, he has consistently said that he had 'nothing to do with Russia.'

As recently as Tuesday, he called the Mueller probe a 'WITCH HUNT!'

The relationships between Trump and his associates and officials from the Russian government have attracted scrutiny since the hacking of emails belonging to Democratic Party officials.

US intelligence officials believe that President Vladimir Putin directed Russian hackers to wreak havoc on social media and the internet as part of an overall effort to help Trump and hurt Hillary Clinton's campaign.

Russia has denied the allegations.Earnings

Meghan will have to declare any fees she receives from playing Rachel Zane in Suits. She was estimated to earn $50,000 (36,000) per episode.

Her final season starts next month but Meghan will receive repeat fees - 'residuals' - every time it is rebroadcast. The show is now extensively broadcast around the world.

Her annual salary was estimated to have totaled $450,000 (324,000) before she met the prince, which included money from acting and sponsorships.

Markle now has no sponsorship deals and it is unlikely that she still has income from previous contracts.

Royal allowance

Meghan will have to tell the US taxman if she receives anything more than $100,000 (71,600) from her fiance or his family in the form of a royal allowance to cover expenses.

Since the age of 21, Prince Harry and Prince William have been receiving an estimated $450,000 (324,000) a year investment profit from their late mother's $29.9m (21.5m) estate, on which they pay UK taxes.

The two princes and William's wife, the Duchess of Cambridge, also receive an annual $4.88m (3.5m) allowance from their father, Prince Charles, which is used to cover expenses like travel and wardrobe.

Property

Nottingham Cottage - the grace and favor property in the grounds of London's Kensington Palace where Meghan lives with Harry - may be taxed by the US if Markle's presence in it is seen as a substitute for income before her marriage.

Her tax preparer may advise her to declare it to avoid any ambiguity.

While she was filming Suits, Meghan rented a three-bedroom, two-bathroom home in Toronto's Seaton Village, thought to cost around $1,770 (1,000) a month.

Joint assets

Meghan also has to give the US taxman full details of her finances if she and her husband-to-be have joint assets, bank accounts or offshore trusts in excess of $200,000 (143,100).

Once married, Meghan would also have to make that declaration. In the U.S. couples file jointly and all assets are considered joint. However, because Meghan will be married to a non-resident, non-citizen, that will not apply to him.

There is one future - extremely unlikely scenario: if Harry becomes King with Meghan as Queen, the US taxman would take an interest in the British royal family's fortune estimated at $500 million (360 million) and made up of property, art and investments. However, e is fifth and about to become sixth in line to the throne, so such a detailed return is unlikely to ever happen.

Gifts

It's not just the US taxman that wants to take his cut from Meghan.

The actress will have to declare any luxury gifts she bought in the US for Prince Harry, the Queen and his family to the UK taxman - or face a hefty fine.

Gifts over $188 (135) imported into the UK from outside the European Union are liable for customs duty and VAT.

Customs duty is charged at a rate of 2.5% on gifts between $188 (135) and $877 (630).

Above that threshold, the rate depends on the type of goods and where they came from.

VAT of 20% is also charged on the total value of the goods. The maximum penalty for not paying customs duty is $3482 (2,500).

But a person caught for the first time is likely to receive a minimum penalty of $348 (250), depending on how serious the contravention is.A new generation of space-faring technology could be created, thanks to a Chinese breakthrough in battery power.

Experts have developed lithium ion energy cells that operate at a record breaking -70C (-94F), thanks to the organic materials used in their construction.

Lithium batteries power everything from smartphones to electric cars, but lose their ability to conduct and store energy properly at sub-zero temperatures.

The discovery could aid engineers in developing technology suited to withstand the coldest reaches of planets such as Mars or the most frigid regions here on Earth.

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A new generation of space-faring technology could be created, thanks to a Chinese breakthrough in battery power. Experts have developed lithium ion energy cells that operate at a record breaking -70C (-94F), thanks to organic materials used in their construction

A team of battery researchers from Fudan University in Shanghai came up with a design that can function even where other batteries might fail.

They experimented with using two organic compounds for its electrodes, the conductive materials through which electricity enters and leaves a battery.

Electrolytes are the chemical medium that carries ions between the electrodes and, for their battery, the Chinese team used an ethyl acetate-based electrolyte.

This has a low freezing point of -83.6 C (-118F), which means it can conduct a charge even at extremely low temperatures.

In a written statement Dr. Yong-yao Xia, from the university's department of chemistry, said: 'It is well known that both the electrolyte and electrodes have great influence on the battery performance.

'Benefitting from the ethyl acetate-based electrolyte and organic polymers electrodes, the rechargeable battery can work well at the ultra-low temperature of -70C (-94F).

'Compared to the transition-metal-containing electrodes materials in conventional lithium-ion batteries, organic materials are abundant, inexpensive, and environmentally friendly.'

While batteries can operate in relatively cold climates, they have their limits.

Most perform at only 50 per cent of their optimal level when the temperature hits -20C (-4F).

By-40C (-40F), lithium-ion batteries only have about 12 per cent of their room temperature capacity.

Lithium batteries power everything from smartphones to electric cars, but don't work properly at sub-zero temperatures. The discovery could lead to technology suited to withstand the coldest reaches of outer space or the most frigid regions here on Earth (stock image)

This can be severely limiting when it comes to operating batteries in space, where temperatures can dip to -157C (-250F), or even in parts of Canada and Russia, where temperatures can be lower than -50C (-58F).

Unlike the electrodes used in lithium-ion batteries the organic compounds used - a polytriphenylamine cathode and 1,4,5,8-naphthalenetetracarboxylic dianhydride-derived polyimide anode - don't rely on intercalation.

This is the process of continuously integrating ions into their molecular matrix, which slows down as the temperature drops.

Other battery researchers have tried to remedy the issue by developing additives to batteries that require additional materials that add extra weight.

HOW DO LITHIUM ION BATTERIES WORK? Batteries store and releases energy by moving electrons from one 'end' of the battery to the other. We can use the energy from those moving electrons to do work for us, like power a drill. These two battery 'ends' are known as electrodes. One is called the anode and the other is called the cathode. Generally, the anode is made from carbon and the cathode from a chemical compound known as a metal oxide, like cobalt oxide. The final battery ingredient is known as the electrolyte, and it sits in between the two electrodes. In the case of lithium-ion batteries, the electrolyte is a salt solution that contains lithium ionshence the name. When you place the battery in a device, the positively charged lithium ions are attracted to and move towards the cathode. Once it is bombarded with these ions, the cathode becomes more positively charged than the anode, and this attracts negatively charged electrons. As the electrons start moving toward the cathode, we force them to go through our device and use the energy of the electrons 'flowing' toward the cathode to generate power. You can think of this like a water wheel, except instead of water flowing, electrons are flowing. Lithium-ion batteries are especially useful because they are rechargeable. When the battery is connected to a charger, the lithium ions move in the opposite direction as before. As they move from the cathode to the anode, the battery is restored for another use. Lithium ion batteries can also produce a lot more electrical power per unit of weight than other batteries. This means that lithium-ion batteries can store the same amount of power as other batteries, but accomplish this in a lighter and smaller package. Advertisement

This includes externally heating the batteries or using a liquefied gas electrolyte.

Dr Xia and his team believe this may be a more elegant solution than alternative attempts to boost lithium-ion battery function in extreme temperatures.

As well as operating down to -70C (-94F), the batteries also work in heat up to 55C (131F).

The price of the electrode materials is also around one third of the price of electrodes in a conventional lithium-ion battery.

However, the battery will still require some tweaking before it is ready to leave the lab.

The researchers believe the energy generated by the battery is still low compared with commercial lithium-ion batteries.

The assembly process also needs to be further optimised.

The findings of the study were published in the journal Joule.Facebook is notifying more users of its facial recognition features as it faces increased scrutiny over how the technology may infringe upon their privacy.

Many users who logged onto Facebook on Tuesday reported seeing a message from the firm on their News Feed outlining several new facial recognition features.

Facebook now notifies users when someone uploads a picture of them that they haven't been tagged in, among other features.

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Facebook notified some users on their News Feeds of the firm's new facial recognition technology. The features tell users when a photo of them has been uploaded to Facebook that they haven't been tagged in yet and if a stranger uses a photo of them as their profile picture

The features were first announced last December, but Facebook has been gradually rolling them out over the past several months.

Now, the firm is giving users some greater clarity into what its facial recognition features do and, most importantly, the fact that they can opt-out of the system entirely, should they want to.

It may not be a coincidence that Facebook is being more transparent, either.

Just yesterday, a federal judge denied Facebook's attempt to dismiss a class-action lawsuit by users in Illinois who say the firm violated their privacy by collecting and storing biometric data without their consent.

Pictured is the post being sent out to some Facebook users on Tuesday. The features were first announced last year, but the firm has been gradually rolling them out over the past few months

Illinois, Texas and Washington are bound by laws that govern the use of biometric data.

Class-action lawsuits have also been filed against Google, Snapchat and Shutterfly in Illinois over their biometric data collection.

A source who works at Facebook told Fast Company that the news surrounding the lawsuit and the firm's announcement on Tuesday weren't related.

Facebook announced last year that its facial recognition tech would be used to tell people when a photo of them is uploaded to the site that they haven't been tagged in yet

But if the lawsuit against Facebook is successful, it may force the social media giant to change how it gathers biometric data and the ways in which it's used.

Facebook uses sophisticated systems equipped with artificial intelligence to build a user's 'face print.'

Face prints are what Facebook uses to automatically tag a user in a photo.

Using machine learning, the firm scans a photo that's uploaded to Facebook to detect and label any faces that are in the picture.

From there, the firm creates a user's face print based on measurements of the person's facial features, such as their nose bridge, eyelids and the width of their lips, according to Gizmodo.

Last December, Facebook announced that this technology would be expanded to enable new features.

The firm said it would start to notify users when someone uploads a photo of them they haven't been tagged in, even if you're not friends with the person who uploaded the photo.

However, the uploader has to have their privacy settings set to public in order for the person to be notified.

Facebook also said it will alert users if their face is included in a profile picture, as a way to protect users from strangers who may use their photo.

WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU OPT-IN TO FACEBOOK'S FACIAL RECOGNITION FEATURES? Facebook notified some users on Tuesday that they could choose to not be a part of the firm's facial recognition features For any user who opts in to using the new feature, Facebook will create what it calls a templated of a person's face by analyzing pixels from photos where the person is already tagged. It will then compare newly uploaded images to the template. Under the new feature, people who opt in will get a notification from Facebook if a photo of them has been uploaded. But this only works if the person has access to the photo, meaning they would need to be on the uploader's friends list. If you're in a photo and are part of the audience for that post, Facebook will notify users even if they haven't been tagged. Otherwise the user will not receive a notification. Advertisement

The update also meant users with visual impairments can hear aloud who's tagged in photos.

Interestingly, some users said on Tuesday that they had been automatically opted into the facial recognition feature, while others said Facebook told them the feature was turned off.

Some users tweeted that they refused to opt-in to the facial recognition features.

Um, no thanks, @facebook. I wonder how long this will be opt-in. pic.twitter.com/ek5kDzOOsF  Walt Mossberg (@waltmossberg) February 27, 2018

do I want facebook to use facial recognition software to identify me in photos?



That would be a no. FFS. You dystopian fucks.  Noah Berlatsky (@nberlat) February 26, 2018

Others noted that the features raise some pretty serious privacy concerns.

Journalist Avi Asher-Schapiro tweeted that Facebook's face prints are akin to fingerprints.

'Facebook's announcement today that it was 'adding more ways to use facial recognition' is a opportunity to remind everyone that Facebook is using your photos to build a sprawling database of face-prints, a biometric marker that's unique to you, & similar to DNA or fingerprints,' Asher-Schapiro wrote.

The judge who ruled Facebook has to face the class-action lawsuit in Illinois also expressed concern about how the features relate to user privacy.

'When an online service simply disregards the Illinois procedures, as Facebook is alleged to have done, the right of the individual to maintain her biometric privacy vanishes into thin air,' U.S. District Judge James Donato wrote in his decision letter.

'The precise harm the Illinois legislature sought to prevent is then realized,' he added.It may seem normal to be disgusted by the smell of sweaty feet or bad breath.

But people who recoil at unpleasant body odours are more likely to support authoritarian leaders, while liberals are apparently less bothered by a pongy armpit.

A study has found supporters of Donald Trump are more likely to be disgusted by body odours, including the smell of feet, sweat and someone breaking wind.

The findings are linked to a deep-seated defence mechanism to avoid infectious diseases, which are linked to bad smells, according to psychologists.

The studys lead author Dr Jonas Olofsson, from the University of Stockholm, said: There was a solid connection between how strongly someone was disgusted by smells and their desire to have a dictator-like leader who can suppress radical protest movements and ensure that different groups stay in their places.

That type of society reduces contact among different groups and, at least in theory, decreases the chance of becoming ill.

A study has found supporters of Donald Trump are more likely to be disgusted by body odours, including the smell of feet, sweat and someone breaking wind (stock photo)

Dr Oloffsons team theorised that there may a link between feelings of disgust and how a person wants society to be organised.

To test the idea, the researchers developed a scale that allowed 201 study participants to rate their levels of disgust when exposed to six body odours. These were bad breath, smelly feet, sweat, wind, urine and faeces.

They found a clear link between disliking bad smells and support of authoritarian leaders, which people expressed by agreeing with statements such as the need for a mighty leader, to trust the proper authorities and ignore noisy rabble-rousers.

A further experiment, involving 391 people, found those who were more disgusted by body odours were moderately more likely to support Donald Trump than Hillary Clinton in the 2016 US election.

The psychologists suggest people who dislike a bad smell may unconsciously see germs as an invisible threat.

Policies to keep out foreign people, such as the US Presidents controversial plan to build a wall separating Mexico from the US, could be a way to avoid unfamiliar germs from elsewhere.

The study, published in the journal Royal Society Open Science, states: In fact, it can be argued that Trumps firm stance against immigration, especially from groups viewed as culturally unfamiliar, might meet an implicit need of protection from pathogen threats from people perceived as either potential carriers of unfamiliar pathogens, or groups whose behaviours in disease-avoidance relevant behaviours (eg hygiene or food preparation) was perceived as deviant.

Disgust is a recognised basic emotion that evolved for survival.

Fundamentally it offers protection against things that are potentially infectious and harmful, such as rotten meat, vomit and excrement.

On the findings, Dr Olafsson said: We thought that was interesting because Donald Trump talks frequently about how different people disgust him. He thinks that women are disgusting and that immigrants spread disease, and it comes up often in his rhetoric.

It fits with our hypothesis that his supporters would be more easily disgusted themselves.Russia claims it has developed powerful lasers to fire at enemy satellites in orbit.

The plane-mounted lasers form part of an anti-satellite system that also involves both radar and ground-based components, reports claim.

The news comes after a US Air Force chief warned yesterday that space warfare could break out between superpower nations 'within years'.

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The system includes a laser mounted onto an aircraft as well as relevant ground control gear and radar that will help the device to find targets. The US Navy is also developing laser weapons, including this anti-drone 'active laser' that will be mounted onto warships

According to an anonymous source quoted by Russian news agency Interfax, weapons maker Almaz-Antey has 'completed work on an anti-satellite complex'.

The system includes a laser mounted onto an aircraft as well as relevant ground control gear and radar that will help the device to find targets.

It will utilise a brand-new, as-yet-unnamed type of aircraft, the source said.

The claim has not been verified by independent sources, but the Moscow-based weapons firm is known to be developing anti-satellite weaponry for Russia's military.

Last April, Almaz-Antey general designer Pavel Sozinov told Russian news agency Ria Novosti that it was developing weapons that could interfere electronically with or achieve 'direct functional destruction of those elements deployed in orbit'.

He said the project was commissioned by Russian leaders.

Russia claims it has developed powerful lasers to fire at enemy satellites.The plane-mounted laser forms part of an anti-satellite system that also involves both radar and ground-based components, reports claim (stock image)

Experts said that anti-satellite weaponry is a priority for Russian officials.

Samuel Bendett, a research analyst at the Center for Naval Analyses, told DefenseOne: 'Russia considers American satellites a significant threat when it comes to potential confrontation.

'It is actively working to counter US technologies in space, such as possible electronic warfare technologies that can target hundreds of kilometres up.

'The developments in laser technologies are in step with US and Chinese advancements in this area.'

Research into satellite and high-altitude drone technology has become a focal point for the world's top militaries, leading some to speculate that space will be a key battleground in wars of the future.

Yesterday a top US military official warned that superpower nations could engage in a space war 'within a matter of years'.

US Air Force chief General David Goldfein claimed the US will need new tools, specialist training and billions of dollars in funding to prepare for combat in orbit.

The news comes after a US Air Force chief warned yesterday that space warfare could break out between superpower nations 'within years'. US Air Force chief General David Goldfein (pictured) was speaking at a conference in Orlando, Florida

Speaking at the Air Force Association's 34th annual Air Warfare Symposium and Technology Exposition in Orlando, General Goldfein said: '[It's] time for us as a service, regardless of speciality badge, to embrace space superiority with the same passion and sense of ownership as we apply to air superiority today.'

General Goldfein argues that the US Air Force is best placed to protect American interests in space.

He said: 'I believe we're going to be fighting from space in a matter of years.

'We are the service that must lead joint war fighting in this new contested domain. This is what the nation demands.'A popular app that lets children post anonymous comments has been removed from Apple and Google stores.

Critics claim the chat app dubbed 'Sarahah' - meaning 'honesty' in Arabic - encourages bullying among young people.

Its founder claims that it is designed to provide 'constructive comments', but reviews on both app stores suggest it is being misused by trolls.

A petition supported by 470,000 people called for Apple and Google to remove the app, describing it as 'a breeding ground for hate'.

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The app - called 'Sarahah' - meaning 'honesty' in Arabic lets users comment anonymously to their friends on social media. It has been dropped by Apple and Google following an online petition that garnered nearly half a million signatures

The app is the creation of developer Zain Alabdin Tawfiq from Saudi Arabia.

It launched last year and became an instant success with more than 300 million users.

It topped Apple's App Store in more than 30 countries in July.

Katrina Collins started a petition against the app when she saw abusive messages about her 13-year-old daughter.

The petition from the Australian mother has since been backed by nearly half a million others.

She wrote on the petition: 'My daughter and I have been shattered by this app, and tragically another teenager, in the UK, was found hanged early in 2017 after allegedly being bullied on a similar app called Sayat.Me, which was shut down in May.

'Both the App Store and Google Play have policies against apps that facilitate bullying, harassment or self harm.

'Why then is Sarahah still available on these platforms?'

Ms Collins told BBC Trending: 'If it's happening to my daughter, it's happening to a hell of a lot of other kids out there as well.'

Similar apps have existed in the past and encountered the same difficulties.

They experience a meteoric rise in popularity before bullying and trolling leads to a public push against the app.

Numerous young people fall victim to people hiding behind the cloak of anonymity.

Sayat.Me was a popular app early in 2017 which also allowed for anonymous messages to be sent between users.

It was shut down by its owners following the death of George Hessay, a 15-year-old boy from the UK, who tragically took his own life.

Katrina Collins started a petition against the app when she saw abusive messages about her 13-year-old daughter (pictured). The petition from the Australian mother has since been backed by nearly half a million others

Designed to let users send and receive honest feedback it is meant to help people discover their strengths and weaknesses but has been misused by trolls to send vile and abusive messages

The Secret app shut down after criticism in 2015, and Ask.fm was linked to several teen suicides in 2013.

Google has released a statement following the removal of Sarahah from its store.

It said: 'While we don't comment on specific apps, our Google Play policies are designed to provide a great experience for users.

'We always do our best to work closely with developers to ensure they're in compliance with our policies.'

Similar apps have experienced the same trajectory in the past. Sayat.Me was a similar app which was shut down by its owners following the death of George Hessay, a 15-year-old boy from the UK, who tragically took his own life

Mr Tawfiq referred to the decision to drop his app as 'unfortunate' and is 'very optimistic about reaching a favourable understanding with them soon.'

He says his company has upgraded its filtering system to use 'artificial intelligence and machine learning' to avoid such messages being sent and received.

The app was first designed to let users send and receive honest feedback and it is meant to help people discover their strengths and weaknesses.

'Sarahah helps you in discovering your strengths and areas for improvement by receiving honest feedback from your employees and your friends in a private manner', the app description explains.

Once users have downloaded the app, they set up an account to start receiving messages.

Mr Tawfiq referred to the decision to drop his app as 'unfortunate' and is 'very optimistic about reaching a favourable understanding with them soon.' He says his company has upgraded its filtering system to use 'artificial intelligence and machine learning'to detect abusive messages

The messages appear in a feed where they can be favourited, blocked and deleted without the sender knowing.

Users have no way of knowing who sent the message or how to reply to them.

US-based NGO called Common Sense Media has said Sarahah is not recommended for children and said it is 'ready-made for cyberbullying'.

'Sarahah is easy to use, so kids won't have any trouble figuring out how to operate the app', a common-sense media contributor wrote in Huffington Post.

'But because all comments are anonymous, it's very easy for people to say mean and hurtful things without any repercussions.

'Reviews on the App Store indicate that Sarahah is being used as a cyberbullying tool. For these reasons, Sarahah is not appropriate for kids.'Advertisement

These eye-opening designs propose a future of flight that is both supersonic and eco-friendly.

The spaceship-like plans for the HSP 'Magnavem' feature a streamlined ship capable of reaching a top speed of Mach 1.5 (1,150mph/1,852km/h).

The hypersonic plane would cut travel times between New York and London to just three hours, more than halving the duration of current flights.

What's more, the amazing aircraft will produce zero carbon emissions, thanks to the compact fusion reactor that will power it.

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The spaceship-like plans for the HSP 'Magnavem' feature a streamlined ship, capable of reaching a top speed of Mach 1.5 (1,150mph/1,852km/h)

According to designer Oscar Vinals, the craft, which he hopes will revolutionise the aeronautic industry, will run primarily on a compact fusion reactor (CFR).

This reactor, the plans say, would provide the Magavem with an incredible amount of electrical energy - all at no cost to the environment.

Nuclear fusion is the process by which the sun works. Compact fusion reactors will mimic that process within a magnetic container and release energy from hydrogen in a controlled fashion to produce power we can use.

In total, Mr Vinals believes his lightweight aircraft could carry some 500 passengers, and due to the technologies he proposes using, the 'Magnavem' can be recharged extremely quickly.

According to designer Oscar Vinals, the craft, which he hopes will revolutionize the aeronautic industry, will run primarily on a compact fusion reactor (CFR)

This fusion reactor that will fuel the ship, the plans say, would provide the Magavem with an incredible amount of electrical energy - all at not cost to the environment

The designs feature a CO2 cleaning system, adding to the environmental benefits of the craft. An internal AI system would optimize the craft's functions, while plasma actuators control the airflow to the wings and over the fuselage

WHAT IS A COMPACT FUSION REACTOR? More than 50 years ago, nuclear power through fission was the excitement of its day. People tried using it to power almost everything, even planes. In the end, operational hurdles prevented fission from widespread use. While fission continues to power our nuclear reactors today, fusion offers a cleaner, safer source of energy. Fission occurs when one atom is split into two smaller fragments, creating an explosion of sorts that results in the release of heat energy. Fusion is the process by which a gas is heated up and separated into its constituent ions and electrons. When ions get hot enough, they can overcome their mutual repulsion and collide, fusing together. When this happens, they release a lot of energy  about one million times more powerful than a chemical reaction and three to four times more powerful than a fission reaction. The fusion reaction that is easiest to accomplish is between two isotopes of hydrogen: deuterium, extracted from water, and tritium, produced during the fusion reaction through contact with lithium. When deuterium and tritium nuclei fuse, they form a helium nucleus, a neutron and a lot of energy. Nuclear fusion is the process by which the sun works. Compact fusion reactors will mimic that process within a magnetic container and release energy in a controlled fashion to produce power we can use. A reactor small enough to fit on a truck could provide enough power for a small city of up to 100,000 people. Advertisement

Mr Vinals, from Barcelona, Spain, has been working on the designs for more than a year.

They also feature a carbon dioxide cleaning system, adding to the environmental benefits of the craft.

An internal AI system would optimise the craft's functions, while plasma actuators control the airflow to the wings and over the fuselage.

The chosen name, 'Magnavem,' comes from the latin 'magna avem,' meaning 'big bird.'

Oscar, from Barcelona, Spain, has been working on the designs for over a year. The chosen name, 'Magnavem,' comes from the latin 'magna avem,' meaning 'big bird'

In total, Oscar Vinals believes his lightweight aircraft could carry some 500 passengers, and due to the technologies he proposes using, the 'Magnavem' can be charged extremely fast

While the craft could theoretically be built today, its designer said, certain technologies are still in the 'embrionary stage,' and so 10 to 15 years of advancements may be needed in order to complete such a flying vessel

While the craft could theoretically be built today, Oscar said, certain technologies are still in the 'embrionary stage,' and so 10 to 15 years of advancements may be needed in order to complete such a flying vessel.

Mr Vinals, 40, said: 'The response has been totally positive. I am very happy with this.

'I am most excited about the possibility to use a CFR (compact fusion reactor) with the benefits of inexhaustible power and great amounts of energy production.

'There's also the plasma energy to control the airplane's flight or the use of AI system.

'We must not forget the possibility of using the plane like a efficient tool to "clean" the excess of CO2 in the atmosphere.'

More than 50 years ago, nuclear power through fission was the excitement of its day. People tried using it to power almost everything, even planes. In the end, operational hurdles prevented fission from widespread use.

Designer Oscar Vinals, 40, said: 'The response has been totally positive. 'I am very happy with this. 'I am most excited about the possibility to use a CFR (compact fusion reactor) with the benefits of inexhaustible power and great amounts of energy production'

It designer envisions the aircraft having a lidar system, which allows the plane to detect areas of turbulence and prevent vibrations

Designer Mr Vinals said: 'We must not forget the possibility of using the plane like a efficient tool to 'clean' the excess of co2 in the atmosphere'

While fission continues to power our nuclear reactors today, fusion offers a cleaner, safer source of energy.

Fission occurs when one atom is split into two smaller fragments, creating an explosion of sorts and resulting in the release of heat energy.

Fusion is the process by which a gas is heated up and separated into its ions and electrons.

When ions get hot enough, they can overcome their mutual repulsion and collide, fusing together. When this happens, they release a lot of energy  about one million times more powerful than a chemical reaction and three to four times more powerful than a fission reaction.

The fusion reaction that is easiest to accomplish is between two isotopes of hydrogen: deuterium, extracted from water, and tritium, produced during the fusion reaction through contact with lithium.

Plasma actuators control the airflow over the supersonic aircraft's fuselage and wings. This could help optimise its performance and help it go faster

The plane has a delta-shaped body with a capacity of 500 passengers. It has four hybrid engines and a CO2 cleaning system located in the rear

The battery storage structure under the fuselage could be made of graphene nanostructures making it ultra-light and strong

When deuterium and tritium nuclei fuse, they form a helium nucleus, a neutron and a lot of energy.

A reactor small enough to fit on a truck could provide enough power for a small city of up to 100,000 people.

This is not the first time that nuclear power has been proposed as a fuel for flight, with one aircraft that flew in the West during the cold war actually came close to achieving this aim.

During the early 1950s, a heavily modified Convair B-36 bomber built by the US Air Force called the NB-36H flew a total of 47 times, although the onboard reactor was only tested in the air and never to power the aircraft.

The behemoth was further weighed down with 11 tonnes of shielding to keep radiation at bay.If you ever fell into a black hole, your body would most likely be ripped into shreds and become 'spaghettified'.

At least that's the theory put forward by most physicists today.

But a new study is challenging that claim by suggesting there may be some black holes that you could survive - although doing so may put you into a strange reality.

These black holes would destroy your past life and trap you in a parallel universe with an infinite number of possible futures.

This is because the universe on the other side would not be governed by the rules of cause and effect that apply in ours.

As a result you could 'live forever', researchers claim.

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A mathematician made the discovery after crunching the numbers on a particular type of black hole with an electrical charge, called a Reissner-Nordstrom-de Sitter black holes (artist's impression)

A mathematician from the University of California, Berkeley, made the discovery after crunching the numbers on a particular type of black hole with an electrical charge.

In the real world, your past determines your future and this determinism rules the laws of physics.

This means that the physical laws of the universe do not allow for more than one possible future.

If a scientist knew exactly how the universe began, they could theoretically calculate what will happen for the rest of time and all of space.

UC Berkeley postdoctoral fellow Peter Hintz found that, for something known as 'Reissner-Nordstrom-de Sitter' black holes, this determinism does not apply.

If a space traveller were able to venture into one of these relatively benign black holes, they may be able to survive the experience.

This would give them passage from our deterministic world into a non-deterministic black hole and, in theory, out the other side.

If they were able to avoid the black hole's infinitely dense singularity, they could emerge into another universe on the other side.

If a space traveller were able to venture into one of these relatively benign black holes, they may be able to survive the experience. The graphic shows a space-time diagram of the gravitational collapse of a charged spherical star to form a charged black hole

What would happen next is unknown, as in a non-deterministic universe the relationship between cause and effect would no longer exist.

Any and every outcome of everything that is, was and will be possible could exist at the same time.

This strange phenomenon is a quirk of Albert Einstein's general theory of relativity which, for the past century, has been the standard model used to explain the way gravity works.

'Normally in physics, initial conditions and the laws of physics are supposed to fully determine what happens to any physical system,' said Robert Mann, Professor of physics and applied mathematics at the University of Waterloo, Canada, who was not involved with the study.

WHAT'S INSIDE A BLACK HOLE? Black holes are strange objects in the universe that get their name from the fact that nothing can escape their gravity, not even light. If you venture too close and cross the so-called event horizon, the point from which no light can escape, you will also be trapped or destroyed. For small black holes, you would never survive such a close approach anyway. The tidal forces close to the event horizon are enough to stretch any matter until it's just a string of atoms, in a process physicists call 'spaghettification'. But for large black holes, like the supermassive objects at the cores of galaxies like the Milky Way, which weigh tens of millions if not billions of times the mass of a star, crossing the event horizon would be uneventful. Because it should be possible to survive the transition from our world to the black hole world, physicists and mathematicians have long wondered what that world would look like. They have turned to Einstein's equations of general relativity to predict the world inside a black hole. These equations work well until an observer reaches the centre or singularity, where, in theoretical calculations, the curvature of space-time becomes infinite. Advertisement

'However general relativity doesn't have this feature, curiously enough.

'If I give you an initial distribution of matter and energy over the entire universe, the equations of general relativity in general will not predict the entire future of the space-time.'

Professor Hintz studied a specific type of non-rotating black hole, which have a so-called Cauchy horizon within their event horizon.

EINSTEIN'S GENERAL THEORY OF RELATIVITY Albert Einstein (pictured) published his General Theory of Relativity in 1915 In 1905, Albert Einstein determined that the laws of physics are the same for all non-accelerating observers, and that the speed of light in a vacuum was independent of the motion of all observers - known as the theory of special relativity. This groundbreaking work introduced a new framework for all of physics, and proposed new concepts of space and time. He then spent 10 years trying to include acceleration in the theory, finally publishing his theory of general relativity in 1915. This determined that massive objects cause a distortion in space-time, which is felt as gravity. At its simplest, it can be thought of as a giant rubber sheet with a bowling ball in the centre. Pictured is the original historical documents related to Einstein's prediction of the existence of gravitational waves, shown at the Hebrew university in Jerusalem As the ball warps the sheet, a planet bends the fabric of space-time, creating the force that we feel as gravity. Any object that comes near to the body falls towards it because of the effect. Einstein predicted that if two massive bodies came together it would create such a huge ripple in space time that it should be detectable on Earth. It was most recently demonstrated in the hit film film Interstellar. In a segment that saw the crew visit a planet which fell within the gravitational grasp of a huge black hole, the event caused time to slow down massively. Crew members on the planet barely aged while those on the ship were decades older on their return. Advertisement

Black holes (artists's impression) are thought to be regions of space so dense that they trap or even destroy all matter, but a new study suggests that visiting one might just be possible. Experts theorised that crossing the threshold of one is not as impossible as was thought

The Cauchy horizon is the spot where determinism breaks down, where the past no longer determines the future.

Physicists have argued that no observer could ever pass through the Cauchy horizon point because they would be annihilated.

As an observer approaches the Cauchy horizon time slows down, since clocks tick slower in a strong gravitational field, they argue.

As light, gravitational waves and anything else encountering the black hole fall inevitably toward the Cauchy horizon, an observer also falling inward would eventually see all this energy barrelling in on them at the same time.

In effect, all the energy the black hole sees over the lifetime of the universe would hit the Cauchy horizon at the same time, blasting into oblivion any observer who made it that far.

Dr Hintz's calculations uncovered an exception to this rule with Reissner-Nordstrom-de Sitter black holes.

In a written statement, he said: 'No physicist is going to travel into a black hole and measure it. This is a math question.

'But from that point of view, this makes Einstein's equations mathematically more interesting.

'This is a question one can really only study mathematically, but it has physical, almost philosophical implications, which makes it very cool.

The downside to this voyage is that it would destroy your past life and trap you in a parallel universe with an infinite number of possible futures. This image show's an artist's impression of a black hole scientists expect to observe in 2018

'There are some exact solutions of Einstein's equations that are perfectly smooth, with no kinks, no tidal forces going to infinity, where everything is perfectly well behaved up to this Cauchy horizon and beyond. After that, all bets are off.'

Dr Hintz's equations only work because the universe is expanding at an increasing rate.

Because space-time is being increasingly pulled apart, much of the universe on the other side of the black hole will not affect it at all.

As energy can't travel faster than the speed of light, only matter and energy which is within the black hole's observable horizon will be pulled in over its lifetime.

In this scenario, the expansion of the universe would counteract the amplification caused by time dilation inside the black hole that would appear to cause all matter to hit the observer in one go.

For certain situations, such as inReissner-Nordstrom-de Sitter black holes, this stretching of space-time would cancel the time dilation entirely, allowing a traveller to pass through unharmed.

The full findings of the study were published in the journal Physical Review Letters.Count Bill Gates as part of the growing camp of Hyperloop skeptics.

Billionaire tech mogul Elon Musk has gotten closer to making his radical, pod-based transportation system a reality.

But the Microsoft co-founder has cast some doubt on whether or not Hyperloop, which promises to ferry passengers hundreds of miles in a matter of minutes, will actually work.

'I am not sure the Hyperloop concept makes sense,' Gates said Tuesday during a question and answer session on Reddit.

'Making it safe is hard,' he added.

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Pictured, Bill Gates (center) and Elon Musk (right) shake hands at a conference in 2015. In a Reddit AMA on Tuesday, Gates cast some doubt on Musk's Hyperloop transportation concept

Gates didn't elaborate on why he felt Hyperloop might be unsafe, but said he feels more confident about the future of electric vehicles and self-driving cars.

'I think electric cars and autonomous vehicles will be great things,' Gates explained.

The comments came after a user asked why the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation hasn't focused on transportation issues.

The Gates Foundation has donated billions of dollars to health and humanitarian causes.

He said the Gates Foundation is experimenting with drone delivery of medical supplies in Rwanda and Tanzania.

As far as fixing issues with transportation, Gates believes that task is more suited for the private market, however.

'I think the private market rewards innovation in this space quite well,' he noted.

One of the firms leading the race to bring Elon Musk's plan for high-speed Hyperloop transportation to life, Hyperloop Transportation Technologies, recently signed its first interstate agreement. This is a major step toward building such the pod system (pictured)

Bill Gates said he concerned about whether Elon Musk's radical pod-like transportation concept, Hyperloop, will be safe. He also said he's unsure that the system 'makes sense'

There has been a flood of activity among private corporations around autonomous vehicle technologies, space exploration, flying cars and boats, as well as high-speed pod travel, such as Hyperloop.

Although various startups and corporations are working to build a Hyperloop system, Musk was one of the first people to publicize the concept, mentioning it in 2012.

Musk's SpaceX made the Hyperloop concept 'open-source' so that anyone can develop their own prototype.

The Tesla chief said in 2013 that Hyperloop would be able to take passengers from LA to San Francisco -- a distance of approximately 380 miles -- in about 30 minutes.

That's half the time it would take a plane to travel that distance.

Aside from SpaceX, California-based research company Hyperloop Transportation Technologies, Richard Branson's Virgin Hyperloop One and Canadian firm TransPod are among many others exploring the radical transportation technology.

Many firms are now competing to achieve the first full-scale design.

WHAT IS THE HYPERLOOP? Hyperloop is a proposed method of travel that would transport people at roughly 700mph between distant locations. It was unveiled by Elon Musk in 2013, who at the time said it could take passengers the 380 miles (610km) from LA to San Francisco in 30 minutes - half the time it takes a plane. It is essentially a long tube that has had the air removed to create a vacuum. For safety reasons, Hyperloop tunnels need escape hatches in case of fire. The tube is suspended off the ground to protect against weather and earthquakes. There are now a number of firms vying to bring the technology to life, including Elon Musk himself, Hyperloop Transportation Technologies, and Virgin Hyperloop One. As several firms vie to create the first operational Hyperloop, Elon Musks vision of a radical transport system that could ferry passengers above land at 760 miles per hour continues to inch closer to reality Advertisement

Virgin has unveiled a stunning prototype of the pods that will carry passengers at speeds of up to 760mph (1,200 kmh) when it launches its Hyperloop service in Dubai. Hyperloop's low friction design means that passengers will be able to travel the 87 miles (140 km) between the city and neighbouring Abu Dhabi in 12 minutes, a journey that takes around 90 minutes by car

Gates isn't the first to raise some concerns about Hyperloop, however.

Dr Phil Mason, a former Cornell University chemist, said recently that Hyerloop 'sounds great, but in reality it's bull**** made up by snake-oil salesmen.'

Mason added that there are many safety issues with Hyperloop that need to be resolved before it can become a reality, according to Daily Caller.

'Any failure whatsoever will rip through that 2 centimeter outer tube like candy,' Mason explained.

'Now sure, anybody in the capsule would die pretty much instantly in the event of a crash...but a single breach in the Hyperloop would probably kill everybody else in the Hyperloop because air would rush into the tube at about the speed of sound,' he added.

Mason has run tests simulating what would happen if there was a small crack in the tube that lets air in.

He found that the pressure change destroyed the tube and caused the Hyperloop to rapidly accelerate, likely killing all its passengers inside.

Musk has reassured consumers that the Hyperloop transportation system has safety procedures in the event of a crash.

Billionaire tech mogul Elon Musk denied beliefs that the Hyperloop might be unsafe. On SpaceX's website, he described how it has emergency brakes, reserve air supplies for passengers who may be stuck, as well as a system that can transport the capsules to safety

Hyperloop's propulsion system is integrated into the tube and can only accelerate the capsule to speeds that are safe in each section, Musk explained on SpaceX's website.

The passenger capsules also have emergency brakes.

'In the unlikely event of a large scale capsule depressurization, other capsules in the tube would automatically begin emergency braking whilst the Hyperloop tube would undergo rapid de-pressurization along its entire length,' he continued.

Once the capsules slow down, they're able to drive themselves to safety using 'small onboard electric motors,' Musk added.

The capsules are also equipped with a reserve air supply to protect passengers inside.A robot is zapping classroom surfaces at public schools in Oklahoma to make them germ-free, as a vicious flu season draws to a close.

The robot is being lent to Moore Public Schools by Norman Regional Health System, News OK reported.

Norman Regional purchased some of the robots - priced at $125,000 each - two years ago, and are now lending them to local schools to stop the spread of infectious diseases.

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A disinfecting robot is being used in Oklahoma schools that have recently seen high rates of absent students due to the spread of illnesses

Moore Public Schools already employ robots to clean their buildings.

Machines douse the schools with a chlorine mist, helping out the cleaning staff charged with keeping clean schools reporting high rates of absences due to sicknesses.

But the robot on loan from Norman Regional is there to provide extra help.

School Superintendent Robert Romines explained to News OK: 'Anything that it can contribute to killing germs at the sites we're using it is beneficial.'

Norman Regional is allowing multiple school districts in Oklahoma to borrow the machinery via an outreach program.

The robot usually cleans patient rooms and public bathrooms in Norman Regional buildings, aiming to reduce the spread of infections.

It works by producing a bubble that is 14 feet wide and emits ultraviolet C light.

This light kills germs that are living on any exposed surfaces within the bubble.

Ultraviolet C light is produced by the sun, but it does not penetrate our atmosphere to reach earth; therefore, viruses and bacteria have not yet developed defense mechanisms allowing them to survive exposure to the light.

The robot emits ultraviolet C light, which kills bacteria and viruses, preventing them from being spread to new patients (file photo)

The robots used at Norman Regional buildings are made by Xenex Disinfection Services.

Xenex spokeswoman Melinda Hart told News OK: 'The germs and microorganisms have no resistance because they've never seen anything like it.'

Ultraviolet C light harms the DNA of viruses and bacteria, and this prevents them from spreading.

People who position the robots go into separate rooms while the machines clean because humans are not resistant to ultraviolet C light.

WHAT IS ULTRAVIOLET GERMICIDAL IRRADIATION? Ultraviolet germicidal irradiation (UVGI) is a method of disinfecting relying on short-wavelength UV light that paralyzes or kills microorganisms. The UV light does so by demolishing nucleic acids and limiting their DNA, which leaves the microorganisms without the ability to thrive. UVGI is applied to water, food and air purification processes. UVGI disinfection technologies have been widely accepted since the 20th century. The technology is used primarily to sanitize medical facilities and work environments that must be sterile. What makes Xenex robots unique is the fact that they pulse xenon - which is an inert gas - to produce germicidal ultraviolet C light. Hart explained that this technology works faster than other UV disinfecting techniques, and that its speed makes a crucial difference in busy hospitals. These robots emit ultraviolet C light and are used to clean hospitals and schools (file photo) Advertisement

However, if a person were to be exposed only once, they would not endure severe damage.

Norman Regional guessed that the robots saved the health system $250,000 by reducing infections during the first year the machines were used at company buildings.

Norman Regional environmental services director Clyde Brawner told News OK: 'We have seen the difference that they have made.

'It's a program that, if you implemented it correctly, you can see results [of] in days.'

Other facilities have also reported that the robots saved them money.

News OK reported that a Birmingham, Alabama, hospital said it saved more than $290,000 thanks to the machinery.

Hart said that most of the robots last about three years but that Xenex replaces certain parts for free after that.A powerful Silicon Valley startup has been working with the New Orleans Police Department (NOPD) to test a controversial system that can predict where crimes are most likely to occur and which people are most likely to commit them.

That's according to a recent investigation by the Verge which uncovered that Palantir Technologies, a big data analytics firm that's backed by the CIA's venture capital arm, formed a partnership with the NOPD in 2012.

Palantir's predictive policing tool was being tested without the knowledge of many local government officials or even the residents of New Orleans.

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Palantir Technologies licensed its predictive policing system to the New Orleans Police Department beginning in 2012, the Verge reports. The system has raised privacy concerns. File photo

Experts say the shadowy agreement raises concerns about individuals' privacy.

They're also concerned that the systems could potentially nefarious consequences, such as racial profiling.

Predictive policing systems ingest large amounts of data and uses sophisticated algorithms to form patterns and conclusions.

In the case of Palantir's program with the NOPD, it traced people's ties to other gang members, outlined criminal histories, analyzed social media and predicted the likelihood that individuals would commit violence or become a victim, according to the Verge.

The system was used to identify members of New Orleans gangs like 3NG and 39ers. However, there was no mention of the use of Palantir's predictive policing systems during any of the defendants' criminal trials.

Palantir was also given free access to the NOPD's LexisNexis account, which has millions of public records, including court filings, names, addresses, licenses and phone numbers, among other things.

The firm also received access to city criminal and non-criminal data that was used to train its software for crime forecasting, the Verge noted.

Palantir Technologies CEO Alex Karp (left) met with President Donald Trump at his tech CEO roundtable in 2016. Peter Thiel (right), one of Trump's advisers, is the chairman of Palantir

And, several key city council members whose job it is to oversee these kinds of public records were not informed of the NOPD's partnership with Palantir.

Since its inception in 2012, the partnership has been extended three times. The latest contract was set to expire on February 21.

Jason Williams, president of the New Orleans City Council told the Verge that he wasn't aware of the program.

'My primary concern would be how this was used in my city,' Williams explained.

'If it was used to identify marginalized people that are at risk of being harmed, to stop them from being harmed, I'm going to have a whole different appreciation of that than I'm gonna have if this system was used nefariously,' he added.

Palantir's program with the NOPD was able to float under the radar because it was established as a 'philanthropic relationship' by working with the mayor's New Orleans For Life program.

The firm has a record of establishing contracts with local police departments via associated non-profits, the Verge said, which effectively shields the relationships from the public eye.

WHAT ARE PREDICTIVE POLICING SYSTEMS? Predictive policing systems can forecast when and where crimes occur using based on prior crime reports and other data. Palantir Technologies has licensed its predictive policing software with local and international governments. Most ingest vast amounts of data, including geography, criminal records, the weather and social media records. From that, it makes predictions about individuals or places that are likely to be involved in a crime, according to the Verge. There are other predictive policing systems out there that are being utilized, many of them are different. The Los Angeles Police Department, New York Police Department, Chicago Police Department and, now, the New Orleans Police Department use predictive policing. File photo Chicago's police department uses a notorious 'heat list,' which is an algorithm-generated list that singles out people who are most likely to be involved in a shooting. However, many experts have identified issues with Chicago's heat list. The government-funded RAND Corporation published a report saying that the heat list wasn't nearly as effective as a standard wanted list. It could also encourage a new form of profiling that draws unnecessary police attention to people. Another academic study found that the heat list can have a 'disparate impact' on poor communities of color. A California startup called PredPol also built predictive policing software that's been utilized by law enforcement officials, including the LAPD. In 2016, researchers conducted a study where they reverse engineered PredPol's algorithm and discovered that it replicated systemic bias against communities of color that were over policed. It also found that historic data isn't a good indicator of future criminal activity. The NYPD also had an agreement with Palantir Technologies to use its predictive policing systems. Advertisement

Palantir's partnership with the NOPD was brokered via James Carville, a former political strategist for Hillary Clinton.

Carville claims that Palantir's predictive policing system was a major driver in New Orleans' two-year decline in the murder rate.

Carville's wife, Mary Matalin, acknowledged on a radio show in 2014 that Palantir's technology could incriminate certain people.

'[New Orleans is] kind of a prototype,' Matali said, according to the Verge.

'Unless you're the cousin of some drug dealer that went bad, you're going to be okay,' she added.

Law enforcement experts say they're concerned that civil liberties will be threatened by Palantir's technology.

'They're creating a target list, but we're not going after Al Qaeda in Syria,' a former law enforcement agent told the Verge.

'Palantir is a great example of an absolutely ridiculous amount of money spent on a tech tool that may have some application'

Security and privacy experts have warned against infusing AI and robots into policing. Pictured is a police robot, which is used in China to scan people's faces for escaped criminals

Pictured, the world's first operational police robot stands in downtown Dubai. Security experts are concerned that systems like robot police or predictive policing might exhibit racial bias

'However, it's not the right tool for local and state law enforcement,' the person added.

Some experts also noted that using historical data to predict future crimes, like Palantir does, is considered to be a flawed system.

Despite this, Palantir's business has continued to grow in scale and profits.

Palantir is now considered a decacorn, with a sprawling valuation of at least $20 billion.

It's also a part of the top ten most highly-valued unicorns in the U.S., according to CB Insights.

It's backed by the CIA's venture capital arm and counts Peter Thiel, a billionaire mogul and adviser to President Donald Trump, as its chairman.

Palantir has worked with the Pentagon since 2009 to predict the location of improvised explosive devices in Afghanistan and Iraq, the Verge noted.

The firm has patented at least one crime forecasting system and has sold similar systems to foreign intelligence services.From jazz to punk, classical to pop, Berlin has live music to suit all tastes and budgets, and whether youre interested in international superstars on their stadium tours or the intimate delights of a local jam session, theres something for everyone within the Berlin music scene.

The iconic Olympiastadion, where many stadium-rockers have passed through

Berlin: City of Music

You might be forgiven for thinking that music culture in Berlin is all about the techno clubs, but the reality is this is a city with a wide-ranging and varied live scene, so much so that you can find gigs taking on any night of the week. To find out what is going on while you are in Berlin, follow the links to the venues we have recommended below, or check out the listings page of the Visit Berlin website or Zitty, one of Berlins most popular print and online listings magazines.

Berlin: Touring destination

Increasingly, music-lovers are visiting the German capital to combine a visit to Berlin with a concert from one of their favourite bands. Berlin has venues to accommodate everyone, from huge stadium-rockers like U2 or Bruce Springsteen  who tend to appear at the iconic Olympiastadion  to smaller bands from the UK and the United States making their first forays into continental Europe. But not all mainstream venues are created equal, and there is a huge difference between a soulless hangar and a historic ballroom or theatre, not least when it comes to the acoustics.

Some of the best venues that attract the main rock and pop acts to Berlin include the surprisingly intimate Huxleys Neue Welt, close to Hermannplatz in Kreuzberg. Close by on Columbiadamm are the Columbiahalle and the Columbiatheater, built to entertain the American troops during the occupation of Berlin and now two of the premier concert venues in the city. Other interesting venues that offer up a varied programme of international and German acts include the tent-like Tempodrom and the historic Admiralspalast theatre, close to Friedrichstrae station.

Olympiastadion  S-Bahn: Olympiastadion

Huxleys Neue Welt  U-Bahn: Hermannplatz

Columbiahalle + Columbiatheater  U-Bahn: Platz der Luftbrucke

Admiralspalast  S+U-Bahn: Friedrichstrae

Tempodrom  S-Bahn: Anhalter Bahnhof

Roof of the Tempodrom in Kreuzberg

The local scene

One particular joy of travelling is exploring the best that the local music scene has to offer. When it comes to live music in Berlin, there are all kinds of concerts taking place, from folk to metal, jazz to reggae. Down in the basement, Junction Bar in Kreuzberg offers up a mix of live music and DJ sets in a variety of genres and styles, while Schokoladen in Mitte is a throw-back to the hedonistic 1990s in Berlin, with its DIY aesthetic and eclectic line-up of bands, playing everything from punk and rock to indie pop. Their regular open stage events are a great chance to experience whats fresh in the Berlin music scene. For rock and punk, there is only really one choice: Wild at Heart in Kreuzberg is the place for loud music, strong drinks and the chance to show off your tattoos.

Junction Bar  U-Bahn: Gneisenaustrae

Schokoladen  U-Bahn: Rosenthaler Platz

Wild at Heart  U-Bahn: Gorlitzer Bahnhof

If youve got the blues

The jazz and blues community in Berlin is long established, and attracts some of the finest horn-blowers, piano-tinklers and bass-slappers from around the world. The Yorkschlosschen calls itself the Home of Jazz and Blues and can be found in an atmospheric old building where a knowledgeable crowd comes by for their regular programme of jazz, blues, soul, funk and swing. Quasimodo in Charlottenburg opened in a former dance hall in the 1970s and has been a staple of Berlins live music scene ever since. Not only jazz, Quasimodo hosts a wide range of concerts from blues and rock to Latin and soul. Check out their listings for whats on. One of Berlins most beloved jazz clubs is b-flat in Berlin-Mitte. There you will find live music every night of the week, including their ever-popular jam sessions on Wednesdays.

Yorkschlosschen  U-Bahn: Mehringdamm

Quasimodo  S+U-Bahn: Zoologischer Garten

b-flat  S-Bahn: Hackescher Markt

Classical music venue, the Berliner Philharmonie

Get classical

With eight symphony orchestras, three opera houses and countless chamber music venues, including the newly opened and Frank Gehry-designed Pierre Boulez Saal, Berlin is heaven for lovers of classical music. Highlights undoubtedly include the world class performances at the Berliner Philharmonie  where they also offer free lunchtime concerts on Tuesdays in the foyer  as well as the luxurious surroundings of the Staatsoper opera house on Unter den Linden. The Heimathafen Neukolln is a peoples theatre collective, and their eclectic programme offers up classical and opera performances in a slightly more down-to-earth atmosphere than the more famous concert halls of the city.

Pierre Boulez Saal  U-Bahn: Hausvogteiplatz

Berliner Philharmonie  S+U-Bahn: Potsdamer Platz

Staatsoper  S+U-Bahn: Alexanderplatz

Heimathafen Neukolln: U-Bahn: Karl-Marx-StraeFrom exploring its maze of cobblestone streets and sampling delicious pastel de nata to sunning yourself on one of its many nearby beaches, Lisbon is the perfect spot for a summer getaway. When visiting, make sure you enjoy a sundowner, Mediterranean nibbles or a dance at one of these beach bars that are just a short distance from the centre of the Portuguese capital.

Escape the hustle and bustle of the city and sip some cocktails by the sea

Bar on the Rocks at Farol Hotel

Located inside the sophisticated boutique Farol Hotel, Bar on the Rocks is as close as you can get to Lisbons beautiful coastline. Its in the popular Cascais district thats less than hour away from the city centre, and its perfect for lazy summer evenings thanks to its glamorous contemporary decor and unrivalled ocean panoramas. Enjoy views of the Atlantic as you listen to cool music and sip on classic and regional cocktails, including the Cascais that contains an aromatic mix of cherry, basil and tequila. The bar is open SundayThursday 10300100, FridaySaturday 10300200.

Getting there: Drive west out of the city centre along the A5 towards Cascais. Take the 12th exit and turn south along the N9-1 before turning onto the N6. Keep going until you hit the coast and then turn left onto Av. Rei Humberto II de Italia. Farol Hotel will be on your right. Alternatively, take the train to Cascais and its then a pleasant 20-minute walk west along Av. Rei Humberto II de Italia.

Sunset Club

A half-hour drive north of the city centre on the picturesque Costa de Caprica is the Sunset Club, a beachside venue that definitely lives up to its idyllic name. Spread out right on the sand dunes of Praia de Sao Joao, guests can recline on sunbeds or enjoy their drinks at the chic blue and white themed indoor bar. Not just perfect for refreshing sunset cocktails, its also an all-evening destination where you can enjoy fresh Mediterranean favourites from its tempting menu before sipping on more drinks as the moon reflects off the ocean. The bar is open MondaySunday 08002200.

Getting there: Drive over the 25th April Bridge north of the city centre then take the A38 towards Costa de Caparica. Turn right onto the N10-1 and drive for a few minutes before turning left onto R. Mario Viegas. Turn right and continue on for around 400m until you see the Sunset Club on your left.

Praia  Sea, Salt and Pepper

Sea, Salt and Pepper is a sublime option if youre craving a more sophisticated evening on the coast. Also nestled on the white sands of Praia de Sao Joao, it was first opened in 2015 and offers city dwellers and visitors alike a more grown up version of a typical beach club. From the contemporary yet cosy decor that features bright pops of colour to the resident DJ that is there most weekends, its a high-end venue for night time antics. Spend the day there and relax on one of the sought-after cabanas before enjoying an evening of white wine sangria, unbeatable sunset views and music under the stars. The bar is open MondayThursday 12001900, FridaySunday 12002000.

Getting there: From Lisbons centre, drive north over the 25th April Bridge before taking the A38 towards Costa da Caparica. Turn right onto the N10-1 and drive for a few minutes before turning left onto R. Mario Viegas. The private car park is at the end of the road.

Create magical moments during your Lisbon trip and end the day by the beach

A Pastorinha

At the halfway point between the city centre and Cascais, A Pastorinha on Praia de Carcavelos makes a great first stop on a night out. While mainly a restaurant, its beautiful terrace is a great little spot for a drink and to soak up some stunning views of the Portuguese coastline. Its retained some of its traditional charm in its menu and ambiance, and theres often live piano performances to enjoy plus a range of G+T options at the bar. The bar is open WednesdayMonday 11002300.

Getting there: A Pastorinha is a half hour drive from the city centre if you take the A5 westbound and take the 8th exit onto the N6-7. Its also possible to reach it by train from the city centre if you head west on the Linha de Cascais to Carcavelos. Its then a 15-minute walk south along Avenida Jorge before you hit the beach, and another 10-minute stroll east to A Pastorinha.

Delmare Cafe

If you want to experience one of Lisbons legendary sunset summer parties, put Delmare Cafe on your evening agenda. Another Costa de Caparica haunt, it turns into a party place after dark that strives to mirror the cool all-night bars of Ibiza. Spread over multiple areas, cosy seating areas on the sand are ideal for lounging around with friends while the DJ area is ideal if youre feeling energetic. In the high season, it often stays open until 1600 making it an all-night destination. The bar is open SundayThursday 09000200, FridaySaturday 09000400.

Getting there: Cross over the 25th April Bridge out of the centre. Get on the A38 eastbound and take the third exit onto the A33. After 3.5km, take the exit towards Feijo and then the first exit on the roundabout. At the next roundabout, turn onto the N377 and continue to the N377-2. As the road becomes parallel to the coastline, youll see an unnamed road; Delmare Cafe is at the end of it on the right-hand side.Kym Vercoe is just one of the tourists to stay at the Vilina Vlas spa hotel without knowing the horrors that happened there.

Like other guests she slept in its rooms, dined in its restaurants and swam in its pool, completely unaware that the hotel had been used as a rape camp and execution chamber during the Bosnian war.

The night she spent in the infamous hotel changed her life, and now ten years on she talks to MailOnline about how to this day, the hotel remains open. Guests from across the world check into the Vilina Vlas daily, unaware of the atrocities that happened inside it walls.

Vercoe went to Bosnia to enjoy its rich culture and see a different side to the horror that flashed over TV screens in the 90s.

The Vilina Vlas spa hotel in Bosnia was used as a rape camp by the White Eagles paramilitary group during the war

Unsuspecting Australian Kym Vercoe stayed in the Vilina Vlas spa hotel. She slept in its rooms, ate at one of its restaurants and months later found out about its dark past

When I went to Bosnia, I knew about Bosnia. Id done some reading, Im into the news I didnt want to go to Srebrenica, I didnt want to do a dark tourism tour of Bosnia. I was sort of more interested in the culture and music, she told MailOnline.

Taking a recommendation from a guidebook she checked herself into the Vilina Vlas. Nestled in the middle of a thick pine forest, its billed as a healing hotel, where guests can use the thermal baths to treat ailments such as arthritis and tendinitis.

The guidebook made no mention of how Milan Likic, the head of the Serb paramilitary group the White Eagles, made the hotel his headquarters in 1992. The book did not say that in only a few months they would help wage a killing campaign on the towns Muslim population. Men, women and more than 100 children were rounded up and slaughtered, their bodies dumped in the river.

It said nothing about Vilina Vlas being used to detain, torture and execute prisoners or anything about the 200 women and girls, some only 14, taken to the hotel and raped.

Many were plucked from the streets and driven to the hotel by members of the White Eagles. When they entered the buildings they could hear the other girls cries through the thin walls.

Milan Likic, the leader of the White Eagles in Visegrad, made the hotel his headquarters in 1992

In a few months his group would help wage an effective killing campaign against the towns Muslim population

The girls were locked in rooms and the members of the White Eagles would come along and choose which one they wanted. Afterwards, if they were lucky, they were driven home to their families but in many cases, they were never seen again.

After the war ended the hotel was renovated and opened to tourists. Any talk of its dark past has been drowned out by the celebration of the spas thermal healing properties.

All elements for a real rest, enjoyment and filling of life energy. WELCOME!! its website says. The hotel boasts about the 134 beds, two restaurants and an indoor pool.

For $34.29 you can book a single room with breakfast.

I turned up in Visegrad, its packed to the rafters and I thought okay Ill just have to stay out at the spa resort. It was the only place with room, said Vercoe.

Horror: 200 girls, some only 14, were detained and raped at the hotel, which was re-opened after the war ended

In the evening I went back to Vilina Vlas. Id already checked in in the afternoon. I had already swum in the pool downstairs. I went to bed and I couldnt sleep and I was really awake all night. I was extremely anxious.

The next day she slept off her anxiety as a bus drove her back to Belgrade. It wasnt until she was back in Sydney, months later, that she learnt about the hotels history.

I was just googling places on the internet I clicked on the Wikipedia page of Vilina Vlas and the first thing it says is Vilina Vlas is a spa resort located outside of Visegrad, it was a notorious rape camp during the war, she said.

It was the closest Ive been to hysterical. I was sobbing, I couldnt breathe. It was just so confronting to read that.

Often the girls were taken from the streets and driven to Vilina Vlas. As they entered they could hear other girls' screams through the walls

Members of the White Eagles would come along and choose which girl they wanted

Vercoe found out about the hotel's horrific past months after she visited. She said: It was the closest Ive been to hysterical. I was sobbing, I couldnt breathe'

And I just began to start to feel profoundly duped, I guess is the best word. Not in the way that I felt like a victim or anything like that, but I kept thinking to myself, how is it possible that I went to that town and had no idea what had happened there? How has that been so erased?

In 2014, Vercoe made a one woman theatre show called Seven Kilometres North East out of her experience. Afterwards she was contacted by award-winning Bosnian director Jasmila Zbanic and her experience of staying Vilina Vlas was made into the drama For Those Who Can Tell No Tales. They learned quickly that Vercoes sleepless night was not a unique experience.

I was talking to one director from France who was just traveling through Bosnia, Zbanic said.

And he told me, not knowing that at that moment we were making this film, "but there is one city, oh my god, it was so weird - I was not able to sleep and strange energy was there and I felt sick". I asked him where had he been - and yes, it was Vilina Vlas in Visegrad.

Afterwards Vercoe created the theater show Seven Kilometres North East about her experience

He was shocked. He didnt know any of that but, like Kym, he felt it strongly, she said.

The other guests of Vilina Vlas may not turn their realisations into feature films but the outrage is still palpable. They take to TripAdvisor or social media to condemn the silence that surrounds the hotel's history.

Darko Krznaric, a Bosnian-Canadian, stayed in the hotel on several occasions for work.

I stayed at Vilina Vlas with two other Canadian colleagues who were part of the project training team. I knew it was a popular spa before the war. I did not know about the atrocities and crimes that took place, he told MailOnline.

It is probably one of the spookiest places I have visited. After the day of training, we went to our rooms, but we ended up together in one room because we felt very uncomfortable for obvious reasons, he said.

After he realised where he had stayed, Krznaric tweeted a description of the rooms: Hotel rooms were dark and small, with long and narrow dirty windows covered with heavy curtains that smelled of tobacco.

There was something about that place that made us very uncomfortable. At the time we were unaware of its horrible past. Word "evil" does not even begin to describe it.'

'It is probably one of the spookiest place I have visited,' said Darko Krznaric, who stayed there for work

The Vilina vlas reviews on TripAdvisor are mixed. One says that it has a 'perfect small pool', another that it's 'Horrible! Terrible!'

As for the town, it actively fights against acknowledging the hotel's history.

I dont know what happened there. I am not interested in going back to the past. Why would I read about that if Im not interested in going back to that? Visegrads mayor Mladen Djurevic said in a recent interview with The Guardian.

The problem is that even today most of these people don't think they did anything wrong, said Zbanic.

And a bigger problem is that their children don't think they did anything wrong. Serbian media and Serbian politicians in Bosnia still celebrate these acts of murders and rapes as a Serbian heroism. So it is very hard to move forward.

Ten years after Vercoe traveled to the hotel guests continue to stay there, unaware of what happened there

The town not only ignores its history but actively tries to fight against it

Vercoe said: Its very easy for that sort of fictionalisation to exist. For people to say that its hearsay or propaganda.

'"It was just a base and none of the atrocities happened there, thats just Muslim propaganda. Thats the sort of line that you get.

I suddenly realised its ten years since I visited, and its still so present in my mind. The country, and the story. It shocks me that it's ten years and it shocks me that not a single thing has shifted.

A really interesting question is what is it going to take to shift that mentality? I dont know what the answer is to that.

Until it shifts, the hotel remains open for business and unsuspecting tourists will dine, swim and sleep there completely unawares.

'Our guests, who come from all over the world, come to the hotel for the rest,' Nebojsa Krlic, 33, the deputy director of Vilina Vlas said via email to MailOnline.

Ignoring questions about the hotels history, he said the hotel was beloved by tourist and locals alike: 'The locals love and use this area, precisely because of the beautiful ambiance in which the hotel is located.

'Considering the great possibilities of use and the existing potential of thermal water, the Rehabilitation Center "Vilina Vlas" can very favorably influence the development of the entire region.'The family of a disabled boy say he was forced to sleep on an airport floor with no blankets and little food after they were stranded in Tenerife for over 24 hours.

Hundreds of British holidaymakers were hit by flight cancellations following bad weather in the Canary Islands earlier in the week.

Many passengers accused tour operator Thomas Cook of leaving stranded customers to fend for themselves without any assistance from a rep.

Scott Parry, 13, who suffers from cerebral palsy, was forced to sleep on Tenerife airport floor after his flight back home to the UK was delayed for over 24 hours

The Parry family claim they were in tears as Scott cried as he lay on the floor to go to sleep

And the Parry family from Brownhills in the West Midlands say they were left in the airport with nowhere else to go after their flight to East Midlands Airport was delayed.

Vicki and Scott Parry were forced to lay their son Scott, who suffers from cerebral palsy, on the floor to sleep and now fear he won't be able to move for up to a week because he requires cushioned support.

Father, Scott, 47, also claims that he was in tears watching his son crying on the floor and was forced to comfort him so the 13-year-old would fall asleep.

While mother, Vicki, 36, described the scenes at Tenerife airport as like a 'third world country' adding that pregnant women and the elderly were left with little food or drink.

Mrs Parry, who is her son's full-time carer, said: 'It's just so upsetting that it was allowed to happen in a country like that.

Hundreds of British holidaymakers were hit by flight cancellations following bad weather in the Canary Islands earlier in the week. Pictured are passengers at Norte Airport in Tenerife

'It's not like we were in a third world country. We felt like homeless people.

'Other disabled passengers, the elderly and pregnant women were having to sleep on the floor. We were offered no blankets, no pillows or cushions. Nothing.

'Scott has cerebral palsy, is deaf and wears nappies overnight. It was practical things like that.

'We didn't have any with us because we weren't expecting to be delayed this long and there was no chemist at the airport for us to buy any from. We were having to wake him to go to the toilet every hour.

Scott's sister Katie, 12, used her brother's wheelchair as a makeshift bed during the delay

'At least one of the passengers was on morphine and had put it in her case with no access to it.

'Babies were unable to have their nappies changed because there was nowhere to buy them.

'For me, if it was the two of us it would have been bearable but it was the two children.

'Thomas Cook could have done so much more.'

The Parry family had paid 3,500 for their week-long holiday at a four-star resort in Tenerife and despite having a relaxing break, Mrs Parry is worried their son will struggle to move for some time after sleeping on the cold floor.

She explained: 'I made a bed on the floor for Scott and we had to take him out of the wheelchair. He won't be able to move now for a week.

'It was like we were in a third-world country. We had to help other wheelchair users on to the floor so they could sleep too.

'When we told the Thomas Cook rep, she said "oh we didn't realise, we're trying to open the VIP lounge for you, I'll go and speak to someone" and she never came back.

'We were all entitled to a welfare token worth 20 euros but it's not a 24-hour airport and the last flight was 11.30pm. Only the Burger King stayed open and they opened another cafe.

'At 6am on Monday our card was topped up with 20 euros but this time no-one was told so another woman only found out when she went to pay for something.'

Scott, pictured left on holiday in Tenerife and right with his mother anD sister. The Parry family had paid 3,500 for their week-long holiday at a four-star resort in Tenerife

As passengers grew increasingly anxious on the holiday island, they desperately searched online to see if any flights were scheduled to arrive from Tenerife to East Midlands Airport.

Some even tried to track the location of the aircraft on their phones as no reps were available.

Mr Parry added: 'I could see there was a storm coming and after we checked in no flights were going in or out of the airport.

'Obviously, we appreciated that it was going to be late because of the rain but there were no Thomas Cook representatives anywhere.

Thomas Cook has since apologised for the 'clearly unacceptable' treatment of its customers and has offered the Parry family 600 in compensation

'A lot of other travel companies had their reps around and were making announcements over the PA system.

'Thomas Cook had three flights going out so I'd say there were around 1,000 customers unattended to.

'Customers were trying to get information from the UK or trying to track the plane online.

'After two hours you are entitled to some sort of welfare token and Jet2 announced over the PA that its customers could go and collect theirs.

'We thought "what about us?" They were telling us everything was happening behind the scenes.

'They couldn't get the plane out to the UK and there were no hotels left because all the other flight companies had snapped up the hotels.'

The family claim that when reps finally arrived at 11.30pm, crowds of concerned travellers surrounded the information desk and desperately sought information.

It was then revealed that all the hotels were already booked up by other tour operators but if customers could find a hotel room, Thomas Cook would reimburse them.

Mrs Parry claims another tourist could only find a room for 247 a night.

People were also affected by the delays at Lanzarote Airport and were pictured sleeping behind check-in desks

Severe weather in the Canary Islands affected holidaymakers travelling back to the UK from Tenerife and Lanzarote, pictured

She said: 'Reps arrived at 11.30pm but obviously they were then inundated with customers and we didn't get to speak to any of them directly.

'At 1.30am, Thomas Cook then announced the flight was cancelled and if we could get a hotel ourselves they would reimburse us. It was a two-hour wait for taxis and we needed to be back at the airport for 6am.

'Somebody else we knew was hoping to get out of the airport into a hotel but they were charging 274 for a night. That's not affordable when you've just had a holiday.'

Thomas Cook has since apologised for the 'clearly unacceptable' treatment of their customers and have offered the Parry family 600 in compensation.

A spokesperson said: 'This is clearly unacceptable and we have apologised to the Parry family for the experience they had while delayed at Tenerife airport due to poor weather.

'We have offered compensation to the family, which they have accepted.'She had a successful career as a model before playing Senior constable Katarina Chapman on the long-running soap Home and Away.

And it seems as though Pia Miller has returned to her modelling roots, sharing a spot-on drawing of herself to Instagram story on Wednesday.

The 34-year-old, who is currently in Los Angeles, took to her social media account to post a snap of the black ink impression of her.

Picture perfect! Pia Miller shared a spot-on sketch (R) of herself on Instagram this week. The drawing was created by Egyptian artist Muhammed Salah showing wisps of her fringe, bold brows, long eyelashes and a plump pout

Created by Egyptian artist Muhammed Salah, the drawing showcased wisps of her fringe, bold brows, long eyelashes and plump pout.

Pia has been in California for the past few weeks, spending time with family and friends.

She recently posted snaps from a fun night out with pals Clint Nicolas and Karissa Dalton, the ex wife of pro surfer Mick Fanning.

Pia has been in California for the past few weeks, spending time with family and friends

The brunette stunner captioned her post: 'My loves,' along with the hashtag '#malibu.'

Earlier she posted a mirror selfie of herself with a gal pal looking relaxed and cool in a stripped long sleeve shirt and mini denim jeans alongside Karissa.

This comes after the Chilean beauty, who is also a mother-of-two boys, revealed that she's hot on the audition trail in search of new roles.

She also denied any chance of pursuing an acting career in the US.

Babe in black! Former Home And Away star Pia Miller has returned to California, but it looks like this time she is there to spend time with her friends Clint Nicolas (centre) and Karissa Dalton (right), the ex wife of pro surfer Mick Fanning

Girls day out! She posted a mirror selfie of herself with a gal pal looking relaxed and cool in a stripped long sleeve shirt and mini denim jeans, alongside Karissa (right)

'I take it day by day and I audition for things when they come up. I don't have my sights set on Hollywood, which is always publicised about me. It's not the case,' she told The Daily Telegraph.

'I'm just enjoying what I'm doing and spending time with family,' she added.

Pia, who became engaged to fiance Tyson Mullane last year, revealed to PopSugar that she had mixed feelings about her decision to leave Home And Away at the end of last year, calling it 'bittersweet.'

Hollywood is not for her: This comes after the Chilean beauty, who is also a mother-of-two boys, revealed: 'I don't have my sights set on Hollywood, which is always publicised about me'

Moving on: Pia also revealed to the publication that she had mixed feelings about her decision to leave Home And Away at the end of last year, calling it 'bittersweet'

'It was obviously really sad to say goodbye to that character and to people that I've worked with for so long,' she said.

These days Pia is focusing on her new role in the Channel Nine mini-series Bite Club alongside Dominic Monaghan, Deborah Mailman and Todd Lasance.

The thriller follows the tale of two detectives who survive a shark attack, before joining forces to hunt down a serial killer who is stalking them.He recently wrapped up a busy week of runway shows at Milan Fashion Week.

And Jordan Barett enjoyed some rest and relaxation with Victoria's Secret model Frida Aasen, 23.

The 21-year-old took to his Instagram story, on Tuesday, to share a glimpse of his picturesque location at the Faena hotel Miami Beach, in Florida.

Living it up! Jordan Barett enjoyed some rest and relaxation with Victoria's Secret model Frida Aasen, 23, in Miami this week

He spent the day in a luxury boat with the Norwegian beauty, as the pair took in stunning views of the city's skyline.

The Byron Bay-native shared a clip which showed the stunning pair posing and showing off their pouts for the camera.

He went shirtless with only a pair of white shorts with gold necklaces, while Frida dressed in a black crop top and matching bikini bottoms.

Pout off: The Byron Bay born male model shared a clip of himself with the blonde stunner posing and showing off their pouts for the camera

Genetically blessed: Later during the trip, she made an outfit change to a multi-coloured bikini allowed her to show off a glimpse of her sideboob

Later during the trip, she made an outfit change to a multi-coloured bikini allowed her to show off a glimpse of her sideboob.

Daily Mail Australia has reached out to Jordan Barrett and Frida Aasen for comment.

Frida herself is making waves in the modelling industry after scoring a gig on the coveted Victoria's Secret runway show in Shanghai last November.

Living luxe: He spent the day out on the water in a luxury boat with the Norwegian beauty enjoying the view of the city skyline

Model friends: Jordan took to his Instagram story, on Tuesday, to show his legions of followers his next enviable location at the Faena hotel Miami Beach, in Florida, and later showed them he was spending the day with Frida

Fellow VS stunner Kelly Gale had nothing but a glowing report about her, telling Australian Vogue: 'We are both Scandinavian and she was super cool.'

She also done work for Swedish chain H&M and American fashion retailer Nasty Gal.

Over the years Jordan Barrett has accumulated quite an extensive and star studded list romantic links and rumoured flings, including Lara Stone, Kate Moss, Paris Hilton and Hailey Baldwin.Maria Shriver reveals in her new book that she's changed her mind about the morality of getting a divorce.

The member of the devout Roman Catholic Kennedy clan, Shriver, 62, famously split from Hollywood star husband Arnold Schwarzenegger in 2011 after 25 years of marriage.

'I grew up thinking divorce was a sin,' she writes in I've Been Thinking . . .: Reflections, Prayers, and Meditations for a Meaningful Life. 'I couldnt have been more wrong.'

Scroll down for video

Change of heart: Maria Shriver reveals in her new book that she's changed her mind about the morality of getting a divorce and admits she was wrong to think divorce is sinful

She goes on, as reported by RadarOnline Tuesday: 'I always thought people whose marriages didnt work out were quitters. I was wrong.'

'I do admire people who work at their marriages, but I also admire those who chart a new way forward. And I really admire those who manage to stay friends after their marriages are over  and arent afraid to try love again after being hurt.'

Shriver, a former NBC anchor, shares four children with Schwarzenegger, who has returned to movie-making after a stint as Governor of California from 2003 to 2011.

The couple announced their separation in May 9, 2011, and just a few days later Schwarzenegger acknowledged he had had a son with their longtime housekeeper.

Shriver filed for divorce, citing 'irreconcilable differences'.

Exes: Shriver, 62, raised as a member of the devoutly Roman Catholic Kennedy clan, famously split from Arnold Schwarzenegger in 2011 after 25 years of marriage and four children

Book tour: She reveals she turned to therapy after separating from her famous husband and had to confront her fear of being alone. She's pictured promoting her book in NYC on Tuesday

She reflects in her book about her fear of 'being alone' and reveals she turned to therapy for help.

'Its helped me tremendously to navigate the rough patches in my life, to be more aware, to forgive, and to be a better person,' she explains.

I've Been Thinking is a collection of reflections, prayers and quotes Shriver has found helpful as she navigates this period of her life.

She told LIHerald.com in a recent interview that she's discovered meditation and with it, a newfound sense of inner peace.

She says she hopes her book will become a bedside companion for people.

'I offer the tools to stay above the noise, and find that sanctuary,' she said.Kylie Jenner is making sure all hands are on deck for her newborn daughter Stormi Webster.

The reality star, who welcomed her first-born February 1, has enlisted the help of several 'nannies and assistants,' according to a source close to the makeup mogul that spoke with People.

And it appears that Kylie, 21, is a natural at mothering, with the insider adding: 'She's a really great mom' and 'Shes always been very maternal.'

Team work! Kylie Jenner has reportedly enlisted the help of several 'nannies and assistants' for newborn daughter Stormi Webster, according to a source that spoke with People. It's a good thing since the star is busy with her makeup collection, which she models above

Kylie definitely needs the extra hands while taking care of her new little girl and her hit makeup brand.

The starlet modeled her line's brand new collection of cosmetics on Instagram Tuesday, seen smoldering in front of a canary yellow background while sporting a shimmering green eye.

The young millionaire isn't sparing any expense when it comes to her newborn daughter's, who she shares with boyfriend Travis Scott, care.

'With the support and abilities she has to hire nannies and assistants, shes been a really, really great mom,' explained someone close to the star.

Made to be mom! It appears that Kylie, 21, is a natural at mothering, with the insider adding: 'She's a really great mom' and 'Shes always been very maternal.' Above a glimpse of daughter Stormi is seen from the baby's birth announcement video published earlier this month

Personal matter: Earlier this month the Keeping Up With the Kardashians star revealed earlier she had given birth after keeping her pregnancy a secret throughout her term

'Shes incredibly doting and hands-on as a mom. the insider added.

The star splashed out thousands on eco-friendly products for her daughter ahead of her birth earlier this month.

Stormi has a $3500 changing table and a $400 organic mattress in her crib, according to gossip website TMZ.

She and beau Travis are also said to have forked out on a number of wooden, handmade bears from forests in south Chile which are covered in bees' wax and flaxseed oil and upscale infant mattresses by brand Pebble Pure.

Fancy pants! Kylie and beau Travis Scott (above in April 2017) r splashed out thousands on eco-friendly products for her daughter, reportedly purchasing Stormi a $3500 changing table and a $400 organic mattress in her crib, according to TMZ

Earlier this month the Keeping Up With the Kardashians star revealed earlier she had given birth after keeping her pregnancy a secret throughout her term.

She wrote on Instagram: 'I'm sorry for keeping you in the dark through all the assumptions. I understand you're used to me bringing you along on all my journeys. My pregnancy was one I chose not to do in front of the world.

Kylie isn't the only one in the family in welcome mode.

Half-sister Kim Kardashian welcomed daughter Chicago via surrogate in January and half-sister Khloe is due in a matter of weeks.Things are getting serious between Diane Kruger and Norman Reedus.

The celebrity couple looked at properties in New York City's West Village on Tuesday.

Kruger, 41, who wore a bright red winter jacket and jeans, held her boyfriend close as she's viewed multi-million dollar homes throughout the month of February.

Let's go shopping: Diane Kruger and boyfriend Norman Reedus look at properties on Tuesday in New York's West Side

It's getting serious: The couple that was first spotted getting cosy last spring have been inseparable ever since

Reedus, who works on AMC hit series The Walking Dead, wore head-to-toe black for their real estate shopping adventure.

Just two weeks ago, the loved-up pair were spotted looking at a $11.8 million townhouse in the same area.

Even if they have yet to pick which home might suit them best, it seems they may have at least narrowed it down to a particular neighborhood.

Red hot: They've been spotted multiple times in February looking at multi-million dollar properties

His girl: The Walking Dead star co-starred with Kruger in the 2015 film Sky

The duo only recently made it red carpet official when they attended the Golden Globe Awards together on January 7.

He was there to give her a celebratory kiss when her film, In The Fade, won the Golden Globe for Best Foreign Language film.

Sadly the German language film was snubbed by the Academy Awards, receiving no nominations.

Red carpet official: Reedus planted a huge kiss on his lady love when her movie In The Fade won best foreign language film at the Golden Globes

After party: Shortly after the Golden Globes, they went back to Costa Rica to celebrate Norman's 49th birthday

After the Golden Globes, they took a romantic vacation in Costa Rica where Reedus celebrated his 49th birthday.

The Central American country is popular with this couple, who were also there in August.

Norman and Diane co-starred in the 2015 film Sky, and were went public with their romance last spring after her split from Joshua Jackson.

Snubbed: The German-native was snubbed by the Academy Awards with her film In the Fade earning no nominations

His winner: She's still a winner in her man's eyes who proudly held hands with her while walking the city

Hopefully looking at properties around the Big Apple is helping to keep the German-born actress away from the TV and radio.

She posted a photo of herself on Instagram on Tuesday looking stressed out.

'Watching the news is depressing,' Kruger wrote adding a sad emoji with his tongue sticking out.His biography of Princess Diana took the world by storm in 1992 after he published details of her mental health battle and heartache over Camilla.

And Andrew Morton, 64, has now weighed in on the world's newest royal-to-be Meghan Markle, claiming that she will never replace Diana as the 'People's Princess'.

'The mass media has been looking for a golden goose and Diana died,' Andrew told The Morning Show's Kylie Gillies and Larry Emdur this Wednesday.

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'I'm afraid to say, folks, there is only one Diana and sadly, she has passed': Andrew Morton, 64, has weighed in on the world's newest royal-to-be Meghan Markle, claiming that she will never replace Diana as the 'People's Princess'

'They thought at first it would be Kate, and to a degree it was. And now it is Meghan. I'm afraid to say, folks, there is only one Diana and sadly, she has passed,' he went on.

Andrew, who recently announced his plans to pen a tell-all biography about Meghan Markle, also claimed that Diana would have approved of Harry's bride.

'I think she would have been very impressed by Meghan. She was someone who always had ambitions to be a speech maker and Meghan spoke at the UN Women's conference. She is very fluent and articulate.'

'She has elements that Diana always wanted to be': Andrew, who recently announced his plans to pen a tell-all biography about Meghan Markle, also claimed that Diana would have approved of Harry's bride

'She has elements that Diana always wanted to be, and she is also someone like Diana who wants to give back, who wants to get involved with the community and articulating some of the issues that we'd rather not talk about.'

In December last year, Andrew sent tongues wagging after he Tweeted about Meghan's biography, writing: 'Excited to be writing Meghan Markle's story. She has bags of charisma. A royal star who will have tremendous impact on royal family and wider world.'

According to The Bookseller, Meghan: A Hollywood Princess, will be published on 19th April 2018, a month before the former Suits star weds Prince Harry at Windsor Castle.

'The mass media has been looking for a golden goose and Diana died': Andrew revealed fans of the royals have previously attempted to cast Kate Middleton in the role of the 'People's Princess'

There is no suggestion, however, that Meghan has co-operated in any way with Morton's latest book.

Andrew wrote international bestseller Diana: Her True Story in 1992 as well as a revised edition after her death based on taped responses from Diana to his written questions.

Those recordings, about seven hours of taped responses, were secretly made in Kensington Palace in 1991 during a series of interviews conducted through an intermediary, Dr James Colthurst.She's just completed renovations on her extravagant property she shares with her footy star boyfriend Quade Cooper.

And it looks as though all that building has done wonders for Laura Dundovic's already amazing figure.

The former Miss Universe was spotted showing off her rock-hard abs while enjoying a bike ride in Brisbane on Wednesday.

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Ab-solutely fabulous: Former Miss Universe Laura Dundovic shows off her rock-hard abs as she goes for a ride around Brisbane

The 30-year-old was clad in all-black active wear - teaming up a pair of leggings with a crop top which offered onlookers a glimpse at her supremely toned stomach.

The former I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here! contestant kept her blonde locks pulled back off her face with two plaits.

Fresh-faced Laura completed her look with a pair of quirky red sunglasses and a pair of subtle diamond earrings.

Earlier this month, Laura spoke to Daily Mail Australia and revealed just how tough the renovations were.

'It was a big job! It was a bit difficult not having a kitchen for a few months and basically [eating] take-away the entire time,' she said.

Ride on! The former Miss Universe was spotted showing off her rock-hard abs while enjoying a bike ride in Brisbane on Wednesday

Pedal power: The 30-year-old was clad in all-black active wear - teaming up a pair of leggings with a crop top which offered onlookers a glimpse at her supremely toned stomach

Wheelie good ride: The former I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here! contestant kept her blonde locks pulled back off her face with two plaits

Simple look: Fresh-faced Laura completed her look with a pair of quirky red sunglasses and a pair of subtle diamond earrings

'It was a bit challenging but I really enjoyed renovating and once you've done it, you get addicted to every renovating lifestyle show, blog, Pinterest The Block, for example  I've just really been loving watching all that stuff.'

It was reported early last year by the Courier Mail that the couple's property was purchased for $1.85 million, prior to going under renovations that were set to entail addictions of an observation deck and pool.

The statuesque blonde also hinted at upcoming engagement plans with Quade telling Daily Mail Australia that while she 'doesn't like to look into the future' they are 'both very happy'.They were hit with rumours last month that they were looking to settle down in the US.

But Michelle Keegan has revealed she has no plans to permanently move to LA to join her husband Mark Wright in an interview with Cosmopolitan.

The actress, 30, discussed her long-distance relationship with the TV presenter, 31, saying the pair 'don't sweat the small stuff' anymore.

Long distance: Michelle Keegan has said she has no plans to permanently move to LA to join her husband Mark Wright in an interview with Cosmopolitan

'We're more patient with each other, laid-back, and don't sweat the small stuff,' she told the publication.

'I think because we're really happy in our careers it helps with the relationship as well.'

Despite spending the past few months in LA with her beau, she ruled out a permanent move, adding: 'I'm too much of a home-bod. I like going back just to breathe.'

Making it work: The actress, 30, also discussed her long-distance relationship with the TV presenter, 31, saying the pair 'don't sweat the small stuff' anymore

Despite their long-distance relationship, the couple make it work by Facetime-ing each other everyday.

She said: 'He'd have breakfast, I'd have dinner. He'd get in the shower, I'd do my scripts. It was the norm.

'We were [living at] different ends of the spectrum. I remember FaceTime-ing him surrounded by cattle and mud.

'He was in Nobu in Malibu having cocktails saying, 'Aw babe, look at the view!' I said, 'Do you want to see my view?'

Sweet: Despite their long-distance relationship, the couple make it work by Facetime-ing everyday

Michelle spent eight months away from home last year when she filmed the second series of Our Girl.

'The first month in South Africa, I struggled because you're trying to find your feet,' she said.

'You push yourself. I did eight months away  six-day weeks, and 14-hour days, working on top of a garbage heap. I did it!

'It was the sense of missing out  my dogs, a birthday, a family meal or my best friend having a baby. I didn't think I'd be able to do it. It's given me the drive and push.'

Successful career: Michelle spent eight months away from home last year when she filmed the second series of Our Girl

The former Coronation Street star showed off her incredible physique in the racy photo shoot.

In one sultry snap she seductively posed in a navy bra and silky black skirt as she curled up on a sofa while in another shot she slipped into a skimpy pyjama set.

The interview comes after Mark raised eyebrows earlier this week when he was caught liking racy snaps from glam wrestler Brie Bella and Rita Ora on Instagram.

Mark unliked the Rita photo soon after, while his representatives refused to comment.

Meanwhile on his own Instagram page, Mark shared a romantic shot of the pair locked in an embrace while wistfully gazing out at the sun setting over a rugged Southern Californian landscape on Valentine's Day.

Captioning the image, he wrote: @Happy Valentine's Day to my 1. Love you always.'

The full interview appears in the April 2018 issue of Cosmopolitan, on sale on Wednesday.She tragically lost her mother Joan to ovarian cancer 13 years ago.

And on Wednesday's Today Extra, Nicky Buckley encouraged women to look out for the early signs of 'the deadliest of all women's cancers'.

The 52-year-old television presenter revealed to the co-hosts just how important her role as ambassador for February's ovarian cancer awareness month is.

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'It's very close to me': Nicky Buckley, 52, encouraged women to look out for the early signs of ovarian cancer, on Wednesday's Today Extra, after her mother Joan passed away from the 'deadliest of all women's cancers' 13 years ago

'My mum passed away from ovarian cancer, a while ago now, but your mum's your mum you know, it's very close to me,' Nicky told Channel Nine's Richard Wilkins and Deborah Knight.

The former game show host went on to explain how important it is to raise funds and awareness, with there being no early detection test.

'It's the deadliest of all women's cancers. The five year survival rate for a woman who has been diagnosed with ovarian cancer is only 44 per cent, as opposed to 90 per cent for women that's diagnosed with breast cancer,' Nicky said on-air.

The mother-of-three then suggested for women to keep an eye out for early signs, including bloating, feeling full after eating only small amounts, indigestion, nausea and fatigue, and if these symptoms persist, to consult a GP.

Statistics: The former game show host explained how important it is to raise funds and awareness, with there being no early detection test: 'It's the deadliest of all women's cancers. The five year survival rate for a woman who has been diagnosed with ovarian cancer is only 44 per cent, as opposed to 90 per cent for women that's diagnosed with breast cancer'

Nicky, who tragically lost her mother Joan to ovarian cancer 13 years ago, often speaks of her mother in interviews and on her social media channels.

Back in 2015, the media personality told the Herald Sun that one of the possessions she treasures most is her late mother's watch.

'My mum was given this watch when she was 'Princess of Moomba' [stage production] in 1956. I always coveted it when she was alive and it's now my most precious piece of jewellery,' Nicky told the publication.

Tragic loss: Nicky lost her mother Joan [pictured] to ovarian cancer 13 years ago, often speaks of her mother in interviews and on her social media channels

She continued: 'Mum died a little over 10 years ago and there are still moments when I would dearly love to talk to her. She was a real character who was much loved by everyone who came into contact with her.'

Nicky became a household name in the early nineties as a game show host for Perfect Match and Sale of the Century.

She is now a proud mother to three sons with husband Murray 'Muz' Bingham.Her career has gone from strength to strength upon winning reality show The Block.

And Elyse Knowles, who recently announced she is giant retailer Myer's latest ambassador, has opened up about her coveted new role.

The 25-year-old spoke with Today Extra's Richard Wilkins and Deborah Knight on Wednesday, admitting to having nerves about walking in Melbourne Fashion Festival.

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Butterflies: Elyse Knowles spoke with Today Extra 's Richard Wilkins and Deborah Knight on Wednesday, admitting to having nerves about walking in Melbourne Fashion Festival

Dressed in a tight white frock with a plunging neckline to show off her decolletage, Elyse conducted the interview from Myer's flagship Melbourne store.

She was enthusiastic when asked how she felt to join a stellar line-up of the brand's spokespeople, including Jennifer Hawkins and Jodi Gordon.

'I feel very humbled that I have this opportunity to work beside Myer ambassadors,' she revealed.

'I feel very humbled that I have this opportunity to work beside Myer ambassadors,' she revealed

'I've been working with Myer for a long time, since I was 16 years old, so now I've got a bigger role with them I feel so excited and can't wait to show you,' she continued.

She credited her lookalike mother Kim's love for fashion as influencing her own.

'My mum studied fashion when she was younger, and that made me love fashion. She used to make us little outfits and I kind of followed on from there,' she offered.

'I've been working with Myer for a long time, since I was 16 years old, so now I've got a bigger role with them I feel so excited and can't wait to show you,' she continued

The striking model, who won The Block last season with boyfriend Josh Barker, said she was 'nervous' to walk for Myer at the upcoming Melbourne Fashion Festival.

'I've walked [on catwalks before] but it was a long, long time ago when I was young and this a big fashion parade I'll be walking in,' she stated.

'I'm a little bit nervous. I'll be walking alongside Kris Smith, which is very exciting, and I'm really looking forward to it,' she added.Emmy Rossum isn't shy about showing off which political party she supports.

And on Tuesday, she proudly leaned left as she donned a classy blue ensemble at the Emily's List Pre-Oscars Brunch and Panel alongside Chelsea Handler and other celebrities at the star-studded event in Los Angeles.

Emily's List is an organization that aims to elect pro-choice Democratic women to office.

Leaning left! Emmy Rossum showed off her support for the democratic party by donning blue as she joined Chelsea Handler at Emily's List Pre-Oscars Brunch and Panel in Los Angeles

The Shameless actress might have flaunted her politically-driven agenda, but her outfit was completely conservative and demure.

The star wore a bright blue sleeveless dressy pantsuit. She kept her look minimal by tying her sleek brown hair back into a sophisticated bun, and accessorized her attire with black pointed-toe heels.

She also kept her makeup light and natural with the exception of her bright red lipstick.

Stunning: Rossum was the only star that chose to blatantly rock blue, and she pulled it off well

Feminist allies! Rossum was all smiles hanging out with Handler at the star-studded political event

Classy beauty: The actress dressed conservatively in a sophisticated dressy blue pant suit

Empowered trio: The Shameless actress posed with Emily's List President Stephanie Schriock and Padma Lakshmi

Hollywood A-listers: Also in attendance with Handler was actresses Mena Suvari and Amber Tamblyn

Calling all strong women: The atmosphere at the Emily's List 'Resist, Run, Win' Pre-Oscars Brunch was classy and formal

Powerful stars: Kathryn Hanh, Clea DuVall, and Padma Lakshmi all united to support the organization's democratic mission

A formal affair: The decorum at the sophisticated event included brunch-inspired colors and tables full of mimosas

Meanwhile Rossum's friend Chelsea Handler wore a light pink-colored long-sleeve blouse tucked into forest green slacks.

The star-studded event also featured celebrities like Mena Suvari, Amber Tamblyn, Kathryn Hanh, Clea DuVall, Constance Wu, and Carlson Young.

Among the Hollywood elite was former U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer, who went with a dressy casual look in a gray shawl.

Political champ: Former U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer attended the Emily's List affair and donned a casual dressy look by wearing a stylish gray shawl

Women behind-the-scenes: Also in attendance were SAG-AFTRA President Gabrielle Carteris and Emily's List Executive Director Emily Cain

Head boss in charge: Emily's List President Stephanie Schriock donned a light gray blazer with a white top and black slacks

Gal pals! Rossum and Hanh took a moment to pose with each other as the two thespians joined forces for a greater cause

Opposite worlds: Despite being from two different industries, tech entrepreneur Rachel Payne and actress Constance Wu came together to support the feminist organization

Also in attendance was Elaine Welteroth, the editor-in-chief of Teen Vogue who was the second person of African-American heritage to hold such a title under Conde Nast.

The event's theme this year was marked by the slogan, 'Resist, Run, Win.'

More star power: Actress Carlson Young and Teen Vogue Editor-In-Chief Elaine Welteroth donned chic outfits as they united to help elect pro-choice democratic women

Proud feminist: Handler took the platform at the Emily's List event to say a few words about the cause

Group shot! The empowered and successful women came together for a group photo

Prior to attending the event, Rossum took to Instagram to show off her stylish outfit for the affair.

She posted a selfie in which she looked off-camera while posing, and another showing a full-body shot of her ensemble.

The actress was clearly feeling her look as she posted two different photos for her followers.

Feeling herself: The Day After Tomorrow actress knew she looked good in her classy ensemble as she took to Instagram on Tuesday to flaunt her stylish wardrobe100 Years Younger In 21 Days (ITV)

Rating:

Amazing Hotels: Life Beyond the Lobby (BBC2)

Rating:

Laugh at everything. Make people happy. Smoke like a chimney. Stay supple. Have lots of lovers.

EastEnders star June Brown should set down her philosophy for living in a book, because it would be the best self-help manual ever published.

The 91-year-old actress who has played Bible-quoting Dot Cotton since the soap started in 1985 was inspiring the younger generation to stop feeling sorry for itself, in 100 Years Younger In 21 Days (ITV).

EastEnders star June Brown (pictured) has smoked for 72 years and featured in 100 Years Younger In 21 Days

Easily the oldest of the eight celebrities attempting to wind back the clock at a luxury spa on the Mediterranean island of Sardinia, June was flashing her bloomers as she showed off her Tibetan yoga moves to the others. With a smile on her face and a cig in her mouth, she was in danger of living up to all five of her mottoes at once.

Intelligence tests at the start of the show proved June also had one of the sharpest brains.

She certainly has the sharp tongue to match: when an unwary doctor suggested she might like to give up her Silk Cuts, he got a telling-off that he's unlikely to forget in a hurry.

'I smoked through five pregnancies!' she declared indignantly.

Her stubborn belief in tobacco isn't exactly supported by medical evidence, but you have to admit it doesn't seem to have done her much harm.

Roy Walker, Sid Owen, Russell Grant, Sherrie Hewson, Claire King, June Brown, Sandra Martin, and Shaun Ryder all star in the new show

The other celebs weren't quite such an inspiration. Astrologer Russell Grant is so tubby that, when he tried to touch his toes, he couldn't even sit up straight. Former Gogglebox star Sandra Martin claims she never skips breakfast  because she always polishes off last night's takeaway.

The most clapped out of the lot was Shaun Ryder, one-time rock star with the Happy Mondays, who complained that he had no energy since he'd given up crack.

The slightly dubious concept of this four-part series is that healthy living can make our bodies more youthful and melt wrinkles from our faces.

With a regime of detox and exercise, the nutritionists and medics at the spa promise to shave a total of 100 years off the celebrities' ages. It's not really scientific, but it's all the excuse we need to watch famous (and not-so- famous) folk being punished for their own good.

Giles Coren and MasterChef's Monica Galetti were inspecting The Brando, a five-star retreat founded by Marlon Brando on Tetiaroa in French Polynesia

June already knew the secret of eternal youth, though: 'People often stay young till they give up work, then they haven't got a purpose.'

May she be the Duchess of Albert Square for ever.

The other way to achieve immortality must be to spend a week with Giles Coren. That would feel like an eternity. Giles, a restaurant critic, is surely the most annoying man on television.

From the opening shot of Amazing Hotels: Life Beyond the Lobby (BBC2), on board a plane, he was rubbing me up the wrong way  filming the island paradise of Tetiaroa on his smartphone, as they came in to land. You're not a teenager, man: why not just enjoy the view?

Mudlarks of the night With names like Mud Monster and Nuclear Fallout, the marathon obstacle races shown on How To Get Fit Fast (C4) looked less like sport, more like an excuse to loon about getting filthy dirty. Every small boy's dream. Advertisement

By the time Giles was on the hotel's dock in a hard hat and overalls, showing off his disco moves for the Village People's Y.M.C.A., the manager looked as though he could happily throttle the presenter, too.

Giles and MasterChef's Monica Galetti were inspecting The Brando, a five-star retreat founded by Marlon Brando on Tetiaroa in French Polynesia where he filmed Mutiny On The Bounty in 1962.

It's popular with the Obamas, apparently, but I bet they don't have to share a room with Giles!She's known for stripping down on social media to flaunt her enviable assets in racy pictures and videos.

But on Wednesday, model Sahara Ray chose to highlight the importance of focusing on inner beauty to her 1.3 million followers.

The blonde stunner, 24, shared a quote to her Instagram Story, writing: 'Anyone can put on a dress and makeup. It's your mind that will define you.'

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'Its your mind that will define you': Model Sahara Ray shares wise quote about focusing on inner beauty after flaunting her figure on social media various times

Her inspirational message appeared to be taken from a news article quoting American actress Angelina Jolie.

The post was quite different to her usual uploads, as the ex-fling of Justin Bieber often parades her external beauty in sultry photos.

Sahara often flaunts her busty assets, pert derriere and flat stomach in all her uploads, even going topless or bra-less in recent weeks.

'Anyone can out on a dress and makeup': Her inspirational message appeared to be taken from a news article quoting American actress Angelina Jolie

In January, the daughter of famed surfer Tony Ray raised eyebrows by sharing a clip of herself dancing seductively in nothing but a skimpy white bikini.

Wearing her bleach-blonde hair to hang loosely by her shoulders, the bronzed beauty completed her look with a black choker necklace and a gold bangle.

'True f**king sand puppy. In my most natural habitat. What a cute voice my little background angel,' she wrote in the caption, referring to her friend who could be heard complimenting her in the background.

She's NOT shy! Sahara often flaunts her busty assets, pert derriere and flat stomach in uploads, even going topless or bra-less in recent weeks

Sahara splits her time between working as a model and running her swimwear brand Sahara Ray Swim.

She found herself in the spotlight two years ago after she was spotted skinny dipping in Hawaii with Bieber.

Her notoriety has increased in recent years thanks to her raunchy Instagram updates and skimpy bikini designs.Yorkshire-born celebrity chef James Martin claims he was a victim of discrimination by the BBC, saying he was turned down for presenting jobs because producers disliked his Northern accent.

'I didn't get two jobs from the BBC because of my accent,' he tells me.

'I can't say what jobs they were, but it was before I moved to ITV. It happened more than two years ago. I know because they told me [it was because of my accent].'

This revelation comes in the wake of BBC Breakfast presenter Steph McGovern's claim that the Corporation pays posh people more than their working-class counterparts.

Yorkshire-born celebrity chef James Martin (pictured) claims he was a victim of discriminatio, from the BBC

Martin, 45, right, presented Saturday Kitchen on BBC1 for ten years. He left in 2016 to front Saturday Morning With James Martin on ITV.

He quit the Beeb shortly after producers axed the live audience on his show due to budget cuts.

Martin denies discrimination contributed to his departure. 'That's not the reason I left,' Martin tells me at the Savoy 50 Greatest Restaurants party. 'But you'd be wrong if you said they don't discriminate against people because of their accents.'

Martin, who has a personal collection of around 20 cars including two Ferraris, was understood to have expressed an interest in fronting Top Gear before Chris Evans was named as lead host in 2015. It was reported that Martin didn't land the role because producers were concerned shooting the show would clash with his Saturday morning filming for his cookery programme.

When Evans stepped down in 2016, Martin was tipped again as a successor. The role was eventually filled by American actor Matt LeBlanc.

A Corporation spokesman says: 'The BBC has a huge variety of presenters with different accents and from different backgrounds.

'The fact that James presented Saturday Kitchen, Home Comforts, Kitchen Invaders, Stately Suppers, Operation Meet the Street, Operation Hospital Food, Ready Steady Cook, The Box, The Real Italian Job and appeared in numerous other shows for the BBC shows that we have no problem with his accent.

Jane Garvey (pictured) is fed up of being called by her ex husband's name

Clearly, there's no love lost between Woman's Hour presenter Jane Garvey and her ex-husband Adrian Chiles.

Asked on her podcast, Fortunately, by co-presenter Fi Glover if she still gets called Mrs Chiles, Garvey moans: 'Every single year I get a Christmas card using that title and I don't know who it's from because I tear it into a million pieces. I'd love to know who sent it... it's not difficult. It's beyond that.'

Garvey, 53, was granted a divorce in 2009 after 11 years of marriage on the grounds of her husband's admitted unreasonable behaviour.

The pair split amid rumours Chiles was more than 'just good friends' with Christine Bleakley, his co-host on The One Show, which they always denied.

BoJo dad's secret for a happy marriage? Separate houses!

The Foreign Secretary's father Stanley Johnson takes issue with Dame Joan Collins's belief that the key to a successful marriage is separate bedrooms.

'There is an idea that separate houses is the key,' says Stanley, 77. 'Separate houses and occasional meetings.'

Johnson, a father-of-six, has been married to second wife Jennifer since 1981. Maybe he can pass on some marital tips to his newlywed youngest son Max who eloped last week with his Brazilian bride, Gabriela Maia, to Indonesia.

'Nobody was there [at the wedding] but we've seen the video which was brilliant,' adds Stanley.

'I think the time will come in a few weeks when they come over to London and we'll throw them a big party.'

Lib Dem deputy Jo Swinson appears to be winning the battle for funding at the top of her party. Donations recorded by Swinson, 38, are outstripping her boss, Sir Vince Cable, by 20,000.The latest boost comes from the unlikely source of Thomas Goode  the luxury china supplier based in Mayfair  which has donated 10,000, according to the register of members' financial interests.

Model Miranda Kerr has turned to crystals to keep the faith (stock photo)

Supermodel Miranda Kerr praises 'power of crystals'

Doctors pour scorn on the alleged curative effects of crystals, but supermodel Miranda Kerr is keeping the faith. 'I believe in the healing powers of crystals and use them daily for meditation, throughout my home, and in my skincare line, where we infuse all products with the soothing and healing energy of rose quartz,' she says, posing with a lump of the mineral, right.

The 34-year-old wife of Snapchat boss Evan Spiegel, 27, adds: 'Cleopatra was known to use rose quartz for its beauty and healing benefits.'

And look what happened to her...She made her debut on long-running series Home and Away late last year.

And Sarah Roberts shared a snap from the show's hair and makeup room on Wednesday where she playfully poked fun at herself.

The brunette beauty, who plays 'bad girl' Willow Harris on the soap, compared her resemblance to Hollywood actor Dev Patel while donning a short-haired wig.

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'Watch out Dev Patel!' Sarah Roberts shared a snap from Home and Away's hair and makeup room on Wednesday where she playfully compared herself to the Hollywood actor

The fresh-faced actress, who is of Sri Lankan descent, flashed a beaming smile as she took the selfie.

'Watch out Dev Patel, gunna [sic] steal all your roles with my new hair cut,' she joked in the Instagram upload's caption.

Sarah, who started acting after graduating from high school in Melbourne, had her big break when she made it to the final round of the SBS series Bollywood Star.

On the rise: Sarah, who started acting after graduating from high school in Melbourne, had her big break when she made it to the final round of the SBS series Bollywood Star

'I worked hard and got to the top four in Mumbai, but Bollywood is incredibly hard work and casting is tough,' she explained to TV WEEK about losing out on the crown.

She went on to score minor roles in shows like Neighbours and Jack Irish, before landing the part of Willow on Home and Away.

'Its nice to play such a tough, dynamic and powerful character,' she told the magazine.

'Its nice to play such a tough, dynamic and powerful character,' she told the magazine

Sarah recently made her relationship with co-star James Stewart public, saying she had 'found love' with him.

She described James, who shares five-year-old daughter Scout with actress Jessica Marais, as 'very funny, charming, kind and generous plus handsome' to TV WEEK.

The pair have been dating since August last year but only confirmed their romance last month, opting to keep things under wraps.She recently said that she felt 'very humbled' to be an ambassador for Myer.

And Elyse Knowles showed why she landed the coveted role, while flaunting her incredible figure in a strapless frock at a beauty brunch in Melbourne, on Wednesday.

The 25-year-old turned heads in a white dress that showed off her ample cleavage.

White hot! Elyse Knowles showed off her incredible figure in a strapless frock at a beauty brunch in Melbourne , on Wednesday

Her frock featured a V-cut plunge that drew attention to her ample assets.

For makeup, Elyse went for a dramatic smokey eye and lashings of mascara to contrast the nude lip, and subtle blush and highlight on her cheeks.

She completed the look with a pair of gold stiletto heels and a pastel pink mini handbag by Sophie Hulme, which retails for $1190.

Bold: For makeup, Elyse went for a dramatic smokey eye and lashings of mascara to contrast the nude lip, and subtle blush and highlight on her cheeks

Red carpet ready: She completed the look with a pair of gold stiletto heels and a pastel pink mini handbag by Sophie Hulme, which retails for $1190

Earlier in the day she spoke with Today Extra and said: 'I feel very humbled that I have this opportunity to work beside Myer ambassadors.'

'I've been working with Myer for a long time, since I was 16 years old, so now I've got a bigger role with them I feel so excited and can't wait to show you,' she continued.

When asked about being part of the fashion parade, she said: 'I'm a little bit nervous. I'll be walking alongside Kris Smith, which is very exciting, and I'm really looking forward to it,' she added.

Age-defying beauty: Also at the event was media personality and model Deborah Hutton who cut a very youthful display at the Myer event

Youthful: The 56-year-old kept on trend with a loose fitting, off-the-shoulder coral orange top paired with white jeans and nude heels

Also at the event was media personality and model Deborah Hutton who cut a very youthful display at the Myer event.

The 56-year-old kept on trend with a loose fitting, off-the-shoulder coral orange top paired with white jeans and nude heels.

Her blonde locks were styled in loose waves with a side part and her makeup consisted of mascara, subtle brown eye shadow, blush, as well as a nude lip.

Still a stunner: Her blonde locks with styled in loose waves with a side part, while for make up she opted for a classic look with mascara, subtle brown eye shadow, bush, as well as a nude lip

Dramatic look: Sydney-based stunner Erin Holland also made an appearance at the Melbourne event

Sydney-based stunner Erin Holland also made an appearance at the Melbourne event.

The 28-year-old went for a bold and dark look to match her deep brunette locks, which she had styled in a low pony tail.

She opted for a black shimmery mini dress with flared sleeves and a black-less feature.

The frock showcased her long legs which accentuated with a pair of matching heels.

Chic: The 28-year-old went for a bold and dark look to match her deep brunette locks, which she had styled in a low pony tail

Exposed: She opted for a black shimmery mini dress with flared sleeves and a black-less feature

Melbourne fashionista and lingerie model Rebecca Harding was also at the event in an avant-garde number.

The 26-year-old, who is also the girlfriend of comedian Andy Lee, turned heads in a grey plaid jumpsuit with white sleeves and long ribbons of cloth hanging from it.

She matched the look with black strappy heels that showed off her trim pins.

Turning heads: Melbourne fashionista and lingerie model Rebecca Harding was also at the event in an avant-garde number

Experimental look: The 26-year-old, who is also the girlfriend of comedian Andy Lee, turned heads in a grey plaid jumpsuit with white sleeves and long ribbons on the cloth hanging from it

Beauty: Meanwhile Miss Universe Australia 2017 Caris Tiivel rocked the arrivals in a mini red dress with a floral pattern and white boots

Miss Universe Australia 2017 Caris Tiivel was all smiles for the Myer brunch in a mini red dress with a floral pattern.

The ruffles and frills of the frock highlighted her curves while the sweetheart neckline hinted at her cavernous cleavage.

She teamed the look with a pair of white boots and a red YSL blogger bag, worth $1,315.

Best dressed couple! Yummy Mummy star Jane Scandizzo cut a sultry figure in a silky pastel pink dress, teaming it with a mini Gucci Dionysus, valued at $1940. Alongside her at the brunch was her celebrity hairstylist hubby Joey

Yummy Mummy star Jane Scandizzo cut a sultry figure in a silky pastel pink dress, teaming it with a mini Gucci Dionysus, valued at $1940.

Alongside her at the brunch was her celebrity hairstylist hubby Joey who dressed causally in a white shirt and shorts.

Curves ahead! Model Stefania Ferrario flaunted her curves and cleavage in silky off-white mini dress with strappy sandals

Feminine: ALF star Moana Hope showcased her feminine side in a pastel and dusty pink ensemble

Model Stefania Ferrario showed off her curves and cleavage in silky off-white mini dress with strappy sandals.

AFL star Moana Hope showcased her feminine side in a pastel and dusty pink ensemble.

Youtube beauty vlogger Tina Yong dress in a strapless wrap dress, matched with nude court heels and a pink purse.An anonymous Oscar voter has given a brutally honest analysis of this year's nominees for the 2018 Academy Awards.

In an unfiltered, profanity-laced rant for The Hollywood Reporter, the unidentified person wished he or she could have seen the now disgraced Kevin Spacey in All The Money In The World, complained about Steven Spielberg's directing style, and offered his choices for the Oscar categories.

'With The Post, Spielberg couldn't get out of his own f******* way,' said the unnamed individual from the producer's branch of the Oscar voters. 'He gave every actor business. ["Business" meaning physical actions beyond delivering lines.]

'Spielberg couldn't get out of his own f****** way': In an unfiltered, profanity-laced rant for The Hollywood Reporter, an unidentified Oscar voter explained his ballot responses ahead of Sunday's Academy Awards

'It killed me': The anonymous voter had some serious gripes with the Steven Spielberg directed film, The Post

'I felt like he saw Birdman and said, "Let's do that, only I'm gonna make everybody fiddle about with something in their pocket or a cigarette or whatever." It killed me. It was a great story with a great cast that got over-Spielberg-ized.'

He also had a bone to pick with the film Call Me By Your Name, which depicts the romance between a 17-year-old teenage boy (played by Timothee Chalamet) and 24-year-old man (played by Armie Hammer) in Italy.

'I didn't like Call Me by Your Name. From what I understand, there was less of a difference between the ages of the young boy and his lover in the book, but I have to tell you, in the movie version it looked like a 35- or 40-year-old guy was hitting on a 16- or 17-year-old boy, and it just seemed wrong. It would have been wrong if they were heterosexuals.'

The anonymous voter listed The Shape Of Water as his top choice for Best Picture, Darkest Hour as second, Phantom Thread as third, Lady Bird as fourth, and Dunkirk as fifth.

Didn't care for it: The voter was bothered by the age difference in Call Me By Your Name and said it was 'wrong'

His pick: The anonymous voter listed The Shape Of Water as top choice for best picture along with Guillermo del Toro for best director and Sally Hawkins for best actress

'She was f****** brilliant': Unidentified Academy voter praised British actress Hawkins for her ability to emote, given she has no words in the film

'impressive': The voter told THR.com del Toro, pictured on The Shape Of Water set with Hawkins and Octavia Spencer, made 'a movie that speaks on every f****** level'

When it came to best director and best actress, The Hollywood Reporter's anonymous voter chose The Shape Of Water's creator Guillermo del Toro and his leading lady Sally Hawkins.

'Guillermo del Toro just ruled by making a genre film into a movie that speaks on every f****** level  and he did it with a limited amount of words, which is the most impressive kind of filmmaking,' he told the trade publication.

As for British actress Hawkins, a previous nominee for Woody Allen's Blue Jasmine, 'she was f****** brilliant,' the voter said.

The actress doesn't speak in the movie which added to the power of her performance.

As for best actor, it's a slam dunk for British actor Gary Oldman as Winston Churchill in Darkest Hour.

'I hate when people use words like "transformative," but what they did to make him look like Churchill and what he did in that role can only be described as that. He blew it out of the water,' the voter enthused.

No contest: An unrecognizable Gary Oldman 'blew it out of the water' as Winston Churchill in Darkest Hour

'Kind of campy': Allison Janney gave a memorable turn as Tony Harding's mom in I, Tonya that should earn her the best supporting actress Oscar

His choice for Best Supporting Actor went to Williem Dafoe for his role in The Florida Project - a movie the voter said 'got f******* screwed'.

'[The Florida Project's] Willem Dafoe was my favorite. Sometimes the hardest thing to do is just be a guy, without any bells or whistles, and he felt like the guy who took care of stuff.'

Allison Janney got the vote for best supporting actress for her performance as Tonya Harding's mom in I, Tonya.

Janney, who has already won a Golden Globe, a SAG and a BAFTA for the role, may have put on a 'kind of campy' how, but, the voter said, 'the fact that I have even one ounce of empathy for her character is a testament to her performance.'

Speaking about the nominees for Best Supporting Actor, the voter explained he wasn't particularly moved by Christopher Plummer in All The Money In The World.

The drama was re-shot after the film's star, Kevin Spacey, was accused of sexual misconduct, and Christopher replaced the House Of Cards actor for the role of J. Paul Getty.

'I'd be really curious to see [Kevin] Spacey's performance,' explained the anonymous voter.

The 2018 Academy Awards will be hosted by Jimmy Kimmel and will air on Sunday, March 4 live on ABC.Bethenny Frankel flashed her thong during a high-stakes dancing competition on Tuesday's episode of Bethenny & Fredrik.

The 47-year-old reality star let it all hang out while performing a headstand move  while in full view of her assistants, on/off boyfriend Dennis Shields and business partner Fredrik Eklund.

The Skinnygirl Cocktails founder instigated the dance competition and was determined to win.

Dance competition: Bethenny Frankel flashed her undies while competing in a dance competition on Tuesday's episode of Bethenny & Fredrik

'Some people may say I shake it like a white girl but you knowI'm white,' she smiled.

Just when Bethenny thought she'd nailed the prize Fredrik ripped his shirt open, poured red wine on his chest, and dragged her into the pool.

'I've never lost, at anything,' said the 40-year-old real estate tycoon.

The action happened in The Hamptons, where the duo were shopping for housing investments.

Highly competitive: Fredrik Englund was not to be outdone by Bethenny and poured red wine on his bare chest

Twerking it: Bethenny gave it her best shot and tossed in some twerking

Next level: The Skinnygirl Cocktails founder took it up a notch and also did a headstand

The judge: Dennis Shileds put up $10,000 in prize money for the dance competition winner

'I'm hoping that I'm going to see a more zen version of Bethenny. Is there a such a version of her?' asked Fredrik apprehensively at the start of the show.

They set out to look at properties, with Bethenny driving and Fredrik screaming.

'B**** a**,' she joked.

The winner: Fredrik gloated after winning the dance competition

Behind the wheel: Bethenny drove around as Fredrik freaked out

Totally screaming: Fredrik laughed as Bethenny teased him for screaming

First stop was Sagaponack, a region Bethenny described as 'baller, shot caller'.

'When you say Sagaponack I think people get a little wet,' she added.

The first property was $1.8 million, but the ceilings were a little low for Fredrik, who bumped his head.

Hamptons house: Bethenny and Fredrik checked out a house in the Hamptons

Low ceilings: Fredrik hit his head on the low ceilings

'Did they not have any tall, Swedish men back in the 18th century?' he asked.

They were excited about the property, which they hoped to flip quickly and sell for around $3 million.

The seller rejected their offer of $1.2 million, cash and refused to negotiate at all.

Poker faces: Bethenny and Fredrik both loved the property and offered $1.2 million cash

'Shutting the door in my face?' whined Fredrik.

Adding: 'Are we cursed?'

Back in Manhattan, Bethenny took Dennis to view their property at 10 Madison that was running horribly over budget.

Nice try: The investors were hoping to flip the property for $3 million

Time wasted: The broker informed Fredrik and Bethenny that the owner wasn't even going to bother with countering their $1.2 million offer

'Are you insane?' she asked Fredrik, who had apparently grossly overspent on the interior design.

Bethenny & Fredrik continues next week on Bravo.

The next episode titled He Said, She Said finds Bethenny questioning Fredrik's motives after unexpected numbers arise in their renovation budget.She just returned from a European holiday with her beau Johnny McDaid.

And Courteney Cox looked rested and relaxed as she was spotted out in Beverly Hills on Tuesday.

The 53-year-old actress cut a casual figure in a striped oxford and ripped denim for her day of retail therapy.

Well rested: Courteney Cox, 53, looked rested and relaxed as she was spotted out in Beverly Hills on Tuesday

Daring to impress, the Cougar Town star wrapped her petite shoulders in a navy two-button jacket.

Her delicate decolletage was thrust on center stage as the shirt was unbuttoned at the top.

She kept her trademark raven tresses long and loose as they were blown around by the Los Angeles winds.

Last week, Courteney and boyfriend Johnny were seen putting on a loved-up display as they partied together at the BRIT Awards in London.

Wrapped: Daring to impress, the Cougar Town star wrapped her petite shoulders in a navy two-button jacket

The pair were spotted looking incredibly smitten during the BRITs as their pal Ed Sheeran picked up his Global Success accolade.

A source told MailOnline: 'Courteney and Johnny looked incredibly smitten after chatting to his industry pals at another table during the ad break.

'Johnny was very sweet trying to lead Courteney back to their table, stopping to give her kiss and wrap his arms around her as the show went live again.'

Apart from celebrating the Shape of You hitmaker's success, the couple have a lot to thank Ed for as he introduced them to each other in 2013 after he stayed at Courteney's Malibu beach house for free while writing his album X (multiply).

Hair story: She kept her trademark raven tresses long and loose as they were blown around by the Los Angeles winds

Johnny and the Scream actress were first linked in 2013 a number of months following her divorce from Hollywood actor David Arquette.

The pair got engaged in 2015 but briefly broke-up in December of that year after it was reported that the Snow Patrol musician wanted to move back to his native Northern Ireland.

However, after spending time together over Easter in 2016, the duo rekindled their romance and were said at the time to be open to renegotiating things.

Courteney lives in Malibu, California, with her 13-year-old daughter Coco, from her marriage to David Arquette.Meghan McCain during a chat show appearance on Tuesday said she was seriously displeased that President Trump chose to 'attack' her father John McCain.

Trump, 71, used the Conservative Political Action Conference stage last week to denounce the US Senator and Vietnam War POW for voting against him in his efforts to kill Obamacare.

The POTUS, who dodged the Vietnam draft due to 'bone spurs,' has previously attempted to humiliate Senator McCain by undermining his horrific experiences during the war, saying: 'I like people that weren't captured, okay?'

Super disappointed: Meghan McCain during a chat show appearance on Tuesday said she was 'super disappointed in President Trump for attacking her father US Senator John McCain

Talking on Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen on Tuesday night Meghan McCain, 33, described herself as 'super disappointed' by Trump's latest remarks.

'People booed,' she said angrily.

Her 81-year-old father is currently battling brain cancer and had taken time out of treatment to vote against Trump's healthcare plan.

'It was over policyI keep getting reminded that it was over the health care votebut it's an intense time for my family and love and support would be nice, given all the sacrifices that my father has given to the country,' she said.

Conservative conference: President Trump last week criticized Senator McCain while speaking at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Maryland

Bravo clubhouse: Andy Cohen welcomed Meghan and Lisa Rinna into the Bravo clubhouse

Telling Cohen: 'You're the first person to ask me about this, that is why this show is so dangerous'.

Despite the rift, the former Fox News contributor said her forecast for Republican and Democratic candidates for 2020 would be Joe Biden and Trump.

'He [Trump] will more than likely get reelected if the Democrats don't put somebody formidable up against him,' she predicted.

Dangerous show: Meghan said that Andy was the first person to ask her about Trump's remarks

Meghan has become the latest edition to The View talk show.

She was joined in the Bravo clubhouse by Lisa Rinna, star of The Real Housewives Of Beverly Hills.

'Meghan used to watch the Real Housewives and marvel how such a group of volatile and contentious women could manage to film together, day after daythen she became co-host of The View,' joked Cohen.

The host: Andy made a joke comparing the Real Housewives to The View

Poll results: Lisa and Meghan watched as the poll results favoring Bethenny Frankel over Lisa Vanderpump came in

McCain, a 33-year-old conservative and 'political analyst' described The View as 'a very difficult job'.

'It's highly political, highly nuanced, Trump's America makes everything really polarizing,' she said.

In a game called Candid With McCain, the Bravo fan branded Dorit Kemsley as her 'least favorite' housewife.

Least favorite: Meghan said that Dorit Kemsley was her 'least favorite' housewife

Lala Kent of Vanderpump Rules, however, 'can do no wrong' in her eyes.

She derided Teddi Mellencamp Arroyave and Eden Sassoon as 'so boring'.

'Please stop hiring people with a famous last name,' she told Cohen.

High praise: The Bravo fan also had high praise for Lala Kent of Vanderpump Rules

Behind the bar: Meghan's husband Ben Domenech was behind the bar

McCain was asked during a game called Does Rinna Own It? if Rinna owns adult diapers.

'Yes, you did the commercial,' said McCain.

'Well, I don't own them I just got paid a lot of money to do that,' laughed Rinna.

WWHL returns on Wednesday with Dennis Quaid and Patton Oswalt.She's never been shy about showing off her exceptional body.

And Tuesday night was no different for Zoe Kravitz who wore a COMPLETELY see-through top to the Saint Laurent show in the French capital.

The actress and model was in the front row for the Fall/Winter 2018 collection, unveiled as part of Paris Fashion Week.

No-e bra-vitz! Zoe Kravitz who wore a COMPLETELY see-through top to the Saint Laurent show in the French capital

The 29-year-old rocked a sheer lace crop top that concealed absolutely nothing, bar her forearms beneath the silky long sleeves.

The short-haired stunner finished her look in fitted black skinny jeans teamed with platform heel boots.

Zoe showed off her outfit before the show via Instagram, posting a trio of photos of herself scoffing down a burger.

On show: The 29-year-old rocked a sheer lace crop top that concealed absolutely nothing, bar her forearms beneath the silky long sleeves

Gorgeous: The short-haired stunner finished her look in fitted black skinny jeans teamed with platform heel boots

Earlier this month, the daughter of The Cosby Show alum Lisa Bonet and rocker Lenny Kravitz spoke Fashion Magazine as part of her March cover story about why it was important for her voice to be counted as part of the Time's Up movement.

'It is happening in every industry,' Kravitz told the glossy. 'Women are being sexually harassed and being forced to take it because they are, say, single moms or immigrants.'

She continued, 'There are so many different kinds of situations where women are being forced to be quiet.

Yum: Zoe showed off her outfit before the show via Instagram, posting a trio of photos of herself scoffing down a burger

Explains it: She left the pictures captionless, aside from three burger emojis

'For me, the idea of wearing black was to give a voice to those who didn't have one at that moment. It was just a dress, but it represented more.'

And while she is confident that their joint voices could help incite change, she remains cautious.

'I guess we'll have to wait and see if things kind of stick,' she explained. 'I think it takes a lot of time and concentration to start a movement.'She surrendered herself to Virginia law enforcement in November because of her outstanding warrant for cocaine possession.

And three months later, Rose McGowan and her lawyers are asking the court to dismiss the felony cocaine possession case, according to TMZ.

The 44-year-old actress claims that the cocaine found in her wallet may have been allegedly planted by Harvey Weinstein, reports the website.

Standing up: Rose McGowan and her lawyers are asking the court to dismiss the felony cocaine possession case, according to TMZ; her November 2017 mugshot

The incident occurred in January 2017 when she accidentally left her wallet on a United flight in Virginia at Dulles International Airport.

In court papers filed Tuesday, lawyer Jessica Carmichael says five hours passed between the time she got off the plane and her wallet was found by a cleaning crew, according to AP.

'There is simply no point in time at which the evidence places Ms. McGowan and the cocaine together in the same place,' Carmichael wrote, AP reports.

The police found cocaine in the wallet and a felony warrant for her arrest was issued.

The actress claims that the cocaine found in her wallet may have been allegedly planted by Harvey Weinstein; pictured on January 30 on Good Morning America

Carmichael argued the drugs may well have been planted, citing 'the underhanded targeting of Ms. McGowan' by Weinstein.

'It is now public knowledge that Weinstein employed underhanded tactics to 'silence' his victims,' she noted via AP.

The lawyer cited reports that Harvey hired private investigators to trail some of the women who accused him of mistreatment.

Drama: McGowan faces a preliminary hearing next month in Leesburg; seen on October 27

She turned herself in and was released on a $5,000 bond.

Lawyers for Rose say a drug possession charge against her should be tossed out of court, in part because she has been a victim of 'the Harvey Weinstein machine,' according to AP.

McGowan faces a preliminary hearing next month in Leesburg.He and his wife Nicola Robinson quietly listed their beach-side Sydney mansion for a reported $3 million late last year.

And My Kitchen Rules judge Pete Evans proved himself every inch the property mogul this week, announcing his plans to build a brand new family home from scratch.

Taking to Instagram this Wednesday, the controversial chef shared a video of a sprawling construction site along with the caption: 'Thanks @metriconhomesfor laying a solid slab. Cant wait to see the process of putting together a top notch home for our family.'

His construction site rules! My Kitchen Rules judge Pete Evans proved himself every inch the property mogul this week, announcing his plans to build a brand new family home from scratch

'Cant wait to see the process of putting together a top notch home for our family': Taking to Instagram this Wednesday, the controversial chef shared a video of a sprawling construction site

Pete's post sent fans into a tizzy, with some questioning whether their beloved Paleo guru had traded in his farm lifestyle for that of a city slicker.

'Does that mean you are leaving the farm?' queried one fan.

Another agreed: 'The farm life is way better.'

'Does that mean you are leaving the farm?' Pete's post sent fans into a tizzy, with some questioning whether their beloved Paleo guru had traded in his farm lifestyle for that of a city slicker

It's unclear whether Pete and Nicola are planning to sell their 10 hectare acreage in northern New South Wales, however.

Meanwhile, one fan couldn't help but notice the site's decidedly close proximity to neighbouring properties, commenting: 'Oh no, neighbours! I guess they would be pretty lucky to get invited over for a barbie!!!!'

Pete's new construction venture comes just months after Realestate.com.au announced that his five-bedroom Malabar pad was up for sale.

Australia's own paleo property mogul! Pete's new construction venture comes just months after Realestate.com.au announced that his five-bedroom Malabar pad was up for sale

The high-profile couple purchased the property in 2013 for $1.44 million and lived there with Pete's two children Chilli, 12, and Indii, ten, from a previous marriage.

The spacious home features a modernist facade and contains four bedrooms and three bathrooms within.

Since renovations were completed, the house's interior boasts a sleek and contemporary design with an open plan casual living space.

The jewel in the house's crown is - perhaps unsurprisingly - the commercial-sized kitchen, which has twin dishwashers, integrated ovens and a built-in bain-marie, the website reported.After disappearing from social media for nearly one month Married At First Sight 'villain' Davina Rankin has returned.

The 26-year-old made her resurgence in the form of an video shared to her Instagram Story on Wednesday.

In it, Davina can be seen running in circles around a trampoline. She captioned the post: 'Dodging the paps like' followed by a Spanish-dancing emoji.

She's back! Married At First Sight 'villain' Davina Rankin makes a triumphant return to Instagram with a very cheeky video poking fun at the paparazzi

She is joined by a blonde woman who copies her movements and runs closely behind her.

The clip appears to have been shot from above, making it difficult to see the women's faces.

Davina has kept her look very simple, forgoing the usual tight dresses or skimpy bikinis fans are used to seeing her in.

Instead, she has chosen to wear a pair of denim cutoffs with a tight black-singlet top.

She's completed her look with a pageboy hat which is keeping her long, dark locks in place.

Back in action: Davina has been absent on social media since January 29 when she uploaded a shot of herself in a white bikini from a magazine photoshoot

Exposed: Not long after that shot was uploaded Davina's affair with fellow Married At First Sight contestant Dean Wells was exposed

Davina has been absent on social media since January 29 when she uploaded a shot of herself in a white bikini from a magazine photo shoot.

Not long after that shot was uploaded Davina's affair with fellow Married At First Sight contestant Dean Wells was exposed.

The scandal led to Davina copping an enormous backlash from the public.

Huge backlash: The scandal led to Davina copping an enormous backlash from the public

On Monday, Davina's mother slammed MAFS producers in an interview with New Idea, saying she now refuses to watch the show after the way her daughter was portrayed.

'It's absolute trash and it makes us all angry to see how it's all been played out,' she said.

Upset: On Monday, Davina's mother slammed MAFS producers in an interview with New Idea, saying she now refuses to watch the show after the way her daughter was portrayed

Admitting that her daughter could be outspoken at times, Barb argued she is 'by no means manipulative and spiteful.'

'She built a career on empowering women and I'm disgusted with the way she has been portrayed,' Barb added.

Davina left MAFS on Sunday's episode after she and husband Ryan Gallagher finally decided to give up on their troubled relationship.

Married At First Sight continues Wednesday at 7:30pm on Channel NineShe's an actress, filmmaker, business owner, mom and much more.

So of course, Reese Witherspoon looked like a boss while stepping out for an important business meeting in Beverly Hills on Tuesday.

The Big Little Lies star/producer balanced her ensemble with laid back jeans with a well-tailored jacket as she made her way into upscale eatery.

Let's make a deal! Reese Witherspoon looked like a boss while donning a sharp jacket and laid-back jeans to an important business meeting in Beverly Hills on Tuesday

The Southern Belle gave onlookers a wave as she made her way from her car to her meeting.

Reese teamed her unhemmed jeans and smart jacket with stacked suede boots and a cute heart-patterned blouse.

The mother-of-three matched her natural leather boots with a handsome doctor-style handbag that featured a tawny stripe in the center.

She masked the sun with a pair of wide, cat-eyed sunglasses and tied her blonde back into a messy bun while keeping minimal makeup on her face.

Howdy! The Southern Belle gave onlookers a wave as she made her way from her car to her meeting

Heart on her sleeve! Reese teamed her unhemmed jeans and smart jacket with stacked suede boots and a cute heart-patterned blouse

Yesterday the Academy Award-winner was joined by her look-a-like daughter Ava Phillipe at the premiere of her new film A Wrinkle In Time.

There, Reese dazzled in a sparkling Michael Kors Collection scarlet floor-length gown that was off the shoulder at the left side.

Besides her daughter Ava, who she shares with ex Ryan Phillippe, charmed in a classic black number.

Ryan and Reese, who co-starred in the camp classic film Cruel Intentions, were married from 1999 to 2007 and also share 14-year-old son Deacon.

Double take! Yesterday the Academy Award-winner was joined by her look-a-like daughter Ava Phillipe at the premiere of her new film A Wrinkle In Time

Since 2011, the celeb has been married to her talent agent second husband Jim Toth, by whom she has a five-year-old son called Tennessee.

Reese stars in the Ava DuVernay directed picture along with Oprah Winfrey, Mindy Kaling, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Michael Pena and Chris Pine.

With a script by Jennifer Lee and Jeff Stockwell and a score from Ramin Djawadi, the movie hits movie theaters on March 9.They're two of Australia's hottest modelling exports.

And on Wednesday, sisters Jessica and Ashley Hart stunned on the red carpet for the Breast Cancer Research Fund Gala.

The beauties turned heads in vampy-inspired ensembles, for the event held at the Beverly Wilshire Four Seasons Hotel in Los Angeles.

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Good genes! On Wednesday, model sisters Jessica and Ashley Hart, sported vampy-inspired ensembles for the Breast Cancer Research Fund Gala in Los Angeles

Jessica, 31, wore a strapless metallic sequinned frock that showed off her slim figure.

The brand ambassador accessorised with black block heels that featured silver stud detailing.

Jessica styled her blonde locks straight and drew attention to a luminous complexion.

Stunner: Jessica, 31, opted for a strapless metallic frock that showed off her slim figure

Beauty: The former Victoria's Secret model kept her complexion luminous for the event and added a vampy lip

Adding a burgundy lip, the former Victoria's Secret model finished off the look with bold brows and a coating of mascara.

Sister Ashley, 29, donned a sheer lace frock that drew attention to her black high-waisted underwear.

The avid Yogi accessorised with a velvet jacket and closed-toe boots.

Completing her look: Ensuring her frock took centre stage, Jessica added black block heels

She's a knockout: The catwalk queen added a burgundy lip to her eye-catching ensemble

Like Jessica, she too had her shoulder-length locks styled out and sported a luminous complexion.

The sisters are certainly making their presence felt overseas, landing numerous endorsement deals.

However Jessica returned to Australia in December to launch a new product line with Luma Cosmetics.As one of the world's most in-demand models, you would expect Candice Swanepoel to exclusively enjoy the finer things in life.

But during her first trip to Australia to promote OPPO this week, the 29-year-old made a few surprising revelations while taking part in a fun round of quickfire questions.

The Victoria's Secret Angel said she preferred Nutella over peanut butter but couldn't decided between burgers and pizza - and left her interviewer speechless when she revealed the identity of her 'spirit animal'.

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During her first trip to Australia to promote Oppo this week, Candice Swanepoel made a few surprising revelations while taking part in a fun round of quickfire questions

'Can we pinpoint a spirit animal?' the South African-born beauty was asked.

'Rihanna!' answered Candice without hesitation.

Candice, who looked resplendent in Australian designer Zimmermann, also proved she could easily fit in with the easygoing lifestyle Down Under, revealing that she preferred beer over fancy cocktails.

Great taste! When asked who her 'spirit animal' was, Candice revealed it was Rihanna (right)

The mother of one-year-old Anaca also revealed what she would teach if she had grown up to be a teacher instead of a model.

'Geography or biology,' she revealed.

And as for her preferred social media platform, it's clear Candice opts for Instagram over Facebook any day.

Bottoms up! Candice also proved she could easily fit in with the easygoing lifestyle Down Under, revealing that she preferred beer over fancy cocktails

As a matter of fact, Candice used the image-sharing website to announce she was pregnant with her second child last December.

'Christmas came early.. #2,' she captioned a photo of herself cradling her bump. She would later reveal that she was expecting a baby boy.

Candice has been with Brazilian model Hermann Nicoli since 2005, having reportedly met him in Paris when she was just 17 years old.He's the Married At First Sight groom who is struggling to find a romantic spark with wife Gabrielle Bartlett.

But Nasser Sultan put his relationship dramas aside on Wednesday as he topped up his tan at Sydney's Bondi Beach.

The 50-year-old was seen planting a kiss on a silver-haired older lady during a friendly exchange.

Bronzed: Nasser Sultan put his relationship dramas aside on Wednesday as he topped up his tan at Sydney's Bondi Beach

He was also seen placing a hand on the fan's arm as they chatted away in the beach's car park.

Later, an older gentleman - who appeared to be the woman's husband - joined the conversation.

Nasser was seen shaking hands with the man before the three of them posed for a photo.

Peck: Nasser was seen planting a kiss on a silver-haired older lady during a friendly exchange

Fan encounter: The Married At First Sight star, 50, certainly seemed popular at Bondi

Nasser went shirtless for the trip, revealing his rarely-seen back tattoos.

Wearing a pair of maroon board shorts, Nasser completed his summery ensemble with a pair of Nike trainers.

He accessorised with a pair of dark sunglasses and a silver watch.

Three's company! Later, an older gentleman - who appeared to be the woman's husband - joined the conversation

Good times! Nasser was seen shaking hands with the man before they posed for a photo

Hug me, I'm famous! Nasser and the elderly couple asked a young woman to take their photo

It appeared that Nasser could barely get a moment to himself at Bondi, as he was later seen chatting to more MAFS fans.

One man, clad in a a pair of white shorts, appeared delighted to meet Nasser and enthusiastically shook his hand.

But it wasn't just a meet-and-greet for Nasser, as he was also keen to hit the waves.

Somebody's popular! It appeared that Nasser could barely get a moment to himself at Bondi, as he was later seen chatting to more MAFS fans

Celebrity: One man, clad in a a pair of white shorts, appeared delighted to meet Nasser and enthusiastically shook his hand

Can I surf now? But it wasn't just a meet-and-greet for Nasser, as he was keen to hit the waves

He checked the sole of his shoe before grabbing his surfboard and heading off into the ocean.

It comes after Nasser's TV marriage to Gabrielle went from bad to worse this week, as he complained throughout the homestay.

Married At First Sight continues Sunday at 7pm on Channel Nine

Oops! Nasser checked the sole of his shoe before grabbing his surfboard and heading off into the oceanHe was detained at a Brazilian airport last week due to issues with his visas.

But Phil Collins hasn't let the drama taint his time in the country as his South American tour saw him deliver yet another crowd-pleasing performance at Porto Alegre's Beira Rio Stadium on Tuesday night.

While the 67-year-old star's vocals had no trouble reverberating around the huge venue, his debilitating health woes saw the star forced to sit down throughout the show.

Phil Collins' problems with foot drop saw the music icon forced to sit during his show at Brazil's Beira Rio Stadium in Porto Alegre on Tuesday night - after the star was detained at a Brazilian airport last Tuesday

The In The Air Tonight hitmaker has had pull up a chair during a number of sets following a fall on his way to the bathroom last year, which saw Phil forced to cancel a number of shows.

A statement was released at the time, which read: Phil suffers from drop foot as a result of a back operation which makes it difficult to walk.

He rose in the middle of the night to go to the toilet and slipped in his hotel room, hitting his head in the fall on a chair.

Health woes: While the 67-year-old star's vocals had no trouble reverberating around the huge venue, his frailness showed as he sat down throughout the show

Crowd-pleaser: Phil kicked off his South American tour in Rio, at the famous Maracana Stadium, last Thursday and his since performed in Sao Paulo

He was taken to hospital where he had stitches for a severe gash on his head close to his eye and is recovering well.

He returned to the stage last June to perform at British Summertime Festival in Hyde Park, where he once again delivered the show from his chair.

Phil kicked off his South American tour in Rio, at the famous Maracana Stadium, last Thursday and his since performed in Sao Paulo.

His 11-date run will next see him jet to Mexico, before he moves on to Peru and Columbia.

Last Tuesday the former Genesis frontman was faced with yet more obstacles atfer he was detained for more than three hours at Rio de Janeiros Galeao International Airport before being let into the country.

Giving it his all: Phil was still full of energy despite his debilitating condition

In demand: His 11-date run will next see him jet to Mexico, before he moves on to Peru and Columbia

The musician is said to have been kept waiting after officials discovered he didnt have a work visa.

During his series of 2007 shows, Phil dislocated a vertebra in his neck, undergoing years of surgery, electroshock therapy, water therapy and physiotherapy to sort it out.

He spoke about his problems with alcohol at a press conference to announce his return to the spotlight, revealing he was no stranger to drinking bottles of vodka for breakfast.

The musician, estimated to have a fortune of 115million, made no mention of his Brazil hold-up on his social media accounts.He is promoting his latest film Pacific Rim Uprising in Australia, following the success he found in the Star Wars franchise.

And John Boyega joined forces with Clint Eastwood's son Scott to celebrate their upcoming movie Pacific Rim Uprising in Sydney, Australia on Wednesday.

The Star Wars hunk, 25, stood out from the crowd in his colourful T-shirt when he rubbed shoulders his dapper co-star Scott, 31, on the red carpet.

Out of this world: Star Wars' John Boyega stood out in a colourful T-shirt as he joined his co-star and Clint Eastwood's son Scott to promote Pacific Rim Uprising, in Sydney on Wednesday

John was impossible to miss in the pink garment which was decorated with bright blue leaves to catch the eye.

The actor was every inch the leading man when he pulled out all the stops on his colourful appearance, which he dressed down with a pair of trainers.

John was joined by his co-star and famous offspring Scott, who donned a slim-fit grey sweater to showcase his enviable physique.

Although they play rivals in the film, it was obvious the duo had established a close relationship on the set of their movie with Scott draping his arm over his co-star.

Blossoming actor: John was impossible to miss in his pink round neck T-shirt which was decorated with bright blue leaves to catch the eye

Impossible to miss: The actor was every inch the leading man when he pulled out all the stops on his colourful appearance, which he dressed down with a pair of trainers

John and Scott are in Sydney to promote their film Pacific Rim Uprising, which they filmed in Sydney.

Pacific Rim Uprising, out in Australian cinemas in March 22, charts the story of Jake (Boyega) who leads a new generation of Jaeger pilots against a new Kaiju threat.

The Law & Order: UK star recalled the 'pretty intense' scenes where an explosion rips through the Australian capital.

Top man: He is promoting his latest film Pacific Rim Uprising in Australia, following the success he found in the Star Wars franchise

He joked: 'First of all I have to apologise to the residents of Sydney for all the buildings we destroyed. But everyone is evacuated in the story. It was pretty intense.'

The actor first found his feet in the Star Wars franchise in 2015's The Force Awakens as Finn and he went onto reprise his role in the 2017 movie Star Wars: The Last Jedi.

John revealed the funny piece of advice from Robert Downey Jr. when he appeared on Australian broadcaster The Project.

Team: John was joined by his co-star and famous offspring Scott, who donned a slim-fit grey sweater to showcase his enviable physique

Going strong: Although they play rivals in the film, it was obvious the duo had established a close relationship on the set of their movie

The Star Wars hunk confessed he almost crashed into a lorry when he received the call from the 52-year-old Iron Man actor while driving in London.

'I nearly crashed into a lorry,' he told the television hosts. 'It was great, we were at the same agency at the time. I sent him an email asking him to give me a call with some advice.

'I'm driving in London and he called me. I dont have Americans calling me. He says, "Its Robert Downey Jr." Its iron man on the phone! He gave me some really good advice and its worked even until today.'

Good friends: Scott draped his arm over John in a friendly fashion when they posed for cameras to promote their movie together

Looking good: The actor looked a galaxy far, far away from his Star Wars image as he opted for navy trousers and trainers

The young actor revealed the Hollywood star told him to 'party hard' but he confessed he is still 'working on it'.

Meanwhile, John's co-star Scott secured a role in the film as he has started to step out of his famous father Clint's shadow in Hollywood.

The famous offspring confessed he shunned the help of his dad when he detailed his 'tough Hollywood' struggle.

He told Be: 'Did I know anything about the industry really? Not until I started working in it.

Storytelling: Pacific Rim Uprising, out in Australian cinemas in March 22, charts the story of Jake (Boyega) who leads a new generation of Jaeger pilots against a new Kaiju threat

Great fun: He joked: 'First of all I have to apologise to the residents of Sydney for all the buildings we destroyed. But everyone is evacuated in the story. It was pretty intense.'

'Not until I had to go and bar tend, and valet park cars and work construction while I auditioned for films.

'Then you know what hard work is to get into a film and try to be an actor. It's hard. Hollywood's a tough place. You've gotta keep going and keep trying and I did that for years and years. It's tough. It can be discouraging.'

Scott's father Clint rose to fame in the sixties following the success of the Western TV series Rawhide.Joe Raedle/Getty Images(PARKLAND, Fla.) -- Long before he was called a "coward" by President Donald Trump for not confronting a mass shooter at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, former Broward County Sheriff's Deputy Scot Peterson told a school board, "We're all here for the same goal, to protect our kids."



Three years after making the comment, Peterson is defending himself against accusations he did nothing to protect the staff and students from shooting suspect Nikolas Cruz during his shooting rampage at the Parkland, Florida, school, which left 17 dead.



"Mr. Peterson has had a decorated career with the Broward Sheriff's Office, including receiving glowing annual performance reviews and being named the school resource officer of the year in 2014," Peterson's attorney, Joseph DiRuzzo said.



Peterson, the 54-year-old divorced father of four children, abruptly resigned and retired last week after Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel suspended him without pay. Israel said his decision was based on witness statements and video purportedly showing the deputy standing outside the building where the Parkland, Florida, school shooting was taking place but never going inside to confront the gunman, who killed 17 people.



But in a 2015 YouTube video, Peterson, whose law enforcement career spanned 33 years, boasted of rushing to confront crime anytime he was called to do so.



In an appearance before the Broward County School Board, Peterson touted the Resident On Campus Security Program, also known as ROCS. At the time, Peterson, in addition to his duties as a school resource officer for the sheriff's office, was a ROCS officer who lived on the campus of Atlantic Technical College in Coconut Creek, Florida.



"I want to talk to you about accomplishments," Peterson said in the YouTube video taken during his appearance before the Broward County School Board.



Peterson recalled two calls he responded to in an attempt to show the benefit of having a law enforcement officer living on the Atlantic Technical College campus.



"There was one time, it was a Sunday morning, it was about 8:30, I was out washing my car, my cell phone went off and it was a school board [member] alarm to assist people," Peterson said. "As a matter of fact I remember his name, Dan, and he goes to me 'Scot, the alarm's going off in the cafeteria.'"



Peterson said he felt "the hairs on the back of his neck" rise because the cafeteria alarm had never gone off before. He said he didn't hesitate to respond.



"So I ran into my trailer, I grabbed my firearm and my ID, and my shorts and my sneakers, and I ran over...to the cafeteria," he said. "As I got to the cafeteria, sure enough, there were four males inside the cafeteria."



He said the burglars saw him peeking through a window and fled.



"I'm getting older, but I chased them," he said. "I identified who I was and, as ironic as it may seem, they ran right toward my trailer."



He said he jumped into his car and apprehended two of them, adding that he "threw 'em in the back, kept going, grabbed the other two."



"Four burglars and ... those are the accomplishments that I want you folks to realize that are part of the ROCS program," he said. "It's not all that can be identified in some statistical data."



Recalling another incident, Peterson told the board, "This one is chilling." He said he was once in bed in his campus trailer when he heard banging on his door at about 11:30 p.m.



"I jump up, I get to the door and there's a facilities lady ... and she's screaming," he said. "And I go, 'What's going on? What's going on?' She goes, 'There's a guy all in black, with a ski mask and a gun. I say, 'Whoa, you know obviously, holy crap, pardon my French."



He continued, "So I ran, put some shorts on, ran out with my firearm. While I'm running, I'm contacting Coconut Creek Police. We set up a perimeter. Long story short, we caught the individual when he ran across Coconut Creek Parkway and he was hiding behind a bank."



He said the suspected gunman turned out to be an 18-year-old with a paintball gun.



"I know I've probably caught a hundred trespassers at Atlantic Tech College, most of them skateboarders, most of them juveniles," he said. "I'm almost on my way out ... but I have other police officers that, you know, made homes there. They're part of the community. We're all here for the same goal, to protect our kids, to protect our property."



Born in Illinois, Peterson moved to Florida with his family as a boy and graduated from Miami Beach Senior High School. He went on to graduate from Florida International University in Miami with a bachelor's degree in criminal justice.



While still in college, Peterson, started working at the Broward County Sheriff's Office in 1985 and completed multiple training programs, including a mandatory firearms training program and special tactical problems training program, according to records released by the sheriff's office.



Peterson was named Parkland district employee of the month in May 2012 and was recognized two years later as school resource officer of the year.



Peterson "takes pride in protecting the students, faculty and staff at his school. Deputy Peterson is dependable and reliable and handles issues that arise with tact and solid judgment," according to an evaluation released by the sheriff's office.



An internal memo dated March 2017 said, Peterson is a positive influence on the students and they respect and appreciate his position. The memo also shows Peterson was nominated for Parkland deputy of the year.



On Monday, Peterson hired DiRuzzo to respond to "unfounded criticism of his actions" during the mass shooting. DiRuzzo laid out details of how Peterson responded to the shooting, saying the deputy thought the gunfire was coming from outside the building where the massacre was taking place.



DiRuzzo also said Peterson was the first officer to advise dispatch of the shooting and initiated a "Code Red" lockdown of the school. He said the deputy also got school administrators to immediately start reviewing closed-circuit cameras to locate the gunman and obtain a description, and that he gave an arriving SWAT commander handwritten diagrams of the entire campus to evacuate students.



"Let there be no mistake, Mr. Peterson wishes that he could have prevented the untimely passing of the 17 victims on that day, and his heart goes out to the families of the victims in their time of need," DiRuzzo said in a statement. "However, the allegations that Mr. Peterson was a coward and that his performance, under the circumstances, failed to meet the standards of police officers are patently untrue."

Copyright  2018, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.In order to maintain this blog I have to pay for its upkeep including a hosting company, support services, virus and other malicious hackers. If you appreciate what I write please make a donation.Celebrity medium John Edward shocked former royal butler Paul Burrell with an apparent revelation about the late Diana, Princess of Wales on Wednesday's episode of I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here! Australia.

During a psychic reading in the South African jungle camp, John shared supposed details about Diana's relationship with Paul that were never made public - including a 'secret' car crash that Diana was involved in before her fatal road accident in 1997.

'You had a friend who passed in a vehicle accident,' John began.

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Crossing over: Celebrity medium John Edward shocked former royal butler Paul Burrell (pictured) with a supposed revelation about the late Diana, Princess of Wales on Wednesday's episode of I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here! Australia

Paul's interest was piqued when John asked him, 'Were there two car accidents?'

He added: 'I'm feeling like there were two car accidents - almost like one was foreshadowing and one was tragic.'

After muttering a quick, 'No', Paul's head suddenly shot up in recognition and he replied emphatically: 'Yes! You couldn't possibly know that.'

Diana was killed in a car crash in the Pont de l'Alma tunnel in Paris in 1997. The accident also claimed the lives of Dodi Fayed and driver Henri Paul.

Revelations: Paul's interest was suddenly piqued when John (right) asked 'Were there two car accidents? I'm feeling like there were two car accidents almost like one was foreshadowing and one was tragic.'

It didn't end there either, with John bringing up the fact that Paul fell out with Diana's family after he was accused of theft in 2002.

'I feel like you have been ostracised,' John said. 'I feel like you are the outcast, your need for validation from your friend's family... (it's) not coming. Like, not coming.'

Things took an even spookier turn when John accurately described the contents of Diana's bedroom.

Tragic: Diana was killed in a car crash in the Pont de l'Alma tunnel in Paris in 1997. The accident also claimed the lives of Dodi Fayed and driver Henri Paul

Eerie: Things took an even spookier turn when John accurately described the contents of Diana's bedroom including a glass Lalique bird that sat on her side table

Describing wood-paneled walls and bookshelves, Paul was close to tears when John mentioned a glass bird owned by Diana.

'The glass bird is the (Rene) Lalique glass bird,' a stunned Paul replied.

'That's what it is. It sat on a side table. He could not have known about a glass Lalique in the Princesses room... impossible.'

Still honing in on Paul and Diana's friendship, John then brought up a particular dress that Diana owned - a dress that the late Princess wears in a dream Paul often has.

Accurate: Still honing in on Paul and Diana's friendship, John also mentioned a particular dress that Diana owned - a dress that the Princess wears in a dream Paul often has

'I do have a dream of me sitting alone with the Princess crossed legged on the floor and she is wearing a blue dress,' Paul recalled.

'It's the last dress I saw her in. I have never told anybody about that particular dream.'

Paul also agreed with John's intuition that the Princess was a fan of 'foul language' as well as needlepoint.

Personal: 'I do have a dream of me sitting alone with the Princess crossed legged on the floor and she is wearing a blue dress,' Paul recounted. 'It's the last dress I saw her in. I have never told anybody about that particular dream'

Emotional: Paul was clearly shaken by John's knowledge of Diana's second accident, telling campmate Jackie Gillies (left) that the reading was an 'incredible experience'

Paul was clearly shaken by John's supposed knowledge of Diana's second accident, telling campmate Jackie Gillies that the reading was an 'incredible experience'.

'How could he know about the other traffic accident?' he asked the Real Housewives Of Melbourne star, who subsequently replied: 'Because he's speaking to spirit.'

'She was frightened that night,' Paul said, referring to the previously undisclosed vehicle accident.

'She crashed her car. She couldn't drive it. She was in the middle of nowhere. She said: "What do I do?"'

He continued: 'I said, "You go and lock yourself in the ladies loo in the nearest hotel and I'll come and get you." And I did. I went down at midnight and collected her and then rang the police and the Palace to say they can go and tow the car.'

I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here! continues Thursday at 7:30pm on TenShe has returned to Australia after serving nine years behind bars for drug trafficking in Bali.

And Schapelle Corby, 40, put on an attention-grabbing display via her Instagram on Monday as she enjoyed her freedom under the Australian sun.

Against a backdrop of pelicans, the convicted drug smuggler showcased her gravity-defying cleavage in a plunging dress for her day at the beach.

Anything to declare? Schapelle Corby, 40, flaunted her VERY busty cleavage in a low-cut dress as she enjoyed her freedom after she sparked cosmetic surgery rumours

The chic dress flattered her fabulous figure with its low cut neckline and cinched waistline with a string belt to highlight her slender waistline.

Drawing further attention to her ample bust, the Instagram sensation cuddled her pooch close to her impressive chest.

The stunning jailbird showcased her incredibly smooth complexion as she swept her dark tresses into a messy top knot bun and a fringe to frame her face.

Eye-popping: Drawing further attention to her ample bust, the Instagram sensation cuddled her pooch close to her impressive chest

Despite her harrowing years behind bars, Schapelle has never looked better and the 40-year-old often shows off her age-defying appearance on Instagram.

But after fans suggested that she'd had a few cosmetic enhancements in recent weeks, she appeared to deny having Botox injections.

Via her Instagram story, the ex-convict shared a clip of herself pulling animated facial expressions in response to the 'negative comments'.

She's so glamorous: The stunning jailbird showcased her incredibly smooth complexion as she swept her dark tresses into a messy top knot bun and a fringe to frame her face

'I have facial movements, do you?' she wrote in the caption, before asking her social media followers to stop speculating about her age-defying appearance.

Schapelle looks worlds away from her days in 'Hotel K', where she served time after being busted with 4.1 kilograms of cannabis at Bali's Ngurah Rai Airport in 2004.

It seems she has settled back into Australian life after she returned to the sunny country for the first time in almost 13 years in May 2017.

Wow: The chic dress flattered her fabulous figure with its low cut neckline and cinched waistline with a string belt to highlight her slender waistline

Since her spell in prison, the jailbird has gone onto court the attention of 192,000 followers on Instagram with her sultry snaps.

The drug smuggler spent nine years behind bars at Kerobokan Prison after she was busted with 4.2kg of marijuana on October 8, 2004.

Last year, Schapelle finally returned to her native home when she made the 5.5 hour flight from Bali to Brisbane, Australia following three years on parole.Earlier this month, photos surfaced of Married At First Sight's Troy Delmege passionately kissing fellow contestant Carly Bowyer in a Melbourne park.

But Troy and his 'official' wife Ashley Irvin put on a united front on Wednesday night as they attended Channel Nine's NRL launch in Sydney as a couple.

Posing together at the industry event, the pair kept up appearances despite the scandal surrounding their tumultuous TV marriage.

Still together? Married At First Sight's Troy Delmege and Ashley Irvin put on a united front on Wednesday night as they attended Channel Nine's NRL launch in Sydney as a couple

At the NRL launch, Ashley looked stunning in a low-cut white dress which offered a glimpse of her cleavage.

The 28-year-old styled her blonde hair in loose waves and accessorised with a pair of statement earrings.

The flight attendant completed her look with gold high heels and opted for a smokey eye and a slick of pink lipstick.

Wait, isn't he supposed to be with Carly? It comes after photos surfaced earlier this month of Troy passionately kissing fellow MAFS contestant Carly Bowyer in a Melbourne park

Affectionate display: Troy placed his arm around Ashley's slender waist as they smiled and laughed together

Troy looked dapper in a blue blazer over a pale shirt, and finished off his evening look with dark trousers and dress shoes.

The MAFS couple put on an affectionate display while posing for photographers.

Troy placed his arm around Ashley's slender waist as they smiled and laughed together.

Glamorous: At the NRL launch, Ashley looked stunning in a low-cut white dress which offered a glimpse of her cleavage

Look at me! However, it was when Ashley left Troy behind and posed solo that she really enjoyed her time in the spotlight

However, it was when Ashley left Troy behind and posed solo that she really enjoyed her time in the spotlight.

Stepping effortlessly into 'glamorous socialite' mode, she struck a series of bizarre and flirtatious poses for the cameras.

At one point, she was seen bending over to reveal her perky derriere while seductively pouting her lips.

All the angles! Stepping effortlessly into 'glamorous socialite' mode, she struck a series of bizarre and flirtatious poses for the camerasShe joined their smash hit Saturday night show last year, a number of months after winning over the public to become I'm A Celebrity's Queen of the Jungle.

And now Scarlett Moffatt, 27, has revealed that her friendship with Saturday Night Takeaway hosts Ant McPartlin and Declan Donnelly has got so strong that she goes for Sunday dinner with them.

Appearing on Comedy Central UK's The Chris Ramsey Show, the Geordie lass gushed about her co-hosts as she opened up about the close friendship they've formed over the past year.

Pals: Scarlett Moffatt, 27, has revealed that her friendship with Saturday Night Takeaway hosts Ant McPartlin and Declan Donnelly has got so strong that she goes for Sunday dinner with them

Comedian and South Shields native Chris asked: 'What was the moment where you realised this [your life] has gone mega now?'

To which Scarlett admitted: 'like when I go for Sunday dinner with Ant & Dec! We just go for Sunday dinner casually, and they text me!'.

Scarlett has made no secret of her admiration for the presenting duo, having previously declared they're 'amazing' mentors to her as she began her broadcasting career.

Speaking to MailOnline, the Durham native discussed how the Geordie duo have filled her with confidence after they approached her following her Jungle win for their series Ant & Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway.

Support: She joined their smash hit Saturday night show last year, a number of months after winning over the public to become I'm A Celebrity's Queen of the Jungle (Pictured in 2016)

Friendship: Appearing on Comedy Central UK's The Chris Ramsey Show, the Geordie lass gushed about her co-hosts as she opened up about the close friendship they've formed over the past year (Pictured in 2017)

The brunette beauty - who first shot to fame on MTV's Beauty School Cop Out - admitted that their sage advice has meant the world to her as she carves out a career in presenting, adding that because of their support she's evolved as a person.

'They are so amazing,' she gushed. 'They're genuinely amazing people. They give me the best advice and are always there if I need them. The best advice they've ever given me is to be me. I don't think they knew how much that meant to me.'

Continuing: 'I think it was the first episode and the fact that they came to me, it's a huge show to ad lib live on TV that gave me so much confidence.

'And the fact they tell me all the time to "Keep being you", that filled me with confidence and I feel like I'm a completely different person to last year.

Dinner dates: Scarlett admitted: 'like when I go for Sunday dinner with Ant & Dec! We just go for Sunday dinner casually, and they text me!'

'Amazing': Scarlett has made no secret of her admiration for the presenting duo, having previously declared they're 'amazing' mentors to her as she began her broadcasting career

Confidence: Speaking to MailOnline, the Durham native discussed how the Geordie duo have filled her with confidence after they approached her following her Jungle win for their series Ant & Dec's Saturday Night Takeaway

'I know I am going into this series with so much more confidence,' she added. 'I'm really excited, they're, in my opinion, the best in the business.'

Now appearing on the debut of The Chris Ramsey Show on Wednesday night, Scarlett was sure to bring much laughter after she likened her new boyfriend Lee Wilkinson to looking like a sex doll.

The rib-tickling moment happened as show host Chris talked about the recent news that you can now buy a male sex doll, with the picture on the screen to which Scarlett announced that the toy looked similar to her other half.

She giggled: 'Do you know why I keep laughing, oh my god hes gonna kill us, he looks like my boyfriend!'

Twin: Now appearing on the debut of The Chris Ramsey Show on Wednesday night, Scarlett was sure to bring much laughter after she likened her new boyfriend Lee Wilkinson (Pictured above) to looking like a sex doll

Similarity: The rib-tickling moment happened as show host Chris talked about the recent news that you can now buy a male sex doll, with the picture on the screen to which Scarlett announced that the toy looked similar to her other half

Co-host Phil noticed her other half Lee looking sheepish: 'Have you noticed that your boyfriend is particularly quiet?' To which Chris answered: 'Well this sex doll looks like the perfect hunk so youve done well!'

Scarlett is said to have started seeing Durham based Lee - who trains college students - over Christmas, but have known each other for a decade.

The former I'm A Celebrity winner looked more besotted than ever with Lee as she confirmed their romance with an Instagram snap earlier this month.

Cuddling up to the beefcake for the camera, she wrote to her 1.7 million followers: 'love this one... love a night in Newcastle #datenight'.

The Chris Ramsey Show will premiere on Comedy Central UK on Wednesday 28th February at 10pmShe went into hiding earlier this month as the public backlash to her affair with Dean Wells reached fever pitch.

But there is one person Davina Rankin can count on for support: her fellow Married At First Sight contestant Alycia Galbraith.

Speaking to Daily Mail Australia at Channel Nine's NRL launch on Wednesday, Alycia said she has been touch with the 26-year-old bikini model recently.

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'She has a good heart': There is one person Davina Rankin (right) can count on for support following her affair backlash, her fellow Married At First Sight contestant Alycia Galbraith (left)

Alycia, 29, revealed that Davina was coping despite the 'horrible' things that were being written about her on social media.

When asked how her co-star was dealing with the aftermath of her cheating scandal, Alycia said: 'She's OK. I mean, obviously it's really hard.'

While emphasising that she did not agree with her infidelity, the South Australian student revealed that Davina had been a good friend to her.

The real Davina? While emphasising that she did not agree with her infidelity, the South Australian student revealed that Davina (pictured) had been a good friend to her

Two sides: Alycia explained that Davina had helped her with her body confidence issues, and even supported her when she burst into tears following her first swimsuit shoot

'Some of the stuff that's said is horrible,' she said of the public backlash to Davina's affair with 39-year-old Dean.

'I don't agree with what she's done. But I know that she has got a good heart because of what she did for me.'

Alycia explained that Davina had helped her with her body confidence issues, and even supported her when she burst into tears following her first swimsuit shoot.

True friend: 'I don't agree with what she's done but I know that she's got a good heart cause of what she did for me,' said Alycia

'She could have easily been a different way with me but she wasn't. There is a good heart in there,' Alycia said.

'She's got the best sense of humour. She just says it how it is. She's comical!'

Flaunting her incredible 30kg weight loss on Wednesday night, single Alycia looked every inch the glamazon at the Channel Nine event.

Stunner: Flaunting her incredible 30kg weight loss on Wednesday night, single Alycia looked every inch the glamazon at Channel Nine's NRL launch in Sydney

Sporting a monochrome jumpsuit, the statuesque blonde added a pair of strappy metallic heels to her outfit.

Opting for a luminous and radiant complexion, she drew attention to her contoured cheekbones and dark red lip.

Married At First Sight continues Sunday at 7pm on Channel NineShe finally confirmed her romance with Strictly Come Dancing pro Gorka Marquez after the dancer shared sun-drenched snaps from their Tenerife getaway.

And now Gemma Atkinson looked worlds away from her sun-filled breakaway as she was pictured tackling the snow-lined pavements leaving Key 103 Radio Station in Manchester on Wednesday.

The 33-year-old former soap star was dressed for the unusual wintry weather in a pair of black knee-high wellies as she left the radio studios.

Braving the Beast from the East: Gemma Atkinson looked worlds away from her sun-filled breakaway as she was pictured tackling the snow-lined pavements leaving Key 103 Radio Station in Manchester on Wednesday

Equipped for the chilly temperatures, she continued to wrap up for the occasion as she donned a salmon-coloured hoodie under her black padded jacket.

Wearing a pair of black joggers, she draped her backpack over her shoulder while her blonde locks were worked into a messy top knot heading to her car.

Gemma's low-key appearance comes after her fans were left beaming when she and Strictly hunk Gortka finally went Instagram official with their romance on Valentine's Day.

Those boots were made for walking: The 33-year-old former soap star was dressed for the unusual wintry weather in a pair of black knee-high wellies as she left the radio studios

The pair jetted off across the sunny globe to the Canary Islands for a romantic getaway to celebrate their love.

They insisted they were friends the whole time while the Hollyoaks' star competed for the Glitter Ball trophy in the latest series of the BBC dancing show.

Gemma gave eager fans their first glimpse into their love story when she discussed the intimate details with her Key 103 hosts Mike Toolan and Matt Haslam.

She addressed their long-distance romance as she lives and works in Manchester while Gorka is based in London.

Must be love! Gemma's low-key appearance comes after her fans were left beaming when she and Strictly hunk Gortka finally went Instagram official with their romance on Valentine's Day

Glimpse: Gemma gave eager fans their first glimpse into their love story when she discussed the intimate details with her Key 103 hosts Mike Toolan and Matt Haslam

'Hes in London and Im in Manchester I think thats a good thing because you both have to make an effort to see each other,' Gemma considered.

'When youre working with someone it's very convenient and easy, I'm very aware of that, and when youre separated thats when you have to make the effort and it's sweet thats nice.'

The actress divulged it was Gorka's sense of humour that made her fall madly in love with the dark, tall, handsome hunk.

'Hes very funny, I like the fact that hes funny he makes me laugh,' she explained.

Long-distance: She addressed their long-distance romance as she lives and works in Manchester while Gorka is based in London (Pictured with fellow Strictly contestant Simon Rimmer)

The golden-haired beauty explained they decided to give love a go after they forged an incredibly close bond as friends for six months.

She said: 'Obviously we worked together, Ive known him for six months now. During the show we only saw each other at weekends everyone was saying "Oh, they're together," but we genuinely werent.

'We just went for coffee and stuff on Sundays, not every Sunday, you cant get to know someone just by seeing them at weekends.

'It was only when the tour started that we saw each other all the time and we thought this could work, and it did, and it does so far!'She has earned her FROW status after strutting her stuff down the runways since her debut in 2004.

And Rosie Huntington-Whiteley looked every inch the model muse as she stepped out in Paris on Wednesday

Wrapping up against the bitter European climes, the British model, 30, nailed off-duty glamour in a chic plaid Georgia Alice coat.

Model muse: Rosie Huntington-Whiteley,30, nailed off-duty glamour in a chic plaid Georgia Alice coat as she stepped out in Paris on Wednesday

All eyes were on Rosie as she stepped out in the French capital in her eye-catching outerwear.

The mother-of-one kept the rest of her ensemble simple yet stylish, opting for a plain black top and skinny black jeans which features a slight slit at the hem.

Rosie added to her statuesque height in a pair of towering pointed black suede boots with a shiny tip.

The catwalk queen sported an effortless blow-dry and clad her naturally striking features with a pair of chic cat eye shades.

Chic: The mother-of-one kept the rest of her ensemble simple yet stylish, opting for a plain black top and skinny black jeans which features a slight slit and the hem

Standing tall: Rosie added to her statuesque height in a pair of towering pointed black suede heels with a shiny tip

Rosie has jetted to Paris for its annual Fashion Week, after she was spotted on the FROW of several high-profile catwalk shows in New York earlier this month.

The beauty is one of the biggest faces in the industry, having made her catwalk debut at Fashion Week in 2004.

Despite taking a year off to care for her son, the former Victoria's Secret Angel landed in fifth place on Forbes' annual list of the world's best-paid supermodels in November - with earnings of a staggering $9.5 million in just 12 months.

Beauty: The catwalk queen sported an effortless blow-dry and clad her naturally striking features with a pair of chic cat eye shades

Mum: Rosie welcomed her first child, a son called Jack, with her fiance Jason Statham in June 2017

Rosie welcomed her first child, a son called Jack, with her fiance Jason Statham in June 2017.

The Marks & Spencer lingerie model and designer has been dating action star fiance Jason, 50, for seven years.

However, the good-looking pair are yet to tie the knot, despite announcing their engagement in January 2016.

Rosie recently gushed of the actor's natural knack with Jack last month, telling Harper's Bazaar: 'He really is the best dad. I cant even put it into words... Its really a beautiful thing to watch.Jordan Barrett found fame as a 'male supermodel' after being discovered at age 13 while attempting to shoplift matches from a convenience store.

But Kirk Blake, the modelling scout who first spotted the now-21-year-old catwalk star, has some harsh words for fashion's resident 'bad boy'.

Speaking to The Daily Telegraph on Thursday, Kirk said Jordan - who is the son of convicted drug dealer Adrian Barrett - needs to dial his behaviour down a notch.

Scroll down for video

'He needs to rein it in': Kirk Blake, the model scout who discovered Jordan Barrett (pictured), took aim at the 'bad boy of fashion' and claimed he shouldn't be celebrated in an interview with Thursday's Daily Telegraph

'He needs to rein it in. I just know that he can be so much better,' Kirk said of Jordan's behaviour, which has included swearing and making rude gestures to the media.

'He is unstoppable at the moment but I still think he has to make the correct decisions.'

Kirk also questioned why so much attention was being given to Jordan, despite his less-than-positive reputation.

'Why are we celebrating someone who gives the media the finger?' he asked.

'Why are we celebrating someone who gives the media the finger?' Kirk was unimpressed by some of Jordan's unsavoury behaviour

In the past, Jordan has been forthcoming about the unusual circumstances which saw him discovered as a young model.

'(The scout) was asking me all these questions about my mum and stuff I didn't understand. I thought he was security, and I sort of scampered away,' he previously told Vanity Fair.

Speaking of the incident to New York Magazine, Jordan added: 'I wanted to have a cigarette, but I couldn't get a lighter because apparently you have to be over 18, so I decided I was gonna take matches from the counter.'

As well as his bad boy reputation, Jordan is also known as something of a ladies' man.

Early days: Jordan was discovered as a teenager by Kirk while stealing from a store

Earlier this week, Jordan shared a series of Instagram Story posts of himself enjoying some R&R with Victoria's Secret model Frida Aasen, 23.

He spent the day in a luxury boat with the Norwegian beauty, as the pair took in stunning views of the Miami skyline.

Over the years, Jordan Barrett has accumulated quite an extensive and star-studded list of rumoured 'flings'.

He has been romantically linked to Lara Stone, Kate Moss, Paris Hilton and Hailey Baldwin - but was not in a confirmed relationship with any of them.

Hit with the ladies! Earlier this week, he shared posts on his Instagram Story of himself enjoying rest and relaxation with Victoria's Secret model Frida Aasen, 23He is best known for his titular role as the powerful but arrogant god in the hotly anticipated Thor franchise.

And Chris Hemsworth, 34, couldn't resist showing off his talents when he sat his three children in front of the latest movie in the saga Thor Ragnarok.

Via his Instagram on Wednesday, India Rose, aged five, and her two twin brothers Tristan and Sasha, aged three, can be seen huddled together.

'The brainwashing has begun': Thor hunk Chris Hemsworth showed his latest movie to daughter India Rose, 5, Tristan and Sasha, 3, via Instagram on Wednesday

The trio were sat happily watching their movie star dad's latest movie on the family iPad in the comfort of their living room.

In the short boomerang, Chris also made a brief appearance to give a thumbs up to the camera.

The A-lister joked he was 'brain washing' his kids by showing them a clip of his latest movie where he plays the superhero.

He captioned the boomerang on Instagram: 'Just downloaded Thor Ragnarok and the brainwashing has begun, soak it up kids #fatheroftheyear #thorragnarok #thor @taikawaititi @marvel.' (sic)

The Thor trilogy follows the quest of a superhero, based on the same character in the Marvel comic series.

Leading man: The Thor trilogy follows the quest of a superhero, based on the same character in the Marvel comic series

The latest film Thor Ragnarok, which the leading actor was showing to his kids, was released in cinemas in November 2017.

Chris shares his three children with his gorgeous wife Elsa Pataky, who recently worked on their first film together 12 Strong.

The Chris and Elsa love story begins in early 2010 when they started dating and the couple went onto tie the knot over the festive season at Christmas.

They have gone from strength to strength ever since while they have welcomed their three children into the world during their seven-year marriage.

Good idea! In the short boomerang, Chris also made a brief appearance to give a thumbs up to the camera

Although they have been married for seven years, the couple worked on their first movie together in 2016.

The dad-of-three revealed it was like a holiday away from their parenting duties back at their home.

'It was great, it was like a little holiday away from the kids,' Chris told Good Morning America in January.

'We left the kids with their grandparents and went off for a few weeks and shot together.

Top man: The latest film Thor Ragnarok, which the leading actor was showing to his kids, was released in cinemas in November 2017

'We've been rehearsing that relationship and that on-screen chemistry for seven years so if we didn't have chemistry, we would've been in trouble.'

12 Strong tells the story of the first Special Forces team that's deployed to Afghanistan following the events of 9/11.

In the film, Chris plays the role of Captain Mitch Nelson, who has the task of leading his team of 12 soldiers to take down the Taliban.

Elsa plays the part of the captain's dutiful wife, who looks after their daughter while he is at war.They went public with their relationship in October.

And Bella Thorne and her rapper boyfriend Mod Sun did not shy away from the PDA as they got very hands-on at the after-party for her latest film Midnight Sun at the Hotel Dom in Rome, Italy, on Tuesday night.

The actress, 20, shared passionate kisses with her beau, 30, as he cheekily grabbed her derriere in front of the cameras - just hours after the beauty showed off her hairy underarms on the red carpet.

Hey, cheeky! Bella Thorne and her rapper boyfriend Mod Sun got very hands-on at the after-party for her latest film Midnight Sun at the Hotel Dom in Rome, Italy, on Tuesday night

The Famous In Love star ditched her glamorous red carpet dress from earlier in the evening for a more casual look, wearing a loose-fitting white shirt covered in badges and tight leather red trousers.

The redhead accessorised with various silver rings, necklaces and bracelets, and sported bright hair and make-up to match her look.

Bella could barely keep her hands off Mod, while he managed to get a grab of her peachy behind during the wild bash.

The couple around on the seats inside the party, as they grabbed a nearby camera to snap some pictures.

Hair she is! Their PDA-fest came just hours after Bella flashed her unshaven underarms on the red carpet

Packing on the PDA: The actress, 20, shared passionate kisses with her beau, 30, as he cheekily grabbed her derriere in front of the cameras

Party girl: The Famous In Love star ditched her glamorous dress from earlier in the evening for a more casual look, wearing a loose-fitting white shirt covered in badges and tight red trousers

Bella and Mod - real name Derek Smith - have been dating since October, but the relationship has not been short of drama.

Mod was busted by Bella still using a dating site after the start of their relationship, as she shared a snap of his phone with notifications from Badoo.

After posting a topless selfie to show what he was missing, Bella then decided to give Mod a taste of his own medicine by setting up her own profile on rival site Huggle with a very raunchy profile picture.

Bella garnered plenty of attention for her very skimpy display in the profile, but captioned her photo by writing she was only looking for friends.

Rock n' Roll! Bella also showed off her garish red hair and makeup to match her bold outfit as she danced around the bash with her beau

Loved-up: Bella and Mod - real name Derek Smith - have been dating since October, and their relationship has gone from strength to strength

Bella attended the afterparty following the premiere of her latest film, where she channeled Julia Roberts and flashed her unshaven armpits.

Despite the glamour of her scarlet, bardot gown, it was perhaps the star's hairy underarms that garnered the most attention.

And it wasn't only her hair situation that would have drawn similarities to Hollywood star Julia, as Bella's choice of dress and hairstyle were almost exact match for Julia's iconic Pretty Woman outfit.

Cheeky! Mod was busted by Bella still using a dating site after the start of their relationship, as she shared a snap of his phone with notifications from Badoo

High spirits: The couple couldn't keep their hands off of one another as they larked around at the bash

Strike a pose! The movie star also snapped pictures of her flamboyant boyfriend

Bella's new movie sees her play a teenage girl who suffers from a rare allergy to sunlight.

The screen star's acting career has gone from strength to strength since her role on the Disney Channel sitcom Shake It Up, starring in the TV drama Famous in Love as well as well as films Amityville: The Awakening, The DUFF and Assassination Nation.

Bella was also linked to numerous A-listers after coming out as bisexual in 2016, and before starting her relationship with Mod she had been paired with Keeping Up With The Kardashians' Scott Disick and Mod's pal Blackbear.

Smitten: Bella wrapped her arms around the rapper as he waves his arms in the air and pulled a series of playful poses

Dance like no one's watching! Bella wasn't afraid to bust a move alone inside the venue

Smooch: Bella planted a kiss on her boyfriend's cheek while he puckered up a poutHe usually is hanging out with a Kardashian in Los Angeles.

But earlier this week Jonathan Cheban, 44, had fun with a new face - Venezuelan actress LeLe Pons, 21.

The two were seen having a ball at the Heineken Light Burger Bash presented by Schweid & Sons hosted by Guy Fieri in Miami.

Fun on the red carpet: Jonathan Cheban and LeLe Pons at the Heineken Light Burger Bash presented by Schweid & Sons hosted by Guy Fieri in Miami earlier this week

Cheban wore a black Atelier shirt with his pizza pendant necklace.

And the pretty blonde, who is a big hit on YouTube, wore a striped top with her hair up in a messy updo.

She became playful with the Keeping Up With The Kardashians star as she put his FoodGod pendant to her lips.

More friends: The Celebrity Big Brother star also hung out with Guy as well as Bravo icon Andy Cohen who hosts Watch What Happens Live

The Celebrity Big Brother star also hung out with Guy as well as Bravo icon Andy Cohen who hosts Watch What Happens Live.

In the background were two guys throwing gang signs for some reason.

This comes after he was seen in West Hollywood with Bachelor nation star Corinne Olympios.

The duo, who sported casual ensembles, were seen leaving trendy eatery Craig's together on Sunday after enjoying dinner.

Low key: Cheban stepped out in West Hollywood with Bachelor nation star Corinne Olympios on Sunday

Jonathan donned a black hoodie with matching sweats, adding a coordinating bomber jacket.

The Instagram star, who has 2.5 million followers, hit the pavement in white sneakers with a large chain around his neck.

Meanwhile Corinne, 25, showed off her sculpted legs in black spandex with a matching cover up.

She wore a high-neck blouse in black that featured a revealing open back; it had a fabric belt that cut across as well.

With his bestie: Jonathan has been featured on countless seasons of Keeping Up With The Kardashians; he has also been in their spin off shows as well; seen with Kim in 2017

Side by side in the city: The stars in New York City in 2016

Jonathan has been featured on countless seasons of Keeping Up With The Kardashians; he has also been in their spin off shows as well.

Meanwhile, the Kardashians have been in Tokyo.

On Tuesday Kim shared a photo from her glam room where her pink hair was in clips.

And Khloe revealed she was eight months along when she flashed her baby bump.

Meanwhile... Kim has been in Toyko with Khloe and KourtneyShe's just a matter of weeks away from welcoming the highly-anticipated birth of her first child with boyfriend Dane Goodson.

And Casey Batchelor proudly displayed her burgeoning baby bump when she stepped out for a spot of shopping in Essex on Wednesday morning.

However, the 33-year-old glamour model put on a surprising display, as she opted to forgo a coat as she left home in just a short-sleeved black dress with a thigh-high slit - despite plummeting temperatures and heavy snow gripping much of the UK.

Chilling: Pregnant Casey Batchelor was spotted stepping out for a spot of shopping in Essex on Wednesday morning - and she opted to brave the chilly streets without a coat

As she toted a pair of shopping bags, the erstwhile Celebrity Big Brother star looked at ease in the inclement weather as she strode through a car park in glam style.

The busty beauty styled her lustrous raven tresses to fall beyond her shoulders in a straight voluminous 'do, while she highlighted her natural beauty with a natural palette of flattering makeup.

Keeping her feet comfortable in a pair of box fresh white Adidas shell-toe trainers, the star showed that she isn't letting pregnancy cramp her style.

The thigh's the limit: The 33-year-old glamour model left home in just a short-sleeved black dress with a thigh-high slit, which she teamed with box fresh white Adidas shell-toe trainers

Despite her happy appearance, the yoga instructor shared a candid post about her struggles with pregnancy via Instagram in January.

She told her followers: 'I cant believe how hard it is to do just a tiny bit of exercise now. I'm still attempting gentle yoga and walking, but even just walking is getting me out of breath.

'The weight of my boobs and large bump I have combined definitely is a struggle, especially putting my balance off completely!

Cute couple: Casey announced in October that she was expecting, after she and long-term boyfriend Dane Goodson decided to originally keep the news a secret

'Water retention and swelling is kicking in now, the baby is growing, my boobs are growing, everything is growing, and its not like Im over eating Im just growing loads lol!'

Casey announced that she was expecting in October, after she and long-term boyfriend Dane Goodson decided to originally keep the news a secret.

A keen yoga bunny, the flexible brunette has continued her intense exercise regime - and often shares a number of impressive snaps with her social media followers.

Updates: The star has been sharing every step of her pregnancy journey with her army of social media followers

Casey qualified as a yoga instructor last year, after embarking on a 4,000 intensive three-week course in Spain.

She admitted at the time that her new-found flexibility not only reduced her stress levels, but also improved her sex life.

She cheekily confessed of Dane in July: 'My boyfriend loves it when I do yoga in a crop top and tiny shorts!'Joe Giudice admitted to doing the crime and now he's diligently serving his time.

The husband of Real Housewives of New Jersey star Teresa Giudice was sentenced to 41 months in federal prison in 2014. Not long before his sentencing, both he and Teresa had pleaded guilty to multiple counts of bankruptcy, mail and wire fraud. Joe was also charged with conspiracy.

He entered Federal Correctional Institution Fort Dix in New Jersey on March 23, 2016.

In April of that year, Us Weekly reported that Joe's sentence was being lessened. The site obtained a copy of his inmate status with the Federal Bureau of Prisons, which showed five months had been taken off his initial sentence within his first week behind bars.

Teresa Giudice's husband Joe Giudice has had five months taken off his 41-month prison stay

Joe has since been moved to the Federal Correctional Complex at Allenwood, Pennsylvania. The facility is low security. He was transferred there in November 2017, according to documents obtained by Page Six from The Blast.

Teresa, who received a 15-month sentence for her involvement in the crimes, was also granted an early release. On December 23, 2015 she was allowed to return to her New Jersey home. At the time she had been at Federal Correctional Institution Danbury in Danbury, Connecticut, for 11 months.

The reality star turned author wasn't permitted to leave her home without an electronic ankle monitoring device on her person. She completed her full sentence and had the device removed on February 5, 2016.

So when is Joe Giudice free to return to his family?

When is Joe Giudice getting out of prison?

Joe Giudice was initially slated to end his 41-month prison sentence in August 2019. According to Us Weekly, after having time shaved off his sentence, Joe is due home on March 14, 2019.

He is currently facing the threat of being deported for his crimes, however. Joe could be sent back to Italy, where he was born, at the end of his time served.

I don't know how he did it, but Joe sent me these flowers  to celebrate our 17th wedding anniversary .. I love & miss my honey  pic.twitter.com/QwrUz28gk8  Teresa Giudice (@Teresa_Giudice) October 23, 2016

Joe Giudice weight loss

Real Housewives of New Jersey star Teresa Giudice opened up about husband Joe Giudice's weight loss on January 11, 2018. She told People magazine he'd shed up to 45 pounds and was looking better than ever.

'He's very in shape,' she said.

'He works out. Not that he never worked out before, but it was all that alcohol he was drinking and whatever. He's in tip-top shape now.'

Teresa's thrilled with the results, according to her interview.

'He looks really good,' she said. 'Like, oh my God, he looks so much better than he did.'

happy fathers day to the only two men I need in my life! love you pic.twitter.com/NTKv4iMiMV  Gia Giudice (@TrueGia) June 21, 2015

On February 23, 2018 she told Us Weekly he'd lost 60 pounds total. He's down to 185 pounds from the 245 he weighed when he entered prison.

'He looks so hot and I just can't wait for him to come home. I'm really ready for him to come home,' Teresa said.

I couldn't have done this book without my amazing family  pic.twitter.com/X7Af2zsvqz  Teresa Giudice (@Teresa_Giudice) February 11, 2016

Joe Giudice net worth

According to Celebrity Net Worth, Joe Giudice's net worth is an estimated -$11 million (-7 million). The site does not provide an explanation for why his net worth is listed as being in the negatives but is presumably after he filed for bankruptcy, citing he was $11 million in debt.He's known for his extraordinary culinary talents and Michelin starred restaurants.

Yet, Gordon Ramsay was in for quite the foodie surprise when he appeared on Tuesday night's The Late Late Show with James Corden and partook in the rather grotesque segment Spill Your Guts or Fill Your Guts alongside the British host.

The British chef was on the chat show to promote the new season of Masterchef Junior when he was challenged to either answer a question truthfully or dine on a number of vomit-inducing delicacies, which included cow's tongue and hot sauce marinated bull's penis.

Eww: Gordon Ramsay was in for quite the foodie surprise when he appeared on Tuesday night's The Late Late Show with James Corden and partook in the rather grotesque segment Spill Your Guts or Fill Your Guts alongside the British host

Disgusting: The British chef was on the chat show to promote the new season of Masterchef Junior when he was challenged to either answer a question truthfully or dine on a number of vomit-inducing delicacies, which included cow's tongue and hot sauce marinated bull's penis

Unfortunately for show host James, he was first up to answer the challenging question and was tasked to eat a cow's tongue should he not answer.

In a state of laughter, Gordon asked James: 'Now this one, I don't think you've got the balls to answer this question, seriously. James' which product you've been paid to heavily endorse do you not use? Chase? Don't go there? Keurig or Apple Music?

Giggling to himself, the acclaimed chef added in his usual crude tone: 'You're f***ed. Bon appetite.'

Looking shocked, James went straight for the cow's tongue infront of him and took a large bite out of it before spitting the remains into the silver bucket beside him and delivered a rib-tickling quip to Gordon.

Eat up: Unfortunately for show host James, he was first up to answer the challenging question and was tasked to eat a cow's tongue should he not answer

Stomach-churning: Looking shocked, James went straight for the cow's tongue infront of him and took a large bite out of it before spitting the remains into the silver bucket beside him and delivered a rib-tickling quip to Gordon

He shared: 'I've eaten worse. I've eaten in a couple of your places!'.

The father-of-four was up next a decided to answer his question, putting fellow chefs in order from best to worst - Wolfgang Puck, Jamie Oliver and then Bobby Flay - rather than eat salmon ice cream.

And appeared to put his feud with Jamie Oliver to bed as he said former Iron Chef star Bobby was the worst and even shared his reasoning behind which left James in shock.

'Best Wolfgang Puck guaranteed. Number two, Jamie Oliver and on the bottom Bobby 'f**king' Flay,' he began. 'So will I tell you why? The past 5 years we've been trying to do this cook-off together in Vegas for charity.

'And he won't sign the fucking contract and now Bobby sign the bloody contract you limpd**k'.

Uh oh! Between the pair, they continued their attempts to dodge eating the vile delicacies

Vile: Gordon was forced to down hot sauce drenched bull's penis when he refused to give the name of the celebrity he wouldn't welcome back to his restaurant

Between the pair, they continued their attempts to dodge eating the vile delicacies when but it couldn't be as Gordon was forced to down hot sauce drenched bull's penis when he refused to give the name of the celebrity he wouldn't welcome back to his restaurant.

Although joking he wouldn't have James back, Gordon simply said that the star was 'American' before he quickly chowed down on the vile concoction which left him immediately coughing and spluttering.

Answering James when he asked if he was alright, he said: 'No, no my nose is running and I think my a**e is bleeding, it is bleeding.'

Next up Into the Woods actor James down a number of clam juice marinated grasshoppers to avoid answering which country was better, the UK or US.

Fear: Next up Into the Woods actor James down a number of clam juice marinated grasshoppers to avoid answering which country was better, the UK or US

Disgusting: And bringing the segment to the final crescendo, James had Gordon gagging after he relished giving him chicken feet dipped in salmon ice cream with clam juice on top after refusing to answer the question

And bringing the segment to the final crescendo, James had Gordon gagging after he relished giving him chicken feet dipped in salmon ice cream with clam juice on top after refusing to answer the question.

James asked: 'You eat a lot of bad food - when was the last time you s*** your pants?'

'You are a successful man, you are a Michelin starred chef, you are one of the greatest exports Britain's ever had, you are married and have four beautiful children - when was the last time your s*** your pants'.

After taking a mouthful of the chicken feet, he ended up spitting it out and wiping his chin with a napkin as Corden roared with laughter.Heather Locklear has reportedly been in a dark place ever since she divorced Richie Sambora in 2007.

The Melrose Place actress has been 'struggling and fragile,' according to a Wednesday report from People, with a history of anxiety, depression and substance abuse.

So when the Dynasty vet was arrested on Sunday for battery, it was 'not a surprise' to the 56-year-old blonde beauty's pals.

He was her rock: Heather Locklear has been reportedly in a dark place ever since she divorced Richie Sambora in 2007; seen in 2005

The TJ Hooker actress posted a $20,000 bail and is due in court on March 13.

Heather was married to Bon Jovi rocker Richie from 1994 until 2007. And together they had daughter Ava, 20.

It's not clear why they split, but afterwards the star started partying with Denise Richards - who went on to date Richie for a brief period - and then she began to date men like David Spade.

She never seems to have recovered. 'Sadly this isn't surprising,' said one friend of the arrest. 'She's very fragile and she's really struggling.'

And staying sober is just a big challenge for the blonde pinup.

'It's a constant battle for her,' said the pal. 'She has triggers that make it worse and she's very sensitive.'

Bad day: Locklear was arrested for domestic violence and attacking three cops Sunday night. She's pictured above in her most recent mugshot above

This was not her first arrest: Locklear is pictured above after her 2008 arrest for DUI

Though her love life has been a rollercoaster, she has friends to lean on.

'People are trying to help her. She is the sweetest, most generous girl and the most loving sister, friend, daughter and mom. We really want that girl back,' said a source.

Earlier this week DailyMail.com revealed Heather was arrested for nearly biting her boyfriend's nose off in a drunken rage, and then attacking three cops who came to break up the fight late Sunday.

Their family: Heather was married to Bon Jovi rocker Richie from 1994 until 2007. And together they had daughter Ava, 20

A source in the Ventura police department tells DailyMail.com that Locklear 'was wasted' when she and Chris Heisser, the high school sweetheart she recently reconnected with, 'got into a physical fight' at her house in Thousand Oaks, California Sunday night.

She 'practically bit the tip off of Heisser's nose,' the source said, before instructing a woman who works with her to call police.

But her plan backfired when cops showed up on her doorstep and tried to put her in handcuffs.

The source said the actress snapped and 'attacked three of' the four officers - all in front of her 'mortified' adult daughter Ava, age 20.

Still close: Mom and daughter side by side in November

'She punched the lady cop and called her a "c**t", kicked one of the male cops in the balls and punched the third male cop and called them all "f****** assholes" ranting at them,' the source said.

Because she had claimed to have been beaten by Heisser, Locklear was first taken to the hospital for evaluation.

She was booked into the Ventura County Jail around 1am on a felony count of domestic violence and three counts of misdemeanor battery on a peace officer.

Less than an hour later, Heisser himself was arrested, this time for driving under the influence. Captain Garo Kuredjian of the Ventura Sheriffs Office told DailyMail.com that Heissers arrest was for DUI but could not give further details. A spokesman for the California Highway Patrol said the agency was unable to comment until the pending case against Heisser is concluded.

Sources told TMZ that he was spotted driving slowly on Highway 101, blew a 0.19 and a 0.20 blood alcohol level after being pulled over. The legal limit in California is 0.08.

Pictured above is Locklear's home where police were called Sunday night

Both were released later Monday morning after posting bail. Locklear's bond was set at $20,000.

Troubled Locklear has a history of drunken altercations and was arrested last September after crashing her Porsche into a ditch while driving to Heissers home.

No charges were filed after an investigation revealed she was sober at the time.

A source said Locklear and Heisser got into another booze-fueled fight three weeks before that crash.

In recent months, Locklear has posted multiple photos her new beau to Instagram.

Just two days ago, she also posted a picture of her flying to Boston with her dog.

Locklear has been married twice, first to Motley Crue drummer Tommy Lee from 1986 to 1993 and then to Bon Jovi guitarist Richie Sambora from 1994 to 2007, who she had her daughter with.

Locklear also had a long-term relationship with fellow Melrose Place alum Jack Wagner. The two got engaged in 2011, but called it quits less than a year later.

She had so many hit TV shows: Locklear starred in such TV shows as Melrose Place and Spin City; seen in 2016

Locklear has posted several recent photos with her boyfriend, Chris Heisser

Theactress has a history of domestic violence calls, as well as abusing prescription drugs.

In 2011, while dating Wager, LAPD officers were called to his home after the two allegedly got into a heated argument and she punched him.

A law enforcement source told TMZ at the time: 'She lost it on him and he retaliated.'

No charges were filed by either party after the pair took part in a formal meeting at the LA County Attorneys Office.

Locklear (left) and Heisser (right) pictured above in their high school yearbook photos

Locklear was pulled over in September 2008 on suspicion of DUI after she was seen driving erratically. An eyewitness told officials with the California Highway Patrol that Locklear 'was revving her engine loudly, and backed over a pair of sunglasses several times.

While a drug test found no alcohol or illegal narcotics in her system, she was charged with one misdemeanor count of DUI.

The Santa Barbara County Deputy District Attorney Lee Carter said he believed medication she was on for anxiety and depression 'could have impaired her ability to safely drive a motor vehicle'.

The last ex: Locklear (L) and Dr Marc Mani attend the W Magazine celebration of the 'Best Performances' Portfolio and The Golden Globes in 2015 in Los Angeles

Locklear pleaded no contest to reckless driving and the DUI charge was dropped. She was sentenced to three years of informal probation, a DMV driver safety class and a $700 fine.

In March of that year, paramedics and police officers rushed to Locklear's home when a man claiming to be her doctor called 911, saying he feared she was trying to commit suicide.

While Locklear appeared fine when cops showed up at her door, authorities say they believe the doctor's concern was legitimate since Locklear appeared to be suffering from anxiety and depression.

Hot stuff: Clockwise (From Top Left), Rob Estes, Locklear, Jack Wagner, Jamie Luner, Josie Bisset, Thomas Calabro, Kelly Rutherford, John Haymes Newton on Melrose Place in 1992

In June, Locklear checked herself into a medical treatment facility in Arizona for anxiety and depression and returned home about a month later.

In April 2010, she was arrested again for felony hit and run after crashing her BMW into a sign close to the gated community where she lived with Sambora.

On that occasion, Locklear was cleared due to insufficient evidence.

In January 2012, authorities responded to Locklear's house again after her sister called 911, who feared her life was in danger after mixing prescription medicatoin and alcohol. Locklear was taken to the hospital but was discharged the next day.She's known for her impeccable style and fashion-focused empire.

And Kim Kardashian proved once again that her talents are unlimited as she gave a sultry pose in a sparking dress for an image in Vogue India.

The 37-year-old reality television star showed some serious skin wearing a backless nude dress after sparking a bit of controversy by wearing a traditional lehenga skirt in her latest glossy fashion spread.

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Wow! Kim Kardashian proved once again that her talents are unlimited as she gave a sultry pose in a sparking dress for an image in Vogue India

Her tanned and toned figure was on full display as she perched one leg above a marbled bench.

Sparkling gold sequins wrapped around her arms and into a flirty ruffled skirt, with sheer material bunched along her waistline.

In another image, the mother-of-three was dressed in a patterned skirt, dupatta (shawl) and blouse from Anita Dongre - the Indian label that went stratospheric after the Duchess of Cambridge wore one of its designs in 2016 - for the shoot in LA.

Trouble: Readers were not only angered by Kim's choice of outfit - labeling it 'tragic' - they also questioned the magazine's decision to feature the star on the cover rather than an Indian woman

And readers were not only angered by Kim's choice of outfit - labelling it 'tragic' - they also questioned the magazine's decision to feature the star on the cover rather than an Indian woman.

MailOnline has contacted Vogue India for comment.

Posing for photographer Greg Swales, Kim spoke about growing up in her famous family, documenting her everyday life on camera, and building her business empire.

Controversy: The reality star turned businesswoman posed on the cover of Vogue India for its March issue, but her casting and choice of outfit has angered readers on social media

But one reader wrote: 'Umm Kim K for Vogue India? Wearing a lehenga?'

Another reader blasted: 'I can't believe @VogueIndia featured Kim Kardashian on their cover as if we don't see her featured on a different magazine every day.

'India's Vogue should embrace and feature their own south Asian women instead of choosing someone from pop culture.'

One even accused the fashion bible of 'perpetuating a detrimental cycle of underrepresentation', adding: 'Stop white washing your own damn culture.'

Backlash: Readers were not only angered by Kim's outfit - labelling it 'tragic' - they also questioned the magazine's decision to feature her on the cover rather than an Indian woman

However not everyone was upset by the cover; The Quint praised the 'stunning' images, writing: 'Kim Kardashian in an Indian label - yes, it finally happened.'

Others were quick to point out that Vogue India only feature international models 'once in a blue moon' - with the majority of their cover stars being Indian.

Actresses Deepika Padukone and Kareena Kapoor were Kim's predecessors - with one notable exception being Kim's half-sister Kendall Jenner, who also raised eyebrows when she graced its cover in May 2017.

One reader blasted: 'I can't believe @VogueIndia featured Kim Kardashian on their cover as if we don't see her featured on a different magazine every day'

In her Q&A with Vogue India this week, the reality television star admitted that she 'didn't actually' imagine her incredible empire growing to the size it is today.

'I thought I was just going to run my clothing store,' Kim said. 'I didnt think [the show] would go beyond season 1 or 2. And then as things were happening, my mom and I were so excited.'

'We didnt even know what we were starting, but we knew we were in it together,' she added. 'We definitely made so many mistakes. At first, we would be involved in anything.

But it helped us work our way up to now, to launching a beauty brand completely by myself, and funding it all.'Kim Kardashian welcomed daughter Chicago West to the world via gestational carrier on January 15.

But the 37-year-old siren has not slowed down her work schedule.

And while in Tokyo with sisters Khloe and Kourtney this week, the KKW Beauty entrepreneur was not seen with the six-week-old child, though on Wednesday the bombshell was spotted stopping by a store named Chicago.

On the move: Kim Kardashian was seen in Tokyo during a shopping trip on Wednesday

Interesting: The 37-year-old star stopped by a clothing store named Chicago

Debut photo: Chicago is clearly in the beauty's thoughts at least as earlier this week she shared a lovely image with the baby

There is a good chance the baby is with her on the trip but not in the public eye as nannies tend to her in a hotel room.

Daughter North, aged four, and son Saint, aged two, could also be with the Keeping Up With The Kardashians siren as well.

Chicago is clearly in the beauty's thoughts, however, as earlier this week she shared a lovely image with the baby.

For her bae: Kim was a walking advertisement for West's Yeezy season seven line which is just starting to be seen

Rolling! Evidence that Kim was shooting an episode of Keeping Up With The Kardashians

The little girl had a cute pink filter on her as Kim held her in her arms while wearing a white bathrobe.

It was the first image yet of baby Chicago, named after the city her husband Kanye West grew up in.

During the shopping trip Kim was a walking advertisement for West's Yeezy season seven line which is just starting to be seen.

Le look de Kim: The Selfish author wore a tight blue mini dress with a long dark grey coat and a black wait purse that looked like a belt

Kicks by Kanye: But the biggest statement were her BLUSH 500 shoes from the Yeezy line with matching Kanye-made socks

She got the full Tokyo vibe: The star also stopped by Kiddy Land

Always time for her fans: She even stopped to take a photo with a woman on the street

Look by Mario D: The looker also wore her pink locks down and had her full glam going with heavy eye makeup and lip color

The Selfish author wore a tight blue mini dress with a long dark grey coat and a black wait purse that looked like a belt.

But the biggest statement were her $200 BLUSH 500 shoes from the Yeezy line with matching Kanye-made socks.

The looker also wore her pink locks down and had her full glam going with heavy eye makeup and lip color.

Oh mama! Also there by her sister was her heavily pregnant sister Khloe

Fun maternity look: The 33-year-old who wore a tight beige dress, very long khaki rain coat with over-the-knee boots in a semi Desert Storm camo print; on the left is Kourtney in a fuzzy pink jacket over a black outfit

She was seen stopping by the store Chicago which sold clothing and accessories.

And she was also seen at Kiddy Land. Later she took photos with fans on the street.

Also there by her sister was her heavily pregnant sister Khloe who wore a tight beige dress, very long khaki rain coat with over-the-knee boots in a semi Desert Storm camo print.

Holing on to the bump: The girlfriend of Tristan Thompson held her belly as Kourtney trailed behind. Locals didn't seem to recognize the famous sisters

Like a Matrix extra: Khloe's long coat flapped in the wind as she walked past Phenix

Pucker up: That same day she took to Instagram where she said she was eight months along

The girlfriend of Tristan Thompson had her blonde locks up in a high ponytail and also carried a beige purse.

The day before Khloe revealed she is eight months pregnant already. She is expecting a boy in late March or early April.

Kourtney also made a fashion statement with a fuzzy jacket in light pink over a black outfit.

Also this week, Kim made a splash on the cover of Vogue India where she wore a red dress.

Good things come in threes: Kim, Kourtney and Khloe heading to dinner in Tokyo on Monday

In her Q&A, the reality television star admitted that she 'didn't actually' imagine her incredible empire growing to the size it is today.

'I thought I was just going to run my clothing store,' Kim said. 'I didnt think [the show] would go beyond season 1 or 2. And then as things were happening, my mom and I were so excited.'

'We didnt even know what we were starting, but we knew we were in it together,' she added. 'We definitely made so many mistakes. At first, we would be involved in anything.

'But it helped us work our way up to now, to launching a beauty brand completely by myself, and funding it all.'They run in the same reality circles.

And Pete Wicks, 29, and Dawn Ward, 44, proved to be the best of friends as they enjoyed a boozy night out in London on Sunday following the Professional Beauty Show in the Excel centre.

The TV personalities seemed in good spirits after finishing off a hard day of work with celebrating the 22nd birthday of Dawn's daughter Darby.

Loving life: Pete Wicks, 29, and Dawn Ward, 44, proved to be the best of friends as they enjoyed a night out on Sunday following the Professional Beauty Show in the Excel centre

Dawn - who is married to Blackburn Rovers player Ashley Ward - looked effortlessly stylish in a little black dress that showed off her lean legs, whilst she boosted her frame with heeled suede heels.

The Real Housewives Of Cheshire star layered up with a red blazer whilst she wore her glossy locks in loose waves that framed her pretty features.

Meanwhile, TOWIE star Pete rocked a low-key look in baker boy hat and leather jacket teamed with skinny jeans.

Out and about: The TV personalities seemed in good spirits after finishing off a hard day of work with celebrating the 22nd birthday of Dawn's daughter Darby

Legs eleven: Dawn - who is married to Blackburn Rovers player Ashley Ward - looked effortlessly stylish in a little black dress that showed off her lean legs

Blonde beauty: The Real Housewives Of Cheshire star layered up with a red blazer whilst she wore her glossy locks in loose waves that framed her pretty features

Dawn was at the event at Londons Excel centre to promote her beauty clinic Skulpt, alongside her husband Ashley.

A source told The Mirror: 'A tipsy Dawn was seen dancing and running around and getting close to Pete Wicks after celebrating at a beauty trade show.

'Dawn had been drinking champagne and was seen making everyone laugh as she left.'

MailOnline has contacted Pete and Dawn's representatives.

Low-key look: TOWIE star Pete rocked a low-key look in baker boy hat and leather jacket teamed with skinny jeans

Cosy: Dawn threw her arm around Pete as they strolled through the centre together

Loving life: The pair seemed in high spirits as they strolled through the centre

Terrific trio: Pete later posted a picture from the event and gushed about the good time hed had with the Ward family

Pete later posted a picture from the event and gushed about the good time hed had with the Ward family.

He captioned the snap of him, Taylor Ward and Dawn, and said: Had a blinder on Sunday with @dawnward4 @skulptmedicaldistribution and her beaut family @taylorwardx @darbyward @ashersnine.

Pete's outing comes after he denied any romance rumours with Love Island winner Amber Davies following his split from on/off girlfriend Megan McKenna.

Out and about: Dawn was at the event at Londons Excel centre to promote her beauty clinic

Making moves: The duo seemed in good spirits as they strolled past on the outing

Cosy: The duo seemed chirpy as they headed out of the centre together

Making moves: Dawn sashayed past in her heeled boots as she sorted out her locks

Fancy footwork: Dawn seemed to enjoy having a little dance around the centre

The long-haired Lothario and Welsh beauty Amber had been spotted getting close at the National Television Award, but it seems a romance between them has been ruled out.

Following Amber's split with ex-boyfriend Kem Cetinay, she appears to have struck up a close bond with Essex-native Pete and not only have the duo been spotted enjoying several outings together, they have been cosying up together in a slew of social media snaps.

However, speaking to MailOnline, a source has claimed that the pair aren't embarking on a romance, contrary to reports. They insisted: 'They are not [dating] and have never dated. They're nothing more than mates.'

All-smiles: She seemed in great spirits as she walked past with a pal

Legs eleven: Dawn looked phenomenal in her stylish ensemble on the outing

Animated: The pair seemed energetic on the outing as they sashayed past

Meanwhile, Dawn and Ashley met when she was a young model in a car park in Bolton, and the Liz Hurley lookalike admits that she originally went on a date with him to make her ex-boyfriend jealous.

However, the pair hit it off and Ashley asked her to marry him five years later - in the very same car park.

The couple now share four daughters together: Aston, Charlie, Darby and Taylor.

Loving it: Dawn was seen chatting away animatedly on the outingEwan McGregor's estranged wife Eve left their daughter Clara red-faced as she took to Instagram to share a comment beneath an extremely saucy image.

In images viewed by Mirror, the 22-year-old model is said to have posted a saucy snap of photographer Helmut Newton's Office Love, Paris, which depicts an extremely graphic scene between a couple sprawled across a conference table.

Possibly hinting that she had found herself in a similarly compromising position or referencing the current movement against sexual harassment, her mum took to the comments section to simply pen: 'Me too????' before Clara penned: 'Oh my mother!'

Happier times: Ewan McGregor's estranged wife Eve left their daughter Clara red-faced as she took to Instagram to share a comment beneath an extremely saucy image

The McGregor family have been hitting headlines of late after patriarch Ewan controversianlly filed for divorce from Eve last month  six months after being spotted kissing his Fargo co-star Mary Elizabeth Winstead.

Earlier in the week, it was claimed Ewan has been dumped by Mary because she was unhappy with being dubbed a 'homewrecker'.

Model Clara is a prominent Instagram users, boasting a whopping 26,000 followers, and she litters her page with a combination of both stunning shots of herself and also artistic images - hence the now-deleted snap of Helmut Newton's work.

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 seven and 22. MailOnline has contacted representatives for Eve for comment.

Shock: In images viewed by Mirror , the 22-year-old model is said to have posted a saucy snap of photographer Helmut Newton's Office Love, Paris, which depicts an extremely graphic scene between a couple sprawled across a conference table

Model moments: Clara is an aspiring model and often litters her Instagram account with both saucy pictures of herself and also many artistic shots

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 Ewans reported split from Mary is revealed in the latest edition of US magazine Star. A source told the publication: 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.

Eve 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.

New love: The news of Ewans reported split from Mary is revealed in the latest edition of US magazine Star. A source told the publication: Mary hated being labelled a home wrecker and the embarrassment it caused her

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, he 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.

She called their divorce disappointing and upsetting before adding: My main concern is our four children are OK. Mary announced she was splitting from her husband of seven years Riley Stearns last May  as she filmed the series.It was one of the most bizarre moments in Married At First Sight history.

And Ashley Irvin, 28, says last week's strange massage scene with her husband Troy Delmege, 35, is proof that he could still be a virgin.

Speaking to OK! magazine on Thursday, the outspoken blonde said claims that her 'husband' has never had sex could explain his strange behavior on the show.

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'It explains a lot': Married At First Sight's Ashley Irvin, 28, says last week's strange massage scene with her husband Troy Delmege, 35, is proof that he could still be a virgin

'It explains a lot... I'd say that nails it,' she said.

'If you look at how he is with women, how he tries to massage me, the clumsy kisses and dropping the 'L' bomb way too soon. It all fits.

She added: 'He must be mortified, I would be if I was called a 35-year-old virgin ... it's embarrassing. I feel sorry for him.'

Not surprised: Speaking to OK! magazine on Thursday, the outspoken blonde said claims that her 'husband' has never had sex could explain his strange behavior on the show

The Brisbane flight attendant described the IT worker as 'eccentric,' which she said often spills over into 'weird.'

It comes after Troy's estranged sister claimed her his waiting for his 'real life' wedding to have sex.

Tanya said the Married At First Sight favourite was 'on the V-plates' - which is slang for someone who hasn't had intercourse - and is 'actually very churchy.'

Rumour has it: Troy Delmege's sister has claimed the 35-year-old is a virgin who is waiting to have his 'real life' wedding to have sex

She added that this could pose problems for his new romance with co-star Carly Bowyer, saying her family believe they need to 'overcome their social differences' before they settled down.

'Troy's very churchy actually and as far as I know he's on the V-plates,' she told NW magazine.

She added that her brother was most likely waiting for his 'actual' wedding to have sex.

Claims: Tanya said the Married At First Sight favourite was 'on the V-plates' - which is slang for someone who is a virgin - and is 'actually very churchy' (pictured with his 'wife' Ashley)

Discussing Troy's new relationship with Carly, she added: 'The view of my family is that they need to overcome their social differences, which are very significant.

Tanya also claimed that Troy thinks his TV bride Ashley Irvin, 28, is on the show for very 'different reasons' than himself, revealing: 'Troy feels like Ash definitely wants to be famous'.

Daily Mail Australia has reached out to Channel Nine for comment.

Saucy: The IT manager left viewers in hysterics after frantically stroking Ashley's back, tickling her shoulders and breathing on her neck while giving her a massage during the home visits

It comes after Troy and Carly were caught in a steamy kissing session in a park, despite both being married to other people on the show.

And in Monday's Woman's Day, insiders alleged that the pair 'are getting serious' and are 'totally in love'.

Tension is also said to be building between Carly and Ashley, with 'barbs exchanged between them' during the reunion episode.

'Things between the pair are getting really serious and they're totally in love,' insiders alleged of Carly and Troy's romance.

Bizarre: Troy previously stunned viewers with his vigorous tooth brushing technique

'Their feelings have really escalated and the pair have split their time between Carly's home in Melbourne, and Troy's home on Sydney's Northern Beaches,' the source went on to claim.

Carly and Troy were spotted engaging in a steamy kissing session in a Melbourne park earlier this month.

Troy steadfastly held onto Carly's derriere in a pair of tiny denim shorts as they passionately kissed while laid out on the grass.

At another point during their outdoor rendezvous, the IT manager grasped Carly's chest as the co-stars gazed deeply into each other's eyes.

An onlooker told New Idea the couple couldn't resist getting tactile, revealing: 'They couldn't keep their hands off each other and clearly didn't care who saw them.'

However despite the claims, both Carly and Troy have chosen to stay with their respective partners.

'This is such sh*t!' Earlier this week, Troy became embroiled in a furious row with Ashley after telling producers the couple had been close to having sex just 24 hours earlier

On the rocks? Tanya claimed Troy being a virgin could pose problems for his new romance with co-star Carly Bowyer (pictured), saying her family believe they need to 'overcome their social differences' before they settled down

Earlier this month, Troy chose to stay 'married' to Ashley for another week as the twosome agreed their bond was changing for the better.

Meanwhile Carly and her 'husband' Justin Fischer, 41, acknowledged their relationship lacked intimacy, but decided to stay and 'make it work'.

While Troy has not commented on whether he's a virgin, he has spoken in overtly sexual terms during Married At First Sight.

Earlier this week, he became embroiled in a furious row with Ashley after telling producers the couple had been close to having sex just 24 hours earlier.

Overhearing his comments, a clearly outraged Ashley interrupted his camera time, exclaiming 'What?! We haven't had sex and for you to bring it up...'

Rolling his eyes, an exasperated Troy then said to producers: 'Can you deal with that?' But Ashley had had enough as she stormed out as she called out 'see ya!' and raged 'This is such sh*t!'

Meanwhile, Troy hit the headlines after giving 'wife' Ashley a very steamy massage during the home visits.

The IT manager left viewers in hysterics after frantically stroking her back, tickling her shoulders and breathing on her neck - prompting Ashley to later admit it was a 'bit weird'.They're the Married At First Sight couple that no one expected to last.

But it seems Tracey Jewel and Dean Wells' rocky romance has turned into a fairy tale, with the pair announcing their desire to start a family.

'I want kids for sure,' Dean told OK! magazine this week when quizzed on whether fatherhood is on the cards.

'He is definitely dad material!' Married At First Sight's Tracey Jewel has announced her exciting baby plans with husband Dean Wells

'I love them. I've met Tracey's daughter Grace now, too, and that went really well,' he added.

Tracy also revealed she is ready to transition into family life, telling the publication: 'Dean is definitely dad material. He has a lot of strengths that make for a good parent.'

The statuesque socialite also told the magazine that she plans to relocate from Perth to Dean's native Sydney hometown with her eight-year-old daughter.

Tracy also revealed she is ready to transition into family life, telling the publication: 'Dean is definitely dad material. He has a lot of strengths that make for a good parent'

Dean and Tracey's relationship has taken centre stage throughout this season of MAFS thanks to Dean's extra-marital dalliance with bikini model Davina Rankin.

On Tuesday's episode, fans watched as a red-faced Dean confronted Tracey's parents about the affair.

'There were a few incidents one of the other girls from the experiment wasn't happy in her relationship as well and she reached out to me and I think she kinda liked me,' he told them.

Controversial: Dean and Tracey's relationship has taken centre stage throughout this season of MAFS thanks to Dean's extra-marital dalliance with bikini model Davina Rankin (L)

Teflon Dean! Miraculously Dean escaped from the the interaction unscathed, with Tracey's parents dismissing the situation as nothing more than a common mistake

'And there was maybe a bit of a connection there between her and I decided I didn't want to be with that other girl and I wanted to stay with Tracey,' he confessed.

Miraculously Dean escaped from the the interaction unscathed, with Tracey's parents dismissing the situation as nothing more than a common mistake.

Earlier this week, Woman's Day reported that Dean's quest for forgiveness has reached religious bounds, with the smooth-talking stud reportedly also turning to God in an attempt to wash away his sins.

'No one could believe it because he really didn't seem like the kind of guy who would be a regular at bible study!' a source reportedly told the publication on Monday.

The source added: 'During filming, often he couldn't make it to bible group, so he was constantly on the phone to his mentor. Talk about a guy whose life is a contradiction.'They've been struggling in their 'marriage' ever since Gabrielle Bartlett threatened to leave Married At First Sight.

And tensions are escalating between Nasser Sultan and his 'wife', with the personal trainer claiming Gabrielle has been making little effort.

Behind-the-scenes footage aired by Talking Married on Wednesday night showed Nasser slamming Gabrielle for trying to 'manipulate things.'

'She says she's made an effort; she hasn't really': Married At First Sight's Nasser Sultan slams 'wife' Gabrielle Bartlett as 'manipulative'

Appearing on the live panel show, Gabrielle was forced to watch previously unseen footage of Nasser blasted her during a chat with MAFS producers.

Claiming his wife had been 'pretty clever to move and manipulate things', Nasser slammed Gabrielle for threatening to leave Married At First Sight during the last commitment ceremony.

'See both of us, Gab and myself, haven't really made an effort, to be honest with you. She says she's made an effort; she hasn't really,' Nasser complained to producers.

Venting his feelings: Claiming his wife had been 'pretty clever to move and manipulate things', Nasser slammed Gabrielle for threatening to leave Married At First Sight

Not happy! A visibly annoyed Gabrielle told hosts Cheryl Maitland, Shelly Horton and Jayne Azzopardi, his comments were 'quite a surprise'

Watching the footage on Talking Married, a visibly annoyed Gabrielle told hosts Cheryl Maitland, Shelly Horton and Jayne Azzopardi, his comments were 'quite a surprise'.

'The effort was far-reaching, I can tell you,' she continued, revealing she had resorted to skinny dipping, albeit while wearing her underwear, to keep him interested.

'I think I was cooking cheesecakes at one point; there was spaghetti bolognese; there was lots of affection; there was back-off with the affection .... I felt like I was trying to come at this from so many angles.'

Meanwhile, Gabrielle revealed to The Fix on Wednesday she would not 'vent publicly' about Nasser's frustrating behaviour.

'I felt like I was trying to come at this from so many angles': Gabrielle revealed she had resorted to skinny dipping, albeit while wearing her underwear

'I wanted to maintain a sense of dignity for him, but at the same time it was really difficult and hurtful to hear about other people's partners participating in even the small things,' she explained.

The plus size model admitted she had found it difficult to hear Nasser complaining about their disastrous home stay visit.

'Nasser was full of justification and excuses as to why that behaviour happened. I wasn't surprised to hear it, but it was still hurtful to hear,' Gabrielle said.

Nasser admitted he didn't feel sexually attracted to Gabrielle, appearing distant during their home visit last week.They split up nearly three years ago after nearly a decade together.

But that hasn't stopped Scott Disick from feeling 'insanely jealous' of his ex Kourtney Kardashian's new boyfriend Younes Bendjima, 24, a source has told E!.

While Scott, 34, is 'happy' with his new girlfriend Sofia Richie, 19, it's still difficult for him to know Kourtney has moved on,' an insider explained.

Envious: Scott Disick is apparently 'insanely jealous' of his ex Kourtney Kardashian's boyfriend Younes Bendjima, according to an E! source

'Scott is still insanely jealous of Younes,' a source told the website. 'He just can't come to terms with the fact that Kourtney has found true happiness with someone else.'

Kourtney, 38, and Younes started dating over a year ago after meeting in Paris, just one night before Kim Kardashian was robbed.

Though Scott never imagined the romance would still be going on, the insider explained.

'Kourtney never knows when he is going to fly off the handle or go nuts about something,' the source said. 'Scott just never thought it would last this long with Younes or become so serious. Nobody really did.'

New flame: Disick has been dating girlfriend Sofia Disick for the last few months (pictured September 2017)

The insider claimed it was difficult for Scott to keep his emotions in check regarding the matter.

'He can't control his emotions about it and lets it all out.'

Kourtney and Scott were together for nine years and have sons Mason, eight, Reign, three, and daughter Penelope, five, together.

Strength to strength: A source previously told People: 'Its definitely serious. No one thought their relationship would last this long, but Kourtney is very happy' (pictured September 2017)

Though in 2015 Scott was spotted canoodling with his ex, stylist Chloe Bartoli, triggering his split from Kourtney.

Kourtney seems to often be attached at the hip with Younes.

A source previously told People: 'It's definitely serious. No one thought their relationship would last this long, but Kourtney is very happy.

'Younes has met her kids. Kourtneys family really likes him. He is the opposite of Scott. He doesnt party, isnt flashy and really treats Kourtney with a lot of respect. Its obvious that he really cares about Kourtney.'A quiet night in for Imogen Anthony usually involves taking part in a steamy photo shoot or filming racy videos for her shock jock boyfriend Kyle Sandliands.

But on Tuesday, the blonde model ventured out for a wild night out on the town.

Joined by the wife of convicted drug dealer Simon Main, and a few other friends, the group ended up at a strip club in King Cross, Sydney after what was meant to be a quiet dinner.

'Another magnificent trashy moment': Imogen Anthony dons racy lace bra top as she parties at a strip club until the early hours of the morning with the wife of convicted drug dealer Simon Main

The 27-year-old documented the adventures on her Instagram page, posting snaps from inside the 'World Famous' Showgirls nightclub.

What did you get up to last night? Oh just went for a light dinner with a couple of friends which ended up being tequila shots and strip clubs in Kings Cross until the AM - I think thats what you call turning up on a Tuesday,' Imogen captioned her post.

'You can tell by the outfit I wasnt planning for it.'

Having fun? The 27-year-old documented the adventure on her Instagram page, taking snaps from inside the 'World Famous' Showgirls nightclub

Imogen was joined by Simon Main's wife Natasha Kokali, who took several candid photograph of the blonde beauty while they were inside the club.

Instagram star Imogen certainly turned heads inside the venue, with the slender star wearing a revealing lace bra top and heavily ripped jeans.

It appears that Kyle didn't join the girls, no doubt resting up before his early morning start on breakfast radio.

Kyle's association with the Sydney figure Simon Main has long raised eyebrows, after Main was convicted and jailed in Italy 13 years ago for his part in one of the world's biggest ecstasy busts.

Racy: Instagram star Imogen certainly turned heads inside the venue, with the slender star wearing a revealing lace bra top and heavily ripped jeans

Tatt's fun: Imogen's top revealed her giant unicorn tattoo

Main was part of Europe's biggest drug busts in 2000, when he was involved with the trafficking of 333,000 ecstasy tablets through Italy.

He was subsequently jailed for fours years in the city of Trieste.

Meanwhile, earlier this year, Kyle and Imogen more-or-less bought a zoo.

Shortly after announcing the purchase of their 153 acre, $2,982,500 cottage farm house in Robertson, NSW back in January, the pair went animal crazy, purchasing goats, pigs, cows, horses and even a camel to fill the space.

Kyle's association with the Sydney figure Simon Main has long raised eyebrows, after Main was convicted and jailed in Italy 13 years ago for his part in one of the world's biggest ecstasy busts.

Main was part of Europe's biggest drug busts in 2000, when he was involved with the trafficking of 333,000 ecstasy tablets through Italy.

He was subsequently jailed for fours years in the city of Trieste.She has described her new role on the hit television series UnREAL as a 'dream job.'

And although the experience has thus far been a positive one, Kassandra Clementi hasn't forgotten her earlier days on long-running soap Home and Away.

The 27-year-old spoke with OK! magazine on Thursday about catching up with her former co-stars and how Australia will 'always be home.'

Scroll down for video

Reflective: Although her experience has thus far been a positive one with new show UnREAL, Kassandra Clementi hasn't forgotten her earlier days on long-running soap Home and Away

The bubbly blonde, who played Maddy Osborne on the Channel Seven series, revealed she 'absolutely' stays in touch with her Home and Away cast mates.

'I had a family reunion with Georgie Parker and Ray Meagher not too long ago,' she offered.

'That was so much fun,' she continued.

'I had a family reunion with Georgie Parker and Ray Meagher not too long ago,' she offered

Currently based in Los Angeles for her career, the Adelaide-born actress enthused that 'Australia will always be home.'

'I miss everything about it - family, friends, the countryside and food. I'm lucky to have built up a supportive community overseas, including lovely Aussies,' she said.

She hailed UnREAL as her 'favourite work experience so far', but bemoaned the chilly on-set temperatures in Vancouver and asserted Summer Bay was 'definitely warmer.'

Homesick: Currently based in Los Angeles for her career, the Adelaide-born actress enthused that 'Australia will always be home'

'I miss everything about it - family, friends, the countryside and food. I'm lucky to have built up a supportive community overseas, including lovely Aussies,' she said

Making her debut in season three of the show, Kassandra's UnREAL character Crystal is the 'mid-life crisis' girlfriend of series regular Chet Wilton, played by Craig Bierko.

She confirmed working with the veteran actor had been 'awesome' and described him as 'incredibly talented, lovely and hilarious'.

UnREAL follows the behind-the-scenes personal dramas of a fictional Bachelor-inspired reality TV series called 'Everlasting.'It appears Joy-Anna Duggar delivered her son Gideon Martyn in hospital despite her plans for a home birth.

The reality TV star and husband Austin Forsyth welcomed their first child together on Friday at 3:39 pm.

Her cousin Amy King later shared then soon deleted a picture of Joy-Anna post birth in a hospital with her newborn. (The photo later emerged on a fan Instagram account.)

Prior to welcoming their son, the reality stars were featured in a video, shared to TLC on Monday, where they discussed their preparations for giving birth at home.

Baby: Joy-Anna Duggar's cousin Amy King shared then soon deleted a picture of Joy-Anna post birth in a hospital with her son, despite the couple's original plan for a home birth

Joy-Anna said in the TLC video: 'We got the birth pool set up. We got our house somewhat cleaned out and trying to finish a lot of the bigger projects before the baby arrives.'

The star noted: 'I think now we just need to fill up the pool and hopefully set up some beds in the guest bedroom and we'll be good to go.'

In the TLC video, Joy-Anna said the advice she got is to be 'flexible' and 'prepare for the birth and have plans but if something doesn't go as planned then be OK with that and just have another plan.'

For her Monday announcement on her Instagram revealing Gideon's arrival, Joy-Anna and Austin posed at their home and made no mention of the hospital.

One day later, Amy wished her cousin and her husband congratulations with a picture of Joy-Anna at the hospital cradling their son.

The second image: One day later, Amy wished her cousin and her husband congratulations with the picture of them at the hospital cradling their son; Amy pictured with Gideon at the hospital, which she shared to her Instagram page

Happiness: Joy-Anna Duggar and her husband Austin Forsyth welcomed their son Gideon Martyn on Friday, born at 3:39 pm

According to Romper.com, Amy captioned the image with: 'Welcome to the world precious Gideon. Congratulations Joy & Austin! #littlechunk #someonennedstohaveababygirlsooninthisfamily.'

She shared a second image, this time of baby Gideon in her arms while standing next to Joy-Anna's hospital bed.

Amy deleted the images from her Instagram soon after and made her account private; she has 375,000 followers on the app.

The website noted that no other Duggar has ever released a post-labor hospital picture onto social media before.

Adorable: Joy-Anna said in the TLC video: 'We got the birth pool set up. We got our house somewhat cleaned out and trying to finish a lot of the bigger projects before the baby arrives'

The Duggars also seemingly prefer home births rather than at a hospital, although they are not against seeking treatment in emergency situations.

When Joy-Anna's sister Jill was in labor for over 70 hours with her son Israel, she was rushed to the hospital.

At the hospital they found out the baby was breech and had to perform an emergency c-section.

Jill's second son Samuel was also born via a c-section.

Glowing: For her Monday announcement on her Instagram revealing Gideon's arrival, Joy-Anna and Austin posed at their home and made no mention of the hospital

Their sister Jessa Duggar had a similarly scary situation; she gave birth to son Spurgeon at home but an ambulance took her to the hospital when she lost a lot of blood after labor, according to Romper.

Gideon weighed 10 pounds three ounces at birth and measured 22 inches long.

He is the first child of Joy-Anna and Austin; they tied the knot in May 2017.

She announced the pregnancy news three months after their wedding.A controversial plan to drug test welfare recipients will be monitored to ensure there are no "serious unintended consequences".

The coalition will introduce laws into parliament on Wednesday to set up a trial in which people on welfare will be drug tested and offered treatment.

"The trial is not about taking away payments," Social Services Minister Dan Tehan told parliament on Tuesday.

"This is about helping those people with a problem get treatment, help them help themselves and then get a job."

Mr Tehan said an extra $10 million would be set aside for drug and alcohol treatment support at the three trial sites.

"We will also provide $1 million for an independent, third party to evaluate the trial while it is in operation," he said.

"If there are serious unintended consequences, the government will act."

The Turnbull government had originally hoped to drug test 5000 Newstart and Youth Allowance recipients across three trial sites in NSW, Queensland and Western Australia from January.

But the government acknowledged in December it did not have the numbers in the Senate to pass it, and the trial was stripped out of a welfare reform bill.

Under the plan, anyone who tests positive will be shunted onto cashless welfare cards, while those who fail more than once will be referred to medical professionals for treatment.

Doctors and community groups were deeply critical of the drug tests, arguing they would prove an expensive, paternalistic and potentially damaging waste of time.

But Mr Tehan said the bill included measures to help victims of domestic violence or and the homeless.

"I say to those opposite that this is a trial. We encourage you to work with us," he said.

Labor said there was no change to its opposition to the proposed laws, while Greens senator Rachel Siewert said the "overwhelming evidence" from experts showed it would not work.

"It has already been rejected by the Senate, and for good reason," Senator Siewert said in a statement.

Penington Institute chief executive John Ryan called for the bill to be scrapped.

"These are people who rely on these social security payments for the bare necessities and this plan risks pushing them into crime or homelessness," he said.Professional bodies that accredit university courses should only look at factors specific to their specialist area and not double up on matters examined by the sector's regulator, the federal government has been told.

The government has agreed to the three recommendations of a review of professional accreditation, released on Wednesday, including that it legislate a code of practice.

This would limit professional accreditation to profession-specific matters rather than looking at things like university governance, general student support and management of facilities that are already overseen by the Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency.

The regulator will also help accrediting bodies to work more effectively and efficiently with universities.

Professional accreditation is mostly managed by peak bodies of industries and is required on courses where graduates need to be registered by that body to practice - fields such as engineering, accountancy, nursing and architecture.

Some universities say it can cost them up to $100,000 to do the accreditation processes in years when major courses are up for review.

Education Minister Simon Birmingham hopes these fixes will give the professional accreditation system the tune-up it sorely needs.

"I acknowledge that accreditation can place a regulatory and financial burden on higher education providers, and on those in the professions who are called on to manage accreditation assessments," he is expected to tell a Universities Australia conference on Wednesday afternoon.

"Students and parents write to me, and my parliamentary colleagues raise with me, concerns students have finding work placements that are part of course and accreditation requirements and that graduates have finding their qualification may not meet accreditation requirements."The actions of a doctor who provided "grossly inadequate" care to a young mother who died days after giving birth in a NSW hospital will be investigated.

Deputy state coroner Harriet Grahame has referred Dr Cristina Penanueva to the Health Care Complaints Commission following an inquest into the 2014 death of Michaela Perrin.

Ms Perrin was 26 years old when she died from sepsis at Lismore Base Hospital while her healthy newborn daughter slept nearby.

Dr Penanueva sent Ms Perrin home with painkillers but experts told the inquest she should have been admitted for tests and close observation.

The coroner said Dr Penanueva showed an inadequate knowledge of sepsis and a serious lack of essential medical knowledge.Victoria's police chief has hit out at a "rumour" about inappropriate relationships between senior officers and other police employees.

Chief Commissioner Graham Ashton says he's "aware of a rumour that three Victoria Police Assistant Commissioners have self-reported inappropriate conduct to Task Force Salus and me".

"This is not true. It is pure rumour and has the potential to damage reputations," the chief commissioner said in a statement on Tuesday night.

Task Force Salus investigates predatory behaviour and sexual harassment by police.

Mr Ashton says those with "information other than mere salacious rumour" should pass it onto the task force for investigation.

The controversy follows the resignation of Assistant Commissioner and Professional Standards Command boss Brett Guerin over racist and graphic online posts.

Mr Guerin quit on Monday night after Fairfax Media linked him to racist YouTube comments made under the alias "Vernon Demerest" - a character from the 1970 film Airport.

He was stood down and referred to the state's Independent Broad-based Anti-corruption Commission the week before for admitting to using the same alias to post graphic comments about people including former police commissioner Christine Nixon.

"The organisation's hurting today," Mr Ashton told reporters on Tuesday, labelling the comments linked to Mr Guerin as "abhorrent" and "unacceptable".Birthday wishes

Call 281-422-8302 or email david.bloom@baytownsun.com to wish someone a happy birthday. We will print your birthday wish on Page 2 of The Sun.

Happy Birthday WishesThe Coalition says Bill Shorten must tell Australians where he stands on the Adani coal mine amid claims he threatened to cancel its licence.

Businessman and environmental campaigner Geoff Cousins says the opposition leader told him privately that a Labor government would revoke the mine's licence should there be compelling environmental evidence.

Mr Cousins, a former president of the Australian Conservation Foundation, told the ABC he's worried Labor is backing away from that stance.

Resources Minister Matt Canavan has seized on the claims, accusing Mr Shorten of having more positions on the mine than a freestyle skier.

"Does he support this mine or doesn't he?" Senator Canavan has told ABC radio.

"No more wriggling around, no more ducking and weaving. Do you support the mine? Do you support the jobs? Or are you going to line up with the Greens at the next election?"

Mr Cousins says he and Mr Shorten spoke privately last month, and that the opposition leader told him: "When we are in government, if the evidence is as compelling as we presently believe it to be regarding the approval of the Adani mine, we will revoke the licence, as allowed in the act. That's a clear policy."

He says Mr Shorten spent two days with him in Queensland's north, discussing the mine's impacts on the reef and climate change.

"He said the reason he wanted to get that first-hand knowledge was because he was planning a firmer policy position on Adani," Mr Cousin's told ABC's 7.30 program.

A spokesperson for Mr Shorten says he sought a meeting with the Australian Conservation Foundation and Mr Cousins to discuss the mine.

"The visit renewed Bill's convictions on the importance of protecting the reef and the environment," the spokesman said.

"It's no secret that Bill is deeply sceptical of the proposed Adani coal mine. He believes if it cannot stack up environmentally or commercially, it should not go ahead. So far it hasn't, and he doesn't believe it will."Two young men have been arrested in Melbourne, accused of stealing a car and leading police on a chase.

Police say the car was stolen outside a Wheelers Hill home about 11.15pm on Tuesday, sparking a chase by police which eventually led to the arrest of a 17-year-old Blackburn North boy and a 20-year-old Chadstone man at Mornington.

The two will appear in court, charged with conduct endangering life, motor vehicle theft and traffic-related offences, while police continue to search for a third man.Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk has announced a major feature film about the Battle of Long Tan, Danger Close, will be shot in the state.

Ms Palaszczuk, in Los Angeles on Tuesday as part of a US trip, told AAP she is also lobbying Hollywood studio Paramount to shoot the new live action Dora the Explorer movie in Queensland.

After holding discussions with Hollywood studio executives the past two days, the premier said it was crucial Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull boosted the tax offset for filmmakers from 16.5 per cent to a more competitive 30 per cent.

She said that would attract more movie, TV and streaming production away from rival locations including California, Georgia, Louisiana, Canada, the UK and Europe.A man has been accused of sexually abusing a boy he taught 20 years ago at a Perth primary school.

It is alleged the now 56-year-old teacher sexually assaulted his student, who was 13 at the time of the first offence, between July 1997 and September 1998.

The man, from WA's South West region, has been charged with four counts of indecent dealing of a child, one count of attempted sexual penetration and three counts of sexual penetration.

He will appear in Bunbury Magistrates Court on Thursday.Australian military aircraft are carrying out aerial surveillance of Papua New Guinea's earthquake-hit Southern Highlands region.

A 7.5 magnitude quake struck the region on Monday with reports of up to 30 deaths.

Foreign Minister Julie Bishop said a team from Geoscience Australia was helping to monitor seismic activity and an Australian specialist was assisting the PNG Natural Disaster Centre.

"We are saddened to hear reports of lives lost and many people being injured," she said.

"Given the challenging terrain and remoteness of the area, we expect that the extent of the damage will become clearer in coming days."

Ms Bishop has offered PNG further help if requested.The Nationals deputy leader won't say whether a proposed medical school in the Murray Darling region is part of the secret coalition agreement.

But Senator Bridget McKenzie did confirm new leader Michael McCormack has been a "strong advocate" of the school, being pursued by Charles Sturt University and La Trobe.

If it eventuated it would see a new campus in his electorate.

However she insists that has been a matter of public knowledge and the school has been talked about for years.

Asked to confirm whether the school is part of the coalition agreement, signed by Malcolm Turnbull and Mr McCormack, she said: "I can't confirm that."

It's been public knowledge for many years the school is grassroots National Party policy, she said.

Labor questioned why the party is pursuing the school when deans and students are saying there aren't enough places for medical graduates already.

Senator McKenzie agreed not all medical graduates are being dispersed into areas where they're needed, blaming state governments which oversee internship programs.

"I can absolutely guarantee you our priority is to address maldistribution," she said.

Charles Sturt University and La Trobe University are proposing the school with campuses in Orange, Wagga-Wagga and Bendigo.

The prime minister says he signed a new coalition agreement with Mr McCormack shortly after the Nationals leadership change on Monday.People in North Queensland are being told to prepare for flash flooding as a large rain system dumps up to 350mm of rain on the region.

The weather bureau has put out a severe weather warning for heavy rainfall from Townsville on the coast and west almost to Georgetown, with flash flooding likely.

Locals are being warned of six-hour rainfall totals of 100mm to 180mm, with falls of up to 220mm possible, while some areas could receive 350mm over the next 24 hours.KEY FINDINGS IN THE ICAC INVESTIGATION INTO OAKDEN:

* Commissioner Bruce Lander found maladministration by five people including Oakden nursing director Kerim Skelton, service manager Julie Harrison, doctor Russell Draper and nurse Merrilyn Penery and health official Arthur Moutakis.

* He outlined an extraordinary management structure with no one in overall control of the facility and a "culture of secrecy".

* Dr Draper, Ms Harrison and Mr Skelton each sought to avoid responsibility by "pointing the finger" at the other two, Mr Lander said in his report.

* Mr Lander said it was "astonishing" that relevant ministers were unaware of the extent of the problems at the home, which included incidents of rough handling of patients, excessive use of restraints and a high level of injuries.

* But the commissioner found on the evidence, "to a large extent, what was occurring at the Oakden Facility was unknown to ministers and chief executives".Former South Australian Mental Health Minister Leesa Vlahos tried to stop her name from being included in a report on Adelaide's failed Oakden nursing home, the document has revealed.

Independent Commissioner Against Corruption Bruce Lander said Ms Vlahos argued he could not identify her without consent.

The same argument was also made by Oakden service manager Julie Harrison and clinical services coordinator Karim Goel.

Mr Lander rejected their arguments, ruling they carried no weight under the ICAC Act.

"I see no reason why the three parties should not be identified," he said in his report published on Wednesday.

The report described the poor level of care at Oakden, as a "shameful chapter in the state's history".

Of the three who asked for their identities to be concealed, the commissioner found only the conduct of Ms Harrison amounted to maladministration.

However, he found four other Oakden or health department officials had engaged in such conduct, but cleared Ms Vlahos and former health minister Jack Snelling.

The ICAC hearings were held in secret, despite a request from Mr Lander that the government open them to the public.

"This investigation was conducted in private as required by the legislation," Mr Lander said.

"However, it has reinforced my view that the ICAC Act should be amended to give me the discretion to conduct such investigations in public."Former intelligence analyst turned MP Andrew Wilkie has ridiculed a "wacky" new government plan to use spies to covertly vet potential migrants.

The federal government is considering bringing in laws allowing the Home Affairs department to gather intelligence on migrants before they come to Australia.

"That proposition is that we will conduct intelligence-gathering operations in other countries against people who have not been suspected of any wrongdoing, simply because they might want to come to Australia," Mr Wilkie said on Wednesday.

"That sounds a bit wacky to me."

Home Affairs boss Michael Pezzullo has told The Daily Telegraph the assessment procedure would scrutinise people's behaviour to ensure they were honestly answering questions when applying for citizenship.

The vetting system would have three assessment points - in the potential migrant's home country, once they arrive in Australia and upon applying for citizenship.

"Prior to you even getting citizenship, before you even migrate, the government is looking at how do you make an assessment using intelligence, using all sources of information," Mr Pezzullo said.

The monitoring regime would be used to check whether potential migrants were likely to obey Australian laws and values.

Mr Wilkie was pressed on whether it was appropriate for a public servant to be speculating about potential government policy.

"Of course it's completely improper for a public servant to be floating such an idea," the independent Tasmanian MP said.

Labor has accused the government of dog-whistle politics, saying the policy would not hold up either domestically or internationally.It hosts the world's most famous bike race, but Defence department officials decided it was best to ship bicycles from Australia for engineers and architects working on the submarine project in France.

Naval Group has the $50 billion contract for Australia's 12 new submarines to be built in Adelaide.

A group of about 30 Australian architects and engineers have been seconded to a shipyard in the French city of Cherbourg to help with the design work.

Department spokesman Kim Gillis told a Senate estimates hearing about 20 bicycles were purchased in Australia and shipped to France along with 180 tonnes of material to set up an Australian office at the Naval Group shipyard.

"The cost (of shipping) would have been infinitesimally small," Mr Gillis said.

He said it was normal practice in large shipyards to have bikes available.

Nick Xenophon Team senator Rex Patrick deviated from his party's usual Australian-made mantra and asked why bikes weren't purchased in France to save on shipping costs.

"I'm just guessing, I've seen a race on television, I reckon they've got bikes in France," Senator Patrick said.

Defence Minister Marise Payne replied if they had bought bikes in France the senator would have complained about the department not buying Australian ones.

It remains unclear whether the bikes were actually Australian made.

The hearing was told there had been an accident with one of the bikes.

The department also purchased expensive fridges with lockable compartments for staff lunches.

Senator Patrick asked whether the fridges were being retro-fitted so they are no longer lockable and department officials promised to look into the matter.A provider of urgent after-hours doctors is being investigated for fraud, a Senate committee has been told.

Officials from the Health Department told senators that 28 of the top 29 claimants have been interviewed, with five providers referred to the Professional Services Review, as of Wednesday morning.

"The investigation is ongoing," first assistant secretary Simon Cotterell told the hearing in Canberra.

"One provider is being investigated for fraud. I can't give you more details on that."

Health Minister Greg Hunt last year called for an inquiry into the after-hours sector after concerns about the claiming of subsidies for call-outs, including for visits which were classified as "urgent" but pre-booked.

Also in December the minister announced changes to rebates, including not paying the top Medicare rate for trainee doctors.

From Thursday the rebate for doctors undertaking home visits falls from $129.80 to $100.

It will reduce down to $90 from January 2019.

But there will be no change to the arrangements for doctors in regional areas.

The changes follow a review by the Medicare Benefits Schedule Review Taskforce which found:

* The number of urgent after-hours services increased by 150 per cent in the five years between 2010-11 and 2015-16. Standard GP services grew by just 15 per cent.

* Benefits paid similarly rose from $90.8 million to $245.9 million over the five years.

Officials on Wednesday played down concerns the changes could lead to a rise in visits to emergency departments.

But they said they were aware of reports the National Home Doctor Service was sending letters to patients in NSW, Queensland, Tasmania and Western Australia advising them of closures.

There are other existing providers, they said.South Australia are staring at defeat in their Sheffield Shield match against Queensland, despite a stirring counter attack from Redbacks' captain Travis Head early on day four.

At lunch, South Australia are 6-224, still 242 runs short of victory with Tom Cooper (13) and wicketkeeper Alex Carey (17) to resume at the crease in the middle session.

Set 466 to win after Queensland declared at tea on Tuesday, SA began the final day at a precarious 4-82.

Head, however, decided attack was the best form of defence, taking full advantage of Adelaide Oval's short boundaries square of the wicket.

He scored a rapid 85, including 14 fours, when allrounder Jack Wildermuth snared the crucial wicket of the hometown skipper just before lunch.

Nightwatchman Joe Mennie offered invaluable support to Head, scoring 38 in a stand of 99 that came at four runs per over.

Mennie was lbw to Brendan Doggett (3-53) who has been the pick of the Queensland bowlers.

Queensland will reclaim top spot on the Shield table with victory, in a result which would leave South Australia at the bottom of a congested ladder with two rounds to play."Sickos" who pay to watch children being sexually exploited overseas could be stopped by new powers proposed for Australians Signals Directorate.

Federal Labor MP Gai Brodtmann says Australians are making wire transfers to watch children in sexually explicit photos and videos in developing nations.

"This is happening in our community today, every day," the shadow cyber security spokeswoman told parliament on Wednesday.

The government has introduced changes to separate ASD from the Department of Defence and establish it as an independent authority with the ability to disrupt and prevent cyber crimes committed outside Australia.

Ms Brodtmann said criminals were going unpunished for crimes.

"(This) will help lay the groundwork for a more active approach to reduce to protecting the Australian cyber sphere and for going after those sickos who engage in that disgusting behaviour," she said.A man is clinging to life in hospital after repeatedly stabbing himself before being Tasered by police during a violent confrontation in a shopping centre liquor store in Newcastle.

An internal investigation into NSW Police conduct has been launched.

Police were called to a Charlestown shopping centre just after 1.30pm on Wednesday following reports of a domestic-related incident.

The 22-year-old man was approached by officers outside a liquor store, before he produced a knife and began stabbing himself, NSW Police said in a statement.

Officers used a Taser to try and stop him.

"Officers commenced CPR before he was taken by NSW Ambulance paramedics to John Hunter Hospital in a critical condition," the statement said.

A critical incident has been launched to examine police conduct during the event - and will be independently reviewed.

Police are calling for witnesses to come forward.

National domestic violence helpline: 1800 737 732 or 1800RESPECT. In an emergency call triple-zero.Two Perth women who lured 18-year-old Aaron Pajich to their house and stabbed him to death in a thrill kill have been jailed for life.

Jemma Victoria Lilley, 26, a would-be serial killer, and her housemate Trudi Clare Lenon, 44, a mother of three with an interest in bondage, will not be eligible for parole for 28 years.

Pajich had trusted Lenon because he was friends with her young son and WA Supreme Court Justice Stephen Hall said the women's crime was morally repugnant and would create feelings of "horror and revulsion" in right-thinking people.The controversial boat Ferry McFerryface has crashed face first into a wharf on Sydney Harbour.

The ferry - which will soon be renamed the May Gibbs - suffered minor damage to its bow when it collided with Balmain Wharf on Wednesday morning, a Harbour City Ferries spokesman told AAP.

No one was injured in the crash and the ferry - controversially named Ferry McFerryface in late 2017 when Transport Minister Andrew Constance made an ill-fated "captain's call" - has been taken to a shipyard for repairs.Labor wants a Senate inquiry into a proposed housing infrastructure fund its MPs once labelled a $1 billion slush fund for the coalition.

Party stalwarts accused the coalition of squirrelling away money earmarked for the proposed National Housing Infrastructure Facility into a slush fund when it was announced last year.

Senator Doug Cameron had raised concerns after hearing from Treasury officials that allocations for loans, investments and grants weren't set in stone.

"It became clear the government's proposal ... was nothing but a $1 billion slush fund for the coalition," he said at the time.

But Treasurer Chris Bowen conceded in parliament on Wednesday that's unlikely to be true.

"Now we've received some degree of comfort ... which suggests this is less likely to be the case," he said.

But that's not stopping them wanting an investigation into whether the fund, designed to provide housing relief, will actually make a difference.

Mr Bowen said Labor would support legislation through the lower house.

But the opposition would seek a Senate inquiry into the extent to which the fund will contribute to increasing housing stock, particularly affordable housing, as opposed to greenfield development for private market owner-occupied or investment and rental housing.

Assistant minister to the treasurer Michael Sukkar said the fund would provide up to $175 million in grants and $825 million in concessional loans and equity investments to the private sector and state and local governments to invest and facilitate housing-related infrastructure.

Eligible projects included transport links, power and water infrastructure and site remediation, he said.Star Wars actor John Boyega says sci-film Pacific Rim: Uprising was re-shot to make it funnier.

Boyega, who shot to fame playing Finn in the recent Star Wars sequels, gets a lot of Pacific Rim's funniest quips and one-liners playing rogue pilot Jake Pentecost, something he says the film needed after its first edit.

"It was apparent that we just wanted to add laughter to this whole experience," Boyega told AAP in Sydney.

"We had shot a very serious version of the movie and watched it back and I was kind of like' they could be a bit more free, they're young enough to be a bit more free and a bit more relaxed with the dialogue' and so we did reshoots and added a lot more lightness to it."

The film is set ten years after the original and attracted some enthusiastic fans, including Boyega who was surprised when the sequel was announced.

"You don't expect to be in Pacific Rim: Uprising ... I was one of the many fans who were like 'are they going to bring out a sequel or not?' and it kind of went quiet for a bit so it was all up in the air," he said.

The film was partially shot in Sydney and includes one particularly memorable scene of mass destruction by some of the film's Jaegers, large human-operated robots, at Sydney Harbour.

Boyega and his co-star Scott Eastwood were back in Sydney on Wednesday to promote the movie.

Both have already expressed a desire to return if there's a third Pacific Rim film in the franchise and Boyega has got another Australian city in his sights for that one.

"I'm not sure if we'll go and destroy Sydney again, but Melbourne....?" he said.

*Pacific Rim: Uprising is out in Australian cinemas on March 22Steve Smith has encouraged South Africa to sledge him during the first Test, insisting it will only sharpen his resolve.

The Proteas will have spent a lot of time analysing Smith's superb form in the recent Ashes, when Australia's skipper helped himself to 687 runs and man-of-the-series honours.

One memorable tactic employed by Englishmen Jimmy Anderson and Stuart Broad was their verbal onslaught in Adelaide, where the pacemen antagonised Smith at almost every opportunity.

Smith managed 40 and six in that game, comfortably his lowest scores in a series in which the world's best batsman averaged 137.4 and earned yet more Don Bradman comparisons.

However, correlation does not imply causation.

"A bit of a verbal challenge actually makes me switch on a bit more and gets me in for the fight," Smith told reporters on the eve of the four-Test series opener in Durban.

"If they do go for it, it doesn't bother me.

"They can go for their lives.

"I feel like I've been batting well since we've been here. Hopefully, I can stand up again."

Clashes between Australia and the Proteas are generally heated. The most-recent Test series in South Africa ended with the hosts refusing a customary post-series beer.

The build-up to this series has been relatively subdued, but the intensity will lift on Thursday when the rivals take the field at Kingsmead.

"I don't really like to think too much about what gets them going. I prefer to think about what gets either myself or us going," Smith said.

"If that's getting into a (verbal) contest ... then go for it."

South Africa adopted a somewhat similar mindset in recent home matches against India, with Vernon Philander and Kagiso Rabada both barking back at Virat Kohli.

"I know when I go out to bat, I get a warm welcome from most of them," spinner Nathan Lyon said of the Proteas.

"It's a mental game, as well as a physical game."

Australia are expected to niggle Rabada, who risks a two-Test ban if he transgresses yet again.

Rabada copped a one-Test suspension last year after telling Ben Stokes to "f*** off", while he delivered a spirited send-off of debutant Nic Maddinson in 2016 at Adelaide Oval.A NSW man charged over the death of his pregnant partner is arguing his case is about mental illness, not domestic violence or his alleged heavy drug use.

Joshua Homann is facing trial in the NSW Supreme Court after pleading not guilty to murdering Kirralee Paepaerei at their western Sydney townhouse in September 2015.

The jury heard the expectant mother died of multiple injuries including at least 28 incision and stab wounds to her neck and 21 stab wounds to her chest.

Her unborn child with Homann didn't survive.

A young relative told the court Ms Paepaerei and Homann were yelling when he left the house earlier in the evening.

After he returned about midnight, the relative, who can't be named for legal reasons, heard a big bang and smashing glass.

Homann's car alarm sounded and the relative went outside to see it take off down the street.

He said he went upstairs to tell Ms Paepaerei and Homann the car had been stolen but found her on the ground.

"I thought it was a joke at first ... I was just telling her to wake up," the relative told the court.

Crown prosecutor Sean Hughes in his opening address said he expected the jury would hear evidence Homann showed up at a nearby police station six minutes after his car left his home.

Homann claimed to have driven there straight away after being attacked by an intruder at home.

"Someone broke into my house and tried to stab me," Homann allegedly said.

"My partner's at home. You need to make sure she's okay."

Mr Hughes said the prosecution alleged Homann's intruder story was a lie.

He expected the jury would hear evidence Homann told psychiatrists he'd been a heavy ice user and had previously suffered hallucinations.

Defence barrister Peter Lange said Homann wasn't suggesting he didn't cause Ms Paepaerei's death or that he wasn't responsible.

The barrister said the issue at trial would be what was going on in Homann's mind that night.

He said the case ultimately wasn't about domestic violence or drug use but "the power of mental illness".

The trial continues.

National domestic violence helpline: 1800 737 732 or 1800RESPECT. In an emergency call triple-zero.A man has been arrested after a brazen daylight drive-by shooting near Sydney's airport.

The 35-year-old Maroubra man was arrested by NSW Police on Wednesday morning just two days after police released CCTV footage of the shooting.

The footage released on Monday shows a Ford Ranger ute driving toward a Mazda sedan that had come to a stop on Jackson Drive at Mascot about 6pm on Wednesday, January 31.

The driver of the Ford holds a pistol out the window before firing on the Mazda, which swerves and drives off in the opposite direction.

Both cars were seen speeding away and travelling erratically along Jackson Drive.

When police arrived, they discovered several bullet casings at the scene of the shooting and later seized the Mazda.

The Maroubra man has been taken to Mascot Police Station where inquiries are continuing.The President of the Australian Medical Association's WA branch has questioned whether there is a high level of community support for doctor-assisted euthanasia.

Orthopaedic surgeon Omar Khorshid told a parliamentary inquiry in Perth that questions in surveys and polls could be subjective, leading to the appearance of strong public support for changes to WA's assisted dying laws.

"With all surveys it really does depend on the question and I don't believe that everyone in the community is fully informed about even what we mean by assisted suicide, voluntary assisted dying, euthanasia, what these terms mean," he said on Wednesday.

"I think if you ask an individual 'do I want the choice to determine how I die', everyone's going to say 'yes, absolutely'. But they're not necessarily thinking about the impact on other people, on society, on the vulnerable."

However, the AMA understood the community had changed its view on euthanasia and a lot of people supported assisted dying, he said.

The AMA WA officially opposes what it calls active voluntary euthanasia, where the doctor, or another party, intentionally administers a life-ending treatment.

In a 2016 national survey of AMA members, half supported introducing assisted dying legislation, while 62 per cent said they would not want to practise it themselves.

Dr Khorsid said any assisted dying scheme would have to be an opt-in system with adequate training for doctors.

He hopes the debate will spark a community conversation about end-of-life care.

"What's really important is to have a conversation with your family about your wishes as you may be nearing the end of your life. If the family are aware of what your values are and what you expect at the end-of-life then it will enable the healthcare team to deliver the care that you need."Australia's best new fashion designer is set to be crowned and there's every chance the winner will stir up some industry controversy.

The National Designer Award winner will be announced on Wednesday, and with four of the five nominees straying from womenswear, it's likely the winner will make history.

Among the nominees is activewear label P.E. Nation, a brand launched in 2016 by ex-Ksubi and sass & bide designers Pip Edwards and Clare Tregoning.

Described as a street-meets-sportswear, the brand already has a large following in Australia and among celebrities including reality-TV stars Khloe Kardashian and Kylie Jenner.

"We can't believe we've only been going at this for two years, it's just catapulted from a start-up into a fully fledged business really quickly," Ms Edwards told AAP.

The brand's success proves activewear has become a staple for Australian women, she added.

"Part of our success comes from the fact we are our customer - we train hard, we work, we are mums ... and we wear activewear."

The other finalists for the award are women's brand Third Form, and three menswear designers - Chris Ran Lin, AMXANDER and MNDATORY.

Designer Brian Huynh of MNDATORY said the shortlist reflected the growth in men's fashion, which has been driven largely by social media.

"There's definitely been a shift in the way men shop and social media has really made guys more open to trying out trends," he told AAP.

"We find most of our customers have seen us online and then visit us instore to try and feel the clothes."

Past winners of the designer award include Dion Lee, Romance Was Born, Yeojin Bae and Toni Maticevski.

The Melbourne Fashion Festival kicked off on Wednesday at a soiree at Government House and runs until March 18.Forensic experts are testing remains they believe belong to a young Queensland mother who vanished almost eight years ago.

Leeann Lapham was last seen with her three-week-old son at a motel in Cowley Beach, south of Cairns, in April 2010.

The infant was later found safe but the 30-year-old was never seen again.

Authorities discovered the remains in bushland on Wednesday, one day after Ms Lapham's former partner pleaded guilty to her manslaughter.

Graeme Evans revealed to police where he had dumped the body under a deal to downgrade his murder charge, Detective Inspector Geoff Marsh said.

Det Insp Marsh was unable to say how Ms Lapham died, but promised it would come out when Evans was sentenced later this year.A Labor government would once again offer universities enough taxpayer funds to cover as many undergraduates as they wish to enrol.

Deputy leader Tanya Plibersek will use a speech to the Universities Australia conference on Thursday to commit the opposition to fully restore demand-driven funding and pledge a return to three-year budget cycles for higher education.

The Turnbull government's two-year freeze on student funding and subsequent changes to indexation - done in a manner that bypassed parliament - were a "brutal and reckless way" to find savings, she will say.

"This action is intended to destroy the demand-driven funding system."

By contrast, Labor was "absolutely committed" to uncapping of places and restoring the funding system it started in 2012.

"We won't walk away from it," Ms Plibersek will tell the gathering of university leaders, who have campaigned hard against the $2.2 billion cut.

"We won't stand by and let the Liberals destroy this proud Labor legacy.

"We can't simply go back to the old days of the Howard era where if a student was indigenous, poor, had a disability, or lived in the country or an outer suburban area, there was much greater chance they would miss out on the opportunity of a university education."

She will say Labor wants universities to continue to have the freedom to innovate and deliver, but will caution that freedom comes with responsibility.The Nationals are expected to pick a new veterans affairs minister this week after a planned meeting to choose Michael McCormack's replacement was called off.

The party was expected to decide portfolio arrangements on Monday, after Mr McCormack replaced Barnaby Joyce as leader.

But the meeting's organisers did not realise deputy Nationals leader Bridget McKenzie was busy in an estimates hearing and cabinet minister Matt Canavan was in Sydney, so it was cancelled.

Mr McCormack is expected to choose his replacement as veterans affairs minister by the end of the week, amid speculation he could decide on a wider reshuffle.

Indigenous Affairs Minister Nigel Scullion and Resources Minister Matt Canavan have been suggested as two ministers who could lose their jobs, but Agriculture Minister David Littleproud played down the speculation.

"I think that's just suggestive of the media out looking for a story," he told the ABC.

"I think we can get ahead of ourselves about rumours and innuendos that's going around this place."

Senator Canavan says he hasn't sought any assurances from Mr McCormack about his job security and would accept whatever was the final decision.A man remains in police custody after being arrested wearing a backpack and acting erratically inside Melbourne's Crown Casino.

Hundreds of staff and patrons were evacuated from the Southbank complex on Wednesday afternoon, with the bomb squad and critical incident response team called over concerns about the 55-year-old.

"It was the way he was acting and behaving," Acting Commander David Clayton told reporters near the scene following the man's arrest.

He made "some statements" and officers found nothing in the backpack, the police officer added.

The casino was declared safe and reopened hours after the incident.

A chef at Cafe Baci, inside the Crown complex, said staff earlier received a series of text messages telling them to avoid specific parts of the casino.

"Everyone was in the dark about what was going on. No one really said anything," he told AAP.

"Police came and said 'we're closing down the place. You guys can stay inside'.

"A lot of the restaurants, they took a lot of the staff and the patrons out over the bridge."

In a statement, Crown said: "an isolated incident occurred at Crown Melbourne involving one patron."The City of Perth could eventually be sacked as the Western Australian government moves to suspend councillors, saying their positions are "untenable".

It follows the appointment of the council's third chief executive in nine days, after the first two took stress leave.

Local Government Minister David Templeman has two options on how to suspend the the City of Perth, and says he'll decide on Friday.

"It is now untenable for the council to continue and, therefore, I have indicated to them that it is my intention to suspend the council," Mr Templeman told reporters on Wednesday.

"This is a serious matter and the recent events, including those over the last eight days, has confirmed for me that a line needs to be drawn in the sand."

Mr Templeman may decide to suspend the council and appoint an inquiry panel with powers similar to a royal commission, which could recommend the council be sacked.

The other option is to issue a "show cause" notice, where the council has 21 days to argue why it shouldn't be removed.

The council's acting CEO Robert Mianich went on stress leave on Tuesday, eight days after taking over from chief executive Martin Mileham, who also took leave because he felt unsafe at work.

This occurred against the backdrop of a split between councillors loyal to controversial Lord Mayor Lisa Scaffidi and those who oppose her.

Ms Scaffidi returned to her position in January following a four-month ban imposed by the State Administrative Tribunal over a travel and gifts scandal.A Liberal frontbencher has defended Michaelia Cash's threat to make rumours involving Bill Shorten's female staffers public, saying his colleague shouldn't have to apologise.

Junior Minister Michael Sukkar dug in behind Senator Cash, who he believes was right to retaliate to Labor frontbencher Doug Cameron's line of questioning about her staffing arrangements.

Senator Cash erupted during a fiery Senate hearing on Wednesday, with a pointed warning to "name every young woman" in the opposition leader's office over rumours that had circulated.

Under pressure from Labor Senate leader Penny Wong she later withdrew the comments.

"I think the point she was making was keep staff out of it. Stop asking questions about individual staff," Mr Sukkar told ABC radio.

"In some respects I can understand her frustration."

Labor has demanded a formal apology over the extraordinary threat, with deputy leader Tanya Plibersek slamming her "mealy-mouthed weasel" retraction.

"Senator Cash's comments where ghastly, they were sexist, they were a 1950s style throwback," Ms Plibersek told parliament.

But Mr Sukkar said Senator Cash shouldn't have to apologise.

He blamed Senator Cameron's "inappropriate" line of questioning for exacerbating the situation.

"He was asking her to name individual staff and I think that was her way of saying cease and desist," Mr Sukkar said.

However, former prime minister Tony Abbott believes an apology is warranted over the "brain snap".

"It is bad when it comes from the Labor Party, it is bad when it comes from the Liberal Party and it is particularly bad when it comes from a minister of the crown," he told 2GB.

The heated exchange came as Labor continued to pressure Senator Cash over raids at Australian Workers Union offices last October.

Details of the police raids were leaked to TV network by one of her media advisers, who later quit.Young Australians who want to travel and help the world's poorest children are being urged to make sure they don't end up doing more harm than good.

The federal government on Thursday is launching a smart volunteering campaign, working with universities and state authorities to make sure school groups and students are not unwittingly visiting or volunteering in programs that exploit children.

The boom in "voluntourism" around the world has seen some Australia volunteers unwittingly contributing to harmful practices when they go to work in orphanages.

A UNICEF report released last year found the number of residential orphanages in Cambodia increased by 75 per cent between 2005 and 2010, with most children living in them neither orphans nor abandoned.

Half the institutions were in popular tourist locations.

The UN organisation found children could be exploited to attract funding and donations from tourists, including being forced to beg, interact and play with visitors.

In the past, more than half of Australia's universities have advertised orphanage work as one of the international volunteering opportunities students can take up.

The new campaign, launched by Foreign Minister Julie Bishop and Education Minister Simon Birmingham, discourages any form of short-term, unskilled volunteering in overseas orphanages and provides guidelines on how to be a child-safe volunteer.

Those considering volunteering can find information on the DFAT website about how to make sure they won't be harming the very people they are trying to help.A high-tech antenna in a whisper-quiet part of outback Western Australia has enabled scientists to make a groundbreaking discovery about when stars first lit up our universe.

A team of American scientists used a small antenna to pick up radio wave signals from the time the first stars formed, a discovery hailed by astronomers as important as the detection of gravitational waves.

In a research paper published on Thursday in the journal Nature, the scientists say the signals indicate the first stars formed 180 million years after the universe began with the Big Bang 13.8 billion years ago.

"It is unlikely that we'll be able to see any earlier into the history of stars in our lifetimes," said Dr Judd Bowman, the astronomer from Arizona State University who led the study.

"This project shows that a promising new technique can work and has paved the way for decades of new astrophysical discoveries."

Dr Bowman and his team turned to the CSIRO's isolated Murchison Radio-astronomy Observatory, 600km northeast of Perth, for help with their 12-year quest to discover when stars first glimmered.

The observatory falls within the official Australian Radio Quiet Zone covering about 260km of WA, making it an ideal site for radio astronomers because there's much less chance of interference from man-made devices such as mobile phones interrupting their attempts to listen into signals coming from space.

The antenna used by Dr Bowman was roughly the size of a refrigerator, but powerful enough to detect faint signals from hydrogen gas that surrounded the first stars.

Scientists believe when stars first turned on they emitted ultraviolet light, which was absorbed by the hydrogen gas.

The gas then cooled and cast a shadow on what's known as the universe's cosmic microwave background, an ancient light released at the time of the Big Bang.

That change in the hydrogen gas was detected in the form of a dip in the intensity of radio waves picked up at a low radio frequency by Dr Bowman's antenna sitting in the dirt at Murchison.

"We see this dip most strongly at about 78 megahertz, and that frequency corresponds to roughly 180 million years after the Big Bang," said study co-author Alan Rogers, from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

The CSIRO's Antony Schinckel, who oversaw the development of Murchison, said the discovery was the result of "the perfect combination of an extremely well-calibrated instrument on the perfect site".

"This little tiny signal they saw was one of the holy grails of the low frequency radio astronomy world for several decades ... and they were able to find it with this little antenna," he said.

CSIRO astronomer Keith Bannister said the discovery will help scientists better understand how the universe evolved.

"We want to know how those stars collected into galaxies and that sort of thing," he said.

"It's much like trying to understand how someone starts as a baby and grows into an old person."An independent probe has been ordered into how a foiled student poison plot at a Melbourne school was handled by authorities.

Two girls planned to put chemicals in the drink bottle of another student, but the plan was foiled by staff and the girls were suspended, according to the Herald Sun.

But it's since emerged one girl successfully appealed her expulsion and returned to the school while the victim took out a restraining order and then left the school, it reported on Thursday.

Education Minister James Merlino became increasingly concerned after learning more about the case in recent days.

He has ordered Independent Office for School Dispute Resolution chair Francis Handy to investigate whether correct processes were followed.

"As the minister for education and as a parent, it is my expectation that the protection of children is central to every decision we make," he said in a statetment.

"Victorians deserve to have confidence in our expulsion and suspension system, and that is why I have ordered this investigation."Seven-year-old Manar was injured in an air strike on her home in Eastern Ghouta that killed several members of her family

Fighting raged on in Syria's Eastern Ghouta on Tuesday, making relief operations in the rebel enclave impossible despite a "humanitarian pause" announced by Russia, the United Nations said.

"Fighting continues this morning. That is what our reports from Eastern Ghouta tell us," said Jens Laerke, a spokesman for the UN humanitarian office.

"The United Nations is mobilised and ready to immediately support life-saving aid convoys to several areas in Eastern Ghouta as conditions allow," Laerke told reporters in Geneva.

"We are also ready and have plans for evacuation of hundreds of medical cases as soon as we can," he added, but underscored that it was currently "impossible" for the UN to authorise any aid operations for desperate civilians given the persisting clashes.

World Health Organization spokesman Tarik Jasarevic told reporters that the agency has a list of 1,000 people who need medical evacuations from Eastern Ghouta, with 600 of those classified as being in "moderate or severe" condition.The former leader of the Syrian Kurdish Democratic Union Party Saleh Muslim is still a figurehead for Kurds in Syria

A Czech court on Tuesday released prominent Syrian Kurdish leader Saleh Muslim, wanted by Turkey on terror charges, prompting outrage in Ankara which said the move showed "support for terrorism".

Turkey on Monday said it had formally asked for the extradition of one of the leading figureheads of the Syrian Kurds, who was detained by Czech police at the weekend at Ankara's request.

"The judge decided to release Saleh Muslim. At the same time, Muslim promised the court that he would not leave the territory of the European Union and would report to the court at its request," court spokeswoman Marketa Puci told AFP.

Muslim's lawyer Miroslav Krutina told reporters that his client vowed to participate in all extradition proceedings requested by Turkey.

Muslim is wanted over a 2016 bombing in Ankara and faces 30 life sentences if convicted. He denies the charges. Until now, he had been able to move around the EU without a problem.

The former leader of the Syrian Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD) is still a figurehead for Kurds in Syria.

The decision to release him was hailed by several dozen Kurds who had come to show their solidarity in front of the municipal court building in central Prague.

- 'Support for terrorism'? -

Turkey lashed out at Czech judicial authorities for their decision, with Deputy Prime Minister Bekir Bozdag telling reporters in Ankara that it showed "support for terrorism" and would have a "negative impact" on relations between Prague and Ankara.

The Czech foreign ministry hit back, saying it "resolutely rejects the allegations that today's decision by an independent court runs counter to the Czech Republic's pledge to fight international terrorism."

Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis declined to comment on the case Tuesday, insisting that "it's a Czech court that decides."

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said his country would continue to pursue Muslim, even if he leaves the Czech Republic.

"The decision of the (Czech) court does not mean that everything is over; we will not let go of this case," Cavusoglu insisted, calling the release of the Kurdish leader "scandalous".

Earlier Turkey had said Muslim's case was a "day of reckoning" for its NATO ally, pressing Prague to extradite him to face a terror trial.

The arrest came as Turkey continues its more than month-long operation inside Syria aimed at dislodging the People's Protection Units (YPG) -- the military wing of the PYD -- from the Afrin region of the country's north.

- 'No swap' -

Ankara sees the YPG and PYD as the Syrian branch of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which for over three decades has waged an insurgency against the Turkish state and is considered a terror group by Turkey, the United States and the European Union.

There had been questions over why the Czech authorities at the weekend acted on the Turkish warrant against Muslim.

Press reports in Turkey and the Czech Republic have speculated over the possibility of exchanging Muslim for two Czech nationals jailed in Turkey on charges of fighting for the YPG in Syria.

Miroslav Farkas and Marketa Vselichova were sentenced in 2017 to six years and three months behind bars and are currently held in the eastern Turkish region of Van.

But Turkish Justice Minister Abdulhamit Gul denied any exchange was in the offing, saying "there is no question of a swap request".

Czech Foreign Minister Martin Stropnicky late Monday also denied there was any link, saying: "In our country, the rules are clear. We are a state of law."Flowers, candles and mementos sit outside one of the makeshift memorials at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida

He has been publicly branded a "coward" by the president of the United States and forced to resign his job in disgrace.

Now, after nearly two weeks of opprobrium, the sheriff's deputy accused of failing to take action during the Florida high school shooting is fighting back.

Scot Peterson, 54, broke his silence on Monday and defended his conduct during the shooting at Marjory Douglas Stoneman High School in Parkland, Florida, which left 14 students and three adult staff members dead.

"Let there be no mistake, Mr. Peterson wishes that he could have prevented the untimely passing of the 17 victims on that day, and his heart goes out to the families of the victims," his attorney, Joseph DiRuzzo III, said in a statement.

"However, the allegations that Mr. Peterson was a coward and that his performance, under the circumstances, failed to meet the standards of police officers are patently untrue," DiRuzzo added.

That Peterson was on campus and armed on February 14 when Nikolas Cruz, a troubled 19-year-old former student, opened fire on his classmates with an AR-15-style rifle is not in dispute.

How the more than 30-year veteran of the sheriff's office responded to the gunfire and what he could or should have done is where things get murky.

In suspending Peterson without pay last week, Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel made it clear he believed the deputy's actions were negligent.

Surveillance video showed Peterson arriving at the building where the attack took place about a minute and-a-half after the first shots rang out, Israel said.

Peterson remained outside the building for "upwards of four minutes," never going inside, he said.

Cruz fired between 100 and 150 rounds at students and teachers in a rampage that lasted about six minutes before he discarded his weapon and backpack and fled the school by blending in with other students.

- 'Killed the killer' -

Asked what Peterson should have done, Israel said: "Went in. Addressed the killer. Killed the killer."

"When we in law enforcement arrive at an active shooter we go in and address the target and that's what should have been done," he said.

Peterson's attorney said Israel's description of the deputy's actions was a "gross oversimplification of the events that transpired."

Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel suspended Deputy Scot Peterson following the shooting at a Florida high school and Peterson subsequently resigned

"Mr. Peterson is confident that his actions on that day were appropriate under the circumstances and that the video (together with the eye-witness testimony of those on the scene) will exonerate him of any sub-par performance," DiRuzzo said.

Peterson was initially responding to what he believed were "firecrackers -- and not gunfire," he said.

After running to the building where the shooting was taking place, Peterson "heard gunshots but believed that those gunshots were originating from outside of any of the buildings on the school campus," he said.

"In the event of outdoor gunfire one is to seek cover and assess the situation in order to communicate what one observes to other law enforcement," he said.

Peterson took up a "tactical position," advised the Broward County Sheriff's Office that he heard shots and "initiated a 'Code Red' lockdown of the entire school campus," the lawyer said.

Peterson then gave his keys to a SWAT team so they could enter the building and provided handwritten diagrams of the campus to help with evacuation of students, DiRuzzo said.

- 'Coward' -

Following Israel's comments, President Donald Trump attacked the deputy by name the next day, saying he either froze or was a "coward."

"They're trained, they didn't react properly under pressure or they were a coward," Trump said.

"When it came time to get in there and do something he didn't have the courage or something happened," Trump said. "But he certainly did a poor job."

Trump repeated his criticism of Peterson on Monday and suggested that he personally would have confronted the shooter.

"I really believe I'd run in there even if I didn't have a weapon," Trump said. "You never know until you're tested."

Peterson served as a "school resource officer" -- a member of law enforcement who provides security at a school -- for more than two decades.

He was named Parkland's school resource office of the year in 2014.

A YouTube video from several years ago shows the greying, heavy set Peterson testifying before the Broward County School Board.

In the video, he recounts how he once arrested four burglars who had broken into the school cafeteria.

"I ran into my trailer, I grabbed my firearm and my ID and my shorts and my sneakers and I ran over obviously to the cafeteria," he said.

"I chased them -- I'm getting older but I started chasing them," Peterson said, adding that he managed to eventually apprehend all four.

"We're all here for the same goal, to protect our kids, to protect our property," he told the school board.Holocaust survivors hold banners and wave an Israeli flag during a protest in front of Polish embassy in Tel Aviv on February 8, 2018, against a controversial bill passed by the eastern European country's senate

A high-level Polish government delegation will travel to Israel on Wednesday to hear the Jewish state's objections to a controversial Holocaust law, the Israeli foreign ministry said.

The law, passed by Poland's senate this month, ignited an unprecedented diplomatic row and calls in the Jewish state for the recall of Israel's ambassador in Warsaw.

It sets fines or up to three years in jail for anyone ascribing "responsibility or co-responsibility to the Polish nation or state for crimes committed by the German Third Reich".

The main aim is to prevent people from erroneously describing Nazi German death camps in Poland, such as Auschwitz-Birkenau, as Polish.

Israel has expressed deep concerns that the legislation could open the door to prosecuting Holocaust survivors for their testimony should it concern the involvement of individual Poles for allegedly killing or giving up Jews to the Germans.

An Israeli foreign ministry statement said on Tuesday that the Polish team would be headed by deputy foreign minister Bartosz Cichocki.

The Israeli side will be led by foreign ministry director general Yuval Rotem, backed by historians, jurists, diplomats and a representative of the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial.

"The purpose of the dialogue is to preserve the historical truth and prevent harm to the freedom of research and expression," the statement said.

Poland's Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said the talks would "be the beginning of an attempt to find a way out of a situation that I think has been misunderstood by some people abroad."

He told media talks would be conducted by lawyers from the Polish foreign and justice ministries as well as the IPN Institute of National Remembrance charged with prosecuting Nazi and communist-era crimes.

Poland wants "to begin a real, good, constructive dialogue with the Israeli side", Morawiecki added.

Cichocki said the talks will not focus on changing the controversial Holocaust law as Poland's "constitutional system does not allow" negotiating legislation with a foreign country.

Poland's right-wing government has faced international criticism over the law, which was meant to protect Poland from false accusations of complicity in the Holocaust.

Israel sees it as a bid to deny the participation of individual Poles in killing Jews or handing them over to the Nazis.

Poland was occupied by Nazi Germany in World War II, losing six million of its citizens, including three million Jews.

Morawiecki fuelled the dispute by saying that there were also "Jewish perpetrators" of the Holocaust, referring to Jews who served in police units in ghettos set up by the Nazis.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the remark "unacceptable" and tantamount to denying the Holocaust.The United States and three European allies are condemning Iran after the United Nations found Tehran had violated the arms embargo on Yemen by failing to block supplies of missiles and drones to Huthi rebels

The United States and three European allies condemned Iran on Tuesday after the United Nations found Tehran had violated the arms embargo on Yemen by failing to block supplies of missiles and drones to Huthi rebels.

Britain, France, Germany and the United States urged Iran to "immediately cease all activities that are inconsistent or would violate" the UN resolution that established the arms embargo in 2015.

The joint condemnation came a day after Russia vetoed a British-drafted resolution renewing sanctions on Yemen and citing "particular concern" about a report's findings on Iran.

The report by a UN panel of experts in January concluded that Iran was in violation after determining that missiles fired by the Huthis at Saudi Arabia last year were made in Iran.

Russia, however, questioned the findings and blocked the resolution, saying the report did not contain conclusive evidence of Iran's violation of the arms embargo.

"We condemn Iran's non-compliance, as described by the panel, which poses serious risks to peace and stability in the region," said the joint statement released by the US mission.

All four countries are signatories to the Iran nuclear deal of 2015.

In response to Tuesday's condemnation, the Iranian Foreign Ministry said in a statement, "for three years now the behavior of the United States and Britain at the UN Security Council has been harmful, and tantamount to legitimizing the aggressors in Yemen."

The statement said these countries were stoking "Saudi aggression" in Yemen by acting as the kingdom's main backers and arms suppliers.

The Russia veto was a setback for the United States as it pushes the Security Council to take a stronger stance toward Iran over its role in regional conflicts and missile tests.

The US administration maintains that Iran is not living up to its commitments under the nuclear deal, which President Donald Trump has criticized as the "worst ever."

The British-drafted resolution that was strongly backed by the United States was vetoed by Russia after 11 countries voted in favor at the 15-member Security Council.

China and Kazakhstan abstained and Bolivia voted against it.

A Saudi-led coalition supporting Yemen's government has been fighting the Huthis since 2015 in a war that has created what the United Nations describes as the world's worst humanitarian crisis.

The council earlier heard the UN director of aid operations, John Ging, describe living conditions in Yemen as "catastrophic", with a growing risk of famine and a severe outbreak of cholera.National Rifle Association members visit exhibitor booths at the 146th NRA annual meeting on April 29, 2017 in Atlanta, Georgia

The US National Rifle Association has proven to be one of the most powerful lobbying groups in Washington, able to convince Congress to block any legislation that would place or increase restrictions on gun ownership.

While it argues that the US Constitution's Second Amendment gives all Americans the untrammelled right to bear arms, it was not always so ideologically bound.

- History -

The NRA was created in 1871 by military veterans to improve shooting skills in the wake of the Civil War.

By the early 1900s, it was promoting marksmanship among youths as well as adults, establishing shooting clubs around the country, including in schools.

In the 1930s, amid a surge in violent crime, the NRA actually supported gun control.

Then-NRA president Karl Frederick -- a shooting gold medalist in the 1920 Olympics -- told Congress: "I have never believed in the general practice of carrying weapons... I think it should be sharply restricted and only under licenses."

With the group still dominated by shooting enthusiasts and hunters, NRA pressure helped block a national gun registry in the late 1960s.

In 1977, the group was taken over by a group of Second Amendment ideologues who built it into a potent lobby against any gun regulation.

- How big is the NRA? -

The NRA says it has about five million dues-paying members, and it continues to support marksman training, gun safety and hunting programs and clubs around the country.

In 2015, it took in $337 million and spent $303 million. Its income comes from member dues, earnings on programs and contributions from individuals, other supporting groups and gun manufacturers and vendors.

- Influence -

The NRA has the money to gets its views across.

In Washington and in state capitals, it runs a powerful and efficient lobbying operation, spending tens of millions of dollars each year to support individual politicians, run advertising defending its stance and attacking critics.

It donates only a little directly to politicians. Instead, it supports preferred candidates with its own advertising.

In the 2016 election, the NRA spent about $20 million for ads attacking Democrat Hillary Clinton and another $10 million for ads supporting Donald Trump.

Over time, that can make or break a politician's career. During his 23 years in the House of Representatives and now the Senate, Republican Richard Burr, for example, got $7 million in support from the NRA, only a small part directly.

Marco Rubio, the Republican senator in the spotlight over the recent Florida high school massacre, has enjoyed $3 million in NRA backing over his career.

Its political clout has another source: the NRA rating. Every politician is graded based on their support of the Second Amendment.

The organization aggressively publicizes those ratings. Politicians receiving an unqualified "A" get voting and financial support from NRA members, while even those with mere "Bs" can suffer. Most Democrats have "F" grades.

- Defenders -

The NRA has its share of celebrity supporters. Actor Charlton Heston, who died in 2008, was president of the group from 1998 to 2003.

The current leader is Wayne La Pierre, who earns $5 million a year to defend gun rights. The most visible defender now is Dana Loesch, who poses with her guns in shapely skirts and high heels and touts her devotion to God, family and guns.

But the leading promoter today is President Trump. "There's no bigger fan of the Second Amendment than me, and there's no bigger fan of the NRA," he said recently.

- Under pressure? -

The number and scope of recent deadly mass shootings has increased the challenge to the NRA over its absolute defense of gun rights, for any kind of individual weapons.

But the group remains defiant, with La Pierre and Loesch attacking the "politicization" of the Florida shooting. Loesch has dialed back her rhetoric, showing sympathy for victims but blaming law enforcement.

La Pierre meanwhile said those using the Florida tragedy to press for gun control want "to make you, all of you, less free.""Dunkirk" isn't really a war film, according to Christopher Nolan, who told AFP he wanted to make a "survival story"

With the cream of the British army cornered by a lightning German advance into northern France, Winston Churchill is told they will be lucky to get 30,000 men out alive.

Yet over nine days in May 1940, more than 10 times that number of British, French and Canadian troops are rescued, many plucked from the beaches by a flotilla of "little ships" crewed by civilian volunteers who set out from England.

The audacious rescue, codenamed Operation Dynamo but immortalized as the "Miracle of Dunkirk," is the subject of two movies vying for best picture at the Oscars on Sunday.

Christopher Nolan's "Dunkirk" sees events through the Allies' eyes as they face what looks like certain death in France, while Joe Wright's "Darkest Hour" follows the travails of Britain's newly-anointed prime minister back in London.

Despite its relentless high-octane score and action scenes, "Dunkirk" isn't really a war film, according to Nolan, who told AFP he wanted to make a "survival story" unlike anything "seen or experienced before in a cinema."

For Wright, "Darkest Hour" is a nuanced portrait of a man berated as the irresponsible and reckless architect of the disastrous Gallipoli campaign from the previous world war, who nevertheless stepped up to become a national hero.

"He kicked and he screamed and got a lot of things wrong in his career, and in his personal life, but one thing he got right was he resisted the tide of fascism, bigotry and hate," the director told Britain's Guardian newspaper.

- 'Historical truth' -

The movies have amassed 14 Oscar nominations -- eight for "Dunkirk," including best film and directing, and six for "Darkest Hour," of which best actor is looking like a shoo-in for Gary Oldman, who is unrecognizable as Churchill.

Gary Oldman is looking like a shoo-in for the best actor Oscar for his portrayal of Winston Churchill in the film "Darkest Hour," which has amassed six Oscar nominations

Historians including the British novelist and journalist Michael Korda have argued that Operation Dynamo should be seen as a military defeat with a happy ending, rather than something to be jingoistic about.

Churchill himself echoed the sentiment in a lesser-known section of his famous "we shall fight them on the beaches" speech on the last day of the operation on June 4, 1940.

"We must be very careful not to assign to this deliverance the attributes of a victory. Wars are not won by evacuations," he said.

No war movie gets a free pass from the history scholars, of course, and experts have found faults with the accuracy of both movies.

"The German army scarcely interfered with the evacuation. There was no ground fighting in the town or port, so Nolan's opening scene is spurious," huffed British journalist and historian Max Hastings in The New York Review of Books.

Meanwhile, British military historian Antony Beevor said neither director has been particularly faithful to a monumental week or so when the direction of the entire war could have turned in Nazi Germany's favor.

"I am afraid that British movie directors do not have much respect for historical truth. They feel compelled to 'improve' it even when it is not necessary," he complained.

- 'Heroic' -

Among Beevor's bugbears is what he sees as Nolan's downplaying of the role of Britain's own naval destroyers, which actually did most of the evacuating.

But it was this romantic notion of an armada of civilians leading the rescue effort -- the movie's dramatic center of gravity -- that provided the inspiration for Nolan.

He and his wife, producer Emma Thomas, had crossed the same stretch of water in a small boat a decade earlier, in what he described as "one of the most difficult and frankly dangerous experiences of my life."

"It drove home to us how heroic this was," Thomas said in an interview. "And no one was shooting or dropping bombs on us."

The English-born director of the "Batman" movies -- known for his technical and narrative daring -- shot on, above and off the very beaches where the evacuation took place with real World War II planes and warships.

Some of the original "little ships" that picked up the soldiers were also pressed back into service for "Dunkirk," which stars Cillian Murphy, Kenneth Branagh and Mark Rylance.

Beevor is as harsh on Wright as Nolan, dismissing as "ludicrous and totally fictitious" a scene in "Darkest Hour" in which Churchill takes a London Underground train and engages passengers on the rights and wrongs of conflict.

As filming reached its climax last year, the Brexit bombshell hit and the prospect of another retreat from Europe gave the film an unexpected and unwanted political resonance.

With the idea of Britain alone against the world again in the air, Nolan warned against "the Dunkirk spirit" being abused.

"Dunkirk is always being used by politicians as a symbol of something," he said.

"But whenever anyone tries to link it with contemporary politics, they are flying in the face of the fact that it happened in 1940."Boys jump from a giant truck called a 'titan' after loading it with cotton. The commodity is so valuable to Benin's economy that it is called 'white gold'

The sleepy town of Bohicon in southern-central Benin roars into life during the cotton harvest between January and March.

Enormous trucks piled high with "white gold" trundle down the roads to the town's cotton-processing plant.

Yerima Fousseni, head of the cotton-growers cooperative in Wewe district farther north, says 2018 has been a bumper harvest -- more than 46 tonnes, triple last year's yield.

"We now have 32 farmers in the village -- before, there were only 10 of us. Everyone has been able to see that there's money to be made out of this."

That Benin's cotton sector is booming is clear. The country is the fourth biggest producer in Africa, with exports in 2018 set to reach more than 530,000 tonnes after 451,000 tonnes in 2017 and 324,000 tonnes in 2016.

Everyone has benefitted from the boost but some more than others -- and many are wondering why.

Some say the downstream part of the industry is in the hands of a de facto monopoly, dominated by companies historically linked to Benin's president, Patrice Talon.

Talon made a fortune in the cotton industry before coming to power in 2016 on a campaign promise to revive it.

Once in office, he vowed that he would part with his own interests in the sector.

But the degree to which Talon has kept this promise remains unclear, exposing him to accusations of conflict of interest.

Sodeco and ICA, two companies in which he has historically been the major shareholder, manage or own virtually all of Benin's cotton ginners -- factories where, in the first crucial step after harvesting, cotton lint is separated from seed.

Cotton is one of the biggest contributors to Benin's economy -- the sector has boomed in the past three years

Companies historically owned or part-owned by Talon are also major players in transporting the raw cotton, handling cotton seeds and in ports where the commodity is exported.

How far Talon has since divested, or distanced himself, from these companies remains sketchy. Benin has legislation to punish unfair competition and monopolies, although the ministry of trade has no office to oversee the law.

- Transparency -

The situation has fed accusations of unfair practices in a sector where competition is tough and resentment can have deep roots.

One such critic is Martin Rodriguez, a wealthy Benin entrepreneur who says he lost his entire investment in his home country.

In 1997, he says, he built a ginning plant in Nikki, in northeast Benin, but it only operated at less than full capacity. He accuses the state -- at the time, Benin's president was Mathieu Kerekou -- of starving him of supplies of raw cotton.

Crippled with debt, the factory was sold at auction in November last year at a knockdown price for three billion CFA francs (4.5 million euros, $5.5 million), and is now being run by Sodeco, says Rodriguez, who has launched a judicial appeal in the case.

"Talon has taken politics into business and business into politics," said Rodriguez, who now lives in the United States.

Abel Gbetoenonmon of a not-for-profit monitoring group called Social Watch Benin said concerns about conflicts of interest mounted after the industry was re-organised after Talon took office.

In April 2016, Talon handed management of the cotton industry -- a monopoly that until then was part-held by the state -- to the Cotton Inter-Profession Association (AIC), gathering cotton producers and spinners, and appointed a long-time associate, Mathieu Adjovi, at its head.

"Abuse of a dominant position became a reality. Before, Patrice Talon controlled 80 percent of the sector, now we are close to 100 percent," Gbetoenonmon charged.

Repeated attempts by AFP to solicit a reply from the president's office and the AIC were unsuccessful.

Even though the cotton sector in Benin is flourishing, concerns remain about access to the market and accountability.

"In the past, when there were problems, small producers or any link in the chain could turn to the state" for help, said one veteran figure in the industry. "Today, who can they speak to?"The church is built where Christians believe Jesus was crucified, buried and resurrected. Custody of it is shared by the Greek Orthodox, Armenian and Roman Catholic denominations

Tourists and pilgrims returned to the Jerusalem church built at the site many see as the holiest in Christianity on Wednesday as it reopened following a rare three-day closure in protest at Israeli measures.

The two men who act as keepers of the key of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre unlocked its large wooden doors at around 4:00 am (0200 GMT), ending the protest that began Sunday at noon and kept thousands of would-be visitors out.

Shortly afterwards, a group of pilgrims emerged from the still darkened corridors of Jerusalem's Old City to visit the sacred site.

"We prayed in front of the doors every day since Sunday," said Francois-Roch Ferlet, a 29-year-old visiting with a group of 50 people from France, standing near the ornate shrine encasing the traditional site of Jesus's tomb inside the church.

They were due to leave later on Wednesday and were relieved they were able to visit.

Large crowds of tourists and pilgrims filed into the church throughout the morning.

Christian worshippers pray inside the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem after it reopened on February 28, 2018

The church is built where Christians believe Jesus was crucified, buried and resurrected. Custody of it is shared by the Greek Orthodox, Armenian and Roman Catholic denominations.

The closure seemed to be the longest since at least 1990.

Christian leaders decided to reopen the church after Israel on Tuesday suspended tax measures they oppose.

A proposed law that would allow Israel to expropriate land sold by the church has also been shelved.

Israel's government will appoint a team to come up with a solution to the tax measures imposed by authorities in Jerusalem.

An Israeli minister will also look into the issue of land sales in Jerusalem by Christian bodies, which prompted the proposed law that is now also suspended.

"We don't like to use the term victory because nothing is over yet," Farid Jubran, legal adviser for the Catholic custodian of sites in the Holy Land, told AFP.

"The prime minister declared he still wants to negotiate. It's a very good step ... and they realised you cannot talk to the churches with threats."

- 'Dark period' -

Christian leaders are angry over attempts by Israeli authorities in Jerusalem to enforce tax collection on church property they consider commercial, saying exemptions only apply to places of worship or religious teaching.

A Christian worshipper prays inside the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem after it reopened on February 28, 2018

Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat says the city is due 650 million shekels ($186 million/152 million euros) in uncollected taxes on church properties.

He stresses churches themselves are exempt, with the changes only affecting establishments like "hotels, halls and businesses" owned by them.

Christian leaders say the measure jeopardises social services they provide to those in need, while arguing that hostels and cafes they run for pilgrims do not operate as normal for-profit businesses.

A separate controversial bill seeks to allay fears of Israelis who live in homes on lands previously held by the Greek Orthodox Church and which were sold to private developers, according to the lawmaker proposing it.

The bill would allow certain lands sold by the Greek Orthodox Church to be handed over to the state, which would compensate those who bought them.

"This reminds us all of laws of a similar nature which were enacted against the Jews during a dark period in Europe," Christian leaders said in a statement Sunday.

- 'I will pray' -

Recent land sales by the Greek Orthodox Church -- a major landowner in Jerusalem -- to unknown buyers have drawn fire from both Israelis and Palestinians.

Palestinians fear the sales will favour Israeli settlement construction in east Jerusalem, while Israelis are concerned over private developers' intentions for the land.

The dispute over the taxes and proposed law is also linked to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

The church is located in Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem, which the Palestinians see as the capital of their future state. Israel sees the whole city as its undivided capital.

Christians in Jerusalem are overwhelmingly Palestinians.

Saeb Erekat, Palestine Liberation Organisation secretary general, used a speech to foreign ambassadors in Ramallah on Wednesday to accuse the United States of ignoring Israel's actions against Christian institutions.

Referring to US Vice President Mike Pence's January visit to the region, he said it was "ironic" that "he said he was here to consolidate and strengthen Christian presence in the Middle East."

The decision to close the church was extremely rare.

In 1990, Christian sites including the Holy Sepulchre were closed for a day to protest the installation of Jewish settlers near the church.

Christian sites were shut for two days in 1999 to protest at the planned construction of a mosque near Nazareth's Church of the Annunciation.

Sameh Zakaria and his wife Amira, a Dutch-Egyptian Coptic couple, visited the church from the Netherlands on Wednesday.

"I cried when I came (yesterday) and found the church was closed," said Amira, 44.

"I am happy now and I will pray for my children, my family and my country."Xi who must be obeyed: Xi Jinping looks set to rule China for life, but how he will use his power is a cause of unease around the world

President Xi Jinping's leap toward lifelong rule has largely been met by guarded silence in world capitals as governments try to predict how China's formidable leader will wield his newfound power on the global stage.

The Communist Party's move to lift presidential term limits will allow Xi to reign supreme as he pushes through an ambitious agenda to turn China into a military and economic superpower by mid-century.

"Xi has all this power. But we don't really know what he wants to use it for," said Kerry Brown, the director of the Lau China Institute at King's College London.

"If it's to address the challenges that need sorting out in China then that will be a good thing. If not, then it will be deeply problematic."

China is already causing global jitters with its growing assertiveness, from its territorial claims in the South China Sea to the opening of its first overseas military base in the Horn of Africa and its influence in capitals across the Western world.

Xi has championed one of the largest international infrastructure projects in history, the $1 trillion Belt and Road initiative, which has drawn both interest and suspicion about China's intentions.

At the same time, it is teetering on the brink of a trade war with the world's largest economy, the United States.

Disputed claims in the South China Sea

At home, the move has been hailed by state media as a necessary measure to usher in an era of "stability" that will provide a reassuring beacon of hope to countries spooked by the turmoil of American politics.

"In the future, with Xi leading the country for a very long time, it's guaranteed that foreign relations will be stable and predictable," Wu Xinbo, a US politics expert at Fudan University, told AFP.

- 'Autocrat for life' -

The Communist Party's constitutional amendment is certain to be approved by the rubber-stamp National People's Congress when it begins its annual session next week, which will enable Xi to remain president beyond 2023.

Where countries stand on the move largely depends on where they sit.

In Russia, whose President Vladimir Putin's unyielding grasp on power is often cited as a model for Xi's rule, the reaction to the abolition was largely positive, according to Alexander Gabuev, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Moscow Center.

Although some China-watchers expressed concern that China could slip back into Mao-style authoritarianism, the government thinks that Xi "staying in power beyond 2023 is a good thing," especially as "relations with the West are hitting new lows every month."

Xi Jingping's accretion of power means he is increasingly being compared with the country's founding father, Mao Zedong

But Xi's power play is likely to fuel growing suspicions about China in Western countries.

After the election of Donald Trump in the US, China tried to step into the vacuum created by his rapid withdrawal from international trade pacts and environmental agreements.

Xi's speech at Davos last year emphasising the importance of globalisation earned rapturous reviews from liberal politicians.

But "getting permission from a rubber stamp legislative branch to become autocrat-for-life only undermines the ability of democratic leaders to afford such respect," said Orville Schell, director of the Center on US-China Relations at the Asia Society in New York.

It will look particularly bad in Australia, New Zealand and the United States, where concerns about China's growing power and how it chooses to exercise it have increasingly preoccupied lawmakers.

The White House has avoided criticism of the move, saying the decision was "up to China".

But "there's been a lot more concern about China and what it wants abroad," said Eric Hundman, an international relations expert at NYU Shanghai.

"Everybody's going to read this as he's going to become a dictator, which makes China look much more threatening."

- Surrounded by sycophants -

Xi's consolidation of power means that China's own foreign policy will likely become more assertive, said Bonnie Glaser, a China expert at the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies.

If the term limit repeal is a sign of strength, that could mean that Xi will increasingly be surrounded by sycophants and yes-men.

Russian President Vladimir Putin is another world leader with a strong grip on the levers of his country's power

"Xi is unlikely to get balanced, objective input and advice. He may be overconfident about what he can achieve," Glaser said.

That could mean a China that is "even more aggressive" in its use of economic coercion and its assertion of its territorial rights in places like the East and South China Sea, where it has long-standing disputes with its neighbours.

NYU's Hundman warned that if Xi's apparent power grab is a sign of weakness, then that "may lead to actions on China's part that look irrational... but are directed at domestic audiences."

He could do things such as threatening Taiwan that are aimed at "whipping up popular support. They would look very provocative to us, from a foreign perspective, but they may not be intended that way."A New Delhi wedding ended in tragedy when the groom was hit by a stray celebratory bullet

A bridegroom in New Delhi has been killed by a stray bullet after a member of his wedding party opened fire to celebrate the occasion, police said Wednesday.

Deepak Kumar, 21, was shot while leading the party to his bride's home in the Indian capital on Tuesday evening.

Police said a guest dancing with the wedding party opened fire but a stray round struck the husband-to-be.

"He collapsed and was rushed to hospital where he was declared dead after midnight," Nupur Prasad, deputy commissioner of Delhi police, told AFP.

Firing weapons in the air at weddings and other festivities is a common celebration across South Asia.

The practice is illegal in India but remains rife, though fatalities are relatively few.

Prasad said the groom's family had identified the man who fired the bullet.

"It is an ongoing investigation and we are trying to ascertain the source of his weapon," he said.

Amit, one of the wedding guests, told the Times of India newspaper there "were a couple of people carrying guns for celebratory firing, which is considered a tradition in the family".The Maldives has been plunged into political crisis -- although there has been little effect on tourism

The Maldives detained and deported a group of international lawyers who travelled to the troubled honeymoon islands to study the impact of emergency rule, their organisation said Wednesday.

Law Asia, a regional lawyers' association, said it had sent four members in response to an open invitation the government issued two days after President Abdulla Yameen imposed a state of emergency.

That followed a Supreme Court order, later rescinded, to release political prisoners and reinstate sacked lawmakers -- a move that would have cost Yameen his majority in parliament.

The president has overseen a major crackdown on dissent in recent years, jailing a series of prominent critics including the opposition leader and sacking MPs who defected from the ruling party.

Earlier this month Yameen sacked the chief justice and another senior judge before imposing emergency rule, sparking international condemnation.

The crisis has hit the image of the Maldives as a peaceful holiday paradise, although it has had little impact on life away from the capital in the upmarket resort islands popular with honeymooners.

The four lawyers were detained on Sunday when they arrived at Male international airport, where they were held and subsequently deported, Law Asia said.

"By such action, the government of Maldives deprived itself of the benefit of an independent and impartial assessment by a fact-finding team not sponsored by any individuals, parties or organisations in the Maldives," it said.

The government had invited international organisations to send representatives to "assess the situation in the Maldives and witness the safety and security of Male" under emergency rule.

Law Asia said they had been trying for more than two weeks to arrange special visas before deciding to send the delegation after informing the immigration authorities.

Separately, Yameen's niece Dunya Maumoon resigned late Tuesday as health minister.

She had been under pressure to resign since Yameen ordered the arrest of her father, ex-president Maumoon Abdul Gayoom.

The 80-year-old was president for 30 years until the country's first democratic elections in 2008 and was initially see as the power behind the throne until be became estranged from his half brother and backed the opposition.

He was arrested on a charge of trying to topple the government hours after the emergency was declared.Ghani speaks at the regional peace conference

Afghan President Ashraf Ghani on Wednesday unveiled a plan to open peace talks with the Taliban, including eventually recognising them as a political party, days after the militants called for direct negotiations with the US.

The apparent openness by both sides to some form of negotiations came as civilian casualties have soared in recent months, with the Taliban increasingly targeting towns and cities in response to a new and more aggressive US military policy ordered by President Donald Trump.

Ghani disclosed the framework at the Kabul Process, a regional conference in the Afghan capital focused on bringing peace to the country. He called for a truce, after which the Taliban could become a political party and contest elections.

"A ceasefire should be held, the Taliban should be recognised as a political party and trust-building process should be initiated," said Ghani, in remarks similar to past offers.

"Now the decision is in your hands, accept peace... and let's bring stability to this country," he added.

In return, Ghani said the militants should officially recognise the Afghan government and constitution, a perennial sticking point in past attempts to open talks.

There was no immediate response to Ghani's offer from the Taliban.

However the group's spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid maligned the Kabul Process, tweeting that the conference sought the Taliban's "surrender" at a time when it is "without a doubt a force that has defeated an international arrogant power like America with all its allies and tools at disposal".

His statement was part of a written response from the Taliban to a New Yorker article chronicling efforts towards peace talks by an American expert on Afghanistan, Barnett Rubin.

On Monday the Taliban said it was prepared to enter direct talks with the US to find a "peaceful solution" to more than 16 years of war.

That statement however made no mention of negotiating with the Afghan government -- a condition which the US has long stated is vital to any peace process.

- Clean peace plan -

Observers were cautious about the impact of Ghani's proposal, which includes offers previously made to the Taliban -- though this is the first time they have been arranged in a "clean peace plan" and announced at a multi-national conference, noted Afghan political analyst Abdul Bari.

"The timing is important... the Taliban might reject the offer, as they have done in the past, but at least it seems the peace process (which) stopped for a while may get back on track," he told AFP.

Pakistani journalist and Taliban expert Rahimullah Yusufzai said the insurgents' leadership remained committed to the US-only position, but others in the movement were less dogmatic about talking with Kabul.

"There are some people among the Taliban who believe that they will have to negotiate with the Afghan government," said Yusufzai.

He added that the militants have suffered heavy casualties under the new US strategy of increased airstrikes and commando raids.

Despite the losses, Yusufzai said the group would continue the insurgency. "They derive their power from their ability to keep fighting," he said.

Kabul is hosting the second round of the peace conference at which representatives from 25 countries will discuss counter-terrorism and conflict resolution strategies. US officials have described the current situation in the war as a stalemate.

The fighting continued elsewhere in the country Wednesday.

Officials in southern Kandahar and Uruzgan accused the Taliban of attacking a police checkpoint between the two provinces, killing five people and kidnapping at least 19 car passengers.

"We have launched an operation to find them," said Zia Durrani, the Kandahar police spokesman, who blamed the militant group for the attack. Dost Mohammad Nayeb, spokesman for governor of Uruzgan, confirmed the incident.

No group has yet issued any claim of responsibility for the attack.The crown prince said the shake-up announced by his aging father, King Salman, was aimed at installing "high energy" people who could achieve modernization targets.

Saudi Arabia's crown prince says the anti-corruption drive launched late last year is the "shock therapy" his kingdom needs to root out widespread graft.

"You have a body that has cancer everywhere, the cancer of corruption. You need to have chemo, the shock of chemo, or the cancer will eat the body," Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman told the Washington Post in an interview published Tuesday night.

"The kingdom couldn't meet budget targets without halting this looting," he said.

In the latest move for change, a dramatic shake-up announced in royal decrees late Monday saw top brass, including the chief of staff and heads of the ground forces and air defence, replaced and a broad defence reform plan approved. The government bureaucracy is also to be overhauled.

The crown prince said the shake-up announced by his aging father, King Salman, was aimed at installing "high energy" people who could achieve modernization targets. "We want to work with believers," the crown prince told the US paper.

The changing of the military guard came just a month shy of the third anniversary of the launch of a Saudi-led intervention to fight Iran-backed Huthi rebels in Yemen.

Prince Mohammed has been the main driver of the once-staid kingdom's more aggressive regional push since he took over as defence minister in early 2015.

But despite a multi-billion dollar military campaign, the coalition has failed to defeat the Huthis in a conflict that the United Nations says has created the world's worst humanitarian crisis.

The war's failures have exposed the limitations of Saudi Arabia's military might and accelerated the need to reform what is seen as a sclerotic military establishment.Turkey has insisted any truce will not affect its operation in the Syria's Afrin region.

Turkey on Wednesday sharply criticised France and the United States for arguing a ceasefire in Syria should apply to its military operation against Kurdish militia, as new tensions mounted between Ankara and its NATO allies.

The United Nations Security Council, crucially including regime ally Russia, has agreed a 30-day nationwide ceasefire in Syria although this has yet to be implemented or end the violence in rebel-held Eastern Ghouta.

Turkey has welcomed the ceasefire but repeatedly insisted any truce will not affect its over month-long operation in the Afrin region against Kurdish militia Ankara believes to be terrorists.

French President Emmanuel Macron told his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan in telephone talks Monday the ceasefire must be applied across the country "including in Afrin," the French presidency said.

But the Turkish foreign ministry Wednesday accused Paris of giving a false readout of the conversation, saying Macron did not refer to Afrin in the discussion on the ceasefire.

It said Turkey had informed the French authorities that their statement showed a "lack of candour" and made the error of "misinforming public opinion."

In Washington meanwhile, US State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert also insisted that the ceasefire did apply to the Afrin operation.

"Turkey is more than welcome to go back and read the exact text of this UN Security Council resolution, and I would suggest that they do so," she said.

Nauert argued that only campaigns against Islamic State jihadists, Al-Qaeda and other extremist Islamist groups were exempted from ceasefire.

The Turkish foreign ministry said in a separate statement that Nauert's comments were "devoid of any basis", insisting that the Afrin campaign was a fight against "terrorists" and a matter of self defence for Turkey.

Turkey's operation against the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) militia has raised tensions with Washington, which works closely with the YPG in the fight against jihadists in Syria.

Ankara sees the YPG as the Syrian branch of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which for over three decades has waged an insurgency against the Turkish state and is banned by Turkey, the US and the European Union as a terror group.Former militant Ali Fauzi (R), the younger brother of Ali Imron who was convicted in the 2002 Bali bombings, speaks during a "terrorist-victim" meeting in Jakarta

A group of terror attack survivors and traumatised relatives of those killed boycotted Indonesia's first-ever meeting between former militants and their victims Wednesday, marring an event hailed as a key step towards reconciliation.

The government-hosted talks brought together 124 people convicted of terror-related crimes and some 51 survivors or family members of those killed in attacks.

But it drew fewer than expected survivors as two victim's rights groups shunned the event, saying the face-to-face meeting in the ballroom of a Jakarta hotel was poorly planned.

"There are so many of them (former convicts) in the room. We're not ready psychologically," said Ni Luh Erniati, an adviser to the Indonesian Survivors Foundation, which did not attend.

"We have forgiven them but we cannot predict what would happen if our emotions were ignited."

Indonesia, which has the world's biggest Muslim population, has suffered a string of extremist attacks this century, including the 2002 Bali bombings that killed more than 200 people.

Most of the dead were foreign tourists but 38 Indonesians were among those killed.

Erniati lost her husband in the Bali attack and later founded the Isana Dewata Foundation to represent families of those killed.

Both the Isana Dewata and Indonesian Survivors foundations stayed away from Wednesday's event.

"We've tried similar smaller-scale events in the past but it was hard even then," said Erniati. "Some survivors were so emotional and they became furious at the former militants."

But some victims were able to dispel their anger and attend the talks.

"If I succumb to my resentment, I would not be any different from them," said Febby Firmansyah -- badly injured in Jakarta's 2003 JW Marriott hotel bombing that killed twelve.

He refused to hold a grudge despite a mangled hand and permanent burn scars all over his body.

"I cannot force other survivors to forgive them as quickly as I did... so I warned them: don't come if you are not ready," he told AFP at the meeting.

- 'I am sorry' -

Sumarno, who served four years in jail for delivering and helping pack explosives used in the Bali bombing, said terror attacks must stop.

"It's hard and saddens me to see survivors who are now suffering from permanent disabilities," said the former militant, who like many Indonesians goes by one name.

"I had not imagined the impact would be like that. I am sorry and have apologised to them."

He added that the meeting might help soften "discrimination" toward convicted militants who can have trouble finding work and fitting back into society.

Wednesday's meeting was the last of a three-day event which included remarks from government ministers along with education, social affairs and religious officials.

Only the convicted militants took part in classes about tolerance and diversity held earlier in the week.

Some cast doubt on the meeting when it was first announced last month, while there was also suspicion that it chief purpose was to boost the power of Indonesia's counter-terrorism agency by bringing the oversight of terror victims under its authority.

Chief Security Minister Wiranto rejected those claims Wednesday.

"This event is unprecedented. It's never happened before," he said.

"This event goes beyond just being ceremonial."

Jakarta has been running a deradicalisation programme for a number of years while a crackdown has weakened the most dangerous terror networks.

But fears have grown of a resurgence in militancy after hundreds of Indonesians flocked to the Middle East and the Philippines in recent years to join the Islamic State group or its allies.New Zealand's Mitchell Santner fields off his own bowling during their second ODI match against England, at the Bay Oval in Mount Maunganui, on February 28, 2018

Mitchell Santner scored his maiden limited overs half-century as the Black Caps' tail wagged against a rampant England in the second one-day international on Wednesday.

Santner's unbeaten 63 off 52 balls helped New Zealand set a modest but potentially defendable target of 224 after they lost the toss and were put in to bat at Mount Maunganui.

In-form opener Martin Guptill also scored 50 but runs were hard to come by as England stifled New Zealand's batting with a superb display in the field.

The Black Caps were all out for 223 with two balls remaining as Ben Stokes, Chris Woakes and Moeen Ali took two wickets apiece.

England pulled off a string of sharply taken catches and ran out four batsman, ensuring that every chance their bowlers created resulted in a wicket.

England's Ben Stokes (L) walks off the field after winning their second ODI match against New Zealand, at the Bay Oval in Mount Maunganui, on February 28, 2018

The highlight for the Black Caps was a late 69-run partnership between Lockie Ferguson and Santner -- who hit a match-winning 45 in the opening match.

New Zealand never recovered from an early double blow by Woakes, who dismissed Colin Munro for one in his first over then Mark Chapman for the same score in his second.

David Willey's prowess in the field was responsible for Ross Taylor's departure on 10, swooping on the ball at backward point and firing it to Jos Buttler to break the stumps.

The loss of Taylor, a century-maker in the opening fixture, left New Zealand on 48 for three with Guptill holding the first half of the innings together.

His half-century came off 84 balls but he failed to push on and was caught by Jason Roy on 50 trying to sweep Ali's spin over the boundary.

Another well taken Roy catch off Ben Stokes' bowling sent Henry Nicholls on his way, leaving the Black Caps at 82 for five at the 25-over mark.

Colin de Grandhomme contributed 38 but it was then left to Santner to lift New Zealand to a score that looks under par against a strong England batting line-up.Smoke rises from Syria's rebel-held enclave of Eastern Ghouta on February 27, 2018

Syrian regime forces clashed Wednesday with rebels on the outskirts of Eastern Ghouta despite a "humanitarian pause" announced by Russia and now in its second day, a monitor said.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the fighting was fierce and broke out overnight in the rebel-held enclave on the eastern outskirts of the capital Damascus.

Early Wednesday, before the daily "humanitarian pause" took effect again, Syrian forces also pounded Eastern Ghouta with air strikes and artillery fire, Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman told AFP.

He said regime forces took advantage of the "intensive bombardment and the clashes on the edge of Eastern Ghouta to make a limited advance in the Hosh al-Zawahira and Shaifuniyeh districts".

On Monday Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered a five-hour daily "humanitarian pause" from 0700 GMT to allow aid deliveries to the battered enclave and the evacuation of residents.

It came after a nine-day campaign during which Russian-backed Syrian regime forces bombarded Eastern Ghouta, killing hundreds in one of the bloodiest episodes of the country's seven-year war.

The Observatory said air strikes and artillery fire on the enclave stopped just before the "pause" kicked in again Wednesday, but on the ground the clashes continued around Hosh al-Zawahira and Shaifuniyeh.

The bodies of six people were pulled out of the rubble across the enclave on Wednesday, bringing the total number of civilians killed there since February 18 to 590, the Observatory said.

Almost a quarter of those killed are children.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Wednesday said Syria's rebels were responsible for ensuring that the "pause" takes hold.

"Russia together with the Syrian government have already announced the establishment of humanitarian corridors in Eastern Ghouta", Lavrov told the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva.

"Now, it is the turn for the militants and their sponsors to act, militants entrenched there who still continue shelling Damascus, blocking aid deliveries and the evacuation of those wishing to leave", he added.

The UN Security Council was due to meet Wednesday afternoon to discuss the humanitarian situation and hear from UN aid chief Mark Lowcock.Turkey and allied Syrian rebels launched an operation targeting Kurdish militia in Afrin in January

A Turkish television anchor on Wednesday resigned and risks prosecution after triggering outrage by commenting that if Turkey intended to harm civilians in its Syria operation it would have already bombed staunchly secular areas in Istanbul.

The comments by Ahmet Keser, an anchor on the pro-government Akit TV, were condemned by both opposition critics and ruling party officials, while Istanbul prosecutors have announced an investigation.

Keser, a presenter on the breakfast TV segment "Gun Basliyor" (The Day Begins), made the comments as he rejected claims the civilians had been killed in Turkey's operation against Kurdish militia in Syria.

He asked why the Turkish army would ever target civilians, and added: "If we were going to kill civilians then we would start with Cihangir, Nisantasi and Etiler, there are plenty of traitors there. And there's also the Turkish parliament."

Cihangir, Nisantasi and Etiler are three upscale neighbourhoods in Istanbul where residents are predominantly secular, hostile to the government and enjoy a European lifestyle with coffee shops and bars.

Istanbul prosecutors have launched a criminal probe into the programme on accusations of inciting hatred and hostility, state media said.

The spokesman of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) Mahir Unal condemned the presenter's comments, describing them as an "open provocation and a sabotage".

"Who are you? We are not going to agree or approve of this. It's a stupid sabotage of Turkey's unity," he told the NTV channel in an interview.

Akit TV said in a statement on its social media accounts that it did not approve of Keser's comments and he had now left his position so as not to give a "pretext" for the channel to be criticised in public.

- 'Ready to be a martyr' -

The controversy has erupted as Turkey wages an over month-long military campaign in northern Syria aimed at dislodging a Kurdish militia deemed by Ankara to be terrorists.

The authorities have made clear that public criticism of the aims of the campaign amounts to treachery and have arrested 845 people for protesting or "spreading propaganda" against the offensive.

Thirty-three Turkish soldiers have been killed so far in the offensive, all hailed by media and officials as "martyrs" for Islam.

But the operation has raised tensions in Turkey's increasingly polarised society ahead of 2019 elections, with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan inspiring devotion and opposition in equal measure.

Erdogan in a speech in the eastern region of Kahramanmaras on Saturday raised eyebrows by inviting on stage a young girl dressed in military uniform and evoking the idea that she could become a "martyr".

"I hope that if you become a martyr they will drape you with the Turkish flag. Be ready for anything" said Erdogan. "Yes," replied the weeping girl.Around 6,000 Rohingya have been living on a thin stretch of land between the two countries since fleeing Myanmar

Hundreds of Rohingya living in no man's land have left their makeshift camp and crossed into Bangladesh after soldiers from Myanmar used loudhailers to threaten them, community leaders said Wednesday.

Around 6,000 Rohingya have been living on a thin strip of land between the two countries since fleeing Myanmar in the wake of a brutal military crackdown on the Muslim minority in late August.

They were among the first to flee Myanmar when the violence erupted last year and set up shelters in no man's land in the weeks before Bangladesh agreed to let the Rohingya into the country.

In recent weeks they have come under pressure from Myanmar soldiers, who have stepped up patrols along the barbed-wire border fence just yards from the camp and broadcast messages using loudhailers ordering the Rohingya to leave.

Community leader Dil Mohammad said the messages had spread panic through the camp.

"We can't now sleep peacefully. Most of the Rohingya in the camps now want to flee and take shelter in Bangladesh," Mohammad said.

"Around 150 families have already left the camp for Bangladesh as they were afraid they might be forcefully sent back to Rakhine," he told AFP, referring to the area of Myanmar where the Rohingya used to live.

- Threatened with prosecution -

One Border Guard Bangladesh official said the Myanmar soldiers were playing the announcement at least 10 to 15 times a day.

In it they urge the Rohingya to leave, saying the land they are on is under Myanmar's jurisdiction and threatening them with prosecution if they remain.

Last week Bangladesh and Myanmar officials visited the camp and urged the refugees to return to Rakhine.

But community leaders have said they will not go back unless their demands for citizenship and security guarantees are met.

Myanmar views the Rohingya as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh and has long denied them citizenship and basic rights.

Nearly 700,000 have fled since the military backed by Buddhist mobs launched a brutal crackdown in the wake of attacks by Rohingya militants on police posts.

Doctors without Borders has said 6,700 Rohingya were killed in the first month of the violence alone, in a campaign the United Nations has called ethnic cleansing.

Most of the refugees are now living in camps in Bangladesh.

The Bangladesh government has signed an agreement with Myanmar to repatriate them, but the refugees themselves say they do not want to return.

Bangladesh was supposed to start the repatriation process last month but it has been delayed amid concerns over a lack of preparation.

Myanmar forces have also erected a kilometres-long barbed-wire fence along the border in recent weeks and installed multiple outposts with armed guards and loudspeakers, the refugees said.

"Unfortunately we have no presence in the so-called no man's land. We know that refugees continue to arrive in Bangladesh on a daily basis and we are assisting all new arrivals regardless of where they came from," said Vivian Tan, spokeswoman for the UN refugee agency.

"UNHCR maintains that those who have fled human rights violations, persecution and violence have the right to seek asylum and must be guaranteed safety and protection."Iranian President Hassan Rouhani delivers a speech in Tehran on February 11, 2018

President Hassan Rouhani on Wednesday said Iran is ready to discuss regional security issues with its Gulf Arab neighbours as long as foreign powers are kept out of any potential talks.

"We don't need foreigners to guarantee the security of our region," Rouhani said in a speech broadcast on state television.

"When it comes to regional security arrangements, we are ready to talk to our neighbours and friends, without the presence of foreigners," he added.

"We are, have been and always will be good neighbours," Rouhani said, addressing Gulf Arab countries including Iran's regional rival Saudi Arabia.

Rouhani was speaking in the southern port city of Bandar Abbas overlooking the Gulf -- a flashpoint of tensions between Iran and Saudi Arabia.

The two powers, who severed diplomatic ties in January 2016, have taken opposing sides in wars in Syria and Yemen.

Shiite-dominated Iran is the main regional backer of the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad against Sunni rebels supported by Saudi Arabia.

In Yemen, a Saudi-led coalition has been bombing since 2015 Iran-backed Shiite Huthi rebels opposed to the internationally recognised government.

Western powers and their Gulf Arab allies say Iran is a destabilising influence in the Middle East.

Tehran, however, has regularly called for dialogue with its neighbours free of any foreign interference.

Rouhani's comments came a day after the United States and three European allies condemned Iran after the United Nations found Tehran had violated the arms embargo on Yemen by failing to block supplies of missiles and drones to Huthi rebels.

The condemnation came after Russia vetoed a British-drafted resolution renewing sanctions on Yemen and citing "particular concern" about a report's findings on Iran.

Rouhani paid tribute to "Russia's just and intelligent stance".Has Donald Trump really been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize? The Norwegian Nobel Institute said Wednesday it had filed a police report after receiving a seemingly fraudulent nomination for the US president.

'We have good reason to believe that a nomination we received concerning Trump has been falsified,' Nobel Institute director Olav Njolstad told AFP.

He refused to provide further details, saying it was for the police to give more information.

The Peace Research Institute of Oslo said in early February that US President Donald Trump's name was on the list of nominees for the Nobel Peace Prize

Each year, nominations for the Nobel Peace Prize must be submitted by January 31. Among those entitled to propose names are members of parliament and government, former laureates and some university professors.

While the list of candidates is kept secret for at least 50 years, those who nominate are however allowed to disclose their choice.

The Peace Research Institute of Oslo (Prio) said in early February that Trump's name was on the list.

Like last year, Trump was nominated for his 'ideology of peace by force' by an American who did not want his identity revealed, according to Prio, a body independent of the Nobel organisation which closely monitors the nominations revealed publicly.

It is possible that this nomination was submitted by a person suspected of committing identity fraud to appear eligible to nominate.

The Nobel Institute said it had received 329 valid nominations for the 2018 Peace Prize. The five members of the Nobel committee that selects the winner are also allowed to submit names during their first meeting of the year, which was held on Monday.

The name of the 2018 winner will be announced in early October.A handout picture provided by the Saudi Royal Palace on February 28, 2018, shows King Salman bin Abdulaziz (R) receiving Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri at the royal palace in the Saudi capital Riyadh

Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri met Saudi King Salman on Wednesday, in his first visit back to the country since his resignation in the kingdom sparked a crisis between the longtime allies.

Hariri announced on November 4 that he was stepping down in a televised address from Riyadh, only to rescind it the following month after France intervened.

The shock resignation had stirred tensions between Riyadh and Beirut, amid suspicions he had been placed under house arrest.

Saudi Arabia's state news agency SPA said Hariri and King Salman discussed "bilateral relations and recent developments in Lebanon".

It publishing pictures of the two leaders locked in a firm handshake.

He is also due to hold talks with powerful Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, whose impact on the kingdom's policies has steadily expanded since his appointment as heir to the throne in June.

His visit comes after a meeting Monday in Beirut with Saudi envoy Nizar al-Alula during which Hariri said he received and accepted an invitation to travel to Riyadh.

Alula also met with President Michel Aoun, who told him of Lebanon's desire to "maintain the best relations" with the oil-rich Gulf state.

Relations between the two countries have been strained by the competing influences in Lebanon of regional rivals Saudi Arabia and Iran.

Lebanon will hold legislative elections on May 6, the country's first since 2009.The effort to shut down Rappler was described by press watchdogs as payback for critical coverage of Duterte's deadly war on drugs

A Silicon Valley investment firm has transferred its investment in the Philippine news website Rappler to the site's local managers to stave off efforts by President Rodrigo Duterte to shut it down.

The US-based Omidyar Network said Wednesday it was "donating" its Philippine depositary receipts (PDRs) in Rappler worth about $1.5 million to local managers to fend off the government's push to close down the site.

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) revoked Rappler's license last month, accusing the site of violating a constitutional ban on foreign ownership of media, in a move described by press watchdogs as payback for critical coverage of Duterte's deadly war on drugs.

"The donation completely eliminates the sole basis of the SEC ruling against Rappler Incorporated and Rappler Holdings Corporation," a statement by the Omidyar Network, released by Rappler, said.

But a spokesman for Duterte said the transfer "does not remove the fact that Rappler breached the constitution".

The spokesman accused the US firm of circumventing the law and said the SEC would respond to the move separately.

SEC officials could not be contacted for comment.

The government has allowed Rappler to continue operating as it awaits a court ruling on the case, but Duterte has banned the site's reporters from covering his appearances at the presidential palace.

Rappler has been a thorn in Duterte's side since he took office in mid-2016, criticising his bloody war on drugs which has claimed thousands of lives and sparked a global outcry.

Duterte has also attacked other media outfits that criticise him, including The Philippine Daily Inquirer and broadcaster ABS-CBN.

Rappler's chief executive Maria Ressa welcomed the donation, saying: "Independent media in the Philippines, including Rappler, has come under attack. We therefore welcome Omidyar Network's decision to donate its investment to Filipino Rappler managers."Around 40 million people live on or around Lake Chad -- but the vital resource is shrinking fast under the impact of climate change and water mismanagement

It sounds like something from Wakanda, the futuristic African kingdom of the hit movie "Black Panther".

But "Transaqua" is a very real proposal for a very real problem -- how to replenish the shrinking waters of Lake Chad.

It imagines a 2,600-km (1,600-mile) canal from the Democratic Republic of Congo across the Central African Republic to meet the Chari River that feeds into the freshwater lake.

Lake Chad -- where the borders of Cameroon, Chad, Niger and Nigeria meet -- has been synonymous in recent years with Boko Haram Islamists, whose insurgency has blighted the region.

But climate change and water mismanagement have contributed to a staggering 90-percent decline of the lake's surface area in the past 40 years.

The 40 million people who live around and on the lake are among the poorest in the world, with the UN estimating that a quarter are in need of food handouts to survive.

The region's worsening fragility has become a recruiting sergeant for Boko Haram. The jihadists have found it far easier to win over impoverished subsistence farmers and fishermen, and to base themselves on many of the lake's islands.

At the same time, creeping desertification has forced cattle herders from the lake's once-fertile hinterland, putting them increasingly at odds with farmers farther south.

Experts met in Abuja for two days this week to discuss ways to stop Lake Chad from drying up -- and Transaqua, although still in its infancy and facing many hurdles, attracted interest.

Proponents argue it is the only way to address an environmental and humanitarian crisis from spiralling out of control.

Sanusi Abdullahi, executive secretary of the Lake Chad Basin Commission which oversees the use of water and other natural resources, said they were running out of choices.

"Inter-basin water transfer is not an option but a necessity," he said.

"We are faced with the possibility of the Lake Chad disappearing and that would be catastrophic to the entire African continent."

- Frustration -

At the conference, pent-up frustration at a lack of progress on the Lake Chad issue was directed at western countries.

Paris-based UNESCO has launched a new $6.5-million (5.3-million-euro) research and conservation programme involving Cameroon, Chad, Niger and Nigeria, as well as the CAR.

But Horace Campbell, an African studies professor at the University of Ghana, called the UN cultural and heritage organisation's project a "diversion".

Loss of their livelihood is pushing fishermen and farmers into deeper poverty, prompting some to turn to Boko Haram or look for a new life in Europe

"What the French intellectuals have been promoting is resilience and livelihood. But you can't have that without replenishing the lake," he told delegates.

Transaqua has been proposed by Italian engineering and consulting firm Bonifica, in partnership with the Power Construction Corporation of China (PowerChina).

For Italy, the project, which according to one estimate could cost as much as $14 billion (11.45 billion euros), may help slow the flow of migrants seeking to leave Africa for Europe.

"The vision of hundreds of people dying in the Mediterranean sea" had spurred Italy into action, according to Bonifica technical director Franco Bochetto.

"In recent years the situation has rapidly changed and what did not seem possible in the 80s has become of interest," he said.

For China, the project is an opportunity to deepen its already strong ties with Africa.

"We work here for projects and we want to take social responsibility," said Ziping Huang, an engineer at PowerChina.

- 'Complex and severe' -

In addition to the funding, the engineering and geo-political challenges facing Transaqua are daunting. The canal would have to cross vast and hugely diverse terrain, through countries mired in a reputation for graft and instability.

Critics point out that plans for similar projects elsewhere, such as replenishing the Dead Sea, have not taken off.

In the case of Lake Chad, time is pressing, and the initial feasibility study may take at least three years to be completed.

Huang said working on such a project given the security situation in the region was "beyond our company's imagination".

No-one disputes the situation in Lake Chad is dire. But what is more difficult to agree on is how the four countries whose borders meet on the lake can work together.

English-speaking Nigeria for example has long had strained ties with its francophone neighbours, although the countries have come together in a joint regional force to fight Boko Haram.

"Lake Chad stands out in its complexity and severity at the moment," said Florian Krampe, of the climate change and risk programme at the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI).

"These countries at the end of the day have to cooperate if they want to address these transnational risks, there is simply no other way of doing it.

"The question is, are the institutions ready?"Regime-backer Russia on Monday announced five-hour halts in the bombardment of rebel-held Eastern Ghouta but conflict has continued, with a reported rocket attack in the enclave on February 28, 2018

Civilians in Syria's Eastern Ghouta have continued to shun Russia's offer to quit the besieged enclave, as rebels and Moscow blamed each other for the humanitarian deadlock.

The air strikes and clashes that killed 600 civilians in 10 days have reduced since the Kremlin announced five-hour halts in the bombardment.

But not one of the battered region's 400,000 residents had left to board buses provided by the regime by late Wednesday.

AFP reporters saw no movement at the Wafideen checkpoint through which would-be evacuees were told to exit the Eastern Ghouta enclave that the government lost in 2012 and has besieged almost ever since.

"The humanitarian corridor is open to all those who wish to return to the fold of the homeland, but so far nobody came and this is the second day," said a military officer at the checkpoint.

Regime-backer Russia on Monday ordered a daily "humanitarian pause" of the enclave and said it was guaranteeing civilians safe passage to flee.

The move fell far short of a full ceasefire voted for by the United Nations Security Council -- but was still welcomed inside the enclave as some respite from one of the bloodiest assaults in Syria's seven-year-old war.

Some Eastern Ghouta residents spoken were distrustful of the evacuation measure

Despite the step, the UN insisted that all sides must implement the 30-day truce demanded on Saturday, and said some 40 trucks loaded with aid were waiting for the violence to stop.

Moscow's "humanitarian pause" echoes a similar tactic employed by Russia and the Syrian regime as they looked to force rebels out of second city Aleppo during a ferocious 2016 battle.

No casualties at all were reported when Wednesday's window closed at 2:00 pm (1200 GMT) but warplanes were back in the sky moments later.

"During the truce, the ceasefire is almost enforced," said Syrian Observatory for Human Rights head Rami Abdel Rahman, adding that nine civilians were killed in strikes before and after on Wednesday.

The first five-hour "pause" on Tuesday passed with two killed in regime bombardment, according to the Britain-based war monitor.

- Three days only? -

The Syrian regime has accused the Islamist and jihadist groups inside Ghouta of sabotaging the initiative by shelling the designated humanitarian corridors to hold civilians as human shields.

"The terrorists are impeding those who want to cross, either by putting pressure on them or by firing on the humanitarian corridors," the military officer said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Portraits of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and Russian President Vladimir Putin at the Wafideen checkpoint on the outskirts of Damascus on February 28, 2018

The officer at Wafideen checkpoint warned that if Thursday was equally fruitless, the measure may be dropped, raising fears the kind of bombardment that killed dozens of civilians every day this month would resume.

"The truce was meant to last three days. It could be extended but why go on if there are no results," he said.

Inside Eastern Ghouta, the residents AFP spoke to were distrustful of a measure put in place by Russia, whose warplanes rained munitions on them alongside Syrian aircraft.

The three main armed groups inside the territory, which lies within mortar range of Damascus, said they wanted more international guarantees.

In a letter sent to the United Nations on Tuesday, they said they were willing to expel the jihadist factions that also have a footprint in Eastern Ghouta.

A member of the Syrian government forces stands near ambulances waiting to transport injured people from rebel-held Eastern Ghouta on February 28, 2018

But they demanded any evacuations be conducted under the supervision of a UN mechanism.

Russian President Vladimir Putin, whose portrait was featured alongside Syrian counterpart Bashar al-Assad's at the Wafideen checkpoint, blamed the crisis on the rebels' "constant shelling".

"Shells even crash into the grounds of the Russian embassy and the economic mission. Should we continue to tolerate this? Of course not," he said.

His foreign minister Sergei Lavrov said it was up to the rebels "to act" to ensure the brief halts in fighting bring relief for civilians.

- Aid trucks waiting -

At a Security Council meeting UN humanitarian chief Mark Lowcock demanded the ceasefire deal agreed at the weekend go into force to allow aid to enter.

"When will your resolution be implemented?" he asked.

Lowcock said trucks loaded with supplies have been poised to go to 10 locations since Saturday -- but there has been no access for humanitarian convoys, nor authorisation by the regime to go into the besieged areas.

US representative Kelley Currie accused the regime of violating the ceasefire, while Russian ambassador Vassily Nebenzia blamed the rebels.

Jeffrey Feltman, UN under secretary-general for political affairs, expressed frustration over the council's inaction and called for the resolution to be implemented, lamenting "that is not happening".

While diplomats at the UN wrangled over implementing the ceasefire, the regime was making a push for territory on the fringes of the besieged enclave.

A military officer at the deserted checkpoint said ground fighting on the edges of Eastern Ghouta, where most anti-regime fighters are deployed, may change the dynamic.

The Observatory said regime forces had made limited advances in Ghouta's Shaifuniyeh and Hosh al-Zawahira districts.

The head of the monitoring group said 38 regime and allied fighters were killed in three days of fighting in the Al-Marj area on the southern edge of the enclave.

At least 18 fighters from Jaish al-Islam, Eastern Ghouta's dominant anti-regime faction, were also killed, the Observatory's Abdel Rahman said.Violence in the Eastern Ghouta area near Damascus has sparked global outrage

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Wednesday that rebels in Syria's Eastern Ghouta were responsible for ensuring that a "humanitarian pause" in the area brings relief for devastated civilians.

"Russia, together with the Syrian government, has already announced the establishment of humanitarian corridors in Eastern Ghouta," Lavrov told the UN Human Rights Council.

The minister was referring to a checkpoint at the edge of the rebel-held enclave, through which would-be evacuees were told to exit the area.

"Now, it is the turn for the militants and their sponsors to act, militants entrenched there who still continue shelling Damascus, blocking aid deliveries and the evacuation of those wishing to leave," he added.

Tuesday was the first day of the five-hour daily "pause" in rebel-held Eastern Ghouta that was ordered by President Vladimir Putin, the Syrian regime's main backer.

But the truce was marred by violence, with Moscow and Damascus accusing armed groups of shelling the purported humanitarian corridors and keeping the population hostage.

Speaking to journalists, Lavrov charged that Washington and its allies in Syria had "willingly or unwillingly ... sustainably spared" the "terrorists" on the ground.

"We raised this issue with Washington many times and there is no credible answer," he said.

He insisted the five-hour daily pauses would be fruitful, "if the bandits who control East Ghouta so allow."

The Eastern Ghouta truce falls far short of a broader 30-day ceasefire Russia agreed to at the UN Security Council on Saturday but which has yet to take effect, and has inspired little trust among the besieged enclave's 400,000 residents.

- 'Decaying corpses' -

Lavrov said the Security Council resolution could offer reprieve to those suffering across Syria, but that the ball was in the court of the opposition and its allies in Washington.

In addition to the dire situation in Eastern Ghouta, Lavrov told the council that Moscow was calling upon the members of the US-led coalition to ensure "the same humanitarian access to the areas in Syria under their control."

Lavrov said it was the turn of the rebels to take action

He highlighted the plight of people in Raqa, which was the Islamic State group's de facto capital in Syria until it was liberated last October.

He told the council it was "necessary to urgently dispatch a joint United Nations-International Committee of the Red Cross assessment mission to Raqa, which has been bombed to rubble and left to the mercy of fate by the coalition."

Asked about the possibility for such an assessment mission, the ICRC stressed that addressing the humanitarian needs in Raqa was one of its priorities in Syria.

But when it comes to Lavrov's call for a joint assessment mission, the organisation prefered to work in a more "independent manner, so such a joint mission is not planned."

UN humanitarian agency spokesman Jens Laerke meanwhile told AFP that "in Raqa city, conditions remain unsafe for civilian returns" and that the UN estimates that any humanitarian response activities should advance "slowly and with caution."

The UN "has requested authorisation from the Syrian authorities for a security assessment to deploy to Raqa to better understand the security situation in the city," he said, adding that the request was "pending".

To journalists, Lavrov warned that in Raqa, "there are still corpses decaying in the streets. There is no water supply, no sanitary facilities, and the entire territory is mined."

Russia's top diplomat also called for the resumption of peace talks for Syria, where more than 340,000 people have been killed in seven years.Deadly train collision in Kom Hamada in Egypt

Two trains collided Wednesday in northern Egypt killing at least 12 people and injuring dozens of others, the health ministry said, the latest in a string of deadly rail accidents in the country.

Twelve people died and 39 were injured in the crash between a freight train and a passenger train at Kom Hamada in Behaira province, health ministry spokesman Khaled Mehaged told state television, updating an earlier casualty toll.

Footage aired by the state television showed at least two carriages had derailed in a rural stretch of land. Civilians and medics were seen removing injured passengers and carrying them to ambulances.

Health ministry official Alaa Othman told state television that all casualties had been removed from the scene of the accident.

The provincial governor Nadia Abdou told AFP that the crash happened at around 1045 GMT and that its cause was "unknown".

She pointed out that the ministry of transport and the national railways were in charge of the rail facilities in the region.

The state prosecutor announced that a team of investigators had been dispatched to probe the accident.

- String of deadly accidents -

While the cause of the crash remains unclear, it comes months after 41 people died in a train collision near the coastal city of Alexandria last August.

The train drivers who survived that accident were detained for questioning.

That was the deadliest train accident in Egypt since a November 2013 collision between a train and a bus killed 27 people south of Cairo.

It came a year after a train smashed into a bus carrying school children, killing 47 people.

That accident jolted the government which ordered an investigation and sacked the transport minister and the head of the railway authority.

It was blamed on a train signal operator who had fallen asleep on the job.

The probe, however, did not prevent further accidents. Months later a train carrying military conscripts derailed, killing 17 people.

Egyptians have long complained that the government has failed to deal with chronic transport problems, with roads as poorly maintained as railway lines.

The deadliest accident on Egypt's railways dates back to 2002 when 373 people died as a fire ripped through a crowded train south of the capital.

There have been many other fatal crashes on the busy rail network.

In July 2008, at least 44 people died near Marsa Matruh in northwest Egypt when a runaway truck hurtled into a bus and several other vehicles waiting at a level crossing, shunting them into the path of a train.

In August 2006, at least 58 Egyptians were killed and 144 injured in a collision between two trains travelling on the same track.

In the wake of that crash, an Egyptian court sentenced 14 railway employees to one year in prison for neglect.Saudi Arabia's powerful Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is to visit the United States from March 19-22, for the first time as heir to the throne, a Saudi government source told AFP on Wednesday.

The much anticipated trip to Washington will follow a visit to Britain on March 7 for talks with Prime Minister Theresa May.

US President Donald Trump hosted Prince Mohammed in March 2017, just weeks after taking office, and he chose Saudi Arabia for his first official overseas visit as president.

Prince Mohammed, who was named heir in June 2017, is also expected to visit France in the coming weeks.

The government source did not comment on Prince Mohammed's schedule in Washington.

Saudi Arabia has grown close to its longtime ally Washington under Trump, whose harder line on its arch-rival Iran and softer stance on arms sales are a welcome shift in policy for Riyadh.

Saudi Arabia viewed Trump's predecessor president Barack Obama as too accommodating towards Iran -- particularly on negotiating a 2015 nuclear deal.The Peace Research Institute of Oslo said in early February that US President Donald Trump's name was on the list of nominees for the Nobel Peace Prize

Has Donald Trump really been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize? The Norwegian Nobel Institute said Wednesday it had filed a police report after receiving a seemingly fraudulent nomination for the US president.

"We have good reason to believe that a nomination we received concerning Trump has been falsified," Nobel Institute director Olav Njolstad told AFP.

He refused to provide further details, saying police were now looking into the matter.

Each year, nominations for the Nobel Peace Prize must be submitted by January 31. Among those entitled to propose names are members of parliament and government, former laureates and some university professors.

While the list of candidates is kept secret for at least 50 years, those who nominate are however allowed to disclose their choice.

The Peace Research Institute of Oslo (Prio) said in early February that Trump's name was on the list.

Like last year, Trump was nominated for his "ideology of peace through strength" by an American who did not want his identity revealed, according to Prio, a body independent of the Nobel organisation which closely monitors the nominations revealed publicly.

It is possible that this nomination was submitted by a person suspected of committing identity fraud to appear eligible to nominate.

The Nobel Institute said it had received 329 valid nominations for the 2018 Peace Prize. The five members of the Nobel committee that selects the winner are also allowed to submit names during their first meeting of the year, which was held on Monday.

Congolese surgeon Denis Mukwege and Yazidi activist Nadia Murad, who both campaign against sexual violence, topped Prio's early shortlist.

"Although their experiences and practices differ greatly, there can be no doubt about the potency of their global advocacy work against sexual violence in conflict," director Henrik Urdal said on the Prio website.

Among the nominations made public so far is the so-called Umbrella Movement which called for democratic reform in Hong Kong in 2014, nominated by a bipartisan group of US congressmen.

Others include former French president Jacques Chirac, as well as the UNHCR, Pope Francis, the European Court of Human Rights, former intelligence contractor Edward Snowden, Syria's "White Helmets" rescue volunteers, Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta, the UN Committee Against Torture, Kurdish peshmarga fighters, and the pro-Palestinian BDS (Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions) Movement.

Last year's Peace Prize went to nuclear disarmament group ICAN for its decade-long campaign to rid the world of the atomic bomb.

It was a key player in the adoption of a historic nuclear weapons ban treaty, signed by 122 countries in July. However, the accord was largely symbolic as none of the nine known world nuclear powers signed up to it.

The name of the 2018 winner will be announced in early October.Staff and students return to Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School greeted by police and well wishers in Parkland, Florida on February 28, 2018

President Donald Trump has surprised lawmakers by embracing gun control measures that are tougher than usually supported by his party, as students returned to the site of America's latest horrific school shooting.

"We have to do something about it. We have to act," Trump said, voicing support for expanded background checks, more secure schools, curbs on the ability of the mentally ill to buy firearms and raising to 21 the age for buying certain guns.

"We can't wait and play games and nothing gets done," Trump said at a meeting with lawmakers from both parties.

At one point, he turned to a Republican senator and said: "You're afraid of the NRA," referring to the National Rifle Association, the premier and powerful US gun lobby.

"He surprised me," Democratic Senator Chris Murphy later told AFP. "He committed very forcefully and very clearly to comprehensive background checks, raising the age on purchase of assault weapons, and protective orders."

With tears, fears and defiance, students also made an emotional return Wednesday to their Florida high school where a former classmate went on a shooting rampage two weeks ago, killing 17 people.

Students at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland were greeted by heavy security and scores of well-wishers as they returned to classes.

Dozens of police officers lined the sidewalks saying "Good morning" to each child and retired officers passed out flowers. Former students, neighbors and their children held banners reading "We Love You," "You've Got This" and "We Are With You."

"It's all a little overwhelming," said one 17-year-old student named William, who shared a classroom with two of the young victims, Nicholas Dworet and Meadow Pollack.

"It was just sad to go back there and not have my friends who were in the class with me anymore."

Likewise, for Kimberly Miller, the first day back meant confronting the absence of her geography teacher, 35-year-old Scott Beigel.

Beigel was one of three staff killed, along with 14 teenagers, when former student Nikolas Cruz entered the school on Valentine's Day and opened fire with a semi-automatic rifle.

Police and well-wishers greet students of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School as classes resume, two weeks after a former student killed 17 people in a shooting rampage

"It's pretty upsetting," said the 14-year-old Miller. "But it was also refreshing to talk to everyone because people don't really understand how it feels, no matter how much they try to understand."

While there were few open displays of grief, many students looked somber, speaking in hushed tones with their eyes downcast.

Jonathan Abramchaev, 15, said it was "very emotional" to see his school again.

"Seeing all the flowers by the gate, that really hurt me," he told AFP. "Today we were just discussing and talking out our feelings."

- 'What happens when they go?' -

Some said they felt reassured -- if a little unsettled -- by the heavy police presence.

"I'm not scared," said Stoneman Douglas junior Sean Cummings. "I feel like it's more protected than any other school at this point.

Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School students provide emotional support as the school reopens two weeks after Nikolas Cruz, 19, killed 17 people

"But it's still weird to see everybody here and all these police officers," said the 16-year-old.

Others -- like senior Carly Novell -- said they were nervous to return.

"I'm really scared to go in," said Novell, who like many others wore a maroon T-shirt, the school colors.

Broward County school superintendent Robert Runcie said grief counselors were on hand for the day.

"We're going to provide as much support as we can," Runcie told CNN. "Students are excited. As a family, they're going to pull through it."

A 15-year-old named Alan said the shooting left him fearful -- even with his school under close watch by police.

"What happens when they go? In a couple of days or weeks when it gets back to normal? It may happen again," he said.

- 'We have to act' -

Since the shooting, Stoneman Douglas students have been lobbying politicians for stricter gun controls both in their home state of Florida and in Washington.

Republican lawmakers, with majorities in the US Congress and the Florida state legislature, have been cool on bringing in major reforms on the sales of firearms.

US President Donald Trump took a tough stance in a meeting with bipartisan lawmakers on gun control and school safety on February 28, 2018 at the White House

But Trump upped the pressure on lawmakers to get to work, hosting the bipartisan meeting at the White House where he raised eyebrows with his tough stance.

- 'Last father of a murdered kid' -

Pressure is also growing on businesses.

On Wednesday, Dick's Sporting Goods, a large chain store, announced it would immediately stop selling assault-style rifles and would not sell guns to anyone under the age of 21.

Dick's CEO Edward Stack said Cruz had purchased a shotgun at one of his stores in November and although it wasn't the gun used in the shooting, the chain would no longer sell semi-automatic weapons.

"Our view was if the kids can be brave enough to organize like this, we can be brave enough to take them out of here," Stack said.

Andrew Pollack -- the father of 18-year-old victim Meadow, accompanied by his therapy dog Sunny -- said he was determined to be the "face of the last father of a murdered kid."

"We need to make it that every kid in America, when he goes into a classroom, he knows he's safe," he said.Under fire again from President Donald Trump: US Attorney General Jeff Sessions

President Donald Trump blasted Attorney General Jeff Sessions Wednesday, labelling the country's top law enforcement official "disgraceful" over his handling of White House allegations of illegal wiretapping.

It was the second critical tweet in a week against Sessions, who reportedly submitted his resignation at least once last year after Trump insulted him.

Trump questioned Sessions' commitment to Republican demands that he investigate the use of so-called FISA national security warrants in 2016, when Barack Obama was president, to wiretap members of Trump's election campaign team over their contacts with Russia.

On Tuesday, Sessions said he had ordered the inspector general of the Justice Department to look into whether the highly secretive FISA warrant process was abused.

"Why is A.G. Jeff Sessions asking the Inspector General to investigate potentially massive FISA abuse," Trump asked in a tweet.

"Will take forever, has no prosecutorial power and already late with reports on Comey etc. Isn't the I.G. an Obama guy? Why not use Justice Department lawyers? DISGRACEFUL!" Trump said.

In a statement, Sessions fired back, calling his decision "the appropriate process" for complaints against the Justice Department.

"As long as I am the attorney general, I will continue to discharge my duties with integrity and honor, and this department will continue to do its work in a fair and impartial manner according to the law and Constitution," he said.

But Trump's broadside was a reminder that the president has been unhappy with his hand-picked attorney general since Sessions recused himself almost a year ago from a probe into possible Trump campaign collusion with Russian interference in the 2016 election.

The outbursts may reflect Trump's mounting fear or frustration as the investigation, led by independent special prosecutor Robert Mueller, focuses increasingly on the president's inner circle and possibly Trump himself.

Last week Trump took aim at the attorney general over the direction of that probe.

"Question: If all of the Russian meddling took place during the Obama Administration, right up to January 20th, why aren't they the subject of the investigation?" he wrote.

"Why aren't Dem[ocrat] crimes under investigation? Ask Jeff Sessions!" Trump wrote.

- Key administration figure -

AT odds: President Donald Trump(L)stands with Attorney General Jeff Sessions on December 15, 2017 at and FBI ceremony in Quantico, Virginia

Sessions's statement was possibly his toughest rebuff yet to criticism from the White House.

The former Alabama senator, 71, joined Trump's 2016 campaign early on.

Conservative and methodical, the former prosecutor has been a stalwart enforcer of keynote administration policies like cracking down on illegal immigration, violent gang crime and drugs, and installing conservative judges and prosecutors across the justice system.

But Trump has frequently targeted Sessions over Mueller's operation, which is also examining whether Trump has obstructed the Russia investigation.

Because he was part of the campaign, Sessions recused himself in March 2017 from overseeing the probe, infuriating Trump.

Former Trump chief of staff Reince Priebus said he had to convince Sessions at least once last year to rescind a decision to resign, and rescued him from being fired on two other occasions.

Priebus told Chris Whipple for his upcoming book "The Gatekeepers: How the White House Chiefs of Staff Define Every Presidency," that Sessions submitted his resignation in May 2017 after Trump called him an "idiot" in the Oval Office following Mueller's appointment.

Priebus and Vice President Mike Pence convinced Sessions to stay, and then persuaded Trump to reject the resignation letter, according to an excerpt of the book published in Vanity Fair.

Two months later, according to Priebus, Trump, frustrated over the Mueller probe, had to be talked out of firing Sessions, whom he had labelled "weak."

No favorite of Democrats, Sessions garnered support Wednesday nevertheless over his taut relations with the president.

"The fact that an independent investigation is a problem for this #POTUS sums up his failure to grasp how law enforcement is supposed to function in America," said Senator Pat Leahy, using an acronym for the president.US Marines participate in a ceremony at the Marine barracks in Washington in October

Three US Marines who were briefly hospitalized after a mysterious envelope was opened at a base near Washington were well enough to report for duty on Wednesday, a spokeswoman said.

Agents with the FBI and the Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS) were still examining the envelope and its contents, which arrived late Tuesday at Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall.

Shortly after receiving the letter, 11 people started to feel ill, the Marine Corps said.

Three of them were "transported in stable condition for further medical evaluations" to a local hospital.

Base spokeswoman Leah Rubalcaba told AFP the three Marines were back on duty early Wednesday and the affected headquarters building had been "cleared for repopulation."

She said the NCIS and FBI had not yet disclosed what might have been in the envelope.

CNN reported that a corporal, a gunnery sergeant and a colonel complained of a "burning sensation" on their hands and face.

Marine spokesman Major Brian Block said it was too soon to say whether the incident was being considered a terror attack.

"It's way too early to start speculating on any of that, we have to wait and let the investigators do their jobs," Block told AFP.

Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall overlooks Arlington Cemetery just across the Potomac River from Washington.

Its status as a joint base means it has Navy, Marine Corps and Army commands.Syrian civil defence volunteers pray over the body of a victim who died in a building collapse following reported regime bombardment in Haza, in the besieged Eastern Ghouta region on February 26, 2018

In Syria's rebel-held Eastern Ghouta enclave, the bombs have stopped falling from the sky but the dead are still being raised from the rubble.

In the town of Hazeh, volunteers from the Syrian Civil Defence known as the "White Helmets" pull one body from the basement of a collapsed home. And minutes later, a second one.

"It's carnage down there," says Ali Bakr, a young man looking on with other residents. "People hide underground to shelter from the strikes but even that doesn't guarantee you're safe."

Syrian regime forces, backed by Russia's military, intensified their bombardment of Eastern Ghouta on February 18, carrying out one of the bloodiest assaults of the country's seven-year war.

More than 600 civilians have been killed in 10 days of air strikes, barrel bombs dropped from helicopters and rocket fire on the area, which is controlled by Islamist and jihadist groups.

Now the death toll keeps rising as rescuers take advantage of a lull to unearth bodies still trapped in the rubble, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based war monitor.

Most residents moved their most basic belongings to basements and stayed there all day as a deluge of fire turned the enclave's scattering of towns into fields of ruins.

On Monday, Russia announced a daily "humanitarian pause" as international calls for a ceasefire mounted.

The measure falls short of a multilateral deal allowing for a solution to the dire humanitarian condition of Eastern Ghouta's estimated 400,000 residents.

A daily "humanitarian pause" announced by Russia has allowed rescuers to search for suvivors and bodies in the rubble of buildings destroyed in the bombardment of Syria's Eastern Ghouta

But it offered some respite to residents who had been cowering underground for days, as well as to rescuers who had been unable to search for survivors and bodies in the rubble.

Near the same building in Hazeh, 60-year-old Abu Mohamed is waiting for rescuers to find his daughter, who has been missing since February 20.

- Entire families -

Residents say 21 people were hiding in the same basement, and rescuers using very basic tools to pick through structures that were completely flattened have been coming back every day but making slow progress.

"I left my daughter in the basement with her husband and his family," says the man with a bushy white beard.

"I came back the next morning, I found the building collapsed and until now I haven't found my daughter nor her husband's family," he says.

He looks on anxiously as Mohammed, one of the White Helmets, lowers himself into the wreckage through a tiny gap between two slabs of concrete.

The volunteer painstakingly clears the way to search deeper into the basement by hoisting buckets filled with dust and rocks back to the surface.

A Syrian man cycles past destroyed buildings in the rebel-held town of Hamouria, in the besieged Eastern Ghouta region on the outskirts of Damascus

"Over the past few days, we managed to retrieve six people but the rest of the bodies are still buried," says the 27-year-old, who wears a headscarf over his surgical mask to in a bid to block the smell of decomposing bodies.

According to the United Nations, housing in the besieged enclave has suffered 76 percent damage.

As one building after the other was levelled by the strikes, families and neighbours moved in together, sometimes pitching tents on the damp soil of basements to battle the cold.

"In Haza, several buildings collapsed and entire families were trapped under the rubble, with Civil Defence teams unable to reach everyone because of the bombardment," says Siraj Mahmud, a local White Helmets spokesman.

A room in a nearby building that is still standing has been turned into a temporary morgue where the rescuers laid the two bodies they just pulled out, wrapped in brown blankets.

The bodies are later placed in black plastic sheets and interred. Prayers are said hastily because warplanes are back in the sky.Fromer Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort has entered a not guilty plea to charges of money laundering and illegal lobbying, setting up the first trial in September in the sprawling Russia election meddling investigation

Former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort pleaded not guilty Wednesday to charges of money laundering, illegal lobbying and lying, setting up the first trial in the Russia meddling probe led by independent counsel Robert Mueller.

The new plea in the Washington federal district court was required after prosecutors added new charges against him last week. First made public on October 30, the indictment was revised again after Manafort's former partner, Richard Gates, entered a guilty plea, promising to cooperate with Mueller's investigation.

Manafort, 68, is accused of laundering some $75 million in relation to his and Gates' work for Russia-backed former Ukraine president Viktor Yanukovych between about 2006 and 2014.

He is also charged with acting as a lobbyist for Yanukovych's government without registering with the Justice Department, and related charges.

A trial was scheduled to begin on September 17.

A long-time Washington and international political consultant, Manafort became President Donald Trump's election campaign chairman in June 2016 and made Gates his deputy.

Manafort stepped down two months later over the Ukraine investigation, but Gates remained on the campaign and worked for Trump through the transition period after Trump's November 2016 election viictory.

On Friday, Gates pleaded guilty to much-reduced charges of fraud and lying and promising to cooperate fully with Mueller's sprawling probe into whether the Trump campaign colluded with Russians to illegally interfere with the election.

Mueller, who is also examining whether Trump sought to obstruct his probe, has now obtained guilty pleas and promises to cooperate from three former Trump aides.

Manafort also faces separate charges for bank fraud and tax evasion that were filed Friday by Mueller's team in a Virginia court. Parallel charges against Gates were dropped.

Manafort was defiant, refusing to cut a deal.

"Notwithstanding that Rick Gates pled today, I continue to maintain my innocence," he said Friday 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."Iranian women wearing hijab walk down a street in the capital Tehran on February 7, 2018

Iran's vice president for women's affairs insisted Wednesday the government opposed using "force" to ensure women wear the hijab, after a spate of protests stirred debate over the mandatory headscarf.

Massoumeh Ebtekar told a press conference in Tehran that every country has a dress code: "There is no city in the world where you can walk naked in the streets and you won't be approached by a particular regulatory body."

She said Iran's hijab laws -- which require women to wear a headscarf and long coat, as well as banning shorts for men -- were a "social regulation".

"Our position is that it's a regulation but the use of force -- we don't go along with that type of enforcement," she said.

"That is contrary to the basic principles and philosophy that the government of (President Hassan) Rouhani follows."

Her comments follow a string of protests, mostly in Tehran, in which more than a dozen woman have stood in main thoroughfares without their headscarves.

The women risk prison sentences of up to two months for not wearing the headscarf, but up to 10 years if they are found to be encouraging others.

Tehran police chief Hossein Rahimi took a rather tougher line than Ebtekar earlier this week, telling the conservative Fars news agency that Islamic laws were "obligatory for all citizens".

"These people will be firmly dealt with by the police," he said.

He was responding to widespread criticism on social media after a video showed an officer shoving one of the women protesters off a plinth.

"We have reminded our officers to comply with legal requirements when dealing with all people," said Rahimi.

In practice clothing rules have been steadily eroding for years, with many women wearing loose and colourful headscarves and letting them drop entirely, particularly in wealthier areas.

Since Rouhani came to power in 2013, the presence of the morality police who enforced clothing rules has been greatly reduced.

Ebtekar said the government needs "this dialogue" with the younger generation, which no longer shares the same values as those who grew up during the 1979 revolution.

But she defended Iran's record on female empowerment, saying the Islamic republic had brought "true advancement" for women in higher education, politics and sports.

Iranian society is generally freer for women than many conservative Islamic countries, but activists complain they are still under-represented in government, particularly after Rouhani again failed to appoint a single female minister last summer.

Women also have less weight than men in Iran's Islamic legal system, including less right to inheritance and a ban on leaving the country without male permission.Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is undertaking a four-nation African tour to ramp up Turkey's growing influence throughout the continent

Recep Tayyip Erdogan landed in Mauritania on Wednesday flanked by businessmen and primed to sign several cooperation deals in the first visit by a Turkish president to Nouakchott.

Erdogan is undertaking a four-nation African tour to ramp up Turkey's growing influence throughout the continent, where it is heavily involved in energy and construction.

The Turkish leader, who arrived from Algeria, was met at the airport by Mauritanian President Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz and was expected to seal the accords at the West African leader's palace before the two men dine together.

He will leave this evening for Senegal, Mauritania's more liberal and more populous neighbour, before heading to Mali on Friday.

An infrequent visitor to Europe as ties with the West strained, Erdogan has made repeated visits to Africa since becoming president in 2014.

Turkey currently has 41 embassies in Africa, up from 12 in 2009, and wants to eventually have top-level representation in all 54 nations on the continent, according to state media.

Aside from bolstering trade and political ties, a major priority for Erdogan has been to stamp out the influence of a network run by Fethullah Gulen, the preacher exiled in the US whom Ankara blames for a failed coup in 2016.

Gulen ran a network of schools on the continent, including in Nouakchott, which were closed on the orders of the Turkish state 18 months ago.

A Turkish government-run school has since opened in the Mauritanian capital.Pakistani paramilitary soldiers patrol near the site of an attack in Quetta on February 14, 2018

A suicide bomber killed four soldiers in the southwestern Pakistani city of Quetta and a gunman shot dead two policemen in a separate attack in the restive province on Wednesday, officials said.

Quetta is the capital of Balochistan, a province bordering Iran and Afghanistan where police and troops have been battling Islamist militants and separatist groups for more than a decade.

"Four soldiers were martyred and two others were wounded when a suicide bomber blew himself up at a checkpoint in the outskirts of city," a paramilitary force spokesman told AFP.

Bomb disposal officials said that the bomber had strapped about eight to 10 kilograms of explosives on his body.

Separately, a gunman ambushed a police vehicle and shot dead two policemen, also in Quetta city, senior police official Abdul Razzaq Cheema told AFP.

A senior police official was travelling with his family in the vehicle but they escaped unharmed, he said.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attacks.

The mineral-rich Balochistan is the largest of the country's four provinces but its roughly seven million people have long argued they do not get a fair share of its vast gas and mineral wealth.Facebook's job listings feature has gotten so popular that the social media giant is expanding it internationally.

The firm said on Wednesday that its job-hunting service is expanding to 40 more countries in the next few weeks, including the UK, Italy, Spain, Argentina and Brazil.

Facebook introduced jobs listings in the US and Canada last year.

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Facebook announced on Wednesday that it's bringing its jobs listings feature to 40 more countries in the next few weeks, including the UK, Italy, Spain, Argentina and Brazil

Since then, the service has grown in popularity and in scale, Facebook vice president Alex Himel wrote in a blog post.

In a survey of 5,000 adults, one in four people in the US said they searched for or found a job using Facebook.

Facebook has enhanced it to handle tasks such as managing applications, scheduling interviews, and getting alerts when desired types of positions are listed.

Jobs can be listed, or applied for, at a 'dashboard' devoted to the purpose in Facebook applications.

Facebook users can filter their results based on local jobs, job categories and job type.

The job platform can't show any other information on a user's profile aside from what is made public by the user.

Use of the basic service is free, but businesses can pay to 'boost' posts and more strongly target candidates, according to the Silicon Valley-based social network.

Job posts appear in several locations at the social network, including business pages, Marketplace, and in News Feed.

HOW CAN YOU ACCESS FACEBOOK'S JOBS FEATURE? Facebook first rolled out its jobs board to users in the US and Canada last year. The firm is now expanding the service to 40 more countries. In the coming weeks, it'll be available in the UK, Spain, Italy, Argentina and Brazil. Here's how to search for and apply to a job: Navigate to your News Feed

On the side of the page, there's a section titled 'Explore,' which has options to click on 'Events,' 'Pages' and 'Groups,' among other things

Click on the option for 'Jobs'

From there, you can specify based on location, industry and job type Users can apply for jobs on Facebook via a 'dashboard' that lists open positions. Businesses can review applications on the site, as well as schedule interviews and manage applications Advertisement

Himel declined to specify to AFP how many job postings were listed with Facebook.

According to Statistic.com, Facebook's audience in the US totals about 214 million people, meaning that roughly 53 million people there sought jobs at the social network.

With more than two billion users around the world, Facebook promises strong potential for connecting people seeking work with open jobs, especially medium- or low-skill jobs in local enterprises.

'A lot of these businesses who aren't able to fill their positions elsewhere, they're seeing success on Facebook,' Himel said.

Facebook's job service wades into the terrain of career-focused social network LinkedIn, which Microsoft bought two years ago in a deal valued at $26 billion.

But LinkedIn is seen as an online venue for professionals to cultivate connections and opportunities whereas Facebook's job service appeared crafted for positions requiring less schooling or specialized training.

LinkedIn typically helps connect people with jobs that require skilled or highly skilled labor.

Google rolled out a similar jobs listing feature last June that serves up help-wanted listings that it finds on the internet.

The feature also shows the typical commute time for each job.A United Nations and Syrian Red Crescent inter-agency aid convoy, seen arriving in Utaya, in the Syrian rebel enclave of Eastern Ghouta, on February 14, 2018

About 40 trucks are loaded and ready to ferry relief supplies to Syria's bomb-and-siege shattered Eastern Ghouta, but there has been no let up in fighting despite a UN ceasefire resolution, a top UN official said Wednesday.

Mark Lowcock, the UN under secretary-general for humanitarian affairs, said there has been no change in the situation around the rebel-held enclave in the Damascus suburbs despite a ceasefire resolution Saturday.

"When will your resolution be implemented?" he asked, staring fixedly at members of the UN Security Council, who listened in complete silence.

Lowcock said trucks loaded with supplies have been poised to go to 10 besieged areas including Douma, the main town in the enclave, since Saturday.

But he said there has been no access for humanitarian convoys, nor authorization by the regime to go into the besieged areas, nor medical evacuations since the Security Council resolution was passed, he said.

On the contrary, the bombings have continued, and deaths and wounded have mounted, he said, speaking at a monthly Security Council meeting devoted to the Syrian conflict.

The US representative Kelley Currie accused the Syrian regime of violating the ceasefire, while Russian Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia accused the rebels.

Carl Skau, the deputy Swedish ambassador to the United Nations, demanded "immediate access" for the humanitarian aid. "There is no time to lose," he said.

Before the meeting began, French ambassador Francois Delattre recalled that the rebels in Ghouta had said Tuesday they were ready to observe a ceasefire, but the Syrian regime has given no sign it is ready to do the same.

"It is the collective credibility of the Security Council and the responsibility of each of its members that today is heavily at stake in the Syrian drama," he said.

Jeffrey Feltman, UN under secretary-general for political affairs, expressed frustration over the council's inaction.

"What we need is implementation of (resolution) 2401 and that is not happening," he said.

After a night of intense fighting on the periphery of Eastern Ghouta, Syrian aviation early Wednesday bombed several localities in the rebel enclave, where an estimated 600 civilians have died since February 18, about a quarter of them children, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.A man in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, talks to police in riot gear as they wait in an alley after a second night of clashes between protestors and police in August 2016 after police shot and killed a man armed with a pistol

Jurors in the US state of Wisconsin were unable to reach a verdict Wednesday in the trial of a female police officer who shot an unarmed man in the back after a brief scuffle.

Officer Devon Kraemer was charged with shooting a 28-year-old man without warning in a Milwaukee suburb, after he had been escorted off a bus for complaining about the bus fare and struggled with police as he was put to the ground to be handcuffed.

The case had the same racial undertones as several recent high-profile police shootings -- the officer is white and the person who was shot is African American.

Two days of arson and civil unrest took place in Milwaukee in August 2016 after police shot and killed another African American suspect, who in that case was armed with a pistol.

He was one of 963 shot and killed by lawmen in the United States that year, according to a data base maintained by The Washington Post.

In the latest Wisconsin case, Manuel Burnley survived the shooting and testified that Kraemer's fellow officer had used a racial epithet before he was shot, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel newspaper.

After a two-week trial and testimony from experts about the March 2016 shooting in a Milwaukee suburb, a hung jury resulted when the panel could not reach agreement on the officer's guilt, according to US media reports.

Kraemer testified that after Burnley was taken off a city bus for belligerent behavior, he fought with officers and Kraemer feared he was reaching for one of the officers' guns, according to the Journal Sentinel.

Burnley contradicted that testimony, saying he was not resisting, while policing experts were divided over whether the officer's actions were appropriate, according to the newspaper.

US prosecutors have had difficulty securing convictions against officers accused of wrongful shootings, with trials resulting most often in hung juries or acquittals, which at times have caused civil unrest in American cities.Actor Timothee Chalamet arrives for the screening of "Call Me By Your Name" in 2017

Tunisia's ministry of culture has banned the Oscar-nominated film "Call Me By Your Name", a love story between two men, one of its main distributors said on Wednesday.

The feature film was due to be screened on Wednesday night in the capital Tunis but the venue announced on Facebook that the event had been "cancelled".

It was "banned," the distributor Lassaad Goubantini told AFP, denouncing the decision as "an attack on liberties" motivated by "the subject of the film".

A story of love between a 17-year-old and an older man, "Call Me By Your Name" has been nominated for best picture at the 90th Academy Awards to be handed out on Sunday.

AFP was unable to reach the culture ministry to confirm the reported ban on Wednesday.

"We filed an application for authorisation with the ministry of culture," said Goubantini.

"We even proposed a viewing in exceptional circumstances before the screening to know if it would go ahead or not, (but) we were refused a permit."

Such a ban "is contrary to the Tunisian constitution", added the distributor.

Long taboo in Tunisia, homosexuality is finally emerging from the shadows in the conservative Muslim nation.

But homosexuality is still a crime that can result in lengthy prison sentences.

Last year the North African country banned "Wonder Woman", whose main actor is an Israeli, following a complaint from the nationalist Al-Chaab party.Jared Kushner, who is married to the president's daughter Ivanka Trump, has been a key figure in the administration of his father-in-law, entrusted among other things with finding a peace deal between Israelis and Palestinians

New York state has asked three banks to supply information about their relationships with the real estate business of Jared Kushner, a senior White House advisor and President Donald Trump's son-in-law, a source said Wednesday.

Maria Vullo, Superintendent of the Department of Financial Services (DFS), sent letters last week to Deutsche Bank, Signature Bank and New York Community Bank asking for details on their financial arrangements as well as loans made to or sought by Kushner Companies, the source told AFP.

The lenders were given until March 5 to respond.

The DFS has refused to comment on the matter, as has Deutsche Bank.

But Kushner Companies said the inquiries were politically motivated and amounted to harassment.

"We have not received a copy of any letter from the New York State Department of Financial Services," a spokesman said.

"Our company is a multi-billion enterprise that is extremely financially strong. Prior to our CEO voluntarily resigning to serve our country, we never had any type of inquiries.

"These type of inquiries appear to be harassment solely for political reasons."

- Conflicts of interest? -

Also on Wednesday, The New York Times reported Kushner Companies received major loans from Apollo Global Management, one of the world's largest private equity firms, and Citigroup, shortly after Kushner held White House meetings with representatives from the two companies.

The paper quoted Don Fox, the former acting director of the Office of Government Ethics during the Obama administration, as saying the loans raised questions about the appearance of conflicts of interest.

Kusher met Joshua Harris, a founder of Apollo, multiple times over the course of 2017 and even discussed a potential White House position which never materialized, the paper said.

In November 2017, the firm loaned Kushner Companies $184 million -- triple the size of its average property loan.

He also met Citigroup's chief executive in the spring of 2017, Michael L. Corbat, shortly before Kushner Companies received a $325 million loan from the firm, the Times reported.

The White House referred questions to Mr. Kushner's lawyer, Abbe Lowell, whom the paper said did not dispute that the meetings took place, but denied any impropriety.

Kushner, who is married to the president's daughter Ivanka Trump, has been a key figure in the administration of his father-in-law, entrusted among other things with finding a peace deal between Israelis and Palestinians.

A Harvard graduate with a law degree from New York University, Kushner took the reins of his family business before announcing in January 2017 -- just ahead of his appointment to the Trump administration -- that he was stepping down from his management role.

While Jared Kushner voluntarily left high-level positions in more than 200 entities related to his family's real estate empire, he still retains shares in most of these companies from which he is likely able to derive income, according to documents published by the White House in April 2017.

It is not the first time Kushner's business interests, which include real estate assets in the states of New York and New Jersey, have been in the spotlight.

In May 2017, the company was forced to apologize for mentioning Jared Kushner during a presentation of one of its projects to a group of Chinese investors, in a possible breach of conflict of interest rules.MIAMI (AP) - The man responsible for a shooting at a Florida Zombie-themed festival more than two years ago was arrested Monday, police said.

Jose Raul Bonilla, 23, faces a second-degree murder charge, along with five counts of aggravated battery with a firearm and one count of tampering with evidence, Fort Myers police Capt. Jay Rodriguez said.

Zombicon was one of the most popular celebrations in southwest Florida, attracting about 20,000 people in October 2015. The event was winding down when authorities say Bonilla started shooting into the downtown crowd.

Expavious Tyrell Taylor, 20, died at the scene, while David Perez, 22; Tyree Hunter, 20; Isaiah Knight, 18; Kyle Roberts, 20; and John Parsons, 31, were wounded.

The city paid $40,000 to settle a lawsuit with Taylor's estate last September. Roberts and Tyree received $7,499 each from the city last January.

Taylor's grandmother, Estella Wilson, said she was glad to hear about the arrest.

"It's a whole lot of burden lifted up off us. I'm very, very happy they found him," Wilson said. "I know it's not going to bring my grandson back, but we know now what happened."

Wilson said she feels some relief knowing her grandson's suspected killer is locked up. For more than two years, she wasn't sure if the rest of her family were targets.

"It's hard when you got to look over your shoulder because you never know where a person is at," Wilson said. "We don't know why he (Bonilla) shot him (Taylor)."

The FBI began helping Fort Myers police shortly after the deadly event. Police weren't immediately releasing a motive for the shooting or what specifically led to Bonilla's arrest, but Rodriguez said investigators interviewed hundreds of witnesses. Police also released multiple images from surveillance video to the public and continually asked for tips through the region's Crime Stoppers program.

Even though police have made an arrest, Rodriguez said detectives are still collecting evidence and want anyone with information about the shooting to contact them.

The city cut ties with Zombicon organizers shortly after the shooting, ending the event's nine-year run.

Jail records didn't list an attorney for Bonilla.ST. LOUIS (AP) - A man convicted of invasion of privacy 19 years ago is asking Gov. Eric Greitens for a pardon, using the same argument that Greitens' lawyers are using in the effort to dismiss the governor's own felony indictment.

In 1999, Paul Henreid was convicted of invasion of privacy in St. Louis for secretly filming sex partners. Henreid's attorney, Al Watkins, said Monday that it would be "hypocritical" for Greitens to reject the pardon request.

"What's good for the governor should be good for the gander," Watkins said.

Several email, text and phone messages left with spokespeople for Greitens were not immediately returned.

A St. Louis grand jury last week indicted the Republican governor on invasion of privacy. Greitens is accused of taking a compromising photo without permission of the woman with whom he was having an extramarital affair in 2015, before he was elected governor.

Henreid's trial attorneys argued that the law was aimed at "peeping Toms," not someone engaged in a consensual relationship.

Greitens' attorneys made a similar argument in the motion to dismiss, writing that the law "applies to situations such as voyeurs or peeping toms who take photographs in locations such as restrooms, tanning beds, locker rooms, changing rooms, and bedrooms. The law does not apply to the participants in sexual activity."

Henreid was a law student and male stripper at the time of his indictment and went by the last name Henroid at the time. He is now a lawyer and documentary filmmaker living in Walnut Creek, California. Watkins, his attorney, also represents the ex-husband of the woman who had the affair with Greitens.

The woman said in audio secretly recorded by her then-husband in March 2015 that Greitens took a photo without her consent during a sexual encounter in the basement of his St. Louis home, and threatened blackmail if she ever spoke about the affair.

Greitens has denied blackmail but has declined to say if he took a photo.

Henreid was initially indicted on four counts: Invasion of privacy, promoting child pornography, possession of child pornography and child abuse. The child porn and abuse charges alleged that the victim was 17 at the time of filming.

He eventually pleaded guilty to the invasion of privacy charge, and the other counts were dismissed. He was sentenced to 30 days of shock jail time.

Washington University law professor Peter Joy said Henreid's guilty plea after the other charges were dropped offers a distinction between the two cases.

"But still, what he pled to is what's been alleged to occur with the governor," Joy said. "So for consistency's sake, one would think the pardon would be granted. But no one should ever make assumptions about politicians being consistent."WASHINGTON (AP) - The Trump administration is opening talks with Saudi Arabia on a potentially lucrative atomic energy agreement that's inextricably linked to an Obama-era nuclear deal with Iran. At stake: Billions of dollars in contracts for U.S. companies and bigger questions about America's ability to keep friend and foe alike from reaching nuclear weapons capability.

Energy Secretary Rick Perry will lead an interagency U.S. delegation to talks with the Saudis in London on Friday, two administration officials and three outside advisers said. The meeting comes as the Arab powerhouse explores a civilian nuclear energy program, possibly without restrictions on uranium enrichment and reprocessing that would be required under a U.S. cooperation deal.

But there's a catch: The Saudis have indicated they might accept such curbs if a separate nuclear deal with its arch-foe Iran is tightened, according to the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren't authorized to speak publicly on the matter.

FILE - In this Sept. 18, 2017, file photo, U.S. Energy Secretary Rick Perry delivers a speech during the general conference of the International Atomic Energy Agency, IAEA, in Vienna, Austria. The Trump administration is opening talks with Saudi Arabia on a potentially lucrative atomic energy agreement that's inextricably linked to an Obama-era nuclear deal with Iran. Perry will lead an interagency U.S. delegation to talks with the Saudis in London on Friday, March 2, 2018, two administration officials and three outside advisers said. (AP Photo/Ronald Zak, File)

The separate negotiations, over Saudi and Iranian nuclear capabilities, put American officials in the middle of the great balance-of-power of the modern Middle East. The Saudis are loath to sign away their ability to move closer to bomb-making capability while Iran is bound by a 2015 nuclear accord that will become increasingly lenient next decade.

When President Barack Obama blessed the nuclear compromise with Tehran, his officials insisted they weren't weakening nonproliferation standards for everyone else. But that difficult task has fallen to President Donald Trump. And the Saudis, among his closest allies, are now asking a simple question: If Iran can enrich, why can't we?

"Our objective is we want to have the same rights as other countries," Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir said this month at a security conference in Munich.

At issue on Perry's trip is what's known as a "123 agreement." Without one, U.S. nuclear energy firms like Westinghouse would lose out on business opportunities with the Saudis. American officials and outside advisers said the Saudis have dangled the prospect of such contracts if new restrictions are imposed on Iran's nuclear activity.

Trump shares many of the Saudi concerns over the Iran deal, which he's called the worst ever and repeatedly threatened to walk away from. In January, he vowed he wouldn't issue more waivers of U.S. sanctions - an Iran deal requirement - unless it's amended to prevent Tehran from gradually resuming a variety of currently banned nuclear activities.

Such talks, primarily with Europe, are thus taking on added importance ahead of a mid-May deadline for more Trump waivers.

Trump has identified four specific problems that must be addressed, including two not covered by the deal: Expiration dates on some nuclear restrictions, inspection rules for Iranian military sites, ballistic missile work and Iranian activity in countries around the Middle East - where it has helped Syria's government in a civil war and aided Yemeni rebels in another.

A team led by the State Department's policy planning chief Brian Hook has met twice recently with European officials, in London last month and Paris last week. It's seeking Europe's commitment to re-impose sanctions with the U.S. if Iran violates a new set of nuclear restrictions. A third meeting is set for Berlin in March.

British, French and German official have been receptive to the ideas, according to the U.S. officials and advisers. The focus is on a supplemental agreement addressing Trump's concerns without unravelling the original Iran deal, padded by European promises to consider tougher responses and sanctions for Iranian missile activity, support for Hezbollah and other non-nuclear matters.

As it is now, Iran can use thousands of centrifuges and enrich uranium, albeit to levels far short of weapons-grade material. Under 123 agreements, foreign countries can buy U.S. nuclear technology and the nuclear know-how that comes with it if they agree not to enrich uranium and reprocess plutonium. Both can be used for nuclear weapons fuel.

The irony that an agreement designed to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon lets it do more than its rivals isn't lost on Saudi Arabia - or other countries that have voluntarily limited the scope of their programs. At least 23 countries have such agreements with Washington, including South Korea, South Africa and Vietnam.

The United Arab Emirates entered into a 123 agreement with the U.S. in 2009, one of the strictest ever reached. When the Iran deal was reached, the Emirati ambassador to Washington told Congress his country "no longer felt bound" by provisions preventing the UAE from enriching.

While Trump has aggressively courted the Saudi government, seeing the Sunni-led powerhouse as a bulwark against Shiite Iran, there is near universal agreement among national security experts that allowing any country to introduce nuclear weapons in the volatile Middle East would be a terrible idea. Currently, the only Mideast country believed to possess a nuclear arsenal is Israel.

But there are also concerns a U.S.-Saudi disagreement will lead the kingdom to turn to U.S. rivals Russia and China, whose state-owned nuclear companies are competing to build reactors in Saudi Arabia. That would give the United States even less insight into Saudi Arabia's nuclear activities in the future.

The overlapping issues have Iran deal opponents insisting tougher rules on Iran is the easiest solution.

"A fix puts the administration in a much better position with the Saudis," said Mark Dubowitz of the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies. "It's a critical step in demanding adherence to the 'gold standard' as opposed to the Iran standard."NEWTON, Mass. (AP) - Former U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is making an appearance at Boston College.

Ban was South Korea's foreign minister before serving 10 years as U.N. chief. He's scheduled to speak Tuesday on "human welfare and global citizenship."

Ban told the U.N. Security Council last week that the "current reconciliatory atmosphere" between North and South Korea that began during the 2018 Winter Olympics must be kept alive. He called on the U.S. to play a role by engaging with North Korea.

FILE - In this Wednesday, June 28, 2017, file photo, former United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon addresses an audience during a forum at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum in Boston. Ban is scheduled to speak at Boston College, Tuesday, Feb. 27, 2018, on "human welfare and global citizenship." (AP Photo/Steven Senne, File)

At Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, on Monday, Ban expressed optimism about recent dialogue between North and South Korea and added that another war in the region is "unacceptable and unthinkable."

He said President Donald Trump has been sending a "loud and clear message" to North Korea.West Virginia's teachers are refusing to go to school for a fourth day Tuesday in protest of pay that is among the lowest in the nation.

Such statewide strikes are unusual but not unprecedented - West Virginia teachers last walked out in 1990. Most teacher labor disputes start and end at the district level, where teacher salaries are more typically set. The strike in West Virginia has closed schools in all 55 counties.

As the state's labor unions and lawmakers hash out their differences, here is a look at how teacher pay is decided, what it looks like across states, the legal dilemma teachers face in walking out and why it all matters, especially amid teacher shortages felt by schools around the country:

Teachers John and Kerry Guerini of Fayetteville, West Virginia, hold signs at a rally at the state Capitol in Charleston, W.Va., Monday, Feb. 26, 2018. Teachers across West Virginia will continue a walkout over pay and benefits for a fourth day. (AP Photo/John Raby)

___

Q: Why are West Virginia teachers taking up their fight with Republican Gov. Jim Justice and the state Legislature?

A: West Virginia is one of 17 states that use teacher salary schedules, which put state legislatures in charge of setting the pay scale for teachers. In the face of limited or no collective bargaining at the local level, the idea is to make sure that teachers are paid fairly no matter where in the state they teach, which makes it easier for districts to retain their employees.

___

Q: How much do teachers earn?

A: That depends on where they teach - and it varies widely. The U.S. Education Department's data show that the average annual salary for K-12 teachers ranged from $42,668 (South Dakota) to $79,637 (New York) in the 2016-17 school year. West Virginia's average of $45,701 put it near the bottom. Educators there say they have no choice but to consider working in neighboring states that pay significantly more, including Maryland, where the average salary is $66,961, and Ohio, where teachers are paid an average of $57,000. The teachers say the governor's proposal for minimal raises will not make up for years of stagnant salaries and rising health care costs.

___

Q: How big of a factor is pay in the teacher shortages that districts are facing? The Education Commission of the States in 2016 reported that fewer high school graduates are going to college to become teachers and those who do enter the profession often leave it. Math and special education teachers are in especially short supply.

A: Compensation is a big part of the profession's challenges, but not the only one, National Education Association Vice President Becky Pringle said. Policies around standardized testing continue to dampen the joy around teaching, she said, along with proposals to lower standards so that people other than highly trained professionals can teach.

"We don't go into the profession for the big bucks," Pringle said. "We go into the profession because we love children, we love students and we want to try to do our best to make a difference in their lives and help them be successful. But we do also have our own families, ourselves, to take care of so salaries and benefits, the compensation of teachers is a huge part of whether or not, not only can we attract teachers but can we retain them."

___

Q: Can teachers legally go on strike?

A: The rules vary among states. At least half of all states prohibit public employees from going on strike while other states allow strikes under certain circumstances. West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey said last week that the teachers' work stoppage there was unlawful and the governor has not ruled out seeking a court injunction to force the teachers back to work.

___

Q: Are teachers in other states dissatisfied to the point they may follow West Virginia's lead and walk out?

A: Teachers in Oklahoma last week floated the idea of a walkout to get the attention of lawmakers who are considering cuts to public schools after failing to reach a deal on tax increases that would have given teachers a $5,000 pay raise. On Monday, the Pittsburgh teacher's union said its members would go on strike for the first time in 40 years unless an agreement could be reached on issues including smaller class sizes. St. Paul, Minnesota, teachers narrowly averted a strike earlier this month after negotiations went down to the wire.

Teachers and their unions all over the country are fed up with salaries that have not kept pace with other professions and the erosion of benefits, Pringle said.NEW YORK (AP) - Nearly two dozen times, Francesca Rossi called law enforcement to complain that an ex-boyfriend was harassing her online, posting nude images of her, sending notes to her bosses that she had a sexually transmitted disease and making it appear she was running guns and trafficking in child pornography.

But they couldn't make it stop and couldn't even make an arrest for almost a year, until the man set off a national panic by posing as Rossi to make bomb threats against Jewish centers across the country. That turned it into a major federal case that ended with her tormentor, Juan Thompson, arrested within days and eventually sentenced to five years in prison.

Rossi spoke to The Associated Press in her first interview since the criminal case ended in December.

FILE - This undated file photo provided by the Warren County Sheriff's Department in Warrenton, Mo., shows Juan Thompson. Thompson, a former journalist who admitted cyberstalking ex-girlfriend Francesca Rossi and terrorizing Jewish groups with bomb threats, was sentenced Dec. 20, 2017, to five years in prison. Rossi says that she complained of Thompson's online threats for nearly a year and feared he would kill her. Experts say the case demonstrates that law enforcement has a long way to go. (Warren County Sheriff's Department via AP, File)

"It went on for months. I thought I was going to die and no one could help me," Rossi said. "In the end, the only way that my abuse was legitimized is because he went after such a large community of people, and because there was so much hysteria over it."

Police officials didn't comment on Rossi's criticism, except to say her case was closed due to insufficient evidence to support a charge.

___

A GROWING CRIME

Legal and policing experts say her experience is an extreme example of how law enforcement is ill-equipped to handle the growing threat of online crime, even though laws have recently been passed in 38 states addressing cyberstalking and revenge porn.

"The response by and large is: Ignore it and turn off your computer," said Danielle Citron, a University of Maryland law professor and author of "Hate Crimes in Cyberspace."

Four in 10 internet users are harassed online and women disproportionately suffer, according to a Pew Research Center report. But only about 5 percent report it.

"Fran is a strong resourced individual, and she barely made it out of this," said her friend Sarah Mikhail, 33. "Imagine if she were someone less strong, if she had no money. Imagine some of the women who experience this who don't have the emotional wherewithal, the family, the support. What happens to them?"

Part of the complexity in the Thompson case, for example, was that Thompson used 25 different devices that allowed him to mask his identity. That made gathering evidence difficult, officials said. There are no fingerprints, no DNA, no surveillance footage.

The nonprofit Police Executive Research Forum recently issued a report on the subject that recommended, among other things, that law enforcement agencies hire more people with more technological expertise.

"The internet is like the Wild West of technology," said Chuck Wexler, the group's executive director. "It has no speed limits and no cops."

___

SUSTAINED HARASSMENT

Rossi told the AP that she met Thompson through an online dating site in late 2014. He worked as a journalist with The Intercept; she as a social worker. They bonded over their commitment to reform. And for a while, their relationship was great.

But by the spring of 2016, he'd moved into her Brooklyn apartment and trouble came with him. She started getting harassing texts from ex-boyfriends. The wife of another ex-boyfriend sued, saying she'd given him a sexually transmitted disease, a lawsuit that turned out to be a hoax. Another posted a naked picture of her online.

Rossi panicked. She contacted Carrie Goldberg, a lawyer specializing in online harassment and she quickly figured out that only one man was behind the harassment: Thompson. He'd been posing as her exes for months. Rossi believes he was trying to make her feel bad so he could intimidate and control her.

"Juan was going through all of my stuff and I had no idea," said the 33-year-old Rossi. "He somehow gained access. I never gave him access to any of my passwords. But he had everything on me. He had been reading my texts and my emails for at least a year."

Rossi broke up with him, but then things got worse.

Thompson telephoned, emailed and texted her relentlessly, she said. Sometimes, he posed as others, terrorizing Rossi and her family, including her 92-year-old grandmother. He called and wrote her office. He used every major social media platform to trash her. He even posted her information on a website where men promote violence against women.

"Technology gave him utter access to me," she said. "Every time my phone buzzed, I felt sick. I mean, I thought he was going to kill me. I felt like my life was over."

___

NOWHERE TO TURN

But since she didn't know his physical address, she couldn't get a permanent restraining order. Police at her local precinct closed Rossi's harassment case in October 2016. The FBI was still slowly looking into the case.

Meanwhile, other NYPD divisions kept investigating Rossi after someone phoned in a tip that she was going to shoot up a police station. A detective notified her they'd gotten a threat against her life. The police showed up again after an anonymous report she was running guns.

Police officials noted it was imperative to probe any threats made against police stations or public institutions.

"Detectives will thoroughly investigate that claim until we determine there is no threat," said Lt. John Grimpel, a police spokesman.

Rossi said she told anyone who would listen that Thompson was behind it.

"They said they couldn't help me until it got worse."

___

THE ARREST

Eventually, it did get worse. Over 150 bomb threats were reported against Jewish community centers and day schools in 37 states and two Canadian provinces. It was national news. Authorities blamed most on an 18-year-old Israeli-American Jewish hacker arrested in Israel last March. But federal officials said Thompson made a dozen of the threats.

Thompson was arrested in his native St. Louis early last March. By June, he'd pleaded guilty to making hoax threats and cyberstalking. His lawyers didn't respond to calls for comment.

At sentencing in December, the 33-year-old Thompson apologized, conceding, "There are wounds ... that will probably never heal."

A composed Rossi wearing a T-shirt that read: "Believe women" captivated the courtroom. "I know there are other Juans out there, doing this to other women," she said.

"The police diminished my abuse because my life-threatening attacks came from phones and computers. This is what domestic violence looks like now."

___

Associated Press reporter Larry Neumeister contributed to this report.PRAGUE (AP) - A Czech court ordered the release of a Syrian Kurdish politician on Tuesday, angering Turkey, which had requested his extradition.

Salih Muslim, former co-chair of the Democratic Union Party, or PYD, was detained in the Czech capital on Saturday based on a Turkish request for his arrest.

Municipal Court spokeswoman Marketa Puci said the court found no reason to keep Muslim in detention. She said he promised to remain within European Union territory and to be available for any further hearings in the extradition case.

Policemen escort Salih Muslim, former co-chair of the Democratic Union Party, or PYD, to a court room for a custody hearing in Prague, Czech Republic, Tuesday, Feb. 27, 2018. Salih Muslim was detained in the Czech capital of Prague on Saturday under an Interpol red notice based on a Turkish request for his arrest. (AP Photo/Petr David Josek)

No date for the extradition hearing was set.

Turkey considers the PYD a terrorist group because of its links to outlawed Kurdish insurgents fighting within its own borders. Muslim was put on Turkey's most wanted list earlier this month, with a $1 million reward for his capture.

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu described Tuesday's ruling as a "scandal." He told reporters during a visit to Algeria that his ministry had lodged a formal protest and would follow the case closely.

Deputy Prime Minister Bekir Bozdag said the court ruling would have a negative effect on ties between Turkey and the Czech Republic.

"This decision very clearly amounts to support for terrorist groups," Bozdag said.

Ahead of the Prague ruling, Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said the court's decision would be a "test" for the Czech Republic on its sensitivity toward the fight against terrorism and its solidarity toward a NATO ally.

"Whatever the outcome, these terrorist ringleaders will not be able to walk free," Yildirim said. "We will continue to make life unbearable for them."

The PYD is the leading political Kurdish force in northern Syria, and Muslim remains highly influential in the party, even after stepping down as co-chair last year.

On Jan. 20, Turkey launched an incursion into northern Syria, seeking to rout the U.S.-backed Syrian Kurdish militia, known as the People's Protection Units or YPG, from the enclave of Afrin. The YPG is the armed wing of the PYD.

__

Fraser reported from Ankara, Turkey.

Policemen escort Salih Muslim, former co-chair of the Democratic Union Party, or PYD, to a court room for a custody hearing in Prague, Czech Republic, Tuesday, Feb. 27, 2018. Salih Muslim was detained in the Czech capital of Prague on Saturday under an Interpol red notice based on a Turkish request for his arrest. (AP Photo/Petr David Josek)

Supporters of Salih Muslim, former co-chair of the Democratic Union Party, or PYD, shout slogans on front of a court house in Prague, Czech Republic, Tuesday, Feb. 27, 2018. Salih Muslim was detained in the Czech capital of Prague on Saturday under an Interpol red notice based on a Turkish request for his arrest. (AP Photo/Petr David Josek)NEW YORK (AP) - The Latest on closing arguments in the trial of Joseph Percoco, a former top aide to New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (all times local):

3:20 p.m.

Defense lawyers at the bribery trial of a former top aide to New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo say the government's troubled star witness is proof the prosecution lacks evidence.

FILE - In this Jan. 25, 2018, file photo, Joseph Percoco arrives at Federal Court, in New York. Jurors in the bribery trial of Percoco, a former top aide to Democratic New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, may begin deliberations as early as next week. The government rested its case Thursday, Feb. 22, in federal court in Manhattan against Joseph Percoco and three businessmen. (AP Photo/Richard Drew, File)

Lawyers for the aide, Joseph Percoco, and three businessmen were getting their opportunity to make closing arguments over two days starting Tuesday.

Attorney Milton Williams said the government is destroying lives while repeatedly forgiving the misdeeds of its star witness, lobbyist Todd Howe.

Attorney Stephen Coffey said the case for his client comes down to Howe's credibility.

The lawyers contend that Howe is a liar.

Percoco's lawyer was expected to give his closing statement Wednesday.

A prosecutor started closing arguments early Tuesday, saying Percoco and the three businessmen conspired to corrupt New York government.

Cuomo has not been accused of any wrongdoing.

9:30 a.m.

A prosecutor argued at the bribery trial of a former top aide to Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo that he proved his guilt by quoting from the mob drama "The Sopranos."

Assistant U.S. Attorney David Zhou told jurors Tuesday in Manhattan federal court that they could use Joseph Percoco's own words - and a word for bribes borrowed from the popular HBO show - to convict him.

Zhou said Percoco's repeated use of the word "ziti" in his discussions with an Albany lobbyist demonstrated that he understood that roughly $320,000 he was receiving from three businessmen was bribes.

Percoco has pleaded not guilty. He has been on trial for five weeks along with the three businessmen.

His lawyer says Percoco acted honestly and was being framed by a corrupt government cooperator.

___

1 a.m.

Closing arguments are scheduled to begin Tuesday in the bribery trial of a former top aide to Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo.

Defense lawyers presented witnesses over three days to refute a month of evidence from prosecutors aimed at convincing jurors in Manhattan federal court that Joseph Percoco accepted more than $300,000 in bribes from three businessmen to treat them favorably.

Lawyers for the 48-year-old Percoco and the businessmen have maintained that they acted legally and appropriately.

On Monday, all four defendants confirmed to Judge Valerie Caproni that they had decided not to testify.

Closing arguments likely will focus on the credibility of Todd Howe, a lobbyist who was arrested after admitting he had violated his cooperation agreement with the government.LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) - A Kentucky judge presiding over the trial of a teenager charged in a school shooting is being challenged for holding closed proceedings.

Marshall County Circuit Judge James Jameson has closed Gabriel Parker's arraignment and other proceedings over the objections of some media outlets. Parker is facing adult murder charges for the killing of two students Jan. 23 at Marshall County High School.

A group of western Kentucky media outlets filed petitions with the Kentucky Court of Appeals over the secrecy, saying Jameson has sealed public records and held other secret hearings. Jameson filed a petition this week rebutting those claims.

Commonwealth's Attorney Mark Blankenship, the county's top prosecutor, has filed a motion asking for a special judge to be appointed to the case.WICHITA, Kan. (AP) - A man is suing a Wichita vaping shop after he says a spare battery for his e-cigarette exploded in his pants pocket.

Daniel Anderson filed a lawsuit Feb. 6 in Sedgwick County against Big E's Vapor Shop, the Wichita Eagle reported .

Anderson was carrying the lithium ion battery, his car keys and coins in his pants pocket in February 2016, according to the lawsuit. The touching metal items caused a short to the outside of the battery, which then overheated and exploded.

The suit stated that Anderson had chemical and thermal burns to his left leg and hands from the explosion.

"It was like a flame thrower. It just ignited and was a big ball of fire," said Dustin DeVaughn, an attorney for Anderson.

Anderson is suing both Big E's and the battery's distributor, VapeUSA Corp., for more than $75,000 in damages. The lawsuit alleged the companies knew or should have known that a defect makes the type of battery Anderson bought dangerous for use in e-cigarettes.

The companies also failed to warn customers of the risks, according to the lawsuit.

"Nobody thinks twice about putting a battery in their pocket," DeVaughn said. "You have an extra one, that's the first place it's going to go."

Big E's owners said last week the company has seen the lawsuit but declined to comment. A message left by the newspaper seeking comment from VapeUSA was not returned.

E-cigarettes are battery-powered devices that simulate traditional cigarette smoking using heated vapor. The devices have become a popular alternative to smoking since becoming available in the U.S. in 2007. Nearly 200 fires and explosions and more than 130 injuries related to e-cigarettes occurred in the U.S. between 2009 and 2016, according to a July 2017 U.S. Fire Administration report.

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Information from: The Wichita (Kan.) Eagle, http://www.kansas.comThe father of a Florida shooting survivor acknowledged Tuesday he omitted words in an email he sent media outlets accusing CNN of using scripted remarks at a town hall on guns and school safety.

Dozens of conservative websites called the network's Feb. 21 town hall forum scripted after Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School junior Colton Haab skipped the event and said the network had told him what question to ask. The websites call it proof the forum was slanted against gun rights. President Donald Trump tweeted about it on Friday, saying "Just like so much of CNN, Fake News!"

CNN countered with a release of email exchanges between producer Carrie Stevenson, Colton Haab and his father Glenn and accused Glenn Haab of deliberately altering email sent to Fox News and the Huffington Post.

Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School students and parents wait for a CNN town hall broadcast to begin, Wednesday, Feb. 21, 2018, at the BB&T Center, in Sunrise, Fla. (Michael Laughlin/South Florida Sun-Sentinel via AP)

"It is unfortunate that an effort to discredit CNN and the town hall with doctored emails has taken any attention away from the purpose of the event," the network said in a statement.

Glenn Haab told The Associated Press he omitted some words from the email but said he didn't do it on purpose.

"There was nothing malicious behind it," he said.

In one exchange, 17-year-old Colton Haab proposes several questions to ask at the town hall, including one on whether to arm teachers. His father, a Republican gun owner, later emailed Stevenson a four-page document with a roughly 700-word speech and a series of questions he said Colton wanted to ask.

Stevenson told the father the additional language he proposed was "way too long" and Colton would need to stick to the question "that he submitted." The words "that he submitted" were left off the email sent to Fox News and Huffington Post.

CNN said Stevenson had discussed which one of Colton's several questions to ask at the forum and they mutually agreed on one using his own words and a statement he made during another television appearance.HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) - Democratic legislative leaders in Connecticut said Tuesday they believe the sexual orientation of Gov. Dannel P. Malloy's choice for the state's next chief justice may have cost him support among some Judiciary Committee members during a 13-hour confirmation hearing that ended in a tie vote, putting the nomination in jeopardy.

Justice Andrew McDonald, a longtime friend of the governor, is gay and could become the first gay chief justice of a state Supreme Court, if ultimately confirmed by the General Assembly.

"The Republicans should be ashamed of themselves for the way they acted yesterday," said Senate Majority Leader Bob Duff, a Democrat from Norwalk who said he thought many of the questions that Republican committee members asked McDonald were insensitive and inflammatory. "Maybe they don't like his lifestyle, (they) don't like him personally, but to vote against somebody who is imminently qualified to be the chief justice of the state supreme court is terrible, and they should be ashamed of that."

House Republican Leader Themis Klarides insisted the questioning during the lengthy confirmation hearing was "purely substantive," based on McDonald's legal opinions and his decisions to recuse himself in certain cases.

"The only people I've heard utter the words Andrew McDonald is gay is the Democrats," she said. "Not one Republican I have talked to cares if Andrew McDonald is gay or straight."

Early Tuesday morning, the Judiciary Committee sent McDonald's nomination to the full General Assembly on a 20-20 vote, with an unfavorable recommendation. It's unclear whether McDonald will have enough support to ultimately clear the legislature.

Democrats hold a narrow majority in the House of Representatives and there are an equal number of Democrats and Republicans in the Senate, with Democratic Lt. Gov. Nancy Wyman typically breaking any tie votes. One Democratic senator on Tuesday recused herself from voting on McDonald's nomination, which means McDonald's confirmation will require questionable Republican support.

"The margins are such there is little room for error," said Democratic House Speaker Joe Aresimowicz. "I still believe that cooler heads will prevail and will look at Andrew McDonald on his qualifications."

Senate Republican Leader Len Fasano said he has not yet polled his members to see if any would support McDonald. Fasano, who served with McDonald when he was a Democratic state senator, said he plans to meet again privately with McDonald before making a final decision on how he will vote.

"I've always said Andrew is a very personable guy, he's very sharp, he's a very bright guy, I respect him tremendously," Fasano said. "We may have a different feeling of where the supreme court should or should not be and I've told him some of the concerns that I have and I also told him that I'm going to have him back in my office with me ... and go over those cases again."

Some of the Democrats' anger about McDonald's confirmation hearing focused on the GOP's repetitive line of questioning, as well as questions about McDonald's 2009 marriage and the fact Malloy performed the wedding ceremony. Republican Rep. Arthur O'Neill called it "an extraordinary, unusual circumstance" and asked whether the two also discuss court cases and judicial matters, which McDonald denied.

Democratic Rep. Jeff Currey, a Judiciary Committee member who is openly gay, took offense to the wedding questions.

"I'm glad to see that's the new litmus test for our chief justices," he said. "Absolutely disrespectful and disgusting."SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP) - Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan released a list Tuesday of nine complaints of sexual harassment, retaliation or discrimination investigated by his state office in the past five years and how they were resolved, hoping to get ahead of criticism that he's mismanaged the issue.

"I'm not resigning," the longest-serving state House speaker in U.S. history told reporters after a three-hour closed-door meeting with his Democratic caucus meeting. "I'm moving forward."

The Chicago lawmaker, who is also chairman of the Illinois Democratic Party, said the review did not preclude an independent investigation into his response to complaints of sexual harassment by campaign aides. He agreed to the outside probe suggested by a House member, but nonetheless, several officeholders, including Democratic candidates for governor, have called for him to step aside as speaker or as party chairman.

Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan listens as lawyer Heather Wier Vaught discusses a list of sexual harassment complaints in Springfield, Ill., Tuesday, Feb. 27, 2018. Madigan has released an internal review showing nine incidents of sexual harassment or discrimination in his state office in the past five years and how they were resolved. (Ted Schurter/The State Journal-Register via AP)

Madigan, 75, said he has sent the list, which did not include several categories of possible complaints, to the other three legislative leaders and invited them to do the same type of review. Madigan spokesman Steve Brown declined to release the letter until the recipients see it.

"In light of the questions that we have received from numerous sources of the nature of the complaints in our office, it's an ability to educate and to help people work their way through this matter," Madigan said. "And my point would be that I've done it, and I would recommend to the others that they do it, too."

The list included lawmakers, staff members and a lobbyist who made sexual comments, made unwanted advances, or refused to pay wages to staff members, among other infractions. In three cases, legislators made sexual comments to women staff members or retaliated by refusing to pay wages. A male staffer reported that a male supervisor created a hostile work environment and touched the staffer. In one case two lawmakers reported that a lobbyist was making a woman staffer uncomfortable with unwanted advances.

Madigan lawyer Heather Wier Vaught noted resolutions included counseling, reassignment, and supervision of future interactions between an offender and the person making the complaint. The lobbyist's employer reassigned him.

But a list of "exclusions" at the bottom of the document listed complaints by one legislator against another; complaints by a lawmaker against a lobbyist; complaints by a staff member "regarding manner of treatment or derogatory comments;" complaints about a member of another of the legislative caucuses, which would have been referred to that caucus; and "unresolved complaints," the number of which Vaught could not specify.

Names were not included to preserve confidentiality, which Vaught pointed to when asked whether the people complaining were satisfied with the resolution. She said identifying the dates of each would give clues to the people involved, but that the oldest was in 2013 and the latest more recently.

Madigan has dismissed two political staffers in recent weeks after publicity about alleged separate sexual harassment complaints by campaign workers. He then asked three women officeholders - U.S. Rep. Cheri Bustos, state Comptroller Susana Mendoza and state Rep. Carol Ammons - to instigate conversations about women and their roles in the party.

Vaught said with reporters and lawyers calling multiple Madigan staff members to ask about harassment, and rumors swirling, "The point of this document, in part, is to show you, here's what we really heard, here's what we really received, here's how we handled it."

___

Contact Political Writer John O'Connor at https://twitter.com/apoconnor . His work can be found at https://apnews.com/search/john%20o'connor .

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Sign up for the AP's weekly newsletter showcasing our best reporting from the Midwest and Texas: http://apne.ws/2u1RMfvFLAGSTAFF, Ariz. (AP) - The Latest on a Feb. 10 helicopter crash at the Grand Canyon (all times local):

5:30 p.m.

A medical examiner's office says newlyweds who were pulled from a helicopter crash at the Grand Canyon died of complications from burn injuries.

The Clark County coroner's office released the causes of death Tuesday for 29-year-old Ellie Milward Udall and 31-year-old Jonathan Udall. They were among six British tourists on a sightseeing tour Feb. 10 when their helicopter crashed.

Three died at the scene and the Udalls later died at a Las Vegas hospital. Another passenger and the pilot remain in critical condition.

Ellie Udall's family said in a statement that she never regained consciousness in the burn unit and asked for privacy.

The company that operated the helicopter said this week that it's adding fuel systems to its fleet that could prevent or lessen burn injuries.

___

2:45 p.m.

The company whose helicopter was involved in a deadly crash at the Grand Canyon is adding crash-resistant fuel systems to its fleet.

Papillon Airways announced an agreement Monday with StandardAero for 40 fuel tanks that expand, rather than rupture, on impact. The new tanks also have self-sealing components.

The National Transportation Safety Board has urged the Federal Aviation Administration to require that all helicopters have the systems. Right now, they're required only for helicopters newly certified after 1994.

Papillon declined comment Tuesday on what led to its decision.

The system for the Airbus EC130 B4 that crashed and burned Feb. 10 wasn't standard but a retrofit became available last year.

Five British tourists died. At least one suffered thermal injuries.

The pilot and another passenger remained in critical condition Tuesday.CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) - Three astronauts returned from the International Space Station to the snowy, bitingly cold flat lands of Central Asia, ending a 5 1/2-month mission highlighted by robotic renovations, schoolteacher pep talks and heavenly greetings from Pope Francis.

The two Americans and one Russian landed in a Soyuz capsule shortly after sunrise Wednesday, local time, in Kazakhstan, where the temperature was below freezing. Flight controllers feared snow and freezing rain might hamper recovery efforts, but NASA said the weather wasn't nearly as bad as had been feared and the pickup teams got to where they needed to be.

NASA's Joe Acaba and Mark Vande Hei, and Russia's Alexander Misurkin emerged from the capsule one by one, smiling, waving and pumping their fists in the air as they were carried to outdoor chairs. Medical staff wrapped them in thick blankets, while taking their pulse and making sure they were fine.

Russian cosmonaut Alexander Misurkin, left, shakes hands with NASA U.S. astronaut Mark Vande Hei during a press conference in the Kazakh town of Zhezkazgan, Kazakhstan, on Wednesday, Feb. 28, 2018. Three astronauts returned from the International Space Station to the snowy, bitingly cold flat lands of Central Asia, ending a 5 1/2-month mission highlighted by robotic renovations, schoolteacher pep talks and heavenly greetings from Pope Francis. (Alexander Nemenov/Pool Photo via AP)

The astronauts checked out of the space station just a few hours earlier, hugging the three men remaining behind.

"We're already missing you," radioed station commander Anton Shkaplerov as the capsule backed away.

In handing over the skipper's job to Shkaplerov, Misurkin joked that at least he and his two crewmates didn't break anything and hopefully accomplished some good science. They'd lived on the space station since September.

Acaba is the first astronaut of Puerto Rican heritage and a former schoolteacher. He teamed up with another educator-astronaut, Ricky Arnold, who's launching in three weeks, to perform the science lessons prepared by Christa McAuliffe 32 years ago. She died in the shuttle Challenger launch disaster.

During a series of spacewalks spanning months, Acaba and Vande Hei helped replace the aging mechanical hands of the station's big robot arm. And last fall, they had a chance to chat with Pope Francis, discussing the beauty and fragility of the home planet.

As is customary, NASA planned to hustle Acaba and Vande Hei back to Houston, with Misurkin heading to cosmonaut headquarters at Star City, Russia.

A replacement crew, including former teacher Arnold, will lift off from Kazakhstan on March 21 and bring the space station back up to a full crew of six.

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Online:

NASA: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/main/index.html

In this photo provided by NASA, the Soyuz MS-06 spacecraft is seen as it starts to land with Expedition 54 crew members Joe Acaba and Mark Vande Hei of NASA and cosmonaut Alexander Misurkin near Dzhezkazgan, Kazakhstan, Wednesday, Feb. 28, 2018. The three astronauts returned from the International Space Station to the snowy, bitingly cold flat lands of Central Asia, ending a 5 1/2-month mission highlighted by robotic renovations, schoolteacher pep talks and heavenly greetings from Pope Francis. (NASA via AP)

Ground personnel carry NASA astronaut Mark Vande Hei after landing of the Soyuz MS-06 space capsule in a remote area south-east of the Kazakh town of Zhezkazgan, Kazakhstan, Wednesday, Feb. 28, 2018. Three astronauts returned from the International Space Station to the snowy, bitingly cold flat lands of Central Asia, ending a 5 1/2-month mission highlighted by robotic renovations, schoolteacher pep talks and heavenly greetings from Pope Francis. (Alexander Nemenov/Pool Photo via AP)

In this photo provided by NASA, NASA astronaut Joe Acaba, left, Russian cosmonaut Alexander Misurkin, center, and NASA astronaut Mark Vande Hei sit in chairs outside the Soyuz MS-06 spacecraft after they landed in Dzhezkazgan, Kazakhstan, Wednesday, Feb. 28, 2018. The three astronauts returned from the International Space Station to the snowy, bitingly cold flat lands of Central Asia, ending a 5 1/2-month mission highlighted by robotic renovations, schoolteacher pep talks and heavenly greetings from Pope Francis. (NASA via AP)

NASA astronaut Mark Vande Hei smiles as he rests in a chair after landing in a remote area south-east of the Kazakh town of Zhezkazgan, Kazakhstan, Wednesday, Feb. 28, 2018. Three astronauts returned from the International Space Station to the snowy, bitingly cold flat lands of Central Asia, ending a 5 1/2-month mission highlighted by robotic renovations, schoolteacher pep talks and heavenly greetings from Pope Francis. (Alexander Nemenov/Pool Photo via AP)

Russian cosmonaut Alexander Misurkin rests in a chair after landing in a remote area south-east of the Kazakh town of Zhezkazgan, Kazakhstan, Wednesday, Feb. 28, 2018. Three astronauts returned from the International Space Station to the snowy, bitingly cold flat lands of Central Asia, ending a 5 1/2-month mission highlighted by robotic renovations, schoolteacher pep talks and heavenly greetings from Pope Francis. (Alexander Nemenov/Pool Photo via AP)

NASA astronaut Joe Acaba rests in a chair after landing in a remote area south-east of the Kazakh town of Zhezkazgan, Kazakhstan, Wednesday, Feb. 28, 2018. Three astronauts returned from the International Space Station to the snowy, bitingly cold flat lands of Central Asia, ending a 5 1/2-month mission highlighted by robotic renovations, schoolteacher pep talks and heavenly greetings from Pope Francis. (Alexander Nemenov/Pool Photo via AP)

Ground personnel help NASA astronaut Joe Acaba to get out of the Soyuz MS-06 space capsule after landing in a remote area south-east of the Kazakh town of Zhezkazgan, Kazakhstan, Wednesday, Feb. 28, 2018. Three astronauts returned from the International Space Station to the snowy, bitingly cold flat lands of Central Asia, ending a 5 1/2-month mission highlighted by robotic renovations, schoolteacher pep talks and heavenly greetings from Pope Francis. (Alexander Nemenov/Pool Photo via AP)TOKYO (AP) - Japanese women who say "Me too" do so at their own risk.

Online comments accused Rika Shiiki of lying and being a publicity hound when she tweeted that she lost business contracts after refusing to have sex with clients. Some said that by agreeing to dine with a man, she led him on.

"The comments I received were disproportionately negative," the 20-year-old university student and entrepreneur told a TV talk show in December. "We need to create a society where we can speak up. Otherwise sexual harassment and other misconduct will persist forever."

In this Oct. 27, 2017, photo, Shiori Ito, a journalist, who says was raped by a prominent TV newsman in 2015, talks about her ordeal and the need for more awareness and support for the victims in Japan, during an interview in Tokyo. Many online commentators criticized her for speaking out, looking too seductive and ruining the life of a prominent figure. Some women called her an embarrassment, she said. The #MeToo movement that has rattled America over sexual misconduct has slow to catch up in Japan, where discussion of sex crimes is still taboo and victims often get the blame. (AP Photo/Mari Yamaguchi)

The #MeToo movement has not caught on in Japan, where speaking out often draws criticism rather than sympathy, even from other women.

In a patriarchal society where women have long taken the blame, many victims try to forget attacks and harassment instead of seeking support and justice, said Mari Miura, a political science professor at Sophia University in Tokyo.

"Japan lacks such a sisterhood," she said. "It's an exhausting and intimidating process. ... It's quite natural that victims feel reluctant to speak up."

One woman, journalist Shiori Ito, went public last year. She held a news conference after prosecutors decided not to press charges against a prominent TV newsman whom she had accused of raping her after he invited her to discuss job opportunities over dinner and drinks in 2015.

Many online comments criticized her for speaking out, looking too seductive and ruining the life of a prominent figure. Some women called her an embarrassment, she told The Associated Press.

The October release of Ito's book "Blackbox" detailing her ordeal came as the #MeToo phenomenon was making headlines in America. It prompted some discussion in Japan, but only a handful of other women came forward.

"Many people think Shiori's problem has nothing to do with them ... and that's why #MeToo isn't growing in Japan," said lawyer Yukiko Tsunoda, an expert on sex crimes. In Japan, sexually assaulted women are traditionally called "the flawed," she said.

Nearly three quarters of rape victims said they had never told anyone, and just over 4 percent had gone to police, according to a 2015 government survey. The study found that one in 15 Japanese women had been raped or forced to have sex.

Victims often shy away from going to court out of fear, privacy concerns or losing jobs, Tsunoda said.

Justice Ministry statistics show only one-third of rape cases go to court, and punishment is not severe. Of the 1,678 people tried for sexual assault in 2017, only 285, or 17 percent, were sentenced to prison for three years or longer. In November, Yokohama prosecutors, without saying why, dropped the case against six students from a leading university who had been arrested for the alleged gang-rape of a teenage female student after getting her drunk. The university expelled three of them.

Popular writer Haruka Ito, who goes by the pen name Ha-Chu, was criticized after revealing in December that she had faced sexual and other harassment by a senior male employee when both worked at Dentsu, Japan's largest advertising agency.

The alleged harasser, whom she identified by name, apologized in a statement and quit as head of his own company, though he denied the harassment was sexual.

Ha-chu said in a statement that she initially tried to endure and forget the ordeal, fearing that exposing it would hurt her image and cause problems for her former colleagues. After news of the journalist Ito's case and the #MeToo movement, "I decided to speak out," she said.

Conformist pressure in Japan discourages women from speaking out or saying "no" to many things, including unwanted sex, said Saori Ikeuchi, a former lawmaker and gender diversity activist.

That mindset has silenced virtually all of Japan's so-called "comfort women," who were sexually abused as prostitutes for the wartime military, while Japan has shown little sympathy to victims from Korea and elsewhere, she said.

Ito, the journalist, said that after she became dizzy and passed out in a restroom, her alleged attacker, Noriyuki Yamaguchi, took her to his hotel room and raped her while she was incapacitated.

The alleged assault was just the beginning of her ordeal, Ito said. The women's clinic she visited the next day lacked expertise on rape, and a rape victim support center refused to give her advice on the phone. Police required her to recount the ordeal repeatedly and to demonstrate it with a life-sized doll, she said.

Ito said it took three weeks to get police to accept her criminal complaint and start investigating. She held a news conference in May, announcing that she had requested a court-appointed citizens' panel to review the decision to drop the case. The inquest in September agreed with the decision not to indict.

Yamaguchi has denied any wrongdoing in published articles and on Facebook. Ito has filed a civil lawsuit against him, demanding 10 million yen ($93,000) in compensation for her suffering from the alleged rape, and seeking any clues as to why he was let go and never arrested.

"I thought about how I could change the situation, and I had no choice but to speak out about my experience," she said.

A group of opposition lawmakers has started its own investigation, seeking to find if the charges were dropped because of Yamaguchi's connections to powerful political officials.

National Police Agency official Junichiro Kan told the lawmakers at a recent hearing that Ito's case was properly handled. Police say they have tried to be more sensitive to the feelings of victims while guarding against wrongful accusations.

Mika Kobayashi, a rape victim, runs a self-help group that has exchanged thousands of #MeToo experiences, but only anonymously among themselves.

She said she was pushed into a car and raped on her way home in 2000. She reported the attack to police, but the attacker hasn't been found. She has since published books about her recovery from the ordeal, to raise public awareness.

Her focus is on providing support and understanding for victims, rather than being an activist.

"I used to think of myself as someone hiding a big secret, a sex assault victim and unclean," she said. "I'm so grateful I could connect with fellow victims. They gave me strength."

The knowledge that others also blamed themselves and lost self-esteem has helped her to heal slowly, Kobayashi said.

"I think it's also OK not to speak up," she said. "I respect any decision that makes a victim feel most comfortable."

___

Follow Mari Yamaguchi on Twitter at twitter.com/mariyamaguchi

Find her work at https://www.apnews.com/search/mari%20yamaguchi

In this Oct. 27, 2017, photo, Shiori Ito, a journalist, who says was raped by a prominent TV newsman in 2015, talks about her ordeal and the need for more awareness and support for the victims in Japan, during an interview in Tokyo. Many online commentators criticized her for speaking out, looking too seductive and ruining the life of a prominent figure. Some women called her an embarrassment, she said. The #MeToo movement that has rattled America over sexual misconduct has slow to catch up in Japan, where discussion of sex crimes is still taboo and victims often get the blame. (AP Photo/Mari Yamaguchi)

In this Dec. 25, 2017, photo, Mika Kobayashi, who heads a support group for sexual assault victims based on her own experience as a victim in 2000, speaks during an interview in Tokyo. Kobayashi runs a self-help group that has exchanged thousands of "me too" experiences, but only privately among themselves. She said her focus is on providing support and understanding for victims, rather than being an activist. The #MeToo movement that has rattled America over sexual misconduct has slow to catch up in Japan, where discussion of sex crimes is still taboo and victims often get the blame. (AP Photo/Mari Yamaguchi)WASHINGTON (AP) - The Rev. Billy Graham will lie in honor at the U.S. Capitol in one of the nation's highest distinctions.

Graham's body will arrive at the Capitol on Wednesday morning, and his family will attend a private ceremony with members of Congress. The public will be invited into the Capitol Rotunda from 1 p.m. to 8 p.m. He will lie in honor in the Rotunda for one day.

Graham, known as "America's Pastor," will be the first private citizen to receive the honor since civil rights hero Rosa Parks in 2005.

Crews prepare for the late Rev. Billy Graham to be honored Wednesday in the Rotunda of the Capitol Building, Tuesday, Feb. 27, 2018 in Washington. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)

The Rotunda is where the country pays tribute to its most important and influential citizens, including a dozen former presidents.

Graham died last week at age 99 in his North Carolina home. His funeral will be held Friday in Charlotte.RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) - One of Brazil's top arms dealers has been charged in the United States with illegally exporting firearms, accessories and ammunition.

The decision by a court in Miami on Tuesday follows an investigation by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, and other agencies.

Frederik Barbieri, 36, was arrested at his home in Florida on Saturday after police seized about 60 rifles that the Brazilian had sent to Rio de Janeiro's international airport in May. The weapons were to be used by drug traffickers in Brazilian slums.

This artist rendering shows Frederik Barbieri, third from right, speaking to his attorney during a hearing at the Clyde Atkins Federal Courthouse,Tuesday, Feb. 27, 2018, in Miami. Barbieri, considered Brazil's biggest firearms dealer, was charged with a variety of weapons charges, including conspiracy, smuggling and illegal exports. Prosecutors said Barbieri attempted to smuggle assault-style rifles hidden in a shipment of pool heaters from South Florida to Brazil. (Daniel Pontet via AP)

The scheme led by Barbieri lasted from May 2013 to June 2017.

Barbieri also has U.S. citizenship. Brazilian police say he has been living in Florida since 2010.

Brazil's Justice Ministry said in a statement that it has requested Barbieri's extradition.JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) - A portrait of noted scientist and inventor George Washington Carver will grace the walls of the governor's mansion in Missouri.

Republican Gov. Eric Greitens said the portrait would be installed Tuesday during a Black History Month reception. The governor's office said it's the first time in the state's history that a portrait of a black person will be displayed in the mansion, which is in Jefferson City.

The portrait, painted by Missouri artist Joanna Reid, will hang in the mansion's dining room. It will be available for public viewing starting Wednesday.

Carver was born a slave in Diamond, Missouri, during the Civil War. He became a botanist and teacher at the Tuskegee Institute. He's best known for finding hundreds of products derived from the peanut and sweet potatoes.TOLEDO, Ohio (AP) - Ohio's health department is asking the state Supreme Court not to revisit a decision that upheld the shuttering of an abortion clinic.

Justices ruled the department was within its rights when it revoked the license of Capital Care of Toledo. At the time, the clinic didn't have a required patient-transfer agreement with a local hospital.

Days after the ruling, the ProMedica hospital system authorized such an agreement. The clinic cited that development in a filing last week seeking reconsideration.

Lawyers for the state said in a motion on Monday that the new agreement doesn't change past noncompliance and the clinic should reapply through the normal process.

An attorney for the clinic, Jennifer Branch, tells The Blade the process is "unfair and not designed to provide better health care to women."WASHINGTON (AP) - The security clearance of White House senior adviser and presidential son-in-law Jared Kushner has been downgraded, significantly reducing his access to classified information, according to two people informed of the decision.

Kushner had been operating with an interim clearance at the "top secret/sensitive compartmented information" level for more than a year. Now he is authorized to access information only at the lower "secret" level, according to a White House official and a person familiar with the decision, both of whom spoke on condition of anonymity. Neither source was authorized to discuss the decision publicly.

Tuesday's news set off rampant speculation among Trump allies that Kushner's days in the White House might be numbered. On the same day, the departure of a third Kushner ally in the West Wing in as many months was announced. And the selection of a Kushner ally to serve as Trump's 2020 campaign manager appeared to suggest the campaign could provide Kushner with a convenient place to land after his White House duties end.

FILE - In this Nov. 1, 2017, file photo, White House senior adviser Jared Kushner listens as President Donald Trump speaks during a cabinet meeting at the White House in Washington. Politico is reporting that the security clearance of White House senior adviser and Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner has been downgraded. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)

Kushner lost his access to the nation's deepest secrets after chief of staff John Kelly ordered that White House officials with interim clearances pending since before June 1, 2017, be cut off if they hadn't received permanent clearances by last Friday. A White House official confirmed to The Associated Press that Kelly's order has been implemented.

President Donald Trump could have reversed Kelly's decision and unilaterally offered Kushner a clearance, but deferred to Kelly. Kushner is one of dozens of White House aides who have been working without permanent security clearances for the better part of a year.

His attorney told the AP that Kushner's ability to do his job won't be affected by any change to his clearance.

"Those involved in the process again have confirmed that there are dozens of people at Mr. Kushner's level whose process is delayed, that it is not uncommon for these clearance reviews to take this long in a new administration, and that the current backlogs are now being addressed," said Peter Mirijanian, a Kushner spokesman.

Kushner's portfolio once included the U.S. relationships with China and Japan and a host of domestic priorities, including infrastructure, trade and economic development. But his freewheeling reach in the foreign policy space - which was viewed as undermining Secretary of State Rex Tillerson - already had been curtailed somewhat under Kelly.

Still, Kushner is reportedly said to have reviewed the highly secret presidential daily brief and has been in the room for some of Trump's most consequential domestic and foreign policy decisions.

White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders told reporters Tuesday that she would not comment on individual security clearances but called Kushner "a valued member of the team, and he will continue to do the important work that he's been doing since he started in the administration."

The Washington Post reported Tuesday that officials in at least four countries had privately discussed ways they could manipulate Kushner by taking advantage of his complex business arrangements, financial difficulties and lack of foreign policy experience.

The nations included the United Arab Emirates, China, Israel and Mexico, the Post reported, citing current and former U.S. officials familiar with intelligence reports on the matter. The newspaper said it was unclear if any of those countries had acted on the discussions, but said Kushner's contacts with foreign government officials had raised concerns within the White House and were among the reasons Kushner had not yet been able to obtain a permanent security clearance.

Intelligence officials expressed concern that Kushner's business dealings were a topic of discussion in conversations he was having with foreign officials about foreign policy issues of interest to the U.S. government, a former intelligence official said.

The official, who spoke only on condition of anonymity to discuss Kushner's security clearance review, said there was a difference of opinion among intelligence officials about the significance.

Some believed Kushner knew his business dealings would likely come up in the conversations and was too naive or inexperienced to know how to exit the topic in light of his position as Trump's adviser, the official said. Others thought Kushner knew the topic would likely surface and used the opportunity while talking to the foreign officials to engage in conversations about his business interests.

Either way, intelligence officials were concerned because there were instances where the discussions either crossed the line or straddled the fence of what would be appropriate given his White House position, the official said.

The official said Kushner's conversations themselves were not surveilled, but details about what was discussed in meetings with the president's son-in-law came from surveillance conducted on certain foreign individuals abroad. According to the official, the information was known from the beginning of the FBI's background investigation work, which started after Kushner joined the White House. In some cases, the intelligence revealed discrepancies in the information Kushner disclosed on his security clearance application about foreign contacts, the official said.

Kushner's contacts with foreign officials also have been a part of special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation, a former U.S. official told the AP. Mueller's team, in its interviews for the ongoing Russia probe, has asked people about the protocols Kushner used when he set up conversations with foreign leaders.

The Kushner Cos., for example, had attempted to raise money for its struggling 666 Fifth Avenue skyscraper in New York from a large Chinese insurer with ties to the ruling Communist Party. Those talks ended after lawmakers and government ethics experts expressed worry that China could be using a deal to curry favor with the White House.

Kushner stepped down as CEO of his family's real estate company to join his father-in-law's administration.

With a top-secret clearance, Kushner would have had access to information about covert operations and intelligence sources and methods. With a secret clearance, he would still have access to intelligence assessments, but not necessarily the information behind why the U.S. knows what is being shared with him.

The downgrade would mean that anyone giving top-secret material to Kushner could be accused of mishandling classified material, according to David Priess, who wrote a history of the President's Daily Brief, the highest-level intelligence document produced in the United States. Still, a president has the ultimate authority to classify or declassify information, so he could show the brief - covering hot spots around the globe, U.S. covert operations and intelligence about world leaders- "to whomever he damn well pleases," Priess tweeted.

The White House's handling of security clearances has come under intense scrutiny in the wake of revelations that former White House staff secretary Rob Porter had worked for more than a year with only interim clearance. Porter, whose job gave him constant access to the most sensitive of documents, had been accused of domestic abuse by his two ex-wives. The White House has repeatedly changed its timeline about who knew what and when about the allegations.

Kushner has been forced to repeatedly correct omissions in his "SF-86," the government-wide form used to apply for clearances, as well as his financial disclosure forms, which experts said could delay or even nix his chances of earning a clearance through the normal process.

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Lemire reported from New York. Associated Press writers Ken Thomas, Catherine Lucey and Jill Colvin in Washington contributed to this report.JOHANNESBURG (AP) - A lion that mauled a young woman to death in South Africa was under the care of a man known as the "lion whisperer" for his close interactions with the predators in his animal sanctuary.

Kevin Richardson, who keeps lions at his refuge in the Dinokeng Game Reserve, said on Facebook that he and an "experienced" colleague took three lions for a walk in the reserve on Tuesday and that one chased an impala, eventually encountering the 22-year-old woman at least two kilometers (1.2 miles) away.

Richardson said he followed procedure before the weekly excursion by assessing the area for other "big five" animals, a designation that includes rhino, elephant, buffalo, leopard and lion, and sending out a "notification" that he was walking with lions.

FILE - In this Wednesday March 15, 2017 file photo, Kevin Richardson, known as the "lion whisperer", takes two of his lions for a walk in the Dinokeng Game Reserve, near Pretoria, South Africa. A lion, who mauled a young woman to death, was under the care of Richardson, known for his close interactions with the predators in his animal sanctuary. (AP Photo/Denis Farrell, File)

The woman died at a tented camp run by Richardson, who said he was "devastated" by the killing.

"The young woman was not a guest at the camp, but had accompanied her friend to conduct an interview for an assignment with the camp's manager," he said. "Before leaving the reserve, the two visitors were taking photographs outside the camp where the attack occurred."

The "intimate glam camp" with five tents is an hour's drive from Johannesburg's main international airport, according to Richardson's website.

The management of the Dinokeng reserve said the woman was killed "within a conservation section that is not accessible to the general public" but lies within the reserve's boundaries.

"The lion that was involved with this fatality was not one of the wild free-roaming lions of the Dinokeng Game Reserve," the management said.

Some conservationists say captive-bred lions lose their fear of people and should not be released into the wild, partly because they pose a heightened threat to humans.

In an interview with The Associated Press last year, Richardson said he does not breed lions and that those on his 1,300-hectare (3,200-acre) property feed on donated carcasses of cattle and antelope. He said he hoped his hands-on interaction with lions, including caressing and cavorting, would help to highlight the plight of Africa's wild lions. Their numbers have plummeted over several decades.

Richardson campaigns against the South African industry in which customers kill captive-bred lions in relatively confined areas, and told the AP that many of the lions in his care were rescued from being transferred to facilities where the practice labeled by critics as "canned hunting" occurs.

"I have been accepted as part of the pride," he said in the interview. "But I have to be very careful. They are large animals and are very good at telling you how they feel."

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Follow Christopher Torchia on Twitter at www.twitter.com/torchiachrisCAIRO (AP) - Egypt's chief prosecutor told his staff Wednesday to closely monitor the media and move against any they consider to be "hurting national interests," the latest move by authorities to suppress any dissenting voices ahead of elections seen as virtually a one-man race ensuring the re-election of President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi.

The government has already sought to exert heavy control over reporting on the March 26-28 election, issuing guidelines barring journalists from asking people who they would vote for beforehand or from conducting any polling. Authorities have also increasingly depicted criticism as a violation of national security at a time when Egypt is trying to revive its economy battered by years of turmoil and contain an insurgency by Islamic militants.

In a brief statement, top prosecutor Nabil Sadeq said "forces of evil" - one of el-Sissi's hallmark phrases - have recently been trying to "undermine the security and safety of the nation through the broadcast and publication of lies and false news."

In this Sunday, Feb. 25, 2018 photo, provided by Egypt's state news agency MENA, Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, third left, attends the inauguration of the East Suez Canal Counter-Terrorism command, in Sinai, Egypt. Egypt's chief prosecutor on Wednesday, Feb. 28, 2018 reminded his staff to closely monitor the media and start legal action against any outlet that disrupts security or hurts national interests, according to a statement issued by his office. (MENA via AP)

Prosecutors should take legal action against media outlets that disseminate "false, news, statements or rumors" that could instill "terror" in society, hurt the public interest or disrupt peace. Media regulatory bodies must notify prosecutors of violations by media outlets, it said.

"It is a step backward that fits into a context of a diminishing freedom of the press," said Yahya Qalash, a former head of Egypt's Journalists union. "The danger here is not just to the freedom of the press, but to the survival of journalism as a profession in Egypt."

A general-turned-president, el-Sissi has worked to quiet much of the media, demanding everyone fall in line with his policies to restore stability. But the threat of prosecution marks an escalation. In past years, authorities have generally used indirect methods to silence dissenters. The state media and most privately owned TV networks are loyal to el-Sissi and spearheaded by powerful talk show hosts who lavishly praise his policies, cover up failures and demonize critics.

Critical TV personalities have been removed from the air and dozens of independent and Islamist news sites on the Internet have been blocked. With pro-government media sometimes depicting foreign press as promoting a negative image of the country, cameramen in the streets can sometimes face harassment from crowds or police.

The sharper tone against the media comes at a particularly sensitive time - in the run-up to elections. El-Sissi has overtly warned that criticizing the vote or casting doubt on its legitimacy will not be tolerated. In past weeks, a string of would-be candidates were forced to drop out of the race or were arrested. In the end, el-Sissi is running against an obscure politician who has expressed his support for el-Sissi and entered the race at the eleventh hour to prevent the embarrassment of el-Sissi running unchallenged.

The state election commission's guidelines for media coverage of the vote prohibited publishing any opinion polls during the five days preceding the vote and until it ends. It banned reporters from asking voters about their preferred candidate or conducting exit polls. Offenders would have their accreditation revoked.

Commenting on Sadeq's statement, media expert Yasser Abdel-Aziz said Egypt's war against Islamic militants may justify measures against "controversial" media outlets, but he cautioned that it's a "step that reinforces fears about the already diminishing margin of freedom allowed by authorities."

Writing on his Facebook page, prominent rights lawyer Nasser Amin said the prosecutor's statement would likely have a "destructive impact on rights and freedoms on the one hand as well as the Egyptian judicial system on the other."

In its latest skirmish with the media, authorities on Tuesday called on officials and prominent individuals to boycott the BBC until the network apologizes for a report it broadcast on repression of dissent under el-Sissi that addressed torture and forced disappearances.

The State Information Service, which accredits foreign media representatives and monitors their coverage, also wants the BBC to publish its statement alleging the report contained inaccuracies.

The BBC report included interviews with activists and other individuals describing police abuses, including a mother who says her daughter was arrested by police a year ago and has not been seen since. It has dominated Egypt's media over recent days, with pro-government commentators branding the report as another attempt to defame the country or spread propaganda inspired by the Muslim Brotherhood, an outlawed Islamist group.

Egyptian authorities has waged a fierce crackdown on Islamists since 2013, when el-Sissi as defense minister led the military's ouster of an Islamist president, Mohammed Morsi of the Brotherhood, whose one year in office proved divisive. Thousands of Islamists have been arrested, and the campaign has also targeted secular pro-democracy activists, many of whom are now in prison.

El-Sissi has emerged as a global voice against Islamic extremism and has won praise for carrying out tough reforms seen as vital to repairing the economy. He has said he wants to build a modern and democratic state but has also said liberties must take a backseat to ensuring stability and fighting terror.

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Associated Press writer Samy Magdy contributed to this report.

In this Sunday, Feb. 25, 2018 photo, provided by Egypt's state news agency MENA, Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, center, attends the inauguration of the East Suez Canal Counter-Terrorism command, in Sinai, Egypt. Nabil Sadeq, Egypt's chief prosecutor on Wednesday, Feb. 28, 2018 reminded his staff to closely monitor the media and start legal action against any outlet that disrupts security or hurts national interests, according to a statement issued by his office. (MENA via AP)BRUSSELS (AP) - Concerned that time is fast running out, the European Union moved Wednesday to force Britain's hand in Brexit negotiations by publishing a draft text that distils into legal language what they have - and even what they have not - agreed so far about Britain's departure.

British Prime Minister Theresa May immediately branded part of the 120-page document unacceptable and a likely threat to her country's constitutional order.

Britain officially leaves the EU on March 29 next year but Brexit talks must conclude this fall so that parliaments have time to ratify the final withdrawal agreement. The new text summarizes all aspects of the talks so far, but takes a tough line on issues where British input is lacking.

European Union chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier holds a draft document as he addresses a media conference at EU headquarters in Brussels on Wednesday, Feb. 28, 2018. European Union Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier unveiled in Brussels on Wednesday the first draft legal text of the EU's agreement so far with Britain on the country's departure from the bloc next year. (AP Photo/Virginia Mayo)

"If we want to succeed in these negotiations, and I want to succeed, we must accelerate," EU chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier said Wednesday. "In 13 months the U.K. will no longer be a member of the European Union. That's what it wanted."

While rumors about the document's content angered some on the other side of the English Channel even before it was made public, Barnier told reporters that "this draft text contains no surprises for our British friends."

EU leaders have been pushing May to provide more details about how she sees the border between Ireland and Northern Ireland operating, how long a transition period should last to help ease Britain out from next year, and to explain her government's vision of their future relations.

But they have been frustrated by the lack of feedback, with negotiations essentially at the half-way mark.

By translating progress, or the lack of it, into a legal text, the EU is ramping up pressure on May, whose government is creaking amid divisions from within and growing opposition pressure from across the aisle in parliament.

By far the most contentious section of the text - which is a draft and likely to be significantly altered - concerns the transit of goods, services and people across the border between EU member state Ireland and Northern Ireland, which is part of the United Kingdom.

Britain and the EU agreed in December that the all-but-invisible border would remain open after Brexit in 2019, but they left it unclear how that would happen in practice

Lacking "agreed solutions" so far, the EU draft suggests that Northern Ireland would remain within the bloc's customs union, creating a virtual border in the Irish Sea between Britain and its own territory where customs checks would have to be carried out.

But May said this proposal would "undermine the constitutional integrity of the U.K."

"No U.K. prime minister could ever agree to it," she told British lawmakers, and said her government remains "absolutely committed" to avoiding a hard border.

But Barnier suggested that "technical solutions" could be found to overcome some customs issues, and denied the EU is foisting any internal border on Britain.

"We are trying in a practical, pragmatic way using the tools at our disposal to find solutions," he insisted. He refused to accept that the document is part of a game of brinkmanship, saying: "I never bluff."

Ireland welcomed the first draft and said it contains "the necessary legal provision to implement the backstop" that would avoid a hard border between Britain's territory and the EU member state.

"We are looking forward to the further detail" from May, a government statement said.

Another point likely to rile London is the transition period aimed at avoiding any policy cliff edge next year that would upset businesses, trade and markets. The text states that it will end on Dec. 31, 2020, a practical deadline as the EU's current long-term budget, to which Britain contributes, expires then.

May's government is seeking more time, but because it has suggested no other date and because legally the period cannot remain open-ended, the EU's preferred date is the one being used.

Beyond that, EU leaders want to endorse a set of guidelines at their next summit on March 22-23 for negotiating the shape of future relations between the 28-member bloc and Britain, the first country ever to leave.

EU Council President Donald Tusk, who chairs summits of heads of state and government, said Friday that the EU will do that in three weeks "whether the U.K. is ready with its vision of our future relations or not. Naturally it would be much better if it were, but we cannot stand by and wait."

Adding to the pressure, Tusk holds talks with May in London on Thursday, on the eve of a major speech she plans to give which officials say will set out her government's vision of future relations with the EU.

Meanwhile, Brexit talks have plodded on at a lower, technical level since December. A new round is scheduled for next week, as are EU talks on the guidelines for negotiations concerning future ties.

___

Lawless reported from London.

European Union chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier holds a draft document after addressing a media conference at EU headquarters in Brussels on Wednesday, Feb. 28, 2018. European Union Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier unveiled in Brussels on Wednesday the first draft legal text of the EU's agreement so far with Britain on the country's departure from the bloc next year. (AP Photo/Virginia Mayo)

European Union chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier holds a draft document after addressing a media conference at EU headquarters in Brussels on Wednesday, Feb. 28, 2018. European Union Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier unveiled in Brussels on Wednesday the first draft legal text of the EU's agreement so far with Britain on the country's departure from the bloc next year. (AP Photo/Virginia Mayo)

European Union chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier speaks during a media conference at EU headquarters in Brussels on Wednesday, Feb. 28, 2018. European Union Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier unveiled in Brussels on Wednesday the first draft legal text of the EU's agreement so far with Britain on the country's departure from the bloc next year. (AP Photo/Virginia Mayo)HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) - A man says he forged a museum artifact in Connecticut that was once described as a "treasure to behold for art and history buffs alike."

Massachusetts antique dealer Harold Gordon tells The Hartford Courant he turned a plain writing desk into the "Bingham Family Civil War Memorial Secretary." The piece was said to be a gift given to a Civil War veteran in honor of his brother who was killed at the Battle of Antietam.

Gordon says he sold the piece to a Connecticut antiques dealer because he needed the money. The dealer showed the piece at a 2015 Winter Antiques Show in New York, where it was purchased by the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art.

The museum said in a statement Monday it has been offered a full refund.

___

Information from: Hartford Courant, http://www.courant.comLOS ANGELES (AP) - Wes Studi will take the stage at Sunday's Oscars to present an award. But the actor, among the few Native Americans included in the ceremony's 90-year history, has reason to feel like a winner.

"Exciting News!" the veteran actor tweeted when he and Gal Gadot, Mark Hamill, Eva Marie Saint and others were announced as presenters for ABC's 8 p.m. EST telecast hosted by Jimmy Kimmel.

"I see it as an acceptance of my participation in the business over a number of years," Studi said this week from his home in Santa Fe, New Mexico. "It's like being invited to the party."

FILE - In this Dec. 18, 2017 file photo, actor Wes Studi attends a special screening of "Hostiles" in New York. Studi, whose credits include "Avatar," "The Last of the Mohicans" and "Dances with Wolves," will take the stage at Sunday's Oscars to present an award. (Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP, File)

It also signifies something larger, said Studi, whose credits include "Avatar," ''The Last of the Mohicans" and "Dances with Wolves."

"It's a time when we're all hopefully embracing the diversity of the world we live in, and Hollywood has a way of reflecting that," he said.

He may be the first American Indian presenter at the Oscars, Studi said, a possibility echoed by Sonny Skyhawk, an actor and longtime activist. Academy librarians were unable to confirm that because presenters aren't tracked.

But the academy acknowledged that a scant number of Native Americans have taken part in the ceremony since it was launched - although famed humorist Will Rogers, who was of Cherokee heritage, did host in 1934.

Nominations have gone to three Native Americans, all Canadian, including actors Chief Dan George in 1971 for "Little Big Man" and Graham Greene in 1991 for "Dances with Wolves" and musician Buffy Sainte-Marie in 1983 for the original song "Up Where We Belong," which won the Oscar.

When "Dances with Wolves" won for adapted screenplay, writer Michael Blake invited film consultant Doris Leader Charge to join him onstage. She also translated his remarks into Lakota Sioux.

There was one unexpected appearance: In 1973, actress and activist Sacheen Littlefeather subbed for Marlon Brando at his request, rejecting his best-actor award for "The Godfather." Brando had said his decision to refuse the trophy was, in part, to protest the depiction of Native Americans on-screen.

All ethnic groups face stereotyping in movies and on TV, but American Indians also have stubbornly scant opportunities as well. That's in contrast to recent African-American progress with films including this year's best-picture nominee "Get Out" and last year's winner "Moonlight."

"I've been advocating for our stories and images for 40 years," said Skyhawk, whose credits include "Young Guns II."

Studi, asked if he intended to use his moment in the spotlight, said he has no "grand statements" planned: "It's enough of a statement to be there."

Skyhawk concurred, adding, "It's been a long time coming." But he hopes for more.

"Until we get to a point where we're offered roles that are academy-worthy, are Golden Globe-worthy, we're going to be on the outside, looking in," he said.

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Online:

http://www.oscars.org/

___

Lynn Elber can be reached at lelber@ap.org and on Twitter at http://twitter.com/lynnelber.

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For full coverage of awards season, visit: https://apnews.com/tag/AwardsSeasonLONDON (AP) - After Britain leaves the European Union in 2019, the 310-mile (500-kilometer) border between Northern Ireland and Ireland will be the U.K.'s only land frontier with a member of the bloc.

That makes it one of the trickiest issues in the divorce negotiations - and the most sensitive, given Northern Ireland's history of violence and conflicting identities in a region where some consider themselves British and others Irish. The fact that goods and people flow freely across the border has greatly helped reduce tensions since Northern Ireland's 1998 Good Friday peace accord.

Britain and the EU agreed in December that the all-but-invisible border would remain open once Britain leaves the bloc, although they left it unclear how that would happen in practice.

FILE - In this Monday, Jan. 30, 2017 file photo, a motorist crosses over the border from the Irish Republic into Northern Ireland near the town of Jonesborough, Northern Ireland. After Britain leaves the European Union in 2019, the 310-mile (500-kilometer) border between Northern Ireland and Ireland will be the U.K.'s only land frontier with a member of the bloc. That makes it one of the trickiest issues in the divorce negotiations _ and the most sensitive, given Northern Ireland's history of violence and conflicting identities in a region where some consider themselves British and others Irish. (AP Photo/Peter Morrison, file)

Publishing the EU's draft withdrawal agreement on Wednesday, chief negotiator Michel Barnier said there were three ways it could happen:

- A future free-trade agreement between Britain and the EU.

- "Specific solutions," such as technological alternatives to a hard border, which the EU says it is still waiting for Britain to propose.

- A "backstop solution" of effectively keeping Northern Ireland inside the EU's single market and customs union. The EU document proposes a "common regulatory area comprising the Union and the United Kingdom in respect of Northern Ireland." It says that area would have no internal borders, and no customs duties or restrictions on imports and exports.

It's this last option that has inflamed the debate in Britain, with pro-Brexit politicians saying it would effectively impose a border between Northern Ireland and the rest of the U.K., and prevent the U.K. from fully leaving the EU.

Prime Minister Theresa May said the proposal would "undermine the constitutional integrity of the U.K." and "no U.K. prime minister could ever agree to it."ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia (AP) - In an emotional gathering, representatives for thousands of Ethiopian Jews announced Wednesday they will stage a mass hunger strike if Israel eliminates funding to allow them to join their families in that country.

Hundreds met at a synagogue in Ethiopia's capital, Addis Ababa, to express concern that Israel's proposed budget removes the funding to help them immigrate to reunite with relatives. Many held photos of their loved ones.

Most of the nearly 8,000 Ethiopian Jews in the East African nation are said to have family members already in Israel. Some told The Associated Press they have been separated for well over a decade.

Members of Ethiopia's Jewish community hold pictures of their relatives in Israel, during a solidarity event at the synagogue in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia Wednesday, Feb. 28, 2018. Hundreds of Ethiopian Jews gathered at the synagogue to express concern that Israel's proposed budget removes the funding to help them immigrate to reunite with relatives in that country, as representatives said they will stage a mass hunger strike if Israel eliminates the funding. (AP Photo/Mulugeta Ayene)

In 1991 with Ethiopia deep in civil war, Israel carried out the dramatic Operation Solomon, successfully airlifting out some 14,500 Ethiopian Jews in less than two days. Israel's government in 2015 pledged to bring in the remaining Ethiopian Jews, with 1,300 Ethiopians brought in last year, but the effort is now on hold.

"All of us here in Ethiopia are in a foreign land and suffering from acute poverty and hunger," said Meles Sidisto, the community head of Ethiopian Jews in Addis Ababa. "We have had enough here. What have we done wrong to suffer this much?" he added, bursting into tears and prompting others to cry out.

He said Addis Ababa's community of Ethiopian Jews, which numbers around 800 households, will hold a hunger strike if the Israeli government doesn't hear their plea.

Avraham Neguise, a lawmaker who chairs the Israeli parliament's Absorption and Diaspora Committee, said the budget will be voted on in the coming weeks. He accused the government of discrimination, saying it makes it easier for other diaspora communities to immigrate.

"You cannot find any other communities where the parent is here and children are there and children are here and parents are there and are forced to be separated," he said. "It is only the Ethiopian Jewish community, not the Americans, not the Russians, not Europeans. If this isn't discrimination, what do you call it?"

Of the Ethiopian Jews remaining in Ethiopia, 783 are separated from their children and over 2,000 have parents or siblings in Israel, he said.

While Israeli law allows anyone with at least one Jewish grandparent to immigrate, the trouble here centers on the community's ancestors, said Alisa Bodner, a spokeswoman for the group Struggle for Ethiopian Aliyah. The ancestors were forced to convert to Christianity about a century ago, while their descendants have returned to a "fully Jewish lifestyle," she told the AP.

Wednesday's gathering was described as a solidarity event. Ethiopians currently are prohibited from holding protests under the country's latest state of emergency, imposed this month after the most severe anti-government demonstrations in a quarter-century.

Ethiopian officials were not immediately available for comment on the issue of the Ethiopian Jews. Most of the community lives in the northern Amhara region, one of the areas that has experienced the sometimes deadly anti-government protests that began in November 2015 with demands for greater freedoms.

The origin of the Ethiopian Jews is unclear but a popular legend says they descended from the son of King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba. Ethiopian Jews are often referred to in Ethiopia as "Falashas," a derogatory word which translates into "strangers" or "migrants."

Chekol Alemayehu, who said he has been waiting desperately to go to Israel and meet his relatives, said he completed all the immigration papers but was turned back at the airport more than a decade ago. "I've no idea why. My daughter died in Israel a few months ago. And I've been suffering since," he said.

In a letter addressed to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the Ethiopian Jews in Addis Ababa said they want to immediately and without any preconditions go to Israel and join family members.

"We will never lose hope in going to Israel because we are winner people," the letter says. "Dear Mr. Prime Minister, we want you to make our wish a reality. We ask you this in the name of Our God, Israel's God."

Netanyahu's office declined to comment.

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Associated Press writer Ian Deitch in Jerusalem contributed to this report.

___

Follow Africa news at https://twitter.com/AP_Africa

Members of Ethiopia's Jewish community hold pictures of their relatives in Israel, during a solidarity event at the synagogue in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia Wednesday, Feb. 28, 2018. Hundreds of Ethiopian Jews gathered at the synagogue to express concern that Israel's proposed budget removes the funding to help them immigrate to reunite with relatives in that country, as representatives said they will stage a mass hunger strike if Israel eliminates the funding. (AP Photo/Mulugeta Ayene)

Members of Ethiopia's Jewish community hold pictures of their relatives in Israel, during a solidarity event at the synagogue in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia Wednesday, Feb. 28, 2018. Hundreds of Ethiopian Jews gathered at the synagogue to express concern that Israel's proposed budget removes the funding to help them immigrate to reunite with relatives in that country, as representatives said they will stage a mass hunger strike if Israel eliminates the funding. (AP Photo/Mulugeta Ayene)

Members of Ethiopia's Jewish community walk to a solidarity event for their relatives in Israel, at the synagogue in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia Wednesday, Feb. 28, 2018. Hundreds of Ethiopian Jews gathered at the synagogue to express concern that Israel's proposed budget removes the funding to help them immigrate to reunite with relatives in that country, as representatives said they will stage a mass hunger strike if Israel eliminates the funding. (AP Photo/Mulugeta Ayene)

Members of Ethiopia's Jewish community attend a solidarity event for their relatives in Israel, at the synagogue in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia Wednesday, Feb. 28, 2018. Hundreds of Ethiopian Jews gathered at the synagogue to express concern that Israel's proposed budget removes the funding to help them immigrate to reunite with relatives in that country, as representatives said they will stage a mass hunger strike if Israel eliminates the funding. (AP Photo/Mulugeta Ayene)

Members of Ethiopia's Jewish community hold pictures of their relatives in Israel, below a banner reading "Welcome" in Amharic, English and Hebrew, during a solidarity event at the synagogue in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia Wednesday, Feb. 28, 2018. Hundreds of Ethiopian Jews gathered at the synagogue to express concern that Israel's proposed budget removes the funding to help them immigrate to reunite with relatives in that country, as representatives said they will stage a mass hunger strike if Israel eliminates the funding. (AP Photo/Mulugeta Ayene)

Members of Ethiopia's Jewish community hold pictures of their relatives in Israel, during a solidarity event at the synagogue in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia Wednesday, Feb. 28, 2018. Hundreds of Ethiopian Jews gathered at the synagogue to express concern that Israel's proposed budget removes the funding to help them immigrate to reunite with relatives in that country, as representatives said they will stage a mass hunger strike if Israel eliminates the funding. (AP Photo/Mulugeta Ayene)

Members of Ethiopia's Jewish community attend a solidarity event for their relatives in Israel, at the synagogue in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia Wednesday, Feb. 28, 2018. Hundreds of Ethiopian Jews gathered at the synagogue to express concern that Israel's proposed budget removes the funding to help them immigrate to reunite with relatives in that country, as representatives said they will stage a mass hunger strike if Israel eliminates the funding. (AP Photo/Mulugeta Ayene)

Members of Ethiopia's Jewish community hold pictures of their relatives in Israel during a solidarity event at the synagogue in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, Wednesday, Feb. 28, 2018. Hundreds of Ethiopian Jews gathered at the synagogue to express concern that Israel's proposed budget removes the funding to help them immigrate to reunite with relatives in that country, as representatives said they will stage a mass hunger strike if Israel eliminates the funding. (AP Photo/Mulugeta Ayene)SAN DIEGO (AP) - President Donald Trump has won a judge's permission to build a border wall with Mexico. Now he just needs the money.

A judge who was taunted by Trump during the presidential campaign sided on Tuesday with the president on a challenge to building the wall. U.S. District Judge Gonzalo Curiel rejected arguments by the state of California and advocacy groups that the administration overreached by waiving laws requiring environmental and other reviews before construction can begin.

"Big legal win today," Trump tweeted in response to the ruling. He didn't mention his prior remarks about the judge's Mexican heritage.

FILE - This Oct. 26, 2017 file photo shows prototypes of border walls in San Diego. A federal judge in San Diego who was taunted by Donald Trump during the presidential campaign has sided with the president on a challenge to building a border wall with Mexico. U.S. District Judge Gonzalo Curiel on Tuesday, Feb. 27, 2018 rejected arguments by the state of California and advocacy groups that the administration overreached by waiving laws requiring environmental and other reviews before construction could begin. (AP Photo/Elliott Spagat, File)

Despite the victory, Congress has yet to fund the wall and Trump's demands that Mexico pay have gone nowhere. This month, the Senate rejected a request for $18 billion that was part of a package including sharp cuts to legal immigration and permission for young immigrants to stay in the country after they were temporarily shielded from deportation under an Obama-era program, Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals.

Trump said in a tweet Wednesday sections of the wall will not be built "until the whole Wall is approved."

The president tweeted: "I have decided that sections of the Wall that California wants built NOW will not be built until the whole Wall is approved. Big victory yesterday with ruling from the courts that allows us to proceed. OUR COUNTRY MUST HAVE BORDER SECURITY!"

The White House did not immediately answer questions about the tweet.

Trump berated Curiel during the campaign for his handling of fraud allegations against now-defunct Trump University, suggesting the Indiana-born judge's Mexican heritage reflected a bias.

Curiel mentioned his Indiana roots in his 101-page ruling on the wall when he cited another native of the state, U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts, who wrote in another case that courts should not make policy judgments.

"The court cannot and does not consider whether the underlying decisions to construct border barriers are politically wise or prudent," Curiel wrote.

Curiel wrote that the law certainly "is not a model of legislative precision" and that both sides made plausible arguments, preventing him from making a clear finding that the administration overreached.

The administration has issued three waivers since August, two to build in parts of California and one in part of New Mexico. President George W. Bush's administration issued the previous five waivers, allowing the government to quickly extend barriers to about one-third of the border.

The Center for Biological Diversity said in its lawsuit that the waiver authority cannot be interpreted to last forever. California argued that it expired in 2008, when Homeland Security satisfied congressional requirements at the time on how much wall to build.

The judge declined to second-guess the administration's findings that waivers were issued in areas of "high illegal entry," a requirement set by Congress. The advocates argued that dramatic declines in border arrests undermined those findings.

During arguments this month, the judge peppered both sides with questions about the law's meaning. He showed strong interest in a requirement tacked on in late 2007 for Homeland Security to consult other federal agencies, state and local governments, Indian tribes and property owners to minimize the impact of construction, which challengers said the administration failed to do.

Curiel said in his ruling that the law's lack of specifics prevented him for concluding that the administration failed to properly consult others.

The Center for Biological Diversity, which sued along with the state of California and three advocacy groups, said it would appeal. Construction can proceed for now.

California Attorney General Xavier Becerra said, "We will evaluate all of our options and are prepared to do what is necessary to protect our people, our values, and our economy from federal overreach."

The Animal Legal Defense Fund said it may ask the U.S. Supreme Court to intervene. The Sierra Club said the environmental and other reviews are critical to protecting border communities, but the group didn't discuss its next step.

U.S. Justice Department spokesman Devin O'Malley welcomed the decision, saying Congress granted authority to build a wall without delay and that the administration is pleased it can continue "this important work vital to our nation's interests."

Homeland Security spokesman Tyler Houlton added, "Simply put, walls work."

The decision came days after construction began on a 30-foot (9.1-meter) high barrier in Calexico, California, the administration's first wall project outside of eight prototypes in San Diego that were completed in October and are intended to guide future construction. Both projects carry a relatively small price tag and were funded last year.DENVER (AP) - U.S. Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke's plan for a major realignment to put more of his department's decision-makers in the field has a fundamental flaw in the eyes of some who spent their careers making those decisions: They're already out there.

Eleven former Interior Department officials with decades of experience in both Washington and in local offices told The Associated Press the agency already has a well-established system for decentralized decision-making.

"Ninety percent-plus of the decisions that get made get made at the local level," said Scott Florence, who retired after 38 years with the Bureau of Land Management, the Interior Department's second-largest branch.

FILE - In this Sept. 29, 2017 file photo Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke speaks on the Trump Administration's energy policy at the Heritage Foundation in Washington. Zinke wants to move more Interior Department employees out of Washington and into the field, closer to the public lands and resources they manage, saying that will lead to improved, decentralized decision-making. More than 90 percent of the department's employees already work outside the Washington area, and some retired department employees say the agency already has a well-established decentralized decision-making process. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik,File)

The problem, some said, is that over the past few years, an increasing number of decisions that should have been made locally were ultimately decided in Washington because of political pressure, under both Democratic and Republican administrations.

And since 91.5 percent of the department's workforce of about 70,000 is already based outside the Washington area, most of the former interior employees said they doubted pushing more employees out of Washington would improve things.

Zinke has made the overhaul of the Interior Department - which manages 780,000 square miles (2 million square kilometers) of public lands, mostly in the West - a signature mission since taking over the agency a year ago. He says it would streamline bureaucracy and lead to better decisions made closer to the field.

Parts of his realignment proposal have run into resistance from some politicians from both parties, particularly in the West, who fear it will disrupt relationships between state and federal officials. That criticism echoes a 2015 letter sent to leaders of the Bureau of Land Management, objecting to a far more modest proposal to combine the bureau offices in New Mexico and Arizona.

The letter from 13 members of Congress - including Zinke, then a Republican congressman representing his home state of Montana - also expressed fear the proposal was part of a larger plan to create more multistate offices in the bureau.

"We believe this is a poor model and should be abandoned," the lawmakers wrote.

The Interior Department eventually dropped the idea in the face of opposition from both Democrats and Republicans.

Interior Department spokeswoman Heather Smith said Zinke's reorganization proposal, which includes appointing 13 new regional directors , is different than the attempted merger of the two offices in 2015.

State-federal relationships would be strengthened under his proposal because governors and other officials could contact regional officials, she said.

"More decisions and authority will be at the regional level, with fewer decisions kicked up to Washington, so the ability of governors to reach key decision makers will be enhanced by the secretary's proposal," she said.

The 11 former Interior Department officials who spoke with the AP came mostly from the Bureau of Land Management but also the National Park Service and the Fish and Wildlife Service. Their job experiences ranged from park ranger to director of the Fish and Wildlife Service. Each spoke on the record.

Their opinions on Zinke's proposal ranged from skepticism to strong opposition, and all said they knew of no former Interior Department employees who supported it. But one of the 11 - Dan Ashe, the former Fish and Wildlife Service director - said reorganizations are almost always unpopular.

Some worried moving more career employees with field experience out of Washington would make things worse.

"By having those people there, they at least have some influence on the decisions that are being made in Washington," said Mike Ferguson, a wildlife biologist who became the Bureau of Land Management's top financial officer before he retired.

"If you move them west, you break that link, but the decisions are still going to be made in Washington," he said.

Some said the problem with the department's current structure is that a growing number of local decisions are being made in Washington by political appointees for political reasons. The trend has continued under both Republican and Democratic administrations, they said.

Washington officials once dictated to Interior Department workers in Idaho what kind of vegetation they could plant after a wildfire on federal land, said Steve Ellis, who retired in 2016 as deputy director of the Bureau of Land Management.

"That is a field-level decision," he said. "But it became very political," probably because the livestock industry wanted a specific kind of grass for cattle.

Swift said the former employees have the same concerns as Zinke about decisions being made in Washington, not locally.

But restructuring the agency and moving employees aren't the solution, Ferguson said.

"It's not a matter of changing the organization. It's a matter of allowing the employees in the organization to do the job that they were hired to do," he said.

___

Follow Dan Elliott at http://twitter.com/DanElliottAP. His work can be found at https://apnews.com/search/dan%20elliott.DAKAR, Senegal (AP) - A United Nations children's agency staffer and five other education workers have been killed in an attack in Central African Republic, the U.N. agency said Wednesday.

The team came under attack Sunday while traveling near Markounda, a remote northwestern area near the border with Chad where more than 7,000 people have sought refuge in recent months, UNICEF said. The team had planned to train community teachers for 2,000 children affected by the country's ongoing violence among armed groups.

All the victims were Central African nationals, including two officials with the education ministry.

"We are shocked beyond words by this brutal and senseless attack on people who have dedicated their lives to helping others," said Christine Muhigana, UNICEF's country representative.

Central African Republic has faced deadly interreligious and intercommunal fighting since 2013, when predominantly Muslim Seleka rebels seized power in the capital, Bangui. Mostly Christian anti-Balaka militias fought back, resulting in thousands of people killed and hundreds of thousands displaced.

The impoverished country saw a period of relative peace in late 2015 and 2016 but violence has intensified and spread in the past year.

In August, clashes between a militia and a self-defense group in the southeast killed 30 civilians, including six Red Cross volunteers.

The violence has blocked many humanitarian workers from doing their work.BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) - A federal judge who halted construction of a crude oil pipeline through a Louisiana swamp concluded that the project's irreversible environmental damage outweighs the economic harm that a delay brings to the company building it.

U.S. District Judge Shelly Dick issued a 61-page ruling Tuesday to explain her decision last week to stop construction of the Bayou Bridge pipeline in environmentally fragile Atchafalaya Basin.

The judge said the project potentially threatens the hydrology of the basin and "poses the threat of destruction of already diminishing wetlands." She also agreed with environmental groups that centuries-old "legacy" trees can't be replaced once they're cut down.

Bayou Bridge Pipeline LLC on Monday asked Dick to suspend her order while it appeals, but the judge refused. The company is asking the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to review Dick's decision.

Dick clarified that the preliminary injunction she issued last Friday only applies to the basin. The order doesn't prevent the company from working elsewhere along the pipeline's 162-mile-long (261-kilometer) path from Lake Charles to St. James Parish.

Sierra Club and other environmental groups sued the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers last month, saying it violated the Clean Water Act and other environmental laws when it approved a permit for the project. If Dick's order stands, all construction work in the basin must stop until the lawsuit is resolved.

The company said the construction halt could cost it close to $1 million a day or $25 million a month, forcing contractors to lay off or furlough workers and hurting the local economy. But the judge said the company's estimated losses aren't supported by the "underlying data."

"The Court finds the temporary delay in reaping economic benefits does not outweigh the permanent harm to the environment that has been established as a result of the pipeline construction," she wrote.

Company spokeswoman Alexis Daniel said in statement Wednesday that Bayou Bridge Pipeline "respectfully disagrees" with the judge's ruling that the Corps did not properly consider the "limited impacts" of construction in the basin.

"In fact, the Corps issued two comprehensive environmental assessments, both of which had a 'Finding of No Significant Impact' to the Basin," she added.

Construction in the basin began last month. The basin is the nation's largest river swamp and includes roughly 880,000 acres (356,000 hectares) of forested wetlands, according to the groups' lawsuit.

Bayou Bridge Pipeline LLC is a joint venture of Energy Transfer Partners and Phillips 66. Energy Transfer Partners built the Dakota Access pipeline, a project that sparked a string of violent clashes between protesters and police in North Dakota in 2016 and 2017.

The Bayou Bridge pipeline is the last link in a pipeline network connecting the Bakken oil fields in North Dakota with Louisiana refineries and export terminals. The 24-inch-wide (60-centimeter-wide) pipeline in south Louisiana is designed to have a maximum capacity of 480,000 barrels, or roughly 20 million gallons (75 million liters), of crude a day.

The Corps completed two environmental assessments for the project before issuing the permit. Company attorneys noted that the Corps' permit requires Bayou Bridge Pipeline to restore the basin's "pre-existing wetland contours and conditions" once the project is done.

However, the judge said the Corps didn't show it took a "hard look" at past, present and future "cumulative" environmental impacts.

"The Corps' and (company's) myopic view that they are only required to consider the impacts of this singular project is not consistent with the regulations or applicable jurisprudence," she wrote.

The environmental groups claim the Corps didn't adequately or properly consider the project's oil spill risks, but the judge said they didn't offer any evidence of that. Dick said the Corps gave "extensive and appropriate consideration" to the risk of oil spills along the entire route of the pipeline, including in the basin.

Earthjustice attorneys filed the suit on behalf of Sierra Club, Waterkeeper Alliance, Gulf Restoration Network, Atchafalaya Basinkeeper and the Louisiana Crawfish Producers Association-West.NEW YORK (AP) - Dick's Sporting Goods and Walmart took steps Wednesday to restrict gun sales, adding two retail heavyweights to the growing rift between corporate America and the gun lobby.

Dick's said it will immediately stop selling assault-style rifles and ban the sale of all guns to anyone under 21. Its CEO took on the National Rifle Association by demanding tougher gun laws after the massacre in Florida.

Walmart, the nation's largest retailer, followed late Wednesday saying it will no longer sell firearms and ammunition to people younger than 21. It had stopped selling AR-15s and other semi-automatic weapons in 2015, citing weak sales.

A Dick's Sporting Goods store is seen in Arlington Heights, Ill., Wednesday, Feb. 28, 2018. Dick's Sporting Goods announced Wednesday that it will immediately end sales of assault-style rifles and high capacity magazines at all of its stores and ban the sale of all guns to anyone under 21. Dick's had cut off sales of assault-style weapons at Dick's stores following the Sandy Hook school shooting. But Dick's owns dozens of its Field & Stream stores, where there has been no such ban in place. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh)

The announcements from the major national retailers came as students at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, returned to class for the first time since a teenager killed 17 students and educators with an AR-15 rifle two weeks ago.

"When we saw what the kids were going through and the grief of the parents and the kids who were killed in Parkland, we felt we needed to do something," Dick's Chairman and CEO Ed Stack said on ABC's "Good Morning America."

Several major corporations, including MetLife, Hertz and Delta Air Lines, have cut ties with the NRA since the Florida tragedy. None of them were retailers who sold guns.

Sporting goods chain Bass Pro Shops, which owns Cabela's, didn't respond to requests for comment. Nor did the Outdoor Retail Association or Gander Outdoors.

The announcements from Dick's and Walmart drew hundreds of thousands of responses for and against the moves on the companies' social media accounts.

Dick Sporting Goods had cut off sales of assault-style weapons after the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting. But sales had resumed at its smaller chain of Field & Stream stores, which consisted of 35 outlets in 16 states as of October.

On Wednesday, Stack said that would end, and he called on lawmakers to act now.

He urged them to ban assault-style firearms, bump stocks and high-capacity magazines and raise the minimum age to buy firearms to 21. He said universal background checks should be required, and there should be a complete database of those banned from buying firearms. He also called for the closing of the private sale and gun show loophole that enables purchasers to escape background checks.

"We support and respect the Second Amendment, and we recognize and appreciate that the vast majority of gun owners in this country are responsible, law-abiding citizens," Stack said in a letter. "But we have to help solve the problem that's in front of us. Gun violence is an epidemic that's taking the lives of too many people, including the brightest hope for the future of America - our kids."

Walmart said it was also removing items from its website that resemble assault-style rifles, including airsoft guns and toys. "Our heritage as a company has always been in serving sportsmen and hunters, and we will continue to do so in a responsible way," Walmart said.

One industry analyst said that other retailers that devote a small percentage of their business to hunting will probably follow suit. While guns can be bought from sporting goods stores or department stores, they can also be purchased online, at gun shows and from small local gun stores.

The NRA has pushed back aggressively against calls for raising age limits for guns or restricting the sale of assault-style weapons. Calls to the NRA were not immediately returned.

Stack also revealed that Nikolas Cruz, the 19-year-old arrested in the Florida attack, had bought a shotgun at a Dick's store within the past four months.

"It was not the gun, nor type of gun, he used in the shooting," the CEO wrote. "But it could have been. Clearly this indicates on so many levels that the systems in place are not effective to protect our kids and our citizens."

The vast majority of Dick's business is selling sporting goods like basketballs and sneakers. Joseph Feldman, a senior managing director at the Telsey Advisory Group, estimated that guns and ammunition account for 8 percent of the company's sales.

Dick's, which had net sales of $7.92 billion in the fiscal year that ended in January 2017, has a much bigger stake in youth sports.

"The longer-term positive perception that they create a more welcoming environment will offset any lost sales in the year," Feldman said.

Dick's is based just outside of Pittsburgh in a state where the first day of deer hunting season is an unofficial holiday for many families. Stack said Dick's is prepared for any backlash but will never allow the sale of such guns in its stores again.

"This is the moment when business leaders across the country get to decide if they want to stand on the right side of history," said Shannon Watts, founder of Moms Demand Acton for Gun Sense in America. "Mothers make the majority of spending decisions for their families, and we want to shop with businesses that care about the safety of our families - making this a smart business move, too."

Pam Platt of Louisville, Kentucky, said she was thrilled to hear about Dick's move and called the store's customer service line to offer her praise. She said she told the representative who answered that she wanted her to "hear something good from somebody."

"She perked up," Platt added.

Platt said she now plans to start buying more at her local Dick's store, including a pair of sneakers this week.

"When I go to the store, I will let them know why I am here," she said. "I care about this issue."

But many others were unhappy with the company's move, some posting on the Dick's page that they would stop shopping at its stores.

"I was sad to hear they would pull them off and bow to these people that have no understanding of what a gun is," said Gerald Jaeger, outside a Dick's in Brookfield, Wisconsin.

Dick's stock ended Wednesday up 22 cents at $32.02.

___

AP Retail Writers Anne D'Innocenzio and Joseph Pisani contributed to this report. Associated Press reporter Carrie Antlfinger contributed from Brookfield, Wisconsin.

In this Oct. 27, 2004, photo Dick's Sporting Goods' Chairman and CEO Edward Stack poses for a photo in Findlay Township, Pa. Stack is issuing a letter Wednesday, Feb. 28, 2018, about his decision to end the sale of assault-style weapons and high-capacity magazines at stores. (Tony Tye/Pittsburgh Post-Gazette via AP, File)

In this Oct. 18, 2016, photo, Chairman and CEO of DICK'S Sporting Goods Edward W. Stack poses for a photo as he visits a new store at the Baybrook Mall in the Houston. Stack is issuing a letter Wednesday, Feb. 28, 2018, about his decision to end the sale of assault-style weapons and high-capacity magazines at stores. (Photo by Scott Dalton/Invision for DICK'S Sporting Goods/AP Images)

A Dick's Sporting Goods store is seen in Arlington Heights, Ill., Wednesday, Feb. 28, 2018. Dick's Sporting Goods announced Wednesday that it will immediately end sales of assault-style rifles and high capacity magazines at all of its stores and ban the sale of all guns to anyone under 21. Dick's had cut off sales of assault-style weapons at Dick's stores following the Sandy Hook school shooting. But Dick's owns dozens of its Field & Stream stores, where there has been no such ban in place. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh)

In this Oct. 18, 2016, photo, Chairman and CEO of DICK'S Sporting Goods Edward W. Stack poses for a photo as he visits a new store at the Baybrook Mall in the Houston. Stack is issuing a letter Wednesday, Feb. 28, 2018, about his decision to end the sale of assault-style weapons and high-capacity magazines at stores. (Photo by Scott Dalton/Invision for DICK'S Sporting Goods/AP Images)

This photo taken Tuesday, Aug. 29, 2017, shows a Dick's Sporting Goods sign at a store in Miami. Dick's Sporting Goods announced Wednesday, Feb. 28, 2018, that it will immediately end sales of assault-style rifles and high capacity magazines at all of its stores and ban the sale of all guns to anyone under 21 years old. The announcement comes two weeks after the school massacre in Parkland, Fla. (AP Photo/Alan Diaz)

The Field & Stream is seen just after opening on Wednesday, Feb. 28, 2018 in Cranberry Township, Pa. Dick's Sporting Goods, owner of Field & Stream stores, made an announcement Wednesday, two weeks after the school massacre in Parkland, Fla., that they will immediately end sales of assault-style rifles and high capacity magazines at all of its stores and ban the sale of all guns to anyone under 21 years old. Dick's, a major gun retailer, had cut off sales of assault-style weapons at Dick's stores following the Sandy Hook school shooting. (AP Photo/Keith Srakocic)WASHINGTON (AP) - The Latest on President Donald Trump, Congress and guns (all times local):

6:05 p.m.

One of the Senate's leading gun control proponents says he is pleased that President Donald Trump expressed support for expanded background checks and other measures during a bipartisan meeting at the White House.

President Donald Trump speaks in the Cabinet Room of the White House, Wednesday, Feb. 28, 2018 in Washington, during a meeting with members of Congress to discuss school and community safety. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

But Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut says he is "worried that this was the beginning and the end of the president's advocacy on this issue."

Murphy, who has long pushed for stronger gun control, says the question now is whether Trump will follow through on ideas expressed at Wednesday's meeting. He says if Trump sends a proposal to Congress "and sends his people up here to forcefully lobby for universal background checks, they will pass."

If such a proposal fails, Murphy says the blame will go to the White House and Republicans in Congress.

___

5:15 p.m.

The top Republican sponsor of legislation to require background checks for a broader range of gun sales says he is optimistic that support from President Donald Trump could drive it to passage.

Pennsylvania Sen. Pat Toomey says "with his support I think we can get it across the goal line."

Toomey spoke to reporters after returning from a White House meeting on gun control and school safety issues in which Trump supported the idea of universal background checks for gun purchases. The current system requires background checks for purchases from gun dealers but not on weapons bought at gun shows or in private transactions.

The legislation failed in 2013 after the school massacre in Newtown, Connecticut. The powerful National Rifle Association is opposed.

__

3:40 p.m.

President Donald Trump is urging Republicans to set aside efforts to expand the concealed carrying of firearms in legislation pending in Congress.

He is telling lawmakers considering ways to respond to the deadly Florida school shooting, "You'll never get it passed."

Trump says the concealed carry provision is a "whole new ballgame" and should be in a separate bill.

The House approved the bill late last year as part of a broader package that also expanded gun rights by requiring states to recognize conceal-carry permits issued by other states.

Some House Republicans are resistant to separating the two issues, as is likely in the Senate.

__

3:20 p.m.

President Donald Trump says he wants Congress to put a number of gun safety measures into a Senate bill that would bolster background checks.

Trump is urging lawmakers to add their best ideas to a proposal pushed by Texas Sen. John Cornyn to improve background checks.

Trump is telling members of Congress that "you have a different president now," pointing to the failure of past attempts to address gun violence during past administrations.

Connecticut Sen. Chris Murphy, a Democrat, is urging the president to stand up to the gun lobby. He is telling the president that "it's going to have to be you who brings the Republicans to the table on this."

__

3:10 p.m.

President Donald Trump is convening a bipartisan group of lawmakers to find ways of addressing gun violence. Trump says, "We have to do something about it."

Trump tells the members of Congress that he's going to "come up with some ideas" and he's expressing hope that those ideas could be put in a "bipartisan bill."

The president says he doesn't want to wait several weeks and then have people forget. He says these "horrible mass shootings are nothing new," pointing to past shootings such as Columbine, Fort Hood and Sandy Hook.

Texas Sen. John Cornyn, who is pushing a bill to improve background checks, says leaving Washington "empty-handed is not accepted."

__

10:15 a.m.

Senate Democrats want President Donald Trump to follow through on his push for "comprehensive background checks" for gun buyers. And they're pressing him to endorse legislation that would extend the pre-purchase checks at least to online and gun show sales.

They're making their case in a letter to Trump before the president hosts a meeting with a bipartisan group of lawmakers to discuss school safety and possible gun legislation.

Trump tweeted over the weekend that he'd strongly be pushing "Comprehensive Background Checks with an emphasis on Mental Health."

The Democratic senators say in their letter that "we couldn't agree more."

Legislation in the Senate would to close what critics call the gun show and online sales loophole. The Democrats say if Trump gave an endorsement, that measure would stand a better chance of passage.

___

12:15 a.m.

President Donald Trump has invited a bipartisan group of lawmakers to the White House to discuss school safety and possible gun legislation.

One of Trump's top gun safety proposals after the Florida school shooting was raising the age to purchase some rifles from 18 to 21. But that idea appears to have receded after Trump's lunch last week with leaders of the National Rifle Association.

On Capitol Hill, House Speaker Paul Ryan is showing showed little interest in stricter gun control proposals being floated in Congress.

He seems to be leaving the issue in the hands of wary Senate leaders and the president - whose shifting views have left no clear strategy for legislative action.BERLIN (AP) - The next German government will consider a proposal to identify diesel vehicles with low emissions using a visible label soon after it takes office, Chancellor Angela Merkel's spokesman said Wednesday - an idea immediately met with criticism from business organizations and others.

The question of how authorities can distinguish which cars emit high amounts of harmful nitrogen oxides was pushed to the fore by a German court decision Tuesday that said cities can impose driving bans on particularly dirty diesels.

Already, many major German cities require that all vehicles meet certain emission standards to drive downtown, and carry a green windshield sticker so that they can be recognized.

Cars drive on a main road in Berlin, Germany, Wednesday, Feb. 28, 2018. The German court ruled Tuesday that cities can impose driving bans on diesel cars to combat air pollution, a decision that could affect millions of drivers and the country's powerful auto industry. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)

With the possibility of a ban on all but the newest diesel vehicles, Merkel's spokesman Steffen Seibert said the idea of issuing a new blue sticker to ensure that dirty diesels are identifiable would be "taken up quickly" by the new Cabinet, which could assume office next month.

Cities have long called for such a labeling system but previous German governments have opposed it. Environmental groups accuse the government of ignoring the air pollution problem for fear of angering millions of diesel car owners and the country's powerful auto lobby.

Following Seibert's comments, the governor of the northwestern state of Lower Saxony, Stephan Weil, said the blue sticker was no solution, telling Die Welt newspaper it is "only a friendly way to say driving ban."

Weil said a ban would just force diesel owners to buy gasoline-powered cars, which might reduce nitrogen oxide levels but would increase carbon dioxide emissions. Lower Saxony has a large financial stake in German automaker Volkswagen, which received heavy fines in the United States after being found to have cheated on diesel emissions tests.

Meantime, the Association of German Chambers of Commerce and Industry, known as DIHK, warned that banning all diesels except for those with blue sticker certifications from downtown driving "would restrict more than 10 million vehicles, some of which aren't even two years old, from many German cities."

"If only half of these vehicles need to be replaced we're looking at costs for businesses of more than five billion euros ($6 billion) and more than 16 billion euros for households," DIHK deputy-head Achim Dercks told the Handelsblatt newspaper.

The German Association for Small and Medium-sized Businesses told Handelsblatt that many companies relied on diesel vehicles for deliveries and other purposes.

"A diesel ban is in reality a ban on work for small and middle-sized businesses," organization president Mario Ohoven said.TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras (AP) - Military police searched the home of former Honduran President Porfirio Lobo on Wednesday and arrested his wife as part of a corruption probe by an international team of investigators.

Police arrived at the Lobo home outside the capital in six vehicles and searched the residence before leaving with former first lady Rosa Elena Bonilla and her brother-in-law Mauricio Mora. Authorities did not say if Lobo himself was present.

The arrest was announced by an anti-corruption mission of the Organization of American States, a team the government agreed to accept following large street protests against graft in 2016.

Former first lady of Honduras Rosa Elena Bonilla is escorted by police to a police station in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, Wednesday, Feb. 28, 2018. Military police searched the home of the former first couple on Wednesday and arrested Bonilla as part of a corruption probe by an international team of investigators. Authorities did not say if her husband, former President Porfirio Lobo, himself was present. (AP Photo/Fernando Antonio)

Investigators for the non-governmental National Anti-corruption Council have told prosecutors that Bonilla, 48, deposited $600,000 in government funds into her personal bank account five days before Lobo ended his four-year term in January 2014. They also say she hasn't accounted for at least $6 million in government funds for her office during Lobo's administration.

"Today is a great step against impunity," council director Gabriela Castellanos said on her Twitter account.

Bonilla's attorney Julio Ramirez told journalists that 'My client is innocent and I will prove it in the courts."

Past corruption cases involving public figures have generally ended without convictions, and the chief of the OAS mission, Juan Jimenez Mayor, resigned in mid-February, complaining of a lack of support from the Honduran government and the OAS itself.

In December, the mission announced corruption complaints against five Honduran legislators who were accused of shifting public money through a charity and into their own accounts. A month later, Congress passed a measure protecting them from prosecution by freezing any civil or criminal action over public spending until auditors have studied such cases for three years.

Jimenez then called that step a "pact of immunity" and said the mission's investigators had found strong indications that at least 30 current and former legislators had committed crimes.

Even so, the OAS mission's investigations led last week to the arrest of three high-ranking military officers accused of illegal association, false testimony and conspiracy involving a case in which civilians had been detained and tortured. Eight lower-ranking soldiers earlier had been convicted in the case. They had said they were only following orders.

FILE - In this May 24, 2010 file photo, Honduras' First Lady Rosa Elena Bonilla stands with her husband, President Porfirio Lobo, during their official visit to the presidential palace in Bogota, Colombia. Military police searched the home of the former first couple on Wednesday, Feb. 28, 2018 and arrested the former first lady as part of a corruption probe by an international team of investigators. Authorities did not say if Lobo himself was present. (AP Photo/Fernando Vergara, File)PRISTINA, Kosovo (AP) - European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker on Wednesday called on Kosovo to ratify a border demarcation deal with Montenegro and improve ties with Serbia.

Juncker was near the end of a tour of Western Balkan countries which hope to join the European Union. The EU has drafted a new expansion strategy that envisages Serbia and Montenegro could be the next to join the bloc in 2025.

It was the first visit to Kosovo by an EU Commission chief and he was accompanied by EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini and Enlargement Commissioner Johannes Hahn.

President of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker, speaks during a joint press conference with Kosovo president Hashim Thaci in Kosovo capital Pristina on Wednesday, Feb. 28, 2018, during his first official visit to Kosovo. Jean-Claude Juncker is on Balkan tour visiting seven nations in western Balkans as a part of EU enlargement policy. (AP Photo/Visar Kryeziu)

The EU says the border deal is a precondition for Kosovo's citizens to travel freely within its visa-free travel zone known as Schengen.

"The most fundamental issue is the ratification of the border demarcation with Montenegro," Juncker said. "That is a fundamental issue, an important one because it is linked with the visa liberalization."

Opposition parties say Kosovo loses territory with the 2015 agreement, though that has been denied by the previous government and international experts.

Lawmakers in Kosovo's 120-seat Assembly again failed to vote Wednesday on the border deal, apparently due to the lack of the required two-third majority needed to ratify the agreement.

Montenegro, which has approved the deal, recognizes Kosovo's 2008 independence from Serbia, which Belgrade rejects.

Juncker also said that "ties between Kosovo and Serbia are fundamental" in their path toward Europe.

On Monday, while visiting Serbia, Juncker said the EU was seeking a "legally-binding" agreement between Serbia and Kosovo, adding that the EU is helping out in the talks launched in 2011 on normalizing ties between the two.

Juncker's trip ends with an EU summit with regional leaders in Sofia, Bulgaria, on March 1.

___

Llazar Semini contributed from Tirana, Albania.

President of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker, right, during a joint press conference with Kosovo president Hashim Thaci in Kosovo capital Pristina on Wednesday, Feb. 28, 2018, during his first official visit to Kosovo. Jean-Claude Juncker is on Balkan tour visiting seven nations in western Balkans as a part of EU enlargement policy. (AP Photo/Visar Kryeziu)WASHINGTON (AP) - President Donald Trump said Wednesday that Congress should act quickly on gun laws as he convened lawmakers at the White House and pushed for tougher background checks, better school safety and more mental health resources to prevent shootings.

"We can't wait and play games and nothing gets done," Trump said as he opened the session with 17 House and Senate lawmakers. "We want to stop the problems."

Trump particularly cited the need for stronger background checks, which have been resisted by Republicans in Congress and the National Rifle Association. But the president said he told NRA officials over lunch recently that changes in gun culture are needed.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., flanked by Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., left, and Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn, R-Texas, speaks with reporters following weekly policy luncheons where they discussed school safety measures in response to the Parkland, Fla., assault that left 17 dead, at the Capitol in Washington, Tuesday, Feb. 27, 2018. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

"Hey, I'm the biggest fan of the Second Amendment," Trump said.

"It's time," he said he told the NRA officials. "We have to stop this nonsense."

The White House meeting came amid fresh public debate over gun laws, fueled by student survivors of the massacre at Florida's Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, who have been meeting with lawmakers on Capitol Hill. The school reopened Wednesday for the first time since a 19-year-old's Valentine's Day assault killed 17.

Momentum on gun legislation has stalled in Congress as Republican leaders showed little interest in pursuing stricter gun control laws and Democrats pushed new restrictions following the Florida shooting.

Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., told the president that if he backed legislation in Congress to expand background checks, as proposed under a bill twice rejected in the Senate, it would pass.

"It is going to have to be you," Murphy said.

Ahead of the session, Senate Democrats urged the president to follow through on his call for "comprehensive background checks" by endorsing legislation to extend the pre-purchase reviews to online and gun show sales.

"You said that you would be 'strongly pushing comprehensive background checks' in an effort to combat the epidemic of mass shootings that has plagued our country," wrote the four senators led by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., citing Trump's weekend tweet after the Florida shooting. "We couldn't agree more."

Legislation has been revived in the Senate to close the gun show and online sales loophole. Democrats appealed to Trump to use his influence on Capitol Hill.

"With your leadership, Mr. President, we have an opportunity to break through the gridlock that has held this issue hostage for so many years and finally enact the kind of commonsense gun safety legislation that over 90 percent of Americans, both Democrats and Republicans, support," the senators wrote.

Among those at the White House were Sens. Pat Toomey, R-Pa., and Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., who are pushing their bill - which failed twice in the Senate after the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting - to broaden background checks.

"I think the mindset changed right now," Manchin said Wednesday on "CBS This Morning."

"We're seeing a movement we've never seen before," he said. "The kids have spoken up. ... Corporate America has woken up."

One major retailer, Dick's Sporting Goods, announced it was halting sales of assault-style rifles and high-capacity magazines at all of its stores and banning the sale of all guns to anyone under 21. Trump had floated the idea of an age restriction immediately after the Florida shooting but has not talked about it in recent days. Trump lunched recently with leaders of the NRA, which opposes the proposal.

Republican leaders, who have majority control of the House and Senate, are reluctant to lead on legislation without knowing they have Trump's full support and can rely on his popularity with a core flank of the GOP electorate to shield them from political blowback.

But Trump, who met with 17 senators and representatives from both parties, has proven an inconsistent partner in such policy debates, offering sweeping proposals - including his tweet for stronger background checks - only to drift from them.

"The political reality we're living in today is if President Trump doesn't get behind something they won't have the cover," Manchin said.

At the White House, the discussion was billed as a session focused on "school and community safety," and one of those attending, Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, has proposed new federal grant funding to stem school violence. Hatch's bill would offer money for law enforcement and school staff training, campus infrastructure upgrades and mental health resources.

House and Senate Republicans have been talking about boosting school safety resources, and House Speaker Paul Ryan has mentioned that effort.

But Ryan has shown little interest in stricter gun control proposals being floated in Congress, largely leaving the issue in the hands of Trump and wary Senate leaders.

GOP leaders did not promise votes on the various gun-related bills, and they stopped short of offering solutions beyond pending legislation aimed at increasing participation in the existing federal background check system.

Even as he endorsed the measure, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell downplayed its significance, saying it would not be a "panacea" for the rash of gun violence.

But McConnell said he wanted to "at least show some progress toward dealing with one element of the problem."

The legislation from Sens. John Cornyn, R-Texas, and Chris Murphy, D-Conn., would strengthen the National Instant Criminal Background Check System, though votes were not yet scheduled amid resistance from within the GOP ranks and demands by Democrats to vote on other measures.

The "Fix NICS" bill, similar to one approved last year in the House, would reward federal agencies and states that utilize the background check system, and penalize those that don't properly report required records used to determine whether someone can legally buy a gun. It was introduced last fall after the shooting of churchgoers in Texas. At the time, authorities acknowledged having failed to report the Texas gunman's domestic violence conviction to the database.

"Let's do what we can and build from there," Cornyn said.

One of Trump's proposals, to prohibit sales of bump stocks __ the devices that turn rifles into automatic-style weapons and were used in the Las Vegas mass shooting last fall - is being considered by the Justice Department.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions said top officials believe the hardware can be banned through the regulatory process, a departure from the Obama administration's approach. The approach is preferred by the NRA and could relieve Congress of pressure for legislative action.

__

Associated Press writers Ken Thomas, Catherine Lucey and Zeke Miller contributed to this story.

__

Follow Mascaro on Twitter at https://twitter.com/LisaMascaro and Daly https://twitter.com/MatthewDalyWDC

Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn, R-Texas, flanked by Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., left, and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., talks to reporters following weekly policy luncheons where they discussed school safety measures in response to the Parkland, Fla., assault that left 17 dead, at the Capitol in Washington, Tuesday, Feb. 27, 2018. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)WASHINGTON (AP) - The Latest on the Capitol ceremony for Rev. Billy Graham (all times local):

11:37 a.m.

President Donald Trump says Rev. Billy Graham "changed our country" - paying tribute to the late evangelical preacher as he lies in honor at the U.S. Capitol.

Crews prepare for the late Rev. Billy Graham to be honored Wednesday in the Rotunda of the Capitol Building, Tuesday, Feb. 27, 2018 in Washington. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)

Trump calls the rare tribute afforded Graham "very fitting," saying Graham was a "legendary" American figure who deserved to be recognized in the place "where the memory of the American people is enshrined."

Graham was known as the pastor to presidents, for his personal ties with nearly every American leader over more than a half-century. Trump recalls his father taking him as a child to see Graham preach at Yankee Stadium in 1957, saying his father was a "big fan" of Grahams.

____

11:36 a.m.

House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., says few people loved others as the Rev. Billy Graham did, and few were as beloved as "America's Pastor."

Ryan is speaking as the nation's political leaders honor Graham at a ceremony in the Capitol Rotunda.

Ryan says Graham ministered to all walks, from some of the greats whose statues line the Capitol - former Presidents Eisenhower, Ford, and Reagan - to the everyday citizens who lined up Wednesday to pay their respects.

Ryan says Graham had a gift for connecting with people, and when listening to him, it was as if he was right there next to them, praying with them.

He says Graham did not profess to have all the right answers, but "he sure did point us to the right questions."

____

11:20

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., says the Rev. Billy Graham inspired countless life-changing conversions with his humility and plainspoken preaching of essential truths.

McConnell is speaking at a ceremony in the Capitol Rotunda honoring Graham, who died last week at age 99.

McConnell says Graham "lifted up our nation," but it wasn't because he occupied the spotlight so masterfully. It was because Graham knew he didn't belong in it.

He describes Graham as "just a happy instrument in the hands of his Creator."

Graham is lying in honor in the Rotunda, a rare tribute.

McConnell says Graham shared the Gospel with more people, face-to-face, than anyone else in history.

McConnell says "the Senate - and the nation - are so very grateful for his service."

____

10:53

The Rev. Billy Graham's casket has arrived at the U.S. Capitol for a rare salute by the nation's political leaders.

The pine casket carrying Graham will lie in honor in the Rotunda on Wednesday. President Donald Trump, House Speaker Paul Ryan and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell are remembering Graham, surrounded by members of Congress and dozens of family members who accompanied the casket to Washington.

Graham died last week at age 99. He ministered to presidents of both parties and others for the better part of seven decades. Former presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush visited Graham's home near Charlotte, North Carolina on Tuesday.

Trump met Graham at the pastor's 95th birthday party in 2013. The president is expected to attend the funeral service in Charlotte on Friday.

____

12:28 a.m.

The Rev. Billy Graham is getting a rare tribute by the nation's political leaders under the Capitol Rotunda in Washington.

The North Carolina minister, called "America's pastor" by some, is lying in honor Wednesday and Thursday in Washington, where he counseled presidents and others over more than 60 years. President Donald Trump, House Speaker Paul Ryan and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell are among those attending.

Graham met every president back to Harry Truman and counseled most of them. Ryan says there had been no doubt that Graham would get the honor of a Capitol ceremony because he had influenced the nation's spiritual life.

Graham will lie in honor until Thursday. A funeral and burial are set for Friday at his Charlotte, North Carolina, home.TOKYO (AP) - Japanese police confirmed Thursday the arrest of an American on suspicion of dismembering and abandoning the body of a woman in western Japan.

Hyogo prefectural police said Bayraktar Yevgeniy Vasilievich was arrested Feb. 22 on suspicion of confining the woman, who had been missing for six days.

Police said they added allegations Wednesday of dismembering and abandoning the body. They are also investigating if the suspect killed the woman.

Police would not release the suspect's hometown, saying they are still verifying it. Japanese media reports say he is from Long Island, NY.

Police said they found the severed head of the woman, a 27-year-old office worker from Sanda City, in the suspect's lodging in Osaka last week. They found other body parts on Sunday in the mountains of Osaka and Kyoto after the suspect identified where he abandoned them, police said. An examination of those parts is still underway.

Japanese media reports say the suspect met the woman on an internet dating site and exchanged messages using Instagram. The woman went missing on Feb. 16 after messaging her friend that she was going to meet someone named "Jay."

Investigators believe Vasilievich confined the woman in his lodging in the Higashinari district in Osaka between Feb. 16 and Feb. 18, during which he dismembered the victim and took the head to another room he rented in nearby Nishinari and the remaining parts to the mountains.

Security camera video from the first building showed him entering with a woman, but did not show the woman leaving. It showed the suspect going in and out with a suitcase, police said.

Media reports say Vasilievich entered Japan in January on a tourist visa.WASHINGTON (AP) - Harshly criticized yet again by his boss, Attorney General Jeff Sessions on Wednesday abandoned his usual stony silence and pushed back against President Donald Trump for saying Sessions' response to Republican complaints about the FBI was "disgraceful."

Sessions gave no suggestion he would step down in light of the charge made on Twitter and insisted he would "continue to discharge my duties with integrity and honor."

Trump's latest tirade stems from a comment Sessions made Tuesday, when he suggested the Justice Department's inspector general will evaluate whether prosecutors and FBI agents wrongly obtained a warrant under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act to monitor the communications of a onetime Trump campaign associate. Sessions had asked the watchdog office to review the complaints in response to pressure from congressional Republicans, who, like Trump, have fumed about what they believe to be bias within the FBI.

President Donald Trump speaks during a ceremony honoring Reverend Billy Graham in the Rotunda of the U.S. Capitol building, Wednesday, Feb. 28, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

Trump tweeted: "Why is A.G. Jeff Sessions asking the Inspector General to investigate potentially massive FISA abuse. Will take forever, has no prosecutorial power and already late with reports on Comey etc. Isn't the I.G. an Obama guy? Why not use Justice Department lawyers? DISGRACEFUL!"

Sessions answered hours later, saying his department had taken the appropriate step and "will continue to do its work in a fair and impartial manner according to the law and Constitution."

It was hardly the first time the president has aired his gripes against Sessions over the Russia probe. The former Alabama senator, an early supporter of Trump's candidacy, has endured a year's worth of Trump's wrath in order to hold onto the job he had long desired. But even for Trump, who once called the attorney general "beleaguered," Wednesday's volley elevated the rhetoric to a new level.

The exchange comes at a time of heightened tension between the Justice Department and the White House, which is mired in special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Trump campaign ties to Russia and possible obstruction of justice. Trump has long viewed Sessions' decision to step aside from that investigation as leading to Mueller's appointment.

Sessions has become a Trump scapegoat, allowing the president to avoid some of the political consequences of directly attacking Mueller as his probe escalates.

Trump this time is angry that Sessions referred the allegations of employee misconduct to the inspector general, but that's exactly what that office is charged with doing. Its lawyers are part of the department and, contrary to Trump's claims, can and often do refer matters for prosecution.

The office has been working on a separate review of the FBI's handling of the Hillary Clinton email investigation under former Director James Comey, but that report is not late and is expected to be released around March or April.

Inspector General Michael Horowitz's office has acknowledged receiving Sessions' request but hasn't said it is investigating. Horowitz was appointed to the post by President Barack Obama, as Trump noted. But years earlier, Horowitz was named in the Bush administration to a seat on the Sentencing Commission, suggesting he has more bipartisan bona fides than Trump acknowledges. Horowitz also launched the review of the FBI's handling of the Clinton case - the stated reason by Trump and Sessions for the dismissal of Comey in May.

GOP Rep. Trey Gowdy of South Carolina, recently one of the FBI's toughest critics, defended Horowitz as "fair, fact-centric and appropriately confidential with his work."

Until now, Sessions had largely keep quiet in the face of Trump's verbal and social media volleys, faithfully executing the president's agenda on guns, drugs, violent crime and illegal immigration. Some within Sessions' own department had criticized that silence as straining morale and making him seem too eager to appease the president at the risk of dangerously politicizing the institution.

The two bonded early in Trump's campaign. But Trump has not been able to get over Sessions' withdrawal from the Russia investigation and has relentlessly belittled him and pressured him to investigate political rivals. The criticism was so harsh that Sessions offered last year to resign; Trump refused.

Sessions has since tried to get back into Trump's good graces. His request of the inspector general should have appeased Trump, as White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders suggested Tuesday it would.

"It's something that he's clearly had frustration over so I would imagine he certainly support the decision to look into what we feel to be some wrongdoing," she said. "I think that's the role of the Department of Justice and we're glad that they're fulfilling that job."

__

Associated Press writer Eric Tucker contributed to this report.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions, center, talks to Sen. Lindsay Graham, R-S.C., and others, as they wait for the ceremony to begin honoring Reverend Billy Graham in the Rotunda of the U.S. Capitol building, Wednesday, Feb. 28, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

Attorney General Jeff Sessions delivers remarks to the National Association of Attorneys General at their Winter Meeting in Washington, Tuesday, Feb. 27, 2018. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) - The Latest on a milkman accused of smuggling contraband into an Ohio prison in milk cartons (all times local):

12:30 p.m.

The milk company that employed a driver accused of smuggling contraband into an Ohio prison says the employee was fired immediately.

This undated photo provided by the Warren County Sheriff's Office shows Ray Adams. Warren County Prosecutor David Fornshell says Adams, a milk delivery man, snuck marijuana, tobacco and cellphones into an Ohio prison hidden in milk cartons. Fornshell says the suspect had an inmate contact inside who facilitated the delivery and set up payment for the milkman. Fornshell says Adams made thousands of dollars delivering the items over time. (Warren County Sheriff's Office via AP)

Doug Longenette is director of human resources for Martins Ferry-based United Dairy. He calls the arrest of driver Ray Adams a sad situation and says he hopes employees would think before they did something like that.

Longenette said Wednesday the family-owned business would never condone such activity.

The 50-year-old Adams is accused of smuggling marijuana, tobacco and cellphones into Lebanon Correctional Facility in half-pint milk cartons.

He was arrested last month after contraband was found in 30 cartons. His attorney has not returned messages seeking comment.

___

12:15 a.m.

A milk deliveryman is accused of hiding marijuana, tobacco and cellphones inside milk cartons and smuggling them into an Ohio prison.

Warren County Prosecutor David Fornshell says Ray Adams was in contact with an inmate at Lebanon Correctional Facility who facilitated the deliveries and set up payments.

Fornshell says Adams made thousands of dollars sneaking the items in over time.

Adams was arrested Jan. 8 and charged with conveying drugs and cellphones. He's now free on bond. His attorney did not immediate return messages seeking comment on the charges.

Fornshell says the investigation is ongoing and there could be additional charges.

The prison system has declined to comment.

Ohio began relying on outside companies to deliver milk to prisons after selling off its dairy cows in 2016.ACAPULCO, Mexico (AP) - Rafael Nadal's comeback from a hip injury is on hold after the second-ranked Spaniard pulled out of the Mexican Open, saying he needs more time to recover.

Nadal was forced to retire during the Australian Open quarterfinals and hasn't played since. He was set to play Feliciano Lopez in his opening match on Wednesday but said he felt pain during his final training session on Tuesday.

Nadal said "I think this is less serious than what happened there (in Australia). But there is a risk to make this problem bigger."

The former No. 1 still hopes to be fit to play in Indian Wells and Miami next month.

Nadal won the Acapulco tournament in 2005 and 2013.NEWFOUNDLAND, Pa. (AP) - Crown-wearing worshippers clutching AR-15 rifles drank holy wine and exchanged or renewed wedding vows in a commitment ceremony at a Pennsylvania church on Wednesday, prompting a nearby school to cancel classes.

With state police and a smattering of protesters standing watch outside the church, brides clad in white and grooms in dark suits brought dozens of unloaded AR-15s into World Peace and Unification Sanctuary for a religious event that doubled as an advertisement for the Second Amendment.

The church, which has a worldwide following, believes the AR-15 symbolizes the "rod of iron" in the book of Revelation, and encouraged couples to bring the weapons. An AR-15 was used in the Florida high school massacre on Feb. 14.

A man wears a crown and holds an unloaded weapon at the World Peace and Unification Sanctuary, Wednesday, Feb. 28, 2018, in Newfoundland, Pa. Worshippers clutching AR-15 rifles participated in a commitment ceremony at the Pennsylvania-based church. The event Wednesday morning led a nearby school to cancel classes for the day. The church's leader, the Rev. Sean Moon, said in a prayer that God gave people the right to bear arms. (AP Photo/Jacqueline Larma)

The Rev. Sean Moon, who leads the church, prayed for "a kingdom of peace police and peace militia where the citizens, through the right given to them by almighty God to keep and bear arms, will be able to protect one another and protect human flourishing."

Moon is the son of the late Rev. Sun Myung Moon, a self-proclaimed messiah who founded the Unification Church, which critics regard as a cult. The younger Moon's congregation is a breakaway faction of the Unification Church, which had distanced itself from Wednesday's event.

An attendant checked each weapon at the door to make sure it was unloaded and secured with a zip tie, and the elaborate commitment ceremony went off without a hitch. Some worshippers wore crowns made out of bullets.

Tim Elder, Unification Sanctuary's director of world missions, said the ceremony was meant to be a blessing of couples, not "inanimate objects," calling the AR-15 a "religious accoutrement."

But Wednesday's event, coming on the heels of the high school massacre in Parkland, Florida, which killed 17, rubbed emotions raw.

"It's scaring people in the community," one protester told a church member. "Are you aware of that?"

The ceremony prompted Wallenpaupack Area School District to move students at an elementary school down the street to other campuses.

Lisa Desiena, from Scranton, protested outside the church with a sign that called the group an "armed religious cult."

She said she owns a gun, but "I don't need a freaking assault weapon to defend myself. Only thing they're good for is killing. Period. That's all that weapon is good for, mass killing. And you want to bless it? Shame on you."

But Sreymom Ouk, 41, who attended the ceremony with her husband, Sort Ouk, and came with their AR-15, said the weapon is useful for defending her family against "sickos and evil psychopaths."

"People have the right to bear arms, and in God's kingdom, you have to protect that," she said. "You have to protect against evil."

___

This story has been updated to remove an incorrect reference to a previous ceremony featuring assault-style rifles.

A standing woman closes her eyes as she holds an unloaded weapon during services at the World Peace and Unification Sanctuary, Wednesday Feb. 28, 2018, in Newfoundland, Pa. Worshippers clutching AR-15 rifles participated in a commitment ceremony at the Pennsylvania-based church. The event Wednesday morning led a nearby school to cancel classes for the day. The church's leader, the Rev. Sean Moon, said in a prayer that God gave people the right to bear arms. (AP Photo/Jacqueline Larma)

A woman has her weapon checked for being unloaded and zip-tied at the World Peace and Unification Sanctuary, Wednesday Feb. 28, 2018 in Newfoundland, Pa. Worshippers clutching AR-15 rifles participated in a commitment ceremony at the Pennsylvania-based church. The event Wednesday morning led a nearby school to cancel classes for the day. The church's leader, the Rev. Sean Moon, said in a prayer that God gave people the right to bear arms. (AP Photo/Jacqueline Larma)

Men wear crowns and hold unloaded weapons at the World Peace and Unification Sanctuary, Wednesday Feb. 28, 2018 in Newfoundland, Pa. Worshippers clutching AR-15 rifles participated in a commitment ceremony at the Pennsylvania-based church. The event Wednesday morning led a nearby school to cancel classes for the day. The church's leader, the Rev. Sean Moon, said in a prayer that God gave people the right to bear arms. (AP Photo/Jacqueline Larma)

A woman wears a crown and holds an unloaded weapon as she cheers at the World Peace and Unification Sanctuary, Wednesday Feb. 28, 2018, in Newfoundland, Pa. Worshippers clutching AR-15 rifles participated in a commitment ceremony at the Pennsylvania-based church. The event Wednesday morning led a nearby school to cancel classes for the day. The church's leader, the Rev. Sean Moon, said in a prayer that God gave people the right to bear arms. (AP Photo/Jacqueline Larma)

A man and woman wear crowns made of ammunition during services at the World Peace and Unification Sanctuary, Wednesday Feb. 28, 2018, in Newfoundland, Pa. Worshippers clutching AR-15 rifles participated in a commitment ceremony at the Pennsylvania-based church. The event Wednesday morning led a nearby school to cancel classes for the day. The church's leader, the Rev. Sean Moon, said in a prayer that God gave people the right to bear arms. (AP Photo/Jacqueline Larma)

A woman wears a crown and holds an unloaded weapon as she bows her head during services at the World Peace and Unification Sanctuary, Wednesday Feb. 28, 2018, in Newfoundland, Pa. Worshippers clutching AR-15 rifles participated in a commitment ceremony at the Pennsylvania-based church.The event Wednesday morning led a nearby school to cancel classes for the day.The church's leader, the Rev. Sean Moon, said in a prayer that God gave people the right to bear arms. (AP Photo/Jacqueline Larma)

A woman recites the national anthem as she holds an unloaded weapon during services at the World Peace and Unification Sanctuary, Wednesday Feb. 28, 2018 in Newfoundland, Pa. Worshippers clutching AR-15 rifles participated in a commitment ceremony at the Pennsylvania-based church. The event Wednesday morning led a nearby school to cancel classes for the day. The church's leader, the Rev. Sean Moon, said in a prayer that God gave people the right to bear arms. (AP Photo/Jacqueline Larma)

Protesters gather in front of the World Peace and Unification Sanctuary, Wednesday Feb. 28, 2018 in Newfoundland, Pa. Worshippers clutching AR-15 rifles participated in a commitment ceremony at the Pennsylvania-based church. The event Wednesday morning led a nearby school to cancel classes for the day. The church's leader, the Rev. Sean Moon, said in a prayer that God gave people the right to bear arms. (AP Photo/Jacqueline Larma)PARIS (AP) - French stars are joining actresses across the Atlantic and the English Channel in a protest of sexual misconduct. But instead of wearing black, they will wear a white ribbon at this week's Cesar Awards.

About 100 actresses and other figures launched the hashtag Maintenant On Agit (Now We Act) campaign this week ahead of Friday's Cesars.

A call on the web site of the Foundation of Women, collaborating with the white-ribbon movement, says that "'We submitted,' 'We endured,' 'We kept silent.'"

More than 100 personalities, including Agnes Jaoui, Julie Gayet and Sandrine Bonnaire, asked for donations via the foundation. The funds are destined for associations helping women pursue cases before justice, "so that no woman ever again has to say #MeToo."

It's the latest French iteration inspired by #MeToo.SANTIAGO, Chile (AP) - The Vatican's sex crimes investigator has ended his mission in Chile, and Roman Catholic officials say he plans to deliver a report to the pope on a Chilean bishop who has been accused of ignoring sex abuse by a priest.

Archbishop Charles Scicluna closed his visit Wednesday with a message expressing gratitude for "the welcome of the Chilean people" and also thanking abuse victims for meeting with him.

The statement came a day after Scicluna interviewed several victims of sex abuse by members of the Marist Brothers religious order, a development that suggested his mandate had expanded beyond looking into allegations of a cover-up by Osorno Bishop Juan Barros.

Archbishop Charles Scicluna looks on during a press conference prior to a meeting with people who claim to have been victims of sexual abuse by members of the Church, in Santiago, Chile, Tuesday, Feb. 20, 2018. Scicluna, arrived in Chile on Monday, sent by the Pope Francis to gather testimonies accusing the Archbishop of Osorno of covering up sexual abuses committed by priest Fernando Karadima. (AP Photo/ Luis Hidalgo)

Victims of pedophile priest Fernando Karadima have said that as a priest Barros witnessed and ignored the abuse. Barros denies that.GUATEMALA CITY (AP) - Washington's U.N. ambassador thanked Guatemala on Wednesday for its support in confronting Venezuela over concerns about democracy and human rights in the South American nation.

Speaking after meeting in Guatemala City with President Jimmy Morales, Ambassador Nikki Haley expressed gratitude for Morales' "words and statements" about Venezuela.

"We have seen Venezuela go from what was a successful democratic country to now being ruled by an abusive dictator," Haley said. "And we will continue to join with President Morales in fighting for the human rights and the abilities of the Venezuelan people to take back over their government."

Nikki Haley, U.S. ambassador to the U.N., left, walks with Guatemala's President Jimmy Morales after their meeting at the National Palace of Culture in Guatemala City, Wednesday, Feb. 28, 2018. (AP Photo/Luis Soto)

Officials loyal to Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro have scheduled an earlier than usual presidential election for April 22. The move is seen as disadvantageous for Maduro's opponents, and most in the opposition are refusing to participate unless measures are taken to guarantee fairness and transparency.

Washington and several Latin American nations have criticized the election schedule, saying conditions for a fair vote are lacking.

Morales said that he and Haley spoke of their agreement on Venezuela and the need to strengthen democratic states, as well as anti-corruption efforts, measures to reduce migration and combatting gangs and drug trafficking.

Haley praised Guatemala's progress on tackling corruption, gangs and drugs.

She met in the afternoon with Guatemala's attorney general and the head of a U.N.-sponsored commission investigating corruption in the Central American nation, both of whom have been instrumental in pressing graft prosecutions.

Earlier, the ambassador also thanked Morales for supporting President Donald Trump's controversial decision to move the U.S. Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

Guatemala was one of nine nations that sided with the United States in a U.N. vote condemning the decision. Morales' government later announced it would also move its own diplomatic mission in Israel, though it has not given a timeline for a move.

Morales met in Washington in early February with Donald Trump, who at the time also expressed gratitude for his support on the embassy move.WASHINGTON (AP) - Congress reserved one of the nation's greatest distinctions for the Rev. Billy Graham, selecting him to lie in honor in the U.S. Capitol Rotunda on Wednesday.

America's most famous evangelist died last week at his home in North Carolina at age 99.

The Rotunda has long been considered the most suitable place for the nation to pay final tribute to its most eminent citizens. Among those who have lain in state or in honor in the Rotunda are 11 former presidents, including Abraham Lincoln and John F. Kennedy, former military commanders Douglas MacArthur, George Dewey and John Pershing, and civil rights icon Rosa Parks.

Visitors pay their respects as the casket of Reverend Billy Graham lies in honor at the Rotunda of the U.S. Capitol Building in Washington, Wednesday, Feb. 28, 2018. It's a rare honor for a private citizen to lie in honor at the Capitol. Graham died Wednesday in his sleep at his North Carolina home. He was 99. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

A look at some of the history and names behind the honor.

"LYING IN STATE" VS. "LYING IN HONOR"

The Senate Historical Office explains that there are no hard and fast rules on this, but "lying in state" ceremonies are usually reserved for deceased presidents and other elected officials. "Lying in honor" has become the phrase used in recent years to describe ceremonies for those who didn't serve in elected office. Graham is just the fourth private citizen to receive that designation. The others are two former U.S. Capitol Police officers who died in the line of duty in 1998 and Rosa Parks in 2005.

The honor is essentially the same regardless of the language used, but "lying in state" ceremonies are accompanied by full military honors, while "lying in honor" ceremonies use a Capitol Police detail.

___

WHO DECIDES

Either Congress can pass a resolution or congressional leadership can give the approval after consulting with survivors. In Graham's case, both occurred.

House Speaker Paul Ryan and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell announced the ceremony after conferring with Graham's son, the Rev. Franklin Graham. "With your approval, we will move forward with these arrangements, so that Americans have this opportunity to pay their respects to the Rev. Graham before he is laid to rest," they said in a letter to Franklin Graham.

The House and Senate then went ahead and approved a resolution providing for Graham to "lie in honor" in the Rotunda.

___

WHY BILLY GRAHAM GETS THE HONOR

Ryan explained in his announcement that Graham forever changed the course of the world's spiritual health. He served as an adviser to 12 consecutive U.S. presidents and reached millions through radio, television and film.

Graham is also greatly admired by many of the millions of evangelical Christians who associate themselves with conservative policies and the Republican Party. "I bet those lines are going to be long and beautiful, because he deserves it," President Donald Trump recently told conservative activists meeting in Washington.

Trump, McConnell and Ryan each gave brief speeches before laying wreaths next to Graham's casket.

In a summary of those who have been honored in the Rotunda, the Architect of the Capitol described Graham as: "Minister, evangelist and adviser to presidents."

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OTHERS WHO HAVE LAIN IN STATE IN THE ROTUNDA

The list maintained by the Architect of the Capitol includes several members of Congress, beginning with Henry Clay of Kentucky in 1852 and, most recently, Sen. Daniel Inouye of Hawaii in 2012. The non-elected officials who have lain in state include former FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover and Washington, D.C., planner Pierre L'Enfant.

Lawmakers have also chosen to perpetuate the memory of service members who gave their lives in war by honoring unknown soldiers from World War I, World War II, the Korean War and the Vietnam War.UNITED NATIONS (AP) - Russia and Syria clashed with the U.S. and its Western allies Wednesday over responsibility for the failure of a cease-fire to take hold in Syria as the U.N. said humanitarian convoys are ready to head to 10 locations including besieged eastern Ghouta near the capital Damascus.

The contentious Security Council meeting four days after members adopted a resolution demanding a cease-fire "without delay" for at least 30 days throughout Syria to deliver humanitarian aid and evacuate the critically ill and wounded reflected frustration and anger on both sides at the continued fighting and bombing.

U.N. humanitarian chief Mark Lowcock asked council members: "When will your resolution be implemented?" And U.N. political chief Jeffrey Feltman urged all 193 U.N. member states "to use their influence with the parties to ensure implementation of the cessation of hostilities."

Lowcock said convoys are ready to go to 10 besieged and hard-to-reach locations including 45 trucks with aid for 90,000 people in Douma in eastern Ghouta. He said that since Feb. 18 over 580 people are reported to have been killed and well over 1,000 injured in air and ground strikes in the Damascus, home to about 400,000 people.

Lowcock also warned that delivery of aid across conflict lines to millions of people in besieged and hard-to-reach areas throughout Syria "has totally collapsed."

"Unless this changes," he declared, "we will soon see even more people dying from starvation and disease than from the bombing and the shelling."

Russia ordered a five-hour daily humanitarian pause starting Tuesday to allow civilians to exit eastern Ghouta. But no civilians have left, and no humanitarian aid has entered.

Russia asked council members to support a presidential statement asking all countries to ensure that armed groups support the Russian humanitarian corridors. The U.S., supported by other Western nations, objected because the statement didn't reflect the resolution's demands, according to diplomats who spoke on condition of anonymity because consultations were private.

Lowcock reiterated the International Committee of the Red Cross' assessment that it is impossible to deliver humanitarian aid in five hours, noting that it often takes convoys with all the required clearances a day just to get through checkpoints.

Kelley Currie, the U.S. ambassador for economic and social affairs, called a five-hour pause "cynical, callous, and in flagrant defiance of the demands" for a cessation of hostilities "for at least 30 days - every day, all day."

"Russia does not get to unilaterally rewrite the terms of the resolution they negotiated and they sat here and voted for," she said.

"Russia, Iran and the Assad regime are not even trying to hide their intentions," Currie told the council. "They are asking civilians to leave eastern Ghouta on the false premise that they can then attack anyone left in the area as much as they would like."

Sweden's deputy ambassador Carl Skau, speaking on behalf of resolution sponsors Sweden and Kuwait, also declared: "A five-hour cease-fire does not meet the requirements of the resolution."

"This resolution is not primarily about the evacuation of civilians, but demands humanitarian access to civilians and medical evacuations," he stressed to the council, a message repeated by Britain, France and the Netherlands.

Russia's U.N. Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia reminded the council that the resolution adopted Saturday also demands that all parties "engage immediately to ensure full and comprehensive implementation" of the cease-fire - and "underscores the need for the parties to agree on humanitarian pauses ... and truces."

He stressed that "any enduring pause must be preceded by an agreement of all parties for de-escalation."

"Demands to overnight, immediately halt hostilities attest to a failure to understand realities on the ground or a deliberate exploitation of human tragedy," Nebenzia said.

"Everything is being done" to ensure the effective operation of the five-hour daily pauses in eastern Ghouta, he said, blaming militants for using the pauses on Tuesday and Wednesday "to stage an onslaught."

In an exemption from the cease-fire, the resolution allows military attacks to continue against extremists from the Islamic State group, al-Qaida and the Nusra Front - targets Syria and Russia as well as U.S.-backed forces say they are pursuing.

Nebenzia said what is needed above all in eastern Ghouta is "to effectively neutralize" the Nusra Front, calling for cooperation to get rid of the extremist group.

He was sharply critical of the West, and especially the United States, for fancying themselves as "champions of humanity" and saying a cease-fire depends almost entirely on Russia and Syria.

"What is occurring right now is greatly reminiscent of the situation around eastern Aleppo when the West rolled out a horrendous wave of anti-Russian hysteria," Nebenzia said.

"Russia is daily undertaking efforts to ensure a cessation of hostilities, for humanitarian pauses to be established, to alleviate the plight of suffering civilians," he told council members.

"At least one of your countries, have you lifted a finger to do something? Have you had influence to bear on those whom you view as the moderate opposition? Have you told them to lay down their weapons?," Nebenzia asked.

Syria's U.N. Ambassador Bashar Ja'afari echoed Russia's criticism of the West telling the council "the main responsibility for ceasing hostilities is on groups that have influence on terrorist groups."

"We are supportive of the cease-fire, the cessation of hostilities with some conditions," he told reporters later. "We cannot do it alone. ... You need to have a commitment by the supporters of these terrorists in eastern Ghouta to implement the resolution, meaning stopping sending weapons."WINCHESTER, Ky. (AP) - A Kentucky couple has been charged with murder in the death, by neglect, of their adult son with Down syndrome.

Clark County Coroner Robert Gayheart tells news outlets that malnutrition, dehydration and pneumonia were contributing factors leading to 20-year-old Logan Christy's December death. His parents, 65-year-old Patsy Christy and 61-year-old Albert Christy, were arrested Monday.

Investigators say the parents received state assistance until their child turned 18, and they could have kept applying for benefits. Gayheart says there's no evidence that Logan Christy received medical care after that.

An autopsy revealed that there was no food in the son's stomach. Patsy Christy told deputies she had fed him 13 minutes before he collapsed.

It's unclear if the couple has lawyers.

Winchester, the county seat, is 27 miles east of Lexington.Jeremy Corbyn is facing calls to clarify his position on press freedom after his warning to media barons that change is coming.

The Society of Editors  which campaigns for and on behalf of a free press in the UK  urged the Labour leader to spell out what changes his party was considering so they could be openly debated.

Mr Corbyn issued his warning last week after attacking some national newspapers for their coverage of claims he passed information to a Czech spy during the Cold War.

Jeremy Corbyn is facing calls to spell out his stance on press freedom (Yui Mok/PA)

While he insisted that he supported a free press, he said media bosses were right to be worried about the prospect of a Labour government.

In the last few days The Sun, The Mail, The Telegraph and The Express have gone a little bit James Bond.



We've got news for the billionaire, tax exile press barons: Change is coming. pic.twitter.com/3ehSKfaAgZ  Jeremy Corbyn (@jeremycorbyn) February 20, 2018

In a video posted on his Twitter feed, he said much of the press isnt very free at all and was controlled by billionaire tax exiles, adding: Weve got news for them: change is coming.

In a statement, the societys executive director Ian Murray called on Mr Corbyn to resist any temptation to impose new restrictions to try to silence views opposed to his own.

The Society of Editors does not align itself with any political party nor stance, however we do stand for a free press, a self-regulated press, and we are concerned that in his statement Mr Corbyn appears to be suggesting Labour have plans to change the media landscape in the UK, he said.

If that is the case then we would ask him to clarify what those proposed changes are and to urge him to resist any temptation to attempt to silence voices that may be opposed to his point of view through press restrictions.

Mr Murray added: The media in the UK is rightly held up as a beacon of freedom throughout the world, particularly in those countries where politicians and rulers close down any voices of opposition to their power.

While we are pleased to note that Mr Corbyn recognises the role of a free press in a free society, he has also announced that Labour does have plans to change the media landscape in some way.

The society calls on Mr Corbyn to explain what changes his party has in mind so that these can be openly debated.

Mr Corbyn has dismissed the claims, which originally appeared in The Sun, that he passed information to an agent of the Czech StB intelligence agency during the 1980s as nonsense.

The Labour leaders office has acknowledged he had tea in the Commons with a Czech diplomat, but said any claim that he was an agent, asset or informer for any intelligence agency is entirely false and a ridiculous smear.

A Labour spokesman said: A free press is essential for our democracy. But at the moment much of our press isnt very free, its controlled by billionaire tax exiles who are determined to dodge paying their fair share for our vital public services.

We dont want to close it down, we want to open it up.

The change Jeremy refers to is a Labour government that would make the wealthiest 5% pay their fair share, clamp down on tax dodging and tax havens, and is committed to Leveson II and a review of media plurality.

Its also a recognition that the whole industry is changing, with social media meaning the influence of the media barons is on the wane.Commuters have been warned to expect major disruption as snowfall looks poised to blanket Britain, with the country potentially facing the coldest weather since 1991.

The Met Office said more than 20cm of the white stuff could settle by Wednesday as a wintry blast, dubbed the Beast from the East, will cause temperatures to tumble.

Issuing amber warnings for snow showers on Tuesday morning  covering the South East, the East Midlands and the North East  the forecaster said up to 15cm could fall in just a few hours.

A yellow warning was also put in place for vast swathes of the UK  with the snowfall predicted to cripple much of the countrys travel network during rush hour.

Met Office forecaster Marco Petagna said there will be some quite treacherous driving conditions due to the snow as many make their way into work.

With some significant #snow and bitterly cold weather on the cards this week, here's a more detailed look at what we can expect pic.twitter.com/z9HS4ekiKh  Met Office (@metoffice) February 25, 2018

Most people will have to travel, but if you dont have to travel  it is best to try to avoid if you can within those amber warnings, he said.

Mr Petagna said an amber snow warning is also in place for the North East and Scotland  from 6am on Wednesday to 12pm on Thursday  with up to 40cm of snow expected to fall during that period.

Forecaster Frank Saunders said parts of the country could see their coldest spell of weather since at least 2013, and possibly since 1991.

Mr Petagna said daytime temperatures will struggle to get above freezing across many areas.

(PA Graphics)

Add on the effect of that wind, and the wind is going to pick up come Wednesday, so it is going to start to feel even colder still, he added.

It is expected that the mercury could plummet down to -15C by midweek where there is snow on the ground  rivalling temperatures forecast for parts of northern Norway and Iceland.

Many local authorities said they were ready to react to the adverse conditions, with Kent County Council even stating all resources would be focused on keeping highways clear.

On Monday British Airways cancelled more than 60 short haul flights either departing or arriving from London Heathrow in a bid to protect punctuality.

(PA Graphics)

And ahead of Tuesdays snowfall, many airports were advising passengers to check with their airlines before travelling.

Greater Anglia also ended services early to enable trains to return to depots and stations early on Monday, as the provider said limited timetables would be in place on Tuesday  with 200 trains cancelled.

Network Rail revealed it would also be putting heaters and Nasa-grade insulation on to points on the tracks in a bid to prevent ice forming overnight.

The NHS could also struggle to cope with the extra strain caused by the wintry weather, doctors have warned, and people have been encouraged to check on elderly or vulnerable neighbours.

The public have also been asked to look out for the homeless and report anyone sleeping rough in the freezing conditions to their local council.

From Thursday forecasters predict that another weather system, Storm Emma, will bring blizzards, gales and sleet as it meets the chilly Beast from the East later this week.

The storm, named by the Portuguese Met Service, will move north through Europe and is due to hit the UK on Thursday and Friday, and will be significantly disruptive, bringing the risk of power cuts and transport delays.Theresa May has faced fresh warnings from her front bench to increase military spending, with a minister claiming a strong economy cannot be guaranteed without strong defence.

Tobias Ellwood thanked the Treasury for providing an extra 200 million window to allow the Ministry of Defence (MoD) to close the books on the 2017/18 financial year, telling MPs this was new cash.

But the defence minister cited concerns over a potential training backlog and the financial pressure the equipment programme is under.

He insisted the Nato target of spending 2% of GDP on defence is just not enough if the UK wants to continue playing an influential role post-Brexit.

Defence minister Tobias Ellwood speaks during a Commons debate on defence spending (PA)

Mr Ellwood recognised the MoD can make efficiencies, but said that as the world gets more complex and more unpredictable the UKs economy and values are vulnerable to a range of growing dangers that have no respect for our borders.

He said it was in the UKs DNA to help shape the world, adding to the Commons: To continue to do so will require investment.

So I end by repeating my thanks to the Treasury for their support. I know they have to endure all Whitehall departments seeking to increase their budgets.

We often say with only a strong economy can we consider any increases to any budgets. But I politely add that without a strong defence, a strong economy cannot be guaranteed.

Last week the Defence Secretary (Gavin Williamson) spoke about the 2% defence spending being a floor not a ceiling.

Well, the message has to be clear  if we want to continue playing an influential role on the international stage with the full spectrum capability, if we want to provide the critical security post-Brexit trade deals will demand, if we want to remain a leading contributor in the fight against extremism in the Middle East and elsewhere, you cannot continue to do this on a defence budget of just 2%  2% is just not enough.

This is a question not just for this Government, not just for parliamentarians, but for Britain. What status, what role, what responsibility do we aspire to play as we seek to trade more widely in a world that is becoming more dangerous?

2% is just not enough, minister @Tobias_Ellwood on his departments budget.  PARLY (@PARLYapp) February 26, 2018

Mr Ellwoods comments came after former defence minister Mark Francois said the pinstriped warriors of the Treasury should be taken to see the film Darkest Hour in the hope it may bolster Britains determination to defend itself.

Conservative MP Mr Francois said the film depicting Sir Winston Churchill showed what happened when the armed forces were run down to the point where they were unable to deter war.

A number of other Tories also renewed calls for the Government to boost spending beyond the existing target of 2% of GDP.

Shadow defence secretary Nia Griffith said there was deep dissatisfaction at the state of the defence budget on all sides of the House and a real desire for proper investment.

She said: Defence spending has been cut by nearly 10 billion in real terms between 2010 and 2017.Bollywood actress Sridevi died as a result of accidental drowning, Dubai investigators have said.

Closing the case, officials said the Indian stars family have been given permission to take her body back home.

The 54-year-old Sridevi was in Dubai for a family wedding. Police officials in Dubai also said that post-mortem tests revealed alcohol in her system.

Sridevi Kapoor, who only used her first name professionally, was the most famous Bollywood actress of the 1980s and 90s, and was the first woman to receive top billing in an industry then completely dominated by men.

The actress body was found in a hotel bath on Saturday.

Sridevis death has been front page news in India (AP)

Her death has been front-page news in India, where Bollywood stars command an almost mythical status. Fans have been gathering in front of the Mumbai home of her brother-in-law, prominent actor Anil Kapoor.

The coverage has been both lurid and restrained, with one TV station showing a reporter talking about her death from inside a bath, and many newspapers omitting the alcohol reports.

Starting out as a child star in south Indian regional movies, Sridevi later became known for her impeccable comic timing as well as her dancing skills  a serious asset in a country where song-and-dance melodramas are a movie staple.

She was embalmed on Tuesday in a simple government-run mortuary in Dubai.

Indian media reported that Anil Ambani, a wealthy Mumbai-based industrialist, dispatched a private plane to Dubai to carry Sridevis body back home.The Duchess of Cambridge has visited the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists in London.

The visit came as it was announced she has become patron of the college, as well as the Nursing Now campaign that aims to raise the status and profile of nurses around the world.

Kate, who is expecting her third child in April, later visited St Thomas Hospital in the capital to officially launch Nursing Now.

The Duchess of Cambridge meets 10-month-old Amara Kedwell- Parsons who was born prematurely and is a patient at St Thomas Hospital, London, (Richard Pohle/The Times/PA)

The Duchess of Cambridge is presented with flowers by five-year-old Bella Kedwell-Parsons (Richard Pohle/The Times)

Watch The Duchess, Patron of @NursingNow2020, make a speech to mark the launch of #NursingNow pic.twitter.com/5FhxUHGWpR  The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge (@KensingtonRoyal) February 27, 2018

Bella gave Kate a tour of the ward (Richard Pohle/The Times/PA)

Amara and Kim are two of the patients being cared for on the Snow Leopard ward. As part of their role here, the nurses teach parents how to use ventilation equipment so that they can care for their children at home. pic.twitter.com/M3wzYZnrUX  The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge (@KensingtonRoyal) February 27, 2018

Kate, who is expecting her third child in April, is the new patron of RCOG (Victoria Jones/PA)

The Duchess of Cambridge was met at the college by Dr Mary-Clare Parker (Peter Nicholls/PA)

The Duchess of Cambridge, Patron of the @RCObsGyn, is learning about the College's education and training programmes for doctors specialising in obstetrics and gynaecologists. pic.twitter.com/d4qEazlkig  The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge (@KensingtonRoyal) February 27, 2018

The Duchess took part in a round table chat (Peter Nicholls/PA)

The RCOG is a medical charity that champions the provision of high quality womens healthcare in the UK and beyond (Victoria Jones/PA)

During HRHs visit to the RCOG, trainees demonstrate how to perform keyhole surgery on a model @KensingtonRoyal pic.twitter.com/g9YaIrWrgP  RoyalCollegeObsGyn (@RCObsGyn) February 27, 2018

Professor Lesley Regan, president of the RCOG, said she was "thrilled" Kate had accepted the organisations invitation to be its patron (Peter Nicholls/PA)

The Duchess and RCOG President @lregan7 pause to look at a painting of Her Majesty The Queen opening the Colleges current London home in 1960 @KensingtonRoyal pic.twitter.com/QvHvfBLYvH  RoyalCollegeObsGyn (@RCObsGyn) February 27, 2018

Founded in 1929, the College now has more than 16,000 members globally (Peter Nicholls/PA)Jerusalems mayor has suspended a plan to impose taxes on properties owned by Christian churches, backing away from a move that had enraged religious leaders and led to the closure of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahus office said a professional team is being established to negotiate with church officials to formulate a solution.

It added: As a result, the Jerusalem Municipality is suspending the collection actions it has taken in recent weeks.

There was no immediate reaction from church leaders, and it is unclear whether the Church of the Holy Sepulchre will reopen.

Roman Catholic, Greek Orthodox and leaders of other Christian denominations closed the famed church on Sunday in protest over an order by Jerusalem mayor Nir Barkat to begin taxing their properties.

The church is revered as the site where Jesus was crucified and resurrected, and the decision closed one of Jerusalems most visited holy sites just ahead of the busy Easter season.

Visitors pray outside the closed doors of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre (AP)

Mr Barkat said his decision affected only commercial properties, such as hotels, restaurants and offices, and not houses of worship. He said other cities followed similar practices worldwide.

As the mayor of the city of Jerusalem, my goal and role is to make sure people pay their taxes, he said in an interview.

We have no negative or bad intentions here.

The churches accused Mr Barkat of acting in bad faith and undermining a long-standing status quo. They said their non-church properties still serve religious purposes by providing services to pilgrims and local flocks.

In Tuesdays announcement, Mr Netanyahu said cabinet minister Tzachi Hanegbi would head the new negotiating committee, which will include representatives from the city, and the finance, foreign and interior ministries.

In addition to suspending tax collection, Mr Netanyahus office said that proposed legislation governing the sale of church lands in Jerusalem was also being suspended.The cold snap has already disrupted train services, forced schools to close and caused airlines to cancel flights. But what sort of consequences could there be for the UK economy?

Periods of extreme wintry weather are rare in the UK, but one of them hit the UK in December 2010, and its impact on the economy was later investigated by the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

Its findings suggested that the cold snap caused a temporary drop in overall economic growth (GDP), along with dips in the growth of output for retail sales and the UKs service industries.

The distribution, hotel and restaurant sector showed evidence of an impact, as customers postponed discretionary trips because of the bad weather.

Overseas travel and tourism was also affected, with the cold weather having a detrimental effect on the number of UK residents travelling abroad.

There was no apparent effect on the average number of weekly hours worked in the country, however, while higher activity was recorded in computer programming, consultancy and related activities  an area that could be less prone to weather disruption.

A plane throws up clouds of snow as it prepares for take off at Gatwick Airport in 2010 (Gareth Fuller/PA)

December 2010 was the coldest December for over 100 years, according to the Met Office, with snowfalls occurring on several days in almost all areas of the country and temperatures plunging as low as minus 21.3C at Altnaharra in the Highlands.

The current cold snap is not forecast to be quite so severe or last as long, and so far this week temperatures have fallen only as low as minus 8.9C, recorded at Farnborough in Hampshire.

But even a small dip in average temperature could still have an impact on the economy.

A study carried out in 2015 by the Centre for Economics and Business Research (Cebr) suggested that a drop of one degree in the minimum average temperature can cost the UK economy 2.5 billion, thanks to lower output among businesses affected by cold weather plus lost productivity caused by transport delays and people not making it to work.

Periods of extreme cold weather were believed to have lowered economic growth in the UK between 2005 and 2015 by a total of 0.6 percentage points.

To put this in context, the UK economy is estimated to have grown by 1.7% between 2016 and 2017, according to the latest figures from the ONS.

But the Cebr study also suggested that the IT and communications sector can experience positive growth during poor weather, due to more people working from home and using cloud technology to do business.

(PA Graphics)

With the current cold snap leading to hazardous conditions on roads and hundreds of trains cancelled, this pattern could be repeated this week, particularly as  according to the recent government figures  95% of homes and businesses in the UK are now able to access superfast broadband.

It will be a few months before reliable data is available to see whether the wintry conditions may have had an impact on the economy.The Scottish Government has introduced new legislation aimed at protecting Holyroods powers from the unfolding disaster of Brexit  despite the Presiding Officer ruling the Bill is not legislatively competent.

Ken Macintosh said after careful reflection he had come to the conclusion the Continuity Bill would not be within the legislative competence of the Parliament.

It is the first time Scottish ministers have brought forward a bill the Presiding Officer has ruled to be outside Parliaments legislative competence.

Scottish Brexit Minister Mike Russell has introduced a continuity bill at Holyrood (Jane Barlow/PA)

Brexit Minister Mike Russell said he regretted the need to introduce the UK Withdrawal from the European Union (Legal Continuity) (Scotland) Bill  but insisted it was essential preparation for leaving the European Union.

It will be rushed through Holyrood on an emergency timetable  with Mr Russell saying it would be for MSPs as a whole to decide if the Bill should pass.

Great to sign this with @JohnSwinney - probably was first photographed with him in 1987 when I joined him as a @theSNP senior office bearer. https://t.co/VqBJDZtFS8  Michael Russell (@Feorlean) February 27, 2018

He stated: All MSPs can listen to the arguments and then collectively we can all decide if this Bill should become law.

It will be a decision not of the Scottish Government but of this, our national Parliament, and that is how it should be and that is why we are bringing forward this Bill.

It comes as talks between London and the devolved administrations over the UK Governments European Union (Withdrawal) Bill remain deadlocked  with both Scotland and Wales branding the proposals a power grab which would undermine devolution.

Mr Russell said: Article 50 has been triggered, without a drastic change of circumstances, which many of us still hope for, regrettably it is more than likely that the UK is leaving the EU. This Bill is a necessary response to that fact.

This is the first time since the reconvening of the Scottish Parliament in 1999 that the government has introduced a bill and the Presiding Officer has not been satisfied as to the legislative competence.

We recognise that, we are mindful of what a serious moment it is.

But he said Scotlands top law officer, Lord Advocate James Wolffe QC, was satisfied that the Bill is within the legislative competence of the Parliament.

Mr Russell added: The Presiding Officers statement on legislative competence does not in any circumstance prevent the Scottish Government from introducing or progressing any bill.

By triggering Article 50 the UK Government has put the UK on a path which leads of the European Union. As I have set out we have a duty to protect and preserve those areas of EU law that are within the responsibility of this Parliament.

The dispute with the UK Government centres over where powers should go when they return from Brussels, with SNP ministers saying all devolved powers currently exercised there should come straight to Holyrood.

In statement @scotgov very clear today if we can reach an agreement with UK Govt that protexts devolution we will not proceed with Continuity Bill. If we can't - Continuity Bill will go ahead. #brexit  Elizabeth Lloyd (@eliz_lloyd) February 27, 2018

Westminster however argue responsibility for some areas must go to London first, to allow common frameworks to be set up across the UK.

Conservative constitution spokesman Adam Tomkins described the Scottish Governments decision to bring forward the Bill as unwelcome and unnecessary.

The Tory MSP said: Up until now there has been a constructive approach from both the UK and Scottish governments.

The fix to make this process fit for purpose is within reach. But the SNP must now reflect on whether this move will help or hinder the process.

But Labours Brexit spokesman Neil Findlay blamed Scottish Secretary David Mundell and Scottish Conservative leader Ruth Davidson for the latest developments, saying the Tories had failed to deliver on commitments given to resolve issues around the devolution of powers coming from the EU.

Scottish Greens co-convener Patrick Harvie said: The introduction of this bill is an absolutely necessary response to the Brexit crisis and to its incompetent mishandling by a UK Government.

Lib Dem Tavish Scott said the failure to reach agreement on the EU Withdrawal Bill was not good.

It is also not satisfactory that we have no legal agreement on this Continuity Bill, he added.

Mr Mundell said: We have been clear that we will protect and enhance the devolution settlement as we leave the EU, and that there will be a significant increase in Holyroods decision-making powers.

But it is crucial we protect the UKs valuable common market, and to do so we will need common approaches across the UK in some areas.

We have made a considerable offer to the devolved administrations on amending the EU (Withdrawal) Bill, and look forward to further constructive talks.The number of high-rises in England with Grenfell-style cladding has passed 300, but only seven social housing blocks have had the material removed, new Government figures show.

Some 301 out of 314 buildings over 18m with Aluminium Composite Material (ACM) cladding are unlikely to meet current building regulations guidance and pose fire hazards, the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) said.

More than half, 158, are social housing blocks, managed by either local authorities or housing associations.

The Government said remediation work is under way on 92 buildings, and has been completed on seven, the MHCLG said.

The Citiscape building in Croydon is one of the more than 300 buildings with Grenfell-style cladding (Kirsty OConnor/PA)

This involves addressing any issues with the exterior cladding and fire safety systems for each building.

Shelters chief executive Polly Neate said: This is cladding which has failed safety tests and is considered unsafe.

Its shocking that more than eight months on from the Grenfell fire only a tiny proportion of unsafe cladding has been replaced on homes across the country.

The Governments lack of leadership has driven delays and caused confusion and it must now step up and take responsibility for ensuring these homes are safe.

We urge the Secretary of State to do this by providing total clarity on fire-safety and much clearer guidance on who should pay for and carry out these essential works.

Unforgiveable: 8 months after Grenfell only 7 social housing tower blocks with unsafe cladding have had it removed and replaced, while the Government still cant say how many private tower blocks are unsafe pic.twitter.com/S3Tm5GQas0  John Healey MP (@JohnHealey_MP) February 27, 2018

John Healey, Labours shadow housing secretary, said the number was shameful, and urged ministers to act now to help fund essential fire safety work.

In England, 63 local authority areas contain at least one residential building over 18 metres or public sector building with ACM cladding unlikely to meet current regulations.

The MCHLG is not disclosing the precise locations of buildings to protect public safety.

The figures come amid several disputes around who should fund the removal of unsafe cladding from private blocks.

Leaseholders at Citiscape, two connected buildings holding 95 flats in Croydon, south London, are awaiting a tribunal decision on who should pay huge costs after their homes were found to be encased in flammable material.

An MHCLG spokesman said: Public safety is paramount and following the Grenfell Tower tragedy we acted swiftly to establish a comprehensive testing programme and issued clear guidance to building owners.

Councils have been working hard to ensure all buildings are safe and work is now underway on 58 per cent of social housing blocks with unsafe cladding.

We are working with building owners and the fire service to take immediate steps to ensure these buildings safe now.The parents of a severely disabled little boy have failed in the first stage of a European court bid after losing battles in London to maintain his life-support treatment.

A High Court judge has given doctors permission to provide only palliative care to 12-month-old Isaiah Haastrup  against the wishes of his parents, Lanre Haastrup and Takesha Thomas.

Mr Justice MacDonald analysed Isaiahs case at the Family Division of the High Court in London in January after specialists at Kings College Hospital said providing further intensive care treatment was futile, burdensome and not in the youngsters best interests.

Takesha Thomas and Lanre Haastrup outside the High Court in London, (PA)

Three Court of Appeal judges upheld his ruling on Friday, following a further hearing in London.

Mr Haastrup and Miss Thomas, who are both in their 30s and from Peckham, south-east London, want judges at the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in Strasbourg, France, to consider the case.

They had asked an ECHR judge to order hospital bosses to continue to treat Isaiah pending an appeal.

But an ECHR spokeswoman said the request for an interim measure has been refused.

A Kings College Hospital spokesman said medics would keep treating Isaiah until Mr Haastrup and Miss Thomas had exhausted their options.The Scottish Government has published a Continuity Bill at Holyrood as an alternative to the UK Governments EU Withdrawal Bill amid an ongoing dispute over how the Westminster legislation intersects with devolved competencies.

The Scottish Parliaments presiding officer Ken Macintosh has said, in his opinion, the Continuity Bill is outwith the legislative competence of the parliament, despite his counterpart at the Welsh Assembly backing similar legislation there.

 Why has the presiding officer come to this conclusion?

Ken Macintosh thinks the Continuity Bill is outwith the legislative competence of the Scottish Parliament (Jane Barlow/PA)

In setting out his reasons, Mr Macintosh said the fundamental question was whether the Continuity Bill would be compatible with EU law when enacted, as required by the Scotland Act 1998.

He said the Continuity Bill assumes that the Parliament can make provision now for the exercise of powers which it is possible the Parliament will acquire in the future.

Mr Macintosh added: In my view the Scotland Act provides that the legislative competence of the Parliament is to be assessed at the point at which legislation is passed.

The Parliament and the Scottish Ministers will remain bound to act compatibly with EU law until such point as the Treaties cease to apply.

In my view this prevents the Parliament from exercising legislative power now, even though it assumes it will be legally able to act in the future.

 Is this the first time that this has happened at Holyrood?

Yes. No previous Scottish Government bill has received an opinion from the presiding officer that it was not within the legislative competence of the Parliament.

Previously, some Members bills have been deemed not to be competent, for example SNP MSP Sandra Whites Bill to ban parking on pavements in the last parliamentary session.

 Why can the Continuity Bill still be introduced?

A Bill can still be introduced even if it is thought not within legislative competence by the presiding officer.

The Parliament is responsible for considering whether or not to proceed with a Bill informed by the statements made by the presiding officer and the member who introduces it.

 Can a Bill be passed into law if it is not competent?

After completing its passage through parliament, Scottish Law Officers  the Lord Advocate, Advocate General or Attorney General  have 28 days to refer the bill to the Supreme Court if they consider it to be outwith the powers of the Scottish Parliament.

It would then be for the Supreme Court to determine whether or not the Bill is competent and only then could it proceed to Royal Assent if it were ruled competent. However even then it could still be challenged in the courts.Almost 4,000 gritters are available to tackle the cold blast hitting the UK, according to new analysis.

Many of these vehicles can be fitted with ploughs to clear away fallen snow, but there are also 500 dedicated snow ploughs which can be mobilised to keep routes open.

The RAC Foundation, which compiled the figures, warned drivers not to expect every road to be clear of snow and ice despite the size of the fleet tackling the conditions.

Gritting during skid prevention and safety training (Rui Vieira/PA)

The motoring research charitys analysis of DVLA data revealed there are 3,238 gritters in England, 431 in Scotland, 105 in Wales and 64 in Northern Ireland.

England also leads the way on snow ploughs with 236, compared with 72 in Scotland and 27 in Wales. There were no figures for Northern Ireland.

Regionally, Yorkshire and Humberside has the most gritters at 795, while London has the least at 42.

Most of the vehicles are operated on behalf of councils to clear local roads or government agencies to keep motorways passable, although some are deployed elsewhere such as at airports.

RAC Foundation director Steve Gooding said the figures show that lessons have been learned after officials were caught on the hop by bad weather in the winters of 2009/10 and 2010/11.

He went on: Even with the scale of the gritting fleet poised for deployment it would be unrealistic to expect every road to be kept clear of snow and ice at all times.

Motorists need to be on their guard and if the snowfall is as deep as some forecasters predict, be ready to ask themselves the question: Is my journey really necessary?'A BBC charity which was given millions of pounds of taxpayers money has sacked six people for sexual misconduct over the past 10 years, it has been revealed.

BBC Media Action, the corporations international development charity, said it had dismissed six people for sexual harassment or for watching pornography on work computers.

The Department for International Development (DfID), which has contributed 70 million to the charity over the past five years, said it had no record of any sexual misconduct allegations at the charity.

However it is understood that, under the charitys rules, not all of the cases would have required reporting to the Government.

Mark Goldring, CEO of Oxfam GB, gave evidence to the Commons Development Committee

It comes as the aid sector continues to be closely scrutinised after Oxfam was accused of concealing the findings of an inquiry into claims staff used prostitutes while delivering aid in Haiti in 2011.

DfID had asked all UK charities working overseas, including BBC Media Action, to provide assurances about its safeguarding and disciplinary policies by Monday this week.

A spokesman for BBC Media Action said: Values of trust and respect are central to BBC Media Actions ethos and we expect everyone to demonstrate them in all they do.

We will  and do  take action through our well-established disciplinary processes if staff behave inappropriately.

The overwhelming majority of our staff deliver their work every day across 14 countries with the utmost integrity. Equally we have to be open and honest if anything does go wrong.

We have reviewed all cases in the last ten years involving or potentially involving sexual misconduct. Six such cases have been identified over this period, all of which were investigated.

In two of the cases, no grounds were found to take any disciplinary action.

Formal action was taken in the remaining four cases, with six people sacked. The charity says none of the cases involved beneficiaries and that it is not aware of any child protection issues.

The spokesman added: Our staff have been reminded of our safeguarding, child protection and whistle-blowing policies and procedures, and their responsibility to follow our Code of Conduct.

We will continue to examine our policies and processes around safeguarding and whistleblowing  and take action to strengthen them further wherever necessary.

We are committed to working with our local partners in developing countries to ensure they take these issues as seriously as we do, and with the wider international development sector to pursue a set of actions designed to collectively achieve the highest standards of safeguarding.

BBC Media Action, which produces programmes in countries across the world and trains journalists, is run separately from the BBC and is not funded by licence fee payers, but is chaired by Fran Unsworth, the BBCs director of news.

It is understood that under existing processes, the charity would only report such matters to DfID if they were the donor for the project concerned and the matters were considered to reach the threshold of a reportable incident.

It is also understood that DfID has now been made aware of the cases, including one historical case where they were the donor on the project concerned and misconduct was proven. No beneficiaries were involved in this case and it was an internal staff matter.

A spokesman for DfID said: DfID does not have a record of any sexual misconduct allegations relating to BBC Media Action on our Counter Fraud and Whistleblowing system.

A BBC spokesman said: BBC Media Actions valuable work supports and trains journalists in countries with underdeveloped media, helping tackle problems such as Ebola and the Rohingya refugee crisis.

The charitys work also helps promote British values of free speech, impartiality and effective democratic scrutiny around the world.

The charity is not funded by the licence fee and has its own safeguarding policy in place.

As an independent charity BBC Media Action has a governance process in place where cases of this nature are reported to its trustees after being investigated by management, which is the appropriate action.Rafael Nadal has withdrawn from the Mexico Open after suffering pain in the area of a hip injury that forced him to pull out of the Australian Open last month.

The Spanish top seed and 16-time grand slam winner was due to face countryman Feliciano Lopez in the tournaments opening round in Acapulco.

Announcing the sad news on Facebook, he said that during training he had felt pain in the area where he had suffered the injury in Melbourne.

Rafael Nadal has withdrawn from the Mexico Open (John Walton/PA)

He added: This morning we went to the hospital and did an MRI. Well have to do more tests to see the extent of the injury.

For now the sad news is I will not be able to play here in Mexico before this wonderful audience who always treats me with so much affection.

In January, Nadal suffered an injury to his inner right hip muscle during his quarter-final clash with Marin Cilic and was forced to withdraw two games into the final set.The Duchess of Cambridge is to visit an exhibition showcasing pioneering Victorian-era photographs at the National Portrait Gallery.

Kate, patron of the gallery since 2012, has written a foreword to the event as well as captions for several selected images at the exhibition Victorian Giants: The Birth of Art Photography.

The display will show together for the first time portraits by influential artists Oscar Rejlander, Lewis Carroll, Julia Margaret Cameron and Lady Clementina Hawarden.

Kate has been patron of the National Portrait Gallery since 2012 (Hannah McKay/PA)

The duchess will visit the gallery on Wednesday after a daytime event which will see her discuss current charitable and philanthropic pursuits with other royals as part of The Royal Foundation Forum.People who are single and looking to get onto the property ladder may want to consider Newcastle-under-Lyme in Staffordshire, North Tyneside or Bradford in their search for more affordable options, research suggests.

Zoopla calculated the most affordable places in England and Wales outside London for solo buyers  and found Newcastle-under-Lyme in Staffordshire came out top, with buyers needing to sacrifice 10.84% of their monthly wage typically in mortgage payments to own a home there.

Cambridge was identified as the least affordable area for single buyers, with mortgage payments there taking up over a third (36.14%) of monthly wages.

Blackpool was found to be one of the most affordable areas for single home buyers in Zooplas research (Owen Humphreys/PA)

The research was based on analysing the prices of one-bed flats  the property type a buyer who was single may be looking for  across England and Wales.

It assumed that buyers would have a 15% deposit to put down and would be paying off their mortgage over 25 years. Office for National Statistics (ONS) figures local earnings figures were used to make the calculations.

North Tyneside and Bradford came second and third on the list of the most affordable areas, with Kirklees, Blackpool and the East Riding of Yorkshire also in the top 10.

While northern areas dominated the most affordable list, southern areas including Brighton, Bath and Windsor appeared on the least affordable top 10 rundown.

While London was excluded from the top-10 lists, single buyers determined to own a home in the capital would need to set aside more than half (57.35%) of their monthly wage, the research found.

Single buyers in Kensington and Chelsea would face a mortgage gobbling up 82.44% of their monthly earnings, while those in Westminster would typically need to set aside 82.12% of their monthly wages on mortgage payments, the research found.

Lawrence Hall, a spokesman for Zoopla, said: Buying a property is a notoriously expensive process, and those looking to purchase a home on their own will likely feel the pressure all the more.

He said the findings for London highlight just how eye-wateringly expensive the London property market is for single buyers, especially in central London.

Here are the 10 least expensive areas for single buyers across England and Wales, according to Zoopla, with the proportion of mortgage payments eating up monthly wages:

1. Newcastle-under-Lyme, 10.84%

2. North Tyneside, 10.92%

3. Bradford, 11.79%

4. Kirklees, 12.34%

5. Blackpool, 12.48%

6. East Riding of Yorkshire, 12.69%

7. Wakefield, 12.85%

8. Derby, 12.89%

=9. Wirral, 12.97%

=9. Sandwell, 12.97%

And here are the 10 most expensive areas for single buyers across England and Wales, according to Zoopla, with the proportion of mortgage payments eating up monthly wages:

1. Cambridge, 36.14%

2. Hertsmere, 35.85%

3. Brighton and Hove, 35.56%

4. Bath and North East Somerset, 35.14%

5. Slough, 33.69%

=6. Epsom and Ewell, 33.10%

=6. Spelthorne, 33.10%

8. Epping Forest, 33.07%

9. Oxford, 33.02%

10. Windsor and Maidenhead, 32.74%

Here are the proportions of mortgage payments eating up monthly wages for a single buyer by region, according to Zoopla, ranked from lowest to highest:

1. North East England, 14.64%

2. Yorkshire and the Humber, 14.75%

3. East Midlands, 14.93%

4. Wales, 16.73%

5. North West England, 17.82%

6. West Midlands, 18.12%

7. South West England, 21.41%

8. South East England, 25.35%

9. East of England, 25.67%

10. London, 57.35%Lawyers for actress Rose McGowan have called for a drug possession charge against her to be thrown out of court, in part because she has been a victim of the Harvey Weinstein machine.

McGowan faces a preliminary hearing next month in Leesburg, Virginia, after authorities said cocaine was found in a wallet she left on a United flight at Dulles International Airport, Washington DC, last year.

In court papers, lawyer Jessica Carmichael said five hours passed between the time McGowan got off the plane and when her wallet was found by a cleaning crew.

Rose McGowan (AP/Paul Sancya,)

Ms Carmichael argued the drugs may have been planted, citing the underhanded targeting of Ms McGowan by Weinstein.

McGowan was one of the first actresses to accuse the now-disgraced producer of sexual abuse.Ben Stokes bagged top billing with an unbeaten half-century as England cruised to a series-levelling six-wicket win over New Zealand.

Stokes landmark performance, in just his second match back from a five-month absence after being arrested outside a Bristol nightclub in September, inevitably overshadowed all else at Mount Maunganui.

England got ahead and stayed there thanks to the exemplary fielding of David Willey and Jason Roy in a home innings of 223 all out which featured four run-outs.

Ben Stokes celebrates during an impressive display (AP)

Stokes (63no) and Eoin Morgan (62) then took over in a stand of 88 to set up the win with more than 12 overs to spare and leave this one-day international series at 1-1.

Stokes, who also took two wickets and effected two run-outs as half-centuries from Martin Guptill (50) and Mitch Santner (63no) failed to keep New Zealand competitive, might have departed for nought when he himself was short of his ground as Colin de Grandhommes side-foot at the stumps trickled wide.

He needed no further fortune on his way to a 54-ball 50, containing six fours and one brutal straight six off Trent Boult, while Morgan survived two half-chances on 27 and 40  caught-behind off a gloved pull at Lockie Ferguson and then an even tougher one at cover off Tim Southee.

Before then, De Grandhommes wonderful catch at midwicket as Joe Root followed Roys early departure off Boult, was at least the equal of any of Englands brilliance.

After Jonny Bairstow upper-cut the pace of Ferguson straight into the hands of third-man, Morgan and Stokes seized control of the chase.

Morgan fell caught-and-bowled to Colin Munro before the job was done, but Stokes and Jos Buttler predictably kept the accelerator down.

Chris Woakes had put the hosts in immediate trouble, after Morgan won the toss on a cloudy afternoon.

First, Munro edged an attempted drive behind  much as he had in the series opener on Sunday, but this time from the crease; then Mark Chapman, on his Kiwi debut in this format at number three in place of injured captain Kane Williamson, mis-pulled and fell to a very good running catch by Willey as he backtracked from square-leg.

Willey produced an even better moment in the field when he dived to stop one at point and then flung in the return for Buttler to gather and run out Ross Taylor.

Guptill had to work hard for his 84-ball 50, only to fall almost immediately afterwards to the first of Roys two catches in as many overs.

He dived forward to hold a flat slog-sweep off Moeen Ali on the midwicket boundary, and then leapt high to his right to hold another blinder  Henry Nicholls cutting Stokes this time.

When Tom Latham then found short third-man off Moeen, New Zealand were 108 for six in the 30th over.

There were three more run-outs to come, courtesy of Bairstow and Stokes  De Grandhomme, Southee and finally number 11 Boult all contributing to their own downfall.

In between, Santner played a fine hand.

Belying his position at number eight, he took on the responsibility to at least scramble the hosts above 200 with his maiden half-century in this format  appropriately in his 50th match.

Ferguson escaped a glaring run-out chance on eight when Roys failure to first gather cleanly at cover and then hit the stumps was the only blot on Englands highly-polished showing.

The ninth-wicket stand went on to realise 69, but it was never likely to be enough.Boris Johnson has accused Remainers of using the Irish border issue to try to frustrate Brexit.

The Foreign Secretary said anti-Brexit politicians were attempting to keep Britain in the customs union, effectively the single market, by saying it is the only way to avoid a hard Irish border.

It comes after a letter sent by Mr Johnson to Theresa May emerged, saying the Government should focus on preventing the frontier becoming significantly harder, reigniting a row over the issue.

With the EU preparing to set out on Wednesday draft legal plans to ensure Northern Ireland is aligned with Brussels rules if no other solution can be found to avoid a hard border with the Republic, Mr Johnson hit out at the inverted pyramid of objections over the issue.

Speaking to reporters after returning from a jog in the snow, he said: What is going on at the moment is that the issue of the Northern Irish border is being used quite a lot politically to try and keep the UK in the customs union  effectively the single market  so we cannot really leave the EU. That is what is going on.

Mr Johnson said his letter showed there are very good solutions that would prevent a hard border for goods crossing the Irish border, while allowing the UK to come out of the customs union, take back control of our tariffs schedules, take back control of our commercial policy, take back control of our regulation.

It is a very positive letter, he added.

The former London mayor also repeated widely criticised comments likening the Irish border to congestion charge zones in the capital, asking a reporter: I dont know whether you have ever driven into the congestion charge zone from outside the congestion charge zone  have you?

Do you slow down? Do you feel any let or hindrance? Do you check your progress? Do you brake? Do you?

Mr Johnson has repeated widely criticised comments likening the Irish border to crossing between congestion zones in London. (Philip Toscano/PA)

Brussels chief negotiator, Michel Barnier, said there would be no surprises in the 120-page draft document, which will cover the political agreements reached between Mrs May and Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker in December.

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said he is satisfied the legal text will ensure there will be no hard border on the island of Ireland after Brexit.

But in a suggestion that the phrasing of the document may cause problems in Westminster  where the Democratic Unionist Party props up the Prime Ministers minority Government  he said: We cannot automatically assume it will be acceptable to the United Kingdom or acceptable to all the parties in Northern Ireland so we could have an interesting few weeks ahead of us.

The UK Government has set out three ways to avoid a hard border  resolving the issue as part of a new trade relationship with the EU, specific technological solutions to the issue or  as a fallback option  regulatory alignment with EU rules to protect economic co-operation and the Good Friday Agreement.

But a memo sent by Mr Johnson to the Prime Minister and other members of the Brexit war cabinet appeared to suggest a hard border remained a possibility, and would not be as damaging as feared.

Michel Barnier will set out draft legal plans to ensure there is no hard Irish border after Brexit (Nick Ansell/PA)

The document, obtained by Sky News, said it is wrong to see the task as maintaining no border' on the island of Ireland and the Governments aim will be to stop this border becoming significantly harder.

Downing Street was swift to play down Mr Johnsons comments.

A source said: We agree the task isnt about no border, its about no hard border.

The 18-page document was circulated to members of the Brexit Cabinet sub-committee before the Chequers meeting where senior ministers agreed on the approach to the next phase of talks, which Mrs May will set out on Friday.

Former Brexit minister David Jones said the EUs proposal was completely unacceptable and amounted to an attempt to annex Northern Ireland.

The Leave-backing Tory MP told BBC Radio 4s Today programme: What is proposed is that Northern Ireland should remain part of the customs union, it should effectively be part of the single market, and should, I understand, remain subject to the European Court of Justice. That effectively amounts to an annexure of Northern Ireland by the European Union.

He said the EUs plan would risk peace in Northern Ireland: I think that it would be pretty catastrophic and I think that the European Union in actually proposing this is behaving wholly irresponsibly.Irish Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has suggested the island of Ireland could enjoy post-Brexit common regulation in the same way as the Republic and the UK have a common travel area.

Mr Varadkar said the legal text on Britains withdrawal from the EU states there will not be a hard border with Northern Ireland.

Some people were trying to suggest in the last couple of weeks that we over-spun, or oversold what was achieved in December. I think people will see today that that charge from the opposition (parties in Ireland) and others is not correct, he said.

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has pointed to the benefits of the Common Travel Area amid deep unease with possible common regulation on the island of Ireland.

Mr Varadkar told Newstalk radio: Option C is how we can avoid a hard border. We set that out in legal terms today, it is very clear.

In the same way that we have a common travel area between Britain and Ireland we could have a common regulatory area involving Northern Ireland.

A lot of the rules of the customs and single market would apply in the north and that means there doesnt have to be a hard border so it is do-able. Weve set it out in a legal text.

Very good meeting with @MichelBarnier today, focusing on #Brexit legal text of draft Withdrawal Agreement to be published on Wednesday - we are of the one mind, translating the political commitments of December into legal text - no more, no less. pic.twitter.com/k8hK1MvJOk  Simon Coveney (@simoncoveney) February 26, 2018

Mr Varadkar said his Government would prefer to see what is being classed as Option A  a new relationship between the UK and EU that is so close that a border is unnecessary.

Its up to the UK to bring proposals to the table to make that possible and I hope that we will see some indication in Theresa Mays, the Prime Ministers speech on Friday as to how they intend to do that, Mr Varadkar said.

Its not OK for people  whether its pro-Brexit politicians in Britain or people from parties in Northern Ireland  to just say no now. Its incumbent on them if they cant accept the backstop then they must detail how Option A or B would work.

Its really up to those who cant accept the backstop to actually come up with those alternative solutions. And actually write them down. It cant be theoretical stuff about congestion charges.A lion that mauled a young woman to death in South Africa was under the care of a man known as the lion whisperer for his close interactions with the predators in his animal sanctuary.

Kevin Richardson keeps lions at his refuge in the Dinokeng Game Reserve.

He said he and a colleague took three lions for a walk in the reserve on Tuesday and that one chased an antelope, eventually encountering the woman at least two kilometres (1.2 miles) away.

South Africa Lion (AP/Themba Hadebe)

Mr Richardson said he had sent out a notification that he was walking with the lions.

He said the woman had accompanied a friend to conduct an interview for an assignment with the camps manager. She died at his operations tented camp in Dinokeng.A Russian-ordered humanitarian pause has taken effect for a second day in a rebel-held region in Syria, but no civilians have used an exit corridor to leave.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the pause on Wednesday in eastern Ghouta, near Damascus, was preceded by a barrage of air strikes in the towns of Harasta and Douma, where Syrian troops are trying to push ahead with a ground offensive.

The Observatory said government shelling and limited clashes were also reported on three fronts after the pause began.

Syria Ghouta Fighters (Army of Islam/AP)

Moscow ordered a five-hour daily humanitarian pause to allow civilians to exit the region.

No humanitarian aid went in and no civilians left on day two. State TV broadcast from the deserted corridor, manned by Russian and Syrian troops.

Residents said they do not trust the truce, while the UN and aid agencies have criticised the unilateral arrangement, saying it gives no guarantees over the safety of residents wishing to leave.

The limited pause came after a UN Security Council resolution that called for a nationwide 30-day ceasefire that failed to take hold. While the relentless bombing has somewhat subsided in the region, home to around 400,000 civilians, the Syrian governments push to squeeze the insurgents out of the region continued.

Commentators on pro-Syrian government TV cheered the Syrian troops, saying there can be no going back on bringing the region under control.

In one week, more than 500 civilians were killed in the violence and the regions medical facilities were targeted, with rescuers overwhelmed. On the first day of the pause, activists reported around 20 civilians were killed, including several pulled from under the rubble from previous bombings.

Bassam Abu Bashir, an anaesthetist in a hospital in eastern Ghouta, said the shelling continued on Monday and Tuesday but has largely spared his central hometown of Saqba, and he had to deal with fewer injuries than in the past week.

He said the violence was now closer to the ground offensive areas. Mr Abu Bashir said the shelling still struck civilians living in villages near the clashes.

Even in areas that are calmer, there is still no truce. There are still jets flying over our heads and areas where there are gatherings that get targeted, Mr Abu Bashir said. There are still injured coming in, but not as many as before.

He said rescuers are also finding time to pull dead bodies from under the rubble of destroyed buildings.

Eastern Ghouta, adjacent to the Syrian capital, came under opposition control in the early days of the revolt against the Syrian government, threatening President Bashar Assads seat of power. Under siege since 2013, the region relied on tunnels and smuggling for supplies and movement. But these tunnels have been controlled by the government in the past months, tightening its grip on the region amid an escalating government offensive.

State media said the rebels inside Ghouta are preventing civilians from leaving. The State news agency SANA said shells fell near the corridor, but no injuries were reported.A journalist shot dead in Slovakia was working on a story about the activities of Italian mafia in his country and their links to people close to Prime Minister Robert Fico.

Jan Kuciaks Aktuality.sk news website published his last, unfinished story on Wednesday. It describes the activities of members of the Italian Ndrangheta criminal group in eastern Slovakia, and the business ties between one of them, a senior assistant to Mr Fico and another official close to him.

The bodies of 27-year-old Mr Kuciak and his girlfriend, Martina Kusnirova, were found on Sunday evening in their house in Velka Maca, east of the capital, Bratislava. Mr Kuciak is the first journalist to be killed in Slovakia.

Students in Nitra hold a vigil in honour of the shot reporter (AP)

In his story he described, among other details, the activities in agriculture, real estate and other sectors of a Slovakia-based Italian man believed to belong to the criminal group.

He also detailed the mans business ties to Maria Troskova, a former model who is now the chief state adviser at the government office, and Viliam Jasan, who currently serves as the secretary of Slovakias security council, a body that deals with key security issues.

After the first details of the story appeared in Aktuality.sk and a newspaper, Sme, on Tuesday, Mr Fico dismissed the reports.

You link innocent people to a double murder without any evidence, the prime minister said. Dont do it.

The opposition was not impressed and called on national police force president Tibor Gaspar and interior minister Robert Kalinak to resign. It is planning a protest rally in Bratislava for later on Wednesday.

Students plan to march in honour of Mr Kuciak in a number of Slovakian cities on Friday.

Aktuality.sk said Mr Kuciak co-operated on the story with the Czech Centre for Investigative Journalism, the Investigative Reporting Project Italy and the international Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project.

The Czech centre said it had been working with Mr Kuciak for more than 18 months.Plunging temperatures have triggered the highest amount of cold weather payments so far this winter.

Some 20.3 million is estimated to have been paid out by the Government in the seven days to February 23.

It beats the previous high of 16.4 million in the week ending December 15.

In total 40.8 million is estimated to have been paid out across Great Britain since the 2017/18 scheme began, far above the amount for 2016/17 (3.1 million) and 2015/16 (3.9 million).

The figure is still well below the 141.7 million paid in 2012/13.

PA Graphics

But with freezing conditions forecast to continue across the country until at least Saturday, the total for 2017/18 is likely to rise even higher.

The Governments cold weather payment scheme runs each year from November 1 to March 31.

Payments are triggered by data collected by the Met Office from 94 weather stations around Britain.

A sum of 25 is automatically paid to eligible people in every area where a weather station shows the average temperature has dropped, or is forecast to drop, to zero degrees Celsius or below for seven days in a row.

Wednesdays figures, published by the Department for Work and Pensions, show that around 813,000 individuals received a payment in the week ending February 23.

People grit the paths in Helix Park, Falkirk. (Andrew Milligan/PA)

Since the 2017/18 scheme began, 4.0 million is estimated to have been spent on cold weather payments to 80,000 people covered by the Bingley weather station, which includes parts of Burnley, Halifax and Huddersfield.

Some 3.4 million has been spent on 138,000 individuals within the area of Bishopton weather station in Scotland, which covers the cities of Glasgow and Paisley.

A similar amount has gone to 134,000 recipients within the area of Albemarle station, which includes Durham, Newcastle-upon-Tyne and Sunderland.

Under the scheme, payments go to older people in receipt of Pension Credit, along with disabled adults, families with a disabled child or families with a child under five who are in receipt of one of the following benefits: income-based Jobseekers Allowance, income-related Employment and Support Allowance, Income Support or Universal Credit.

The money is paid to the recipient within 14 days.Three Nobel Peace laureates have accused Burmese leader Aung San Suu Kyi and the nations military of genocide over their role in violence which forced hundreds of thousands of Rohingya Muslims to flee to Bangladesh.

The laureates, who are on a trip to Bangladesh to visit the sprawling refugee camps where the Rohingya are living, said at a news conference in Dhaka that their fellow Nobel Peace laureate Ms Suu Kyi cannot avoid responsibility.

One of the laureates, Yemens Tawakkol Karman, urged Ms Suu Kyi to wake up or face prosecution.

Her two colleagues  Northern Irelands Mairead Maguire and Irans Shirin Ebadi  promised to work to bring those responsible to justice.

All three were emotionally charged as they unanimously called the violence against Rohingya genocide.

Ms Karman said: There is no other definition, it is genocide, genocide against innocent people.

Noble Peace Laureate from Yemen Tawakkol Karman, right, holds a Rohingya refugee child during her visit to Kutupalong refugee camp (AP)

Millions of people (have) been displaced from their cities, women (have) been raped, all the women, we met like 100 women, all of them (have) been raped.

She said they were overwhelmed as they talked to the children.

Most of the children we met  fled to Bangladesh without their families. Their fathers, their mothers (have) been killed, been murdered, Karman added.

She said that as Burmas leader, Ms Suu Kyi should not be silent.

She did not tell the truth to the world. She should stop her silence, she should wake up and stop this genocide.

She urged Ms Suu Kyi to resign, otherwise she will face prosecution.

Thousands of Rohingya were displaced last year, in a campaign which the Nobel laureates called genocide (AP)

Ms Maguire said they were looking for legal options to ensure justice, saying: We plan to take (Burmas) government to the international court of justice.

Ms Ebadi also criticised her native country, Iran, and other Middle Eastern Islamic nations, including Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, for not doing enough for the Rohingya.

The laureates also met Bangladeshi prime minister Sheikh Hasina and promised to work toward resolving the crisis.

Mairead Maguire has promised to bring those responsible for abuses against the Rohingya to justice (Paul Faith/PA)

Some 700,000 Rohingya have fled to Bangladesh since late August 2017, when Burmas military retaliated following attacks on security posts by a Rohingya insurgent group.

In November, Burma and Bangladesh signed an agreement to gradually repatriate the Rohingya in safety, security and dignity, but the process has been delayed.

Buddhist-majority Burma does not recognise the Rohingya as an official ethnic group, and they face intense discrimination and persecution. Burmese authorities maintain that security operations in Rakhine state have been aimed at clearing out insurgents.

Bangladesh said it will not repatriate any Rohingya against their will, but has urged the international community to continue to put pressure on Burma to create conditions for a sustainable repatriation.Theresa May has said she will not agree a draft withdrawal agreement drawn up by the European Commission.

The Prime Minister said the text  which proposes a common regulatory area between the EU and Northern Ireland  would threaten the constitutional integrity of the UK.

And she told the House of Commons: No UK prime minster could ever agree to it.

Released in Brussels by chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier, the EU text puts into legal terms the Joint Report agreed by Mrs May and European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker in December, and is due to be agreed by the remaining 27 EU states next month.

On the crucial issue of the Irish border, the draft text spells out in detail how the principle of regulatory alignment agreed in December would be implemented if the UK fails to find technological or diplomatic solutions to keeping the border open.

If such solutions are not found, the draft text states, the territory of Northern Ireland, excluding the territorial waters of the United Kingdom  shall be considered to be part of the customs territory of the Union.

It suggests that EU and UK customs authorities should jointly oversee movements between Northern Ireland and the British mainland, while Europe would retain control over aspects of taxation and state aid in the six counties.

Michel Barnier said it was time to `pick up the pace in Brexit talks (European Commission/PA)

Answering questions in the Commons less than an hour after the publication of the text, Mrs May told MPs: The draft legal text the Commission have published would, if implemented, undermine the UK common market and threaten the constitutional integrity of the UK by creating a customs and regulatory border down the Irish Sea, and no UK prime minster could ever agree to it.

I will be making it crystal clear to President Juncker and others that we will never do so.

She said she stood by the deal struck in December, but left no doubt that she wants the withdrawal text rewritten, stating that UK negotiators would talk to Brussels about how the Joint Report should be translated into legal form in the withdrawal agreement.

But Mr Barnier signalled frustration at the lack of progress in the negotiations, telling a Brussels press conference: We must pick up the pace.

He repeated his warning that agreement on the transition deal following Brexit sought by Mrs May is not a given.Shoppers have until the end of Thursday to spend their paper Charles Darwin 10 banknotes.

After Thursday, the new note featuring Jane Austen will be the only Bank of England 10 note with legal tender status.

The Bank of England previously announced that it would withdraw legal tender status of the Darwin banknote, which was first issued nearly 18 years ago in November 2000, at 11.59pm on March 1.

An old-style 10 note, which loses its legal tender status at the end of Thursday (PA)

Some banks and building societies may still accept paper 10 notes after March 1, but this is at their own discretion.

The Bank of England will continue to exchange Darwin 10 notes for all time, as it would for any other Bank of England note which no longer has legal tender status.

Paper 10 notes are being withdrawn. The last day to use them is 1 March 2018. pic.twitter.com/BSSLuwSW7K  Bank of England (@bankofengland) February 27, 2018

Last week, the Bank said over 200 million paper 10 notes were still left in circulation.

Major banks have said they will continue to accept deposits of the old paper tenner from their own customers after March 1.

People can also take their old 10 notes to the Post Office, which is also still accepting account deposits of the old round pounds and old paper Bank of England fivers.

Martin Kearsley, banking services director at the Post Office  which has 11,600 branches across the UK, has said: Thanks to an agreement with all UK high street banks, everyone can deposit cash and cheques, including any old notes, into their usual high street bank account at their local Post Office branch.

RBS/NatWest has said it will continue to accept old 10 notes from its own customers after March 1.

Santander also said it will allow customers to deposit old 10 notes into their accounts after March 1, as did Barclays, Lloyds Bank, Halifax, Bank of Scotland, HSBC and Nationwide Building Society.

The withdrawal of the old paper tenner means that the Bank of Englands legal tender 10 notes, as well as its 5 notes, are made from polymer, while its current 20 and 50 notes are paper.

The Banks next 20 note, to be issued in 2020, will be made from polymer.Theresa May accused Labour of betraying Britons over Brexit as she faced calls to put the country ahead of her Cabinets oversized egos.

The Prime Minister attacked Jeremy Corbyns latest policy after he confirmed the Opposition will back a new and comprehensive UK-EU customs union to ensure tariff-free trade.

But the Labour leader hit back, insisting Mrs May is incapable of delivering a coherent and decisive plan for Brexit due to divisions in her Government.

Theresa May

He also questioned Boris Johnsons remarks over the Irish border, to which the PM insisted she and the Foreign Secretary are absolutely committed to ensuring there is no hard border.

Brexit dominated the leaders exchanges at Prime Ministers Questions for a second successive week, having barely featured in previous outings.

Speaking in the Commons, Mrs May said she was left confused by Mr Corbyns speech on Labour wanting to negotiate a new comprehensive customs union.

She said: That would mean that we couldnt do our trade deals and actually it would betray the vote of the British people.

In the next sentence he said he wanted a customs arrangement meaning we could negotiate our new trade deals  well thats the Governments position, so whats he want to do  let down the country or agree with the Government?

Jeremy Corbyn kicks off his questions on Brexit asking the PM 'what on earth' is ambitious managed divergence?  ElizabethArnold (@ebrep) February 28, 2018

Mr Corbyn, rising to ask his first question, took aim at Mrs Mays Brexit day and asked her to tell the country what ambitious managed divergence will mean.

He later said he understood Mrs May would make a Brexit speech on Friday and raised concerns of businesses and for the health service.

Mr Corbyn pressed the PM to outline which sectors of the Government want to remain aligned and which they plan to diverge.

Some Opposition MPs shouted at Mrs May to question why she was making a separate speech outside Parliament, which prompted the PM to say: Just calm down.

Jeremy Corbyn says the cabinet is in disarray and lists the PM's 'sound bites on Brexit.  ElizabethArnold (@ebrep) February 28, 2018

The PM said she had already set out the Governments position and would elaborate later in the week.

Mr Corbyn criticised Mrs May for her endless round of after-dinner speeches on Europe and later attacked the Governments record on training health workers, adding it doesnt seem to understand it takes eight years to train a doctor.

He said they were also completely oblivious to 100,000 vacancies in the NHS, adding: I suggest some members get a life and go and visit a hospital and see just how hard those people work in order to cover for the vacancies that are there.

May says net migration from EU is still high. She says there are more nurses and doctors in training, and Gov is creating opportunities for people in the U.K. #PMQs  Jon Vale (@JonValePA) February 28, 2018

Turning to the Irish border, Mr Corbyn noticed Mr Johnson was shouting at him and joked: Hes obviously mixing up the border with the Camden-Islington border.

Mrs May, in her reply, told MPs: He said it takes eight years to train a doctor  well, if hes worried about the number of doctors there are now, eight years ago it was a Labour government that was deciding how doctors were going to be trained.

On the border, she said: The Foreign Secretary and I are absolutely committed to ensuring that we deliver on no hard border between Northern Ireland and Ireland.

Thats the position of the UK Government, its the position of the parties in Northern Ireland, its the position of the Irish Government and it was what we agreed in the December agreement of that joint report.

We are all committed to ensuring there is no hard border between Northern Ireland and Ireland.

On Irish border, May says she and Boris Johnson are absolutely committed to deliver on no hard border. Says its the position of all parties and it was agreed in December #PMQs  Jon Vale (@JonValePA) February 28, 2018

Mr Corbyn questioned why Mr Johnson in private correspondence with Mrs May was seeking to do the opposite over the border.

He added: The Government is so divided that the Prime Minister is incapable of delivering a coherent and decisive plan for Brexit.

So when is she going to put the countrys interests before the outsized egos of her own Cabinet?

Mrs May replied: My priorities are the priorities of the British people. Yes, were going to get Brexit right and deliver a good Brexit deal for them.Manchester City travel to face Arsenal in the Premier League on Thursday just four days after thrashing the Gunners in the Carabao Cup final.

Sitting 13 points clear at the top of the Premier League, Pep Guardiolas side will also go into this meeting as heavy favourites.

Here, Press Association Sport looks at the main talking points ahead of the Emirates Stadium clash.

Arsene Wengers Arsenal were beaten by Manchester City in the Carabao Cup final (Joe Giddens/PA)

Instant revenge?

 Wenger: We are very disappointed because we lost an important game. We need to first recover from the disappointment and then prepare for the next challenge, as always, together"#AFCvMCFC pic.twitter.com/fd3cAuPBZg  Arsenal (@Arsenal) February 28, 2018

The manner of the Wembley defeat has seen fresh criticism aimed at Arsene Wenger  who was forced to bat away questions over his future. In this rearranged league meeting, originally due for last weekend before both sides made it to the Carabao Cup final, Wenger and his players have a chance to show than can mix it with the best team in the country.

More agony for Arsene?

The flip-side of that, of course, is that another galling loss at the hands of Guardiolas swashbuckling title-favourites would see even more fans turn on Wenger. The number of empty seats in the Arsenal end at full-time on Sunday spoke volumes, with one leading fans group telling Press Association Sport earlier in the week that there was an air of inevitability of a defeat among those supporters inside Wembley. It is hard to see why that pessimism would change in less than a week and defeat this time around could have far-reaching consequences.

Top four hopes

One more to go in Matchweek 28... pic.twitter.com/kzX0mqDY5D  Premier League (@premierleague) February 25, 2018

Arsenal fell out of top four last season for the first time since Wenger took charge of a full campaign following his arrival as Arsenal boss in 1996. That meant a rare season out of the Champions League, something which the Frenchman was challenged to rectify upon signing a new two-year contract last summer.

Despite that, Arsenal languish sixth in the table and are 10 points adrift of north London rivals Tottenham  who currently occupy the fourth, and last, Champions League qualification spot in the table. It is becoming increasingly obvious, therefore, that a return to the Champions League must be achieved by winning the Europa League in the same manner as Manchester United did last season  and defeat on Thursday will only make that scenario more likely.

Premier League title in Citys reach

The Carabao Cup success saw former Bayern Munich and Barcelona boss Guardiola lift his first trophy in England. A second is fully expected to arrive with Premier League glory, with Manchester City blowing away all in front of them this season. They hold a 13-point lead over second-placed Manchester United and this is their game in hand so victory will only reaffirm their position as winners.

Ozil Oclock

Whether you are someone who doubts Mesut Ozils ability to shine on the biggest stages or not, the Arsenal star needs to show that he can take a game by the scruff of the neck. While Alexis Sanchez left for Manchester United, Ozil signed a new deal at Arsenal  with a huge pay-rise  but still manages to go missing. He was again on the periphery in Sundays cup final and if he can show his better side on Thursday to help Arsenal out of trouble.Universities should compensate students affected by ongoing strikes by union members in a bitter row over pensions, Sam Gyimah has said.

The universities minister said the Department for Education (DfE) is looking closely at the issue, warning institutions that they must step up to the plate.

He also urged the University and College Union to call off the industrial action, saying it is in the interests of students, who are paying striking workers wages.

Universities Minister Sam Gyimah has said students should be compensated if they have been affected by strikes over pensions. (Joe Giddens/PA)

Mr Gyimahs comments came as walkouts entered their fifth day.

UCU members are staging 14 days of action over four weeks in protest at changes to the Universities Superannuation Scheme (USS).

Tens of thousands of students have signed petitions calling for compensation for loss of lectures and classes.

Asked by reporters if universities should look at compensating students if the strikes continue, Mr Gyimah said: Absolutely, Im very serious about that.

I think there are a number of ways for universities to deal with it.

The team at the DfE is looking at this quite closely with universities.

One is making sure that, where lectures are missed, they should make them up. They should find ways of making it up for students on non-strike days  that would be a form of compensation.

Secondly, I know some universities are looking at putting the money that they save from not paying striking staff into student support funds.

Mr Gyimah said he thought this was a good idea, adding that he knew of one university that was looking at direct compensation for affected students.

He added: I absolutely think that this is essential and we are going to pursue it because, if this had happened in freshers week, nobody would be worried, but this is at a vital time of the academic year, people are preparing for exams, and I want universities to step up to the plate.

But its not just universities. I also think, on the other side, given that talks are under way, Acas is involved, theres a mediator involved, that I expect that UCU will suspend the strikes in the interests of students because ultimately it is those students that are paying the salaries of the striking staff and I dont want them to suffer any more than they need to in terms of their education.

The dispute centres on proposals put forward by UUK in January which would see the USS move from a defined benefit scheme, which gives workers a guaranteed income in their retirement, to become a defined contribution scheme, in which pensions are subject to fluctuations in the stock market.

UUK maintains that the pension scheme has a deficit of more than 6 billion which cannot be ignored, while UCU argues that the current proposals would leave a typical lecturer almost 10,000 a year worse off in retirement.

A statement on the Kings College London students union website, claims that the university has

stated that if students feel strongly that their learning has been impacted by the strikes, they will look into compensating on an individual basis.

A spokeswoman for the university said: Kings will not accrue any financial benefit from the industrial action by UCU and any salary savings will be ring-fenced as a fund which we can use to offset the impact of the strike on our students.

Once the nature and scale of disruption has become clearer, we will develop a mechanism for considering cases for any further compensation that may be warranted in light of cancelled classes.

A Universities UK spokesman said: The focus of universities is on making every effort to work with students to minimise disruption to their academic experience. UCU should stop their industrial action while talks continue to find an alternative, viable and affordable solution to USSs funding challenges.Representatives for thousands of Ethiopian Jews have said they will stage a mass hunger strike if Israel eliminates funding to allow them to join their families in that country.

Hundreds have gathered at a synagogue in Ethiopias capital Addis Ababa to express concern that Israels proposed budget removes the funding to help them reunite with relatives.

Most of the nearly 8,000 Ethiopian Jews in the East African nation are said to have family members already in Israel. Some claim they have been separated for more than a decade.

Activists say Israels government in 2015 pledged to bring the remaining Ethiopian Jews to Israel.

Some Ethiopian Jews have said they will stage a mass hunger strike unless the funding continues (AP)

Ethiopians are currently prohibited from holding protests under the countrys latest state of emergency, imposed after the most severe anti-government demonstrations in a quarter-century.

Activists say Israels government in 2015 pledged to bring the remaining Ethiopian Jews to Israel.

In 1991, with Ethiopia in civil war, Israel carried out Operation Solomon, successfully airlifting out some 14,500 Ethiopian Jews in less than two days.

Meles Sidisto, the community head of Ethiopian Jews in Addis Ababa, said: All of us here in Ethiopia are in a foreign land and suffering from acute poverty and hunger.

Most of our family members are in Israel. Several of our brothers and sisters who took dangerous routes to meet their relatives in Israel have died during their journey.

Some say they have been separated from their families in Israel for more than a decade (AP)

He said Addis Ababas community of Ethiopian Jews, which numbers around 800 households, will hold a hunger strike if the Israeli government does not hear their plea.

We have had enough here. What have we done wrong to suffer this much? he said.

Wednesdays gathering was described as a solidarity event. Ethiopians are currently prohibited from holding protests under the countrys latest state of emergency, imposed this month after the most severe anti-government demonstrations in a quarter-century.

Community leaders have urged Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu to act to let them travel to Israel (AP)

Most Ethiopian Jews live in northern Ethiopias Amhara region, one of the areas that has experienced the sometimes deadly anti-government protests that began in November 2015 with demands for greater freedoms.

In a letter addressed to Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the Ethiopian Jews in Addis Ababa said they want to immediately and without any preconditions go to Israel and join family members.

It reads: We will never lose hope in going to Israel because we are winner people. Dear Mr Prime Minister, we want you to make our wish a reality. We ask you this in the name of Our God, Israels God.An Israeli organisation has said it has minted a coin bearing US president Donald Trumps image to honour his recognition of Jerusalem as Israels capital.

The Mikdash Educational Centre said the Temple Coin features Mr Trump alongside King Cyrus, who 2,500 years ago allowed Jews to return to Jerusalem from their exile in Babylon.

The biblical half-shekel coins also depict the ancient Persian King Cyrus (AP)

Rabbi Mordechai Persoff said Mr Trump, like Cyrus, made a big declaration that Jerusalem is the capital of the holy people.

His organisation minted 1,000 biblical half-shekel coins that can be purchased with a minimum donation of 50 dollars (35). The coin cannot be used as currency.

Mr Trumps recognition of Jerusalem as the Israeli capital has proven controversial (AP)

Mikdash bills itself as a non-profit educational and religious organisation. The donations will help spread the light of Jerusalem and the spirit of the Holy Temple throughout the world, it said.

Israel has warmly welcomed Mr Trumps move, which angered Palestinians.

The Trump coin is also likely to rile Iranians, who uniformly respect King Cyrus as an ancient Persian hero.A riverfront memorial to a Second World War hero who inspired a scene in the recent hit film Dunkirk has been unveiled.

Wallasey-born pilot Jack Potter is not mentioned by name but the moment in Christopher Nolans movie that a pilot ditches his Spitfire into the sea after an engine seizure is based on his own experience.

Family and friends of the airman, including his son Robert, travelled from as far afield as Australia and Canada for Wednesdays service on Seacombe Promenade in Wirral, Merseyside.

Mayor of Wirral Ann McLachlan (second left) joins family members at the unveiling of a memorial to Battle of Britain Spitfire pilot Sergeant Jack Potter, whose story helped to inspire a scene in the Hollywood movie Dunkirk (Peter Byrne/ PA)

Sgt Potter, who also served in the Battle of Britain, took part in the rescue of 200 service personnel from HMS Basilisk when it was sunk by German aircraft during the Dunkirk evacuation in 1940.

He survived the war and later settled in Brighton.

Councillor Jerry Williams, Wirral Councils heritage champion, who traced Mr Potters family, said: He had an illustrious war record.

At Dunkirk, he destroyed a Messerchmitt. Less than a week later, his engine seized 15 miles from the English coast and he ditched into the sea, later being picked up and landed at Dover.

During the Battle of Britain, he ditched into the Channel again, (was) picked up by a German vessel and spent the rest of his war in a Prisoner of War Camp.

Jack survived the war and died in Brighton in 1977. Around this time I was corresponding with Battle of Britain pilots, collecting signatures, and wrote to Jack. Sadly, his relatives said he had just died but they sent me a copy of his signature.

Tony (left) and Robert Potter, the sons of Battle of Britain Spitfire pilot Sergeant Jack Potter, whose story helped to inspire a scene in the Hollywood movie Dunkirk (Peter Byrne/PA)

The memorial was unveiled by Robert Potter and the Mayor of Wirral, Councillor Ann McLachlan.

The stretch of the promenade where the memorial is located has been renamed Jack Potter Walk.Maureen Lipman has paid tribute to James Bond director Lewis Gilbert who died last week aged 97.

Lipman starred alongside Dame Julie Walters and Sir Michael Caine in Gilberts 1983 film Educating Rita and described the film maker as like a favourite uncle.

I dont want to sound like a lovey but he was the nicest chap. I never met a director who was as much fun as Lewis Gilbert, she told the Press Association.

She recalled Gilbert adding in a subtle line during one of her scenes with Dame Julie which added an air of mystery.

I had a scene with Julie Walters in a cafe where we were both being waitresses and he just said to me before the take, just put the line in at the beginning: Hes eaten it.

Now thats my kind of director because its a line to float. What does it mean? He said hed once heard it in a restaurant. And thats like my late husband Jack, he would just pick up a line like that and just float it in.

Maureen Lipman (Yui Mok/PA)

Lipman added: And look at that chronicle of work, every film is so different.

He could turn his hand to anything, he was a proper, East End clever Jewish boy who did well. I never heard a bad word against Lewis Gilbert from anybody.

May he rest in peace because he certainly deserves to.

Gilbert made his Bond debut with 1967s You Only Live Twice starring Sean Connery, before going on to oversee The Spy Who Loved Me (1977) and Moonraker (1979), both starring Roger Moore.

Born in London in 1920, he also directed Alfie  the film which made Sir Michael Caine a star and earned the film maker a Oscar nomination.

His final film, 2002s Before You Go, saw him team up again with Dame Julie.

Lipman was speaking ahead of the West End premiere of Gore Vidals The Best Man which runs at the Playhouse Theatre from February 24 to May 12.The Irish Government has said the UK needs to come up with alternative solutions if it will not support the EUs legal document on Brexit.

Brussels chief negotiator Michel Barniers text outlining a default scenario for regulations on an all-Ireland basis drew ire from Theresa May.

But Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said he would prefer to see what is being classed as Option A  a new relationship between the UK and EU that is so close that a border is unnecessary.

Irelands Foreign Minister Simon Coveney Coveney said Ireland deserves to know that in the absence of an agreement between the UK and EU on trade and customs post-Brexit that a border will not be recreated on the island.

Hardline Brexiteers and some politicians in Northern Ireland will say No and will be angry at what they see today, but just saying No and being angry is not enough, the Taoiseach told the Dail parliament in Dublin.

If people do not like what they see today, it is incumbent on them to come up with alternative solutions and to flesh out option A and option B, write it down in a legal form that can be enforced and then we can negotiate on that.

EUText says "a common regulatory area" comprising EU+UK in respect of NI "is hereby established." It shall "constitute an area without internal borders in which free movement of goods is ensured + North-South coop protected"-its DEFAULT POSITION IN ABSENCE OF POLITICAL AGREEMENT pic.twitter.com/RBWAClNFJe  Simon Coveney (@simoncoveney) February 28, 2018

Foreign Affairs Minister Simon Coveney said the Irish Government had insisted on a backstop or default position in the absence of a better deal so far.

This is not trying to provoke, its not trying to reinterpret, he said.

Mr Barniers legal text sparked claims in some political circles in Britain that the EU was attempting to annex Northern Ireland.

Democratic Unionist leader Arlene Foster tweeted after the publication of the EU document and said it was constitutionally unacceptable & would be economically catastrophic for Northern Ireland.

Mr Coveney said Ireland deserves to know that in the absence of an agreement between the UK and EU on trade and customs post-Brexit, that a border will not be recreated on the island.

And reacting to the PMs statement in the House of Commons, he said: The constitutional integrity of Northern Ireland and indeed the relationship north and south on the island of Ireland is essentially subject to the Good Friday Agreement.

Nobody is looking to pick a fight here.

Mr Coveney said nobody should be surprised by the legal document and that it was simply a legalistic text of what was agreed in December.

The Irish Government has made it very clear that were not hardening our position, Mr Coveney said.

We are simply holding our position.

Mr Coveney said Ireland was insisting on a default clause in the legal text in the absence of solutions or suggestions from Mrs Mays Government.

He added: Until we get that clarity well then we of course have to hold on very tight to that position because its all weve got.

Sinn Fein president Mary Lou McDonald launched a tirade over the reaction from the British Government and the DUP to the EU legal text.

The Tory-DUP axis is satisfied to treat the welfare of the people of this island as collateral damage so long as they achieve their little Englander vision for Brexit, she said.No civilians have used a corridor manned by Syrian and Russian forces to leave a rebel-held enclave in a Damascus suburb, as a humanitarian pause in hostilities ordered by Russian president Vladimir Putin came into effect for a second day.

Syrian government forces, meanwhile, tried to push their way into eastern Ghouta, setting off ground battles.

Mr Putin blamed the rebels, saying they were preventing civilians from leaving the area, and suggested Russia would not endlessly tolerate the situation there.

Russia has ordered a five-hour daily humanitarian pause to allow civilians to exit the region, starting on Tuesday. However, no humanitarian aid has gone in, and no civilians have left.

Residents said they do not trust the truce, while the UN and aid agencies criticised the unilateral arrangement, saying it gives no guarantees of safety for people wishing to leave.

Russia has blamed rebel groups for preventing residents from leaving (AP)

The limited pause came after a UN Security Council resolution that called for a nationwide 30-day ceasefire that failed to take hold. While the relentless bombing has somewhat subsided in the region, which is home to around 400,000 civilians, the Syrian governments push to squeeze the insurgents out of the region continued.

On Wednesday, the European Union demanded that Russia, Iran and Turkey take responsibility for ensuring that the fighting stops in Syria and that a real 30-day halt in fighting is respected.

Opposition activists said the five-hour pause in eastern Ghouta was preceded by a barrage of airstrikes in the towns of Harasta and Douma, where Syrian troops and allied militia trying to push ahead with a ground offensive on a number of fronts from the east and west clashed with local insurgent groups.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said government shelling and limited clashes were reported on three fronts since the pause began: near Douma, in Harasta Farms, and near Shifouniyah.

Commentators on pro-Syrian government TV cheered the Syrian troops, saying there can be no going back on bringing the region under control.

The Syrian insurgent group Army of Islam fire artillery during clashes with government forces (AP)

The UN resolution came as more than 500 civilians were killed over the course of a week in eastern Ghouta and the regions medical facilities were targeted, overwhelming rescuers.

On the first day of the pause, activists reported around 20 civilians were killed, including several pulled from under the rubble from previous bombings.

The rescuers known as the Syrian Civil Defence, or the White Helmets, said one of their own was killed Wednesday in an airstrike on Ottaya, which hit as a team of rescuers was evacuating injured from a building.

Mr Putin said many militants in eastern Ghouta belong to groups listed by the UN as terrorist organisations. He noted that the militants have regularly shelled Damascus, and many rounds landed near the Russian Embassy.

He said: Shells keep regularly coming from there, there are 50-80 rocket and mortar strikes on some days. As we know well here in Russia, mortar rounds even hit the territory of the Russian Embassy and the trade mission. Shall we endlessly tolerate that? No, of course not, he said.Democratic Unionist Party leader Arlene Foster has condemned the Brexit legal text produced by Brussels as constitutionally unacceptable and potentially catastrophic for Northern Ireland.

MPs from her party challenged Theresa May about the issue in the Commons, prompting the Prime Minister to insist that she could not agree to the terms of the EUs text.

On the crucial issue of the Irish border, the draft text spells out in detail how the principle of regulatory alignment agreed in December would be implemented if the UK fails to find technological or diplomatic solutions to keeping the border open.

There has been an angry response to the EUs Brexit text from Arlene Foster (Jane Barlow/PA)

EU draft text is constitutionally unacceptable & would be economically catastrophic for Northern Ireland. I welcome the Prime Minister's commitment that HMG will not allow any new border in the Irish Sea. Northern Ireland must have unfettered access to GB market. AF  Arlene Foster #WeWillMeetAgain (@ArleneFosterUK) February 28, 2018

If such solutions are not found, the draft text states, the territory of Northern Ireland, excluding the territorial waters of the United Kingdom  shall be considered to be part of the customs territory of the (European) Union.

It suggests that EU and UK customs authorities should jointly oversee movements between Northern Ireland and the British mainland, while Europe would retain control over aspects of taxation and state aid in the six counties.

Ms Foster said: EU draft text is constitutionally unacceptable and would be economically catastrophic for Northern Ireland.

I welcome the Prime Ministers commitment that HMG will not allow any new border in the Irish Sea.

Northern Ireland must have unfettered access to GB market.

At Prime Ministers Questions, Mrs May said the EUs text would threaten the constitutional integrity of the UK and no UK prime minster could ever agree to it.

Ukips interim leader Gerard Batten said: The EU is trying to divide Northern Ireland away from the UK and attempting to undermine and reverse the referendum decision.

He said the European Commission shall not be allowed to annex Northern Ireland or put a disruptive hard border.

But Irelands Foreign Minister Simon Coveney said the document gave a necessary legal provision to maintain the same trade and customs rules in Northern Ireland in the event that no deal can be struck between the EU and UK.

Mr Coveney added: This is very much a default and would only apply should it prove necessary.

Today's EU draft text is absolutely faithful to the political Agreement in December an should not be a surprise to anybody https://t.co/mk23mUIXJw  Simon Coveney (@simoncoveney) February 28, 2018

This is about delivering on our shared objectives of protecting the Good Friday Agreement and the gains of the peace process, no less, no more.

Shadow Brexit secretary Sir Keir Starmer said: The EU-UK Government war of words needs to end.

There can be absolutely no deviation from the solemn commitments made to Northern Ireland at the end of the first phase of Brexit negotiations. That means no hard border or any agreement that would undermine the Good Friday Agreement.

Theresa Mays failure to offer any viable solution to the border in Northern Ireland has come back to haunt her.

TUC general secretary Frances OGrady urged Mrs May to stand up to the reckless demands of hardliners in her party, saying: The draft text would deliver the Prime Ministers promise of no hard border in the island of Ireland after Brexit.

Let's be crystal clear. Threat of hard border (and unravelling of Good Friday Agreement) is because of the government's self-defeating red lines - and the reckless demands of hard Brexiteers  Frances O'Grady (@FrancesOGrady) February 28, 2018

Now she must face down the hardliners in her party, and put all options for a final deal back on the negotiating table.

Thats the best way to protect jobs, rights at work and the Good Friday Agreement.

Labour MP Chuka Umunna, who supports the pro-EU Open Britain campaign, said: The Brexit negotiations have reached crisis point because the Government has failed to provide any workable, realistic solutions to the complex problem of the border in Northern Ireland.US president Donald Trumps former campaign chairman Paul Manafort has maintained his innocence over new charges that he acted as an unregistered foreign agent and directed an international money laundering conspiracy.

Manafort appeared at a federal courthouse and entered a formal plea of not guilty to a second indictment brought against him by prosecutors working for special counsel Robert Mueller, who is investigating Russian election interference.

It is his first court appearance since his co-defendant and longtime business associate, Rick Gates, pleaded guilty and agreed to co-operate with prosecutors.

Manafort leaves the federal courthouse in Washington (AP)

Manafort had previously pleaded not guilty in the case, but the latest indictment, which mirrored the charges filed against him last October, required him to formally enter a second plea.

During the hearing, Judge Amy Berman Jackson set a September 17 trial date for Manafort and reprimanded him for making a public statement last week about Gates plea. The statement violated a gag order she put in place early in the case, she said.

I can certainly understand the impulse to not let that go by without asserting your innocence, Judge Jackson told Manafort, referring to Gates plea and hundreds of news articles about it. But she said it cannot happen again, or she will hold him in contempt.

Manaforts attorney, Kevin Downing, told the judge his client would appreciate more guidance from the judge on what he can and cannot say publicly. He also said he plans to file a motion challenging her order.

Manaforts statement last week took aim at the prosecution, saying Gates plea didnt change his commitment to defend himself against the untrue piled-up charges contained in the indictments against me.

Manafort also said he had hoped and expected Gates would have had the strength to continue the battle to prove out innocence.

For reasons yet to surface he chose to do otherwise, Manafort said.Police will assess a dossier on privacy campaigner Max Mosley following the disclosure he published a campaign leaflet linking non-white immigrants with diseases such as tuberculosis, VD and leprosy.

The pamphlet, supporting a candidate for his father Sir Oswald Mosleys Union Movement in a 1961 by-election, was unearthed by the Daily Mail in historical archives in Manchester.

The Mail said its discovery raises questions over evidence which Mr Mosley gave under oath in a High Court trial when he successfully sued the News Of The World in 2008.

But Mr Mosley insisted he did not recall the leaflet, and said he would not be deterred from his campaign for reforms to protect ordinary people from press abuses.

The newspaper passed a dossier on the claims to the Crown Prosecution Service, which in turn sent it to Scotland Yard.

A Metropolitan Police spokeswoman said: This afternoon the CPS forwarded information from the Daily Mail to the Metropolitan Police.

An assessment will be carried out.

And the company which published the now-defunct News of the World said it was considering all legal options in the wake of the reporting.

In a statement, News Group Newspapers said it was awaiting with interest the result of the police assessment, adding: In the meantime, we have instructed our lawyers to consider the impact of the revelations and Mr Mosleys responses on the High Court Proceedings with a view to considering all our legal options.

Meanwhile, a senior Labour source described the views expressed by Mr Mosley as repugnant and said neither deputy leader Tom Watson, who has received more than 500,000 in donations from the former Formula One boss, nor the party would take any further payments from him.

The Labour Party has moved away for large-scale donations from wealthy individuals, the source said.

I dont believe that there will be any more payments from Max Mosley to the Labour Party or Tom Watson. The last payments were made last year.

Walter Hesketh, right, pictured with his agent Max Mosley in 1962 (PA)

Asked in court about his political activities as a young man, Mr Mosley acknowledged he was election agent for Union Movement candidate Walter Hesketh in the 1961 by-election in Moss Side.

But he said it was absolute nonsense to suggest he had put out leaflets alleging that coloured immigrants brought diseases with them.

The election handout found by the Mail states that it was published by Max Mosley, and includes the warning: Tuberculosis, VD and other terrible diseases like leprosy are on the increase. Coloured immigration threatens your childrens health.

The document came to light as Mr Mosley pursues an effort to prevent newspapers from referring to the sex party reported in the News Of The World which prompted the 2008 court case.

The former Formula One boss has campaigned for tighter press regulation since the now-defunct Sunday tabloid wrongly reported the party was Nazi-themed, and has donated funds to regulator Impress.

In a statement, Mr Mosley said he did not recall the leaflet which was allegedly issued more than 56 years ago.

My record in motorsport demonstrates that I do not tolerate racism and, like most people, my political views have changed over time, he said.

In a statement released on Wednesday evening, Mr Mosley added: Now that Ive seen copies of this leaflet, I still do not recognise it.

It is not something I would have ever wished to be associated with.

It is offensive and divisive. By contrast, I campaigned to stamp out racism in motorsport.

The Daily Mails attack over my work for my fathers party, which ended in 1963, is plainly in response to my recent letter of claim.

Mr Mosley added that, like many people, my views have changed over the last half century.The parents of a severely disabled little boy are preparing to ask European judges to intervene after losing life-support treatment battles in London.

A High Court judge has given doctors permission to provide only palliative care to 12-month-old Isaiah Haastrup, against the wishes of his parents, Lanre Haastrup and Takesha Thomas.

Mr Justice MacDonald analysed Isaiahs case at the Family Division of the High Court in London in January after specialists at Kings College Hospital in London said providing further intensive care treatment was futile not in the youngsters best interests.

Isaiah Haastrups father Lanre Haastrup and mother Takesha Thomas speak to the media outside the Royal Courts of Justice (Dominic Lipinski/PA)

Three Court of Appeal judges upheld his ruling following a further hearing in London.

Mr Haastrup and Miss Thomas, who are both in their 30s and from Peckham, south-east London, say they are preparing to put their case before the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in Strasbourg, France.Two Romanian crime gang members operating a UK-wide human trafficking network in Northern Ireland have been imprisoned.

Brothers Decebal and Spartacus Mihai, originally from Romania but living in Kenlis Street, Banbridge, pleaded guilty to controlling prostitution for gain, conspiracy to traffic for sexual exploitation, acquiring criminal property and converting criminal property, a police statement said.

Decebal Mihai, 28, was sentenced at Belfast Crown Court to four years, half to be served on licence. Spartacus Mihai, 21, was sentenced to three years, half to be served on licence.

It is the first conviction and sentencing for a human trafficking for sexual exploitation offence in Northern Ireland and prosecutors hailed it as a landmark.

Spartacus Ilie Mihai was sentenced to three years for human trafficking offences (PSNI/PA)

Detective Chief Inspector Mark Bell, head of the Police Service of Northern Irelands Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking Unit, said: Detectives from the Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking Unit arrested Decebel and Spartacus Mihai as part of one of the biggest investigations into human trafficking in Northern Ireland.

The brothers were part of a Romanian organised crime gang involved in trafficking females into, within and out of Northern Ireland for the purposes of sexual exploitation.

It followed the receipt of valuable information from a member of the public which led to searches in East Belfast and Banbridge in May last year.

Mr Bell added: At both addresses we discovered women aged between 19 and 30 who were identified as potential victims of sexual exploitation.

All four women agreed to voluntarily go with detectives to be spoken to, but sadly those victims did not engage with police and seek the help they needed.

It is unbearable to think what those victims have been through, they couldnt understand or speak English and probably didnt have access to much money.

Understandably they were absolutely terrified and for all these complex reasons they would not cooperate with police, but thankfully these victims no longer have to endure this life of being exploited sexually on a regular basis.

He said officers found 25 different telephone numbers linked to Decebal Mihai, 10 of which were linked to websites advertising escorts.

We also identified seven telephone numbers which were linked to Spartacus Mihai, five of these were found on websites advertising escorts.

He said Decebel Mihai, on various dates between December 2013 and April 2017, acquired around 150,000 from his human trafficking.

Spartacus Ilie Mihai, on various dates between December 2014 and May 2017, acquired around 27,000 from human trafficking.

Lynne Carlin, senior public prosecutor from the Public Prosecution Service serious crime unit, said: Prosecutions of this kind mean that those criminals who exploit and traffic vulnerable victims now know that the PPS and other criminal justice partners can build robust cases and secure convictions against them without requiring the evidence of often frightened and intimidated victims.A final agreement on the terms of Britains EU withdrawal has been thrown into doubt, after Theresa May fiercely rejected a text drawn up by the European Commission, declaring: No UK prime minister could ever agree to it.

The Prime Minister told MPs that the paper  which proposes a common regulatory area between the EU and Northern Ireland  would threaten the constitutional integrity of the UK by creating a border down the Irish Sea.

With just three weeks to go until a Brussels summit at which the remaining 27 EU nations were expected to approve the draft text, Mrs May made clear that she wants a rewrite of the 120-page document.

And Brexit Secretary David Davis suggested that an alternative way of keeping the Irish border open can be expected to emerge from talks on the future EU/UK trade relationship, due to begin after the March 22 summit of the European Council.

Mrs May was applauded by the leader of the Democratic Unionist Party, Arlene Foster, who said that the EUs proposals were constitutionally unacceptable and would be economically catastrophic for Northern Ireland.

But she came under fire from her predecessor as Conservative prime minister Sir John Major, who dramatically intervened in the Brexit debate with a warning that the Governments negotiating position was not credible.

Former prime minister Sir John Major called for MPs to be given a free vote on the final Brexit deal (Dominic Lipinski/PA)

Accusing Mrs May of tilting her policy too far towards an ultra-Brexit minority whose promises to voters had all been proved wrong, Sir John urged her to be ready to compromise by dropping her red lines of taking the UK out of the single market and customs union.

And he called on her to offer MPs a free vote on the final Brexit deal, with the option of putting it to the public in a second referendum.

Sir John denied he was trying to undermine the Prime Minister, who will set out her own Brexit vision in a major speech on Friday. But he was denounced as a humbug by arch-Brexiteer Jacob Rees-Mogg, who dismissed his warnings as cheap comments and propaganda.

Released in Brussels by chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier, the EU text puts into legal terms the agreement reached by Mrs May and European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker in December.

On the crucial issue of the Irish border, it spells out in detail how the principle of regulatory alignment agreed in December would be implemented if the UK fails to find technological or diplomatic solutions to keeping the border open.

If such solutions are not found, the draft text states, the territory of Northern Ireland, excluding the territorial waters of the United Kingdom  shall be considered to be part of the customs territory of the Union.

It suggests that EU and UK customs authorities should jointly oversee movements between Northern Ireland and the British mainland, while Europe would retain control over aspects of taxation and state aid in the six counties.

Answering questions in the Commons less than an hour after its publication, Mrs May told MPs: The draft legal text the Commission have published would, if implemented, undermine the UK common market and threaten the constitutional integrity of the UK by creating a customs and regulatory border down the Irish Sea, and no UK prime minster could ever agree to it.

I will be making it crystal clear to President Juncker and others that we will never do so.

She said she stood by the deal struck in December, but left no doubt that she wants the withdrawal text rewritten, stating that UK negotiators would talk to Brussels about how the Joint Report should be translated into legal form in the withdrawal agreement.

EU draft text is constitutionally unacceptable & would be economically catastrophic for Northern Ireland. I welcome the Prime Minister's commitment that HMG will not allow any new border in the Irish Sea. Northern Ireland must have unfettered access to GB market. AF  Arlene Foster #WeWillMeetAgain (@ArleneFosterUK) February 28, 2018

In an apparent bid to calm Tory nerves, Mr Davis wrote to all Conservative MPs to insist there remains a shared ambition for a quick agreement and  significant common ground between the UK and EU.

London still hopes to secure agreement at the March 22 summit of the European Council on a transition period of around two years after the official date of Brexit in 2019, he said.

But Mr Barnier signalled frustration at the lack of progress in the negotiations, telling a Brussels press conference: We must pick up the pace.

There remain significant divergences over issues including the rights of EU citizens and the application of EU rules during transition.

He warned: At this moment, as I speak to you, the transition is not a given.

Meanwhile, the Government sought to break the deadlock with Brussels over citizens rights by declaring that those who arrive in the UK during the transition period will be able to apply for indefinite leave to remain.

The offer falls short of Brussels demand for equal treatment with EU nationals resident in the UK before Brexit, who will be allowed to taken on settled status, granting them greater rights to bring in family members.Armando Iannucci remains optimistic that The Death Of Stalin will be granted a cinema licence in Russia.

The writer and director believes his satirical film exploring the aftermath of Josef Stalins death may be re-approved by the government following presidential elections in the country later this year.

Last month, the Culture Ministry rescinded a permit allowing the film to be shown in cinemas after communists and others criticised it as a mockery of Russian history.

Jason Isaacs, Armando Iannucci, Andrea Riseborough, Michael Palin, Paul Whitehouse and David Schneider attending the UK premiere of The Death of Stalin (Ian West/PA)

Iannucci said the films growing reputation due to the ban offered no consolation.

I just feel sad, he told the Press Association.

Theres something weird about making something and then being told no one can see it.

He added: I think it might come back, I dont think its done. Banning anything never works.

Were still waiting to hear  its still up in the air. Im still hopeful.

Attention all UK patriots. Join loyal citizens throughout the nation and celebrate the impending release of #TheDeathOfStalin. Download first from Feb 19th, on DVD and Blu-ray Feb 26th https://t.co/3AD664MI2H  Armando Iannucci (@Aiannucci) February 17, 2018

Putins got the election and we know how he doesnt like from anything outside affecting the countrys election so I think youd have that first and then maybe beyond that we can get back in cinemas.

Iannucci said the film  which stars the likes of Steve Buscemi, Jason Isaacs, Michael Palin and Jeffrey Tambor  may help Russians explore their history with the Soviet leader.

It might help them to talk about it because my experience out there was its just been put to one side and not really discussed, he said.

I think theres an element within the Putin government of because it was a revolution  he didnt really want to celebrate the events of the revolution because that was all about overturning authority.

So it might be healthy to see the other aspect of it, he added.

Asked if the ban reflected the fragility of democracy across the world, Iannucci said: It troubles me that politicians are instinctively trying to shut opposition down rather than disagreeing with opposition.

 The Death of Stalin is available on Blu-ray, DVD and Digital download now.Three teenagers have been charged with murder following the fatal stabbing of an aspiring rapper, Scotland Yard said.

Lewis Blackman, 19, was stabbed to death after a party in Kensington, west London, on February 18.

On Wednesday, a 16-year-old boy was charged with murder, and a 17-year-old boy and another 16-year-old boy were charged with murder and violent disorder, the Metropolitan Police said.

Police and forensic officers in Logan Place, Kensington (Ryan Hooper/PA)

All three will appear in custody at Croydon Magistrates Court on Thursday.

The force said another 16-year-old has been bailed pending further inquiries, and a 19-year-old and 16-year-old have been released under investigation.

Lewis, from Camden, north London, was found at around 3.20am in Logan Place by police officers who had been called to a disturbance after a party nearby.

Along with paramedics, they tried to revive him, but he died at the scene from stab wounds to the chest.

Detectives from the Mets Homicide and Major Crime Command are still investigating his death, the force said.

Anyone with information is asked to call the incident room on 020 8721 4054 or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.Oprah Winfrey has said she would only run for president if God told her to do so.

There have been calls for the US chat show star to consider a run for the US presidency since her inspiring speech at the Golden Globes earlier this year.

Winfrey, 64, has indicated that she is not interested in moving into the political arena, but has now suggested to Americas People magazine that a sign from God could make her reconsider.

Oprah Winfrey (PA)

.@Oprah Winfrey reveals the one thing that could make her run for president: https://t.co/Gt0ezgEQdK pic.twitter.com/fNAS3Vshs5  People (@people) February 28, 2018

She said: I pay attention, and when you have that many people saying something, I thought well gee, I never in my life, ever, ever, imagined that I would be in politics. Ive always said no no no no no.

Am I at least supposed to look at that question?

She continued: Because Ive had enough people  billionaires  calling me up and saying, I can get you a billion dollars. I can run your campaign and I actually went into prayer about it.

God, if you think Im supposed to run, you gotta tell me, and it has to be so clear that not even I can miss it.

And I havent gotten that.Neymar will have surgery on his broken metatarsal at the end of the week.

The worlds most expensive player suffered the injury during Paris St Germains win over Marseille on Sunday, leading to three days worth of speculation over how it would be treated.

The French Ligue 1 club announced on Wednesday evening that Neymar, who also has a sprained ankle, will go under the knife in his native Brazil later this week.

Neymar is to undergo surgery in Brazil (Adam Davy/Empics)

A club statement on the official website read: In accordance with the player, it has been decided that Neymar Jr will undergo surgery in Brazil at the end of this week.

He will be operated on by Dr. Rodrigo Lasmar, accompanied by Professor Saillant, representing PSG.

PSG boss Unai Emery said on Tuesday that surgery was not a foregone conclusion after the French club tried to treat the injury conservatively, but after discussions with the medical team of Brazils national team the decision to operate was made.

Neymars surgery means he will not be fit to face Real Madrid in the Champions League next Tuesday.

The 26-year-old was carried off nine minutes from the end of his sides 3-0 win over Marseille on Sunday, and his father Neymar Sr said earlier on Wednesday it could be eight weeks before he plays again.

His treatment will last six to eight weeks, whether there is an operation or not, he told ESPN FC.nbsp;A man has been charged with murder after an LGBT rights campaigner was discovered stabbed to death in his home, Scotland Yard has said.

Officers were called to the West Kensington flat of Julian Aubrey on October 30 to reports of a man found with stab wounds.

The 55-year-old was pronounced dead at the scene in Shaftesbury Place on Warwick Road, and a post-mortem examination gave the cause of death as multiple stab wounds.

Julian Aubrey was found stabbed to death in his home (Metropolitan Police/PA)

On Wednesday Enrique Facelli, 48, of Shaftesbury Place, Warwick Road was charged with murder, the Metropolitan Police said.

He will appear in custody at Westminster Magistrates Court on Thursday.

The force said four other men who were arrested on suspicion of murder remain released under investigation.US President Donald Trump has renewed his verbal attacks on his attorney general Jeff Sessions.

Mr Trump described Mr Sessions handling of Republican complaints that the FBI abused its surveillance power during the early stages of the Russia investigation as disgraceful.

Mr Sessions, who rarely responds publicly to criticism from his boss, did not keep quiet this time and said the Justice Department he leads had acted appropriately.

As long as I am the attorney general, I will continue to discharge my duties with integrity and honour, and this department will continue to do its work in a fair and impartial manner according to the law and Constitution, he said.

Jeff Sessions (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

Mr Sessions suggested on Tuesday that the departments internal watchdog will evaluate whether prosecutors and agents wrongly obtained a warrant under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act to monitor the communications of a onetime Trump campaign associate.

Mr Sessions referred the allegations to the inspector general in response to pressure from congressional Republicans who, like Mr Trump, have fumed about what they believe to be bias within the FBI.

The office has acknowledged receiving Mr Sessions request but has not said it is investigating.

Mr Trump has spent the past year berating the former Alabama senator who was the first member of the Senate to endorse his White House candidacy.

He tweeted: Why is A.G. Jeff Sessions asking the Inspector General to investigate potentially massive FISA abuse. Will take forever, has no prosecutorial power and already late with reports on Comey etc. Isnt the I.G. an Obama guy? Why not use Justice Department lawyers? DISGRACEFUL!

Mr Trump is angry that Mr Sessions referred the allegations of Justice Department employee misconduct to the inspector general, but that is exactly what that office is charged with doing. Its lawyers are part of the department and, contrary to Mr Trumps claims, can and often do refer matters for prosecution.

The office has been working on a separate review of the FBIs handling of the Hillary Clinton email investigation under former director James Comey, but that report is not late and is expected to be released around March or April.

It was the latest of Mr Trumps verbal attacks aimed at Mr Sessions, who continues to faithfully execute the presidents agenda.

A day earlier, for example, Mr Sessions said his department was working toward banning rapid-fire bump stock devices at Mr Trumps urging, even though the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives had previously said it was powerless to do so without action from Congress.

Mr Sessions until now has been largely silent in the face of Mr Trumps taunts. Critics say that strains department morale and makes Mr Sessions seem eager to appease the president, at the risk of dangerously politicising the department.Arsene Wenger has conceded his future as Arsenal manager is out of his hands, with the Frenchman stating: I am an employee.

The Gunners were thrashed 3-0 in Sundays Carabao Cup final at the hands of Manchester City, with an abject display leading to increased calls for the 68-year-old to be relieved of his duties.

Wenger has been battling against a growing feeling from within the Arsenal fanbase that he is no longer the man to take the club forward.

Arsene Wenger signed a new two-year contract last summer (Adam Davy/PA)

With Arsenal now sixth in the Premier League table  languishing a massive 27 points behind leaders City  out of the FA Cup following a third-round defeat at Nottingham Forest and up against Italian giants AC Milan in the last 16 of the Europa League, the Carabao Cup was a chance to garner both silverware and support.

Instead, Pep Guardiolas City left Wengers side in tatters without ever having to play at their swashbuckling best.

He signed a new two-year contract last summer and has always insisted he would honour any deal he has penned.

Speaking ahead of Thursdays Premier League clash with Manchester City, Wenger once again maintained that stance but admitted those above him could always decide it was time to bring an end to his 21-year reign.

I have been here for 21 years and I always respected my contract, he said.

In life, I look at what people do, not at what they say. If you want me not to be here, thats a different problem. You ask me my commitment, and my attitude is dictated by what I did in my life, not by what I say in a press conference.

Addressing a question from a national newspaper journalist about his deal, Wenger replied: What is above you? You will not decide your future in your newspapers, and I am exactly like you. I am an employee and I give my best for my club that I love.

Wenger also refused to answer any questions on why Josh Kroenke, son of the clubs majority shareholder Stan Kroenke, was over in London from the United States although it is understood the trip had been scheduled for sometime and is not as a direct result of recent form.

The poor display at Wembley led to high-profile criticism from match commentator Gary Neville as well former Gunners favourites Ian Wright and Thierry Henry.

But Wenger responded with apparent shock when asked if the result meant his 21-year tenure was now under increased threat.

 Wenger: We are very disappointed because we lost an important game. We need to first recover from the disappointment and then prepare for the next challenge, as always, together"#AFCvMCFC pic.twitter.com/fd3cAuPBZg  Arsenal (@Arsenal) February 28, 2018

I am just amazed that I have to always answer things that are exactly the same, he said.

I am here for 21 years, I turned the whole world down to respect my contracts. So I am still amazed that I still have to answer these types of questions.

My position is my position. Honestly, thats the last worry I have at the moment. My worry is to focus, to get the team ready for tomorrows game.

I am quite amazed that it is such an earthquake that we have lost a final  that means that we have got our fans used to going to Wembley and win it. But nobody can guarantee that.Hambantota port will not be used as a foreign military base, Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) Ravindra Wijegunaratne clarified today at the Indo-Pacific Regional Dialogue 2018 at the Manekshaw Centre in India.

Wijegunaratne assured of no such action to take place in the Sri Lankan harbours and waters "which would jeopardise India's security concerns." He further reiterated Sri Lanka's stand on not entering into any military alliance with any nation.

Sri Lanka will not make its naval bases available to any other countries, the chief added further.

The Hambantota port was handed over to China on a 99-year lease. The port will now be co-owned by the Sri Lanka Ports Authority and the China Merchants Port Holdings Company (CM Port) with the latter holding as much as 70 percent stake. (wionews.com)Says govt. really questioning its own policies following election defeat

Stresses govt. will not abandon policy agenda set in motion

The recent election drubbing will not make the government to halt the economic reforms agenda it has already set in motion but the country may experience a slowdown in implementation of such reforms, an economist-turned-legislator in charge of national policy making process said.



We have to maintain macro stability. So, the government is not planning on abandoning what weve started. However, we may not be able to maintain the same speed, National Policies and Economic Affairs State Minister Dr.Harsha de Silva said at a panel discussion organized by the state-funded Institute of Policy Studies (IPS), yesterday.



We are not going to let loose for political expediency, he added.



According to political analysts, the landslide victory of the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP), backed by the former strongman Mahinda Rajapaksa at the recent local government polls was a result of the Sirsena-Wickremesinghe coalition governments obsession with the reform process, which made them overlook the political realities.



The absence of an effective communication apparatus making the public aware of the mid and long-term positives of such reforms also contributed significantly to the government ending up on the losing side.



It remains to be seen how much of reforms the government can push forward in the next 18 months before parliamentary elections and whether there will be changes to its policy agenda with President Maithripala Sirisena showing signs of getting more involved in the economic policy making process, which was previously spearheaded by Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe.



Last week Presidents Media Division in a statement said the National Economic Council (NEC) chaired by President Sirisena would present a new economic policy plan this week to address the key economic issues.

In the run-up to the local government elections, President Sirisena said he would take over the economic management of the country in order to reduce the cost of living burden on the people.



Possibly humbled by the recent peoples verdict, Dr.de Silva said the government is really questioning its own policies and admitted that what may look elegant in theory may not be implementable on the ground.



Theoretically we know what has to happen. And politically we know what is possible and what is not. So then as a smart government, if we are one, we need to realise the competing interest.



Thats kind of the dilemma we are facing, he said.



Explaining the tricky nature of public policy Dr. de Silva said the third best solution to a problem has the best chance of being implemented as balancing various interest groups is not an easy task.



Meanwhile, Ceylon Chamber of Commerce Chief Economist Shiran Fernando, who was also one of the panelists, cast doubts over the political space available for the government to implement cost-reflective pricing formulae for fuel and electricity following the local government election results.



The government has however committed under the structural benchmarks of the International Monetary Fund to introduce a pricing formula for fuel this March and a pricing formula for energy by September.



Central Bank Governor Dr.Indrajit Coomaraswamy recently said Sri Lanka does not have fiscal space for any populist policies and urged the government to stay the course to avoid any downside risk to economic stability.



He cautioned that Sri Lanka could even run the risk of defaulting on its loan payments during the next 4-year period if fiscal policy is loosened drastically.



Sri Lanka is now in one of the worst debt servicing cycles, with domestic debt servicing hitting a peak this year, and foreign debt servicing to spike from 2019 to 2022 with over US$ 3 billion in repayments each year; around double the norm over the past few years.

New Delhi, (Hindustan Times), 27 Feb 2018 -

Maldives has declined Indias invitation to participate in the biennial naval exercise Milan, which starts on March 6, Navy chief admiral Sunil Lanba said on Tuesday.



Maldives has not given any reason for the decision, Lanba told reporters on the sidelines of an event in New Delhi. Navy sources said over 16 countries have confirmed their participation in the exercise. The biennial exercise Milan is being organised at the Andaman and Nicobar Islands in the backdrop of Chinas growing military posturing in the Indo-Pacific region and officials said the issue is likely to figure during deliberations among navy chiefs of the participating countries at the event.DPA, 27th DPA, 2018-South Korean prosecutors are seeking a 30-year jail term for ex-president Park Geun Hye in a corruption case which led to her impeachment, the Yonhap news agency reported Tuesday.



Park was indicted in April on 18 corruption counts including bribery, abuse of power and leaking state secrets.



Prosecutors are also seeking a fine of 118.5 billion won (111 million dollars) for the disgraced former president.



As the first democratically-elected South Korean leader to have been removed from office, prosecutors accused Park of leaving an inerasable blemish in history, Yonhap reported.The Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) of Wennappuwa, who was arrested on Tuesday by the Bribery Commission officials while soliciting a bribe of Rs.30, 000, was interdicted today on the instructions of IGP Pujith Jayasundara.

Police Spokesman Ruwan Gunasekara said he was interdicted with effect from yesterday with a covering approval of the National Police Commission (NPC).

It was reported that he had asked for the bribe from a Spa operator so as to ensure smooth functioning of the Spa.The Sri Lankan government and Sri Lanka Gas Terminal Ltd will hold a 15 percent shareholding in the countrys first liquefied natural gas (LNG) import terminal, a cabinet spokesperson said.



Indias largest gas importer Petronet LNG Ltd will be the biggest shareholder with a 47.5 percent stake, while Japans Sijitz Corporation and Mitsubishi Company of Japan will own a 37.5 percent stake.



A trilateral memorandum of agreement will be signed in this regard by Sri Lanka, India and Japan.

Development Strategies and International Trade Minister Malik Samarawickrama and Ports and Shipping Minister Mahinda Samarasinghe presented the proposal for the LNG terminal for the cabinet approval.



According to Indian media reports, the terminal with a capacity of two million tonnes of LNG will be built at a cost of US $ 250 million.



The import facility will be set up in Kerawalapitiya on the western coast. Sri Lanka has plans to build a 300 MW gas-fired power plant in Kerawalapitiya adjoining an existing power plant.



The existing plant, which uses oil to generate power, would also be converted to LNG once the terminal is set up and gas imports start. LNG has become significantly cheaper last year and many countries have begun switching their power plants to LNG.



The terminal, which will import super-cooled natural gas in ships, is likely to take two-and-half to three years to build.Russia has ordered a five-hour humanitarian pause in the Syrian rebel-held enclave of eastern Ghouta near Damascus. The truce has been set up to allow civilians to leave eastern Ghouta, after an eight-day surge of government bombardment has killed more than 500 people, including more than 120 children, according to reports.



However, human rights workers claim that while there has been no violence in Ghouta, there have been no immediate signs of any corridors set up for people to use. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said calm had generally prevailed in eastern Ghouta overnight, though four rockets had hit the nearby town of Douma in the morning before the five-hour window began at 9am local time (7am GMT).



The Russian defence ministry said on Monday the measures, decided in agreement with Syrian forces, were intended to help civilians leave and to evacuate the sick and wounded. A spokesperson for the international Red Cross said that in order for a humanitarian corridor to work, it needs to be well planned and implemented with the consent of all parties in the conflict.



The five-hour respite announced by the Syrian governments Russian ally, is nowhere near the month-long ceasefire ordered by the UN this weekend.Eastern Ghouta is a rebel stronghold on the edge of the capital Damascus which has been outside government control since 2012 and is thought to be home to some 400,000 civilians.



Syria, (Daily Mail),In the new wave in Sinhala cinema there emerged three social conscious new filmmakers who have also earned international recognition. They are Prasanna Vithanage, Asoka Handagama and Vimukthi Jayasundara.

All three have come together produced a three part film (this is a new venture in Lanka) titled Thundenak in Sinhala, Moovar in Thamil and Her, Him, The Other in English. This is a novel kind of film in that the creative interpretation of three minds have assembled here to depict in implicit and subtle dimensions an-anti war film. Their art of film making is commendable by international standards. Congratulations to all three of them!

The producers have succinctly introduces what the film is about and that makes my task easy. The war between Tamil militants and Government forces of Sri Lanka lasted for three decades.

Thousands from both parties, combatants and civilians died due to the battle. The Government forces crushed the Tamil militants in May 2009. Its time to assess each others conscience. He (annex-militant videographer for the LTTE) travels from the North in search of HER (a young widow of a government army soldier) in the South to find relief from the pain that disturbed his conscience. This part of the film is engrossing as it is directed by indomitable Prasanna Vithanage. His cinematic art should be analyzed at a different time. Vimukthi Jayasundara films the second part with diabolical questions in the He characterization. We shall continue with the story as described by the producers.

Having been raised in a religion that has faith in reincarnation, he (a Singhala language teacher) tries to deceive his own conscience by refusing to believe the rebirth of a Tamil militant into a Sinhala family witnessed by Him with his own eyes.

There are a lot of ironies in this film which are very clear to a seasoned cinemagoer and Jyasundara brings outer reality and the innate reality of closed minds beautifully in the natural setting of the arid border villages between the Northern and North Central Provinces. His virtuosity should be analyzed later.

We now come to the city of Colombo with the director of this part in the film Asoka Handagama, who is also acting brilliantly in the film. We shall look at his double playing later.

Meanwhile the storyline is described as follows and it ends there.

Ones hero is the Others traitor. But a mother will lose a son in a war. How many wars...

In this movie that reminds us that how foolish some of us are not realizing that war is futile.

When we were born we didnt have any land. Birth is an accident when one is born in a particular community and in the next birth he might be born in a different community. The blood in our veins is all red in colour and there is no such thing as Sinhala blood or Tamil blood or Muslim blood. Cedits must be given to the cinematographers in the calibre of M D Mahindapala and the others. They are masters of the art.

The part played by Kesavarajan and others are very convincing with actualities of experience.

Thinking people from various communities must shed away their petty prejudices and think about the others as fellow human beings and empathize with them. Thats the lesson I learned seeing this film.Bodhimalaka Pushparamaya in Tabbowa, Naththandiya is reminiscent of the Late Most Ven. Matale Amarawansha Thera. My familys association with the monk spanned well over there decades. Whenever we visited our relatives in Mahawewa, we made it a point to visit the Rajamahaviharaya and its serene surroundings and to call upon Ven. Amarawansha Thera. Reiterating the impermanence of life, his physical form is no more.

The late Thera departed from this earth exactly three months ago, at the age of 80 years, having fulfilled his duties and responsibilities as the Chief Incumbent of Bodhimalaka Pushparamaya.

During his lifetime the monk had contributed immensely to the religious, economic, social and cultural upliftment of the people of Tabbowa, whilst not forgetting his hometown, Matale

In late December last year, having learned that Ven. Amarawansha Thera was undergoing treatment at Sri Jayawardenepura Hospital, I visited him and had the good fortune of spending close to an hour in conversation with him. He spoke of the difficult path he trod, having been born in a very remote village named Polwattakanda in the Matale District. He was surprised, yet pleased to see me and recollected with a sharp memory, the first time my family was introduced to him by Ven. Tissamaharamaye Jinaratana Thera, of Kapilavastupura Mahinda Viharaya. Ven. Jinaratana Thera succeeded Ven. Amarawansha Thera. He inquired after my mother and invited both of us to visit him in Tabbowa, once he recovers and returns to the temple. This was not to be. A few days later, I learned of the passing away of yet another learned and a courageous Buddhist Priest.

Ven. Amarawansha Thera was born on 17th March, 1937 to Tikirirala Nilame and Budugahagedara Ranmenike. He was ordained as a novice monk on 2nd November, 1951 under the erudite Late Rev. Tabbowa Wajirawansha Thera. He undertook Preliminary studies at Balagalle, Saraswati Pirivena and continued higher studies at Sri Lanka Vidyalaya, Maradana and received Upasampada (Higher ordination) on 16th of March, 1958 at Kalyananadi Seemamalakaya.

He successfully completed the Tripitaka exams of Sri Ramanna Nikaya (Sri Lanka) as well as those of Burma (Myanmar). He was blessed to have associated with many learned Members of the Buddhist Clergy, the Chief Priests of the Ramanna Niyaka namely Most Ven. Henpitagedara Gnanaseeha Thera, Ven. Hissalle Dhammaratana Thera, Ven. Hapuwalane Gnanaseeha Thera, Ven. Naththadiye Pannnasara Thera and Ven. Anuradhapuraye Somasiri Thera, to name a few.

The late Thera departed from this earth exactly three months ago, at the age of 80 years, having fulfilled his duties and responsibilities as the Chief Incumbent of Bodhimalaka Pushparamaya

Ven. Amarawansha had a commanding and a charismatic personality, and was well versed in the Sinhala language. His achievements are far too numerous to describe. During his lifetime the monk had contributed immensely to the religious, economic, social and cultural upliftment of the people of Tabbowa, whilst not forgetting his hometown, Matale.

Ven. Amarawansha Thera participated at World Buddhist Conferences in Japan, India and Singapore. A sapling of the Sacred Bo Tree was gifted to Thailand, symbolic of the two Buddhist nations. This was another meritorious gesture on his part. Ven. Amarawansha Thera, over the years, had served as an advisor on religious affairs to several Heads of State of Sri Lanka, some of whom paid their last respects, which was ample testimony to the yeoman service rendered in his capacity as an adviser.

I believe that the close association Ven. Amarawansha Thera shared with my late Father W.P.R.B.Wickremasinghe was based on their intellectual compatibility and their mutual patriotic feelings. Most Ven. Amarawansha Theras oratory skills were observed by me at my Late fathers funeral in 1998 during which he made a forceful and fiery speech.

Always sporting a smile and being a strict disciplinarian, he was an epitome of a disciple of the Enlightened One. It was our good fortune to have been able to associate with Ven. Amarawansha Thera. We will remember him with much reverence.

Always sporting a smile and being a strict disciplinarian, he was an epitome of a disciple of the Enlightened One

Full of joy, full of faith in the Teachings of the Buddha, the Monk attains the Peaceful State, the bliss of cessation of conditional things. (The Dhammapada) (Champa D. R. Wickremasinghe)The Election Results should have wiped the complacency off their faces, but it seems that lessons are never learned. At a Press Conference on Friday, Feb 16 evening, our illustrious Prime Minister said he would not resign but continue to function according to the provisions of the Constitution. Be that as it may Ravi, the prime mover and shaker in the ongoing drama, claims that the Unity Govt. of Jan 8, Will Continue Further. No, the Prime Minister is not prepared to step down but admits that the present government did not fulfill some of their promises and most importantly did not pay attention to development of the country. What was more important than the Fertilizer and Meethotamulla disasters? What about the Cost of Living? Is that of such little significance or no significance at all? Was it not Ravi who heaped the burden of taxes on the poor, the hospitals, the Homes for the Aged? Why do the poor have to bear the burden of taxes to repay the gigantic debt that the Rajapaksas inflicted on this country?

CABINET RESTRUCTURING

In their estimation, Cabinet Restructuring seems to be the panacea for all the problems the country is facing. I read somewhere that a little boy asked his father why we dont have a circus in the country any more and the father said because all the clowns got into politics. Very true, they are going to replace one clown with another and God help the country. From the time this government came into power, the country has been plagued with one STRIKE after another: SAITM/ RAILWAY/ BUS/ HOSPITALS/ GMOA/ ELECTRICITY, you name it and they have been on strike, not once, not twice but as many times as it pleases them.

DOOMED

To give you an explicit idea of what is happening in our country, I would like to quote from Ayn Rand: Ayn Rand was a Russian-American novelist, philosopher, playwright and screenwriter. She is known for her two best-selling novels: The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged. She cleverly portrayed a country in doom with these words: When you see that trading is done not by consent, but by compulsion - when you see that in order to produce, you need to obtain permission from men who produce nothing - when you see that money is flowing to those who deal, not in goods, but in favours - when you see that men get richer by graft and by pull than by work, and your laws dont protect you against them, but protect them against you - when you see corruption being rewarded and honesty becoming a self-sacrifice - you may know that your society is doomed.

WHAT OF THE ONGOING SAGAS

Topping all the SCAMS AND SAGAS is the DIPLOMATIC SAGA. We have appointed Ambassadors par excellence who think they can do anything they please and claim Diplomatic Immunity, how very convenient. Diplomats are acting similar to the man on the street . Polluting the name of the country for their personal gain. Is there one area, even one infinitesimal small area, in the public life of this country that is not tarnished? I dont even know where to start, the list is endless. Has ONE SINGLE CASE been resolved satisfactorily? Diplomats sent abroad to lie, cheat and steal for the good of their country and their own personal gain and, in some instances, to fill to the brim the coffers of the previous regime; be it money, land, property. Government Hospitals sending patients out to purchase vital medicines while available Hospital supplies are sold to the highest bidder! Laptops promised to poor school children who would probably wait till the cows come home and never get them! The possibility of poor children getting into school still NIL. Who cares, has any legislation been passed on this? Will it ever happen and now we wait with bated breath. CABINET RESHUFFLE the panacea for all the countrys ills.

LESSONS LEARNED...? NEVER!

Lessons will never be learned! They are all cozy together again and the Most Important Agendas are already being planned. Being in positions of Authority in other countries is TO SERVE, whereas in our country, it is TO BE SERVED!New Delhi: Moody's Investors Service on Wednesday estimated that India will grow 7.6 per cent in calendar year 2018 and 7.5 per cent in 2019, amid signs of economic recovery from impact of demonetisation and GST.

"There are some signs that the Indian economy is starting to recover from the soft growth patch attributed to the negative impact of the demonetisation undertaken in 2016 and disruption related to last years rollout of the Goods and Service Tax," it said.

The Budget for 2018-19 includes some measures that could stabilise the rural economy that was disproportionately hit by the demonetisation policy and is yet to recover, it said.

"As we have said before, the bank recapitalisation plan should also help credit growth over time, thereby supporting growth," Moody's said.Mumbai: Actor Rani Mukerji today remembered Bollywood diva Sridevi as a "guiding light" in her life, saying her untimely death is the most painful thing she has dealt with after her father's demise.

The actor said she felt close to Sridevi, known has India's first female superstar, considered her an "inspiration personally and professionally."

"For me it's the most painful thing I have dealt with after my dad's passing away. And her face is coming in front of me again and again. The love she had for me was so tremendous and intense that I feel somewhere I have lost a guiding light in my life.

"She has been my inspiration personally and professionally. She was very close to me. She was like my 'maasi'. She was someone I looked up to. I just feel there is one more person I have lost in my life I loved and who loved me back," Rani told PTI.

The 54-year-old actor passed away in her hotel room in the Jumeirah Emirates Towers late on Saturday.Mumbai: Sridevi breathed her last on Sunday morning in Dubai after attending her nephew Mohit Marwahs wedding there. The actress died out of accidental drowning, but her childhood friend has another story to narrate.

The friend revealed that the actress was feeling extremely weak and was on antibiotics as she was down with fever, but did not want to give the wedding a miss.

"I spoke to her the day she was leaving for Dubai. She was down with fever and was on antibiotics. She was feeling tired, but she said that she has to go for the wedding," Pinky Reddy, Sridevis childhood friend told Mid-Day.

"I have lost a sister. My father was one of the co-producers of Chandni (1989), so I have seen her professional rise. It [her demise] is shocking. We are devastated," Reddy said.

Sridevis last rites were held some time back, in the presence of many top stars and celebrities.Bhopal: The name of Bollywood superstar Sridevi, who passed away in a Dubai hotel on Saturday night, was removed from the list of departed personalities, scheduled to be paid homage to in the Madhya Pradesh Assembly on Tuesday, taking a section of members in the house by surprise.

The deceased actress, along with late film actor Shasi Kapoor, was among the 11 who had earlier figured in the list of deceased personalities to be paid tribute in the house.

However, the list was reportedly revised in the last minute by the MP Assembly secretariat to drop names of Sridevi and Shasi Kapoor, leading Opposition Congress to raise a hue and cry over it.

Incidentally, the state Assembly secretariat did not assign any reason for shunning the two deceased actors from being paid homage to by the House.Actress Bellamy Young has released an apology to Ryan Seacrest, after she said that he should not host the upcoming Oscars pre-show amid sexual abuse allegations made against him.

Actress Bellamy Young has released an apology to Ryan Seacrest, after she said that he should not host the upcoming Oscars pre-show amid sexual abuse allegations made against him.

Seacrest, who is a longtime host of E! Live from the Red Carpet was acquitted of the claims against him, but his accuser just came forward with detailed accusations against Seacrest.

Young was put on spot by Variety magazine, the outlet that had first published the allegations. The interviewer had asked her if Ryan should step aside from the post, but Young knew nothing of the story. When the journalist explained, the actress agreed that he shouldnt host.

Now, after knowing the complete story, Young has tendered an apology. In a part of the much longer statement given to The Hollywood Reporter, she said, I spoke on record about something I had no first-hand knowledge of. I trusted that the information that the journalist provided me with was complete, and I gave my general opinion based on the information he provided... She went on, I apologise to Ryan Seacrest. He has been exonerated from the allegations I was told about on the carpet, so my opinion is different now. Ive learned that I dont know can be a complete answer. I will do better next time.According to a study led by Dr Nathan Hoag, the G-Spot does not exist as an anatomic construct. (Photo: Pixabay)

According to a new study, the elusive female G-spot may not actually exist at all, according to scientists.

According to scientists, the G-spot is said to be a small area of the female body where nerve endings are concentrated, with the capability to provide intense pleasure.

However, researchers have failed to find any physical evidence of its existence in the most conclusive study to date.

According to a study led by Dr Nathan Hoag, the G-Spot does not exist as an anatomic construct.

Dr Hoag claimed that any pleasurable sensation experienced when stimulating the area occurred only because of its close proximity to the clitoris.

However, not everyone agreed that the mysterious sweet spot was nothing more than a myth.

Talking to the Sun, Rebecca Dakin, who is also known as The Great British Sexpert, said, I have no doubt the G-spot exists. Ask any woman and they will tell you the researchers are wrong.

The sexpert implied that there was a danger that men would treat the research as an excuse for poor performance.

A separate study in 2008, which used ultrasound imaging to look at the vaginal wall, said women who reported having orgasms had thicker tissue around what is considered G-spot area than women who didnt.

The G-spot was named after German gynaecologist Ernst Grafenberg, who first noted the area was particularly sensitive to touch in 1950.

However, the spot, which is thought to measure slightly more than half an inch in diameter, was not known at the G-spot until 1981.

Since the idea was first mooted there has been a great deal of speculation about its existence and precise location.Kalaburagi: Yet another case of a poverty-stricken Lambani woman selling her female baby at Konchavaram area in Chincholi has come to light. The police have arrested five people, including an ASHA worker, who abetted the sale of one-and-a-half month old baby at Chandu Naik Thanda for Rs 15,000 to a Hyderabad based couple. Those arrested include Ansuya and Ramachandra Rathod, parents of the baby, Sharada and T. Pal, Hyderabad couple who bought the child, and Suvarna Jamadar, ASHA worker.

Lambanis live in poverty and the practice of abandoning, killing or selling their female babies is common.

Middlemen, often posing as social workers or well wishers, buy the babies and hand them to adoption centres. There are around 100 Tandas in the Konchavaram forest area. According to sources, Ansuya and her husband decided to sell their baby, which was born on January 9, due to poverty. They allegedly approached an ASHA worker for adoption. She in turn approached the childless couple at Hyderabad and struck the deal for Rs 15,000. The matter is said to have come to light after the couple failed to take their baby to the Primary Health Centre at Konchavaram for imminisation.

When the couple gave contradictory replies during visit to their house, the staff reported the matter to the District Child Protection officer and the Child Welfare Committee, who alerted the police. The baby has been handed over to the government shishu vihar here.Bengaluru: Serial rapist and murderer M. Jaishankar, alias Psycho Shankar, allegedly committed suicide by slitting his throat with a shaving blade at his cell in the Parappana Agrahara Central Prison early Tuesday. He was suffering from depression and was under treatment.

The 40-year-old prisoner, a truck driver by profession and a native of Salem in Tamil Nadu, was accused in over 20 cases of rape and murders in Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. He was serving 10 years of imprisonment at the Parappana Agrahara Central Prison and lodged at a separate cell as he was behaving aggressively with other jail inmates.

According to the police, Jaishankar was found lying in a pool of blood at around 2.30 am by a beat official on rounds. He along with other jail staff shifted him to the prison hospital and later rushed him to Victoria hospital at around 3.30 am. He was, however, declared brought dead by Victoria Hospital doctors.

Prime facie it appears that Jaishankar slit his throat with a blade which he may have stolen from the prison barber. It is suspected to be a case of suicide as he was alone in the cell when the incident happened. The jurisdictional Parappana Agrahara police have taken up a case of unnatural death and are awaiting postmortem report to ascertain the cause of death. Jaishankar had around 15 cases of rape and murder pending in Chennai, Dharmapuri, Hosur, Salem, Thirupathur, Bengaluru, Chitradurga, Hiriyuru, Kaduru, Monakalmuru, and Tumakuru police station limits.

He was convicted in three cases with 10 years of imprisonment, the police said.Villupuram: A Dalit woman and her teenage daughter are battling for life at the ICU in Jipmer hospital in Puducherry following brutal attack by an armed gang in a pre-dawn attack on February 22 at Vellamputhur near here. Amid allegations that both the women were sexually assaulted in the ghastly incident that came to light only Monday, police said medical tests were being conducted.

A senior district police official said the gang entered the house, when the woman was sleeping with her 12-year-old son and 15-year-old daughter. While they killed the boy, mother and daughter sustained head injuries in the attack, he said, refusing to elaborate on the rape charges. He said the motive behind the attack was being probed and six police teams have been formed to track down the attackers.

Neighbours found the two bleeding women unconscious and rushed them to the local hospital from where they were shifted to Jipmer. Doctors at Jipmer said the two were still unconscious in the ICU and they are not out of danger. Political parties demanded stern action against the culprits, while alleging that the girl and her mother were raped. They said the Dalit family was targeted over a land dispute. PMK leader and Dharmapuri MP Anbumani Ramadoss demanded that the culprits be brought to justice at the earliest and given the maximum punishment for the offence.Hyderabad: Rachakonda Cyber Cell arrested a man involved in cheating a woman with a job promise.

Police said the victim was referred to the accused Lokesh Kumar Venkatesh, 28, who she was told was MD of Oboe International Consultancy.

Lokesh promised her a job in Zann Constructions at Maldives and got her to deposit Rs 2.3 lakh into four bank accounts. The woman reached the company in Maldives which told her that didnt know anything about Oboe Consultancy.Hyderabad: Hyderabad High Court has told the Telangana government to consider repealing atrocious provisions under the Telangana Eunuchs Act 1329 (Fasali).

A Division Bench, comprising Acting Chief Justice Ramesh Ranganathan and Justice K. Vijaya Lakshmi, was dealing with a petition by V Vasanta Mogli and two other transgenders seeking to declare the Telangana Eunuchs Act 1329 F as wholly unconstitutional and invalid.

The Bench said that it is essential for the state government to re-look into this Act which was enacted in the Nizams dominion and was in force since 1919.

Referring to Section 5 of the Act which provides for punishment of a eunuch with imprisonment if it is found that he has with him or in his house under his control a boy who is less than 16- years-old, the Bench pointed out how having mere custody or control of a minor by a eunuch be an offence.

Reacting to the submission of the petitioners counsel, the Bench said that transgenders are not only responsible for child abuse in the society. Sai Sandeep Parikshit, counsel for the petitioner, said that the usage of the word Eunuch itself was stigmatising the community.

Sanjeev Kumar, counsel for the government, stated that it is an old Act and urged the court to grant time to get instructions from the government.Chennai: After being arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) from Chennai airport on Wednesday morning, and produced at CBI court in Delhi in the evening, Karti Chidambaram was sent to one-day police custody.

Before being taken to the court, Karti told media that the arrest is an "absolute political vendetta". He added that he will be vindicated.

The CBI court allowed Karti's advocates to interact with him for 10 minutes inside the courtroom.

During the hearing at Patila Court in Delhi CBI said, "Karti Chidambaram is evasive in his replies and investigation. He made incorrect statements with respect to evidence. All this delays the conclusion of investigation."

Karti, son of senior Congress leader P Chidambaram, was arrested in connection with the INX money laundering case.

CBI had summoned Karti for questioning earlier but he had sought stay orders from various courts.

He was taken into custody just after he landed from a flight from London.

Soon after the arrest, Karti was put on a Delhi-bound flight and was brought to Delhi at the CBI headquarters where the investigating agency conducted necessary formalities including a medical test before producing him to the CBI court.

Congress leader and Senior Advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi will appear for Karti Chidambaram in Delhi's Patiala House Court.

The Congress slammed the arrest of Karti Chidambaram terming it as Modi governments diversionary tactic to hide its "corrupt governance".

Classical diversionary tactic to hide Scams and Colossal Corruption that is being exposed on a daily basis, be it NiMo+Choksi, DD Jewellers and Rotomac, Congress spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala tweeted.

"However, it will not stop the Congress from bringing the truth out to the people, he added.

Responding to Congress' allegation, BJP leader Sambit Patra said, "I believe no one should consider oneself above the law of country. If corrupt are being jailed and law is taking its own course, I see no reason why any political party should cry vendetta.This is law, not vendetta."

BJP's Subramanian Swamy called Karti's arrest 'a great achievement' and said, "CBI gave him (Karti Chidambaram) a lot of chances but he continued with his lies even after all evidence was presented against him. He will certainly go to jail and chargesheet will be filed by CBI. This is a great achievement."

Karti's chartered accountant S Bhaskararaman was recently arrested from a five-star hotel in Delhi on February 16 and was later sent to 14-day judicial custody.

The ED had earlier claimed that during the course of investigation, it was revealed that Bhaskararaman, a qualified CA, had been assisting Karti to manage his "ill-gotten wealth" in India and abroad.

Also read: Karti Chidambaram's CA sent to 14-day judicial custody in INX media case

Karti's name had cropped up in the case which relates to Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) approval granted in 2007 for receipt of funds by INX Media when his father and senior Congress leader P Chidambaram was the Union finance minister during the previous UPA regime.

The ED had alleged that INX Media had deliberately and in violation of the conditions of the approval made a downstream investment of 26 per cent in the capital of INX News Pvt Ltd without specific approval of FIPB, which included indirect foreign investment by some foreign investors, and generated Rs 305 crore foreign direct investment in INX Media Pvt Ltd against the approved foreign inflow of Rs 4.62 crore.

To wriggle out of the situation without any punitive action, INX Media entered into a criminal conspiracy with Karti, the ED has alleged. The FIPB unit of the finance ministry had not only granted illegal approval but also misinformed the investigation wing of Income Tax Department, it had alleged.

(With agency inputs)Navy Chief Admiral Sunil Lanba on Tuesday announced that Maldives had turned down the offer to join the eight-day long mega naval exercise - Milan - starting 6 March. (Photo: Twitter/@indiannavy/Representational)

New Delhi: Maldives on Tuesday clarified that it declined Indias invitation to participate in the biennial naval exercise Milan due to the present circumstances of a State of Emergency back home.

The statement by Maldives Embassy in Delhi said, Maldives is unable to participate in the naval exercise during this time due to the current circumstances of a State of Emergency being in effect for those under investigation for serious crimes. During such a time especially, security personnel are expected to be at a heightened stance of readiness.

It also played down its decision to stay away from the exercise, saying that the participation of Maldives Naval officers "would have been as observers only" and their absence was "not extraordinary".

When situations warrant that officers be at their post, back at home, we have held back on deploying them to participate in exercises and training programs held overseas, and as such, not being able to participate in the naval exercise at this time is not extraordinary, the statement added.

Navy Chief Admiral Sunil Lanba on Tuesday announced that the Indian Ocean archipelago had turned down the offer to join the eight-day long mega naval exercise - Milan - starting 6 March.

"They have not given any reason," the Navy Chief added.

Also read: Maldives declines India's invite for 16-nation 'Milan' naval exercise

The biennial naval exercise, first held in 1995 with just five navies, aims to expand regional cooperation and expects to have representation from 16 navies including Australia, Malaysia, Mauritius, Myanmar, New Zealand and Oman.According to the exit polls, the BJP will also consolidate its position in two other northeastern states of Meghalaya and Nagaland. (Photo: File/PTI)

New Delhi: The BJP is likely to wrest power from the 25-year-old CPM government in Tripura, with two exit polls predicting that the saffron party-led alliance may win over 35 seats in the state. However, a third exit poll predicts that it could be a close contest between the CPM and the BJP in the 60-member assembly.

While JanKiBaat-NewsX has predicted that the BJP-IPFT alliance in Tripura will win 35-45 seats with a vote share of 51 per cent, an exit poll by AxisMyIndia predicts 44 to 50 seats for the combine with a vote share of 49 per cent.

According to JanKiBaat-NewsX, the ruling Left front is likely to get 14-23 seats with vote share of 45-46 per cent. AxisMyIndia poll predicts the Left to win 9-15 seats with a vote share of 40 per cent in Tripura.

However, the CVoter exit poll predicts a close finish in Tripura, with the CPM likely to get 26 to 34 seats (44.3 per cent vote share) and the BJP and its allies winning 24 to 32 seats (42.8 per cent vote share). The Congress may win only 0-2 seats with a vote share of 7.2 per cent, predicts CVoter.

According to the exit polls, the BJP will also consolidate its position in two other northeastern states of Meghalaya and Nagaland.

TRIPURA

JanKiBaat-NewsX

BJP-IPFT: 35-45

Left front: 14-23

AxisMyIndia

BJP-IPFT: 44-50

Left front: 9-15

Others: 0-3

CVoter

CPM: 26-34

BJP+: 24-32

Congress: 0-2

In Meghalaya, where the Congress is in power, the JanKiBaat-NewsX exit poll shows that the National People's Party (NPP) is set to gain with 23-27 seats while the BJP will get 8-12 seats, with vote shares of 39 and 12 per cent respectively. The Congress is predicted to win 13-17 seats with a voteshare of 21 per cent and others are likely to get 2 to 6 seats.

MEGHALAYA

JanKiBaat-NewsX

National People's Party (NPP): 23-27

Congress: 13-17

BJP: 8-12

Others: 2-6

CVoter

NPP: 17-23

Congress: 13-19

UDP-HSPDP: 8-12

BJP: 4-8

Others: 5-9

In Nagaland, the BJP-NDPP alliance is likely to storm the ruling NPF bastion as it is predicted to win 27-32 seats with a vote share of 48 per cent, against NPF's 20-25 seats and a vote share of 42 per cent, according to the JanKiBaat-NewsX exit poll.

The Congress in Nagaland is likely to get 0-2 seats with a vote share of 4.4 per cent and others are likely to get 5-7 seats with a vote share of 5-6 per cent.

NAGALAND

JanKiBaat-NewsX

BJP-NDPP: 27-32

NPF: 20-25

Congress: 0-2

Others: 5-7

CVoter

NDPP-BJP: 25-31

NPF: 19-25

Congress: 0-4

Others: 6-10

In Meghalaya, the CVoter exit poll predicts a close finish, with the Congress likely to get 13-19 seats and the NPP 17 to 23 seats, with vote shares of 36.5 and 29.4 per cent respectively.

The BJP in Meghalaya is likely to get 4-8 seats with a vote share of 16.6 per cent. The UDP-HSPDP likely to bag 8-12 seats and 8.8 per cent vote share, while others may get 5-9 seats and a vote share of 8.7 per cent, the poll said.

In Nagaland, the exit poll claimed a victory for the NDPP-BJP which is likely to get 25-31 seats with 38.4 per cent vote share and the NPF likely to bag 19-25 seats with a vote share of 27.1 per cent.

The Congress in Nagaland is set to lose a lot with the poll predicting 0-4 seats with a vote share of 19.7 per cent, while others may get 6-10 seats with a vote share of 14.8 per cent, according to CVoter.

Each of the three states has a 60-member assembly and a party would need 31 seats to get a clear majority.Patna: Former Bihar Chief Minister and Hindustani Awam Morcha-Secular (HAM) head, Jitan Ram Manjhi on Wednesday joined the Rashtriya Janata Dal-led grand alliance.

"Today I announce our alliance and our entry into 'Mahagatbandhan'," Manjhi told the media in Patna.

Earlier on Wednesday, Manjhi left the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) to enter the grand alliance.

Manjhi made the announcement after meeting RJD leader Tejaswi Yadav.

Speaking to media after the meeting, Yadav said that Manjhi has been close with RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav and has previously worked with him, indicating that he will be joining Bihar's 'grand-alliance'.The announcement was made after Manjhi met RJD chief Lalu Prasad's wife Rabri Devi at her residence on Wednesday. (Photo: ANI/Twitter)

Patna: Former Bihar Chief Minister and Hindustani Awam Morcha (Secular) leader Jitan Ram Manjhi on Wednesday quit National Democratic Alliance (NDA) and joined Bihar's Rashtriya Janata Dal led Grand-Alliance.

The formal announcement of the new political alliance would be made on Thursday, Manjhi told media.

RJD leader and former deputy chief minister Tejaswi Yadav welcomed Manjhi to the party and said he has been an old friend of Lalu Yadav and Rabri Devi.

The announcement was made after Manjhi met RJD chief Lalu Prasad's wife Rabri Devi at her residence on Wednesday.

Manjhi on Sunday had demanded that his party be allotted a Rajya Sabha seat in the upcoming elections failing which the party will not support the BJP-led coalition in the next Lok Sabha poll and two Assembly by-polls.

"The NDA must announce at least one Hindustani Awam Morcha Secular (HAMS) leader among its candidates for the six Rajya Sabha seats in Bihar. If that does not happen, our party workers will not campaign for candidates of the coalition in the by-polls," Manjhi said. The Rajya Sabha election is slated for March 23.

Recently, the former chief minister had expressed a wish that his party be allowed to contest the by-poll from the Jehanabad Assembly seat, but withdrew the demand following an alleged cold response from the BJP.

The seat is now being contested by the JDU, which had initially announced that it would not contest any of the three seats going for by-polls.

(With inputs from PTI.)Ajaz has reportedly sustained serious bullet injuries on his chest and was shifted to Sub District Hospital (SDH) Tral from where he was referred to Srinagar hospital in a critical condition. (Photo: Twitter | ANI)

Tral (Jammu and Kashmir): Terrorists on Wednesday opened fire upon a civilian in Tral area in South Kashmir's Pulwama district.

The civilian has been identified as Ajaz Ahmed Shah.

Ajaz has reportedly sustained serious bullet injuries on his chest and was shifted to Sub District Hospital (SDH) Tral from where he was referred to Srinagar hospital in a critical condition.

On February 26, a terrorist was killed in a grenade attack on a police station in Jammu and Kashmir's Pulwama district while trying to escape from police custody.

The terrorist identified as Mushtaq Ahmad Chopan had dressed up as a woman while attempting to flee.

Further details are awaited.Kochi: Many of them are seeing a police station from close quarters for the first time and appeared to have had a changed perspective of cops while coming out.

The first-ever students complaint adalat was held at Kadavanthra police station, declared a child-friendly one in November, on Tuesday in which over 45 complaints were received. Many complaints on primary analysis have the potential for registering as cases and deals with serious issues like drugs peddling, said M.P. Dinesh, the city police commissioner.

In fact, weve registered a few cases and sent the same to the local police station for investigation on priority. Now such adalats will be held on a frequent basis, the next one at the North Police Station. Assistant commissioner K. Laljy said students from all schools across the city were informed of the adalat. They can directly approach the station without considering the station limits. Such complaints, if found genuine, will be dealt with on priority, said. The complaints were received under four heads  rug usage and sales, domestic issues, transport issues and common complaints.

I and my friends used to face lewd comments from antisocial elements while returning from school. Weve given the same in writing so that other children in the area can walk without fear, said Hima, a Class VIII student from West Kochi.

While a parent complained about difficulty faced by girl students during festivities such as Holi when they will be poured with coloured water and rubbed with colours without their permission, a physical education teacher from Mattancherry wanted cops to act against the drug mafia supplying ganja and other narcotics to students.

T.R. Rajesh, assistant commissioner, District Crimes Record Bureau, said the Kochi police has also prepared a list of children having a conflict with law and would attempt to correct them under the project Kaval. Well also soon roll out Saranabalyam project, under which children used for begging will be rescued and given accommodation and education, he said.KOCHI: Kochi is set for the 10-day literary and knowledge festival scheduled to be inaugurated on Thursday by the Chief Minister. The inaugural day will be followed be a book-exhibition at a specially designed hall in Marine Drive. The seminar and discussion sessions will be held at Bolghaty Palace from March 6. Jnanpith award winner and doyen of Malayalam literature MT Vasudevan Nair is scheduled to inaugurate the literary and knowledge session on March 6 evening. Well known Kannada writer and newly elected president of Kendra Sahitya Academy Chandrasekhara Kambar will introduce the concept behind the festival.

Writer Kiran Nagarkar will deliver the keynote address, while T. Padmanabhan, M.K. Sanu, M Leelavathy, K. Satchidanandan, C. Radhakrishnan, Rajan Gurukkal and Shaji N. Karun will jointly light the ceremonial festival lamp. The next four days will have a series of sessions on issues covering culture, literature, visual arts, history, politics and world literature. The inaugural day of the festival onMarch 7 will begin with the keynote address by Satchidanandan. The address will be followed by a simultaneous sessions on ideas that changed the world, artist and society and Malayalam literature, Indian Literature, Theatre and Cinema, India Since 1990, World Literature, Idea of Equality and Freedom of Knowledge.

The session under ideas that changed the world will see presentation on the Capital in an age of crisis and has a panel comprising CP Chandrsekhar, Prabhat Patnaik and Anil Bhatti. The artist and society session will cover cultural fascism and cultural nationalism. J. Prabhash, Kureepuzha Sreekumar, P.K. Pokker, Siddique M.A. and V.K. Sreeraman are scheduled to speak of cultural fascism while Ken E.N. Kunhamad and Sunil P. Elayidom will be dealing with cultural nationalism.

The session on Malayalam literature will see the presentation of literary criticism by a panel comprising George Onakkoor and many others. Well known scholar Utsa Patnaik is scheduled to speak on Land constraint, primary exports and domestic food security. Another notable session will be of Tamil writer Perumal Murugan. The second day on March 8 will begin with the keynote address by N.S. Madhavan followed by a conversation between noted cultural writer Sadanand Menon and music exponent T.N. Krishna.After the arrest, Manoj Baitha was shifted to Patna Medical College & Hospital from Sri Krishna Medical College & Hospital for treatment of the injuries he suffered during the accident. (Photo: ANI)

Patna: A suspended BJP leader who was absconding since Saturday after being accused of crushing nine schoolchildren to death and injuring 20 others while driving an SUV in an inebriated state has surrendered in Bihar's Muzaffarpur on Wednesday.

After the arrest, Baitha was shifted to Patna Medical College & Hospital from Sri Krishna Medical College & Hospital for treatment of the injuries he suffered during the accident.

According to a report in NDTV, Baitha will be produced in a court later in the day.

Manoj Baitha had become a source of embarrassment for the BJP, which rules Bihar in alliance with Janata Dal United (JDU) as the opposition launched a scathing political attack over the incident.

Sources say he surrendered after the BJP leadership in the state firmly asked him to do.

At least nine children were killed and about 20 injured when the speeding vehicle, driven by Manoj Baitha, lost control and ploughed through them outside a government school building on the outskirts of Muzaffarpur on Saturday.

The BJP leader from Sitamarhi allegedly got off the car and ran after he hit the children on Saturday. The complaint -- filed by a man who lost five grandchildren in the accident -- also said footage from CCTV cameras in the area showed Baitha was driving the car.

Congress president Rahul Gandhi also took on Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and mocked him over prohibition in the state.

Former Bihar chief minister and RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav's wife Rabri Devi said that until Manoj Baitha is arrested, her party will not allow the Bihar Assembly to run. She said, "The government should be ashamed, there is no complete ban on liquor, it is available easily. Until Manoj Baitha is arrested we will not let the house (Bihar Assembly) run."

Former deputy chief minister of Bihar and son of Lalu Prasad Yadav, Tejaswi Yadav also reacted strongly against the incident and said, "Prohibition in Bihar is a farce and the ghastly incident of Muzaffarpur, where a drunk BJP leader crushed nine children to death and left more than 20 others injured, proves our point."

Also read: Tejaswi attacks Nitish, questions his silence over Muzaffarpur hit-and-run case

Opposition parties, on Tuesday, also staged protest outside Bihar Legislative Assembly over the Muzaffarpur hit and run case.

The BJP suspended party leader Manoj Baitha, a district level leader of Sitamarhi, from primary membership of the party for a period of six year.

At least nine children were killed and about 20 injured when the speeding vehicle, driven by Manoj Baitha, lost control and ploughed through them outside a government school building on the outskirts of Muzaffarpur on Saturday.

The BJP leader from Sitamarhi allegedly got off the car and ran after he hit the children on Saturday. The complaint -- filed by a man who lost five grandchildren in the accident -- also said footage from CCTV cameras in the area showed Baitha was driving the car.Hyderabad: The Telangana government on Tuesday informed the Hyderabad High Court that as many as 18 children died from January 2017 to January 2018 in Sishu Gruhas of the state.

A division bench comprising Acting Chief Justice Ramesh Ranganathan and Justice K Vijaya Lakshmi was dealing with a PIL by Balala Hakkula Sangham, represented by its president P. Achyuta Rao challenging the action of the Union of India and the Telangana government in not taking action against the authorities responsible for deaths and selling of many children in Sishu Gruhas of the state.

Mr S. Sharath Kumar, special counsel of the state government submitted that allegation of the petitioner that 40 children have died in the Sishu Gruhas was not true only 18 deaths were reported in the past one year.

He said that inmates of Sishu Gruhas are abandoned babies either at markets or in dustbins and that the children died as their heath conditions were very critical at the time they were found. Doctors tried hard to save them.

He submitted that it was not true that they have died due to malnutrition and they have no objection if the court orders judicial probe into death of 18 children.

He told the court that they have been feeding milk to children instead Lactogen as most of the children suffer from diarrhea.

While considering the submissions, the bench directed the special counsel to file the affidavit with all the details.During Prime Minister Trudeau's visit to India, Atwal was invited to dine with him at a formal event hosted by Canadian High Commissioner to India, Nadir Patel. (Photo: File/ANI)

Ottawa/New Delhi: Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau did not refute the 'conspiracy theory' that Indian government factions sabotaged his trip by approving the visa for Pro-Khalistani terrorist Jaspal Atwal.

Responding to a Conservative leader's question about the "allegations" made by a senior government security source, Trudeau said, "When one of our top diplomats and security officials says something to Canadians it's because they know it to be true." Adding that it was the previous Conservative government that "torqued the public service every possible way they could."

During Prime Minister Trudeau's visit to India, Atwal was invited to dine with him at a formal event hosted by Canadian High Commissioner to India, Nadir Patel. The invite was later rescinded.

Also read: Khalistani terrorist guest at Justin Trudeaus Mumbai event, sparks row

Prime Minister Trudeau also received backlash over his wife Sophie Trudeau's photo with convicted pro-Khalistani terrorist.

Canadian Member of Parliament (MP) Randeep S Sarai, however, took responsibility for inviting Atwal to Trudeau's reception dinner in New Delhi.

Jaspal Atwal was convicted of the attempted murder of Punjab minister, Malkiat Singh Sidhu, on Vancouver Island in 1986.Prime Minister Narendra Modi and party chief Amit Shah on Wednesday asked the chief ministers of BJP-ruled states to start preparing for the electoral in mission mode.

New Delhi: With barely a year left for the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and party chief Amit Shah on Wednesday asked the chief ministers of BJP-ruled states to start preparing for the electoral in mission mode.

The meeting with Chief Ministers, held for the first time at the partys newly-inaugurated headquarters at Deen Dayal Upadhyay Marg, was also attended by deputy chief ministers of BJP and NDA ruled states.

Senior Cabinet ministers Arun Jaitley, Rajnath Singh, Sushma Swaraj and Nitin Gadkari also attended the meeting where party top brass asked leaders to create awareness about holding simultaneous polls  from general elections to panchayat polls.

Mr Modi and Mr Shah reviewed the implementation and progress of various Central and state schemes, and pressed that the focus must be on time-bound delivery of the schemes.

BJP top brass reviewed Central schemes like housing for all and the electrification drive, as well as some state specific schemes aimed at improving the health and education of the girl child and the ones aimed at increasing farmers income. Other pro-poor policies of the government were also reviewed.

The meeting continued till late Wednesday evening.

The issue of better coordination between the Centre and the states also came up for discussion.

The BJP along with its allies is in power in 19 states at present, an all-time high for the party.Adilabad: Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (MIM) will be celebrating the completion of 60 years of its formation on a grand scale across the country, wherever it has party units, on March 2. The MIM party was established on March 2, 1958.

The party high command communicated about the celebrations to be held in district units and asked the activists to organise events in their respective areas. A massive public meeting would be organised in Darussalam in Hyderabad marking the occasion.

All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) president and Hyderabad MP Asaduddin Owaisi said that MIM had a humble beginning initially and with the inspiration of visionaries of MIM Abdul Wahed Owaisi and Sultan Salauddin Owaisi, it has now grown enormously and it is a force to be reckoned in Telangana.

He said the MIM has expanded its footprints in Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, and Karnataka and even in Tamil Nadu. He said that in the coming days, the party will strive hard for the cause of downtrodden sections of the society, especially for the Muslims and the Dalits.

Party leaders and activists will hoist the party flag in party offices and meetings would be conducted to tell the people about the contributions of the MIM in the last 60 years and the partys future course of action for the development of the country and welfare of the people.

Senior leader of MIM and Adilabad Municipal vice-chairman Farooq Ahmed said they will take out a bike rally on March 2 afternoon and will organise a public meeting in the town. He said that celebrations would be held on a grand scale in Nizama-bad, Nalgonda, Bodhan,Vikarabad, Adilabad, Sangareddy and Karimn-agar where the party is strong.

Sources in the party said the top leadership of the party is planning to expand it in Telangana and also contest in the next elections in the Ass-embly and Parliament constituencies where Muslim population is in considerable numbers, in Karnataka and West Bengal, like they did in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh in the past.

In the last general elections, MIM candidates fared well in Nizamabad Urban, Jubilee Hills, Rajendranagar, Uppal and Amberpet in Hyderabad. The top leadership of the party is of the opinion that it is the right time for the party to expand its base and emerge as a strong political force in Telangana.

The party has pinned hopes on the creation of new Assemblies in addition to the existing seats in Telangana so that it can bargain with the ruling TRS party for allocation of few seats where Muslim population is high for MIM in the next elections. But it seems that the BJP at the Centre is not in a mood to give clearance to the creation of new Assembly constituencies before the next elections.Hyderabad: TPCC president N Uttam Kumar Reddy said he will quit politics if the Congress will not come to power in Telangana in the next elections. He challenged the Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao will he be ready to quit politics if TRS will not get 106 Assembly seats as claimed by him.

As a part of Praja Chaitanya Yatra, the TPCC president Uttam-kumar Reddy on Wednesday toured in Medak district. Speaking at Zaheerabad, Mr Uttam Kumar Reddy alleged that after Prime Minister Narendra Modi government came at the Centre the attacks on minorities have been increased. He alleged that the CM has become sycophant of Mr Modi. After Mr Modi took a decision on demonetisation and GST bill, KCR is the first person to support him, he said.

Mr Uttam Kumar Reddy said after 2019 elections, AICC president Rahul Gandhis government at the Centre and congress government in Telangana will be formed. He said only the Congress which worked for the welfare of Muslim minorities. He said KCR has announced within four months Muslims will be given 12 per cent reservations, but after four years passed nothing has been done on this.

The TPCC president announced that after Congress comes to power, farmers loans will be waived Rs 2 lakh at a time. He said all crops will be purchased by the government giving pro-per rates to farmers. He assured Rs 3,000 will be gi-ven to each unemployed educated youth as un-employment allowance. He said in Telangana, silent moment will come and the Congress will come to power. He said if the Congress will not come to power in Telangana all his family members will quit politics.

MLA Komatireddy Venkat Reddy alleged that only KCRs family has become golden but not Telangana. He said Congress coming to power in next elections is sure. Mr Venkat Reddy said if the party agrees he will contest from Gajwel against KCR and he will defeat him.Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP president Amit Shah will will address the chief ministers and deputy chief ministers of BJP-ruled state governments on Wednesday. (Photo: PTI)

New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will address the chief ministers and deputy chief ministers of BJP-ruled state governments on Wednesday.

BJP president Amit Shah will also address the CMs and deputy CMs on matters related to the organisation.

Though it is a routine meeting that both Modi and Shah have been holding with the partys CMs and deputy CMs since it came to power at the Centre in 2014, this meeting is coming at a time when key Assembly polls, including in three BJP-ruled states, are due this year. Even the Lok Sabha polls are just over a year away.

While the BJP leaders would be asked about the progress of various Central schemes and its pro-poor policies, the issue of simultaneous Assembly and Lok Sabha elections could come up at the meeting.

The Prime Minister has on several occasions emphasised the need for simultaneous polls to the Lok Sabha and state Assemblies and this was also highlighted by President Ram Nath Kovind in his address to the joint sitting of both Houses of Parliament.

Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan told the media in Bhopal on Monday that the issue of simultaneous elections will be discussed at the CMs meeting as part of efforts to build a consensus on the issue.

Wednesdays meeting could also see the party top brass taking up the flagship National Health Protection Scheme, which was announced in the Union Budget and is being termed as Modicare.Qualcomm says that the 700 chipsets will get a new version of Kryo CPUs that will focus on enhanced performance when compared to the Snapdragon 660. (Representative Image)

Qualcomms mobile chipsets are known to be the best in business. Their diverse range of Snapdragon chipsets caters to smartphones across various price points. You have the Snapdragon 400 series for budget smartphones, the Snapdragon 600 series for midrange smartphones and the 800 series for flagship smartphones. However, the midrange smartphone segment is pretty diverse and the Snapdragon 600 series isnt adequate for some premium midrange smartphones. Therefore, Qualcomm has filled the gap with its new Snapdragon 700 series that promises to bring exclusive premium features from 800 series to the affordable offerings.

The Snapdragon 700 will primarily borrow the Qualcomm Artificial Intelligence Engine and the Spectra ISP from the flagship 845 SoC, and mix it with slightly upgraded internals from the 600 series to offer better value for premium midrange smartphones. The 700 series is meant for those who care about artificial intelligence and notable smartphone photography  perfect for most manufacturers who care to build specific function-focused devices. Qualcomm says that the 700 chipsets will get a new version of Kryo CPUs that will focus on enhanced performance when compared to the Snapdragon 660. However, the users could expect up to 30 per cent improvement in battery life when compared to last years Snapdragon 660 chipset. The 700 series chipsets will also feature Quick Charge 4+ technology for topping up batteries from 0-50 per cent in 15 minutes. The 700 series chipsets will also feature faster connectivity components such as Bluetooth 5 and faster LTE chips.

Currently, the 700 series contains no specific chipset commercially available for use. However, Qualcomm says that they will be able to make it reach customers by the second half of 2018. There are no OEM partners mentioned for the 700 series yet, but expect renowned names such as ASUS, Xiaomi, Motorola and Sony to come with suitable devices in the coming months.

Qualcomm has also announced new Snapdragon 5G solution modules for commercial use. It will provide modules with integration of components to cover digital, RF, connectivity and front-end functionality. Key components include application processor, baseband modem, memory, power management integrated circuit (PMIC), RF Front-End (RFFE), antennas and passive components, providing optimized solutions engineered to make it easy for OEMs to be quickly up and running with lower cost and time investment. Qualcomm says that end users will benefit with lower device costs with their new platform.

Click on Deccan Chronicle Technology and Science for the latest news and reviews. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter.

Click on Deccan Chronicle Technology and Science for the latest news and reviews. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter.Guayaquil's police chief General Marcelo Tobar later said that the men had possibly climbed into the aircrafts landing gear section and were either pushed out by mechanics or had simply changed their minds. (Representational Image/ Pixabay)

The airport personnel at Guayaquil scurried to the runway as they noticed three objects falling out of LATAM Airlines flight and landing with a thud, fearing the New York bound plane to Ecuador had lost important parts.

On closer inspection, they found a dead man, another one struggling to live, USD 20 and a suitcase full of clothes, the Washington Post reported.

According to Ecuador-based El Comercio, Guayaquil's police chief General Marcelo Tobar later said that the men had possibly climbed into the aircrafts landing gear section and were either pushed out by mechanics or had simply changed their minds.

Officials suggest that the two men, who did not have identification, were Peruvian and were 25 and 30-years-old.

The flight which originated in Lima was forced to circle back and make an emergency landing Jose Joaquin de Olmedo International Airport, LATAM Airlines Group spokesman David Harry said. He added that the airline was cooperating in the ongoing investigation.

The country's second largest airport had to be shut down for 90 minutes following the incident.19-year-old Nikolas Cruz is accused of carrying out the second-deadliest shooting at a public school in US history after a deal between prosecutors and defence attorneys, the suspect's lawyer said. (Photo: AP)

Fort Lauderdale: A Florida court cancelled a hearing scheduled for Tuesday for the 19-year-old man accused of carrying out the second-deadliest shooting at a public school in US history after a deal between prosecutors and defence attorneys, the suspect's lawyer said.

Prosecutors had been scheduled to seek hair and DNA samples from Nikolas Cruz, who faces 17 murder counts for the February 14 rampage at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, an affluent suburb of Fort Lauderdale.

Broward County prosecutors and Cruz's publicly appointed defender, Gordon Weekes, reached a deal late Monday to provide those samples, making the hearing unnecessary, Weekes said.

Also Read: Armed officer on duty at Florida school 'never went in' to stop gunman

"There was no reason to push back," Weekes said. "It was a routine motion that the state attorney had filed. We submitted an agreed order and there was no need for a court to hear the motion."

The hearing would have been the second courtroom appearance for Cruz since the shooting.

The massacre, carried out with a legally purchased AR-15 assault rifle, inflamed the long-running US debate on gun rights, which are addressed in the Second Amendment of the US Constitution.

Cruz's case is due to return to court on Wednesday when a hearing will determine whether he has sufficient assets to pay for his own defence, Weekes said.

The shooting has rattled long-drawn political lines on gun rights in the United States, where Republican officials have often opposed efforts by gun control advocates to tighten gun ownership laws, partly out of concern about retribution by the powerful National Rifle Association.

Also Read: Monster under our roof: Foster couple on Florida shooting gunman

US President Donald Trump, a Republican who backed gun rights during and since his 2016 presidential campaign, has been under pressure to show he is responding without alienating Republicans who oppose firearms restrictions.

On Monday, he met with 35 governors, urging them to disregard pressure from the NRA as they seek to address firearms safety and school security.

Trump has embraced the call to safeguard schools by arming teachers but also has voiced support for strengthening background checks for prospective gun buyers - a proposal the NRA has traditionally resisted.Jayendra Saraswathi -- the 69th Shankaracharya of the Sri Kanchi Kamakoti Peetam -- passed away here today following a cardiac arrest. The 82-year old seer was rushed to a private hospital this morning after he complained of uneasiness, hospital sources said.



Jayendra Saraswathi was the senior pontiff of the mutt founded by Adi Shankaracharya, receiving the mantle from his predecessor, the late Sri Chandrasekarendra Saraswathi Swamigal.

The junior pontiff Vijayendra Saraswathi will succeed Jayendra Saraswathi.

The mutt was established by Adi Shankaracharya about 2520 years ago.

The rites of the seer, described as 'Brindavana Pravesha Karyakramam' in vedic parlance, will commence from tomorrow, according to the mutt.

"Brindavana Pravesha Karyakramam of HH Pujyashri Jayendra Saraswathi Shankaracharya Swamigal will be performed tomorrow from 8 am," the mutt's official twitter handle said.



Shankaracharya overcame ordeal of murder charge in 2013



The seer's body has been kept at the Kamakoti peetam here for the public to pay final respects. Many of the devotees who visited the mutt were in tears and described him as a 'jagathguru.'



Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Vice President M Venkiah Naidu, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister K Palaniswami, DMK Working President MK Stalin, PMK founder S Ramadoss and others condoled the demise of the Shankaracharya.



"Deeply anguished by the passing away of Acharya of Sri Kanchi Kamakoti Peetam Jagadguru Pujyashri Jayendra Saraswathi Shankaracharya. He will live on in the hearts and minds of lakhs of devotees due to his exemplary service and noblest thoughts. Om Shanti to the departed soul," Modi said.



Telugu states remember Kanchi Seer Jayendra Saraswathi



Jayendra Saraswathi was at the forefront of innumerable community service initiatives, the Prime Minister said in a tweet, adding, "he nurtured institutions which transformed the lives of the poor and downtrodden." Vice President Naidu recalled the contribution of Kanchi Sankaracharya Jayendra Saraswathi, who passed away today, in promoting spirituality.



"Pay my respects to Kanchi peethadhipathi Shri Jayendra Saraswati who attained moksha. His contribution for the welfare of mankind and in promoting spirituality will always be an inspiration for others," he tweeted.Congress on Wednesday termed the arrest of Karti Chidambaram as an attempt by the Modi government to "divert the attention" of the nation from the multi-crore bank scam involving Nirav Modi, Mehul Choksi and others.



Congress leaders claimed that the Modi government was rattled by the traction the multi-crore bank scams were gaining in the political discourse, which was directly affecting the prime minister's image as a "crusader against corruption".

"The Prime Minister's mask of a corruption crusader lies in shambles with successive scams getting uncovered over the last 45 months and zero action against fraudsters," Randeep Singh Surjewala, in-charge of the AICC Communication Department, told reporters here.

Instead of chasing the real scamsters, the Modi government has unleashed the "puppet CBI and ED" on Congress leaders and their family members to divert attention from the bank scams.

Surjewal said neither Congress nor its leaders would be intimidated by the government's actions and would continue "speaking the truth to power".

Skeletons tumbling

He said in the last 10 days scams to the tune of Rs 31,690 crore have been exposed, which was a clear reflection on the "ineptitude bordering on complicity" of the CBI and Enforcement Directorate.

With former Finance Minister P Chidambaram away in London, senior Congress leaders Kapil Sibal and Abhishek Manu Singhvi spoke out against Karti's arrest.

Singhvi wondered whether Karti's arrest had anything to do with the Karnataka elections where the BJP has accused Chief Minister Siddaramaiah of leading a "corrupt" government.

Chidu moves SC

Surjewala pointed out that Chidambaram had moved the Supreme Court accusing the CBI and ED of nursing political vendetta against him and his family.

In his petition, Chidambaram said that the CBI had lodged an FIR in the INX Media case in May 2017 but was yet to file any report concluding that a criminal offence had been committed or that any proceeds of crime had arisen out of that criminal offence.Tally Solutions, the accounting and compliance software provider, on Wednesday launched Tally.ERP 9 Release 6.4 to make e-Way Bill generation simple and convenient.



E-Way Bill, an electronic way bill for movement of goods which can be generated on the e-Way Bill Portal, is an accompaniment of the Goods and Services Tax (GST).

Tally ERP 9 allows businesses to capture all the mandatory details required for generating e-Way Bill in the e-Way Bill portal.

These details are not required to be entered in the portal again, reducing time consuming repetitive tasks. At the time of saving the invoice, the user can choose to generate a JSON/Excel of the invoice which has to be uploaded on the e-way portal for generating e-Way Bill with EBN.

The government announced the implementation date of the e-Way Bill as 1st April 2018. The law stipulates, that transport of goods of more than Rs 50,000 in value in a vehicle cannot be made by a registered person without an e-Way Bill.

Commenting on the launch, Tally Solutions Executive Director Tejas Goenka said over the last few weeks the company has been focusing on getting businesses ready to operate the e-Way Bill system to ensure that they remain compliant with the law.

"Our latest release Tally.ERP 9 Release 6.4 is designed to make it very simple for businesses to generate and manage e-Way Bills. We have made a conscious attempt to make the solution flexible to accommodate various exceptional circumstances that different businesses might find themselves in, while complying with the new reform," he said.

Goenka also pointed out that Tally has extended a solution to businesses who have registered under the composition scheme, who can now generate bill of supply and file GSTR-4 with ease. "With these additions to our latest release, we are confident that businesses will find it easier to transition to the new reform," he added.

Tally.ERP 9 Release 6.4 will also enable businesses registered under the composition scheme to become GST compliant. With Tally, businesses can generate Bills of Supply for their sales.

Businesses can also export GSTR4 in JSON at the click of a button and upload it to the GST portal. The product is priced at Rs 18,000+GST for a single user edition and Rs 54,000+GST for a multi-user edition, the same as earlier.

The latest version of GST-ready Tally continues to be available for purchase at an affordable EMI. The single user edition can be purchased with a down payment of Rs 5,287, and the remaining amount can be paid in equal monthly installments over a period of 7 months.Zoho Corporation, a cloud-based software company, on Wednesday launched Zia Voice, the speech and chat capabilities to its AI-powered sales assistant Zia.



It is build above Zoho CRM, on existing Zoho infrastructure, to serve their own businesses uniquely. In addition, new features in Zoho CRM like Translations and Portals add to deepening their enterprise focus.

Beside interactive voice and chat-bot, the Zia will have lead and deal prediction and email sentiment analysis email.

Commenting on the launch, Zoho Corporation Chief Operating Officer Mani Vembu said the company is delivering the first conversational AI for CRM, with Zia Voice.

"Zia's enhanced AI capabilities will now help salespeople sell smarter, with contextual assistance and access customer information through a powerful voice and chat interface," said Vembu.

According to the company release, most features are available immediately on the Enterprise and Ultimate editions of Zoho CRM. Some features are being rolled out to customers in a phased manner.

Zoho CRM is available in the standard, professional and enterprise edition ranging from Rs 900 to Rs 2,700 per month by an user.

Sheryl Kingstone of 451 Research said customer relationship platform is transitioning into the next phase with the advancement of AI and voice recognition.

"We see these advancements in AI and voice recognition leading the way into the next transformation of business applications. Our recent research shows that 45% of the surveyed digital leaders are looking forward to use voice interface in the next 24 months," said Kingstone.

The Chennai-based company also introduced Catalyst, a set of capabilities that allow larger and complex businesses to build their own mobile and web apps.



The demand for probe into the sudden death of veteran actress Sridevi is intensifying with lawyers and activists demanding a thorough investigation from the government.

While journalist-turned-activist S Balakrishnan wrote to Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, activist and lawyer Adil Khatri wrote to Mumbai Police Commissioner Datta Padsalgikar.



"The Maharashtra government, ideally, should have sent a doctor to Dubai for post-mortem," Balakrishnan said and pointed out that no forensic expert could give his finding as "accidental drowning". "It is impossible that a full grown adult like her would have died of drowning in a bathtub," he said in the letter to Fadnavis, who is also in-charge of the Home department.



Indian in UAE helped famed actress Sridevi's body come home



Khatri said a public figure has a public life, that is the reality, something as tragic as this has happened, people are shocked and want to know the truth. "The fact that there was one story given on one day and the very next day it changed, this leaves a gap and that's why we Indians deserve answers on her mysterious death," he said in a letter to the police.



"Why should one believe everything said by Dubai police? In the interest of justice, to put this entire speculation to rest, Mumbai police must exhaustively investigate the entire mysterious death of our beloved Indian actor Sridevi. Mumbai Police has the power to launch an extra-terrestrial investigation. Through this letter, I request Mumbai Police to open a case," he said.



In the past, there was an exhaustive investigation and inquiry into the death of famous personalities like Michael Jackson, Princess Diana etc. This case also deserves a fair probe, he said.

"Prime Minister Modi's words are worth nothing. I have not come across a PM who speaks so lowly," said Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, who was in Koppal on Wednesday.



"Before becoming PM, he used to refer to himself as a chowkidar (guard). Where was this chowkidar (PM) when Lalit Modi and Nirav Modi fled the country? They have fled with the protection of Prime Minister Modi," the chief minister alleged in response to the PM's statement that the Karnataka government is a 'seedha rupaiya sarkar'.

"The government is not obliged to give accounts to BJP national president Amit Shah," Siddaramaiah said. "By submitting the budget, we have presented accounts to the people."

Siddaramaiah mocked the PM for seating BJP state president B S Yeddyurappa "who has taken bribe by cheque next to him, and accusing others of corruption".

"How can Yeddyurappa, who as CM, refused to waive farmers' loans and ordered a shoot-at-sight on farmers at Haveri, be farmer-friendly?" asked Siddaramaiah.

"When farmers asked for a loan waiver, Yeddyurappa had reacted saying that the BJP did not have a currency note printing machine," he recalled.

PM dubs Siddaramaiah govt 'seeda Rupaiya (money first) sarkar'

Minister Vinay Kulkarni had promised Mahadayi activists an audience with Rahul Gandhi but he has not called for a meeting. The AICC president himself was not aware of this, so Rahul left for the airport without meeting them, Siddaramaiah said in response to questions.All Sankara Mutts affiliated to Kanchi Kamakoti Peetham remained closed in honour of the departed soul of Kanchi seer Jayendra Saraswathi in both Telugu states on Wednesday.



The Seers's special affection for his followers here was remembered. The Seer always made a point to visit Tirumala whenever he was in the state. Two years ago when he visited Vijayawada, he fell sick and was admitted to a local hospital for days.

Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu on Wednesday expressed grief over the demise of the senior pontiff. In a statement, he said "Kanchi Seer has been a prominent spiritual guru in Hinduism. Jayendra Saraswathi developed Kanchi Peetham as a reputed organization under his guidance. He served the people through many schools, eye hospitals and clinics for children. Jayendra Saraswathi's services to the society are commendable," the statement added.

Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrsekhar Rao in a statement expressed heartfelt condolences on the demise of the Seer. He praised the great services rendered by him for the development of Kanchi Peetham.



Shankaracharya overcame ordeal of murder charge in 2013

First indication of his failing health has come to the fore when he visited Vijayawada during August 2016. The seer was admitted to the Andhra Hospital in Vijayawada after falling unconscious due to high blood pressure. He was brought to the hospital by his devotees. They said that the Seer complained uneasiness before slipping into the unconscious. It was during the same year in July the Seer visited Tirumala and offered prayers to the Lord.

Way back in 2004, he found himself in a controversy over his observations on the rituals performed in Tirumala. He later clarified his point on the issue in Chennai. He said in an interview "Media played it up without understanding the quintessence" of his observations.

Vaishnavite jeers felt that a Shaivite Kanchi seer was 'interfering' in the rituals at Tirupathi temple and that he had no locus standi to speak about "Vaishnavite" temples.The government on Wednesday rejected Canada's allegation that rogue elements in India had arranged the invitation for convicted assassin Jaspal Atwal to a reception hosted by Ottawa's envoy to New Delhi during the recent visit of the North American country's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.



New Delhi dismissed as "baseless and unacceptable" the allegation by Ottawa that the rogue political elements in India might have had arranged the invitation to Atwal for the reception hosted by High Commissioner of Canada, Nadir Patel. The invitation to the former activist of the now-outlawed International Sikh Youth Federation had added to the embarrassment for Canadian Government during Trudeau's week-long visit in India, which had already been overshadowed by the perception that Ottawa had done very little to address New Delhi's concerns over continued anti-India activities by radical pro-Khalistani elements among the Sikhs in Canada.

Patel hosted the dinner in honour of Trudeau on February 22, just a day before Canadian PM was ceremonially welcomed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the forecourt of Rashtrapati Bhavan and the two leaders had a formal meeting. What also came up as an embarrassment to Trudeau was his wife Sophie GrAgoire Trudeau and his minister Amarjeet Sohi's pictures with Atwal going viral on social media a all shot during Canadian Prime Minister's visit to Mumbai on February 20.

The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) quoted an unnamed "senior official" of Trudeau Government suggesting that "rogue political elements in India" might have "orchestrated the embarrassing invitation" to Atwal to make Ottawa appear sympathetic to Khalistani Sikh extremism.

"Let me categorically state that the Government of India, including the security agencies, had nothing to do with the presence of Jaspal Atwal at the event hosted by the Canadian High Commissioner in Mumbai or the invitation issued to him for the Canadian High Commissioner's reception in New Delhi," Raveesh Kumar, official spokesperson of the Ministry of External Affairs, said in New Delhi. "Any suggestion to the contrary is baseless and unacceptable."

Trudeau, himself, supported the theory mooted by the "senior official" of Canadian Government, who, according to the CBC, had knowledge of Prime Minister's security protocols. "Our professional, non-partisan public service does high-quality work and when one of our top diplomats and security officials says something to Canadians, it's because they know it to be true," the star.com quoted Trudeau telling opposition leader Andrew Scheer in Canadian Parliament.

Atwal and three other Khalistanis had been arrested by local police shortly after they had made an attempt to kill Sidhu on an isolated gravel road near Gold River on Vancouver Island on May 25, 1986. They had been convicted in February 1987 and sentenced to imprisonment for 20 years. Their cases had been overturned when a lawyer showed that the evidence against the four attackers had been obtained on a fraudulent warrant by the Canadian Security Intelligence Service. Sidhu had later been killed at Moga in Punjab in 1991.A sea of humanity poured onto the streets of Mumbai on Wednesday as thousands of fans joined Bollywood celebrities to bid a tearful adieu to actor Sridevi.



The actor was cremated with full state honours at the Seva Samaj Crematorium at Vile Parle.

Sridevi's filmmaker husband, Boney Kapoor, lit the funeral pyre as the armed unit of the Mumbai Police fired empty rounds in the air with people shouting the slogan 'Sridevi Amar Rahe'.

Sridevi's body was dressed in a red-coloured golden-bordered Kanjeevaram saree. There was a large south Indian style 'sindoor' on her forehead and a heavy necklace.

Members of the Kapoor, Ayyapan and Marwah families were on board the cortege. The funeral procession began from the Celebrations Sports Club, passed by Sridevi's home at the Green Acres complex, from there to Juhu and then to the Vile Parle crematorium.

It took almost one-and-a-half-hours to cover the 5-km distance.

The truck was decorated with white flowers her favourite colour and had a huge photo of the star in the front.

On the cortege, Boney Kapoor, his two brothers Anil Kapoor and Sanjay Kapoor, son Arjun and others were present.

In terms of attendance, the funeral was compared to that of Raj Kapoor, Rajesh Khanna, Kishore Kumar and Mohammed Rafi.

Thousands of people, including students, office-goers and others, waited on both sides of the roads, looked from building and bungalows' terraces, climbed on signals, lampposts, trees and compound walls for the last glimpse of their beloved heroine. There was chaos at certain places and the police had to resort to mild baton charge to quell the mob.

Besides, a lot of people climbed onto the sky-walk off the Vile Parle suburban stations. And as the crowd swelled, it compounded into a problem.





Indian in UAE helped famed actress Sridevi's body come home



Sea of mourners as Sridevi cortege winds through Mumbai



Activists, lawyer demand probe in Sridevi's deathCongress will hit at the two "weak links" of the Modi government agrarian distress and growing unemployment at the AICC Plenary with Rahul Gandhi setting up a separate sub-group to look for solutions on the key issues.



Congress President Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday constituted a drafting committee chaired by former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to prepare resolutions a political, economy and international affairs to be discussed at the AICC Plenary scheduled to be held here from March 16-18.

The drafting committee will be assisted by four sub-groups on political, economic affairs, international affairs and agriculture, unemployment and poverty alleviation to be chaired by senior leaders A K Antony, P Chidambaram, Anand Sharma and Bhupinder Singh Hooda respectively.

Congress veteran Motilal Vora, the party treasurer, will chair the Organising Committee for the Plenary which will have senior leader Oscar Fernandes as the convener.

Gandhi has also set up a Constitution Amendment Committee with senior leaders Ghulam Nabi Azad and Janardan Dwivedi as chairman and convenor respectively.

The Plenary will be the first after Rahul Gandhi's election as Congress President in December and is expected to chart the future course of the party as it heads for the Lok Sabha elections next year.

Congress has kept up the attack on the Modi government on issues such as unemployment, agrarian distress, foreign policy, and mishandling of the economy. On the job front, Congress claimed that new job creation has witnessed a 65% drop between January-March 2017 and April-June 2017.

On foreign policy, Congress has claimed that the government had "achieved little" in terms of strategic gains and allowed China to encircle India by gaining influence in Nepal, Bhutan, Sri Lanka, the Maldives besides Pakistan.

While party seniors have key roles in various committees, young leaders have been given prominent places as members of the various panels that will fine tune the Congress policies for the future.Public Health Foundation of India (PHFI) hit a low in April 2017, when the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) cancelled its Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA) licence, following alleged diversion of foreign funds and other violations.



PHFI, India's largest health advocacy group, now has conditional clearance to accept foreign funds. As the NGO re-builds stature, a course in public health it runs with Thiruvananthapuram-based Sree Chitra Tirunal Institute for Medical Sciences and Technology (SCTIMST) has set off fresh allegations.

An SCTIMST engineer alleged that the Master of Public Health (MPH) programme offered by the Indian Institute of Public Health, Delhi (IIPH-D), a PHFI unit, was recognised "hastily" by SCTIMST in 2015, despite quality concerns. The first request for affiliation came from PHFI in February 2014, when Prof Jagan Mohan Tharakan was Director of SCTIMST, a prestigious institute under the Department of Science and Technology (DST). Documents obtained under RTI reveal that the tie-up was set aside twice, by the SCTIMST Governing Body in June 2014 and Academic Committee in February 2015.

In July 2015, Prof Asha Kishore took charge as SCTIMST director. In October, PHFI president Prof K Srinath Reddy wrote to her, "thanking" her for agreeing to reconsider the affiliation. The new request and a letter from DST secretary Dr Ashutosh Sharma a a PHFI general body member a were included as an out-of-agenda item in an AC meeting. In November, the GB sanctioned the affiliation and a MoU was signed for MPH and a freshly approved PhD programme, in December 2015. A SCTIMST team inspected IIPH-D after the GB approval. PHFI/IIPH-D pays a yearly sum of Rs 30,000 per candidate for the two-year course.

Prof Kishore dismissed the allegation. "The previous AC set it aside because four IIPHs under PHFI (at various locations) were being considered and the Institute Act did not allow such affiliations. But discussions continued and the IIPH-D partnership was formalised after due procedures," she told DH.

The AC, in May 2014, said SCTIMST had partnered reputed medical colleges including CMC Vellore and government institutions including the National Institute of Epidemiology, Chennai, and affiliating a private organisation for off-campus courses needed detailed discussions in the Board of Studies of Health Sciences.

CONFLICT OF INTEREST?: The complainant also alleged a conflict of interest a The PHFI general body has as ex-officio members Secretary, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Director General, Health Services and Director General, Indian Council of Medical Research. The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, responding to a RTI query, said it had not issued any order on their PHFI positions.

A SCTIMST spokesperson said a few AC members "raised concerns" but the course was okayed after clarifications. On allegations that the tuition fee (Rs 1.8 lakh per year at IIPH-D, Rs 1.1 lakh on campus at SCTIMST) and student intake (50 at IIPH-D, 25 at SCTIMST) stipulations were altered in PHFI's favour, an IIPH-D spokesperson said fees were decided based on location-specific factors including cost of infrastructure.Union Science and Environment Minister Harsh Vardhan on Wednesday became the first cabinet minister after Prime Minister Narendra Modi, to have his personalised mobile application (app) that would aid his voters to connect with him.



Once projected as BJP's Chief Ministerial candidate in Delhi, Vardhan was accommodated in the central government after the saffron party under his leadership failed to get a majority in Delhi assembly 2013 and two years later received a drubbing at the hand of AAP that almost routed the Opposition from the 70-member assembly with a victory margin of 67-3.

With a year to go for the General Election and uncertainty hanging on the fate of 20 AAP legislators, who had been disqualified by the Election Commission, the veteran leader is not letting any opportunity go to regain his foothold in the national capital.

His personalised app adds to that effort as it carries links to connect with his constituency and voters. The voters can not only use it to air their grievances to the minister through video messages but also alert the minister about the instances of corruption in public life. There is also a provision to live stream his election rallies.

Vardhan said before its launch the app was beta tested among 20,000 people before launch. "I have set up a redress system through which I can take care of people's issues and concerns," he said.Setting an example and providing a huge relief to officials, Muslim clerics have decided to change namaz (prayer) timings in Uttar Pradesh on Holi festival, which will be celebrated on Friday, the day Muslims offer special prayers in large numbers.



Both Shia and Sunni clerics have deferred the Friday prayers timings by an hour.

Noted Shia cleric Maulana Kalbe Jawwad and Sunni cleric Maulana Khalid Rasheed Firangimahali, who is also a senior member of the All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB), have urged imams (priests) of all mosques across the state to adjust the Friday prayer timings to accommodate Holi revellers.

Officials also heaved a sigh of relief after the decision by the clerics. "There is always a possibility of a clash on such occasions...often Holi revellers, while passing by a mosque or Muslim areas throw colours leading to clashes," said a senior police officer here.

He said officials have kept their fingers crossed as this year Holi falls on a Friday. The government has banned the use of DJ and loudspeakers for the festival.Former finance minister P Chidambaram's son Karti was on Wednesday arrested by the CBI in connection with the suspected lobbying for fraudulently granting government approval for foreign investment in INX Media.



Karti, 46, was picked up by CBI officials as he flew down to Chennai from the UK in the morning and was immediately taken to the CBI headquarters in Delhi by a domestic flight for questioning. His arrest comes two weeks after his chartered accountant was arrested in connection with the same case.

His arrest comes nine-and-a-half months after the CBI registered an FIR against him, his company Chess Management Services, INX Media, INX News, its directors Peter Mukerjea and his wife Indrani Mukerjea, Advantage Strategic Consulting Pvt Ltd (ASCPL) and its director Padma Vishwanathan.

The CBI claimed that his arrest was necessary as he was resisting summons and during his questioning earlier, he was evasive in his replies and gave incorrect statements. The investigators claimed this delayed the conclusion of investigations.

Even as Karti argued that he is not a "Hindustan Leaver" (one who does not flee India) like others, a local court sent him to one-day CBI custody even as the agency sought 15-days custody. The CBI told the court that Karti's custody is needed as one of the accused Indrani had told them that he had demanded $1 million to settle the issue. The ED had earlier recorded Indrani as saying that she and her husband met Chidambaram who asked them to help Karti's business.

"It is absolutely a political vendetta. I will be vindicated," Karti told reporters in court premises.

There was no immediate comment from Chidambaram, who earlier vehemently denied any wrongdoing in clearing the Foreign Investment Promotion Board when the latter was Union Finance Minister in the UPA regime.

While senior Congress leader Kapil Sibal said it was a "diversionary tactic" by the government to hide its scams and this kind of "vendetta" would not deter the party from speaking the truth, Union Law Minister Ravishankar Prasad said the law was taking its course and the government would not interfere in the investigation.

In the FIR registered on May 15, 2017, the CBI claimed that officials acted under the influence of Karti to grant FIPB clearance for foreign investment, which the firm had already acquired without any formal approval from the government.

It claimed INX Media stated in its records that an amount of Rs 10 lakh was given to ASCPL, which was "indirectly" controlled by Karti, for management consultancy charges towards an FIPB notification and clarification. The FIR also alleged that invoices of around Rs 3.5 crore were raised in the name of other companies in which Karti had substantial interests "directly or indirectly".

Karti was summoned by the CBI earlier but he had sought stay orders from various courts. The Enforcement Directorate had also filed a case against him and searched his premises. The agencies had also issued a lookout notice against him fearing that he would try to close the foreign accounts where he had allegedly parked the money from the kickbacks. In November, the Supreme Court allowed Karti Chidambaram to go to the United Kingdom for his daughter's admission to the Cambridge University.Punjab Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh's outstanding fondness for horses became even more evident during his visit to the state police academy on Wednesday.



His concern for Sunny Kid, one of the horses gifted by a former Pakistan Punjab chief minister, became writ large. Capt Singh made it a point to meet Sunny Kid, whom he remembered having injured his leg some time back.

The ones who have visited the sprawling palace of Capt Amarinder Singh in Patiala would have seen horses in numbers trotting in the open periphery of the palace. Capt's concern for Sunny Kid has a cross-border connection with Pakistan. It was some 14 years ago, during his visit to Pakistan in his previous stint as Punjab CM, Capt Amarinder had received an unusual, albeit, attractive gift from his counterpart in Pakistan Punjab, Pervaiz Elahi. It was a mighty horse, named Sultan.

Sadly, the horse had to be quarantined on his arrival in India and did not survive long. Elahi was evidently disappointed that his gift to Capt Amarinder Singh had not lasted long. The former Pakistan CM then decided to replace it with another horse named Sunny Kid. Elahi's gift charmed Amarinder and he immediately fell in love with the new horse.

Nostalgic event

Capt felt that the horse was extraordinary and would need special care and training, which is when he handed over the big horse to the care of expert trainers at the Punjab Police Academy (PPA). On Wednesday, the long overdue reunion between Capt and his dear horse Sunny Kid turned a nostalgic event. He took special interest in the horse that he still remembered got hurt in the leg. Officials said, Sunny Kid was the first one the CM inquired about the moment he reached PPA in the morning.The CBI on Wednesday arrested Punjab National Bank's internal chief auditor M K Sharma in connection with the Rs 12,717-crore bank fraud case involving diamantaire Nirav Modi.



Sharma, a chief manager-rank officer, is responsible for auditing systems and practices of PNB's Brady House Branch, the nerve centre of the scam, and report the deficiencies to Zonal Audit Office.

With this, 13 people have been arrested in the case. He is the seventh officer from the bank to be arrested in the case while six officials, including Vipul Ambani, of Nirav Modi and his uncle Mehul Choksi were apprehendedTo condemn the failure of the Congress-led state government, the BJP will organise a Jana Suraksha Yathre from Kushalnagar on March 3, said MLA M P Appachu Ranjan.



Briefing reporters here on Wednesday, he said that the Yathre aims at instilling confidence in people. "The Yathre will be flagged off at Kushalnagar by Union Minister D V Sadananda Gowda. The valedictory of the Yathre will be held at Mangaluru on March 6 which will be attended by Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath," he said.

"Hindu activists have been murdered and assaulted in Karnataka. The state government's failure in administration is responsible for the series of murders. The law and order in the state has deteriorated," Appachu Ranjan said.

MLC Sunil Subramani said Congress MLA and their children show their power in public. The officials are threatened, he added.

BJP district unit president B B Bharathish said that Congress is trying to destroy democratic set up.

The Yathre will pass through Guddehosru-Madikeri. A public meeting will be held at Gandhi Maidan at 2 pm on March 3.The defence ministry on Wednesday cleared purchases worth nearly Rs 9,500 crore, out of which almost Rs 7,600 crore would be spent to procure light machine gun and close quarter battle carbine for infantry troops.



The Defence Acquisition Council (DAC) under the chairmanship of Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman accorded approval to buy 41,000 LMGs and over 3.5 lakh close quarter battle carbines. These weapons are an essential component of a soldier's fighting equipment and will provide a major fillip to the fighting capability of the troops.

The total estimated cost for procurement of carbines and LMGs for the soldiers of the three services is Rs 4,607 crore and Rs 3,000 crore respectively, a defence ministry spokesperson said here.

In the last two months, the defence ministry has cleared three major proposals to buy three main personal weapons of a soldier - two varieties of rifles, close quarter battle carbines and LMG.

While the immediate need would be met by fast-track procurement, rest of the weapons would be manufactured in India partly by the private sectors through joint ventures with foreign partners and the remaining by the Ordnance Factory Board.

"The government has been conscious of the requirement to modernise the basic fighting weapons for the soldiers and has therefore accorded utmost priority to these cases," she said.

Earlier this month the ministry approved the purchase of 7.4 lakh assault rifles for the three services at a cost of Rs 12,280 crore and a month prior to that 72,400 of such rifles were allowed to be bought in a "fast-track mode". The clearances have also been given to buy nearly 1 lakh carbines for anti-insurgency operations.

Indian Army needs 7.6 lakh modern assault rifles to fulfil the "shoot to kill" objective, in order to replace the homemade Indian Small Arms System), which was inducted in 1978 to maim the enemy.

The DAC has also cleared procurement of high capacity radio relay for the Army and Air force at a cost of Rs 1,092 crore to establish fail-safe communication links in the tactical battle area and two pollution control vessels for the east coast and islands for the Indian Coast Guard at a cost of Rs 673 crore.In less than 10 days of taking charge as Speaker of the 14th Gujarat Legislative Assembly, Rajendra Trivedi is now set to face a 'no-confidence' motion.



An application to this effect was submitted to the secretary of the Assembly by Opposition Congress on Wednesday. "We are going to move the motion as per the rules of the House," Paresh Dhanani, Leader of the Opposition and Congress legislator from Amreli told mediapersons.

The Opposition has been alleging partisan approach by Rajendra Trivedi while conducting the House. They say that while ruling BJP ministers and legislators were given enough time, the voice of Opposition is being silenced. They cite examples of Speaker ordering shutting down of microphone of independent legislator Jignesh Mevani and adjourning the House immediately after he began to speak on the issue of death of dalit activist Bhanubhai Vankar in the House.

Meanwhile, on Wednesday, Rajendra Trivedi suspended around 15 Congress legislators for a day from the Assembly, after the Opposition rushed to the well of the House and shouted slogans against the ruling BJP over VAT on retail sales of fuel in the state. The Speaker also suspended Unjha Congress legislator Asha Patel, who during the sloganeering apparently used the words "BJP Hooligans," which the Speaker dubbed as derogatory and suspended her for two days from the House.

Trouble began after Congress legislator Vimal Chudasama sought details of VAT being charged on petrol and diesel by the state government and whether the government planned to reduce the taxes. In his reply, Deputy Chief Minister Nitin Patel stated that Gujarat charges 20% VAT on fuel and went on to give comparative tax rates in Congress-ruled states such as Punjab and Karnataka, which he claimed was much higher at 28% and 30%. This angered Dhanani, who asked the minister to stick to Gujarat and have a one-hour debate on the issue. When the Speaker stopped him from commenting, all Congress legislators began shouting slogans against the BJP government. About 15 of the Congress legislators rushed to the Well, forcing the Speaker to suspend them for a day. He even instructed security marshals to evict the legislators.

Cong dharna

Following the suspension and eviction, the remaining Congress legislators in the House staged a walkout in protest. The Congress legislators then sat outside the office of Speaker and raised slogans against him for over an hour.

"The Speaker appears to be partisan in his approach," C J Chavda, Congress legislator, told mediapersons.

The House, that is in budget session currently, is expected to take up the 'no-confidence' motion on Thursday."I am not a Hindustan leaver," Karti Chidambaram told a Delhi court through his lawyer Abhishek Singhvi on Wednesday as the CBI produced him before the court.



The remarks came as Singhvi and the CBI lawyer locked horns over a 15-day remand application by the agency came up before duty magistrate in the national capital before whom Karti - son of former finance minister Chidambaram - was produced, hours after his arrest in Chennai airport where he landed in the morning from the United Kingdom.

Singhvi, in a politically loaded statement, argued that his client did not flee the country like others and always returned to India after his trips abroad.

"I (Karti) am not a 'Hindustan leaver' like others. Instead I am a 'Hindustan returner'... I am not a fugitive," Singhvi, also a Rajya Sabha MP and senior Congress leader, told the court even as the court sent Karti to one-day CBI custody. He will be produced before a regular judge on Thursday who will decide on the CBI plea further.

The 'Hindustan Leaver' remark comes against the backdrop of diamantaire Nirav Modi and his kin leaving India in the first week of January, days ahead of the CBI registering a case against him and others in connection with the Rs 12,717-crore bank scam.

According to the remand papers, Karti had not cooperated with the probe by joining the same until compelled to do so by the Supreme Court. He also denied that he or his company had any interaction with INX Media or that he was part of Advantage Strategic Consulting Pvt Ltd (ASCPL), which the CBI described as a firm that he "indirectly" controlled.

The remand papers also claimed that his frequent visits abroad have confirmed apprehensions that he was tampering with the evidence lying there against him and others in the form of secret note received from the Ministry of Finance.

Singhvi argued that it was a "most bizarre case" and the arrest was motivated. "He has not been given a single summons in the last six months. And allegations are made by the CBI that he is not cooperating, when no summons has been issued after August 2017," Singhvi argued.P Chidambaram had told INX Media promoters Peter Mukerjea and Indrani Mukerjea to "help the business" of his son Karti when they met him at his office in North Block in 2007 when he was finance minister, an Enforcement Directorate (ED) report claimed.



The ED document also claimed the couple, now facing trial in the murder of their daughter, admitted meeting Karti at Hotel Hyat, a five-star hotel in south Delhi, where a "demand for illegal gratification of $1 million was made".

Karti was arrested on charges of illegally facilitating government approval for foreign direct investment in INX Media for financial consideration when Chidambaram was heading the finance ministry. The CBI FIR claimed Karti used his influence as the minister's son to get the work done for INX Media.

Both the father-son duo had denied any wrongdoing.

According to the report, Peter and Indrani had given a statement to the ED where they "admitted" to meeting Chidambaram at his office where he told them "to help the business of his son Karti, and to make foreign remittances for this purpose".

Karti "suggested the names of Chess Management Services Pvt Ltd (CMSPL) and Advantage Strategic Consulting Pvt Ltd (ASCPL) for making payments after suggesting that he be given $1 million. The report said the CBI recorded Indrani's statement under Section 164 of CrPC where she admitted to making a payment of $7 lakh abroad.

The ED report suggested that four invoices adding up to $7 lakh drawn by ASCPL and others were recovered from the hard disks of Bhaskaraman, the Chartered Accountant of Karti who was arrested two weeks ago.Amid heightened tension on borders due to continuous ceasefire violations, Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti met Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi on Wednesday and urged him to de-escalate the situation.



Mehbooba, who is under mounting attack in the face of spurt in violence in Kashmir, briefed Modi on the prevailing situation in the state and the way forward. An official spokesperson said, the Chief Minister informed the Prime Minister that the people of Jammu & Kashmir have been suffering immensely due to a precarious situation for the past so many decades.

She also brought to his notice the recent spurt in violence along the borders, which has forced thousands of people to abandon their homes, hearths and daily routine, he said. Mehbooba told the Prime Minister that the need of the hour was to de-escalate this situation adopt the path of reconciliation, as envisioned in the 'Agenda of Alliance' between PDP-BJP coalition government in J&K, so that a durable peace is ensured in the State and the subcontinent.

The PDP and the BJP are not on the same page on several issues, including dealing with the growing trend of stone-pelting, talks with separatists and Pakistan. The renewed violence has also strained relations between the two parties.

Mehbooba also discussed with Modi the execution of Rs 1 lakh-crore Prime Minister's Development Package in the State, he added.President Donald Trump wants educatorsat least some of themto carry guns as a defensive measure against school shootings. Hes partial to arming staff whove previously served in the military, for example, as well as teachers whove been trained, and has suggested up to 20 percent of teachers could do it.

But is there an easy way for Trumps vision to become a large-scale reality? When it comes to arming educators en masse, there are several potential snags, hurdles, and considerations to keep in mind. After talking with a few experts, we listed some of them below.

First, some background: States like Texas and Utah already allow teacherswith certain caveatsto carry guns on school grounds, so the idea isnt new. Nevertheless, his proposal, made a few days after the mass shooting at a high school in Parkland, Fla. , would be a radical change for the vast majority of schools.

Interest in the idea is picking up in a few locations: Key committees in the Florida Legislature just approved a $67 million school marshal program to train and arm teachers and give them bonuses at districts discretion. And on Monday, a Kentucky district voted to begin crafting a policy to allow educators to carry firearms . Trump himself said decisions on this front should be up to the states.

One statistic to keep in mind: In 2015, the feds estimated there were about 3.6 million full-time elementary and secondary school teachersout of those, about 3.1 million were in public schools. Arm 20 percent of them, and thats about 720,000 teachers carrying guns on campus. Thats excluding administrators and other school employees.

1) Changes to State Laws

This could be the most important item on this list. The federal Gun-Free School Zones Act allows states to authorize certain individuals to carry firearms on school grounds. Since at least 2016, Trump has said he wants to scrap the Gun-Free School Zones Act. Hes argued that it merely turns schools into bait for school shooters. But if he truly wants to leave these decisions up to states, as he indicated, its not clear that he and Congress would need to push such an appeal.

Still, any national effort to ramp up the number of armed educators wouldnt look comprehensive if a large number of states refused to sign on. Even if the federal law went in the trash, states could pass their own laws prohibiting the practice. Some states are creating a States for Gun Safety coalition that includes states in the Northeast like Massachusetts and New York. The coalitions mission is to track and intercept illegal guns, although gun-control advocates in those places are calling on more pro-active gun control measures.



The Texas Association of School Boards has a primer on how districts there can handle providing school staff with gunsTexas law allows designated school employees (called school marshals like the Florida proposal) to carry firearms under certain circumstances.

2) Selecting Staff Members to Carry Firearms

Districts would have to think carefully about how to select school employees who would carry firearms, statistical ratios for how many educators are armed, whether administrators would be armed, and so on. The Texas primer says that if a school employee who is authorized to carry a handgun has regular, direct contact with students, that employee must keep the firearm in a locked and secure safe on school grounds and within immediate reach. Such an employee cant regularly carry the gun on his or her person. Districts would also have to ensure educators pass background checks.

Another question to consider: How would a state or district respond if no one at a particular school wanted to carry a firearm on school grounds? The prospect of forcing a teacher to carry a concealed firearm or to keep a gun on his or her classroom could present all kinds of legal and ethical problems.

Districts would also need to decide if hiring decisions for school employees would be impacted by the potential hires willingness or ability to carry a firearm. Could there be claims of discrimination if only certain types of school employees are selected to carry firearms? And in districts where teacher turnover is a big challenge, finding educators to replace those who had been armed could be a big headache.

3) Money for Firearms and Related Equipment

 You can buy a handgun for just a few hundred dollars. But districts could get into trouble if they arm their teachers in the name of protecting children, only to get cheap and not particularly reliable handguns, said Mac Hardy, the director of operations at the National Association of School Resource Officers. A high-quality, name-brand, semi-automatic pistol or other type of handgun could run anywhere from $500 to $1,200, he said. And not all teachers might feel comfortable with the same firearm. The Texas school boards association primer notes districts will have to decide if they let armed school employees use their own weapons for school security.

 There would also be the cost of ammunition and holsters for when educators would carry them. In particular, districts would have to be mindful of what kind of ammunition they would provide.

 Then there are gun safes for staff members who dont carry their guns at all times. Teachers and other staff also might want to or be required to leave their guns when they go home for the day, or in other situations. Biometric safes would likely be best, Hardy said, since they remove the need for fumbling with a key in high-pressure situations. And since requiring all teachers to run to just one gun safe in the middle of an incident could lead to a protracted and lethal delay, each school staff member authorized to carry a firearm might require a gun safe.

Heres a general point about costs: In states or districts where there is a big strain on education spending or recent cuts in K-12 aid, the idea of diverting already stretched resources to these and other costs could be a very tough sell.

4) Money for Training

Trump said he wants school staff whove already been trained with firearms to be armed at school, not just any teacher. In theory, that could reduce or eliminate the costs of training educators in firearms.

However, Hardys association pointed out soon after the Parkland, Fla., mass shooting that maintaining ones skill with a firearm, even if one has a decent amount of prior experience with guns, is very important. At minimum, a person wishing to remain proficient with a gun would need monthly training sessions and a handful of tests a year to gauge marksmanship, Hardy said. That adds to the potential costs for any one school or district, as well as the time it would take to keep up a program to arm educators. (More on that below.)

Youre in a crowded environment with a lot of moving pieces in that school, Hardy said. Youre responsible for whatever comes out of that weapon. Its not a video game.

Separate from the state requirements for getting a license to carry a handgun, the Texas school marshals program requires a psychological exam and 80 hours of training on various issues, including:

 strategies for preventing school shootings and securing potential victims of school shootings,

 effective law enforcement strategies and techniques, and

 proficiency with a handgun.

5) Money for Bonuses

Trump floated the idea that teachers could get some kind of additional compensation for carrying firearms at school and being willing to protect students. States or districts would need to work out just how much bonus pay a teacher would get for taking on this extra responsibility, although those sorts of negotiations could get very tricky very quickly. For example, how would merit pay for carrying a firearm compare to merit pay for strong student performance on tests?

A 2017 University of Vanderbilt analysis noted that various types of teacher bonuses, gifts, and permanent pay increases based on merit in recent years have ranged from $20 to $20,000 (page 20). Again, theres that issue of schools were dollars are already scarce, and how school communities might react to some of those dollars being redirected to this kind of merit pay.

6) Accounting for New Liability

Consider these nightmare scenarios:

A student accidentally finds or steals a teachers forgotten firearm and uses it. A teacher accidentally discharges his or her firearm. A teacher uses a firearm deliberately but inappropriately. Someone breaks into a school and steals teachers firearms. A teacher uses his or her firearm during an active-shooter incident, but accidentally shoots a student, another teacher, a police officer whos rushed to the scene, or some other innocent bystander. Case in point: In Utah, a teacher dropped a loaded gun, which went off and hit a toilet, which exploded and injured the teacher .



Any such incident could add to a districts insurance costs for having a not-insignificant share of teachers and other school staff carry firearms. Individuals and institutions can be indemnified from liability to a certain extent, but the insurance costs for districts could easily rise steeply in a situation where educators are armed. How, for example, would districts treat teachers who carry their own guns to school differently from those who use a weapon bought for them by the district?

You might need a whole restructuring of the legal framework to place a school employee in that role as a law enforcement officer, said Francisco Negron, the general counsel of the National School Boards Association. God forbid if theres a tragedy. Who is responsible for that? Is it the teacher if they were acting in good faith? Is it the school district?

7) Accounting for Lawsuits

This is connected to the section above about liability. If theres some sort of an accident or other unintended consequence of having firearms in any particular school or school district, that could result in a complex and ultimately costly lawsuit. But in the current legal and political climate, other legal challenges could pop up. For example, what if a parent or advocacy group challenges a district or state policy that allows educators to carry guns?

Related: Our colleague Mark Walsh wrote about the legal ramifications facing Broward County schools after the shootings earlier this month.

8) Changing Collective-Bargaining Agreements

This is potentially connected to the sections about merit pay and training. Asking teachers or other school staff to engage in additional activities like training thats related to their work might run afoul of their labor contracts.

Districts might find it difficult to negotiate with some collective-bargaining units to amend those contracts in order to accomodate the goal of arming some educators. American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten has already made it clear she thinks the idea of arming educators is bad .

Thomas Gentzel, the National School Boards Associations executive director and CEO, didnt say his group was completely opposed to the idea of arming educators. But Gentzel did say, ""We hire educators to educate children. And that should be their focus. Most educators are not qualified to use a firearm.

9) Involving Students, Parents, and Others

The Texas school boards group says that districts must tell an inquiring parent if anyone working at his or her childs school is authorized to carry a weapon as a school marshal. However, Lone Star State districts are barred from identifying any such school employee.

More broadly, districts would have to decide how to consider public input about the pros and cons of arming educators before making any decisions. What if parents made it clear they didnt want the policy but district officials decided to go ahead anyway? With school safety and gun control once again at the center of divisive political debates, reaching quick and easy decisions on this issue with little public input might not be so simple. In addition, a communitys police department or law enforcement agency might express opposition to the idea. Hardys association opposes calls to arm teachers.



10) Public Disclosures

Beyond getting community input and providing limited information to parents, districts would have to consider what information they legally could and could not disclose to the press and the general public, from their general emergency-operations strategies for dealing with active shooters and other dangerous situations, to what they will reveal about actual incidents. In Arkansas, for example, school safety plans are exempt from open-records laws.



School officials would have to balance the publics desire to know particulars about a districts approach to security, protocols for use and storage of firearms, and other policies with the desire to protect teachers and others who might carry guns at school. In Texas, a parents right to know details about a schools security plans generally does not exceed the general publics right to know that information, the school boards association noted. Could schools effectively classify such controversial information like the federal government does for national security reasons?

11) States and Districts Would Need More Than a New Law

If a state took Trumps idea and ran with it, lawmakers would have to do more than pass a law. State policmakers would then have to write regulations for that law.



Then districts would have to write their own policies and plans for the use of deadly force in schools during an active-shooter or other dangerous situation. The Texas school boards group says districts should also coordinate with local law enforcement to ensure that police officers are aware of schools where educators may be armed.

12) Who Could Opt Out?

Just as certain districts in one state might decide that arming teachers is right for them, certain districts in the same state might decide not to arm any teachers at all. Districts might obviously object to being forced by a new state law to arm school staff, although a state mandate for districts to train and arm educators might not be a popular route.

But heres a potentially thornier question: What if a district adopted a policy for arming educators, but a particular school decided, for reasons related to the schools location or other environmental factors, that arming teachers is the wrong move? Could a school win a carve-out from the policy, or would it be forced to go to court? Could a school board work out accomodations with individual schools?

Made it this far? Check out our Education Week colleague Kavitha Cardozas exploration of arming teachers:

Photo: President Donald Trump speaks as he hosts a listening session about school violence with high school students, teachers and parents in the State Dining Room of the White House in Washington on Feb. 21. (Carolyn Kaster/AP)

Follow us on Twitter at @PoliticsK12 .During the MCC meeting here on Wednesday, Opposition members of the Mangaluru City Corporation (MCC) accused Mangaluru South MLA J R Lobo of flouting rules and regulations in the allotment of Ashraya houses.



Opposition members Premanand Shetty, Sudhir Kannur and Roopa Bangera raised the issue for allotment of houses to beneficiaries under Ashraya housing scheme. A total of 1,100 beneficiaries were selected initially towards the allocation of houses at Ashraya house complex in Shaktinagar but 170 names were dropped in the final list. The Opposition members accused Mangaluru South MLA of flouting regulations while making the allocation of houses. The council meeting was marred by a war of words between the Opposition and ruling party members. Alleging foul play, Opposition members conducted a protest in the well of the house.

Commissioner Mohammed Nazir clarified that 170 applications were kept pending in the wake of objections. The names of beneficiaries are not scrapped. Rajiv Gandhi Housing Corporation has given an in-principle approval towards the release of Rs 7.5 crore towards basic infrastructure. Under the housing scheme, the state government has approved the construction of 792 houses in Mangaluru North. The detailed project report of a housing project comprising 1,070 houses in Vamanjoor is in the making. The Opposition members sought to know the source of expenditure towards the construction of Clock Tower in Hampankatta. The Mayor said that the project is added in the list of projects to be taken up under Smart City project for the time being, along with other modernisation works in Hampankatta area. The agenda will be placed before the smart city meeting to be conducted in Bengaluru. If the proposal does not get an approval under the smart city project, then the same will be carried out with MCC funds. The clock tower will be built at a cost of Rs 90 lakh. Council members Deepak Kumar, Mahabala Marla and others complained that the members are being kept in the dark regarding the development of smart city projects.

Complaining about the lack of response by officials towards the civic issues in their respective wards, corporators Jayanti Achar and Abdul Latif, staged a dharna in the well of the council. Opposition member Vijay Kumar Shetty accused the Mayor of keeping the files pending for a long time before clearing the bills. However, the Mayor denied the allegation.

On her last MCC council meeting as the Mayor, Kavitha Sanil thanked the members of the council, MCC officials and the general public for their cooperation. Deputy Mayor Rajanish was present.In November 2017, the government rejoiced over India figuring in the list of top 100 countries in the World Bank's 'Ease of Doing Business' ranking. At the Davos World Economic Forum meeting in January 2018, the Environment Performance Index (EPI) was released. As expected, the Government of India is silent on the report.



The reasons are not difficult to fathom: the EPI, which is published by researchers at Yale and Columbia University in collaboration with the World Economic Forum, has ranked India at the bottom of the index, with a ranking of 177 out of 180 countries. India's low scores are influenced by poor performance in the 'Environmental Health' policy objective, where it is ranked the worst in the world, at rank 180.

According to the report, deaths attributed to particulate matter PM2.5 have risen over the past decade and are estimated at over 16.6 lakh annually, as per the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation. It needs to be highlighted that India's position has been sliding over the last few years: in 2016, it was ranked 141 out of 178 countries.

India may share a platform with BRICS and ASEAN nations, but the fact is that none of the other BRICS or ASEAN countries share a platform with India when it comes to environmental performance. India shares its rank with countries such as Burundi, Central African Republic, Congo, Lesotho, Madagascar, Niger, Haiti, and Angola. The only Asian countries in the list of worst performers, along with India, are Nepal and Bangladesh.

Not enough

The EPI is a reminder that improved sanitation and focus on providing toilets is a good initiative but does not guarantee a cleaner environment. Bangladesh, which is a 'open defecation-free' country, is ranked much higher than India in EPI in terms of sanitation; yet, in terms of its overall environmental performance, it is ranked one below India at 178.

In addition, increased spending on healthcare is important, but does not address the main reason why a large number of people need medical care. If the government directs its attention to cleaning up its air and water, fewer people would land up in hospitals.

Does India need to act on every international report? The answer may well be 'no'. However, India did act on improving its ranking in Ease of Doing Business. In fact, one of the stated reasons for India's low ranking in the World Bank's Ease of Doing Business index was the difficulty faced by real estate developers in obtaining 'construction permits'.

In December 2016, the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change exempted the application of all environmental laws for the bulk of building and construction projects. This is despite the fact that the building and construction sector is a major consumer of natural resources and accounts for 40% of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.

The notification issued by the MoEF&CC exempting the building and construction sector from the purview of environmental laws specifically stated that it is being done in order to facilitate the 'ease of doing responsible business'.

The notification was struck down by the National Green Tribunal in December 2017. One of the major grounds for declaring the notification illegal was the tribunal's conclusion that 'ease of doing business' cannot override the citizens' Right to Life.

In 2017, in the World Bank's Ease of Doing Business ranking, it is explicitly stated that one of the main reasons for India making it to the top 100 countries for doing business is because of efforts made by India in doing away with a range of 'construction permits'.

Wake-up call

The cause of serious concern is not that India is at the bottom of the EPI list; the cause of concern is that there is virtually no public discussion or debate on the country's low ranking. In the last few years, there has been a lot of discussion on the growing culture of intolerance in the country. Yet, when one looks at environmental issues, what one finds is an exceptional level of tolerance to the alarming levels of pollution and environmental degradation.

As per the EPI report, low scores on the EPI are indicative of the need for national sustainability efforts on a number of fronts, especially cleaning up air quality, protecting biodiversity, and reducing GHG emissions. Unfortunately, what is happening in India is just the opposite.

Unless concrete actions are undertaken to reverse the trend, all indicators point out that India is bound to win the race to the bottom on the EPI ranking when the next report is out in 2020.

The only way we can avoid this is if the prevalent culture of tolerance for environmental mismanagement and governance failure is replaced with intolerance and a collective will to bring about positive change.

(The writer is a New-Delhi based environmental lawyer)Shanthinagar MLA N A Haris on Wednesday visited Mallya Hospital and spoke to doctors on the condition of Vidwath, the victim of a brutal attack by his son Mohammed Nalapad and his friends.



Nalapad - the prime accused - and six of his associates have since been remanded to judicial custody for the assault at a pub on February 17.

When reporters asked about Vidwath's health, the MLA answered curtly: "I'm fine."

When they repeated that they were asking about the victim's condition and not Haris', the MLA sat in his car in silence and left the hospital premises.

Media barred

The media was barred entry into the hospital when Haris was visiting and was seen talking to Vidwath's doctors. It is still unclear if Haris had met Vidwath or members of his family. Chamrajpet MLA Zameer Ahmed also visited the hospital.

Hospital CEO Indru Wadhwani and Dr Anand, who is treating Vidwath, were unavailable for comment.Bescom on Wednesday opened a real-time and automated system that would quickly detect the problem spot and help its staff restore power supply in no time.



The state's first centre for distribution automation system (DAS) was opened at HSR Layout, where it would cover 11kV 120 feeders at the division and would benefit five lakh Bescom consumers.

Designed by the Portuguese company Efacec, DAS can track and assess power flow on real-time through feeders, distribution, direction and centres, which would enable it to identify the precise point where the problem has occurred in power supply and fix it immediately.

Without such a system, the staff would take long to locate and fix the issues, said Rajendra Cholan, managing director, Bangalore Electricity Supply Corporation Limited.

Cholan also added that the energy department is planning to open 11 DAS stations across the city, for which mapping has been done and testing is under way. He also said about 3,130 relay spots have been identified in the city.

Bengaluru is the first city in Karnataka to have DAS, which is funded by Japan International Cooperation Agency (Jica).

Besides quick power restoration, DAS will help optimise existing distribution network, improve reliability of power supply, besides ensuring highest quality of service to the consumers.

Energy Minister D K Shivakumar inaugurated the DAS station and Belaku Bhavan, the new Bescom office complex at KR Circle.Hours after surveying the Lilac fires grim fallout in Del Mar, Michelle Storm took to Facebook.

In the three days since the blaze tore through San Luis Rey Downskilling nearly 50 horses on Dec. 7 and displacing the training facilitys live-in workersDel Mar Racetrack had become a makeshift sanctuary for more than 800 horses and some 200 groomsmen.

The daughter of longtime Rancho Santa Fe residents Sue and Gordy Bartow, Storm had grown up showing quarter horses, attuned from childhood to the bond between horses and the workers who spend their lives caring for them.

So, aisle by aisle, stall by stall, she sought out as many groomsmen as she could find at Del Mar on Dec. 10, her second-hand Spanish and their broken English piecing together a dire cause-and-effect. Most of San Luis Reys workers had been living in trailers or small rooms in close proximity to their equine charges. When San Luis Rey burned, so did their homes and their livelihood.

At Del Mar, they were safe but destitute.

There were guys sleeping on the floor of the barns. There were guys with nothing but flip-flops, Storm recalled recently.

One at a time, she made careful note of what the 32 groomsmen she talked to that day needed. Then she went live on Facebook to deliver a somber rallying cry. While the evacuated horses were being lavished with attention, she explained, their caretakers lacked even the basic essentials, foremost being boots and jeans they needed to get back to work.

Lets figure this out, Storm said as she ended her 10-minute broadcast. Lets help these people, because no one else is. Ive got to do it. Its just what I do.

The video amassed thousands of views. Donations came pouring inthe boots and jeans she called for but also mini-fridges, microwaves, portable closets. She started a Facebook page to document her frequent visits to Del Mar and update followers on the workers ever-changing needs. Over the ensuing month, Storm helped gather around $50,000 worth of equipment and supplies.

I made it my mission to take care of those 32 workers, and we ended up taking care of 100, she said.

In so doing, some of the trainers at Del Mar took notice. Among them was Julie Kronethe first female jockey to win a Triple Crown racewho connected her with Angie Stevens, wife of legendary jockey Gary Stevens. With their guidance, Storm learned that when the fires broke out, the desperate rush to rescue horses left no time to salvage saddles, bridles and other equipmentknown collectively as tack in horseracing parlance.

More than two months later, a dozen trainers still lack the equipment they need. There are racehorses training with borrowed dressage bridles. One of the trainers has had to exercise his four horses one at a time, alternating a single saddle. Another trainers horses survived the fire but were so injured that they cant race for six months.

One thing I learned about the racehorse industry is that trainers dont actually get paid until the race is won, Storm said. Some trainers have really good owners who will write them a check and take care of them. Others not so much. And some of these guys are owner-trainers who are barely getting by. They very much live one race paycheck to the next.

Storms new focus: to raise $13,000enough to provide tack and get a dozen trainers back on their feet.

Angie Stevenss name power and connections have facilitated a flush of donationssaddles and safety vests from Phoenix Performance Gear, helmets from Charles Owen. But with the fire having long faded from public attention, Storm is finding it harder to raise funds, in part due to misconceptions about the economics of horseracing Sport of Kings.

People assume that with horseracing theres tons of money involved, Storm said. San Luis Rey does have some really big trainers, but a lot of them are what you could call your minor leagues, the guys who are just trying to catch a break.

Shes hoping that a new campaign in partnership with photographer Michael Coy will renew the publics interest.

The night of the fire, Coy and his wife evacuated their Bonsall homebarely a mile east of San Luis Reyeventually taking shelter with her parents in Murietta. Coy found their home spared the next morning, but knew there would be so many others in need of help.

He scoured through Facebook in search of people mobilizing, and found Storms video from Dec. 10. Even with a lineage that dates back three centuries in Idaho horse countryI come from a bloodline of cowboys and ranchers, he saidCoy was taken aback to hear that so many trainers and workers were in such dire straits.

Coy offered to create his trademark portraitsmagical dream portraits enhanced by his digital wizardryfor a $150 donation to Storms campaign. Each donor gets a one-hour photo session and a 14 x 11 marquee, more than $1,000 in value.

The first of those portraits, he gave away. Trainer Dan Dunham was with his wife at the inferno, frantically trying to save their 25 horses. Two perished. Their barn was reduced to tinder. Much of their tack melted completely; the rest rendered useless. Moved by their plight, Coy made a portrait of their daughter Maddy in her hunter-jumper outfit.

Michelles passion is amazing, Coy said. But as much as shes been pushing it, most people assume that everything is back to normal, which is not the case. I just want to help out any way I can. As long as it takes.

Long after the swarm of volunteers had gone home, long after the glare of media attention dimmed to nearly nothing, long after other fundraising campaigns cut their checks and packed up, Storm refuses to flag or falter. She still visits Del Mar several times a week to spend time with the groomsmen, trainers and other backside workers.

They call her their angel.

Despite the frustrating downturn in donations, she has no intention of stopping. Even after April 1when San Luis Reys owners have vowed to reopenthe need will remain.

Im just forging ahead, Storm said.

Learn more about Storms fundraising on the Facebook page Project San Luis Downs Grooms & Workers. To arrange a portrait, call Michael Coy at 858-342-9281.Subscriber content preview

Analysts say newcomers' entrepreneurial drive is more critical because the number of newly formed American businesses has declined.



By PAUL WISEMAN

AP Economics Writer

WASHINGTON  From AT&T's Alexander Graham Bell to Google's Sergey Brin, immigrants have long been more likely than native-born Americans to realize the dream of owning their own company.

Immigrants are about twice as likely as natives to start new businesses, says Arnobio Morelix, an analyst at the Kauffman Foundation, which promotes entrepreneurship.





. . .Subscriber content preview

PASCO (AP)  State officials say a Pasco seed company has been fined $20,000 after a pesticide waste spread that potentially exposed people and the environment.

The Tri-City Herald reported Monday that Syngenta Seeds, which has a 40-acre campus, was fined by the Washington State Department of Ecology under a settlement agreement reached this month.





. . .The leader of Colorados largest online charter school resigned following an internal investigation, the latest chapter in the ongoing turmoil at the 3,800-student GOAL Academy.

The investigation into Richard Mestas was over a personnel matter and did not yield any allegations or evidence of criminal conduct, financial improprieties, or violations of the schools charter contract, said Dustin Sparks, a lawyer representing the school.

Details as to the nature of the investigation and its findings are confidential and protected by attorney-client privilege, Sparks said.

GOAL Academy was the subject of an award-winning 2016 Education Week investigation that found evidence of widespread financial mismanagement and academic failure. GOALs founder and former CEO, Ken Crowell, helped steer more than $5 million in taxpayer money for the school to his own for-profit management company. A program called FAST and Furious allowed students to gain a years worth of credit for a weeks worth of work. And while students were expected to work mostly online, at their own pace, Education Week found that just 1 in 4 students logged in to the schools learning software on a typical day.

Crowell resigned in 2015, and the school subsequently severed all ties with his management company, the Summit Education Group.

The Rocky Mountain Digital Academya second online charter founded by Crowell and operated by Summit, that made extensive use of GOALs curriculum, drop-in centers, record-keeping systems, and morehas also since closed.

And Sparks said the schools FAST program has been eliminated.

Mestas has been involved with GOAL Academy since its founding a decade ago. He served as the schools chief academic officer under Crowell. He was named acting executive director in July 2016. After being named the sole finalist for the permanent job, Mestas was made permanent CEO last February.

Mestas did not respond to a request for comment.

Nor did GOAL Academys authorizer, Colorados Falcon District 49, which has earned around $1 million in administrative and oversight fees from the school.

Sparks said GOALs board expects to appoint an new interim director within two weeks, then begin a search for a long-term permanent director.

The schools six executive officersfor strategy and innovation, business operations, learning and engagement, finances, human resources, and information technologywill run the school in the meantime.

None were implicated or involved in the boards internal investigation of Mestas, according to Sparks.

See also:

for the latest news on ed-tech policies, practices, and trends.Maldives government under President Abdulla Yameen has opted to reject India's invitation to the nation of islands to participate in a biennial multilateral naval exercise in the Indian Ocean, beginning on 6 March even as it said military ties with India remained intact. The Yameen government, which is in the throes of an internal political crisis, has refused India's invitation amidst fears of Indian intervention to restore rule of law in the Indian Ocean nation. "We have invited Maldives, but they declined it. They did not give any reasons but I think it is due to the current situation there," Indian Navy Chief Adm Sunil Lanba told journalists on the sidelines of an Indo-Pacific Maritime Dialogue jointly organized by the Indian Navy and National Maritime Foundation. Maldivian ambassador to India Ahmed Mohamed on Tuesday, however, said his country declined India's invitation to participate in a naval exercise due to the emergency situation in his country. However, he asserted that the two nations enjoy a history of excellent defence and military cooperation, a tradition which they are confident will long endure. The Ambassador's remarks are seen as an attempt to assuage feelings of an apparent snub to New Delhi which has been critical of the Yameen government in view of the emergency in the island nation. "I would like to clarify that Maldives is unable to participate in the naval exercise during this time due to current circumstances of a state of emergency being in effect for those under investigation for serious crimes. During such a time, security personnel are expected to be at a heightened stance of readiness," Mohamed said. "When situations warrant that officers be at their post, back at home, we have held back on deploying them to participate in exercises and training programmes held overseas, and as such, not being able to participate in the naval exercise at this time is not extraordinary," he added. Maladives' ties with India nosedived after Maldivian President Abdulla Yameen declared emergency on 5 February after the Supreme Court ordered release of opposition leaders from prison. Meanwhile, reports emerged that one of the ministers of the Yameen government left the government amid the ongoing political crisis, shortly after the island nation rejected India's invitation. Maldives state health minister Dunya Maumoon, who is the niece of President Abdulla Yameen, on Tuesday resigned from the cabinet after the arrest of her father. Maumoon appealed the international community to support the Maldivian people in overcoming the political crisis that has engulfed the island nation. Dunya's father, former President of the Maldives Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, and brother Ahmed Faaris Maumoon were arrested on charges of trying to topple the Yameen government. Dunya has been under opposition fire for working with the government while her father and brother are in police custody. "I have refused to be bullied by different political forces and I remain strong and stand by my convictions," she said in her resignation letter. Meanwhile, the Maldivian opposition said on Tuesday that it had hired a former UN rights rapporteur to push the global body to intervene in the ongoing political crisis. The opposition alliance said that they had enlisted British lawyer Ben Emmerson to advise them on securing UN mediation in the crisis. The alliance includes the parties of former Presidents Mohamed Nasheed and Maumoon Abdul Gayoom. Emmerson served as a UN special rapporteur until last year and is also a member of Nasheed's pro-bono international legal team. On February 20, the Maldives Parliament had approved the extension of the state of emergency by 30 days, a day after President Abdulla Yameen sought the extension. The opposition leaders had boycotted the session and called the extension illegal and unconstitutional. The Maldives is facing political unrest since President Yameen imposed emergency after refusing to implement a Supreme Court order for freeing imprisoned opposition leaders. On February 2, the Maldivian Supreme Court had acquitted former Maldivian President Mohamed Nasheed and former Maldivian Vice-President Ahmed Adeeb and ordered the reinstatement of 12 other parliamentary members. Former Maldivian President Mohamed Nasheed on Tuesday claimed that over 50 Maldives "National Defence Force (MNDF) and Police Officers" have been detained by the loyalists of President Abdulla Yameen. Yameen loyalists have detained more than 50 MNDF and Police Officers. Some being detained in their barracks incommunicado; while senior SO police held in Dhoonidhoo. This is worrying. They must be freed. The MILAM naval exercise comes after Chinese warships were reported headed for Maldives. Last week, a Chinese warship flotilla had entered the Indian Ocean, and was reportedly heading for the Maldives, but later turned around and returned to the South China Sea. Indian Navy sources said that while a Chinese flotilla, which included a destroyer and a frigate, had indeed crossed into the Indian Ocean through the Sunda Strait, it had turned around and returned to the South China Sea through the Lombok Strait. The Indian Navy was maintaining a heavy presence of warships in the Arabian Sea, including many close to the Maldives, as of early last week.







Saudi Arabia replaced its military chief of staff and other top defence personnel including and the heads of ground and air forces early on Tuesday morning in a shake-up apparently aimed at overhauling its defence ministry amid the stalemate in the war in Yemen. Tamadhir bint Yosif al-Rammah The kingdom also announced a new female deputy minister of labour and social development, putting a woman in a position of authority for the first time as it tries to broaden the role of women in the workplace. No reason was given for the changes, which were announced in a series of late-night royal decrees approved by King Salman on Monday and carried by the state-run Saudi Press Agency. Several civilian officials, including deputy ministers, were also replaced. King Salman ''approved the document on developing the Ministry of Defence, including the vision and strategy of the Ministry's developing programme, the operational pattern targeting its development, the organisational structure, governance and human resources requirements,'' one statement said. Chief among the changes was the firing of military chief of staff Gen. Abdulrahman bin Saleh al-Bunyan. Another announcement said the General would become a consultant to the royal court. Gen Al-Bunyan was replaced by Gen. Fayyadh bin Hamid al-Rwaili, who once had been the commander of the Royal Saudi Air Force, among the nation's premier military forces. The decisions come as the Saudi-led coalition, chiefly backed by the United Arab Emirates, remains mired in a stalemate in Yemen, the Arab world's poorest country. Over 10,000 people have been killed in the war in which Saudi-led forces back Yemen's internationally recognised government against Shia rebels and their allies who are holding the country's capital. The Saudi military heads a coalition that has been struggling for almost three years to regain control of Yemen from the rebel fighters with ties to Iran. That intervention is part of a more assertive regional policy pursued by Salman since he ascended to the throne three years ago. Saudi-backed forces in Syria have largely been defeated by President Bashar al-Assad's army, supported by Russia and Iran. In Yemen, the Saudis intervened in March 2015 to restore the internationally recognised government and roll back advances by the Houthi rebels, who'd taken control of the capital, Sana'a, and other cities. The conflict has been described by United Nations officials as among the world's worst humanitarian crises. The king and his son, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, known as MBS, have also sought to tighten their grip at home - consolidating powers that were once shared out among an extended royal family. Senior princes and prominent businessmen were arrested in November as part of an anti-corruption campaign. A new generation of bureaucrats close to the crown prince have been installed in senior posts. The kingdom faces wide international criticism for its airstrikes killing civilians and striking markets, hospitals and other civilian targets. Aid groups also blame a Saudi-led blockade of Yemen for pushing the country to the brink of famine. Crown Prince Salman is the Saudi defence minister and architect of the Yemen war. While the crown prince has burnished his reputation abroad with promises of business-friendly reforms and other pledges, his role in Yemen haunts that carefully considered public personae. The appointment of a woman in a ministerial position, Tamadhir bint Yosif al-Rammah, comes as the kingdom prepares to allow women to drive this year and pushes to have more women in Saudi workplaces. Also appointed was Prince Turki bin Talal Al Saud as deputy governor of the Asir region. The Prince's brother is billionaire Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, who recently was detained for months at the Ritz-Carlton in Riyadh as part of what the government described as an anti-corruption campaign.







King Penguins' habitat threatened by global warming: study

Failure to cut greenhouse gas emissions to address climate change, by the end of the century, could see 70 per cent of king penguins needing to either find a new home or die, according to new research.

King penguins inhabit islands scattered throughout the Southern Ocean, which surrounds Antarctica.

The birds depend on lanternfish, squids, and krill in the waters circling the continent. They can swim 310 kilometres into the waters for their food.

However, according to projections of climate models this food belt will move closer and closer to the South Pole, forcing the penguins to swim farther to catch their meals and by 2100, the penguins are expected to migrate to other islands or as many as 70 per cent of them could disappear, according to a study published yesterday in Nature Climate Change.

''Wow,'' says Michelle LaRue, a research ecologist at the University of Minnesota, who was not part of the study. ''That's not something I would have expected,'' The Verge reported.

Unlike their closest relatives, the emperor penguin, king penguins do not live on sea ice, rather they only live on ice-free islands. In a warming world, therefore, one would expect penguins that do not need ice to breed to fare just fine, LaRue told The Verge.

"The species may disappear," study co-author Celine Le Bohec, a scientist at the University of Strasbourg, told Agence France Presse.

The king penguin is among several threatened species of penguins in Antarctica. Earlier studies had revealed that other species, such as the emperor, Adelie and chinstrap are also in danger of extinction or severe population loss due to climate change.

What is also a greater problem is that the penguins cannot move with the fish. "The main issue is that there are only a handful of islands in the Southern Ocean and not all of them are suitable to sustain large breeding colonies," said study co-author Robin Cristofari, also of the University of Strasbourg.Defending the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India's (Trai) latest orders on predatory pricing, the authority's chairman R S Sharma said that any company or entity that thinks the orders are not fair is free to go to court. ''We have no reservations or objections if someone wants to challenge Trai's order in court. After all, that is the right place and the right forum to do so,'' R S Sharma told sections of the media on the sidelines of the Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona on Tuesday. Questioned about the statement by the Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) that TRAI's latest order on predatory pricing was against the industry and would be challenged in court, Sharma said he would welcome such a move by the industry body. ''I don't want to get into the controversy itself. They (COAI) have gone to court earlier also alleging that Trai was biased in favour of one operator (new entrant Reliance Jio Infocom). They had gone to court and lost,'' Sharma said. On Monday, Vodafone global chief executive officer Vitorio Colao said that the latest TRAI order on predatory pricing supports only one company, Reliance Jio, and that Vodafone would challenge the Trai order in court. Sharma said Trai was doing everything it can for ease of doing business and had adopted a light-touch approach. ''The Trai regulation (on predatory pricing) is absolutely clear,'' Sharma said. Sharma responded to say that everybody has the right to go to court. The latest tussle between Jio and the older 'incumbents' is Trai's recently amended tariff order that says predatory pricing will in future be determined on the basis of average variable cost and whether there is specific intention on the part of a carrier to reduce or kill competition. It has also modified the definition of significant market power (SMP) - which a telco should have for any of its plans to be deemed predatory - to an operator with more than a 30 per cent share by either subscriber base or gross revenue. Earlier, the SMP parameters included volume of traffic, including data, and switching capacity, which have been dropped in the amended regulation. Both Vodafone and COAI have suggested they may challenge the order in court. While Jio is a member of COAI, it is seen as mostly representing the older 'incumbents' Bharti Airtel, Vodafone and Idea Cellular. Asked about the discussions around 5G, Sharma said TRAI would come out with its recommendations in the next month or two. ''We have already come out with key recommendations related to 5G like M2M (machine to machine), cloud computing and IoT (internet of things). So, the basic pieces of 5G infrastructure have been addressed by TRAI,'' he said. ''We have completed the open house discussion on spectrum auction, including 5G, and will come out with the recommendations in one to two months,'' he added. On net neutrality, Sharma said there is all-round praise for India from global regulators such as the Body of European Regulators for Electronic Communications (BEREC) and ARCEP, France's equivalent of the Federal Communications Commission in the US.







Nearly 80 percent of educators report having students who have experienced emotional or behavioral problems because they are concerned about immigration enforcement, according to a new national survey from the Civil Rights Project at the University of California, Los Angeles.

Overall, 84 percent of educators who participated in the survey said they have students who are concerned about immigration enforcement, with 36 percent of them reporting that students felt nearly overwhelmed by fear and worry.

From the effort to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program to President Donald Trumps call to strip federal funding from sanctuary cities that shield undocumented immigrants, the effects of the Trump administrations immigration policies have been widespread in schools across the country, the survey participants reported.

More than half of the survey participants reported a decline in student academic performance. Teachers, principals, counselors, psychologists, and paraprofessionals shared stories of students who are anxious, depressed, distracted, and missing school more often because of fears that either they or relatives will be deported or detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents. The survey work was led by Patricia Gandara, a UCLA professor and co-director of the Civil Rights Project and postdoctoral researcher Jongyeon Ee.

Pressure on immigrant students isnt only coming from outside of their schools; 36 percent of the surveys participants reported an increase in physical or verbal bullying related to the perceived immigration students or their parents.

It is painfully evident that as long [as] the parents and family members of immigrant students are losing their jobs and living in fear, the students and their schools will continue to bear the brunt of these policies, Gandara and Ee wrote.

The students, the great majority who are U.S. citizens, will continue to be distracted in class, miss school when there are fears of raids of a parent is deported, and even give up on their educations, seeing few possibilities for their future. This is the result of unintended consequences of an immigration enforcement policy that did not consider how it might affect the nations most vulnerable schools.

Educators from 24 school districts in 12 statesArizona, California, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Nebraska, New Jersey, Oregon, Tennessee and Texas participated in the 14-question survey, which was administered online between late October and mid-January. About 5,450 people responded to the survey, with 3,500 of them completing all the questions.

Heres a look at the results:

Immigration Enforcement on Schools by corey_c_mitchell on Scribd

Photo Credit: Diego Rios, 23, of Rockville, Md., rallies in support of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, known as DACA, outside of the White House last September.--Jacquelyn Martin/AP

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With Rollback of DACA, Dreamers in U.S. Schools Prepare for a FightWeve all read the stories about people running their businesses from far-flung places or from a beach, but the reality is that most small businesses in Australia today still operate from a physical location or office, for a minimum of 5 days a week.

For most businesses that means staff having to show up day in, day out, to sell products or services from a shop or restaurant for example. But for others, like me, I chose to adopt a remote working model, where we sell our software testing expertise from any location we choose to work from. Technology of course makes this possible, but I wanted to share my learnings here for others thinking about adopting a remote working model and my tips about how to do it successfully:

1. Regular communication is important

Regardless of where we are, the Bugwolf team connect every morning via video call for a short update. We meet face-to-face on a weekly basis to discuss priorities, wins and challenges. We could not make this happen without a great set of software tools. We use Slack, Zoom, Google Docs and Trello boards to make this happen.

2. You need to hire right for a remote team

Were not necessarily restricted to recruiting in Melbourne. For instance, our quality director is based in Sydney. It means we can find higher quality candidates faster, no matter their geography. The team unanimously agree that were more productive working in our own space, where each person can get on with it without the interruptions common in a traditional office environment.

To fit our culture, we interview to identify motivated self-starters. Successful candidates must be comfortable working remotely, embrace constant change and lead by example to name a few qualities. Our team have many years of experience working on large and small-scale projects. They value the freedom to work remotely, reduce their daily commute, have more time to be hands on with their families or to indulge in other passions without compromising their career aspirations.

Hiring highly-skilled people and empowering them to get on with it requires trust, but is important as competition for top talent is now ferocious. Being able to offer remote work is an attractive benefit that allows us to stay competitive and differentiate our company against most others in the market. Tech recruiter Affix has also been pivotal to success, promoting our offering to potential candidates who might not have considered the benefits of joining a remote team.

3. Enabling people to work from anywhere boosts retention

Many of our team members have been working remotely for several years now. They see it as an attractive part of their role and benefits package, which has a positive effect on retention. The future of work is going to be much more specialised, flexible and freelance dominant. Were demonstrating how you can unchain your staff from their desks, reduce costs, significantly increase productivity and boost morale without compromising on excellent delivery and customer support.

4. By reducing fixed costs you can invest more in your people

Were a bootstrapped startup, so were all about staying lean. If we can reduce fixed costs by eliminating things like rent and increase performance, we embrace it. As a hungry, growth-oriented startup, the last thing we want to do is be locked into a five-year lease of a premise that well outgrow in 18 months. By reducing those fixed costs, you can provide financial incentives to your team, such as bonuses at the end of the financial year or at the end of a successful project. Managing a remote workforce makes a lot of financial sense  especially in the early days of starting a business.

If youre thinking about setting up a business to work remotely, give it a go. What have you got to lose?

About the author

Ash Conway is the founder and CEO of Bugwolf, an SaaS-based platform to user-test applications, websites, and products across multiple platforms and devices. Ash has 20 years of international business development experience, 11 years of that building tech companies, working with startups through to acquisitions and generating sales as high as $150 million. He has extensive experience leading software and sales teams, and was an award-winning designer early in his career.We will work with Turkey: Venezuela

Venezuelas Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza Montserrat said that they will work with Turkey, Russia and China to find new mechanisms.

Venezuela's Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza Montserrat attended a news conference during the Human Rights Council at the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland on Tuesday.

Montserrat said that US sanctions against the ailing oil nation are making foreign debt renegotiation more difficult and causing panic at global banks.

According to Arreaza, global banks have opted to close accounts belonging to the government, business people and embassies.He added that some US companies were unable to pay for Venezuelan oil.

Its incredible how global banks have reacted with panic. If a bank somewhere in the world works with Venezuela, they feel they are going to be sanctioned. Montserrat said. If the international financial system blocks Venezuela, we are working with Turkey, Russia and China to find new mechanisms.Grey's Anatomy actor Eric Dane is finally breaking his silence on his wife Rebecca Gayheart's decision to file for divorce.

It seemed that he is willing to let his wife go, as per the court papers obtained by People. Dane echoed Gayheart's sentiments, including joint custody of the kids and wishing to have their marriage terminated. With this, the actor offered to provide financial support.

Jawbreaker star Gayheart shocked the world when she filed for divorce this February, putting to a halt their 14 years of being husband and wife. They exchanged vows in August 2004.

"We will continue our friendship and work as a team to co-parent our two beautiful girls as they are the most important thing in the world to us," Dane said, whose children with Gayheart are Billie and Georgia.

He requested people to respect their family's privacy as they try to figure things out. Meanwhile, 14 years is no joke and it certainly did not come easy for Dane and Gayheart.

Bittersweet Journey

Just a couple of years of being married, a clip showing Gayheart, Dane, and another woman was released into the public. The actor also made headlines in 2011 after entering rehab for his alleged addiction to pain relievers prescripted for an injury.

"We've all made mistakes. My one regret is that I got the person I love most wrapped up in all that: Rebecca," Dane revealed.

Just last year, Dane had to battle depression, which meant he had to leave his character Tom Chandler in the TNT show The Last Ship.

But it seemed that the couple had lost their spark after Dane responded to Gayheart's petition for divorce. He also cited irreconcilable differences.

Gayheart, for her part, had become elusive with sharing to the world her struggles. She took to Instagram to thank all those that had sent well wishes and expressed support in this trying time. She also posted a quote, saying "Calm is a superpower," and wrote that staying unperturbed amid chaos is not an easy feat but would be worthy.

Mystery Woman

Meanwhile, TMZ noted that Dane was spotted with an unidentified woman early this year. The photo showed the actor in sunglasses, sporting a leather jacket and a white V-neck shirt underneath. He obviously was aware of the paparazzi, judging the way he waved to the photographer. The unnamed blonde woman also wore sunglasses and donned a denim jacket.

Whether this has something to do with Dane and Gayheart's decision to file for divorce is still unclear.Did Scheana Marie really hook up with Summer House star Carl Radke? There have been a few different reports.

During an episode of Watch What Happens Live, Radke spoke to host Andy Cohen about his alleged time with the Vanderpump Rules star and suggested that they had hooked up twice. As some may recall, Kristen Doute, Stassi Schroeder, and Stephen McGee had all said the same thing during previous appearances on the show.

"Scheana and I hooked up, yes," he said, according to a report by The Daily Dish.

"I think what she was upset about is other people talked about it on our behalf," he added.

Both Schroeder and Doute previously said that their Vanderpump Rules co-star had hooked up with Radke, but according to Radke's ex-girlfriend, Lauren Wirkus, Radke was not completely honest about the time he spent with Scheana Marie.

On the Feb. 26 episode of Watch What Happens Live, Wirkus, who also stars on Summer House, spoke out about the issue, stating that Radke did not really have sex with Scheana Marie.

"I'm gonna say one thing right now: He led people on to believe they had sex. They did not. So let's not throw the word 'hookup' lightly," Wirkus explained, adding that Radke only made out with their fellow reality TV star.

"I don't know why we are leading people on, but Carl's good at that," she noted.

After hearing what Wirkus said on the late-night talk show, Scheana Marie took to Twitter.

"Thank you [Lauren Wirkus] for setting the record straight tonight," she tweeted.

As for Radke, he previously confirmed what he meant by "hooked up" after being confronted by Scheana Marie's mother, Erika.

"I never said we had sex. I said we hooked up. Sorry for any confusion. Can we all move on with our lives now?" he asked.

When news first broke in regard to Scheana Marie's alleged hookup with Radke, many fans were caught off-guard due to the fact that the Vanderpump Rules star has been seemingly head over heels for ex-boyfriend Robert Parks-Valletta ever since their breakup in August 2017.

To see more of Scheana Marie, her relationships, and her co-stars, including Lisa Vanderpump, Brittany Cartwright, Jax Taylor, and Stassi Schroeder, don't miss new episodes of the sixth season of Vanderpump Rules on Bravo TV on Monday nights at 9 p.m.President Donald Trump has yet again landed on Stephen Colbert's agenda on Monday after the leader made some eyebrow-raising statements about the Florida school shooting.

Trump's words about the Parkland, Florida, shooting continue to draw mostly flak, and the recent to make his thoughts about these heard is The Late Show host Colbert. The TV personality initially explained he was one to think the president could not possibly have something more shocking to say, but he was totally wrong.

Trump's statement came when he met with governors to talk about the issue, which is the Parkland, Florida, high school shooting. An earlier statement had the leader saying that teachers should be armed. However, this did not sit well with almost everyone.

"You don't know until you're tested, but I really believe I'd run in there even if I didn't have a weapon," Trump said at a White House meeting.

The clip was played in the show, earning a loud jeer from the audience, but Colbert, who was initially left speechless, said he did not believe that Trump could even run, more so the president's valiant statement.

"There's a lot in there that I doubt, but the part I really don't believe is that he can run," Colbert exclaimed.

Doubting Trump's will to actually do what he had just said, Colbert cited the Vietnam deferments.

"You got five deferments from Vietnam. What are you going to do, run in there and stab them with your bone spurs?" Colbert said.

Colbert explained that Trump is living in fantasy, especially that the leader is portraying himself as a hero in his statements.

What It Really Meant

Meanwhile, Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders was not far from being the receiver of Colbert's antics. A clip showed her being asked of Trump's seemingly heroic statement.

According to Sanders, Trump was just saying that he would have become involved in the incident in a bid to save people. Additionally, Colbert played a video of Trump blaming the films and videos available to the children nowadays.

Trump went on to say that the government is looking into putting ratings into movies. However, this was not exactly a new idea, and Colbert targeted the oh-so obvious.

"If you're looking for fresh ideas, that guy, he's your man!" quipped Colbert, drawing laughter from the audience.

Colbert is a known critic of Trump, casually throwing vitriol shadowed with jokes over the latter's statements in his show. Also recently, he lauded students of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School for bravely organizing a march that aims to enforce stricter gun laws.Suzie Hardy, who has accused Ryan Seacrest of sexual harassment and abuse, is not backing down from her allegations against the TV host following his denial.

No Backing Down

Hardy challenged Seacrest's denial and further spoke against the talk show host in a second interview with Variety. The former E! News stylist accused Seacrest of playing the victim of an alleged extortion, which is farther from the truth.

"Ryan elected to take the story public with a false narrative that he was exonerated and the victim of some sort of money grab. He is not the victim, and I refuse to let him victimize me for telling the truth," Hardy said.

In the same interview, Hardy said that she "remained quiet for years" out of fear that no one would believe her story and that she would face ridicule and scorn for telling it. However, she decided to tell her story to NBC and speak her truth after she was "emboldened by the bravery of others" who spoke up against their accusers.

The Allegations

Hardy accused Seacrest of years of sexual abuse in an exclusive interview where she detailed the ordeal she endured during her time working with the TV host. The accuser claimed she suffered years of unwanted sexual aggression from the American Idol host between 2007 and 2013. She remembered he groped her vagina, slapped her buttocks so hard it left an imprint hours later, and worst, he grinded his erect penis against her while he was clad only in his underwear. Hardy claimed the abuse only ended after human resources fired her after she reported his behavior.

Seacrest has since called bluff on the allegations and claimed Hardy only wants his money. She allegedly asked for $15 million in exchange for her silence, although Hardy's lawyers denied such request. The host likewise claimed that he was not given the opportunity to air his side of the story before the accusations became public. However, according to reports, his representative declined to have him interviewed.

Hardy's sexual harassment allegations come ahead of Seacrest's hosting stint at the 2018 Oscars red carpet on Sunday. A source for E! revealed that there is no plan to pull him out of the event despite the scandal he is facing.

"It's live, and celebs can say anything. The plan is to have Ryan only interview celeb friends that he can trust," the source told Radar Online.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There hasnt been so much nervousness over Russian moves in the Middle East for decades. European and American journalists keep reminding us that Moscows activities are the proof of Russias aggressive policies, similar to those in Crimea. Russia has clearly filled in the void created by the vacuum in US policy to maintain its geopolitical influences while maintaining its selective and opportunistic policies. It has, however, neither the resources nor the desire to assume responsibility, other than the limited one in Syria and none at all in Libya.

Western eagerness to promote democracy in the region led to suspicions in and around the Kremlin that Western-funded Russian NGOs might try to bring about a Russian spring, Dmitri Trenin, director of the Carnegie Moscow Centre, explained in his book What is Russia up to in the Middle East. From the very beginning, Russian analysts were skeptical that upheavals in Arab countries would actually lead to democratic transformation as hoped for in the West, Mr. Trenin further writes. They were wary of the possibility of an Islamist winter and felt that many American and European experts were no more than hapless sorcerers apprentices.

Most observers forgot that the first attempt at Arab Spring, which took Algeria by storm between 1988 and 1992, ended in a bloody civil war, which claimed 150,000 lives, thousands of disappeared and made 600,000 people flee the country, mostly to Europe. Russia was also surprised by how little the US did to support Hosni Mubarak in Egypt as well as by the subsequent developments in Libya. NATOs use of force toppled the regime and led to the fragmentation of the Libyan state. This also led to the justified fears of the risk that the looted weapons from Gaddafis vast arsenals would flood over the Sahel belt of Africa. The warnings went unheeded and the fears were materialized as Mali almost collapsed in January 2012.

These developments made Russians draw the conclusion that both Americans and Europeans lacked strategic vision and failed to account for foreseeable consequences of their actions and impact on Syria. Mr. Trenin explains in his book that with US President Barack Obama winning a second term, and Syrian President Assad still in power in Damascus, Moscow was ready for another attempt at a political settlement. However, the Russian suggestion of a Dayton a deux did not persuade the White House who was instead seeking Russias cooperation in dislodging Assad for a fee, such as US consent to Russia keeping its facility in Tartus and continuing to supply arms to the new Syrian regime.

Therefore, there was no agreement and the subsequent moves in Syria were preventive. Russia aimed at preventing a fall of Assads rule and at killing as many as possible of the estimated 7,000 jihadist fighters from Russia and the former Soviet republics to prevent them from returning to their countries of origin. Fighting in Syria also allowed Russia to test and develop its tactical and operational strategies, give large numbers of its officers the high-end war experience, and combat-test more than 150 new weapons systems. Another reason for Russians to be active in Syria was Assads readiness to block the Qatari efforts to build a natural gas pipeline through the country to supply Europe. This would have undermined Russias market power in Europe and thus lessened its leverage over Europe in defending its actions in Ukraine.

Russia has used the Middle East to make a comeback as an important geopolitical player and a capable military actor. The US absence in the region is bringing old enemies together and posing new dangers. As Brussels and Washington watch their influence in the region decline, they will have to pay more attention to Russian actions. Both Western players will have to awake to the new morning and make sense of the developments that are quite different from what was going on in the region at the turn of the century.

The Middle East Helps Russias Comeback as a Global Power  Opinion by Francis Ghiles  Barcelona Centre for International Affairs / CIDOB.

(The Opinion can be downloaded here)PARIS, YOKOHAMA, Japan and TOKYO, February 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --

Alliance Strengthens Communications Leadership

Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi, the world's largest automotive alliance, today announced that Jonathan Adashek has been appointed Alliance Global Vice President, Communications, with immediate effect.

(Logo: http://mma.prnewswire.com/media/556610/Renault_Nissan_Mitsub... )

(Photo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/647779/Renault_Nissan_Mitsu... )

Adashek, who joined Nissan in September 2015 as Global Vice President of Communications and Chief Communications Officer, will be based in Paris and oversee a global communications team.

Adashek will be responsible for communicating the strategy and profile of the Alliance, which last year became the world's largest automotive group as combined sales at Renault, Nissan and Mitsubishi Motors exceeded 10.6 million units.

In his new role, Adashek will also manage communications for Carlos Ghosn, chairman and chief executive officer of the Alliance, and other senior executives.

Additional responsibilities will cover communications activities related to the Alliance 2022 strategic plan, in which the Alliance is targeting increased annual synergies of more than EUR10 billion, up from EUR5 billion in 2016. Additionally, the Alliance is forecasting unit sales of 14 million units by the end of the plan.

Alliance 2022 has a strong technology focus, including the launch of 12 new zero-emission electric vehicles and 40 autonomous vehicles. These activities will include development of the Alliance corporate and technology narrative, internal communications, media relations, social media, events and sponsorships, reputation management and best practices.

In this Alliance role, he will be responsible for coordinating communications between Renault, Nissan and Mitsubishi Motors - working closely with the communications leadership of each company - in order to improve efficiency and jointly create synergies.

Jonathan Adashek

Adashek brings over 20 years of communication and political experience to the Alliance. He joined Nissan in 2015 from Microsoft Corp., where he was the general manager of communications strategy. Before that, he was executive vice president of Edelman Public Relations, where he served as a global client relationship manager. He also has extensive experience in advising government officials in thought leadership, transitional change, and strategy building spanning from the United States Treasury Department to the '04 Kerry-Edwards presidential campaign. He began his career at the White House, in the Office of the Staff Secretary.

ABOUT RENAULT-NISSAN-MITSUBISHI:

Groupe Renault, Nissan Motor and Mitsubishi Motors represent the world's largest automotive alliance. It is the longest-lasting and most productive cross-cultural partnership in the auto industry. Together, the partners sold more than 10.6 million vehicles in nearly 200 countries in 2017. The member companies are focused on collaboration and maximizing synergies to boost competitiveness. They have strategic collaborations with other automotive groups, including Germany's Daimler and China's Dongfeng. This strategic alliance is the industry leader in zero-emission vehicles and is developing the latest advanced technologies, with plans to offer autonomous drive, connectivity features and services on a wide range of affordable vehicles.

http://www.alliance-2022.com

http://www.media.renault.com

http://www.nissan-newsroom.com

http://www.mitsubishi-motors.com/en/newsrelease

https://www.alliance-2022.com/news/alliance-strengthens-comm...

Photo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/647779/Renault_Nissan_Mitsu... http://mma.prnewswire.com/media/556610/Renault_Nissan_Mitsub...

CONTACT: Caroline Sasia, Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi, 28 Feb. (0) - 1-76-84-30-24,+33(0)6-11-30-36-71, caroline.sasia-lallier@alliance-rnm.comAMSTERDAM, February 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --

Debuted at ECR 2018, the newest addition to Philips' digital MR solutions portfolio provides breakthrough in speed, improved patient experience and clinical confidence

Royal Philips [http://www.philips.com ] , a global leader in health technology, today announced the newest addition to its digital Ingenia MR portfolio, the Ingenia Elition, a new 3.0T MRI solution. Integrating the latest innovations in systems, software and services, the Ingenia Elition MR solution offers extraordinary image quality and performs exams up to 50% faster [1], with no compromise in image quality - empowering a faster, smarter and simpler path to confident diagnosis, elevating the patient experience and helping to improve patient care.

(Photo:https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/647079/Philips_Ingenia_Elit... )

(Photo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/647082/Philips_VitalEye.jpg )

(Photo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/647085/MR_exams.jpg )

"As value-based care initiatives challenge healthcare organizations to drive better outcomes, radiology departments are specifically caught between ever-increasing imaging volume demands, while also facing pressure to engage more deeply with both referring physicians and patients," said Arjen Radder, Business Leader MR at Philips. "Philips is responding to these challenges through the development of solutions such as Ingenia Elition to improve image quality and the patient and staff experience, as well as operational efficiency."

Intelligent and patient-friendly MR platform

The Ingenia Elition MR solution delivers patient-centric imaging from patient set-up to the final image. By uniting Philips' unique dStream [https://www.usa.philips.com/healthcare/education-resources/t... ] digital broadband technology with Compressed SENSE [https://www.philips.com.eg/healthcare/product/HCNMRF203A/com... ] [2], and 3D APT [https://www.philips.co.uk/healthcare/product/HCNMRF201/3dapt... ] across its new digital MR portfolio, radiologists have the tools necessary to help solve challenging clinical situations, improve the patient experience and set new directions for clinical research.

Unique patient sensing technology

New patient sensing technology and AI-driven SmartExam analytics for automatic planning, scanning and processing of exams help improve the entire MR workflow, from image acquisition to reading preference. Ingenia Elition's VitalScreen offers operators fully guided patient setup with a newly designed user interface for workflow optimization and VitalEye brings a unique patient sensing approach, enabling respiratory signal without any interaction from the operator. VitalEye technology and algorithms process over two hundred body locations in parallel to intelligently extract signs of breathing - allowing routine exam set-up time to occur in less than a minute, even for less experienced operators.[3]

Philips Ambient Experience and in-bore Connect solution [https://www.usa.philips.com/healthcare/consulting/ambient-ex... ], offering an immersive audio-visual experience to calm patients and guide them through MR exams, further improves the patient experience. A study at Herlev Gentofte University Hospital in Denmark showed that the Ambient Experience in-bore Connect solution helped reduce the number of rescans by up to 70% [4], allowing radiologists to handle more patients per day. The unique combination of innovations that the new Ingenia Elition offers is improving the entire workflow from image acquisition to reading preferences.

All-new Ingenia digital MR portfolio

The Ingenia Elition 3.0T is part of the all-new Ingenia digital MR portfolio and complements the recently introduced Philips Ingenia Prodiva 1.5T MR solution. Philips' new MR portfolio supports radiology departments to enhance productivity, improving the patient and staff experience, while delivering better value-based care through improved patient outcomes at lower costs.

Philips will officially unveil Ingenia Elition and its newest MR innovations, alongside its full suite of solutions for diagnosis and treatment during the 2018 European Congress of Radiology at booth #402 in X4 at the Austria Center in Vienna. For more information about Philips' presence at ECR 2018, including our virtual reality MR experience, visit www.philips.com/ecr [https://www.philips.co.uk/healthcare/about/events-calendar/e... ], and follow @PhilipsLiveFrom for #ECR18 live updates.

About Royal Philips

Royal Philips is a leading health technology company focused on improving people's health and enabling better outcomes across the health continuum from healthy living and prevention, to diagnosis, treatment and home care. Philips leverages advanced technology and deep clinical and consumer insights to deliver integrated solutions. Headquartered in the Netherlands, the company is a leader in diagnostic imaging, image-guided therapy, patient monitoring and health informatics, as well as in consumer health and home care. Philips' health technology portfolio generated 2017 sales of EUR 17.8 billion and employs approximately 74,000 employees with sales and services in more than 100 countries. News about Philips can be found at http://www.philips.com/newscenter.

[1] Using Compressed SENSE technology and compared to exams without Compressed SENSE

[2] 510k pending. Not available for sale in the USA or Canada. Not yet CE marked. Not yet available for delivery.

[3] Based on in house testing.

[4] Results from case studies are not predictive of results in other cases. Results in other cases may vary.

For further information, please contact: Joost Maltha Philips Group Press Office Tel.: +31-6-10-55-8116 E-mail: joost.maltha@philips.com Twitter: @JoostMaltha Danielle Friskes Philips Diagnostic Imaging Telephone: +31-6-54291037 Email: danielle.friskes@philips.com

Photo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/647079/Philips_Ingenia_Elit... https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/647082/Philips_VitalEye.jpg https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/647085/MR_exams.jpgHi all,



I'm a British citizen and my husband Egyptian, he came to the UK on spouse visa in March 2016 and that is due to expire in December of this year. Our relationship has now broken down since finding out my husband has been unfaithful and pursued a relationship with another woman as well as myself. We both still live in the UK but no longer speak to each other and living separately, I am aware that I need to write to the home office with the below information however im struggling with what to actually write in my letter, any guidance would be appreciated.

name

date of birth

address

passport number

Home Office reference number (youll find it on letters sent from the Home Office)





Once I've wrote to the home office am I right in saying that is my bit now done.. from that point can I try to move on with my own life or will I still have a battle on my hands, what happens from this point on?



Any advice would really help.



Thank you.Hi, I'm negotiating with my potential employer for a senior exec position in the UAE, and I was wondering if anyone can recommend a good labor contract lawyer to make sure I don't make any dumb mistakes (and obviously look over the contract).



I'm relatively familiar with contracts in the US, but I'd be fine investing in a couple hours of a specialists time just to give my wife and I comfort, and obviously recommend provisions to add/remove as part of the contract.



Anyone have any lawyers they can recommend?



:tea:Dear Expat,I came to UAE in employment visa after i started working in my company (Non IT company),my management put me in software team as a software developer,because basically i am a software developer I have 2 years experience as software developer in india,but my designation in visa is different from this......So what my query is?If i get job oppurtunity from a software company ,does the designation in my current visa really matters (ie) is there any problem will arise because of my visa designation?Can anyone reply me ,i shall be helped...Hi Mike and welcomeThe internet providers here all offer and promise reliable and fast internet. The reality is that nothing in thePhilippines -including internet- is reliable or dependable. Your neighbor might have good internet speed and you live right next door and using the same ISP and yours hardly works at all. No rime or reason. Customer service with the ISP's here is non existent for the most. Most people that use the internet for work need to have a double hookup with two or more ISP's to help insure you can stay online due to the many even long term outages.The other issue is the lack of reliable electric power. It will pay to have a good quality generator that can run your air conditioning and computer/internet modem. Then just hope your ISP is in an area that has power during these outages.So far as I know these are issues no matter where you live in the country except for the business districts of Manila or living on-base at Subic Bay. The only other option would be to find and subscribe to a satellite internet company that has nothing to do with any company here in the Philippines.If it were me doing what you plan on doing I would head to Subic Bay where life is as close to what we would have in the US and most services are reliable for the most part. Have a look at the Subic Chamber Of Commerce site and you'll have a good idea of what it like there.Another good site for Subic bay can be Found HereHi



Please help i dont know what to do guys. Well here is the background. I am 30 yr old and currently on a Temp relative permit which expires 01/08/2018. I applied for PR on 5Oct 2017 and still waiting for approval. I applied through my Mother who is a permanent resident. My brother is also permanent here.

My mother earns about R18K while my brother is around R25K so used both their bank statements as financial assurance that they can take of me. So these are my questions:

How likely is my application to be approved considering the following:

1. i am older than 18

2. still studying no qualifications just (A level and part 2 ACCA)

3. i was blacklisted on my previous passport



Must i start looking for money to apply for an extension of my relative visa as it will expire 01/08/2018 (i am doing piece jobs so money is not easily available since my current permit doesn't allow me to work) or must i just wait till my PR is approved.When will it come out i need to start looking for proper jobs um getting old



How long does it really take on average to get the PR approved?????

The number of people moving to New Zealand eased slightly in the 12 months to January 2018 with students from India and China down significantly.Annual net migration had reached a record high of 72,400 in July last year, but that has now slowed to 70,100, according to the official data from Statistics New Zealand.The combined number of arrivals on student visas from India and China, New Zealands two largest education markets, fell by 1,000 to 11,100 in the 12 months to January 2018.Those arriving from India to study, and intending to stay in New Zealand for at least a year, fell 10% which is 45% below a recent peak when 10,600 Indian students arrived in the year ending January 2016.Migrant arrivals from China on student visas dropped 6% but the figures show that the fall from these two countries was almost offset by increased numbers from other countries. The overall number arriving on student visas was 24,100 in the January 2018 year, down just 150 from the January 2017 year.Overall migrant arrivals were 132,000 and departures were 61,900 and the figures also show that 24,900 migrants arrived from Australia and a similar number departed for Australia.Over half of migrants arriving from Australia are actually returning Kiwis who have been living across the Tasman for more than a year. The number of migrants going back and forth to Australia in the past year almost balanced each other out and the net gain was just 40 people in the last 12 months, said population insights senior manager Peter Dolan.That means net migrations contribution to New Zealands population growth in the January 2018 year mainly reflected a gain of 70,100 people from other countries around the world.The biggest increase in numbers was from China with a net gain of 9,300 over the year, followed by 6,700 more from India, 6,100 from the UK, 4,900 from South Africa, 4,800 from the Philippines, 3,300 from France and 3,000 from Germany.Official figures also show that for the first time in five years, total overseas visitor arrivals in January were down on the same month a year before, with a big drop from China, as they reached 379,200, down 1,800 from January 2017.However Dolan said this may have been affected by the timing of the Chinese New Year, a peak holiday travel season. It was in late January in 2017 but in the middle of February in 2018. The overall fall in visitor arrivals was driven by a 31% drop in visitors from China. The number fell from more than 54,100 in January 2017 to 37,300 this year. However, rolling weekly provisional figures show arrivals from China are picking up in February 2018, as expected, with the start of the Year of the Dog, Dolan pointed out.The drop in visitors from China in January was mainly offset by increased numbers from most other countries, including the United States, Australia, and the UK. Despite the dip for the month, visitor arrivals for the year ended January 2018 numbered 3.73 million, some 5% above the January 2017 year.Goats will be employed to snack on noxious weeds

By Diego Flammini

News Reporter

Farms.com

The City of Edmonton is taking a unique approach to limiting herbicide applications in a community park.

A herd of goats roamed Rundle Park three times between July and September 2017. They ate noxious weeds, such as Canada thistle, leafy spurge, yellow toadflax. The goal is to reduce the amount of herbicide sprayed in the park.

Goats stomachs are so acidic they destroy seeds and prevent weeds from spreading. They can also digest weeds that could be toxic to other livestock, according to GoatWorks, Edmontons goat-centric weed management strategy.

The City is now on the lookout for a goat coordinator to lead the project for 11 months.

The successful applicant will be responsible for community involvement and monitoring the programs efficacy.

The person will be really involved in creating opportunities for Edmontonians to come and check out our herd, Shannon Wagner, a supervisor with Edmontons Operations, Delivery & Partnerships Program, told CTV yesterday.

Interested applicants must have a degree in horticulture, forestry, parks or a related subject. Experience with vegetation management and a basic knowledge of plant health needs are also assets.

And with a salary ranging from $34 to $43 per hour, the job is nothing to bleat at.

But could goats be a viable option on commercial farm operations?

Producers can encounter weeds like Canada thistle in canola and barley fields, and some Ontario wineries have used goats to keep their grape vines clean. But the four-legged weed management system could be more problematic on cash crop operations.

The goats would probably end up eating the crop too, so I dont think it would really be an option, Kevin Serfas, a cash crop producer from Turin, Alta., told Farms.com today. Youd have to fence off your field somehow and get a herd of goats in there. It just becomes too much of a hassle.

Top photo: Say-Cheese / iStock / Getty Images Plus

iStock / Getty Images PlusCanadas grain farmers welcomed some positive news in Budget 2018, but are concerned about the lack of action on key priorities for farmers. Budget 2017 established an ambitious target to increase agri-food exports to $75 billion by 2025 but Budget 2018 did little to deliver on it and other priorities for the sector.

Grain farmers welcome the Budgets commitments on trade, regulatory reform and tax changes, said Grain Growers of Canada (GGC) President, Jeff Nielsen. However these commitments are baby steps at a time when a giant leap is needed.

GGC looks forward to working with the government to better understand how the commitment for regulatory reform, the small business tax changes, the Low Carbon Leadership Fund and the investments in the Canadian Food Inspection Agency will benefit the hard-working middle-class families on grain farms across the country.

Grain growers are encouraged by the commitment to expanded trade in Asia, said Grain Growers of Canada (GGC) President, Jeff Nielsen. But while more trade commissioners are nice, what our economy really needs is ratification of the CPTPP before Parliament breaks for summer, the launch of Free Trade Negotiations with China and the passage of Bill C-49 to secure a rail transportation system that works.

GGC welcomed the announcement of a Farm Credit Canada (FCC) lending product for women entrepreneurs which demonstrates the Governments recognition of the important role that women play in the past, present and future of the agriculture industry.

GGC also took note that $100 million earmarked for funding for Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada programs for 2018 will go unspent. GGC looks forward to more details on the impact this will have on farmers across Canada and on what opportunities may be missed to promote the growth of the rural economy.

Grain Growers of Canada provides a strong national voice for over 50,000 active and successful grain, oilseed and pulse producers through its 13 provincial, regional and national grower groups. Our mission and mandate are to pursue a policy environment that maximizes global competitiveness and to influence federal policy on behalf of independent Canadian grain farmers and their associations.

Source : Grain Growers of CanadaCanadian pork producers will take part in a trade mission to Japan next week.

The trip coincides with the signing of the Comprehensive and Progressive Trans-Pacific Partnership in Chile on March 8th.

During this trade advocacy mission, delegates will be able to understand the new opportunities being created by the signature of the CPTPP and how to further develop the market. Pork producers will also witness the importance of on-farm programs for international customers and see how their product is marketed to buyers in Japan, said Rick Bergmann, Chair of the Canadian Pork Council (CPC).

On Monday, March 5th delegates will meet in Kawasaki with Federal Agriculture Minister Lawrence MacAulay.

Source : SteinbachonlineJimmy Kimmel thinks it's "almost necessary" to discuss politics at this year's Oscars.

Jimmy Kimmel

The 50-year-old TV star is set to host the Academy Awards in Los Angeles on March 4, and while he intends to bring plenty of humour to the event, Jimmy revealed that he'll also be touching on more serious issues.

He explained: "A lot of people are going with this line of reasoning where they say people in show business shouldn't speak out about politics. And yet ... they elected Donald Trump the president of the United States.

"So, I think that argument has pretty well jumped out the window."

Jimmy has been outspoken on political issues in the past, and the late-night chat show host has no regrets about the things he's previously said.

Of his plans for the Oscars, the comedian told ABC News: "I'm still doing a comedy show and I need to be funny and entertain my audience, but I also think that we've matured enough ... to the point where we can accept late-night talk show hosts speaking about a serious subject.

"I think that it's almost necessary now."

Meanwhile, Jimmy previously revealed that he also plans to make reference to the Hollywood sex scandal during the Oscars.

But the TV star claimed that he's in a no-win situation if he chooses to make jokes about the issue or not, because either way, he's certain he'll upset someone.

Jimmy explained: "I think there are certain groups of people who think I shouldn't make any jokes about that situation. And there are groups of people who will be mad if I don't make jokes about that situation. So you just kind of have to figure it out.

"Whatever I do will be criticised by someone. Like, 'You didn't make enough jokes about Harvey Weinstein.'"Ryan Seacrest could reportedly be shunned by a number of top stars at the Oscars on Sunday (04.03.18).

Ryan Seacrest

The 43-year-old TV presenter is set to host E!'s red-carpet coverage of the annual awards bash in Los Angeles, but some top Hollywood publicists could direct their clients away from Ryan after he was accused by his former stylist of subjecting her to "years of unwanted sexual aggression".

Ryan has strenuously denied the allegations made against him by Suzie Hardy and an investigation into the matter has already been dismissed on the grounds of insufficient evidence.

Ryan Seacrest Ryan Seacrest

However, in light of the Hollywood sex scandal, publicists are instead keen to direct their clients towards Ryan's red-carpet co-host Giuliana Rancic or skip E! altogether.

A PR powerhouse told the New York Post newspaper's Page Six column: "Usually Ryan is the one you want ... but there are so many outlets on that carpet, why risk it? There's plenty of other places for clients to get the exposure."

Another PR explained that the decision would be dependent on the individual client.

The unnamed source said: "If it was a [client who had been involved in the #MeToo movement], I would never put them in that position. I don't think any smart person would."

Meanwhile, Ryan recently claimed that the sexual harassment allegations made against him by his former stylist are part of an extortion attempt.

Ryan Seacrest

He said in a statement: "This person who has accused me of horrible things tried to buy her silence by asking for money on multiple occasions - I refused. I have worked extremely hard to achieve my success and I don't take my opportunities for granted.

"I don't want to accuse anyone of not telling the truth but in this case, I have no choice but to again deny the claims against me, remind people that I was recused of any wrongdoing, and put the matter to rest."Connor McIntyre was "convinced" he wanted to become an actor after watching former 'Emmerdale' star Freddie Jones in action.

Connor McIntyre

The 'Coronation Street' actor - who plays vicious villain Pat Phelan in the ITV soap - decided to try to make it on the small screen after watching Freddie, who left his role as Sandy Thomas earlier this month, in TV anthology drama series 'Play for Today' in 1974.

Connor tweeted a video clip of Freddie's appearance in episode, 'Audience', alongside Michael Crawford, and wrote: "Amongst his numerous stellar performances, this one convinced me to take the 'leap' as an actor. I remain full of gratitude. I salute you Sir (sic)"

As well as starring as Phelan in 'Corrie', Connor appears to be a big 'Emmerdale' fan and wished the 90-year-old star well in the future.

He tweeted: "Just like 2 add my fond farewell to #Sandy @Emmerdale & the incomparable #FreddieJones. (sic)"

Freddie bowed out of his role as Sandy recently, but admitted he wasn't technically retiring because actors pass away rather than call it a day.

He said: "Actors don't retire - they die. The story goes that Sir John Gielgud, at the age of 96, rang Maggie Smith and said in a deep depression, 'They've forgotten me - they don't know who I am any more.'

"He apparently added, 'I'm seriously thinking about changing my agent.' He then died, so - in some sense - he did."

Sandy left the Emmerdale village for a new life in Australia alongside Maisie, who was played by former 'Butterflies' star Wendy Craig.

One of his main storylines saw him become the victim of domestic abuse at the hands of his son Ashley Thomas (John Middleton).Gabby Allen is convinced her late father is haunting her.

Gabby Allen

The 'Love Island' star sadly lost her dad to cancer four years ago but she doesn't think he ever really left her side because she sometimes feels his presence around her and is adamant she heard him speaking to her one time.

Speaking on 'Celebrity Ghost Hunt' last night (27.02.18), she said: "I do believe in ghosts. I think I'm going to be one of those that think I'm going to be alright and then get down there and I'm gonna be very scared! My dad passed away like four years ago, and around that time I felt like he present a lot of the time. One time I thought I heard him, but I that was just've been me being mental."

The 26-year-old beauty has been very open about how much her father's death has affected her and recently admitted that she hasn't been able to celebrate Christmas properly since he passed because there is always "someone missing."

She said at the time: "I bloody hate Christmas. I'm a proper scrooge. It's because my dad was sick over christmas time. I remember having Christmas dinner and him not being well at all and it always just brings back those memories. And because it's just my mum and brother, when we're sat at the table there's always just someone missing so we just try and get through those days and then it's New Year."

However, Gabby had a better festive season last year because she had her boyfriend Marcel Somerville and the pair celebrated it with his family in Chigwell.

And, although they've only been together since last summer, the couple's relationship is getting serious as they've recently moved in together in Bethnal Green, London.Michelle Keegan struggled filming 'Our Girl.'

Michelle Keegan

The 30-year-old actress spent the majority of last year shooting the army drama, in which she plays medic Lance Corporal Georgie Lane, in South Africa and has admitted she really found the long days and six-day weeks a huge challenge.

She told Cosmopolitan magazine: "The first month in South Africa, I struggled because you're trying to find your feet. You push yourself. I did eight months away - six-day weeks, and 14-hour days, working on top of a garbage heap. I did it! It was the sense of missing out - my dogs, a birthday, a family meal or my best friend having a baby. I didn't think I'd be able to do it. It's given me the drive and push."

The former 'Coronation Street' star was also forced to spend months away from her husband Mark Wright - who is co-hosting 'Extra' in the US - but the pair made a pact to FaceTime regularly so that they didn't feel like they were so far apart.

She explained: "It was like he was in the room. He'd have breakfast, I'd have dinner. He'd get in the shower, I'd do my scripts. It was the norm. We were [living at] different ends of the spectrum. I remember FaceTime-ing him surrounded by cattle and mud. He was in Nobu in Malibu having cocktails saying, 'Aw babe, look at the view!' I said, 'Do you want to see my view?'

"We're more patient with each other, laid-back, and don't sweat the small stuff. I think because we're really happy in our careers it helps with the relationship as well."

'Our Girl' will return to screens later this year.Posted 2/27/18

The OATS bus gang went to Lebanon this past week.Several of us did not go because of illness. I hope they all had a good trip.We go to Buffalo and Bolivar this week.Everyone enjoys the good times we Saturday 27 February sees 107 years since the death of Captain Tayyareci Fethi Bey, the first pilot in Turkish aviation history, who gave his name to Fethiye.

Usually, there is a commemoration service held at Sehit Fethi Bey Park to honour the first Turkish airman to die in military service.

This year, due to the coronavirus pandemic, the commemoration service cant take place in its usual format.

Heres a reminder of last years service to remember Captain Tayyareci Fethi Bey.

Fethi Bey

Tayyareci Fethi Bey was born in Ayazpasa in Istanbul in 1887. He graduated from Naval College in 1907 as a second lieutenant. He was then sent to Britain, where he trained as an aviator. He was promoted to captain in 1911 and was one of the first pilots in the Ottoman Air Force.

What happened to Fethi Bey?

One American newspaper at the time said that the young aviator died on 28th February 1914. It reported that he was attempting to fly from Istanbul to Alexandria, in Egypt, together with his navigator, Sadik Efendi, in a Bleriot XI/B plane called Muavenet-i Milliye when the tragedy occurred.

This article appeared in the Knoxville Journal and Tribune, Knoxville, Tennessee on March 1, 1914,

Turkish Aviators Killed,

Constantinople, Feb. 28.  Fethi Bey and Sadik Bey, young aviators of the Turkish military aviation corps, were killed today while attempting to fly from Constantinople to Alexandria, Egypt. After leaving Damascus on the way to Jerusalem the aeroplane broke down in mid-air and the two aviators fell with it from a high altitude. Fethi Bey rendered great assistance to the Ottoman army during the Balkan war, making many flights over the Bulgarina positions.

There appears to be some confusion about the day Fethi Bey died but Turkish sources agree that it was on February 27th, 1914.

Fethiye  the place of Fethi

The town was renamed from Megri to Fethiye which means The place of Fethi, to honour the first Turkish airman to die in military service.

In photos  have a look at our gallery of photos from the ceremony

Photographs by Lyn Ward and Sefik Akkurt. Video by Paul Watts.

Although the day was grey and the low clouds promised rain to come, the weather held and people turned out to enjoy the ceremony. Many were looking forward to the flypast by three Turkish Air Force jets as a mark of respect.

The day was grey and the low clouds promised rain to come.

Fethi Bey looking to the sky

Istiklal Mars  the Turkish National Anthem.

Istiklal Mars  the Turkish National Anthem.

Istiklal Mars  the Turkish National Anthem.

The flypast by three Turkish Air Force jets as a mark of respect.

The flypast by three Turkish Air Force jets as a mark of respect.

The flypast by three Turkish Air Force jets as a mark of respect.

A display by the Turkish Aeronautical Association founded by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk in 1925.

A mark of respect to Fethi Bey

The Turkish Aeronautical Association put on a fantastic display with this model plane

The crowds were delighted with the acrobatics of this model plane

The crowds were delighted with the acrobatics of this model plane

Photograph by Sefik AkkurtCategory Select Category Apparel/Garments Textiles Fashion Technical Textiles Information Technology E-commerce Retail Corporate Association Press Release

SubCategory Select Sub-CategorySALT LAKE CITY, UT / ACCESSWIRE / February 27, 2018 / ProLung, Inc., ("ProLung" or the "Company") the world leader in innovative predictive analytics technology and non-invasive tests for the risk stratification of lung cancer, announced today that Neil Berkley has joined the Company's Board of Directors.

Steven C. Eror, President and CEO of ProLung, stated, "I am pleased to welcome Mr. Berkley to our Board of Directors. As we begin commercializing the ProLung Test, Mr. Berkley adds depth to our business development and strategic planning capability. Mr. Berkley, who has been recognized by some of the largest institutions in healthcare for his highly developed scientific and business skills, will join our Science and Technology Committee."

"I am honored to join the ProLung Team and help build upon the great successes they have already achieved. I believe their predictive analytic ProLung Test can make a tremendous clinical and economic impact in the battle against lung cancer. These are exciting times for ProLung and I look forward to working with the team to make a difference in time for lung cancer patients around the world," remarked Mr. Berkley.

Mr. Berkley is currently Executive Director of Corporate Development at Acadia Pharmaceuticals. Prior to Acadia, he worked with GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) as the Head of Business Development for Neuroscience, Head of West Coast Business Development, Site Head of a San Diego R&D satellite office and was a member of the Transactions Team. Before joining GSK, he was Head of Business Development at Cadence Pharmaceuticals where he was part of the team that successfully exited to Mallinckrodt for $1.3B in cash. Prior to Cadence, he held various roles with a primary focus on business development at Mpex Pharmaceutical where he helped raise over $100M in venture capital financing and closed multiple business development transactions including an option deal with GSK and the acquisition of Mpex by Aptalis. Mr. Berkley holds a Bachelor of Science in molecular biology from the University of California, San Diego and a Master of Science in cellular and molecular biology, as well as an MBA from San Diego State University. He currently resides in San Diego, California.

About ProLung, Inc.

ProLung's mission is to make a difference in time for lung cancer patients. ProLung is the world leader in innovative predictive analytics technology and non-invasive tests for the risk stratification of lung cancer. The Company develops, tests, and commercializes solutions which may shorten the time to diagnosis and expand the therapeutic window for lung cancer patients. ProLung's predictive analytics platform for lung cancer risk stratification is approved for sale in the European Economic Area and investigational use in the USA.

Forward-Looking Statements

This release may contain forward-looking statements regarding projected business performance, operating results, financial condition and other aspects of the Company, expressed by such language as "expected," "anticipated," "projected" and "forecasted." Please be advised that such statements are estimates only and there is no assurance that the results stated or implied by forward-looking statements will actually be realized by the Company. Forward-looking statements may be based on management assumptions that prove to be wrong. The Company and its business are subject to substantial risks and potential events beyond its control that would cause material differences between predicted results and actual results, including the Company incurring operating losses and experiencing unexpected material adverse events.

For further information, contact:

Andy Robertson | +1 801-503-9231| acr@prolunginc.com

ProLung Vice President of Marketing and Business Development

ProLung

757 E. South Temple Suite 150

Salt Lake City, Utah 84102

USA

www.prolunginc.com

Follow ProLung, Inc. on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn: @ProLunginc

SOURCE: ProLung, Inc.LOS ANGELES, CA / ACCESSWIRE / February 27, 2018 / The Schall Law Firm, a national shareholder rights litigation firm, announces the filing of a class action lawsuit against Bristol-Myers Squibb Company ("Bristol-Myers" or "the Company") (NYSE: BMY) for violations of 10(b) and 20(a) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and Rule 10b-5 promulgated thereunder by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

Investors who purchased the Company's shares between January 27, 2015 and October 9, 2016, inclusive (the "Class Period"), are encouraged to contact the firm before April 10, 2018, the lead plaintiff motion deadline.

If you are a shareholder who suffered a loss during the Class Period, click here to participate.

We also encourage you to contact Brian Schall, or Sherin Mahdavian, of the Schall Law Firm, 1880 Century Park East, Suite 404, Los Angeles, CA 90067, at 424-303-1964 to discuss your rights free of charge. You can also reach us through the firm's website at www.schallfirm.com, or by email at brian@schallfirm.com.

The class, in this case, has not yet been certified, and until certification occurs, you are not represented by an attorney. If you choose to take no action, you can remain an absent class member.

According to the complaint, the Company issued false and/or misleading statements and/or failed to disclose: (1) that Bristol-Myers' CheckMate-026 trial was more likely to fail than Defendants were representing; (2) that Bristol- Myers' CheckMate-026 trial failed more severely than the Company indicated it did in the Company's August 5, 2016 announcements and disclosures; and (3) that, as a result of the foregoing, Defendants' statements about Bristol-Myers' business, operations, and prospects, were materially false and/or misleading and/or lacked a reasonable basis.When the truth was revealed to the investing public, shares dropped causing shareholders harm.

The Schall Law Firm represents investors around the world, and specializes in securities class action lawsuits and shareholder rights litigation.

This press release may be considered Attorney Advertising in some jurisdictions under the applicable law and rules of ethics.

CONTACT:

The Schall Law Firm

Brian Schall, Esq.,

Sherin Mahdavian, Esq.,

Schallfirm.com

SOURCE: The Schall Law Firm-- Move to Strengthen Ties between Japanese and French Nuclear Energy Industries --

5 percent equity stake in Orano acquired based on formal agreement signed in March 2017

Technological and business cooperation ties to be enhanced, strengthening global value chain for nuclear energy

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd. (MHI)(TOKYO:7011) has completed investment into Orano, a newly formed company created as part of the reorganization of the AREVA Group. Orano primarily focuses on the fuel cycle business, including uranium mining, enrichment and conversion and reprocessing of spent fuel. Previously referred to as "New AREVA Holding", Orano possesses advanced technological and marketing strengths within the global nuclear energy industry, and the new company is expected to achieve solid growth going forward. MHI has acquired a 5 percent equity stake in Orano with a total investment outlay of approximately 250 million euros. With the completion of this investment, MHI will now pursue deeper, more expansive human and technological exchange with Orano.

MHI has built strong ties with France's nuclear energy industry over many years. In 1991, in partnership with AREVA NC (now a subsidiary of Orano) MHI established a joint venture in the fuel cycle business that engages in the manufacture and sale of a full range of reprocessing equipment. In 2007, MHI and AREVA NP (now Framatome) began development of a pressurized water reactor (PWR) nuclear power plant (NPP) integrating their technologies, culminating in the development of ATMEA1, a state-of-the-art PWR NPP in the 1200 MWe (megawatt electrical) class. Since its introduction, prospects for ATMEA1 sales have been expanding worldwide, especially in emerging economies where new NPP construction projects are moving forward.

Through its investment in Orano, MHI looks to support the company's future growth strategies. Further, by strengthening cooperation in technology and business operations, MHI aims to play an important role in forging stronger links between the Japanese and French nuclear energy industries, as confirmed by the two countries' governments in October 2015, with the ultimate goal of strengthening their global value chain in the nuclear energy business.

Commenting on the completed investment, MHI President and CEO Shunichi Miyanaga said, "For many years Orano has lent its support to the development of nuclear power generation in Japan. Now, with completion of our investment into Orano, our partnership will become even stronger. I have high hopes that we will be able to further improve the safety and reliability of nuclear power generation, thereby contributing to stable global energy supplies and reduced carbon dioxide emissions."

In parallel with the Orano investment, in late December MHI completed an investment in Framatome, a newly established group company of Electricite de France (EDF) specializing in the design and manufacture of NPP equipment and systems. By strengthening the relationship between manufacturers in Japan and France, every effort will be made to expand and improve structurally as a comprehensive manufacturer capable of supporting the global nuclear power generation business in all aspects; from production of nuclear fuel to plant design, construction and maintenance, and reprocessing of spent fuel.

About Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Group

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd. (MHI), headquartered in Tokyo, is one of the world's leading industrial firms with 80,000 group employees and annual consolidated revenues of around 38 billion U.S. dollars. For more than 130 years, the company has channeled big thinking into innovative and integrated solutions that move the world forward. MHI owns a unique business portfolio covering land, sea, sky and even space. MHI delivers innovative and integrated solutions across a wide range of industries from commercial aviation and transportation to power plants and gas turbines, and from machinery and infrastructure to integrated defense and space systems.

For more information, please visit MHI's website: www.mhi.com/index.html

For Technology, Trends and Tangents, visit MHI's new online media SPECTRA:spectra.mhi.com

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180226006734/en/

Contacts:

PRESS CONTACT:

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd.

Joseph Hood, +81-(0)3-6716-2168

PR Manager

mhi-pr@mhi.co.jp

Fax: +81-(0)3-6716-5860HONG KONG, Feb. 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- GTI Summit 2018, with the theme of "5G+AI, Fuel the Innovation", was successfully held on 27th Feb., 2018 in Barcelona, Spain during Mobile World Congress 2018. Delegates from governments, organizations, operators, vertical and partners attended this summit to discuss how 5G and AI will enable the future innovations to create the intelligent world.

Operators actively drive 5G development and explore 5G use cases closely with verticals to pave the way for a smarter society.

Mr. Shang Bin, Chairman of China Mobile stated that China Mobile will start 5G scale-up trials in 5 cities and 5G application showcase in 12 cities, propel core network transformation and RAN evolution in 2018 to speed up 5G end-to-end development. China Mobile will also actively promote 5G+AI innovation to pioneer 5G smart network for intelligent operation, and to enable the intelligent connectivity and applications for all aspects of life. In this summit, based on 2 years efforts and collaboration with 112 partners in 5G Innovation Center, China Mobile kicked off 5G Innovative Application Campaign, providing 5G end-to-end environment in 12 open labs world widely, to prepare 5G service innovation for 5G pre-commercial showcase in 2019.

Bharti Airtel introduced the multifold challenges of network and socio economic in India. It is believed that new services in 5G era will definitely solve these problems. Bharti will take this opportunity to build the 5G network to support the industry pillars of "DIGITAL INDIA" by providing superior user experience diversified applications.

Deutsche Telekom stated that in the customer-centric 5G network, addressing and knowing well about customer demand is critical and DT's 5G network slicing will be the tailored network solutions for the diversified industry demands.

NTT DOCOMO shared the vision of wonderful future life in 2020s with intelligent connectivity and innovative use cases, which 5G and AI will bring. NTT DOCOMO would like to co-create enhanced user experience and new market using 5G and AI with partners across industries, and will open AI Agent API to help co-create new value.

At this Summit, AT&T, China Mobile, Deutsche Telekom, NTT DOCOMO and Orange jointly founded the world-wide ORAN Alliance to empower the next generation RAN with deeply imbedded intelligence, much higher efficiency, lower cost, greater agility and flexibility, and zero-touch automation. AT&T, Orange and all the founding members stated they will devote to the new open RAN in ORAN Alliance.

Verticals expect the fast development of 5G and AI technology, which will bring new opportunities and innovation applications to all aspects of society. Christoph Voigt, Chairman of 5GAA (5G Automotive Association) believes that the 5G+AI will make the autonomous driving a reality with ultra-low latency, high-reliability, and intelligent driving system. ABB emphasize robots, wireless connectivity and intelligent digitalization will play critical roles in the Forth Industrial Revolution. 5G + AI will enable paradigm shift in manufacturing which deliver faster time to market, higher flexibility, higher productivity and lower cost. Delegate of CEPRI of State Grid Corporation of China shares the 5G+AI requirements including high speed, Ubiquitous perception, always on-line, intelligence to achieve the smarter future of internet of energy.

End-to-end industry are putting more efforts to bringing 5G into a reality. Qualcomm, ZTE, Nokia, Huawei and Ericsson shared their progress on the latest development status of 5G technology, products and trials. With AI and cloud architecture, the 5G network will become more intelligent, agile and flexible to facilitate the service and application innovation with verticals. The smarter 5G devices is one of the keys to usher a 5G new era. Therefore, with 20 industry partners, China Mobile released 5G Terminal Forerunner Plan to promote the maturity of 5G chipset, component and terminals, and to improve the time to market of 5G pre-commercial products.

5G is believed to be a key enabler for innovative services and applications in next few years that should reshape our society and various verticals in a way we have never seen before. And Artificial Intelligence (AI) is also a very promising technology which could penetrate into all aspects of our society. When 5G encounters AI, our world is filled with even much more possibilities and inspirations which will take innovation to another level. In the future, GTI will continue to hold hands with industrial partners to build an effective international cooperation platform to promote 5G commercialization and 5G joint innovation.

What is GTI?

Global TD-LTE Initiative (GTI), founded in 2011, has been dedicated to constructing a robust ecosystem of TD-LTE, speeding up the commercialization of TD-LTE and promoting the convergence of LTE TDD and FDD. As 4G evolves to 5G, GTI 2.0 was officially launched at the GTI Summit 2016 during the Mobile World Congress 2016 in Barcelona, aiming not only to further promote the evolution of TD-LTE and its global deployment, but also fostering a cross-industry innovative and a synergistic 5G ecosystem.

GTI Summit is apremier event that industry professionals should attend. This summit brings together the industry's most influential decision makers, policy makers and partners from around the globe to discuss the latest industry trends, share cutting-edge technologies and release innovative achievements. It is held three times a year in Barcelona Spain, Shanghai China and America respectively.

Contact:

Yu,Jiang Yujiang@chinamobile.com

Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/646961/GTI_Backgroud.jpg

Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/646962/GTI.jpgTDK to acquire Chirp Microsystems, Inc., a developer of high-performance ultrasonic 3D-sensing solutions

Acquisition to enhance TDK's existing technology in fingerprint sensors, MEMS sensors, and Piezoelectric transducer product lines

TDK aims to be the leader in the ultrasonic MEMS sensors and solutions market

TDK Corporation (TSE: 6762) (President and CEO: Shigenao Ishiguro, hereinafter "TDK") announced that it has reached an agreement with Chirp Microsystems, Inc. (Headquarters: Berkeley California U.S., hereinafter "Chirp"), a pioneer in high-performance ultrasonic sensing, in which Chirp becomes a wholly owned subsidiary of TDK. TDK expects to close the acquisition within the coming days.

Chirp is engaged in high-performance ultrasonic sensors featuring smaller sizes and lower power consumption compared with existing sensors. Chirp's solutions are expected to find broader applications, such as augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR), in addition to areas such as smartphones, automobiles, industrial machinery and other ICT applications.

Chirp solutions enable extremely precise sensing, ranging from several centimeters to several meters, sensing the distance to an object and expanding the way users can operate with AR and VR, detect the proximity distance when using smartphones, and track the variance between a vehicle and obstacles when driving. In addition, the sensor operates with low power consumption and enables products to be reduced in size, providing an outstanding sensor solution that is extremely easy for consumers to use. Furthermore, the addition of Chirp's ultrasonic sensor solutions in combination to the existing fingerprint sensors offered by TDK subsidiary InvenSense, will significantly expand TDK's ultrasonic sensor solutions.

"TDK is committed to contributing to the growth of systems deployed in the automotive, mobile, health-care and industrial industries. Our vision is to be the leading solutions provider of sensors for motion, sound, environmental elements (pressure, temperature and humidity), and ultrasonic sensors for the Internet of Things (IoT) era," said Noboru Saito, Senior Vice President, TDK and CEO of Sensor Systems Business Company. "Chirp's unique and high value-added 3-D sensing technologies will fill out our lineup of sensor solutions, positioning TDK as the leader in ultrasonic MEMS technology. We aim to continue to be a reliable partner that can provide solutions to the challenges our customers face."

"Our team is excited to be part of the TDK family. We believe together we can bring ultrasonic sensors to a wide variety of products at an even greater speed and scale than we could on our own," said Michelle Kiang, Chirp's CEO. "We see so many synergies with TDK technologies; EPCOS is a world-leader in piezo-ceramic sensors and actuators, and InvenSense is a world-leader in MEMS sensors for consumer electronics."

The acquisition will further accelerate TDK's sensor and actuator business, providing an extensive sensor product lineup, including pressure, temperature, current, and magnetic sensors, as it continues to expand its sensor business.

TDK Corporation and Chirp are available for on-site discussions at the upcoming Mobile World Congress, along with additional innovative sensor solutions in Meeting Space 2C40MR, Hall 2 of the Gran Via at MWC 2018, February 26 March 1, 2018, Barcelona, Spain. For additional information or to set up a meeting appointment, please contact dalmoslino@invensense.com.

About TDK Corporation

TDK Corporation is a leading electronics company based in Tokyo, Japan. It was established in 1935 to commercialize ferrite, a key material in electronic and magnetic products. TDK's portfolio includes passive components, such as ceramic, aluminum electrolytic and film capacitors, ferrites and inductors, high-frequency products, and piezo and protection components, as well as sensors and sensor systems and power supplies. These products are marketed under the product brands TDK, EPCOS, InvenSense, Micronas, Tronics and TDK-Lambda. TDK's further main product groups include magnetic application products, energy devices, and flash memory application devices. TDK focuses on demanding markets in the areas of information and communication technology and automotive, industrial and consumer electronics. The company has a network of design and manufacturing locations and sales offices in Asia, Europe, and in North and South America. In fiscal 2017, TDK posted total sales of USD 10.5 billion and employed about 100,000 people worldwide.

About Chirp Microsystems

Chirp Microsystems mission is to bring ultrasonic sensing to everyday products. Founded in 2013 based on pioneering research performed at the University of California, Chirp's piezoelectric MEMS ultrasonic transducers offer long range and low power sensing capabilities in a micro-scale package, enabling products to accurately perceive absolute position in the three-dimensional world in which we live. Combined with Chirp's embedded software library, these sensors advance user experiences with VR/AR, mobile, wearables, robotics, drones and occupancy detection. For more information, please visit: http://www.chirpmicro.com.

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180227006302/en/

Contacts:

TDK Corporation

Mr. Yoichi OSUGA, +813 6852-7102

pr@jp.tdk.comPosted 2/28/18

Mayor Brandon Kenall brought up the Swift 911 emergency alert system in his closing comments at the Feb. 28 Board of Aldermen meeting. The board first discussed the system about a month TOKYO, Feb. 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Mitsubishi Chemical Corporation ("MCC") hereby announces strategic partnerships for marketing its zeolite membranes, ZEBREX , for bioethanol production. The strategic partnerships consist of ICM, Inc. ("ICM") for North America and Mitsui & Co., Ltd. ("Mitsui") for Asia-Pacific and Europe. The partnerships will accelerate MCC's business development in the bioethanol market further on a global scale.

With the United States and Brazil leading the global market, the use of bioethanol derived from biomass feedstocks such as corn, sugar cane and cassava has been wide-spreading due to its carbon neutrality and potential to reduce greenhouse gas emission. Further, what has been called the "second-generation bioethanol," bioethanol from non-edible feedstocks is evolving in the United States and India.

Bioethanol is required to be dehydrated to a certain extent for use as fuel. With the continuously growing market globally, bioethanol producers will significantly take advantage of ZEBREX . ZEBREX being a state-of-art, continuous dehydration technology of zeolite membranes, bioethanol producers will save 20% to 30% of energy consumption compared with a traditional batch PSA process (*), which requires periodical regenerations. ZEBREX , through either replacement of the PSA process or integration to an existing bioethanol plant, allows bioethanol producers to reduce carbon footprints and operation costs while increasing production through improvement in efficiency and operational stability.

Known for its engineering expertise in the fuel ethanol market, ICM's technology is used in more than half of ethanol plants in the United States, where the largest bioethanol production is taking place. The combination of MCC's ZEBREX dehydration technology and ICM's process integration ability will speed the penetration of ZEBREX into the North American market.

Mitsui has a strong marketing and business network with bioethanol producers in Asia-Pacific and Europe. Its strength is not limited to bioethanol but also lies in the sugar and food markets. MCC will promote ZEBREX with Mitsui to bioethanol producers who can take advantage of the technology. As a result of this partnership, one of the largest bioethanol producers in Europe, Pannonia Ethanol Zrt based in Hungary, has committed to install the world's largest ZEBREX system. Pannonia also employs ICM technology: this ZEBREX integration will be one of the best showcases to represent successful partnerships revolving around ZEBREX in the global perspective.

MCC contributes to continuous promotion of efficient energy production and use by expanding its zeolite membrane business that these partnerships will accelerate.

(*) PSA (pressure swing adsorption) is a technology with traditional type A zeolite pellets. Due to inefficiency of the PSA dehydration process, ethanol/water 50% mixture requires to be regenerated in the distillation column, which results in an energy-intensive process.

About ICM, Inc.

Established in 1995 and headquartered in Colwich, Kansas, ICM, with a regional office in Brazil, provides innovative technologies, solutions and services to sustain agriculture and to advance renewable energy, including ethanol and feed technologies that will increase the supply of world protein. By providing proprietary process technologies to over 100 facilities globally with a combined production capacity of approximately 8.8 billion gallons of annual ethanol production and 25 million tons of annual distillers grains, ICM has become a world leader in bio-refining technologies.

For more information, please visit http://icminc.com/

Mitsubishi Chemical Corporation website: https://www.m-chemical.co.jp/en/index.htmlTOKYO (dpa-AFX) - Japan's housing starts logged a double-digit decline at the start of the year, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism said Wednesday. Housing starts decreased 13.2 percent year-on-year in January, faster than the 2.1 percent drop in December and the expected 4.7 percent decrease. Annualized housing starts totaled 856,000 compared to 936,000 in the previous month. The expected level was 940,000. Data also showed that construction orders received by big 50 contractors gained 0.9 percent annually, reversing an 8.1 percent fall in December. Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX

Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann.Zurich - Now available worldwide, Appway designed its newest solution, Regulatory Reviews for Wealth, to comply with evolving regulations while embracing innovation. Wealth managers can use this technology to orchestrate client reviews and obtain a comprehensive overview that supports compliance expertise.

Appway Onboarding for Wealth and Onboarding for Retail, both launched at the end of 2017, were the first in a wave of innovative solutions that Appway will deliver throughout this year. Due to the introduction of several new regulations all over the globe in 2018, Appway has launched Regulatory Reviews for Wealth to help financial institutions quickly and comprehensively implement regulatory changes across jurisdictions and leverage the potential of innovations created in response to new regulations.

As stated by a senior executive from a Hong Kong-based private bank, "Our biggest pain point is the growing number of outstanding, ...

Den vollstandigen Artikel lesen ...Video advertising delivered over the internet to TV screen will be worth 825m by 2020;

UK predicted to generate largest revenue while Italy is set for the fastest annual growth amongst European 'Big 5' countries

SpotX, the leading video advertising and monetisation platform for media owners, today unveils an infographic forecasting the growth of the connected TV advertising opportunity in Europe. The visual representation of research commissioned by SpotX, shows the growth of advertising on connected TV, defined as content served to the TV screen via the open internet through devices including smart TVs, game consoles, streaming media services such as the Amazon Fire Stick, Chromecast and Apple TV and pay TV subscriptions. Rapid growth is predicted with an increase of over 200% from 225m in 2016 to 825m in 2020.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180227006633/en/

SpotX infographic reveals growth of connected TV advertising in Europe (Graphic: SpotX)

The infographic is based on research conducted by MTM, a research and strategy consultancy, and commissioned by SpotX to discover the size of the connected TV advertising opportunity in Europe. The advancement of AVOD (advertising-funded Video-on-Demand) technology and the desire from brands and agencies to advertise alongside premium programmes has increased steadily, and the research shows that the market is now set for rapid growth across the big five TV advertising markets in Europe.

The infographic shows the UK is Europe's largest market for connected TV advertising, expected to be worth 250m in 2020. The UK market will have a 19 percent compound annual growth rate (CAGR) which will be achieved through increased user engagement with connected TV technology combined with broadcasters' commitment to providing market leading services such as the ITV Hub and BBC iPlayer.

Rapid connected TV advertising growth is pictured in Italy with participants in the research predicting an 80 percent CAGR between 2016 and 2020. The infographic shows the market is forecast to be 105m in two years time, growing from 10m in 2016. Developments in audience measurement signal the Italian industry is preparing for adoption as consumer interest in video on demand increases.

Alongside a strong culture of IPTV, the infographic illustrates that France will have the second highest connected TV advertising revenue with industry experts anticipating 240m to be generated by advertising delivered via the open internet to the TV screen in 2020. Market drivers such as good broadband penetration and speed are in place to sustain this growth and broadcasters will increase their investments into connected TV apps and services.

The infographic charts the growth of connected TV advertising in Germanyfrom 50m in 2016 to 125 in 2020 with a CAGR of 24 percent, forecasting Germany to be the third largest market in two years time. The market enablers displayed in the infographic show that the investment is being made in the German market but that user adoption is slightly behind other countries in Europe with 50 percent of the population owning a smart TV.

Connected TV advertising is shown as 45m in 2016 in Spain with growth expected to reach 105m in 2020 which will equal revenues generated in Italy. Spain will see a predicted CAGR of 24 percent driven by demand from advertisers and agencies for connected TV inventory and by increased penetration of smart TVs in the market.

Mike Shehan, co-founder and CEO at SpotX explains, "The data shows the dramatic rise of adoption of connected TV advertising across Europe, reflecting the growth we have experienced already in the US. The story in the infographic has been reflected by our own expansion at SpotX working with leading European innovators such as STV, TV Player, Zattoo, The Box and Dugout on their strategies for global connected TV advertising revenue. The UK, France, and Germany are leading the adoption of connected TV advertising in Europe, followed by emerging markets with high potential including Spain and Italy."

Nick Thomas, Associate Director at MTM adds, "This infographic illustrates the research we conducted showing how connected TV advertising is set for rapid growth in the next few years. Broadcasters are embracing the cross-device mindset of their digital-first audiences and advertisers clearly recognise the impact of their advertising appearing on the TV screen to targeted audiences."

The infographic is based on research titled 'The Connected TV Advertising Opportunity in Europe' commissioned by SpotX, from MTM. The full report can be downloaded here.

About SpotX

SpotX is the leading video advertising platform providing publishers with monetisation tools for desktop, mobile and connected devices. The platform features modern ad serving and programmatic infrastructure, and other monetisation tools, like solutions for OTT and outstream video ad units. SpotX gives publishers the control, transparency and actionable insights needed to understand buyer behavior, manage access and pricing, and maximise revenue. The company is headquartered in Denver, Colorado, and has offices in Amsterdam, Belfast, Hamburg, London, Los Angeles, New York, Paris, San Francisco, Stockholm, Singapore, Sydney, and Tokyo. In October 2017, RTL Group, a leader across broadcast, content and digital, completed its 100% acquisition of SpotX and SpotX is now in the process of combining its business with smartclip. The combined entity will focus on ad-server development and addressable TV, which provide the Group with dynamic ad-insertion capabilities.For updates, follow SpotX on Twitter and LinkedIn.

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180227006633/en/

Contacts:

SpotX

Joanna Burton

VP, European Strategy

jburton@spotx.tvWerbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann.LOS ANGELES, CA / ACCESSWIRE / February 28, 2018 / According to a recent report from the state Department of Housing and Community Development, a large majority of California's urban areas, such as Los Angeles, aren't giving approval for the construction of sufficient housing.

As a result of this situation, state housing authorities are now requiring that cities ease the process for developers to get approval for new construction projects that include affordable housing units.

During the last forty years, California's municipalities had the responsibility of setting housing goals every five to eight years as a way of making sure that enough new homes are built to meet the demands of a growing population. Unfortunately, according to the state's recent report, very few cities are meeting the goals they've set.

So far, it has been determined that only 13 cities have made a sufficient amount of progress toward meeting their housing construction targets for 2017. 526 other cities haven't and will now be required to fast track the approval of some new housing development projects.

Per Neil Shekhter, under a new law which took effect at the beginning of 2018, cities must speed up the review of developments made up of at least ten percent affordable housing units if they've failed to meet their objectives for market rate housing. Municipalities that met their targets for market rate housing but haven't met the requirements for new affordable housing units will nee to streamline the review of projects in which at least half the housing units are affordable to low-income residents.

While Los Angeles is expected to meet its overall new housing construction objective by issuing permits for nearly 82,000 new homes by 2021, the city hasn't met its goals when it comes to the construction of enough affordable housing units. Out of 45,820 new units the city has issued permits for since 2014, less than ten percent are classified as affordable to low-income residents.

As the city is very much behind schedule with regards to new affordable housing, planners must now streamline the approval of projects which include 50 percent or more affordable housing units. Some other cities in California, including Burbank, Long Beach and Santa Monica, will need to fast track development projects with ten percent or more affordable units.

The lack of affordable housing in the city of Los Angeles has been an ongoing problem for several years. A recent report by the California Housing Partnership Corporation estimates that the city now requires the construction of over 500,000 new affordable housing units in order to meet the current level of demand.

Launching NMS Properties in 1988, Neil Shekhter assumed the role of CEO in January 1995. The real estate management company focuses on multi-family and mixed-use properties in the Greater Los Angeles area and in Santa Monica. At present, NMS properties manages more than 70 properties.

Over the course of 2017, NMS deployed 40 furnished units in Los Angeles, and Neil Shekhter plans to triple that number in 2018. The company currently manages some of the its properties while testing a pilot with MY SUITE.

Neil Shekhter - Founder and CEO of NMS Properties

Apartments For Rent In Los Angeles NMS Residential: http://www.nmsresidential.com

NMS Properties - Real Estate Management Firm: http://www.nmsproperties.com Contact Information: info@NeilShekhter.com SOURCE: NMS Properties, Inc.



Alm. Brand posted a full-year profit of DKK 1,023 million before tax. The performance was highly satisfactory and better than expected in all of the group's business areas. The Board of Directors recommends a distribution of up to DKK 680 million to the shareholders by way of dividend and share buybacks. The guidance for a pre-tax profit of DKK 450-550 million for 2018 is maintained. The acquisition of the majority of the activities of Saxo Privatbank is not expected to have any significant impact on the guidance. "We are extremely pleased that all of our activities developed better than we had expected, and we are obviously also very pleased with the strong overall profit of DKK 1,023 million. It is highly satisfactory that we were able to generate strong growth in all three business areas, while reporting such good results," underlined CEO Sren Boe Mortensen. "It is a key priority for us to onboard more customers in the group, to make them stay longer with us and to incentivise them to increase the scope of their business with us. This objective is supported by our high customer satisfaction, which is the result of our long-standing efforts to ensure that our customers receive the best service and experience," he continued, concluding: "Our strong performance also means that we are able to distribute close to DKK 700 million to our shareholders in addition to completing the acquisition of the majority of the activities of Saxo Privatbank. The acquisition will create synergies throughout the group and strengthen the results of the bank from 2019 onwards. Full-year results:  Non-life Insurance posted a highly satisfactory pre-tax profit of DKK 917 million. The performance was better than expected, being lifted by run-off gains and a strong investment return as well as by a lower level of expenses for major claims and weather-related claims. Higher costs for strategic initiatives, including digitalisation, detracted from the performance. Gross premiums amounted to DKK 5.2 billion, increasing by 2.6% relative to 2016. Both private and commercial lines improved, reporting growth of 1.5% and 3.7%, respectively. Customer loyalty remained at a high level with an upward trend in both segments. The combined ratio was 84.4, being favourably affected by run-off gains and a lower level of expenses for major claims and weather-related claims.  Life Insurance generated a pre-tax profit of DKK 93 million, which was satisfactory. Pension contributions were up by 7.8% relative to 2016. Regular payments were up by 5.7%, while single payments increased by 12.2%. In addition, payments into market rate schemes increased by 3.8%. Growth was satisfactory and reflected the group's growth ambitions in the pensions area. The bonus rate was 23.6 at 31 December 2017. As a result of the high bonus rate, Alm. Brand Pension has raised the rate on policyholders' savings to 5% for 2018, which is one of the industry's highest rates on policyholders' savings for guaranteed products.  The bank generated an overall pre-tax profit of DKK 67 million in 2017. The performance was satisfactory and better than expected. The performance was lifted by a better-than-expected return on investment assets, increased growth in lease activities and reversal of impairment writedowns. Higher costs for growth and digitalisation detracted from the performance. The bank's net lending to the Retail segment increased by 5% to DKK 2.8 billion at 31 December 2017. Moreover, the number of Pluskunder grew by 8%. The total portfolio of mortgage loans arranged for Totalkredit increased by 17% to DKK 8.6 billion. Financial Markets experienced an increase in the number of new customers and increased business volume, and Leasing's portfolio exceeded the DKK 1 billion mark, equivalent to 9,000 cars. Dividends  The Board of Directors recommends distribution of an ordinary dividend of DKK 1.50 per share. In addition, an extraordinary dividend of DKK 1.50 per share will be paid. At the same time, a new share buyback programme of up to DKK 200 million will be initiated, which is expected to run until end-March 2019. Overall, this means that Alm. Brand will distribute up to DKK 680 million in respect of the 2017 financial year. The share buyback programme is subject to the approval of the Danish Financial Supervisory Authority. Outlook  Expectations are for an overall pre-tax profit of DKK 450-550 million in 2018. The combined ratio for the group's non-life insurance activities is expected to be in the region of 91-92. The acquisition of the majority of the activities of Saxo Privatbank is not expected to have any significant impact on the outlook. Webcast and conference call Alm. Brand will host a webcast and conference call on Wednesday, 28 February 2018 at 10.00 a.m. https://almbrand.eventcdn.net/annualreport2017 Analysts are invited to participate by phone: Danish analysts: +45 3544 5583, US analysts: +1 855 269 2604, other international analysts: +44 (0) 203 194 0544. Contact Please direct any questions regarding this announcement to Sren Boe Mortensen, CEO, on tel. +45 35 47 79 07, or Susanne Biltoft, Communications Director, on tel. +45 35 47 76 61. Attachment: https://cns.omxgroup.com/cds/DisclosureAttachmentServlet?messageAttachmentId=666160International Leader in Engineering Analysis and Design Expands With New Location in Denmark

Thornton Tomasetti, the international engineering firm, announces that it has opened an office in Copenhagen, Denmark.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180228005332/en/

Her Majesty's Ambassador in Denmark, Mr. Dominic Schroeder, welcomes Thornton Tomasetti's guests to the British Embassy Copenhagen. (Photo: Business Wire)

"A growing list of successful projects with Danish clients has led to the establishment of our new location in Copenhagen, operating through our Danish subsidiary, Thornton Tomasetti A/S," Phill Thompson, principal and European region leader, said.

Principal and UK Director Les Postawa is serving as director of Thornton Tomasetti A/S.

"We have long-standing connections with international and local architects in Denmark," Postawa said. "These opportunities, combined with the uncertainty of Brexit, indicated that time was right to establish a permanent presence within the European Union, and Copenhagen was the natural choice. Architects and developers here are eager to engage consultants such as Thornton Tomasetti who have the ability and experience to design creatively and innovatively in a variety of materials."

The firm held an official launch hosted by the British Embassy in Copenhagen where clients and collaborators, joined by the British ambassador and staff, celebrated its arrival in Denmark. Since the new location is closely allied with the firm's UK offices, the embassy has been providing support and introductions for the venture. Additional assistance was given by the organization Copenhagen Capacity, which supports companies entering the Copenhagen metro area.

The Copenhagen office will initially focus on providing structural and facade engineering services, with support from the firm's Sustainabilityteam. Local clients will have access to services provided by all of the firm's practices, including Protective Design, which offers trusted security and counter-terrorist solutions to protect structures from threats.

The firm also sees strong potential for its Applied Science practice, which offers advanced computer simulation and analysis of extreme loads on structures, and will be pursuing defence-related work.

"Our Applied Science practice already works with several Danish defence companies, and we have found that our services from modelling of blast effects on buildings to shock testing of naval equipment using explosives have generated considerable interest in the short time we have been in Denmark," Thompson said.

Thornton Tomasetti is currently located in temporary space in Copenhagen. A search for a permanent location and senior leader to spearhead the operation is underway.

Supporting Materials

Thornton Tomasetti

www.ThorntonTomasetti.com

Copenhagen Office

http://www.thorntontomasetti.com/office/copenhagen/

Phill Thompson

http://www.thorntontomasetti.com/people/phillip_thompson/

Les Postawa

http://www.thorntontomasetti.com/people/les_postawa/

About Thornton Tomasetti

Thornton Tomasetti optimizes the design and performance of structures, materials and systems for projects of every size and level of complexity. An employee-owned organization of engineers, scientists, architects and other professionals collaborating from more than 40 offices worldwide, we support clients by drawing on the diverse expertise of our integrated practices. We are committed to be a sustainable and enduring organization and the global driver of innovation in our industry.

Follow Us On

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ThorntonTomasetti

Twitter: https://twitter.com/ttinc

YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/user/ThorntonTomasetti

LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/company/22520

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180228005332/en/

Contacts:

Great Ink Communications

Eric Gerard Lindsay Church Francisco Miranda, 212-741-2977

eric@greatink.comlindsay@greatink.comfrancisco@greatink.com

or

Thornton Tomasetti, Inc.

James M. Kent, 917-661-7800

JKent@ThorntonTomasetti.comAMSTERDAM, February 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --

Debuted at ECR 2018, the newest addition to Philips' digital MR solutions portfolio provides breakthrough in speed, improved patient experience and clinical confidence

Royal Philips (NYSE: PHG, AEX: PHIA), a global leader in health technology, today announced the newest addition to its digital Ingenia MR portfolio, the Ingenia Elition, a new 3.0T MRI solution. Integrating the latest innovations in systems, software and services, the Ingenia Elition MR solution offers extraordinary image quality and performs exams up to 50% faster [1], with no compromise in image quality - empowering a faster, smarter and simpler path to confident diagnosis, elevating the patient experience and helping to improve patient care.

(Photo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/647079/Philips_Ingenia_Elition_3_0T_MR_solution.jpg )



(Photo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/647082/Philips_VitalEye.jpg )



(Photo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/647085/MR_exams.jpg )



"As value-based care initiatives challenge healthcare organizations to drive better outcomes, radiology departments are specifically caught between ever-increasing imaging volume demands, while also facing pressure to engage more deeply with both referring physicians and patients," said Arjen Radder, Business Leader MR at Philips. "Philips is responding to these challenges through the development of solutions such as Ingenia Elition to improve image quality and the patient and staff experience, as well as operational efficiency."

Intelligent and patient-friendly MR platform

The Ingenia Elition MR solution delivers patient-centric imaging from patient set-up to the final image. By uniting Philips' unique dStream digital broadband technology with Compressed SENSE[2], and 3D APT across its new digital MR portfolio, radiologists have the tools necessary to help solve challenging clinical situations, improve the patient experience and set new directions for clinical research.

Unique patient sensing technology

New patient sensing technology and AI-driven SmartExam analytics for automatic planning, scanning and processing of exams help improve the entire MR workflow, from image acquisition to reading preference. Ingenia Elition's VitalScreen offers operators fully guided patient setup with a newly designed user interface for workflow optimization and VitalEye brings a unique patient sensing approach, enabling respiratory signal without any interaction from the operator. VitalEye technology and algorithms process over two hundred body locations in parallel to intelligently extract signs of breathing - allowing routine exam set-up time to occur in less than a minute, even for less experienced operators.[3]

Philips Ambient Experience and in-bore Connect solution, offering an immersive audio-visual experience to calm patients and guide them through MR exams, further improves the patient experience. A study at Herlev Gentofte University Hospital in Denmark showed that the Ambient Experience in-bore Connect solution helped reduce the number of rescans by up to 70% [4], allowing radiologists to handle more patients per day. The unique combination of innovations that the new Ingenia Elition offers is improving the entire workflow from image acquisition to reading preferences.

All-new Ingenia digital MR portfolio

The Ingenia Elition 3.0T is part of the all-new Ingenia digital MR portfolio and complements the recently introduced Philips Ingenia Prodiva 1.5T MR solution. Philips' new MR portfolio supports radiology departments to enhance productivity, improving the patient and staff experience, while delivering better value-based care through improved patient outcomes at lower costs.

Philips will officially unveil Ingenia Elition and its newest MR innovations, alongside its full suite of solutions for diagnosis and treatment during the 2018 European Congress of Radiology at booth #402 in X4 at the Austria Center in Vienna. For more information about Philips' presence at ECR 2018, including our virtual reality MR experience, visit www.philips.com/ecr, and follow @PhilipsLiveFrom for ECR18 live updates.

About Royal Philips

Royal Philips (NYSE: PHG, AEX: PHIA) is a leading health technology company focused on improving people's health and enabling better outcomes across the health continuum from healthy living and prevention, to diagnosis, treatment and home care. Philips leverages advanced technology and deep clinical and consumer insights to deliver integrated solutions. Headquartered in the Netherlands, the company is a leader in diagnostic imaging, image-guided therapy, patient monitoring and health informatics, as well as in consumer health and home care. Philips' health technology portfolio generated 2017 sales of EUR 17.8 billion and employs approximately 74,000 employees with sales and services in more than 100 countries. News about Philips can be found athttp://www.philips.com/newscenter.

[1] Using Compressed SENSE technology and compared to exams without Compressed SENSE

[2] 510k pending. Not available for sale in the USA or Canada. Not yet CE marked. Not yet available for delivery.

[3] Based on in house testing.

[4] Results from case studies are not predictive of results in other cases. Results in other cases may vary.

For further information, please contact:

Joost Maltha

Philips Group Press Office

Tel.: +31-6-10-55-8116

E-mail: joost.maltha@philips.com

Twitter: @JoostMaltha



Danielle Friskes

Philips Diagnostic Imaging

Telephone: +31-6-54291037

Email: danielle.friskes@philips.com



WARSAW, Poland, February 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --

A recent survey shows the vast support for importing natural gas from Norway and breaking reliance on a current dominant supplier.

Results of "Poland's energy security 2017 - natural gas market" poll show that majority of surveyed believe that Poland should import natural gas from diverse countries and sources to break its reliance on the Russian supplier.

(Photo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/647136/Energy_Security_Poland.jpg )



The survey results prove high awareness of energy security issues among Polish society. As many as 93% of respondents admit that Poland should import natural gas from various sources to build its energy security.

Currently, around 70% of natural gas imported to Poland comes from Russia, which puts Poland at disadvantage, according to the majority of respondents (75%). Hence the strong support for construction of the Baltic Pipe gas link, which is to carry gas produced in Norway to Poland. 90% of respondents believe the project itself would enhance the country's energy security.

The support for cooperation with Norway in terms of natural gas imports has risen by 21% in comparison to a similar survey carried out by CBOS in 2001. What is more, from those surveyed 87% believe that diversification of gas import markets will positively affect prices of the commodity, while 86% agree that Poland should generally look for solutions which would limit natural gas imports from Russia.

Survey details

"Poland's energy security 2017 - natural gas market" survey was carried out by GfK Polonia in December 2017 on a nationwide sample of 1,000 Poles aged 18+, using the CATI method.Posted 2/27/18

A dream has come true for those who love the Engles Senior Center on Maple Street in Buffalo. The center has received two grants totaling $850,000 to completely renovate the building.A $350,000 Elektrenai, Lithuania, 2018-02-28 08:55 CET (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Lietuvos Energijos Gamyba, AB, legal entity code 302648707, registered head office address Elektrines Str. 21, Elektrenai (hereinafter referred to as the Company). The total number of registered ordinary shares issued by the Company is 635 083 615, ISIN code - LT0000128571. RESULTS OF LIETUVOS ENERGIJOS GAMYBA OF 2017: MORE ELECTRICITY FROM WATER AND SUSTAINABLE PROFITABILITY INDICATORS Financial indicators of Lietuvos Energijos Gamyba of 2017 reflect successful efforts of the electricity producer, which is a part of Lietuvos Energija Group, to adapt to the changing market and to efficiently manage operating expenses. The Company managed achieving sustainable profitability indicators: the adjusted EBITDA of 2017 reached EUR 53.7 million, and adjusted EBITDA margin was 35.9 percent (36.8 percent in 2016) "The results of 2017 were significantly affected by the volume of electric power generated and sold in Kaunas Algirdas Brazauskas' Hydroelectric Power Plant, which increased by more than a quarter - last year was record both in terms of the amount of water and the generated electricity. Effectively exploiting market opportunities and being more actively engaged in intraday trading on the market, we also produced somewhat more electricity in the Kruonis Pumped Storage Power Plant compared to 2016. Changed market conditions resulted in lower electricity production in Elektrenai Complex only. In 2017, we have ensured high availability and reliable operation of all power plants, responding to the needs of the market and the transmission system operator. Reliable contribution to stable operation of the energy system and its security is one of our most important goals", Egle Ciuzaite, Chair of the Board and Chief Executive Officer of Lietuvos Energijos Gamyba commented the performance and the results of the power plants of the Company. A total of 1.147 TWh of electricity was generated in the power plants owned by the Company in 2017, which is 16 percent less than in 2016 (1.371 TWh). Elektrenai Complex generated 0.139 TWh of electricity, or 71.8 percent less than in 2016 (0.491 TWh in 2016), Kruonis PSP - 0.549 TWh or 6 percent more than in 2016 (0.517 TWh in 2016), Kaunas A. Brazauskas' HPP - 0.459 TWh or 26 percent more electricity than in 2016 (0.363 TWh in 2016). Key indicators of Lietuvos Energijos Gamyba of 2017: -- Despite the decreased electricity generation in Elektrenai complex, the Company's sales revenue remained fairly stable - in 2017, it totalled EUR 147.2 million and was only 3 percent lower than in 2016 (EUR 151.8 million). The Company's revenue totalled EUR 149.8 million in 2017 and was 13 percent lower than in 2016 (EUR 172.9 million). The main factor having determined the decline was the positive result of the sales of a part of business accounted for in 2016. -- Operating expenses of the Company decreased by 14 percent and were EUR 20.0 million in 2017 (compared to EUR 23.1 million in 2016). Excluding impairment of an amount receivable reflected in expenses for 2016 in relation to the shares of Kauno Energetikos Remontas UAB and NT Valdos UAB, operating expenses would be slightly higher than in 2016 due to higher expenses of dismantling project. -- The adjusted (comparative) EBITDA* of the Company totalled EUR 53.7 million in 2017 and were 16 percent lower than in 2016 (EUR 63.7 million). This indicator mainly changed due to increased costs of works of dismantling of Units 5 and 6 of Elektrenai Complex started in 2017 and decreased sales of activated secondary power reserve of Kruonis PSP in 2017 compared to 2016, also due to lower EBITDA of regulated activity of Elektrenai Complex. -- Net profit of the Company was EUR 20.5 million in 2017, i.e. 44 percent lower than in 2016 (EUR 40.0 million). The Company's profit decreased as a result of the impact of one-time factors in 2017: the positive result of the sales of a part of business (EUR 15.4 million) was accounted for in 2016, and the decline in the value of assets of Units 7 and 8 of Elektrenai complex was accounted for in 2017 (negative effect of EUR 31.4 million on profit before tax). -- The Company's investment in non-current tangible and intangible assets totalled EUR 1.9 million in 2017 and EUR 3.3 million in 2016. *The Company's EBITDA results are reported after the adjustments made by management by eliminating the impact of one-off factors. These adjustments are made aiming to disclose the results of the Company's operating activities after the elimination of the impact of non-typical, one-off factors or factors that are not directly related to the current reporting period. All adjustments made by management are disclosed in the Company's interim and annual reports. 28 February, 2018 at 4:00 pm the Chief Executive Officer of Lietuvos Energijos Gamyba will introduce the Company's financial results for the year 2017 and will answer the participant questions in the Investor Conference Webinar. To join the webinar, please follow the link. Valentas Neviera, Head of Communication Division, tel. +370 670 25997, e-mail. valentas.neviera@le.lt Attachment: https://cns.omxgroup.com/cds/DisclosureAttachmentServlet?messageAttachmentId=666187Zain teams up with DOCOMO Digital, Shift Technologies and FOO to enhance offerings and roll-out platform

At the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, DOCOMO Digital and Zain Group, the leading mobile telecom innovator in eight markets across the Middle East and Africa, announced that it will launch the Zain Group Application Program Interface (API) Platform, that will see the operator exposing its APIs, thereby helping to remove a significant barrier to developing potential digital partnerships from across the globe. Zain will initially launch the platform with a pilot phase in Kuwait and Saudi Arabia and will be thereafter gradually extended to all Zain operations.

To introduce this group-wide API program and connect its operating companies across the region onto a single enablement platform, Zain will work alongside the Apigee team at Google Cloud as the API platform provider, FOO, a leading regional mobile digital solutions entity as the developer, and Shift Technologies, the leading Apigee Edge API Platform implementer in the Middle East region, This strategic initiative is set to bring about greater agility to Zain as it considers new market opportunities, accelerating innovation, expanding into new business verticals and building future platform business model-based revenue streams.

Notably, Zain has partnered with the global alternative payments provider DOCOMO Digital, the European unit of Japan's NTT DOCOMO, as its first new content partner using the new API layer. DOCOMO Digital offers an advanced mobile commerce ecosystem-enabling platform that encourages financial inclusion for citizens worldwide. Thanks to this partnership, DOCOMO Digital will enable Zain with the most advanced VAS Digital Content hosted on its own Product Frameworks and supported by a Best in Class Advertising Solution Platform Service. Zain Kuwait and Zain Saudi Arabia will be the first operations to offer DOCOMO Digital's services.

Commenting on the imminent launch of the API platform in Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, Bader Al-Kharafi, Zain Vice-Chairman and Group CEO said, "We are pleased to be collaborating with more blue-chip technology companies in the form of Google and DOCOMO Digital in rolling the platform initially in Kuwait. In an ever-evolving and challenging telecommunications market, technology acts as an enabler for service differentiation and digital enablement. It drives our ambition to ensure a superior customer experience, and we believe opening up our APIs will help us to push continuous delivery of the best user experience whilst expanding contribution to the development of our digital services to a whole new universe of contributors." Mr Al Kharafi added, "This initiative is another step in our strategy to build a digital lifestyle provider, partnering with the best possible technology providers and offer the best services for our customers."

Hiroyuki Sato, CEO of DOCOMO Digitalsaid: "Our partnership with Zain is very strategic, demonstrating the focus DOCOMO Digital has on MEA to drive scalable growth for our payments and content platform services. I strongly believe this is one of the many such important partnerships we hope to forge in the region in coming months as it weaves into our prime aspiration of driving financial inclusion for 5 billion people worldwide with the greatest possible trust and convenience."

Sebastian Marotte, VP EMEA, Google Cloud, "We are excited to be a part of Zain's digital journey. There are tremendous opportunities for telcos to provide enhanced customer experiences, create new products and partner with other organisations to create value for both consumers and business. We look forward to supporting Zain as they drive their various innovation initiatives forward."

Yousef AlBarkawie, CEO of Shift Technologies added: "The vision that Zain has set for itself as a true digital innovator across the Middle East is very exciting, and we are very proud to be the partner of choice to help Zain lay the foundation of its digital platform, leveraging the exceptional capabilities that Apigee Edge API Platform offers. Zain has a deep understanding of the importance of digital ecosystems to power the new emerging economies, and we are excited to be provided this opportunity to translate this vision into reality."

The API platform is set to give opportunities for large digital players and individual developers alike to be able to launch services to Zain customers in a reduced amount of time. In due course, with the new open source digital enablement platform available at each of its operations, Zain will be able to offer internet service providers, other mobile network operators, and its own customers the following features:

Direct Operator Billing, SMS, Location-Based Service and Identity Services

A streamlined engagement model with a single contract offering access to other APIs

Centralised support for fast track new partner integration

Centralised reconciliation services and reporting

The group-wide agreement with Google and DOCOMO Digital will bolster Zain's efforts to further leverage the capable operations of FOO, a leading mobile digital solutions developer in which Zain holds a strategic stake. FOO's expertise in implementing and managing this platform played a critical part of the development of the API. FOO will further support the rollout of the API platform across other Zain markets.

ENDS

About DOCOMO Digital

DOCOMO Digital is a provider of a global payments platform to leading OTTs, merchants and content providers. It is a fully owned subsidiary of the Japanese mobile operator NTT DOCOMO. DOCOMO Digital is headquartered in London but is a global company having presence in 35 offices across six continents. For more info please visit: www.docomodigital.com

About Zain Group

For info about Zain please visit: www.zain.com

About Shift Technologies

For info about Zain please visit www.shift-technologies.com

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180228005564/en/

Contacts:

DOCOMO Digital

Dennis Heisig, Press Officer

Dennis.Heisig@docomodigital.com

+49 162 406 32 42LONDON, Feb. 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --

Highlights:

LHV, the largest domestic financial group in Estonia , will use the FICO TONBELLER Siron Anti Financial Crimes Suite to fight money laundering and comply with a host of European financial regulations.

, will use the FICO TONBELLER Siron Anti Financial Crimes Suite to fight money laundering and comply with a host of European financial regulations. Founded in 1999, LHV has 135,000 banking clients and more than 180,000 investment clients.

LHV, the largest domestic financial group in Estonia, will use the FICO TONBELLER Siron Anti Financial Crimes Solutions to fight money laundering and comply with a host of European financial regulations. LHV will use the software's customer risk scoring, screening, transaction monitoring and behavior monitoring capabilities to comply with the 4th and 5th EU Money Laundering Directives anti-money laundering (AML), know your customer (KYC) and other regulations aimed at stopping criminal finance.

More information: http://www.fico.com/en/risk-compliance/tonbeller

Founded in 1999, LHV has 135,000 banking clients and more than 180,000 investment clients. LHV's expansion plans include opening an office in London this spring, as the bank has received approval from the UK's Financial Conduct Authority.

"Our bank's security and reputation are vital, and we need to make sure we operate according to changing global regulatory requirements," said Martti Singi, chief risk officer of LHV. "After reviewing the top solutions in the market, we concluded that FICO's solution was the most powerful, comprehensive and flexible. In addition, we were impressed with their roadmap for AML analytics using artificial intelligence and machine learning."

"AML regulations are making it harder for criminals to launder money, and FICO is making it easier for banks like LHV to comply," said Torsten Mayer, vice president for compliance solutions at FICO. "This is a priority for banks worldwide, and no firm has as complete a solution as FICO."

FICO offers the TONBELLER SironAML (transaction monitoring), SironKYC (know your customer), SironEmbargo (transaction screening) SironRCC (risk and compliance cockpit), SironACM (central alert and case management) and other modules on-premise and on AWS, as part of its FICO Analytic Cloud offerings. Earlier this year, the FICO TONBELLER Siron AML and KYC solutions achieved Amazon Web Services (AWS) Financial Services Competency status.

About FICO

FICO (NYSE: FICO) powers decisions that help people and businesses around the world prosper. Founded in 1956 and based in Silicon Valley, the company is a pioneer in the use of predictive analytics and data science to improve operational decisions. FICO holds more than 185 US and foreign patents on technologies that increase profitability, customer satisfaction and growth for businesses in financial services, telecommunications, health care, retail and many other industries. Using FICO solutions, businesses in more than 100 countries do everything from protecting 2.6 billion payment cards from fraud, to helping people get credit, to ensuring that millions of airplanes and rental cars are in the right place at the right time.

Learn more at http://www.fico.com

FICO, TONBELLER and Siron are registered trademarks of Fair Isaac Corporation in the U.S. and other countries.

Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/450763/FICO_Logo.jpgKIBBUTZ SASA, Israel, February 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --

Plasan is very pleased to announce that they have signed a contract with BAE Systems, for the armouring of Type 26 Global Combat Ships for the UK Royal Navy.

(Photo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/646020/Plasan_Sasa_Combat_Ship.jpg )



Armour production for the first three ships is anticipated to begin in 2018. The ships will be built in Scotland at BAE Systems facilities in Glasgow and are considered the most advanced of their type in the world.

The new Type 26 'Global Combat Ship' designed and built by BAE Systems is the new class selected for the replacement of eight anti-submarine frigates of the Duke class currently in service with the Royal Navy.



The Type 26 will provide increased capability and flexibility through innovative design that includes a multi role mission bay, large flight deck and hangar that will be able to exploit a range of manned and unmanned systems. There will also be great scope for future development.

Plasan's world leading armour technology, flexibility and innovation is well suited to the Type 26 approach and has helped to secure this important programme. The quality and production processes within Plasan underpin the confidence that has been shown in selecting Plasan's solution. Working together with Design Authority partners has strengthened the ethos of Plasan's success.

Plasan are honored to cooperate with BAE Systems on this prestigious programme.

Please visit us at: http://www.plasan.com

Follow us on LinkedIn , YouTube, Twitter

For more information please contact:

Meirav Ofir, Marcom

+972-54-2872368

miravo@plasan.comLONDON, February 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --

Telehouse, a leading global data centre provider, has been named winner of the Eco ICT Award 2017 in Japan. Telehouse was presented with the award for its world class data centre and latest addition to the London Docklands data centre campus, Telehouse North Two, at a ceremony held in Tokyo, Japan on 21st February.

(Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/635970/Telehouse_UK_Logo.jpg )

The Eco ICT Award recognises and celebrates the outstanding achievements of organisations for the development of energy saving ICT productions and solutions. The award was established by the ICT Ecology Guideline Council, a consortium of five industry bodies created to encourage the reduction in the energy consumption of ICT equipment users, service providers and manufacturers. These industry bodies include: Telecommunications Carriers Association (TCA), Telecom Services Association (TELESA), Japan Internet Providers Association (JAIPA), Communications and Information network Association of Japan (CIAJ) and ASP-SaaS-Cloud Consortium (ASPIC). The overall objective of the council is to define and implement industry-wide measures to prevent global warming by creating, disseminating and promoting the Ecology Guideline for the ICT Industry.

Telehouse North Two is the first data centre in the world to feature a multi-storey Indirect Adiabatic and Evaporative (IAC) cooling system, which minimises use of clean water, fluid disposal and on-going water treatment. North Two was designed with this cutting edge technology to deliver a power usage effectiveness (PUE) of 1.16 across 6 floors of plant space.

Ken Sakai, Managing Director of Telehouse Europe said "We are pleased to have been honoured with this award. North Two was designed with innovative energy efficient cooling technology to minimise our environmental impact and to meet rigorous industry standards"

About Telehouse

Telehouse is the pioneering data centre colocation provider established in 1989.It is an owner operator of global data centres, connectivity and managed ICT solutions to over 3000 corporations around the world. Telehouse is the data centre subsidiary of Japanese corporation KDDI, a Global Fortune 300 company and leading Japanese mobile, fixed-line telecommunications and ICT solution provider with 104 offices, located in 62 cities in 28 countries around the world.

Further Telehouse press information: marketing@uk.telehouse.netNEWPORT, Isle of Wight, February 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --

Solution Provider and Software Development Company MyCRM has today announced the next release to market of eMap for MicrosoftDynamics CRM/365, using the Bing Maps API. The latest solution can be downloaded as a trial or as an update from the MyCRM download Centre: https://downloads.mycrmgroup.com/Products/2016/eMap

(Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/628362/MyCRM_Logo.jpg )



(Photo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/646199/eMap_MyCRM_Infographic.jpg )



eMap from MyCRM is an extensive data management tool that enables MicrosoftDynamics CRM/365 users to manipulate and work directly with CRM data from an integrated Bing Map. eMap includes a range of great sales and marketing tools, from building complex advanced find queries by location through drawing areas on a Map, to building Marketing lists and planning routes to visit customers or prospects. eMap is one of the only solutions to also include external data sources by location and gives access to 85 million external business records globally with basic contact information in CRM, this creates a powerful prospecting and research solution.

CEO Alistair Dickinson said: "We are very proud of the eMap solution for Microsoft Dynamics CRM/365 as it enables organisations to increase productivity and significantly enhances their investment in Microsoft Dynamics. "WOW!" is the most common expression used when gaining feedback from our customers and end users."

The eMap solution is a cost effective subscription based solution, offered with a compelling licence model that only requires a subscription for those users that need access to the eMap functionality not every Microsoft Dynamics user that is enabled. Subscriptions can be purchased monthly or annually with discounts available for volume and duration, and can be increased and decreased as needed.

About MyCRM

MyCRM is now in its 9th year of trading and has seen continued growth and profits. We continue to innovate and offer a unique, friendly and honest service to customers worldwide. MyCRM is a private limited organisation registered and based in the UK, with more than 300 customers located in 27 countries around the world.

Trial Software

MyCRM can provide a fully featured eMap trial including business data integration for a limited period of 14 days. Please register here: https://downloads.mycrmgroup.com/Products/2016/eMap

Watch our YouTube videos

We have recently uploaded new content to our YouTube channel demonstrating eMap's simple to use features. All the videos can be viewed on our website here: https://downloads.mycrmgroup.com/Products/2016/eMap

If you would like to find out more you can email MikeSpink at sales@mycrmgroup.com, or call +44(0)1983-245-245.Today, the GSMA and the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) at the Mobile World Congress being held this week in Barcelona. The MoU aims to enhance collaboration and raise awareness about Internet governance issues that are of common interest to both organizations and their communities. The agreement was signed by GSMA Director General Mats Granryd and ICANN President and CEO Goran Marby.

Over the years, mobile networks have evolved to become a critical infrastructure for Internet services, especially in developing countries. The goal of the MoU is to advance the organizations' shared objective of fostering the continuous expansion of interoperable networks and the deployment of information and communication technology. The document highlights cooperation on capacity building and policy exchanges. Joint activities include workshops, regional events, and ad hoc interactions on technical subject matter areas that will further intersect the GSMA and ICANN's respective missions.

About the GSMA

The GSMA represents the interests of mobile operators worldwide, uniting nearly 800 operators with more than 300 companies in the broader mobile ecosystem, including handset and device makers, software companies, equipment providers and internet companies, as well as organisations in adjacent industry sectors. The GSMA also produces industry-leading events such as Mobile World Congress, Mobile World Congress Shanghai, Mobile World Congress Americas and the Mobile 360 Series of conferences.

For more information, please visit the GSMA corporate website at www.gsma.com. Follow the GSMA on Twitter: @GSMA.

About ICANN

ICANN's mission is to help ensure a stable, secure and unified global Internet. To reach another person on the Internet, you have to type an address into your computer a name or a number. That address has to be unique so computers know where to find each other. ICANN helps coordinate and support these unique identifiers across the world. ICANN was formed in 1998 as a not-for-profit public-benefit corporation and a community with participants from all over the world.

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180228005646/en/

Contacts:

Media Contacts:

GSMA Press Office

pressoffice@gsma.com

or

Luna Madi

Communications Director, EMEA

Istanbul, Turkey

Tel: +90 533 031 3505

Email: luna.madi@icann.org

or

Buket Coskuner

Global Communications Coordinator

Istanbul, Turkey

Tel: +90 533 487 6254

Email: buket.coskuner@icann.orgNew family of zero-emissions medium-duty chassis to be featured at Work Truck Show at Ford's booth #3239, in Indianapolis, March 7-9, 2018

FOSTER CITY, California, Feb. 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --Responding to fleet market demand for complete, body-ready chassis, Motiv Power Systems announces its EPIC (Electric Powered Intelligent Chassis) all-electric family of chassis for 2018. Debuting at Ford's booth and based on the popular E-450, F-59, and F-53 platforms, the EPIC all-electric chassis are production line ready, drop-in replacements for the equivalent ICE chassis and are available for a wide range of medium-duty body applications including walk-in vans, box trucks, school buses, shuttle buses, work trucks and specialty vehicles. As a zero-emissions offering, the EPIC family of all-electric chassis qualify for regional and national incentive and subsidy programs including Volkswagen settlement funding.

Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/647474/Motiv_Power_Systems___EPIC.jpg

"Since 2009, Motiv has been dedicated to taking the guesswork out of adding all-electric vehicles to existing fleets. Moving from providing powertrain kits to manufacturing complete electric chassis is a natural evolution for us," said Jim Castelaz, founder and CEO of Motiv Power Systems. "With the debut of the EPIC chassis family, fleet buyers and operators seeking un-compromised performance and functionality, together with dramatically reduced operating and servicing costs, now have a streamlined path towards that goal."

Having received Ford's qualified vehicle modifier approval (EQVM), the new EPIC chassis family provides a broad range of capabilities in range, power, and capacity equivalent to common combustion alternatives with the added benefits of near silent operation and smooth power delivery. Featuring Motiv's award-winning and industry-proven Smart Power Control Technology', each EPIC chassis is available with universal charging compatibility and secure remote telematics and diagnostics for unparalleled charging flexibility and fleet/driver connectivity.

"With nearly ten years of operations, and with more than 350,000 miles logged in major national fleet deployments, Motiv's powertrain offerings have established a well-deserved reputation for reliability and scalability. These traits are also exemplified in the new EPIC chassis family as a turn-key, all-electric chassis," said Kash Sethi, Director of Sales at Motiv. "With EPIC, fleets can select chassis optimized for their specific range, payload, and route requirements. By providing an all-electric offering for fleet applications Motiv now closely mirrors the long-established procurement process for internal combustion engine powered chassis."

The new EPIC all-electric chassis will be on exhibit at Ford's booth #3239 at The Work Truck Show in Indianapolis, March 7-9, 2018. Attendees wanting to experience the quiet and smooth operation of Motiv power for themselves are encouraged to test drive an all-electric EPIC chassis powered AmeriPride walk-in van with a Utilimaster body, as part of a Ride & Drive event jointly hosted by Utlimaster and Motiv.

About Motiv:

Founded in 2009, and headquartered in the San Francisco Bay Area, Motiv is committed to freeing fleets from a dependence on fossil fuels. Motiv's Electric Powered Intelligent Chassis (EPIC) has received Ford's EQVM approval and is available for a number of different body configurations includingwalk-in vans, box trucks, work trucks, shuttle buses, school buses, trolleys, and other specialty vehicles. A Motiv EPIC chassis offers uncompromised performance and functionality without the pollution, noise, heat, and vibration of combustion power. With more than 350,000 miles logged in Fortune 50 fleet deployments throughout North America, Motiv's EPIC family eliminates 100% of vehicle emissions, dramatically reduces operating and maintenance costs, and creates a healthier environment for riders and communities, while also reducing driver fatigue.Regulatory News:

The shareholders of Gecina (Paris:GFC) (the "Company") are invited to attend the Combined General Meeting (AGM) to be held on:

Wednesday April 18, 2018, at 3:00 p.m.

at Pavillon Cambon, 46 rue Cambon, 75001 Paris

A meeting notice containing the agenda, the full text for the proposed resolutions and the main conditions for attending and voting at the AGM on April 18, 2018 has been published in the French official gazette (Bulletin des Annonces Legales Obligatoires) today. This meeting notice and the Board of Directors' report on the proposed resolutions can be consulted on Gecina's website at www.gecina.fr.

The meeting notice will be followed by an invitation to attend, which will be published in the French official gazette (BALO) and a French legal announcement journal within the applicable legal and regulatory timeframes.

The Company will be sending out the postal and proxy voting forms directly to all its shareholders.

The preparatory documents for this Meeting will be made available to the Company's shareholders in accordance with the applicable regulatory conditions and timeframes.

All shareholders may ask the Company to send them these documents with written requests to be sent to the Company's registered office by post or faxed to +33 (0)1 40 40 64 81 up until the fifth day (inclusive) before the AGM on April 18, 2018, i.e. April 13, 2018.

These documents may also be consulted at the Company's registered office and will be available on the Company's website (www.gecina.fr).

The Board of Directors

Gecina

French public limited company (societe anonyme) with a share capital of 565,225,830 euros

Registered office: 14-16, rue des Capucines, 75002 Paris

Paris trade and companies register: 592 014 476

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180228005653/en/

Contacts:

GECINA

Laurent Le Goff, Tel.: 33 (0)1 40 40 62 69Posted 2/28/18

After the city unofficially confirmed rumors last week that Bass Pro Shops has plans to reopen the former Tracker Marine boat plant in Bolivar, the company confirmed its plan Wednesday, saying the UK competition authorities have launched an investigation the proposed merger between the SSE and Npower's retail energy businesses. The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) said on Wednesday is has decided to assess whether the proposed new company could significantly reduce competition in UK energy supply. Since SSE announced the deal in November, the CMA has been discussing the deal with the companies and has launched a review based on the information provided. The deadline for the initial ...

Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann.DETROIT, February 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --

Stratview Research announces the launch of a new research report on Automotive Ducts Market by Vehicle Type (Passenger Car, LCV, and M&HCV), by Application Type (HVAC Ducts, Under the Hood Ducts, and Others), by Material Type (Plastic Ducts, Foam Ducts, and Others), by Process Type (Blow Molding, Injection Molding, Thermoforming, and Others), by Pressure Type (Low-Pressure Ducts and High-Pressure Ducts), and by Region (North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, and Rest of the World), Trend, Forecast, Competitive Analysis, and Growth Opportunity: 2018-2023.

(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160831/402975LOGO )



This market report, from Stratview Research, studies the ducts market in the global automotiveindustry over the trend and forecast period of 2012 to 2017 and 2018 to 2023, respectively. The report provides detailed insights on the market dynamics to enable informed business decision making and growth strategy formulation based on the opportunities present in the market.

Ducts Market in the Global AutomotiveIndustry: Research Highlights

As per Stratview Research, the global automotive ducts market offers a healthy growth opportunity during the forecast period of 2018 to 2023 and reach an estimated US$ 1,825.2 million in 2023. Organic growth in the automobile production owing to rising urbanization and increasing disposable income; increasing share of SUVs in the total vehicle production; and continuous replacement of traditional rubber and metal ducts with plastic ducts are some of the major factors thatare proliferating the growth of ducts in the automotive industry.

The author of the report cited that passenger car is expected to remain the growth engine of the automotive ducts market during the forecast period of 2018 to 2023. Increasing production of passenger cars, especially SUVs, coupled with a higher demand for lighter ducts would remain the major driver of the segment over the next five years. Hatchbacks and SUVs are likely to generate a greater demand for ducts in the passenger cars segment.

As per the study, HVAC ducts segment is expected to remain the most dominant application type in the automotive ducts market during the forecast period. HVAC ducts include various large-sized ducts, such as instrument panel duct, roof ducts, console ducts, and pillar ducts.

Register here for a free sample of the 250-page detailed report

Based on material type, plastic ducts segment is expected to remain the most dominant material type in the automotive ducts market during the forecast period. The segment is driven by a host of factors, such as significant weight reduction, better mechanical and chemical properties, improved temperature resistance, and good acoustic property. Foam ducts are also gaining share in the market, driven by their weight reduction and excellent acoustics.

In terms of region, Asia-Pacific is expected to remain the largest automotive ducts market during the forecast period of 2018 to 2023. The region is also likely to experience a healthy growth during the same period driven by high annual automobile production. Europe is expected to remain the second largest automotive ducts market during the same period.

Major automotive duct manufacturers globally are MANN+HUMMEL, Continental AG, MAHLE GmbH, Sogefi Group, Kyoraku Co. Ltd., Trocellen GmbH, and Rochling Group. Developing lightweight automotive ducts and forming strategic alliances are the key strategies adopted by the major players to gain a competitive edge in the market.

Report Features

This report provides market intelligence in the most comprehensive way. The report structure has been kept such that it offers maximum business value. It provides critical insights on the market dynamics and will enable strategic decision making for the existing market players as well as those willing to enter the market. The following are the key features of the report:

Market structure: Overview, industry life cycle analysis, supply chain analysis

Market environment analysis: Growth drivers and constraints, Porter's five forces analysis, SWOT analysis

Market trend and forecast analysis

Market segment trend and forecast

Competitive landscape and dynamics: Market share, product portfolio, product launches, etc.

Attractive market segments and associated growth opportunities

Emerging trends

Strategic growth opportunities for the existing and new players

Key success factors

This report studies the ducts market in the global automotive industry and has segmented the market in six ways, keeping in mind the interest of all the stakeholders across the value chain. The following are the six ways in which the market is segmented:

Automotive DuctsMarket, by VehicleType

Passenger Car (Regional Analysis: North America , Europe , Asia-Pacific , and RoW)

Light Commercial Vehicle (Regional Analysis: North America , Europe , Asia-Pacific , and RoW)

Medium- & Heavy-Duty Commercial Vehicle (Regional Analysis: North America , Europe , Asia-Pacific , and RoW)

Automotive Ducts Market, by Application Type

HVAC Ducts (Regional Analysis: North America , Europe , Asia-Pacific , and RoW)

Under the Hood Ducts (Regional Analysis: North America , Europe , Asia-Pacific , and RoW)

Others(Regional Analysis: North America , Europe , Asia-Pacific , and RoW)

Automotive DuctsMarket, by MaterialType

Plastic Ducts (Regional Analysis: North America , Europe , Asia-Pacific , and RoW)

Foam Ducts (Regional Analysis: North America , Europe , Asia-Pacific , and RoW)

Other Ducts(Regional Analysis: North America , Europe , Asia-Pacific , and RoW)

Automotive DuctsMarket, by ProcessType

Blow Molding (Regional Analysis: North America , Europe , Asia-Pacific , and RoW)

Injection Molding (Regional Analysis: North America , Europe , Asia-Pacific , and RoW)

Thermoforming (Regional Analysis: North America , Europe , Asia-Pacific , and RoW)

Others(Regional Analysis: North America , Europe , Asia-Pacific , and RoW)

Automotive Ducts Market, by Pressure Type

Low-Pressure Ducts (Regional Analysis: North America , Europe , Asia-Pacific , and RoW)

High-Pressure Ducts(Regional Analysis: North America , Europe , Asia-Pacific , and RoW)

Automotive DuctsMarket, By Region

North America (Country Analysis: The USA , Canada , and Mexico )

Europe (Country Analysis: Germany , France , The UK, Italy , Russia , and Rest of Europe )

Asia-Pacific (Country Analysis: China , Japan , India , South Korea , and Rest of Asia-Pacific )

Rest of the World(Country Analysis: Brazil , Argentina , and Others)

Stratview Research has several high value market reports in the global automotive industry. Please refer to the following link to browse through our reports:

Click Here for Other Reports from Stratview Research in the Automotive Industry

Some of our other premium reports in the automotive industry:

Global Automotive Engine Cover Market by Vehicle Type, by Material Type, by Manufacturing Process Type, and by Region, Trend, Forecast, Competitive Analysis, and Growth Opportunity: 2017-2022

Global Automotive Cylinder Head Market by Vehicle Type, by Material Type, by Source Type, and by Region, Trend, Forecast, Competitive Analysis, and Growth Opportunity: 2017-2022

About Stratview Research

Stratview Research is a global market intelligence firm providing wide range of services including syndicated market reports, custom research and sourcing intelligence across industries, such as Advanced Materials, Aerospace & Defense, Automotive & Mass Transportation, Consumer Goods, Construction & Equipment, Electronics and Semiconductors, Energy & Utility, Healthcare & Life Sciences, and Oil & Gas.

We have a strong team of industry veterans and analysts with an extensive experience in executing custom research projects for mid-sized to Fortune 500 companies, in the areas of Market Assessment, Opportunity Screening, Competitive Intelligence, Due Diligence, Target Screening, Market Entry Strategy, Go to Market Strategy, and Voice of Customer studies.

Stratview Research is a trusted brand globally, providing high quality research and strategic insights that help companies worldwide in effective decision making.

Contact:

Ritesh Gandecha

Stratview Research

E-mail: sales@stratviewresearch.com

Direct: +1-313-307-4176

ACTE Global (Association of Corporate Travel Executives), a prominent voice for business travellers worldwide, and Corporate Lodging Forum (CLF) by HRS, the world's leading hotel end-to-end solutions provider, are partnering to develop content for ACTE's five Global Summits in 2018. Beginning with ACTE's Global Summit in New York City on April 29, CLF will coordinate and contribute to select lodging-focused education sessions.

Responding to growing demand from ACTE's membership base for expanded education on the constantly evolving corporate hospitality arena, this partnership provides conference attendees with strategic insights to help optimise the way they source and provide lodging for business travellers. Sessions at ACTE Global Summits will touch upon a variety of topics, ranging from how to integrate alternative accommodations into a travel program, to the future of the hotel sourcing processes and new incremental savings opportunities, to the application of game-changing technology like virtual payments. These sessions will support the "Sleep Spoke" of ACTE's educational framework, helping its members build a holistic lodging programme.

After the New York event in April, additional ACTE Global Summits offering dedicated Sleep Spoke education include:

Singapore Global Summit July 17-18 Paris Global Summit October 14-16 Montreal Global Summit November 18-20 Sydney Global Summit December

The first 2018 HRS Corporate Lodging Forums of 2018 will take place in Berlin (March 6) and Milan (March 20). Other dates include:

Madrid April 24 Shanghai May 9 Tokyo May 16 Warsaw May 24 London June 7 Sao Paulo August 16

"ACTE Global is committed to helping its members become travel programme CEOs who provide indispensable value to their organisations," said Jill Jefferis, Director of Global Engagement for ACTE. "With accommodations being a key aspect of the business traveller experience, we're excited to tap HRS's expertise and CLF's depth of offerings to help Summit attendees broaden their knowledge of the emerging issues affecting their corporate travel programmes, as well as bringing ACTE global research into CLF."

"ACTE and HRS share the same objectives of educating travel buyers on the complex hospitality market, helping them bring competitive advantage to their organisations, and positioning travel executives as strategic partners to the C-suite," said Carole Poillerat, Executive Director, Industry Relations Corporate Lodging Forum for HRS. "Our organisations are naturally aligned to the goal of propelling corporate travel executives into the future, and we're excited to launch this initiative."

For more information on these events and other educational opportunities, please visit the ACTE Global and CLF events calendars.

About ACTE Global

ACTE Global (Association of Corporate Travel Executives) has a 30-year reputation for leading the way corporate travel is conducted. As a global association comprised of executive-level members in more than 100 countries, ACTE pioneers educational and technological advances that make business travel productive, cost-effective and straightforward. ACTE advocacy and initiatives continue to support impactful changes in safety and security, privacy, duty of care and compliance along with traveller productivity that supports global commerce. Learn more at www.acte.org.

About Corporate Lodging Forum

Business travel not only involves the procurement department, but also stakeholders from Finance, IT, Human Resources, Safety, and Communication and the business traveler. The travel buyer is in the center, playing the role of conductor. The task at hand: manage the demands of the entire stakeholder network and roll out an optimal procurement strategy. To support them in this strategic mission, HRS has developed a global CLF series to bring all corporate ecosystem stakeholders together to focus on the subject of corporate lodging. The CLF series, started in 2013, is held in 13 cities: Berlin, Milan, Madrid, New York, Shanghai, Tokyo, Warsaw, London, Singapore, Sao Paulo, Paris, Sydney and Montreal. Further information at www.corporate-travel-forum.com.

About HRS Global Hotel Solutions

HRS simplifies business travel. Corporate travel managers and business travellers around the world trust HRS to find the best accommodation and simplify all processes related to their business travel. In addition to professional hotel sourcing and the negotiation of corporate rates with hotels, HRS optimises paperless payment of hotel accommodation and meetings as well as automated invoice processing. More than 3,000 multinational corporations rely on HRS Global Hotel Solutions. Customers include global players from the Fortune 500, including Google, Siemens, Alibaba, China Mobile and Volkswagen. HRS pursues clear goals: savings for companies and high traveller satisfaction. Founded in Cologne in 1972, HRS today has more than 1,500 employees in 28 offices worldwide, including London, New York, Sao Paulo, Shanghai, Singapore and Tokyo. Further information atcorporate.hrs.com.

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180228005170/en/

Contacts:

ACTE

Sloane Company

Meghan Warren, +1-212-446-1897

mwarren@sloanepr.com

or

HRS

HRS Global Media Relations

Michael Brophy, +1-214-356-4326

michael.brophy@hrs.comLONGUEUIL, QUEBEC -- (Marketwired) -- 02/28/18 -- Pratt & Whitney Canada announced today that a new variant of its ground-breaking PurePower PW800 turbofan engine has been selected to power the new Dassault Falcon 6X business jet, unveiled by Dassault Aviation earlier today. P&WC is a subsidiary of United Technologies Corp. (NYSE: UTX).

The PW812D engine, thrust 13,000-14,000 lbs, is set to offer exceptional performance, unparalleled reliability and sustainability. Ready to enter service on other aircraft, the PurePower PW800 engine is optimized for high-flying, fast, long-range business jets and shares the same proven, rigorously-tested core technology used in Pratt & Whitney's award-winning PurePower family of geared turbofan commercial engines. The advanced common core technology, employed in 16 different PurePower engine applications, has amassed more than 585,000 in-service hours.

"With the new Falcon 6X, our PurePower PW800 engine once again demonstrates its leadership in the long range business jet category, said Irene Makris, Vice-President, Marketing, Pratt & Whitney Canada. The PW812D offers the highest level of technology available, paired with the reliability provided by an award-winning platform."

The PurePower PW800 engine incorporates the latest generation of technologies: delivering double-digit improvement in fuel efficiency, setting a new "green" engine standard for emissions with the advanced TALON? X combustor, and its low-noise design and low vibration levels will result in an exceptionally quiet cabin, enabling a more comfortable passenger experience.

Thanks to its robust design, exceptional maintainability, and advanced diagnostics capabilities, the PurePower PW800 engine will deliver best-in-class availability and dispatch reliability to operators. This will be coupled with the Pure Power PW800 family's enhanced service offering tailored for operator needs.

The Falcon 6X is designed to have a top speed of Mach 0.90 and a maximum range of 5,500 nautical miles (10,186 km). It will be able to fly directly from Los Angeles to Geneva, Beijing to San Francisco or Moscow to Singapore at long range cruise speed or connect Moscow to New York, Paris to Beijing or Los Angeles to London at Mach 0.85.

About Pratt & Whitney Canada

Founded in 1928, and a global leader in aerospace, P&WC is shaping the future of aviation with dependable, high-technology engines. Based in Longueuil, Quebec (Canada), P&WC is a wholly owned subsidiary of United Technologies Corp. United Technologies Corp., based in Farmington, Connecticut, provides high-technology systems and services to the building and aerospace industries.

This press release contains forward-looking statements concerning future business opportunities. Actual results may differ materially from those projected as a result of certain risks and uncertainties, including but not limited to challenges in the design, development, production, support, performance, and realization of anticipated benefits of advanced technologies; as well as other risks and uncertainties, including but not limited to those detailed from time to time in United Technologies Corp.'s Securities and Exchange Commission filings.

Note to Editors

Follow us on Twitter (www.twitter.com/pwcanada) and Facebook (www.facebook.com/PrattWhitneyCanada) for our latest news and updates.

Contacts:

Media Contact :

Annie Cossette

Pratt & Whitney Canada, Longueuil

+1 450 647 4113

annie.cossette@pwc.ca

www.pwc.ca



Features Tencent QQ, AliPay, Abardeen Social Applications Suite, AI and Deep Learning Capabilities

BARCELONA, Spain, Feb. 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- At MWC 2018, Abardeen, the innovative brand in Smart Wearables and sub-brand of Shenzhen Continental Wireless Co. Ltd., announced its release ofthe V600, a 4G kid smartwatch based on the Snapdragon' Wear 2100 platform.

The V600 connects directly to China's largest social network, Tencent QQ. It alsomakes fast, easy and safe online payments via China's largest mobile wallet app, AliPay. The device integrates Abardeen Social Applications Suite, which includes Ding Talk (a social networking app), Ding Fit (a pedometer to track steps), Ding Community (where kids can share pictures, videos, voice messages and texts with their family and friends), and Ding Games (trivia games).

"Abardeen is a pioneer and leader in kid watches in China," said Liu Qinglong, CEO, Continental Wireless. "As consumers want more functionality, our product design and technology integration have transformed, enabling more features and experiences. Kid smartwatches have evolved from merely a calling and location device to a smart communication and learning device. With the addition of the V600 to our kid watch family, and utilizing the Qualcomm Snapdragon Wear 2100 flagship platform, we are excited to bring such capabilities as Tencent QQ, AliPay, Abardeen Social Applications suite, AI and Deep Learning to our growing customer base."

Additionally, the V600 has artificial intelligence (AI) and deep learning capabilities including analyses of user scenarios and smart optimization of power consumption, enabling standby time of up to 72 hours and active battery life of up to 36 hours.

"The kid watch segment is an exciting opportunityto make the transition from 2G to 4G," said Pankaj Kedia, Senior Director, Product Management, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. "We are delighted to be working with Abardeen to accelerate this transition in China through the combination of our state-of-the-art wearables platform, Snapdragon Wear 2100, with rich and engaging cloud capabilities such as Tencent QQ, Alipay, social networking and AI/Deep Learning that Abardeen has brought to their devices. Meanwhile, we are on our way to realizing the vision of connecting friends and families as they live, work, learnand play."

The V600 supports a myriad of cellular networks from worldwide operators including FDD-LTE and TD-LTE. The device features an optimized version of the Android 7 operating system with 1.45' AMOLED touchscreen, 550mAh high capacity batteryand 2M pixels front camera. It integrates GPS, Wi-Fiand Bluetooth as well as interactive functions such as voice command.

The V600 will be released to China market on April, 2018.

Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/647567/abardeen.jpgNEW YORK, NY / ACCESSWIRE / February 28, 2018 / BWX Technologies, Inc. (NYSE: BWXT) will be discussing their earnings results in their Q4 Earnings Call to be held on February 28, 2018, at 9:00 AM Eastern Time.

To listen to the event live or access a replay of the call - visit https://www.investornetwork.com/company/2916.

To receive updates for this company you can register by emailing info@investornetwork.com or by clicking get investment info from the company's profile.

About Investor Network

Investor Network (IN) is a financial content community, serving millions of unique investors market information, earnings, commentary and news on the what's trending. Dedicated to both the professional and the average traders, IN offers timely, trusted and relevant financial information for virtually every investor. IN is an Issuer Direct brand, to learn more or for the latest financial news and market information, visit www.investornetwork.com. Follow us on Twitter @investornetwork.

SOURCE: Investor NetworkBARCELONA, Spain, Feb. 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --ZTE Corporation (0763.HK / 000063.SZ), a major international provider of telecommunications, enterprise and consumer technology solutions for the Mobile Internet, today reached an agreement on strategic cooperation with MEA (Middle East & Africa)'s leading operator MTN Group. Both sides signed the Memorandum of Understanding related to collaboration on 5G network architectures during Mobile World Congress 2018 in Barcelona.

According to the agreement, both parties, on the basis of existing cooperation, will jointly conduct a series of technology verification tests and assessments in 5G, to strengthen MTN's leading position and accelerate the commercialization of 5G in MEA.

As a leading provider of end-to-end 5G solutions in the industry, ZTE will provide MTN Group comprehensive technical support. Specifically, in phase one test in 2018, ZTE will collaborate with MTN to complete both lab and field tests in 5G NR, 5G virtualized network slicing, carrier-class DevOps and container-based vEPC, and 5G Flexhaul bearer network.

With these tests in end-to-end networks, applications and terminals, the two parties will complete the joint verification of 5G technology architecture, business model and user experience, expecting to lay a solid foundation for MTN Group to take the lead in 5G deployment in MEA.

"ZTE has always been a long-term strategic partner of MTN Group. After extensive partnerships on 2G, 3G and 4G, we are excited to be collaborating with ZTE on 5G. We believe 5G is an evolutionary step in getting connectivity, data and access to our customers. We are looking forward to continuing our journey in the 5G innovations and through that, we can strengthen existing cooperation and jointly explore the future direction of network construction and technology evolution, and bring services to our customers. MTN and ZTE always think about the customers at the first priority. Providing best services to customers is more important than technology and efficiency." said Babak Fouladi, CTIO of MTN Group.

Xu Huijun, CTO of ZTE, said: "As the world's leading provider of ICT solutions, ZTE pioneers in the field of 5G, our core strategy. We believe that the cooperation in 5G field this time will help MTN leverage its performance as the best carrier, and enable it to build a world-class network."

ZTE has been taking 5G development as its core strategy and striving to lead 5G innovations. ZTE has entered into 5G partnerships with many well-known high-end operators worldwide, including Telefonica, T-Mobile, Italy's Wind Tre, Belgium's Telenet, VEON, Telecom Malaysia, South Korea's KT, China Mobile, China Unicom and China Telecom.

About ZTE

ZTE is a provider of advanced telecommunications systems, mobile devices, and enterprise technology solutions to consumers, carriers, companies and public sector customers. As part of ZTE's strategy, the company is committed to providing customers with integrated end-to-end innovations to deliver excellence and value as the telecommunications and information technology sectors converge. Listed in the stock exchanges of Hong Kong and Shenzhen (H share stock code: 0763.HK / A share stock code: 000063.SZ), ZTE's products and services are sold to over 500 operators in more than 160 countries. ZTE commits 10 per cent of its annual revenue to research and development and has leadership roles in international standard-setting organizations. ZTE is committed to corporate social responsibility and is a member of the UN Global Compact. For more information, please visit www.zte.com.cn.

Media Contacts:The Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland (ICAS), a professional body for accountants which is headquartered in the United Kingdom (UK), the American Institute of CPAs (AICPA), the world's largest member association representing the CPA profession, and the National Association of State Boards of Accountancy (NASBA), a forum for the 55 U.S. Boards of Accountancy which license more than 650,000 U.S. CPAs, have signed an agreement which will provide a streamlined process for accounting professionals to practice in the other country.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180228005424/en/

Shown signing the Mutual Recognition Agreement are (left to right): NASBA President and CEO Ken L. Bishop, ICAS CEO Anton Colella and AICPA President and CEO Barry C. Melancon, CPA, CGMA. (Photo: Business Wire)

The Mutual Recognition Agreement (MRA) provides a clear route for ICAS members to achieve the U.S. CPA and licensure, and U.S. Certified Public Accountants to attain the CA designation and be on the pathway to UK audit signing rights.

Leadership of the three organizations took part in a signing ceremony for the MRA in New York City.

Anton Colella, ICAS CEO commented: "This is an historic agreement. It's the first of its kind between a UK Chartered Accountancy body and American accountancy bodies, and comes at a pivotal point for the UK. It not only creates new opportunities in the world of transatlantic trade, but also reinforces the high standing in which we hold our American colleagues, and the expertise they value in us."

"We welcome the mutual recognition that is at the heart of this agreement," said AICPA President and CEO Barry C. Melancon, CPA, CGMA. "It will give U.S. CPAs a clear and accelerated path to obtaining a credential in the United Kingdom. And the same is true of ICAS members with an interest in practicing in the United States. Agreements like this come to fruition through the dedication of the respective accounting bodies, the diligence of member volunteers who serve on the International Qualifications Appraisal Board, and the commitment of NASBA and the state boards it represents. Together, we are building increased international recognition for U.S. CPAs in every corner of the world."

"It is remarkable that is has taken decades to reach this historic agreement positively impacting the accounting professions of the United States and Scotland. I applaud the tremendous effort and perseverance of the staff and volunteers of the respective organizations to finalize this crucial agreement," said Ken L. Bishop, President and CEO of NASBA. "We appreciate the participation and support of the UK's FRC in this endeavor. The relationships developed during this process will serve us well as we work together on future agreements."

UK International Trade Secretary, Dr Liam Fox, commented: "This is a really welcome initiative, which my department supports, and shows the huge benefits which greater UK-U.S. co-operation can bring to our businesses. Mutual recognition of qualifications can help boost trade in services, making it easier for our world-leading professionals to operate in other countries. Through our UK-U.S. Trade and Investment Working Group we are looking at how we can support our services industries to work and trade across the Atlantic, building on our 50bn of annual services exports to the USA."

Eligibility

Eligible CAs and CPAs need only pass one exam, in addition to satisfying other requirements:

CAs need only pass the International Qualification Exam (IQEX); and

CPAs need only complete the international qualification pathway.

For CAs to take advantage of this agreement, they must be an ICAS member in good standing and have completed:

A baccalaureate (undergraduate) degree;

The ICAS CA Qualification Program;

Two years post-qualification relevant practical work experience.

To apply, a U.S. CPA must be a licensed CPA in good standing with a State Board and have completed:

An undergraduate degree;

The Uniform CPA Exam;

State Board experience requirements for licensure; and

Achieved two years post-qualification practical work experience.

About ICAS

ICAS is a professional body for more than 21,000 world class business men and women who work in the UK and in more than 100 countries around the world. Members have all achieved the internationally recognised and respected CA qualification (Chartered Accountant). ICAS is an educator, examiner, regulator and thought leader. Almost two thirds of ICAS' working membership are in business; many leading some of the UK's and the world's great companies. The others work in accountancy practices ranging from the Big Four in The City to the small practitioner in rural areas.

About the American Institute of CPAs

The American Institute of CPAs (AICPA) is the world's largest member association representing the CPA profession, with more than 418,000 members in 143 countries, and a history of serving the public interest since 1887. AICPA members represent many areas of practice, including business and industry, public practice, government, education and consulting. The AICPA sets ethical standards for its members and U.S. auditing standards for private companies, nonprofit organizations, federal, state and local governments. It develops and grades the Uniform CPA Examination, offers specialized credentials, builds the pipeline of future talent and drives professional competency development to advance the vitality, relevance and quality of the profession.

The AICPA maintains offices in New York, Washington, DC, Durham, NC, and Ewing, NJ.

Media representatives are invited to visit the AICPA Press Center at www.aicpa.org/press.

About NASBA

Celebrating more than 100 years of service, the National Association of State Boards of Accountancy (NASBA) serves as a forum for the nation's Boards of Accountancy, which administer the Uniform CPA Examination, license more than 650,000 certified public accountants and regulate the practice of public accountancy in the United States.

NASBA's mission is to enhance the effectiveness and advance the common interests of the Boards of Accountancy in meeting their regulatory responsibilities. The Association promotes the exchange of information among accountancy boards, serving the needs of the 55 U.S. jurisdictions.

NASBA is headquartered in Nashville, TN, with a satellite office in New York, NY, an International Computer Testing and Call Center in Guam and operations in San Juan, PR. To learn more about NASBA, visit www.nasba.org

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180228005424/en/

Contacts:

The Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland (ICAS)

Hannah Downie, 0131 347 0126/07799 583 409

ICAS Senior Digital Editor and Media Manager

hdownie@icas.com

or

American Institute of CPAs (AICPA)

Jay Hyde, 202-434-9266

Senior Director Public Affairs, Advocacy Communications and Media

Jay.hyde@aicpa-cima.com

or

National Association of State Boards of Accountancy (NASBA)

Thomas G. Kenny, 615-880-4237

Director, Communications

tkenny@nasba.orgLeader in commercial plumbing systems turns to Symmetry for SAP Cloud Hosting, Application Management, Disaster Recovery and GRC

BROOKFIELD, Wisconsin, Feb. 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Symmetry today announced that Sloan Valve Company, the world's leading manufacturer of commercial plumbing systems, has selected Symmetry as the outsourcing partner for its SAP HANA migration initiative. Sloan will deploy multiple Symmetry services and solutions, including hybrid cloud hosting, SAP Basis management and cloud-based disaster recovery. Sloan will also implement Symmetry's ControlPanelGRCsoftware suite for GRC automation of their SAP environment.

Sloan has been delivering water-efficient solutions to businesses all over the world since its founding in 1906. As a mid-sized, family-owned company that continues to grow, Sloan's internal IT organization has evolved into a highly strategic function that enables Sloan's business units to achieve their objectives through the use of technology. To support this continued evolution, the company needed a strategic partner that could help them with core IT services as well as provide expert services in support of future IT initiatives.

Historically, Sloan maintained its entire IT infrastructure on-premise-including the data center. This approach initially suited the business but became difficult and expensive to scale as the company grew and technology requirements evolved. According to Tom Coleman, Chief Information Officer for Sloan, "As our company expanded, my focus and that of my team needed to be on supporting business strategy. We needed to work with the business units to enable supply chain, digital commerce, product lifecycle and engineering initiatives through technology, not build servers, perform upgrades and manage databases."

Sloan's objective was to solve its IT infrastructure and operations challenges without adding additional budget pressure as it moved to SAP HANA. Building and managing an upgraded ERP infrastructure in-house would have required a significant increase in internal staff, infrastructure and other key resources. So despite legacy hesitation around outsourcing key IT responsibilities, Coleman understood this approach was critical to meeting their business goals.

Following a lengthy evaluation of multiple vendors, Coleman chose Symmetry as its strategic partner. This enabled Coleman and his team to seamlessly draft in responsibilities, and offload infrastructure and application management functions so they could focus on further enabling the business. Symmetry is a leader in SAP application management and hybrid cloud hosting services, and Coleman was familiar with the company's reputation for service excellence, SAP expertise and cutting-edge hybrid cloud services through previous collaborations with Symmetry.

"Symmetry's engagement with Sloan is an excellent example of how SAP customers can upgrade to the next-generation SAP HANA platform and feel confident with the team that's driving their transformation," said Pete Stevenson, Chairman and CEO of Symmetry. "Symmetry's deep experience with SAP and hybrid cloud hosting enables Sloan to accomplish this important IT evolution without disrupting the business, and will position Sloan to continue its growth for years to come."

The project is due to be completed in May of 2018. "We're bringing multiple parts of the landscape together, which is not an easy thing to do," Coleman said. "Our end goal is to go live seamlessly, and the way the project has been going thus far, I have every confidence that Symmetry will make that happen."

About Symmetry

Symmetry' manages complex SAP implementations on a global scale for more than 200 of the world's leading enterprises. With its proprietary client-centric business model - The Symmetry Way - combined with the industry's most advanced SAP hosting platform and industry leading ControlPanelGRCsoftware suite, Symmetry delivers expert, high-touch SAP application management services across all deployment environments, including on-premise, hosted, and private, public and hybrid cloud. With more than 22 years in business, Symmetry has built a base of expertise unmatched by any other independent SAP service provider. An SAP partner since 2005, Symmetry is certified in SAP Hosting, Cloud and SAP HANAOperations. Symmetry is based in Brookfield, Wis. with locations across North America and Europe. Learn more at https://symmetrycorp.com

Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/589181/Symmetry_Logo.jpgUtena, Lithuania, 2018-03-01 16:02 CET (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Utenos Trikotazas AB, the largest textile group in Central and Eastern Europe, grew rapidly during 2017, with group sales increasing 13.4% from the previous year to EUR 25.8 million. The Group's pre-tax profit for 2017 was EUR 383 thousand. The pre-tax profit was negatively impacted by a substantial increase in raw materials prices which was not fully transferred to client prices for products. Wage costs also rose significantly. Sales of products and services for the company Utenos Trikotazas AB itself increased 15% in 2017 to EUR 22.6 million, of which 82.2% was for export. The Company's pre-tax profit for the year was EUR 2.25 million, compared with EUR 674 thousand in 2016. Growth of the Company's pre-tax profit was due to income from subsidiary companies dividends and capital reduction. "Last year's sales growth sets a positive tone - sales grew in all business segments. Factors behind that include the groundwork done in export markets and work with new clients as well as expansion of our chain of own-brand stores and the creation of new collections. I'm convinced the Group's potential to grow rests on the two pillars of our business strategy to be "organically innovative": first, we focus completely on meeting clients' needs for top quality manufacturing and product innovation, and second, we take great care to ensure production processes are environmentally friendly and consumer-friendly. Our clients both in Lithuania and abroad really value that," said Algirdas Sabunas, the general manager of the Utenos Trikotazas AB group. Compared to 2016, when the Group had a pre-tax profit of EUR 1.22 million, its smaller pre-tax profit in 2017 was due to sharply increased prices for raw materials as well as complications in the supply of materials which prevented fulfilment of the full potential for client orders. Rapid growth of wages in the Group was partially offset by increased production volumes and orders. Exports made up 78.7% of the Group's product sales last year, which is 14.7% more than in 2016. The largest export markets (accounting for 68.1% of all exports) remain Scandinavia and the German-speaking countries Germany, Austria and Switzerland. Exports of goods and services to these regions grew 14.5% during the year to EUR 17.6 million. Sales in Lithuania also grew significantly and were up 9,0 % in 2017 compared to 2016. Own-brand sales increased 18.0% and made up 13.6% of all Group sales. That was thanks to the renewed UTENOS brand, which is attracting more and more consumer attention, and expansion of the UTENOS chain of branded stores. Late last year 4 new stores were opened - in Mazeikiai, Alytus, Taurage and Kaunas. In total the Group owns 15 stores throughout Lithuania. During 2017, the Group invested EUR 0.8 million (twice the 2016 amount) to increase manufacturing capacity and acquire new technological equipment. The same types of investments also dominate plans for 2018. "The growing scale of operations lets us continue increasing capacity and production efficiency, thus addressing the challenges of rising labour costs. Operational efficiency is one of the top priorities this year. We hope it will allow us to not only control operating costs, but also successfully fulfil growing client orders," Algirdas Sabunas noted. The Group ended 2017 with rapid growth: sales of goods and services in the last quarter of the year grew 20.8% versus the same period of 2016. Positive growth dynamics also continue in 2018 - in January the company Utenos Trikotazas AB's sales exceeded the EUR 3 million mark for the first time in a decade. The last time the company had a bigger monthly result was February 2008, when sales were EUR 3.49 million. At the start of last year, the Utenos Trikotazas AB group of companies joined Greenpeace's "Detox" project to promote fashion without pollution. In joining, the Group committed itself by 2020 to eliminate from its production chain any chemical substances that have an adverse effect on people or the environment. The Utenos Trikotazas AB group includes the companies Utenos Trikotazas, Satrija, Gotija and Mrija (Ukraine). The Group of companies is part of the SBA concern. About Utenos Trikotazas AB: Utenos Trikotazas AB is the largest and most modern textile group in Central and Eastern Europe and part of the SBA concern. Companies in the Group include Satrija, Gotija and Mrija (Ukraine). The company Utenos Trikotazas itself owns two retail brands - UTENOS and ABOUT. In 2017, Utenos Trikotazas AB was the first in Lithuania to join Greenpeace's "Detox" project for fashion without pollution and commit by 2020 to eliminate from its production chain any chemical substances that adversely affect people or the environment. Utenos Trikotazas AB Managing Director Algirdas Sabunas tel. No. 370 389 51445 Attachment: https://cns.omxgroup.com/cds/DisclosureAttachmentServlet?messageAttachmentId=666720Posted 2/28/18

Spring courtship in the bird world encompasses various types of struts, fluttering, flapping and vocalizations; but in this area, theres nothing quite like timberdoodle romance.American woodcocks SASKATOON, SASKATCHEWAN -- (Marketwired) -- 02/28/18 -- Tarku Resources Ltd (TSX VENTURE: TKU) (the "Company" or "Tarku") is pleased to announce it has identified new gold-in-till zones using the preliminary results of exploration work on the Apollo and Atlas projects in the Matagami area of Quebec. These results highlight a main area where samples with more than 15 gold grains are concentrated, in addition to three up-ice gold targets that may be the source of the gold grains. The three targets, Apollo XI, Apollo XII and Apollo XV, are considered priorities for the upcoming work phases. They correspond to magnetic highs associated with carbonate-hematite-magnetite alteration along or near the regional gold-bearing Riviere Waswanipi Shear Zone. Julien Davy, president of Tarku, commented "We are very encouraged by these results. They support our interpretation that the gold context of these projects is similar to those of the regional Sunday Lake Deformation Zone, host of the Detour Lake mine and Midland Exploration's new discovery, the Vortex Zone".

To validate historical gold results and to locate the source of gold mineralization, Tarku carried out a till, humus and rock sampling survey in autumn 2017. The gold grain counts for samples collected on both projects ranged from 1 to 47, with 18 samples containing more than 15 gold grains, which is above the regional background level (FIGURE 1). The results also reveal strong zoning and the presence of two areas with elevated gold grain counts (greater than 15), with one particularly significant area in the south-central part of the Atlas Project. "From this area, it is possible to target the magnetic highs and alteration zones of Apollo XI, Apollo XII and Apollo XV which are located up ice of the last documented movement oriented N210 degrees," explained Tarku's exploration manager, Benoit Lafrance. "These observations agree with our exploration model based on orogenic mineralization associated with alkaline rocks and porphyry intrusions."

"We acquired the Apollo and Atlas projects based on several points of geological interests. These include information provided by the most recent mapping of the area and historical results that identified gold grains in glacial deposits," commented Julien Davy, president of Tarku. "The results revealed an area with high numbers of gold grains, which allowed us to concentrate our exploration efforts on specific zones along the Riviere Waswanipi Shear Zone and other promising contacts over a distance of more than 19 kilometres."

Gold grain counting was done by optical microscope on coarse till fractions (greater than 50micron) and by scanning electron microscope (SEM) on fine till fractions (less than 50micron) recovered by the ARTGold? method (Advanced Recovery Techonology for Gold), an exclusive technology developed by IOS Service Geoscientifiques of Chicoutimi. The ground and helicopter-supported survey of November 2017 yielded 81 till and humus samples providing good coverage of both projects. The final results of the gold grain counts, the metal assays on fine fractions, the pebble counts, and the humus assays are expected over the next few months.

Apollo and Atlas Projects

Using an innovative approach based on exploration models that differ from the traditional approach for this area, Tarku has acquired a large land position with strong potential for gold in the Matagami base metal camp, along the northern margin of the geological Abitibi Subprovince.

The Apollo Project, 100% owned by Tarku, is adjacent to the north of the Atlas Project. It consists of 105 claims (5,550 ha) centred on the Riviere Waswanipi ductile shear zone. This regional structure is characterized by the presence of alkaline rocks, polygenic conglomerates (Timiskaming type) and porphyry intrusions bearing anomalous gold values on the order of hundreds of parts per billion (GM 52712). This corridor, altered to carbonate-hematite-magnetite, contains the Riviere Waswanipi gold showing (2.36 g/t Au over 1 m; GM 51193) hosted in a porphyritic dyke and tuffs altered to pyrite-fuchsite. Collectively, these metallotects present a favourable setting for orogenic gold mineralization associated with alkaline rocks and porphyry intrusions, which Tarku interprets as being similar to those of the regional Sunday Lake Fault, host of the Detour Lake mine. Tarku cautions that the mineralization at the Detour Lake mine or at the Vortex Zone may not be indicative of the mineralization that may be identified on the Company's Matagami projects and is used as a conceptual exploration model only.

The Atlas Project, 100% owned by Tarku, lies south of the Apollo Project. It consists of 89 claims (4,870 ha) characterized by a volcanic sequence with facies and geochemical affinities similar to those of the Bousquet Formation in the southern Abitibi (host to the Au-Zn-Cu-Ag LaRonde mine). The volcanic sequence is in contact with sedimentary rocks and is affected by aluminous sericite-chloritoid alteration. These observations are favourable indicators for the presence of gold-rich volcanogenic massive sulphide mineralization (Au-Ag-Cu-Zn). Tarku cautions that the mineralization at the LaRonde mine may not be indicative of the mineralization that may be identified on the Company's Matagami projects and is used as a conceptual exploration model only.

About Tarku Resources Ltd. (TSX VENTURE: TKU)

Tarku Resources Ltd is an exploration company focused on generating sustainable projects for precious and base metals by conducting exploration in areas with strong geologic potential and high levels of social acceptability. Tarku holds a 100% interest in all its projects and has an option to acquire a 50% interest in the SOQUEM project. Project generation is the foundation of mining development, and Tarku's vision is to generate exploration projects with excellent potential for mining development for prospective partners or buyers. The Company has an experienced management team with a successful track record. The goal of Tarku is to provide value for its shareholders through the implementation of strategic property acquisition, innovative exploration techniques and exploration of fertile ground. Management cautions that there is no assurance that past results or discoveries on adjacent or nearby land packages are indicative that the Company will achieve similar results on its projects.

Benoit Lafrance, P.Geo., PhD, Exploration Manager and Director of Tarku, is the qualified person under National Instrument 43-101 Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects who prepared, supervised and approved the preparation of the technical information in this news release.

For more information, please visit the Company's web site.

Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

This press release may contain forward-looking statements that are subject to known and unknown risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results and activities to vary materially from targeted results and planning. Such risks and uncertainties include those described in Tarku's periodic reports including the annual report or in the filings made by Tarku from time to time with securities regulatory authorities.

Contacts:

Sylvain Laberge, CEO

+1 (514) 702-9841

info@tarkuresources.com



Julien Davy, President

+1 (514) 618-7287

info@tarkuresources.com



BERLIN, February 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --

The Dialogue of Civilizations Research Institute (DOC-RI) has signed in February 2018 an agreement with the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) under which DOC-RI will formulate a Policy Paper on Scenario Building for Food and Agriculture Development in 7 countries covered by FAO Sub-regional Office in Ankara (Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkey, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan).

Says Vladimir Popov, Research Director at DOC RI, who oversees the project: "DOC RI's role will be to coordinate data collection andanalysis, and then to develop methodology for forecasts of agricultural development, as well as possible scenarios for the development of agriculture and food security in the region".

With the population exceeding 200 mln by 2030, the region would need to address in an integrated way many challenges associated with sustainable development. Though the share of agriculture in GDP countries has been steadily declining in the countries of the region (from almost 20% in 1990 to less than 8% in 2017), the sector still plays a critical role both for employment and livelihood of the majority of population. Moreover, investment in agriculture could generate broader and longer term cross-sectoral and cross-country positive spill-overs, triggering more inclusive economic growth, reducing poverty, narrowing income disparities, improving food security and delivering environmental benefits.

The joint project is due to launch in March 2018 and the Policy Paper is to be presented by May 2018.

Dialogue of Civilizations is a research institute whose mission is to promote mutual understanding, inclusive development and equitable dialogue. It seeks to develop policy proposals based on scientific research that address key challenges faced by the international community, from infrastructure underdevelopment and economic inequality to civilisation and religious tensions and conflicts.

Media Contact:

Agnieszka Rzepka

Press Officer

Tel: +49-30-209677900

Dialogue of Civilizations Research Institute

Franzosische Str. 23

10117 Berlin



www.doc-research.orgPeople who are Interested in Helping the Non-Profit Organization with its Mission Can Work with Students on a Part-Time Coordinator Basis

CLEVELAND, OH / ACCESSWIRE / February 28, 2018 / Since 1985, Greenheart Exchange has offered cultural exchange programs in the United States that connect Americans with international students.

In an effort to impact as many lives as possible, the non-profit is actively seeking more people to help with their mission. They will be taking Local Coordinator applications from now through June, 2018.

To learn more about Greenheart Exchange and how to get involved, please visit www.placewithgreenheart.org.

As Jennifer, a Regional Director for Greenheart Exchange noted, working with the non-profit is an ideal opportunity for a wide variety of people, but especially ideal for moms, teachers, retired teachers or anyone who loves working with teens. Local Coordinators may also choose to host an international high school student to get the full experience.

"Local Coordinators work with students on a part-time independent coordinator basis, set their own hours, contribute to a cause, make extra money and even earn international travel," Jennifer noted, adding that by expanding their team, Greenheart Exchange is hoping to make a larger impact on the local community.

As Dave, an elementary school teacher in Michigan, with a self-described passion for cultural learning and experiences explained, he started out just looking for ways to supplement his income.

"I found the perfect thing: working with Greenheart Exchange," Dave said, adding that his work with the non-profit organization allows him to place and supervise high school international exchange students during their stay in the U.S.

"I continue to learn about other cultures, and share these cultures with my community, all while making a little extra money. Each full year student placed in a volunteer home and supervised earns you $1,100 in stipends, not to mention the great international trips."

As Dave added, he is one of many current or retired teachers who took on a contract position at Greenheart Exchange, which means he set his own goals and hours.

About Greenheart Exchange:

Since 1985, Greenheart International has been a catalyst for global transformation through the facilitation of cultural exchange programs, eco-fair trade purchasing, personal development opportunities, volunteer service initiatives, and environmental advocacy projects. Their mission of connecting people and planet to create global leaders drives all that they do in each of their branches: Greenheart Travel, Greenheart Shop, Greenheart Transforms, and Greenheart Exchange. Greenheart International is endorsed by the City of Chicago for the promotion of international education, environmental awareness, and citizen diplomacy. With an ardent commitment to sustainable practices, a steadfast dedication to expanding worldviews, and an abiding passion for planetary change, they are guided by their vision of a united and flourishing global family. For more information, please visit https://www.greenheartexchange.org.

Contact:

Jennifer

jjoseph@greenheart.org

855.296.2732

SOURCE: Greenheart ExchangeVancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - February 28, 2018) - American CuMo Mining Corporation (TSXV: MLY) (OTC Pink: MLYCF) ("CuMoCo" or the "Company") announces that it has closed its private placement of convertible debentures (the "Debentures") previously announced on November 29, December 8, and December 21, 2017, and extended on January 17, 2018. The Company has decided to stop the sales of these debentures with to-date received subscriptions totalling $2,768,500. The Debentures have an initial one-year term, automatically renewable annually for additional one-year terms, up to a maximum term of five years, are secured by the assets of the Company's subsidiary, Idaho CuMo Mining, and pay interest at a rate of 8.75% interest per annum, with interest paid in quarterly instalments. The Debentures are convertible into units of the Company (the "Units") at a conversion price of C$0.075 per Unit at any time following four months and one day from the closing date until the first anniversary on the closing date, and thereafter up to the maturity date (as such date may be extended) at C$0.10 per Unit. Each Unit will consist of one common share of the Company and one common share purchase warrant (a "Warrant"), with each Warrant entitling the holder to purchase an additional common share of the Company (a "Warrant Share") at a price of C$0.1125 per Warrant Share for a period of five years from the closing date. Any accrued but unpaid interest under the Debentures may also be converted, at the option of the holder, into Units at the Market Price determined at the time the interest becomes payable and is subject to TSXV approval. Should the holder decide not to renew the Debentures, the Company has ninety days to repay the principal owed. Proceeds from the Debenture financing, along with other financing efforts, will be used by the Company to repay the debentures owed to International Energy & Mineral Resources Investment (Hong Kong) Company Limited, to fund a Pre-Feasibility Study for the CuMo Project that will include the results from the Ore-Sorting process to be used by the Company and other optimizations to improve on the results in the November 15, 2015 Preliminary Economic Analysis (PEA), and to continue analyzing the results of the Calida Gold 2017 work program.

Sacre-Davey Engineering, a mining engineering company with considerable experience in Ore-Sorting, continues to make good progress on providing an updated Preliminary Economic Analysis (PEA) for the Company's CuMo Project that incorporates the substantial benefits of Ore-Sorting in the analysis. The updated PEA will be a prelude to a Pre-Feasibility Study and provides the Company with independent verification of the benefits of Ore-Sorting to the CuMo Project in a relatively brief period.

At the Calida Gold project, Vancouver Petrographic has completed microscopic studies that confirm the assay nugget problem. Native silver is present in the mineralized zone and is not showing up in the first-run assay procedures. Also, samples show that the copper mineralization (Chalcopyrite) has been largely replaced by Iron-bearing minerals, with some of the copper being converted into copper oxide minerals. This tends to give high copper values and low precious metals values. It is apparent that the heavy fracturing in the area that provided the conduit for the mineralization has allowed surface water to percolate downward mixing with the sulphide, creating acid and leaching metal from the rock. The Company will now proceed with more detailed testing of the mineralized zones to determine what the actual grades are of the intersections. It should be noted that nugget effects are a common problem in many precious metal deposits.

At the CuMo Project, the Company's Idaho CuMo Mining Corporation (ICMC) team have been working continuously to obtain support for the project from major legislatures and to have Molybdenum classified as a critical mineral in the United States. ICMC representatives have completed several presentations to the various legislative committees and authorities for the State of Idaho.

Regarding the IEMR HK debentures, IEMR HK's legal team has terminated negotiations and has submitted a claim for judgment against the Company in the British Columbia Supreme Court for CAD$1 million and US$1 million plus interest and court costs. The Company is in the process of preparing a response, third party notice and counterclaim against IEMR HK and certain other related entities that has the potential to more than offset the claims of IEMR HK. In the event this litigation is decided wholly or partially in IEMR HK's favour, a monetary judgment against CuMoCo would issue and CuMoCo could then simply pay the claim. The Company will continue to keep shareholders informed as events unfold.

Mr. Shaun M. Dykes, M.Sc. (Eng), P.Geo., President and CEO of the Company, is the designated qualified person for the CuMo Project and the Calida Gold project and has prepared the technical information contained in this news release.

About CuMoCo

CuMoCo is focused on advancing its CuMo Project towards feasibility. CuMoCo is also advancing its newly-acquired Calida Gold project. For more information, please visit cumoco.com, idahocumo.com and cumoproject.com.

For further information, please contact:

American CuMo Mining Corporation

Shaun Dykes, President and Chief Executive Officer

Tel: (604) 689-7902

Email: info@cumoco.com

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Service Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this new release.

Cautionary statement regarding forward-looking information

Certain disclosures in this release constitute "forward-looking information" within the meaning of Canadian securities legislation. Forward-looking statements are statements that are not historical facts and are generally, but not always, identified by words such as the following: expects, plans, anticipates, believes, intends, estimates, projects, assumes, potential and similar expressions. Forward-looking statements also include reference to events or conditions that will, would, may, could or should occur, including, without limitation, details of the Rights Offering, the intended use of proceeds of the Rights Offering, and expected outcomes. In making the forward-looking statements in this news release, the Company has applied certain factors and assumptions that the Company believes are reasonable, including that the Company's permitting will proceed as expected; that the Rights Offering will be completed and will raise the expected proceeds; that the results of exploration and development activities are consistent with management's expectations and that the assumptions underlying mineral resource estimates are valid. However, the forward-looking statements in this news release are subject to numerous risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause future results to differ materially from those expressed or implied in such forward-looking statements, including without limitation: that the Rights Offering will otherwise not be completed or will raise less than the expected proceeds; uncertainties as to the costs to completion of the rights offering; the results of exploration and development activities will not be consistent with management's expectations, the risk of unexpected variations in mineral resources, grade or recovery rates, delays in obtaining or inability to obtain required government or other regulatory approvals or financing, failure of plant, equipment or processes to operate as anticipated, the risk of accidents, labor disputes, inclement or hazardous weather conditions, unusual or unexpected geological conditions, ground control problems, earthquakes, flooding and all of the other risks generally associated with the development of mining facilities and the operation of a producing mine. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate, and actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. The Company does not intend, and expressly disclaims any intention or obligation to, update or revise any forward-looking statements whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by law.

###Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - February 28, 2018) - Alset Minerals Corp. (TSXV: ION) ("Alset" or "the Company") is pleased to announce that it is in the process of signing a collaboration agreement with the Center for Research and Advanced Studies of the National Polytechnic Institute (Cinvestav), in Saltillo, the capital of Coahuila, Mexico. Cinvestav has research labs focused on various areas of expertise throughout the country, the Saltillo lab is focused on metallurgy. This collaboration will include implementing the results from the advanced leaching analysis completed by Cinvestav over the last year on samples from Alset's salars. The ultimate aim is to move toward pilot plant testing of the salar material to determine the low-cost potential of recovering lithium and other minerals from these salars. All the salars are 100% owned by Alset.

In addition, Dr. Roberto Perez Garibay, metallurgist and head of the Cinvestav lab in Saltillo, will be joining Alset as an external advisor. Dr. Garibay is also very experienced at obtaining funding from national research and development groups in Mexico. He will be a key advisor to Alset on the recovery of lithium and other minerals from Alset's salars, and will lead the application process for the funding of a pilot plant to further test the low-cost potential of lithium recovery from Alset's salars. The next round of applications for funding are accepted in April 2018, at which time Alset will apply for up to 70% of the funding needed to construct a pilot plant. If the application is successful, 70% of these costs will be covered by the research and development fund that works with Cinvestav on many projects.

President and Chief Executive Officer Allan Barry Laboucan said: "We have completed first-pass leach testing of composite sediment samples from our salars that show with dilute acid we can recover between 79-97% of the lithium in a matter of hours. Cinvestav has completed the advanced leaching analysis that needs to be carried out prior to pilot plant testing. This work will provide key data for various water temperatures, leaching times and acid amounts which are important in understanding the low-cost potential of lithium recovery from our salars. With the help of Dr. Perez Garibay and his team at the Cinvestav lab in Saltillo, we can complete the work required to establish these low costs. This work will be potentially transformative for the company and we are excited to move ahead. Once we have signed this collaborative agreement, we will report on the findings from the advanced leaching analysis completed by Cinvestav."

Emily Hanson, PGeo, Vice-President of exploration for Alset Minerals Corp., is the qualified person responsible for the technical content of this release.

About Alset Minerals Corp. (ION.V)

Alset Minerals is a TSX Venture Exchange-listed junior exploration company focused on exploring and development of a group of high-grade lithium and potassium projects in the Central Mexican plateau. The company, in November 2017, added nearly one million acres of lithium prospective salars, through staking. Alset has a growing portfolio of 100-per-cent-owned lithium prospective salars in the states of San Luis Potosi, Zacatecas and Coahuila in Mexico. With the November 2017, staking, the company now has more than one million acres of lithium prospective salars in mining-friendly Mexico with roads and power up to the salars.

On behalf of the Board of Directors of Alset Minerals Corp.,

"Allan Barry Laboucan"

Allan Barry Laboucan, President and CEO

THE TSX VENTURE EXCHANGE HAS NOT REVIEWED AND DOES NOT ACCEPT RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE ADEQUACY OR ACCURACY OF THIS RELEASE.

The information contained herein contains "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of applicable securities legislation. Forward-looking statements relate to information that is based on assumptions of management, forecasts of future results, and estimates of amounts not yet determinable. Any statements that express predictions, expectations, beliefs, plans, projections, objectives, assumptions or future events or performance are not statements of historical fact and may be "forward-looking statements."

Forward-looking statements are subject to a variety of risks and uncertainties which could cause actual events or results to differ from those reflected in the forward-looking statements, including, without limitation: risks related to failure to obtain adequate financing on a timely basis and on acceptable terms; risks related to the outcome of legal proceedings; political and regulatory risks associated with mining and exploration; risks related to the maintenance of stock exchange listings; risks related to environmental regulation and liability; the potential for delays in exploration or development activities or the completion of feasibility studies; the uncertainty of profitability; risks and uncertainties relating to the interpretation of drill results, the geology, grade and continuity of mineral deposits; risks related to the inherent uncertainty of production and cost estimates and the potential for unexpected costs and expenses; results of pre-feasibility and feasibility studies, and the possibility that future exploration, development or mining results will not be consistent with the Company's expectations; risks related to gold price and other commodity price fluctuations; and other risks and uncertainties related to the Company's prospects, properties and business detailed elsewhere in the Company's disclosure record. Should one or more of these risks and uncertainties materialize, or should underlying assumptions prove incorrect, actual results may vary materially from those described in forward-looking statements. Investors are cautioned against attributing undue certainty to forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are made as of the date hereof and the Company does not assume any obligation to update or revise them to reflect new events or circumstances. Actual events or results could differ materially from the Company's expectations or projections.

For further information please contact:

Corporate Communications

allan@alsetminerals.com

Telephone: 1-604-505-4753

www.alsetminerals.comVancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - February 28, 2018) - Advance Gold Corp. (TSXV: AAX) ("Advance Gold" or "the Company") is pleased to provide shareholders with an update on the company's efforts to develop our silver project in Mexico and to proceed with our working interest in a joint venture with Acacia Mining plc.

Allan Barry Laboucan, President and CEO of Advance Gold Corp. commented: "For a junior exploration company with a tiny market valuation we have a lot on the go. At our 100% owned Tabasquena silver mine in Mexico, we are planning a geophysical survey together with a follow up drill program. The well known Milagros silver mine lies approximately 8 kilometres to the south east of the Tabasquena mine. We believe that these two mines lie on the same structure.

Our other key asset, is a gold project in Kenya where Advance Gold currently has a 13.5% participating interest in a joint venture with Acacia Mining plc (Acacia Mining is 63.9% owned by Barrick Gold Corp). In our agreement with Acacia, if we do not contribute to the funding of the project our interest will be diluted down to 10%. Once this point has been reached Advance Gold will be assigned an uncapped 3% Net Smelter Return (NSR) royalty. While we are a participating partner, Acacia Mining has a first right of refusal if another company wants to purchase our interest. In the event that we are converted to an NSR, then we are clear of any rights of first refusal and can sell the NSR to the best offer.

We believe this is a valuable asset, as it is an integral part of Acacia Mining's West Kenya Gold project. At this point in time, Advance Gold is considering its options, in particular to the possibility of contributing to the ongoing exploration costs in Kenya. The possibility also exists that Advance Gold will decide to sell this interest/royalty and use the funds to further develop its Mexican assets.

It is clear based on the quality of our projects that we have a compelling story in the junior precious metals sector. We are preparing to start an investor relations program designed to increase awareness of the merits of our projects."

Tabasquena Silver Project - Mexico

Advance Gold Corp holds a 100-per-cent interest in the Tabasquena silver mine in Zacatecas, Mexico.

Having reviewed the existing data from the project, including the induced polarization (IP) survey carried out by Penoles. It appears that the IP survey was very effective in identifying the mineralized veins at Tabasquena. It should be stressed that this work is historical in nature, and as such should not be relied upon. The work was done by Penoles, a large mining company.

As a result, Advance Gold is currently receiving quotes to carry out an extensive IP survey at Tabasquena. The aim of the IP survey will be to delineate the veins and trace their strike extent. Results from this IP survey will assist in the drill program.

Underground mapping and sampling at the Tabasquena mine will be carried out to establish the mineralogy, grade and depth extent of the mineralization. It is important to note that none of the historical work went below the near surface oxide portion of the two known veins. Additionally, the strike extent of historical work only covers approximately 100 metres of the Tabasquena epithermal vein system, which appears to extend to over 2 kilometres.

Advance Gold is also currently looking at acquiring new properties in the Zacatecas area.

West Kenya Gold Project - Africa

Gold mining in the region started in 1935 when a company, Rosterman Gold Mines (Advance Gold Corp - Special license SL-267 covers the Rosterman mine), was incorporated and licensed to prospect for and mine gold near the town of Kakamega, Kenya. The Rosterman company mined gold for 17 years, until 1952. In that period, it had milled about 655,000 tonnes of ore and produced 259,142 ounces of gold (roughly 11g/t Au). These are historical figures, as such should not be relied upon, the company is using them to provide context.

Advance Gold Corp currently holds a 13.5% interest in a joint venture with Acacia Mining plc (Barrick Gold holds a 63.9% equity interest in Acacia) on three mineral leases in southwest corner of Kenya. They are located along the Buisa Kagamega - Greenstone Belt.

This is a highly prospective area which has seen extensive small scale mining. The principal assets of the JV with Acacia Mining are three Special Licenses (SL-265 Bukura, SL-266 Sigalagala and SL-267 Rosterman). Since 2013 Acacia Mining have spent $US 41 million in the area and have recently announced an inferred resource of 3.46 million tonnes at 12.1 g/t Au on an area contiguous to Advance Gold's licenses.

The main zone of interest is the Liranda corridor, Acacia Mining view this as a significant new gold corridor. This trend runs through two of Advance Gold Special Licenses, namely SL-265 and SL-266. Reconnaissance air-core drilling of gold-in-soil anomalies identified significant gold mineralization. Hole KDAC0152 on SL-266 returned 6 metres at 30.9 g/t Au. These results together with other results from the area can be seen on the company's website.

Acacia Mining has publicly announced they plan to spend a further $US 6.4 million in the area in 2018 (Acacia Mining-Preliminary Results Review, February 2018).

To put the merits of the project into context we quote Acacia Mining on the Liranda Corridor as "One of the highest-grade projects in Africa" - Acacia Mining, Bank of America Merrill Lynch Global Metals and Mining Conference, May, 2017. Advance Gold holds an important interest in a large portion of this impressive untapped region.

Emily Hanson, PGeo, vice-president of exploration for Advance Gold Corp, is the qualified person responsible for this release and has prepared, supervised and approved the preparation of the scientific and technical disclosure contained within the release.

About Advance Gold Corp. (AAX.V)

Advance Gold is a TSX-V listed junior exploration company focused on exploring and acquiring mineral properties containing precious metals. The Company currently has a 13.5% interest on strategic claims in the Liranda Corridor. The remaining 86.5% of the Kakamega project is held by Acacia Mining (63% owned by Barrick Gold). In addition, Advance Gold has recently acquired a 100% interest in the Tabasquena Silver Mine in Zacatecas, Mexico. The Tabasquena project is a shadows of a headframe project near the Milagros silver mine, near the city Ojocaliente, Mexico.

For further information, please contact:

Allan Barry Laboucan, President and CEO

Phone (604) 505-4753

www.advancegold.ca

This news release contains certain statements that may be deemed "forward-looking statements. Forward looking statements are statements that are not historical facts and are generally, but not always, identified by the words "expects", "plans", "anticipates", "believes", "intends", "estimates", "projects", "potential" and similar expressions, or that events or conditions "will", "would", "may", "could" or "should" occur. Although the Company believes the expectations expressed in such forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions, such statements are not guarantees of future performance and actual results may differ materially from those in forward looking statements. Forward looking statements are based on the beliefs, estimates and opinions of the Company's management on the date the statements are made. The Company undertakes no obligation to update these forward-looking statements in the event that management's beliefs, estimates or opinions, or other factors should change, except as required by law.

Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this news release.SAN FRANCISCO, LYON, France and BOSTON, February 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --

Investment will accelerate development and commercialization of gene-editing tools including enzymes, reagents, instrumentation, and software.

Merieux Developpement and Paladin Capital Group announced the completion of a $55.5 million Series C funding into Inscripta, a leading gene-editing technology company, based in Boulder, CO and Pleasanton, CA. Additional participants include all existing investors: Venrock, Foresite, Spruce, and NanoDimension. The new funding comes on the heels of the company's release of its first CRISPR enzyme (MAD7), and will accelerate Inscripta's development of gene-editing tools, including instruments, reagents, and software, and grow the company's expert team.

"Gene editing is one of the most exciting scientific advancements of this young century, but to realize its full potential, researchers need to have better, more scalable tools to forward engineer proteins, pathways and genomes," said Kevin Ness, CEO of Inscripta. "The past 20 years of genomic advancements have been in the field of genome reading, but we believe that future advancements in biology will be in the applications of genome writing".

Inscripta will use the funding to expand its research capabilities and strengthen its internal team of high-performing research experts. The company has open positions that offer growth opportunities for scientists and engineers in the fields of microfluidics, genomics, cell biology, synthetic biology, and computational biology at locations in Boulder, Colo. and the Bay Area.

At the close of last year, Inscripta introduced its MAD7 enzyme, which is fully available for commercial and academic researchers with no up-front licensing fees or "reach-through royalties" on products made using the technology. This unique approach was the first step in the company's path to re-shape forward genome engineering and make it more accessible for the research community.

Inscripta is unique in building the best set of tools that allow researchers and industrial players to engineer strains and enzymes, while owning the fruits of their results outright. As the company prepares for the next set of breakthroughs and first commercial launch, we are excited to work with a very talented team to accelerate what we consider will be a game changer for the industry," said Francois Valencony, general manager at Merieux Developpement.

We believe that Inscripta's highly multiplexed, cost efficient, easy to use platform will have a major impact on the future of scientific discovery and across a wide range of applications, including next generation diagnostics, biopharmaceuticals and industrial biotech", said Paul Conley, Managing Director at Paladin.

About Inscripta / http://www.inscripta.com

Inscripta is a gene-editing technology company that puts researchers in control by making it easy for them to get all they need for cutting-edge, forward cell-engineering. These tools include a family of CRISPR enzymes (called MADzymes), custom nucleases for researchers and commercial partners, and a full suite of gene-editing tools (instruments, reagents, and software) that will significantly increase the speed and efficiency of multiplexed, precision gene editing. By removing the barriers to forward cell engineering and gene-editing research, Inscripta will usher in a new era of advances to revolutionize how we feed, fuel, and heal humanity. Inscripta is led by several genomic technology veterans including CEO Kevin Ness, who co-founded QuantaLife and 10x Genomics, and John Stuelpnagel, the chairman of the company's board, who was co-founder and first CEO of Illumina (NYSE: ILMN) and chairman of 10x Genomics. Inscripta is headquartered in Boulder, Colo.; has offices in Pleasanton, Calif.; and is backed by Foresite, Merieux Developpement, NanoDimension, Paladin, Spruce and Venrock.

About Merieux Developpement / http://www.merieux-developpement.com

Merieux Developpement is specialized in venture capital and growth equity transactions within the healthcare and nutrition sectors. Merieux Developpement supports companies with products or services offering substantial differentiation, innovation and capacity to expand at global level. Our investment team, based in Europe and North America, brings its expertise and international network to help entrepreneurs disrupt and seize new business opportunities. Merieux Developpement is an affiliate of Institut Merieux, which employs approximately 17,000 employees worldwide, with consolidated revenues exceeding 2.5 billion Euros in 2016.

About Paladin Capital Group / http://www.paladincapgroup.com

Paladin Capital Group is a multi-stage private equity firm that specializes in helping talented, driven founders to commercialize technologies that address unmet needs in security, public health and resilience of critical infrastructure. The firm currently manages over $1 billion of committed capital and is headquartered in Washington, DC, with teams in New York, Silicon Valley, and London.Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - February 28, 2018) - Cornerstone Metals Inc. (TSXV: CCC) (OTCQB: CCCCF) (FSE: 1PY) ("Cornerstone" or the "Company") announces the results of the first 8 holes of the 20 hole confirmation diamond drilling program on its Carlin Vanadium Project, Nevada. The new holes support the neighbouring historic holes with zone continuity in width and grade where expected, demonstrating an extensive near surface horizontal high grade mineralized vanadium zone. Five of eight new holes returned much higher vanadium grades compared to their neighbouring historic holes. The drilling also provides new silver and zinc values not previously documented.

"We are very pleased with the initial drill results as they demonstrate consistency of the widespread high grade vanadium zone with good thickness and grade", said Cornerstone President and Chief Executive Officer Paul Cowley. "These holes are a great step in confirming the deposit. It's not surprising that the systematic historic Union Carbide drilling provides a solid and reliable base to work from. And adding to this, all of the new holes within the limits of the historic resource returned higher grades than their neighbouring historic holes."

The Carlin Vanadium Project contains one of North America's largest, richest known primary deposits of vanadium with unsurpassed accessibility. The deposit has a historic Inferred mineral resource estimate of 28 million tons at 0.515% vanadium pentoxide (V2O5), having a total metal content of 289 million pounds V2O5, based on a 0.3% V2O5 cut-off grade and defined by 127 holes completed by Union Carbide in the late 1960s. The historical estimate does not include any recent data available to the Company. The Company is not treating this historical estimate as current mineral resources and as such, should not be relied upon. The work needed to upgrade the historical estimate as current mineral resources is to use current costs and metal prices and include the results from the verification diamond drilling program.

The Carlin Vanadium deposit, as it is known to date, covers an area 2km long by up to 700m wide and can be subdivided into 4 sectors; the Southern, Central, Northern and Western sectors. The Southern and Central sectors have the most historic drilling and thus the bulk of the historic resource. The Northern and Western sectors have been lightly drilled and thus hold much smaller proportions of the historic resource. The infill confirmation diamond drilling program conducted by the Company consists of 13 holes in the Central sector, 4 in the Southern sector and 3 holes in the Northern sector. Results received to date and reported below include 6 holes from the Central sector and 2 holes from the Northern sector. Results from the remaining 12 holes are pending. A map has been added to the Company's website (www.cornerstonemetals.ca) to graphically demonstrate the new and old drill hole collars, outer limits of the historic resource, the sectors and the section lines A through C described in this news release (http://cornerstonemetals.ca/images/PDF/Resource_verification_drilling_v2.pdf).

Holes DDC17-03 through -05 and DDC18-06 were concentrated in the northern part of the Central sector. As a way to compare their results to neighbouring older holes, a north-south and an east-west section line has been drawn though these holes and other historic holes, with their intercepts listed in the following 2 tables. Section lines A and B cross at hole DDC17-05. Holes DDC17-04 and -05 and DDC18-06 fall on the 620m long north-south Section A (refer to map on the Company website). Holes DDC17-03 and DDC17-05 fall on the 540m long east-west Section B drawn through the Central and Western sectors. As all drilling to date on the property has been vertical and the high grade zone is interpreted to be horizontal, all drill intercepts are considered to be true thickness.

Intercepts Along Section A

Hole ID From (m) To (m) Length (m) V2O5 % Zn (%) Ag (g/t) R-33 1.52 25.96 27.44 0.99 0.36 N/A DDC17-04 5.18 20.50 15.32 0.75 0.17 11.6 R-63 0.00 25.91 25.91 0.57 0.44 N/A DDC17-05 3.67 29.00 25.33 1.07 0.33 7.6 R-30A 0.00 19.81 19.81 0.73 0.17 N/A DDC18-06 15.60 34.50 18.90 1.07 0.47 7.1 R-71 6.10 42.67 36.57 0.73 0.35 N/A R-72 33.53 51.82 18.29 0.81 0.34 N/A R-41 51.82 67.06 15.24 0.64 0.30 N/A R-37 54.86 79.25 24.39 0.50 0.22 N/A R-38 18.29 39.62 21.33 0.64 0.46 N/A

R holes are historic drill holes, N/A = not analyzed

Intercepts Along Section B

Hole ID From (m) To (m) Length (m) V2O5 % Zn (%) Ag (g/t) R-119 18.29 47.24 28.95 0.64 0.17 N/A R-118 18.29 39.62 21.33 0.48 0.21 N/A R-120 0.00 22.86 22.86 0.51 0.23 N/A R-117 35.05 44.20 9.15 0.36 0.27 N/A R-62 0.00 7.62 7.62 0.55 0.11 N/A DDC17-05 3.67 29.00 25.33 1.07 0.33 7.6 DDC17-03 15.85 30.5 14.65 0.68 0.25 9.6 R-53 6.10 30.48 24.38 0.42 0.20 N/A R-52 19.81 33.53 13.72 0.95 0.32 N/A R-66 59.44 77.72 18.28 0.59 0.17 N/A

R holes are historic drill holes, N/A = not analyzed

Both tables above demonstrate that the new drilling favourably supports the neighbouring historic holes with zone continuity in similar width and grade where the zone was expected, demonstrating a widespread near surface horizontal high grade mineralized zone. Holes DDC17-03, -04 and -5, and DDC18-06 all yielded higher grades than the average intercept in their section line table. It should be noted that DDC17-04 is a step-out beyond the limits of the historic resource area, thus demonstrating potential gains.

From the drill holes listed above, other parallel lower grade vanadium zones lie above and below the high grade vanadium zone, with grades between 0.2 and 0.45% V2O5 and thicknesses between 4.57 - 18.29m but are not included in the above 2 tables.

DDC18-07 and DDC18-08 tested the southern part of the Central sector. As a way to compare their results to neighbouring older holes, a 300m long northeast section line (Section C) drawn through the Central sector include DDC18-07 and DDC18-08 together with other historic holes with intercepts tabled below.

Intercepts Along Section C

Hole ID From (m) To (m) Length (m) V2O5 % Zn (%) Ag (g/t) DDC18-07 1.50 21.00 19.50 0.20 0.10 1.3 R-77 6.10 32.00 25.90 0.54 0.20 N/A DDC18-08 21.00 60.00 45.00 0.84 0.38 6.5 R-79 48.77 77.72 28.95 0.47 0.30 N/A R-78 70.10 82.30 12.20 0.69 0.30 N/A R-38 18.29 39.62 21.33 0.64 0.46 N/A R-44 24.38 45.72 21.34 0.73 0.43 N/A R-50 48.77 59.44 10.67 0.72 0.20 N/A R-23 42.67 54.86 12.19 0.63 0.36 N/A

R holes are historic drill holes, N/A = not analyzed

Again, the Section C table above demonstrates that the new drilling favourably supports the neighbouring historic holes with zone continuity in similar width and grade where the zone was expected, demonstrating the widespread near surface horizontal high grade mineralized zone. DDC18-08 is the thickest and highest grade on this section line. DDC18-07 intersected the vanadium unit where expected with similar widths but, with lower grade. DDC18-07 was drilled outside the limits of the historic resource area.

Other parallel lower grade vanadium zones lie above and below the high grade zone in the above holes with grades between 0.2 and 0.40% V2O5 and thicknesses between 4.57 - 19.81m that are not included in the following table.

DDC17-01 and DDC17-02 were drilled in the Northern sector in an effort to expand this sector of the deposit to the east. This sector, although typically with good grades (0.61-1.23% V2O5) and thicknesses (7.62-28.96m), is more characterized as a narrow linear 240m long by 80m wide northern tip of the deposit. Holes DDC17-01 and DDC17-02 encountered the vanadium unit where expected with typical widths, however, the grades were lower, 18m @ 0.24% V2O5 and 39m @ 0.18% V2O5, respectively. These two holes lie outside the limits of the historic resource.

The drilling program has been supervised by Mr. Cowley, P.Geo., President and CEO of the Company and Qualified Person for the program. Drill core recoveries averaged 85%. Industry standard quality control and quality assurance protocols have been followed in handling, sampling and shipping the core. The core has been photographed, geotechnically logged and geologically logged. Extensive specific gravity measurements have been taken on the core to aid in a future mineral resource estimation. The core has been cut in half, with one half sent for analysis and the other half stored as witness core in a secure dry facility in Elko, Nevada. Samples have been sent for analyses to MS Analytical, an ISO 17025 accredited laboratory.

Potential to Expand

The deposit has excellent potential to expand. The size of the known vanadium deposit is limited to date to the extent of the concentrated drilling by Union Carbide. Nearly all edges of the deposit end with drill holes containing good grades and widths.

Vanadium's Growing Importance

Vanadium is also growing in importance to key industrial manufacturing sectors most notably steel and renewable energy. Today, more than 85 percent of the world's vanadium is used in steel manufacturing applications. Its importance to the energy sector is also growing rapidly with more than 10 percent of vanadium production used in energy storage where its substantial cost and performance benefits make it an alternative choice to lithium ion in several areas.

About Cornerstone Metals Inc.

Cornerstone's objective is to advance exploration/development stage copper, precious and strategic minerals properties to production in the Americas. The Company's Management and Board Core Competence is in exploration, permitting, development, construction, and operation of mining projects.

The Company has an option to earn a 100% interest in the Carlin Vanadium Project, located in Elko County 22km by road (14 miles) from the town of Carlin, Nevada, and is comprised of 72 contiguous unpatented mineral claims totaling 461 hectares (1,140 acres). The Carlin Vanadium Project hosts the Carlin Vanadium Deposit which is locally exposed on surface, where it cuts topography, but mostly is found at shallow depths, commonly between 0-60m (0-200 ft) below surface.

Cornerstone also owns 100% (subject to 1.5% NSR) of the West Jerome property, near Jerome, Arizona, on the west side of Freeport McMoRan patented lands. The property, in a Volcanogenic Massive Sulfide camp, is a high-grade, massive sulfide target located 2.4 km south of the past-producing United Verde (32 million tons grading 4.4% copper, 1.5 oz/t silver and 0.04 oz/t gold). The West Jerome property has attractive untested drill targets.

ON BEHALF OF CORNERSTONE METALS INC.

per: "Paul Cowley"

CEO & President

(604) 340-7711

pcowley@cornerstonemetals.ca

Technical disclosure in this news release has been reviewed and approved by Paul Cowley, P.Geo., a Qualified Person as defined by National Instrument 43-101, and President and CEO of the Company.

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Forward-looking information

Certain statements in this news release constitute "forward-looking" statements. These statements relate to future events or the Company's future performance and include the Company's ability to meet the conditions required to exercise in full its option to acquire the Carlin Vanadium project and with respect to current and planned drill programs, the results of exploration programs, and changes in mineral resources. All such statements involve substantial known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results to vary from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements involve significant risks and uncertainties, they should not be read as guarantees of future performance or results, and they will not necessarily be accurate indications of whether or not such results will be achieved. Actual results could differ materially from those anticipated due to a number of factors and risks. Although the forward-looking statements contained in this news release are based upon what management of the Company believes are reasonable assumptions on the date of this news release, the Company cannot assure investors that actual results will be consistent with these forward-looking statements. The forward-looking statements contained in this press release are made as of the date hereof and the Company disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required under applicable securities regulations.PUNE, India, February 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --

The report "Iodine Marketby Source (Caliche Ore, Underground Brines), Form (organic compounds, Inorganic Salts, Elemental & Isotopes), Application (X-ray contrast media, Pharmaceuticals, Optical Polarizing Films), and Region - Global Forecast to 2022" published by MarketsandMarkets', the Global Iodine Market is estimated at USD 832.1 Million in 2017 and is projected to reach USD 1,041.0 Million by 2022, at a CAGR of 4.58% between 2017 and 2022. The market is witnessing growth due to the increasing use of iodine in optical polarizing films in LCD applications. Growing deficiency of iodine in developing countries and use in applications such as X-ray contrast media, fluorinated derivatives, and photography are some of the factors driving the market for iodine.

(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160303/792302 )



Browse 109 tables and 55 figures spread through 150 pages and in-depth TOC on"Iodine Market"

https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Market-Reports/iodine-market-65097087.html

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"Caliche ore: The largest source of iodine"

Caliche ore was the largest source for iodine extraction in 2016. The large share of caliche ore is because mining of iodine from caliche ore is less cumbersome and less capital intensive in comparison to its extraction from underground brines and seaweeds. Furthermore, the iodine mined from caliche ore contains more concentration (ppm) of iodine as compared to other extraction sources.

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"Organic Compounds: The largest form segment of the Iodine Market"

Organic compounds were the largest segment of the Iodine Market, by form in 2016. The large market share of organic compounds is due to their extensive use in pharmaceutical formulations, as additives in animal feed, and as pesticides and soil fumigants for agricultural purposes. They are also used as catalyst for many chemical syntheses. Thus, the above factors are responsible for making organic compounds the largest market for iodine, by form globally.

"X-ray contrast media: The largest application of iodine"

X-ray contrast media was the largest segment of the Iodine Market, by application in 2016. The high consumption of iodine in X-ray contrast media is attributed to the rising aging population and their susceptibility to various diseases which is expected to increase the use of X-ray contrast media in diagnostic imaging, thereby, driving the market for iodine in this application.

"Western Europe: The largest Iodine Market, by region"

The Western European region was the largest market for iodine, in terms of value and volume, in 2016. The high consumption of iodine in the region is attributed to the increasing demand from the healthcare and chemical industries. Growing investments in medical research, advancements in diagnostic imaging techniques, strong healthcare infrastructure with significant number of CT and MRI examinations, and growing iodine deficiency in Rest of the Western European counties are some of the factors responsible for the large market size of iodine in Western Europe.

Iodine manufacturers such as Sociedad Quimica y Minera (SQM) (Chile), Iofina (UK), ISE Chemicals Corporation (Japan), IOCHEM Corporation (US), Compania de Salitre y Yodo (Chile), Algorta Norte SA (Chile), Nippoh Chemicals Co., Ltd (Japan), Kanto Natural Gas Development Co., Ltd (Japan), Toho Earthtech Co., Ltd (Japan), and Godo Shigen Co., Ltd (Japan) are covered in the report.

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Connect with us on LinkedIn @ http://www.linkedin.com/company/marketsandmarketsUnited States Court of Appeals, Eleventh Circuit. UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. EPHREN TAYLOR, II, Defendant-Appellant. No. 16-14819 Decided: February 27, 2018

Before TJOFLAT, NEWSOM, and ANDERSON, Circuit Judges.

Ephren Taylor seeks review of the district court's order granting the government's motion for a 12-month sentence reduction for post-sentencing substantial assistance under Fed. R. Crim. P. 35(b). He argues that the district court erred when it granted the government's substantial assistance motion because it failed to take into account multiple factors that counseled in favor of a greater sentence reduction, such as allegedly ineffective assistance of counsel and his drug abuse problems. He also argues that the amount of assistance that he provided was worth more than a one-year sentence reduction. Finally, he argues that his counsel was ineffective at sentencing and that the district court erred at sentencing by failing to compel the government to file a motion for a downward departure under U.S.S.G.  5K1.1.

We review the district court's legal rulings on a substantial assistance motion under Fed. R. Crim. P. 35(b) de novo. United States v. Chavarria-Herrara, 15 F.3d 1033, 1036 (11th Cir. 1994).

Under Fed. R. Crim. P. 35(b), the government may file a motion to reduce a defendant's sentence if the defendant provides substantial assistance after sentencing in prosecuting or investigating another person. Fed. R. Crim. P. 35(b). A decision by the district court to grant or deny a Rule 35(b) motion is discretionary. United States v. Manella, 86 F.3d 201, 204-05 & n.6 (11th Cir. 1996). A Rule 35(b) motion is meant to provide relief for substantial assistance provided after sentencing, whereas a motion by the government under U.S.S.G.  5K1.1 is meant to provide relief for any substantial assistance that the defendant provided before sentencing. U.S.S.G.  5K1.1; Fed. R. Crim. P. 35(b); United States v. Howard, 902 F.2d 894, 896 (11th Cir. 1990). Nevertheless, the district court may consider the defendant's pre-sentence assistance when ruling on a Rule 35(b) motion. Fed. R. Crim. P. 35(b)(3).

When a district court grants a sentence-reduction motion for substantial assistance, [s]uch sentence shall be imposed in accordance with the guidelines and policy statements issued by the Sentencing Commission. 18 U.S.C.  3553(e); Chavarria-Herrara, 15 F.3d at 1037 n.7. When evaluating the extent of a defendant's substantial assistance, the Sentencing Guidelines provide that a court should consider factors that include (1) the court's evaluation of the significance and usefulness of the defendant's assistance; (2) the truthfulness, completeness, and reliability of any information provided by the defendant; (3) the nature and extent of the defendant's assistance; (4) any injury suffered, or any danger or risk of injury to the defendant or his family resulting from the assistance; and (5) the timeliness of the defendant's assistance. U.S.S.G.  5K1.1(a).

Appeals from a district court's discretionary decision to deny or grant a Rule 35(b) motion are generally not within our subject matter jurisdiction. See Manella, 86 F.3d at 203. However, a defendant may raise the legal issue of whether the district court misapplied Rule 35(b) by relying on improper factors and therefore imposed a sentence in violation of law. Id.

A district court's decision to reduce a sentence under Rule 35(b) may be based only on factors related to the defendant's substantial assistance, and it is error to consider any other factor that would counsel in favor of a sentence reduction. Chavarria-Herrara, 15 F.3d at 1037 (concluding that the district court erred when it considered the defendant's first-time offender status, relative culpability, and good prison behavior when granting a sentence reduction under Rule 35(b)). A district court may consider other factors, including the factors listed in 18 U.S.C.  3553(a), but only to the extent that they militate against a sentence reduction or in favor of a smaller reduction. Manella, 86 F.3d at 204-05.

An appellate court generally cannot adequately decide an ineffective assistance of counsel claim raised for the first time on direct appeal because the focus at trial was not whether defense counsel's actions were prejudicial or supported by reasonable strategy. Massaro v. United States, 538 U.S. 500, 504-05 (2003). The preferable means for deciding a claim of ineffective assistance of counsel is through a 28 U.S.C.  2255 motion, even if the record contains some indication of deficiencies in counsel's performance. Id.

In a criminal case, a defendant must file a notice of appeal within 14 days after the challenged order is entered on the docket. Fed. R. App. P. 4(b)(1)(A). However, the deadline in Rule 4(b) for a defendant to file a notice of appeal in a criminal case is not jurisdictional. United States v. Lopez, 562 F.3d 1309, 1313 (11th Cir. 2009). Nevertheless, if the government raises the issue of timeliness, then this Court must apply the time limit. Id. at 1313-14. A pro se prisoner's notice of appeal is deemed filed on the date that he delivers it to prison authorities for mailing, and, absent evidence to the contrary, we will assume that a prisoner delivered a filing to prison authorities on the day the prisoner signed it. Fed. R. App. P. 4(c)(1); United States v. Glover, 686 F.3d 1203, 1205 (11th Cir. 2012).

A judgment of conviction that includes a sentence of imprisonment constitutes a final judgment for all other purposes notwithstanding the fact that a sentence to imprisonment can subsequently be modified or corrected under Rule 35(b). 18 U.S.C.  3582(b), (c). We have concluded that a district court's resentencing following the grant of a Rule 35(b) motion does not reset the statute of limitations to file a 28 U.S.C.  2255 motion to vacate. Murphy v. United States, 634 F.3d 1303, 1314 (11th Cir. 2011). In reaching this holding, we concluded that Congress made clear in  3582(b), that a sentence modification under Rule 35(b) does not affect the finality of the judgment for any other purpose. Id. at 1309. Had Congress not done so, a defendant could have argued that a sentence modification entitled him to a new direct appeal where he could challenge anything that could have been challenged on a first direct appeal. Id. at 1308. We also stated that a Rule 35(b) motion is merely a plea for leniency and that it is impossible for the validity of the underlying conviction, and, indeed, of the sentence itself, to be at issue in a Rule 35(b) proceeding. Id. at 1313 (citation omitted).

The district court was correct to overlook the sentencing factors in 18 U.S.C.  3553(a), or any other reason that was not related to Taylor's substantial assistance because a district court may only consider factors unrelated to the defendant's substantial assistance when those factors counsel against granting a sentence reduction. We otherwise lack jurisdiction to address Taylor's arguments that the record shows that the substantial assistance he provided to the government was worth more than a one-year reduction, and we decline to address any claims of ineffective assistance of counsel at this time. Finally, Mr. Taylor's notice of appeal is untimely to seek review of his original sentencing.

AFFIRMED.

PER CURIAM:FORM 8.3

PUBLIC OPENING POSITION DISCLOSURE/DEALING DISCLOSURE BY

A PERSON WITH INTERESTS IN RELEVANT SECURITIES REPRESENTING 1% OR MORE

Rule 8.3 of the Takeover Code (the "Code")

1. KEY INFORMATION

(a) Full name of discloser: Eaton Vance Corp. (b) Owner or controller of interests and short positions disclosed, if different from 1(a):

The naming of nominee or vehicle companies is insufficient. For a trust, the trustee(s), settlor and beneficiaries must be named. (c) Name of offeror/offeree in relation to whose relevant securities this form relates:

Use a separate form for each offeror/offeree GKN plc (d) If an exempt fund manager connected with an offeror/offeree, state this and specify identity of offeror/offeree: (e) Date position held/dealing undertaken:

For an opening position disclosure, state the latest practicable date prior to the disclosure 27/02/2018 (f) In addition to the company in 1(c) above, is the discloser making disclosures in respect of any other party to the offer?

If it is a cash offer or possible cash offer, state "N/A" YES - Melrose Industries plc

2. POSITIONS OF THE PERSON MAKING THE DISCLOSURE

If there are positions or rights to subscribe to disclose in more than one class of relevant securities of the offeror or offeree named in 1(c), copy table 2(a) or (b) (as appropriate) for each additional class of relevant security.

(a) Interests and short positions in the relevant securities of the offeror or offeree to which the disclosure relates following the dealing (if any)

Class of relevant security: 10p ordinary Interests Short positions Number % Number % (1) Relevant securities owned and/or controlled: 2,311,294 0.13% 0 0 (2) Cash-settled derivatives: (3) Stock-settled derivatives (including options) and agreements to purchase/sell:

TOTAL: 2,311,294 0.13% 0 0

All interests and all short positions should be disclosed.

Details of any open stock-settled derivative positions (including traded options), or agreements to purchase or sell relevant securities, should be given on a Supplemental Form8 (Open Positions).

(b) Rights to subscribe for new securities (including directors' and other employee options)

Class of relevant security in relation to which subscription right exists: Details, including nature of the rights concerned and relevant percentages:

3. DEALINGS (IF ANY) BY THE PERSON MAKING THE DISCLOSURE

Where there have been dealings in more than one class of relevant securities of the offeror or offeree named in 1(c), copy table 3(a), (b), (c) or (d) (as appropriate) for each additional class of relevant security dealt in.

The currency of all prices and other monetary amounts should be stated.

(a) Purchases and sales

Class of relevant security Purchase/sale Number of securities Price per unit 10p ordinary ADR Purchase 1489 USD $ 5.96 ADR Sale 696 USD $ 5.92

(b) Cash-settled derivative transactions

Class of relevant security Product description

e.g. CFD Nature of dealing

e.g. opening/closing a long/short position, increasing/reducing a long/short position Number of reference securities Price per unit

(c) Stock-settled derivative transactions (including options)

(i) Writing, selling, purchasing or varying

Class of relevant security Product description e.g. call option Writing, purchasing, selling, varying etc. Number of securities to which option relates Exercise price per unit Type

e.g. American, European etc. Expiry date Option money paid/ received per unit

(ii) Exercise

Class of relevant security Product description

e.g. call option Exercising/ exercised against Number of securities Exercise price per unit

(d) Other dealings (including subscribing for new securities)

Class of relevant security Nature of dealing

e.g. subscription, conversion Details Price per unit (if applicable)

4. OTHER INFORMATION

(a) Indemnity and other dealing arrangements

Details of any indemnity or option arrangement, or any agreement or understanding, formal or informal, relating to relevant securities which may be an inducement to deal or refrain from dealing entered into by the person making the disclosure and any party to the offer or any person acting in concert with a party to the offer:

Irrevocable commitments and letters of intent should not be included. If there are no such agreements, arrangements or understandings, state "none"

none

(b) Agreements, arrangements or understandings relating to options or derivatives

Details of any agreement, arrangement or understanding, formal or informal, between the person making the disclosure and any other person relating to:

(i) the voting rights of any relevant securities under any option; or

(ii) the voting rights or future acquisition or disposal of any relevant securities to which any derivative is referenced:

If there are no such agreements, arrangements or understandings, state "none"

none

(c) Attachments

Is a Supplemental Form 8 (Open Positions) attached? NO

Date of disclosure: 28/02/2018 Contact name: Jeremy McLeod Telephone number: 00-1-617-672-8999

Public disclosures under Rule 8 of the Code must be made to a Regulatory Information Service.

The Panel's Market Surveillance Unit is available for consultation in relation to the Code's disclosure requirements on +44 (0)20 7638 0129.

The Code can be viewed on the Panel's website at www.thetakeoverpanel.org.uk.Global open infrastructure community delivers 17th release to support a broad set of workloads from enterprise to cloud native applications

The OpenStack community today released Queens, the 17th version of the most widely deployed open source cloud infrastructure software. A packed release resulting from a six-month development cycle, Queens offers advancements benefiting not only enterprises with mission-critical workloads but also organizations investing in emerging use cases like containers, NFV, edge computing and machine learning. The software now powers 60 public cloud data centers and thousands of private clouds at a scale of more than six million physical cores.

Enterprise adoption of cloud continues to expand, and by next year, 60 percent of enterprise workloads will run in the cloud, according to 451 Research's Voice of the Enterprise: Cloud Transformation, Workloads and Key Projects survey. 451 Research also reports that enterprise adoption of OpenStack is expanding in parallel, with enterprises in nearly all verticals and regions now running mission-critical workloads on OpenStack software. To support these workloads, the Queens release includes robust, enterprise-oriented features, most notably the multi-attach feature in Cinder.

Cinder Multi-Attach enables operators to attach the same Cinder volume to multiple VMs. If one node goes down, the other takes over and has access to the volume. This redundancy-which supports high availability (HA) for mission critical workloads-is one of the most-requested features in cloud environments and has remained a largely unmet challenge in computing until now.

The Queens release also includes significant enhancements to support emerging use cases such as machine learning, NFV, container integration and edge computing.

Support for vGPUs (virtual graphic processing units) In Nova, vGPU support lets cloud administrators define flavors to request specific resources and resolutions for vGPUs. End users can boot VMs that have vGPUs, an important capacity for graphics-intensive workloads and many scientific, artificial intelligence and machine learning workloads.

(virtual graphic processing units) In Nova, vGPU support lets cloud administrators define flavors to request specific resources and resolutions for vGPUs. End users can boot VMs that have vGPUs, an important capacity for graphics-intensive workloads and many scientific, artificial intelligence and machine learning workloads. Cyborg - Cyborg, a framework for managing hardware and software acceleration resources such as GPU, FPGA, CryptoCards and DPDK/SPDK, debuts in the Queens release. Acceleration has become a necessity rather than an option, particularly for telcos with NFV workloads. With Cyborg, operators can list, identify and discover accelerators, attach and detach accelerators to an instance, and install and uninstall drives. It can be used standalone or in conjunction with Nova or Ironic.

- Cyborg, a framework for managing hardware and software acceleration resources such as GPU, FPGA, CryptoCards and DPDK/SPDK, debuts in the Queens release. Acceleration has become a necessity rather than an option, particularly for telcos with NFV workloads. With Cyborg, operators can list, identify and discover accelerators, attach and detach accelerators to an instance, and install and uninstall drives. It can be used standalone or in conjunction with Nova or Ironic. Ironic Rescue Mode Instance repair-long available for VMs in Nova-is now available for bare metal instances in Ironic. Operators can now troubleshoot misconfigured bare metal nodes or recover from issues like a lost SSH key, an important enhancement since production usage of Ironic has jumped from 9 to 20 percent between April and November of 2017 (source: OpenStack User Survey).

Instance repair-long available for VMs in Nova-is now available for bare metal instances in Ironic. Operators can now troubleshoot misconfigured bare metal nodes or recover from issues like a lost SSH key, an important enhancement since production usage of Ironic has jumped from 9 to 20 percent between April and November of 2017 (source: OpenStack User Survey). Kuryr CNI Daemon OpenStack is the preferred platform for containers deployed in private cloud, and the community continues to expand microservices features in Queens. Kuryr adds a CNI daemon to increase the scalability of operations on Kubernetes. To support HA, the CNI daemon watches for pod events, eliminating the need to wait on the Kubernetes API for each event. Pods can be created even if the controller goes down.

OpenStack is the preferred platform for containers deployed in private cloud, and the community continues to expand microservices features in Queens. Kuryr adds a CNI daemon to increase the scalability of operations on Kubernetes. To support HA, the CNI daemon watches for pod events, eliminating the need to wait on the Kubernetes API for each event. Pods can be created even if the controller goes down. Edge computing support - Two new projects, OpenStack-Helm and LOCI, described in more detail below, support edge computing applications such as those presented in the white paper "Cloud Edge Computing: Beyond the Data Center" recently published by members of the OSF Edge Computing Group.

- Two new projects, OpenStack-Helm and LOCI, described in more detail below, support edge computing applications such as those presented in the white paper "Cloud Edge Computing: Beyond the Data Center" recently published by members of the OSF Edge Computing Group. Zun container service Zun is a new OpenStack project that allows users to quickly start and run containers without having to manage servers or clusters. It seamlessly adds advanced enterprise networking, storage and authentication capabilities to containers by integrating with Neutron, Cinder, Keystone and other core OpenStack services.

"In the early days of cloud, the use cases were fairly narrow, but the scope of cloud use cases today has expanded to include a massive variety of workloads," said OpenStack Foundation Chief Operating Officer Mark Collier. "Just as the scope of cloud evolves, OpenStack evolves as a platform. Consider the vGPU and containers enhancements in the Queens release: they address opposite ends of the use-case spectrum and demonstrate how OpenStack has the flexibility and ability to support changing open infrastructure requirements."

A Focus on Operators. Always.

The Queens release does not fail to deliver on tools for enhancing manageability, resiliency and user experience. New features that operators will love include:

OpenStack-Helm This addition to the project portfolio provides a collection of Helm charts and tools for managing the lifecycle of OpenStack on top of Kubernetes and running OpenStack projects as independent services.

This addition to the project portfolio provides a collection of Helm charts and tools for managing the lifecycle of OpenStack on top of Kubernetes and running OpenStack projects as independent services. Register document policy Across the majority of OpenStack projects, role-based access control (RBAC) policies now live in the project code, as opposed to being a separate file in the project source, providing better communication about service policies and the ability to set more granular defaults for RBAC policies.

Across the majority of OpenStack projects, role-based access control (RBAC) policies now live in the project code, as opposed to being a separate file in the project source, providing better communication about service policies and the ability to set more granular defaults for RBAC policies. HOT drag and drop Horizon adds a plug-in enabling creation of Heat orchestration templates through a user-friendly drag-and-drop UI on the Horizon dashboard.

Horizon adds a plug-in enabling creation of Heat orchestration templates through a user-friendly drag-and-drop UI on the Horizon dashboard. LOCI Another project making its debut, LOCI makes Open Container Initiative-compatible images of OpenStack services that can be dropped into heavy-weight deployment tools like OpenStack-Helm or used individually to deliver standalone services like Cinder block storage.

"It's easy to gloss-over terms like maturity and manageability when they are used to describe software, but the OpenStack community believes those objectives to be at the core of our mission," said Jonathan Bryce, executive director of the OpenStack Foundation. "Our developer community keeps building new tools that are helpful to the infrastructure operator. Eight years in, features that enhance manageability, resiliency, scalability and user experience are still paramount and still have sizzle factor."

*** Download Queens and learn more, including details on features and enhancements here. ***

Upcoming OpenStack 'Open Infrastructure' Summits

The new capabilities of Queens will be demonstrated at the upcoming Vancouver Summit, happening May 21-24, in Vancouver, British Columbia. Attendees from more than 50 countries will gather to hear speakers from many of the world's industry-leading companies discuss open infrastructure integration and the progress being made in critical areas such as edge computing, CI/CD, container infrastructure, public, private and multi-cloud strategies. Speakers from 2017 Summits represented organizations including Gap Inc., China Railway Corporation, Commonwealth Bank, Insurance Australia Group, GE Healthcare, U.S. Army Cyber School and more.

The Summit will then travel to Berlin for the first time, November 13-15. Germany is a very a strong market for OpenStack and is already proving to be a popular destination. Sponsorships went on sale February 1, and the four headline spots are sold out.

Analysts and members of the media can contact jennifer@cathey.co for information about registration for these events.

About OpenStack

OpenStack is the standard for private clouds and is also available as a service via dozens of public cloud providers around the world. At its core, OpenStack is an open source integration engine that provides APIs to orchestrate bare metal, virtual machine and container resources on a single network. The same OpenStack code powers a global network of public and private clouds, backed by the largest ecosystem of technology providers, to enable cost savings, control and portability.

OpenStack is a global community of more than 76,000 individuals across 187 countries supported by the OpenStack Foundation, which facilitates the development of many innovative projects in the open infrastructure space. The community delivers two OpenStack software releases each year, which are Apache 2 licensed and productized by a large ecosystem of technology vendors in our Marketplace. For more information and to join the community, visit www.OpenStack.org.

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180228005055/en/

Contacts:

Cathey Communications for the OpenStack Foundation

Robert Cathey, +1-865-386-6118

robert@cathey.co

or

OpenStack Foundation

Lauren Sell

lauren@openstack.orgLONDON, February 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --

The price of wholesale British natural gas, with immediate delivery, hit a 12-year high on Wednesday morning as reduced supply and rocketing demand shook the market.

(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160408/353056LOGO )



The Within-day gas contract at the market - known as the NBP - dealt at 194 pence per therm (p/th) at the start of trade.

Plummeting temperatures driven by the "Beast from the East" pushed daily British gas demand to levels not seen in four years. The Siberian temperatures had already caused prices to rise above typically February values earlier this week.

But an unplanned shut-down at a key Norwegian gas processing plant meant prices spiralled to highs not seen since March 2006. The Kollsnes plant, run by Norway's Gassco, is a key facility that feeds gas to Britain.

Later in the morning the Within-day price started to fall-back, but then a key import pipeline from the Netherlands called the BBL experienced technical issues that caused the NBP to bounce up, although not as high as at the open.

Prior to Wednesday's huge spike, the Within-day price through February traded on average at 56p/th. The only time the Within-day NBP price has been higher was on 13 March 2006, when it dealt at 255p/th. Since then, it has only traded above the 1/th threshold once, on 22 March 2013.

"It's been a roller-coaster few days already on the NBP with demand moving to levels not seen since 2012, but this morning's prices have been on another level entirely," said Tom Marzec-Manser, who heads up the European gas team at commodity price agency ICIS.

"Back in December when Austria's Baumgarten facility blew-up at the same time as the Forties system breaking down, we thought we had hit the high of the winter. Then the Within-day price reached 99p/th. So in comparison, Wednesday's prices are astonishing."

Besides the BBL, Britain can also import gas from the European mainland via a pipeline to Belgium called the Interconnector.

"Despite the high prices we are seeing at the NBP, flows through the Interconnector are not very high at all, which has been driven by rocketing prices and demand on the continent. It's a proper tug-of-war for any available gas across the whole of Europe," Marzec-Manser added.

Click here to find out more about the European Spot Gas Markets report

About ICIS

ICIS is the world's largest petrochemical market information provider, with divisions spanning energy and fertilizers. Our aim is to give companies in global commodities markets a competitive advantage by delivering valuable information and analytics tools which enable our customers to identify and react to opportunities in markets which are constantly evolving. We have more than 30 years' of experience in providing pricing intelligence and news, forecast data, market analytics and independent consulting to buyers, sellers and analysts.

With a global staff of more than 600, ICIS has employees based in London, Houston, New York, Singapore, Dubai, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Beijing, Mumbai, Tokyo, Karlsruhe, and Milan. ICIS' team of journalists is engaged in reporting market prices and news, and ICIS is fully committed to upholding the highest journalistic principles of verification, corroboration and authentication. ICIS has a compliance framework that along with its methodologies and business processes adheres to the requirements of the IOSCO PRA Principles.

ICIS is a division ofReed Business Information, part ofRELX Group.

About Reed Business Information

Reed Business Informationprovides information, analytics and data to business professionals worldwide. Our strong global products and services hold market-leading positions across a wide range of industry sectors including banking, petrochemicals and aviation, where we help customers make key strategic decisions every day. RBI is part of RELX Group, a global provider of information and analytics for professional customers across industries.http://www.reedbusiness.com

About RELX Group

RELX Groupis a global provider of information and analytics for professional and business customers across industries. The Group serves customers in more than 180 countries and has offices in about 40 countries. It employs approximately 30,000 people of whom almost half are in North America. RELX PLC is a London listed holding company which owns 52.9% of RELX Group. RELX NV is an Amsterdam listed holding company which owns 47.1% of RELX Group. The shares are traded on the London, Amsterdam and New York Stock Exchanges using the following ticker symbols: London: REL; Amsterdam: REN; New York: RELX and RENX. Total market capitalisation is approximately: 29.7bn|33.7bn|$41.4bn.www.relx.com

Media contacts

Tom Marzec-Manser

Editor, European Spot Gas Markets

tom.marzec-manser@icis.com

Tel: +44-20-7911-1964

North Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - February 28, 2018) - Lion One Metals Limited (TSXV: LIO) (ASX: LLO) (OTCQX: LOMLF) (FSX: LY1) (the "Company") announces that a surface sample of 502 g/t gold over 0.70 metres has been returned from the Jomaki prospect 1 km from the planned mill site at its 100% owned and fully permitted Tuvatu Gold Project, now in the development stage, located on the island of Viti Levu in the Republic of Fiji.

The high grade assay result was returned from bench sampling, and extends the Jomaki prospect, located 1,300 metres south-west of the main mineralized zone at Tuvatu, and 1 km south-west of the planned mill site. The Jomaki prospect consists of a zone of closely spaced veins that have been mapped over a strike length of 400 metres which remain open to the north and south. This new sample was taken 21 metres east of a previously collected 125 g/t gold result. Both high-grade samples are from steep east dipping veins within the Nadele Breccia (an extrusive volcanic breccia) and near to the contact with the Navilawa Monzonite.

"The objective of Phase One of the 2018 surface exploration program is to confirm zones of high grade gold inside our Mining Lease but distinct from the main zone of mineralization at Tuvatu," said Stephen Mann, "We expect to report further results from the 2018 sampling programs soon."

Figure 1: Geology and surface sampling at the Jomaki Prospect (samples > 2g/t labelled).





To view an enhanced version of Figure 1, please visit:

https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/2178/33183_lion1enhanced.jpg



Figure 2: 3D view east of the southern prospects





To view an enhanced version of Figure 2, please visit:

https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/2178/33183_lion2enhanced.jpg



Figure 3: Surface benching at Jomaki showing vein structure dipping steeply east (view south)







To view an enhanced version of Figure 3, please visit:

https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/2178/33183_lion3enhanced.jpg

For detailed exploration reports including maps, assays, and results, please visit the Company's website at the following address: https://liononemetals.com/tuvatu-project/maps-resources

Figure 4: The Tuvatu Project Area Schematic Project Map







To view an enhanced version of Figure 4, please visit:

https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/2178/33183_lion4enhanced.jpg

QAQC - Sampling Protocols

An excavator cuts a bench along the side of a slope to expose the geology. Structures are mapped geologically with areas of potential such as faults and veins recorded. Channel samples are from a hand-cut channel collected across mapped structures with the orientation of the channel being orthogonal (perpendicular) to the orientation of the structure and hence approximate the true-width. Channel Samples were logged, mapped, and placed in sealed bags and shipped to the facilities of ALS Global in Brisbane and Townsville, Australia, for sample preparation and multi-element ICP analysis. Rigorous quality assurance and quality control procedures, including the use of blanks, standards (inserted into the sample stream at a ratio of 1:20) and duplicates, identified no material issues. Samples were pulverized and analysed by a 50g gold fire assay with either an atomic absorption, or gravimetric finish / over-limit dilution method for samples initially reporting over 100 g/t gold.

About Tuvatu

Tuvatu is a fully permitted high grade underground gold project located in the South Pacific island Republic of Fiji, 17 km NE of the Nadi International Airport on Fiji's main island of Viti Levu. Tuvatu is a low sulphidation epithermal gold deposit hosted in the eroded remnants of the Navilawa mineral system, one of Fiji's largest mineralized volcanic intrusive complexes. The independent Tuvatu NI 43-101 PEA technical report dated June 1, 2015 envisages a low cost underground gold mining operation producing 352,931 ounces of gold over 7 years at head grades of 11.30 g/t Au, and cash costs of US$567 per ounce with all-in sustaining cost of US$779 per ounce. The Company has not based a production decision on a feasibility study of mineral reserves demonstrating economic and technical viability and as a result there is increased uncertainty and economic and technical risks associated. Tuvatu has been fully permitted by the Government of Fiji for operations start-up and has a dual-track strategy of exploration and development inside its mining lease and surrounding exploration license areas.

Lion One is aggressively advancing Tuvatu as a near-term production opportunity with exploration upside in the southwest Pacific Ring of Fire. Lion One has modelled Tuvatu for exploration after regional giants in the low sulphidation family of high grade epithermal gold deposits such as Porgera and Lihir in Papua New Guinea, and Vatukoula in Fiji, which boast production of over 35 million ounces of gold in similar alkaline volcanic settings.

Additional information including NI 43-101 Technical Reports for the Tuvatu Gold Project is available at www.liononemetals.com and at www.sedar.com.

Qualified Person

Technical information relating to geology and exploration in this news release concerning the Company's 2018 Surface Exploration Program has been reviewed and approved by Lion One Managing Director Stephen Mann, member of The Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy, and a Qualified Person ("QP") under NI 43-101.

About Lion One

Lion One Metals Limited is a mineral exploration and development company based in North Vancouver, BC, focused on advancing to production at its 100% owned and fully permitted high grade underground Tuvatu Gold Project located on the island of Viti Levu in the Republic of Fiji. Lion One's CEO Walter Berukoff is leading an experienced team of mine builders, and has owned or operated over 20 mines in 7 countries. As the founder and former CEO of Miramar Mines, Northern Orion, and La Mancha Resources, Walter is credited with building over $3 billion of value for shareholders.

On behalf of Lion One Metals Limited

"Walter H. Berukoff"

Chief Executive Officer

For further information please contact

Stephen Mann, Managing Director (Perth, Australia) Tel: 604-973-3007

Hamish Greig, Vice President (North Vancouver, BC) Tel: 604-973-3008

Joe Gray, Investor Relations (North Vancouver, BC) Tel: 604-973-3004

Toll Free IR Line (North America) Tel: 1-855-805-1250

Email: info@liononemetals.com

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Service Provider accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

This press release may contain "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities legislation. All statements, other than statements of historical fact, included herein are forward looking information. Generally, forward-looking information may be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as "plans", "expects" or "does not expect", "proposed", "is expected", "budget", "scheduled", "estimates", "forecasts", "intends", "anticipates" or "does not anticipate", or "believes", or variations of such words and phrases, or by the use of words or phrases which state that certain actions, events or results may, could, would, or might occur or be achieved. This forward-looking information reflects Lion One Metals Limited's current beliefs and is based on information currently available to Lion One Metals Limited and on assumptions Lion One Metals Limited believes are reasonable. These assumptions include, but are not limited to, the actual results of exploration projects being equivalent to or better than estimated results in technical reports, assessment reports, and other geological reports or prior exploration results. Forward-looking information is subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the actual results, level of activity, performance or achievements of Lion One Metals Limited or its subsidiaries to be materially different from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking information. Such risks and other factors may include, but are not limited to: the early stage development of Lion One Metals Limited, general business, economic, competitive, political and social uncertainties; the actual results of current research and development or operational activities; competition; uncertainty as to patent applications and intellectual property rights; product liability and lack of insurance; delay or failure to receive board or regulatory approvals; changes in legislation, including environmental legislation, affecting mining, timing and availability of external financing on acceptable terms; not realizing on the potential benefits of technology; conclusions of economic evaluations; and lack of qualified, skilled labour or loss of key individuals. Although Lion One Metals Limited has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in forward-looking information, there may be other factors that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking information. Lion One Metals Limited does not undertake to update any forward-looking information, except in accordance with applicable securities laws.WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - The South Florida high school has reopened two weeks after a mass shooting that killed 17 people shook America's conscience. It was the worst school shooting in Florida history, and the deadliest in the United States since 26 people were killed at Connecticut school Sandy Hook in 2012. The academic community, still not out of grief and shock, made an emotional return to Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland Wednesday under heavy security. Police officers, school staff, grief counselors and community members welcomed the students who carried white ribbons and white roses in memory of the victims. Students and teachers returned to classes for the first time since Nicolas Cruz, 19, carried out the mass killing on February 14. The teenager came back to the campus with an assault rifle after he was expelled from the School for disciplinary reasons. It triggered fresh calls for gun control, a national boycott campaign, and mass street protests. President Donald Trump signed an order to propose regulation that bans bump-stock devices - accessories that can turn a semi-automatic weapon into an automatic one. Meanwhile, coinciding with the school reopening, a major gun retailer announced that it would immediately end sales of the deadly firearms and would not sell any guns to people under 21. Dick's Sporting Goods has more than 600 shops around the country. Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX

Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann.Alytus, Lithuania, 2018-02-28 17:30 CET (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The management of AB "Snaige" has examined the decision of the Supervision Service of the Bank of Lithuania to impose a fine on the company and has decided to appeal against it. "In our opinion all resolutions of the company's management and the board, the receivables and other possible uncertainties have been adequately disclosed in the annual audited reports. The decision to impose a fine was stemmed most likely from the difference in evaluation of applicable legislation and disclosed information. We will continue our consultations with the Bank of Lithuania for the correct and equally treated disclosure and interpretation of information in the reports, therefore we decided to appeal against in our opinion an unjustified fine". - stated G. Ceika. The company's financial position is stable and it conducts regular activities.This year, the company is expected to introduce two new lines of refrigerators. The company's export comprised 90% in 2017. The main export markets were Germany, France, Ukraine, Poland and Czech Republic. AB Snaige market positions are particularly strong in Lithuania, where it is the top selling refrigerator brand and holds the largest share of the market (22%, according to data collected by GFK). According to the unaudited consolidated data, the company's proceeds reached an EBITDA of 0.833 million euro in the past year, amounting over 39 million euro in turnover. The cause of the unaudited consolidated loss (EUR 1 million) was the global increase in prices of the raw material relevant to the company. Managing Director Gediminas Ceika +370 315 56206Amsterdam, March 12-14, 2018

Regulatory News:

OSE Immunotherapeutics (Paris:OSE) (ISIN: FR0012127173; Mnemo: OSE), announces it will be featured as a presenting company at the 12th Annual Conference BIO-EUROPE SPRING. The conference is being held on March 12-14, 2018 in Amsterdam.

Dominique Costantini, Chief Executive Officer of OSE Immunotherapeutics, will provide an overview of the Company's business during the presentation and will participate in one-to-one meetings with business leaders who attend this conference dedicated to partnering in the worldwide biopharmaceutical industry.

Date and time of the presentation: Wednesday 14 March at 9:15 AM

Place: Amsterdam RAI Convention Center, Room E106

ABOUT OSE IMMUNOTHERAPEUTICS

Our ambition is to become a world leader in activation and regulation immunotherapies:

OSE Immunotherapeutics is a biotechnology company focused on the development of innovative immunotherapies for immune activation and regulation in the fields of immuno-oncology, autoimmune diseases and transplantation. The company has several scientific and technological platforms: neoepitopes, agonist or antagonist monoclonal antibodies, ideally positioned to fight cancer and autoimmune diseases. Its first-in-class clinical portfolio offers a diversified risk profile.

In immuno-oncology:

Tedopi,10 combined neo-epitopes to induce a specific T lymphocyte activation.Phase III trial in advanced NSCLC:after temporary pause of new patient accrual end of June 2017,new recruitment strategy in December 2017, following the recommendation of the trial's Independent Data Monitoring Committee, to focus the trial on patients who failed a previous treatment with a PD-1/PD-L1 immune checkpoint inhibitor. In February 2018, the first approvals to resume patient accrual, based on a revised protocol, have been granted in the United States by the Institutional Review Boards.

Phase II with Tedopi in combination with an immune checkpoint inhibitor planned in advanced pancreatic cancer,in collaboration with GERCOR, a cooperative group of clinical research.

OSE-172 , new generation checkpoint inhibitor targeting myeloid cells via the SIRP-a receptor In preclinical development for several cancer models. Clinical program planned end of 2018.

, new generation checkpoint inhibitor targeting myeloid cells via the SIRP-a receptor In preclinical development for several cancer models. Clinical program planned end of 2018. OSE-703, cytotoxic monoclonal antibody against the alpha chain of IL-7R Under a research collaboration with Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York.

In auto-immune diseases and transplantation:

FR104 , CD28-antagonist in immunotherapy - Phase 1 trial completed For the treatment of autoimmune diseases and for use with transplantation Licensed to Janssen Biotech Inc. to pursue clinical development.

, CD28-antagonist in immunotherapy - Phase 1 trial completed For the treatment of autoimmune diseases and for use with transplantation Licensed to Janssen Biotech Inc. to pursue clinical development. OSE-127, interleukin receptor-7 antagonist- In preclinical development for inflammatory bowel diseases and other autoimmune diseases. Clinical phase planned end of 2018. License option agreement with Servier for the development and commercialization.

The portfolio's blockbuster potential gives OSE Immunotherapeutics the ability to enter global agreements at different stages of development with major pharmaceutical players.

Immunotherapy is a highly promising and growing market. By 2023 Immunotherapy of cancer could represent nearly 60% of treatments against less than 3% at present and the projected market is estimated at $67 billion in 2018 **. There are more than 80 autoimmune diseases that represent a significant market including major players in the pharmaceutical industry with sales towards $10 billion for the main products. The medical need is largely unmet and requires the provision of new innovative products involved in the regulation of the immune system.

*Citi Research Equity

**BCC Research

Click and follow us on Twitter and Linkedln

Forward-looking statements

This press release contains express or implied information and statements that might be deemed forward-looking information and statements in respect of OSE Immunotherapeutics. They do not constitute historical facts. These information and statements include financial projections that are based upon certain assumptions and assessments made by OSE Immunotherapeutics' management in light of its experience and its perception of historical trends, current economic and industry conditions, expected future developments and other factors they believe to be appropriate.

These forward-looking statements include statements typically using conditional and containing verbs such as "expect", "anticipate", "believe", "target", "plan", or "estimate", their declensions and conjugations and words of similar import.

Although the OSE Immunotherapeutics management believes that the forward-looking statements and information are reasonable, the OSE Immunotherapeutics' shareholders and other investors are cautioned that the completion of such expectations is by nature subject to various risks, known or not, and uncertainties which are difficult to predict and generally beyond the control of OSE Immunotherapeutics. These risks could cause actual results and developments to differ materially from those expressed in or implied or projected by the forward-looking statements. These risks include those discussed or identified in the public filings made by OSE Immunotherapeutics with the AMF. Such forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance.

This press release includes only summary information and should be read with the OSE Immunotherapeutics Reference Document filed with the AMF on 28 April 2017 under the number R.17-038, including the annual financial report for the fiscal year 2016, available on the OSE Immunotherapeutics' website.

Other than as required by applicable law, OSE Immunotherapeutics issues this press release at the date hereof and does not undertake any obligation to update or revise the forward-looking information or statements.

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180228005149/en/

Contacts:

OSE Immunotherapeutics

Sylvie Detry, +33 143 297 857

Sylvie.detry@ose-immuno.com

or

French Media: FP2COM

Florence Portejoie, +33 607 768 283

fportejoie@fp2com.fr

or

U.S. Media: LifeSci Public Relations

Matt Middleman, M.D., +1-646-627-8384

matt@lifescipublicrelations.com

or

U.S. and European Investors

Chris Maggos, +41 79 367 6254

chris@lifesciadvisors.comAgilent Measurement Suite to provide researchers with greater experimental freedom

Agilent Technologies Inc. (NYSE: A) and Imperial College London today signed a strategic scientific collaboration agreement that brings together Agilent's leading analytical technologies with Imperial's outstanding researchers. Under the agreement, Agilent will support Imperial with a broad range of instruments to equip a new Agilent sponsored Measurement Suite.

The Agilent Measurement Suite will be housed within Imperial's Molecular Sciences Research Hub at the new White City Campus due to open later this year. Scientists at Imperial will use the state-of-the-art laboratory to extend their world-renowned interdisciplinary research including fundamental and translational research. Application areas that will benefit include clinical diagnostics, biopharmaceuticals, energy and chemicals, environmental science, food testing and agriculture, materials research, and proteomics. The suite will also serve as an Agilent instrument demonstration lab and showcase for customers to experience the company's definitive workflow solutions.

"Imperial College London plays a very important role in advancing a deeper understanding of the world through their lab instruction and research," said Mike McMullen, Agilent President, and CEO. "We recognize the important contributions made by university scientific research to solve real-life challenges from finding new ways to fight cancer, to ensuring the purity of food, to solving major environmental issues. It is an honor for Agilent to support Imperial in building an advanced scientific measurement and analytical laboratory on their new White City Campus. We value our partnership and look forward to taking this important step together," he added.

Imperial's President, Professor Alice Gast commented, "Imperial's new partnership with Agilent is a significant development as we strengthen our industry collaborations. Agilent's best-in-field equipment in the Molecular Sciences Research Hub at White City will catalyze forefront multidisciplinary research on societal challenges from understanding disease on a molecular level to developing clean sources of energy."

The partnership between Imperial and Agilent is expected to drive further collaborative projects to the benefit of both partners, and to move cutting-edge research forward. This collaboration further underlines Agilent's already extensive commitment in support of Academia through its wide range of academic programs and growing network of Agilent Centers of Excellence.

Tony Cass, Professor of Chemical Biology in the Department of Chemistry and Institute of Biomedical Engineering at Imperial, has been appointed Director of the Agilent Measurement Suite. Professor Cass will oversee the collaboration with an objective to develop and facilitate the translation of research, tools, and technology from academia to industry.

About Imperial College London

Imperial College London is one of the world's leading universities. The College's 17,000 students and 8,000 staff are expanding the frontiers of knowledge in science, medicine, engineering and business, and translating their discoveries into benefits for our society.

Imperial is the UK's most international university, according to Times Higher Education, with academic ties to more than 150 countries. Reuters named the College as the UK's most innovative university because of its exceptional entrepreneurial culture and ties to industry.

http://www.imperial.ac.uk/

About White City Campus

Imperial's White City Campus is Imperial's major new campus, co-locating world-class researchers, businesses, and higher education partners to create value from ideas, for the benefit of society on a local, national and global scale. http://www.imperial.ac.uk/white-city-campus/

About Agilent Technologies

Agilent Technologies Inc. (NYSE: A) is a global leader in life sciences, diagnostics, and applied chemical markets. With more than 50 years of insight and innovation, Agilent instruments, software, services, solutions, and people provide trusted answers to its customers' most challenging questions. The company generated revenues of $4.47 billion in fiscal 2017 and employs 14,200 people worldwide. Information about Agilent is available at www.agilent.com.

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180228005414/en/

Contacts:

Agilent Technologies

Catherine Kaye, +44775 410632

catherine.kaye@agilent.com

or

Imperial College London

Hayley Dunning, +44207 594 2412

h.dunning@imperial.ac.ukLisa Tracker, the most comprehensive monitoring range on the market covering all gastroenterology patients

Regulatory News:

THERADIAG (ISIN: FR0004197747, ticker: ALTER) (Paris:ALTER), a company specialising in in vitro diagnostics and theranostics, announces the publication of a large number of abstracts on the benefits of biotherapy monitoring during the annual Congress of the European Crohn's and Colitis Organisation (ECCO), whichfocuses on Inflammatory Bowel Diseases (Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis), and which was held in Vienna on February 14-17, 2018.

Growing use of monitoring kits

During this 13th Congress of ECCO, over 90 publications presented data on biotherapy monitoring, of which approximately 20 provided results of studies conducted with Lisa Tracker kits1, thereby confirming the scientific community's keen interest for biotherapy monitoring. Furthermore, this growing number of publications reflects the increasing use of monitoring kits, in a number of centres that is also rising continuously.

Lisa Tracker remains the most comprehensive range on the market, able to monitor all gastroenterology patients.

Confirmation and reinforcement of the results obtained for Vedolizumab monitoring

A total of 8 abstracts presenting the results for Vedolizumab (EntyvioTM) monitoring using Lisa Tracker tests confirmed the correlation between drug serum levels and clinical response, both for induction and for maintenance (long-term) therapy. These results were also used to define the therapeutic threshold.

"Data presented during the Congress of ECCO 2018 reinforces the use of biotherapy tests and confirms once again the reliability of our tests and the interest of the scientific community. The growing number of abstracts reflects the increasing use of monitoring tests, which we welcome as it improves the treatment of IBD patients," comments Prof Gerard Tobelem, Chairman of Theradiag's Board of Directors. "With our Lisa Tracker monitoring range, we are the only company on the market to cover all gastroenterology patients."

Links to the presented abstracts:

P440 - Early changes in the pharmacokinetic profile of vedolizumab-treated patients with inflammatory bowel disease may predict response after dose optimisation

P454 - Early vedolizumab trough levels predict mucosal healing in inflammatory bowel disease

P518 - Vedolizumab trough concentrations are associated with endoscopic response in patients with inflammatory bowel disease

P522 - Soluble sMadCAM1 and retinoic acid are potential tools for therapeutic drug monitoring in inflammatory bowel diseases under vedolizumab: A proof of concept

P575 - Vedolizumab trough levels predict clinical outcomes in inflammatory bowel disease

P596 - Clinical utility of vedolizumab trough levels and anti-drug antibodies in the management of IBD

P664 - Association between pharmacologic loss of response profile of anti-TNF and clinical outcome with vedolizumab

P755 - Safety, efficacy, and pharmacokinetics of vedolizumab in patients with simultaneous exposure to an anti-TNF

About Theradiag

Capitalizing on its expertise in the distribution, development and manufacturing of in vitro diagnostic tests, Theradiag innovates and develops theranostics tests (combining treatment and diagnosis) that measure the efficiency of biotherapies in the treatment of autoimmune diseases, cancer and AIDS. Theradiag is thus participating in the development of customized treatment, which favors the individualization of treatments, the evaluation of their efficacy and the prevention of drug resistance. Theradiag notably markets the Lisa Tracker range (CE marked), which is a comprehensive multiparameter theranostic solution for patients with autoimmune diseases treated with biotherapies. The Company is based in Marne-la-Vallee, near Paris, and has over 70 employees.

For more information about Theradiag, please visit our website: www.theradiag.com

1 The studies were conducted in numerous centres, including the University Hospitals of Lausanne (Switzerland), and of Saint-Etienne, Nancy, and Le Kremlin Bicetre (France), McGill University, Montreal (Canada), and Columbus State University, Georgia (USA).

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180228005693/en/

Contacts:

Theradiag

Investor Relations

Fabienne Francois, Tel.: +33 (0)1 64 62 10 12

CFO

contact@theradiag.com

or

NewCap

Financial Communications Investor Relations

Valentine Brouchot, Tel.: +33 (0)1 44 71 94 94

theradiag@newcap.eu

or

Alize RP

Press Relations

Caroline Carmagnol, Tel.: +33 (0)1 44 54 36 64

theradiag@alizerp.comUnited States Court of Appeals, Eleventh Circuit. JOSEPH DINGLER, on behalf of himself and all persons similarly situated, Plaintiff - Appellant, ASHTON DINGLER, Plaintiff, v. STATE OF GEORGIA, GA DIV. OF FAMILY & CHILDREN SERVICES, DIR. BOBBY CAGLE, DFCS, FULTON COUNTY GEORGIA, FAMILY COURT, CATHELENE TINA ROBERSON, Clerk, Defendants - Appellees. No. 17-13253 Decided: February 23, 2018

Before MARCUS, ROSENBAUM, and JULIE CARNES, Circuit Judges.

Joseph Dingler (Plaintiff) filed a petition in Georgia state court to legitimize himself as the father of his unborn child and to appoint a guardian ad litem. At the same time, Plaintiff, proceeding pro se, filed a federal complaint on behalf of himself, his unborn child, and a class of unborn children against the state of Georgia, the Georgia Division of Family and Children Services, the Division's director, Fulton County Family Court, and the court's clerk. Plaintiff alleged that, in violation of Georgia state law, the Georgia Constitution, and the United States Constitution, he had been deprived of access to state courts, his ability to assert his parental interest in his unborn child, and a guardian ad litem. The district court dismissed Plaintiff's complaint sua sponte for being frivolous under 28 U.S.C.  1915 and denied Plaintiff's post-judgment motions challenging the court's dismissal. Now, on appeal, Plaintiff argues that dismissing his complaint violated his constitutional rights, among other errors. We disagree and AFFIRM the district court.

I. BACKGROUND

According to Plaintiff's complaint, Plaintiff impregnated a woman to whom he was not married in late 2016. Around May 2017, Plaintiff became concerned over the unborn child's safety and sought to legitimize himself as the child's father. At the same time, he also sought to have a guardian ad litem appointed to prevent the mother from having an abortion or putting the child up for adoption.

In the process of filing his petition for legitimization and a guardian ad litem, Plaintiff was given conflicting information over what Georgia court or agency he should file his petition with. Eventually, Plaintiff was told by the Georgia Division of Family and Children Services that it had no authority to legitimize Plaintiff as the child's father or to appoint a guardian ad litem because the child had not been born yet. On May 22, Plaintiff filed a petition for an emergency hearing in Fulton County Superior Court to address both issues.

While his state court action was still pending, Plaintiff, proceeding pro se, filed a lawsuit in the federal district court against the State of Georgia, the Georgia Division of Family and Children Services, the Division's director Bobby Cagle, Fulton County Family Court, and court clerk Cathlene Tina Robinson. Plaintiff asserted claims on behalf of himself, his unborn child, and a class of unborn children including all persons'  over the 28 week age of viability. Plaintiff sought a writ of mandamus requiring [the defendants] to provide effective remedy for alleged violations of the Sixth, Eighth, and Fourteenth Amendments of the United States Constitution, unspecified articles of the Georgia Constitution, and O.C.G.A.  19-7-5, which requires certain persons and entities to report child abuse. Plaintiff also sought declaratory relief and injunctive relief for alleged violations of both his, his unborn child's, and the class's rights under the First, Sixth, and Fourteenth Amendments of the United States Constitution and paragraphs I, II, and XIV of Article I,  I of the Georgia Constitution.

Plaintiff filed a motion to proceed in forma pauperis under 28 U.S.C.  1915, and the district court granted the motion. Pursuant to 28 U.S.C.  1915(e)(2)(b)(i), the district court determined that Plaintiff's complaint was frivolous and dismissed it sua sponte before the complaint was served on the defendants. The court also entered an order of final judgment.

Plaintiff then filed a motion for reconsideration, a motion to amend the complaint, a motion for an emergency preliminary injunction, and a motion for the appointment of a guardian ad litem. The district court denied Plaintiff's motion for reconsideration and denied the remaining motions as moot. Plaintiff filed a timely appeal under 28 U.S.C.  1291.

II. STANDARD OF REVIEW

We review questions of constitutional law de novo. United States v. Ward, 486 F.3d 1212, 1221 (11th Cir. 2007). We review for abuse of discretion a district court's dismissal of a complaint under  1915(e)(2), Bilal v. Driver, 251 F.3d 1346, 1349 (11th Cir. 2001), dismissal of a declaratory judgment claim, Smith v. Casey, 741 F.3d 1236, 1244 (11th Cir. 2014), and denial of a reconsideration motion under Rule 59(e), Case v. Eslinger, 555 F.3d 1317, 1325 (11th Cir. 2009).

III. DISCUSSION

On appeal, Plaintiff challenges the dismissal of his complaint in two ways: (1) by attacking  1915(e)(2)(B)(i)'s constitutionality and (2) by challenging the district court's application of  1915(e)(2)(B)(i) to a non-prisoner, as well as the court's frivolity determination in general. Plaintiff also contends that the district court erred by denying his Rule 59(e) motion to alter or amend the judgment and his motion to amend the complaint. Before turning to these issues, we note that we consider only Plaintiff's claims raised on his own behalf because a non-attorney pro se litigant cannot bring any action on behalf of his or her child. Devine v. Indian River Cty. Sch. Bd., 121 F.3d 576, 581 (11th Cir. 1997).

A. The District Court's Application of Section 1915(e)(2)(B)(i) to Plaintiff was Constitutional

Plaintiff begins by challenging  1915(e)(2)(B)(i) as violating his right of access to the courts, violating the Equal Protection Clause by treating indigent plaintiffs differently than plaintiffs who pay filing fees, and constituting an unconstitutional bill of attainder. This Court has already rejected the proposition that a functionally identical subsection of the same statute violates indigent plaintiffs' right of access to the courts and the Equal Protection Clause. See Farese v. Scherer, 342 F.3d 1223, 1227 n.5 (11th Cir. 2003) (holding that due process and equal protection challenges to  1915(e)(2)(B)(ii) were without merit); Vanderberg v. Donaldson, 259 F.3d 1321, 1324 (11th Cir. 2001) ([S]ection 1915(e)(2)(B)(ii)  does not violate the Equal Protection Clause  [and sua sponte dismissal] did not deny Plaintiff due process.). Because Plaintiff's challenges to  1915(e)(2)(B)(i) are the same, we must reject them as well.

Next, Plaintiff contends that  1915(e)(2)(B)(i) violates the Constitution's prohibition on bills of attainder. See U.S. Const., Art. I,  9, cl. 3 (No Bill of Attainder  shall be passed.). A bill of attainder is a law that legislatively determines guilt and inflicts punishment upon an identifiable individual without provision of the protections of a judicial trial.  Houston v. Williams, 547 F.3d 1357, 1364 (11th Cir. 2008) (quoting Nixon v. Adm'r of Gen. Servs., 433 U.S. 425, 468 (1977)). To qualify as an unconstitutional bill of attainder, the statute must have three characteristics: specification of the affected persons, punishment, and lack of a judicial trial. Selective Serv. Sys. v. Minn. Pub. Interest Research Grp., 468 U.S. 841, 84647 (1984). [O]nly the clearest proof  suffice[s] to establish the unconstitutionality of a statute on such a ground. Communist Party of U.S. v. Subversive Activities Control Bd., 367 U.S. 1, 83 (1961) (quoting Flemming v. Nestor, 363 U.S. 603, 617 (1960)).

Section 1915(e)(2)(B)(i) is not a bill of attainder, because it does not impose punishment. To the contrary, it furthers the government's legitimate interests in deterring meritless claims and conserving judicial resources. Vanderberg, 259 F.3d at 1324. Because  1915(e)(2)(B)(i) furthers the non-punitive goal of allocating resources, and no intent to punish can be established from the record, Plaintiff's argument has no merit. Houston, 547 F.3d at 1364.

B. The District Court did not Abuse its Discretion by Dismissing the Complaint Without Opportunity to Amend and Denying Plaintiff's Motion to Alter or Amend the Judgment

Plaintiff challenges the dismissal of his complaint in two ways. First, Plaintiff contends that the district court erred by applying  1915(e)(2)(B)(i) to a non-prisoner. Yet it plainly applies to anyone proceeding in forma pauperis, prisoners and non-prisoners alike. Rowe v. Shake, 196 F.3d 778, 783 (7th Cir. 1999); see also Troville v. Venz, 303 F.3d 1256, 1260 (11th Cir. 2002) (finding no error in the district court's dismissal of [a non-prisoner's] complaint under  1915(e)).

Second, Plaintiff argues generally that the district court abused its discretion by dismissing his complaint and not allowing him an opportunity to amend. Notably, Plaintiff does not argue that his claims were not frivolous on the merits or that amendment would correct his original complaint's flaws, but instead accuses the district court of class-based and political bias. The record, however, reveals no trace of bias or even a scintilla of evidence to support Plaintiff's accusations.

Plaintiff also suggests that the district court may have applied a heightened pleading standard. Yet the district court acknowledged the liberal pleading standard applied to pro se litigants. Trawinski v. United Tech., 313 F.3d 1295, 1297 (11th Cir. 2002). And we discern nothing in the district court's orders that suggests it may have implicitly applied a higher standard.

Further, although we read briefs filed by pro se litigants liberally, issues not briefed on appeal by a pro se litigant are deemed abandoned. Timson v. Sampson, 518 F.3d 870, 874 (11th Cir. 2008) (citations omitted). [S]imply stating that an issue exists, without further argument or discussion, constitutes abandonment of that issue and precludes our considering the issue on appeal. Singh v. U.S. Attorney Gen., 561 F.3d 1275, 127879 (11th Cir. 2009); see also Sapuppo v. Allstate Floridian Ins. Co., 739 F.3d 678, 681 (11th Cir. 2014) (a claim raised on appeal in a perfunctory manner without supporting arguments and authority is considered abandoned). Thus, Plaintiff abandoned any contention that his claims themselves were not frivolous on their merits and that his amended claims would have cured any defects.

For this same reason, Plaintiff also abandoned any argument that the district court abused its discretion by denying his Rule 59(e) motion to alter or amend the judgment. Plaintiff's mere statement of the standard of review for such a motionwithout moreis insufficient to preserve it for appeal. See Singh, 561 F.3d at 127879; Sapuppo, 739 F.3d at 681.

CONCLUSION

For the reasons stated above, we AFFIRM the district court.

FOOTNOTES

. Notwithstanding any filing fee, or any portion thereof, that may have been paid, the court shall dismiss the case at any time if the court determines that  the action or appeal  is frivolous or malicious. 28 U.S.C.  1915(e)(2)(B)(i).

. Unlike  1915(e)(2)(B)(i), which commands courts to dismiss frivolous or malicious actions,  1915(e)(2)(B)(ii) states that courts shall dismiss actions that fail[ ] to state a claim on which relief may be granted. For the purposes of Plaintiff's arguments, the two subsections are functionally identical because both require sua sponte dismissal of unpaid complaints.

. Historically, bills of attainder were also known as bills of pains and penalties if they prescribed a penalty short of death. United States v. Brown, 381 U.S. 437, 441 (1965). The Constitution prohibits all bills of attainder, of any form or severity. Id. at 447.

. Plaintiff also suggests in a single sentence of his brief that an unspecified Georgia law  attains' unwed biological fathers. But passing references alone are insufficient to properly preserve an issue for appeal. Sapuppo v. Allstate Floridian Ins. Co., 739 F.3d 678, 681 (11th Cir. 2014). Thus, we do not consider this issue.

. The closest Plaintiff comes to addressing the actual merits of the district court's frivolity determination is a single sentencein the middle of his equal protection challengewhen he states that he believes, although inartful, [that] he has satisfied both [frivolity] prongs.

PER CURIAM:Vilnius, Lithuania, 2018-02-28 18:45 CET (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The equity capital of INVL Technology, a company that invests in IT businesses, was EUR 23.146 million, or EUR 1.90 per share, at the end of 2017, and increased 17.3 per cent during the year. The company's investments in the businesses it owns totalled EUR 20.1 million at the end of December and increased by EUR 3.4 million from the start of 2017. According to preliminary data, the company's net profit for 2017, taking into account a revaluation of financial assets, was EUR 3.418 million. Reported financial indicators of the company are preliminary, unaudited and do not represent disclosure of the net asset value of the company. Net asset value of the company will be reported under the terms set in the Articles of Association of the company. If audited net asset value is different from the value calculated based on preliminary financial indicators, provisions on error reporting set by Articles of Association of the company shall not be applied. Additional information: "Last year was successful for INVL Technology - most of our business holdings increased not only revenue but also profit, and the value of the company's assets under management grew. The businesses operating in the areas of cybersecurity, financial technologies and solutions for IT-intensive industries showed good results. This year INVL Technology continues to actively seek new investment opportunities, giving priority to acquisitions in Norway, Sweden or Lithuania," said Kazimieras Tonkunas, Managing Partner for the closed-end investment company INVL Technology at INVL Asset Management. He said INVL Technology last year sought to expand constant access to markets, while the businesses it owns prioritized developing new products and making their international activities more competitive. During 2017, INVL Technology's businesses carried out projects in 17 countries, including 14 where projects were also conducted in 2016. New projects begun by the companies and ties established with partners in Cyprus, Albania, Malawi, Gambia and India, partly compensated for the fact that a new phase of EU financing for the IT area did not start in Lithuania. This year INVL Technology will give priority to scaling up the businesses it owns and boosting their value. The group will operate three functional groups instead of the previous four. NRD Companies will continue to comprise a business climate improvement and e-governance group and NRD CS a cybersecurity group, while an IT services and programming group will be composed of Novian (which until February 2018 operated under the name Vitma), BAIP, Acena, Algoritmu Sistemos and Andmevara AS. "We hope the combination of areas and operations will allow us to better serve clients and facilitate business expansion in the Nordic region, also making our businesses more attractive for potential investors," Kazimieras Tonkunas said. The company's businesses will continue to focus in 2018 on new product development and improving the competitiveness of international activities. INVL Technology will also support the creation of internal startups at the companies it owns. Performance of businesses In terms of assessing the performance of INVL Technology's business holdings in 2017, NRD Companies, which works in the area of business climate improvement and e-governance (and whose results also include the results of Etronika and NRD), saw revenue increase nearly 20 per cent in the year to EUR 7.23 million (versus 2016 revenue of EUR 6.03 million). The group's EBTIDA rose in the same period from a negative EUR 42 thousand to a positive EUR 565 thousand. Net profit for 2017 was EUR 421 thousand, compared with a group loss of EUR 431 thousand in 2016. Andmevara AS, meanwhile, had 2017 revenue of EUR 1.1 million, with EBITDA at a negative EUR 271 thousand. The company had a net loss for the year of EUR 292 thousand. Because publication of Andmevara's data began on 1 May 2016, when control of the company was acquired, there are no comparable previous-year figures. The revenues of BAIP and Acena, which work in the area of IT infrastructure, grew 5.7 per cent during 2017 to EUR 11.73 million (versus EUR 11.1 million in 2016). Their EBITDA for the same period more than doubled to EUR 780 thousand, up from EUR 373 thousand in 2016. The companies had a net profit of EUR 203 thousand for 2017, versus a net loss of EUR 107 thousand the previous year. NRD CS, which operates in the area of cybersecurity, more than doubled its revenue in 2017 to EUR 3.49 million (compared with EUR 1.58 million in 2016). EBITDA increased 5.5 times to EUR 603 thousand (up from EUR 110 thousand in 2016). The company's net profit grew to EUR 468 thousand in 2017, which is 6.8 times the previous year's level of EUR 69 thousand. Algoritmu Sistemos, which operates in the area of solutions for IT-intensive industries, for 2017 had revenue of EUR 2.76 million, EBITDA of EUR 358 thousand and a net profit of EUR 361 thousand. Because publication of its data began on 1 April 2016, when control of the company was acquired, there are no comparable previous-year figures. The person authorized to provide additional information: Kazimieras Tonkunas INVL Technology Managing Partner e-mail k.tonkunas@invltechnology.lt Attachment: https://cns.omxgroup.com/cds/DisclosureAttachmentServlet?messageAttachmentId=666520Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - February 28, 2018) - Pucara Resources Corp ("Pucara" or the "Company") is pleased to announce the execution of a joint venture agreement with IAMGOLD Peru S.A., a wholly owned subsidiary of IAMGOLD Corporation, for the exploration of the Company's Santo Tomas Project (now known as the Los Tambos Gold Project), and to provide an update on Pucara's corporate activities and exploration programs.

Los Tambos Gold Project with IAMGOLD

Los Tambos, which encompasses Pucara's Santo Tomas property is located in the Ayacucho Region of southern Peru. Pucara geologists have identified a high sufidation, gold bearing system,which hosts a large alteration footprint coincident with an extensive resistivity (IP) anomaly in the northern part of the property supported by rock chip geochemistry up to 2.0 g/t gold. The IAMGOLD exploration team is assessing this and other targets on the property to finalize a drilling program expected to commence in 2018 -2109 once permits and approvals are granted. The Los Tambos property has recently been expanded and now covers 7,600 hectares. Pucara has established strong, positive community relations with the local communities.

Pursuant to the joint venture agreement IAMGOLD may earn a 60% interest in the property by spending US$4.0 million for project work and making US$500,000 in payments to Pucara over the next 4 years. Upon vesting, IAMGOLD has the option to earn an additional 10% interest over two years by producing a one million ounce gold equivalent resource as defined within NI 43-101, and to pay Pucara the equivalent of US$ 2.00 per ounce of gold equivalent for the total resource defined by the NI 43-101compliant resource estimate.

Corporate Activities and Financings

In late 2017 Pucara completed corporate financings totaling C$5.2 million. Private placements yielded C$4.2 million from sales of units priced at C$0.40. A unit is comprised of one common share plus a half warrant priced at C$0.60 for 36 months. Investors include Sandstorm Gold Ltd., which also purchased a 1.0% NSR royalty on each of seven exploration-stage properties held 100% by Pucara, for additional proceeds of C$1.0 million.

Guadalupe Copper-Zinc Project with Nexa Resources

Pucara's Guadalupe Project in central Peru contains a copper-zinc volcanogenic massive sulfide (VMS) target. Guadalupe is an advanced exploration property optioned to Nexa Resources SA (previously Compania Minera Milpo SAA). A 2018 drilling program is currently underway by Nexa. Pursuant to the option agreement, Nexa has the right to buy 100% of the project in 2019 with Pucara receiving a payment and a retained NSR royalty.

Advancing Project Portfolio

Pucara's portfolio of projects includes eight additional 100% owned properties, including:

Two high-sulfidation epithermal gold projects, Pacaska and Lourdes, that are being prepared for drilling by Pucara,

Two base metals projects, Capricho and Paco Orco, that are being advanced and being prepared for joint venture, and

Four early-stage gold exploration prospects that are being advanced through geologic mapping and sampling.

Steve Zuker, President and CEO states, "Pucara has made significant progress in the last year by advancing our projects and expanding the portfolio. In 2018 we expect several promising projects will be drill tested by Pucara or its partners. We are financially strong and partnered with quality companies with experience operating in Peru. Pucara is well-positioned for a significant discovery. After many years exploring in Peru as a private company, Pucara is preparing for a public listing in 2018."

About Pucara Resources.



Pucara is a privately held Canadian corporation, Peru focused, precious metals explorer and project generator company. It controls ten early stage, precious and base metals properties, covering more than 300 square kilometers in central and southern Peru. The exploration team has been working together in Peru since 2005. Pucara is supported by a sophisticated shareholder base of mining professionals including: Resource Capital Funds and Exploration Capital Partners (private equity firms), Sandstorm Gold Ltd, and Alamos Gold.

For Further Information and to receive Pucara news via email, visit the Company's website at www.Pucara.ca, or contact:

Steve Zuker, CEO and President

Pucara Resources Corp.

1400-1040 West Georgia St.

Vancouver, BC V6E 4H1



T: +1-303-900-2150

E: Steve@Pucara.ca

This release includes certain statements that may be deemed "forward-looking statements". All statements in this release, other than statements of historical facts that address exploration drilling, exploitation activities and other related events or developments are forward-looking statements. Although Pucara believes the expectations expressed in such forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions, such statements are not guarantees of future performance and actual results or developments may differ materially from those in the forward looking statements. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in forward-looking statements include market prices, potential environmental issues or liabilities associated with exploration, development and mining activities, exploration and exploitation successes, continuity of mineralization, uncertainties related to the ability to obtain necessary regulatory approvals, permits, licenses and title and delays due to third party opposition, changes in and the effect government policies regarding mining and natural resource exploration and exploitation, continued availability of capital and financing, and general economic, market or business conditions. Investors are cautioned that any such statements are not guarantees of future performance and actual results or developments may differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements. The technical information contained in this corporate presentation has been reviewed and approved by J Stevens Zuker, President and CEO of Pucara. Mr Zuker is a "Qualified Person" as defined by National Instrument 43-101, Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects.SAN FRANCISCO, CA / ACCESSWIRE / February 28, 2018 / The Direct Primary Care (DPC) model has been growing nationwide at an astonishing pace with some states seeing a 2,084% surge in new DPC practices added - and even the slowest reporting a 67% expansion. The DPC model has been widely praised by both doctors and patients for the high quality of care coupled with low consumer prices. It does this by eliminating the insurance company middleman, allowing physicians to treat their patients without need for insurance authorizations, excessive administrative expenses, inflated costs or needless specialist referrals. Instead, patients pay a monthly subscription fee - averaging around $70 for an individual and about $150 for a family of four - which enables full access to their primary physician whenever needed - for checkups, emergencies and sometimes even house calls - as well as wholesale prices on drugs and lab work.

With such a win-win proposition, it's no surprise that many states have been working to enact legislation to ensure that Direct Patient Care thrives. Hint Health, a pioneer in workflow automation for DPC physicians, has compiled a summary of the numerous bills advancing through state legislatures which deal with Direct Primary Care.

One of the hurdles has been red tape on the state level, which often lumps Direct Primary Care under the definition of "insurance" thus making it subject to excessive and even irrelevant regulations. The simplest solution that most states have chosen is to just declare that a DPC agreement between a patient and doctor does not constitute "insurance." This is the approach that three states are in the process of working towards:

In January, the Florida State House of Representatives passed HB 37. The bill has now advanced to the Florida State Senate for consideration.

On February 14, H4643 was unanimously approved by the South Carolina House of Representatives and advanced to the State Senate.

Wisconsin has a pair of bills advancing through the legislature. Assembly Bill 798 was approved on February 20. A companion bill, Senate Bill 670, is awaiting scheduling. In addition to defining Direct Patient Care as "not insurance," both bills aim to open up DPC to Medicaid recipients.

The Nebraska State Legislature is considering LB 1119, which would launch a two-year pilot program opening up Direct Primary Care services to state employees. The state had already authorized DPC in 2016.

Hint Health launched in 2013 with one mission - to provide the tools for direct care doctors to automate their back office operations and DPC administration. Hint's advanced SaaS platform includes all the software engines for robust plan management, patient onboarding, billing & collections, eligibility management and even inventory control necessary to streamline a direct primary care practice. Their clients include DPC practices throughout the United States, and as such the company is in a unique position to compile some of the most detailed, "ground-level" data on all aspects of the DPC industry including nationwide growth trends, pricing trends, payment trends and key demographic information. In much the same way that ADP has become the premier source for U.S. employment data due to its payroll processing work, Hint has become a primary source for Direct Primary Care data.

Journalists, doctors, and others interested to learn more about the Direct Primary Care industry are encouraged to download a copy of Hint's "2017 Direct Primary Care Trends Report."

About Hint Health

Founded with an exclusive focus on the direct primary care movement, Hint has been working with trailblazing physicians to automate their administration workflows since 2013, making it easy to operate and scale-up this new practice model while efficiently managing overhead costs.

CONTACT :

Matt Kalinowski

(415) 854-6366 x019

press@hint.com

SOURCE: Hint HealthORANGE COUNTY, CA / ACCESSWIRE / February 28, 2018 / Renowned IT an tech giant Nicholas Kohlschreiber has announced he will be developing a unique app specifically for business owners and marketing specialists looking to sync up their presence on social media with what their company is offering to the public. Utilizing advanced technologies, the model builds upon the unprecedented growth of networking websites, namely Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Instagram, to rapidly and cost-effectively build an engaging brand reputation that converts potential customers. "Today, almost every business has its own Facebook profile," stated Kohlschreiber, "but many of them, particularly smaller to midsize companies, need assistance in order to gain visibility online and grow their business. We are here to help them achieve that."

While many in his industry still claim that social media is too difficult and expensive to monetize, Nicholas Kohlschreiber is actively using a platform that can be roughly applied to any vertical, and has been doing so for years. Dating back to the successes of his first company in the solar energy sector, the entrepreneur was able to effectively drive traffic and generate growth via the Internet. After perfecting these marketing techniques and assembling a world-class team of IT experts, Kohlschreiber is now disclosing his tactics with those who need it most - small businesses and innovative entrepreneurs. "Due to the constantly increasing number of new social media platforms, generating sales and revenues through those channels has become a science in itself," he elaborated. "Many clients do not realize that these networking sites can be used for much more than connecting with an existing or potential customer base."

From building brand awareness to optimizing lifetime consumer revenue, dedicated teams construct individualized roadmaps for each client to achieve their goals and assure continued success. Without divulging any proprietary information, Kohlschreiber explained that his company gets the basics right first by creating a passionate audience of robust size across multiple platforms to learn from and engage with. Once accomplished, detailed content and media plans effectively spread promotions, advertise products, and attract customers to online stores. Accompanied by advanced metrics that track monetization efforts at every stage, the team is able to determine which channels and what consumers will provide the best return on investment for each client. Ultimately, the company's success lies in this data. The advanced analytic technology developed by Kohlschreiber allows for his client's businesses to create an authentic online customer base, leverage that audience, and then transition them to the desired product or service.

Nicholas Kohlschreiber is a renowned entrepreneur and the developer of creative marketing solutions that ensure the organic proliferation of new businesses. He founded his first company in 2010, and was able to grow it until a successful exit at a multiple of ten times its original value, developing it into several larger businesses that he continues to manage today. Currently the owner of a media company based in Newport Beach, Kohlschreiber is an enthusiast for originality and innovation, urging employees and clients alike to, "Think Big, Go Far."

Nick Kohlschreiber - Expert in Modern Marketing: http://www.nickkohlschreibernews.com

Nick Kohlschreiber - Business Entrepreneur & Founder of TeleTree: http://nickkohlschreiberreviews.com

Nick Kohlschreiber - Creative Marketing Solutions Expert: http://nickkohlschreibermarketing.com

Contact Information

NickKohlschreiberNews.com

www.NickKohlschreiberNews.com

contact@nickkohlschreibernews.com

SOURCE: Nick KohlschreiberVancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - February 28, 2018) - Lara Exploration Ltd. (TSXV: LRA) ("Lara" or "the Company"), is pleased to report that its first diamond drill hole at the Planalto Copper Project, DDH-17-01 has intercepted 222.29 metres ("m") from surface with an average grade of 0.38% copper and 39 parts per billion ("ppb") gold (0.41% copper equivalent). Within this wider zone, there is an intercept of 117.47m (between 62.08m and 179.55m down hole) with an average grade of 0.53% copper and 54ppb gold (0.57% copper equivalent). The second hole, DDH-17-02, drilled below DDH-17-01 on the same section, intercepted a lower grade mineralized zone of 101.36m at 0.14%Cu and within this zone the best intersections were 15.00m at 0.32% copper and 4.70m at 0.3% copper.

Miles Thompson, President and CEO of Lara commented: "We are very pleased with our first intercept from Planalto and excited to have potentially identified a new style of copper mineralization in the Carajas Province; we look forward to reporting results of the additional holes in the coming weeks."

Drillhole UTM-N UTM-E From (m) To (m) Interval (m) Cu (%) Au (ppb) Cu Eq. (%) 17-01 9294910 636859 0.00 229.29 222.29 0.38 39 0.41 including



62.08 179.55 117.47 0.53 54 0.57 17-02 9294862 636842 102.84 204.1 101.36 0.14 20

including



119.05 134.05 15.00 0.32 27

and



183.25 187.95 4.70 0.30 29

Notes: Copper equivalent (Cu Eq.) values for by-product gold are calculated using a copper price of US$3.00/lb and a gold price of US$1,340/oz. No allowance is made for losses in a normal mining situation. The reported intercepts are not necessarily true widths, as there is insufficient data at this time to determine the orientation of the mineralized body.

Drillhole 17-01 was drilled at an angle of 55 degrees at an azimuth of 030 degrees, 17-02 at an angle of 65 degrees to the same azimuth direction to test the northern end of a copper in soil geochemistry anomaly extending over one kilometre in strike length and up to 400m in width, interpreted as proximal to an important structural break between granitic intrusives and mafic-intermediate meta-volcanics and gabbro intrusives. Channel samples of rock and saprolite, where exposed across the main soil anomaly, included intervals with 12m averaging 5,180 parts per million ("ppm") copper, 45m averaging 2,561 ppm, 33m averaging 2,062 ppm and 33m averaging 2,702 ppm Cu.

Copper mineralization logged in these first two drill holes was surprising in that it comprised predominantly chalcopyrite in a stockwork-like pattern of narrow sub-millimeter to centimeter-wide veins, veinlets and disseminations hosted in altered (biotite, actinolite and K-feldspar) mafic metavolcanics and gabbroic intrusive rocks. Chalcopyrite also occurs associated with magnetite in early K-feldspar-rich veins, as well as in later cross-cutting quartz, epidote, calcite and fluorite veins ranging in widths from a few millimeters to several meters. This style of mineralization differs from the more complex and pervasive alteration, associated with major brecciation and mineralization of the Iron-Oxide-Copper-Gold deposits typical of the Carajas Province. Molybdenite occurs sporadically in the low-grade copper zone of 17-02 with the best intersection of 591ppm Mo over 0.85m. Lara is in the process of drilling an additional two holes to better understand this mineralization, but provisionally it is interpreted as being related to a late Lower Proterozoic-age A-type granite porphyry.

Sampling methodology, Chain of Custody, Quality Assurance and Quality Control

All rock channel and drill core sampling were carried out by or under the supervision of the Company's Vice-President Exploration and the chain of custody of the samples and drill core from the project area to the company's sample preparation facility in Canaa dos Carajas was continuously monitored. Sample intervals for channel sampling varied between 2m and 4m and for drill core, the sampling interval varied from a little less than 1m to a maximum of 1.5m, being guided by the degree of copper mineralization and rock types.

Blank and certified reference materials were inserted approximately every 20th sample and the company routinely reanalyses laboratory pulps and crushed rejects for a number of samples from previous sample batches with each new sample batch. The samples were delivered to SGS-Geosol in Parauapebas where they were crushed and pulverized, with the sample pulps then dispatched by SGS-Geosol to their own analytical laboratory at Vespasiano, near Belo Horizonte, in Minas Gerais State, Brazil. The pulps are subjected to Agua Regia digestion with copper and 36 other elements being determined by ICP. Gold was determined by fire assay fusion and an atomic absorption (AAS) finish on a 50g charge. Copper values above 1% Cu are determined by fusion with sodium peroxide with an ICP OES finish. SGS-Geosol also routinely runs, and reports, a number of certified standards and blank samples with each sample batch. Check assays for copper and gold determinations have been carried out on a number of reject material samples from SGS-Geosol at a second commercial laboratory in Parauapebas.

Michael Bennell, Lara's Vice President Exploration and a Fellow of the Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy (AusIMM), is a Qualified Person as defined by National Instrument 43-101 Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects and has approved the technical disclosure and verified the technical information in this news release.

About Lara

Lara is an exploration company following the Prospect Generator business model, which aims to minimize shareholder dilution and financial risk by generating prospects and exploring them in joint ventures funded by partners. The Company currently holds a diverse portfolio of prospects and deposits located mostly in Brazil and Peru. Lara's common shares trade on the TSX Venture Exchange under the symbol "LRA".

For further information on Lara Exploration Ltd. please consult our website www.laraexploration.com, or contact Chris MacIntyre, VP Corporate Development, at +1 416 703 0010.

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor the Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

-30-Washington, DC--(Newsfile Corp. - February 28, 2018) - The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged three-time recidivist Steven J. Muehler with operating an unregistered broker-dealer, facilitating an unregistered securities offering, and defrauding small businesses, while promising to help them raise money from investors. Three companies under Muehler's control, Muehler's wife, Claudia M. Muehler, and his associate, Koorosh "Danny" Rahimi, were also charged. Because the scheme is ongoing, the SEC is also seeking a preliminary injunction to stop Muehler's ongoing violations of the securities laws, pending trial of the action.

The SEC's complaint, which was filed in federal court in Los Angeles, also charges Muehler with violating a cease-and-desist order issued by the Commission in 2016 barring Muehler from associating with any broker-dealer. The SEC has filed a parallel action in the same court to enforce that Commission order.

According to the complaint, Muehler's companies are not registered as broker-dealers. But since at least November 2015, Muehler and his companies have nonetheless agreed to provide broker-dealers services to more than 20 small businesses, including identifying and soliciting investors and utilizing a purportedly proprietary online securities exchange to help raise funds from investors. In return, Muehler and his companies received fees, the right to a percentage of any funds raised from investors, and the right to an equity stake in each small business customer.

The SEC also alleges that in offering broker-dealer services, Muehler and his companies made numerous fraudulent claims to potential customers, including that Muehler and his companies had $50 million on-hand to invest in their customers' securities, that they had previously helped customers raise millions of dollars, and that their proprietary online exchange was registered with the SEC. They also concealed that Muehler is subject to a Commission cease-and-desist order and has been sanctioned by California and Minnesota securities regulators.

The SEC's complaint alleges that Claudia Muehler and Danny Rahimi helped Muehler carry out this scheme.

"As alleged in our complaint, Muehler tells small businesses that he runs a successful broker-dealer enterprise that can raise millions of dollars from investors. In truth, Muehler is a repeat securities-law violator who already admitted to defrauding small businesses the last time the Commission brought an enforcement action against him. The complaint demonstrates the Commission's vigilance in enforcing its orders and dealing with recidivist violators," said Michele Wein Layne, Director of the SEC's Los Angeles Regional Office.

The SEC's complaint charges Muehler and the three companies he controls (AltaVista Capital Markets, LLC, AltaVista Private Client, LLC, and AltaVista Securities, LLC) with violating Section 5(c) of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 15(a), Section 10(b), and Rule 10b-5 of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, and also charges Muehler with violating Section 15(b)(6) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. It charges Claudia Muehler with aiding and abetting Muehler's and the AltaVista Companies' violations of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, and charges Rahimi with violating Section 15(a) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934.

The complaint also seeks permanent injunctions, disgorgement plus interest, and penalties.

The SEC's investigation, which is ongoing, has been conducted by M. Lance Jasper and Benjamin Faulkner, and supervised by Spencer E. Bendell. The litigation will be led by Donald W. Searles and supervised by Amy J. Longo.TORONTO, ON--(Marketwired - February 28, 2018) - Primero Mining Corp. ("Primero" or the "Company") (TSX: P) announced today that Institutional Shareholder Services Inc. ("ISS") and Glass, Lewis & Co., LLC ("Glass Lewis"), two leading proxy advisory firms, have recommended that Primero shareholders vote FOR the plan of arrangement (the "Transaction") whereby First Majestic Silver Corp. ("First Majestic") will acquire all of the issued and outstanding common shares of Primero, at their special meeting of shareholders to be held on March 13, 2018.

ISS and Glass Lewis cited the sound strategic and financial rationale in recommending Primero shareholders vote in favour of the Transaction.

Attention Primero Shareholders

Primero shareholders are reminded to vote their proxy before 9:00 a.m. (Eastern time), on Friday, March 9, 2018. Primero's board of directors has unanimously recommended that their shareholders vote IN FAVOUR of the proposed Transaction.

For more information and assistance in voting your proxy, please contact Laurel Hill Advisory Group, at:

North America toll-free: 1-877-452-7184

Local and international: 416-304-0211

Email: assistance@laurelhill.com

About Primero

Primero Mining Corp. is a Canadian-based precious metals producer that owns 100% of the San Dimas gold-silver mine in Mexico. Primero's website is www.primeromining.com.

FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS

This news release contains forward-looking information under applicable Canadian securities laws ("forward-looking statements"), which may include, without limitation, the current expectations of management of Primero, ISS and Glass Lewis regarding the Transaction and its consummation, including whether conditions to the consummation of the Transaction will be satisfied, the timing for the special meeting, the final approval of the Transaction from the Supreme Court of British Columbia and the timing for completing the Transaction. The forward-looking statements are based on the beliefs of management and reflect Primero's current expectations. When used in this news release, the words "estimate", "project", "belief", "anticipate", "intend", "expect", "plan", "predict", "may", "will" or "should" and the negative of these words or such variations thereon or comparable terminology are intended to identify forward-looking statements. Such statements reflect the current view of Primero. Completion of the Transaction is subject to a number of conditions which are typical for transactions of this nature. Failure to satisfy any of these conditions, the emergence of a superior proposal or the failure to obtain the approval of the shareholders of Primero, as well as court approval, may result in the termination of the Transaction.

By their nature, forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause our actual results, performance or achievements, or other future events, to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are made based on management's beliefs, estimates and opinions on the date that statements are made, and Primero undertakes no obligation to update forward-looking statements (unless required by law) if these beliefs, estimates and opinions or other circumstances should change. Investors are cautioned against attributing undue certainty to forward-looking statements.

Primero has also assumed that the material factors and assumptions will not cause any forward-looking statements to differ materially from actual results or events. However, the list of these factors and assumptions is not exhaustive and is subject to change and there can be no assurance that such assumptions will reflect the actual outcome of such items or factors.

Attachment Available: http://www.marketwire.com/library/MwGo/2018/2/28/11G150076/PR4-18_Proxy_Advisory_Positive_Final-2404049a960c837685794b04a931a1d1.pdf

For further information, please contact:



Investor Relations

Tel: (416) 814-3160

info@primeromining.comVancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - February 28, 2018) - ML Gold Corp. (TSXV: MLG) ("ML Gold" or the "Company") is pleased to announce a new discovery on its Stars project where hole 4 (DD18SS004) has intersected 0.45% Copper (0.50% CuEq) over 204 metres (m) including 1.02% CuEq (0.93% Cu) over 40.2m from surface. New drill sites are currently being planned to expand from hole 4 and test the newly identified "central" target area (as indicated on the attached survey map, Figure 1). The Stars project is ideally located in central British Columbia in the heart of the province's prolific porphyry belt.

STARS HIGHLIGHTS

High-G rade Results from S urface: Hole 4 intersected 40.2 metres of 1.02% copper equivalent (0.93% Cu) from 26.52m to 66.72m (bedrock begins at 21.58m) within a larger interval grading 0.50% CuEq (0.45% Cu) over 204m from 23.47m to 227.69m.

New Geophysics Identifies Possible Porphyry Centre : The recent detailed airborne magnetic survey identified a cluster of covered and untested circular magnetic anomalies between the two zones drilled in the current program and centered within a larger ovoid magnetic "ring" feature (or "magnetic halo") approximately 5 kilometres in diameter (long axis) (see Figure 1).

Porphyry System Confirmed : Dr. Paul Johnston, an independent porphyry expert who recently reviewed the project drill core comments: "Mineralization [observed in the Stars drill core] is consistent with mineralized features associated with a porphyry system" and suggests that "the [current] drilling is in a marginal position relative to the porphyry centre" where it is reasonable to expect higher copper grades.

Drill Hole Chemistry Indicates A Significant Upside Target: Drilling to date has identified a clear systematic zonation of sulphide minerals where pyrite-only mineralization transitions to pyrite-chalcopyrite to chalcopyrite-only to chalcopyrite-bornite moving towards the newly identified "central" target area. This pattern has been identified in both areas drilled in the current program and in both cases displays an increasing temperature gradient towards the "centre" target area possible indicating a better-mineralized copper porphyry centre.

Potential for M ultiple High Grade Zones: The near-surface high-grade zone discovered in hole 4 could play a significant role in the economics required to build a mine. The location of the zone on the edge of the ovoid magnetic "ring" feature indicates that there could be additional high-grade zones elsewhere within the magnetic ring feature which extends approximately 5 kilometres in diameter (long axis) (see Figure 1).

Close to Infrastructure: Year round road access, proximal rail, access to cheap power and water, access to a major port (Kitimat), low relief topography, and a near-by population centre put the Stars project in an ideal location for low-cost mine development.

ML Gold recently engaged Dr. Paul Johnson, an independent consultant and expert on porphyry deposits worldwide, to conduct a review of the drill core at ML Golds Stars project. Dr. Johnston was able to identify several key factors including the sulfide mineral assemblages which are used to infer the sulfidation state of the mineralizing fluids responsible for depositing the copper observed in the drill holes. He comments "the sulfide minerals show a systematic variation between drill holes and define a trend from higher to lower sulfidation state, which can be equated to increasing temperature with declining sulfidation state". Thus a better-mineralized target is proposed where mineral assemblages point to higher temperature parts of the system (a common relationship exhibited by porphyry deposits worldwide) and suggests that the highest temperature and better-mineralized copper zone has yet to be drilled.

Following Dr. Johnston's site visit, and the completion of the airborne magnetic survey, Dr. Johnston was able to incorporate his field observations with the newly acquired magnetic data. He comments "Vein relationships and styles observed in Stars drilling are consistent with copper mineralization associated with magmatic-hydrothermal alteration and mineralization associated with porphyry systems". Furthermore, "a porphyry centre is proposed between the two areas drilled based on magnetic patterns combined with vectors to a mineralization center derived from sulfide mineral patterns".

PRELIMINARY DRILLHOLE RESULTS

HoleID From (m) To (m) Interval (m) Cu (%) Au (g/t) Ag (g/t) Mo (%) CuEq (%) DD18SS004 23.47 227.69 204.22 0.45 0.045 1.64 0.0048 0.50 incl 26.52 66.72 40.20 0.93 0.092 3.27 0.0047 1.02 further incl. 64.92 66.72 1.80 10.29 1.065 31.85 0.0737 11.35 and incl. 115.76 117.20 1.43 8.33 1.361 8.83 0.1741 9.62 DD17SS001 35.66 297.79 262.13 0.11 0.013 0.39 0.0033 0.13 DD17SS002 26.52 252.07 225.55 0.10 0.007 0.37 0.0026 0.11 incl 249.02 252.07 3.05 1.05 0.020 1.86 0.0007 1.08 DD18SS003 23.47 188.06 164.59 0.13 0.013 0.39 0.0032 0.15 DD18SS005 Results Pending DD18SS006 Results Pending

** CuEq calculated using following metal prices: Cu @ $3.19/lb, Au @ $1330/oz, Ag @ $16.60/oz, Mo @ $7.26/lb (all price in $US)

***True widths are unknown at this time.

Hole 4 (DD18SS004) was drilled on the eastern flank of the newly identified magnetic ring structure (see Figure 1). The mineralization in hole 4 consists predominantly of chalcopyrite mineralization and likely does not represent the potassic core of a system, but does indicate the potential for significant copper endowment in the core of the system (yet to be drilled). The style of mineralization observed (massive chalcopyrite veins with secondary biotite halos overprinted by chlorite) suggests the high-grade copper mineralization is being ejected further out from the potassic core indicating that there could be multiple zones similar to that encountered in hole 4 elsewhere on the property.

Holes 1 through 3 (DD17SS001, DD17SS002, DD18SS003) show copper grades that are consistent with what can be expected adjacent to a copper rich potassic zone, and display a clear zonation of decreasing sulfidation state and increasing temperature indicating that the highest potential area for the potassic core of the porphyry system is just to the west of this area. This is further supported by the recent magnetic survey and preliminary observations from holes 5 and 6.

Adrian Smith, President of ML Gold comments "Dr. Johnston has proven instrumental in bringing the current drilling into the context of a larger porphyry system that may be present on the property. We will continue to consult with industry leaders as we begin a more aggressive second phase of drilling stepping out around hole 4 and testing the new targets generated from rock chemistry vectors and airborne geophysics."

Overall, alteration patterns and mineralogy hold-up on a kilometre scale and suggest that the best zones have yet to be found on the Stars project.

Quality Assurance and Quality Control

All core was transported daily to ML Gold's logging/cutting facility in Houston BC, where it was logged and sampled by a registered professional geologist. Core was then cut in half with one half retained in the core box and the other securely sent to MS Analytical Laboratories in Langley (ISO/IEC 17025:2005 certified), B.C. to undergo analysis. The core lengths sampled were generally 10ft intervals and the internal QA/QC sampling procedure included inserting blanks and standards with one in every 10 samples into the sample sequence. The samples are checked to ensure results fall within acceptable target ranges and all results from the controls were acceptable.

The analysis included; 20 gram Multi Element, 3:1 Aqua Regia (Code: IMS-131), Ultra Trace ICP-AES/MS finish. Over-limit samples underwent Ore Grade Copper, 3:1 Aqua Regia (Code: ICA-6Cu), 0.4 grams with ICP-AES finish, and Ore Grade Copper, 4-Acid (Code: ICF-6Cu), 0.2 gram with ICP-AES finish. MS analytical also conducted independent QA/QC procedures which included inserting duplicate, standard, and blank samples within each batch analyzed.

Adrian Smith, P.Geo., is the qualified person for the Company as that term is defined in National Instrument 43-101, and has supervised the technical information presented within this news release.

ABOUT ML GOLD CORP.

ML Gold Corp. is a Canadian company listed on the TSX Venture Exchange, focused on creating shareholder value through discoveries and strategic development of mineral properties in Canada and the United States.

For additional information please visit the Company's website at www.mlgoldcorp.com. You may also email info@mlgoldcorp.com or call investor relations at (604) 669-2279.

ML GOLD CORP.

"Andrew Bowering"

Andrew Bowering

Chairman

NEITHER THE TSX VENTURE EXCHANGE NOR ITS REGULATION SERVICES PROVIDER (AS THAT TERM IS DEFINED IN THE POLICIES OF THE TSX VENTURE EXCHANGE) ACCEPTS RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE ADEQUACY OR ACCURACY OF THIS RELEASE.

This news release may contain certain "Forward-Looking Statements" within the meaning of the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and applicable Canadian securities laws. When or if used in this news release, the words "anticipate", "believe", "estimate", "expect", "target, "plan", "forecast", "may", "schedule" and similar words or expressions identify forward-looking statements or information. These forward-looking statements or information may relate to future prices of commodities, accuracy of mineral or resource exploration activity, reserves or resources, regulatory or government requirements or approvals, the reliability of third party information, continued access to mineral properties or infrastructure, currency risks including the exchange rate of US$ for CDN$, changes in exploration costs and government royalties or taxes in Canada, the United States or other jurisdictions and other factors or information. Such statements represent the Company's current views with respect to future events and are necessarily based upon a number of assumptions and estimates that, while considered reasonable by the Company, are inherently subject to significant business, economic, competitive, political and social risks, contingencies and uncertainties. Many factors, both known and unknown, could cause results, performance or achievements to be materially different from the results, performance or achievements that are or may be expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. The Company does not intend, and does not assume any obligation, to update these forward-looking statements or information to reflect changes in assumptions or changes in circumstances or any other events affections such statements and information other than as required by applicable laws, rules and regulations.





Figure 1: 2018 Detailed Airborne Magnetic Survey with Interpretations



To view an enhanced version of Figure 1, please visit:

http://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/5509/33202_a1519855358606_96.jpgRegulatory News:

Further to the press releases dated 2 and 18 January 2018, Pershing Square Holdings, Ltd. ("PSH") (LN:PSH) (NA:PSH) today notes the press release of PSCM Acquisition Co LLC ("PSCMAC"), an entity owned by affiliates of Pershing Square Capital Management, L.P. ("PSCM"), in which it announces that it is withdrawing its proposed tender offer for PSH publicly traded shares, as previously announced on 2 January 2018, due to the Dutch Authority for Financial Markets (Autoriteit Financiele Markten, "AFM") interpretation of certain applicable rules regarding the proposed tender offer, which, in PSCMAC's view, make the tender offer not feasible.

The Board of Directors of PSH now intends that PSH should conduct a tender offer to purchase up to an aggregate amount of $300 million of its publicly traded shares ("Company Tender"). PSH anticipates that the Company Tender would be structured as a Dutch auction which is priced at a discount to PSH's prevailing net asset value per public share, with the specific terms being detailed in the Company Tender document to be issued in due course.

The Company Tender will be subject to applicable shareholder approvals, including a vote to remove the current 4.99% shareholder ownership limit, which will be sought at PSH's upcoming Annual General Meeting ("AGM") on 24 April 2018. It is expected that the Company Tender would be launched shortly following the AGM. The Company Tender would be financed from PSH's cash on hand.

The PSH Board will recommend that PSH Shareholders vote to remove the 4.99% ownership limit and to approve the Company Tender.

Anne Farlow, Chairman of PSH, commented:

"We believe that a tender offer made directly by the company is now appropriate in order to address the continuing imbalance between supply and demand for the public shares. In addition, we believe that the tender offer is a good use of available cash given the expected NAV accretion and in light of the current trading prices of PSH's underlying investments."

Bill Ackman, CEO of PSCM, and other affiliates of PSCM, have indicated they intend to vote in favour of the Company Tender and the removal of the ownership limitation.

About Pershing Square Holdings, Ltd.

Pershing Square Holdings, Ltd. (LN:PSH) (NA:PSH) is an investment holding company structured as a closed ended fund that makes concentrated investments principally in North American companies.

This is a public announcement by Pershing Square Holdings, Ltd ("PSH") pursuant to Section 17 paragraph 1 of the European Market Abuse Regulation (596/2014). This announcement does not constitute an offer, or any solicitation of any offer, an invitation to submit an offer, to buy or subscribe for any securities. Any offer or invitation to submit an offer will be made only by means of any specific offer document. This announcement is not for release, publication or distribution, in whole or in part, in or into, directly or indirectly, the United States, Canada or Japan or in any other jurisdiction in which such release, publication or distribution would be unlawful.

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180228006581/en/

Contacts:

MEDIA CONTACT

Maitland

Seda Ambartsumian/Sam Turvey, +44 20 7379 5151

Media-pershingsquareholdings@maitland.co.ukSYDNEY, AUSTRALIA / ACCESSWIRE / February 28, 2018 / Parnell Pharmaceuticals Holdings Ltd. (OTC PINK: PARNF), a fully integrated, commercial-stage pharmaceutical company focused on developing, manufacturing and marketing innovative animal health solutions, today announced the results of the resolution presented at its General Meeting of Shareholders held 22nd February 2018 (Australian Eastern Standard Time).

Submission of Matters to a Vote of Shareholders

On February 22, 2018 (AEST), the Company held a General Meeting of Shareholders (GM). The resolution subject to a vote at the GM was described in detail in the Company's Notice of General Meeting and Explanatory Memorandum dated January 11, 2018.

The purpose of the meeting was for shareholders to consider and vote on a resolution for the removal of Dr. Alan Bell, Executive Chairman, as a director of the Company. This meeting was called by the Board of Directors, upon receipt of a notice from Robert Thomas Joseph, former Chief Executive and Director of the Company. The Directors (with Alan Bell abstaining) unanimously recommended that Shareholders vote against the resolution.

The total number of shares voted by shareholders on the resolution was 9,694,898 shares, which equated to 53.78% of the total number of shares outstanding. As such a majority of shareholders constituted a quorum for the GM.

The proxy count on the resolution was reported to the meeting as follows:

For Against Abstain 1,971,367 7,709,426 14,105 20.33% 79.52% 0.15%

The Chairman declared that a vote would be taken and declared the resolution lost by a count of proxy votes.

There being no further business, the Chairman declared the meeting closed.



Parnell Pharmaceuticals Holdings Ltd. logo

SOURCE: Parnell Pharmaceuticals Holdings LtdUnited States Court of Appeals, Eleventh Circuit. JAMES DUFFY, Petitioner-Appellant, v. SECRETARY, DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONS, ATTORNEY GENERAL, STATE OF FLORIDA, Respondents-Appellees. No. 16-11756 Decided: February 27, 2018

Before MARCUS, WILLIAM PRYOR and ANDERSON, Circuit Judges.

James Duffy, a Florida prisoner serving a fifteen-year imprisonment sentence for trafficking in methamphetamine or amphetamine, appeals the denial of his 28 U.S.C.  2254 petition, which had raised, in relevant part, a claim that his trial counsel had rendered ineffective assistance by failing to discuss the pros and cons of his plea offer. The district court denied Duffy's petition as to that issue because the claim had been procedurally defaulted in the state court. Duffy argues on appeal that, pursuant to Martinez v. Ryan, 566 U.S. 1 (2012), the procedural default should be excused and that his claim of ineffectiveness of his trial counsel should be considered on the merits because his post-conviction counsel was ineffective for failing to raise that issue in the original state post-conviction proceeding. After careful review, we affirm.

When reviewing the district court's denial of a habeas petition, we review questions of law and mixed questions of law and fact de novo, and findings of fact for clear error. Nyland v. Moore, 216 F.3d 1264, 1266 (11th Cir. 2000). We may affirm the denial of habeas relief for any ground supported by the record. Trotter v. Sec'y, Dep't of Corrs., 535 F.3d 1286, 1291 (11th Cir. 2008).

Under Martinez, a prisoner may establish cause for the default of a claim of ineffective assistance of trial counsel by showing that: (1) post-conviction counsel was ineffective under the two-prong test of Strickland v. Washington, 466 U.S. 668 (1984); and (2) the defaulted claim is a substantial one, which means that the prisoner must show that the claim has some merit. Martinez, 566 U.S. at 14. A defaulted claim is substantial if the resolution of its merits would be debatable among jurists of reason. MillerEl v. Cockrell, 537 U.S. 322, 336 (2010).

To make a successful claim of ineffective assistance of counsel under Strickland, a defendant must demonstrate both that (1) his counsel's performance was deficient, and (2) the deficient performance prejudiced his defense. 466 U.S. at 687. First, deficient performance requires showing that counsel made errors so serious that counsel was not functioning as the counsel guaranteed the defendant by the Sixth Amendment. Id. The burden is on a petitioner to prove, by a preponderance of competence evidence, that counsel's performance was unreasonable. Putman v. Head, 268 F.3d 1223, 1243 (11th Cir. 2001).

Second, prejudice occurs when there is a reasonable probability that, but for counsel's unprofessional errors, the result of the proceeding would have been different. Strickland, 466 U.S. at 694. If a plea offer has been rejected due to counsel's allegedly deficient performance, a defendant shows prejudice by demonstrating a reasonable probability that: (1) he would have accepted the earlier plea offer had he been afforded effective assistance of counsel during plea negotiations; (2) the plea would have been entered without the state canceling it or the trial court refusing to accept it; and (3) the end result of the criminal process would have been more favorable by reason of a plea to a lesser charge or a sentence of less prison time. Lafler v. Cooper, 566 U.S. 156, 164 (2012).

In this case, Duffy has failed to satisfy the standard set forth in Martinez. As for its first prong, Duffy must show that his post-conviction counsel was ineffective under Strickland for failing to raise in Duffy's first Rule 3.850 motion the issue of trial counsel's ineffectiveness. Martinez, 566 U.S. at 14. In relevant part, Duffy argues that his post-conviction counsel should have argued that his trial counsel was ineffective when it failed to properly advise him regarding the state's plea offer, which was a four-year sentence in exchange for his guilty plea. Duffy says that, when the offer was made by the state, defense counsel told him about the offer and told him to think about it, without advising him of the pros and cons of the offer. Duffy claims that if he had been fully advised of the offer, he would have pled guilty and not gone to trial.

However, Duffy has not met his burden of showing that his post-conviction counsel was ineffective for failing to raise his trial counsel's ineffectiveness. Id. While Duffy alleges that he would have accepted the plea offer if he had known more information, he offers nothing indicating -- much less showing a reasonable probability -- that he had any intent to plead guilty. See Lafler, 566 U.S. at 164. Nor has Duffy has cited to anything suggesting that the trial court would have accepted the negotiated plea of a four-year sentence, especially when the mandatory-minimum sentence was fifteen years' imprisonment. See Lafler, 566 U.S. at 164; Putman, 268 F.3d at 1243. Indeed, we've held that a defendant failed to satisfy Lafler where, as here, the district court could not have sentenced him to the prosecutor's recommended sentence under the plea, since it was less than the mandatory minimum. See Osley v. United States, 751 F.3d 1214, 1225 (11th Cir. 2014) (citing United States v. CastaingSosa, 530 F.3d 1358, 1360 (11th Cir. 2008) (It is well-settled that a district court is not authorized to sentence a defendant below the statutory mandatory minimum unless the government filed a substantial assistance motion pursuant to 18 U.S.C.  3553(e) and U.S.S.G.  5K1.1 or the defendant falls within the safety-valve of 18 U.S.C.  3553(f).)).

As for the second prong of Martinez, even if Duffy's allegations are sufficient to demonstrate deficient performance on the part of post-conviction counsel, Duffy has failed to demonstrate that his underlying claim of ineffective assistance of trial counsel is substantial. To do so, he would need to show that his claim has merit, yet as we've already explained, he has not done so. See Martinez, 566 U.S. at 14; MillerEl, 537 U.S. at 336. Indeed, he has failed to demonstrate that his trial counsel was deficient, or that the alleged deficiency prejudiced him. See Strickland, 466 U.S. at 687-90; Putman, 268 F.3d at 1243. Because he did not meet this burden, he did not meet the standard in Martinez to excuse the procedural default. See Putman, 268 F.3d at 1243; Martinez, 566 U.S. at 14.

AFFIRMED.

PER CURIAM:Coalition, Inc., a San Francisco, CA-based technology-enabled cyber insurance solution, raised $10m in Series A funding.

Backers included Vy Capital, Ribbit Capital, Valor Equity Partners, Sam Altman (President, Y Combinator), and Deep Nishar (Senior Managing Director, Softbank Vision Fund).

The company intends to use the funds to grow its engineering team and expand its cyber risk management platform.

Founded by Joshua Motta and John Hering, Coalition offers cyber insurance products supported by global insurers Swiss Re Corporate Solutions and Argo Group. The company began offering insurance and cybersecurity to small to midsize businesses (SMBs) in November 2017 and is licensed to offer insurance nationwide.

Through its cyber risk management platform, any business can access and configure a number of cybersecurity tools including threat and intelligence alerts, ransomware and denial of service protection, and patch and vulnerability notifications.

Customers include technology companies, investment firms, retailers, banks, manufacturers, and healthcare providers.

FinSMEs

28/02/2018Stimunity, a Paris, France-based immuno-oncology company, is to receive up to 2m in seed funding subject to the successful completion of milestones.

Portage Biotech (Canadian Securities Exchange: PBT.U, OTC Markets : PTGEF), made the investment.

The company will use the funds to proceeds for the preclinical development of its lead product, a potent biologic enhancer of the STING pathway that activates the immune system against tumor cells.

Led by Nicolas Manel PhD, co-founder and the co-inventor, and Sylvain Carlioz, co-founder and CEO, Stimunity is an early-stage research and development company focused on the development of STING agonists in cancer. The technology, licensed from Institut Curie, Inserm, and the University of Oxford, is based on a unique biologic approach which encapsulates endogenous STING-activating molecules in a Virus-Like Particle (VLP). The companys drug has the potential to activate the innate immune system and enhancing T-cell response against tumor cells with low immunogenicity.

FinSMEs

28/02/2018There are plenty of countries that offer citizenship for sale through investment programmes nowadays, but the practice itself isnt exactly new though.

Nevertheless, more and more countries are coming up with these offers and some of them can be particularly lucrative for foreigners and immigrants wishing to settle, explore, build a vacation house or just do business in another country. For those that are not aware how this works, the basic idea is that the interested person will be able to get a citizenship in a particular country by making financial contributions to the nation in question.

Depending on which nation we are talking about here, the concerned citizen may or may not have to stay in the country before the naturalisation process is approved. Lets now take a look at some of the countries that have the best Citizenship by Investment programme going on right now.

United Kingdom

The costs are huge at GBP 2 million for permanent residency and subsequent citizenship in the United Kingdom, but there are additional requirements that you must fulfil even if you can pay the investment amount. The applicant or applicants must live for at least 5 years in the UK before their citizenship is granted and during that period, they will have to stay for at least 9 months each year in the country. The application should take anywhere between 2  3 months before going through. Keep in mind that UK citizenship investment plans are more ideal for enterprises looking to do business there.

Malta

Malta has one of the most coveted citizenship programs for sale in the whole of Europe because of the high ROI it offers to everyone. You can either opt for the Malta IIP which costs somewhere around the EUR 900,000 mark, or the Malta Residency Program, which should come at around EUR 275,000. Under the residency program, you will have to buy or rent property on the island nation and stay there for at least 12 months. Once you manage to get the citizenship, a Malta passport will allow you to travel, work, study and live in around 26 European nations including the likes of Switzerland, Germany and France.

You wont have to return to Malta in order to retain your citizenship. Moreover, once you have a Maltese passport, you wont need to apply for a visa when travelling to about 160 nations across the world, which includes the US, the UK and Canada to name a few. Keep in mind though that the Malta IIP can only be availed by residents of the European Union (EU) or the European Economic Area (EEA).

Cyprus

Getting a citizenship in Cyprus through investment is not cheap (EUR 2,000,000 for a passport and EUR 300,000 for a Golden Visa), but its a fast process which has no residency requirements and one can get a Cypriot passport in 6 months or less. However, the lack of naturalisation requirements is compensated by the government through a mandatory property investment which should at least cost EUR 500,000. Similar to a Maltese citizenship, a Cypriot passport will also allow the new citizen to travel, work, study and live across the European Union (all the 28 states). The rate of approval is encouragingly high, given that there are no specific skills or experience necessary for applying. In fact, you can apply for the Cypriot Citizenship by Investment programme from almost any country in the world.

Netherlands

The Netherlands is a beautiful place to live in and the Dutch have a single, fairly straightforward Citizenship by Investment policy for all those who are interested. You will need to pay EUR 1,250,000 for a Dutch Golden Visa and after that, you will need to stay in the country for at least 5 years to get a permanent residency status. Once you get the passport though, the only requirement is that you visit the Netherlands and stay there for at least a few days every year. Just like Malta, you will have full access to all the 26 nations in the Schengen zone for visa free travel, study, work, etc.

St Kitts & Nevis

This is where it all started back in 1984 because St Kitts & Nevis is the first country in modern history to start a Citizenship by Investment programme. You can choose any of the following three methods, as is convenient for you.

 USD 150,000 to the Hurricane Relief Fund

 USD 250,000 to the Social and Infrastructure Development Fund (SIDF) fund

 USD 400,000 in property investment

In St Kitts & Nevis, you can get your passport given to you in just 3  4 months and you dont even need to sit through an interview. St Kitts citizens can travel visa free to about 120 nations around the globe and there is no need to spend even a single day in the country if you dont want to. The tax system in the country is extremely lenient since there are no gift, wealth, foreign income, capital gains or inheritance tax whatsoever. If you are not big on your citizenship being published, you would be happy to know that the entire application process is confidential and even after you get your citizenship, it will not be automatically reported to other countries. However, every St Kitts passport must be renewed after 10 years.

There are so many other countries in Europe itself that it would be impossible to discuss the details about them all here. Nevertheless, the ones on this list happen to be some of the best options among countries that offer citizenship for sale. Just be sure to do a bit of research and find the country that would be the perfect match for your requirements.Delaware in the US is a tax-free state, attracting a large number of companies from across the coutnry to register there.

New Delhi: The Enforcement Directorate (ED), looking at the money trail related to jeweller-designer Nirav Modi, have found it leading to the Delaware state in the United States.

"The agency is probing details of the operations of Nirav Modi's firms in Delaware," an ED source told IANS, adding that all his bank transactions were under the scanner.

Delaware in the US is a tax-free state, attracting a large number of companies from across the coutnry to register there. The ED source said investigators were trying to find out if Nirav Modi had diverted any of the loans raised from Indian banks to the US which had been indicated in the documents they were studying.

They are also looking at whether some shell companies were set up in the US. According to the agency, Delaware hosts about 50 percent of the US' quoted firms with a tally of 6.5 lakh companies, overall.

Earlier in the day, Firestar Diamond Inc, the US company of Indian billionaire diamond trader Nirav Modi filed for bankruptcy in a New York court, under Chapter 11.

According to a court filing in Southern District of New York on Monday, the firm listed its liabilities in the range of $50 million and $100 million. A Chapter 11 filing under the Bankruptcy Code usually allows a company to reorganise its business.

Modi -- who along with uncle Mehul Choksi of Gitanjali Group is the main accused in the Punjab National Bank fraud -- has been shown as an inventor in details filed against his company registered at 5th Avenue in New York. Mihir Bhansali has been shown as the company Chief Executive Officer and Ajay Gandhi the Chief Financial Officer.

On Monday, a Mumbai special court permitted the ED to issue Letters Rogatory to six countries for identifying and taking steps to seize Nirav Modi's properties in the PNB fraud case.

The ED source official said it is looking for shell companies of Nirav Modi and Choksi in foreign countries, "especially in tax havens".

The agency officials had earlier said over 120 shell companies of both of them in India were under probe.

The ED action comes in the wake of its ongoing fraud probe -- along with the Central Bureau of Investigation -- against the two and many others, including directors of their companies and bank officials.

Modi has been accused, along with his Choksi, of defrauding the Punjab National Bank of Rs 12,600 crore, with Rs 1,300 being added to the fraud kitty on Monday night.

Earlier, the amount stated to have been defrauded by Modi and Choksi companies was Rs 11,300 crore.

The CBI had filed the first FIR in the scam on February 14 against Nirav Modi, his wife Ami, brother Nishal, uncle Choksi and his firms Diamond R US, Solar Exports and Stellar Diamond.

Nirav Modi, his family and Choksi left the country in early January. The FIR mentions fraud of around Rs 6,400 crore.

The CBI filed the second FIR on 15 February for Rs 4,886.72 crore fraud against the Gitanjali group headed by Choksi.

The agency source said the CBI had written to the Chief Vigilance Officers of five banks to share details of money credited to Nostro accounts of PNB on receiving Letters of Undertaking and Foreign Letters of Credit, which were then withdrawn by Nirav and Choksi's group as buyer's credit.

Till date 12 persons have been arrested in the case. The ED has attached properties valued by them at Rs 6,000 crore.Firstpost has received a copy of the FIR which Canara Bank has filed alleging fraudulent transactions.

Another bank fraud has broken with Canara Bank moving the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) with a complaint of fraudulent transactions worth Rs 515.15 crores against Kolkata-based R P Infosystem and its directors.

After Punjab National Bank (PNB), Bank of Baroda (Rotomac case), other public sector banks too seem to be rushing to the CBI with fraud cases. Firstpost has with it a copy of the FIR (First Information Report) the Canara Bank has filed alleging fraudulent transactions.

According to the FIR, on 26 February, 2018 DV Prasad Rao, deputy general manager, Canara Bank filed a complaint with the CBI in Kolkata alleging that Shivaji Panja, Kaustav Kaustuv Ray and Vinay Bafna, directors and Debnath Pal, Vice president (finance) of R P Info Systems cheated Canara Bank and 9 other member banks of a consortium to tht tune of Rs 515.15 crore.

The complainant alleged the bank fraud was committed through the borrowal accounts of the company in criminal conspiracy with unknown bank officials on 10 member banks of the consortium comprising Canara Bank, State Bank of India, State Bank of Bikaner & Jaipur, Union Bank of India, Allahabad Bank, Oriental Bank of Commerce, Central Bank of India, Punjab National Bank, State Bank of Patiala, and Federal Bank by availing bank funds on the basis of false and fabricated stock/receivables/debtors statements, forged drawing power letter, etc.

It is also alleged that Letters of Credit (LC) opened by different member Banks of the Consortium on the applications of R P Infosystems started devolving from 2012 onwards due to non-maintenance of funds. Canara Bank alleged that R P Infosystem dishonestly and fraudulently did not route the sale proceeds through the loan account and siphoned off the entire amount. It also inflated its receivables, it was alleged.

See the FIR here



Some of the purported debtors, viz, Gail India, Vincent Electronics (Rourkela), CEAT ltd, had informed State Bank of India that they had no dealing with RP Info Systems.

The other member banks of the consortium, had authorised Canara Bank to lodge the consolidated complaint, according to the FIR.

The allegations prima facie disclose commission of offences punishable under various sections of the IPC, the FIR said.Strongly objecting to the use of the word 'cancer', the legendary cancer specialist who was awarded Padma Bhushan in 2006 and is currently Chairman of Chennai based Cancer Institute (WIA), said one ought to be ashamed of corruption but not of cancer

New Delhi: PNB MD and CEO Sunil Mehta got chastised from unexpected quarters when a globally acclaimed doctor V Shanta censured him for using the word 'cancer' to describe the Rs 12,717 crore fraud at the bank by billionaire jeweller Nirav Modi and his associates.

Corruption is something to be ashamed of, cancer is not, she said.

"... do not try to find parallels where none exist. Do not mix cancer with corruption. Ever.", said the Ramon Magsaysay Award winner and cancer specialist in a letter to Mehta.

While addressing a press conference in connection with the $2 billion scam earlier in the month, the Punjab Nation Bank chief had said: "This cancer, that's been going on since 2011, we have brought it out and we are resolving it."

Strongly objecting to the use of the word 'cancer', the legendary cancer specialist who was awarded Padma Bhushan in 2006 and is currently Chairman of Chennai based Cancer Institute (WIA), said one ought to be ashamed of corruption but not of cancer.

"I was extremely disturbed to read your reference to cancer in the context of the recent scam unearthed at your bank. Corruption is a crime and something to be ashamed of; cancer is not," Shanta said in her letter.

Observing that several cancer patients are cured and lead productive lives, she said, "we do not want the word cancer to be associated with guilt, hopelessness or dread. And definitely not with the shame."

She also appealed to the others not to use the word in cancer in such sense as it could outrage medical personal working in the field of cancer prevention and cure.

The spate of frauds in the banking sector running into thousands of crores or rupees have outraged common people, who often liken deep-rooted corruption to something pernicious as cancer.

The worried government yesterday asked all state-owned banks to scrutinise non performing assets (NPAs) exceeding Rs 50 crore for fraud and accordingly report the matter to Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).The Aam Aadmi Party on Tuesday accused Anil Baijal, Anshu Prakash and the IAS Association of hatching a 'conspiracy' to attack Delhi minister Imran Hussain.

New Delhi: The Aam Aadmi Party on Tuesday accused Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal, Chief Secretary Anshu Prakash and the IAS Association of hatching a "conspiracy" to attack Delhi minister Imran Hussain.

The party said the BJP-led Centre was also backing the IAS association for boycotting work of the Delhi government following the alleged attack on the chief secretary on the intervening night of 19 and 20 February by AAP MLAs Prakash Jarwal and Amanatullah Khan.

"The physical assault on Delhi minister Imran Hussain on 20 February was pre-meditated and result of a conspiracy hatched at the L-G House by the Lieutenant Governor, Chief Secretary and the IAS Association," Saurabh Bharadwaj, chief spokesperson of AAP's Delhi unit alleged.

AAP's demand for action against the L-G, chief secretary and police commissioner comes a day after a joint forum of Delhi government employees sought action against Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and his deputy Manish Sisoida in the case of alleged assault on Prakash. The resolution passed by the forum claimed that instead of apologising and admitting their mistake, the chief minister and and the deputy chief minister are in a "denial mode" which shows that they were a "part of the conspiracy".

Bharadwaj claimed that in court proceedings, it was conceded by the Delhi Police that after the late night meeting with the chief minister on 19 February, the chief secretary visited the L-G at his residence where Police Commissioner was called and the meeting was attended by DCP, North. However, no FIR was registered in the night.

"Later, in the morning, IAS Association called a meeting at behest of CS and L-G. Officers were instigated to assault every MLA and minister who could be found in the Delhi Secretariat. The officers, as a part of unlawful assembly at Delhi Secretariat, thrashed the Minister (Hussain) and his staff members," Bharadwaj alleged.

The AAP's attack on L-G comes two days after Kejriwal and his Cabinet met Baijal to resolve the issue and asked protesting officers to join work.

"Why shouldn't an FIR be registered against the L-G, the chief secretary and police commissioner for hatching a conspiring to thrash the minister?" AAP leader Dilip Pandey said.Junior Union education minister Satyapal Singh, recently in news for rubbishing Darwin's evolution theory, has courted fresh controversy, this time deciding to claim that mantras codified the laws of motion, much before Issac Newton.

Junior Union education minister Satyapal Singh, recently in news for rubbishing Darwin's evolution theory, has courted fresh controversy, this time deciding to claim that mantras codified the laws of motion, much before Issac Newton.

There are mantras which codified laws of motion much before it was discovered by the Newton. Hence it is essential that traditional knowledge must be incorporated in our curriculum, the Minister of State for Human Resource Development (MoS HRD) was quoted as saying by a report in Hindustan Times.

Earlier in January, the IPS officer-turned-politician drew flak for claiming that the evolution theory floated by Charles Darwin was not scientific. He had said that our ancestors have nowhere mentioned that they saw an ape turning into a man, thereby casting doubts on Darwin's evolution theory.

Last time around the BJP had distanced itself from the minister's 'personal opinion' with Union Education Minister Prakash Javadekar asking Singh to refrain from making comments on such issues. But this time Singh's comments were made at a meeting of the Central Advisory Board of Education (CABE) attended by several Union ministers and education ministers of most of Indian states, Hindustan Times reported quoting minutes of the meeting.

I have discussed the matter with my MoS and I have asked him to refrain from making such comments. We should not dilute science. This is the advice I have given him," Javadekar had said after Singh's remarks on Darwin's theory.

"Nobody, including our ancestors, in written or oral, have said they saw an ape turning into a man. No books we have read or the tales told to us by our grandparents had such a mention," the junior minister had said. On being challenged by scientists and political opponents, Singh stood by his comments, calling for an international debate on the issue.

However, Javadekar snubbed him by saying, "We are not going to fund any event or dont have any plan for a national seminar to prove Darwin wrong. It is the domain of scientists and we should let them free to continue their efforts for progress of the country."

Singh's comments also drew widespread condemnation from scientists in the nation, who also celebrated a 'Darwin Week' to remove the "doubts being planted in the minds of the common people" about the theory of evolution.

The 12 to 18 February 'Darwin Week' was organised by The India March for Science Organising Committee and the Breakthrough Science Society, PTI reported.

"Evolutionary theory, to which Darwin made seminal contributions, is well established. There is no scientific dispute about the basic facts of evolution. This is a scientific theory, and one that has made many predictions that have been repeatedly confirmed by experiments and observation," the scientists said in a statement issued by them.

With inputs from agenciesFirstpost has reviewed the ED note, which said Karti was not part of the charge sheet that was quashed by the court in Aircel-Maxis case and the agency is likely to submit a status report before the Supreme Court in the first week of March.

New Delhi: Trouble is mounting for former finance minister P Chidambaram and his son Karti Chidambaram as the Enforcement Directorate (ED) and the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probing the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) approval in Aircel-Maxis deal have said that alleged irregularities in the grant of clearance in the case are still alive and they are further probing the linkages to establish payoffs. The CBI has already arrested Karti on Wednesday in INX group case, alleging that he influenced FIPB approval for illegal foreign investment in INX Media.

Firstpost has reviewed the ED note, which said Karti was not part of the charge sheet that was quashed by the court in Aircel-Maxis case and the agency is likely to submit a status report before the Supreme Court in the first week of March.

The ED note said: "It is revealed during the course of investigation that Rs.27.55 Lakh was paid to Advantage Strategic Consulting Private Limited (ASCPL) by Aircel Televenture Limited (ATVL). The financial trasanctions are based on the invoice dated 29.03.2006 issued by ASCPL and raised upon ATVL vide bill number ASCPL/0506/005. The billing was named under professional charges towards management consultancy services rendered by ASCPL. ATVL paid Rs. 26,00,444 vide cheque number 984075 dated 11.04.2006 of State Bank of India, CAG branch Chennai after deducting TDS."

The agency also observed that there are no documents other than payment voucher of ATVL and a copy of the invoice raised by ASCPL and the genuineness and bonafide of the payment is not supported by board resolution passed by ATVL and no agreement and terms and conditions in respect of this transaction with ASCPL.

"Profile of ASCPL reveals, inter alia, that company was incorporated on 12.07.2005 in Chennai. At the time of incorporation, 10,000 shares were issued which were held by Padma Visvanathan and Ravi Visvanathan. This company was brought under the control of the individual and two companies (Linked with Karti P Chidambaram) subsequently. In the year 2009 CBN Reddy and Kriya FMCG Distributors Private Limited were allotted 19% shares and in the year 2011 Ausbridge Holdings and Investment Private Limited was allotted 67% shares and became major shareholders.

Examination of the documents reveal that application to FIPB was filed on 30.01.2006 by Aircel Limited and Ausbridge was incorporated on 07.01.2006," the probe agency documents revealed.

The probe found that FIPB approval on 20 March 2006 permitted the takeover of Aircel Limited. The application before FIPB was filed by Global Communication Services Holdings Limited, Mauritius. The agency claimed that the approval was given by then finance minister P Chidambaram, although amount for consideration before FIPB was $800 million, which was in the competence of Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs. The payment of Rs 26 lakh by the ATVL (parent company of Aircel Limited) was made to ASCPL on 11 April 2006.

"The investigation has further revealed that ASCPL issued 66% (2 lakh shares) equity to the company Ausbridge in 2011 on the payment of Rs. 5 lakh i.e.@Rs. 2.5 per share only because of the persons behind the company Ausbridge-Karti P Chidambaram and M. rajesh. Whereas, book value of the company was Rs. 140.33 on 31.03.2010 and Rs. 129 as on 31.03.2011. In the year 2008, ASCPL allotted share at the premium of Rs.77.50 per share. The net worth of ASCPL in the year 2011 was Rs.18 Crore approx. The company ASCPL was already in financial transactions with the other companies of Karti P Chidambaram since 2005-06 namely Chess Management Services Private Limited, Chess Health Care Solutions Private Limited and Halidon Marketing Private Limited," the ED note said.

Visvanathan told the ED that he, his sister and CBN Reddy are the directors of ASCPL and Visvanathan used to attend companys function as a signatory.

"Works of the company were done by S.Bhaskaraman, who is having no position in the ASCPL however, he is looking after financial matters of Karti P Chidambaram since years back. Investigation has revealed that ASCPL was/is a company of Karti P.Chidambaram, managed by S. Bhaskaraman," the ED note said. The ED in September 2017 had attached assets linked to Kartis firms, which was challenged by him in the Supreme Court.Four days after allegedly mowing down nine children while driving an SUV in an inebriated state, Bihar BJP leader Manoj Baitha surrendered before Muzaffarpur police early on Wednesday.

Four days after allegedly mowing down nine children while driving an SUV in an inebriated state, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Manoj Baitha surrendered early on Wednesday morning, ANI reported. Media reports said he surrendered before the Muzafffarpur police.

The ANI report added that Baitha has been shifted to Patna Medical College from the Sri Krishna Medical College for treatment for injuries he suffered during the accident. Moreover, he also denied driving the jeep which mowed down the children.

#Muzaffarpur Hit & Run Case: Accused #ManojBaitha admitted at Patna Medical College for treatment of injuries he suffered in the accident, that killed 9 school students, denies driving the vehicle involved in the incident. pic.twitter.com/IBzjEoTmOD  ANI (@ANI) February 28, 2018

Baitha's surrender comes a day after the BJP suspended him for the incident, which took place in Muzaffarpur on Saturday. "Manoj Baitha, a district level worker of Sitamarhi, has been suspended from the primary membership of the party for a period of six years," BJP's Bihar unit vice-president Devesh Kumar said.

Muzaffarpur district president Subodh Singh had sent a communication to this effect to the party's state headquarters in Patna, PTI reported on Tuesday.

At least nine children were killed and about 20 injured when the speeding vehicle lost control and ploughed through them outside a government school building on the outskirts of Muzaffarpur on Saturday.

Kumar also denied reports that a banner fixed on Biatha's vehicle described his designation in the party as "state secretary general of Mahadalit Prakoshth". "No such post exists in the organisation. The worker appears to have fabricated it," Kumar said.

The police had registered an FIR against Baitha following a complaint by a local who lost his granddaughter in the incident.

Bihar deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi had said the police were directed to take "sternest possible action" against Baitha irrespective of his political affiliations.

The Opposition RJD had accused the Nitish Kumar government of trying to shield Baitha and alleged that the BJP worker was "drunk" while behind the steering wheel even though sale and consumption of alcohol is banned in the state.

With inputs from PTIUnited States Court of Appeals, Third Circuit. KELLY J. VAY, Appellant v. ROBERT HUSTON, Administrator, Laboratory Director of the Office of the Medical Examiner of Allegheny; STEPHEN PILARSKI, former Administrator of the Office of the Medical Examiner of Allegheny County and currently Deputy Manager of Allegheny County in his individual capacity; MICHAEL BAKER, former Manager of Morgue Operations, in his individual capacity; MICHAEL CHICHWAK, Manager of Investigations, in his individual capacity; ALLEGHENY COUNTY OF PENNSYLVANIA No. 17-1530 Decided: February 23, 2018

Before: CHAGARES, SCIRICA, and COWEN, Circuit Judges.

OPINION*

Plaintiff Kelly Vay brought this action for harassment and discrimination on the basis of sex, in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, 42 U.S.C.  2000e, et seq., and the Pennsylvania Human Relations Act (PHRA), 43 Pa. Stat.  952-63, against Robert Huston, Stephen Pilarski, Michael Baker, Michael Chichwak, and Allegheny County (collectively, the defendants), stemming from her former employment as a forensic investigator in the Allegheny County Medical Examiner's Office. After a seven day trial, the jury returned a verdict in favor of the defendants. Vay appeals, seeking a new trial and contending that the District Court abused its discretion in making a number of evidentiary rulings. We disagree, and so we will affirm.

I.1

We write solely for the parties and therefore recite only the facts necessary to our disposition. Vay was employed as a forensic investigator in the Allegheny County Office of the Medical Examiner from 2009 through 2014. On December 3, 2013, Vay was placed on administrative leave, which lasted until April 2014, during the pendency of an investigation by the District Attorney's Office. Vay was then on medical leave from April through December 2014. When she refused to return to work, the County terminated Vay's employment on December 16, 2014.

Vay brought this action in June 2014, alleging that Vay and other women at the Medical Examiner's Office were mistreated because of their gender. Vay then filed an amended complaint after her employment was terminated. The matter proceeded to trial in early 2017. During the course of trial, Vay produced evidence of disciplinary actions taken against her during her time at the Medical Examiner's Office that she contends were motivated by her gender. During trial, the defendants produced testimony detailing Vay's unprofessional behavior, insubordination, and resulting discipline during the course of her employment. They also produced the testimony of Assistant County Solicitor Jacob Lifson, who testified that a decision was made to place Vay on administrative leave during the pendency of an ongoing criminal investigation by the District Attorney's Office into the leak of information in a high profile homicide case.

After a seven day trial, the jury returned a verdict for defendants. This timely appeal followed.

II.

The District Court had jurisdiction pursuant to 28 U.S.C.  1331. We have jurisdiction pursuant to 28 U.S.C.  1291.

We exercise plenary review over the District Court's interpretation of the Federal Rules of Evidence. United States v. Duka, 671 F.3d 329, 348 (3d Cir. 2011). We review the District Court's application of the Rules and its decisions to admit or exclude evidence for abuse of discretion, id., and [w]e will only reverse if we find the District Court's error was not harmless, Donlin v. Philips Lighting N. Am. Corp., 581 F.3d 73, 80 (3d Cir. 2009). We will not overturn a jury verdict unless the record is critically deficient of that quantum of evidence from which a jury could have rationally reached its verdict. Swineford v. Snyder Cty., 15 F.3d 1258, 1265 (3d Cir. 1994).

III.

Vay contends that the District Court abused its discretion by: (1) permitting testimony from defense witnesses about whether a criminal investigation by the District Attorney's Office into Vay motivated a decision to place her on administrative leave; (2) limiting the cross-examination on the bias of a defense witness; (3) refusing to permit Vay to take the stand a second time to rebut that same defense witness; and (4) excluding some comparator witnesses when it ruled that they were not similarly situated to Vay. We will address each of these issues in turn.

A.

Vay argues that the District Court abused its discretion by permitting testimony establishing that Vay was placed on administrative leave due to a criminal investigation by the District Attorney's Office. Vay argues that this evidence should have been excluded pursuant to Rules 403 and 802 of the Federal Rules of Evidence. Vay argues that this evidence was hearsay and that it was prejudicial because it might have confused the jury and painted her as a criminal.

Hearsay is any statement offered at trial by someone other than the declarant for the purpose of proving the truth of the matter asserted. Fed. R. Evid. 801(c). Here, the challenged testimony was offered to explain the reason that motivated the defendants' decision to place Vay on administrative leave, not to prove the truth of whether in fact she was under investigation. As such, it was not hearsay. Rinehimer v. Cemcolift, Inc., 292 F.3d 375, 383 (3d Cir. 2002).

Rule 403 provides that [t]he court may exclude relevant evidence if its probative value is substantially outweighed by a danger of one or more of the following: unfair prejudice, confusing the issues, misleading the jury, undue delay, wasting time, or needlessly presenting cumulative evidence. Rule 403 creates a presumption of admissibility. United States v. Claxton, 766 F.3d 280, 302 (3d Cir. 2014). Typically, we exercise great restraint in reviewing a district court's ruling on the admissibility of evidence under Rule 403. Gov't of Virgin Islands v. Archibald, 987 F.2d 180, 186 (3d Cir. 1993). The District Court did not err in admitting this evidence. Vay put at issue the reason behind the decision to place her on administrative leave, as she claimed that it was due to gender discrimination and retaliation. Thus, the County's explanation for its decision was highly probative. Additionally, the District Court issued a limiting instruction specifically addressing out of court statements not offered for the truth of the matter asserted. This mitigated the potential prejudicial effect of the evidence. Rinehimer, 292 F.3d at 383. Accordingly, the District Court did not err in finding that the probative value of this evidence was not substantially outweighed by the potential for prejudice.

B.

Vay next argues that the District Court abused its discretion in limiting her counsel's cross-examination of Lifson on his bias due to his past romantic interest in Vay. The District permitted Vay's counsel to ask Lifson whether he had past romantic interest in Vay. Vay contends that this was not sufficient for her to establish bias because she wanted to question whether he had a sexual interest in her, elicit certain statements that Vay claims he had made to her, and elicit testimony that Vay had rejected his advances. The District Court did permit cross-examination of Lifson on other topics, including other areas of his potential bias.

[W]hether a trial court has abused its discretion in limiting the cross-examination of a witness for bias depends on whether the jury had sufficient other information before it, without the excluded evidence, to make a discriminating appraisal of the possible biases and motivation of the witnesses.  United States v. Chandler, 326 F.3d 210, 219 (3d Cir. 2003) (quoting Brown v. Powell, 975 F.2d 1, 4 (1st Cir. 1992)). We have held that the district court may properly exercise its discretion in this area by imposing reasonable limits on the scope of cross-examination, weighing such factors as undue prejudice, relevancy, and delay due to repetition. Douglas v. Owens, 50 F.3d 1226, 1230 (3d Cir. 1995).

The District Court did not abuse its discretion by limiting the cross-examination of Lifson. Vay was permitted some cross-examination on the issue of Lifson's potential bias due to his romantic interest in Vay, and elicited testimony to that effect. See id. ([A] party is guaranteed only an opportunity for effective cross-examination, not cross-examination that is effective in whatever way, and to whatever extent, the defense might wish.  (quoting Kentucky v. Stincer, 482 U.S. 730, 739 (1987) (quotation marks omitted))). Once that bias was elicited, it was not an abuse of discretion for the District Court to decline to permit further cross-examination on that topic. See id. Further, there was no doubt that Lifson's bias had been shown as the District Court stated, in the presence of the jury, that bias has been established. Appendix (App.) 1974-75. Accordingly, we will affirm the District Court's ruling.

C.

Vay next argues that the District Court erred by not permitting her to take the stand a second time to offer rebuttal testimony on the topic of Lifson's bias. After Lifson was cross-examined on his romantic interest in Vay, Vay sought to take the stand to offer rebuttal testimony that Lifson had flirted with her. Vay had previously testified during her case-in-chief, so the District Court did not permit her to testify in rebuttal of Lifson. Vay contends that this was an abuse of discretion. We disagree.

We have held that the purpose of rebuttal testimony is to explain, repel, counteract or disprove the evidence of the adverse party. United States v. Chrzanowski, 502 F.2d 573, 576 (3d Cir. 1974). The admissibility of evidence in rebuttal is committed to the discretion of the trial judge. Id. Typically, a party's right to impeach the credibility of the opposing party's witness is limited to the questioning of that witness on cross examination. United States v. Rockwell, 781 F.2d 985, 989 (3d Cir. 1986). We will not reverse a District Court's decision on rebuttal evidence in the absence of gross abuse of discretion. Chrzanowski, 502 F.2d at 576.

Here, the District Court did not abuse its discretion by denying Vay the opportunity to take the stand to offer more evidence attacking Lifson's credibility, when she had already taken the stand in her case-in-chief. We have held that evidence which properly belongs in the case-in-chief but is first introduced in rebuttal may be rejected, so as to avoid prejudice to the defendant and to ensure the orderly presentation of proof. Emerick v. U.S. Suzuki Motor Corp., 750 F.2d 19, 22 (3d Cir. 1984). As the District Court observed, Vay and her counsel were aware of this testimony and its potential relevance and could have brought it out in the direct examination of Vay. Thus, the District Court did not abuse its discretion by enforcing this rule against Vay.

D.

Finally, Vay argues that the District Court abused its discretion by excluding some of her comparator evidence. The District Court ruled in a motion in limine that Jimmy Johnson, Anthony Bofo, Curtis Williams, Edmond Nelson, and Tom Jakiela were not proper comparators because they were not similarly situated to Vay. In that same ruling, the District Court observed that Vay was not prohibited from offering the same evidence for an otherwise admissible purpose. Vay contends that the District Court erred by excluding this evidence. We disagree.

In a discrimination case, a plaintiff may offer comparator evidence, which is evidence that the employer has treated more favorably similarly situated persons not within the protected class. Simpson v. Kay Jewelers, Div. of Sterling, Inc., 142 F.3d 639, 645 (3d Cir. 1998). We have held that [t]he plaintiff has the burden of demonstrating that similarly situated persons were treated differently. Id. In determining whether employees are similarly situated, we take into account factors such as the employees' work responsibilities and supervisors, the nature of the misconduct, and the particular criteria or qualifications identified by the employer as the reason for the adverse action. Id. at 647; see also Lee v. Kan. City S. Ry. Co., 574 F.3d 253, 259-61 (5th Cir. 2009); Burks v. Wis. Dep't of Transp., 464 F.3d 744, 751 (7th Cir. 2006).

Here, the District Court did not abuse its discretion in holding that these individuals did not commit violations of equal seriousness to those of Vay and were thus not similarly situated to her. Bofo was a supervisor who had a different position and responsibilities than did Vay, and there was no evidence that he engaged in comparable misconduct. As to Williams, the supervisor to whom he was insubordinate was not a management-level employee with the authority to discipline Williams, and the other evidence of his misconduct was of a different nature than that of Vay's. In addition, Nelson engaged in dissimilar misconduct. Vay was disciplined for destruction of County property when she broke a hole into a wall. Nelson then wrote a message next to the hole; he was ordered to remove the writing, but was not otherwise disciplined. Finally, there was no evidence that Johnson or Jakiela engaged in comparable misconduct, as they did not swear at the same, relevant management-level employees. Cf. Mandel v. M & Q Packaging Corp., 706 F.3d 157, 170 (3d Cir. 2013). Further, any error would be harmless. Vay was permitted to, and did, present other comparator evidence.

IV.

For the foregoing reasons the District Court did not err in denying Vay's motion for a new trial. The judgment of the District Court will be affirmed.

FOOTNOTES

. Because the jury returned a verdict in the defendants' favor, we set forth the facts in the light most favorable to them. See Watson v. Se. Pa. Transp. Auth., 207 F.3d 207, 211 n.2 (3d Cir. 2000).

. Vay also argues that this evidence is inadmissible unless the ultimate county decisonmaker, County Manager Willy McKain, was the one to provide the testimony. However, the witness that did testify, Assistant County Solicitor Jacob Lifson, was personally aware of and involved in the decision to place Vay on administrative leave. As such, he was competent to testify. See Fed. R. Evid. 602.

CHAGARES, Circuit Judge.The CBI on Wednesday arrested Karti Chidambaram, son of former finance minister P Chidambaram, in connection with its probe in the INX media case

New Delhi: The CBI on Wednesday arrested Karti Chidambaram, son of former finance minister P Chidambaram, in connection with its probe in the INX media case, officials in New Delhi said.

Karti was arrested at Chennai airport at around eight in the morning when he returned from the United Kingdom, they said.

An FIR filed by the CBI on 15 May 2017 had alleged irregularities in the FIPB clearance to INX Media for receiving overseas funds to the tune of Rs 305 crore in 2007 when Chidambaram was the Union finance minister. It is alleged Karti had received funds to the tune of Rs 10 lakh in the case, they said.

The ED has also registered a money laundering case.

The CBI is also probing the alleged irregularities in grant of the FIPB clearance to the Aircel-Maxis deal in 2006.

Click here for LIVE updatesA day after a sessions court denied him bail, AAP MLA Prakash Jarwal, arrested for allegedly assaulting Delhi chief secretary Anshu Prakash, on Wednesday moved the Delhi High Court seeking the relief.

New Delhi: A day after a sessions court denied him bail, AAP MLA Prakash Jarwal, arrested for allegedly assaulting Delhi chief secretary Anshu Prakash, on Wednesday moved the Delhi High Court seeking the relief.

The bail plea is likely to come up for hearing before Justice Mukta Gupta on Thursday.

Jarwal was on Tuesday denied bail for the second time with a court saying it could not ignore the fact that the lawmaker had "openly violated the dignity" of a 56-year-old public servant who was "honestly discharging duties".

Deoli MLA Jarwal, who was arrested on 20 February, is currently undergoing 14-day judicial custody in the case in which another MLA Amanatullah Khan was also arrested in connection with the alleged assault on the bureaucrat during a meeting at Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal's residence on the night of 19 February.

The court, while refusing to grant bail to Jarwal, had said the situation could not be more alarming when lawmakers do not respect the rule of law.

While dismissing the plea of the MLA, the court had noted that the chief secretary's allegations were confirmed by his medical report as well as the statement of Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's adviser VK Jain, who had claimed that he saw the chief secretary being assaulted by the MLAs.

Seeking bail before the sessions court, Jarwal's counsel had pleaded that the MLA was a young politician and had got married recently on 6 February so he be granted the relief.

Opposing the bail plea, Additional Public Prosecutor Atul Shrivastava had argued that it was a serious offence as a top state bureaucrat had been assaulted. The police had also alleged that the CCTV footage taken from the house of the chief minister appears to have been tampered with.

A magisterial court had on 23 February refused to grant bail to Khan and Jarwal, in the assault case saying the matter cannot be treated in "a casual and routine manner" while dubbing them as "history-sheeters".

Khan has not yet challenged the magisterial court's order denying him bail.

Both the MLAs were on 22 February sent to 14-day judicial custody by the court. While Jarwal was arrested on 20 February, Khan, an MLA from Okhla, was taken into custody the next day.A trial court's endeavour to hurriedly examine 22 out of 24 witnesses in a day has come for a severe criticism from the Delhi High Court.

New Delhi: A trial court's endeavour to hurriedly examine 22 out of 24 witnesses in a day in a case of murder and attempt to commit unnatural sex with a 14-year-old boy has come for a severe criticism from the Delhi High Court, which dubbed it as a classic example of "justice hurried is justice buried".

The high court lamented over the trial court's "super fast track" procedure of examining 22 witnesses in a day, saying it was unable to appreciate why the trial court judge rushed through the prosecution evidence in a case of this nature, resulting in serious miscarriage of justice.

A bench of Justice S Muralidhar and Justice IS Mehta set aside the trial court's October 2014 judgement convicting and sentencing two men to life term for the offences of kidnapping, attempting to commit unnatural sex and murdering the minor in north west Delhi in 2012. It also acquitted the duo.

"The court finds merit in the contention of counsel for the appellants (convicts) that grave prejudice was caused to the accused by the above 'super-fast' track procedure adopted by the trial judge. The court is unable to appreciate why the trial judge considered it necessary to rush through the prosecution evidence in a case of this nature and how she failed to realise that it would result in a grave miscarriage of justice. Justice hurried is justice buried," the bench said.

The court granted benefit of doubt to the two men and acquitted them in the case, saying the circumstances proved do not form a complete chain and "suspicion howsoever strong cannot substitute proof."

"There has been a serious miscarriage of justice as a result of the manner of conducting the trial by the trial judge," the bench said.

The bench said it was constrained to observe that this was yet another case in which the additional sessions judge, in her enthusiasm to speed up the trial process, committed a serious error by examining a disproportionately large number of prosecution witnesses on a single day. It noted that out of 24 prosecution witnesses, 22 were examined by the court on a single day in the case whose trial had begun on 23 May, 2013.

The bench said in a trial involving offences punishable with imprisonment for life or death, where there are independent, formal and main witnesses to the investigation, the trial court must ensure that sufficient time is granted to the defence, especially if there are legal aid counsel for their cross-examination.

"Although the mandate in the CrPC is to conduct the trial on a day-to-day basis, it would be an extreme proposition that the entire prosecution evidence is recorded on a single day in such cases involving grave offences.

"While it is necessary for the trial court to be vigilant against defence tactics that might seek to unreasonably postpone the trial and use the interregnum to win over witnesses, it would be an over-reaction to have the entire prosecution evidence of as many as 22 witnesses recorded on a single day," it observed.With an eye on the upcoming assembly election in Karnataka, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday said the world's tallest statue of Sardar Vallabhai Patel in Gujarat will be a tribute to the sweat and toil of millions of Indian farmers.

Davanagere (Karnataka): With an eye on the upcoming assembly election in Karnataka, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday said the world's tallest statue of Sardar Vallabhai Patel in Gujarat will be a tribute to the sweat and toil of millions of Indian farmers.

"The Sardar Vallabhai Patel's statue (182 metres high), known as the Statue of Unity, being built on the river Narmada near Vadodara in Gujarat, is double the size of Statue of Liberty (93 metres) in New York," Modi said addressing a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) rally in this textile town, about 260 kilometres northwest of Bengaluru.

Metal pieces from farmers of six lakh villages across the country were collected and melted to make the Patel statue as the tallest in the world, Modi told thousands of farmers attending the rally.

The prime minister draped a green shawl, a symbol and common dress-code of the farming community in the state, during his 30-minute address.

The rally also marked the 75th birthday of the BJP's chief ministerial candidate Yeddyurappa, who is also the party's state president and Lok Sabha member from Shivamogga, about 300 kilometres northwest of Bengaluru.

Modi also urged the farmers across the state to donate handful of rice to Yeddyurappa, in a similar way as collection of metal pieces for the tallest statue.

"I request all farmers in the state to donate a handful of rice, to contribute to the development of a new Karnataka, to Yeddyurappa during his tour across the state in March," he said.

The foundation for the statue was laid in 2013 by Modi, who was then Gujarat chief minister.

The statue is being built by Indian infrastructure company Larsen and Toubro, which won the contract for construction and management for about Rs 3,000 crore in 2014. The Union Budget for 2014-15 announced by the Modi-led central government had allotted Rs 200 crore for the project.India on Wednesday successfully test-fired Anti Tank Guided Missiles (ATGM) Nag in desert conditions, defence sources said.

New Delhi: India on Wednesday successfully test-fired Anti Tank Guided Missiles (ATGM) Nag in desert conditions, defence sources said.

The Nag ATGM has been developed by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) and Wednesday's flight tests have once again proved their capability, they said. Director General (Missiles and Strategic Systems) G Satheesh Reddy said the technologies pertaining to ATGM to engage targets in different conditions have been established with the successful tests.

"Anti Tank Guided Missiles (ATGM) NAG were successfully flight-tested on Wednesday in desert conditions against two tank targets at different ranges and timings," a source said.

"With this, the developmental trials of the missile have been completed and it is now ready for induction," the source said. DRDO Chairman and Secretary, Department of Defence Research & Development, S Christopher, congratulated the NAG team for the achievement.Karti Chidambaram, son of former finance minister P Chidambaram, who was arrested on Wednesday by the CBI in connection with the probe into the INX Media case, was later sent for one-day custodial interrogation by a Delhi court.

Karti Chidambaram, son of former finance minister P Chidambaram, who was arrested on Wednesday by the CBI in connection with the probe into the INX Media case, was later sent for one-day police custody by a Delhi court.

Though the CBI had sought 15-day remand of Karti, duty magistrate Sumeet Anand granted a day's custody, making it clear that he should be produced before the concerned special judge on Thursday at 2.30 pm.

Duty magistrate is a judge before whom an accused is produced when the concerned judge is not available or when an accused is produced after the regular court hours. In this case, the concerned special judge had left the court premises at around 4.30 pm, about 20 minutes before Karti was brought to the court.

Karti, who is 46-year-old, was arrested on Wednesday morning at Chennai airport after he landed there from London. He was produced before metropolitan magistrate Sumeet Anand at around 4.50 pm when the CBI sought his custody to for unearthing the "total conspiracy" in the INX Media case, claiming that he was not cooperating in the probe.

During the hearing, CBI's prosecutor VK Sharma told the court that Karti has not cooperated in the investigation and has been repeatedly travelling abroad which "confirmed apprehensions" that "he will flee" from the country.

He alleged that one of the grounds for arresting Karti was that the CBI had recorded a statement of Indrani Mukerjea, former Director of INX Media (P) Ltd, before a magistrate on 17 February in which she had said that Karti had "accepted one million dollars from INX Media" at the Hyatt Hotel in New Delhi.

Opposing the CBI's contentions, senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi, appearing for Karti, said it was a "bizzare" case and no grounds for arrest were made out. "It is a bizzare case at the threshhold. It is not a case of arrest, leave aside police custody or judicial custody," Singhvi told the court while opposing the CBI's remand plea.

He also argued that Karti was summoned twice by the CBI on 23 and 28 August last year and he was interrogated for 22 hours by the agency.

Singhvi said, "there are no reasons given for the arrest. It is because you (CBI) want to show it to your bosses that you are doing some work."

"Unlike others, I (Karti) am not 'Hindustan leaver' and instead I am 'Hindustan returner'," Singhvi said on his clients behalf and claimed that Karti was cooperating with the CBI and the court might impose any condition while releasing him from the agency's custody.

"I (Karti) am not a fugitive," Singhvi, who was assisted by senior advocates Dayan Krishnan and Mohit Mathur, told the court.

The CBI, in its remand plea, has alleged that Karti had not cooperated in the investigation "until compelled to do so by the Supreme Court" and he "vehemently denied that he or his company had any interaction with INX Media on any matter including FIPB related matter despite evidence to the contrary".

"Thus, Karti Chidambaram needs to be subjected to sustained interrogation for unearthing the total conspiracy hatched in the case and also to find out the details of overseas payments received by him from INX Media as a quid pro quo for influence exercised by him over the public servants to scuttle the punitive action required to be taken against M/s INX Media (P) Ltd for the illegal acts of receiving excess investment than the approved FDI and also for making of downstream investment without the FIPB approval. For this purpose, his police custody remand for a period of 15 days is considered essential," the remand plea said.

The agency claimed that Karti's "frequent" visits abroad has confirmed "apprehensions of his tampering with the evidence lying abroad against him and others in the form of secret note received from the Ministry of Finance".

It said the "secret note" received from the finance ministry was also shown in a sealed cover to the apex court and the Madras High Court while objecting to Karti's foreign visits and justifying the look out circular (LoC) issued against him.

At the outset, the court allowed the request of Karti's lawyers to have an interaction with him inside the court room for 10 minutes, after which the proceedings resumed.

When Karti was brought from CBI headquarters to the Patiala House court premises and taken to the courtroom, he told waiting scribes, "It's absolutely a political vendetta. I will be vindicated".

The CBI had lodged an FIR on 15 May last year alleging irregularities in the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) clearance to INX Media for receiving overseas funds to the tune of Rs 305 crore in 2007 when P Chidambaram was the Union finance minister. It also alleged that Karti had received funds to the tune of Rs 10 lakh in the case.

The case was lodged by CBI for alleged offences under sections 120-B (criminal conspiracy) read with 420 (cheating) of the IPC and under relevant provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act.

CBI also alleged that Karti had also received money from INX Media to scuttle a tax probe. The firm was owned at the time by Peter and Indrani Mukerjea, who are currently in jail on charges of allegedly murdering Indrani's daughter Sheena Bora. The Enforcement Directorate has also registered a money laundering case in the INX Media matter.

Opposition cries political witchhunt

As the Centre refused to interfere in the case, the Opposition at large said the Centre was trying to deflect attention from the bank scams by arresting Karti at a short notice. The Congress slammed the arrest and said the prime minister and his Cabinet were using political witchhunt and malicious intent to deflect heat from bank scam and losses to public exchequer. Congress leader Randeep Surjewala also said, "Political persecution of P Chidambaram and his son by puppet CBI to serve agenda of their political master is nothing but cog in this wheel." The Trinamool Congress also called the arrest a political witchhunt by the BJP.

Congress leader and senior advocate Kapil Sibal said on Wednesday that the arrest shows that the Indian investigating agencies are no longer a "caged parrot but a singing parrot" of the government. Sibal, who has been representing Karti in the legal battle before the Supreme Court, said this was a case of "pure vendetta" as the CBI was helpless and had to take refuge of a statement by Indrani Mukerjea, an accused charged with murdering her own daughter.

The Maharashtra Congress and the party's Mumbai city unit also flayed the arrest and said the Centre was "relying on statements of "habitual liar" Indrani in the matter.

On the other hand, the party said, despite India's biggest bank loot happening under his watch, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had not answered a single legitimate question on the subject.

"His silence on the entire saga raises serious questions about the role of the Narendra Modi government in the escape of (Punjab National Bank scam accused) Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi," Mumbai Congress president Sanjay Nirupam said. "It is condemnable that the BJP-led government will even manipulate a murder accused (Indrani) into levying random charges in exchange for leniency."

"The arrest of the son of the senior Congress leader, who has been very vocal against the Modi government, is a ploy to intimidate and browbeat the opposition and also an attempt to divert the public attention from the huge banking scam," senior Congress leader and former Maharashtra chief minister Prithviraj Chavan told PTI.

With inputs from the agenciesThe CBI in its FIR has alleged that INX Media had roped in Karti Chidambaram, son of the then finance minister, so as to get the issues resolved/addressed amicably by influencing the public servants of the FIPB Unit of Ministry of Finance by virtue of his relationship with P Chidambaram.

New Delhi: The promoter of INX Media Limited Peter and Indrani Mukerjea has named former finance minister P Chidambaram and even told the Enforcement Directorate (ED) sleuths that he had asked them to help out the business of his son Karti Chidambaram during a meeting at North Block.

"In their statement before ED, Peter alias Pratim Mukerjea and Indrani Mukerjea admitted that they had met P Chidambaram in his office in North Block, where Chidambaram told them to help the business of his son Karti, and to make foreign remittances for this purpose. They further admitted to having met Karti Chidambaram in Hotel Hyatt in Delhi, where a demand for illegal gratification of $1 million was made. It was further admitted that Karti Chidambaram suggested the names of Chess Management and Advantage Strategic as alternatives to make payments," the ED documents accessed by Firstpost said.

The note further pointed out that this fact was also stated by Indrani in a statement recorded by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) before a magistrate under section 164 CrPC where she confirmed payment of $700,000 abroad.

ED documents further expose the payoffs that were made in lieu of getting irregular FIPB approval for INX Media.

The documents said: "Four invoices adding up to approximately $700,000 drawn by ASCPL, its Singapore subsidiary, another associate company (Northstar Software Solutions Private Limited) and Geben Trading Limited were recovered from the hard disk of Bhaskaraman (chartered accountant of Chidambaram) that were seized from the office of Karti Chidambaram. Copies of these invoices bearing the signatures of Pratim Mukerjea were also recovered from INX Media Limited."

The investigation agency files containing invoice raised by Geben Trading Limited have claimed that the payments made abroad are still being investigated. The ED note suggests that some amount was paid to a Geben Trading account in Swiss Bank's Geneva branch.

On 13 March 2007, INX Media Private Limited applied for issue of shares representing 46.21 percent of the share capital, and downstream investment to the extent of 26 percent in INX News Private Limited. The FIPB approval for the issue of shares was accorded via letter number FCII:105 (2007)/78 (2007) dated 31 May 2007. However, no approval was given for downstream investment in INX News Private Limited and a separate FIPB approval was required. In the meantime, an investigation by the Income Tax Department revealed that INX Media Private Limited had obtained share capital of Rs 305 crore (by issue of shares at a premium of Rs 862.15 per share) as against the approved foreign inflow of Rs 4.62 crore (by issue of shares at par) and had also made downstream investment to the extent of 26 percent in the capital of INX News Private Limited without FIPB approval.

The ED documents said: "When IT Department brought this to the notice of FIPB section, INX Media Limited was asked to clarify on this issue. At this stage, they approached Karti Chidambaram for regularizing this matter. His company was engaged to handle this issue and on 26th June 2008, INX Media Limited sent a reply to FIPB section. On the same date, an invoice of Rs.10 Lakh plus taxes was raised by ASCPL on INX Media Limited."

"FIPB section sent a reply to the IT Department saying that FIPB approval was for the issue of 46.2% shares regardless of the issue price. At the same time, INX Media Limited was advised to apply afresh for approval of downstream investment in INX News Limited. At this time, 4 invoices were raised by ASCPL and its associate companies for an amount of approximately $700,000 (Rs.3.10 Crore). FIPB approval for downstream investment was later accorded, despite the request of IT Department not to grant approval," the ED documents said.

The ED also recovered digital evidence during its searches in the case including invoices raised on INX Media Limited. On being questioned, representatives of INX Media Limited disclosed to the investigators that INX Media Limited had paid Rs 9.96 lakh to ASCPL through a cheque number 002914 dated 15 July 2008. Although the invoice issued by ASCPL claimed that the service rendered was management consultancy, the ledger extract produced by INX Media Limited showed that payment had been made for "reply towards FIPB notification and clarification".

"The company also produced emails and letters sent to B.Sai Chandravardhan, Vice President, Chess Management Service Private Limited (a company owned by Karti Chidambaram) on the FIPB issue," the agency documents revealed.

The CBI in its FIR has alleged that INX Media had roped in Karti Chidambaram, son of the then finance minister, so as to get the issues resolved/addressed amicably by influencing the public servants of the FIPB Unit of Ministry of Finance by virtue of his relationship with P Chidambaram.Increasing its arc of ceasefire violations, Pakistani troops have fired and shelled forward areas along the LoC in Sunderbani, Nowshera and Khour sectors of Rajouri and Jammu districts

Jammu: The Pakistan Army on Wednesday resorted to indiscriminate shelling on the Line of Control (LoC) in Jammu and Kashmir's Rajouri district.

The Pakistani side used small arms, automatics and mortars to target defence and civilian facilities along the LoC in the district, a defence official said.

"Pakistani shelling and firing started at 10.30 a.m. Our positions retaliated strongly and effectively", the official said.

Pakistan's indiscriminate shelling of civilian facilities has forced the authorities to shut 72 schools close to the border in Rajouri and Poonch districts.

Ceasefire violations along the LoC and the International Border in Jammu and Kashmir have left 21 people, including 12 security personnel, dead and more than 80 others, mostly civilians, injured this year.Jayendra Saraswati, who broad based the activities of the Sankara Mutt with inclusive activities, died in Kanchipuram on Wednesday in a private hospital. He was 82.

Kanchipuram: Jayendra Saraswathi, who broad based the activities of the Sankara Mutt with inclusive activities, died in Kanchipuram on Wednesday in a private hospital. He was 82.

The 69th pontiff of the Mutt, established by Adi Shankaracharya in the 8th century, was ailing for quite some time. He was admitted to a private hospital early on Wednesday after he complained of breathlessness. Doctors said the pontiff died following cardiac arrest. His last rites will be conducted on Thursday and his body will be interred in the Mutt premises itself in accordance with traditions followed for Hindu seers.

The mortal remains of Saraswathi were kept at the Nandavanam in Kanchi mutt for devotees to offer their prayers. He would be given 'maha samadhi' at the Nandavanam, near the Chandrasekarendra Sarawathi Swami's. Meanwhile, junior pontiff Vijayendra Sarawati was elevated and given the charge of heading the mutt.

Born Subramaniyam Mahadevan on 18 July, 1935, in Irulneekki in erstwhile Thanjavur district, Saraswathi was anointed successor to the Mutt by Sri Chandrasekarendra Saraswathi Swamigal and was given the title Sri Jayendra Saraswathi on 22 March, 1954.

Saraswathi had a huge following in South India and had sought to play the role of a mediator in the Ram Janmabhoomi dispute during the BJP governments headed by Atal Bihari Vajpayee between 1998 and 2004.

He was also mired in controversy when he was arrested in 2004 during the regime of late J Jayalalithaa and made an accused in the murder of Sankararaman, an official of the famous Varadharaja Perumal Temple in Kanchipuram.

He, along with junior pontiff of the Mutt Vijayendra Saraswathi and 21 others, was acquitted by a court in 2013 in neighbouring Puducherry where the case was transferred from Tamil Nadu.

Another controversy in which he was involved was in August 1987 when Saraswati suddenly decided to leave the mutt. After spending 17 days in Tala Cauvery in Kodagu in Karnataka, he returned to the Mutt to a warm welcome by thousands of devotees. He then kick-started his social organisation, Jana Kalyan.

Saraswathi sought to diversify the activities of the Sankara Mutt, which was largely run on orthodox lines for long, by entering into charitable activities. It ran several schools, eye clinics and hospitals. He had his spiritual tutelage from 'Maha Periyava' Chandrasekarendra Saraswathi and travelled the length and breadth of the country with his guru.

In January 1994, when Chandrasekharendra Saraswathi attained siddhi, Saraswathi formally took over as the head of the Kanchi Mutt. There began a spiritual journey that saw several highs and lows for the institution.

As news of his death spread, a pall of gloom decended on the Kanchi mutt with hundreds of his followers thronging the mutt to pay their homage. A host of national leaders and even political leaders in Tamil Nadu, who had differences with Jayendra Saraswathi and the Mutt, condoled his demise. President Ram Nath Kovind, Vice-President Venkaiah Naidu and Prime Minister Narendra Modi were among those who expressed their condolences.

Meanwhile, the mortal remains of the seer are kept in the Sankara Mutt in Kanchipuram so that people can pay homage.

Sad to hear of the passing of Jayendra Saraswatiji, the Shankaracharya of Kanchi Kamakoti Peetam. Our country has lost a spiritual leader and social reformer of rare eminence. My condolences to his countless disciples and followers #PresidentKovind  President of India (@rashtrapatibhvn) February 28, 2018

Deeply anguished by the passing away of Acharya of Sri Kanchi Kamakoti Peetam Jagadguru Pujyashri Jayendra Saraswathi Shankaracharya. He will live on in the hearts and minds of lakhs of devotees due to his exemplary service and noblest thoughts. Om Shanti to the departed soul. pic.twitter.com/pXqDPxS1Ki  Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) February 28, 2018

Jagadguru Pujyashri Jayendra Saraswathi Shankaracharya was at the forefront of innumerable community service initiatives. He nurtured institutions which transformed the lives of the poor and downtrodden. pic.twitter.com/s1vTpSxbbl  Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) February 28, 2018

Im saddened to hear about the death of Jagadguru Pujyashri Jayendra Saraswathi Shankaracharya of the Kanchi Kamakoti Peetham. He was revered by lakhs of believers all over the world for his teachings. May his soul rest in peace.  Office of RG (@OfficeOfRG) February 28, 2018

Deeply saddened by the demise of Jayendra Saraswati ji, the Shankaracharya of the Kanchipuram Kamakoti Peetam math. With his demise we have lost a great saint of present times, who has been a guiding force for the millions. My prayers for the liberated soul.  Arun Jaitley (@arunjaitley) February 28, 2018

Saddened at the Mahasamadhi of Kanchi Acharya Pujya Jayendra Saraswati ji  Mamata Banerjee (@MamataOfficial) February 28, 2018

Senior BJP leader and former Union Home Minister LK Advani in his condolence message said that he knew the seer closely who played a key role in defusing acrimony between the Hindu and Muslim communities over the Babri Masjid dispute.

"I had the privilege of knowing Jayendra Saraswati Swamiji very closely. Our association became closer during the rule of NDA-I, when I was the Minister of Home Affairs in the government headed by Atal Bihari Vajpayeeji," Advani said in a written message. "Swamiji proactively initiated a dialogue with various religious and social leaders of the Muslim community to evolve an amicable solution to the Ayodhya dispute. This dialogue helped a lot in promoting mutual trust and goodwill between Hindu and Muslim communities," he added. The BJP veteran said he joined millions of devotees of the Kanchi Kamakoti Mutt in "offering prayers to the Almighty and in seeking peace to the departed soul".

Tamil Nadu governor Banwarilal Purohit and leaders of political parties on Wednesday expressed their condolences. In a statement, Purohit said: "Yesterday only I have met him and got blessings of Sankaracharyaji. "During his period, Jagadguru Sankaracharya had started many schools, eye clinics and hospital, Childs Trust Hospital, Hindu Mission Hospital, Tamil Nadu Hospital and other public welfare institutions for the welfare of the society. His death is a great loss to the society particularly to his followers," he added.

Former Union minister and PMK leader Anbumani Ramadoss said the pontiff had moved well with the people and his death is a great loss to those who are associated with him. DMK leader MK Stalin, in his message, condoled the demise of Sankara Mutt pontiff and conveyed his condolences to those who are close to Saraswathi.

The Tamil Nadu unit chief of BJP Tamilisai Soundararajan said the nation has lost a spiritual leader with a nationalist outlook. She said the seer got down to the ground and worked against the conversion of downtrodden people. He also set up several educational institutions and hospitals by going beyond the spiritual calling, she added.

The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) condoled the seer's death and said Saraswathi served for protection of Hindu Dharma, Hindu culture and uplift of Hindu society. It is a great loss not only to Tamil Nadu but also to the entire Hindu society.No sooner had the news of Kanchi mutt Jayendra Saraswathi's demise spread that a pall of gloom descended the temple town and devotees started to gather at the mutt

The 69th pontiff of Kanchi Sankara Mutt, Jayendra Saraswathi, breathed his last on Wednesday. Saraswathi, who had been unwell for some time, passed away on Wednesday morning due to a cardiac arrest after complaining of breathing uneasiness. He was rushed to ABC Hospital near the Kanchi Kamakshi Amman Temple. Doctors said the 83-year-old had died of a cardiac arrest. His demise was confirmed by the Kanchi Sankara Mutt.

Devotees devastated

No sooner had the news spread that a pall of gloom descended the temple town and devotees started to gather at the mutt. Sources said that the mortal remains of Jayendra Saraswathi would be kept at the mutt for devotees to come and offer their prayers. Saraswathi was head of the mutt established by Adi Shankaracharya in the 5th Century AD.

From Irulneeki to Kanchi

Born as Subramaiyam Mahadeva in Irulneeki village in Thiruvarur district on 18 July, 1935, he was named the successor to Kanchi Mutt by Sri Chandrasekarendra Saraswathi Swami and was given the title 'Jayendra Saraswathi' on 22 March, 1954, when he was aged just 19.

He had his spiritual tutelage from 'Maha Periyava' and travelled the length and breadth of the country with his guru. He delivered religious discourse besides involving himself in various spiritual and social activities as well. Under his guidance, the mutt started several schools and hospitals.

Elevation

On January, 1994, when Chandrasekharendra Saraswati attained siddhi, Jayendra Saraswati formally took over as the head of the Kanchi Mutt. There began a spiritual journey that saw several highs and lows for the institution. Outspoken and clear in his ideas, Jayendra Saraswathi ensured that the Mutt involved itself in various social activities. Thanks to his efforts, the mutt today runs several schools, eye clinics and hospitals. He also managed to establish a direct connect with the people.

The year 1987 was controversial in Jayendra Saraswati's spiritual journey, for, on 22 August, he suddenly decided to leave the mutt. After 17 days, he had his homecoming, and was welcomed by thousands of devotees. He then kickstarted his social organisation, Jana Kalyan.

He tried to find a solution to the Ayodhya Ram Temple issue when Atal Bihari Vajpayee was prime minister, but it failed to frutify.

Acharya was arrested in connection with the Kancheepuram Lord Varadharaja Temple manager Sankararaman's murder case in November 2004. He was acquitted by a court in 2013, and subsequently kept a low-profile, on account of poor health.

His last rites

The mortal remains of Jayendra Saraswathi were kept at Nandavanam in Kanchui mutt for devotees to offer their prayers. Sources in the mutt said that he would be given maha samadhi at Nandavanam, near the Chandrasekarendra Sarawathi Swami's. Meanwhile, junior pontiff Jayendra Sarawathi was elevated and given the charge of heading the mutt.

A guiding light

Panjapakesan, an ardent devotee of Sankara Mutt, couldn't hold back his tears while talking to News Today. "He was our Guru, our guiding light. No day passes without us offering our prayers to him. Nothing could have been possible in my life without his blessings. The last couple of decades were tumultuous for him, but he has emerged strong and clean. His passing away is a huge loss for millions of people like me," he said.

Venkatraman, a chartered accountant, who visits the Sankara Mutt regularly, was at a loss for words. "Jayendra Sarawathi thought of everybody as a devotee. Whenever we visited him, he would call us by our names and enquire about our families. His love, care and affection were boundless. There was no caste discrimination at the mutt and its doors were open for everybody," he said.

Echoing the sentiments was Hariharan, a doctor, who said, "I was part of hundreds of health camps conducted as part of his special activities. He would anxiously ask us about how people in the neighbouring villages were benefited by such camps. He was humble and divine."

The author works with News Today in Tamil Nadu

Keep up with all news updates hereUnited States Court of Appeals, Fifth Circuit. UNITED STATES of America, PlaintiffAppellee, v. Jesse HUERRA, DefendantAppellant. No. 16-11783 Decided: February 27, 2018

Before REAVLEY, SMITH, and OWEN, Circuit Judges. Brian Walters Stoltz, James Wesley Hendrix, Assistant U.S. Attorney, U.S. Attorney's Office, Northern District of Texas, Dallas, TX, for PlaintiffAppellee. Eric M. Albritton, Albritton Law Firm, Jason Doyle Cassel, Cassel Law Firm, P.C., Longview, TX, Christie Marie Merchant, Albritton Law Firm, Southlake, TX, for DefendantAppellant.

Jesse Huerra was convicted of distributing methamphetamine, using firearms to further a drug-trafficking crime, and possessing firearms as a convicted felon. Huerra has appealed and contends that: (1) there was no probable cause to issue the warrant and therefore the district court should have suppressed the evidence seized during a search of his home; (2) errors during voir dire violated his Sixth Amendment right to a fair and impartial jury; and (3) the district court erroneously applied the career-offender enhancement to his Sentencing Guidelines range. We affirm.

I

Police in San Angelo, Texas, suspected Huerra of trafficking methamphetamine and applied for a warrant to search his home. Primary support for the warrant application came from San Angelo Detective Hank Heathcock's five-page affidavit, which recounted Huerra's suspected trafficking activities and included information from two confidential informants (CIs) and two other police officers. A Texas state-court judge issued a warrant to search Huerra's house for methamphetamine and related items. San Angelo police, including Heathcock, executed the warrant and found drug paraphernalia, three firearms, and more than 1,500 grams of methamphetamine.

Relevant to this appeal, Huerra was charged with possession with intent to distribute 500 grams or more of methamphetamine (Count 12), possession of firearms in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime (Count 13), and possession of firearms by a convicted felon (Count 14). Huerra pled not guilty to all counts.

Before trial, Huerra filed a motion to suppress the evidence seized during the search. He argued that the affidavit so lacked indicia of probable cause that the officers who executed the warrant could not in good faith have thought that it was valid. The district court held a hearing and then denied the motion. It ruled that the good-faith exception to the exclusionary rule applied and, alternatively, that the supporting affidavit gave the state-court judge a substantial basis to find probable cause.

During voir dire, potential juror Jemal Floyd disclosed in open court that he was a parole officer who was currently supervising Huerra. The district court immediately excused Floyd. Prompted by defense counsel's follow-up questions, two other panel members expressed doubt about their ability to remain impartial in light of Floyd's statement. The district court then re-explained to the venire the presumption of innocence and the burden of proof and re-emphasized the jury's proper role in the case, following which a third panel member asserted that he too could be neither fair nor impartial. Defense counsel moved to strike the panel, arguing that Floyd's outburst had tainted the venire. The district court overruled the objection but ultimately excused the three panel members who questioned their ability to be impartial.

The jury convicted Huerra on all counts. The district court ordered preparation of a presentence report (PSR), and the probation officer filed a PSR with two addenda. For Count 12, the PSR recommended life imprisonment because Huerra had two prior convictions for a felony drug offense, triggering a statutory mandatory term of life imprisonment. For Count 13, the PSR concluded that Huerra was a career offender under Section 4B1.1 of the Federal Sentencing Guidelines and applied that enhancement to Huerra's Guidelines range. The PSR based the career-offender designation on three prior Texas convictions: one for aggravated assault and two for possession with intent to distribute a controlled substance. The career-offender enhancement increased the Guidelines range for Count 13 from 295-months-to-life to 420-months-to-life in prison. For Count 14, the PSR recommended a 10-year term of imprisonment because the Guidelines range exceeded the statutory maximum of 10 years, with or without the career-offender enhancement.

Huerra objected to the PSR, contending that the mandatory life sentence as to Count 12 did not apply and that he did not qualify as a career offender under the Guidelines. The probation officer declined to amend the PSR, and the district court overruled Huerra's objections and adopted the PSR. The district court sentenced Huerra to three concurrent sentences: life imprisonment on Count 12; 420 months of imprisonment on Count 13; and 120 months of imprisonment on Count 14. Huerra appealed.

II

Huerra contends that his motion to suppress the evidence found at his home should have been granted because the search warrant was invalid. We first consider whether the good-faith exception to the exclusionary rule applies. We review de novo the district court's determination that it did.

A

When law-enforcement officers seize evidence through objectively reasonable reliance on a search warrant, the Fourth Amendment does not require that courts suppress the evidence. This principle is the good-faith exception to the exclusionary rule. Typically, the fact that a magistrate has issued the warrant can establish that officers executed the warrant in good faith. However, officers may not rely on a warrant that was supported only by a bare bones affidavit. We label an affidavit bare bones only if it is so deficient in demonstrating probable cause that it renders an officer's belief in its existence completely unreasonable. For example, affidavits that merely state that the affiant has cause to suspect and does believe or has received reliable information from a credible person and does believe that contraband is located on the premises are bare bones. We make this determination by evaluating the totality of the circumstances.

A reasonable officer could have relied on this warrant in good faith. First, a magistrate issued the warrant, which normally establishes good faith. Second, Officer Heathcock's five-page affidavit was not bare bones. It included tips from two reliable CIs that Huerra was involved in methamphetamine distribution in San Angelo. The affidavit also described a San Angelo Police Department investigation that had identified Huerra as the supplier for several San Angelo methamphetamine dealers. Heathcock's affidavit further explained that, through numerous investigative techniques, New Braunfels Police Officer Kristen Malish had determined that Huerra was distributing methamphetamine from his home. Malish also gave credible and reliable information that Huerra was storing a large amount of methamphetamine at his home and had negotiated to sell four ounces of it to a San Angelo narcotics dealer. Finally, Heathcock explained that San Angelo police had conducted a four-month surveillance operation and confirmed that Huerra was distributing methamphetamine from his home. The affidavit contained much more than wholly conclusory statements that lack the facts and circumstances from which a magistrate can independently determine probable cause. The affidavit was not bare bones, and a reasonable officer could have relied on this warrant in good faith.

Huerra asserts that the CIs' tips were stale and unreliable. Older tips are not stale if the affidavit clearly shows a long-standing, ongoing pattern of criminal activity. This affidavit demonstrated Huerra's longstanding, ongoing pattern of methamphetamine distribution. The tips were not stale. The affidavit also contained facts that support a conclusion that the CIs' tips were reliable. The CIs based their tips on personal knowledge, and both had given reliable information before. It is inconsequential that San Angelo Detective Craig Thomason was the original source for the second CI's tip because officers may submit warrant applications containing hearsay, including, of course, information provided by other officers. It makes no difference that the affidavit does not identify the source for the information obtained during the San Angelo Police Department investigation. The affidavit contains the common-sense inferencean inference that officers and magistrates are free to makethat Heathcock's information came either from his direct participation in the investigation or from other officers who participated in the same investigation, two presumptively reliable sources. Finally, and contrary to Huerra's contention, the information from Malish was reliable. Officers may submit warrant applications containing [police-officer] hearsay. Heathcock's statements about Malish's investigative techniques are presumptively reliable because he based them on his observation of [a] fellow officer[ ] participating in the same investigation. Malish's information was particularly detailed, which can also establish the tip was reliable. Furthermore, an officer could reasonably infer that Malish's numerous investigative techniques were a reliable source for her information. Huerra has identified nothing that undermines the affidavit's reliability.

The fact that a magistrate issued the search warrant coupled with the apparent reliability of the supporting affidavit shows that a reasonable officer could have relied on this warrant in good faith. The good-faith exception applies, and the district court correctly denied Huerra's motion to supress.

B

Even if the good-faith exception did not apply, the affidavit gave the Texas district court a substantial basis for concluding that there was probable cause to search Huerra's home.

Probable cause exists if there is a fair probability that contraband or evidence of a crime will be found in a particular place, considering all the circumstances set forth in the affidavit. Mindful that the Fourth Amendment's requirements are practical and not abstract, a warrant's supporting affidavit must be tested and interpreted by magistrates and courts in a commonsense and realistic fashion. The [t]echnical requirements of elaborate specificity once exacted under common law pleadings have no proper place in this area. Accordingly, we must give great deference to the state district court's determination that probable cause existed.

Officers had a fair probability of finding contraband or evidence of a crime at Huerra's home. As discussed above, the affidavit provided ample evidence that Huerra was distributing methamphetamine from his home. That evidence came from at least four reliable sources, spanned several months, and told a consistent story. The district court gave appropriate deference to the state district court's determination and correctly concluded that the state district court had a substantial basis for issuing the search warrant.

Because the good-faith exception applies or alternatively because there was a substantial basis for issuing the warrant, the district court did not err in denying Huerra's motion to supress.

III

Huerra contends that his Sixth Amendment right to a fair and impartial jury was violated because the district court refused to dismiss the panel of potential jurors after one of them (Floyd) revealed that he was Huerra's parole officer. The Sixth Amendment guarantees a fair and impartial jury. A jury is unfair and partial if the jurors had such fixed opinions that they could not judge impartially the guilt of the defendant. But jurors need not  be totally ignorant of the facts and issues involved. Jurors are considered fair and impartial so long as they can lay aside [an] impression or opinion and render a verdict based on the evidence presented in court.

The district court's actions before and after Floyd's disclosure ensured that Huerra's jurors would be fair and impartial. As voir dire began, the district court told the panel to presume Huerra's innocence. After Floyd offered that he was Huerra's parole officer, the district court immediately excused him. Subsequently, the district court gave the panel members an opportunity to disclose whether, for any reason, they should not serve on the jury. The district court allowed defense counsel to ask the panel members whether Floyd's statement might affect their ability to be fair and impartial. In response, two panel members told the court that Floyd's statement might affect them, prompting the district court to remind the panel about the presumption of innocence, the burden of proof, and the jury's proper role in the case. Then the court asked these two panel members whether Floyd's statement might prevent them from being fair and impartial, and they said that it would. The district court then permitted defense counsel to ask whether anyone else felt the same, and a third panel member also said that Floyd's statement might have an impact. Defense counsel asked this question again, but no other panel members came forward. At the conclusion of voir dire, the district court excused all three panel members who said they were influenced by Floyd's revelation. These combined measures were adequate to protect Huerra's right to a fair and impartial jury.

There is no evidence that the district court's actions discouraged the panel members from disclosing whether Floyd's statement had affected them. To the contrary, the panel's behavior after the statement belies any concerns that they were too intimidated to disclose potential biases. Immediately after the district court reminded the panel about the presumption of innocence and asked panel members to come forward if Floyd's statement had affected them, a third panel member spoke up and explained that Floyd's disclosure had biased that panel member against Huerra. Later, other panel members casually offered their opinions on drug enforcement, laws against felon gun ownership, and government regulation of private gun ownership. This panel was not hesitant to disclose its potential biases.

The facts of this case are unlike those in United States v. Rowe, when we ordered a new trial because of a district court's statements during voir dire. A prospective juror in that case had told the court that she could not be fair and impartial. The district court responded by accusing her of refusing to put aside [her] personal opinions and giving the kind of answer which is clearly made up for the occasion [and] is not really great. The judge said that he would place her on February, March and April's panel to come back and threatened that she would be coming back again, and again, and again until she could figure out how to put aside [her] personal opinions and do [her] duty to [her] country as a citizen. To a second panel member who made a similar disclosure, the judge said that it was appalling to presume that people were guilty [just] because they were standing here charged with a crime. The judge threatened to place this potential juror back on the jury panel for February, March and April and suggested that she take [sic] some remedial constitutional inquiries in the meantime. The judge concluded that it was hard for [him] to believe somebody who stands up and says that they believe that because someone's sitting here that they're guilty already.

The facts before us do not resemble those in Rowe. The district court in the present case took adequate and appropriate steps to ensure Huerra's right to a fair and impartial jury.

IV

The district judge did not commit reversible error in concluding that Huerra was a career offender within the meaning of the Guidelines. Huerra failed to preserve this issue, and our review is for plain error. He has not satisfied the third and fourth plain-error requirements.

Typically, we review[ ] the district court's application of the Sentencing Guidelines de novo and its findings of fact for clear error. But we subject to plain-error review arguments that are raised for the first time on appeal. To preserve an issue for appeal, the objection below must fully apprise the trial judge of the grounds for the objection so that evidence can be taken and argument received on the issue. But Huerra's conclusory objection merely claimed that he lacked the requisite number of past felony convictions for the career-offender enhancement. He did not identify which felony convictions the district court should ignore or explain why it should ignore them. Nor did he elaborate on these objections during the sentencing hearing. Huerra did not fully apprise the district court of the grounds for his objection. We therefore review this issue only for plain error.

To obtain relief under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 52(b)which embodies plain-error reviewan appellant must show four requirements. First, there must be an error or defect that the appellant has not affirmatively waived. Second, the legal error must be clear or obvious, rather than subject to reasonable dispute. Third, the error must have affected the appellant's substantial rights. Fourth and finally, even if the first three requirements are present, an appellate court may remedy the error only if it seriously affects the fairness, integrity or public reputation of judicial proceedings. Of course, [m]eeting all four prongs is difficult, as it should be. 

As the Government concedes, Huerra has satisfied the first two plain-error requirements. A person with at least two prior felony convictions of either a crime of violence or a controlled substance offense may be considered a career offender under the Federal Sentencing Guidelines. Two of Huerra's three prior felony convictions were for violating Texas Health & Safety Code  481.112. But this court has held that convictions under that Texas statute are not predicate offenses for purposes of the career-offender enhancement. Without those convictions, Huerra has only one prior felony conviction, so he is not a career offender under the Guidelines. It was clear legal error for the district court to apply that enhancement.

The third plain-error requirement is absent, however, because the sentencing error did not affect Huerra's substantial rights. First, the erroneous career-offender enhancement did not change Huerra's Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) security level. The BOP bases an inmate's security level in part on a Criminal History Score. But the career-offender enhancement does not affect the Criminal History Score and therefore did not affect Huerra's security level. Second, since the error implicates only the shortest of three concurrent sentences, it did not affect Huerra's substantial rights. The error does not affect the sentences for Counts 12 and 14: Huerra received a mandatory life sentence for Count 12, and the Guidelines sentence for Count 14 would have exceeded the 10-year statutory maximum even without the career-offender enhancement. The only sentence that the error arguably affected was the sentence for Count 13. But that 420-month sentence is the shortest of the three concurrent sentences. When an error affects only the shorter of several concurrent sentences, a defendant's failure to challenge his longer  sentence renders his challenge to his concurrent  [shorter] sentence irrelevant under plain-error review since the defendant cannot show that the error affects his substantial rights. Unable to show that the error affects his substantial rights, Huerra has failed to establish the third plain-error requirement.

The fourth plain-error requirement is also absent. First, a sentencing error that affects only the shorter of two or more concurrent sentences does not seriously affect the fairness, integrity, or public reputation of judicial proceedings. Moreover, Huerra's concurrent life sentence for Count 12 means that he can show no meaningful benefit  from vacating this [shorter] sentence on Count 13. Without that showing, we decline to exercise our discretion to grant plain-error relief and thus avoid any unwarranted extension of the authority granted by Rule 52(b) [that] would disturb the careful balance it strikes between judicial efficiency and the redress of injustice.

* * *

For these reasons, we AFFIRM the judgment of the district court.

FOOTNOTES

. See 21 U.S.C.  841(b)(1)(A).

. United States v. Cherna, 184 F.3d 403, 40607 (5th Cir. 1999) (citing United States v. Satterwhite, 980 F.2d 317, 321 (5th Cir. 1992)).

. Id. at 407 (citing United States v. Leon, 468 U.S. 897, 922 (1984)).

. See United States v. Shugart, 117 F.3d 838, 84344 (5th Cir. 1997) (citing United States v. Craig, 861 F.2d 818, 821 (5th Cir. 1988)).

. United States v. Cisneros, 112 F.3d 1272, 1278 (5th Cir. 1997) (quoting United States v. Alix, 86 F.3d 429, 435 (5th Cir. 1996)).

. Id. (citing Satterwhite, 980 F.2d at 32021).

. United States v. Pope, 467 F.3d 912, 920 (5th Cir. 2006) (brackets and citations omitted).

. United States v. Robinson, 741 F.3d 588, 597 (5th Cir. 2014) (citing United States v. Fisher, 22 F.3d 574, 578 (5th Cir. 1994)).

. Satterwhite, 980 F.2d at 321.

. United States v. Craig, 861 F.2d 818, 822 (5th Cir. 1988) (quoting United States v. Webster, 734 F.2d 1048, 1056 (5th Cir. 1984)).

. Bennett v. City of Grand Prairie, Tex., 883 F.2d 400, 407 (5th Cir. 1989) (citation omitted).

. See United States v. May, 819 F.2d 531, 536 (5th Cir. 1987) (rejecting the argument that because an affidavit failed to identify the source of information uncovered during an investigation the information was necessarily unreliable).

. Bennett, 883 F.2d at 407.

. May, 819 F.2d at 536.

. United States v. Laury, 985 F.2d 1293, 1313 (5th Cir. 1993) (quoting United States v. Jackson, 818 F.2d 345, 349 (5th Cir. 1987)).

. See May, 819 F.2d at 53536 (concluding that a person is free to draw reasonable inferences from a warrant affidavit).

. United States v. Wylie, 919 F.2d 969, 974 (5th Cir. 1990) (quoting United States v. Peden, 891 F.2d 514, 518 (5th Cir. 1989)).

. May, 819 F.2d at 535 (quoting United States v. Ventresca, 380 U.S. 102, 108 (1965)).

. Id. (quoting Ventresca, 380 U.S. at 108).

. Id.

. See Wylie, 919 F.2d at 978.

. Patton v. Yount, 467 U.S. 1025, 1035 (1984).

. Murphy v. Florida, 421 U.S. 794, 799800 (1975).

. Id. at 800 (quoting Irvin v. Dowd, 366 U.S. 717, 723 (1961)).

. 106 F.3d 1226 (5th Cir. 1997).

. Id at 1230.

. Id. at 1228.

. Id.

. Id.

. Id.

. Id.

. Id. at 1229.

. United States v. MedinaAnicacio, 325 F.3d 638, 643 (5th Cir. 2003).

. Id.

. United States v. Musa, 45 F.3d 922, 924 n.5 (5th Cir. 1995).

. See Puckett v. United States, 556 U.S. 129, 135 (2009).

. Id.

. Id. (citation omitted).

. Id. (quoting United States v. Olano, 507 U.S. 725, 736 (1993)) (brackets omitted).

. Id. (quoting United States v. Dominguez Benitez, 542 U.S. 74, 83 n.9 (2004)).

. United States Sentencing Guidelines Manual  4B1.1 (2016).

. See United States v. Hinkle, 832 F.3d 569, 57677 (5th Cir. 2016) (holding that past convictions under Texas Health & Safety Code  481.112 cannot trigger the career-offender enhancement); see also United States v. Tanksley, 848 F.3d 347, 352 (5th Cir. 2017) (similar), supplemented by, 854 F.3d 284 (5th Cir.).

. See U.S. Dep't of Justice Federal Bureau of Prisons, Program Statement: Inmate Security Designation and Custody Classification , No. P5100.08, Chapter 4, Pages 8, 16 (Sept. 12, 2006), https://www.bop.gov/policy/progstat/5100_008.pdf.

. See id. at Chapter 4, Page 8.

. United States v. Meshack, 225 F.3d 556, 577 (5th Cir. 2000), amended per curiam on reh'g in part, 244 F.3d 367 (5th Cir. 2001), overruled on other grounds, United States v. Cotton, 535 U.S. 625 (2002) (citing United States v. Phillips, 210 F.3d 345, 351 n.5 (5th Cir. 2000)).

. See id.

. Id.

. Puckett v. United States, 556 U.S. 129, 135 (2009) (original internal quotation marks and brackets omitted).

PRISCILLA R. OWEN, Circuit Judge:Karti Chidambaram has been arrested in Chennai in the INX Media case after returning from London for non-cooperation with the CBI.

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Former Union minister P Chidambaram's son Karti has been arrested by the CBI in Chennai, just hours after arriving from London.

The Congress has reacted to Karti Chidambaram's arrest, saying it was "diversionary tactics", and a result of "political vendetta" by the Centre.

Karti Chidambaram has been arrested by the CBI for not cooperating in the investigation of the INX media money laundering case. Karti is accused of receiving Rs 10 lakh from INX Media, in exchange of arranging Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) clearance. "Karti 'used' his influence to manipulate a tax probe against INX Media in a case of violation of FIPB conditions to receive investment from Mauritius," the CBI had said.

Chidambaram, who is also a senior advocate, had claimed in his plea that as part of "political vendetta", the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the Enforcement Directorate (ED) have made "vexatious" searches and issued the repeated summons in these cases.

Senior Congress leader P Chidambaram had approached the Supreme Court seeking protection of his fundamental rights, including the right to privacy, amid summons to his son Karti Chidambaram and raids by the CBI and the ED in connection with cases related to Aircel-Maxis and INX Media.

Randeep Surjewala of the Congress reacts to the Karti Chidambaram's arrest

Karti Chidambaram is currently being questioned in a lounge inside the airport, according to CNN-News18. Sources said that CBI plans to take him to Delhi on an 11 am flight and will try to present him in Delhi before 4 pm.

The list of accused people in the case

CBI team, along with Karti Chidambaram, leaves for Delhi from Chennai

In May last year, the CBI had conducted raids at the Chennai houses of Chidambaram and his son. The raids and the arrest now relates to clearances given to INX Media. Karti allegedly facilitated the clearances for kickbacks in 2008 when Chidambaram was a Union minister in the UPA government. It is here that things become difficult for the top Congress leader. His involvement, direct or indirect, in the case can come under investigations post the arrest of his son.

The BJP has said laws are taking their own course and the party isn't involved in the functioning of the investigating agencies or of the judiciary, following accusations of "political vendetta" hurled by the Congress over the arrest of P Chidambaram's son Karti.

This isn't the first instance in which investigative agencies have moved against the Chidambarams. In April last year, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) had issued a show-cause notice to Karti and a firm purportedly linked to him for alleged violations of the FEMA laws to the tune of Rs 45 crore. Also, the agency also issued a similar notice, after over two years of investigations, to another firm Vasan Health Care Private Limited, which is based in Chennai, for alleged forex violations of Rs 2,262 crore.

Not the first time agencies have moved against Chidambaram family

Advantage India holds 90,000 shares out of the 1.5 lakh equity shares of Vasan Eye Care. The firm procured the shares at a throwaway price of Rs 100 per share. However, the report states that it actually paid only one-third, or Rs 33 per share. It sold 60,000 shares in two tranches of Rs 30,000 to Sequoia Capital Investments, a Mauritius-based investment fund. In the first tranche, 30,000 shares were sold at Rs 7,500 per share or Rs 22.5 crore. Assuming that the second tranche was also sold at the same price and if the balance shares are valued at the same price, then Vasan Eye Care's share would amount to Rs 112.5 crore that Advantage acquired at a mere Rs 50 lakh, according to the report. Now, thats quite a killing, isnt it?

What is the value of Karti's company Advantages Wealth?

Kartis empire is spread across several countries, which would also mean several jurisdictions. The Singapore subsidiary of Advantage, Advantage Singapore, has real estate investments in at least 15 countries. But under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), the Enforcement Directorate can expand its probe to any geographies and seek help of international agencies if needed.

The bigger trouble in waiting for the Chidambarams may be the Aircel-Maxis case. In a nutshell, the whole story of the Aircel-Maxis case pertains to the forced selling of Aircel in 2006 by its owner entrepreneur C Sivasankaran, allegedly under pressure from former Union telecom minister Dayanidhi Maran. To return the favour, Maxis invested around Rs 47 crore in the Sun Group, owned by Dayanidhi Marans brother, Kalanidhi Maran. Karti allegedly facilitated the whole transaction through his firm Advantage Consulting and passed along the bribes.

In 2015, former finance minister P Chidambaram had said in an interview, "If the government wishes to target me, they should do so directly, not harass friends of my son who carry on their own businesses and have nothing to do with politics." But Chidambarams apparent attempt to politicise the issue may not work, since the Congress itself will not want to get involved in the case, given its seriousness and its larger political implications. There is immense pressure on the Narendra Modi government not to lower its guard against corruption.

Nobody is above the law, says BJP's Sambit Patra

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) probing into Karti Chidambaram case is seeking details of certain companies based in Monaco, a tax haven country of Western Europe. According to sources the Letter Rogatory (LR) was sent after the agency had unearthed leads during the probe of companies linked to Karti and his associates. India has tax information exchange agreement with Monaco for sharing banking and ownership information about the companies.

Visuals of Karti Chidambaram being taken to Patiala House court

CBI gave him a lot of chances but he continued with his lies, says Subramanian Swamy

Political sentiments depend on narratives. And narratives more often than not are built on signalling intent rather than actual progress or a patient approach. It is possible that Karti's arrest was forced by circumstances instead of procedure, but it presents the BJP with the chance to kill two birds with one stone: Regain the anti-corruption mojo and prove that graft breaches generational gap in the Congress. Read more here.

Karti Chidambaram's arrest could be an inflection point in the Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) attempt to regain the narrative against corruption. For a party which came into power on the back of a promise to clean the swamp and take action against the kingpins behind the UPA's scam-tainted regime, the Narendra Modi government's four-year stint at the Centre has been quite an anti-climactic experience.

BJP will take up the issue of Karti Chidambaram's arrest in Parliament

Earlier, Abhishek Manu Singhvi had said it is a coincidence that the arrest happened at a time when the nation is attacking the Centre on 'ChhotaModi'

Coincidence to have the arrest at a time when the nation is questioning Centre on 'ChotaModi': Manu Singhvi

Karti says, "I have cooperated with the CBI and I'll be vindicated"

Former finance minister P Chidambaram cancelled his Oxford lecture and is rushing back to India as his wife Nalini flew from Chennai to New Delhi a while ago.

Congress says Centre trying to deflect the heat from unprecedented bank scams

Moreover, allegations of a political vendetta by the Opposition against the government are uncalled for and utterly baseless. The criminal justice system of our country also involves the judiciary, and if the arrest or even harassment of the accused is politically motivated, the judiciary will, in all such cases, provide relief. Read more here.

If the investigation agencies are indeed in possession of such evidence, Karti's arrest should have ideally happened earlier. Another charge by the agencies, that Karti was in the process of destroying evidence, is again very serious, and when proven, will make the accused ineligible for bail. One of the primary grounds for rejection of bail is the destruction of evidence, as has been established in Criminal Law.

Claiming vendetta isn't enough; it's time to substantiate charges with evidence

PM and his ministers using political witchhunt and malicious intent to deflect heat from bank scam, says Congress

Defence lawyer Abhishek Manu Singhvi tells Court that it is the most bizarre case against Karti Chidambaram. The arrest is motivated. He hasn't been given a single summon in last 6 months and the allegations made by the CBI that he is not cooperating is not true when no summon has been issued after August 2017. Singhvi further says Karti has no connection with the Advantage Strategic Consulting (P) Limited which allegedly received kickbacks and always co-operated with ED and CBI in the case.- ANI

CBI will explain all details we don't wish to interfere, says Ravi Shankar Prasad

BJP National General Secretary Ram Madhav says, "Law taking its own course, had it been vindictive it would have happened in the first year of our government. It took four years because a due legal process was followed. The agencies followed the process diligently & came to a conclusion."

Had it been vindictive it would have happened in the first year of govt, says Ram Madhav

Indrani Mukherjea had named Karti in a statement where she had said Karti had demanded $ 1 million for FIPB clearance.

CBI seeks custody of Karti on grounds of Karti demanding $ 1 million for FIPB clearance

Former finance minister P Chidambaram's son Karti's one-day CBI custody will come to an end on Thursday. The court is set to hear his bail plea on Thursday, reported News18.

"In their statement before ED, Peter alias Pratim Mukerjea and Indrani Mukerjea admitted that they had met P Chidambaram in his office in North Block, where Chidambaram told them to help the business of his son Karti, and to make foreign remittances for this purpose. They further admitted to having met Karti Chidambaram in Hotel Hyatt in Delhi, where a demand for illegal gratification of $1 million was made. It was further admitted that Karti Chidambaram suggested the names of Chess Management and Advantage Strategic as alternatives to make payments," the ED documents accessed by Firstpost said.

The promoter of INX Media Limited Peter and Indrani Mukerjea has named former finance minister P Chidambaram and even told the Enforcement Directorate (ED) sleuths that he had asked them to help out the business of his son Karti Chidambaram during a meeting at North Block.

Indrani, they said, had confirmed in her statement to the CBI and ED that a payment of $7 lakh was made to the bank accounts of overseas firms linked to Karti.

The couple had also admitted that they subsequently met Karti at a five-star hotel in Delhi, where he allegedly made a demand of $1 million, they said, adding that this was reiterated by Indrani before the magistrate as well.

Karti Chidambaram was arrested by the CBI on Wednesday on the basis of confessional statements of INX Media Limited directors Peter and Indrani Mukerjea, alleging that they paid $7 lakh to him on the instructions of his father P Chidamabaram, as quid pro quo for a FIPB clearance, officials said.

Karti sent to his rightful place i.e. behind bars, says BJP spokesperson Gaurav Bhatia

'Karti's arrest comes when nation is after Centre over Nirav Modi', says AM Singhvi

Speaking to CNN-News18, AAP leader Ashutosh said, "The Modi government has no answers on Nirav Modi. Law should be equal to everybody. They are trying to create news so that people's attention is diverted."

Narendra Modi govt has no answers on Nirav Modi, trying to divert people's attention: AAP leader

Congress communications in-charge Randeep Surjewala said it was a classic diversionary tactic to hide "corruption scams, mal-governance and mal-administration that have marred this government".

While the Congress accused the BJP-led government of indulging in "political vendetta" and using the arrest as a "tactic" to divert attention from banking and other scams, the saffron party rejected the charge, saying there was no interference from the government and the law was taking its own course.

The arrest of senior Congress leader P Chidambaram's son Karti Chidambaram on Wednesday led to a political slugfest between the Congress and the BJP.

Karti Chidambaram's arrest comes after his father and former finance minister P Chidambaram filed a petition in the Supreme Court alleging continued harassment of him and his family, reported The Hindu.

Following son Karti's arrest, senior Congress leader P Chidambaram, who was in England at the time, has cancelled his engagements and returned to New Delhi, reported Business Standard . Among his engagements was the Oxford Union debate on the motion This House Regrets the Partition of India on Thursday evening.

"Karti then tried to persuade Jet Airways to let him use his frequent flyer mileage to get an upgrade. The CBI resisted and managed to get him to fly economy," a senior agency official told India Today TV.

According to India Today , Karti Chidambaram demanded he be flown first class to New Delhi after his arrest at Chennai airport on Wednesday morning. However, the CBI was firm that rules only allowed travel by economy class.

Following arrest Karti Chidambaram wanted to fly first class to New Delhi: Report

Rejecting the CBI claim, senior counsel Abhishek Manu Singhvi said both charges against his client were false. He said Karti appeared before the CBI and Enforcement Directorate for 30-40 hours and cooperated.

The CBI counsel told the Duty Magistrate that they needed his custodial interrogation since he was not cooperating with the probe and was going abroad frequently.

In Delhi, Metropolitan Magistrate Sumit Anand granted the remand till 12.30 pm on Thursday when a regular CBI court will hear the agency that sought a 15-day remand of Karti for detailed questioning.

"Absolutely, political vendetta," he said and expressed confidence that he will eventually be vindicated.

While being taken to the court, Karti said his arrest was an act of political vendetta by the Narendra Modi government.

RECAP: Karti claims arrest is an act of 'political vendetta' by Modi govt

The defence counsel said Karti was ready for any conditions like surrender of passport and remaining within the city apart from marking daily attendance.

Describing the arrest as "malafide", Singhvi jocularly remarked that Karti was not a "Hindustan Leaver, but Hindustan Returner" for which he got the reward of arrest at the airport.

Singhvi said after 28 August last year, the CBI never issued summonses and whenever he went abroad he took court permission. He also rejected the charge of possible tampering with the evidence by Karti, saying this was a 10-year-old case based on documents and there was no question of tampering.

Rejecting the CBI claim, senior counsel Abhishek Manu Singhvi said both charges against his client were false. He said Karti appeared before the CBI and Enforcement Directorate for 30-40 hours and cooperated.

"His silence on the entire saga raises serious questions about the role of the Narendra Modi government in the escape of (Punjab National Bank scam accused) Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi," Mumbai Congress President Sanjay Nirupam said.

On the other hand, the party said, despite India's biggest bank loot happening under his watch, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had not answered a single legitimate question on the subject.

The Maharashtra Congress and the party's Mumbai city unit on Wednesday flayed the arrest of former Union minister P Chidambaram's son Karti Chidambaram, calling it "political vendetta" and said the Centre was "relying on statements of "habitual liar" Indrani Mukerjea in the matter.

CBI to ask for more time to grill Karti Chidambaram based on Indrani Mukherjea's claims, reports CNN-News18

The note further pointed out that this fact was also stated by Indrani in a statement recorded by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) before a magistrate under section 164 CrPC where she confirmed payment of $700,000 abroad.

"In their statement before ED, Peter alias Pratim Mukerjea and Indrani Mukerjea admitted that they had met P Chidambaram in his office in North Block, where Chidambaram told them to help the business of his son Karti, and to make foreign remittances for this purpose. They further admitted to having met Karti Chidambaram in Hotel Hyatt in Delhi, where a demand for illegal gratification of $1 million was made. It was further admitted that Karti Chidambaram suggested the names of Chess Management and Advantage Strategic as alternatives to make payments," the ED documents accessed by Firstpost said.

On Wednesday morning, police in Delhi swung into action following Karti's arrest in Chennai. The Patiala House court complex turned into a fortress, reported India Today . Barricades were put up. Karti's mother Nalini Chidambaram was also present when her son was brought in. Both were seen in conversation after the arguments concluded.

According to Business Standard , the Patiala Court will also be hearing the bail plea of S Bhaskararaman, Karti's CA, regarding the same case. He had filed the plea before the court on Wednesday. The Enforcement Directorate had arrested Bhaskararaman from a hotel on 16 February, after which he was sent to judicial custody for 14 days on 26 February, the report added.

It is to be understood that a mere denial holds no value in the eyes of law, or for people at large; it should be substantiated with evidence.

Even principally, such heinous allegations can't be brushed aside by just terming them "political vendetta". If at all the Congress party thinks that such actions are a result of a witch-hunt, it is incumbent upon them to come out with a factual rebuttal of the charges. These allegations have been floating in the media for over a year now, and all the Chidambaram father-son duo has done is deny them, instead of actually disproving them.

If one gets into details of the charges against Karti Chidambaram, his arrest will hardly come as a surprise. Instead, it would only look delayed, argues Raghav Pandey in this Firstpost article .

Claiming vendetta isn't enough; it's time to substantiate charges with evidence

Karti Chidambaram to seek bail today on grounds of being a law abiding citizen

Karti Chidambaram to be produced at Patiala House court at 12.30 pm

Karti Chidambaram being questioned at CBI headquarters in New Delhi

Quoting CBI sources, CNN-News18 reported that the investigative agency is hinging its argument to detain Karti Chidambaram to CBI custody in the INX Media case based on his CA, S Bhaskararaman and Indrani Mukherjea's statement.

Karti Chidambaram to be produced before Patiala House Court at 2 pm

According to CNN-News18, senior government lawyer Tushar Mehta will be representing the CBI in Thursday's hearing.

Ahead of Karti Chidambaram's hearing on Thursday at the Patiala House court complex, former finance minister P Chidambaram is reportedly at lawyer Abhishek Manu Singhvi's house, according to CNN-News18.

P Chidambaram is at lawyer Abhishek Manu Singhvi's house ahead of hearing at 2 pm, reports CNN-News18

Around 200 Congress leaders held protests in Chennai on Thursday, raising slogans against the BJP over Karti Chidambaram's arrest, reported News18 . Questioning teh truth behind Indrani Mukherjea's statement implicating Karti and his father P Chidambaram, Congress leader Peter Alphonse said: "How can you trust the statement of Indrani Mukerjea? Her mental status is questionable. She has been in jail for two years. Her statement is questionable in court of law. This is a case of political vendetta.

CBI is doing its job, says Home Minister Rajnath Singh

Meanwhile, former finance minister P Chidambaram and lawyer Abhishek Manu Singhvi, have left for the Patiala House court complex, reported CNN-News18.

According to CNN-News18, former finance minister P Chidambaram may be questioned by the CBI. Quoting CBI sources, the report said that he may be interrogated in the FIPB clearance case.

Speaking to CNN-News18, Subramanian Swamy said that he would give Indrani Mukerjea's statement weight because the CBI also has other collateral evidence to support it. He also said that he expects that former finance minister P Chidambaram will soon be taken into CBI custody for interrogation before the end of this month.

P Chidambaram will be joining his soon in CBI custody: Subramanian Swamy

Former finance minister P Chidambaram and Karti's lawyer Abhishek Manu Singhvi met just before the hearing at the latter's residence, India Today reported. The news channel said that the two Congressmen thrashed out a strategy to counter CBI's case against Karti.

However, Singhvi has previously also argued that Karti has been based out of India and has always answered CBI summons. This leaves no room for an arrest, the lawyer had argued.

According to CNN-News18, the CBI has argued in the case that Karti Chidambaram is not cooperating in probe and has been repeatedly going out of the country, making it difficult for the agency to interrogate him. The agency has sought 14-day custody of the former finance minister's son basis this argument.

According to Times Now, CBI sources have said they want to jointly grill Karti Chidambaram and his CA to match the disparities in their statements and confront onw with the claims made by the others. The investigation agency has sought a 14-day remand of the veteran Congress leader's son.

Want to jointly grill Karti, his CA, says CBI

According to media reports, CBI lawyers have argued that the agency could not question Karti Chidambaram yesterday, when he was remanded to a 1-day custody, as he got admitted to a hospital and evaded questioning. The agency has now asked court to extend his remand.

CBI says couldn't question Karti, he spent last night in hospital

FIPB Board members who cleared INX deal also to be grilled by CBI: CNN-News18

Karti's mother Nalini Chidambaram, who is also a senior advocate, was also seen sitting with him in the court. Senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi is leading the team of advocates for Karti.

Mehta, appearing in court on behalf of the CBI has argued that the agency is going plainly by evidence and that there is no political vendetta driving the case against Karti.

Delhi's Patiala House Court has reserved its order on the bail plea of Karti Chidambaram's chartered accountant. He will stay in jail till 7 March. There are reports that the CBI wants to jointly grill Karti and his CA to match up claims made by the two.

Singhvi, arguing in favour of Karti Chidambaram, called the case built up CBI bizarre. He said that the agency is making deliberate attempt to prejudice the court with half-baked facts, NDTV reported.

He then answered his question by saying that CBI didn't summon him because they did not have anything to ask.

Times Now reported that Singhvi told the court that the investigative agency has not issued a single summon to Karti after August 2017. The veteran lawyer and Congress leader asked that if tCBI felt that Karti was non-cooperative, they could have issued fresh summons. "Why did they not do so," he asked.

There is clear evidence of links between Karti Chidambaram and various companies, the CBI told the court. "We have emails and invoices indicating money was given to Advantage Strategic Consultancy Private Limited (ASCPL) in the time period when INX media received favours," CBI said claiming that all the companies could be traced back to Karti's businesses.

The party flagged the several banking scams unearthed recently and questioned the government's silence and inability to bring back absconding accused.

"Loot and scoot appears to be the modus operandi of thugs under this government," Randeep Surjewala said while addressing a press conference while the court was hearing the bail plea of Karti Chidambaram.

Abhishek Manu Singhvi said in court that the that the agency has failed to produce any new facts in the case, from what it had in May 2017 when the case was first registered. He said that the sole basis of arrest was Indrani Mukerjea's statement, which he said was accepted in whispers inside the court.

Congress flags other banking scams in presser, says govt allowed Jatin Mehta, wife to flea India

Abhishek Manu Singhvi told the court that the companies under lens for financial irregularities are not linked to Karti Chidambaram or any of his businesses. He also said that the CBI was only floating empty invoices for the benefit of the media. "Mere empty invoices, without proof of any payment being recieved is useless," Singhvi claimed.

'Karti not linked to companies under lens, invoices without payment useless': Abhishek Manu Singhvi argues in court

" How can CBI now cite statements of a couple (Indrani Mikerjea and Peter Mukerjea) which is being prosecuted by the same agency in Sheena Bora murder case and also in INX Media Case? You can't rule out they roped in Chidambarams in INX Media Case to seek certain favours in lieu of it," Singhvi argued.

Can't rely on statements of those charged under murder: Abhishek Manu Singhvi

The special court hearing Karti Chidambaram's bail plea and the CBI's request to a 14-day remand has reserved its order on both these issues. The order is expected shortly.

He said that Karti has appeared before the agency whenever he was called and therefore there is no basis for arrest or custody.

Pointing out that the legal basis to grant remand, or deny bail are mainly three threats, Singhvi said that Karti CHidambaram was neither at a flight risk, nor could the CBI prove any tampering of evidence, and there is no non-cooperation.

No flight risk, tampering with evidence, or non-cooperation Singhvi on CBIs demand for custody

Special Judge Sunil Rana, who is hearing the demand of the agency seeking Karti's 14 days custodial interrogation, allowed him to meet his father P Chidambaram and mother Nalini Chidambaram inside courtroom in the presence of investigating officer. The order is expected shortly.

Karti Chidambaram is accused of seeking government clearance for foreign investments worth around Rs. 300 crore in television company INX Media in exchange for bribes back in 2007, when his father P Chidambaram was the Union finance minister.

Recap: Karti Chidambaram accused of accepting pay offs in return of govt clearance for FDI in INX media

Karti Chidambaram's lawyer Abhishek Manu Singhvi told the press that the CBI failed to prove how the bribe money allegedly travelled, or to provide remittance for the so called pay offs. "Matter has ended on fact that CBI is referring to large volumes of material not shared with us. But we've been able to show there is no case. Now we are leaving the matter to court," Singhvi said.

CBI based arguments on new evidence previously undhared with us: Karti Chidambaram's lawyers

Karti, CBI officials' snap at each other over use of language

The CBI officials wanted Karti Chidambaram to remove the gold chains he is wearing, when in custody, but he expressed his reluctance to do so. His lawyer told the court that he wears them for religious reasons. At this point the judge had to interfere and ask both parties to not spar on trivial things and proceed with the investigation, NDTV reported. Moreover, Karti's request to be allowed to have home food was turned down.

Karti allowed to wear gold chains in custody but no to home food; can see lawyers twice a day

Karti Chidambaram, who was directly taken into CBI custody until 6 March as soon as the court pronounced its order, shouted across to the media that he will be vindicated, NDTV reported. Meanwhile, his father P Chidambaram maintained a stoic silence, as media personals hurled questions at him, both on his way in and out to the court.

Watch: Karti Chidambaram being taken out of court

The senior advocate, who has been representing Karti in the legal battle before the Supreme Court, said this was a case of "pure vendetta" as the CBI was helpless and had to take refuge of a statement by Indrani Mukerjea, an accused charged with murdering her own daughter.

The arrest of Karti Chidambaram by the CBI in the INX media case shows that the Indian investigating agencies are no longer caged parrots but "a singing parrot" of the government, senior Congress leader Kapil Sibal said.

The Bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra has refused to grant interim protection to Karti from arrest by ED Senior Advocate Kapil Sibal,who appeared for Karti said Karti will be arrested by ED once the CBI custody is over (Toda). He submitted that it is the same transactions for which, his client is in CBI custody presently and ED cant investigate him without any FIR.

Supreme Court issued notice to Enforcement Directorate for quashing of all criminal proceedings initiated against him under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) by the Enforcement Directorate in connection with FIPB approval for Aircel-Maxis and INX Media in 2006 and 2007.

In the petition, Karti said the ED's action is "the serious infringement of the Petitioner's fundamental right to live with dignity guaranteed under Article 21 read with Articles 14 and 19 of the Constitution of India."

Supreme Court also sought response from the Enforcement Directorate on Karti Chidambaram's fresh plea seeking protection from arrest. The top court lists matter for hearing on 8 March.

Supreme Court next hearing on Karti's plea seeking protection from arrest on 8 March

News18 reports that CBI cited the joint interrogation of Karti and Indrani Mukerjea of INX Media to extend the custody of the businessman. Appearing for Karti, Abhishek Manu Singhvi, who also happens to be a senior Congress leader, stressed on personal liberty.

CBI to seek eight days more of custodial interrogation of Karti Chidambaram in INX Media case. But Karti looks to seek bail, and is likely to move Delhi High Court if denied this relief. CBI wants the hearing in post-lunch session.

While the CBI has sought an extension of custody of Karti Chidambaram, there is confusion over the number of days. While Bar & Bench is reporting that the apex investigation agency has demanded an extension of six days, Live Law is reporting seven days. CNN-News18, on the other hand, is stating that the CBI is seeking 9-day custody of Karti.

According to the Income Tax department, Karti Chidambaram used the money that he received as bribe from Indrani Mukherjee to buy property in the United States.

Former media executive Indrani Mukerjea has reportedly claimed that Karti Chidambaram demanded $1 million from her, and that she paid him a part of this sum, at a hotel in New Delhi last year. After Firstpost reported on this allegation on 28 February, a confessional video, accessed by Times Now, depicts Indrani making the same allegation, adding that she "doesn't care" about her credibility being questioned by Karti, or his father, former finance minister P Chidambaram, because she recorded her testimony before a magistrate under section 164 of the CrPC. Mukerjea, according to the on-camera revelation released by Times Now, also claimed that she met P Chidambaram in his North Block office.

Indrani Mukerjea claims on camera that businessman demand $1 mn from her

Senior Congress leader and lawyer Kapil Sibal, who is representing Karti Chidambaram in the case, told the bench on Tuesday that Karti Chidambaram should not be arrested since there is no FIR by the Enforcement Directorate, NDTV reporrted.

CBI will file a reply seeking two weeks time to respond. Karthi has filed for bail in Patiala House Court. The plea was filed on Monday. Karti has said that he will be co-operating with the investigation agencies. On the bail application, CBI will file an application seeking 2 weeks to respond. Apart from that. CBI has moved application seeking further 9 days custody.

Hearing has begun now. Tushar Mehta tenders unconditional apology for the delay.

Tushar Mehta says, "Our investigation is not just about the 164 statements of Indrani. We have more evidence." He asks asks the judge to read a few paragraphs from the documents given earlier in a sealed envelope. "We have recorded the confrontation with Indrani as well which if the judge wants we can put it in front of you," he continues. Mehta adds that some development happened on Monday which has not been told in open court.

In the last four days, there has been substantial progress. It is based on this that CBI seeks nine days remand. CBI says that Karti is not cooperating, adds that he is playing the victim card.

According to NDTV, Karti Chidambaram is seated on the left side of the room along with the CBI officials for the hearing. His parents are present at the other side.

NDTV reports Karti Chidambaram's lawyer Abhishek Manu Singhvi as saying that " This is a malafide attempt to keep Karti Chidambaram in custody. Tomorrow the CBI may cite more reasons demanding extended custody,"

Key accused Indrani Mukherjea's statement is just one of the evidences, says Additional Solicitor General Tushar Mehta.

New revelations have come up in INX Media case which can't be disclosed and Karti is not cooperating, PTI quoted CBI as telling the court.

Singhvi counters CBI's claim, says on behalf of Karti, "If I am silent, that does not mean I am non-cooperative"

Speaking in the court, Karti's lawyer Abhishek Mnau Singhvi argues, "None of the conditions by CBI is such that it could not be meet without Karti in custody. It can be done by interrogating, summoning or calling him from 9 am to 6 pm. How is their investigation hampered by not having him in custody ? Singhvi continues, "Mehta is not forwarding material to the judge but is giving his personal opinion or subjective notes which is not credible or relevant . Such notes cannot be the basis to keep me in custody."

Karti can be interrogated without keeping him under custody, says Singhvi

While the Patiala House Court has reserved the order on Karti's bail application, we will come to know if he will get bail or not at 4.30 pm.

Abhishek Manu Singhvi argues, "It comes down to three factors: flight risk, direct tampering of evidence and non-cooperation. This non-cooperation is not by way of answers given but by way of not submitting before the court."

Singhvi says it comes to 3 factors of flight risk, direct tampering of evidence and non-cooperation

CBI gave no reasons but kept repeating 'we have to interrogate': Singhvi

Singhvi's last argument was Karti is not a terrorist with a bomb that he cannot be interrogated without keeping him in custody.

Karti's CBI custody extended to 3 days, next hearing on 9 March at 2 pm

I-T claims that Karti spent Rs 3.3 crore on US property and bought assets with the INX bribe money. Sources say Karti will be prosecuted under black money laws, CNN-News 18 reported. CBI said original will that gave firm to Karti's minor daughter was missing.

I-T said Karti spent Rs 3.3 crore on US property

While the Patiala House Court has reserved the order on Karti's bail application, we will come to know if he will get bail or not at 4.30 pm.

Abhishek Manu Singhvi argues, "It comes down to three factors: flight risk, direct tampering of evidence and non-cooperation. This non-cooperation is not by way of answers given but by way of not submitting before the court."

Singhvi says it comes to 3 factors of flight risk, direct tampering of evidence and non-cooperation

Argued CBI hasn't given a single ground or written a single reason in its application for further remand. #KartiChidambram only had a 25-minute long confrontation with Indrani Mukerjea &around 2 hrs long interrogation in last 5 days & there is no need of further custody:A Singhvi pic.twitter.com/38Lm70RSH1

CBI gave no reasons but kept repeating orally that we have to interrogate. Court will pronounce judgement at around 4:30 pm today: A Singhvi, #KartiChidambram 's lawyer in #INXMediaCase pic.twitter.com/nSSyrugy62

CBI gave no reasons but kept repeating 'we have to interrogate': Singhvi

Singhvi's last argument was Karti is not a terrorist with a bomb that he cannot be interrogated without keeping him in custody.

I have nothing to say. Let's wait for the Court's order: Additional Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, counsel for CBI #INXMediaCase pic.twitter.com/IR0l0jQGE8

Karti's CBI custody extended to 3 days, next hearing on 9 March at 2 pm

I-T claims that Karti spent Rs 3.3 crore on US property and bought assets with the INX bribe money. Sources say Karti will be prosecuted under black money laws, CNN-News 18 reported. CBI said original will that gave firm to Karti's minor daughter was missing.

I-T said Karti spent Rs 3.3 crore on US property

P Chidambaram and Nalini Chidambaram outside Delhi's Patiala House Court. #KartiChidambram has been sent to 3 more days of CBI Custody by Special CBI Court in #INXMediaCase . pic.twitter.com/u7Lx18TFcD

Latest updates

The CBI today arrested Karti Chidambaram, son of former Finance Minister P Chidambaram, in connection with its probe in the INX media case, officials said. Delhi's Patiala House court sent Karti Chidambaram to one-day police custody.

Karti was arrested at Chennai airport at around eight in the morning when he returned from the United Kingdom, they said.

Karti Chidambaram has been arrested in Chennai in the INX Media case for non-cooperation with the CBI. He is set to be brought to Delhi later in the evening.

#FLASH Karti Chidambaram taken into custody by CBI at Chennai Airport over INX media case. pic.twitter.com/91WjX5fQ80  ANI (@ANI) February 28, 2018

Karti Chidambaram has landed in Delhi, according to Times Now. CBI cars are waiting in which he will be taken to Patiala House court.

The focus of CBI's remand application is that once Chess Management was hired, rules were made for his 'services'

Both P Chidambaram as well as Nalini Chidambaram have refused to answer any questions about Karti's arrest, reported CNN-News18 and India Today.

The Congress has reacted to Karti Chidambaram's arrest, saying it was "diversionary tactics", and a result of "political vendetta" by the Centre.

With the arrest coming only a day before the Parliament reconvenes, political observers told NDTV that it could blunt the Opposition's attack on the government's alleged soft stance on corruption.

The CBI had earlier carried out searches at the homes and offices of Karti across four cities for allegedly receiving money from the media firm owned by the Peter and Indrani Mukerjea to scuttle a tax probe.

The CBI had filed the FIR against Karti Chidambaram and the Mukerjeas on charges of criminal conspiracy, cheating, receiving illegal gratification, influencing public servants and criminal misconduct.

The agency has alleged that Karti received money from INX Media for using his influence to manipulate a tax probe against it in a case of violation of Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) conditions to receive investment from Mauritius. The CBI has said it has also recovered vouchers of Rs 10 lakh which were allegedly paid for the services.

These vouchers were issued in favour of Advantage Strategic Consulting (P) Limited, a firm "indirectly" owned by Karti Chidambaram, the CBI had alleged.

Former finance minister P Chidambaram, after the CBI searches on 16 May, had issued a strong statement in response to the raids, saying the government was using the CBI and other agencies to target his son.If one gets into details of the charges against Karti Chidambaram, his arrest will hardly come as a surprise. Instead, it would only look delayed.

If one gets into details of the charges against Karti Chidambaram, his arrest will hardly come as a surprise. Instead, it would only look delayed.

The primary charge against Karti is based on a Rs 10 lakh transaction, which happened between INX Media and Advantage Strategic Consulting Pvt Ltd. It is alleged by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) that this amount was paid to facilitate an illegal approval from the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB). At the time, Karti's father P Chidambaram was the Finance Minister of India, and hence his position to influence such a decision is beyond doubt.

However, the culpability can only be attributed if the extent of Karti's ownership of Advantage can be proven, because ultimately Advantage took the money, not Karti. To this effect, going by media reports, there is a lot of incriminating evidence. The primary and much less talked about are the four wills by four directors of Advantage, Kriya FMCG Distributors Private Limited, and Rochester Technology Solutions Private Limited  CBN Reddy, S Bhaskaraman, Ravi Viswanathan and V Padma, bequeathing their entire shareholding in their firms to one Aditi Chidambaram. Karti Chidambaram is the executor of the wills and Aditi is his daughter.

Considering the above being true, there is hardly any scope of non-culpability in the instant case. By virtue of the operation of the said wills, Karti becomes a 60 percent owner of Advantage, the company which has received money from INX Media. It doesn't stop at this; the remaining 40 percent shares of Advantage is held one Ausbridge Holdings, which was once 95 percent owned by Karti, and is now owned by Mohanan Rajesh, alleged to be a neighbour and a close associate. This means that Advantage is almost completely owned corporate entity of Karti Chidambaram.

If the investigation agencies are indeed in possession of such evidence, Karti's arrest should have ideally happened earlier. Another charge by the agencies, that Karti was in the process of destroying evidence, is again very serious, and when proven, will make the accused ineligible for bail. One of the primary grounds for rejection of bail is destruction of evidence, as has been established in Criminal Law.

Moreover, allegations of political vendetta by the Opposition against the government are uncalled for and utterly baseless. The criminal justice system of our country also involves the judiciary, and if the arrest or even harassment of the accused is politically motivated, the judiciary will, in all such cases, provide relief.

Even principally, such heinous allegations can't be brushed aside by just terming them "political vendetta". If at all the Congress party thinks that such actions are a result of a witch-hunt, it is incumbent upon them to come out with a factual rebuttal of the charges. These allegations have been floating in the media for over a year now, and all the Chidambaram father-son duo has done is deny them, instead of actually disproving them.

It is to be understood that a mere denial holds no value in the eyes of law, or for people at large; it should be substantiated with evidence.

Having said that, however, it has to be impressed that the primary culpability for this wrongdoing must be attributed to the father, P Chidambaram, and not Karti. It was ultimately the former who was entrusted with a public office by the people and was performing a fiduciary function on behalf of the citizens of the country. It was the former finance minister who was in dereliction of his duty to discharge his functions honestly if the allegations are found to be true.

Instead of alleging vendetta, the accused should prepare their case in court, where both of Karti's parents are senior advocates, and should ideally be able to get justice.

Lastly, Karti and his family should be the last people to make an allegation like this. It may be recalled here that Karti had an ordinary citizen arrested for merely tweeting against him, back in 2012, when his father held the reigns of power.

The author is a research fellow with the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences at IIT BombayThe Congress on Wednesday labelled the arrest of senior leader P Chidambaram's son Karti Chidambaram vendettaand a diversionary tactic by the Modi government.

New Delhi: The Congress on Wednesday labelled the arrest of senior leader P Chidambaram's son Karti Chidambaram vendettaand a diversionary tactic by the Modi government to hide its scams and "mal-governance".

Karti Chidambaram's arrest would not deter the party from speaking the truth to hold the government accountable, the party's communications in-charge Randeep Surjewala said.

It was a classical diversionary tactic to hide corruption scams, mal-governance and mal-administration that have marred this government, Surjewala said.

The Congress party will not be deterred by unleashing of vendetta against Mr P Chidambaram or his family. We will continue to speak the truth. We will continue to expose the Modi governments corruption and we will continue to hold them accountable to people of the country, he told reporters.

Karti Chidambaram was arrested at Chennai airport around 8 am when he returned from the United Kingdom.

An FIR filed by the CBI on 15 May, 2017 had alleged irregularities in the FIPB clearance to INX Media for receiving overseas funds to the tune of Rs 305 crore in 2007 when Chidambaram was Union finance minister.

It is alleged that Karti Chidambaram received funds to the tune of Rs 10 lakh in the case, officials said.

Surjewala said scams worth over Rs 30,000 crore were unearthed in the last 10 days alone. But the prime minister has not moved the transition from Maun Modi to Bol Modi. The prime minister remains mum about Chhota Modi as also Mehul Choksi, he said.

He cited the cases of designer jeweller Nirav Modi and his uncle Mehul Choksi, Rotomac and Durga Das Seth jeweller to say that fresh scams were being unearthed everyday but the prime minister was keeping quiet.

His party colleague, AICC general secretary Ashok Gehlot, said Karti Chidambaram was arrested to divert attention from the big issues and the bank scam facing the NDA government. Gehlot said on Twitter, Mr Karti Chidambaram was arrested when he landed at Chennai airport, he was not trying to escape from India like Nirav Modi then arresting him on his arrival at airport is funny. Karti Chidambaram was cooperating with the CBI, the CBI could have summoned him.

Click here to follow LIVE updates on Karti Chidambaram's arrestTheres a pattern to the lack of interest in Khajuraho. It starts by making it difficult to access, both by rail and road.

This is the year of elections in Madhya Pradesh. The bypolls results of Mungaoli and Kolaras Assembly seats declared on Wednesday have gone in favour of the Congress and three-time Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhans governance is under the scanner in the upcoming Assembly elections.

Nearly 400 kilometres from the Guna Lok Sabha constituency, where the bypolls were held, is the quaint town of Khajuraho. But as tourism wastes away in this historic land, it appears that the economic distress of the area has a precarious cultural undertone to it.

In the 25 temples of Khajuraho, one will find a Ganesha idol with a broken snout and a Parvati figurine which is bloodlessly injured on her fingers, apart from some empty panels whose sculptures crumbled away sometime between the ninth century and the modern day.

"Hindu dharam mein khandit murtiyon ki jagah nahi hai (Theres no space for a broken idol within the realms of Hindu sanctity), Karan Singh, a tour guide registered with the Ministry of Tourism and Culture, repeats the same sentence in front of various set of strangers who come to visit these temples, which should be of great cultural and historical significance today. The tour guide traps sunlight in a pocket mirror and throws it on figurines of apsaras reading, writing, or playing sport and on statues of elephants and horses playfully competing in the battlefield.

Since centuries, the attention of humans has sat put on the union of man and woman, and the emotions that arise from it are delicately portrayed on the walls of Khajuraho, convincing people that theres more to the temples than what meets the Freudian eye.

"The temples signify dharma, artha, kama and moksha then why highlight only the kama and make the temples any less Hindu? This image of Khajuraho as a symbol of erotica is impacting our livelihood," said Karan, sharing government data on the decline in footfall of Indian adults from 3,07,377 in 2015-16 to 2,63,880 in 2016-17.

Last year, the Bajrang Sena, a group of right-wing activists, wanted a ban on the sale of copies of Kamasutra outside the Khajuraho temples. But the books are still being sold here. Amit Gupta, national president of the group, told Firstpost that an attempt is being made to eroticise the temples through the sale of such literature to attract foreign tourists. That leads to a decline in the number of Indians coming to Khajuraho for a family holiday.

The guides agree that the forced link between Khajuraho temples and the Kamasutra, written by Vatsyayana in the 3rd century (the two are 600 years apart) has reduced the several tales densely told in sandstone to the traces of erotica in them. But the broader and ultimate question is, has the government too internalised the idea that Khajuraho is any less Hindu in its ways?

Theres a pattern to the lack of interest in Khajuraho. It starts by making it difficult to access, both by rail and road. The Bhopal Habibganj Shatabdi (train connecting Bhopal to Delhi via Agra Cantt) doesnt halt at Khajuraho. Jhansi is the closest stop and it is 180 kilometers away; it's a single-lane road from there on. Agra and Varanasi are both 400 kilometres away from Khajuraho and had there been an express highway on the route, tourists could have completed the journey in less than three hours. The Bhopal-Khajuraho Mahamana Superfast Express that was started six months ago should be, the guides say, extended to Indore. Indore shares a border with Maharashtra and on the Indore-Khajuraho route, there are places of religious significance like the Omkareshwar and Maheshwar jyotirlingas.

Even Mandu, where a fort famous for the love story of Queen of Malwa Roopmati and Sultan Baz Bahadur stands, is close to Indore. "If that leg isnt covered by the superfast express, then it doesnt benefit us as much as it could have," says Awdhesh Kaushik, a Madhya Pradesh Tourism guide. It is unlikely for tourists to venture to Khajuraho alone, but connecting similar places of interest in the circle, could boost tourism opportunities in the region

Moreover, two other popular long route trains, the Chambal Express  which runs between Howrah Junction & Gwalior Junction  and Tulsi Express  connecting Mumbais Lokmanya Tilak Junction and Allahabad Junction  dont cross Khajuraho. Situation can only be dismal when it comes to flights. As stated on cleartrip.com: "In a week, three Air India flights operate on this route. The ticket price for an Air India flight between Varanasi and Khajuraho ranges anywhere between Rs 1,756 and Rs 20,269."

To draw the attention of the state and central governments towards their condition, guides and tour operators of Khajuraho run a Twitter movement called #VoiceofKhajuraho. Way back in 2016, Civil Aviation Minister P Ashok Gajapathi Raju inaugurated a new terminal building at the Khajuraho Airport but, it isnt functional yet.

Only the Indigo can save dying tourism of khajuraho,we need a flight Delhi-khajuraho-varanasi urgently #voiceofkhajuraho @IndiGo6E  kuber khajuraho (@kuberonline) October 16, 2017

@PMOIndia sir help us no connectivity no tourists khajuraho dying #voiceofkhajuraho  Vipin Soni (@Vipinhjr1) October 13, 2017

good that tourism increased in india but lack of connectivity KHAJURAHO tourism is declining.Why not taking reponsiblity?#voiceofkhajuraho pic.twitter.com/p3U1wKumKI  Rajrishi Tripathi (@RajrishiTripat1) November 17, 2017

@SurendraPatwa01

Sir khajuraho bho M P ka hissa hain thoda dhyan de ...#voiceofkhajuraho  Anshu Awasthi (@AnshuAw48683207) October 9, 2017

@airindiain plz regular AI flight 2 khajuraho which is only 3 day in a week.2rism declining hr bcoz lack of connectivity.#voiceofkhajuraho  Rajrishi Tripathi (@RajrishiTripat1) October 12, 2017

There are a little over a hundred tour guides who hold licenses issued by the Ministry of Tourism and Culture and nearly 30 are registered with the Madhya Pradesh Tourism. Madhya Pradesh Tourism guides tell us that they receive Rs 750-800 for a half-a-day tour. They say that all they have is a license that grants them permission to work in five states, there is no other monetary benefit, insurance, or subsidy that comes along with the license.

"On the basis of our fluency in multiple languages (Spanish, Italian, French being the popular ones according to tourist profiles) we approach the government for licenses. After a rigorous exam, a viva and a five month training, these licenses are awarded," Pranay Karmokar, a Ministry of Tourism and Culture guide said. He also points to the unchecked menace of touts (more than 20 of them) who eat into the business of the certified guides. "The punditwaad and thakurwaad (dominance of the upper caste) in the area allows the touts to flourish. Vote bank politics is costing us our livelihood," added Karmokar.

The guides also say that the most enthusiastic variety of foreign tourists give them feedback that a bird sanctuary can be built around the neighboring Datla Pahad (teeth mountains), where rare bird species have been sighted, and the Beniganj Dam can have boating facilities.

Raj Rishi Tripathi, a Madhya Pradesh Tourism guide feels that Khajuraho suffers from the selective empathy of the state and central government as other nearby regions are being given preference over it. "The government is focusing more on developing Orchha (built by Bundela Rajput chief, Rudra Pratap Singh after 1501) and places like Maheshwar and Mandu. Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan has taken a keen interest in promoting the Hanuwantiya Island through the Jal Mahotsav but our festivals, like the Khajuraho Dance Festival held last week, is dying," Tripathi said.

As mentioned on jalmahotsav.com: "In its efforts to make Madhya Pradesh known for its adventure tourism too, MP Tourism revamped the unexplored and untouched Hanuwantiya Island and turned it into a small city in itself. A tent city where people can rejoice and relax while at the same time be adventurous! In a small span of its inception, Jal Mahotsav has now become a very important part of Madhya Pradesh Tour packages with more and more people coming over to Madhya Pradesh to discover a completely new face of the state. So, lose your heart and soul to the beauty of state where 'The Heart of India' lies!!"

The Khajuraho dance festival that concluded earlier this week was in its 44th year. Veteran dance critique Padma Shri Dr Sunil Kothari, who has been associated with it since its inception, felt the charm of the festival which was once every dancers dream stage, has taken a beating. "This year, Mohini Attam, Sattriya; Kathakal forms did not find any representation. The selection by the jury was very erratic and poor. A festival which has built up international reputation turned out to be a free for all Kathak dancers of questionable quality. Even a fourteen year old girl was given this prestigious platform which was very upsetting. It raised questions about the discretion of the jury members," said the 85-year-old dance expert.

He added that the saving grace were three Kalidas awardees. The presentation of Kuchipudi by Raja Radha Reddy, Bharatanatyam by Lakshmi Vishwanathan, and Manipuri by Darshana Jhaveri were the only redeeming feature of the show. "Nalini-Kamalini, disciples of Guru Jitendra Maharaj awardee for Kathak presented routine Kathak. There was only one Bharatanatyam group from Chennai and two Bharatanatyam dancers were from Delhi," Kothari lamented.

The hundred and more tales densely told along its horizontal panels and those spires that rise up in different lengths, could have made a town self-sustaining. But underpaid young guides are a living proof of the failure of this land of nobodys faith.NCP chief Sharad Pawar on Tuesday said some people suggested him the idea to have reservation in jobs and education for 'farmers'.

Mumbai: NCP chief Sharad Pawar on Tuesday said some people suggested him the idea to have reservation in jobs and education for "farmers" and he would discuss the issue with experts and lawyers.

He said it was "logical" to consider farmers as a category for reservation.

The former Union agriculture minister's statement came against the backdrop of the controversy over his remarks against caste-based reservation.

"Reservation is already there for SCs/STs and OBCs. Now, I have received a request from some people in Maharashtra that if 'farmer' category is added to the existing categories, it would be helpful to those who felt left out of reservation policy," Pawar told reporters.

"Once I go to Delhi, I will discuss it with some officials, including experts from the social justice department, and senior lawyers. Before that, I do not want to make any statement," he said.

The NCP leader had last week said, "This (reservation) is a sensitive issue. Dalits and Adivasis should be given reservation, there is no problem with it... People of other castes are holding rallies for reservation." "I clearly believe reservation should not be given based on caste, but to people who are financially backward," the former Maharashtra chief minister had said drawing criticism from certain quarters.

Referring to the ordinance of the Congress-NCP government issued just before the 2014 assembly elections offering reservation to Marathas and Muslims, he today said, "The Rajasthan government has decided to offer some reservation to the Jats most of whom are from agricultural background."

"Hence, I think it is logical to consider farmers as a category for reservation," Pawar said.

He disapproved of the Maharashtra government's decision to close down some primary and secondary schools in remote areas due to low student enrolment, saying, "I do not like this decision as it would keep some students away from schools and education. It is certainly not in favour of the poor."

To a question, Pawar said his party has decided to renominate its Pune-based leader Vandana Chavan for Rajya Sabha polls to be held in March.The Maldivian ambassador to India on Tuesday said that Maldives declined India's invitation to participate in a naval exercise due to the emergency situation in his country.

New Delhi: The Maldivian ambassador to India on Tuesday said that Maldives declined India's invitation to participate in a naval exercise due to the emergency situation in his country. However, he asserted that the two nations enjoy a history of excellent defence and military cooperation, a tradition which they are confident will endure and continue indefinitely.

The remarks by Ambassador Ahmed Mohamed are seen as an attempt to assuage feelings here after Maldives declined India's invitation to participate in the eight-day-long mega naval exercise -Milan - beginning 6 March, in an apparent snub to New Delhi which has been critical of the Yameen government in view of the emergency in the island nation.

"I would like to clarify that the Maldives is unable to participate in the naval exercise during this time due to the current circumstances of a State of Emergency being in effect for those under investigation for serious crimes. During such a time especially, security personnel are expected to be at a heightened stance of readiness," the envoy told PTI while noting that the participation of Maldives naval officers would have been as "observers" only.

"When situations warrant that officers be at their post, back at home, we have held back on deploying them to participate in exercises and training programs held overseas, and as such, not being able to participate in the naval exercise at this time is not extraordinary," he added.

However, he asserted that Maldives and India enjoy a "long history of excellent defence and military cooperation and it is a tradition that we are confident that will endure and continue indefinitely".

On the sidelines of an event on Tuesday, navy chief Admiral Sunil Lanba told reporters that "Maldives was invited to join the Milan exercise but they have declined".

Ties between India and Maldives nosedived after Maldivian president Abdulla Yameen declared emergency on 5 February following an order by the country's Supreme Court to release a group of opposition leaders, who had been convicted in widely criticised trials. India has issued a number of statements, reacting strongly over the imposition of emergency on 5 February and subsequent extension by a month.

India will host navies from at least 16 countries for the mega naval exercise at the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. The exercise is taking place in the backdrop of China's growing military posturing in the Indo-Pacific region and officials indicated that the issue is likely to figure during deliberations at the event. Significantly, there are reports of growing proximity between Male and Beijing.Away from the cameras' flash and the eyes of her millions of fans in India, the actress Sridevi's body made its way to a simple mortuary in the United Arab Emirates, where one man helped sign out her remains to return home.

Ajman (UAE): Away from the cameras' flash and the eyes of her millions of fans in India, the actress Sridevi's body made its way to a simple mortuary in the United Arab Emirates, where one man helped sign out her remains to return home.

Listed only as "ASHRAF" on the official paperwork in Dubai is Ashraf "Sherry" Thamarassery, a 44-year-old Indian from Kerala who has become a ferryman of sorts for those who die in the UAE.

From indebted labourers to the moneyed elite, Thamarassery has helped repatriate 4,700 bodies to 38 countries across the world. He views it as a noble responsibility in this desert sheikhdom that draws so many far from their homes, chief among them his compatriots.

"For them, you or me, it's all the same and everyone is equal. If someone dies in their room, they will take them to the hospital and then to be checked at the police mortuary," Thamarassery said in an interview late on Tuesday night.

"It's the same process, whether Dubai or Sharjah or any emirate. ... Whether you're poor or rich, it doesn't matter."

Sherry offered shrugs when talking about Sridevi, saying he helped repatriate five other bodies on Tuesday including the famed Bollywood star. But it's hard to overstate the power Sridevi had over the imagination of many in India.

The 54-year-old Sridevi died on 24 February in Dubai while in the UAE for a wedding. Police and prosecutors say she drowned in a hotel bathtub after losing consciousness, calling her death accidental.

While Indian officials quickly cancelled her passport and prepared the other documents, Thamarassery said a needed police clearance slowed Sridevi's repatriation. He received hundreds of calls from journalists, officials and others in the interim.

When the clearance came, he travelled to a simple government-run mortuary in a dusty neighbourhood of squat, square buildings that house some of Dubai's immense population of foreign workers, many of whom come from South Asia.

There, officials embalmed her corpse as Thamarassery handled paperwork for her and three others. Curious Indian labourers spoke softly among themselves about the actress while standing outside of the mortuary. An ambulance then carried her body to a private jet reportedly sent by an Indian billionaire to take her home to Mumbai to be cremated.

By Tuesday night, Thamarassery returned home to the apartment he shares with his wife and daughter in Ajman, a small, dusty emirate in the UAE that serves as a bedroom community to skyscraper-studded Dubai some 35 kms to the southwest. There, Thamarassery runs a mechanics shop but focuses largely on his philanthropic efforts.

Shelf upon shelf in his home bears honours and awards. A framed picture hangs on the wall showing him meeting Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

I do this "to earn blessings, but also when someone dies here, people don't know how to manage the repatriation procedures," he said. "That's why I do it." All the while, his phone never stopped ringing, some of them undoubtedly new calls for his help.

Click here for LIVE updates on Sridevi's state funeralKarti Chidambaram was arrested by the CBI today on the basis of confessional statements of INX Media Limited directors Peter and Indrani Mukerjea, alleging that they paid USD 7 lakh to him on the instructions of his father P Chidamabaram, as quid pro quo for a FIPB clearance, officials said.

New Delhi: Karti Chidambaram was arrested by the CBI on Wednesday on the basis of confessional statements of INX Media Limited directors Peter and Indrani Mukerjea, alleging that they paid $ 7 lakh to him on the instructions of his father P Chidamabaram, as quid pro quo for a FIPB clearance, officials said.

The statements of the Mukerjeas were recorded by the Enforcement Directorate (ED), which is probing the money laundering angle in the case, while the CBI had only recorded Indrani's statement before a magistrate as per Section 164 of the CrPC, they said.

Karti (46) was arrested by the CBI from the Chennai airport on his return from London in connection with the agency's probe in the INX Media case.

Both Peter and Indrani had alleged that they met the then finance minister P Chidambaram at his North Block office, seeking clearance for foreign investments in their media company after the Income Tax department detected irregularities in these instances, in 20o7.

Chidambaram had then asked them to "help the business of his son and make foreign remittances for the purpose," the officials said, quoting from the statements of the Mukerjeas.

The couple had also admitted that they subsequently met Karti at a five-star hotel in Delhi, where he allegedly made a demand of $ 1 million, they said, adding that this was reiterated by Indrani before the magistrate as well.

Indrani, they said, had confirmed in her statement to the CBI and ED that a payment of $ 7 lakh was made to the bank accounts of overseas firms linked to Karti.

Peter and Indrani, facing trial for allegedly killing their daughter Sheena Bora, had said in their statement that Karti "suggested" to them the names of firms such as Chess Management and Advantage Strategic for the payments.

The Sheena Bora murder case is being probed by the CBI.

INX Media, as part of the alleged quid pro quo (a Latin term, meaning "something for something"), had made a payment of over Rs 9.96 lakh to Advantage Strategic Consulting Private Limited (ASCPL), a firm allegedly controlled by Karti, by a cheque issued on July 15, 2008, the officials said.

While the invoice issued by ASCPL claimed that the service rendered by it to INX Media was management consultancy, the "ledger extract" sent by the latter to the probe agencies showed that the payment was made for replying "towards FIPB notification and clarification", they added.

The ED, they said, had seized four invoices of $ 7 lakh, drawn by ASCPL, its Singapore subsidiary, another linked company identified as NorthStar Software Solutions Pvt Ltd and Geben Trading Ltd, after it recently raided the offices of Karti and his chartered accountant, Bhaskararaman.

During the raids, the ED had also recovered "digital evidence" and invoices raised on INX Media Limited, sources said.

They added that ASCPL had also received payments "on behalf" of Karti in other cases, where money was paid in "proximity to approvals given by the Ministry of Finance", including from Aircel Televentures Limited for an FIPB approval for the sale of its shares in Aircel Limited to Maxis in March, 2006.

The Congress said Karti's arrest was "vendetta" and a "diversionary tactic" of the BJP-led central government to hide its "scams" and "mal-governance".

Party spokesperson Randeep Surjewala said the government was seeking "political vendetta" to mask the "culture of colossal corruption and cronyism" flourishing unchecked, and that "puppet CBI and ED" were being used to "divert, deflect and distract" attention from scams worth Rs 31,691 crore exposed in the last 10 days.

The government's "mask of a corruption crusader" was in shambles with successive scams getting uncovered over the last 45 months and "zero action" being taken against the fraudsters, he added.What makes the IS challenge even more pertinent for Kashmir is that with its 'retreat' from Iraq and Syria, the attacks in the Kashmir Valley can be seen as an attempt by the group to open new battlefields and thereby assert its relevance

On Sunday, militants struck at the residence of Hurriyat Conference leader Fazal Haq Qureshi in the Soura area of Srinagar in the Kashmir Valley. One policeman Farooq Ahmad Yatoo was injured in the attack, and subsequently died in hospital. Attacks like these have become a daily affair in the Valley with militants targeting policemen for over a year now. While many such attacks have taken place, the attack on the separatist leader's residence has garnered attention particularly because this was an attack by the Islamic State. It has been designated a terrorist organisation by the United Nations and by many member countries individually.

A statement on the group's propaganda channel, Al-Amaq reportedly said, "Assassinated an element of police in firing near city of Srinagar in Kashmir yesterday (Sunday)".

Despite this, there seems to be confusion in the security establishment whether the IS is indeed responsible for the attack. The Central government has denied any existence of IS in the Valley. A Ministry of Home Affairs spokesperson in New Delhi has said, "There is no physical infrastructure or manpower of the Islamic State in the Valley. It does not exist in the Valley." Meanwhile, the Jammu and Kashmir Police has asserted that it was indeed an IS attack. As per media reports, DGP, Jammu and Kashmir, SP Vaid said that it was now clear that the IS had carried out the attack and it was "indeed a worrying sign".

If confirmed, this would be the second IS attack in Kashmir Valley  the first being in November 2017 in Srinagar's Zakura area, in which a sub-inspector of the Jammu and Kashmir Police was killed and another policeman was injured. That time too Al-Amaq reported that IS had claimed responsibility for the attack.

It is pertinent to note that earlier in 2015 and 2016, IS flags had surfaced at various places in the Valley, particularly after Friday prayers in Srinagar and at many militants' funerals.

But as far as IS' claims are concerned, authorities have brushed these aside in the past as well. The police had termed the November 2017 attack claimed by the IS as Al-Amaq's propaganda. The unfurling of IS flags too was termed as the handiwork of some mischievous elements and not as an indication of the presence of the global terrorist organisation in Kashmir. In January, Minister of State for Home Affairs Hansraj Ahir, in a written reply, had told the Rajya Sabha that "as per the report, nothing has been approved on the ground that IS is operating in any part of Kashmir".

If the claims made by the IS are indeed true, this could be a worrying sign for the authorities. The rise of the IS poses a challenge for the security agencies because even as they are fighting militants in encounters, they have to keep young Kashmiri boys from rushing to the encounter sites. Young boys have been rushing to the encounter sites for the past year-and-a-half to disrupt anti-militancy operations, and a civilian casualty in these operations has acted as a catalyst for new recruits to join militant ranks. This has been the phenomenon observed particularly after the killing of Hizbul Mujahideen militant commander Burhan Wani in July 2016.

What makes the IS challenge even more pertinent for Kashmir is that with its 'retreat' from Iraq and Syria, the attacks in the Kashmir Valley can be seen as an attempt by the group to open new battlefields and thereby assert its relevance.

The IS' presence has also alarmed the local terrorist groups and separatists in the Valley, who have urged Kashmiris not to fall prey to the designs of the IS. Syed Salahuddin, the Pakistan-based head of the Hizbul Mujahidieen had released a video statement last year urging Kashmiris not to join any 'global jihadi movement'. "Some of our friends are playing in the hands of our enemy and trying to create a divide between people and their leadership. Our movement is an indigenous movement. The freedom movement of Jammu and Kashmir has no worldwide agenda, no links with organisations like Islamic State or Al-Qaeda," Salahuddin had asserted adding that "such organisations have no role in Kashmir".

Experts believe that the IS presence in Kashmir Valley cannot be downplayed. "The arrival of the IS has naturally irked the local militant organisations, and can potentially spark a rivalry between these militant organisations, for recruits and carrying out more attacks. That in turn has the potential to complicate Valley's security situation," said Sameer Patil, a security analyst at Gateway House, a Mumbai-based foreign policy think-tank.There is no interference from the government and the law must take its course, Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad on Wednesday said

New Delhi: There is no interference from the government and the law must take its course, Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad on Wednesday said after Karti Chidambaram, son of former finance minister P Chidambaram, was arrested by the CBI in connection with its probe in the INX media case.

Karti, 46, was placed under arrest by a CBI team on his return from London.

The law minister said that the nature of evidence available against the offender must speak for itself and not the "alibi" of vendetta.

"The law is taking its course. The law must take its course. The CBI will explain all the details. We do not wish to interfere. There is no interference of the government," he told reporters.

The CBI has sought 15-day remand of Karti Chidambaram for custodial interrogation.

"But I will only make one observation. When such issues are raised, what is important is that the nature of evidence available against the offender must speak for itself and not the alibi of vendetta," he said.

The Congress on Wednesday dubbed the arrest of Karti Chidambaram a "diversionary tactic" by the government to hide its scams and said "vendetta" would not deter the party from speaking the truth.United States Court of Appeals, Eighth Circuit. UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee v. Ronald Allen CLASS, Defendant-Appellant No. 16-4503 Decided: February 26, 2018

Before LOKEN, GRUENDER, and BENTON, Circuit Judges. Nathan Hoye Nelson, David P. Steinkamp, Assistant U.S. Attorneys, U.S. ATTORNEY'S OFFICE, Minneapolis, MN, for Plaintiff-Appellee. Ronald Allen Class, FEDERAL CORRECTIONAL INSTITUTION, Terre Haute, IN, Robert H. Meyers, Douglas Olson, Assistant Federal Public Defender, FEDERAL PUBLIC DEFENDER'S OFFICE, Minneapolis, MN, for Defendant-Appellant.

Ronald Allen Class conditionally pleaded guilty to possession of a stolen firearm in violation of 18 U.S.C.  922(j). He appeals the district court's denial of his motion to suppress the firearm and other evidence seized during a roadside encounter with the St. Paul police. Reviewing the district court's legal conclusions de novo and its factual findings for clear error, we affirm. See United States v. Marasco, 487 F.3d 543, 547 (8th Cir. 2007) (standard of review).

I. Background

On patrol the morning of October 2, 2015, St. Paul Police Officer Trygve Sand and his partner, Andrew Heroux, saw a Lincoln Town Car parked on the opposite side of the street. Its hood was raised, and two men standing in front of the grill appeared to be working on the engine. Officer Sand recognized the menDefendant Ronald Class and Patrick Hedicanas prior narcotics offenders. Officer Sand had arrested Class for narcotics offenses in 2001 and 2005 and was familiar with Class's involvement in auto-theft, narcotics, and weapons offenses that included prior felony convictions. Days earlier, narcotics Officer Tony Holter had called to inform Sand that officers relying on an informant's tip had stopped Class on September 23 and recovered a nine-millimeter magazine from his vehicle, but no firearm.

Officer Sand made a U-turn, parked behind the Town Car, and turned on his squad car's emergency lights, activating its audio-video recording equipment. Officers Sand and Heroux exited the squad car and approached Class and Hedican, walking on opposite sides of the Town Car. In a brief discussion, Class told Sand he was working on the Town Car's belt, explaining it belonged to his father and had been in storage. Sand then asked Class, Hey Ron, can you come back here and talk to me real quick? Class followed Officer Sand to the front of his squad car, where Sand asked if Class had been in touch with Officer Holter. Class's response is mostly inaudible on the audio recording. Officer Sand asked Class if he had any bazookas on him. Class replied no. Officer Sand asked, Mind if I check you out real quick? Sand then patted down Class. He did not find anything that felt like a weapon but reached into Class's pant pocket and retrieved a small amount of marijuana.

Officer Sand then locked Class in the squad car, explaining he was not under arrest. Sand walked to the front of the Town Car, brought Hedican around to the side of the car, and patted him down. Sand then walked back to the front of the Town Car, looked down into the car's exposed engine compartment, and called Officer Holter to advise that he had detained Class and Hedican. During the phone conversation, Sand saw a small, clear bag tucked between the radiator and front grill containing a substance he suspected was methamphetamine. He told Holter, [a]s I'm talking to you, I see he ditched some dope in the grill of this car. At the suppression hearing, Sand testified he did not need to manipulate the engine compartment to see the bag. He simply looked straight down into the compartment and spotted the drugs on the passenger side of the compartment.

After completing his call to Officer Holter and requesting a camera crew, Officer Sand confronted Hedican, who denied knowledge of the methamphetamine. Sand returned to his squad car and read Class Miranda warnings. Class claimed he knew nothing about the methamphetamine. Repeatedly asked what else might be in the car, Class eventually said there might be a gun under one of the seats. Sand returned to the Town Car, looked through the driver's side window, and saw what appeared to be a white shirt or rag covering a large object. Sand entered the car and found a .25 caliber semiautomatic handgun under the white cloth. Further search of the Town Car uncovered evidence of narcotics trafficking. Class made incriminating statements before being transported to a local hospital after paramedics arrived and advised that his colostomy bag needed to be reattached.

Indicted for being a felon in possession of a firearm and ammunition, Class moved to suppress the methamphetamine, his post-Miranda statements to Officer Sand, and the firearm seized from the Town Car. The magistrate judge held an evidentiary hearing and recommended denying the motion. Class objected, raising numerous issues, though he conceded the initial encounter was consensual. The district court concluded that Officer Sand lacked reasonable suspicion that criminal activity was afoot or that Class was armed and dangerous. Therefore, the pat down search followed by detention in the back seat of the squad car violated Class's Fourth Amendment right to be free from unreasonable search and seizure. However, the district court concluded, Officer Sand's discovery of methamphetamine in the Town Car's exposed engine compartment was lawful under the plain view doctrine and was not meaningfully connected to the prior constitutional violation. Therefore, the court adopted the magistrate judge's recommendation and denied the motion to suppress.

II. Discussion

The district court found that the small bag of methamphetamine was in plain view when Officer Sand looked down into the Town Car's exposed engine compartment. Under the plain view doctrine, if police are lawfully in a position from which they view an object, if its incriminating character is immediately apparent, and if the officers have a lawful right of access to the object, they may seize it without a warrant. Minnesota v. Dickerson, 508 U.S. 366, 375, 113 S.Ct. 2130, 124 L.Ed.2d 334 (1993). The district court concluded that Officer Sand was in a lawful position to view the bag because Class had no reasonable expectation of privacy in an area of the car that he had left exposed to anyone walking by on a public street. We agree. Class notes that the engine compartment of a parked car is an area not typically visible to pedestrians, and argues that Officer Sand had no justification to move Class and Hedican out of the way and peer inside. But items that an officer finds while actively looking for them are still in plain view if the officer is standing in a place where he has a right to be. See United States v. Gillon, 348 F.3d 755, 760 (8th Cir. 2003).

Class primarily argues that Officer Sand's discovery of the methamphetamine was tainted by his prior unconstitutional conduct because Sand would not have made the discovery had Class not been unconstitutionally seized from his position in front of the Town Car. The unlawful seizure of methamphetamine furnished Sand probable cause for custodial interrogation of Class and search of the Town Car's interior. Therefore, Class argues, his post-Miranda statements and the firearm found in the vehicle must be suppressed as fruits of a poisonous tree. See generally Wong Sun v. United States, 371 U.S. 471, 48485, 83 S.Ct. 407, 9 L.Ed.2d 441 (1963).

Though evidence seized in violation of the Fourth Amendment is subject to exclusion in a criminal prosecution, [e]vidence should not be excluded  unless the illegality is at least a but-for cause of obtaining the evidence. United States v. Olivera-Mendez, 484 F.3d 505, 511 (8th Cir. 2007). [T]he defendant bears the initial burden of establishing the factual nexus between the constitutional violation and the challenged evidence. Marasco, 487 F.3d at 547. Here, the district court concluded that Officer Sand's plain-view seizure of the bag of methamphetamine was not meaningfully connected to the prior unconstitutional search and seizure of Class because (i) Sand learned nothing from his frisk and detention of Class that enabled him to locate the methamphetamine, and (ii) even if Class was not detained and was standing in front of the Town Car, his assertion that he would have closed the open hood before Sand saw the bag of methamphetamine was not credible because doing so would likely have aroused the officers' suspicion. We conclude these findings are not clearly erroneous.

Even if they lacked reasonable suspicion of ongoing criminal activity, Officers Sand and Heroux could approach Class and Hedican on a public street and request a consensual encounter. See, e.g. Florida v. Bostick, 501 U.S. 429, 434, 111 S.Ct. 2382, 115 L.Ed.2d 389 (1991). During an initial exchange, Class told Officer Sand he was working on the Town Car's belt, giving Sand reason to approach the grill and look inside the engine compartment to verify a known drug dealer's explanation. Sand's access to the front of the car was lawful whether or not Class was detained. There is no legitimate expectation of privacy shielding that portion of an automobile which may be viewed from outside the vehicle by either inquisitive passersby or diligent police officers. United States v. Martin, 982 F.2d 1236, 1240 (8th Cir. 1993) (quotation omitted). Invoking common sense, Class argues that, had he been standing in front of his car, he would have shut its hood before Officer Sand had time to spot the methamphetamine. The district court properly rejected this as unlikely speculation. Having explained to Officer Sand he was having car trouble, a person with Class's known history of drug distribution would not likely have raised the officers' suspicion by abruptly closing the hood when Officer Sand peered into the engine compartment to confirm there was a mechanical issue.

On this record, we agree with the district court that Class failed to establish that Officer Sand's unconstitutional detention was at least a but-for cause of Officer Sand's lawful plain-view seizure of methamphetamine in the engine compartment. Accordingly, the district court properly denied Class's motion to suppress. The judgment of the district court is affirmed.

FOOTNOTES

. The Honorable Patrick J. Schiltz, United States District Judge for the District of Minnesota, adopting in part the Report and Recommendation of the Honorable Tony N. Leung, United States Magistrate Judge for the District of Minnesota.

. Officer Sand slightly misstated one of the warnings, reading anything you can say and will be used against you in a court of law (emphasis added). In a footnote, Class argues that this mistake is an independent basis for suppressing his post-Miranda statements. This unsupported argument is without merit. See Florida v. Powell, 559 U.S. 50, 6061, 130 S.Ct. 1195, 175 L.Ed.2d 1009 (2010). It also does not comply with Fed. R. App. P. 28(a)(8)(A).

. On appeal, the government does not challenge this conclusion, and we do not address the issue.

LOKEN, Circuit Judge.Psycho Shankar was rendered immobile after he suffered a spinal injury in September 2013 while trying to escape the prison by scaling a 30-foot compound wall

Serial killer and rapist M Jaishankar, commonly known as Psycho Shankar, died on Tuesday in a suspected case of suicide, according to several media reports. The convict was serving a 32-year sentence at the Parappanna Agrahara prison on the outskirts of Bengaluru.

Bangalore Mirror reported Jaishankar stole a steel food plate and sharpened its edges by rubbing it on the floor, which he later used to slit his throat around 2 am on Tuesday. Jaishankar was rendered immobile after he suffered a spinal injury in September 2013 while trying to escape the prison by scaling a 30-foot compound wall; he was said to be suffering from depression due to his disability and undergoing treatment, the report added.

The beat officers keeping watch noticed him lying in a pool of blood in his cell, where he was kept isolated, and rushed him to Victoria Hospital, where he was declared brought dead, Wion reported. The Parappana Agrahara jail authorities registered a case of suicide and are conducting a preliminary probe into his death, according to the report.

The Times of India reported that Jaishankar was involved in over 30 rape cases and 15 murders in Tamil Nadu and Karnataka. He was convicted in three cases of rape and kidnapping and the notorious criminal came to be known as Psycho Shankar, after Kannada film Psycho Shankra was inspired by his story. Jaishankar, 34, hailing from Kanniampatty in Edappadi, Salem district, studied till Class 12 and worked as a truck driver, the report added.

He committed his first crime on 3 July, 2009, where he attempted to rape and kill a woman near Hosur, The News Minute reported. Two months later, he raped and murdered woman police constable Jayamani in Perumannalur. He was hunted down by the police and his record came to light only after this crime and was first apprehended in 2009. According to Bengaluru Mirror, Jaishankar was known for carrying a machete.

However, in 2011, enroute to Coimbatore for a hearing, Jaishankar gave the authorities the slip near a Salem bus stop. Chinnaswamy, the police constable responsible for transporting Jaishankar, shot himself with his service revolver the very next day, apparently in shame, The News Minute reported.

Jaishankar reportedly committed six more rapes and murders after his escape before the police finally apprehended him in 2013. He escaped by scaling the compound wall, but was arrested three days later near Bommanahalli while he was hiding in a makeshift shed, The News Minute reported. Jaishankar is survived by a wife and three daughters.During his tenure as head of the Kanchi Kamakoti Peetam, the institution expanded its horizons through its educational and medical institutions.

Shankaracharya Jayendra Saraswathi who died in Kancheepuram on Wednesday at the age of 82 had a chequered career as a pontiff. He was the 69th pontiff handpicked by His Holiness Mahaperiyava, Chandrashekarendra Saraswathi Swamigal who anointed him as his successor. He actually took charge in 1994 on the demise of HH Mahaperiyava often reverentially referred to as nadamadum daivam (walking God). Jayendra did what other Shankaracharyas had not done -- stir out of the mutt. The elder Shankaracharya was not reportedly entirely happy with the external forays of the ebullient and energetic junior.

His forays into societal issues inevitably dragged him into controversies leading to his arrest in the Shankarraman murder case in 2004. Shankarraman was the manager of Kanchi Varadaraja Perumal temple. Kancheepuram is a sacred Hindu temple town a la Madurai and Srirangam. Of course, he was acquitted in 2013 by the Pondicherry trial court. He also came unscathed from the charges of organising an assault on auditor Radhakrishnan in 2002 in collusion with his junior pontiff Vijayendra Saraswathi. Both the cases emanated from complaints of alleged irregularities in the finances of the mutt.

One of the news doing the rounds at the time of his arrests was he had rubbed powerful politicians on the wrong side to the extent of misappropriating the cash (read black money) parked with the mutt for safekeeping in the comforting knowledge that religious trusts enjoyed tax immunity. The charge, of course, took on a Robin Hood hue what with the counter-story attributing loftier motives for what he did -- the ill-gotten cash entrusted to him for safekeeping was donated by him to some educational institutions for altruistic purposes. Some poetic justice indeed! The politicians thus left holding the can, of course, were not amused. They allegedly unleashed the law on him. So goes the folklore.

During his tenure as head of the Kanchi Kamakoti Peetam, the institution expanded its horizons through its educational and medical institutions. While Shankaracharya of Puri and other mutts have expressed their political views and preferences freely, Jayendra did more. Possessed with reformist zeal, he held took the mutt into unchartered territorieseducation and healthbesides exhorting Hindus to maintain the existing temple and reviving the thousands of languishing ones instead of building more and more.

He was revered by the Brahmin community in Tamil Nadu which has been feeling marginalised insofar as admissions to educational institutions were concerned. More than four decades of the Dravidian rule with its barely hidden contempt for Brahmins had served to alienate them from the Dravidian parties. They naturally looked to Jayendra as their savior. He did not let them down. Some of the colleges promoted by him or assisted by him in Tamil Nadu offered a helping hand to Brahmin boys and girls by offering them admission even while state universities were giving them a short shrift thanks to the heavy reservation in favor of the backward castes.

Of course, he couldnt stop brain drain that is quite heavy from Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra. Young boys aspiring to strike it rich went abroad mainly to the US for MS and PhD.

Should pontiff remain within the claustrophobic but spiritually uplifting confines of the mutts? The debate has been raging on without any finality. When funds pour into a religious shrine, it might find use for altruistic purposes transcending religion. Tirumala Tirupati Dewasthanam does it.

Comparisons are also being made between Jayendra and Ramanuja the Vaishnavite reformist of the Bhakti movement who achieved a different kind of altruism in his lifetime -- bringing the

Narayana mantra within the reach of everyone which in its pristine form was meant for the salvation of Vaishnavite Brahmins alone. Both the seers dared to stir out of the mutt.External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj on Wednesday called on visiting King of Jordan Abdullah II bin Al-Hussein and discussed strengthening of bilateral ties

New Delhi: External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj on Wednesday called on visiting King of Jordan Abdullah II bin Al-Hussein and discussed strengthening of bilateral ties across all sectors.

"Historical links getting stronger!" External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Raveesh Kumar tweeted while saying that Sushma Swaraj called on the visiting dignitary.

"Good conversation on strengthening ties across all sectors, specially in trade and investment, defence and security, tourism and people-to-people exchanges," Kumar said.

On Tuesday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi broke protocol and received King Abdullah  who arrived in Delhi on a three-day state visit to India  at the airport.

Modi welcomed King Abdullah with a warm hug as he alighted from the aircraft

This is King Abdullah's second visit to India after his visit along with Queen Rania in 2006.

Later on Wednesday, the king will visit IIT Delhi to explore collaboration with Jordan's technical institutes.

He will also participate in a CEO Round-table followed by India-Jordan Business Forum jointly organised by Industry bodies Ficci, CII and Assocham.

King Abdullah will hold talks with Modi on Thursday during the course of which the two sides will discuss the entire gamut of bilateral relations as well as regional and international issues of mutual interest.

President Ram Nath Kovind will host a banquet in honour of the King on Thursday while Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu will also call on the visiting dignitary.

The king will also deliver a special address on "Promoting Understanding and Moderation", organised by the India Islamic Centre at Vigyan Bhawan.

India-Jordan trade stood at $1.35 billion in 2016-17, according to figures provided by the External Affairs Ministry.

Earlier this month, king Abdullah hosted Modi at his residence in Amman. Jordan had facilitated Modi's transit to Palestine in what was the first ever prime ministerial visit from India to that West Asian nation.The United States on Tuesday said it was closely watching China's ruling Communist Party's plans to abolish presidential term limits, while asserting that strong institutions were more important than individual leaders.

Washington: The United States on Tuesday said it was closely watching China's ruling Communist Party's plans to abolish presidential term limits, while asserting that strong institutions were more important than individual leaders.

"We have been following very closely what has happened in China and the response to Communist Party seeking to abolish term limits there," State Department Spokesperson Heather Nauert told reporters at her daily news conference. "Strong institutions  and this is another fundamental freedom of the US  we believe that strong institutions are more important than individual leaders," she said.

The Communist Party of China, which is in power since the founding of the People's Republic in 1949, had proposed on Sunday to amend the country's Constitution to remove the two term limits for the president and vice-president, potentially allowing Xi Jinping to rule for life. Nauert said promoting human rights and democratic governance was a core element of the US foreign policy

"Its an essential foundation of a stable, secure and functioning society," she said, adding that the United States remains "unwavering" in its commitment to advance personal liberty, human dignity and prosperity globally.Epidemiologist GV Krishnaveni is examining how stress in early life leads to non-communicable illnesses in adulthood | The Life of Science | #FirstCulture

Editor's note: Starting National Science Day 2018, The Life of Science and Firstpost bring you a series profiling Indian women in Science. The challenges in Indian scientific life are many  more so for women taking up this path. This series honours those who beat the odds and serve as inspirations for the next generation of Indian science  a generation that is slowly and surely on its way to becoming gender equal.

***

By Rahul M

Ghattu V Krishnaveni | 44 | Epidemiologist | CSI Holdsworth Memorial Hospital, Mysuru

A young girl anxiously narrated how she and her friends escaped a group of hooligans during a night trek in the hills of Mysuru. Two people faced the girl, maintaining neutral expressions as she recounted the incident. Meanwhile, GV Krishnaveni and two of her colleagues gauged the girls mental state by examining her cardiovascular parameters through an apparatus connected to her left wrist.

GV Krishnaveni is Indias leading expert on investigating how improper nutrition in the womb leads to non-communicable diseases. She has recently expanded her research to include stress in young adults.

The experiment I was witnessing went something like this: First, the girls saliva sample was taken so that the level of the stress hormone (cortisol) in it could be measured. Then, the girl was asked to relax to some soothing music. After this, she was put through a set of stressors  beginning with being asked to narrate a fictional, stressful story and then instructed to quickly solve some arithmetic problems. At the end, another saliva sample was taken to measure the stress through cortisol levels.

Krishnaveni was trying out the Trier social stress test, a test designed in 1993 in Germanys University of Trier, to induce and understand stress levels in individuals. In this test, we ask them to perform in front of strangers. If there are repeated stressful situations, cortisol levels become high and keeps rising as long as they are stressed, the 44-year-old Krishnaveni explained. If cortisol remains consistently high, people are likely to develop [non-communicable] diseases  both mental and physical  in the future. This is the hypothesis we are testing now. Krishnavenis research problem is to look at the role of psychological stress in the development of adult chronic diseases.

Mentored into public health

The girl we met at the beginning (who was narrating the story of the trek) is one of the volunteers in a series of pilot experiments that Krishnavenis team has been conducting on young adults. Once the test is finalised, it will be used to understand stress levels among around 600 young adults Krishnaveni has been studying for the last two decades.

Krishnavenis relationship with these (approximately) 600 boys and girls started when they were still in the wombs of their mothers. In 1997, she had just passed out of Mysore Medical College, when she saw an advertisement for a research position in Mysurus Holdsworth Memorial Hospital. Professor Caroline HD Fall, an epidemiologist from University of Southampton, had been doing research at the hospital since 1993, and was looking for someone to assist her. Krishnaveni applied for the position and soon joined Fall in her investigations.

Fall was studying the early origins of adult disease hypothesis which was originally put forward by her colleagues in the UK. According to this hypothesis, environmental factors, particularly nutrition, influence an individuals risk of adverse health in adult life. Barkers experiments conducted in the mid-1980s showed that low birthweight and small body-size (which were used as proxies to indicate how well nourished the mother was while pregnant) at the time of birth were associated with a greater risk of non-communicable diseases such as heart disease and diabetes in later life.

Fall set up a unit for her research in Mysurus Mission Hospital (as CSI Holdsworth Memorial Hospital is commonly known) because this hospital had records with details about the birth weight, birth length and head circumference of the infants born at the hospital from 1934. With these details it was possible to repeat Barkers experiments in India. Fall began this in 1993 and was joined by Krishnaveni in 1997.

Medical case studies: From birth to death

When Krishnaveni took up the job she was just out of medical college, where the norm she remembered was to read a lot, memorise and reproduce, she said. This routine did not excite her at all. That was not my way. I wanted to understand things and interpret them, she said. Under Fall, she expanded her horizons and was brought closer to research. The duo gradually set up the the Mysore Parthenon Birth Cohort consisting of 600-odd subjects.

According to a paper titled Cohort Profile: Mysore Parthenon Birth Cohort published in International Journal of Epidemology in 2014 which Krishnaveni co-authored, The cohort was established to examine the long-term effects of maternal glucose tolerance and nutritional status on cardiovascular disease risk factors in the offspring.

Within a few years of working with Fall, Krishnaveni deepened her expertise by going on to do a PhD at University of Southampton where Fall taught. There, she studied the long-term implications of maternal undernutrition and overnutrition for offspring cardio-metabolic risk.

During her research in Mysore, she noticed a public health trend unique to India. Unlike in the UK, here there were babies born with more fat  chubby babies, short and fat babies  who went on to develop diabetes, explained Krishnaveni.

Krishnaveni and team have been very resourceful during the study of this cohort. We had to trace people who were born in the hospital, recounts Dr K Kumaran, a senior scientist at the unit and Krishnavenis colleague in the research unit. At that time there were many places here which didnt have proper door numbers. So when we went, we would draw a map of the area, come back and transcribe to a large scale map here and basically mark where we had found people who said they were born in the hospital. Interestingly, and with efficiency, Kumarans team had used various colours and sizes of bindis to mark details on these maps. Once they narrowed down on the people they wanted to study from the area, they persuaded them to volunteer in their research over the next few years.

Apart from some hindrances while travelling, Krishnaveni said that her gender has not affected her work. At least in this research unit, we have more women researchers than males. She is unmarried, not because there was too much work, but because it just didn't happen, she said.

Krishnaveni believes that her work will provide important leads for next-generation preventive strategies for non-communicable disease in susceptible individuals across the world. She also plans to develop multi-faceted interventions for future use among vulnerable youth to manage stress.

All the individuals seen in the photographs have consented to appear in the images for this essay

Read more from the Women in Science series here.

THELIFEOFSCIENCE.COM is a feminist science media project on a mission to make Indian women scientists more visible and investigate the gender gap in Indian academiaThe violence at Bhima-Koregaon in Pune district on January 1 was 'state-sponsored', Opposition alleged in the Maharashtra Legislative Council on Wednesday.

Mumbai: The violence at Bhima-Koregaon in Pune district on January 1 was "state-sponsored", Opposition alleged in the Maharashtra Legislative Council on Wednesday.

Leader of Opposition Dhananjay Munde (NCP) said never in the last 200 years the social unrest in the state was as high (as it is now), and a particular atmosphere was created which led to the violence in which one person died.

Opposition moved an adjournment motion on the issue on Wednesday.

Dalits visiting the memorial of an 1818 battle between Peshwa's Army and the East India Company's forces at Bhima Koregaon came under attack on 1 January this year. It led to widespread Dalit protests across the state two days later.

"The government is still unable to arrest the two accused. Despite (pro-Hindutva leader) Milind Ekbote's anticipatory bail plea being rejected by the (Bombay high) court, he had the audacity to visit the police station and go scot free. This shows how helpless the government is before him and Sambhaji Bhide (also accused of inciting the violence)," Munde said.

He further claimed that during the combing operation undertaken by the government after the violence led to protests by Dalits on January 3, over 6,000 persons were arrested and slapped with serious charges.

NCP's Vidya Chavan demanded that the government withdraw the charges of "murder and dacoity" pressed against "54,000 people" who protested across the state on January 3.

People's Republican Party member Jogendra Kawade said those with "anti-national mindset" were being backed by the government, and the whole incident was a "state-sponsored crime".

Dalits were put behind bars in the aftermath of the violence, and the government deliberately didn't allow police to act despite having information that some people could do mischief during the January 1 commemoration of the Bhima-Koregaon battle, he alleged.

Ashok Jagtap (Congress) also termed the violence as a "state-sponsored crime".

Leader of the House and Revenue Minister Chandrakant Patil urged the members to refrain from making any statement that could vitiate the social atmosphere.

Council chairman Ramraje Nimbalkar said he would allow a two-and-a-half hour discussion on the issue on a later date.

Dalits in Maharashtra celebrate the victory of East India Company forces over the Peshwa's Army in the 1818 battle, as the Company forces included soldiers from the Dalit Mahar community. The victory is seen as an assertion by Dalits against the age-old upper-caste oppression.Karti had once jokingly said that having an Aircel SIM card is his only involvement in the Aircel-Maxis deal. But, it is unlikely that there will be any takers for his jokes

Editor's note: This article was originally published on 5 July, 2016. It is being updated and republished in light of the Karti Chidambaram's arrest by the CBI in Chennai on Wednesday morning.

Karma, they say, catches up with you eventually and never misses its date.

This is true in the case of the father-son duo, P Chidambaram and Karti Chidambaram. This is probably the first time that Chidambaram Sr is facing a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) raid. There is a probability that the former Union finance minister and one of the top leaders of the Congress may just be paying the price for his sons deeds  that arent limited to the ongoing INX episode.

At the time of writing, reports are coming out on the arrest of Karti by the CBI from Chennai for violating the Foreign Exchange Managament Act (FEMA).

In May last year, the CBI had conducted raids at the Chennai houses of Chidambaram and his son. The raids and the arrest now relates to clearances given to INX Media. Karti allegedly facilitated the clearances for kickbacks in 2008 when Chidambaram was a Union minister in the UPA government. It is here that things become difficult for the top Congress leader. His involvement, direct or indirect, in the case can come under investigations post the arrest of his son.

This isnt the first instance in which investigative agencies have moved against the Chidambarams. In April last year, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) had issued a show-cause notice to Karti and a firm purportedly linked to him for alleged violations of the FEMA laws to the tune of Rs 45 crore. Also, the agency also issued a similar notice, after over two years of investigations, to another firm Vasan Health Care Private Limited, which is based in Chennai, for alleged forex violations of Rs 2,262 crore.



Not just the INX episode

The charges against the Chidambarams are not limited to the INX Media case. The father-son duo is also facing probes in the Aircel-Maxis case in which Karti allegedly made a killing through a company he owns  Advantage Strategic Consulting Private Limited. When the probe advances further, both the Aircel-Maxis case and Forex scams could prove to be the biggest jolt also for Chidambaram Sr in his political career, considering its multiple dimensions. What will work against the former Union minister is the fact that all through the time-frame of his sons alleged wrongdoings, he was holding office in the UPA government. His direct involvement in Kartis doings are still being investigated

In a piece published on 5 July last year, this writer had argued that the Enforcement Directorate (ED) summoning Karti might just have been the beginning of several sleepless nights for the father and son.

Aircel-Maxis case

The bigger trouble in waiting for the Chidambarams may be the Aircel-Maxis case. In a nutshell, the whole story of the Aircel-Maxis case pertains to the forced selling of Aircel in 2006 by its owner entrepreneur C Sivasankaran, allegedly under pressure from former Union telecom minister Dayanidhi Maran. To return the favour, Maxis invested around Rs 47 crore in the Sun Group, owned by Dayanidhi Marans brother, Kalanidhi Maran.

Karti allegedly facilitated the whole transaction through his firm Advantage Consulting and passed along the bribes. Early this month, the ED said it has recovered confidential CBI report from Kartis house.

Karti may not have a solid defence in the Maxis case. As a New Indian Express investigative series revealed, he will have a lot of explaining to do to prove the legitimacy of his assets worldwide through the firms allegedly owned by him and an army of benamis who have facilitated the transactions. When the skeletons begin to tumble out of the closet, the case may not be limited to the Aircel-Maxis deal alone. The investigations are leading to a complex web of benami transactions used by the Chidambarams to hide their ill-gotten wealth.

As the New Indian Express expose revealed, Karti owned majority stake in Advantage through a holding company Ausbridge. But, the ownership of the company  Advantage  was shown in the names of benamis, who in turn wrote wills later to transfer the ownership to Kartis daughter. And who keeps these wills? Here again, Karti, as found in his vault by a joint team comprising Income Tax and Enforcement Directorate authorities.

Now, what is Advantages wealth? Advantage India holds 90,000 shares out of the 1.5 lakh equity shares of Vasan Eye Care. The firm procured the shares at a throwaway price of Rs 100 per share. However, the report states, that it actually paid only one-third, or Rs 33 per share. It sold 60,000 shares in two tranches of Rs 30,000 to Sequoia Capital Investments, a Mauritius-based investment fund.

In the first tranche, 30,000 shares were sold at Rs 7,500 per share or Rs 22.5 crore. Assuming that the second tranche was also sold at the same price and if the balance shares are valued at the same price, then Vasan Eye Care's share would amount to Rs 112.5 crore that Advantage acquired at a mere Rs 50 lakh, according to the report. Now, thats quite a killing, isnt it?

Kartis empire is spread across several countries, which would also mean several jurisdictions. The Singapore subsidiary of Advantage, Advantage Singapore, has real estate investments in at least 15 countries. But, under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA),the ED can expand its probe to any geographies and seek help of international agencies if needed.

Political vendetta?

Chidambaram Sr has always trained his guns at the ruling BJP government citing political vendetta, whenever investigators targeted Karti or his 'friends'.

"If the government wishes to target me, they should do so directly, not harass friends of my son who carry on their own businesses and have nothing to do with politics," the former finance minister had said. But, Chidambarams apparent attempt to politicise the issue may not work, since the Congress itself will not want to get involved in the case given its seriousness and its larger political implications. There is immense pressure on the Narendra Modi government not to lower its guard against corruption.

In its term so far, the Modi government has gained a reputation for its way of dealing with cronies and crooks. The government would not want to damage that image in this case. It has already lent a free hand to various investigating agencies against the Chidambarams  in a series of cases including the Aircel-Maxis case  to inspect the complex threads of the deals, counter-deals and kickbacks.

Chidambaram, the lawyer-turned-politician may have to fight lot harder to wriggle out of the mess created by his son to avert political downfall.The Congress in Goa on Wednesday asked Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar to come clean on his ailment, adding that the state administration had come to a standstill as he had been hospitalised for around a fortnight.

Panaji: The Congress in Goa on Wednesday asked Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar to come clean on his ailment, adding that the state administration had come to a standstill as he had been hospitalised for around a fortnight.

The very fact that Parrikar did not delegate the chief minister's powers or depute a Minister to oversee the state machinery's functioning proved he did not trust any legislator from his own party and ruling allies, Congress state unit president Shantaram Naik told the media in Panaji.

"We have sympathies with Parrikar, but the Chief Minister should be transparent about his illness. He should be true to the people of Goa who have elected him," Naik said.

"Parrikar holds more than 20 portfolios, including important departments like home, mining and finance. As he was in hospital, the state administration and decision-making in these departments came to a standstill. Goa cannot afford this. The state is effectively headless for the last 15 days," the Congress leader said.

Parrikar was admitted to Lilavati Hospital in Mumbai on 15 February for treatment of "mild pancreatitis", the CMO said earlier.

He arrived in Goa on 22 February and presented the state Budget in the Assembly before he was again admitted in a government hospital in Goa on Sunday.Former Bihar chief minister and Hindustani Awam Morcha chief Jitan Ram Manjhi has quit the National Democratic Alliance (NDA)

Former Bihar chief minister and Hindustani Awam Morcha chief Jitan Ram Manjhi has quit the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), according to media reports.

This came minutes after reports of a meeting between Manjhi and former Bihar chief minister Rabri Devi surfaced. Devi is also the wife of Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader Lalu Prasad Yadav.

Meeting between former #Bihar CMs Jitan Ram Manjhi & Rabri Devi underway at the latter's residence. (File Pics) pic.twitter.com/3J2WAUlma3  ANI (@ANI) February 28, 2018

Lalu's son Tejashwi Yadav addressed the media on Wednesday along with Manjhi and said, "He has been an old friend to my parents; we welcome him," ANI reported.

On Sunday, Manjhi had demanded that his party be allotted one Rajya Sabha seat in the upcoming elections, failing which the party would not support the BJP-led coalition in the next one Lok Sabha and two Assembly bypolls.

"The NDA must announce at least one Hindustani Awam Morcha leader among its candidates for the six Rajya Sabha seats in Bihar. If that does not happen, our party workers will not campaign for candidates of the coalition in the bypolls", Manjhi said.

The Rajya Sabha election is slated for 23 March. The bypolls for Araria Lok Sabha seat and Jahanabad and Bhabhua Assembly seats are scheduled to be held on 11 March.

Manjhi said that "for more than a year and a half, I and my party have been working tirelessly for strengthening the NDA in Bihar. But as the saying goes, even a mother does not feed her child until he or she cries and demands attention."

With inputs from PTIA day after a Karnataka minister opposed use of EVMs brought from Gujarat and Uttar Pradesh in coming assembly polls, state Chief Electoral Officer Sanjiv Kumar on Wednesday said there was a robust system in place and no one can tamper with the electronic voting machines.

Bengaluru: A day after a Karnataka minister opposed the use of EVMs brought from Gujarat and Uttar Pradesh in the coming Assembly polls, state Chief Electoral Officer Sanjiv Kumar on Wednesday said there was a robust system in place and no one can tamper with the electronic voting machines.

There need not be any apprehensions about the EVMs or the Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT), a method of providing feedback to voters using a ballot less voting system, he told reporters here.

Home Minister Ramalinga Reddy had on Tuesday said EVMs brought from Gujarat and Uttar Pradesh should not be used in Karnataka to ensure a fair and impartial election.

Talking to reporters, he had said these EVMs might have been tampered with.

Also, some other Congress leaders have been raising apprehensions over the impartiality of the coming elections in the state, saying a majority of EVMs required for the coming polls were being brought from Gujarat and Uttar Pradesh.

Kumar said the central government or the state or union territory governments or their machinery had no jurisdiction or domain or role in the production, allocation, transportation, storage or operation of the EVMs or VVPATs.

"There has never been any consultation or involvement, whether direct or indirect in the matter of EVM/VVPAT management, operation or deployment with any government. All the decisions regarding the use and deployment of EVMs and VVPATs are taken solely by the Election Commission," he added.

According to the details provided by the CEO, the total number of Balloting Units (BU) and Control Units (CU) required for Karnataka elections are 85,650 and 66,700 respectively while 73,700 VVPATs will be used.

Of these, 27,000 BUs, 20,000 CUs and 13,000 VVPATs will be brought from Gujarat. On the other hand, BUs and CUs brought from Uttar Pradesh are 40,650 and 31,700.

Rest will be pooled from BEL, Jharkhand, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu.

This time around, Karnataka will see 60,700 fresh VVPATs from BEL being used in the election, the CEO said.They moved to Uganda to work with refugees.

Author: Elise Harris | Source: CNA

Selling everything and moving to Uganda to work with refugees is not likely on many people's to-do list. In fact, it's probably the last thing most would consider, especially young couples hoping to start a family.

But it's exactly what Rachel and Rich Mastrogiacomo did last year.

Their story began when a series of devastating events and realizations would lead the couple to the edge of a war zone in the heart of east Africa, bring them face to face with abject poverty and eventually lead them to the recent adoption of their new daughter.

Though seeds were planted in both of their lives much earlier, the story began when the two got married in 2014. Like any other couple, they were excited about their new life together and eager to start a family.

However, their initial enthusiasm was quickly replaced by pangs of sadness and disappointment as the couple slowly began to realize, after months of trying to become pregnant, that they were facing infertility.

This pain was sharpened in 2017, when three foster children living with the couple were unexpectedly returned to their birth mother.

It was after this that Rachel and Rich began to feel an inkling that they were being called to something specific  something they would discover through a process of prayer and radical openness to God's will and the signs that he provided along the way.

Its a blessing to have received this unbelievable gift when we least expected it; Gods fingerprints are all over it.

Shortly after their foster children were reunited with their biological mother, Rachel and Rich attended a healing Mass. At the end, as Rachel was praying, a woman tapped her on shoulder, and told her, I heard Jesus say, 'She will be a mother to many.' You're healed.

Around the same time, Rich  who says he never has dreams  said he had a very vivid dream of his wife standing on brownish-reddish dirt with trees all around. In the dream, Rich said Rachel was holding a baby and was surrounded by children, and as he looked at her, she smiled at him with a peaceful expression.

After the dream, Rich began to research South Sudan, and came across multiple articles detailing the horrors of the country's ongoing conflict and the millions who, having fled war and famine in their homeland, are now living as refugees in neighboring countries. Uganda in particular has been one of the main refugee destinations.

Rich began emailing bishops in the area, and immediately got a response from Bishop Sabino Ocan Odoki of Arua, in northern Uganda, saying Rich's email was an answer to prayer, as he had more than a million Sudanese refugees in his diocese and had been praying for lay missionaries to come from America.

The contact with Bishop Odoki  whose diocese sits closely along borders with the Democratic Republic of the Congo and South Sudan  was seen as providential by Rachel and Rich, because ever since she was 10-years-old, Rachel had a special love for Sudan  she told CNA that her father put an image of starving Sudanese children her age on the refrigerator in hopes of fostering a sense of gratitude in her.

The image stuck with Rachel and was in many ways the spark of her desire to be a missionary, and when they got married, both Rachel and Rich felt a strong call to live a missionary life.

When Bishop Odoki said he wanted them to come and serve for a month-long trial run, the choice was obvious. The couple sold everything and went to Arua in the spring of 2017 with the Family Missions Company.

There are no words to describe the intense human suffering that we saw among the refugees, Rachel told CNA Feb. 22.

It was unlike anything weve ever seen, unlike slum poverty. Never have we seen such a vast amount of people living in such poor conditions, she continued.

South Sudan has been split by a brutal civil war for the past three-and-a-half years. The conflict has so far prompted some 4 million citizens to flee the country in search of peace, food and work. In August 2017, shortly before Rachel and Rich traveled to Uganda, the African nation had taken in their one-millionth refugee, and the number has continued to climb.

Roughly 85 percent of the refugee settlements Rachel and Rich served are made up of women and children, they said, and while many humanitarian organizations on the ground try to help meet basic needs, the overall need is absolutely overwhelming.

They specifically visited the Palorinya refugee settlement in Uganda's Moyo region, which is the second biggest camp in northern Uganda and as of November 2017 housed some 185,000 refugees, according to Reuters.

While in Arua, Rachel and Rich were able to tour the diocese and participate in the centenary celebration of Moyo Catholic parish, which is the first parish of the diocese of Arua. They also spent time visiting orphans, schoolchildren and youth in prison, and distributed both gifts and donations.

[We] just loved on the kids, Rachel said, and recalled what she said is one of her favorite memories of the trip. As they were visiting a school, Rachel and Rich entered one classroom and the children immediately began singing: The Lord is calling you. You are welcome to lead us all into His kingdom.

The song touched our hearts deeply, she said, explaining that throughout the entire month we experienced the joy of the Gospel in a fresh and new way. The faith of the people is vibrant; God is their treasure.

While the basic needs of those living in the camps are many, Rachel said that spiritually speaking, the greatest need we found was the need to be heard.

Pope Francis speaks about a ministry of listening, and this concept came alive for us while we were in the refugee camps, she said, explaining that when they eventually return to Uganda, they plan to help with spiritual formation, since general catechesis and sacramental preparation are often lacking.

The people are hungry for more than just food; they truly are hungry for God, she said.

As the month drew to a close, Rachel said she, her husband and Bishop Odoki all experienced an overwhelming confirmation that God was inviting the couple to serve there as full time lay missionaries and live as spiritual parents to the many children and orphans in need.

So while they already see Uganda as their new home, Rachel and Rich headed back to the United States to get things in order. But the story doesn't end there.

Just three days after returning to the U.S., Rich got a phone call from a lawyer who helps facilitate private adoption, saying a woman had selected him and Rachel to adopt her baby.

The phone call came out of left field, when we least expected it! Truly, it was wild, Rachel said.

Rich and Rachel had been in touch with the lawyer several years before, but hadn't spoken to her since.

However, she had saved their profile, and as the mother was looking through the stack of possible adoptive parents for her unborn child, she was moved when she saw Rachel and Rich's profile and wanted to know more about them.

According to Rachel, when it was explained to the mother that the couple were missionaries living in Uganda, it struck a deep chord, as the woman herself was an orphan who had been adopted from Guatemala.

The mother had initially scheduled an abortion during the time that Rachel and Rich were in Uganda, but decided against it and reached out to a crisis pregnancy center. When she heard about Rachel and Rich, she wanted her unborn daughter to be with them, as she had fond memories of the Catholic nuns who raised her until she was adopted.

We always felt open to adoption, but trusted that God would make it happen in His time, Rachel said. Its a blessing to have received this unbelievable gift when we least expected it; Gods fingerprints are all over it.

The little girl, who Rachel and Rich named Chiara Maria de Guadalupe Mastrogiacomo, was born Feb. 18.

Both Rachel and Rich were present when their daughter was born. We wept tears of joy and continue to do so. She has taken our breath away, Rachel said, adding, truly, God has turned our mourning into dancing!

Once the adoption is finalized and little Chiara Maria gets her passport, Rachel and Rich will return to Uganda with their new daughter and continue to serve as lay missionaries in the Arua diocese under the guidance of Bishop Odoki.

While they will wait for Odoki to give them instructions when they arrive, Rachel said she believes they will travel to the refugee settlements in order to provide catechesis, sacramental preparation and trauma counseling.

Rachel, who graduated from the Franciscan University of Steubenville in Ohio, holds degrees in theology and religious education, while Rich holds a graduate degree in theology.

Overall, Rachel said she sees their role as a funnel of resources from the U.S. to help this particular group and to raise awareness and funds to address the current humanitarian crisis in the area, which is one of the most serious in the world right now.

Pope Francis himself recently put a spotlight on the crisis by declaring Feb. 23, the Friday of the first full week of Lent, as a day of prayer and fasting for the DRC, South Sudan and Syria, all three of which have been ravaged by internal conflict for years.

Though they can cease being missionaries at any time, Rachel said she and Rich feel that their call to be missionaries is a lifelong vocation, and don't see themselves leaving it.

Pope Francis dreams of a poor Church for the poor and a missionary impulse capable of transforming everything; this has become our dream, she said. We want to give everything for Christ in the disguise of the poor and marginalized of society. We want to be on the margins, with the marginalized.

That is where Jesus is, she said, adding, we cannot wait to return and see see how the Lord will work.Karti Chidambaram's arrest could be an inflection point in the Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) attempt to regain the narrative against corruption, and change the perception that it's fight has weakened

Karti Chidambaram's arrest could be an inflection point in the Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) attempt to regain the narrative against corruption. For a party which came into power on the back of a promise to clean the swamp and take action against the kingpins behind the UPA's scam-tainted regime, the Narendra Modi government's four-year stint at the Centre has been quite an anti-climactic experience.

Political sentiments depend on narratives. And narratives more often than not are built on signalling intent rather than actual progress or a patient approach. It is possible that Karti's arrest was forced by circumstances instead of procedure, but it presents the BJP with the chance to kill two birds with one stone: Regain the anti-corruption mojo and prove that graft breaches generational gap in the Congress.

It is largely seen as the BJP's failure that once in power, they have been unable to touch the key political figures in Congress who were the target of relentless attacks leading up to the 2014 parliamentary elections. Though the cases against the Gandhis in the National Herald scam and the VVIP chopper deal have been rolling in the courts and various government agencies have been raiding the properties and residences of former finance minister P Chidambaram, the Marans were discharged, A Raja walked free and an impression was built that the Modi government is either unwilling to rock the boat or not competent enough to pursue the cases.

Leave alone the Gandhis, the BJP appears unable to take any action against even Robert Vadra, who was the subject of countless barbs from prime minister-aspirant Modi and was thought to be the lowest-hanging fruit once BJP assumes power. Vadra's "meteoric rise" was the subject of countless media debates, and his proximity and familial ties with the Gandhis made him the prime target of BJP's attacks.

Four years since, all that the Modi government has to show for is a CBI chargesheet in the Manesar land scam naming former Haryana chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda as the "chief conspirator". The CBI is still opposing the discharge pleas of the Maran brothers, Raja's transformation from "wronged" to "wronged against" is complete, and Vadra has remained untouched, merrily training his guns against BJP in his habitually flamboyant style.

Meanwhile, the explosion of the Punjab National Bank scam has compounded BJP's woes. Suddenly, BJP seemed to be losing its rhetorical superiority over the Congress over corruption, and from an offensive approach had to scamper to defend itself. The point about the scam originating during the UPA years was of academic interest. What caught the public imagination is the flight of diamantaires Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi to foreign shores once they had piled the public sector banks with mountains of unrecoverable loans.

Karti's arrest, or so the BJP hopes, would change this damaging narrative. Media reports indicate that Chidambaram's son, who has long been the subject of intense attention from the CBI and the ED, was finally arrested on Wednesday morning on his return from London for FEMA violations in connection with the INX Media money laundering case.

According to a report on NDTV, "The ED had filed a case against Karti Chidambaram in May last year alleging irregularities in the grant of FIPB clearance to INX Media for receiving foreign investment of over Rs 300 crore in 2007 when Chidambaram was the Union finance minister." Karti is accused of taking a bribe of Rs 10 lakh in the case.

The Times of India has reported that soon after being taken into CBI custody, Karti was questioned at Chennai airport. The newspaper quoted a CBI officer as saying, "We have strong evidence to confirm his role in a cheating case."

Chidambaram's defence has been on expected lines. According to TV channels, in a media statement, the former Union finance minister claimed that his son was victimised because he had been writing columns in newspapers against the government's misdeeds, and that it is part of the BJP's larger agenda to "silence critics". He has reportedly also moved the Supreme Court against his son's detention.

The case is for CBI to prove, and the BJP would be aware that the agency's track record is less than convincing. Even so, the arrest may serve a crucial purpose for the BJP in sending a message to its core voters who had become restive on account of "inaction against Congress" on the corruption front.

It also pushes Congress, which had been batting on the front foot believing that it has found in PNB scam an issue to nail the BJP, on the defensive. Keen to not let go of the initiative, the Congress has mounted a spirited defence that could also double as an attack. The party has accused the BJP of "trying to distract public attention from PNB scam" and called it a "classic diversionary tactic".

Classical diversionary tactic to hide Scams & Colossal Corruption that is being exposed on a daily basis,be it NiMo+Choksi,D.D.Jewellers and Rotomac.

Modi Govt continues it's vendetta against Sh. P. Chidambaram. Wont deter the Congress from bringing the truth to the people.  Randeep Singh Surjewala (@rssurjewala) February 28, 2018

Finally, the timing suggests that the government was worried about facing a barrage of criticism when second half of the Budget Session gets under way.

Karti's arrest, which the BJP has already touted as a "zero tolerance towards corruption" and an "indication of the rot within Congress dynasty" gives the government a much-needed handle against Opposition aggression in Parliament. Game on.Uttar Pradesh deputy chief minister Keshav Prasad Maurya today urged the electorate to ensure that Kaushalendra Singh Patel, the BJP's candidate for the bypoll to Phulpur parliamentary constituency, wins the election.

Lucknow: Uttar Pradesh deputy chief minister Keshav Prasad Maurya on Tuesday urged the electorate to ensure that Kaushalendra Singh Patel, the BJP's candidate for the bypoll to Phulpur parliamentary constituency, wins the election.

Gorakhpur and Phulpur Lok Sabha constituencies were vacated by Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and his deputy Maurya respectively, after they became members of the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Council.

Voting for Lok Sabha bypolls there will be held on 11 March, while counting of votes will be held on 14 March.

Addressing an election meeting in Phulpur Lok Sabha constituency, he said, "If Uttar Pradesh has to become 'sarvottam pradesh' (best state), then a pledge has to be taken to ensure that lotus blooms here." Lotus is the election symbol of the BJP.

At the election meeting, state cabinet minister Brijesh Pathak, said, "You (youths) will have to play a significant role in ensuring historic win, which the party will experience on 14 March."

"Both the SP and Congress were governments of scams, and both of them are out of state and Centre. Both the parties are known for nepotism and dynastic politics. Their chances of staging a comeback is virtually impossible," he said.Gujarat chief minister Vijay Rupani asserts that he is sure his party, BJP, will repeat the performance of 2014 Lok Sabha election in the 2019 national elections as the Modi magic is still intact and has not withered away.

Gujarat chief minister Vijay Rupani asserts that he is sure his party, BJP, will repeat the performance of 2014 Lok Sabha election in the 2019 national elections as the Modi magic is still intact and has not withered away. Let us not look at the 2019 Lok Sabha election from the prism of Gujarat Assembly results, Rupani says

In a freewheeling interview with Firstpost at his official residence in Gandhinagar on Tuesday, a day before he is to attend the conference of BJP chief ministers and deputy chief ministers in the BJPs Delhi headquarters, Rupani exudes confidence and points out that those belittling the BJPs victory in Gujarat Assembly elections in December 2017 are failing to gauge the pulse of the people. We won that election against immense odds, he says.

After a long gap, there was a determined attempt by the Congress to push Gujarat into a vortex of sectarian conflicts on caste and communal lines, he adds, referring to the emergence of caste-based campaigns led by Jignesh Mevani, Alpesh Thakor and Hardik Patel. This is a transient phase which has practically blown over, he says confidently.

Rupani, however, does not see any possibility of Mevani emerging as an influential leader such as Kanshi Ram or Mayawati solely on the basis of Dalit assertion. That is nearly impossible as Dalits and tribals closely identify themselves with the BJP, he says, adding We have more Dalits and tribal legislators than our rivals. Referring to a debate on Dalit welfare in the Assembly, he says, I gave details of schemes initiated by my government for welfare of Dalits and it caused silence in the camp of our adversaries.

Asked if there was any need for introspection within the party after Gujarats election results, which is often described as a moral defeat for the BJP, Rupani says, We are quite alert to the possibility of attempts to create social divisions by the Congress and others, and we are working on a political project to neutralise it. The way he puts this indicates the BJP has something up its sleeve for the next years Lok Sabha polls.

Would he share the details of this project? Of course, we would neutralise them by launching our own political project of unleashing robust nationalism to counter social division... We are trained in the RSS culture where caste divisions and linguistic conflicts have no meaning. He adds that at the government level, he has been initiating several measures to overcome the rural distress and take care of socially and economically marginalised people. Social engineering will be integral to our project of nationalism, he says, adding that caste factors in Indian reality could not be ignored.

Contrary to his first stint (2016-17) as chief minister when Rupani looked tentative and taciturn, he seems to have found his bearing in the second stint. He does not seem perturbed over the impression that the BJP barely scraped through in the Assembly elections. You see, when I came here as the chief minister there was the pressure of coming elections, he says, explaining his tentativeness during those initial days. Now I am determined to build our governance on three pillars: Transparency, honesty and good administration.

But is he aware of the fact that there is a perceived drift in governance under his watch?

He candidly replies that it would be wrong to compare his style of functioning with that of his predecessors: especially Narendra Modi. Modi ji kahan aur hum kahan! (Modi is a leader of altogether different class!), he says, with a tinge of admiration bordering on awe and respect for the prime minister. Of course, such comparisons are erroneous as every individual develops his own style, he says by way of explaining that the perception of drift in governance has nothing to do with the ground reality.

There are reports of growing rural distress in Gujarat, but Rupani dismisses the impression out of hand. This is untrue as we scored major victories even in rural areas in the Assembly elections, he says, adding that his government has been planning in tandem with the Union government to evolve a mechanism to ensure remunerative prices for farmers. Asked if he is planning a parallel Minimum Support Price structure (MSP), he says, It will be a sort of MSP structure to ensure better price for agriculture produce. Also, At the same time, we are planning to modernise agriculture.

Asked if his government has any scheme to introduce corporatisation of agriculture, he says that such a scheme was on the cards with a precondition that farmers would retain the ownership of land. Large farms could be leased out to corporates for modernisation of agriculture, he says, adding that the state had seen diversification of agriculture at a large scale with farmers cultivating flowers, vegetables and fruits. At the same time, he points out that the state government has planned to develop a chain of cold storage units to preserve perishable agriculture produce and ensure good prices for farmers.

We are focussing on youth and roping in about 1 lakh youth for apprenticeship to develop their skills for jobs, he says, referring to the governments plan to organise a 'rojgar mela' or employment camp to give nearly four lakh jobs to youngsters. I am sure these measures would substantially take care of providing jobs to needy. Referring to a slew of welfare measures initiated by the state, he says his government is going ahead with the plan to take care of ageing population. Those above 60 years of age, with annual income less than Rs 6 lakh, would be given free medical facilities up to Rs 3 lakh on selected ailments.

Despite all his bravado and welfare measures, is Rupani really confident of the BJP winning all 26 seats in 2019 as it did in 2014? Rupani pauses for a moment, collects himself and begins listing statistics of the partys victory run in local bodies. Even in the state Assembly elections, if votes were to be counted in terms of Gujarats 26 Lok Sabha constituencies, we would have won 18 seats. You see, our biggest trump card is the name of Narendra Modi and let me tell you his charm has only increased these past years, he sums up.Congress general secretary and the party's Madhya Pradesh in-charge, Deepak Babaria, has created a flutter within the party by suggesting an age ceiling and application fee for candidates be put in place ahead of Assembly elections in the state

Congress general secretary and the party's Madhya Pradesh in-charge, Deepak Babaria, has created a flutter within the party by suggesting an age ceiling and application fee for candidates be put in place ahead of Assembly elections in the state, scheduled for later this year.

Addressing a recent meeting in Jabalpur, the Congress MP urged party leaders aged over 60 to stay away from contesting Assembly elections in Madhya Pradesh. He also said contestants seeking a ticket pay an application fee, a non-refundable amount that will get deposited in the party fund to be utilised for election campaigning.

However, over two dozen Congress MLAs have registered their protests before the party. Alarmed at Babaria's suggestions, a group of MLAs and MPs have decided to meet Congress president Rahul Gandhi and seek redressal.

"It's a very serious matter. If there's a cap on contesting Assembly election for candidates above 60, a large number of winnable candidates, many of whom are sitting MLAs and senior leaders, will be rendered ineligible. Many of them have been winning continuously for over three terms. If they aren't allowed to contest, it will work in BJP's favour. It's after a long time that the Congress is gaining a foothold in the state, and such pre-conditions would only prove detrimental," a senior Congress MLA told Firstpost on condition of anonymity.

"If the situation isn't sorted at the state level, we'll meet Rahulji in Delhi," the MLA added.

If the suggestion is implemented, it will render a large number of party leaders, including sitting and former MLAs, redundant. It will also affect senior leaders from the Madhya Pradesh Congress, including former chief minister Digvijaya Singh, former Union minister Kamal Nath, and leader of Opposition Ajay Singh.

Apart from them, tribal leaders who have a firm stronghold over their respective constituencies  like Kantilal Bhuria, Nanhe Singh Dhurve, Mangilal Maravi  and some prominent faces like Vidhan Sabha deputy speaker Rajendra Singh, ex-minister Dr Govind Singh, Mukesh Nayak, Arif Aqueel, Raja Pateria, Hazarilal Raghuvanshi, Sajjan Verma, etc, would all find themselves unable to contest the upcoming polls.

However, Babaria has justified his proposal, saying a cap on the age of a contestant would give an opportunity to younger and fresher faces.

On 17 February, the highest decision-making body of the Congress, the Steering Committee, which replaced the previous Congress Working Committee till the formation of a new one, held a meeting where both Sonia and Rahul Gandhi had emphasised on getting fresh faces into the committee as well as to different organisations of the party.

Right from the beginning, when Rahul took over as Congress president, the thrust has been on getting fresh faces into the party. The party has even begun appointing new candidates in states as panellists to appear on news channels, as spokespersons, as social media coordinators, etc.

"It was only a suggestion. I requested those above 60 and those who have contested three Assembly elections or more to vacate their seat for a younger generation. Let newer faces get an opportunity. There are many workers who have been serving the party for a long time, but can never get the opportunity to contest an election. If the older generation can make way for them, it will energise the party and aspire others to aim higher," Babaria, considered a confidant of Rahul Gandhi, told Firstpost. "I have even told senior members that if they are confident of their ability, they should contest the Lok Sabha elections and become MPs."

"However," he added, "It's not a sacrosanct rule that those above 60 or those who have won three terms will absolutely not be allowed to contest. Taking a final decision is up to the party's central election committee and its top leadership."

One may recall that the incumbent BJP government of Shivraj Singh Chouhan had also imposed a age ceiling of 75, something that led to the ouster of former chief minister Babulal Gaur, the then minister of home department, and also Cabinet minister Sartaj Singh. However, the clause was cancelled when BJP president Amit Shah visited Bhopal in August last year.

Babaria's second suggestion was that any candidate seeking to contest the Assembly polls should deposit Rs 50,000 as an application fee. This would be deposited in the party fund and will be used for campaigning. A Congress office-bearer said the party receives between 5,000 and 7,000 applications for the 320 seats in Madhya Pradesh, most of them from urban and premium seats.

Going by Babaria's formula, which exempts poor but winnable candidates, if Rs 50,000 is collected from 4,900 candidates (100 are exempted), the party would receive Rs 24.50 crore. But will it become a reality?

"It's only a suggestion. An application fee would mean only candidates serious about contesting will pay up. It's like an elimination process. Irresponsible candidates fill up forms and apply just to try their luck or to act as spoilers for others. This fee would help avoid such behaviour and also help with election preparedness," Babaria added.

"It's the right idea. If a candidate is serious, he'll contribute by paying fees. There are many candidates who aren't serious. They fill up their forms just to create a sensation or to create hurdles for genuine candidates. We don't need such candidates," said Madhya Pradesh Congress spokesperson KK Mishra.

This advice too has drawn severe criticism, while some quarters even spread the rumour that Congress party is demanding money to give tickets to interested candidates. A section of Congress leaders, already agitated over the proposed age limit, has dubbed this suggestion as "anti-democratic" and said it would be the end of Congress in Madhya Pradesh.

Given rising anti-incumbency against the Shivraj Singh Chouhan government and farmer distress in the state, the Congress is hopeful of a good showing in the Assembly elections.

The top leadership is likely to take a final decision on these two suggestions, depending on the results of Kolaras and Mungaoli bypolls, the campaigning for which was spearheaded by youth leader Jyotiraditya Scindia. The results will be declared on Wednesday, and the Congress has pinned high hopes on these bypolls.The meeting, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP president Amit Shah, assumes additional significance for various reasons

The BJP chief ministers' 'review and forward planning' meetings in Delhi are usually termed routine. But this time around, a buzz surrounds the meet slated to be held at the new BJP headquarters at 6 Deendayal Upadhyaya Marg on Wednesday. The meeting, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP president Amit Shah, assumes additional significance for various reasons: First, though the idea to have a structured meeting of chief ministers with partys central leadership for better coordination and planning smoother delivery mechanism started during NDA-I with Atal Bihari Vajpayee and LK Advani at the helm, by February 2018, the party's organisational structure and its geographical expanse has undergone a sea change.

It is thus only natural the basic contours of the meet and the agenda, in terms of styling and forward planning, would also change. The number of BJP chief ministers and deputy chief ministers are also at a record high: The party has 14 chief ministers and six deputy chief ministers. Of the six deputy chief ministers, four are in BJP-ruled states: Two in Uttar Pradesh, one in Gujarat, one in Arunachal Pradesh. The others are in Jammu and Kashmir and Bihar, where the BJP is in alliance with the PDP and JD(U). Compare this to 2014: BJP was ruling in five states when Modi was leading the charge during the 2014 poll campaign. Thus, having more state leaders than central leaders in the adequately-populated conference room will be a matter of great satisfaction for those attending the meet.

Chhattisgarh chief minister Raman Singh has the distinction being the chief minister who has served the longest (since 7 December, 2003), while Himachal Pradesh chief minister Jairam Thakur is the latest addition (since 27 December, 2017) in the big league. Second, this would be the first occasion for these leaders to visit their new party headquarters: The biggest and most modern political party office in the world for the biggest political party in the world. Third, the meeting is being held after presentation of fifth and final Budget of this Modi government and as final rounds of Assembly elections near ahead of the 2019 general election.

A BJP general secretary, a key central leader responsible for organising this meet, told Firstpost Wednesdays meeting continues those held on 21 August and 25 September. The party is in government in so many states, the idea is to have everyone sit together and deliberate on issues of governance and ensure better delivery for poorer sections of society. Another party leader said the Modicare scheme  promised to provide free medical care of up to Rs five lakh each to 10 crore poor families (about 50 crore beneficiaries assuming five members per family)  announced in the Budget and large number of other schemes announced for farmers and rural India would be discussed in detail.

The focus is on finding ways and means, finding speedier methods to implement these programs in the BJP-ruled states. The idea is that the BJP-ruled states must act as a role model in ensuring last-mile delivery without glitches and without much delay. If the BJP states are able to do that  even if they achieve partial success in delivery  it will set the right note for the party and Modi when campaigning for next round of Assembly elections and later parliamentary election begins.

In the last Budget, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley stressed programmes for farmers, rural sector and Modicare. In fact, Jaitley changed order of content in his all-important speech, putting farming and rural sector at the top, reflecting shift in political and social priority of Modi government. The middle class is now slightly unhappy with Modi government. The government also had to face a great deal of negative publicity due to the Nirav Modi-Mehul Choksi PNB scam. Although the scam was building much before the Modi government assumed office, the fact that Nirav and Mehul fled before law enforcement agencies got their hands on them has gone against the BJP.

However, it remains uncertain whether this will be deliberated or if feedback will be sought by the central leadership from the chief ministers during the meet or on the sidelines. Party leaders are, however, confident that middle class will broadly remain with Modi and BJP and when time comes and show their preference at the polls as they did in Gujarat.

Modi is now focused on connecting with the masses through flagship schemes such as MUDRA, Ujjwala, Ayushman, Saubhagya, Sauchalaya. If Modi can ensure all BJP states make these schemes visible on the ground, he can safely assure a return to power in 2019. Interestingly, this meet is being held just three days ahead of the poll results in three states in North East: Tripura, Meghalaya and Nagaland. The BJP leaders are very optimistic, even sure of dismantling the Left's 'invincible' citadel of Tripura and red giving way to shiny saffron and uprooting Congress in Meghalaya.

Uppermost in minds of BJP leaders, even if there is no formal deliberation, is the upcoming Karnataka election and after that, the polls in three BJP-ruled states of Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh. This round of Assembly elections will decide whether the head count of BJP chief ministers will increase or decrease at the next such meeting.

Giving Firstpost a sneak peak at part of the meeting's agenda, which the BJP had, thus far, managed to keep confidential, Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan stated, "We will try and arrive at a consensus for holding simultaneous elections for state Assemblies and Parliament."The split in the Congress party was imminent from some time as Ashok was critical of the party for quite some time and was perceived to be close to Nitish.

It was an eventful day in Bihar politics. The latest in a series of turn-arounds in the state's politics is that the state unit of Congress has expelled four rebel MLCs, including former Bihar Congress president Ashok Choudhary for alleged anti-party activities. All four former Congressmen, led by Ashok will join Nitish Kumar's Janata Dal (United).

According to ANI, the other members who have been expelled by the party are Dilip Chaudhury, Tanvir Akhtar and Ram Chandra Bharti.

Suspended Congress Leaders who will join JD(U) are Ashok Chaudhary, Dilip Chaudhury, Tanvir Akhtar and Ram Chandra Bharti. #Bihar pic.twitter.com/A4zenrLA0o  ANI (@ANI) February 28, 2018

"People like us who worked for the party were sidelined. The four of us have decided that we are bidding goodbye to the party and going to JD(U)," Ashok was quoted as saying by ANI.

Earlier in the day, Jitan Ram Manjhi gave a jolt to the NDA government in Bihar and joined hands with Lalu Prasad Yadav-led Mahagathbandhan. While both these changes were big, they were not unexpected.

The split in the Congress party was imminent for some time as Ashok was critical of the party for quite some time and was perceived to be close to Nitish. He was sacked from the post of Bihar Congress president in September by then party high-command Sonia Gandhi.

He was accused of engineering a split in the party and had allegedly taken signatures of few party legislatures to jump ships. However, he could not garner the support of enough MLAs to overcome the anti-defection law. Congress has 27 MLAs in the Bihar Assembly.

As soon as the word of an imminent split reached New Delhi, an alert high-command summoned all party MLAs and Rahul Gandhi, then Congress vice-president, had held one-on-one meetings with all the legislators. Chaudhary abstained from the interaction, adopting a defiant stance. He also alleged that some senior leaders of the All India Congress Committee were engineering a split in the party and conspiring against him.

Meanwhile, troubles in NDA too for swirling the surface for some time now as several splinter groups with clashing interests became part of the same umbrella alliance at the Centre. With JD(U)'s return to the NDA camp, other small regional parties fear that they might have to compromise on their seat share. Majhi, who has been at odds with Nitish after breaking away from the JD(U), may be the first of many such realignments.

On Sunday, Manjhi had demanded that his party be allotted one Rajya Sabha seat in the upcoming elections, failing which the party would not support the BJP-led coalition in the next one Lok Sabha and two Assembly bypolls. Silence on BJP's part may have been the last straw for Manjhi.

"The NDA must announce at least one Hindustani Awam Morcha leader among its candidates for the six Rajya Sabha seats in Bihar. If that does not happen, our party workers will not campaign for candidates of the coalition in the bypolls," Manjhi had said.

The Rajya Sabha election is slated for 23 March. The bypolls for Araria Lok Sabha seat and Jahanabad and Bhabhua Assembly seats are scheduled to be held on 11 March.

Manjhi said that "for more than a year and a half, I and my party have been working tirelessly for strengthening the NDA in Bihar. But as the saying goes, even a mother does not feed her child until he or she cries and demands attention."tech2 News Staff

LG is not expected to launch a new flagship device anytime soon, but the company does seem to be working on a something new in terms of a new full-screen display technology. A new report has found LG patenting a version of a display which is rounded at the edges and by the looks of it, spans the entire front of the phone.

The South Korean company filed an application for the patent in its home country on Tuesday with the translated name reading 'display module for smartphone'. The patent, however, does not show the smartphone and reveals only the display module with the screen. Based on the findings of a report by Dutch publication GSMinfo, the patent shows how LG wants to house the different display components that sit on the front of the device.

Based on what can be made of the diagrams of the display, the camera and speaker have been bundled into a hole towards the top of the display with the screen running around it and then further up. The company has gone discreet as to provide any more details in terms of dimensions or references to future models.

The design in itself is not radical in terms of design but it does suggest that LG Display is looking at non-conventional approaches for smartphone display. It must also be kept in mind that LG Display is also commissioned for various third-party parts including panels for two of Apple's upcoming iPhones.

In a recent report, tipster Evan Blass mentioned that LG's upcoming flagship codenamed 'Judy' is expected to come with a 6.1-inch display, sporting a new type of display for the device called MLCD+. Blass mentioned that the Judy is expected to arrive only after June 2018.IANS

US Senate Democrats launched efforts on 27 February to win a vote to reinstate Obama-era rules guaranteeing an open internet, suggesting it would be a major issue in the 2018 mid-term elections.

Democrats remain one Republican senator shy of winning a majority in the Senate to reverse the Federal Communications Commissions order to undo the 2015 open internet rules.

Even then the effort would not likely pass the Republican-controlled House of Representatives or survive a veto by President Donald Trump.

The FCC in December voted 3-2 to reverse Obama-era rules barring service providers from blocking, slowing access to or charging more for certain online content.

The new FCC rules, once effective, would give internet service providers sweeping powers to change how consumers access the internet but include new transparency requirements that require them to disclose any changes to consumers.

Last week, a coalition of 22 state attorneys general refiled legal challenges intended to block the Trump administrations repeal of net neutrality.

The FCC published its order overturning net neutrality last week, a procedural step that allows for the filing of legal challenges. FCC Chairman Ajit Pai has said often he is confident the order will be upheld.

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.

On the other side, technology companies including Alphabet Inc and Facebook Inc have thrown their weight behind the congressional bid to reverse the repeal.

Democrats said on 27 February that the issue would be big in the mid-term election, especially among younger internet-savvy voters.

New York Senator Charles Schumer, the Democratic leader, suggested that under the FCCs approach internet providers could block a young couple from watching Netflix programming or a college student watching an educational video. Schumer said Americans should blame Republicans for slow internet service while Democrats fought to fix it.

Republicans have said the FCC vote would eliminate heavy-handed government regulations, encourage investment and return the internet to pre-2015 rules.

Under Senate rules, the earliest the Senate could vote on the issue is March 15 and they must seek a vote by June 20. Senator Edward Markey, the chief sponsor, said Democrats are undecided on when they would force a vote.

Democrats, who control 49 seats in the 100-person chamber, have the backing of 50 senators for repeal, leaving them one vote short of a majority. Democrats need 51 votes to win any proposal in the Republican-controlled Senate because Vice President Mike Pence can break any tie.The Taliban does not seem to be ready for peace talks, the Trump administration said on Tuesday, asserting that such talks have to be 'Afghan-led'

Washington: The Taliban as this point of time does not seem to be ready for peace talks, the Trump administration said on Tuesday, asserting that any such talks have to be "Afghan-led and Afghan-owned".

In a way, the Trump administration, ruled out direct talks with the Taliban, which was being sought by the terrorist outfit in a letter to the US.

"We certainly saw this letter and are aware of this letter. Any peace talks with Afghanistan have to be Afghan-led and Afghan-owned. That has long been our policy," State Department Spokesperson Heather Nauert told reporters at her daily news conference.

She said The Taliban, "unfortunately", does not seem ready at this point to sit down and have conversations about peace talks.

"We hope eventually they will, because that is the best way to be able to have peace in Afghanistan," Nauert said responding to a question on the letter released by the Taliban.

"Ultimately, we don't see there being a military solution to the situation in Afghanistan. Ultimately, it has to be a political situation," she said.

"That can best be done," she said if the Taliban was willing to sit down and have talks.

"Certainly the United States could have a role in that. But that's really up to Afghanistan, but it has to be Afghan-led and Afghan-owned," Nauert asserted.The US special envoy for North Korea plans to retire on Friday, the State Department said just hours after Trump again rejected talks with North Korea

Washington: The US special envoy for North Korea plans to retire on Friday, the State Department said just hours after President Donald Trump again rejected talks to resolve the North Korean nuclear crisis unless conditions are met.

South Korean-born Joseph Yun, a strong advocate for engagement with Pyongyang, has led US contact with North Korea, quietly pursuing direct diplomacy since taking his post under former President Barack Obama in 2016.

Yuns departure leaves the State Department without a point person for North Korea policy at a time Pyongyang has signalled it may be willing to talk to the United States after a period of diplomatic contacts with South Korea during the Winter Olympics.

The special envoys authority to engage with North Korea appeared to be undercut by a tug-of-war between the White House and State Department over North Korea policy under Trump.

While his tenure was praised publicly by the State Department, one senior administration official said Yun would not be missed because he contradicted Trumps policies, while at a daily press briefing White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders brushed off questions about the impact of Yuns departure.

Yun, a 32-year foreign service veteran, told US media his retirement was a personal decision and that Secretary of State Rex Tillerson had tried to persuade him to stay.

It is really my decision. The time, I thought, was right, he told CBS News. "There is a bit of a lull in activity and I thought it would be a good (time) to get out."

Yun did not respond to Reuters requests for comment.

In the CBS interview, Yun noted that North Korea had "stopped nuclear and missile tests." Pyongyang conducted its biggest and most recent nuclear bomb test in September and its largest and latest missile test in late November.

Some East Asia analysts called Yuns departure a big blow to attempts to use diplomacy to resolve the crisis over North Koreas development of nuclear missiles capable of hitting the United States, which has raised fears of war.

This is exceptionally bad news, Frank Jannuzi, an East Asia expert who heads the Mansfield Foundation, said on Twitter. "Joe Yun is the only senior official left at State who has experience dealing with the complexities of North Korea policy."

Former deputy assistant secretary of defence for East Asia Abraham Denmark called Yuns departure a huge loss for the US government at a critical moment.

CBS quoted Yun as saying there were no policy differences per se, but officials he has dealt with in South Korea told Reuters he had appeared increasingly frustrated with conflicting views within the administration on how to deal with the crisis.

Yun nevertheless appeared in step with recent administration positions when speaking to CBS.

We need to get it right, he was quoted as saying. We need to make sure if there are talks it will lead to denuclearisation. We need a whole of government approach.

No policy change

The US State Department said Tillerson had reluctantly accepted his decision.

Spokeswoman Heather Nauert said the denuclearization of North Korea remained the top US national security priority and Washingtons maximum pressure campaign to bring that about was succeeding.

If someone chooses to retire, that does not change our policy, Nauert told a regular news briefing. I feel fully confident we have the appropriate people in place who can handle everything he did and more.

South Korea this week urged Washington and Pyongyang to give ground to allow for talks.

Trump on Monday reiterated his willingness to talk, but only under the right conditions.

Washington has said repeatedly that any talks must be aimed at North Korea giving up its nuclear weapons, something North Korea has rejected.

Yun told South Koreas Yonhap news agency he was very hopeful about talks.

I hope there is a good dialogue, there is a peaceful resolution, Yonhap quoted him as saying.

On Friday, Washington announced its largest package of sanctions yet on North Korea. Trump warned of a phase two that could be very, very unfortunate for the world if the steps did not work, an apparent reference to military options his administration says remain on the table.

In another reference to the risk of war, Trump said on Monday: Were talking about tremendous potential loss of lives, numbers that nobodys even contemplated, never thought of.

In Geneva on Tuesday, North Koreas envoy to the UN Conference on Disarmament Han Tae Song dismissed sanctions as ineffective and said plans by Seoul and Washington to resume joint military exercises would harm the current positive process of improved inter-Korean relations.

A senior State Department official told Reuters late last year that Yun had sought direct diplomacy with North Korean officials at the United Nations in the hope of lowering the temperature in US-North Korean tensions.

Most were deeply sceptical about his chances.

Hes such a dreamer, a White House official said at the time, with a note of sarcasm.

Yun travelled to North Korea last June to help secure the release of comatose American student Otto Warmbier, whose detention and subsequent death further soured relations.

Meanwhile, Trump has yet to nominate an ambassador to South Korea, a post vacant for over a year. Congress, former US officials and foreign policy experts have criticised the administrations failure to fill this and other positions..  ,    "  2"     ,               ...            ?

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:   .ASUS just announced the Zenfone 5, the latest smartphone in new series at the MWC 2018 in Barcelona, as expected. It has a 6.2-inch Full HD+ 19:9 Super IPS display with notch design and 90% screen-to-body ratio. The company says that it has AI Display with auto color temperate adjustment and smart screen on. It is powered by Snapdragon 636 with support for up to 6GB RAM and runs Android Oreo with ZenUI 5.0, which the company says is the cleanest ZenUI yet without any separate apps for browser, email, messaging and minimal third-party apps like Facebook and Instagram.

It has a 12-megapixel rear camera with support for OIS, Sony IMX363 sensor and 0.03s Dual-pixel PDAF along with AI scene detection to detect 16 type of scenes automatically including Food, Sky, Animals. It also has a secondary 8-megapixel rear camera with 120-degree wide-angle lens for portrait shots and shoot images with wider view. ASUS also has ZeniMoji, similar to the iPhone Xs Animoji.

It also has an 8-megapixel front-facing camera with auto portrait and Selfie panorama modes and has Face unlock apart from fingerprint sensor on the back. It has dual speakers with five-magnets and NXP Smart amplifier. It is also the worlds first smartphone with DTS Headphone: X for 7.1-channel surround sound and comes bundled with Hi-Res Audio earphone.

ASUS Zenfone 5 (ZE620KL) specifications

6.2-inch (2246  1080 pixels) Full HD+ 19:9 2.5D curved glass Super IPS display with 500 nits Brightness, 95.4% NTSC color gamut, DCI-P3, 1500: 1 Contrast Ratio, Glove Touch support, Corning Gorilla Glass protection

1.8GHz Octa-Core Snapdragon 636 14nm Mobile Platform with Adreno 509 GPU

4GB / 6GB LPDDR4x RAM with 64GB /128GB storage, expandable memory up to 2TB with microSD

Android 8.0 (Oreo) with ZenUI 5.0, upgradable to Android P

Hybrid Dual SIM (nano + nano / microSD) with Dual VoLTE

12MP rear camera with dual-tone LED Flash, Sony IMX363 sensor, 1.4m pixel size, f/1.8 aperture, 0.03s Tri Tech auto-focus/Dual Pixel PDAF/ 4-axis OIS/EIS, Pro mode with RAW support, secondary 8MP camera with f/2.0 aperture, OV8856 sensor, 120-degree wide-angle lens

8MP front-facing camera with f/2.0 aperture, OV8856 sensor, 83-degree wide-angle lens

Fingerprint sensor

3.5mm audio jack, FM Radio

Dual speakers with NXP 9874 Smart AMP, Hi-Res Audio 192kHz/24b-bit, DTS Headphone: X for 7.1 channel surround sound, dual microphones

Dimensions: 15375.657.85mm; Weight: 155g

4G VoLTE, Wi-Fi 802.11 ac (2.4GHz + 5GHz), Bluetooth 5, GPS + GLONASS, USB Type-C (2.0)

3300mAh battery with ASUS BoostMaster fast charging and AI charging

The Asus Zenfone 5 comes in Midnight Blue and Meteor Silver colors and will roll out from April. No word on the pricing yet. Check out the hands-on impressions and photo gallery here.Priyanka technologies; the manufacturer of CENTRiC smartphones today announced that it has signed MOU worth 650 crores with UP Govt and is planning to set up R&D and manufacturing unit in the state. This unit in UP will serve for both CENTRiC and FRND mobiles as well as other mobile phone manufacturing globally.

The expected project is said to generate over 1500 employment opportunities directly and indirectly in and around the state. Priyanka Technologies (India) Private Limited is a wholly owned subsidiary of Priyanka Communications India Private Limited (PCIPL), owner of Priyanka Telecom, CENTRiC, and FRND smartphones.While Priyanka Telecom is in the distribution, the CENTRiC & FRND are smartphone and feature phones brand respectively.

Commenting on the same, Manish Agarwal, Founder, Priyanka Technologies (India) Pvt. Ltd. (CENTRiC Smartphones) said,Southwest Florida residents will have the opportunity to shape the November ballot for changes in the states constitution.

The Constitution Revision Commission will hold a public hearing at The Westin in Cape Coral on Monday, March 5, from 1 to 7 p.m. It will be the fifth of six such hearings to be held on the CRCs 2018 Road to the Ballot public hearing tour.

The meeting is open to  and intended for  the public and no tickets or RSVPs are required.

The CRC convenes every 20 years to examine and bring forward constitutional amendments for voter consideration, said Meredith Beatrice, CRC spokesperson.

There are five ways the constitution can be revised and this is one of them. This is the third CRC to convene in the states history and is the second year we have held this tour. We went to nine cities in 2007, Beatrice said.

There are 37 active proposals being considered by the commission from among the 103 that made it out of the committee process in the fall, Beatrice said.

Among them is an issue that has been hotly debated here in Lee County  the so-called primary loophole. Currently, primaries are open in Florida if the candidate slate is limited to one party. A write-in candidate on the ballot, however, closes the primary . Critics say this violates the spirit of the open-primary provision as write-in candidates often do not campaign.

It is very much alive and is one of the 37 to be considered by the full commission, said Commissioner Erika Donalds, who will chair the hearing in Cape Coral, of Proposal 11.

The goal of the public hearings is to get feedback on the proposals, which can be accessed at flcrc.gov/PublishedContent/ADMINISTRATIVEPUBLICATIONS/CRCActiveProposalsHearings2018.pdf

The feedback from the public will help inform commissioners before they make finals decisions on what they put on the ballot, Beatrice said.

Also among the proposals is a ban on offshore drilling, a residents bill of rights proposal, a prohibition on wagering on greyhound and dog races and death benefits for survivors of first responders and military members.

Any amendments proposed by the CRC this spring will be placed on the 2018 General Election ballot in November. The threshold for an amendment to pass is 60 percent.

Beatrice said she couldnt speculate on how many proposals will go forward, but the CRC in 1977-78 put eight proposals on the ballot, none of which passed. Nine proposals got on the ballot in 1997-98, eight of which passed. Back then, only a simple majority was needed to pass amendments.

To speak at a CRC public hearing, Floridians must fill out an appearance form and hand it in to CRC staff. The appearance form is available online at flcrc.gov and printed copies are available at public hearings. Appearance forms will not be accepted in advance of the public hearing.

Public speakers will be called in the order in which forms are received by CRC staff at the public hearing. The Citizen Services Desk will be open to accept forms from noon to 7 p.m.

The Constitution Revision Commission meets for approximately one year, traveling the State of Florida, identifying issues, performing research and possibly recommending changes to the Constitution.

Those attending will also be asked to observe CRC guidelines.

Those guidelines include:

1) One Person, One Appearance Form: To facilitate reasonable waiting times, individuals wishing to speak before the CRC may not submit more than one appearance form at the Citizen Services Desk. This is to discourage one participant from submitting multiple appearance forms on behalf of multiple participants ahead of other individuals who have been patiently waiting their turn in line. Speakers may speak on their own behalf, or on behalf of their organization.

2) Two-Minute Remarks: Hundreds of Floridians attend CRC public hearings. To help facilitate a fair process and reasonable waiting times, individuals who submitted an appearance form to the Citizen Services Desk shall be afforded two (2) minutes to discuss one or more proposals before the CRC. Due to high attendance, individuals may not submit multiple appearance forms on multiple topics.

3) Signs and Props: Handheld signage which does not obstruct the view of other attendees or invade others personal space is permitted. Signage must not block walkways. No balloons or noisemakers are permitted.

4) Decorum: Public hearings are an opportunity for all voices to be heard. Please be respectful of others opinions and speaking time allotted before the CRC. At all times, the Chair may regulate decorum.

The public may also submit input online at flcrc.gov.

The Westin Cape Coral Resort at Marina Village is at 5951 Silver King Blvd.A peculiar Land Development Code rule may be going under the towns microscope.

Currently in the LDC, theres a provision for one zoning district that changes the density calculation for residential dwelling units on lots smaller than 15,000 square feet along Estero Boulevard, roughly from Junkanoos to Connecticut Street. These lots are allowed to use part of the street right of way within its density calculation, therefor allowing those properties to have a higher allowed density. Also within this district, the code allows density calculations to be rounded up. For example, if a calculation comes out to 1.5 dwelling units for the parcel, the code allows that property to round up to two.

Its there in the code and people are using it, said Council Member Anita Cereceda.

Its evident the rule is in play: there are several new homes under construction right now which are clearly bigger than their predecessors. The market-trend style of building larger homes has been creeping up from Bonita Beach into Fort Myers Beach and has even reached San Carlos Island.

The towns attorneys have drafted a moratorium ordinance to examine the quirky density calculation and allow the town council to opine on its place in the LDC. If passed it would halt any new applications using that calculation; however, it would not stop any applications that are already received with the town.

The ordinance was passed to second hearing in a 3 to 2 vote, with Bruce Butcher and Anita Cereceda voting nay. It must go before council for a second and final reading before adoption.

Discussion of a moratorium arose at a council planning session recently, and Cereceda said she was surprised at the rapid turn-around from discussion to draft ordinance and because the moratorium had not gone before the Local Planning Agency at all.

It should have gone to the LPA, she said. All of the sudden here comes a moratorium. Its bad form. People should be afraid of how this happened.

Its not the first time changes to the LDC have been discussed, but it is the first time action has come about so quickly in the last two years.

In a planning session on Feb. 21, 2017, the then-council expressed its concern that the island character was changing.

Because of Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) regulations, any new home must be elevated to a certain point, depending on what flood zone its in. Much of the rest of the regulation on residential development is up to the towns code to crack down on.

During that meeting, the council discussed issues like the 7.5 foot side setbacks and accessory structures, but former Council Member Rexann Hosafros and Cereceda did not have the support to take action to change the code. At that time, Cereceda wanted to discuss how changes to the setbacks might improve the shrinking view corridor.

Now Vice-Mayor Tracey Gore, Council member Joanne Shamp and Mayor Dennis Boback did not support investigating any change. At that time, Shamp said it was a property owners right to tear down and rebuild.

In October 2016, former Vice Mayor Summer Stockton likened developers to vultures, and asked how it was possible for so many homes to be being built so much bigger if the codes had not changed.

But at the Feb. 20, 2018 meeting, the potential answer to that question was contemplated: the density calculation and code interpretation.

Gore said some staff have allowed two units on a property, where others in the past might only have allowed one under one roof. She wondered if it would be more of a council interpretation than a code issue  she said she didnt believe the code allowed someone to have two units. Cereceda said therein lies the problem: it doesnt say you cant.

Our staff in the past has been flexible on this, Shamp said. Theyve made rulings off and on in different ways, and I think its important that we define what the code certainly says.

Boback said he believed the ambiguity was allowing builders to gain an advantage in building, and a moratorium would allow time for the LPA to look at it and discuss the issue and develop a change for the code, if deemed necessary.

I think it will get well, well vetted between now and the time, should we decide to adopt any kind of ordinance to correct this issue, he said. I think it gives plenty of time for public input, plenty of time for the LPA, and plenty of time for council to weigh in on it.

Cereceda said she doesnt oppose examining this density quirk, but she would rather do a comprehensive comb through the LDC to find some more of its glitches  as well as rely on the LPA to propose and vet changes, too. She also wanted to call the examination a zoning in progress, rather than a moratorium. Zoning in progress would alert the public the council was considering changes that could impact the decisions a property owner might make, therefore protecting the town from a Burt-Harris Act claim on property rights.

If I were making my top 10 list of issues that I believe the code is failing us on, this would be one of them, Cereceda said, after Gore asked her if she would want to look at it. But it wouldnt be the only one. Since we agreed we were going to look at that, we should do it comprehensively and not nickel and dime ourselves.

Gore asked Community Development Director Jason Green if he believed the specific issue of the density calculation for the residential zoning district in question was important enough to be addressed as soon as possible  he said yes.

There are a lot of things in the code right now, people say, why is the town allowing all these mcmansions? Because our code allows for it, Cereceda said. The changing nature of Fort Myers Beach is far more significant as you drive down Estero Boulevard than the Torgerson project. The small town character will be erased in the next years, and this council is not wanting to address the LDC.What We Need Are More Guns

To the Editor:

In this country we have over 30,000 gun deaths every year  one every 15 minutes. In other civilized countries the number is much, much smaller. To solve this problem one needs to look at the root cause. Mental illness and use of violent video games are similar in all countries. However, we have many, many more guns in this country. The correlation is clear: country by country and state by state  more guns mean more gun deaths. States with stricter gun laws have fewer guns and fewer gun deaths. This is why we should be against a ridiculous gun reciprocity law passed by the House.

Secondly, the lethal damage caused by assault rifles is not usually discussed. The bullet from a 9mm handgun enters and exits the body with a small hole and much less damage to the organs compared to and assault rifle. The bullet from an assault rifle has a velocity of about three times the handgun and thus an energy of nine times the handgun. This high energy results in lethal damage to body organs and an exit wound the size of an orange. Still many politicians want to continue the sale of assault rifles and even put more guns in schools.

Gerry Trantina

Fort Myers BeachStar Line Books will host author Jon Jefferson, more commonly known under his pen name Jefferson Bass, in the shop to celebrate his newest release Wave of Terror on Thursday, March 8 at 7 p.m. for a discussion and signing.



Jefferson will be visiting the shop for a discussion of his novel, a presentation, and a signing afterwards.

"If youre a fan of his previous work or you love a good thriller, be sure not to miss out on this exciting evening," officials said.



About the author:



Jon Jefferson is a prolific author, veteran journalist, and seasoned documentary writer/producer. His two-part National Geographic documentary Biography of a Corpse and Anatomy of a Corpse took viewers behind the razor-wire fence of UT Knoxvilles renowned Anthropological Research Facility, better known as the Body Farm. Under the pen name Jefferson Bass, in collaborating with forensic legend Dr. Bill Bass, Jon has written 10 crime novels in the New York Times bestselling Body Farm series. Hes also written two true-crime novels about Basss career and cases.



Review for Jon Jeffersons Wave of Terror:

Jeffersons Wave of Terror takes the terrorist novel to the next level. The book interweaves the narratives of astronomer Megan OMalley, the one to discover the explosive seismic shifts along a geologic fault line that could unleash an apocalyptic disaster, and FBI Special Agent Chip Dawtry, whos determined to prevent the next terrorist attack on the United States. A 150-foot wall of water is ready to wipe out the US Eastern Seaboard, and it is up to this unlikely pair to to stop the terror from ensuing.



Jefferson has crafted a compelling, action-packed spy thriller thats part James Bond and part big-budget disaster movie. - Chapter 16







He was definitely hauling something.

Police in Windham, Maine, arrested a Portland man this week after he led them on a high-speed chase in a stolen U-Haul truck.

And it wasnt the first time.

The Cumberland County Sheriffs office reports that a deputy spotted William Wyman, 41, driving a U-Haul pickup at a high rate of speed on Sunday night and tried to pull him over. Wyman refused to comply and sped up instead. Another officer down the road then witnessed the vehicle run a red light and joined the pursuit.

Wyman soon crashed the truck and was apprehended. The Portland Press Herald reports that Wyman told police that he was living in the pickup, which hed robbed from the same U-Haul outlet that he previously stole a van from that he ran from the police in on Halloween. That pursuit also ended with a wreck and the injury of another driver.

Unfortunately, we deal with a lot of the same people on a routine basis, Capt. Scott Stewart told the Press Herald.

What makes this different is these incidents both involved a stolen U-Haul. What are the odds of two chases in four months?

Wyman was charged with motor vehicle theft, driving with a suspended license, eluding police and a number of other traffic violations. He was released from custody on Tuesday.

ARE YOU FOLLOWING FOX NEWS AUTOS ON FACEBOOK YET?If you can't beat 'em, hire 'em?

That appears to be the case at NBC News and MSNBC  which have signed reporter David Fahrenthold of The Washington Post as a paid political contributor. Fahrenthold made his first paid appearance on MSNBC on Tuesday, discussing the Trump familys alleged conflicts of interest.

The hire comes with a bit of irony, as Fahrenthold is the reporter who just before the 2016 vote exposed the notorious Access Hollywood tape of Donald Trump making lewd comments about women. The leak of the tape deeply embarrassed NBC Universal, which scrambled to explain why it sat for months on such an explosive piece of news, and why it had to be leaked to The Washington Post to go public. For his part, Fahrenthold, who also looked at Trump's charitable foundation, won the 2017 Pulitzer Prize.

Fahrentholds ties to NBC News management run deep. Hes good friends with NBC News President Noah Oppenheim. The two men worked together as editors on The Harvard Crimson newspaper at the storied Ivy League university.

NBC News did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

More than a year after the Access Hollywood tape was leaked, NBC News is still struggling to explain why it sat for so long on the tape, and  also on the topic of sexual harassment of women  why NBC News executives spiked Ronan Farrows expose on Hollywood sex pest Harvey Weinstein. And NBCs human resources department is looking at sex harassment within NBC News and who knew what about pervy star Matt Lauers behavior before his shock firing in November.

NBC News treatment of women was further called into question when the network fired beloved liberal contributor Joan Walsh, who was quickly scooped up by CNN. Fahrenthold may be moving into the gig previously occupied by Walsh, whose firing was denounced by various MSNBC stars, including Chris Hayes and Joy Anne Reid.Ryan Seacrest has finally commented on the newly-detailed allegations of sexual misconduct against him as one of his fellow ABC stars calls for him to step aside from his red carpet duties at Sunday's Academy Awards.

The host made his usual appearance on ABC's Live with Kelly and Ryan on Tuesday, but stayed silent on the shocking allegations of sexual misconduct by his former stylist, laid out in graphic detail in Variety on Monday. Instead, the star addressed the allegations later in the day by way of a public statement.

"Much has been said about the #MeToo and Times Up movement(s) and the importance of providing women and men with the opportunity to share their stories of workplace misconduct, in an effort to change our culture and the systemic inequalities that exist. I absolutely support this cause unequivocally and applaud all the brave souls who have come forward to share their stories," Seacrest said in a statement to Fox News.

"Sadly, last fall I became one of the accused, which I promptly revealed proactively to the network involved and to the public. And to be equally clear, those accusations were then investigated by an independent third-party over the course of a two-month process and involved dozens of interviews that included me, the accuser and countless others. Ultimately, my name was cleared," he continued. "I eagerly participated in the investigation in order to demonstrate my innocence because I know my truth, and I believe in due process.

"Yesterday, Variety published a salacious story that revealed the specific claims against me for the first time  even though an independent third-party investigator found insufficient evidence to support the claims. Much to my dismay, Variety didnt speak with me or bother to speak with other credible witnesses or even ask for any of the evidence that was obtained during the investigation when offered, all of which clearly challenged the veracity of the claims made against me.

"This person who has accused me of horrible things tried to buy her silence by asking for money on multiple occasions  I refused. I have worked extremely hard to achieve my success and I dont take my opportunities for granted. I dont want to accuse anyone of not telling the truth but in this case, I have no choice but to again deny the claims against me, remind people that I was recused of any wrongdoing, and put the matter to rest."

Until now, Seacrest has maintained a stony silence about the allegations since denying the claims in a Feb. 5 guest column in The Hollywood Reporter headlined, What Happened After I was Wrongly Accused of Harassment. ABC has not issued a public statement about the allegations, but one of its stars wasn't shy about speaking up.

Scandal actress Bellamy Young said the veteran host should step aside and let someone of equal talent, who is beyond reproach, handle E!s red carpet duties at Sundays Academy Awards.

It feels like the rules have changed, Young told a Variety reporter at an event on Monday night.

Bellamy later apologized to Seacrest in a statement to Fox News in which she lamented speaking before knowing all the facts of the situation.

I spoke up because I feel deeply that the secrecy of shame plays a significant part in what has kept this shift from happening before now, Young said. But never has there been a more urgent time to make sure our voices are used for truth, and I failed in that regard Monday night.

This is a major crisis. ABC should have ordered him to go on GMA Tuesday morning, live at 7:30, and deny the allegations vociferously  ABC insider

 I apologize to Ryan Seacrest. He has been exonerated from the allegations I was told about on the carpet, so my opinion is different now.

Yet across the board, ABC brass have stayed silent as its biggest star faces the worst crisis in his career. ABCs Good Morning America did not mention the scandal, while it was heavily covered on rival networks morning programs. The spotlight on Seacrest is unusually harsh, as next month the star will host the make-or-break reboot of American Idol which beleaguered ABC hopes will give it a desperately needed hit.

ABC declined comment when reached by Fox News.

Instead of discussing the sex allegations on Tuesday morning, Seacrest and his co-host, Kelly Ripa, opened Live with a lengthy conversation about getting their teeth whitened.

Seacrest said that the doctor who whitened his teeth looked like McDreamy, a co-promotional reference to a sexy doctor who used to be on ABCs Grey's Anatomy, before explaining that he has the pain threshold of a Care Bear because the procedure was excruciating.

Misconduct claims were first levied against Seacrest last November. NBCUniversals E!, where Seacrest was working at the time of the allegations, said it had investigated and found insufficient evidence to support the claims against Seacrest. But Mondays report described in horrifying detail what Variety said are allegations of years of unwanted sexual aggression by Seacrest against his longtime personal stylist.

Suzie Hardy told Variety she landed her dream job as Seacrests personal stylist at E! News in 2007, only to be fired in 2013 after making graphic complaints of harassment to Es Human Resources department. Hardy accused the ABC star of grinding his erect penis against her while he was only wearing underwear, groping her vagina and slapping her so hard on the bottom that she suffered for hours from a large, visible welt.

ABC does not appear to be looking into any allegations and did not respond when asked if an internal investigation would be launched. An ABC insider confirmed to Fox News that Seacrest will continue to host Live with Kelly and Ryan as scheduled and will host American Idol starting on March 11.

Media analyst Jeffrey McCall told Fox News that its odd that ABC is not investigating the allegations and has been so slow to respond.

Of course, ABC shouldn't speak comprehensively until they have a handle on the facts, but silence is not a great strategy either, since that could rhetorically signal there is a there there, McCall said. In this era when harassment allegations continue to pop up, all media organizations should be prepared to respond quickly with at least a statement of concern and promise to fully investigate.

Industry insiders said that ABCs silence is troubling and the network would benefit from getting out in front of the allegations. Mediaite columnist Joseph Wulfsohn said the silence cant last forever.

While they may be able to get away with it for now, they'll certainly be forced to break their silence if his accuser continues to publicly speak out or more accusers come forward, Wulfsohn told Fox News.

Seacrest, 43, will reportedly make somewhere north of $10 million for Idol alone and is believed to make another $10 million or more for Live.

It would also be wise for networks to more fully screen their talent before contracting them for big sums of money. Big media outlets can avoid these embarrassing situations by cleaning up their workplace cultures, but I am not sure they have the will or ability to do it, McCall said.

As previously reported, Hardy took her complaints directly to E!, which didnt move forward with any punishment against Seacrest after a third-party investigator deemed there wasn't enough evidence.

While people close to Seacrest think the E! investigation exonerated the ABC star, the allegations could still turn into a significant problem for the network. ABC has made a huge financial gamble on the revamped version of American Idol, including a controversial $25 million salary for Katy Perry to serve as a judge of the competition.

The allegations against Seacrest come at the height of the #MeToo movement that has swept the nation since Harvey Weinstein was outed as a sexual predator last year. Seacrests lawyer, Andrew Baum, told Fox News that Hardy initially asked for a payout to keep quiet, prompting Seacrest to announce the investigation publicly on his own behalf.

It is upsetting to us that Variety is electing to run a story about untrue allegations that we were made against my client, after they were told that the accuser threatened to make those false claims against him unless he paid her $15 million. At that time, the claimant threatened to issue a demonstrably false press statement unless she was paid," the statement reads. "Instead, my client proactively and publicly denied the claims and agreed to fully cooperate with E!s investigation about the matter."

Hardys lawyers, on the other hand, have said there's absolutely no evidence to support claims she demanded hush money.

The detailed allegations against Seacrest are the latest problem for ABC, though most of its problems have come from its troubled news division. ABC News faced recent criticism because The View host Joy Behar mocked Vice President Mike Pences Christian faith. The controversy has resulted in a variety of industry watchdogs suggesting it would be wise for ABC News to divorce itself from the show that typically features four outspoken liberals and a single conservative.

ABC has also dealt with claims that former ABC News star Mark Halperin was a serial sexual harasser while at the network. Halperins career fell apart last October when multiple women accused him of sexual misconduct when he was political director at ABC in the 2000s. He had since moved on to MSNBC but the cable news network cut ties with him when the allegations surfaced.Jeff Franklin, the creator of Full House and showrunner on the Netflix sequel series Fuller House, has been removed from his position amid claims of poor behavior on set and in the writers' room.

Variety first reported the news noting multiple people who worked on the Netflix series complained that he verbally abused staffers and made inappropriate comments in the writers room, including sexually explicit things about his own love life. He would also reportedly bring women he dated to the set and offer them small roles on the show. It should be noted that there have been no accusations of Franklin directly sexually harassing or physically assaulting any staff members, Variety reported.

Franklin's attorney, Stanton "Larry" Stein, told the Associated Press that neither he nor his client have been told about what had been said that was deemed offensive.

It seems unprofessionalism is to blame for his current situation. Fortunately for fans, "Fuller House" will not see a bump in production.

Fuller House will return for a fourth season, as planned. We hope to go into production in the next few months, a Netflix spokesperson told Fox News in a statement.

In addition, Warner Bros. TV has said it will not be renewing the famed TV producer and directors overall deal for the future.

We are not renewing Jeff Franklins production deal and he will no longer be working on Fuller House, WBTV told Fox News in a separate statement.

While there have been no direct allegations of sexual misconduct at this time, the removal of Franklin is part of a larger movement in show business that supports an intolerance of any unprofessional behavior. This new attitude has often manifested itself as the #MeToo or Times Up movements, which were sparked in October 2017 after the ousting of Hollywood movie mogul Harvey Weinstein. Since that time dozens of women have accused Wenstein of sexual misconduct, harassment and assault.

In addition to Full House and Fuller House, Franklins credits as a TV producer include the Stuart Little TV series, "Hangin with Mr. Cooper, Laverne & Shirley and many more.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.More details of Heather Locklear's arrest for domestic violence and assaulting police officers have emerged.

The New York Post reports that Locklear called a female officer a "ct" and kicked a male officer in the groin in front of her 20-year-old daughter, Ava Sambora.

Sargent Eric Buschow, of the Ventura County Sheriff's Office, told Fox News while he would not comment on the specific language Locklear used, he did describe her behavior as "extremely hostile."

"She was extremely hostile towards the deputies almost from the outset," Sgt. Buschow told us. "And she did kick and push and fight with deputies."

Locklear's lawyer had no comment when reached by Fox News.

PHOTOS: Worst celebrity mugshots

Locklear claimed Sunday she had an injury and was taken to a local hospital before she was booked at the police station. She posted $20,000 bail and is expected in court on March 13.

Police told Fox News the former "Melrose Place" star was arrested Sunday and charged with domestic violence, which is a felony, and three counts of battery against an officer.

Where are they now? Cast of 'Melrose Place'

Locklear's live-in boyfriend is reportedly her high school sweetheart Chris Heisser. The 56-year-old recently posted a picture of the pair on social media captioning it, "My favorite person on earth. 40 years later."

Heisser was arrested Monday morning after California Highway Patrol pulled him over for speeding and he blew a .19 and a .20 when given a field sobriety test, according to TMZ.

In 2011, Heisser, also 56, was convicted of theft and fraud and served two years in prison, The Post reports.

Locklear has also had her fair share of run-ins with the law.

The actress was arrested in 2008 on suspicion of driving under the influence but the charges were later dismissed. She was sentenced to three years of informal probation and ordered to pay a $700 fine and take a driver safety class.

In the same year, authorities were called to Locklear's home following a 911 call from her doctor, who feared she overdosed on prescription medication but the warning turned out to be a false alarm.

Three years later, according to TMZ, police went to the home of Locklear's then-boyfriend Jack Wagner in 2011 after a fight turned physical between the couple. A law enforcement source told TMZ at the time that Locklear "lost it on him and he retaliated."

Locklear's troubles continued in 2012 when her sister called 911 after fearing Locklear "was going to harm herself."

TMZ reported at the time that the actress had ingested a "dangerous mix" of a prescription drug, said to be Xanax, and alcohol.

Locklear has struggled with substance abuse in the past and most recently entered rehab last year.Actor Lee Pace reluctantly revealed that hes dated both men and women ahead of his upcoming role in the Broadway revival of Angels in America.

W Magazine caught up with the 38-year-old star, known for film roles in The Hobbit and Guardians of the Galaxy as well as TV projects such as Halt and Catch Fire and Pushing Daisies. In a discussion about his character in the Tony Kushner play, which takes place during the height of the AIDS epidemic, Pace discussed the importance of gay actors playing these somewhat iconic gay roles. However, he stopped short of labeling himself and seemed flustered and surprised by the question of his own sexuality.

Ive dated men. Ive dated women, he said. I dont know why anyone would care. Im an actor and I play roles. To be honest, I dont know what to say - I find your question intrusive.

While the star was skittish about revealing any more about his own sexuality, he was more than willing to talk about the important political role homosexuality plays in Angels in America.

Thats more than reason to do this again now, he said of bringing the play back to Broadway. Those dark politics of Roy Cohn; here we are with [Cohns protege] Donald Trump as president  thats the New York that Tonys writing about in 85. Gosh, you read the press about Donald Trump then, that was written at the time. Its the same city that Im wandering around right now, the same place, but its 30 years on now.

Pace will be joined by Andrew Garfield and Nathan Lane, who recently came off a run of Angels in America at the National Theater in London.In partnership with the National Park Service, Eastern National would like to invite the public to meet author Lee Elder on Sunday, March 11 from 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Mr Elder will be available inside the Chickamauga Battlefield Visitor Center to sign his 2018 publication, That Bloody Hill: Hilliards Legion at Chickamauga.



Elder has an ancestor who served in Hilliards Legion, and his 13 years of research brought forth his first publication, That Bloody Hill: Hilliards Legion at Chickamauga.

"Join us on Sunday March 11. Meet Author Lee Elder and get your signed copy of, That Bloody Hill: Hilliards Legion at Chickamauga. Your purchase supports the programs at Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park. Thank you for supporting our National Parks," organizers said.



Review of the book:

This study sheds new light on the fighting done by Hilliards Legion, a part of Archibald Gracies Brigade of Confederates, at the battle of Chickamauga. Elder shows conclusively that Gracies command was never forced from the top of Horseshoe Ridge and that some men from Hilliards Legion penetrated to the top of the Ridge. A reexamination of the battles conclusion highlights the Legions role in the final movement. Included in this study is a complete roster with biographical notes. (Information provided by McFarland & Company, Inc.)

About the author:

Lee Elder obtained his degree in journalism with a minor in history from San Diego State University. Elders background includes sportswriter, sportscaster, public relations representative in the auto racing industry and he held public office. Originally from Los Angeles, Elder and his wife now reside in Ohio. A hobby enjoyed by Elder is photography.



Actress Jennifer Lawrence let loose on The Late Show, owning drinks, kicking off her shoes and calling Harvey Weinstein an ass boil that just wont go away.

The Red Sparrow star took aim at the disgraced mogul after he named-dropped her and Meryl Streep as examples of women he hadnt harassed, while defending his sexual misconduct lawsuit. Weinstein has since apologized for using their names.

He is just that horrible a boil that does not go away, the 27-year-old star said Monday evening after having a shot of Cuban rum on Stephen Colberts CBS talk show.

You pop the ass boil. Hes just the worst. Just when is it going to end? she asked, exasperated.

In the middle of the night in London I had to come up with a statement, Lawrence said. And Im like, Its still not over? His awfulness is still happening?

Colbert said it was unfortunate that Weinstein dragged her into his pile of st. But Lawrence said she was used to it: Everybody does, but Im very lucky and happy! she laughed.

Lawrence also discussed her plan to take a year off to work with an anti-corruption organization as part of Represent Us, trying to get teens and kids involved in politics.

She said her decision to take time off had nothing to do with Weinstein.

This story originally appeared in the New York Post.The internet is lashing out at Khloe Kardashian for flying to Japan while eight months pregnant.

On Monday, the mom-to-be flew to Toyko with her sisters, Kim and Kourtney, for one last girls trip get away before the youngest Kardashian gives birth, according to Us Weekly.

But social media users weren't pleased that the girlfriend of Tristian Thompson decided to take a major trip over seas so close to having the baby.

One person wrote on Facebook, Why would you risk travel during a pregnancy?? Another said, Shes 8 months and flying that far? Not too smart.

But soon-to-be first time mom wasn't the only one who was mom shammed online.

Kim, who recently welcomed her third child, Chicago, via surrogate, was also called out for leaving her 6-week-old daughter behind while she travels.

A newborn and kids leaves the country for business!! one Facebook commenter started and then proceed to accuse Thompson's girlfriend of complaining about her pregnancy. And Khloe needs to quit whining about how her painful and difficult pregnancy. She looks fine in Japan!!

Kim also faced backlash on social media earlier in the week after she shared her covers for the March issue of Vogue India. The covers sparked negative comments among readers who felt that a South Asian talent should have been featured instead.

Khloe, the star of "Revenge Body," also recently made headlines after she said that she would eat her placenta following giving birth.

"I'm going to eat it in pills," Khloe explained to her sister Kim on Sunday's episode of "Keeping Up With the Kardashian."

A few days before Khloe embarked on her trip to Asia, the star's ex, Lamar Odom, gave his former girlfriend the stamp of approval for her role as a future mom and told Access Hollywood, I know if she can take care of a grown man for four years  the way she took care of me  yeah, I know she can take care of a baby.Prince Harry, Meghan Markle, Prince William and Princess Kate have attended their first royal event together.

On Wednesday, the royals appeared on the panel for the premiere Royal Foundation Forum in London, England, marking their first royal event together since Christmas, when the family joined the Queen in Sandringham, England, for her annual holiday celebration.

The inaugural event, which boasted the theme "Making a Difference Together," presented programs and initiatives organized by the Royal Foundation that help to unite people and "tackle society's biggest challenges, including mental health, the armed forces and wildlife," according to Kensington Palace.

"We feel a tremendous responsibility to play our part in affecting societal change for the better," Harry said in his speech at the foundation event.

But in addition to promoting the new foundation programs, the royal family took some time to talk about how they work together and share the same passions despite their different personalities.

"I think it's really good we've got four different personalities," Harry said of working with his fiancee, brother and sister-in-law. "We've all got that same passion to want to make a difference, but different opinions. I think those opinions work really, really well. Working as family does have its challenges, of course. The fact that everyone's laughing shows that everyone knows exactly what it's like."

Harry went on to add, But we are stuck together for the rest of our lives.

To which Markle replied, Togetherness at its finest.

During the panel, the royal family members seemed at ease with each other, Markle and Kate even sported similar looks featuring blue-toned ensembles with matching black pumps.

Both women spoke about their excitement in joining forces for the Royal Foundation program. Kate, who is pregnant with her third child, said that she looked forward to having an organization that could be passed on to her children. Markle then shared her excitement for the opportunity to reach young women and help them realize their self-worth.

"Women don't need to find a voice, they have a voice. They need to feel empowered to use it, and people need to be encouraged to listen," she said. "I think right now in the climate that we're seeing with so many campaigns, #MeToo and Time's Up, there is no better time than to really shine a light on women feeling empowered and people really helping to support them, men included in that. It makes such a tremendous difference."

When asked what he was most anticipating about his future work with the foundation, Prince Harry hinted toward the great toll of wedding planning and said, "...We're pretty tied up with planning a wedding at the moment, but we're really looking forward to working as a pair going forward, hoping to make as much of a difference where we can."ABC has received at least 30,000 calls since the Media Research Center began a campaign to hold View co-hosts accountable for spewing anti-Christian bigotry, but it doesnt look like the network plans to take action.

Co-hosts Sunny Hostin and Joy Behar mocked Vice President Pences Christian faith earlier this month on "The View," and MRC President Brent Bozell published an open letter to ABC News calling for an apology.

ABC had received 30,588 calls as of Wednesday morning, and angry viewers have also reached out to the chat show's advertisers, including Clorox, Gerber, Oreo and Home Advisor. The advertisers have received no fewer than 6,000 calls, according to the MRC.

The MRC, which says it's Americas leading media watchdog in documenting, exposing and neutralizing liberal media bias, posted contact information for 14 of the ABC News programs advertisers as well as the president of ABC.

I am sure the advertisers of The View will be just as appalled as I am about the anti-Christian remarks made on the show, Bozell wrote.

ABC News and Disney did not respond to separate requests for comment. The MRC told Fox News that it hasn't yet heard from ABC or any of the advertisers.

The controversy has resulted in a variety of industry watchdogs suggesting it would be wise for ABC News to divorce itself from the show, which in a typical broadcast typically features four outspoken liberals and a single conservative.

Back on Feb. 13, the panel criticized Pence's faith when Hostin said, I dont know that I want my vice president, um  speaking in tongues and having Jesus speak to him.

Co-host Joy Behar chimed in, adding that hearing from Jesus is actually called mental illness. Pence himself didnt appreciate the comments and slammed ABC News.

To have ABC maintain a broadcast forum that compared Christianity to mental illness is just wrong, Pence said during an appearance on C-SPAN following the controversial remarks. It is simply wrong for ABC to have a television program that expresses that kind of religious intolerance.

The MRC said the comments by Behar and Hostin took the liberal medias pronounced bias against Christianity to the next level.

And since that broadcast aired, "The View hasnt toned down its rhetoric. On Monday, Behar went after CPAC and claimed that the conservative conference's participants have a penchant for Nazis.Legendary comic book writer Stan Lee was reportedly robbed of $1.4 million and revealed he's currently ill with pneumonia.

TMZ reported detectives arrived at Lees Hollywood Hills home Friday to discuss the reported robbery.

Lee has discovered money missing from his account recently. In December, Lee filed a police report after $350,000 apparently disappeared from his bank account. The next month, Lee claimed $850,000 was stolen from him by someone who was trying to buy a condo.

Lee, 95, revealed Wednesday he is battling pneumonia. TMZ reported the former Marvel Comics editor-in-chief had to cancel upcoming events due to the illness.

STAN LEE, 95, FEELING GREAT AFTER RETURN FROM LA HOSPITAL

I want you all to know Im thinking of you, of course I always think of the fans, and I hope youre all doing well, and I miss you all," Lee said. I miss your enthusiasm, I miss all your notes, all your photos and emails and I want you to know that I still love you all.

Last month, Lee was rushed to the hospital after having shortness of breath and an irregular heartbeat.

The Marvel magnate recently made headlines after being accused of sexual harassment by nurses who care of him at his home.

According to a January report by the Daily Mail, nurses alleged Lee repeatedly groped and harassed them, asked for oral sex while showering and would walk around naked.

DEMI LOVATO BRINGS FLORIDA SCHOOL SHOOTING SURVIVORS ONSTAGE AT SAN DIEGO CONCERT

Lee denied the allegations, according to a statement from his rep published by the Daily Mail, and said he "intends to fight to protect his stellar good name and impeccable character."

Lee, a U.S. Army veteran, "is celebrated as the creative tour de force behind Marvel's Silver Age," according to Marvel's website, and is "the co-creator of beloved characters like Spider-Man, the Fantastic Four, Hulk, Thor and the X-Men."

Fox News Nicole Darrah contributed to this report.Uma Thurman said she wants justice and hopes Harvey Weinstein ends up in court for his alleged crimes against the actress and other women.

Appearing on Late Night with Seth Meyers Monday, Thurman addressed the allegations she made against the disgraced movie mogul in an interview with The New York Times.

Well, youve got to be a citizen and you cant leave people alone holding the bag of truth by themselves, Thurman said after host Seth Meyers applauded her bravery for speaking out.

There is no one I wish to get due process more than him, she added.

UMA THURMAN BREAKS SILENCE ON HARVEY WEINSTEIN, HER STRAINED RELATIONSHIP WITH QUENTIN TARANTINO

Thurman said in the report that Weinstein attacked her at a London hotel suite after they had a strange encounter in a steam room in Paris.

It was such a bat to the head. He pushed me down, the 47-year-old actress said. He tried to shove himself on me. He tried to expose himself. He did all kinds of unpleasant things. But he didnt actually put his back into it and force me.

HARVEY WEINSTEIN MAY TAKE LEGAL ACTION AFTER UMA THURMAN'S SEXUAL ASSAULT CLAIMS, ATTORNEY SAYS

Thurman, who collaborated with the producer on seven movies, also said Weinstein threatened to ruin her career over the incident.

A representative for Weinstein said in a previous statement to People he never threatened her career but admitted he misread her signals.

Mr. Weinstein acknowledges making a pass at Ms. Thurman in England after misreading her signals in Paris, the statement read. He immediately apologized.

The rep also denied Weinstein physically assaulted Thurman and said the claims were untrue.

There was no physical contact during Mr. Weinstein's awkward pass and Mr. Weinstein is saddened and puzzled as to 'why' Ms. Thurman, someone he considers a colleague and a friend, waited 25 years to make these allegations public, noting that he and Ms. Thurman have shared a very close and mutually beneficial working relationship where they have made several very successful film projects together, the statement read.

Thurman is one of more than 60 women who have accused Weinstein of sexual misconduct.

Allegations against the movie producer first surfaced in a New York Times article in October 2017. In the article, several women said Weinstein sexually harassed and assaulted them throughout the famed producers decades-long career.Madeline LEngles science fantasy novel A Wrinkle in Time was published in 1962, but those closest to the upcoming film adaptation say the story about a battle against a looming darkness is more relevant now than ever.

Oprah, one of the films stars, director Ava DuVernay and the authors granddaughter Charlotte Jones Voiklis all said the current political climate sheds new light on the decades-old childrens book.

Oprah Winfrey, at the premiere of the film in Los Angeles Monday, said, This movie wouldve been appropriate in 1962 but couldnt have gotten made, but it is even more appropriate now during this moment in time.

Director Ava DuVernay, who is known for her twitter battles with President Trump, is at the helm of the highly anticipated film.

Oprah noted, The fact that Ava DuVernay is the one that pulls it all together is not lost on the cosmos.

The director, who recently spoke to a small group at the W hotel in Hollywood for the "What She Said" series, said making the film saved her in many ways from stewing and tweeting mean things to the president.

Instead she got to channel that into "designing a flower" or some otherworldly visual for the film.

"This is a happy movie in a dark time, which is particularly important for young kids, especially young regular girls. They need to know that they can be recognized for just being themselves, they don't have to be Jedis or superheroes," she said, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

She said she hopes the film will be something cool for kids to see.

The authors granddaughter Voiklis is enthusiastic about seeing the book brought to life on the big screen today. She told Fox News the story relates well to the current climate in the U.S., in which many people find themselves on opposing sides of issues.

She said her grandmother intentionally left the darkness, called The Black Thing, that plagues the main characters of the book open to interpretation.

[LEngle] never defined the darkness, because that was different for everyone, but we all have the capacity to fight it. Part of that fight is resistance to polarized thinking and making assumptions about people.

In the iconic story, protagonist Meg Murry travels to the planet Camazotz in search of her father. Storm Reid plays Meg in the upcoming film.

Camazotz is a planet that has succumbed to darkness, Voiklis explained. It is one manifestation of evil: a conformist, bureaucratic, authoritarian state. Many people see it as an allegory for communism.

My grandmother was very clear that it was not, that democracies also could become dark through a lust for security."

LEngles book was turned down 26 times. The author, who died in 2007, said in the past she believed the female protagonist and radical take on evil was part of the reason it was a hard sell.

DuVernay can relate in her own way. The director said shes struggled as a female director in a male-dominated industry.

"Every 10 years or so there is this surge of minority and women directors," she mused at the W hotel event.

With "A Wrinkle in Time," DuVernay has become the first African-American woman to direct a live-action film with a budget of more than $100 million.

Reese Witherspoon, Chris Pine, Mindy Kaling, Gugu Mbatha-Raw and, Zach Galifianakis Bellamy Young all star in the film alongside Oprah.

A Wrinkle in Time hits theaters March 9.A beach town in California has kicked its plastic habit by banning straws and cutlery made from the substance.

The Malibu City Council voted in support of the ban Monday over concerns about the environment and dirtying its famous, picturesque beaches.

STARBUCKS TO INSTITUTE A PAPER CUP 'TAX' IN THE UK

Its the right thing to do, City Councilwoman Laura Rosenthal said Tuesday, the Washington Post reported. If people could see all the plastics that we find on a daily basis, I think everyone would be supportive of this ban.

The bill, which takes effect June 1, adds to material bans that are already in place in Malibu, such as plastic bags and foam containers. These moves come as part of the towns strategy to eliminate all single-use plastic items in Malibu, according to The Washington Post.

Ocean, beaches and natural surroundings are a central part of life in Malibu, Mayor Rick Mullen said in a news release in support of the ban.

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Those who live and visit Malibu and its 21-miles of coastline will still be able to eat and drink, just with utensils made out of natural materials. Malibu businesses will now have to offer items made from paper, wood or bamboo.

The plastic ban comes at a time when several nationwide businesses have announced moving toward more eco-friendly and sustainable options.A mom from England is claiming to have found a live rat trapped inside a sealed packaged of plums she purchased from grocery chain, Aldi.

Salma Riaz said she and her husband, Kamran, purchased the fruit at the store without noticing the rat curled up at the bottom of the unopened container. Kamran said he chose the fruit from the back of the shelf because he thought they would be freshest.

The 32-year-old mother of two told SWNS that seven hours later, she heard scratching coming from their fruit stand.

OH, RATS! FLIGHT GETS CANCELED AFTER RAT IS SEEN BOARDING THE PLANE

"I went into the kitchen in the middle of the night and I could hear a rummaging noise, she said. "I couldnt see anything but I knew it was coming from the area where the fruit bowl is so I shouted my husband. He came down and couldnt see anything either and it was only when he was stood looking in the direction of the fruit bowl that he saw the rat's eyes.

As soon as we discovered it, I said, 'did the bag not seem heavier or was it not moving inside'? she added.

The stay-at-home mom said she was shaken up by the creepy discovery.

"The fact it was still alive is very worrying to me and confusing. I just couldn't understand how it could still be alive trapped how it was, she said. All sorts of things were going through my mind at the time like what would have happened if my daughter had gone for fruit in the morning and found it, she would have been petrified."

The pair returned the fruit, with the rat, to the Aldi supermarket the next day and spoke with the manager, who seemed shocked by the rodent, SWNS reports.

In emails from Aldi to Salma, the grocery store said the fruits are all hand-picked in Italy before being placed into the netting machine and then wrapped, weighed and boxed by hand. The package is then stored at minus temperatures during the three-day journey to the UK.

Salma reached out to the Rochdale Council to investigate how the rat was able to get into the package in the first place.

The council disclosed that pet control visited the store and found no issue or violation, and noted that the store received no similar complaints, SWNS reported.

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Though the rat was dealt with quickly, Salma said the incident left her so bothered she refused to go into the kitchen for three days.

Even though I knew the rat had been removed, psychologically it made me uneasy, I felt itchy and was shook, she said.

Salma said she read about a similar instance from someone who claims to have discovered half a rat inside a bag of frozen vegetables from an Aldi in Cornwall.

When I read what had happened, I realized this is obviously not a one-off situation like I was led to believe, she said, believing the rat in her package froze during transportation before waking up in her kitchen. "There is a rodent problem somewhere in the system despite pest control not finding anything.An Australian businessman and big game hunter has resigned from his role as vice president of a private club after facing backlash for posing with the bodies of animals he shot on safari.

The controversial photos and videos surfaced online, showing Nick Haridemos, the former exec of Hellenic Club, with several of his kills, including a bull elephant and a baboon he dressed up in sunglasses and hat.

The images were reportedly taken sometime between 2010 and 2016 on a number of trips to Africa and were posted to a public Photobucket account by the user nickha1. They were also shared on Twitter and in an online forum where hunters report their kills, according to the Canberra Times.

MANY DISNEYLAND EMPLOYEES STRUGGLE TO PAY LIVING EXPENSES, FACE HOMELESSNESS, ACCORDING TO SURVEY

Alongside a video of the baboon shared on Photobucket, the user wrote "Absolutely funny as hell!"referencing the dead animal posed behind the wheel of a car.

He also commented on an image of Haridemos holding an elephant ivory, noting that Namibia "is truly the place to hunt the biggest ivory in Africa, especially with Botswana now closed," the Times reported.

Haridemos did not deny posting the material and his lawyer told the Times that all hunting trips were legal. "This is a regulated activity, which is undertaken in accordance with licenses and quotas issued by the relevant country, and is conducted in a manner that does not pose a threat to any endangered species," the lawyer stated.

The photos sparked major backlash online, especially among animal rights activists, who called the photos appalling.

"With boundless opportunities for amusement, it speaks volumes that such people get a thrill from gunning down, and turning into objects of ridicule, other individuals who ask for nothing out of life but the chance to live it," a spokeswoman for animal rights group PETA Australia told the Times.

Carolyn Drew, spokeswoman for Animal Liberation ACT, told the Times she believes "hunters get a kick out of both the power they feel when killing an animal and then through posing or showing off to the hunting community. They get a thrill," she said.

Drew also noted that hunting enables the poaching trade. According to the World Wildlife Fund, despite a ban on the international trade of ivory, African elephants are still being poached in large numbers. Tens of thousands of elephants are being killed every year for their ivory tusks.

People on social media began calling for a boycott of the Hellenic Club, calling for Haridemos to be removed from the Board of Directors.

On Wednesday, the club posted a statement to Facebook saying Haridemos had resigned.

The Hellenic Club of Canberra advises that Director and Vice-President Nick Haridemos has resigned from the Hellenic Club Board. Mr. Haridemos resignation takes effect immediately.

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While many were happy to see Haridemos go, a few others commented that despite peoples personal feelings over his choice of recreational activities, Haridemos shouldnt be fired for participating in the legal activities.

I dont like or agree with what he does, in fact, it disgusts me. Should your work tenure be compromised by what you do legally, and in your own time, because other people dont like it? I dont think so, one person wrote.In partnership with the National Park Service, Eastern National invites the public to meet author John R. Scales on Saturday, March 10 from 10 a.m.-3 p.m. Mr. Scales will be available inside the Chickamauga Battlefield Visitor Center to sign his recently released publication, The Battles and Campaigns of Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest, 1861-1865.

"Join us on Saturday, March 10. Meet Author John R. Scales and get your signed copy of The Battles and Campaigns of Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest, 1861-1865. Your purchase supports the programs at Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park. Thank you for supporting our National Parks," organizers said.



Review of the book:

The Battles and Campaigns of Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest, 1861-1865: Nathan Bedford Forrest was one of the most interesting and controversial personalities of the Civil War. He is either hailed as a hero because of his abilities as a cavalryman or hated because of his association with the Ku Klux Klan.



Retired Special Forces Brigadier General John R. Scales examines Forrests wartime activities and how his actions affected the war in the Western Theater. Scales extensive study and firsthand sources, including official documents and reports from the Official Records, provides readers with details for each of Forrests campaigns. Included in this work are more than 100 maps and terrain information. Scales relies on his own military background to help evaluate and explain how and why Forrest grew in command ability and potential as a result of his experiences -- or didnt. (Information provided by Savas Beatie, LLC)



About the author:

John R. Scales retired from Special Forces as a brigadier general. He served more than 30 years which included tours in Vietnam and Afghanistan. Scales has a Ph.D. in Engineering and worked in this field after retiring from the military. Scales previously served as president of the Tennessee Valley Civil War Roundtable and continues to lead tours in Alabama, Tennessee and Georgia.





A school in Britain is defending itself after being mocked for banning students from touching snow on school grounds.

Ges Smith of the Jo Richardson Community School in Dagenham, England, claims the ban is a duty of care issue that protects the school from potential lawsuits, the Telegraph reported.

It only takes one student, one piece of grit, one stone in a snowball in an eye, with an injury and we change our view, Smith said on Good Morning Britain.

The rules are dont touch the snow. If you dont touch the snow youre not going to throw it, he added.

SCHOOL DISTRICT APOLOGIZES AFTER TEACHER BANS MAGA SHIRTS

The headmaster also argued that playing in the snow leaves childrens clothes wet and unfit for school.

As snow has been pelting the country because of the Beast from the East weather system, some schools have been banning snowball fights. However, Jo Richardson Community School is the only one to ban touching snow altogether, according to the Telegraph.

The school has been attacked on social media, and called a snowflake for its controversial decision.

I think the snowflake society should build separate schools for their children, and let the rest of society's children get on with doing, what children have been doing, since the beginning of time. Being children!

Another person felt similarly and tweeted, For crying out loud let em have some fun before they have to start paying taxes.

Even British talk show host Piers Morgan addressed the controversy saying the school would produce children unprepared for normal life if they were forced to follow these rules, the Telegraph reported.

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Though there were some who supported the schools decision.

One person tweeted, Yes its sad to ban snow ball throwing and handling in schools but we now live in an insurance claim society. There are many parents out there ready to make a claim. Children can always play in the snow outside school hours! #GMB

Another wrote, No of course we shouldnt ban snow fun but I totally understand what this guy is saying. Hes the one responsible for the children and he has a duty of care whilst they are in the school grounds. If a child is injured some parents would see that as a green light to make a claim.The Golden State may become the first to formally ban the testing of cosmetic products on animals.

A bill introduced by Sen. Cathleen Galigiana (D-Stockton), called the California Cruelty-Free Cosmetics Act, would make it illegal for any cosmetic manufacturer to "knowingly import or sell any cosmetic, including personal hygiene products such as deodorant, shampoo or conditioner in California, if the final product or any component of the product was tested on animals after Jan. 1, 2020.

The bill, formally known as SB 1249, aims to slam violators with a fine up to $500 for their first offense, and up to $1,000 for each subsequent violation.

'CINDERELLA WEIGHT IS A DANGEROUS VIRAL DIET GOAL, EXPERTS WARN

Backed by cosmetics company LUSH and Cruelty Free International, SB 1249 is sponsored by Social Compassion in Legislation and the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, according to a news release.

New Beauty further notes that California first made strides in the cruelty-free movement back in 2000, when it enacted policy to help prohibit product testing on animals.

Banning animal-tested cosmetics in California will encourage manufacturers to clean up their act and stop selling animal-tested products across the United States, said Kristie Sullivan, M.P.H., vice president of research policy for the Physicians Committee. Passage of the California Cruelty-Free Cosmetics Act would be a win for human and animal lives.

PINK EYESHADOW: HOW TO ROCK THE TREND

"The California Cruelty-Free Cosmetics Act would save thousands of animals lives each year while making cosmetics safer for humans. This policy is tried and true as the European Union implemented a similar law over five years ago and the sky didnt fall, said Judie Mancuso, founder and president of Social Compassion in Legislation.

Animals have been saved while companies have flourished and grown without cruelty as part of their business model."

According to Allure, cosmetics are largely and surprisingly unregulated in the U.S. There's currently no official agency in charge of ensuring beauty products are safe to use and ethically produced (though the Personal Care Products Safety Act currently in Congress is aiming to change that).

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Supporters of the bill say its passage could fast-track cruelty-free policies as the universal standard for all beauty products produced in America.NEW You can now listen to Fox News articles!

The life and legacy of the Rev. Billy Graham is being feted and lauded this week, and rightly so. Before being laid to rest on Friday in a simple pine plywood coffin made by inmates at the Louisiana State Penitentiary, the 99-year-old renowned evangelist is lying in repose in the Rotunda of the U.S. Capitol, an honor accorded to only 32 other people since 1852.

President Trump and first lady Melania Trump, most members of Congress and senior Trump administration officials all gathered to pay tribute to Graham in the Rotunda Wednesday morning.

The farm boy turned prolific preacher was an American icon, the nations beloved pastor through sunshine and storm. To many, he was the Protestant Pope. Even those who may have doubted what Graham believed never doubted the conviction and sincerity with which he communicated the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Yet in the midst of memorializing the North Carolinians remarkable ministry, we would be wise to also acknowledge the mistakes that he admitted making throughout his 80-plus years of evangelistic outreach.

Why?

It takes a big person to reflect openly and candidly on ones regrets, to not try and rationalize errors or minimize lapses in judgement. Yet thats another characteristic that made Billy Graham so great. He wasnt afraid to discuss his own imperfections and fallibility.

The preachers motivations werent masochistic in nature. They were ministerial. He proclaimed Gods truth, but he was Gods messenger  not a modern-day messiah. He admitted making mistakes because maybe in doing so, we might learn from him  and them  and not make the same ones all over again.

And so in death, like in life, Billy Grahams vulnerability can teach, touch and transform our equally imperfect and sinful lives.

At the top of the Grahams regrets was how he inadvertently prioritized his ministry over his family.

The long and storied life of Graham is a beautiful reminder that true greatness is found in humility and that every regret we may carry is ultimately redeemable, if not in this life then in the next.

This is a difficult subject for me to write about, Graham reflected in his memoir, penned when he was 78. But over the years, the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association and the Team became my second family without my realizing it. Ruth (his wife) says those of us who were off traveling missed the best part of our lives  enjoying the children as they grew. She is probably right. I was too busy preaching all over the world.

Graham once told a haunting story of driving up to his house after a lengthy road trip and seeing a child playing in the grass. He silently thought how cute she was and wondered to whom she belonged  only to soon realize that he had been gone for so many months that he no longer recognized his own daughter.

I came through those years much the poorer psychologically and emotionally, he reflected. I missed so much by not being home to see the children grow and develop.

He also had political regrets.

Reflecting on his friendships with several of Americas presidents, Graham acknowledged the nearly insatiable pull of partisan politics. Although he didnt regret ministering to leaders of both political parties, he expressed remorse for allowing himself to be drawn too close to President Richard Nixon, who was later caught up in the Watergate scandal and resigned.

Looking back I know I sometimes crossed the line, and I wouldnt do that now, Graham said in 2011.

And then there was race.

Although widely credited for his commitment to integrating the largely segregated Christian church in the South in the 1960s, Graham told The Associated Press in 2005 that he regretted not participating in civil rights marches with the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.

I think I made a mistake when I didnt go to Selma, an Alabama city where a major civil right protest took place in 1965, Graham said. I would like to have done more.

Billy Graham, who now joins the pantheon of preachers who brought the Good News of Jesus Christ to a hurting world, did more than enough over this last century. In the end, he was faithful but he was also fallible. He reached after a righteous life but was repentant when he fell short.

Graham could live with his regrets, not because they were minor, but because he was liberated by the belief that all of his confessed mistakes were forgiven by the Lord he so faithfully served.

The long and storied life of Graham is a beautiful reminder that true greatness is found in humility and that every regret we may carry is ultimately redeemable, if not in this life then in the next.NEW You can now listen to Fox News articles!

It may be hard to believe -- but there really are National Rifle Association members who reside in New York City. I happen to be one of them.

And that's a mighty big problem for Democrats like Andrew Gounardes, a state senate candidate and an attorney representing the Brooklyn Borough president.

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"This is unacceptable! We need to say loud & clear that the NRA is not welcome in Brooklyn," Gounardes wrote on Twitter.

Gounardes was among a number of Democrat lawmakers who declared war on Gargiulo's, a 100-year-old Italian restaurant in Coney Island that is hosting an upcoming NRA event.

The Brooklyn Friends of the NRA are raising money by holding an auction and raffle -- and the big prizes are rifles and handguns.

The gun raffle triggered microaggressions among many Democrat lawmakers including Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y.

"There is no room in Coney Island or our city for events like this," he wrote in a letter to the restaurant's owner. "We urge Gargiulo's to expeditiously cancel this event."

Public Advocate Letita James and Comptroller Scott Stringer were among those signing the congressman's letter.

"Bringing an event like this to Coney Island is an affront to all of the hard work that our community has done to address gun violence in our neighborhood," they wrote. "We know that Gargiulos has always had the best interests of the Coney Island community at heart, which is why it is so disappointing that they are hosting the NRA, an organization that actively lobbies for concealed carry reciprocity, something that NYPD Commissioner ONeill has rightfully called insanity. There is no room in Coney Island or our city for events like this."

Other New York City Democrats are urging the anti-gun crowd to call the restaurant and bully the owners until they cancel the NRA's reservation.

"There is no room in Coney Island or our city for events like this," City Councilman Matt Treyger wrote on Twitter -- calling for the restaurant to "expeditiously cancel" the gathering.

Someone should tell those New York City Democrats that it's really none of their business what a law-abiding business owner does inside his establishment. Nor is it their concern who that business owner associates with.

But what really gets me is the idea that law-abiding gun owners like NRA members are not welcome to live in or spend their hard-earned money in Brooklyn.

Well, I've got news for all those gun-hating Democrats -- this gun-toting, Bible-clinging NRA member is not going anywhere. NRA members do not abide bullies  especially ones that want to take away our God-given rights.

And I hope the good and decent owner of that Italian restaurant politely tells those triggered Democrats where to stuff their meatballs.NEW You can now listen to Fox News articles!

Its official: President Trump is running for re-election. He announced Tuesday that he has appointed Brad Parscale as his campaign manager and that planning for the 2020 race is underway.

Few are surprised, since the president filed required paperwork to organize his campaign committee on Inauguration Day last year. That sounds not only dutiful, but eager.

Someday, Trump watchers are going to figure out what makes this man tick. Heres a little secret: President Trump likes to win. Bowing out after only one term would look like losing. He wont do it.

But there are some who apparently didnt see it coming. Michael Wolff, who got a lot of notice for his gossipy and error-laden book Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House, has suggested the president probably wouldnt run again.

According to Wolff, who pretends to have an inside track, President Trump doesnt like his job. Wolff told an Australian Broadcasting Service interviewer earlier this year: In the end, I think that the real truth is he does not want to be the president  the president of the United States.

Turns out Wolffs track is a lot like Amtraks  unreliable.

Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., was another doubter. He hinted last fall that President Trump might not run again, though he covered his tracks by pledging to support him if he did.

Former New Jersey Republican Gov. Chris Christie also wondered about the presidents intentions, saying on Today on NBC: "If he runs again I would support him, yes, but I'm not so sure what will happen.

Christie added: Four years is a long time, and especially for someone who has not spent a lifetime in politics, so I think those years affect him differently. So I'm sure the president will make whatever decision is best for him and his family and the country.

Both Christie and Paul made those remarks even as President Trump was busy raising more than $10 million for his re-election war chest. That seems like proof of intent, doesnt it?

Of course, not everybody wants the president to run again; thats a different story. Former presidential primary candidates Paul and Christie are among the ever-hopeful, waiting for the chance to again race for the golden ring, positive they could do better, though they failed the last time round. Paul even hinted that there might be, you know, a GOP primary in 2020, who could tell?

Some are openly exploring such a challenge. Politico recently reported that Ohio Republican Gov. John Kasich is actively gearing up for a 2020 run, considering both a challenge to President Trump as well as a possible third-party run as an independent.

Some of Kasichs team, according to Politico, consider the very real, maybe even likely, possibility that Trump doesnt run again  by choice or not. Kasich is apparently waiting in the wings, ready to respond if I felt my country called me and it was practical." Its unclear which of those possibilities is less likely.

Last summer, The New Yorker suggested that Vice President Mike Pence and Sen. Ben Sasse, R-Neb., and Tom Cotton, R-Ark., were undertaking shadow campaigns, just in case.

And then there are Democrats ready to run in 2020. They might also be hoping that President Trump disappears; who wants to be called Pocahontas for the next couple of years?

There are a slew of contenders on the other side of the aisle; they come in all shapes and sizes. But, they have this in common: they simply loathe Donald Trump.

The Democratic contenders are proud of that loathing and consider it their most powerful campaign message. For many its their only campaign message, a deficiency that worries even Senate Minority Leader and party elder Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y. Schumer recently cautioned his colleagues that "you cannot just run against Donald Trump" in November's midterm elections.

Democrats have given little honest consideration of how Donald Trump was elected, why long-time Democrats gravitated to his side, and how their incessant identity politics and opposition to the nations security continues to alienate a large segment of the population. But they are all positive they can beat the president, saying his approval ratings are terrible.

However, a funny thing is happening. President Trumps approval ratings appear to have stabilized, at about 40 percent. In fact, the Rasmussen daily presidential tracking poll (which surveys likely voters) that was released Wednesday puts the presidents approval rating at 49 percent. At the same point in President Obamas presidency his approval rating stood at 43 percent.

Polls move up and down, and November 2020 is a good way off, but the current polling in no way rules out President Trump being re-elected.

This is especially true considering how the public answers questions about specific issues. Reuters reports that when asked Which party has the better plan for Jobs and employment, 35 percent give the nod to the GOP, compared to 29 percent for Democrats.

Asked about handling the deficit, Republicans are (marginally) favored, as they are when asked which party will better support small businesses. Democrats lead only on education policy, which is not the countrys top concern, though perhaps it should be.

In other words, President Trump has not torched the Republican brand.

Since the first day of Trumps improbable quest to occupy the Oval Office, people have underestimated him.

First, many said he wasnt serious about running. Then they suggested he didnt really want to win. (This, even as he appeared at eight rallies in five different states on the day before the election. Id hate to see what really trying looks like.)

Now there are those who say he doesnt want to be reelected.

Someday, Trump watchers are going to figure out what makes this man tick. Heres a little secret: President Trump likes to win. Bowing out after only one term would look like losing. He wont do it.NEW You can now listen to Fox News articles!

It is said that in war, truth is the first casualty. Something similar happens on our political battlegrounds as well, where truth, if it survives, is usually a heavy underdog.

So it was in the aftermath of the Florida high-school slaughter, where gun-control advocates mounted their hobby horses before the bodies were collected. They were sure that, this time, they would crush the NRA bogeyman and get what they wanted.

Leave aside that what many activists wanted  confiscation of tens of millions of existing, lawful guns  is practically and legally impossible. They nonetheless dominated early media coverage because they have honed their good-vs.-evil narrative and because most of the media live in gun controls amen corner.

Yet an odd thing happened on the way to their triumph. After a late start, a greater truth of the Florida slaughter is now dominating the discussion and setting the agenda.

This greater truth is that there were many chances to stop gunman Nikolas Cruz long before he opened fire. Equally important, the claim from some in Florida law enforcement that they are legally handcuffed until someone commits an act of violence turns out to be false.

These emerging facts are wreaking havoc with the initial simplistic narratives and are changing how Americans view the shooting and what measures they think would be more successful in preventing other massacres. In effect, the Florida story is changing before our eyes.

One result is that an early star of the gun-control faction, Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel, is morphing into a villain. His departments repeated failure to intervene in the violently downward spiral of the gunman was bad enough, but the refusal of his deputies to enter the school until the shooting stopped is a stain that Israels TV-ready bravado can never remove. There will be little lamenting when he loses his job.

As the nation has learned, Cruz was a well-known danger to neighbors, school officials, social workers and law enforcement. He threatened to kill classmates  in writing  and was expelled.

Yet even as his behavior grew more menacing and Broward cops visited his house dozens of times, officers believed there was nothing they could do. But as The Miami Herald detailed, they were wrong.

It cites former prosecutors who say Cruzs threats to his classmates could be classified as aggravated cyberstalking, a felony. There is also a state law against making written threats to kill.

Moreover, being charged with aggravated cyberstalking could have cost Cruz the gun he used in the shooting. The Herald says that posting bond in Broward County on a felony charge would have required him to surrender all guns.

The FBI missed its chances to stop Cruz, too. Last September, he wrote, Im going to be a professional school shooter on a YouTube channel, and it was reported to the FBI, which dropped the ball instead of treating the comment as a threat of terrorism, a felony.

Then in January, an unidentified woman warned the FBI that Cruz would get into a school and just shoot the place up, The Wall Street Journal reported.

I know hes  hes going to explode, the caller said, according to a transcript the Journal saw.

Again the agency did nothing, which prompted Director Christopher Wray to apologize to grieving families and promise an investigation.

The changing media coverage is changing public views. A Rasmussen survey released Tuesday reports that 54 percent of respondents believe the failure of government to respond to warnings about Cruz is more to blame for the murders than inadequate gun control, while just 33 percent view it the other way around.

Thankfully, New York already has exhibited a growing awareness of the danger. Last Friday, the NYPD arrested an employee from the Bryant Park skating rink who made social-media threats against the Midtown spot, The Post reports.

Emmanuel Nival, 17, boasted of an attack coming on March 4 on Instagram, and his boss alerted cops, who say the teen confessed to a charge of aggravated harassment.

Albany is getting in on the action, too, with supporters pushing a red flag law. It would allow police and family members to get an extreme-risk protection order in court against someone seen as a danger to others or themselves.

As state Attorney General Eric Schneiderman said in urging passage, We have an opportunity to ensure that, when the next potential Nikolas Cruz exhibits clear red flags, that individual can be disarmed before another tragedy.

Five states already have similar laws, and as many as 20 others are considering them. In general, the laws contain an appeals process for the targeted individual.

This strikes me as the right direction for the country. While some national gun-control measures are appealing, such as raising the legal age to 21 for certain guns, the most direct path to public safety is for local officials to take action against individuals who threaten violence and pose an immediate danger.

Had that happened in Florida, Nikolas Cruz would not have had a gun of any kind, and his 17 victims would be alive.

To continue reading Michael Goodwin's column from the New York Post, click here.NEW You can now listen to Fox News articles!

WASHINGTON -- A few weeks before the school shooting in Parkland, Fla., Democratic Rep. Henry Cuellar (Tex.) invited a special guest to attend the State of the Union address: Stephen Willeford, the hero who just months earlier had stopped a mass shooter at the First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs, Tex.

An ordinary citizen who heard the shots from his home across the street, Willeford grabbed his weapon, ran to the scene barefoot (knowing every second he delayed could mean another life lost) and exchanged fire with the gunman, wounding him in the leg and torso. When the killer jumped into his vehicle to escape, Willeford stopped a passing vehicle and followed in hot pursuit until the shooter crashed his car and shot himself in the head.

Willeford says he's not a hero. "I'm no brave man. I was terrified," he said after the shooting. But, he added, "I was there when nobody else was." Thank God he was.

Here's something else you need to know about Willeford. First, he is a long-time National Rifle Association instructor; it was his NRA training that allowed him to subdue the shooter. Second, the weapon he used to stop the killing spree in Sutherland Springs was an AR-15 -- the very weapon gun-control advocates now want to ban. Without an AR-15, he says, he might not have stopped the killer. "If I had run out of the house with a pistol and faced a bulletproof vest and Kevlar and helmets, it might have been futile," he said. Because of his weapon, his training and his courage, countless lives were probably saved.

They could have used a Stephen Willeford in Parkland.

Keep his story in mind as you watch the current movement to boycott the NRA and ban so-called assault weapons. In the wake of the Parkland shooting at least a dozen companies -- including United Airlines, Delta, Best Western and First National Bank of Omaha -- have joined the NRA boycott. Chubb Limited insurance even announced it would cancel a program, "NRA Carry Guard," which provided insurance for NRA members who faced lawsuits for using their weapons in self-defense. When companies do this, they are not boycotting lobbyists in Washington; they are boycotting upstanding citizens such as Willeford. He and his fellow gun owners deserve better.

The NRA is a grass-roots organization made up of millions of decent, patriotic Americans who believe that guns in the hands of law-abiding citizens make our country safer, not more dangerous. To suggest that it is responsible for what happened in Parkland is obscene. Police officers were called to shooter Nikolas Cruz's house on 39 separate occasions since 2010. The FBI was warned about the shooter in January and failed to adhere to its own procedures to follow up. An armed sheriff's deputy was on the scene at the shooting, but he failed to act. And yet somehow the NRA is at fault? Please.

The NRA is far from perfect. I've criticized the NRA leadership's resistance to legislation banning "bump stocks." And there is nothing sacrosanct about the age of 18 for buying certain guns (or voting for that matter).

But NRA members have done more to prevent gun deaths, and promote firearms safety, than any other citizens' association in the country. When Democrats respond to shootings like the one in Parkland by demonizing the NRA and calling for a ban on weapons such as the AR-15 that are critical to Americans' right to self-defense, they send a clear and unmistakable message to millions of gun owners across the country: We don't respect you or your gun rights. This makes it harder to reach bipartisan agreement on solutions that could improve public safety without threatening the fundamental constitutional right of Americans to keep and bear arms.

We all want to keep guns out of the hands of mentally unstable people such as Nikolas Cruz. But we should all want to keep guns in the hands of responsible citizens such as Stephen Willeford. That's not the case today. Willeford deserves a medal, not a boycott. If corporate America can't figure that out and continues capitulating to the NRA boycott movement, maybe it is time for gun owners to boycott them.

(c) 2018, The Washington Post Writers GroupNEW You can now listen to Fox News articles!

On Wednesday you could hear howls of misery and disbelief coming from Democrats and Never Trumpers. What now, you may ask?

After all, the power and popularity of the presidents tax cuts has already hit. His rolling back of regulations and the killing of the ObamaCare mandate has already fueled an economic renaissance. What else could have made the morose even less amiable?

Was it the president continuing to smash ISIS? Or was it the leaked audio of Russian fighters in Syria complaining that a U.S. attack kicked our a---- like we were little pieces of s---.

It was actually the most debilitating news of all: The Trump campaign announced that 2016 campaign digital guru Brad Parscale is the 2020 campaign manager for the presidents re-election bid, confirming the happy likelihood that people will be saying the words President Trump until early 2025.

This news shouldnt have surprised anyone. President Trump filed his campaign paperwork with the Federal Election Committee on January 20, 2017, the day of his inauguration.

But for those who have been living in the 24/7 Never Trump fantasy universe  working on their fake Russian dossiers and insurance policies to derail President-elect Trump from becoming President Trump  this fresh proof that hes not going away dealt a blow like no other.

The frantic attempts during the past year by the presidents opposition to nullify the election were meant to achieve his removal from office, one way or another. Nope, didnt happen.

With personal attacks and salacious rumors, they would bully and harass Melania Trump into leaving the president, ripping out his support system and making him ineffectual. Nope, didnt happen.

Remember the idiotic obsession with the 25th Amendment to the Constitution? Thinking the Cabinet would declare the president incapable of performing his duties and remove him from office? Yeah, good for a laugh, but nope, didnt happen.

Then theres the arrest for treason, collusion with the Russians, more treason, dementia. Nope, didnt happen.

And the Michael Wolff book would be the death knell to Trumps presidency. Well, someone did leave the White House after that dumpster fire, but it wasnt President Trump.

The president has not only survived the past year, he has thrived. He learned more about the swamp, made his machine even more powerful and effective by making changes when necessary, and adopted his own style without sacrificing his agenda or commitment to make American great again.

For those who thought they could make Donald Trump and his family miserable or afraid, the presidents commitment to another four years confirms they continue to underestimate the man and still dont understand what the revolution of 2016 was all about.

The American people were told by President Obama that family-supporting, full-time professional jobs were over. The languishing punishment of working two-part time jobs, or living unemployment check to unemployment check, was the new normal.

Instead of the government celebrating a strong economy, the Obama administration touted driving Americans onto food stamps, and boasted about how many people were forced into ObamaCare, making even access to health care a pipe dream.

President Trump put his foot down on the degradation of the American people, and reversed course. The Heritage Foundation has announced that within just year one of President Trumps first term, he has already accomplished an astounding 64 percent of the organizations conservative leadership recommendations.

The Washington Examiner reports: With unprecedented speed, the Trump administration has already implemented nearly two-thirds of the 334 agenda items called for by the Heritage Foundation, a pace faster than former President Reagan who embraced the conservative think tanks legendary Mandate for Leadership blueprint.

Were blown away, Heritage Foundation Director of Congressional and Executive Branch Relations Thomas Binion told newspaper. He said the president is very active, very conservative, and very effective.

Paraphrasing Binion, the Examiner article also states that the president hasnt just focused on one agenda area, but he and his team has pushed through administrative moves on foreign policy, deregulation, immigration, tax reform and health care, moves often ignored by the media.

President Trump knew from the start he would run for re-election and win. His success in the first election wasnt an accident of history, it was a statement for the future. As a businessman, hes also not going to leave a job half done.

Even some Democrats are beginning to understand the extent of the Trump sea change. From the liberal magazine New Republic: Last year, it seemed certain that he would be a one-term president  if he even lasted that long. But he has a plausible path to victory in 2020.

He does indeed. Helping the presidents re-election chances is the constant meltdown of liberal leadership and their refusal to acknowledge reality. Right now the Democratic agenda for America consists of hating the president, hating tax cuts and working really hard to ban plastic straws.

President Trump won on an agenda of putting the American people first, a vision made possible only if you actually like the country and her people. Combine that with a businessmans and patriots success at bringing back the American Dream and get ready for President Trump 2.0 in 2020.The Supreme Court on Monday rejected an appeal from the Trump administration to decide the legality of the presidents plans to end next month the Obama-era DACA program affecting young illegal immigrants.

In recent months, lower court judges have moved to stop the administration from ending the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which protects about 800,000 young immigrants brought to country illegally as children from deportation.

In an unsigned comment released Monday, the Supreme Court denied the unusual request to take up the issue, saying the appeal should move through the normal appellate process. The move kicks the case back to the 9th Circuit in San Francisco.

The Supreme Court said the federal appeals court will proceed expeditiously to decide this case.

ANOTHER JUDGE RULES AGAINST TRUMP ADMIN ON ENDING DACA

Raj Shah, the White House principal deputy press secretary, said Monday the administration looks forward to having this case expeditiously heard by the appeals court and, if necessary, the Supreme Court, where we fully expect to prevail.

The DACA program  which provides work permits and myriad government benefits to illegal immigrants en masse  is clearly unlawful, Shah said. The district judges decision to unilaterally re-impose a program that Congress had explicitly and repeatedly rejected is a usurpation of legislative authority. The fact that this occurs at a time when elected representatives in Congress are actively debating this policy only underscores that the district judge has unwisely intervened in the legislative process.

Last month, U.S. District Judge William Alsup in San Francisco ruled that DACA must remain in place while litigation surrounding the program is ongoing. U.S. District Judge Nicholas Garaufis in New York ruled earlier this month that Attorney General Jeff Sessions had "erred in concluding that DACA is unconstitutional."

What made the appeal from the Trump Justice Department unusual is that the administration sought to bypass the federal appeals court in San Francisco and go directly to the Supreme Court.

A Justice Department spokesman said Monday they will "continue to defend DHS lawful authority to wind down DACA in an orderly manner.

While we were hopeful for a different outcome, the Supreme Court very rarely grants certiorari before judgment, though in our view it was warranted for the extraordinary injunction requiring the Department of Homeland Security to maintain DACA," Department of Justice spokesman Devin OMalley said.

President Trump has set March 5 as the end date for the DACA program, while calling on Congress to come up with a legislative fix.

Republicans like Trump have argued then-President Obama unconstitutionally granted protections to the so-called Dreamers when that should be up to Congress.

The Supreme Court rarely hears a case before a lower appeals court has considered it. The fight over whether President Richard Nixon had to turn over the Watergate tapes is one such example.

Fox News Bill Mears, Jake Gibson and Samuel Chamberlain and The Associated Press contributed to this report.Federal immigration officials have arrested more than 150 individuals in violation of federal U.S. immigration law in Northern California this week despite the Oakland mayor warning of an impending raid.

U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) made the arrests in the San Francisco Bay Area starting Sunday as part of targeted immigration enforcement operations, the agency told Fox News on Tuesday.

OAKLAND MAYOR WARNS OF IMPENDING ICE RAID, RAMPING UP SANCTUARY-CITY TENSION

Roughly half of those arrested by deportation officers have convictions for assault and battery, crimes against children, weapons charges and DUI, according to the agency.

ICE highlighted the arrest of one fugitive of the federal agency in particular, who officials stated is a documented gang member.

Armando Nunez-Salgado, 38, of Mexico, was arrested Sunday as part of ICEs widespread raid, spokesperson James Schwab, of the San Francisco bureau, told Fox News.

Over the past 18 years [Nunez-Salgado] has accumulated criminal convictions in California that have resulted in more than 15 years of prison sentencings, Schwab said, adding the man has been previously removed by ICE on four prior occasions and is a member of the Sureno street gang.

Other arrests include that of another Surenos gang member and other illegal immigrants with criminal convictions from Mexico and Guatemala throughout Northern California.

ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT FACES DEPORTATION AFTER ALLEGEDLY CRASHING INTO AMBULANCE AND KILLING TODDLER

The arrests come in the days after Libby Schaaf, the Democratic mayor of Oakland, posted a press release to Twitter warning constituents in the sanctuary city that multiple credible sources told her ICE would be conducting a raid in the Bay Area as soon as Sunday.

Schaaf received swift backlash following her post, with many arguing over the legality of such a warning.

"The Oakland mayors decision to publicize her suspicions about ICE operations further increased that risk for my officers and alerted criminal aliens  making clear that this reckless decision was based on her political agenda, ICE Deputy Director Thomas Homan said in a statement Tuesday. Unlike the politicians who attempt to undermine ICEs critical mission, our officers will continue to fulfill their sworn duty to protect public safety.

However, Schaaf stood by her decision, saying she felt as though it was her "duty" to share the information. ICE officials told Fox News they're asking the Department of Justice to look into whether the mayor broke any laws by giving the warning.

Further details of ICE's immediate activities in the Bay Area remain unclear, although the agency says 864 illegal immigrants with criminal convictions and other public safety threats "remain at large" in the area  two of whom are believed to be living in Oakland.

Homan believes Schaaf's warning aided those illegal immigrants in eluding law enforcement.

Fox News' Claudia Cowan, Michael Lundin and Donald Fair contributed to this report.The recipient of the Kiwanis Club of Chattanoogas 2017 Distinguished Service Award is Harry Hap Harwell, Jr.

"Harwell, a gentle-natured trailblazer whos rarely without a smile, will join a long list of outstanding volunteer leaders as the next recipient of the Distinguished Service Award," officials said.

The ceremony will be held on Tuesday, March 13, from noon-1 p.m. at the Westin.



Since 1922, the Distinguished Service Award has been presented annually in recognition of an individuals outstanding leadership and service to the Chattanooga community.





"Its recognition as Chattanoogas 'Citizen of the Year' award has been earned by the outstanding group of men and women to whom it has been awarded over the years," officials said.A Tennessee native and graduate of UT Knoxville, Mr. Harwell has long been making noteworthy contributions in his professional and volunteer roles, officials said.Early in his career, he was the first supervisor at R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company to manage a desegregated production line, a line which would become the most productive one in the company.He later moved to Mobile, Al. to work for South Central Bell, where he managed and integrated its residential division. In Mobile, he served as president of the Industrial Management Association, as president of the Sertoma Club, as an officer on the board of the Chamber of Commerce and as an elder of the First Christian Church.In 1970, Mr. Harwell moved to Chattanooga to begin his career with BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee. Shortly thereafter, Governor Winfield Dunn appointed him to the TN/GA Health Care Commission to address regional health care issues, and he served in that role for five years.A lifelong volunteer and a called a "natural leader," Mr. Harwell has served as the president of the boards of the Partnership for Families, Children and Adults, the American Heart Association, Chattanooga Goodwill Industries and the Kiwanis Club of Chattanooga. He has also served on numerous other boards, including those of the American Red Cross, Chattanooga Area Chamber of Commerce and United Way of Greater Chattanooga.He was instrumental in forming both the Victim Offender Reconciliation Program (VORP), an organization that works to facilitate the rehabilitation of both victims of crime and juvenile criminals, and Goodwills HELP program, which grants patients access to medical equipment at no cost.For many years, Mr. Harwell has been an active member of the Church of the Good Shepherd, and a teacher/mentor for the Education for Ministry (EFM) program of the University of the South, School of Theology (Sewanee).Many community members may recognize him from his weekly visits to the Childrens Hospital. For 20 years, he and his pet therapy dogs have walked the halls, bringing good humor and wagging tails to the children and families receiving care.To purchase tickets to the March 13 lunch and award presentation, call 423-267-6568 or email kiwanischatt@comcast.net. Tickets are $40 each, and tables are available for $320.Vice President Mike Pence said Tuesday he believes abortion in the U.S. will become illegal "in our time."

"I truly do believe if all of us do all that we can, that we will once again, in our time, restore the sanctity of life to the center of American law," Pence said that at a lunch with anti-abortion group Susan B. Anthony List in Nashville. "But we have to do the work."

"I just know in my heart of hearts that this will be the generation that restores life in America," he said.

Pence is a longtime foe of abortion who led attempts to cut federal funding from Planned Parenthood while serving in the House. He called President Trump the "most pro-life president in American history" and touted the anti-abortion actions by the Trump administration during his speech, including his appointment of conservative justices.

Read more at WashingtonExaminer.comPresident Trump on Tuesday endorsed the son of his former GOP primary rival Jeb Bush in a Texas political race.

The president wrote in a tweet that Texas land commissioner George P. Bush backed me when it wasnt the politically correct thing to do, and I back him now.

George P. Bush backed Trump in the 2016 general election. His father, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, his uncle, former President George W. Bush, and his grandfather, former President George H.W. Bush, did not support Trump.

Trump and Jeb Bush famously sparred during the presidential primaries, with Trump dismissively labeling Bush low energy.

Primaries in Texas are scheduled for March 6. George P. Bush has several Republican opponents in his re-election bid for the Texas land commissioner post.

In a tweet, Trump also announced his support for Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller, calling him Trumps Man in Texas. He also endorsed Texas Comptroller Glenn Hegar and Texas Railroad Commission Chairman Christi Craddick.

The president also announced his support for Mississippi Republican Sen. Roger Wicker, amid reports that Mississippi state Sen. Chris McDaniel is going to announce a primary challenge to Wicker. McDaniel challenged incumbent Republican Sen. Thad Cochran in the states 2014 primary.

.@SenatorWicker of Mississippi has been a great supporter and incredible help in getting our massive Tax Cut Bill done and approved, Trump tweeted. Also big help on cutting regs. I am with him in his re-election all the way!There are few distinctions in Congress as high as the one afforded the late Rev. Billy Graham at the U.S. Capitol Wednesday and Thursday. Graham will lie in honor in the Capitol Rotunda.

Note that Graham will lie in honor, not in state. We should refer to Graham as lying in honor rather than lying in state.

There is little which distinguishes someone from lying in honor rather that in state. Officially, lying in honor is one step below lying in state. The pomp and circumstance is much the same. But it formally is one level below state.

The Capitol Rotunda is considered to be the the most holy place in the American political experience. Thats why Congress reserves such ceremonies in the Rotunda for some of the countrys most-eminent citizens.

Most of those honored in the Rotunda have lain in state. Henry Clay was the first in 1852. In recent memory, others have included President John F. Kennedy, FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover, Sen. Hubert Humphrey, D-Minn., Sen. and Rep. Claude Pepper, D-Fla., President Ronald Reagan and President Gerald Ford.

Sen. Daniel Inouye, D-Hawaii, was the last to lie in state in December, 2012. Inouye represented Hawaii in either the House or Senate since it was admitted to the union until he died in 2012.

President Ford was the last President to lie in state in late December 2006 and January 2007.

There are no official rules to determine who lies in state or in honor. But both bodies of Congress must approve a resolution sanctioning usage of the Rotunda for such an event.

But lying in honor appears to be a more recent phenomenon. Graham is the fourth such person to lie in honor in the Capitol. The three others were U.S. Capitol Police Officers Jacob Chestnut and John Gibson and civil rights icon Rosa Parks.

Chestnut and Gibson were killed during a July 1998 shootout at the Capitol. Until 9/11 Chestnut and Gibson were the only persons killed defending the U.S. Capitol. The others who died were aboard Flight 93, the plane which was headed toward the Capitol on 9/11 and crashed near Shanksville, Pennsylvania. Parks lay in honor in 2005.

Graham will have a military and USCP honor guard unit on hand inside the Capitol.

Fox News is told that a flight carrying Grahams body will land tomorrow morning at Dulles International Airport outside Washington and be escorted via motorcade to the Capitol. Fox News has learned the motorcade will come from the Dulles Toll Road to I-66 and then into D.C. across the Roosevelt Bridge and down

The hearse carrying Graham will arrive at the Capitol around 10:30 a.m. ET. Military guards will then lift Grahams casket and carry it up the East Front Steps of the Capitol and into the Rotunda.

Once inside the Rotunda, Grahams body will rest on an unsanded, pine platform called the catafalque. Workers at the Capitol constructed the catafalque to hold the coffin of President Lincoln in 1865. Officials have used the catafalque used ever since for formal funerals and memorials on Capitol Hill, including Grahams service.

The Architect of the Capitol used to keep the catafalque in the tomb at the Capitol, two floors below the Rotunda floor. Thats the spot where George Washington was originally to be buried. But instead, Washington is interred at Mount Vernon. They moved the catafalque to the Capitol Visitors Center when it opened in 2008.

President Trump will travel to the Capitol tomorrow morning for the service and lay a wreath. Only family members, lawmakers and other dignitaries will be present in the Rotunda for the service tomorrow morning. Members of the public can file through the Capitol to pay their respects beginning at 1 p.m. ET through the evening.

The honor guard will stand watch over Grahams casket throughout the night. They will then escort Grahams casket out of the Rotunda on Thursday morning. The public will not be permitted in the Capitol for the Thursday departure.

The identities of some Americans who have laid in state are a mystery. Thats because Congress has held ceremonies for unknown soldiers from World War I, World War II, the Korean War and the Vietnam conflict to lie in state in the Rotunda,

Its also notable for who hasnt laid in state or honor in the Capitol. Most Presidents lie in state. But the family of President Richard Nixon surrendered that honor, thinking some people may not be respectful.

There was an initial plan for Sen. John Glenn, D-Ohio  the first American to orbit the Earth  to lay in state or honor in the Rotunda. Glenn first burst onto the public scene with his historic voyage in 1962, circling the globe three times. Glenn then retired from the Senate in 1999. But he lived until late 2016. Glenns plan evolved over time.

Senate Majority Leader Robert Byrd, D-W.Va., the longest serving senator in U.S. history, did not lie in state or honor in the Rotunda. Instead, Byrd laid in repose in the Senate chamber.

Sen. Ted Kennedy, D-Mass., had no formal services in the Capitol. However, the hearse bearing Kennedys casket drove across the Capitol plaza en route to his final resting place at Arlington National Cemetery in 2009.

A special Amtrak train carried the body of Sen. Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J., back to Washington after his death in 2013. Lautenberg lay in repose atop the catafalque in the Senate chamber before his burial at Arlington National Cemetery.The Department of Justice is looking into whether Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf obstructed justice by warning Northern California residents of an impending raid by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

The agencys acting director, Thomas Homan, told Fox & Friends Wednesday morning that the DOJ is reviewing whether Schaaf broke any laws by telling her constituents ICE would be raiding the area in order to arrest people violating federal immigration laws.

Schaaf, a Democrat, posted the warning to Twitter Saturday, writing that multiple credible sources told her the immigration agency was preparing to conduct an operation in the Bay Area, including Oakland, starting as soon as Sunday.

ICE arrested more than 150 people in violation of federal U.S. immigration laws in the San Francisco Bay Area following Schaafs warning, the agency said Tuesday.

Homan in a statement said that 864 illegal immigrants and public safety threats remain at large in the community and blamed Schaafs warning for their ability to dodge arrest.

What she did is no better than a gang lookout yelling police when a police cruiser comes in the neighborhood, except she did it to a whole community, Homan told "Fox & Friends." "There's over 800 significant public safety threat criminals ... that we are unable to locate because of that warning, so that community's a lot less safe than it would've been."

The mayor stood by her controversial warning, with a follow-up tweet Tuesday stating that It is Oaklands legal right to be a sanctuary city and we have not broken any laws. We believe our community is safer when families stay together.

The immigration sweep was the second in California since a statewide sanctuary law took effect last month. Agents arrested more than 200 people earlier this month in the Los Angeles area.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.Reporters are used to getting emails and tweets from readers who take issue with their work.

But it's a bit more unusual when the reader sending the critique is a member of Congress.

Enter Lamar Smith -- the longtime Texas Republican congressman who, it turns out, has been on a quiet mission for years to personally flag what he sees as examples of "bias" to reporters. Lately, he's been snail-mailing letters scolding journalists for using the term "progressive" instead of "liberal" in their news stories.

The letter-writing campaign went public earlier this month -- when a congressional reporter for the conservative Weekly Standard, a frequent recipient of these notes, posted Smith's correspondence on Twitter.

Haley Byrd tweeted the Feb. 6 letter from Smith, saying he mailed her the missive along with a copy of an article she wrote on a Senate vote over an abortion ban.

As the Co-Chairman of the Congressional Media Fairness Caucus, I regularly look for examples of the liberal medias bias and ways to counter it, Smith wrote. A different kind of bias in inadvertently engaged in by conservative journalists.

Smiths beef was with Byrds use of the term progressive to describe liberal Democrats. He highlighted the term in a yellow highlighter pen in the accompanying article.

The term progressive comes from the word progress, which has a positive connotation, Smith's letter, printed on congressional stationery, said. Conservatives should not play into liberals hands by allowing them to reinvent themselves as progressives since they know liberal is a perjorative term.

Byrd tweeted that she was particularly amused by the fact he apparently crossed out Ms. Byrd at the top of the letter and wrote Haley.

Smith also chairs the House science committee, but apparently sends the letters in his capacity as a leader of the media fairness caucus. He also briefly worked as a reporter for The Christian Science Monitor in the 1970s.

Byrd was not the only one given a slap on the wrist.

Senior writer John McCormack also was sent a congressional scolding for his single use of progressive in an article he wrote on the purging of pro-lifers from the Democratic Party. In the accompanying printed article, progressive was again highlighted in yellow pen, and McCormacks last name was crossed out in the letter and replaced with the more familiar, John.

Colleague Jim Swift told Fox News the magazine has received a number of such letters over the past few years -- and extended sympathy to any staffer who may have had to type the letter on Smiths behalf.

As a former staffer myself, this must be a really depressing job. Ideally, young people go to work in Congress because they want to make a difference, Swift said. I'm not sure cranking out this form letter and mailing it to journalists is probably what this person had hoped their career [would] bring.

A Fox News reporter received a similar letter last month, relating to the same use of the word progressive in a story.

In a written statement, Smith told Fox News that he stands by his letters. He said the point was to remind conservative journalists that they are playing into the hands of the liberal opposition when they use the words of the oppositions choice.

I write conservative writers whenever their use of liberals language comes to my attention. As we know, whoever defines the terms wins the debate, Smith said.

When conservatives use words and phrases like progressive instead of liberal and mainstream media instead of liberal media it gives the opposition a patina of reasonableness that they dont deserve. And that makes it much harder to win the war of ideas and convince the American people of the rightness of our cause.Hillary Clinton on Wednesday claimed President Trump is not doing enough to prevent future election meddling by the Russians -- even as Republicans fault the Obama administration for allowing the interference to continue during the 2016 race.

I say this as a former Secretary of State and as an American: the Russians are still coming, Clinton tweeted. Our intelligence professionals are imploring Trump to act. Will he continue to ignore & surrender, or protect our country?

Clinton drew attention to a Washington Post story about National Security Agency Director Mike Rogers saying the United States government is taking steps to combat the Russians interference but were probably not doing enough.

Rogers told the Senate Armed Services Committee that Russia is still trying to influence U.S. elections and warned that if we dont change the dynamic here, this is going to continue.

A federal grand jury earlier this month indicted 13 Russians and three Russian companies for allegedly interfering in the 2016 presidential election, in a case brought by Special Counsel Robert Mueller that detailed a sophisticated plot to wage information warfare against the U.S.

INDICTMENT: REVEALS RUSSIANS ALSO ORGANIZED ANTI-TRUMP RALLIES AFTER ELECTION

The findings surely fueled Clinton's grievances over the 2016 election. She has long blamed Russian interference, as well as former FBI Director James Comey's public statements on her email case and a range of other factors, for her loss.

Yet the Mueller investigation also found some of the Russian activity dates back to 2014, leading Republicans like House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes to claim the Obama administration "failed to act."

Mueller is investigating Russias interference in the presidential race. Trump has repeatedly said there was no collusion between his campaign and the Russians, who were opposed to Clinton.

The Russian nationals are accused of setting a strategic goal to sow discord in the U.S. political system, including the 2016 presidential election.

Prosecutors have described a sophisticated operation by Russian organization Internet Research Agency where agents up hundreds of social media accounts using stolen or fictitious identities to make it appear like the accounts were controlled by individuals in the United States.Paul Manafort's prison stay was extended Wednesday  nearly a week after he was sentenced to 47 months on bank and tax fraud charges in a separate case. The former Trump campaign chairman is now slated to spend a total of 81 months in prison.

He was given extra prison time at his second sentencing in connection with his guilty plea related to foreign lobbying and witness tampering.

In August, Manafort became the first Trump campaign associate to be found guilty by a jury as part of Special Counsel Robert Muellers long-running probe. He was convicted of eight bank and tax fraud charges at that time.

PAUL MANAFORT SENTENCED ON FOREIGN LOBBYING AND WITNESS TAMPERING CHARGES

Manafort has been the subject of an investigation over his dealings in Ukraine several years ago  he didnt file as a foreign agent until June 2017. But Mueller has incorporated that investigation into his probe of Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election and possible collusion with Trump associates.

Manafort was convicted on multiple counts of financial fraud last year in connection with his Ukranian work, and is in prison. In November, Mueller accused Manafort of lying "on a variety of subject matters" since his plea deal, thus violating that agreement.

Read on for a look at Manafort's work with the Trump campaign and how he is connected to the Russia investigation.

What kind of foreign work did Manafort do?

A GOP operative who worked for former Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush, Manafort reportedly began his work in Republican politics in the 1970s.

Eventually, Manafort was hired by former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych, a controversial pro-Russia politician who was ousted from power twice. After Yanukovych was elected president in 2010, Manafort reportedly stayed on as an adviser and worked on other projects in Eastern Europe, including the Party of Regions political party.

Manafort also worked for Russian billionaire Oleg Deripaska. In 2005, Manafort allegedly came up with a plan to influence U.S. politics, business dealings and the media in order to greatly benefit the Putin government, according to The Associated Press.

Deripaska is a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, and signed a $10 million annual contract with Manafort in 2006; they maintained a business relationship until at least 2009.

Financial records obtained by The New York Times indicated that Manafort was in debt to pro-Russian interests by up to $17 million prior to joining Donald Trumps presidential campaign.

He also took more than a dozen trips to Moscow and frequently talked to Putin allies over a period of about 10 years, McClatchy reported. He traveled to Kiev at least 19 times in 20 months after the February 2014 removal of Ukraines pro-Russia leader.

How was Manafort involved with Trump's campaign?

Manafort joined Trump's presidential campaign in March 2016 to help wrangle delegates ahead of the Republican National Convention in Ohio, something he'd done for former President Gerald Ford.

Just two months later, Manafort became Trump's campaign chairman.

Manaforts resignation from the campaign was announced on August 19, 2016, after The Times reported that he'd received $12.7 million in undisclosed cash payments from Yanukovychs pro-Russian party between 2007 and 2012.

Manafort and Donald Trump Jr., the president's eldest son, met with Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya in June 2016. She reportedly was said to have damaging information on Trumps campaign rival, Hillary Clinton, which was "part of Russia and its governments support for Mr. Trump."

What was Manafort charged with?

Along with his former business associate Rick Gates, Manafort was initially indicted in October 2017 on multiple counts that included: conspiracy against the U.S., conspiracy to launder money, false statements and failure to file reports of foreign bank and financial accounts.

Nearly four months later, in February 2018, the pair were hit with additional tax evasion and bank fraud charges. These charges involved much of the same conduct Manafort and Gates were initially accused of, but the amount of money Manafort said to have laundered through offshore accounts increased to $30 million.

In June 2018, Mueller's team brought additional charges of obstruction of justice against Manafort and Konstantin Kilimnik, an associate. The charges against Manafort and Gates dont relate to allegations of misconduct during Trumps campaign.

Mueller also accused Manafort of secretly paying former European politicians to lobby on behalf of Ukraine.

Manafort was found guilty of eight counts in August in the first trial victory for Mueller's team. The judge declared a mistrial on 10 other counts after jurors failed to reach a unanimous verdict.

In September, Manafort pleaded guilty as part of an agreement with Mueller's team ahead of his second trial. According to Politico, the plea deal includes a 10-year cap for how long Manafort will be in prison. It also includes allowing Manafort to serve his time for both trials concurrently.

He received a nearly 4-year prison sentence on March 7 after a federal jury in Virginia convicted him on eight counts of bank and tax fraud last year. A week later, on March 13, he received an additional three and a half years on foreign lobbying and witness tampering charges.

Manafort previously maintained his innocence despite all of the charges brought before him  but he has since expressed remorse for his actions.

"I am sorry for what I have done and all the activities that have gotten us here today," Manafort said in a written statement in March, begging a judge for mercy.

Fox News' Ann Schmidt, Jake Gibson, Alex Pappas, Matt Richardson and The Associated Press contributed to this report.Andy Maskin has been to Kansas once  during a road trip several years ago when he and a friend saw the giant easel in Goodland on their way to the Great Plains.

But now the 40-year-old lifelong New Yorker is seeking to add his name to the growing list of long-shot candidates running for governor of Kansas.

Maskin told Fox News recently that he was inspired to run for the Sunflower State's gubernatorial seat after reading an article about the seven teenagers  none of whom are eligible to vote  who are also running.

I thought that it was very interesting that they had discovered that there are no rules, he said. I read a couple more articles and I was just amazed. Really? None? Thats just fascinating. That is quite a loophole they just left.

In Kansas, there are no minimum age restrictions to run for office and, as Maskin went on to discover, there are no residency requirements, either.

With this loophole in hand, Maskin launched his bid for governor earlier this month  despite living more than 1,200 miles away. His message: he is the ultimate outsider running for office in Topeka.

An element of this that interests me is that everyone talks about being the outsider, he said. Everyone is Im not from Washington, Im an outsider or Im not from  insert state capital here  Im outsider. Nobody campaigns and says Im an insider. The outsider is kind of the key word.

He continued: I thought it would be interesting to see taking the outsider thing to otherwise unattainable level once they close this loophole. If you truly want an outsider  I dont know any Kanas politicians. I have no connection to lobbying groups. I come in tabula rasa.

Maskin is not the only non-resident outsider running for governor. Ilan Cohen, 17, of Maryland, has never stepped foot in Kansas, but has thrown his name into the proverbial hat. Additionally, Nicholas Schrieber, a college student from Delaware, and Conner Shelton, a college student from Pennsylvania, are running as Independents.

In February, the Kansas House moved a bill out of committee that would require that candidates fit two criteria: be eligible to vote in the state and be a state resident for at least four years. However, the bill would not take effect until next January.

The gubernatorial election is set for Nov. 6, 2018. The current governor of Kansas is Jeff Colyer, who succeeded Sam Brownback on Jan. 31, 2018. Brownback resigned the governorship after the U.S. Congress confirmed him as President Trump's U.S. Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom in January.

Maskin said his campaign for governor will only include flying out to Kansas in May to file the paperwork with the Kansas Governmental Ethics Commission before heading back to New York.

By then we will have raised the money  all the Is will be dotted and the Ts will be crossed, he said. I can hand them everything on a silver platter.

Maskin, who works in advertising in Manhattan and has never held any political office, now has to raise the $2,207 needed to get on the ballot. To do so, he has set up a website (www.AndyForKS.com) and an IndieGoGo account that will also double as a fundraiser to help an organization close to his heart: Cure SMA.

The non-profit organization focuses on finding a cure for spinal muscular atrophy, a rare neuromuscular disorder that is characterized by loss of motor neurons and progressive muscle wasting. It often leads to early death.

Maskin said one of his family members suffers from the disease and he hopes his campaign raises attention to it.

With a neat connection to New York, Maskin has targeted Greeley County as the electorate that he hopes to win.

Greeley County, located in the western part of Kansas, boasts a population of about 1,200 residents, with about 650 voting in the 2016 presidential election. Its named after Horace Greeley, the founder and editor of the New-York Tribune, who famously encouraged western settlement with the motto Go West, young man.

Its about an hour and change from the nearest interstate. It is far. And you look at Google maps and its just this cute little town and they have a website with a video with the motto that says Life as it should be, Maskin said. And that really appealed to me because its so different from my way of life.

He continued: Clearly, running for governor for a state requires a whole big operation and all this other stuff that I dont have and dont plan on having. But maybe I can win Greeley County.

Maskin acknowledged that he knows his campaign for governor is a longshot, but is intrigued to see how the idea of the ultimate outsider would appeal to the electorate in Kansas.

I love my house  I wouldnt want to sell my house here in New York. I love my job. My kids are growing up here. So it would be a tough call, but sure, if I won, I would figure something out, he said. Which isnt to say that I am necessarily optimistic given that I have no resources in campaign other than the filing fee.Former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort pleaded not guilty Wednesday to five counts from a new round of charges in Special Counsel Robert Mueller's probe, in his first appearance since a former associate began cooperating with the government.

Last week, a federal grand jury returned new charges against Manafort and ex-associate Rick Gates as part of the probe into Russian meddling and potential collusion with Trump campaign figures during the 2016 election.

The superseding indictment included conspiring against the United States, conspiring to launder money, failing to register as an agent of a foreign principal and providing false statements.

Manafort pleaded not guilty Wednesday during an appearance in federal court in Washington, D.C. -- after Gates pleaded guilty to two charges on Friday. Manaforts trial date is now set for Sept. 17.

Manafort previously pleaded not guilty in the case, but the latest indictment, which mirrored the charges filed against him last October, required him to formally enter a second plea.

He is also expected in court Friday afternoon in Alexandria, Va., where he faces additional charges.

On Wednesday, Judge Amy Berman Jackson scolded Manafort for making a public statement last week about Gates' guilty plea.

She reminded him of an order she issued in October restricting all parties in the case from making public statements. "I understand the impulse," Jackson said.

Manafort attorney Kevin Downing told the court he planned to file a motion opposing the court's interpretation of a Supreme Court case referenced in her order restricting public statements in the case.

In the statement last week, Manafort said: 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.

MUELLER MOVES TO DISMISS CHARGES AGAINST RICK GATES IN RUSSIA PROBE

Mueller, for his part, moved Tuesday to dismiss a slew of charges against Gates in the wake of his earlier guilty plea.

The filing suggests Gates cooperation with the special counsel team could be yielding good information. Gates has intimate knowledge of Manaforts years of political work consulting in Ukraine, as well as other events that have stoked the interest of federal investigators.

Gates guilty plea pertained to the charges filed against him in October in Washington, for which he still faces up to 71 months in prison.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.In April, Southern Adventist Universitys School of Education and Psychology will offer a crisis intervention training opportunity, with certification provided by the International Critical Incident Stress Foundation. This training is open to nurses, counselors, social workers, teachers, clergy, law enforcement and other crisis responders.



In light of the recent mass shooting at Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fl. and other current events, it seems thoughts of crises are never far from our minds, said Mikhaile Spence, graduate program manager in Southerns School of Education and Psychology. We often feel helpless in the face of these tragedies, but there are steps we can take to better prepare ourselves and be prepared to help others in crisis situations.

The training will lead to two separate certifications from ICISF: Group Crisis Intervention, as well as Individual Crisis Intervention and Peer Support, and will require 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. attendance at three Sunday sessions: April 8, April 15, and April 22. Continuing education credit is available. Space is limited and offered on a first-come, first-served basis. For more information or to register for the event, call 423-236-2492.



Just as we're having an intense conversation about mass shootings and gun control, the media are fixating on some remarks by President Trump that do nothing to advance the debate.

The president probably should have avoided the braggadocious comments, but this is the pattern we've seen so many times: Trump says something inartful, that causes a media eruption, and the underlying issue is overshadowed as the pundits race to their battle stations.

To me, the overriding question right now is whether Trump and Congress are going to actually do something in the wake of the Florida school shooting after the president put the issue at the top of the national agenda.

But the coverage took a sharp turn after Trump spoke to the semi-annual gathering of governors. As he denigrated the failure of deputy sheriffs to run into the Parkland high school as the gunman opened fire, the part of the Trump quote that many are using is this: "I really believe I'd run in, even if I didn't have a weapon."

Now that sounds like he's casting himself as some kind of superhero, and was guaranteed to draw criticism.

But heres the full context: "I really believe--you don't know until you test it, but I think--I'd really believe I'd run into--even if I didn't have a weapon, and I think most of the people in this room would have done that too, because I know most of you. But the way they performed was really a disgrace."

So what Trump was saying was that he was not more courageous than "most of the people in this room," but still believesthough you never really know until confronted with a crisisthat he would have done more than the dormant deputies.

That was the lead of the New York Times story. The Washington Post ran a piece saying "here's what hes done in the face of danger": accepting five Vietnam draft deferments (one of them for bone spurs) and appearing spooked when a man charged the stage at a campaign rally.

Others ran pieces on Trump critic Stephen Colbert mocking the president. USA Todays headline: "Late night: Trump's living in a 'fantasy world' for saying hed have 'run in' to Fla. school."

The Chicago Tribunes headline: "Colbert to Trump: 'What are you going to do, run in there and stab them with your bone spurs?'"

Did Trump open the door with his comments? Sure. But ultimately, who cares? It's a hypothetical. We don't hire presidents to risk their lives fighting crime.

The far more important question (covered by some) is how hard he will push the Hill do act on his gun proposals.

The president repeated his determination to ban bump stocks. He said again that the country needs "very strong" background checks ("If I see a sicko, I dont want him having a gun") and to reform mental institutions.

Trump continues to talk about arming trained teachers and others in school, although the other day he indicated that would be up to the states, which would mean no federal action.

But as some journalists pointed out, Trump did not mention his plan to raise the age limit on buying assault-style weapons like the AR-15 from 18 to 21. He said last week that the NRA would go along, but the group continues to oppose the idea. So is the president backing off?

In disclosing that he had lunch with top NRA officials, Trump told the governors "they're on our side." But he also said, "If they're not with you, we have to fight them every once in a while. That's OK." (Sarah Sanders said yesterday her boss still supports raising age limits on some guns.)

If Trump, a vocal defender of the Second Amendment, does go up against the NRA, that would show a different kind of courage than running into a building under siege by a gunman.A Kentucky school board approved a preliminary proposal on Monday that would allow teachers to carry concealed weapons.

The unanimous decision from the Pike County School Board, in Pikeville -- about 160 miles southeast of Frankfort, the states capital -- comes amid the nations growing concern over how to best protect students following the Feb. 14 massacre in Parkland, Fla., the Lexington Herald Leader reported.

A school shooting Jan. 23 in Benton, Ky., left two students dead and more than a dozen injured. A student opened fire at Marshall County High School.

The Pike County proposal would let school staff volunteer to carry a concealed weapon and act as armed guards, the paper reported. The Sheriffs Office would conduct background tests and offer firearms training.

Volunteers would also have to requalify several times per year.

The school boards attorney will now work with the Pike Country Sheriffs Office to create a final policy for the school boards consideration  something that Schools Superintendent Reed Adkins told the paper he hopes to have approved within a few weeks, with school staff armed by the fall.

You hope youre making the right decision for kids, but I know right now somethings got to be done, Adkins told the paper. We may be criticized, but at the end of the day Ill take criticism to protect my students.

If approved, it will be the first school district to allow teachers to carry guns in the state, according to Jon Akers, executive director of the Kentucky Center for School Safety, who told the paper every educational group across the country is against the notion.

Two school districts near Dayton, Ohio have a confidential team of trained teachers authorized to access guns hidden in safes throughout the campus to defend against an active shooter situation.

Click here for more on this story from Lexington Herald Leader.A Swiss cop is under investigation for meeting with a Russian lawyer at the center of the infamous Trump Tower meeting.

The cop, a money-laundering investigator, had a brief meeting with Natalia Veselnitskaya in Moscow in December 2016, sources told Fox News. That unauthorized and questionable meeting is now being probed by Swiss prosecutors, who are trying to determine whether she was trying to "turn" Swiss law enforcement or attempting to recover a client's account that was frozen in Switzerland.

Although small in size, Switzerland controls approximately $2.5 trillion dollars in global offshore assets -- a whopping 25 percent of such monies and assets and proudly claims secrecy and discretion for anyone who chooses to bank there.

Suspects in criminal cases are also afforded privacy in Switzerland and Fox New is calling the investigator Mr. K. The Swiss Prosecutors Office will only say that he is the subject of a criminal investigation. But sources tell Fox News he is being investigated for corruption, abuse of power, and violating professional secrets.

He was fired from his office after traveling to Moscow in late December of 2016, against the will of his boss, and largely on the dime of the Russians.

Mr.K. is a federal police officerone of the few in the department who speaks Russian. He has been at the center of the important Swiss cases involving Russian money laundering. Veselnitskaya has been at the epicenter of political intrigue in the United States.

Investigative journalist Thomas Knellwolf has been covering the case closely for the Swiss paper Tages-Anzeiger.

The big questions in the Swiss criminal investigation are: What did he talk about when he was on his private trip to Moscow and also in his unofficial meetings with the Russians, Knellwolf told Fox News in an email. Did he reveal secrets? Did he get more than two nights in a first class hotel paid for by the Russian state?

In an email to Fox News, Veselnitskaya believes this is a conspiracy about Mr. K. and Russia.

If he is the very policeman who was dismissed (his name is redacted from the judgement of the Swiss administrative court, as are the names and details of all other persons), then it is obvious to me that he was removed for honestly doing his work, she wrote.

Mr. K. was, reportedly, lured to Moscow by the deputy prosecutor general of Russia with the promise of a look at some confidential documents. Those documents, in the end, werent made available. But Veselnitskaya, a high-power Russian lawyer, was and she and Mr. K met during his mysterious two-day visit to Moscow, sources say.

Veselnitskaya is the same Russian lawyer who briefly met with Donald Trump Jr. and others including Paul Manafort and Jared Kushner six months earlier on June 9, 2016. They thought she had dirt on then presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. She claims she wanted to discuss Russian adoptions.

What it shows is that Russia is not just disrupting the political and government process in the U.S., but they are also doing it in Switzerland. Both of these things trace back to the Magnitsky Act and it shows how much Putin hates it, said Bill Browder.

The Sergei Magnitsky Rule of Law Accountability Act was passed into U.S. law in 2012. It sanctions and freezes the assets of those the U.S. Congress deems to be human rights abusers. Bill Browder was the man who pushed the bill through. He was a major investor in Russia shortly after the fall of the former Soviet Union.

Browders lawyer Sergei Magnitsky died at the age of 37 after being beaten in a Russian jail in 2009 while investigating what happened to $230 million Browder claims he paid to the Russian government in tax, but that was stolen by corrupt officials in an elaborate scheme. The Magnitsky Act sanctions those who the U.S. Congress deems are in some way responsible for Magnitskys death and the fraud.

In retaliation, Russian President Vladimir Putin banned adoptions of Russian children by Americans who he insisted are human rights abusers, too, citing a few cases of adoptions that ended badly.

Veselnitskaya is pushing back hard against the Magnitsky Act and its biting sanctions, on behalf of her client Denis Katsyv and some would say also on behalf of the Kremlin. Both she and the Kremlin deny that they are in cahoots.

Denis Katsyv, whose father is a politically connected wealthy business man in Russia, has $8 million frozen in Switzerland by the Magnitsky Act. Browder believes Katsyv is one of the key people laundering his stolen funds. Katsyv owns Prevezon Holdings which has multiple real estate properties in New York City. Those assets were also frozen by the U.S. government. The case, which dragged on for years, was settled before the U.S. District Court of Appeals in Lower Manhattan in May 2017 for $6 million with the help of Veselnitskaya and a highly paid army of lawyers and advisers, including Fusion GPSs Glenn Simpson. However, nearly a year later, no money has been paid, according to the latest court records reviewed by Fox News.

Simpson has also been part of the lobbying effort to overturn Magnitsky. And for a steep price. In released Congressional testimony, Simpson has said that Fusion GPS bills some clients $50,000 a month.

Meanwhile, Veselnitskaya is barely able to hide her contempt for Bill Browder. She said any meetings she had with the Swiss were official, from her point of view, and done to defend my client against the slanderous allegations made by Mr. Browder. She maintains he invented his tax fraud story and wont admit Magnitsky was killed in prison. Incidentally, Browder was convicted in absentia in Russia for tax fraud.

In her email response, the Russian lawyer wrote: Unfortunately, Switzerland made itself a tool in William Browders hands." And, Veselnitskaya added, This is a coordinated defamation attack on me as a lawyer whose professional activities have recently become extremely dangerous for Mr. Browder and his team members, and aimed at undermining the reputation and challenging the integrity of the police and prosecution authorities both in Russia and in Switzerland.

Journalist Thomas Knellwolf does not buy Veselnitskayas assertions that she is just a private lawyer, and has nothing to do with the Russian government. He said the fact that the deputy prosecutor general of Russia organized the meeting between her and Mr. K is proof, in point.

That shows how close the Russian state and Veselnitskaya are, he said.

The Swiss Prosecutors office tells Fox News Mr. K.s arrest has no influence on any criminal proceedings in connection with the Magnitsky case. But Browder tells Fox he believes it to be quite the opposite, stating: I think that he is a mole. We were always confused and concerned that the case he was working onmoney laundering connected to the Magnitsky murder caseground to a halt. It never made sense to us until now. Browders company is in the midst of ongoing litigation in Switzerland over Denis Katsyvs funds.

Browder also thinks Mr. K. has compromised the man overseeing his case, and many Russian money laundering cases, Switzerlands Patrick Lamon. Browder has petitioned to have him removed from his case. Fox News approached the Swiss Criminal Court about this. The court said it cannot comment on an open case.

I dont know if Lamon has been compromised, Thomas Knellwolf said. But I think it would be a wise and fair decision to remove him from the Magnitsky case.

To what extent was Veselnitskaya defending the legitimate rights of a commercial client, and to what, if any extent, is the government of Russia trying to influence Switzerland, and turn the state against Bill Browder, and perhaps others fighting Russia in a court of Swiss law? The answers to those questions lie in the ongoing proceedings of a Swiss court.The most senior member of the House of Representatives argued against tougher gun laws in a speech last week, rhetorically wondering how many victims of the Holocaust might have survived had they been armed.

"How many millions of people were shot and killed because they were unarmed?" Rep. Don Young, R-Alaska, said at a meeting of the Alaska Municipal League, a lobbying group for local communities. "Fifty million in Russia because their citizens weren't armed. How many Jews were put into the ovens because they were unarmed?"

The 84-year-old Young was responding to a question about what the federal government and cities could do to stop school shootings.

Young spokeswoman Murphy McCollough told The Associated Press in an email Wednesday that Young's remarks were "taken entirely out of context."

"He was referencing the fact that when Hitler confiscated firearms from Jewish Germans, those communities were less able to defend themselves," she said. "He was not implying that an armed Jewish population would have been able to prevent the horrors of the Holocaust, but his intended message is that disarming citizens can have detrimental consequences."

Messages seeking comment from the Anti-Defamation League and a Jewish group in Alaska weren't immediately returned Wednesday.

The executive director of the Alaska Democratic Party said the comments show it's time for residents to vote Young out of office.

"Don Young continues to show he is completely divorced from reality," Jay Parmley said.

Young wasn't the first House Republican to face criticism for comments made after 17 students were killed at a high school in Parkland, Fla., earlier this month.

U.S. Rep. Claudia Tenney of New York said on a radio program last week that many people who commit mass murder turn out to be Democrats, without offering evidence.

Young's comments emerged when Dimitri Shein, a Democrat, posted video of the lawmaker's response to his question on YouTube.

Young intimated that the violent nature of video games might play a role in gun violence. A former schoolteacher, he said that children brought guns to schools 40 years ago "and they didn't shoot anybody."

"Something's happened, it's easy to blame an object," Young said. "Why don't we look at the mental concept and the family structure," he added as as he noted that he supports a proposal advanced by President Donald Trump to arm teachers.

Young, who was first elected in 1973. Over the years, he has faced blowback for other remarks.

A few years ago, for instance, he had to apologize for using a racial epithet when referring to Hispanic migrant workers. And he backtracked when he said a female colleague "doesn't know a damn thing what she's talking about."

His staff had to apologize in 2014 after he spoke at an Alaska high school a day after a student's suicide. When asked what his office was doing to combat the state's high suicide rate, he stunned the audience by saying that such self-harm showed a lack of support from family and friends.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.At least a half dozen Democrats have quietly returned or redirected donations from a high-powered donor being investigated in the fatal drug overdose of a male escortwhile bigger-name national party figures who also took his money remain uncharacteristically silent on the case.

The mayor of Los Angeles, three members of Congress, two people running for Congress and the Los Angeles district attorney have all returned or given away their donations from Ed Buck, 63, a West Hollywood resident who has given more than $500,000 to Democratic candidates and groups over the years. Buck is now the subject of an investigation into the death of Gemmel Moore, a 26-year-old escort who was found dead of a methamphetamine overdose at Bucks home on July 27.

Bucks own congressman, Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff, who received $2,700 in 2016, told Fox News through a spokesperson that he donated the full amount to the Trevor Projecta nonprofit that provides crisis intervention and suicide prevention services to LGBTQ youth nationwide.

Schiffs press office would not confirm precisely when he made the donation to the Trevor Project. The death of Gemmel Moore is deeply tragic, Emilie Simons, spokesperson for Schiff, told Fox News in a recent statement.

But Hillary Clinton and former president Barack Obama, both of whom also received donations from Buck, have not responded to inquiries about the case.

The investigation into Moores death, originally ruled an accidental overdose, was reopened in August by the Los Angeles County Sheriffs Office. Boosted by information found at the scene and provided by Moores family, the case remains open as officials try to find and interview others who may have been involved with Buck in similar situations, or have some knowledge of the case.

JUSTICE FOR GEMMEL MOORE? FAMILY WANTS ANSWERS IN ESCORT'S DEATH AT DEM DONOR'S HOME

Among the allegations being investigated are reports that Buck frequently employed escorts to come to his home and do drugs. Authorities have examined a diary found in Moores possessions, which appears to describe Bucks apparent insistence and instruction that Moore do drugs.

Bucks attorney, Seymour Amster, maintains that his client bears no responsibility for Moores death and told Fox News that Buck was legitimately trying to help the young man.

The cause of [Moores] death was not the result of anything Mr. Buck did, Amster told Fox News, adding that his client considered Moore a friend.

The reopened investigation was enough for Kevin de Leon, a California state senator who is hoping to unseat Sen. Dianne Feinstein, to give $19,700 in contributions from Buckmade over the course of several yearsto a nonprofit that helps domestic violence victims and sexual assault survivors.

Senator de Leon has absolutely zero tolerance for hate, discrimination or violence of any kind. He has donated Mr. Bucks contribution to a provider of crisis prevention services for survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault, Jonathan Underland, a spokesperson for the state senator, said after Fox News published an article on the case on Feb. 13.

Other officials had similarly distanced themselves from Buck.

What I am hearing and reading about [Bucks] conduct with Gemmel is deeply disturbing."  Rep. Karen Bass of California

An adviser for Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti told Fox News on Tuesday his office last year returned $1,400 from Buck that was contributed in November of 2016. The money was returned soon after the case was reopened, the adviser said.

Los Angeles District Attorney Jackie Lacey, who received $100 from Buck in 2012, returned that donation in the last month.

"DA Lacey does not know Mr. Buck and she has returned the contribution," Lacey's campaign consultant told Fox News.

A campaign spokesperson for Rep. Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona told Fox News this week that the congresswoman donated the money shed received from Buck to a Phoenix organization for homeless youth. Federal Election Commission data reveals that Sinema donated $18,800 that she'd received from Buck to the UMOM New Day Center. AZCentral reports that Sinema's Getting Stuff Done PAC also donated $15,000 to UMOM.

It's horribly sad that this young man lost his life. We wish his family peace. While the investigation continues, weve donated the money to the Tumbleweed program at UMOM New Day Center, the campaign said in a statement to Fox News.

And the first elected official to disavow Bucks contribution, California Rep. Karen Bass, gave her $250 donation to Moores family back in August.

Im stunned by the news of Gemmels death and the tragic and sad circumstances surrounding it, Bass said in a statement. What I am hearing and reading about [Bucks] conduct with Gemmel is deeply disturbing.

If there are other victims, they should come forward immediately, Bass said in a statement. It is my hope that law enforcement is prepared to investigate and prosecute to the fullest extent of the law.

Bryan Caforio, who is running to represent the 25th Congressional district seat currently occupied by Republican Rep. Steve Knight, last year returned a $2,700 contribution that he received from Buck in October of 2016.

Moores family and friends have launched a campaign to bring awareness to the case, and have asked all Democrats who received contributions from Buck to either donate the funds to Moores family or a nonprofit that supports black, gay men or homeless youth.

A petition circulating calling for the action has picked up 4,584 signatures. As Democrats we are often the first to call on Republicans to return money at the slightest hint of impropriety  there should not be a double standard when a Democratic donor is involved in the wrongdoing, the petition states.

But not every politician has repudiated Buck. West Hollywood Mayor John Heilman, who received a $500 donation in March, told Fox News he has "no intention" of returning the donation, adding: "I support a full and fair investigation by the Sheriffs department with respect to the tragic death of Gemmel Moore."

When Fox News asked Amster about Buck's donations being returned, and whether his client plans to continue giving money to the Democratic Party, he said: Its their decision and what hes doing politically is his private business.When is a button more than just a button?

That was the issue before the Supreme Court on Wednesday, in a touchy First Amendment case over a state law banning "political" garments or insignia at polling places.

It was a messy hour of oral arguments, as nearly every justice expressed frustration at lawyers from both sides who were unable to articulate a workable standard to help the court decide when personal expression -- like political buttons -- crosses the line into voter disruption or intimidation.

The case started when a Minnesota voter sued after being told to remove a "Please I.D. Me" button and Tea Party t-shirt at his polling place.

He says such "passive, non-disruptive" expression should be allowed, while the state argues the restrictions are a "reasonable, viewpoint-neutral" means to ensure polling integrity and reduce voter coercion.

"If, in fact, we are trying to have a place where a person has reflective thought for a moment after the hurly-burly of the campaign, this problem will inevitably arise," said Justice Stephen Breyer, suggesting state restrictions would be appropriate.

"It does reach quite a bit beyond what I think a reasonable observer would think is necessary," countered Chief Justice John Roberts. "Do you really think if someone has a shirt with the tiniest little logo or inscription here, that's going to have any effect on decorum?"

Seeking an acceptable constitutional standard, the justices offered a timely set of heated hypotheticals to explore the legal boundaries, including apparel that might mention the:

#MeToo movement against sexual harassment

Parkland Strong, a response to last week's Florida mass school shooting; or alternately a National Rifle Association hat, in the debate over gun rights

Competing Black Lives Matter and All Lives Matter coalitions

A rainbow t-shirt with no written message supporting gay rights

"Make America Great Again," a Trump presidential campaign slogan

All states have laws prohibiting direct campaigning, solicitation, or advocacy signs inside or near the polling station. The Supreme Court in 1992 upheld a Tennessee law prohibiting campaign materials within 100 feet of a polling place.

About 11 states and the District of Columbia go further, banning anyone wearing "political badges, political buttons, or other political insignia to be worn at or about the polling place" on election day.

Voting monitors and judges -- some government workers, others volunteers chosen from local political parties -- would ostensibly enforce the policy and settle any disputes.

Andrew Cilek, a local political activist in Minneapolis who brought the suit, was told twice in 2010 to remove his Tea Party-related apparel. When he returned a third time with his lawyer, Cilek was given a ballot but his name was recorded for possible prosecution, which can include a $300 fine.

The libertarian Cato Institute and the ACLU are among the outside groups that back him.

In the one-hour courtroom arguments, David Breemer, the attorney opposing the ban, said polling places were not "pristine retreats from the real world," and "there's not a right to vote free of being bothered at all."

That brought some bench concern.

"A t-shirt, you say, is passive," Justice Neil Gorsuch told the lawyer. "What if it were instead a sign on my head, you know, flashing lights? Is that active or is that passive [speech]? How are we supposed to police the line you're suggesting?"

"Why should there be speech inside the election booth at all?" added Justice Anthony Kennedy, his voice rising. "You're there to vote."

Roberts could be the deciding or "swing vote." He asked tough questions of both sides. On one hand, he defended the Minnesota law, saying organized voters, "a big employer, the union, teachers, whatever, say we're all going to show up and we're all going to have these buttons on." Roberts suggested "its subtle psychological pressure" on other voters.

"How are we supposed to police the line you're suggesting?"  Justice Neil Gorsuch

But then Roberts worried about individualized, discretionary and binding decisions made on the spot about what is acceptable to wear.

"How do you know if a mistake has been made?" he wondered. "You know, if someone makes a judgment and it's challenged, how do you know a mistake's been made?"

Daniel Rogan, the attorney for the state, received some pushback when he conceded a rainbow t-shirt would be permitted under Minnesota law, but not an NRA t-shirt.

Justice Samuel Alito bristled when told most voters in violation would be told to hide or change their offending apparel.

"The person can wear a bathrobe or some kind of coverup to go in and vote. You think that's not kind of humiliating?" he said. "Or the person can be listed as a bad Minnesotan?"

Justice Sonia Sotomayor said in the Minnesota case, the voter who sued was displaying what she said some considered a "highly charged political message," since the "Please I.D. Me" button referred to pending legislation that would require voters to show an official picture identification establishing residency.

The balancing test for the high court is a tricky one. Any limitations on speech content would have to have a "compelling government interest." But "reasonable" restrictions on speech on government property are allowed if they are viewpoint-neutral.

The case is Minnesota Voters Alliance v. Mansky (16-1435).The suspect who allegedly gunned down Chicago police Commander Paul Bauer near City Hall earlier this month received an unusually light sentence for major parole violations in 2007, court records show.

The documents, reviewed by the Chicago Sun-Times, reveal that Bauer's accused killer, Shomari Legghette, dodged up to 30 years in prison when he was booked for the violations that year.

At the time of his 2007 sentencing, Legghette was on parole following an armed robbery conviction that landed him a 16-year sentence, and prison time from 1998 to 2005.

FUNERAL HELD FOR POLICE COMMANDER WHO MADE 'ULTIMATE SACRIFICE'

Records show that police found Legghette in the South Side in 2007 with $1,800 in cash, body armor, a chrome revolver, and a baggie of heroin, the Sun-Times reported.

But instead of pursuing felony charges for those parole violations, records show, prosecutors opted to send Legghette to prison for only a few weeks after he pled guilty to a lesser charge of possessing a weapon with a defaced serial number.

It was unclear why prosecutors opted not to pursue Legghette's more serious alleged violations.

"There could have been problems with evidence, problems with witnesses," former Cook County Judge Dan Locallo told the Sun-Times.

The records reviewed by the Sun-Times also shed light on Legghette's troubled past, which included arrests for drug possession, disorderly conduct, and a gun-related offense -- all while living at different addresses.

Legghette's mother, Regina, reportedly took lengthy trips to visit him in prison -- including one ride in a van that crashed en route in 2003, leaving her critically injured, the paper reported.

Regina died shortly after Legghette was released from prison in 2005.President Trump on Wednesday hailed a big victory in the courts for his proposed border wall, after a federal judge ruled against an environmental challenge to Trumps central campaign promise.



U.S. District Court Judge Gonzalo Curiel found in favor of the administration Tuesday in a case that asked whether the government could ignore environmental laws to construct the southern border wall. The project had been challenged by environmental groups and the state of California.



Trump touted the victory in a tweet, saying that it allows the administration to proceed, adding: OUR COUNTRY MUST HAVE BORDER SECURITY!

FEDERAL JUDGE RULES AGAINST CHALLENGE TO TRUMP BORDER WALL



In the tweet, he also said sections of the wall that California wants built now will not be built until the whole Wall is approved. It was not clear what he was referring to, but it is possible he was referring to a recent project to replace two miles of wall in downtown Calexico.

The Los Angeles Times reported that the barrier was made of recycled metal scraps and a landing mat and will be replaced by 30-foot high bollard-style posts.



Curiels ruling means the administration can now issue waivers on environmental laws and build sections of the wall.

Curiel was the judge whom Trump accused of being biased due to his Mexican-American heritage as he ruled over a case involving Trump University. Then-candidate Trump was criticized by both Republicans and Democrats for his comments.



Californias state officials pushed back against the border wall ruling.

California Attorney General Xavier Becerra said in a statement that his office will evaluate all of our options and [is] prepared to do what is necessary to protect our people, our values, and our economy from federal overreach.

A medieval wall along the U.S.-Mexico border simply does not belong in the 21st century, Becerra said.

The Trump administration was sued back in September as part of its effort to block any construction of the border wall.

Trump also tweeted Wednesday in praise of border security efforts.

"45 year low on illegal border crossings this year. Ice and Border Patrol Agents are doing a great job for our Country. MS-13 thugs being hit hard," he tweeted.

Fox News Alex Pappas contributed to this report.

Vice President Mike Pence got right to the point Tuesday when he addressed the National Religious Broadcasters' 75th annual meeting in Nashville.

"Allow me to bring greetings to you from the most pro-life president in all of history, President Donald Trump," Pence told an audience at a luncheon hosted by the Susan B. Anthony List and Life Issues Institute, a newly merged anti-abortion organization, the Tennessean reported.

"To all of you who are gathered here, to religious broadcasters who have made a difference for the cause of life, we thank you."

Pence lauded the Trump administrations pro-life record, naming a number of measures enacted by the president. He also drew attention to his tie-breaking vote in the U.S. Senate to pass a legislation that withholds federal funds from Planned Parenthood and other abortion providers.

CONGRESS OKS PLANNED PARENTHOOD FUNDING CRACKDOWN, AS PENCE BREAKS TIE

But the luncheon was just a warmup for Pence. Later Tuesday, he delivered a 25-minute speech to thousands of Evangelical Christians, who greeted the vice president with standing applause.

"Im a Christian, a conservative and a Republican, in that order," Pence said. "To all of you whose faith and ministries have inspired the hearts of millions, it is great to be back."

Pence welcomed U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson to the stage, and the two proceeded to attack abortion and call out Planned Parenthood.

The vice president continued his speech, mentioning Trumps achievements, from school safety to fighting terrorism, according to the Tennessean. Trumps decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and move the U.S. Embassy there brought the crowd to its feet.

But the speech also struck a somber note after Pence drew attention to the late beloved evangelist Billy Graham, who died last week at age 99 -- and whose body will lie in honor in the U.S. Capitol Rotunda beginning Wednesday, before his funeral in North Carolina on Friday.

"He was a man of towering faith," Pence said of Graham. "He was an example and his ministry for the gospel and his matchless voice inspired our nation and the world."

Pence said Trump will attend Grahams funeral in Charlotte, making him the sole living president in attendance, USA Today reported.

The vice president has been using his position to advocate and energize the pro-life movement in America. Last year, Pence addressed the March for Life crowd in Washington, declaring that life is winning in the U.S.

"Life is winning in America and today is a celebration in that progress," Pence said last year. "Weve come to a historic moment in the cause of life and we must approach it with with compassion for every American. Life is winning in America because of you.

"Let this movement be known for love," he added to thunderous applause. "Not anger. For compassion. Not confrontation."President Trump sparred with Republican lawmakers during a rare, televised bipartisan gathering on gun control and school safety Wednesday, dismissing GOP pleas to include concealed carry proposals in a sweeping gun package while making clear he doesn't have to agree on everything with the National Rifle Association.

Im a fan of the NRA, Trump told lawmakers at the White House. Theres no bigger fan. I'm a big fan of the NRA. These are great people, these great patriots. They love our country. But that doesn't mean we have to agree on everything.

During the meeting, which also included prominent Democrats, Trump told House Majority Whip Steve Scalise, R-La., who was gravely injured in a mass shooting this summer, that a comprehensive gun bill would not pass if it included a concealed carry reciprocity proposal desired by Republicans.

You know, Im your biggest fan in the whole world, Trump told Scalise. I think that bill maybe one day will pass, but it should pass as a separate. If youre going to put concealed carry between states into this bill, were talking about a whole new ball game.

Trump added: Im with you, but let it be a separate bill.

His comments come as Fox News has learned the White House plans to roll out specific policy proposals on Thursday aimed at keeping guns out of the hands of people who should not have them. Among the proposals are some that may put him at odds with the NRA, the powerful pro-gun organization that was a frequent topic during the meeting.

At one point during Wednesdays session, Trump told Pennsylvania Republican Sen. Pat Toomey, who has previously sponsored background check legislation, You are afraid of the NRA.

A spokesman for Toomey, Steve Kelly, responded in a statement to Fox News, saying: Senator Toomey has not received a dime from the NRA since joining the Senate. Senator Toomey has demonstrated that he is not afraid of the NRA or any other special interest group.

At the beginning of the meeting, Trump said he wanted the lawmakers around the table with him to come up with some ideas and put them into a very bipartisan bill.

It would be so beautiful to have one bill that everybody could support as opposed to, you know, 15 bills, he said.

Trump has been pushing some new gun restrictions in the wake of this months school shooting in Parkland, Fla., in which 17 people were killed. He emphasized his commitment to strengthening background checks for gun buyers and dealing with the mentally ill.

What surprises me more than anything else is that nothings been done for all of these years, Trump told the lawmakers. Because I really see a lot of common ground where there's Democrat, Republican.

According to sources, the White House proposal will include raising the minimum age for buying long guns to 21 from 18 -- a proposal that Trump acknowledged is opposed by the NRA. Trump will also call for training and arming certain members of school faculty and staff, either through federal grants to states or a federal training program.

During Wednesday's meeting, Trump said we must harden out schools against attacks, calling for arming some staff at schools.

Speaking of the Pulse nightclub shooting in September 2016 that killed 49 people, Trump said: If you had one person in that room that could carry a gun and knew how to use it, it wouldn't have happened. Or certainly not to the extent it did, where he was just shooting and shooting and shooting and they were defenseless.

On Thursday, Trump is also expected to reiterate his support for a bill that bolsters the National Instant Criminal Background Check System. He also will back the STOP School Violence Act, which gives the Justice Department grants for preventing school violence.

The president said Wednesday he will get rid bump stocks, saying they will be gone shortly. The firearm modifiers, which can make a semi-automatic weapon fire nearly as rapidly as a fully automatic machine gun, were used in the Oct. 1, 2017, Las Vegas massacre, in which 58 people were killed and hundreds more injured.

Trump will also call for fixing the FBIs tipster program, amid revelations that the bureau received multiple tips about the youth accused of shooting up the Parkland school ahead of that massacre but failed to stop him.

In addition, the president is also expected to encourage states to create laws for extreme-risk protective orders, which would allow parents and law enforcement to petition courts to take weapons away from anyone threatening to harm themselves or others.

Republicans lawmakers at the meeting included: John Cornyn of Texas; Steve Danies of Montana; Chuck Grassley of Iowa; Marco Rubio of Florida; Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania; Orrin Hatch of Utah; Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee; Brian Mast of Florida, John Rutherford of Florida and Steve Scalise of Louisiana.

Democrats included Dianne Feinstein of California; Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota; Chris Murphy of Connecticut; Ted Deutch of Florida; Elizabeth Esty of Connecticut and Stephanie Murphy of Florida.

Lawmakers pitching their ideas on gun control told Trump their proposals could pass if he expressed his support. The president contrasted himself to past presidents, accusing former President Obama of not being proactive in getting a bill passed.

It's time that a president stepped up I'm talking Democrat and Republican presidents, Trump said. They have not stepped up.

Trump expressed a willingness to be open to proposals from Democrats that Republicans usually reject outright, telling Feinstein he would review her assault weapons ban legislation. But he remained non-committal when pressed by Feinstein, telling her to discuss her plans with her congressional colleagues.Chattanooga States Community Health Institute opens its doors to the campus and community from 9 a.m.-1 p.m. on Friday for its free annual Health and Wellness Fair in the Health Science Center on the main campus located at 4501 Amnicola Hwy.

Promoting health and wellness to students, employees, and the greater Chattanooga area is the number one reason for holding this annual event. Exhibits by local health professionals who offer free giveaways, important health-related information, services, food sampling and provide one-on-one consultations is an added bonus for participants.

More than 36 vendors will be participating in the fair representing organizations that include pharmacies, allergy clinics, disease prevention and care, hospitals, chiropractors, health insurance, podiatry, home health care and Hamilton County health and law enforcement agencies. Chair massages provided by Massage Therapy program students, registration for upcoming free dental care for children as well as appointments at the Dental Clinic, and blood pressure checks by Medical Assistant students will all be offered free to attendees.

The Hamilton County Sheriffs office will conduct Operation Medicine Cabinet a drug take-back program where anyone can safely turn in unwanted medications for proper legal disposal. Chattanooga Cares sponsors the 2018 event.

Call Carly Brewer at 697-3328 or email carly.brewer@chattanoogastate.edu for more information.President Trump put Attorney General Jeff Sessions back in his political crosshairs on Wednesday, blasting him for tapping an Obama guy to investigate allegations of government surveillance abuse.

The president was reacting to Sessions revealing a day earlier that the Justice Departments inspector general will investigate the allegations, in light of memos released on Capitol Hill about FBI and DOJ efforts to obtain FISA warrants to spy on a former Trump campaign adviser.

Why is A.G. Jeff Sessions asking the Inspector General to investigate potentially massive FISA abuse. Will take forever, has no prosecutorial power and already late with reports on Comey etc. Isnt the I.G. an Obama guy? Why not use Justice Department lawyers? DISGRACEFUL! Trump wrote.

Sessions confirmed on Tuesday, in response to a question from Fox News Catherine Herridge, that the abuse accusations would be investigated at the IG level.

The inspector general will take that as one of the matters he'll deal with, he said, in reference to DOJ IG Michael Horowitz.

In a brief statement issued Wednesday following the president's tweet, Sessions vowed to press on.

"We have initiated the appropriate process that will ensure complaints against this Department will be fully and fairly acted upon if necessary," he said. "As long as I am the Attorney General, I will continue to discharge my duties with integrity and honor, and this Department will continue to do its work in a fair and impartial manner according to the law and Constitution."

Horowtiz for months has been investigating the FBI and DOJs actions related to the probe of Hillary Clintons private email use while secretary of state.

A final report is expected soon, though Trump seemed to complain Wednesday about the amount of time it has taken. Horowitz has publicly said that the report could be completed this spring.

SESSIONS: DOJ IG TO PROBE FISA ABUSE

Horowitz was confirmed to the post during the Obama administration, in 2012. However, while Trump labeled him as an Obama guy, he also served as commissioner on the U.S. Sentencing Commission during the George W. Bush administration. His generally enjoys a solid reputation  though his work on the Clinton case, and now surveillance abuse, could make him a target for both sides of the aisle.

The IG's office had no comment on the president's latest tweet.

House oversight committee Chairman Trey Gowdy, R-S.C., defended Horowitz on Wednesday.

"I have had a number of interactions with Inspector General Horowitz, including as recently as earlier this month. He has been fair, fact centric, and appropriately confidential with his work. He was confirmed by the U.S. Senate without a single dissent, he said in a statement. I have complete confidence in him and hope he is given the time, the resources and the independence to complete his work.

Trumps tweet reflected apparent impatience about taking surveillance abuse claims to the next level.

For the past several weeks, lawmakers on Capitol Hill have been at war over those allegations.

Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee released a memo in early February detailing the surveillance of Trump campaign adviser Carter Page, saying an infamous, unverified dossier funded by Democrats "formed an essential part" of the application to spy on him.

Democrats released a rebuttal memo on Saturday, downplaying the role of the dossier.

The White House responded to the GOP memo by saying it raises serious concerns about the integrity of decisions made at the highest levels of the Department of Justice and the FBI to use the governments most intrusive surveillance tools against American citizens.

PRIEBUS DISHES ON WHITE HOUSE CHAOS

Sessions said earlier this month on Fox News "Sunday Morning Futures" that that there would be an investigation into how the FBI used the dossier to secure the surveillance.

Let me tell you, every FISA warrant based on facts submitted to that court have to be accurate, he said. That will be investigated and looked at, and we are not going to participate at the Department of Justice in providing anything less than the proper disclosure to the court before they issue a FISA warrant.

The involvement of the IG was not clear until Tuesday.

This is hardly the first time Trump has gone after his attorney general, who was among Trumps earliest supporters during the 2016 presidential campaign.

An updated edition of the book, The Gatekeepers: How the White House Chiefs of Staff Define Every Presidency, revealed that former Chief of Staff Reince Priebus had to intervene last year to dissuade Sessions from resigning.

This was reportedly after Trump personally excoriated Sessions, calling him an idiot and blasting him for recusing himself from the Russia investigation.

Sessions ultimately stayed on.

Fox News Catherine Herridge, Jason Donner, Jake Gibson and Alex Pappas contributed to this report.One of President Trumps biggest campaign promises was his vow to build a wall along the countrys southernmost border.

And that promise is now at the center of Trump's fight with Democratic leaders as he's insisted he's willing to let the government shut down if Congress doesn't approve funding for the wall.

Congress has yet to fund the wall, and Trumps demands that Mexico pay for it have gone nowhere. However, the president has seemingly evolved on what hes called the big, beautiful wall, as he has contended a physical structure might not be needed where you have rivers and mountains and everything else protecting the border.

Read on for a closer look at Trumps proposed border wall by the numbers.

2015

Trump first proposed the border wall when he announced his presidential candidacy in June 2015. It was then that he made the controversial remarks about the people emigrating from Mexico.

When Mexico sends its people, theyre not sending their best, Trump said on June 16, 2015. Theyre sending people that have lots of problems  Theyre bringing drugs. Theyre bringing crime. Theyre rapists.

I would build a great wall, and nobody builds walls better than me, Trump said. Ill build a great, great wall on our southern border, and Ill have Mexico pay for that wall. Mark my words.

1,954

The continental border between the U.S. and Mexico stretches for nearly 2,000 miles. The land border reaches across four states: Arizona, California, New Mexico and Texas.

The entire border extends from the Gulf of Mexico to the Pacific Ocean.

5 billion

Trump wants Congress to approve $5 billion for the project, but Democrats are offering only $1.3 for border security.

"If we don't have border security, we'll shut down the government," Trump said on Dec. 11.

170,000

A Department of Homeland Security report estimated that 170,000 people successfully entered the U.S. illegally from the southern border in 2015. That number is significantly less than the 1.7 million people estimated to have entered in 2005.

5.6 million

There were approximately 5.6 million "unauthorized immigrants" from Mexico by 2016, according to data from the Pew Research Center. That number has decreased from 6.4 million in 2009.

4

Four companies were selected to build concrete prototypes of the border wall, U.S. Customs and Border Protection announced in August 2017.

Those companies are: the Caddell Construction Company of Montgomery, Ala.; Fisher Sand and Gravel of Tempe, Ariz.; Texas Sterling Construction Company of Houston, Texas; and WG Yates and Sons Construction of Philadelphia, Miss.

The prototypes will be 30 feet tall and 30 feet wide and will cost up to $500,000 to make.

Fox News' Alex Pappas and The Associated Press contributed to this report.From campaigning for a new border wall to cracking down on sanctuary cities, Acting Director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Thomas Homan says he'll never back down from safeguarding the border and advancing President Donald Trump's agenda.

If you violate the laws of this country, if you enter illegally, which is a crime, its not going to be OK anymore, Horman declared during a speech at the Border Security Expo in San Antonio in early February, adding that he 100 percent support[s] the wall."

In 2017, Homan announced that illegal border crossings were at a 45-year low.

"Under this president, who's now letting us do our job and taking the handcuffs off the men and women of the Border Patrol and ICE, arrests are up," Homan said in an interview on "America's Newsroom" in December 2017.

Trump touted the agency's success in an early-morning tweet on Wednesday.

"45 year low on illegal border crossings this year," the president wrote. "Ice and Border Patrol Agents are doing a great job for our Country. MS-13 thugs being hit hard."

ICE removed 226,000 people from the U.S. in the 2017 fiscal year  down 6 percent from 2016. During the same time period, the agency arrested more than 110,000 people, a 42 percent increase over the previous year.

Here's what you need to know about Homan, and about his priorities as acting ICE chief.

Who is Thomas Homan?

Homan was appointed ICE director, replacing Daniel Ragsdale, in January 2017. He previously served as ICE's executive associate director of enforcement and removal operations (ERO).

A 33-year law enforcement veteran, Homan served as an NYPD officer and Border Patrol agent before holding several positions within ICE, which was established in 2003.

"ICE was created based on the recognition that global threats have become more dangerous, and a new approach was needed to ensure the security of the U.S. homeland and the American people," the agency explains on its website.

Homan was named assistant agent in charge in Dallas after ICE was created. Nearly a decade later, in March 2009, he transitioned to the role of assistant director for enforcement of ERO before being promoted to deputy executive associate director, according to a statement released by the Department of Homeland Security.

In 2015, Homan was given the Presidential Rank Award, which recognizes individuals for "exceptional performance over an extended period of time."

"Thomas Homan deports people. And hes really good at it," The Washington Post said in an April 2016 profile.

What is Homan focusing on as ICE director?

Stepping up enforcement in sanctuary cities like California

ICE began launching "targeted immigration enforcement operations" in major cities, including San Francisco and Los Angeles, after California became a sanctuary state on Jan. 1.

Homan spoke against the state's decision, calling it a "dangerous policy."

By passing this bill, California politicians have chosen to prioritize politics over public safety," Homan wrote in a statement, adding that this "deliberately obstructs our countrys immigration laws and shelters serious criminal alien offenders."

ICE agents arrested more than 150 individuals in violation of federal immigration law in the Oakland and Fresno areas during a three-day sweep at the end of February.

Roughly half of those arrested by deportation officers have convictions for assault and battery, crimes against children, weapons charges and DUIs, according to the agency.

Homan believes the raids would have been more successful if Libby Schaaf, the Democratic mayor of Oakland, hadn't warned constituents on Twitter. He estimates about 800 criminal aliens were able to elude capture, and federal immigration agents were put in danger because of Schaaf's alert.

"What she did is no better than a gang lookout yelling 'police' when a police cruiser comes in the neighborhood, except she did it to a whole community. This is beyond the pale," Homan told "Fox & Friends" on Feb. 28.

Schaaf says she doesn't "regret sharing this information," adding that no laws were broken by doing so.

Building a better border wall

Homan has repeatedly said he's "100 percent" behind Trump's proposal to build a border wall along the country's southernmost border.

"The border wall is a good tool," Homan said in an interview on "America's Newsroom" in October. "We have proven it worked. Why would we not want to do it?"

In 2017, illegal immigrants from 140 different countries were deported from the U.S., according to Homan, and he believes a border wall would help protect the country.

Every place they built a barrier, the illegal crossings decreased significantly, Homan told FOX Business Maria Bartiromo in January.

Making courthouse arrests

In February, Homan signed a policy that sends deportation agents to federal, state and local courthouses to make arrests.

A two-page directive states that ICE agents will enter courthouses only for specific targets, such as convicted criminals, gang members, public safety threats and immigrants who have been previously deported or ordered to leave.

Family, friends and witnesses won't be picked up for deportation, unless there are "special circumstances," according to the agency.

Immigration agents were told to avoid making arrests in non-criminal areas of the court, like family court and small claims, unless it's approved by a supervisor.

ICE reaffirmed its 2014 policy is in place to avoid deportation arrests at "sensitive locations," including schools, day cares, hospitals, places of worship, funerals, weddings and public demonstrations. Courthouses have never been part of that list.

"We're not going to do it in the courtroom, but to me it's safer," Homan said in an interview in November. "It makes sense to arrest a criminal in a criminal courthouse."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.A lion that mauled a young woman to death in South Africa was under the care of a man known as the "lion whisperer" for his close interactions with the predators.

The 22-year-old woman, who has not been named, was mauled by a female lion on Tuesday at a game lodge north of Pretoria. The woman sustained critical injuries and died at the scene.

Kevin Richardson, who keeps lions at his animal sanctuary in the Dinokeng Game Reserve, said on Facebook that he and an "experienced" colleague took three lions for a walk in the reserve on Tuesday and that one chased an impala, eventually encountering the woman at least 1.2 miles away.

LIONESS FATALLY MAULS WOMAN AT GAME LODGE IN SOUTH AFRICA

Richardson said he followed procedure before the weekly excursion by assessing the area for other "big five" animals, a designation that includes rhino, elephant, buffalo, leopard and lion, and sending out a "notification" that he was walking with lions.

The woman died at a tented camp run by Richardson, who said he was "devastated" by the killing.

"The young woman was not a guest at the camp, but had accompanied her friend to conduct an interview for an assignment with the camp's manager," he said. "Before leaving the reserve, the two visitors were taking photographs outside the camp where the attack occurred."

LIONESS AT OKLAHOMA CITY ZOO GROWS MANE, STUNS HER KEEPERS

Underlining the dangers posed by the big cats, Richardson recently posted a picture of claw marks on his leg after he was caught between two fighting lions.

Police are investigating Tuesdays fatal incident. The victim had joined a friend who went to the camp for a "school project," said spokeswoman Constable Connie Moganedi. "When they were about to leave, the lioness attacked the young lady."

The victim's family is "traumatized," said Moganedi, who declined to provide details about the victim.

SUSPECTED POACHER MAULED TO DEATH BY LIONS IN SOUTH AFRICAN RESERVE, REPORTS SAY

Richardsons wildlife sanctuary is one hours drive north east of Johannesburg and half an hour from Pretoria, according to its website. The sanctuary is made up of 13 predator enclosures and a large central enrichment area to which the lions are rotated through every couple of weeks.

The 3,200-acre facility predominantly houses adult lions. No lions are bred at the sanctuary, the website says.

The management of the Dinokeng reserve said the woman was killed "within a conservation section that is not accessible to the general public" but lies within the reserve's boundaries.

"The lion that was involved with this fatality was not one of the wild free-roaming lions of the Dinokeng Game Reserve," the management said.

It is not clear what will happen to the lioness that fatally mauled the 22-year-old woman although the animal may reportedly be killed.

The Associated Press contributed to this article.Bridget, an 18-year-old African lioness at Oklahoma City Zoo, has stunned her keepers by growing a mane.

In a blog post, zoo officials explained that Bridget has sprouted a mini-mane. Science Alert reports that the mane grew between March and November 2017.

Male lions develop manes when they are about one year old, as a result of increased testosterone production. Lionesses growing manes, however, is extremely rare.

MOUNTAIN LION CAUGHT AFTER WANDERING THROUGH TEXAS NEIGHBORHOOD

Experts are now trying to figure out how Bridget grew her mane. Staff at Oklahoma City Zoo recently obtained a blood sample from the lioness tail, which is being analyzed.

Aside from a natural genetic component, another potential condition causing the mane growth could be a benign tumor located on her adrenal or pituitary gland as these regulate hormones like testosterone, the zoo explained in the post.

Veterinary staff will continue to monitor Bridget, but say that the unusual condition is unlikely to affect the animals quality of life. Other than the mane, no change has been seen in Bridgets overall health.

Although lionesses with manes are rare, they are not unheard of. In 2011, Emma, a 13-year-old lioness at the National Zoo in South Africa grew a mane, which was similar in length to that of a young male lion. Blood tests revealed that Emma had elevated levels of testosterone, so veterinarians removed her ovaries, which they believed was causing the issue.

'WORLD'S DEADLIEST SPIDER' MAY ACTUALLY HELP SAVE ITS OWN VICTIMS

Scientists were surprised to find that the ovaries contained cells that are normally only seen in the testicles of male lions. After her ovaries were removed, Emma gradually lost her mane.

Five wild lionesses with manes were also spotted in Botswana in 2014. In addition to their manes, the animals were also displaying behavior typical of male lions  one lioness was attempting to mount other females, according to New Scientist.

Because these lions came from the same pride and developed the manes at a young age, researchers believe a genetic component in this population resulted in this characteristic, explained the Oklahoma City Zoo in its post.

Follow James Rogers on Twitter @jamesjrogersAuthorities in Texas were forced to evacuate some homes in a city on the southern border with Mexico on Sunday after a mountain lion wandered through the area.

The Laredo Police Department said in a Facebook post the mountain lion ended up in the Santa Rita subdivision before it was "humanely tranquilized" by a veterinarian.

"This is one for the books for sure," police said. "These animals do not tend to enter heavily populated areas. However, the neighborhood is very close to the animal's natural habitat along the Rio Grande. This call is why there is no such thing as a routine day on patrol."

Officials from the Texas Game Warden plan to assess the animal, and then release it back into the wild away from populated areas.

Mountain lions are native to Texas, and have been spotted in every county except for the northernmost counties of the Panhandle region, according to the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department.

MOUNTAIN LION CRASHES THROUGH CALIFORNIA WOMAN'S BEDROOM WINDOW

"Despite reports of mountain lion attacks on people in California, mountain lion attacks are rare," the agency said. "Only four attacks on humans in Texas have been reported since 1980, all of them in remote areas of West Texas."

The wildlife agency suggests that people who live in areas inhabited by mountain lions install outdoor lighting after dark, remove vegetation from around the house that the animal could hide in, and mostly importantly: "DO NOT APPROACH a mountain lion to get a better view or picture."The notorious firebrand Buddhist monk Ashin Wirathu, also known as the "Burmese bin Laden," has been kicked off Facebook for violating its community standards.

Wirathu, who has used social media to disseminate anti-Muslim hate speech and racist comments, was kicked off the platform in January. A Facebook spokesman told Agence France-Press that the page violated its standards, prompting the social network to take action.

In an email to Fox News, a Facebook spokesperson said: "Our Community Standards prohibit organizations and people dedicated to promoting hatred and violence against others based on their protected characteristics. If a person consistently shares content promoting hate, we may take a range of actions such as temporarily suspending their ability to post and ultimately, removal of their account.

FACEBOOK'S VR SHOOTER GAME AT CPAC PROMPTS BACKLASH, APOLOGY

Facebook is dealing with domestic issues after the platform was used by Russian operatives in attempt to influence the 2016 U.S. presidential election. The social network is also facing issues across the globe, including in Myanmar, Wirathu's home country, where it has been accused of failing to curb anti-Rohingya propaganda.

The Rohingya people, a majority of whom are Muslim, are denied citizenship under the 1982 Myanmar nationality law.

A Twitter account that may be (but unconfirmed by Fox News) associated with Wirathu is still active. The bio on the Twitter account describes Wirathu as "A Burmese anti-Muslim Buddhist monk. A writer. A co-founder of the association for the Protection of Race and Religion." The account has not tweeted since 2016.

In a 2014 interview with VICE, Wirathu claimed he was being misrepresented and was misunderstood.

Im trying to educate the people not to [retaliate], but these aggressive Muslims must be brought to justice, Wirathu said in the interview.

Over 1 million Rohingya lived in Myanmar, but there were only 400,000 remaining in the country as of November 2017. Nearly 700,000 Rohingya have fled to Bangladesh following insurgent attacks, Time magazine noted. The crisis has been labeled ethnic cleansing by the U.N.

Wirathu was also profiled in 2013 by Time, being featured as a cover story entitled The Face of Buddhist Terror.'

A source familiar with the situation said that Facebook is a place where people can challenge ideas, institutions and practices, but the company is "opposed to hate speech and hate groups," something Wirathu has been accused of promoting. The company's Community Standards specifically calls for the removal of "hate speech, which includes material that directly attacks people based on protected characteristics like race, ethnicity, national origin, religious affiliation."

Facebook is intensely popular in Myanmar, due in large part to the wide availability of smartphones and Internet connectivity.

FACEBOOK EXEC APOLOGIZES FOR RUSSIA PROBE TWEETS, REPORT SAYS

Facebook, which has over 2.1 billion monthly active users (MAUs) worldwide, has 828 million MAUs in the Asia-Pacific region, according to its latest quarterly results. The company does not publicly break out its user base by country, but a 2016 report from the Myanmar Times said Facebook had attracted 10 million users in the country.

Follow Chris Ciaccia on Twitter @Chris_CiacciaThere are many places on Earth where you can regularly hear the screams of people unable to get a good signal. Hopefully the mobile networks will eventually figure that out, but Vodafone is clearly a little distracted as it prepares to create a 4G network on the moon.

The mission to setup 4G on the moon is being spearheaded by German space company PTScientists, whose goal is to bring down the cost of doing research in space. PTScientists has already developed a spacecraft capable of carrying 100kg of payload to the moon. Part of that payload next year will be a space-grade network weighing less than a bag of sugar developed by Nokia in conjunction with Vodafone. Audi is also involved in getting this first privately-funded Moon landing to happen.

The reason as to why a 4G network is being installed on the moon is data transfers. Two Audi lunar quattro rovers will also be landed there and intend to study NASA's Apollo 17 lunar roving vehicle. The rovers will capture both HD video footage and scientific data, which can be transferred using the 4G base station and beamed down to Earth. The network will also allow the rovers to communicate with each other easily.

Nokia Bell Labs will create the "space-grade Ultra Compact Network" that is expected to be the lightest ever developed, weighing in at less than one kilo. Vodafone expects it to broadcast 4G using the 1800Mhz frequency and be capable of live-streaming a HD video feed. The mission is expected to launch at some point in 2019 using a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral.

Last year, China and Europe were in talks to build a moon base and I'm sure they'd be happy to arrive to an already working 4G network. Jeff Bezos is also planning moon deliveries by 2020 and a 4G signal should allow him to get those "your order is being delivered today" text messages through to Amazon Prime (on the moon) subscribers.

This article originally appeared on PCMag.com.This is a rush transcript from "Your World," February 28, 2018. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

NEIL CAVUTO, "YOUR WORLD" HOST: All right, the president making it very clear he's still not too pleased with his attorney general.

The question I have is why the attorney general still stays on. Apparently, we're getting reports that he had offered his resignation a couple of times. The president has either declined it or they thought better of it. Whatever the case, it's an awkward relationship.

What is it about that job, the pressures or the conundrum right now it has put Jeff Sessions in?

Let's ask a fellow who held that job, the former attorney general for President George W. Bush, Mike Mukasey.

General, very good to have you.

MICHAEL MUKASEY, FORMER U.S. ATTORNEY GENERAL: Good to with you.

CAVUTO: What was it like working for President Bush? Did he ever have differences with you? Did he ever publicly say anything bad about you?

MUKASEY: We had a couple of differences. He never publicly said anything bad about me.

We -- whatever differences we had were resolved internally. He was, after all, the president. I lost a couple. I won a couple.

CAVUTO: Did they get heated? Did you ever offer to resign?

MUKASEY: No. No, not nearly.

CAVUTO: OK.

MUKASEY: Not nearly.

CAVUTO: What do you think of this relationship? What is going on here?

MUKASEY: Look, I'm not -- I'm not an expert on relationships. I'm a lawyer, not a psychologist.

CAVUTO: All right. But when the president is constantly second-guessing you -- and it might be his right -- it might just still be burnt and angry about the attorney general recusing himself.

But it has never, never calmed. And this latest opinion of the president about the way Sessions handled this whole FISA thing, what did you think of that?

MUKASEY: I think it's wrong.

CAVUTO: Who is wrong?

MUKASEY: The president is wrong. And he doesn't know his own interests.

CAVUTO: Explain.

MUKASEY: The fact is that the I.G. is the person who should investigate this.

CAVUTO: The inspector general.

MUKASEY: Yes, the inspector general is the person who should investigate this.

CAVUTO: Even though the president says, oh, that's an Obama guy.

MUKASEY: Obama guy, my foot.

He was there in the George W. Bush administration. He was an Obama appointee, but he's straight as the edge of that table. He's a serious person who investigates things on the merits. And he's investigated other things on the merits that he will conclude when he concludes.

Mike Horowitz is a suburb I.G. And I think pretty much every responsible person understands that.

CAVUTO: We don't want to get into machinations of...

MUKASEY: I mean, there's no...

CAVUTO: Go ahead.

MUKASEY: You don't -- you conduct an investigation of the sort that the president was talking when there's evidence of a crime. There isn't.

So, there's no crime to investigate. The I.G. is the person to investigate whether rules and procedures were followed. If he unearths something that smacks of criminality, there will be plenty of time to investigate it.

CAVUTO: OK.

Now, let's say he were to leave. That is, Jeff Sessions were to leave, for whatever reason, I can't deal with it, or he's forced out.

MUKASEY: He has job -- if there's anybody in this world who has job security, he is a person who has job security, because the person who would succeed obviously is Rod Rosenstein.

CAVUTO: Right.

MUKASEY: Right.

(CROSSTALK)

CAVUTO: And finding a successor, a permanent one, would take a long, long time.

MUKASEY: I will say.

CAVUTO: Yes.

So, the legal fallout from this back and forth, it's generally never advisable to have a public dispute. But do you know at the Justice Department how this is all falling out? Is it a big deal? Are they used to it? What?

MUKASEY: I don't know for a fact, because I'm not there.

I can't imagine that it helps morale to hear about squabbles going on at the department where you work. But I think that the attorney general and the people who work at the department who are serious-minded people do on a daily basis what they should do, which is to keep their heads down, do their jobs, and try to call things the way they see them.

And as far as I know, that's what's doing on at the department now. Certainly, that's what Jeff Sessions is doing.

CAVUTO: You know, General, I think it's probably one of the toughest Cabinet positions, the attorney general, because, though you're appointed by the president, you serve the people, as do all Cabinet secretaries.

But the legal issues come to the fore when the president doesn't think that you're necessarily serving his interests and you're -- you're acting against those interests. How did you handle that? What did you -- just about your day-to-day handling of the job?

MUKASEY: I handled it by responding and making my case. And, as I said, I won a couple, I a lost a couple.

If the president tells you to do something, and it's within the limits of the law, even if you think it's bad policy, you do it, because the president sets policy.

If you think it's outside the limits of the law, and the president tells you do it, you say no. And either the president fires you, or you leave. But I don't think that we're at that point with Attorney General Sessions.

I think what is going on, of course, is this public criticism, which I don't think is good for anybody.

CAVUTO: Why does it continue, though? Would you put up with that, if it were you? Just -- I know it's different with President Bush.

MUKASEY: I can't...

CAVUTO: Would you put up with that?

MUKASEY: I can't put myself in Jeff Sessions' place in this administration.

This is very different from what it was like when I was there. If the president had said something about me in public of the sort that this president has said about Jeff Sessions, it would indicate deep dissatisfaction.

CAVUTO: And you would offer your resignation?

MUKASEY: Yes, of course. I would have taken it to heart.

But it would have been preceded by a great deal that I don't think preceded this.

CAVUTO: A lot have said that this president, he is new to the job, doesn't know even about maybe the role of an attorney general, that he was trying to be -- you know, do anything illegal or anything else, but he had read into this loyalty, this is all about loyalty to the president.

How do you juggle that as attorney general of the United States, appointed by the president of the United States, serving for the president of the United States, serving the United States?

MUKASEY: Look, the A.G. is a member of the administration. So, he's got to follow the policy of the administration.

But his job is to advise the president on what the limits are of the law, what the law allows at both ends. And then the president makes the choices between those limits. I think President Bush well understood that.

And the notion that somehow the A.G. is the president's lawyer is wrong. The president has lawyers. He's got White House counsel.

CAVUTO: But on this issue, where -- on this issue, where Sessions decided, I'm going to have an I.G. look into -- handle this whole thing, and the president was ticked off about it, you're saying that Sessions was within his rights, this is the right route to take?

MUKASEY: It's the right route to take. It's also the correct route to take. It makes a lot...

CAVUTO: As it was back in the very beginning, when he recused himself.

MUKASEY: Right.

CAVUTO: That he was in the legal right there, two actions that the president deems unacceptable.

MUKASEY: Right. The answer to that is, tough.

CAVUTO: OK.

Attorney General, very good seeing again.

END

Content and Programming Copyright 2018 Fox News Network, LLC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Copyright 2018 CQ-Roll Call, Inc. All materials herein are protected by United States copyright law and may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, displayed, published or broadcast without the prior written permission of CQ-Roll Call. You may not alter or remove any trademark, copyright or other notice from copies of the content.This is a rush transcript from "Your World," February 28, 2018. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

NEIL CAVUTO, "YOUR WORLD" HOST: I want to get the read from all this with Democrat Joe Manchin, of course, of West Virginia, and working to Pat Toomey to come up with a bipartisan arms measure.

And I do know you have a vote to look forward to, Senator. So, I thank you for taking the time.

SEN. JOE MANCHIN, D-WEST VIRGINIA: Sure, Neil.

CAVUTO: How did it go in the White House there today, and do you think you made some common ground? I mean, if you had even approaching the support you had last time, you're very close to 60 votes.

MANCHIN: Right, with the president's support.

And here's thing. It comes down to this. I have always and will always support the Second Amendment rights. So does the president. And he knows we need to do some commonsense changes as far as in background checks.

When people go to gun shows, they need to have a background check, it's a commercial transaction, on the Internet. He supports that. And I'm tickled to death. And with his support, and both of us protecting the Second Amendment rights, we can move forward. And that's what we intend to do.

CAVUTO: Do you think, when you say intend to do it, that this could be done in short order? The president said keep it simple, don't do a lot of add-ons. There was talk about, even from Steve Scalise.

MANCHIN: Yes.

CAVUTO: Adding special measures for concealed weapons.

(CROSSTALK)

CAVUTO: What do you think of that?

MANCHIN: Yes.

He knew the controversial things that really have a heavy lift, if you will.

CAVUTO: Right.

MANCHIN: But when you're talking about the background checks, the Manchin- Toomey bill that we had in 2013, it was a good piece of legislation then, and it's a good piece of legislation now.

That's the base bill he's talking about. It had the Fix NICS in there, so we have better reporting. He wants to put in the mental illness part. We can address that. School safety, we had that in there. There's some things that we can tweak and put in there. He said he's getting rid of bump stocks on his own. That doesn't need to be in there.

He wants the age of 21. We will see if there's support for the age of 21.

It seems to me like it's a no-brainer, because if it takes 21 years of age to buy a handgun, then he's talking about AR-15s. If he just -- if they basically narrow that down to what firearm he's talking about to raising the age, because there's an awful lot of 18-year-olds who hunt and use for target practicing, sport shooting and all that, and very responsible.

So, we will work through that.

(CROSSTALK)

CAVUTO: But are you against raising the age? He noticed that difference between 21 for a gun, 18 for some of these...

MANCHIN: No, I think -- I think that's a no-brainer for me. I don't have a problem there.

CAVUTO: OK.

MANCHIN: But, also, there might be a caveat where we can carve out, which is what you do when you compromise, that if a person at 18 years of age wishes to have an AR-15 and it's legally sold, then that person would have to go certain types of steps and tests and competency, showing that they're adequately trained and responsible to use this type of a weapon.

So that could be done. But we have heard talk of that. We're willing to talk to anybody about whatever they want to, to come up with an all- inclusive piece of legislation. So, the Manchin-Toomey bill we had will be the base we will work off on.

John Cornyn and Chris Murphy and everybody that wants to work with us, hopefully, we can make one good piece of legislation that can get through.

CAVUTO: As you might have heard, Senator, Hope Hicks, the communications director of the White House, is resigning.

MANCHIN: Yes, I did.

CAVUTO: Obviously, it occurs at a very unique and critical moment here, to communicate the message on getting all this out that you want to get out.

What do you think of what is going on at the White House right now?

MANCHIN: I really -- I was just there. And I met afterwards, Pat and I and John Cornyn, and went into the room with the president. And Mr. Kelly, General Kelly was there, and talking about how we move forward and we will work together and we want to make sure the president is on board.

And I said, if the president is on board, knowing that he's going to protect the Second Amendment, the same as I am going to protect it, and Pat Toomey and everybody else, we can get something rational reasonably done.

CAVUTO: Was Hope Hicks there when you were there by any chance?

(CROSSTALK)

MANCHIN: No, she wasn't.

(CROSSTALK)

CAVUTO: Because she would have communicated that.

MANCHIN: I didn't see her there. No, I did not.

So, I just heard about this walking in. This is the first time I have heard about it.

CAVUTO: Yes.

All on the same day, as you know, Senator, the president and his attorney general are at loggerheads again. What do you think of that?

MANCHIN: Well, there's a lot going on. It's a lot to digest, I understand.

But it seems like they -- this is the modus operandi. This is how they operate. And he's able to function through that. So, everyone has their own style and their own comfort level.

CAVUTO: You sound surprised.

MANCHIN: A little bit unusual.

CAVUTO: Yes.

Your colleagues and what they make of all of this,. How willing are they to help out on a gun measure, particularly Democrats who might think that Republicans are not giving up enough on gun control, per se? You would tell them what?

MANCHIN: I would say this. And I have said this before. I know they wanted to go much further than what my bill and Toomey's bill went in 2013.

But we have to bring people together to get 60 votes. It's the art of the compromise working in the Senate. And we have a piece of legislation. And I have said this very candidly. If President Trump would have been president in 2013, when this piece of legislation was first introduced, we wouldn't be having this conversation. We would have passed it.

Because of President Obama, people are a little bit concerned, and they were believing that he wouldn't protect their Second Amendment rights or wasn't as supportive of the Second Amendment rights as hard as they wanted it to be.

They were scared, well, if you pass this one, Joe, even though it makes sense, we're gun owners, we like it, it's OK, we think it makes sense. But if we do that, then they will do more. He will take more.

They don't believe that with President Trump. And that's why it's important to have his support.

CAVUTO: Senator Manchin, thank you very, very much.

MANCHIN: Thank you, Neil. Appreciate it.

CAVUTO: Know it's been a busy day for you. Thank you.

MANCHIN: Sure thing. Bye-bye.

CAVUTO: All right.

END

Content and Programming Copyright 2018 Fox News Network, LLC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Copyright 2018 CQ-Roll Call, Inc. All materials herein are protected by United States copyright law and may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, displayed, published or broadcast without the prior written permission of CQ-Roll Call. You may not alter or remove any trademark, copyright or other notice from copies of the content.Over 100 participants from the greater Chattanooga area attended Family Discovery Day at The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints held on Saturday. Nationally and internationally renowned genealogist Jim Ison was the featured speaker. Much of Mr. Isons research focuses on African American Research so his participation at Family Discovery Day was intended to also be a celebration of Black History Month.

Mr. Ison was formerly a manager at FamilySearch  the largest genealogy organization in the world. FamilySearch is a non-profit, volunteer-driven organization sponsored by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. At FamilySearch.org, users may access for free billions of historical records from around the world, including records from the Freedmens Bureau Records Project. According to the National Archives and Records Administration, Freedmens Bureau records contain some of the most valuable records of the black experience in the second half of the 1800s (archives.org).

As previously reported by Mrs. Gloria Smartt  family history consultant for the Chattanooga Stake of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints  about 19,000 volunteers from the Afro-American Historical and Genealogical Societys nationwide chapters, the Smithsonian, and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints partnered in 2015 with the NARA to digitally index the Freedmens Bureau Records. The indexing effort was unprecedented.

At Family Discovery Day, Mr. Ison spoke about the Freedmens Bureau Records Project and also presented Four Key Resources for African-American Research  including Black Roots: A Beginners Guide to Tracing the African American Family Tree; Discovering Your African-American Ancestors: Slave Ancestral Research: Its Something Else; and Finding a Place Called Home: A Guide to African-American Genealogy and Historical Identity.

Mr. Ison also recommended reading His Promised Land  a book about a man named John Parker who was a slave, sold at age eight. John Parker eventually rescued 440 runaways from Kentucky between 1845-1860. By 1870, he was one of the wealthiest persons in America. He owned and operated an Iron foundry. John Parkers story is a beautiful story of the resilience and glory of the human spirit.

Everyone has a story, Mrs. Smartt said. All of us are children of God. And, exploring our roots helps us discover who we are, why we are here and what our purpose is in life. Genealogy connects us. Thats why at this years RootsTech conference to be held in Salt Lake City, from Wednesday, Feb. 28, through Saturday, March 3, emphasis will be placed on strengthening our sense of belonging by connecting to our families  both living and deceased.

RootsTech is said to be the largest family history event in the world. More than 70,000 people from all 50 states and at least 50 countries are expected to attend in person or stream events online, according to Deseret News (2/26/18). RootsTech is organized by FamilySearch.

Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Harvard professor and host of the PBS Television program, Finding Your Roots, will be a prominent keynote speaker at RootTechs 2018. According to Mr. Gates, one of the pivotal events that led to him becoming the host of Finding Your Roots was his own experience at the LDS Churchs Family History Library in Salt Lake City. I feel strong, warm connections to the Family History Library and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for all the amazing work they have done to make possible the study of genealogy, he said in a recent interview with the Deseret News (Everything you need to know about RootsTech 2018, 2/26/18).

Whether in Chattanooga or Salt Lake City, Utah, anyone can participate in the livestream events offered at RootTechs 2018. For further information, visit Rootstech.org.

And for anyone interested in learning more or following up after our successful Family Discovery Day in Chattanooga, Mrs. Smartt continued, please visit our Chattanooga Tennessee Family History Center located at 3067 Ooltewah Ringgold Road. Our hours of operation are Wednesdays from 6:30-8:30 p.m. Specialists will be on hand to help you sign up for a free online FamilySearch account. Visitors will also learn how to save family photos, stories, documents and audio. We look forward to welcoming you.While Disneyland might be the happiest place on Earth for visitors, the reality might be a lot less magical for resort employees who keep the park running on a daily basis.

According to a new survey of 5,000 workers, called Working for the Mouse, almost three quarters (73 percent) reported that they do not earn enough money to cover basic expenses every month. The Disneyland employees, known as cast members, cited extra-long commutes, struggles with paying rent and even facing homelessness and an inability to afford basic health care.

DISNEYLAND ANNOUNCES NEW TROPICAL HIDEAWAY EXPERIENCE

Based on the results of the survey, a coalition of 11 Disneyland unions is calling for the resort to raise the base wage of all employees to $20 an hour to help offset these challenges and accommodate for a high cost of living in Orange County, California and the surrounding areas near the park.

Despite the struggles many Disneyland employees are dealing with on a daily basis, four-fifths say they are proud of the work they do, though they report feeling undervalued, disrespected and underpaid, according to the survey findings.

Over 85 percent of union workers at Disneyland earn less than $15 an hour, according the report. Average hourly wage has also decreased since from 2000 to 2017, from $15.80 to $13.36, even though the park has seen a steady increase in profit, The Orange County Register reports.

Its really sad that after working 16 years for Disney Im not making enough money to pay bills and when I do pay bills, there is not enough for other things like enjoying a nice meal with family or going on vacation, one merchandise employee said in the survey. I sometimes stress on how I will pay rent, food, gas, and other expenses. I recently had to work Monday-Saturday and had 1 day off (Sunday) just to pay bills.

Another employee said that after 28 years at the park, she is making less than $20 an hour. If I didnt have my husband to help with the bills and other life expenses, I would be living out of my car, or worse, homeless, she said.

BABY HIPPO BORN AT DISNEY'S ANIMAL KINGDOM

The cast member also notes that even though park tickets, food and merchandise have all increased in price, many employees are struggling just to get by. I am not asking to get rich by working for Disney, but I am asking for fair pay for fair work. I expect to be able to not worry, to not stress, about having food to eat and a roof over my head, she said.

Earlier this month, officials for Walt Disney Parks and Resorts announced that tickets for the Disneyland Resort would increase by nearly 9 percent for peak one-day entry, from $124 to $135, while the price of non-peak regular tickets would increase from $110 to $117.

Disneyland spokeswoman Suzi Brown declined to comment to The OC Register on the hardships detailed by union members in the report or the data on decreasing wages. She did say that the average annual wage paid to full-time, hourly employees in 2017 was approximately $37,000, which includes union and non-union employees and the tips that some workers earn.

FOLLOW US ON FACEBOOK FOR MORE FOX LIFESTYLE NEWS

While we recognize that socio-economic challenges exist for many people living in Southern California, we take pride in our employment experience, Brown told the Register.

This inaccurate and unscientific survey was paid for by politically motivated labor unions and its results are deliberately distorted and do not reflect how the overwhelming majority of our 30,000 cast members feel about the company.Peoria police officials said Tuesday that two suspects ran to the grounds of a police precinct in Arizona before they were arrested by officers.

The incident, according to Peoria police, happened at around 6:10 p.m. on February 16, when officers approached a suspicious car at a gas station North Lake Pleasant Parkway. As officers approached the car, they ran away from the gas station, and eventually ran toward the front door of the precinct building.

According to Peoria police, there is a very large "Peoria Police" sign above that door.

The suspects, according to police, then ran along the building, and later hopped the fence into the secure area of the department, where several officers were in training at that moment.

The male suspect, identified as 28-year-old Marwan Al Ebadi, jumped back over the fence and onto the roadway, where officers took him into custody. The female suspect, identified as 29-year-old Salma Hourieh, was found hiding under a bench in the secured area, and was arrested.

Both Al Ebadi and Hourieh, according to police, are facing several charges, including shoplifting, trespassing, and drug charges. Both suspects are from the Sun City area.

Police also say this incident serves as a reminder for people to not run into a secure parking lot of a police station, if they are on the run from the police.

This story originally appeared on Fox 10.A concerned Florida father turned his sons phone over to police after seeing disturbing posts with guns shared on social media, but officers said they arrested the son after another discovery: child porn on his devices.

Sean Mesa, 18, was arrested on Thursday by Miami-Dade Schools police on two counts of child pornography and one misdemeanor charge of carelessly handling a weapon, the Washington Post reported citing court documents.

Authorities said Mesa allegedly possessed a video that showed a child under 10 being sexually abused.

Prior to his arrest, Mesa spoke with Miami-Dade Schools Detective John Messenger on Tuesday. He said that Mesa claimed it was his right to post whatever he wanted and that he simply likes guns, the Miami Herald reported.

Jamie Mesa, the father, told Messenger he was concerned over his sons post and thats when he handed over both of Mesas phones.

But even after his two phones were turned over to U.S. Secret Service, Mesa continued to share disturbing posts on Snapchat using other devices including one where a pistol was shown on his lap with the caption now they watching so I aint stopping, investigators said.

Although Mesa was not charged with making a threat, he could face years in prison and would have to register as a sex offender if hes convicted on the felony child pornography charges, The Post reported.Welcome to Fox News First. Not signed up yet? Click here.

Developing now, Friday, Feb. 23, 2018

A Parkland, Fla., massacre survivor tells Fox News he pulled out of a CNN town hall because producers rewrote his question and told him to 'stick to the script'

Outrage is growing after reports that a deputy never entered the Parkland, Fla., school where last week's shooting took place

Russia Special Counsel Robert Mueller indicts former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort and aide Rick Gates on tax and bank fraud charges

President Trump is expected to address CPAC on Friday

TUNE IN: 'Life, Liberty & Levin' hosted by Mark Levin premieres on Fox News this Sunday at 10 p.m. ET.

THE LEAD STORY - 'STICK TO THE SCRIPT': A Florida student says he chose not to participate in CNN's town hall debate on gun violence Wednesday because network producers rewrote his question ... Colton Haab, a junior at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, where 17 people were slain Feb. 14, told "Tucker Carlson Tonight" he did not attend the event when he realized it would be a "total waste of time." "They had taken what I had wrote and what I had briefed on and talked about, and they actually wrote the question for me," Haab said. "Originally, I had thought that it was going to be more of my own question and my own say. And then it turned out to be more of just a script. And [the producer] had actually said that over the phone, that I needed to stick to the script."

CNN denies that it scripted questions for any of the participants at the town hall, which was attended by U.S. Sens. Marco Rubio and Bill Nelson, both of Florida, and National Rifle Association spokeswoman Dana Loesch.

'SICK TO MY STOMACH': Police are reportedly guarding the home of a deputy who was on patrol at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., after it was revealed he never entered the school when the Feb. 14 massacre took place ... Deputy Scot Peterson, of the Broward County Sheriffs Office, resigned Thursday after video surveillance showed he never entered the school, even though he "clearly" knew there was a shooting taking place, officials said. He was stationed on the schools campus when a suspect identified by authorities as Nikolas Cruz opened fire with an AR-15 rifle, killing 17 people. Sheriff Scott Israel said during a news conference Thursday that video showed Peterson took up a position but "never went in." The sheriff said he believes Peterson remained outside the building for roughly four minutes, while the shooting in total lasted around six minutes. Israel said the officer never fired his weapon.

A union official said Peterson thought he did a "good job" in his response to the shooting. Sheriff Israel disagreed, telling reporters he was "devastated. Sick to my stomach. There are no words." The revelation about the school deputy's failure to act came as President Trump floated the possibility of paying teachers a "bonus to carry concealed firearms, stressing both the importance of school security and the strengthening of some gun laws in wake of the Parkland tragedy.

MUELLER CASTS WIDE NET: Special Counsel Robert Mueller filed a 32-count indictment Thursday, hitting former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort and aide Rick Gates with news charges of tax evasion and bank fraud ... Manafort is specifically charged with five counts related to filing false income tax returns and four counts of failure to report foreign bank and financial accounts. Gates is accused of 11 counts related to filing false income tax returns and three counts of failure to report foreign bank and financial accounts. Both men are accused of nine counts of bank fraud and conspiracy to commit bank fraud. The new indictment comes a week after Mueller filed charges against 13 Russians, accusing them of a vast conspiracy to undermine the U.S. presidential election.

TRUMP AT CPAC: President Trump is expected to address the annual Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) for the second straight year on Friday ... While he was fresh off his inauguration and greeted as a conquering hero at last year's gathering, expect the president to use CPAC 2018 to highlight the accomplishments of his first year in office, attack the "fake news" of his detractors in the mainstream media and perhaps slam Special Counsel Robert Mueller's Russia probe, Hillary Clinton and former President Obama. Trump may also address the gun control debate sparked anew by the school shooting in Parkland, Fla. Tune in to Fox News at 10 am ET to watch live coverage of President Trump's address at CPAC.

NEW SHOW: 'LIFE, LIBERTY & LEVIN': Mark Levin makes his Fox News Channel hosting debut with the premiere of "Life, Liberty & Levin" this Sunday at 10 p.m. ET ... The popular nationally syndicated radio host's program will explore the fundamental values and principles undergirding American society, culture, politics, and current events, and their relevance to the nations future and everyday lives of citizens. "Life, Liberty & Levin" will feature in-depth, long-form, thought-provoking interviews. On Sunday, Levin will talk to economist and syndicated columnist Walter E. Williams.

AS SEEN ON FOX NEWS

COLUMBINE'S LESSONS STILL NOT LEARNED: "I've heard 'it's never going to happen here, it's not going to happen here,' but guess what? It's happening everywhere, and it happens every month. So prepare for it, hire somebody to protect your children and let them go to school that way."  Grant Whitus, a former SWAT team leader who was the first officer to enter Columbine High School during the 1999 mass shooting, on "Your World with Neil Cavuto," arguing that any school district that doesn't have armed security will be "setting themselves up for a lawsuit." WATCH

DEMS FIRING BLANKS: "The Democrats seem to want to ban bad guys and good guys from having weapons. I don't understand why we would ban good guys."  Jesse Watters, on "The Five," arguing the GOP has been the "party of ideas" on how to prevent mass shootings, while Democrats have not. WATCH

2018 WINTER OLYMPICS

North Korea spy chief, accused in deadly attacks on South Korea, to lead Olympic delegation at closing ceremony.

Ivanka Trump's Olympic visit sparks speculation about media's reaction.

Twitter attacks German figure skater for performing to 'Schindler's List' score.

U.S. medal winners | Full coverage

THE SWAMP

Trump: Without ICE, California would be 'crime nest.'

Indicted Missouri governor blasts 'reckless liberal' prosecutor.

Mattis expected to back transgender troops -- if they can deploy, official says.

ACROSS THE NATION

Husband of Alabama double-life mom arrested in her murder.

Child marriage protects predators, must end, former bride tells Kentucky lawmakers.

Driver crashes car into Connecticut hospital, sets himself on fire.

MINDING YOUR BUSINESS

Ousted Ford executive Raj Nair to lose $10M in bonuses, keep retirement benefits and health care.

Feds want 'Pharma Bro' Martin Shkrelis millions.

Ford F-150 wins top truck, Tesla is best American brand in Consumer Reports rankings.

After Florida massacre, bank ends NRA-logo credit card, rental car firm ends NRA member discount.



FOX NEWS OPINION

Tammy Bruce: Tracking the real collusion -- Obama knew foreign entities were interfering; he did nothing.

On Black History Month, an African-American civil rights pioneer reflects on today's political landscape.

U.S. passivity in the face of Syrian atrocities is hurting our global interests.

HOLLYWOOD SQUARED

Chevy Chase gets into roadside fight with young drivers who had to look up who he was.

William Shatner takes friendly shot at Mark Hamill over Walk of Fame star.

Comedian Michelle Wolf set to host White House Correspondents Dinner.

DID YOU HEAR ABOUT THIS?

Hit a bullet with a bullet: New defensive missile could prevent close range attacks.

Archaeologists may have found the Prophet Isaiah's 'signature.'

'Hero' cow escapes slaughterhouse and hides on island for a month.

STAY TUNED

On Fox News:

Fox & Friends, 6 a.m. ET: The Rev. Franklin Graham reflects on his life and death of his father, the Rev. Billy Graham; Secretary of Energy Rick Perry previews his CPAC speech; and a look at some of Consumer Reports' top cars.

Tucker Carlson Tonight, 8 p.m. ET: Ying Ma, author of "Chinese Girl in the Ghetto," on why China is the real threat to the United States.

Hannity, 9 p.m. ET: Judge Jeanine Pirro and Tomi Lahren break down President Trump's speech at CPAC.

The Ingraham Angle, 10 p.m. ET: Michelle Malkin sounds off on the latest in the gun debate in wake of the tragedy in Parkland, Fla.

Fox News @ Night, 11 p.m. ET: A special interview with Rick Harrison of "Pawn Stars."

On Fox Business:

Mornings with Maria, 6 a.m. ET: Guests include: Patrick Byrne, Overstock.com CEO; House Majority Whip Steve Scalise; Glenn Youngkin, Carlyle co-CEO; U.S Olympian skier Torin Yater-Wallace.

Varney & Co, 9 a.m. ET: Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto; Mike Bless, Century Aluminum CEO.

On Fox News Radio:

The Fox News Rundown podcast: Fox News correspondent Matt Finn and a Florida teacher on the debate over whether arming school officials will prevent mass shootings. On Monday, the Supreme Court will hear a challenge out of Illinois to public union payments. Fox News Radio Washington correspondent Jared Halpern details both arguments in the case and why Supreme Court observers are closely watching Justice Neil Gorsuch. Plus, commentary from "Fox News Sunday" host Chris Wallace.

Want the Fox News Rundown sent straight to your mobile device? Subscribe through Apple Podcasts, Google Play, and Stitcher.

This Weekend on Fox News:

Neil Cavuto Live, Saturday, 10 a.m. ET: Guests include: Parkland student Ariana Klein on her meeting with President Trump; House GOP Conference Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers will be live from CPAC on the gun control debate. Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke on the recent announcement to expand oil and gas drilling off of California's coast. And Liberty University President Jerry Falwell Jr reflects of the life of the Rev. Billy Graham.

#OnThisDay

2013: Ronda Rousey beats Liz Carmouche in the first round of the UFCs first womens bout, in Anaheim, Calif.

1945: During World War II, U.S. Marines on Iwo Jima capture Mount Suribachi, where they raise two American flags (the second captured in the iconic Associated Press photo).

1927: President Calvin Coolidge signs a bill creating the Federal Radio Commission, the forerunner of the Federal Communications Commission.

Fox News First is compiled by Fox News' Bryan Robinson. Thank you for joining us! Enjoy your day, and weekend! We'll see you in your inbox first thing Monday morning.

EDITORS NOTE: After student Colton Haab said a CNN producer insisted he use a question that the network scripted for him, the students father, Glenn, forwarded an email to media outlets including Fox News, claiming it served as proof. On Tuesday, Feb. 27, Glenn Haab acknowledged he omitted words in that email, but added, There was nothing malicious behind it.A Mexican man arrested by U.S. Border Patrol agents in Arizona on Monday night is a fugitive who has been wanted in connection with a 1982 murder case in Chicago, authorities said.

Yuma Sector agents said the suspect, identified as Alejandro Rodriguez-Valencia, was taken into custody Monday night near a dam, soon after crossing into the U.S. illegally.

During processing, agents discovered that Rodriguez-Valencia's fingerprints and photo matched those of a suspect with an active felony arrest warrant in Chicago involving a killing with a knife.

The suspect, under the name Francisco Ruiz, was wanted in connection with the July 24, 1982, slaying of Victor Robledo in Chicago's Little Village neighborhood, the Chicago Tribune reported.

Ruiz is believed to have fled Chicago just before being charged in the killing, the newspaper reported.

Border Patrol officials say Rodriguez-Valencia was previously deported from the United States in 2006.

Authorities say Rodriguez-Valencia has been turned over to Yuma police for extradition to Illinois.

It was unclear Tuesday if he has a lawyer yet.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.Investigators are looking into an apparent hazmat situation at Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall in Ft. Myer, Virginia, after a number of people began feeling sick after opening a letter, officials said.

Arlington Fire, one of the units responding to the scene, said "11 people started feeling ill after the letter was opened" in an administration building. Three patients were hospitalized and were said to be in stable condition.

According to the U.S. Marines, personnel took preventative measures and evacuated people from the building.

Several Marines are receiving medical care as a result of this incident, they added.

According to a news release, the affected building was investigated and cleared.

"Joint Base Police Department officials are working with local HAZMAT teams, NCIS and the FBI," the news release said. "The letter was removed, and NCIS and FBI are conducting a joint investigation.

The letter was taken to a lab at Quantico for further examination, ABC News reported.

The base is located outside of Washington D.C., near the Pentagon.

Fox News Lucas Tomlinson and Jennifer Griffin contributed to this report.A woman in Nevada who reportedly carried a pickaxe as she shouted threats at a playground where hundreds of children were playing has been arrested.

Kisstal Killough, 33, was allegedly carrying the hand tool and screaming threats as she climbed a chain link fence around noon on Tuesday to enter the Tom Williams Elementary School playground in North Las Vegas, Fox 5 Las Vegas reported.

A public information officer with the North Las Vegas Police Department said there were 200 children on the playground during the incident, in which Killough was shouting she was going to murder everyone, according to KSNV.

When officers reportedly arrived one minute later, Killough jumped off the fence, dropped the pickaxe and surrendered peacefully.

Killough, according to police, was mentally impaired during the incident  possibly under the influence of drugs.

In a letter sent home to parents, school Principal Kristie Cole said that Killough "did not harm anyone or cause any damage to the school," and was reported to police after staff and students noticed her.

Arrest records show Killough was taken into custody on charges of assault with a deadly weapon, trespass, nuisance and loitering on school property.Surveillance video obtained by Fox News showed three New York City police officers carrying a 91-year-old woman along a smoke-filled hallway  moments before they left her on the floor.

Ethel Davis  mother of six and great-great-grandmother of 16  died of smoke inhalation one day after the Jan. 12 fire at the apartment complex where she lived in Rockaway Beach, Queens. Now, her family is preparing to file a lawsuit against the NYPD, the city and the cops who carried Davis on that fateful day.

The video showed a scene of controlled chaos as officers hustled residents out of the building. At one point, a maintenance worker wielding a fire extinguisher headed toward the blaze, but officers apparently told him to turn around.

Davis relatives claimed the police failure was twofold. First, they said there was no reason for cops to force Ethel out of the apartment, which was equipped with fireproof doors.

I told them shed [be] safer in the house with the door closed and that she wouldnt survive in the hallway, Ethel Davis daughter Marcia told the New York Post.

The second mistake, according to Davis family attorney Peter S. Thomas, was leaving a stairwell door open  allowing smoke from the fire on the 11th floor to pour onto the floor above, where Davis lived.

At each and every step, the officers on the scene did precisely the wrong thing, Thomas told the Post.

An attorney for one of the officers who carried Davis, Sgt. Timothy Brovakos, has said his client was overcome by smoke and tried to retrieve the woman from the hallway when he came to.

He risked his life to save this woman, Sergeants Benevolent Association lawyer Andrew Quinn told the Post last month. This is what makes it difficult to be a cop these days. You run into a burning building to save lives and get blamed.

The NYPD is conducting its own investigation into the incident.

Click for more from the New York Post.A 17-year-old Texas girl repeatedly stabbed her newborn just minutes after it was born then dumped the body at a neighbors home and went to sleep, police said.

Erica Gomez of El Paso faces capital murder charges for the Feb. 9 killing.

I cannot understand what she was thinking or feeling, said Erica Martinez, who told KFOX she was Gomezs confirmation teacher.

According to court documents, Gomez admitted to giving birth in her bathroom, wrapping the baby in a bathrobe, and putting it in a shed at her neighbors house. She then went back inside her home and fell asleep.

Gomez didn't tell anyone because she was scared, according to police.

While she was sleeping, Gomezs mother noticed she was bleeding and took her to the hospital. Doctors at the hospital told Gomez she had a miscarriage.

The newborns body was eventually found by a 13-year-old neighbor who entered his shed and made the grisly discovery. Police determined the baby had been left in the shed for 12 hours, from the time of birth until the boy found it.

It really upsets me, children shouldnt be abused, said Thomas Moreno, who lives on the street where the incident happened.

The baby had been stabbed nine times  three times on the neck, once on the side and five times in the back. Forensic Examiner Doctor Janice Diaz determined the death was a homicide.

Gomez was arrested on Feb. 23. She is being held at El Paso County jail on $800,000 bond.A person in Illinois who was witnessing a stabbing verbally threatened the assailant with an AR-15-style rifle and ultimately stopped the attack, officials said.

Deputies on Monday responded to an argument between neighbors in Oswego Township, the Kendall County Sheriffs Office said.

A witness who saw the attack  in which someone stabbed another person multiple times during an argument  went home, grabbed their rifle and was able to stop the attack with only a threat of force.

The witness who pulled out the firearm has a concealed carry permit and also possessed a Firearms Owners Identification Card, authorities said.

CARJACKING SUSPECT SHOT DEAD BY MAN WITH CONCEALED WEAPON IN WISCONSIN, POLICE SAY

The attacker fled the scene, but was later caught by law enforcement, who took the person into custody. Charges were pending as of Monday night.

The stabbing victim was taken to a hospital in Aurora, the sheriffs office said. Their condition remains unclear.

Officials said the incident is under investigation.U.S. Senator David Perdue, a member of the Senate Budget Committee, has been chosen as one of eight senators to serve on the bipartisan, bicameral Joint Select Committee on Budget and Appropriations Process Reform tasked with fixing Washingtons broken budget process.

Since I first came to the United States Senate, Ive called for changing this failed budget process, and this is our opportunity to finally get it done, said Senator Perdue. Since the current budget process was established in 1974, Congress has only funded the government on time four times in the past forty-four years. As a result, our national debt is $20 trillion and headed to $30 trillion. Like Ive said many times, fixing the budget process alone will not solve our debt crisis, but we wont solve this debt crisis unless and until we fix our broken budget process. As a member of this important joint select committee, I look forward to making real progress towards creating a politically neutral platform so both sides can debate their issues during the budget process.

The Joint Select Committee was established by Congress on Feb. 9, and will be composed of 16 Members of Congress: four Senate Republicans, four Senate Democrats, four House Republicans, and four House Democrats. The members will have until the end of the calendar year to agree on changes to the budget and appropriations process and present them to Congress for a vote.

Senator Perdue said he has made it one of his top priorities to change Congress budget process. Over the past three years, he has met with policy experts, outside groups, retired Members of Congress, and his colleagues from both parties and chambers to study best practices and highlight the flaws of the current budget process. Recently, he wrote a column in The Hill calling on Congress to recognize that "the current budget process will never work and it must be changed." Read more here.Striking teachers in West Virginia will return to the classroom Thursday, as the states Republican governor announced hes offering teachers and school service personnel a revised 5 percent pay raise in the first year.

Gov. Jim Justice made the announcement at a news conference Tuesday after emerging from a meeting with union leaders for teachers in all 55 counties.

We need our kids back in school. We need our teachers back in school, Justice said.

In addition, Justice said a task force will be formed to address health benefits for state workers, including teachers.

Chief of Staff Mike Hall said the latest pay raise proposal is based on revised revenue estimates of $58 million. The pay increases would have to be approved by the Legislature. Hall said the governor is committed to calling a special session if necessary.

Justice did not offer a specific revenue source but said that an overhaul of U.S. tax laws passed by Congress last year is going to have a profound impact on state finances.

Justice said that under his proposal, all state workers would receive a 3 percent raise, with teachers and school service personnel getting an additional 2 percent in the first year.

WEST VIRGINIA CLOSES ALL PUBLIC SCHOOLS AMID TEACHER STRIKE  EVEN AS GOVERNOR SIGNS PAY BILL

Teachers started their walkout last Thursday, their first statewide strike since 1990.

Last week, on the eve of the strike, Justice signed a bill into law that would raise pay for teachers and state employees. Teachers would see a pay increase of $808 next year and $404 the following two years. Teachers said the increases are not enough, especially as health care costs rise.

The average pay for West Virginia teachers ranks among the lowest in the nation.

Justice said bigger raises would follow if numbers next year confirm the states economic turnaround. Teachers should push for an increased severance tax on natural gas to permanently fix funding for the insurance program for them and other public employees, he added.

WEST VIRGINIA TEACHERS TO CONTINUE STRIKE OVER PAY, BENEFITS

In other developments, State Schools Superintendent Steve Paine said a decision would be made Monday whether to add an item to the state Board of Education meeting Tuesday that would discuss possible legal action against teachers. He said the work stoppage is illegal and disruptive to student learning.

It was unclear Tuesday morning if an item was added to the meetings agenda.

Missed class time automatically is added to the end of the school year.

Fox News' Frank Miles and The Associated Press contributed to this report.After Rev. Billy Graham's death at the age of 99, pastors, authors and faith leaders alike remembered the evangelist as someone with great humility and a passion for the Bible's teachings.

Some praised Graham  who preached to more than 200 million people in his lifetime  as "the most important evangelist since the Apostle Paul and one of the most faithful followers of Jesus. Others recalled the impact he had on their faith or that of loved ones.

About 2,000 people, including prominent religious leaders, were invited to Graham's funeral service, which took place Wednesday under a tent outside the Billy Graham Library near his home in Charlotte, North Carolina.

The Rev. Franklin Graham delivered the main funeral address for his father after personal messages from Billy Graham's three daughters and younger son.

"My father was F-A-T. He was Faithful, he was Available, and he was Teachable ... May we all be that way," Graham's son, Nelson, told the crowd of mourners.

"My father was not God but he showed me what God was like," Graham's daughter, Ruth, added.

Several other religious leaders stepped up to the podium to thank Graham for his unwavering faith and leadership.

"Mr. Graham, on behalf of millions of international Christians around the world... thank you for your bringing salvation message to our part of the world," Billy Kim, former president of the Baptist World Alliance, said during the noon service.

As hes honored, heres a look at how Graham is being remembered by fellow Christian faith leaders.

Franklin Graham

Franklin Graham, the late reverend's son, recalled something his father once said about Heaven.

"My father ... was once asked, 'Where is Heaven?' He said, 'Heaven is where Jesus is and I am going to Him soon!' This morning, he departed this world into eternal life in Heaven, prepared by the Lord Jesus Christ  the Savior of the world  whom he proclaimed for 80 years," Franklin Graham said.

Russell Moore

Russell Moore, president of the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, part of the Southern Baptist Convention, said its almost impossible to count the number of people he knows who have become Christians through Grahams work.

In an interview with Fox News, Moore praised the authenticity of Graham, saying he was someone who was the same in both his public and private life.

"The death of Billy Graham is a time for all of us to reflect on the hope that he preached  forgiveness of sins and peace with God through Jesus Christ."  Russell Moore

My earliest memories are watching him preach on television as a very small child. I remember being struck as a child with the gravity with which he took the Gospel. That continued with me for the rest of my life, Moore said. When I met Dr. Graham, that same sense of weightiness of the Gospel was evident in him personally  just as it was in public.

Moore added that Graham was successful because his work wasnt all about himself, comparing him to the John the Baptist.

I think the death of Billy Graham is a time for all of us to reflect on the hope that he preached  forgiveness of sins and peace with God through Jesus Christ, Moore said. I hope theres a great deal of reflection, not just on what he did, but why.

Greg Laurie

Pastor Greg Laurie went from watching Graham on his black and white television to attending one of his crusades in San Diego, California, to serving with him as a board member on the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association.

I wasnt in any way disappointed that I got to know him. He was every much the man you would have hoped he would be, Laurie, the pastor of Harvest Christian Fellowship, told Fox News.

"I dont think anyone will ever take Billys place. But we can all, in our own way, follow his example and proclaim the same Gospel as he did."  Greg Laurie

Laurie said Graham, who he has been friends with since the early 1990s, was a very humble man who enjoyed meeting and talking with new people. Graham was faithful in his message, Laurie said, which was simply: Were all sinners, but God loves us and sent his son to die for us.

I dont think anyone will ever take Billys place. But we can all, in our own way, follow his example and proclaim the same Gospel as he did, Laurie said.

Rick Warren

Billy Graham served Gods purpose for his generation and then he died, Rick Warren said.

The venerable pastor and authors stark statement about Graham is a reference to Acts 13:36, a Bible verse that says, Now when David had served Gods purpose in his own generation, he fell asleep; he was buried with his ancestors and his body decayed.

That epithet, Warren told Fox News, is perhaps the greatest praise he could give someone. He complimented the late evangelists integrity, single focus and humility.

"It would be hard to overestimate Billy Graham's impact on my life and ministry."  Rick Warren

There will not be a replacement for Graham, he said. But thats not necessarily a bleak perspective.

He was irreplaceable and unique, but the world has changed. In each generation, God raises up new women and new men to serve his purpose in his generation, Warren said. Its one of the greatest lessons we can learn from Graham.

Warren also said, "It would be hard to overestimate Billy Graham's impact on my life and ministry."

Graham affirmed the next generation through his encouragement. Warren, the senior pastor of Saddleback Church in California, said he still has multiple handwritten letters and cards from Graham, sent to him in encouragement when Warren was a young pastor.

Now  carrying on Grahams legacy  Warren continues the tradition.

James Dobson

Calling Graham a brother in Christ, Dr. James Dobson said he would miss the evangelist greatly.

Its not often that you can say someone truly changed the world, but when it comes to Billy, he changed the face of eternity as well, Dobson, author and founder of Family Talk, said in a statement to Fox News. Through his crusades, he helped turn many millions of hearts to Christ.

While superlatives abound regarding the life and deeds of Rev. Graham, I believe he would want us all to point our admiration and adoration back to Jesus, he continued.

Paula White

Paula White, pastor of New Destiny Christian Center in Apopka, Florida, told Fox News that Grahams love of God was so tangible in his life.

This man truly lived out Christ-likeness, said White, a spiritual adviser to President Trump, adding that when she met with Graham it was like she was having a conversation with Jesus himself. His words were powerful and profound, but it was the presence of God in his life.

White continued, He always pointed everything to Jesus Christ. Its one thing about Dr. Billy Graham  in word, deed, action, presence  he pointed everything back to his Lord and Savior.

Thom Rainer

It was only the second or third time Thom Rainer was able to meet Graham before a Louisville, Kentucky crusade, but when the reverend saw him, he said, I am so honored to see you again.

Rainer, president and CEO of the Nashville-based LifeWay Christian Resources, recalled the meeting, telling Fox News that it points to the incredible humility that embodied Graham.

Aside from his humility, Rainer praised Grahams ability to understand the context in which he lived in. As an evangelist, Graham was always asking questions, always searching for a better way to reach people, Rainer said. He did that through his crusades, then with the radio and eventually through television programs.

He was an anointed man  we can only explain that through the right theology of God  but God used him because he was willing to understand the context [of the era], Rainer, the founding dean of the Billy Graham School of Missions, Evangelism and Ministry at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Kentucky, said.

Samuel Rodriguez

Rev. Samuel Rodriguez recalled watching Graham preaching on his black and white television when he was a young teenager. His sermons about reaching the world with the gospel inspired Rodriguez to do the same, he told Fox News.

The president of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference, Rodriguez praised Graham as the quintessential unifier, pointing, in particular, to the integration of his crusades at a time when segregation was prevalent.

"He understood that every single person is created in the image of God without exception."  Samuel Rodriguez

No Christian leader in modern history brought more unity to the Christian body than Billy Graham, he said.

He understood that every single person is created in the image of God without exception, Rodriguez said of Graham, who he also called a civil rights advocate.

Additionally, Rodriguez said Graham brought together different factions of Christianity  charismatics and non-charismatics  through his preaching.

He taught me if you teach the word, but most importantly if you live the word, if your character lines up with your rhetoric, then God will convict the hearts of mankind, said Rodriguez.

Anne Graham Lotz

When evangelist Anne Graham Lotz thinks of the late preacher, she doesnt necessarily think of the public figure  but her father, she said in a statement.

But when I think of him I also think of his message because he was immersed in it. Saturated in it. He was his messagea simple man who had responded to Gods love by placing his faith in Jesus, receiving the assurance that his sins were forgiven, that he would not perish, but would have everlasting life, Lotz, an author, said. Simple faith. Faith that matters more than anything else.

Lotz recalled that shes said she was raised by a single parent, as Graham was often away for his ministry.

Now, he has left again. This time, he will not be coming back. At least, not until Jesus does, too, Lotz said. While he may be physically absent and his voice silent, I am confident that his message will continue to reverberate throughout the generations to come.

She said she hopes her fathers death will be a rallying cry for others to rise up to take his place.

David Jeremiah

Pastor and author David Jeremiah said people should rejoice that this child of God is reunited with his Father in Heaven.

I thank God for the life and ministry of this man to whom so many of us pastors, ministers and church leaders have long admired and whose example has inspired so many others to spend their lives in service to Jesus, Jeremiah, senior pastor of Shadow Mountain Community Church in California, said in a statement provided to Fox News.

Jentezen Franklin

Jentezen Franklin, the senior pastor of Free Chapel church in Gainesville, Georgia said, to him, Graham had the most commitment when it came to preaching.

Upon hearing him preach for the first time one could immediately realize how dearly this man loved Jesus and wanted others to experience that same love  it overflowed from the very depths of his heart, Franklin said in a statement provided to Fox News. His passion and commitment to sharing the love of Jesus all around the world was instrumental in my own life, inspiring me as I began my ministry.

Lee Strobel

Author of the bestseller Case for Christ, Lee Strobel tweeted a simple message following Grahams death.

A life of sharing the Good News with the world. Well done, good and faithful servant! he wrote.

Beth Moore

Author and evangelist Beth Moore also took to Twitter to remember Graham.

There simply will never be another Billy Graham," she posted. "What a gift of God to this world."

Steven Furtick

Steven Furtick, pastor of Elevation Church in the Charlotte area, paid tribute to Graham.

You showed us how to leave the 99 for the 1. Thank you, Dr. Graham, Furtick tweeted.

His social media post referenced the Biblical parable about a shepherd who leaves his flock of 99 safe sheep to look for the one that wandered off.

Joel Osteen

Evangelist and author Joel Osteen shared photos of himself with Graham with his Twitter followers, calling the late religious leader a hero in our home.

Next to my own father, Reverend Graham was the most humble and gracious man I ever knew. I am honored to call him a friend and mentor, Osteen said.

Dave Ramsey

Author and financial counselor Dave Ramsey remembered Graham as possibly the greatest man of the last 100 years.

The world is darker today as Billy Graham goes home, Ramsey said. Thousands of souls applauding in Heaven as he walks in and hears: Well done good and faithful servant.

Jerry Falwell

Liberty University President Jerry Falwell expressed his prayers for Grahams family on social media.

The Christian faith has lost its greatest orator of the last century who gave hope to billions that, even [though] we are all sinners, there is hope & eternal life thru faith in Jesus Christ, Falwell said.

THE ONE THING BILLY GRAHAM WOULD WANT US TO REMEMBER

Cardinal Dolan

Cardinal Timothy Dolan, the archbishop of New York, said his family had respect and admiration for Graham, despite a difference in religious beliefs.

There was no question that the Dolans were a Catholic family, firm in our faith, but in our household there was always respect and admiration for Billy Graham and the work he was doing to bring people to God.

Archbishop of Canterbury

Justin Welby, the archbishop of Canterbury, said Graham was an exemplar to generation upon generation of modern Christians.

When it comes to a living and lasting influence upon the worldwide church he can have few equals: for he introduced person after person to Jesus Christ, said the archbishop, the leader of the Church of England.

"Now he is face to face with Jesus Christ, his saviour and ours. It is the meeting he has been looking forward to for the whole of his life."  Archbishop of Canterbury

The debt owed by the global church to him is immeasurable and inexpressible, Welby continued. Personally I am profoundly grateful to God for the life and ministry of this good and faithful servant of the gospel; by his example he challenged all Christians to imitate how he lived and what he did.

He was one who met presidents and preachers, monarchs and musicians, the poor and the rich, the young and the old, face to face. Yet now he is face to face with Jesus Christ, his saviour and ours. It is the meeting he has been looking forward to for the whole of his life.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.Two bodies found dumped along a road last week outside Albuquerque, N.M., were identified Tuesday as a retired attorney and his transgender roommate.

The families of Eugene Carrell Ray, 70, and Zakaria Fry, 28, had reported them missing in January, the Albuquerque Journal reported.

A rancher in a small desert town told the Journal he discovered Frys body stuffed in a garbage bin. Ray's body was discovered a few miles away.

Police confirmed their identities Tuesday but released few details.

Their family members do not know how Ray and Zakaria met or how long she had been renting a room from him.

I dont understand how someone can do that to anyone, just dump them like if they are trash, said Rays daughter, Alarie Ray-Garcia. Its unfathomable to me.

Police are investigating the case as a double homicide, a spokesman for the Albuquerque Police Department said.

Click here for more from the Albuquerque Journal.A California man who dubbed himself a rehab mogul was convicted Monday of sexually assaulting seven female patients.

Christopher Bathum, 56, who operated 19 drug treatment and rehabilitation centers was found guilty of 31 criminal counts, including rape, sexual penetration by a foreign object, forcible oral copulation and sexual exploitation, The Washington Post reported.

Prosecutors said Bathum preyed upon female patients who were in their 20s and 30s and had substance abuse issues. Bathum reportedly lured the women with controlled substances before sexually assaulting them, People reported. A few of the assaults reportedly occurred at the treatment centers.

They were easy targets, Los Angeles County Deputy District Attorney Reinhold Mueller said. They were perfect victims.

CALIFORNIA MAY BECOME FIRST STATE TO BAN COSMETICS TESTING

Bathum faces up to 65 years in state prison. He is slated to be sentenced in April.

The Orange County Register reported Bathum also taught patients how to pass drug tests and offered perks such as using iPhones and company cars in exchange for sexual favors.

The Los Angeles County Sheriffs Department started its probe into Bathum after authorities received a complaint.

One of Bathums alleged victims told 20/20 in 2016 that Bathum sexually assaulted her.

Amanda Jester said Bathum sexually assaulted her in a hotel room and in his Malibu facility.

I have no credit card, no money, no cellphone  I felt like I had no choice, Jester said.

Bathum denied Jesters allegations.

You gotta understand something, Bathum told 20/20. Youre in a world of accusation thats amazingly complex that has people saying things, all kinds of crazy things that come out in a trauma-filled world. I can tell you theres certainly easy ways to explain that.

CALIFORNIA TOWN BANS PLASTIC CUTLERY, STRAWS TO PROTECT ENVIRONMENT

The mogul is also named in a separate case where he is accused of running a $175 million fraudulent health-care billing scheme to lure addicts to his treatment centers, The Washington Post reported.

Bathum and his former CFO Kirsten Wallace were charged in 2016 with 31 counts of money laundering, eight counts of grand theft, six counts of identity theft and five counts of insurance fraud.

Dave Jones, Californias insurance commissioner, called the plot one of the largest health-insurance fraud cases in California.

Bathum and Wallaces alleged conspiracy victimized hundreds of people addicted to drugs and alcohol by keeping them in a never-ending cycle of treatment, addiction, and fraud  all the while lining their pockets with millions of dollars from allegedly fraudulent insurance claims, Jones said.

Both Bathum and Wallace pleaded not guilty.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.A driver who struck and killed six teenagers who were picking up trash along a highway in 2000 has appealed for early release on parole after serving 18 years in a Nevada prison, a report said Tuesday.

Authorities say Jessica Williams, 38, had fallen asleep at the wheel and was traveling at 75 miles per hour when her vehicle hit the teens in March 2000, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported.

A blood test found she had traces of marijuana in her system, the report said. But Williams disputed that claim Tuesday.

"I don't believe I was under the influence at all and I believe at my trial we proved that," Williams said, according to Fox 5 Vegas. "What I did was wrong, but what I did was fall asleep."

Williams was sentenced in 2001 to serve 18 to 45 years in prison for each victim. She has spent nearly half her life behind bars.

She is now living in transitional housing and serving time for the fifth of her six convictions. Williams made a plea to the Nevada Parole Board on Tuesday for a fifth early release after being granted parole on first four. She still has her fifth and sixth convictions to resolve before her release, Las Vegas Now reported.

Commissioners will decide on Williams parole March 14, but she will still need to serve time for her sixth conviction.

John Glenn Watkins, her attorney, said the ruling would shorten the time Williams would serve for her sixth conviction, but was unsure of the exact amount of time, the Review-Journal reported.

Williams told commissioners she earned an associates degree in prison, is working toward a bachelors, and is even considering a masters in business, the report said.

She said she has been sober for 18 years, plans to attend church and participate in 12-step programs, Fox 5 Vegas reported.

When commissioners asked her what she would say to families of her victims, she fought to hold back tears, the report said.

Its been 18 years, and I still dont have the words for that, she said. "I just wish I could bring them back or fix it."The students of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School described an emotional return to class Wednesday, two weeks after a gunman burst onto campus and killed 17 people on Valentine's Day.

The students, some of whom already went to the school Sunday for a voluntary orientation, attended classes on a schedule revised for a half day. Classes ran for 24 minutes, with only the first period running for 30 minutes. Students were dismissed at 11:40 a.m., with some saying they felt better after seeing their classmates and teachers.

(I feel) a lot better. At first, a lot nervous. I was calling on my family and telling them I didnt want to go back, but coming back it feels amazing, its a lot better, freshman Braden Freidkes told Fox News after school was dismissed.

Junior Adam Buchwald also said, "It was OK. It was very emotional. I was very happy to see my friends and teachers and thats all that matters right now to be with everyone.

Joining the students were about 50 uniformed officers who marched into the schools campus  part of the heavy security after the massacre. Backpacks were also not allowed. A Welcome Eagles banner and a walkway lined with flowers, photographs and other memorials were also seen on campus. Before the emotional day began, Broward School Superintendent Robert Runcie tweeted some words of encouragement.

I pray that today is the beginning of our long and difficult journey from grief, sorrow and anger to a new consciousness of hope, compassion and love. Thank you to our young people for leading the way. Welcome Back! he tweeted.

Runcie said counseling and therapy dogs were available at the campus for students on Wednesday "to provide a lot of love, a lot of understanding. Teachers who arrived back on Monday also had one-on-one grief counseling and therapy dogs available to help them cope with the painful memory of the shooting.

At the start of the day students heading back to classes showed mixed emotions stepping back on campus, where 14 of their fellow classmates and three members of the faculty and staff were gunned down. School officials had initially planned for a Tuesday return, but pushed it to Wednesday.

Its just a bit weird, I guess, to go back to school after an incident like this. Its always going to be weird because its not natural that this happens, I guess, Giovanni Williams, 14, told Fox News. Im happy to see the friends but Im sad that I lost three of my good friends.

Still, some people felt the return two weeks after Valentines Day was still too soon in the wake of the tragedy. Parents also expressed fear about their childrens safety.

Im nervous as a parent, nothing has changed. There is no security for these kids. The gun laws havent been addressed. My heart is racing as I drop him off today. Hes nervous, Tessa Thomas, a parent of a student, said. We need some form of security moving forward.

Angelyse Perex, a senior at Stoneman Douglas, also said: How we going to get through this...being together what we will be doing for the rest of the year. I am graduating. I want to graduate and get out of here.

I still think I am in a nightmare. I still think I will wake up one day and everything will be normal. My friends will still be here. I will just go to class and chill and hang out with my friends and not worry about anything. Just looking at my prom dresses and not thinking of 20 million cops in my school, she added.

Building 12 at the high school  where Cruz opened fire Feb. 14  will most likely remain closed as the rest of the campus reopens. Runcie previously told the Sun-Sentinel there have been numerous requests to have the building torn down.

Weve received numerous requests from parents, students, community members and local elected officials that they would like the building demolished and some memorial resurrected on the site, Runcie said.

Fox News' Shira Bush and The Associated Press contributed to this report.A Florida woman who says the city of Deltona is charging her for water she isn't using decided to pay her outstanding bill using 49,369 pennies to make a point.

Dana McCool drove up to the Deltona Water Department offices on Monday with her loot to pay the $493 water bill.

This is how we peacefully protest, she said in a Facebook Live video which has gone viral.

The video shows McCool dragging a wheelbarrow filled with bags of pennies and entering the building.

Im here to pay for the bill and you take cash correct? she is heard telling the employee at the counter.

According to McCool, the city has been incorrectly charging her for water she is not using. She said she's been fighting the municipality for overcharging -- even after a leak was fixed months ago.

I just wanted to make a statement. I want other people to come forward that has this bill. This is a far-reaching issue, McCool told WFTV.

Officials with the city of Deltona have said if customers have concerns about high water bills, they can work with the city to check for leaks, WFTV reported.

The citys water department accepted McCools cash payment and spent nearly three hours counting the pennies.

Each of those pennies [are] representing a resident that needs a voice, she told WFTV.A teacher has been taken into custody after allegedly firing at least one shot inside a Georgia high school classroom Wednesday, police said.

The Dalton Police Department identifed the teacher as Jesse Randall Davidson, 53, a social studies teacher who also does play-by-play announcements during the school's football games. He has been employed with the school since 2004.

Davidson was charged with aggravated assault, carrying a weapon on school grounds, terroristic threats, reckless conduct, possession of a gun during commission of a crime and disrupting public school, police said in a tweet.

The department earlier tweeted a person, believed to be a teacher, was barricaded inside a classroom. The person allegedly would not allow students into the room, police said.

Dalton High School was placed on lockdown and police confirmed no children were in any danger and there weren't any students inside the classroom at the time of the incident, they said. The school and the area surrounding it were evacuated.

During an afternoon news conference, Dalton High School Principal Steve Bartoo said he was notified of the situation around 11:40 a.m. After arriving to the area of the building, he said students were being shuffled into another classroom and he was told that Davidson wasn't letting anyone in.

Bartoo said he tried to go inside the classroom but Davidson slammed the door in his face and told him to "go away."

The school resource officer, who was off-campus at a nearby middle school, was called, the principal said, and other students were moved from a nearby classroom.

After that, Bartoo said he tried again to enter the classroom, this time putting his key in the door and announcing himself, only to have it slammed on him again. He said Davidson told him not to come in and said "I have a gun."

The school was immediately placed under threat lockdown mode and shortly after, Bartoo said he heard a gunshot. He added that it seemed like only minutes before officers arrived to the school. Students were moved and part of the hallway was evacuated before police ultimately told them to clear out the entire school, the principal said.

Police did not say what type of firearm was used but confirmed it was a handgun. The gun has been recovered.

One student was injured after sustaining an ankle injury while running inside the school during the building evacuation, the Dalton Police Department tweeted. No faculty or staff were reported injured in the incident.

Bartloo said he has known Davidson since he was employed by the district and described him as an "excellent teacher" who was "well thought of." When asked if this event was a surprise, the principal said, "absolutely."

"Certainly shocking ... probably shock any school principal if one of their staff members pulled out a gun in a classroom and fired it," Bartloo said.

Asst. Chief Cliff Cason of the Dalton Police Department said authorities are currently aware of one shot going off and that it was fired through the classroom window and went outside the building.

Davidson was taken into custody and brought to Whitfield County Jail, Cason said.

He added that the teacher would face "appropriate charges because this is a very egregious act that took place at the school."

Cason commended the work of the school resource officer, who he said convinced Davidson to surrender to authorities, as well as the school for their response to the situation. He called their execution of the lockdown "flawless."

"Our job would not have been nearly as easy to execute today if it weren't for how well they did in doing their lockdown drill," Cason said.

The school has about 2,000 students, according to their website.

Dalton is about 90 miles north of Atlanta.An Illinois man wielding an AR-15 rifle stopped a knife attack on another person Monday, local police said.

The confrontation occurred in Oswego, about 45 miles west of Chicago, in what appeared to be a clash between two neighbors.

But when Dave Thomas witnessed the attack, he grabbed his AR-15 rifle from the house and stopped it with only the threat of force from the weapon, the Kendall County sheriff's office said in a statement.

"I poked my head out the door. There was a pool of blood, blood was everywhere in the hall. There was still a confrontation going on, there were about three or four people involved at this point," Thomas told WGN-TV.

"I ran back into the home, into my house and grabbed my AR-15. Grabbed the AR-15 over my handgun. It's just a bigger gun. I think a little bit more than an intimidation factor definitely played a part in him actually stopping, he added.

"(T)his is just a perfect example of good guy with an AR-15 stopped a bad guy with a knife."  Dave Thomas, gun owner

The alleged attacker quickly fled but was later found by police. He was detained and was awaiting charges.

The victim of the stabbing was taken to a hospital with multiple injuries. The person's medical condition was unknown.

Police confirmed Thomas had a valid firearm owners identification card and a concealed carry permit.

"The AR-15 is my weapon of choice for home protection," Thomas said. "It's light, it's maneuverable. If you train and know how to use it properly, it's not dangerous. And this is just a perfect example of good guy with an AR-15 stopped a bad guy with a knife. And there were no lives taken, so all in all it was a good day."The League of Women Voters of Chattanooga will partner with The National Coalition of 100 Black Women, Chattanooga Chapter, Inc. to host a Hamilton County May Primary Election Political Candidate Forum. All qualified candidates have been invited to participate in this political forum.

The forum will be moderated by retired educator Edna Varner, who currently works for the Public Education Foundation and is involved in community service in Chattanooga.

The forum will take place on Monday, March 26, at Orchard Knob Missionary Baptist Church, 1734 E. 3rd St. from 5-7:30 pm.

The political candidate forum will operate with standing rules for all participants, which will limit the length of introductions, opening and closing statements, and responses to questions so that everyone may have time to speak. The audience will be able to submit questions which will then be screened to eliminate duplicates. At the conclusion of the forum, candidates and participants are free to interact as they desire.



This political candidate forum is nonpartisan. Neither the LWV Chattanooga nor the NCBW Chattanooga Chapter endorses candidates or contributes to political campaigns. The goal of this forum is to provide a venue for public education about candidates platforms, enabling voters to make informed decisions. The public is urged to attend and participate in getting to know candidate platforms, goals, and qualifications.In a bid to keep its picturesque beaches clean and to protect the environment, the city of Malibu, Calif., is banning plastic cutlery and drinking straws.

The City Council's decisiom Monday is part of a broader goal of removing all single-use plastic items in the city, which has already banned plastic bags and Styrofoam.

"It's the right thing to do," City Councilwoman Laura Rosenthal said Tuesday. "If people could see all the plastics that we find on a daily basis, I think everyone would be supportive of this ban."

To ease the transition to the new rule, which takes effect June 1, the city will provide businesses with one box of paper straws. Afterward, businesses will have to provide items made from paper, wood or bamboo.

Other cities have enforced similar restrictions, with Manhattan Beach, just outside Los Angeles, and Central Californias Santa Cruz also banning disposable plastics.

In July, Seattle will start to ban plastic straws and utensils, while other cities across the country are considering their own bans. Individual restaurants have also made the switch.

Sheila Morovati, a Pacific Palisades resident and local activist who was in support of the Malibu ban, believes this is the beginning of a huge wave as she looks ahead to Los Angeles, Santa Monica, Beverly Hills, and then beyond California.

A bill awaiting approval from both houses in the California Legislature would make it illegal for restaurants to offer plastic straws unless customers request them.

Another bill would require attachable caps on plastic bottles, though it has failed to gain much momentum in recent years.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.A longtime milkman for an Ohio prison is accused of delivering more than just dairy.

Ray Adams, an employee of Martins Ferry-based United Dairy Inc., has been accused of smuggling marijuana, tobacco and cellphones hidden inside the milk cartons into Lebanon Correctional Facility.

Prosecutors said authorities at the prison searched the nearly 30,000 half-pint cartons Adams was delivering on Jan. 8 and found the contraband -- including 12 cellphones -- in 30 of them.

Warrant County Prosecutor David Fornshell said Adams was in contact with an inmate who facilitated the deliveries and set up payments. He said Adams made thousands of dollars sneaking the items in over time.

Adams has been a driver with United Dairy for 14 years and a prison milk deliveryman for the past two years, authorities said. Investigators believe the smuggling scheme was dreamed up last August.

Before making deliveries, Adams would meet a contact at a nearby highway gas station and receive substitute milk cartons containing the contraband before entering the prison, Fornshell said. An inmate took it from there.

"It's not being brought in just to be randomly passed out to whoever  'Hey it's your lucky day, you're one of 30 winners today,'" Fornshell said.

"Somebody on the inside had to be looking for the milk cartons coming in, knowing how they were going to be marked, knowing what day they were coming in," the prosecutor said.

Adams, 50, has not yet entered a plea to charges of conveying drugs and cellphones and remains free on bond. His attorney hasn't returned messages seeking comment.

The family-owned United Dairy said Wednesday that Adam was fired immediately after the charges were filed against him.

"It's just a sad situation all the way around," human resources director Doug Longenette said Wednesday. "We hope our employees would think before they did something like that."

Prisons spokeswoman JoEllen Smith declined to comment because of the pending criminal charges against Adams.

Fornshell said the investigation was ongoing and there could be additional charges.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.A missing employee at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was disappointed he didnt receive a promotion and told a Georgia neighbor to delete his phone number shortly before vanishing earlier this month, reports said on Tuesday.

Timothy Cunningham, an epidemiologist at the CDC, left authorities scavenging for clues after the 35-year-old left work early on Feb. 12 and never returned. Cunningham had called his sister that morning and talked to his supervisor about a promotion he didnt receive, FOX5 Atlanta reported. He reportedly told several coworkers he was disappointed after not being promoted to be a branch manager.

"This is an extremely unusual set of circumstances," Atlanta Police Department Major Michael OConnor said Tuesday. "We deal with missing person cases fairly regularly here. The circumstances on this one, just beyond the fact that he's a CDC employee, but just as a general person are unusual."

Authorities believe Cunningham made it to his home in Atlanta  but nothing else indicates where he may be now. In the CDC employees house, nothing seemed unusual and the residence seemed secured aside from two windows being open, according to OConnor.

"The most unusual fact, in this case, is that every single belonging that we are aware of was located in the residence," O'Connor said. "So his keys, cell phone, credit cards, debit cards, wallet, all of his identification, passports  anything you can think of we've been able to locate."

Cunningham also called out of work sick the two days before the last time he was seen.

Chris Torry, a neighbor of Cunninghams, told FOX5 Atlanta the CDC employee made an unusual request a few days before he disappeared.

"This is an extremely unusual set of circumstances."  Atlanta Police Department Major Michael OConnor

"My wife and him swapped phone numbers[On] Saturday, Tim called over to me from across the way and told me to take his number out of her phone. It seemed a bit strange," Torry recalled.

OConnor said theres no evidence of foul play, however, it couldn't be ruled out.

Neighbors have contributed to the search for Cunningham by posting flyers around the neighborhood. Cunninghams brother, Anterio, said Cunningham loved his job and wouldnt just cast it aside.

"Tim is the consummate professional. He loves his job. He wouldn't just cast it aside. He's worked hard to get where he is," he said.

The family partnered with Greater Atlantas Crime Stoppers to offer a $10,000 reward for information in Cunninghams disappearance.MS-13 gang members on their way to kill another member had their plan unintentionally foiled when Texas police pulled their car over  sparing the would-be victims life by a mere two minutes, according to court records.

Bryan Funes, 17, and Jorge Alexander Cortez, 23, were arrested last Thursday in Austin on criminal conspiracy charges after police unintentionally foiled a plot to kill another MS-13 member -- who was in the car when cops pulled it over, The Houston Chronicle reported. Melquisedec Steven Lemus-Monje, 19, was also arrested and charged with conspiracy and a weapons violation.

Funes and Cortez, both El Salvadorian immigrants, were planning to drive their intended target from Austin to Houston to kill him, court records obtained by the Chronicle stated. The man was reportedly wanted dead by the savage gang due to a variety of factors, including drug debts. Its unclear if the would-be victim, who was not identified, was currently an active MS-13 member.

WHAT IS MS-13, THE VIOLENT GANG TRUMP VOWED TO TARGET?

Houston police said they received news about the plan when they intercepted calls made by the MS-13 gang members. The men allegedly called MS-13 gang leaders in El Salvador and Virginia, who then green lit the operation, according to court records. Lemus-Monje at one point referred to a nine with candies  believed to be a 9 mm pistol  that would have been used in the murder, according to the Chronicle.

Lemus-Monje, Funes, another MS-13 gang member and the intended target were in a car in Austin on Feb. 11 when a Texas Department of Public Safety trooper pulled them over because of an expired vehicle registration, according to the Chronicle. Lemus-Monje was found with the pistol.

Cortez was discovered in a separate car.

REPUTED MS-13 DEFENDANTS LAUGH, SMILE AS SLAIN TEEN'S FAMILY GLARES

Funes called another individual a short time after the plot was thwarted and said police stopped them approximately two minutes before they would have killed the member, records stated.

Cortez was booked into the Williamson County Jail on an attempted murder charge on Thursday and was later extradited into the custody of Harris County.

Editor's note: An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated that Cortez had been released.New York City will have to pay out $180,000 to three Muslim women after forcing them to take off their hijabs for mugshots.

Three lawsuits were settled Monday in Brooklyn federal court stemming from the NYPD policy of photographing people wearing religious head coverings, the New York Daily News reported. The three women settled for $60,000 each.

Some cases date to 2012, when a high school girl  identified as G.E.  was arrested after a brawl with two other girls whom she thought spread gossip about her.

G.E. was initially brought to a local police station and was told to take off her hijab. G.E. refused and was taken to a secluded room where a female police officer took her photo outside the presence of any men, the Daily News reported.

But at Brooklyn Central Booking the police could not accommodate the girls religious needs, telling her that there were not any female officers available and that the camera is in a fixed spot, thus the mugshot could not be taken in a private room.

The girl alleged that a male officer then took her photo without a hijab, making her feel exposed, violated and distraught as she was forced to be without the Islamic garb for 20 minutes while male officers and prisoners looked at her.

Police issued an order in March 2015, according to court filings, changing the policies regarding people who refuse to take off their religious head coverings. Officers who perform the arrest had to tell the person that the NYPD offers a choice of getting a private photo  without the head garb and with an officer of the same gender.

Two other cases were filed in 2015 and 2016 by G.E.s lawyer, Tahanie Aboushi, and involved a similar situation.

One woman claims to have been forced to remove her veil at Brooklyn Central Booking police station and was denied a female photographer. Another accuser said her hijab was removed at the scene of her arrest.

Aboushi told the Daily News on Tuesday that the police department issued additional policies regarding religious headwear in December 2017.

We did our best to establish good precedent, Aboushi said. On the one hand, it gives officers guidance, and on the other hand, it protects the exercise of religious freedom.A man who attacked three registered sex offenders in Alaska and called himself an avenging angel seeking justice was sentenced Monday to 23 years in prison for assault and robbery charges.

Jason Vukovich, 43, pleaded guilty to one assault and one robbery charge, and is eligible to apply for parole once hes served almost six years of his sentence, according to KTVA-TV.

Vukovich said in court he was physically and sexually abused by his stepfather while growing up, which fueled his anger towards sex offenders. But he said he now takes "full responsibility for his actions."

Prosecutors said the 43-year-old assaulted three men he found on the states online sex offender registry in June 2016 during a five-day period, according to the Anchorage Daily News. One of the victims was struck with a hammer, knocking him unconscious, while the others had items such as a laptop and truck stolen from them.

At his sentencing on Monday, Superior Court Judge Erin Marston told Vukovich that "vigilantism is not something that we accept in America."

REGISTERED SEX OFFENDER EXPOSES HIMSELF TO FAST-FOOD EMPLOYEES, POLICE SAY

The men Vukovich attacked were complying with the law and had put their names on Alaska's public sex offender registry, Marston said in court.

"It was not the purpose of the registry to allow people to do their own brand of justice," Marston said in court. "The purpose of the registry was to keep the community safe."

Vukovich and his older brother, Joel Fulton, ran away from home when they were teenagers. His brother testified at sentencing to the trauma they endured for years, according to KTVA-TV.

Wed roll over on the bunk beds and be up against the wall. I cant look at you man, Im sorry, he said to Vukovich. It was my job to go first so he would leave Jason alone.

OUTRAGE AS CONVICTED SEX OFFENDER IS RE-ELECTED PENNSYLVANIA TOWN'S FIRE CHIEF

Vukovich also said he struggled with an addiction to methamphetamine and was in and out of jail, but told the judge during his sentencing that vigilantism shouldnt be a solution for justice.

Kids should be able to be safe in the streets and at church in Alaska, Vukovich said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.Authorities in Illinois launched an investigation Tuesday into the mysterious death of a Northwestern University student who told friends hours before her death that she was not feeling well.

Kenzie Krogh, 20, died Sunday at an Evanston hospital hours after her friends rushed her there around noon Saturday, Evanston police said. Authorities are working to piece together her final hours, the Chicago Tribune reported.

Police said a pending toxicology report will determine the cause of death, but no foul play was suspected.

Kroghs family released a statement recalling her passion for societal issues and devotion to her friends and family, according to Fox 32 Chicago.

Her mind was always reaching to find new avenues of learning and discovery, especially when it came to social issues, the Krogh family said. "Her years at Northwestern University opened up that passion, and her extraordinary professors, mentors, and fellow students gave her the tools, inspiration, and confidence to pursue it.

Krogh, a junior from North Carolina, was a Deans List student and was working with the Kellogg School of Management as a research and teaching assistant, according to Fox 32 Chicago.

Her family said that she also donated her time to a womans activist group and was going to have an internship with an international consulting firm in Chicago.

The school said there would be grief counselors on campus for students who need it.A new study says the best way to deal with the vexing problem of Islamic fighters from Western countries who return home is to get them into the criminal justice system, rather than counseling, and to jail those who deserve it.

Western governments should hold fighters who joined Islamist foreign conflicts and then return to their home countries legally accountable for their actions under domestic or international law, states a Heritage Foundation report, entitled Foreign Fighters: The Rule of Law is the Best Response to Islamist Fighters from Western Countries, which is due out later this week.

Legal accountability  and, when appropriate, incapacitation  would send a much-needed signal to those who choose to join terrorists that future foreign fighter travel is completely unacceptable, the report said.

The challenge of how to deal with Islamist fighters returning to their Western homes has sparked contentious debate in recent years, particularly since ISIS has actively sought to stock its ranks with citizens of those nations.

Robin Simcox, the reports author, contends the alternatives posited are a mix of the failed, unproven or overly forgiving and sending the wrong signal concerning the acceptability of foreign fighter travel. Such alternatives are largely based on what is being referred to as the Danish model, he said.

This approach, implemented in various degrees across Europe, offers returnees the chance to take part in a voluntary counseling program, return to school or university, help in finding housing, and other services that would allegedly facilitate their integration into Danish society.

But the Heritage report highlights numerous cases in which some of the returning fighters have claimed to not have participated in violence, only for evidence to emerge later that indicates otherwise.

For example, Harry Sarfo, who traveled to Syria from Germany, gave an interview to The New York Times claiming he did not commit acts of harm. But video later surfaced of him allegedly shooting ISIS prisoners in Palmyra, Syria in 2015.

Simcox's report also criticizes what he calls the increasingly common notion held by some that disillusioned fighters can become useful counter-terror messengers to prevent others from joining the jihadi cause.

Pathways out of extremism are very rarely instantaneous. It can take years for former extremists to fully disengage from this ideology. Expecting someone who was fighting alongside ISIS one day to be a legitimate ally in the fight against Islamist extremism the day after is an unrealistic expectation, Simcox told Fox News. The increasingly popular idea that we should not jail terrorists because that would only make them even more radical shows how utterly backwards this entire debate can become. Yes, prison radicalization does exist.

"However, the answer is to deal with the conditions that create prison radicalization  an inability to isolate charismatic Islamist recruiters, for example  not stop sending those who broke the law to prison.

The report's findings are likely to generate resistance from many who have urged Western governments to take a less criminal-focused approach.

Christianne Boudreau, a Canadian whose 22-year-old son Damien was killed in 2014 while fighting with al-Nusrah, the Syrian branch of Al Qaeda, has become a prominent advocate for working with authorities to open the avenue for foreign fighters to see the error of their ways. She has urged they be used as intelligence resources and to confine them to some form of de-radicalization program, not a high-security prison.

VICTIM OR THREAT? IRAQ HAS PLAN FOR ISIS FIGHTERS' WIVES, CHILDREN

And Daniel Koehler, co-founder of the German Institute on Radicalization and De-Radicalization Studies (GIRDS), was personally tasked with laying the groundwork for the first controversial U.S program to de-radicalize an aspiring ISIS fighter. He, too, has long argued for an integrative approach. Well-designed de-radicalization programs usually have four main fields: religious, social, educational and psychological, he said.

The Heritage report does carve out an exception for returning children, who were born in the conflict zone or forced to travel there with their extremist parents.

These children were either born there or had no choice about being there; have been used in military operations; and have been taught to hate the West and exposed relentlessly to ISIS ideology and propaganda, Simcox notes. Local government teams working with young offenders, foster care, psychologists, de-radicalization initiatives and  for older children  security service monitoring are all options that may be used.

ALMOST ALL AMERICAN ISIS FIGHTERS UNACCOUNTED FOR, SPARKING FEARS THEY COULD SLIP THROUGH CRACKS AND RETURN

But for adults, the report adamantly concludes the law-and-order approach enables Western leaders to demonstrate to the population that they are responsive to the publics fears about terrorism.

The emphasis on prosecution does not mean there is no place for de-radicalization initiatives; a successful counter-terrorism strategy will have multiple components, the report asserts.

Between January 2014 and December 2017, there were 180 known Islamist terror plots or Islamism-inspired acts of violence in Europe, the research highlighted. These took place in 17 different countries, leading to 357 deaths and 1,656 injuries. The number of plots in Europe rose every year during the same period.

The U.S government and governments across Europe must prioritize public safety. That means that the primary focus must be on incapacitating the terrorists through all lawful means, Simcox added.Three members of the notorious Salvadoran gang MS-13 showed no remorse Tuesday as they laughed and joked in a New York courtroom while the family of one of their alleged murder victims  a teenage girl -- grimly looked on.

Enrique Portillo and brothers Alexi Saenz and Jairo Saenz laughed, smiled and joked with each other as prosecutors said they were waiting to hear from the U.S. Justice Department about whether they can pursue the death penalty.

The family of 16-year-old Kayla Cuevas, the Brentwood, N.Y., girl they are accused of slaughtering in cold blood alongside her friend Nisa Mickens, 15, glared at them from the gallery, the New York Post reported.

The two teenage girls were slaughtered in a residential neighborhood near an elementary school on Sept. 13, 2016 -- the day before Mickens 16th birthday. Her body was found on a tree-lined street in Brentwood, while Cuevas beaten body turned up in the wooded backyard of a nearby home a day later.

The two teens were lifelong friends who friends and family said had been inseparable and shared an interest in basketball.

We shouldnt be tolerating this type of behavior, at all whatsoever. These are kids [getting killed], kids. This should not be tolerated at all, Cuevas mother Evelyn Rodriguez told Fox and Friends last July.

U.S. Attorney Robert L. Capers said the Saenz brothers ordered the killing of Cuevas in retaliation after she called out the gang at school and on social media.

Officials said Mickens was in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Portillo and two other juveniles were also charged with killing the two teenagers.

For far too long, MS-13 has been meting out their own version of the death penalty, Capers said at the time of their arrests.

The three suspects were among 13 gang members charged with a series of crimes, including seven murders, in March 2017.

"Today marks the beginning of healing for the families and the community," he said. "It's a great day for justice... but the job is not done," Suffolk County Police Commissioner Tim Sini told Fox News at the time of their arrest in March 2017.

U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions has emphasized the Trump administrations commitment to combating MS-13, and has allowed prosecutors to pursue any legal avenue to target the gang  although he has not yet stated whether capital punishment is on the table for Portillo and the Saenzes, the Post reported.

Meanwhile, reputed MS-13 members Mario Aguilar-Lopez and Jose Suarez, who also appeared in court Tuesday, are accused of killing a rival gang member and injuring an onlooker.

Judge Joseph Bianco offered to hear the case for Aguilar-Lopez and Suarez separately, although their lawyers have yet to file the proper motions to do so. They do not face the death penalty, the paper reported.

MS-13 was started by Central American immigrants, mainly from El Salvador, in Los Angeles in the 1980s, but has since expanded to include several other Central and South American countries. The gang is believed to be responsible for 25 killings in New York City's Long Island suburbs in the past two years.

Fox News' Lucia Suarez contributed to this report.The Hamilton County Health Department reported three more deaths from the coronavirus and 286 new positive cases on Friday. The case number is up from 245 on Thursday. The total cases in the county now stands at 59,841. The death total is at 597. The number of COVID-19 hospitalizations is 319 in Hamilton County - down from 344 on Thursday. Nine more are hospitalized with suspected ... (click for more)A Texas prosecutor has dismissed 13 more cases against bikers stemming from a 2015 shootout in Waco involving bikers and police.

McLennan County District Attorney Abel Reyna made the announcement Wednesday, a day before scheduled hearings for 10 of the bikers.

Of the original 154 bikers indicted, prosecutors are still pursuing 128 cases. Reyna said his office would not pursue cases against 24 bikers who were arrested but not indicted.

Earlier this month, Reyna dismissed 13 cases hours before a hearing where he was due to testify on corruption allegations against him. The sole case to be tried resulted in a mistrial in November.

The May 2015 shootout left nine bikers dead and 20 injured. The bikers faced charges of engaging in organized criminal activity.A California university is offering a class focused solely on the topic of removing President Trump from office.

San Diego State University is offering a one-unit course in March called Trump: Impeachment, Removal or Conviction? taught by Professor John Joseph Cleary.

Focus will be on the two constitutional grounds: impeachment and removal (25th Amendment), and the possible charges of the independent counsel, the course description reads in part, as first reported by university watchdog group, Campus Reform.

The class will cover grounds for impeachment, removal, or indictment such as conflict of interests, foreign emoluments, climate change, racism, religious bias, improper influence, nepotism, and a host of crimes, including conspiracy, false statements, and obstruction of justice.

The only required reading is Allan Lichtmans The Case for Impeachment in which the American University professor makes the case for impeaching the 45th president of the United States, Donald J. Trump.

A university spokesman told Fox News they plan to change the name of the course in the future.

"In retrospect, we realize the title of the course, 'Trump: Impeachment, Removal, or Conviction?' is inconsistent with the course content described," the spokesperson said. "As a result, the title will be amended to accurately reflect this course offered now and for future offerings of this course."

The course presents an overall framework of impeachment, removal, or criminal investigation of a president and rather than focusing on President Trump, reviews all 19 impeachments in U.S. history. The one-unit, weekend class is not a requirement for graduation and is not paid for by state funds, the university told Fox News. Cleary did not respond to Fox News request for comment on Tuesday.

Brandon Jones, SDSU College Republicans Chairman and a Campus Reform correspondent, told Fox & Friends Wednesday morning theyve already convicted Trump instead of presuming innocence.

Its very clear what the message is this course is sending, and if you look at the required textbook, it was written by a liberal nutjob," Jones said. "They can spew their talking points all they want, but Im not buying it.

While the book looks at impeached presidents Andrew Johnson and Bill Clintons hearings, it focuses on Richard Nixons resignation and shows how Trump exhibits many of the flaws (and more) that have doomed past presidents.

Lichtman boasts 30 years of predicting presidential races correctly, including Trumps victory over failed Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, touting his next big prediction was that Trump would be impeached.

The book serves as a warning about the dangers of Trumps rogue presidency and a guide to the myriad transgressions he predicts will lead to impeachment.

Trumps penchant for lying, disregard for the law, and conflicts of interests are lifelong habits that will permeate his entire presidency, Lichtman wrote. He has a history of mistreating women and covering up his misdeeds. He could commit his crime against humanity, not directly through war, but indirectly by reversing the battle against catastrophic climate change, upon which humanitys well-being will likely depend. His dubious connections to Russia could open him to a charge of treason. His disdain for constitutional restraints could lead to abuses of power that forfeit the trust of even a Republican Congress.

Trump wrote on Tuesday morning a series of tweets related to this topic.

Trump quoted Ken Starr as saying, Weve seen no evidence of collusion

The president then also quoted law professor Jonathan Turley, who said on Fox News: I just dont see the evidencein terms of the collusion, its all a bit implausible based on the evidence we have.

Trump ended the tweetstorm with two words: WITCH HUNT!

But Lichtman writes that hes not calling for a witch hunt, but rather to assess at what point impeachment becomes necessary to protect Americas constitutional liberties and the vital interests of the nation.

Lichtman notes that while former lawyers in the Obama administration formed a group to monitor Trumps alleged violations of law and the Constitution, its ultimately up to the democratic activism of the American people.

Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., told her fellow Democrats to get ready for impeachment at a speech in San Diego Saturday. She has chanted many times: Impeach 45!

The course is being offered for $221 through SDSUs Criminal Justice program, which is a part of the schools College of Professional Studies and Fine Arts.Virginia authorities continued the desperate search Wednesday for a 23-year-old mom who vanished a day earlier -- leaving behind her two toddlers and signs of a struggle.

The Middlesex County Sheriff's Office told WAVY-TV that TerriLynn St. John was last seen at her home in Wake, located about 65 miles north of Norfolk.

St. John's front door was found open and her two small children, a 2 and 3-year-old, were located inside, according to police.

Family members told WTVR that St. John was last heard from around 7:30 a.m. when she was going to her car, and they were especially concerned because the vehicle was still in the driveway.

"They looked through the woods and you could definitely tell there has been a struggle beside my daughter's car," her father Terry St. John told WTVR-TV. "Jewelry was all around, like it had been broken off. Her cell phone was found in the bushes."

The sheriff's office said K9 search teams and aircraft have been searching for St. John and deputies have interviewed several people.

BODIES FOUND IN NEW MEXICO WERE PAIR REPORTED MISSING IN JANUARY, POLICE SAY

"Were definitely treating it as suspicious," Maj. Michael Sampson told WTVR.

St. John's father said what made the incident even more troubling was that his grandchildren were discovered basically abandoned in the home.

The 23-year-old is described as having multiple tattoos including R.J.M. on her right wrist, a princess crown on her left wrist and a cross on her ring finger, police said.

Anyone with information about St. John's whereabouts is asked to contact police at 804-758-2779.Iran has built another permanent military base outside Syrias capital city complete with hangers used to store missiles capable of hitting all of Israel, according to Western intelligence sources.

Exclusive satellite images from ImageSat International obtained by Fox News show what is believed to be the new Iranian base, eight miles northwest of Damascus, operated by the Quds Force  the special operations arm of Tehrans Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). The photos show two new white hangars, each roughly 30 yards by 20 yards, used to store short- and medium-range missiles.

On Capitol Hill Tuesday, the top U.S. military commander for American forces in the Middle East said Iran was increasing the number and quality of its ballistic missiles it was deploying to the region  when asked during a House Armed Services Committee hearing by Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., about reports Iran had moved more missiles into Syria.

Gen. Joseph L. Votel, head of U.S. Central Command, said Iran has enhanced its funding to proxy forces in the Middle East since the landmark nuclear agreement in July 2015, including sending missiles, fighters and other arms to Yemen and Syria.

But when asked by Cheney what the U.S. militarys role against Iran in Syria should be, Votel replied, Countering Iran is not one of the coalitions missions in Syria. The focus of the roughly 2,000 U.S. troops on the ground in Syria remains the destruction of ISIS and prevention of the terror group from rising up again, Votel said.

Votel said in the past five years Iran successfully had created a proxy network in Yemen similar to what it took them 20 years to create in Lebanon with Hezbollah.

A base similar to the one revealed in these new satellite photos was built last year south of Damascus, before being destroyed in December by Israeli surface-to-surface missiles.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned Tehran a month prior to the strike against building any military bases in Syria. Israel will not let that happen, he said.

Votels remarks to Congress come amid criticism from the White House of Russia and Irans continued support for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, and the regimes ferocious bombing campaign in Eastern Ghouta, a suburb of Damascus where 400,000 civilians remain trapped.

Syria is terrorizing hundreds of thousands of civilians with airstrikes, artillery, rockets and a looming ground attack. The regimes use of chlorine gas is  as a weapon  only intensifies this, said White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders Monday.

Votel told lawmakers that Russia is standing in the way of any lasting ceasefire in Syria. In the past few days, 500 civilians have been killed in Eastern Ghouta  the same area where the regime used sarin gas in 2015.

Moscow plays both arsonist and firefighter, fueling tensions among all parties in Syria -- the Syrian regime, Iran, Turkey, the Syrian Democratic Forces, the United States and other coalition partners -- then serving as an arbiter to resolve disputes attempting to undermine and weaken each party's bargaining positions, Votel said. The Syrian Democratic Forces is the name of the Kurdish-led Syrian fighters supported by the U.S. military against ISIS.

The New York Times reported Tuesday that a 200-page United Nations report outlining how North Korea has been skirting sanctions and sending components to Syria for chemical weapons comes as the White House accused Syria of employing chlorine gas.

Its not the first time North Korea has been accused of supporting Syrias weapons of mass destruction.

Former Vice President Dick Cheney said he tried unsuccessfully in 2007 to persuade then-President George W. Bush to bomb a nuclear reactor in northeast Syria at al-Kibar, built with help from North Korea, casting the lone vote inside the presidents national security team.

On September 5, 2007, eight Israeli fighter jets destroyed the nuclear reactor at al-Kibar, which was the right answer, Cheney said.The United States issued a joint statement with the other members of the Iran nuclear deal Tuesday condemning the rogue nation for violating an arms embargo on Yemen that presented serious risks to peace and stability in the region.

France, Germany, and the United Kingdom released a statement with the U.S. condemning Iran for its non-compliance after a panel of U.N. experts found that it failed to prevent the direct or indirect supply, sale or transfer of Iranian arms and related materiel, including extended-range short-range ballistic missiles, military equipment and unmanned aerial vehicle technology that can be considered military equipment, to the then Houthi/Saleh alliance in Yemen.

The four countries called on Iran to halt all activities immediately that would violate or are inconsistent with the 2015 council resolution authorizing the arms embargo.

It is crucial that Iran does not carry out any action that is inconsistent with or would violate Security Council resolutions, and thereby risk destabilizing the security of the region and increasing the threat of broader conflict, the statement read.

The public condemnation by the Western powers comes just after intelligence sources confirmed that Iran has built what seems to be another permanent military base outside of Syrias capital city, despite the U.S. calls for Iran to cut off its support for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

Fox News Jennifer Griffin, Lucas Tomlinson and the Associated Press contributed to this report.Afghan officials say at least 30 people, including 19 police officers, have been kidnapped and six police killed by insurgents in separate incidents in southern Afghanistan.

Gen. Abdul Raziq, Kandahar's police chief, says Wednesday a group of insurgents attacked a police checkpoint, killing six police and wounding five others.

At the same time another group of insurgents wearing army uniforms stopped a bus and kidnapped 30 people, of whom 19 are policemen, said Raziq.

Both incidents took place Tuesday night at the border between Kandahar and Uruzgan provinces, he said.

Dost Mohammad Nayab, Uruzgan governor's spokesman, confirmed both reports, but couldn't provide more details.

No one has claimed responsibility for the attack or abduction, but Raziq blamed Taliban fighters.Afghanistan President Ashraf Ghani is calling on the Taliban to take part in peace talks to "save the country."

Ghani spoke Wednesday at the 2nd Kabul Process Conference attended by representatives from more than 20 countries and international organizations.

Ghani said the Afghan government will provide facilities and security for those Taliban who join the peace process. He says: "We will consider the Taliban's view in the peace talks."

A resurgent Taliban has been blamed for much of the increased violence in Afghanistan since U.S. and NATO forces concluded combat missions in 2014. The attacks have underscored the weaknesses of Afghan security forces.

Ghani also called on government-to-government talks with Pakistan.

The first Kabul Process conference was first held in June last year.A British woman who had committing murder on her "bucket list" and had an "obsession" with serial killers was sentenced to prison on Wednesday for the brutal killing of an autistic teenager in Australia.

Jemma Lilley, 26, strangled, stabbed and buried 18-year-old Aaron Pajich at her home in Perth on June 13, 2016, according to prosecutors.

The 26-year-old was sentenced to life in prison with a minimum term of 28 years, the same sentence given to her housemate, Trudi Lenon, at the Supreme Court of Western Australia, according to Sky News.

Prosecutor James McTaggart told jurors Lilley had spoken of wanting to kill someone before she turned 25, and after the slaying was "full of herself and euphoric" while boasting to a coworker. Prosecutors said she also idolized horror movies, including the character Freddy Krueger from the A Nightmare on Elm Street series, according to News.com.au.

Lilley and Lenon met through a friend and became close, eventually moving in together two months before the killing, according to the BBC. Prosecutors said the pair exchanged homicidal fantasies until Pajich's killing, and had bought various supplies such as a circular saw and 100 liters of hydrochloric acid to help dispose of the body, the BBC reported.

Pajich, who had autism, was lured to his death in June 2016, with both defendants blaming each other for the killing. Lenon said during the trial that Lilley approached the teenager from behind as he installed games on her computer, strangled him until the wire broke and then stabbed him three times, Sky News reported.

Prosecutors said during the trial that Lilley left incriminating messages to her "obsequious and sycophantic" follower Lenon hours after the killing, saying she was feeling things she had "not felt before," according to Sky News.

WOMAN KILLED AUTISTIC TEEN TO CHECK OFF MURDER FROM 'BUCKET LIST,' PROSECUTORS SAY

Jurors were also told Lilley had written a book about a serial killer, called "SOS," and went on to assume the identity of the main character.

The book was a big problem with me," Lilleys stepmother, Nina Lilley, 48, told The Times. "At the beginning I thought, Fair enough. You want to write a horror story. But I didnt like the contents of it. She had always had an obsession with serial killers, but she said it was a way of venting her frustration of what happened when she was a child,"

After the pair was sentenced, the victim's mother told reporters she was heartbroken and would have to deal with what happened to her son for a lifetime.

"He was my precious little boy, he was my first-born. He was full of life," Sharon Pajich said, adding the pair were "disgusting animals" and should never be released. "They deserve everything they get for what they've done. They've taken an innocent boy from his loved ones."Maulana Mohammad Abdul Aziz is considered one of the most dangerous, yet influential, men in Pakistan.

And while his movements in the country are restricted by the government, the 57-year-old former head cleric of Islamabads oldest mosque  Lal Masjid, better known as the Red Mosque  is still allowed to inspire new generations with his radical rhetoric.

We dont see Pakistan anymore our destination, we will come out as a force to establish Islamic rule over the entire world, Aziz told Fox News last week in a telephone interiew, from his Islamabad compound known as Jamia Hafsa, a seminary school that boasts around 1500 girls and 2000 boys. You will see the change within 10 years - if you stay alive.

In the government's endeavor to root out terrorism, Aziz is banned from the mosque  which technically belongs to the state. But he and his wife continue to oversee teachings just a few miles away.

We want Sharia within our country and I, along with my pupils, will go to any extent to implement Sharia  even at the cost of waging a war against the country coerced government, he declared.

Aziz has long been known for his inflammatory sermons, anti-American ideology, for sparking global jihadist movements and supporting designated terrorist groups. In 2014, he even named his schools library the Martyr Usama Bin Laden Library in honor of the former Al Qaeda leader and 911 financier.

Usama had good relations with my late father, thus we dont support the American narrative, declaring him a terrorist, Aziz said. He did jihad, to implement Sharia around the world. So, for us he is an Islamist warrior. We title our library after his name with audacity.

That chilling discourse may have hit close to the U.S. homeland more than once.

Soon after the 2015 San Bernardino massacre, in which female assailant and ISIS supporter Tashfeen Malik and her American husband, Syed Rizwan Farouk, slaughtered 14 of his co-workers, reports emerged that the Pakistani-born, Saudi Arabia-raised woman had been a Red Mosque student under Aziz.

I never met with her, Aziz claimed, before eventually acknowledging that they may have had an encounter as he has many female followers. But if so, she would have been fully veiled, he said. The United States is failing attempts to establish my link with that shooting.

But his links with violent movements are well documented.

Under Azizs guidance at the Red Mosque in July 2007, scores of his baton-brandishing male and female students took to the streets outside. Video stores considered immoral were shuttered. Chinese women were abducted from a massage parlor they deemed to be a brothel, threats were made to throw acid in the face of female university students nearby, and a government ministry building was torched.

Tensions escalated between the militant mosque devotees and Pakistani Army into a bloody 10-day standoff that left over 100 people dead, including Azizs brother, mother and son. Aziz attempted to evade arrest by fleeing the chaotic scene disguised in a burka.

I taught my students to stand against the corrupt system immobilizing the country.

Pakistan has inherited the British system, solely non-believers, Aziz said of the incident. I attempted to escape in a long veil with the consent of my martyred brother Abdul during the operation, and secondly, Islam supports this act to conceal oneself in a state of emergency.

After several months in custody following the siege, Aziz was released, but deposed as cleric and barred from the Red Mosque, which his nephew, Amir Siddique, now leads instead. But the firebrand cleric promptly set about building a new facility, Jamia Hafsa, close by.

TRAPPED IN SYRIA'S BESIEGED GHOUTA: 'LIFE HAS CEASED, THE CHILDREN ARE WAITING TO DIE'

The Pakistani government has  particularly in the wake of the 2014 Peshawar school slaughter  purported to squash terror-inspiring voices like Aziz. And many Pakistanis have expressed their staunch opposition to the extremist preacher.

Those actions against him come at a cost.

Last time there was action against Mullah Aziz and his supporters at the Red Mosque, terrorism erupted in the northern parts of the country and eventually spread to other parts. So there remains a blowback in case of any severe action taken against him, explained Farrukh Khan Pitafi, an Islamabad-based columnist and television journalist. The past few years there has been a cultural shift in the country and Aziz has struggled to find space on the national media. But it remains a work in progress. It is safe to assume that he is down but not out.

Jeff Smith, South Asia policy expert at the Heritage Foundation, pointed out further actions likely have not been taken against Aziz over concerns of retaliation.

SHIFTING ALLIANCES AS PAKISTAN MANAGES RELATIONSHIP WITH U.S.

Aziz is highly critical of the Pakistani government but Islamabad knows he commands a sizable following and claim they have no legal grounds to arrest or convict him. Ultimately, theyve decided its best to avoid stirring the hornets nest, even if means quietly allowing the swarm to proliferate, he said.

Ideally, Pakistan would pass legislation or criminal justice reforms outlawing the type of hate speech espoused by Aziz and his ilk, and then deal with them through the appropriate legal mechanisms.

The Red Mosque did not respond for further comment regarding their current relationship with Aziz. But he asserted his ban comes as a result of American and Indian influence on Pakistans leadership.

As a prayer leader in the Red Mosque, people are in support of me, he insisted. In the past, I have tried to enter but our frightened government called upon the Rangers to prevent me.

Nonetheless, Azizs influence remains a cause for concern on an international scale. He denied being acquainted with any specific militant groups in war-ravaged Iraq and Syria, but said he teaches a lot about jihad to his many students who likely have gone to join the noble in those countries.

But in his view, Afghanistan is the most noble of all.

At present, there is no Muslim country left in the world which has a Sharia ruler  neither Saudi Arabia nor Pakistan, Aziz said. I have found Afghanistan the only country in accordance with Sharia when the Taliban established its control over the land and I support those Talibans to-date.

And according to Smith, Aziz still has significant influence.

It is helpful to separate the bad guys into two categories. There are those like the Haqqani Network that are actively and operationally involved in conducting terrorist targeting Afghanistan and U.S. personnel and interests there; and then there are those espousing violent extremist ideologies, sowing the seeds of hatred and religious fundamentalism across Pakistani society, Smith added.

Aziz very much falls into the latter camp and within the spectrum of radical Pakistani preachers remains a very prominent figure. While the first group poses the most immediate threat to the U.S. and Afghanistan, its arguably the latter group thats doing the most long-term damage in the all-important war of ideas.next Image 1 of 2

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A Slovakian journalist and his girlfriend were found dead Sunday mysteriously while he was working on a story about possible links between the Italian mafia and people close to Prime Minister Robert Fico.

Jan Kuciak, 27 and his girlfriend, Martina Kusnirova, were found dead in their home just east of the capital, Bratislava. Police say the two were killed with the same weapon, which has yet to be found, and most likely were killed between Thursday and Sunday.

Police have detained one suspect.

Kuciaks unfished story, published Wednesday by Aktuality.sk news website, described the activities of members from the Ndrangheta criminal group in agriculture, real estate and other sectors in Slovakia in connection with a senior assistant to Fico and another official close to him.

He also described one members business ties to Maria Troskova, a former model who is now the chief state adviser at the government office, and Viliam Jasan, who currently serves as the secretary of Slovakias security council, a body that deals with key security issues.

Troskova and Jasan announced Wednesday they were stepping down until the investigation into the shootings was completed but they categorically denied any involvement.

Fico also dismissed the reports.

You link innocent people to a double murder without any evidence, Fico said. Dont do it.

Culture Minister Marek Madaric also announced his resignation on Wednesday.

As the culture minister, I am not able to cope with the fact that a journalist was killed during my time in office, he said.

Aktuality.sk said Kuciak cooperated on the story with the Czech Centre for Investigative Journalism, the Investigative Reporting Project Italy and the international Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project.

The Czech Centre said it had been working with Kuciak for more than 18 months.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.Former City Councilman Yusuf Hakeem is among those featured in the newly opened African American Living Legends exhibit at the Bessie Smith Cultural Center.

A reception in his honor was held at the exhibit.

Others honored include the members of the Impressions, Rep. JoAnne Favors, retired Harlem Globetrotter Paul "Showtime" Gaffney, and Councilwoman Demetrus Coonrod.





Mr. Hakeem was chosen for his decades of service as an elected official on the Chattanooga City Council and on a governor-appointed board, as well as his years serving on committees, boards, and volunteering in the community.





Mr. Hakeem said, "The only limitations you have are those you impose on yourself."





The "Living African-American Legends" exhibit is on display at the Bessie Smith Cultural Center through June 1.

Mr. Hakeem is currently a candidate for House District 28.A 22-year-old woman died after she was brutally mauled by a female lion on Tuesday at a game lodge north of Pretoria in South Africa.

The African News Agency reported that the female lion mauled the woman in the Hammanskraal area on Tuesday.

Nick Dollman of Netcare 911 told the news agency that paramedics from the group were called to the scene, but the woman died from severe injuries.

Wwhen Netcare 911 paramedics arrived at the scene bystanders had initiated CPR, authorities said. Tragically the victim had sustained severe injuries and she died at the scene.

The woman sustained critical injuries and died at the scene.

Police are reportedly investigating.

The Associated Press contributed to this reportThe Tunisian Ennahda Party has made history in this northernmost African country by nominating its first Jewish candidate for public office. But in its effort to present itself as a liberal and modern party, Ennahda has sparked controversy in the mostly Muslim Mediterranean nation.

While Simon Salama lacks political experience or public prominence of any kind up to this point, the son of a sewing machine repairman is grateful for the support from Ennahda, admitting that he would have run under any party that supported him.

As reported by Israeli newspaper Haaretz, Salama wishes only to serve the public of Monastir, the largest city in the Monastir Governorate of Tunisia.

Ennahda first received legitimacy as a major political party when it won a majority in the Tunisian Assembly in the 2011 Arab Spring. In what is regarded as a highly volatile period in the North African/Arab region, Tunisia stands as the only country to peacefully undergo a regime change.

Some, including former Ennahda activist Sheikh Khamis al-Majari, say such an action flies in the face of Islamic law.

It still remains unclear what support Salama will be able to garner for one of the 7,182 municipal seats that nearly 57,000 candidates will tussle over. The country's roughly 2,000 Jews, most of whom live on the island of Djerba in the Gulf of Gabes, off the Tunisian coast, still face persecution.

In January, The Associated Press reported that Tunisian authorities had detained five people suspected of throwing Molotov cocktails at two synagogues in Djerba, including one that's 2,500 years old. The same synagogue was targeted in a 2002 extremist attack.

Municipal elections will take place in May, in what could be a historic day for the Arab nation.

Outraged developed nations that largely fund the worlds humanitarian aid and peacekeeping efforts, fed up with sexual exploitation and abuse by United Nations-sponsored peacekeepers and humanitarian aid workers, are taking matters into their own hands to end the sordid practices.

Among other things, they are threatening financial cutoffs for organizations that do not immediately report sexual wrongdoing to the proper authorities, and fail to provide clear-cut plans for preventing sexual abuse in the future.

We should not wait for the U.N. to take action, Penny Mordaunt, Britains secretary of state for international development and head of the Department for International Aid, or DFID, told Parliament last week. We must set up our own systems now.

The U.S., Canada, the Netherlands and others, she said, have already agreed to support our goal of improved safeguarding standards across the sector.

The U.N. in particular, Mordaunt added, needed to heed the warning about proper safeguarding for the millions of desperate people, including young children, already victimized by civil war and natural disasters, who also need protection from the sexual abuse plague.

The message from us to all parts of the U.N. is clearyou can either get your house in order, or you can prepare to carry out your good work without our money, she said.

Mordaunt set a Feb. 26 deadline for all [British] charities working overseas to spell out the steps they are taking to ensure their safeguarding policies are fully in place and confirm they have referred all concerns they have about specific cases and individuals to the relevant authorities, including prosecuting authorities.

A similar exercise was also underway, she added, with all non-British charity partners393 organizationsto make clear our standards and remind them of their obligations, and we are doing the same with all multilateral partners too.

DFID is currently assessing the information received. A newly augmented, 15-person Safeguarding Unit will be working at DFID to ensure compliance.

Mordaunt also said her department would hold a safeguarding summit on March 5 with international development charities, regulators and experts to confront safeguarding failures and agree on practical measures to halt the sexual abuse plague.

She further promised that we will take this program of work to a wide-ranging, global safeguarding conference to drive action across the whole international aid sector. As to when that would happen, Mordaunt said only later in the year.

Mordaunts declaration of war against sexual exploitation and abuse--known in relief circles as SEA - while clearly global, was sparked by anger and dismay in Britain over a scandal much closer to home, which is still rippling across the close-knit and interlocking international aid sector.

The detonation followed allegations earlier February in The Times of London that Roland van Hauwermeiren, then a senior official of Oxfam, Britains most widely respected international charity, had partied with local prostitutes at his residence in Haiti while Oxfam did aid work in the aftermath of the battered countrys devastating 2010 earthquake. (The Times is owned by News Corp, a sister company of 21st Century Fox, which owns Fox News).

Van Hauerweiren was head of Oxfams country team in Haiti. Subsequent press reports added allegations that prostitutes were also invited to Oxfam quarters in Chad in 2006, during another disaster intervention that van Hauwermeiren had led.

Van Hauerwieren has declared press reports were rife with lies and exaggerations. But according to an internal Oxfam investigation report of the Haiti charges, undertaken in 2011, he admitted to the use of prostitutes in OGB [Oxfam Great Britain] premises, and then was allowed to resign with one months notice.

Another half-dozen Oxfam employees were found to have solicited prostitutes and either were fired outright or resigned while under investigation. Oxfam announced cryptically at the time they had been charged with breach of the agencys behavioral code of conduct, and bringing Oxfams name into disrepute, as well as bullying.

But then Oxfam quietly buried its report, until The Times revelations brought it to light. The relief agency apparently also failed to make any reference to van Hauwermeirens investigation, or its outcome, when he applied for work in other aid agencies.

Once the scandal erupted, Haitis Prime Minister, Jovenel Moise, added more fuel. He called the Oxfam incidents the tip of the iceberg, and said there were other NGOs (non-governmental organisations) in the same situation, but they hide the information internally.

He specifically noted that the French-based medical organization, Doctors Without Borders/Medicins Sans Frontieres, which has been active for years in Haiti, had to repatriate about 17 people for misconduct which was not explained.

(On its website, MSF declares that in 2017, 19 people were dismissed for sexual harassment and abuse, out of 24 cases reported. It has also said that 10 people were dismissed on similar grounds in 2016.)

Unlike innumerable U.N.-related cases of alleged sexual harassment, where the collection of accusations is often haphazard, processes of investigation muffled and any processes of justice delegated to countries that originally supplied the offending personnel, the reaction in Britain was immediate.

After The Times revelations, Oxfams deputy chief executive, Penny Lawrence, resigned and publicly took full responsibility for the fiasco. A public apology from the organizations CEO, Mark Goldring, soon followed. (People put their trust in Oxfam and we betrayed that trust, he said.)

Oxfam also quickly put the long-buried investigation report online for public inspection.

Within four days of Lawrences announced resignation, Oxfam also produced a new plan of action to ward off similar disasters. Among its measures:

An independent watchdog High-Level Commission on Sexual Misconduct, Accountability and Culture Change has been created, to be composed of leading womens rights experts.

It will have free access to Oxfam records and staffers, as well as aid recipients, to look into criticisms, complaints and allegations, particularly in relation to abuse of power, and sexual misconduct. Its findings will be public.

A new database is being created, designed to end the use of forged, dishonest or unreliable references by past or current Oxfam staff. Oxfam will not be issuing any [hiring] references until this is in place.

Oxfam also pledged to improve the culture within Oxfam to ensure that no one faces sexism, discrimination or abuse, that everyone, especially women, feels safe to speak out, and everyone is clear on what behavior is acceptable or not.

Meantime, the aid organization has agreed to take some immediate financial lumps until its changes in behavior are examined and approved.

Mordaunt announced Oxfam has agreed to withdraw from bidding for any new UK Government funding until DFID is satisfied that they can meet the high safeguarding standards we expect of our partners.

Mordaunt did not mention the amount of any such funding. In 2017, according to Oxfam reports, the agency received some $46 million from DFID.

USAIDs current projects with Oxfam total more than $23 million for aid work in the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and South Sudan, among others; the U.S. agency has given Oxfam more than $100 million since 2011.

Swedens foreign ministry also announced it was suspending unspecified amounts of funding to Oxfam for current projects pending an investigation of the organizations behavior. Last year, according to the U.N.s Financial Tracking Service, Oxfams British branch got $3.7 million from the Swedes.

Even more money could be at stake with the European Commission, another major Oxfam donor, which announced we are ready to review and if needed cease funding any partner who is not living up to the required high ethical standards. Last year Oxfam got about $40 million from the EC.

Will the same tough tactics work for multilateral organizations such as the U.N.?

It remains to be seen. But the British, at least, may find some things out soonperhaps early enough for that March 5 summit.

Updated DFID funding agreements with a number of U.N. agencies contain the proviso that they take every action possible to prevent all forms of sexual exploitation and abuse and take prompt action in response to any such allegations.

Among the agencies affected: UNICEF, the World Health Organization, and the United Nations Development Program, all deeply involved in disaster relief and recovery.

DFID is currently reviewing action plans from these agencies to see how seriously they are tackling SEA.

As it happens, similar action plans to combat sexual abuse were ordered up by U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres for arrival nearly a year ago, from all U.N. agencies with operations and programs in the field. Guterres requested the plans only months after taking office as Secretary General, as part of his own renewed war on SEA.

According to U.N. spokesman Dujarric, So far, 35 entities out of 40 have provided plans that include measures for risk mitigation, community engagement, complaint-reporting, outreach to, and protection of, victims, witnesses and family members.

The plans are currently being implemented, Dujarric added. Those that have yet to submit their action plans are in the process of doing so. These offices, entities,and departments are small units that do not have much field presence."

The result so far? In 2017, U.N. peacekeeping operations alone, according to its official website, recorded 62 allegations of sexual abuse, including 16 involving child victims, which were allegedly perpetrated by 137 members of its military, police and civilian staff. The numbers were a distinct decline from the previous year.

During the same year, the U.N. repatriated only 12 of the alleged perpetrators to their original countries, where national governments have so far demoted one person and jailed another. Actions against the remaining ten are listed as pending.

In the last three months of 2017 alone, the spokesman for Guterres, Stephane Dujarric de la Riviere, told a press briefing last week, the U.N. recorded 40 allegations of SEA across its peacekeeping missions, and other agencies and implementing partners, scattered over a number of years. They involved 54 victims, including 16 girls under age 18.

These were not reflective of the conduct of the majority of the dedicated women and men who serve the organization, Dujarric declared. He also said that not all allegations have been fully verified, and many are in the preliminary assessment phase.

Secretary General Guterres, meantime, is regularly liaising with Member States to improve their accountability and bring justice to victims.

The U.N.s actions still draw a skeptical response from critics like Brian Concannon, executive director of the Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti, an advocacy group seeking individual compensation for thousands of Haitians stricken by a cholera epidemic that U.N. peacekeepers are widely acknowledged to have caused, starting in 2010.

Oxfams response this month -- quickly accepting responsibility and releasing its original investigation report -- is a sharp contrast to the U.N. s persistent policy of delay, denial and refusal of responsibility, for either sexual exploitation or unleashing cholera on Haiti,  Concannon says.

With donor nations breathing fire, the question is whether that is all about to change.Lee Universitys Dr. Andy Harnsberger submitted his CD Phoenix to Fanfare Magazine, the largest reviewer of classical CDs in the United States. The magazine selected his CD and released an interview with Dr. Harnsberger as well as a review of his work in its 2018 January/February issue.

It was an honor to be featured in such a prestigious magazine, said Dr. Harnsberger.

The magazines interview gives readers a piece of Dr. Harnsbergers story, outlining various parts of his journey to becoming a marimba virtuoso. Readers find an explanation for how many of his musical experiences contributed to his development as a musician; one being his attendance to a concert for Leigh Howard Stevens, a world famous marimba player.

The way [Stevens] could manipulate the mallets, and the sounds he got out of the instrument, were incredible, said Dr. Harnsberger. I had never heard or seen anyone play at that level, and after that, I would say I really was driven to become a master of the instrument.

The interview goes on to explore the insight behind Dr. Harnsbergers musical composition process. He explains that as he composes, he always has a story in mind.

I try to elicit the imagination of the listener and create a setting where they can either see what I am trying to paint or feel the emotions being presented through music, said Dr. Harnsberger. I think that even without a backstory, much of the true meaning of the pieces will come through.

In the review, readers will find exclusive details concerning the individual theme and purpose of Dr. Harnsbergers pieces and the experiences, fascinations, and places inspiring each one. According to Colin Clarke, Fanfare contributing writer and Dr. Harnsbergers review author, Phoenix was inspired by Dr. Harnsbergers fascination with the life and uniqueness of a phoenix, a fictional animal.

According to the article and National Public Radio (NPR), Dr. Harnsbergers Phoenix is a riveting introduction to a musician who is a joy to watch in performance and a feast for the ears. The sensitivity and strength in his live playing was a treasure for the audience  simply phenomenal!

Dr. Harnsberger enjoys a versatile career as a performer, composer, and educator. He is an associate professor of music and the percussion coordinator at Lee. He has performed in musical venues across North America, South America, Australia, Japan, and Europe, and presents numerous solo recitals and clinics throughout the United States each year.

He is in demand as a recitalist and clinician across the country and internationally, presenting clinics and masterclasses at as many as 40 universities per year. He has performed with the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, Nashville Symphony Orchestra, and the Alabama Symphony Orchestra and has toured extensively as percussionist and xylophone soloist with The Jack Daniels Silver Cornet Band. He has also made several guest appearances on NPR, both in interviews, and live performances to bring public awareness to the marimba as a solo instrument.

Dr. Harnsberger earned his Doctorate of Musical Arts in performance and literature at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York, where he also received the prestigious Performers Certificate. He is a performing artist and clinician for Malletech Instruments and Mallets, Remo Drum Heads, Sabian Cymbals, Ltd., and Grover Pro Percussion.

Dr. Harnsbergers album, Phoenix, is available for purchase at https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01LY9H0HX.GPS students are ready to launch a series of upcoming spring concerts, plays, and a musical. First on the calendar is the Terpsichord Spring Concert titled Chiaroscuro, defined as an effect of contrasted light and shadow created by light falling unevenly or from a particular direction on something.

The creativity and passion of our youth is the future of our culture, says Terpsichord concert director Cathie Ault Kasch 72. "And this performance showcases those very things. There is a wide variety of movement, message, and music represented in this concert." Ms. Kasch, GPS Performing Arts coordinator, is assisted by her associate director, Laurel Moore Zahrobsky 90, who was also a student of Ms. Kaschs her junior and senior years at GPS.

Terpsichords contemporary dance pieces feature student and guest choreographers. This year the dancers received instruction from Lawrence Jackson, an assistant professor of dance at the University of Alabama, and Daniel Gwirtzman. Mr. Gwirtzman is the artistic director of his eponymous New York City-based dance company and guest teaches at many colleges and universities. He challenges our dancers to contour their bodies to their limits and feel the rhythm of the music, Ms. Kasch says.

The premiere of Storm, commissioned by GPS, was originally developed in the summer of 2017 for the Joffrey Ballet School Summer Intensive (NYC), where it premiered as a two-minute dance at Symphony Space for a cast of 12. Terpsichord allowed Mr. Gwirtzman the opportunity to expand the piece in scope.

The jazz dance, choreographed by Mr. Jackson, is performed to the music of Ricky La Nina, and Mr. Jacksons movement incorporates classical jazz dance as well as African. This choreographically demanding piece has an energy that is electric, Ms. Zahrobsky says. The audience will love watching the dancers move in very fast and intricate ways to a fun and upbeat rhythm.

Other featured dance pieces include Inesperado, set to the song Havana by Camila Cabello and choreographed by Tatiana Poggi 18. Inesperado is influenced by dance styles such as bachata, flamenco, and salsa and is underscored throughout by a bit of sass and flare reflected by jazz, Ms. Poggis personal style.

Other dance pieces include A Walk In Empathy, set to music by electronic duo ODESZA, featuring the sophomore class, which builds on the idea of walking a mile in another persons shoes. The junior class piece, Generation Z, features the music of Alicia Keys, David Guetta (ft. Usher), Sia, and Rihanna mixed by one of the dancers, Maya Pastusick 20. The piece pays homage to their generation and, through the use of pop hits, they have created corresponding movements that include both modern and jazz elements.

For their last hurrah, the senior dancers wanted to highlight both their unity as a class and their individuality as dancers. Set to Afterglow, the senior piece Two Zero One Eightunique in its emotional depthallowed the group to explore and exercise its familiarity with each other, as many in the class were friends long before getting to dance together in Terpsichord.

Many more pieces are included in the Terpsichord Spring Concert, presented March 2 and 3, at 7 p.m. in GPS Frierson Theatre. Admission is free and open to the public.The Georgia Department of Labor Dalton Career Center will assist Automation Personnel Services Inc. to fill over 60 positions.

The event will be held March 8 from 10 a.m. until 1 p.m. at the Dalton Career Center, 1406 Chattanooga Ave., Dalton.



They are hiring for:



10 - lift truck operators in Eton area

6 - lift truck operators in Dalton

30 - stackers in Eton, and

20 binder/sergers operators in Dalton.

Job seekers interested in attending the events may visit employgeorgia.com to create an account and upload, or prepare, a resume. Having an Employ Georgia account expedites the interview process. In September,



Applicants are encouraged to bring their resumes, drivers licenses and dress business casual to improve their chances to be hired.

Visit dol.georgia.gov to learn more about career opportunities, Employ Georgia and other GDOL services for job seekers and employers, and to connect with us on social media.

Free Freightnet Membership

List your company in the Freightnet directory. It's Free, it's Easy and your company can be displayed in front of potential freight buyers within 24 hours.Tennesseans who attended the Route 91 Harvest Festival last year in Las Vegas, Nevada, may be eligible for expenses related to the Oct. 1, 2017 tragedy. The Office of Criminal Justice Programs (OCJP) is reaching out to citizens to find Tennesseans who may have attended the concert to advise them of assistance that may be available. Tennessee has been notified that 40 tickets were sold in the state, but more Tennesseans were there as musicians or other roles.

Nevada's Crime Victim Compensation program may be able to offer financial assistance to any Tennessee citizens who were there, including medical bills, funeral expenses, mental health treatment or lost wages. In fact, you may apply for help whether or not you were physically injured in the attack. You do not have to be a resident of Nevada to apply.

Even if you have no expenses today, we encourage you to apply now in case you incur expenses in the future OCJP Director Bill Scollon said. We know there were Tennesseans in attendance at the festival, and hope the public and local agencies can help us get the word out.

Tennesseans who attended the festival should go to the Vegas Strong Resiliency Center website at https://vegasstrongrc.org/. Once an intake form is completed, one will be directed to the Nevada Crime Victim Compensation link.

The OCJP, part of the Tennessee Department of Finance & Administration, functions as a strategic planning agency that secures, distributes, and manages federal and state funds for Tennessee, including Victims of Crime Act (VOCA) funds and STOP Violence Against Women Program (STOP) funds. OCJP uses a structured process to look three to five years ahead of daily grant management activities at the changing needs of Tennessees justice system and the needs of its victims of violent crime. To address crime and victimization in Tennessee, OCJP manages a systematic, year-round cycle for determining the communities needs, identifying the justice systems problems, setting program priorities, making grant allocation decisions, managing those funded projects, and evaluating the results of those decisions.When Tyler Gentile of Dunlap was making a decision about what college to attend, Chattanooga State was not initially his first choice; in fact, it wasnt even on his radar. That all changed as deadlines to other colleges in which he was interested passed. He learned more about the school and heard encouraging words of praise about Chattanooga State from his Sequatchie County High School guidance counselor.

Tyler used his TN Promise scholarship at Chattanooga State and now he cannot imagine why he didnt give the college more consideration at the beginning. I came to the think so highly of the college purely through my personal experience within its community, says Tyler.

He said, The school makes education feel like a home away from home in a way that universities cannot. Chattanooga State deserves to be a first choice by virtue of how it helps the students, not only because of its great educational staff, but also how they prepare you for the next step after your enrollment comes to an end  whether that means into the workforce or entering a university.

To fulfill the eight-hour community service portion of TN Promise, Tyler worked as a Humane Education Society volunteer. He says there is more to the volunteer job than most people realize. He also believes that TN Promise makes students feel more included and adds that, students who have the scholarship appreciate it more and that makes the connections more real.

Where universities are often too large and intimidating for new freshmen, making it easy to get lost, Tyler said he finds Chattanooga State just right and conducive to making new friends as he enjoys campus life. He is an active member of the Psychology Club, made the Fall 2017 Deans List and plans to join the Global Scholars honors program this semester. Now in his second semester, Tyler decided to major in Theatre Arts. He also will be helping other students see Chattanooga State through his eyes while working as a tour guide for Recruiting and Orientation this spring.

He said, So many people think that community colleges are their last chance, but in reality it builds everything up in your life.

Now in its fourth year, 62,860 of the states more than 74,000 graduating high school seniors in public and private schools statewide have applied as TN Promise students.

Chattanooga State Community College has an 18:1 student-to-teacher ratio, 97 percent job placement rate, and 98 percent licensure pass rate, officials said. For more information, visit www.chattanoogastate.edu.A decade of dedication to ridding his farm of blackgrass has paid off for Cambridgeshire grower Edd Banks, who intends to continue with his long-term plan.

Having originally set his sights on eliminating the grassweed from the 1,200ha farm back in 2007, he is now down to a few troublesome fields  a far cry from the almost overwhelming situation that prompted him to take drastic action.

Those odd fields are a reminder of what might happen if mistakes or leniency creep in, with Mr Banks being determined to maintain his attention to detail, banish blackgrass and achieve a total victory.

See also: How to stop blackgrass adapting to a spring cropping strategy

The farm is clean, but not spotless, he says. And were aiming for spotless.

Herbicide spend

Even with todays manageable blackgrass population and limited seed return, he is still spending 100-140/ha on pre and peri-emergence herbicides in winter wheat (see panel), as well as hand roguing some problem areas.

As weed numbers have reduced, our control measures have become more targeted, he says. But it would be foolish to think that we had finished  what were our best fields 10 years ago are now the worst.

Progress is down to a combination of factors  with cultural and chemical control methods being used alongside rotational and management flexibility, all backed up with a can-do attitude from the farm team and agronomist.

Fine-tuning

We change something every year, notes Mr Banks. The last three years have been all about fine-tuning the system, so that our results are consistent and the farms profitability doesnt suffer.

Ploughing has stopped so that soils are undisturbed in the spring. Any cultivations needed ahead of sugar beet or spring cereals take place in the autumn, with only the top 3-4cm being worked to limit any weed germination from depth.

Having 90ha of sugar beet in the rotation has made things easier, he acknowledges. We dont get blackgrass in our beet, thanks to its spring drilling date and different chemistry.

Other spring crops include 40ha of spring barley, which fits behind late-lifted sugar beet, and 40ha of spring oats grown on a gluten-free contract. Both have proved to be a very competitive break crops  also helping with blackgrass.

Establishment success

After a revival in its fortunes, winter oilseed rape is now the main break crop at Thomas Banks and Partners. It is established behind hybrid winter barley, so that it can be drilled quickly and cost-effectively at the end of July.

By abandoning our subsoiler drill weve halved our establishment costs and increased our yields from 2.1t/ha to 3.6t/ha. The crop is up and way ahead of the flea beetle and while theres moisture.

It also outcompetes any early germinating blackgrass, with a well-timed propyzamide-based spray taking care of the rest.

Actives Avadex  tri-allate

Broadway Star  florasulam + pyroxsulam

Crystal  flufenacet + pendimethalin

Liberator  (diflufenican + flufenacet)

Monolith  mesosulfuron + propoxycarbazone

Application technique

In winter wheat, a great deal of energy and concentration goes into ensuring that pre-emergence herbicides are applied for maximum effect and in optimum conditions.

Water volumes of 200 litres/ha are used, boom height is kept to 0.5m above the crop, the latest nozzles are employed and forward speeds are kept below 12kph.

Im told that you can get a 30% improvement in herbicide performance by using 200 litres/ha of water rather than 100 litres. Thats worth having.

Sam Harvey of Bayer points out that delaying drilling until mid-October is another way of getting more from the pre-emergence programme.

Theres a 30% boost in Liberators performance at this later timing, as it goes on when conditions are more favourable for it and theres sufficient soil moisture.Its almost become a rite of passage in agriculture for young farmers to pack their bags and head off to work thousands of miles away.

Many end up relief milking in New Zealand or harvesting vast swathes of crops in Australia. Roger Morton, a 27-year-old farm worker from Buckinghamshire, instead opted for Iraq.

This was not your average working abroad adventure, but its long been an ambition of Rogers to work on an aid project with Medecins Sans Frontieres, also known as MSF or Doctors Without Borders.

See also: Young engineer calls time on gender stereotyping in agriculture

Its a humanitarian non-governmental organisation well known for its projects in war-torn countries and regions affected by endemic diseases.

The organisation offers neutral and impartial medical assistance regardless of race, religion, gender or political affiliation.

To ensure full independence, MSF doesnt accept government or agency funding and relies entirely on donations from the general public.

It had always been a dream of mine to work for MSF but until now the timing wasnt right and I felt that I didnt have enough experience, explains Roger.

Hes a qualified mechanical engineer whos been working on a 1,200ha arable farm near Bicester in Buckinghamshire.

He recalls the exact moment when he decided to apply for an assignment with the organisation.

There was a clear trigger moment for me  I was in the tractor cab drilling oilseed rape.

I was listening to a BBC Radio 4 podcast which featured an interview with a surgeon who was caught up in a conflict zone.

That was the moment that I thought to myself, I have to do something and so I gave my boss three months notice.

Working 100 hours a week with most of it sat in a tractor alone with his thoughts, it was inevitable Roger was going to make the leap at some point.

Hes just returned from a six-month placement in Iraq working as a technical logistics manager, a role which drew heavily on his engineering skills.

MSF works across Iraq in regions frequently reported on during the war, such as Baghdad, Erbil and Kirkuk.

We cant report where exactly Roger was based in case it risks the safety of volunteers who are working out there.

Unstable region

Following the fall of Saddam Hussein in 2003, Iraq has endured years of catastrophic conflict and the spread of extremist self-proclaimed Islamic State (IS) fighters throughout pockets of the country.

Since 2014, about 5.3 million men, women and children have fled their homes to seek shelter from the fighting.

While the situation has improved since the darkest days of the war led by British and American forces, years of bloody conflict have had dire consequences for this countrys health sector.

Part of Rogers assignment was to design and build a triage and stability centre for wounded people, set up just a few miles away from a conflict zone.

The boom of gunfire and explosions often formed a backing track to his time in the country.

Innocent people caught up in the conflict would sometimes manage to escape but often their injuries were so severe they were unlikely to survive a journey to the nearest hospital.

See also: How a farmworker bagged a role in a blockbuster movie

Mostly constructed from portable buildings and tents, the centre he was tasked with setting up was to be the first port of call for any causalities.

The guys that I worked with on the farm knew that I wanted to go off and do this, but one of the mechanics was a bit upset and couldnt really understand it. He said I was mad for going to Iraq.

I had to be honest with people about where I was going and what Id be doing, but at the same time not to worry anyone unduly.

He arrived in Iraq with his John Deere overalls stowed inside his bag and ready to get his hands dirty, but it soon turned out that his role was rather different to what he has imagined.

I was expecting to do a bit of welding but instead I was working on the designs for the centre and project managing.

I was used to doing everything myself on the farm, so I had to get accustomed to delegating the work to a team.

Logistical 007

Roger was also put in charge of moving staff around to various refugee camps, hospitals or entry points as well as day-to-day security. Naturally, he felt a lot of responsibility for the safety of others.

The conflict was continually evolving and was going on all around us. One day it was totally normal and then overnight everything could change.

It was very unstable out there but I never really feared for my own safety  I felt a bit like James Bond to be honest, he chuckles.

You have to know at all times where people are and I was nervous about this in the beginning  it was hard to keep track of it all.

But people around me were so calm in a crisis and thats probably one of the reasons why I never worried about myself.

He says that Iraq felt strangely familiar to him and he quickly felt at home, partly because the local people he was working with really understood the quirks of British humour.

Right mindset

Having also worked on projects in India and Rwanda, he says his return from Iraq has been the easiest readjustment to life back in the UK, mainly because he wanted his freedom back.

On returning to the farm, the first thing Roger did was take the dog for a long walk around the crops, deliberately leaving his phone behind. A simple liberty for a farmer but it was the first moment of solitude he had enjoyed in months.

There are strict protocols in place to keep volunteers safe while they are working in areas of conflict.

You couldnt even go for a walk on your own, youd have to take somebody with you and send a text to tell everyone when you were leaving and when you got back, explains Roger.

See also: Farmer-turned-triathlete sets sights on world championships

He says farmers make ideal candidates for the sort of work he was doing in Iraq because theyve got the right mentality to get the job done no matter what problems spring up.

With farmers, theres always a way to fix something and get around a problem. Farms need to be so efficient and are under resourced at times, but the job is always done to the best of their ability.

He points to his farms assistant manager, Daniel Duffy, as a classic example of the determination that makes anyone from farming stock perfect for humanitarian aid work.

Daniel does most of the spraying on the farm and is one of the best machinery operators Ive ever seen.

He doesnt have much mechanical empathy, but even he wouldnt ever give up or let a breakdown get in the way of his output.

Get stuck in

Roger is now working on designing a personal protection kit for people who may be exposed to the threat of chemical warfare.

Having worked as a sprayer operator, hes already well versed in the safe use of chemicals and the necessary safety precautions.

Im trying to design a piece of clothing that has this protection built in, because the protective suits you need to wear are very cumbersome. I want to take all the thinking out of using the protection.

If youre reading this and thinking that you would like to get involved in a humanitarian project, Roger says it can be timed well with seasonal work on the farm.

Volunteering means you can time it to miss the boring ditch-clearing work that goes on during the winter months, for example, he says.

Farmers make great all-rounders and I took away so many brilliant life lessons after my time with MSF.

You can find out more about volunteering for this organisation by going to the MSF website.MPs have pledged to launch an inquiry into fly-tipping laws that farmers say unfairly penalise private landowners.

Under a current waste crime legislation, it is the responsibility of the landowner to remove waste dumped on private land and dispose of it legally.

The Country Land and Business Association (CLA) says this legal loophole has even resulted in private landowners being threatened with prosecution if they fail to remove somebody elses waste from their land.

See also: Revelaed: The burden of fly-tipping on farms

The CLA hosted a meeting of MPs and industry and government leaders at parliament on Tuesday (27 February) in a bid to highlight the growing concern about the fly-tipping epidemic that is blighting the countryside.

Tim Breitmeyer, CLA president, said: The landowner not only has the crime committed on his or her land, but then has to pay for the disposal of the waste. This is a double injustice.

Allison Ogden-Newton, chief executive at Keep Britain Tidy, said registered volunteers have an arrangement with local council tips that allows them to use a reference number and a commercial licence to remove waste free of charge.

Ticketing pilot

The CLA, which is supporting Farmers Weeklys Stop the Blot fly-tipping campaign, is lobbying Defra to pilot a similar ticketing system for fly-tipping victims on private farmland.

But Defra environment minister Therese Coffey said Defra had no plans to pilot such a scheme.

She told a meeting: I recognise that fly-tipping on private land is more complex. Local authorities, as you are aware, are not under the obligation [to help].

I think the concern about providing free clear-up is that it just gives more incentive to more illegal dumping and aspects like that, and reduces incentives for landowners to protect their land.

Dr Coffey added that any evidence linking councils charging to receive certain types of waste with an increase in fly-tipping was inconclusive.

Industrial-scale dumping

Neil Parish, chairman of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Efra) Select Committee, said farmers are dealing with lorryloads of waste dumped on their land, the clean-up bills can be expensive, and small fines handed out at courts dont cover the costs.

Mr Parish said his Efra committee would compile a report on fly-tipping and the legal anomaly surrounding private landowners to present to the government this summer.

At the end of the day, somebody other than the landowner/farmers needs to pay for it, whether its government or local government.

CLA legal adviser Andrew Gillett said the organisation had raised the issue in a Private Members Bill last year, but it was not supported by government.

Caroline Spelman, MP for the Meridien constituency in the West Midlands, suggested that farmers should be paid to remove fly-tipping waste from farms as a public good.

She asked: Local authorities are strapped for cash. Under a zero-tolerance approach to fly-tipping, is it possible to conceive of some role for farmers?

Stop the Blot

Fly-tippers are ruining our countryside and clean-up costs are crippling farm businesses. Thats why we have launched our Stop the Blot campaign to help raise awareness of the damage caused by fly-tipping and tackle the growing epidemic on farms.PAYING HIS DUES Gaffney senior patiently waits his turn to star at linebacker

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editor's pick centerpiece

Six months after Harvey, recovery seems slow to many

kelseywalling / KELSEY WALLING/The Daily News Carter Eisinger, left, and Calvin Anderson gather insulation to throw out of a house on Blue Water Lane in Dickinson on Tuesday, Feb. 27, 2018. Eisinger, Anderson and several other volunteers are from around the country and are working with ReachGlobal Crisis Response to help people who have not been able to recover from Hurricane Harvey. kelseywalling / KELSEY WALLING/The Daily News Daniel Antley kisses his daughter, Savannah, while standing outside of his home in Dickinson on Tuesday, Feb. 27, 2018. Antley is getting help on repairs from volunteers with ReachGlobal Crisis Response. kelseywalling / KELSEY WALLING/The Daily News Noah Kading removes nails from the ceiling of a damaged house in Dickinson on Tuesday, Feb. 27, 2018. Kading traveled from Pennsylvania to help people affected by Hurricane Harvey. kelseywalling / KELSEY WALLING/The Daily News Calvin Anderson, from left, Carter Eisinger and Noah Kading work on a living room in a damaged house in Dickinson on Tuesday, Feb. 27, 2018. Crisis Response has teams scattered throughout the county in Dickinson, Friendswood and League City. kelseywalling / KELSEY WALLING/The Daily News A house in Bayou Chantilly neighborhood remains vacant and damaged in Dickinson on Tuesday, Feb. 27, 2018. Although Hurricane Harvey hit six months ago, many people have not been able to begin repairs. kelseywalling / KELSEY WALLING/The Daily News A door lays in a yard in the Bayou Chantilly neighborhood in Dickinson on Tuesday, Feb. 27, 2018.

A tall, neat pile of new Sheetrock dominates what had been Peggy Disbrows kitchen in her empty home on Meadow Court in Dickinson.

Six months after Hurricane Harvey flooded the Bayou Chantilly neighborhood, Disbrow, like many others, isnt living in her own home. Instead, shes living in a house she rents 2 miles away.

Its disheartening, she said.

So many people are moving out, Disbrow said. Most of the people on the Old Bayou side are already gone.

Disbrow was home with her six dogs Aug. 27 when floodwaters arrived. Relatives called and told her to leave, but she wouldnt leave her dogs, she said. When the water got 3 feet deep in her hallway, she started asking for help, calling out to boats passing by, she said.

Shes had trouble with a disaster assistance application from the Federal Emergency Management Agency in the months since. She filled out the application in October, but when she called to ask about getting money for the rental house, the agency representative couldnt find her information in the system.

Im lucky I can pay for it, Disbrow said. Im living on my retirement.

Shes not alone in still waiting to finally go home.

Six months after Harvey, progress on housing repairs has been gradual, local and state officials said. Some 615 Galveston County families are still living in FEMA-funded hotel rooms and hundreds are still waiting for some kinds of housing assistance from state and federal agencies, according to the Governors Commission to Rebuild Texas.

Data about how many people have received housing in Galveston County is elusive. A website set up by the commission  which went live Monday  cites numbers from the Texas General Land Office, which reports that only one family has received a FEMA-approved mobile home or trailer and only two were residing in houses completed though a state-managed program that helps pay to repair significant damage.

A spokeswoman for the Texas General Land Office on Tuesday cautioned against citing those numbers. Spokeswoman Brittany Eck said state officials were still trying to ensure the most accurate data was posted to the website.

The land office estimates 557 houses in Galveston County had been completed under a second program for homes that sustained relatively minor damage. The new state website puts the number of completed through that program at 413. Eck was not able to provide alternative numbers for the trailers or homes completed in the county.

The land office is the state agency designated to lead housing recovery after Harvey, and in recent months has borne much of the criticism about slow progress on recovery.

Land office officials, including Land Commissioner George P. Bush, point out that the agency wasnt assigned its duties until three weeks after Harvey made landfall. The agencys response also was largely dependent on the federal government making its own approvals before the land office could move forward, Eck said.

Comparisons some had made to the pace of housing recovery made in Louisiana after Hurricane Katrina in 2005 were off base, Eck said.

Louisiana is a significantly smaller state, she said. Hurricane Harvey prompted federal disaster declarations in 49 Texas counties, spanning nearly 40,000 square miles.

Galveston County Judge Mark Henry said he didnt have numbers available to dispute the progress of housing recovery in the county, but agreed that the pace had been slow. He said county leaders were in constant contact with state and federal officials, there was little county officials could do to speed the process up.

Were still going too slow for my comfort, he said. Were the caboose on this train, we dont get to drive it.

Dickinson, where Disbrow lives, was one of the hardest hit areas of the state. Six months ago, thousands of people were evacuated from their homes by boat as floodwaters came out of Dickinson Bayou after Harvey dropped more than 50 inches of rain.

Ron Morales, the citys interim city manager, said he was encouraged by the number of businesses that have returned to the city since the storm. Of the about 160 businesses in Dickinson before Harvey, 137 had reopened and 10 more were seeking city permits, Morales said.

At times, the city feels like it did before the storm, but the reminders of Harveys damage are still visible, he said.

You can go and look at some of those yards and houses and they look great, Morales said. Then you look next door and it looks like a bomb went off.

Individual recovery in Dickinson is largely up to personal circumstance, Morales said. Many people who had flood insurance are back in their homes or well underway in their repairs. But so many people got a slow start on recovery that the city got special permission from the state to continue storm debris pickup through February.

Morales, Henry and League City Mayor Pat Hallisey all said they have eyes on longer-term recovery projects as well. Galveston County is looking for a grant coordinator that will help guide the county through the FEMA and U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development grant process. Dickinson, meanwhile, is conducting a survey of all its streets to see which ones will need to be completely rebuilt because of flood damage.

In League City, officials said that the city was planning to start presenting drainage studies to six neighborhoods around Dickinson Bayou and Clear Creek, in the hopes of building consensus around ways to stop future flooding.

Our spirit is coming back, Hallisey said. People are once again talking about the future. The city has rebounded admirably and we have drainage projects unfolding.

If there was one bright spot in the recovery so far, its the actions of nonprofit groups that have stepped up to help with home repairs, officials said. A large effort to rebuild 1,000 homes, coordinated by the faith-based group Eight Days of Hope, is set to begin next week.

But smaller volunteer repairs are also constantly underway.

In Bayou Chantilly, North Dakota resident Calvin Anderson was helping to put a house back together. Anderson and others were with ReachGlobal Crisis Response, a faith-based organization that has been rotating volunteers into the areas over the past six months. Anderson arrived in Galveston County on Sunday to help residents repair houses that flooded six months ago.

The group is sent to specific homes to do repair work, he said, but also takes time to canvass neighborhoods to look for more people who need help. They usually dont have to look far.

You dont get it done in six months, he said.While some homeowners might dream of retiring to a private tropical island, more and more are choosing to age in place and live independently, comfortably, and safely in their own home, regardless of age or ability.

As the Baby Boomer generation embraces this stage of life, many are searching for builders and remodelers who can help turn their home into a safer, more convenient place to live as they age.



As part of National Designation Month - a month where the HBAGC and the National Association of Home Builders shine a spotlight on industry professionals who go the extra mile to attain advanced training and achieve specialized designations - we recognize the importance of professionals who have received the Certified Aging in Place Specialist (CAPS) designation.



CAPS professionals are helping people throughout Chattanooga and Hamilton County find aging-in-place solutions that fit their specific needs and budget. CAPS remodelers and builders are trained to understand the unique needs of aging adults without sacrificing the aesthetic value of the home.



While there are countless ways CAPS remodelers can help make your home work for you, some of the most common aging-in-place renovations include:



 Widening doorways and hallways

 Installing brighter lighting

 Adding railings or grab bars to prevent falls

 Changing floor coverings to add traction

 Installing ease-of-reach systems

A Closer Look at the CAPS Difference

Aging homeowners looking to renovate need to be able to find a remodeler they can trust completely, and the CAPS designation helps give homeowners a guarantee that theyre working with a trustworthy professional whos an expert in aging-in place renovation.

Upon graduation from the program, CAPS designees pledge to uphold a strict code of conduct, so you can be sure that they will listen closely to your specific needs and will never push you to add any renovations you don't need.



CAPS professionals also commit to attending continuing education programs, so they are always up to date on the latest aging-in-place technologies and strategies.



If youre working with a CAPS designated remodeler, you can be confident that youre getting the best quality service from a professional with integrity and expertise.



More than 3,100 remodelers and builders hold this designation, including many working in Chattanooga and the surrounding area. There are also many other distinguished designation that our local builders have achieved to better serve their clients and community. A few include:



 Certified Green Professional (CGP)  those who incorporate eco-friendly building principles into their work, without driving up the cost of construction



 Certified Graduate Builder (CGB) or Remodeler (CGR)  those who have several years of industry experience and possess advanced skills not only as a tenanted home builder or remodel, but also as a trusted business manager.

If youd like to find a builder or remodeler in your area with a CAPS or other designation, contact HBAGC at 423-624-9992 or www.hbagc.net.

The city of Cleveland will be temporarily closing Bower Lane on Monday, March 5, to thru traffic at Blackburn Road and at Foster Road.

Public Works will be installing two twin 6 x 3 box culverts. This project is estimated to be completed by March 16. Non-local traffic is advised to use an alternative route. Detour signs will be available for traffic accessing the Bradley County Justice Center.

Contact the citys Public Works Department at 423 472-2851 for additional questions about this project.The Chattanooga Chapter of the Military Officers Association of America dedicated their memorial in a ceremony at the Chattanooga National Cemetery on Tuesday. Their monument was placed in the Circle of Honor joining other veteran organizations.

MOAA represents more than 370,000 members from every branch of U.S. Armed Forces - including active duty, National Guard and Reserve, retired and former officers, and their families. i

President and CEO of MOAA, Lt Gen Dana Atkins, USAF (retired), was the speaker. The master of ceremonies was Channel 9s Josh Roe, a Marine veteran.

A number of MOAA members, UTC ROTC Cadets and guests were in attendance. Vietnam Veterans Chapter 203 provided the Honor Guard.

The National Anthem was sung by Mrs. Cindy Dooley, wife of Chapter President Chris Dooley. Retired Navy Chaplain Phil Sumrall delivered the prayers.

The monument was unveiled by Chris Dooley and Mickey McCamish.Welcome to my genealogy blog. Genea-Musings features genealogy research tips and techniques, genealogy news items and commentary, genealogy humor, San Diego genealogy society news, family history research and some family history stories from the keyboard of Randy Seaver (of Chula Vista CA), who thinks that Genealogy Research Is really FUN! Copyright (c) Randall J. Seaver, 2006-2021.Sale Creek Primary Care, a family medical clinic, will open Monday, offering an extensive variety of services and serving patients of all ages.

The new office is owned by Whitney Ross, PA-C. Professional services offered will include routine medical care, wellness exams, knee injections, hip injections, and minor procedures including suturing, toe nail removal, skin tag removal, incision and drainage of abscesses.

A love for small-town practice and total patient care motivated Mrs. Ross to open the facility.

It has always been a dream of mine to open my own office, and about six months ago I felt God was pushing me to take that next step, Mrs. Ross said. I love Sale Creek and all of its people. I am a small-town girl myself, so I can relate to my patients very well here. There isnt a lot of medical care offered in Sale Creek, so I want to make sure my patients dont have to travel long distances for general care that I can provide.

A native of Crossville, Tenn., Mrs. Ross graduated from East Tennessee State University with a bachelors degree in biology. She earned a masters degree in health science in physician assistant studies from South College in Knoxville. She previously worked at Pediatric Health Care in Chattanooga and has experience in pediatrics and primary care.

Other staff members are Dr. Chad Conatser, supervising physician; Donna Gunter, office manager; Whitney Padgett, certified medical assistant; and Maria Campos, medical assistant.

Sale Creek Primary Care will hold an open house on Saturday from noon until 3 p.m.

The clinic is at 14402 Dayton Pike, Suite C in Sale Creek. Hours of operation are 9 a.m.-5 p.m. For appointments, insurance information and other questions, call 498-3560. The offices website is salecreekprimarycare.org.

kacylee at 28-02-2018 08:54 AM (3 years ago) (f)

The Tourism and Culture Minister of Gambia, Hamat Bah, has warned foreign tourists hoping to travel to his country to engage in sex tourism, to rather go to Thailand. Bah made this statement on GRTS TV, a state-sponsored TV station, during a news update show that airs weekly.

The Tourism and Culture Minister of Gambia, Hamat Bah, has warned foreign tourists hoping to travel to his country to engage in sex tourism, to rather go to Thailand. Bah made this statement on GRTS TV, a state-sponsored TV station, during a news update show that airs weekly.

Apparently, winter season is high-time for tourism in Gambia and some of those visitors do go to the country for more than just the beaches.



According to Travel Wire News, Bah said,

If you want a sex destination, you go to Thailand. Gambia is not a sex destination. We are not, and please every Gambian must sing that song. We cannot afford to see this country be brought to that level. We must protect and preserve this country. He went on to warn that foreigners engaging in sexual activities with underage Gambians will be prosecuted. Apparently, winter season is high-time for tourism in Gambia and some of those visitors do go to the country for more than just the beaches.According to Travel Wire News, Bah said,He went on to warn that foreigners engaging in sexual activities with underage Gambians will be prosecuted.

Post Reply I have been reporting for several years now and I am very interested in visual news reportage with strong inclusion of photos and video multimedia. Posted: at 28-02-2018 08:54 AM (3 years ago) | Addicted Heroclarajancita at 28-02-2018 10:33 AM (3 years ago) (f)

Two criminals who attacked a victim for preventing them from r*ping his daughter, and also dispossessed him of his money, other belongings, have justified why they engaged in crimes.

As a result of the economic recession in the country and failure of government to provide any job for people, two suspected armed robbers identified as Shehu Bida and Bello Mallam, have justified why they went into robbery, after they were arrested in Talba Estate, Bida town in the Bida Local Government Area of the state.

Two criminals who attacked a victim for preventing them from r*ping his daughter, and also dispossessed him of his money, other belongings, have justified why they engaged in crimes.As a result of the economic recession in the country and failure of government to provide any job for people, two suspected armed robbers identified as Shehu Bida and Bello Mallam, have justified why they went into robbery, after they were arrested in Talba Estate, Bida town in the Bida Local Government Area of the state.

According to Reporters, 20-year-old Buda, and 18-year-old Mallam, were trailed and apprehended by the the Niger State Police Command after robbing one Mohammed Mohammed of the sum of N7,400 and two handsets valued at N9,000.



The suspects, who used a machete and planks to injure Mohammed on the head, for preventing them from molesting his daughter, confessed that they inflicted injuries on Mohammed before dispossessing him of his N7,400 and the two mobile phones.



While speaking to a correspondent, Buda said that he committed the crime due to the economic recession in the country.

According to Reporters, 20-year-old Buda, and 18-year-old Mallam, were trailed and apprehended by the the Niger State Police Command after robbing one Mohammed Mohammed of the sum of N7,400 and two handsets valued at N9,000.The suspects, who used a machete and planks to injure Mohammed on the head, for preventing them from molesting his daughter, confessed that they inflicted injuries on Mohammed before dispossessing him of his N7,400 and the two mobile phones.While speaking to a correspondent, Buda said that he committed the crime due to the economic recession in the country. Quote Many people are stealing in the country, including top government officials. People are dying of hunger and there is no job. What else do you expect me to do other than stealing?

If am discharged by the police, I will still go back to rob people. The country is in a bad situation, the suspect said unrepentantly.



The Police Public Relations Officer, Muhammad Abubakar, said that on Tuesday, its operatives recovered from the suspects the machete, adding that the suspects would be charged to court at the end of investigation. the suspect said unrepentantly.The Police Public Relations Officer, Muhammad Abubakar, said that on Tuesday, its operatives recovered from the suspects the machete, adding that the suspects would be charged to court at the end of investigation.

Post Reply I am a metro reporter on Gistmania, I have been publishing news materials for over 5 years Posted: at 28-02-2018 10:33 AM (3 years ago) | HeroYoung Fulani Man, Adamu Hassan Claims That Cows Are More Historical Than Some Tribes In Nigeria

clarajancita at 28-02-2018 10:53 AM (3 years ago) (f)

A young man from Abbare area of Taraba state, has got himself trending on Facebook after coming to the defence of the Fulani sect which has been trailed with series of bad news. The young Fulani man identified as Adamu Hassan shared a picture of 200 naira note  showing the area where cows are drawn as he claimed that cows are more historic than some tribes in Nigeria.

A young man from Abbare area of Taraba state, has got himself trending on Facebook after coming to the defence of the Fulani sect which has been trailed with series of bad news. The young Fulani man identified as Adamu Hassan shared a picture of 200 naira note  showing the area where cows are drawn as he claimed that cows are more historic than some tribes in Nigeria.

He also said that the historical cows and Fulanis contributed immensely to the development of Nigeria..



Below is what he shared on Facebook;



This is to tell you how historical cows and Fulanis are, cows contributed immensely to the development of Nigeria as nation, thats why Theyre pictured on our currency unlike pigs and dogs that were never recognize.



Therefore, cows are more historic than some tribes in Nigeria.



He also said that the historical cows and Fulanis contributed immensely to the development of Nigeria..This is to tell you how historical cows and Fulanis are, cows contributed immensely to the development of Nigeria as nation, thats why Theyre pictured on our currency unlike pigs and dogs that were never recognize.Therefore, cows are more historic than some tribes in Nigeria.

Post Reply I am a metro reporter on Gistmania, I have been publishing news materials for over 5 years Posted: at 28-02-2018 10:53 AM (3 years ago) | Hero

favourita at 28-02-2018 10:57 AM (3 years ago)

(f) They even talk and look like cows than d human being starting from their so call president idiot fellows Posted: at 28-02-2018 10:57 AM (3 years ago) | Gistmaniac They even talk and look like cows than d human beingstarting from their so call presidentidiot fellows Reply

nature7888 at 28-02-2018 11:04 AM (3 years ago)

(m) Okay, Joker Posted: at 28-02-2018 11:04 AM (3 years ago) | Gistmaniac Okay, Joker Reply

ruthie at 28-02-2018 11:06 AM (3 years ago)

(f) NO WONDER THEY ARE BACKWARD..#DEADBRAINALERT Posted: at 28-02-2018 11:06 AM (3 years ago) | Hero NO WONDER THEY ARE BACKWARD..#DEADBRAINALERT Reply

bleble40 at 28-02-2018 11:31 AM (3 years ago)

(f) Can you imagine what this unam ikot is saying. Anyway I dont blame them na our government and our brother from south who were among those that sold our dignity to dis idiots. He had a point from what he is saying, see how he illustrated our currency. Shame on us we from the south and we go sey hausa no get sense Posted: at 28-02-2018 11:31 AM (3 years ago) | Upcoming Can you imagine what this unam ikot is saying. Anyway I dont blame them na our government and our brother from south who were among those that sold our dignity to dis idiots. He had a point from what he is saying, see how he illustrated our currency. Shame on us we from the south and we go sey hausa no get sense Reply

Mykie010 at 28-02-2018 11:46 AM (3 years ago)

(m) Quote from: bleble40 on 28-02-2018 11:31 AM Can you imagine what this unam ikot is saying. Anyway I dont blame them na our government and our brother from south who were among those that sold our dignity to dis idiots. He had a point from what he is saying, see how he illustrated our currency. Shame on us we from the south and we go sey hausa no get sense

ww need to correct our mistakes by kicking this evil man out next year, let's start with him Posted: at 28-02-2018 11:46 AM (3 years ago) | Gistmaniac ww need to correct our mistakes by kicking this evil man out next year, let's start with him Reply

maizaxx at 28-02-2018 11:48 AM (3 years ago)

(m) Please why do we like to create crisis in Nigeria?

We should be mindful of our utterances. We are currently in a volatile situation now in Nigeria.

Can tribes thrive without the cows and can cows thrive without the tribes?

We need to try and rationalize our thinking and make Nigeria great. Posted: at 28-02-2018 11:48 AM (3 years ago) | Gistmaniac Please why do we like to create crisis in Nigeria?We should be mindful of our utterances. We are currently in a volatile situation now in Nigeria.Can tribes thrive without the cows and can cows thrive without the tribes?We need to try and rationalize our thinking and make Nigeria great. Reply

cypanyahucha at 28-02-2018 12:49 PM (3 years ago)

(m) Akwuya sannu nku Posted: at 28-02-2018 12:49 PM (3 years ago) | Gistmaniac Akwuya sannu nku Reply

Olandetujaa at 28-02-2018 04:45 PM (3 years ago)

(m) Fool!!! Every tribe had one way or the other contributed to the economy and GDP of Nigeria, while that of fulani is a low percentage Posted: at 28-02-2018 04:45 PM (3 years ago) | Upcoming Fool!!! Every tribe had one way or the other contributed to the economy and GDP of Nigeria, while that of fulani is a low percentage Reply

Jeonleon at 28-02-2018 05:26 PM (3 years ago)

(m) Quote from: maizaxx on 28-02-2018 11:48 AM Please why do we like to create crisis in Nigeria?

We should be mindful of our utterances. We are currently in a volatile situation now in Nigeria.

Can tribes thrive without the cows and can cows thrive without the tribes?

We need to try and rationalize our thinking and make Nigeria great.



"Can tribes thrive without the cows...".



Are you trying to say that human existence is reliant on the consumption of cow meat? Is that what you call rationalism? Posted: at 28-02-2018 05:26 PM (3 years ago) | Upcoming "Can tribes thrive without the cows...".Are you trying to say that human existence is reliant on the consumption of cow meat? Is that what you call rationalism? Reply

slimber at 28-02-2018 07:56 PM (3 years ago)

(f) Can you imagine Posted: at 28-02-2018 07:56 PM (3 years ago) | Hero Can you imagine Reply

MOnkey at 1-03-2018 01:45 AM (3 years ago)

(f)







C o N g r A T u L a t i O n Maker beast bell









: oO0o



WORLD . '' . | BANK | MA'0'RU>><>EBHABHA Posted: at 1-03-2018 01:45 AM (3 years ago) | Upcoming C o Reply

willyking at 1-03-2018 01:57 AM (3 years ago)

(m) Quote from: ruthie on 28-02-2018 11:06 AM NO WONDER THEY ARE BACKWARD..#DEADBRAINALERT

u are very confuse..or are u no.longer a cow.. Posted: at 1-03-2018 01:57 AM (3 years ago) | Gistmaniac u are very confuse..or are u no.longer a cow.. ReplyMontana Fish, Wildlife and Parks Hunter Education course dates have been set for many areas across Region 6. All hunter education classes are free of charge. Many classes are being held prior to the March 15 application deadline for special permits for deer and elk. Future application deadlines include May 1 for moose, sheep and goat, and June 1 for deer B, elk B and antelope. In the next month, classroom courses (for youth) are being held in Hinsdale (March 5), Glasgow (March 8), Saco (March 12), and Scobey (March 12.

All students must register online at the FWP website: fwp.mt.gov; click on the education tab, then click hunter education programs. Next, Find a class or field course and search for the available class in your area. Detailed instructions on dates, times, and other information will be found on the registration page. Many classes require students to pick up a manual and complete chapter quizzes before class begins.

For youth to be eligible to hunt and be fully certified during the 2018 season, hunters must be 12-years old by January 16, 2019. Students aged 10 and 11 can take a course and hunt as an apprentice, but will not be fully certified until the year they turn 12. Preference will be given to 11 and 12-year olds (or older) if the class becomes full. All registrants for these events must be 10 years old by the first day of class.

Adult online field course will be held in the next month as well in Glasgow on March 11 For the adult online field course, adults must pass the online hunter education course and receive a Field Day Qualifier Certificate. Adults looking to complete the online course can find instructions at fwp.mt.gov. The Field Day Qualifier Certificate and a picture ID are necessary to obtain entrance into the field course.

If there are any questions, please call the Glasgow FWP office at 228-3700.Mary Armstrong filed for the Valley County Commissioner race last week. She becomes the seventh candidate for the county job, joining ArlIe Gordon, Mike Carney, Renee Clampitt, Todd Young, Jim Uphaus, and Gilbert Mogan.

If you ask Armstrong to describe her response is simple:. "I'm an engineer," she said, "and I don't take anything for granted."

"I don't want to speak for the current board members," she told the Courier, " but I believe the land use is well represented and roads and county are well represented, and I believe I bring experience in business and delivering services to people."

Armstrong arrived in Glasgow in the early nineties as part of the Boeing team negotiating the purchase of the old Glasgow Air Force Base runway. Armstrong described how she and her team had to bring the various stakeholders involved in St. Marie together to make the deal as beneficial to everyone as possible.

During that time, Armstrong also came to love Valley County. "I met my husband here. I had my son right here at FMDH," she said, "and I compared every place I lived after here to Valley County. Nothing quite compared."

Armstrong's desire to serve the community has remained an important part of her retirement. She chairs the Friends of the Library foundation, previously chaired the Soroptomist's Block of Bucks fundraiser, and was very active as a volunteer at Valley View Home before becoming a board member in 2017. Armstrong was also a key figure on the Long-term Care Task Force, which has sought solutions to keeping Valley View Home a viable skilled nursing facility in Valley County.

Armstrong described her intentions, if elected, for her first weeks on the job: "I have a lot of learning and listening to do, but listening to the employees is really important." Her view is that the employees are the ones actually providing the services, and likely have ideas and views to improve those services."

The filing deadline for open Valley County positions is March 12.Just Plain Mad

I taught school for 36 years. I was always proud to be a public school teacher.

But, today Im sick. Im disgusted. And, Im mad. These emotions were the same emotions I had after Columbine, Sandy Hook and too many other school shootings. Im sick of the death and carnage of children. Im disgusted by lawmakers who do nothing and Im mad at everyone, including myself.

Here we go again: first shock another school shooting; then we will debate when is a good time to talk about it; next the NRA will dig their heels in and remind politicians how much money they donated to their campaigns; lawmakers will run and hide; experts will suggest what we should do; and time will pass with nothing done. Until the next school shooting and we do this all over again. The new normal!

The President stood in front of the American people and said, We will do anything for the people of Florida. Well, Mr. President, here is what you can do: support gun control and stop cutting mental health funding. We need a new rally cry Make schools safe! And listen to the real experts  educators!

We are the true experts about whats needed in our schools.

So I ask myself, What can I do? First I ask everyone in education to speak out. NO, yell! Scream at the top of your lungs to every lawmaker both state and federal to do something. To make this their number-one priority.

My Lenten promise is to call all three Montana representatives every day and ask them what they are doing to make schools safer. I will contact my state representative and the governor with the same question. It is up to us to put pressure on lawmakers. If not us, who? And, if not now, when?

Back to mad.

I pray for my fellow teachers who have to walk back into a classroom after a shooting has occurred in a school. How do we make the students understand why nothing is going to change?A couple weeks ago I saw a post on the Glasgow yard sale Facebook group that made me really sad. A gal had recently moved into town and posted asking about whether or not backyard chickens were allowed inside city limits. Many of the responding comments were less than kind or welcoming.

I know something about coming into a new area as I moved from California to Montana. Yep! You read that right! I came from California. The horror. Lol

It was January 2005 and my dad drove to Montana with me in my little blue Toyota station wagon, complete with California plates and big Montana dreams. I had no idea what I was getting into, from the weather to the dirty looks that I got while out driving.

I even developed a specific answer for So where are you from originally?" Thankfully people wouldnt ask personal questions until theyd gotten to know me just a little bit and knew that I was friendly. I always said, Im from a little town named Mount Shasta, about 45 minutes south of the Oregon borderIn California. I never led with Im from California. My response was frequently followed by the reaction, Oh youre one of those Californians! Id always respond chuckling with something along the lines of Im from California, but dont worry, Im not one of THOSE Californians! Wed both laugh and eventually theyd decide I was pretty nice and ok.

Its hard enough to move into a new town, without people looking sideways at you, wondering if you have a hidden agenda, or assuming that youre here to rock the boat.

I think small towns are the most difficult to move into, because residents frequently go back generations. Even if residents dont have family history in the town, they usually have friends within the in crowd or have a second cousins, third uncle, twice removed type family situation.

Here in Glasgow, we have now been nationally noted to be the middle of nowhere, so we can put aside the fear that too many outsiders will move in. We also know that winter weeds out many, as it takes a special person to make it through.

I understand that people are cautious when new folks move into town. In Montana we have the history of out-of-staters moving in, driving up land prices, taking over and changing things. I understand the importance of family history and legacy, especially when it comes to land and agriculture.

So the question becomes, how can we be friendly and considerate towards new folks without risk being walked all over?

I think one of the first things that we can do is share with them the beauty of our small communities. Both the physical beauty and the beauty of the people who live here. Befriend new folks. Help them to catch the vision, the history, and the legacy of small rural towns, so that they can help it continue.

So, the next time an outsider moves in and presents an idea, lets pull them closer, connect with them, even when we disagree. Who knows, maybe in doing so, well at least gain another advocate for rural towns and people in Montana, no matter if they stay or leave!English Latvian

Riga, 2018-02-28 13:30 CET (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The following major factors describe 2017 as particularly favourable for the Groups operations:

the electricity output has increased considerably reaching 5,734 GWh, which is one of the historically largest output levels. Along with the successful electricity generation, during the year Latvia achieved positive electricity trade balance exporting a part of the generated electricity;

the Group successfully commenced natural gas trade in Latvia and Lithuania.

Last year, electricity prices in the Baltic countries continued approximation and approaching the level of the Nordic countries. In 2017, there was an increase in electricity spot prices in the Nordic countries and Estonia, while, in Latvia and Lithuania they decreased by 4%. This was mainly due to the operation of NordBalt interconnection reducing the price difference between the Baltic countries and the Nordic countries.

In 2017, electricity output of the power plants of Latvenergo Group was one of the historically largest output levels  it was 5,734 GWh, which is 22% more than in 2016. Electricity generation at the Daugava HPPs has increased by 74% in 2017 and amounts to 4,270 GWh (2,449 GWh in 2016). Higher water inflow in the Daugava River was the major reason behind the increase in electricity generation by the Daugava HPPs; therefore, electricity output in 2017 was the largest since 1998 and the third largest since the beginning of monitoring in 1966. Considering the high electricity generation by the Daugava HPPs, electricity generation at the Riga CHPPs in 2017 was 36% lower than the year before and amounted to 1,411 GWh.

The thermal energy output in 2017 has decreased by 2% compared to the last year and amounted to 2,612 GWh due to comparatively warmer weather during the heating season and entry of new thermal energy producers on the market.

In April 2017, the natural gas market was opened in Latvia and Latvenergo Group started natural gas trade to corporate customers in Latvia and Estonia. The amount of natural gas trading transactions by Latvenergo equals 36% of the gas consumption in Latvia in 2017, including the gas being purchased in the free market and sold to customers in Latvia and Estonia.

Latvenergo Group was among the biggest electricity traders in the Baltics. The electricity market share of Latvenergo Group was around 27% of the total electricity retail market in the Baltics in 2017. The electricity sales outside Latvia account for 1/3 of the total retail sales of electricity. In total, 6.9 TWh of electricity were sold to retail customers in the Baltics in 2017: in Latvia  4.6 TWh, in Lithuania  1.3 TWh and in Estonia  1 TWh.

The revenue of Latvenergo Group in 2017 remained at the level of 2016 and amounted to 925.6 million euros. The increase in electricity output at the Daugava HPPs contributed to the growth of the Groups profit, which was also positively affected by the corporate income tax reform in Latvia. Latvenergo Group's EBITDA has increased by 38 % in the reporting year and amounted to 541.7 million euros. In 2017, the Groups profit was 322.2 million euros consisting of the Group's annual operating result in the amount of 173.1 million euros and a deferred tax reversal in the amount of 149.1 million euros as the result of the tax reform[2]. In compliance with the Law on Mid-term Budget 2018, 2019 and 2020, the forecasted amount of dividend payable to the state budget from the gained profit in the coming years amounts to 94.2 million euros in 2018, 132.9 million euros in 2019 and 127.1 million euros in 2020.

Latvenergo Group is among the biggest taxpayers in Latvia. In 2017, the Group has paid 238 million euros to the state budget, including more than 90 million euros as dividends for the use of the state capital.

In 2017, the total amount of investment of Latvenergo Group increased by 43.1 million euros or 21% compared to the last year and amounted to 243.8 million euros. The increase was due to higher investment in the transmission and generation segments. By continuing the reconstruction of the Daugava HPPs hydropower units, 41.8 million euros were invested in this project in the reporting year. To ensure high quality power network service, technical parameters and operational safety, a significant amount is invested in the modernization of the power network. The investment in the network assets accounts for 65% of the total investment.

Latvenergo AS has contributed to the reduction of mandatory procurement public service obligation fee (MP PSO fee). As of 1 January 2018, the fee has been reduced by 1 EUR/MWh and is now 25.79 EUR/MWh compared to the previous value of 26.79 EUR/MWh. This was made possible by the decision of Latvenergo AS to apply for the receipt of a one-off compensation from the Latvian state in October 2017, at the same time opting out of the receipt of 75% of the annual electrical capacity payments for Riga CHPPs. On 21 November 2017, the Cabinet of Ministers of the Republic of Latvia accepted an order which supports the compensation payment in the amount of 454.4 million euros to Latvenergo AS. In order to finance the one-off compensation, the state applies its right as the Shareholder of Latvenergo AS uses its right to carry out a capital release of Latvenergo AS.

On 7 September 2017, Moodys maintained the credit rating of Latvenergo AS at the Baa2 level with a stable future outlook. In their assessment, Moodys also took into account the one-off compensation from the state, the planned changes in the support intensity for the Riga CHPPs and the planned Latvenergo AS capital release.

On 14 November 2017, considering the development directions set out in the strategy of Latvenergo Group, the Management Board of Latvenergo AS approved the Strategic Development and Efficiency Program. The strategic development section of the program contains a plan for implementation of major strategic projects. The efficiency section provides for review, centralisation and digitalisation of the Groups processes with the overarching goal of maintaining the long-term profitability of the Group. This is the Groups largest optimization plan in the last decade, and it will allow the Group to increase its value in the long run and to remain competitive in an open market and a changing energy industry.

The audited financial statements of Latvenergo Group for 2017 and the Corporate Governance Report for 2017 will be published on 18 April 2018.

[1] EBITDA  earnings before interest, corporate income tax, share of profit or loss of associated companies, depreciation and amortisation and impairment of intangible and fixed assets

[2] The new Corporate Income Tax (CIT) Law was adopted on 28 July 2017 and entered into force as of 1 January 2018, providing for a different application procedure for the CIT compared to the former CIT Law. In accordance with the International Financial Reporting Standards and the Law On Annual Financial Statements and Consolidated Financial Statements, deferred tax liabilities will no longer be recognised. The accrued deferred tax liabilities in amount of 149.1 million euros recognised in previous years (from 1997 to 2017) are reversed and recorded as income in the profit and loss statement for 2017. Reversal of the deferred tax does not affect Latvenergo Groups cash flow and does not increase financial resources.

Latvenergo Groups Performance Indicators

Operational Figures

2017 2016 Electricity supply GWh 10,371 10,140 Retail* GWh 6,923 7,665 Wholesale** GWh 3,449 2,474 Electricity generation GWh 5,734 4,707 Thermal energy generation GWh 2,612 2,675 Number of employees 3,908 4,131 Moody's credit rating Baa2 (stable) Baa2 (stable)

* Including operating consumption

** Including sale of energy purchased within the mandatory procurement on the Nord Pool

Financial Figures

2017 2016 Revenue MEUR 925.6 931.6 EBITDA 1) MEUR 541.7 393.4 Profit MEUR 322.2 3) 130.6 Assets MEUR 4,412.1 4) 3,901.2 Equity MEUR 2,847.1 2,418.7 Net debt 2) MEUR 590.8 607.6 Investments MEUR 243.8 200.7

1) EBITDA  earnings before interest, corporate income tax, share of profit or loss of associated companies, depreciation and amortisation and impairment of intangible and fixed assets

2) Net debt  borrowings at the end of the reporting year minus cash and cash equivalents at the end of the year

3) Including a one-off compensation for the Riga CHPPs capacity payments  EUR 140 million is recognized as other income in the year 2017

4) Including a deferred tax reversal in the amount of EUR 149.1 million as a result of the corporate income tax reform

Financial Ratios

2017 2016 Net debt / EBITDA 1) 1.1 1.7 EBITDA margin 2) 59% 42% Return on equity (ROE) 3) 12.2% 5.8% Return on assets (ROA) 4) 7.8% 3.5% Return on capital employed (ROCE) 5) 6.8% 5.3% Net debt / equity 6) 21% 25%

1) Net debt / EBITDA  average value of net debt / EBITDA (12-month rolling)

2) EBITDA margin  EBITDA (12-month rolling) / revenue (12-month rolling)

3) Return on equity (ROE)  net profit (12-month rolling) / average value of equity

4) Return on assets (ROA)  net profit (12-month rolling) / average value of assets

5) Return on capital employed (ROCE)  operating profit (12-month rolling) / average value of equity + average value of borrowings

6) Net debt / equity  net debt / equity

Consolidated Statement of Profit or Loss*

2017 2016 EUR000 EUR000 Revenue 925,627 931,619 Other income 149,950** 6,656 Raw materials and consumables used (346,911) (385,813) Personnel expenses (113,289) (96,019) Other operating expenses (73,681) (63,044) EBITDA 541,696 393,399 Depreciation, amortisation and impairment of intangible assets and property, plant and equipment (307,614) (232,626) Operating profit 234,082 160,773 Finance income 1,243 2,328 Finance costs (11,211) (14,156) Profit before tax 224,114 148,945 Income tax (51,029) (23,498) Deferred tax changes 149,106*** 5,146 Profit for the year 322,191 130,593 Profit attributable to: - equity holder of the Parent Company 319,840 129,045 - noncontrolling interests 2,351 1,548

* Unaudited Condensed Consolidated Financial Statements. Prepared in accordance with the IFRS as adopted by the European Union.

** Other income in 2017 includes one-off compensation payment for the electric power capacity installed at Latvenergo AS Riga TEC1 and Riga TEC2 CHPPs in the amount of EUR 140,000 thousand

*** In 2017 deferred tax liabilities reversed in the Statement of Profit or Loss in accordance with the changes of tax regulations and laws of the Republic of Latvia starting from1 January 2018

Consolidated Statement of Financial Position*

31/12/2017 31/12/2016 EUR'000 EUR'000 ASSETS Noncurrent assets Intangible assets and property, plant and equipment 3,322,398 3,370,331 Investment property 753 563 Noncurrent financial investments 41 41 Investments in heldtomaturity financial assets 16,984 17,034 Other noncurrent receivables 286 986 TOTAL noncurrent assets 3,340,462 3,388,955 Current assets Inventories 76,247 41,458 Prepayment for inventories 81  Trade receivables and other receivables 751,427 273,957 Deferred expenses 3,241 3,227 Derivative financial instruments 4,619 6,134 Investments in heldtomaturity financial assets  3,520 Cash and cash equivalents 236,003 183,980 TOTAL current assets 1,071,618 512,276 TOTAL ASSETS 4,412,080 3,901,231 EQUITY AND LIABILITIES Equity Share capital 1,288,715 1,288,715 Reserves 1,126,520 937,074 Retained earnings 423,783 185,840 Equity attributable to equity holder of the Parent Company 2,839,018 2,411,629 Noncontrolling interests 8,042 7,084 TOTAL equity 2,847,060 2,418,713 Liabilities Noncurrent liabilities Borrowings 718,674 635,620 Deferred income tax liabilities**  315,759 Provisions 21,910 18,643 Derivative financial instruments 4,914 7,946 Other liabilities and deferred income 522,362*** 195,407 TOTAL noncurrent liabilities 1,267,860 1,173,375 Current liabilities Borrowings 108,083 155,946 Trade and other payables 143,428 117,817 Income tax payable 27,555 17,718 Deferred income 14,924 14,022 Derivative financial instruments 3,170 3,640 TOTAL current liabilities 297,160 309,143 TOTAL liabilities 1,565,020 1,482,518 TOTAL EQUITY AND LIABILITIES 4,412,080 3,901,231

* Unaudited Condensed Consolidated Financial Statements. Prepared in accordance with the IFRS as adopted by the European Union.

** Deferred tax liabilities in the amount of 149,106 thousand EUR (the Company: 10,082 thousand EUR) are reversed in the Statement of Profit or Loss for 2017 and 166,653 thousand EUR  in the equity on 31 December 2017 (the Company: 116,178 thousand EUR), as initially they were accounted for within the equity, in accordance with the amendments to the laws and regulations of the Republic of Latvia that entered into force from 1 January 2018

*** Recognised compensation in the amount of EUR 314,413 thousand for abandonment from State-guaranteed fee for the electric power capacity installed at Latvenergo AS Riga TEC1 and Riga TEC2 CHPPs in the support period, to be recognised as revenue in the next periods by fulfilling the commitments stated in the Regulations No. 221 of the Cabinet of Ministers of the Republic of Latvia till the end of State support - 23 September 2028

Additional information:

Janis Irbe

Group Treasurer

Phone: +371 67 728 239

E-mail: investor.relations@latvenergo.lv

www.latvenergo.lv

About Latvenergo

Latvenergo Group is the largest pan-Baltic power supply utility operating in electricity and thermal energy generation and trade, natural gas trade, electricity distribution services and lease of transmission system assets. Latvenergo AS has been acknowledged as the most valuable company in Latvia for several times. International credit rating agency Moodys has assigned Latvenergo AS an investment-grade credit rating of Baa2/stable.

Latvenergo Group is comprised of the parent company Latvenergo AS (generation and trade of electricity and thermal energy, trade of natural gas) and seven subsidiaries - Latvijas elektriskie tikli AS (lease of transmission system assets), Sadales tikls AS (electricity distribution), Elektrum Eesti OU (trade of electricity and natural gas in Estonia), Elektrum Lietuva UAB (trade of electricity and natural gas in Lithuania), Energijas publiskais tirgotajs AS (administration of mandatory electricity procurement process) and Liepajas energija SIA (generation and trade of thermal energy in Liepaja, electricity generation). All shares of Latvenergo AS are owned by the state and held by the Ministry of Economics of the Republic of Latvia.Lithuanian English

Utena, Lithuania, 2018-02-28 14:02 CET (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Utenos Trikotazas AB, the largest textile group in Central and Eastern Europe, grew rapidly during 2017, with group sales increasing 13.4% from the previous year to EUR 25.8 million. The Groups pre-tax profit for 2017 was EUR 435 thousand. The pre-tax profit was negatively impacted by a substantial increase in raw materials prices which was not fully transferred to client prices for products. Wage costs also rose significantly.

Sales of products and services for the company Utenos Trikotazas AB itself increased 15% in 2017 to EUR 22.6 million, of which 82.2% was for export. The Companys pre-tax profit for the year was EUR 2.25 million, compared with EUR 674 thousand in 2016. Growth of the Companys pre-tax profit was due to income from subsidiary companies dividends and capital reduction.

Last years sales growth sets a positive tone  sales grew in all business segments. Factors behind that include the groundwork done in export markets and work with new clients as well as expansion of our chain of own-brand stores and the creation of new collections. Im convinced the Groups potential to grow rests on the two pillars of our business strategy to be organically innovative: first, we focus completely on meeting clients needs for top quality manufacturing and product innovation, and second, we take great care to ensure production processes are environmentally friendly and consumer-friendly. Our clients both in Lithuania and abroad really value that, said Algirdas Sabunas, the general manager of the Utenos Trikotazas AB group.

Compared to 2016, when the Group had a pre-tax profit of EUR 1.22 million, its smaller pre-tax profit in 2017 was due to sharply increased prices for raw materials as well as complications in the supply of materials which prevented fulfilment of the full potential for client orders. Rapid growth of wages in the Group was partially offset by increased production volumes and orders.

Exports made up 78.7% of the Groups product sales last year, which is 14.7% more than in 2016. The largest export markets (accounting for 68.1% of all exports) remain Scandinavia and the German-speaking countries Germany, Austria and Switzerland. Exports of goods and services to these regions grew 14.5% during the year to EUR 17.6 million.

Sales in Lithuania also grew significantly and were up 9,0 % in 2017 compared to 2016. Own-brand sales increased 18.0% and made up 13.6% of all Group sales. That was thanks to the renewed UTENOS brand, which is attracting more and more consumer attention, and expansion of the UTENOS chain of branded stores. Late last year 4 new stores were opened  in Mazeikiai, Alytus, Taurage and Kaunas. In total the Group owns 15 stores throughout Lithuania.

During 2017, the Group invested EUR 0.8 million (twice the 2016 amount) to increase manufacturing capacity and acquire new technological equipment. The same types of investments also dominate plans for 2018.

The growing scale of operations lets us continue increasing capacity and production efficiency, thus addressing the challenges of rising labour costs. Operational efficiency is one of the top priorities this year. We hope it will allow us to not only control operating costs, but also successfully fulfil growing client orders, Algirdas Sabunas noted.

The Group ended 2017 with rapid growth: sales of goods and services in the last quarter of the year grew 20.8% versus the same period of 2016. Positive growth dynamics also continue in 2018  in January the company Utenos Trikotazas ABs sales exceeded the EUR 3 million mark for the first time in a decade. The last time the company had a bigger monthly result was February 2008, when sales were EUR 3.49 million.

At the start of last year, the Utenos Trikotazas AB group of companies joined Greenpeaces Detox project to promote fashion without pollution. In joining, the Group committed itself by 2020 to eliminate from its production chain any chemical substances that have an adverse effect on people or the environment.

The Utenos Trikotazas AB group includes the companies Utenos Trikotazas, Satrija, Gotija and Mrija (Ukraine). The Group of companies is part of the SBA concern.

About Utenos Trikotazas AB:

Utenos Trikotazas AB is the largest and most modern textile group in Central and Eastern Europe and part of the SBA concern. Companies in the Group include Satrija, Gotija and Mrija (Ukraine). The company Utenos Trikotazas itself owns two retail brands  UTENOS and ABOUT. In 2017, Utenos Trikotazas AB was the first in Lithuania to join Greenpeaces Detox project for fashion without pollution and commit by 2020 to eliminate from its production chain any chemical substances that adversely affect people or the environment.

Utenos Trikotazas AB

Managing Director Algirdas Sabunas

tel. No. 370 389 51445The marine environment is critical to Grenadas economy and closely linked to the islands income generating tourism sector. Grenadas tri-island ocean state is not just a hub of maritime activity, but also home to unique marine biodiversityThe Obamacare debate that overtook Capitol Hill last year is back. But this time, the epicenter is in a state capitol.Last week, a bipartisan group of governors released their blueprint for improving health care, calling on the Trump administration to, among other things, restore Obamacare subsidies. Three days later, 20 Republican attorneys general filed a lawsuit , arguing that the GOP tax law passed in December makes Obamacare unconstitutional.But it's in Boise, Idaho, where the debate is getting the most attention and has the potential to shock health care marketplaces across the country.To stabilize the marketplace, Idaho GOP Gov. Bruce Otter signed an executive order in January allowing health insurance plans to ignore the Affordable Care Act (ACA), President Obama's signature legislation. Otter's "creative options" for reducing premiums include eliminating maternity coverage, charging higher prices for older patients and refusing to cover preexisting conditions. As long as insurance companies offer one plan compliant with the ACA, noncompliant plans will be welcome under Idaho's new rules.With Blue Cross hoping to offer "Freedom Blue" plans in March, many health policy experts expect lawsuits to be filed against Otter's unprecedented policy. No other state has attempted similar changes without first getting federal approval. Idaho isn't even asking for it.The question now is whether the Trump administration -- which supported failed efforts to repeal Obamacare last year and has since taken several actions to weaken the law -- will interject in Idaho to protect the most basic tenets of the ACA. If it doesn't, health policy observers expect other states to pursue similar changes.But the question goes beyond whether the feds will stop Idaho in its tracks: If any state fails to enforce federal health laws, the federal government has the ability to turn it into a "direct enforcement state," meaning the state cedes its regulatory powers to the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS).A state can also choose this arrangement for itself. When the ACA first passed, four conservative states -- Missouri, Oklahoma, Texas and Wyoming -- did just that, largely out of opposition to the law.In Oklahoma, for instance, residents voted overwhelmingly on a ballot measure to keep the state from enforcing their end of the ACA. And when the state received $54 million from the federal government to implement the law, the governor gave it all back.Is Idaho next?Idahohasn't expressed interest in becoming a direct enforcement state, and it remains to be seen what the official reaction will be from the Health and Human Services Department.I just dont believe in premature opinions on complex, important topics -- serious, weighty matters, HHS Secretary Alex Azar told reporters last week . "Let's see where Idaho ends up."But given President Trumps consistent undermining of the law, its unlikely that CMS will swoop in and declare Idaho a direct enforcement state, says Sabrina Corlette, research professor at Georgetown University's Center on Health Insurance Reforms.If the federal government does give Idaho the green light, some health policy experts wonder just how much CMS will directly enforce Obamacare in the four existing direct enforcement states going forward. There is no reason to believe that CMS didn't enforce the law in those four states last year, but as Trump and the Republican-controlled Congress continue to weaken the law with actions like repealing the individual mandate, there are increasingly less regulations to enforce altogether.Although becoming a direct enforcement state seems like a political win for states opposed to the ACA, state officials dont recommend it.Mike Rhoades, Oklahoma's deputy insurance commissioner, admits it hasnt been easy, and an official with the Wyoming Department of Insurance says its only worked there because of how sparsely populated the state is.I cant imagine in a heavily populated state that it would work, says Denise Burke, health care analyst at the Department of Insurance in Wyoming.In practice, a direct enforcement state must turn over all paperwork from insurance carriers in their state to the federal government. They rely on the federal government to make sure their marketplace plans are up to snuff and to negotiate big changes, such as premium increases. Essentially, they act as middlemen between the federal government and insurance companies.Its a pain in the butt for insurance companies because they still have to turn in documents to the state to make sure everything is complying with state laws, in addition to the federal government," Corlette says. "And quite frankly, states in general are best positioned to address issues on the ground in their market."The Washington state legislature approved a bill on Tuesday, which Gov. Jay Inslee is expected to sign, that would enact sweeping net neutrality regulations for all internet service providers (ISPs) operating in the state.It would be the first state to enact a law of this kind since the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) rescinded net neutrality regulations in December.Five governors -- in Hawaii, Montana, New Jersey, New York and Vermont -- have issued executive orders restoring some net neutrality requirements, but they are limited to companies that have contracts with the state government. Washington's law , by contrast, would apply to all ISPs operating in the state and directly outlaw the blocking, throttling (slowing content) and paid prioritization of some internet content over others.Net neutrality is the principle that ISPs -- like Comcast and Verizon -- should treat all internet content equally, even though it can be manipulated for business advantage or monetary gain.The Washington law would almost certainly be subject to lawsuits by broadband companies arguing that it violates the FCCs December order. The FCC made clear that it would preempt any state or local government that tried to enact net neutrality regulations of its own.Legal experts have mixed opinions about which side would prevail if the issue went to court.Telecommunications law expert Pantelis Michalopoulos told Governing in January that the FCC will likely have a difficult time proving their case. Usually, he says, federal preemption is based on some existing conflicting federal regulation that trumps state legislation.Here, we have an attempt to preempt state laws based on nothing, or virtually nothing, precisely because the FCC has decided not to promulgate substantive rules on [net neutrality], Michalopoulos says. This makes it a little more difficult for this kind of preemption to succeed.Past court cases regarding FCC preemption have also yielded mixed results: The commission lost a 2015 case trying to preempt state laws on municipal broadband networks, but it was successful in a case regarding voice over internet protocol, or VoIP services, like Skype.The bills main sponsor, Washington state Rep. Drew Hansen, previously toldthat hes prepared for any legal challenges that come.The FCC claims it has the power to preempt state laws, but that doesnt mean they actually do. I can claim I have the power to manifest unicorns on the Capitol lawn, but if you look out your window in Olympia, there are no unicorns, Hansen said. People throw around words like preemption like theyre magic.Democrats in Congress recently introduced a bill to restore federal net neutrality regulations, but its almost sure to get stuck in the Republican-controlled House. Over half of U.S. states have some type of net neutrality bill currently moving through their chambers.A Denver coffee shop received city approval Monday for the nations first business license to allow marijuana use by patrons under a 2016 voter-approved initiative.The Coffee Joint soon can allow customers age 21 or older to vape or consume edibles they bring to the cafe, which is already open at 1130 Yuma Court, just east of Interstate 25 in the Lincoln Park neighborhood. But the shop will not allow any smoking, which is allowed only outdoors under state law, and cant sell any marijuana products on site.The owners of the shop, which has ownership ties to a dispensary next door, had been expecting official approval after a public license hearing Feb. 9 drew no opposition. Now co-owner Rita Tsalyuk is eager to allow consumption sometime in the next couple weeks, pending building and safety inspections, along with a schedule of yoga classes and educational and art events.Tons of people already came in, she said. Were offering free coffee and sneak previews of the shop.Law Enforcement Officer Admits the Truth About 'The Madisonville Hoax'

After Government's Eight-year Silence



Contact: Sharon Rondeau, Editor, The Post & Email, 203-987-7948, editor@thepostemail.com



ATHENS, Tenn., Feb. 28, 2018 /Christian Newswire/ -- On Monday, The Post & Email published the first article in what will be a series detailing encounters between Athens, TN resident Walter Francis Fitzpatrick, III and two officers in the Monroe County Sheriff's Office (MCSO) last Friday morning.



Prior to moving to Athens in February 2012, Fitzpatrick lived in Monroe County dating back to 2007. He was jailed on a number of occasions by then-MCSO Sheriff Bill Bivens after attempting to expose corruption within the local grand jury, sheriff's office, local police, Tennessee Bureau of Investigation (TBI) and Knoxville office of the FBI.



The catalyst to his initial arrest was his April 1, 2010 attempt to place the Monroe County grand jury foreman under citizen's arrest, as state law (TCA 22-2-314) prohibits any member of the grand jury from serving consecutive terms. In September 2009, Fitzpatrick inadvertently discovered that in Tennessee, criminal court judges are permitted to hand-pick the grand jury foreman and retain them for whatever time frame the judges wish, the 2008 law cited above notwithstanding. As of early 2010, Fitzpatrick was able to determine that Gary Pettway had been serving for two decades as grand jury foreman, although he later discovered that Pettway actually served for 28 consecutive years.



The practice dates back to at least 1919, when the Tennessee legislature passed a law allowing criminal court judges to select the grand jury foreman in that way despite its unconstitutionality. The U.S. Supreme Court condemned Tennessee judges handpicking grand jury foremen in 1979 and 1987, and yet, the practice continues to this day, along with numerous other constitutional violations.



Fitzpatrick is not alone in his claim that corruption in Monroe County has deprived citizens of their right to due process under the Fifth Amendment. The Post & Email has interviewed a number of local citizens who claimed that they or their loved ones were framed, arrested without cause, denied due process, and put through a sham trial resulting in a conviction and jail or prison time. With government-influenced grand juries, there is no doubt that the system is "hopelessly corrupt," as an attorney for Fitzpatrick in 2010 opined.



Police brutality, particularly on the part of MCSO deputies, has also been credibly reported and corroborated, both within the county jail and externally.



Fitzpatrick has visited the Knoxville office of the FBI on multiple occasions to relate the lawlessness of government in East Tennessee but been spurned.



On April 20, 2010, Fitzpatrick was scheduled for a preliminary arraignment hearing stemming from the citizen's arrest and his own subsequent arrest. From April 1-6, Fitzpatrick was detained in the Monroe County jail, an edifice he termed "the dungeon." A new "Justice Center" is now under construction and will include a new jail, Fitzpatrick informed us in our interview Sunday.



As related in Monday's article, Fitzpatrick visited the MCSO on Friday morning after learning that Bivens, who lost his bid for reelection in 2014, is again seeking the office of sheriff this year. Bivens served two full terms in that capacity between 2006 and 2014 and was therefore in office on April 20, 2010, when the Monroe County government seat and small town of Madisonville was teeming with federal, state, county, and local law-enforcement officers for no discernible reason.



For nearly eight years, Fitzpatrick and other eyewitnesses have insisted, some through sworn affidavits, that "nothing happened" on that day in Madisonville requiring the overwhelming police presence which included snipers on a number of building roofs, SWAT teams, helicopters flying overhead, pole-mounted gigapixel panoramic cameras, and bomb-sniffing dogs which were used on the person and vehicle of Darren Wesley Huff.



Huff left his Georgia home early that morning to attend Fitzpatrick's hearing. Several Tennessee Highway Patrolmen and other unknown police officers stopped Huff outside of Sweetwater (miles away from Madisonville) for allegedly running a stop sign, a claim Huff and other witnesses denied. The THP advised Huff to lock his legally-owned firearms in the toolbox in the bed of his truck before traveling on, which he did in their presence; the police allowed Huff to continue on to Madisonville.



As with many other individuals coming from out of town that day, Huff was unable to attend Fitzpatrick's hearing as a result of heavily-armed guards turning would-be observers away at the courthouse entrance. Every person there to attend Fitzpatrick's hearing was a law-abiding citizen. Many of them were military veterans.



Without bothering to approach the courthouse, Huff and a friend, former Marine Sgt. William Looman, patronized Donna's Old Time Cafe two-tenths of a mile from the courthouse, where they dined and conversed with others until Fitzpatrick arrived.



"No law enforcement official approached any citizen that morning for any reason. There was no reason to approach. Every expectant court-watcher conducted themselves civilly, peacefully, and courteously among themselves, in no way posing a threat by any description to other people or property,' Fitzpatrick recalled of that day.



No one was observed carrying a weapon of any type or kind. No arrests were made, nor were any individuals found to be threatening members of law enforcement or the community. Local media portrayed the event in terms of an averted catastrophe while providing no photographic evidence of anyone actually posing a threat.



On Friday morning, Fitzpatrick located a sheriff's deputy, R. Moses, who said he was present in Madisonville that day on the second floor of the courthouse in a lookout position. According to Fitzpatrick, Moses freely admitted to Fitzpatrick that nothing untoward occurred, terming the huge police turnout and preparations as "good for training."



The costs, individuals responsible, and logistical planning for deploying an inordinate number of FBI agents into Madisonville on April 20, 2010 have never been made public, as neither the FBI nor the U.S. Justice Department would release documents in response to The Post & Email's FOIA request submitted in March 2012. The FBI initially said it possessed no documentation about the event, while the Justice Department, upon our appeal, admitted that it possessed documentation but refused to release it due to "privacy" concerns.



Fully ten days after Fitzpatricks hearing, on April 30, 2010, Huff was arrested and charged with two federal firearms violations based on a sworn affidavit from FBI Special Agent Mark Van Balen, which contained a plethora of errors and perjured claims. Huff's public defender at the time, G. Scott Green, failed to call any exculpatory witnesses to Huff's trial, which ultimately resulted in Huff's acquittal on one charge and conviction on the other, but only after presiding Judge Thomas A. Varlan demonstrated what was a hung jury, sending them back to the jury room to secure Huff's conviction.



An inmate in the Monroe County jail at the time, federal marshals transported Fitzpatrick to the federal courthouse to testify at Huff's trial. However, Green did not call Fitzpatrick to the witness stand. Neither Looman nor other known eyewitnesses with knowledge of Huff's whereabouts that day were subpoenaed, while Bivens and Pettway testified against Navy veteran Huff.



Green is now a judge in Knox County Criminal Court.



Huff spent three and one-half years in federal prison, suffering significant financial and personal losses during that time. Toward the end of his sentence, he revived his childhood talent of color drawings of animals, insects and other items from nature, although it is unclear if he has pursued it since his release in April 2015.



Fitzpatrick termed the false-flag event in Madisonville "The Madisonville Hoax" for which he holds Robert S. Mueller III personally and professionally responsible as then-director of the FBI.



Fitzpatrick has long said that Huff was a "political prisoner" of the Obama regime. Fitzpatrick himself is reviled by certain of Obama's supporters for having filed a formal treason complaint against Obama on March 17, 2009 after Obama's army deployed into Samson, Alabama on a law-enforcement mission in violation of the Posse Comitatus Act.



Those same supporters long ago admitted to their role in The Madisonville Hoax by phoning in false reports to then-Madisonville Mayor Allan Watson's office claiming that Huff and Fitzpatrick intended violence on April 20, 2010. "Obama supporters sounded false alarms in government offices all over East Tennessee warning that I was coming in armed, with trained militias (plural) to take over the courthouse where my hearing was scheduled," Fitzpatrick said.



Also contended in Fitzpatrick's treason complaint was that Obama is a "foreign born domestic enemy," a reference to Obama's unknown origins, allegiance and nationality, questions which in some Americans' minds loom large as the result of a criminal investigation finding that Obama's "long-form" birth certificate and Selective Service registration form are undoubtedly fraudulent.



In relating his Friday encounter with Sheriff Deputy Moses, Fitzpatrick said that Moses's admission is the first confirmation Fitzpatrick has received from a public official, an eye-and-ear-witness, that, in fact, "nothing happened" in Madisonville on April 20, 2010.



Prior to his conversation with MCSO Deputy R. Moses, Fitzpatrick spoke with Capt. Chris White, who said he personally was not serving in the agency in 2010. Fitzpatrick related the events of The Madisonville Hoax, including the filing of Van Balen's false affidavit in federal court in Knoxville.



In response, White claimed that the MCSO did not have "jurisdiction" to reopen the matter. Fitzpatrick said he countered with, "This affidavit details alleged events that happened just feet from here."



White then said that a "statute of limitations" on Fitzpatrick's allegations might apply to his claims against Van Balen and Bivens for his role in it.



Fitzpatrick retorted: "Darren Huff and I are still demonized as 'domestic terrorists.' Darren Huff, an innocent man, suffers the burden of a bogus federal conviction to this day. These crimes are ongoing."



"I also told him about the DVD," Fitzpatrick said, referring to a training program in which he and Huff are depicted as "Sovereign Citizens" with the implication that they are violent and capable of murder. "That comes from what happened in 2010," Fitzpatrick said he told White. "Well, I haven't seen that DVD," Fitzpatrick quoted White as having responded. "I'll get you a copy of it; it's not hard," Fitzpatrick said he responded. "I didn't expect to be here; I'm here now because I'm upset that Bivens is running for office again," Fitzpatrick told White.



On Sunday Fitzpatrick informed The Post & Email that on Saturday, he mailed a package of materials to White containing:

A copy of the witness list from Huff's federal trial



A copy of Van Balen's affidavit



The Sovereign Citizen DVD



A hard copy of the FBI podcast "GOTCHA" bragging that Huff was sentenced to prison and CD of the audio

Fitzpatrick also sent the information to White by email, whose email address is on his business card, and to certain members of the Tennessee Republican Party.

Strong Successes

Mixed Degrees of Success

One Disaster

What Could Happen in 2018?

For a governor, winning a third consecutive term is a rarity.That's in large part because most states have two-term limits; only a dozen allow for a third consecutive four-year term.But with New York Democrat Andrew Cuomo and Wisconsin Republican Scott Walker seeking No. 3 this year, we thought it would be a good time to look at how often governors win and whether they're successful.To start, we found that 12 governors have won a third consecutive term since 1990. We didn't count governors who won their third term after a break from the governorship, such as Jerry Brown of California, and we excluded three-term governors of New Hampshire and Vermont, who only run for two-year terms.The Republicans with three or more consecutive terms are John Rowland of Connecticut, Butch Otter of Idaho, Terry Branstad of Iowa, John Engler of Michigan, George Pataki of New York, John Hoeven of North Dakota, Rick Perry of Texas, Mike Leavitt of Utah and Tommy Thompson of Wisconsin. We've also counted current Utah Gov. Gary Herbert, who has been elected three times, the first time in a special election to replace Jon Huntsman, who resigned to become ambassador to China.The only two Democrats who have managed the feat since 1990 are Mario Cuomo of New York (Andrew Cuomo's father) and Roy Romer of Colorado.As it turns out, the third time is a charm for many governors. According to calculations by Eric Ostermeier of the University of Minnesota , 20 of the 24 governors who have sought a third term since 1970 were victorious.And instead of experiencing voter fatigue and political sclerosis, many have remained quite popular.Of the 12 governors who have won a third term since 1990, we found -- based on interviews with experts who watched these governors in action -- that half remained popular, five had mediocre third terms and one had a truly awful final act.In North Dakota, Hoeven's three terms were bolstered by the start of an oil boom. The state enjoyed a nearly $1 billion budget surplus and the lowest employment rate in the nation during his tenure. Hoeven is the only governor in state history to win three four-year terms.As a result, he was able to parlay his popularity as governor into an easy victory in a U.S. Senate race in 2010. He was "very popular among voters and was seen here as a success," says Nick Bauroth, a North Dakota State University political scientist.Two governors of another modest-sized Western state, Utah, have also had successful third terms.Around the time Leavitt was nominated by the Bush administration to head the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in 2003 -- an appointment that closed out his gubernatorial career -- he had received an astronomically high 75 percent approval rating in a Deseret Morning News/KSL-TV poll Leavitt's popularity can be attributed to his moderate stances on issues from the environment to health care. He was seen as "a hands-on executive who's driven more by data than by ideology," according toLeavitt was only the second governor in Utah history to be reelected to a third term. Current Gov. Gary Herbert is the third. Much like Leavitt, Herbert is a moderate and in December 2017, secured a 70 percent approval rating Two Republican governors from bigger states also managed to remain effective during their third terms.In Wisconsin, Thompson, who also won a fourth term, made good use of his third term."The signature achievement of his 14 years as governor came in his third term -- the 'Wisconsin Works' welfare reform law," says University of Wisconsin, Madison political scientist David Canon.The legislation served as a blueprint for the 1996 landmark welfare reform law crafted by President Bill Clinton and the Republican-controlled Congress.Meanwhile, Texas Gov. Rick Perry came back from a disappointing 2012 presidential primary bid to secure approval ratings in the high 50s toward the end of his third term.Perry also managed to navigate tricky intra-party rivalries between establishment Republicans and the GOP's Tea Party wing, says Rice University political scientist Mark P. Jones. "Throughout his third full term, he was viewed in a very favorable light by -- and was on good terms with -- both wings."The only Democrat we found with a clearly successful third term was Romer in Colorado.Romer "maintained the momentum of his first two terms into his third," says emeritus Colorado College political scientist Robert D. Loevy. "His big third-term accomplishment was the successful operation of Denver International Airport, a city project which he had strongly supported and helped along as governor."Had a term-limits law not taken effect at the end of his third term, Loevy says, "I believe he could have had a fourth."In Idaho, Otter has had third-term approval ratings in the 50s -- high enough that he could have conceivably fit in the category above.However, voters seemed to tire of his leadership by the middle of his third term, judging by the weak support for him to run for a fourth term. In an April 2017 survey , a majority of respondents said he should not to run again, and he heeded their advice.Iowa's Branstad, who is the longest tenured governor in American history, ultimately served six terms, the first four of which were consecutive. But his third term was the diciest."It was during his third term that he received the lowest approval rating of his entire tenure in office, including his comeback -- a rating of 39 percent in June 1992," says Christopher W. Larimer, a University of Northern Iowa political scientist. "Voters seemed to blame him for the economic crisis that year."The clouds cleared in time for him to win a fourth term, however.In Michigan, Gov. John Engler's approval ratings, previously in the high 40s and low 50s, took a hit during the recession of 2001, falling as low as 33.7 percent shortly before he left office in 2003."The economy went into a tailspin, and he and the legislature struggled with the budget," says Bill Ballenger, publisher of the, a Michigan political tipsheet. "In fact, a Republican-controlled House and Senate even overrode his veto of a revenue-sharing appropriation in 2002 -- one of only three such vetoes in the past 40 years."And finally, there are the two New York governors on our list, Cuomo and Pataki.A Marist poll taken in November 1993 , when Cuomo was considering running for a fourth term, found him with an approval rating of only 34 percent -- the lowest in his 11 years in office.Cuomo "piled up many antagonists in his three terms and enough people were just tired of him," says Doug Muzzio, a professor at the Marxe School of Public and International Affairs at Baruch College. "It was an ABC election -- Anybody But Cuomo."Ultimately, Cuomo did run for a fourth term -- but Pataki defeated him.In time, though, Pataki's third-term ratings would mirror Cuomo's. A WNBC/Marist poll in May 2006, found that his approval rating hit an all-time low of 30 percent. That was the lowest gubernatorial rating Marist had ever recorded in its 23 years of polling.Pataki saw the writing on the wall -- 2006 was a banner year for Democrats -- and decided against running.Still, neither Cuomo nor Pataki hit a bottom nearly as hard as Connecticut's Rowland following his third victory.About a year into his third term, allegations surfaced that he had used state money to pay for improvements to his weekend home, that he took bribes from subordinates in state government, and that he took partial ownership in businesses immediately before they were granted state contracts.He faced impeachment proceedings and ultimately resigned. Soon thereafter, he pled guilty to corruption-related charges and served 10 months in prison.In this year's election cycle, New York's strongly Democratic leanings and weak Republican bench should give Cuomo a sizable advantage in his bid to win a third term.But Cuomo has had to deal with unrest within his party's left flank, and some of the people he's been close to have faced legal troubles . These have eaten into his approval ratings, so even a victory in 2018 could leave him with tricky political currents to navigate in a third term.Meanwhile, Walker -- who has already won three gubernatorial elections if you include his recall election victory in 2012 -- is expected to have a competitive contest this fall. He may be battle-tested and a strong fundraiser, but if there's a Democratic wave, an energized turnout by voters who dislike him could put another victory at risk."He is widely respected by Republican voters around the state," says Barry Burden, director of the University of Wisconsin Elections Research Center, "but widely distrusted among Democrats, leading to strongly polarized opinions about the governor.""Walker is no Tommy Thompson," says Canon, the University of Wisconsin political scientist. "Thompson won his third gubernatorial election by a 67-31 margin, carrying virtually every county in the state. By contrast, Walker won 52 percent, 53 percent, and 52 percent of the vote in his three elections, and a Marquette Poll from last fall had Walker's approval rating at 48 percent. And any incumbent with an approval rating under 50 percent is beatable."With U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts saying it was "chilling" to watch a video of Fane Lozman being led out of a 2006 Riviera Beach city council meeting in handcuffs, the high court on Tuesday may have signalled a willingness to make sure Americans' right to speak freely at public meetings isn't compromised.But while Roberts and other justices voiced dismay at the way Riviera officials dealt with one of its harshest critics, some also voiced reluctance to hamstring police officers who too often have to deal with unruly people who spew constitutionally-protected invectives -- such as calling cops "pigs" -- as part of a lawful arrest."In this case, there's a very serious contention that people in elected office deliberately wanted to intimidate this person, and it seems to me that maybe in this case we should cordon off or box off what happened here from the ordinary conduct of police officers," said Justice Anthony Kennedy.The issue in the hour-long back-and-forth between justices and attorneys representing Lozman and Riviera Beach is how and where to draw the line between the actions of police officers and public officials.If compromise isn't possible, as an attorney representing the city claimed, "then the First Amendment is in trouble," Kennedy said.The hearing marked the second time in slightly more than five years that Lozman and Riviera Beach have faced off before the U.S. Supreme Court. Having already decided in 2013 that the city illegally used centuries-old maritime law to seize and destroy Lozman's floating home, justices seemed familiar with the current players.Lozman and city officials have been warring since the Miami-born self-made millionaire arrived at Riviera Beach's marina in 2005 and began accusing city council members of corruption as he fought the city's now scuttled multi-billion-dollar redevelopment plan.Justices knew about a transcript of a closed-door meeting that city council members had to discuss a lawsuit Lozman filed against them. They knew that during that meeting City Councilman Liz Wade suggested intimidating Lozman to shut him up. They also knew that it was Wade who summoned a police officer to arrest Lozman in 2006 after he refused to quit talking at a city council meeting, even when he was told his comments about Palm Beach County and West Palm Beach officials arrested on corruption charges were irrelevant to the Riviera Beach meeting.Even knowing that history, Roberts said the Riviera Beach Council's strong measures were unnecessary."Well, regardless of what happened before or after, I found the video pretty chilling. I mean, the fellow is up there for about 15 seconds, and the next thing he knows, he's being led off in handcuffs, speaking in a very calm voice the whole time," Roberts said. "Now the council may not have liked what he was talking about, but that doesn't mean they get to cuff him and lead him out."Justice Elena Kagan noted that Lozman isn't the only irritating gadfly in the country who regularly attends city council meetings."There are lots of small towns in America and there are lots of cranks in those small towns. And there are lots of relationships that go sour between officials and some members of the populous," Kagan said. "What about, you know, finding that guy every time he doesn't quite stop when he makes a right on red and putting them in jail for a while?"Lozman won a return trip to the high court after he lost a lawsuit he filed against the city, claiming the city had him arrested for exercising his First Amendment rights. A federal jury in West Palm Beach in 2014 found there was no retaliation.But Lozman claims the system was unfairly stacked against him. In Florida, like most states, a person can't win a First Amendment retaliation lawsuit if a police officer has probable cause to make an arrest, and in Lozman's case, the Palm Beach County State Attorney's Office ultimately dropped the disorderly conduct and resisting arrest without violence charges that Lozman had faced. But, during the trial over Lozman's lawsuit, U.S. District Judge Daniel Hurley allowed the city to argue that a Riviera police officer had probable cause to arrest him on an obscure charge of disturbing a lawful assembly -- a ruling Lozman claimed sunk his case.In other parts of the country, probable cause alone isn't enough. Stanford University law professor Pamela Karlan, who represents Lozman, urged the justices to use the standard embraced by the California-based 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. While a city can argue that it had probable cause, that is only one factor that is considered, she said of the standard that exists in many western states.Shay Dvoretzky, who represented Riviera Beach before the Supreme Court, countered that such a standard would compromise police during even the most routine types of arrests -- such as a bar fight."It is virtually impossible for police officers themselves in the bar kind of situation to disaggregate their own thought processes and understand whether ... they carried out an arrest because of the content of somebody's speech and their dislike for it, or because the content of somebody's speech suggested belligerence and suggested a likelihood to continue to incite violence," said Dvoretzky, who served as a law clerk to the late Justice Antonin Scalia.Justices Kennedy and Stephen Breyer voiced the most sympathy for Dvoretzky's views. But, both said, there is a vast difference between arresting someone at a public meeting and during a bar fight. "This situation is someone sitting calmly behind the desk in the middle of the meeting, not somebody out there in a bar or somebody worried about a real riot," Breyer said.Saying that the situation in Riviera Beach was unique, Acting U.S. Solicitor General Jeffrey Walls urged the justices to craft a narrow ruling. While agreeing that Lozman's arrest was "troubling," he said it was a "one-in-a-thousand" type case that shouldn't be used to establish new law nationwide.Kagan replied, however, that there was no turning back, now that the Supreme Court had agreed to hear the case. To rule in favor of Riviera Beach, she said could give a "green light" to leaders in other communities to arrest people who annoy them.Chief Justice Roberts seemed to agree. "This is, you know, in the city council, during a time specifically set aside for citizens to talk about whatever the council is talking about and comment on it," he said, underscoring that Lozman's arrest came during a period in Riviera's meeting that was set aside for the public to speak. "Is there any basis there for limiting it to the .. intensely free speech environment that we're talking about?"Outside the courthouse, Lozman said he was heartened by the justices' comments. But he said he was dismayed more attention wasn't given to briefs filed by more than 25 media organizations that claimed news reporters have often been arrested for covering events such as Black Lives Matter and Occupy Wall Street rallies to silence the views of the protesters.When the Supreme Court rules in several months, Lozman said he suspects the court will issue a narrow ruling, likely affecting only those who speak at public meetings.West Palm Beach attorney Benjamin Bedard, who attended the hearing with Riviera Beach City Attorney Andrew DeGraffenreidt and Assistant City Attorney Lina Busby, insisted Riviera never violated Lozman's free-speech rights."In watching approximately 250 meetings on video over the course of this case, the city was liberal and supportive of Mr. Lozman's First Amendment rights," said Bedard, who successfully represented the city during the 2014 trial. "Unfortunately, (the high court) focused on one video."The five candidates vying for the Republican nomination in Maine's 2018 governor's race bucked a national tide by agreeing during a Monday night debate at Colby College that the way to make schools safer isn't through stricter gun control laws.The debate comes amid an intense national gun control debate, spurred by a number of mass shootings that culminated Feb. 14 with 17 people being gunned down at a Florida high school. It came the same day that Republican Donald Trump told governors, including Maine's Gov. Paul LePage, that states could act more rapidly than the federal government to enact measures to improve school safety, including arming teachers and raising the age to buy firearms.The event, hosted by Colby College, Thomas College and the Mid-Maine Chamber of Commerce, was the first debate in the 2018 election that included all of the candidates from a major political party. Present were former Health and Human Services Commissioner Mary Mayhew of South China, House Minority Leader Ken Fredette of Newport, Senate Majority Leader Garrett Mason of Lisbon Falls, Senate President Mike Thibodeau of Winterport and businessman Shawn Moody of Gorham.Candidates received the questions ahead of time and the format did not allow for rebuttals. The school safety question came from one of the student moderators."Taking someone's gun away from them is not going to make our schools safer," said Thibodeau. "We have approached this problem that way and it's the wrong way."Thibodeau said he supports a voluntary training program that could lead to some teachers carrying concealed weapons in classrooms.Mayhew and Moody said they would spearhead funding for armed guards or school resource officers at all schools. Mason and Mayhew said the problem would best be addressed by redoubling efforts to improve the mental health system, including, according to Mayhew, having stricter mental health reporting requirements so background checks work better."I can tell you that's not happening now," Mayhew said. "Before we pass more laws, we need to make sure the ones we have today are enforced."Fredette said people are also killed with knives and by other means, suggesting that guns themselves aren't the problem."What are we going to do -- start taking knives away?" he said. "We're not going to do that here in Maine if I'm governor."Many of the questions involved the economy and jobs. In general, the candidates provided standard responses aimed to win favor from primary voters likely to be more conservative than the general electorate. All repeated variations on LePage's core themes since 2010: reduce taxes and regulations on businesses and invest in job training programs to help Maine businesses find the employees they need.Moody said more attention needs to be paid to students of all abilities -- not just those headed to college."There's a disconnect between the white-collar academia and the blue-collar needs of our employers," said Moody, while advocating for investments in education. Mason differed from the field slightly on this point, calling for the University of Maine system to freeze its tuition rates, which it did for six years under LePage before raising them in 2017."The next four to eight years will give us the opportunity to press the gas pedal on Gov. LePage's accomplishments," Mason said.For many, the major question about the Republican gubernatorial primary is whether voters will opt for someone more or less like LePage. The candidates agreed that LePage has made progress, but not necessarily about his methods. Thibodeau framed himself as a consensus builder, which he said he learned running meetings with customers for a family contracting business."Not once did I think the best thing was to go in and insult everyone in the room," said Thibodeau. "The governor has been very successful in his approach. ... I would do it a little differently."LePage has not endorsed in the primary race, but Moody has hired some of the governor's top political advisers and counts Paul and Ann LePage as signatories on his ballot access paperwork. He said LePage brought an era of accountability to Maine, which Moody said he would continue.All of the candidates were critical of Maine's citizen initiative process for enacting legislation through referendums. Moody, Mason and Thibodeau took particular aim at the process, calling for measures to make it more difficult, such as increasing the number of signatures required or requiring that they be collected from throughout Maine.The debate comes as each candidate struggles to gain traction in both attracting voters' attention and amassing donations for the primary and general elections. As of the most recent reporting deadline at the end of 2017, Moody was far outpacing the rest of the Republican candidates in private donations with more than $286,000 of cash on hand -- though he has contributed $150,000 of his own money -- followed by Mayhew with $198,000, Thibodeau with $91,000 and $14,000 for Fredette.Mason, who is the only Republican using Maine's taxpayer-funded election system for his campaign, qualified for his first tier of funding from the program earlier this month and has more than $400,000 so far to spend on the primary.The only solid indications of what voters are thinking so far have come in straw polls during the past two weeks in Lincoln, York and Franklin counties, where Mayhew, Moody and Thibodeau triumphed over the field, respectively. That's a very early indication but it could signal that voters prefer political outsiders and that they aren't concerned the Mayhew joined the Republican Party in 2014 and Moody joined last October after losing to LePage as an independent candidate in 2010.After initially skipping some top Texas Republicans when dishing out endorsements, President Trump on Tuesday gave his blessing to GOP candidates who are facing fierce primary challenges.Land Commissioner George P. Bush and Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller weren't mentioned in a tweet Tuesday in which Trump enthusiastically backed U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, Gov. Greg Abbott, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and Attorney General Ken Paxton."I want to encourage all of my many Texas friends to vote in the primary for Governor Greg Abbott, Senator Ted Cruz, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, and Attorney General Ken Paxton. They are helping me to Make America Great Again! Vote early or on March 6th," Trump tweeted.But Trump in a later tweet added Bush, Miller and, for good measure, Comptroller Glenn Hegar and Railroad Commissioner Christi Craddick."Texas LC George P. Bush backed me when it wasn't the politically correct thing to do, and I back him now. Also, AC Sid Miller has been with me from the beginning, he is 'Trump's Man in Texas.' Also support Comptroller Glenn Hegar, and Railroad Commissioner Christi Craddick," Trump tweeted, abbreviating the titles for Bush and Miller.Cruz, Abbott, Patrick, Paxton and Hegar have long been expected to easily win the GOP nomination in their campaigns. Paxton and Hegar don't even have opponents in the primary.The Railroad Commission race has received less attention, but Craddick is commission chair and daughter of a former House speaker. Her challenger, Weston Martinez, previously lost a race for the commission.Prospects aren't quite as clear for Bush and Miller.Bush is being targeted by his predecessor in the land office, Jerry Patterson, and Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller is being challenged by former lobbyist Trey Blocker.A recent University of Texas/Texas Tribune poll found that Bush and Miller might have some difficulty getting a majority of votes in next week's primary.Each got a majority in the poll when people were pushed to make a choice.But when those polled were allowed to be undecided, Bush got just 36 percent of the vote in his race, and Miller, 27 percent. In that scenario, 44 percent were undecided in Bush's race, and 60 percent in Miller's.Both candidates have Trump bona fides.Miller frequently touts his strong support of Trump.Bush ended up backing Trump even though the land commissioner's father, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, was regularly mocked by Trump during the 2016 presidential race. The president's son, Donald Trump Jr., also has supported George P. Bush.Texas Democrats believe concern and anger over Trump's policies and rhetoric are among factors helping to drive up early voting numbers in their primary.Republicans, however, support Trump just as much as Democrats dislike him.The UT/Texas Tribune poll found 83 percent of Republicans approve of the job Trump is doing, while 84 percent of Democrats disapprove.A Shift on Capitol Hill?

Valuable Research

As deaths from mass shootings have mounted across the United States, some states are moving to collect hard data to guide their decisions about guns  even as the federal government has retreated from such research in the face of pressure from pro-gun groups.The New Jersey Legislature, for example, is weighing a measure that would create a gun-violence research center at Rutgers University. The center would be modeled on the new Firearm Violence Prevention Research Center at the University of California at Davis, which launched last summer with $5 million in state money over five years.The impetus for both initiatives is the vacuum created by the federal governments virtual abandonment of research into gun violence  its causes, its patterns, its perpetrators, its victims, and the best ways, based on scientific evidence, to curtail it.The federal governments reluctance to fund research has had a ripple effect. A study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association last year found that between 2004 and 2015, research related to gun violence was substantially underfunded and understudied compared with other leading causes of death, based on the mortality rates of each. The study said that gun violence research received a paltry 1.6 percent of the funding ($22 million) that would be predicted ($1.4 billion) based on the number of deaths caused by guns  36,252 in 2015, according to the CDC.The influence of pro-gun groups has also dissuaded many private foundations from funding such research, according to David Hemenway, who studies gun violence and injury prevention at the T. H. Chan School of Public Health at Harvard University.If you fund gun research, you know youll be attacked, and there are so many other things that need research, Hemenway said. Funders figure they dont need the headaches that come with studying gun violence.In California and New Jersey, supporters of research say states must pick up the slack.California essentially said that the federal government wasnt fulfilling its responsibility, so were going to step into the breach, just as we have with climate change and years before with highway safety, said Garen Wintemute, the director of the new California center and an emergency physician who has studied gun violence for three decades.The feeling in New Jersey was the same, according to state Sen. Troy Singleton, a Democrat who introduced a separate bill to fund a $400,000 study of gun violence. It passed out of a Senate committee this month.Im dismayed over the political decision that caused the federal government to walk away from studying this issue, which has put us in a dangerous situation nationally, Singleton said. When we develop evidence-based solutions, thats when were at our best.The sponsor of the bill to establish a gun research center at Rutgers, Democratic Assemblywoman Joann Downey, said she is more optimistic than ever before about the legislations chances.Especially with what happened in Florida, she said. Our parents are scared. Our teachers are scared. Our students are scared.In the wake of the killings at the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida earlier this month, a few congressional Republicans have indicated a willingness to lift federal restrictions on gun research.Gun-violence researchers say such a shift would make a huge difference. Without federally funded research, they say, policymakers lack the basic information that would help them make wise policy decisions.What isnt known? Hemenway said. Everything. Everything.For instance, there are no national studies of who owns guns, how gun owners acquired their weapons, the theft of guns, the number of households with guns, the attributes of a high-quality gun training, or the risk factors associated with gun violence.Without that knowledge, Hemenway said, How are you supposed to come up with effective policy?The federal governments withdrawal from gun research began in the late 1990s. Gun researchers such as Hemenway said it was spurred by the first studies indicating that the presence of a firearm in the home increased rather than decreased the chances of gun-related fatalities, either by suicide or homicide. Subsequent studies confirmed those findings.The studies incensed pro-gun organizations such as the National Rifle Association, which protested to congressional supporters. The result was the Dickey amendment, which Congress added to the 1996 funding bill for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and which bars the agency from using money to advocate or promote gun control. Former U.S. Rep. Jay Dickey, an Arkansas Republican who died last year, eventually expressed regret for the amendment that bears his name.The Dickey amendment does not explicitly prohibit the CDC from studying gun violence. But it has had a chilling effect on such research, especially since Congress cut the CDCs annual budget by exactly the amount that it had been spending on gun-related research, about $2.6 million a year.Though the National Institutes of Health and the National Institute of Justice have continued to hand out small grants for such research, NIH several months ago quietly shelved an $11.4 million gun-violence research initiative that President Barack Obama launched in 2013 in response to the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre in Newtown, Connecticut. The initiative has funded 14 firearm related projects over the past 3 years.Many pro-gun groups continue to support the Dickey amendment  and they are still angry about CDC studies published with federal money.At the time the amendment was proposed, officials in the CDC were indicating that they were going to use the agency in order to attack firearms ownership  and to demonize firearms in the same sense as they had demonized tobacco, Erich Pratt, executive director of Gun Owners of America, wrote in an email to Stateline.Even if there isnt as much gun research as there should be, Philip Cook, a professor at the Sanford School of Public Policy at Duke University, argues that policymakers should be paying attention to what is being produced.In a December article in Science, Cook cited published research that shows an increase in violent crime as states replaced concealed carry laws with right-to-carry laws. Concealed carry laws gave law enforcement the authority to determine if a gun owner had a justifiable reason to carry a concealed weapon. Right-to-carry laws give most gun owners that right without having to justify themselves.Similarly, according to Cooks paper, research has shown that laws preventing those with misdemeanor convictions for domestic violence from owning guns have saved lives. Finally, he noted, research showed that laws that increased prison sentences for those using a firearm in an aggravated assault or robbery has reduced the rate of robberies in which a gun is involved.Despite the relative lack of federal funding in this area, there has been quite a lot of research going on, Cook said. And its productive and evidence-based, exactly what is needed to create effective policy.At UC Davis, Wintemute said his center plans to give California lawmakers what they need to create effective policy.Soon were going to publish the first large-scale epidemiological study on gun violence in California in 30 years, he said. The reason I know that is because Im the one who did the study 30 years ago.Teachers could take up arms under wide-ranging measures dealing with mental health, school safety and gun access that are headed to the floor of the Florida House and Senate after passing through final committee hearings Tuesday.But the two bills grew further apart in their details, and Gov. Rick Scott doesn't support the part of the plan that would allow teachers to carry firearms, though he has not said whether its inclusion would mean a veto.The bills offer hundreds of millions of dollars for mental health programs and school safety and raise the age to purchase all firearms to 21 years or older and require three-day waiting periods, requirements that are currently only in place for handguns.It does not include a ban on assault weapons, one of the top points of contention for Democrats and Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School activists.The full House and Senate could now amend the bills in session on Wednesday, then vote on final passage Thursday or Friday."You all failed me and my little boy. I cannot wait for you to do the right thing and protect the children of this state," Max Schachter, whose son Alex was killed in the Stoneman Douglas shooting, told legislators. "Change our destiny. We owe that much to all of our children."As the Senate committee considered the bill Tuesday, Scott said he opposed allowing teachers to carry firearms, but he would not say whether he would veto the bill."I don't believe we should be arming our teachers," he said at a news conference Tuesday at Miami-Dade Police headquarters in Doral. "We should be focused on arming law enforcement. So my focus is how do we make sure we have the resources that our law enforcement are trained to do the job. So my focus is arm law enforcement, let teachers teach."Asked whether he would veto a bill that included arming teachers, he said, "I'm going to review whatever makes it to my desk. I'll review it at that time."The Florida Sheriff's Marshal Program would allow teachers, after completing 132 hours of training and extensive background and psychological examinations, to carry firearms in school.Under the amended House bill, county sheriffs would be required to offer the training. School district superintendents would still have the option of participating or not.Under the Senate plan _ and the House plan until it was amended _ both the superintendent and the sheriff could decide whether or not to participate in the program.Calling it a "poorly worded amendment drafted in the middle of the night," state Rep. Jared Moskowitz, D-Coral Springs, an alumnus of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, said that the change to the marshal's program "weighs into that delicate trust that the two parties have to have to move this forward."Still, Moskowitz voted yes on the overall bill, along with most of his fellow Democrats and most Republicans as well.In explaining his support, Moskowitz recounted the night of the shooting, when he flew back from Tallahassee after his wife called him crying as he sat at his desk on the House floor. He recalled thinking at the funeral of shooting victim Peter Wang what he would do if he had to bury his own 4-year-old son, who was at a preschool a few blocks from Stoneman Douglas when the shooting happened. What pajamas would he put him in. Which "Star Wars" toys would go in the ground with him.And he talked about the failures to protect schoolchildren, from the school resource officer onsite to federal officials' inability to pass gun reform."My community cannot handle another level of government failing them," he said.The governor vowed to get a package of school-safety reforms approved before the end of the legislative session."This state will never be the same," Scott said. "My goal is to make sure that we make the changes necessary to make sure this never happens in our state again."His proposals include hardening schools, increasing the presence of law enforcement officers and widening access to mental health services and raising the age for owning a firearm to 21.In contrast to the raucous response from gun control activists that greeted the bill at a Senate hearing Monday, the House and Senate Appropriations committees Tuesday featured grieving mothers, fathers and students from Parkland, who mostly welcomed the bills as a good first step but implored the committee to do more.There was none of the chanting and interruptions of Monday's meeting, but there were plenty of tears."Our children lost a friend, our friend lost a daughter, the world lost an amazing person who could change the world," said Parkland resident Amber Hersh. "This is your opportunity. The world is watching."An assault-weapons ban was voted down largely along party lines in both committees, with every Republican voting against it except state Sen. Anitere Flores, R-Miami, and state Rep. Bill Hager, R-Boca Raton, who said he thought it was important that the Legislature have a conversation about a ban.Those voting against the amendment included state Rep. George Moraitis, R-Fort Lauderdale."I would not support an out-and-out ban. People ultimately have a right to defend themselves who are law-abiding citizens who are not mentally disturbed," Moraitis said after the meeting.Along with an age limit on firearms purchases that currently only applies to handguns, the bill would spend $100 million on school building security measures plus hundreds of millions more on additional school safety and mental health programs."It is a comprehensive bill that we have worked extensively on," bill sponsor Rep. Jose Oliva, R-Miami, said "and I think that it would have prevented this tragedy."The Senate Appropriations Committee approved the bill along similar lines. With the addition of the Oliva amendment, the Senate version now differs from the House in the marshal program, and also has a process by which law enforcement can get a court order to take away someone's guns.The House bill features a ban on both sale and possession of bump stocks, accessories that allow semiautomatic rifles to fire at near-automatic rates. The Senate version bans only the sale of bump stocks.Funding was attached to the Senate version in committee Tuesday, including $400 million, $200 million of it that will be funded year over year, and $200 million in one-time-only funding.The recurring money includes $100 million to fund mental health programs in schools, and another $75 million would go to school safety programs, including more school resource officers.The nonrecurring money includes $15.5 million to replace Building 12 at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, where the shooting took place, and build a memorial. Another $67 million would go toward creating the marshal's program. A little over $90 million more would go to school hardening projects.In a move to address the nation's deadly opioid crisis, the Justice Department says it will target the prescription drug pipeline with a new focus on companies that manufacture and distribute the drugs.U.S. Atty. Gen. Jeff Sessions announced the creation of a task force Tuesday that he said would coordinate a crackdown on illegal practices by manufacturers, distributors, doctors, pain management clinics and pharmacies.The department will "use all available criminal and civil remedies" to hold manufacturers accountable, he said.Sessions also said the Justice Department will file a "statement of interest" in litigation that dozens of cities, counties and states have filed in federal courts against the drug manufacturers and distributors.Flanked by several attorneys general from states hard hit by the opioid epidemic, Sessions told a press conference that the government will seek to recover monetary damages from the manufacturers, arguing that federal agencies have borne increased costs for health programs and law enforcement."We will seek to hold accountable those whose illegality has cost us billions of dollars," Sessions said.With the promise to pursue manufacturers, the Trump administration would open a new front in efforts to control the drug crisis that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says caused 64,000 deaths in 2016. More than 20,000 were due to overdoses of fentanyl and fentanyl analogs, a powerful synthetic opioid.Thus far, most of the Justice Department's anti-opioid efforts have been in criminal investigations. In the last year, it pursued prosecutions against doctors, shut down a "dark web" network that supplied drugs, and filed cases against the Chinese suppliers of fentanyl.In taking on the manufacturers, the federal government would join states that argue drug companies are partly responsible for fueling the addiction crisis. While the Justice Department won't formally join the lawsuit, the department will look for ways to assist.The multi-district case, which is being heard by a federal judge in Cleveland, Ohio, argues that drug companies overstated the benefits and downplayed the risks of prescription opioids, and distributors failed to properly monitor or block suspicious orders.Governors and mayors say they need help to pay for treatment of addicts, not just law enforcement."We go after the supply side, but we don't go after the demand side," said Wisconsin Atty. Gen. Brad Schimel. "We're breaking up these networks, but they will keep refilling unless we focus on prevention and treatment."Also Tuesday, Sessions said the Drug Enforcement Administration would turn over at least some information in its database that tracks distributors of painkillers. Lawyers have sought the information as part of their settlement negotiations, but the DEA has argued that turning over the database could compromise ongoing investigations."I have instructed our attorneys that whatever we can provide for them, let's do it now," Sessions said, adding that he wants to make sure the government does not reveal individual medical records.President Trump declared the opioid epidemic a "health emergency" in October, but some cities and states battling the crisis have complained that the White House has done little to help since then.The Vagrant Depot is an important lieu de memoire which bears testimony to the trials, tribulations, and the struggles of more than 60,000 indentured and non-indentured labourers who were imprisoned there between 1864 and 1886 and who have greatly contributed to modernise Mauritius.

This statement was made by the Minister of Arts and Culture, Mr Prithvirajsing Roopun, yesterday at a wreath laying ceremony held at the Vagrant Depot Heritage Site at Grand River North West to commemorate the 154th anniversary of the opening of the Vagrant Depot. Many eminent personalities including the Private Parliamentary Secretary, Mrs Monty, and the Lord Mayor of the Municipality of Port Louis, Mr D. Laurent were also present.

Minister Roopun lauded the hard work of the vagrants who contributed to the construction of roads, bridges, and public buildings. The Depot, he pointed out stands as a constant reminder of the determination, hard work and sacrifices of the vagrants to the oppressive labour laws of the colonial rule, which were meant to regulate their working and living conditions.

He underlined that the Vagrant Depot was opened on 23rd February 1864 and that this heritage site is tangibly linked with the lives of the Indian and non-Indian labourers who struggled to carve a place for themselves in a highly controlled and stratified Mauritian colonial society. Hence, it is our foremost duty to pay tribute to the sacrifices and tears of the vagrants and to preserve the authenticity of this site, he added.

The Chairman of the Aapravasi Ghat Trust Fund, Mr D. Dhuny highlighted that the ceremony also marks the 60th anniversary of the Depot since it has been decreed as a National Monument and is considered as the second most important site after the Aapravasi Ghat World Heritage site, amongst others. In order to preserve this cultural heritage, he made an appeal to all stakeholders to collaborate closely in terms of materials, expertise and manpower to maintain and protect the Depot so that it serves as a reminder of the Mauritians history and a site of visit to the population.

For his part, the Lord Mayor paid homage to the vagrants for their hard work and sacrifices which has helped to transform Mauritius into a prosperous country. He also highlighted that the Depot represents a tangible symbol of oppression and resistance of the vagrants in the colonial rule.

The Vagrant Depot(TNS)  Bitcoin, cryptocurrencies or blockchain might elicit thoughts of illegal deals or a financial bubble centered on fake digital money.But, according to experts speaking to Illinois House members at a hearing on Tuesday, the technology behind Bitcoin could help make government more efficient.Bitcoin, the digital currency, uses a digital record-keeping system called a "proof of work blockchain." Basically, it has hundreds of computers back up a large log of transactions involving the virtual currency. People can connect online to the chain and help process transactions.This system is one of many ways a blockchain works, according to George Chikovani, an executive at the Innovation and Development Foundation, a Ukrainian tech firm with an office in Chicago."Blockchain is just two databases talking to each other," he said. "Maybe not two, but billions of databases. There are a lot of databases talking to each other giving reports on the same information."Chikovani said instead of using a blockchain for currency, new blockchain systems could focus on other kinds of transactions, such as exchanging titles for houses, cars and more.He argued that instead of relying on one government agency's computers, it could decentralize the whole infrastructure for these sales, making them faster and cheaper, compared to what would normally be a slow complicated trudge through bureaucracy.Moreover, Jennifer O'Rourke, deputy director of the Illinois Department of Commerce's office of entrepreneurship, said the security system that makes up blockchains is so complex it would take an almost impossibly powerful supercomputer to crack it, at least by today's standards.It's not foolproof, though. O'Rourke said other programs used in tandem with blockchains might be susceptible to breaches, potentially compromising the system.John Mirkovic, deputy recorder in Cook County, gave examples on how it could help make his agency more efficient.Because of the simple nature of the transactions, Mirkovic said it could require fewer servers to maintain databases for public records and that recorders in multiple counties could use the system."Instead, we could run 20 servers across the state and run blockchain that way," he said.Mirkovic said an issue in his office is the need to constantly upgrade software. The most recent upgrade has taken four years and they're still only starting to copy records over from the old one."What this is about is government having the potential to innovate itself, instead of being on the other side of the coin where we're always the customers," he said.Tyler Clark, chief of staff in the Illinois Department of Information Technology said governments in foreign countries such as Estonia and Georgia are already trying to use it for similar ends. But he believes more discussion needs to take place."I never said there would be no problems, and that's why we're here," he said. "That is the reason why we're here today, is to ask the legislature, which is the appropriate body, to guide this over the next five to 10 years."(TNS)  OAK RIDGE, Tenn.  It's a project mysteriously called "Darknet."The aim by Oak Ridge National Laboratory scientists is to get the nation's power grid off the public internet and make it less vulnerable to cyberattacks, and it's an effort in which EPB in Chattanooga is lending a hand.The Darknet collaboration is cited by Chattanooga and ORNL officials as one example of how linkups are growing between the world-class lab and the Scenic City."As much as we're doing now, we've just scratched the surface," said EPB Chairman Joe Ferguson, who was part of a group of Chattanooga business people and others to visit the Oak Ridge lab last week to spur more ties.From cybersecurity to 3-D printing to electric vehicle charging, the connections are increasing, officials say, particularly since ORNL opened an office in Chattanooga about 16 months ago.U.S. Rep. Chuck Fleischmann, R- Tennessee, believes the tie-ups will rapidly continue, and he has a goal of a Department of Energy standalone building eventually opening in Chattanooga to focus on energy independence."The first major step was getting Oak Ridge in Chattanooga," he said, adding that now both sides want ongoing growth.Fleischmann said he's having conversations with DOE about a physical building which he termed a potential "flagship" of the Oak Ridge-Chattanooga partnership."We'll see where it goes," said the congressman who led the Chattanooga delegation to the lab about an hour and a half away by car.Jeff Cornett, ORNL's manager of industrial partnerships and economic development, said he has dealt with more than 50 Chattanooga area companies since the office opened in the EPB headquarters building on Market Street downtown.The list of businesses range from 3-D printing company Branch Technology to carpet machinery manufacturer Tuftco to water distribution products maker Mueller, he said.Cornett, who comes to Chattanooga about one day a week, said innovation and transformation is "at the forefront."Dr. Thomas Zacharia, who became ORNL's director in July 2017, said the work of the lab's Chattanooga office will continue.He termed Chattanooga "a community with a sense of purpose" of which ORNL has to be a part. Zacharia, too, cited the partnership with EPB to modernize the nation's electric grid, which he said is a priority of U.S. Energy Secretary Rick Perry.Last fall, scientists told a U.S. Senate committee about efforts such as Darknet to build a more secure system. As recently as last summer, they said, reports surfaced that hackers thought to be connected to the Russian government breached more than a dozen American power plants.Stacey Prowell, ORNL's chief cybersecurity research scientist, told the Chattanooga group that the objective is to shield critical infrastructure and set up protected links across the electrical grid network."It's a priority because of national security," said Prowell, adding that he's doing "a lot of different things with EPB."One part of the sprawling ORNL complex the Chattanooga group saw is the Manufacturing Demonstration Facility, which Fleischmann said he has invited President Donald Trump to visit.It's seen as helping industry adopt new manufacturing technologies to reduce energy and greenhouse gas emissions, lower production cost, and create added products and opportunities for high-paying jobs."This is the best example we have where we connect with industry," said Jeff Smith, ORNL's deputy for operations.Christy Gillenwater, the Chattanooga Area Chamber of Commerce's chief executive, said it's imperative that more industries and businesses in the region to understand what ORNL presents."The opportunities are boundless," she said.Dr. Anthony Skjellum, director of UTC's SimCenter, said he sees Chattanooga companies potentially using advanced manufacturing in the area of tooling, for example.A key for applying ORNL's science will be workforce training, Skjellum said."The workforce has to be ready," he said. "UTC is doing that."At the National Transportation Research Center at ORNL, group leader Barak Ozpineci said Volkswagen officials were coming in for a meeting this month to examine the possibility of electric vehicle charging. They were looking at burying coils into a test truck near Chattanooga State Community College, which would be used to test wireless charging of electric vehicle batteries, he said."We'd like to do that but it's not finalized yet," Ozpineci said.Uh-oh! It could be you, or it could be us, but there's no page here.New Jerseys Government Technology and Innovation Transition Advisory Committee has laid out 15 recommendations for new Gov. Phil Murphy.The five committee co-chairs and 26 members suggested upgrading the governments technology infrastructure; improving e-government services; strengthening links between universities and innovators; attracting and keeping tech talent; and fostering tech hubs and innovators while expanding access to secure Internet.But the groups Jan. 1 report also offered several suggested deadlines for Murphys new administration, which has already listed reigniting the innovation economy as a plank of one of six key initiatives The committee suggested evaluating IT systems and developing RFPs for security and functionality upgrades during the first six months. Its members wrote: Although the state recently attempted to switch some applications to public cloud technology, many of its applications still use mainframe storage and processing.The committee termed the states government infrastructure severely outdated.It also called for the state Office of Information Technology to scrutinize Executive Order No. 225 , which former Gov. Chris Christie signed June 1 to centralize executive branch IT. During the first 100 days, members said Murphy should call for a formal recommendation on whether the state should continue or alter plans to centralize IT for more than 70 agencies.Members made no mention of the departure on Jan. 15 of Chief Technology Officer Dave Weinstein, but recommended the state hire a service delivery director immediately, to make the states e-services world-class.Jay Bhatti, co-founder of company BrandProject and one of five committee co-chairs, said he had limited insight into Weinsteins replacement, but suggested the CTO position needs someone who has played in both worlds of mainframe and Web-based design to help the state to get off legacy systems.One of the things that we said was there should be no paper in the government," Bhatti said. "And thats aligned to Gov. Murphys vision. Hes very close to Al Gore on the environmental impact of government waste."Bhatti said contributors were unanimous in believing the state is poised for a technical revolution, and growth in the technology sector, a viewpoint he said the new governor shares.So, hes really been looking at that, saying, I want recommendations that are bold, I want recommendations that would make us competitive with New York City as well as Silicon Valley, said Bhatti, whose company offers financial and operational resources to scale startups.Daniel Bryan, Murphys press secretary, noted that the report is, by definition, advisory.The governor does appreciate everyones hard work and hes taking them under advisement, Bryan said of the recommendations.On Weinsteins replacement, Bryan said: Were going to make an announcement when its appropriate.Bhatti said his role in preparing the report wasnt all-encompassing. He didnt, for example, focus on recommendations that the state create a single, unified mobile app for residents; or that New Jersey convert its 800 numbers to NJ 211, the states 24-hour service line.The tech executive acknowledged the significance of calling on the state to evaluate its IT and forge RFPs for upgrades within six months  potentially a heavy lift  but highlighted the committees recommendations around education-private sector collaborations; creating an annual innovation competition; and transforming empty government or educational facilities into tech incubators.The committee recommended New Jersey stand up a central tech transfer office to promote university intellectual property assets and assist with their commercial distribution, one potentially modeled after the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative , which funds research and development, enables student internships at startups and unites representatives of government, business and education.Thats an example where, if we just created, almost like a search engine for tech transfer for the state university and really promoted it hard to the entrepreneurs, I think it would get them interested in companies, Bhatti said.Talent loss is another consistent issue for the state, the tech exec said, pointing out that New Jersey has the highest net negative migration of people with college degrees of any state.Among the committees recommendations: encourage public schools to expand computer science offerings; set up science, technology, engineering and math student loan forgiveness programs and create what it termed a capital tax and employee stock ownership plan to shield tech company founders and employees from state capital gains tax during an IPO or acquisition.This strategy could draw firms from New York and Pennsylvania, the committee wrote, and by creating an effective zero percent capital gains tax for exits, we could become a highly desirable location for startups."Certified public accountant Belinda Coulter presented Taylor, Polson & Co.'s audit report for the city's financial statements for the 2016-17 fiscal year, with action on accepting the audit report tabled, although it was a clean audit.

At least three council members  Freddie Norris, Gary Oliver and Marna Kirkpatrick  voted in opposition in a voice vote approving to begin a new three-year contract with Carr, Riggs and Ingram to conduct the financial audits for the Glasgow Electric Plant Board after the council's finance committee recommended awarding the contract to that company, which has conducted the audits for the past three years. Only one other auditing firm, ATA of Jackson, Tenn., submitted a proposal. Three local firms sent notices they were declining to submit proposals, one of which was due to a conflict of interest in that an employee, Tag Taylor, is a member of the GEPB's board of directors.

The council gave unanimous approval for a second reading of an ordinance amending the budget to appropriate $50,000 for a Glasgow Economic Loan Fund loan for an expansion project for Federal Mogul Motorsports.

(TNS)  GLASGOW, KY.  The Glasgow Common Council  and its finance committee before that  heard from teachers, students and their fellow council member, Patrick Gaunce, Monday regarding all of the advantages of a proposal to bring an Interapt Skills training program here.The plan, as initially proposed, would cost $1.89 million for 50 high schoolers and 50 adults to participate in the training on how to develop mobile computer applications for Android and Apple devices.Gaunce wrapped up the presentation by saying that he hadn't talked to anyone who was against bringing the program here, but he acknowledged the price tag and said he also hadn't talked with anyone who knew the source for all the money.Barren County High School sophomore Savannah Moon, who had also spoken at last week's Barren County Fiscal Court meeting, advocated for the semester-long high school program. She said she knew next to nothing about computer science before she began taking a coding class, and she would take what she could learn through Interapt and use it toward her dream of becoming a game designer.Justin Browning, who teaches computer science at Barren County High School, said Barren County Schools was one of 13 districts that was chosen for an Interapt preinternship program.We're really on the front end of this, he told the council, and we're ready to push further.The Interapt Skills program for adults is geared toward displaced employees and would provide a $425-per-week stipend for those students for a six-month program.Whether the high school students or adult students, he said, this would prepare the local workforce for higher-paying jobs the United States does not have anywhere close to enough trained individuals to fill. He said one study projects a million-person shortfall by 2020 with regard to the number of jobs versus the number of people to fill them.These jobs can be done from here, regardless of where the client needing the application is based, which would provide more reasons for youths to stay in the community and would keep their earnings here, circulating through the local economy, which would become more diversified.Browning said that with a workforce with those kinds of skills, more technology companies could be interested in locating here.The council members received copies of an abbreviated summary of the proposed agreement, a proposed budget and payment timeline spread over nine months as well as copies of an Insider Louisville article discussing Interapt's launch of an IT apprenticeship program in Louisville.He said he hopes for Interapt CEO Ankur Gopal to be at the next council meeting in two weeks to answer any questions they may have after reviewing the material.With all 12 council members present, other agenda items for the rest of the full council meeting included:(TNS) - California fire officials asked lawmakers Tuesday for $100 million to improve the states strained mutual-aid system, which is designed to quickly rally first responders in an emergency, such as the deadly fires that ravaged the North Bay last year.At a legislative hearing in Sacramento, fire chiefs and emergency officials said wildfires across the state last year exposed shortcomings in the 60-year-old system.The system is a little too slow to react sometimes, and you are really starting to see it in these instances where a fire is moving so fast that you cant keep up, said Santa Rosa Fire Chief Tony Gossner, who battled one of the quickest moving and most destructive fires last year, the Tubbs Fire. The system worked great in the 50s, 60s and 70s. In todays world, the last three or four years have shown it is too slow.Tuesdays hearing before two state Senate committees  the emergency services and governmental organization committees  came after a Chronicle story in November revealed that thousands of mutual-aid requests in fire emergencies went unfilled in the past few years, including 175 requests made during the early hours of the October fires that ravaged parts of the North Bay.The Chronicle found that commanders in Sonoma and Napa counties requested 305 fire engines from other jurisdictions through the mutual-aid program during the early hours of the devastating Wine Country fires. But, in the first 12 hours, only 130 engines arrived to help with the deadly blazes. In Mendocino County, where nine people were killed in the fires, no engines were sent from the mutual-aid program during the first day, despite a request for 15 engines.The mutual-aid system is a network managed by the Governors Office of Emergency Services to enable cities and counties to voluntarily assist each other during major emergencies in a neighbor helping neighbor concept, said Mark Ghilarducci, director of the Office of Emergency Services.However, local governments can be reluctant to share their firefighting resources if it means leaving their own communities unprotected. And Californias emergency responders are seeing bigger and more destructive fires as well as longer fire seasons.State officials told lawmakers that Californias mutual-aid system is the gold standard, but increased demand has weakened the systems ability to respond quickly and adequately in emergencies.Ghilarducci said upgrades are needed to better utilize the mutual-aid system. For example, the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection is in the process of adding tracking devices to its emergency vehicles over the next three years, which allows the agency to live-map the location of all resources so that it can efficiently dispatch the closest vehicle to a fire.We need to be able to have that seamless operating picture across all local governments responding so we can see how we can get the closest resources there, said Cal Fire Director Ken Pimlott.Most of the $100 million requested for the 2018-19 fiscal year would go toward beefing up staffing in areas where weather conditions suggest a devastating fire could break out. Lawmakers and Gov. Jerry Brown are in the midst of budget negotiations.The largest user of the states mutual-aid system is Cal Fire.Pimlott said dry conditions during the states most recent drought led to an increase in fires, with Cal Fire turning to the mutual-aid system to handle the outbreaks. In 2012, Cal Fire sent 4,472 mutual-aid requests, with local governments filling 3,101 of those. Three years later, Cal Fires use of the mutual-aid system jumped to 11,899 requests in 2015, of which 6,421 were filled by local governments.Our system in California is the best in the world, but it was never built to deal with the level of activity and the conditions we are facing, Pimlott said.California faced an unprecedented 9,000 wildfires last year, which burned more than 1 million acres, destroyed 11,000 structures and killed 46 people. Among the most devastating fires were those that ripped through Northern California in October. In December, the Thomas Fire in Ventura County became the largest wildfire in recorded history, burning 280,000 acres.In the last 36 months, every time we say its an unprecedented wildfire it just gets worse, said state Sen. Mike McGuire, D-Healdsburg, who said he supports the $100 million budget request from fire officials. We need to stop saying its unprecedented and prepare for what our new reality truly is.Melody Gutierrez is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: mgutierrez@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @MelodyGutierrez2018 the San Francisco ChronicleVisit the San Francisco Chronicle at www.sfgate.comDistributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.(TNS)  Though Crawford Central School District in Pennsylvania conducted its business Monday evening largely as it has in a dozen similar meetings over the past year, an opening request from board President Jan Feleppa indicated that it was not simply business as usual as the meeting.Tonight after the pledge, I would like to have a short moment of silence for the students and families of Parkland, Florida, Feleppa told the audience, which included eight students from district schools.Monday was Crawford Centrals first televised meeting since 14 students and three staff members were gunned down by a 19-year-old former student at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School on Feb. 14.Since then, as student walkouts to protest the lack of congressional action on school shootings have been planned around the country, debate over how best to prevent future incidents has raged more strongly than ever. While some have called for stricter gun control laws, others  including President Donald Trump  have called for qualified school employees to be allowed to carry firearms in schools as a preventive measure.Shooters won't walk into a school if 20 percent of people have guns, Trump said at a White House meeting with law enforcement officials Thursday.A bill that would allow Pennsylvania school districts to permit school employees to carry loaded guns on school grounds passed the state Senate last June and is currently stalled in the House Education Committee. Republican state Rep. Kathy Rapp, whose 65th District includes parts of Penncrest and Titusville school districts, serves on the committee but said Monday that its not yet clear if the bill will come up for a vote this year.Even if it did, she said, the influential Pennsylvania State Education Association opposes the bill and Gov. Tom Wolf has already declared his intention to veto the bill if it makes it through the legislature.Still, Rapp would like to see legislation that allows school districts to determine their own policies when it comes to increased security  including the possibility of letting teachers carry firearms.I would not support anything that would force educators to arm themselves, she said. I would support a bill that would give school districts options for working with law enforcement, parents and students.Given the broad diversity among school districts, she said, whats seen as appropriate in Philadelphia or Harrisburg may differ from what people want in rural parts of northwestern Pennsylvania.There are probably more guns in Warren County than there are people, she said. Were used to guns here, were hunters.Like Rapp, Republican state Sen. Michele Brooks saw the issue of arming teachers as important especially in rural districts where police response times can be very long.Brooks, whose 50th District includes all of Crawford County, was one of 28 senators who voted for Senate Bill 383, which would allow school employees to carry guns.According to Brooks, the legislation provides what Rapp is looking for: This legislation gives districts options to make the best decision for their schools, she said in an email, adding that the legislation would not force any employees to carry weapons.Republican state Rep. Brad Roae, whose 6th District includes parts of Conneaut, Crawford Central and PENNCREST school districts, is ready to vote for SB 383 if it comes to the floor of the House as it is currently worded, he said Monday.I support legislation that would allow local school boards to allow properly qualified employees who are willing to do it to carry concealed at school, he said in an email. It would have a deterrent effect because under the current system the bad guys know that nobody can defend themselves at schools and they can shoot at will.While the desire to do something in the face of horrific shootings like the one in Parkland can make the idea of arming teachers appealing, Chief Mike Tautin of the Meadville Police Department said the idea is a challenging question that resists easy answers. Its also a question hes found himself considering much more frequently in recent days.Its not necessarily that Im opposed, but theres a lot more behind it than just, Lets arm everybody,'" he said. In the correct situation with the correct person, I dont know that its a bad idea, but youve got to have the right situation and the right policies in place before you move ahead with any of that.For the time being, Tautin emphasized that the department continues to work with Crawford Central School District and Crawford County Emergency Management Agency to develop emergency plans. In addition, he pointed to the departments school resource officer, Nick Mogel, who is stationed at the high school-middle school complex during the academic year.Were lucky in our high school we have an armed officer whos there all the time, he said.Following Wednesdays Crawford Central board meeting, Superintendent Tom Washingtons thoughts on the topic struck a similarly cautious attitude toward the notion of teachers walking the halls of local schools bearing loaded sidearms.Do more guns make things more safe? he asked. I dont know.Mike Crowley can be reached at 724-6370 or by email at mcrowley@meadvilletribune.com.2018 The Meadville Tribune (Meadville, Pa.)Visit The Meadville Tribune (Meadville, Pa.) at meadvilletribune.comDistributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.(TNS) - Three months after its debut, Hawaiis ballistic missile attack warning siren has been canceled  along with all other planning on its North Korea preparedness campaign.Officials confirmed this week that the World War II-type air raid siren  which in the event of a real attack would warn residents to seek immediate shelter  will not be tested Thursday and wont be back for the foreseeable future.It was decided that all aspects of the ballistic missile preparedness campaign were going to be suspended, Lt. Col. Chuck Anthony, a state Department of Defense spokesman, said Tuesday.The Hawaii Emergency Management Agencys attack warning siren, tested on the first business day of the month at 11:45 a.m. along with the more familiar attention alert steady tone alert for tsunamis or hurricanes, was initiated Dec. 1  despite concerns over possible fear and confusion.Even after a statewide alert went out Jan. 13 that  falsely  warned of an inbound ballistic missile, terrifying residents and visitors alike for 38 minutes, HI-EMA kept using the attack warning siren, testing it again Feb. 1 along with the long-used attention alert sound.A Feb. 18 all-hazards preparedness improvement action plan and report ordered by the governor and authored by Brig. Gen. Ken Hara, the states deputy adjutant general, recommended the suspension of all activities related to the ballistic missile campaign  with the exception of the attack warning siren testing.The halt in planning except for the siren was so the states emergency operations plan addressing chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear threats could be updated, and Hawaiis residents would know what to do, where to go, and when to do it, Haras report said.State planning wracked by shortsightedness is now experiencing inconsistency as to whether the warning siren tests should be used.State Rep. Gene Ward (R, Hawaii Kai-Kalama Valley) said in an email addressed to Brig. Gen. Moses Kaoiwi, the new interim HI-EMA administrator, that the attack warning siren should be reinstated on a monthly basis.This is no time to pretend we should not be on alert for a missile attack, or for you to think the people of Hawaii will forget about the Jan. 13 false alarm if you dont sound the wailing siren, Ward said. This is not a time to save face, but a time to secure the security of these islands.Following Haras report, Gov. David Ige said he would seek more than $2 million from the Legislature in the short term to build emergency preparedness, with longer-term costs still to be identified.A strategic plan is expected to cost $800,000. A new administrator also will be hired at HI-EMA after Vern Miyagi resigned following the Jan. 13 false missile alert.Anthony said he couldnt provide a timeline for the completion of a new strategic plan.Part of that, I think, is really up to whoever the new administrator is, Anthony said. He added that Kaoiwi, the interim administrator, has started the planning process.Anthony said 10 applications for the job from Hawaii and the mainland were narrowed down to four by state Department of Defense human resources personnel, and those four candidates were reviewed by three individuals before they were all forwarded to state Adjutant General Maj. Gen. Arthur Joe Logan for consideration.Logan is director of HI-EMA.2018 The Honolulu Star-AdvertiserVisit The Honolulu Star-Advertiser at www.staradvertiser.comDistributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.(TNS)  Perhaps youve noticed in recent weeks a marked increase in talk about the mounting threats of malicious cyber activity to our national security, intellectual property, critical infrastructure operations and even our election systems.The Justice Department on Feb. 16 announced indictments of 13 Russian organizations and individuals for meddling in the 2016 election. Apparently the accused sought to foment divisions in American society largely through social media.At the time their fake accounts, malicious rumors, incitements and spurious demonstrations went largely unnoticed by users of Facebook and Twitter, among others, because  News Flash!  thanks to anonymity U.S. social media already overflows with vile, mean, malicious, racist, hate-filled messages.Media bought the indictments as getting tough, even though none of those Russians are anywhere within reach of U.S. authorities.The Council of Economic Advisers estimated the other day that malicious cyber activity cost the U.S. economy between $57 billion and $109 billion in 2016 involving denial of service attacks, data and property destruction, business disruption (sometimes for the purpose of collecting ransoms) and theft of proprietary data, intellectual property and sensitive financial and strategic information.In 2015, the Obama administrations Office of Personnel Management said it suspected hackers had breached its obviously inadequate cyber security to access the Social Security numbers and personal records of 4.5 million Americans. That sounded horrible.Later we learned hackers spent months calmly copying OPM records, including security clearance information, of 21.5 million Americans. Then-Director of National Intelligence James Clapper said he thought China was probably the culprit.China also routinely promises to look into theft of corporate secrets. So, its probably just coincidence that its newest fighter looks much like our F-35.While we spend so much time properly worrying about North Korean ICBMs incinerating U.S. cities, we have other less lethal but quite crippling threats to worry about.Most of the worlds financial transactions, for instance, transit five big cities; fully half flow through New York. Imagine the economic impact and unleashed global fears if hackers took down just part of Gothams financial or market operations for a few hours, perhaps even absconding with a few hundred million.Not long ago, suspected Iranian hackers entered Saudi Arabias national oil company and erased virtually all its electronic records. In 2016, North Korea electronically lifted $81 million from Bangladeshs Central Bank account in New York.Last summer, according to U.S. and British intelligence, Russians planted the NotPetya virus in Ukraine to shut down a large portion of its electrical grid. It worked. But the virus escaped and scampered around the world, costing billions of dollars in damages.The decision to publicly attribute this incident underlines the fact that the UK and its allies will not tolerate malicious cyber activity, a British official threatened with empty words.Blaming Russia, Trump press secretary Sarah Sanders said NotPetya was a reckless and indiscriminate cyber attack that will be met with international consequences. Someone remind Putin to worry.After the 2015 OPM attack, Barack Red Line Obama vowed serious repercussions at a time and place of our choosing. As with his swift justice vow following the Benghazi murders, he never got around to choosing.Heres the go-to Western response: Economic sanctions. None have worked on Syria, China, Iran, Russia or North Korea. So maybe more of them will.Enough with all the worried words and empty threats over foreign cyber attacks. Havent we sat around and bemoaned breaches enough? When are we actually going to do something in self-defense? Hardening government and corporate security is tardy and clearly ineffective.What about some flat-out electronic retaliation?It is possible. In late 2003, under international pressure, Libyas Moammar Gaddafi abandoned his nuclear weapons program and turned over all the equipment, which happened to be the same as Iran is using for its weapons development.Intelligence agencies, most likely American and Israeli, reverse-engineered Libyas gear and developed what came to be known as the Stuxnet virus. It was smuggled into an Iranian nuclear facility on a thumb drive. The stealth virus proceeded to order, one by one, more than 1,000 centrifuges to accelerate out of control into oscillating self-destruction, all the while feeding false normal readings to gauges and paralyzing all intruder alarms.What if one wintry day the Kremlins power grid suddenly blew out? Or if Moscows air traffic control system failed as Putin prepared to travel?We know from satellite images when Pyongyang is preparing a missile test. What if, oh, say, a future missile exploded on the launch pad? Or better yet, flew up, turned around and came back down on its own launch site?Well, gee, you know, making ICBMs is dangerous business.Of course, Washingtons do-nothing gnomes would predictably oppose the notion of standing up to electronic bullies and retaliating with our own unannounced cyber attacks, fretting with trembling words that target countries would then attack us.Heres the problem with that: They already are.Form a Fintech Industry Advisory Panel of 33 companies to identify pain points and recommend solutions.

Build a next-generation technology platform to streamline both the licensing and supervision of non-banks.

Work with states to harmonize their licensing and supervisory practices, such as the announcement today.

Seven state regulators are collaborating to harmonize parts of their money transmitter licensing procedures, a move that could benefit fintech (financial technology) companies and cryptocurrency exchanges. The agreement, which the group hopes to roll out to all 50 states, could save as much as two years time and thousands to millions of dollars in application fees and bonding measures for these companies, according to Bloomberg Law Washington, Illinois, Massachusetts, Texas, Georgia, Kansas and Tennessee have agreed to streamline the initial phase for fintech applicants to obtain a money transmitter license, said the Conference of State Bank Supervisors (CSBS). The group represents state-level financial regulators.The agreement process includes having one state review a business for the critical elements of state licensing for a money transmitter  IT, cybersecurity, business plan, background check, and compliance with the federal Bank Secrecy Act  then other participating states agree to accept the findings. The result is expected to significantly streamline the Money Service Business registration (MSB).Last Spring, we came together and adopted this policy through CSBS that would include a 50-state licensing for non-bank companies, said Charles Clark, deputy director of the Washington State Department of Financial Institutions. We are taking the ball and running with it.The group has cut the process time in half, allowing some of the standard information to be reviewed by one state, which will certify them for all the other states. We have agreed to divide the process into two parts, said Clark. Phase one will include all the common licensing requirements. One state could review the company regarding the agreed licensing standards and approve the company and certify it for the other (participating) states.Ultimately, he thinks the seven-state collaboration will cut down on repeated paperwork and help make the turnaround windows on licensing approvals more consistent.As for Phase 2 of the expedited plan, each state has unique financial requirements and individual net worth or bond requirements, according to Clark. In the second phase, states laws differ, he said. The policy does not address the individual state law requirements.In speaking with fintech companies, we found the same pain points for companies that must file the same information over and over. Clark thinks the Phase 1 process will help fintech companies that are looking for a more streamlined licensing process, more clarity on if and where they need licenses and more freedom to try out new and innovative ideas.The next step in the process is to introduce one or more pilot projects with a fintech company. Once the pilot projects have proved worthwhile, the group will begin working on a website to offer the program more broadly to the industry.The group is also working towards a faster turnaround time for initial certification (Phase 1). The group agreed on a 25-day turnaround for the first phase of the money transmitter license. We want to help innovative companies get off the ground and encourage a good economy, Clark said. A quick turnaround will be a good incentive.To ameliorate these pain points the group has put together Vision 2020 . It includes a series of initiatives from CSBS to modernize state regulation of non-banks, including financial technology firms. The group sees that by 2020, state regulators will adopt an integrated, 50-state licensing and supervisory system, leveraging technology and smart regulatory policy to transform the interaction between industry, regulators and consumers.Economic development is at the forefront for states that have already joined in this pilot project, according to Clark. It is our incentive to come together and streamline these processes without reducing consumer protections, he said.To accomplish the 50-state licensing system, the group hopes to:While the group has started out with a handful of states, Clark expects other states to come on board when the pilot project is over quickly. Other states are interested in this policy, and weve written the policy in such a way it is easy for the states to adopt, he said. We have been very encouraged by the positive response.(TNS)  JUNEAU, Ala.  A report from NBC News said Tuesday that Alaska is one of seven states where federal intelligence suggests that either state websites or voter registration systems were "compromised" by Russian efforts before the 2016 election.But Alaska's top elections official, Josie Bahnke, would not corroborate the report. She said efforts by Russian "cyber actors" never went beyond a scan of the state elections division's public website, according to information her office received from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security."There was no breach, essentially," she said in an interview. "They wiggled on the door and moved on."She added: "I guess it's all interpretation of what the word 'compromise' means."Federal officials said late Tuesday that NBC's report was "factually inaccurate and misleading.""We have no intelligence  new or old  that corroborates NBC's reporting that state systems in seven states were compromised by Russian government actors," said Tyler Houston, a DHS spokesman. "Once again, reports using anonymous, outdated and incomplete information are being misconstrued as fact."The NBC report, attributed to three unnamed "senior intelligence officials," had called into question what Bahnke said in September : that Russian "cyber actors" made a failed effort to access Alaska's voter registration database in 2016. She said at the time that the state's election systems were not "compromised."NBC's report does not specify what kind of breach occurred in Alaska. Nor does it say whether the "compromised" system in the state connected directly to voting or was an unrelated website.The report, citing intelligence documents, defined "compromised" as "actual 'entry' into election websites, voter registration systems and voter look-up systems." But it quoted state and federal officials as saying that no votes were changed nor were any voters removed from election rolls.Bahnke said she attended a secure briefing with the FBI and DHS along with other state elections officials last week, which required her to get a temporary security clearance. She said no information was shared at the meeting to contradict the state's September announcement that its website had been scanned but not compromised.Bahnke said her understanding is that Alaska's website was scanned by a computer associated with a specific internet address that was also linked to 20 other states targeted by the Russian cyber-actors.Only one state, Illinois, has acknowledged it was compromised, telling DHS that "its voter rolls had been accessed but nothing had been altered," according to NBC's report."The department has been clear and consistent that we are aware of 21 states targeted by Russian government cyber actors leading up to the 2016 election," said Houlton, the DHS press secretary. "In nearly all states, only preparatory activity like scanning was observed."One state lawmaker, Anchorage Democratic Sen. Bill Wielechowski, responded to NBC's report by calling on the Republican-led Senate majority to hold hearings on what he called "Russian hacks into Alaska's election system.""Alaskans have a right to know exactly what occurred, if there were illegal entrances into our system during the election process and to what extent it may have tainted Alaska's election or Alaskans' data," Wielechowski said.Asked how worried Alaskans should be about the security of the state's elections, Bahnke responded that "the threat is real," citing the U.S. Justice Department's recent charges that 13 Russians had tried to interfere with the 2016 election."But the state is taking every possible action necessary," Bahnke added. She said her office is following federal recommendations and relying on intelligence officials to provide the state with up-to-date information.Bahnke herself is in the process of getting a top security clearance to allow her to get more of that information. She said she was fingerprinted Tuesday.(TNS)  Technology is changing the way that we live today. It is a simple premise, one reiterated frequently by countless Silicon Valley CEOs and entrepreneurs with new ideas. For the U.S. government, and especially American defense, these technological changes are of ever increasing importance.The 2018 National Defense Authorization Act passed late last year addresses some of these changes and moves towards an understanding of cyberwarfare as its own field of combat, much like land, sea, and air.Even these changes may not go far enough to address the security threats of the 21st century, say many technology experts, who recently discussed necessary changes to the Defense Departments supply chain, workforce, and operating procedures at an event co-sponsored by the R Street Institute and the George Mason National Security Institute.The reality is that today we are in a very real shooting war in cyberspace, says Jamil Jaffer, Founder of the National Security Institute at George Mason University. It may not be big bullets, it may not be big bombs or nuclear weapons, but we are in an ongoing offensive campaign brought by our enemies against us.This asymmetric warfare includes intellectual property theft by China, low-level ransomware attacks by Russia, and other hacking attacks by countries like North Korea and Iran. While most of these attacks have not targeted military equipment, that does not make the threat they pose any less real.We are very much in a state of cyberwarfare today. It may be more like a state of cold war, but it is happening, he stressed.Combating the cyberthreats of the 21st century will require major shifts in how the federal government pursues both procurement and protocol decisions as well as how it interacts with Silicon Valley. At present, the gulf between Americas innovative tech minds and the government is perhaps best demonstrated by the fact that they are focused on opposite sides of the country and rarely interact.To do any of these things we need the people, and the government is not getting the people it needs, says Betsy Cooper, Executive Director of the Berkeley Center for Long-Term Cybersecurity. She points out that for many people coming out of top tech training programs, government isnt even considered as a career option, and suggested the creation of an off site campus where industry figures from Silicon Valley could liaison with government employees in a more balanced fashion.Todays cybersecurity threats effect both business and governmental targets. As a result, it is in the interest of both groups to work together to allow for better security. However, the present environment encourages each side of the equation to treat partnership as something business is unlikely to benefit from. This has negative effects on partnership on several levels, from programmers who see their salaries being higher in the private sector, to companies who see little to gain from sharing their data with the government.The federal government needs to understand it is a stakeholder not the stakeholder in cybersecurity, says Klon Kitchen, a Heritage Foundation Senior Fellow of Technology, National Security and Science.Fixing the problem will require demonstrating to Silicon Valley that cooperation provides benefits of its own. Even so, he sees this reality as potentially helping the government, since it is confronting the same security challenges as multinational corporations.Today, both large Silicon Valley corporations like Apple or Walmart and the federal government are facing attacks from overseas actors, softening the distinction between an attack against a U.S. entity and one against the U.S. itself. Allowing the government and companies to cooperate to combat these threats would be a significant step forward for cybersecurity. It is still hard to estimate when that might take place.At the same time, the line between cybertactics and traditional warfare is becoming more and more blurred. On a high level, it is easy to distinguish between hacking an enemys computer systems and sending in a fighter plane to drop bombs on a specific location. But what about a situation where a deployed team of special forces troops encounters a weapons facility secured with a closed circuit camera system? Under the present rules of engagement, the team is required to rely on national level capabilities such as those hangled by the NSA and CIA in order to use relatively simple cybertechnology to compromise the system.The problem is those capabilities are in high demand and often higher priorities prevent the utilization of these capabilities. The net result is that the ODA [special forces] team now has to assume a greater risk profile, both to mission accomplishment and personnel, to accomplish the mission, says Kitchen.These missions arent going away, he continued.The trouble is not the technology itself, which is easily available at the tactical level. Instead, operations are hamstrung by an over centralized approach to tactical cybermissions. Standards have a role to play, but in the ever-adapting world of technology, governmental standards are simply too slow to keep up.Silicon Valley may be thousands of miles from Washington, but it looks like the two increasingly need to learn to work together.(CNN)  A surgeon in India has removed a 1.873-kilogram (4.1-pound) tumor from a 31-year-old man at a government hospital in Mumbai, India.

Dr. Trimurti Nadkarni, the surgeon who conducted the operation at BYL Nair Charitable Hospital, described the tumor as the "largest in the world" based on comparative studies conducted by his team. CNN has not been able to independently verify those claims.

He added that the surgery, which took place February 14, was life-threatening and tricky, as the tumor was embedded inside the brain.

The team waited until the man was stable after surgery before making the news public.

Santlal Pal, a 31-year-old cloth vendor from a village in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh, traveled to the hospital in Mumbai to seek treatment this month.

Over the past six months, what had initially been a swelling quickly morphed into a mass that was almost as big as his head, measuring 30 by 20 by 25 centimeters cubed, according to Nadkami.

The tumor's growth had breached the man's skull and was growing under his scalp, said Nadkarni, also professor and head of neurosurgery at the hospital.

"The basic size of the tumor was daunting," Nadkarni said. "It was compressing the brain."

Pressure built up within Pal's brain and affected his optic nerve, leading him to lose his vision.

Indian patients living in rural areas often have to travel hundreds of kilometers to access comprehensive health care or even to see a licensed doctor.

Many go to seek treatment at government hospitals, which offer free high-quality treatment but are often understaffed and overburdened.

It is not yet known whether the tumor was benign or cancerous, Nadkami said, but Pal is not presenting any cancer symptoms.

He is now in recovery at the hospital and is walking around, and he has a 50% chance of regaining his vision, Nadkarni said.

"There was no other answer. When you know the tumor has to come out, you have to do it," he said.

This story was first published on CNN.com, Indian doctors remove 4-pound brain tumor from man's head."Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, February 27)  The government has removed a previous P10-billion capital requirement for companies interested in becoming the country's third major telecommunications (telco) player.

Speaking at the second stakeholders consultation on the issue, Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) Officer-in-Charge Eliseo Rio said based on the amended draft guidelines for prospective bidders, the winning bidder will be based on the highest committed level of service instead.

"We are no longer basing it on the amount of money that they invest. We are now going to base it on actual resource that they will commit," said Rio.

This means the new telco player must have the widest network coverage, fastest speed, and most number of offered services.

An earlier version of the DICT's draft circular said the third player to enter the country should have a net worth of at least P10 billion and have "proven technical capability" to provide the service.

If it is a consortium, it must be at least 60% owned by Filipinos, with at least one member holding a congressional franchise to install, operate and maintain networks which should be valid until December 31, 2023.

READ: Third telco player must have 10-B net worth  draft circular

But Rio said they will "forget everything about money" and instead concentrate on an "easily measurable" level of service.

"So here hindi na yung pera yung tinitignan but 'yung actual committed roll out mo [We're not looking at the money but the actual committed roll out], [what] will be the area you will cover, internet speed you are going to commit, ano yung mga services that you will have after five years," he added.

The new telco player must also serve 65% of the country in five years, and 80% in eight years years.

"Pupukpukin namin ang third telco to come up with a world-class service because yun ang kanilang icocommit, no," Rio said.

[Translation: We'll pressure this third telco to come up with world-class service because that's what they've committed to.]

The government has sought a third player in the telecom industry to speed up internet speed and provide cheaper services in the country. President Rodrigo Duterte had previously said he wanted a third telco provider in the country by March.

READ: Duterte wants DICT to stick with March target for third telco player

Authorities are looking for the new player to have its first 100,000 subscribers before the year ends. The deadline for the bids is on May 24.

CNN Philippines digital producer Eimor Santos contributed to this story.In Audis new mild-hybrid technology, a belt alternator starter (BAS) works together with a lithium-ion battery. The Audi A6 can coast between 55 and 160 km/h (34.2 and 99.4 mph). The start-stop function kicks in at speeds up to 22 km/h (13.7 mph); the engine is restarted from standstill predictively. During deceleration, the BAS recovers up to 12 kW of energy. In real-world driving, the MHEV technology reduces fuel consumption by up to 0.7 liters per 100 kilometers.





As part of the launch in the European markets, Audi offers the new A6 with one diesel and one gasoline unit. The gasoline unit (combined fuel consumption in l/100 km: 7.1  6.7 (33.1  35.1 mpg); combined CO 2 emissions in g/km: 161  151 (259.1  243.0 g/mi)) is a 3.0 TFSI.

The V6 turbocharged engine accelerates the business sedan from 0 to 100 km/h (0  62.1 mph) in 5.1 seconds with 250 kW (340 hp) and 500 Nm (368.8 lb-ft) of torque; the electronically limited top speed is 250 km/h (155.3 mph).





The 3.0 TDI with 210 kW (286 hp) produces similar performance (combined fuel consumption in l/100 km: 5.8  5.5 (40.6  42.8 mpg); combined CO 2 emissions in g/km: 150  142 (241.4  228.5 g/mi)). It delivers 620 Nm (457.3 lb-ft) of torque to the crankshaft. While the 3.0 TDI is paired with an eight-speed tiptronic, the 3.0 TFSI is coupled as standard with a seven-speed S tronic.

The two engines are equipped as standard with the quattro all-wheel drive, the design of which varies depending on the specific setup. In conjunction with the tiptronic it comes with the self-locking center differential; in tandem with the S tronic the setup features even more efficient ultra technology, which always activates the rear-wheel drive instantly whenever needed. All gearshifts are automatic.

In conjunction with the tiptronic transmission the optional sport differential lends the A6 even more dynamic handling by actively distributing the power between the rear wheels. Like the dynamic all-wheel steering, the controlled damping and the adaptive air suspension, it is integrated into the control function of the electronic chassis platform. These systems are closely networked for innovative precision. The driver can select various driving profiles via the Audi drive select systemthe wide spread from comfort through sportiness is even more pronounced than in the outgoing model.

Suspension. The new Audi A6 is noticeably sportier than the outgoing model, due particularly to innovative solutions for the suspension. The already sporty ratio of the standard progressive steering becomes even more direct as the steering angle increases; a new damping concept also conveys intensive, finally differentiated feedback from the road.

The dynamic all-wheel steering is a key component in this agility and maneuverability. It combines direct, sporty steering response with unshakable stability, resolving this classic conflict of aims. Depending on the speed, the steering ratio varies between 9.5:1 and 16.5:1. This is due to a strain wave gearing at the front.





At the rear axle, a spindle drive turns the wheels as much as 5 degrees. At low speed, the wheels steer in the opposite direction to the front wheels, thus enhancing the agility of the A6 and reducing its turning circle by up to 1.1 meters (3.6 ft) to 11.1 meters (36.4 ft). This makes maneuvering easy despite the almost five-meter (16.4 ft) exterior length of the large Sedan. At high speed the wheels turn in the same direction, thus optimizing stability when traveling in a straight line or changing lanes. Thus the A6 not only offers the driver smooth straight-line stability at high speed. Passengers also enjoy more comfort since the steering movements seem much softer on the rear seats.

The redesigned wheel suspension is also made out of lightweight aluminum in many areas. Despite the larger wheels, measuring up to 21 inches and tire sizes of up to 255/35, than on the outgoing model, the Audi A6 has improved ride and noise comfort. Brakes with fixed calipers made from aluminum are fitted to the front axle. Audi provides a choice of four variants for the suspension setup: the conventional steel spring suspension, the sport suspension, the suspension with damper control, and the adaptive air suspension, also with controlled damping.

Driver assistance systems. The new A6 with new and refined driver assistance systems sets new standards in its luxury class. These include the parking pilot and the garage pilot, which are set to extend the range of equipment during the course of the year: they autonomously maneuver the sedan into and out of a parking space or garage. The driver can get out of the car before activating and monitoring the process using the myAudi app on their smartphone. To do so, the driver must continuously hold down the relevant function key.





The parking pilot and the garage pilot form part of the Park assist package, one of three packages. The City assist package includes features such as the new crossing assist. The Tour assist package comes with the adaptive cruise assist, which supplements the adaptive cruise control by means of gentle steering intervention to keep the vehicle in lane, and the efficiency assist, which promotes an economical driving style.

Behind the extensive assist systems is the central driver assistance controller (zFAS). It calculates continuously a detailed model of the environment from a fusion of sensor data. Depending on equipment, the sensor set includes up to five radar sensors, five cameras, twelve ultrasonic sensors as well as a laser scanneranother innovation.

MMI touch response operating system. With extensive intelligent personalization options, the car is tailored to the driver: The all-digital operating system allows central vehicle functions to be placed in the required position in the MMI screen using drag-and-dropsimilar to the user experience with smartphone apps. Shortcuts and favorites buttons form the ideal basis for individual preferences and superb ease-of-use.

Up to seven drivers can store their preferred settings in individual user profiles and set up to 400 parameters. With its logical and flat menu structure, the system provides fast access to vehicle functions. The configurable favorites buttons help tailor the system to the users preferences. As an option, the lighting and multifunction buttons can be fitted with touch response technology.

The natural-language control processes questions and commands in two ways, with onboard stored data and alsoin conjunction with MMI navigation pluswith the detailed knowledge from the cloud.

The MMI touch response operating system with haptic and acoustic feedback provides rapid, intuitive operation: Users hear and feel a click as confirmation as soon as their finger triggers a function.

The driver manages the infotainment on the top display, which has a 10.1-inch screen diagonal if MMI navigation plus has been specified. The bottom 8.6-inch display, located in the console in the center tunnel, is used for the climate control and for the convenience functions and text input; the drivers wrist can sit on the selector lever of the automatic transmission. In addition, the head-up display projects important information onto the windshield. MMI navigation plus also includes the Audi virtual cockpit with a 12.3-inch display.

MMI navigation plus and Audi connect. The new Audi A6 offers an extensive range of connectivity solutions for safety, convenience and personalization. The standard specification includes MMI navigation, with MMI navigation plusa media hub with a new designavailable as an option. The top-of-the-line data transfer module uses the new LTE Advanced standard.

MMI navigation plus also offers a host of new navigation features. These include a self-learning function based on the driven routes, which generates intelligent search suggestions. Route guidance is provided online on the servers run by service provider HERE; these servers factor in the traffic situation in the entire region. If the flow of data is interrupted, the navigation switches to the online route guidance that runs in parallel. Six free six-monthly updates are available as standard for the navigation map.

Audi connect online services also provide the car-to-X services traffic sign and hazard information. They use the swarm intelligence from the Audi fleet and network the Audi A6 with its environment. Shortly after the market launch, the on-street parking service will be added, which makes looking for a parking space easier. Using the myAudi app, owners of the new A6 can access the brands digital services via a smartphone.

As an option, the Audi connect key replaces the conventional vehicle key. It makes using the business sedan even more convenient, and allows an Android smartphone to unlock, lock the car and start the engine. Near Field Communication transfers data to the car. The owner can pass the access data onto five people or smartphones.





The new Audi A6 is due to roll off the assembly line at the Neckarsulm site and will launch on the German market in June 2018. The basic price as the Audi A6 Sedan 50 TDI is 58,050 (US$71,446).ZTE Mobile Devices, a division of ZTE Corporation, a global telecommunications equipment, networks and mobile devices company headquartered in Shenzhen, China, will work with Qualcomm Technologies, Inc., a subsidiary of Qualcomm Incorporated, to drive the commercialization of cellular vehicle-to-everything (C-V2X) communications technology.

These efforts build upon a broad industry commitment to help drive the commercialization of this technology for enhanced vehicular safety, improved traffic efficiency, and to pave the way for autonomous driving.

As a global industry leader, ZTE is committed to the development of technologies that will lead the way to the 5G, connected car, and IoT future. We are excited to deepen our relationship with Qualcomm Technologies as we develop and implement C-V2X wireless communication technology to drive the commercialization of C-V2X in the near future. Our deep understanding of end-to-end solutions enables us to be the first Chinese module manufacturer to announce a C-V2X module and test terminals based on the Qualcomm 9150 C-V2X chipset, providing strong support for testing and commercialization of C-V2X. ZTE looks forward to working together with Qualcomm Technologies and the broad ecosystem in promoting the integration and development of C-V2X for improvements in driving safety, traffic efficiency, environmental protection, and autonomous driving. Jeff Yee, Vice President of Product Marketing and Strategy at ZTE Mobile Devices

ZTE is a global leader in 5G innovation, providing connectivity in more than 160 countries around the world. As a global leading provider of end-to-end network solutions, ZTE is able to provide a comprehensive approach and innovative solutions to pave the way for autonomous driving in the future 5G era.

ZTE is committed to the development and application of C-V2X wireless communication technologies such as C-V2X and 5G in the field of connected cars, focusing the connection service and providing an end-to-end solution. ZTE connected car solutions have been currently commercial in China with leading automotive companies, as well as in Europe and other segments.

The Qualcomm 9150 C-V2X chipset solution is designed to allow low latency communications for Vehicle-to-Vehicle (V2V), Vehicle-to-Roadside Infrastructure (V2I), and Vehicle-to-Pedestrian (V2P) operations without the involvement of a cellular network by operating on a designed and harmonized 5.9 GHz ITS spectrum.Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, February 28)  Embattled Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno's leave as top magistrate starting Thursday is indefinite as she prepares for the impeachment trial before the Senate.

Sereno's camp clarified, the Chief Justice does not intend to resign.

"This will be an indefinite leave in the sense that hindi niya alam kung kailan yung end point, pero hindi 'yun forever," Jojo Lacanilao, one of Sereno's spokespersons, said on Wednesday. "Hindi 'yun isang bagay na tuluy-tuloy, at may mga speculations na magtutuloy-tuloy na sa resignation. Hindi po totoo 'yun," he added.

(Translation: This will be an indefinite leave in the sense that she does not know the end point, but this is not forever. The speculations that this will eventually lead to resignation is not true.)

Sereno, in her letter to the Supreme Court dated February 27, said the chief justice will prepare for her impeachment trial in the Senate.

Lacanilao added Sereno will come back once she feels she is ready to face the Senate.

Fifteen days of the Chief Justice's leave, from March 1 to 15, will be charged to her "wellness leave" allowed for justices.

Sereno's break was initially set from March 12 to 23, but said she decided to advance it.

READ: Chief Justice Sereno to go on leave as camp expects Senate impeachment trial

On Tuesday, the House Justice panel issued a show-cause order for Lacanilao, directing him to explain why he should not be cited in contempt for saying that the Chief Justice would be taking a wellness leave and was not forced by the other Supreme Court justices to go on an indefinite leave.

"Kasinungalingan ang sinasabi na wellness leave [The wellness leave they are saying is a lie]. It is indefinite leave because the en banc forced her into it," Umali said during Tuesday's hearing on probable cause in Sereno's impeachment case.

The high court has yet to issue an official statement on what was tackled during the justices' meeting, but a source told CNN Philippines Sereno's leave was discussed.

READ: House panel issues show cause order for Sereno spokesperson

Tuesday was also the last hearing in the House panel to determine whether there is probable cause to impeach the Chief Justice.

Lacanilao said they are expecting the House panel to vote on the impeachment case on March 6.

"Hindi naman po kami magkakaila, ina-anticipate po namin na madedesisyunan po ng House na i-impeach si CJ Sereno. After that, by the Constitution, pupunta sa Senate," Lacanilao said.

(Translation: We are not denying, we anticipate the House to decide they want CJ Sereno impeached. After that, by the Constitution, we will go to the Senate.)

A vote of at least one-third of the members of the House of Representatives may start an impeachment trial at the Senate.

Another Sereno Spokesperson Josa Deinla said they believe the impeachment is not solely a numbers game.

"The purpose of impeachment is to dispense political justice," Deinla said. "The House can only do so much. They can only find indictment, but only the Senate can convict," she added.

Senate President Koko Pimentel said they are already preparing for the impeachment trial.

"Yesterday I've authorized that we should now order our robes. Our lawyers are now finalizing our impeachment rules. We ask them also to study the layout for trials so ganun, nagre-ready lang po tayo (we are preparing), anticipating," Pimentel said, Tuesday.

Sereno faces removal from office for allegedly violating the Constitution, corruption, betrayal of public trust and other high crimes, which are the grounds for officials to be impeached under the 1987 Constitution.

READ: House panel to decide on Sereno impeachment complaint next week

CNN Philippines' digital producers Yvette Morales, Eimor Santos, and VJ Bacungan contributed to this report.Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, February 28)  French pharmaceutical company Sanofi Pasteur denied keeping information on the health risks of its dengue vaccine.

In a statement Wednesday, Sanofi said it disclosed to Philippine authorities the health hazards of Dengvaxia as soon as they had findings.

"Sanofi did not conceal any information... We learnt of the different product profile of the dengue vaccine for those with or without a previous dengue infection in November 2017," it said.

The vaccine maker described as "inaccurate" the information regarding the transparency of findings related to Dengvaxia.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) chief on Monday said Sanofi Pasteur was aware of Dengvaxia's health hazards months before November 2017.

FDA Director-General Charade Puno said documents from Singapore show Sanofi Pasteur was aware as early as October 2016 that the vaccine should not be administered to those without prior dengue infection.

"We visited some of the documents of Singapore recently. If you will check on their publication, they approved the Dengvaxia CPR (certificate of product registration) October 2016. With their publication, they announced that it is not to be used for patients who hadn't had dengue," she said during the House investigation on Dengvaxia.

She believes Sanofi was already aware of Dengvaxia's health risks when it applied for a CPR in the country in December 2015

"Alam nila. Dapat [noong] December 22, 2015, alam na nila at dapat sinabi na nila sa Pilipinas na hindi ito puwede sa mga batang 'di pa nagkakaroon ng dengue," she said during the House panels' investigation into the Dengvaxia mess on Monday.

[Translation: They knew about it. When they knew about it on December 22, 2015, they should have informed the Philippines it shouldn't be administered to children who has not contracted dengue.]

Sanofi on Nov. 29, 2017 said new clinical data analysis showed those without previous dengue infection and got vaccinated with Dengvaxia could contract "severe disease."

The Aquino administration launched the nationwide Dengvaxia immunization program in February 2016.Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, February 28)  President Rodrigo Duterte said the decision to go into a joint exploration with China was the best option because it will not lead to war.

He said the joint explorations were akin to "co-ownership."

During a speech at the inauguration of a housing project for families displaced by the Marawi crisis, Duterte said he wanted to dispel the notion that he did nothing to impress the country's claim over disputed areas in the South China Sea.

"Sinabi ko nandito ako, paalamin sa iyo na pupunta ako diyan sa Spratly kasi I will dig oil. Tapos sabi ng Chinese, si (President) Xi Jinping, pag-usapan na lang natin. Sabi ko, 'No kasi amin 'yan,''"the President said.

[Translation: I said I am here to let you know that I am going to the Spratlys because I will dig for oil. The Chinese said, Xi Jinping said, let's talk about this. I said, "No, because that is ours.]

He said he was not willing to go to war with China as it would lead to a massacre of soldiers. China then offered the option of joint explorations.

"Kita mo. Eh kung inasar ko noon, pinagpu-p***** i** ko sila, walang mangyari. Ngayon offer nila joint exploration 'di parang co-ownership. Parang dalawa tayong may-ari niyan. Eh 'di mas maganda 'yan kaysa away," he said.

[Translation: You see. If I goaded them them, if I called them sons of b*****s, nothing would have happened. Now they offered joint exploration, it's like co-ownership. It's like the two of us own that. That's better than fighting.]

Earlier this month, Foreign Affairs Secretary Alan Peter Cayetano said both countries were aggressively pursuing the joint exploration in disputed areas of the South China Sea.

READ: PH aggressively pursuing joint oil and gas exploration with China

"I can tell you we are pursuing it aggressively because we need it," Cayetano said.

Cayetano said both countries came to an agreement during their bilateral meeting on the South China Sea.

The Philippines and China will now separately work on their legal provisions of the exploration, before coming together to create a unified framework.

Cayetano said both sides are working on a unified framework that would "follow the Constitution and withstand scrutiny from the Supreme Court."

CNN Philippines Correspondent Claire Jiao, and Digital Producers Pia Garcia and VJ Bacungan contributed to this report.Governor Relieves Ministers From Duty

The Governor of Gok State, Madhang Majok Meen on Monday issued a gubernatorial decree relieving the Ministers of Finance, Labour and Public Service, Honorable Chol Koknyin and Minister of Health Dr. Samuel Mayek Deng.

By Mabor Riak



RUMBEK, 28 February 2018 [Gurtong]-No replacement has been made as yet by the Governor.



Last year in 2017, the Gok State legislative assembly in its extraordinary session charged the Minister of Health Dr. Samuel Mayek Deng over allegation of mismanagement in the ministry.



The assembly also requested the Governor to relieve him from duties, but was turned down.



Gok State was one of the 28 States created during the presidential order N0/36 in 2015 issued by the president of the republic of South Sudan, General Salva Kiir Mayardit, but since its establishment in 2015 until now it has been experiencing rampant insecurity of communal feuds and Political disputes which has resulted to the arrest and dismissal of three MPs from Gok State Parliament in 2017.



SPLA-IO General Defects To Government

A top SPLA-IO General loyal to Taban Den Gai on Monday declared his intention to join the government forces in Imatong State.

By Charles Kay



JUBA, 28 February 2018 [Gurtong]-Brigadier General Joseph Igga Yuggu made the announcement on Monday during a press conference in Juba.



He said his decision to join the government forces is in a bid to bring lasting peace.



I decided to go into the bush, and I only decided to come back. Because what Ive seen what am doing will not bring peace to our country through fighting. Unless we come back, and we sit down with our people we can never bring peace, said General Igga.



Meanwhile, the Governor of Imatong State, Tobiolo Alberio Oromo confirmed that at least seven opposition fighters have already joined the government, and more others are expected to come.

The Governor applauded the team headed by Brigadier General Joseph Igga Yuggu saying that the move paves way for peace and gives hope to the people in the State and the country at large.



We established course communication with the head of this team and of course he assured me that they are coming for the implementation of peace in the country, said the Governor.



He also promised to work hand in hand with the IO forces to bring about lasting peace in the State and South Sudan as a whole.



That is a very good move taken by Brigadier Joseph Igga Yuggu and his team, and I promise to work with them. It has given us more strength to consolidate and build peace in Imatong State. We call upon all those still in the bushes, especially in Pageri County.



Crises spread in most parts of the country after the July conflict erupted at J1 in 2016.

Many factions were formed in protest of the current regime which the defectors claimed it caused the massive suffering of its own people in the country.



The equatorial regions were the most affected causing massive displacement and leaving thousands fleeing to neighbouring countries.



.

Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, February 28)  On "wellness leave" or forced to go on leave by her own colleagues?

This is what the House Justice Committee wants to find out when it issued on Tuesday a show cause order for lawyer Jojo Lacanilao, Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno's spokesperson.

Lacanilao said on Tuesday that Sereno would be taking a "wellness leave" from March 1 to 15 to prepare for the expected elevation of her impeachment complaint to the Senate.

Read: Chief Justice Sereno to go on leave as camp expects Senate impeachment trial

He said Sereno had initially filed a leave for March 12 to 23.

The order directs Lacanilao to appear at the committee to explain why he should not be cited in contempt for saying that the Chief Justice would be taking a wellness leave and was not forced by the other Supreme Court justices to go on an indefinite leave.

Sereno faces removal from office for allegedly violating the Constitution, corruption, betrayal of public trust and other high crimes, which are the grounds for officials to be impeached under the 1987 Constitution.

Read: House panel finds sufficient grounds for Sereno impeachment

Lacanilao also said Sereno's leave was a "personal decision," adding that she had no intention of resigning.

But Deputy House Speaker Gwen Garcia called Lacanilao's claim "fake news," saying that according to news reports, Sereno was forced to take an indefinite leave after Supreme Court justices threatened to call for her resignation publicly.

"I can only draw one conclusion  two conclusions in fact," she said. "First, that Atty. Lacanilao created that story or Atty. Lacanilao, being a spokesperson of the Chief Justice, was in fact quoting the Chief Justice that she will take a wellness leave for 15 days."

The House panel is expected to decide next week on whether or not to elevate Sereno's impeachment case to the Senate.

Read: House panel to decide on Sereno impeachment complaint next week



Haiti - Politic : Strong reaction of the Chancellery against Minujusth





Susan D. Page, Special Representative of the United Nations Secretary-General and Head of the United Nations Mission for the Support of Justice in Haiti (Minujusth) https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-22590-haiti-un-a-woman-at-the-head-of-minujusth.html , welcomed in a statement the appointment of judges to hear complaints from individuals regarding the PetroCaribe case. A statement issued on the eve of an agreement with the IMF https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-23659-haiti-economy-moise-accepts-the-program-of-control-and-the-requirements-of-the-imf.html and just before the opening of the 29th CARICOM Conference, which provoked a very strong reaction from the Chancellery which sees in these declarations "a partisan attitude harmful to the political and institutional stability" and an attack "on the image from the country. "



We invite you to share the content of this press release and the Chancery's reaction to make your own opinion.



Press release from Minujusth (25 February) :



"As part of its mandate to support the Haitian Government in strengthening the rule of law institutions, to continue developing the capacity of the Haitian National Police and Corrections, to monitor the human rights situation, to report on and analyze it, the United Nations Mission in Support of Justice in Haiti (Minujusth) welcomes the fact that judges have been tasked with investigating petroCaribe complaints filed by individuals before the Court of First Instance in Port-au-Prince on 29 January and 20 February 2018 respectively. According to a report recently released by Transparency International, Haiti is ranked as the most corrupt country in the Caribbean and ranked 23rd out of 180 (157) out of 180 countries https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-23641-haiti-corruption-haiti-ranked-157th-out-of-180-countries-progresses-slightly.html "



"I welcome the initiative and the active role of Haitian citizens and civil society engaged in the fight against corruption and impunity. Their actions demonstrate that the public stands up for accountability and justice," declared Susan D. Page.



The Mission regrets, however, that no investigating judge was charged with examining allegations of human rights violations committed by units of the Haitian National Police (PNH) in Lilavois on 12 October 2017, during which at least a person was killed https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-22395-haiti-flash-an-agent-of-the-boid-shot-down.html , as well as in Grand Ravine on November 13, 2017, where eight civilians were summarily executed, in addition to the two officers of the PNH killed https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-22779-haiti-security-operation-grand-ravine-the-pm-recognizes-police-burrs.html "I call on the competent authorities to proceed without delay to the assignment of investigating judges in these two cases, as provided by law," said Page.



Reactions of the Chancellery (February 26) :



"[...] The Ministry of Foreign Affairs condemns the Press Release issued by Minujusth which once again undermines the image of the country.



This statement by the Special Representative of the Secretary General of the United Nations goes beyond the terms of reference assigned to it and reflects a partisan attitude that is detrimental to the political and institutional stability so dearly acquired in recent years.



The Ministry of Foreign Affairs is dismayed that in the midst of the CARICOM Conference of Heads of State and Government [...] this declaration will pollute a serene atmosphere, indispensable for investment and economic and social development , an essential condition for stability and peace [...] "



In addition, the Chancellery informs us that following the statement by Mrs. Susan D. Page, the Government of Haiti has decided to recall for consultation its Ambassador to the United Nations, Denis Regis.



See also :

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-23659-haiti-economy-moise-accepts-the-program-of-control-and-the-requirements-of-the-imf.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-23658-haiti-politic-d-1-haiti-ready-to-receive-the-29th-conference-of-heads-of-state-of-caricom.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-23641-haiti-corruption-haiti-ranked-157th-out-of-180-countries-progresses-slightly.html

https://www.icihaiti.com/en/news-23185-icihaiti-justice-minujusth-s-innovative-approach-to-strengthening-the-rule-of-law.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-22395-haiti-flash-an-agent-of-the-boid-shot-down.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-22779-haiti-security-operation-grand-ravine-the-pm-recognizes-police-burrs.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-22590-haiti-un-a-woman-at-the-head-of-minujusth.html



HL/ HaitiLibre





















Haiti - Politic : End of the 29th Conference of Heads of State of CARICOM





Monday, February 26 at the Marriott Hotel, opened the 29th Inter-Sessional Meeting of the CARICOM Conference of Heads of State and Government. The official ceremony was attended by Prime Minister Jack Guy Lafontant and members of his government, Presidents of the Senate and the Chamber of Deputies of some parliamentarians, representatives of the Judiciary and representatives of the Diplomatic Corps.



In his speech, President Jovenel Moise, also acting President of CARICOM, emphasized the environmental problems that the countries of the region, in particular Haiti, are facing. As President of the Conference he has taken the initiative to organize in the coming months an international conference on strengthening resilience mechanisms to the effects of climate change and the management of natural hazards in the Caribbean.



On the other hand, he emphasized the efforts of his administration to allow public institutions involved in the fight against corruption to play their role with full effectiveness.



He presented the reforms currently underway to renovate the business environment and to attract national and international investments and affirmed that his administration is in permanent dialogue with the two branches of Parliament for the vote of certain bills including the creation of the Bureau of standardization.



Moise promised to continue the process of integration of Haiti into CARICOM, while affirming that Haiti intended to contribute to the achievement of the objectives of the Community such as the improvement of production, productivity and competitiveness at the international level.



The Head of State also took the opportunity to advocate for the adoption of French and Creole, alongside English, as the official languages of CARICOM.



On Tuesday, 27 February, the second and final day of the 29th CARICOM Conference was the venue for the signing of new agreements and resolutions to better weld the Member States.



The holding of these two days of work in Haiti allowed the Heads of Delegation to deliberate for more than 10 hours on some crucial problems facing the region : security, crime, trafficking, the free movement of people and goods, the de-risking, the Single Economy Market, transport and especially the introduction to the English side of Creole, French and Dutch in the CARICOM.



HL/ HaitiLibre

















Updated to include the statement of Rappler CEO Maria Ressa.

Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, February 28)  Rappler's foreign investor Omidyar Network announces it is donating its $1.5-million (around 78 million) investment to the media agency's 14 Filipino managers, in a move to resolve foreign ownership issues.

"This completely eliminates the basis of the unwarranted SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission) ruling," Stephen King, Omidyar's Head of Global Governance and Citizen Engagement, said in a statement Wednesday.

The investment will be split equally among senior managers Jennifer V. Chua, Marie Fel D. Dalafu, Stacy Lynne M. de Jesus, Lilibeth Socorro L. Frondoso, Glenda M. Gloria, Dominic Gabriel L. Go, Miriam Grace A. Go, Natashya Marianne L. Gutierrez, Maria Rosario F. Hofilena, Gemma B. Mendoza, Pauline Gel C. Occenola, Libertad G. Pascual, Maria A. Ressa, and Anne Louise B. Yosuico.

"We...strongly believe that the company should be allowed to continue operating unhindered in the Philippines," King said.

Omidyar Network, owned by eBay founder Pierre Omidyar, however clarified it is not "cutting ties" with Rappler.

The move, it said, will remove the "barriers put in place" by the government when the SEC revoked the licenses of Rappler Inc. and Rappler Holdings Corporation in January for violating foreign ownership restrictions.

Rappler CEO Maria Ressa welcomed Omidyar's decision.

"This generous act proves Rappler is, as it has always been, Filipino owned and controlled," she said, adding the government now has a chance to prove the ruling was not politically motivated.

The SEC issued the ruling due to a provision in the Philippine Depositary Receipt (PDR) agreement of Rappler with Omidyar, ceding control to a foreign company.

A PDR is a financial instrument companies resort to in order to secure foreign investments.

READ: SEC cancels Rappler's license to do business

No wrongdoing

The donation, however, should not be interpreted as an admission of wrongdoing, both companies said.

"I would never admit that we were wrong because our position has always been that we created Rappler to be independent," Ressa said.

She likewise junked the idea of dissolving the current company and reorganizing a new one.

The SEC has said that Rappler could simply start another company without the problematic PDRs and avoid a legal battle altogether. The new company would even be allowed to keep the Rappler name.

Ressa, however, said this would be tantamount to "relenting" to a decision she felt was "unwarranted." She also cast doubt on whether the SEC would honor its word and approve Rappler's application when the time came.

"Words are cheap and officials say a lot of things," she said.

Time's up?

SEC Chair Teresita Herbosa on Wednesday said they will study the donation as Rappler's case is pending before the Court of Appeals (CA).

However, she explained that it would be up to the court to decide whether the donation could be enough ground for the case to be continued, dismissed, withdrawn, or rendered moot and academic.

"As party appellee, the SEC will respond or give its position on such development as may be ordered by the CA," she said.

Under SEC rules, companies are allowed one year to cure any violations to foreign ownership restrictions. Omidyar Network invested in Rappler in October 2015.

Ressa, however, said Rappler was never given a curing period  or at least never informed of when the curing period would be.

In a statement Wednesday, Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque said to wait for the SEC's decision on this development.

He said Omidyar's actions does not remove the fact that Rappler breached the Constitution.

"This latest act is nothing but a circumvention of the law, which restricts ownership of media entities in the country to 100 percent Filipino-owned," he said. "Rappler's defense of infringement of press freedom is merely a ploy to distract from the real issue, as resolved by the SEC that the former is a foreign entity."

Rappler's woes

On January 29, Rappler filed a petition before the CA questioning the revocation of their certificates of incorporation. It said contrary to the decision of the SEC, the agreement between Rappler and Omidyar does not constitute "control."

Rappler had decried the decision as "pure and simple harassment," and an attack on press freedom. It said the ruling was "first of its kind in history  both for the Commission and for Philippine media."

Malacanang said it had no hand in the SEC decision. Rappler, however, slammed the decision as one with "obvious political interference."

RELATED: Rappler sees Malacanang hand in license revocation

Herbosa then challenged critics to prove that the ruling was politically motivated.

READ: SEC chair to critics: Prove politics behind decision to revoke Rappler's license

Recently, Pia Ranada, Rappler's Malacanang reporter, was barred from covering events held at the Palace. It was later expanded to prevent her from entering the entire Malacanang complex.

READ: Rappler barred from covering Malacanang events

Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque said Ranada was banned because of the SEC ruling, and that pending the CA ruling, Rappler's license is deemed revoked.

READ: Pia Ranada's defense of Rappler 'fake news' offended Duterte - Roque

CNN Philippines correspondent Claire Jiao, multiplatform writer Regine Cabato, and senior digital producer Pia Garcia contributed to this report.



Haiti - News : Zapping...





PAP : Fundraising Concert

The Town Hall of Port-au-Prince announces a fundraising concert to be held on Thursday, March 8, 2018, at Sylvio Cator stadium, to help the victims of the fires of two markets in downtown Port-au-Prince. he funds raised as part of this charitable initiative where artists living in Haiti and abroad will perform, will be managed by the National Bank of Credit (BNC).



Cap-Haitien : Towards the Elimination of Solid Waste

Tuesday, with a view to finding a sustainable solution to the solid waste problem in Cap-Haitien, a preparatory meeting of the waste management program was held with representatives of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and representatives of Quartier Morin and Limonade. The purpose of this meeting was to validate the implementation mechanism of this project.



Drinking Water, DINEPA and Chile at Work

The National Directorate of Drinking Water and Sanitation (DINEPA) is working to solve the problem of drinking water and sanitation (EPA) in Haiti. On Saturday it joined the Chilean Foundation "America Solidaria Haiti" by intervening in the 3rd Section of Petit-Bois, commune of Croix-des-Bouquets.



Construction of the National Blood Transfusion Center

Earlier this week, the Haitian Red Cross signed the contract for the construction of the National Center for Blood Transfusion (CNTS) with two international firms "Global Communities" (developer) and "Consortium difica-Genie" See also : https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-21571-haiti-health-$5m-for-the-future-crh-national-blood-transfusion-center.html



Japan : Beraca Community Health Center

Tuesday, February 27, under the Health component of the Japanese Cooperation, the Japanese Ambassador to Haiti, Yoshiaki Hatta proceeded with the official presentation of the "Improvement Project of the Beraca Community Health Center of Thomazeau" https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-19202-haiti-japan-signing-of-2-donations-contracts-for-over-150-000-dollars.html in the presence of Rosemard Alexis, President of the Union of Peasants for the Development of Sable Santo Source and its Surroundings (UPDSSE), local authorities and members of the community.



The Bahamas signed the Arrest Warrant Treaty

Tuesday, February 27, at the 29th Conference of Heads of State and Government of CARICOM, Foreign Minister Darren Henfield of the Bahamas signed the Treaty on the Arrest Warrant, already signed by other countries members of CARICOM, which simplifies the procedure for returning fugitives to the country where charges have been laid.



HL/ HaitiLibre

















Skyrocketing Aperol lifts Camparis spirits

By Jo Gilbert

Italian spirits group Campari has posted strong annual results boosted by the success of Aperol.

Aperol, the groups biggest brand, helped sales reach 1,816 million in 2017 - a rise of 5.2% on the previous year.

Organic growth was solid at +6.3%.

Campari CEO Bob Kunze-Concewitz said the strong full year performance capped off three years of positive margin momentum driven by sales of its portfolio in key markets.

Aperol Spritz is one of the companys global brands along with SKYY vodka, Campari, Wild Turkey, Grand Marnier and the Jamaican rums.

Regional brands include Espolon, GlenGrant, Forty Creek, Bulldog, Averna, Braulio, Cynar, Frangelico and Cinzano.

Italian aperitif Aperol has seen sales sky-rocket in recent years off the back of the popular cocktail, Aperol spritz, and grew by 19.5% in 2017.

US bourbon Wild Turkey also continued to grow with an organic sales increase of 6.4% while the Campari brand grew 9.8% organically.

Having dropped still wine from its portfolio with the sale of Loire Valley producer Chateau de Sancerre last June, today the group has two big pillars with bitters and white and dark spirits.

These straddle the Italian side of the business with brands such as liqueur Averna, Cynar, Aperol, Cinzano and Campari and international brands Glen Grant whisky, Wild Turkey Bourbon and SKYY vodka.







New fizz category and Cabernet Franc interest lifts Loire

By Barnaby Eales

Nine Loire wine producers and regional wine body, Interloire, have joined forces to launch a premium category for Cremant de Loire and sparkling wines.

Prestige de Loire exclusively includes vintage wines made under strict production specifications, with the new category comprising 17 wines: 10 Cremants, five wines from Saumur and two Vouvray wines from the 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014 and 2015 vintages.

The collaboration follows the creation of similar market segmentation initiatives for premium fizz launched in Alsace and Burgundy, but includes an obligation for Loire producers to meet higher agro-environmental standards.

The Loire is Frances second largest production region of sparkling wines after Champagne. Whilst Champagne exports to the UK have dramatically fallen over the past two years, Cremant and other Loire sparkling wines were the highest climbers in terms of Loire wine exports last year.

Export figures exclusively released to Harpers show that Cremant de Loire exports to Britain jumped by 34.2% to 4, 255 hl in 2017, while exports of Saumur fizz increased by 21.5% to 2.600 hl in 2017.

We are indeed seeing an increased demand for Cremant and other sparkling wines mainly due to increasing Champagne prices, said Alex Meunier, sales manager at Loire wines broker, Charles Sydney Wines.

Matt Wilkin from Loire specialist distributor, H2Vin said that interest in Loire fizz had developed partly on the back of Prosecco, which he said, had broken the umbilical chord of Champagne.

Prestige de Loire wines are labelled with a crown sticker. In France, they sell for a least 10 a bottle and are destined primarily for the on-trade and independents merchants.

The 17 Prestige de Loire wines include several wines from Bouvet Ladubay and Ackermann, which changed the name of its group last December to Orchidees, Maisons de Vins and has created two separate portfolios for its wines, highlighting the trend for greater market segmentation of Loire wines.

Overall Loire wine exports to the UK in 2017, fell 15.3% in volume, due to the low quantities of the 2016 vintage, but increased 8.7% in value. Despite a second consecutive year of frost, Loire wine production volumes for the 2017 vintage have, however, increased by 6% compared with the 2016 vintage.

Meanwhile, brokers and buyers are reporting a growing interest in Loire Cabernet Franc (LCF) as a result of a succession of quality vintages since 2014.

We are starting to look more closer at Loire Cabernet Franc; we are starting to get more samples and to look around, Max Lalondrell, buying director and Bordeaux buyer at Berry Bros & Rudd, told Harpers.

In similar fashion to the competitive offering of Cremant and sparkling wine prices when compared to Champagne, LCF is now providing an alternative to expensive Bordeaux.

With the current prices of Bordeaux and the succession of great quality Loire vintages since 2014, Loire Cabernet Franc offers an affordable and delicious alternative to the red wines of other classic French regions, said Alex Meunier of Charles Sydney Wines.

The rise in the interest of LCF, follows greater use of the late-ripening variety, globally and in right-bank Bordeaux wines: whilst Cabernet Franc in Chateau Pavie wines, was once was a very minor partner in blends, it now represents 35% of the production at the estate, other producers, such as Cheval Blanc, use up to 60% in blends.

Despite vintage variability in the Loire, improvements in canopy management techniques have helped ensure that the quality of LCF wine has been maintained during poor quantity vintages, according to Matt Wilkin.

We get a lot of demand for Bourgueil, Chinon and St Nicolas de Bourgueil. One of the catalysts in the rise in interest in Cabernet Franc is the overall demand for low alcohol wines. Most of the LCFs are 12.5% abv, the ideal strength for drinkability. If I were to open a wine bar, I would call it 12.5% abv, Wilkin said.

In LCF you get Incredible graphite quality; its crunchy, perfumed, multi-layered with silky tannins, when made well,  added Wilkin, who has taken on distribution of LCF wines from super premium Chinon producer Domaine Pallus.

The rise of interest in LCF follows Bouygues groups acquisition of the legendary Saumur-Champigny producer Clos Rougeard last June.

Prices of Clos Rougeard, some of which are available on Fine + Rare wines, have escalated in recent years partly due to speculation from buyers re-selling the wines on e-bay.

Max Lalondrell has no doubts about the future of LCF in the Fine-Wine trade.

Many Loire reds are still Brasserie wines, I say that in a very good way. We have a long way to go before they become fine wines, but it is all going in the right direction, he said.Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, February 28)  There are coordinated efforts to oust Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno, her spokespersons said Wednesday.

Sereno's camp maintained the Chief Justice cannot be removed from office through the quo warranto proceedings sought by a suspended lawyer.

"Makikita po natin na isa ito sa mga inilatag na coordinated efforts para patuloy na sirain, sibakin si Chief Justice," Sereno spokesperson Josa Deinla said.

[Translation: "We can see that this is part of coordinated efforts to destroy and oust Chief Justice Sereno."]

This refers to the Eligio Mallari's earlier move asking the Office of the Solicitor General to look into the validity of Sereno's appointment.

Mallari said under the Rules of Court, someone found guilty of "unlawfully holding or exercising a public office" can be ousted through quo warranto proceedings.

A quo warranto is a legal proceeding where an individual's right to hold office is challenged.

He said Sereno repeatedly failed to file her Statements of Assets, Liabilities, and Net Worth (SALN), which is one of the requirements for those applying for the Chief Justice post.

House Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez on Wednesday said he believes Solicitor General Jose Calida should question Sereno's appointment before the high court.

Sereno's camp, however, maintained the Chief Justice can only be removed from office through impeachment.

Justices against Sereno?

"Parang kitang kita, may coordinated efforts. Nag-file sa Ombudsman, nag-file ng quo warranto, ngayon mukhang sa Supreme Court meron din tayong narinig yesterday, may mga ganung efforts," said Jojo Lacanilao, another Sereno spokesperson.

[Translation: "It is obvious there are coordinated efforts. They filed before the Ombudsman, they filed quo warranto, and now it seems there are efforts of this kind also in the Supreme Court."]

Lacanilao further said he could not confirm reports the Chief Justice was pressured or forced by the justices into filing an indefinite leave during the Supreme Court's en banc session Tuesday.

He said he has no personal knowledge since he was not present during the closed-door meeting, and that he has not talked to the Chief Justice about it.

"If that happened, that would have been an extra-constitutional effort to remove the CJ form a position na ang dapat lang mag-remove sa kanya ang Senado through an impeachment process," he said.

The high court has yet to issue an official statement on what was tackled during Tuesday's en banc session, but sources told CNN Philippines Sereno's leave was discussed.

Sereno is going on an "indefinite" wellness leave from March 1 to 15 to prepare for her anticipated impeachment trial at the Senate, her spokespersons said.

READ: Chief Justice Sereno to go on indefinite leave for impeachment trial

Sereno's camp also cast doubts on an alleged manifesto supposedly circulating in the Supreme Court, calling on the the Chief Justice to resign.

Lacanilao said the two-page manifesto did not even bear signatures of those who wrote and supported them.

Larry Gadon, the lawyer who filed the impeachment case against Sereno, on Wednesday said Sereno should have just resigned to save herself form the troubles of impeachment.

'BIR probe unfair'

Sereno's spokespersons also slammed the probe of the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) on Sereno's tax records, saying it failed to go through due process.

READ: BIR finds discrepancies in CJ Sereno's tax records

Lacanilao said contrary to usual procedure, Sereno was not asked to comment on the alleged discrepancies the BIR had found.

"Maraming pong patently unfair na nangyari po diyan sa BIR and we can answer that pagdating sa Senado [The BIR investigation is patently unfair; but we will challenge the accusations at the Senate]," he said. "We have proof, we have evidence. Bottomline, CJ declared all the income she received and she paid all the taxes that she needed to pay."

The House Committee on Justice has ordered the BIR to investigate Sereno's tax records from 2004 to 2009, covering her work as government counsel with the Philippine International Air Terminals Company Incorporated or PIATCO case.

The chief magistrate is accused of not declaring her case earnings amounting to P30 million in her SALN, and that she did not pay the corresponding taxes.

In the impeachment case, Sereno is accused of violating the Constitution, corruption, betrayal of public trust, and other high crimes - grounds for officials to be impeached under the Constitution.

The House committee on Justice is expected to vote next week on probable cause in the impeachment case against her. The panel will send a committee report to the plenary.

A vote of at least one-third of the members of the House of Representatives, or 98 out of the 292 incumbent congressmen, may then start an impeachment trial at the Senate.

READ: House panel to decide on Sereno impeachment complaint next weekOregon Legislature Passes Bill to Allow Starving Mentally Ill Patients to Death

by Steven Ertelt, Life News, February 27, 2018

Salem, OR: When Oregon became the first state in the nation to legalize the practice of assisted suicide, pro-life advocates argued this would be a slippery slope that would lead to euthanasia.

Apparently assisted suicide is not enough for the death peddlers in this Pacific Northwest State. Now they are pushing legislation in the Oregon State Legislature that would allow starving mentally ill patients to death .

And the legislature just signed off on it. Today House Bill 4135 passed the Oregon Senate 17-12. While the stated intent of the bills authors was to update the advance directive, it also paves the way for healthcare representatives to remove access to food and water for vulnerable Oregonians with dementia and Alzheimers.

Oregonians should be able to trust their elected officials to act in their best interests, said Lois Anderson, Oregon Right to Lifes executive director, in an email to LifeNews. This bill is a betrayal of that trust. The brief hearings held in committee showed significant problems with the bill, especially the testimony from doctors who know well what Oregonian patients need.

HB 4135 originally passed the Oregon House February 16, 35-25, in a party line vote. The bill now goes to the governor, Kate Brown  who is not pro-life .

Last session a similar bill (SB 494) was introduced in the Senate by Senator Floyd Prozanski . It died in the House. The new bill, HB 4135, is chief sponsored by Speaker of the House, Tina Kotek.

Supporters of this bill are touting it as a fix, but the only fixing that is happening is fixing it so vulnerable Oregonians are left without protections and their right to basic care like food and water, said Anderson. One wonders what the true motivations are for this legislation.

Anderson says HB 4135 is purported to just be a bill that makes technical changes to the current statutory advance directive form found in ORS 127.531. However, over the last 25 years Oregonians at the end-of-life stage have been protected by the current advance directive and removing it from statute has legal consequences.

The advance directive was put into Oregon statute back in 1993. I was then a state senator when a very well vetted bill was thoroughly discussed and passed. I worked hard to ensure the advance directive was in statute. If it were to be removed from statute, I fear the legal protections we carefully placed there could be jeopardized, potentially harming end of life decisions for vulnerable patients, stated Representative Bill Kennemer (R- HD 39).

Last years bill was touted as a good thing, but in fact it promoted the withholding or withdrawal of nutrition and hydration (food and water) from people who are incompetent and not dying .(HedgeCo.Net) The Securities and Exchange Commission has announced charges against three Israeli residents, a Washington, D.C. attorney, and an Israeli auditor and his Maryland-based accounting firm for their roles in a fraudulent scheme in the creation of numerous public shell companies. Under the terms of their settlements with the SEC, the three Israeli residents will be subject to penny stock bars and the attorney and auditor will be prohibited from appearing and practicing before the Commission.

According to a complaint filed by the SEC in federal district court for the Eastern District of New York, Sharone Perlstein, Aric Swartz, and Hadas Yaron created at least 15 shell companies by filing false and misleading registration statements and periodic reports with the SEC, creating phony business plans, and appointing nominal officers and directors, who also acted as straw-man shareholders for the shell companies. The defendants also conducted putative initial public offerings of certain shell companies. In reality, the defendants continued to control the companies shares and the defendants subsequently sold certain shell companies at a profit of more than $1.8 million.

The SEC also filed complaints in federal district court for the District of Columbia against gatekeepers who provided substantial assistance in the fraudulent scheme. According to the SECs complaint against Jonathan Strum, a Washington, D.C.-based attorney, he assisted in drafting false and misleading registration statements and periodic reports and signed fraudulent opinion letters. In its complaint against Alan Weinberg, CPA, an Israeli resident, and his Baltimore-based accounting firm Weinberg & Baer LLC, the SEC alleges that they issued misleading audit reports for at least seven of the shell companies. Despite numerous audit failures and red flags, Weinberg and his firm issued audit reports falsely asserting that the audits had been performed in accordance with the auditing standards promulgated by the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board.

The SECs complaints charge Perlstein, Swartz, and Yaron with violating Section 17(a) of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 10(b) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and Rule 10b-5; Strum, Weinberg, and Weinberg & Baer with aiding and abetting these violations; Weinberg and Weinberg & Baer with violating Exchange Act Section 10A(a)(2); and Weinberg & Baer with violating Rule 2-02(b)(1) of Regulation S-X.

This matter underscores the SECs ongoing determination to protect investors from fraud and abuse, regardless of the location of the violators, and to hold accountable gatekeepers who facilitate fraud and fail to honestly discharge their duties, said Antonia Chion, Associate Director of the SECs Enforcement Division.

The law requires truthful disclosures about a company and its business operations to protect investors, said Marc P. Berger, Director of the SECs New York Regional Office. Here, we worked closely with foreign authorities to expose how the defendants spun up sham business plans, inserted placeholder shareholders, and with the assistance of gatekeepers filed false documents to reap over $1.8 million from companies that sold as worthless shells.The network equipment manufacturer will lend its expertise to Vodafone Germany, which is planning on setting up the network to support the first-ever privately funded Moon landing to be carried out in 2019 by Audi and PTScientists, a group of volunteer scientists and engineers based in Berlin, Germany.

Nokia on Tuesday announced it has been selected as the technology partner for a project to develop a space grade 4G network to be built on the Moon.

Nokia states in a press release that the network will enable the live-streaming of high-definition video from the Moon to audiences on Earth. The network will also allow scientists to remotely control two lunar quattro vehicles, and enable the vehicles to communicate and transfer data with each other.

Marcus Weldon, the chief technology officer at Nokia, says the network equipment manufacturer is pleased to have been selected as the technology partner for the project.

This important mission is supporting, among other things, the development of new space-grade technologies for future data networking, processing and storage, and will help advance the communications infrastructure required for academics, industry and educational institutions in conducting lunar research. These aims have potentially wide-ranging implications for many stakeholders and humanity as a whole, he says.

Robert Bohne, the founder and chief executive of PTScientists, draws attention to the importance of developing extraterrestrial infrastructures.

This is a crucial first step for sustainable exploration of the solar system. In order for humanity to leave the cradle of Earth, we need to develop infrastructures beyond our home planet, he explains. The great thing about this LTE solution is that it saves so much power, and the less energy we use sending data, the more we have to do science.

Aleksi Teivainen  HT

Photo: Juan Ruiz  AFP/LehtikuvaMetro Manila (CNN Philippines, February 28)  The U.S. Department of State has added seven organizations, including local terror group Maute, to its list of foreign terrorists and terrorist organizations due to their connection to the Islamic State (ISIS).

Seven groups were classified as Specially Designated Global Terrorists:

ISIS-West Africa

ISIS-Philippines

ISIS-Bangladesh

ISIS-Somalia

Jund al-Khilafah-Tunisia

ISIS-Egypt

Maute Group

Two individuals were also added to the foreign terrorist list: ISIS-Somalia deputy leader Mahad Moalim and ISIS-West Africa leader Abu Musab al-Barnawi.

In June 2016, ISIS released a video of militants in the Philippines pledging allegiance to the terror group, and recruiting Muslims to join the terrorist group under now-deceased Isnilon Hapilon. The report said Hapilon was recognized by ISIS as the "emir" or leader of ISIS-Philippines.

"These designations target key ISIS-affiliated groups and leaders outside its fallen caliphate in Iraq and Syria. Today's actions are a critical step in degrading ISIS's global network and denying its affiliates the resources they need to plan and carry out terrorist attacks," U.S. State Department Coordinator for Counterterrorism Nathan Sales said in a statement.

The designation prohibits U.S. citizens from engaging in transactions, or giving assistance to terrorist groups and individuals.

Malacanang on Wednesday said the U.S. decision to declare both ISIS-Philippines and the Maute group as global terrorists is a positive development in the war against terrorism.

"This reaffirms our long-held belief that the Maute group is composed of local terrorists aided by foreign extremists," Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque said.

The Maute group, also known as Dawlah-Islamiyah, attempted a takeover of the city of Marawi in Lanao del Sur last May. The siege prompted the declaration of martial law in Mindanao and resulted into a five-month long war with government forces.

The war resulted in 11.52 billion worth of damage, and claimed the lives of 165 government troops and 47 civilians. Hapilon and Maute brothers, Abdullah and Omar, were also killed in the skirmishes.

In October 2016, then Armed Forces of the Philippines Chief of Staff Gen.Eduardo Ano said that ISIS funded the Maute group with at least $1.5 million for the Marawi takeover.

Meanwhile, the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) said the U.S. declaration helps the Philippines go after terrorists.

"Specific advantage on such declaration/list is the checking of money trail, financial sources, logistics lines and conduits of terror groups in foreign countries that may have connections with local violent extremists," AFP Spokesperson BGen. Bienvenido Datuin said in a statement.

The Department of National Defense said the inclusion of the Maute Group and ISIS Philippines on the U.S. list affirms Philippines' knowledge about the terror groups.

"As such, they will be denied access to the U.S. financial system and will face sanctions as may be deemed appropriate, making it more difficult for them to conduct their activities in the Philippines and abroad," DND Public Affairs Chief Director Arsenio Andolong said Wednesday.

In July 2017, the U.S. State Department said portions of Mindanao became a safe haven for ISIS terrorists in the previous year, after local terror groups, including the Maute group, pledged allegiance to the ISIS.

The Philippines was also the top five nations with the most number of terrorist attacks in 2016 worldwide  accounting for 12 out of 482 local terror attacks, or six percent of the total.

READ: Parts of PH became 'ISIS safe haven' in 2016 - U.S. gov't

READ: AFP Chief of Staff confirms ISIS funded Marawi siege

Local terrorist group Abu Sayyaf and the New People's Army (NPA) have also been branded as terrorist organizations by the U.S. government. The Duterte administration is also in the process of formalizing the terrorist designation of the NPA in the country.The availability of skilled workers is billed to be one of the key issues discussed in the governments upcoming framework session with estimates suggesting that up to a million employees and job seekers will require re-training over the next ten years.

The Finnish government will launch negotiations with labour market organisations over measures to develop the skills of a large number of Finns to satisfy the ever-changing needs of labour markets.

The government has repeatedly expressed its concern with the fact that businesses are struggling to fill skilled labour even though the employment rate remains well above ten per cent in several municipalities.

The Federation of Finnish Enterprises, for example, has estimated that shortages of skilled labour are undermining the growth of more than a half of small and medium enterprises in Finland. The problem serious particularly in Greater Helsinki, Varsinais-Suomi and Ostrobothnia.

Sanni Grahn-Laasonen (NCP), the Minister of Education, will sit down with labour market representatives in the near future to discuss how the massive re-training effort could be funded. The government is reportedly also intent on ensuring that all citizens have at least completed secondary education.

Education has been a hot political topic for the past couple of days after the opposition tabled an interpellation concerning the equality of education, marking already the fourth eduction-related interpellation of this electoral term. The government will respond to the interpellation on Wednesday, 28 February.

The issue will also be a key theme of the coalition talks launched after the next parliamentary elections, believes Touko Aalto, the chairperson of the Green League and the first signatory of the latest education-related interpellation.

Once the next coalition talks start, its a guarantee that education will be a major issue that'll no longer be about cuts but rather about big investments, he said to Uusi Suomi on 9 February.

Aleksi Teivainen  HT

Photo: Antti Aimo-Koivisto  Lehtikuva

Source: Uusi Suomi(CNN)  Garba Tela's wife did not want him to send their daughter to school in Dapchi. She feared Zainab would be an easy target for insurgents.

"They take girls there," she told him.

Her prediction has proved accurate. Their 14-year-old daughter is one of 110 schoolgirls feared kidnapped by suspected Boko Haram militants in a raid on their school last Monday.

Tela, who lives in Dapchi, now says his other children are refusing to go to school after last week's attack.

"The situation we are in now, we don't know what to do. Her sisters say they won't go to school again," he said.

"My wife had told me before that it was not good to take her to a girls school, that they take girls there. And this now happened.

"I have tried to pet (cajole) them now. What can I do? I leave everything to Allah," said Tela, who works as a tailor.

"We're village people, we don't have the power to chase the people who take our girls," he added. "Government should just help us get our daughter."

The Chibok kidnapping

The Government Girls Science Technical College school, which their daughter attended, is about 275 km (170 miles) from the site of the infamous Chibok girls kidnapping in 2014. When Boko Haram abducted 276 schoolgirls from the Chibok school in northeast Nigeria, it sparked global outrage and reignited the fight against the ISIS-aligned terrorist group.

First lady Michelle Obama, Malala and other celebrities joined forces to protest the kidnapping in a social media campaign that went viral.

Some of the girls were finally freed three years later, following negotiation talks between the Nigerian government and Boko Haram. But more than 100 of them remain in captivity.

Now, nearly four years after that kidnapping, Nigeria finds itself in the global spotlight again over missing schoolgirls. This time, #Dapchigirls is trending online.

But the momentum that gathered online around the Chibok girls is so far largely missing this time.

The Dapchi raid

Officially, the Nigerian government is saying the girls are unaccounted for. But eyewitness accounts say armed men, dressed in military gear, stormed the school and herded girls into trucks.

Thirteen-year-old Hassanha Mohammed told CNN: "I had a sprint on my ankle but kept on running, holding the hand of my sister. We saw Boko Haram gunmen in military uniform and wearing turbans. They kept calling on students to come to them, that they were going to rescue them.

"We did not listen to them and continued running. I was limping," she continued. "I lost grip of my sister's hand in the confusion. I managed to return home in the company of my two classmates but my sister has not been seen since then. I believe she was among the girls taken by the gunmen."

Campaigners from the Bring Back our Girls movement say they are unclear whether the girls went missing or were abducted, which makes it difficult for them to make demands for their return.

"The government has not officially used the word abduction for what happened in Dapchi, unlike Chibok," Bukky Shonibare told CNN.

"Conflicting accounts and pronouncements from government officials on the whereabouts of the girls has yet to give a clear direction on advocacy efforts for their return," she added.

President Muhammadu Buhari has called the latest incident a "national disaster" and issued an apology, but he faces angry accusations that he cannot keep citizens in the northeast safe, despite his claims that "Boko Haram has been technically defeated."

'Parents should not panic'

There are currently 11 million out-of-school children in northeast Nigeria because of Boko Haram terrorist activity in the region, and that number will only rise after incidents like the suspected Dapchi kidnapping.

About 1,400 schools have been destroyed in Borno as a result of years of Boko Haram insurgency in the state, according to recent UNICEF figures. These figures estimate that 92% of those displaced internally are from the three worst-hit states in the country: Yobe, Adamawa and Borno states.

A spokesman for Buhari told CNN that the government is doing it all it can to keep students in the northeast safe.

"Parents should not panic," said Garba Shehu. "Police and civil defense have been asked to reinforce security in all the ... northeast schools."

Shehu Sani, a Nigerian senator, believes that security operatives in the area took "their eyes off the ball," which is why the attack happened.

"They were more focused on places near Borno state, which is where Boko Haram usually attacks," he told CNN.

"Nigeria has declared Boko Haram technically defeated many times but each time they say this, Boko Haram gives a response and each time it's the people in that area that suffer," Sani said.

But Nigeria's military has denied their withdrawal led to the raid on the school.

In a statement, they said their soldiers withdrew because they thought the area was "relatively calm and peaceful."

Col. Onyema Nwachukwu, a spokesman for the Nigerian army, said the troops pulled out on the "premise that Dapchi has been relatively calm and peaceful and the security of Dapchi town was formally handed over to the Nigeria Police Division located in the town. Troops' redeployment was therefore done in tandem with the exigencies of operation and not as misconstrued."

This story was first published on CNN.com, Parents in Nigeria are wondering whether the government can keep their schoolgirls safe."(CNN)  Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday ordered a daily five-hour pause in hostilities in the besieged Damascus suburb of Eastern Ghouta, amid reports of chlorine gas attacks.

Putin ordered the humanitarian pause -- from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. local time -- to start Tuesday, in a bid to prevent civilian casualties, according to state-run news agency Tass.

The report said a humanitarian corridor would be opened to allow civilians to leave.

Russia is the Syrian regime's key ally in a civil war that has plagued the country for almost seven years, with heavy fighting now focused on the rebel-held enclave of Eastern Ghouta.

Russian intervention -- with troops and weaponry -- has helped tilt the balance in Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's favor.

A United Nations resolution on Saturday calling for a 30-day ceasefire in Syria appears to have done little to halt the intense bombardment of Eastern Ghouta, which has now entered its second week.

Several people in the suburb were treated for exposure to chlorine gas, opposition groups said, as airstrikes and artillery fire from the regime continued on Sunday.

The Syrian opposition-run Rural Damascus Health Directorate said the people were admitted to medical facilities showing signs that were consistent with exposure to "toxic chlorine gas."

In a statement, RDHD said that: "The smell of people in the area, ambulance drivers, and victims all had the clear and known smell of chlorine gas."

A tweet from the Syrian American Medical Society said that 16 patients, including six children, were treated in a hospital "suffering from symptoms indicative to exposure to chemical compounds." Images obtained by CNN show men and children receiving treatment, some of them using oxygen masks.

The White Helmets, a volunteer rescue group, said in a tweet that one child was killed in a chlorine gas attack in the city.

CNN is unable to independently verify claims that chlorine was used as a weapon in Eastern Ghouta.

Both sides of the conflict have in the past accused one another of the use of chlorine as a weapon, and the government has repeatedly denied claims that it has done so.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told reporters that allegations of a chlorine attack were a "hoax," and attacked the White Helmets for promoting what he described as "fake stories."

The Russian Defense Ministry alleged that "terrorists" hiding in Eastern Ghouta have chemical substances which "might be used for provocations."

'Nothing has changed'

The alleged chlorine attack comes despite a 30-day ceasefire that was supposed to have been implemented "without delay."

"Nothing has changed," said Dr Hamza Hassan from Arbeen Hospital in the besieged Damascus suburb. "The airstrikes are continuing. A maternity hospital has just been hit in Saqba (a town in Eastern Ghouta) and is out of service," he told CNN on Sunday morning.

Panos Moumtzis, the UN Humanitarian Coordinator for the area, told CNN: "We have reports at least seven people were killed this morning" after the UN Security Council adopted the resolution calling for a 30-day ceasefire in Syria on Saturday.

For the first time in this latest offensive that began February 18, ground attacks were combined with aerial bombardment, pummeling the rebel-held enclave near the Syrian capital.

The Syrian regime has said that it is targeting terrorists in Eastern Ghouta and that it would continue to pursue terrorist targets even with the ceasefire in place.

"We practice a sovereign right of self-defense, and we will continue to fight terrorism wherever it is found on Syrian soil," Syrian UN ambassador Bashar Ja'afri said according to Syrian state-run media SANA.

Terrorist groups not included

The UN ceasefire resolution, which passed unanimously on Saturday, noted that the "cessation of hostilities shall not apply to military operations against the Islamic State," al Nusra and other groups associated with them, or groups deemed terrorist organizations by the UN Security Council.

The main rebel units actively holding territory in Eastern Ghouta are Islamist groups Jaish al Islam and Faylaq al Rahman, who have taken part in peace negotiations in the past. According to activists there are small pockets of Hayat Tahrir Al Sham, an al-Qaeda affiliate, still in the area.

But the ceasefire had no specific beginning, only that it was to come into effect "without delay." There was no deadline for setting a date for it to begin. And there was no detail on how the truce, once in effect, would be enforced.

Both the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and SANA reported that shells hit regime-controlled areas in Damascus on Saturday morning. "Armed groups positioned in Eastern Ghouta on Saturday targeted with more than 55 mortar and rocket shells with sniper fire the residential neighborhoods in Damascus and its countryside, injuring a number of civilians and causing material damage," SANA said.

SANA reported that 21 rocket shells were fired on residential neighborhoods in Damascus City and other areas in the capital.

'Deeply skeptical'

Speaking to reporters, Russia's ambassador to the UN, Vassily Nebenzia, said the process of forming the resolution was "extensive and exhaustive" in order to ensure that "it was meaningful."

"Because by decrees of the Security Council, you cannot install a ceasefire, (a) ceasefire is reached by laborious and painstaking process on the ground," said Nebenzia.

However, US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley rejected Nebenzia's claims.

"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 ceasefire that could have saved lives days ago," said Haley in remarks made after the ceasefire resolution was adopted on Saturday.

"Our goal with this resolution is clear: The Assad regime needs to stop its military activities around Eastern Ghouta, and for once, allow humanitarian access to all of those who need it," said Haley, adding that she was unconvinced the Syrian regime would honor the ceasefire.

"We are deeply skeptical that the regime will comply. But we supported this resolution because we must demand nothing less. We owe this to the innocent people of Syria begging for help."

In his remarks to the UN Security Council, Nebenzia compared the outcry from the international community over events in Eastern Ghouta to that surrounding the retaking of eastern Aleppo in December 2016.

"We know that the humanitarian situation in Syria is dire and requires urgent measures to be taken," he said. "However we see perfectly that the propagandistic scenarios which are being unraveled around Eastern Ghouta are in line fully with the campaign, the vociferous campaign in late 2016 during the counterterrorist operation to liberate eastern Aleppo."

The airstrikes and artillery fire have concentrated on the outskirts of Eastern Ghouta, according to activists inside the city. more than 520 people have been killed and 2,500 wounded since the bombardment of Eastern Ghouta began on Sunday February 18.

This story was first published on CNN.com, Putin orders daily pause in fighting in Eastern Ghouta."ABC News(PARKLAND, Fla.) -- The Florida police officer who apprehended the suspected school shooter accused of killing 17 people and injuring at least a dozen more on Valentine's Day was reluctant to be described as a hero while being honored at a Broward County Commission meeting on Tuesday.



"It's hard to accept that status or title," Coconut Creek Officer Michael Leonard told ABC News. "... Most officers have the heart to help and service. I think they're all heroes."



He added to reporters outside the commission meeting, Its hard to accept the title as a hero.



Leonard was emotional when speaking about the shooting at the meeting, saying his "heart is very heavy" because he has a child who is close in age to the students who were shooting victims.



"... And when you come against evil like that, and you have children at home that are about that age, it's very close to my heart," he said to reporters. "And it was difficult. But I'm so honored I was able to be a part of and do my part and take this killer into custody."



After hearing calls over the radio detailing the shooting, Leonard decided to drive over to Parkland, about 10 miles northwest of Coconut Creek, to help in "any way" he could, he said in a press conference the day after the shooting.



Once he got to the scene, there was already a heavy presence of first responders, so he drove through a residential neighborhood near to search for the suspected shooter, who was still at large.



"Im very familiar with the area, so I just decided to take that residential street," Leonard said Tuesday to reporters. "And low and behold, I came across the individual.



As he traveled down some of the neighborhood's back roads, Leonard noticed an individual who matched the clothing description of the suspect, he said. Although he "looked like a typical high school student," Leonard pulled the car over immediately.



"For a quick moment, I thought, 'Could this be the person? Is this who I need to stop?'" he said at a press conference on Feb. 15. The suspect then complied with Leonard's orders and was taken into custody.



Even before he was formally honored, Leonard praised his "brothers and sisters" in emergency services for putting their "heart and soul" into the job.



"This is what we train for," Leonard said after the shooting.



Also honored at the commission meeting was Coconut Creek Police Chief Albert Arenal for the role his department played in the response to the shooting. More than 30 officers from the department responded to the shooting, Broward County Vice Mayor Mark Bogen said.



Feb. 27 has now been designated as the Michael Leonard and Coconut Creek Police Department Appreciation Day in Broward County, Bogen said.



"I'm immensely proud," Arenal said of Leonard, adding that the officer's "instincts served him well in this case."



The suspect, 19-year-old Nikolas Cruz, is currently being housed in a Broward County jail. He has been charged with 17 counts of premeditated murder.

Copyright  2018, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.(CNN)  Top Republicans on Capitol Hill have made a concerted decision in their Russia inquiries: They are staying away from digging into the finances of President Donald Trump and his family.

Six Republican leaders of key committees told CNN they see little reason to pursue those lines of inquiry or made no commitments to do so -- even as Democrats say determining whether there was a financial link between Trump, his family, his business and Russians is essential to understanding whether there was any collusion in the 2016 elections.

Republicans have resisted calls to issue subpoenas for bank records, seeking Trump's tax returns or sending letters to witnesses to determine whether there were any Trump financial links to Russian actors -- calling the push nothing more than a Democratic fishing expedition.

While the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee has acknowledged that his panel lacks the resources of special counsel Robert Mueller to dig deeply into financial matters, several Democrats on committees with financial experts on their staff have sought such records. In the House Intelligence Committee, for instance, Democrats have asked for subpoenas to Deutsche Bank, the institution that has been a major lender to the Trump Organization as well as Jared Kushner, Trump's son-in-law and senior adviser.

"I think the allegations on money laundering are credible enough that we ought to, in the exercise of due diligence, see if this was one of the other vectors of the Russian active measures campaign," California Rep. Adam Schiff, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence panel, said earlier this month. "To me, that is far more potentially compromising than any salacious video would be."

Republicans have rebuffed them, arguing that falls outside the scope of the committee's probe.

"I don't see the link at this stage," Rep. Mike Conaway, the Texas Republican leading the House Russia investigation, told CNN. "Deutsche Bank is a German bank -- I don't see the nexus."

Asked about exploring Russian-Trump business transactions, Conaway was not moved. "I bet every big bank has a Russian customer somewhere," he said.

The partisan dispute over the Trump finances is a clear sign that Democrats plan to pursue these questions if they retake either chamber of Congress in this year's midterms. And it underscores how Republicans on the Hill have, for the most part, stayed away from vigorous oversight of the Trump administration -- something that is common when either party controls both Congress and the White House.

'Isn't that what Bob Mueller is doing?'

Some Democrats have concluded that Mueller's probe is their best hope for getting to the bottom of the Russian collusion question, though Trump himself has warned Mueller from crossing a red line into his family's finances.

House Oversight and Government Reform Chairman Trey Gowdy, who is also a top Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, has yet to issue a subpoena as chairman since he took the oversight gavel last June. The South Carolina Republican also brushed off calls by Democrats to pursue the money trail as part of the Russia investigation.

"Isn't that what Bob Mueller is doing?" Gowdy told CNN when asked about the matter.

On the House Financial Services Committee, the panel's ranking Democrat, Maxine Waters of California, for nearly a year has called on the committee's chairman, Jeb Hensarling of Texas, to issue subpoenas to Deutsche Bank and help pressure the Treasury Department to cough up documents from its Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) over any of Trump's past financial dealings.

Hensarling has resisted, citing investigations in other House committees, saying doing another one in his panel would be "redundant." And Deutsche Bank has ignored Waters' letters asking for a range of Trump-related information, suggesting it would not disclose confidential information, particularly without a subpoena.

Hensarling spokeswoman Sarah Flaim pointed to the inquiries that are ongoing in the House and Senate intelligence panels and by Mueller.

"Those investigations should be allowed to go forward," Flaim said. Hensarling's committee, she said, "will certainly review whatever information the investigations produce."

Foreign transactions

In addition to the calls for subpoenaing Deutsche Bank, Democrats point to the comments from Fusion GPS co-founder Glenn Simpson, who told the House Intelligence Committee last year that it should probe Trump's real estate deals in Florida and New Jersey, as well as Kushner's real estate dealings in New Jersey.

Democrats have also raised an interest in foreign transactions in places that include the Cayman Islands and Cyprus, particularly surrounding former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort. In April 2017, Rep. Mike Quigley of Illinois traveled to Cyprus to investigate how Russians used money laundering, a trip that came following an Associated Press report that Treasury officials obtained information regarding financial payments Manafort may have received through Cypriot banks.

Mueller's latest charges against Manafort and his former deputy Rick Gates on Thursday accused them of laundering $30 million and fraudulently securing more than $20 million in loans through real estate holdings. Some of the allegations occurred while Manafort and Gates worked on the Trump campaign, according to the indictment, although none of the activities were tied to their work on the campaign.

But those areas have gone largely unpursued on Capitol Hill.

Sen. Ron Wyden, ranking Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee and senior member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, has for months been frustrated with the lack of access to Treasury FinCEN documents. The Oregon Democrat recently fired off a letter for more Treasury documents, this time to obtain records about a lucrative 2008 real estate deal between Trump and a Russian billionaire that raised questions among Democrats about potential money laundering and suspect business dealings.

But Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch, the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, has declined to join Wyden in these efforts. And he has rejected Wyden's requested to review Trump's tax returns in a private session.

"We're not going to do that," Hatch said in the Capitol. "He doesn't want to give up his tax returns, and I believe he's right."

'A policy dispute'

In an interview, Wyden said the Senate Intelligence Committee, under the chairmanship of Sen. Richard Burr, has shown little willingness to pursue these lines of inquiry as well.

"This is a policy dispute," said Wyden, who also sits on the Intelligence Committee. "The chairman does not believe that this is really the focus of the committee's work. I, on the other hand, say counterintelligence is right at the heart of our obligations. Counterintelligence 101 is following the money, because following money is how you compromise people."

Burr, a North Carolina Republican, pushed back at Wyden's assertions that the committee wasn't "following the money," but he declined to provide any details.

"Nothing has precluded him from digging further than what we've dug," Burr said of Wyden. "We've had access to whatever financial records we asked for."

Asked if that meant the panel has asked for Trump financial records, Burr said: "I'm not going to get into everything we've asked for. The investigation has explored all the areas we thought were pertinent."

Last year, Burr and the committee's ranking Democrat, Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia, did obtain some FinCEN documents amid threats to hold up a Treasury nominee. In an interview last month, Warner suggested that their panel didn't have the resources compared to the special counsel to dig through financial matters, saying Mueller has "tools we don't have" on financial issues.

The Senate Judiciary Committee has also investigated Russia's role in the 2016 elections -- and any ties with Trump associates. But the GOP chairman of the committee, Chuck Grassley of Iowa, made clear that investigating finances would not be part of the inquiry.

"That's not part of what we're doing," Grassley said.

This story was first published on CNN.com, In Russia probes, Republicans draw red line at Trump's finances."(CNN)  The announcement Sunday that China will drop term limits on the presidency clears the way for Xi Jinping to rule the country indefinitely.

However, analysts warned that what initially seems like a demonstration of absolute power could actually be a sign of weakness, with Xi apparently unwilling to allow the rise of a potential political rival.

This could lead to future instability in the world's most populous country as wannabe successors jockey for power within a Communist Party (CCP) completely dominated by the 64-year-old Xi.

And his absolute authority will also leave him vulnerable to absolute blame in the instance of an economic shock or foreign policy crisis.

The latter could be increasingly likely, as Xi's rule so far has been characterized by a more bullish military and diplomatic policy as China seeks to move into a power vacuum left in Asia by a retreating Washington.

Factional politics

Following Mao Zedong's death in 1976-- in the wake of the Cultural Revolution, during which tens of thousands of people were killed and the country was racked by civil war -- his successors moved away from one-man rule towards a consensus system where power was shared by a handful of high-ranking Party officials.

This resulted in relatively straightforward transition of power from Presidents Jiang Zemin to Hu Jintao to Xi Jinping, after each served two five-year terms in office.

Early in Xi's first term however, it became apparent he would seek to buck this trend. He was declared "core leader" of the Party, and state media began building up his public image with the type of hagiography not seen since Mao.

This culminated with "Xi Jinping Thought" being added to the Party constitution last year, at a key meeting in which Xi failed to nominate an obvious successor, fueling speculation he would stay on as leader past 2023.

Margaret Lewis, a law professor and expert on China's constitution at Seton Hall University, said under Xi "what we've seen is an increasing lack of sharing of power even among the top leadership."

"Xi's modus operandi is consolidation of power," she said.

That could pose a problem to him in the long run. While Chinese politics is not remotely democratic in the traditional sense, there are certain checks and balances within the Party system itself, with reformers and conservatives seeing their power and influence waxing and waning over time.

Jon Sullivan, director of the China Policy Institute at the University of Nottingham, said Xi remaining as President and head of state, "negates the institutionalization of power transitions that have served the Party well for 35 years, enabling it to avoid damaging schisms that have plagued other Communist regimes."

While many internal CCP matters happen in a black box, most experts agree that there are factions within the party -- such as the so-called "Shanghai clique" around former President Jiang Zemin. Some have argued Xi's far-reaching anti-graft campaign is itself a tool to go after factional enemies and potential rivals.

That anti-corruption campaign will also get a boost with upcoming constitutional changes due to create a National Supervision Commission (NSC) with sweeping new enforcement powers, potentially affecting a much greater swath of China's population.

Message to enemies

Richard McGregor, author of "The Party: The Secret World of China's Communist Rulers," wrote after Sunday's announcement that it "sends a warning to his legion of enemies at the top of the party who have been hit by the anti-corruption campaign: he is not going anywhere."

"Xi's ability to push this decision through in the short-term is undoubtedly a display of his grip on all levers of power," McGregor wrote. "But the very fact that he feels the need to do so could easily be a sign of something else -- that he is possessed by an urgency to gather even more power than he already has to keep his enemies at bay."

This could result in increased pushback from within the Party, as those who had hoped to weather the Xi storm now have no option but to fight against him out of self-preservation.

According to Sullivan, term limits not only restrict the power of individual leaders, they give other elites and factions the consolation that there would be an opportunity to change the status quo after two terms.

"That 'consolation' is an important pressure valve that prevents crippling inner party battles. By getting rid of it, Xi is banking on being able to contain and neutralize his opponents," said Sullivan.

But doing so, Sullivan added, "will necessitate greater levels of repression, both in society and within the Party-state."

Repression and tyranny

Some of that repression was on show in the immediate aftermath of the announcement, when a flurry of discussion and criticism on Chinese social media was swiftly censored and controlled.

Comments on posts by state broadcaster CCTV announcing the news were deleted, as were those on the People's Daily newspaper and Xinhua news agency, and searches for key terms were blocked.

According to watchdog service FreeWeibo, top searches ahead of the blocking including "ascension to the throne," "term limits" and "Winnie the Pooh," a reference to the cartoon character which has become a mocking symbol of Xi on the Chinese internet.

Results for some of those topics on Weibo itself appeared to be being actively filtered, while others returned the message "search results are not shown in accordance with relevant laws, regulations and policies."

One term being completely censored was "Yuan Shikai," the former President of the Republic of China who dissolved a democratically-elected parliament in 1913 and appointed himself emperor.

A statement signed by a dozen leading Chinese dissidents, including former Tiananmen Square protest leaders Wang Dan and Wu'er Kaixi, also referenced the short-lived reign of the "Hongxian Emperor."

"We believe that the abolition of (term limits) is the equivalent of Yuan Shikai's revival of the imperial dynasty, it is the implementation of a new imperial system," the statement said.

History shows, they added, that lifelong "supreme rule and tyranny are inseparable and will surely bring great disasters to the country and its people."

Great power, great responsibility

While Xi's immediate grip on power is in little doubt, enabling him to enact whatever reforms and policies he desires, analysts warned that if things go south, he will have little room to avoid blame.

"If 'consolidation of power' was a precondition for implementing his reform program and leading the rejuvenation of the Chinese nation, that condition has now been met and he needs to deliver," said Sullivan.

"And, if he doesn't deliver and refuses to go quietly, well that's a scenario we've seen play out in other regimes many times before," said Sullivan

A key test may come from outside China. Nowhere has Xi's new bullish leadership been more obvious than in China's foreign and military policy.

In the South China Sea, Beijing has continued the militarization of islands, reefs and islets in defiance of an international court ruling.

Last year, the People's Liberation Army -- reform and modernization of which has been a key Xi policy -- engaged in a months-long stand off with Indian troops over the disputed territory of Doklam, in the Himalayas, and China has sought to increase its military and economic influence in South Asia.

Under Xi, China has also taken a much tougher line on Taiwan. Beijing considers the self-ruled island, officially the Republic of China, part of its territory, and has not ruled out military action to reclaim it, even as support for full-independence from the mainland has grown among Taiwanese.

Tom Rafferty, a China expert at the Economist Intelligence Unit, said China's "move in an authoritarian direction will harden the divisions that have emerged between it and the major western powers, pointing to heightened international tensions over security and economic policy in the coming years."

And if the Chinese economy under-performs or in an event of a foreign policy crisis like Taiwan, Xi's political strengths could quickly translate into liability, analysts warned.

For now, Rafferty said, "Xi is set to lead China until he dies, chooses to step down, or is purged."

This story was first published on CNN.com, President, or Emperor? Xi Jinping pushes China back to one-man rule."



1. U.S. acceptance of coexistence as the only alternative to atomic war.

2. U.S. willingness to capitulate in preference to engaging in atomic war.

3. Develop the illusion that total disarmament of the United States would be a demonstration of moral strength.

4. Permit free trade between all nations regardless of Communist affiliation and regardless of whether or not items could be used for war.

5. Extension of long-term loans to Russia and Soviet satellites.

6. Provide American aid to all nations regardless of Communist domination.

7. Grant recognition of Red China. Admission of Red China to the U.N.

8. Set up East and West Germany as separate states in spite of Khrushchev's promise in 1955 to settle the German question by free elections under supervision of the U.N.

9. Prolong the conferences to ban atomic tests because the United States has agreed to suspend tests as long as negotiations are in progress.

10. Allow all Soviet satellites individual representation in the U.N.

11. Promote the U.N. as the only hope for mankind. If its charter is rewritten, demand that it be set up as a one-world government with its own independent armed forces. (Some Communist leaders believe the world can be taken over as easily by the U.N. as by Moscow. Sometimes these two centers compete with each other as they are now doing in the Congo.)

12. Resist any attempt to outlaw the Communist Party.

13. Do away with all loyalty oaths.

14. Continue giving Russia access to the U.S. Patent Office.

15. Capture one or both of the political parties in the United States.

16. Use technical decisions of the courts to weaken basic American institutions by claiming their activities violate civil rights.

17. Get control of the schools. Use them as transmission belts for socialism and current Communist propaganda. Soften the curriculum. Get control of teachers' associations. Put the party line in textbooks.

18. Gain control of all student newspapers.

19. Use student riots to foment public protests against programs or organizations which are under Communist attack.

20. Infiltrate the press. Get control of book-review assignments, editorial writing, policymaking positions.

21. Gain control of key positions in radio, TV, and motion pictures.

22. Continue discrediting American culture by degrading all forms of artistic expression. An American Communist cell was told to "eliminate all good sculpture from parks and buildings, substitute shapeless, awkward and meaningless forms."

23. Control art critics and directors of art museums. "Our plan is to promote ugliness, repulsive, meaningless art."

24. Eliminate all laws governing obscenity by calling them "censorship" and a violation of free speech and free press.

25. Break down cultural standards of morality by promoting pornography and obscenity in books, magazines, motion pictures, radio, and TV.

26. Present homosexuality, degeneracy and promiscuity as "normal, natural, healthy."

27. Infiltrate the churches and replace revealed religion with "social" religion. Discredit the Bible and emphasize the need for intellectual maturity which does not need a "religious crutch."

28. Eliminate prayer or any phase of religious expression in the schools on the ground that it violates the principle of "separation of church and state."

29. Discredit the American Constitution by calling it inadequate, old-fashioned, out of step with modern needs, a hindrance to cooperation between nations on a worldwide basis.

30. Discredit the American Founding Fathers. Present them as selfish aristocrats who had no concern for the "common man."

31. Belittle all forms of American culture and discourage the teaching of American history on the ground that it was only a minor part of the "big picture." Give more emphasis to Russian history since the Communists took over.

32. Support any socialist movement to give centralized control over any part of the culture--education, social agencies, welfare programs, mental health clinics, etc.

33. Eliminate all laws or procedures which interfere with the operation of the Communist apparatus.

34. Eliminate the House Committee on Un-American Activities.

35. Discredit and eventually dismantle the FBI.

36. Infiltrate and gain control of more unions.

37. Infiltrate and gain control of big business.

38. Transfer some of the powers of arrest from the police to social agencies. Treat all behavioral problems as psychiatric disorders which no one but psychiatrists can understand.

39. Dominate the psychiatric profession and use mental health laws as a means of gaining coercive control over those who oppose Communist goals.

40. Discredit the family as an institution. Encourage promiscuity and easy divorce.

41. Emphasize the need to raise children away from the negative influence of parents. Attribute prejudices, mental blocks and retarding of children to suppressive influence of parents.

42. Create the impression that violence and insurrection are legitimate aspects of the American tradition; that students and special-interest groups should rise up and use united force to solve economic, political or social problems.

43. Overthrow all colonial governments before native populations are ready for self-government.

44. Internationalize the Panama Canal.

45. Repeal the Connally reservation so the United States cannot prevent the World Court from seizing jurisdiction over nations and individuals alike.Using a brilliant artillery tactic, Zachary Taylor drove the Mexicans into the Rio Grande in the opening battles of the Mexican-American War.

On the northern edge of modern Brownsville, Texas, lie the battlefields of Palo Alto and Resaca de la Palma. It was here, on succeeding excessively hot days in 1846, that two still young countries clashed over their national borders. For the United States, only 70 years after declaring in- dependence, the clashesthe first of the Mexican-American War were answers to the impatient summons of Manifest Destiny. For Mexico, just 25 years freed from Spanish rule, they resulted from a proud determination to maintain ancient boundaries. The armies that met on these battlefields together numbered fewer than 6,000 soldiers, but the repercussions of their fight would significantly alter the borders and futures of both nations forever.

General in Chief Mariano Arista commanded Mexicos Army of the North. He began his military career at age 15 when he served as a cadet in Spains Regimiento Provincial de Puebla; four years later he was a lieutenant colonel. Supporting Mexicos independence, he became a brigadier general under Mexican colors and soon had to choose sides in the power struggles over national leadership. Backing the wrong candidate in 1833, Arista was exiled to the United States, where he studied agriculture. Three years later, with a change in government, Arista returned and quickly became one of his nations military leaders. Experienced at handling large formations, Arista was a resourceful field commander willing to take risks, though he constantly worried about the generally poor condition of his conscript army. Blessed with an excellent eye for terrain, he would twice force the Americans to fight on ground of his choosing.

The experience of the American commander, Brig. Gen. Zachary Taylor, was largely confined to leading small units against irregular forces. Twenty-three years old when he joined the United States Army, Taylor had seen action in the War of 1812, as well as the Blackhawk and Second Seminole wars. Unhappy with American policy in Florida (where, he said, an officer who has any regard for honesty, truth, or humanity, has but little to gain, and everything to lose), Taylor was given a roving commission before his assignment in 1844 to Fort Jesup in west central Louisiana, where he took command of all United States troops in the Southwest.

While Taylors personal courage was never questioned, he struggled constantly to manage a large, untrained force at the far end of a logistical chain. In the coming battles he would make mistakes aplenty, enough to cost him victory several times over. In the end, his salvation would not be his knowledge or his experience, but an open mind and the stunning debut of a new artillery tactic.

As far back as Thomas Jefferson, the United States had tried to lay claim to Texas through purchase or diplomacy; first dealing with Spain and, after 1821, with a self-governing Mexico.

A complex accord became even more challenging when resident Texans successfully fought free of Mexican control in 1836, negotiating a settlement that left the actual boundaries between the two countries unresolved. Texans claimed the Rio Grande was the dividing line, while Mexicans insisted that the Nueces River, some 100 miles to the north, represented the historic border.

Texas leaders had hoped that annexation to the United States would quickly follow independence, but for several American presidents (Andrew Jackson, Martin Van Buren, and John Tyler) the knotty issue of slavery made it impossible to get the necessary congressional votes. Then James K. Polk took office on a promise to add Texas to the Union. Even before he was inaugurated, a deal had been made in Congress (in February 1845) that approved annexation. What Washington saw as a peaceful expansion was viewed in Mexico City (where Texan independence had never been accepted) as a provocation.

The unanimous vote to approve the union by a special Texas convention in mid-June triggered the events leading to the Palo Alto and Resaca de la Palma battles. Alerted as early as January to prepare for such a circumstance, the United States had increased its forces at Fort Jesup to some 2,000 soldiers. Taylors Army of Observation began departing in early July, its vanguard landing on July 25 near Corpus Christi, Texas, at the mouth of the Nueces River. While Mexican and American diplomats wrangled unsuccessfully, Polk funneled additional troops to Taylor from posts around the country until he had 4,300 regulars under his command, slightly more than half the nations entire standing army. By all accounts, Taylor used the time to drill his men in the large-formation tactics that most of his officers (51 of whom were destined to become Civil War generals) had only read about in books.

Once the talks collapsed, complicated by a January 1846 coup in Mexico City, Taylor was ordered to secure the Rio Grande border. His force (now designated an Army of Occupation by Polk) began decamping from Corpus Christi on March 8, to secure the region to the Rio Grande. Foot soldiers, mounted infantry (dragoons), and light artillery moved overland; heavy weapons and supplies were brought up by sea.

Because of problems finding adequate water, the three American brigades marched a day apart, with an advance guard one day ahead of them. Taylors objective was to reach the Rio Grande opposite the Mexican town of Matamoros, where Gen. Francisco Mejia commanded a small outpost force.

Other than bluffing the American columns with harassments at times, Mejia awaited Mexico Citys instructions, offering no real resistance. On March 24 Taylors land column (now combined) linked up with the seaborne component at the coastal village of Point Isabel, which became the main American supply depot for operations.

Leaving behind two artillery companies under Maj. John Munroe to garrison the depot, Taylor continued south on March 28, covering the 10 miles to the Rio Grande that same day. There he displayed the Stars and Stripes from a flagpole made of two wagon tongues lashed together, and began constructing a star-shaped, earthen-walled strongpoint he named Fort Texas. General Mejia built earthworks for his cannons and merely observed the goings-on across the river. Except for a spike in desertions from the American ranks by about 100 soldiers (disaffected Irish and German-speaking foreigners, for the most part), a sullen standoff ensued.

All was not tranquil, however, for at least one large band of Mexican irregulars was operating in the area. Mexicans killed a popular quartermaster officer and ambushed several patrols.

On April 11, Maj. Gen. Pedro de Ampudia relieved Mejia. He promptly ratcheted up tensions by sending Taylor a formal demand to withdraw his army. Taylor declined and instructed the American ships patrolling the mouth of the Rio Grande to institute a blockade. Ampudia, known more for his cruelty than his generalship, was trying to organize a first strike (then against Mexico Citys wishes) when General Arista arrived on April 24 to take charge of the Army of the North. He bore a manifesto from Mexicos president authorizing active operations in what was termed a defensive war.

Arista realized that Taylors army was wholly dependent on the Point Isabel depot for food and ammunition. One day before his arrival, he ordered 1,600 men (cavalry, sappers, and light infantry) under Brig. Gen. Anastasio Torrejon to march 14 miles upriver to the village of La Palangana. After fording the Rio Grande there, they would swing east to cut the Point Isabel road near a major trail intersection and watering hole known as Palo Alto. Then, on April 30, Arista took 2,100 soldiers 13 miles downstream to Rancho de Longoreno, where he would cross and link up with Torrejon. (He left 1,400 troops in Matamoros under General Mejias command.) With his supply line cut, Taylor would have to fight to eat.

Aminor action at the beginning of Torrejons operation had a hugely disproportionate repercussion. One of his advance parties ambushed an American patrol, killing 11 soldiers. When Taylor learned of the incident on April 26, he immediately sent word to President Polk that hostilities may now be considered as commenced. Polk received the dispatch on May 9 and two days later, declaring that American blood had been shed on American soil, asked Congress to recognize that a state of war now existed with Mexico. Congress declared war on May 13, though key battles had been fought several days earlier.

In Texas, Aristas plan went well at first. Torrejons riders cut the Point Isabel supply road on April 28, scattering a Texas Ranger outpost. Some scouts carried the alarm south, and Taylor belatedly realized that he had left his supply depot woefully vulnerable. It speaks to his personal control that he resisted any impulse to rush off (despite rumors that Major Munroe was under attack) before he was satisfied that the Fort Texas defenses were ready. Late in the afternoon of May 1, he marched north with his 2,300 regulars organized into two brigades, fully expecting a battle. His weary men halted for a short rest on the plain at Palo Alto at midnight, and then continued, covering 30 miles in 20 hours and reaching Point Isabel around noon on May 2, their guns unfired.

A small detail unhinged General Aristas bold plan. When his troops reached Rancho de Longoreno on April 30 they found just a few boats to ferry them across the Rio Grande and it took more than a day for the Mexican main body to gain the opposite bank. Then, fearing a spoiling attack from Fort Texas, Arista also ordered Torrejon to leave the Point Isabel road to cover his crossing. So when the American column cleared Palo Alto in the early hours of May 2, it was pure luck that had allowed Zachary Taylor to pass along an uncontested route.

Whatever disappointment Arista may have felt when Taylors forces eluded his trap, he remained determined to bring them to bay. After detaching General Ampudia with 1,230 men to assist General Mejia in eliminating Fort Texas, Arista hurried his column of 2,500 to Palo Alto, arriving there about 24 hours after the last American had passed. Following a careful reconnaissance of the area, Arista decided to stage the Mexican army three miles to the south at Tanques de Ramireno, where there was better water and access to the regional roads. The movement was completed on May 5, two days after Mejias cannons and Ampudias men opened fire on Fort Texas.

The American commander, Maj. Jacob Brown, was confident that his garrison of 550 men plus 6- and 18-pounder artillery was sufficient. Arista prohibited Ampudia from making a direct assault since Arista believed the American garrison would run out of supplies in less than three days and saw no reason to work to gather fruit that would simply drop into his hands if he waited. So the siege of Fort Texas became a cannon fight. The Americans were able to suppress several of Mejias guns before deciding to preserve limited gunpowder and hunker down.

The forts earthen ramparts proved extremely resilient, and Mexican shells failed to breach them. Nine American soldiers were wounded, but amazingly there were only three fatalities, one being the unfortunate commander, Major Brown, who was mortally wounded on May 6. The fort would be renamed in his honor, as would the city that grew up around it afterward.

The sound of Mexican cannon fire could be heard at Point Isabel, adding urgency to Zachary Taylors resupply mission. Thanks to a bold Texas Ranger courier, Taylor knew on May 5 that his fort on the Rio Grande was holding out, allowing him time to strengthen the Point Isabel defenses before his troops departed on May 7.

For his return trip, Taylor brought along 270 supply wagons and a pair of 18-pounder siege guns. Not surprisingly, his fighting column (2,228 soldiers) covered just seven miles on the first day. Mexican scouts spotted the American movement early on May 8, but Arista refused to credit their report. Not until a second party confirmed what the first had seen did he break camp and order General Ampudia to rendezvous with him at Palo Alto. By the time Taylors column reached there, the Mexican army was positioned across his path.

Arista chose to fight on a two-mile-wide plain covered by green saw grass (also called cord grass). The plants were chest-high, brutally sharp-edged, and surprisingly flammable. Stands of trees that gave the place the name Palo Alto, or Tall Timber, bordered the broad field. Although flat to the eye, the prairie rippled with numerous shallow depressions and snippets of old river meanderings, especially along its western side. Arista positioned his army (by now, some 3,200 men) in a nearly mile-long line, running west to east and facing north, with cavalry on the flanks, and artillery interspersed among the infantry units. Just covering this line took every man, so there was no infantry reserve.

Well off his left flank, hidden in the mesquite, were 400 mounted local irregulars commanded by Brig. Gen. Antonio Canales Rosillo. For reasons never explained, they would play no role in the coming fight. To bolster morale, Arista rode along his line and was greeted by waving banners and cries of Viva la Republica!

After pausing alongside the Palo Alto pond to let his men fill their canteens, Taylor took up a half-mile-long line parallel to Aristas, perhaps 700 yards distant, facing south. His deployment was complicated by the need to button up the wagon train. He protected it with valuable mounted units and some artillery. Taylor sent a small Texas Ranger detachment into the mesquite to cover his right flank, and then spread his infantry and artillery east, holding back one dragoon squadron as a reserve.

Only after he had positioned his forces did Taylor real- ize he had neglected to locate the Mexican artillery. When a party of dragoons failed to find the enemy guns, two nervy volunteers, Lloyd Tilghman and Jacob Blake, rode to within musket shot of Aristas line to plot the emplacements. It would appear that Taylor planned to send his infantry forward to skewer the other side with cold steel. Before that phase began, gunners on both sides engaged in some softening-up exchanges. Much to Taylors surprise, this proved to be the battles deciding action. Plagued by poor gunpowder and lacking explosive rounds, the Mexican artillerymen watched most of their copper cannonballs skip so slowly into the American lines that the soldiers were able to dodge them.

For their part, the American artillerymen unveiled a new tactical unit that proved even more deadly than its designer had imagined.

The problem with field artillery was that once it was established along a line of battle, it was difficult to quickly reposition. Maj. Samuel Ringgold of the 3rd U.S. Artillery Regiment had a better idea: assemble units of light, highly mobile bronze guns with exceptionally well-trained crews. His artillerymen were capable of rapid movement, even faster deployment, and high rates of fire. He had drilled his men relentlessly for just such an occasion, and at Palo Alto these units, termed flying artillery, played a vital role.

The moment that various Mexican batteries announced themselves by firing, American artillerists (who had explosive rounds) swarmed to the spot and quickly laid down a heavy counterbattery fire. And unlike most emplaced cannons, which generally restricted themselves to gun-to-gun duels, only switching to antipersonnel rounds in self-defense, Ringgolds cannoneers also targeted Mexican infantry formations, appearing suddenly before them and carving bloody rents through the lines at a rate of two or three rounds per minute.

General Taylor may not have known much about artillery tactics, but once he saw how effectively his gunners were operating, he suspended any infantry advance to let them continue. To see them limbering and unlimbering, firing a few shots, then dashing through the smoke, and then to fire again with lightning-like rapidity, partly hid from view by dense clouds of dust and smoke, with their dark-red shirts and naked arms, yelling at every shot they made, reminded me of a band of demons rather than men, one American infantryman recalled.

For more than an hour the Mexican formations endured this deadly pummeling. With his cavalry poised on either flank, it would seem that Arista was hoping for an enemy advance in the center, which would then allow his riders to envelop the Americans. When this didnt happen, he ordered his left flank cavalry (1,000 lancers under General Torrejon) to turn the American right and wreck the supply train.

The heavy chaparral (shrubs and small trees) and undetected marshes fatally slowed the mounted attack. The 5th U.S. Infantry Regiment saw the wallowing riders in time to hustle into a blocking position and form a hollow square. The American formation repulsed two fierce Mexican charges. Before starting a third, Torrejon brought up a pair of 4-pounders to blast the massed infantry but Ringgolds artillery came to the rescue, gallantly galloping into position to smother the enemy guns before they even deployed. By the time the third cavalry charge went forward, the 3rd U.S. Infantry had joined the 5th. Torrejons men never had a chance.

Smoldering artillery wadding set the saw grass aflame in several places, and by 4 p.m., dense smoke forced a pause in the action. During this lull, both sides repositioned their lines, moving them counterclockwise. American maps of the period, supported by more recent battlefield archaeological explorations, indicate Arista pivoted on his center, the left flank falling back as the right advanced, causing the entire line to turn almost 75 degrees. Taylor moved his line to face the Mexicans.

The smoke had cleared enough by 5 p.m. for the cannon duel to resume. During the pause, Taylor pushed his two 18- pounders well forward along the road where they shotgunned canister into the Mexican ranks. Torrejons riders foiled an American attempt to turn Aristas left with 68 dragoons, flying artillery, and infantry. Arista charged again and failed to turn the American right flank. Then, according to one account, many of his foot soldiers demanded to charge the norteamericanos, for they wished to fight hand to hand, and to die like brave men.

The Mexican general attempted to roll up the American left with infantry and cavalry, but Ringgolds gunners mashed them into a bloody gruel. All along the lines American artillery fire continued to chew up the Mexican soldiers and horses, though the Americans were not unscathed. It was during this latter phase that a Mexican 6-pound shot struck Ringgold, who was mounted and directing his guns. The cannonball killed his animal outright and mortally wounded the major, who died on May 11.

At about 7 p.m. the firing sputtered out. As some of Aristas units were beginning to panic, he pulled his forces back a short distance to regroup, while Taylor bivouacked along the line of battle. During the night the Americans observed flickering torchlights move across the unforgiving saw grass as the Mexicans gathered their wounded. American losses were 15 killed, 43 wounded, and 2 missing. General Arista later put his number of dead at 252, with no indication of wounded or missing. Neither party got what it wanted. Taylors road to Fort Texas was still blocked, and the American army had been neither turned back nor destroyed.

At about 6 the next morning, May 9, the Mexicans began withdrawing, according to General Aristas orders. Taylors men and their commander watched them go. There were ample reasons for the Americans to stay put. Even after the beating it had taken the previous day, the Mexican army remained a formidable force. Taylor had called for reinforcements 12 days earlier, and troops were expected at any time, so any delay might well change the odds in his favor. This was the opinion of the majority of the senior officers he summoned to his tent for an informal council of war.

Still, watching and waiting wasnt his preferred mode of operation. In some accounts, he stepped out of his tent and put the question to a passing junior officer. Weve whipped them, was the prompt answer, and we can again. Said Taylor, That is my opinion. The American army (about 1,800 strong) set out after the Mexicans not long after 1 p.m. Taylor learned from his mistakes by leaving behind the wagon train, protected by a scratch force of rear-echelon troops, and his heavy 18-pounders. Now he could make better time.

Arista decided to withdraw when he realized that the Palo Alto battlefield put him at a fatal disadvantage. As long as the Americans fast-moving cannons could range at will, his men would not be able to close to bayonet range. He believed he had found an arena five miles down the road to Matamoros where the American guns would be neutralized. It was a place where the passageway was hemmed in by a thick tangle of chaparral and trees, which limited off-road movement and provided ample cover from which riflemen could pick off the pesky American gunners.

Here too the road passed through a 10-foot-deep, 200-footwide ravine, a remnant of the Rio Grandes ancient course, which created a strong natural moat. Mexicans called these isolated channels resacas and knew the area as Resaca de la Guerrero. The Americans called it Resaca de la Palma.

Arista positioned his infantry along both banks of the resaca, with sharpshooters in front. He held his cavalry in reserve, and established a four-gun battery across the road at the chokepoint where it entered the ravine.

Neither patience nor subtlety was Zachary Taylors strong suit. When the head of his column drew near the Mexican position at about 3 p.m., his only plan was to smash through the enemy roadblock. He first tried his flying artillery under Ringgolds successor, Capt. Randolph Ridgely, by pushing the guns down the road with skirmishing infantry on either flank. Command-and-control became impossible in the thorny chaparral, and the off-road operation degenerated into a series of squad-sized actions, hand to hand for the most part, as isolated parties of Americans brawled with Mexican detachments.

At the same time, the cannoneers in the road were struggling. It was difficult to make out their targets through the heavy brush, and at one point the Mexicans even managed to slip a cavalry column almost on top of Ridgelys gunners. Constant training paid its dividends as the Americans swiftly changed to canister rounds and blasted the lancers before they could close.

Taylors men were making progress, but it was a slog, and too slow for the general. He ordered Capt. Charles A. Mays two-company squadron of the 2nd U.S. Dragoon Regiment to charge up the gut.

May was willing but unsure of his direction. Captain Ridgely obliged by drawing enough fire that the Mexican batteries revealed their location, allowing the horsemen to gallop off, four abreast, on a mad charge down the road. Aristas gunners were not as quick at reloading as Ridgelys, and the American riders were suddenly in among the Mexican cannons.

One key to a mounted charge, however, is knowing when to stop. Mays dragoons were a good quarter-mile beyond the guns before he could turn them around. By then the supporting Mexican infantry had recovered and when Mays battered survivors returned, they were without the cannons but bearing the officer commanding the entire Mexican defense, Brig. Gen. Romolo Diaz de la Vega, as prisoner.

An exasperated Taylor waved forward one of his reserve regiments, the 8th U.S. Infantry. Take those guns, he ordered Lt. Col. William G. Belknap, and by God keep them!

While it didnt actually knock out the Mexican guns, Mays charge sufficiently degraded their performance so that Belknaps regulars (closely supported by the 5th U.S. Infantry) were able to reach them without crippling losses. At about the same time, soldiers of the 4th U.S. Infantry found a trail that enabled them to flank Aristas left. These proved to be the actions that broke the enemys nerve.

Already shaken and weary from the pounding they had taken at Palo Alto, skeptical of officers who failed to deliver them a victory, without a commander, and with their ears full of rumors suggesting treacheryeven treasonat the highest levels, Aristas hitherto steadfast soldiers began to crumble. In an instant, small areas of panic coalesced into a rout and they fled.

Arista spent most of the battle at his headquarters, not imagining that the Americans would press the issue so soon. Once aware of the unfolding debacle, he personally led an unsuccessful cavalry counterattack. Many of Aristas soldiers crossed the Rio Grande, but a good number did not; some drowned, some were swept up by Taylors prompt pursuit, others were killed by fire from the still defiant Fort Texas. As one astonished ferryman recollected, They came in flocks, running and crawling like turtles, and they fell into the water flat on all fours like turtles and never stopped till they were in the brush of the Mexican Republic.

Taylor reported his losses at 45 dead, 98 wounded. Mariano Arista later recorded 160 killed and 228 wounded, not caring to estimate how many surrendered. In addition the Americans took cannons, standards, and infantry weapons of all kinds, along with Aristas personal papers and his silver service. The tight-lipped Taylor reported to Washington, Our victory has been complete.

The standoff at Matamoros resumed until May 18 when Taylor forced a crossing and occupied the town. General Arista and his men abandoned much of their equipment and retreated inland. By the time the Army of the North was reassembled around the town of Linares, just 2,638 of Aristas soldiers remained.

In contrast, Taylor suffered an embarrassment of riches as thousands of American volunteers arrived. (Their lack of discipline, undirected pugnacity, and frontier nihilism would vex him no end.)

Never again in this war would there be any military force composed solely of United States regulars. From here on, the generals would have to learn how to manage with volunteer units in the mix. That experience would come in handy 15 years later, when the vast majority of units fighting in the American Civil War would be state volunteers.

With the successes of Palo Alto and Resaca de la Palma, American control of the disputed land between the Nueces River and the Rio Grande was established. The United States was poised for a dramatic expansion of its borders that would reach the Pacific coast, all at the expense of Mexico, which would eventually surrender an area of 529,017 square miles larger than France and Germany together.

For Zachary Taylor, there would be more campaigning, two more major battles at Monterrey in September and Buena Vista in February 1847, and, propelled into office by the luster of his victories, election as the 12th president of the United States.

Mariano Arista had to answer for his actions along the Rio Grande to a military board in Mexico City, but after hearing evidence, the judges ruled that he had acquitted himself honorably and that his men had fought to the best of their abilities. The exonerated Arista would also rise to the highest office in the land, serving as Mexicos president from 1851 to 1853.

Originally published in the Spring 2010 issue of Military History Quarterly. To subscribe, click here.Conceived as a peacemaker, the inventors weapon ushered in an era of mechanized killing.

Rumors raged. In excited whispers, in idle conversations that filled the nervous hours between battles, soldiers on both sides of the American Civil War gossiped about the sketchy reports of a fantastic new weapon. Unlike such familiar firearms as the rifled single-shot muskets with which thousands of unlucky soldiers were equipped in the early 1860s, this weapon reportedly was more like a machine: a machine that doled out bullets, crisply and efficiently. Even the name bestowed on these mysterious entities sounded strange and exhilaratingly new: machine guns.

Then, on March 29, 1862, during a confrontation between Union and Confederate forces along the Potomac River near Harpers Ferry, men in the field finally got a look at one of these peculiar devices. Col. John W. Gearys Pennsylvania Volunteer Regiment deployed 10 multiple-firing weapons known as Ager coffee-mill guns.

Now, all things ready, the diabolical grist of bullets in the hopper, the gunnerturns the crank with his right hand, and the play begins, wrote a witness to the Ager gun in action. It was tick, tick, tick, sixty to the minute, as fast as you could think.

The Ager was an odd-looking contraption featuring a square hopper on top, into which steel tubes, preloaded with ammunition, were fed. A full turn of the hand crank sent the bullets flying out of the long barrel in quick succession. President Abraham Lincoln, an enthusiastic supporter of newfangled weaponry, was reportedly the man who had nicknamed this gun the coffee-mill because of the hoppers shape.

That day in 1862 was the first recorded use of a machine gun in combatand despite the excitement of the initial witnesses, it was a spectacular dud.

While the principle was sound, the guns design and construction were decidedly inferior. It constantly overheated. If it didnt overheat, it jammed. Most soldiers detested the clumsy devices mounted on artillery carriages and complained about them repeatedly to their commander. A frustrated Geary sent all 10 coffee-mill guns straight back to Washington, describing them as inefficient, and unsafe to operate.

But inventors are not an easily discouraged lot. Some of the best minds in human history had dreamed of concocting a weapon in which the output of an individual gun could be multiplied many times over. Even Leonardo da Vinci had thought to create one, although his version, like so many others, never progressed beyond the design stage. There were daunting obstacles to the development of such a weapon, not the least of which was how to profitably manufacture on a large scale a product requiring such intricate, precisely fitting parts.

Eight months after Geary packed up his coffee-mill guns and stamped Return to Sender on the box, another inventor stepped up. On November 4, 1862, U.S. Patent No. 36,836 was granted to an Indianapolis businessman, Richard Jordan Gatling, for an invention he called a Revolving Battery-Gun.

And a world in which the capacity for human destructiveness increased exponentially was born. Indeed, Gatlings ingenuity helped deliver firepower on a towering scale to the worlds battlefields, altering the destiny of dozens of nations and the course of history itself throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, and on into the 21st.

As unlikely as it sounds, Gatling regarded his invention as a means of shortening wars, not making them more horrific. In 1861, during opening events of the war, he wrote to a friend in 1877, describing how he had come to create the Gatling gun, residing at the time in Indianapolis, Ind., I witnessed almost daily the departure of troops to the front and the return of the wounded, sick and dead. The most of the latter lost their lives, not in battle, but by sickness and exposure incident to the service. It occurred to me if I could invent a machinea gunwhich could by its rapidity of fire, enable one man to do as much battle duty as a hundred, that it would, to a great extent, supersede the necessity of large armies, and consequently, exposure to battle and disease be greatly diminished.

He had a point. Simple arithmetic decreed that weapons that required fewer soldiers to operate them would put fewer lives at risk.

And there was another bit of compelling logic Gatling brought up, adding it to the sales brochures he printed shortly after obtaining his patent: A weapon of such unprecedented supremacy was a surefire game-changer in wartime. One glimpse of it and thunderstruck opponents would give up and go home.

It is confidently believed, Gatling wrote in an 1863 sales manifesto, that no body of troops could be made to withstand the fire of such a death-dealing weapon, for the reason that men will not fight on such terms of inequality, or when there is no chance of victory. The scientists who developed the atom bomb in the 1940s followed the same line of reasoning about human psychology: Show the other side that all hope is lost, and they will quickly surrender. Because the Gatling gun was not employed until the close of the Civil War, and then only sporadically and half-heartedly, we will never know if its use would have brought about an earlier end to that conflictas the deployment of the atom bomb unquestionably did for World War II.

While the Gatling gun utilized many of the elements found in other multiple-firing weapons of the day, including the coffee-mill gun, Gatlingwho opposed slavery and thus offered his gun only to the Union sidesolved a variety of technical and design problems that had bedeviled other guns.

Born on a plantation just outside Murfreesboro, North Carolina, Gatling was a self-taught mechanical engineer who had enjoyed great success in the 1840s with his patented design for a seed planter that used a gravity-fed hopper and a hand crank to distribute seed evenly, in neat rows. This was a decided improvement on the broadcasting method of planting that many American farmers still used, to their detriment, through the mid-1800s.

Before patenting the first Gatling gun in 1862, Gatling had already obtained patents for a variety of agricultural devices, including a hemp brake, a rotary plow, and a lath making machine. He had traveled on steamboats to cities up and down the Ohio and Mississippi rivers, selling the rights to make his inventions to local manufacturers.

Gatling was among the many brash, energetic, ever-optimistic Americans who took advantage of the nations patent systemunique in the history of the world, because it guaranteed ordinary citizens the right to profit financially from their inventions. He would ultimately obtain 43 patents in his lifetime for devices such as a cotton cultivator, a dry-cleaning machine, and an improved bicycle, and his seed plow was so renowned that it was displayed at the Great Exhibition of 1851 in Londons Crystal Palace as an example of American enterprise and know-how.

But it was a gun, not a plow, that was destined to make Gatling wealthy and famous. Using the same basic idea that he had employed in his planterand that echoed the mechanism of the Ager gun, a debt he never publicly acknowledgedGatling came up with a weapon in which a revolving battery fired multiple times in rapid succession. His gun simply worked better than had the Ager gun, a superiority that arose from Gat lings practical problem-solving abilities and technical finesse. He tapered the bore, for instance, creating a larger space at the breech end for loading the bullets. This ensured a more precise alignment between the steel chambers and the striking mechanism. He also honed a reciprocal motion at the breech end that greatly improved the way bullets entered and exited the system.

The first Gatling gun was not a truly automatic weapon, relying as it did on the turning of a hand crank, but it was the first machine gun that actually worked, safely and reliably. And it appeared at a pivotal moment in armaments history: Metal bullets of uniform size and shape were replacing paper cartridges; the superiority of rifled bores to smooth bores, and breechloaders to muzzleloaders, was now beyond dispute; metallurgical innovations such as the Bessemer methodrefining steel by injecting air into molten ore, a technique invented by British steelmaker Henry Bessemer in the late 1850swere revolutionizing the casting of artillery.

Gunmakers had long understood the chemistry and physics of their field, but knowing those facts and having the capacity to put the knowledge to practical use were two distinctly different challenges. For gunmaking to be profitable, gunmakers had to be able to produce, quickly and continuously, arms of uniform quality. It was the development of new manufacturing techniquessuch as machine tooling and the standardization and interchangeability of partsthat meant inventors could get their weapons made and sold.

In this period, as historian William H. McNeill relates in his classic book The Pursuit of Power: Technology, Armed Force, and Society since A.D. 1000, manufacturing methods that had remained static for almost two centuries were transformed. What McNeill calls the industrialization of war was underway. Artisans who had painstakingly created guns one at a time were replaced by sleek new machines in bustling factories.

And poised to take advantage of this technological whirlwind was an inventor named Gatling, whose brainchild, ironically, exemplified in deadly practice on the battlefield the same idea of efficiency of scale that those new manufacturing techniques displayed on the factory floor.

The first incarnation of the Gatling gun, unveiled by its inventor in a public demonstration on the streets of Indianapolis in the spring of 1862, was loaded with paper cartridges. Even with the homemade, irregularly shaped ammunition, the fledgling weapon achieved a top firing rate of 200 rounds per minute, with remarkable accuracy. All subsequent models were designed to take advantage of the latest innovation: metal cartridges packing powder, bullet, and percussion cap into a single round. Once equipped with ammunition of uniform size and shape, Gatling guns achieved even more impressive rates of fire and precision of aim.

After the fiasco with the coffee-mill gun, however, Union commanders were reluctant to purchase yet another untried machine gun. Even though Gatling guns performed very well in independent tests by ordnance experts, Gatling got nowhere. I assure you, a somewhat desperate-sounding Gatling wrote to Lincoln in a letter dated February 18, 1864, my invention is no coffee-mill gunbut is an entirely different arm, and is entirely free from the accidents and objections raised against that arm.

Gatling did his bestand his best was very good indeed, because the historical record indicates he was a tireless and inspired salesmanbut he was unable to persuade Union ordnance officers to adopt his invention in large multiples.

Besides the poor battlefield performance of the Ager gun, there was another reason machine guns were held in low esteem: By the time Gatling had created, tested, and offered his new product for sale, the war had taken a desperate turn. There was no appetite for trying new guns, no zeal for fooling around with exciting new armament technologies. The war had already lasted far longer than even the most pessimistic prognosticators had warned, and its toll included a grimly astonishing casualty rate.

The bottom is out of the tub, a somber and stricken Lincoln had written the same year that Gatling came to Washington to hustle up customers for his gun. This was a president who loved test-firing guns, who journeyed almost daily to the Washington Navy Yard with his son to try out new weapons. But now his mind was on other matters.

A few Gatling guns were sold and used during the Civil War, primarily in the siege at Petersburg that marked the wars drawn-out denouement, and in some scattered skirmishes along rivers. But the gun was never a real player. It was only in the years after the nations defining conflict that the Gatling gun took hold, making its indelible mark on the United Statesand the rest of the world.

In 1870, Gatling sold the rights to make his gun to the Colt Patent Firearms Company in Hartford, Connecticut. He continued to be the most effective representative of his invention, however, and moved his family from Indianapolis to Hartford to oversee production and sales. The Colt Armory was a good fit; although Samuel Colt had died in 1862, his factory continued to perfect the precise machine tooling that gave American-made weapons their impeccable reputation.

Throughout the last half of the 19th century, Gatling sold his guns to such countries as Argentina, Denmark, China, Egypt, France, Italy, Japan, Korea, Mexico, Morocco, Sweden, Turkey, and Russia. In fact Russia was the first European power to officially adopt the Gatling gun when it placed a large order in 1867, after Gatling spent several weeks there on a sales trip.

Kings and princes, prime ministers and generals eagerly snapped up Gatling guns. The guns performed superbly in testsoften supervised on the scene by Gatling himselfand quickly became the gold standard of multiple-firing weaponry. Military historians record that they were used in virtually every state-sponsored conflict, major and minor, in the second half of the 19th century, from North America to South America, Europe, Africa, and Asia.

In 1898, Gatling guns were pivotal in the Spanish-American War, where they caught the eyeand the imagination of a young Theodore Roosevelt. The percussive punch of a Gatling gun in operation against the Spanish foe was, Roosevelt later wrote, the only sound which I ever heard any men cheer in battle.

Gatling guns worked almost too well, in fact. Deployed by British forces against tribes in Africa, Gatling guns inadvertently became symbols of racism and oppression in the subduing of indigenous populations such as the Ashantis in western Africa in 1873.

If by any lucky chance Sir Garnet Wolseley manages to catch a good mob of savages in the openhe cannot do better than treat them to a little Gatling music, wrote a distastefully smug British war correspondent who witnessed that campaign. Gatling guns were also routinely used by the U.S. Cavalry against Native Americans, most notably in the fight against the Cheyenne and other tribes in the Red River War that began in 1874 and in the long chase that forced Chief Joseph and the Nez Perce into Canada in 1877.

In 1876, Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer famously turned down the Gatling guns that were offered to him as he prepared to fight the Sioux, leading some armchair commanders to speculate later that the massacre might have been avoided had he brought along the weapons. In truth, though, the rugged terrain at the Little Bighorn was almost surely too rough for effective deployment of the heavy guns.

The Gatling gun was by no means the only multiple-firing weapon in use at the time. Indeed, when Gatling wasnt busy selling his gun, he was busy sniping at rivals such as the Hotchkiss and the Gardner guns. By the closing decades of the 19th century, Hiram Maxim and John Moses Browning had developed truly automatic and semiautomatic weapons, the kinds of armaments that would make World War I the ghastly and prolonged defensive stalemate that it was. Multiple-firing guns gradually became infantry as well as artillery weapons.

As the world grew increasingly bellicose, competition grew ever more keen in the world of armaments sales. Gatling had to work harder and harder to keep his gun relevant. He continued to tinker with his invention, taking out new patents to deal with problems reported by customers, and adding an electric trigger and other improvements.

In 1903, the year he died, the 85-yearold Gatling was searching for backers for another new business, one that would make steam-driven motor plows. Yet his original patents for the Gatling gun were not just quaint period pieces; when General Electric began work in the late 1950s on what would turn out to be the minigun, its engineers dug up and drew upon Gatlings first patents, from almost a full century earlier.

To say that Gatling changed warfare with his gun is not to claim that his was the only early machine gun that mattered. The Gatling gun, however, occupies a unique historical niche. The name of his invention is still used today as a vividly descriptive phrase, a metaphor that suggests a rapid-firing burst of just about anything.

Gangsters in the 1920s often referred to their firearms as gats. As the United States rose to become a world superpower, the Gatling gunan unloaded but nonetheless impressive version of which became a popular part of Buffalo Bills Wild West show traveling throughout Europe in the 1880s and 1890swas an important symbol of American military might and technological acumen.

And Richard Gatling, the man who created it and marketed it with earnest zeal, remains a key, if unsung, figure in American history. Toward the end of his life, Gatling sometimes expressed regret at having invented his famous gun; he had seen the ferocity it unleashed, and it had not deterred war as he had hoped. Yet his design greatly aided the subsequent development of weapons that would help defeat dreaded enemies in the 20th and 21st centuries. With his optimism and his technical genius, with his driving entrepreneurial spirit, Gatling remains the splendid embodiment of what novelist William Dean Howells once called that American poetry of vivid purpose.

Originally published in the Spring 2010 issue of Military History Quarterly. To subscribe, click here.After a Spanish town was bombed in 1937, overheatedand inaccurateaccounts of civilian deaths shook the world.

On April 26, 1937, in the midst of the Spanish Civil War, German war  planes bombed Guernica, the ancient Basque capital and the center of Basque culture, in perhaps the most famous conventional bombing raid of all time. Overnight, the obscure town became known around the world.

The account of the bombing trumpeted by the international press seemed to prove all the worst predictions of civilian casualties that might result from aerial bombardment. In the report that became the touchstone of the others that followed, George Steer of the London Times wrote that the town a horrible sight, flaming from end to endwas not a military objective but had been destroyed to achieve the demoralization of the civil population and the destruction of the cradle of the Basque race. Guernica became the poster town for terror bombings carried out solely to break civilian morale, a legacy that was ensured by Pablo Picasso, who within two months painted his masterpiece Guernica, a depiction of civilian slaughter and agony that would become historys most famous piece of antiwar art.

Even today the very mention of Guernica attracts an exceptional level of hyperbole. In their 2009 book Bombing Civilians, Yuki Tanaka and Marilyn Young assert that Guernica was the first time in history that attacks were carried out against a city and civilians exclusively from the air. The official casualty figure of the timemore than 2,500 men, women, and children, almost one-third of the towns populationis still commonly cited. A current display at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, which describes the exhibition of Picassos Guernica there in 1939, asserts the raid resulted in thousands of civilian casualties. Indeed, on the 60th anniversary of the bombing of Guernica, the German government issued an official apology to Spain for having killed over 1,000 civilians at Guernica. Within a short period Guernica was transformed from the historical reality of a relatively minor tactical operation into an enduring symbol of the brutality of modern warfare.

But over the years, much of what has been taken as gospel about Guernica has been called into question. A closer look by this writer a decade ago in The Luftwaffe: Creating the Operational Air War, used Guernica to point out the terrifying power of propaganda, in that case not only to raise worldwide concern about the Nazi menace but to set the stage for the Munich Agreement and the Allied nations nearly fatal policies of appeasement. Still, the Guernica myths persist, and in an era when both disinformation and misinformation have enormous power to shape public perceptionsand even take nations to war getting the facts straight behind one of the most momentous military nonevents in history becomes a historical imperative.

After the civil war broke out in Spain in July 1936, it quickly became an international struggle be- tween the forces of the far right and far left. Germany and Italy rushed men and equipment to the Nationalists under Gen. Francisco Franco, who represented a coalition of fascists, monarchists, and capitalists. The Soviet Union sent aid and advisers to the government of the Spanish Republic, which relied on communist and socialist support. The initial phase of the war ended in a bloody stalemate around Madrid in late 1936, when the Nationalist drive on the city was stopped by newly created Republican divisions armed with modern Soviet weapons, such as Polikarpov I-16 fighters and T-26 tanks.

The next phase of the war began in the spring of 1937 when the Nationalists went on the offensive to destroy the Basque enclave in northern Spain. The Nationalist Army of the North, commanded by Gen. Emilio Mola, was supported by the German Condor Legion, 100 combat aircraft and 5,000 men drawn from the Luftwaffe and sent to Spain to test weapons and personnel in combatunder the operational control of the Spanish Nationalist government. The Condor Legion was commanded by Maj. Gen. Hugo Sperrle, with the brilliant Lt. Col. Wolfram von Richthofen, cousin of the famous Red Baron and later a field marshal, serving as chief of staff. Sperrle worked with the Nationalist high command at the strategic level while Richthofen managed the daily planning and operations of the Condor Legion. The two experienced air commanders made a superb team. [For more from this author on Richthofen, see The Other Richthofen in the August/September 2008 issue of our sister publication World War II, or at historynet.com/ the-other-richthofen.htm.]

Through March and early April 1937, the Nationalists steadily advanced through the rugged Basque mountains. The success of the Nationalist offensive can largely be credited to the Condor Legion, as it won air superiority over the skies of northern Spain and developed effective new tactics to provide air support for the Nationalist army.

By late April the Nationalist forces were closing in on Guernica, a small town of 7,000 at a vital crossroads and bridge over the Mundaca River. The Basque forces east of Guernica were in retreat, and if the Renteria bridge and road junction at Guernica could be destroyed, the withdrawal route of more than 20 battalions of the Basque army could be closed. On April 25 Richthofen wrote in his diary, Guernica has to be destroyed if we are to strike a blow against enemy personnel and materiel. By then the Nationalist forces had advanced to within 10 miles of the town, so Richthofen ordered his staff to draw up a plan to destroy the bridge and town center. In the meantime, German fighters were ordered to attack all traffic on roads in and out of Guernica.

At 4:30 p.m. on April 26, the Condor Legion struck. Three modern He 111 medium bombers and one Do 17 light bomber flew in the lead as pathfinders. They were followed by 18 Ju 52/3m bombers, which were converted transport planes, and supported by Bf 109 and He 51 fighter planes. The attack was also joined by three Italian SM.79 bombers and some Nationalist air force Ju 52 bombers. Attacking in waves of three or four, the Condor Legions aircraft pounded the town for an hour.

The Germans and Italians dropped about 40 tons of high-explosive and incendiary bombs, with the heaviest damage to the Renteria District of the town, near the bridge. The first bombers dropped their ordnance short of the bridge and created so much smoke and dust that the next planes were unable to see the crossing. So they simply dropped their bombs through the smoke into the vicinity of the town center. The bombing raid failed to destroy the bridge but succeeded in its tactical objective of shutting the road for 24 hours.

Despite the relative success of the attack, the Nationalists didnt move quickly enough to block the Basque retreat. The Basques repaired the road, and most of their army retreated in good order through the town. While accounts vary, it appears General Molas forces did not occupy Guernica until April 28, at the earliest.

The story of the bombing broke in the London as a Page 1 article on April 28, 1937. The porter, George Steer, visited Guernica the day after the attack. Steer insisted that Guernica had no military significance at all and confidently described the Times Times rebombing as part of Francos grand strategy. The planning of the attack was murderously logical and efficient. Its aim was unquestionably to terrorize the Basque government into surrender by showing them what Bilbao may soon expect.

The press played on the theme that the Guernica bombing was something new, a unique event in the war that foreshadowed an escalation of terror. Steer piled on hyperbole: In the form of its execution and the scale of the destruction it wrought, no less than in the selection of its objective, the raid on Guernica is unparalleled in military history.

On April 30 the British magazine the Spectator featured the Guernica bombing as a lead article. Everything that has happened in Spain the last weekis overshadowed by the barbaric horror of the bombing of the old Basque capital, Guernica, by general Francos airplanes. Never in modern history has Europe known anything comparable. Playing on the Timess lurid account, the Spectator described Guernica as having ceased to exist. The Spanish Civil War, unexampled in the bestial fury exhibited, has produced incidents bestial beyond beliefbut the sickening butchery at Guernica has no parallel. It takes rank among crimes which their very hideousness prints indelibly on history.

Over the next two weeks, the original London Times story was repeated often and grew in the telling as it passed through the United Kingdom, Europe, and America. In New York a newspaper editorial asserted that none of the other atrocities of this sanguinary civil war has been more conclusively attested than this latest example of ruthlessnessagainst the terrorism of fire and destruction from the skies were pitted in the deep courage and deep faith of the people and their priests. The New York Post printed a cartoon of Guernica showing Hitler standing over mountains of civilian dead labeled the Holy City of Guernica, his bloody sword captioned air raids. The United States Congressional Record reported that poison gas was used at Guernica. In Great Britain, members of Parliament denounced the attack and described Guernica as an open city with no military targets.

Shortly after the bombing the Basque government announced that 1,654 civilians had been killed and 889 wounded. Within weeks Guernica became an international symbol for the barbarity of air raids directed against civilians. Picassos painting was the final touch. Commissioned by the Republicans and unveiled at the International Exposition in Paris in the summer of 1937, the giant mural brought home the brutality of modern aerial warfare to a shocked public.

That interpretation of the raid persisted. The claims of massive civilian casualties and the interpretation of the raid as a harbinger of the ruthless targeting of civilians that was to become common in World War II have been only rarely challenged in the popular and historical literature to this day. In fact, those claims were so powerful that they played a major role in the Nazis dismemberment and occupation of Czechoslovakia, and, indeed, in setting the stage for World War II. The fear of German air power paralyzed democratic nations when they might easily have stopped Hitler. But at the heart of these fears lies a web of myths and propaganda.

MYTH: Guernica represented a new form of air warfare that specifically targeted civilians.

TRUTH: Bombing cities was nothing new in 1937. In the early stages of the Spanish Civil War both sides bombed enemy cities, largely with a view of demoralizing the enemy population. The most dramatic city bombing of the period occurred over two weeks in November 1936 when, in an attempt to break the stalemate on the Madrid front, German, Italian, and Nationalist air units carried out a campaign against the city. The last raid, on November 30, resulted in 244 civilian dead and 875 wounded. Despite the losses and damage, the civilian population was not seriously demoralized, nor were Madrids industries affected. The Nationalists and Condor Legion soon called off the city bombing raids as a wasted effort.

Yet as the Nationalist offensive in northern Spain began, the Germans soon found that a concentrated bombing of towns on the front line was a very effective means of supporting ground troops. On April 4 a heavy air attack preceded the Nationalist ground attack against Basque positions at Ochandiano. Employing all the bombers of the Condor Legion en masse, the Germans rained 60 tons of bombs upon the town. Afterward the Nationalists overran the Basques with little resistance finding more than 200 Basque soldiers killed by the air attack and taking 400 prisoners too dazed to retreat. In April the Nationalists heavily bombed the town of Durango, which was close to the front lines and home to Basque army reserves and supply points. Again the bombing disrupted the Republican defense. Yet the international press scarcely took note.

Nationalist leaders were very cautious about ordering air attacks against Republican-held cities after the bombing of Madrid in 1936. They were understandably reluctant to destroy valuable industries when they soon expected to control them.

It would have been simple for the Nationalist Air Force to bomb Valencia, Barcelona or Madrid into ashes with incendiary bombs, but politically that was unacceptable, one Luftwaffe colonel wrote just after the Nationalists won the war. What would be the purpose of destroying the valuable industries of Bilbao or the weapons factory in Reinosa if they would be occupied in a short time? Indeed, the Condor Legion generally opposed bombing cities to break morale and reported to Berlin that its aircraft were best used supporting troops on the front line, interdicting Republican supply lines, and attacking shipping and port facilities.

MYTH: The town itself was the main target, not the bridge and crossroads.

TRUTH: During the campaign in northern Spain in 1937, the Condor Legion found that it had to bomb small towns to hit strategic targets (roads, reserves, bridges, depots) within them. The Condor Legion was incapable of pinpoint bombing at that point in the Luftwaffes development. Although some modern He 111 medium bombers had just arrived in early 1937, at Guernica the bomber force consisted of three squadrons of the Ju 52/53 transports modified as bombers. Each Ju 52/53 could carry a load of one to one-and-a-half tons of bombs and employed a primitive bombsight. To make sure they hit the target, the Germans would simply carpet it with bombs. Only bombing towns in toto would be sure to seriously disrupt the enemy defenses. The Luftwaffe in Spain laid out its bombing rationale in a report to Berlin in February 1938: We have had notable results in hitting the targets near the front, especially in bombing villages which hold enemy reserves and headquarters. [They] are easy to find and can be thoroughly destroyed by carpet bombing.

MYTH: Guernica was a civilian target without military significance.

TRUTH: After World War II the Allied prosecutors at Nuremberg were pressured to include Guernica and the Spanish Civil War among the crimes against humanity with which Italians and Germans were charged. The prosecutors rejected these argumentsand they were right to do so, because the bombing of Guernica can be justified on military grounds. Contrary to the press reports, it was no undefended open city. At least two Basque battalions, the 18th Loyala Battalion and the Saseta Battalion, were stationed in Guernica. If they had had the time to fortify the city, it would have made a powerful stronghold for the Basque army against the Nationalist advance. In short, by all the rules of international warfare in 1937, Guernica was a legitimate target. The British and Americans bombed many towns in France, Italy, and Germany for tactical reasons. The bombing and destruction of Caen and St. Lo in Normandy in 1944 were designed to assist the Allied advance. In fact, in most respects Guernica resembled a standard World War II operation. In the days before the bombing, Richthofen ordered Condor Legion fighters to strafe vehicles and other traffic on the main roads around Guernicaorders no different than those issued by Allied air commanders during the advance through France and Germany in 19441945.

Richthofen considered the Guernica bombingwhich never involved gasa fairly routine tactical operation and a technical success since it brought the town to a standstill for a full day.

MYTH: The Guernica attack struck at the Basque national symbols chiefly to break the spirit of the Basque people.

TRUTH: Neither the Germans nor the Spanish Nationalists intended their bombing of Spanish Republican cities to induce terror or weaken the resolve of the Basques. This is clear from confidential Condor Legion reports to Berlin, as well as Richthofens personal diary. Richthofen reveals himself as an efficient and ruthless commander with no sympathy for the Basque and Republican civilians, yet he shows little interest in bombing as a psychological weapon. When Richthofen planned the raid, it appears neither he nor any other German officer was aware of Guernicas symbolic significance for the Basques.

Richthofen visited Guernica shortly after the town fell to the Nationalists. In his diary he took note of the Basque parliament building and the Holy Oak (under whose branches Basques had elected their representatives since the Middle Ages) as he wrote what reads like a travelogue describing the part of the town that survived the bombing. In fact, it would be surprising that these two important symbols of Basque nationalism were not targeted if the purpose of the bombing had been to demoralize the Basques. In his diary entry, Richthofen seems more interested in the tactical success. The town center had been leveled, he noted, and the city was completely closed to traffic for twenty-four hours. He was excited by the effectiveness of the Luftwaffes new 250-kilogram bombs, and he nearly gushed about the EC B 1 bomb fuse used by the Condor Legion, writing, It seems to have worked splendidly!

MYTH: Guernica caused massive civilian casualties.

TRUTH: The Basque and Spanish Republican governments had every reason to exaggerate the civilian casualties at Guernica to gain world sympathy. Their account of the attack made for some very powerful propaganda for the Republican cause. In the decades since World War I, air power theorists and advocates such as Italian general Giulio Douhet had prophesied that future war would see whole cities destroyed by aerial bombing. A large body of air power literature drawing on the best scientific analysis predicted that bombing would result in massive casualties. A British scientist, Lord J. B. S. Haldane, predicted in 1938 that a German air attack on London might produce 20 fatalities for every ton of bombs dropped. (The actual figure in World War II was about one fatality per ton.) Haldane also warned that a relatively small German bomber force could kill 50,000 to 100,000 Londoners in a few days.

With a public conditioned to such apocalyptic forecasts, the idea that one-third of Guernica died in the bombing was uncritically accepted. Though the initial Times story mentioned hundreds of deaths, Europe and the United States accepted without hesitation the official casualty figure of 1,654 dead released by the Basque government. For years after the civil war, the Franco regime, responding to the worldwide condemnation of the attacks, denied that Guernica had been bombed and prohibited discussion or research of the attack. Secret police expunged evidence of the bombing, such as death certificates and hospital and church records. Ironically, this whitewash suppressed the facts that would have proved that their attack was not nearly so horrible as the world believed.

Surprisingly, the original tally of 1,654 dead is still routinely cited in history books. If the figure is correct, the Condor Legion attack resulted in approximately 41 fatalities per ton of explosives. That is an astonishing casualty rateindeed, it is four times the rate of the most devastating aerial raids carried out in Europe in World War II. In July 1943, for example, Hamburg saw approximately 7.5 fatalities per ton of bombs dropped by the Royal Air Force. The American and British bombing of Dresden in February 1945 resulted in as many as 10.2 fatalities per ton of bombs.

It is impossible to believe that Guernica casualty rates topped those from World War II; the technology of bombs and armaments had only improved over the years. Using World War II bombings as a guide, we can suggest that the Guernica attack at most killed 7 to 12 people per ton of bombsa total of 300 to 400. Such an analysis is bolstered by the Canadian television series Turning Points of History, which in 2003 examined the raid and interviewed survivors. In the documentary, historians at a museum in Guernica itself set the death toll from the attack at about 300.

The myths of Guernica promulgated by the mass media of the day had wholly unintended consequences. Many Western journalists used the attack as a symbol to awaken the public to the danger of Nazi Germany. Ironically, they did more to promote a deep fear that Germany could easily destroy London or Paris by air attacka fear that made governments more willing to accept German demands.

In fact, the attack on Guernica ultimately proved of enormous advantage to the Third Reich. The sensational press coverage gave the impression that Guernica was a city instead of a small town. The Luftwaffe of 1937 was seen as powerful enough to wipe whole cities off the mapsomething far beyond the capability of the German air force at that time. The press and public had been conditioned to expect future wars with terror bombings and destruction of this magnitude. In Spain, it appeared that the future had arrived; Guernica was merely a test run for a doctrine of total war that Germany was perfecting. Harold MacMillan, then a member of Parliament and later prime minister of Britain, remarked in the 1960s about the common perceptions of air power at the time of Guernica: We thought of air warfare in 1938 as people think of nuclear warfare today.

As Hitler moved on Europe, he put to good use the popular misconceptions about the power of the Luftwaffe. Preparing to annex Austria to the German Reich, for example, he played up the Luftwaffes reputation for destructive bombing. In February 1938 Hitler invited Austrian chancellor Kurt Schussnigg to Berchtesgaden in the Alps to deliver Germanys demands. Using an intimidation technique that would have made the Mafia proud, Hitler also invited General Sperrlethe Condor Legion officer who had just taken over the command of the Luftwaffe in southern Germanyas a luncheon guest. During the meal, Sperrle talked to the Austrian chancellor about the German air force in Spain. The threat was clear: Surrender, or Vienna might suffer Guernicas fate. The Austrians quickly capitulated.

As tensions mounted over Hitlers next round of territorial demandsthe large Sudeten region of Czechoslovakia Britain and France weighed their military options to resist Hitler. France, sheltered behind its Maginot Line, did not fear the German army; Britain, separated from the Continent by the Channel, felt safe from any ground forces. Yet both nations saw the German Luftwaffe as an immediate and dangerous threat.

As the French cabinet debated the appeasement policy, it heard extravagant estimates of the civilian casualties Germany might inflict through bombing. The French intelligence service greatly overestimated Luftwaffe and aircraft production. In the summer of 1938, as Hitler precipitated a crisis over the Sudetenland, French air force general Henri-Fernand Dentz predicted that French cities would be laid in ruins in a war. One cabinet member said, Our towns will be wiped out, our women and children slaughtered.

During the Munich Crisis in September 1938, fully one-third of the residents of Paris evacuated the city to avoid possible German air bombardment.

In Britain, the cabinet debate over whether to resist Hitlers aggression also focused on an exaggerated German aerial threat. The military staffs predictedjust a year after Guernicathat if war came Britain could expect 500 to 600 tons of bombs a day for up to two months. When the cabinet received the report on Luftwaffe capabilities, Dominion Secretary Malcolm MacDonald declared, We are not strong enough to risk a war. It would mean the massacre of women and children in the streets of London. No government could possibly risk a war when our anti-aircraft defences are in so farcical a condition. Thanks in part to such sentiments, Sudetenland was handed over to the Nazis in 1938, and the rest of Czechoslovakia was occupied in 1939 without a shot being fired.

Guernica was not the sole reason for Britain and Frances disastrous policy of appeasement. The program of Nazi aggression that added Austria and Czechoslovakia to the Third Reich and led to French and British humiliation was long in the making. But the false perceptions of German air power that Guernica popularized, as well as the myths about casualties and the destructive capabilities of air power, all played key parts in furthering Hitlers aggression.

Originally published in the Summer 2010 issue of Military History Quarterly. To subscribe, click here.Whether heroes or opportunists, the OBrien family of privateers helped America launch its battle for independence.

It was an unlikely setting for one of the American Revolutions most celebrated naval engagements: a hamlet in a remote stretch of the Maine coast with soils and weather so inhospitable that even today it is lightly settled. What Machias lacked in strategic importance, however, was more than made up for by the bravado of its residents, including the six brothers of the OBrien clan. They helped spark what some have called the first naval battle of the Revolution, propelled the people of coastal Maine into the conflict, provoked the destruction of one of New Englands key trading cities, and later engaged in Revolutionary privateering.

Although the British dismissed Jeremiah OBrien and his younger brothers as unscrupulous scoundrels, Americans credit them with mythic accomplishments: the founding of the United States Navy, leading a battle James Fenimore Cooper described as the Lexington of the Sea, and having rendered good service to the cause of freedom by fighting British-supplied Indians. In fact, we have given their name to a fort; a still-surviving Liberty ship, the SS Jeremiah OBrien; and five 20th-century U.S. Navy warshipsfrom a World War I torpedo boat to a Spruance-class destroyer that helped sink the Iranian guided-missile frigate Sahand in 1988.

The true story of this maritime band of brotherslong obscured by 19th-century mythmakingis far more nuanced. Like many privateers in the American Revolution, Jeremiah OBrien and his brothers mixed heroism with opportunism, tactical brilliance with strategic self-interest. While they fought a rebel cause against an empire, the OBriens were always more Han Solo than Luke Skywalker, colorful rogues who helped their country by helping themselves.

And in the end, though the OBriens did not achieve the prominence or respectability of other privateersthe fortunes of the Cabots, Lowells, Peabodys, and other Boston Brahmin families were founded on privateeringthey retired in comfort, having served their own interests at least as well as those of their young nation.

In 1775, Machias, the OBriens hometown and base of operations, was a frontier hamlet but 12 years old, the only settlement of consequence for 50 miles in any direction. Unable to coax crops from the glacier-scoured earth, its farmers had turned instead to the forests and foggy, fickle sea to harvest wood and fish for trade with Boston or Halifax merchants. Their dependence on waterborne trade was nearly absolute: Without it, the town would have quickly run out of food and supplies.

The outbreak of hostilities at Lexington and Concordand the American siege of British forces in Bostonput the people of Machias in a precarious position. Continued trade with Boston or Halifax would supply the British forces that now controlled both ports. Yet without that commerce, they might well starve. Patriots held firm, and soon whole families were subsisting almost solely on clams they dug from the ocean mud. By May, one resident later recalled, the townspeople were already in a great measure destitute.

Like many communities in British North America, Machias had divided loyalties. Most residents sided with the patriots, but several loyalist families would flee to British New Brunswick during the war, and the towns leading citizen was colluding with British military authorities in Boston. It was this man, Ichabod Jones, who would help make the OBriens famous. Jones, a recent transplant from Boston, owned most of the towns lumber mills as well as the vessels that carried the lumber to Boston and brought back provisions. Savvy and connected,

Jones served as Machiass principal lobbyist to the provincial government of Massachusetts, of which Maine was still a part. However, with the advent of hostilities, Joness relationship with his neighbors soured. Like many New England merchants, Jones wanted to keep up his trade with British authorities in Boston. When townspeople threatened to intercept and destroy his ships, Jones did what any committed loyalist would do: He turned to the British military for assistance.

In late May, Jones met with British general Thomas Gage, who was mustering British forces and supplies in Boston. Machias, Jones told Gage, could be a vital source of lumber and firewood if the British would give his merchant ships an armed escort. Vice Adm. Samuel Graves agreed, assigning the task to the 50-ton armed schooner Margaretta.

The little convoy caused an uproar when it arrived in the Machias River on June 2. Jones offered supplies to the townspeople in exchange for lumber and firewood for the British in Boston. He called a town meeting for June 6, at which residents would vote on his proposal. Meanwhile, one eyewitness reported, Jones privately went down to the Margaretta and persuaded its commander, Midshipman James Moore, to move his tiny warship upriver so near the town that her guns would reach the houses. Moore apparently had no intention of making good on his threat: Hed left his four 3-pound cannons stored in the Margarettas hold, leaving only 14 light swivel guns at his disposal. Considering themselves nearly prisoners of war in the hands of a common enemy, as they were described in a 1775 letter, the residents passed a resolution to accept Joness deal.

Having cowed his neighbors into submission, the loyalist merchant then overplayed his hand. When his vessels tied up to the town wharf to distribute supplies, Jones refused to give provisions to townspeople who had voted against his proposal. This gave such offense to the aggrieved party, the chairman of the towns patriots, James Lyons, reported to his Massachusetts counterparts a few days later, that they determined to take Capt. Jonesand put a final stop to his supplying the Kings troops with anything. The aggrieved included the six sons of 70-year-old Morris OBrien.

Morris OBrien had emigrated from Ireland to the colonies while in his early 20s. He had served in Maine native William Pepperells 1745 campaign that captured the French fortress at Louisbourg, on the eastern tip of Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia. In 1764 he moved his family north from southern Maine, where he had established a successful sawmill. In 1775, Morriss sonsJeremiah, Gideon, John, William, Dennis, and Josephranged in age from 17 to 31. All were old enough to fight, and all were itching to fight the British.

Calm preceded the storm. Jones, unaware of the plot, spent a few days loading wood into his two large coasting vessels: the 80-ton sloop Unity the 90-ton schooner and Polly. The Margaretta s officers also relaxed, going ashore daily, and behaving, wrote one resident, with civility. On Sunday, June 11, they attended services at the Machias Congregational Meeting House. They were walking into an ambush.

In secret, Jeremiah OBrien and Benjamin Foster, a 49-year-old veteran of the French and Indian War, had sent messengers via the winding footpaths to the nearest villages. Dozens of men from these wilderness hamlets responded to the call, muskets and birding pieces in hand, to help defend Machias. On Sunday morning, hidden in the woods on Morris OBriens property, they and their Machias conspirators planned to surround the Meeting House during services that afternoon, and arrest Jones, his nephew Stephen Jones, Midshipman Moore and his officers.

Jeremiah OBrien initially opposed the plan, saying it would inevitably bring on the destruction of Machias because of its dependence on trade. However, Foster would hear none of it, and in the end, all the OBrien brothers would be at the forefront of the fight.

The ambush did not go as planned. Jones, Moore, and Moores officers heard the patriots approach and escaped through the windows of the Meeting House. Jones vanished into the woods, while Moores party rushed to the shore and set out in one of the Margarettas boats. By the time the OBriens reached the wharves, Moore had rallied his crew of 20, raised the Margarettas flag, and sent a message ashore: His orders were to protect Captain Jones, and if the people presumed to stop Captain Jones vessels, he would burn the town.

Roughly a hundred patriots promptly set about looting the Unity, which was tied to the wharf, while their colleagues rowed out to the Polly, raised its anchors, and brought it up near the wharf. They had called Moores bluff: With only swivel guns on the Margaretta, he could not do much damage to the town. Instead he waited until dusk, quietly weighed his anchors, and drifted downstream to within musket range of the Polly. Racing to beat the British, some insurgents reached the Polly first, cut its anchor line, and drifted it aground. Other townspeople rushed down to the water and, with the help of boats, canoes, and other small craft, lined the shore nearest the Margaretta and made a most audacious demand: Surrender to America. Moore, no doubt shocked at their temerity, told them to fire and be damnedwhich they did.

The firing was smart for a quarter of an hour when Capt Moore cut his [anchor] cables and fell down the river with the tide, Thomas Flinn, the captain of the lumber schooner Falmouth Packet, would later report. There Moore detained a small sloop, seizing supplies and two of its men before anchoring to await the dawn.

At sunrise the next day, June 12, the OBrien brothers and 34 others prepared the Unity for combat, building improvised barricades and firing positions from lumber in the hold. These lumbermen, farmers, and fishermen passed around what weapons they had: muskets, swords, hunting rifles, hayforks, and axes. Meanwhile, 20 other men led by Benjamin Foster rowed out to the Falmouth Packet, commandeered it, dumped its uncooperative captain ashore, and started down the river to back up the men on the Unity.

A mile away, aboard the Margaretta, Midshipman Moore observed all this through his spyglass. Seeing he was outmanned, he gave the order to raise anchor and beat a retreat for Boston, two days sail to the east. However, as his little warship tacked out of Machias Bay, patriots fired on him from the western bluffs. An extraordinarily lucky shot shattered one of the Margarettas gaff spars, the upper poles that held its two large sails in place. Without it, the Margarettaalready a very dull sailor according to one Machias residents accountlost speed. Limping over to the bays eastern shore, the Margaretta headed off an inbound trading sloop and pulled alongside. Moore sent a boarding party scurrying over the bulkheads to seize the sloops boom and gaff as well as a pilot to guide them through shoals and islands.

By the time Moores men had finished the repair, the Unity and Falmouth Packet were in plain sight astern and rapidly closing. The Margarettas boats were cut loose to increase speed, but there would be no escape. Moore ordered the swivel guns loaded and his stock of cast-iron hand grenades filled with powder, fuses at the ready.

Jeremiah OBrien, in command of the Unity, sought to sail alongside and, when slightly ahead of the Margaretta, turn the Unity directly into its path, hoping to ensnare the vessel. His men were likely to win the boarding action that would follow, especially once Fosters reinforcements on the Falmouth Packet arrived.

The attack did not go so smoothly. As the Unity approached, the Margarettas men hammered it with their swivel guns. The Unity smashed into its adversary from the rear with what must have been wrenching force, its bowsprit ripping the lines supporting the Margarettas mainmast and tearing into its mainsail. As Gideon OBrienat 29, the second oldest OBrien brotherled a swarm over the Margarettas rail, Moores men heaved hand grenades onto the Unitys deck. Gideons men fired at close range, grenades exploding behind them. Blood, screams, and gore erupted all around.

When the smoke cleared, Midshipman Moore was prostrate on the deck with a musket ball in his chest and another in his abdomen. Moved to Joness home, he would die the next day. Two men lay deada Royal marine and the pilot the British had kidnapped earlier that morningand five British sailors were wounded. Moores youthful first officer was shot and fled to his cabin, effectively ending resistance. Six of OBriens men had been wounded, one of them fatally, but the townspeople had taken on the Royal Navy and won.

By killing the kings officer and seizing one of his ships, the citizens of Machias put themselves on an irreversible course. From then on the British considered the community a renegade town, subject to brutal reprisal. Securing supplies from Boston or Halifax was now out of the question. Machias, the residents knew, would have to prey on the British to provide for themselves. As one resident would later put it: War being now commenced, it was considered that it would not do to flinch.

Machias sent John OBrien, who was 25 and the third oldest brother, to Massachusetts to seek advice on what to do with the prisoners from the Margaretta. The justice of the peace led a posse to drag Ichabod Jones from the woods, and a local mariner rushed off to the nearest proper town Annapolis, Nova Scotiato bring a surgeon to treat the wounded.

Jeremiah OBrien was appointed commander of the Polly, the most seaworthy of the towns three-vessel fleet (the Falmouth Packet had been returned to its owner) and set about refitting it as a proper sloop of war. From the Margaretta, they brought over swivel guns and 3-pound cannons; they also erected bulwarks to protect the vessels crew and armed themselves with Royal Navyissued boarding axes, muskets, and cutlasses. They painted a new name on its stern: Machias Liberty.

At the end of Junewhile the town awaited orders from patriot headquarters outside BostonJeremiah sailed the Machias Liberty in pursuit of another Royal Navy schooner, HMS Diligent, a 100-ton, 8-gun vessel rumored to be cruising the mouth of the Bay of Fundy to the east. For two weeks, they patrolled the unforgiving Maine coast and the foggy approaches to the Bay of Fundy. There was no sign of the Diligent or cattle vessels said to be en route from Windsor, Nova Scotia, to Boston.

On their return to Machias on July 15, Jeremiah and his crew learned that the Diligent and the 15-ton armed cutter Tatamagouche, having heard of the attack on the Margaretta, had arrived that same day in Bucks Harbor, just two miles to the south. Before Jeremiah could set sail against the British, Stephen Smith, a local patriot, arrived in town with a prisoner: the Diligents captain, James Knight. On the Diligents arrival, Smith and several other men had hidden on an island at the mouth of Bucks Harbor. When Knight rowed ashore, Smiths party intercepted him.

OBrienbacked up by Benjamin Foster in a stolen merchant sloopsailed to Bucks Harbor. Without their captain, the British surrendered without firing a shot. Suddenly Machias was home to 100 prisoners and the largest rebel naval force in the Americas. Its people had earned the respect of revolutionaries and the everlasting ire of British military authorities, who feared an invasion of loyalist Nova Scotia. When OBriens vessel was seen outside the British naval anchorage at Windsor, the colonys governor, Francis Legge, warned General Gage that the pirates of Machias could easily scale the facility.

Certainly naval officers in Nova Scotia took the threat from Machias seriously. When Legge asked Capt. Edward Meadows, commander of British naval forces in the province, to send the 14-gun Senegal to destroy the pirates at Machias, the officer said the warship would not be equal to the task. Persuaded, Legge dispatched the entire squadron, and was forced to send detachments of soldiers to defend the dockyards of Windsor and Halifax while the naval vessels were away. Without reinforcements, Legge warned General Gage, there would be little hope of sending more supplies to Boston.

In Boston, meanwhile, Vice Admiral Graves was furious, and not only because rebels had taken three of his vessels. Midshipman Moore, who had died in agony in Machias, was a cousin from his mothers side of the family. The residents of Machias, Graves vowed, would pay a terrible price.

As Graves stewedand Captain Meadows dithered with his squadron in the Bay of FundyJeremiah OBrien lobbied for arms and material. From the provincial legislature in Watertown, Massachusetts, he secured commissions making the Machias Liberty and Diligent part of the new Massachusetts Navy. While Gen. George Washingtons ragtag army was engaged in a difficult siege of occupied Boston, provincial authorities gave OBrien 260 to secure supplies and ready his vessels.

Colonials in New England celebrated the Machias exploits. The Massachusetts legislature passed a resolution thanking OBrien and Foster. John Adams included OBrien on a list of just 22 people suitable for naval commands in the soon-to-be-formed Continental Navy. Under his command, the people of Machias took to calling themselves the dread of Halifax and the British Navy.

Even so, less than flattering reports were already circulating about OBrien. On August 16, 1775, while directing the Boston siege from Cambridge, General Washington took the time to write to a leading Massachusetts official that OBrien had violated procedure by seizing the personal possessions of the naval officers captured or killed at Machias. Unless the Machias men returned the officers belongings, Washington noted, the seizure would much dishonor the American arms. More dishonor and disagreeable consequences were soon to come.

Technically Jeremiah was now an officer in the Massachusetts Navy, commander of a four-vessel squadron consisting of the Machias Liberty, Diligent, Margaretta, and Tatamagouche. He and his menincluding brothers William, the 22-year-old mate aboard Machias Liberty, and John, mate of the Diligent received their pay from the public treasury and were supposed to follow the orders and regulations of the Massachusetts legislature. But Jeremiah proved better at collecting salaries than following orders and procedures.

Indeed, though ordered to cruise against enemy shipping, Jeremiah seems to have barely left port in the first months of his command. There are no reports that he captured any vessels from September 1775 to March 1776, when he finally sailed up the Bay of Fundy after months on the public payroll.

By contrast, in the few weeks he was away lobbying legislators, another captain had used the Machias Liberty to launch a daring raid on Saint John, New Brunswick, sacking the kings fort and capturing several redcoats and a merchant ship laden with cattle, sheep, hogs, salmon, and butter. However, with Jeremiah OBrien back in charge, the flying squadron appears to have remained comfortably in harbor.

As OBrien sat in port, the people of Falmouth (modern Portland, Maine) paid the price for his earlier actions. In early October, Admiral Graves ordered Lt. Henry Mowat of the 180-ton, 8-gun sloop of war Canceaux to crush the rebellious ports of northern New England, particularly Machias where Margaretta was taken. But Lieutenant Mowat encountered unfavorable winds en route to Machias and decided instead to punish Falmouth, bombarding the town for nine hours and setting fires that consumed three-quarters of the citys buildings. The unprovoked carnage shocked the public on both sides of the Atlantic. [See Burning Falmouth, MHQ, Autumn 2009.]

Infuriated mariners asked for licenses to arm their vessels and attack British shipping as so-called privateers. The role of these vesselswhich outnumbered the Continental Navy by 200 to 1in the success of the American Revolution is difficult to overstate. Together they captured some 2,200 British vessels, including warships and troop transports, paralyzing commerce across the empire. The Irish linen fleet felt the need to travel in convoy for the first time in history.

British newspapers from the period had nothing but scorn for the Continental Army, characterizing its soldiers as incompetent cowards, but the privateers engendered fear and respect, particularly after a series of bold attacks on Great Britain itself, most famously by John Paul Jones. As OBrien would do, many privateering captains shifted back and forth from military to private command, including such naval heroes as Jones, Silas Talbot (sometime commander of Old Ironsides, the USS Constitution), and Stephen Decatur.

Not surprisingly, the Continental Navy often functioned as an auxiliary to the privateering fleets and adopted many of their tactics, ship designs, and organizational culture. During the critical early years of the Revolutionwith the British blockading the portsthe privateers provided many of the weapons and much of the material that kept Washingtons army in the field.

But the spectacular success of the Colonial mariners against British shipping was undermined by Jeremiah OBriens growing reputation for inaction. In July 1776, a group of leading citizens led by Maj. Gen. Benjamin Lincoln, commander of American troops in newly liberated Boston, called on the Massachusetts legislature to investigate Jeremiah. Lincoln and his colleagues said he boasted of ignoring orders and alleged that he had offered one, if not both, of [his] vessels for sale. OBriens ships, they added, have cost the public large money, but have effected very little.

Similarly John Adams received a letter from his wifes uncle, Isaac Smith, complaining that the people were paying for a vessel to guard the Eastward Coast [that] has been lying in harbor the chief of his time and doing no serviceOBrien! Meanwhile, the owners of the few vessels Jeremiah had captured since joining the Massachusetts Navy filed suit against him in Boston, claiming the captures were unlawful. The court saw merit in the case, ordering the state to freeze OBriens wages until the matter was resolved.

Machias residents raised doubts about OBrien too. In late August 1776, Benjamin Foster and his colleagues on the local Revolutionary committee wrote the Massachusetts legislature charging that OBrien had embezzled public funds by collecting the salaries of sailors who had never served on his vessels. At the same time, local militia officer Francis Shaw discovered that valuables were missing from the Diligent. Shaw relieved OBrien of command of the ship and sent it back to Boston. OBriens tenure as a naval officer was ending.

Jeremiah OBrien did his best to defend himself. In October he petitioned the state government, praying that he may be granted a supply of money and provisions while claiming that he had advanced $500 to $600 to his men since salary payments had been suspended in August. He got his allies in Machias to write too, contending that unjustifiable methods had been taken to injure the character of Captain Jeremiah OBrien.

In the end the governments decision was succinct and severe. On October 15, 1776, the legislature directed the sheriff to seize all cannons and stores from the Machias Liberty and discharge the vessel, its commander, officers, and men from state service. It ordered both the Machias Liberty and the Diligent hauled up, and fined OBrien 46 for embezzlement, or improperly seizing goods. As Bostons John Bradford, who was Continental marine agent for all navy ships, later wrote John Hancock, the leaders of Massachusetts are glad theyve got rid of him.

Dismissed from the state navy, the OBrien brothers were out of work. But three of themJeremiah, John, and Williamcontinued to sail as privateers. Gideon and Dennis, the second youngest, gave up life at sea and returned home to Machias. The youngest brother, Joseph, followed them ashore but continued to invest in his older brothers schemes.

In August 1778 Jeremiah secured a privateering commission for the sloop Resolution, carrying 10 swivel cannons and 25 men, including William. The vessel appears to have made only one extended cruise, capturing a ship in the Gulf of Maine loaded with pork. By odd coincidence, that ship had been captured days earlier by Henry Mowat, the naval officer who had razed Portland; it was commanded by Mowats mate, who now found himself a prisoner of the OBriens. Jeremiah probably sold his prize and its cargo and returned to Machias to live from the proceeds; his name does not appear again in documents connected with privateering or maritime warfare until late 1780.

Johns return to privateering was a bit delayed. After his release from the Massachusetts Navy, he appears to have joined the Continental Navy. In May 1777, a person by his name appeared in a list of men who had signed up for Washingtons army, collected the bounty of 26, but then run off to the navy. In March 1779, his name surfaces again among American prisoners captured by the British and interned in a Barbados jail.

In early 1779, perhaps after having been released from prison, John appeared in Newburyport, Massachusetts, where he hired out as a privateering captain, first on the 120-ton brig Adventure and then, a few months later, on the 6-gun, 70-ton schooner Hibernia, where William OBrien joined him as mate. Over the year, John and William captured at least six vessels; their take must have been considerable, since John stayed ashore for the next nine months while his own privateer was built. The Hannibal, awarded its commission in late April 1780, was a 250- ton, 26-gun vessel with a crew of up to 130. It was a frigate-sized ship that could easily overwhelm most merchantmen. On their first cruise, John and William took their vessel to the Caribbean, where they allegedly captured several important prizes.

The two brothers appeared to be on the path to merchant princedom, peers to Boston Brahmins who were using privateering gains to move into the vacuum left when Bostons loyalist merchants fled the country. However, late in the summer of 1780, John OBrien made an ill-fated decision: He offered his brother Jeremiah command of the Hannibal.

Commanding a far more powerful vessel than he was accustomed to sailing, Jeremiah decided on a high-risk, high-reward strategy. In October he sailed to the approaches of British-controlled New York Harbor, where the Royal Navys transatlantic convoys assembled. There he hoped to sack merchant vessels while dodging the frigates assigned to protect them. Instead Jeremiah quickly found himself in flight from two heavily armed frigates. Whereas he might have been able to outmaneuver them in a sloop or schooner, his new ship was square-rigged and no more nimble when sailing into the wind than its pursuers. After a 48-hour chase, the larger frigates overtook the Hannibal, forcing Jeremiah to surrender.

The British transferred OBrien and his men to the infamous Jersey, one of four decommissioned naval vessels moored in Brooklyns Wallabout Bay to house rebel prisoners. Survival on the Jersey was extremely uncertain. A former 64-gun ship of the line, it was now rotting and vermin infested, its masts and rudder gone and its gun ports sealed up, restricting ventilation to the thousand prisoners locked in the hold. One prisoner recalled that when first brought aboard the Jersey, the stench from one of the tiny ports produced on deck a sensation of nausea far beyond my powers of description. Americans dying of smallpox, dysentery, and yellow fever were crammed in with the uninfected. Jailers cooked what little food was allotted to the inmates in corroded copper vats, exposing the prisoners to slow poisoning. The ship earned its moniker, Hell Afloat. An estimated 7,000 prisoners died on board during the war.

It appears Jeremiah OBrien spent as long as six months on the British released the rest of his crew but singled out OBrien for detention in England. He seems to have been transferred across the Atlantic in January 1781 in the Jersey, and then, during a prisoner exchange, the company of at least one of his officers, marine captain Nathaniel Nazro, who described the ocean passage as long and tedious, with several men dying on the way through cruel treatment. In England the British took OBrien and Nazro to the notorious Old Mill Prison in Plymouth.

A walled compound set on a windswept bluff, the prison held between 800 and 1,000 men whom the British gave so little food that they ate grass, snails, and rats to stave off hunger. Escape attempts were common. One privateer inmate got away by digging under the wall. Others bribed guards or found ways to scale the defenses. Those caught, including Nazro, spent 40 days in the black hole, a dungeon where they were put on half rations.

OBrien, after some nine months at Old Mill, engineered a particularly ingenious jailbreak, here described by his brother John: He purposely neglected his dress and whole personal appearance for a month. The afternoon before making his escape, he shaved and dressed in decent clothes, to alter very much his personal appearance, and walked out with the other prisoners in the jail yard. Having secreted himself under a platform in the yard, and thus escaping the notice of the keepers at the evening round-up, he was left out of the cells after they were locked up for the night. He escaped from the yard by passing through the principal keepers house in the dusk of the evening. Although he made a little stay in the barroom of the house, he was not detected, being taken for a British soldier.

Hidden with another escapee by sympathizers, Jeremiah eventually rowed across the English Channel to safety in France, where Ambassador Benjamin Franklin helped former POWs return to the colonies. Jeremiah arrived back in Machias by December 1781, and, unbowed, took up command of another privateering schooner.

Having lost their own ship, both Jeremiah and John OBrien spent the rest of the war as privateering captains, raiding British shipping for a share of the plunder. Details are sketchy, but they appear to have been modestly successful, their services sought by the owners of at least four private warships during the final years of the war.

With peace, both men returned to Machias, where Jeremiah would eventually be appointed to the lucrative position of collector of customs. William, who had joined the merchant marine, died of fever in Bilbao, Spain, in 1787, while Gideon and Joseph made new homes in Pennsylvania. Their father, Morris, survived the war and died in 1799.

All the brothers were too old to take part in the War of 1812, but Jeremiah got his last licks at the British anyway. When British forces occupied eastern Maine in the fall of 1814, soldiers searched his Machias home for arms and ammunition. Finding nothing, the British officer suggested he and OBrien have a toast. Jeremiah allegedly jumped to his feet with a mug of cider to exclaim, Heres to the success of the American arms! The officers stood for a moment in stunned silence before breaking into laughter.

Jeremiah died of natural causes in 1818, his brother John in 1832. The OBriens exploits were celebrated in the new United States beginning in the early 19th century, when the first detailed histories of the young republics towns and states were recorded. Seeking to honor heroes, these accounts skipped lightly over Jeremiah OBriens dismissal from the navy and embellished his deeds.

Midshipman Moore, some mythmaking historians posited, attacked the town because of a newly erected liberty pole; one account had him escaping capture in the church because of the stupidity of the only black resident of Machias.

Others invented dramatic dialogue, including heated exchanges between Moore and the OBriens, and an inventive, operatic story held that Moore, stopping by Machias on his way to be wed, had his bride aboard the Margaretta. When the dying lover was brought to [her], Machias historian George Drisko proclaimed in 1904, the shock was too greatand she passed on in less than a year. By that time, Maine historian Edwin Churchill has pointed out, the Margaretta incident was heavily encrusted with local traditions and patriotic folklore.

The first U.S. Navy vessel to bear the OBrien name was christened in 1900, when the mythic tales were uncontroverted. That vesselTorpedo Boat 30, the USS OBrienwas sponsored by Mira OBrien, Josephs great-great-granddaughter. On the eve of World War I, Marcia Bradbury Campbell sponsored construction of destroyer DD-51, then christened it after her greatgreat-granduncle, Jeremiah OBrien, a man once denied naval command. Gideon OBriens great-great-great-granddaughter, Josephine OBrien Campbell, was on hand in 1940 to christen DD-415 with the OBrien name, and again in 1944 for the launch of DD-725. (At the 1940 launch, her father displayed a cutlass said to have been captured from the British by Gideon, while members of the Jeremiah OBrien Association looked on.)

A final USS OBrien, DD-975, was launched in 1976 and decommissioned in 2004. One of only two surviving World War II Liberty ships is the SS Jeremiah OBrien. Once it took part in the D-Day invasion of Normandy; now it is moored at Pier 45 in San Francisco.

Naval role models the OBriens were not. Nevertheless, Jeremiah OBrien and his brothers were examples of a different sort of Revolutionary figure often lost in history: freelance rogues, acting bravely when profit and patriotism coincided but avoiding the field when they did not.

Originally published in the Summer 2010 issue of Military History Quarterly. To subscribe, click here.Page Content

The members of the European Committee of the Regions met in the 128th plenary session on the 22nd to 23rd March.

Ten opinions were on the agenda of this plenary session.

On the first day, members debated on the integration of migrants and social cohesion with Mr Dimitris Avramopoulos, Commissioner for Migration, Home Affairs and Citizenship, Ms Laura Thompson, Deputy Director General of the International Organization for Migration, Ms Anila Noor, Representative of the European Migrant Advisory Board, and Mr Matthieu Le Grelle, co-founder of Duo for a job. Later on the day, Commissioner Johannes Hahn and members discussed the EU enlargement to the Western Balkans.

On Friday 23rd March, Mr Jan Olbricht, MEP, rapporteur of the European Parliament on the Multiannual Financial Framework, joined CoR's assembly to debate on expectations of local and regional authorities in the EU towards the next MFF.

List of opinions discussed:

Mid-term review of the implementation of the European Agenda on Migration, rapporteur Mr Dimitrios Kalogeropoulos (GR/EPP)

Regulation on the European citizens initiative, rapporteur Mr Luc Van Den Brande (BE/EPP)

Mid-term revision of the ESF preparing the post-2020 proposal, rapporteur Ms Catiuscia Marini (IT/PES)

Enlargement: Inclusion of Western Balkan Local and Regional Authorities in EU's Macro-regional, Cross-border and other Transnational Cooperation Initiatives, rapporteur Mr Franz Schausberger (AT/EPP)

The cost and risk of non-cohesion: the strategic value of the Cohesion policy in pursuing Treaty's objectives and facing new challenges to the European regions, rapporteur Mr Mieczysaw Struk (PL/EPP)

Boosting broadband connectivity in Europe, rapporteur Mr Mart Vorklaev (EE/ALDE)

The amendment of the Structural Reform Support Programme and new budgetary instruments for the euro area, rapporteur Ms Olga Zrihen (BE/SPE)

Trade package, rapporteur Ms Micaela Fanelli (IT/PES)

A European strategy for industry: the role and perspective of regional and local authorities, rapporteur Mr Heinz Lehmann (DE/EPP)

Proposal for a European Defence Fund, rapporteur Mr Dainis Turlais (LV/ALDE)Page Content

The news:

On 8 March, the European Commission and the European Committee of the Regions are jointly organising the EU Mayors' Conference on "Building Urban Defences Against Terrorism: Lessons Learned From Recent Attacks". The conference will focus on lessons learned from recent terrorist attacks and the sharing of best practices and useful solutions to enhance the protection of public spaces, including the implementation of "security by design" solutions. Participants will also discuss measures to enhance the prevention of radicalisation at local level, public-private cooperation - building on the recently established Operators Forum - as well as funding opportunities under the different EU financial instruments.

The background:

Delivering on the EU Action Plan to support the protection of public spaces , presented by the Commission in October 2017, the conference will gather mayors and representatives from a number of European cities, together with national policy makers representatives from networks of cities and members of the Committee of the Regions Commission for Citizenship, Governance, Institutional and External Affairs (CIVEX). As a follow up to the Nice Declaration of 29 September 2017, the conference will draw lessons from recent attacks and identify good practices emerging in cities across Europe.

The event:

The conference is taking place at the European Committee of the Regions in Brussels. Journalists are invited to attend the opening session from 9:00-9:45, including the opening speeches by Commissioner for Migration, Home Affairs and Citizenship Dimitris Avramopoulos, Commissioner for the Security Union Julian King, Mr. Karl-Heinz Lambertz, President of the Committee of the Regions and Mr Christian Estrosi, the Mayor of Nice. Closing remarks will be delivered by Commissioner for Regional Policy Corina Cretu and Commissioner Julian King at 16:45, and will also be open to journalists.

The agenda of the conference and registration details can be found here: https://eumayorsconference.eu

The sources:

Registration for the EU Mayors' Conference

EU Action Plan to support the protection of public spaces

13th Security Union Progress ReportAs an existing print subscriber it is easy to get FREE access to all our online content.

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A puppy mill is an inhumane high-volume dog breeding facility that churns out puppies for profit, ignoring the needs of the pups and their mothers. Dogs from puppy mills are often sick and unsocialized. Puppy mills commonly sell through internet sales, online classified ads, flea markets and pet stores. In fact, the majority of puppies sold in pet stores and online are from puppy mills. Responsible breeders will be happy to meet you in person and show you where the puppy was born and raisedand where their mom lives too.We strongly condemn the violations of the HSUS Policy Against Sexual and Other Types of Harassment that have occurred within our organization. We thank the courageous women who came forward and reported their experiences of harassment through our investigation process. We apologize to them. We believe them, and we support them.

Over the last few weeks, we have had the benefit of hearing from many staff members, supporters and other stakeholders concerning our deliberations and the vote we took on February 1st and the decisions weve made since then. Weve made some mistakes. Were learning from these experiences and from the insights and advice of others in the HSUS family.

As a board, we are committed to providing a workplace for all that is safe, respectful, collegial and supportive. We take allegations of sexual harassment with the utmost seriousness, and we encourage anyone who has concerns to report them through our internal complaint process, so they can be investigated thoroughly, with appropriate action taken.

We embrace the opportunity to rebuild our internal culture and support our staff in creating a workplace where everyone can thrive. We are undertaking a governance review, with the help of outside experts, to ensure that we are following best practices in providing oversight to the organization and exemplifying respectful, responsible and trustworthy leadership.

Since assuming the role of Acting President and CEO on February 2nd, Kitty Block has joined with us and with the hundreds of individuals who make up the management and staff of the HSUS and its affiliates to look forward, to move with speed to heal internal wounds, and to undertake the hard work of culture change.

Our mission to end the suffering of all animals is more important than ever. Together, the HSUS and its affiliates are active throughout the United States and worldwide, working to oppose any and every kind of cruelty to animals, and consistent with our founding vision, to confront large-scale abuses  animal fighting, puppy mills, factory farming, the suffering of animals in laboratories and the wildlife trade  whenever and wherever we must, with all our energy and resources. Its vitally important that we retain the faith and trust of those who believe in our mission, and we will do everything in our power to make that happen.

We thank our employees, donors, volunteers and all other members of the HSUS family for supporting our efforts to create a stronger, better and kinder organization.$58.8M Later Ticketer Razorgator Joins Startup Deadpool

Online ticket marketplace Razorgator laid off the staff at its Marina del Rey headquarters and locked the doors yesterday. No ticket inventory is available on its site. The startup has hired David M. Johnson of financial advisory firm Sherwood Partners to assist with the formal insolvency process.

Founded in 2005, Razorgator had raised $58.8 million in funding and debt financing in 6 rounds. Lead investors now left licking their wounds include resepected venture capital firms Oak Investment Partners and Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers.

"Razorgator is filling for an assignment for the benefit of creditors, a legal process in many states including California for troubled and insolvent companies in a proceeding governed by state law rather than federal bankruptcy law" reports Amplify. "The process gives Razorgator and its investors greater control over the winding down of the company, although it does not give Razorgator an automatic stay against legal claims."

It is unclear how many ticket sellers and brokers are unpaid or had inventory on the site when it shuttered.

Share on:LONDON  Paul Fehlinger isnt a household name like Mark Zuckerberg. But the Paris-based policy wonk has an ambition thats just as big and far-reaching as the Facebook chiefs digital empire: fixing the internet.

With billions of people surfing the web each day  and tech giants like Google and Facebook now the among the worlds most valuable and well-known companies  its easy to think that nothing needs repairing.

But over the past year, governments from Berlin to Washington to Beijing have pushed aggressively to reaffirm their dominance over the borderless internet. Think Germanys new hate speech laws with fines of up to 50 million; the U.S. repeal of its net neutrality laws; or Chinas ever-expanding Great Firewall.

That digital power grab is increasingly dividing the digital world along national or regional borders.

In a sense, the world wide web as we know it is over. And in its place is something altogether different: a Balkanized splinternet.

We need a new generation of laws to govern a new generation of tech  Brad Smith, chief legal officer at Microsoft

Thats where Fehlinger  co-founder of the Internet & Jurisdiction Policy Network, a global group of governments, companies and other nonprofit organizations that wants to glue these diverging online worlds back together  comes in.

His organization has gathered more than 200 global lawmakers, corporate executives and members of civil society for a three-day conference in Ottawa, Canada this week to figure out how to set global rules for the internet.

One of the most difficult global governance challenges of the 21st century, said Fehlinger, who has invited lawmakers from Europe, the United States and elsewhere as well as senior officials from Google, Amazon and Facebook.

Theres a paradigm shift going on. Governments are moving from a position of non-interference to a realization that if we want to keep a cross-border internet going, then we need a new system of governance, he added.

Agreeing on a global rulebook for the web is easier said than done.

From Brazil to Indonesia to France, states are staking out huge swaths of the digital world. The EU is doing its share by exporting tough privacy rules globally. Authoritarian regimes like Turkey and Russia are doing theirs by censoring peoples activities on social networks. Meanwhile, emerging economies like Kenya are struggling to decide whether to follow an open or closed internet rulebook just as many of their citizens join the digital era.

For those gathering in Ottawa, the trend of increasing state intervention poses a maddeningly tough question: How can national governments apply their own legitimate national (yet often conflicting) rules to the web without undermining the inherent global nature of the internet?

Its incredibly difficult, said Oscar Gonzalez, undersecretary of regulation at Argentinas modernization ministry. The internet has challenged the institutions that we have in place. The issue of countries sovereign jurisdiction is at stake.

Gonzalez and the rest of the attendees at the Ottawa conference know that devising a U.N.-style governance system for the internet age will be not be easy, especially given that no one from China, the worlds largest digital economy, will participate.

So they are limiting their discussions in scope.

Much of the conference this week will focus on hammering out a global deal on how to regulate online content like YouTube videos, Facebook posts and Twitter messages. That debate has become increasingly politicized because of the alleged Russian interference in many elections worldwide over the last 18 months, as well as the rise of extremist and other hate speech on many social networks.

Theres no global consensus about the best way to enable the governance of content online  Emma Llanso, director of the free expression project at the Center for Democracy and Technology

Several participants attending the Ottawa meeting said they did not aim to create a one-size-fits-all approach to online content, which would be impossible because of countries diverging stances on free speech and what constitutes illegal material.

Instead, they want to figure out how national governments can extend their own laws over such digital material within their borders, while respecting the rights of other countries that hold different views on regulating the same content.

That may sound like an unwieldy fudge. But it would be a step forward from the current global online land grab where countries are racing to apply their own rules worldwide before other nations politicians can beat them to it.

I dont know if well see a new treaty in the next three to five years to solve all these problems at once, said Emma Llanso, director of the free expression project at the Center for Democracy and Technology, a think tank in Washington. Theres no global consensus about the best way to enable the governance of content online.

Another major challenge for Ottawa: how to keep digital data flowing worldwide at a time when Europe and the United States  the Western worlds two largest markets  remain at loggerheads over who can collect, manage and use such information (everything from search queries to corporate payroll information).

This isnt just a question of making sure online videos of cute cats arent turned off overnight. The digital economy now represents hundreds of billions of euros of annual global trade. And if countries start putting up digital barriers, its likely  if not inevitable  that such trade will take a hit.

To keep global data flows moving, its essential to find a balance between national law enforcements need to access such information to thwart crimes and privacy campaigners demands that peoples information is not misused, either by government agencies or private companies. That debate has even made it to the U.S. Supreme Court, where judges will hold a hearing Tuesday to determine if the U.S. government has the right to unilaterally obtain online information held overseas.

We need a new generation of laws to govern a new generation of tech, said Brad Smith, chief legal officer at Microsoft, which is embroiled in the Supreme Court case. The only way to reconcile the tension between national sovereignty issues is to move faster towards international regulation.

That last point  moving faster toward international regulation  cannot be understated.

The Ottawa conference will certainly move the ball forward on creating global digital rules. Fehlinger and his organization are planning another meeting next year in Berlin.

But its painstaking work. And these negotiations, even if they are successful, will likely take years.

With the current fracturing of the internet into Balkanized regional fiefdoms, any effort to bring the digital world back together should be welcomed. Lets just hope its not already too late.

Source: https://www.politico.eu/article/internet-governance-ottawa-regulation-balkanization-splinternet-global-jurisdiction-policy-network/Sofia  The International Air Transport Association (IATA) called for a renewed policy focus on strengthening Europes aviation competitiveness under the upcoming Bulgarian Presidency of the EU. There is an urgent need to strategically plan the capacity needed to accommodate growing demand for global connectivity, environmental improvements, and infrastructure cost regulation.

IATA is forecasting 6% expansion of demand for air travel in Europe in 2018. While that is healthy growth, European airlines still face some significant challenges. This was evidenced in recent bankruptcies among European carriers. And there is a clear gap in profitability when compared to carriers in North America which are expected to earn $16.67 per passenger carried this year. In contrast, European airlines are expected to earn a profit of $9.99 per passenger.

Operating an airline in Europe is challenging. There are high costs and regulatory burdens. Infrastructure capacity is often not sufficient and the charges for using airports have doubled Europe-wide in the last decade. The Bulgarian government has put competitiveness and connectivity at the heart of the agenda for its Presidency of the EU. This will drive greater competitiveness and prosperity for European economies, but only if individual EU member states follow-through with the adoption of policies that promote aviation connectivity, said Rafael Schvartzman, IATAs Regional Vice President Europe, speaking at IATAs Aviation Day Bulgaria, in Sofia.

These issues were acknowledged in the keynote speech from the Deputy Minister for Transport, Information Technology and Communications for Bulgaria, Velik Zancev.

We believe that Europe's air transport should focus on mobilizing resources and efforts to modernize infrastructure, deploy new technologies and improve connectivity, said Deputy Minister Zancev, who also noted the economic benefits of coordination between the airline community, aviation stakeholders, and the regulatory authorities.

The fruitful cooperation of national stakeholders such as the Ministry of Transport Information Technology and Communications, the Civil Aviation Authority, and BULATSA, with IATA ensures that the Bulgarian aviation sector delivers its full potential. The economic contribution of aviation supports further spheres of the economy: tourism, cargo operations and greater exchange on political, cultural and social levels. Aviation also plays its part in sustainability to ensure environmental and noise impacts are addressed, said Deputy Minister Zancev.

Bulgaria occupies a strategically important position as the gateway from Europe to Turkey, and beyond to Asia. It is also a fast-growing market in its own right, with passenger numbers set to double over the next 20 years. This is a challenge for the countrys air traffic management, and Bulgarias air navigation service provider BULATSA.

In response, BULATSA and IATA have committed to work together and with all aviation stakeholders to deliver and implement a National Airspace Strategy in support of the Single European Sky (SES) initiative.

Building a National Airspace Strategy is the central element for Bulgaria to ensure the country can cope with the future growth and traffic increase we expect in the coming decades. This commitment from Bulgaria is a strong message to the international community that Bulgaria is focused on maintaining the strategic importance of its airspace, said Deputy Minister Zancev.

BULATSAs cooperation with IATA to ensure airlines have the appropriate influence on the strategy will ensure that Bulgarias airspace is fit for the future. This will significantly benefit Bulgarias citizens and the economy, said Schvartzman.





For more information, please contact:

Corporate Communications

Tel: +41 22 770 2967

Email: corpcomms@iata.org



Notes for Editors:

The Airport Commission stated it would not honor any new leases at this time, leaving the new owner of a flight business hanging.

North Adams Airport Commission Grounds Business Proposals

NORTH ADAMS, Mass.  The Airport Commission agreed to take no action on all business proposals or leases until the lease and rental system have been revamped.

"We hope to be able to do this in March and there have been a number of people who have come forward and have expressed interest in the hangars and office space," Chairman Paul Boillat said at Tuesday's meeting. "We need to thoroughly review everyone's proposal."

Some months ago, airport users brought forth inconsistencies in the lease agreements to the commission. Since then, the city has hired a law firm to standardize all the leases at Harriman West Airport.

Administrative Assistant Michael Canales said once these regulations are redone, they will be handed out to the commissioners, tenants and potential tenants for input.

The commission has two new members appointed this month  Dean Bullett and Marc Morandi  and Boillatt said he would like time to get everyone up to speed.

"We hope to have that by March, but we are not ready to commit to that either, so we will continue to put the proposals that we received on the agenda until a decision is made," he said.

This didn't sit well with flight school operator Alex Kelly, who said he has been seeking permission to operate an aviation business at the airport for the past three and a half months.

"I have been given the runaround from day one here. I am a businessman and I have spent a lot of money here. I have lost a lot of money here already," he said. "I have no agenda. I just want to operate a business."

Kelly reiterated accusations against former Commissioner Trevor Gilman, who he felt attempted to block his ultimate purchase of TeamFlys, with which Gilman volunteered.

Gilman was removed from the commission after an investigation began into irregularities in the fuel account.

"It is insane what has happened here, and I don't understand how it got to this point," he said.

Much of Kelly's statements were also present in a post he made on social media months ago directly calling out Gilman, airport manager Bill Greenwald and mechanic John Werner, who he said wrongly performed aircraft maintenance.

The post lead to a firestorm of comments with some defending Kelly's claims while others railed against the flight school owner.

Some accused Kelly of sexual misconduct.

Although wrongdoing on Gilman's part is still under investigation, the later accusation of Kelly appears to be true.

Kelly was convicted in 1997 of raping two teenage girls in 1986 in Connecticut. He was sentenced to 16 years in prison but was released after 10 years on good behavior in 2007.

He has since operated aviation businesses in Connecticut and in Bennington, Vt. However, with planned construction at the Bennington airport, he set his sights on North Adams.

Kelly's past conviction was not mentioned at the meeting, but Kelly did ask the commission if there was a reason they seemed to be stalling.

"I don't understand why a town would do everything they can to run a businessman out who is trying to bring a bunch of money here," he said. "I am coming to you with honesty and respect so let's just be honest what is the deal? Do you want business here or not?

"Obviously there is something going on here that I don't understand. I have the right to understand what is going on."

The commissioners only reaffirmed that they would take up the proposal at a future meeting.

Kelly added that the commission has no right to discriminate against any aviation-related business an FAA-obligated airport

"It is against the law ... I don't have time to wait any longer I need a letter of permission," he said. "I need it on record in writing that you are not going to give it to me. I need something to go to the next level."

Kelly flat out asked if he would be given permission to operate his school before the end of Tuesday's meeting. Boillet said no.

Canales recommended that if Kelly was finished with his comments that the commission adjourn.

Werner, the mechanic Kelly accused of improperly repairing an aircraft, was last to speak during the last calls for open forum.

Werner said his work was consistent with the aircraft's manual and that the FAA had no issue with his actions.Venmo settlement addresses availability of funds, privacy practices, and GLB

Washington, DC - Advances in payment methods could end those open-wallet debates about who owes what for the pizza. But as innovative technologies change how people pay for things, established consumer protection principles apply. An FTC complaint against peer-to-peer payment service Venmo  now operated by PayPal  alleges that the company failed to disclose material information about the availability of consumers funds. In addition, the lawsuit challenges aspects of the companys privacy and security practices. A proposed settlement in the case requires Venmo to make clear disclosures about certain business practices.

How Venmo works. When consumers download the Venmo app, they create an account connected to their bank account or credit or debit card. They can receive money from other Venmo users, transfer money to them, or transfer some or all of their Venmo balance to their bank account. So lets say a Venmo user wants to pay another user $10 for that pizza or to get the other person to kick in their $10 share. To initiate a transaction, he or she either sends money to the other user or submits a charge request that asks the person to pay. Users must include a short message with each transaction. Within seconds, the recipient gets a notification about the transaction. The language changed over time, but Venmo typically said things like Money credited to your Venmo balance. Transfer to your bank overnight or someone paid $[X] to your Venmo balance [description of transaction.]  Leave it in Venmo or transfer it to your bank account.

Venmos transfer policies. According to the complaint, the companys representations led many consumers to believe that when they received payment notifications from Venmo, the funds were ready to be transferred to their bank account. But that wasnt the case. The complaint alleges that in many instances, consumers werent able to transfer funds as promised. Thats because Venmo waited until a consumer attempted to transfer funds to his or her external bank account to review the transaction for fraud, insufficient funds, or other problems. For many consumers, once Venmo undertook that review, it resulted in delaying the transfer or even reversing the transaction altogether.

Those delays and losses led thousands of consumers to complain to Venmo. Many people reported that the companys practices resulted in significant financial hardship  for example, not being able to pay their rent even though it appeared they had enough in their Venmo account to cover it. The complaint alleges that even in the face of mounting consumer complaints, Venmo continued to claim  without any qualifiers  that once money was credited to consumers Venmo accounts, users could transfer it to their bank accounts. The FTC alleges that Venmos failure to adequately disclose to consumers that funds could be frozen or removed from their accounts was deceptive.

Venmos privacy practices. Consumers access to funds wasnt the FTCs only concern. By default, all peer-to-peer transactions on Venmo are displayed on Venmos social news feed. That includes the names of the payer and the recipient, and the accompanying message. In addition, each Venmo user has a profile page that lists their Venmo transactions. By default, their five most recent ones were visible to anyone on that page, including visitors who dont have a Venmo account. (People without an account could still see a users Venmo account either by clicking on a link to the users Venmo profile page or by using a search engine.)

Consumers who didnt want to share their transactions could go to a Venmo menu to edit their privacy settings. By changing the Default Audience Setting, people could set the default visibility of their future transactions on the news feed to specific groups, like Participants Only or Friends. The problem, alleges the FTC, is that setting the Default Audience Setting did not limit how the other party to the transaction could share the transaction. To ensure that their transactions remained at their chosen default visibility, consumers had to take a second inadequately disclosed step involving what was called the Transaction Sharing Setting. If people didnt change both settings, some of their transactions remained visible. The same problem occurred if consumers took action to limit the visibility of a particular transaction, but didnt change the Transaction Sharing Setting.

Venmos data security promises. The FTC also challenged as false a Venmo claim that it protected consumers financial information with bank grade security systems. According to the complaint, until March 2015, Venmo failed to implement some basic safeguards. For example, Venmo didnt notify consumers about changes to their settings from within their Venmo account  for example, that their email address or password had been changed. (Notifications like that can alert consumers that an unauthorized person is monkeying with their account.)

Alleged GLB violations. The complaint includes allegations that Venmo violated the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Privacy Rule by failing to provide users with a clear initial privacy notice, by failing to deliver it in a way that each consumer could reasonably be expected to receive it, and by distributing a notice that didnt accurately reflect its practices. In addition, the FTC says Venmo violated the GLB Safeguards Rule by failing to have a comprehensive written information security program in place before August 2014 and by failing to implement safeguards to protect the security, confidentiality, and integrity of consumer data until at least March 2015.

The proposed order. To settle the case, PayPal (which now owns Venmo) has agreed not to make misrepresentations about material restrictions or limitations on the use of any payment service with a social networking component. The proposed order also requires PayPal, when making representations about the availability of funds to be transferred or withdrawn to a bank account, to clearly disclose that the transaction is subject to review and that funds could be frozen or removed. In addition, PayPal must provide clear disclosures about how any payment and social networking service shares transaction information with other users and must tell consumers how to adjust privacy settings to limit how that information is shared. PayPal also must get every-other-year data security assessments for 10 years.

The FTC is accepting public comments about the proposed settlement until March 29, 2018. In the meantime, prudent businesses can take some tips from the case:Dominican Republic National Day

Washington, DC - Secretary of State Rex W. Tillerson: "On behalf of the Government of the United States, I congratulate the people of the Dominican Republic on 174 years of independence.

"The United States values our longstanding friendship with the Dominican Republic. We applaud the Governments leadership in the Caribbean Basin Security Initiative, and more broadly, for its commitment to improving the political, economic, and social bonds within the Western Hemisphere.

"We look forward to working with the Dominican Republic to strengthen these partnerships for greater security and prosperity in the region, as stated in the Caribbean 2020 strategy.

"We send our very best wishes for a happy Independence Day to the Dominican people."Tom Hanks and Audrey Hepburn are the actors British people would love to play them in films of their lives, a study has found.

The star of Forest Gump, Big and Saving Private Ryan was the choice the male population would prefer to take on the role, while the star Roman Holiday and Breakfast At Tiffany's came top of the ladies list.

Overall one in two Britons thinks an Oscar-worthy actor would be required to play them in a movie of their own life, the study conducted by Sky Cinema, found.

Hanks, who picked up the coveted statuette for his role in Forrest Gump and Philadelphia also received a nomination at this year's 90th Academy Awards, for his role in The Post.

Hepburn was the first actress to win an Academy Award, a Golden Globe Award and a Bafta Award for a single performance in the 1953 Roman Holiday.

She was ranked by the American Film Institute as the third-greatest female screen legend in Golden Age Hollywood.

In 1989, Hepburn was appointed a Goodwill Ambassador of the The United Nations Children's Fund (Unicef) and was later presented with the Presidential Medal of Freedom by George H W Bush in recognition of her work with the organisation.

Its wonderful to see such notable talent as Tom Hanks, Audrey Hepburn and Steven Spielberg getting well-earned recognition from the British public for their work," said Sky Cinema's Alex Zane, who will host the Oscars on 4 March.

Other Academy Award winners appearing in prime positions in the countdown include Leonardo DiCaprio, Helen Mirren, Clint Eastwood and Sandra Bullock.

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Denzel Washington, Maggie Smith and Emma Thompson also appeared in the top 20 actors and actresses we would want to play us on the big screen.

When it comes to directorial duties, Steven Spielberg  who currently has three Oscars to his name  is the most sought-after talent amongst the British public for telling their tale, followed by James Cameron and Quentin Tarantino.

Thirty-seven per cent of Brits believe their character would be the hero of their tale, while one in five would consider themselves an anti-hero figure.

And one in 10 pessimistically think they would ultimately become the villain in a cinematic retelling of their own life story.

A quarter would describe their life story as a drama, while 22 per cent think the events of their life would work better as a light-hearted comedy.

Twenty one per cent think their life story falls into the archetype of a true underdog tale and a quarter think it would be a feel-good and uplifting story.

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

Researchers also found that if Brits had the choice of popular elements to include in their movie, one in seven would add a climactic battle  even if it never happened in their real life.

Seventeen per cent would include a musical number or interlude to proceedings and one in five would work in a shocking plot twist to hoodwink viewers.

A quarter also believe their life story could not be released without an 18 rating to cover the raunchy, violent and otherwise "mature" content of their lives while more than half want their story to end with a traditional happy ending, while one in seven want things to close on a comedic note.

One in 10 would opt for their character to go out in a blaze of glory and a subversive one in eight would like the film to cut to black while their character is mid-sentence to leave the audience on a baffling cliff-hanger.

Over two thirds of modest moviegoers think the events of their life could be squeezed into a sub-two hour runtime and only one per cent thinks their story could run to the length of some of the grand Hollywood epics of the past.

Forty one per cent reckon the film which tells their life story would be worthy of a nomination at the Oscars, yet 44 per cent admit the events would likely make for a boring watch once up on screen.

Alex Zane added: Ahead of the Oscars this weekend we wanted to get Brits thinking about the cinematic quality of their own lives. Its a question most of us have asked ourselves or been posed by another: who would play you in a movie of your own life?

Blockbusting stories arent limited to Hollywood film lots and we hope our study has sparked imaginations and conversations about the power of cinema and the possibilities that wait should the life stories of the British public ever be committed to celluloid.

Sky Cinema will show the Oscars exclusively live in the UK on 4 March Sunday, coverage begins with Oscars 2018: Red Carpet live from midnight, before the Oscars 2018 live begins at 1.30am on Monday morning.

Top 50 actors Brits want to play them

1. Tom Hanks

2. Audrey Hepburn

3. Sandra Bullock

4. Helen Mirren

5. Emma Watson

6. Leonardo DiCaprio

7. Clint Eastwood

8. Julia Roberts

9. Kate Winslet

10. Matt Damon

11. Emma Stone

12. James Stewart

13. Anthony Hopkins

14. Marilyn Monroe

15. Meryl Streep

16. Jennifer Lawrence

17. Emma Thompson

18. Maggie Smith

19. Denzel Washington

20. Angelina Jolie

21. Johnny Depp

22. Keira Knightley

23. Brad Pitt

24. Reese Witherspoon

25. Jack Nicholson

26. Liam Neeson

27. Gary Oldman

28. Humphrey Bogart

29. Harrison Ford

30. Daniel Day-Lewis

31. John Wayne

32. Michael Caine

33. Tom Cruise

34. Grace Kelly

35. Marlon Brando

36. Scarlett Johansson

37. Katharine Hepburn

38. Jodie Foster

39. Charlie Chaplin

40. Elizabeth Taylor

41. Robert De Niro

42. Clark Gable

43. Julie Andrews

44. Charlize Theron

45. Nicolas Cage

46. Russell Crowe

47. Vin Diesel

48. Whoopi Goldberg

49. Gary Cooper

50. Jeff Bridges

Top twelve phrases for the life stories of Britons

1. Boredom forever

2. Born to be mild

3. Daves destiny

4. Daz: A life animated

5. Everyone loves timmy

6. How not to live your life

7. Is that it, then?

8. Jen the crazy cat woman

9. Peace, trust and an utter lack of f***s

10. The rise and fall of Debra

11. The amazingly tedious life of a Wombat lover

12. The life and times of a confused cross-dresser

SWNSTheres a sense of homecoming about this two-night stand in Manchester for First Aid Kit.

It should, by rights, be a painful one, too. Klara Soderberg, the younger of the two Stockholm sisters, lived here for a couple of years while she was engaged to a local musician and it was the collapse of that relationship that inspired Januarys Ruins, the bands fourth LP.

Much tends to be made of the duos precociousness  older sibling Johanna is still only 27, despite the pair being a decade into their career  but age is clearly no barrier to heartbreak on the basis of Ruins, on which the standouts were swooning ballads scored through with nervous uncertainty  Postcard and Fireworks are a couple of cases in point.

Anybody who caught any one of the bands previous five sold-out shows in the city, though, will know that theyre a different proposition entirely on stage. Fleshed out to a five-piece and with Johanna swapping keyboards for bass duties, stormy opener Rebel Heart has them sounding more like a bona fide rocknroll outfit than ever before.

The real tone, though, is set by recent single Its a Shame, which fizzes with a playful energy thats in evidence all night. Theres an old adage about the making of a record being the hard work and the touring of it being the reward and if Klara had to put herself through the emotional wringer to produce Ruins, tonight feels like a celebration of having moved past a particularly turbulent period.

Not that there isnt room for the striking of a serious note, though; last years one-off single You Are the Problem Here, which has the sisters viciously lashing out against misogyny, has taken on a new relevance in the months since its release and after rattling through a particularly incendiary take on it here, Klara urges the men in the audience to heed its message; call your friends out on their sexist jokes.

Its tracks like that one that rendered Ruins a little bit of a disappointment in terms of how musically safe the duo chose to play it; when that single and an irresistibly fun cover of Hearts Crazy on You provide tonights real highlights, you wonder why they keep that side of themselves under lock and key in the studio. Perhaps therell be room for something more upbeat on the next LP; until then, its impressive enough that First Aid Kit returned in such jubilant mood to the city that was the backdrop to their latest albums heartache.The threat posed to bees by pesticides has been confirmed in a major new EU evaluation that could pave the way for a Europe-wide ban on the most harmful chemicals.

According to the new report, neonicotinoid pesticides put both honeybees and wild bees at risk when used in any outdoor setting.

In the past, these chemicals have been linked to large-scale population extinctions in bees. As these insects are vital for crop pollination, their loss would be a disaster for food production.

The report by the European Food Safety Authority (Efsa) assessed data from three neonicotinoids: clothianidin, imidacloprid and thiamethoxam.

After analysing the findings from nearly 600 studies and consultation with external experts, the reports authors concluded that most uses of neonicotinoid pesticides represent a risk to wild bees and honeybees.

Decline of honey bees now a global phenomenon, says United Nations Show all 2 1 /2 Decline of honey bees now a global phenomenon, says United Nations Decline of honey bees now a global phenomenon, says United Nations Decline of honey bees now a global phenomenon, says United Nations alamy

There is currently a ban on neonicotinoid use on flowering crops in the EU. However, the new report suggests this is not sufficient, as the use of these chemicals in any outdoor setting poses a high risk to bees.

Bees face chronic exposure to these chemicals, as they persist in the environment and are dispersed to other plants besides the ones they were initially applied to.

However, the Efsa authors also concluded that when used indoors, for example in greenhouses, neonicotinoids do not threaten bees in the same way.

Jose Tarazona, head of Efsas pesticides unit, said: The availability of such a substantial amount of data as well as the guidance has enabled us to produce very detailed conclusions.

There is variability in the conclusions, due to factors such as the bee species, the intended use of the pesticide and the route of exposure. Some low risks have been identified, but overall the risk to the three types of bees we have assessed is confirmed.

Recommended Pesticides that pose threat to humans and bees found in honey

The evidence adds to the case for a neonicotinoid ban that covers all outdoor crops, and its release has led to fresh calls for more extensive restrictions.

Environment Secretary Michael Gove has already said the UK will support tougher restrictions, but other EU nations such as Germany and Spain have been unwilling to commit. They have previously stated they would await Efsas results.

A European vote on such a ban could happen as soon as March, and if a majority of countries vote for the proposal it will be imposed on all member states.

This long-awaited report confirms the significant threat these neonicotinoid pesticides pose to our bees. We have been playing Russian roulette with the future of our bees for far too long, said Friends of the Earth bee campaigner Sandra Bell.

The UK Government has already said it will support a complete ban on the outdoor use of these three bee-harming chemicals  a move that is fully justified by this report. Other EU countries must now back a tougher ban too.

Scientists have also noted the role these findings could play in influencing European policy on harmful pesticides.

This report certainly strengthens the case for further restrictions on neonicotinoid use across Europe, said Professor Dave Goulson, a biologist at the University of Sussex.

This is an important announcement by Efsa that most uses of neonicotinoids are a risk to all bee species. Importantly they identify that high risk does not result from direct exposure to non-flowering crops, but to subsequent indirect exposure from field margins, adjacent crops and succeeding crops, said Professor Christopher Connolly, a neurobiologist at the University of Dundee.

A highly restricted use of neonicotinoids would reduce this environmental stress and retain neonicotinoids as important pest control agents for use in severe situations.The moon is to get its first 4G mobile network next year - exactly half a century after Nasa astronaut Neil Armstrong first made his "giant leap for mankind".

Vodafone Germany and Nokia are teaming up to create the network, which will support the operations of rovers collecting scientific data and reporting back from the astral body's surface.

In what will be the first-ever commercial lunar landing, Berlin-based space exploration company PTScientists will launch ultra-light mobile masts from Nokia Bell Labs using a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, taking off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.

Vodafone engineers will then build the energy-efficient network using Nokia's hardware to enable Audi-made lunar quattro rovers to transmit data and high-definition (HD) footage back to its base station on earth for monitoring.

Vodafone hopes the network will be able to broadcast on the 1800 MHz frequency band to deliver the universe's first HD livestream direct from the moon.

"This is a crucial first step for sustainable exploration of the solar system. In order for humanity to leave the cradle of earth, we need to develop infrastructures beyond our home planet," said Robert Bohme, CEO and founder of PTScientists.

Gadget and tech news: In pictures Show all 25 1 /25 Gadget and tech news: In pictures Gadget and tech news: In pictures Gun-toting humanoid robot sent into space Russia has launched a humanoid robot into space on a rocket bound for the International Space Station (ISS). The robot Fedor will spend 10 days aboard the ISS practising skills such as using tools to fix issues onboard. Russia's deputy prime minister Dmitry Rogozin has previously shared videos of Fedor handling and shooting guns at a firing range with deadly accuracy. Dmitry Rogozin/Twitter Gadget and tech news: In pictures Google turns 21 Google celebrates its 21st birthday on September 27. The The search engine was founded in September 1998 by two PhD students, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, in their dormitories at Californias Stanford University. Page and Brin chose the name google as it recalled the mathematic term 'googol', meaning 10 raised to the power of 100 Google Gadget and tech news: In pictures Hexa drone lifts off Chief engineer of LIFT aircraft Balazs Kerulo demonstrates the company's "Hexa" personal drone craft in Lago Vista, Texas on June 3 2019 Reuters Gadget and tech news: In pictures Project Scarlett to succeed Xbox One Microsoft announced Project Scarlett, the successor to the Xbox One, at E3 2019. The company said that the new console will be 4 times as powerful as the Xbox One and is slated for a release date of Christmas 2020 Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures First new iPod in four years Apple has announced the new iPod Touch, the first new iPod in four years. The device will have the option of adding more storage, up to 256GB Apple Gadget and tech news: In pictures Folding phone may flop Samsung will cancel orders of its Galaxy Fold phone at the end of May if the phone is not then ready for sale. The $2000 folding phone has been found to break easily with review copies being recalled after backlash PA Gadget and tech news: In pictures Charging mat non-starter Apple has cancelled its AirPower wireless charging mat, which was slated as a way to charge numerous apple products at once AFP/Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures "Super league" India shoots down satellite India has claimed status as part of a "super league" of nations after shooting down a live satellite in a test of new missile technology EPA Gadget and tech news: In pictures 5G incoming 5G wireless internet is expected to launch in 2019, with the potential to reach speeds of 50mb/s Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures Uber halts driverless testing after death Uber has halted testing of driverless vehicles after a woman was killed by one of their cars in Tempe, Arizona. March 19 2018 Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures A humanoid robot gestures during a demo at a stall in the Indian Machine Tools Expo, IMTEX/Tooltech 2017 held in Bangalore Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures A humanoid robot gestures during a demo at a stall in the Indian Machine Tools Expo, IMTEX/Tooltech 2017 held in Bangalore Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures Engineers test a four-metre-tall humanoid manned robot dubbed Method-2 in a lab of the Hankook Mirae Technology in Gunpo, south of Seoul, South Korea Jung Yeon-Je/AFP/Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures Engineers test a four-metre-tall humanoid manned robot dubbed Method-2 in a lab of the Hankook Mirae Technology in Gunpo, south of Seoul, South Korea Jung Yeon-Je/AFP/Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures The giant human-like robot bears a striking resemblance to the military robots starring in the movie 'Avatar' and is claimed as a world first by its creators from a South Korean robotic company Jung Yeon-Je/AFP/Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures Engineers test a four-metre-tall humanoid manned robot dubbed Method-2 in a lab of the Hankook Mirae Technology in Gunpo, south of Seoul, South Korea Jung Yeon-Je/AFP/Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures Waseda University's saxophonist robot WAS-5, developed by professor Atsuo Takanishi Rex Gadget and tech news: In pictures Waseda University's saxophonist robot WAS-5, developed by professor Atsuo Takanishi and Kaptain Rock playing one string light saber guitar perform jam session Rex Gadget and tech news: In pictures A test line of a new energy suspension railway resembling the giant panda is seen in Chengdu, Sichuan Province, China Reuters Gadget and tech news: In pictures A test line of a new energy suspension railway, resembling a giant panda, is seen in Chengdu, Sichuan Province, China Reuters Gadget and tech news: In pictures A concept car by Trumpchi from GAC Group is shown at the International Automobile Exhibition in Guangzhou, China Rex Gadget and tech news: In pictures A Mirai fuel cell vehicle by Toyota is displayed at the International Automobile Exhibition in Guangzhou, China Reuters Gadget and tech news: In pictures A visitor tries a Nissan VR experience at the International Automobile Exhibition in Guangzhou, China Reuters Gadget and tech news: In pictures A man looks at an exhibit entitled 'Mimus' a giant industrial robot which has been reprogrammed to interact with humans during a photocall at the new Design Museum in South Kensington, London Getty Gadget and tech news: In pictures A new Israeli Da-Vinci unmanned aerial vehicle manufactured by Elbit Systems is displayed during the 4th International conference on Home Land Security and Cyber in the Israeli coastal city of Tel Aviv Getty

"With Mission to the Moon, we will establish and test the first elements of a dedicated communications network on the moon.

"The great thing about this LTE [long-term evolution] solution is that it saves so much power, and the less energy we use sending data, the more we have to do science!A majority of Americans believe social media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook hurt free speech and democracy more than they help, according to a new survey.

In a finding that underscores a considerable shift in public opinion following revelations about the way Russia allegedly used platforms such as Twitter and Facebook to try and interfere in the 2016 election, the poll also suggests a majority of Americans want major technology firms regulated by the government.

The poll found the belief the government was not doing enough to regulate Silicon Valley leapt from 40 per cent in November to 55 today. And while the poll found Democrats were the most anxious, levels of concern were reasonably similar among Republicans and independents.

Thats a seismic shift in the publics perception of Silicon Valley over a short period of time, said an article by the Axios news site, which commissioned the poll in conjunction with SurveyMonkey.

It shows how worried Americans are about Russian meddling in the 2016 election, but it also reflects a growing anxiety about the potentially addictive nature of some of the tech companies products, as well as the relentless spread of fake news on their platforms.

Concern about the lack of regulation of major technology firms has been a mounting issue, following the seemingly never-ending growth an ambition of companies such as Amazon, Facebook and Google. That concern has fuelled in part by some some of the firms extraordinary efforts to limit their taxation, about the lack of diversity within Silicon Valley, and controversies such as the one last August when Google fired an engineer who had written and posted a ten-page memo arguing for less concern about gender inequality in the workplace.

 Billionaire investor George Soros calls more stringent regulations for monopolies like Google and Facebook

Last October, in what was perhaps the first effort by Congress to regulate big technology firms, which spend millions of dollars lobbying the government.

Republican John McCain and two Democratic unveiled a bill that would force Facebook, Google and others to disclose who is purchasing online political advertising.

When releasing the first legislative response to revelations that Russians used tech platforms to interfere in the 2016 election, the senators said their bill was intended to defend the bedrock of the US's political system.

During a news conference, the Democratic co-sponsors of the bill  senators Amy Klobuchar and Mark Warner  said they were angry at how foreign actors had been able to take advantage of loopholes in current laws to threaten the integrity of the US election system.

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

Our entire democracy was founded on the simple idea that the people in our country should be self-governing, Ms Klobuchar said.

Now 240 years later, our democracy is at risk. Russia attacked our elections, and they and other foreign powers and interests will continue to divide our country if we dont act now.

Mike Elgan, a Silicon Valley-based tech journalist told The Independent he believed the public was turning against the industry for several reasons.

The backlash is a backlash only in contrast to an older sentiment, which is general optimism about tech. In the past, Silicon Valley was going to put a computer on our desks, a phone in our pockets and, eventually, connect us all with fun social networks. The public not only believed these changes were generally good, they also felt they understood them, he said.

He said he believed the level of the backlash was already having an impact. You see Facebook's numbers dropping, smartphone sales are leveling off, etc. Its just the beginning, but tech is losing its lustre, he added.

The Axios survey found that while 82 per cent of Americans believed that technology has an overall positive effect on society, 55 per cent thought special media hurt democracy and free speech, more than it helped it.

Around 80 per cent blamed technology companies for not doing more to safeguard their platforms against election interference.

Last week, Barack Obama told a conference at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, that firms such as Facebook and Google needed to have a conversation about their business models and recognise they were both a public good and a commercial enterprise.

We have to have serious conversation about what are the business models, the algorithms, (and) the mechanics whereby we can create more of a common conversation and that cannot just be a commercially driven conversation, he said.

Special Prosecutor Robert Mueller, who is investigating alleged Russian interference in the 2016 US election and possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia, has indicted 13 Russians and outlined details of the way they sought to use social media to post fake news and divisive opinions during and after the election.

Charles Cooper, who has been writing about technology and business for three decades, said he believed it may not be wise to attach too much value to a single poll. He said previous news cycles, whether it was the alleged role of computer games in inspiring the Columbine massacre shooters or the controversy over net neutrality, pushed issues over technology to the top of the agenda, only to see them subsequently fade.

Were just a very fickle nation with a very short attention span, he said.

Tech issues can get complicated and most people have neither the time nor the inclination to dig very deep, Im afraid.

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Denise Howell, a writer and intellectual property and technology lawyer based in Newport Beach, California, said firms such as Facebook, Google, and Yahoo had taken some steps to counter public concern, though probably not enough to prevent government regulation.

They have not sufficiently anticipated the scope and potential impact of public awareness and outrage. They could and should have done a better job of managing their platforms and public expectations, she said.

Had they done so, the public and its elected representatives might be more inclined to take a hands-off approach, conclude that market forces are sufficient checks on concerning policies and practices, and leave the regulatory landscape alone.

She added: It behooves Silicon Valley to get out in front of this policy and public relations battle effectively and immediately. If it does not, lawmakers will inevitably weigh in to address their constituents' concerns.

Lawmakers historically have demonstrated an imperfect understanding of the interplay between the internet and public interest, and may unwittingly pass knee-jerk, apple-polishing measures that fail to foresee their collateral damage.With Mother's Day fast approaching, you'll already be able to spot people frantically rushing from store to store trying to find the perfect gift for their mother.

While the annual celebration is widely regarded as a consumer-driven event, it didn't start off that way when it was created in the early 20th century.

This year, the secular occasion of Mother's Day coincides with Mothering Sunday.

Mothering Sunday is a religious observance that's been commemorated for hundreds of years.

From the date, the best deals and differences between traditions around the world, here's everything you need to know about Mother's Day:

When is it?

Mother's Day falls on Sunday 31 March in the UK this year.

8 times celebrities have been sent hilarious messages by their mothers Show all 8 1 /8 8 times celebrities have been sent hilarious messages by their mothers 8 times celebrities have been sent hilarious messages by their mothers Zendaya Actor Zendaya's mother demonstrated a keen interest in science when she sent her daughter a link to a study which claimed that spending more time with your mother will increase her likelihood of living longer. 'Why is my mother like this??' Zendaya tweeted. Twitter (@Zendaya) 8 times celebrities have been sent hilarious messages by their mothers Reese Witherspoon Actor Reese Witherspoon's mother couldn't contain her excitement when she watched her daughter's 2014 film 'Wild', which earned Witherspoon an Academy Award nomination. 'I cried through the book and the movie twice!' Witherspoon's mother wrote in a text. 'Continue to make movies of inspiration and humour!' Instagram (@reesewitherspoon) 8 times celebrities have been sent hilarious messages by their mothers Olivia Munn Actor Olivia Munn was forced to deny rumours that she was engaged to her mother when speculation about her relationship status was reported in the press. 'Hey why don't you tell me first?' her mother wrote, to which Munn responded: 'Oh my gosh Mum no. You know you shouldn't believe gossip on the Internet.' Instagram (@oliviamunn) 8 times celebrities have been sent hilarious messages by their mothers Miranda Cosgrove Actor Miranda Cosgrove's mother kept her sentiments short and sweet when she messaged her daughter one day. 'I help everyone but no one will help me!' Cosgrove's mother wrote. 'Texts from my Mum #thestruggleisreal,' Cosgrove wrote in the Instagram caption. Instagram (@mirandacosgrove) 8 times celebrities have been sent hilarious messages by their mothers Michelle Obama Despite having been a former first lady of the United States, Michelle Obama still has to strive to earn recognition from her mother. Following her appearance at the opening of this 2019 Grammy Awards, Obama shared a text from her mother which read: 'Did you meet any of the real stars or did you run right after you were done?' 'When your mum doesn't think you're a 'real' celebrity...' Obama wrote on Instagram. Instagram (@michelleobama) 8 times celebrities have been sent hilarious messages by their mothers Mandy Moore 'This Is Us' star Mandy Moore revealed some harsh words from her mother after she watched the hit drama show, in which her character's appearance was scrutinised. 'Although Rebecca has issues doesn't she? Hopefully she is made to look better in future episodes,' Moore's mother texted her. Instagram (@mandymooremm) 8 times celebrities have been sent hilarious messages by their mothers Emma Roberts While actor Emma Roberts' mother may not know how to use social media and still uses a Noughties-esque flip phone, she still has a way with words when texting her daughter. 'Whts up queen? xo mama,' Roberts' mother wrote in a message to the actor. 'Shout out to my mum who doesn't have email, Twitter, Instagram, still uses a flip phone, and signs all her messages,' the 'American Horror Story' star wrote on Instagram. Instagram (@emmaroberts) 8 times celebrities have been sent hilarious messages by their mothers Ariana Grande Singer Ariana Grande's mother felt so overwhelmed one day with regards to her daughter's success that she found herself crying in an airport, the star revealed in a screenshot shared on Instagram. 'Hahaha you are my angel and I am so proud of you,' Grande's mother wrote. 'You have blossomed into a young woman so recently and right before my eyes... I am crying in the airport... I am so weird.' Instagram (@arianagrande)

The occasion was first marked in 1908, when an American woman called Anna Jarvis held a memorial for her mother at St Andrews Methodist Church in Grafton, West Virginia.

Mothering Sunday, a religious holiday that is celebrated by Catholic and Protestant Christians in some parts of Europe, falls on the fourth Sunday of Lent three weeks before Easter Sunday.

In some parts of the world such as Afghanistan, Russia, Vietnam and Belarus, Mothers Day coincides with International Womens Day on 8 March every year.

How is it celebrated?

For many people across the globe, Mothers Day is associated with the Virgin Mary and observed as a religious holiday, with some holding shrines and prayer services in churches in her honour.

Janet Heyden, a woman from Leichhardt, Sydney, became the first person in Australia to give out gifts on Mothers Day in 1924 when she handed out presents to mothers who were being treated at the Newington State Home for Women.

Around the 16th Century, it was common practice for Christians in the United Kingdom to reunite with their mothers on Laetare Sunday, the fourth Sunday of Lent.

This tradition has since evolved into the more secular and consumer-driven Mothers Day that we know today.

This is ironic, considering the fact that Jarvis specifically said she never intended Mother's Day to become commercialised.

"I wanted it to be a day of sentiment, not profit," the founder said.

What are the best deals?

Fancy flowers

You cant go wrong with a gift of flowers, especially on Mothers Day.

However, you could take this floral gift a step further by pairing a bouquet of flowers with a delicious box of chocolates.

For a limited time only, Marks & Spencer is offering a free box of chocolates with selected purchases of Mothers Day flowers, in addition to free delivery.

For more Mother's Day bouquets to choose from, click here.

The best of beauty

Show your mother how well you know her by picking a selection of her favourite beauty products for a thoughtful gift bundle.

Debenhams is currently offering a selection of beauty products that have been discounted by up to 10.

Take your pick from brands including Clinique, Lancome, Dior and more.

To take a look at more Mother's Day beauty gift ideas, click here.

Sit back and relax

Treat your mother to a spa day for you to enjoy as well (Getty Images/iStockphoto)

Spa day for two? Need we say more?

Everyone loves a pamper, especially when youve managed to bag a sweet bargain in the process.

Buyagift is offering a 50 per cent discount on a two-for-one spa day for two from your choice of 150 locations across the UK.

For more presents ideal for treating the "queen" of your life on Mother's Day, click here.

Go wild

Take a trip down memory lane by taking your mum to the zoo.

This Mothers Day weekend, Twycross Zoo is admitting mothers for free when they visit with a full-priced child.

The zoo is also offering a special afternoon tea for Mother's Day, from 1pm on Saturday 30 March and Sunday 31 March.

Tickets include entry to the zoo and cost 25 for mothers, 30 for adults (25 for Twycross Zoo members) and 20 for children (15 for Twycross Zoo members). Tickets for children under the age of two are free.

Pizza party

What better way to show your love for your mum than with a table full of food?

Pizza Express is offering three courses from 18.95 to 20.95 this Mothers Day, with a complimentary glass of Prosecco for every wonderful mother being treated by her family.

Italian food, bubbly, great company what more could you want?

Become a chocolatier

Youre in for a tasty time with this luxury chocolate making workshop for two, available on Virgin Experience Days.

The workshop, which has been reduced from 160 to half the price at 80, will give you and your mum the opportunity to learn how to make cocktails, make your own flavoured giant chocolate button and decorate fresh homemade fudge.

With a glass of chilled Prosecco offered on arrival, it sounds like the ideal activity to us.

For more Mother's Day chocolate treats, click here.

Creative cards

A thoughtful card an a bouquet of flowers can go a long way (Getty Images/iStockphoto)

Brighten your mothers day with a thoughtful, fun card inscribed with a loving message.

This Mother's day, Moonpig is offering a free card with every purchase of a bouquet of flowers.

Plus, large and giant cards are currently on sale on the site with a 25 per cent discount, when you use the code HAVE25OFF during checkout.

 Support free-thinking journalism and attend Independent events

For some creative personalised gift ideas, click here.Old paper 10 notes will go out of circulation by the end of today, after which they will cease to be legal tender in shops.

From Friday 2 March shops will no longer be required to accept the paper banknotes that feature a portrait of Charles Darwin.

New plastic 10 notes depicting Jane Austen were introduced in September 2017.

The Bank of England recently estimated that around 2bn worth of old tenners were still in circulation.

After the deadline, people can exchange old paper notes by posting them or delivering them in person to the Bank of England in central London. The bank said it would accept the old notes indefinitely.

People may also be able to exchange the old note at a local bank or post office but there is no obligation to accept them after the deadline.

The new 10 note is the second to be printed on a plastic polymer, which the bank has said is cleaner, safer and more hard-wearing than the traditional cotton paper it will replace. The plastic fiver, featuring Winston Churchill, entered circulation in September 2016.

The new polymer notes are said to be significantly harder to forge.

When the design of the new 10 was first unveiled in July last year it was praised by members of the blind and visually impaired community for its tactile features.

Raised dots, similar to braille characters, on the left-hand side of the note and fine raised lines on the right, help those who cannot see to differentiate it from notes of other denominations.

A new polymer 20 banknote, featuring artist JMW Turner, is due to be issued in 2020. Bank of England governor Mark Carney said in October that there were no plans to make a new 50 note.The Governments plans for a new test for four-year-olds will be damaging to young children, parents, teachers and psychotherapists have warned.

A coalition of campaigners has called on the Department for Education to abandon its proposals to spend almost 10m on a new baseline assessment for children at the start of Reception.

The new report, launched in parliament yesterday, warns that enormous damage can be done to children when adults believe that childrens ability is fixed and can be defined at a young age.

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It adds that children will be pushed into a world of high-stakes assessment under the governments plans, which is says is at odds with young childrens learning and development.

The More than a Score coalition  which represents 18 education and parents organisations  unveiled the dossier at a meeting hosted by shadow early years minister Tracy Brabin.

The early years experts argue that the assessment, due to be introduced in 2020, will add another stressor to the existing load and will limit playful, creative, and intellectual experiences.

The test is proposed for the first few weeks of Reception should be abandoned and replaced with teacher assessments throughout the year, campaigners argue.

Alison Roy, a lead child psychotherapist, told The Independent: If children are being tested before they have established secure relationships with their teachers then it will not be an effective assessment of their capacity to learn or their academic ability.

I think it is a huge risk as it could make children think school is a hostile place and a judgemental place, rather than a place where they can explore and learn about themselves and their world.

On the proposed baseline assessment, confirmed by the Government in September last year, Ms Roy added: I think it is putting undue stress on little children. It is not necessary to test them at that age. I think we have a responsibility to settle them. They are so emotionally fragile at that age.

They also pick up on the stress of adults and if we have teachers under pressure to meet targets, then children are likely to pick up on the teachers reaction to that pressure as well as potentially, the emotional stress of their teachers.

UK news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 UK news in pictures UK news in pictures 8 September 2021 Workers cross London Bridge during the morning rush hour in London Reuters UK news in pictures Mixing it up: Painting it up press view in London A gallery employee poses for photographers next to a painting entitled Prairie by British artist, Louise Giovanelli during the exhibition 'Mixing it up: Painting it up' at the Hayward Gallery in London EPA UK news in pictures 6 September 2021 Traders in the Ring at the London Metal Exchange, in the City of London, after open-outcry trading returned for the first time since March 2020, when the Ring was temporarily closed due to the pandemic PA UK news in pictures 5 September 2021 People enjoy the warm weather on Sandbanks beach, Poole PA UK news in pictures 4 September 2021 Demonstrators from Animal Rebellion and Nature Rebellion protest in Trafalgar Square in London. PA UK news in pictures 3 September 2021 South Africa's Ntando Mahlangu (centre) wins the Men's 200 metres T61 Final ahead of second placed Great Britain's Richard Whitehead at the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games PA UK news in pictures 2 September 2021 A young common seal on the beach at Horsey Gap in Norfolk, as hundreds of pregnant grey seals come ashore ready for the start of the pupping season. PA UK news in pictures 1 September 2021 Goldfinches fighting over food in a garden in Strensham, Worcestershire PA UK news in pictures 31 August 2021 Gold Medallist Sarah Storey of Britain celebrates on the podium Reuters UK news in pictures 30 August 2021 Extinction Rebellion protesters hold a a tea party on Tower Bridge in London EPA UK news in pictures 29 August 2021 A police office tussles with a demonstrator on Cromwell Road outside the Natural History Museum during a protest by members of Extinction Rebellion in London PA UK news in pictures 28 August 2021 Members of the British armed forces 16 Air Assault Brigade walk to the air terminal after disembarking a Royal Airforce Voyager aircraft at Brize Norton, Oxfordshire POOL/AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 27 August 2021 Fabio Quartararo crashes during a MotoGP practice session at the British Grand Prix, Silverstone Circuit Action Images via Reuters UK news in pictures 26 August 2021 An Extinction Rebellion activist holds a placard in a fountain surrounded by police officers, during a protest next to Buckingham Palace in London Reuters UK news in pictures 25 August 2021 Gold Medallist Great Britains cyclist, Sarah Storey, celebrates after winning the Womens C5 3000m Individual Pursuit Final at the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games. It was her 15th Paralympic gold Reuters UK news in pictures 24 August 2021 A demonstrator dressed as bee during a protest by members of Extinction Rebellion on Whitehall, in central London PA UK news in pictures 23 August 2021 Former interpreters for the British forces in Afghanistan demonstrate outside the Home Office in central London AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 22 August 2021 Police officers form a line in front of the entrance to the Guildhall, London, where protesters have climbed onto a ledge above the entrance during an Extinction Rebellion stage a protest PA UK news in pictures 21 August 2021 People take part in a demonstration in solidarity with people of Afghanistan, in London Reuters UK news in pictures 20 August 2021 People zip wire across the sea from Bournemouth pier towards the beach. PA UK news in pictures 19 August 2021 Supporters of Geronimo the alpaca gather outside Shepherds Close Farm in Wooton Under Edge, Gloucestershire PA UK news in pictures 18 August 2021 Former Afghan interpreters and veterans hold a demonstration outside Downing Street, calling for support and protection for Afghan interpreters and their families PA UK news in pictures 17 August 2021 Military personnel board the RAF Airbus A400M at RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire, where evacuation flights from Afghanistan have been landing Reuters UK news in pictures 16 August 2021 Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer takes part in a minute's silence at Wolverhampton police station for the victims of the Plymouth mass shooting last week PA UK news in pictures 15 August 2021 2Storm, a ten-metre tall puppet of a mythical goddess of the sea created by Edinburgh-based visual theatre company Vision Mechanics, makes its way alongside the seafront at North Berwick, East Lothian, during a performance at the Fringe By The Sea festival PA UK news in pictures 14 August 2021 A woman and two young girls look at floral tributes in Plymouth where six people, including the offender, died of gunshot wounds in a firearms incident PA UK news in pictures 13 August 2021 Forensic officers in the Keyham area of Plymouth where six people, including the shooter, died of gunshot wounds in a firearms incident on Thursday evening PA UK news in pictures 12 August 2021 Children ride horses in the River Eden in Appleby, Cumbria, during the annual gathering of travellers for the Appleby Horse Fair PA UK news in pictures 11 August 2021 Stella Moris (left) reacts after talking to the media outside the High Court in London, following the first hearing in the Julian Assange extradition appeal, n London, following the first hearing in the Julian Assange extradition appeal. The US government has won the latest round in its High Court bid to appeal against the decision not to extradite Julian Assange on espionage charges PA UK news in pictures 10 August 2021 Students react after they receive their A-Level results at the Ark Academy, in London Reuters UK news in pictures 9 August 2021 The final athletes from Great Britain arrive home including Jason Kenny, Laura Kenny and Katie Archibald (front left-right) at Heathrow Airport, London following the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games PA UK news in pictures 8 August 2021 Great Britain's Laura Kenny during the closing ceremony of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games at the Olympic stadium in Japan PA UK news in pictures 7 August 2021 People from the Glasgow Southside community take part in the Govanhill Carnival, an anti-racist celebration of pride, unity and the contributions immigrants have made to the community in Govanhill, at Queen's Park, Glasgow PA UK news in pictures 6 August 2021 Chijindu Ujah of Britain, Zharnel Hughes of Britain, Richard Kilty of Britain and Nethaneel Mitchell-Blake of Britain celebrate winning silver as they pose with Asha Philip of Britain, Imani Lansiquot of Britain, Dina Asher-Smith of Britain and Daryll Neita of Britain after they won bronze in the women's 4 x 100m relay during Olympic Games Day 14 Getty UK news in pictures 5 August 2021 A protester places flowers on a photograph of an executed man during a demonstration organised by supporters of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) to protest against the inauguration of Iran's new president Ebrahim Raisi in central London AFP via Getty UK news in pictures 4 August 2021 England's Joe Root looks on as India's KL Rahul doesn't make it to a catch during day one of Cinch First Test match at Trent Bridge, Nottingham PA UK news in pictures 3 August 2021 Great Britain's Laura Kenny and Jason Kenny with their silver medals for the Women's Team Pursuit and Mens Team Sprint during the Track Cycling at the Izu Velodrome on the eleventh day of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games in Japan PA UK news in pictures 2 August 2021 Great Britains Charlotte Worthington competes during the Womens BMX Freestyle Final at the Tokyo Olympics PA UK news in pictures 1 August 2021 EPA UK news in pictures 31 July 2021 James Guy, Adam Peaty and Kathleen Dawson celebrate winning the gold medal in the mixed 4x100m medley relay final at the Tokyo Olympics AP UK news in pictures 30 July 2021 Great Britain's Bethany Shriever and Kye Whyte celebrate their Gold and Silver medals respectively for the Cycling BMX Racing at the Ariake Urban Sports Park on the seventh day of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games in Japan PA UK news in pictures 29 July 2021 Team GB's Mallory Franklin during the Womens Canoe Slalom Final on day six of the Tokyo Olympic Games. She went on to win the silver medal Getty UK news in pictures 28 July 2021 Canoers on Llyn Padarn lake in Snowdonia, Gwynedd. It was announced that the north-west Wales slate landscape has been granted UNESCO World Heritage Status PA UK news in pictures 27 July 2021 A view of one of two areas now being used at a warehouse facility in Dover, Kent, for boats used by people thought to be migrants. 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Madeleine Holt, from the parents organisation Rescue our Schools, said: Parents are becoming far more aware that their children are being over tested. The new test would steer the teaching of four-year-olds towards an excessive focus on numeracy and literacy.

Labour MP Tracy Brabin said: I believe children learn through play and creativity, not just through examinations. Thats why its great More than a Score is leading on this important work.

A Department for Education spokesperson said: Standards are rising in our schools with 1.9m more pupils in good or outstanding schools than compared to 2010.

The baseline assessment will help establish the progress made by pupils from reception to the end of key stage 2 and ensure schools are accountable for pupils progress as well as their attainment.

Schools will be provided with the required materials and guidance to administer the assessment, which will be carried out in normal teaching time by a teacher or teaching assistant.At least one university is looking at direct compensation for students facing disruption due to ongoing strike action, universities minister Sam Gyimah has revealed.

Tens of thousands of students have signed petitions demanding refunds for lost university lectures and classes.

Now universities minister Sam Gyimah has said that the Department for Education (DfE) is looking at the issue closely with universities.

Recommended Further talks agreed in bid to end university strikes

He told The Independent that Kings College London was looking at directly compensating affected students.

Mr Gyimah said: I think this is absolutely essential. It is something we are going to be pursuing.

His comments came as university staff strike action over planned changes to pensions entered its fifth day.

University staff are staging 14 days of action over four weeks in protest at changes to the Universities Superannuation Scheme (USS).

At the launch of the Office for Students, the new higher education regulator, Mr Gyimah said universities should step up to the plate.

If this had happened in Freshers Week nobody would be worried, but this is at a vital time of the academic year. People are preparing for exams, he added.

The universities minister suggested that there were a number of ways that students could be compensated.

He said: One is making sure that, where lectures are missed, they should make them up.

They should find ways of making it up for students on non-strike days  that would be a form of compensation.

Secondly, I know some universities are looking at putting the money that they save from not paying striking staff into student support funds.

Mr Gyimah added that he expected University College Union (UCU) to suspend the industrial action  which could disrupt students end-of-year exams if no resolution is found.

Last night, Universities UK (UUK) and the UCU agreed to hold further talks in a bid to end the strikes which have seen staff walk out of more than 60 UK universities.

The universities minister said: Ultimately it is those students that are paying the salaries of the striking staff and I dont want them to suffer any more than they need to in terms of their education.

Speaking to universities at the launch event in Westminster, the minister said the age of the student was upon them  with a greater scrutiny on vice-chancellors pay and value for money.

He said: Some in the sector see this as a sort of annus horribilis for higher education, a storm to be weathered in the hope of calmer times ahead.

I think this is a mistaken reading. This is not a blip. To paraphrase one Conservative prime minister, we are once again experiencing the winds of change in the university sector.

Gone are the days when students venerated institutions and were thankful to be admitted. We are in a new age  the age of the student.

Student news in pictures Show all 34 1 /34 Student news in pictures Student news in pictures South Korean policemen detain a student demonstrator during a protest against South Korean President Park Geun-Hye EPA Student news in pictures South Korean policemen detain student protestors during a protest against South Korean President Park Geun-Hye outside the National Assembly in Seoul, South Korea. The protesters demanded that the parliament takes steps to impeach President Park Geun-Hye EPA Student news in pictures Filipino demonstrators face off with anti-riot police during a protest near the US Embassy in Manila, Philippine EPA Student news in pictures Hundreds of protesters including Indigenous People, students and militant groups marched towards the US Embassy to protest against the presence of US military troops and condemning the violent dispersal which left at least forty people hurt including twenty police officers and three people who were run over by a police van EPA Student news in pictures A federal judge in Mexico has ordered that a once-fugitive police chief be held on charges of kidnapping in the disappearance of 43 students Student news in pictures A man holds up a photograph of a missing student with a caption reading 'We are missing 43,' during a meeting marking the 25-month anniversary of the disappearances of 43 students in the southern state of Guerrero, in Mexico City. A federal judge in Mexico has ordered that a once-fugitive police chief be held on charges of kidnapping in the disappearance of 43 students AP Student news in pictures Miguel Perez, an intern student from the University of Puerto Rico School of Medicine, puts away his cell phone before walking into the operating room at the Dr. Isaac Gonzalez MartInez Oncological Hospital in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Once they complete their general surgery training, many residents are moving to the United States in search of better wages, one of the main factors linked to the current shortage of specialists in the Island Student news in pictures Fewer EU students have applied to start university courses in the UK next autumn. There was a 9% fall in the numbers who had applied for courses, according to admissions service UCAS. PA wire Student news in pictures University students protest against President Nicolas Maduro, in Caracas, Venezuela. Masses of protesters jammed the streets of Venezuela's capital on the heels of a move by congress to open a political trial against Maduro, whose allies have blocked moves for a recall election AP Student news in pictures University students protest against President Nicolas Maduro, in Caracas, Venezuela AP Student news in pictures Thousands, most of them high school students, march during a demonstration in Madrid, Spain, on a one day strike to protest about the country's education law that increases the number of annual exams AP Student news in pictures Students gather on the west mall to confront the Young Conservatives of Texas student organization over a controversial bake sale on The University of Texas campus in Austin, Texas. The Young Conservatives of Texas chapter at the University of Texas-Austin sparked the protest with an affirmative action bake sale. The club encouraged students to buy a cookie and talk about the disastrous policy that is affirmative action Student news in pictures Donald Parish Jr, right, confronts Electrical and Computer Engineering senior Dewayne Perry over a controversial bake sale on The University of Texas campus in Austin, Texas. The Young Conservatives of Texas chapter at the University of Texas-Austin sparked the protest with an affirmative action bake sale. The club encouraged students to buy a cookie and talk about the disastrous policy that is affirmative action AP Student news in pictures Brigham Young University announced that students who report sexual assault will no longer be investigated for possible violations of the Mormon-owned school's strict honor code that bans such things as alcohol use AP Student news in pictures Students of secondary education march to protest against the final examinations and LOMCE (The Improvement Quality Education Law) law, after a call by trade unions, in Murcia, Spain EPA Student news in pictures South African police have used stun grenades and rubber bullets to disperse hundreds of protesters who had marched to the parliament building to call for free university education, where the finance minister was giving a budget speech AP Student news in pictures Police break up student protests outside the parliament in Cape Town, South Africa Reuters Student news in pictures South African Policemen fire rubber bullets at student protestors in Cape Town, South Africa AP Student news in pictures A student protestor is hit by a rubber bullet in Cape Town, South Africa AP Student news in pictures An injured student is helped by colleagues during protest outside the parliament during South African Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan's medium term budget speech in Cape Town, South Africa Reuters Student news in pictures Plaintiffs and bereaved families of elementary school students killed in the tsunami that followed a major earthquake in northeastern Japan in 2011, show banners that say 'victory in a suit filed with the Sendai District Court' in Sendai. A Japanese court ordered municipalities to pay $13.7 million dollars to families of school children who were swept away to their deaths by the 2011 tsunami Getty Student news in pictures A group of student at Ewha Womans University calls for a thorough investigation into those involved in years of engagement with state affairs backstage by Choi Soon-sil, a personal confidante of South Korean President Park Geun-hye, at the school's front gate in Seoul, South Korea EPA Student news in pictures Students raise placards during a strike action called by the student union, in Madrid against university entry exams Getty Student news in pictures Libyans throw a newly graduated student into a fountain as they celebrate during the graduation ceremony for students from the Faculty of Pharmacy at the Al-Arab University in the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi Getty Student news in pictures Libyans celebrate as they attend the graduation ceremony for students from the Faculty of Pharmacy at the Al-Arab University in the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi Getty Student news in pictures Libyans celebrate as they attend the graduation ceremony for students from the Faculty of Pharmacy at the Al-Arab University in the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi Getty Student news in pictures Thousands of Thai Catholic students take part in mourning tributes and in singing the Thai Royal Anthem to honour late Thai King Bhumibol Adulyadej at Saint Dominic School in Bangkok, Thailand EPA Student news in pictures Students of Silpakorn University paint portraits of the late Thai King Bhumibol Adulyadej at the university campus in Bangkok Getty Student news in pictures A student of Silpakorn University paints a portrait of the late Thai King Bhumibol Adulyadej at the university campus in Bangkok Getty Student news in pictures St Andrews University students take part in a foam fight known as Raisin Monday in the Lower College Lawn behind St Salvator's Quadrangle following the Raisin Weekend PA wire Student news in pictures St Andrews University students take part in a foam fight known as Raisin Monday in the Lower College Lawn behind St Salvator's Quadrangle following the Raisin Weekend, an annual tradition where student 'parents' inflict tasks on the unfortunate first-years they have adopted as 'children' as part of a mentoring scheme PA wire Student news in pictures Students at the Cuba's National Ballet School (ENB) in Havana, Cuba Reuters Student news in pictures Students at the Cuba's National Ballet School (ENB) take part in a practice in Havana, Cuba Reuters Student news in pictures Students at the Cuba's National Ballet School (ENB) wait in line to enter a classroom in Havana, Cuba Reuters

Four more universities  Kings College London, Queen Mary University of London, Edinburgh and Stirling universities  joined the strike action this week.

More than 3,000 people have signed a Kings College London (KCL) student-led petition calling for tuition fee refunds for disrupted lectures.

On plans to offer student compensation, a spokesperson for KCL said: Kings will not accrue any financial benefit from the industrial action by UCU and any salary savings will be ring-fenced as a fund which we can use to offset the impact of the strike on our students.

Once the nature and scale of disruption has become clearer, we will develop a mechanism for considering cases for any further compensation that may be warranted in light of cancelled classes.Sexting is known as the sharing of sexually explicit images and videos through the internet, or via electronic devices such as smartphones.

One in seven teens report that they are sending sexts, and one in four are receiving sexts, according to our study of over 110,000 teens from around the world published in JAMA Pediatrics.

Teen-to-teen sexting has generated considerable media attention, with news headlines mostly warning of the dangers of sexting.

In January 2018, police in Chateauguay, near Montreal, launched a campaign called sexts are porn, targeted at students aged 12 to 17. In the UK, one police force recently warned parents they may be prosecuted if their children send indecent images over mobile phones.

Naturally, this has many parents worried. Is consensual teen sexting a cause for concern?

Girls and boys participate equally

Sexting over the last decade has been on the rise, which is consistent with the rapid growth in the availability and ownership of smartphones. Teen sex, on the other hand, has been on the decline over the last decade.

Our team conducted a meta-analysis of the research literature, drawing from 39 research studies on teen sexting internationally between 2009 and 2016.

We found that approximately 15 per cent of teens are sending sexts. Meanwhile, around 41 per cent of teens are having sexual intercourse, according to a 2018 report from the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention in the United States.

Recommended Why we need to teach children about porn and sexting

Considerable evidence suggests that teen sexting is related to sexual behaviour. Older teens are also sexting more often than younger teens. Taken together, it is not surprising that older teens are both more likely to sext and have sexual intercourse.

Boys are often portrayed as the requesters, and girls as the senders, of nude images or videos. Findings from our study debunk this widely held assumption and show that boys and girls are equally likely to participate in sexting.

Our study found that the large majority of teens are using their personal smartphones versus their computers to sext. In 2015, approximately 92 per cent of teenagers aged 15 to 17 in the US owned a cell phone.

Risk-taking or normal behaviour?

With the ubiquity of smartphones and increasing digital usage across all age categories, parents should not be surprised that teens are engaging in sexting with other teens.

Researchers suggest that consensual teen sexting may be a normal component of sexual behaviour and development in the digital age. The increased prevalence of this sexual behaviour, in older youth in particular, corresponds to their increasing interest in sexual exploration and identity development.

Sexting has been linked to impulsive and risk-taking behaviours, but so far the evidence for an association between sexting and poor mental health, such as depression or loneliness, is weak to non-existent.

The most consistent predictor of consensual teen sexting is actually whether or not they want to flirt, be romantically involved with another teen, or maintain intimacy with their partner.

Sharing without consent

Although girls and boys sext a similar amount, there are important differences in the perception of this behaviour among youth.

Compared with boys, girls report feeling more pressure to sext, and also worry they will be judged harshly for sexting (eg slut shaming) or for not sexting (eg being called a prude).

Boys, on the other hand, may see sexting as an opportunity to showcase their social status.

This double standard may create higher levels of distress for girls.

The moment the youth presses send, they are trusting that the receiver will not share the images or videos without their consent. Sexting can become a problem when this trust is violated.

In many countries, it is illegal for a person to distribute an intimate photo without the explicit consent of the individual in the photo. Nonetheless, our research suggests that 12.5 per cent of teens are forwarding intimate photos without the consent of the sender.

Coercion and sextortion

Taken together, several challenges can potentially arise. First, many teens may feel as though sexting is an expectation. Although likely not a warranted expectation, the idea that my friends are doing it, then maybe I should do it could be a strong peer motivator.

A second problem that may arise is when teens are coerced into sexting or when they are sextorted (when images or videos are used as a form of threat or blackmail).

In pictures: Calvin Klein Jean's 'sexting' campaign Show all 17 1 /17 In pictures: Calvin Klein Jean's 'sexting' campaign In pictures: Calvin Klein Jean's 'sexting' campaign In pictures: Calvin Klein Jean's 'sexting' campaign Calvin Klein Jeans autumn/winter 2015 In pictures: Calvin Klein Jean's 'sexting' campaign In pictures: Calvin Klein Jean's 'sexting' campaign Calvin Klein Jeans autumn/winter 2015 In pictures: Calvin Klein Jean's 'sexting' campaign In pictures: Calvin Klein Jean's 'sexting' campaign Calvin Klein Jeans autumn/winter 2015 In pictures: Calvin Klein Jean's 'sexting' campaign In pictures: Calvin Klein Jean's 'sexting' campaign Calvin Klein Jeans autumn/winter 2015 In pictures: Calvin Klein Jean's 'sexting' campaign In pictures: Calvin Klein Jean's 'sexting' campaign Calvin Klein Jeans autumn/winter 2015 In pictures: Calvin Klein Jean's 'sexting' campaign In pictures: Calvin Klein Jean's 'sexting' campaign Calvin Klein Jeans autumn/winter 2015 In pictures: Calvin Klein Jean's 'sexting' campaign In pictures: Calvin Klein Jean's 'sexting' campaign Calvin Klein Jeans autumn/winter 2015 In pictures: Calvin Klein Jean's 'sexting' campaign In pictures: Calvin Klein Jean's 'sexting' campaign Calvin Klein Jeans autumn/winter 2015 In pictures: Calvin Klein Jean's 'sexting' campaign In pictures: Calvin Klein Jean's 'sexting' campaign Calvin Klein Jeans autumn/winter 2015 In pictures: Calvin Klein Jean's 'sexting' campaign In pictures: Calvin Klein Jean's 'sexting' campaign Calvin Klein Jeans autumn/winter 2015 In pictures: Calvin Klein Jean's 'sexting' campaign In pictures: Calvin Klein Jean's 'sexting' campaign Calvin Klein Jeans autumn/winter 2015 In pictures: Calvin Klein Jean's 'sexting' campaign In pictures: Calvin Klein Jean's 'sexting' campaign Calvin Klein Jeans autumn/winter 2015 In pictures: Calvin Klein Jean's 'sexting' campaign In pictures: Calvin Klein Jean's 'sexting' campaign Calvin Klein Jeans autumn/winter 2015 In pictures: Calvin Klein Jean's 'sexting' campaign In pictures: Calvin Klein Jean's 'sexting' campaign Calvin Klein Jeans autumn/winter 2015 In pictures: Calvin Klein Jean's 'sexting' campaign In pictures: Calvin Klein Jean's 'sexting' campaign Calvin Klein Jeans autumn/winter 2015 In pictures: Calvin Klein Jean's 'sexting' campaign In pictures: Calvin Klein Jean's 'sexting' campaign Calvin Klein Jeans autumn/winter 2015 In pictures: Calvin Klein Jean's 'sexting' campaign In pictures: Calvin Klein Jean's 'sexting' campaign Calvin Klein Jeans autumn/winter 2015

Another problem is the idea of digital security. Teenage brains are still developing; their capacity to critically analyse the digital tools and apps they are using may not be enough to keep them safe.

Where are these images stored? Who, other than the intended recipient, has access to them? How long are they kept digitally? And if I change my mind, can I get them back?

These and many other questions are simply not at the forefront of the teenage mind  nor, arguably, are they always in an adults mind either, 53 per cent of whom engage in sexting themselves  especially when these thoughts are competing with sexual interest and intimacy.

Parents should be proactive

Parents can keep their teens aware and informed by having open discussions  about healthy dating relationships, peer pressure, digital security, sexuality and citizenship more broadly.

The general consensus is that parents and caregivers should be proactive, rather than protective and reactive, about talking to their teens about sexting. Preaching abstinence is not effective. As with the issue of safe sex, this should be an ongoing conversation with your child instead of a one off talk.

In these discussions, it is important to emphasise digital citizenship. Broadly, digital citizenship encourages individuals to act in a way that is safe, legal and ethical  in their online and digital interactions and behaviours.

This is also an opportunity for parents and caregivers to emphasise that digital citizenship applies to adults as well. And such conversations can provide an opening for discussing other sensitive issues with teens, such as sexuality.

Its also important to discuss strategies for dealing with peer pressure to engage in sexting. And to discuss the potential consequences of sending sexts. Parents should emphasise cause and effect for teens. Once the videos or images have been sent, the teen forfeits control of who sees it.

Sex and the digital world are two topics that can overwhelm parents and caregivers. Fortunately, there are some excellent resources on these issues to help guide conversations with your teens, including Digital Citizenship: Guide for Parents and Common Sense Medias Sexting Handbook.

If a parent or teen is concerned about videos and images being distributed without their consent, or if they are being coerced into sexting or sextorted, they should report their concerns immediately to their local police. In Canada, they can also consult needhelpnow.ca and send a report to Cybertip.ca. In the US, they can consult Stopbullying.org

Sheri Madigan is an assistant professor in determinants of child development at Alberta Childrens Hospital Research Institute, University of Calgary; Jeff Temple is a professor at the department of obstetrics and gynaecology and director of the behavioural health and research at the University of Texas Medical Branch. This article was first published in The ConversationAs the richest man in the world, Bill Gates is no stranger to success.

So when the billionaire tech mogul and philanthropist offers insight or advice, its smart to listen.

The Microsoft founder and co-chair of The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation once hosted an AMA or ask me anything, session on Reddit, during which a participant inquired, If you could give 19-year-old Bill Gates some advice, what would it be?

Heres what Gates had to say:

I would explain that smartness is not single dimensional and not quite as important as I thought it was back then. I would say you might explore the developing world before you get into your forties. I wasnt very good socially back then, but I am not sure there is advice that would fix that  maybe I had to be awkward and just grow up...

In short: Intelligence isnt one-dimensional  and its not the only ingredient required for success.

This isnt the only time Gates has doled out advice for navigating your years as a young adult. One of his best nuggets of wisdom comes from fellow billionaire and friend, Warren Buffett: Keep things simple.

In a 2009 interview with CNBC, Gates said:

You look at his calendar, its pretty simple. You talk to him about a case where he thinks a business is attractive and he knows a few basic numbers and facts about it. And [if] it gets less complicated, he feels like then its something hell choose to invest in.

He picks the things that hes got a model of, a model that really is predictive and thats going to continue to work over a long-term period. And so his ability to boil things down, to just work on the things that really count, to think through the basics  its so amazing that he can do that. Its a special form of genius.

Read more:

 May tackles new Brexit Rebellion

 Philip Hammond and Mark Carney are in China to secure 1 billion of trade deals

 Facebook admits that social media can be bad for you

Read the original article on Business Insider UK.  2018. Follow Business Insider UK on Twitter.Some blind people have the ability to visualise their surroundings using sound, and in a new study scientists have worked with a group of these expert echolocators in an effort to unravel this poorly understood ability.

Human echolocation is a remarkable skill similar to the technique used by bats and whales to hunt prey.

It has drawn comparisons with sonar, as practitioners use reflected sound waves to build mental maps of the world around them.

Echolocators can find their way around by making noises  for example clicking their mouths  and then listening for the echoes from nearby objects.

Some individuals, such as the American echolocation expert Daniel Kish, have developed particularly advanced abilities.

Mr Kish, who is sometimes referred to as Batman is able to find his way around despite being totally blind, and can even hike and ride a bike.

Science news in pictures Show all 20 1 /20 Science news in pictures Science news in pictures Pluto has 'beating heart' of frozen nitrogen Pluto has a 'beating heart' of frozen nitrogen that is doing strange things to its surface, Nasa has found. The mysterious core seems to be the cause of features on its surface that have fascinated scientists since they were spotted by Nasa's New Horizons mission. "Before New Horizons, everyone thought Pluto was going to be a netball - completely flat, almost no diversity," said Tanguy Bertrand, an astrophysicist and planetary scientist at NASA's Ames Research Center and the lead author on the new study. "But it's completely different. It has a lot of different landscapes and we are trying to understand what's going on there." Getty Science news in pictures Over 400 species discovered this year by Natural History Museum The ancient invertabrate worm-like species rhenopyrgus viviani (pictured) is one of over 400 species previously unknown to science that were discovered by experts at the Natural History Museum this year PA Science news in pictures Jackdaws can identify 'dangerous' humans Jackdaws can identify dangerous humans from listening to each others warning calls, scientists say. The highly social birds will also remember that person if they come near their nests again, according to researchers from the University of Exeter. In the study, a person unknown to the wild jackdaws approached their nest. At the same time scientists played a recording of a warning call (threatening) or contact calls (non-threatening). The next time jackdaws saw this same person, the birds that had previously heard the warning call were defensive and returned to their nests more than twice as quickly on average. Getty Science news in pictures Turtle embryos influence sex by shaking The sex of the turtle is determined by the temperatures at which they are incubated. Warm temperatures favour females. But by wiggling around the egg, embryos can find the Goldilocks Zone which means they are able to shield themselves against extreme thermal conditions and produce a balanced sex ratio, according to the new study published in Current Biology journal Ye et al/Current Biology Science news in pictures Elephant poaching rates drop in Africa African elephant poaching rates have dropped by 60 per cent in six years, an international study has found. It is thought the decline could be associated with the ivory trade ban introduced in China in 2017. Reuters Science news in pictures Ancient four-legged whale discovered in Peru Scientists have identified a four-legged creature with webbed feet to be an ancestor of the whale. Fossils unearthed in Peru have led scientists to conclude that the enormous creatures that traverse the planets oceans today are descended from small hoofed ancestors that lived in south Asia 50 million years ago A. Gennari Science news in pictures Animal with transient anus discovered A scientist has stumbled upon a creature with a transient anus that appears only when it is needed, before vanishing completely. Dr Sidney Tamm of the Marine Biological Laboratory could not initially find any trace of an anus on the species. However, as the animal gets full, a pore opens up to dispose of waste Steven G Johnson Science news in pictures Giant bee spotted Feared extinct, the Wallace's Giant bee has been spotted for the first time in nearly 40 years. 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The bones belonged to two large rodent species and a small shrew-like animal New Mexico Museum of Natural History Science news in pictures Fabric that changes according to temperature created Scientists at the University of Maryland have created a fabric that adapts to heat, expanding to allow more heat to escape the body when warm and compacting to retain more heat when cold Faye Levine, University of Maryland Science news in pictures Baby mice tears could be used in pest control A study from the University of Tokyo has found that the tears of baby mice cause female mice to be less interested in the sexual advances of males Getty Science news in pictures Final warning to limit "climate catastrophe" The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has issued a report which projects the impact of a rise in global temperatures of 1.5 degrees Celsius and warns against a higher increase Getty Science news in pictures Nobel prize for evolution chemists The nobel prize for chemistry has been awarded to three chemists working with evolution. Frances Smith is being awarded the prize for her work on directing the evolution of enzymes, while Gregory Winter and George Smith take the prize for their work on phage display of peptides and antibodies Getty/AFP Science news in pictures Nobel prize for laser physicists The nobel prize for physics has been awarded to three physicists working with lasers. Arthur Ashkin (L) was awarded for his "optical tweezers" which use lasers to grab particles, atoms, viruses and other living cells. Donna Strickland and Gerard Mourou were jointly awarded the prize for developing chirped-pulse amplification of lasers Reuters/AP Science news in pictures Discovery of a new species of dinosaur The Ledumahadi Mafube roamed around 200 million years ago in what is now South Africa. Recently discovered by a team of international scientists, it was the largest land animal of its time, weighing 12 tons and standing at 13 feet. In Sesotho, the South African language of the region in which the dinosaur was discovered, its name means "a giant thunderclap at dawn" Viktor Radermacher / SWNS Science news in pictures Birth of a planet Scientists have witnessed the birth of a planet for the first time ever. This spectacular image from the SPHERE instrument on ESO's Very Large Telescope is the first clear image of a planet caught in the very act of formation around the dwarf star PDS 70. The planet stands clearly out, visible as a bright point to the right of the center of the image, which is blacked out by the coronagraph mask used to block the blinding light of the central star. ESO/A. Muller et al Science news in pictures New human organ discovered that was previously missed by scientists Layers long thought to be dense, connective tissue are actually a series of fluid-filled compartments researchers have termed the interstitium. These compartments are found beneath the skin, as well as lining the gut, lungs, blood vessels and muscles, and join together to form a network supported by a mesh of strong, flexible proteins Getty Science news in pictures Previously unknown society lived in Amazon rainforest before Europeans arrived, say archaeologists Working in the Brazilian state of Mato Grosso, a team led by archaeologists at the University of Exeter unearthed hundreds of villages hidden in the depths of the rainforest. These excavations included evidence of fortifications and mysterious earthworks called geoglyphs Jose Iriarte Science news in pictures One in 10 people have traces of cocaine or heroin on fingerprints, study finds More than one in 10 people were found to have traces of class A drugs on their fingers by scientists developing a new fingerprint-based drug test. Using sensitive analysis of the chemical composition of sweat, researchers were able to tell the difference between those who had been directly exposed to heroin and cocaine, and those who had encountered it indirectly. Getty Science news in pictures Nasa releases stunning images of Jupiter's great red spot The storm bigger than the Earth, has been swhirling for 350 years. The image's colours have been enhanced after it was sent back to Earth. Pictures by: Tom Momary

While individuals using echolocation have been known about for some time, it is only in recent years that scientists have begun to properly analyse their skills.

In a new study, a team of researchers led by psychologist Dr Lore Thaler at Durham University set out to understand this ability in greater detail.

Specifically, the researchers wanted to find out how echolocators adjust their clicks in response to variations in their surroundings to create complex mental maps. To this end, they enlisted eight blind expert echolocators to have their abilities put to the test.

By understanding the nuances of echolocation, the scientists hope to use the information to help other blind people learn to echolocate.

Just from walking around with people who echolocate, I know anecdotally that this is a very flexible behaviour  so sometimes they are soft, sometimes louder, Dr Thaler told The Independent.

This was a way to really quantify how they adjust the clicks that they make.

Analysis of the expert echolocators in full flow revealed they dynamically adjust the loudness and number of clicks they make in order to detect objects in different positions around them. The researchers used dinner plate-sized targets to assess this.

When these objects are located further away from the beam of sound emitted from an echolocators mouth  off to the side, for example  the individuals increased the number or volume of their clicks to compensate for the poorer quality echo bouncing back at them.

The only position at which the echolocators found it difficult to assess the location of an object accurately was when it was placed directly behind them.

The researchers recorded the noises made by their participants, as well as the corresponding echoes from the targets. These recordings revealed the previously unacknowledged extent of the echolocators abilities.

We could actually quantify the loudness of the echoes, and the relative difference in loudness between the click and the echoes that people made, said Dr Thaler.

We found that in some conditions they were really faint  about 95 per cent softer than the actual clicks, but the echolocators were still able to sense this. They could perceive the echoes.

This was a surprise as previously scientists have argued that detecting such quiet echoes should be impossible.

The researchers concluded that the brains of those who perform echolocation have actually been remodelled so they are capable of picking up on even the quietest sounds.

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With these expert echolocators, they must have adapted their auditory system to the degree that they can perceive very faint echoes.

The findings from these experiments were published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Science.

While many learn to echolocate by themselves, it is also seen as an important skill that can be taught to blind people. With his organisation World Access for the Blind, Mr Kish has taught hundreds of children to echolocate.

By getting to grips with the abilities of expert echolocators, Dr Thaler and her colleagues hope to provide a useful toolkit for those who wish to learn.

The applied value is that we can give people very precise instructions  make louder clicks, make more of them, said Dr Thaler.

Echolocation is a useful skill  but its a tool that goes together with other tools like guide dogs and canes. It is a good complement, and practice makes perfect, she said.

Not everyone will become like Daniel Kish, but obviously people can get really good at this.By Rich Lohman

As an amateur astronomer with my own small observatory, I know some of the conditions that make for good astronomical viewing. But until I traveled to Chile with the National Science Foundation-sponsored Astronomy in Chile Educator Ambassador Program in June of 2017, I didnt appreciate the full extent of the planning that goes into locating and designing a high-quality observatory.

Ingredients for a world-class observatory

The Atacama Large Millimeter/ submillimeter Array (ALMA), located in northern Chile, is especially notable. We dont usually think of an observatory made up of antennas, but ALMA is a radio observatory consisting of 66 dish antennas linked together with sophisticated electronics and computers.

For any optical observatory (one that uses large mirrors) to capture the highest quality images night after night, it must have the following conditions: low or near-zero light pollution from surrounding towns and cities; very dry and steady air; high elevation above sea level. For a radio observatory such as ALMA, there are additional factors, which I will mention later.

Since the principal objective of a telescope is to capture the light from distant astronomical objects (stars, galaxies, nebulae), any additional light from nearby sources will simply degrade or even wash out the desired image. Consequently, locating an observatory far from light-polluting sources is essential.

The issue of very dry, steady air relates, primarily, to the transparency and lack of movement in the atmosphere above the observatory. Water vapor in the atmosphere absorbs some of the light coming from distant sources. But it also provides a kind of moving current, which can shift the incoming light in random directions, causing the astronomical images to become very blurry. There are new technologies that help eliminate some of these effects, but dry, steady air still makes for the highest quality images.

Finally, an observatory located at a high elevation puts the telescope above a certain fraction of Earths atmosphere. This means that the natural attenuation of the distant light by the water vapor and other atmospheric gases is reduced. The higher the elevation, the clearer and brighter the astronomical image.

ALMAs amazing location

If we look at the conditions that exist for the ALMA radio observatory, we find a remarkable location. ALMA is located in the far north of Chile in the Atacama Desert. The specific location is about 30 miles from the nearest large desert town, so light pollution is not an issue. The Atacama Desert is an extremely arid location. In the days of the early moonshots, NASA astronauts trained with their vehicles there, because the very dry conditions approximated those on the Moon.

The ALMA antenna array is located at an elevation of 5,000 meters above sea level (approximately 16,400 feet). This puts the telescope above nearly half of Earths atmosphere. It means that the electromagnetic radiation coming from the cosmos can pass through to the antennas with considerably less attenuation than if they were located at sea level. ALMA has even been compared favorably to the Hubble Space Telescope, which is outside our Earths atmosphere. Ill return to this issue of high altitude a bit later.

One other factor was very important to the siting of the ALMA observatory. Since it was to consist of an array of 66 antennas working together, the area for locating all the antennas needed to be reasonably flat and level. Had all the antennas been located at various elevations, their synchronization would have been extremely difficult.

But ALMA sits on an ideal site. Picture a relatively flat plane, high in the Andes mountains with 66 antenna dishes arranged over a 16-km (10 miles) radius. That is a huge plane. Its name is the Chajnantor Plateau. The name comes from the indigenous peoples who inhabited the area centuries ago. There are descendants of these people still living in the area today.

Searching for cosmic radio waves

Now Ill turn to what these 66 antennas are detecting and measuring. Radio waves come in from the cosmos. They are reflected off the parabolic dish and focused onto a small, secondary mirror, set in front of the dish. The focused beam is then sent into the back end of the antenna, where there is a receiver. Much like an FM or AM radio receiver, these receivers are tuned to specific frequencies.

At ALMA, the receiver module will eventually contain 10 separate receiver units tuned to different frequency bands. The astronomer running the experiment can select the frequency band(s) she wishes to measure. The photo below shows the receiver for one single frequency channel.

The frequency bands available in the ALMA receivers correspond to wavelengths in the range from 0.3 to 7.5 mm (0.01 to 0.3 inches) of the electromagnetic spectrum. Hence the name Millimeter/ submillimeter Array. This range is between the infrared and the microwave. What is notable about this range is that most of this energy is absorbed by our atmosphere as it comes towards Earth. However, ALMAs high-altitude location allows a significant portion of it to be detected by the ALMA antennas.

The other notable aspect of this wavelength range is that it corresponds to what is termed the cold universe. Processes out in the cosmos that are in the temperature range of a few to 80 degrees Kelvin emit this type of radiation. These are the low-energy physical processes typical of the early universe. This is emission from the dust and gas in molecular clouds, from which stars are born in stellar nurseries. ALMA has the ability to determine the molecular content of this dust and gas by measuring its spectrum. ALMA can view circumstellar disks of dust and gas and examine the early stages of planet formation. No other observatory in the world is capable of detecting these processes to the extent that ALMA can.

A final, key component of ALMA gives this observatory its incomparable ability. The antenna dishes can be moved to many locations over the plateau to give astronomers selection over the detail they wish to obtain in the images they are taking. To a layperson this is much like the zoom feature we have on our cellphone cameras. The antennas are also linked together electronically in a system called an interferometer. The details of interferometry are well beyond the scope of this article, but the following is a simplified explanation: The data from each receiver from each antenna is fed into a super computer called a correlator. The computer, knowing the location of each antenna, has the programming that combines all of the data into a single image. The final image is equivalent to one taken by a single antenna that is up to 16 km in diameter! To me, that is the most amazing aspect of the ALMA observatory.

Here are a few images that illustrate ALMAs capability (click for a larger view):

Left: A composite image of the dusty debris ring around the young star Fomalhaut. // ALMA/ESO/NAOJ/NRAO/M. MacGregor/NASA/ESA/Hubble/P. Kalas/B. Saxton/AUI/NSF; Right: The protoplanetary disk around HL Tauri. // ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO), NSF

A human process

The above description of ALMA and the beauty of these few images convey what ALMA is and what it can do. However, the experience of actually standing up at 16,000 feet among these giants of antennas cannot be adequately communicated in words. There I was, on the Chajnantor Plateau, where the ancient Atacamenos must have spent night after night observing the heavens and creating myths to express their understanding of whats up there and out there. Now, here I was centuries later, learning about how we modern-day humans are doing much the same thing with our antennas seeking light from great distances. Our new stories may go deeper into what we call the truth, but the process is a natural human one. We want to know more about what our senses are telling us. We want to know more about who we are, where we have come from and where we are going. Looking up and out helps us answer those questions.Disgust can be used as an indicator of political preferences, with more easily disgusted people preferring authoritarian political leaders, according to a new study.

Part of the research also found a link between greater levels of disgust  as measured by attitudes to unpleasant body odours  and support for Donald Trump.

The study, carried out by a team based at Stockholm University, adds to a body of evidence linking sensory functions with peoples broader social attitudes.

Specifically, as disgust can lead to the avoidance of certain places and people, the researchers in this study thought that people who are more easily disgusted might also be more authoritarian  as in authoritarian societies interactions between groups are more limited.

Scholars assume that this relationship between disgust and socially conservative attitudes, especially when it comes to prejudice or fear of out-groups, might be related to fearing a threat, including a pathogen [harmful microbe] threat, study leader Dr Marco Tullio Liuzza told The Independent.

Disgust is an important emotion, and one that is essential for survival. It allows us to avoid things that could cause us harm by giving us diseases.

In their study, Dr Liuzza and his colleagues wanted to assess how this deep-rooted evolutionary protective mechanism was linked to political attitudes.

There was a solid connection between how strongly someone was disgusted by smells and their desire to have a dictator-like leader who can suppress radical protest movements and ensure that different groups stay in their places, said Dr Jonas Olofsson, a team member who researches scent and psychology.

That type of society reduces contact among different groups and, at least in theory, decreases the chance of becoming ill.

The results of this research were published in the journal Royal Society Open Science.

To arrive at these conclusions researchers developed a scale so that participants in online surveys could rate their levels of disgust for various body odours.

Participants from around the world were asked to rate themselves using this scale, while also being asked questions about their political views.

To assess social attitudes, the scientists used the Right-Wing Authoritarianism scale  a well-established tool for measuring authoritarian dispositions.

In a further study, questions were added for US participants about how they intended to vote in the 2016 presidential election, which was underway at the time of the study.

'It showed that people who were more disgusted by smells were also more likely to vote for Donald Trump than those who were less sensitive. We thought that was interesting because Donald Trump talks frequently about how different people disgust him,

It fits with our hypothesis that his supporters would be more easily disgusted themselves.

At the time of their research, the scientists noted, Mr Trump "was a presidential candidate with an agenda described as resonating with authoritarian attitudes".

Dr Liuzza noted that as their study only looked at correlations, their results do not demonstrate that disgust leads to certain political preferences. However, he suggested it sets the stage for further research in this area.

These are the first steps to further develop these ideas and maybe test it with experimental manipulations in the future, he said.

He also pointed out that the relationship between primitive emotions like disgust and social attitudes is far from the most important factor when exploring political preferences

Nonetheless, I think it is a surprising relationship, he said.Increasing prison sentences for people convicted of low-level terror offences could make them a higher security threat in the long term, the Parole Board has warned.

In a consultation over new guidelines being drawn up by the Sentencing Council, the authority pointed out that specific risk assessments are not carried out for terrorists being spread around the prison estate.

The Parole Board warned that radicalisation within prisons was likely to continue and increasing penalties for less serious offenders  like those found guilty of spreading terrorist material online  could result in them becoming more likely to commit terrorist acts when they are released.

Most of the rest of Europe is devising interventions in the community to deradicalise less serious offenders, it said. These programmes are more likely to be successful in the community than in prison where the influence of extremist inmates is likely to be stronger.

Khalid Masood, the Westminster attacker, is among the extremists believed to have been radicalised in prison.

He first appeared on MI5s records for contact with known terrorists less than a year after serving his last of several prison sentences in 2003, having left jail a convert to Islam.

The so-called crime-terror nexus, which sees criminals drawn into violent extremism, is a well-documented phenomenon in Europe.

 Met Police announce that terror perpetrator Khalid Masood was born Adrian Russell

Leading members of the Isis cell that launched the 2015 Paris attacks had been imprisoned together for petty crime and Harry Sarfo, a German Isis militant who grew up in the UK, told The Independent how he learned the ideology of jihad after being jailed for robbery.

After considering the Parole Boards submissions, the House of Commons Justice Committee said sentencing strategy must be part of a wider approach to prevent terrorism and said non-custodial punishments should be considered.

If deradicalisation provision in prisons is in fact absent or inadequate, as we have reason to believe is often the case, then this must have an effect on the Sentencing Councils assessment of the likely efficacy of sentences, it said, noting that jail terms are meant to reform and rehabilitate offenders and reduce crime, as well as deterring it.

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We suggest that concerns about the adequacy of deradicalisation programmes in prison may mean that the court should consider, for certain offences at the lowest level, whether it would be appropriate to impose a non-custodial sentence.

The Sentencing Council is currently consulting on draft guidance on terror offences in England and Wales that was first published in October.

Expected to be published next month, they are designed to equip courts for the new category of terrorists, whose plans escalate rapidly and involve attacks using cars or knives.

The main proposed change applies to offences under section five of the Terrorism Act 2006, which covers the preparation of terrorism.

The new guidelines will keep the same maximum sentence of life with a minimum term of 40 years, but the council could set the sentencing range for the lowest level at three to six years  compared with the current 21 months to five years.

In pictures: Westminster attack Show all 9 1 /9 In pictures: Westminster attack In pictures: Westminster attack An air ambulance lands after gunfire sounds were heard close to the Palace of Westminster in London PA wire In pictures: Westminster attack MPs wait until the situation is under control in Westminster. 'The alleged assailant was shot by armed police,' David Lidington, leader of the House of Commons, told the house. BBC News In pictures: Westminster attack Crowds gather in Westminster after shooting incident, which police are treating as terror attack BBC News In pictures: Westminster attack Police were also called to an incident on Westminster Bridge nearby AP In pictures: Westminster attack Early reports indicate the car, which mounted the pavement on Westminster Bridge and mowed into around a dozen people, was the same vehicle which then rammed into the railings of the Palace of Westminster, just around the corner Reuters In pictures: Westminster attack Security sources described the suspected assailant as a middle-aged Asian man, who is understood to have left the car before attacking a police officer with a seven-to-eight inch knife PA wire In pictures: Westminster attack Police have asked people to avoid the immediate area to allow emergency services to deal with the ongoing incident AP In pictures: Westminster attack One woman has died and a number of others, including the police officer, have been hurt, according to a junior doctor at St Thomas' Hospital Reuters In pictures: Westminster attack At least three gun shots were heard by those inside Westminster, and proceedings in the House of Commons have been suspended AP

Preparation includes a wide spectrum of activity, from an advanced terror attack plan, to intending to travel to a war zone or helping others.

Punishments for crimes including the encouragement of terrorism, fundraising and supporting a banned organisation could also be increased, sparking concern over the impact on Britains strained prison system  which is already seeing record levels of violence and self-harm.

The Government is separately examining whether sentences for terror-related offences are sufficient as part of a major review launched in the wake of five attacks that killed 36 victims in London and Manchester last year.

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Ministers have already announced a proposed rise in the statutory maximum sentence for collecting terrorist information, from 10 to 15 years, to clamp down on those who repeatedly view illegal material on the internet.

There were 213 individuals in custody in Britain after being charged with or convicted of terrorism-related offences at the end of September, a rise of more than a quarter on the previous year.

Separate figures suggest that authorities are managing more than 1,000 inmates identified as extremist or vulnerable to extremism at any one time.

Last year the Ministry of Justice launched three specialist units to hold up to 28 prisoners after a review concluded Islamist extremism was a growing problem in jails.

Conservative MP and barrister Bob Neill, chair of the Commons Justice Committee, said experts had warned that there might be a risk of backlash effects outweighing the gains of harsher sentences for lower-level terror offences.

Notwithstanding understandable public opprobrium in the face of recent terrorist atrocities, we consider that it is important to maintain a proportionate approach to sentencing that preserves judicial discretion, irrespective of the ideological drivers of these offences, he said.

Additional reporting by PANew powers are being used to investigate whether British properties worth 22m were paid for legally by an unnamed politically exposed person.

The National Crime Agency (NCA) has been granted two unexplained wealth orders (UWOs) for the first time, to look into a house and offices in London and the south-east.

They are believed to be ultimately owned by a politically exposed person  a term used to describe people with prominent positions in public life who are vulnerable to bribery and corruption.

They can include heads of state, government ministers, politicians, judges, ambassadors, diplomats, military officers, directors of international organisations and state-owned bodies.

The NCA said it could not name the person being investigated, as they are given time to respond to the orders demand for information and documents.

They have been barred from selling or transferring the properties in question while the inquiry is carried out.

The Independent understands they are from a country outside the European Economic Area.

The Financial Times reported that the subject is a politician from central Asia.

Unexplained wealth orders have the potential to significantly reduce the appeal of the UK as a destination for illicit income," said Donald Toon, director for economic crime at the NCA. They enable the UK to more effectively target the problem of money laundering through prime real estate in London and elsewhere.

We are determined to use all of the powers available to us to combat the flow of illicit monies into, or through, the UK.

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It was her 15th Paralympic gold Reuters UK news in pictures 24 August 2021 A demonstrator dressed as bee during a protest by members of Extinction Rebellion on Whitehall, in central London PA UK news in pictures 23 August 2021 Former interpreters for the British forces in Afghanistan demonstrate outside the Home Office in central London AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 22 August 2021 Police officers form a line in front of the entrance to the Guildhall, London, where protesters have climbed onto a ledge above the entrance during an Extinction Rebellion stage a protest PA UK news in pictures 21 August 2021 People take part in a demonstration in solidarity with people of Afghanistan, in London Reuters UK news in pictures 20 August 2021 People zip wire across the sea from Bournemouth pier towards the beach. 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

UWOs came into force on 31 January, following evidence that British property is being used to launder money obtained illegally by foreign nationals.

The measure was dubbed the McMafia law after the BBC television drama, based on a factual book of the same name, which centred on money laundering and international organised crime.

It allows investigators to force targets to explain the source of their wealth if they are suspected of corruption or involvement in serious crime.

After the High Court issues an order, the respondent is required to explain the extent of their interest in the specified property and how it was obtained - shifting the burden of proof from investigators to suspects.

A failure to comply can spark attempts to seize it under civil proceedings, on the assumption it has been obtained through unlawful conduct.

Providing false or misleading information in response can also be punished with up to two years imprisonment.

Campaigners from Transparency International, whose research found 4.4bn of suspicious property across the UK, hailed a landmark moment.

Rachel Davies Teka, the group's head of advocacy, said: This landmark moment is a positive statement of intent from law enforcement and sends a clear message to those seeking to launder corrupt wealth through the UK that their assets will no longer be safe here.

We hope that this announcement will signal the beginning of more action being taken to finally end the UKs status as a safe haven for corrupt individuals.An audio recording of a ridiculous 999 call from a man disappointed his local branch of KFC had closed has been released by police in Manchester in an effort to draw attention to time wasting calls.

It is the second time the police have made a public appeal to stop people calling to report the issue.

Last week the national KFC crisis saw over half of the fast food chains 900 UK outlets close across the country due to the lack of a key ingredient  chicken.

The shortage apparently prompted some members of the public to resort to calling the emergency services.

Last week,, Tower Hamlets Metropolitan Police Service in London tweeted: Please do not contact us about the #KFCCrisis  it is not a police matter if your favourite eatery is not serving the menu that you desire.

Police said this behaviour was putting lives at risk by keeping call handlers from answering real emergencies.

In the latest example of time wasting, the man can be heard saying: Ive got an emergency here.

Right, replies the call handler, whereabouts are you please?

Im at home actually, the man says, before adding: I dont know how you feel about this but KFC is closed and Im entirely not happy. I have to go to Burger King now.

The operator then asks if he is taking the mick, before telling him the closure is not a police matter and that she is clearing the line.

Superintendent Mark Kenny, who oversees Greater Manchester Polices call handling team, said: While some will think this is a harmless prank or joke I want to reiterate the severity of this  we had 74 calls to 999 and 154 to 101 during the hour this came in, all of which needed our full attention.

Our hard working call handlers answered all but one of the emergency calls but 21 non-emergencies went unanswered. Its not a stretch to say that, had this man not selfishly called for such a ridiculous reason, we would have been able to help more people who had a real reason to pick up the phone during that time.

We work as hard as we can to answer as many calls as possible but people like this, and others who either misuse the service or call us for reasons they shouldnt be, put real strain on our already stretched teams.

Supt Kenny urged people to only call 999 in a genuine emergency and said when the man had made the call, the police force was already pushed to cope with a major car crash and an armed robbery.

He said: At the same time this call came in officers were dealing with a multiple road traffic collision with people trapped, a welfare check after a disturbance in someones home, a large group of youths drinking and causing disturbance and the aftermath of an armed robbery, as well as other incidents. These are the things we are here to help you with, and we want to be able to.

Please, think before you pick up the phone."

KFC today told The Independent 97 per cent of their restaurants have re-opened following the chicken crisis, which was blamed on newly appointed delivery company DHL.

However, restaurants are now reportedly running out of gravy, causing more headaches for the fast food chain.

A KFC spokesperson said: 97 per cent of our restaurants are now open, however, due to the ongoing distribution challenges DHL is experiencing, some restaurants are continuing to serve a reduced menu, including gravy.

KFC advert is the most complained-about campaign of all time Show all 3 1 /3 KFC advert is the most complained-about campaign of all time KFC advert is the most complained-about campaign of all time pg-10-ads-1.jpg KFC advert is the most complained-about campaign of all time pg-10-ads-2.jpg KFC advert is the most complained-about campaign of all time pg-10-ads-3.jpg

Were working as hard as we can to get this sorted out, we know that our gravy is a big favourite!Satisfaction with the NHS has seen a sharp decline, with public opinion on GP services at its lowest level since records began, a new survey has found.

The latest British Social Attitudes survey found that dissatisfaction with the NHS has risen to 29 per cent  the highest in a decade  while satisfaction with the NHS has dropped 6 per cent in a year, to 57 per cent, its lowest level since 2011.

The survey, which polled 3,000 people across England, Wales and Scotland about their satisfaction with the NHS, and 1,000 people about their feelings on individual services, also found that only 65 per cent of people are happy with their GP services  the lowest ever recorded.

This was the first time since the survey started in 1983 that general practice, usually seen as the jewel in the crown of the NHS, was not the highest rated service.

Dr Chaand Nagpaul, BMA council chair, said the results were unsurprising and that the health service was running at capacity and in a state of crisis year round.

General practice, in particular, is facing an unprecedented crisis. GPs are carrying out 40 million more consultations than a decade ago and are struggling from a combination of rising demand, limited resources and a recruitment crisis, Dr Nagpaul said.

Patients are unfairly bearing the brunt of such significant shortfalls, with longer waiting times for appointments, he added.

The NHS remains under enormous pressure and patients deserve more than sticking-plaster measures for such a vital public service, which is why the Government needs to take responsibility and fund the NHS adequately.

Commenting on the report, Professor Helen-Stokes Lampard, chairwoman of the Royal College of GPs, said there was a shortage of GPs to meet patient requirements.

They are hardly surprising, as what we are seeing now is symptomatic of the inevitable effects of a decade of under-investment in our family doctor service  and just not having enough GPs in the system to meet demand, Prof Lampard said.

Jonathan Ashworth MP, Labours Shadow Health Secretary, said the report demonstrated the effects of years of overstretched budgets.

In Theresa Mays first year in office, there has been an astonishing six-point drop in satisfaction levels with the NHS, while satisfaction with GP services has fallen to an all-time low, Mr Ashworth said.

Whats more, there has been a huge jump in the number of people who think the Government isnt providing the funding that the NHS needs.

Its hardly surprising theres no trust in the Tories on the NHS when in the past year waiting lists have hit 4 million and 560,000 waited on trolleys.

This survey is the clearest message to Theresa May that the Tory agenda of underfunding, cuts and privatisation must come to end.

Health news in pictures Show all 40 1 /40 Health news in pictures Health news in pictures Coronavirus outbreak The coronavirus Covid-19 has hit the UK leading to the deaths of two people so far and prompting warnings from the Department of Health AFP via Getty Health news in pictures Thousands of emergency patients told to take taxi to hospital Thousands of 999 patients in England are being told to get a taxi to hospital, figures have showed. The number of patients outside London who were refused an ambulance rose by 83 per cent in the past year as demand for services grows Getty Health news in pictures Vape related deaths spike A vaping-related lung disease has claimed the lives of 11 people in the US in recent weeks. The US Centre for Disease Control and Prevention has more than 100 officials investigating the cause of the mystery illness, and has warned citizens against smoking e-cigarette products until more is known, particularly if modified or bought off the street Getty Health news in pictures Baldness cure looks to be a step closer Researchers in the US claim to have overcome one of the major hurdles to cultivating human follicles from stem cells. The new system allows cells to grow in a structured tuft and emerge from the skin Sanford Burnham Preybs Health news in pictures Two hours a week spent in nature can improve health A study in the journal Scientific Reports suggests that a dose of nature of just two hours a week is associated with better health and psychological wellbeing Shutterstock Health news in pictures Air pollution linked to fertility issues in women Exposure to air from traffic-clogged streets could leave women with fewer years to have children, a study has found. Italian researchers found women living in the most polluted areas were three times more likely to show signs they were running low on eggs than those who lived in cleaner surroundings, potentially triggering an earlier menopause Getty/iStock Health news in pictures Junk food ads could be banned before watershed Junk food adverts on TV and online could be banned before 9pm as part of Government plans to fight the "epidemic" of childhood obesity. Plans for the new watershed have been put out for public consultation in a bid to combat the growing crisis, the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) said PA Health news in pictures Breeding with neanderthals helped humans fight diseases On migrating from Africa around 70,000 years ago, humans bumped into the neanderthals of Eurasia. While humans were weak to the diseases of the new lands, breeding with the resident neanderthals made for a better equipped immune system PA Health news in pictures Cancer breath test to be trialled in Britain The breath biopsy device is designed to detect cancer hallmarks in molecules exhaled by patients Getty Health news in pictures Average 10 year old has consumed the recommended amount of sugar for an adult By their 10th birthdy, children have on average already eaten more sugar than the recommended amount for an 18 year old. The average 10 year old consumes the equivalent to 13 sugar cubes a day, 8 more than is recommended PA Health news in pictures Child health experts advise switching off screens an hour before bed While there is not enough evidence of harm to recommend UK-wide limits on screen use, the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health have advised that children should avoid screens for an hour before bed time to avoid disrupting their sleep Getty Health news in pictures Daily aspirin is unnecessary for older people in good health, study finds A study published in the New England Journal of Medicine has found that many elderly people are taking daily aspirin to little or no avail Getty Health news in pictures Vaping could lead to cancer, US study finds A study by the University of Minnesota's Masonic Cancer Centre has found that the carcinogenic chemicals formaldehyde, acrolein, and methylglyoxal are present in the saliva of E-cigarette users Reuters Health news in pictures More children are obese and diabetic There has been a 41% increase in children with type 2 diabetes since 2014, the National Paediatric Diabetes Audit has found. Obesity is a leading cause Reuters Health news in pictures Most child antidepressants are ineffective and can lead to suicidal thoughts The majority of antidepressants are ineffective and may be unsafe, for children and teenager with major depression, experts have warned. In what is the most comprehensive comparison of 14 commonly prescribed antidepressant drugs to date, researchers found that only one brand was more effective at relieving symptoms of depression than a placebo. Another popular drug, venlafaxine, was shown increase the risk users engaging in suicidal thoughts and attempts at suicide Getty Health news in pictures Gay, lesbian and bisexual adults at higher risk of heart disease, study claims Researchers at the Baptist Health South Florida Clinic in Miami focused on seven areas of controllable heart health and found these minority groups were particularly likely to be smokers and to have poorly controlled blood sugar iStock Health news in pictures Breakfast cereals targeted at children contain 'steadily high' sugar levels since 1992 despite producer claims A major pressure group has issued a fresh warning about perilously high amounts of sugar in breakfast cereals, specifically those designed for children, and has said that levels have barely been cut at all in the last two and a half decades Getty Health news in pictures Potholes are making us fat, NHS watchdog warns New guidance by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), the body which determines what treatment the NHS should fund, said lax road repairs and car-dominated streets were contributing to the obesity epidemic by preventing members of the public from keeping active PA Health news in pictures New menopause drugs offer women relief from 'debilitating' hot flushes A new class of treatments for women going through the menopause is able to reduce numbers of debilitating hot flushes by as much as three quarters in a matter of days, a trial has found. The drug used in the trial belongs to a group known as NKB antagonists (blockers), which were developed as a treatment for schizophrenia but have been sitting on a shelf unused, according to Professor Waljit Dhillo, a professor of endocrinology and metabolism REX Health news in pictures Doctors should prescribe more antidepressants for people with mental health problems, study finds Research from Oxford University found that more than one million extra people suffering from mental health problems would benefit from being prescribed drugs and criticised ideological reasons doctors use to avoid doing so. Getty Health news in pictures Student dies of flu after NHS advice to stay at home and avoid A&E The family of a teenager who died from flu has urged people not to delay going to A&E if they are worried about their symptoms. Melissa Whiteley, an 18-year-old engineering student from Hanford in Stoke-on-Trent, fell ill at Christmas and died in hospital a month later. Just Giving Health news in pictures Government to review thousands of harmful vaginal mesh implants The Government has pledged to review tens of thousands of cases where women have been given harmful vaginal mesh implants. Getty Health news in pictures Jeremy Hunt announces 'zero suicides ambition' for the NHS The NHS will be asked to go further to prevent the deaths of patients in its care as part of a zero suicide ambition being launched today Getty Health news in pictures Human trials start with cancer treatment that primes immune system to kill off tumours Human trials have begun with a new cancer therapy that can prime the immune system to eradicate tumours. The treatment, that works similarly to a vaccine, is a combination of two existing drugs, of which tiny amounts are injected into the solid bulk of a tumour. Nephron Health news in pictures Babies' health suffers from being born near fracking sites, finds major study Mothers living within a kilometre of a fracking site were 25 per cent more likely to have a child born at low birth weight, which increase their chances of asthma, ADHD and other issues Getty Health news in pictures NHS reviewing thousands of cervical cancer smear tests after women wrongly given all-clear Thousands of cervical cancer screening results are under review after failings at a laboratory meant some women were incorrectly given the all-clear. A number of women have already been told to contact their doctors following the identification of procedural issues in the service provided by Pathology First Laboratory. Rex Health news in pictures Potential key to halting breast cancer's spread discovered by scientists Most breast cancer patients do not die from their initial tumour, but from secondary malignant growths (metastases), where cancer cells are able to enter the blood and survive to invade new sites. Asparagine, a molecule named after asparagus where it was first identified in high quantities, has now been shown to be an essential ingredient for tumour cells to gain these migratory properties. Getty Health news in pictures NHS nursing vacancies at record high with more than 34,000 roles advertised A record number of nursing and midwifery positions are currently being advertised by the NHS, with more than 34,000 positions currently vacant, according to the latest data. Demand for nurses was 19 per cent higher between July and September 2017 than the same period two years ago. REX Health news in pictures Cannabis extract could provide new class of treatment for psychosis CBD has a broadly opposite effect to delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the main active component in cannabis and the substance that causes paranoia and anxiety. Getty Health news in pictures Over 75,000 sign petition calling for Richard Branson's Virgin Care to hand settlement money back to NHS Mr Bransons company sued the NHS last year after it lost out on an 82m contract to provide childrens health services across Surrey, citing concerns over serious flaws in the way the contract was awarded PA Health news in pictures More than 700 fewer nurses training in England in first year after NHS bursary scrapped The numbers of people accepted to study nursing in England fell 3 per cent in 2017, while the numbers accepted in Wales and Scotland, where the bursaries were kept, increased 8.4 per cent and 8 per cent respectively Getty Health news in pictures Landmark study links Tory austerity to 120,000 deaths The paper found that there were 45,000 more deaths in the first four years of Tory-led efficiencies than would have been expected if funding had stayed at pre-election levels. On this trajectory that could rise to nearly 200,000 excess deaths by the end of 2020, even with the extra funding that has been earmarked for public sector services this year. Reuters Health news in pictures Long commutes carry health risks Hours of commuting may be mind-numbingly dull, but new research shows that it might also be having an adverse effect on both your health and performance at work. Longer commutes also appear to have a significant impact on mental wellbeing, with those commuting longer 33 per cent more likely to suffer from depression Shutterstock Health news in pictures You cannot be fit and fat It is not possible to be overweight and healthy, a major new study has concluded. The study of 3.5 million Britons found that even metabolically healthy obese people are still at a higher risk of heart disease or a stroke than those with a normal weight range Getty Health news in pictures Sleep deprivation When you feel particularly exhausted, it can definitely feel like you are also lacking in brain capacity. Now, a new study has suggested this could be because chronic sleep deprivation can actually cause the brain to eat itself Shutterstock Health news in pictures Exercise classes offering 45 minute naps launch David Lloyd Gyms have launched a new health and fitness class which is essentially a bunch of people taking a nap for 45 minutes. The fitness group was spurred to launch the napercise class after research revealed 86 per cent of parents said they were fatigued. The class is therefore predominantly aimed at parents but you actually do not have to have children to take part Getty Health news in pictures 'Fundamental right to health' to be axed after Brexit, lawyers warn Tobacco and alcohol companies could win more easily in court cases such as the recent battle over plain cigarette packaging if the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights is abandoned, a barrister and public health professor have said Getty Health news in pictures 'Thousands dying' due to fear over non-existent statin side-effects A major new study into the side effects of the cholesterol-lowering medicine suggests common symptoms such as muscle pain and weakness are not caused by the drugs themselves Getty Health news in pictures Babies born to fathers aged under 25 have higher risk of autism New research has found that babies born to fathers under the age of 25 or over 51 are at higher risk of developing autism and other social disorders. The study, conducted by the Seaver Autism Center for Research and Treatment at Mount Sinai, found that these children are actually more advanced than their peers as infants, but then fall behind by the time they hit their teenage years Getty Health news in pictures Cycling to work could halve risk of cancer and heart disease Commuters who swap their car or bus pass for a bike could cut their risk of developing heart disease and cancer by almost half, new research suggests  but campaigners have warned there is still an urgent need to improve road conditions for cyclists. Cycling to work is linked to a lower risk of developing cancer by 45 per cent and cardiovascular disease by 46 per cent, according to a study of a quarter of a million people. Walking to work also brought health benefits, the University of Glasgow researchers found, but not to the same degree as cycling. Getty

The news comes as patients are set to face delays to life-saving treatment amid warnings over a staggering increase in cancellations of urgent surgeries.

Nearly 1,000 urgent operations have been cut this winter for patients with life-threatening illnesses due to pressures on hospital resources.

Some procedures were scrapped due to staff shortages, such as surgeons being unavailable, while others were cancelled due to shortages of beds for patients to recover in after their operation.Severe weather caused major travel disruption across the UK and Ireland on Wednesday as the Beast from the East tightened its grip.

Road closures, stranded vehicles and cancellations were widespread due to snow and ice.

Services on trains and planes were disrupted, with travellers urged to check with their transport provider before setting off on journeys.

Rail passengers were warned to avoid travelling to or from Scotland for all of Wednesday and into Thursday.

Meanwhile, hundreds of schools across Britain were closed for a second day.

Forecasters predicted the snow and freezing temperatures would not let up any time soon, prompting the Met Office to extend some of its weather warnings.

Rail companies warned delays may continue into Friday.

British Airways said the weather was likely to continue disrupting flights throughout the week.

From Thursday, forecasters predict that another weather system, Storm Emma, will bring blizzards, gales and sleet.

Follow along for live updates

The storm, named by the Portuguese Met Service, was expected to move north through Europe and was due to hit the UK on Thursday and Friday.

Arctic blast hits UK  in pictures Show all 51 1 /51 Arctic blast hits UK  in pictures Arctic blast hits UK  in pictures Members of the Serpentine Swimming Club brave the icy depths of the Serpentine in Hyde Park Rob Pinney/LNP Arctic blast hits UK  in pictures A person crosses the snowy street in Edinburgh's Royal Mile PA Arctic blast hits UK  in pictures St Michael's Mount, near Marazion, Cornwall, lies covered in snow PA Wire/PA Images Arctic blast hits UK  in pictures Edinburgh's Princes Street in the snow Getty Images Arctic blast hits UK  in pictures Houses covered in snow Penzance, Cornwall PA Wire/PA Images Arctic blast hits UK  in pictures Canal boats are frozen into Birmingham's canal system PA Arctic blast hits UK  in pictures The M62 near Huddersfield was closed for hours on Thursday. A Highways England vehicle set alight PA Arctic blast hits UK  in pictures The M80 near Glasgow was stationary for hours on Wednesday night PA Arctic blast hits UK  in pictures A family make their way in the snow in Balloch, Scotland Getty Arctic blast hits UK  in pictures Closed barriers at Paddington in West London as trains were cancelled from the station AFP/Getty Arctic blast hits UK  in pictures Workers clear a platform at Paddington station in west London AFP/Getty Arctic blast hits UK  in pictures A council worker breaks the ice on the fountain in Trafalgar Square in London Reuters Arctic blast hits UK  in pictures A 4x4 makes its way along the road in Alexandria, Scotland Getty Arctic blast hits UK  in pictures Two boys play in the snow on a housing estate in Alexandria, Scotland Getty Arctic blast hits UK  in pictures The M876 to Glasgow is closed due to snow as storm Emma, rolling in from the Atlantic, looks poised to meet the Beast from the Easts chilly Russia air PA Arctic blast hits UK  in pictures Icicles form on the seafront railings at Penzance in Cornwall PA Arctic blast hits UK  in pictures The British Waterways building in Nottingham PA Arctic blast hits UK  in pictures Snow lingers on rooftops of houses in Newlyn near Penzance, ahead of the arrival of Storm Emma Getty Arctic blast hits UK  in pictures A commuter in a hi-viz jacket cycles through the snow Getty Images Arctic blast hits UK  in pictures A taxi crosses London Bridge AFP/Getty Arctic blast hits UK  in pictures A pedestrian walks along Whitehall in London. EPA Arctic blast hits UK  in pictures A woman feeds the birds in Kensington Gardens AP Arctic blast hits UK  in pictures Snow ploughs clear drifts on the sea front road in Whitley Bay, North Tyneside. PA Arctic blast hits UK  in pictures Vehicles slow in the snowy conditions. AP Arctic blast hits UK  in pictures Icicles hang from a frozen elephant fountain in Colchester. Getty Images Arctic blast hits UK  in pictures A young man takes a running jump down a snow covered hill with his sledge. Getty Arctic blast hits UK  in pictures People help push a car that got stuck in the snow in Rochester. Getty Arctic blast hits UK  in pictures Stationary traffic on the M20 near Ashford. PA Arctic blast hits UK  in pictures A Eurostar train passes through Ashford. PA Arctic blast hits UK  in pictures People use their sleds in the snow in Jackson's Fields in Rochester. Getty Arctic blast hits UK  in pictures Parents walk their children to school in Ashford, Kent, as heavy snowfall is affecting roads across the UK. PA Arctic blast hits UK  in pictures Cars travel through Great Chart in Ashford, Kent. PA Arctic blast hits UK  in pictures Vehicles crawl along a road as snow falls in south east England, as seen through the window of a train travelling from London to Canterbury. AP Arctic blast hits UK  in pictures People walk in the snow in the village of Brenchley in southeast England. AFP/Getty Arctic blast hits UK  in pictures A swimmer braves the snowy conditions at King Edwards bay near Tynemouth. PA Arctic blast hits UK  in pictures A woman scrapes ice from her car. Getty Images Arctic blast hits UK  in pictures People sled in the snow in Rochester. Getty Arctic blast hits UK  in pictures Children play on sledges outside Rochester Castle. Getty Arctic blast hits UK  in pictures Toby Stanton walks to school in Ashford during heavy snowfall. PA Arctic blast hits UK  in pictures Snow stands by parked trains at Ashford International in southeast England. AP Arctic blast hits UK  in pictures A snowy Tynemouth beach, following heavy overnight snowfall. PA Arctic blast hits UK  in pictures Roads across the UK have seen a blanketing of snow, with police forces reporting treacherous driving conditions and blocked routes. PA Arctic blast hits UK  in pictures Commuters face a miserable journey to work as the snow falls in freezing temperatures in Pimlico. Rex Features Arctic blast hits UK  in pictures People photograph a frozen waterfall near Pen y Fan mountain on Brecon Beacon National Park, Wales. PA Arctic blast hits UK  in pictures A woman laden with shopping struggles through the snow in south London. EPA/FACUNDO ARRIZABALAGA Arctic blast hits UK  in pictures Commuters walking in the snow on London Bridge. PA Arctic blast hits UK  in pictures A woman carrying an umbrella walks past a homeless person sleeping in a doorway during a snow shower in London. Getty Arctic blast hits UK  in pictures People make their way through a snow flurry in London. Reuters Arctic blast hits UK  in pictures Trucks are stuck after heavy snow on the motorway in Briscous, near Bayonne, southwestern France AP Arctic blast hits UK  in pictures A commuter pedals along Whitehall in central London EPA Arctic blast hits UK  in pictures A man places snow chains on his tyres in Leek, Staffordshire Reuters

Additional reporting by agenciesUniversity officials and the union representing university staff have agreed to hold further talks in a bid to end the strikes which have seen staff walk out of 61 UK universities because of planned changes to their pensions.

The University and College Union (UCU) said it was pleased that Universities UK (UUK) had agreed to further talks to try and end the strike action, and UUK described negotiations as positive.

The two parties will meet for further talks mediated by the conciliation service Acas.

But the promise of talks has not put the brakes on plans for more walkouts.

The strike action remains on, UCU said in a statement.

University staff are planning to strike on Wednesday, and for four days beginning on Monday 5 March.

The wave of a total of 14 days of strikes will culminate with a five-day walkout beginning on Monday 12 March.

UCU general secretary Sally Hunt said: We are pleased the employers have agreed to more talks. Today UCU tabled proposals which provide the basis for settling this damaging dispute. We have listened not just to our members, but also to the many university leaders who have contributed ideas.

At the core of our proposals is for universities to accept a small amount of increased risk, but only at a level a majority have recently said they are comfortable with. Doing this would enable us to provide a decent, guaranteed pension at a more modest cost with smaller contribution increases.

UCU has been impressed by the ideas of many vice-chancellors who have intervened in the dispute. Our proposals for long-term reform reflect an attempt to reach a consensus around the challenges we face.

A spokesperson for Universities UK said: Todays talks have been positive with both employers representatives and union leaders showing a willingness to work together to address the schemes financial challenges.

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

Further talks are being arranged. In the interest of students, we have asked UCU to stop the industrial action while talks continue to find an alternative, viable and affordable solution.

Both parties agreed to involve ACAS in facilitating further talks to bridge the significant distance between both sides.Place your index finger here, says the receptionist as she nods to the fingerprint scanner on the welcome desk emblazoned with the word Serco.

And the other hand. Now stand with your back to the wall for a photo.

This is just the beginning of a long series of security checks for anyone visiting Yarls Wood Immigration Removal Centre. Next you have to bundle all your belongings into a locker, including phones. Then you wait outside a large door next to an unwelcoming sign ordering: Wait your turn. Beside it are warnings about all the things residents are not allowed to take into the centre: money, phones, food.

Eventually you get ushered into a small room where you find yourself walking through a full body scanner. A sign on the door states in capital letters: No residents beyond this point. Once youve undergone a full body search and have a green band wrapped around your wrist, youre finally able to step into the visiting room.

On first glance, its a room of people chatting at tables and children playing with toys in a corner. But on closer look, you have a dismal scene of loved ones trying to treasure the few hours they have together before they are forced apart again. A downcast Filipino woman rests her head on her partners shoulder as he strokes her arm. A West African mother dotes on her young son in the childrens area. All appear to be plagued by the fear that they could suddenly be seas apart.

Yarls Wood holds more than 400 people, mainly women, to establish their identities or facilitate immigration claims  not because they have committed criminal offences. Im visiting the centre days after detainees began a hunger strike in protest against poor conditions. Im here as a visitor, not a journalist. While I am unable to access the rooms or main living area, it is clear from what I see and hear why residents are striking.

The Yarls Wood detention centre is accused of mistreating some inmates (May Bulman)

Opelo Kgari, 27, is the woman Im there to meet. She has been in Yarls Wood for five weeks, and is one of the 120 detainees on hunger strike. It is quickly clear from the way she speaks and her ease of communication that she is very much British. Its not a surprise. She came to the UK from Botswana with her mother when she was just 13 years old.

But despite going through the British education system, achieving good A-levels and developing aspirations to work in the UKs charity sector, Opelo has been thrown into Yarls Wood twice in the past year. The first time, last May, she had been on her way back from a short weekend in Belfast with friends when she was placed in a holding cell for two days  a memory that brings tears to her eyes  before being driven to the centre. The second time, she had been reporting to the Home Office as she is required to do every two weeks. Again, she was locked in a holding cell for more than 12 hours and then taken straight to detention with only what she had on her back.

This time round, I wasnt even wearing a bra, Opelo exclaims. I was going to yoga with a friend after reporting to the Home Office, so I just threw a coat on. I never got to the class. They put me and my mum in a holding cell for over 12 hours, with three officers outside. My mum was just crying. We were taken to Yarls Wood at around 3am. I didnt have a bra for five days once I got here, or a change of underwear.

She and her mother, who she lives with in Stoke-on-Trent, have been fighting their right to be in Britain since 2010. Their asylum claim has been rejected a number of times, and they are now in the process of arguing that, after living in the UK for 14 years, throughout Opelos formative years, they have a human right to remain. Yet despite ongoing legal proceedings, they find themselves locked in Yarls Wood.

Visitors to Yarls Wood are required to go through strict security checks before seeing their loved ones (May Bulman)

Opelo wears a navy sweater of which the sleeves reach just past her elbows. Its cold in there, she says, rubbing her bare lower arms. I dont have any of my warm clothes. Her friends have been gradually delivering her clothes to the centre, but they can only check in so many at a time and they have to go through a strict vetting process, which can take several days. Opelo explains that some detainees have no way of getting their belongings from home once theyre here. Some women have to wear the horrible tracksuits were provided with. Theyre a dirty grey and theyre not warm.

Asked what she has had to miss out on while being in detention, Opelo is strikingly frank and matter-of-fact. She explains that she was unable to attend a friends funeral recently because they thought she would do a runner, and that she had to forego a major conference where she was supposed to represent the charity she volunteers for. After a big sigh, she says she also misses the simple things, like Earl Grey tea, Spotify and the ability to walk around without shoes on  all of which are prohibited in Yarls Wood.

But her main concern is of her fellow detainees who are more vulnerable, who she says are not having their health needs met: Theres one woman who spends all day walking around the centre with a packed handbag, claiming she had everything she needs in there. Shes clearly not well. And theres an Iranian woman whos on suicide watch. Officers just sit outside her cell with the door open. She clearly shouldnt be in here at all. Its inhumane.

Theres also a man whose teeth are so bad theyre falling out, but hes been waiting a long time to see the dentist. Bizarrely, Ive managed to get an appointment before him, even though hes been waiting much longer. Theres a lack of organisation.

Opelo believes the problems stem from much higher than the staff at the centre. Most of the staff here are decent people. They are doing their jobs. They do what they can to make it bearable for people, she says. The problem comes from the wider system which puts people in here and then releases them, but gets no further in the process.

Being in Yarls Wood isnt what Opelo imagined for herself when she was growing up. She enjoyed school and did well academically, passing A-levels in English, Geography and IT. It wasnt until she applied for an undergraduate degree at the University of West England and got rejected due to her immigration status that she realised something was wrong.

Nearly ten years on, despite throwing herself into volunteering and charity work because she was unable to go to university or get a proper job, Opelo feels her life is on hold.

There are days when its really hard and I feel like I have no future. I struggle to sleep. The idea of going back to Botswana is unfathomable. I was never close to my family there and I dont even speak the language. I spent my formative years here in Britain. I couldnt recognise myself as a non-Brit now.

The hunger strike and the recent visit to the centre by Shadow Home Secretary Diane Abbott has raised hopes for her and others being held in the centre that things will change. But as things stand, Opelo will continue to be locked up despite a flourishing start to her life in Britain, mentally ill women and men will continue to be detained without necessary support and the crisis of Britains limitless immigration detention system will remain.

A Home Office spokesperson said: Detention and removal of those with no lawful basis to stay in the UK are essential parts of effective immigration controls. We do not detain individuals indefinitely  when people are detained, it is for the minimum time possible and detention is reviewed on a regular basis.

Any decision to maintain detention is made on a case by case basis but the detainees welfare remains of the utmost importance throughout. The provision of 24-hour, seven-days-a-week healthcare in all immigration removal centres ensures that individuals held there have ready access to medical professionals and levels of primary care in line with individuals in the community.The UK could impose customs checks between Great Britain and Northern Ireland to solve the Brexit Irish border issue, the European Unions chief negotiator has said.

Michel Barnier told reporters in Brussels he did not believe such checks would amount to a border across British territory, adding: Somewhere in airports and ports there would be controls, but I would not refer to a border.

Mr Barnier said the plan, a backstop for solving the issue of the Irish border if another solution cannot be found, would not infringe on the constitutional or institutional order of the UK  despite claims by Brexiteers it amounted to the EU annexing Northern Ireland.

Recommended Johnson says Irish border issue like boundary between London councils

The EU chief negotiator was speaking after the publication of a draft Brexit withdrawal treaty, drawn up by the EU to clarify the broad agreement reached by negotiators in December last year.

But speaking about the proposals at the same time in the House of Commons, Theresa May said that no United Kingdom prime minister could ever agree with putting barriers between Northern Ireland and Great Britain, while Brexit Secretary David Davis said it would undermine the UK common market and constitutional integrity of the UK.

The draft text released by the EU calls for a common regulatory area on Ireland, effectively keeping Northern Ireland in the single market and customs union while the rest of the UK left.

The plan is likely to anger the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), on whose votes the UK Government has been relying on for its governing majority since last years general election. The DUP is understood to have sank a previous plan in December after leader Arlene Foster told Ms May she would not support it.

But the EU claims the plan is not new and merely a formal interpretation of what Ms May agreed in broad terms when she struck a preliminary deal at the end of last year, to great fanfare.

If we wish to make a success of these negotiations, and I certainly do, we must pick up the pace, Mr Barnier told journalists.

On 30 March 2019, in 13 months, the UK will no longer be a member state of the European Union. On that day we need to have organised this withdrawal in an orderly fashion.

I think now what we need to do is negotiate on the basis of a text, because time is short between today and the autumn of this year, which is when we need to conclude a final agreement based on this draft agreement.

The plan to keep Northern Ireland in the customs union and single market would only come into effect if the UK cannot come up with another way of solving the border issue.

The draft withdrawal treaty says this could either be resolved by the UK negotiating a trade deal that removed the need for a hard border, or with another specific solution. Mr Barnier said he expected the Prime Minister to come up with a specific solution in a speech planned later this week.

 Theresa May says 'no Prime Minister would ever agree' to EUs proposal for Northern Ireland to remain aligned with the Republic after Brexit

Asked about Labour leader Jeremy Corbyns proposals to keep the UK in a customs union with the EU, Mr Barnier said he was only negotiating with the British Government, but added: That offers a significant part of the solution for Ireland and [then] its a question of regulatory alignment.

Writing to Conservative MPs after the publication of the EU's draft, the Brexit Secretary Mr Davis said that while the UK was committed to what it had pledged in December, it would do so avoiding any borders within our United Kingdom.

The draft legal text that the Commission have published today would, if implemented, undermine the UK common market and constitutional integrity of the UK by creating a customs and regulatory border down the Irish Sea, he told his colleagues.

Boris Johnson was last night reported to have told Ms May that it was wrong for the Government to prioritise preventing a hard border  echoing sentiment from some hardline Brexiteers. Downing Street today however said it was still committed to avoiding such a frontier.

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

The joint text agreed in December says the UK has a commitment to the avoidance of a hard border, including any physical infrastructure or related checks and controls.

But it also said that in all circumstances, the United Kingdom will continue to ensure the same unfettered access for Northern Irelands businesses to the whole of the United Kingdom internal market  potentially ruling out checks between NI and the rest of the UK.Former Conservative leader John Major has launched a devastating attack on Theresa Mays approach to Brexit, just 48 hours before the Prime Minister sets out her plans for future relations with the EU.

In a significant intervention, Sir John tore into Ms Mays negotiating red lines as bad politics and grand folly dictated by ultra Brexiteers.

He demanded MPs be freed from the party whip and allowed to vote with their conscience on her final deal, and said Britain may need a second referendum to avoid years of damaging rows over Brexit.

Recommended Warring objectives and red lines are making a Brexit deal impossible

His explosive speech sparked a ferocious backlash from Tories that back hard Brexit, with one saying his arguments were grubbing around in the weeds.

The surgically timed intervention comes as Ms May prepares to reveal the final text of her next big Brexit speech to the Cabinet, before meeting European Council president Donald Tusk in Downing Street on Thursday.

Sir Johns intervention also appears to have been choreographed with another speech from ex-prime minister Tony Blair in Brussels on Thursday, in which the ex-Labour leader will address European politicians on Brexit.

When the ex-Tory leader stood to make his speech on Wednesday, Ms May had already locked horns with Brussels negotiators who had in the morning published what she called an unacceptable draft withdrawal agreement.

 Former Government trade official Sir Martin Donnelly: Brexit is like 'giving up a three-course meal for a packet of crisps'

Despite Ms May having repeatedly claimed she settled the withdrawal agreement last year, she argued in the Commons that a new draft had crossed her Brexit red lines.

This is not only grand folly. Its also bad politics John Major sums up Theresa Mays approach to Brexit

It was those very red lines that Sir John took aim at when he began talking in London minutes later, claiming they had boxed Ms May in.

He said: They are so tilted to ultra-Brexit opinion, even the Cabinet cannot agree them  and a majority in both Houses of Parliament oppose them.

If maintained in full, it will be impossible to reach a favourable trade outcome.

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

He added: This is not only grand folly. Its also bad politics.

Sir John then listed what he saw as Ms Mays negotiating disappointments, including the failure to secure simultaneous talks on withdrawal and trade last year which he branded an immediate British retreat.

His attack was given added prescience after the Government signalled that it would back down on a key negotiating position, by allowing EU citizens arriving in the UK during the transition period to gain settlement rights.

He then turned his fire on promises made during the referendum by people he called ultra Brexiteers that the NHS would have more money, that the UK could remain in the single market and that a trade deal would be easy to get. All of which he said had been shown to be false.

The former prime minister took a particular swipe at Boris Johnson who had once said of the divorce bill that the EU could whistle for their money, with Sir John pointing out that Europe didnt even have to purse her lips before we agreed to pay 40bn.

Turning to the future he said that there had to be an end to the bitterness and division caused by Brexit whatever the outcome, and argued that a further referendum may be the only way to do it.

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

In particular he demanded that all parties allow MPs to vote with their own minds rather than whipping them one way or another on the final deal.

In a key section he said: By 2021, after the likely two-year transition, it will be five years since the 2016 referendum.

The electorate will have changed. Some voters will have left us. Many new voters will be enfranchised. Others may have changed their mind.

No one can truly know what the will of the people may then be. So, let Parliament decide. Or put the issue back to the people.

Jacob Rees-Mogg MP is leading the charge against Sir Johnfor the Tory Brexiteers (PA)

A Downing Street spokesman said: The PM anticipates getting the right Brexit deal and anticipates MPs from across the House will support it.

The Independent understands that the Government will whip the vote on the final deal, arguing that it is justified because it is party policy to deliver Brexit.

While Downing Street respectfully disagreed with Sir Johns analysis, other Tories were less restrained.

Jacob Rees-Mogg said it was clear Sir Johnwas attempting to reverse the result of the referendum with cheap comments and propaganda.

He said: We had a democratic vote, the decision has been taken and what he is trying to do is overturn that.

This isnt a statesman-like speech. This is one of somebody grubbing around in the weeds for weak arguments. It is a very poor speech.

 Theresa May says 'no Prime Minister would ever agree' to EUs proposal for Northern Ireland to remain aligned with the Republic after Brexit

Ms Mays planned intervention on Friday  in which she will set out her approach to securing future trading relations with the EU  will be put to the Cabinet for final approval on Thursday.

With major divisions in her top team yet to be resolved, the speech will probably leave many questions unanswered, but what has come out so far has already been dismissed by the EUs chief negotiator Michel Barnier as illusory.

After seeing the Cabinet, Ms May will receive Mr Tusk at No 10 for discussions about her approach, with the EU politician expected to address journalists afterwards.

Meanwhile, Mr Blair will tell an audience in Brussels that the EU must also share the responsibility for finding a way to stop Brexit by agreeing to tighten immigration controls.

Speaking in Brussels, the former Prime Minister will urge EU leaders to see the Leave vote as a wake-up call  arguing reform would help persuade the British public to change its mind.

Mr Blair will say Britains departure also weakens Europes standing and power, undermining the single market and creating a competitive pole across the English Channel.Theresa May has immediately rejected the EUs proposal for Northern Ireland to remain aligned with the Republic after Brexit, insisting no United Kingdom prime minister could ever agree to it.

The Prime Minister put herself on another collision course with Brussels, telling MPs she would make her staunch opposition to a draft legal agreement crystal clear to EU leaders.

The stance came after Michel Barnier, the EUs Brexit negotiator published the text which proposes a "common regulatory area" across Ireland, if other solutions to avoid a hard border fail.

Recommended EU says UK could impose customs checks between GB and Northern Ireland

It would create a customs border in the Irish Sea unless Ms May agrees to alignment across the UK  effectively keeping the entire UK in the EU customs union and single market, which she has ruled out.

During Prime Ministers Questions, she was asked, by a Democratic Unionist Party MP, to never agree to any borders between Northern Ireland and the rest of the United Kingdom.

In reply, Ms May said the Government would work with the EU to get their December agreement translated into legal form in the withdrawal agreement.

But she warned: The draft legal text the Commission has published would, if implemented, undermine the United Kingdom common market and threaten the constitutional integrity of the United Kingdom by creating a custom and regulatory border down the Irish Sea.

The Prime Minister added: No United Kingdom prime minister could ever agree to it. I will be making it crystal clear to President Juncker and others that we will never do so.

We are committed to ensuring that we see no hard border between Northern Ireland and Ireland.

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

However, significantly, Ms May noted that the December text  which she shook hands on  also made clear that there should continue to be trade between Northern Ireland and the rest of the United Kingdom as there is today.

Before Christmas, after the DUP vetoed the proposal for the customs border to be moved to the Irish Sea, the Government agreed to full alignment across the UK, as a backstop solution.

For two months, it has been pointed out that this was likely to require the UK to remain within the customs union and single market  but the controversy has been fudged.

In the Commons, Ms May gave her fiercest denunciation yet of customs union membership, saying it would betray the vote of the people and appearing to give herself no wriggle room.

Speaking afterwards, Keir Starmer, Labours Shadow Brexit Secretary, said: Theresa Mays failure to offer any viable solution to the border in Northern Ireland has come back to haunt her.

And yet, 20 months since the referendum the Government has yet to set out how it can achieve this without the UK remaining in a customs union with the EU.

Ms May told Jeremy Corbyn she would reveal more details of her Brexit proposals in a major speech at the end of the week.

In Brussels, Mr Barnier made clear his text did not include a commitment to no customs border between Northern Ireland and mainland UK only because it would be seen as interfering in the country's domestic affairs.

And he promised to delete the backstop proposal for alignment across Ireland if a trade deal or a British technological solution  yet to be put forward - solved the border dilemma. Close Theresa May says 'no Prime Minister would ever agree' to EUs proposal for Northern Ireland to remain aligned with the Republic after Brexit

Theresa May has rejected an EU proposal for the Northern Ireland border as something no UK Prime Minister could agree to, on a day when Brexit tensions threatened to bubble over.

Brussels published an 120-page draft agreement on the EU withdrawal that proposed a common regulatory area for Northern Ireland after Brexit, if no other solution could be found  effectively keeping the province in a customs union.

It came as Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson caused a major row with an explosive leaked memo where he suggested there could be a significantly harder border on the island of Ireland after Brexit.

Former prime minister Sir John Major also made an explosive intervention in the debate, saying MPs should be allowed a free vote on the prospect of a second referendum, while tearing into Ms Mays negotiating strategy.

In the Commons, Jeremy Corbyn also attacked the Governments Brexit approach in an angry clash at Prime Ministers Questions.

It came after the Labour leader made a dramatic policy shift in favour of backing a European customs union in a speech earlier this week.

Scroll down to see how we covered the day's eventsTwo British members of the European Parliament who were originally elected as Conservatives have defected to another, pro-EU parliamentary group allied with EU president Jean-Claude Juncker.

Julie Girling and Richard Ashworth, who represent south west and south east England respectively, said they were leaving the European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) with immediate effect to join the European Peoples Party (EPP).

The EPP is the main centre-right group in the European Parliament and is allied with politicians such as German chancellor Angela Merkel and Mr Juncker, who was the EPP candidate for Commission president.

 Jean-Claude Juncker calls EU superstate claim by Boris Johnson 'total nonsense'

David Cameron took the Tories out of the EPP in 2009 because of its pro-EU leanings and instead set up the ECR in a bid to appease eurosceptics within his party. The ECR group has received sustained criticism since it was set up for including unsavoury parties from the extreme and populist right.

Ms Girling and Mr Ashworth, who are both pro-EU, said they both wanted to remain members of the Conservatives in the UK but were leaving the ECR because they believed it would help them achieve the best possible futures for our constituents.

We wish to inform you that we will be leaving the European Conservatives and Reformists group and joining the European Peoples Party group in the European Parliament with immediate effect, they said in a statement released on Wednesday.

It is our intention to remain members of the Conservative Party in the UK as we believe the activities and approach of the EPP will more effectively further the prospects of achieving the best possible future for our constituents.

EC president Jean-Claude Juncker, German chancellor Angela Merkel, and Council president Donald Tusk all hail from the European People's Party (Reuters)

We will continue to work for our constituents from inside the largest and most influential group in the European Parliament. We very much look forward to working with our new colleagues from all 28 member states.

Though the vast majority of Tory MPs in Westminster have fallen in behind the EU referendum result, the Conservatives' new hardline eurosceptic direction has been less well received by some members of the party's group of MEPs.

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

All British MEPs will lose their jobs next year if Brexit goes ahead, when there will be fresh European Parliament elections in which the UK does not participate. The UK's seats have been split between other countries and also used to reduce the size of the body.

A spokesperson for the European Conservatives and Reformists group said: We regret their decision but are not surprised.

They failed to accept the result of the British referendum on EU membership and as a result distanced themselves from their delegation, which eventually saw the whip suspended.Tens of millions of pounds of funding earmarked for building new low-cost housing will instead be given to aspiring homeowners, government documents have revealed.

Records show the housing department returned 72m of its affordable homes funding to the Treasury this year because it had failed to spend it, despite the UK struggling in the midst of a housing crisis.

The money will instead be used to help pay for the Help to Buy scheme, which assists buyers with the cost of a deposit. The scheme has been criticised for prioritising wealthier potential buyers at the expense of those most in need of affordable housing.

Recommended Fewer social homes being built than at any time since Second World War

In total, the Department for Housing, Communities and Local Government returned 817m of funding it said was no longer required in 2017-18. The vast majority of the money was supposed to have been spent on housing.

Despite many areas of the country reporting a desperate need for new low-cost homes, the department said in a memo: Part of the funding allocation for the Affordable Housing programme has not been required in 2017/18.

The surrendered money, which could have built thousands of affordable homes, will be utilised to offset the budget requirement for the Help to Buy programme, it added.

It means money originally allocated to boost housing supply will instead be spent on a programme that increases demand without resulting in new properties being built.

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The document also reveals that the 329m budget for Starter Homes  properties sold to first-time buyers at a discount  has been returned to the Treasury.

The memo said: Starter Homes budget was surrendered as agreed with [the Treasury] to contribute to the higher Affordable Housing investment in future years.

The Independent revealed late last year that, despite being a flagship Conservative policy for boosting home ownership, not a single Starter Home has yet been built.

John Healey, Labours Shadow Housing Secretary, said: Feeble ministers are selling families short by surrendering much-needed cash for new homes.

If the Secretary of State cant defend his departments budget from the Treasury, he should give the job to someone who can.

A government spokesperson said: We are delivering the homes our country needs, and since 2010 we have built over 357,000 new affordable properties.

But we are determined to do more and we are investing a further 9bn, including 2bn to help councils and housing associations build social rent homes where they are most needed.Karen Bradley has slapped down Boris Johnsons suggestion that the Government could consider a hard border in Northern Ireland after Brexit.

The Northern Ireland Secretary said the Government resolutely stood by an agreement with the EU late last year that stated no new physical infrastructure will be introduced on the border.

The constitutional integrity of the United Kingdom is paramount, Ms Bradley said, adding that the Government intends to maintain an open border by negotiating a trade deal between the EU and the whole of the UK.

It comes after a leaked document revealed Mr Johnson, the Foreign Secretary, had used a letter to Theresa May to raise the prospect of a hard border in Northern Ireland and suggest it was not ministers job to prevent one.

Speaking to MPs on the Northern Ireland Affairs Committee, Ms Bradley insisted this was not the Governments position.

The British Government stands resolutely behind the joint report [with the EU] from December, she said. There is no change in position with regards the joint report, and also no change in our position with regards support for the Belfast Agreement. We are resolutely behind that.

That means there will be no hard border. We have said that, the Irish government has said that and the EU has said that.

[There will be] no new physical infrastructure at the border. That is north-south but also east-west.

To be absolutely clear, the constitutional and economic integrity of the United Kingdom is paramount and something the United Kingdom government will ensure is what we achieve.

She added: We are working towards an overall UK-EU agreement that means there is no hard border, no new physical infrastructure at the border, [and] frictionless movement of people and goods.

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

In an explosive letter leaked to Sky News, Boris Johnson told Ms May: It would be wrong to see the Governments task as maintaining no border.

Instead, he said, ministerstask should be to stop the border becoming significantly harder, adding that  even if that happened  95 per cent plus of goods could be expected to pass through without checks.

Ms Bradley also hinted that she will cut the salaries of members of the Northern Irish assembly, who have not sat for over a year after power-sharing at Stormont collapsed last January.

She said an announcement on the issue will be made next week, but confirmed that, even if assembly members pay is cut, staffing budgets will not be.

I dont think the staff should be punished or penalised for the inability of the parties to form an executive, she said.Theresa May has abandoned another of her Brexit red lines, by agreeing that EU citizens who arrive during her planned transition period can settle in the UK.

The Prime Minister had vowed to fight Brussels demand for residency rights be granted to its nationals who move in the period  of about two years  when the UK will still abide by EU rules.

In January, she insisted the rights offered had to be different because those people would be coming to a UK they know will be outside the EU.

But Downing Street has now quietly dropped that stance, after the EU warned it would prevent talks beginning on a future trade deal.

An announcement, posted on the Governments website, said: EU citizens and their family members will be able to move to the UK during the implementation period on the same basis as they do today.

The move is certain to further enrage hard Brexit supporters on the Tory benches who had insisted the EUs proposal for the transition period was unacceptable.

But it was welcomed by the British Chambers of Commerce, who said business leaders would be pleased to finally have answers on the status of EU workers.

Business will be pleased that during a time of record-high labour shortages, the Government is showing a pragmatic approach to immigration, said Adam Marshall, the BCCs director general.

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

Firms will want to see this realism embedded in future migration policy when the UK leaves the EU.

The U-turn means arrivals during the transition will be allowed to apply for indefinite leave to remain, and given time to earn the five years residency in order to qualify, although not for the settled status offered to those arriving before March 2019.

And the Government is still insisting that they will not enjoy the same rights to bring in family members to join them as EU nationals already resident in Britain and granted settled status.

Instead, they will have to pass a minimum income threshold test, which is currently set at 18,600 for British, but not EU, citizens.

However, it is unclear whether the EU will accept that, after Guy Verhofstadt, the European Parliaments Brexit coordinator, said the idea of two different set of rights was not negotiable.

The announcement says the concessions have been made because it is important to provide certainty to business and those EU citizens who wish to move to the UK during the implementation period as to the terms under which they will be able to remain in the UK and make a life here once the period is over.

The Prime Ministers objection to granting residency rights for arrivals after Brexit Day, in March 2019, had also held up a streamlined application system for EU nationals already in the UK.

A digital app is planned to replace the current, daunting 85-page form which millions of EU citizens would otherwise be required to fill in in order register to stay.

It had to be delayed when the Prime Minister insisted on different rules for later arrivals, because the Home Office was faced with the headache of operating two different systems.Theresa May will warn Brussels she will not agree to anything that threatens the constitutional integrity of the UK, rebutting the suggestion Northern Ireland must continue to abide by EU regulations after Brexit.

The European Commission will today publish a draft withdrawal agreement that is expected to say Northern Ireland may need to be considered part of EU customs territory when Britain leaves the bloc.

The arrangement, which would be the so-called default option, would create a single regulatory space on the island of Ireland with no internal barriers.

 What is the Brexit 'transition'?

Ms May has been told failure to agree on the legal text will stall talks on the future of the UK-EU relationship.

A Downing Street source said: We are fully committed to implementing the December agreement, but the EU should be absolutely clear that the Prime Minister is not going to sign up to anything that threatens the constitutional integrity of the UK or its common market.

Nor are we going to accept the ECJ as the final arbiter of the withdrawal agreement. There are many issues on which we are in agreement with the EU but, when it comes to these matters, you can expect the Governments response to be robust.

They added: This is a draft negotiating position by the EU and not a final, binding text.

Sources said the Prime Minister made clear in December that while there would be no hard border between Northern Ireland and the Republic, there would also be no divide in the Irish Sea.

The comments from No 10 came after a leaked memo revealed Boris Johnson had told Ms May it was not Britains responsibility to maintain no border on the island of Ireland after Brexit.

The Foreign Secretary instead urged the Prime Minister to agree it should be the Governments objective to prevent the crossing becoming significantly harder.

Supporters of a hard Brexit such as Mr Johnson fear keeping Northern Ireland in EU customs territory after Brexit would prevent Britain from breaking free from European economic structures and stop it from pursuing free trade deals elsewhere.

In the memo seen by Sky News, Mr Johnson wrote: It would be wrong to see the Governments task as maintaining no border.

He said the task should be to stop the border becoming significantly harder, adding that  even if that happened  95 per cent plus of goods could be expected to pass through without checks.

UK news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 UK news in pictures 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. 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Ian Murray, a Labour MP and supporter of the pro-EU Open Britain campaign, accused Mr Johnson of being ready to undermine the Good Friday Agreement.

It can be little wonder that negotiations over Ireland are now severely strained, because Theresa May and her ministers have consistently failed to be honest about the implications of the hard Brexit they seek, he said.

Following the leak, Downing Street dismissed the prospect of returning to a hard border, saying it had made clear it was not an option on numerous occasions.Every year on 1 March, the people of Wales celebrate their heritage and St David, an occasion marked in today's Google Doodle.

But who was the patron saint and just what is a lovespoon when it's at home?

Here are five facts surrounding the biggest day in the Welsh calendar.

1.A lovespoon is a customary gift weighted with symbolism

A tradition dating from the 17th century, a Welsh lovespoon is given by talented carvers to the objects of their affection to demonstrate prowess in carpentry and imply an ability to provide.

Lovespoons are commonly decorated with hearts, anchors, horseshoes, knots and locks, with many conveying hidden emotional meaning. A spoon with an entwined stem, for instance, indicates togetherness, while a decorative Welsh dragon at the tip of the handle represents a protective charm.

2. St. David was a sixth century missionary and ascetic who once raised a hill from the ground

Born in Caerfai, Pembrokshire, in 500 AD to Prince Ceredig ap Cunedda and Nom, daughter of a Celtic chieftain, St. David was an early Christian missionary and archbishop who travelled to France, Ireland and the Holy Land and founded 12 monasteries.

Much of Davids life is shrouded in mystery but he was once believed to be a nephew of King Arthur on his mother's side and stands today as a symbol of Welsh resistance against the Norman Conquest. He is also recognised as the patron saint of doves.

Miracles associated with David include the Synod of LLanddewi Brefi - where he raised a hill up from the ground so that his followers could better hear a sermon  restoring sight to the blind St. Paulinus and bringing a dead boy back to life with his tears. David also survived a poisoning at the hands of his own monks, who had fed him tainted bread after growing tired of the hard labour and deprivation they had suffered as a result of his extreme brand of asceticism.

He died on March 1 in 589 AD and his remains have been interred at St. David's Cathedral in Pembrokeshire since he was canonised by Pope Callixtus in 1120 (or they were, until King Edward I made off with his head and arm as holy relics in 1284). David's burial site has been a popular place of pilgrimage for centuries since and his aphorism Gwnewch y pethau bychain - or do the little things - remains a national motto to this day.

3. Soldiers mark the day by eating raw leeks

The people of Wales celebrate their national day by sporting daffodils about their person and taking part in festivities across the country, with large parades staged in Cardiff, Aberystwyth, Wrexham and Llandudno every year. Children are often dressed in traditional folk attire dating from the 18th and 19th centuries and the national hymn, Land of our Fathers, resounds.

Traditional Welsh dishes are also served  notably roast lamb or Rarebit  with perhaps the least appetising being raw leeks, customarily presented to Welsh regiments of the British army to devour whole in a nod to their distinctive heritage.

Leeks were said to be worn by Welsh soldiers in battle tied to their helmets  as Fluellen does in Shakespeares Henry V - to distinguish themselves from Saxon invaders, although the precise origins of Waless association with the root vegetable remain obscure.

4. The Welsh dragon originates in Britains oldest myths

Aside from daffodils, leeks and Tom Jones, Waless most instantly recognisable symbol is the snarling red dragon emblazoned on its national flag.

This icon can be traced back to Arthurian legend and a dream experienced by the young Merlin, later to be Camelots court wizard and chief adviser to the king, who foresaw a battle between a red and white dragon and understood it to represent the coming of Arthur to see off the Saxon hordes.

The myth is recorded in some of Britains oldest prose literature, including the Mabinogion and Historia Brittonium but became crystalised in Geoffrey of Monmouths History of the Kings of Britain in 1136.

5. Its Tony Blairs fault that St. Davids Day isnt a public holiday

While St. Andrews Day in Scotland and St. Patricks Day in Ireland are national holidays, the same isnt true for their Welsh and English equivalents.

This is because former Prime Minister Tony Blair vetoed calls for a change to the law in March 2007, despite a near-unanimous 87 per cent of the Welsh population stating their preference for making St. Davids Day a bank holiday.

Some Welsh schools defy the status quo by giving their students a half-day, a move no doubt popular with the pupils.A Pakistani man accused of helping plot the 9/11 attacks and being held at Guantanamo Bay, is being detained illegally and should be released immediately, a UN rights body has said.

The UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention said there was no legal basis for holding of Ammar al Baluchi, who has been at the military-run jail on Cuba since 2006. It said the prisoner, whose torture and interrogation inspired scenes in the movie Zero Dark Thirty, should be released and paid compensation.

Mr al Baluchi has been subject to prolonged detention on discriminatory grounds and has not been afforded equality of arms in terms of having adequate facilities for the preparation of his defence under the same conditions as the prosecution, the group said in a report released in Geneva.

 David Gauke: Britain may not challenge Trump decision to send ISIS 'Beatles' to Guantanamo Bay

He has been deprived of due process and the fair trial guarantees that would ordinarily apply within the judicial system of the United States.

It said the prisoner, believed to be aged either 40 or 41, should be released immediately and given an enforceable right to compensation and other reparations.

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. 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Mr al Baluchi, said to be the cousin of alleged 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, was captured by the Pakistani authorities in April 2003 and handed over the US. A US Senate Intelligence Committee report released in 2014 said he was taken to a notorious CIA black site known as the Salt Pit, near Kabul.

At the prison, he was subjected to torture that included being dunked in a bath filled with ice water, his head being held under water as he struggled to breathe, being hit repeatedly with a truncheon and his head being smashed into a wall.

The UN body said Mr al Baluchi should be provided with appropriate physical and psychological rehabilitation for the torture he suffered.

It added: Widespread or systematic imprisonment or other severe deprivation of liberty in violation of the rules of international law may constitute crimes against humanity.

Cmdr Sarah Higgins, a Department of Defence spokesperson, said in a statement: The U.S. government has the legal authority to detain al Baluchi. Until we have time to analyse the basis of their claim, we will delay further comment.Class is back in session two weeks after a gunman opened fire on students at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, killing 17 students and faculty.

Returning students walked past flowers and photographs on their way inside, memorials to their 14 peers and three administrators who lost their lives on Valentines Day. Students were given carnations as they returned to their routine. A long line of cars formed early at the school in Parkland, Florida, guided by police past dozens of television trucks camped out to observe the resumption of daily life.

When I walk in there, Im going to replay the whole thing in my head. But we have to come back here and try to learn, Madison Geller, a junior, told the Associated Press. This week we will try to be comfortable and get back into the same routine.

Recommended The armed sheriff outside Stoneman Douglas High School did nothing

Samantha Grady, a junior who was injured in the attack and whose best friend was killed, said she was worried to return.

But, I know I have to start. I have to face it head-on, Ms Grady told CNN about an hour before classes were to resume. I have a lot of feelings about (starting the day in fourth period), because that was the class where my friend was Im just going to see how I end up dealing with it.

For many in the sea of students wearing maroon  a colour of the school  Wednesday, the return to classes follows after two weeks fighting to ensure that their sorrow would be the last time that a high school community feels the pain of a mass shooting.

(AP (AP)

(Getty (Getty)

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

Almost immediately after the shooting, survivors began organising in honour of their fallen classmates, forcing a sustained national dialogue on gun control in America that has resulted in rare legislative movement in the Florida Legislature to limit the ability of young people to purchase rifles.

On the federal level, the students efforts have been met with promises from President Donald Trump to raise the age threshold to buy weapons, and to ban bump stock accessories that can be used to make semi-automatic rifles fire at near-automatic rates. Some Washington politicians, feeling pressure, have promised a review of background checks to try and ensure guns do not make it into the hands of criminals or the mentally unstable.

Their organising has put a pinch on corporate America, too, with major brands distancing themselves from the National Rifle Association  the leading gun lobby in the United States  in response to the demands for action from the teenagers. And, one of the leading retailers of weapons in the United States, Dicks Sporting Goods, announced Wednesday that they would no longer sell assault-style rifles in their stores.

Based on whats happened and looking at those kids and those parents, it moved us all unimaginably, Edward Stack, the CEO of the company, said on ABCs Good Morning America. To think about the loss and the grief that those kids and those parents had, we said, We need to do something.

But, for the students returning to Stoneman Wednesday, their first impressions were likely those of heavily armed police outside  a testament to the reality that guns are still easily attainable in America, and that promises and debates are not enough to keep guns out of the hands of would-be killers who might consider a repeat of the Valentines Day events.

One of the students who has become a leader in the anti-assault rifle campaign that was spurred by the carnage, David Hogg, told reporters that the was scared Wednesday morning seeing a photo of a police officer carrying a rifle outside of the school.

Still, the thousands of the students returned in spite of that lingering fear. Their first class was scheduled to be 4th Block, which ended two weeks ago in carnage.

The reason for that particular return, as explained by Stoneman Principal Ty Thompson wrote on Twitter, was simple: Ours is not the story of the killer.

Good morning Eagles: here is todays schedule, Mr Thompson wrote, referring to the schools mascot. Everyone will start in 4th Block as we RECLAIM the NEST.The Florida school shooting suspect had etched swastikas onto the ammunition magazines he used during the massacre, police have said.

Nikolas Cruz was armed with 330 rounds of ammunition when he entered Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School and began firing at pupils and staff with an assault rifle, according to law enforcement sources.

He left 180 cartridges behind unused when he dropped his weapon and escaped by blending in with fleeing students, unnamed officials told CBS News and CNN.

It is not yet clear why the gunman stopped shooting. Investigators believe his AR-15-style rifle may have jammed as he tried to reload during the 14 February attack, in which 14 pupils and three school employees were killed.

The magazine found inside the firearm was among those inscribed with the Nazi emblem, sources told the two broadcasters.

Mr Cruz, 19, is said to have worn a gas mask as he stalked the school with his firearm and smoke grenades before pulling a fire alarm, prompting students and staff to pour from classrooms into hallways.

Detectives believe he tried to create a snipers perch at the Parkland school, where he was a former student. Investigators found 16 rounds had been fired at a third-floor window, but the hurricane-proof class did not shatter.

A staff member at the school told CNN the room looks out onto the schools car park and outdoor seating area.

Law enforcement officials have said Mr Cruz legally purchased the rifle about a year before the shooting. He was expelled from the school around the same time for a catalogue of disciplinary issues.

Florida shooting  in pictures Show all 10 1 /10 Florida shooting  in pictures Florida shooting  in pictures Police arrest a suspect in connection with the shooting at the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida Reuters Florida shooting  in pictures Parents wait for news after reports of a shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida AP Florida shooting  in pictures Anxious family members wait for news of students AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee Florida shooting  in pictures Students being evacuated from the school AP Florida shooting  in pictures Students being evacuated from the school Getty Florida shooting  in pictures People gather waiting for word from students AP Florida shooting  in pictures Parents waiting for news on their children AP Florida shooting  in pictures People gather at a hotel where students were taken after the shooting Getty Florida shooting  in pictures Florida Governor Rick Scott speaks to the media as he visits Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School following the shooting AFP/Getty Florida shooting  in pictures Dr. Igor Nichiporenko, Medical Director Trauma, left, and Dr. Evan Boyer, Medical Director, Emergency Services, speak about treating victims and the suspect at a press conference outside Broward Health North hospital AP

The Broward County Sheriff's Office responded to 45 calls about Mr Cruz or his brother between 2008 and 2017, records show, prompting accusations that authorities failed to act appropriately over warning signs. The reasons for the calls included domestic disturbance, missing person and animal abuse.

The FBI received at least two reports that Mr Cruz may pose a threat before the shooting. In addition, the agency was warned in September about a possible school shooting threat from a YouTube user with the same name as the suspect.

Mr Cruz has been charged with 17 counts of premeditated murder.Donald Trump's long-time aide Hope Hicks has reportedly admitted telling white lies for the President on occasion.

But the White House communications director declined to answer questions about her time working for Mr Trump since his inauguration, saying lawyers had advised her not to do so.

In a private nine-hour testimony to the House intelligence committee, Ms Hicks insisted she had not lied on the Presidents behalf about anything substantive. She was spokeswoman for Mr Trump during the 2016 election campaign, and as one of his closest aides, she is a key witness to his actions.

The panel is investigating Russian interference in the election and any contacts between the Trump campaign and Russia.

The top Democrat on the panel, Adam Schiff, said afterwards that Ms Hicks had answered questions about the election campaign and had answered some questions about the transition period between the election and the inauguration - but that she would not answer any questions about events since the Republican took the oath of office, similar to some other White House officials who have given evidence.

Mr Schiff said Ms Hicks did not assert any type of executive privilege, but that she said had received legal advice not to answer.

Another committee member, Republican Tom Rooney, said Ms Hicks's answer was completely unrelated to the Russia investigation.

When specifically asked whether or not she was instructed to lie by the President, or the candidate, with regard to Russia, the investigation or our investigation, the answer to that question was no, Mr Rooney said.

And that's our jurisdiction. Not whether or not he asked her to cancel a meeting for him, or something like that.

Recommended Trump tweets cause chaos for Republicans as they scramble to pass spen

In a series of tweets before the hearing, Mr Trump quoted cable news commentators who said they had not seen evidence of collusion between him and Russia. One tweet encouraged investigations of rival candidate Hillary Clinton. Another said: WITCH HUNT!

The White House has said the President was involved in drafting a statement last summer after it was revealed that campaign officials and Russians held a meeting in 2016.

The statement said the meeting primarily concerned a Russian adoption scheme, though emails released later showed that Mr Trump's eldest son, Donald Trump Jr, enthusiastically agreed to talk to a Russian lawyer and others after he was promised dirt on Mrs Clinton. Ms Hicks was with the president on Air Force One while they were writing the initial statement.

All of our questions about what went into that statement went unanswered, Mr Schiff said.

As the interview wore on, Ms Hicks and her lawyer relented, after speaking to the White House, on one area of questioning - the transition period between the election and the inauguration.

She initially refused to answer questions on it, but Mr Schiff said it became clear that she had talked about that period to the Senate intelligence panel. That committee is also investigating the meddling and spoke to Ms Hicks several months ago.

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

Republicans on the committee subpoenaed Steve Bannon, Mr Trumps former chief strategist, when he had similarly declined to answer questions about the transition period. Mr Bannon had accused the Presidents son and others of treasonous behaviour for agreeing to the meeting with Russians in 2016.

Asked about Ms Hicks's refusal to answer some questions, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said: We are cooperating, because as the president has said repeatedly, there is no collusion, and we're going to continue to cooperate, and hopefully they'll wrap this up soon.

AP contributed to this report.As the helicopters flew the first journalists in, the stench hit them when they were still at 300ft.

From that height, the piles of dead bodies looked to one reporter just like a garbage dump, where someone had dumped a lot of rag dolls, dressed in cheery shades of red, green or blue: bright, happy colours.

On the ground, as they clutched handkerchiefs to shield their noses from the smell, the reporters could see how the bright, happy clothes were all that was holding many of the corpses together.

The bodies had decomposed badly in the jungle heat of Guyana, where a year earlier these people had come to carve out a new, better world: Jonestown.

Now, forty years on, a new documentary recalls what would culminate in the largest loss of American lives in a single event until 9/11.

Named after their leader, the Reverend Jim Jones, founder of the Peoples Temple of the Disciples of Christ, Jonestown was envisaged as a rainbow family of all ages and races, working towards the utopia the preacher had promised them: Divine principles. Total equality. A society where people own all things in common, where there is no rich or poor, where there are no races.

Here, good old-fashioned Pentecostal preaching would be fused with the revolutionary ideals of the Sixties and Seventies.

Here, the walls would be daubed with signs proclaiming: Love one another.

And here, a guard tower would loom above the cottages of the disciples. That too would have bright, happy colours: pretty seascapes painted to go with the childrens slides that were installed at the bottom of the structure.

And the guard tower would be called the playground.

When they finally counted the bodies after what would become known as the Jonestown massacre of 18 November 1978, the total came to 918, of whom 304 were children. They had been persuaded to drink the Kool-Aid.

Although in fact, the Jonestown community preferred a cheaper alternative  Flavor Aid  and used it to mask the bitter taste of cyanide, mixed with a dash of Valium.

Jones got his disciples to poison their children first  once they had seen their kids die, what would the adults have to live for?

The deranged preacher, as the press called him, wanted to create a glorious sacrifice, a defiant act of revolutionary suicide that would echo through history.

Some disciples willingly colluded, cheering as he exhorted them to kill themselves and their children.

But the bodies found with bent needles in their arms testified to the fact that some refused to drink the Kool-Aid, and were forcibly injected.

Today, after four decades, the South American jungle seems to have reclaimed Jonestown. When one survivor visited in the late Nineties, he found only the large vat from which those died had taken the poisoned Flavor Aid.

Jonestown: the aftermath of the massacre (Rex) (Rex/words by Adam Lusher)

Joness legacy, you might think, is just an expression about drinking the Kool-Aid, deriding  not celebrating  a failure to question mass delusion.

But now the airing of a new documentary about the massacre has raised questions about whether it could all happen again.

Leslie Wagner-Wilson, a survivor who contributed to the A&E documentary Jonestown: The Women Behind the Massacre, has warned: I think Peoples Temple rose from a social political environment thats similar to what were facing now.

Ms Wagner-Wilson, now a 61-year-old grandmother, told Fox News: Theres a need. People want to be a part of something. They want to feel safe; they want to feel a sense of community.

There are still folks out there and they are running under the guise of religious organisations. I just want people to be careful. I want Jonestown to be a lesson.

Amid all the soul-searching that followed what one of those first newsmen called this mind-boggling, nihilistic thing, one columnist insisted: The real culprit is the institution that America has become.

A little grandiose, perhaps, but Rev Joness Peoples Temple was certainly born from some of the tensions within American society.

Jim Jones in 1978, in Jonestown, the year he would go on to cause the deaths of nearly a thousand (AP) (AP/words by Adam Lusher)

The son of an alcoholic father, growing up in a shack without plumbing during the Great Depression, Jones came to sympathise with the downtrodden, attending Communist Party meetings and clashing with his Ku Klux Klan-supporting father on the issue of race.

His movement started off in the Cadle Tabernacle, Indianapolis, in 1956, initially using a faith-healing evangelist preacher to draw in the crowds.

Soon his message of social justice and racial integration meant Jones didnt need sidekicks.

He was doing something radically different. When he adopted a black boy and gave him his own name, Jim Jones Jr became the first African-American child adopted by a Caucasian family in the state of Indiana.

According to one newspaper, Jones offered his mainly black congregation opportunities in social justice activism that were available nowhere else. The Temple fed pensioners, taught students, and took bus trips to spread the word.

A fair few who answered the call were people with addictions, and their families. The Temple seemed to work where all others failed. There was soon no shortage of people asking for help.

This was the late Sixites, during the love and peace movement, recalled Ms Wagner-Wilson, who joined with her family in her early teens. A lot of drugs, which my sister Michelle became involved in: acid, LSD.

My mother was told about an organisation, Peoples Temple, that had a great drug rehab programme.

And once in the Temple, they relished the idealism. I felt like I was going to make a difference in the world, said Ms Wagner-Wilson. I loved it.

The local politicians loved it too, at first.

In 1975, Temple members campaigned to help get Democrat George Moscone elected San Francisco mayor. In 1976, Moscone appointed Jones to the San Francisco Housing Commission.

But the increasingly strange behaviour of Jones began to exert a malign influence.

He was becoming addicted to prescription drugs. He seemed genuinely to believe he was the only heterosexual man on Earth.

He would always tout his sexual prowess and talk about how men were homosexuals, recalled Ms Wagner-Wilson. He treated the women better, but he was very manipulative and would try to separate families and destroy marriages, which would give him more power.

By the age of 15, she was starting to have her doubts about The Temple. Leaving, though, was much harder than joining.

We thought Jim could read our minds, said Ms Wagner-Wilson. We were totally fooled.

It just became very controlling. It wasnt fun anymore.

And all the time, Jones was convincing his followers to sell their homes and sign over their salaries to his movement. The press began asking questions.

In August 1977, New West magazine published an expose, using former disciples testimonies to build up a picture of fake healings and real humiliations, of beatings and financial impropriety.

Jones tried and failed to use his local political influence to kill the story. And then he took his flock to Jonestown.

For followers like 17-year-old Jim Jones Jr, this really was going to be a new and better world.

We had an organisational structure, the preachers adopted son told Oprah Winfrey in 2010, An agricultural team, education projects, the infirmary. It was a whole community.

But where revolutionary idealism leads, control often follows.

And these were harsh conditions in which to build a revolutionary utopia. As they got harsher, so did Joness paranoid cruelty.

Anyone complaining about maggots in the rice risked a beating, because moaning about the food made you a traitor in league with the CIA.

After piecing together the testimony of Jonestown survivors, Tim Cahill of Rolling Stone magazine reported that Jones had become convinced the poor quality rice was the work of the CIA, which was trying to sabotage his great sociopolitical experiment.

Jones, the paranoid father figure, instructed his flock to inform on each other. Children told on their parents. Mothers and fathers betrayed their children.

Escape from the camp complex was impossible. The armed guards of the Temple security squad patrolled the exit trails. The watchtower playground was erected. Those who did try to escape were taken to the Extra Care Unit.

Here, Cahill wrote, the patients were drugged senseless. They emerged unable to carry on a conversation, their faces blank, as if they had been temporarily lobotomised.

Behind the idealistic facade, life in Jonestown became more like that in a labour camp (Reuters)

After building up a picture of a day in the life of a Jonestown resident, Cahill outlined something similar to the routine of a labour camp.

To help you learn in your sleep, the public address system was sometimes kept on all night.

You were woken at 6am for a breakfast of rice, watery milk and brown sugar. Then you were sent to labour in the fields in tropical heat, for more than 10 hours.

In the evening, the public address system would again start blasting out the news.

After dinner of rice, gravy and wild greens, it was time for Russian language lessons  because the Soviet Union was a paradise on earth whose leadership helped liberation movements.

About three times a week, there would be a Peoples Forum. Seated on his throne, Jones would instruct and punish his flock, sometimes until about 3am.

Then his undernourished people would snatch three hours of sleep before it all started again.

In his wooden house, slightly larger than all the others, Jones read about Marxism, conspiracies and media manipulation. He complained of suffering from insomnia, mini-strokes, temporary blindness and convulsions. His medicine cabinet was filled with Valium tablets and synthetic morphine.

Why did no one resist him?

In Joness lair, Cahill found letter after letter addressed to Dad. He seems to have encouraged his disciples to engage in self-analysis, providing him with lengthy, written confessions of their every vulnerability

The letters spoke of total submission to Jones, and burning hatred for the California-based defectors who had left the movement and betrayed it to those pursuing a rightist vendetta against the Temple.

I would like to have them all in a room together and take a gun and spray the row of them wrote one 89-year-old woman. I am glad to have a Dad and Father like you.

In an environment like this, Ms Wagner-Wilson has now warned, you might think theres something wrong, but because everyone else is embracing it and clapping and being joyous, you look at yourself and say, It must be me.

The end came when the California Democrat Congressman Leo Ryan flew to Guyana to investigate the complaints he had heard about the Temple.

On 17 November he arrived at Jonestown with a delegation of news reporters and representatives of the Concerned Relatives, a group formed by US-based defectors and anxious family members of Jonestown residents.

When the delegation left the following afternoon, they took with them 16 Jonestown residents who had implored the congressman to take them with him.

They got as far as the Port Kaituma airstrip, six miles from Jonestown, before they were ambushed.

Larry Layton, one of those who had asked to leave, revealed himself as an undercover Jones loyalist by pulling out a handgun and opening fire.

At the same time, a posse of Temple security men arrived in a tractor.

Congressman Ryan was shot more than 20 times. Patricia Parks, one of the 15 genuine Jonestown refugees, was among the dead.

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Meanwhile back at Jonestown, Jim Jones had gathered his people together in the pavilion.

How very much I loved you, he told them. How very much I tried to give you a good life.

Of those who began 18 November 1978 in Jonestown, and who didnt leave with Congressman Ryan, only 20 survived.

Two had the luck to be sent by the leadership to get food in the early morning. Three were told to go to the Russian embassy in Guyanas capital Georgetown, carrying a suitcase full of $550,000 in cash and letters leaving all the Temples assets  totalling more than $7.3m (5.3m)  to the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.

Leslie Wagner-Wilson, then 22, was one of a tiny group of adults who had sensed that something very bad was about to happen. In the early hours of 18 November they slipped away from Jonestown, a desperate party of seven adults and four children. The youngest was Ms Wagner-Wilsons three-year-old son Jakari.

She strapped him to her back, and with the others trekked more than 30 miles to the safety of the small town of Matthews Ridge. Ms Wagner-Wilson lived to tell her tale in her book Slavery of Faith.

Her husband, mother, sister, brother, niece and nephew drank the Flavor Aid.

Remarkably, after the massacre, an audio tape was discovered of the final meeting in the pavilion. On it, the occasional cries of the babies can be heard. The presence of the armed guards with semiautomatics, shotguns, pistols and crossbows cannot.

In folksy tones of sweet reasonableness, Jones rails against the defectors who committed the betrayal of the century.

He tells his people the departure of the Ryan delegation is only the start of it: They wont leave us alone. They are now going back to tell more lies, which means more congressman. Theres no way, no way we can survive.

My opinion, says Jones, is that we be kind to children and be kind to seniors and take the potion like they used to take in Ancient Greece, and step over quietly. Because we are not committing suicide. Its a revolutionary act.

One elderly woman did dare to dissent. What about going to Russia? she asked.

Its too late for that, said Jones.

But, the woman persisted, I look at all the babies and I think they deserve to live.

I agree, said the preacher. But whats more, they deserve peace.

The Guyanese Defence Forces were coming, he said, to shoot and torture them. There was no time to lose.

Please get us the medication, urged Jones. Its simple. Theres no convulsions with it. Dont be afraid to die.

One woman, thought to be Joness loyal mistress Maria Katsaris, reinforced the words of The Father.

Theres nothing to worry about, she said, Everybody keep calm ... and the oldest children can help love the little children and reassure them. Theyre not crying from pain. Its just a little bitter tasting but, theyre not crying out of any pain.

But there were convulsions, the cyanide filling mouths with saliva, blood and vomit.

Some mothers still willingly took their children to the vat of poison, before drinking from it themselves. Other infants were snatched from the arms of wavering mothers. Parents and grandparents began to sob hysterically as they watched the children die.

But one follower took the microphone to assure his fellow disciples: The way the children are, laying dead now, Id rather see them lay like that than to see them have to die like the Jews did, which was pitiful.

And the ones they take captive, theyre gonna just let them grow up and be dummies like they want them to be, and not socialist like the one and only Jim Jones Thank you Dad.

They gave him a round of applause.

As the babies screamed in the background, Jones admonished the faithful: Die with respect, die with a degree of dignity. Stop this hysterics  This is not the way for people who are socialistic communists to die. We must die with some dignity.

Thats right, said one follower.

Odell Rhodes, though, had seen enough. The Vietnam vet and former addict had been trying to find a way out of Jonestown for weeks.

Now, as he would later tell Tim Cahill of Rolling Stone, he was having to hold children as they died in his arms.

He heard one of the camp medical staff ask for a stethoscope. He fell in behind the nurse as she went to fetch it.

When the armed guards challenged them, the nurse answered, Were going to the medical office.

Rhodes became one of only four people to survive being in Jonestown when the mass murder-suicide started.

Stanley Clayton, 25, watched a man convulsing as the poison took hold. Everyone who took the poison, he realised, died suffering. He slipped away.

The third survivor, Grover Davis, 79, hid in a ditch. He just didnt want to die, he said, [But] I didnt hear nobody else say they werent willing.

The fourth survivor probably had the most incredible escape of all. In the commotion of everyone being summoned to the pavilion, 76-year-old Hyacinth Thrash feared mercenaries might be coming to terrorise the camp and hid under her bed.

At first she waited for her sister and other housemates to return from the pavilion. Then she fell asleep.

Only four people who were in Jonestown when the mass-murder suicide started survived (AP) (AP/words by Adam Lusher)

Hyacinth awoke the next morning to find the camp strewn with the bodies of those who had been taken out of the pavilion to die face down on the ground.

Jones himself didnt drink the Kool-Aid. They found the 47-year-old preacher with a bullet wound to the head: possibly murder, perhaps more likely suicide.

But to the very end he encouraged others to drink the poison.

It is his voice that can be heard at the close of what has become known as the death tape.

Some people assure these children of  stepping over to the next plane, Jones commands.

We didnt commit suicide, he insists. We committed an act of revolutionary suicide protesting the conditions of an inhumane world.

From somewhere comes the sound of organ music, the strains of We Shall Overcome. Then there is nothing, just the hissing static of the tape.An investigator in a Colorado death penalty case has been jailed after refusing to testify for religious reasons.

Greta Lindecrantz, a Mennonite who opposes capital punishment, was jailed after she refused to answer questions about her work on the defence team of Robert Ray, one of three men on Colorados death row, claiming that helping their effort to execute a defendant would violate her religious beliefs.

Rays defence team is challenging his death sentence partly by arguing that he did not have an effective legal team, which led prosecutors to subpoena Lindecrantz to testify to back up their case that he did have good representation.

They previously questioned Rays original lawyers as part of the appeal proceedings.

But her lawyer, Mari Newman, argued Lindecrantz cannot be a cog in the machinery of death and urged prosecutors to access her case files instead of forcing her to testify.

The lawyer said Lindecrantz would testify if not for the possibility that her testimony could be used to put Ray to death. She said Lindecrantz compared her predicament to being asked to shoot a gun at Ray, not knowing if it was loaded.

Judge Michelle Amico ruled Lindecrantz had to testify because her effectiveness in Rays defence was questioned and there was no substitute for her testimony.

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

Lindecrantz refused to answer questions again in court on Tuesday and was returned to jail. She has been ordered to return to court Wednesday, her attorney Mari Newman said.

Instead of looking at all of the options, the court has chosen the most punitive action to try to break her will, Ms Newman said, noting that Lindecrantz could have been allowed to remain free while she works on an appeal of the contempt order.

Vikki Migoya, a spokeswoman for District Attorney George Brauchler, said the office would not comment on Lindecrantz because it usually does not talk outside court about proceedings, especially when many of the filings have been sealed.

Additional reporting by APThe leader of a far-right extremist anti-government group has a solution to stop school shootings: send every school in the country a former police officer or military veteran, armed with an assault rifle, to defend students.

Before the deadly Valentines Day shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes idea may have seemed radical or offbeat. But his proposal comes at a time when President Donald Trump is advocating arming teachers with firearms, as educators love our students and will protect them, Trump said in a tweet Saturday.

Rhodes is calling on the tens of thousands of members of his militia group to work unpaid, rotating shifts at schools at all levels, including colleges.

Oath Keepers, in the wake of the horrific attack ... it is time to step up nationwide and defend our schools against the threat of mass murder. Enough is enough, Rhodes said in a statement on the groups website. We call on you to post up armed outside your local school, as close as the local laws allow and stand guard in defence of the children of your community.

Some members, Rhodes said, already are  such as Oath Keeper Mark Cowan, who posts himself outside a North Side High School in Fort Wayne, Indiana, even though school district officials say his presence isnt necessary.

Cowan told WPTA21, an ABC affiliate, that he is among 100 other members defending schools in Eastern Indiana in the wake of the Florida shooting, in which 17 people were killed and scores of others wounded.

These are kids. Aint none of those kids in there allowed to carry a gun to protect themselves, he told the news station. Theres one school resource officer ... take a look at the size of this school, look at the size of your school where youre at. One officer aint enough.

If somebody comes to this school or another school where were at, that school shooter is going to know, were not going to play games, he added. You come to kill our kids, youre dead.

Krista Stockman, a spokeswoman for Fort Wayne Community Schools, told WPTA21 that the school district respects Cowans right to watch over the school, as long as he is not on school property. But the districts schools, she said, already have security procedures in place and armed police officers in their buildings.

The Oath Keepers, which comprise current and former law enforcement officials and military veterans, are among the largest extremist anti-government groups in the country. While the group claims to protect the Constitution, the organisation was built from conspiracies about the federal governments mission to strip Americans of their liberties, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center.

The group was formed after Rhodes wrote a 2008 manifesto calling on men and women to protect a complacent America overtaken by what he said were dictatorial leaders. If a police state comes to America, it will ultimately be in your hands, wrote Rhodes, a graduate of Yale Law School. That is a harsh reality, but you had better come to terms with it now and resolve to not let it happen on your watch.

Armed members of Rhodes militia patrolled the streets during the Ferguson, Missouri, protests in 2014, where they positioned themselves on the roofs of second-story apartments, overlooking the crowds. Some said they felt safer having them around, but police disagreed, threatening the Oath Keepers with arrest.

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 idea of arming more people on school campuses  especially teachers, who Trump proposes be given firearms and training  has been met with backlash from teachers groups nationwide.

Bringing more guns into our schools does nothing to protect our students and educators from gun violence. Our students need more books, art and music programmes, nurses and school counsellors; they do not need more guns in their classrooms, said Lily Eskelsen Garcia, president of the National Education Association, the largest teachers union. The group represents three million educators in K-12 schools and on college campuses.

But Rhodes suggests that the more armed people, the better, especially when teachers are already trusted to look after children.

Until the idiotic laws and policies that demand disarmed teacher zones full of helpless children are changed here in the US, we military and police veteran Oath Keepers will fill the void by being as close to the schools as we can be, he said.

Rhodes commends Trump for declaring he would have rushed into the Florida high school to protect students had he been there.

I really believe Id run in, even if I didnt have a weapon, Trump said during a White House meeting with governors from across the country. He added that he thought the governors assembled also would have rushed into the school.

Thats the spirit! Rhodes said about Trumps assertion. We who are trained and equipped to do it right have the highest duty and the highest honour, of stepping in between the children and evil incarnate.

The Washington PostEleven people are sick and three in hospital after a suspicious letter was sent to a military base just outside Washington DC.

The sick came down with nosebleeds and burning hands after the letter was opened at Joint Base MyerHenderson Hall in Arlington, Virginia.

A hazardous materials team has been dispatched as the Arlington Fire Department confirmed the three people, at least two of them US Marines, in hospital are in stable condition. Several of the sick, many Marines among them, are being treated on base.

The building has been evacuated and according to tweets from the US Marine Corps, the letter contained an "unknown substance".

"Base officials are coordinating with local [hazardous materials] teams and the FBI," they wrote.

An envelope containing an unknown substance was received, today,

aboard Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall. Personnel in the affected building took immediate preventative measures by evacuating the building.  U.S. Marines (@USMC) February 27, 2018

Base officials are coordinating with local HAZMAT teams and @FBI. Several

Marines are receiving medical care as a result of this incident. No additional details are available at this time as the investigation is ongoing.  U.S. Marines (@USMC) February 27, 2018Bernie Sanders son Levi has officially launched a bid to join his father in Congress.

Levi Sanders said he would run for an open House of Representatives seat in New Hampshire, joining a crowded field seeking to replace retiring Democrat Carol Shea-Porter.

His campaign announcement echoed his fathers progressive platform, advocating for universal healthcare and tuition-free public higher education.

It is time to demand that we have a system which represents the 99% and not the 1% who have never had it so good, Levi Sanders said in a statement on his campaign website.

While Levi Sanders may get a boost from name recognition, he will be vying with several other Democrats who have already been piling up campaign donations.

Six other Democrats have already entered the race, according to the Federal Elections Commission, and the top three fundraisers - Marine Corps veteran Maura Corby Sullivan, Executive Councilor Chris Pappas and state Representative Mark MacKenzie - have already raised hundreds of thousands of dollars.

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 National Republican Congressional Committee is targeted the open seat as a possible pickup. Multiple Republicans, including former South Hampton police chief Eddie Edwards and state Senator Andy Sanborn, are running for the seat.

 Bernie Sanders says Donald Trump is 'a pathological liar'

Donald Trump won a majority of the districts votes in 2016, moving it into the Republican column after Barack Obama carried the district in 2012.An official overseeing Americas defence against cyberattacks said the White House has not given him full authority to counteract potential Russian election meddling.

Intelligence officials have warned Congress that Russia, which sought to foment discord and undermine Hillary Clinton during the 2016 election, will target the 2018 midterm elections with renewed online disruption efforts.

I believe they are attempting to undermine our institutions, National Security Director and head of US Cyber Command Mike Rogers told a Senate panel.

Under questioning, Mr Rogers affirmed that America faces a national security threat from Russian efforts that include hacking confidential information from candidates, spreading disinformation and attempting to breach state election infrastructure.

But he said he had not been granted powers to try and rebuff Russian hacking efforts where they originate.

I dont have the day-to-day authority to do that, Mr Rogers said.

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

Asked if he had been directed to do so by Donald Trump or the Secretary of Defence, Mr Rogers said no, I have not.

We have not opted to engage in some of the same behaviours that we are seeing, he said.

Mr Rogers downplayed suggestions that America was idly watching the threat, saying he has directed officials to work on the issue.

But Senator Jack Reed, a Rhode Island Democrat, characterised the lack of direction from the White House as evidence the Trump administration was not doing enough to shield the midterm elections from foreign meddling.

 George W Bush: 'There's pretty clear evidence Russia meddled' in US election

Essentially we have not taken on the Russians yet, Mr Reed said. Were watching them intrude on our elections, spread misinformation, become more sophisticated, try to achieve strategic objectives that you have recognised, and were just essentially sitting back and waiting.

White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders told reporters that nobody is denying Mr Rogers the authority.

The President is looking at all of the different causes and all of the different ways that we can prevent it, Ms Sanders said of election interference, and as we find different ways that we can do that we're implementing them.America's special envoy to North Korea is set to resign this week, amid speculation he had grown frustrated with Donald Trumps tough stance towards Pyongyang.

The departure of South Korean-born Joseph Yun, a strong advocate for engagement with the North, was described as exceptionally bad news by experts who predicted his exit could lead to a deterioration of relations.

He said his decision to leave was entirely his own, but his retirement comes at a surprising juncture, after North Korea expressed a willingness for formal diplomatic talks with Washington.

Mr Yun took the post under Barack Obama in 2016 and has quietly retained contact with Pyongyang during a turbulent year of threats, insults and growing tensions after Mr Trump was elected.

The diplomats departure leaves the State Department without a point person for North Korean policy at what South Korean officials described as a critical moment.

Pyongyang is said to have signalled it may be willing to talk to the US after a period of diplomatic contacts with South Korea during the Winter Olympics.

Mr Trump again reiterated this week, that he would only hold talks under the right conditions.

Washington has said repeatedly that any formal contact must be aimed at North Korea giving up its nuclear weapons, something the secretive communist state has rejected.

One South Korean official said Mr Yun had run out of steam amid a tug-of-war between the White House, which wants to apply maximum pressure on North Korea to abandon its nuclear weapons programme and the US State Department, which has supported Seouls efforts to re-engage with Pyongyang.

He was sceptical and wary of the White Houses hardline approach toward North Korea from the beginning, another official told the Reuters news agency on condition of anonymity.

While Mr Yuns tenure was praised publicly by the State Department, one senior administration official said he would not be missed because he contradicted the Presidents policies.

White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders brushed off questions about the impact of the envoys departure.

World news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 World news in pictures World news in pictures 30 September 2020 Pope Francis prays with priests at the end of a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 29 September 2020 A girl's silhouette is seen from behind a fabric in a tent along a beach by Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 September 2020 A Chinese woman takes a photo of herself in front of a flower display dedicated to frontline health care workers during the COVID-19 pandemic in Beijing, China. China will celebrate national day marking the founding of the People's Republic of China on October 1st Getty World news in pictures 27 September 2020 The Glass Mountain Inn burns as the Glass Fire moves through the area in St. Helena, California. The fast moving Glass fire has burned over 1,000 acres and has destroyed homes Getty World news in pictures 26 September 2020 A villager along with a child offers prayers next to a carcass of a wild elephant that officials say was electrocuted in Rani Reserve Forest on the outskirts of Guwahati, India AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 September 2020 The casket of late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is seen in Statuary Hall in the US Capitol to lie in state in Washington, DC AFP via Getty World news in pictures 24 September 2020 An anti-government protester holds up an image of a pro-democracy commemorative plaque at a rally outside Thailand's parliament in Bangkok, as activists gathered to demand a new constitution AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 September 2020 A whale stranded on a beach in Macquarie Harbour on the rugged west coast of Tasmania, as hundreds of pilot whales have died in a mass stranding in southern Australia despite efforts to save them, with rescuers racing to free a few dozen survivors The Mercury/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 22 September 2020 State civil employee candidates wearing face masks and shields take a test in Surabaya AFP via Getty World news in pictures 21 September 2020 A man sweeps at the Taj Mahal monument on the day of its reopening after being closed for more than six months due to the coronavirus pandemic AP World news in pictures 20 September 2020 A deer looks for food in a burnt area, caused by the Bobcat fire, in Pearblossom, California EPA World news in pictures 19 September 2020 Anti-government protesters hold their mobile phones aloft as they take part in a pro-democracy rally in Bangkok. Tens of thousands of pro-democracy protesters massed close to Thailand's royal palace, in a huge rally calling for PM Prayut Chan-O-Cha to step down and demanding reforms to the monarchy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 September 2020 Supporters of Iraqi Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr maintain social distancing as they attend Friday prayers after the coronavirus disease restrictions were eased, in Kufa mosque, near Najaf, Iraq Reuters World news in pictures 17 September 2020 A protester climbs on The Triumph of the Republic at 'the Place de la Nation' as thousands of protesters take part in a demonstration during a national day strike called by labor unions asking for better salary and against jobs cut in Paris, France EPA World news in pictures 16 September 2020 A fire raging near the Lazzaretto of Ancona in Italy. The huge blaze broke out overnight at the port of Ancona. Firefighters have brought the fire under control but they expected to keep working through the day EPA World news in pictures 15 September 2020 Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny posing for a selfie with his family at Berlin's Charite hospital. In an Instagram post he said he could now breathe independently following his suspected poisoning last month Alexei Navalny/Instagram/AFP World news in pictures 14 September 2020 Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, former Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba and former Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida celebrate after Suga was elected as new head of the ruling party at the Liberal Democratic Party's leadership election in Tokyo Reuters World news in pictures 13 September 2020 A man stands behind a burning barricade during the fifth straight day of protests against police brutality in Bogota AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 September 2020 Police officers block and detain protesters during an opposition rally to protest the official presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus. Daily protests calling for the authoritarian president's resignation are now in their second month AP World news in pictures 11 September 2020 Members of 'Omnium Cultural' celebrate the 20th 'Festa per la llibertat' ('Fiesta for the freedom') to mark the Day of Catalonia in Barcelona. Omnion Cultural fights for the independence of Catalonia EPA World news in pictures 10 September 2020 The Moria refugee camp, two days after Greece's biggest migrant camp, was destroyed by fire. Thousands of asylum seekers on the island of Lesbos are now homeless AFP via Getty World news in pictures 9 September 2020 Pope Francis takes off his face mask as he arrives by car to hold a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 8 September 2020 A home is engulfed in flames during the "Creek Fire" in the Tollhouse area of California AFP via Getty World news in pictures 7 September 2020 A couple take photos along a sea wall of the waves brought by Typhoon Haishen in the eastern port city of Sokcho AFP via Getty World news in pictures 6 September 2020 Novak Djokovic and a tournament official tends to a linesperson who was struck with a ball by Djokovic during his match against Pablo Carreno Busta at the US Open USA Today Sports/Reuters World news in pictures 5 September 2020 Protesters confront police at the Shrine of Remembrance in Melbourne, Australia, during an anti-lockdown rally AFP via Getty World news in pictures 4 September 2020 A woman looks on from a rooftop as rescue workers dig through the rubble of a damaged building in Beirut. A search began for possible survivors after a scanner detected a pulse one month after the mega-blast at the adjacent port AFP via Getty World news in pictures 3 September 2020 A full moon next to the Virgen del Panecillo statue in Quito, Ecuador EPA World news in pictures 2 September 2020 A Palestinian woman reacts as Israeli forces demolish her animal shed near Hebron in the Israeli-occupied West Bank Reuters World news in pictures 1 September 2020 Students protest against presidential elections results in Minsk TUT.BY/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 31 August 2020 The pack rides during the 3rd stage of the Tour de France between Nice and Sisteron AFP via Getty World news in pictures 30 August 2020 Law enforcement officers block a street during a rally of opposition supporters protesting against presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus Reuters World news in pictures 29 August 2020 A woman holding a placard reading "Stop Censorship - Yes to the Freedom of Expression" shouts in a megaphone during a protest against the mandatory wearing of face masks in Paris. Masks, which were already compulsory on public transport, in enclosed public spaces, and outdoors in Paris in certain high-congestion areas around tourist sites, were made mandatory outdoors citywide on August 28 to fight the rising coronavirus infections AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 August 2020 Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe bows to the national flag at the start of a press conference at the prime minister official residence in Tokyo. Abe announced he will resign over health problems, in a bombshell development that kicks off a leadership contest in the world's third-largest economy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 27 August 2020 Residents take cover behind a tree trunk from rubber bullets fired by South African Police Service (SAPS) in Eldorado Park, near Johannesburg, during a protest by community members after a 16-year old boy was reported dead AFP via Getty World news in pictures 26 August 2020 People scatter rose petals on a statue of Mother Teresa marking her 110th birth anniversary in Ahmedabad AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 August 2020 An aerial view shows beach-goers standing on salt formations in the Dead Sea near Ein Bokeq, Israel Reuters World news in pictures 24 August 2020 Health workers use a fingertip pulse oximeter and check the body temperature of a fisherwoman inside the Dharavi slum during a door-to-door Covid-19 coronavirus screening in Mumbai AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 August 2020 People carry an idol of the Hindu god Ganesh, the deity of prosperity, to immerse it off the coast of the Arabian sea during the Ganesh Chaturthi festival in Mumbai, India Reuters World news in pictures 22 August 2020 Firefighters watch as flames from the LNU Lightning Complex fires approach a home in Napa County, California AP World news in pictures 21 August 2020 Members of the Israeli security forces arrest a Palestinian demonstrator during a rally to protest against Israel's plan to annex parts of the occupied West Bank AFP via Getty World news in pictures 20 August 2020 A man pushes his bicycle through a deserted road after prohibitory orders were imposed by district officials for a week to contain the spread of the Covid-19 in Kathmandu AFP via Getty World news in pictures 19 August 2020 A car burns while parked at a residence in Vacaville, California. Dozens of fires are burning out of control throughout Northern California as fire resources are spread thin AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 August 2020 Students use their mobile phones as flashlights at an anti-government rally at Mahidol University in Nakhon Pathom. Thailand has seen near-daily protests in recent weeks by students demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Prayut Chan-O-Cha AFP via Getty World news in pictures 17 August 2020 Members of the Kayapo tribe block the BR163 highway during a protest outside Novo Progresso in Para state, Brazil. Indigenous protesters blocked a major transamazonian highway to protest against the lack of governmental support during the COVID-19 novel coronavirus pandemic and illegal deforestation in and around their territories AFP via Getty World news in pictures 16 August 2020 Lightning forks over the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge as a storm passes over Oakland AP World news in pictures 15 August 2020 Belarus opposition supporters gather near the Pushkinskaya metro station where Alexander Taraikovsky, a 34-year-old protester died on August 10, during their protest rally in central Minsk AFP via Getty World news in pictures 14 August 2020 AlphaTauri's driver Daniil Kvyat takes part in the second practice session at the Circuit de Catalunya in Montmelo near Barcelona ahead of the Spanish F1 Grand Prix AFP via Getty World news in pictures 13 August 2020 Soldiers of the Brazilian Armed Forces during a disinfection of the Christ The Redeemer statue at the Corcovado mountain prior to the opening of the touristic attraction in Rio AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 August 2020 Young elephant bulls tussle playfully on World Elephant Day at the Amboseli National Park in Kenya AFP via Getty

Mr Yun, a 32-year foreign service veteran, told US media his retirement was a personal decision and that Secretary of State Rex Tillerson had tried to persuade him to stay.

It is really my decision. The time, I thought, was right, he told CBS News. There is a bit of a lull in activity and I thought it would be a good [time] to get out.

He noted North Korea had stopped nuclear and missile tests.

However, Pyongyang conducted its biggest and most recent nuclear bomb test in September and its largest and latest missile test in late November.

Mr Yuns departure leaves vacant another key position tasked with dealing with the Norths nuclear and missile threats. Mr Trump has yet to nominate an ambassador to South Korea, a post empty for over a year.

Congress, former US officials and foreign policy experts have criticised the administrations failure to fill the position.

Its regrettable that Mr Yun is leaving at this critical moment. It could also have policy implications and a message to Pyongyang, a third South Korean official said.

 Trump announces some of the 'largest sanctions' on North Korea at CPAC 2018

Analysts said Mr Yuns departure was blow to attempts to use diplomacy to resolve the crisis over North Koreas development of nuclear missiles capable of hitting the United States. has raised fears of war.

This is exceptionally bad news, Frank Jannuzi, an East Asia expert who heads the Mansfield Foundation, said on Twitter. Joe Yun is the only senior official left at State who has experience dealing with the complexities of North Korea policy.

Abraham Denmark, a former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defence for East Asia, called Mr Yuns departure a huge loss for the US government at a critical moment.

Mark Fitzpatrick, an expert in US foreign policy and nuclear non-proliferation at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, said: Although U.S. strategy is supposedly maximum pressure and engagement, Joe Yun was the only one seriously trying engagement.

He is joining a large exodus of senior State Department officials who will be hard to replace.

The State Department said Mr Tillerson had reluctantly accepted Mr Yuns resignation.

Spokeswoman Heather Nauert added the denuclearisation of North Korea remained the top US national security priority and Washingtons maximum pressure campaign to bring that about was succeeding.

If someone chooses to retire, that does not change our policy, she added. I feel fully confident we have the appropriate people in place who can handle everything he did and more.

South Korea this week urged Washington and Pyongyang to give ground to allow for talks, but Mr Trump reiterated his willingness to talk, but only under the right conditions.

Mr Yun told South Koreas Yonhap news agency he was very hopeful about talks.

I hope there is a good dialogue, there is a peaceful resolution, he said.

Last week Washington announced its largest package of sanctions yet on North Korea. Mr Trump warned of a phase two that could be very, very unfortunate for the world if the steps did not work, an apparent reference to military options his administration says remain on the table.

However, North Koreas envoy to the UN Conference on Disarmament, Han Tae Song, this week dismissed sanctions as ineffective and said plans by Seoul and Washington to resume joint military exercises would harm the current positive process of improved inter-Korean relations.

A senior State Department official said late last year that Mr Yun had sought direct diplomacy with North Korean officials at the United Nations in the hope of easing US-North Korean tensions.

Most were deeply sceptical about his chances.

Hes such a dreamer, a White House official said at the time, with a note of sarcasm.

Mr Yun travelled to North Korea last June to help secure the release of comatose American student Otto Warmbier, whose detention and subsequent death further soured relations.

Additional reporting by agenciesA Republican congressman has suggested Jewish people killed in the Holocaust could have saved themselves if they had been armed.

Don Young made the remarks as he attempted to argue against stricter gun control laws in the US, which he implied would make Americans less safe.

How many millions of people were shot and killed because they were unarmed? Fifty million in Russia, he told a conference in Juneau, Alaska.

Mr Young, who is also a board member on the National Rifle Association (NRA), added: How many Jews were put in the ovens because they were unarmed?

A recording of his comments was passed to Alaska Public Media by his Democratic rival Dimitri Shein, who is hoping to oust Mr Young in the upcoming elections.

They have been condemned as offensive and insensitive.

He is not the first Republican politician to suggest that German citizens living under Nazi rule, would have been better off if they had been armed.

In 2015, former presidential candidate Ben Carson cited the country as one of the places where people were disarmed before the start of a tyranny.

At the time CNN reporter Wolf Blitzer pulled him up on the comments, asking the neurosurgeon and current US Secretary of Housing and Urban Development: So what is your point: If there had been guns in Germany, there might not have been a Holocaust? asked him.

Mr Carson replied: That was only one of the countries I mentioned. There were a number of countries where tyranny reigns and before it happened they disarmed the people.

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 Anti-Defamation League has repeatedly refuted claims that the Holocaust could have been prevented if Germans had had access to more weapons.

We know that the national debate over gun control is one of the most divisive issues in the land, and while Americans are entitled to have strong opinions, there is also language that is inappropriate and offensive in any such discussion, Abraham H Foxman, the organisation's national director said in 2013.

A Holocaust survivor himself, he added: "The idea that supporters of gun control are doing something akin to what Hitlers Germany did to strip citizens of guns in the run-up to the Second World War is historically inaccurate and offensive, especially to Holocaust survivors and their families.

Mr Young has previously courted controversy when he suggested in 2014, that suicide was a result of government "saying you are not worth anything but you are going to get something for nothing."Voting registration systems or their websites were compromised by Russian-backed operatives in seven US states ahead of Donald Trump, American intelligence officials have revealed.

But while the states were informed of security breaches, but were not told who was behind them.

A top-secret investigation ordered by Barack Obama during his last weeks as president, uncovered the areas where where analysts believed Russian actors had gained access to databases and websites.

Alaska, Arizona, California, Florida, Illinois, Texas and Wisconsin, were all compromised, NBC News reported after speaking to three senior intelligence officials.

They told the broadcaster that the breaches varied in seriousness and ranged from entering state websites, to actually accessing voting registration databases.

But they maintained that no individuals were removed from the electoral roll and they said no votes had been changed.

Wisconsin voted for Mr Trump by a margin of just one percent, making it the third-closest state result in the US.

Florida voted for Mr Trump by a margin of 1.2 per cent - the fifth-closest state result in the election.

US Election night in pictures Show all 24 1 /24 US Election night in pictures US Election night in pictures Getty US Election night in pictures Reuters US Election night in pictures Reuters US Election night in pictures Getty US Election night in pictures Getty US Election night in pictures Getty US Election night in pictures Reuters US Election night in pictures Getty US Election night in pictures Getty US Election night in pictures Getty US Election night in pictures Getty US Election night in pictures Getty US Election night in pictures Getty US Election night in pictures Getty US Election night in pictures Getty US Election night in pictures Getty US Election night in pictures Getty US Election night in pictures Getty US Election night in pictures Getty US Election night in pictures Getty US Election night in pictures Getty US Election night in pictures Getty US Election night in pictures Getty US Election night in pictures AFP/Getty Images

Despite being informed of security breaches, six of the seven states deny they were compromised ahead of the vote. The denials are based on their own cybersecurity investigations.

The lack of clarity over the issue comes as concern mounts over how the US should prepare for further waves of interference.

Earlier this month, 13 Russians were charged with meddling in the US presidential election.

Court documents produced by the US Government said they began interfering in US political processes as early as 2014.

The charges include conspiracy, wire fraud, bank fraud and aggravated identity theft. They are the most direct allegations to date of illegal Russian meddling in the election.

They were brought by Special Counsel Robert Mueller, who is investigating Russian interference in the election. His probe is also looking into whether members of Mr Trumps campaign colluded with the Russian government.

Mr Trump has repeatedly denied there was any collusion.

Despite Mr Trumps assertions, his own national security adviser has said there is undeniable proof of Russian meddling in the election.

Speaking at the Munich Security Conference after the 13 Russians were charged, HR McMaster said: With the FBI indictment, the evidence is now incontrovertible.President Donald Trump has mounted a fresh attack on his attorney general, questioning Jeff Session's handling of alleged FBI abuses.

The president lashed out at Mr Sessions' decision to appoint the Department of Justice inspector general to probe the allegations, rather than his own attorneys. The allegations revolve around the FBI's use of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) in their investigation of possible Trump campaign ties to Russia.

"Why is A.G. Jeff Sessions asking the Inspector General to investigate potentially massive FISA abuse," Mr Trump tweeted.

Recommended Jeff Sessions says he will take Nunes memo further

"Will take forever, has no prosecutorial power and already late with reports on Comey etc," he added. "Isnt the I.G. an Obama guy? Why not use Justice Department lawyers? DISGRACEFUL!"

Mr Sessions responded with a statement saying that the Justice Department had "initiated the appropriate process that will ensure complaints against this department will be fully and fairly acted upon if necessary".

"As long as I am the attorney general, I will continue to discharge my duties with integrity and honour, and this department will continue to do its work in a fair and impartial manner according to the law and Constitution," he said.

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 Sessions announced the day before that the inspector general would investigate claims that the FBI inappropriately surveilled the Trump campaign using improperly obtained Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) warrants.

The allegations stemmed from a memo written by Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee that Mr Trump declassified earlier this month. The memo claims the FBI obtained warrants to surveil former Trump campaign aide Carter Page based largely on an unverified opposition research dossier funded by Hillary Clinton's campaign.

Democrats have pushed back at this idea, claiming in a rebuttal memo that the FBI made only "narrow use" of the opposition research dossier when obtaining warrants.

We believe the Department of Justice must adhere to the high standards in the FISA court, Mr Sessions said at a news conference on Tuesday. Yes it will be investigated. And I think that's just the appropriate thing the inspector general will take that as one of the matters he'll deal with.

 Jeff Sessions says he 'plans to continue' as Attorney General

Mr Trump has publicly criticised Mr Sessions numerous times since taking office, sparking speculation that the attorney general could step down or be dismissed.

Last summer, Mr Trump said he was "disappointed" in Mr Session's decision to step aside from the Justice Department investigation of possible Russian meddling in the election. Mr Sessions recused himself after failing to properly divulge conversations he had with the Russian ambassador.

Just last week, Mr Trump lashed out at the attorney general again, tweeting: "Question: If all of the Russian meddling took place during the Obama Administration, right up to January 20th, why arent they the subject of the investigation? ... Ask Jeff Sessions!"

Mr Sessions has called the criticism "hurtful" but said he believes Mr Trump is a "strong leader".

I serve at the pleasure of the president, Mr Sessions told the Associated Press last year. Ive understood that from the day I took the job.Slovakias Prime Minister has denied one of his senior advisers has links to the Italian mafia  a key claim in a corruption investigation by a journalist who was murdered last week.

You are connecting innocent people with double murder. That is over the line, said PM Robert Fico, who later posed next to a pile of 1m in cash he is offering in return for information leading to the culprit.

Jan Kuciak, 27, and his fiancee, Martina Kusnirova, were found shot dead at home on Sunday. He is believed to be the first journalist killed for his work in Slovakia.

The website for which he was working, Aktuality.sk, today published his last, unfinished story, describing the activities of members of the Italian Ndrangheta criminal group in eastern Slovakia.

The article sets out Mr Kuciaks findings on the Ndranghetas dealings in Slovakia and the alleged business ties of one member with a senior government assistant, Maria Troskova.

Of Italians who have mafia links and second homes in Slovakia, Mr Kuciak wrote: They started doing business here, receiving subsidies but especially building relationships with influential people in politics  up to the Office of the Government of the Slovak Republic.

At home in Italy, there were so many problems with the law.

He also gave examples of cases involving suspected extortion, money-laundering and tax fraud. Money-laundering is the core business of Ndrangheta business abroad as well. The goal is to clean money and do business in a way that looks legitimate, he wrote.

But Mr Fico warned: You link innocent people to a double murder without any evidence. Dont do it.

Mr Kuciak, who had worked for Aktuality.sk for three years, and his girlfriend were found dead in their house in Velka Maca, east of the capital Bratislava. The couple had been planning to get married in May, according to fellow Slovak journalist Filip Struharik.

In his story Mr Kuciak detailed the Italian mafia mans alleged business ties to Ms Troskova, chief state adviser at the government office, and Viliam Jasan, the secretary of Slovakias security council.

A man lights a candle in front of the Aktuality.sk newsroom, where Mr Kuciak worked (AFP/Getty) (AFP/Getty Images)

Police chief Tibor Gaspar said the killings were likely to have been linked to Mr Kuciaks reporting. It seems that the most likely version is a motive connected to the investigative work of the journalist, he told a televised news conference.

Mr Gaspar said authorities had questioned 20 people since Monday, and had contacted the Czech Republic and Italy about the investigation. Europol have offered their specialist assistance with the investigation.

He said the police were also investigating Ndrangheta and the Italian citizen at the centre of the report.

Political opponents of Mr Fico called on Mr Gaspar and Interior Minister Robert Kalinak to resign, and were planning a protest rally in Bratislava.

Friends and supporters of press freedom are planning demonstrations and candle-lit vigils in 11 cities on Friday, mostly in Slovakia but also outside the Slovak embassy in London  where more than 100 people hope to attend  and in Aberdeen.

Jan Kuciak was shot dead in his home, along with his fiancee, Martina Kusnirova (AP)

One supporter helping organise the events posted on Facebook: It was a tragic death of two young people who had their whole lives ahead, who liked Slovakia and worked boldly to make it better. This effort was the only mistake of Jan Kuciak, that cost the lives of both of them.

A murder of an investigative journalist is inadmissible in every society. Let us show that we care about Slovakia and that we do not want to be the citizens of a country ruled by fear.

Other supporters wrote: The killing of Jan Kuciak is widely seen as an attack on the freedom of speech in Slovakia and attack on journalism.

By this symbolic event, we would like to express our condolences to the family of both Jan and Martina and express our concerns about the state of the affairs in our home country of Slovakia.

Fellow journalists and media chiefs vowed to stand firm against attempts to silence them and to continue investigative work.

The editors-in-chief of major Slovak newspapers and news broadcasts said in a joint statement: The murder of a journalist is a serious sign that the crime is turning against one of the most important pillars of freedom: the freedom of speech and the right of the public to control the powerful and those violating the law.

Ringier Axel Springer, the publisher for which Kuciak worked, said in a statement: We are shocked and terrified by news that Jan Kuciak and his fiancee were probably victims of a vicious execution. If this crime was an attempt to discourage an independent publisher such as Ringier Axel Springer not to pursue revelations about breaking the law, we will use this occasion for further strengthening of our journalistic responsibility.

At least two Slovak newspapers printed all-black front pages with stark white headlines in response to the murders.

After Mr Fico offered the reward for information in a live broadcast with the money on show, Mr Struharik tweeted: How is it even possible for PM to take 1m from the state treasury in CASH and put it on the table during a press conference? What law allowed him to do this with taxpayers money?

World news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 World news in pictures World news in pictures 30 September 2020 Pope Francis prays with priests at the end of a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 29 September 2020 A girl's silhouette is seen from behind a fabric in a tent along a beach by Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 September 2020 A Chinese woman takes a photo of herself in front of a flower display dedicated to frontline health care workers during the COVID-19 pandemic in Beijing, China. China will celebrate national day marking the founding of the People's Republic of China on October 1st Getty World news in pictures 27 September 2020 The Glass Mountain Inn burns as the Glass Fire moves through the area in St. Helena, California. The fast moving Glass fire has burned over 1,000 acres and has destroyed homes Getty World news in pictures 26 September 2020 A villager along with a child offers prayers next to a carcass of a wild elephant that officials say was electrocuted in Rani Reserve Forest on the outskirts of Guwahati, India AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 September 2020 The casket of late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is seen in Statuary Hall in the US Capitol to lie in state in Washington, DC AFP via Getty World news in pictures 24 September 2020 An anti-government protester holds up an image of a pro-democracy commemorative plaque at a rally outside Thailand's parliament in Bangkok, as activists gathered to demand a new constitution AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 September 2020 A whale stranded on a beach in Macquarie Harbour on the rugged west coast of Tasmania, as hundreds of pilot whales have died in a mass stranding in southern Australia despite efforts to save them, with rescuers racing to free a few dozen survivors The Mercury/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 22 September 2020 State civil employee candidates wearing face masks and shields take a test in Surabaya AFP via Getty World news in pictures 21 September 2020 A man sweeps at the Taj Mahal monument on the day of its reopening after being closed for more than six months due to the coronavirus pandemic AP World news in pictures 20 September 2020 A deer looks for food in a burnt area, caused by the Bobcat fire, in Pearblossom, California EPA World news in pictures 19 September 2020 Anti-government protesters hold their mobile phones aloft as they take part in a pro-democracy rally in Bangkok. Tens of thousands of pro-democracy protesters massed close to Thailand's royal palace, in a huge rally calling for PM Prayut Chan-O-Cha to step down and demanding reforms to the monarchy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 September 2020 Supporters of Iraqi Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr maintain social distancing as they attend Friday prayers after the coronavirus disease restrictions were eased, in Kufa mosque, near Najaf, Iraq Reuters World news in pictures 17 September 2020 A protester climbs on The Triumph of the Republic at 'the Place de la Nation' as thousands of protesters take part in a demonstration during a national day strike called by labor unions asking for better salary and against jobs cut in Paris, France EPA World news in pictures 16 September 2020 A fire raging near the Lazzaretto of Ancona in Italy. The huge blaze broke out overnight at the port of Ancona. Firefighters have brought the fire under control but they expected to keep working through the day EPA World news in pictures 15 September 2020 Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny posing for a selfie with his family at Berlin's Charite hospital. In an Instagram post he said he could now breathe independently following his suspected poisoning last month Alexei Navalny/Instagram/AFP World news in pictures 14 September 2020 Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, former Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba and former Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida celebrate after Suga was elected as new head of the ruling party at the Liberal Democratic Party's leadership election in Tokyo Reuters World news in pictures 13 September 2020 A man stands behind a burning barricade during the fifth straight day of protests against police brutality in Bogota AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 September 2020 Police officers block and detain protesters during an opposition rally to protest the official presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus. Daily protests calling for the authoritarian president's resignation are now in their second month AP World news in pictures 11 September 2020 Members of 'Omnium Cultural' celebrate the 20th 'Festa per la llibertat' ('Fiesta for the freedom') to mark the Day of Catalonia in Barcelona. Omnion Cultural fights for the independence of Catalonia EPA World news in pictures 10 September 2020 The Moria refugee camp, two days after Greece's biggest migrant camp, was destroyed by fire. Thousands of asylum seekers on the island of Lesbos are now homeless AFP via Getty World news in pictures 9 September 2020 Pope Francis takes off his face mask as he arrives by car to hold a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 8 September 2020 A home is engulfed in flames during the "Creek Fire" in the Tollhouse area of California AFP via Getty World news in pictures 7 September 2020 A couple take photos along a sea wall of the waves brought by Typhoon Haishen in the eastern port city of Sokcho AFP via Getty World news in pictures 6 September 2020 Novak Djokovic and a tournament official tends to a linesperson who was struck with a ball by Djokovic during his match against Pablo Carreno Busta at the US Open USA Today Sports/Reuters World news in pictures 5 September 2020 Protesters confront police at the Shrine of Remembrance in Melbourne, Australia, during an anti-lockdown rally AFP via Getty World news in pictures 4 September 2020 A woman looks on from a rooftop as rescue workers dig through the rubble of a damaged building in Beirut. A search began for possible survivors after a scanner detected a pulse one month after the mega-blast at the adjacent port AFP via Getty World news in pictures 3 September 2020 A full moon next to the Virgen del Panecillo statue in Quito, Ecuador EPA World news in pictures 2 September 2020 A Palestinian woman reacts as Israeli forces demolish her animal shed near Hebron in the Israeli-occupied West Bank Reuters World news in pictures 1 September 2020 Students protest against presidential elections results in Minsk TUT.BY/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 31 August 2020 The pack rides during the 3rd stage of the Tour de France between Nice and Sisteron AFP via Getty World news in pictures 30 August 2020 Law enforcement officers block a street during a rally of opposition supporters protesting against presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus Reuters World news in pictures 29 August 2020 A woman holding a placard reading "Stop Censorship - Yes to the Freedom of Expression" shouts in a megaphone during a protest against the mandatory wearing of face masks in Paris. Masks, which were already compulsory on public transport, in enclosed public spaces, and outdoors in Paris in certain high-congestion areas around tourist sites, were made mandatory outdoors citywide on August 28 to fight the rising coronavirus infections AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 August 2020 Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe bows to the national flag at the start of a press conference at the prime minister official residence in Tokyo. Abe announced he will resign over health problems, in a bombshell development that kicks off a leadership contest in the world's third-largest economy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 27 August 2020 Residents take cover behind a tree trunk from rubber bullets fired by South African Police Service (SAPS) in Eldorado Park, near Johannesburg, during a protest by community members after a 16-year old boy was reported dead AFP via Getty World news in pictures 26 August 2020 People scatter rose petals on a statue of Mother Teresa marking her 110th birth anniversary in Ahmedabad AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 August 2020 An aerial view shows beach-goers standing on salt formations in the Dead Sea near Ein Bokeq, Israel Reuters World news in pictures 24 August 2020 Health workers use a fingertip pulse oximeter and check the body temperature of a fisherwoman inside the Dharavi slum during a door-to-door Covid-19 coronavirus screening in Mumbai AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 August 2020 People carry an idol of the Hindu god Ganesh, the deity of prosperity, to immerse it off the coast of the Arabian sea during the Ganesh Chaturthi festival in Mumbai, India Reuters World news in pictures 22 August 2020 Firefighters watch as flames from the LNU Lightning Complex fires approach a home in Napa County, California AP World news in pictures 21 August 2020 Members of the Israeli security forces arrest a Palestinian demonstrator during a rally to protest against Israel's plan to annex parts of the occupied West Bank AFP via Getty World news in pictures 20 August 2020 A man pushes his bicycle through a deserted road after prohibitory orders were imposed by district officials for a week to contain the spread of the Covid-19 in Kathmandu AFP via Getty World news in pictures 19 August 2020 A car burns while parked at a residence in Vacaville, California. Dozens of fires are burning out of control throughout Northern California as fire resources are spread thin AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 August 2020 Students use their mobile phones as flashlights at an anti-government rally at Mahidol University in Nakhon Pathom. Thailand has seen near-daily protests in recent weeks by students demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Prayut Chan-O-Cha AFP via Getty World news in pictures 17 August 2020 Members of the Kayapo tribe block the BR163 highway during a protest outside Novo Progresso in Para state, Brazil. Indigenous protesters blocked a major transamazonian highway to protest against the lack of governmental support during the COVID-19 novel coronavirus pandemic and illegal deforestation in and around their territories AFP via Getty World news in pictures 16 August 2020 Lightning forks over the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge as a storm passes over Oakland AP World news in pictures 15 August 2020 Belarus opposition supporters gather near the Pushkinskaya metro station where Alexander Taraikovsky, a 34-year-old protester died on August 10, during their protest rally in central Minsk AFP via Getty World news in pictures 14 August 2020 AlphaTauri's driver Daniil Kvyat takes part in the second practice session at the Circuit de Catalunya in Montmelo near Barcelona ahead of the Spanish F1 Grand Prix AFP via Getty World news in pictures 13 August 2020 Soldiers of the Brazilian Armed Forces during a disinfection of the Christ The Redeemer statue at the Corcovado mountain prior to the opening of the touristic attraction in Rio AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 August 2020 Young elephant bulls tussle playfully on World Elephant Day at the Amboseli National Park in Kenya AFP via Getty

Mr Kuciaks last story for Aktuality.sk, on 9 February, looked at transactions by firms linked to businessman Marian Kocner and connected to a Bratislava luxury apartment complex that was at the centre of a political scandal last year. Mr Kocner denied any connection to the case.

Robert Mahoney, of the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), said: Slovak authorities must swiftly deliver justice for Jan Kuciak, which will only occur when all parties involved in his murder are prosecuted to the full extent of the law.

This killing is a grim reminder that when journalists are threatened because of their work, the threats must be taken seriously.

According to CPJ research, at least 251 journalists worldwide who covered corruption have been murdered in reprisal for their work since 1992.

Aktuality.sk said Mr Kuciak was working with the Czech Centre for Investigative Journalism, the Investigative Reporting Project Italy and the international Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project.

The Czech centre said it had been working with him for more than 18 months.Norway has announced plans to ban semi-automatic guns by 2021, a ruling due to come into force a decade after Anders Breivik shot dead 69 people at a youth summer camp.

The announcement comes amid a growing debate over legislation governing semi-automatic weapons in the US, after 17 students were killed at a school in Florida.

A ban on semi-automatic weapons in Norway was proposed by the minority right-wing government last year, but senior politicians now believe they have enough support to pass the law.

Peter Frolich, a Conservative member of parliaments standing committee on judicial affairs, told AFP: Today, it has become clear that there is a parliamentary majority in favour of the governments proposal. Semi-automatic weapons will therefore be banned in Norway.

He explained that the ban took a long time to be put in place as many hunters in the country used semi-automatic weapons, although the law may include be some exemptions for those involved in shooting sports.

The move was welcomed by a victims' support groups, despite the delay.

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

Automatic weapons are already banned from being sold in Norway.

The country has relatively strict gun laws and requires a license to own a firearm, clear reasoning as to why it is needed, as well as a clean criminal record.

On 22 July 2011, right-wing extremist Breivik used a Ruger Mini-14 semi-automatic rifle and a Glock pistol in the attack on the island of Utya in Tyrifjorden, Buskerud.

The vast majority of his victims were teenagers. More than 100 others were injured in the attack.

Recommended Florida suspect hearing called off minutes before he was due to appear

Lone wolf Breivik dressed as a policeman when he infiltrated the summer camp run by the Norwegian Labour Party (AUF) and carried out the massacre.

Prior to the attack, he also planted a bomb in Oslo, which killed eight people.

The mass murderer, who now goes by the name Fjotolf Hansen, was imprisoned for at least 21 years. He gave a Nazi salute in court during procedures.

In America, survivors of the Parkland shooting, along with many others have called for tougher gun laws following the tragedy.

Donald Trump has said he supports the concept of raising the age limit to buy certain types of guns from 18 to 21, but has faced backlash from the National Rifle Association over the suggestion.

Public opinion on gun laws appears to be shifting somewhat in the US, with a recent poll by CNN showing 70 per cent of people now claim to back tougher gun laws.Rome has said it will ban diesel cars in an attempt to combat air pollution.

The Italian capital is one of the most traffic-clogged cities in the world. But the damage done by those engines is threatening the thousands of historic monuments that are found there.

Now cars with diesel engines will be banned from heading into the centre, according to its mayor.

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

Virginia Raggi announced the decision on her Facebook page on Tuesday, saying: "If we want to intervene seriously, we have to have the courage to adopt strong measures".

Her comments followed a court ruling in Germany that cities there can ban the most heavily polluting diesel cars from their streets.

About two-thirds of the 1.8 million new cars sold in Italy last year were diesel, according to industry figures.

Rome has no major industries, so nearly all of the air pollution in the Italian capital is caused by motor vehicles.

The city regularly tries to ban older, more polluting vehicles from roads on days when pollution reaches critical levels.

It has also tried to reduce pollution by allowing only cars whose number plates end in either odd or even numbers to circulate on alternate days.

But both regulations are widely flouted and lightly enforced by traffic police. To skirt the alternate days regulation, many families buy a used car with a different number plate.

Apart from health issues, pollution from combustion engines causes severe damage to Rome's many ancient outdoor monuments.

According to a study last year by a branch of the culture ministry, 3,600 stone monuments and 60 bronze sculptures risk serious deterioration because of air pollution.

Ahead of celebrations marking the start of the new millennium in 2000, the darkened facade of St. Peter's Basilica at the Vatican was cleaned as part of a project that lasted several years.

But fresh signs of pollution-related stains are visible again.

Before the German court's ruling on Tuesday, officials in highly industrialised Milan, in northern Italy, had already announced plans to make the city diesel free by 2030.

Additional reporting by agenciesThe streets of Eastern Ghouta are growing quieter and quieter, Dr Hamza Hassan says.

Food prices are soaring so people are staying away from markets, leading many to close up shop completely. Rubble and other air-strike debris is blocking many roads. Families have now been huddling in basements for 11 days, leaving them weak and ill from the damp conditions.

Ive been doing visits to peoples houses, as well as the hospitals, he says over the phone. No one should be living like this. The children have fevers and colds. They need sunlight.

Russia said on Wednesday that al-Qaeda-linked rebel factions operating in the besieged rebel enclave of small towns and farms have shelled the humanitarian corridors leading out of the area for a second day, meaning no civilians have left and no aid has got in.

Rebel spokespeople, of course, said the shelling came from government forces.

At the same time, ground fighting has intensified in Hawsh al-Dawahra on the eastern edge of the rebel-held area. Government forces have pushed slightly forward, but suffered heavy losses, a war monitor said.

Four days after the UN demanded an immediate 30-day ceasefire across Syria and two days after Syrian ally, Russian President Vladimir Putin, ordered daily pauses in the fighting, it is clear neither is working.

Dr Hassan said 10 people died at Arbeen Hospital on Wednesday morning  five succumbing to wounds sustained the day before and five killed in fresh strikes.

 Boris Johnson suggests the UK could strike Syria in response to Assad's attack on eastern Ghouta

The death toll in the ferocious assault now stands at more than 600, by local counts, in what has quickly become one of the worst episodes of violence in seven years of civil war.

The Damascus suburb has been besieged by government forces since 2012 and was also the scene of a sarin and chlorine gas attack in 2013, one of the worst chemical incidents in modern history.

In recent months, however, Bashar al Assads government has tightened the siege, leaving its estimated 400,000 civilians struggling with dwindling food and medical supplies. At the same time, it has stepped up the military campaign.

The violence unleashed in the area since a new wave of Russian-backed bombing began on 18 February has been unprecedented. Activists on the ground report the use of illegal barrel bombs and chlorine gas  claims the Syrian army has repeatedly denied.

Such reports are fabricated by the rebels themselves, both Syrian and Russian government sources have said. The Russian ambassador to the UN, Vassily Nebenzia, said last week that the international community was suffering from mass psychosis over the situation in Eastern Ghouta.

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

But the civilian suffering in pictures and video  viewed by several verification specialists such as Bellingcat  is undeniable.

It is bad, the ceasefire is useless, resident Wassim Khatib says. How can we defend ourselves against this? he asks, sending a picture of a huge smoke cloud towering above his already decimated neighbourhood after the latest air strike.

Ghouta is one of four supposed de-escalation zones created in a May 2017 agreement brokered by Russia, Turkey and Iran to quell fighting between rebel forces and the regime  but Damascus and Moscow say the rebel forces fighting there are extremist groups and therefore not covered by the deal.

Al-Qaeda-linked factions are thought by monitors and Western intelligence to have a small, but not insignificant, presence in the area.

The tactics currently being employed in Eastern Ghouta echo the Assad playbook in several other urban battles in Syrias war, including Homs, Daraya and Aleppo.

A senior US general speaking to Reuters on background accused Moscow of acting as both arsonist and firefighter by failing to rein in Mr Assad.

In neighbourhoods of Damascus where dozens have died in heavy rocket fire from Ghouta, many people are also weary of bloodshed.

Hundreds of people there have taken to social media with anonymised posts asking the government assault to stop to Save Ghouta.

Others are willing the offensive on. Burn Ghouta, and lets make shawarma out of its childrens bodies, one widely circulated post from a government supporter read.The United Nations has said that North Korea sent items used to make chemical weapons to Syria, in violation of sanctions.

The more than 200-page report also said the hermit kingdom on the Korean peninsula sent ballistic missile materials and technicians to the war-torn country.

The revelation of more than 40 previously unreported shipments to Syria between 2012 and 2017 comes just as the US accused the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad of using what appeared to be chlorine gas in an attack on the Damascus suburb of Ghouta.

UN weapons and customs controls experts have been monitoring and writing the North Korea sanctions reports since 2010. None have been made public but this report, according to a diplomat who spoke to CNN, is set to be released 16 March.

A trade between the two countries would mean that Mr Assad continues the suspected chemical weapons attacks that harm civilians and provides money to North Korean leader Kim Jong-un to continue developing his countrys nuclear weapons programme.

Mr Assads government has repeatedly denied it uses chemical weapons as Syria enters its seventh year of bloody conflict.

The materials sent included acid-resistant tiles, valves and thermometers, the New York Times first reported.

 Scenes of devastation in Syria after deadly shelling and airstrikes and eastern Ghouta

Experts monitoring Pyongyangs compliance to UN sanctions also reported they saw North Korean missile technicians in certain Syrian facilities in 2016 and 2017.

During at least one of the visits, the technicians stayed in a Syrian military facility and North Korean scientists could still be operating in the cities of Barzeh, Adra, and Hama.

A UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said during a news conference: I think the overarching message is that all member states have a duty and responsibility to abide by the sanctions that are in place, but did not comment on the report further.

The link between the two countries comes at a crucial time in US-North Korea relations.

Joseph Yun, the special representative for North Korea policy at the US State Department, is set to retire this week.

The Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea, just ended and the two Koreas participated as one team in the opening and closing ceremonies.

Turkish attack on Afrin, northern Syria  in pictures Show all 9 1 /9 Turkish attack on Afrin, northern Syria  in pictures Turkish attack on Afrin, northern Syria  in pictures Smoke billows following a Turkish airstrike on a village in the Afrin district, on 28 January, 2018. Turkey launched operation "Olive Branch" on January 20 against the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) militia in Afrin, supporting Syrian opposition fighters with ground troops and air strikes AFP Turkish attack on Afrin, northern Syria  in pictures Smoke billows from surrounding villages during the Turkish military operation against the Kurdish enclave on 28 January, 2018 AFP/Getty Turkish attack on Afrin, northern Syria  in pictures Twenty-year old Kifah al-Moussa, a Syrian Arab woman living among the Kurds of Afrin province, was working on a chicken farm in the village of Maryameen when a Turkish aircraft bombed the building at midday on 21 January, wounding her in the chest. When she recovered consciousness, she found eight people from one family lying dead around her Yara Ismail Turkish attack on Afrin, northern Syria  in pictures Mohamed Hussein, a 58-year-old Kurdish farmer, lies in the Afrin hospital, wounded in the head and eye after his home was bombed by Turkish aircraft on the second night of the attack Yara Ismail Turkish attack on Afrin, northern Syria  in pictures Syrian Kurds sit on benches overlooking a street in Afrin, on 28 January, 2018. Above is a memorial to martyrs who died in the fight against Isis AFP/Getty Turkish attack on Afrin, northern Syria  in pictures Smoke is seen rising on the Syrian side of the border, at Hassa, near Hatay, southern Turkey as Turkish jet fighters hit People's Protection Unit (YPG) positions, on 28 January, 2018 AFP/Getty Turkish attack on Afrin, northern Syria  in pictures A Turkish made T-155 Firtina (Storm) howitzer is dispatched to the border at Hassa near Hatay, southern Turkey, on 28 January, 2018 AFP/Getty Turkish attack on Afrin, northern Syria  in pictures A Turkish soldier waves a flag on Mount Barsaya, northeast of Afrin, on 28 January, 2018 Reuters Turkish attack on Afrin, northern Syria  in pictures Turkey-backed Free Syrian Army fighters are seen in Barsaya mountain, northeast of Afrin, on 28 January, 2018 Reuters

One the sidelines, South Korean President Moon Jae-in and Mr Kim's sister Kim Yo Jong met face-to-face for the first time.

White House adviser Ivanka Trump was among a US delegation at the closing ceremonies after which the North Korean regime said it would be open to talks with the US.

US President Donald Trump has also yet to nominate an ambassador to South Korea. Victor Cha, who was former President George W Bush's North Korea adviser, was in the running but the administration dropped him as a candidate.

The President has had an increasingly tense relationship with Mr Kim and Mr Yun was known for advocating a diplomatic solution to denuclearising the Korean peninsula.

Mr Trump had repeatedly called Mr Kim Rocket Man as Mr Kim continued to test missiles dangerously close to US ally Japan last year.

For its part, the UN Security Council unanimously passed in December 2017 - including votes from Russia and China who have closer ties to Pyongyang - more sanctions on North Korea, further limiting its oil supplies and slave labour market.

Earlier this week at the Conservative Political Action Conference, Mr Trump announced the "largest ever" sanctions on the country. More than 50 companies, shipping vessels, and trade businesses.Deep in the night, I hear a lion roaring, a low melancholy call that carries for miles across the plains. Its a sound of strength and supremacy as the king of the beasts stakes his territorial claims. But with lions becoming increasingly vulnerable due to poaching, habitat loss, hunting and human-wildlife conflict, its a sound that could soon be silenced. Today, just 24,000 lions survive in Africa; experts believe they could be extinct by 2050.

That was probably Mr T you heard, our guide Dulla explains in the morning. Hes letting the other lions in the area know whos boss. Named after the dark T-shaped pattern on his mane, wed encountered Mr T shortly after arriving at Ruaha National Park in southern Tanzania. He was lying in the shade alongside four lionesses of the Mwagusi pride, their bellies full of the buffalo whose carcass, swarming with flies, lay nearby.

Recommended This new programme allows you to track as well as meet gorillas

Raw and remote, Ruaha is as wild as it gets in Africa. Spanning 20,000sq kilometres, its a sweltering landscape of vast sand rivers, bulbous baobabs and spindly palms that is home to 10 per cent of the continents lions. Surprisingly few travellers come here, but Jabali Ridge, Asilia Africas new lodge, which opened in September 2017, looks set to lure them, with eight luxury rooms, a gin bar, spa and infinity pool. Asilia supports conservation initiatives throughout Tanzania and Kenya, including Oxford Universitys Ruaha Carnivore Project (RCP). I was there to see the fruits of their remarkable work on lion conservation with local tribes.

The conservation projects in Ruaha are helping to save lions (Will Whitford)

Kitisi is a sprawling village of mud brick houses along a dusty ochre track  one of 12 benefiting from RCPs programmes. As pastoralists whose lives are centred on their cattle, the Barabaig and Maasai tribes have a cultural hatred of lions, and kill them during traditional hunts in rites of passage for warriors, or in retaliation for killing livestock. Slowly but surely, however, the age-old tribal mindset is changing: their lion-killing warriors have become predator protectors.

With guidance from Kenyas Lion Guardian project, RCP began their Lion Defender programme in 2012. Before we started, around 60 lions a year were being killed by the Barabaig. This year there were just four, says BenJee Cascio, Lion Defenders manager.

Jabali Ridge is Asilia Africas luxurious new lodge in Ruaha National Park (Will Whitford)

Mandela from Kitisi is one of 13 warriors who has retrained as a lion defender. I was 18 when I speared my first lion but Ive realised its just too dangerous, he says. Being a lion defender encourages us to see other alternatives to hunting, and other benefits. Two of my friends out hunting were killed by elephants recently  wheres the benefit in that?

Once a secretive, nomadic tribe regarded as outsiders and averse to change, the Barabaig are slowly adapting to new initiatives. Cascio takes us to meet a family learning to live with lions. Their remote homestead has small mud-and-thatch buildings with no running water or electricity, but its cattle enclosure is made of wire fencing rather than the usual bomas (enclosures) made of sticks. Kamunga, an elderly man dressed in traditional purple cloth, was one of the first adopters of RCPs lion-proof bomas. Its a long time since Ive lost an animal, he smiles. The lions and hyena are always circling around and roaring, but they cant get in.

To date, lion defenders have helped construct around 150 wire bomas protecting 16,000 animals worth 1.6m (cattle are worth 300 each, goats a mere 14). Theyve also returned some 5,000 lost livestock worth over 500,000 to the villages. They track lions, compile GPS data on predator hotspots and warn villagers of their whereabouts. With livestock killings falling by a staggering 60 per cent, theyve become local heroes.

RCP provides meals in primary schools, funds children through secondary school and university, takes locals into the park and holds wildlife DVD screenings to over 30,000 people. Aiming to link social benefits to conservation, the company has also created an innovative competition based around cameras theyve set up in villages which track wildlife going in and out. They award points per animal spotted, which convert into benefits including healthcare, education and veterinary materials  along with celebratory parties.

These parties give RCPs Community Liaison Officer Stefano Asecheka the chance to engage with young people about health and conservation. He was the first Barabaig to work with the project in 2009. Were still behind the times but theres a gradual cultural shift giving us alternatives to our traditional lifestyle, he explains. I introduce conservation principles to our communities and help RCP understand our culture.

But ancient cultures dont change overnight and hunts still occur, albeit sporadically. Its hard to see a dead lion, helpless, its body full of spear holes, BenJee tells me. At those times, we have to put ourselves in the Barabaigs shoes and understand their sacrifices. And we have to remind ourselves of our successes too.

Traditionally, successful hunts would be celebrated. The warriors whod speared the lion would dance around its paws, tail and teeth, and they would get the kudos, the gifts  and the girls. With communities spread out far and wide, such celebrations provided rare opportunities for young men and women to socialise.

Kamunga, a Barabaig cattle herder from Kitis, was one of the first to trial the wire enclosure (Will Whitford)

With the unenviable task of dissuading angry young men hell-bent on a hunt, being a lion defender isnt easy. But with 90 per cent of hunts now successfully prevented, RCP in a clever twist has turned tradition on its head, throwing parties for villages that havent had a hunt for a month. Surely a cause for celebration if it means Africas lions can still roar loud and proud across the plains.

Travel essentials

Getting there

Expert Africa offers a tailor-made trip with four nights at Jabali Ridge from 3,845pp, including flights and transfers, all safari activities in Ruaha and full board accommodation.

More information

ruahacarnivoreproject.com

British nationals require a visa to enter Tanzania, which costs 40 and is available from the Tanzania High Commission. An International Certificate of Vaccination for Yellow Fever is also required.Thousands of airline passengers are out of position after dozens of flights were diverted due to snow.

London City airport appears to be the worst affected. The first arrival of the day, British Airways flight 2 from New York, was diverted to Gatwick. Flybe has diverted services to Southampton, while BAs inbound flight from Frankfurt landed in Birmingham.

Dozens of other flights were simply cancelled or, as in the case of Luxair, returned to the departure airport, Luxembourg. At least outbound 30 flights have been cancelled, with more likely to be grounded.

Recommended Heavy snow and freezing conditions worsen amid travel chaos

Leeds Bradford airport has seen widespread cancellations, with eight flights on each of Ryanair and Flybe grounded. While Flybe services are domestic, the Ryanair cancellations include longer services to Fuerteventura and Malta. BA's afternoon departure to Heathrow was also cancelled.

Dublin airport saw its morning schedules shredded, with flights either cancelled or operating hours late. Aer Lingus has seen the most cancellations, with links to Heathrow, Gatwick, Bristol, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Manchester and Birmingham all grounded.

Ryanair services to Gatwick, Bristol, Newcastle, Manchester, Stansted and East Midlands were cancelled, along with Cityjet to London City, Flybe to Cardiff and Loganair to Norwich and Dundee.

Recommended Trains and planes cancelled nationwide in the snow

Aberdeen airport saw many cancellations, many on domestic flights to and from the eastern side of Britain. Flybe cancelled links from London City, Southampton, Leeds Bradford, Newcastle, Humberside and Norwich, while Loganair grounded services from Durham Tees Valley and Orkney.

Continental airports have also been hit by severe weather, with Bilbao airport in northern Spain seeing dozens of cancellations. One Iberia flight from Madrid return to the Spanish capital after being unable to land. Nearby Biarritz also saw multiple cancellations.

At Amsterdams Schiphol airport, KLM cancelled many flights including links to Aberdeen and Norwich.After commuters accused Greater Anglia of excessive caution in cancelling dozens of rail services on Tuesday, the train operator for Essex, Suffolk and Norfolk relented and said it now aims to run a normal schedule on Wednesday.

As the evening rush hour got underway, Greater Anglia also said that it would operate right through to the normal last services, though subject to some delays and cancellations. It had previously planned to end services at 10pm on Tuesday evening.

Passengers were unable to travel on branch lines in Suffolk and Norfolk, and many main line services from London Liverpool Street to Stansted airport, Ipswich and Norwich were cancelled.

Recommended Four people die in car crashes with more snow expected

Great Northern, which had made substantial cuts to services during the day, also retracted plans to stop late-night trains north of Royston in Hertfordshire.

Southeastern, which runs between Kent, East Sussex and London, also reinstated services during the day. On Wednesday, High Speed services to and from London St Pancras will be affected by a speed restriction, which will also affect Eurostar trains to and from Paris and Brussels.

On South Western Railway between London Waterloo, Surrey, Hampshire and Dorset, trains between Bournemouth and Weymouth may be disrupted. Passengers in Dorset have been told: Please check before you leave for the station.

After nearly 100 flights to and from Heathrow were cancelled pro-actively on Tuesday, only half as many have been grounded for Wednesday.

UK news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 UK news in pictures UK news in pictures 17 September 2021 Hugo, 7, from London rides past a 4x7 metre rainbow arch, made entirely of recycled aluminium cans, which has been installed by recycling initiative 'Every Can Counts', in partnership with The City of London Corporation in front of St Paul's Cathedral in London, to encourage members of the public to recycle their drinks cans ahead of recycling week, which starts on 20 September PA UK news in pictures 16 September 2021 Sheikeh MOhammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, leader of Abu Dhabi, leaves Downing Street after meeting with Boris Johnson PA UK news in pictures 15 September 2021 Children pose by ice sculptures depicting people collecting water by charity Water Aid to show the fragility of water and the threat posed by climate change in London AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 14 September 2021 Heavy rain covers the A149 near Kings Lynn in Norfolk PA UK news in pictures 13 September 2021 Luke Jerram's 'Museum of the Moon' at Durham Cathedral PA UK news in pictures 12 September 2021 Inspirational young fundraiser Tobias Weller crosses the finish line, near his home in Sheffield, as he completes his latest epic feat where he swam and triked his way to the end of his awesome year-long Ironman Challenge. This is the third challenge Tobias, who has cerebral palsy and autism, has completed, raising more than 150,000 for his school and Sheffield Children Hospitals charity PA UK news in pictures 11 September 2021 British player Emma Raducanu, holds up the US Open championship trophy winning the women's singles final of the US Open in New York AP UK news in pictures 10 September 2021 People paddle board during a misty morning in Ullswater, the second largest lake in the Lake District, Cumbria PA UK news in pictures 9 September 2021 Troops from Wiltshire based 4 Armoured Close Support Battalion Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers during final inspection at Wellington Barracks in London, ahead of providing troops for the Queens Guard PA UK news in pictures 8 September 2021 Workers cross London Bridge during the morning rush hour in London Reuters UK news in pictures Mixing it up: Painting it up press view in London A gallery employee poses for photographers next to a painting entitled Prairie by British artist, Louise Giovanelli during the exhibition 'Mixing it up: Painting it up' at the Hayward Gallery in London EPA UK news in pictures 6 September 2021 Traders in the Ring at the London Metal Exchange, in the City of London, after open-outcry trading returned for the first time since March 2020, when the Ring was temporarily closed due to the pandemic PA UK news in pictures 5 September 2021 People enjoy the warm weather on Sandbanks beach, Poole PA UK news in pictures 4 September 2021 Demonstrators from Animal Rebellion and Nature Rebellion protest in Trafalgar Square in London. PA UK news in pictures 3 September 2021 South Africa's Ntando Mahlangu (centre) wins the Men's 200 metres T61 Final ahead of second placed Great Britain's Richard Whitehead at the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games PA UK news in pictures 2 September 2021 A young common seal on the beach at Horsey Gap in Norfolk, as hundreds of pregnant grey seals come ashore ready for the start of the pupping season. PA UK news in pictures 1 September 2021 Goldfinches fighting over food in a garden in Strensham, Worcestershire PA UK news in pictures 31 August 2021 Gold Medallist Sarah Storey of Britain celebrates on the podium Reuters UK news in pictures 30 August 2021 Extinction Rebellion protesters hold a a tea party on Tower Bridge in London EPA UK news in pictures 29 August 2021 A police office tussles with a demonstrator on Cromwell Road outside the Natural History Museum during a protest by members of Extinction Rebellion in London PA UK news in pictures 28 August 2021 Members of the British armed forces 16 Air Assault Brigade walk to the air terminal after disembarking a Royal Airforce Voyager aircraft at Brize Norton, Oxfordshire POOL/AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 27 August 2021 Fabio Quartararo crashes during a MotoGP practice session at the British Grand Prix, Silverstone Circuit Action Images via Reuters UK news in pictures 26 August 2021 An Extinction Rebellion activist holds a placard in a fountain surrounded by police officers, during a protest next to Buckingham Palace in London Reuters UK news in pictures 25 August 2021 Gold Medallist Great Britains cyclist, Sarah Storey, celebrates after winning the Womens C5 3000m Individual Pursuit Final at the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games. It was her 15th Paralympic gold Reuters UK news in pictures 24 August 2021 A demonstrator dressed as bee during a protest by members of Extinction Rebellion on Whitehall, in central London PA UK news in pictures 23 August 2021 Former interpreters for the British forces in Afghanistan demonstrate outside the Home Office in central London AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 22 August 2021 Police officers form a line in front of the entrance to the Guildhall, London, where protesters have climbed onto a ledge above the entrance during an Extinction Rebellion stage a protest PA UK news in pictures 21 August 2021 People take part in a demonstration in solidarity with people of Afghanistan, in London Reuters UK news in pictures 20 August 2021 People zip wire across the sea from Bournemouth pier towards the beach. PA UK news in pictures 19 August 2021 Supporters of Geronimo the alpaca gather outside Shepherds Close Farm in Wooton Under Edge, Gloucestershire PA UK news in pictures 18 August 2021 Former Afghan interpreters and veterans hold a demonstration outside Downing Street, calling for support and protection for Afghan interpreters and their families PA UK news in pictures 17 August 2021 Military personnel board the RAF Airbus A400M at RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire, where evacuation flights from Afghanistan have been landing Reuters UK news in pictures 16 August 2021 Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer takes part in a minute's silence at Wolverhampton police station for the victims of the Plymouth mass shooting last week PA UK news in pictures 15 August 2021 2Storm, a ten-metre tall puppet of a mythical goddess of the sea created by Edinburgh-based visual theatre company Vision Mechanics, makes its way alongside the seafront at North Berwick, East Lothian, during a performance at the Fringe By The Sea festival PA UK news in pictures 14 August 2021 A woman and two young girls look at floral tributes in Plymouth where six people, including the offender, died of gunshot wounds in a firearms incident PA UK news in pictures 13 August 2021 Forensic officers in the Keyham area of Plymouth where six people, including the shooter, died of gunshot wounds in a firearms incident on Thursday evening PA UK news in pictures 12 August 2021 Children ride horses in the River Eden in Appleby, Cumbria, during the annual gathering of travellers for the Appleby Horse Fair PA UK news in pictures 11 August 2021 Stella Moris (left) reacts after talking to the media outside the High Court in London, following the first hearing in the Julian Assange extradition appeal, n London, following the first hearing in the Julian Assange extradition appeal. The US government has won the latest round in its High Court bid to appeal against the decision not to extradite Julian Assange on espionage charges PA UK news in pictures 10 August 2021 Students react after they receive their A-Level results at the Ark Academy, in London Reuters UK news in pictures 9 August 2021 The final athletes from Great Britain arrive home including Jason Kenny, Laura Kenny and Katie Archibald (front left-right) at Heathrow Airport, London following the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games PA 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

British Airways, which has cancelled 40 short-haul services, said: We have agreed with Heathrow Airport, National Air Traffic Services (NATS) and other airlines to proactively reduce the flights schedules at the airport for several hours during the worst of the weather on Wednesday 28 February.

Virgin Atlantic grounded a round-trip from Heathrow to Washington DC. A spokesperson for the airline said: This has been cancelled as a result of the inclement weather and were currently working to rebook customers affected.

In addition, Lufthansa cancelled four flights to and from Frankfurt, and its subsidiary Eurowings grounded services to and from Cologne. Swiss also axed a Zurich-Heathrow round trip.It is fair to say that Max Mosley and the Daily Mail are not the best of chums.

Mosleys antagonism towards elements of the press is long-running and deep-seated. It is now a decade since he successfully sued the News of the World for revealing that he had been involved in a sadomasochistic orgy. In the years since  and emboldened by the recommendations of the Leveson Inquiry in the wake of the phone-hacking scandal  he has seemingly made it his mission to hold the whole of the British press to account.

To that end, he has (albeit at arms length, as he is always keen to point out, via a charitable trust) funded a regulator called Impress, which has gained official recognition from a body set up by royal charter.

 Max Mosley denies lying under oath about publishing a leaflet linking non-white immigrants to disease

This stands in competition to Ipso, the self-regulatory organisation funded by mainstream publishers to deal independently with complaints from members of the public about alleged journalistic failings. Ipso has not been officially recognised and does not wish to seek such recognition, which many publishers regard as amounting to state approval (though the Press Recognition Panel would dispute it).

As things stand, Impress regulates very few well-known titles. The Canary and The Skwawkbox might ring a few bells; other regulated entities, like Common Space, Maximus.media and Libya Business News, might well not.

Some major titles, including The Independent and The Financial Times, continue to stand outside both regulatory systems.

Its all a bit of a rum do, sustained by the threat that one day a Government might enact Section 40 of the Crime and Courts Act, which would potentially leave any publisher not signed up to an officially recognised regulator at risk of bearing the costs of any legal claim brought against it, irrespective of the merits of the case.

The Conservatives promised to scrap the relevant provision but have been unable to do so, thanks to the Prime Ministers failure to win a majority at last years general election.

Labour, on the other hand, argues that enacting Section 40 would simply be a fulfilment of the proposals for press regulation Lord Justice Leveson put forward in 2012. Thats debatable. What is not in doubt, however, is that the partys commitment to triggering the change to the law has enraged many in the news media industry.

Jeremy Corbyns recent video response to press claims that he met a Communist spy in the 1980s upped the ante even further, with its promise to the press barons that change is coming.

Meanwhile, Max Mosley has been busy engaging lawyers to demand that various newspapers remove from their archives past stories about the orgy case, as well as disputed references about his link to Impress. He is also seeking assurances that new stories repeating the same information will not appear.

In pictures: Oswald Mosley and British fascism Show all 6 1 /6 In pictures: Oswald Mosley and British fascism In pictures: Oswald Mosley and British fascism Fascism in Britain 3rd October 1937: British fascist politician Sir Oswald Ernald Mosley returns salutes as he leads a march in London Getty Images In pictures: Oswald Mosley and British fascism Fascism in Britain May 1938: Sir Oswald Mosley marching at the head of a fascist May Day procession Getty Images In pictures: Oswald Mosley and British fascism Fascism in Britain July 1939: British politician Oswald Mosley addressing a crowd of 'Blackshirts' at a rally at Earls Court exhibition centre in London Getty Images In pictures: Oswald Mosley and British fascism Fascism in Britain British fascist leader Oswald Mosley taking the salute in the middle of a fascist demonstration in Hyde Park 1934 Getty Images In pictures: Oswald Mosley and British fascism Fascism in Britain September 1936: British fascist politician Oswald Mosley speaks at a rally in Leeds Getty Images In pictures: Oswald Mosley and British fascism Fascism in Britain Sir Oswald Mosley, leader of the British Union of Fascists, in the 1930s Fox Photos/Getty Images

In this context, it is not difficult for press critics to present the Daily Mails latest assault on Mosley (and by extension  thanks to the half million quid he has donated to the work of its deputy leader Tom Watson  the Labour Party) as being driven by a political agenda.

Yet Mosley is in many ways an unsympathetic figure, notably because of his past links to the right-wing politics espoused by his father. The discovery by the Mail of an election pamphlet, seemingly published by Mosley in his role as the election agent for a Union Movement candidate in a 1961 by-election, cannot easily be dismissed as a detail from history.

Mosley has questioned whether the document is genuine, and argued that it didnt and doesnt reflect his views. But the leaflets content is plainly racist, as Mosley himself was forced to admit in a remarkably uncomfortable interview with Cathy Newman on Channel 4 News.

Just because the Daily Mail is already antipathetic towards him, doesnt mean that unearthing the pamphlet is not good and legitimate journalism.

Likewise, for all that many on the left have exalted Jeremy Corbyn for having the courage to take on the dreaded MSM, it seems staggeringly short-sighted to think stricter regulation will only affect right-leaning newspapers.

Moreover, it is by no means the preserve of the Daily Mail or The Sun to believe that the existence of a Press Recognition Panel, established by royal charter and duty-bound to report to Parliament, creates a link between any officially-recognised regulator and the state.

As someone who worked for a decade at the Press Complaints Commission, the body which preceded Ipso, it may come as no surprise that I believe self-regulation to be preferable to a system which ultimately wends its way back to politicians. I believe that even more strongly having worked for the last seven years within the media itself.

Yes, newspapers sometimes go overboard in their critiques and, yes, it is right that the press should be held to account.

But in an advanced democracy with a long tradition of journalistic freedom  when once-dominant publishers are already being challenged by myriad other voices thanks to the rise of new and social media  it seems extraordinary that so many people should delight in the idea of bringing certain sections of the press to heel.

If you dont like the Daily Mail, dont buy it; complain about it, even. But never imagine that laws which might make life harder for the Mail will not be used by powerful people to make life harder for journalists at any other news outlet you might care to name.Indian American venture capitalist Vinod Khosla  embroiled in a fierce battle over access to Martins Beach, which sits below his 89-acre property in Northern California  has filed a petition with the U.S. Supreme Court to keep the popular beach private. For all his billions, Vinod Khosla epitomizes nothing so much as the miserly scrooge with his years-long multimillion dollar legal campaign aimed at refusing the simple $2 gratuity from the masses for beach access, Mark Massara, attorney for the Surfrider Foundation, the defendant in the lawsuit, told India-West. (Sunita Sohrabji/India-West photo)International fashion brand Gucci has come under fire for using a turban as an accessory during the Fall/Winter 2018/2019 collection fashion show in Milan, including by an Indian American Sikh civil rights group. (Filippo Monteforte/AFP/Getty Images)Project RISHI Jan. 28 held an event at UCLA in which alumni from the university worked at targeting younger people to get more involved in the project. Several Indian Americans were part of the founding team of Project RISHI. (photo provided)Karti Chidambaram, son of former Finance Minister P. Chidambaram, is taken to Patiala House Court in New Delhi Feb. 28, after being arrested by the CBI in Chennai in connection with its ongoing probe into the INX media case. (IANS photo)Billionaire diamond trader Nirav Modi (left) shakes hands with Charles, Prince of Wales and Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall. The Enforcement Directorate says the money trail related to Modis fraud has led to the state of Delaware in the U.S. (IANS photo)Prices in the European silicon carbide market remained unchanged this week despite a squeeze on supply provoked by the shutdown of the Chinese market for the lunar new year holiday.

Indian barytes are now cheaper than Chinese material in the Persian Gulf, buyers and sellers report.

Domestic European antimony trioxide...Why One War When We Can Have Two!

By Eric Margolis

February 27, 2018 " Information Clearing House " - `We will continue to prosecute the campaign against terrorists, but great-power competition  not terrorism  is now the primary focus of US national security. Henceforth Russia and China will be Americas main enemies, with Iran and North Korea thrown in for good measure.

So declared US Secretary of Defense, James Mattis, last week in a statement of profound importance for the world.

For the past seventeen years, the US military has been laying waste to the Muslim world in the faux `war on terrorism. Afghanistan, Iraq, much of Syria, Somalia, Pakistan  all have been heavily bombed. US B-52s and B-1 heavy bombers have tried to pound those resisting American guidance into submission.

In Afghanistan, Americas longest war, President Donald Trump ordered a doubling of bombing against Taliban forces battling US occupation. Now, the US is running very low on bombs, guided munitions and even air-to-air missiles for some reason. Stores of munitions are being rushed from the US Pacific command to the Mideast.

At the same time, the US is fast running out of Muslim targets to bomb, now that the bogeyman ISIS has vanished into thin air and US air attacks in Syria are being minimized for fear of clashing with Russia. Iran still remains on the US potential hit list.

Which brings us back to General Mad Dog Mattis. He is quite right that so-called terrorists (thats anyone who actively opposes the Lex Americana) pose no real life or death threat to the US mainland.

But if so, how then to maintain the $1 trillion US military budget? Well, of course, trot out those good old Reds Under Our Beds. Actually, the Pentagon has been planning a new war with China for the past three years, a mainly air and naval conflict to dominate Chinas coasts and seas. The Pentagon is loading up on new aircraft, missiles, satellites and naval craft for the next Pacific War, and trying to enlist India as an ally against China.

But what then about Russia? Not so easy. The likely theater for a US-Russia clash is on the Baltic coast, Ukraine, the Black Sea or Syria. In this case, the US would be confronted by the same problem that afflicted France in the fall of 1939.

Few people know that it was France that first attacked Germany, not the other way around. Responding to the German invasion of Poland, France and Britain declared war on Germany. French divisions began to invade Germanys Rhineland. But after a few skirmishes the French high command, under the inept Gen. Maurice Gamelin, didnt know what to do next. Germany was large, and the defensive-minded French did not anticipate occupying its entire country.

After a brief demonstration, the French Army withdrew behind the Maginot Line. Hitler did not counter-attack in hope he could forge a peace treaty with London and Paris. Winston Churchill and his fellow imperialists furiously sought to push Britain into war with Germany. But months of inactivity went by, known as the Sitzkrieg or drole de guerre until Germany acted decisively.

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This would also be Americas problem in a war against Russia. How deep into Russia to attack (assuming no use of nuclear weapons)? How to protect ever lengthening supply lines? Napoleon and Hitler faced the same challenges and failed.

Of course, this supposes the US is ready for war. In truth, neither the US and NATO nor Russia are in any way prepared to fight a real war on land, sea and air. Military forces on both sides have been so run down and depleted by little wars and budget cuts that there are serious shortages of war stocks and aging equipment.

Key NATO member Germany is in a shambles. Its feminized military, run by a nice but incompetent lady defense minister, could not fight its way out of a paper bag. France is not much better off. The US armed forces and Britain are critically short of spares, munitions, transport, and armor. Russias once mighty Red Army is short of everything. Both east and west are simply unready for a real war.

As if there is any reason for one. There is not. Those jackanapes in the US Congress and media trying to inflate online mischief by 20-something Russian hackers into a second Pearl Harbor are crying fire in a crowded theater.

A final respectful note to Gen. Mattis (my dad was a marine): A good general does not pick a fight with two, faraway major powers at once. The trick is to turn them against one another. Declaring a future war against China and Russia is a crazy idea. Only draft-dodgers and generals who lost the Vietnam War could come up with it.

Eric S. Margolis is an award-winning, internationally syndicated columnist. His articles have appeared in the New York Times, the International Herald Tribune the Los Angeles Times, Times of London, the Gulf Times, the Khaleej Times, Nation  Pakistan, Hurriyet,  Turkey, Sun Times Malaysia and other news sites in Asia.

This article was originally published by " EricMargolis " -

Copyright Eric S. Margolis 2018

====

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Home Guns and Liberty By Chris Hedges February 27, 2018 " Information Clearing House " - The proliferation of guns in American society is not only profitable for gun manufacturers, it fools the disempowered into fetishizing weapons as a guarantor of political agency. Guns buttress the myth of a rugged individualism that atomizes Americans, disdains organization and obliterates community, compounding powerlessness. Gun ownership in the United States, largely criminalized for poor people of color, is a potent tool of oppression. It does not protect us from tyranny. It is an instrument of tyranny. Second Amendment cultists truly believe that guns are political power, writes Mark Ames , the author of Going Postal: Rage, Murder, and Rebellion: From Reagans Workplaces to Clintons Columbine and Beyond. [They believe that] guns in fact are the only source of political power. Thats why, despite loving guns, and despite being so right-wing, they betray such a paranoid fear and hatred of armed agents of the government (minus Border Guards, they all tend to love our Border Guards). If you think guns, rather than concentrated wealth, equals political power, then youd resent government power far more than youd resent billionaires power or corporations hyper-concentrated wealth/power, because government will always have more and bigger guns. In fact youd see pro-gun, anti-government billionaires like the Kochs as your natural political allies in your gun-centric notion of political struggle against the concentrated gun power of government. American violence has always been primarily vigilante violence. It is a product of the colonial militias; the U.S. Army, which carried out campaigns of genocide against Native Americans; slave patrols ; hired mercenaries and gunslingers; the Pinkerton and Baldwin-Felts detective agencies; gangs of strikebreakers; the Iron and Coal Police ; company militias; the American Legion veterans of World War I who attacked union agitators ; the White Citizens Council ; the White League , the Knights of the White Camellia ; and the Ku Klux Klan, which controlled some states. These vigilante groups carried out atrocities, mostly against people of color and radicals, within our borders that later characterized our savage subjugation of the Philippines, interventions in Latin America, the wars in Korea and Vietnam and our current debacles in the Middle East. Gen. Jacob H. Smith summed up American attitudes about wholesale violence in the Philippines when he ordered his troops to turn the island of Samar, defended by Filipino insurgents, into a howling wilderness. Mass culture and most historians do not acknowledge the patterns of violence that have played out over and over since the founding of the nation. This historical amnesia blinds us to the endemic violence that defines our culture and is encoded in our national myth. As historian Richard Slotkin writes in Regeneration Through Violence: The Mythology of the American Frontier 1600-1860, the first of his three magisterial works on violence in American society, our Jacksonian form of democracy was defined by the western man-on-the-make, the speculator, and the wildcat banker; [in a time] when racist irrationalism and a falsely conceived economics prolonged and intensified slavery in the teeth of American democratic idealism; and when men like Davy Crockett became national heroes by defining national aspirations in terms of so many bears destroyed, so much land preempted, so many trees hacked down, so many Indians and Mexicans dead in the dust. The first colonists saw in America an opportunity to regenerate their fortunes, their spirits, and the power of their church and nation, he writes, but the means to that regeneration ultimately became the means of violence, and the myth of regeneration through violence became the structuring metaphor of the American experience. A people unaware of its myths is likely to continue living by them, though the world around that people may change and demand changes in their psychology, their ethics and their institutions, Slotkin writes. The metaphors we use to describe ourselves to ourselves are rooted in this national myth. We explain our history and our experience and seek our identity in this myth. This myth connects us to the forces that shape and give meaning to our lives. It bridges, as Slotkin writes, the gap between the world of the mind and the world of affairs, between dream and reality, between impulse or desire and action. It draws on the content of individual and collective memory, structures it, and develops it from imperatives for belief and action. The historian Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz in her book Loaded: A Disarming History of the Second Amendment also illustrates how the racist, white settler vision of the world continues to color our perception of reality. She writes: The populist frontier ideology has served the U.S. ruling class well for its entire history and once again found tremendous resonance in the Vietnam War as another Indian war. A key to John F. Kennedys political success was that he revived the frontier as a trope of populist imperialism, speaking of the settling of the continent and taming a different sort of wilderness. In Kennedys acceptance speech in Los Angeles at the 1960 Democratic Convention, he said: I stand tonight facing west on what was once the last frontier. From the lands that stretch 3,000 miles behind me, the pioneers of old gave up their safety, their comfort and sometimes their lives to build a new world here in the West.  We stand today on the edge of a new frontier. The metaphor described Kennedys plan for employing political power to make the world the new frontier of the United States. Central to this vision was the Cold War, what Richard Slotkin calls a heroic engagement in the long twilight struggle against communism, to which the nation was summoned by Kennedy in his inaugural address. Soon after he took office, that struggle took the form of the counterinsurgency program in Vietnam and his creation of the Green Beret Special Forces. Seven years after Kennedys nomination, Slotkin reminds us, American troops would be describing Vietnam as Indian Country and search-and-destroy missions as a game of Cowboys and Indians; and Kennedys ambassador to Vietnam would justify a massive military escalation by citing the necessity of moving the Indians away from the fort so that the settlers could plant corn.  The gun culture permits a dispossessed public, sheared of economic and political power, to buy a firearm and revel in feelings of omnipotence. A gun reminds Americans that they are divine agents of purification, anointed by God and Western civilization to remake the world in their own image. Violence in America is not about the defense of liberty or radical change. It is an expression of domination, racism and hate. American vigilantes are the shock troops of capitalism. They butcher the weak on behalf of the strong. The essential American soul is hard, isolate, stoic, and a killer, the English novelist and essayist D.H. Lawrence wrote. It has never yet melted. There are some 310 million firearms in the United States, including 114 million handguns, 110 million rifles and 86 million shotguns. The number of military-style assault weapons in private handsincluding the AR-15 semi-automatic rifles used in the massacres at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., and at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn.is estimated at 1.5 million. The United States has the highest rate of gun ownership in the world, an average of 90 firearms per 100 people. Total gun deaths in the United States average around 37,000 a year, with two-thirds of those deaths being suicides, leaving approximately 12,000 homicides, a thousand of those at the hands of the police, writes Dunbar-Ortiz. Mass shootingsones that leave four or more people wounded or deadnow occur in the United States, on average, at the pace of one or more per day. Disturbing as that fact is, mass shootings currently account for only 2 percent of gun killings annually. The number of gun deaths37,000is roughly equal to death-by-vehicle incidents in the United States per year. Never Miss Another Story Get Your FREE Daily Newsletter If the ruling elites feared an armed uprising, a draconian form of gun control would instantly be law. But the engine of gun ownership is not the fear of government. It is the fear by white people of the black and brown underclass, an underclass many whites are convinced will threaten them as society breaks down. Guns, largely in the hands of whites, have rarely been deployed against the state. In this, the United States is an exception. It has a heavily armed population and yet maintains political stability. The few armed rebellionsthe 1786 and 1787 Shays Rebellion , the 1921 armed uprising by 10,000 coal miners at Blair Mountain in West Virginiawere swiftly and brutally put down by militias and armed vigilantes hired by capitalists. These uprisings were about specific grievances, not systemic change. Revolution is foreign to our intellectual tradition. As jobs and manufacturing are shipped overseas, communities crumble, despair grips much of the country and chronic poverty plagues American families, the gun seems to be the last tangible relic of a free and mythic America. It offers the illusion of power, protection and freedom. This is why the powerless will not give it up. In the heartland, these are people who feel theyve been the victims of sustained economic violence at the hands of tyrannical governments of both parties, writer and editor Daniel Hayes wrote in The New York Times in 2016. In 2008, Barack Obamas notorious misstep got one thing right: Rural people will cling to guns. Not because they are sad or misguided, but because it is the last right they feel they still have: a liberty at least, in place of opportunity. Outsourcing and guns: These are the twin issues animating Trump voters in rural Kentucky, he wrote. The two are linked and feed off each other; the only difference between them is that white rural voters see outsourcing as a losing battle, whereas protecting and expanding Second Amendment rights is the only policy theyve been able to get politicians to move on. For that reason alone, it is totemic. The Second Amendment, as Dunbar-Ortiz makes clear in her book, was never about protecting individual freedom. It was about codifying white vigilante violence into law. The elephant in the room in these debates has long been what the armed militias of the Second Amendment were to be used for, Dunbar-Ortiz writes. The kind of militias and gun rights of the Second Amendment had long existed in the colonies and were expected to continue fulfilling two primary roles in the United States: destroying Native communities in the armed march to possess the continent, and brutally subjugating the enslaved African population.  Attacks on the gun culture and the gun violence that plagues the nation are seen by many gun owners as an attack on their national identity. The more powerful the weapon, the more powerful the gun owner feels. There are those among the marginalized and enraged who are tempted, especially because of easy access to assault-style weapons, to use their guns in mass killings to cleanse the world. The lone killer, almost always a white male, is celebrated by Hollywood and in our national myth and frontier psychology. This peculiar American veneration of violence, Slotkin writes, reaches out of the past to cripple, incapacitate, or strike down the living. Chris Hedges, spent nearly two decades as a foreign correspondent in Central America, the Middle East, Africa and the Balkans. He has reported from more than 50 countries and has worked for The Christian Science Monitor, National Public Radio, The Dallas Morning News and The New York Times, for which he was a foreign correspondent for 15 years. https://www.truthdig.com/author/chris_hedges/ ==== 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 It is not necessary for ICH readers to register before placing a comment. This website encourages readers to use the "Report" link found at the base of each comment. When a predetermined number of ICH readers click on the "Report" link, the comment will be automatically sent to "moderation". This would appear to be the most logical way to allow open comments, where you the reader/supporter, can determine what is acceptable speech. Please don't use the report feature simply because you disagree with the author point of view. Treat others with respect, remembering that "A man convinced against his will, is of the same opinion still."- Benjamin Franklin. Please read our Comment Policy before posting - Search Information Clearing House === Click Here To Support Information Clearing House Your support has kept ICH free on the Web since 2002. Click for Spanish , German , Dutch , Danish , French , translation- Note- Translation may take a moment to load.Wake Up: STOP Rohingya Abuse

By Nobel Peace trio to Suu Kyi

This is clearly, clearly, clearly genocide that is going on by the Burmese

government and military against the Rohingya people." - Mairead Maguire.

February 27, 2018 " Information Clearing House " - No one would realise better than a woman how it feels when a child is snatched away from the arms of a mother and slaughtered, a man is murdered before the eyes of his wife, or a girl is raped.

That is what happened to countless Rohingya women back in Rakhine State of Myanmar.

As three Nobel Peace laureates listened to these harrowing tales of tortured women and children one by one in the refugee camps of Cox's Bazar, they could not hold tears back.

The trio, all of them mother themselves, then urged Myanmar's de facto leader and fellow Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi to speak out about violence against the Rohingyas, often dubbed one of the most persecuted minorities in the world.

They implored her to "wake up" to the brutalities, warning she otherwise risks prosecution for "genocide".

The three Nobel Peace winners -- Tawakkol Karman, Shirin Ebadi and Mairead Maguire -- demanded those responsible for the atrocities in Rakhine should be hauled to the International Criminal Court.

We appeal to Aung San Suu Kyi, our sister laureate. Think of your children being pulled off your arms, because you are a mother, and massacred and villages burnt, said Maguire, who is from Northern Ireland.

Don't deny the Rohingya people, their right to life, she said in an emotion-choked voice after listening to the Rohingya women at Thyangkhali refugee camp in Ukhia of Cox's Bazar yesterday.

A violent military crackdown launched last August sent 700,000 Rohingyas fleeing to Bangladesh, sparking an unprecedented humanitarian emergency in the border district where the refugees are now sheltered in teeming, squalid camps.

Accounts of mass killing, rape, looting, burning of villages and shooting of civilians kept coming with refugees over the months, while global condemnations poured in for the atrocities what the UN termed a textbook case of ethnic cleansing.

Yemen's Tawakkol Karman said it is time Aung San Suu Kyi woke up or she will be one of the perpetrators of the crime.

If she could not stop all this crime, she has to resign now. It is very important. Otherwise, she will be followed with the International Criminal Court, she said, while talking to reporters.

We, women Nobel laureates, call for those criminals prosecuted in the ICC  so we don't hope our sister Aung San Suu Kyi to be one of them in the future. If she will continue her silence, she will be one of them.

The Nobel laureates came to Bangladesh on Saturday and began the visit to the Rohingya camps to assess the allegation of violence against Rohingya women and the overall refugee situation.

The Nobel Women's Initiative, a platform of six female peace laureates established in 2006, in partnership with Naripokkho, is organising the visit. On Sunday, they visited the refugee camps in Kutupalang and Balukhali.

They held a meeting with the Refugee, Relief and Repatriation Commissioner Abul Kalam in Cox's Bazar yesterday morning and visited the refugee camps in Thyangkhali.

The Nobel laureates, who all through their lives have fought for human rights and democracy, expressed their anger at the inaction of world leaders over the Myanmar crisis.

The UN Security Council discussed the Rohingya issue several times but failed to take any concrete action against Myanmar that had denied the minority people citizenship and rights to education, movement, healthcare etc.

The Rohingyas have been fleeing since 1980s and the latest influx that began on August 25 last year is the largest, making the total number of refugees staying in Bangladesh now over a million.

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In the first 10 days of this month, about 1,500 Rohingya crossed over from Myanmar.

Every single woman we met said they were raped, they lost families. One woman's baby was taken off and butchered by the Myanmar soldiers. This is clearly clearly clearly genocide that is going on by the Burmese government and military against the Rohingya people, added Maguire.

Terming it an orchestrated attempt to remove the Rohingya out of Myanmar and out of history, she said the Nobel laureates refuse the genocide policy of Myanmar.

"We refuse this genocide policy of the Burmese government. They will be taken to the ICC and those who are committing genocide will be held responsible," she said.

As a human family, we cannot allow genocide of a whole people. The world must act, said Maguire, who spent her life to bearing witness to oppression and standing in solidarity with people living in conflicts.

We have, as a human family, to remove impunity because a people and military think they can kill and slaughter little children because this is a slaughtering way of allegiance in a massive massive scale. Where is our world going?

She further said, The international community has to say enough is enough and we all have to raise our voices and not remain any more silent.

Yemen's Tawakkol Karman said the Rohingyas are really facing a genocide, a massacre, but the international community has disappeared.

It is shame of all of us, of the international community that they are silent in front of the genocide, she said, calling for the perpetrators of the crimes to be held accountable and tried at the international court.

The first Arab woman to win a Nobel Peace Prize in 2011 for her nonviolent struggle for the safety of women rights and peace-building in Yemen, Karman said the sufferings of the Rohingyas have been going on for decades under the eyes of the world.

Now we are seeing an ethnic cleansing. That's shameful with the world, shameful that these women have been raped and their children been slaughtered. The most crime is that they have been displaced from their homes, their country.

Now this is a real real appeal to the international community, the UN and the Security Council to wake up. It is the time now to wake up.

Iran's Shirin Ebadi said as members of international community it is their upmost demand that Myanmar military is taken to International Court of Justice.

We are all paving the way for that, said Ebadi, who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2003 for promoting human rights, in particular the rights of the women, children and political prisoners.

Meanwhile, she said, Rohingya refugees are still coming into Bangladesh that must stop because it is not good for the minority group and it also creates intense pressure on the people of Bangladesh.

The Nobel laureates expressed gratitude to Bangladesh government and people for their generosity in hosting the refugees, and urged the UN and international community to ensure the Rohingya have basic needs and services.

We are with you, with Bangladeshi people, said Karman of Yemen.

This article was originally published by " Daily Star " -

====

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Join the DiscussionDon't Bother... They're Here

By Paul Edwards

February 27, 2018 " Information Clearing House " - When empires begin to die, their public acts--in sharp contrast to the ponderous, stately sobriety of their behavior while ascendant--tend to be marked by queer and pathetic eruptions of idiocy, bathos, and mania.



Though it cant be known when our last Imperial Clown will douse the last lights of The Exceptional Empire and drop the keys in the mailbox for the last failed bank--America is showing clear signs of approaching meltdown.



In Rome, one dingy Caesar burlesqued as a gladiator, then went on stage in drag to warble of nymphs and fauns, and made his horse a senator.

At Tsarist Russias end, the Imperials ran their bloody circus on the whims of a drunken, deranged sociopath repeatedly arrested for public indecency.



Hitler egomaniacally wasted his mighty wehrmacht against Russian winter, then as his Reich exploded and burnt around him, had his gofer shoot him.



The American Empire, enmeshed and floundering in a smothering net of contradictions, deceptions, and disastrous choices, is now playing out a pathetic absurdist farce before a fascinated and astonished world.



The essence of it is this. Due to prolonged betrayal of working people by the Democratic Party over many decades, the blatantly falsity and obvious deception it peddled so hard and so long to keep them in thrall have at last lost their grip. The result was loss of the Presidential election in 2016.



Stunned and unable to swallow the undeniable reason for it, the desperate party leadership concocted a preposterous, threadbare fantasy narrative to deny responsibility and direct shame, blame and disgrace away from itself.



The obvious best target was Trump, since so many good people detest him for so many good reasons. It would not suffice, though, to attack him as a legitimate opponent because that would mean the electorate, left to itself, had made this awful choice. Unthinkable, even for the half of it Hillary had deplored. No, there had to be a nefarious agent that hoodwinked naive voters and diabolically stage-managed this vile and treasonous outcome.



Since the entrenched, master apparatus of America--the Deep State--has, as its main object, the care and feeding of its Militarist, Imperialist agenda, and since the Democratic Party has become its official voice, it was clear long before the election that Russia and Putin were the enemy of choice.



When Wikileaks released communications proving collusion of the DNC and Clinton campaign to torpedo Sanders, it was immediately and loudly proclaimed to be the work of Russian hackers bent not on exposing the DNCs dirt to the public, but on wickedly subverting American democracy.



Putting aside the fact that America has no democracy, and never has had, the DNC honchos finessed their treachery while raging at their putative hijacking by enemies of America. In other words, the crime was not the fact of gross DNC misfeasance, but the horror that it was exposed by evildoers.

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Once an executive decision was made by the Democratic Politburo that Russia and demonized Putin were behind this hack--subsequently proven technically impossible; only doable in-house by physically copying the files--a giant cloud of disinformation had to be generated to support the lie.



It was done. Yet, for all the intemperate rhetoric grounded in supposition, inference, and innuendo, supercharged with Pearl Harbor comparisons and amplified endlessly by the establishment press their effort has not, in over a year, produced a scintilla of evidence of Trump/Russia collusion for political ends, and has failed utterly to crucify him as Putins crony, pawn and agent.



Financial corruption? Why, yes, plenty, by Trump unsavories, but that was never the issue. The Dems rap was treasonous collusion and that, we are asked to believe, was to be accomplished by a bumbling gaggle of half-assed, amateur, cheapo, free-lancing Russian troll shops who bought some squirelly ads on Facebook. This was the great Trump/Putin plan to subvert our state? God help us! And yet its the basis of the Mueller indictments that James Kunstler quickly dubbed 13 Russians and a Ham Sandwich.



The lunacy of this futile and fatuous greased pig chase is only equaled by the determination of the Democratic Party to continue to inflict it on itself.

Paul Edwards lives in Montana. He can be reached at: hgmnude@bresnan.net - http://www.classwarfilms.com/

- See Also -

Let Your Life Be a Friction to Stop the Machine - This Is A Must Watch Video

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Sum of all American Fears in Korea: Peace By Tony Cartalucci February 27, 2018 " Information Clearing House " - North Korea has been depicted by the Western media as a dangerous rogue state, plotting the nuclear holocaust of America and holding global peace and stability hostage with its irrational aggression. It is the supposed threat North Korea poses to the world that the United States uses to justify its enduring decades-long military presence on the Korean Peninsula. In the recently released 2018 US Department of Defense Nation Defense Strategy, it claims: North Korea seeks to guarantee regime survival and increased leverage by seeking a mixture of nuclear, biological, chemical, conventional, and unconventional weapons and a growing ballistic missile capability to gain coercive influence over South Korea, Japan, and the United States. Yet North Korea's immediate neighbor - South Korea - felt comfortable enough with this "rogue regime" that it not only invited high level diplomats to the PyeongChang 2018 Winter Olympic Games, it had its own athletes compete side-by-side with their North Korean counterparts as a unified team.



The opening ceremony included a unified parade, song, and chorus group. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un's sister publicly greeted South Korean President Moon Jae-in. Other senior North Korean leaders and diplomats were present and interacted with their South Korean counterparts.



ABC News would report in their article, " Kim Jong Un's sister shakes hands with South Korea's president at Olympics opening ceremony ," that:

After arriving in South Korea with a high-level delegation, the sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un publicly shook hands with the neighboring nation's president during tonight's opening ceremony of the 2018 Winter Olympics. CNN would report that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un would go as far as inviting South Korean President Moon Jae-in to the North Korean capital, Pyongyang.



Evident is the absurdity of Western political and media claims about the danger North Korea presents to the world, when the very nation it is allegedly still technically at war with - South Korea - invites its leadership to a sporting event their athletes compete as a team together in and whose leaders watch, sitting side-by-side.



However, CNN's article, " Kim Jong Un invites South Korean President Moon to Pyongyang ," would reveal:

Moon responded to the invitation by suggesting the two countries "should accomplish this by creating the right conditions," adding that talks between North Korea and the United States were also needed, and requested that North Korea be more active in talking with the US, according to Kim Eui-kyeom. In essence, the president of South Korea requires US permission to conduct what should be South Korea's own bilateral talks with its immediate neighbor to the north. And here is revealed both the root of tensions on the Korean Peninsula - America's involvement - and the sum of all American fears - peace between North and South - especially on their own terms. Never Miss Another Story Get Your FREE Daily Newsletter For the United States, North Korea has been a convenient pretext to remain deeply embedded on the Korean Peninsula, admittedly part of Washington's strategy - not to deal with a rogue state - but to further encircle and contain China's rise in Asia. The US maintains a significant military presence in Japan for similar purposes and has attempted to reestablish a significant military presence in the Philippines toward this end as well.



Pretext For Permanent US Occupation



It has been the United States pressuring South Korea to maintain a heavily militarized and belligerent posture versus North Korea, conducting annual military exercises with the United States aimed at provoking North Korea's leadership. This article was originally published by " Land Destroyer " - Join the Discussion It is not necessary for ICH readers to register before placing a comment. This website encourages readers to use the "Report" link found at the base of each comment. When a predetermined number of ICH readers click on the "Report" link, the comment will be automatically sent to "moderation". This would appear to be the most logical way to allow open comments, where you the reader/supporter, can determine what is acceptable speech. Please don't use the report feature simply because you disagree with the author point of view. Treat others with respect, remembering that "A man convinced against his will, is of the same opinion still."- Benjamin Franklin. Please read our Comment Policy before posting -Home The People Of East Ghouta Are Living Under al Qaeda Occupation Watch



It's rich to see the western mainstream media talk about the suffering of the people of East Ghouta.



Dr Marcus Papadopoulos spoke with Sky News Australia about East Ghouta. Posted February 27, 2018 Never Miss Another Story Get Your FREE Daily Newsletter - See Also - Join the Discussion It is not necessary for ICH readers to register before placing a comment. This website encourages readers to use the "Report" link found at the base of each comment. When a predetermined number of ICH readers click on the "Report" link, the comment will be automatically sent to "moderation". This would appear to be the most logical way to allow open comments, where you the reader/supporter, can determine what is acceptable speech. Please don't use the report feature simply because you disagree with the author point of view. Treat others with respect, remembering that "A man convinced against his will, is of the same opinion still."- Benjamin Franklin. Please read our Comment Policy before posting - Search Information Clearing House === Click Here To Support Information Clearing House Your support has kept ICH free on the Web since 2002. Click for Spanish , German , Dutch , Danish , French , translation- Note- Translation may take a moment to load.Can We Trust the Corporate Media Banging the Regime-change Drum?

The authoritarians who silence Syria questions

By Jonathan Cook

February 27, 2018 " Information Clearing House " - I am loath to draw more attention to the kind of idiocy that passes for informed comment nowadays from academics and mainstream journalists. Recently I lambasted Prof Richard Carver for his arguments against BDS that should have gained him an F for logic in any high school exam.

Now we have to endure Brian Whitaker, the Guardians former Middle East editor, using every ploy in the misdirection and circular logic playbook to discredit those who commit thought crimes on Syria, by raising questions both about what is really happening there and about whether we can trust the corporate media consensus banging the regime-change drum.

Whitakers arguments and assumptions may be preposterous but sadly, like Carvers, they are to be found everywhere in the mainstream  they have become so commonplace through repetition that they have gained a kind of implicit credibility. So lets unpack what Whitaker and his ilk are claiming.

Whitakers latest outburst is directed against the impudence of a handful of British academics, including experts in the study of propaganda, in setting up a panel  the Working Group on Syria, Propaganda and Media  to provide a source of reliable, informed and timely analysis for journalists, publics and policymakers on Syria. The researchers include Tim Hayward of Edinburgh University and Piers Robinson of Sheffield University.

So what are Whitakers objections to this working group? Lets run through them, with my interjections.

Whitaker: They dispute almost all mainstream narratives of the Syrian conflict, especially regarding the use of chemical weapons and the role of the White Helmets search-and-rescue organisation. They are critical of western governments, western media and various humanitarian groups but show little interest in applying critical judgment to Russias role in the conflict or to the controversial writings of several journalists who happen to share their views.

Western governments and western corporate media have promoted a common narrative on Syria. It has been difficult for outsiders to be sure of what is going on, given that Syria has long been a closed society, a trend only reinforced by the last seven years of a vicious civil-cum-proxy war, and the presence of brutal ISIS and al Qaeda militias.

Long before the current fighting, western governments and Israel expressed a strong interest in overthrowing the government of Bashar Assad. In fact, their desire to be rid of Assad dates to at least the start of the war on terror they launched after 9/11, as I documented in my book Israel and the Clash of Civilisations.

Very few corporate journalists have been on the ground in Syria. (Paradoxically, those who have are effectively embedded in areas dominated by al Qaeda-type groups, which western governments are supporting directly and through Gulf intermediaries.) Most of these journalists are relying on information provided by western governments, or from groups with strong, vested interests in Assads overthrow.

Should we take this media coverage on trust, as many of us did the lies promoted about Iraq and later Libya by the same western governments and corporate media? Or should we be far more wary this time, especially as those earlier regime-change operations spread more chaos, suffering and weapons across the Middle East, and fuelled a migrant crisis now empowering the far-right across much of Europe?

Whitaker and his ilk are saying we should not. Or more disingenuously, Whitaker is saying that the working group, rather than invest its energies in this supremely important research, should concentrate its limited resources on studying Russian propaganda on Syria. In other words, the researchers should duplicate the sterling efforts of Whitakers colleagues in daily attributing the superpowers of a James Bond villain to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Heres a counter-proposal: how about we leave well-funded western governments and media corporations to impugn Putin at every turn and on every pretext, while we allow the working group to check whether there is a large (larger?) mote in the wests eye?

Whitaker: The worrying part, though, especially in the light of their stated intention to seek research funding, is their claim to be engaging in rigorous academic analysis of media reporting on Syria.

Is this really so worrying? Why not allow a handful of academics to seek funds to try to untangle the highly veiled aid  money and arms  that western governments have been pumping into a war tearing apart Syria? Why not encourage the working group to discern more clearly the largely covert ties between western security services and groups like the White Helmets search-and-rescue service? One would think supposedly adversarial journalists would be all in favour of efforts to dig up information about western involvement and collusion in Syria.

Whitaker: But while members of the group are generally very critical of mainstream media in the west, a handful of western journalists  all of them controversial figures  escape similar scrutiny. Instead, their work is lauded and recommended.

More of Whitakers circular logic.

Of course, the few independent journalists (independent of corporate interests) who are on the ground in Syria are controversial  they are cast as controversial by western governments and corporate journalists precisely because they question the consensual narrative of those same governments and journalists. Duh!

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Further, these controversial journalists are not being lauded. Rather, their counter-narratives are being highlighted by those with open minds, like those in the working group. Without efforts to draw attention to these independent journalists work, their reporting would most likely disappear without trace  precisely the outcome, one senses, Whitaker and his friends would very much prefer.

It is not the critical thinkers on Syria who are demanding that only one side of the narrative is heard; it is western governments and supposedly liberal journalists like Whitaker and the Guardians George Monbiot. They think they can divine the truth through  the corporate media, which is promoting narratives either crafted in western capitals or derived from ties to groups like the White Helmets located in jihadist-controlled areas.

Again, why should the working group waste its finite energies scrutinising these independent journalists when they are being scrutinised  and vilified  non-stop by journalists like Whitaker and by big-budget newspapers like the Guardian?

In any case, if official western naratives truly withstand the working groups scrutiny, then the claims and findings of these independent journalists will be discredited in the process. These two opposed narratives cannot be equally true, after all.

Whitaker: The two favourites, though, are Eva Bartlett and Vanessa Beeley  independent journalists who are frequent contributors to the Russian propaganda channel, RT. Bartlett and Beeley also have an enthusiastic following on alternative and conspiracy theory websites though elsewhere they are widely dismissed as propagandists.

Widely dismissed by  yes, thats right, Whitakers friends in the corporate media! More circular logic. Independent journalists like Bartlett and Beeley are on RT because Whitakers chums at British propaganda outlets  like the Guardian and BBC  do not give, and have never given, them a hearing. The Guardian even denied them a right of reply after its US-based technology writer Olivia Solon (whose resume does not mention that she was ever in Syria) was awarded a prominent slot in the paper to smear them as Kremlin propagandists, without addressing their arguments or evidence.

Whitaker: [Bartlett and Beeleys] activities are part of the overall media battle regarding Syria and any rigorous academic analysis of the coverage should be scrutinising their work rather than promoting it unquestioningly.

There is no media battle. Thats like talking of a war between Israel, one of the most powerful armies in the world, and the lightly armed Palestinian resistance group Hamas  something the western corporate media do all the time, of course.

Instead there is an unchallenged western media narrative on Syria, one in favour of more war, and more suffering, until what seems like an unrealisable goal of overthrowing Assad is achieved. On the other side are small oases of scepticism and critical thinking, mostly on the margins of social media, Whitaker wants snuffed out.

The working groups job is not to help him in that task. It is to test whether or how much of the official western narrative is rooted in truth.

Returning to his concerns about RT, Whitaker concludes that the stations key goal:

is to cast doubt on rational but unwelcome explanations by advancing multiple alternative theories  ideas that may be based on nothing more than speculation or green-ink articles on obscure websites.

But it precisely isnt such green-ink articles that chip away at the credibility of an official western consensus. It is the transparently authoritarian instincts of a political and media elite  and of supposedly liberal journalists like Whitaker and Monbiot  to silence all debate, all doubt, all counter-evidence.

Because at heart he is an authoritarian courtier, Whitaker would like us to believe that only crackpots and conspiracy theorists promote these counter-narratives. He would prefer that, in the silence he hopes to impose, readers will never be exposed to the experts who raise doubts about the official western narrative on Syria.

That is, the same silence that was imposed 15 years ago, when his former newspaper the Guardian and the rest of the western corporate media ignored and dismissed United Nations weapons experts like Scott Ritter and Hans Blix. Their warnings that Iraqs supposed WMD really were non-existent and were being used as a pretext to wage a disastrous colonial war went unheard.2019 is around the corner and many Nigerians are gearing up to match to the polls and decide who will lead them. Some have said they are tired of old politicians coming back again and again with nothing to offer, therefore they want young and vibrant Nigerians to take on the affairs of the country. Last week, Fela Durotoye was the subject of discussion after he officially declared his intention to run for president and today, its Garba Adamu, relatively unknown. However, here are 7 things you should know about him.

1.Thirty-five-year-old Adamu Garba II is the Chief Executive Officer and Founder of IPI Solutions Nigeria Limited, a leading cloud computing company, headquartered in Lagos.

2.He was born to an Islamic scholar father and mother, who was a petty trader, he is also an Islamic scholar.

3.He attended the Almajiri School from the age of 4 and proceed to a conventional school at age eight.

4.After his primary education, he proceeded to Kano State University, Wudil, to study Electrical Engineering but was rusticated at three hundred level, because he preached one nation(equal treatment for all irrespective of tribe or background) which the authorities were not comfortable with it.

5.At 24, he left home for Lagos, got a job in Apapa and began to practice what he was doing and found out that it was really working. He got another job with Torrent Technology, got another job with an oil company in Warri where he worked for nine months and resigned. He came back to Lagos because he knows Microsoft Solutions very well and joined another company but I resigned after six months to set up his firm at 26.

6.He wants to run for president because he feels guilty to watch things go wrong and not do anything. He says he believes it is important for us to chart a better way for our nation. In leadership, age is not a barrier, wisdom is key. He has an excellent manifesto on how to improve the life of ordinary Nigerians by deliberate and committed effort to transit from poverty.

7.He has nursed the ambition to become president since 2003 and has read many books and studied many policies of state crafts to acquire more knowledge on how best to liberate the country.

Do you think Nigerians will accept him?Renowned American performance artist and comedian, Kristina Wong, is visiting Lagos this week to participate in the Lagos Theatre Festival. The festival runs from February 27 to March 4.

Supported by the United States Consulate General Lagos, Wong will conduct master classes for performing arts students, faculty, and theatrical directors at the University of Lagos, Lufodo Academy of Performing Arts, and PEFTI Film Institute.

During the festival, Wong, who is notable for her works focusing on women and economic empowerment, will perform her critically acclaimedWong Street Journal show on Friday, March 2. The event will be hosted by United States Consul General, Mr. F. John Bray, at Terra Kulture Arts and Cultural Centre, Lagos.

Public Affairs Officer, U.S. Consulate General Lagos, Ms. Darcy Zotter, expressed optimism that Wongs visit to Nigeria will strengthen cross-cultural understanding and collaboration between the people of Nigeria and the United States.

The Public Affairs Sections of our Embassy in Abuja and Consulate General in Lagos sponsor programs that share the best of the U.S. arts community with Nigeria.

We are pleased to support Kristina Wongs participation at the 2018 Lagos Theatre Festival. She is one of the many American arts professionals who have come to Nigeria to give performances, and mentor young Nigerian artists, Zotter said.

Wong has created five solo shows and one ensemble play that have toured throughout the United States and United Kingdom.

Her most notable touring show Wong Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest looked at the high rates of depression and suicide among Asian-American women and has toured to over 40 venues since 2006.

source: Thenation

A Nigerian Pastor, Bishop Sam Zuga of the House of Joy Ministry in Benue state, has been under massive criticism after he made a controversial statement on Facebook alleging that Muslims are better than Christians.

The Bishop said  The moment you are a Muslim, you can be accepted and shown love where Muslims are, Christians will ask you from which church? If you dont mention the name of his or her church, you are on your own. I have been accepted to offer free medical treatment exercise in many mosques and preached in many, many Muslims do attend my church programmes all over the world, some even come to our church headquarters in Gboko, Christians cant do that to a Muslim. The moment you mention God, a Muslim will believe you and give you attention, he will go ahead and introduce you to other Muslims and whatever he says about you they will believe him.

When you mention God to a Christian, you become a suspect, they will call council of elders to interview you to know the type of God you are talking about, whether is a Catholic Church God, Anglican, Living Faith or Deeper life. Muslims have factions like Christians, but if you dont go deep into them, you will not know, but Christians condemned each other publicly. You cant hear about fake imams so rampant as you hear about fake pastors. When Muslims are fasting, the whole world will know, irrespective of the factions, it used to affect so many things, there is nothing in common among Christians all over the world, even in a small village.

Because this statement didnt go down well with a lot of Christians, the Bishop has had lots of people chime in his Facebook comment section to lambast him.

However controversial O.A.P Daddy Freeze thinks he made a lot of sense and says he agrees with him to an extent and for that reason hell discuss the topic in his teaching at noon.

Daddy Freeze wrote:  I agree with him to an extent and will discuss this in my live teaching at noon on YouTube.com/daddyfreezeteaches.



Many genuine Muslims are even more Christlike than most Nigerian Christians especially the Pentecostal lot.



Although the Shia and Sunni Muslim factions are constantly against each other and there are a few bad imams as well, its nothing like the rot in the Pentecostal church! ~FRZ

Showy lifestyle, loads of parties at nightclubs, new cars and branded clothing  it is all about Investor BJ life. Find out more on Investor BJ net worth and the details of his luxurious life style.



Investor BJ is Malaysia-based hard working socialites as he called himself in one of his songs. Many considered the song as the glorification of fraud, which brings to mind that his source of income is unknown.

Investor BJ net worth

Moss9ja claims that his net worth is $24 million, it also claimed that BJ allegedly made his money from internet scam and investments in real ventures.

Investor BJ cars are another topic of his Instagram page. From time to time we can see his new luxury cars, such as brand new white Audi. As for investor BJ house, this information is hidden, from time to time there are photos on social media with BJ throwing parties in some mansion, but it is difficult to say how many houses he has and what their prices are.

Investor BJ iPhone 8 caused many discussions in the media. He showed off his 5 new iPhones 8 on his Instagram page. Investor BJ bought them on the release day. The price of each phone is $1,308USD.

Recently Investor BJ quarreled with another rich guy Hushpuppi. BJ claimed that Hushpuppi wears fake Patek Phillipe wrist watches. Hushpuppi called himself Gucci Master, but Investor BJ decided to take away this title from him. To show his superiority BJ posted photos from Gucci shops. He bought a lot of different branded clothes and posted itDaily Times

The Ondo State governor, Rotimi Akeredolu, has said there is no need for Bola Tinubu, national leader of the All Progressives Congress, APC, to visit his state. Akeredolu said Tinubus reconciliation effort was not needed in Ondo State because the state arm of the party is peaceful.

Punch

The Federal Government has set up a 12-member committee to unravel the circumstances surrounding the abduction of 110 pupils of the Government Girls Science and Technical College in Dapchi, Yobe State, on February 19.

Vanguard

THE Aare Onakakanfo of Yorubaland, Aare Gani Adams, has called on Northern leaders resident in the South West to collaborate with him to end the incessant activities of herdsmen in the region.

Thisday

Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Yakubu Dogara, on Tuesdaydemanded that security agencies take responsibility for failing to stop the abduction of 110 schoolgirls in Dapchi, Yobe State, describing as unacceptable, the ongoing buck passing between the Nigerian Army and the Nigeria Police Force.

The Sun

President Muhammadu Buhari has congratulated renowned movie producer, filmmaker and photographer, Tunde Kelani, on his 70th birthday.

Guardian

Troops of Sector 1 Sub-Sector A of the Nigerian Army say they have arrested 10 herdsmen for destroying farms at Yelwata as the military maintained that Exercise Ayem Akpatuma (Cat Race) has continued to record feats in Benue State.

Daily Trust

An aide to former president, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, Chief Sheu Oladunjoye has threatened legal action against some members of Akinbiye, Ikalugbase and Ikereku villages over an alleged defamatory petition written to Obasanjo on a landed property at Ewekoro Local Government Area of Ogun State.

Tribune

Lagos State governor, Mr Akinwunmi Ambode, on Tuesday lauded the Arewa communities for their remarkable roles that have contributed to the peaceful coexistence and harmonious relationship existing in the state, saying his administration looked forward to their greater participation and involvement in the Lagos Project.

Leadership

Department of State Services, DSS, on February, 25, said it has arrested one suspected notorious kidnap, Isaiah Suwe, who allegedly masterminded heinous crimes including armed robbery, murder and cattle rustling in Katsina Ala, Benue State.

The Nation

A businessman, Chief Sunday Adeyemo (aka Sunday Igboho) yesterday explained why a suspect, Adeola Williams, (aka Ade Lawyer) wanted to implicate him in some killings in Lagos.

A policewoman attached to Zone D Command in Mushin, was beaten by sex workers in a popular hotel in the Papa Ajao area of Lagos. She was allegedly trying to arrest the ladies while they resisted and then beat her in the process.

Sources report that the police sergeant identified as Ihuoma Njoku while performing her lawful duties made the attempt to arrest one 25-year old Cherish John who tore her uniform and bathed her with a glass of beer she was drinking during the scuffle.

It was gathered that the suspect and other sex workers were angry that the police came to disrupt their businesses during the period they usually expected their clients in the evening. It was learnt that the police stormed the hotel to arrest the workers and they resisted.

However, everything became messy after the victim was attacked and the police mobilised other officers who eventually arrested Miss John who was alleged to be behind the attack and detained her at the police station.

She was charged before Isolo Magistrates court for conspiracy to commit felony and assault. She pleaded not guilty.

The Presiding Magistrate, Mrs. O.A. Adedayo granted her bail in the sum of N100,000 with one surety in like sum. She was remanded in prison custody pending when she will perfect her bail condition.

However, the suspect denied the allegation that she was involved in beating the policewoman. According to her, it was just a minor agreement at the hotel, but the police decided to implicate her just because she was the one that spear-headed the entire scuffle.

She went further to say that it wasnt that she was delighted doing such work but she had no other means to survive and according to her, the Police are always at the hotel to disrupt their activities despite the fact that the management of the hotel settles them from time to time.The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, Ibadan Zonal Office, on Tuesday, February 28, 2018, arraigned the duo of Ebiesuwa Abayomi Fredrick and Tinuola Idayat Oyegunle before Justice Joyce Abdulmalik of the Federal High Court sitting in Ibadan, Oyo State on a two-count charge bordering on obtaining money by false pretence.

The defendants were arraigned following a petition submitted to the Commission by a complainant, alleging that they masterminded the infamous dollar scheme to entrap her.

According to the complainant, sometimes in May 2013, she boarded a taxi with three other passengers who were purportedly members of a syndicate who specialized in hoodwinking unsuspecting victims with an impending danger. She alleged that she heard the three passengers arguing about a Ghana-must-go bag filled with US Dollars in the boot of the car.

She added that one of the syndicate told her that she must be cleansed to avert sudden and mysterious death having heard their discussion. At that point, she was taken to an unknown destination where she subsequently started giving the defendants, and the other members of the syndicate different sums in cash and bank payment totaling N53, 713, 260.00, which she allegedly got from the sale of her properties in both Ibadan and Lagos.

Meanwhile preliminary investigations revealed that over nine million naira (N9.1m) was paid to the second defendant, Tinuola Idayat Oyegunle account domicile in one of the third generation banks apart from other funds traced to the first defendant, Ebiesuwa Abayomi Fredrick personal account from the victim.

It was also discovered that he has built a hotel located at Igbogbo, Ikorodu, Lagos State from the proceeds of the crime

The defendants however, pleaded not guilty to the charge preferred against them.

The defendants accepted to take their plea without a legal representative. In view of their plea, prosecution counsel, Adeola Elumaro, prayed the court for a trial date and urged the court to remand the defendants in prison custody.

Justice Abdulmalik however, ordered that the defendants be remanded in the Federal Prison, Agodi. She thereafter, directed the defendants to get a legal representative by the next adjournment or else the court will get one for them.

The case is adjourned to 19th March, 2018 for trial.The Paris team will be overseen by partners Guillaume Rubechi and Luc Julien-Saint-Amand. The French firm was founded in 2014 and advises clients on tax, business and labour law. Most of the practices clientele are domestic and multinational companies, including investment funds. Valoris Avocats has offices in Strasbourg and Lyon.

The material on this site is for financial institutions, professional investors and their professional advisers. It is for information only. Please read our Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy before using the site. All material subject to strictly enforced copyright laws.

 2021 Euromoney Institutional Investor PLC. For help please see our FAQ.This content is from: Germany

Germanys coalition talks have laid out plans to make online marketplaces liable for any VAT left unpaid by merchants using their websites. The German authorities hope this will combat VAT evasion.New York, NY - February 28, 2018 (Investorideas.com Newswire) Polymath, the company bringing the multi-trillion dollar securities market to the blockchain via its industry-first security token issuance platform, has announced new partnerships with video gaming community platform Rupie, enterprise blockchain solution provider OneLedger, and P2P IoT sensor data marketplace DataBroker DAO to provide advice and counsel on the design and execution of each partners upcoming Initial Coin Offering (ICO).

CEO of Polymath Trevor Koverko said, "We're excited to work with DataBroker DAO, OneLedger, and Rupie on their upcoming ICOs, providing the consultation and support that companies come to expect from Polymath. While the Polymath platform itself is used to help launch security tokens, we want to see this industry grow and thrive in the years ahead - and that means providing our expertise and guidance to exciting projects such as these so they can be successful in the rapidly evolving blockchain technology marketplace."

The new partnerships were chosen based on the exciting potential of each project, with all three proposing a unique use case for their blockchain-enabled solutions:

Rupie - The Rupie Network is a video game community and digital distribution platform built on top of Ethereum and InterPlanetary File System (IPFS). Utilizing the RPI token, Rupie will provide a collaborative approach to funding, building, and playing games on the blockchain. Additional information can be found here: https://rupie.io/

- The Rupie Network is a video game community and digital distribution platform built on top of Ethereum and InterPlanetary File System (IPFS). Utilizing the RPI token, Rupie will provide a collaborative approach to funding, building, and playing games on the blockchain. Additional information can be found here: https://rupie.io/ DataBroker DAO - The first decentralized marketplace for IoT sensor data using blockchain technology. As the "eBay" for sensor data, Databroker DAO enables sensor owners to turn generated data into new revenue streams. Additional information can be found here: https://databrokerdao.com/

- The first decentralized marketplace for IoT sensor data using blockchain technology. As the "eBay" for sensor data, Databroker DAO enables sensor owners to turn generated data into new revenue streams. Additional information can be found here: https://databrokerdao.com/ OneLedger - A blockchain network built with a universal protocol enabling cross-chain access through business modularization. OneLedger defines a three-layer consensus protocol to enable more effective integration of different blockchain applications into the enterprise. Additional information can be found here: http://oneledger.io/#home

For additional information on the Polymath, please visit https://www.polymath.network/.

Polymath CEO Trevor Koverko is available for interview.

About Polymath

Polymath Inc. ("Polymath") is the industry first security token launch pad disrupting the multi-trillion dollar securities industry by creating an open platform that gives global businesses access to the blockchain, smart contracts, and token creation technology. The platform provides the technological underpinning for use by issuers who wish to create security tokens and other evidences of ownership. Polymath's mission is to become the open-source standard for use by those launching securities tokens. During the first week of February, 2018, the Polymath platform went live.

About Rupie Network

Rupie Network, founded in 2017 by Austin Anderson (LinkedIn), Burton Johnsey (Valve, Microsoft), and Jonathan Howard (Google, FB), is a community-driven video game crowdfunding, incubation, and digital distribution platform built on blockchain technology. Via a new "Milestone Escrow" system and an API that leverages smart contracts, escrow, and community voting, Rupie powers a new collaborative approach to game development where the developers and their supporters achieve milestones together. All platform actions (game funding, escrow, payouts, and more) occur with Gems, private blockchain value stores, that are secured and audited by way of a community app built on the Ethereum blockchain. Ultimately, Rupie and its growing list of developers and partners believe this transparent, community-focused approach is the future of game funding, creation, and distribution.

About OneLedger

OneLedger is founded by David Cao who has extensive experience with enterprise software with IBM. There's a need to give businesses access to Blockchain and Distributed Ledger Technology in a fashion where they can define their utilization by choosing the type of internal access controls, and specifications without placing them completely separate from existing technology. Utilizing sidechains and a merkle tree structure, OneLedger allows businesses to create a specific module for their needs, and still have access to underlying Blockchain and Distributed Ledgers like Ethereum and Bitcoin. This allows business logic and transactions to occur off chain with OneLedger at a huge cost savings, while utilizing the underlying chains for settlements and other functions. This satisfies the specific requirements of many enterprise clients, and opens them to the value of tokens and other technology while maintaining the properties of their private OneLedger modules.

About Databroker DAO

DataBroker DAO, founded in Belgium by Matthew van Niekerk and Roderik van der Veer in 2016, is a decentralised marketplace to sell and buy IoT sensor data. A peer to peer marketplace, using Blockchain technology, created to provide IoT sensor owners with a clear path to data monetization and data consumers with a decentralized market to buy IoT sensor data. Databroker DAO opens up a wealth of opportunities for various industries to utilise the data to become more effective. Today companies make use of sensor data to optimize and monitor their operations. The result is a single purpose data landscape. DataBroker DAO drives the evolution towards truly smart living' by making this data easily accessible to cities, organizations and entrepreneurs at an affordable price.

Allison Simon

Account Coordinator

Wachsman

40 Exchange Place

New York, NY 10005

P: +1 (917) 900-5749

E: allison@wachsman.com

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Global investors must adhere to regulations of each country. Please read Investorideas.com privacy policy: https://www.investorideas.com/About/Private_Policy.aspVancouver, British Columbia - February 28, 2018 (Newsfile Corp.) (Investorideas.com Newswire) Cruz Cobalt Corp. (TSXV: CUZ) (OTC Pink: BKTPF) (FSE: A2DMG8) is pleased to announce that the company has started the process to apply for the drill permit on its Idaho Star Cobalt Prospect. Cruz has retained Powell PLLC to assist in the Plan of Operation for the drilling permit.

On February 14, 2018 Cruz increased its acreage in the Cobalt District of Ontario. The new acreage is contiguous to the "Lorraine Cobalt Prospect" and now consists of 10,556 contiguous acres bordering First Cobalt Corp. in the direct vicinity of the town of Cobalt, Ontario now making Cruz one of the single largest landholders in the cobalt region of Ontario.

Cruz President, James Nelson, stated, "We are pleased to accelerate the drilling process in Idaho. Cruz has amassed a stable of North American cobalt prospects over the past few years and we look forward to advancing these prospects in 2018. Cobalt prices continue to show strength and recent reports state that Apple is looking to secure a direct source of cobalt for the batteries in their products. The supply of ethically mined cobalt outside of the DRC is tight and any new supply would be welcomed by buyers such as all the car companies and cell phone companies. The demand for battery metals appears to be at the start of long term super cycle and Cruz has positioned itself early to take advantage of this boom."

Ownership Map

Recently (January 22, 2018) Cruz increased its acreage on the "Purcell Cobalt Prospect" from 671 acres to 11,821 acres, consolidating the previous two separate Purcell prospects into one much larger contiguous prospect. Also on January 16, 2018 Cruz increased its landholdings surrounding the War Eagle cobalt prospect in BC. Cruz now has a 100% interest in 15,219 acres on the War Eagle cobalt prospect. Cruz also just recently completed an airborne survey over the War Eagle and Purcell cobalt prospects in BC and uncovered strong magnetic anomalies (announced January 19, 2018). Management is now working diligently on advancing these two BC cobalt prospects.

Cruz currently has nine cobalt projects located throughout North America, comprising of five in Ontario, two in British Columbia, one in Idaho and one in Montana. Cruz's five separate Ontario cobalt prospects are all located in the vicinity of the town of Cobalt making Cruz one of the largest landholders in this emerging cobalt district. Cruz's Ontario projects include the 1,265 acre Coleman cobalt prospect, the 900 acre Johnson cobalt prospect, the 4,980 acre Hector cobalt prospect, the 1,580 acre Bucke cobalt prospect and now the 10,556 Lorraine cobalt prospect. The company's BC prospects include the 15,219 acre War Eagle cobalt prospect and the 11,821 acre Purcell prospect. Cruz's USA projects include the 1,940 acre Chicken Hawk prospect in Montana and the 880 acre Idaho Star prospect.

Cruz management will be presenting at the annual PDAC Convention in Toronto, Canada. PDAC is regarded as the premier international event for the mineral industry and is one of the world's largest mining investment conventions for people, companies and organizations involved with mineral exploration. PDAC attracts over 1,000 exhibitors, 3,800 investors and 24,000 attendees from 130 countries. Please feel free to come speak directly to Cruz President James Nelson in booth 3044 March 4-5, 2018.

If you would like to be added to Cruz's email list please send an email to info@cruzcobaltcorp.com or twitter @CruzCobalt

James Nelson

President

604.899.9150

Toll free 1.855.599.9150

www.cruzcobaltcorp.com

twitter @CruzCobalt

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Global investors must adhere to regulations of each country. Please read Investorideas.com privacy policy: https://www.investorideas.com/About/Private_Policy.aspHow can anyone really be any more liberal than Diane Feinstein? I cannot see how anyone can really be left politically of her, unless they are radically left. San Francisco where she is from and had her career is far and away the most left wing city in the nation, a city so left it makes New York look conservative.



What has she done to make the party faithful mad at her?



I have mentioned this before, but there is something about being a US Senator to where people want to do the job until they die. Ms. Feinstien will be 85 years old this summer, and she wants another six year term? Why? My dad says people become Senators and stay u til the die because of the money. I guess I can see that, but how much more money do you need? Mitt Romney is 70 and wants to be a Senator? Mitt and Feinstien are again, already wealthy (and Mitt is super ass rich). Looking at you too McCain, who is over 80, has brain cancer, and doesn't need the money or the hassle. There is something fun about being a Senator. Maybe it's Taco Tuesdays in the Congressional Dining Hall.



My dad is 85 now and likes to work, and be active, but uh, guess what, he's fking 85 and now has the sleep schedule of a child. Wake up, do whatever, afternoon nap. Eat dinner, watch FOX (sort of like cartoons) loudly, in bed by 9:30. How can someone of that age do a job like being a Senator justice? Just asking, and although I don't think Senators do that much, it is a JOB, where you have to suit up and show up, kiss ass, shake hands, have meetings, fundraise for your party, events.



Diane, Mitt, McCain and other oldsters need to retire, enjoy the grandchildren, and sleep in front of the TV.This collection features the arguments in favor of and against the renaming of Catt Hall on Iowa State's campus, which was named in As a subscriber, you are shown 80% less display advertising when reading our articles.

Those ads you do see are predominantly from local businesses promoting local services.

These adverts enable local businesses to get in front of their target audience  the local community.

It is important that we continue to promote these adverts as our local businesses need as much support as possible during these challenging times.

CloseFocus on Lisa Netz, co-owner of The Lavish Loft

Submitted by Haleh Rabizadeh Resnick, Federation Business and Community Development Director For the Voice What was your path to South Jersey? I grew up in...

Focus on Peter Hecht Partner at Magna Legal Services

Tell me about your connection to the South Jersey Jewish Community? I actually grew up in East Brunswick, Exit 9 off the Turnpike. But weve...

Focus on Abigail Dahan: Owner of the Bake School

Tell me a bit about your life in South Jersey. I grew up in Cherry Hill. We moved here from Paris when I was six...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.Cody Cottier covers town and state government. He grew up with a view of the Olympic Mountains, and after graduating Washington State University he traded it for a view of the Tetons. Odds are the mountains are where youll find him when not on deadline.Mike has reported on the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem's wildlife, wildlands and the agencies that manage them since 2012. A native Minnesotan, he arrived in the West to study environmental journalism at the University of Colorado.Alliance convenes State of Wildlife release event

The Jackson Hole Conservation Alliance is hosting a State of Wildlife Report presentation, featuring authors Corinna Riginos and Frances Clark, at 6 p.m. today at the National Museum of Wildlife Art.

The event is open to the public, and light food and drinks will be provided.

The State of Wildlife report is dedicated to Addie and the late Ted Donnan, longtime Jackson Hole wildlife advocates. It was funded through the Alliance Research Fund.Deputy Editor

Melissa Cassutts job should come with a badge. Regrettably, it does not. She oversees Valley, Scene and special projects. She also writes features, mostly about people but often dogs. Send story tips and pet pictures.Allie Gross covers Teton County government. Originally from the Chicago area, she joined the News&Guide in 2017 after studying politics and Spanish at Vanderbilt University in Nashville.Bert Raynes writes weekly about whatever suits his fancy with a dash of news on nature. Contact him at columnists@jhnewsandguide.com.Paul Bruun writes every other week on his adventures and misadventures in the great outdoors. Contact him via columnists@jhnewsandguide.com.Letters to the editor should be limited to 400 words, be signed and include a town of residence a nd a telephone number for verification. Letters are due by 5 p.m. Monday. No thank yous or political endorsement letters. Guest Shot columns are limited to 800 words. Email editor@jhnewsandguide.com.Tori Fancher is passionate about people and the horses that help them.The European Commission on Wednesday released a draft agreement [text, PDF] for the UKs withdrawal from the EU.

An accompanying press release [text] credits the Commissions transparency policy for the drafts publication and highlights its main points. These include: the length of the transitional period, the status of goods already entered into the common market and the rights of citizens.

One of the most contentious issues still unresolved concerns the border between Northern Ireland, which is part of the UK, and the Republic of Ireland, which remains in the EU. Avoiding a hard border between the two entities on the island of Ireland is the main goal, but the current agreement contains only the fall-back, third-choice option advanced by the parties.

Now, the draft agreement will be submitted for review to the European Parliaments Brexit Steering Group, the European Council [official website] and other member states. Negotiations will recommence on the issues that remain unresolved. The UK is slated to exit the Union on March, 30, 2019.[JURIST] The US Supreme Court [official website] ruled [opinion, PDF] unanimously Tuesday in Merit Management Group v. FTI Consulting [SCOTUSblog materials], a case concerning bankruptcy courts power to recover fraudulent property transfers.

The matter originated with Merit Management Groups 30percent stake in a company called Bedford Downs Management Corporation, a company that attempted to obtain a harness-racing license in Pennsylvania in 2003. Valley View Downs, LP filed a competing application against Bedford shortly thereafter. Bedford and Valley subsequently reached an agreement that, if Valley secured the license, they would purchase all of Bedfords stock for $55 million. Valley obtained the license in 2007 and completed the purchase of Bedford. The purchase took place through Citizens Bank of Pennsylvania, who was made the escrow agent, Valley secured loans from multiple lenders to pay for the shares.

Shortly thereafter, Valley filed for bankruptcy and the court appointed FTI Consulting, Inc. as trustee of the litigation trust. FTI then brought this suit against Merit in an attempt to avoid or invalidate Merits portion of the purchase under a certain provision of the Bankruptcy Code that provides safe harbor for transfers made by or to financial institutions such as Citizens Bank of Pennsylvania. Merit responded by asserting that while the sale transaction was technically a transfer made to a financial institution, that institution was merely the conduit for a transaction between Merit and Valley.

In siding with Merit, the court stated that it made no difference that the transaction, on paper, was in fact two transactions, one between Valley and Citizens Bank and another between Citizens Bank and Merit. The only relevant transaction, the court stated, was the transaction FTI sought to avoidthe transaction between Valley and Merit. Because the true transaction at issue is that between Valley and Merit and the parties do not contend that either Valley View of Merit is a financial institution or other covered entity, the transfer falls outside of the [safe harbor provisions].

Prior to the ruling, the Seventh and Eleventh Circuits applied the interpretation ultimately reached by the Supreme Court while the Second, Third, Sixth, Eight and Tenth Circuits interpretations would have considered the transfer from Valley to Citizens Bank an avoidable transaction to a financial institution.UCOM prolongs the unlimited internet offer for the level up 4700 and level up 5500 subscribers

Ucom employees received recognition for their services to the homeland

Karen Vardanyan has allocated 105 million AMD to rescue the Yerevan Botanical Garden.

"The Power of One Dram" to overcome childhood cancer

Generation A 13  your chance to be the change

President of the Artsakh Republic Arayik Harutyunyan met with Russian Co-Chair of the OSCE Minsk Group Igor Khovayev

"uDays" special offer at Ucom: discounts for all smartphones and accessories for 2 days only

For more than 3 hours, 50 or more Azerbaijani servicemen have blocked the interstate road

Call on the international community for an adequate response against azerbaijani aggresssion

Transformation and trust are important for success in modern banking. Artak Hanesyan

UCOMS LEVEL UP 1700 REGIONAL TARIFF PLAN USERS TO RECEIVE MORE THAN THOSE IN YEREVAN

Joint statement

Statement by the Co-Chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group

Covid-19: 163 new cases in Armenia

Armenia: Remarks by Commissioner Oliver Varhelyi at the press point with Acting Deputy Prime Minister Mher Grigoryan

The United States Welcomes Azerbaijans Release of Armenian Detainees and Armenias Actions to Facilitate Demining

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The Coronavirus-Related Situation in Armenia

International aviation: Council greenlights signing of major agreements with four countries

With UCOMs level up tariff plans subscribers have unlimited access to Netflix, Duolingo and Zoom

Armenia: Statement by the Spokesperson on the early parliamentary elections

Armenias Parliamentary Elections PRESS STATEMENT

COVID19:77 new cases

Armenias early parliamentary elections were competitive and well run, but polarized and marred by aggressive rhetoric, international observers say

International election observers to Armenias early parliamentary elections held press conference

Drop Charges Against Rights Defender Sashik Sultanyan

The Coronavirus-Related Situation in Armenia

The European Union in Armenia calls all parties to contribute to a peaceful Election Day to celebrate democracy

22 ventilators to Armenia

PACE to observe the early parliamentary elections in ArmeniaMember of Founding Parliament to continue fight after spending 1 year in imprisonment, (video)

Even after being in prison for a year, member of the Founding Parliament Armen Mikaelyan is not going to give up the fight. "If there is a demand for freedom within a person, he cannot refuse it, that is, the struggle continues. One year in the prison gave me inner peace. Naturally, arrest and deprivation of liberty for one year was related to my political activities," Armen Mikaelyan told A1 +. Armen Mikaelyan was detained on the night of June 26, 2016, after attending a rally after the seizure of Yerevan hostage crisis. When the Khorenatsi street rally was over, people in civilian clothes put him in the car and took him to the Police. A weapon was found during the search. "They put their weapons on my waist, and then they took it off. Without a fact, I was sentenced. I do not address small issues yet. " Armen Mikaelyan's relatives also testified at the court and mentioned that he had no weapons. However, the Court did not consider their testimony credible. Immediately after the verdict published on March 17, 2017, Armen Mikaelyan was detained. "They were parliamentary elections on April 2, I think this was connected with the elections." Armen Mikaelyan may apply to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) after consultation with the advocates.TALENT, Ore.  After responding to a reported threat of school violence at Talent Middle School, police were able to track down and address two separate threats in both Talent and Phoenix. Students at Talent Middle School were able to aid investigators in both instances.

The first threat originated on February 23, and brought police to Talent Middle School on February 27, 2018, according to a statement from Talent Police. Students made school officials aware of the threat, and officials contacted the police. The threat itself mentioned a possible school shooting.

Phoenix Police were aiding in the investigation of this threat, when they were approached by a group of Talent Middle School students. The students made police aware of another, separate threat, this one originating in Phoenix. There were concerning posts on social media, indicating another possibility for a school shooting at Talent Middle School.

As Talent Police continued to investigate at Talent Middle School, Phoenix Police pursued the lead about a threat from Phoenix. Phoenix Police arrested a 13 year-old juvenile, whose name will not be released. The juvenile has been charged with Disorderly Conduct and has been transported to the Jackson County Juvenile Detention Center.

Neither threat was found to be credible, as no weapons were discovered. A Talent Police statement did not say whether anyone was taken into police custody for the threat that originated in Talent, just that there is "no longer a concern at the school regarding this incident."

The statement from Phoenix Police thanked students for their proactive efforts in identifying and notifying authorities of the two possible threats. They also asked parents to closely monitor their childrens' social media activity, in case anything alarming should show up.Transgender Woman in Intensive Care After Brutal Beating

A transgender woman was left hospitalised after being brutally beaten up in her Yerevan apartment on Tuesday night, Lilit Martirosyan, the head of the Yerevan-based Right Side NGO that focuses on transgender issues, told Epress.am. The victim, who wishes to remain anonymous, is now in the intensive care unit of a Yerevan hospital. She was attacked by one person, who then also set her apartment on fire. Her face and ribs are completely shattered; doctors describe her condition as critical, Martirosyan said, adding that their organization has filed a crime report with the police. The identity of the perpetrator is known; he is not on the run. The police are now preparing materials, Vahe Manukyan, a lawyer with Right Side, told us. He added that investigators have yet to interrogate the victim since she is still unable to speak.Muhammad Ali was arrested earlier this month after security forces attacked a peaceful anti-regime protest marking the seventh anniversary of Bahrains popular uprising. In the process, he was shot in the leg with shotgun pellets.



(AhlulBayt News Agency) - The family of a Bahraini detainee Muhammad Ali is demanding that immediate medical treatment be provided to their loved one.



Muhammad Ali was arrested earlier this month after security forces attacked a peaceful anti-regime protest marking the seventh anniversary of Bahrains popular uprising. In the process, he was shot in the leg with shotgun pellets.



Following repeated attempts to gain access to him, Muhammad Alis family say they were left horrified after a brief visit to Bahrains Dry Dock Detention Center.



They explained that the young man was extremely frail and had not received the desperately needed medical attention.



Conditions in Bahrains detention facilities are often described as being intolerable with widespread allegations of systematic abuse and harassment.







/257FILE--In this Sept. 12, 2016, file p photo, Hiroshi Konishi, foreground, walks out of the ocean after surfing as other surfers wait for waves in Malibu, Calif. The picturesque California beachside city of Malibu has banned banned single-use plastic straws, stirrers and cutlery. The City Council voted Monday, Feb. 26, 2018, to approve an ordinance prohibiting the sale, distribution and use of the plastic items starting June 1. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong, file)Finance Minister Bill Morneau gets an ovation as he arrives in the House of Commons prior to tabling the federal budget in Ottawa on Tuesday, Feb.27, 2017. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean KilpatrickThe Arbaeen Association of Europe plans to hold the first international photo and film exhibition on Arbaeen (the 40th day after Ashura) in Leiden, the Netherlands.

(AhlulBayt News Agency) - The Arbaeen Association of Europe plans to hold the first international photo and film exhibition on Arbaeen (the 40th day after Ashura) in Leiden, the Netherlands.



Alireza Rajabi, head of the association, said that the exhibition will host visitors on April 7 from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. local time.



He expressed hope that the exhibition will be widely covered by the media.



Rajabi stressed that the members of the association are trying to get the permission for holding the exhibition in other cities of the country as well.



Each year, a huge crowd of Shia Muslims march toward Karbala, where the holy shrine of Imam Hussein is located, to perform mourning rites marking Arbaeen.



Arbaeen is the 40th day after Ashura, the anniversary of the martyrdom of Imam Hussein (A) and his faithful companions in the 680AD Battle of Karbala.



In the past few years, the number of pilgrims taking part in the Arbaeen march in Iraq is estimated to have been more than 20 million.









/129Accused serial killer Bruce McArthur made a brief appearance in a Toronto court Wednesday where his case was put over for another two weeks. Bruce McArthur, of Toronto, is shown in this image posted to his social media page. Multiple media outlets report that Toronto police had interviewed and released an alleged serial killer years before he was arrested. THE CANADIAN PRESS/HO-Facebook *MANDATORY CREDIT*A pilot taxis an Air Canada Airbus A320-200 to a gate after arriving at Vancouver International Airport in Richmond, B.C., on Monday February 3, 2014. Parents of young children and a national Muslim group are welcoming a federal budget commitment to address fairness and privacy concerns with Canada's no-fly list. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl DyckFILE - This Oct. 26, 2017 file photo shows prototypes of border walls in San Diego. A federal judge in San Diego who was taunted by Donald Trump during the presidential campaign has sided with the president on a challenge to building a border wall with Mexico. U.S. District Judge Gonzalo Curiel on Tuesday, Feb. 27, 2018 rejected arguments by the state of California and advocacy groups that the administration overreached by waiving laws requiring environmental and other reviews before construction could begin. (AP Photo/Elliott Spagat, File)Speaking on Wednesday in Bandar Abbas' Takhti Stadium, President Hassan Rouhani said: "We have been and will be- a good neighbour four the countries of the Persian Gulf littoral".



(AhlulBayt News Agency) - President Rouhani stated that Iran demands peace and security in the region, stressing: "All countries of the region can think of a great union for economy, energy and tourism by relying on the power and peace seeking of the Iranian nation".



Speaking on Wednesday in Bandar Abbas' Takhti Stadium, President Hassan Rouhani said: "We have been and will be- a good neighbour four the countries of the Persian Gulf littoral".



Stating that enemies are only worried about their own interests, buying cheap oil and selling expensive weapons, he said: "Iran is a security-building element in the region and the world and we don't need foreigners for establishing security in the region, but we are ready to discuss security with our neighbours and friends".



"The great civilization of Iran was founded along the Oman Sea and the Persian Gulf," said the President of the Islamic Republic of Iran.



He also added: "In addition to Iran, the people of this strait have the right to provide security and energy on the highway of the world economy".



"You have always guarded the Persian Gulf, the Oman Sea and the Strait of Hormuz," said the president addressing the people of Hormozgan province.



He also went on to say: "The navy forces of the Army of the Islamic Republic of Iran and the Army of the Guardians of the Islamic Revolution provided security for oil and economy of Iran and the region in the Persian Gulf and beyond the Oman Sea".



Dr Rouhani added: "We want peace and security, as long as nobody thinks of plotting against the Iranian nation".



Stating that "we have been and will be- a good neighbour four the countries of the Persian Gulf littoral", he continued: "We do not need foreigners for the security of the region".



He also went on to say: "The United States has repeatedly sought to undermine the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) and work against the Iranian nation, but it was left in global isolation".



"We live up to our commitments if the other party does not break the treaty," he said, adding: "The United States wanted to abuse some people's protest and it remained alone in UN Security Council; two nights ago, in condemning Iran for the Yemeni issue, it once again remained alone".



The President of the Islamic Republic of Iran also said: "We appreciated the stances of Russia and other countries in the United Nations, and we denounce the United States and Britain for plotting against the Iranian people".



"If you are really thinking about the Yemenis, do not give Saudi Arabia the napalm bombs," he continued".



President Rouhani also said: "We want to build Iran with the hands of the Iranian nation and will do it; we will overcome obstacles together with the people".



"Employment in Hormozgan province and the country has grown and this route will continue," said Rouhani adding: "During this visit, 15 important projects worth 4 trillion tomans will be opened in the province".



He also said: "1,830 projects have been implemented by the government to meet the health needs of the people of the province in cities and villages".



"A hospital equipped with 531 beds will be constructed in Bandar Abbas," he added, saying: "We guarantee everyone who invests in the treatment of sewage in the province to purchase the obtained water".



Stating that "the sewage should not pour into the sea," the President continued: "Hormozgan is one of the leading provinces in modern irrigation systems".



"In the next 3 years, we will construct 36,000 hectares of new irrigation projects in Hormozgan province," he added.



We have plans for 300 hectares of greenhouse in the province, he said, adding: "The second phase of Setareh Khalij-e Fars Gas Condensates Refinery will be opened by next spring".



"36 million litres of petrol, 14 million litres of diesel and 3 million litres of airplane fuel will be produced in Hormozgan province soon," continued Rouhani stating that "all old lorries will be replaced in the 12th Government".



He also went on to say that "the second phase of Bandar Abbas's great pier will be opened in this visit," adding: "Projects in Hormozgan province has grown by 158 percent in the 11th Government and the national projects in the province have been doubled".



The President of the Islamic Republic of Iran continued: "Hormozgan province is the province of energy, steel and tourism and is house to brave, lively people".







/257Iranian President Hassan Rouhani and Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani sent two separate messages to an event in Tehran hailing the selfless efforts of Major General Qassem Soleimani, the Commander of IRGC Quds Force in the war against ISIL in Iraq and Syria.

(AhlulBayt News Agency) - Iranian President Hassan Rouhani and Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani sent two separate messages to an event in Tehran hailing the selfless efforts of Major General Qassem Soleimani, the Commander of IRGC Quds Force in the war against ISIL in Iraq and Syria.



Forwarding a message of appreciation to a meeting organized to honor the efforts of Major General Qassem Soleimani, the Commander of IRGC Quds Force, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani expressed gratitude for all the efforts of the Quds Force commander in preserving stability in the region and fighting terrorism in neighboring countries.



The event was held on Tuesday afternoon at Ferdowsi Hall of Literature Faculty of Tehran University.



He hailed the Generals role in eradicating the accursed tree of ISIL in Iraq and Syria as a big service to whole humanity and all of the nations of the region.



In another message to the same event, Ali Larijani, the Speaker of the Iranian Parliament, hailed Major General Soleimani for his selfless devotion to the causes of the Islamic Republic of Iran. The selflessness Major General Soleimani has been of strategic value for the present and the future of our country, reads Larijanis message.









/129Berikut beberapa tips bermain togel singapore.. Jika Anda adalah pemain lotre pertama yang menemukan trik untuk melakukan lotre di Singapura, berikut adalah beberapa trik paling populer. Karena ada bandar taruhan online, bermain game lotere jauh lebih berpengalaman. Taruhan taruhan online adalah layanan perjudian virtual.

Bermain permainan togel melalui layanan taruhan online memiliki banyak fitur. Ini dimulai dengan mudah, nyaman, mudah, nyaman, dan nyaman. Jadi, pemain Indonesia sekarang bermain lotere secara online.

Anda dapat mendengar suara bermain lotere dengan kontrak online. Yang harus Anda lakukan adalah mendaftar dan setoran Anda akan dimulai. Tentu saja, dalam proses yang sederhana dan mengganggu, Anda dapat langsung menggandakan dana Anda dalam taruhan lotere dengan taruhan online.

Dengan sistem taruhan online. Kenyamanan berarti dalam hal ini, tetapi tidak ada hubungannya dengan kenyamanan. Meskipun demikian, gamer dapat melakukan hal-hal lain seperti lelucon untuk ditangani.

Trik bertaruh Togel Singapura menggunakan teknik diversifikasi taruhan

Tentunya, inilah impian setiap pemain lotere di dunia. Untuk menggunakan permainan lotere online ini, Anda harus mahir dalam lotere. Salah satu teknik yang dapat digunakan adalah penggunaan teknik diversifikasi taruhan.

Diversifikasi taruhan berarti Anda telah terdaftar untuk berbagai jenis taruhan. Alasan menelepon adalah karena jenis perjudian ini memengaruhi peluang Anda untuk menang. Apakah ada peluang kehilangan semua modal Anda saat bermain lotere dengan bandar taruhan online?

Trik lotere Singapura untuk menunda diversifikasi taruhan juga sangat sederhana. Misalnya, Anda sudah menjadi anggota taruhan online dan Anda memiliki saldo 100.000 di akun perjudian online Anda. Dengan modal yang Anda pegang, Anda bisa membaginya menjadi beberapa jenis taruhan.

Pada musim gugur, dia bermain di pasar lotere Singapura. Musim gugur ini, permainan lotere online menawarkan satu atau dua suguhan steak besar. Misalnya, saya pernah mendengar taruhan dalam kategori umum, yang menempati urutan kedua di pasar lotere Singapura.

Saya tidak mengelola semua ibu kota dalam 2d musim gugur ini. Karena ini adalah taruhan utama, Anda bisa kehilangan setengah dari jumlah taruhan Anda di Jenis Taruhan 2d Lotere Singapura. Bandar judi lotere online memungkinkan Anda untuk memasang taruhan yang sama pada jenis taruhan yang berbeda.

Maksimalkan keuntungan Anda dengan memilih taruhan yang tepat

Anda dapat mendengar tentang taruhan tertentu melalui Trik Lotere Singapura di atas. Bahkan jika Anda tidak beruntung, kemungkinan kehilangan semua modal Anda dijual. Jadi teknik ini bekerja dengan sangat baik saat bermain game online.

Teknik ini juga harus digunakan oleh bandar taruhan online yang baik. Bahkan jika Anda bermain lotere online di Singapura, pastikan Anda mendapatkan layanan taruhan terbaik. Jangan tertipu oleh bandar judi lotere online atau bandar judi lotere online yang tidak memenuhi syarat.

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Police said Christopher Adam Strahan, 22, sent several threatening tweets under the username @hardbellydorm saying "I'll kill every single person in this facility you're all DEAD."

They said Strahan also sent another tweet referencing the Thurston High School shooting in Springfield and the recent school shooting in Florida.





Strahan was arrested outside a home in Corvallis around 2:30 p.m. Tuesday. He was booked into the Benton County Jail on a disorderly conduct charge. His bail is set at $12,500.

Court documents show Strahan was previously accused of threatening to shoot people at Oregon State University in February 2017. A menacing charge was dropped, but he was convicted of disorderly conduct and ordered not to have contact with the university or have firearms.

Oregon State University officials said when they became aware of the situation they immediately urged students, staff and faculty to be mindful of their safety. The campus was never evacuated.

"We have to assume every matter is real and we're taking it very seriously," said university spokesperson Steve Clark.

Our public safety officials are aware of recent concerning tweets and are investigating. As always, we encourage students and the Oregon State community to report any safety concerns to OSU Public Safety at 541-737-7000.  Oregon State University (@OregonState) February 27, 2018

Anyone who has information the about the tweets is asked to call OSU Public Safety at 541-737-7000.

PORTLAND, Ore. (KGW) - Extras are wanted for a 'Pretty Little Liars' spin-off show that will be shooting in Portland and Forest Grove.

The show is called "The Perfectionists" and will be set in the fictional town of Beacon Heights.

The show will be shot near the Lewis and Clark College in Portland and Forest Grove's Pacific University.

Filming will be on weekdays from March 12 - 30 and extras will be paid $11.25 per hour.

You can find more information along with an application here.SPRINGFIELD, Ore. -- A gun store is offering free concealed handgun training to teachers and school administrators.

In a Facebook post, Donnie Myers, the owner of 295 Tactical in Springfield, said they are offering the Oregon Concealed Handgun class to teach school administrators how to use handguns and respond to a school emergency.

Meyers said the issue of school safety is personal to him. In 1998, he responded to the Thurston High School shooting that left two people dead and 25 injured. After the recent school shooting in Florida, he said he wants to take action.

"So we put something in the hands of the teachers where they can defend themselves and they can keep not only themselves but their kids safe, Myers said.

Although, that raises concerns for others in the community. Anne Goff, the President of the Springfield Education Association, said guns dont belong in schools.

It is emotional, I was in the district when the Thurston shooting happened, not at Thurston but in the district down the street at Riverbend, Goff said. Every time there is a shooting we go back to that, and we need to do things to prevent this. We need to do things to keep students safe, but arming teachers is not the answer.

She said they should focus on providing more mental health professionals and counselors in the school, as well as implementing additional safety measures.

The teachers that I have talked to, the teachers that I have communicated with uniformly have said 'I have done things I sometimes don't think are a good idea or I have done things I might disagree with, but if you ask me to carry a gun, that is the day I will quit', Goff said.

Myers said he is offering the class in hopes it can save one life.

This may not be the overall solution, but if it helps just save one kid, one teacher, avoid one shooting, it's worth it, Myers said.

Many districts including Eugenes 4J, Bethel and Springfield do not allow teachers to carry handguns in the classroom.

If interested contact 295 Tactical at (541) 393-6878.CORVALLIS, Ore. - Following a threat of violence via multiple tweets, students at Oregon State University are feeling frustrated and disturbed by the threats, but overall they feel safe.

"I went and tried to see if I could find what the tweets actually were. And it was pretty disturbing what was actually there," said Zachary Morello, a freshman at OSU.

READ MORE: Police arrest man accused of threatening OSU

Staff with OSU said upon learning about the threats, they immediately warned students and staff to take the proper measures for their own safety. And police arrested the man, 22-year-old Christopher Strahan, within a day.

READ MORE: Police arrest man accused of threatening OSU

Students said they were happy with the measures taken by both administration and authorities. They said the efficient response and outreach made them feel at ease in a situation where they naturally felt scared.

Students said they were frustrated by the fact that things like this keep happening, and they don't see it changing anytime soon.

"But I feel like there's really nothing going to be done about it. I don't think that our country is going to do much about it and that's really upsetting to me," said Emily Sackinger, a graduate student at OSU.HEALTH ALERT (CNN) -- Apple is looking to hire doctors to serve its employees. The tech company is planning to open AC Wellness Clinics.

Apple has about 123,000 employees worldwide, including 84,000 in the United States. The company has already posted jobs for medical professionals, including primary care physicians, acute care physicians, and nurse practitioners.

According to the job listings, the AC Wellness employees will work near Apple's California headquarters in Cupertino. According to Apple, AC Wellness is coming in the Spring.ALBANY, Ore. -- Three men from California are facing charges in Oregon after police said they robbed a store in Albany, and committed other crimes in Salem.



Police said three suspects went into the Go Wireless store in Albany, displayed two guns, and forced an employee to open the safe. They reportedly stole several large bags of undisclosed property before taking off.

Related stories: Three men investigated in Albany robbery case

All three suspects reportedly had their faces covered.

READ MORE: Three men investigated in Albany robbery case

Police said some of the stolen property was equipped with GPS tracker. They were able to track the suspects who headed northbound on I-5. Oregon State Police were notified and found their getaway car on the 3800 block of NE Iberis in Salem. They said the suspects had abandoned it.

One suspect, Christopher Rodriguez, was found in the area near the abandoned Nissan Altima. Police said the 33-year-old was taken to the hospital for a possible overdose. He faces charges of unlawful possession of heroin, giving false information to police, and a California warrant.

Meanwhile, police set up a perimeter. They said two other suspects broke into a home within the perimeter but later fled. Vitaliy Derkach, 27, and Yuriy Mishchuk, 32, were later found and arrested. They face charges of robbery, kidnapping, burglary, unlawful use of a weapon, and coercion.

Troopers said all three men are from Sacramento, California.

Police served a search warrant on the Nissan and a Toyota Prius. Police said the Toyota was stolen out of Sacramento and was found on SE Davidson Street in Albany.1 of 4

Know what is accidental drowning!



The World Health Organisation (WHO) in 2005 defined drowning as 'the process of experiencing respiratory impairment from submersion/immersion in liquid. There may be dry (drowning in which no water enters the lungs), wet (drowning in which water enters the lungs), or 'near' drowning, depending upon whether some water is inhaled into the lungs. However, there is no clinical difference in how the victim is treated or whether the final outcome is good or bad. The term 'near' drowning is used to refer to a victim who did not die, however, this term is no longer widely used.



Experts say drowning can happen quickly and quietly anyplace where there is water - such as bathtubs, swimming pools etc, apart from natural reserves and sources of water such as rivers, ponds, and the ocean. According to a report in the Telegraph, in 2012, Japan's health ministry had launched an investigation after it was estimated that 14,000 people died every year in the tub. In America, someone drowns in a bathtub - hot tub or spa - almost every day, and the deaths occur proportionately in Western states, as per a report in the Seattlepi. The report added that these victims are often drunk or take drugs while soaking in hot water. Read More...

ROCHESTER, Minn.  A second suspect in a brutal attack at GameStop that left a man seriously injured has been taken into custody.

Rochester police say 19-year-old Ali Robida, of Rochester, was located Monday in St. Paul after learning he pawned off some of the stolen items from GameStop in the Duluth area. After looking for Robida in Duluth, several investigators went to St. Paul and did surveillance on a house in the 1500 block of Western Ave. N.

At around 1 p.m. Monday, they found Robida in the passenger seat of a car. He is facing charges of first-degree assault, first-degree aggravated robbery and second-degree assault with a deadly weapon.

Rochester police say Robida sent a message over the weekend to the K9 (non-profit) Foundation that police were looking for the wrong guy and that he was eating tacos with his family in south Rochester at the time of the attack.

Police say Robida wasnt the person who hit the employee with a hammer but he was the one wearing a mask and directing the robbery.

Jacob Meier, 18, was arrested last week in connection to the robbery.MASON CITY, Iowa  The man accused of video recording people in a school bathroom is pleading not guilty.

David Joe Bemis, 46, of Mason City has entered that plea to four counts of invasion of privacy. Authorities say that while working at Clear Creek Elementary School in May 2013, Bemis placed a hidden video camera in a staff restroom and recorded four school employees in states of partial nudity. Law enforcement says the video was found on a computer in Bemis home.

He has waived his preliminary hearing and an arraignment date in this case has not yet been set.NORA SPRINGS, Iowa  A Nora Springs man has been sentenced to 10 years in federal prison for conspiring to distribute methamphetamine.

Delbert Raymond Lane, 40, admitted his involvement to distribute meth in north central Iowa between 2014 and April of 2017.

Authorities say Lane was receiving large amounts of meth before breaking it down and selling it in smaller quantities.

In August of 2016, Lane sold an eighth of an ounce to a confidential informant in Mason City. On Nov. 23, 2016, Lane was in possession of 43 grams of meth.

Lane was sentenced in Cedar Rapids and sentenced to 120 months in prison and must serve a 5-year-term of supervised release after being released.FOREST CITY, Iowa  Crews will be refinishing the council desk and beams, which have artwork on them, as well as replacing all the carpet in the council chamber at Forest City City Hall after a frozen drain pipe burst and filled the room with about three inches of water.

An employee discovered the flooding around 3 p.m. on Feb. 19.

The chamber will be closed for two to three months until repairs are complete, according to the city manager. In the meantime, city council meetings will be held at the Forest City police station.EAGLE GROVE, Iowa (AP)  Authorities say a house fire in north-central Iowa killed one person and injured another.

Eagle Grove Fire Chief Tom Peterson told The Messenger that three people were in the Eagle Grove home when the blaze erupted around 9:30 p.m. Monday. He says two of them made it out  one uninjured and one later taken to an Iowa City hospital. Firefighters found the third resident's body as they knocked down flames.

Peterson says an electrical fire in the kitchen spread through the rear of the structure.

The Messenger reported the fire happened at 222 Commercial Ave. S., according to Peterson.WASHINGTON (AP) - The White House says talks will continue on a dispute over the future of the renewable fuel standard, which has pitted lawmakers from corn-producing states against those representing refineries.

White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders says President Donald Trump had a productive meeting Tuesday with four Republican senators: Ted Cruz of Texas, Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania and Charles Grassley and Joni Ernst of Iowa.

The White House says Trump has made clear his commitment to the RFS and support for farmers and energy workers.

The standard requires biofuels from corn and soybeans to be blended into gasoline and diesel. Midwest states have sought to maintain the standards while oil companies have pushed to ease the mandates.

Grassley says in a conference call with reporters that no deal was reached Tuesday.MASON CITY, Iowa - There's more than just corn, wind farms and the first Presidential caucuses in the country.

According to a study released by U.S. News and World Report on Tuesday, Iowa is ranked #1 as the best state in the United States.

What helped push the state to the top spot was its efforts regarding infrastructure, which includes ultra-fast internet access (which Iowa leads the country in), along with health care (No. 3), opportunity (No. 4), education (No. 5) and quality of life (No. 9).

Mason City resident Les Weitzel agrees that the Hawkeye State is the best state, but believes the ranking for quality of life is a bit low.

"I've lived here all of my life, and I really like it. I think they're higher than 9th, but if that's what they say, I agree with it," Weitzel says.

Marie Lewis, who is visiting the state on business from Wisconsin, sees why Iowa is ranked #1.

"The people here are really nice. The area looks really clean, which I like, and there's a lot to see and do," Lewis says.

However, Iowa is somewhat middle of the pack in terms of their economy, where the state is ranked #17, as well as fiscal stability (No. 21), which Wietzel and Lewis agree that more should be done to improve these statuses.

"I think that we should get more small businesses here. That would be great," Wietzel says.

Lewis thinks this should be taken a step further.

"They need to start thinking about people instead of corporations that want to run the show. We need to get back to basics so that we can all be comfortable and safe in our homes. It's time for them to stop playing politics and start thinking about people in general," Lewis says.

Minnesota, on the other hand, is ranked #2 on the list.

While the North Star State is ranked higher than Iowa for quality of life and opportunity, Minnesota's rankings were lower for education and economy.

Louisiana is ranked #50 overall on the list.DES MOINES, Iowa (AP)  The Iowa Senate has approved a bill that would ban automated traffic enforcement cameras in the state, though the measure's future is unclear.

The Republican-controlled chamber voted 32-18 Tuesday for the legislation, which would prohibit devices tracking vehicles that speed or run a red light.

The measure heads to the GOP-majority House, where leadership hasn't commented on its chances. A separate bill in the Legislature would instead add regulations for such cameras.

The nonpartisan Legislative Services Agency says eight cities operate about 80 related devices. A ban would reduce revenue for local governments by about $12 million annually.

The Legislature has considered a ban for years. The state's transportation department faced legal challenges recently for ordering cities to remove some cameras. The Iowa Supreme Court sided with the state last year.ROCHESTER, Minn.  A man crashed into a snow bank during a police chase before exiting and leading authorities on a foot chase Tuesday afternoon.

Rochester authorities say 23-year-old Devante Jones, of Rochester, was driving a 2006 Infiniti when a trooper attempted to pull it over for illegal window tint at 11th Ave. and Center St.

Authorities say Jones fled at a high rate of speed and crashed into the snow bank in the 1700 block of 11th Ave.

Around six minutes after the crash, Jones was taken into custody on foot in the 1000 block of 13th Ave. SE by Rochester police. Jones is facing charges for felony fleeing in a motor vehicle, fleeing on foot, driving after revocation and reckless driving.OTTUMWA, Iowa (AP)  Police in southeastern Iowa say two people have died in a crash that began with the theft of a pizza delivery car in Ottumwa.

The Ottumwa Courier reports that the crash happened Monday night after a 21-year-old man delivering pizza was assaulted and his delivery car stolen. He was treated at a hospital for a cut to his face.

Police say shortly after the assault, the car was involved in a crash with another vehicle on Highway 34.

The Iowa State Patrol says 28-year-old Nathaniel Wesley Stroud, of Centerville, was driving the stolen vehicle and was speeding and going the wrong way on the highway when he crashed into a vehicle driven by 34-year-old Summer Leanne Cox, of Allerton. Both Stroud and Cox died at the scene.ROCHESTER, Minn. - The high school graduation rate is highest on record for the state of Minnesota.

That's with 82.7 percent of students graduating in 2017. Rochester Public Schools had an even higher percentage than the state as a whole with a graduation rate of 85.8 percent in 2017.

Janice Pascoe's son is an elementary student at Rochester Public Schools. When looking at graduation rates, she expects them to be high.

"I would've expected them to be even higher," Pascoe said, "but I see we're better than Minnesota rates so that's good."

Even though Rochester Public Schools' graduation rate is higher than Minnesota's, it slightly dipped from 2016.

Pascoe said the quality of her son's education is something she thinks about often.

"My biggest concern is," Pascoe said, "can we maintain that and grow that as the population grows?"

Her concern with growth stems from her son's class size.

"So right now there's 30 kids in my son's classroom which seems like an enormous class," Pascoe said. "If we get higher and higher numbers, it's gonna really be tough to get these kids some quality education."

Superintendent Michael Munoz said it's a concern the district looks closely at.

"We've really focused as a district that we really need to personalize what we do," Munoz said, "and really know your kids and know what they need to be successful."

A growing number of students may have to mean a growing number of staff in the future.

"I think we've grown a little over 2,000 students since I came back in 2011," Munoz said, "and with more kids, you get more state funding so that helps with the need to increase staff."

Pascoe is hopeful they can keep up the quality of education in the wake of anticipated growing class sizes.

"It's a challenge that we face, just like all the other big cities," Pascoe said. "We're getting to be a bigger city and I think that's going to be something we have to think about." Minnesota's High School Graduation Rate Report looks at graduation rate growth between 2012 and 2017.

In that time, Rochester's rate increased by nearly three percent. Albert Lea is seeing a graduation rate increase of more than 13 percent, up from just 67 percent in 2012. Austin's graduation rate actually decreased by nearly five percent during the five-year span.MASON CITY, Iowa - Organizers say they're on track to raise thousands of dollars for the Hawkeye Harvest Food Bank through their annual 'Grab and Give' grocery event.

28 teams of at least three people raced through the aisles of Hy-Vee West in Mason City Tuesday morning, with a 5-minute time limit to grab as many groceries as they could that total close to $250. However, teams were only allowed to use mental math to calculate the worth of their groceries.

Now in their 6th year, organizer Linda Anderegg from the Cerro Gordo County Farm Bureau says the event brings out the excitement each and every time.

"It's a great time. When we ask businesses if they'll compete again for the next year or join us, they're always ready to go. It's like 'yeah, we'll be a team.' So we're happy about that," Anderegg says.

Chris Jessen, who was part of the Heartland Asphalt team, says that while there is a race against time, it's still a fun time had by all, and plans on racing again next year.

"You get to see a lot of other people from the community, and a lot of other businesses. It's people you see around town, so it's good to get a little friendly competition," Jessen says.

The event has continually grown in both attendance and donations; in its first year, 7 teams participated and raised over $1,000, and last year, 23 teams participated and over $6,000 was raised.Solar energy and future storage systems: The next event KIT at the City Hall will cover energy research at KIT. (Photo: Tanja Meiner, KIT)

How can energy-efficient applications be supported, which technologies are needed, and how can we accomplish the energy transition sustainably and thoroughly? On Wednesday, January 31, 2018, 6.30 p.m., scientists of the KIT Energy Center will present new technologies for future energy supply at the city call in Karlsruhe.

[]

For further information, click: www.zak.kit.edu/kit_im_rathaus (in German only)

Being The Research University in the Helmholtz Association, KIT creates and imparts knowledge for the society and the environment. It is the objective to make significant contributions to the global challenges in the fields of energy, mobility, and information. For this, about 9,600 employees cooperate in a broad range of disciplines in natural sciences, engineering sciences, economics, and the humanities and social sciences. KIT prepares its 23,300 students for responsible tasks in society, industry, and science by offering research-based study programs. Innovation efforts at KIT build a bridge between important scientific findings and their application for the benefit of society, economic prosperity, and the preservation of our natural basis of life. KIT is one of the German universities of excellence.BEIJING, Feb 28 (Reuters) -

* China has lifted a ban on imports of wheat from two more regions in Russia, according to an announcement by the country's quality watchdog

* The ban was lifted for supplies of wheat from Russia's Amur and Chelyabinsk regions, the General Administration for Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine said in a statement on Saturday

* China in 2016 opened its market to wheat from four regions in Russia, the Novosibirsk and Omsk regions, as well as the Krasnoyarsk and Altai Territories

* China bought 17,966 tonnes of wheat from Russia in 2017, accounting for 0.4 percent of its total imports, according to customs data

(Reporting by Hallie Gu and Dominique Patton; editing by Richard Pullin)SINGAPORE, Feb 28 (Reuters) - Pacific Radiance , a debt-laden operator of offshore vessels, said trading in its shares was suspended as the company continued discussions with major creditors and potential investors on the terms of its debt restructuring. Earlier this week, the company's bondholders rejected its proposed terms to restructure its S$100 million note. The company's bank loans and notes payable totaled $525.9 million as of September 2017.

(Reporting by Aradhana Aravindan Editing by Stephen Coates)

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and may not reflect those of Kitco Metals Inc. The author has made every effort to ensure accuracy of information provided; however, neither Kitco Metals Inc. nor the author can guarantee such accuracy. This article is strictly for informational purposes only. It is not a solicitation to make any exchange in commodities, securities or other financial instruments. Kitco Metals Inc. and the author of this article do not accept culpability for losses and/ or damages arising from the use of this publication.HANOI, Feb 28 (Reuters) - Here's a snapshot of Vietnamese dong exchange rates in the official and unofficial markets, indicative SJC gold prices in Hanoi and interbank offered rates at 0411 GMT.

February 28 USD/VND mid-point 22,463 USD/VND interbank 22,756/22,758 USD/VND unofficial 22,760/22,780 SJC gold (mln dong/tael) 36.59/36.77

Interbank offered rates Overnight 0.8-1.4

1 week 1.1-1.6

1 month 2.2-3.3

3 months 2.9-4.0

NOTES: As of Jan. 4, 2016 the State Bank of Vietnam has begun setting the mid-point rate on daily basis, allowing dollar/dong transactions to move in a band of +/- 3 percent around the mid point. The dong's exchange rate against other currencies is not restricted by a band. Interbank offered rates are the latest indicative bid/ask prices, quoted from market sources.

One tael is equivalent to 37.5 grams or 1.21 troy ounces. SJC gold prices are quoted by state-owned Saigon Jewelry Co.

For more interbank rate fixings released at 0400 GMT, click on .

For Vietnam market overview click on: Vietnam's bonds market auctions: Bonds auction results: (Compiled by Hanoi Newsroom)FRANKFURT, Feb 28 (Reuters) - The chairman of Evonik's supervisory board, Werner Mueller, will step down for health reasons, Evonik's biggest shareholder said on Wednesday.

German foundation RAG Stiftung, which owns 68 percent of shares in Evonik, said in a statement that Mueller was also resigning from his position as chief executive of RAG Stiftung and from the supervisory board of Deutsche Steinkohle AG, effective May 24.

Bernd Toenjes, chief executive of RAG AG, would had been nominated to succeed Mueller at the helm of RAG Stiftung, it said.

(Reporting by Maria Sheahan, editing by Louise Heavens)ATHENS, Feb 28 (Reuters) - Greece sold 1.138 billion euros ($1.39 billion) of six-month T-bills on Wednesday to refinance a maturing issue, the country's debt agency PDMA said.

The T-bills were sold at a yield of 1.19 percent, up six basis points from a previous sale in January. The amount raised included 262.5 million euros in non-competitive bids.

The sale's bid-to-cover ratio was 1.81, down from 2.24 in the previous auction.

In a rollover T-bill holders renew their positions instead of getting paid on the maturing paper they hold. The settlement date of the new bills is March 2. ($1 = 0.8185 euros)

(Reporting by George Georgiopoulos)OSLO, Feb 28 (Reuters) - Recent Norwegian economic data has sees a mixed development, central bank Governor Oeystein Olsen said on Wednesday, following Statistics Norway's release of weaker-than-expected January retail sales. "Recent data has been mixed and there are some indicators that are pointing in the opposite direction," the governor told Reuters on the sidelines of a conference. "We will return to this topic shortly," he added. Norges Bank's next rate meeting is due on March 15.

(Reporting by Camilla Knudsen, editing by Terje Solsvik)

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and may not reflect those of Kitco Metals Inc. The author has made every effort to ensure accuracy of information provided; however, neither Kitco Metals Inc. nor the author can guarantee such accuracy. This article is strictly for informational purposes only. It is not a solicitation to make any exchange in commodities, securities or other financial instruments. Kitco Metals Inc. and the author of this article do not accept culpability for losses and/ or damages arising from the use of this publication.OSLO, Feb 28 (Reuters) - The Norwegian government should extend most of the mortgage restrictions that were imposed early last year, although a special measure for the capital can be discontinued, the country's bank regulator (FSA) recommended on Wednesday.

The Finance Ministry imposed added restrictions on banks' mortgage lending in January 2017 in a bid to limit household borrowing and prevent a potential house price bubble, with a particular focus on reining in the Oslo market. In November, the ministry asked the FSA to evaluate whether the rules should be terminated, adjusted, or left as they are. The ministry will come with its own decision at a later stage after a round of public hearing.

(Reporting by Terje Solsvik and Ole Petter Skonnord, editing by Gwladys Fouche)Following are news stories, press reports and events to watch that may affect Poland's financial markets on Wednesday. ALL TIMES GMT (Poland: GMT + 1 hour):

DATA

Poland's statistics office to release fourth-quarter GDP data at 0900.

DEBT

The finance ministry to publish debt supply for March at 1400.

PKN ORLEN , LOTOS PKN Orlen, which is taking over its smaller rival Lotos may conditionally buy 34 percent of shares in the company from the state and then announce a share tender, which would bring PKN's total stake in Lotos to 66 percent, according to one of the possible scenarios, reported by the daily Rzeczpospolita.

PKN estimates that the merger will help it cut costs by a few hundred million zlotys a year, Dziennik Gazeta Prawna daily said.

PGNIG , GAZPROM Polish state-run gas firm PGNiG upholds its stance that Gazprom has breached EU's antimonopoly law and should be penalized, Parkiet daily said quoting PGNiG press office.

NORTH FISH

North Fish, a brand owned by a company controlled by a Polish businessman Michal Solowow plans to open fish restaurants in Britain, Puls Biznesu daily said quoting the company representatives.

EUROCASH Polish retail and wholesale group Eurocash wants to become the dominant supermarket chain in Poland, the company said in a statement on Wednesday.

HOLOCAUST LAW

The Polish parliament delayed a debate on Tuesday on whether to designate a day to remember Poles who saved Jews during World War Two, with the opposition saying it was bad timing as the country faces international pressure over a new Holocaust law. ****Reuters has not verified stories reported by Polish media and does not vouch for their accuracy.****

For other related news, double click on: Polish equities E.Europe equities Polish money Polish debt Eastern Europe All emerging markets Hot stocks Stock markets Market debt news Forex news For real-time index quotes, double click on: Warsaw WIG20 Budapest BUX Prague PX ($1 = 3.3831 zlotys)

(Reporting by Warsaw Bureau)LJUBLJANA, Feb 28 (Reuters) - Slovenia recorded a central government budget surplus of 7.6 million euros ($9.28 million) in January versus a deficit of 21 million euros in the same month last year, the Ministry of Finance said on Wednesday.

It added January tax inflows increased by 1.8 percent year-on-year. The government plans to end 2018 with a budget surplus of 0.4 percent of GDP versus a deficit of 0.8 percent last year.

The Fiscal Council, a body that advises the government on public finances, on Friday urged the government to pursue further fiscal consolidation.

"Further consolidation would enable continuation of favourable economic movements and ... strengthen public finance position in order to be able to face worse times," the council said.

Four months ahead of a general election, the government is under strong pressure from public sector trade unions to increase wages. As yet, the government has rejected most demands for higher wages, but it continues talks with the unions.

Earlier on Wednesday the statistics office reported that Slovenia, which narrowly avoided an international bailout for its banks in 2013, reached the highest economic growth in the past decade in 2017 when its economy expanded by five percent, boosted by exports and investments. The finance ministry said that high economic growth obliges the government to reduce the deficit at a faster rate than planned, ensuring macroeconomic stability and further economic growth. ($1 = 0.8185 euros)

(Reporting By Marja Novak, Editing by William Maclean)JOHANNESBURG, Feb 28 (Reuters) - South Africa's trade balance in January swung to 27.66 billion rand ($2 billion) deficit from a revised 15.3 billion rand surplus in December, data from the revenue agency showed on Wednesday. Exports fell by 22.6 percent to 80.5 billion rand on a month-on-month basis in January, while imports rose 21.9 percent to 108.2 billion rand, the South African Revenue Service said in a statement. ($1 = 11.7534 rand)

(Reporting by Mfuneko Toyana Editing by James Macharia)

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and may not reflect those of Kitco Metals Inc. The author has made every effort to ensure accuracy of information provided; however, neither Kitco Metals Inc. nor the author can guarantee such accuracy. This article is strictly for informational purposes only. It is not a solicitation to make any exchange in commodities, securities or other financial instruments. Kitco Metals Inc. and the author of this article do not accept culpability for losses and/ or damages arising from the use of this publication.By William James

LONDON, Feb 28 (Reuters) - British foreign minister Boris Johnson praised social reforms in Saudi Arabia on Wednesday, seeking to neutralise any potential criticism over human rights and the war in Yemen ahead of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman's visit to London next week.

Prince Mohammed will arrive in London on March 7 for talks with British Prime Minister Theresa May and other senior ministers, his first trip to Britain since being named heir to the throne last summer when he effectively took over running the country. Despite him enacting a programme of social reforms, his visit is expected to spark protests over wider rights issues, including Saudi Arabia's role in Yemen, where more than 10,000 people have been killed in a conflict since 2015.

But Johnson said Prince Mohammed deserved support for overturning a ban on women driving, relaxing gender segregation and setting a target to get more women into the Saudi workforce.

"If you are inclined to dismiss these advances, then I will respectfully suggest that you are making a profound mistake," he wrote in an article for the Times newspaper.

"Change does not come easily in Saudi Arabia. In a matter of a few months, genuine reform has taken place after decades of stasis."

Describing Saudi Arabia as one of Britain's "oldest friends in the region", Johnson highlighted the importance of defence cooperation both to counter Islamic State militants and as a diplomatic counterweight to Iran's Middle East influence.

Britain has openly sought to woo Saudi Arabia ahead of the expected stock market listing of state oil company Saudi Aramco, which could be the largest such offering in history. Both May and U.S. President Donald Trump want the potentially lucrative listing to take place on their stock exchanges.

But, the government's support for Prince Mohammed has been criticised by rights groups and opposition lawmakers - particularly over the licensing of 4.6 billion pounds ($6.4 billion) worth of arms sales to Saudi Arabia since the start of the Yemen conflict.

London says it has strict controls on arms sales, and on Tuesday May said she would be discussing the conflict and humanitarian situation in Yemen "frankly and constructively" with Prince Mohammed. ($1 = 0.7209 pounds)

(Reporting by William James Editing by Hugh Lawson)(Adds details)

LUANDA, Feb 28 (Reuters) - Oil production for Angola, Africa's No. 2 crude producer, averaged 1.632 million barrels per day in 2017, down from 1.72 million barrels the previous year, the chairman of the state-run oil company Sonangol said on Wednesday.

Angola has been grappling with the effects of generally depressed oil prices on its government finances but is constrained from lifting production because it is committed to OPEC-mandated cuts.

Angola is a member of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, and it must limit output in line with OPEC's commitment to cut output by about 1.2 million barrels per day (bpd) as part of a deal with Russia and others.

Sonagol chairman Carlos Saturnino also told a media briefing that the net profit for Sonangol, which regulates Angola's oil sector, was $224 million in 2017 versus $81 million the previous year when oil prices were lower.

It was his first briefing since Angola President Joao Lourenco fired Isabel dos Santos, daughter of his presidential predecessor, from the helm of Sonangol.

Lourenco took power in September and is seeking to win credibility with international investors and shed Angola's image as an opaque oil economy with rampant corruption.

(Reporting by Stephen Eisenhammer Writing by Ed Stoddard Editing by James Macharia)* Papua LNG considered one of world's top performing facilities

* Exxon says so far no signs of damage to supply pipeline

* Facility's remote location makes inspection, repairs difficult

(Adds company statement, details, graphic)

By Oleg Vukmanovic and Sonali Paul

SINGAPORE/MELBOURNE, Feb 28 (Reuters) - ExxonMobil Corp said on Wednesday there was no indication so far that a powerful earthquake in Papua New Guinea this week has damaged the 700 km (435 mile) pipeline that delivers gas to its coastal liquefied natural gas (LNG) plant.

Whole villages were flattened and water sources spoiled by the earthquake early on Monday that killed at least 20 people, residents said, as rescuers struggle to reach the hardest-hit areas in Papua New Guinea's remote, mountainous highlands. The 7.5 magnitude quake led Exxon to shut its $19 billion LNG facility, the country's biggest export earner, amid fears of damage to gas field infrastructure and the pipeline that carries gas to the coast. Exxon planned a full visual inspection of the pipeline route, while specialist engineers would need "a little bit time" to assess damage to the project, company officials said.

"We have had no indications that the PNG LNG pipeline has sustained damage and will be undertaking a full visual inspection of the pipeline right of way as part of our ongoing assessments," ExxonMobil's PNG spokeswoman said in an email to Reuters.

The quake's epicentre was located close to the gas fields that supply the project.

"Specialist engineers are being brought in to assess impact and this will likely take a little bit of time," said Frank Kretschmer, senior vice president of Exxon Mobil Asia Pacific's LNG Marketing division, speaking at an industry event in Singapore.

ExxonMobil shut the two LNG trains at the coastal plant following the quake, but these have not been damaged, Kretschmer said.

All employees and contractors are safe and Exxon is working closely with aid agencies, communities and partner Oil Search Ltd , he added.

"The airport cannot be used so we are having to use helicopters to fill the gaps," he said.

Buyers who have contracted regular supplies of Exxon's Papuan LNG said they expect the outage to last at least seven days. The PNG LNG project is considered one of the world's best-performing LNG operations, having started exports in 2014 ahead of schedule, despite the challenge of drilling for gas and building a plant and pipeline in the remote jungle of PNG.

The liquefaction plant has been producing at around 20 percent above its rated capacity of 6.9 million tonnes a year.

Exxon said earlier this month that together with its partners, France's Total SA and Australia's Oil Search Ltd , it plans to almost double the facility's export capacity to 16 million tonnes per year. <^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ GRAPHIC: Papua New Guinea quake IMG ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^> (Reporting by Oleg Vukmanovic in SINGAPORE and Sonali Paul in MELBOURNE Writing by Henning Gloystein Editing by Richard Pullin)* Proposes div of 0.30 eur/shr for 2017, up 50 pct

* Confirms would look at Thyssenkrupp Materials Services

* Shares up 5 pct at top of small-cap index

(Recasts, adds comments on Thyssenkrupp)

DUESSELDORF, Feb 28 (Reuters) - German steel distributor Kloeckner & Co pledged on Wednesday to raise its dividend by half, supported by recovering steel prices that have helped most players in the industry to report solid results in recent weeks.

The group proposed to pay out 0.30 euros per share for 2017, up 50 percent from 2016 and beating analysts' forecast for a dividend of 0.21 euros apiece.

Shares in Kloeckner & Co, which competes with Thyssenkrupp , Salzgitter and U.S.-listed Reliance Steel & Aluminum , rose more than 5 percent to the top of Germany's smallcap index , which was down 0.5 percent.

Volatile steel prices have triggered further consolidation in the industry, with Thyssenkrupp and Tata Steel planning to combine their European steel operations and ArcelorMittal in the process of buying Italy's Ilva. Kloeckner & Co Chief Executive Gisbert Ruehl reiterated the group would take a look at Thyssenkrupp's materials trading division Materials Services should it be put up for sale.

However, he said Thyssenkrupp had not yet decided whether to sell and Kloeckner would likely require a partner to do a deal involving Materials Services, which is more than twice as big as Kloeckner when measured by sales.

Kloeckner expects earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) to at least match the 220 million euros ($269 million) generated in 2017, and said they could be higher if steel prices continued to recover.

First-quarter EBITDA is expected to come in at 45 million-55 million euros, the group said in presentation slides, compared with a 47 million Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S estimate.

Full-year sales are forecast to rise slightly in 2018, helped by higher steel demand in Europe and the United States. Analysts expect sales to reach 6.19 billion euros in 2018, up from 6.14 billion in 2017. ($1 = 0.8185 euros)

(Reporting by Christoph Steitz and Tom Kaeckenhoff; Editing by Maria Sheahan and Susan Fenton)(Adds quote, background, detail)

OSLO, Feb 28 (Reuters) - The Norwegian government should extend most of the restrictions it imposed on mortgage lending early last year, but a special measure for the capital city can be discontinued, the bank regulator (FSA) recommended on Wednesday.

The central bank backed most of the FSA recommendations, although the two differ over how much leeway they think banks should have in offering exemptions to borrowers. The Finance Ministry tightened its restrictions on banks' mortgages in January 2017 in a bid to limit household borrowing and prevent a potential house price bubble, with a particular focus on reining in the Oslo market. Housing prices have since fallen, and in November the ministry asked the FSA to evaluate whether the rules should be adjusted. The ministry will come with its own decision at a later stage after a round of public hearing.

Norway has the third-highest level of debt-to-income among OECD countries behind Denmark and the Netherlands. It was 231 percent according to the latest OECD data, almost double the level in 1995.

The rules that were introduced last year, and which were due to expire in June, force borrowers to put up more equity when buying a home by cutting the maximum loan-to-value ratio of a mortgage to 85 percent from 90 percent.

This measure should now be extended indefinitely, the FSA recommended, adding that it could be altered at a later time if necessary.

For Oslo however, current rules allow only a 60 percent loan-to-value for secondary homes, preventing many investors from buying up property, which economists say has contributed to a fall in the capital's housing prices. "In light of the geographical developments in the housing market, the FSA recommends ending the particular Oslo measure," it wrote in a letter to the Finance Ministry.

Current rules allow banks to make exemptions for up to 10 percent of borrowers, while the FSA sought to cut this to just 8 percent. The central bank disagreed, arguing that this so-called speed limit seems well-adapted to the current situation.

The FSA's proposals were as expected, DNB Chief Economist Kjersti Haugland said.

"We still expect housing prices to continue to fall this year, as we had based our forecasts on continuation of the regulation in line with today's proposal," she said, while adding that a turnaround may begin towards the end of 2018.

(Reporting by Camilla Knudsen and Ole Petter Skonnord, writing by Terje Solsvik, editing by Gwladys Fouche and Hugh Lawson)(Adds details, background)

JOHANNESBURG, Feb 28 (Reuters) - South Africa's new mining minister Gwede Mantashe said on Wednesday he will finalise the latest version of an industry charter which lays out requirements for black ownership levels and other targets in the next three months.

Uncertainty around the charter has deterred investment into a sector that accounts for 8 percent of gross domestic product in the world's top platinum producer.

The government of new President Cyril Ramaphosa has said it will negotiate the latest charter with mining companies, prompting the Chamber of Mines to temporarily suspend a legal challenge to the version drawn up by Mantashe's predecessor Mosebenzi Zwane.

"We will finish it within three months, I am putting that timeframe for myself," Mantashe told the eNCA news channel when asked about finalising the charter.

The industry had broken off talks with Zwane and said his new charter would drive many companies out of business. Bones of contention included raising the target for black ownership to 30 percent from 26 percent.

Mantashe is a former General Secretary of the powerful National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) and is chairman of the ruling African National Congress (ANC). He is known for his gruff, blunt style and tough negotiating skills.

The Chamber of Mines industry body this week described Mantashe as "a man of integrity and dignity, and who brings with him a sound and fundamental knowledge of the industry he will lead and enable."

(Reporting by Nqobile Dludla Writing by Ed Stoddard Editing by James Macharia)* Share sales and listings pick up in Vietnam

* Private and public sector companies tapping markets

* Supported by growth prospects, government privatisations

* Vietnam's benchmark equity index up nearly 50 pct last yr

(Recasts story, adds comments)

By Anshuman Daga

SINGAPORE, Feb 28 (Reuters) - Vingroup JSC , Vietnam's biggest property developer, has picked four foreign banks for a planned $1 billion listing of its residential property business, sources familiar with the matter said, which will mark a strong run of IPOs in the country.

Share listings are booming in Vietnam as the country speeds up its privatisation drive. Vietnam's benchmark stock index rose nearly 50 percent last year, making it Asia's strongest performer.

Vingroup has tapped Citigroup , Credit Suisse , Deutsche Bank and Morgan Stanley for the planned initial public offering of Vinhomes, which, if completed, could be one of the biggest ever equity offerings in Vietnam, the sources said.

The IPO would follow last year's listing of Warburg Pincus-backed Vincom Retail JSC , Vietnam's biggest shopping mall operator and also a unit of Vingroup, which raised roughly $700 million. The participation of Singapore sovereign wealth fund GIC and Franklin Templeton in Vincom Retail's IPO has attracted other global investors to the country, bankers and lawyers said.

"Interest from big investors is mainly in the private sector. Private equity players are willing to make large investments in big companies," Duc Tran, partner at Allen & Overy Legal (Vietnam), said.

He said activity in the IPO market is mainly across the consumer, property and financial sectors.

In a presentation to investors this month, Vingroup said it was considering various strategic initiatives for its residential development business, which may include a capital markets offering and listing or other corporate transactions.

Citigroup, Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank and Morgan Stanley declined to comment. Vingroup did not immediately respond to a Reuters' request to comment.

The share sales come in the backdrop of Vietnam's strong economic growth. Vietnam's economy grew by 6.8 percent last year, propelled by strong domestic demand, record export earnings and the government's economic reforms.

(Reporting by Anshuman Daga; Additional reporting by Mai Nguyen; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman and Jane Merriman)(Adds fund's assets under management at beginning and end of February, background)

By Trevor Hunnicutt

Feb 28 (Reuters) - A U.S. mutual fund that lost most of its value earlier this month after its bets on stock-market volatility soured will shut its doors in March, filings with securities regulators showed on Wednesday.

The LJM Preservation and Growth Fund will be liquidated and closed by March 29, according to the filing. The fund held assets worth $812 million at the beginning of the month but has shriveled to $14 million.

Chicago-based LJM Funds Management Ltd, run by Anthony Caine, is among the more spectacular casualties from a series of "vol-mageddon" blowups of complex investments on Feb. 5 that effectively bet on markets remaining calm.

The Preservation and Growth Fund lost half its value on Feb. 5, and then lost much of what remained the day after as it unwound remaining holdings at unfavorable prices to raise cash, the company told investors in a letter.

On Feb. 7, LJM closed the fund to new investment after losses totaling 80 percent.

LJM had been one of a handful of fund companies that found success selling relatively complex and high-fee "liquid alternative" funds to investors hoping to cut risk and boost returns.

Demand for such products has persisted even as the investment management industry's profits are being hollowed out by a move to use lower-cost funds, some which simply track an index.

The LJM fund took in $393 million in new cash from investors in 2017, its best sales since launching in 2013, according to the Lipper unit of Thomson Reuters, despite fees as high as 3.34 percent a year.

It was not immediately clear if LJM's affiliated private investments will continue.

In letters to clients this month, Caine, a veteran of the 1990s technology boom who later went into finance, said he had planned to resume investing despite the losses. The Preservation and Growth Fund was also run by Anish Parvataneni, a former trader for well-known investor Ken Griffin's Citadel.

"Volatility and options markets experienced an extreme outlier event," Caine said in one of the letters. On Feb. 5, the Cboe Volatility Index , the most widely followed barometer of expected near-term volatility of the S&P 500 index , logged its largest single-day jump. "Monday's losses were so severe because as volatility spiked exponentially in the afternoon, the illiquidity in the markets severely limited LJM's ability to reduce risk."

Phone calls to the fund's Chicago-based manager and an affiliate, LJM Partners Inc, have not been returned. A Reuters reporter who visited their headquarters recently was escorted out by LJM's chief compliance officer, Katy McBride, who declined to answer questions.

Caine's next challenge may be in court. Investors are suing him and Parvataneni over what they said were inadequate disclosures. The fund touted its ability "to deliver solid returns while maintaining risk parameters" in its most recent annual report to shareholders. (Reporting by Trevor Hunnicutt in New York Additional reporting by Richa Naidu in Chicago and Saqib Iqbal Ahmed in New York Editing by Jennifer Ablan and Jonathan Oatis)HANOI, Feb 28 (Reuters) - Vietnam trade data, as released by the government's General Statistics Office on Wednesday: KEY DATA Monthly trade, in billions of dollars 2018 2017 *Feb **Jan Dec Nov Oct Sept Aug July June May April EXP 13.4 20.22 19.7 19.99 20.3 19.3 19.8 17.7 17.8 17.93 17.5 IMP 12.5 20.04 19.9 19.39 18.1 18.2 18.2 17.4 18.1 18.46 17.4 BAL 0.9 0.18 -0.2 0.6 2.2 1.1 1.6 0.3 -0.3 -0.53 0.1 NOTE: * Updated, ** Adjusted CONTEXT Vietnam posted a trade surplus for a second year in a row in 2017 at $2.9 billion. The government has targeted exports this year to grow 8 to 10 percent from 2017. (Reporting by Mai Nguyen)

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and may not reflect those of Kitco Metals Inc. The author has made every effort to ensure accuracy of information provided; however, neither Kitco Metals Inc. nor the author can guarantee such accuracy. This article is strictly for informational purposes only. It is not a solicitation to make any exchange in commodities, securities or other financial instruments. Kitco Metals Inc. and the author of this article do not accept culpability for losses and/ or damages arising from the use of this publication.HANOI, Feb 28 (Reuters) - Vietnam's coffee exports for January-February rose an estimated 17.6 percent annually, while rice exports grew an estimated 14.6 percent during the same period, government data on Wednesday showed.

COFFEE

Coffee exports from Vietnam will rise an estimated 17.6 percent in January-February from a year ago to 336,000 tonnes, equal to 5.6 million 60-kg bags, the General Statistics Office said in a report on Wednesday.

Coffee export revenue for Vietnam, the world's second biggest producer of the bean, edged up 0.8 percent annually to $652 million in the two-month period, the report also said.

February coffee exports was estimated at 135,000 tonnes, worth $260 million, higher than traders' estimates. RICE

Rice exports in January-February from Vietnam were forecast to rise 14.6 percent annually to 842,000 tonnes. Revenue from rice exports in the period was seen leaping 32.1 percent year-on-year to $413 million.

February rice exports from Vietnam, the world's third-largest shipper of the grain, was recorded at 350,000 tonnes, worth $174 million.

ENERGY

Vietnam's January-February crude oil exports fell 27 percent year-on-year to an estimated 766,000 tonnes, or 95,000 barrels per day (bpd).

Crude oil export revenue in the first two months of 2018 fell 12.9 percent to $395 million.

Oil product imports in the two-month period increased 35 percent from the same time last year to an estimated 2.24 million tonnes, while the value of the product imports rose 50.8 percent to $1.4 billion.

Vietnam's January-February liquefied petroleum gas imports increased 17.1 percent from a year earlier to 226,000 tonnes.

(Reporting by Mai Nguyen; Editing by Vyas Mohan)By Park Jin-hai





Actor Choi Il-hwaBy Kim Jae-kyoung





Troy StangaroneBy Jhoo Dong-chan



After the government introduced another regulation to deal with soaring housing prices in Seoul's affluent southern districts of Gangnam, Seocho and Songpa, it brought about an outcome diametrically to what it had hoped for.



The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport announced Monday it will toughen the assessment standards on the eligibility for apartment reconstruction, making it more difficult for older buildings with few structural stability problems to be rebuilt. The measure will be effective as of the end of March.



A ministry official added reconstruction has been often allowed even for structurally stable apartments, causing an unnecessary waste of social resources.



Under the current law, local governments are in charge of on-site inspections to decide whether to reconstruct old apartments. If the new regulation is implemented, public organizations will participate in the inspection process. Also, apartments already granted conditional permission for reconstruction will have to go through a safety assessment by the Korea Infrastructure Safety Corporation.



"Many buildings in Europe are used for more than a 100 years," said a ministry official.



"There are a number of apartment complexes in Seoul that are still stable enough for another 10 to 20 years. It will be a great social loss if we bulldoze them to rebuild."



Residents whose apartments are eligible for reconstruction this year under the government's 30-year limit immediately complained.



"The government's Aug. 2 housing price measure rather added fuel to already soaring apartment prices in southern Seoul," said a real estate broker in Seoul's northern district on Nowon-gu.



"The measure to toughen the assessment standard for reconstruction will be another hurdle for residents here in rebuilding their old apartments."



Residents in Seoul's southwestern district of Yangcheon-gu, in which 25,000 households are affected, also denounced the government's decision.



"Yangcheon-gu has the largest number of apartments that are expected to be reconstructed this year, but the government pushed ahead with its plan unilaterally without prior consultations with us," said a resident.



"Reconstruction is a part of the private economy where residents should decide the best for themselves. The government shouldn't attempt to control it on its own."



Due to the newly announced measure, apartment prices in the affected areas are expected to suffer depreciation.



"Homeowners who have multiple apartments are expected to release their houses here this month before the toughened real estate transfer tax law is implemented in April," said a real estate broker in Yangcheon-gu.



"Currently, prices are about 20 million to 30 million won lower than usual. The drop is expected to continue for awhile."



Southern Seoul districts of Gangnam, Seocho and Songpa area are, however, said to be less effected by the measure since most old apartment complexes have already been reconstructed.



"Those new apartments that have just been completed will be scarce. Prices will be even higher than anticipated," said Real Estate 114 Research Center head Ham Young-jin.





SMEs show concern over snowballing labor cost



By Yoon Ja-young



The bill to slash working hours was approved by the National Assembly Environment and Labor Committee, Tuesday, which while allowing workers to enjoy a better quality of life, could raise the costs for small- and medium-sized businesses.



The bill cuts the maximum statutory working hours to 52 hours a week from the current 68 hours. It is expected to get approval at a plenary session as early as Wednesday since it passed the committee with the consensus of both the governing and opposition parties.



Slashing working hours was among the main election pledges of President Moon Jae-in, which he said will improve quality of life as well as help create jobs.



However, fewer working hours means higher labor costs for businesses. According to an estimate by the Korea Economic Research Institute, businesses will pay an additional 12.1 trillion won annually to maintain current production while cutting the working hours. This includes wages paid to additional workers hired to cover the hours lost, as well as their training costs.



It is especially likely to hit the manufacturing and transportation industries as working overtime has been the norm there. Labor ministry data from 2012 showed that employees in manufacturing work on average 28.1 extra hours a month. SMEs will be damaged more than conglomerates. The institute explained that small businesses hiring fewer than 300 will pay 8.6 trillion won of the extra costs, or 70 percent of the total.



To minimize the impact on industry, the committee agreed to apply different schedules for adoption of the new law depending on the size of the business. Large businesses hiring more than 300 workers will be subject to it beginning July, while implementation will be delayed to July 2021 for businesses with less than 50 workers.



The labor ministry said the government will prepare support plans for small businesses.



"Most large businesses have been preparing for shorter working hours since last year when discussions gained momentum. The government will prepare supportive measures for small businesses that might face difficulties due to the revision," a ministry official said.This is the fifth in a series highlighting various cryptocurrencies that continue to gain popularity.



By Jhoo Dong-chan



Litecoin is another cryptocurrency that was created in 2011 as a lightweight alternative to bitcoin.



Developed and introduced by former Google employee Charlie Lee, the virtual coin is also an open source peer-to-peer cryptocurrency engineered under the MIT License project. It was released via an open-source client on GitHub on Oct. 7, 2011. Then, the network of Litecoin went live a week later.



Litecoin is distributed in the market under a ledger and virtual coin named "LTC," and is the fifth-largest coin by market capitalization as of Feb. 20. The coin's total value reached a $1 billion market capitalization in November 2013.



During the month of November 2013, the aggregate value even enjoyed a 100 percent leap within 24 hours.



Litecoin became one of the top five cryptocurrencies by market cap in May last year. Also in the month, the first Lightning Network transaction demonstrated 0.00000001 LTC from Zurich to San Francisco in less than one second.



The Lightning Network is a payment protocol that operates on top of a blockchain system. It enables instant transactions between participating nodes, featuring a peer-to-peer system for making micropayments of digital cryptocurrency through a network of bidirectional payment channels without delegating custody of funds or trust to third parties.



Thanks to the system's fast transaction speeds, one of the major EU online retailers Alza decided to begin accepting Litecoin as a payment method earlier this month.



The virtual coin is said to be nearly identical to bitcoin in technical details. What makes Litecoin different from bitcoin is its improved block generation time to 2.5 minutes, rather than bitcoin's 10 minutes. The Litecoin developers claim this enables Litecoin's faster transaction confirmation.



The maximum number of coins that can be mined is about 84 million, four times larger than bitcoin's 21 million. Mining Litecoin is also said to be easier than mining bitcoin.



It also has a different hashing algorithm and a slightly modified user interface.



Litecoin prices enjoyed a strong rally last week, and it has now reached $245.12, nearly a 70 percent increase from earlier this month, according to CoinMarketCap.



Market observers say Litecoin's recent gains were attributed to the upcoming hard fork that will result in a new digital currency called Litecoin Cash. A hard fork with virtual currencies is the process of splitting any currency's blockchain.



"The hard fork is a great sign for Litecoin," Noble Alternative Investments CEO Charles Thorngren said, emphasizing that while all cryptocurrencies have been benefiting from broader improvement in the market, Litecoin has had an additional tailwind in the form of this hard fork.



"Litecoin is faster, cheaper, and offers all of the technological benefits and advantages of BTC such as segwit and the lightning network," said Oliver Isaacs, a blockchain investor, adviser and influencer.





A stone battle in 1902 / Courtesy of Robert Neff Collection



By Robert Neff

In late February 1891, the streets of Seoul -- especially the Jongno area -- were battlefields for young boys. The combatants, some as young as eight, were divided into two teams of roughly the same size and armed with small wooden clubs and bags of polished stones. They participated in "sokchon" (stone battles) -- traditionally held 15 days after the Lunar New Year.

Encouraged by their parents and spectators, the two teams surged forward swinging clubs and throwing stones. As club or stone found its mark, flesh bruised and bones broke while the screams of pain from the boys and shouts of excitement from the spectators filled the air.

Eventually one side was forced from the field of battle -- the victors were showered with praise and presents while the losers were belittled and made their way home to tend their wounds in humiliation.

While stone battles among boys were somewhat entertaining, the most popular of these battles involved the men. These stone battles took place on the eastern side of the city and were large affairs involving hundreds of combatants and possibly thousands of spectators -- even the royal palace was kept appraised of the results. Like the boys, the adult combatants were armed with stones (polished and rounded by boys), iron and wooden cudgels, armor of twisted straw, wooden shields and leather caps for helmets.

The battle went on for hours, with "incessant showers of stones" followed by sallies of club-wielders. The tide of battle ebbed back and forth and the injuries were horrendous: broken bones and noses, shattered teeth, bruised bodies and, not surprisingly, there were often casualties. Husbands, sons and brothers died in these games, but no one was punished for their deaths as they were deemed unavoidable accidents.

Sometimes villages battled villages. One Western observer described a pitched battle that broke out between Yongsan and a nearby village (possibly Mapo):

"After a few sharp skirmishes, the forces closed in and settled down to business. It was evident from the first that there were some old scores to be settled that day, or at any rate that amusement was not the only motive. Men rarely work in such a fashion for the fun of the thing. Before long, the Yongsan party began to gain ground. A yell went up that made the very earth tremble. The enemy broke and fled, but Yongsan was right on their heels.

"Away they went leaping the deep ditches or falling into them, and scrambling up the other side and away again right through the marshy paddy fields, never mind the shoes! There is no time to stop to recover them. A whole skin is better than a pair of straw shoes. On they sweep right up to the outskirts of the defeated party's village.

"Here they surely will stop. But no! Right up to the houses the pursuers push, and lay their hands on anything, wood, tiles, fence, hedge, anything that is vulnerable! A door wrenched off its hinges is a laudable achievement, anything to indicate Yongsan -- his mark.'

"But by this time the whole village is up, and the victors know it is time for them to be moving back. And they are fortunate if they get back with whole heads. Such scenes are enacted daily during the season,' and an exciting sport it must be."

The witness ended his observation by noting that broken bones and even heads were unimportant -- the only thing that was important was that we all "must have amusement."



Robert Neff is a historian and columnist for The Korea Times. He can be reached at robertneff103@gmail.com.By Kwak Yeon-soo, Park Si-soo







Nearly 73 percent of foreign women who married Korean men between 2014 and 2016 were Vietnamese, data showed on Wednesday.







The average age of Korean grooms at the time of marriage was 43.6, while that of their foreign brides was 25.2, the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family data showed.







The grooms' age was nearly 11 years more than the national first-marriage average age of men in 2017, 32.8, while the foreign brides' age was five years younger than the nationwide average of 30.1.







The ministry releases data on international marriage annually and the latest report covers 2014 to 2016.







Cambodians made up the second-biggest portion of foreign wives (8.8 percent), followed by Chinese (7.6 percent) and Filipinas (3.7 percent).







By academic background, 54.8 percent of Korean grooms were high school graduates, followed by university diploma holders (6.1 percent) and middle school graduates (6.1 percent).







Among foreign spouses, those with high school diplomas accounted for 52.4 percent, followed by middle school diplomas (29.8 percent) and bachelor's degrees (17.8 percent).







By average income, 41.1 percent of Korean grooms made 2-3 million won ($1,850-$2,760) a month, 20.4 percent (3-4 million won) and 15.8 percent (less than 2 million won).







It showed a majority of the Korean husbands were paid less than the 2017 national average of 3.29 million won.







The No. 1 reason for domestic conflict among couples was "communication difficulty."





By Jung Min-ho







The Ministry of Foreign Affairs summoned China's ambassador to South Korea Tuesday after Chinese military aircraft intruded on its air defense identification zone (KADIZ), a ministry official said Wednesday.





"First Vice Foreign Minister Lim Sung-nam summoned the ambassador (Qiu Guohong) Tuesday night to file a complaint and urge him to ensure that it doesn't happen again," the official said.





"We are working closely with the defense ministry to share information about the incident."





It came after the Chinese jet flew over South Korea's territorial waters for more than four hours  from its southern end to Ulleung Island in the East Sea  before leaving the KADIZ.





The Joint Chiefs of Staff said the jet is believed to be a reconnaissance plane. It said the flight route was different from China's previous dispatch of warplanes into the zone.





It was unprecedented for China's military aircraft to fly so close to South Korea's eastern airspace without Seoul's authorization. Yet Beijing claimed was part of a "routine exercise."





Experts suspect China was testing the South Korean military's radar detection capability.



Vehicles are parked along the road outside government buildings in Sejong City, due to the lack of parking lots. The government's new vehicle ban, which will take effect March 1, upsets its employees in the administrative city. They say they drive their cars because of an inadequate public transport system and the ban will make it more difficult for them to commute. / Yonhap



By Kim Se-jeong



A vehicle ban, which goes into effect Thursday at the Sejong Government Complex, is expected to inconvenience many civil servants there and others frequenting the complex.



Under the vehicle restrictions, government employees in Sejong City, an administrative town 123 kilometers south of Seoul, are to leave their cars behind if the last digit on their license plate matches that of the calendar date. For example, on March 1, a car whose number plate's last digit is 1 should stay home.



Almost all 14,000 employees have responded with contempt, claiming the ban didn't take the city's poor public transport infrastructure into account. The city's BRT bus system connects people with other cities but the interval times between buses are quite long.



The government says Sejong residents had been favored for too long _ for five years _ and it can't extend special treatment anymore, as all civil servants in other parts of the country are subject to the ban.



"Complying with the government policy is a must for government employees," an official at Sejong Government Complex said. "So far, the government did Sejong a favor by putting off the ban. But it can't go on like that any longer."



Most government employees said the city should add more buses as an alternative and, if it doesn't, they'll continue to drive.



"Although Sejong has BRT buses, they are too few to accommodate all government employees," a government employee who lives in the city said. "Under the current system, it's impossible to commute by bus. I will park outside the complex."



Another government employee echoed him, saying, "The bottom line is there isn't enough public transportation. Less than five percent of government employees use public transportation. I will also try to find a parking space outside the complex."



Parking lots inside the Sejong government buildings have a capacity for 3,000 cars only. Outdoor temporary parking spaces within the complex boost the capacity by 4,800 vehicles, but they are disappearing gradually, as new buildings are replacing the open spaces.



The number of government employees in Sejong is 14,120 as of late last year, meaning the parking lots are almost always full.



Sejong residents said the city suffers from fewer parking lots and illegal parking and the new ban will make it only worse.



Some called it an urban planning failure. When conceived, the city was a model city for public transportation. It purposely made more bike roads and bus lanes but fewer parking lots in an attempt to encourage people to cycle and take buses.



"It was too big a dream in the beginning," one resident and a government employee said. "As long as the city develops, parking will always be a problem."







President Moon Jae-in holds a moment of silence along with other participants during a commemoration ceremony for a pro-democracy uprising in 1960 in Daegu at Daegu Concert House, Wednesday. / Yonhap



By Kim Rahn



President Moon Jae-in said the democracy movement in Daegu back in 1960 was the root of the candlelit protest that ousted his predecessor Park Geun-hye in 2016, adding it showed that people power could overcome abuses by the state.

He evaluated the movement highly in a commemoration ceremony in the southeastern city, Wednesday. This was the first time the ceremony was organized after March 1 was designated as a national memorial day earlier this year.

It was Moon's first visit to Daegu, the home turf of conservatives, since his inauguration. Daegu was also the political base of Park who is on trial for her part in the massive corruption scandal.

On Feb. 28, 1960, students from eight high schools in Daegu staged a protest against then-President Syngman Rhee's attempt to fraudulently continue his administration. That movement led to the April 19 Revolution that year, which toppled Rhee.

"Through the candlelit protest, we again proved that people can win government power. Looking back, the beginning of it was the Feb. 28 democracy movement," Moon said.

"Since then we started our noble journey toward democracy, developed it into a big flow through the June Democracy Movement (in 1987), and arrived to even greater democracy through the candlelit protest."

Moon said there have been times when political power reigned over the people and democracy was suppressed. "Feb. 28, 58 years ago was one such day. But people in Daegu made a courageous outcry, which broke the long-standing resignation and silence," he said.

"It was the first moment in the nation's history when people power overthrew a dictatorship," Moon said, adding that courage and a sense of justice changed the nation's modern history.

The President praised Daegu and the surrounding North Gyeongsang Province, saying many people from these regions were engaged in the independence movement from Japan, and residents of Daegu led the movement to restore national rights in 1907-08.

Such high praise is said to be an attempt to soothe the people of Daegu who used to support the conservative bloc, by highlighting their achievements in democracy through linking the Feb. 28 movement with the candlelit protest. A constituency in the city, Dalseong, was where Moon's predecessor Park was elected as a lawmaker five times.

Both ruling and opposition parties welcomed the Feb. 28 movement being recognized as a national memorial day, but showed different interpretations of how the designation was made.

The ruling Democratic Party of Korea said the designation came as the Moon administration changed the relevant law, while the main conservative Liberty Korea Party said it was the result of the collective efforts of the citizens of Daegu.By Choi Ha-young



The conservative Liberty Korea Party (LKP) criticized the prosecution over its handling of former President Park Geun-hye, saying its demand for a 30-year prison term, Tuesday, was cruel.



"How can it be crueler than this? A demand for the death sentence would be less cruel," LKP spokesman Chang Je-won said. "The prosecution's demand to imprison the ex-president, who has already been impeached and removed from office, is aimed to curry favor with the liberal government."



Along with the virtual life imprisonment, the prosecution also called for the court to fine her 118.5 billion won ($110 million).



Earlier in December last year, the LKP expelled Park, in a bid to sever ties with the disgraced former president. However, it protested against a widening investigation into Park and her conservative predecessor Lee Myung-bak, calling the move a "political vendetta."



Other than the LKP, other parties unanimously criticized Park, who consistently refused to attend her trial.



"Until the last moment, Park has rejected attending her trial and ignored the truth around her. Park, who neglected her duty to serve the country, deserves such criticism for her abuse of presidential power," Ruling Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) Chairwoman Choo Mi-ae said Wednesday.



The chairwoman also mentioned the case of Samsung heir Lee Jae-yong, who was released from prison on appeal. The decision bewildered Koreans, since he was accused of bribing Park's friend Choi Soon-sil, which led to the court sentencing Choi to a 20-year prison term.



The minor liberal Party for Democracy and Peace (PDP) further urged imprisoning ex-President Lee. "Lee should be put in a jail cell next to Park," PDP spokesman Rep. Choi Gyung-hwan said.



The centrist Bareun Mirae Party (BMP) said the judicial procedure against Park was a "historical tragedy."



The progressive Justice Party called for the trial to rule in line with public sentiment. "The prosecution's demand is not excessive, considering the influence-peddling charges against involving Park. Now, the court is obliged to make a reasonable ruling," party spokesman Choi Suk said.





By Choi Ha-young







Defense Minister Song Young-moo said Wednesday it is impossible to prove North Korean official Kim Yong-chol's direct involvement in the torpedo attack on the Navy ship Cheonan in 2010, which claimed the lives of 46 sailors.







Kim, chief of the Workers' Party of Korea's United Front Department, returned home Tuesday after his three-day visit to the South to attend the closing ceremony of the PyeongChang Winter Olympics.







The conservatives here sternly lashed out at Kim's visit, claiming he is the "war criminal" who masterminded the torpedo attack on the South Korean Navy frigate Cheonan. They staged street rallies in front of the Tongil Bridge in Paju, to interrupt Kim's way to Seoul.







Asked whether the attack was committed by the North, Song said "I believe so." However, he said it is impossible to confirm Kim's involvement. "We can assume, but it's impossible to confirm," Song told lawmakers at the National Assembly's National Defense Committee.







"At that time, investigations showed that Kim's involvement was not confirmed, and I'm echoing the documents," he added.







Song's remarks are in accordance with the remarks of Unification Minister Cho Myoung-gyon last week. During the parliament's Foreign Affairs and Unification Committee, Cho told lawmakers that it is difficult to figure out who exactly ordered the attack. "This was the ministry's briefing to the Assembly in 2010," Cho said.







During his three days in Seoul, Kim stayed in a hotel taking part in a minimum of public activities. He reportedly had intense meetings with South Korean defense and intelligence officials, possibly in preparation for an inter-Korean summit, along with nuclear negotiations between the Washington and Pyongyang.

By Lee Min-hyung



Kim Won-byeok, a Korean independence fighter in the late 1910s, has been honored for leading a student movement to liberate Korea during the 1910-45 Japanese occupation.







The Ministry of Patriots and Veterans Affairs said Wednesday it picked Kim as the monthly honorary independence fighter for his dedication to lead thousands of students and protesters against Japan's colonial rule and exploitation of Korea.







At age 26, Kim, as one of the student independence movement representatives, led the nation's most symbolic protest movement against colonial rule on March 1, 1919. For the March 1st Movement, millions of Koreans took to the streets to protest the Japanese occupation and proclaim the "Declaration of Independence."







Thirty-three activists gathered at Taehwagwan Restaurant in Seoul for the historic movement, shouting out for Korea's liberation from Japan. The movement rapidly gained steam, spreading across the nation to be remembered as one of the most successful and symbolic liberation events of Korean history.







Under the bold leadership of Kim, the student independence fighters went on to protest Japan in central Seoul. On March 5, 1919, Kim also led a crowd of 10,000 demonstrators in Seoul to promote the message of liberation from Japan, which Japanese police suppressed with violence.







He stood at the center of the crowd, while holding a flag that says "Long Live Korean Independence!"







The violent suppression left Kim with collarbone injuries. He was then jailed for two years.







After ending his prison term, he continued his independence movement by publishing magazines and newspapers, but Japanese police stopped their publication before long. He passed away in 1928.







In recognition of his sacrifice and dedication for peace and liberation of Korea, the government awarded him in 1962.





Choi Seung-bo, 66, stands at the cash register of a convenience store in Gangnam, southern Seoul. / Korea Times photo by Kim Ji-soo



By Kim Ji-soo



Korea's labor market is undergoing a major change, dogged by a lack of quality and secure jobs.

Coupled with rising living costs and longer life spans, these problems prompt more Koreans across a broader range of age groups in particular the elder to enter the workforce.

The jobs however are not necessarily the traditional lifetime careers Koreans prefer, which are also hard to come by since the labor market shifted to irregular, part-time or contract jobs that entail discrimination in job stability, pay and welfare.

But with the minimum wage having increased to 7,530 won an hour beginning this year, part-time jobs have never been more popular.

Retail workers in Seoul reveal this trend. For nearly two years, Choi Seung-bo, 66, has been working at the cash register of a 7-Eleven convenience store in Gangnam, southern Seoul, eight hours a day.

"My children have left the nest, so what's there for me and my husband to do but stare at each other?" Choi said.

"Also, I feel more energetic and look forward to coming to work."

Choi may well be among the beneficiaries that Democratic Party of Korea Chairperson Choo Mi-ae mentioned in January as the ruling party's New Year plans were disclosed.

Choo had said the higher minimum wage would benefit the young, women and seniors. Choo had said it was the "last hope" to prompt the youth to seek employment, enable people  usually women  to afford their children's private education fees and living expenses, and help seniors avoid poverty.

Choi's reasons for working seem a mixture of social and personal, but she stressed how lucky she is to be in the labor market at her age. Asked if the work at the convenience store is physically rigorous, she said she does not find it so.

In fact, Choi said even her children notice the uptick in her energy and thus reluctantly accepted her return to the workforce.

She does not yet worry about automated cashiers replacing her but is aware of younger workers who may compete for her job.

"I think I am lucky in that my employer prefers older folks, who stay (with the company) for a long time. He said young workers tend to stay only for several months and then leave. I plan to stay healthy and work until 70 and beyond," she said.

"There is a growing shift among workers toward part-time work, such as working part-time or on an hourly basis for a few months through one or more years," said Ahn So-jeong, a senior manager at JobKorea.

"Age, previous job experience and current economic status vary, but we are seeing those from their teens through their older years working to secure a continuous income flow," Ahn said.

Invariably, the shift of Korea's labor market toward irregular work in particular after the 1998 Asian financial crisis  those working part-time or on contracts instead of the traditional lifetime employment is attributable to the market's greater acceptance of workers from a wider range of age groups.

While Choi works at the convenience store to earn extra cash for occasional meals or small gifts for her children and grandchildren, she said she is aware of the higher life expectancy and the relatively high rate of elderly poverty in Korea.

An OECD report last year showed 42.7 percent of Koreans aged 66 to 75 live in relative poverty, and 60.2 percent of those aged 76 and older do. Both figures are about four times higher than the OECD average.

The retail sector was traditionally dominated by young workers, like 20-something Park In-seo, who has been working at a GS25 convenience store near Myeong-dong for a year.

"I work eight hours a day, and as the minimum wage has gone up, it is manageable to maintain a decent quality of living with only this job," Park said.

"The higher minimum wage definitely makes a difference."

He said he does not work other jobs, and during his time off, he rests and studies.

"I don't necessarily think working part-time jobs is that bad anymore. My parents support me, saying it's good that I bring in income rather than remain unemployed at home," Park said.

A trend in increasing workforce participation across a broader range of age groups may well continue, even though the job market prospects continue to look bleak.

Over the last weekend of February, Statistics Korea said the household led by people in their 40s in Korea earned on average a little over 3.4 million won ($3,150) from October to December, down by 3.1 percent from the same period of the previous year.

Considered one of the most economically active for a long time, the high unemployment among the youth against Korea's sluggish economic growth has brought about the drop.President Moon Jae-in, center, attends the PyeongChang 2018 Winter Olympics closing ceremony, Sunday. U.S. President Donald Trump's daughter Ivanka Trump, front row left, and North Korean delegation leader Kim Yong-chol, back row right, also attended the ceremony. / Yonhap



By Choi Ha-young



Analysts here generally gave positive assessments on North Korea's softening stance toward talks with the United States, but remained cautious over the prospects for their talks.



On Sunday, Kim Yong-chol, head of the North Korean delegation, said the North is willing to have a dialogue with the United States. The move came amid much hope during the visit of Ivanka Trump, daughter and adviser to U.S. President Donald Trump, along with Allison Hooker, a National Security Council official who previously met Kim.



Park Won-gon, an international relations professor at Handong Global University, said Kim's remark is "the most forward-looking" one ever released. "So far, the North has sternly refused to talk with the U.S. The possibility of Washington-Pyongyang dialogue is higher than before," Park said.



The change is against the backdrop of increasing economic hardships caused by international sanctions, experts said. In addition, the North's nuclear and missile capacity has reached its limit.



"The latest nuclear test was successful, but re-entry technology of its intercontinental ballistic missiles is questionable. That's why the North hastily declared it mastered the nuclear technology late last year, in an apparent bid to shift to dialogue," said Cho Han-bum, senior research fellow from the Korea Institute for National Unification.



Still, the outlook is not so rosy for the denuclearization of North Korea  the ultimate goal of the U.S. "North Korea didn't develop the nuclear weapons aiming to be denuclearized," said Koh Yu-hwan, who teaches North Korean studies at Dongguk University.



"The North will negotiate to gain recognition for its nuclear weapons, attaching conditions like no mass production or no more ICBM test-launches. The key of possible U.S.-North Korea dialogue is how to narrow the gap between the U.S. call for complete denuclearization and North Korea's efforts for a partial nuclear freeze."



As the mood for the talks matures, the U.S. will maximize its pressure against the North, as seen by the U.S. administration's renewal of sanctions against the North. "The U.S. position and our joint position of maximum pressure with our South Korean partners is very important," Ivanka Trump said in an interview with NBC, Monday.



"Therefore, the U.S. will revive the combined military exercises as originally planned," Cho said. However, it is unlikely the North will test-fire an ICBM or carry out nuclear tests in protest of the exercises, since it will bring stronger sanctions on the isolated country.



For a while, the two countries will explore each other through direct or indirect contact. "The North will wonder what it will be able to receive from the U.S., in exchange for nuclear renunciation," said Cheong Seong-chang, a senior research fellow at the Sejong Institute.



A hurdle for the talks is the Trump administration's intensive criticism on North Korea's human rights, Cheong said. The U.S. president met with North Korean defectors, while Vice President Mike Pence visited the Cheonan Memorial on the sidelines of his visit to the PyeongChang Winter Olympics.



"The North might be bewildered by the moves of the U.S.," Cheong said. "The South's Moon administration can mediate disputes between the two, as it has done so far."

U.S. President Donald Trump said Monday that talks with North Korea are possible only under the right conditions.



His remark comes after the communist regime twice stated its willingness to hold dialogue with Washington over the weekend.



"They want to talk. And we want to talk also, only under the right conditions. Otherwise, we're not talking," Trump said at a meeting with U.S. state governors at the White House.



He did not elaborate on what the conditions would be, but slammed previous U.S. administrations for failing to tackle the problem of North Korea's nuclear weapons program.



"Other presidents should have solved this problem long before I got here," he said. "And they've been talking for 25 years, and you know what happened? Nothing."



He pointed to the administrations of Bill Clinton, George H.W. Bush, George W. Bush and Barack Obama, saying it would have been "much easier" to solve the issue then.



The possibility of talks between Washington and Pyongyang gained traction this year after the two Koreas held rare high-level talks to discuss North Korea's participation in the PyeongChang Winter Olympics.



Seoul hopes that improved inter-Korean ties will help pave the way for denuclearization negotiations between Washington and Pyongyang. Tensions heightened last year as the reclusive nation aggressively pursued its capability to launch nuclear-tipped missiles at the U.S. mainland.



As the Olympics drew to a close Sunday, a senior North Korean official told South Korean President Moon Jae-in his country has "ample intentions" to hold talks with the U.S. The official, Kim Yong-chol, who was sent by Pyongyang to attend the closing ceremony, made similar remarks in a meeting with Moon's chief national security adviser Monday.



"So they want to talk, first time, they want to talk, and we'll see what happens," Trump said. "That's my attitude. We'll see what happens. But something has to be done."



He said China has "been good, but they haven't been great" when it comes to putting pressure on North Korea to abandon its weapons programs.



"China has really done more, probably, than they've ever done because of my relationship," Trump said. "We have a very good relationship, but President Xi (Jinping) is for China, and I'm for the United States."



Russia, on the other hand, has been "behaving badly, because Russia is sending in what China is taking out," he added, apparently referring to the two countries' trade with North Korea.



The U.N. Security Council imposed four rounds of sanctions on North Korea last year in response to its nuclear and ballistic missile tests. China and Russia -- two of the five veto-wielding council members -- backed all of them. The sanctions are designed to cut off supplies of fuel and sources of revenue for the Pyongyang regime.



"So China is doing pretty good numbers, but Russia is now sending a lot of stuff in," Trump said. "But I think they want to see it come to an end, also. I think everybody does."



Seemingly alluding to the possibility of military action against North Korea, he added, "Talking about tremendous potential loss of lives; numbers that nobody's ever even contemplated, never thought of." (Yonhap)



Joseph Yun

The top United States negotiator on the North Korean nuclear issue will retire this week, a foreign news report said Tuesday.

The 63-year-old Special Representative for North Korea Policy, Joseph Yun, will retire at the end of the week, CNN reported.

"It was completely my decision to retire at this time," Yun was quoted as telling CNN. He also said Secretary of State Rex Tillerson had accepted his resignation.

He was appointed to the current post in October 2016 under the previous Obama administration. Yun flew in to North Korea in June last year to bring home American college student Otto Warmbier, who traveled to the North, was convicted of a crime and fell into a coma. He died days after arriving in the U.S.

Yun's resignation will leave another important post dealing with Korean issues empty, with the seat for the U.S. ambassador in Seoul remaining unfilled for more than a year.

His resignation also comes at a critical diplomatic juncture for possible talks between the U.S. and North Korea after Kim Yong-chol, a senior North Korean ruling party official, told President Moon Jae-in and other South Korean officials that Pyongyang is willing to talk to Americans. (Yonhap)Ivanka Trump / Yonhap



Ivanka Trump, the daughter of U.S. President Donald Trump, said Monday that she had a "wonderful" first visit to South Korea and hopes to visit the country again in the near future.

Ivanka, an advisor to the president, made the remarks as she was preparing to board a plane back to the United States at Incheon International Airport, west of Seoul, wrapping up her four-day trip here for the Winter Olympics closing ceremony.

"It was a wonderful first visit and just exciting and beautiful," she told reporters. "I look forward to returning back. Thanks for the warm hospitality."

She didn't say anything in response to a question about North Korea saying it is willing to talk to the U.S.

Ivanka's trip to South Korea had raised speculation about possible direct dialogue between the U.S. and North Korea, as both sent delegations to attend the closing ceremony held on Sunday.

The U.S. delegation included National Security Council (NSC) director for Korea Allison Hooker. The North Koreans included Choe Kang-il, a senior North Korean diplomat handling affairs with the United States.

Hooker was seen accompanying Ivanka Trump at the airport. A U.S. embassy official said that all the delegates, including the NSC director, seem to be leaving on the same day.

On Sunday, Kim Yong-chol, the high-ranking official leading the North Korean delegation, which is here until Tuesday, told South Korean President Moon Jae-in that Pyongyang has "enough" willingness to begin dialogue with Washington, according to Seoul's presidential office.

The White House said later that it "will see" if North Korea's willingness to hold talks represents a commitment to abandon its nuclear weapons program. (Yonhap)By Lee Min-hyung



Joint military exercises between South Korea and the United States can be postponed further amid growing signs of the resumption of the long-suspended dialogue between Washington and Pyongyang.



Chances were slim for the resumption of U.S.-North Korea talks before the Olympics, with both sides exchanging aggressive rhetoric.



But on Sunday, Kim Yong-chol, who leads North Korea's high-level delegation, showed the regime's willingness to hold dialogue with the U.S.



"Pyongyang is willing to have talks with Washington," Kim said in a meeting with President Moon Jae-in, Sunday. His remarks came in response to Moon's request to keep the peace momentum on the Korean Peninsula going. Toward that end, Moon underlined the need for the thaw in not just inter-Korean relations but also between Washington and Pyongyang.



The rare sign of peace on the peninsula is raising hopes for the U.S. and North Korea to hold talks on the regime's denuclearization. The U.S. remains firm in its stance on North Korea, but is slowly showing signs of easing tension against the regime by expressing recently its will to hold talks with the North.



The ongoing trilateral peace momentum, however, may be put on hold once Seoul and Washington resume their annual military drills right after the closing of the PyeongChang Paralympics next month. They did not confirm a specific timeline or other details about them, opening the possibility to a further delay of the joint military exercises beyond April.



Unification ministry spokesman Baik Tae-hyun said: "We expect North Korea and the U.S. to have constructive dialogue."



The Ministry of National Defense said nothing specific has been discussed about the North's request regarding the joint military drills between Seoul and Washington.



A Joint Chiefs of Staff spokesman said South Korea will push ahead with the drills as planned, declining to comment further.



As North Korea calls the joint drills one of the biggest reasons for its own provocations, South Korea is not unveiling details about the delayed Seoul-Washington annual military exercises.



President Moon hopes to continue holding peace talks with the North, and for this he has stressed the importance for U.S.-North Korea talks.



"North Korea needs to show its willingness for denuclearization for a possible dialogue with the U.S.," Moon said Monday in a meeting with Liu Yandong, vice premier of the People's Republic of China, Monday.



In a still from video footage from 1944, released Tuesday, a Chinese soldier takes a sock off one of the dead Korean sex slaves killed by the Japanese military. The Seoul Metropolitan Government and the SNU Human Rights Center released the 19-second footage through which an Allied Command soldier, surnamed Baldwin, filmed a mass grave site for Korean sex slaves in Tengchong, a western Chinese village bordering Myanmar. /Courtesy of Seoul Metropolitan Government and SNU Human Rights Center







WARNING: Graphic content.



By Kim Se-jeong



Seoul Metropolitan Government and the Seoul National University Human Rights Center unveiled video footage, Tuesday, showing scores of bodies of Korean sex slaves being dumped after being killed by Japanese soldiers during World War II.



The Japanese government has denied any responsibility for forcing tens of thousands of Korean women into sexual slavery. But the latest footage contradicts that claim, according to researchers studying the issue.



The 19-second footage depicts a Chinese soldier looking at scores of naked bodies he carried to a hill. In another scene, he takes a sock off one of the bodies before walking away. Another scene shows smoke billowing from what appears to be a mound of human bodies at a different location.



The research team said the footage was recorded Sept. 15, 1944, in Tengchong, a western Chinese village bordering Myanmar, by an Allied Command soldier, surnamed Baldwin. The team recovered the footage from the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration.



In June that year, the Allied Command began attacking Tengchong and a nearby city which were under control of almost 3,000 Japanese soldiers. As defeat became more certain, the Japanese soldiers took their own lives and killed people stationed with them, including the sex slaves. At least 70 sex slaves were believed to have been there with the troops, among whom only 23 survived.



Together with the footage, the team also revealed a document filed by the Allied Command reporting the killing of Korean sex slaves. "Night of the 13th (Sept. 13, 1944), the Japs shot 30 Korean girls in the city," the document said.



The newly disclosed materials are expected to give more insight into the sex slavery issue which is one of the most contentious between Korea and Japan.



With the precise figure unknown, scholars estimate the number of sex slaves to have been almost 200,000, mostly Koreans.



Korea points to the Japanese military's accountability in mobilizing young women to provide sex for its troops, while Japan denies the military's role insisting they were voluntary sex workers who traveled with the troops for money.



This latest footage was revealed during a conference on sex slavery organized by the city government.

Kang Sung-hyun, a professor at the Institute for East Asian Studies of Sungkonghoe University who was one of the speakers at the conference, called the killings a massacre.



"At a time when the Japanese government denies the existence of sex slaves and their massacre, today's revelation offers a meaningful glimpse into what really happened to the sex slaves," he said.



Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon said: "We know all too well we shouldn't repeat this tragic history and one part of remembering it is documenting it. The city will continue to support the project that will help people remember history."



The city's joint project with Seoul National University started in 2016. Researchers traveled all over the world to collect documents, objects, images and videos relevant to sex slavery.



Last year, the team revealed a black-and-white video featuring Korean sex slaves. The city government is working to publish a book on the subject next month based on accounts from sex slavery victims and recently found documents.







By Lee Kyung-min



The prosecution demanded a 30-year prison term for former President Park Geun-hye, Tuesday, at the latest hearing in a corruption trial stemming from an influence-peddling scandal that removed her from office. It also called for the court to fine her 118.5 billion won ($110 million). The Seoul Central District Court held the final hearing for Park, who again refused to appear citing health problems. If she is found guilty, the sentencing for Park, who was indicted for receiving 59.2 billion won in bribes among 18 charges, will be held April 6.



The harsh sentence demand was widely expected as taking 100 million won ($97,000) or over in bribes is punishable by a minimum prison term of ten years. The Supreme Court sentencing guideline stipulates that a minimum of an 11-year prison term be imposed for those who received 500 million won or over in bribes. Choi Soon-sil, Park's longtime friend and the central figure in the scandal, who faced 13 out of the 18 charges Park did, was sentenced to 20 years.



Prosecutors said Park deserved harsh punishment for the influence-peddling scandal that undermined constitutional values and the public trust in the judicial system. The charges against her were substantiated by evidence including witness statements and meeting minutes made by the presidential chief of staff and presidential secretaries, they added. "Park is the central figure in the influence-peddling scandal. She was head of state and a political figure with ultimate power, and had full authority in managing administrative affairs," the prosecution said. "She gave powerful discretion to a private individual, Choi, thereby subjecting the public to the unprecedented trauma stemming from the scandal, from which we can never easily recover."



Such an act, the prosecution added, violated the public's expectation that the country would be governed by socially agreed-upon principles, and that individuals would be respected for their own merit not for their connections. "It also violated the public expectation that people should be guaranteed a fair opportunity regardless of their occupation or status and lead a life in a free and just country," it said.



Allegations concerning Choi were raised multiple times but Park continued to deny them, dubbing them as "underhanded tactics to rile up the public" and "political retaliation," a move by which she chose to distort the truth and deceive the public, it added. Fostering culture was her major policy initiative, however, Park orchestrated a scheme to deny state subsidies to cultural figures who had different political viewpoints than her, thereby suppressing free speech in the art sector, according to the prosecution.



The prosecution said she continued to remain uncooperative with investigative efforts, thereby reneging on her earlier promise to answer truthfully. "She never allowed the prosecution to search the presidential office and never appeared at Constitutional Court hearings or those in criminal trials for other defendants," it said. "Park has shown no remorse or apologized, and has deflected responsibility to her close aides. We deem a corresponding punishment is required. An incident of this nature should never be repeated."



In response, Park's lawyers said she did not receive any benefit, financial or otherwise. "Park is single, with no children or spouse to support. She had no motive to seek financial benefit," one said. Allegation that firms landed work contracts as a result of Choi's influence lack merit, the lawyers said, as some of the firms implicated would have won the contracts without personal connections to her. Park and Choi were not briefed in detail about the allegations and many claims by the prosecution were based on supposition and conjecture, and lacked facts. The impeachment of Park did not call into question every aspect of state affairs she oversaw as former president, and while she should be subject to ethical and moral accountability, criminal punishment was unreasonable they added.





Almost all figures implicated in the scandal were convicted as courts said they conspired with Park to advance their interest, except for Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman Lee Jae-yong. Lee was released on appeal after the Seoul High Court handed down a suspended prison term, overturning a lower court ruling that sentenced him to five years in prison.



Former chief of staff Kim Ki-choon and former Culture Minister Cho Yoon-sun are serving four-year and two-year prison term, respectively. They were indicted for abusing their power by creating a "cultural blacklist," based on which over 9,000 liberal cultural figures and organizations were denied state support and subject to punitive measures for criticizing Park or policy initiatives under her administration. Punishments included budget reductions or unilateral termination of employment, which the appellate court said were a direct result of government policy directives, the tone of which was set after Park openly criticized the country's cultural sector for being left-leaning.



Former presidential secretary An Chong-bum, who was indicted alongside Choi for conspiring with Park to have 50 business groups "donate" 77.4 billion won to two foundations  Mir and K-Sports  set up and controlled by Choi, is serving six-year prison term.



Lotte Group Chairman Shin Dong-bin, indicted for giving 7 billion won to the K-Sports Foundation as a bribe in return for securing the group's license to operate a duty-free shop in Seoul, is serving two-and-a-half-year prison term.



Former presidential secretary for civil affairs Woo Byung-woo was sentenced to two-and-a-half-year imprisonment for failing to prevent influence-peddling despite volumes of evidence that suggested Choi's illicit activities. Woo, known for his "unrestricted" power and authority, was indicted for overlooking or aiding and abetting a wide range of criminal activities conducted by Choi.The prosecution had filed nine charges including abuse of power and dereliction of duty as head of the presidential office responsible for monitoring the corruption of high-ranking public officials.



Choi's niece Jang Si-ho, former Vice Culture Minister Kim Jong, visual art director Cha Eun-taek, former Health and Welfare Minister Moon Hyung-pyo, former CEO of the Korea Creative Content Agency Song Sung-gak are all serving prison terms. The court will also deliver verdict for former presidential secretary for economic affairs Cho Won-dong alongside that or Park's. Cho was indicted for pressuring CJ Group Co-Chairman Sohn Kyung-shik to remove his niece Lee Mi-kyung from a CJ vice chair post in 2013.









By Aimable Niyikiza





Prior to the 30th summit of the African Union (AU) earlier this month, newspapers across the continent ran stories on confidential data stolen from the organization's servers between 2012 and 2017.



The French newspaper Le Monde broke the story with an article titled "The African Union Headquarters in Addis Ababa spied on by Beijing!" It cited "anonymous insiders" and attributed the hack to the Chinese government.



Le Monde emphasized that the AU headquarters building was built by China "as a gift to the African Union," hinting this could say something about the nature of Sino-African relations, a sentiment picked up by many observers.



Although strongly opinionated, the report was surprisingly lacking in technical details. The only technical evidence it cited is the fact that stolen data was forwarded to an IP address located in Shanghai.



However, there is a big gap between identifying an IP address based in China, and concluding the attacker was from China. The country is known to be a hub of proxy servers anyone can rent to pretend to be from China.



Cybercrime groups, including North Korea's Lazarus Group, often run their "command and control" servers from China. Any attacker smart enough to launch such an advanced persistent threat (APT) would be smart enough not to launch it from their bedroom. The even bigger leap of logic from there was suggesting the attack was state-sponsored.



In "Game of Thrones," Catelyn Stark believes that Tyrion Lannister is behind an assassination attempt on her son based on questionable information involving a dagger used in the attack, leading to a diplomatic disaster that costs the lady her life.



While I'm not ruling out the Chinese government's involvement, the African Union should be careful not to endorse a conjectured accusation without a rigorous technical investigation, as that can have unintended diplomatic implications.



It is interesting to try to know who plotted the data leak, but it is even more interesting to ask ourselves how it happened for so long without anyone noticing.



I can think of two things that go wrong very often.



Firstly, organizations tend to ignore the danger of inside threats. The definition of an internal actor in this context extends to any employee, contractor or partner who can contribute to the data leak through malicious intent, negligence or just pure incompetence.



Secondly, organizations tend to allocate little to no budget for proper cybersecurity controls, policies and competent personnel. If you don't have the right tools to control what comes in, moves around and escapes your network and applications, it won't matter whether you built your own office building, paid a constructor or got it as a gift.



This lack of a solid budget is what makes organizations seeking cybersecurity turn to the lowest bidder, regardless of merit. This is a good approach for commodity items such as office paperclips but it can be dangerous when you are looking for something your organization's security will depend on.



At the end of the day, although technical in nature, the overall cybersecurity stature of an organization is determined by its management.



In the specific case of the African Union, there is a reason to be optimistic especially with the reformist agenda by its new chairperson Paul Kagame, president of Rwanda.



Known for his hands-on leadership, Kagame has led Rwanda from being a country torn by the genocide against the Tutsi, to being a development model for Africa and one of its top destinations for investors through fast-paced socio-economic development similar to Korea's "miracle on the Han River."



His legacy of attention to details and requiring accountability for everyone in their respective responsibilities is what has inspired thousands of people across Africa to cheer for his inauguration as the head of the pan-African union.



What gives even more confidence in the future of technology in Africa is Kagame's record of ambitious ICT initiatives such as the Smart Africa alliance, and the award-winning partnership between KT, Korea's largest telecommunications provider, and the government of Rwanda.



The African Union with good leadership gives hope the organization is heading toward a cyber-resilient future not just at its headquarters but also in its member countries.





Aimable Niyikiza (niyimunyura@gmail.com) is a cybersecurity engineer born in Rwanda and living in Seoul.

By Sammy Ahn





"Your choice in the moment will impact your next 10 years" is a wildly-popular advert copy run by LG in the early 80s. I am old enough to remember it because I saw and heard those ads literally 1,000s of times in my early years in South Korea. In those days, a made-in-Korea TV set or a washing machine built to last 10 years was a revolutionary concept.







Modern-day Koreans have always been forced into schizophrenic choices. Then again, it would be rash to say it's been a repetitious story of modernity.







Entering the 20th century, Koreans found themselves at the edge of a 500-year-old monarchy called Joseon, one that was so extremely puritanical and oppressive that its contemporary analogy would remind anyone of the Taliban. The Joseon monarchy boasted a one-tracked worship of the Confucian way of life.







In short order, Japan brought her protective umbrella over the Koreans, having defeated the Chinese and the Russians in successive wars.







Fast forward to 1950, soon after the Japanese surrender to the Allied forces, Koreans faced two choices: a free socioeconomic form of government or a Stalinistic planned economy.







They fought tooth and nail in a proxy war for those two forces for the next three years, inescapably witnessing how a choice in the moment can devastate a society.







When a truce was reached, both factions had a mission to prove the other wrong. After 60 years, and the so-called miracle on the Han River, it is undebatable the free South had proved to the world which system rewards human talent more effectively.







Coming off the second Olympic Games (Winter of 2018), Koreans now face another challenge: choice between a decentralized "new economy" or the legacy form of centralized transactions.







In no other place on the planet does the word centralization resound so shrilly with such a pounding than it does on the Korean Peninsula. Just a few miles north of the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) lies the most centralized demonic power the world has ever learned about.







Now ruled by a third-generation legacy dictator, North Korea is a living, and breathing, Big Brother museum, which is so well preserved that the threesome of Lenin, Stalin, and Mao would transfigure from the dead screaming, long live Communism!







So, for this naturally-occurring geopolitical conflict node, I have coined the term "Kor-mageddon" where 50 million people of South Korea are pressed for another choice between decentralized blockchain economy and centralized legacy banking.







Koreans face more than the choice between war and peace after hosting the Winter Olympics (by the way, it only took Koreans 30 years to host their second Olympics, which is 10 years sooner than the 40 years the Japanese took to host their back-to-back Nagano Winter Games).







It's freedom vs. oppression, self-direction vs. outside intervention, harmony vs. fear-mongering, future vs. past, innovation vs. degeneration. And, ultimately, millennials vs. baby boomers.







"Hey, Korean millennials, you know nothing!" their Confucian seniors would snap. To that, I (a metaphysical millennial trapped in the body of a middle-aged former Samsung executive) retort. "They know their technology inside out. What's more, they are more transparent and unashamed of it! Korean War-generation baby boomers, you are old but are you bold?"







Korea is not only the first divided nation in modern history to hit the top 10 economy chart in the quickest timeframe, it has the potential to repeat its economic miracles.







On a per-capita basis, it has the highest rate of college graduation, coupled with the most impressive levels of technology penetration in Asia, if not the world.







While the outside world speaks only of a war against the totalitarian regime in North Korea, the millennials in South Korea are waging a war against what they perceive as an equally rigid policymaking system, which recently threatened to shut down its cryptocurrency exchanges while three of them happen to be the world's Big Ten.







Just as the Third World held their breath for 60 years watching the Korean-style free market experiment reach its magnificent fruition, the Korean millennials have another daunting task of synchronizing with a world movement called the Decentralization Revolution, which is oddly dubbed the Fourth Industrial Revolution by the Korean policymakers.







Semantics notwithstanding, cryptocurrency is millennial gold, a storage of value. The millennials wouldn't think twice about stashing away their flimsy savings on a completely transparent public ledger via some obscure internet-created wallet, a mechanism many baby boomers have trouble figuring out. That's OK, we all have anti-technology acquaintances who still do not know how to navigate the internet or email their friends.







To sum up, the South Korean millennials have work cut out for their college-educated brains. Faced with the double-whammy "Kor-mageddon" of cryptocurrency regulation and reunification with the North, they are well-advised to recall a history lesson.







Prosperity is a natural consequence of the fearless pursuit of freedom, be it was freedom from centralized socio-religious authorities in the case of the pilgrims in 1620, or freedom from centralized socioeconomic authorities in the case of the millennials worldwide in 2018.







Sammy Ahn is managing director of





www.LucidCrypto.com . Contac him at sammy@lucidcrypto.com.

Denuclearization key to making peace



North Korea expressed its willingness to hold talks with the United States, raising hope for a breakthrough in the nuclear standoff between the two countries. However, it is still too early to expect both sides to start a serious and meaningful dialogue to discuss the North's denuclearization.



During a meeting with President Moon Jae-in on the sidelines of Sunday's closing ceremony for the Winter Olympics, the North's chief delegate Kim Yong-chol delivered the message of a willingness for talks with the U.S. Kim, vice chairman of the Central Committee of the ruling Workers' Party, apparently showed a change in Pyongyang's hard-line stance against any negotiations with Washington.



The shift could be seen as a positive move. It comes amid improved inter-Korean relations during the PyeongChang Olympics. It also stemmed from President Moon's strenuous efforts to help the South-North detente lead to talks between Pyongyang and Washington.



What's also noteworthy is the U.S. has hinted at accepting the North's olive branch, but not without conditions attached. For its part, Washington thinks it is difficult to come to the table unconditionally. In addition, Pyongyang has yet to disclose its genuine intentions or any preconditions for dialogue.



The White House said it would wait and see whether the North's new overture for talks with the U.S. means it is serious about its denuclearization. Presidential press secretary Sara Huckabee Sanders, however, made it clear that President Donald Trump remains committed to achieving the "complete, verifiable and irreversible denuclearization" of the peninsula. She also reaffirmed the U.S. will continue a maximum pressure campaign against the North until it gives up its nuclear weapons and missile programs.



Sanders remarks can be interpreted as leaving the door open for talks with the recalcitrant North. She was visiting Korea along with Ivanka Trump, President Trump's daughter and senior White House adviser, as part of the U.S. delegation to the Olympics closing ceremony.



She implied that dialogue with Pyongyang should be to discuss the nuclear issue. This means the U.S. wants to see the North's seriousness and sincerity in abandoning its nuclear ambitions before having talks. This might bode ill for negotiations between the two foes even though they have barely managed to begin a dialogue.



For now, it appears to be possible for both sides to have "exploratory" talks to check each other's true intention. But further progress will depend on whether the North is ready for denuclearization. So it is important for the North to take a sincere step toward this itself.



For a feasible and realistic solution, the U.S. and North Korea need to consider accepting President Moon's two-phase roadmap for denuclearization. Moon calls for a North Korea nuclear freeze in the first stage and its scrapping in the second stage. This may be a complex process, but maximum pressure and sanctions alone may not be a viable option. We urge both Pyongyang and Washington not to miss this opportunity to find a solution through dialogue.





By Bernard Rowan





Trump spent some time this week talking about how he covers up his bald spot. He needs to talk about the bald spot in his trade policy and how he can't cover it up.



Populists face a tragic flaw. Their rhetoric commits them to irrational actions. Irrational actions cause negative results and more rhetoric. Populists stick to their scripts, treating disagreeing information as affirming their rhetoric. Positions polarize, intensifying negative and unsustainable results.



So goes Trump's tenure as president in various areas, in particular trade. Given all he's promised and said, I don't expect Trump to drop his isolationist, protectionist, and anti-globalist behavior. I don't expect him to view pushback or retaliation as a symptom of bad decision-making. I expect American voters will vote differently in several years. Trump's populism in governing America is costing way too much.



South Korea faces tariffs on solar panels and washing machines. Next in the balance is steel. Most analyses find this mistaken and likely to backfire. South Korea has taken its case to the World Trade Organization. Korea seeks payments related to an old case the U.S. lost. I can't find anyone who has much good to say about Trump's tariffs. Even that stalwart friend of the right and who have you, the Brookings Institution, has written negatively. Former leaders, former heads of economic think tanks, current counterparts, and nearly the entire world condemns this step backwards.



I worry this feeds Trump's bottomless ego and plays to his hand. He likes having cases, issues, and matters to rail against. The telltale sign of Trumpian populism is the absence of a countermeasure. There's no one in his cabinet with current knowledge of international economics and international economic relations who stands up to the president and identifies the irrationality of his positions. Of course, groupthink characterizes Trump's coterie.



Trump is wrong to say the recent GM decision to close a plant in South Korea is because the plant will return to America. In fact, GM announced plans to invest $2.8 billion in Korea over the next decade, not to move to Detroit.



Trump's tariffs on solar panels won't stop the Chinese, and they won't in themselves increase American jobs or demand for American solar panels. Trump's picks for protection sound like a senile Mafia boss trying to settle 30-year old scores.



I thought Trump promised to make big deals on the heels of his America Great Again theme park. No one's out there negotiating much. Here's betting America's partners will begin to show sour on bilateralism. I've read that two-way trade negotiations no longer suit the nature of most international trade and commerce. America worked to create a leadership reality Trump wants to destroy. Reactionary behavior is the mark of a populist gone demagogue.



Trump thinks his tariffs are "targeted" and his actions mirror an advanced American missile with guidance systems. But his tariffs are like a perversion of a Leroy Nieman impressionist artwork. They'll splatter many countries and collateral industries and companies associated with the main "targets," hitting economies worldwide and earning more ill will. They'll reap global retardation beyond the surface of this superficial initiative in search of its death.



Steel tariffs will not prevent trans-shipping of steel and are unlikely to succeed because cheap steel will still find a market. The United States government subsidizes many goods and industries. Why we think we can outdo other countries that choose to do the same is inane. We can stamp our feet and say we're America. Who cares?



Multilateral, regional, and global trade arrangements won't go away because of Trump. The Trans Pacific Partnership will continue as well as China's ascent. America retreats to her shores, destined to watch the trillions go elsewhere. Will this nightmare end?



The president sacrifices credibility and capacity for his pet images. It's a below B-movie that needs to end its run. Trump's bald spot on trade isn't a good imitation of leadership. Trump can't see the candles in the darkness he's determined to bring down on us all.





Bernard Rowan (browan10@yahoo.com) is associate provost for contract administration and professor of political science at Chicago State University, where he has served for 23 years. He is a past fellow of the Korea Foundation and former visiting professor at Hanyang University.

Union members of the troubled GM Korea stage a protest Wednesday against the carmaker's decision to shut its Gunsan factory, one of its four Korean plants. / Yonhap



By Oh Young-jin



GM Korea will fire half its foreign executives and employees, about 18, by September, its spokesman told The Korea Times Wednesday.



Responding to the union's long-term demand, Kaher Kazem, CEO of the ailing carmaker, emailed the executives to tell them of the downsizing plans.



Each foreign executive costs more than 500 million won ($460,000) a year in wages and welfare expenses. It would save about 10 billion won a year.



Members of a volunteer team from Samsung Electronics' device solutions division deliver groceries to a senior citizen named Park Young-ha, left, on Feb. 8. / Courtesy of Samsung Electronics



By Jun Ji-hye



Samsung Electronics continues to carry out social contribution and local community harmony activities, reflecting Vice Chairman Lee Jae-yong's wishes to be a respected businessman.



Most recently, the world's largest chipmaker showed compassion to citizens in need, including senior citizens who live alone, ahead of the four-day Lunar New Year holiday that began on Feb. 15.



During their volunteer activities, employees of the tech giant visited 256 social welfare facilities nationwide and delivered groceries including flour, soybean paste, cooking oil and sesame oil.



"For two weeks from the beginning of February, we visited social welfare facilities and citizens in need nationwide with the Korean Red Cross and delivered groceries worth 1 billion won ($930 million)," a Samsung Electronics official said.



On Feb. 8, a volunteer team of the firm's device solutions division visited a welfare center for the elderly located in Yongin, Gyeonggi Province, to give New Year greetings and deliver groceries.



The team, dubbed "LED firefly," has continued to visit the elderly living alone or in welfare centers in the Yongin area since 2014.



On the same day, 30 employees working at Samsung Electronics' Digital City complex in Suwon, Gyeonggi Province, also visited a senior citizens' welfare service center in the city and delivered groceries. They made dumplings with about 70 elderly residents of the city as well.



The Samsung Digital City employees have visited the senior welfare center on the Lunar New Year and Chuseok holidays every year since 2014 to give gifts to the elderly.



The company said it has supplied an estimated 19.5 billion won in volunteer activities during the Lunar New Year and Chuseok holidays for the past 11 years.



The Korean Red Cross has also delivered groceries, sponsored by Samsung Electronics, to 32,000 socially vulnerable households nationwide.



The firm is expected to expand its social contribution and community coexistence activities as Vice Chairman Lee, the de facto leader of Samsung Group, has consistently expressed his desire to be a businessman respected by the people.



Such expectation is being raised especially after Lee was released from prison on Feb. 5 after an appeals court reduced his prison sentence to a suspended term.



Lee was given a five-year jail term Aug. 25 and spent about a year in detention, being found guilty on five charges, including bribery, embezzlement and hiding assets overseas. The case was part of former President Park Geun-hye's massive corruption and influence-peddling scandal that led to her impeachment.



The Korean company plans to use 12.2 billion won for social contribution activities this year. It is a fund paid by the company and separate from contributions made by employees.



"The money will be used in volunteer activities at home and abroad as well as local community harmony activities," the official said.



Separately, the firm also contributed 1.12 billion won to the Samsung Dream Scholarship Foundation to support high school students who are less privileged.



"The money has been contributed to give opportunities to high school students who are willing to learn but have financial difficulties," the official added.







SK Telecom CEO Park Jung-ho speaks during a press conference at a hotel in Barcelona, Spain, Monday. / Courtesy of SK Telecom

By Kang Seung-woo



BARCELONA, Spain -- The mobile chief of LG Electronics hinted Monday the tech company may launch its new G7 flagship smartphone in the first half of the year, amid rumors that it may drop the G-series branding and choose a completely new name.





Hwang Jeong-hwan, LG Electronics' mobile chief, speaks during a press conference at a hotel in Barcelona, Spain, Monday. / YonhapBy Jhoo Dong-chan



The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy has come under growing criticism for having failed to tackle the GM Korea problem, deepening confusion among government agencies in handling the issue.



Although the ministry is considered to be the main player in dealing with the matter, it has failed to lead the negotiations over possible restructuring with GM Korea's Detroit headquarters. The Financial Services Commission (FSC) and the Ministry of Strategy and Finance have seemingly taken over the role.



Disappointed by the lack ability of the trade ministry in handling the crisis, experts now say it should hand over its control tower role to Cheong Wa Dae or the finance ministry.



A trade ministry official said the ministry is just a channel for communication.



"The GM Korea crisis requires pan-government efforts," he said.



"The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy can't handle the issue by itself. Some of the negotiations are with the Ministry of Strategy and Finance. Some issues have to go through the FSC. Which government agency becomes the main authority isn't a serious issue here. Each government agency should closely discuss the matter with other agencies. There is no confusion."



However, such confusion erupted during talks with General Motors executive Barry Engle last week.



Despite its position as the competent authority in handling the GM Korea crisis, the trade ministry only met with Engle on the afternoon of Feb. 22 following his meeting with the state-run Korea Development Bank (KDB) Feb. 21, and the Ministry of Strategy and Finance in the morning of Feb. 22.



Strategy and Finance Minister Kim Dong-yeon even held a press conference Feb. 22 while trade ministry officials were meeting with him.



During the press conference, Kim presented three major points.



"The government suggested the three-point principle. The major shareholder should take responsibility, and shareholders as well as creditors and the union should share the burden. And there should be a long-term plan for normalization of management," he said.



The trade ministry also released a media statement after the meeting the same day, but there were no major differences with Kim's announcement.



The finance ministry is also the first government agency to admit its first meeting with Engle when the GM Korea crisis came to the surface last month.



Deputy Finance Minister Koh Hyeong-gwon said during the National Assembly's Strategy and Finance Committee meeting earlier this month that he first met Engle last month to discuss General Motors' decision to shut down its Gunsan operation.



Koh's announcement demonstrated the trade ministry's position in handling major economic issues, experts point out.



"There isn't much room for the ministry to work," said an industry insider who asked not to be named.



"Major decision-making powers are all concentrated in the strategy ministry and the FSC. The trade ministry is the managing authority only in name. It's rather a wingman ministry on such issues."



The Detroit-based carmaker announced earlier this month that it would shut down its underused plant in Gunsan as part of global restructuring. Gunsan is one of four factories it operates in Korea.



With the fate of the other plants to be determined within months, GM said it was willing to allocate two new models  an SUV and a crossover utility vehicle  to its assembly lines in Bupyeong and Changwon. However, it has been pressuring the government to provide support.



Demands from GM include the government's participation in a debt-to-equity conversion. GM Korea has borrowed $2.7 billion from its headquarters, which GM says it is willing to convert into equity. However, it is requesting that the KDB, which is the second largest shareholder of GM Korea with a 17 percent stake, participate in the conversion. If the KDB accepts the offer, it will have to inject over 500 billion won into the troubled carmaker.

GM Korea Co., the South Korean unit of General Motors Co., froze the base wages for 500 executives and team leaders early this year in a drive to cut costs ahead of a local plant shutdown, the company said Wednesday.

As the 500 workforce does not belong to GM Korea's 13,000-member union, the company didn't need to seek an agreement for its actions. The company also asked them to reduce the use of corporate cards, according to GM Korea.

The move came before GM announced on Feb. 13 it would shut one of its four car assembly plants in South Korea by May and decide the future of the remaining plants within the following weeks due to low productivity.

GM Korea said it already began an "expense controllership" on overall expenses involving labor and welfare benefit costs early this year. It also offered a voluntary retirement program to all of its 16,000 employees as part of GM's global business restructuring plan.

In extended efforts to cut costs, GM Korea has recently proposed a base wage freeze and no bonuses this year together with the suspension of some worker benefits, such as school tuition for employees' children and free lunches.

On Friday, GM Korea said it aims to reduce benefits worth at least 310 billion won (US$287 million) a year, as it engages in wage talks with union members.

If accepted, it will be a heavy blow to the union workers who have received about 10 million won in bonuses per person almost every year despite the company's poor business performances in recent years.











Sales of Lotte Liquor's Fitz beer had topped 100 million bottles in less than a year as of February. / Capture from Twitter



By Ko Dong-hwan



While Seoul suffers an onslaught of imported beers thanks to a lowered trade bar, a domestic newcomer has sold more than 100 million bottles, as of Feb. 26.



Fitz Super Clear by Lotte Liquor hit South Korean shelves in June 2017. Its domestic sales translates that people of legal drinking age (20) or older, about 30 million, consumed at least three bottles each. This is enough to fill the 5,200-ton Lotteworld Aquarium six times.



Lotte Liquor started exporting Fitz to China last November and subsequently added Australia, Canada, Taiwan and Cambodia.



Fitz's strong domestic sales come amid predictions that imported beer will increasingly replace domestic beer. The latest version of the U.S.-South Korea free trade agreement striped tariffs on American beer, starting last January. The same will happen for European beer in July.



"Despite the tariffs on imported beers being dropped, their prices will not dramatically be lowered," said a South Korean beer market analyst. "But from the consumers' perspective, they would be glad to taste diverse kinds of imported beer at prices that have plunged by even a little."



More South Koreans enjoy imported beers nowadays, moving away from the trend of enjoying a mixture of soju and beer in a glass. The custom reportedly began with American blue-collar miners and wharf laborers in the early 1900s, who created "boiler-making"  mixing different liquors to get drunk quickly at affordable prices.



Imported beers are available in various food marts across South Korea, attracting more consumers interested in enjoying the drinks at home. The beer is more expensive at restaurants or liquor bars.



The surging popularity of imported beers pushed imports to $263 million last year, up 45 percent year-on-year. Exports of domestic beer totaled $112 million during the same period, leaving a beer trade deficit of more than $100 million, the most ever.



The popularity of imported beers has been evident at local festivals based on foreign beer parties. A beer festival in July 2017 at a Namhae County island in South Gyeongsang Province mimicked Oktoberfest in Munich, one of the world's largest beer festivals. The eight-day event attracted a record 110,000 visitors.

By Jasmine Siu

A man who stabbed his girlfriend in the face with an electric drill nearly two years ago was on Tuesday found guilty of murder in Hong Kong.

A jury of six men and one woman returned a majority verdict of 6-1 against Safdar Husnain, 28, after 11 hours of deliberation. The foreman announced: "We find the defendant guilty."

The gruesome case centred on the death of Andrea Bayr, 25, who left behind four children after she was choked and stabbed in the face with a 15.5-centimetre (six-inch) drill on March 29, 2016.

An autopsy found the drill was pushed eight centimetres into her head, penetrating from the area below her right eye, through her cheek bone and down to her jaw bone. She also suffered from a brain haemorrhage, with deep bruises in her neck muscles, and there were traces of the drug methamphetamine, also known as Ice, in her blood and urine. It was concluded that she died of either the head or neck injury, or both.

The High Court heard that her boyfriend Husnain had admitted to killing her after taking drugs that made him see a snake in the moon and hear voices that warned of his demise at the hands of his lover.

But he denied that it was murder, arguing through his counsel David Boyton that he was under the influence of drugs when he committed the killing and had no intention to kill.

"I loved her, why would I kill her?" Husnain had testified.

His version was supported by psychiatric experts from the defence and prosecution, who both commented that his mental responsibility towards the killing was diminished by the drug-induced disorders he was suffering.

But the jury sided with prosecutors, who argued that all the psychiatric findings in the case were based on Husnain's tale of seeing visual hallucinations for the first time on the night he killed Bayr, which had been too convenient and incidental.

Husnain, who faces a mandatory life sentence, did not immediately react to the verdict.

"In light of the jury's verdict, you are formally convicted of the offence of murder," Mr Justice Kevin Zervos said. "As provided under the Offences Against the Persons Ordinance, a person convicted of murder shall be jailed for life."

"Thanks," Husnain responded through his Urdu interpreter.

The judge will explain his reasons for the sentence on Wednesday.A comfort woman statue in front of the Japanese Embassy in Jongno-gu, Seoul, attracts passers-by for a selfie. / Korea Times file



By Clifford Lo

Police arrested a 51-year-old man in the early hours of Thursday on suspicion of stealing two "comfort women" statues placed near the Japanese consulate in Hong Kong.

The incident happened on the Connaught Road Central footbridge near Exchange Square in the city's financial centre at about 12.45am. The office of the consulate is in One Exchange Square.

The fibreglass statues representing Chinese and Korean women  each weighing 32kg  were placed there, along with donation boxes and chairs, by the Action Committee for Defending the Diaoyu Islands group since July to mark the start of hostilities between China and Japan in 1937.

The activist group wanted them to serve as a reminder to the public of the Asian women used as sex slaves by the Japanese army during the second world war.

Police said a passer-by made a 999 emergency call after the suspect was seen in the area pushing a trolley loaded with the statues, two donation boxes and two chairs.

A police spokeswoman said the man was intercepted by officers at Connaught Place, a short distance from the crime scene, and the stolen items had been recovered.

Officers arrested the suspect  a Hong Kong identity card holder  for theft. He is being held for questioning and has not been charged. Detectives from Central police district are handling the case.

Separately, three men aged between 37 and 48 were arrested for stealing 50 gratings used to cover the drains in a Mui Shu Hang Road park in Tai Po at about 4am on Thursday. Police said the haul was worth about HK$10,000 (US$1,280).

Officers also impounded a car, a truck, an electric tricycle and a trolley.

The three Hongkongers were detained at Tai Po police station for questioning and have not been charged.

Official figures show police handled 23,806 reports of theft last year, down 7.1 per cent compared with 25,628 in 2016.People react after an earthquake shook buildings in Mexico City, Mexico February 16, 2018. / REUTERS



A 7.2 magnitude quake rocked Mexico on Friday, a prolonged rumble that the government said had caused minor damage to buildings in the southern state of Oaxaca, but with no preliminary reports of deaths.

The epicenter was about 90 miles (145 km) from Pacific coast surfer resort Puerto Escondido in the southern state of Oaxaca and had a depth of 15.3 miles (24.6 km), according to the U.S. Geological Survey. Both the south of Mexico and the capital are still reeling from earthquakes that caused widespread damage in September and the powerful, sustained shaking on Friday caused widespread panic.

Patricia Gutierrez, a 66-year-old English teacher, was taking a nap with her 11-month-old granddaughter, Juliet, when she heard an earthquake alarm in Mexico City.

"She recognized the sound. When I opened my eyes, I saw her eyes in terror. Her eyes were wide, like plates. She didn't say anything," Gutierrez said of her granddaughter. Gutierrez managed to leave her ground floor apartment before the quake began. "I left the phone and everything except for my shoes and the baby," she said.

Authorities said no deaths had been reported nationally.



BRICKS AND RUBBLE



Interior Minister Alfonso Navarrete said there was some superficial damage to buildings in Oaxaca, and the state's governor said about 100,000 people had lost power.

In the town of Pinotepa Nacional near the quake's epicenter, a photo obtained from Oaxaca's civil protection agency showed a single-story building where a portion of the brick facade crumbled into the street.

Other images in the media appeared to show bricks and rubble fallen from buildings, and products tumbling off shelves in a supermarket. National oil firm Pemex said its installations were in order, including its biggest refinery 240 miles (386 km) from the epicenter.

A hotel operator in Puerto Escondido said his property had no damage. Tremors were felt as far away as Guatemala to the south.

In Mexico City, tall buildings swayed for more than a minute as seismic alarms sounded, with older structures in the chic Condesa neighborhood knocking into each other, and some cracks appearing in plaster and paintwork.

The Popocatepetl volcano south of the capital sent a kilometer-high column of ash into the sky, said Mexico's disaster prevention agency. Two young men standing by a building that collapsed in a Sept. 19 earthquake were still hugging minutes after the tremor.

People crowded in the streets, one lady in her pajamas. Trees, overhead cables and cars swayed, and a fire truck raced down the street. Guadalupe Martinez, a 64-year-old retiree, said she was still shaking from shock.

But the quake was a far cry from the tremors that struck Mexico in September, Martinez said. "This time it was strong, but it did not jump up and down," she said. (REUTERS)Students can play a good quality instrument for their whole time with Fort Wayne Community Schools thanks to the b instrumental program, says Bruce Schneider, coordinator.Kendallville, IN (46755)

Today

Some clouds. Slight chance of a rain shower. Low 61F. Winds light and variable..

Tonight

Some clouds. Slight chance of a rain shower. Low 61F. Winds light and variable.Rome, February 28 - Vincenzo Boccia, the president of Italian industrial employers' confederation Confindustria, and the leaders of Italy's big three trade unions reached an agreement overnight for a new model for industrial relations and collective labour contracts, a joint statement said Wednesday. The agreement is set to be signed on March 9 after the unions, CGIL, CISL and UIL, have verified the details.Rome, Febraury 28 - The education ministry is set to take disciplinary action against an elementary-school teacher who insulted police during recent clashes with far-left protesters in Turin, Education Minister Valeria Fedeli said Wednesday. "It is unacceptable to hear from the voice of a teacher words of hatred and violence against the forces of law and order," she said. The education ministry opened disciplinary proceedings against the teacher on the basis of a report from the Piedmont regional schools office on Wednesday, Fedeli said. The teacher, Lavinia Flavia Cassaro, was caught on TV, during a demo against the far-right CasaPound group, shouting at police: "Cowards, you make me sick, you must die". She also said she was ready to fight them if they put down their truncheons, shouting "Without truncheons, when you want, Fascists". The woman, who lives in Turin, moves in far-left 'antagonist' anticapitalist and anarchists circles, sources said. Six police were hurt, none seriously, in the clashes with the antagonists who were trying to get at the neo-Fascist CasaPound rally on February 23. Police union COCER on Wedneday published an open letter to Cassaro from the daughter of a Carabiniere saying "every time he puts on his boots and closes his belt I'm really afraid that someone will kill him. "Perhaps you don't know what that means".COLUMN: Recent streak of crime, rancor, complicity spell doom for decency What in the hell is going on? Granted, in the last 18 months  with the pandemic as a reason or an excuse, depending on your perspective  life has taken...

This Sept. 11, will revisiting the past reset our present? Two decades after the Sept. 11 terror attacks, there are distinct perspectives for those looking back on a day that stopped a nation in its tracks. Many of those who...Here come the robot cars.

Sometime this spring, self-driving test cars will begin appearing on California highways, with no people inside, the result of new regulations issued by the state Department of Motor Vehicles this week.

The rules, first proposed last October, will also allow ride-hailing companies such as Uber and Lyft to begin selling rides in driverless cars, removing expensive human drivers from the equation. Technically, that could happen this year, although no ride-hailing companies have yet announced such plans. (Its unclear whether robot taxis would require approval by the California Utilities Commission in addition to the DMV.)

We do intend to do that eventually, said a spokesman for Waymo, the driverless-car arm of Google parent Alphabet. Lyft said it was encouraged by the regulations. Uber called the new rules a significant step.

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For now, the California regulations bar driverless trucks, motorcycles and cars with trailers. Uber said it look[s] forward to working with California as it develops regulations applicable to autonomous trucks. (Uber owns Otto, an autonomous truck company.)

Until now, driverless cars were allowed on California roads only with a human behind the wheel. The new rules  which were sought by automakers, Silicon Valley technology companies and many safety advocates  loosen restrictions on testing and, crucially, set standards to allow the sale or lease of robot cars and their operation by ride-hailing fleets.

Those deployments will start small but grow fast, said Bryant Walker Smith, a specialist in autonomous vehicle regulation at the University of South Carolina School of Law. Already, Waymo plans to deploy a robot-car ride-hailing service in the Phoenix area later this year.

In general, these regulations move California in the right direction and align California more closely with what the rest of the nation is doing, said Nidhi Kalra, co-director of the Center for Decision Making Under Uncertainty at the research group RAND Corp.

Not everyone is happy with the new regulations. John Simpson of Consumer Watchdog in Santa Monica has long argued that robot cars should not be allowed until theyre proved safe, and that the new regulations in some ways make things worse.

A remote test operator will be allowed to monitor and attempt to control the robot car from afar, he said. It will be just like playing a video game, except lives will be at stake.

Hes referring to a new DMV rule that requires remote monitoring of robot cars, allowing a human to use communications networks to take over the car in case of trouble. Companies such as Nissan are already testing remote systems that can, for example, reroute cars around unexpected obstacles.

Other systems, like one provided by Silicon Valley startup Phantom Auto, use a human in a remote operations center with a steering wheel and brake that could route a driverless car around uncharted or confusing obstacles, such as an accident scene or an unexpected construction site.

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Everyone understands, although this tech has gotten to an incredible point, its not 100 percent yet, said Elliot Katz, a Phantom co-founder.

The need for remote operators is debatable  Arizona and Florida dont require them, for example. But safety is bound to remain a central issue as robot cars are deployed in increasing numbers.

RANDs Kalra, who specializes in safety statistics, said robot cars have proved less likely to get into minor crashes than human drivers. But when it comes to injuries and fatalities, we wont be able to know until weve had hundreds of millions or billions of miles of driving history, she said.

Banning driverless cars until the answer is clear would mean robot cars would never be deployed, she said. The United States suffers nearly 40,000 traffic fatalities a year, with 94% caused by distraction and other human error, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation.

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The key, Kalra said, is early deployment in locations that offer fair weather, well-marked streets, in neighborhoods where it makes sense.

Waymo, for example, began its Arizona deployment in the Phoenix suburb of Chandler, where the streets are on a neat grid, there is little foliage to block the view, and few pedestrians brave the heat.

California took the lead in driverless car regulation in 2012, when the Legislature ordered the DMV to come up with rules.

Those rules, issued in 2014, set up a permit process that some companies complained was too cumbersome. States such as Michigan and Florida implemented rules that were far less restrictive.

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Arizona pointedly created no new rules at all. In 2016, Uber took its Volvo driverless test cars off the streets of San Francisco and sent them to Arizona.

Waymo enrolled Phoenix-area residents in an Early Rider program last year for free rides in driverless Chrysler Pacifica minivans. On Jan. 24, Arizona officials green-lighted Waymos application to become a ride-hailing company. Later this year, Waymo plans to compete with Lyft and Uber in Phoenix, but will not hire human drivers.

Silicon Valley has been joined by traditional carmakers in the transition to autonomous driving. On Tuesday, Ford said it has begun introducing a fleet of driverless test cars in Miami that will grow into the thousands. The fleet will test out the automakers Transportation Mobility Cloud that could provide a computerized ride-hailing platform for its development partner Lyft and others. Already, driverless Ford cars are delivering Dominos pizzas in Ann Arbor, Mich.

What happens to human drivers is one big issue not under the DMVs purview. During breakfast at the Four Seasons hotel in San Francisco on Tuesday, Uber Chief Executive Dara Khosrowshahi was overheard talking to seven other people at a large table about how to keep Ubers human drivers happy during the transition to robot control.

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russ.mitchell@latimes.com

Twitter: @russ1mitchellStrange and wonderful things are coming to the Petersen Automotive Museum.

The Miracle Mile facility, devoted to the art and science of four-wheeled vehicles, will host its first-ever exhibit dedicated to the art of custom motorcycles.

The Custom Revolution show will begin a one-year run April 14. It will include about 25 motorcycles, from 25 different bike builders, representing the best of whats known as alt custom design.

The show will be guest-curated by motorcycle historian Paul dOrleans, founder of the Vintagent website and respected author of multiple books on motorcycle design and culture.

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The exhibit will feature motorcycles that have never been seen together. Many have never been exhibited in a museum space.

The collection will include such iconic machines as Ian Barrys Black Falcon, Mark Atkinson and Mehmet Doruk Erdems BMW Alpha, El Solitarios Petardro, Kingston Customs White Phantom, Revival Cycles J63 Ducati, Shinya Kimuras Needle, Roland Sands 2 Stroke Attack and Medaza Cycles Rondine.

DOrleans, who is also a columnist for Cycle World magazine, said he hoped the show would demonstrate the degree to which outsider motorcycle design is actually leading the motorcycle industry.

Every motorcycle history ever written has been driven by factory histories, but in fact it has been the creativity of custom designers and racers that has always been the leading edge, DOrleans said. Factories follow, not the other way around.

The Petersen has included some motorcycles in its permanent exhibit since the late 2015 remodel and reopening. Many key Petersen board members, in fact, are keen motorcyclists  including Bruce Meyer and Richard Varner.

Petersen personnel hope that attendees drawn by the motorcycle exhibit will be exposed to automotive arts and that car fans might have their consciousness raised about motorcycles.

People may forget that the first motorized vehicles were actually motorcycles, said Varner, who is also the Petersen treasurer and chief financial officer of MotoAmerica. Everything that you love about the automobile probably started as technology on a motorcycle.

Bryan Stevens, the museums creative and exhibitions director, said that although motorcycles may seem a departure for the Petersen, this exhibit is in keeping with its overall credo.

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In all our exhibits we try to look for cultural crossover, and this is a phenomenon that melds motorcycles and art and even fine art, as well as engineering and fabrication, Stevens said. Many of these motorcycles are meant not to be driven but to be contemplated, like an art piece.

Stevens said the seeds of the exhibit were planted in the early 2000s, when he was living in downtown Los Angeles not far from the garage where Barry was building his now-famous Falcon motorcycles.

Stevens interest in alt custom bikes was further fueled by the website Bikeexif.com, the online bible of motorcycle art, and by a series of books called The Ride, to which DOrleans has contributed.

Besides, Stevens said, the art of the alt custom motorcycle is also a homegrown Los Angeles product.

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Its a global phenomenon now, but it has a definite L.A. component, he said. Some of the most significant bike builders are from here.

DOrleans, who as author of the book The Chopper: The Real Story is considered an authority on that kind of custom motorcycle, said there will be no bikes of that sort at the Petersen show.

Thats not part of the vision for this exhibit, DOrleans said. So there wont be anything from Arlen Ness or Jesse James.

Entrance to the exhibit is included with a general admission ticket  $16 for adults, $13 for seniors and students, $8 for children  which can be purchased online or at the museum.

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charles.fleming@latimes.com

@misterflemingOne of the longest and most colorful battles in Wall Street history is over.

Bill Ackman has almost entirely exited his investment position in Herbalife Ltd., ending a campaign to drive down the companys share price that lasted more than five years, according to a person familiar with the matter. The move follows a steady rise in the shares of the Los Angeles-based company, which Ackman repeatedly called an illegal pyramid scheme and vowed to destroy.

Ackman had already signaled that he was stepping back from his fight against Herbalife, which sells weight-loss shakes and vitamins. The 51-year-old billionaire said in November that his fund, Pershing Square Capital Management, has shifted its short position to put options  a move that limited the downside risk. He has since effectively sold all of those holdings, said the person, who asked not to be identified because the matter is private.

A representative for Pershing Square declined to comment.

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With a short bet, an investor has to cover the position if the stock rises. Options, meanwhile, expire without taking an additional hit. Both kinds of investments could have made money if Herbalifes shares had declined enough.

That didnt happen. Shares in Herbalife have more than doubled since the day before Ackman disclosed his position on Dec. 12, 2012.

The stock rose a further 11% in trading Wednesday in New York, reaching a record $95.93. The run-up followed the announcement of several strategic initiatives to enhance shareholder value, including potentially buying back up to $650 million worth of its shares.

Herbalife also announced it would change its name to Herbalife Nutrition Inc., potentially giving the business more of a health-conscious halo. Management has repeatedly denied the pyramid-scheme allegations.

Ackman had accused Herbalife of being an illegal operation that relied on an army of outside distributors to recruit members with get-rich-quick schemes. He kicked off the campaign with a $1-billion bet against the company in 2012 and spent millions to investigate the business. He once delivered an emotional, nearly four-hour anti-Herbalife presentation that backfired  lifting the shares 25% that day.

But the crusade had its successes. Ackmans complaints triggered an investigation by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission in 2014, and Herbalife ultimately reached a $200-million settlement with the agency. Under the agreement, the company had to rein in its business practices  a move that Ackman said would cripple it. In the end, the reckoning never came.

The short position also put Ackman at odds with another billionaire investor, Carl Icahn, who became the companys biggest holder. Icahn has defended Herbalifes multilevel-marketing model and publicly assailed Ackman  on stages, television, in documentaries and online  since an initial CNBC phone-in fight between the two billionaires.

CNBC was the first to report Ackman had sold his position in Herbalife.

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Scott Deveau writes for Bloomberg.A woman told police she had a child with casino mogul Steve Wynn after he raped her, while another reported she was forced to resign from a Las Vegas job after she refused to have sex with him.

The Associated Press on Tuesday obtained copies of police reports recently filed by the two women with allegations dating to the 1970s. Police in Las Vegas revealed earlier this month that they had taken the statements after a news report in January revealed sexual misconduct allegations against the billionaire.

Wynn has vehemently denied the accusations and attributed them to a campaign led by his ex-wife, whose attorney has denied that she instigated the report by the Wall Street Journal.

One police report says a woman told officers that Wynn raped her at least three times around 1973 and 1974 at her Chicago apartment. She reported she got pregnant and gave birth to a girl in a gas station restroom.

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In one instance, the woman claimed that Wynn pinned her against a refrigerator in her apartment and raped her. She said he then made a phone call, kissed her on the cheek and left. The report does not explain how Wynn allegedly entered the apartment or whether Wynn and woman knew each other. The woman said she did not give him a key.

The second police report says a woman told police she had consensual sex with Wynn several times while she worked as a dealer at the Golden Nugget downtown Las Vegas casino-hotel, but felt coerced to perform the acts. She said she was forced to resign when she turned him down.

In the [s]ummer of 1976, Wynn approached her in the back hall and wanted her to go with him, according to a report filed Jan. 29. (S)he told him, no, she was done and had someone she was seeing. She was soon after accused of stealing $40 and forced to resign.

The womens names are redacted on the reports, and police said they do not identify people who say they are victims of sex crimes.

The Las Vegas case will not be investigated because the statute of limitations in Nevada is 20 years.

Wynn resigned as chairman and CEO of Wynn Resorts on Feb. 6, less than two weeks after the Wall Street Journal reported that a number of women said he harassed or assaulted them and that one case led to a $7.5-million settlement.

Ralph Frammolino, spokesman for Wynn, did not immediately respond to an emailed request for comment.

Wynn Resorts is facing scrutiny by gambling regulators in Nevada and Massachusetts, where the company is building a roughly $2.4-billion casino just outside Boston. Regulators in Macau, the Chinese enclave where the company operates two casinos, are also inquiring about the allegations.

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In addition, groups of shareholders have filed lawsuits in state court in Las Vegas accusing Wynn and the board of directors of Wynn Resorts of breaching their fiduciary duties by ignoring what the lawsuits described as a longstanding pattern of sexual abuse and harassment by the companys founder.In the latest frightening example of cockpit problems in high-performance military aircraft, the Navy is investigating a recent incident in which the cockpit temperature of an EA-18G Growler reportedly plunged to minus 30 degrees Fahrenheit. Ice coated flight instruments and windows, forcing the planes two-person crew to land using a Garmin watch and spoken instructions from air controllers.

Trade publication Defense News, which first reported the incident, said the crew suffered serious injuries from frostbite, including severe blistering and burns on their hands.

The jet, which specializes in jamming enemy electronics, took off Jan. 29 from Naval Air Station Whidbey Island in northern Washington and was bound for the Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake near Ridgecrest, Calif., where the aircraft is based, said Cmdr. Ron Flanders, Naval Air Forces spokesman.

The crew received a warning that the environmental control system that supports cabin air quality and temperature was icing, according to Defense News. Citing sources familiar with the incident and an internal report it obtained, the trade publication said a mist pumped into the cockpit and iced over windows and flight instruments, rendering the pilot and the planes weapons system officer almost completely blind.

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The crew was able to successfully land the plane back at Whidbey Island, Flanders said. One of the crew members has since returned to a flight status, meaning they are cleared for flight. The other flier has not yet been cleared, though they, too, are expected to make a full recovery, he said.

Flanders said he could not provide further details of the flight or the reported injuries due to the Navys investigation into the matter and patient privacy laws. Results of the investigation will determine whether further action is necessary, he said.

A spokesman for the Boeing Co., which builds the F/A-18 E/F Super Hornet and its derivative, the EA-18G Growler, said the company could not comment on this specific incident or the environmental control system because of the Navy investigation.

The incident with the Growler is the latest in-cockpit flight issue the U.S. military has dealt with. Pilots have reported oxygen deficiency, also known as hypoxia, while flying a variety of fighter planes, including the F/A-18 E/F Super Hornet, the F-22 and the F-35A.

Modern fighter pilots dont get enough oxygen in their bloodstream when flying at high altitudes, meaning that the aircraft must produce its oxygen on-board during flight. Pilots breathe that oxygen through a mask.

Last year, the Navy set up a physiological event action team to identify and find solutions to so-called physiological episodes, which include hypoxia and other conditions.

Analysts said the Growler incident seemed to be an unusual failure of the environmental control system. An industry official said various companies, including Northrop Grumman Corp, Parker and Honeywell, manufacture a series of valves and regulators for the system.

Many major components of the F/A-18 E/F Super Hornet are made in Southern California, including the rear and center section of the fuselage and the planes radar and conformal fuel tanks. California is home to 274 suppliers for the program.

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samantha.masunaga@latimes.com

Twitter: @smasunagaFor fall and winter 2018, Diors artistic director  and an unapologetic feminist  Maria Grazia Chiuri looked to the turbulent 1960s for inspiration, using a venue plastered with colorful collage-like images of fashion magazines from the decade (Elle, Harpers Bazaar and Vogue, among them) as the backdrop for a collection that was patched together, colorful and 60s-centric.

The show notes cited the 50th anniversary of 1968 specifically as an opportunity to revive an era when the rules of fashion were turned on their head, as well as the September 1966 picketing of a Dior boutique by miniskirt-wearing protesters whose signs read, Mini Skirts Forever, and Diana Vreelands coining of the word Youthquake in January 1965 (a full 52 years before it was dubbed Oxford Dictionarys 2017 word of the year).

The specific year(s) aside, what Grazia Chiuri and company were trying to tap into was the eras seemingly swift shift from top-down fashion dictated by the fashion houses and the glossy magazines to fashion that started bubbling up from the street as personal style (think embroidered jeans, hand-knit pieces and whole garments cobbled together from patches of fabric). Put aside just for a moment the fact that this just-gotta-be-me approach to style is being put forth by one of the planets most recognizable luxury brands.

So it comes as no surprise, that patchworked pieces were the stars of the fall and winter runway collection at Dior, turning up in colorful patchworked knee-length coats, roomy high-waisted trousers, dresses with delicate lace collars paired with wide leather belts sporting chunky D belt buckles as well as backpacks and knee-high boots, most with whimsical feather-stitch embroidery over top. More patchwork, or at least patchwork patterns, turned up in a range of denim pieces including coats and high-waisted trousers.

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Versions of the sheer tulle tops from previous collections made an appearance; the latest ones embellished with shoulder pads decorated with needlepoint-like designs. Also, tulle skirts came embroidered with floral vines or in plaid patterns that were paired with plaid menswear-inspired jackets or leather biker jackets.

Slouchy sweaters with intarsia knit protest-chic designs were sprinkled throughout, including a peace sign on one and the French slogan, Cest non, non, non et non! on another (translation: Its no, no, no and no!), and many looks were given an extra dash of retro flair thanks to tinted sunnies, suede newsboy caps and strappy bags with woven fringe and metalwork detail.

Looks from the fall and winter 2018 Saint Laurent runway collection presented on Feb. 27, 2018, during Paris Fashion Week. (Etienne Laurent / EPA-EFE /REX /Shutterstock (left, second from left and far right), Alain Jocard /AFP /Getty Images (second from right) )

Several hours later, Saint Laurent closed out the first full day of the Paris Fashion Week shows by visiting the more recent past  the 80s to be precise  sending a series of strong-shouldered looks (for men and women) down the runway. Versions included bold-shouldered black velvet jackets paired with black leather dolphin shorts and mini-dresses in multicolored floral sequins with shoulders that looked sharp enough to grind an ax on.

The shoulder was also bared on many a look; sometimes just one, other times both  in the latter case, framed by either a simple scoop of a neckline or an immense ring of jet black fur that appeared to almost undulate around the models upper body like an immense woolly bear caterpillar.

Some of last seasons quivering feather-festooned footwear was back on the Saint Laurent runway for fall, but the statement kicks that caught our attention coming down the catwalk this time were the generously fur-trimmed black boots that had a swashbuckling lady pirate feel to them  a feeling that was heightened further when the models were also accessorized in black, silver-studded do-rags and fierce kohl-rimmed eyes.

With only day one in the rearview mirror, its too soon to draw any conclusions about where this round of Paris Fashion Week shows is headed, but it sure feels like the recent past  the last 50 or so years  is a prelude to fashions not-so-distant future.

adam.tschorn@latimes.com

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For more musings on all things fashion and style, follow me at @ARTschorn.Vogue is putting an indefinite hold on its partnership with Vice, WWD has learned. The project, tentatively called Project Vs, was slated to launch today, but the Vogue and Vice staffers working on it were told earlier this week that it was getting put on a pause for the foreseeable future.

Both Vogue and Vice are committed to creating the most relevant, innovative content experiences for audiences, and at this time, have mutually decided to delay their content collaboration, spokespeople from Vogue and Vice confirmed in a joint statement.

The two media brands raised eyebrows in October when they announced they would collaborate on an editorial venture because they seemed to be an unlikely pairing.

Vogue and Vice may appear to some to see the world through different lenses, Conde Nast artistic director and editor in chief of Vogue Anna Wintour said at the time. But in my view, both are fearless and breathtaking, with unquenchable curiosity and vigor. This collaboration will benefit from two talented editorial teams working together to produce relevant and exciting stories about the way we live now.

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But shortly before the new year, The New York Times published its long-awaited investigation into allegations of sexual harassment at Vice and, according to sources, multiple sponsors got cold feet.

An inside source attributed it to the loss of corporate sponsorship due to Vices struggles following the #MeToo investigation and continuing allegations at the Brooklyn-based media company.

As recently as mid-February, the project seemed like it was a go despite the acknowledged awkwardness surrounding the allegations about Vices workplace culture and Conde Nasts code of conduct for photographers and models, which it instituted in January following allegations of sexual harassment in the fashion industry.

Vogue feels optimistic about Vices significant commitments to a respectful, inclusive and equal workplace and are encouraged by the collaborative efforts their editorial team has shown during the past several months. We look forward to sharing the content weve created together in the coming weeks, Vogue said in a statement to Digiday earlier this month. After that story came out, a report in The Boston Globe of sexual misconduct prompted Conde Nast to sever ties with several fashion photographers.In May, the greatest professional surfers from Australia to Brazil will come to battle it out in some of the most pristine waves in California  in the dusty croplands of Kings County.

The World Surf League announced this week it plans to hold one of its contests at Kelly Slaters artificial wave pool in Lemoore.

Slater, the 11-time world champion considered the best of all time, spent 10 years working with a USC aerospace engineer to design a perfect wave, peeling 700 yards along a recontoured water ski lake. Videos of the wave, with hollow barrel sections and open faces to do aerials and cutbacks, have captivated the surfing world since the first one appeared in December 2015. But only a select few have been invited to see it, much less ride it.

A wave of that shape sits in the subconsciousness of every surfer in the world, longtime Surfer magazine editor Steve Hawk told The Times in 2016. That wave is exactly the fantasy wave I drew on the margins of my notebooks when I was in high school.

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For the first time, the facility, the Surf Ranch, will be open to the public during the contest, according to a World Surf League news release. The two-day competition on May 5-6, the Founders Cup of Surfing, will have a festival backdrop honoring the culture of surfing  food, music, beverage, art and special guests will all be on site for enjoyment.

In an unusual format, the wave-riders will not compete individually but in five-person teams (three men, two women) representing different parts of the world: Australia, the U.S., Europe and Brazil, and one team representing the best athletes from other surfing parts of the world, such as South Africa and Japan.

Global teams of engineers and surfers are vying to build artificial wave pools that can produce high-quality waves that come in rapid enough succession to create an economically viable surf amusement park. An obstacle has been energy use and the length of time the water needs to settle after a wave rolls through before the next one can come.

At a contest, this is less of an issue because of the small number of surfers in the water. And the bonus for contest organizers: the mood swings of nature are mostly out of the equation; no need to wait for distant storms to produce ocean swells. Barring mechanical failure, perfect waves will be coming on May 5.

joe.mozingo@latimes.com

@joemozingoIt was almost like old times.

Everywhere I looked Tuesday in a downtown San Diego courthouse, I saw a former California Coastal commissioner whose conduct is under scrutiny.

Former Commissioners Wendy Mitchell, Martha McClure and Steve Kinsey were all there, with current Commissioners Erik Howell and Mark Vargas expected to join the party soon.

The reason for the reunion is that theyre all being sued. A group called Spotlight on Coastal Corruption accuses the five commissioners of hundreds of violations of rules involving private communications with parties engaged in project applications before the commission.

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So it felt as if it were 2015 all over again  the year when crowds of protesters turned out to monthly Coastal Commission showdowns that played like a traveling circus.

I miss those times.

I miss Mitchell questioning the science on a vernal pool that looked to her like a ditch, and then trying to explain how she happened to vote on a project involving a client.

I miss Kinsey having to recuse himself on a project after a Times expose about his failure to follow the rules in disclosing his meetings with the developer.

And I miss McClure cussing me out like a sailor when I asked why she stayed at the home of a lobbyist who does business before the commission.

Their antics were so preposterous, public outcries and intense media scrutiny forced a housecleaning, and the operation is substantially improved today, with several new commissioners in place.

But lets get back to the lawsuit. The private meetings in question are referred to as ex parte communications, and theyre legal when you play by the rules (although they should be banned altogether to avoid the stink of impropriety). The lawsuit alleges that on 590 occasions over a two-year period, commissioners either failed to report such meetings, turned in reports late, or failed to provide the required full accounts of the substance of the private conversations.

They were extremely sloppy, in other words, or acted in outright defiance, one could argue. A crack Times reporting staff dug up solid evidence that the majority of ex partes were with developers, project applicants and their lobbyists, and that commissioners often rubber-stamped ex parte disclosures written for them.

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By whom?

Hold your nose.

By the lobbyists.

Ill never forget Commissioner Vargas clamming up when I asked him why he met in Ireland with a U2 rocker a few days before voting in his favor on a massive Malibu project, and then writing an ex parte report that could have fit on the back of a stamp. I gradually raised my voice, thinking Vargas might have a hearing problem, but he pretended I wasnt there. I guess I shouldve been grateful, because this is the same schnook who screamed F-bombs at spectators who tried to ask a question at a meeting.

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If the allegations against the commissioners are proved, each could face several millions of dollars in fines. And I thought youd like to know a couple of details about how that might work.

The commissioners, lets not forget, are the ones who got sued. Not the Coastal Commission, a state agency made up of the appointed commissioners and several dozen staffers whose job is to review proposed coastal projects, protect the states treasured shore and defend the right of public access.

But in defending against the lawsuit, the five commissioners got themselves a pretty good deal. Instead of having to hire their own lawyers, theyre being represented by the state attorney generals office.

On the public dime.

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No telling what thats costing you. But if youve already broken out in hives, youll love this addendum:

Last week, Deputy Atty. Gen. Joel Jacobs, on behalf of his boss, Xavier Becerra, offered a settlement deal. Lets call the whole thing off, the AGs office said in its pitch to Spotlights lawyer, offering to pay the plaintiffs $250,000 to make the case go away.

And who would pay the quarter of a million dollars?

Payment is contingent upon appropriation by the Legislature and Governor, said the settlement offer.

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Unless Im interpreting incorrectly, that means you and I would pay.

I have to tell you that this offer is one of the most outrageous things I have ever heard, said Kathryn Burton, president of Spotlight.

Taxpayers dont pay for public officials speeding tickets, Spotlight lawyer Cory Briggs said in a statement. Why should the taxpayers pay any other fine imposed on a public official when he or she breaks the law? And why is Xavier Becerra defending them for free and trying to protect their personal pocketbooks?

These questions are almost as interesting as the case itself. If the state offered to pay a $250,000 settlement covered by taxpayers, does that mean it would expect taxpayers to fork over millions if the commissioners lose this case?

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It was clear from his opening statement Tuesday that Briggs will try to convince Superior Court Judge Timothy Taylor that commissioners didnt just repeatedly break the rules, but that they knew what they were doing.

Its one thing if, in the performance of your duty as a public official, you make a mistake. But if you knowingly and repeatedly ignore the rules, why should the public be on the hook for the penalties when you get caught?

In court Tuesday, Jacobs, the deputy AG, suggested I direct my questions to the press office, which I intend to do.

In his opening statement of a trial expected to last a couple of weeks, Jacobs characterized his clients as hard-working, unpaid public servants whose decisions earned them no financial gain. There was no corruption, he said, and if the commissioners did not always strictly comply with ex parte rules, they substantially complied, and it would be unfair to fine them millions of dollars.

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Briggs opened with a history of the inspired activism that led to the Coastal Act in the 1970s, making commissioners duty-bound to the ideal that the California coast is never saved; its always being saved from monied interests. And its owned not by the high and mighty but by the public.

He spent hours grilling Mitchell, the first witness, trying to establish that a failure by commissioners to honor the letter and spirit of ex parte rules put the public at a disadvantage.

The spectators included former San Diego County Supervisor Pam Slater-Price, who joined several friends from Del Mar and Encinitas.

Slater-Price said she has a problem with the free defense for the commissioners, she was incensed by the $250,000 settlement offer, and she wont stand for having to pay if the commissioners lose.

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They knew what they were doing, she said.

Get more of Steve Lopezs work and follow him on Twitter @LATstevelopezObama portraits: In an art column in the Feb. 14 Calendar section about paintings of Barack and Michelle Obama on view at the National Portrait Gallery, Amy Sheralds portrait of Michelle Obama was inadvertently printed with natural skin tones rather than Sheralds trademark gray-scale, reminiscent of black-and-white photography.

State Democratic convention: In the Feb. 27 California section, an article about how the #MeToo movement affected the California Democratic Party convention quoted Assemblyman Rob Bonta (D-Alameda) as saying men need to stand in solidarity with men. He said men need to stand in solidarity with women.

If you believe that we have made an error, or you have questions about The Times journalistic standards and practices, you may contact Deirdre Edgar, readers representative, by email at readers.representative@latimes.com, by phone at (877) 554-4000, by fax at (213) 237-3535 or by mail at 202 W. 1st St., Los Angeles, CA 90012. The readers representative office is online at latimes.com/readersrep.The University of California has slipped in the rankings of an annual global survey of higher education, escalating concerns that funding woes and growing international competition are beginning to erode the quality of the nations top public research university.

The survey released Wednesday by QS Quacquarelli Symonds, assessed nine UC campuses in more than three dozen subjects. Ratings dropped in 80 categories and improved in 24.

UC Berkeley and UCLA still were ranked in the top 10 universities in the world  with Berkeley tied with Harvard for third and UCLA in seventh place  but the biggest declines came at those flagship campuses. UCLA slipped in 22 subjects and improved in four while UC Berkeley dropped in 15 areas and rose in two. In civil and structural engineering, for instance, UCLAs ranking fell from 40th to 51st and Berkeleys from second to fifth.

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This is the first year where its been so significant, Jack Moran, QS spokesman, said of UCs slippage across campuses and subject areas.

The higher-education report by the London-based analyst is one of the most closely watched.

The annual survey assessed 1,138 universities worldwide in terms of academic reputation, graduates employability and research performance  based on the number of academic papers produced and how many times they were cited. The researchers sent surveys to 75,000 faculty members and 40,000 hiring managers around the world to assess institutions reputations for academic excellence and the employability of their graduates. UC campuses received rankings in 40 of 48 total subjects considered, from accounting to veterinary sciences.

UC faculty leaders said the results confirm their fears that the universitys excellence would decline without greater state investment. The state share of costs per student dropped from $14,690 in 1996 to $7,160 in 2017, according to UC data. The university has made up some of the difference by hiking tuition and increasing the number of out-of-state students, who pay more, but both efforts have sparked opposition.

There has been a steady, sustained disinvestment in the UC and this is the inevitable result, said Shane White, chairman of the UC Academic Senate. This is probably the tip of the iceberg.

UCs funding woes, White said, are beginning to cripple the universitys ability to keep top-notch faculty members from jumping to rivals with deeper pockets. In 2013, USC wooed away a leading UCLA neuroscientist and his 100-person lab. Two years later, USCs successful recruitment of a UC San Diego expert in Alzheimers disease kicked off a high-stakes legal battle over which campus owns the research.

But the bigger concern, White said, was the steady loss of rank-and-file professors. Five of his most respected colleagues in the UCLA dentistry department, he said, have left in recent years. Some have gone to other universities. Others have gone into private practice or taken government jobs or jobs at nonprofits.

Theres a sense that were losing some of the best and the brightest at the high point of their careers, White said.

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Robert May, the Academic Senates vice chairman and a UC Davis philosophy professor, said he has seen a similar trend at his campus. He said Davis recently lost a leading faculty member to Northwestern University, which offered about $20,000 more in salary. Meanwhile, financial constraints kept his department from successfully recruiting two professors, he said.

May and White said that such cases belie Gov. Jerry Browns famous assertion during his first term that UC professors should be satisfied with psychic income. The financial squeeze has forced most campuses to replace more senior faculty who leave with junior faculty, creating at least a short-term gap in expertise.

A 2016 survey of about 100 UC faculty members considering other options found that salary was most frequently cited as a reason to leave. Other top reasons included the quality of colleagues and reputation of the institution or department.

Ultimately, about 44% of those faculty members surveyed by Harvard Universitys Collaborative on Academic Careers in Higher Education decided to leave. Susan Carlson, UCs vice provost for academic personnel, called it a constant challenge to retain and recruit high-quality faculty.

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It reinforces the importance of compensating faculty before they think about looking elsewhere for work, Carlson said.

The declines in UCs rankings were part of a broader dip in performance among American universities, the researchers said. Among schools with the highest number of subjects ranked in the top 10, UC Berkeley slipped from second to third place, outperformed by the University of Cambridge and the University of Oxford in England. Overall, U.S. universities took a smaller share of top positions than they did last year.

Asian universities in particular are investing billions of dollars in boosting their research programs, Moran said. The National University of Singapore made the top 10 list this year for the first time.

To be clear, its going to be some time before the U.S.s preeminence as a higher-education research nation could reasonably be said to be in dispute, Ben Sowter, QS research director, said in a statement. But our 2018 results indicate that it is being relentlessly diminished by increasingly competitive research programs in nations around the world.USC names retired aerospace executive Wanda Austin as acting president, announces Nikias departure By Harriet Ryan USC appointed a retired aerospace executive as interim president and laid out a detailed plan for selecting a permanent leader Tuesday, ending speculation about whether outgoing President C.L. Max Nikias might remain in the post. Nikias, embattled over his administrations handling of a campus gynecologist accused of sexually abusing patients, relinquished his duties after a meeting of USCs board. The trustees tapped one of their own, Wanda Austin, an alumna and former president of the Aerospace Corp., to temporarily run the university. The trustees also approved the formation of a search committee and the hiring of firm Isaacson, Miller to coordinate the selection of a successor. A second search company, Heidrick & Struggles, will also advise trustees. Read More Facebook

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Ex-student sues elite Brentwood School after teacher is charged with sexually abusing him By Richard Winton A former student sued the elite Brentwood School on Monday in the wake of a female teacher being charged with repeatedly having sex with the minor, alleging that other faculty members encouraged the unlawful behavior and failed to report it to authorities. The lawsuit accuses the private school, whose students include the children of many of Hollywoods elite and L.A.s powerful, of acting negligently and allowing Aimee Palmitessa to abuse and batter the teenager sexually. The suit alleges that the student was abused in summer 2017 after one of the schools counselors offered words of encouragement to the then-17-year-old, identified in the suit as only John Doe, to engage in an illegal relationship with the teacher. Read More Facebook

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Civil jury vindicates fired Montebello school executives in whistleblower case By Howard Blume The Montebello school district is in dire straits  at risk of insolvency and under apparent criminal investigation. An outside audit in July found some teachers earning more than $200,000 a year, as well as improper raises, excess paid vacation time and inappropriate overtime, sick leave and car allowances. Fixing the district and pinpointing blame could take time. Read More Facebook

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L.A. schools fall short on safety measures, new report warns By Howard Blume After the mass shooting at Floridas Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in February, Los Angeles school officials reassured parents that much had been done to keep local schools safe. California had tougher gun laws, after all, and the school district paid close attention to students mental health. But a new report issued Monday by a panel convened to take a close look offers some cause for concern, flagging inconsistent campus safety measures, thinly spread mental health staff and inadequate coordination between the school district and other public agencies. With the stakes this high, we must strive to do better, said L.A. City Atty. Mike Feuer, who assembled the panel. Read More Facebook

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L.A. school district says more are graduating, but rate may not show it By Howard Blume The L.A. Unified School District has hopes of continuing its winning streak this year with another record graduation rate, but the official numbers may not show it. A senior district administrator warned the board Tuesday that graduation rates were likely to decline 2% to 3% across the state, even though L.A. Unified is likely doing better than ever in producing graduates, he said. The issue is that the state will now count high school students who transfer to adult school as dropouts, said Oscar Lafarga, who heads the districts office of data and accountability. Previously, schools treated these students as though they had simply enrolled in another high school, he said. Read More Facebook

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Betsy DeVos to California: Not so fast on that federal education plan By Joy Resmovits Education Secretary Betsy DeVos (Erik Lesser / European Pressphoto Agency) In April, Californias top education officials breathed a sigh of relief. After months of debate and back-and-forth with Betsy DeVos staff, they had finalized a plan to satisfy a major education law that aims to make sure all students get a decent education. The state focused on aligning its plan to fulfill the requirements of the federal Every Student Succeeds Act with Californias Local Control Funding Formula, which gives extra money to districts to help students who come from low-income families, are in the foster system or are English learners. But this week, DeVos team said not so fast. Jason Botel, the U.S. Department of Educations principal deputy assistant secretary, sent California education officials a letter asking for more information in such areas as measuring student progress, graduation rates and English learners. In an unsigned statement, the California Department of Education declared itself surprised and disappointed because officials thought  after a meeting with federal officials in Washington  that they were on the right track to get approval. Now the Every Student Succeeds Act plan will be up for discussion once again at the July meeting of the State Board of Education. The U.S. Department of Education has already approved most state plans. Every Student Succeeds is the Obama administrations 2015 replacement for the No Child Left Behind Act. Facebook

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L.A. school board sets a new goal: prepare every grad to be eligible to apply for Cal State or UC By Sonali Kohli Last month, Los Angeles school board president proposed a spate of highly ambitious mandates aimed at ensuring that every district graduate be eligible to apply to one of the states public four-year universities by 2023. By the time the L.A. Unified school board unanimously approved the resolution Tuesday, the original language had been watered down. The goal is no longer that in five years 100% of students meet the long list of benchmarks, which include not just college eligibility for graduates but first-grade reading proficiency and English fluency by sixth grade for all students who enter the district in kindergarten or first grade speaking another language. The original college-readiness goal, for example, called for 100% of all high school students to be eligible to apply to one of the states four-year universities. Now the goal seems to offer more wiggle room: Prepare all high school graduates to be eligible to apply to a California four-year university. Read More Facebook

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We have been hurt. More women say they were mistreated by USC gynecologist By Richard Winton USC student Anika Narayanan says she vividly recalls her first appointment with Dr. George Tyndall at the campus health center, alleging that he made several explicit comments during an examination she felt was inappropriate and invasive. When she came back for a second visit in 2016 after a nonconsensual sexual encounter, he allegedly chastised her, she said in a civil lawsuit and at a press conference Tuesday. He asked me if I had forgotten to use a condom again,  said Narayanan, 21. At one point, she said, Tyndall asked if I did a lot of doggy style,  she said. Read More Facebook

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L.A. Unified gives inspector general brief contract extension By Howard Blume The Los Angeles school board on Tuesday extended the contract of Ken Bramlett, its inspector general, by three months, though his job is far from secure and questions remain about the future direction of his watchdog office. Board members also unanimously promoted Vivian Ekchian, who had been the runner-up for the superintendents job, to deputy superintendent  the districts No. 2 position. Both moves had elements of peacemaking between different factions on the board. Read More Facebook

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USCs handling of complaints about campus gynecologist is being investigated by federal government By Harriet Ryan The U.S. Department of Education announced Monday that it has launched an investigation into how the University of Southern California handled misconduct complaints against a campus gynecologist, the latest fallout in a scandal that has prompted the resignation of USCs president, two law enforcement investigations and dozens of lawsuits. In revealing the inquiry by the departments Office of Civil Rights, officials rebuked USC for what they alleged was improper withholding of information about Dr. George Tyndall during a previous federal investigation. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos, who has been criticized for taking a less vigorous approach to examining sexual misconduct than predecessors, called for a systemic examination of USC and urged administrators to fully cooperate. Read More Facebook

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Judge to sentence woman and her boyfriend for the murder of an 8-year-old that led to L.A. child welfare reforms By Marisa Gerber A woman and her boyfriend are expected to be sentenced Thursday for the torture and murder of an 8-year-old boy whose killing in 2013 provoked public outrage, prompted sweeping reform of Los Angeles Countys child welfare system, and led to unprecedented criminal charges against social workers who handled the childs case. Pearl Sinthia Fernandez, 34, faces life in prison without the possibility of parole for her role in the death of her son, Gabriel. A jury decided last year that her boyfriend, Isauro Aguirre, 37, should be executed. When paramedics arrived at the boys Palmdale home in May 2013, Gabriel had slipped out of consciousness. He had a fractured skull, broken ribs, burned skin, missing teeth and BB pellets embedded in his groin. A paramedic would later testify that every inch of the boys small body had been abused. Read More Facebook

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L.A. Unifieds spending out of step with similar school systems, task force says By Howard Blume The Los Angeles school district is out of step with similar school systems, spending more on teachers pay and health benefits and less on activities that could enhance student learning, according to a new report by an outside task force. The L.A. Unified School District Advisory Task Force did not make specific recommendations, but instead posed a series of questions it said the district needs to answer to make sure its funding is aimed at providing a full opportunity for all students to succeed. What were trying to say is: Lets put the data on the table. Lets look at the truth. Lets be transparent and here are the numbers, said task force member Renata Simril. This is not to say that  we should cut teachers salaries. Read More Facebook

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Top USC medical school official feared dean was doing drugs and alerted administration, he testifies By Paul Pringle A former vice dean of USCs Keck School of Medicine testified Tuesday that he feared the schools then-dean, Dr. Carmen A. Puliafito, could be doing drugs and expressed concerns about his general well-being to the universitys No. 2 administrator before Puliafito abruptly left his job in 2016. Dr. Henri Fords testimony at a hearing of the state Medical Board marks the first suggestion that any USC administrator had suspicions about Puliafitos possible drug use before he stepped down. A Times investigation in 2017 found Puliafito led a secret second life of using illegal drugs with a circle of young criminals and addicts. Puliafito testified about his behavior at the hearing Tuesday, saying he took drugs with one young woman on a weekly basis. Ford said that he decided to alert USC Provost Michael Quick after receiving reports in early 2016 that Puliafito was partying in hotels with people of questionable reputation, and that he came to worry about his mental stability. Read More Facebook

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Why L.A. Unified may face financial crisis even with a giant surplus this year By Jessica Calefati With more than half a billion dollars socked away for next school year, the Los Angeles Unified School District hardly seems just two years from financial ruin. Its a scenario that is especially tough to swallow if youre a low-wage worker seeking a raise or a teacher who wants smaller classes. But budget documents show that todays $548-million surplus cannot be sustained  and that even basic services face steep, seemingly unavoidable cuts because of massive problems barreling the districts way. Theres a disconnect between the rosy short-term picture and what we know is coming, said board member Kelly Gonez. Read More Facebook

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We have failed: Top USC officials try to reassure students amid gynecologist scandal By Joy Resmovits Top administrators at USC are reaching out to students in the wake of misconduct allegations against the universitys longtime gynecologist, acknowledging failings and vowing reforms as they try to address growing outrage over the revelations. Several USC deans have sent out messages trying to reassure students and faculty that the university is committed to changing. We have failed, wrote Jack H. Knott, dean of USCs Sol Price School of Public Policy, in a May 24 letter. What happened is antithetical to everything we know is right. Read More Facebook

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Rick Caruso is named chair of USCs trustees, vows swift investigation of gynecologist scandal By Thomas Curwen The University of Southern Californias board of trustees has elected mall magnate Rick Caruso to be the new chair of the board, giving fresh leadership as the university navigates a widening scandal involving a longtime campus gynecologist. The move marks the latest effort by USC to address the case, which has sparked a criminal investigation by the Los Angeles Police Department and dozens of civil lawsuits. More than 400 people have contacted a hotline that the university established for patients to make reports about their experience with Dr. George Tyndall. In his first act as chairman, Caruso announced that the white-shoe L.A. law firm OMelveny & Myers would conduct a thorough and independent investigation into the gynecologists conduct and reporting failures at the clinic. He set an ambitious timeline for the review, pledging it would conclude before students return for the fall semester. Read More Facebook

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UC Berkeley students persistence helps win more liberal rules for in-state tuition By Teresa Watanabe Ifechukwu Okeke thought shed be a shoo-in for in-state tuition when she was admitted to UC Berkeley for fall 2016. She had moved to the United States from Nigeria in 2012 to go to Chaffey College in Rancho Cucamonga. By the time she got her acceptance to transfer to UC to study molecular and cell biology, she had lived in California four years. She had a California drivers license, bank account and rental records as proof. UC Berkeley, however, ruled she was a nonresident  which meant she would have to pay nearly $27,000 more. Read More Facebook

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State medical board calls former County-USC doctor a sexual predator, suspends his license By Matt Hamilton A UCLA cardiologist has been temporarily stripped of his medical license after state regulators described him as a sexual predator who assaulted three female colleagues when he was working and training at L.A. County-USC Medical Center. Read More Facebook

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Global California 2030' aims to get more students learning more languages By Joy Resmovits Tom Torlakson (Andrew Seng / Associated Press) Outgoing state Supt. of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson on Wednesday announced a new statewide effort to encourage students to learn more languages. Called Global California 2030, its goal is to help more students become fluent in multiple tongues. Torlakson said that by 2030, he wants half of the states 6.2 million K-12 students to participate in classes or programs that lead to proficiency in two or more languages. By 2040, he wants three out of four students to be proficient enough to earn the State Seal of Biliteracy. Torlakson announced the initiative at Cahuenga Elementary School, which offers a dual-language immersion program in English and Korean. Californias public school students speak more than 60 languages at home, and 40% come to school with knowledge of a language other than English. Torlakson called his plan a call to action that invites parents, legislators, educators and community members to pool resources to expand language offerings in schools and get more bilingual teachers trained. He said the state already is working with Mexico and Spain to expand a teacher-exchange program. Fluency, the plan argues, can help students succeed economically  and language acquisition can help their overall critical thinking. The initiative builds on Proposition 58, a ballot initiative passed in 2016 that undid an earlier requirement that English learners be taught in English-immersion classes unless their parents signed waivers. Torlakson recently visited Mexico and met with that countrys education secretary. They later signed a pact to increase collaboration, particularly in language education. This [Global California 2030] is great follow-through on Toms part and very important, Patricia Gandara, a UCLA education professor who hosted the Mexico meeting, said in an email. It hands over a plan to move forward in an area in which California has a unique advantage, but must seize the opportunity. Facebook

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Jury convicts man of murder in 2015 slaying of UCLA student found inside her burning apartment By Marisa Gerber A jury on Tuesday convicted a man in the 2015 slaying of a UCLA student found dead inside her burning apartment  a gruesome stabbing case that led to a fierce rebuke of the police response amid concerns that the killing could have been prevented. The panel deliberated for about six hours before finding Alberto Medina, 24, guilty of murder, arson, burglary and animal cruelty. On Sept. 21, 2015, firefighters found the charred body of Andrea DelVesco inside her apartment after responding to the complex a block from campus. The 21-year-old student  an Austin, Texas, native known to her sorority sisters as a fearless giver who befriended others with ease  was stabbed at least 19 times, authorities said. Read More Facebook

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LAPD begins sweeping criminal probe of former USC gynecologist while urging patients to come forward By Adam Elmahrek The Los Angeles Police Department said Tuesday it is investigating 52 complaints of misconduct filed by former patients of USCs longtime campus gynecologist as detectives launch a sweeping criminal probe into the scandal that has rocked the university. LAPD detectives also made an appeal for other patients who feel mistreated to come forward, noting that thousands of students were examined by Dr. George Tyndall during his nearly 30-year career at USC. More than 410 people have contacted a university hotline about the physician since The Times revealed the allegations this month. Tyndalls behavior and practices appear to go beyond the norms of the medical profession and gynecological examinations, said Asst. Chief Beatrice Girmala. We sincerely realize that victims may have difficulty recounting such details to investigators. We are empathetic and ready to listen. Read More Facebook

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At L.A.'s only school for the deaf, parents want leaders who speak the same language By Anna M. Phillips Ever since her son was 6 months old, Juliet Hidalgo has been bringing him to the Marlton School, a low-slung building in Baldwin Hills that for generations has been a second home for deaf and hard-of-hearing students in Los Angeles. Marlton staff taught Hidalgos brother and sister, both of whom are deaf. The school was where her deaf son learned to make the signs for milk and food. Hidalgo had planned to enroll her daughter, taking advantage of a popular program that allows hearing children to learn American Sign Language alongside their deaf siblings. But after more than a decade of involvement, she and other family members are considering withdrawing their children. They are not alone. Read More Facebook

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Fueled by unlimited donations, independent groups play their biggest role yet in a California primary for governor By Ryan Menezes An unprecedented amount of money from wealthy donors, unions and corporations is flowing into the California governors race, giving independent groups  unrestricted by contribution limits  a greater say in picking the states chief executive than ever before. The groups have already spent more than $26 million through Thursday, the most ever spent by noncandidate committees in a gubernatorial primary, according to a Times analysis of campaign finance reports. California elections have always been expensive, and the future is even more expensive, said Jack Pitney, a political science professor at Claremont McKenna College and a former state Republican leader. The stakes are very real. Read More Facebook

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2 hurt in Indiana middle school shooting; suspect in custody, authorities say By Associated Press Authorities say two victims in a shooting at a suburban Indianapolis school are being taken to a hospital and the lone suspect is in custody. Bryant Orem, a spokesman for the Hamilton County Sheriffs Office, said in a news release that the victims in Friday mornings attack at Noblesville West Middle School are being taken to Methodist Hospital in Indianapolis and their families have been notified. He says no other information is available about the victims. Orem said the suspect is believed to have acted alone and was taken into custody. No additional information about the suspect was made public. Read More Facebook

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For new L.A. schools chief Austin Beutner, some key unions are giving no honeymoon period By Howard Blume In the less than two weeks since Austin Beutner took charge of Los Angeles schools, unions representing teachers and administrators have staged a job action and a protest. Theyve made it clear that they will not give the new superintendent the traditional honeymoon period, and they are bashing him for his wealth and lack of experience running either a school or a school district. Beutner is a billionaire investment banker with zero qualifications, local teachers union President Alex Caputo-Pearl told members in a phone alert urging them to participate in a Thursday afternoon rally in Grand Park. The board is saying that billionaires who made their money blowing institutions up and making money off it know best  not the education professionals who have dedicated our careers to working with students. Read More Facebook

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Pressure grows on Board of Trustees amid USC gynecologist scandal By Paul Pringle USCs large and powerful Board of Trustees is coming under growing pressure to provide a stronger hand as the university faces a crisis over misconduct allegations against the campus longtime gynecologist that has prompted calls for President C.L. Max Nikias to step down. Allegations that Dr. George Tyndall mistreated students during his nearly 30 years at USC have roiled the campus, with about 300 people coming forward to make reports to the university and the Los Angeles Police Department launching a criminal investigation. USC is already beginning to face what is expected to be costly litigation by women who say they were victimized by the physician. So far, the trustees to whom Nikias reports have expressed sympathy for the women who have come forward and launched an independent investigation while also publicly backing the president. Read More Facebook

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UC regents approve leaner budget for Janet Napolitano By Teresa Watanabe University of California regents on Thursday unanimously approved a leaner, more transparent budget for President Janet Napolitano, moving to address political criticism over the systems central office operations. The $876.4-million budget for 2018-19 reflects spending cuts of 2%, including reductions in staffing, travel and such systemwide programs as public service law fellowships, carbon neutrality and food security. Napolitano shifted $30 million to campuses for housing needs and $10 million to UC Riverside to support its five-year-old medical school. She also permanently redirected $8.5 million annually to help enroll more California students, as required by the state. Read More Facebook

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USCs Academic Senate calls on university president to resign after a series of scandals By Matt Hamilton The body that represents USCs faculty called on President C.L. Max Nikias to resign Wednesday in the wake of relevations that the universitys longtime gynecologist faced years of accusations of misconduct by students and colleagues at the campus health clinic. The Academic Senate took the vote late Wednesday afternoon after a fiery town hall meeting attended by more than 100 faculty members, many of whom voiced outrage over Nikias and the Board of Trustees leadership. The vote came a day after the trustees executive committee stood firmly behind Nikias, saying it has full confidence in his leadership, ethics and values. At the town hall meeting, Senate President Paul Rosenbloom said he did not think Nikias or Provost Michael Quick committed wrongdoing but that the university president deserved criticism for a lack of transparency. Read More Facebook

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Californias public universities on the way to getting a big longed-for boost in funding By Teresa Watanabe The University of California and California State University systems are poised to get major funding boosts that will help them enroll thousands of additional state students and eliminate the need for tuition increases in the coming school year. A key Assembly budget panel on Wednesday approved $117.5 million in new funds for the UC. A Senate panel approved a similar sum last week. The same committees recently approved even more funding for the Cal State system. Read More Facebook

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UC regents to scrutinize Janet Napolitanos office budget in a step toward stronger oversight By Teresa Watanabe University of California regents this week plan to scrutinize the budget of President Janet Napolitano, whose office came under political fire last year for questionable spending and murky accounting. Regents will vote on the proposed $876.4-million budget for 2018-19 during their two-day meeting, which starts Wednesday, at UC San Francisco. They also will discuss state funding, financial aid, online education and transfer student policies. Board Chairman George Kieffer said regents are stepping up to exert stronger oversight of the presidents office after a blistering state audit last year found financial problems including an unreported $175 million budget reserve. Read More Facebook

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State legislative panels approve major funding boost for Cal State By Teresa Watanabe Cal State students protest against a tuition increase outside the chancellors office (Irfan Khan) After months of intensive lobbying, Cal State University has convinced two key legislative panels to approve funding to enroll nearly 11,000 more students, hire more faculty and expand housing aid to those without shelter this fall. An Assembly budget panel on Tuesday approved $215.7 million more for Cal State, adding to Gov. Jerry Browns proposed $92.1 million general fund increase. A Senate budget panel approved a similar increase last week. The extra funding  which went beyond Cal States own request to the Legislature of $171 million  is still subject to final budget negotiations with Brown. But the actions by the Senate and Assembly panels amount to a demand from Democrats that the governor hike higher education spending. Cal State University is the workhorse undergraduate university serving hundreds of thousands of Californians, said Assemblyman Kevin McCarty (D-Sacramento), who heads the Assembly Budget Subcommittee on Education Finance. We need more graduates for the California workforce and higher education is the ticket to the middle class. Cal State Chancellor Timothy P. White hailed the actions, but said it was too soon to celebrate. The CSU has a singular focus on helping students earn high-quality degrees sooner, and the entire university community has rallied to reinforce that message to our states lawmakers, he said in a statement. The actions taken thus far by the Assembly and Senate are promising and show that our message is being received, but there is still work to be done. Funding for the University of California was not taken up Tuesday as originally scheduled. McCarty would not comment on sticking points but said he was confident that a resolution would be reached this week. Were looking to provide resources above whats in the governors budget, but negotiations are ongoing, he said in an interview. State per-student funding is not what it once was, leaving both Cal State and the UC in a tough financial squeeze. Both systems raised tuition last year after a six-year freeze on higher costs. For this year, Cal State had asked for funding to enroll an additional 3,621 students, but both the Senate and Assembly panels approved three times that amount. Cal State, the largest public university system in the nation, turned away 32,000 eligible students last year because its campuses werent able to accommodate them. The panels asked that at least $50 million of the extra funding be used to hire more tenure-track faculty to help boost graduation rates. The Assembly panel also approved one-time funding of $5 million to ease hunger on campuses and $14 million for rapid rehousing pilot projects at three campuses, offering needy students rental support and short-term case management. Other items approved include $5 million to support the CSU Long Beach Shark Labs research on sharks and beach safety and $2 million for equal employment opportunity practices. This post has been updated to include comments from Assemblyman Kevin McCarty and Cal State Chancellor Timothy P. White. Facebook

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Faculty members call for USC president to step down: He has lost the moral authority to lead By Matt Hamilton Two hundred USC professors on Tuesday demanded the resignation of university President C. L. Max Nikias, saying he had lost the moral authority to lead in the wake of revelations that a campus gynecologist was kept on staff for decades despite repeated complaints of misconduct. Read More Facebook

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Gun battle, negotiations lasted 15 minutes before Texas school shooter was apprehended, sheriff says By Molly Hennessy-Fiske Minutes after a school shooter opened fire in an art class last week, killing 10 people and wounding 13, including a local police officer, fellow officers returned fire in a protracted gun battle before isolating the suspect, the local sheriff said Monday. Galveston County Sheriff Henry Trochesset praised first responders as well as Santa Fe Police Officer John Barnes, who was working as a resource officer at the school the day of the shooting. Their actions, he said, prevented the attack from spreading to other classrooms and potentially claiming additional victims. As officials continue to probe last Fridays shooting at Santa Fe High School, students are worried about returning to the scene of the attack when classes resume next week. Read More Facebook

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6 women sue USC, alleging they were victimized by campus gynecologist By Richard Winton Six women filed civil lawsuits Monday alleging that a longtime gynecologist at the University of Southern California sexually victimized them under the pretext of medical care and that USC failed to address complaints from clinic staff about the doctors behavior. One woman alleged Dr. George Tyndall forced his entire ungloved hand into her vagina during an appointment in 2003 while making vulgar remarks about her genitalia, according to one of the lawsuits. Another woman alleged that Tyndall groped her breasts in a 2008 visit and that later he falsely told her she likely had AIDS. A third woman accused the doctor of grazing his ungloved fingers over her nude body and leering at her during a purported skin exam, the lawsuit states. The wave of litigation comes as USC continues to grapple with the scandal, which legal experts said could prove costly to the university as scores of former patients come forward about their experiences with the gynecologist. Read More Facebook

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Fatalities reported in Texas high school shooting; suspect arrested, officials say By Associated Press Houston-area media citing unnamed law enforcement officials are reporting that there are fatalities following a shooting at a local high school Friday morning. Television station KHOU and the Houston Chronicle are citing unnamed federal, county and police officials following the shooting at Santa Fe High School, which went on lockdown around 8 a.m. The Associated Press has not been able to confirm the reports. The school district has confirmed an unspecified number of injuries but said it wouldnt immediately release further details. Assistant Principal Cris Richardson said a suspect has been arrested and secured. Read More Facebook

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This student followed the new L.A. schools chief on his first-day tour L.A. schools Supt. Austin Beutner is greeted by Van Nuys High School principal Yolanda Gardea. (Melissa Barales-Lopez) Melissa Barales-Lopez, a senior at Garfield High School followed Supt. Austin Beutner on his first day on the job, as he toured a variety of programs around the Los Angeles Unified School District. Heres what she took from the experience. LAUSD students and staff alike are looking for a personal champion, someone who will address and improve the difficulties afflicting their education.  What LAUSD students need is someone whos willing to listen and learn, someone who can understand the current issues affecting their schools and act to efficiently amend them, someone who can unlock the full potential of LAUSD students and enable them to reach their goals. During the entirety of his first day, superintendent Austin Beutner did indeed demonstrate a willingness to learn. Posing questions to teachers and students, Beutner engaged with the student communities he encountered to gain a better comprehension of the minutiae and nuances that distinguish each school inside an overwhelmingly large district. From inquiries about Grand View Boulevard Elementary Schools dual language program to questions regarding the services of LAUSDs after-school program, Beyond the Bell, Beutner revealed he has a lot to learn about the system. But, Beutner also showcased a willingness to tackle challenges head-on on his first day. Read More Facebook

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USC let a gynecologist continue treating students despite years of misconduct allegations By Matt Hamilton For nearly 30 years, the University of Southern Californias student health clinic had one full-time gynecologist: Dr. George Tyndall. Tall and garrulous with distinctive jet black hair, he treated tens of thousands of female students, many of them teenagers seeing a gynecologist for the first time. Few who lay down on Tyndalls exam table at the Engemann Student Health Center knew that he had been accused repeatedly of misconduct toward young patients. The complaints began in the 1990s, when co-workers alleged he was improperly photographing students genitals. In the years that followed, patients and nursing staff accused him again and again of creepy behavior, including touching women inappropriately during pelvic exams and making sexually suggestive remarks about their bodies. Read More Facebook

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Cal State trustees to discuss Browns latest budget proposal, which they say still falls $171 million short By Joy Resmovits Just how much money does California State University need to serve its students? In recent years, this question has been front and center for the nations largest public university system. Cal States leaders say that to keep their campuses quality from slipping, they need much more money than the state is giving them. This year, theyre also at odds with Gov. Jerry Brown on the question of whether any extra money should come in one-time bursts or be ongoing. Read More Facebook

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On his first day as L.A. schools chief, Beutner plans a day of visits across the district By Howard Blume L.A. Unifieds new superintendent, Austin Beutner, will kick off his first day of work on Tuesday with a choreographed tour of the nations second-largest school district, from the San Fernando Valley to Carson. His day is scheduled to begin at 5:15 a.m. at a school bus depot and end more than 12 hours later at a parent meeting at Garfield High School. Along the way, Beutner is expected to be joined by school district administrators, L.A. Unified board members and the vice president of the union that represents school bus drivers. Though he will be covering a lot of ground, Beutners tour has him skipping Tuesdays school board meeting, when board members are expected to discuss labor negotiations in closed session. Read More Facebook

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Cal State trustees to discuss Browns latest budget proposal, which they say still falls $171 million short By Joy Resmovits Just how much money does California State University need to serve its students? In recent years, this question has been front and center for the nations largest public university system. Cal States leaders say that to keep their campuses quality from slipping, they need much more money than the state is giving them. This year, theyre also at odds with Gov. Jerry Brown on the question of whether any extra money should come in one-time bursts or be ongoing. Read More Facebook

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Why a handful of rich charter school supporters are spending millions to elect Antonio Villaraigosa as governor By Ryan Menezes California voters have seen a barrage of sunny television ads in recent weeks touting former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosas record on finances, crime and education, aired by Families & Teachers for Antonio Villaraigosa for Governor 2018. But the group is, in fact, largely funded by a handful of wealthy charter-school supporters. Together they have spent more than $13 million in less than a month to boost Villaraigosas chances in the June 5 primary  at a time when his fundraising and poll numbers are lagging. Reed Hastings, the founder of Netflix, jump-started the group with a $7-million check, by far the largest donation to support any candidate in the election. Their efforts are part of a broader proxy war among Democrats between teachers unions  longtime stalwarts of the party  and those who argue that the groups have failed low-income and minority schoolchildren. Read More Facebook

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Talking schools with L.A. Unifieds new superintendent By Anna M. Phillips Al Seib / Los Angeles Times ( Incoming L.A. schools Supt. Austin Beutner talks to students at Belmont High School.) Austin Beutner, who officially starts Tuesday as the new superintendent of the Los Angeles Unified School District, is taking on a famously difficult job at a particularly difficult time. The school board is divided and did not back him unanimously. The nations second-largest school district has deep-seated problems, including declining enrollment, lagging academic achievement and rising pension and healthcare costs that eat away at its budget. The 58-year-old former investment banker and former L.A. Times publisher has years of experience in the financial world but none as an educator. Earlier this week, he sat down with the Times education team to discuss the challenges facing the district, which has about 60,000 employees and 500,000 students in traditional public schools. He did not talk about his plans  saying repeatedly, stay tuned  but he spoke in broad terms about his mindset in approaching the tough decisions ahead. Read More Facebook

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Suspect detained, authorities search campus after reports of armed man at Palmdale high school By James Queally One person has been detained after a report of an armed man at a Palmdale high school sparked a massive law enforcement response Friday morning. The suspect was spotted at 7:05 a.m. on the campus of Highland High School in Palmdale, according to Sheriffs Department spokeswoman Nicole Nishida. The person was detained in a nearby parking lot, according to Nishida, who did not know whether that person was an adult or juvenile. Deputies at the scene are clearing the school methodically, and students will be transported home via school buses once the campus is deemed safe, Nishida said. Read More Facebook

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The education of Bertha Perez: How a UC Merced custodians disenchantment led to a political awakening By Robin Abcarian Its the third day of a three-day strike, and UC Merced custodian Bertha Perez is taking a break from a picket line at the universitys unremarkable entrance, an intersection with stop lights. Photos from other UC campuses this week have shown big crowds of striking service workers  members of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees  marching and chanting pro-labor slogans as they try to force the University of California back to the negotiating table. But here, at UC Merced, whose handful of big buildings rise from a flat expanse of farmland, the picket line is tiny, maybe two dozen workers and a few students. Its not a big-city-style show of force. Then again, a union sympathizer is banging relentlessly on a snare drum, so its noisier than youd expect. Read More Facebook

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Ref Rodriguez resigns from teacher credentialing commission By Howard Blume Ref Rodriguez appears during a court appearance. (Al Seib/Los Angeles Times) Los Angeles school board member Ref Rodriguez has resigned from the states Commission on Teacher Credentialing, which oversees the integrity and quality of Californias teachers. Rodriguez faces felony and misdemeanor charges for political money laundering. Separately, his former employer, a charter school organization, has accused him of improperly authorizing checks to a nonprofit under his control. Rodriguez has denied wrongdoing. Rodriguezs resignation from the state body was effective May 4, days after he cast a crucial vote as part of a narrow majority that voted to authorize contract negotiations with Austin Beutner to become superintendent of the L.A. Unified School District. Beutners first official day on the job is Tuesday. Rodriguez remains in his $125,000-a-year position on the Los Angeles Board of Education. The mission of the state body is to ensure integrity, relevance, and high quality in the preparation, certification, and discipline of Californias teachers. Critics had questioned Rodriguezs continued service on the commission, given that teachers can be suspended from work if they face criminal charges. They also can lose their jobs for lapses in personal behavior, such as excessive drinking, with the potential to affect their performance. Police in Pasadena arrested Rodriguez on a Friday afternoon in March for public drunkenness. He was not charged in the incident and has apologized. The state commission reviews teacher discipline cases and can take action to remove a teachers credential to work in a California classroom. The commission has 15 members. Rodriguezs departure was disclosed in a one-sentence announcement on the agencys website. Facebook

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School board members request for restraining order against blogger is rejected By Priscella Vega An Orange County Superior Court judge on Wednesday denied a school board members petition for a permanent restraining order against a Huntington Beach blogger. Attorney Jeffrey W. Shields filed the petition on behalf of Ocean View School District trustee Gina Clayton-Tarvin, 46, who alleged in court documents that Charles Keeler Johnson, 56, has threatened her on social media and at school board meetings, causing her to fear for my own safety and for that of my immediate family members. Johnson, who goes by Chuck and publishes HBSledgehammer.com, said the trustee tried to stifle his freedom of speech. He also contended that Clayton-Tarvin took his blog posts and Facebook comments too seriously and out of context, saying anyone who is afraid of metaphors has serious issues. Read More Facebook

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Deal with workers averts one-day strike that could have shut down L.A. schools By Howard Blume Los Angeles school district and union officials announced a contract agreement Tuesday night that averted a one-day strike planned for next week. The pact, which runs through June 2020, removes one labor problem from the desk of incoming Supt. Austin Beutner  whose first day on the job would have coincided with the strike. Plenty of other challenges remain. Read More Facebook

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UC labor strike expands with show of support from more unions By Teresa Watanabe Fong Chuu is a registered nurse who has assisted with countless liver transplants, kidney surgeries and gastric bypasses during 34 years at UCLA. Working with her are scrub technicians who sterilize equipment, hand medical instruments to the surgeon and dress patient wounds. They are a team, Chuu says, which is why she walked off her job Tuesday in support of those technicians and other members of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 3299. The 25,000 member AFSCME local, the University of Californias largest employee union, launched a three-day strike Monday. Read More Facebook

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We are humans too: Voices of UCLAs striking custodians, hospital aides and imaging technicians By Joy Resmovits Demonstrators parade in front of Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center. (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times) This week, thousands of UC employees are staging a three-day strike for better pay and working conditions. On Monday, more than 20,000 custodians, cooks, lab technicians, nurse aides and other members of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 3299 walked off their jobs. By Tuesday, two more unions joined in sympathy strikes. The union and UC reached a bargaining impasse last year. The university has said it wont meet the workers demands. The strikers said they wanted better pay, more equity in the allocation of work, stable healthcare premiums and an end to the universitys use of contract workers. These are their stories. Read More Facebook

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Massive UC workers strike disrupts dining, classes and medical services By Joy Resmovits A massive labor strike across the University of California on Monday forced medical centers to reschedule more than 12,000 surgeries, cancer treatments and appointments, and campuses to cancel some classes and limit dining services. More than 20,000 members of UCs largest employee union, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 3299, walked off their jobs on the first day of a three-day strike. They include custodians, gardeners, cooks, truck drivers, lab technicians and nurse aides. Two altercations involving protesters and people driving near the rallies were reported at UCLA and UC Santa Cruz. At UCLA, police took a man into custody Monday after he drove his vehicle into a crowd, hitting three staff members. They were treated for minor injuries at the scene and released, said Lt. Kevin Kilgore of the UCLA Police Department. Read More Facebook

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Sen. Kamala Harris to skip UC Berkeley commencement in support of striking workers By Teresa Watanabe Sen. Kamala Harris (Chris Dekmas) California Sen. Kamala Harris has canceled plans to deliver UC Berkeleys commencement address this weekend in support of UC workers who are on strike over wages and health benefits. Due to the ongoing labor dispute, Sen. Harris regretfully cannot attend and speak at this years commencement ceremony at UC Berkeley, said a statement from Harris office issued Monday. She wishes the graduates and their families a joyous commencement weekend and success for the future. They are bright young leaders and our country is counting on them. UCs largest employee union, the 25,000-member American Federation of County, State and Municipal Employees Local 3299, launched a three-day strike Monday and had earlier called for a speakers boycott. The union and university reached a bargaining impasse last year and subsequent mediation efforts have failed to produce an agreement. The union is asking for a multiyear contract with a 6% annual pay increase while the university is offering 3% annual increases over four years. UC Berkeley Chancellor Carol Christ will deliver the keynote address instead, the university announced. About 5,800 students are expected to participate in the ceremony Saturday. Facebook

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School mural depicting Trumps bloody, severed head sparks controversy By Gary Warth A Chula Vista school mural that depicts the bloody, severed head of President Trump on a spear sparked a controversy that prompted officials to cover it and issue a response distancing themselves from the work. The statement also said the artist will alter the painting. We understand that there was a mural painted at the event this past weekend that does not align with our schools philosophy of non-violence, read the statement from MAAC Community Charter School director Tommy Ramirez. We have been in communication with the artist  who has agreed to modify the artwork  to better align with the schools philosophy. Read More Facebook

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New blackface incident at Cal Poly prompts calls for state investigation By Kim Christensen Cal Poly San Luis Obispo officials have asked the state attorney generals office to investigate after a new photo of a white student in blackface surfaced on a fraternity groups private Snapchat. I am outraged, Cal Poly President Jeffrey D. Armstrong said in a video address Friday to the campus. These vile and absolutely unacceptable acts cannot continue. We must not allow these acts to define us as an institution. Armstrong said the latest photo was intended to imitate an incident last month in which a white member of the Lambda Chi Alpha fraternity was photographed at a party wearing blackface. Read More Facebook

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More than 50,000 UC workers set to strike this week but campuses will remain open By Teresa Watanabe More than 50,000 workers across the University of California are set to strike this week, causing potential disruptions to surgery schedules, food preparation and campus maintenance. The systems 10 campuses and five medical centers are to remain open, with classes scheduled as planned. UCs largest employee union, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 3299, plans to begin a three-day strike Monday involving 25,000 workers, including custodians, gardeners, cooks, truck drivers, lab technicians and nurse aides. Read More Facebook

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New L.A. schools chief Beutner pledges to listen, learn and take action By Howard Blume New Los Angeles schools Supt. Austin Beutner proved Wednesday that hes a quick learner even without an education background. Like countless public officials before him, he appeared at an important event  his first speech and news conference  with a photogenic background of students. His message  that he would put those students first  seemed heartfelt if hardly original. Nor was it a huge surprise that he pledged to push cooperatively but unflinchingly to improve the districts academic performance and stabilize its finances. As an introduction, Beutner, a former investment banker who made a fortune on Wall Street, offered little flash, but that was partly the point. Read More Facebook

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In a school lockdown, one student takes stock of the stressful scene (Phalaen Chang) At the beginning of lunch one day late last month, Duarte High School, Northview Middle School, and California School of the Arts-San Gabriel Valley were advised by the Los Angeles Sheriffs Department to go into lockdown mode due to police activity in the immediate area. Phalaen Chang, a junior at the California School of the Arts, wrote a series of notes on her iPhone while she sat in a room with her classmates. By the time the lockdown ended an hour later, she wrote, she knew which of her friends would hold open the door for others, be the ones calming others down, be the ones barricading the doors. She knew that all of them have the potential to be such strong people. Read More Facebook

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Tale as old as time: L.A. Unified superintendent pick follows a historical pattern of outside-the-box choices By Joy Resmovits Navy Vice Adm. David L. Brewer III, superintendent from 2006-2008. (L.A. Times file photo) L.A. Unified has long gone back and forth between picking insiders and outsiders to run the nations second largest school district. The choice of Austin Beutner, announced Tuesday, places the district squarely back in the outsider camp  months after a consummate insider, Supt. Michelle King, announced that she had cancer and would not return to the job. Check out this timeline of former L.A. superintendents to see how the school board members have changed their minds, sometimes favoring leaders who come from the world of education and sometimes executives from elsewhere, recruited to shock the system into change. At one point, the district hired someone from the military  retired Navy Vice Adm. David L. Brewer III, who served as superintendent from 2006-2008. In hiring Brewer, board members had opted for a non-educator  largely because they sought a fresh thinker, unwedded to the bureaucracy, unafraid to make bold, even unorthodox moves, reads a 2008 Times story. Facebook

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Austin Beutner named superintendent of Los Angeles schools By Howard Blume Austin Beutner, a philanthropist and former investment banker, on Tuesday was named superintendent of the Los Angeles Unified School District, the nations second-largest school system. His selection was the biggest move yet by a Los Angeles school board majority elected with major support from charter school advocates. The decision came after lengthy public testimony, most of it in support of the other remaining finalist, interim Supt. Vivian Ekchian, who is well known within the school system. Beutner, 58, has no background leading a school or school district. Less than 2 years ago, a school board with a very different balance of power named Michelle King, a former teacher who rose through the district throughout her career, to L.A. Unifieds top job. Read More Facebook

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Hearing delay gives both sides more time in Ref Rodriguezs potential trial By Howard Blume Ref Rodriguez and his attorneys will have more time to prepare their defense against charges of political money laundering, a judge ruled Monday. The preliminary hearing in the case had been scheduled to begin May 9, but that date will now be pushed back to July 23 per the ruling from L.A. Superior Court Judge Deborah S. Brazil. Rodriguez, 46, faces three felony charges of conspiracy, perjury and procuring and offering a false or forged instrument, as well as 25 misdemeanor counts related to the alleged campaign money laundering. Read More Facebook

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L.A. school board poised to name Beutner as superintendent By Howard Blume The Los Angeles Board of Education is poised to select philanthropist and former investment banker Austin Beutner to be the next superintendent of the nations second-largest school system. Barring a last-minute development, the only mystery is whether Beutner emerges with four or five votes from the boards seven members. Terms of his contract already have been under discussion, according to sources close to the process who requested anonymity because they are not authorized to speak. The selection of Beutner, 58, who has no experience managing a school or a school district, would be a signal that the board majority that took control nearly a year ago wants to rely on business management skills instead of insider educational expertise. Read More Facebook

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Teacher walkouts in Arizona and Colorado continue national debate on money for schools By Michael Livingston Following the lead of teachers who walked off the job in other states in recent weeks, thousands of teachers and their supporters took to the streets in Arizona and Colorado for the second day in a row to demand better pay and more funding for education. Read More Facebook

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Three decades before the #MeToo movement, UC San Diego led the way against sexual assault By Teresa Watanabe When Nancy Wahlig first started her fight against sexual assault, one company was marketing a capsule for women to stash in their bras and then smash to release a vile odor. Because of the very nature of society, the only person who can prevent rape is the woman herself, read a 1981 advertisement for the Repulse rape deterrent. Ideas about how to prevent sexual violence have come a long way since then, and Wahlig has helped lead that evolution on college campuses. In 1988, she started UC San Diegos Sexual Assault Resource Center (SARC), the first stand-alone program at the University of California. Today, she remains the systems most senior specialist. Read More Facebook

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Andres Alonso withdraws from consideration for L.A. schools job By Howard Blume Andres Alonso, believed to be one of three remaining finalists to lead the Los Angeles school system, has withdrawn from consideration. The remaining known candidates in the confidential search are former investment banker Austin Beutner and interim Supt. Vivian Ekchian. Alonso, 60, announced his decision on Twitter on Thursday night, saying he had notified the L.A. Unified School District on Monday. The exit of Alonso, the former Baltimore schools chief, seems to solidify the front-runner status of Beutner, who also was a former L.A. Times publisher and a Los Angeles deputy mayor. He held each of those positions for about a year. Read More Facebook

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Heres why the apparent increase in autism spectrum disorders may be good for U.S. children By Karen Kaplan The prevalence of autism spectrum disorder among American children continues to rise, new government data suggest. And that may be a good thing. Among 11 sites across the U.S. where records of 8-year-olds are scrutinized in detail, 1 in 59 kids was deemed to have ASD in 2014. Thats up from 1 in 68 in 2012. Normally, health officials would prefer to see less of a disease, not more of it. But in this case, the higher number is probably a sign that more children of color who are on the autism spectrum are being recognized as such and getting services to help them, according to a report published Thursday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Read More Facebook

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UC shelves tuition increase for now, in hopes of getting more state funding By Teresa Watanabe University of California regents will not vote on a tuition increase next month, shelving the plan for now in hopes that state lawmakers will come through with more funding. Raising tuition is always a last resort and one we take very seriously, UC President Janet Napolitano said Thursday in a statement. We will continue to advocate with our students who are doing a tremendous job of educating legislators about the necessity of adequately funding the university to ensure UC remains a world-class institution and engine of economic growth for our state. Last week, Cal State Chancellor Timothy P. White said the 23-campus system no longer would consider a plan to raise tuition for the 2018-19 academic year. But unlike Cal State, UC officials have not taken a tuition increase off the table entirely. Read More Facebook

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A chemical spill, unchecked eyewash stations, poor training: Audit details Cal States lax lab safety By Joy Resmovits In May 2016, two bottles tumbled off a poorly supported shelf and broke, leading to a chemical spill in a Sacramento State University lab. The liquid got onto one students legs and soaked anothers feet. Five employees cleaned up the mess, even though no one knew for sure what it was and whether it was dangerous. They called fellow employee Kim Harrington, their union representative, to let her know what happened. Read More Facebook

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After blackface incident, minority students at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo say they dont feel welcome By Hailey Branson-Potts Aaliyah Ramos was walking through the Cal Poly San Luis Obispo campus last year when a prospective student approached her. Ramos was the only black person, the young woman said, that she and her mother had seen that day. They asked about the quality of education and the diversity of the student body. Ramos, a mechanical engineering student, didnt want to sugarcoat the truth: Cal Poly long has been predominantly white. But she told the young woman  who also was black  that she didnt want to discourage her from applying, because that wouldnt help with diversity at a school where only 0.7% of students are African American  the lowest percentage of any university in the California State system. Read More Facebook

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El Camino Real Charter High School in Woodland Hills wins the 2018 U.S. Academic Decathlon By Carlos Lozano El Camino Real Charter High School in Woodland Hills has won the 2018 U.S. Academic Decathlon, officials said. The winner was announced early Saturday at a ceremony in Frisco, Texas. More than 600 students from the U.S., Canada, China and the United Kingdom gathered there over the last three days to compete in the 37th annual U.S. Academic Decathlon. Congratulations to El Camino Real Charter High School for another impressive victory, said Vivian Ekchian, interim superintendent of the Los Angeles Unified School District. Your academic stamina and competitive spirit to win is remarkable. The entire L.A. Unified family is so proud of you. Read More Facebook

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Anticipation mounts as L.A. school board meets over superintendent selection By Howard Blume L.A. schools superintendent candidate Andres Alonso got an endorsement Friday, but Austin Beutner and Vivian Ekchian also have supporters. (Elizabeth Malby) The Los Angeles Board of Education is reconvening in closed session Friday at noon as anticipation mounts about the choice of the next leader of the nations second-largest school system. The presumed front-runner is former investment banker and philanthropist Austin Beutner, but interim Supt. Vivian Ekchian and former Baltimore Supt. Andres Alonso also are in the running. Most district insiders appear to be rooting for Ekchian, who has spent her entire career in education within the school system. After her 10 years as a teacher, her roles have included head of human resources, chief labor negotiator and regional administrator for campuses in the west San Fernando Valley. Shes managed the district since September, when then-Supt. Michelle King went on medical leave and chose Ekchian to fill in for her. King, who is battling cancer, never returned and announced her retirement in January. Numerous influential civic leaders have urged  and pressured  the board to select Beutner. Also lending their weight have been advocates for charter schools, which are independently operated, growing in number and competing for students with district-operated campuses. Four of the seven board members  enough to control the outcome  were elected with major financial support from charter supporters. Beutner has two ongoing connections with the L.A. Unified School District. The first is his leadership of an outside task force that is making recommendations on how to improve the school system. The second is his charity, Vision to Learn, which supplies glasses to low-income students. The charity and the school system are in a dispute at the moment over who is responsible for delays in providing services to students as part of a $6 million contract, half of which is paid for by L.A. Unified. Unlike Ekchian and Buetner, Alonso, who currently teaches at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, has no deep-seated local constituency, but the prospect of his selection has generated some excitement. While in Baltimore, Alonso was recognized for pushing for progress at low-performing schools, and for being willing to take strong action. While in Baltimore, he also weathered a test-score cheating scandal and occasionally rocky relations with the teachers union. But by the time he resigned, after six years, he and union leaders seemed to be working together without rancor. Leaders of some community groups have split from the pro-Beutner camp. They worry that Beutners approach to confronting the districts financial problems could shut out their voices or involve severe economic cutbacks that would undermine programs that are helping students. Some prefer Ekchian; some Alonso. Theyve been reluctant to speak out publicly because theyll have to work with whoever is selected, but they have tried to get the ear of board members. On Friday morning, one leader of a community group decided to come out in favor of Alonso. L.A. Unified has the opportunity to bring in an instructional leader of color with a history of success, said Alberto Retana, president and chief executive of Community Coalition, which works on behalf of low-income students and families in South Los Angeles. If we have a shot at that, we should go for it  because its in the best interests of our kids and of our community. Retana said his statement was not meant to criticize Beutner or Ekchian but to alert board members that there also is community support for Alonso. Facebook

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Cal State leader shelves proposed tuition hike: Its the right thing to do, but its not without risk By Joy Resmovits Cal State, the nations largest public university system, will no longer consider a plan to raise tuition for the 2018-19 academic year, Chancellor Timothy P. White announced Friday. The decision is a bet that Sacramento will come through in the end. If Cal State loses that bet, it could mean cuts to campus programs. White said in an interview that Californias economy is strong enough that families should not be shouldering the burden of higher college costs. Read More Facebook

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L.A. students to participate in national walkout activities on Friday By Joy Resmovits (Los Angeles Times) Students are taking to the streets again Friday to protest gun violence on the 19th anniversary of the Columbine school shooting. Starting at 10 a.m., students at many schools will spend 13 seconds honoring the 13 people  12 students and one teacher  killed on that day in Littleton, Colo. After that, theyll participate in a host of different activities. Within L.A. Unified, one school is having an open-mic event for students to talk about school violence, and lawmakers are visiting campuses to hear students thoughts. According to a central hub for organizing the protests  written by the students of Ridgefield High School in Connecticut  the walkouts are intended to drive the political change necessary to curb school violence. The day is also a time for students to interact on an elevated platform they have never had before, the site states. It is a day of discourse and thoughtful sharing. Bringing together communities and students to get a national discussion rolling. Organizers have suggested using the event to convey the importance of curbing gun violence to legislators. They are encouraging students to push legislation that would ban assault weapons and tighten up rules around who can buy guns and how. Over 2,500 schools nationwide are expected to participate. In L.A., some students  at campuses including Eagle Rock High School, the Ramon C. Cortines School of Visual and Performing Arts and Bravo Medical Magnet  plan to walk out. Students from various schools expect to join area marches, including those in Santa Monica and Huntington Park. Other schools are hosting career days and voter registration drives. At 1 p.m., students plan to start a rally in front of L.A. Unified headquarters. For the record: An earlier version of this article stated that 12 teachers and one student were killed in the Columbine shooting. The opposite is true: twelve students and one teacher died. Facebook

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Stabbing of popular student devastates South El Monte High School; teen friend suspected in slaying By Sonali Kohli When administrators at South El Monte High School called Jeremy Sanchezs parents to say he never showed up for class Wednesday, his father began to worry. It was unusual for the 17-year-old junior to miss school, so his father filed a missing persons report and assembled two of Jeremys close friends to look for the popular student-athlete. Their search took them to a scenic stretch of the San Gabriel River Trail, where one of the friends  a 16-year-old boy  made a tragic discovery. Among the bushes in the riverbed near Thienes Avenue and Parkway Drive was Jeremys body, punctured with stab wounds, according to Lt. John Corina of the Los Angeles County Sheriffs Department. Read More Facebook

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Racist fliers spark outrage at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo By Alene Tchekmedyian Soon after Neal MacDougall arrived on the Cal Poly San Luis Obispo campus Tuesday, the professor noticed university police standing outside a restroom near his office. A racial slur against African Americans had been scrawled in red marker on a stall wall. Later, he discovered a series of racist fliers pinned up next to his door. Someone had also slashed posters hed hung outside his office supporting students in the country illegally. The discovery was the latest controversy on the prestigious campus  which the president said is less than 55% white  that MacDougall said demonstrates a culture of racism at the university. Last week, photographs emerged of white fraternity members, including one in blackface, flashing gang signs. Read More Facebook

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The superintendent waiting game, paying for L.A.'s College Promise, Princetons slave history: Whats new in education By Joy Resmovits Acting LAUSD superintendent Vivian Ekchian is a finalist for the permanent job. (Gary Coronado / Los Angeles Times) In and around Los Angeles: The L.A. Unified school board spent 10 hours interviewing and discussing candidates for superintendent. When they adjourned after 10 p.m., they said they would reconvene on Friday. Who is paying for Mayor Eric Garcettis much-touted College Promise, a program that promises two years of community college for LAUSD grads? In California: The Legislature is considering a proposal that would boost K-12 education funding for black students. When the cost of living is taken into account, California has the highest rate of child poverty. Nationwide: The families of two children killed at Sandy Hook Elementary School are suing Alex Jones and Infowars for saying the school massacre never occurred. Princeton will name two spaces  an arch and a garden  after slaves who lived or worked on the campus. Facebook

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L.A. school board meets privately with finalists and debates choice for school district leader By Howard Blume The Los Angeles Board of Education adjourned late Tuesday after spending more than 10 hours interviewing candidates and trying to reach a decision on who would be the next leader of the nations second-largest school system. When the meeting finally recessed at 10:11 p.m., a spokesman announced only that the school board would reconvene Friday at noon. Going into the days meetings, there were apparently four finalists, according to sources who could not be named because they were unauthorized to speak. Read More Facebook

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Two Sandy Hook families sue Alex Jones and Infowars for saying the school massacre never happened By David Altimari Families of two children killed at Sandy Hook Elementary School have filed lawsuits in Texas against controversial radio host Alex Jones for continually claiming the massacre never happened. Neil Heslin, the father of Jesse Lewis, and Leonard Pozner and Veronique De La Rosa, whose son Noah Pozner died in the massacre, filed separate lawsuits late Monday in Travis County, Texas. The lawsuits allege that Jones defamed the parents by constantly calling them crisis actors and insisting the shooting was a false flag operation; they also claim Jones accusations have led to death threats against the Sandy Hook families by Jones followers. Read More Facebook

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Beutner emerges as a top pick for L.A. schools superintendent amid last-minute jockeying By Howard Blume Austin Beutner has emerged as a leading contender to run the Los Angeles school district, with backers saying he is smart enough and tough enough to confront its financial and academic struggles. Though he does not have a background in education, the former investment banker has in the last year examined some of the districts intractable problems, serving as co-chair of an outside task force with the support of then-Supt. Michelle King. Sources inside and outside the school district said Beutner appears to have more support on the seven-member board than other finalists, and his name could come up for a vote as early as Tuesday. Read More Facebook

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Challenge at Chicago school construction site: Watch for 38,000 unmarked graves By Nereida Moreno A 15-year effort to build a school in Chicagos Dunning neighborhood is underway with an unusual complication: Construction workers are taking careful steps to avoid disturbing human remains that may lie beneath the soil. The $70-million school is to be built on the grounds of a former Cook County Poor House, where an estimated 38,000 people were buried in unmarked graves. Among the dead are residents who were too poor to afford funeral costs, unclaimed bodies and patients from the countys insane asylum. There can be and there have been bodies found all over the place, said Barry Fleig, a genealogist and cemetery researcher who began investigating the site in 1989. Its a spooky, scary place. Read More Facebook

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Oklahoma teacher walkout winds down despite lawmakers failure to meet demands By Washington Post Oklahomas largest teachers union has announced an end to a walkout that has drawn thousands of educators out of classrooms and to the state Capitol demanding greater investment in the states schools, which have endured the nations steepest funding cuts. The announcement Thursday from the Oklahoma Education Assn. does not necessarily end the protests at the Capitol, as teachers not affiliated with the union vowed to stay longer. Instead of a walkout, the union and school districts across the state have said they plan to send delegations of teachers to Oklahoma City to keep the pressure on lawmakers. Teachers and their supporters have also promised to push education issues to the forefront of November elections, when the state chooses a new governor. As school districts begin to reopen, the protests may lose steam. The Legislature is not in session Friday, and observers are waiting to see what happens Monday, when lawmakers return. Read More Facebook

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Most Californians are worried about school shooting threats and oppose arming teachers, survey finds By Joy Resmovits Hamilton High School student Aiyana Dabriel holds a sign during a March 14 walkout in support of the Parkland shooting victims. (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times) Most Californians are worried that a school shooting like the one that occurred in Parkland, Fla., in February could shed blood closer to home, a new survey found. Some 73% percent of adults and 82% of public school parents said they were very concerned or somewhat concerned about school shootings. The Public Policy Institute of California surveyed 1,704 adults in the state by phone just after the March for Our Lives protest against gun violence. Latino and black respondents were significantly more likely to be concerned about school violence than white or Asian respondents, the institute found. Two-thirds of adults and public school parents said they opposed letting more educators carry weapons in school. The response differed across party lines, with 86% of Democrats and 69% of independents voicing their opposition, while 60% percent of Republicans said they would support a measure to arm educators. The poll, which had a margin of error of 3.2% in either direction, also asked Californians about school funding, educational issues in the governors race and the impact of immigration enforcement on students. You can find the full results here. Facebook

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Californias largest virtual charter school network agrees to contract with its teachers By Anna M. Phillips Nearly four years after teachers at Californias largest online charter school voted to unionize, they have reached a deal to increase pay and create job protections, according to a spokesman for the California Teachers Assn. The contract, which is still tentative and subject to ratification, is a victory for the teachers union. Although charter schools are publicly funded, most are privately managed and their employees arent protected by labor contracts. Under the terms of the contract  the result of years of negotiation and legal wrangling  approximately 500 teachers working for California Virtual Academies will no longer be at-will employees who can be dismissed for almost any reason. Their average salary will rise to just over $45,000, according to union estimates, a figure that remains far below the norm for traditional public school teachers. Still, it is an improvement over the previous average of $38,000. The accord also places a limit on the number of students each teacher is responsible for monitoring in online homeroom classes. Were very satisfied with the gains we made, said teacher Brianna Carroll, president of California Virtual Educators United. I think were going to see some extraordinary changes in our schools. According to Carroll, teachers at California Virtual Academies  better known as CAVA  had grown frustrated with the organizations foot-dragging and were making preparations to go on strike when CAVAs leadership agreed to the deal. CAVA and K12, the Virginia-based for-profit company linked to its schools, did not immediately respond to an email Tuesday asking for comment. The network currently operates nine virtual charter schools across California. In 2016, the charter network agreed to pay $8.5 million to settle claims of false advertising, misleading parents and inadequate instruction. The state attorney generals office had also accused K12 of controlling the charters for its own financial benefit. Neither CAVA nor K12 admitted to wrongdoing in the settlement. A year later, the state imposed a $2-million fine on CAVA after an audit found that it had misspent public funds. The network disputed the findings. Facebook

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School board approves a new formula for funding high-need schools By Sonali Kohli L.A. schools will soon get more money if they are located in neighborhoods with such problems as high levels of gun violence and asthma. The Los Angeles Unified school board voted unanimously Tuesday to adopt a new formula to determine how to dole out some funding to schools, based not only on the characteristics of the student populations but on the traumas that affect the communities around campuses. The new formula will be applied to $25 million in funding next fiscal year and about $263 million annually in future years  a small part of the districts $7.5 billion annual budget. Read More Facebook

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Protesters demand Ref Rodriguez resignation outside school board meeting By Sonali Kohli Students, parents, teachers and UTLA marching outside the board meeting chanting "Ref resign" pic.twitter.com/W0LRWZSIXY  Sonali Kohli  (@Sonali_Kohli) April 10, 2018 A few dozen parents, students and teachers marched outside the Los Angeles Unified School Board meeting Tuesday, some calling for board member Ref Rodriguez to resign the week after news broke that he was taken into custody on suspicion of being drunk in public at a Pasadena bar and restaurant. Rodriguez was not cited or charged in that incident, but was held for more than five and a half hours before being released. The school board member faces felony and misdemeanor charges for political money laundering. He is accused of getting more than two dozen people people to donate to his campaign for his school board seat with the understanding that he would reimburse them. He stepped down from his post as school board president after he was charged last fall, but he did not give up his seat on the board. He has pleaded not guilty to three felony counts of conspiracy, perjury, and procuring and offering a false or forged instrument, as well as 25 misdemeanor counts related to the alleged campaign money laundering. A preliminary hearing is scheduled for May. He cant give his full focus to our students, said Rebecca LaFond, a Highland Park parent whose three children marched with her as she chanted, Ref resign. One daughter marched in front of her, using a drum stick to hit the bottom of a gallon-size empty water jug. Our kids deserve someone who has the utmost ethical standards representing them, LaFond said. The protests continued into the board meeting, where some addressed Rodriguez directly, calling on him to step down during public comment portions of the meeting. Rodriguez, through his chief of staff, declined to comment. Some parents outside the board meeting did not know about the charges against Rodriguez but came out to protest the possibility of sharing their school campuses with charter schools. Protesters also oppose colocation  not all of the parents are here to ask Ref Rodriguez to step down pic.twitter.com/1Co8zQ9zSi  Sonali Kohli  (@Sonali_Kohli) April 10, 2018 Cynthia Martinez said her son, who goes to Christopher Dena Elementary School in Boyle Heights, has been bullied in the past by students from a charter school sharing the campus. She said she didnt know who Rodriguez was. Some parents and teachers are worried about losing computer labs, robotics rooms and fitness centers if they are required to share their campus with charter schools, said Ilse Escobar, a parent community organizer for United Teachers Los Angeles. The issues of Rodriguez and colocation are related, Escobar said. Rodriguez is part of a majority on the school board elected with financial backing from charter school supporters, and many parents, she said, feel that the school board is compromised if he is a part of it. Staff reporter Howard Blume contributed to this post. Facebook

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Delaine Eastin tries to gain momentum in the California governors race, one voter at a time By Seema Mehta Delaine Eastin was a sophomore in high school when a drama teacher urged her to try out for a part in The Man Who Came to Dinner. She hesitated until he told her: This is a metaphor for your whole life. If you never try out, you will never get the part. Eastin auditioned and won the role. Decades later, the advice sticks with the former state schools chief, this time in her unlikely run for governor. Despite calls for more women in leadership roles in state politics following sexual misconduct allegations in Sacramento, Eastin has been largely overlooked in the race, lagging far behind her Democratic rivals in fundraising and the polls. Read More Facebook

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Arizona high court rejects in-state tuition for DACA recipients By Associated Press Young immigrants granted deferred deportation status under a program started by President Obama are not eligible for lower in-state college tuition, the Arizona Supreme Court ruled Monday. The unanimous ruling will affect at least 2,000 students attending the states largest community college district and hundreds more at other colleges and the states three public universities. The Maricopa County Community Colleges District and state universities said they would begin raising tuition immediately for the coming school year. Read More Facebook

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New York high school students injured when bus strikes overpass By Associated Press A charter bus carrying teenagers returning from a spring break trip Sunday night struck a bridge overpass on Long Island, seriously injuring six passengers and mangling the entire length of the top of the bus. The crash happened shortly after 9 p.m. Sunday on the Southern State Parkway in Lakeview, according to New York State Police. One of the six injured passengers had very serious injuries, said State Police Maj. David Candelaria. Thirty-seven other passengers suffered minor injuries. Read More Facebook

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Some good news for California in national student test scores By Joy Resmovits National test scores for fourth- and eighth-graders were generally flat from 2015, but eighth-grade reading scores showed some improvement. Every two years, the nations fourth- and eighth-graders are tested in math and reading  and newly released results from last years tests give California at least a little reason to be pleased. The 2017 results  out Monday night  were mostly flat nationwide compared with 2015, though the average score in eighth-grade reading went up. But while that improvement largely came from the increased scores of the highest-performing students, California eighth-graders showed some reading progress from the lowest levels to the highest. Read More Facebook

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Under state control, Inglewood school districts financial picture worsened By Anna M. Phillips When Eugenio Villa agreed to return to the Inglewood schools for a second tour last summer, he knew the district remained one of Californias most troubled. Inglewood Unified had been nearly insolvent when it was taken over by the state Department of Education in 2012. Six years later, its enrollment was still declining. Its school buildings were tired  some edging into decrepitude. Its test scores and graduation rates were still below the state average. And the public was out of patience. Still, Villa, who had signed back on as the districts chief business official, was shocked at what he found when he arrived in June 2017. Two years earlier, he had left the school system on what he thought was firm ground. Read More Facebook

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Charter school group drops two lawsuits against L.A. Unified By Howard Blume A charter schools advocacy group last week announced that it would end two long-running lawsuits in which it was seeking more classroom space and construction money from the Los Angeles school district. The decision, the California Charter Schools Assn. said, reflects better relations between charter schools and the L.A. Unified School District. But the move also suggests that the litigation, which already contributed to significant gains for area charters, was unlikely to produce much more. It takes time, money and effort to litigate, said Ricardo Soto, general counsel for the charter group. Maybe its better to see if we can find the time and opportunity for collaboration. Read More Facebook

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L.A. school board member Ref Rodriguez is arrested on suspicion of public intoxication By Richard Winton Los Angeles school board member Ref Rodriguez was arrested recently on suspicion of being drunk in public at a Pasadena restaurant, the latest trouble for an elected official who faces political money-laundering charges. Pasadena police took Rodriguez into custody on March 16, according to city spokeswoman Lisa Derderian. Officers arrested Rodriguez at about 4:30 p.m. at the Yard House restaurant and bar at the Paseo Mall and held him in jail for more than five-and-a-half hours. Rodriguez was ultimately released without being cited or charged, Derderian told The Times. Other details about the arrest were not available, she A freshman at a San Diego County high school was arrested on suspicion of making terrorist threats after he posted a photo of a Lego rifle on social media with a threatening message, a school district official said.

The 14-year-old ninth grader at West Hills High School in Santee was arrested at his home Tuesday, said Catherine Martin, a spokeswoman with the Grossmont Union High School District.

We thank law enforcement for their quick action, Martin said on Twitter.

The arrest comes as several schools  both in Southern California and across the country  have reacted to threats of violence in the wake of the Feb. 14 school shooting in Florida that left 17 people dead.

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Also on Tuesday, San Diego police arrested a 15-year-old boy who attends Westview High School in the Torrey Highlands neighborhood after he allegedly told other students he planned to shoot up their campus.

School officials told police the teen told other students they shouldnt attend class on Wednesday after telling them of his plans, acting Capt. Paul Phillips of the San Diego Police Department said.

Officers were sent to the campus and took the boy into custody. He was later arrested on suspicion of making criminal threats and was placed in juvenile hall.

Kucher writes for the San Diego Union-TribuneA fire broke out during a chemistry experiment Tuesday in a Cal State Long Beach classroom, leaving a professor injured, officials said.

Firefighters were called to the campus about 1:20 p.m., when students working with lithium hydroxide and lithium metal experienced a chemical reaction that sparked a blaze, according to the Long Beach Police Department.

They extinguished the fire about a half-hour later. A faculty member was taken to a hospital for treatment, said Terri M. Carbaugh, a spokeswoman for the university.

Campus officials are in contact with the professor and his family, and we are wishing him well, she said via email. She did not have details on his injuries.

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Authorities evacuated the Engineering and Computer Science Building and warned students to avoid the area as hazardous materials specialists assessed the situation.

The area was cleared shortly after 6 p.m. Classes will resume Wednesday.

alene.tchekmedyian@latimes.com

Twitter: @AleneTchek

UPDATES:

9:45 p.m.: This article was updated to reflect the person injured was a professor.

This article was originally published at 4:15 p.m.The former owner and operator of more than a dozen Southland drug treatment and rehabilitation centers was convicted Tuesday of 31 criminal counts, including the sexual assault or exploitation of seven patients and offering controlled substances.

The panel, however, acquitted Christopher Bathum, 56, on 12 similar counts and deadlocked on three others. The defendant owned and operated 13 Community Recovery treatment centers in Los Angeles and Orange counties, as well as six in the state of Colorado.

As the first verdict was read -- a finding of guilty to a count of forcible rape -- a woman in the first row of the courtroom clapped loudly and began sobbing. Her friends reached to comfort and calm her and she was allowed to remain in the courtroom while the clerk read the remainder of the verdicts.

In addition to that first count, Bathum was convicted of one count of rape by force of fear, two counts of forcible oral copulation and two counts of sexual penetration by a foreign object -- all with the same victim -- as well as 12 counts of sexual exploitation and 13 counts of offering controlled substances, including methamphetamine and heroin.

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The five-man, seven-woman panel deliberated for about a day before returning the verdicts and also found true allegations that the defendant sexually exploited multiple victims, clearing the way for an enhanced sentence.

Jurors acquitted Bathum of 11 counts of sexual exploitation and one count of offering a controlled substance, methamphetamine. They deadlocked on one count of rape by use of drugs and two counts of sexual penetration by a foreign object.

The acquittals and deadlocks left three alleged victims without a conviction related to their claims.

Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Charlaine F. Olmedo ordered the parties to return to court on April 17 for a motions hearing and to set a date for sentencing. Bathum faces a maximum possible sentence of 65 years in state prison and lifetime sex offender registration.

Each one is a drug addict, Deputy Dist. Atty. Reinhold Mueller said of Bathums victims at the outset of the trial. Some of the women suffered from shame and hopelessness and Bathum exploited the fact that they had shared some of their most intimate secrets with him, Mueller told the jury.

The defendant -- who lived with his wife and children in Agoura -- gave his patients drugs as they were trying to break a cycle of addiction, used alongside them and taught them how to beat drug tests, the prosecutor said. Bathum also offered the women special privileges, such as internships, company cars and access to iPhones, positioning himself as a father figure to the young women in their 20s and 30s, but acting like a predator, Mueller said.

They were easy targets. They were perfect victims, Mueller said in his closing argument.

Defense attorney Carlo A. Spiga told the panel that the rehab centers did a lot of good and credited his client. He downplayed the assaults, telling jurors in his opening statement that the evidence is not going to show that any of these acts were forcible.

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The defense attorney said he would leave it to the jurors to judge the credibility of the women testifying against Bathum, but also offered comments like, She knew what she was doing at all times and How many of them were hitting him up for money?

In his closing argument, Spiga said he was not just passively going to sit here and accept this character attack on Mr. Bathum.

Bathum remains in custody and will be in court Tuesday for a pretrial hearing on a separate case alleging money laundering, grand theft, identity theft and insurance fraud that prosecutors say amounted to $175 million in fake claims and relied on keeping patients in a never-ending cycle of treatment and addiction.

State Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones has called that case, in which Bathum is charged alongside his 44-year-old chief financial officer, Kirsten Wallace -- one of the largest health insurance fraud cases in California.

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About $44 million was paid out by five insurance companies, including Anthem Blue Cross, Blue Shield, Cigna, Health Net and Humana, before the fraud was suspected, prosecutors said.

Bathum is being held in lieu of more than $11 million bail across the two matters.Federal agents arrested more than 150 people suspected of violating immigration laws during a three-day sweep across Northern California, authorities said Tuesday.

About half of those arrested have criminal convictions. A top Immigration and Customs Enforcement official said he thought others were able to elude arrest after the Oakland mayor alerted the public about the upcoming raids.

ICE Deputy Director Thomas D. Homan blasted so-called sanctuary laws in San Francisco and Oakland, saying they endanger immigration officers who arent allowed in jails and therefore must make more arrests in the community.

The Oakland mayors decision to publicize her suspicions about ICE operations further increased that risk for my officers and alerted criminal aliens  making clear that this reckless decision was based on her political agenda with the very federal laws that ICE is sworn to uphold, Homan said in a statement.

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He added that 864 immigrants with criminal histories are still at large despite the raids this week that led to arrests in Stockton, Sacramento, San Francisco and Bay Point.

I have to believe that some of them were able to elude us thanks to the mayors irresponsible decision, Homan said.

Among those at large are Oakland residents with multiple prior removals, said James Schwab, a spokesman for ICE in San Francisco, a field office that spans 49 counties from Bakersfield to the Oregon border. They include someone convicted of carrying a loaded firearm and selling drugs, and another suspected of transporting cocaine and having sex with a minor.

Immigration detainers lodged against them have been repeatedly ignored, Schwab said. Instead they have been released back into the community to potentially reoffend.

Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf sent out the alert Saturday night, saying she had heard from multiple sources that immigration agents would be conducting enforcement operations starting as soon as within the next 24 hours.

She urged residents here illegally to take precautions, sparking debate about what role politicians and city governments should play in spreading information  both confirmed and unconfirmed  about possible federal immigration sweeps.

In a statement late Tuesday, Schaaf said she does not regret offering the heads-up about the raids.

It was my intention that one mother, or one father, would use the information to help keep their family together, she said. It is Oaklands legal right to be a sanctuary city and we have not broken any laws. We believe our community is safer when families stay together.

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I do not regret sharing this information. It is Oaklands legal right to be a sanctuary city and we have not broken any laws. We believe our community is safer when families stay together. pic.twitter.com/ng13yq431L  Libby Schaaf (@LibbySchaaf) February 28, 2018

In fiscal year 2017, ICE arrested 20,201 people across the state, Schwab said. Of those, he said, 81% had criminal convictions.

Some of those who were arrested in the latest sweep will be prosecuted for returning to the country after deportation, Schwab said. One person arrested in Bay Point had been removed from the country eight times.

Another, a documented Sureno gang member identified as Armando Nunez-Salgado, has four prior removals, Schwab said. Over the last 18 years, he added, the 38-year-old has been convicted of assault with a deadly weapon, burglary, hit-and-run causing injury and evading a peace officer.

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Dozens of people caught in the sweep have no criminal histories. Although the raids prioritized people who pose a threat, officials said anyone violating immigration laws were subject to arrest.

alene.tchekmedyian@latimes.com

Twitter: @AleneTchek

UPDATES:

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11:05 p.m.: This article was updated with a statement from the Oakland mayor.

This article was originally published at 7:15 p.m.Authorities are urging residents to evacuate in parts of Santa Barbara County ahead of a winter storm expected to hit the area Thursday.

The Sheriffs Office recommended that residents in parts of Goleta, Santa Barbara, Montecito, Summerland and Carpinteria evacuate starting at 8 a.m. Wednesday. The county has created an interactive map that shows which neighborhoods are most at risk.

This is giving them more than enough warning to begin to prepare, said Terri Nisich, a county spokeswoman. Those with access and functional needs, people that need more time leaving an area, [should] begin to move.

Forecasters predict that the storm will dump a one-third to two-thirds of an inch of rain per hour at certain points through Friday, which could be enough to trigger mud and debris flows near burn areas.

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The heaviest rain is expected over the mountains behind Montecito and Santa Barbara, said Kathy Hoxsie, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Oxnard.

Its a very moist system and unfortunately it really goes right over the Thomas fire burn scar, Hoxsie said.

Residents who live near and below mountains burned by the Thomas, Sherpa and Whittier fires are strongly recommended to relocate to safer locations for their own safety, the county said in an advisory issued Tuesday. High risk for loss of life and property exists.

Officials also urged residents to monitor the countys website for updates and sign up for the countys Aware and Prepare emergency alert system. They said they would provide more details on evacuations Wednesday evening. If authorities order mandatory evacuations, residents must leave designated areas by 9 a.m. Thursday.

As long as all the weather forecasts continue to indicate that we will have more than a half-inch of rain in that one-hour period, we will continue to move that way, Nisich said.

Residents can pick up to 25 unfilled sandbags from the following locations, but authorities ask that you call for current availability:

Santa Barbara Flood Control Shop at 4568 County Road in Goleta; (805) 568-3440

Lower Manning Park at 449 San Ysidro Road in Montecito; (805) 969-7762

The community is still recovering from destructive mudslides that on Jan. 9 sent a torrent of mud and boulders sweeping through neighborhoods, destroying homes and killing 21 people. Two others are still missing.

Officials announced this month that they will no longer use voluntary in their evacuation alerts after concerns that the warnings they pushed out before the deadly storm were ineffective in getting people to leave.

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alene.tchekmedyian@latimes.com

Twitter: @AleneTchekA winter storm that is on track to hit Southern California on Thursday is expected to bring steady rain to the region and has authorities in areas devastated by deadly fires and mudslides on alert.

The heaviest rainfall near the massive burn scars in Santa Barbara and Ventura counties is expected Thursday evening and in the predawn hours Friday, said Curt Kaplan, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Oxnard. Flat areas could see an inch of rain, and two to three inches on ocean-facing mountain slopes is possible.

It looks like a pretty significant storm, honestly, Kaplan said.

In Santa Barbara County, which is still recovering from January mudslides that killed 21 people, authorities are urging residents in some areas to evacuate ahead of the storm. Forecasters say the storm could dump one-third to two-thirds of an inch of rain per hour at certain points, which could be enough to trigger mud and debris flows near burn areas.

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A significant winter storm is expected across SW Calif.Thursday thru Friday morning. Then showers continuing into Saturday. People in recent burn areas, especially the Thomas Burn area need to listen to local officials if asked to evacuate. #Montecito #debrisflows #CAwx #CAstorm pic.twitter.com/oadWOGpYzb  NWS Los Angeles (@NWSLosAngeles) February 28, 2018

The Santa Barbara County Sheriffs Office has recommended that residents in parts of Goleta, Santa Barbara, Montecito, Summerland and Carpinteria evacuate starting at 8 a.m. Wednesday. The county has created an interactive map that shows which neighborhoods are at risk.

Residents who live near or below mountains burned by the Thomas, Sherpa and Whittier burn areas are strongly recommended to relocate to safer locations for their own safety, the county said in an advisory issued Tuesday.

The prospect of yet more mud left Montecito resident John Beck feeling overwhelmed Wednesday. Im going to wait till tomorrow before I decide to leave, he said as he sat down on a wooden chair in his living room. Nobody knows whats going to happen.

The 75-year-old has lived in his white wooden house on Olive Mill Road for the last six years. Because he lived in the voluntary evacuation zone during Januarys deadly mudslide, he thought he didnt need to evacuate. I figured we would get some water and a little mud, but no one expected that enormity, Beck said.

(Los Angeles Times )

Kaplan said National Weather Service meteorologists are in constant contact with authorities and emergency managers in Santa Barbara and Ventura counties as the storm moves in from the northwest.

The storm will likely bring a steady rain, but forecasters, so far, do not anticipate the same level of intense downpours that were seen during the Jan. 9 storm that ripped away homes in Montecito, Kaplan said.

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That storm poured half an inch of rain on Montecito in just five minutes.

The last one we had, which was obviously devastating, was a short time but a heavy, heavy rain, Kaplan said. It was basically a five-minute deluge that really dumped on the hills of Montecito. Well see some higher rates but nothing like we saw in those short bursts on Jan. 9.

1 / 53 Firefighters successfully rescued a 14 yr old girl, right, after she was trapped for hours inside a destroyed home in Montecito Tuesday morning. (Mike Eliason / Santa Barbara County Fire Department ) 2 / 53 Santa Barbara County firefighters rescue two men and a woman from flooding and debris flow on Hot Springs Road in Montecito early Tuesday. (Mike Eliason / Santa Barbara County Fire Department) 3 / 53 Contractors for the city of Ventura work to clear a huge tree toppled by wind on South Chestnut street between Main and Santa Clara Streets in downtown Ventura on Tuesday morning. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times) 4 / 53 A car was stuck in a mudslide early Tuesday morning on Topanga Canyon Blvd., in Topanga. (Katie Falkenberg / Los Angeles Times) 5 / 53 Mario Romero looks at mud debris covering Maricopa Highway 33 North of Ojai that has several closures due to mud and debris slides covering the roadway Tuesday morning. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times) 6 / 53 Debris and mud cover the entrance of the Montecito Inn after heavy rain brought flash flooding and mudslides to the area. (Daniel Dreifuss / Associated Press) 7 / 53 A rainbow appears over the deadly mudslide in Montecito along Olive Mill Road. (Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times) 8 / 53 A man walks by destruction along Olive Mill Road in Montecito. (Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times) 9 / 53 A sheriffs deputy stands near a body covered by a tarp near Hot Springs Road in Montecito after a deadly mudslide swept through the area. (Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times) 10 / 53 Mangled cars are stuck near Olive Mill Road in Montecito after a major storm hit the burn area Tuesday. (Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times) 11 / 53 Scene from the 300 block of Hot Springs Road in Montecito following debris and mud flow due to heavy rain Tuesday morning. (Mike Eliason / Santa Barbara County Fire Department)) 12 / 53 A mangled car along with other debris is wrapped around a tree along Hot Springs Road in Montecito. (Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times) 13 / 53 Scene from the 300 block of Hot Springs Road in Montecito following debris and mud flow due to heavy rain Tuesday morning. (Mike Eliason / Santa Barbara County Fire Department) ) 14 / 53 Scene from the 300 block of Hot Springs Road in Montecito following debris and mud flow due to heavy rain Tuesday morning. (Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times) 15 / 53 Sheriffs deputies carry a body from the debris near Hot Springs Road in Montecito after a major storm hit the burn area Tuesday. (Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times ) 16 / 53 Orange County search-and-rescue crews look for missing people along Olive Mill Road and Hot Springs Road in Montecito. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times) 17 / 53 A house is left among boulders and mud along Glen Oaks Drive in Montecito. (Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times) 18 / 53 The 101 Freeway is covered with mud and debris at Olive Mill Road in Montecito. (Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times) 19 / 53 Montecito resident Terry Connery, second from left, is assisted on Wednesday by, from left, firefighters Mark Todd, John Cecena and Jeff Shea after the storm. (Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times) 20 / 53 A home off of Romero Canyon Road in Montecito is inundated with mud. (Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times) 21 / 53 Crews work to clear debris from the closed 101 Freeway at Olive Mill Road in Montecito. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times) 22 / 53 The 101 Freeway remains closed as mud and debris clog the roadway at the Olive Mill Road overpass in Montecito. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times) 23 / 53 A member of the search and rescue team inpsects property near a home along Glen Oaks Drive in Montecito. (Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times) 24 / 53 Aerial image of mudflow and damage to homes in Montecito. (Matt Udkow / Santa Barbara County Fire Department ) 25 / 53 Ventura County fire Capt. Clay Cundiff searches a home for a woman who was reported missing by friends and family on Lilac Drive and Tollis Avenue in Montecito. She was later found safe. (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times) 26 / 53 A member of the San Bernardino Search and Rescue holds a picture that was found along the East Cold Springs Creek in Montecito after a major storm hit the burn area Wednesday. (Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times) 27 / 53 Tim ODonnell, a member of the L.A. County Search and Rescue team, searches under Ashley Road along the East Cold Springs Creek in Montecito after a major storm hit the burn area Wednesday. (Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times) 28 / 53 Travis Zehntner looks over the wreckage of a Glen Oaks Drive home where family friend Rebecca Riskin was killed. (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times) 29 / 53 A home on West Park Lane along San Ysidro Creek in Montecito on Thursday. (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times) 30 / 53 A Cantin family holiday card in a pile of debris in the 300 block of Hot Springs Road in Montecito. From left, Kim, mother who survived; father David, who was killed; son Jack, who is still missing; and daugher Lauren, who was pulled from the family home early Wednesday. (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times) 31 / 53 A structure sits in a tree Friday on East Valley Road in Montecito. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times) 32 / 53 A dog and its handler from Riverside County search the rubble of a Hot Springs Road home Friday in Montecito. (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times) 33 / 53 Water rises high near a home on East Valley Road on Friday in Montecito. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times ) 34 / 53 A dog helps rescue workers search through rocks, mud and debris for bodies Saturday in Montecito. (Luis Sinco / Los Angeles Times) 35 / 53 Firefighters look for missing people along Hot Springs Road in Montecito on Saturday. (Luis Sinco / Los Angeles Times) 36 / 53 Los Angeles City firefighter Jeffrey Neu gives water to Faith, a cadaver dog, while searching in a wood pile in Montectio Creek. (Michael Owen Baker / For The Times) 37 / 53 A Montecito freeway sign sits in mud on Highway 101.= (Michael Owen Baker / For The Times) 38 / 53 A view of the Thomas Fire burn zone and San Ysidro Creek in the Santa Ynez Mountains which brought mud and debris into Montecito neighborhoods. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times) 39 / 53 Los Angeles City firefighter Hollyn Bullock uses a rescue tool to pry open a car door along Montecito Creek. (Michael Owen Baker / For The Times) 40 / 53 Montecito neighbors hug at a candlelight vigil outside the Santa Barbara Courthouse. (Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times) 41 / 53 Mourners gather for a candlelight vigil outside the Santa Barbara Courthouse Sunday for victims of the Montecito mudslides. (Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times) 42 / 53 Geness Lorien listens to speakers during a candlelight vigil outside the Santa Barbara Courthouse. (Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times) 43 / 53 Mourners gather for a candlelight vigil outside the Santa Barbara Courthouse Sunday for victims of the Montecito mudslides. (Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times) 44 / 53 Mark Vance shovels mud away from his house on Olive Mill Road in Montecito, California. (Katie Falkenberg / Los Angeles Times) 45 / 53 Jesse Rudnick, with the Regional Task Force 1 out of Marin County Fire and Rescue, searches for missing people around a Montecito home. (Katie Falkenberg / Los Angeles Times) 46 / 53 Hugo Bautista, left and Jose Garcia, contractors with Union Pacific Railroad make sure track is clear at the Olive Mill Road crossing in Montecito. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times) 47 / 53 Amtrak has added extra trains and cars for passengers trying to get around the 101 Freeway closure in Montecito. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times) 48 / 53 Crews continue to clear mud and debris from the 101 Freeway near Olive Mill Road on Tuesday, January 16, 2018. Officials said they hoped to have the freeway opened by next Monday. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times) 49 / 53 Cal Trans crews work on clearing a drain along the 101 Freeway in Montecito on Tuesday, January 16, 2018. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times) 50 / 53 A worker takes a breather from directing a bulldozer driver who clears mud from the 101 freeway in Montecito. (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times) 51 / 53 Progress is slowly being made as a worker and trucks traverse a recently cleared portion of the the 101 freeway at Olive Mill Road in Montecito. (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times) 52 / 53 Santa Barbara Supervisor Joan Hartmann, from front left, Jefferson Litten, Hartmanns Chief of Staff, and San Barbara City Councilman Eric Friedman, pink shirt, join others as they applaud first responders, fire fighters and law enforcement whove been aiding in the aftermath of the Montecito mudslide during a community meeting at the La Cumbre Junior High School in Santa Barbara. (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times) 53 / 53 Margaret Stewart, with the Los Angeles City Fire Department, watches as her dog, Veya, tries to locate a victim of the mudslide along Highway 101 at Olive Mill Road in Montecito. (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)

Still, he said, the storm is expected to bring a significant amount of rain, which poses the threat of flooding and mud and debris flow near recent burn areas.

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Like many others in his Montecito neighborhood, Ken Diebold didnt evacuate during Januarys mudslide because he thought he was far enough away from the burn area and his house was in a voluntary evacuation zone. Their Olive Mill Road home was inundated however, and he was forced to escape through a window with his wife and three children.

Im never going to do that to my family again. My wife told me we cant live anywhere near an evacuation zone, so we are renting a house five miles away, Diebold said Wednesday.

Regional snow levels should lower to 5,000 to 6,000 feet, and up to a foot of snow is expected at higher elevations, according to the weather service.

The storm system likely will die down by Friday, but cloudy skies, cool temperatures and showers are possible throughout the day Saturday.

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Another, weaker storm is on track to move into Southern California by the middle of next week, forecasters said.

Incoming! Winter storm moves in this afternoon with periods of heavy snow through Saturday. Totals will be measured in FEET and mountain travel will become dangerous. #cawx pic.twitter.com/yunx6vk2Pj  NWS Sacramento (@NWSSacramento) February 28, 2018

Northern California mountain areas are expected to get several feet of snow from Wednesday through Saturday, making driving treacherous. The snow is expected to reach the Interstate 80 corridor in the Sierra Nevada by Wednesday afternoon, according to the weather service.

By 2 a.m. Friday, snow levels will be as low as 1,500 feet.

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Donner Pass, Carson Pass, Ebbetts Pass and Sonora Pass in the Sierra Nevada could get 60 to 80 inches of snow, forecasters said. Lassen Volcanic National Park is forecasted to receive 36 to 48 inches.

Juanita Garcia of Apple Valley and her daughter Alexis, 4, walk up a snowy slope to go sledding in Big Bear after several inches of snow fell in the San Bernardino National Forest on Tuesday. (Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times )

Times staff writer Alene Tchekmedyian contributed to this report.

hailey.branson@latimes.com

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Twitter: @haileybranson

UPDATES:

1:40 p.m.: This article was updated with comments from Beck and Diebold.

9:25 a.m.: This article was updated with the forecast for heavy snow in Northern California.

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This article was originally published at 7:35 a.m.Pedestrian deaths in Los Angeles have surged more than 80% in the first two years of a high-profile initiative launched by Mayor Eric Garcetti to eliminate traffic fatalities, new data show.

In 2015, 74 people on foot were killed by drivers in Los Angeles. That figure rose to 134 in 2017, the highest number in more than 15 years.

Overall, the number of bicyclists, pedestrians, motorcyclists and drivers killed in collisions on city streets fell last year by 6%, to 244, according to preliminary police data released by the city Transportation Department.

(Laura J. Nelson / Los Angeles Times )

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In 2015, Garcetti signed an executive order creating the Vision Zero initiative, which set the ambitious goal of eliminating traffic deaths on city streets by 2025. It called for reductions of 20% by 2017 and 50% by 2020.

The 6% decline in 2017 falls well short of that goal, and the citys slow progress suggests reducing fatalities by half in the next three years will be difficult.

Every life is important and we must keep pushing to do better, Garcetti said Tuesday in a statement to The Times, saying he was proud the city had reduced deaths overall in 2017. Safety is our top priority, and we will continue to set bold goals.

The 2017 statistics were included in a report scheduled to be discussed Wednesday at a City Council transportation committee hearing.

The L.A. data are on par with national trends, which show that more pedestrians are dying, and drivers are more distracted, Transportation Department spokesman Oliver Hou said in an email.

Figures on traffic deaths across the country are not yet available for 2017, but in the previous year, pedestrian deaths rose 9% nationally and 42% in Los Angeles.

Los Angeles officials spent more than a year studying collision data to pinpoint the citys most dangerous streets for pedestrians and cyclists, and worked in 2017 to make changes along 40 of those corridors. Many are broad thoroughfares, including North Broadway in Chinatown, 3rd Street in Koreatown and Sepulveda Boulevard in the San Fernando Valley.

Officials have focused on those areas because pedestrians and cyclists represent an outsize number of the citys traffic fatalities. From 2012 to 2016, people on foot were involved in 8% of the traffic collisions in L.A. but represented 44% of the deaths, the Transportation Department said.

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Last year, the city made 1,120 changes to streets and intersections, Hou said. Hundreds of crosswalks were modified, including four that now allow pedestrians to cross all directions at once, and 144 digital signs were installed that tell drivers their speeds.

Speed is often the determining factor in whether someone survives a car crash. When struck by a car moving at 20 mph, a pedestrian has a 90% chance of survival, but when hit by a vehicle going 40 mph, the chance of survival falls to 20%, according to a federal study of crash data.

The city also changed the timing on 67 traffic lights to give pedestrians the walk signal several seconds before drivers receive a green light. That change  known as a leading pedestrian interval  is designed to cut down on drivers hitting pedestrians in crosswalks.

The increase in pedestrian deaths isnt surprising for anyone who walks in Los Angeles and has had a near miss with a speeding driver, said Emilia Crotty, executive director of Los Angeles Walks, a pedestrian advocacy organization.

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Projects that have been shown to reduce pedestrian injuries, including so-called scramble crosswalks that allow people to cross in all directions, should not be delayed by concerns about commute times from local officials, Crotty said.

The most high-profile street safety project in 2017, along a handful of streets on L.A.s Westside, sparked a wave of protests from residents and commuters, two lawsuits and an effort to recall Councilman Mike Bonin, who represents the area. Eventually, the city reversed most of the improvements.

The advocates who fought the Playa del Rey project said they were interested in helping other local groups fight street changes that would affect commute times in other parts of the city. Street safety advocates worried that the backlash could set the Vision Zero effort back by several years.

The city learned some very hard lessons last year, Crotty said. We need our City Council members to champion this issue like the life-and-death situation that it is. Whatever negative pushback there is  perhaps from some drivers  this is what we need to protect the most vulnerable people in our neighborhoods.

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laura.nelson@latimes.com

Twitter: @laura_nelsonThe war of words between the Trump administration and officials in California over immigration intensified around federal sweeps in the north of the state that ended with more than 150 arrests.

Over the weekend, Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf alerted residents that she had heard from multiple sources that Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents would be conducting operations there imminently; she urged those in the country illegally to take precautions.

Oakland, like many California cities, has declared itself a sanctuary for those here illegally, and officials there have vowed to fight President Trumps immigration crackdown.

Schaaf has been praised and condemned for giving residents advance notice.

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ICEs acting director, Thomas D. Homan, blasted Schaaf.

The Oakland mayors decision to publicize her suspicions about ICE operations further increased that risk for my officers and alerted criminal aliens  making clear that this reckless decision was based on her political agenda with the very federal laws that ICE is sworn to uphold, Homan said in a statement on Tuesday.

Speaking on Fox and Friends, Homan added that the mayors warning helped an estimated 800 criminal aliens avoid capture. He also said federal authorities were examining her actions.

What she did is no better than a gang lookout yelling police when a police cruiser comes in the neighborhood, except she did it to a whole community. This is beyond the pale, he said.

Schaaf stood by her decision.

My statement on Saturday was meant to give all residents time to learn their rights and know their legal options, Schaaf said Tuesday in a statement. It was my intention that one mother, or one father, would use the information to help keep their family together.

I do not regret sharing this information. It is Oaklands legal right to be a sanctuary city and we have not broken any laws. We believe our community is safer when families stay together, she said in a statement.

In ICEs three-day sweep across Northern California, agents arrested more than 150 people suspected of violating immigration laws, the agency said in the same statement that criticized Schaaf.

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About half of those arrested have criminal convictions, the agency said.

Homan said 864 immigrants with criminal histories are still at large despite the raids that led to arrests in cities including Stockton, Sacramento, San Francisco and Bay Point. He blamed Schaaf in part.

I have to believe that some of them were able to elude us thanks to the mayors irresponsible decision, Homan said.

Among those at large are Oakland residents with multiple prior removals, said James Schwab, a spokesman for ICE in San Francisco, a field office that spans 49 counties from Bakersfield to the Oregon border. They include someone convicted of carrying a loaded firearm and selling drugs, and another suspected of transporting cocaine and having sex with a minor, he said.

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Immigration detainers lodged against them have been repeatedly ignored, Schwab said. Instead they have been released back into the community to potentially reoffend.

In fiscal year 2017, ICE arrested 20,201 people across the state, Schwab said. Of those, he said, 81% had criminal convictions.

Some immigration activists said the Oakland mayors actions had unintended consequences.

The main reaction that people have had has been fear, unfortunately, said Eleni Wolfe, immigration program director at Centro Legal de la Raza, an Oakland-based advocacy group, in an interview earlier this week. Its terrifying to hear about the potential of increased enforcement action, and unfortunately thats the main message that they heard.

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Others rallied to Schaafs defense.

In this particular case, in this day and time, we need to tell people that they got to keep their families whole, Assemblyman Miguel Santiago (D-Los Angeles) said. Thats what it really comes down to.

UPDATES:

4 p.m.: This post was updated with comments on Fox and Friends.San Diego State on Wednesday changed the name of one of its courses after the school was criticized for the title implying that President Trump should be impeached or removed from office.

The one-unit course, which begins on Friday, was titled Trump: Impeachment, Removal or Conviction? but now will drop Trumps name from the title.

In retrospect, we realize the title of the course  is inconsistent with the course content described, the university said in a statement. As a result, the title will be amended to accurately reflect this course offered now and for future offerings of this course.

The course presents an overall framework of impeachment, removal, or criminal investigation of a president and rather than focusing on President Trump, reviews all 19 impeachments in U.S. history. The one-unit, weekend class is not a requirement for graduation and is not paid for by state funds.

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The course is offered through SDSUs extended studies program and is meant for the general public. However, students can take the course and earn credit toward graduation.

The course is being taught by John Joseph Cleary, a lecturer who could not immediately be reached for comment.

The required textbook for the course is The Case for Impeachment by Allan J. Lichtman, a history professor at American University in Washington, D.C.

In late 2016, Lichtman predicted that Trump would win the presidency. He has correctly predicted the winning presidential candidate in every election since 1984.

The book, published in April 2017, examines the circumstances under which Trump could be impeached or removed from office. It also explores impeachment efforts throughout American history.

Brandon Jones, a student who chairs the schools College Republicans group, told Fox News on Wednesday, San Diego State seems to sending a very clear message.  Theyre making a very strong claim that the president has sort of committed crimes of treason or bribery.

gary.robbins@sduniontribune.com

Robbins writes for the San Diego Union-TribuneThe mother of three said she walked into the Santa Clarita Valley sheriffs station desperate for protection from her ex-husband.

Shed been turned away on previous occasions because she lacked proof that her former spouse violated a restraining order, she said.

This time, a deputy in the front office said he would help.

The deputy wrote down his personal phone number and told the woman to call him the next time her ex-husband showed up at her house, she said. Soon, she and the deputy began a correspondence. She alleges that he repeatedly sent her lewd messages and pressured her to have sex under the pretense that he would provide law enforcement assistance.

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The deputy, Josh Clark, was suspended from duty and is now under criminal investigation tied to the womans claim of sexual battery. Los Angeles County sheriffs investigators presented findings to prosecutors in September, officials confirmed. The District Attorneys office is considering whether to file charges, said Greg Risling, a spokesman for the agency.

Capt. Darren Harris, a sheriffs spokesman, said Clark has not been arrested. The deputy, a 12 -year veteran of the department, has been on paid administrative leave since January, 2017, Harris said.

The Los Angeles County Sheriffs Department expects all of its members to hold themselves to the highest ethical and professional standards at all times, Harris said in a statement.

Maureen Okwuosa, an attorney for Clark, said the deputy acknowledges knowing the woman but contends her allegations are not truthful. Okwuosa declined further comment.

The Times does not generally identify people who say theyve been victims of sexual violence.

The womans claims are spelled out in a civil lawsuit she filed in Los Angeles Superior Court last week against Clark and the Sheriffs Department, alleging sexual battery and emotional distress. She also said the agency didnt investigate and arrest her ex-husband until an employee at the Domestic Violence Center of Santa Clarita Valley heard about her experience and reported it to authorities.

Harris said the department began an immediate investigation upon learning of the womans allegations.

We take all matters of this nature seriously, he said. We cannot provide more specific information at this time due to the potential for future legal proceedings.

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According to the womans lawsuit, sheriffs investigators interviewed her in January 2017 and collected evidence from her mobile phone.

Clark was the only deputy working in the Santa Clarita Valley stations front office when the woman walked in on Dec. 12, 2016, to file a report about her ex-husbands repeated violations of a restraining order, she claimed. Clark, unlike other deputies whod heard the womans story, listened to her and told her to call him personally, promising he could respond more quickly than if she were to call the station directly, she said in the lawsuit.

The same day, the woman sent Clark a text message saying that her ex-husband visited her house. Late that night, Clark sent her messages asking her about her personal life and her interest in sex, according to the woman.

Over the next several days, Clark told the woman hed looked up her address and planned to visit her, she said. She resisted the advances, but he eventually showed up at her residence, where he kissed her and pressed her hand against his genitals, she claimed. He persisted in sending sexually explicit images and messages, she said.

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The woman said she finally gave in to Clarks overtures by driving to his house in Palmdale and engaging in sexual conduct with him, believing he would help her. In the end, Clark didnt provide any substantive law enforcement assistance, she said.

The woman and her attorney, Harout Messrelian, did not respond to requests for comment.

Sheriffs Department policy bars deputies from engaging in sexual misconduct and from immoral conduct in personal and work-related affairs.

maya.lau@latimes.com

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Twitter: @mayalauA 33-year-old woman was arrested Tuesday by North Las Vegas police after neighbors reported her attempting to climb the fence of an elementary school while yelling threats and wielding a pickax.

Police identified the woman as Kisstal Killough and said she never made it onto the grounds of Tom Williams Elementary School in North Las Vegas.

Eric Leavitt, spokesman for the North Las Vegas Police Department, said Killough surrendered to officers quickly after they arrived on the scene. He said the incident happened so fast, the school had barely begun lockdown procedures at the time of the arrest. He said officers arrived at the school about a minute after the calls came in reporting the incident.

It was at the beginning of the lunch hour and quite a few students were out, Leavitt said.

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Leavitt said Killough was arrested on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon, trespassing, public nuisance and loitering around a school campus. She was booked into the city jail.

The arrest came amid heightened fears after the mass shooting in Parkland, Fla., where 17 students and educators were gunned down Feb. 14. It also came a few months after the mass shooting in Las Vegas, where 58 were killed and hundreds wounded at the Route 91 Harvest country music festival.

Nerves have been frayed in Las Vegas since the Oct. 1 tragedy, and the Clark County School District  like others nationwide  has had its share of threats in the wake of shootings.

Last week, Clark County School District police arrested a 16-year-old male student for threatening to shoot up a high school, and a 14-year-old was arrested for making an unspecified threat to a middle school.

The shooting Feb. 14 at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida also prompted students from Silverado High School outside Las Vegas to walk out of their classes last week in protest of gun violence on campuses. A national walkout is scheduled for March 14, though Clark County School District officials have discouraged students from leaving classes that day.

Police said they didnt have a motive for why the woman allegedly tried to scale the fence at Tom Williams Elementary School. Leavitt said she didnt have a criminal record, but the suspect was impaired and appeared to have mental health issues.

After the arrest, KTNV reported that the school principal sent a letter to parents to tell them the would-be intruder hadnt harmed anyone and never got onto the campus.

The school has about 1,000 students.

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david.montero@latimes.com

Twitter: @davemonteroJared Kushner, President Trumps son-in-law and advisor-with-too-many-portfolios, has lost his interim top secret security clearance. Is that a reason for him to give up his duties at the White House?

Of course it is. Its hard to see how Kushner could continue to serve as a point man for Arab-Israeli negotiations if he doesnt have access to the presidents daily briefing and other highly sensitive information. And even if he were to relinquish that responsibility, his downgraded status would make it difficult for him to serve as an all-purpose counselor for his father in-law.

To be brutally frank about it, Kushner isnt qualified for his lofty position.

Yet its important not to fixate on the security-clearance issue. Kushners presence in the highest councils of the administration would be objectionable even if he passed his background check with flying colors.

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To be brutally frank about it, Kushner isnt qualified for his lofty position. His appointment as a senior advisor in the White House is an obvious and offensive exercise in nepotism.

The same is true of the designation of his wife, Ivanka Trump, as a special advisor to her father. In that capacity, she recently materialized in South Korea to reaffirm our commitment to our maximum-pressure campaign to ensure that the Korean Peninsula is denuclearized. Her proud father, with characteristic disdain for the truth, tweeted: We cannot have a better, or smarter, person representing our country.

All presidents, even those with the deep expertise in politics and government that Trump so spectacularly lacks, will turn to family members or friends for advice at times. Ronald Reagan was counseled by his wife Nancy to explore the possibility of better relations with the Soviet Union. Bill Clinton asked Hillary Clinton to help prepare his administrations healthcare proposals, a more formal assignment that raised eyebrows at the time.

President John F. Kennedy famously nominated his brother Robert F. Kennedy as U.S. attorney general, an audacious act of nepotism of a kind that would be impossible now. A 1967 law prohibits a public official from appointing a relative to a civilian position in the agency in which he is serving or over which he exercises jurisdiction or control.

The value of that law should be obvious. In addition to guarding against the appointment of officials chosen only for their family ties, the law prevents a situation in which an appointee can be entrenched in office despite poor performance, or insulated against the normal criticism of colleagues and members of Congress, because he or she is related to the president.

Last year, the Justice Departments Office of Legal Counsel advised that Kushners appointment wasnt barred by the anti-nepotism law because a later law gave the president broad authority over White House hiring. The department also cited a court ruling holding that the White House Office isnt an agency.

But installing a close relative in the White House in an official position certainly violates the spirit of the anti-nepotism law. And, despite the emphasis our bottom-line-minded president has placed on the fact that Kushner isnt being paid, thats irrelevant. What matters is that the president has installed a family member in an influential position.

We dont know what lies behind the decision not to grant Kushner a permanent top secret security clearance. His background investigation has been complicated by his wealth and elaborate business dealings and by his repeated failure to file complete information.

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Whatever the explanation, Kushner has been hobbled in performing duties for which he had no compelling qualification in the first place  other than having married the boss daughter. He should pack up and return to New York.

Follow the Opinion section on Twitter @latimesopinionand FacebookIf only we could make Les Jones story more commonplace.

As the 62-year-old Texas native leans back from his desktop computer in his small apartment, he details his journey from a successful radio career to a mental breakdown, to the streets, to shelter and finally to treatment and a healthy, happy life in this tidy complex at perhaps the most enviable corner of Santa Monica, steps from the Third Street Promenade, a short walk to the beach.

I am one verse, Jones says of the composition of the American population of the mentally ill. There are others. Modern treatment of mental illness produces miracles. It literally saved my life.

Jones lives at Step-Up on Second, the name of the apartment building and the nonprofit organization that operates it. He is serving his second stint on Step-Ups board of directors, runs a computer-training program and helps other residents adjust to their new home.

He has lived here 11 years.

This is permanent supportive housing. This is the type of thing Los Angeles voters are helping to build through their ballot measures and tax dollars. Jones and his neighbors each have their own apartments and lock their own doors. They visit on-site counselors and clinical staff as needed and discuss their progress, their lives, their medication. Many leave each morning for jobs.

Their lives are the promising future that policymakers and mental health professionals envisioned beginning in the 1950s, when a drug that was first developed as a sedative for surgical patients began being prescribed in psychiatric institutions and completely changed the nations approach to mental health. It was marketed under the name Thorazine.

It was the age of medical miracles: antibiotics like penicillin, and vaccines and treatments that virtually eliminated polio, smallpox and diphtheria. Drugs could cure almost anything. Surely they could cure mental illness.

Modern treatment of mental illness produces miracles. It literally saved my life. Les Jones

That post-war spirit of can-do optimism contrasted with the barbaric mental health treatment of the time. In state hospitals and asylums, staff had responded to behavioral problems with tranquilizers or, in far too many cases, abuse that verged on torture. Patients were often force-fed and treated like prisoners, which in essence they were. That was to change.

The last bill that President Kennedy signed before his assassination in 1963 was the Community Mental Health Act  a landmark law to fund and build community mental health centers. The old-style state hospitals and asylums would close and patients would come home to be treated in outpatient clinics, in supportive-housing communities, or in local inpatient hospitals. In 1967, California adopted the Lanterman-Petris-Short Act, which strictly limited forced hospitalization and the involuntary medication of patients.

This was deinstitutionalization, and the word had positive connotations. Civil libertarians supported patients recovering their self-determination. Others applauded the cost savings that came from treating people in outpatient settings. The mental health establishment  much of it anyway  expected better psychiatric outcomes and an end to abusive conditions.

So what happened? Why do so many people with mental health challenges end up on the street instead of community clinics? Why are there so few success stories like Les Jones, too few places like Step-Up on Second and far too many people in Los Angeles and around the nation today who turn to street drugs like heroin instead of prescribed medication to quiet the voices in their heads, or to methamphetamine to try to ease their depression?

Los Angeles Times

First, its important to remember that the mentally ill account for only about a third of the homeless, so even if they were all properly treated and housed, homelessness would remain a monumental problem in Los Angeles.

That said, people who should be in permanent supportive housing and clinical care are on the street in large part because a society that did so well at the easy and money-saving part of deinstitutionalization  releasing the patients, laying off the staffs, closing the hospital doors  failed to follow through with the difficult and expensive part. Few of the promised clinics were built. The funding was constantly delayed. It was finally supposed to come with the Mental Health Systems Act of 1980, signed into law by President Carter. But the following year, Congress and the new president, Ronald Reagan, repealed the act.

Without a Home Theyre part of the Los Angeles streetscape, as familiar as the swaying palm trees and idling traffic, living under freeways, alongside riverbeds and on canyon hillsides. The mentally ill, the drug addicts, the economically disadvantaged, many with their life belongings in a backpack or shopping cart. In this ongoing series, Without a Home, The Times is examining the crisis of homelessness in our region. Full coverage

Meanwhile, medication was not the quick and easy solution that it had been made out to be. Thorazine had serious side effects. It was replaced by a variety of other drugs, many of which do work wonders  as is the case with Jones, who says his treatment keeps his schizo-affective disorder under control. But many patients complain they are no longer themselves when medicated.

With a dearth of clinics and supportive housing and little public appetite to pay for them, cities, counties and states have had to scramble for their own solutions.

Many defer to nonprofit shelters, which offer meals, drug counseling, medical referrals and job training. Its the right answer for some. Jones began his journey to recovery at such a shelter. But others battling illness or substance abuse are deterred by the strict rules of conduct or by the bans on personal belongings or pets. Bureaucratic mazes that would deter even the most emotionally fit keep mentally ill homeless people from seeking help.

Jones was lucky enough to have a place to go. If everyone on the streets could look forward to the same positive outcome, it might be easier to open more places like Step-Up on Second. But many nervous would-be neighbors fear that most mentally ill homeless are unlike Jones and could never integrate safely into a community setting.

Les Jones, left, talks with Narshore Britton, 38, in Jones' studio apartment at Step-Up on Second in Santa Monica. Los Angeles Times

Some mental health professionals and elected officials believe the answer is to roll back laws that limit the ability to forcibly commit people who cant or wont seek help on their own. The L.A. County Board of Supervisors recently called for just such a change, presumably to deal with people whose conditions are too serious for permanent supportive housing. There are now bills in Sacramento to amend the Lanterman-Petris-Short Acts protections against compelled treatment.

In 2001, The Times editorial board published a series arguing that it was indeed worth sacrificing some civil liberties in order to treat people, rather than permit them to die on the street. But the issue isnt all that simple. Today, The Times cautiously supports re-examining existing laws on compelled treatment, as long as Californians do not mislead themselves into believing that it is an acceptable, effective or lasting shortcut for getting a majority of people with mental health challenges off the street. For all but the most seriously ill, the better answer is a painstaking process of trust-building. Otherwise, sick people who are run through a ponderous and liberty-depriving process will just drift back to the street. For many, successful treatment requires housing first, so that patients can drop their perpetual guard against assaults on both their personal safety and their self-determination.

Besides, forcibly committed people would still need a place to be housed and treated, and we are still without the clinics and other facilities that were supposed to come with deinstitutionalization.

By default, and to our collective shame, much of the response has been a virtual reinstitutionalization  but this time, to jail.

The largest psychiatric institutions in the United States are the Los Angeles County jails, the Cook County Jail in Chicago and Rikers Island in New York. L.A. County incarcerates thousands of mentally ill people. The Sheriffs Department reports that more than 70% of inmates who enter jail report a serious illness, either mental or physical. The county is moving forward with a $2-billion-plus plan to replace the aging Mens Central Jail with a new facility specifically geared toward mental health treatment  but still a jail. Were back where we started, but this time even more literally than before: Mentally ill people are prisoners.

Its not that jailers want the new business. Its a population, L.A. County Sheriff Jim McDonnell recently told ABC7, that I would argue should not be treated in a jail facility.

Making jails the centerpiece of mental health treatment is a monumental betrayal not just of the mentally ill, but of the forward-looking thinkers of the 1950s and 60s who saw a path toward a more humane and civilized society. And it is inefficient as well; treatment in jail costs more than treatment in clinics.

Los Angeles County government recently reorganized itself to recognize and respond to mental illness, addiction, criminal justice and homelessness in an integrated fashion. Now voters have approved a housing bond and raised their sales taxes to address homelessness.

Los Angeles Times

It is perhaps a thin wafer of a down payment on the long-promised funding for community mental health treatment. But the money is just the first step. Few people enthusiastically welcome permanent supportive housing to the neighborhood. Fewer still accept mental health day clinics.

So the misery on the street grows, even though, for many people, places like Step Up on Second would be a godsend.

Jones tried to explain that recently when going door-to-door to calm the fears of neighbors to a soon-to-be-built Step Up project.

More than one door was slammed in his face.High school students nationwide have vowed to ditch their classrooms on March 14 and call for gun control in the wake of the Parkland, Fla., shootings. Expect massive media coverage and rightful public praise of the protesters as brave, honorable kids doing the right thing.

Pundits will place them in the same spectrum as previous generations of young activists: the teenagers who faced down Bull Connors dogs and fire hoses in Birmingham, the giant college rallies against the Vietnam War, even the youth of recent years that blockaded streets to decry the anti-immigrant policies of the Trump administration.

Imagine if a lecture about the East LA Blowouts were mandatory at every California high school at the beginning of every school year.

But theyll probably overlook the Southern California Chicano kids who walked out of school in 1968.

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Thursday is the 50th anniversary of the start of the East Los Angeles Blowouts. At least 10,000 students from East L.A. high schools and beyond  shout-out to the OGs at Wilson, Roosevelt, Garfield, Belmont and Lincoln  staged two weeks of boycotts and protests against a school system they said had failed them. Openly racist teachers, outdated textbooks and a high dropout rate were just some of their complaints. Those young people helped launch the Chicano movement in Southern California and created a generation of leaders.

You rarely hear about this momentous event outside of ethnic studies classes. And thats a shame, because it isnt just a Chicano story, its a California story that deserves the same lionization as that of Mario Savio, Cesar Chavez and all the other rabble-rousers of our past who pushed the state forward. It also serves as a lesson for todays youth on how to challenge authority.

The entirety of the Blowouts, from planning to execution to the aftermath, represented California at our intersectional finest. Those who joined the struggle knew what not enough of us acknowledge now: Though its important to take care of our own specific group, its even better when we let others help.

Just look at all the different, diverse people who played a small but crucial part in the Blowouts.

The idea came from a 1967 youth leadership retreat held at Camp Hess Kramer in Malibu, a Jewish camp administered by the Wilshire Boulevard Temple. Chicano conferences had used the site for years at the invitation of Wilshire Rabbi Alfred Wolf, who knew an oppressed minority when he saw one and understood that his privilege meant he should assist.

At the 1967 retreat was Lincoln social science teacher Sal Castro. In discussions with his students at Hess Kramer, the East L.A. native began to hash out the idea of a school boycott. Mere protests or complaints werent good enough, they agreed; drastic action was needed. Drawing on the long legacy of huelgas among Mexican laborers in Southern California, Castro and his young wards decided on a strike. I didnt know what this would mean, he told a biographer decades later. All I knew was that without some kind of mass protest by the students, nothing would change.

Long before social media, Chicano youth spread the word via underground newspapers, at hipster coffeehouses and at community events hosted, as often as not, by white allies, including Episcopalian pastors. Students at white-dominant Venice High and majority-black Jefferson High walked out in solidarity with their Chicano peers. Undergrads from UCLA, Cal State Northridge and other local campuses served as mentors.

Then everyone walked alongside the East L.A. teens as they faced their destiny.

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Those students didnt just chant slogans. They presented LAUSD with a list of demands that nowadays sounds like conservative talking points: teacher accountability, better engagement with parents, better facilities. Teens attended school board meetings to make sure political promises were kept. They learned what citizens should do when elected officials dont do their job.

And the students didnt forget who stood by them. When the L.A. County district attorney charged Castro and others (collectively known as the East L.A. 13) on trumped-up charges of conspiracy to start the walkouts, outraged youth and their parents staged protests, held fundraisers and filed lawsuits to clear everyones names. When L.A. Unified fired Castro and refused to rehire him, Chicanos hectored board members until their maestro returned to campus.

Critics always point out that the walkouts didnt permanently solve the issues Latinos still face in K-12 education. But thats missing the point. The East L.A. Blowouts not only allowed students to demand what was rightfully theirs, it showed them that no Californian need allow the government to ignore its constituents, whether they can vote or not.

Imagine if a lecture about the East LA Blowouts were mandatory at every California high school at the beginning of every school year. Our students would learn that they can question their district officials and elected trustees, and that they can resort to boycotting classes in the face of extreme dysfunction, or perhaps extreme budget cuts. This isnt inviting anarchy, but civic engagement, a topic that adults have historically sucked at. Better than teaching about the missions, you know?

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mexicanwithglasses@gmail.com

Twitter: @gustavoArellano

Follow the Opinion section on Twitter @latimesopinion or FacebookTo the editor: As The Times Editorial Board makes clear, NIMBYism regarding permanent supportive housing for homeless people will require bold corrective action. (Dont let NIMBYs  or weak-kneed politicians  stand in the way of homeless housing, editorial, Feb. 27)

Brentwood and Pacific Palisades are ideal locations in which to build such housing. Both have great retail areas that are walking distance from houses and apartments. The quality schools there would serve the formerly homeless children well.

Most important, these two wealthy neighborhoods could set an example for the rest of the city.

Start with a modest 600 units each, equally divided between mentally ill persons, the elderly, parents with children, veterans, drug addicts in treatment and young single men who are homeless for other reasons. Build and open such housing in these communities first, despite resistance from the locals.

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When the wealthy enclaves of Los Angeles step up and shoulder their fair share, the folks in other areas will be more welcoming of new supportive housing in their neighborhoods. Anyone have any better ideas to turn the NIMBY tide?

Rob Dean, Los Angeles

..

To the editor: Thanks to the Los Angeles Times for bringing the homelessness crisis to the fore. Every community  and every government  has a responsibility to deal with this, not only to serve those who live on the street, but also to help the housed residents of Los Angeles who see their neighborhoods degrade from the grim sites, horrific smells and encampment sprawl.

For homeless veterans, the federal government owns 388 acres of land in the heart of West Los Angeles that was deeded for the specific purpose of housing. That land is the Department of Veterans Affairs campus on Wilshire and Sepulveda boulevards.

The VA has promised to build 1,200 supportive housing units on the property for veterans who, after having fought and served their country with honor, are left to live on the streets, many with mental and physical disabilities connected to their service. That land is the single biggest opportunity for homeless housing in L.A. County.

Thanks to years of advocacy, building this housing on the VA campus appears to have political and community support. But with a 57% spike in veteran homelessness last year, the federal government must act quickly.

Jesse Creed, Los Angeles

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The writer is executive director of the group Vets Advocacy.

..

To the editor: How many people would read your editorial if the print headline was changed from its current The desperate fight for homeless housing to The desperate fight for public housing for the homeless?

Public housing was tried on a massive scale after World War II. Pruitt-Igoe in St. Louis had 33 buildings that were 11 stories each. Robert Taylor in Chicago had 24 16-story buildings. At one point, 95% of Taylors 27,000 residents were unemployed and listed public assistance as their main source of income. The last Taylor building was demolished in 2007.

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Narcotics, violence and the perpetuation of poverty doomed all public housing projects.

Scattering high-density affordable housing and supportive housing throughout the city of Los Angeles is repeating the errors of last centurys public housing debacle.

Bob Munson, Newbury Park

..

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To the editor: On a recent rainy morning, I passed a homeless man standing next to a soaking bedroll near a freeway offramp giving all of us in warm cars his middle finger. An hour later, I passed again, the man and his finger still erect.

If we dont do more than pass Measure H, renounce NIMBYism and prod our politicians to action, then we certainly deserve his gesture.

Linda Fell, Long Beach

Follow the Opinion section on Twitter @latimesopinion and FacebookTo the editor: Except for environmentalists who understand their value, most of us, in our ignorance, would probably welcome the rising sea covering over those messy salt marshes. (Salt marshes will vanish in less than a century if seas keep rising and California keeps building, study finds, Feb. 21)

I live near the Back Bay ecological reserve in Newport Beach and didnt realize its role in purifying the air, cleansing urban runoff before it gets into the sea and reducing storm surge damage. Newport is only now beginning to face up to the devastation climate change is bringing.

At a January forum on sea level rise, city staff warned our community that seas could rise more than five feet by 2100, flood our world-famous beach and harbor communities and cost citizens up to $1 billion trying to arm themselves. How many more alarming scientific reports will it take before citizens demand government action to price carbon pollution and transition us to clean energy sources?

Robert Taylor, Newport Beach

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..

To the editor: Its curious that one of this reports authors, Richard Ambrose of the Institute of the Environment and Sustainability, is also a chief architect of what Sierra Club and many others see as a misguided and destructive plan to lower the elevations of salt marsh habitats at the Ballona Wetlands in order to invite more seawater inland.

UCLA geography professor Glen MacDonald has it right when he laments, Were essentially drowning the marshes  an outcome that would be repeated at the Ballona Wetlands if Ambrose has his way.

We hope Ambrose and others of his thinking will wake up to this research and other new science that has been ignored to date and realize if we want to preserve coastal ecosystems that remain  and not only salt marshes, but also wet meadows, seasonal ponds, coastal plain scrub, coastal grasslands and the wildlife that require this habitat  that the no bulldozing or excavation approach is a more prudent one.

Marcia Hanscom, Playa del Rey

The writer chairs the Sierra Club Ballona Wetlands Restoration Committee.

..

To the editor: The hubris of environmental activists is truly astonishing. They genuinely believe that the saltwater marsh degradation is a problem to be solved.

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Its an extraordinarily complex ecosystem that makes up a minuscule percentage of the West Coast shoreline. Why bother? These ecosystems have come and gone before for many millennia. If the current ones go away, they will be replaced when conditions allow.

How typical of environmentalists: Pose a solution in search of a problem.

David Pohlod, Oak Park

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White House communications director Hope Hicks acknowledged to a House intelligence panel that she has occasionally told white lies for President Trump but has not lied about anything relevant to the Russia investigation, according to those present for Hicks closed-door testimony.

Hicks was interviewed for nine hours Tuesday by the panel investigating Russia interference in the 2016 election and contact between Trumps campaign and Russia. One of Trumps closest aides, Hicks was his spokeswoman during the 2016 presidential campaign and is now White House communications director.

The top Democrat on the intelligence panel, California Rep. Adam Schiff, said after the meeting was over that Hicks answered questions about her role in Trumps campaign and answered some questions about the transition period between the election and the inauguration. But she would not answer any questions about events since Trump took the oath of office, similar to some other White House officials who have spoken to the committee. Schiff said Hicks did not assert any type of executive privilege, but said she had been advised not to answer.

Hicks did answer a question about whether she had ever lied for her boss, saying she had told white lies for Trump on occasion, according to a person familiar with the testimony. The person, who declined to be named because the committees interviews are not public, said Hicks told the panel she had not lied about anything substantive.

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Republican Rep. Tom Rooney of Florida, a member of the intelligence panel who was in the interview, said Hicks answer was completely unrelated to the Russia investigation.

When specifically asked whether or not she was instructed to lie by the president, or the candidate, with regard to Russia, the investigation or our investigation, the answer to that question was no, Rooney said. And thats our jurisdiction. Not whether or not he asked her to cancel a meeting for him, or something like that.

While the investigation is focused on Russian interference during the campaign, House investigators also had questions about her time in the White House, including her role in drafting a statement responding to news reports about a 2016 meeting between Trump campaign officials and Russians. That statement has been of particular interest to special counsel Robert Mueller, who is investigating matters related to the Russian meddling and potential obstruction of an ongoing federal inquiry.

The White House has said the president was involved in drafting the statement after news of the meeting broke last summer. The statement said the meeting primarily concerned a Russian adoption program, though emails released later showed that Trumps eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., enthusiastically agreed to the sit-down with a Russian lawyer and others after he was promised dirt on Trumps presidential rival, Democrat Hillary Clinton. Hicks was with the president on Air Force One while they were writing the initial statement.

All of our questions about what went into that statement went unanswered, Schiff said.

As the interview wore on, Hicks and her lawyer relented on one area of questioning  the transition period between the election and the inauguration. She initially refused to answer all those questions, but Schiff said it became clear to the House lawmakers that she had answered questions about that time period in a separate interview with the Senate intelligence panel. That committee also is investigating the meddling and spoke to Hicks several months ago.

After House lawmakers argued that she should treat the two committees equally, Hicks and her lawyer conferred with the White House, Schiff said. She then began to answer some questions related to the transition. Schiff said Democrats had asked for a subpoena after she refused to answer questions, but Republicans had declined to issue one.

That marks a difference from the GOP response to former White House strategist Stephen K. Bannon, who also refused to answer questions, including about the transition. Republicans subpoenaed him during his interview in January when he declined to answer, but Bannon has yet to fully cooperate, despite a return visit to the panel two weeks ago. The House is now considering whether to hold Bannon in contempt.

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Rooney, who is one of the Republicans leading the Russia probe, said he didnt think Hicks should be subpoenaed, saying she was very forthright and open to the questions that weve had.

Hicks arrived shortly after 10 a.m. through a rear entrance to the committees interview space and did not answer shouted questions from reporters. In the hours before Hicks arrival, Trump tweeted several times, quoting cable news commentators who said they hadnt seen evidence of collusion between Trump and Russia. One tweet encouraged investigations of Clinton. And a closing tweet simply said, WITCH HUNT!

Asked about Hicks refusal to answer some questions, White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Tuesday that we are cooperating because as the president has said repeatedly, there is no collusion, and were going to continue to cooperate, and hopefully theyll wrap this up soon.President Trumps communications director and close aide Hope Hicks announced her resignation Wednesday and will leave the West Wing in a few weeks, White House officials said.

Her departure comes a day after she refused to answer key questions from the House Intelligence Committee and at the end of a rocky month during which she was under fire for mishandling the White House response to spousal abuse allegations against Rob Porter, Trumps staff secretary whom Hicks reportedly had been dating. She also reportedly acknowledged during the committee hearing that she told white lies on behalf of Trump, an admission that would cast doubt on future statements on behalf of the White House.

Trump praised Hicks, calling her outstanding and saying she has done great work for the last three years.

Hicks, who had worked for the Trump Organization, became Trumps campaign press secretary in 2015, joined the White House as director of strategic communications in January 2017 and was promoted to White House communications director in August.

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Unlike previous White House communications directors, who generally came to the job with broad experience in setting strategy, Hicks, 29, relied mostly on her close connection and loyalty to the president. She has been one of his most protective advisors and fierce family loyalists.

Her announcement comes as Trumps dependence on longtime associates and family members is creating new problems for the president, with his daughter Ivanka facing tough questions while representing him in South Korea in recent days and his son-in-law Jared Kushner losing his top-level security clearance.

A former model, Hicks achieved a celebrity on par with Trumps most well-known aides, with her fashion choices often the subject of magazine photos and usually flattering social media posts. But few in the public know her thoughts or opinions on policy, as she almost never grants on-the-record interviews.

She is as smart and thoughtful as they come, a truly great person. I will miss having her by my side, but when she approached me about pursuing other opportunities, I totally understood, Trump said in a statement. I am sure we will work together again in the future.

Hicks is the fourth communications director to leave the turbulent Trump White House in 13 months. Among her predecessors was Anthony Scaramucci, a former hedge fund manager who lasted all of 10 days before leaving the job amid a profanity-laced interview with the New Yorker in which he used graphic terms to disparage top administration officials. Another predecessor, Sean Spicer, served two brief stints in the volatile job.

There are no words to adequately express my gratitude to President Trump, Hicks said in a statement, adding: I wish the president and his administration the very best as he continues to lead our country.

Hicks met behind closed doors on Tuesday with the House Intelligence Committee, one of three congressional panels investigating Russian meddling in the 2016 campaign. There was no hint that a resignation was on the horizon, a source familiar with her testimony said Wednesday.

Democrats complained that she was unwilling to answer questions about her work in the White House.

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This is an effort to continue to put off this committee, said Rep. Adam B. Schiff of Burbank, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee.

Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said that Hicks departure was not related to her testimony.

White House Chief of Staff John F. Kelly was tarred by inconsistent descriptions of Porters departure and reports he had tried to convince Porter to stay even after knowing about the abuse allegations.

Nonetheless, Kelly praised Hicks on Wednesday, saying she did a tremendous job overseeing the communications for the presidents agenda including the passage of historic tax reform and describing her as a trusted advisor and counselor as well as strategic, poised and wise beyond her years.

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The White House did not announce a replacement.

Twitter: @ByBrianBennett

brian.bennett@latimes.com

UPDATES:

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3:15 p.m.: This article was updated with additional information about Hicks work for Trump.

This article was originally published at 2:05 p.m.President Trumps former campaign manager, Paul Manafort Jr., will stand trial in mid-September in Washington on charges stemming from the Russia investigation, meaning the high-profile case will overlap with the midterm elections that could change control of Congress.

The political impact is difficult to predict, but it could aid Democrats eager to keep the focus on what U.S. intelligence officials have warned will be a renewed Russian effort to meddle in the U.S. campaign this fall.

U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson on Wednesday set a trial date of Sept. 17 on five charges filed by prosecutors investigating a Russian plot to influence the 2016 election and possible collusion with Trumps associates during or after the campaign.

Manafort faces a second federal trial in northern Virginia, where he was has been charged with 18 additional counts of bank fraud, money laundering and tax fraud. He has pleaded not guilty to all charges.

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Manafort, a longtime Republican senior strategist, was a prominent Washington lobbyist with a lucrative roster of high-powered foreign clients before he joined the Trump campaign in March 2016. He left the campaign that August, after Trump had secured the Republican nomination, when his work for the former Kremlin-backed government in Ukraine came under scrutiny.

He is the only American charged in the sprawling Russia investigation who has pleaded not guilty and thus will stand trial. Five others have agreed to cooperate with prosecutors in plea agreements. Charges also have been filed against 13 Russians, but they remain fugitives.

Manaforts former business partner, Richard Gates, initially faced most of the same charges as Manafort. But last week he pleaded guilty to two charges  lying to the FBI and conspiracy  and agreed to cooperate with the investigation led by special counsel Robert S. Mueller III.

On Monday, federal prosecutors moved to dismiss nearly two dozen other charges that Gates faced in Virginia.

Appearing in court with his wife and his attorney, Manafort pleaded not guilty to five counts that prosecutors filed last week, superseding an earlier indictment. The new case included charges related to not properly disclosing his work as a lobbyist for a political faction in Ukraine.

Jackson, who has issued a gag order in the case, scolded Manafort for issuing a public statement after Gates pleaded guilty. In it, Manafort said Gates decision does not alter my commitment to defend myself against the untrue piled up charges in the indictment against me.

I can certainly understand the impulse to not let that go by without asserting your innocence, Jackson said. She said she would not sanction Manafort even though she believed his public statement had violated her order.

Manaforts lawyer, Kevin Downing, said he would file a legal brief questioning the scope of the judges gag order.

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Right now, the order stands, Jackson said.

Greg Andres, a prosecutor on Muellers team, told the court that Manafort had not agreed to an offer to consolidate the charges he faces in Washington and Virginia into one jurisdiction. Manafort is scheduled to be arraigned in Virginia on Friday.

Jackson said the two cases have some overlap, and could create complications for scheduling and potentially conflicting rulings on what evidence can be used during the trial.

I think the burden is going to fall heaviest on the defense for trial preparations, she said.

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Manafort has filed a separate civil lawsuit that asserts that the special counsel has overstepped his legal writ by pursuing lobbying, bank fraud and other crimes not related to Russias efforts to steer the election to Trump.

The Justice Department order appointing Mueller last May was fairly broad, however, and said Mueller could prosecute any matters that arose or may arise directly from the investigation.

joseph.tanfani@latimes.com

Twitter: @jtanfani

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UPDATES:

9 a.m.: This article was updated with details from the court hearing.

This article was originally published at 7 a.m.President Trump, in an extraordinary White House session open to reporters, told a bipartisan group of lawmakers on Wednesday to send him one terrific bill on gun safety, including restrictions based on peoples age and mental health, and stronger background checks  proposals long opposed by the gun lobby.

The president was noncommittal when a couple of lawmakers called for a ban on assault weapons like the AR-15 semiautomatic rifle used in the Parkland, Fla., school shooting two weeks ago and other mass shootings, though few if any expect him to support it given gun groups resistance. He alluded to his signature proposal to arm some teachers, but said he would defer to lawmakers on the proposal, which has drawn much opposition.



For the record: An earlier version of this article said that Trump had hosted a roundtable on immigration late last year. That roundtable was held in January 2018.

Throughout the meeting, the president sought to play the conciliatory facilitator  the deal-signer if not the deal-maker  on one of the most divisive issues of past decades.

I will sign it and I will call whoever you want me to if I like what youre doing, Trump said, adding that legislation must be very, very powerful on background checks and very strong on mentally ill.

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Lets get it done, he said. Thats what we have to do.

In response, Republican and Democratic lawmakers said theyd need his backing for political cover against the presidents allies in the powerful gun-rights lobby to pass any legislation. Senators also gently reminded Trump of the difficulty of getting enough votes  at least 60  to pass anything in their chamber.

It was the presidents latest call to action in the wake of the Florida shooting, but once again he left lawmakers and observers confused about exactly what he wanted to achieve. During the hourlong roundtable discussion that played out entirely in front of television cameras, Trump told the sponsors of pending bills narrowly written to deal with bolstering background checks to make it much more comprehensive.

Sen. John Cornyn of Texas, the Republican who is the second-ranking Senate leader, was among those who schooled Trump in the realities of the legislative process. If you can get 60 votes, Cornyn said, hed be all for it.

The brainstorming session was Trumps fourth since the Feb. 14 mass killing at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School that killed 14 students and three educators, his first with members of Congress back from recess. Despite his admonitions to lawmakers to stand up to the gun lobby  Youre afraid of the NRA, he told them  the president appeared to protect against ideas that are opposed by the National Rifle Assn., whose leaders have advised him on the subject in recent days.

Trump mentioned several times that lawmakers should not include in a bill a ban on bump stocks. Such devices, used by the shooter who killed scores at a Las Vegas concert in October, turn legal semiautomatic rifles into virtual machine guns. Instead, he said, Congress should let him do that through executive order.

Trump has directed the Justice Department to propose a federal regulation banning bump stocks, whereas an executive order would not be an appropriate measure. Federal regulators have said they need authority from Congress. A regulatory ban would probably invite lawsuits from gun manufacturers, agency officials say. The NRA has said it could support a regulation on bump stocks, but not a law.

After days of vacillating since he had lunch on Sunday with three NRA executives, Trump indicated he remains open to another proposal the NRA doesnt like, his idea to set a federal minimum age of 21 for buying semiautomatic weapons. He said he would give very serious thought to that idea, which seemed a step back from last week, when he strongly and repeatedly called for it  before the NRA intervened in opposition.

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Trump also raised eyebrows by suggesting that law enforcement officials should be able to confiscate peoples firearms without a court order to prevent potential tragedies. Take the guns first, go through due process second, he suggested.

Trump also said several times that he wants to be the president who finally gets something done to prevent school shootings. When Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) noted the difficulty of passing a gun law, Trump shot back, Youve got a different president now.

The gun lobby has had a veto power, Murphy replied, adding, Its going to have to be you that brings the Republicans to the table. Trump responded: I like that responsibility.

A couple of Republicans seconded the notion that Trump uniquely can provide them cover if he backs them up.

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You can lead on this as nobody else can, said Rep. Brian Mast, a Florida Republican who lost his legs while serving in Afghanistan and who recently called for a ban on the sort of assault weapons he used in combat.

Trump acted as if he wanted that mantle of leadership. He listened to ideas and sometimes made clear what a bill would have to have in order to win his support. Unspoken in the conversation, however, was the worry of many Republicans that Trump will push them to take difficult stands on gun control and then reverse course, leaving them without political cover.

He has done such a thing before. Trump held a similar roundtable in January on immigration, calling on lawmakers to send him a bipartisan bill that would allow up to millions of immigrants in the country illegally to gain legal status, only to later toughen his demands and effectively kill several measures.

The bipartisan group of lawmakers meeting about gun policy drew the president out on a few of his apparent commitments.

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Trump suggested that Sens. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) and Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) add the age minimum to their bill that failed in 2013, after the school killings in Newtown, Conn. When Toomey said they didnt include it, and Trump countered that lawmakers were afraid of the NRA, Toomey pushed back, giving Trump a taste of the contentiousness he faces.

Toomey told Trump that the vast majority of 18-to-20-year-old Pennsylvanians with long guns are law-abiding and to deny them their 2nd Amendment rights isnt going to make anyone safer.

A few minutes later, Trump effectively killed a House-passed gun bill that House Republican leaders have been pressing for the Senate to approve. When the third-ranking House leader, Rep. Steve Scalise (R-La.), promoted the bill, which pairs background check changes with provisions requiring all states to honor concealed carry permits of gun-toting visitors from states that allow the permits, Trump cut him off: Im with you but let it pass as a separate bill. He added, Youll never get it passed.

Scalise and other House Republicans were clearly stunned, and senators, notably California Democrat Dianne Feinstein, pleased. The concealed-carry provision, as Trump indicated, cannot pass in the Senate and is the main reason the House and Senate havent yet agreed on legislation improving background checks.

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Trump urged the lawmakers to be as tough as they can and still come up with something that will pass, even as he brushed off Feinsteins suggestion that he bless the idea of discussing a ban on assault weapons.

I really believe it has to be very strong, Trump said. Id rather have you come down on the strong side instead of the weak side. The weak side would be much easier. Id rather have you come up with a strong, strong bill.

Feinstein was seated next to Trump. In January he had attacked her in a tweet as Sneaky Dianne Feinstein for her actions in the Senates probe of Russias meddling in the 2016 election and possible Trump campaign coordination, and he expressed hope shed draw election opposition.

The Democrat took advantage of her proximity to the president to at one point hand him a paper showing a drop in the number of assault weapon deaths in the decade 1994 to 2004, when a ban was in effect, and the rise in deaths since. Feinstein literally put the issue on the table for the first time since the Parkland shootings, since Trump has ignored it to date.

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The president was polite, took the paper, and thanked Feinstein.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

christi.parsons@latimes.com

Twitter: @cparsonsPresident Trump on Wednesday threatened to delay building border barriers in California until his long-promised wall goes up elsewhere, seemingly slinging another arrow in his running battle with the nations most populous state.

Sections of the Wall that California wants built NOW will not be built until the whole Wall is approved, Trump declared in a morning message on Twitter.

I have decided that sections of the Wall that California wants built NOW will not be built until the whole Wall is approved. Big victory yesterday with ruling from the courts that allows us to proceed. OUR COUNTRY MUST HAVE BORDER SECURITY!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 28, 2018

His threat confused just about everyone involved in the fight over border protection. If the goal was to gain leverage in his fight for the wall, the warning shot seemed oddly aimed: California officials have fought vigorously against Trumps project, his top priority as a presidential candidate, even going to court to try to block it  an effort that lost a round Tuesday. They havent been clamoring for construction of new border fences.

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Administration officials could not point to any change in policy  either proposals or executive actions  to accompany Trumps tweet. Nor were officials sure what sections of the wall Trump was referring to as elements that California wants.

There are several current projects to upgrade existing border fences in Southern California, but neither the White House nor the Department of Homeland Security responded to questions about whether Trump meant to delay any of those, and there was no sign that construction would stop. Border officials in San Diego and El Centro also declined to comment on Trumps tweet.

Instead of any sudden policy shift, officials said privately, the tweet seemed to reflect the presidents continued anger at California officials over their resistance to his immigration policies.

As such, it appears to be another example of a growing list of statements that show a disconnect between Trumps Twitter messaging and his role as chief executive.

Trump for years has commented provocatively on public affairs, and as president he frequently has caught his advisors off guard with his impulsive tweeting. He has often seemed unwilling or unable to adjust to the power a presidents words can have to set national policy.

Instead, government officials have adjusted, ignoring his remarks in some cases, contradicting them in others.

Last year, for example, Trump surprised advisors with public statements demanding a ban on transgender people serving in the military, an order the Pentagon sidestepped and is now recommending the president drop.

He also publicly said several times that he had ordered that oil and gas pipelines be constructed from American-made steel, an order that never actually existed and has since been dropped from his speeches.

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In some cases, such as Trumps insistence that the 2016 election was riddled with fraud, his words prompted administration officials to undertake elaborate measures with committees, executive memos or contorted statements of their own. In others, his staff has simply waited for the presidents attention to move on.

The missive about the border wall came, as many Trump tweets do, after a discussion of a related topic on Fox & Friends, the presidents favorite morning television show. Based on his other Wednesday morning tweets, he appeared to be watching the show on a roughly 20-minute delay.

The shows hosts began a segment with a discussion of Tuesdays order from a federal judge in San Diego who ruled that the administration did not abuse its authority in waiving some environmental laws and other regulations when it began building new barriers and demonstration projects in Southern California.

U.S. District Judge Gonzalo Curiel, who ruled in the case, is the same judge Trump disparagingly called a Mexican during his 2016 campaign, even though Curiel was born in the United States. At the time, Trump said Curiel could not rule fairly in a case against Trump University because of the judges heritage given Trumps call for a wall along the Mexican border.

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The Fox News hosts then went on to lash California officials for supporting sanctuary policies that discourage local cooperation with federal immigration authorities. The hosts showed a quote from Mark Farrell, San Franciscos interim mayor, who pledged to always remain a sanctuary city. They also lambasted Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf for warning residents ahead of immigration raids conducted this week.

The hosts also spoke of Trumps desire to secure $25 billion to build a wall the way the president is used to doing things, in a comprehensive way.

Trump appeared to be reacting to the combination of those stories.

I think what hes trying to do is bully his way to get some Democratic congresspeople and some Republican congresspeople to vote for wall funding, which is going nowhere, said Daniel Benavidez, who worked until October as a communications consultant for the National Border Patrol Council, the union representing border agents.

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But Trumps threat seems unlikely to create much leverage for him; there is little excitement in California for spending a lot more for new barriers, even from border agents.

In my three years, I dont think anybody brought up, We need more border walls, more interior infrastructure in Southern California, said Gil Kerlikowske, who was commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection in the Obama administration. He said he heard more interest in a solid wall from Border Patrol chiefs in the Rio Grande Valley in Texas, where 68,000 unaccompanied children crossed in 2014.

Benavidez said agents he has spoken with believe double fencing  rather than a wall  is sufficient in most areas because it helps protect agents from getting hit by rocks. He agreed that solid walls make sense in some locations, including the Rio Grande Valley.

Elected officials also didnt offer much of a hint that Trumps words had moved them.

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Even the current border upgrades are not a priority in our view, said Drew Hammill, a spokesman for House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco).

Rep. Scott Peters (D-San Diego) said a full wall on the border isnt needed.

If he wants to waste that money in some other part of the country, thats fine with me, he added.

Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-Alpine) issued a statement calling a border wall a necessity but not endorsing Trumps threat.

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While I certainly understand the Presidents frustration with irresponsible California policies and politicians, national security requires that we remain diligent in all aspects, the statement said.

As has been the case for months, Trump appeared to be counting any sort of upgrade in border fencing as part of his proposed wall.

Along the nearly 2,000 miles of the U.S.-Mexico border, each Border Patrol sector has identified what stretches of new or improved barriers should be priorities.

Several sections of the border in California are already getting upgraded barriers and other improvements.

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Theres a fence upgrade project in Calexico, for example, that the Border Patrol just last week touted as part of the border wall. The government also has spent hundreds of millions of dollars as part of a years-long project to upgrade the San Ysidro border crossing.

Local officials said they did not know of any changes to current border construction projects.

One agent, who declined to be named, said that workers are still going forward with replacement fencing on the west side of downtown Calexico.

The project, which officials began planning in 2009, will swap just over two miles of barrier made from Vietnam War-era landing mats for 30-foot bollards  posts placed close together that keep people from passing through but allow agents to see whats happening on the other side.

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A similar project is due to begin in the San Diego area later this year. It does not have an official start date.

Those two projects, along with border wall prototypes recently built in San Diego, were the subject of Curiels ruling against state officials and environmental groups that tried to halt construction.

Times reporters Bierman and Wire reported from Washington; Morrissey, of the San Diego Union-Tribune, reported from San Diego.

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noah.bierman@latimes.com

Twitter: @noahbiermanPerhaps no advisor to President Trump has had a more expansive portfolio  relations with China and Mexico, Middle East peace, government innovation  than Jared Kushner, the presidents ubiquitous son-in-law.

But can Kushner keep tabs on all of that now that his security clearance has been downgraded?

TOP SECRET NO MORE

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On Tuesday, the news began to get out that the 37-year old has lost access to top-secret documents  perhaps limiting the work he can do on sensitive foreign policy issues.

White House Chief of Staff John Kelly declined to confirm the action in Kushners case. I will not comment on anybodys specific security clearance situation or go beyond the memo released last week, he said in a statement Tuesday.

IMMIGRATION: RULINGS AND RAIDS

Federal agents arrested more than 150 people suspected of violating immigration laws during a three-day sweep across Northern California, authorities said Tuesday.

And the acting director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Thomas D. Homan, had some particularly sharp words for Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf, who publicly warned her community of the coming raids.

The Oakland mayors decision to publicize her suspicions about ICE operations further increased that risk for my officers and alerted criminal aliens  making clear that this reckless decision was based on her political agenda with the very federal laws that ICE is sworn to uphold, he said in a statement.

Meanwhile, the U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday strengthened the Trump administrations power to hold immigrants in jail for months or years as they fight deportation, ruling federal law gives these detainees no right to a bail hearing nor a chance to go free.

And in California, another legal victory for the president: a federal judge in San Diego sided with the Department of Homeland Security in its effort to sidestep environmental laws in replacing border fencing. Mind you, this was no ordinary judge but rather the same one Trump once singled out for his Mexican heritage.

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NATIONAL POLITICS LIGHTNING ROUND

-- The White House confirms that Trump hopes to visit Southern California in mid-March to see prototypes of his long-promised border wall and attend a political fundraiser.

-- Supreme Court justices sounded skeptical Tuesday about Microsofts refusal to turn over emails sought by U.S. law enforcement agents and stored in overseas servers.

-- National Security Agency Director Mike Rogers said Tuesday that the United States hasnt done enough to deter Russian meddling in national politics and acknowledged that Trump hasnt directed cybersecurity officials to take more aggressive offensive actions against Moscow.

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-- The fractious House Intelligence Committee gathered behind closed doors on Tuesday to interview Hope Hicks, Trumps communications director and one of his closest and longest-serving aides.

-- Trump said Monday he might be willing to accept an overture from North Korea to hold talks but only under the right conditions.

-- The United States top diplomat handling the Korean peninsula, a 30-year foreign-policy veteran, has abruptly resigned, citing personal reasons.

-- Even as they gird for new battles over the Affordable Care Act, Democrats are laying the groundwork for a new healthcare agenda to open programs such as Medicare and Medicaid to more Americans.

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-- In a move to address the nations deadly opioid crisis, the Justice Department says it will target the prescription drug pipeline with a new focus on companies that manufacture and distribute the drugs.

-- President Trump is naming former digital advisor Brad Parscale as campaign manager of his 2020 reelection effort.

GUN VIOLENCE ACTION STALLS

Less than two weeks after the latest mass shooting had Trump promising action, his proposals have fallen flat among already divided congressional Republicans, leaving their party united on one thing: blocking further restrictions on gun ownership.

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House Republican leaders dismissed Trumps signature idea of arming some teachers nationwide, calling that a local matter, while the president has all but shelved his other proposal to set a federal minimum age of 21 for purchasing long guns.

And on the other side of the aisle, a Northern California congressman is trying to force a vote on a gun background check bill.

AND THEN THERE WERE TWO

With nine days left for 2018 candidates to formally file for office in most races, there are two things we know about Californias most high-profile contests: Theres one fewer GOP candidate for governor, and hes not interested in running for the U.S. Senate.

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Doug Ose, who served six years in the House representing the Sacramento region, dropped out of the governors race on Monday. That leaves two visible Republicans, Huntington Beach Assemblyman Travis Allen and San Diego businessman John Cox, still in the hunt for one of the two slots on the November ballot.

And on Tuesday, Ose clarified that the decision wasnt strategic: Hes not running for the U.S. Senate, where the state GOP has no prominent candidate.

Or does it? Far-right radio talk show host Michael Savage said hes considering throwing his hat into the ring.

TODAYS ESSENTIALS

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-- The former employer of Rep. Linda Sanchezs husband, Jim Sullivan, paid $35,000 to settle a 2015 harassment complaint brought against him.

-- Stacey Dash, the actress turned conservative commentator who starred in the 1995 movie Clueless, took a step on Tuesday to run for Congress against Rep. Nanette Barragan (D-San Pedro).

-- Some of Sen. Dianne Feinsteins longtime supporters and staff are hoping to remind Californians of the senators quarter-century of work in Washington with a new super PAC.

-- The sexual harassment controversies that have consumed California politics also made their mark on happenings at last weekends state Democratic Party convention.

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-- Former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Ohio Gov. John Kasich will headline the launch of a group aimed at reforming the California Republican Party.

-- The Orange County Republican Party put its weight behind Diane Harkey, one of several Republicans running in the 49th Congressional District and Rep. Darrell Issas choice to replace him.

-- Chelsea Handler moderated a star-studded panel on electing more women to office, and several congressional candidates were there to rub elbows with Hollywood elites at the event, hosted by Emilys List.

-- Sarah Silverman co-hosted a fundraiser Tuesday night at the Hancock Park home of a major film studio executive to support four of the Emilys List endorsed candidates.

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LOGISTICS

Essential Politics is published Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

You can keep up with breaking news on our politics page throughout the day. And are you following us on Twitter at @latimespolitics?

Miss Mondays newsletter? Here you go.

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Please send thoughts, concerns and news tips to politics@latimes.com.

Did someone forward you this? Sign up here to get Essential Politics in your inbox.For several years, researchers have struggled to explain the obesity paradox. This is the observation that, after being diagnosed with cardiovascular disease, people who are overweight or obese live longer than people who have a healthy weight.

How is it possible for those extra pounds to provide extra years of life? The answer, it turns out, is simple.

They arent.

A new study shows whats really going on: People who are overweight or obese are being diagnosed with cardiovascular disease at younger ages. Although they do spend more years living with the disease than their slimmer peers, they do not live longer overall.

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Indeed, one of the main effects of carrying around too much excess weight is that you get fewer years of disease-free life.

A team of researchers led by Dr. Sadiya Khan of Northwestern Universitys Feinberg School of Medicine figured this out by examining data from the Cardiovascular Disease Lifetime Risk Pooling Project.

They pulled medical information on 190,672 Americans who did not have cardiovascular disease when they began being tracked by researchers. All of them had their height and weight measured at least once, and all of them were followed for at least 10 years. Altogether, they provided researchers with 3.2 million years of health data.

The researchers grouped the study participants according to their age and their weight status. Starting with people between the ages of 40 and 59, they saw that those who were overweight or obese had a higher risk of a heart attack, stroke or congestive heart failure than did those with a normal weight.

For instance, among middle-aged men, 37% of those who were overweight (that is, with a body mass index between 25 and 29.9) experienced some type of cardiovascular event after joining a study. So did 47% of men who were obese (with a body mass index between 30 and 39.9) and 65.4% of those who were morbidly obese (with a BMI of 40 or above). By comparison, 32% of men with a BMI in the normal range (between 18.5 and 24.9) suffered a cardiovascular event.

Among middle-aged women, 27.9% of those who were overweight had a heart attack, stroke or congestive heart failure after joining a study, as did 38.8% of those who were obese and 47.6% of those who were morbidly obese. Among women with a normal weight, 21.5% experienced one of these cardiovascular events.

After adjusting the data to account for risk factors like age, race, ethnicity and smoking status, Khan and her colleagues found that the higher the BMI, the greater the lifetime risk of some type of heart problem. For example, compared to middle-aged men with a normal BMI, the risk of a heart attack (either fatal or nonfatal) was 18% higher for men who were overweight, 42% higher for men who were obese, and 98% higher for men who were morbidly obese.

For middle-aged women, the risk of a heart attack was 42% higher for those who were overweight, 75% higher for those who were obese and 80% higher for those who were morbidly obese.

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The researchers found that middle-aged adults with a normal weight lived the most years free of cardiovascular disease. For instance, men who were morbidly obese experienced their first cardiovascular event 7.5 years sooner than men with a normal BMI. For women, the difference was 7.1 years.

In addition, a normal weight was associated with a longer life overall. Middle-aged men with a normal BMI lived 5.6 years longer than men who were morbidly obese, while women with a normal BMI lived 2 years longer than women who were morbidly obese.

All of these patterns were similar in younger and in older adults, the researchers found.

By looking at peoples health over a longer period of time  not just after theyve been diagnosed with a heart problem  the true significance of the obesity paradox comes into view.

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The obesity paradox  appears largely to be caused by earlier diagnosis of CVD, the researchers wrote, using an abbreviation for cardiovascular disease.

Adults who were obese had an earlier onset of incident CVD, a greater proportion of life lived with CVD morbidity (unhealthy life years), and shorter overall survival compared with adults with normal BMI, they concluded.

The study was published Wednesday in the journal JAMA Cardiology.

karen.kaplan@latimes.com

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MORE IN SCIENCE

Ten things you should know about teen sexting

Instead of nagging your spouse to lose weight, try going on a diet yourself

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Whats scarier to a New York City cop than a black man? A tall black manThe Glendale Area Alumnae Panhellenic has distributed its scholarships and installed officers for the upcoming year.

This Panhellenic chapter serves Glendale, Burbank, La Canada Flintridge, La Crescenta, Sunland and Tujunga. Members are from any of the 26 sororities recognized by the National Panhellenic Conference.

Established in 1947, the groups charter is to support local women in pursuit of higher education.

Awards of varying amounts are given annually to eligible area high school senior women who are planning to attend a four-year college or university in the fall, as well as to eligible area college women who are active members in good standing with a National Panhellenic Conference sorority.

The Glendale Area Alumnae Panhellenic presents an annual benefit luncheon to raise money for the Merit Scholarship awards.

High School Merit Scholarship recipients for 2017 were Burbank High School graduates Rebecca Galvez, who will attend San Diego State University; Elina Hakobyan, who will attend USC; Emily Mintz-Kreyns, who will attend Columbia College of Chicago; and Sanam Patel, who will attend UC Berkeley.

Also receiving a Merit Scholarship was Julie McHorney, who graduated from John Burroughs High School and will attend CSU Channel Islands.

Glendale Panhellenic officers and volunteers are Kim Westhoff, president, Glendale, Alpha Omicron Pi; Elaine Chapman, vice president, La Canada Flintridge, Kappa Kappa Gamma; Jerri Johnson, secretary, Pasadena, Sigma Sigma Sigma; Julie Weller, treasurer, Glendale, Delta Zeta; and Lynne Graves, benefit co-chair, La Canada Flintridge, Alpha Delta Pi.

Also holding posts are Deb Ann Orfalea, scholarship social chair, Glendale, Zeta Tau Alpha; Janice Paul, scholarship chair, La Canada Flintridge, Delta Delta Delta; and Georgine Archer, files/recommendations chair, Burbank, Delta Gamma.

For more information, visit www.glendalepanhellenic.org.

Glendale Area Alumnae Panhellenic President Kim Westhoff, left, with scholarship recipient Julie McHorney, who recently graduated from Burroughs High School. (Courtesy Glendale Area Alumnae Panhellenic)

New senior minister comes to SpiritWorks

Rev. Cliff Rubin has been appointed to serve as senior minister at SpiritWorks - Center for Spiritual Living.

Before this recent appointment, Rubin said he created and grew an online ministry called YANA (You Are Not Alone) Virtual Center for Spiritual Living that reached more than 2,000 people a week in more than 50 countries.

He also served as the executive director of the Listening Heart Crisis Center, which offered a suicide crisis hotline that he said took more than 10,000 calls during his tenure with a 100% survival rate.

I live my life in the knowing that anything is possible and life is a celebration, he said.

He is the author of Cliffs Notes on the Science of Mind Textbook, used in Science of Mind classes and book study groups in more than 50 centers around the world.

SpiritWorks - Center for Spiritual Living was founded in 1949 and is located at 260 N. Pass Ave., Burbank.

For more information, call (818) 848-4158.

Class of 1967 plans to reunite

Summer means its time for high school reunions and one of the big celebrations coming up is Burbank High School Class of 1967s 50th reunion.

The three-day extravaganza will be held from Sept. 15 to 17. The main event will be a dinner on Sept. 16 at the Burbank Elks Lodge, 2232 N. Hollywood Way, Burbank.

Cost to attend the dinner and Sunday picnic is $67. The memory book is $25.

Mail a check to BHS Reunion in care of Dona Bruckner, 4683 Telescope Ave., Carlsbad CA 92008.

JOYCE RUDOLPH can be reached at rudolphjoyce10@gmail.com.More than 40 people, with a little more than half of them renting in Burbank, attended a free workshop Monday where they learned about state and federal housing rights.

Resident Anabel Casillas, who has been renting her home in Burbank for more than 20 years, said she learned valuable pieces of information she could use should an eviction situation arise.

I have a good relationship with my landlord, so I dont need to worry about that too much, Casillas said.

Yasmin Guzman, director of outreach and education with the Housing Rights Center  which has offices in Los Angeles, Pasadena and Van Nuys  spent about two hours going over some of the most frequently asked questions and topics that have been brought up at previous workshops held in cities throughout Los Angeles and Ventura counties.

One of the most talked-about issues is rent increases  how often and how much a landlord can raise the cost of a lease on tenants. Guzman said California does not mandate rent control, but there are cities in the state that have implemented it.

Santa Monica, Los Angeles, West Hollywood and Beverly Hills are the only cities in Southern California that have rent control.

Guzman said that, in most cases, landlords can increase rents as many times as they want in a year, as long as they give out a proper notice to do so. If a rent increase is less than 10%, a 30-day notice must be issued to the tenant. If the hike is over 10%, landlords need to give tenants a 60-day notice.

For those living in Los Angeles, Guzman said there can be only one rent increase annually, and it can be no more than 3%.

The workshop also touched on when a landlord can enter a tenants apartment. Guzman said a landlord needs to let the tenant know in writing that they will be entering their home.

In emergency circumstances in which proper notice cannot be given, Guzman advised that landlords document when they enter the unit, the work that was done and when they left to avoid legal implications.

Guzman also talked about security deposits and the circumstances in which a landlord can deduct a deposit when a tenant moves out. She said landlords can charge an outgoing tenant for damages done to the unit, cleaning fees and unpaid rent.

It is important for tenants to take notes and document all stains, damaged amenities and other issues with the unit before they move in to ensure they are not charged for those items when they move out.

Maribel Leyland, the housing authority manager for Burbank, said the city will continue working with the Housing Rights Center to host additional workshops.

Leyland added that tenants and landlords with questions or issues can attend a meeting of the citys Landlord Tenant Commission, which meets the first Monday of each month.

anthonyclark.carpio@latimes.com

Twitter: @acocarpioAn article published in the online magazine Aeon suggests that migrants living in the U.S. are social citizens already a part of the American fabric.

Considering how to ensure that social citizenship extends to migrants so that they get to belong, to contribute and to be protected is a way to frame ethical and practical questions facing urban policymakers, writes Nancy Berlinger, a research scholar at the Hastings Center.

In reference to immigrants brought to other nations as children, Berlinger cites Canadian political scientist Joseph Carens, who stated it is morally wrong to force someone to leave the place where she was raised, where she received her social formation and where she has her most important human connections.

Meanwhile, a recent opinion piece in the Washington Post makes a libertarian case for open borders: If you factor in the benefits of more open borders to foreigners, it is hard to think of a public policy that has a bigger payoff than more immigration, Javier Hidalgo writes, with the argument that open borders equate to economic prosperity. In Hidalgos view, there should be no limits on immigration from a libertarian perspective because such laws restrict freedom of movement and property, tenets central to the ideology.

Q. Does the U.S. owe an ethical obligation of citizenship to immigrants living in the country illegally? Is freedom of movement a human right?

--

Freedom of movement is indeed a human right, though it is reasonable that immigrants follow a structured path to United States citizenship. Study after study, including an August 2017 report from the Brookings Institution, confirms that not only dont immigrants steal our jobs, but they are instead integral to the growth of our economy. We need their diversity to survive, and our xenophobia is a useful casualty in those growing pains.

Furthermore, the overwhelming prevalence of homegrown, white non-Muslims in the ranks of people seeking to do harm to our citizens should (but probably wont) force us to focus on vetting ourselves before we get all bent out of shape about the intentions of a brown person hoping to enjoy the benefits of our symphonies, Tetons and Jack in the Boxes.

It is unethical to deport someone who was born and/or raised here, but a fluid, systemic and expectations-based process to conveying citizenship should replace our current biased and labyrinthine system. That would be an excellent compromise for the mutual benefit represented by an immigrant family to the U.S. Rather than making our borders porous, which is a security risk, wed be able to harness the potential of our new citizens by growing those areas where the country most needs help.

Marty Barrett

Vice President, Unitarian Universalist Congregation of the Verdugo Hills

--

The United States does not owe an obligation of citizenship to anyone who comes to the United States, only those who are born here or the children born outside of the United States of parents in service to the U.S. government.

However, the United States does owe an obligation to those who work here, pay taxes and perform their duties to our country as do ordinary American citizens, minus voting, of course, to offer citizenship after they have passed examinations of their daily lives and the life of America (the much feared Citizenship Exam).

Conversely, if a person here illegally commits a crime, they should be incarcerated for that crime here and not merely deported to a country that shares a border with us. If you want to live by the laws that an American citizen does, then you must be prepared to face the consequences an American citizen would. If I, an American citizen, commit a crime that requires jail time, I would not be allowed to flee to another country only to find a way to return. I would be required to spend time imprisoned here and not be free to roam the border.

Further, we should not visit the sins of the fathers upon the children, unless the children have themselves sinned.

Rabbi Mark H. Sobel

Temple Beth Emet of Burbank

--

Looking at this from a letter of the law perspective, the parents immigrated illegally, knowing that they and their children would be vulnerable to the consequences of breaking the law, which include deportation. Every person is to be in subjection to the governing authorities, says Romans 13:1. Considering social citizenship as a valid solution invites other interesting possibilities: social drivers, who never got training or a license, but still drive, or maybe social doctors, who never went to medical school but practice anyway. Few people would find those acceptable. People have a moral obligation before God to obey the law. In scripture God commanded Israel to welcome foreigners, but the same law shall apply to the native as to the stranger who sojourns among you (Exodus 12:49). Immigrants were required to obey the law of the land.

Looking at this from a human need standpoint, we can help the alien and stranger without making them citizens. Helping another person in need when we have the ability to is a moral obligation, regarding the basic needs of food, clothing and medicine. Allowing them to become citizens and cross our borders freely is not a basic human right. That is a matter of discernment for our legislative system to contemplate. Of all times in our nation, we should realize that open borders also means open to terrorists, drug cartels and human trafficking. And those arent just vague, unrealistic possibilities. There is a proper time and manner for helping others. Removing the protection that our nations laws give us will never be proper.

Pastor Jon Barta

BurbankMedical marijuana businesses are expected to bring a lot of green to Costa Mesa, potentially including millions of tax dollars flowing into city coffers each year, according to figures discussed Tuesday.

Despite that, the city forecasts that total expenses will increase faster than revenue, leading to budget deficits, officials said.

According to the citys most recent five-year financial plan, Costa Mesa anticipates receiving about $1.56 million in tax revenue from marijuana-related businesses in the next fiscal year.

That money would grow annually, reaching an estimated $6 million in fiscal 2022-23, the forecast shows.

Under Measure X  approved by local voters in 2016  businesses that research, test, process and manufacture some medical marijuana products are allowed to open in a specified area north of South Coast Drive and west of Harbor Boulevard. Those businesses are subject to a 6% tax on annual gross receipts.

This week, the city Planning Commission reviewed applications for five medical marijuana manufacturing and distribution facilities and approved permits for three of them while delaying action on two. Thats on top of two others the commission previously approved.

Given the revenue potential, City Manager Tom Hatch floated the idea of devoting a portion of the collected tax to help pay down the citys unfunded pension liability, most recently pegged at about $270 million.

Its not often we get a new revenue source [like] the marijuana business tax and its not often that it is that significant of a potential new revenue source, Hatch told the City Council during Tuesdays study session.

Councilman Jim Righeimer, however, said hes opposed to such an earmark.

Gosh, [I] hope the pension works out and more people get stoned, he said. I mean, its not a good way to think.

Mayor Pro Tem Allan Mansoor urged caution regarding any medical marijuana-related windfall, saying other cities could line up to compete with Costa Mesa for such businesses.

Id rather have a surprise on the plus side than a surprise on the negative side, he said.

The five-year financial plan  which Hatch described as a conservative approach at projecting long-term issues that the City Council and the community will wrestle with  forecasts a budget deficit of $3.9 million next fiscal year.

That figure would increase annually, eventually hitting $8.2 million in 2022-23, projections show.

Basically, unless something happens, were going to have to rein in our spending, Mayor Sandy Genis said. I mean, unless we magically have money fall out of the sky.

Hatch said city staff is committed to bringing the council balanced spending plans each year. Possible strategies to balance the books could include finding ways to reduce costs for lower-priority items, updating city fees to better recover costs or repurposing money currently devoted to capital projects, according to a staff report.

One idea endorsed by the city Finance & Pension Advisory Committee is raising the transient occupancy tax charged for motel and hotel stays. The citys rate for that tax is currently 8%, but the committee has recommended boosting it to 10%, saying thats in line with other Orange County cities.

Councilwoman Katrina Foley questioned whether the five-year financial plan fully reflects the increased fees the city expects to receive from the new ambulance transportation services model approved last year.

Foley also said shed like to see staff develop different budgetary options for the council to review.

With the revenues that were projecting, weve still got to figure out a solution, she said. So unless weve got some mechanism to kind of look at different scenarios  if this, then that  I dont see how we can, as a body, give direction on what we want to prioritize.

Councilman John Stephens noted that the city has been doing budget forecasts for years and said hed like additional analysis to test whether or not the methodology thats used has been accurate.

I dont want to understate or overstate the concern here, he said. I just want to have some statistical guideline to be able to give this analysis whatever weight its entitled to.

luke.money@latimes.com

Twitter @LukeMMoneyGood morning. Its Wednesday, Feb. 28. Heres whats been happening around O.C.

Top story

No cannabis events or sales at O.C. fairgrounds, board rules

The Orange County Fair Board has banned cannabis-related events and the sale of cannabis products and related paraphernalia at the fairgrounds. Daily Pilot

Around the county

UCI review clears pro-Israeli group of allegations it helped harass pro-Palestinian group

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 times during an Anti-Zionism Week the Palestine group sponsored, Students Supporting Israel aided and abetted Israeli veterans in verbally threatening, sexually harassing and following members of the Palestine group. Daily Pilot

Jack Tyler, cat detective, and his dog Daphne track down fleeing felines

Jack Tyler is a cat detective. He considers himself the worlds first. TimesOC

UCI researchers: Moderate alcohol or coffee may help you live into your 90s

Those who drink moderate amounts of coffee and alcohol may increase their chances of living into their 90s, according to UC Irvine researchers. Daily Pilot

Politics

Mission Viejo City Council rejects district elections, seeks alternatives

Mission Viejo is looking for an alternative to solve its racially polarized voting problem after the City Council unanimously decided district elections wont work for the city, in an unusual move for an Orange County city struggling with racially separated voting attitudes. Voice of OC

Democratic candidates for Congress square off in O.C.

Five Democrats looking to replace retiring Republican Rep. Darrell Issa squared off at a debate in San Juan Capistrano, struggling to differentiate themselves in a crowded and open race. Los Angeles Times

Courts

Lawsuit accuses construction companies of not paying $200,000 in wages and taxes

The Orange County district attorneys office has filed a consumer protection lawsuit against a group of building companies, alleging they failed to pay more than $200,000 in wages and state taxes on a construction project at the Pacific Amphitheatre in Costa Mesa. Daily Pilot

Food & drink

Want a doughnut with that hamburger? O.C. shops offer the peculiar duo

There is no right way to eat a burger and a doughnut together. To eat both in a single meal is like drinking coffee and beer at the same time. TimesOC

Costa Mesa entrepreneur imports Baja wines to Orange County

Southern Californians have enjoyed a glut of wine-producing real estate thanks to Temecula and Santa Ynez, but Jim Riley believes that the future of viticulture lies below San Ysidro  a future that began with the history of Spanish colonization. TimesOC

Life & arts

Cirque du Soleils Luzia opens at OC Fair & Event Center

Cirque du Soleils Luzia, which takes audiences in a waking dream to an imaginary Mexico, runs through March 25 at the OC Fair & Event Center. TimesOC

Please let us know what we can do to make this newsletter more useful to you. Send comments, complaints and ideas to dailypilot@latimes.com.An Orange County Superior Court judge Tuesday denied Costa Mesa activist Ann Parkers request for a restraining order against former City Council candidate Lee Ramos, whom she accused of intimidating her and punching her buttocks during a community event at his Costa Mesa home.

After a daylong hearing at Harbor Justice Center in Newport Beach, Judge Michael McCartin said Parker had not met her burden of proof to justify a temporary restraining order and dismissed the request.

Parker alleged in her request, filed Feb. 2, that Ramos told her he hated her and struck her left bum during the Jan. 27 event featuring Orange County Supervisor Michelle Steel and District Attorney Tony Rackauckas.

More than 75 people attended the event, which was advertised in mailers as a community coffee.

Lee is obviously furious with me and has some sort of rage issue  hitting me, he has gone too far, Parker, 69, wrote in court documents. Politics is not a contact sport.

Ramos said during the hearing Tuesday that he bumped into Parker but denied intentionally striking her.

Ramos, 74, who lives on Costa Mesas Eastside, ran unsuccessfully for City Council in 2014 and 2016, and Parker opposed his candidacy. He has pulled papers to seek election to the council in 2020. He also serves on the citys Senior Commission, an advisory body on senior citizen programs and services.

Parker wrote in her filing that she and another resident went to Ramos home for the event and said hello to him as she entered the house. She said he told her there was private security and if she caused any type of disturbance shed be sorry.

Parker asked him if he wanted her to leave and he replied that she could stay, Parker said. When she turned to walk away, she alleged, he punched her bottom with a fist and a push.

When she turned around, Ramos hands were in the air and he told her he hadnt touched her, she wrote.

Parker wrote that she was afraid to walk past Ramos to leave the house after the event and waited until he was away from the door to exit.

Ramos testified that he spoke to Parker at the beginning of the event because he didnt want any problems at his house.

I know she goes around the neighborhood calling me a bad, evil man, Ramos said. I was upset when she showed up, but I wanted to welcome her as long as everything was civil.

hannah.fry@latimes.com

Twitter: @HannahFryTCNIn the wake of the recent high school shooting in Parkland, Fla., in which 17 people were killed, the Newport-Mesa Unified School District board heard from staff and school resource officers Tuesday about local school safety methods.

Those precautions, across the districts 32 schools, include resource officers from the Newport Beach and Costa Mesa police departments, suicide prevention training, controlled access to campuses, a social media presence, drills for staff and students, threat assessments and emergency response training with local law enforcement, officials said.

Newport-Mesa also has a civility and disruptions policy under which parents are notified if their child is disruptive at school and could be barred from entering the campus. The California Penal Code allows a school to withdraw permission for such a person to enter for up to 14 days. The person may request a hearing on the matter within the two-week period.

In more serious cases, the district could petition a court for a restraining order, said Phil DAgostino, district director of student and community services.

In an emergency, while responders are moving on the call, district staff also is assessing the situation, DAgostino said.

We can manage safety very well, DAgostino said. Were prepared to do what needs to be done.

Four school resource officers from the Newport Beach and Costa Mesa police departments are dispatched to high schools. They also watch other schools in their zones, according to the district.

Costa Mesa High School Principal Jake Haley told of how two years ago, school resource officer Jose Torres helped find a student who posted on an anonymous social media app about a planned shooting during lunch in the school quad.

Torres said officials used a warrant to find out who posted the threat and identified the student within 24 hours.

Even though its supposed to be anonymous, theres no such thing, Torres said. Well find out who, when and where it was sent.

Principal Cheryl Beck of Eastbluff Elementary School in Newport Beach said school resource officer Gary Clemente is in frequent contact with school staff and students. Clemente attends campus gatherings, provides mentoring and walks with students to the campus on the first day of school.

Parent Charlene Gozony praised the district for its robust program and encouraged it to ban backpacks and install metal detectors.

This is where we are now, this is the world we live in, Gozony said. We cant tiptoe around it. We need to be more proactive in different ways.

Costa Mesa High School student Jerry Pacheco, 18, proposed similar solutions and presented research backing his claims. He suggested lockdown drills done at random in which students must run or hide and help barricade doors instead of crouching under desks, where theyre sitting ducks, he said.

I know this sounds silly, but mass shootings are happening again and again, Pacheco said.

DAgostino said staff in every division is working diligently to address all potential safety concerns, including antiquated campus layouts.

No one can guarantee safety of all students at all times in all schools in America or in a community, DAgostino said. Well continue to support all practices within our control and well continue to partner with law enforcement to promote safety of all students and staff.

After the Feb. 14 shooting in Parkland, threats to schools have been reported throughout the nation, including at Corona del Mar Middle and High schools, where Newport Beach police determined that a threat of violence seen in graffiti found on a desk in a seventh-grade classroom was not credible. Classes werent canceled, though there was heightened police presence near the school, according to the district.

The campus is listed among those participating in the National School Walkout at 10 a.m. March 14, in which students and staff members plan to head to the nearest parking lot for 17 minutes to remember those who died in the Parkland shooting.

Suicide prevention education

In other business Tuesday, district trustees unanimously approved a $34,000 contract with New York-based Kognito to purchase licenses for its At-Risk for Elementary School Educators online simulation program for 22 district elementary schools.

According to the district, Kognito provides simulations focusing on things such as warning signs and how to approach and talk to a student in distress.

It is part of Newport-Mesas program, approved last year, to educate students and staff members  including teachers, administrators, cafeteria workers and custodians  on ways to prevent youth suicide.

Priscella.Vega@latimes.com

Twitter: @vegapriscellaCrescenta Valley High School students plan to protest gun violence and encourage politicians to enact gun control legislation by holding a walkout on March 14.

The students actions are part of a nationwide movement that emerged after a gunman shot and killed 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida on Feb. 14. Students across the country plan to walk out of their schools at 10 a.m. on March 14 for 17 minutes, in honor of each person who died in the incident.

The walkout at Crescenta Valley High is still in the early planning stages as the student government wants to plan it in a way that doesnt completely disrupt classes, according to 17-year-old Zach Johnson.

The senior class vice president said its something students felt compelled to do.

There really is a massive movement of young people standing up for what they believe in  Even if the tragedy isnt close to us, its still our duty to try and stand up as well, he said.

Anna Shim, senior class president at the school, said the walkout has received support from both students and teachers. The 18-year-old said some teachers may even participate in the walkout.

Its really important to us to have that support, she said.

Shim said the walkout will be supervised by school officials and will remain on campus. After the 17 minutes, students will then head back to class.

Glendale Unified Supt. Winfred Roberson Jr. released a statement on Feb. 21 saying officials respect our students rights to engage in civic discourse. If schools do participate in a walkout, Roberson said he wants to ensure that all views will be respected and activities will be safe both for participants and nonparticipants.

Kristine Nam, a district spokeswoman, said students will not be disciplined for participating in the walkout as long as they stay on campus. If students use the walkout as an opportunity to ditch class, they will be marked as having an unexcused absence.

At least two other schools in Glendale Unified plan to hold walkouts. Event pages for Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Edison elementary schools show up on the Womens March website, which is organizing the national movement.

However, Nam said the district anticipates most schools will have some kind of activity relating to the event.

A page for nearby Burbank High School also shows up on the website.

Burbank Unified Supt. Matt Hill said in a statement on Feb. 22 that campuses will hold age-appropriate activities related to the walkout. Elementary schools will have curriculum promoting peace, tolerance and mindfulness while secondary schools will hold individual events based on our students needs.

Similar to Glendale, Burbank students will not be disciplined for their participation in the walkout as long as they stay on campus.

andy.nguyen@latimes.com

Twitter: @Andy_TrucGlendale police say they arrested two men early Friday morning who were reportedly driving around in a stolen car.

William Matusewski and Patrick Pascarella were arrested on suspicion of stealing the vehicle after the two were stopped by an officer in the 900 block of Omar Street around 2:15 a.m., according to Tahnee Lightfoot, a spokeswoman for the Glendale Police Department.

She said the officer stopped the two based on a paper license-plate violation.

The officer soon discovered the vehicle was reported stolen from Santa Monica. Matusewski, a 40-year-old from Simi Valley, and Pascarella, a 25-year-old from New York, were detained.

During a search of the vehicle, Lightfoot said police found several items including a BB gun, a magazine for a high-capacity rifle, gloves, flashlights, tools and a substance that resembled heroin. Identification belonging to other people were also found in the car, she said.

Matusewski, who was on probation for a narcotics offense, was also found to have a small packet of a white powder-like substance in his pocket.

The two were placed under arrest and booked into the Glendale City Jail.

andy.nguyen@latimes.com

Twitter: @Andy_TrucGlendale may see a few more speed humps on its streets after the Transportation and Parking Commission recommended the City Council consider a number of proposed revisions to the citys Neighborhood Traffic Calming Program, or NTCP, which has not been changed for more than a decade.

The commission unanimously voted to ask City Council to allow for installation of speed humps  similar to a speed bump but slightly lower and placed at a longer driving distance  on one-way streets citywide and to alter requirements for their installation in school and park zones.

Commission members also added a note to City Council members that they should examine the issue of high speeds on arterial streets, or high-capacity urban roads, not considered in the proposed revisions of the NTCP.

According to Larry Tay, principal traffic engineer with the city of Glendale, the community has encouraged council members to reevaluate the required criteria for the installation of speed humps on streets over the years, particularly minimum speed and traffic volume qualifications near schools and parks.

A comparative analysis of the citys speed hump criteria in October compared the traffic calming programs in 11 other cities  including Long Beach, Los Angeles and Burbank  and found that Glendales criteria to be similar and no more stringent in comparison.

However, Tay said there is still room for positive changes and suggested minor revisions.

I think we all agree that schools and parks deserve a little more consideration in terms of traffic calming so we  recommended a few more substantive changes in those areas, he said.

There are currently 12 speed-hump criteria that potential streets must satisfy in order to qualify for installation, such as having a legal speed limit of 25 mph, not being a truck or public transit route and having a minimum block length of 500 feet.

Targeted for criteria changes in park and school zones are lowering the percentage of consensus required for installation by affected residences from 75% to 67% and reducing the average daily-traffic-volume requirement on potential streets from 1,000 vehicles per day to 500.

Also, staff recommended adjusting the speed criteria to qualify, from 15% of vehicles operating at or beyond 30 mph per day to 10%.

Staff asked that one-way streets with two lanes in the same direction qualify for installation of speed humps citywide as well.

According to a staff report, officials with the Glendale Unified School District, police department and fire department support the city staffs recommended changes.

If approved by City Council, the number of candidate streets for speed humps would increase but would still have to be designated local, neighborhood collector or community collector streets based on the citys Circulation Element of the General Plan.

jeff.landa@latimes.com

Twitter: @JeffLandaAfghan President Ashraf Ghani on Wednesday extended an olive branch to the Taliban, offering amnesty for war crime convictions and recognition of the insurgent group as a political party in a bid to end the nations conflict, now in its 17th year.

It was Afghanistans most significant peace overture to the large, fractious militant organization that currently controls more territory than at any time since the 2001 U.S.-led military invasion, but whose political aims have become unclear as the war has devolved into a bloody stalemate and its top leaders have been killed.

The Taliban surprised many observers two weeks ago when it wrote in an open letter that it wanted a peaceful resolution to the conflict. The group did not immediately respond to Ghanis proposal, delivered at the start of a multinational conference to promote peace talks.

Ghani called for a cease-fire and prisoner release and offered insurgents who renounce violence and recognize the Afghan government a place in the countrys political institutions.

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We are making this offer without preconditions in order to lead to a peace agreement, Ghani told representatives of about two dozen countries to the conference, known as the Kabul Process.

The terms of the offer resembled those of a deal Ghani struck two years ago with a once-powerful insurgent group led by Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, whose forces were accused of causing thousands of civilian deaths during the 1990s but who now appears alongside Ghani at official ceremonies.

Its a very constructive offer with a lot of concessions to the Taliban, but we dont know if they will accept this overture, said Haroun Mir, an independent political analyst in Kabul, the capital.

The Taliban has lacked a strong leader since 2015, when the group announced the long rumored death of its longtime head, Mullah Mohammed Omar. The following year, Omars successor, Mullah Akthar Mohammad Mansour, was killed in a U.S. drone strike along the Afghan-Pakistani border.

Under Mansours successor, a religious scholar named Mawlawi Haibatullah Akhundzada, Taliban insurgents have all but abandoned their political pretenses and escalated violence against civilian and security targets. According to a recent Pentagon inspector generals report, only 64% of the Afghan population lived in areas controlled by the government, down from 80% in September 2013.

After the most recent major attack, in late January, when a Taliban suicide bomber detonated an ambulance packed with explosives and killed more than 100 people near a Kabul hospital, Ghani said Afghanistan would never reconcile with the perpetrators of such attacks. President Trump also dismissed the idea, saying, I dont think were prepared to talk right now.

But Ghanis peace overture reflects an understanding  shared not only by the U.S. and its allies but also the Taliban  that the Afghan war will not be settled militarily and that the growing cost in Afghan lives is unsustainable.

This week, the Taliban followed up its open letter with a proposal to begin direct talks with the United States, another apparent change in stance by a group that has said it would not negotiate as long as foreign troops were in Afghanistan.

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The Trump administration rejected the Taliban proposal, with State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert saying: Any peace talks with Afghanistan have to be Afghan-led and Afghan-owned.

Trump has increased the U.S. military presence in Afghanistan to 15,000 troops from 11,000 at the urging of Pentagon officials, who argue the boost will force the insurgents to come to the negotiating table.

The president has also raised pressure on Pakistan  the neighbor accused by Afghanistan of sheltering and supporting the Taliban  by withholding hundreds of millions of dollars in U.S. security assistance. Pakistani officials have rejected accusations that they are soft on terrorism and said they can do without the U.S. support.

We are not sure if the Pakistanis will bend to the pressure from the U.S., Mir said. They have been able to withstand that pressure thus far because they have their allies in the region, including China and Iran.

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Ghanis peace effort is also beset by problems in his government, an unwieldy coalition that includes former warlords and ethnic militia leaders who have challenged his authority. Atta Mohammad Noor, the strongman governor of a northern state, for more than two months has defied Ghanis orders to leave office.

Analysts say that Ghanis adversaries judge him as increasingly weak, desperate to make peace and possibly unable to fulfill his end of any agreement.

Unfortunately, the overall situation is not in favor of peace in Afghanistan because of the Taliban and Pakistans assessments of the situation  they think theyll win eventually, said Davood Moradian, director general of the Afghan Institute for Strategic Studies, a Kabul think tank.

A fragmented, divided Afghan government cannot bring peace with very resistant and confident adversaries such as Taliban and Pakistan. I think the priority has to be internal stability. The prospects for peace with the Taliban will be more promising if the government is united.

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Special correspondent Faizy reported from Kabul and Times staff writer Bengali from Mumbai, India.

shashank.bengali@latimes.com

Shashank Bengali is the South Asia correspondent for The Times. Follow him on Twitter at @SBengali.Military police searched the home of former Honduran President Porfirio Lobo on Wednesday and arrested his wife as part of a corruption inquiry by an international team of investigators.

Police arrived at the Lobo home outside the capital in six vehicles and searched the residence before leaving with former First Lady Rosa Elena Bonilla and her brother-in-law Mauricio Mora. Authorities did not say whether Lobo was present.

The arrest was announced by an anti-corruption mission of the Organization of American States, a team the government agreed to accept after large street protests against graft in 2016.

Investigators for the nongovernmental National Anti-corruption Council have told prosecutors that Bonilla deposited $600,000 in government funds into her personal bank account five days before Lobo ended his four-year term in January 2014. They also say she hasnt accounted for at least $6 million in government funds for her office during Lobos administration.

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Today is a great step against impunity, council director Gabriela Castellanos said on her Twitter account.

Julio Ramirez, Bonillas attorney, told journalists that his client is innocent and I will prove it in the courts.

Past corruption cases involving public figures have generally ended without convictions, and the chief of the OAS mission, Juan Jimenez Mayor, resigned in mid-February, complaining of a lack of support from the Honduran government and the OAS.

In December, the mission announced corruption complaints against five Honduran legislators who were accused of shifting public money through a charity and into their own accounts. A month later, Congress passed a measure protecting them from prosecution by freezing any civil or criminal action over public spending until auditors have studied such cases for three years.

Jimenez then called that step a pact of immunity and said the missions investigators had found strong indications that at least 30 current and former legislators had committed crimes.

Even so, the OAS missions investigations led last week to the arrest of three high-ranking military officers accused of illegal association, false testimony and conspiracy involving a case in which civilians had been detained and tortured. Eight lower-ranking soldiers were previously convicted in the case. They had said they were only following orders.The delegates at the event (Photo: hcmcpv.org.vn)

The meeting, attracting nearly 400 overseas Vietnamese, having lived and worked in Laos and Thailand, and aimed to create conditions for overseas Vietnamese to exchange and review activities of LCV over the past year.

At the meeting, Mr. Hoang Ngoc Hung, Head of LCV, said that LCV is always a bridge for overseas Vietnamese in Laos and Thailand. Last year, it made various practical contributions to friendship, especially people diplomacy, which overseas Vietnamese believed in and supported.

Apart from organizing exchanges among overseas Vietnamese, meeting on the occasion of the National Day, Pimay - Soongkrank traditional festival of Laos and Thailand, LCV has also actively participated in social charitable programs such as supporting disabled children in Ho Chi Minh city and natural calamity victims.

Mr. Hung affirmed that CLVs activities over the past year have contributed to strengthening the friendship with Consulate Generals of Laos and Thailand in Ho Chi Minh city, boosting the mutual understanding between Vietnamese people and Lao - Thai people.

Mr. Huynh Minh Thien, Head of the Ho Chi Minh city Union of Friendship Organizations, highly appreciated the activities of CLV, especially connection between those who had lived and worked in Laos and Thailand and overseas Vietnamese in the two countries. He hoped that the overseas Vietnamese would continue to promote their strength to successfully implement the socio-economic targets in 2018.

On this occasion, the CLV presented longevity gifts to old people./.UPDATE: Coroner IDs 2 men killed in gas station shooting

A third man was critically injured in an early morning shooting Wednesday at an Allentown gas station that left two men dead, city police said.

Clerk Tariq Mahmood said he was arriving to start his shift at the 24-hour station at 1227 Airport Road, when he saw the shooting victims.

One bleeding person had run into the convenience store, while a second victim was on the ground, near the gas pumps closest to Airport Road, he said.

Police said they were called for the shooting at 1:14 a.m. and found two victims with gunshot wounds. A 28-year-old man died at the scene, and a 36-year-old man later died at the hospital.

Both deaths were ruled a homicide by the Lehigh County coroner.

More than an hour after police were called, a 24-year-old man with a gunshot wound was driven to an area hospital, police said. He is currently in critical condition.

Chalk circles indicating evidence remained Wednesday morning at an Airport Road gas station where two men were fatally shot and one man critically injured. (Sarah Cassi | For lehighvalleylive.com)

Mahmood said the shooting happened at pump 1, which is closest to the station's store, and that police found a gun there.

Chalk circles identifying evidence, about 14 of them, were in front of and around the pump.

Airport Road was shut down during the investigation, and reopened before 6 a.m.

The gas station re-opened before 8:30 a.m., and was already busy with customers and a few people driving by to gawk at the scene.

The gas station is tucked into a shopping center that includes a Redner's grocery store, Platinum Plus and Gravity Nightclub.

Sarah Cassi may be reached at scassi@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow her on Twitter @SarahCassi. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook.An eighth-grader at East Hills Middle School was taken into police custody Wednesday, Bethlehem Area schools Superintendent Joseph Roy confirmed.

"It did not involve any threat," Roy said. "It was a student who was uncooperative to the point of being disorderly."

East Hill's Bethlehem Police Department school resource officer handled the incident at the city school, near the Bethlehem Township border.

"At no time were any students in any danger," Roy said.

The behavioral incident occurred during a parent meeting, where the student refused to calm down, according to the superintendent.

East Hills Principal David Horvath issued an automated call to parents about the situation because of a recently heightened level of concern about student safety, Roy said. Wednesday marked two weeks since an expelled student allegedly used a semiautomatic rifle to kill 17 people Feb. 14 at a high school in Parkland, Florida.

Kurt Bresswein may be reached at kbresswein@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow him on Twitter @KurtBresswein. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook.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A 48-year-old man sought by the NYPD and an Easton woman wanted on a bench warrant were arrested Wednesday morning in the West Ward.

The Brooklyn North Warrant Squad requested Easton police assist in finding Darrel Lebrun, who has a local address in the 1000 block of Spruce Street and who was wanted on a New York parole violation, Lt. Matthew Gerould said.

The city's Vice Unit found Lebrun about 7:45 a.m. with Catherine Thatcher, 34, near 126 N. 11th St., a residence Lebrun left moments before, Gerould said. The arrests were made about a block from Paxinosa Elementary School.

Thatcher, who was sentenced to 60 days to six months in Northampton County Prison after pleading guilty Dec. 19 to a disorderly conduct charge, was wanted after not showing up for a parole violation hearing on Feb. 15, records show.

She was also cited Feb. 20 with promoting prostitution, records show.

Thatcher was returned to jail on the violation, Gerould said.

Lebrun was arraigned Wednesday morning before District Judge Richard Yetter III on a local charge of possession of a controlled substance -- 25 Clonazepam pills -- and bail was set at $20,000, records show. Lebrun will also be held as a fugitive from justice, with a bail of $65,000, records show.

Lebrun was last arrested in New York City in 1993 in Brooklyn and charged with robbery and criminal possession of a weapon, the NYPD said.

He was paroled Dec. 26, 2013, although prison records only show the crime involved Kings County and don't specify if it was from the robbery. Records indicate he also spells his first name Darryl.

New York parole records also show he was released to supervision June 27, 2017, on an attempted robbery conviction, and "absconded." That was a little more than a month after Lebrun was released after serving time in a local case.

LeBrun pleaded guilty Jan. 22, 2015, in Northampton County Court to possession with intent to deliver drugs involving a crime in Easton on Oct. 18, 2014, and was sentenced to 29 to 58 months in prison, records show. He was paroled last May 22, records show.

Tony Rhodin may be reached at arhodin@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow him on Twitter @TonyRhodin. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook.A 52-year-old Bushkill Township man faces several charges after a five-month investigation into methamphetamine sales culminated with a multi-department and Northampton County Drug Task Force raid, Colonial Regional police report.

Two other township men face lesser charges, police said.

The Pennsylvania State Police Emergency Response Team entered 340 Old Allentown Road just after 6 a.m. Friday so officers from Bushkill Township, Colonial Regional, Nazareth, Tatamy, Upper Nazareth Township, Bethlehem Township, Bangor and county detectives could serve a search warrant, a news release said.

"Numerous" controlled buys were made from the home over the course of the probe, Colonial Regional police said.

Authorities recovered $20,192 in cash, 25 firearms, including one with a homemade suppressor attached; various other homemade suppressors, packaging materials, plastic bags with meth residue, scales, a marijuana plant, an ounce of marijuana, Molotov cocktails and materials to grow marijuana, police said.

Mark Wayne Anglemeyer, who lived in the home, was arraigned Friday before District Judge Douglas Schlegel on charges of delivery of methamphetamine (two counts), possession with intent to deliver meth (two counts) and possession of meth (two counts), police said.

Anglemeyer remained jailed on Wednesday in lieu of $50,000 bail, records show. His preliminary hearing is tentatively scheduled 9 a.m. March 8 in Schlegel's court in Wind Gap.

Tyeler Trinkley, 20, of the same address, was arraigned Wednesday before Schlegel on charges of manufacturing marijuana, possession of prohibited offensive weapons, possession of marijuana and possession of drug paraphernalia, police said. Trinkley was released on $50,000 unsecured bail pending a preliminary hearing tentatively scheduled 1 p.m. March 30 in Schlegel's court.

Joseph Kluska, 44, of the same address, is charged with possession of a small amount of marijuana and possession of drug paraphernalia, records show. He will receive a court date by mail.

The state police Clandestine Response Team and Bomb Squad also responded, police said.

Anglemeyer could face more charges as the investigation is continues, police said.

Tony Rhodin may be reached at arhodin@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow him on Twitter @TonyRhodin. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook.A Lehigh County man had a loaded handgun Wednesday morning at a security checkpoint inside Newark Liberty International Airport, authorities allege.

Jamie E. Cressman (Courtesy photo | For lehighvalleylive.com)

Jamie E. Cressman, 42, was arrested by Port Authority of New York and New Jersey police on a charge of unlawful possession of a weapon, the police department said in a news release.

Port Authority police released Cressman's name after the Transportation Safety Administration issued a separate news release on the arrest, identifying the suspect only as a resident of Center Valley in Upper Saucon Township. Cressman provided investigators with a second address, as well, in Wake Forest, North Carolina and had a North Carolina driver's license, Port Authority police spokesman Joseph Pentangelo said.

Cressman was flying to Phoenix via United at the time of his arrest about 8:30 a.m., according to the Port Authority. He was taken to Essex County Jail.

A Transportation Safety Administration officer found the .25-caliber Titan EIG semiautomatic handgun loaded with seven bullets, plus two additional loaded magazines, in Cressman's carry-on bag as it entered a checkpoint X-ray machine on a conveyor belt at Newark Liberty's Terminal C, authorities said.

TSA officers immediately contacted Port Authority police, who responded, confiscated the firearm and arrested Cressman, according to a news release on the incident.

No number could be found for Cressman to call him for comment.

The arrest marked the second similar incident in February involving a Lehigh Valley area resident arrested for allegedly bringing a loaded firearm to Newark Liberty in New Jersey, according to the TSA.

Allegedly carried by a Palmerton, Pa., man, this loaded .38-caliber handgun was stopped by TSA officers at a Newark Liberty International Airport checkpoint on Feb. 1, 2018. (Courtesy photo | For lehighvalleylive.com)

On Feb. 1, a Palmerton man was found to have a loaded .38-caliber handgun in his jacket as it entered the X-ray machine, the TSA had said. He, too, was arrested on a weapons charge. The TSA did not release the Carbon County man's name, and the Port Authority could not immediately provide the name Wednesday.

Firearm owners with concealed carry permits are not allowed to carry their guns onto airplanes or past airport checkpoints, the TSA said in a news release.

Anyone who brings a firearm to an airport checkpoint faces a fine of up to $13,000, the TSA says; a typical first offense for carrying a handgun into a checkpoint is $3,900. Find the complete list of prohibited items and penalties at tsa.gov.

Airline passengers are permitted to travel with firearms in checked baggage if they are unloaded, packed in a hard-side case, locked and packed separately from ammunition.

Ammunition must be in its original box and can be packed inside the hard-side case, next to the firearm. Even if the box of ammunition is not full, the bullets must be in their original case.

The case with the firearm should be brought to the airline check-in counter, and the airline representative informed that the passenger wants to travel with the gun, according to the TSA.

Firearms are transported inside checked baggage in the belly of the aircraft. Visit tsa.gov for more details on how to properly travel with a firearm.

Kurt Bresswein may be reached at kbresswein@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow him on Twitter @KurtBresswein. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook.Republican lawmakers from the Lehigh Valley are helping to lead a national discussion on new gun control measures, following massacres occurring with "shocking frequency."

U.S. Rep. Charlie Dent, whose 15th Congressional District for now covers Lehigh and part of Northampton counties, announced his support Wednesday for raising the age to buy semiautomatic rifles like the AR-15 from 18 to 21.

Wednesday afternoon, U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey is part of a bipartisan group of lawmakers convened by President Donald Trump to discuss school safety.

In a noontime conference call with reporters, Toomey cautioned there is no easy fix.

"The massacres we have seen with shocking frequency arise out of serious mental health problems, serious mental illness," said Toomey, who is from Lehigh County. "We've got a serious problem that is going to require probably, sadly, some time and many different approaches to really get a handle on it."

Toomey said he supports several bills aimed a strengthening gun control, many aimed at improving a background check system he called inadequate.

He announced last week possible plans to reintroduce legislation to expand background checks on gun purchases. The bill first emerged with backing from Toomey and Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia following the 2012 slaying of 26 children and adults in Connecticut's Sandy Hook Elementary School. It failed then and at least one more time after that.

On Tuesday, Toomey joined Sens. Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Heidi Heitkamp, D-N.D., in introducing the bipartisan Terrorist Firearms Prevention Act, a proposal to prevent individuals who are on the No Fly List from purchasing firearms.

"I do not want to infringe on the Second Amendment rights of the law-abiding citizen, but I want to take all reasonable steps to make it more difficult for those who shouldn't have guns in the first place from having them," Toomey said Wednesday, referring to the dangerously mentally ill, violent criminals and terrorists.

Toomey told reporters he does not support raising the age to buy semiautomatic rifles to 21, already the minimum age to purchase a handgun.

Dent said Wednesday he is co-sponsoring such a bill two weeks after 19-year-old Nikolas Cruz allegedly used an AR-15-style semiautomatic rifle to massacre 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, where he'd been a student before being expelled.

"This bipartisan legislation would be an important first step in response to the tragic school shooting in Parkland, Florida," Dent said in a statement. "Congress must come together in the wake of such a tragedy and work to find solutions that will help to keep our students, teachers and schools safe from gun violence."

Currently, gun buyers are prohibited from purchasing handguns prior to their 21st birthday, but that is not the case with semiautomatic centerfire rifles that can accept magazines of five rounds or greater, Dent stated. The bill provides an exemption for active duty military and full-time law enforcement personnel.

Speaking to reporters, Toomey said he sees a change in the national conversation around gun control since Sandy Hook, due to the "horrific accumulation of these massacres."

Retailers are taking notice.

Dick's Sporting Goods, a major U.S. retailer based in Pennsylvania, said Wednesday it will immediately halt sales of assault-style rifles and high-capacity magazines at all of its stores and ban the sale of all guns to anyone under 21.

Major U.S. corporations including MetLife, Hertz, Delta Airlines and First National Bank of Omaha, one of the nation's largest privately held banks, cut ties with the National Rifle Association in the days following the Parkland shooting.

Toomey hedged on whether commercial interests reflect a sea change in the national appetite for new gun control measures.

"Dick's is a private enterprise," he told reporters. "They are a retailer. And it's within their prerogative to decide what to sell. They can make that decision. Obviously they must believe that it is somehow representative of some substantial part of their marketplace, their customer base, but other competitors, they have not made that same decision."

Returning to his focus on protecting the gun rights of law-abiding citizens, Toomey said he hopes to garner at least 60 votes in the Senate to pass his background check bill. It would require background checks for all gun purchases online and at gun shows. Currently, the checks are only required for transactions from licensed gun dealers.

He has also said he supports putting similar restrictions on sales of rapid-fire bump stocks that already apply to fully automatic firearms. He also wants to increase the prosecution of people -- such as convicted felons -- who lie on a federal firearms background check application.

Toomey said he further supports the push from 19 House Republicans, led by New Jersey Rep. Leonard Lance, urging House Speaker Paul Ryan to bring up legislation to improve the database that licensed gun dealers search before selling weapons. That measure is known as Fix NICS, a reference to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System.

Getting support from the president on Wednesday could go a long way toward garnering votes on the new proposals, Toomey said.

"The political reality we're living in today is if President Trump doesn't get behind something they won't have the cover," Manchin said.

Trump is meeting with 17 senators and representatives from both parties. He has proven an inconsistent partner in such policy debates, offering sweeping proposals -- including his tweet for stronger background checks -- only to drift from them.

At the White House, the discussion is expected to focus on "school and community safety," and one of those attending, Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, has proposed new federal grant funding to stem school violence. Hatch's bill would offer money for law enforcement and school staff training, campus infrastructure upgrades and mental health resources.

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.Crown-wearing worshippers clutching AR-15 rifles drank holy wine and exchanged or renewed wedding vows in a commitment ceremony at a Pennsylvania church on Wednesday, prompting a nearby school to cancel classes.

With state police and a smattering of protesters standing watch outside the church, brides clad in white and grooms in dark suits brought dozens of unloaded AR-15s into World Peace and Unification Sanctuary for a religious event that doubled as an advertisement for the Second Amendment.

The church, which has a worldwide following, believes the AR-15 symbolizes the "rod of iron" in the book of Revelation, and encouraged couples to bring the weapons. An AR-15 was used in the Florida high school massacre on Feb. 14.

The Rev. Sean Moon, who leads the church, prayed for "a kingdom of peace police and peace militia where the citizens, through the right given to them by almighty God to keep and bear arms, will be able to protect one another and protect human flourishing."

Moon is the son of the late Rev. Sun Myung Moon, a self-proclaimed messiah who founded the Unification Church, which critics regard as a cult. The younger Moon's congregation is a breakaway faction of the Unification Church, which had distanced itself from Wednesday's event.

An attendant checked each weapon at the door to make sure it was unloaded and secured with a zip tie, and the elaborate commitment ceremony went off without a hitch. Some worshippers wore crowns made out of bullets.

Tim Elder, Unification Sanctuary's director of world missions, said the ceremony was meant to be a blessing of couples, not "inanimate objects," calling the AR-15 a "religious accoutrement."

But Wednesday's event, coming on the heels of the high school massacre in Parkland, Florida, which killed 17, rubbed emotions raw.

"It's scaring people in the community," one protester told a church member. "Are you aware of that?"

The ceremony prompted Wallenpaupack Area School District to move students at an elementary school down the street to other campuses.

Lisa Desiena, from Scranton, protested outside the church with a sign that called the group an "armed religious cult."

She said she owns a gun, but "I don't need a freaking assault weapon to defend myself. Only thing they're good for is killing. Period. That's all that weapon is good for, mass killing. And you want to bless it? Shame on you."

But Sreymom Ouk, 41, who attended the ceremony with her husband, Sort Ouk, and came with their AR-15, said the weapon is useful for defending her family against "sickos and evil psychopaths."

"People have the right to bear arms, and in God's kingdom, you have to protect that," she said. "You have to protect against evil."

Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook.By Sara K. Satullo | For lehighvalleylive.com

Naming a baby can be a daunting task since your child will answer to that name for the entirety of their lives.

Some folks opt for traditional, tested family names while others want to stand out from the crowd a bit more.

Name trends are cyclical and we've got lots of data to track the popularity of names over time.

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The Social Security Administration offers tons of tools to track the most popular names in the nation, a name's rise and fall over time and the popularity of names by birth year.

This video shows the most popular names nationally.

Pennsylvania takes a less high-tech approach, but it does track the most popular names in the Keystone State and make that data available to the public via its health statistics website.

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AP Photo via the Journal Register

What tops the list in Pennsylvania

Here's a look at the 25 most popular boy's names in Pennsylvania in 2016.

About the data: The name rankings come from the state Department of Health's Division of Health Informatic's list of the most frequent occurrences of names given to live male babies born to Pennsylvania residents in 2016. No efforts were made to account for spelling variations of names. National popularity over time was tracked via the Social Security Administration's search tool, which looks at historical data back to 1900.

The Pennsylvania Department of Health specifically disclaims responsibility for any analyses, interpretations, or conclusions.

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25. Andrew

Andrew -- Greek for strong, manly, courageous -- rounds out the top 25 in the state with 410 new baby Andrews being born in 2016.

Nationally, the name peaked in popularity in 2003 when it was the fifth most common name given to baby boys. It ranked 34th in the nation in 2016.

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24. Luke

Luke -- which means light giving -- has risen to popularity in recent years alongside Lucas, a name that makes an appearance higher up this list.

In 2016, proud parents in Pennsylvania brought home 418 new babies named Luke.

The name ranked 28th nationally in 2016, but it was most popular in 2015 when 10,255 babies were named Luke.

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23. Matthew

Matthew comes from a Hebrew name that means gift of God.

In 2016, there were 420 baby boys named Mathew born in Pennsylvania.

Nationally, the name peaked in popularity back in 1996 when 32,072 babies were named Matthew. But the name has steadily remained in the top 20 for the last decade.

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AP Photo via Journal Star

22. Connor

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Pennsylvanians seem to love the name Connor, which means "wise" in Scottish.

There were 427 Pennsylvania newborns given the name in 2016.

Nationally, the name topped the charts at 38 in 2005 and in 2016 was ranked at 54.

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21. Ryan

Another classic Irish name, Ryan means descendent of the king or little king, and Pennsylvania parents are fans.

In 2016, there were 429 newborns named Ryan. Nationally, the name ranked 40th. It peaked in popularity in 1991 when 27,533 babies were given the name.

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20. Samuel

A Biblical classic, that's popular with parents in the state -- 438 babies named Samuel were born in 2016 -- and all over the nation.

Since 1900, Samuel, which means heard God or asked of God, has never dropped out of the top 100 nationally. It ranked 21st in the country in 2016, which was its most popular year since 1900.

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Saed Hindash | For lehighvalleylive.com

19. Elijah

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Another Biblical name, Elijah is Hebrew for Yahew is God. Traditionally a popular Jewish boy's name, Elijah is now seeing a jump in mainstream popularity.

Pennsylvania parents welcomed 446 newborns who they named in Elijah in 2016.

Nationally, that year the name hit its peak of popularity, ranking ninth.

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18. John

It doesn't get more classic than the name John, which means God is gracious.

There were 473 Pennsylvania newborns given the name in 2016 and it ranked at 28th in the nation that year.

The name hit its peak popularity back in 1923 when 57,469 babies were named John.

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17. Joseph

In 2016, 476 Pennsylvania newborns were named Joseph -- meaning God shall add (another son) -- and it ranked 20th in the nation.

The name hit peak popularity way back in 1917, but it has remained a parental favorite never dropping out of the top 25.

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16. William

Pennsylvania welcomed 478 newborns who were named William -- meaning strong-willed warrior -- in 2016.

It was even more popular nationally ranking third, but that's nothing compared to its peak in 1920 when 4 percent of of all boys born that year were named William.

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Saed Hindash | For lehighvalleylive.com

15. Daniel

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There were 480 Pennsylvania babies named Daniel -- meaning God is my judge -- in 2016 and the name was ranked 13th across the country.

The name hit its top popularity in 2008 when it was ranked fifth in the nation.

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14. Ethan

In 2016, there were 488 Pennsylvania newborns named Ethan, which is Hebrew for strong, safe, firm.

It ranked 10th nationally that year and it looks like it hit peak popularity in 2010 when it ranked second.

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Thinkstock by Getty Images

13. Jackson

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In 2016, Pennsylvania parents chose the name Jackson -- originally a last name meaning son of Jack -- for 492 newborns.

The name ranked 17th nationally, having hit peak popularity in 2013 when 12,577 babies were given the name.

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12. Carter

In 2016, Pennsylvania parent welcomed 493 baby boys who they named Carter, which is traditionally a last name.

Nationally, the name ranked at 26, slightly behind 2015 when the name hit peak popularity ranking at 24.

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11. Alexander

In 2016, 500 newborn boys were named Alexander, which means defender of men, in Pennsylvania and it also ranked 11th nationally as well.

The name hit peak popularity in the nation in 2009 when it ranked fourth and 18,221 babies were given the name.

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10. Lucas

This take on Luke has spiked to popularity recently.

In 2016, there were 511 babies named Lucas born in Pennsylvania and the name was ranked 14th nationally.

This was actually peak popularity for the name with 12,838 babies born with name in 2016.

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Shutterstock image

9. Owen

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The traditional Welsh name Owen -- meaning young warrior or well born -- is a favorite with parents of today.

In 2016, there were 516 newborns named Owen in Pennsylvania and the name ranked 23rd nationally, which was its peak point since 1900.

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8. Logan

In 2016, there were 529 baby boys born in Pennsylvania named Logan.

The name ranked 18th that same year and it hit peak popularity in 2014 ranking at 13.

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7. Jacob

A popular Biblical name, Jacob hit seventh in the state in 2016 with 579 newborn boys being given the name.

It ranked seventh nationally in 2016. But it topped the charts at number one for many years prior, hitting peak popularity in 2012 with 19,061 newborn boys named Jacob that year.

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6. Michael

In 2016, there were 585 Pennsylvania newborn boys named Michael and the name ranked eighth nationally.

The name hit peak popularity back in 1998 when it was ranked number one and 36,614 babies were given the name.

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5. James

James has never fallen out of favor with parents but it is having a bit of resurgence.

There were 594 newborn boys given the name in 2016 and nationally the name -- a derivative of Jacob meaning supplanter -- was ranked fifth.

But that's nothing compared to its peak popularity in 1952 when 4 percent of all boys born, that's 87,061 boys, were given the name.

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4. Benjamin

In 2016, Benjamin had a bit of a renaissance.

It ranked sixth in Pennsylvania with 646 newborn boys given the name and it hit its peak popularity across the country in 2016 as well. It ranked sixth nationally with 14,569 boys given the name.

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AP Photo via The Washington Post by Evelyn Hockstein

3. Mason

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Mason has been steadily climbing the name charts for years.

In 2016, there were 681 newborn boys in the state given the name and Mason ranked fourth nationally.

It hit peak popularity in 2012 when 18,961 baby boys were given the name.

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2. Noah

Hebrew for rest and comfort, the Biblical name Noah was a favorite among parents in the state.

There were 708 newborn boys given the name in Pennsylvania, while it was also the number one name for parents all across the country.

It hit peak popularity with the birth of 19,015 babies named Noah that year.

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1. Liam

Liam was the top name for Pennsylvania parents in 2016.

This derivative of William, meaning strong-willed warrior and protector, resonated so much that 717 baby boys were given the name.

The name ranked second in the nation nationally and hit its peak popularity in 2016 with 18,138 babies given the name.

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More stories

The flu killed 28 people in Pa. last week. Where it's hit hardest (MAP)

Pa.'s wealthiest school districts mapped. How the Lehigh Valley stacks up

The places where the most Millennials live in Pa. (MAP)

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Sara K. Satullo may be reached at ssatullo@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow her on Twitter @sarasatullo and Facebook. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook.The New Jersey Legislature is considering at a bill that would extend the right to vote to 100,000 people who are ineligible because they're incarcerated or haven't been released from probation or parole.

The bill is supported by members of the New Jersey Legislative Black Caucus, who say denying this right disproportionately affects blacks.

"There is no relationship between voting and committing crimes," said state Sen. Ronald Rice, D-Essex, a prime sponsor. "To disenfranchise those who have made mistakes and are paying for them is wrong."

Most states, including Pennsylvania and New Jersey, prohibit voting by those imprisoned or on parole. If New Jersey reverses that ban, it would be the third state to do so.

The measure faces stiff opposition from Republicans. State Sen. Gerald Cardinale, R-Bergen, said forfeiting the right to vote is "part of the risk (inmates) assume when they break the law, and part of the incentive structure for people to follow the law."

What do you think? Should prisoners and parolees be allowed to vote? Have a say in our informal poll, and feel free to elaborate in the comments section.Health New Market Report: Barrier Films Market - Global Forecast to 2022



28.02.2018 19:50:20 - Recently published research from Markets and Markets, "Barrier Films Market - Global Forecast to 2022", is now available at Fast Market Research



(live-PR.com) - Barrier Films Market by Material (PE, PET, PP, PA, Organic Coatings, Inorganic Coatings), End-Use Industry (Food & Beverage Packaging, Pharmaceutical Packaging, Agriculture), Region (Asia Pacific, North America, Europe) - Global Forecast to 2022



"The barrier films market is projected to grow at a CAGR of 5.0% during the forecast period, in terms of value."



Full Report Details at

- fastmr.com/products/1309818-barrier-films-global-forecast?afid=702



The barrier films - Barrier Films Market by Material (PE, PET, PP, PA, Organic Coatings, Inorganic Coatings), End-Use Industry (Food & Beverage Packaging, Pharmaceutical Packaging, Agriculture), Region (Asia Pacific, North America, Europe) - Global Forecast to 2022"The barrier films market is projected to grow at a CAGR of 5.0% during the forecast period, in terms of value."Full Report Details atThe barrier films market is estimated to be USD 22.44 billion in 2017 and is projected to reach USD 28.58 billion by 2022, at a CAGR of 5.0% from 2017 to 2022. The growth of barrier films market can be attributed to the rising demand for barrier films from various end-use industries, such as food & beverage packaging, pharmaceutical packaging, and agriculture. Increase in the number of retail chains in Asia Pacific, Europe, and North America is projected to drive the growth of the barrier films market. However, volatile prices of raw materials are acting as a restraint to the growth of the barrier films market.



"Based on end-use industry, the agriculture segment is projected to grow at the highest CAGR during the forecast period both, in terms of value and volume."



Based on end-use industry, the agriculture segment of the barrier films market is projected to grow at the highest CAGR between 2017 and 2022 both, in terms of value and volume. This growth can be attributed to the increasing demand for mulch and silage films from the agriculture industry. Silage films help maintain the nutritional value of plants. These films assist in the protection and storage of plants, thereby maintaining optimum humidity to control fermentation. The use of mulch films in agricultural farms helps reduce the water usage up to 75%, as these films reduce evaporation, prevent the growth of weeds, and increase penetration of rainwater. These advantages of mulch films are expected to drive the demand for barrier films in the agriculture industry.



"The barrier films market in the Asia Pacific region is projected to grow at the highest CAGR during the forecast period."



The Asia Pacific region led the barrier films market in 2016, owing to the increased demand for barrier films in packaging applications, especially in the food & beverage industry. Increase in the number of retail chains and the demand for customer-friendly packaging are additional factors projected to drive the growth of the barrier films market in the Asia Pacific region. Rising income levels of consumers and increasing population are also contributing to the growth of the barrier films market in this region.



In the process of determining and verifying the market size for several segments and subsegments gathered through secondary research, extensive primary interviews were conducted as follows:



* By Company Type: Tier 1 (43%), Tier 2 (36%), and Tier 3 (21%)

* By Designation: C-Level (21%), D-Level (29%), and Others (50%)

* By Region: North America (36%), Europe (36%), Asia Pacific (21%), Middle East & Africa (7%)



*



Key players profiled in the report include Amcor (Australia), Sealed Air (US), Bemis (US), Toppan Printing (Russia), Cosmo Films (India), Jindal Poly Films (India), Berry Global (US), DuPont Teijin Films (US), Uflex (India), Sumitomo Chemical Co. (Japan), Mitsubishi Chemical Holdings Corporation (Tokyo), and Honeywell International (US).



Research Coverage



The report estimates the barrier films market, in terms of volume and value, and forecasts the market size till 2022. It includes market segmentation based on material, end-use industry, and region. The report also provides company profiles and competitive strategies adopted by key players in the barrier films market.



Key Benefits of Buying the Report:



This research report is focused on various levels of analysis-industry trends, market share analysis of key players, supply chain analysis, and company profiles, which together comprise and discuss overall views on the competitive landscape; emerging and high-growth segments of the barrier films market; high-growth regions; and market drivers, restraints, opportunities, and challenges.



About Fast Market Research



Fast Market Research is a leading distributor of market research and business information. Representing the world's top research publishers and analysts, we provide quick and easy access to the best competitive intelligence available. Our unbiased, expert staff is always available to help you find the right research to fit your requirements and your budget.



For more information about these or related research reports, please visit our website at

market is estimated to be USD 22.44 billion in 2017 and is projected to reach USD 28.58 billion by 2022, at a CAGR of 5.0% from 2017 to 2022. The growth of barrier films market can be attributed to the rising demand for barrier films from various end-use industries, such as food & beverage packaging, pharmaceutical packaging, and agriculture. Increase in the number of retail chains in Asia Pacific, Europe, and North America is projected to drive the growth of the barrier films market. However, volatile prices of raw materials are acting as a restraint to the growth of the barrier films market."Based on end-use industry, the agriculture segment is projected to grow at the highest CAGR during the forecast period both, in terms of value and volume."Based on end-use industry, the agriculture segment of the barrier films market is projected to grow at the highest CAGR between 2017 and 2022 both, in terms of value and volume. This growth can be attributed to the increasing demand for mulch and silage films from the agriculture industry. Silage films help maintain the nutritional value of plants. These films assist in the protection and storage of plants, thereby maintaining optimum humidity to control fermentation. The use of mulch films in agricultural farms helps reduce the water usage up to 75%, as these films reduce evaporation, prevent the growth of weeds, and increase penetration of rainwater. These advantages of mulch films are expected to drive the demand for barrier films in the agriculture industry."The barrier films market in the Asia Pacific region is projected to grow at the highest CAGR during the forecast period."The Asia Pacific region led the barrier films market in 2016, owing to the increased demand for barrier films in packaging applications, especially in the food & beverage industry. Increase in the number of retail chains and the demand for customer-friendly packaging are additional factors projected to drive the growth of the barrier films market in the Asia Pacific region. Rising income levels of consumers and increasing population are also contributing to the growth of the barrier films market in this region.In the process of determining and verifying the market size for several segments and subsegments gathered through secondary research, extensive primary interviews were conducted as follows:* By Company Type: Tier 1 (43%), Tier 2 (36%), and Tier 3 (21%)* By Designation: C-Level (21%), D-Level (29%), and Others (50%)* By Region: North America (36%), Europe (36%), Asia Pacific (21%), Middle East & Africa (7%)Key players profiled in the report include Amcor (Australia), Sealed Air (US), Bemis (US), Toppan Printing (Russia), Cosmo Films (India), Jindal Poly Films (India), Berry Global (US), DuPont Teijin Films (US), Uflex (India), Sumitomo Chemical Co. (Japan), Mitsubishi Chemical Holdings Corporation (Tokyo), and Honeywell International (US).Research CoverageThe report estimates the barrier films market, in terms of volume and value, and forecasts the market size till 2022. It includes market segmentation based on material, end-use industry, and region. The report also provides company profiles and competitive strategies adopted by key players in the barrier films market.Key Benefits of Buying the Report:This research report is focused on various levels of analysis-industry trends, market share analysis of key players, supply chain analysis, and company profiles, which together comprise and discuss overall views on the competitive landscape; emerging and high-growth segments of the barrier films market; high-growth regions; and market drivers, restraints, opportunities, and challenges.About Fast Market ResearchFast Market Research is a leading distributor of market research and business information. Representing the world's top research publishers and analysts, we provide quick and easy access to the best competitive intelligence available. Our unbiased, expert staff is always available to help you find the right research to fit your requirements and your budget.For more information about these or related research reports, please visit our website at fastmr.com or call us at 1.800.844.8156 (1.413.485.7001 Int'l) Author:

Bill Thompson

e-mail

Web: http://www.fastmr.com

Phone: 1.518.300.1215 28.02.2018 19:50:20 -

Disclaimer: If you have any questions regarding information in this article please contact the author. Please do not contact Live-PR.com. We are not able to assist you. Live-PR.com disclaims content contained in this article. Live-PR.com is not authorized to give any information about content and not responsible for content posted by third party.Stock Market News

Foxtons profit plunges as London property transactions seize up 28-02-2018 10:50



Stock News headlines are gathered from financial news sources around the web. Views and opinions on each item are from their respective authors and website. They are not opinions of LiveCharts.co.ukStock Market News

Official China PMI surprises to the downside in February 28-02-2018 10:59



Stock News headlines are gathered from financial news sources around the web. Views and opinions on each item are from their respective authors and website. They are not opinions of LiveCharts.co.ukStock Market News

Phoenix Global acquires majority stake option at Gordon Lake 28-02-2018 14:54



Stock News headlines are gathered from financial news sources around the web. Views and opinions on each item are from their respective authors and website. They are not opinions of LiveCharts.co.ukStock Market News

Results round-up 28-02-2018 18:58



Stock News headlines are gathered from financial news sources around the web. Views and opinions on each item are from their respective authors and website. They are not opinions of LiveCharts.co.ukStock Market News

Tesco's Booker takeover given go-ahead by shareholders 28-02-2018 15:59



Stock News headlines are gathered from financial news sources around the web. Views and opinions on each item are from their respective authors and website. They are not opinions of LiveCharts.co.ukHaas' Guenther Steiner says swapping Barcelona for Bahrain as F1's venue for pre-season testing in the future would involve high costs and 'brutal' logistics.

Teams have been forced to deal with the unexpected vagaries of Barcelona's weather, marked by cold conditions, snow and rain.

Tuesday dawned white and wet at the Circuit de Catalunya, offering the prospect of little running over the course of the day.

Preliminary discussions among teams about extending the first week of pre-season testing were not fruitful, prompting thoughts over a change of venue in the future to guarantee appropriate conditions.

Singled out as the only realistic option, Bahrain would not get Steiner's stamp of approval however.

"The cost is one of the elements of going to Bahrain, its not easy, but also the logistics," said the Haas team principal.

"For example, for us, the first year we were here [in 2016], it was talked about going to Bahrain or Abu Dhabi. That would be a no-no if you are new and you need to fly something somewhere.

"You guys have no idea how much stuff is coming here every day for the car. Its brutal.

"From England or from Italy, they put [components] in a van and they drive eight hours, they are here. We have people going up and down every day.

"If its in Bahrain you need to get prepared, its the same for everybody. But the next thing is, some teams would put a jet on every night to go back and forward."

While teams touched on the eventuality of adding an extra day of running to the week, Steiner was never optimistic a unanimous consent would be reached.

"A few people tried to do something, but there was always from somewhere, No. Can you imagine two of us agreeing on something, never mind 10?" he said.

"It needs to be unanimous, it would need to change something in the sporting regulations, we cannot just say we change something.

"I think the FIA would do it, but we need to apply for it. But if we cant come to an agreement between us [teams], theres no point getting the FIA involved."

Gallery: The beautiful wives and girlfriends of F1 drivers

Keep up to date with all the F1 news via Facebook and TwitterThe Cabinet of Ministers has approved a resolution establishing an interdepartmental commission for the protection of business, headed by Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman.

"The commission will consist of an absolute majority of business associations and human rights defenders, there will be no law enforcement agencies," Justice Minister Pavlo Petrenko, presenting the decision at a Cabinet meeting on Wednesday, said.

The commission, in particular, will monitor the implementation of the law "stop mask-show!", which the parliament adopted in 2017. It will deal with cases of violations of business rights, including searches, said the Minister of Justice.

Petrenko also noted that the commission would work in public mode and its work implies a systemic response of the government with regard to changes in legislation or personnel decisions.

The resolution also contains recommendations that are obligatory for implementation by law enforcement agencies.

Groysman suggested holding the first meeting of the commission in March on the situation with the pressure on business from the side of the security forces. He also added that the commission included a business ombudsman, the Union of Ukrainian Entrepreneurs, the European Business Association, the American Chamber of Commerce and Industry, representatives of trade unions, the Federation of Employers.The beginning of the school year when you got to show off your new duds, new cars, new looks!

Sports! Playing, cheering, watching high school athletics.

The arts: Dramatic arts, musical groups and shows, graphic arts groups, debate, etc.

The prom! No dancing the night away or punch bowl antics.

The daily interactions. Just being with the group, hanging with friends and classmates.

Access to college recruiters and advisors  its harder to line up higher education.

Walking onstage to get a diploma while all the family is watching with everyone elses family.

Vote

View ResultsThe town of Gilbert in Mingo County and the town of Man in Logan County have benefited from The European Union in March of this year will sign a technical agreement with Ukraine on the issue of EUR 50 million to the Energy Efficiency Fund, European Commission Deputy Director General for Neighborhood Policy and Enlargement Katarina Mathernova has said.

"Today's adoption of a number of important documents on the Energy Efficiency Fund will provide an opportunity to sign an agreement on the fund's financing for EUR 50 million, and this amount will be used for the fund itself and provision of technical assistance within five years," she said at a cabinet meeting in Kyiv on Wednesday.

In particular, the government approved the regulation on the supervisory board of the Energy Efficiency Fund, a standard agreement with an independent member of the supervisory board, the methodology for calculating energy savings as a result of implementing energy efficiency measures and the main activities and personnel requirements for the management of the fund.

"The EU is ready to issue the second part of funding for the Energy Efficiency Fund in the amount of EUR 50 million. As soon as the fund starts working, the EU is ready to provide the second part of financing," the expert added.

She noted work on the creation of the fund was carried out in a very short time, and this was achieved jointly with the representatives from the Ukrainian side, the EU, a support group from the World Bank, the Ministry of Regional Development, Construction, Housing and Utilities Services.By Matt Murphy

STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE

BOSTON  The path to a compromise this session over state immigration enforcement legislation got a little narrower after the Baker administration told two key lawmakers over the weekend that it opposes a compromise they struck with local police groups.

Public Safety and Security Secretary Daniel Bennett wrote to Sen. Jamie Eldridge, of Acton, and Rep. Juana Matias, of Lawrence, to express his continued concerns with the latest version of the Safe Communities Act, which would allow local police to honor federal detention requests under certain circumstances.

Eldridge and Matias unveiled the rewritten legislation last week as a compromise reached between immigrant advocates on Beacon Hill and the Massachusetts Major City Police Chiefs Association (MMCC) and the members of the Massachusetts Chiefs of Police Associations executive and legislative committees.

The two police groups had previously backed a separate measure filed by Gov. Charlie Baker, but plan to join Eldridge and Matias at the State House on Tuesday for a press conference in the afternoon where the stakeholders will help detail the compromise opposed by Baker. The chiefs of police organization last week called the redrafted bill an "effective balance of both building and improving trust in our respective communities while simultaneously enhancing public safety across the entire State."

Bennett, however, said that not only would the revised bill make unlawful an agreement that the Department of Correction has had with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security since 2007, but it also contains loopholes that would prevent police from holding potentially dangerous suspects.

The Safe Communities Act would have prohibited state and local police from asking about a persons immigration status or arresting someone solely because of their immigration status, and would have banned police from holding immigrants on a federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement detainer if they had no other cause to do so.

The redrafted version of the bill, however, would allow law enforcement to hold individuals on requested ICE detainers for up to six hours in cases where the detainee has a prior criminal record that includes convictions for "serious violent offenses" like sexual assault, abuse or drug trafficking.

Police agencies would also be allowed to honor ICE detainer requests for up to six hours if the detainee is under arrest for terrorism charges and the Department of Correction would be authorized to notify ICE when it releases or plans to release inmates who serve time for serious violent offenses.

Baker, as well and some Democrats in the Legislature, oppose the idea of making Massachusetts a so-called "sanctuary state," but the Supreme Judicial Court created a new impetus to reach a compromise last July when it ruled that state law law does not permit officials to detain immigrants solely at the request of federal immigration officials.

The ruling upended current practices of many police departments and law enforcement agencies, and Baker responded by filing a bill (H 3870) that would allow, but not require, police to honor a written request from ICE to hold an individual for up to 12 hours if that person has engaged in or is suspected of terrorism or had been convicted of a serious felony.

"I believe that the Governors legislation is the best solution to address the Lunn decision," Bennett wrote to Eldridge and Matias in a Feb. 25 letter.

Bennett outlined a number of concerns the administration has with the redrafted bill, including its belief that the six-hour hold provision "is not actually a hold." "It is a delay in setting of bail," Bennett said.

The secretary explained that he believes the hold provision would expire six hours after someones arrest and would not allow authorities to hold a suspect "even for one minute" after they are due to be released from state custody.

It would also impose new restrictions on communication between state and local authorities and Homeland Security, applying not just to ICEs deportation branch, but also Homeland Securitys investigations bureau and the Secret Service, according to the administration.

Eldridge and Matias, according to Bennetts letter, had requested a meeting with the secretary to review the new language of the bill, but Bennett said he had already examined the differences between the original Safe Communities Act and the revised version.

Bennett said that the redrafted bill would force police departments, even those in cities that self-identify as sanctuary cities, to detain people for up to six hours if they receive an ICE detainer request even if the local police do not view the person as a public safety threat, while other dangerous criminals could be set free.

According to the administration, the list of prior convictions that would trigger the hold provision is also "too narrow." For instance, Bennett said a person with a past domestic violence conviction arrested for rape while in possession of an unlicensed firearm would not qualify for the delay in setting bail.

"The Baker-Polito administration believes that local officials are in the best position to decide whether and to what extent they should cooperate with the federal government on immigration detention matters, and the Governors bill respects discretion at the local level," Bennett wrote.

Furthermore, Bennett said the compromise bill would make a current agreement between the Department of Correction and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security unlawful, preventing DOC staff from assisting in the deportation of dangerous convicted felons. The agreement was originally signed in 2007 by then-Gov. Deval Patrick and has been renewed several times.

The bill, in the administrations reading of it, would also put new restrictions on communication between state and local authorities and Homeland Security, applying not just to ICEs deportation branch, but also Homeland Securitys investigations bureau and the Secret Service.

The original Safe Communities Act was sent to study by the Joint Committee on Public Safety and Homeland Security, but the compromise bill (HD 4603) has been filed in the House by Matias and has not yet been referred to committee.

The governors bill was also sent to study by the Joint Committee on the Judiciary, which typically spells the end of the road for a bill during that legislative session.

"I will continue to advocate for a narrow solution to the problem posed by the Lunn decision like that proposed in the Governors bill," Bennett wrote to the lawmakers.LOWELL  Lowell Catholic High School has received a $10 million MassDevelopment bond to construct a new building and renovate others on its Stevens Street campus.

Lowell Catholic plans to build a new 25,025-square-foot hall that will house classrooms, a science lab, media center, cafeteria, kitchen and administrative offices.

Bond proceeds will also be used to renovate Legacy Hall and purchase and install equipment, furnishings and fixtures for other campus buildings.

Salem Five Bank purchased the bond issued by MassDevelopment.

MassDevelopments tax-exempt bonds support projects for academic institutions across the commonwealth, allowing these important learning centers to grow, MassDevelopment President and CEO Lauren Liss said in a statement. We are pleased Lowell Catholic High School will use these funds to expand and update its campus and increase its enrollment.

MassDevelopment provided tax-exempt bond financing for the schools last construction projects in 2006. Keith Gymnasium and McNamara Hall both opened that year.

Lowell Catholic, founded in 1989, marked the union of several schools including Keith Academy and St. Josephs High School. The school has further expanded in recent years to include grades pre-kindergarten through 12.

Head of School Maryellen DeMarco said Lowell Catholic is excited to partner with MassDevelopment to expand the campus.

The additional space will allow for scaling up of academic, co-curricular and spiritual life offerings in a meaningful way, enhancing the educational experience of current and future students in both the elementary and high school.

Follow Alana Melanson at facebook.com/alana.lowellsun or on Twitter @alanamelanson.BOSTON  The two Democrats behind a compromise that would allow for a limited amount of cooperation between local police and federal immigration agencies said Tuesday theyre hopeful Gov. Charlie Baker will join them at the table to find a solution.

Sen. Jamie Eldridge and Rep. Juana Matias last week announced that they had reached a deal with two major police associations over legislation that would allow local police to honor federal immigration detention requests for individuals with a history of committing violent or serious crimes.

The bill, according to its supporters, is intended to protect public safety without instilling fear in immigrant communities that can lead to crimes going unreported and a lack of trust between residents and police.

The attempt to bridge the policy gap between immigrant advocates and law enforcement, however, hit a snag when Public Safety Secretary Daniel Bennett wrote a letter over the weekend to the two Democrats outlining the administrations continued opposition to the bill.

Eldridge said it was disappointing that Baker has not embraced the compromise bill, especially since he and Matias met with Bennett on Dec. 11 to share the proposal with him and didnt hear any concerns expressed until this week.

Were hoping to work more closely with him on language, but this is really a monumental moment for the police chiefs, two associations, to unanimously endorse this compromise bill, the Acton legislator said at a press conference with police.

The governor has filed his own legislation to address a Supreme Judicial Court ruling, known as the Lunn decision, that found local police lacked the authority to detain anyone for a civil immigration violation, even at the request of a federal agency.

Eldridge and Matias held a briefing at the State House to review the details of the deal reached with Massachusetts Major City Police Chiefs Association and the Massachusetts Chiefs of Police Association. Chiefs of police from Chelsea, Fitchburg, Lawrence, Cambridge and Manchester-by-the-Sea attended.

The Safe Communities Act, which was filed by the same two lawmakers amid President Donald Trumps enhanced crackdown on undocumented immigrants, would have prohibited state and local police from asking about a persons immigration status or arresting someone solely because of their immigration status.

It also would have banned police from holding immigrants on a federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement detainer if they had no other cause to do so.

The redrafted version of the bill, however, would allow law enforcement to hold individuals on requested ICE detainers for up to six hours in cases where the detainee has a prior criminal record that includes convictions for serious violent offenses like sexual assault, abuse or drug trafficking.

We must draw a clear line between fighting crime and enforcing civil immigration laws, because we can make our communities safer for everyone, said Matias of Lawrence, who is running for Congress in the Third District.

Chelsea Police Chief Brian Kyes, the president of the Massachusetts Major City Police Chiefs Association, called the revised bill extremely important to local police.

Our collective fear is that despite the demonstrated propensity for committing violence or other serious felonies based on their criminal record, the arrestee, if bailed, will be perhaps never to be heard from again only and until they commit another serious violation of the law on one of our communities across the state, Kyes said.

Both police associations had previously endorsed Bakers bill, which would allow, but not require, police to honor a written request from ICE to hold an individual for up to 12 hours if that person has engaged in or is suspected of terrorism or had been convicted of a serious felony.

Eldridge said the governors bill set a low threshold that could allow individuals to be held for rather minor crimes, and Kyes said Bakers bill lacked a key provision that would prohibit local and state police from being trained and sworn in to act as quasi-immigration enforcement agents.

Were not in the business of enforcing civil immigration law. Its not within our authority. We dont want it to be within our authority, Kyes said. We need the trust of our residents to come forward and report crimes and we need the trust of witnesses to crimes to come forward.

The prohibition on so-called 287(g) agreements with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security is one of the reasons Baker continues to object to the compromise bill. Bennett wrote that the bill would nullify one such agreement with the Department of Correction that has been in place since 2007.

Kyes said that no police departments in Massachusetts currently have 287(g) agreements, and only two DOC employees have been deputized as immigration agents. Still, he said that might be one area where the bill could be amended.

Im one hundred percent in favor of DOC having that authority, he said, drawing a distinction between police on the streets and corrections officers detaining inmates who had already served time in jail.

Eldridge said that even though courts made it illegal in Massachusetts for local and state police to honor detainer requests, it was still important for the Legislature to codify a policy into law. Matias also said passage of the new bill could help change the narrative for immigrants across Massachusetts living in fear of law enforcement authorities.

The Lunn case, yes, it does not allow law enforcement officials to honor the detainer, but at the same time it does not create a message for immigrant communities in Massachusetts that law enforcement officials are here to maintain their public safety, and I think this bill would do both, she said.Dash to D.C.? Actress hopes so

Stacey Dash, the Clueless actress and former Fox News commentator, has filed paperwork to run for U.S. Congress.

According to reports, Dash filed documents with the Federal Election Commission on Monday, declaring her candidacy for to represent the 44th district of California in the House of Representatives. The documents, available on the FEC website, also declare the creation of a new committee under the name Dash to D.C.

The southern California district, which spans a portion of Los Angeles County from South Gate down through Compton and north Long Beach, is currently represented by Democrat Nanette Barragan.

Dash has been teasing a transition into politics on her Twitter account for a few weeks. On Feb. 9 she called on her followers to weigh in. A number of people online and off have suggested I run for political office. I wanted to see what my online community thinks of this idea as I mull the possibilities.

Thoughts?

An outspoken conservative and Donald Trump supporter, Dash, who is black, served as a Fox News commentator beginning in 2014. She repeatedly made headlines with controversial opinions about topics ranging from the BET Awards to transgender rights. She was briefly suspended from the network in 2015 after cursing on-air, saying President Barack Obama doesnt give a (bleep) about terrorism. She parted ways with the network last January.

Heather Locklear charged with domestic violence and battery on a police officer

Heather Locklear was arrested on Sunday night in Thousand Oaks, Calif., and charged with domestic violence and battery on a police officer, according to multiple media reports.

According to TMZ, officers responded to a domestic violence call in Thousand Oaks, and Locklear reportedly became combative during the arrest and attacked an officer.

Others details werent immediately available.

Locklear was charged with one count of domestic violence, a felony, and three counts of battery of emergency personnel, which are misdemeanors.

The actress was booked into the Ventura County jail but was no longer in custody Monday. According to ABC News, Locklear is scheduled to appear in court on March 13.

According to the audio recording of the 911 call obtained by TMZ, Locklears brother called the police after arriving at her

home and finding Locklear and her boyfriend in an argument.

A representative for Locklear had not yet responded to TheWraps request for comment. A spokesperson for the Thousand Oaks police department has not yet responded either.

Locklear was arrested in 2008 on suspicion of driving under the influence, and she and her ex-boyfriend, Jack Wagner, were ordered to appear in court after a reportedly violent fight in 2011.

Locklears credits include Melrose Place, The Perfect Man, Spin City, Too Close to Home and Scary Movie 5.With their crackled crusts and chewy interiors, artisan breads get plenty of attention these days. But theres a reason for the enduring popularity of quick breads. These creative yet simple breads emerge from the oven in a fraction of the time and with little of the anxiety generated by their yeast-raised cousins.

Even the most accomplished bakers, including award-winning cookbook author Rose Levy Beranbaum, consider humble, homey quick breads essential to a home bakers repertoire. She dedicated a chapter to them in her book The Bread Bible and includes a number of quintessential quick-bread recipes in her upcoming Roses Baking Basics, due out in September.

Not having quick breads would be criminal, says Beranbaum, who has been perfecting recipes for zucchini bread, apple bread and banana bread for the new book. Its the most comfortable baking that people can do. For someone whos just beginning to bake, yeast can be intimidating, but quick breads are no-fail, and theyre delicious.

While we tend to think of this baking genre as loaves that bear as much resemblance to cake as they do bread, quick breads actually fall into a much broader class of baked goods linked by two ingredients. Whether youre baking biscuits, scones or banana bread, quick breads owe their ease to the advent of baking soda in the mid-19th century, followed by baking powder a few years later. The two leavening agents, which add lift to baked goods almost instantly, were revolutionary for home bakers. Rather than replacing yeast, as some thought they might, baking powder and baking soda spawned a whole new baking category instead.

Visitors to the Terre Haute, Ind., headquarters of Clabber Girl, the iconic baking-powder brand, can explore some of that history in the companys museum  followed by fresh baked breads and pastries in the cafe.

Clabber Girl executive chef Amanda Shook says quick breads popularity goes beyond their ease and flavor possibilities. The loaves are also economical. Home cooks, Shook says, can use up leftover ingredients or items that may be past their prime, such as mushy bananas.

In fact, banana bread is the most popular recipe on the Clabber Girl website  and its not a standard-issue recipe, either. This one incorporates browned butter and roasted bananas to add an extra layer of nutty sweetness.

Although many quick breads tend toward sweet preparations, the companys second-most popular recipe is for a roasted garlic, herb and cheese quick bread, a savory loaf that makes a terrific accompaniment to soup.

One of the very first quick breads created was Irish soda bread, a popular loaf, especially at this time of year, as St. Patricks Day approaches. The early, most basic recipes called for whole-wheat flour, baking soda, salt and buttermilk. Truth be told, a lot of soda breads out there are pretty bland.

I never liked soda bread when I had it, Beranbaum admits. I thought they were heavy, and I didnt like the flavor. I ended up preferring the bread I made at home.

After playing around with that basic recipe for The Bread Bible, she found that adding butter, sugar and raisins soaked in Irish whiskey made a scone-like loaf that became even more delectable slathered in whiskey butter.

And going untraditional with a traditional tea scone offers maximum pay off for minimal effort. Just three ingredients combine in a recipe so simple a preschooler could master it. I first encountered these miracle scones in Australia. Similar to biscuits, theyre made with nothing but self-rising flour (flour with baking powder and salt already mixed in), cream and a can of clear soda, such as 7-Up or Sprite.

I was dubious at first, but they turn out light and tender, with an extra lift provided by the drinks carbonation. The most difficult part is turning the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and cutting out scones with a biscuit cutter  and thats a piece of cake. Dont want to mess with round cutters? Just cut the dough into squares.

From start to finish, it takes 20 minutes, and youll have warm scones straight from the oven, ready to be topped with whipped cream and jam. Theyre perfect for an afternoon tea or to include in a bread basket with homemade sliced banana bread, which can be made up to a few days in advance. Serve with coffee and juice for an impressive yet easy continental breakfast when you have overnight guests.

Not only will quick breads fill your home with wonderful smells, theyre also a fast and delicious way to fill yourself with a sense of accomplishment.TYNGSBORO  The expression welcome in Arabic is ahlan wa sahlan, and thats exactly what students and faculty at the Academy of Notre Dame have extended to three of their newest Lower School students.

The three El ghamraway sisters  Farida (grade 7), Jomana (grade 5) and Lojain (grade 3)  arrived from Alexandria, Egypt, in late January, accompanied by their father, Hazem, and mother, Shereen Ahmed.

Farida is a middle-school student and says she is adjusting well to school at the academy.

I was a little scared at first, but everyone is so nice, she said. Here it is harder, but I hope to get high grades.

While being in the U.S. is somewhat familiar for Hazem El ghamraway, this is the first experience traveling outside of Egypt for the rest of the family. El ghamraway has traveled to the U.S. five times over the past 10 years on business. He is a chief marine engineer who operates a private company with two commercial workshops providing service work in Alexandria, the countrys second-largest city, located on the Mediterranean Sea.

During my business trips, my impression of life in the United States was so good that I became determined that I must bring my family here so that my daughters could have a good education, he said.

We have been anxiously awaiting their arrival for a couple of months now, said Elizabeth OConnell, principal of NDAs Lower School. We are thrilled to be able to provide a loving school environment for Farida, Jomana and Lojain, and look forward to learning as much from them as they do from us.

The family has found temporary living accommodations in Nashua, N.H., while they look for more permanent housing. Adjusting to the school schedule and discovering the surrounding area is taking some getting used to, but they are acclimating to life in America. The family recently met with another Egyptian family who has been living in Salem, N.H., for 16 years.

I want my daughters to have the very best education, and that is why we came here, Hazem El ghamraway said. We are very pleased to be the first Egyptian family supported by your great academy.DRACUT  While women across the country continue to run for office in record numbers and coalesce into powerful social movements, local female leaders kicked off the annual Lowell Womens Week by praising those fighting for change.

Speakers at Mondays event, including U.S. Rep. Niki Tsongas and state Sen. Eileen Donoghue, touched on topics such as the surge of female political candidates and the #MeToo movement while emphasizing the need for women to hold leadership roles.

Or, as UMass Lowell Chancellor Jacquie Moloney put it: Women are going to save the world.

Several hundred people gathered at Lenzis on Monday morning for the kickoff breakfast, representing institutions across the city such as the National Historical Park, Girls Inc. and Lowell General Hospital. The theme for the breakfast  nevertheless, we persist, we press forward together  echoed a familiar rallying cry based on an interaction U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren had on the Senate floor. Attendees chanted that line during the mornings opening reflection.

In an annual update from the state Senate, before the events awards were handed out, Donoghue described legislation that she hoped would create a more equal playing field while criticizing the need for such actions.

The Senate and the commonwealth have certainly taken meaningful steps since last weeks breakfast as it pertains to women, Donoghue said. But sometimes I feel conflicted whether we should be celebrating these achievements or bemoan the fact that we need to pass laws to promote no-brainers like pay equity, fairness to pregnant workers, access to contraceptives and freedom from sexual violence on campus.

Donoghue had been seeking the Senate presidency now held through the end of the year by Harriette Chandler, who is only the second woman to hold that position. In recent weeks, though, Donoghue has been linked with the Lowell city managers position that will open in April. She declined to comment on whether she is a candidate, saying it was premature because the City Council has not formally posted the job.

As several of the speakers at Mondays breakfast observed, the Greater Lowell area has had some success putting women in positions of power. The region is represented in Congress by Tsongas and Sen. Elizabeth Warren and in the state Legislature by Donoghue and fellow Sen. Barbara LItalien. Moloney leads one of the most prestigious local universities, while Marian Ryan oversees law enforcement as the Middlesex County district attorney.

That level of representation is rare: Tsongas cited national statistics from the Center for American Progress that show women hold fewer than 25 percent of state legislative positions, 10 percent of governorships and 19 percent of mayoral positions in cities with more than 30,000 residents. Congress is no better, with women representing 19 percent of the House of Representatives and 22 percent of the Senate.

But, as Tsongas pointed out, women are now seeking office at levels never before seen. In 2015 and 2016, Tsongas said, about 900 women contacted the organization Emilys List about running campaigns. Last year, the first of the Trump administration, that figure ballooned to 26,000.

The group had to knock down a wall in its Washington office to make room for more staff, Tsongas said. So change is coming.

Tsongas  who herself made history when she became the first woman elected to Congress from Massachusetts in a quarter-century  is stepping away at the end of her current term. During her remarks Monday, she became choked up while describing the honor of serving, prompting a lengthy standing ovation from the audience.

Five of the 14 candidates vying to succeed Tsongas are women, something the congresswoman described as an evolution from the field she faced in 2007.

When I ran, there were two of us, Tsongas said, referring to Donoghue, the other female candidate at the time. Now, to have five and as diverse a field as it is in every way, I think it is a great thing, a testament to this district and this revolutionary spirit for change.

Follow Chris on Twitter @ChrisLisinski.Were guns the factor in the hunting of our kids?

Out of the many riveting exchanges in Wednesday nights CNN town hall on gun violence, this question  leveled at Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., by the grieving father of a Parkland school shooting victim  was perhaps the most remarkable. It brought to the fore a fundamental truth that we consistently manage to avoid whenever the topic of gun deaths comes up.

The answer, of course, was yes. The one factor that enables the overwhelming number of U.S. gun deaths, our routine mass murders, our lather-rinse-and-repeat cycle of grief, acrimony and forgetting is the ubiquity of the gun. It is an object simply performing the role it was meant to perform.

After all, what are guns for? Guns are for killing. This is their purpose; this is what they are meant for and designed to do. When the question of gun control is viewed in light of that essential fact, the banality of our current debate  and our proposed solutions  becomes scandalously clear.

For instance: We should raise the age at which you can buy an assault rifle  because, really, the issue is that you should be a bit older before you can mow down crowds with a highly efficient killing tool.

We should ban bump stocks  as though the problem is how fast bullets can be fired at people, not the fact that they can be fired at all.

We should restrict large-capacity magazines  so that its only possible to shoot 10 individuals in one go rather than 20. Safety first!

Or we should arm teachers, the latest and perhaps most egregious suggestion. This one comes directly from our commander in chief. Far more assets at much less cost than guards  ATTACKS WOULD END! Trump tweeted. Yes, we should equip primary-school educators with a tool to kill classroom intruders, because a willingness and ability to end life are normal, natural qualifications for those who dare teach our nations young their ABCs.

The National Rifle Association and its allies have used this sort of erroneous logic to distract the public for decades. They say, To stop a bad guy with a gun, it takes a good guy with a gun, as though its a given that the bad guy must have a gun in the first place. Guns dont kill people, people kill people, as though killing isnt more likely in the United States because people inclined to do it can obtain killing machines so quickly and easily.

All these tropes and faux-solutions are Band-Aids on the gaping wound that is American gun culture. None of them addresses the underlying problem. It is absurd that the mass availability of tools expressly designed to end our neighbors existence is seen as a natural, acceptable and unchangeable fact of everyday life. Our interminable conversation hinges on a fundamental failure of imagination.

But the debates stemming from the Parkland shooting show that the tide may be turning. Perhaps now is the time to ask the real question: Do we want killing tools to be a normal feature of our society or not?

It must be said: Gun owners do not ordinarily purchase their weapons with the goal of dispensing death to their fellow citizens. There are AR-15 enthusiasts who love the mechanics of the object. There are handgun owners who use their weapons in target practice, for sport. There are hunters who use their rifles to bring home food for their families.

Yet it should also be asked: How much does that matter, when we all know that the real purpose of guns is to kill? When did we conflate freedom with the ability to wield a weapon unobstructed rather than the ability to avoid being the victim of one? As another Parkland parent asked at the town hall, why is the inalienable right to life defended less fiercely than the right to bear arms?

Its possible that if we admitted aloud the trade-offs inherent in the nature of guns  that in accepting them, we accept killing objects in everyday life  we could begin to curb our excesses. We could rethink what a well- regulated militia really looks like, and who is meant to take part. We could debate whether personal weaponry is the most effective means of resisting tyranny in a modern age. We might acknowledge the responsibility that gun ownership entails and usher in reasonable requirements that have thus far been beyond our reach  training and licensing, insurance and registration, trigger locks and gun safes.

But these are the questions you ask when youre looking for solutions. To get to them, we first have to acknowledge the real problem: Yes, guns are killing us. Thats what theyre for.

Christine Emba is a Washington Post opinion writer.Here are a few suggestions to our Washington politicians regarding the recent tragic school shootings and gun violence in the United States:

Raise the age to get a firearm license and to purchase firearms from 18 years old to 21.

Have a 10-day comprehensive background check done before being able to purchase a firearm. If the person moved from another state, increase the time to do a background check to 20 days. Interview neighbors during background checks for red flags.

While allowing for handguns for home protection and rifles and shotguns for legitimate hunters, ban all bump-stock devices and rapid fire weapons like AK-47s and AR-15s. Only police and the military need this kind of firepower.

Install metal detectors and security cameras at all school entrances. Have armed in-house security guards or police officers at each school or college.

Install doors that have metal braces that cant be pushed open by an intruder and can withstand the door-lock being shot out. There are some already being sold right now to schools in the Midwest.

Set a limit on the amount of firearms and ammunition that can be purchased. Have a national database so a person cant go to multiple gun shops to circumvent this.

Prosecute anyone who makes any kind of a gun threat in writing or verbally with mandatory jail sentences.

While this list wont eliminate all shootings, it is a first step in the right direction.

Washington lawmakers, can you hear this?

George E. Ryan

Chelmsford

Editors note: Mr. Ryan is a retired Lowell Police Department deputy superintendent.Gov. Charlie Baker is lucky he has a friend in Democrat House Speaker Robert DeLeo.

Otherwise an aggressive, partisan speaker would be hauling Baker administration officials before legislative committees to answer for the sudden breakdown of the Baker administration.

Between the latest shutdown of the MBTAs Red Line, and the growing scandal among high-ranking officers of the Massachusetts State Police, there is a lot to talk about.

Hearings before legislative committees like the Transportation Committee or the Committee on Public Safety would force public officials to tell the public what is going on. They certainly would provide more information that you are currently getting from the Baker administration.

Of course, such hearings should be carried out by the House. The Senate is too tied up with its own investigation into former Senate President Stanley Rosenberg to be much help.

Charlie Baker should be warned. There is something in government and in life that doesnt like second terms. Baker, a Republican who is also an honorary Democrat, is running for his second four-year term.

A second term is usually when an administration begins to crumble, like it did to the second term administrations of Presidents Bill Clinton, George Bush and Barack Obama.

It happens to governors, too, as it did with the troubled second consecutive terms of Massachusetts Governors Michael Dukakis and Deval Patrick.

Baker is still in his first term, of course, so the second Term jinx would not ordinarily apply.

However, at the rate things are headed for Baker, he may not have to wait around for a second term  which he is favored to get  to see things crumble.

Things are falling apart right now.

His problems not only include the periodic disasters at the MBTA, like the shutdown of the Red Line last week which inconvenienced and angered thousands  but the growing scandal among State Police officials as well.

Ordinarily you can blame your run-of-the-mill MBTA shutdowns and disasters on winter weather. But the temperature last Wednesday when the Red Line broke down due to a derailment was 70 degrees.

Baker blamed the system, which is old and neglected, but he promised improvements, like new Red Line and Orange Line (which also broke down Saturday) cars.

He failed to mention that in between those breakdowns, was the WCVB-TV (Channel 5) story about the $100,000 spent for a private bathroom in the MBTA/MassDOT board room in the Transportation Building.

There are existing clean, well-lighted public bathrooms 40 feet from the boardroom, but transportation officials are apparently reluctant to mingle with the public which not only pays them but paid for their bathroom as well.

The situation with the State Police is worse. Unlike the MBTA, what is happening at the State Police is surrounded by a code of silence.

Last Friday two more high-ranking State Police officials suddenly retired, which brings to four the number of top cops who have been forced out over the controversy surrounding the drunken-driving arrest of a judges daughter.

The latest to retire are Lt. Col. Daniel Risteen, the third in command, and Major Susan Anderson, head of the Holden barracks. Risteen is also involved in a separate controversy with State Police Trooper Leigha Genduso, who has been suspended.

In November, Superintendent Richard McKeon and his deputy, Francis Hughes, both retired suddenly.

All four are linked to the decision last fall ordering two state troopers  Ryan Sceviour and Ali Ryan  to remove embarrassing information about heroin and sexual acts, as well as references to her father, from the drunken-driving arrest report of Alli Bibaud, the daughter of Worcester County Court Judge Timothy Bibaud.

Both Sceviour and Ryan were reprimanded and are suing, although Col. Kerry Gilpin, the new head of the State Police, has ordered the reprimands removed.

One issue is who alerted McKeon that the daughter of a judge  who McKeone had worked with in the office of Worcester County District Attorney Joseph Early  had been arrested?

Also, why would such a common arrest involve four high-ranking State Police officials  all now retired  and an attempt to scrub the arrest report to present a milder version to a judge?

Who in the chain of command senior to McKeon made the initial call?

The ongoing scandal has hurt Baker. These are his cops.

It is good that former Essex County District Attorney Kevin Burke and Attorney General Maura Healey are investigating.

But cops investigating cops leaves a lot to be desired.

This, the MBTA and other developments, is why the Massachusetts Legislature  namely the House  needs to get involved. The public deserves answers.

Send comments to luke1825@aol.comFirst Deputy Head of Zakarpattia Regional Council and Deputy Head of the Society of Hungarian Culture of Transcarpathia (Karpataljai Magyar Kulturalis Szovetseg - KMKS) Yosyp Barto has said he is convinced that foreign nationals, rather than Ukrainians are behind the arson of the KMKS office in Uzhgorod early on Tuesday, February 27.

"I am sure that it's impossible to find any person in Ukraine and Zakarpattia region who would commit such a crime. We have nationalists, ultranationalists, but I do not think that this was done by Ukrainian citizens," he told Mukachevo.net on Tuesday, February 27.

According to preliminary reports, an explosion occurred at 03.12 on Tuesday after an unidentified person left an improvised explosive device on the window sill of the KMKS office. All this was filmed by surveillance cameras set on the KMKS office building, as well as on other buildings on Pravoslavna Quay in Uzhgorod.

"Today at 03.00, one or more unidentified individuals carried out a terrorist attack against our office. We can from surveillance cameras that an unidentified person brought a bag with explosives from the side of the pedestrian bridge, rummaging in it near the window of our office, and then leaving this bag right on the window sill. At 03.05, this person went to the side of the Hungarian consulate along the quay. Seven minutes later, there was a powerful explosion, which security guards of neighboring buildings heard and called firefighters and police," Barto said.

As reported, a fire broke out in an office building on Pravoslavna Quay, which houses the KMKS office, in Uzhgorod in the early hours of February 27. The blaze destroyed about 25 square meters on the first floor. The fire was preceded by an explosion near the building.

This is the second attempt to set this office on fire. The first one occurred on the morning of February 4, when an unidentified person threw a Molotov cocktail in the window of the building. The investigation found that Polish citizens Adrian Marglewski and Tomasz Rafal Szimkowiak could be involved in committing the offense, who, according to law enforcers, have pro-Russian views and sympathize with terrorist organizations.CHELMSFORD  If youve driven on Acton Road at night over the last few months, youve probably noticed the big, glowing pink blimp at Sunny Meadow Farm.

Thats what some have taken to calling the new, state-of-the-art hydroponic greenhouse scientist-turned-farmer Bill Evans built on a portion of the 8 1/4 acres he and farmer Phil Jones lease at the town-owned farmland.

The glowing pink and purple hues come from the advanced LED horticultural lighting Evans uses to help his lettuce, herbs and other leafy greens at Fresh Roots Greenhouse grow to their full potential.

A pharmaceutical manufacturing consultant with his own business, Evans decided to take a course at the University of Arizonas Controlled Environment Agriculture Center and was hooked.

I kind of got the bug, he said. I really wanted to give back to my community as well as do something a little bit different with my science background.

The year-round greenhouse, built over the fall, is heated and designed to withstand a Northeast winter, Evans said. He uses an American Hydroponics system that recirculates water and nutrients through the plants root systems, allowing them to grow without soil.

Evans has two main goals for Fresh Roots: produce high-quality, bionutrient-dense leafy greens and create living-wage jobs for local unemployed and low-income workers.

Evans said he was inspired by the models of Evergreen Cooperatives in Cleveland and Wellspring Cooperative of Springfield. In a cooperative model, workers are invested in the business and motivated to make it do well, he said.

They also have the potential to spur and help grow other businesses, Evans said. He pointed to the Mondragon Corp., which began in a poor neighborhood in Spain in the 1950s and has grown to several hundred businesses today.

So far, Evans has hired Tom Farrell and Soeuth Path, both of Lowell, as his growers.

Farrell said he met Evans when they were both volunteering at the Lowell Transitional Living Center. Farrell was unemployed and jumped at the job opportunity when Evans told him about the greenhouse he was building.

For Farrell, it was a welcome return to science-based work. Once a student in the organic chemistry doctorate program at the University of Connecticut, Farrell never finished his degree because of a car accident that left him with a long recovery from head trauma.

Hes held a number of jobs since then, including a stint as a pharmacy technician, but said he enjoys working in the greenhouse most of all because of the relaxed atmosphere.

Theres a lot of chemistry involved with hydroponics and farming in general, Farrell said. It keeps me interested. Theres always something challenging.

Evans said he brought the first fruits of Fresh Roots to the farmers market at the nearby Agway on Maple Road over the weekend, and is excited to introduce more people in the area to his produce. He said hes still working out the distribution side of the business, but hopes to provide lettuce, arugula and other greens to local restaurants, retailers, wholesalers and more.

Evans plans to deliver the greens roots and all, keeping them alive until they reach the chefs kitchen.

A grand opening and ribbon cutting ceremony will be held at Fresh Roots Greenhouse at 275 Acton Road Friday at 2 p.m. Evans will give a tour of the greenhouse and explain his growing process.

For more information, visit freshrootsgreenhouse.com.

Follow Alana Melanson at facebook.com/alana.lowellsun or on Twitter @alanamelanson.BOSTON Mao Kang knows.

That youth falling into the vicious cycle of drug addiction.

He knows.

That youth surfing from couch-to-couch, wandering from homeless camp-to-camp.

He knows.

He was addicted to drugs, homeless and couldnt escape the clutch of gangs. But eventually, he found the right track and arrived at UTEC.

Today, people tell Kang that hes their savior.

 Hey Mao, remember that day three years ago you saved me?  Kang recalled of a past conversation. Ill tell them, You did it. It was you.

I wont judge because I was there one time, Kang added.

For his efforts as a streetworker at UTEC, Kang was recognized during a ceremony with Boston Mayor Marty Walsh on Tuesday at the West End House Boys & Girls Club in Allston.

Kang was one of three nonprofit workers to receive the Light of Dawnn Award, in memory of Dawnn Jaffier, a gun violence victim who was killed on her way to a neighborhood celebration a few years ago . She had a career in Bostons nonprofit community, and devoted her life to giving back.

Thats exactly what Kang is all about, colleagues say. He has touched thousands of lives through his 10-year tenure at UTEC and many more years at various nonprofits, they say.

Hes relentless. He never gives up on anybody, said Jonathan Lunde, director of streetworkers at UTEC. Everybody knows they can rely on him.

Kang says that being a streetworker is the most rewarding job. Some people think streetworkers are doing street detail because they wear orange jackets, he said; however, they make jail visits, helping people receive help when they get released.

Streetworkers connect people with educational and job resources at UTEC.

Its more than a job to me, Kang said. Helping young people is my passion.

As a result of Dawnns death, the Highland Street Foundation along with community leaders, Dawnns colleagues, peers and family created these awards.

Recipients also receive a $5,000 prize. Kang said that money will go toward a new car.

I go around everywhere as a streetworker, so my truck is always in and out of the shop, he said.

Im so blessed to get this, Kang added.

A Cambodian refugee, he arrived in Massachusetts in the 1980s. After struggling for years and living at times at the Merrimack River camp site, he reached a tipping point.

Kang says he came to his senses, deciding it was time to change. He went to the Trairatanaram Temple in Chelmsford and became a Buddhist monk.

The monks saved me, he reflected. They changed my lifestyle around.

In addition to Kang, the 2018 Light of Dawnn Award winners are Khara Burns of Project Bread, and Shalaun Brown of Codman Academy Charter Public School.

Khara, Mao and Shalaun quietly go about their work every day, not in pursuit of recognition, but purely driven by a desire to make a difference in someones life, said Blake Jordan, executive director of the Highland Street Foundation.

The ceremony also included the presentation of the Light of Dawnn Scholarship to three high school seniors sponsored by John Hancock, where Dawnns mother is a longtime employee, in partnership with the Foundation to Be Named Later.

The 2018 Light of Dawnn Scholarship recipients are: Bilguissa Barry of Boston Scholar Athletes; Kaylene Sheran of ZUMIX; and Wooddynne Dejeanlouis of West End House Boys & Girls Club.

There is no better way to honor the life of Dawnn Jaffier than to celebrate those who have continued to carry on her legacy through acts of goodwill and service to our local communities, the mayor said.

Follow Rick Sobey on Twitter @rsobeyLSun.Obolonsky District Court of Kyiv has rescheduled the meeting on the case of high treason of former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych for March 6 because of another trip of his lawyers to the Russian Federation.

At a meeting on Wednesday Judge Vladyslav Deviatko read out motions from the defendant's lawyers stating that their client needs urgent legal assistance and they need to arrive in Russia not later than February 26, an Interfax-Ukraine correspondent reported.Russia financed militants who tried to break through Ukrainian army's defense near Krasnohorivka in July 2017 - PGO

The attempt by militants to break through the positions of the Ukrainian Armed Forces near Krasnohorivka in July 2017 was made with the financial and material support of representatives of the authorities and the command of the Russian Armed Forces, the media liaisons department of the Prosecutor General's Office of Ukraine has reported.

"The pre-trial investigation found that at about 04.15 on July 20, 2017, militants of the 'first army corps of the people's militia' of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic (DPR), with financial and material support from representatives of the authorities and the command of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, made an attempt to break through the positions of the Ukrainian Armed Forces near the town of Krasnohorivka in Donetsk region," reads a statement posted on the PGO website on Tuesday, February 27.

The PGO said that as a result of the fighting, the Ukrainian army had liquidated four members of a subversive and DPR reconnaissance group, one of whom was a Russian citizen.

"At the same time, three soldiers of the Ukrainian Armed Forces were killed during the combat clash, which led to serious consequences," the press service added.

"During the inspection of the scene of the incident, a large number of firearms and explosive weapons were found, including a 40mm grenade launcher, which according to the expert's conclusion is a 40mm grenade launcher 6G34 (GP-34) of industrial production intended for firing 40mm shots VOG-25, VOG-25P. According to the Ukrainian Defense Ministry, the mentioned 6G34 (GP-34) under-barrel grenade launcher is in service with the Russian Armed Forces," the report says.

It was also established that the liquidated members of the subversive and reconnaissance group were dressed in military uniforms (bulletproof vests, military helmets, etc.), which were manufactured in Russia (Kazan, Rostov-on-Don, etc.).

A number of medicines produced in Russia were also seized during the inspection the scene of the clash.

The received evidence of Russia's financing illegal armed formations in Donetsk region was transferred to the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry for use in international judicial institutions.Cuba is a mystery and marvel for many of us. The old colourful architecture that dot the streets of this city tell many stories about its past. The plethora of classic cars that roam the roads reveal infamous tales about its communist ban on imports. Its inescapable live music and dancing locals along the streets make the city full of life, culture, history (and photo opportunities!)

The city is mysterious because there is still so little about it known to us outside of it. That is also what makes it such an interesting destination to visit. With Wi-Fi scarce and many restaurants, bars and tours unavailable online, it sends you back to a time of true travelling  exploring a place by yourself.

Its reservedness from interacting with other countries has eased up in recent years, making it much easier to travel there. You can fly from Singapore, often connecting in just one city along the way. Which, considering a time there was zero access to this charming island, is pretty impressive.

Although its down to your exploring, weve gathered some of our favourite things to do in Havana for you to get a head-start. P.S. There is a time sensitivity about visiting this timeless treasure before too many tourists do  so get on it!

Shelina Assomull

Photos: Getty Images

Read More:

Sun, Sips & Sounds: 8 Music festivals in Asia worth traveling for in 2018

Ultimate Travel Guide: Why Sri Lanka is the perfect year-round holiday destination

Singapore in 48 Hours: Ultimate travel guide on where to bring visiting guestsU.S. weapon supplies to Ukraine should begin in few weeks  Poroshenko

The first supplies of weapons from the United States should begin in a few weeks, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said.

"The first supply of these weapons should take place in a few weeks," Poroshenko said at a press conference in Kyiv on Wednesday.

Several types of weapons will be supplied, starting with "counter-sniper systems," he said.

"We're talking about numerous supplies, starting with counter-sniper systems, because it was Russian snipers who killed many Ukrainian troops in the east of our country," the Ukrainian president said.

Obtaining such systems will help Ukraine to significantly decrease the number of servicemen killed, especially on the frontline, Poroshenko said.

"We're also talking about electronic warfare means, air defense and many other weapons," he said.

Poroshenko also recalled that he had held negotiations on weapon supplies with U.S. President Donald Trump, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Defense Secretary James Mattis.

"We have many positive news [following negotiations], but, unfortunately, I cannot provide more details about them," he said.Claudio Bellotti - editor of Rivoluzione - discusses the impact of the coronavirus outbreak in Italy, which has the second-most cases after China. Around 24,000 people have been confirmed to have the disease. This emergency has exposed the underlying rot in Italian capitalism. A public health crisis has been brewing for decades, due to massive cuts to the Italian health system over the course of 30 years. Meanwhile, the erratic reaction of the government reflects the weakness and divisions in the ruling class.KYIV. Feb 28 (Interfax-Ukraine)  The adoption by the Verkhovna Rada of the bill to simplify imports of pesticides, not registered in Ukraine (No. 6606), could turn the country into a testing ground, Vitaliy Ilchenko, the owner of the Ukravit group of companies, believes.

"This is a way to make a large agrarian laboratory from Ukraine, a testing ground. New chemicals that have been tested but not certified in other countries are likely to be imported. And the company, having spent considerable funds, not to lose them, will be able to register them in Ukraine and do business in such a way. Ukraine in the world is perceived as a European country and when registering the drug, then on this basis it will be possible to conduct registration in many countries," he said at a press conference at Interfax-Ukraine.

According to Ilchenko, today Ukrainian scientific institutions for conducting experiments have the right to import and register chemical substances in a small amount.

"To use chemicals in Ukrainian fields, it is necessary to go through the process of state registration. In Ukraine it lasts from one to two years, while the process of registration of new active substances in the EU is up to ten years," the owner of the group said.

Ilchenko said the Verkhovna Rada plans to consider bill No. 6606 on March 1.

Co-investor in the Ukrainian Business Hub project Volodymyr Chepovy said this bill contradicts European standards.

"This is a precedent for lobbying the law, which violates European norms. The clear interests of global corporations are lobbied. It is advantageous for them to have such territory as our country where it is possible to conduct rapid experiments," he said.This weekend's Back Porch Festival in Northampton may only be four years old, but it's roots run a lot deeper-- 25 years worth, back when Signature Sounds owner Jim Olsen started the Sunday morning radio program of the same name.



Although the radio program has moved a couple times between Saturday and Sunday, and there was about a six-month period in when Olsen didn't do in 2004, the show hasn't missed a beat in 25 years. But it wouldn't have happened at all, except for an incident that reads like a dark gothic country song: the DJ who started the Back Porch's forerunner, named "The Country Show," went to prison for murder.



As the program director at WRSI-FM back then, Olsen stepped in it was in Greenfield,



"This was back when WRSI was in Greenfield, and as program director, it was my job to fill in when needed," he said. "I recently then had become interested in in country music and bluegrass, so it really helped develop my interest in that."



Similar to the expansion on the Signature Sounds roster, the show has become more expansive.



"When I took it over the show, it was pretty much country music and bluegrass," Olsen said. "It's sort of expanded into a broader look at all types of American music.You might hear blues, you might hear Cajun and zydeco music you might hear some Tex-Mex stuff; it's a little bit more of a melting pot."



The same goes for the festival, which runs Thursday through Sunday at The Parlor Room and Academy of Music in Northampton, Olsen added.

Once Signature Sounds started becoming a concert producer as well as a record label, we just hit on the idea that there's no current festival that happens in the cold weather around here, so it was opportunity to do something a little different. And each year we've grown in a little bit more."

Say Darling' Patsy Cline Tribute Show: Thursday, 7 p.m.;The Parlor Room

The Brother Brothers: Friday, 7 p.m.; The Parlor Room

Deer Tick:, Friday, 8 p.m.; Academy of Music

Little Roots Music:, Saturday, 10:30 a.m.; The Parlor Room Anais Mitchell Saturday, 7 p.m.; Academy of Music

Del and Dawg: Sunday, 2 p.m.; Academy of Music

Courtney Hartman and Robert Ellis: Sunday, 7 p.m.; The Parlor Room



The festival's headliner, Deer Tick, features a Western Massachusetts native, Ian O'Neil of West Springfield. While O'Neil wasn't an original member of the band, he joined just at the right time, in his estimation.



"The band really was still in its infancy. And we've gotten so much better as we have played together. So I think I joined right at the end of the opportunity for that to happen," he said.



Although he played on a few songs on the band's third album, "The Black Dirt Sessions," his full entry into the band was on the next record "Divine Providence," where he actually contributed to the writing - the first time anyone besides bandleader John McCauley had written a song for the group.



"I think, and John has said this, that he was always looking for more of a format like The Beatles, where there were one or two writers or maybe one primary guy but songs coming from different people and different angles," O'Neil said. "I joined with the stipulation that I could bring stuff to the table because I wanted to make sure I could insert some creative input. So it was probably my stubbornness that broke the ice in that regard. At the same time, we don't want to flood albums with our songs because we know the primary identity of the band is John's voice."



O'Neil always looks forward to playing in Western Massachusetts.



"My formative musical experiences were playing in Western Massachusetts. It's really great to come back and I love Northampton," he said. "And we all have places we like to go there. Whenever I'm in Northampton, I try to bring people to Joe's Cafe. The pizza there is amazing."



A former Quincy resident who hid out in New Mexico to avoid federal prosecution on child pornography charges will spend 16 years in federal prison after he was sentenced Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Boston.

Scot Letourneau, 44, who lived in Massachusetts and Maine, pleaded guilty in November to charges of possession and distribution of child pornography and for failing to register as a sex offender.

Letourneau was arrested in Colorado in 2015 after investigators determined he was exchanging pornographic photographs of children with other collectors on the chat application Kik Messenger. Authorities found 103 videos and more than 500 still photos of children engaged in sexual acts on his electronic devices.

Letourneau had been convicted of similar charges in 2004 in New Hampshire.

Prosecutors asked the court to hold Letourneau as they prepared to take him to trial in 2015, but he was released with an ankle bracelet to live in Maine. However, he fled and ended up hiding in New Mexico under an assumed name for almost two years before authorities found him and returned him to Massachusetts.

The failure to register charge stems from the time he lived in New Mexico. He did not register as a sex offender under his assumed identity.Amazon.com Inc. is in negotiations with the developer behind the Seaport Square project to lease all the space in a planned 18-story office building, enough space for 2,000 or more new employees, according to a new filing with the city of Boston.

The Seattle tech giant's lease could expand to up to 1 million square feet and 4,000 employees by 2025.

The deal represents a major expansion of Amazon's presence in Boston that is unrelated to its ongoing search for a second headquarters.

The size of the lease -- 430,000 square feet to start with -- was disclosed in a regulatory document filed Tuesday evening by WS Development, the developer behind the Seaport Square project.

The filing confirms information first reported by the Boston Business Journal in November that Amazon was on the hunt for between 500,000 and 1 million square feet in the Seaport District.

A footprint of 430,000 square feet represents the entire office space available in the 18-story Block L4 building in Seaport Square. But as a condition of signing that lease, Amazon would also have the option to expand into Block L5, the 610,000-square-foot building next door.

Amazon and WS Development are asking the city for a $5 million property tax break for each lease, in exchange for a commitment in each case that Amazon will hire at least 2,000 employees within the Greater Boston area.

"This project filing is the first step, and we'll be working with Amazon to make it a reality," Mayor Marty Walsh wrote in remarks prepared for a Tuesday night event, as first reported by the Boston Globe. "Projects like these are a tremendous vote of confidence in our city's economy."

WS Development referred all comments to Amazon. An Amazon spokesperson confirmed only that "Amazon is considering additional options for expansion in the Boston area to meet the demand of our growing employee base and as part of our ongoing hiring efforts."

Just last summer, Amazon announced it is leasing 150,000 square feet at 253 Summer St. in Boston's Fort Point neighborhood and hiring 900 workers. The company already employs 1,200 people in Greater Boston between its Kendall Square office, which it established in 2012, and a WeWork co-working space in Boston's Back Bay.Harvard University announced Wednesday the 2018 commencement speaker: U.S. Rep. and civil rights leader John Lewis.

Lewis is the U.S. representative for Georgia's 5th congressional district, a seat he has held since 1987. As a young man, he served as the chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, formed in 1960 to protest racial segregation and became a key part of the Civil Rights Movement.

Lewis, 78, was born in Alabama, the son of sharecroppers. He graduated high school and went on to attend the American Baptist Theological Seminary then Fisk University in Nashville, Tennessee. While enrolled in college, he became involved in the nonviolence movement and a leader in the Nashville sit-ins, Freedom Rides, the March on Washington and the Selma to Montgomery March.

"For more than 50 years, John Lewis has dedicated himself to the ideals of equality and decency, standing up for what is right, even when it meant putting himself in harm's way," Harvard President Drew Faust said. "His public service legacy is unparalleled, and he is an inspiration to me and to countless other people across the United States and around the world.

Lewis was awarded an honorary doctorate of laws degree by the university in 2012.A woman told police she had a child with casino mogul Steve Wynn after he raped her, while another reported she was forced to resign from a Las Vegas job after she refused to have sex with him.

The Associated Press on Tuesday obtained copies of police reports recently filed by the two women about allegations dating to the 1970s. Police in Las Vegas revealed earlier this month that they had taken the statements after a news report in January revealed sexual misconduct allegations against the billionaire.

The allegations are the latest leveled against Wynn by women. He resigned as chairman and CEO of Wynn Resorts on Feb. 6, less than two weeks after the Wall Street Journal reported that a number of women said he harassed or assaulted them and that one case led to a $7.5 million settlement.

Wynn has vehemently denied the misconduct accusations the newspaper reported and he attributed them to a campaign led by his ex-wife, whose attorney has denied that she instigated the Jan. 26 news story.

One police report obtained by the AP shows a woman told officers that Wynn raped her at least three times around 1973 and 1974 at her Chicago apartment. She reported she got pregnant and gave birth to a girl in a gas station restroom.

In one instance, the woman claimed that Wynn pinned her against the refrigerator and raped her. She said he then made a phone call, kissed her on the cheek and left. The report does not explain how Wynn is alleged to have entered the apartment or if they knew each other. The woman claimed she did not give him a key.

The second police report shows a woman told police she had consensual sex with Wynn "several times" while she worked as a dealer at the downtown Las Vegas casino-hotel Golden Nugget, but "felt coerced to perform the acts." She reported she was forced to resign when she turned him down.

"In the Summer of 1976, Wynn approached her in the back hall and wanted her to go with him," according to the report filed Jan. 29. "(S)he told him, "no", she was done and had someone she was seeing. She was soon after accused of stealing $40.00 and forced to resign."

The women's names are redacted on the reports, and police said they do not identify people who say they are victims of sex crimes.

The Las Vegas case will not be investigated because the statute of limitations in Nevada is 20 years.

Ralph Frammolino, spokesman for Wynn, on Tuesday declined comment on the latest allegations.

Wynn Resorts is facing scrutiny by gambling regulators in Nevada and Massachusetts, where the company is building a roughly $2.4 billion casino just outside Boston. Regulators in Macau, the Chinese enclave where the company operates two casinos, are also inquiring about the allegations.

In addition, groups of shareholders have filed lawsuits in state court in Las Vegas accusing Wynn and the board of directors of Wynn Resorts of breaching their fiduciary duties by ignoring what the lawsuits described as a longstanding pattern of sexual abuse and harassment by the company's founder.SPRINGFIELD -- Two alleged members of a New York City-based drug distribution ring have been freed on $10,000 bail following their arrest on heroin trafficking charges.

Julio Sanchez, 39, of Springfield, and Andy Espinal-Antonio, 32, of Worcester, pleaded not guilty Monday in Springfield District Court to heroin trafficking, over 200 grams, and conspiracy to violate drug laws.

Espinal-Antonio also denied one count of possession of heroin, with intent to distribute.

Judge John Payne set bail for both men at $10,000, the same amount they posted at the Springfield state police barracks after their arrests on Friday.

The pair are part of a larger criminal network transporting heroin from the New York City area to the greater Springfield, according to the arrest report. The Hampden County Narcotics Task Force has been investigating the group since January, and more arrests are expected.

While conducting surveillance of a home in Holyoke, state police allegedly saw the two men making drug purchases and leaving together in separate vehicles.

Troopers followed the vehicles south on Interstate 91 to Springfield and stopped them when they left the highway. In one vehicle, a Mercury Mountaineer, police found 9,000 packets of heroin, or more than 200 grams. Five more bundles of heroin were seized in the second vehicle, a Toyota Highlander, according to the arrest report.

The defendant's bails were set by agreement of Assistant District Attorney Jill O'Connor, defense lawyer Ivonne Vidal, who represented Espinal-Antonio, and James Goodhines, who represented Sanchez.

At O'Connor's request, the judge also ordered Espinal-Antonio, a native of the Dominican Republican, to surrender his passport.

Both defendants are due back in court for a pretrial hearing on April 6.BELCHERTOWN -- The land trust that owns Upper Bondsville Dam, which the state has ordered repaired, says the organization has secured $350,000 in grants to do the work.

At Monday's joint meeting of the commissions at Belchertown's Lawrence Memorial Hall, Belchertown Land Trust President Daniel Beaudette informed officials of the grants.

The dam is located in the Swift River, the municipal border between Belchertown and the Bondsville village in Palmer.

Because wetlands are involved, the dam's owner, Belchertown Land Trust, must obtain approvals from the Palmer and Belchertown conservation commissions to repair the dam.

After more than an hour of deliberations, the boards said they would continue the public hearing next month in separate meetings of the respective boards -- March 19 in Belchertown and March 20 in Palmer.

The commissions also said they would conduct a site visit at the dam. The fact finding will take place the afternoon of March 16 on the river, they said.

"(I am) really pleased you had this joint meeting ... let's get this done right," engineer William Fay, who is working on behalf of the trust, told the commissions. "The Swift River is a crown jewel in Massachusetts."

Fay filed a notice of intent with the two conservation commissions. If approved, the notice would spell out the conditions for the repair work.

In a 23-page narrative Fay presented, the engineer wrote: "The dam has been determined to be in poor condition by the Department of Environmental Management, Office of Dam Safety. ... (the) sheer number of deficiencies, when combined, causes concern."

Fay wrote that the Office of Dam Safety issued a permit to the trust to repair the structure.

He listed 13 tasks that must be completed to satisfy state regulators, including tree removal, repairs of numerous cracks on the face of the spillway, raising the height of an abutment and removal of the intake gate timbers.The Berkshire District Attorney will make a "major announcement" Thursday morning in Pittsfield.

District Attorney David F. Capeless has not released any information about the subject of his announcement but said he has scheduled a press conference at 11 a.m. in his office, spokesman Fred Lantz said. The Republican intends to broadcast the entire press conference via Facebook Live.

The announcement comes a day after skeletal remains were found in a wooded area in Hatfield. The Northwestern District Attorney's office said the remains are apparently human, but is waiting for confirmation from the state Medical Examiner's Office.

The family of Joanne Ringer was reportedly at the scene of the discovery, according to Western Mass News.

Ringer was last seen in her Clarksburg home on March 2, 2017 and her disappearance has been the subject of numerous searches. Massachusetts State Police assigned to the Berkshire District Attorney's Office are investigating Ringer's disappearance.

Ringer's car was found in Easthampton on March 6. She was due to report for her first shift as a taxi driver in that city the day of her disappearance.

A month after Ringer disappeared, her husband Chad Reidy was found dead inside the garage of the couple's newly purchased home. Police say that the April 6 death appears to have been a suicide.The VASEP proposed that the General Department of Fisheries coordinated with the VASEP to organise a mid-term review meeting on the implementation of tasks and activities to overcome the "yellow card" and discuss relevant urgent measures to have the warning rescinded.

In addition, the VASEP also proposed coordination between delegations of VASEP's IUU Steering Committee and the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) task force in discussing IUU (illegal, unreported, and unregulated) and the yellow card with the EU and the Republic of Korea.

VASEP recommends that the MARD issue a written guideline to provinces, cities, and the General Department of Fisheries for communication activities failing to progress in fighting IUU (illegal, unreported and unregulated) fishing.

In 2017, the European Commission gave the six-month yellow card warning to Vietnams seafood as it found that Vietnam is not doing enough to combat illegal fishing.

As scheduled, the EU will re-evaluate Vietnams efforts and improvements in IUU fishing in April, 2018. If the results are positive, Vietnam will receive another six-month yellow card after granting the country a green card. Otherwise, a red card may be applied, which means Vietnamese seafood is banned from the EU market.BOSTON - The Catholic Bishops of Massachusetts, led by Boston Cardinal Sean O'Malley, have reaffirmed their support for lawmakers to work together to pass "historic" criminal justice legislation.

The Criminal Justice Reform Committee of Conference is working at the State House to reconcile the Massachusetts House and Senate criminal justice reform bills.

Legislators, as well as Gov. Charlie Baker, have said they hope work will be completed soon.

A letter sent to the six committee members Feb. 27 and copied to the governor said the four clergy were "pleased to learn that comprehensive criminal justice reform remains a top priority of Governor Baker along with the leadership of the House and Senate this legislative session."

"That responsibility however presents you with the opportunity to craft legislation that will revolutionize how the legal system deals with certain types of criminal offenses. The legislation has the potential to benefit society as a whole and be life changing to many individuals and families throughout this great Commonwealth," the letter states.

"Issues such as eliminating certain mandatory minimum sentences, creating rehabilitation and reentry programs, providing service to those suffering from mental health struggles must be at the forefront of your discussions."

Besides O'Malley signers include Worcester Bishop Robert J. McManus; Springfield Bishop Mitchell T. Rozanski and Fall River Bishop Edgar M. de Cunha.



The letter tells lawmakers that the bishops "fully support your work and urge you, and ultimately the full legislative body, to join together in the effort to pass this historic legislation."



It asked them to consider the following reforms:The statement was made by Deputy Prime Minister Vu Duc Dam at an early spring press conference held at Nhan Dan (People) Newspapers headquarters in Hanoi on February 27.

The event was also attended by Politburo member, Secretary of Party Central Committee (PCC) and Head of the PCCs Commission for Communication and Education Vo Van Thuong.

On behalf of the Government, Deputy PM Dam extended his best greetings to the senior journalists and press agencies around the country on the occasion of the Lunar New Year.

He noted that the media reflected the peoples voice in a lively and truthful manner, as well as being an effective policy advice channel for the Government.

The Deputy PM asked the press to overcome all difficulties in order to fulfill their tasks in communication this year, particularly any issues related to the renewal of state enterprises and the application of advances in information and technology.

The press agencies should closely co-ordinate with the ministries and agencies concerned to continue to effectively implement the press planning, he added.

Since the beginning of 2018, the media has focused on communicating socio-economic missions, as well as reflecting the care from the Party and State for the people and the festive atmosphere around the country on the occasion of the Lunar New Year.

At the press conference (Credit: VGP)The Deputy PM made the remark in Hanoi on February 27 at a reception for ITC Executive Director Arancha Gonzalez, who is on a working visit to Vietnam from February 26-28.

As most of small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Vietnam, which account for around 97% of firms in the country, have found it difficult to approach information about the international market, he called on the ITC to form information channels to facilitate Vietnamese businesses access to market information and help them make more effective business decisions.

He also hoped that the ITC would give consultancy to help the Vietnamese Government build a strategy to support its enterprises in taking part in the global supply and value chains.

Touching upon the European Union-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA), he urged the ITC Executive Director and the ITC to back and speed up the signing and ratification of the agreement while helping Vietnam to improve its capacity so that the country could fully and effectively realise the trade pacts commitments.

For her part, ITC Executive Director Gonzalez pledged to help businesses in developing countries, including Vietnam, gain access to information, expand markets and participate deeper in the global value chain.

The ITC director also expressed her hope that parties will soon sign and ratify the EVFTA as it will bring practical benefits to the EU and its members through expanding and diversifying markets and connecting more closely with the Asian-Pacific and Southeast Asian regions.

Delegates at the reception (Photo: MOFA)Every four years, The U.S. Small Business Administration ["SBA"] releases a Strategic Plan for the current and upcoming years. As SBA embarks on its 65th year, it renews its commitment to providing products and services to Americas small businesses. This Strategic Plan provides a framework that outlines SBAs key goals and objectives to ensure that their programs are managed effectively and efficiently. In this plan, the SBA sets four core strategic goals for the next 5 years:

1. Support small business revenue and job growth;

2. Build healthy entrepreneurial ecosystems and create business friendly environments;

3. Restore small businesses and communities after disasters; and

4. Strengthen SBAs ability to serve small businesses.

https://www.sba.gov/sites/default/files/aboutsbaarticle/SBA_FY_2018-2022_Strategic_Plan.pdf

The SBA Montana District Office is located in Helena and serves all 56 counties. Entrepreneurs wanting to start or expand their business, need access to capital, or are looking to do business with the Federal Government will find it worth their time and effort to get acquainted with SBA products and services. The SBA has guaranteed $2.4 billion in loans to Montanas small businesses since 1990; has provided thousands of hours of counseling, and has helped countless small businesses get their products and services into Federal and State Government Agencies. The knowledgeable and approachable staff at the Montana District Office have an open door policy and are there to assist you with your small business needs.

The Montana District Office homepage is https://www.sba.gov/offices/district/mt/helena.

Wayne Gardella, CPA

United States Small Business Administration

District Director  Montana

10 West 15th Street  1100

Helena, MT 59626

406-441-1080.Montana West Economic Development - Mission: To cultivate growth through the support of new and expanding businesses in the Flathead ValleyWaymo says its self-driving cars have now racked up 5 million miles on public roads.

To commemorate that milestone, Waymo, an offshoot of Google parent Alphabet, is releasing an immersive 360-degree video to let users experience the feeling of riding in a car with no driver as it navigates itself through city streets.

By Carolyn Said

https://www.sfchronicle.com/business/article/Waymo-offers-virtual-reality-glimpse-at-riding-in-12715117.php?utm_source=email&utm_medium=email&utm_content=newsletter&utm_campaign=sfc_biztek

***

Urbanism Next Conference  3/5-7  Portland, Oregon

While there has been a focused effort on research around the technological aspects of AVs, there has been a shortage of systematic exploration of the secondary effects on city development, form, and design, and the implications for sustainability, resiliency, equity, cost, and general livability.

http://www.matr.net/article-81684.htmlThe Africa Women Innovation and Entrepreneurship Forum opens the nominations for the 2021 annual AWIEF Awards.

Currently in its fifth edition, the prestigious AWIEF Awards recognise, honour, and celebrate women entrepreneurs and business owners in Africa and across various industry sectors for their achievements and contribution to Africas inclusive economic growth and social development.

AWIEF Awards cover emerging and established entrepreneurship in the private and not-for-profit sectors. AWIEF Awards noninees are women who have demonstrated outstanding vision and inspiration and have overcome challenges to make a significant social impact and/or become successful in their businesses in line with AWIEFs core areas of innovation, technology, entrepreneurship, leadership, and socio-economic development.

Daisy Mmabatho Molefhi, Founder and Vice Chancellor of ABM University College, the oldest private tertiary education institution in Bostwana, and last years winner in the category of Lifetime Achievement Award, had this to say, It was a great honour to receive this award. I want to see many more women holding this trophy. Its so significant to me, and I want to encourage women out there to enter or nominate someone so that Africa can recognise them.

Irene Ochem, AWIEF Founder and Chief Executive Officer commented: We have been amazed by the standard of entries over the years. This year we project entries from entrepreneurs who will be addressing some of humanities greatest concerns, especially in the current COVID-19 pandemic challenges. Each entrant is firmly grounded in the reality of the African landscape, presenting practical solutions to address relevant issues. We will continue to identify and bring these women to AWIEF to recognise and celebrate them for their passion and determination in making a difference in their countries and on the continent.

Entries and nominations for the 2021 AWIEF Awards begin on 15 July 2021 and close on 23 August 2021. You can either nominate yourself or be nominated by someone else.

Winners of the 2021 AWIEF Awards will be announced and celebrated at the 7th Africa Women Innovation and Entrepreneurship Forum (AWIEF) Virtual Conference and Awards hosted on 2-3 December 2021, with the theme Advancing inclusive, resilient and sustainable growth in the post-COVID-19 African economy.

AWIEFs prestigious annual event is a platform that sees global thought leaders, industry experts, policymakers, academics, development partners, investors, and the media gather to dialogue, connect, network, share, collaborate and transact in a combined effort to boost Africas entrepreneurship ecosystem for women.

The eight AWIEF Awards categories are:

Young Entrepreneur Award

Tech Entrepreneur Award

Agri Entrepreneur Award

Creative Industry Award

Empowerment Award

Energy Entrepreneur Award

Social Entrepreneur Award

Lifetime Achievement Award

To nominate yourself or someone you know, go to www.judgify.me/AWIEFAwards2021

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LinkedInMauritian authorities announced that the tanks of the MV Wakashio, which ran aground two weeks ago off the South East coast of the island, had been emptied of their heavy fuel payload with a small amount of residual oil remaining in the engine room.

Salvage teams have thus been successful in avoiding the worst. Damage to the lagoons, the shores and the ecosystem remains localised. These constitute a major relief for Mauritians and the Mauritius tourist industry.

Much of the fuel oil spilled in some parts of Mauritiuss south east lagoons were removed and disposed of in secured locations. Efforts to contain the spill are being led by Mauritian authorities in collaboration with around 100 experts from all over the world. The MV Wakashio broke into two on 15 August. The rear half of the ship remains on the reefs and the front half will be towed away. There has been no further spillage at this stage.

There has been a strong mobilization of Mauritians to support public authorities, the private sector, experts and NGOs in operations to contain the spread and remove the heavy oil already spilled in the lagoon. Significant progress has been made in recent days, which continued to motivate response teams to take prompt actions.

Impact of the oil spill is localized in the south eastern region of the island over an estimated 10 to 12 kilometres of coastline leaving the remaining 310 kilometres unaffected. Encouraging reports confirm that even major beaches of the south east as well as the Blue Bay Marine Park are unaffected.

Beaches and lagoons on most of the south and east part of the island as well as in the north and west have not been affected.

This is encouraging for hotels, resorts and other tourism operators as they stay prepared to welcome tourists again when borders reopen after they were closed earlier this year due to the outbreak of Covid-19.

Photos

Some facts Le dernier voyage du MV Wakashio Wakashio Some facts about the MV Wakashio spillage: The MV Wakashio was carrying a payload of 4,180 metric tons of heavy oil. As from 06 August, heavy oil started leaking from one cracked oil tank of the Wakashio. The spillage stopped on 09 August after 500 metric tons of oil were pumped out of the cracked tank. An estimated 800 metric tons of oil leaked in the sea and lagoons. 3,184 metric tons of oil were pumped out of the tanks of the bulk carrier. Around 884 metric tons of oil liquid waste, 524 metric tons of solid waste sludge and contaminated debris, and 416 cubic meters of saturated artisanal booms have been collected as at mid-day on Monday August 17, 2020. The MV Wakashio broke into two on 15 August. The rear half of the ship remains on the reefs and the front half will be towed away. There has been no further spillage at this stage. An estimated 10 to 12 kilometres of coastline and surrounding lagoons were most hit by the spillage situated in the south eastern part of the island. More than 310 kilometres of beaches and coastline (where most of the hotels and resorts are situated) representing more than 96% of the islands coastline remain unaffected.

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LinkedInThe Vietnamese top leader highlighted the milestones in bilateral ties between the two countries in an interview with the Indian daily Economic Times ahead of his upcoming State visit to India in early March. Following is the full-text of the interview:

What are Vietnams plan to expand economic ties with India?

India continued to be among Vietnams top ten largest trading partners as the bilateral trade turnover has increased 16% per annum on average in the past decade. A large number of major Indian firms have established and expanded their footprints in Vietnam.

India has given priority to Vietnam in development cooperation and education and training, and paid attention to promoting the bilateral cooperation in science and technology, information and communication, energy, oil and gas, agriculture and tourism.

The cultural bonds and people-to-people exchanges between the two countries have also deepened. A large population of Vietnamese are watching Indian dramas and practicing yoga.

Apart from the bilateral frameworks, both countries have also forged close collaboration and effective mutual support at multilateral forums, especially at the United Nations. Vietnam welcomes India's efforts in and strong commitments to its "Act East" policy as well as to enhancing the connectivity and development cooperation with ASEAN. As the coordinator of ASEAN-India relations for 2015-2018, Vietnam has worked closely with India to drive the India-ASEAN cooperation further forward.

What are the new areas that Vietnam is seeking Indian investments?

Economic, investment and trade cooperation is one of the areas enjoying very high growth recently, especially since the two countries established the Strategic Partnership in 2007 and upgraded it to Comprehensive Strategic Partnership in 2016. India has become one of Vietnams top ten trading partners; our bilateral trade turnover has expanded by 16% per annum over the last ten years. India also ranked 28th among the 126 countries and territories investing in Vietnam in 2017 with 168 projects and total registered capital of US$756 million. Many major Indian corporations, including TATA Group, ONGC and Essar are having sound business in Vietnam.

Vietnam encourages more investments from India so that the latter will become more one of the top investors into Vietnam and the target of US$15 billion in bilateral trade by 2020 can be realised. Renewable energy, manufacturing, information technology, infrastructure, to name a few are Indias strength for which Vietnam has need. Both sides need to strengthen both bilateral and regional connectivity as well as infrastructural connectivity such as air links, roads and maritime links, and digital connectivity.

Moreover, both sides need to establish business-to-business and business-to-government dialogue mechanisms, and provide forums for sharing interests, strategies and visions for development cooperation. Both countries businesses also need to play a more active role in promoting cooperation.

What is your opinion on Indias Act East Policy?

Apart from the bilateral frameworks, both countries have also forged close collaboration and effective mutual support at multilateral forums, especially at the United Nations. Vietnam welcomes India's efforts in and strong commitments to its "Act East" policy as well as to enhancing the connectivity and development cooperation with ASEAN. As the coordinator of ASEAN-India relations for 2015-2018, Viet Nam has worked closely with India to drive the India-ASEAN cooperation further forward.

India and Vietnam have just completed ten years of the Strategic Partnership and one year of the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership. What is your evaluation of India-Vietnam relations?

Vietnam and India have enjoyed a long-standing traditional friendship with various historical and cultural similarities, which was established by President Ho Chi Minh and Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and nurtured by successive generations of leaders and people of both countries. The two nations have empathised and supported each other in their struggle for national independence in the past as well as in the national construction and development today.

With trust and many shared interests, the two countries established the Strategic Partnership in July 2007 and upgraded it to Comprehensive Strategic Partnership in September 2016. This fine relationship has been concretized in various fields, especially the pillars of politics, national defense, security, economy, trade, investment, culture, science and technology, education and training and people-to-people exchange.

The bilateral political relations have gone from strength to strength thanks to regular mutual visits at the high and lower levels through party-to-party, state-to-state, government-to-government, parliament-to-parliament as well as people-to-people exchanges. The General Secretary, President, Prime Minister and President of the National Assembly of Vietnam have all visited India. Vietnam also hosted the visits of the President, Vice President, Prime Minister, Speaker of the Lok Sabha and National Security Advisor of India. Practical commemorative activities have been hosted by both countries to celebrate the 45th anniversary of diplomatic relations and ten years of the Strategic Partnership.

Bilateral cooperation mechanisms, including the Action Plan 2017-2020, have been effectively implemented, thus facilitating the enhancement of the bilateral cooperation in various areas.

Can you elaborate on growth in Indo-Vietnam defence partnership?

Defence and security have been the effective strategic areas of cooperation. India has actively supported Vietnam in training, capacity building, defense technology transfer and defence credit.The event was attended by Politburo members: Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong; Secretary of Party Central Committee (PCC) and Head of the PCCs Commission for Communication and Education Vo Van Thuong; PCC Secretary and Head of the PCCs Economic Commission Nguyen Van Binh; PCC Secretary and Head of the PCCs Commission for Mass Mobilisation Truong Thi Mai; among others.

Speaking at the ceremony, Deputy Prime Minister Vu Duc Dam extended his warmest greetings and thanks to all doctors and medical staff around the country, for their great contributions to the health of the nation.

Deputy PM Vu Duc Dam speaking at the ceremony (Credit: VGP)

The Deputy PM was thankful for the support of the World Health Organisation (WHO) as well as the international organisations, doctors, and experts assisting the development of Vietnams health sector.

It is essential to improve the efficiency of the grassroots-level healthcare network while expanding the application of information and technology in medical facilities, he added.

Deputy PM Dam asked the governments and political organisations to closely co-ordinate with the health sector in creating the most favourable conditions for doctors and medical workers to fulfill their tasks.

On the same day, many provinces and cities around the country held meetings to mark Vietnam Doctors Day, honouring outstanding individuals and units in the health sector.

On the occasion, a get-together was held by the Cambodian-Vietnamese Doctors Association, with the attendance of Vietnamese Ambassador to Cambodia Vu Quang Minh. Established one year ago, the association operates as a charity organisation to care for Overseas Vietnamese in Cambodia.

At the get-together held by the Cambodian-Vietnamese Doctors Association (Credit: NDO)HINDSIGHT 2021 Audio Article 10 Years Ago (2011)  Three members of Waterfords FFA joined students from across the nation in Washington D.C. for the 2011 Washington Leadership Conference. Allison Adams, Katrina Ford and James Whalin spent a week in the nations capital developing leadership skills through workshops, seminars and other hands-on activities. The...

THE VFW POST 4713 DONATED $100 TO THE WASHINGTON-MORGAN COMMUNITY ACTION Audio Article The VFW Post 4713 donated $100 to the Washington-Morgan Community Action to purchase backpacks and school supplies for Morgan County families. Combined with our agency and their generous donation, we were able to purchase 50 backpacks filled with school supplies. Front row from left: Sherry Hill, VFW; Jane Blackburn, VFW;...

Morgan County Sheriffs Office Daily Call Reports Audio Article Editors Note: The following are initial incident reports from callers to a Morgan County Sheriffs Office Dispatcher. Any details, charges or situations may have been distorted by the caller, or perhaps may have been found to be different after the officer further investigated the incident. Monday, June 21, 2021 ...

Prevent Blindness Supports National Falls Prevention Awareness Day on September 22 Audio Article Marking the beginning of fall, the Ohio Affiliate of Prevent Blindness (PBO) and Ohios Aging Eye Public Private Partnership are supporting National Falls Prevention Awareness Day on September 22. The goal is to bring attention to this serious issue that is the leading cause of injury-related hospitalization and death among...

Caleb Fogarty Audio Article Caleb Fogarty, a senior 3rd baseman for the Troy Trojans in Troy, Ohio, was named 1st Team All-Ohio in Division I Ohio High School Baseball this past June. Caleb is the son of Neil and Kerry White-Fogarty of Troy and the grandson of Don and Lynn White here in East...

Morgan County Sheriffs Office Daily Call Reports Audio Article Editors Note: The following are initial incident reports from callers to a Morgan County Sheriffs Office Dispatcher. Any details, charges or situations may have been distorted by the caller, or perhaps may have been found to be different after the officer further investigated the incident. Thursday, June 24, 2021 ...It is a technical assistance facility in support of the implementation of the European Union's (EU) Energy Sector Policy Support Programme and is worth EUR108 million.

The programme aims to enhance the access to sustainable energy in rural areas in Vietnam and contribute to a more sustainable energy sector by promoting efficient, clean and renewable energy for all citizens.

The EU-Vietnam Energy Facility, co-financed by the EU and the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development-BMZ, under the framework of Phase II of the Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Project, will be operated by Deutsche Gesellschaft fur Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH in close cooperation with the Ministry of Industry and Trade.

At the launch, European Commission Director-General of International Cooperation and Development Stefano Manservisi said that the programme will not only support the Government of Vietnam to achieve its objective in the 2013  2020 programme on providing an electricity supply to rural, mountainous and island areas and delivering reliable and sustainable electricity access to up to 1, 200,000 households in rural areas, but will also enhance the governance of the energy sector to facilitate the shift to a more sustainable energy development path in Vietnam.

According to Minister of Industry and Trade Tran Tuan Anh, over the past few years, the energy sector in Vietnam has been developed rapidly and sustainably and this development is a key factor in maintaining the high socio-economic growth in the country.

The Government of Vietnam is committed to its socio-economic development and ensuring the provision of power to the whole country, including in remote areas where 2% of the population still do not have access to electricity, he noted.Vietnamese people have always believed that the deceased have supernatural powers. Therefore, through burning ritual papers, the living not only show their deep gratitude to the gods and their relatives who had passed away but also wish to please them and ask for their blessing.

The Viet Khe boat tomb, a valuable artifact regarding this customs origin, is on display in a prominent location at the Vietnam Museum of History. The boat tomb is one of the featured burial forms of the Dong Son culture (1,000BC-100AD), giving precious evidence for studying the funerals of this culture and has been recognised as a national treasure.

The boat tomb has a large amount of inhumation utensils stored within it. All things used in fighting, production and living, such as swords, spears, daggers, axes, knives, jars, peaks, trays, lights and buttons, were buried along with the deceased.

It can be seen that burying the belongings of dead people was a custom of the ancient Vietnamese people. Therefore, many artifacts were made solely for the purpose of the funeral, with the mini bronze drum being a typical example.

Afterwards, paper objects gradually began to appear for worshiping the dead, instead of real things, as they were considered less costly and more civilised.

The custom of burning ritual papers for the deceased has been preserved so far. However, its form has changed to adapt to modern life. In the past, people went horseback riding, so the living burned paper horses. Today, the ritual papers burned on the death anniversary are motorbikes, bicycles, televisions, telephones, air-conditioners, money and clothes. The living hope that the dead live happily in the afterlife.

Ritual papers are associated with traditional customs and the spiritual life. Therefore, the burning of ritual papers is developing strongly.

Well-off families can spend a lot of money, even millions of Vietnamese dong, to buy ritual papers to worship their gods and ancestors. Many people have said that they feel relieved when burning ritual papers for the gods and their deceased relatives.

In contrast, many others think that they only feel happy and peaceful if their relatives are still alive, not through burning ritual papers for the dead. Living with an inclination to perform good deeds and support disadvantaged people in society is also a way for many people to seek peace of mind and heart.

Essentially, in modern life, people should reconsider the burning of ritual papers in order to avoid wastefulness and environmental pollution.The first week of the event will feature a high-level meeting, to be attended by President of the UN General Assembly Miroslav Lajcak, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Raad al Hussein and nearly 100 leaders of countries and international organisations.

Opening the event, UN Secretary-General Guterres and leaders of member countries welcomed achievements that mankind has made since the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was issued 70 years ago.

They stressed that the international community should make more efforts to tackle challenges facing human rights, while strengthening cooperation in implementing global commitments, especially the Agenda 2030 on sustainable development.

Guterres and other UN officials expressed concern about the expansion of terrorism, extremism, xenophobia, discrimination and migration. The human rights situation in Syria and Rakhine State of Myanmar also drew attention.

Vietnam will deliver presentations and join discussion on a number of issues during the four-week session, and contribute to the negotiation process to build documents of the UN Human Rights Council.

On the sidelines of the session, Vietnam will host an international seminar on the role of information and communication technology in promoting economic, cultural and social rights and reducing inequality on February 27. The event is also co-sponsored by Maldives, Bangladesh, India, Japan, France, the Philippines and the International Telecommunication Union.

The session, which will run until March 23, also includes thematic discussions, dialogues and talks on human rights in Burundi, the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea, Ukraine, DR Congo and the Central Africa Republic.SOMERSET, N.J

Singapore

Feb. 28, 2018

$4.6 million

Singapore

Asia-Pacific

Asia-Pacific

Asia-Pacific

Bernie Clark

Singapore

Germany

Japan

China

$2 billion

Somerset, New Jersey

and PHAR-EAST,/PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- Catalent Pharma Solutions, the leading global provider of advanced delivery technologies and development solutions for drugs, biologics and consumer health products, today announced the completion of a two-year,expansion at itsclinical supply facility. The company made the announcement at the PHAR-EAST Pharma and Biotech Festival, which is currently taking place at the Suntec Singapore Convention & Exhibition Centre.The facility is a key strategic hub in Catalent'snetwork and global clinical supply business, supporting multinational customers' growing needs for full clinical supply services, while providing flexible solutions for local customers in theregion. The new expansion provides additional GMP space for secondary packaging, has doubled ambient storage, and quadrupled cold storage capacity at the site.The site has seen significant growth since opening in 1998, almost tripling in size and now standing at almost 20,000-square foot, with headcount also tripling since 2012."We are particularly pleased to have completed the expansion in a year that marks the 20th anniversary of what was Catalent's first facility in theregion," commented, VP Marketing, Catalent Clinical Supply Services. He added, "Supported by many long-serving employees, thesite has undergone tremendous growth over the past two decades and now routinely distributes to 18 countries in the region."With facilities in the U.S., U.K.,and, and an extended network of over 50 audited depots, Catalent's clinical supply services business has the capability and expertise to handle a broad range of international compliance and distribution requirements, that can help to expedite clinical trials and ensure that customers are reliably supplied where and when needed around the globe.For more information on Catalent's Clinical Supply services, please visit: http://www.catalent.com/clinicalAbout Catalent Catalent is the leading global provider of advanced delivery technologies and development solutions for drugs, biologics and consumer health products. With over 80 years serving the industry, Catalent has proven expertise in bringing more customer products to market faster, enhancing product performance and ensuring reliable clinical and commercial product supply. Catalent employs approximately 11,000 people, including over 1,400 scientists, at more than 30 facilities across five continents, and in fiscal 2017 generated overin annual revenue. Catalent is headquartered in. For more information, visit http://www.catalent.comMore products. Better treatments. Reliably supplied.SOURCE Catalent, Inc.Advertisement

Maria Maruffi, Richard Sposto et al. Therapy for Children and Adults with Mixed Phenotype Acute Leukemia: a Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis, Leukemia doi:10.1038/s41375-018-0058-4

Physicians must decide whether to treat patients with therapy for ALL or therapy for AML, or a hybrid of both approaches. The problem is that there's no clear consensus on which approach is best."Because this disease is so rare, we haven't had clinical trials with thousands of patients to define the optimal therapy," says Etan Orgel, MD, MS, a specialist in MPAL and a physician in the Center for Cancer and Blood Diseases at Children's Hospital Los Angeles. "Instead, we have many small, isolated and often-conflicting case reports published in widely diffuse journals around the world. It's disjointed."To make better sense of the available research and provide clearer treatment guidance for physicians, Orgel and a team of CHLA researchers embarked on the first-ever systematic review and meta-analysis of observational studies on MPAL. The team searched more than 17,000 published studies, eventually narrowing that list to 252 relevant papers from 33 countries covering 1,499 patients. Their review included studies using both the European Group and World Health Organization definitions of MPAL.Patients initially treated with ALL therapy, a significantly less-toxic regimen, were three to five times more likely to achieve a complete remission than AML-treated patients.Patients starting with ALL chemotherapy were also twice as likely to survive, but that benefit was only found in studies reporting patient results as a group. In studies reporting individual patient results, survival was similar in both the ALL and AML groups, a puzzling discrepancy researchers could not explain. Patients given hybrid therapy, though, fared the worst."This makes a really convincing case that starting with ALL therapy is beneficial on all fronts, from remission to overall survival, if not from increasing survival, then from decreasing side effects," says Maria Maruffi, MD, the first author on the study.Researchers say the next step is a national clinical trial for this rare disease."This research provides key insights to help guide physicians treating patients walking in the door today," says Orgel, associate professor of Clinical Pediatrics at the Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California. "But it also highlights the critical need for a clinical trial to definitively determine the best therapy for MPAL and help move treatment for this rare disease forward."Source: EurekalertAdvertisement

During this period, sessions are being conducted at the Anganwadi centres, different health centres and hospitals to vaccinate all children in 9-month to 5-year age group, as well as non-school going children and school left outs.All districts are conducting the mop-up drive to vaccinate school children who are not vaccinated during school campaign. During the community campaign, the designated workers will visit each and every household to educate the importance of MR vaccine.The mop-up drive will start from March 17 to ensure every child is being vaccinated.Due to the MR vaccination campaign in the state, the Pulse Polio drive will be held from April 15-17 as the first round and April 20- 22 as the second round.During the drive, children from 0 to 5 years age group will be given two drops of oral polio vaccine, said Braja Kishore Brahma, Director Health Services.Source: IANSBEIJING, Feb. 27 (Xinhua) -- Over 260,000 enterprises and other entities will have to start paying an environment tax in April, as China moves to protect the environment and cut pollutants, according to the country's top tax authority.

The Environmental Protection Tax Law took effect on Jan. 1, and taxpayers have to file for taxation each quarter. The first environment tax declaration period starts on April 1 this year.

Under the Environmental Protection Tax Law, which targets enterprises and public institutions that discharge listed pollutants directly into the environment, companies will pay taxes for producing noise, air and water pollutants, as well as solid waste.

Individuals do not need to pay the tax as it is applicable only to enterprises, public institutions and other business operators.

This is China's first tax clearly designed for environmental protection, which will help establish a "green" financial and taxation system and promote pollution control and treatment of pollutants.

The introduction of the tax called an end to the "pollutant discharge fee," which China had been collecting for nearly 40 years.

China has offered training to over 70 percent of the 260,000-plus taxpayers and streamlined declaration procedures to ensure that the first environment tax collection period runs smoothly.

Taxpayers can also choose to declare online.BEIJING, Feb. 27 (Xinhua) -- China said Tuesday that it hopes for direct dialogue between the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) and the United States, and hopes such dialogue will commence soon.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang made the comment responding to reports that U.S. President Donald Trump said Monday that talks with the DPRK would be possible "only under the right conditions," after the DPRK side expressed its willingness to talk with the United States.

Lu said that there is a relaxation of tension on the Korean Peninsula recently, and China hopes that the detente could be sustained after the Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games, which conforms to the common aspiration of the DPRK and ROK, countries in the region and the international community, and will help push relevant parties back to the track of solving Peninsula nuclear issue via negotiations.

China hopes the dialogue between the DPRK and the ROK could be expanded to direct dialogue between the U.S. and the DPRK, Lu told a routine news briefing. "After all, the core of the Korean Peninsula issue is about security, and the U.S. and the DPRK hold the key to solving the issue."

"The dialogue between the U.S. and the DPRK is not only China's hope, but the common wish of the international community," Lu said. "We hope such dialogues can be held at an early date, and that the U.S. and the DPRK will work together towards achieving beneficial results through effective dialogues."Tourists visit a lantern fair to greet the upcoming Lantern Festival at Nanhu Park in Tangshan City, north China's Hebei Province, Feb. 26, 2018. The Lantern Festival falls on the 15th day of the first lunar month, or March 2 this year. (Xinhua/Dong Jun)Lu Kang

According to Reuters, South Korean President Moon Jae-in said on Monday the United States should lower the threshold for talks with the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), while Pyongyang should in return show willingness towards denuclearization.

It is important the United States and the DPRK sit down for talks. At a regular press conference on Wednesday, a reporter asked Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lu Kang what opinions the Chinese side has on this issue.

Lu said China has repeatedly stressed that the core of the Korean Peninsula nuclear issue is a security problem, the settlement of which hinges on the DPRK and the United States. Thus, to truly solve the Korean Peninsula nuclear issue and fundamentally transform the situation, direct talks between the two parties is indispensable.

To promote this process, China supports lowering the threshold and simultaneous small steps as a way to carry out bilateral and multilateral talks. Thus, both parties should set aside some unacceptable premises for the resumption of dialogue. In particular, they should not regard the future issues that need resolving during the dialogue as a prerequisite for restarting the dialogue. As long as there is talk, everything is possible, Lu said.

With regard to denuclearization, Chinas position is consistent and clear: Denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula conforms to the common interests of all sides. This is the unwavering position of the international community, including China, Lu said.

Strike when the iron is hot, Lu said.

The Chinese proverb means to make good use of an opportunity while it lasts. China hopes the current efforts to improve relations between the Two Koreas will encourage direct talks between the DPRK and the United States and settle the Korean Peninsula nuclear issue, once and for all, through peaceful dialogue.Egypt's Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry met in Geneva on Tuesday with Filippo Grandi, the Commissioner of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), where he affirmed Egypt's moral commitment towards the millions of refugees living in the country.

Shoukry arrived in Switzerland to deliver a speech in front of the UN's Human Rights Council and a UN sponsored Conference on Disarmament.

Last week, the Disarmament Commission elected Egypt to be among five vice chairs for its 2018 substantive session.

"The foreign minister expressed appreciation for the role of the UNHCR office in Cairo, highlighting the history of cooperation between Egypt and the organisation since 1954," said a statement by Egypt's foreign ministry spokesperson Ahmed Abu Zeid.

Grandi expressed appreciation for the efforts and services provided by Egypt to refugees inside the country, especially for Syrian refugees and asylum seekers, describing Egypt as a "role model for many countries" in this regard.

"The minister highlighted the importance of cooperation between Egypt and the UNHCR, especially with the rising numbers of refugees and asylum seekers in the country," the statement said.

Shoukry stressed the necessity of increasing UNHCR allocations to aid Egypt's efforts in hosting refugees.

Shoukry also addressed the presidency of the Conference on Disarmament (CD) in this critical juncture of the new session.

"The Conference on Disarmament has been in a stalemate for over two decades and has regrettably been unable, throughout this long period, to adopt a programme of work, despite the sincere efforts exerted in this regard," Shoukry said in his speech.

"Despite repeated calls by Egypt and the international community, throughout several decades and on numerous occasions and forums, to realise the total and irreversible elimination of nuclear weapons in compliance with one of the main pillars of the NPT, these calls have fallen on deaf ears so far," Shoukry added.

The minister stressed that nuclear weapons continue to exist in overwhelming numbers, which poses a serious threat to international security.

"In confronting all of these challenges, Egypt stresses the importance of complying with the text and spirit of the Treaty on the Non-proliferation of Nuclear Weapons. We are gravely concerned that even though 48 years have elapsed since the NPT entered into force and the legal obligation contained in Article VI calling nuclear weapon States to pursue nuclear disarmament, nuclear weapons continue to exist worldwide," the minister said.

Shoukry highlighted that Egypt supports the commencement of negotiations on a treaty banning the production of fissile material for nuclear weapons and other explosive devices (FMCT).

"It is Egypts view that a future FMCT treaty necessitates the inclusion of stockpiles of weapon grade materials to ensure that it serves nuclear disarmament and not remain another instrument designed to sustain an unbalanced status quo and to limit concentration on non-proliferation issues," Shoukry concluded.

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Seven people were killed and 55 were injured on Wednesday when a passenger train collided with a cargo train near Abu Khawi village in the Nile Delta's Beheira governorate, Egypt's prosecutor-general Nabil Sadek said in a statement on Wednesday evening.

Twenty-seven of the injured have been released from hospital.

Sadek has ordered that the trains' black boxes be examined to determine the cause of the crash.

The prosecutor-general also ordered the formation of a committee of experts in engineering and railways from several institutions  including the Armed Forces Engineering Authority and the State Railway Authority  to investigate the incident.

A state of emergency has been declared for all hospitals in major cities in Beheira governorate, including Damanhour, Wadi El-Natroun and Kafr El-Dawar.

The passenger train was en route to Alexandria, while the cargo train was heading to Cairo.

The Ministry of Health said after the crash that it had deployed 30 ambulances to transfer the injured to several hospitals in the governorate.

Governorate officials said earlier today that at least 16 people had been killed and 40 were injured in the accident.

Minister of Social Solidarity Ghada Wali ordered that urgent relief be provided to the injured and the families of the victims.

The last major train collision in Egypt took place in August 2017 in Alexandria, where 41 were killed and 179 were injured.

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The US Department of State designated on Wednesday "Daesh-Egypt" as a terrorist group as part of new designations of Daesh groups and individuals in several countries, saying it will continue to target Daesh and "deny it access to the US financial system."

The designation also included 40 Daesh leaders and groups in Tunisia, Somalia, Nigeria, Bangladesh and the Philippines.

"These designations are part of a larger comprehensive plan to defeat [Daesh] in coordination with the 75-member global coalition to defeat the group," a statement said.

The Daesh-Egypt group has claimed responsibility for terrorist attacks in Egypt's Wahat region, the Nile Delta and Upper Egypt.

Daesh-Egypt most recently claimed an attack by a gunman on a Coptic church in Helwan, south of Cairo, which killed nine people in December.

In April 2014, the US designated the North Sinai-based Daesh affiliate

Ansar Beit Al-Maqdis as a terrorist organisation.

In January, the US State Department placed on its terror list two other Egyptian terrorist groups, Hasm and Lewaa Al-Thawra, which Egyptian authorities have linked to the Muslim Brotherhood organisation.Egypt's Prosecutor General Nabil Sadek ordered senior prosecutors to monitor, investigate and take legal measures against media and social media outlets that deliberately publish false news with the aim of disturbing public security, striking fear into citizens, and harming the general interests of the state.

In a statement issued on Wednesday, the country's top prosecutor explained that the order comes "in light of recently observed attempts by the 'forces of evil' to undermine the security and safety of the country through publishing lies and fake news through different media outlets and social media."

The prosecutor general ordered heads of prosecution and public attorneys to take necessary criminal proceedings against such outlets and websites, according to the statement.

Sadek also called on those bodies responsible for overseeing media and social media to honor their "professional commitment and national duty by notifying the general prosecution of any violations of media and publishing charters."

Wednesday's prosecution decision comes at a time when the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) was slammed by Egyptian authorities and other journalists for publishing a documentary and a report on what it alleged were cases of forced disappearances and torture carried out by Egyptian security forces.

A 25-year-old Egyptian woman whose mother alleged had been "forcibly disappeared" and"tortured", according to the extensive BBC news story published on Friday, was interviewed on Monday evening by a prominent Egyptian TV host, refuting her mother's claims.

The head of Egypt's State Information Service (SIS) Diaa Rashwan has called on Egyptian officials to boycott the BBC and abstain from media interviews with its journalists and producers until the media organization has officially apologized and published the SIS's response to its report.

On Tuesday, Egypt's National Media Authority, a regulatory body of state-owned media outlets established in 2016 by presidential decree, said that it will suspend cooperation with the BBC over the controversial report.

The decision by the authority's head, Hussein Zein, involves suspending all cooperation with the the British news service until further notice, including all protocols and agreements.

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KOCO-TV(HEALDTON, Okla.) -- An elementary school in Oklahoma is taking extreme measures to protect students in case of a school shooting like the one in Parkland, Florida.



Healdton Public Schools in Healdton, Oklahoma, has installed seven bulletproof shelters inside classrooms in the town's elementary schools and two larger ones in their middle school, ABC's Oklahoma City affiliate KOCO-TV reported.



Officials are working to bring the shelters to the town's high school.



"When tornadoes strike, and Lord help us, when you have an intruder on campus, to know that you have somewhere to go quickly for the safety of your students -- it's very relaxing," Superintendent Terry Shaw told KOCO-TV.



Shaw said he went so far as to test the bulletproof shelters -- built by a company called Shelter-in-Place -- himself by getting inside while the room was shot at. The company said they were the first shelters to be installed in the U.S.



The shelters in the elementary school can each hold 35 students and two teachers.



There are only about 3,000 residents in Healdton, according to KOCO-TV-- the same number of students who attended Parkland's Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. Seventeen students and teachers were shot and killed allegedly by a former student at the Florida school on Valentine's Day.

Copyright  2018, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.Egypt's State information Service (SIS) reiterated on Wednesday its demand that the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) apologise for its recent controversial report on the country's human right situation, which Egyptian officials say contains "lies and allegations."

Earlier this month, the BBC published a documentary on BBC World and a report on website on what it claimed are cases of forced disappearances and torture carried out by Egyptian security forces.

A 25-year-old Egyptian woman whose mother had alleged was "forcibly disappeared" and "tortured", according to the extensive BBC news story published on Friday, was interviewed on Monday evening by a prominent Egyptian TV host, refuting her mother's claims.

The SIS demanded that the BBC issue an immediate apology for the "falsehoods included in its correspondents report," as well as broadcast the translated TV interview with the Egyptian woman.

It also demanded that the BBC take "all necessary professional and administrative measures to correct the errors and violations" in its report.

In statements published by Reuters on Tuesday, a spokesperson for the BBC said that they are aware of the statement by the head of the SIS, but that the BBC "stands by the integrity" of its reporting teams.

Earlier on Tuesday, the SIS called on Egyptian officials and prominent individuals to boycott the BBC over the report  which it said involved "professional errors and violations, and allegations" about the situation in Egypt  until the public broadcaster issues an official apology.

On Wednesday, the SIS called on "all those keen on preserving the truth, integrity and objectivity of professional media" to share the translated interview with the Egyptian woman.

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The Australian government announced Tuesday, Feb. 27 that it would recall another 4 million vehicles equipped with Takata's potentially fatal air bag inflators.

The Australian Associated Press reports that the 4 million announced Tuesday joins the previous list of 1.7 million affected vehicles in the country. Across the world, 19 different automakers have recalled around 100 million inflators around the world. In the U.S., the 69 million recalled inflators represents the largest automotive recall in the country's history.

To check out the full list of the vehicles added to Australia's end of the recall, click here. In all, the Takata air bag inflator recall has been connected to more than 20 deaths around the world.

"The sad thing about this is that this has been waiting in the wings for months and months," a spokesperson with Australia's Labor consumer affairs office told the Australian A.P.

"It is an indictment of this government that they have taken so long to pull the trigger on a compulsory recall."

Less than a week ago, more than 40 U.S. states reached a settlement with TK Holdings, Takata's U.S. subsidiary, will cover the cost of the investigation and "maximize" the settlements for affected consumers. A release from Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette's office said that the settlement would "be subordinated in order to maximize the recovery available to consumers who were the victims of the airbag defect."

Under the massive multi-state settlement, TK Holdings -- the U.S. subsidiary of Takata -- will not advertise false information regarding its products, not advertise that its air bags are safe "unless supported by competent and reliable scientific" evidence, to not falsify date, comply with state and federal laws, and to continue to cooperate with manufacturers.

Some airbag inflators have become explosive, sending metal pieces flying through the cabin when deployed. The ammonium nitrate that ignites the air bag inflators can be damaged by moisture over time, especially in humid environments, causing the danger of explosion.

From at least in or around 2000, Takata knew certain ammonium nitrate-based inflators were not performing to required specifications. Takata also knew that certain inflators had sustained failures, including ruptures, during testing. The company then submitted fraudulent reports that concealed the true condition of their inflators.

There have been deaths related to the recall in the United States, Malaysia and Australia. People have been killed in California, Louisiana, Florida, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Virginia, Texas and South Carolina stateside. Fatal incidents have occurred inside the Honda Civic, Accord, City, Civic, CR-V, and Acura TL and 2006 Ford Ranger models.Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain said in a joint statement on Wednesday that a speech given by Qatar's foreign minister on Tuesday at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva contained many "fallacies."

In the joint statement read by the UAE's permanent envoy to the UN Human Rights Council Obaid Salem Al Zaabi, the four Arab states described the speech by the Qatari minister as an attempt by Doha to frame the diplomatic row with its fellow Arab nations as a "major international crisis."

"We view that this minor political crisis between our countries and Qatar should be solved within the context of ongoing mediation by the Emir of Kuwait," the statement said, adding that "this mediation is the optimum channel to tackle the causes of this political crisis and its consequences."

In his speech in front of the UN Human Rights Council on Tuesday, Qatari FM Mohamed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani called on the UN organisation to end the "blockade" by the four Arab countries end its resulting "violations."

In June 2017, Bahrain, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE severed diplomatic and transport ties with Qatar, accusing the country of supporting terrorist organisations, which Doha has denied.

Al Zaabi said in the statement that "our countries want Qatar to change its behaviour of supporting terrorist organisations and immediately end its funding of these organisations.Through this international platform, we ask Qatar not to make Doha a haven for individuals promoting terrorist acts."

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Toyota and one of California's largest car dealerships are locked in a legal battle concerning the effectiveness of a recall concerning the 2010 through 2014 Prius.

The Los Angeles Times reports Roger Hogan, owner of Claremont and Capistrano Toyota dealerships, has been warning customers about the issue and has refused to resell any of the recalled Priuses. The newspaper reports the man has $1 million worth of Priuses idly sitting on his lots.

According to National Highway Traffic Safety Administration documents, Toyota recalled 698,457 2010 through 2014 Prius models due to a risk the hybrid system could overheat and increase the risk of the vehicle stalling. More than a year later, the Japanese automaker recalled 108,624 2012 through 2014 Prius V models for the same issue.

"A component within the hybrid inverter assembly may overheat, causing the hybrid system to reduce output power allowing the vehicle to only drive a short distance. In some circumstances, the hybrid system may shut down causing the vehicle to stop while being driven," Toyota said in NHTSA documents. "Toyota will notify owners, and dealers will update the software for the motor/generator control electronic control unit (ECU) and the hybrid control ECU, free of charge."

Hogan claims that after the updating of software to fix a "key electronic component," he continued to see cars coming in for the overheating and vehicle stalling issues. In a lawsuit filed with the Orange County Superior Court, the LA Times reports Hogan alleged the affected Priuses still have a safety defect that is putting "lives needlessly at risk."

A Toyota spokesperson declined the allegations from the dealership owner, in saying "We believe Mr. Hogan's complaint is entirely without merit, and we intend to defend vigorously against his inaccurate and misleading allegations." The automaker said in a statement that it believes the dealership's issues is motivated "by a separate dispute he was with Toyota over management and succession issues."

Orange County Supreme Court Judge Peter Wilson ruled against Toyota's motion to dismiss the lawsuit on legal grounds and set the trial for January 2019. In a separate report with Prius owners and auto industry experts from academia, the LA Times suggests that Toyota's recall solution increased reliance on its gas engine, which increased fuel consumption and hurt its fuel economy ratings.

One owner claimed that his fuel economy had fallen by about 5 miles per gallon on his 2010 Toyota Prius that had the software update installed. The automaker declined to comment on the report calling out its decreased fuel economy rating.ANN ARBOR, MI - There was a smile on Tommy Kennedy's face Tuesday and it wasn't just the pre-spring sunshine.

The owner of HOMES Brewery, 2321 Jackson Ave., recently learned that his nearly 5,000-square-foot, industrial-style brewery and taproom has been nominated for USA Today's 10Best contest for Best New Brewery.

Kennedy was contacted about two weeks ago by USA Today, and said the contest went live last week. The brewery made its debut at No. 3 and is now standing at No. 6, just ahead of fellow Michigan brewery Speciation Artisan Ales.

"We're right there with our buddies at Speciation," said Kennedy, whose business has collaborated with the Comstock Park brewery. "We and Speciation are less about getting big and more about staying small and artisanal."

The contest ends in 19 days, with fans eligible to vote once per day for their favorite new brewery. There were 20 breweries nominated for the contest, which is open to breweries founded within the past two years.

Voting ends March 19 and the winner announced March 23, according to the 10Best website.

HOMES Brewery opened in April 2017, the website notes, "with a focus on balanced hoppy beers and a variety of sours."

The brewery name is an acronym for all five Great Lakes (Huron, Ontario, Michigan, Erie and Superior), and a homage to the building's former use as a Culligan water company location.

"I think a goal of ours in opening was to be a spot that put Ann Arbor on the map for a different style of brewery," Kennedy said.

For almost a year, the brewery has been operating on Ann Arbor's west side and drawing in beer lovers with unique creations like the fruity, neon-colored Sherbet beer series, and a menu influenced by Asian street food like soft buns and kimchi-topped French fries.

"We always wanted to be changing all the time, to have some staples, but be rolling things off the menu to improve them," Kennedy said. "We're starting to get in the groove."

Customers are also responding well to new can releases, which Kennedy said he has seen being traded across the country through beer websites.

"From coast to coast... it's pretty exciting," he said. "It's been awesome, better than I could have imagined."

CAN RELEASE this Friday (2/16) PART 1 of 2 TIKI SHERBET (6.6%) LACTOSE SOUR - kettle sour brewed with lactose and... Posted by HOMES Brewery on Monday, February 12, 2018

That's why, on a Tuesday afternoon, Kennedy can be seen readying HOMES Brewery to open for the evening crowd and sweeping the outdoor patio, all with a smile on his face.

At the same time, the results of the contest are not weighing heavily on his shoulders.

"We are pretty committed to relying on people who care about us rather than convincing people to like us," Kennedy said. "We are proud of our staff and proud to represent Ann Arbor."

And if HOMES Brewery does win?

"It's going to be because people are excited about us and took the time to support us," he said.

Michigan has some other nominees in the 10Best contests:ANN ARBOR, MI - Several disciplines taught at the University of Michigan are ranked among the best in the world with the release of the QS World University Rankings by Subject on Wednesday, Feb. 28.

Released by global higher education analyst Quacquarelli Symonds, the rankings review the world's top institutions for the study of 48 different subjects, from accounting to veterinary science.

UM ranked third in the world in the subject of dentistry - the highest rated institution in the United States. It was rated behind only King's College London and the University of Hong Kong. It was the only United States university to finish in the top-10 of the world rankings in that subject.

UM, which was ranked as the top public university in the United States in last year's overall QS ranking, also had strong showings in mechanical, aeronautical and manufacturing engineering, finishing sixth overall. Its rating was second-highest among the nation's public institutions, behind only the University of California Berkeley.

The university also was in the top-10 in psychology, finishing 10th overall with an overall score of 88.3 out of 100.

UM also ranked among the world's top 20 institutions in: anatomy and physiology (17), anthropology (11), education (20), history (17), library and information management (17), nursing (12), psychology (10), pharmacy (19), sociology (15), sports-related subjects (17) and statistics and operational research (14).

The University of Cambridge received the most top-10 subject rankings overall with 37, followed by the University of Oxford with 35.

UC Berkeley and Harvard University each received the most top-10 subject rankings among United States institutions with 34, followed by Stanford University (32) and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology with 24.

Among all universities, Harvard was ranked No. 1 for more subjects than any other institution.

Subject rankings are compiled using four sources. The first two are QS's global surveys of academics and employers, which are used to assess institutions' international reputation in each subject. The second two indicators assess research impact, based on research citations per paper and h-index - measuring both the productivity and impact of the published work of a scientist or scholar - in the relevant subject.

Here's a look at subjects where UM finished among the world's top 50:

Accounting and Finance: 31

Anatomy and Physiology: 17

Anthropology: 11

Archaeology: 21

Architecture: 37

Biological sciences: 26

Business and management: 24

Chemical engineering: 40

Chemistry: 35

Civil and structural engineering: 28

Classics and ancient history: 23

Communications and media: 24

Computer science and information: 45

Dentistry: 3

Earth and marine sciences: 38

Economics: 21

Education: 20

Electrical engineering: 27

English and Literature: 21

Environmental sciences: 27

History: 17

Law: 27

Library and information management: 17

Linguistics: 43

Materials science: 34

Mathematics: 21

Mechanical, Aeronautical & Manufacturing engineering: 6

Medicine: 27

Modern languages: 50

Nursing: 12

Pharmacy: 19

Philosophy: 23

Physics and astronomy: 40

Politics and international studies: 27

Psychology: 10

Social Policy & Administration: 22

Sociology: 15

Sports-related subjects: 17

Statistics & Operational Research: 14Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri has headed to Saudi Arabia in his first visit to the kingdom since his now-reversed resignation from Riyadh late last year in a sequence of events that deeply strained relations between the two countries.

Hariri arrived in Saudi Arabia early Wednesday, and is expected to meet the king and the crown prince. His visit followed an invite by a Saudi envoy who visited Hariri in Beirut.

Hariri's visit is likely to boost relations with his Saudi backers.

Relations between Hariri and Saudi rulers took a major hit last year.

Hariri reversed his resignation  submitted from the kingdom  upon returning to Beirut, saying he reached a domestic deal to distance Lebanon from regional conflicts.

*This story was edited by Ahram Online

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Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is to visit the United States from March 19-22, for the first time as heir to the throne, a Saudi government source told AFP on Wednesday

The much anticipated trip to Washington will follow a visit to Britain on March 7 for talks with Prime Minister Theresa May.

US President Donald Trump hosted Prince Mohammed in March 2017, just weeks after taking office, and he chose Saudi Arabia for his first official overseas visit as president.

Prince Mohammed, who was named heir in June 2017, is also expected to visit France in the coming weeks.

The government source did not comment on Prince Mohammed's schedule in Washington.

Saudi Arabia has grown close to its longtime ally Washington under Trump, whose harder line on its arch-rival Iran and softer stance on arms sales are a welcome shift in policy for Riyadh.

Saudi Arabia viewed Trump's predecessor president Barack Obama as too accommodating towards Iran -- particularly on negotiating a 2015 nuclear deal.

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[February 28, 2018] Canvas by Instructure Facilitates Expansion of Tech in Utah's K-12 Classrooms SALT LAKE CITY, Feb. 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Canvas by Instructure (NYSE:INST) and the Utah Education Network (UEN) today announced that since launching their collaboration to bring the Canvas learning management system (LMS) to all of Utah's public K-12 districts in the fall of 2017, more than 90 percent of Utah's K-12 districts (38 out of 41) have begun using the open, easy to use LMS. "It's heartening to see so many districts and schools throughout the state use Canvas as a means to improve the student experience, whether in a large classroom in a city or a small, rural school," said Dr. Laura Hunter, chief operating officer at Utah Education and Telehealth Network. "Every Utahn deserves equal opportunities to education and as active participants in the state's Digital Teaching and Learning Initiative, we are pleased to see this collaboration's early success." Canvas and the UEN have a long-standing commitment to improving education in the state of Utah. In 2010, after a competitive RFP process, UEN selected Canvas as the LMS for its statewide educational programs. It also negotiated consortium licensing to provide Canvas for all Utah public institutions of higher ed and applied technology. Last year, Canvas was selected as the LMS to empower all Utah K-12 school districts and charter schools with valuable tools to accelerate digital teaching and learning. "Providing equitable access to education throughout the entire state and so deeply withi both K-12 and higher education means that more lives can be improved by education," said Hilary Scharton, vice president of K12 product strategy for Canvas by Instructure. "As a former educator and a parent with children in the K-12 system, I applaud the state's rapid adoption of Canvas and believe we will see great strides in learning as a result." Canvas provides quick access to digital resources, facilitates the delivery of personalized learning and helps teachers with administrative tasks such as centralizing assignments and resources. It further assists students and parents by providing simple, intuitive tools in a central location so students and teachers can easily access things like real-time chats, audio and video messages, collaborative workspaces and course updates by email, text or social media. Canvas is accessible anytime, anywhere, and on any device, making it easy for parents and students to check attendance, track grades, and stay in close communication with teachers. Its open platform makes integration easy with a district's other technology resources. Utah teachers recently shared their thoughts about using Canvas, detailed in this infographic https://blog.canvaslms.com/en/canvas-statewide-school-solution. About The Utah Education and Telehealth Network:

One of the nation's premier education networks, The Utah Education and Telehealth Network brings together two well-established organizations that provide critical statewide services to Utah: The Utah Education Network (UEN) and the Utah Telehealth Network (UTN). An innovator in broadband and broadcast delivery of statewide educational and telehealth resources, UETN's robust network connects all Utah school districts, schools, and higher education institutions to quality educational resources. Providing network, application and support services to more than 1,500 schools, colleges and libraries, UETN also serves more than 70 hospitals, clinics and health departments in urban, suburban and rural areas of the state using interactive video to deliver patient care, provide continuing education to health professionals, and to facilitate administrative meetings ABOUT CANVAS

Through open, usable, cloud-based technologies, Canvas enables easy integration of the content, tools and services that teachers need and students want. As the most usable, customizable, adaptable and reliable learning platform (think 99.9% uptime), Canvas is adopted faster and deeper (or, is used in more ways by more users) than any other LMS. So, in the end, investing in 21st century education technology actually makes teaching and learning easier (like it's supposed to). Learn more about Canvas at www.CanvasLMS.com. CONTACT:

Becky Frost

Senior Director, Public Relations

Instructure

801-869-5017

becky@instructure.com View original content with multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/canvas-by-instructure-facilitates-expansion-of-tech-in-utahs-k-12-classrooms-300605537.html SOURCE Canvas

[ Back To www.mobilitytechzone.com\broadband-stimulus's Homepage ]Syrian government forces launched a ground assault on the edge of the rebel-held eastern Ghouta enclave on Wednesday, seeking to gain territory despite a Russian plan for five-hour daily ceasefires, a war monitor and sources on both sides said.

Hundreds of people have died in 11 days of bombing of the eastern Ghouta, a swathe of towns and farms outside Damascus that is the last major rebel-held area near the capital.

The onslaught has been one of the fiercest of the civil war, now entering its eighth year.

The U.N. Security Council, including President Bashar al-Assad's strongest ally Russia, passed a resolution on Saturday calling for a 30-day countrywide ceasefire, but it has not come into effect, with Moscow and Damascus saying they are battling members of terrorist groups excluded from the truce.

Russia has instead called for daily five-hour local ceasefires to establish what it calls a humanitarian corridor so aid can enter the enclave and civilians and wounded can leave.

The first such truce took place on Tuesday but quickly collapsed when bombing and shelling resumed after a short lull.

There were no air strikes during Wednesday's five-hour ceasefire, but heavy bombardment resumed in the afternoon, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group reported. There has been no sign of aid delivered to the besieged area.

Moscow and Damascus have accused rebels of shelling the corridor to prevent people leaving. Rebels deny this, and say people will not leave eastern Ghouta because they fear the government. A senior U.S. general accused Moscow of acting as "both arsonist and firefighter" by failing to rein in Assad.

Wednesday's ground assault targeted the Hawsh al-Dawahra area at the eastern edge of the rebel-held area.

The Observatory reported advances by the government forces in the area, describing it as the resumption of an assault that first began on Feb. 25. It said rebels had inflicted heavy losses on government forces.

An official with one of the rebel groups in eastern Ghouta said fighters were battling to repel an attempted incursion, and characterised the battle as "back and forth".

A commander in the military alliance that backs Assad said an elite unit of the Syrian army, the Tiger Force, was taking part in the assault and advances had been made.

France's foreign ministry called on Russia and Iran, Assad's other military ally, to exert "maximum pressure" on the Syrian government to implement the 30-day ceasefire.

But with no sign of decisive international pressure to stop the attack, eastern Ghouta appears on course to eventually meet the same fate as other areas won back by the government in lengthy, punishing assaults, where rebels and civilians who oppose Assad were finally evacuated in negotiated withdrawals.

Damascus appears to be applying tried and tested military means, combining air strikes and bombardment with ground assaults, as it did to win back eastern Aleppo in 2016.

A senior Western diplomat said Russia appeared intent on a repeat of Aleppo in eastern Ghouta by evacuating the area and then killing "the terrorists even if it's not just Nusra", a reference to a jihadist group with al Qaeda links.

US, RUSSIA CLASH OVER CHEMICAL WEAPONS

Diplomatic sources have said the chemical weapons watchdog, the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, opened an investigation into attacks in eastern Ghouta to determine whether banned munitions were used.

The United States says it has evidence Syrian forces have used chlorine, which is permitted for civilian purposes but banned as a weapon, in attacks in eastern Ghouta and elsewhere.

U.S. disarmament ambassador Robert Wood said on Wednesday that Russia has violated its duty to guarantee the destruction of Syria's chemical weapons stockpile and prevent the Assad government from using poison gas.

Syria agreed to give up its stockpile of poison gas and join the international chemical weapons ban in 2013 under a Russian-brokered deal that averted U.S. retaliatory air strikes after a nerve gas attack killed hundreds of people. Washington accused Damascus last year of again using nerve gas and carried out a round of air strikes as punishment.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Syria had eliminated its poison gas stockpiles, and called allegations it was still using chemical weapons "absurd".

Lavrov said militants entrenched in eastern Ghouta were blocking aid and the evacuation of people who want to leave. Moscow would continue to support the Syrian army in totally defeating the "terrorist threat", Lavrov told the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva.

A Syrian army officer told journalists insurgents had shelled the corridor again on Wednesday.

Rebels have intensified shelling of nearby government-held Damascus. A medical official in the capital said on Monday 36 people had been killed in four days. Damascus and Moscow say the campaign in eastern Ghouta is needed to halt such shelling.

The United Nations said on Tuesday it was proving impossible to aid civilians or evacuate wounded, and said all sides must abide by the 30-day truce sought by the Security Council.

The multi-sided Syrian war has killed hundreds of thousands of people and driven half of the pre-war population of 23 million from their homes. Fighting has escalated on several fronts this year, with the collapse of Islamic State giving rise to conflict between other Syrian and foreign parties.

As Assad has pressed the offensive against eastern Ghouta, Turkey has launched an incursion against Kurdish fighters in the northwestern Afrin region.

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Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Wednesday that rebels in Syria's Eastern Ghouta were responsible for ensuring that a "humanitarian pause" in the area brings relief for devastated civilians

"Russia, together with the Syrian government, has already announced the establishment of humanitarian corridors in Eastern Ghouta," Lavrov told the UN Human Rights Council.

The minister was referring to a checkpoint at the edge of the rebel-held enclave, through which would-be evacuees were told to exit the area.

"Now, it is the turn for the militants and their sponsors to act, militants entrenched there who still continue shelling Damascus, blocking aid deliveries and the evacuation of those wishing to leave," he added.

Tuesday was the first day of the five-hour daily "pause" in rebel-held Eastern Ghouta that was ordered by President Vladimir Putin, the Syrian regime's main backer.

But the truce was marred by violence, with Moscow and Damascus accusing armed groups of shelling the purported humanitarian corridors and keeping the population hostage.

Speaking to journalists, Lavrov charged that Washington and its allies in Syria had "willingly or unwillingly ... sustainably spared" the "terrorists" on the ground.

"We raised this issue with Washington many times and there is no credible answer," he said.

He insisted the five-hour daily pauses would be fruitful, "if the bandits who control East Ghouta so allow."

The Eastern Ghouta truce falls far short of a broader 30-day ceasefire Russia agreed to at the UN Security Council on Saturday but which has yet to take effect, and has inspired little trust among the besieged enclave's 400,000 residents.

Lavrov said the Security Council resolution could offer reprieve to those suffering across Syria, but that the ball was in the court of the opposition and its allies in Washington.

In addition to the dire situation in Eastern Ghouta, Lavrov told the council that Moscow was calling upon the members of the US-led coalition to ensure "the same humanitarian access to the areas in Syria under their control."

He highlighted the plight of people in Raqa, which was the Islamic State group's de facto capital in Syria until it was liberated last October.

He told the council it was "necessary to urgently dispatch a joint United Nations-International Committee of the Red Cross assessment mission to Raqa, which has been bombed to rubble and left to the mercy of fate by the coalition."

Asked about the possibility for such an assessment mission, the ICRC stressed that addressing the humanitarian needs in Raqa was one of its priorities in Syria.

But when it comes to Lavrov's call for a joint assessment mission, the organisation prefered to work in a more "independent manner, so such a joint mission is not planned."

UN humanitarian agency spokesman Jens Laerke meanwhile told AFP that "in Raqa city, conditions remain unsafe for civilian returns" and that the UN estimates that any humanitarian response activities should advance "slowly and with caution."

The UN "has requested authorisation from the Syrian authorities for a security assessment to deploy to Raqa to better understand the security situation in the city," he said, adding that the request was "pending".

To journalists, Lavrov warned that in Raqa, "there are still corpses decaying in the streets. There is no water supply, no sanitary facilities, and the entire territory is mined."

Russia's top diplomat also called for the resumption of peace talks for Syria, where more than 340,000 people have been killed in seven years.

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Mubarak-era steel tycoon Ahmed Ezz will pay EGP 1.7 billion as part of a reconciliation deal with the Egyptian government, Egypt's prosecutor-general Nabil Sadek said in a statement on Wednesday.

Sadek, who heads the national committee tasked with recovering funds from abroad, said that the payment includes EGP 600 million of Ezz's funds recovered from abroad.

Ezz, who was released from prison on bail in 2014, served as the secretary-general of former president Hosni Mubaraks now-dissolved National Democratic Party (NDP). He also acted as the spokesperson of the then ruling NDP in parliament between 2005 and 2010.

Following the 2011 uprising, Ezz was sentenced to prison in several corruption cases, but most of the verdicts against him were later overturned.

Ezz is currently facing retrial in the "Dekheila steel case," where he faces charges of squandering public funds and illegally acquiring the Dekheila steel plant. Ezz has requested to reconcile with the government in the case.

In March 2013, Ezz was sentenced to 37 years in prison and fined EGP 2 billion by a criminal court for profiteering and squandering public funds.

In December 2013, the Court of Cassation overturned the ruling and ordered a retrial.

Ezz is the former chairman of Ezz Steel, the largest steelmaker in the Middle East and North Africa, which controls some 50 percent of Egypt's steel market.

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Djamila Bouhired, the legendary Algerian activist, feminist and revolutionary figure, visited the Magdi Yaqoub Heart Surgery Hospital in Aswan during her visit to attend the 2nd Aswan International Women's Film Festival, which concluded on Monday 26 February.

This years edition of the festival bears her name The Round of Djamila Bouhired."

In her visit to the hospital she was accompanied by journalist Hassan Abul-Aala, director of the film festival.

Bouhired praised the hospital and its potential, and its service to its patients free of charge, without any distinction based on the social class, skin colour, or gender.

After viewing a documentary on the hospital's mission, the Algerian activist commented that it "is a great human work that serves humanity."

Visiting the children's ward, she was extremely touched to see newborn babies who had undergone heart surgeries.

Doctors at the hospital offered her a free check-up during her visit, but she politely declined, noting that there were many people in greater need than she.

Later, in a ceremony attended by Minister of Culture Ines Abdel-Dayem and the Egyptian ambassador to Algeria Omar Abu-Aish, Bouhired was honoured by the Egyptian National Council for Women (NCW), represented by its President Maya Morsy.

The 80-year-old Bouhired was an active member of the Front de Liberation Nationale (FLN) and spent her younger years fighting the French colonial occupation.

Hailed as a freedom fighter in Algeria, she is also widely revered in Egypt.

In 1958, late Egyptian filmmaker Youssef Chahine directed a film that catalogues Bouhired's struggle.

The revolutionary figure was played by Magda El-Sabahi.

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One of the original Spice Girls has hinted the girl group will reunite for the wedding of the year, the royal wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle.



Mel B, known to fans as 'Scary Spice,' announced on talk show The Real she, along with fellow band members Victoria Beckham, Emma Bunton, Geri Halliwell and Melanie Chisholm, would be attending the wedding on May 19.

"All five Spice Girls are," she answered, when asked if she'd be attending. Then, realising she may have given too much away, asked "Why am I so honest?"Two years after Gilroy Prep School opened its doors and made big waves for receiving the highest Academic Performing Index Score in the districts history, a pivotal moment is approaching Tuesday as charter school leaders cross their fingers and hope to receive the stamp of approval on their newest expansion effort.

The GPS leadership team, which established a flagship school in 2010 on I.O.O.F Avenue in Gilroy, heads a charter management organization called Navigator Prep. Their goal is to spread successful learning models and lower the achievement gap by establishing additional charter schools in up to eight other cities.

Navigator Preps recent endeavor to lay the groundwork for a charter school in Hollister hit a roadblock in October, however. The Hollister School District made a controversial move and paid a law firm to seek out deficiencies in the petition submitted by Navigator Prep. The final 31-page report, which GPSs attorney underlined as nit picky, recommended grounds for denying the petition.

Their report was pretty rough, admitted GPS Principal James Dent.

After Navigator Prep revised and resubmitted the petition Nov. 2, Dent  who diplomatically acknowledged the Hollister School District was doing their due diligence by scrutinizing the petition  has a positive outlook.

We are very thankful that they actually gave us a chance to revise it, actually then voting no on it outright, he said. We turned in a better petitionit forced us to go back to the typewriter and address things that we maybe didnt explain well enough.

The rigorous petition process GPS experienced with Hollister will arm Navigator Prep with valuable practice and precedence as it prepares to work with additional districts, Dent noted.

GPS is coming back to the table with staffs approval for recommendation this time around, he noted. The Hollister Board of Education is slated to vote on the petition again during its regular meeting that begins at 6 p.m. Tuesday at 2690 Cienega Road.

Were all very excited. They drafted a Memorandum of Understanding with us and it looks like its going to go through, Dent said, adding that Navigator Prep is hoping to avoid that naturally conflictive relationship between a charter (school) and its district.

Hes also anticipating news today on a federal startup grant that Navigator Prep applied for on behalf of Hollister Prep School. The grant will amount to either $350,000 or $575,000 and be distributed over a period of three years.

If all goes as anticipated, the new charter will open its doors in fall 2013 and coexist on one of two potential campuses with chronically poor academic achievement and a high number of students from low-income families. It will offer kindergarten through second grade with 60 students per grade, and will expand by tacking on another grade each year up to the eighth grade.

We believe that if we can put these schools in communities like Hollister, Salinas and Watsonville, someday its going to drive the other schools to learn some new things, said Dent. Thats one of our main goals as an organization: Wherever we do open a school, we want to see the entire district do better. If other schools arent doing better, it makes us feel like were not being as successful as we could be.

About GPS: Navigator Preps flagship charter school

Now in its second year of operation after 10 years in the making, GPS is being hailed by the Gilroy Board of Education for having very impressive outcomes that have been achieved in a very, very short period of time, praised Board President Tom Bundros.

The charter broke the 970 API barrier  the states benchmark for this score that measures school success is 800  and is also the highest-performing first-year charter out of 500 in the state of California since 2006. The previous high score was 957.

Hollisters most recent score API score as a whole was 768.

Right now, GPS consists of a modest cluster of portables on IOOF Avenue. The lean machine offers grades kindergarten through third grade and has a staff of 11. GPS is open to all kindergarten students via enrollment lottery, although precedence is given to families already living in GUSD boundaries, or students who have an older sibling attending the school.

Some of Navigator Preps methods include longer school days, eliminating unions and tenure, merit pay for teachers, an emphasis on proper behavior and more parent involvement in the classroom.

The charter also operates on thrifty strategies. This entails a creative staffing model, which saves overhead on personnel, employing a reduced administrative team, using technology effectively, vigorous fundraising and conservative purchasing practices, such as buying refurbished or used items.

Unlike public schools, charters allow educators to custom-create their ideal learning model by cherry-picking curricula, programs and teaching methods  then scrapping whatever they view as ineffective.

The classrooms at GPS are designed to be extremely active learning environments where students are engaged 100 percent of the time, Dent previously explained.

A sample of other characteristics that set the GPS model apart include a reactive learning environment that offers tiered instruction based on ability; an extended school day with art, music and dance enrichment classes; tracking closely the statistics of each students progress with monthly reports sent home to parents; and having students work with multiple teachers throughout the day, which prevents stagnation, Dent said.

Theyve had a lot of time to think about it and discuss it, said Dent, of the Hollister School Board. Im keeping my fingers crossed that theyre open to the possibility of helping the overall education quality in Hollister.On Sunday, 25 February, newly-named chairman of the Cairo Opera House Magdy Saber granted Paolo Sabbatini, director of the Italian Cultural Institute and cultural counsellor of the Italian Embassy, the honorary title of an artistic advisor to the Opera House.

The ceremony, which was held at the Opera House, was attended by an array of notables, including Minister Counsellor of the Italian Embassy Stefano Catani, Premier Counsellor at the Embassy of the Sovereign Order of Malta in Egypt Roger Chakkal, the Italian Cultural Insititute cultural events administrator and head of translation section, Manal Bakite Habib, members of the Italian community in Egypt, and renowned artist Farid Fadel.



The ceremony began with a speech by Magdy Saber tracing the long and distinguished Italian contribution to the artistic activities of the Cairo Opera House that includes the presence of Italian artists who are working at the institution, such as the Cairo Opera choir master Aldo Magnato, artistic director of the Cairo Opera Ballet Company Erminia Kamel, and principal conductor of the Cairo Opera Orchestra David Crescenzi, as well as Italian ballerinas.

Saber mentioned that Italian cooperation is not only on the artistic level but also financial. The speech was followed by bestowing upon Sabbatini the opera shield of recognition.



In his speech, Sabbatini disclosed that he studied piano as well as singing, sharing a funny incident that happened when he first met the former chairman of the Opera House and current Minister of Culture Ines Abdel-Dayem:

This was in February 2014 when I visited Ines Abdel-Dayem in her office. We were discussing the cultural cooperation between the institute and the Opera and suddenly I saw a piano so I told her that pianists cant help clicking the ivory on seeing a piano. She urged me to play and immediately brought her flute and started playing, too. In this moment, I felt I am in my second home.



Sabbatini thanked Saber for the honorary post and praised the support of Italian Ambassador to Egypt Giampaolo Cantini.



Sabbatini told Ahram Online that topping his agenda will be organising artistic events in Egypts remote areas and governorates, such as Aswan, Luxor, Assuit, Minya, Ismailia and Port Said.

He added that one of the upcoming cultural activities to be organised by the Italian Institute is an Italian, Chinese and Arabic calligraphy exhibition scheduled to be held at the Bibliotheca Alexandrina on 9 September.





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Welcome to Morningstar.co.uk!

You have been redirected here from Hemscott.com as we are merging our websites to provide you with a one-stop shop for all your investment research needs.To search for a security, type the name or ticker in the search box at the top of the page and select from the dropdown results.Registered Hemscott users can log in to Morningstar using the same login details. Similarly, if you are a Hemscott Premium user, you now have a Morningstar Premium account which you can access using the same login details.PowerShares Emerging Markets Sovereign Debt (PCY) provides equal-weighted exposure to the U.S.-dollar-denominated emerging-markets sovereign and quasi-sovereign bonds with at least three years until maturity. The exchange-traded fund targets bonds with the biggest zero-volatility spread and equally weights each country and issuers within each country. The fund has a cost advantage over its emerging-markets bond Morningstar Category peers and has outperformed most of them so far. However, its committee-based country-selection process is not consistent and repeatable, which limits the fund to a Morningstar Analyst Rating of Neutral.

This portfolio's credit-rating distribution is on par with its category peers. The split between the investment-grade and below-investment-grade groups is roughly half and half. That said, the sub-investment-grade portion still poses credit risks. Though rare, defaults of sovereign bonds do occur. Recent defaults include Ukraine (2015) and Argentina (2014).A collection of Fatimid artefacts from Cairo arrived in Toronto on Tuesday for inclusion in a temporary exhibition at the city's Aga Khan Museum.

The exhibition, titled The World of the Fatimids, will run from 10 March to 2 July, providing North America with its first display of carefully selected Fatimid artworks, according to the museum.

Elham Salah, head of the museums sector at the Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities, told Ahram Online that the museum has received eight wooden boxes containing a collection of 37 artefacts for the show.

The artefacts were carefully selected from the collection of the Museum of Islamic Art (MIA) in the Bab Al-Khalq area of Cairo. They reflect the history of the Fatimids, who "established one of the greatest civilisations in the world, influencing knowledge and culture throughout the Mediterranean, Europe, and the Near East," according to the Aga Khan Museum website.

Salah said that the ministry had taken all the necessary legal and administrative measures to ensure the safe transportation of the artefacts from Cairo to Canada, applying the latest techniques in packaging and transportation.

An archaeologist and a conservator from the ministry accompanied the artefacts to monitor them on their long journey and inspect them on arrival, said Salah.

Mamdouh Osman, general director of the MIA, said that the artefacts include a collection of clay pots, dishes with various foliage and animal decorations, and a wooden mihrab (niche) decorated with a two-line inscription in kufic script.

There are also a number of marble tombstones inscribed with kufic script reading: "This is the tomb of Hamzah ibn Ali and his descendant Al-Imam Ali Ibn Abi Talib," referring to the cousin of Prophet Mohamed.

Also among the artefacts are marble vases, copper lamps and chandeliers with kufic script, and other objects in rock crystal, ivory and ceramic.

The exhibition features films on Fatimid Cairo, using drone video footage and 360 virtual reality technology, offering an insight into what the city was like a thousand years ago.

The Aga Khan Museum says the exhibition, "bears witness to a remarkable dynasty that built one of the worlds oldest universities, compiled one of its greatest libraries, and fostered a flowering of the arts and sciences."

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Al-Mawlouda (The Newborn), by Nadia Kamel, (Cairo: Dar Al-Karma), 2018.

Egyptian Director Nadia Kamel has released her novel al-Mawlouda, (The Newborn), from Dar Al-Karma Publishing House.

The events of the novel are based on the life of her mother, and takes place in the first half of the 20th century, "in an Egypt that doesn't exist anymore" and before the exodus of the Jewish community from Egypt.

The protagonist of the novel, Naela, was originally born Mary Ely Rosenthal to a Jewish Egyptian father and an Italian Christian mother.

Her parents met in the 1920s in Cairo where she was later born. She joins the Communist movement and the secret underground, only to be imprisoned. She falls in love with an Egyptian journalist, whom she marries, and stands trial with after they dive deep into public affairs and politics.

The book tracks Mary's life and struggles and the hard choices in her life.

Nadia Kamel, born 1961, studied microbiology and chemistry before turning to cinema.

She worked as an assistant to many renowned directors, including Attiyat Abnoudi, Youssef Chahine and Yousry Nasrallah. She is the director and producer of the documentary Salata Balady (Local Salad).

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More people, limited resources. Environmental ethicists consider best practices for conflict resolution and fairness when people and the environment are at odds.

Conservation is increasingly stymied by people who object to particular conservation actionsclaiming them unfair for one reason or another. In a new paper published in Biological Conservation (DOI: 10.1016/j.biocon.2018.02.022), the authors propose principles for resolving such conflictsprinciples that redress shortcomings in existing methods for addressing conservation conflicts.

Social justice and conservation each represent great values of our society, says John Vucetich, professor of ecology at Michigan Technological University, who led the study. "We aimed to examine those values from first principles to better understand how to respond when social justice and conservation seem to conflict.

Vucetich's co-authors include Jeremy Bruskotter from The Ohio State University and a team from the Wildlife Conservation Research Unit (WildCRU) from Oxford UniversityDawn Burnham, Ewan Macdonald, Alexandria Zimmerman, David Macdonald and Silvio Marchini, who is also associated with the University of Sao Paulo. Vucetich explains the foundation of the analysis is recognizing that social justice is the fair treatment of others judged according to three principles: equality, need and desert.

Who are the others in social justice?

Vucetich says this is the first question and it is especially basic. To answer, the team synthesized scholarship in social justice and environmental ethics; they arrived at a principle to help guide the adjudication of conservation conflicts.

"No human should infringe on the well-being of others any more than is necessary for a healthy, meaningful life. The 'others' in this principle would include not only humans, but also many nonhumans, especially many nonhuman animals." Excerpt from paper

While that principle is closely related to many well-vetted ideas in social justice and environmental ethics, they also point out that application of this principle in the governance of natural resources would be a radical departure from current practice.

When social justice and environmental conservation collide.

Take this example. Whether wolves, lions, bears or some other large predator, advocates for carnivore conservation ask ranchers to accept that predators are going to killon rare occasionsome of their livestock. Livestock owners often say the losses are unfair.

Similar conflicts readily come to mind: hard-working citizens of modest means no longer allowed to harvest forests on their property for the sake of some rare bird species; to protect a rare ecosystema mangrove, for examplepeople are dislocated; in a different instance of mangrove protection, a land developer claims the restrictions unfairly infringe on their livelihood.

Mindful of such conflicts, Vucetich and his team show how one can address those conflicts with the three principles of social justice: Desert as in deserving; need meaning what you require for a healthy, meaningful life; and equality in the sense of avoiding inappropriately unequal wealth and resources.

We applied those principles to three general scenarios that cover quite a few real-world conflicts, Vucetich says. In particular, we address cases where a conservation action would cause a group to abandon a traditional cultural activity, financial loss to some human stakeholders or an involuntary loss of employment.

The team's analysis suggests that current methods for resolving conservation conflicts would more likely realize both conservation and social justice if they better attended the three principles of equality, need and desert.

Michigan Technological University is a public research university, home to more than 7,000 students from 54 countries. Founded in 1885, the University offers more than 120 undergraduate and graduate degree programs in science and technology, engineering, forestry, business and economics, health professions, humanities, mathematics, and social sciences. Our campus in Michigans Upper Peninsula overlooks the Keweenaw Waterway and is just a few miles from Lake Superior.One of the main features of the current development programme in Egypt, which was launched after the June 2013 Revolution, is a focus on infrastructure and national projects (in industry, agriculture, fishing wealth, housing, roads, mining, energy, services and trades).

This approach has come under some criticism. Critics have held, firstly, that the government has given infrastructural projects priority over the human dimension of development, especially in the fields of healthcare and education. International experiences have taken the educational sector as their starting point, since education is the essence and prerequisite of the development process, they argue.

Secondly, they maintain that there is no evidence that the huge investments in these national mega projects are yielding a tangible benefit for the ordinary citizen. If there had been, this would have been reflected in per capita income rates, they say.

Thirdly, they point to the fact that such projects depend on government actors while the private sector was marginalised.

On the surface, such arguments appear logical and sound. In reality, however, they reflect an insufficient understanding of the Egyptian case in the context of previous international experiences and the basic challenges facing the Egyptian developmental process. Naturally, one must not underestimate the importance of the education and health sectors. Nor can it be said that there does not exist a strong and direct relationship between investment in these crucial sectors and comprehensive growth.

To invest in education is to invest in the human resources needed to carry out and manage the development process. To invest in health is to safeguard these human resources.

But, even if we assumed, for the sake of argument, that the government had overlooked these two sectors during the past four years  an assumption that is both inaccurate and refuted by a number of facts (the national programme to end Hepatitis C, for example)  we need to register the following observations:

- The argument that infrastructural investment is a long-term investment that takes a relatively long time for it to pay off in ways that the average citizen can feel totally ignores the nature of public spending on health and education. If the infrastructural projects initiated during the past four years are long term investments, investment in education and health is even more long term.

It is also more capital intensive, meaning larger sums of money are needed to produce the required services than infrastructural projects. For example, proper and thorough educational reform in Egypt requires the development of an entire educational system, starting from nursery school age up.

This means waiting 15 to 20 years for the first generation of graduates to emerge from that system and become assimilated in the development process.

- The critics also overlook the important fact that most developmental experiences, apart from a few exceptions, had to contend with the dilemma of funding development due to the scarcity of available financial resources. Those experiences had to resort to one of two means or to a blend of these means in various proportions.

One is to borrow; the other is to attract foreign direct investment. Egypt is no exception. This dilemma, in turn, helps explain the priority given to national projects and infrastructure in the Egyptian national development strategy during the past four years. The availability of efficient infrastructure and a list of proposed projects is a major prerequisite for attracting foreign direct investment.

Returning to the questions of education and health, education and health indexes are not prime determinants of foreign investors decisions regarding where and how they channel their investments. More important to them are political stability and security, infrastructure and prospective investment opportunities, and favourable legislative and financial climates.

The Egyptian government has relied on borrowing (in addition to some domestic savings, which are still relatively low) in order to finance the development process in the first phase. It has focused on infrastructural and national projects as a condition for attracting foreign direct investment and augmenting its share of contribution to financing the second phase. This naturally required reform of the legislative and financial environment (the new investment law and currency deregulation) as anothr key factor to attracting foreign direct investment.

- There is no such thing as a developmental experience without a governing philosophy or vision to orient the process and set its priorities, from the economic sectors and geographic regions that require greater focus to identifying the social sectors to be targeted. Once the philosophy is formulated and the priorities are set, economic and fiscal policies can be drawn up and applied.

Clarifying that philosophy is one of the most formidable challenges that had to be addressed in order to set into motion the second and third development waves in East and Southeast Asia and in some Latin American countries. A number of theories and concepts have evolved in the process of the attempt to answer two questions: how can developing nations launch and steer their development experiences and how did those experiences succeed? The most prominent theory to have emerged is called the Developmental State which most of the Asian and Latin American experiences followed.

Though the theory has been applied in various ways, all applications share a number of important traits, the most salient of which is the central role of the state in the development process. In other words, the central role that the Egyptian state is playing in the current development process is not an expression of some desire to marginalise or exclude the private sector from the process.

Rather it reflects an awareness of the need to rely on the cumulative ideas and expertise of countries that have preceded us in this domain, as well as the need to free the development process from some of the flaws that have plagued the private sector in recent decades.

*Mohamed Fayez Farahat, is an expert at the International Relations Unit of Al-Ahram Centre For Political and Strategic Studies

*This article was first published in Al-Ahram Weekly

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In Focus with Allison Walker is a 30-minute public affairs program, featuring a roundtable of newsmakers representing a range of perspectives, including local officials and expert analysts as they tackle topical issues of importance to Floridians.

In Focus airs Sundays at 11:30 a.m. and 8:30 p.m., right after Political Connections.Over the past few years, civil and proxy wars in the Middle East have taken a heavy toll on the economies of several countries in the region. Armed conflicts have caused severe damage to the physical infrastructure and output capacity of the war-torn countries, and a generation of children and young adults is now growing up with inadequate levels of education or healthcare due to displacement and the destruction of public services.

These things will have long-term negative effects on human capital and the future economic prospects of the war-ravaged countries.

Many of the major conflicts in the region are still ongoing, for example in Syria, Libya and Yemen, and thus it is difficult to accurately calculate the cost of the wars in the Middle East. This will only be possible when they have halted, and the different stakeholders can examine the damage directly in the war-torn areas and calculate the cost of the conflicts and of reconstruction.

However, in the meantime some partial estimates are available regarding the economic spill-overs of the wars in the Middle East, highlighting the vast damage that has taken place over the past few years and the huge resources that could be required just for the restoration of pre-war conditions.

In Syria, the war that started in mid-March 2011 caused direct physical damage to infrastructure and productive assets amounting to an estimated $68 billion from 2011 until 2016. Syrian GDP contracted by 16 per cent annually from 2011 to 2015 and by four per cent in 2016, meaning an accumulated loss of three times Syrian GDP in 2010 before the war started.

This loss of assets and output has coincided with the loss of three million jobs, which has raised the unemployment rate to 66 per cent of the workforce. As a result, 85.2 per cent of Syrians have fallen below the poverty line during the armed conflict and now lack basic needs.

Besides the physical damage, the human toll of the Syrian conflict has been the worst in the Middle East in recent decades. Up to an estimated 460,000 people have been killed and 1.1 million wounded during the war.

The conflict has forcibly displaced 11.5 million people, nearly half the countrys population, leaving 2.8 million children not going to school. It is estimated that the Syrian economy has lost during the war years some $10.5 to $16.5 billion in human capital due to loss in school years alone.

In Yemen, the costs of the physical damage that has taken place since the outbreak of the war in 2015 could reach some $15 billion.

Because of the decline in oil production that has taken place in addition to the damaged assets due to the war, Yemeni GDP contracted by 28.1 per cent in 2015 and by 4.2 per cent in 2016 as nearly 35 per cent of the countrys service enterprises, 29 per cent of its industrial enterprises, and 20 per cent of its commercial enterprises have suspended their operations.

The war in Yemen has also internally displaced 2.5 million people and has left nearly 21.2 million, about 80 per cent of the Yemeni population, in urgent need of humanitarian assistance, with 14.4 million of them suffering from chronic food insecurity.

Besides the specific vulnerability of children to shortages of basic needs, nearly half the school-age population in Yemen, about 3.4 million children, are now out of school because of the war, and this will have a long-term negative impact on human capital and economic productivity in the country.

In Libya, the reliance of the countrys centralised economy on oil revenues has meant that the armed conflict in the country has nearly shut down the economy at times by disrupting oil production and exports through damage to the relevant assets or suspending their operations.

Libyan crude oil production thus declined from 1.5 million barrels per day in 2010 to 390,000 barrels per day in 2016, and lost revenues due to sluggish oil exports amounted to nearly $100 billion over three years.

This has impacted the provision of basic needs and has left some 2.4 million people in need of humanitarian assistance, with one million children suffering from acute malnutrition.

Owing to such preliminary estimates of the costs of recent conflicts in the Middle East, the corresponding costs of the reconstruction can only be roughly estimated. The actual costs of the conflicts may be greater than these estimates, and so may the actual costs of the reconstruction.

As the aggregate damage and economic costs of the three wars in the region are estimated to reach nearly $300 billion, almost as colossal resources will be needed to restore the pre-war economic performance of these countries. They might need resources that reach two to three times the amounts of their GDP in 2010 just to restore their economies to 2010 conditions.

The reconstruction should also not focus only on physical assets and infrastructure, but should also extend to building new institutions, economic, political and legal, in the light of the legacy of weakness or even the absence of suitable institutions in these three countries and in the wider region.

This could turn out to be a major challenge in the reconstruction efforts, as it would require building institutions from scratch and avoiding as much as possible the restoration of pre-war institutional settings that were in large part a main cause of the conflicts themselves.



*The writer is a researcher in economics at the Al-Ahram Centre for Political and Strategic Studies

*This article was first published in Al-Ahram Weekly

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Gov. Rick Scott was in Tampa Wednesday to outline his new plan aimed at keeping Florida schools safe.

Gov. Scott in Tampa to tout $500-million school safety plan

Plan comes after 17 killed in Parkland school shooting

The plan, unveiled last week, is a $500-million investment in school safety and mental health.

The Governors proposal followed the emergency meetings organized with law enforcement, school administrators, teachers, mental health experts, and state agency leadership, as well as meetings the Governor hosted with students from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.

On Feb. 14, a 19-year-old gunman shot and killed 17 people on the Douglas campus.

Now, Gov. Scott is responding with a three-pronged plan to thwart school shootings.

The plan addresses mental illness among student populations, hardening school campuses and a call for additional law enforcement at schools - but not arming teachers.

Cost wise, it breaks down to $7.4 million per school district, with flexibility pending the size of a district.

"There is nothing more important, than to do all we can do to make sure an evil act like this never ever happens again in this state," Scott said. "I look forward to passing legislation, I ask for everyone in this state to call your local house member, call your senator, whatever you believe in, let them know, we need to get something done now."

Gov. Scott said he is working closely with all Florida sheriff's on the plan and anything moving forward would involve communications with law enforcement.Community leaders are hoping to help people before they become homeless in Osceola County.

Influx of people coming into county is putting strain on services

Osceola County commissioner wants to combine services

This would help aid Puerto Ricans who fled Maria, commissioner says

Osceola County Commissioner Peggy Choudhry is leading the charge on a new one-stop-center that can help people with housing, health and financial issues.

She wants to put non-profits, religious organizations and other service providers under one roof so that if someone needs help, he or she can go to one spot to get it.

"Collaborate efforts are better used than multiple efforts separately," said Choudhry, "so it's very critical that we come together, not only does it help save taxpayers money, but the resources of the nonprofits and religious groups that are currently happening, could double and be a lot more efficient."

Choudhry says the emergency assistance center would also be able to aid those who evacuated Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria.

The new influx of people to the county is putting a strain on services. Choudhry says she is also looking at creating Osceola County's first homeless shelter.

A study from the Central Florida Commission on Homelessness found the average homeless person costs taxpayers more than $31,000 a year.

Choudhry is holding a meeting on her one-stop-center at 5:30 p.m., Wednesday, at the Osceola County Commission Chambers.Volusia County Sheriffs Office arrested a former New Smyrna Beach Middle School teacher, who is accused of having a sexual relationship with a 14-year-old student.

Ex-teacher accused of having relationship w/ student

14-year-old student said relationship started in November

Student told deputies Peterson would allegedly send nude photos

Stephanie Peterson, 26, was charged Wednesday morning with two counts of lewd or lascivious battery, and one count of transmitting harmful materials to a minor.

Deputies say they believe the relationship started in November, and the student reportedly told his parents about the relationship Tuesday.

The student told deputies that Peterson would send him nude photos and would pick him up from his home around 11 p.m. Peterson then would allegedly drop the student back off around 1 a.m. or 2 a.m.

According to deputies, the student also told them Peterson said they couldnt tell anyone about their relationship, or they would both get in trouble.

Peterson also allegedly bought the student marijuana and bowls for smoking it. His grades reportedly dropped after they started their relationship, according to a news release.

The school district says Peterson resigned from her job Monday.

She is being held at Volusia County Branch Jail on $25,000 bond.

Anyone with information, or any potential victims are encouraged to contact VCSO Child Exploitation Unit at 386-323-3574.BERLIN  A few weeks after the Town Council agreed to move forward with upgrading jail cells at the police department, the Board of Finance decided to table a transfer to fund the study.

Tabling this is not an insult to the police force, its just saying we prefer to see a plan where we can move forward for a new police station or remodeled police station, said Sam Lomaglio, chair of the finance board.

Members of the board voted unanimously Tuesday to hold on transferring $30,000 from a fund that consisted of leftover reimbursements for portable classrooms, to the police station construction fund to pay for consulting services related to new jail cells.

The cells currently have bars which have been reported by police to have been used in suicide attempts by prisoners.

Last year no one questioned the $46,000 in overtime, there was no mention of the overtime money no mention of suicide problems at the police station, Lomaglio said.

Deputy Police Chief Chris Ciuci recently told the council an attempt occurred in January. Before that there was an attempt in 2016 and since then the department has spent over $45,000 in overtime to have an officer in the holding area when a prisoner is jailed to prevent suicide.

The department has been focusing on modernizing the holding area to get rid of the bars and use plexiglass instead. The council waived the bidding process earlier this month for a design and build agreement with a construction company out of Milford after previously tabling the topic for further discussion.

We have a large liability the way the cells are now, said Mayor Mark Kaczynski. Someone in custody can get hurt.

Bob Peters, chairman of the police commission, previously spoke to the finance board about the need for upgraded jail cells and a statement of need to renovate the building.

They need to make a decision, Peter said Wednesday. Im getting sick and tired of it.

He said he did not want the issue to get political.

Its costing us overtime everytime we need to watch prisoners, Peters said. Were trying to keep the police department in the forefront.

The police commission recently drafted a statement of need to move forward with a cost and feasibility study to expand the current police space into the attached board of education area. The council sent the statement for the Berlin police facility as a whole to the public building commission for review.

The previous council voted in 2016 against sending a plan for a new station on Farmington Avenue to referendum.

Especially if down the pipeline were going to possibly be putting in a new police station, or doing something for the police station, I think that it is money that can just be used in a better place, said Kevin Guite, member of the finance board.

The estimated cost for the jail cell project is $250,000, in collaboration with partner communities that are looking to update cells as well. Funding is currently in the police budget from other capital projects.

Members of the board will be looking at inviting Speaker of the House Joe Aresimowicz or a representative to a future board meeting to potentially discuss funding options.

Lomaglio said he first wants confirmation that the cells will stay in one place if the departments space expands in the future.

We all support the police department, he said. Lets find out how far down the road we can go for a new police station, or via remodel in the police station, before we take action because quite frankly I just dont believe those cells are going to stay in one place.

akus@record-journal.com

203-317-2448

Twitter: @KusReporterBy AFP

DOUMA: A "humanitarian pause" announced by Russia in Syria's deadly bombardment of Eastern Ghouta failed to end violence Tuesday, with fresh bloodshed and no sign of aid deliveries or residents leaving the besieged enclave.

Nine days after Russian-backed regime forces intensified their campaign against the rebel-held enclave, the deal offered some respite to civilians who had been hiding in their basements.

But the first day of a five-hour daily "pause" that was ordered by President Vladimir Putin Sunday and kicked off at 9:00 am (0700 GMT) was marred by violence that saw seven people killed.

Moscow's plan falls short of a broader 30-day ceasefire it agreed to at the United Nations Security Council but which has yet to take effect, and has inspired little trust from among the besieged enclave's 400,000 residents.

The regime deployed buses at the Al-Wafideen checkpoint to transport residents wanting to use a humanitarian corridor to flee what UN chief Antonio Guterres last called "hell on Earth".

But no civilians were seen venturing towards the regime forces guarding the checkpoint, where large portraits of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and Putin could be seen side-by-side.

The "humanitarian pause" ordered by Putin echoed a similar tactic employed by Russia and Syrian regime during the ferocious battle to force rebels out of Aleppo in 2016.

VIEW GALLERY: Syria toll touches 500 as eastern Ghouta bombing continues, 130 children amongst dead

Russia's defence ministry accused armed groups in Eastern Ghouta of shelling the corridor, and said rebel fighters had "continued attacking the positions of the government forces" and "went on the offensive in other directions too".

Syrian state news agency SANA said a former Al-Qaeda affiliate present in the enclave was blocking civilians "to use them as human shields".

Truce a farce

Some residents left the basements they had been cowering in for days to check on their property and buy food.

But many in the enclave, which lies on the eastern outskirts of the Syrian capital, appeared distrustful of a "pause" announced by Damascus's main ally.

"This Russian truce is a farce. Russia is killing us and bombing us every day," said Samer al-Buaidhani, a 25-year-old from Douma, Eastern Ghouta's main hub.

WATCH VIDEO: Airstrikes continue battering Syria

"I don't believe it's safe for me or my family to leave by this system," he told AFP.

International Committee of the Red Cross spokeswoman Iolanda Jaquemet said any evacuation needed deeper coordination.

"Under international humanitarian law, humanitarian corridors are things which need to be well planned and must be implemented with the consent of parties on all sides, not only with one side," she told AFP.

Violence levels were significantly lower on Tuesday as the "humanitarian pause" kicked in but seven civilians were killed by regime bombardment, including two children, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor.

The bombardment intensified again after 2:00 pm (1200 GMT), the Britain-based group said.

Since February 18, 582 civilians, almost a quarter of them children, have been killed in the Syrian and Russian bombardment of Eastern Ghouta, making it one of the bloodiest episodes of the country's seven-year-old conflict.

VIEW GALLERY: Stop bombing Ghouta: People throng outside Russian Consulate in Istanbul to protest against Syrian airstrikes

Fourteen of the dead, including five children, were pulled from the rubble on Tuesday after being killed in the past two days, said the Observatory.

In Damascus, the state news agency said, a civilian was killed and five others wounded by shelling from "terrorist organisations".

Aleppo scenario

In Hammuriyeh, another town in the sprawling semi-rural enclave, Mohammed Abdullah said the pause left civilians with a choice between two evils.

"The truce is not in the people's interest, we have two options: death or displacement," said the 30-year-old.

"The campaign we were targeted with was an extermination campaign, not a simple bombardment. What we want is a full and permanent ceasefire for all of Ghouta," he said.

VIEW GALLERY: Photographs that define the Syrian civil war

That sentiment was echoed by the dominant rebel groups in Eastern Ghouta, who sent a letter to the United Nations stating their willingness to expel jihadists as soon as a full ceasefire takes effect.

The letter said such an evacuation, which has been discussed previously but never yielded any result, would take 15 days and start when a UN truce takes effect.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov reacted cautiously to the statement and said after meeting French counterpart Jean-Yves Le Drian that the ball was in the rebel groups' court.

"We shall see in practice whether the pleas by the three illegal armed groups... to carry out the UNSC resolution correspond with their intentions," he said.

A top US general accused Moscow of playing an "incredibly destabilising" role in Syria by claiming it wants to settle the civil war while at the same time stoking the conflict.

The UN Security Council will meet Wednesday afternoon to discuss the humanitarian situation and hear from UN aid chief Mark Lowcock.

The Syrian government lost control of Eastern Ghouta in 2012 and has besieged it almost ever since.

The latest scenario put in place by the regime and its Russian ally was reminiscent of the deal that ended the battle of Aleppo in 2016.

Few civilians back then initially used the Aleppo corridors unilaterally announced by Russia.

Some started fleeing after renewed bombardment and the rest eventually evacuated when a multilateral deal was reached with Turkey.For Subscribers Carousel, Snack Bar buildings to be demolished, but then what?

The City Council held a workshop Wednesday night to hear firsthand about two badly deteriorated Easton's Beach buildings. Should they be replaced?Success! An email has been sent to with a link to confirm list signup.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).Reporter/Columnist

Julie Wurth is a reporter covering the University of Illinois at The News-Gazette. Her email is jwurth@news-gazette.com, and you can follow her on Twitter (@jawurth).Columnist

Tom Kacich is a columnist and the author of Tom's Mailbag at The News-Gazette. His column appears Sundays. His email is tkacich@news-gazette.com, and you can follow him on Twitter (@tkacich).One of Editor & Publishers 10 That Do It Right 2021The Government will diversify Hong Kong's economy to create wealth and provide more development opportunities.

Delivering his 2018-19 Budget at the Legislative Council today, Financial Secretary Paul Chan said the administration will examine Hong Kong's standing amid fierce global competition.

"The current-term Government will examine Hong Kong's competitiveness, our economy as well as the current state and direction for development of our industries from a forward-looking and strategic perspective.

"Playing the role as a 'facilitator' and a 'promoter', we will introduce timely and appropriate measures to support industries where we have strengths and development potentials, and tap new markets."

The Government will set aside $500 million to develop the financial services industry.

It will launch a Pilot Bond Grant Scheme to attract local, Mainland and overseas enterprises to issue bonds in Hong Kong, and continue the issuing of Silver Bonds over the next financial year.

A green bond issuance programme for the Government's green public works projects will also be introduced.

To develop Hong Kong into a world-class tourism destination, the administration will allocate an additional $396 million to the tourism industry in the new financial year.

The Tourism Board will receive $226 million to implement the Development Blueprint for Hong Kong's Tourism Industry to broaden markets and draw high value-added overnight visitors.

Ocean Park will be allocated $310 million to prop up education and tourism projects.

To enhance Hong Kong's standing as a trading hub, the Government will cap the trade declaration charge at $200.

To help small and medium enterprises, $1.5 billion will be injected into the Dedicated Fund on Branding, Upgrading & Domestic Sales.

Mr Chan said the construction industry must continue to upgrade and proposed establishing a $1 billion Construction Innovation & Technology Fund to encourage the sector to tap into innovative technology.

"The Government will focus in particular on removing land and manpower constraints.

"Under the present macro environment in which opportunities abound, I am confident that we can find more drivers for growth to support the development of our society."Expenditure on public healthcare services will be increased to $71.2 billion in 2018-19, a rise of 13.3%.

Delivering his Budget Speech today, Financial Secretary Paul Chan said healthcare is an issue of utmost concern to the community.

He said the Government has increased its recurrent expenditure on healthcare by an average of 7% over the past decade.

"The expenditure on public healthcare services will increase by 13.3% to $71.2 billion in 2018-19, accounting for 17.5% of total recurrent expenditure."

A 10-year hospital development plan amounting to $200 billion is also being implemented.

Additional recurrent funding of nearly $6 billion will be allocated to the Hospital Authority to increase the number of hospital beds, operating theatre sessions, the quota for general out-patient and specialist out-patient services and the manpower required.

Mr Chan said the Government will progressively increase the recurrent provision for the authority on a triennium basis, having regard to population growth and demographic changes.

To boost morale and retain staff, the authority will also look into scrapping a policy which freezes the pay of new recruits for their first two years of service.

The administration has also set aside $300 billion as an initial provision to support the second 10-year hospital development plan, improve Department of Health clinic facilities, and upgrade and increase healthcare teaching facilities.

To aid senior citizens, the Government will provide, on a one-off basis, an additional $1,000 worth of Elderly Health Care Vouchers to eligible seniors, which will cost $796 million.

It will regularise the Colorectal Cancer Screening Pilot Programme and progressively extend it to cover people aged 50 to 75. The initiative will cost $940 million over the next five years.

Mr Chan also proposed establishing a $500 million fund to promote the development of Chinese medicine by supporting areas such as applied research, Chinese medicine specialisation, knowledge exchange and cross-market co-operation, and helping local traders with the production and registration of Chinese proprietary medicines.

On the Voluntary Health Insurance Scheme, he suggested offering a tax deduction for people insured under the scheme, capped at a ceiling of $8,000 per person annually.GOVERNMENT has agreed to lift the freeze on the recruitment of doctors and availed $10 million to buy vehicles after the medical practitioners petitioned it over a number of grievances.



In a notice to go on strike dated February 5 addressed to the Health and Child Care Minister Dr David Parirenyatwa, the doctors gave the ministry 21 days to address their concerns.



Dr Parirenyatwa could not be reached for comment yesterday while permanent secretary in the ministry, Dr Gerald Gwinji was said to be out of the country.





However, Zimbabwe Hospital Doctors Association (ZHDA) president Dr Edgar Munatsi told The Chronicle yesterday that since they issued the ultimatum, Government had addressed three of their concerns.





We have had discussions with them and they addressed some of our concerns. They have availed $10 million towards procurement of vehicles and have agreed to ensure that there is proper grading of salaries for our doctors effective month end which will be back dated to January, said Dr Munatsi.

They have also agreed to lift the ban on the recruitment of doctors and promised that the system will absorb all doctors once they complete their studies.



In their letter, doctors said they would be incapacitated at various institutions nationwide to discharge their normal duties if working conditions are not addressed to their satisfaction.





We call for urgent procurement of standard hospital equipment and essential medicines to allow us to provide quality service to our patients. We also need clearly defined working hours as per regional and international standards to be set and observed. This means that doctors should work for eight hours of day duty and a maximum of eight hours on call, with a total maximum of six calls per month for interns under supervision, reads the notice.





We also look forward to an upward review of our on-call allowance to a minimum of $1 500 with immediate effect. We also call for an upward review of medical allowance to $110 and rural allowance to $500.

ZHDA also demanded that payment of all locum hours owed to doctors to be made.

According to the notice, doctors want the suspension of contract employment of interns.

Dr Munatsi said resolving their concerns will go a long way in rebuilding the health sector and will ensure quality service delivery at public institutions.





Zimbabwe Medical Association secretary general Dr Shingi Bopoto said the organisation does not condone strikes though it was important that doctors concerns are attended to.





We are aware of that, we have seen the letter and we know that they are threatening to go on strike though we do not condone strikes. We are doing everything behind the scenes to avert this strike, said Dr Bopoto. HeraldThe Parliamentary Portfolio committee on Mines and Energy will tour the site of the proposed Gwanda Solar Plant in Gwanda today as MPs widen their probe into the contentious deal signed by the Zimbabwe Power Company (ZPC) and Intratrek, a company owned by flashy businessman Mr Wicknell Chivayo.



The visit comes barely two weeks after Mr Chivayo was taken to task by the committee over the $5 million he received from the ZPC for the Gwanda solar project. He was paid without the requisite bank guarantee.



Chairperson of the committee, Mr Temba Mliswa said the visit was meant to enable Parliament to assess progress made on the ground.





The Gwanda one is to do with ZPC and Intratrek, the Wicknell Chivayo company. We are going to verify whats on the ground vis a vis what has been paid, said Mr Mliswa.

During his appearance before the committee, Mr Chivayo was also grilled over the manner in which he won the tender for the project in 2013.





Mr Mliswa asked Mr Chivayo to explain why there was a disparity on the amount he received from the $7 million that was mentioned by ZPC Board chairman Mr Stanley Kazhanje.





Just tell us how much you got and where the money went to. We had ZPC here and they said they gave you $7 million. Just tell us how much you got and we break it down, Mr Mliswa said.





The businessman admitted that he had been paid by the company without a bank guarantee and had sought assistance from former Minister of Energy and Power Development Dr Samuel Undenge after suspended ZPC managing director Noah Gwariro had refused to pay him the money without the guarantee.

Mr Mliswa said after Gwanda they will tour Hwange Colliery and Kamativi Mine on Thursday before rounding off with Shabanie Mine on Friday.





We are going to look at Kamativi, we hear there is an investor. We also hear of things being stripped off by the Chinese investor and well also look at its resuscitation. We will proceed to Hwange as well to look at the problems which are there and also to look at the production, the challenges that they are facing. Its not really about problems but challenges and as Parliament to see how best we can also intervene, said Mr Mliswa.





He said the revival of the countrys economy was dependent on the resuscitation of these mines.

All those are critical in resuscitating the economy. You cannot talk of Zimbabwe without Ziscosteel, without Kamativi without Hwange without Shabanie Mine. So we have to understand the investors that are coming in, how serious are they because we have been taken for a ride by other investors, said Mr Mliswa.





He said the committee yesterday visited Zisco which, he said, needs about $1 billion to revive. HeraldOne of Only 11 Early Copies

of Constitution Up for Auction(Newser)  President Donald Trump's longtime aide Hope Hicks is declining to answer questions about her time in the White House in a closed-door interview Tuesday with the House intelligence committee, the AP reports. The panel is investigating Russian interference in the 2016 election and any contacts between Trump's campaign and Russia. As one of Trump's closest aides, Hicks is a key eyewitness to his actions over the past several years. She was his spokeswoman during the 2016 presidential campaign and is now White House communications director. As the interview went into the afternoon, several members of the committee said during breaks that Hicks was declining to answer any questions from her time in the White House. Others who have worked in the White House, including former strategist Steve Bannon, have also declined to talk about that time in interviews with the committee.

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"There are some questions that she's not going to answer," said Republican Rep. Chris Stewart of Utah. Democratic Rep. Mike Quigley of Illinois, another member of the panel, said Hicks and her lawyer were "following the orders of the White House not to answer certain questions." Another person familiar with Hicks' testimony said her lawyer is responding to questions about that time period by saying the White House has advised her not to answer and by saying she will take some questions "under advisement." The person declined to be identified because the committee meetings are behind closed doors. The Washington Post notes that lawmakers are interested in Hicks' role in drafting a misleading statement explaining the 2016 meeting between Donald Trump Jr., Jared Kushner, Paul Manafort, and a Russian lawyer at Trump Tower. Politico notes that as the day wore on, Hicks did agree to answer some questions about the presidential transition, which she had also initially refused to do. (Read more Hope Hicks stories.)(Newser)  West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice says striking teachers will return to the classroom on Thursday, and he's offering teachers and school service personnel a 5% pay raise in the first year. Justice made the announcement at a news conference Tuesday after emerging from a meeting with union leaders for teachers in all 55 counties, the AP reports. Justice had signed across-the-board teacher pay raises of $808 next year and $404 the following two years. But teachers had said the increases weren't enough, especially as health care costs rise. The state's average teacher pay ranks among the lowest in the nation. Chief of Staff Mike Hall says the latest pay raise proposal is based on revised revenue estimates of $58 million based on economic forecasts. The pay increases would have to be approved by the Legislature.

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Teachers began their walkout on Thursday, their first statewide strike since 1990. All public schools in the state were closed for days during the strike. The teachers are represented by the American Federation of Teachers and the West Virginia Education Association. Also on strike are members of the West Virginia School Service Personnel Association, which includes support staff.

(Read more West Virginia stories.)(Newser)  The sister-in-law of Dr. Phil McGraw has died, 17 years after the act of a malignant stranger changed her life forever. Cindi Broaddus was a sleeping passenger in a car being driven from Oklahoma to San Diego in 2001 when she was hit by a bottle of sulfuric acid somebody had dropped through the windshield from an overpass, People reports. She suffered horrific burns to 70% of her body, including her face, and spent three weeks in the hospital, where she needed 12 surgeries and was told she only had a 30% chance of survival. After the random attack, she decided to reach out and help other people. "I've decided not to wake up every day bitter and angry," she said in a Dr. Phil appearance. McGraw is married to her sister, Robin.

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Broaddus, the mother of three daughters, said she felt calm during the ordeal because she had a message she had to get through: "You have got to tell my children how much I love them and that I'm not ready to leave them." Broaddus, 68, died on Feb. 19 and was "brave to the end," according to an obituary in the Duncan Banner. In the years after the attack, Broaddus, who worked in sales for a cable company, co-authored A Random Act: An Inspiring True Story of Fighting to Survive and Choosing to Forgive, delivered numerous speeches, and spoke out at the United Nations against acid attacks, the Oklahoman reports. She said she had forgiven her attacker, who was never caught or identified. (Read more acid attack stories.)(Newser)  About 7% of Chicago's 2016 operating budgetnearly $264 millioncame from traffic and parking tickets. To get that funding, the city is forcing thousands of poor, disproportionately black drivers into bankruptcy, ProPublica Illinois found in a deep dive into a decade's worth of tickets. About 1,000 Chapter 13 bankruptcies in 2007 in Chicago included debts to the city, mostly for unpaid tickets; that had ballooned to 10,000 by 2017. Mayor Rahm Emanuel made collecting on unpaid tickets a priority in 2011. Two years after that, Chicago started using automated speed cameras. Now, thanks to ticket debt, Chicago leads the country in Chapter 13 filings. If youre a city government that has a policy of basically balancing the budget by issuing huge numbers of traffic tickets, you have to expect this response, says an attorney at the National Consumer Law Center.

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Laqueanda Reneau, 25, had $6,700 in unpaid tickets, late fines, and impound fees. A city payment plan required a down payment of $1,000 or 25% of her debt. She could't afford it, so she turned to Chapter 13 bankruptcy. I know Im putting a Band-Aid on the problem, Reneau says. But right now, my immediate need is to get a car so I can get to work and get my son to school. It's a problem that is disproportionately affecting Chicago's black residents. Over the past decade eight of the 10 ZIP codes with the most ticket debt per adult are majority black. Those eight neighborhoods hold 40% of all ticket debt despite accounting for only 22% of all tickets. In addition Chapter 13 is rarely successful in erasing ticket debt. Read the rest of the story here to find out why one community organizer says Chicago "is shooting itself in the foot" with its policies on ticket debt. (Read more Longform stories.)(Newser)  Maddy Wilford was shot multiple times in the Parkland school massacre and was near death as first responders tended to her after the shooting. But an observant Coral Springs Fire Department lieutenant asked the teen an important question as they prepared to whisk her away, and it was one that ended up saving her life. Per CNN, Maddy was in such bad shape when she was brought to Lt. Laz Ojeda and his rescue team that they initially thought she'd already died. "Signs of life," however, soon emerged, and after a Broward County Sheriff's Office SWAT team member sealed up a chest wound, they readied her to go to a children's hospital 30 miles away, where they'd been instructed to take the 15-year-old. Except Ojeda wasn't convinced she was only 15. And so, as Ojeda tearfully relayed at a Monday presser, he asked the girl twice how old she was; she finally answered she was 17.

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Based on that info, Ojeda, who thought she'd die before they got her to the children's facility, made the call to take her to a hospital just 10 miles from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. There, operating surgeon Dr. Igor Nichiporenko quickly did "damage control" on the badly injured teen, who'd been shot in the abdomen, chest, and upper sternum, with tendons "shattered from gunshot wounds." Astonishingly, Wilford was out of the hospital in less than a week. "Young people have a tendency to heal very fast," Nichiporenko says, per the New York Times. "She's very, very lucky." He adds that Ojeda's decision saved Maddy's life. Ojeda is just glad he was there to make the call. "I thank God for allowing us to be an instrument in this miracle," he told CNN Tuesday. As for Maddy? "I'm so grateful to be here," she said at the news conference, per CNN. (Read more Parkland school shooting stories.)(Newser)  Police officers responded Wednesday to a Georgia high school after reports of shots fired and a teacher barricaded in a classroom, authorities said. Police in Dalton tweeted that the teacher was in custody and no children were ever in danger, the AP reports. A student apparently suffered an ankle injury running inside the school as the building was evacuated. The incident happened two weeks after a school shooting in Florida left 17 students and faculty dead and put the country on edge. Dalton police spokesman Bruce Frazier told the AP that the scene is secure. Police did not immediately say what happened inside the school.

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"In response to a threat lockdown at Dalton High School, students are being relocated to the Northwest Georgia Trade and Convention Center at 2211 Dug Gap Battle Road. Parents and guardians should pick up their students at that location. DO NOT go to Dalton High School," Dalton Public Schools said in a statement, per the Dalton Daily Citizen. "Student safety is always our first priority. Please be patient with us as we implement our emergency plan in conjunction with the Dalton Police Department." The identity of the teacher has not been released. (Read more school shooting stories.)Sorry!

This content is not available in your regionKay Hockin, of Anderson, is the winner of the Denali Borough Mayors Community Service Award. Mayor Clay Walker made the presentation at the communitys Winterfest celebration.Let us know what you're seeing and hearing around the community.

Submit hereThe Daily News-Miner encourages residents to make themselves heard through the Opinion pages. Readers' letters and columns also appear online at newsminer.com. Contact the editor with questions at letters@newsminer.com or call 459-7574.

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Send Community Perspective submissions by mail (P.O. Box 70710, Fairbanks AK 99707) or via email (letters@newsminer.com). Submissions must be 500 to 750 words. Columns are welcome on a wide range of issues and should be well-written and well-researched with attribution of sources. Include a full name, email address, daytime telephone number and headshot photograph suitable for publication (email jpg or tiff files at 150 dpi.) You may also schedule a photo to be taken at the News-Miner office. The News-Miner reserves the right to edit submissions or to reject those of poor quality or taste without consulting the writer.

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Send letters to the editor by mail (P.O. Box 70710, Fairbanks AK 99707), by fax (907-452-7917) or via email (letters@newsminer.com). Writers are limited to one letter every two weeks (14 days.) All letters must contain no more than 350 words and include a full name (no abbreviation), daytime and evening phone numbers and physical address. (If no phone, then provide a mailing address or email address.) The Daily News-Miner reserves the right to edit or reject letters without consulting the writer.New Delhi:

Bollywoodas first ever female superstar Sridevias last rites were performed in Mumbaias Vile Parle crematorium on Wednesday. The beautiful actress left for her heavenly abode on Saturday in Dubai.

The Nagina star who had 300 films to her credit was cremated with full state honours. Her untimely demise sent the fraternity and fans into shock who still canat believe their aChandnia is no more.

The Kapoor, Marwah and Ayyappan family on Wednesday released a joint statement thanking friends and fans for their constant love support throughout the tragedy.

The statement read, aaThe past few days have been trying times for us as a family. Today, particularly, has been one of the hardest. We laid to rest a beautiful soul who has gone too soon.

aaShe leaves behind a legacy that is unique. Her talent was undeniable, her beauty unmatched and her ability to connect with the audience was legendary. Sri had the same connect with her family as wellaa.

aaThe one thing that helped us all get through these last few days, was the amazing amount of love and support from everyone a be it her many colleagues, to her innumerable fans, her caring friends and loving family, from across the country and the worldaa.

aaThis outpouring of love is the memory that we would like Khushi and Janhvi to have of their mother, a woman who was loved unquestionably by everyoneaa, added the statement.

aaLet us all who loved Sri, envelop her two little ones, her life, as she often called them, with as much or more love than we gave Sri so that they can live their lives ahead with a little less ache in their heartsaa.

aaLet us help them remember their mother fondly, with that beloved twinkle in her eyes, and help them build a life and be what Sri had dreamt for themaa.

The statement also had a message for the media fraternity who were busy speculating the death of the veteran actress.

aaTo the members of media, we ask that you respect the privacy of the family and allow us the space to grieve. Sri lived her life with dignity and we implore, that you give her the same respect."

Sridevi who had a star-studded career has left behind a rich legacy. The Himmatwala actress is survived by her husband Boney Kapoor and two daughters Janhvi and Khushi.

For all the Latest Entertainment News, Bollywood News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.New Delhi:

Veteran actress Sridevi was consigned to flames on Wednesday with state honors. The veteran actress breathed her last in Dubai on Sunday and her funeral was attended by several B-town celebs including Amitabh Bachchan, Shah Rukh Khan, Rohit Shetty, Madhuri Dixit etc.

While it was a hard moment for the entire Kapoor family, Sridevi's co-stars too bid farewell to her with a heavy heart.

During his recent conversation with IANS, Sridevi's co-star from Mr India, Satish Kaushik revealed some heartwarming details of his phone with Boney Kapoor, who was 'inconsolable, after the diva's death.

"When I heard of ma'am's (Sridevi) death, I couldn't believe it. Boney and I have been friends for 30 years. I called him up. He wept inconsolably. The more we spoke, the more he wept. He just couldn't stop crying. I hung up," Satish Kaushik was quoted as saying.

Talking about Sridevi, Satish added, "I don't know of anyone who could transform so much once she had make-up on. And I don't mean just for the camera. She could dress up for a wedding and she'd look like a different person... And now to see her lying there still and unmoving in that casket... it was heartbreaking."





For all the Latest Entertainment News, Bollywood News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.New Delhi:

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Wednesday arrested Karti P Chidambaram, the son of former finance minister P Chidambaram in connection with the INX Media money laundering case.

CBI had said that Karti is accused of receiving Rs 10 lakh from INX Media. Karti used his influence to manipulate a tax probe against INX Media in a case of violation of FIPB conditions to receive investment from Mauritius," CBI said.

Karti was earlier grilled by the Enforcement Directorate in connection with the INX Media money laundering case.

Karti deposed before the investigating officer (IO) as per the scheduled summons. The central agency had earlier summoned Karti Chidambaram on Feb 2 after which he informed them that he would be unable to depose as he had an interlocutory application pending in the Supreme Court in this case.

The CBI and the ED had carried out a series of raids on the houses and offices owned by the Chidambaram. Karti Chidambaram was questioned several times by the ED. A lookout notice, which prevents a passenger from travelling abroad, was issued against him as the agencies suspected that he would try to close foreign accounts where he had parked the money from the kickbacks.

In November, the Supreme Court allowed Karti Chidambaram to go to the UK for his daughter's admission in the Cambridge University. His father was not available for comments but he had earlier denied involvement of his son in any case.

The Congress labeled his arrest as "vendetta" and "diversionary tactic" by the Modi government to hide its scams and "mal-governance". Karti Chidambaram's arrest would not deter the party from speaking the truth to hold the government accountable, the party's communications in-charge Randeep Surjewala said.

The CBI is also probing the alleged irregularities in grant of the FIPB clearance to the Aircel-Maxis deal in 2006. According to the CBI, INX Media clearly states in its records that Rs 10 lakh was given to Advantage Strategic Consulting (P) Limited, a firm "indirectly" owned by Karti, for management consultancy charged towards FIPB notification and clarification.

The FIR also alleges that invoices of approximately Rs 3.5 crore were raised in favour of INX group in the name of other companies in which Karti had substantial interests "directly or indirectly".

The agency has registered an FIR against Karti, his company Chess Management Services, the Mukerjeas, INX Media, Advantage Strategic Consulting Services and its Director Padma Vishwanathan. The allegations levelled by the CBI are based on the information given by "source", the FIR has claimed.

The agency had registered a case under the provisions of Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) against Karti and others in May last year. ED had lodged an Enforcement Case Information Report (ECIR) against the accused named in the CBI FIR which included Karti Chidambaram, INX media and its directors, Peter and Indrani Mukerjea, and others.

CBI had probed Karti twice in August last year for allegedly taking money from INX media then owned by businessman Peter and his wife Indrani with respect to influence public servants in probe into foreign investments in the company from three Mauritius-based entities.

For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.Kolaras/Mungoli:

In closely-fought contests, opposition Congress on Wednesday retained the Mungaoli and Kolaras Assembly seats in by-elections in Madhya Pradesh, though with reduced victory margins.

The results are significant for the BJP-ruled state where polls are due later this year.

In Kolaras (in Shivpuri district), Congress candidate Mahendra Singh Yadav defeated the BJP's Devendra Jain by 8,086 votes, an Election Commission (EC) official said.

The Congress candidate got 82,523 votes, while his BJP rival polled 74,437 ballots.

In 2013, Congress had won this seat by a margin of 24,953 votes.

In Mungaoli (Ashok Nagar district), Congress nominee Brajendra Singh Yadav emerged victorious by defeating his BJP rival Bai Sahab Yadav by 2,124 votes. Brajendra Singh Yadav got 70,808 votes, while the BJP candidate bagged 68,684.

The Congress had won this seat by a margin of 20,765 votes in the 2013 Assembly polls.

Also read | Assembly Elections 2018 : 75 per cent polling in Nagaland, 67 in Meghalaya



The bypolls, held on February 24, were necessitated by the death of Congress MLAs Mahendra Singh Kalukheda (Mungaoli) and Ram Singh Yadav (Kolaras).

Elated over the victory, senior Congress leader Jyotiraditya Scindia -- in whose Lok Sabha constituency, Guna, both these seats fell -- tweeted, "I thank people from the bottom of my heart. Congratulations to all on this victory. I will be with you and stand true to your faith in me, forever (sic)."

"It was a victory of people's faith over the money power," he tweeted further.

Leader of Opposition in the Assembly Ajay Singh said the outcome showed that this was the last year of the BJP's rule in the state.

"The BJP has failed to win two bye-elections, but is claiming that it will win over 200 seats in the year-end Assembly polls. The BJP had pressed the entire cabinet into the campaign and misused power. The results show that Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan has lost the people's faith," he said, attributing the victory to Scindia's hard work.

Also read | Meghalaya, Nagaland Election 2018 live updates: 1 dead, 2 injured in clash in Akuluto constituency in Nagaland



State BJP chief Nandkumar Singh Chauhan pointed out that the victory margin of the Congress candidates had reduced.

"These were Congress seats, but the BJP's vote share has increased. In Mungaoli, the margin of victory for the Congress has been reduced to about 2,000 votes. In both the seats, the BJP's vote share has increased. The BJP is going to form the government for the fourth successive time (in the state) by winning the next Assembly election," he said.

For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.New Delhi:

Son of former Union Minister P Chidambaram and businessman Karti Chidambaram was sent to one-day police custody by a CBI special court in Delhi on Wednesday.

Karti Chidambaram, 46, was arrested at Chennai airport in a corruption case. He is accused of using his influence in the finance ministry to help INX Media get approval for foreign investments from three Mauritus-based investors during.

Karti told the media that his arrest was absolutely, political vendetta.

The CBI after his arrest had sought 15 days custody. The investigative agency told the court that he was arrested because he had not cooperated with the investigators.

CBI said, Karti Chidambaram made incorrect statements with respect to the evidences.

The investigative agency also claimed that an accused on February 17 in a statement recorded in front of a magistrate had stated that Karti Chidambaram had demanded $i million in foreign currency to settle INX case.

Karti replying to the court said, I should have been a Hindustan leaver. He referred to businessmen Nirav Modi and Vijay Mallya, who are accused of financial crimes and left the country.

Abhishek Manu Singhvi, Karti Chidambarams lawyer, rubbished the investigative agencys notion as bizarre fake.

Singhvi told the court that the CBI has not questioned any of the secretaries of Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) whom they claimed Karti had influenced nor filed a status report.

My client was interrogated for 22 hours when he was summoned. They have no questions left, Singhvi told the court.

CBI alleges that INX Media allegedly received approval from FIPB for Rs 4.62 crore investment but received Rs 305 crore by sale of shares at a premium of Rs 800 per share and roped in Kartis company, Chess Management Services Pvt Ltd, to solve the issue by influencing FIPB officials.

Also read: INX Media money laundering case: SC to hear Karti Chidambaram's anticipatory bail plea on Mar 6

The Congress describes Kartis arrest as vendetta and move to divert attention of public from Rs 12,636 crore Punjab National Bank fraud in which jeweller Nirav Modi is accused.

Congress spokesperson soon after the arrest tweeted, Classical diversionary tactic to hide Scams & Colossal Corruption that is being exposed on a daily basis, be it NiMo+Choksi, D.D. Jewellers and Rotomac. Modi Govt continues its vendetta against Sh. P. Chidambaram. Wont deter the Congress from bringing the truth to the people.

However, BJP spokesperson GVL Narasimha Rao said, Karti Chidambaram was arrested after months of investigation.

For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.New Delhi:

The heightened tension between India and Pakistan along the Line of Control and International Border due to the recent ceasefire violations by Pak forces Pir Panjal mountain range has led to the Armies of the nations exchanging artillery fire as a counterattack mechanism.

According to defense sources, it is the first time in nearly 15 years that the Army has used field artillery in this sector.

According to official data, there have been 411 ceasefire violations on the LoC so far this year. Of these, only eight have been in 15 Corps Zone, north of the Pir Panjal range.

These ceasefire violations, in Rampur and Uri in North Kashmir this month, saw the use of 105 mm artillery field guns, although for a short period. This is the first time that artillery guns have opened up in that sector since India and Pakistan agreed to a ceasefire on the LoC in November 2003.

In military warfare during peacetime, the Army uses its Artillery guns as a last defensive measure after all small arms fire and mortars held with the infantry have been used.

For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.New Delhi:

India on Wednesday said it had nothing to do with the presence of convicted Khalistan terrorist Jaspal Atwal at an event hosted by the Canadian High Commissioner in Mumbai or the invitation extended to him for a reception by the envoy here, asserting that any suggestion to the contrary is "baseless and unacceptable". India's firm assertion on the issue came a day after Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau faced questions from opposition in the Canadian Parliament over the controversy and reports that he was standing by a senior who suggested that factions within the Indian government were trying to sabotage his recent India visit. "We have seen the recent exchange in the Parliament of Canada regarding two invitations issued to Jaspal Atwal by the Canadian High Commissioner, for functions hosted in honour of the Canadian Prime Minister in India. "Let me categorically state that the Government of India, including the security agencies, had nothing to do with the presence of Jaspal Atwal at the event hosted by the Canadian High Commissioner in Mumbai or the invitation issued to him for the Canadian High Commissioner's reception in New Delhi," External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said. He added, "Any suggestion to the contrary is baseless and unacceptable." Kumar said this in response to a query on the controversy which erupted last week after Atwal was photographed with Trudeau's wife Sophie Gregoire at the event in Mumbai and then an invite extended to him to the dinner reception at the Canadian High Commissioner's residence in Delhi. Also read: Convicted Khalistani terrorist pic emerges with Justin Trudeau's wife, Canadian PM cancels dinner invite

As the invite for the reception to the convicted Khalistan terrorist triggered a huge controversy in the midst of Trudeau's visit, Canadian High Commissioner Nadir Patel cancelled the invite to Atwal. According to a report in Canadian newspaper 'The Star', A Trudeau is standing by a senior government official who suggested factions within the Indian government were involved in sabotaging the prime minister's visit to India. It said, however, Trudeau accepted the offer of Liberal MP Randeep Sarai to step down as chair of the Pacific Caucus, taking responsibility for the invite to Atwal. Also read: MEA starts probe to learn how Khalistan supporter Jaspal Atwal sneaked into India

A report in Vancouver Sun said that in a background briefing arranged by the Prime Minister's Office, a government official last week suggested that Atwal's presence was arranged by factions within the Indian government who wanted to prevent Prime Minister Narendra Modi from getting too cosy with the Canadian government, believing that it is not committed to a united India. Atwal was a Sikh separatist active in the banned International Sikh Youth Federation when he was convicted for attempting to murder Punjab minister Malkiat Singh Sidhu in Vancouver in 1986.

For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.New Delhi:

Afghanistan President Ashraf Ghani is calling on the Taliban to take part in peace talks to "save the country." Ghani spoke at the 2nd Kabul Process Conference attended by representatives from more than 20 countries and international organisations.

Ghani said the Afghan government will provide facilities and security for those Taliban who join the peace process.

He says: "We will consider the Taliban's view in the peace talks." A resurgent Taliban has been blamed for much of the increased violence in Afghanistan since US and NATO forces concluded combat missions in 2014.

A resurgent Taliban has been blamed for much of the increased violence in Afghanistan since US and NATO forces concluded combat missions in 2014.

The attacks have underscored the weaknesses of Afghan security forces.Ghani also called on government-to-government talks with Pakistan. The first Kabul Process conference was first held in June last year.

For all the Latest World News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.Get a briefing of all the latest stories from The News Record, delivered right to your inbox every Monday, Wednesday and Saturday.The Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) on Tuesday said it had impounded 177 units of vehicles and other items including unused tyres and food i...

The Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) on Tuesday said it had impounded 177 units of vehicles and other items including unused tyres and food items from smugglers through the Lagos border.

Comptroller, Federal Operations Unit Zone A, Ikeja, Lagos, Mr Mohammed Garba, disclosed this when members of the Senate Committee on Customs, Excise and Tarif visited the zone on oversight functions.





The visit was led by the Chairman of the Committee, Sen. Hope Uzodinma.





After the goods are seized, they go through the process of condemnation through the court.





The Customs and Excise Act provides that if officers of the service seized goods, they are going to be forfeited to the Federal Government.





What we do is to urge the court to grant an order forfeiting the good to the Federal Government for the purpose of auctioning, he said.





Garba added that NCS had also seized and condemned 59 vehicles including trucks.





We also condemned 33,408 unused tyres; 18,920 bags of foreign rice and 793 bale of second-hand clothes.





He added that 339 bags of new textile materials and 1,475 kegs of vegetable oil of 25 litres were also condemned.





Garba noted that the Federal Operation Unit was an anti-smuggling unit and not a revenue generating unit.





We make sure that goods that are not allowed to come in are not allowed and goods that adequate money for the government has not been collected, we ensure that such money is collected, Garba said.





On his part, Uzodinma frowned at the large number of goods and services seized which were yet to be destroyed.





He lamented that over N600 billion had been lost in the last three years as a result of importing cold rail.





Companies that use these rails have folded up. We will call on government to abrogate some of these policies if we want to grow this economy, he said.





The lawmaker assured the service of continuous support in line with the committees oversight responsibilities toward achieving improved service delivery.



Ekiti State Governor, Mr Ayodele Fayose, has alleged that Boko Haram has become a source of indirect treasury looting; saying Those benef...

Ekiti State Governor, Mr Ayodele Fayose, has alleged that Boko Haram has become a source of indirect treasury looting; saying Those benefiting from Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) scams, payment of ransom (in dollars) to free those abducted by the Boko Haram insurgents, among others will never wish to see the end of the insurgency.





The governor described the alleged withdrawal of military check-points from Dapchi and other communities, few days before 110 students of Government Girls Science Technical College (GGSTC) were abducted by Boko Haram, as major pointer to possible conspiracy in the abduction of the school girls and other dastardly acts of the insurgents, asking why no one had been questioned up till now despite conflicting claims by the army and police.









In a statement issued on Wednesday, by his Special Assistant on Public Communications and New Media, Lere Olayinka, Governor Fayose insisted that withdrawal of $1 billion from the Excess Crude Account by the federal government was a continuation of the use of fight against the insurgents to fleece the country.





He lamented that Nigerians were now getting to a state of helplessness on the insurgency; adding that Painfully, it appears we will have to live with Boko Haram for a very long time because waiting for this President Muhammadu Buhari led federal government to save Nigerians is a waste of time. They boasted that Boko Haram will be defeated within three months; it is now more than 30 months. All that they have told Nigerians is grammar. Boko Haram technically defeated, Boko Haram completely defeated and now Boko Haram completely degraded. 





The governor said; We have heard stories of alleged diversion of foods and relief materials meant for the Internally DisplacedPersons (IDPs) in the North-East to Chad and Niger Republic, about 200 tons of

dates donated by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia for distribution to the IDPs sold in the open market in Abuja and most importantly, use of the IDPs camps by top government officials to perpetrate monumental fraud. As long as fight against Boko Haram remains a business venture, providing cheap money for top officials of this government, the insurgency will continue.





The anti-corruption watchdog, Transparency International said last year that corruption in the military was weakening Nigerias efforts to battle Boko Haram.









In Transparency Internationals words; corrupt military officials have been able to benefit from the conflict through the creation of fake defense contracts, the proceeds of which are often laundered abroad in the UK, U.S. and elsewhere.





In its own report, the US Department of States Bureau for Counterterrorism and Countering Violent Extremism said that the inability of security agencies in Nigeria to share intelligence report because of animosity is affecting the success in the fight against Boko Haram.





The public disagreement between the army and police over the security arrangements that were in place in Dapchi and other communities in Yobe State a few days before the Boko Haram attack that led to the abduction of the 110 girls has further lend credence to the position of the US Department of States Bureau for Counterterrorism and

Countering Violent Extremism.



The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has accused President Muhammadu Buhari of abandoning parents of the kidnapped Dapchi schoolgirls to the...

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has accused President Muhammadu Buhari of abandoning parents of the kidnapped Dapchi schoolgirls to their fate.





The party said while the parents are wailing, the president is busy feasting with chieftains of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Abuja.





A total of 110 students of Government Science and Technical College in Dapchi, Yobe state, were abducted by Boko Haram insurgents who raided the school last week.





In a statement on Tuesday, Kola Ologbondiyan, PDP spokesman, said while the girls are still missing, Buhari and his party chieftains are busy with re-election agenda.





It is appalling that while the parents of the 110 abducted Dapchi schoolgirls are still wailing and insurgents driving into deeper recesses, the president and his party men are busy feasting in the presidential villa and plotting their 2019 campaigns; of course, with funds meant for the well-being of the people and our nation, the statement read.





He added that Buharis mandate of protecting lives had been reduced to a cosmetic dispatching of ministers and persons with no knowledge of security, on mere fact-finding missions.





Ologbondiyan said: Today, Nigerians are daily slaughtered and taken as captives because those who have the direct mandate to protect them are more interested in 2019 re-election ambition while the citizens are left to whatever fate befalls them.





Nigerians are worried that he has now allowed himself to be holed in the safety and luxury of the presidential villa while citizens are being slaughtered and taken captives by marauders and insurgents.





Painfully, Nigerians are yet to see any concrete action taken by the Buhari presidency to apprehend the perpetrators of the gruesome killings in Benue, Taraba, Zamfara, Adamawa, Borno, Plateau, Nasarawa and Yobe, among other states, where our citizens are being hacked down by marauders and insurgents.



Gun-wielding herdsmen on Tuesday attacked Gwamba community in the Numan Local Government Area of Adamawa State, razing houses and leaving many residents injured and displaced.The Nigerian Army, which confirmed the invasion, said that despite the deployment of troops in the community, the notorious herdsmen set the village ablaze and fled.The Director, Army Public Relations, Brig. Gen. Texas Chukwu, added that the troops trailed the herdsmen and arrested six of them, while 10 others were shot dead, after showing resistance.Our correspondent learnt that the herdsmen razed many houses, forcing residents of the community to flee from their homes into the bush.Our correspondent gathered that the troops were deployed from 101 Special Forces Battalion who were on the ongoing army exercise, Ayem Akpatuma, (Cat Race).According to the army, items recovered from the herdsmen included one AK-47 rifle, 41 rounds of 7.62mm special, one locally made rifle with 25 cartridges, one cutlass, looted clothes and one motorcycle.The army spokesperson said the herdsmen resisted the troops, who were forced to kill 10 of them.He said, Troops deployed in the Numan Local Government Area of Adamawa State swiftly responded to a distress call and supported troops at Gwamba village, which was under attack by herdsmen on Tuesday. Despite the swift reaction to rescue the village from destruction, the notorious herdsmen set the village ablaze before troops could get to the community.The troops trailed the herdsmen and arrested six of them at Garigiji village while trying to escape. During the process of the arrest, the herdsmen showed resistance, which made the alerted troops to engage them and kill 10 of them.Items recovered from the herdsmen are; one AK 47 rifle, 41 rounds of 7.62mm special, one locally-made rifle with 25 cartridges, one cutlass, looted clothes and one motorcycle.Meanwhile, the Theatre Command of Operation Lafiya Dole in the North-East, has said troops killed 35 Boko Haram terrorists in a joint operation with the defence forces from Cameroon.It was learnt that in the operation which took place at villages along the Nigeria-Cameroon border, the troops rescued 603 civilians held hostage and conveyed them to Bama and Pulka towns.According to the army, troops also cleared another two villages  Miyanti and Wudila  where three men, 121 women and 209 children held captive by the insurgents were freed.The Deputy Director, Army Public Relations, and Theatre Commands spokesperson, Col. Onyema Nwachukwu, said the troops recovered a large cache of ammunition.Nwachukwu said, Troops of Operation Lafiya Dole in the ongoing Operation Deep Punch II along with the Cameroon Defence Forces on Monday cleared the Boko Haram hideouts in Kusha-Kucha, Surdewala, Alkanerik, Magdewerne and Mayen villages, all along the Nigeria-Cameroon border.A former member of the Committee on Dialogue and Peaceful Resolution of Security Challenges in the North, Hajia Aisha Alkali Wakil (a.ka. M...

A former member of the Committee on Dialogue and Peaceful Resolution of Security Challenges in the North, Hajia Aisha Alkali Wakil (a.ka. Mama Boko Haram), yesterday asked the Abu Musab Al-Barnawi-led faction of Boko Haram to release the kidnapped 110 Dapchi girls.Her plea followed a lead that the Al-Barnawi faction had been operating around Yobe State and might have abducted the Government Girls Science College, Dapchi, students.Al-Barnawi (named as Habib at birth) is said to be the son of the late founder of Jamaat Ahl as-Sunnah lid-Dawah wal-Jihad (Boko Haram), Mohammed Yusuf, who was killed in police detention on July 30, 2009.Following irreconcilable differences on modus operandi of the sect, Al-Barnawi parted ways with Abubakar Shekau.Speaking with PRNigeria, Hajiya Wakil, a Northeast human rights activist with strong links with Boko Haram, said: This thing that is happening; is really breaking my heart. These children dont even know what they are doing. Some of them were not even born at the time this thing started.Wallahi, I will go after them, even if it will take my life to save these girls. They call me Mummy, but they dont listen to me.I keep on talking to them, begging them to lay down their arms and embrace peace but they will say Insha-Allah mummy we are going to stop. Sometimes they will say they are scared that they are going to be killed but I will tell them nobody is going to kill you.I heard you are now being called Abu Mussad Albarnawi but I know you as Habib and I am begging you to stop the killings and abductions. I have sent many messages to you. I dont know if you are getting these messages or you just chose to continue to hurt your mother and make her cry.Dear Habib, Nuru and others, I was told you may be the ones responsible for the kidnap of these girls. Whereever you may be, if you are listening to me, I beg you in the name of Allah to release the girls back to their families.What type of children will continue letting their mother to continue crying. Dear Habib, I pray Allah touches your heart and that of your colleagues to stop what you are doing. She pleaded with Al-Barnawi to lay down his arms alongside his members.Hajiya Wakil added: Please, come out. I will never deny you even if the whole world did. Those who know you know your heart. They know you are no longer interested in the fight anymore.Respected by many in her community, Aisha Wakil has been actively involved in efforts to end Boko Haram through her NGO Complete Care and Aid Foundation aimed at restoring peace to the Northeast by rehabilitating the youth against warped ideologies that mislead them to join the terror group.A security source said: Intelligence report indicated that the girls might have been abducted by Al-Barnawi faction and not the Shekau group which would have made political capital of the situation.The same Al-Barnawi faction, which is against killing of abducted hostages, recently released the three University of Maiduguri lecturers and 10 women from Lassa.The girls are suspected to have been moved to a desert camp of the Boko Haram faction in Niger Republic. Air surveillance has not picked the site.The Air Force has deployed 100 fighter jets in the search for the 110 schoolgirls abducted on February 19, the Federal Government said y...

The Air Force has deployed 100 fighter jets in the search for the 110 schoolgirls abducted on February 19, the Federal Government said yesterday.The students of the Government Girls Science and Technical College (GGSTC), Dapchi, Yobe State were abducted from their hostels by terrorists.Twenty of the jets have flown 200 hours as at Monday evening, according to a fact sheet on the search released by Minister of Information, Culture and National Orientation Lai Mohammed.Chief of Air Staff Air Marshal Sadique Abubakar relocated yesterday to Yobe State to personally superintend the search for the girls, the minister said.He also released the details of the missing girls. Eight are in JSS1, 17 in JSS2, 12 in JSS3, 40 in SS1, 19 in SS2 and 14 in SS3. The girls ages range from 11 to 19 years.The list, which also contains the contact address and phone number of each missing girl, was verified by a 26-member Screening Committee that include the Executive Secretary, State Teaching Service Board, Musa Abdulsalam; Director, Schools Management, Ministry of Education, Shuaibu Bulama; Principal of GGSTC, Adama Abdulkarim; the two Vice Principals, Ali Musa Mabu and Abdullahi Sule Lampo; Admission Officer Bashir Ali Yerima, and the Form Masters for all the classes, Mohammed said.National Security Adviser (NSA) Babagana Monguno, who constituted a 12-member committee to unravel the circumstances surrounding the abduction, gave the committee March 15 deadline to submit a report.Gen. Munguno, who visited Governor Ibrahim Gaidam in Damaturu, the Yobe State capital, yesterday announced that 80 other planes would join the search for the girls.He told the governor: The Nigerian Air Force has deployed 20 aircraft in Maiduguri and 80 others on their way. So far, 200 hours have been utilised in flying sorties looking for these girls.We have also been made aware of the fact that the Nigerian Air Force will step up its operation regardless of the very hard and severe weather condition.Giving further details of the security measures in place as well as efforts to get the girls back, Munguno said: Back in Abuja, we have set up our own machinery in dealing with this situation. All the security agencies have been working together. The situation room has been expanded  the one in the office of the National Security Adviser that is linked directly to all other security agencies but most importantly to the theatre command over here.I have made efforts with my counterparts across the region to try and work and share intelligence together and see how quickly we can bring to an end this very unfortunate situation. But, apart from that, we are also looking at other measures in dealing with past occurrences and how to forestall any future occurrence. Air Marshal Abubakar and some other military chiefs were with Munguno at the meeting with the governor, who praised President Muhammadu Buhari for his efforts so far and for sending the third high-level delegation to the state within one week of the girls abduction.Gaidam, nevertheless, said it is unfortunate that prior to the attack, the Army units stationed in Dapchi and Bayamari towns were removed. We are, therefore, of the opinion that there is no reason whatsoever to take that untimely action since Dapchi is the headquarters of one of the frontline local governments and Bayamari too is one of the major settlements close to the neighbouring Republic of Niger associated with porous terrain that should be protected.Munguno assured that the government will continue to push harder, dealing with all organisations  local and international  and engaging with every group that comes forward to see that these girls are brought back safely to their parents. This is a commitment that the government has made.The NSA committee to be inaugurated in Abuja today will be chaired by a military officer of the rank of Major General. It comprises one senior Provost each from the Army, the Navy and the Air Force; representatives of the National Intelligence Agency (NIA); Defence Intelligence Agency (DIA); the Police; Department of State Services (DSS); Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC); two representatives of the Yobe State Government and a representative of the Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA).The terms of reference of the Committee include ascertaining the circumstances surrounding the abduction of the girls, confirming the presence, composition, scale and disposition of security emplaced in Dapchi as well as in GGSTC before the incident and suggesting measures that can lead to the location and rescue of the girls.The National Security Adviser, (NSA) Maj.-Gen. Babagana Monguno (rtd) accompanied by the Chief of Air Staff, Air Marshal Sadique Abubakar and the Theater Commander, Operation Lafiya Dole, Maj.-Gen. Nicholas Rogers and other senior military officers, on Tuesday joined the search team for the Dapchi schoolgirlsNewsmen report that the NSA-led search team for the missing schoolgirls moved to areas around the Nigeria-Niger border before returning to Damaturu, the Yobe State capital for a courtesy visit to Governor Ibrahim Gaidam.At the Government House, Damaturu, Gen. Monguno said the Federal Government would not relent in its efforts until the schoolgirls are found and reunited with their families.Giving an update on ongoing efforts to locate and rescue the abducted schoolgirls, the NSA said the Nigerian Air Force has deployed 20 aircraft to the region to support efforts to rescue the girls.According to him, in spite of the harsh weather, the Nigerian Air Force has so far conducted 20 sorties and a total of 200 hours of flying time, in search of the schoolgirls.The Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA) is directly relating with security agencies and cooperating with other contacts across the border, while the situation room has been expanded to intensify the search for the girls, the NSA added.Gov. Gaidam, in his response, thanked the Federal Government for its swiftness in searching for the whereabouts of the schoolgirls and urged government to deploy more security personnel to schools in the area since it remains one of the frontline states in the fight against insurgency.He said there should be no complacency in the efforts to decimate Boko Haram insurgents from their strongholds in the northeast and in any other location in Nigeria.Also during his visit to the northeast, the NSA commissioned an office complex and residential accommodation built for officers and airmen at the newly established 171 Nigerian Air Force (NAF) Detachment in Monguno town, Borno State.Gen. Monguno said the new NAF unit would add value to the overall fight against insurgency especially in the northern part of Borno.According to him, the completion of these projects is a milestone in NAFs continuous expansion drive to project airpower in all the nook and crannies of the country and to provide Nigeria with additional military options in conducting aerial surveillance of the countrys border with Niger Republic to curb terrorist activities and other criminal groups.On his part, the Chief of Air Staff, Air Marshal Sadique Abubakar, said the NAF detachment is meant to enhance the endurance limitations of airpower in the militarys counter-insurgency operations in the northeast and especially in northern Borno.According to him, the establishment of this unit will expand as well as increase the reach of NAF platforms in operations around border areas.The projects commissioned by the NSA include an office complex, a block of 11 flats for airmen, a block of flats for Officers and a newly constructed helipad.Members of the House of Representatives have reacted to the rejection of Nigerian Peace Corps Bill by President Muhammad Buhari.

Members of the House of Representatives have reacted to the rejection of Nigerian Peace Corps Bill by President Muhammad Buhari.





The President had, through a letter dated 25th January 2018 and submitted to the House yesterday, cited financial implications and duplication of duties of existing security agencies, as reasons for withholding his assent.





Reacting to the development, a member of the House of Representatives from Delta state, Hon. Ossai Nicholas Ossai, said the decision of the President would further aggravate the security challenges in the country, as the main objective of empowering the youths would have been defeated.





Ossai, who spoke our Correspondent in his office on Tuesday, said the House would sit and x-ray the reasons that the president had given to see whether they are reasonable or probably not.





If the reasons given by Mr president are not germane, Ossai vowed that he will personally lead a lobbying process to make sure the House vetos him.





Between now and tomorrow (Wednesday) be rest assured that well come out with our opinion, he said.





Similarly, the lawmaker representing Mushin II constituency of Lagos state, Yusuf Ayinla, said the issue must be looked at from the angle of unemployment.





The lawmaker who is of the All Progressives Congress (APC), said the Bill will help tackle the menace of unemployment in Nigeria.





That Bill will help the President himself for lifting zero employment to a better place, he said.





Though the glory would have gone to the President if he had appended his signature as one of his campaign promises to create jobs for the youths, Ayinla said, but it is now a free opportunity for the National Assembly to take all the glory.









He said the National Assembly will have to sit down and look at the reasons for the presidents refusal to assent the bill and return it to him.





He, however, said if it means overriding the President, he will wholeheartedly support and append his signature, saying he would not contribute to impeding whatever would benefit the youths, whom he said constitute largely to his constituency in Lagos.





Another APC lawmaker, Rt. Hon Goni Bukar Lawan representing Bursari/Gaida/Yunusar federal constituency of Yobe State, said withholding assent was not an end to a Bill under democracy.





Lawan, who hails from Dapchi, where over 100 school girls were abducted last week, said the abduction would have been averted if there was presence of internal security in the school premises.





He acknowledged that, the Bill establishing Peace Corps gives the youths mandate to man schools across the country for intelligence gathering and neighbourhood watch, which does not overlap with any existing security agency.





Aside the Petroleum Investment and Governance Bill (PIGB) which was passed by the Senate last year, the Nigerian Peace Corps Establishment Bill 2017 appears to be the most popular legislative piece and one of the greatest achievements of the 8th Assembly.





Recall that, during the incarcerations of the National Commandant of Peace Corps of Nigeria, Amb. Dr. Dickson Akoh, in the hands of security agencies last year, the Speaker of House of Representatives, Rt. Hon. Yakubu Dogara, openly vowed that the National Assembly would not hesitate to override Mr. President, should he refuse to sign the Bill.





If the president doesnt assent for whatever reason to the Peace Corps Bill, we are at liberty to recall it back to parliament and muster the two-thirds in the House and Senate and pass it in spite of Mr. Presidents veto, Dogara had said.





Dogara said the parliament will not be distracted by the antics of existing security agencies, adding that the country cannot spend too much on security.





He said the police and other security agencies were acting in a manner similar to how they treated the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, NSCDC, in the run up to its adoption by the Olusegun Obasanjo administration.





Security agencies did not only oppose the establishment of the NSCDC, its founder, Ade Abolurin, was also arrested on numerous occasions.





Today, Mr. Dogara said, the NSCDC had become a force for good in the country, perhaps even more than the police.





That was the same argument when the Civil Defence Bill was before the House, that it could not be funded, that they were divulging some of the powers of the police to the Civil Defence, that it would never work.

At the end of the day all these were surmounted and now we have the Civil Defence that in some cases some citizens have said that they are more dependable than the conventional police.





I see them everywhere I travel to and they have become a pride of the society, Dogara had said.





Though the letter transmitted to the National Assembly on withholding of assent was only read on the floor of the House, it is believed that the Senate receive the letter also.





As a legislative arm of government, the National Assembly is empowered by the provisions of section 58(5) of the 1999 constitution as amended, to override the Presidents veto on Bills.





Section 58 (5) says, Where the President withholds his assent and the bill is again passed by each House by two-thirds majority, the bill shall become law and the assent of the President shall not be required.





Order 12(b)(c) of the standing rules of the House of Representatives (2016), also provides that, the rejected Bill could be looked upon by the House, (through a motion) and if supported by two-thirds of the Reps, the Bill is proclaimed law without the assent of the President.





The first test of this constitutional oversight of the National Assembly came to play in 2001, when the then President Olusegun Obasanjo withheld his assent to the Niger Delta Development Commission Establishment Bill (NDDC).





The National Assembly tested their constitutional power and the Bill became law.



No one knew it was going to be a sad day at school. The blackboard, facing the empty class in Tech 3A, still bore, in the teachers hand...

No one knew it was going to be a sad day at school. The blackboard, facing the empty class in Tech 3A, still bore, in the teachers handwriting, 19/2/18. The topic, Weathering, which they learnt in geography class that day has not yet been erased from the board. And so is their memory of the attack.





At about 5.30pm that Monday, the whistle for the dinner blew. According to the similar accounts of seven girls who spoke to TheCable, the students rushed to the dining to have their meal. The food on the menu was maize and baobab soup.





And that seems to be the abrupt end of this school renowned to be the best science school for girls in the state. Some ate theirs while others kept it for later. Shortly after, the Muslims among them quickly had their ablution and rushed to the mosque in response to the call for the 6.30-7pm prayers.And that seems to be the abrupt end of this school renowned to be the best science school for girls in the state.





Its been over a week since suspected Boko Haram insurgents attacked Government Girls Science and Technical College, Dapchi, in Bursari local government area of Yobe state, north-east Nigeria. While the search for the 110 girls continues, their lucky colleagues are telling their story of the close shave.





THE GUNSHOTS





Ajara Lawal, a 14-year-old SS2 student at the school hostel. She is here to pick some of her belongings.





With all eagerness to tell the world what has happened to her, she says: We heard gunshots. We were in the mosque. At first, we thought it was an explosion from the transformer. But the shooting continued, so all of us left the mosque and moved towards the school gate. When we got to the gate, we saw some people in soldiers uniform, but they dont look like soldiers, and then we ran back. Our principal was crying, she told us we are not safe that we should run towards the fence and run away.





Amina Abubakar Mohamadu a 16-year-old, SS2 student, who has now returned to her fathers house at Damaturu, says she just had her dinner when we started hearing shooting. We all ran out, but the principal told us to start running, that we are not safe.





Another 14-year-old student of SS2, Yagana Mustapha, said she was one of the girls at the mosque, when they heard the gun. We ran to the gate. Then they (Boko Haram) lied saying Boko Haram is attacking the village. Come, Come, I want to help you.





TOOL OF DECEPTION

Their description of the insurgents fits that of those camouflaging to be what they are not. They say they wore military camouflages, but no boots. They drove three canter trucks, painted in army colour and parked outside the school gate. Other witnesses say the insurgents had first attacked the police station and the hospitals. This sent almost all the villagers scampering for safety.





Ajara recalls: They were wearing soldiers uniform and they said Come, come, we are here to rescue you. I even stepped my leg into the car, but my elder sister called and said dont you see that there is Allahu Akbar is written on their car, that was how I ran out.





Me too, Amina adds. They deceived us. They came with three vans in army colours and they had army uniform, but they didnt have army boots, that is how some of us identified them  through the slippers and their military trouser which did not reach the ground  three-quarter length.





Yagana confirms, revealing: They wore soldiers uniform. I saw their car. They wrote Allahu Akbar on it. That is why I did not run into it.





WE SCALED FENCE

Spilled food apparently from the pandemonium

Sadia Mohammed Sanni, the third of 15 children, wants to be a doctor. She is currently in SS2.

Immediately the incident started, we started running. Our teachers helped us to cross the fence. I was raised to scale over the fence and ran to the neighbours house, she narrates.

The distance the girls must have covered to scale over the school fence cannot be less than 5 kilometres giving the huge landmass of the school.

A look at the frame of Ajara and Yagana one would consider them too frail to scale over the fence, but in this matter, they would rather sustain a fracture than be in the custody of Boko Haram.

We ran, ran, Ajara, who speaks through an interpreter, gesticulates with her hand. Almost 5 kilometres.

Our teachers tried for us. They helped us to climb the fence, Yagana adds.





The state of confusion still at the hostel paints a clearer picture of the pandemonium that must have ensued that evening. The windows and doors, through which the girls jumped out, are still ajar. The slippers they removed to aid their race are still gathered at the hostels square. On the wooden lockers are cups and bowls placed upside down. Looking out of stacked metal clothes boxes are red, pink, green checked house-wears, towels, pants and sweaters  some handing loosely on the iron of the double bunk bed.





Plates of food, perhaps the last meal served that evening, are spilled on the shelf. Molds are now comfortably growing on the cupboards and reading tables. Plastic buckets and kettles are upturned, while mattresses, praying mats, passport-sized photos, books and seedlings (for agric experiment) are all strewn on the floor.





Some ceiling fans are still rolling in the empty dormitories, the clock is still ticking while the schools solar inverter is still humming and providing light to a deserted school.





WE SLEPT IN THE BUSH

Amina is still horrified by the experience. Her father, a civil servant in Damaturu, says in the past one week, she often jerks in her sleep. She wants to become an engineer. She had to sleep in the bush that night, a price to pay for having an ambition.





I slept in the bush that night. One of my friends was bitten by a snake. Some ran into houses. The next day, the local government chairman of Babangida and Dapchi came to see us and bring some of us back to our parents, she recalls.





The girls says a teacher had a miscarriage as a result of the rush, while another had a fracture. TheCable could not get any of the teachers to speak with since the school is closed.





WILL THEY GO BACK TO SCHOOL AGAIN?

Fatima doesnt want to go to school anymore

On her colleagues ran into the car that belonged to the insurgents, Yagana says they did they not know they are not soldiers. They thought they will help them. That is why they entered the car. Some them were crying and shouting.





While she is grateful to God for her escape, she prays for her friends return.





I am happy to escape, but I feel sad for my friends and I wish them to come back, she says.





Amina, the first of her parents three daughters, says she cannot return to that school.





I cant, because the time they came, they told us that they are coming again. They (Boko Haram) said this is the first time they are in that town, they didnt know there is school like that, if they know, they will do more than that. So now, as I know they are coming back, I cannot go back there, she says, but she is willing to go to another school.





Mariam Mohammed Miko, 15, is the seventh child of 12 children. She said though she hopes to be a health technologist so that she can help her community, she is currently discouraged and not willing to return to school for now.





Fatima Mohammed Bilau, the 10th child in a family of 27, shares a similar fear with Mariam. She is 15 years now, but she has at the moment given up on education.





Yagana, however, says she is willing to go back to another school if the government provides security.





I will go back to school. But let the government protect us, she says.

culled: TheCableSen. Dino Melaye has taken a swipe at his party for failing to meet the expectations of Nigerians. .

Sen. Dino Melaye has taken a swipe at his party for failing to meet the expectations of Nigerians. .The senator spoke after he was conferred with the Legislator of the Year 2017 by Daily Asset Newspaper in Abuja.He said: The APC government has become Public Complaint Commission. We have more complains in the APC and even in the Presidency than service rendered. We cannot as a people continue like this. .The President said two days ago we should all embrace peace but I want to say without fear or favour that there can be no peace without justice. There is hunger in the land, there is poverty in the land, and there is unemployment in the land. .A lot of decision has not been taken; yet we say we want peace. The primary objective of government is the security and welfare of the people. There is no security, there is no welfare.Nigeria is not only sick presently but equally suffers from regretful congenital abnormality. There is therefore a serious need for amelioration, palliation and correction. .Democracy will continue to be government of the people by the people for the people but what we have today is greedocracy which is government of the greedy by the greedy and for the greedy.I delivered a lecture recently at the University of Lagos and some students from very wealthy homes, two of them said they didnt care who the president of the country is and that it was none of their business because their parents were rich.I said to them that when the poor have nothing to eat, they will start eating the rich. A time will come when it will be difficult to drive your expensive cars on the streets. .There was no kidnapping before, and kidnapping is seen as the redistribution of both ill-gotten and legitimate wealth. People now take from the rich and appropriate to themselves.The son of Mr. Italy might have had a change of heart on the son of Fred Trump.

Maybe.



It's not really clear.

What we do know is that Perillo Tours appeared to backpedal on its oversized Trump stance a day after NJ Advance Media reported the existence of a giant anti-Trump message visible in a satellite image of the roof of the tour operator's Woodcliff Lake headquarters.

"Dump Trump," the sign boldly declared, along with the url for CEO Steve Perillo's website, Steve.com

Perillo, 62, has not returned several messages left for him over two days. He is away and not available to talk, one of his executives said.

But despite not being available to talk, on Wednesday he wrote a blog post about the rooftop political statement.

"Please understand that this was put up during the 2016 election as an expression of my personal political beliefs," Perillo wrote. "It has since been taken down."

He added: "We can all agree that America is the greatest country in the world (and Italy is a close second)!"

But it's still unclear when the sign went up or when it was taken down.

Company VP Diana Ferro says Perillo "never wanted the sign to become public" and that Perillo Tours is aghast that it did.

"We've been receiving calls from media everywhere," she said.

Also, she told NorthJersey.com, Trump has been a boon for the company.

"Our business has actually increased since Trump has been in office," said Ferro. "(Perillo) fully supports the presidency."

But while the company claims to be a fan of Trump, Steve Perillo's social media posts told a much different story, criticizing the president as late as January. By Wednesday afternoon, however, his Facebook page had been scrubbed clean of references to the president.

The VP claims Perillo placed the sign on the roof because "he thought no one would see it there."

"He didn't put it on the front or the side of the building where people walking by could see," she said.

She said that yes, he was aware of aircraft and satellites.

Anthony G. Attrino may be reached at tattrino@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @TonyAttrino. Find NJ.com on Facebook.The two people killed when an alleged drunk driver ran a red light and slammed into their vehicle on Sunday afternoon were on their way home from an early dinner date in Cumberland County, according to a family member.

"I'm still in shock," Sharon Ferrillo, the daughter of 82-year-old Lois Morgan, who died in the crash, said Wednesday. "I can't get over it."

Morgan and 81-year-old Henry Mazzoni, both of Bridgeton, died shortly after the crash in Hopewell Township, according to New Jersey State Police.

Lois Morgan, 82.

Charles Hunter, 48, of Bridgeton, was arrested at the scene and charged with driving while intoxicated, police said.

The crash has devastated the families of Morgan and Mazzoni, bringing a sudden end to the lives of two lively and independent seniors who had grown close after the deaths of their spouses.

Ferrillo said her mother had befriended Mazzoni following the October 2016 death of her husband, Paul Morgan.

The pair would go out to eat or visit each other to talk, and she referred to Mazzoni as Morgan's "gentleman friend."

Morgan had just started to get her life back together after grieving the loss of her husband, Ferrillo said. Her mother could drive and was self-sufficient, spending time with her friends in Hopewell Place Senior Apartments, where she had recently moved. Mazzoni lived in a home on Rosedale Drive, records show.

Ferrillo said her mother loved art, playing cards and attending Bible study. She was devoted to her family. She cared for her grandchildren during the day as they grew up, and enjoyed spending time with her five grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.

"She was so full of joy. She always smiled, always," Ferrillo said of her mother. "But this guy didn't rob her of her joy, because she's in heaven right now. He just changed her address."

A family member of Mazzoni's reached Wednesday morning declined to comment, explaining that the tragedy was too fresh and the family needed time to grieve privately.

Ferrillo said she did not know Mazzoni well, but that he seemed like a genuinely nice person the few times that they met.

She said she is having a hard time understanding what led Hunter to allegedly drive while under the influence at 4 p.m. in the afternoon.

"If you're going to drink, just stay home," she said. "What if one of my grandkids was with her?"

Hunter appeared in court Monday and was ordered detained, according to court records. He is scheduled to appear for a motion hearing Thursday morning.

"I'll never forget it, but I as a person I forgive it," Ferrillo said. "You killed someone who was a mother, a grandmother, a great-grandmother, who was just living her life coming home from dinner, because you decided to not follow the rules. My mother is dead, and I'll never see her again."

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Just about everyone has taken a drunken late-night Uber ride they might regret, or not even remember. But one New Jersey native recently took the blackout Uber ride of a lifetime.

After a night of partying with buddies in Morgantown, W.V. last Friday, Kenny Bachman thought he had called an Uber to take him back to where he was staying near West Virginia University's campus.

Instead, he woke up in the passenger seat of a 2011 Toyota Sienna minivan next to an Uber driver that was taking him home. Not where he was staying with friends in West Virginia, but home home.

Like, where he lives. In Gloucester County. More than 300 miles away.

"I just woke up," Bachman told NJ Advance Media in a phone interview. "And I'm thinking, 'Why the f--- am I in the car next to some random ass dude I don't even know?"

The price? A hefty $1,635.93.

"Afterwards I had it fully sink in," Bachman said. "Once the ride ended and I saw how much it was when I was like 'Alright, this is insane, that's just crazy.'"

A $3.94 base fare, a $2.35 booking fee, $696.95 for distance, $115.90 for time. Things were more expensive because Bachman unintentionally ordered an UberXL, which can hold up to six passengers and is exponentially more expensive than the typical UberX. Still, it would have been just $819.14 -- if not for the surge pricing, which doubled every charge except the booking fee.

Bachman says he passed out in the van and after two hours woke up to the driver telling him they were on their way to New Jersey. Couldn't he just get out of the car once he realized what was happening?

"No, because what am I, just going to get dropped off on the side of the road?" Bachman says.

The Uber driver didn't have money for tolls, Bachman says, and was fined at every tollbooth. When they did get back to New Jersey, Bachman went to a CVS in Sewell and got cash back to give him money for tolls on the way back.

Bachman got back to New Jersey safe and sound. He even gave his driver five stars. But he challenged the charge; he claims he never put in the home address for the Uber. Bachman says the driver had his phone, even having answered a FaceTime call from a friend while he was asleep.

"Obviously I sent the Uber, I don't know where to, I know I wouldn't send it to my house, I knew where I was," Bachman said. "He was on my phone, without me allowing it."

Uber confirmed that the ride did indeed occur and that the driver took the rider to the destination he requested. Uber also connected with Bachman and resolved the matter, which ended with him agreeing to pay the fare.

A screenshot of the ride Kenny Bachman took from West Virginia to New Jersey, costing more than $1,600.

Correction: An earlier version of this story misidentified the make and model of the Uber car.

Jeremy Schneider may be reached at jschneider@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @J_Schneider. Find NJ.com on Facebook.Investigators probing a Nutley teenager's alleged social media threat possibly against the local high school discovered an ominous Instagram video wasn't the first disturbing media he'd shared online, an Essex County assistant prosecutor told a judge on Wednesday.

During their investigation, Assistant Prosecutor Alexander Albu said, detectives discovered a video Joseph Rafanello, 18, had posted online showing a replica of a school built in the popular video game Minecraft, in which online players can construct their own worlds out of Lego-like blocks.

In the video, a player's avatar can be seen walking through the virtual school, complete with lockers, Albu said. At some point in the video, he said, the avatar opened fire on people in front of the lockers.

Officials' discovery of Rafanello's Instagram video post, which featured footage both of him firing a gun at a shooting range and a picture of a school building, prompted a daylong closure of all district schools on Feb. 16.

Joseph Rafanello (Ed Murray | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com)

At the same hearing Wednesday, Rafanello's defense attorney, Alexandra Briggs of the state Public Defender's Office, said there was "absolutely no evidence that my client is the person who created (the Instagram) video," only that he had posted it on his account.

Superior Court Judge Peter V. Ryan ultimately declined prosecutors' motion to keep Rafanello jailed pending trial on a charge of creating a false public alarm, but ordered him placed on home detention with an electronic monitoring device.

In addition to the Minecraft video, Albu said, investigators found a number of other social media messages in which Rafanello joked about death or shared news of mass shootings.

School officials have said Rafanello will not be allowed to return.

"Frankly," Albu told the court, "we're lucky that we're here on a false public alarm today, and it's not something else."

Briggs said she had received numerous letters of support for Rafanello, including from the minister of his church, who wrote that he had known the teenager for years and never had a problem with his behavior.

The attorney said Briggs had been accepted to a program at Bergen Community College to study game testing, which he wanted to pursue as a career.

To detain Rafanello, she said, would be "I think, a big injustice."

As a condition of Rafanello's pre-trial release, Ryan barred him from having any access to firearms. Albu said Rafanello's father, a gun owner, has voluntarily turned over his firearms to the Nutley Police Department for safekeeping.

The judge on Wednesday denied a further request by the prosecutor that Rafanello's father also be made to turn over to police his firearms purchaser ID card.

Rafanello's parents left the courthouse without commenting after the hearing.

Thomas Moriarty may be reached at tmoriarty@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter at @ThomasDMoriarty. Find NJ.com on Facebook.

Have a tip? Tell us. nj.com/tipsInside the suburban South Orange Maplewood School District, parents for years have accused the district of systemically depriving African American students of access to challenging classes.

Now they've taken their grievances to federal court.

The Black Parents Workshop filed a civil rights lawsuit against the district on Tuesday alleging the decades-long practice of placing students in tiered classes based on test scores or their perceived abilities (known as leveling) was discriminatory and disproportionately hurt African American students.

The suit also accuses the district of maintaining de facto segregation with one predominantly black elementary school and five elementary schools that are overwhelming white. That percolates through to the district's high school, where black students are more likely to be placed in lower-level courses when compared to their white peers, the suit said.

"What we have in the South Orange Maplewood School District is a public school system where children are segregated by race in its elementary schools, (and) experience few black teachers in their classrooms," said Walter Fields, chairman of the parent advocacy group that filed the suit.

"African-American children are subjected to punishment for offenses that their white peers also commit but receive lesser punishment, and where all students walk through the same front door at Columbia High School but are then segregated by race in classrooms due to the district's embrace of tracking and leveling."

A spokeswoman for the district said it had not yet been served with the lawsuit and said the district could not comment on pending litigation.

During a school board meeting last week, the district moved to eliminate 11 levels in math and science courses at the high school and middle schools, instead offering academic or honors courses for most core STEM classes.

At the meeting, Interim Superintendent Thomas Ficarra said it was time to start making changes, given that 2016-17 data show 65 percent of African American students were enrolled in the two lowest levels of Geometry, and none met expectations on the state standardized exam.

About 7,000 students attend the school district from South Orange and neighboring Maplewood. The district is 32 percent black, 53 percent white, 7 percent Hispanic and 4 percent Asian, state data show.

According to one statistic in the complaint, in ninth grade, there were nine black students in advanced geometry in 2016-17, and 10 black students the following year. For white students, those numbers were dramatically higher: 61 ninth-graders enrolled in the course in 2016-17, and 89 in 2017-18.

"We know income inequality and the wealth gap is often born or exacerbated in the classroom," Fields said. "We do a disservice to our children when we allow these disparities in educational outcomes, caused by the policies and practices of a school district, to persist."

In 2014, the district reached an agreement with the U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights to fix the racial disparities in advanced level courses. ACLU-NJ also filed a complaint against the district for its tracking practices dating to the mid-1990s.

The complaint alleges not much has changed for the district's black students since then. The practices, it claims, have also affected students with disabilities. Data released last fall show policies meant to increase access to rigorous coursework have not offered adequate support for students, the suit said. Students are still tracked into different ability groups even though the New Jersey Education Association has opposed leveling, it said.

One of the student slave auction poster assignment at South Mountain Elementary School last year.

The suit also cited racially insensitive assignments last year in which fifth grade social studies students were assigned to draw pictures of slave auction posters; in another school students made a video of a mock slave auction and "sold" a black student.

"It is time to end the delays and the piece-meal efforts that never dismantle the systemic elements that result in these racially discriminatory practices," Robert Tarver, the attorney representing the parent group, said.

Read the lawsuit here and here.

Karen Yi may be reached at kyi@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter at @karen_yi or on Facebook.New Jersey's largest health insurance company announced Wednesday it will share some of the proceeds from the newly enacted federal tax cuts by returning $150 million to policyholders this year, and devoting another $125 million to expand community health services over the next five years.

Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey is expected to receive $550 million over five years, the amount of money the Newark-based not-for-profit company paid under the Alternative Minimum Tax since 1986. The Tax Cut and Jobs Act of 2017 President Trump signed into law ended the tax.

"Horizon is entirely focused on serving our 3.8 million members. In keeping with our long-standing mission to operate for the benefit of our customers, this plan seeks to provide to them this year, in the most direct way possible, $150 million in relief," Horizon President and CEO Kevin P. Conlin said.

"Members will also benefit from the substantial investments this plan makes to expand access to care, improve health care quality and lower costs."

Horizon didn't say how customers would get the money. The auto insurance industry is permitted to give rebates when profits exceed losses.

The company must be careful it doesn't do something perceived as a scheme to attract more members, said Sen. Joseph Vitale, D-Middlesex, chairman of the Senate health committee. If state law doesn't permit Horizon to give out rebates, Vitale said he would work to change the law.

"It's a good thing Horizon has chosen to use the tax break in this way," Vitale said. "Some companies use it to buy more stock. I don't know what other plans will do; they are national and Horizon is based in New Jersey. But this could be a good model for them."

In a statement, Gov. Phil Murphy said he "commends Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield for reinvesting these profits into New Jersey through efforts such as increasing access to primary care in underserved communities, more fully connecting their members to behavioral and mental health programs, and strengthening substance abuse prevention.

"They are setting the bar for how corporations can responsibly reinvest in our communities," Murphy's statement said.

It was only a year ago that Gov. Chris Christie issued a challenge to Horizon to share $300 million from its reserve fund to help pay for drug treatment programs as part of his campaign against opioid addiction.

Horizon executives refused, saying they money belonged to its policyholders. The fight led to a standoff with the Legislature that delayed the approval of the state budget, triggering a three-day government shutdown in July.

Horizon's generosity has nothing to do with Christie, company spokesman Kevin McArdle said.

"That debate appears to have been settled with the enactment of S2 (legislation that requires more financial transparency from Horizon)," McArdle said, "which affirmed that Horizon operates for the benefit of our policyholders."

As for the $125 million in expanded services over five years, Conlin's announcement outlined various strategies to spend the money, ranging from expanding primary care, substance abuse treatment, and outreach to connect more policy holders with mental health care.

Praise poured in for Horizon, a $12 billion company which is also the state's largest Medicaid provider.

"Since the passage of the massive GOP Tax Plan, we have seen countless corporations funnel their savings to shareholders and wealthy executives. It is refreshing to see a corporation, such as Horizon, place New Jersey working families before profits by truly passing on savings to working families and investing in much needed services we all benefit from," said Analilia Mejia, executive director of New Jersey Working Families Alliance.

"Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield's reinvestment will put money in the pockets of middle class families, help provide better care for New Jerseyans, and help grow our state's economy," said U.S. Rep. Tom MacArthur, R-3rd Dist. "I worked extensively on this tax cut bill and this is another example of why the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act is good for families across our state."

Susan K. Livio may be reached at slivio@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @SusanKLivio. Find NJ.com Politics on Facebook.BAYONNE -- The school district and police department have begun implementing a new security measure at Bayonne schools in the wake of the Parkland, Florida school massacre two weeks ago.

On Tuesday, police officers began a "park and walk" program where officers go to each of the district's 12 schools -- as well as Marist High School, All Saints Catholic Academy and Beacon Christian Academy -- and patrol inside and out.

In a letter sent Monday to parents and faculty, Interim Superintendent Michael Wanko outlined the new measure the schools would be taking to increase security, adding it was just the "first step" and that additional measures are in the works.

"What the officers are doing is they're checking in with school administrators and doing walk-throughs of the schools during various times during the day," police Chief Sisk said. "That's in place of course for security purposes, but also to put the students, administrators and other staff members at ease -- seeing an officer there."

Officers have traditionally been on traffic duty outside Bayonne High School during mornings and afternoons to keep the areas clear. Since the deadly shooting in Florida, however, police have kept officers on stationary posts in the area.

The "park and walk" program is just a preliminary measure, officials said. On Tuesday, Wanko and Assistant Superintendent Kenny Kopacz, who oversees district safety, met with Mayor Jimmy Davis, Public Safety Director Robert Kubert and Sisk to discuss additional measures that could be adopted by the school district.

As part of a more permanent politcy, the police department will soon begin hiring part-time, retired officers and assign one to each of the district's schools as a permanent security guard.

These guards will need to have been retired for less than five years, and must undergo school resource officer training, a program that teaches officers school-specific enforcement and how to operate in a school environment.

They will also be trained to deal with active shooter scenarios, a measure the police department plans to expand to the entirety of the department's personnel, Sisk said.

"We're moving forward with that and we hope to have that up and running as soon as possible," Sisk said. "I don't have a hard timeline, but I can tell you this is a priority and we're moving on it with earnest."

Meanwhile, Wanko -- author of the book "Safe Schools: Crisis Prevention and Response" -- has suggested additional measures including adding metal detectors at the district's elementary schools and establishing staging areas in the school's front entrances where all visitors would have to go through first.

School officials will explain these measures in more detail during the Board of Education meeting tonight, Wanko said.

These measures come in the wake of the Parkland, Florida massacre on Feb. 14 that left 17 dead. Schools across the state and the country have been edge as a result of the tragedy.

Just last week, Bayonne had its own security scare when a social media post circulated among students after a student in New Mexico threatened "BHS students." Authorities determined no threat was made against Bayonne High School, but hundreds of parents descended upon the school to sign their kids out.

President Trump, meanwhile, has suggested arming teachers to avoid future massacres.

"This is the age we're living in now," Wanko said. "I'm the educational leader of the district, but now I'm also the person responsible for the safety and welfare of all of the students and faculty members... so that has to be one of my duties now as well. That's how things have changed in this world."

Corey W. McDonald may be reached at cmcdonald@jjournal.com. Follow him on Twitter @coreymacc. Find The Jersey Journal on Facebook.JERSEY CITY -- Flabbergasted by the testimony of the man charged with raping a 22-year-old Hoboken woman last year, a Hudson County prosecutor asked the jury today whether it has ever heard "a more unbelievable story."

Hudson County Assistant Prosecutor John Mulkeen used his closing statement to refute earlier testimony from Marcos Blandino, the 52-year-old Passaic man on trial for two counts of aggravated sexual assault and burglary.

Blandino testified today that on April 23, 2017 he saw the woman for the first time as she returned to her Clinton Street apartment. She invited him in, he said, stripped, and advanced on him sexually. He said he thought she might be drunk, rejected her and walked out.

"Ask yourselves, in your entire lives, have you yet heard such an unbelievable story as you heard from the mouth of the defendant this day?" Mulkeen asked the jury in his closing argument this afternoon.

The woman told the jury a very different story when she took the witness stand during the trial.

She said she didn't notice Blandino until she found he was right next to her at her apartment door. She said he pushed her into the apartment and onto the floor where he pulled down her pants and underwear and raped her as she yelled for help.

"This is not a whodunit," Mulkeen said. "He admits he was there."

The prosecutor asked jurors what reason the woman would have to lie? He asked how awful it must have been to testify in front of a courtroom full of strangers about being sexually assaulted. He asked them why did she take a course of medication to stop the transfer of HIV after the incident.

Security video shows Blandino's van moving forward and backing up several times before parking and following the woman into her home.

"What is that all about?" Mulkeen asked. "Is there something psychological being worked out in his mind? Is he thinking, should I do it or not? Should I commit the crime or not?"

But Mulkeen said evidence corroborates the woman's testimony. When officers recovered the security video from the time of the incident, they saw a man get out of a Volkswagen minivan and enter the home before returning to the vehicle and quickly driving away five minutes later. The van had a white object on the dash.

A few days later, a minivan with a box of baby wipes on the dash was spotted in Hoboken and Blandino, who was behind the wheel, was questioned. He repeatedly told police he had only gotten out of the vehicle on Willow Avenue that day. After being shown stills from the Clinton Street video, he admitted he was there and said he wanted a lawyer before he would say anything further.

But defense attorney Genesis Peduto noted that the woman had been "bar hopping" that afternoon and had more than six drinks. She said the 115-pound woman "was so drunk she believed the Uber car (which took her home) was the rooftop (bar) of City Bistro."

Peduto noted that a nurse examined the woman's entire body after the incident and did not find any bruises, cuts, or rug burns. "You are fighting for him off, fighting for your life and you have not one red mark. No sign of struggle whatsoever. That's because nothing happened," the defense attorney said.

The woman was never asked to identify Blandino as her attacker at trial. The state's DNA evidence is not strong. Peduto said every detective that testified said Blandino was very cooperative even though he did not have to speak to them. She said he gave a DNA sample because he had nothing to hide.

"This is not a case of he said, she said, you need evidence," Peduto said. "It's very scary that anyone can make an accusation about you and can find yourself in Mr. Blandino's position -- an innocent man wrongly accused."

Blandino, who said he was an attorney in his native Dominican Republic, accused Mulkeen of being racist while he was on the witness stand and was testy at times. The defendant, who has been following the trial through a Spanish translator, called one of Mulkeen's questions irrelevant.

When the prosecutor asked, "There was no conversation that made her attracted to you, correct?"

Blandino said "No."

"She was physically attracted to you right?" Mulkeen asked.

"I don't know, you should have asked her," the Passaic man replied.

"She couldn't resist you, correct?" the prosecutor pressed.

Again, Blandino said "You should have asked her."

Finally, referring to the 52-yearr-old, Mulkeen said "You want us to believe she couldn't resist this?"

The defendant replied "That's your opinion. Her's is a different one."

Tomorrow morning the jury will be instructed on aspect of the law pertinent to the charges against Blandino. They will then begin deliberating.Shayaan Mahmood (Photo courtesy of Jennifer Brown/City of Jersey City)

By Terrence T. McDonald | The Jersey Journal

JERSEY CITY  "We've got some difficult days ahead. But it really doesn't matter with me now, because I've been to the mountaintop. And I don't mind. Like anybody, I would like to live a long life  longevity has its place. But I'm not concerned about that now. I just want to do God's will."

Martin Luther King Jr. uttered those words to a chorus of amens and yeahs from a crowd in Memphis, Tennessee in April 1968. On Monday afternoon inside City Halls council chambers, 13-year-old Nathanael Ramdyal echoed the civil rights giant as best he could, in the finals of an annual contest to find Jersey Citys best pint-sized orator

It was the Dr. Martin Luther King. Jr. Oratory Contest, a city event that allows grade school students citywide to take turns performing portions of some of Kings greatest speeches in front of family, friends, teachers and a panel of judges. And, for the 23rd year in a row, the kids had the adults in the audience listening in rapt attention.

"It takes a lot of courage to speak before anybody," said Councilwoman-at-large Joyce Watterman, one of the judges. "That's not an easy thing to do. I applaud those kids, I really do."

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(Jennifer Brown/City of Jersey City)

Nathanael was the first-place winner in his category, children in grades six through eight. He recited a portion of "I've Been to the Mountaintop," Kings final speech before his April 4, 1968 assassination.

Nathanael shouted, he fell to his knees, he raised his arms and eyes heavenward  it was a performance.

The School 40 eighth grader said he practiced the speech for a month. The hardest part, he said, was getting the actions right.

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(Jennifer Brown/City of Jersey City)

Vinaya Vittal, 10, won first place among children in grades three through five. Vinaya performed a portion of "Eulogy for the Martyred Children," which King delivered at the funeral services for victims of the Sept. 15, 1963 church bombing in Birmingham, Alabama.

The School 16 fourth grader added a modern touch by capping the speech with a thank you to Alabamas newest senator, Doug Jones. As a U.S. attorney in the early 2000s, Jones won convictions against two Ku Klux Klan members who led the attack on the church.

Vinaya said she had been practicing since the summer.

Its a speech that really inspires me, she said. How cruel they used to be.

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(Star-Ledger file photo)

Stanford University historian Clayborne Carson has devoted most of his professional life to studying King. The founding director of the universitys Martin Luther King Jr. Research and Education Institute, Carson told The Jersey Journal by phone that King's speeches continue to live on not just because King was a lion of the civil rights movement and such a gifted orator.

Take his 1955 speech about the Montgomery bus boycott, Carson said. King was speaking to the Holt Street Baptist Church in Montgomery four days after Rosa Parks was arrested for not giving up her seat on a bus to a white passenger.

He doesnt really talk too much about getting a better seat on the bus, he said. He talks about the Sermon on the Mount, the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution and all these bigger concerns, he said. That gives his great speeches a resonance.

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(Jennifer Brown/City of Jersey City)

Second place in Vinaya's category went to Bhavyata Tanna, a School 16 fourth grader, and third place went to Gabriel Marandino, a School 37 fifth grader.

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(Jennifer Brown/City of Jersey City)

Second place in Nathanael's category went to Sinajsia Revels, a Sacred Heart School seventh grader, and third place went to Johann Varghese, a School 4 seventh grader.

SEE PICTURES OF ALL THE PARTICIPANTS

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Terrence T. McDonald may be reached at tmcdonald@jjournal.com. Follow him on Twitter @terrencemcd. Find The Jersey Journal on Facebook.Former Mets first baseman Lucas Duda no longer is unemployed.

He is signing a one-year, $3.5 million contract with the Kansas City Royals, who lost first baseman Eric Hosmer to the San Diego Padres in free agency.

Sources: #Royals in agreement on deal with Lucas Duda.  Robert Murray (@ByRobertMurray) February 28, 2018

Duda split 2017 between the Mets and Tampa Bay Rays.

He played 75 games in New York, hitting .246 with 17 home runs, before being traded four days before the non-waiver deadline to the Tampa Bay Rays in exchange for a minor league pitching prospect Drew Smith.

Duda played 52 games with the Rays, hitting .175 with 13 home runs.

Overall, Duda spent eight seasons with the Mets, hitting a combined .246 with 125 home runs.

Duda's best season with the Mets came in 2014, when he hit a career-high 30 home runs and 92 RBI.

Duda was drafted by the Mets in 2007 out of USC.

After the trade was announced, former manger Terry Collins had nothing but nice things to say about Duda.

"I told him what a pleasure it's been to watch him in the eight years that I've been a Met," Collins said. "He's a first-class guy and you just hope that whatever happens in the future is in his best interest.

"He was a tremendous part of this team for a long time and I wish him all the best," Collins said. "We're thankful for everything he's done here in New York. He was very responsible for our success in 2015 and 2016. We wish him all the best."

Smith, who was ranked the Rays No. 30 prospect, was originally drafted by the Tigers in the third round of the 2015 MLB Draft out of Dallas Baptist University.

(NJ Advance Media's Abbey Mastracco contributed to this report.)

Mike Rosenstein may be reached at mrosenstein@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @rosenstein73. Find NJ.com on Facebook.Immigration officials have showed up at houses, bus stops and convenience stores to detain unauthorized immigrants.

And in the last year, U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement agents have also increased their presence at courthouses, according to multiple reports. The New York Times reported that 87 people were arrested at courthouses in New York City in 2017, and that 13 people have been taken into custody so far this year.

But if federal immigration agents appear at the North Brunswick municipal court, they'll face a team of volunteer lookouts, ready to alert the area's unauthorized immigrants to the ICE presence.

The volunteers are members of a "Deportation and Immigration Response Equipo," or DIRE, a group acting under the organization of outspoken pastor Rev. Seth Kaper-Dale.

Beginning Tuesday, Kaper-Dale said DIRE will stand vigilant in the parking lot of the municipal building any time court is in session.

A DIRE volunteer stands at the entrance of the North Brunswick municipal building, vigilant for any ICE activity. (Sophie Nieto-Munoz | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com)

The team of volunteers, donning yellow vests with DIRE's hotline information, will monitor docket numbers and witness lists for those at risk of being targeted by ICE.

They will also survey the parking lot for the presence of ICE, distribute informational handouts, and publicize any incidents, volunteer Joel Wattacherio said.

"We're not here to obstruct justice," he said. "We're here to protect the community and eliminate an ominous threat in our parking lots. Our idea is to be a public support."

North Brunswick is the state's first municipality welcoming "some level of surveillance outside the courthouse," said Kaper-Dale, who heads the Reformed Church of Highland Park where three Indonesian immigrants recently left sanctuary.

Kaper-Dale said he worked with town officials to organize the initiative after ICE arrested three unauthorized immigrants in the courthouse parking lot in 2017, and following the agency's update regarding "sensitive locations."

Calls to Francis Womack, the North Brunswick mayor, were not returned by late Tuesday afternoon.

Up until January, courthouses were included as sensitive locations where ICE limited its enforcement activities, a list that includes schools, hospitals and houses of worship.

"ICE civil immigration enforcement actions inside courthouses include actions against specific, targeted aliens with criminal convictions, gang members, national security or public safety threats, aliens who have been ordered removed from the United States but have failed to depart, and aliens who have re-entered the country illegally after being removed, when ICE officers or agents have information that leads them to believe the targeted aliens are present at that specific location," the agency said in its January update.

ICE did not immediately respond to request for comment.

Kaper-Dale said the change in ICE policy undermines justice and can increase already heightened tensions between police and fearful communities, who may confuse local law enforcement with ICE.

"For ICE to say that from now on ... courthouses are not safe places, that these are not sensitive locations, they risk undermining the very sense of safety that we have with our court system and with our police force," he said.

Sophie Nieto-Munoz may be reached at snietomunoz@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her at @snietomunoz. Find NJ.com on Facebook.

Have a tip? Tell us. nj.com/tipsNew Jersey's immigrant detention facilities are giving detainees food with maggots, dirty drinking water, too few pairs of underwear and shoddy medical and mental health care, according to a scathing new report by a human rights group.

Members of Human Rights First, a nonprofit and nonpartisan group that advocates for immigrants, toured three immigrant detention centers in New Jersey and interviewed more than 100 detained immigrants for their study, according to the report.

Asylum seekers and other immigrants are being held under "harsh and inhumane conditions" at the Elizabeth Contract Detention Facility, the Essex County Correctional Facility and the Hudson County Correctional Facility, the report concluded.

"In New Jersey, ICE has essentially stopped granting parole to asylum seekers, with a few exceptions, leading to unnecessary, lengthy, and prolonged detention," said Eleni Bakst, the lead researcher for Human Rights First's report. "This, coupled with inadequate and delayed medical and mental health care and often inhumane conditions, exacerbates the suffering of traumatized individuals, many of whom faced violence or persecution in their home countries."

The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, or ICE, uses detention facilities to house both refugees seeking asylum in the U.S. and those suspected of violating immigration law. Some of those held in the facilities are eventually granted asylum to live in the U.S., but are held under prison-like conditions until their cases are heard, the report said.

ICE officials responded to the group's findings with a statement: "While the agency has not had an opportunity to review the report, ICE remains committed to ensuring that all individuals in our custody are held and treated in a safe, secure and humane manner and that they have access to legal counsel, visitation, recreation and quality medical, mental health and dental care."

CoreCivic, the private prison contractor that runs the Elizabeth Detention Facility, also said it is committed to the humane treatment of people in its facility.

"CoreCivic is deeply committed to providing a safe, humane and appropriate environment for those entrusted to our care, while also delivering cost-effective solutions to the challenges our government partners face," said Jonathan Burns, a CoreCivic spokesman. "We work in close coordination with our partners at ICE to ensure the well-being of the detainees at our ICE-contracted detention facilities."

Among the findings in the "Ailing Justice: New Jersey" report:

ICE detainees are held under civil, not criminal, law. But, the legal experts who toured the New Jersey detention facilities said some of the centers were worse than criminal prisons. Some of the detainees were

The "outdoor" recreation area at the Elizabeth and Essex detention facilities is a dark, enclosed indoor room with a barred-over skylight that lets in some fresh air.

The Elizabeth detention facility is a former warehouse with years of dust buildup and insufficient ventilation that causes allergies and asthma for those living there.

Maggots were found in food and in the shower area of the Elizabeth center, detainees said. There were also complaints in the Elizabeth facility about discolored and bleach-tasting water in the water fountains. Those held in Essex said they run out of water in their units and the tap water is undrinkable.

Women held in the Elizabeth center said they were given two or three pairs of underwear for the week and an insufficient number of santiary pads. Detainees in the other facilties also said they were given insufficient or damaged clothing.

Several people interviewed said they were placed in solitary confinement unjustly as punishment for filing grievances, requesting medical assistance, participating in hunger strikes or refusing to stand in court.

The medical staff at the detention centers failed to provide basic care or medication, according to numerous anectdotal reports from detainees. Others reported little or no mental health care. In some cases, detainees were offered "bibliotherapy," which involves giving people motivational books instead of psychotherapy.

Burns, the CoreCivic spokesman, noted the private contractor does not control how long the federal government holds detainees at the Elizabeth facility and the company does not oversee health care at the center. ICE officials also work full-time at the detention center and have day-to-day supervision of CoreCivic's administration of the Elizabeth facility, he said.

The report also raised concerns about suicide prevention in the immigrant detention facilities. The Hudson detention center, which placed suicidal detainees in sparce medical isolation units referred to as "suicide rooms," has had three suicides since January 2016, the report said.

"Most men and (women) interviewed report not seeking mental health services to avoid being placed in the 'suicide room.' The room is perceived as a completely empty room, cold, dirty and with no basic comforts," Cristina Muniz de la Pena, a psychologist who toured the Hudson facility with Human Rights First, said in the report.

The report did not include the full names or other details of the detainees making the allegations of inadequate medical care, bad food or other harsh conditions at the facilities.

Human Rights First released the New Jersey report on the same day the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in a 5-3 decision that immigrants in detention are not entitled to a bond hearing, even if they have been in custody for months or years.

Two lower courts said immigrant detainees must be given a custody hearing within six months. The case now goes back to the federal appeals court to decide whether the detention rules violate the U.S. Constitution.

The American Civil Liberties Union, which represented the detainees in the Supreme Court case, said the Trump administration is increasing the number of immigrants held without a hearing.

"The Trump administration is trying to expand immigration detention to record-breaking levels as part of its crackdown on immigrant communities. We have shown through this case that when immigrants get a fair hearing, judges often release them based on their individual circumstances," said Ahilan Arulanantham, the ACLU attorney who argued the Supreme Court case, said in a statement.

ICE arrests have surged in New Jersey since President Donald Trump's inauguration.

There were 3,189 arrests in fiscal year 2017 in ICE's Newark region, which encompasses all of New Jersey, according to data released by the agency. That is a 42 percent increase compared to the previous year.

It is unclear exactly how many people are currently being held in ICE facilities in New Jersey.

The Elizabeth Detention Facility has space for about 300 people, according to the Human Rights First report. The Essex and Hudson facilities, where ICE rents space in the county jails for detainees, can hold about 700 people in ICE custody as well as inmates awaiting hearings in criminal cases.

Kelly Heyboer may be reached at kheyboer@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @KellyHeyboer. Find her at KellyHeyboerReporter on Facebook.There aren't many interstate vistas east of the Mississippi as dramatic as the Route 80 S-turns through the Delaware Water Gap.

Here, the shale cliffs of Mount Tammany rise above the highway, dwarfing the tractor-trailers that slowly negotiate the narrow, winding road.

"If people come into New Jersey for the first time with a certain impression, that view dispels it immediately," said Hardwick Township Mayor Kevin Duffy.

Yes. With the wide Delaware flowing to the right, and the towering sheer rock face of Mount Tammany to left, eastbound travelers get a postcard worthy snapshot of West Jersey's natural beauty.

The road in the shadow of the cliffs passes through Duffy's town and Knowlton Township, whose mayor, Adele Starrs, sees it the same way.

"This is a nationally recognized natural landmark," she said.

But the beauty of the view isn't the only reason the mayors are opposing a $51.7 million state project to build fences and barriers to prevent rocks from tumbling onto the highway.

They say the New Jersey Department of Transportation's two-year project, planned to begin in 2020, will create traffic nightmares for truckers, commuters and the 3.7 million yearly visitors to the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area, most of whom park and hike or gain access from Route 80 on the New Jersey side.

The mayors said the construction will reduce the already narrow two-lane Route 80 to one.

"They're saying it will be 10-feet wide," Starrs said. "Our snowplows are 12-feet wide. How is that going to work?"

MORE: Recent Mark Di Ionno columns

Stephen Schapiro, the transportation department's spokesman said the project is necessary for motorists' safety. He cited a fatality in 2007 when a car hit "a seven-ton boulder" that had fallen onto the road.

"Safety is the top priority ...," Schapiro said in a prepared statement. "This approximately half-mile stretch of I-80 is the most dangerous portion of an NJDOT-maintained highway in terms of rock fall, based on the stability of the rock, the frequency of rock falls or mudslides, and the severity."

Schapiro said, "the sharp edges of rock, severe cliffs, and steep slopes present a real danger that is constant and severe," and that "crews regularly clear rocks from the roadway that are typically between 12 inches to 36 inches in dimension," especially in spring after heavy rainfalls.

The mayors dispute the danger caused by falling rocks.

"It's a dangerous road," Starrs said. "But not because of the falling rocks. It's dangerous because it's narrow, and twisting, and because people speed. They should put the $52 million to improving the road."

"They call it 'The Scrap Mile,' " Duffy said. "We get overturned trucks, and a lot of accidents."

Starrs said the construction will only make it more dangerous, and every accident that leaves a vehicle disabled has the potential to shut down the highway. There are no shoulders; rock walls hug the highway on one side, and on the other are concrete dividers.

"How will we get emergency services through?" she said.

Even without accidents, Starrs said, potential traffic back-ups pose a danger to far West Jersey residents.

"The nearest hospital is Pocono Medical Center (in East Stroudsburg, Pa.)," she said. "That's where our ambulances go.

The department of transportation just finished a similar project on Route 46, fencing in a shale cliff for about a mile, south of Columbia and north of Belvedere.

"We call that the Jurassic (Park) fence," Starrs said.

True enough. The fences rise about 45 feet with black stanchions every few feet and a heavy chain-link netting that obscures the features of the rocks.

The mayors said the proposal for the Delaware Water Gap is even more intrusive.

"The fences will be 60-feet high, and there will be two of them in places," she said.

"It will be pretty hard to miss," Duffy said.

The plan also calls for a massive concrete pyramid-like wall to hold back the rocks from the talus slope of Mount Tammany. A talus slope is the accumulation of fallen rocks at the base of a higher cliff. The wall will run hard by the highway.

"I can just see kids climbing down the mountain and walking on that wall," Starrs said.

Both mayors agree that the danger posed by falling rocks could be mitigated in a "less obtrusive manner," as Starrs said.

On Route 611 on the Pennsylvania side of the gap, several cliffs are covered by thin metal netting, anchored by rods bolted deep into stable rock.

"That seems like a better solution," Duffy said.

According to the transportation department's stakeholder meeting log, the project was first introduced to the National Park Service in July 2011.

"The NPS has endorsed the purpose and need for rockfall mitigation," Schapiro said.

But a public meeting wasn't held until last June.

"No one really knows this is happening," Starrs said.

She also says the NPS may have "endorsed the purpose," as Schapiro said, but not the actual project.

She received an email from John Donahue, who recently retired as the park superintendent.

"I have always seen this project as a solution in search of a problem," Donahue said. "As the superintendent from 2003 to the end of 2017, I would have heard about rockfall incidents in the park and I never received one report or complaint. You are more likely to be hit by a bear on that section of road."

Schapiro said another public meeting will be held at the end of the year as the transportation department continues engineering bores and other geological studies.

The mayors don't want to wait until the project is that far along. They are collecting signatures on a petition at www.change.org and Starrs wants to marshal the resources of commuters, hikers and environmentalists. She is also contacting the New Jersey and Pennsylvania that would be impacted by Route 80 traffic that is diverted onto smaller roads.

"They can call me at (Knowlton) town hall (908-496-4816)," she said. "We have to fight for another solution. This one is a disaster."

Mark Di Ionno may be reached at mdiionno@starledger.com. Follow The Star-Ledger on Twitter @StarLedger and find us on Facebook.A man accused of beating his girlfriend to death inside a Jersey Shore motel room last week stopped for drinks before he checked himself into a hospital following the "brutal beating," a prosecutor said Wednesday.

Matthew Demartin, 37, was charged with murder in the killing of Sharon Falcetano, 59, the Ocean County Prosecutor's Office announced last week.

Assistant Ocean County Prosecutor Michael Weatherstone revealed details of the grisly beating at the Glendale Motel in Seaside Heights and the lack of action he said Demartin took afterwards at Demartin's detention hearing, in which Judge Wendel Daniels ordered he remain jailed pending a trial.

"After the defendant beat her to death," Weatherstone told Daniels, "he left her in the motel room and then he went and sought medical treatment for himself. He went to the hospital, leaving her there in the motel room.

"He went," Weatherstone repeated emphatically.

But before Demartin went to the hospital, Weatherstone said, he stopped at a liquor store where he purchased a couple of alcoholic drinks. The following day, Demartin called his father to come down to the motel room. It's then that his father, Weatherstone said, called the police.

Demartin made a statement admitting he kicked Falcetano in the head and called a friend after the beating to confess, Weatherstone said.

"I'm paraphrasing because I haven't heard the statement, but I've been told by the detectives that he calls up (a friend) and says, 'I killed her,' or words to that effect. 'I beat her to death. She's not breathing,'" Weatherstone explained.

The autopsy report shows that Falcetano suffered "massive injuries," Weatherstone said, including five broken ribs, a lacerated liver, a cracked sternum and a fractured skull.

In arguing for Demartin's detainment, Weatherstone also pointed to the defendant's criminal history, which includes aggravated assault against a police officer and his mother.

Court records show that on Feb. 13, 2015, Demartin pleaded guilty to aggravated assault against a law enforcement officer and was sentenced to one year of probation. He was also ordered to attend support meetings for alcoholics and to submit to random drug tests.

According to the indictment for that case, Demartin "did purposely prevent or attempt to prevent ... law enforcement officers of the Brick Township Police Department, from effecting an arrest by using or threatening to use physical force or violence" on Sept. 4, 2014.

He also pleaded guilty to an amended simple assault charged in 2015, court records show.

Weatherstone said Demartin also has a simple assault charge from 2010, a contempt for domestic violence offense in 2009, a simple assault charge in 2011 and an aggravated assault charge from 2016 involving his mother.

"This defendant has demonstrated over the past decade that he is a danger to everybody," Weatherstone said. "He has an assaultive personality. He cannot be left alone on the streets because he will beat other people."

Demartin's attorney, Alexander Coven, said his client should be released because he intends to appear at every court hearing. If released, Demartin would live with his father in Cedar Grove, Essex County, and wear an ankle bracelet so that authorities could monitor him, Coven said.

Coven said Demartin has been treated for alcoholism at various facilities in the past, and "wants to pursue that treatment." Demartin's lack of insurance has prevented him from continuing in-patient care for his alcoholism in the past, Coven said.

"This defense concedes this is a serious case," Coven said. "There's no doubt about that."

Demartin, wearing a striped green and white jail-issued jumpsuit, mostly looked down to the floor during the 25-minute hearing. He occasionally shook his head in disagreement as Weatherstone discussed the incident and glanced over at the gallery, where the victim's family sat in the second row.

Alex Napoliello may be reached at anapoliello@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @alexnapoNJ. Find NJ.com on Facebook.Take another look at the lunch lady serving you that sandwich tomorrow. She may not be one of the 18,000 people who have contracted the flu this season in New Jersey, but given that two-thirds of adults in low-paying jobs usually go to work when they have the flu - mostly because they cannot afford to lose a payday - you probably just beat the odds.

In New Jersey, there are 1.2 million workers who do not have access to paid sick leave - that's 38 percent of our private sector workforce - despite the existence of sick leave ordinances in 13 cities and towns, with Jersey City igniting this prudent trend back in 2013.

But there is still a sizable population wheezing through their workday, however, so it's time to make New Jersey the 10th state to establish some minimum standards for employers to provide earned sick leave to each of its employees.

Once again, there is a reasonable bill making its way through the Legislature that deserves a hard push from all stakeholders - including a reluctant business community, because "nothing is worse for business than an influenza epidemic" as Senate Majority Leader Loretta Weinberg, D-Bergen, points out.

The bill currently calls for one hour of paid sick leave for every 30 hours worked, with a max of 5 to 9 sick days earned, depending on the size of the company. Seasonal workers would have to work 100 days before qualifying for leave.

Weinberg rewrote the bill to supersede those 13 local ordinances, so an owner of multiple businesses doesn't have to follow different policies.

And the old assumptions that paid sick leave is a job killer don't hold up.

Consider what we've learned locally: Between January 2014 and July 2015, 9 communities - Jersey City, Newark, Passaic, Irvington, East Orange, Paterson, Montclair, Trenton and Bloomfield - enacted paid sick leave. In the first year of implementation, unemployment actually decreased in 8 of those 9 communities - and in Paterson's case, it dropped by 3 percent. The outlier was Bloomfield, and that increase was meager (from 5.5 to 5.8).

"We talked to these mayors," Weinberg said, "and none of these towns went out of business."

The bill will receive some pushback from the New Jersey Business and Industry Association and the NJ Chamber of Commerce, as COC Chairman Tom Bracken points out that New Jersey is already fourth in the country by providing paid sick leave for 62 percent of private sector employees.

"We're not exactly onerous or punitive," he says. "In fact, we're a leader."

There is no dispute with the trends in our state, however: A Rutgers study of the towns with sick leave showed that large employers have bought in, and small employers recognized an improvement in productivity, with less turnover.

And there are still 1.2 million New Jerseyans who have earned the right to stay in bed when their heads feel like they're filled with space debris. As CEO Judith Schmidt of the New Jersey State Nurses Association put it, "Would you rather have one employee out for a day or two with an illness, and pay for a replacement? Or risk that that one employee infect more than half of your staff and your customers?"

Gov. Murphy tipped his hand during the campaign, affirming that this is a bill whose time has come. It's time to give the lunch lady a break.

Bookmark NJ.com/Opinion. Follow on Twitter @NJ_Opinion and find NJ.com Opinion on Facebook.If there's anyone who understands the value of truth in this era of Internet lies, it is the mayor of Newton, New Jersey.

This week, in a series of blog rants and emails signed, the "Hon. Wayne F. Levante" - a nod to official protocol, and perhaps the belief that his actions these past few days have truly been honorable - he sought to set the record straight.

No, he does not dispute the authenticity of his recent Facebook posts, which maligned a survivor of the Parkland shooting, David Hogg, as a "so-called student, but actually a crisis actor." He does not deny writing, "Something just isn't authentic with this kid."

And no, he has not apologized for targeting this teenager who just lost 17 classmates and school staffers in a mass murder with a sleazy smear peddled by internet cranks.

Levante's claim is that he didn't pass any judgment in spreading this despicable rumor - he was just passing it along, so others can "form their own opinion." Which would be bad enough, of course. But it's also not true.

He wasn't neutral; he actually endorsed this idea, by saying the media is in on the conspiracy because it gave this fake student a platform: "They're using pundits, and now CNN is using children, to push their agendas."

Now that he's being criticized for spreading malicious drivel, Levante is again blaming the media. It is the media that is truly responsible for creating division in our society; for "inciting people in the state of New Jersey"!

More specifically, it is NJ Advance Media reporter Rob Jennings, who wrote about Levante's spreading of this debunked conspiracy theory. For targeting Hogg, one of the high school kids from Florida pressing for gun control, Levante now complains that he is being attacked by "internet trolls."

In his defense, the mayor points out that he got no grief about this at a town council meeting on Monday, where he also said it was too soon to talk about gun control: "No one from the audience stood up in opposition to anything that I've said. No one."

That's where the reporter, Jennings, asked why Levante shared this conspiracy theory. Levante said he accepts that Hogg was at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School on Feb. 14, when 17 people were killed. He is simply undecided on whether the story he is telling is fully his own. "I'm not saying one or the other," he said.

Yesterday, in lieu of further explanation, he referred us to a rant on his blog, calling for the reporter to be fired.

Levante is certainly not the first to attack these kids. As Marco Rubio tweeted, "Claiming some of the students on TV after Parkland are actors is the work of a disgusting group of idiots with no sense of decency."

Is Levante one of these idiots? We're not saying one way or the other. We'll simply refer you to his blog: "I think it is prudent for anyone to verify the truth of posts before sharing them," one commenter said. "This is even more important when you are privileged to hold public office."

But Levante still insists it's this news reporter who should be fired - for pointing out that he spread the conspiracy. "News media needs to be held accountable," he said.

No, mayor, you do. Do the honorable thing, and fire yourself.

Bookmark NJ.com/Opinion. Follow on Twitter @NJ_Opinion and find NJ.com Opinion on Facebook.WASHINGTON -- Two New Jersey federal lawmakers with jurisdiction over transportation urged Gov. Phil Murphy on Tuesday to push ahead with delayed plans to retire older, dirtier trucks serving the Port Newark-Elizabeth and Port Jersey marine terminals.

U.S. Reps. Albio Sires and Donald Payne Jr., both members of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, said plans to phase out older diesel trucks by end of stalled under Gov. Chris Christie's administration and it was up to Murphy to restart the program.

"Environmental injustice is a serious problem in Newark and other port communities," said Payne, D-10th Dist. "By replacing outdated diesel trucks, the state of New Jersey can help alleviate the health crisis."

In their letter to Murphy, a fellow Democrat, the lawmakers said emissions from the dirty trucks were sickening their constituents who live near the ports, responsible for increased cases of asthma, lung cancer and preterm births.

"Residents of our port communities are being forced to suffer the health impact of thousands of dirty truck engines' daily exhaust," said Sires, D-8th Dist. "This is immoral, especially since our state has the means to address this problem."

Murphy spokesman Dan Bryan said the governor shares that goal.

"Governor Murphy believes that reducing diesel emissions at ports is vital to New Jersey's public health, especially historically disenfranchised communities surrounding the ports that bear the brunt of this pollution," Bryan said. "He looks forward to working with all parties to accomplish this goal."

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey had sought to ban the older trucks from picking up or dropping off shipping containers in an effort to meet Environmental Protection Agency emissions standards.

About 7,000 trucks serve the terminals, but even with Port Authority grants and loans, some drivers have been unable to replace their vehicles with newer, less-polluting versions.

Jonathan D. Salant may be reached at jsalant@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @JDSalant or on Facebook. Find NJ.com Politics on Facebook.Most onlookers will probably applaud the arrival of the new 30-ft.-tall, stainless steel sculpture titled "We Stand on the Shoulders of Those Who Came Before Us," that arrived at the University Medical Center campus, near the corner of Canal and N. Galvez Streets earlier this week. But some NOLA.com commenters have questioned why such a major Louisiana artwork was made by Arizona artists?

Tucson-based artists Simon Donovan and Ben Olmstead laboriously created the acrobatic assembly of 15 larger-than-life figures from tens of thousands of stainless steel washers.

They were paid $400,000 to produce the shimmering sculpture by the Percent For Art Program by the Office of Cultural Development/ Division of the Arts, Department of Culture, Recreation and Tourism, State of Louisiana.

The state government website explains that "the Percent for Art law, enacted in 1999, stipulates that whenever more than $2 million in state funds is to be spent by a state agency for the construction or renovation of a state building, 1 percent of the state money shall be expended for the project to acquire, conserve, or restore and install works of art for display in, on, or on the grounds of the state building."

The $1.1 billion, 1.6 million square-foot University Medical Center in New Orleans opened in August 2015.

Cheryl Castille, the executive director of the Louisiana Division of the Arts explained that the Percent For Arts legislation was written to allow out-of-state artists to apply for Louisiana commissions.

It's only right, she said, since Louisiana artists are free to apply for public art commissions in other states. However, Castille said, Louisiana artist application are weighted to give state residents a better chance at commissions. Though that didn't affect the outcome this time.

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.U.S. News & World Report named Louisiana the worst state in the U.S. in its latest ranking comparing health care, education, infrastructure and other aspects of day-to-day life across the country.

The "Best States" ranking, which draws on "thousands of data points to measure how well states are performing for their citizens," placed Louisiana at or near the bottom of the barrel in nearly every category it measured. Louisiana also ranked last in the 2017 ranking.

The state ranked lowest (50th) in the "opportunity" category, which measures poverty, housing affordability and equality for women, minorities and people with disabilities. In what seems like a bit of a contrarian twist, the state performed best in the "quality of life category," which takes into account things like air quality, pollution, voter participation and overall social support.

Which state topped the U.S. News list? That would be Iowa, which claimed 1st place thanks to high rankings in infrastructure, health care and education. Minnesota, Utah, North Dakota and New Hampshire rounded out the top 5.

Here's how Louisiana ranked in each of the categories that factored into the U.S. News ranking.

Health care, 47th

The top 10 best states in the U.S., according to U.S. News, are as follows:The trial for a man accused of murdering a teenage boy in broad daylight began Tuesday (Feb. 27), just over three years after Kimonte Washington was found shot to death in the St. Claude area.

Albert Myles, 24, faces one count of second-degree murder in connection to Washington's death. His defense attorney, Mark Vicknair, does not deny that Myles' bullets may have killed the 17-year-old, but claims Washington's death was not a murder.

Vicknair told the jury in his opening argument that Myers "probably did shoot Kimonte Washington," but called the 17-year-old's death a "tragedy and a terrible, terrible accident, but it was not a murder."

Instead, Vicknair argues Myles fired the gun while he, Washington and another man were running for their lives from someone else's gunfire. Washington had also been shot in the hand about a week before he was killed, according to multiple witness testimonies.

Myles took the witness stand Tuesday, wearing a blue dress shirt and black slacks. According to his testimony, Myles and Washington were good friends, and he "would have never, ever have caused harm to him."

Myles said on the morning of Feb. 12, 2015, he, Washington and their friend William London were leaving a convenience store when Washington saw the men who shot him in the hand in a car nearby. Myles said the three young men started to run down Port Street to get away, but the car cut them off and some began firing a gun at them.

It was then, Myles said, that he fired the gun that ultimately killed his friend.

In the video shown to the jury, Myles can be seen firing over his shoulder as he ran down the 1900 block of Port Street. The video shows Washington fall to the ground, where he ultimately bled to death from a gunshot wound to the neck. The jury was shown this video several times during Tuesday's testimony.

Myles testified he learned his friend was killed later that night but did not know it was his bullets that killed him until almost a year later when NOPD homicide detective Sgt. Wayne DeLarge told him during an interview. Up until that point, Myles said, he thought he was being interviewed "as a victim," and witness, but not as a suspect.

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Prosecuting attorney Inga Petrovich told jurors in her opening statement, "this case is not a manslaughter. This case is not a negligent homicide and most importantly, it is not self-defense."

DeLarge testified in court Tuesday and admitted there was no physical evidence to link Myles to the murder besides the video that shows the men running and Myles firing behind him. When asked if investigators knew what they were running from, DeLarge said no.

However, the video shown to the jury did not show the car Myles said fired at them, and detectives only recovered one type of casing from the scene. Petrovich argued this proves Myles was the aggressor and should not be convicted of anything less than the second-degree murder charge he faces.

"This was a murder," she told the jury. "He elected to take a gun to that corner, he elected to fire it ... and the most disgusting part is that he left that boy there to die. Alone, writhing on the pavement."

Washington's mother and aunt were present for the trial, and his mother took the stand to testify she did not believe Myles was close to her son. Members of Myles family were also present.

London, the third man who was present the night of Washington's death is accused of accessory after the fact to second-degree murder, according to court records. London, 20, pleaded not guilty to the charge but has not yet stood trial. He did not testify in Myles trial.

In addition to the second-degree murder charge, Myles is also facing one count of possession of a firearm by a felon. He is also accused of three unrelated armed robberies. According to court records, he was booked into Orleans Justice Center in September 2015.

Both state and defense will make their closing arguments Wednesday. If convicted, Myles faces a mandatory life-sentence.A New Orleans man was sentenced Tuesday (Feb. 27) to more than three years in prison after he falsely accused another man of starting the November 2015 shootout that left 17 people injured at Bunny Friend Park, according to the local U.S. Attorney's Office.

Darrion Young, 33, received a 40-month sentence for two counts of making a false statement to federal agents and for being a felon in possession of a firearm. Young was indicted in December 2016 and pleaded guilty to the charges last June, court records show.

Two days after the Nov. 22 shooting at Bunny Friend, Young was in police custody when he told investigators that he saw Joseph "Moe" Allen, then 32, participate in the mass shooting.

Young repeated the claims the next day, prompting the NOPD to obtain an arrest warrant for Allen, who spent nearly two weeks in jail before surveillance video and sales receipts showed he was in the Houston area the day of the gun fight.

The arrest warrant for Allen was based solely on Young's statements, police said in 2015.

Prosecutors ultimately refused the charges against Allen, which included 17 counts of attempted murder.

Young made the claims following his Nov. 24, 2015 arrest during a traffic stop on North Claiborne Avenue at the Interstate 10 on-ramp, court documents show.

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That afternoon, NOPD detectives patrolling the area noticed Young on North Claiborne Avenue, driving a white Cadillac SUV with a faulty brake light. When detectives tried to stop Young, he drove onto the I-10 on-ramp, where he was forced to stop due to traffic congestion.

Young and his passenger then jumped from the SUV and ran, abandoning the vehicle, which hit a nearby Chevy Tahoe, according to court records. Detectives then saw Young remove a gun from his waistband and toss the weapon onto Claiborne Avenue, where police later recovered the gun.

Officers found Young nearby, "hiding on I-10 by the guardrail," court documents show.

While in police custody, Young told agents with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives that he had information on the Bunny Friend Park shooting, twice claiming that he saw Allen, referred to as "J.A." in court documents, fire a gun during the shootout.

In phone calls made from jail and reviewed by ATF agents, Young said that he had an "ongoing beef" with Allen and believed that Allen was trying to kill him, according to a "factual basis" document filed by the federal government and signed by Assistant U.S. Attorney Jonathan Shih.

In addition to the prison term, U.S. District Judge Susie Morgan also sentenced Young to three years of supervised release.New Orleans police say they've arrested a shoplifter caught on camera stealing jewelry from a Magazine Street boutique.

William Arledge, 58, was booked Feb. 20 with four counts of theft and resisting an officer. Arledge is the man who stole hundreds of dollars worth of rings from Century Girl Vintage, 2023 Magazine St., and unidentified jewelry from Sterling Silvia, 3110 Magazine St., according to NOPD spokesman Gary Scheets.

A surveillance camera was recording when a man entered Century Girl just before closing on Jan. 10 under the guise of checking out the store, owner Leah Blake said. The video shows him deftly pocketing items from a shelf as he pretends to browse near the back of the business.

Blake later learned that staffers at Sterling Silvia's had posted the shoplifter's photo on their front door after he stole merchandise from that business.

No information was available about how police identified Arledge as a suspect in the cases. He was booked into the Orleans Justice Center where he was still being held Wednesday in lieu of a $10,500 bond.An Algiers woman was arrested Monday (Feb. 26) on various drug-related charges, roughly one month after she was booked as part of a raid that involved dogfighting allegations at the same Tasha Place address, according to New Orleans police.

Sandra Steadman, 38, was booked with possession with intent to distribute crack cocaine, marijuana and Tramadol after police said they found the drugs and more than $2,000 in cash during Monday's search of the home.

The search, conducted in the 3600 block of Tasha Place, capped a narcotics investigation that involved Louisiana State Police narcotics investigators and Housing Authority of New Orleans (HANO) police.

A month earlier, on Jan. 29, NOPD detectives and members of the department's Special Operations Division searched the same home as part of an investigation into "a reported operation" centered around the residence, police said.

Steadman and two others, including her 21-year-old son, Rodney Steadman, were booked Jan. 29 with an array of charges, including dogfighting, after the late January search turned up crack, pills, marijuana, two guns, a scale, sandwich bags and "injured and highly malnourished" dogs, according to an arrest warrant.

During the search, another occupant who was arrested, 35-year-old Romyrim Henry, was seen by officers "attempting to conceal himself" inside an air duct at the top of a stairwell. Officers gave verbal commands to Henry, a warrant for his arrests states, but Henry got out the air duct, ran into a bedroom and "jumped from a second story window." He ran to front of the house, where he was arrested, NOPD Detectives S. Leblanc and J. Fyfe wrote in the warrant.

After arresting the three occupants, the warrant states, officers found a loaded handgun in the bedroom where Sandra Steadman and Rodney Steadman had been; a loaded "assault rifle" in the air duct where Henry had earlier tried to conceal himself; "approximately 100 grams of off white rock-like substance" and a small bag of pills containing 10 oxycodone and 12 clonazepam pills in a second-floor bathtub; about 62 grams of vegetable matter inside a metal container near the same second-story air duct; and a scale and box of sandwich bags in a first-floor bedroom.

When officers searched the back yard, they found "several dogs" believed to be pit bulls that appeared "injured and highly malnourished," the warrant states. Because of the dogs' condition, officers contacted the Louisiana Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, who sent an investigator to the scene and alerted NOPD to what the warrant called "'dog fighting paraphernalia' (i.e. needles)."

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Henry was booked Jan. 29 on suspicion of dogfighting, resisting an officer, possession with intent to distribute clonazepam, possession with intent to distribute crack cocaine, possession with intent to distribute marijuana, possession with intent to distribute oxycodone and seizure of vicious or dangerous dogs. Orleans Parish Magistrate Judge Harry Cantrell on Thursday found probable cause to hold him on the charges and set his bond at a total of $65,000.

Cantrell found no probable cause on separate charges of simple burglary, access device fraud and illegal possession of stolen things - charges connected to a separate incident.

Sandra and Rodney Steadman, who Steadman's attorney Gary Wainwright said are mother and son, faced the same charges as Henry, though a magistrate commissioner who presided over each other their preliminary hearings found no probable cause to hold either for dogfighting, seizure of vicious dogs, possession with intent to distribute clonazepam; possession with intent to distribute oxycodone; or possession with intent to distribute marijuana. The commissioner instead found probable cause to hold them each on charges of suspicion of possession of marijuana; possession of clonazepam; possession of oxycodone and cruelty to animals.

Following the January raid, Wainwright said the dogs belonged to Henry, who he said is the boyfriend of Sandra Steadman. Wainwright said there was "no evidence whatsoever of dogfighting" other than what the defense attorney referred to as "syringes" used to administer antibiotics to the dogs. The syringes Wainwright referenced were referred to in the warrant as "needles."

Following Sandra Steadman's arrest Monday, Orleans Parish Magistrate Judge Brigid Collins found no probable cause for the charge of possession with intent to distribute crack cocaine, but did find probable cause for possession of the drug, court records show. Steadman's bond was set at $11,000 and by Tuesday night, she appeared to have been released.

However, Rodney Steadman and Henry both remained in the Orleans Justice Center jail on charges connected to their Jan. 29 arrests, jail records show.

Anyone with additional information on this matter is asked to call NOPD 4th District detectives at 504-658-6040 or Crimestoppers at 504-822-1111 or toll-free at 1-877-903-STOP.

NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune's Emily Lane contributed to this report.The search for a new superintendent of schools in Jefferson Parish has narrowed to one candidate. School officials said former administrator Glenn Mayeaux dropped out of the race after finding he did not hold the proper credentials for the job.

That means DeSoto Parish School System Superintendent Cade Brumley will be the lone candidate interviewed during Monday's (March 5) special school board meeting. The board is expected to vote on hiring a candidate after the public interview.

"We're still going forward on Monday," Jefferson Parish School Board President Mark Morgan said Wednesday (Feb. 28). "We still have to vote to place a superintendent. We still have to ask him questions and give the public a chance to ask questions."

The Louisiana Board of Elementary and Secondary Education requires school leaders, such as superintendents, assistant superintendents and principals, to hold certain education leadership certificates issued by the state. Educators must apply for the certification by completing an Educational Leadership Packet that provides all of their credentials for evaluation.

The state board told Jefferson Parish school officials they did not have documentation on record for Mayeaux, a former administrator and principal. Morgan said Mayeaux was contacted by the state on Tuesday and offered the opportunity to go through the process to get the certificate he needed, but he declined.

Brumley has been the rumored favorite in the search for months, and, now, six of the board's nine members are pushing to speed up the hiring process. Officials have indicated Brumley could be installed as the new leader as early as later this month.

The fast turnaround has led some board members and teachers to complain that the search process was tainted or "fixed."

"It has been rushed, I would certainly agree with that," Morgan said in response to complaints. "I think the majority of the board feels that we need new leadership, and so it was certainly intentional that the process went as quickly as it did."

Morgan steered criticism toward a fellow board member. District 8 Representative Marion Bonura claimed several times during board meetings in December and January that a majority of the board had already settled on Brumley as the successor to outgoing Superintendent Isaac Joseph. Bonura repeated the claim in Feburary when only two candidates had applied for the job.

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Morgan said having a board member continually claiming the "fix is in" discouraged more qualified people from applying.

"I would love to have seen a broad base of applicants," Morgan said.

The Jefferson Parish School Board voted in January to end its contract with Isaac Joseph. The board later voted to buy out the remaining four months of Joseph's contract in order to hire a new leader before June 30, when the agreement was set to expire. Wednesday, Feb. 28 is Joseph's last day as superintendent.

Based on conversations he's had with Brumley, Morgan said his leadership style appears to be a blend of Joseph's laid-back, staff-friendly style and former superintendent James Meza's "autocratic" nature, which he thinks could mean good things for the system.

"He kind of blends those two qualities together, so I think he's a good fit for the system and where it is right now," Morgan said. "He's extremely intelligent. He just impresses you with his knowledge about education and about administration of education."

The School Board's special meeting is 6 p.m. Monday at the district's administration building in Harvey. Parents, teachers, students and other stakeholders still have time to submit questions they have for Brumley to the board. Those questions must be submitted in writing by noon Friday.

Questions can be submitted online at jpschools.org/SuperintendentSearch or delivered to the district's administration office at 501 Manhattan Blvd., Harvey, or to the Paul Emenes Building at 822 S. Clearview Parkway, Harahan.

The questions will be posed to Brumley during his public interview.KIPP Renaissance High School in the Bywater will reopen Wednesday (Feb. 28) after administrators closed the school Tuesday "out of an abundance of caution" spurred by a threat to the school made via social media, according to school officials in an announcement Tuesday afternoon.

KIPP leaders decided to resume classes after the FBI and the New Orleans Police Department investigated social media messages that were discovered Monday evening, according to the statement from KIPP New Orleans Schools. KIPP officials stated law enforcement agents and additional security staff will be at the Frederick Douglass school building at 3820 St. Claude Avenue Wednesday.

The increased security presence will occur "because the safety of our students is our top priority and out of an abundance of caution," the statement added. Neither the school nor police released any details about the threat.

Bard Early College will also be reopened Wednesday, officials said.

"We are grateful to our KIPP families, students and staff for their patience and understanding. We look forward to welcoming our students back to school in the morning," the statement added.

. . . . . . .

Wilborn P. Nobles III is an education reporter based in New Orleans. He can be reached at wnobles@nola.com or on Twitter at @WilNobles.Parents looking to register their child for pre-kindergarten in a Jefferson Parish public school next fall can get information on that process at two meetings in coming weeks.

The first meeting is scheduled Wednesday (Feb. 28) at Bonnabel Magnet Academy High, 2801 Bruin Drive, in Kenner. The second meeting is Thursday, March 8 at the district's administration building, 501 Manhattan Blvd., in Harvey.

The meetings start at 6 p.m.

Arabic, Spanish, and Vietnamese translations will be available at both meetings.Coastal reporter Mark Schleifstein discusses "Our Drowning Coast," a special report on sea level rise and coastal erosion, which was produced as part of a 10-month partnership with The New York Times.

The report includes three major stories outlining threats faced by Louisiana:

The struggles of communities like Jean Lafitte that are surrounded by eroding wetlands, and that state and federal governments have concluded are too small to protect with expensive ring levee systems.

The New Orleans area's post-Hurricane Katrina levee system, designed to protect from storm surges created by a hurricane with a 1 percent chance of occurring in any given year, a so-called 100-year storm. But many say that system, which would be overtopped by a storm as large as Katrina, is not adequate for a major metropolitan city.

And the invasion of the Mississippi River's birdfoot delta and other coastal locations by tiny aphids called scales that are sucking the life out of roseau cane, a wetland grass instrumental in holding the state's rapidly eroding coast together.

Read how the collaboration between NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune and The New York Times came together.The police chief of Lumberton, Miss., who was suspended after a video surfaced showing him smoking what he implies to be marijuana, is back on the job, WDAM-TV reported. In a video obtained by the Hattiesburg-area television station, Chief Shane Flynt is seen lighting a pipe and saying ""I'm only chief of police in Lumberton that likes to smoke weed."

While it was unclear exactly when the video was recorded, Christmas music can be heard in the background. Flynt offered his resignation on Feb. 19 but city officials refused to accept it, according to WDAM. He was instead suspended. On Thursday (Feb. 22), the city's board of aldermen voted unanimously to return Flynt to his post.

In the video, which shows the police chief's uniform in the background, Flynt uses vulgar language and laughs about being the chief of police and being high, the station reported. "If this ain't no cool (expletive)," Flynt said in the video. "Who the coolest here? Me! I'm the coolest here."

Lumberton is near the Louisiana/Mississippi border, about 30 miles northeast of Bogalusa.Three students face charges in connection with threats made at two Slidell area schools, the St. Tammany Parish Sheriff's Office said Tuesday (Feb. 27).

Two students -- a 14-year-old male and a 15-year-old female -- were arrested and charged with terrorism, the Sheriff's Office said. A 12-year-old boy was issued a summons for simple assault.

The threats were made Tuesday, the Sheriff's Office said.

Each of the students is accused of threatening other students and/or teachers. The schools are Clearwood Junior High School and Boyet Junior High School, the Sheriff's Office said. No weapons were found at either of the schools.

St. Tammany Sheriff Randy Smith said the Sheriffs' Office takes all threats seriously.

"We will continue to actively investigate and take enforcement action whenever necessary in these cases, but we need parents' help," Smith said. "Talk to your children about the seriousness of making threats and statements that can be perceived as threats.''

The 14-year-old male, a student at Clearwood Junior High School, is accused of telling a teacher that he was going to bring a gun to school and shoot the teacher and his classmates, the Sheriff's Office said.

The Sheriff's Office said the teen told the teacher in front of the other students that he would then "shoot up the school.''

The school contacted sheriff's deputies, who investigated the incident and arrested the student. He was transported to Florida Parishes Juvenile Detention Center in Robert.

Meanwhile, a teacher at Clearwood overheard the 12-year-old boy in the hallway saying he would bring a gun to school and shoot another student. Again, deputies were contacted and the threat was investigated, the Sheriff's Office said.

The boy was issued a summons and released to the custody of family.

The 15-year-old female, a student at Boyet, is accused of posting a video on SnapChat stating there would be a murder, homicide and suicide at the school. The Slidell Police Department became aware of the incident and reported it to the Sheriff's Office, which investigated.

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The girl was arrested and transported to Florida Parishes Juvenile Detention Center, the Sheriff's Office said.

All three students also face expulsion hearings.

In the wake of the mass shooting that claimed 17 lives at a Florida high school Feb. 14, schools across the region have had to address incidents in which social media posts have spread through school communities, in some cases creating fear among students and parents.

The arrests Tuesday are the first in St. Tammany schools. Across the metro area there have been arrests made in Orleans, Jefferson and Tangipahoa parishes related to school threats from students.

Last week, the St. Tammany Parish school district posted a note on its website outlining several of the district's student and employee safety policies. "If you or your child sees something unusual or has a concern, you should always let someone at the school know,'' the district said, adding that parents and students can reach out to principals, Central Office supervisors or Crimestoppers at 1-877-903-7867.

State Police, meanwhile, warned against spreading unsubstantiated threats through social media and reminded people it's against the law to make threats against others.

Under Louisiana's terrorizing law, it's a felony to "intentionally communicate information of a crime of violence, which causes the public to be in sustained fear for their safety, causes the evacuation of a building, or other serious disruption to the general public," State Police said. Violators can be arrested and could face fines of up to $15,000 as well as possible prison for up to 15 years.

Smith said parents and students must remain as vigilant as school officials and law enforcement authorities.

"If you or your child hears of a potential threat or sees one posted on social media, please call 911, and do not help to spread rumors by sharing and posting hearsay on social media," he said.

St. Tammany Parish schools Superintendent Trey Folse agreed.

"I want to encourage parents to talk to their children to let them know that making a threat, even in a joking or casual manner or on social media, will not be tolerated. The safety of students and staff is our priority, so each of these situations must be considered potential threats and have to be taken very seriously. Students must understand that we will contact law enforcement and there will be serious consequences," Folse said.President Donald Trump said Monday (Feb. 26) that he would have rushed unarmed into the freshman classroom building at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School on Feb. 14 to save students and teachers from a gunman with a semiautomatic rifle.

Trump conceded that "You don't know until you test it," but that he was pretty confident of how he would act. But who knows?

That raises the question of which U.S. presidents would be most likely to respond to an active shooters and which wouldn't. Here is my list:

Most likely to confront a gunman

Andrew Jackson: Challenged by a man who was considered an expert marksman, Jackson's strategy was to let his opponent take the first shot in hopes his aim would be rushed. Instead, Jackson took a bullet in the chest that lodged so close to his heart that it could never be removed. But still remaining upright, Jackson took careful aim and killed his rival.

Jackson went on to put his life at risk in various military engagements, including the Battle of New Orleans, but the duel alone should be enough to convince you that he knows something about facing a gunman.

Theodore Roosevelt: With the outbreak of the Spanish-American War in late April 1898, Roosevelt resigned his secure position as assistant secretary of the Navy and formed the First U.S. Volunteer Cavalry Regiment, later more famously known as the Rough Riders.

Roosevelt personally led the Rough Riders in the charge up Kettle Hill at great personal risk. Anyone who knows anything about military strategy knows that the force on the high ground has the advantage.

John F. Kennedy: Despite a lower-back injury, Kennedy enlisted in the Navy at the beginning of World War II and served in the Pacific at the helm of a patrol torpedo, PT, boat. Kennedy was aboard the PT-109 when a Japanese destroyer split it in half, leaving the crew stranded in the water. Despite re-injuring his back, Kennedy led the men on a three-mile swim to a nearby island, towing one of his badly burned crew members with a life jacket strap clenched between his teeth. Kennedy received the Navy and Marine Corps Medal for his heroics.

George Washington: As commander of the Continental Army in the American Revolution, Washington faced battles, the frozen winter in Valley Forge, constant threat of being captured and executed as a traitor and an inconsistent flow of financial support from the Continental Congress.

But he held it all together to defeat the better-trained British Army through force of will and moral courage.

George H.W. Bush: Bush enlisted in the Navy just after Pearl Harbor and as soon as he turned 18. He would end up flying 58 combat missions as a Navy aviator, including one in which his plane was hit by flak, taking out an engine and starting a fire onboard. Bush stayed on course, releasing his bombs over the target before flying back over the ocean, where he bailed out. Bush waited for hours in an inflatable raft before being rescued by a submarine.

Bush remained on the sub to help in other rescues before getting back to flying missions. He received the Distinguished Flying Cross, three Air Medals, and the Presidential Unit Citation.

Good to have around

Three other presidents have to be part of the conversation because they were legitimate war heroes: Zachary Taylor, Ulysses S. Grant, and Dwight D. Eisenhower.

Taylor became famous in the Mexican-American war when he led a force of 6,000 men to defeat Santa Anna's army of more than 20,000. Grant is best known for shifting the Union Army into an aggressive attack mode that eventually forced the surrender of the Confederate Army in the Civil War. Eisenhower was the commander of the Allied Forces in World War II, overseeing the D-Day invasion that would break Adolf Hitler's hold on Europe and defeat the Axis powers of Germany, Italy and Japan.

I don't necessarily doubt that any of these men would put themselves in harm's way to protect others, but I am certain they would be good to have on hand to organize and execute plans to stop a shooter.

Most unlikely to confront a gunman

I start with Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Donald Trump, who all took steps to avoid serving in Vietnam. Clinton and Trump managed to stay out of the draft through deferments while Bush used a politically connected appointment to the National Guard.

My fourth choice in this category is William Howard Taft. I base this purely on the fact that Taft was 5 feet, 11 inches tall and weighed as much as 340 pounds during his presidency. That is a body mass index, BMI, of 47.4. Anything above 30 is considered obese.

So, while I can't speak to Taft's courage, I do know that it would be difficult for him to run almost anywhere, including toward gunfire.

Tim Morris is an opinions columnist at NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune. He can be reached at tmorris@nola.com. Follow him on Twitter @tmorris504.As New Orleanians, we constantly strive to find a balance between maintaining our health and enjoying the great food the city offers. We don't always succeed. According to the 2017 America's Health Rankings Annual Report, Louisiana ranks 49th in the nation, with our high obesity rate a significant factor. What can we do to turn that around?

As a physician, I urge my patients to stay active and eat well, knowing that everyone enjoys a po-boy every now and then. To support that advice, I chose to be the Health and Wellness Ambassador for Blue Bikes, New Orleans' first bike share program sponsored by Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Louisiana. The goal of Blue Bikes is to give our community a healthy, convenient, environmentally friendly and low-cost way to travel around the city.

Launched in December, Blue Bikes are already helping New Orleanians travel to work and enjoy recreation. And, with their convenient baskets, they're even making it easier to "make groceries." All of this amounts to a fun way for us to move around the city while improving our health and reducing our risks of chronic disease.

Blue Bikes also will take you to the heart of the city's hottest attractions without having to stress over hunting for a parking space. I have seen residents take advantage of Blue Bikes for Saints and Pelicans games and most recently for parades.

During the extended Mardi Gras weekend (Friday through Fat Tuesday), Blue Bikes users reduced their carbon footprint by 10,979 pounds and burned 498,023 calories. That's the equivalent of burning off 1,451 slices of king cake!

Blue Bikes also give residents an affordable alternative to cars. You are charged by the minute, so you pay only for the time you need. This means you can rent the bike for a quick 15-minute ride to the office, your favorite restaurant or even to the park. Residents who want to use Blue Bikes for regular commutes to work or events can sign up for only $15 a month. And, for lower-income residents who qualify, Blue Bikes offers a $20 per-year reduced-fare option, ensuring affordable access. For those who live in food desert areas, this can be a game-changer, bringing a new way to get to farmers markets and full-service grocery stores for fresh, healthy food.

While state law currently requires only bike riders age 12 and younger to wear a helmet, I strongly encourage everyone to do so. It's a simple step that can greatly lower your risk of injury. Ride safe, ride healthy!

Dr. Corey Hebert

New OrleansGiven the abysmal level of voter turnout for many elections across the nation, the states shouldn't add to the discouragement by imposing a political dress code on those who are actually taking the time and effort to cast a ballot.

That is what has happened in Minnesota, where the state bans the wearing of a "political badge, political button, or other political insignia" at or near a polling place. A violation is a petty misdemeanor with a fine up to $5,000. The clothing doesn't have to mention a specific candidate or issue on the ballot to be illegal, only to contain a political message.

The U.S. Supreme Court will hear arguments on the Minnesota law Wednesday (Feb. 28) in a case that pits the First Amendment right to free speech against the right to vote free of intimidation and interference.

All 50 states have laws that prohibit electioneering in and around polling places, passing out campaign material, waving signs or otherwise trying to solicit votes. Louisiana bars such activities within 600 feet of a voting site and also prohibits someone from lingering inside a polling place in an attempt to influence the vote. But Minnesota's is among the strictest in that it bars voters from wearing apparel or buttons that bear a "political" message.

Those who challenge the law say that could mean everything from a Black Lives Matters T-shirt to a Save the Whales insignia.

Delaware, Kansas, Montana, New Jersey, New York, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and Vermont have laws similar to Minnesota's.

In 2010, Andrew Cilek walked into his Minneapolis polling place wearing a T-shirt with the message "Don't Tread On Me" and an image of the Gadsden flag, which dates to the American Revolution but is often associated today with the Tea Party and libertarianism. Cilek also wore a small button bearing the message "Please I.D. Me," which is part of an effort to force Minnesota to require a photo ID before allowing someone to cast a ballot.

Cilek was turned away twice, being told he had to cover up his T-shirt and pin or remove them. He was finally allowed to vote on a third try, but his name and address were noted for possible prosecution,

Cilek, now the executive director of a group called the Minnesota Voters' Alliance, decided to take the matter to court. The lower courts have so far sided with the state, upholding the law law as a reasonable way to "protect Minnesotans' right to vote in an orderly and controlled environment without confusion, interference, or distraction."

In appealing to the Supreme Court, the challengers say the law goes too far, restricting "the most peaceful method of political expression -- the silent wearing of clothing," including T-shirts that merely name a political group or ideology and make no attempt to persuade voters.

The ACLU agreed, arguing that the electorate "is surely hardy enough to vote their conscience," even if they see a Black Lives Matter shirt or a Women's March hat.

The Minnesota Voters' Alliance says it's even worse than that. The law is overly vague and that election officials have virtually complete discretion to decide whether a particular message is "political," creating the very real possibility that messages that should be protected by the Constitution will be quashed.

The alliance points to a 2008 incident in which a poll worker in Texas tried to bar someone who was wearing a souvenir T-shirt bearing the word "Alaska" from voting because the worker thought it signaled support for then-vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin, the former governor of Alaska. The group says voters in Colorado and Florida wearing "MIT" shirts - as in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology -- were stopped by poll workers who were concerned that the shirts showed support for 2012 Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney.

There is little disagreement that there should be a buffer zone between electioneering -- active campaigning -- and the polling place. But any law that can get banned for wearing an MIT shirt needs some changing.

And are voters really going to be intimidated if they see someone wearing a MAGA hat or wearing a #MeToo pin? Politics is everywhere. It seems a little naive think we can keep it outside a polling place.

Tim Morris is an opinions columnist at NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune. He can be reached at tmorris@nola.com. Follow him on Twitter @tmorris504.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.The New Orleans Saints added offensive line depth Tuesday by snagging former Panthers tackle John Theus off waivers. The team released veteran linebacker Gerald Hodges to make room.

Theus spent most of last year in Carolina after the Panthers claimed him off waivers from the 49ers before the start of 2017 season. Theus never saw game action for Carolina, though, and landed on injured reserve in early December.

The 6-foot-6, 303-pound lineman entered the league as a fifth-round pick by San Francisco in 2016 and played four games during his stint in the Bay Area.

Hodges landed on the Saints roster in mid-October 2017 and played 11 games with New Orleans. He received the vast majority of his playing time on special teams.Twenty years is a long way off. That doesnt mean Lee County doesnt have plans for what could be, and the tentative plans they have for the Bayshore section of North Fort Myers are interesting.

Lee County will hold a visioning workshop for residents and businesses of Bayshore on Tuesday from 7 to 9 p.m. at the Bayshore Fire Department Station 131, at 17350 Nalle Road.

The visioning workshop is intended to define and update the community planning goals for Bayshore within the Lee Plan, as the county looks to the year 2040.

Michael Laskowski, planner for Lee County Community Development, said the last plan for Bayshore was done in 2003, and that it was time to update their vision.

Were trying to collect community input, how they envision their community or how it should be perceived in 2040, Laskowski said. We want what they perceive as positive and negative.

At the workshop, Lee County Community Development staff will provide an overview of background information relevant to the Lee Plan, the community plans and the visioning event.

Guided group discussions will help to identify future opportunities and constraints for the Bayshore community.

Some members of the community have already spoken out in regards to the ultimate expansion of State Road 31 and Babcock Ranch.

If residents have an underlying issue with Babcock, which seems to be the case, well ask them to not specifically speak about Babcock, but the underlying themes associated like increased density and stress on roads because those are issues we can solve, Laskowski said.

A community plan is a goal in the Lee Plan specific to a defined area of the county where long-term objectives of the community, and policies to meet these objectives, are identified. There are 17 distinct community planning areas identified in the Lee Plan, including Bayshore and North Fort Myers.

The Lee Plan requires day-to-day public and private activities to be consistent with the goals, objectives and policies in the adopted plan. It is a source of authority for the local governments land development regulations and for an array of official discretionary actions, including but not limited to, the capital improvement program. The Lee Plan represents the communitys vision of what it will or should look like by the end of the planning horizon.

The purpose of community plans is to address specific conditions unique to a defined area of the county. Conditions may be physical, architectural, historical, environmental or economic in nature.

All amendments will move though the normal process required to amend the Lee Plan with opportunities for public input one hearing with the Local Planning Agency and two hearings with the Lee County Board of County Commissioners (transmittal and adoption).

This is a good opportunity to voice displeasure with development, to say they like their rural community and to define rural. People would define their sense of rural differently so we can put it in to our objectives, Laskowski said.

For more information visit www.leegov.com/dcd/planning/cp/bayshore or contact PODPlanning@leegov.com.

The next workshop in the pipeline: The Alva community visioning workshop for residents and businesses is tentatively scheduled for late March.On Jan. 30, the TV channel of 81.cn, the website of the People's Liberation Army, released a video unveiling the demeanor of soldiers who guard the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse in Beijing.

Each year, 40 soldiers stand out among nearly 1,000 of their peers to qualify to take part in training for the position. In the end, only about 11 will be recruited for the prestigious job, says Yang Zixuan, the platoon leader, who was born in 1990.

Like Yang, most of the soldiers were born after 1990. Though they are young, they have served the military for years. Huang Hanting, the squad leader, said the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse is a political place, so they have to be very careful when carrying out foreign affairs missions.

To practice for the activities, the soldiers would do the same pose for thousands of times to guarantee it is absolutely accurate. Some of them have even got injured during the training.

Besides routine training, they have to memorize more than 800 license plates, 20 kinds of certificates, and the national flags and ambassador numbers of over 100 countries, in order to make sure there are no mistakes during major foreign affairs missions.

As a result of the rigid training, they are dubbed "living computers." From 1983 to now, the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse soldiers have carried out protocol missions during visits of more than 600 foreign state leaders and 2,700 foreign dignitaries.

Former U.S. President Bill Clinton saluted the Chinese soldiers to show his respect and gratitude to them after wrapping up his visit to China in 1997.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To the editor:

The horrifying shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland on Feb. 14 has brought home to us all the vulnerability of our children to gun violence. Cape Coral is no exception.

I started running for Congress in Southwest Florida long before this incident but the Parkland attack increases the urgency of breaking the deadlock in Congress on gun violence.

I support the Second Amendment and know that the vast majority of gun owners are responsible, law-abiding citizens. That said, we absolutely can, and must, take common sense measures to reduce gun violence.

Many of these measures are obvious and very specific: universal, vigorous background checks for all gun purchases; limiting civilian access to military weapons such as explosives, assault rifles, armor-piercing munitions, high-capacity magazines, and bump stocks that easily create mass-killing automatic weapons.

Then there are broader measures that must be taken: we need better funded and equipped mental health programs and access to high-quality healthcare for all, especially our most vulnerable populations. We also need to reduce the unprecedented level of corruption that dark money and unscrupulous politicians have brought into our government. And we need federal support for protection of our schools and students.

All of this simply makes sense. It will work for Cape Coral, Southwest Florida and America as a whole.

David Holden,

Democratic candidate the

19th Congressional DistrictBy Ma Yao

BEIJING, Feb. 27 (ChinaMil) -- China's share of global arms exports rose from 3.8 percent to 6.2 percent from 2012 to 2016 as the country became the third-largest weapon supplier in the world after the U.S. and Russia, according to the latest data released by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI).

Data released by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI).

The report on the global arms export market by SIPRI is based on public reports from 2012 to 2016. However, it is believed that China actually exported more weapons because only some of the data were published.

The following are the main reasons behind China's transformation from an arms import country to the third-largest supplier of weapons.

First, the improved and developed industrial system provides strong material basis for weapons export.

China has the most complete industrial system in the world, covering almost all areas. In contrast, many highly developed countries are now only engaged in several specialized areas because they cannot afford to have a complete industrial system.

According to the UN standards of manufacturing, China does everything from producing nails to manufacturing lunar rovers.

China has the world's best thermal power plant (supercritical unit), hydropower station (largest stand-alone capacity), nuclear power plant (third and fourth generation nuclear power plants), power grids (UHV power grids) and one of its best refineries (Sinopec Zhenhai Refining & Chemical Company).

China also has the world's best coal-to-liquids plant, the best oil extraction technology, the largest forging press, the best large casting technology, the largest load-bearing computer numerical control (CNC) machine and the first intelligent CNC machine.

China's land-based machinery, marine engineering machinery and shipbuilding industry are also on the world's top tier. China's 5G communications technology standards have been accepted globally. China has two of the world's top five telecommunications equipment manufacturers.

China's biomedicine industry is also rapidly developing. The research and development of the countrys high-end general-purpose chips, basic software, core electronics and large integrated circuit equipment are set for major breakthroughs.

China's industrial technology has continuously improved since China became the largest industrialized country in the world in 2010 and now provides a solid material foundation for the export of military products.

File photo shows the CH-4 drone made in China.

Second, China provides customers with a wide range of options.

As of 2017, China had a total of 11 major military-industrial groups including China National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC), China Nuclear E&C Group (CNECC), China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation(CASC), China Aerospace Science and Industry Corporation (CASIC), Aviation Industry Corporation of China (AVIC), Aero Engine Corporation of China (AECC), China State Shipbuilding Corporation (CSSC), China Shipbuilding Industry Corporation (CSIC), China North Industries Group Corporation (CNIGC), China South Industries Group Corporation(CSGC) and China Electronics Technology Group Corporation (CETGC).

The strong R&D and production capabilities of those groups can provide land, sea and air equipment systems including fighter jets, bombers, transport aircraft, early warning aircraft, helicopters, main battle tanks, self-propelled artillery, firearms, frigates, submarines, supply ships and anti-ship missiles.

China's customers are free to select a wide variety of combinations according to their own needs. A major feature of modern warfare is system confrontation. Weaponry of the same source can reduce logistical workload and vulnerability, and more importantly, enables rapid formation of system combat effectiveness, which is a vital performance metric for customers.

The VT-4 tank is getting more and more popular in the international market.

Third, advanced concept design has made China's arms more popular.

Since the Gulf War, the technological form of warfare has become more and more information-based. Those with leading war concepts will have the initiative in war. China has made remarkable achievements in applying advanced war concepts to the weapons and equipment available for export. China's CH-4 integrated surveillance drone is a great example.

The CH-4B drone used by the 100th Squadron of the Iraqi Air Force hit a target at Ramadi for the first time, foreign media reported in April 2016. The CH-4B drone fired a HJ-10 missile and destroyed an ISIS vehicle in the western part of Ramadi, according to foreign media.

With advanced sensor communication and aviation technologies, China's CH-4 is capable of conducting accurate strikes against fixed targets and moving targets from a long range. This fully reflects the trend of future wars and is why the CH-4 is favored by developing countries.

There are reports claiming that China has substantially expanded its presence in markets in the Middle East, Africa and Southeast Asia, and its share of the Latin American market has also been increasing. This growth is largely related to the excellent cost performance of Chinese military products.

Fourth, flexible payment methods make business easier.

The arms industry itself is highly monopolized. Moreover, because of its strategic political significance, the monopoly has been highly protected by various governments and has become a tool of dominance.

In todays market economy, countries that have no capacity for research and development (R&D) of arms can only import weapons at a high price from a small number of exporters. Buying these arms often requires hard currency -- the US dollar.

Among big arms exporters, China has the most flexible payment terms.

In the arms trade between China and Venezuela, for example, China exported a tank fire control system, ground-based air-defense radar system, transport aircraft, amphibious infantry fighting vehicles and large surface ships. China agreed that Venezuela can use oil for partial payment due to its economic dilemma.

In addition, China's exports of armored vehicles to Thailand are financed with dried foodstuffs. The Chinese FD-2000 long-range air defense missile systems exported to Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan are exchanged for natural gas.

It can be said that these flexible payment method have won many customers for China's arms exports.

The picture shows the Chinese FD-2000 long-range air-defense missile systems exported to Turkmenistan.

Fifth, China does not set sales barriers for political reasons.

Everyone thinks of the US when talking about political barriers.

As a reputable seller, China never acts in an unsustainable manner in the international arms market. China never makes political excuses and always delivers according to the contract. The good reputation has increased China's arms export year by year.

Drones are a trump card in Chinese weapons' export.

More cost-effective weapons and equipment made in China will be seen in countries around the world with the continuous growth of China's industrial capacity and civil-military integration.

It can also be expected that as engine technology continues to improve, China's share in the world's arms market will rise further.Feb 28, 2018 NR

Multi-talented Adivi Sesh is working on new horizons. After the trendsetting success of Kshanam, he became the cynosure of the entire industry and on that note, Sesh has begun Goodachari in the direction of debutant Sashikiran Tikka bankrolled by Abhishek Pictures & Vista Dream Merchants in association with People Media Factory.

Goodachari is being made on high technical standards. After shooting in cities like New Delhi, Pune, Hyderabad, Kakinada, Rajahmundry, Vizag, Chittagong (Bangladesh) and Cascade Mountains (USA) and the current schedule is happening in the US in some of the unexplored locations. Vital scenes and a high octane action episode will be filmed here.

Miss India 2013 Sobhita Dhulipala is playing the female lead role and making her debut in Tollywood with this flick. Kshanam fame Sricharan Pakala is composing music for this action spy thriller. Interestingly, Sesh has himself penned the script.

We are delighted with the response to Goodachari title design and concept poster with Sesh playing a spy training on a life-altering mission. Our team is in the USA for shooting important and crucial scenes. USP of the film is an indifferent concept with an untouched point narrated stylishly to give the audience a new movie-watching experience in atypical genre. Goodachari is scheduled for a summer release, producers informed. Click the Movie button below for more info:

GoodachariRoseburg, OR (97470)

Today

Partly cloudy skies this evening will give way to cloudy skies and rain overnight. Low 58F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 100%. Rainfall possibly over one inch. Locally heavy rainfall possible..

Tonight

Partly cloudy skies this evening will give way to cloudy skies and rain overnight. Low 58F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 100%. Rainfall possibly over one inch. Locally heavy rainfall possible.China's marine cooperation with the Maldives carries no military purpose and the Indian media's exaggerated reports stem from jealousy of Chinese cooperation with South Asian countries, analysts said.

The joint ocean observation station China will build in the Maldives could challenge security for the Indian government as the observatory will have a military application including even a submarine base, The Times of India reported on Monday.

The station in Makunudhoo, not far from India, gives China a vantage point on an important Indian Ocean shipping route, the Times of India reported. It will be uncomfortably close to Indian waters and test Maldives ties, the report said.

"Any cooperation China conducted with South Asian countries is interpreted by the Indian side as besieging India, as India believes South Asia is its backyard," Hu Zhiyong, a research fellow at the Institute of International Relations of the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times.

The Indian media has increasingly hyped China's cooperation with the Maldives this year due to the chaotic political situation, Zhao Gancheng, director of the Center for Asia-Pacific Studies at the Shanghai Institute for International Studies, told the Global Times. India wanted to incite Maldives' public opinion against China, he said.

Indian media reflected Indian hegemonism and irresponsible remarks on China's cooperation with the Maldives could harm regional stability, Zhao said.

China and the Maldives signed a protocol to build a joint ocean observation station when President Abdulla Yameen Abdul Gayoom of the Maldives visited China in December, according to the website of China's State Oceanic Administration.

The two countries would accelerate plans to build the station to observe the climate and the ocean, and deepen cooperation in marine ecology preservation, prevention of marine disasters and marine scientific research, according to the protocol.

While denying its military purpose, Hu said that building an ocean observatory station with countries such as the Maldives could greatly reduce the cost of ocean measurement and improve the accuracy and stability of signals used for marine research.

Chinese analysts said that the Maldives is an important country on the route of the Belt and Road initiative and China has strengthened cooperation with the Maldives in ocean and port construction since 2014.

Marine cooperation between China and the Maldives started in 2014 and the two countries have established a stable and long-term cooperation mechanism, the ocean administration said.

From 2015 to 2017, China and the Maldives conducted two phases of joint marine investigation in waters surrounding the islands, which provided data about Indian Ocean climate change and monsoons.China plans to deepen national defense education into the whole of society, aiming to stimulate public enthusiasm and affection toward the Chinese military.

As a reaction to a campaign conducted in China's military aimed at promoting military culture, multiple activities will be conducted in the public and among students to strengthen national defense education, according to a notice released by the office on national defense education under the Ministry of National Defense, the Xinhua News Agency reported Monday.

Specialists in national defense education will give lectures and the public will be encouraged to carry out activities such as telling heroic stories. Students of colleges and universities will participate in speech contests under the theme of national defense.

A plan to open a military camp to the public is under discussion, according to the report. Some military units at the regiment or brigade level will be chosen as pilots.

It is expected that two to three nationwide military camp activities will be conducted during major festivals, Xinhua reported.

"The country has experienced a peaceful development period for more than 60 years and the national defense consciousness of the public, especially of young people, has been weakening," Li Daguang, a professor at the PLA National Defense University told the Global Times on Tuesday.

To promote national defense education in schools is important, he said. Activities such as national defense contests and campus trips are planned, Xinhua said.

"Such activities will benefit young people through improving their fitness and health, and it is also important to strengthen national defense consciousness of students at schools," Li said.

Revising the law on national defense education and adjusting the date of Nationwide National Defense Education Day are also included in the plan.

The current Nationwide National Defense Education Day is set on the third Saturday of September each year.China on Tuesday expressed support for Pakistan's fight against terrorism, urging the international community to view the country's anti-terrorism efforts in an objective and impartial way.

The government and people of Pakistan have contributed and sacrificed a lot in their fight against terrorism and made great efforts in ground operations as well as combating terrorism in the financial sector, said Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lu Kang at a routine press conference.

He called on the international community not to criticize Pakistan with prejudice.

Lu's comments came after some countries persuaded members of the Financial Action Task Force last week to place Pakistan on the "grey list" of nations with inadequate efforts to control terror financing.

China, as an all-weather strategic cooperation partner of Pakistan, will continue to strengthen communication and coordination with Pakistan in anti-terrorism cooperation, Lu said.The 28-year-old Susan Magara was kidnapped three weeks ago. She had been working as a cashier with Bwendero Dairy Farm Hoima at its Kabakanjagala procurement office in Kampala. The farm belongs to her father, John Magara.

She was snatched not very far away from her Lungujja home in Lubaga division where her car, together with hand bag and cellphone, were recovered.

Her kidnappers had reportedly demanded for $1m (about Shs 3 billion) ransom money and only about Shs 700 million had been paid by the time the chilling news trickled in that her life had been so cruelly and violently ended by this faceless terror.

John Magara (R) lays a wreath on his daughter's coffin at Our Lady of Africa Catholic Church, Mbuya during the requiem mass today

Below is President Yoweri Museveni's statement on the murder

Friends and Abazukulu (grandchildren), I write to convey condolences to Mutabani (son) Magara and family on the brutal murder of our grand-daughter, Susan Magara.

She was kidnapped on February 7th near her home, at night. I was informed about the problem on February 18th when I came back from Arua-Koboko-Nebbi.



Susan's murder shows what sort of swine (pigs) we have in Africa that do not value treasures like the beautiful Suzzie whom, unfortunately, I had not had the opportunity of meeting.

The NRM defeated the rural terrorists like Kony and ADF, and defeated the Karimojong cattle rustlers because we created forces that could cope with those rural security challenges and equipment to assist them.



The gaps we have been having in the towns have been lack of cameras and unregulated sale of mobile phone SIM cards to people without electronic identity cards. It is these gaps that we are in the process of closing. In the next few months, the cameras will be up in many areas.

Furthermore, no mobile or fixed phone SIM cards should be given to anybody without the electronic identity card. We may require the sellers of mobile phone SIM cards to have electronic identity card readers so that we rule out the photocopying of genuine electronic ID cards.



In order to eliminate these criminals, we may have to look at two other measures: capturing the palm-print of everybody and the DNA of everybody. Some elements try to argue that capturing the DNA of people is not democratic. I cannot understand why it is not democratic.



DNA records of everybody are good to compare with blood samples, sweat, sperm etc found at the scene of the crime. Palm-prints are better than thumbprints because the criminal may leave the palm-print and not a thumbprint.



As for the killers of Susan, we shall get them because there are clues they left behind. I will not allow anybody to interfere with the freedom of our young people: discos etc.



However, Bazukulu, avoid alcohol, drugs and umalaya [prostitution]. They are dangerous for you. I cannot allow the grand-children in the house to engage in those indisciplines. Similarly, I discourage all the other grandchildren from that indiscipline.

May the Almighty God rest Susan's soul in eternal peace.



Y.K. MUSEVENI

PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC OF UGANDA

28/2/2018The father of murdered 28-year-old Susan Magara, John Fitzgerald Magara says he now somehow feels relieved that his daughter's anguish has finally come to an end.

Susan, a cashier with Bwendero Dairy Farm was kidnapped on February 7 and later found dead 21 days later on February 27.

Speaking at her requiem mass today at Our Lady of Africa Catholic Church Mbuya presided over by Rev. Father John Mungereza, Magara said ever since his daughter was kidnapped on the February 7, he has done everything within his means to have her returned alive.

John Magara with wife Immaculate Magara and their children. Photo: Nicholas Bamulanzeki

Magara said on the second day that Susan was kidnapped, her captors contacted Immaculate Magara, Susans step mother demanding for ransom; an amount he did not disclose. But according to audio recordings on social media purported to be negotiations between the family and the captors, the ransom was about Shs 3bn or $1m.

The captors also demanded that the family stops involving police and other security agencies in the matter. While addressing the press yesterday, Assistant Inspector of Police Abbas Byakagaba said that the police got involved in the matter on the very day Susan was kidnapped.

A case of a missing person was opened up at Old Kampala police station. Magara said seeing that his wife wasnt making headways with the captors, he took over the negotiations.

At first, I thought I was talking to cheap criminals whose motive was money Magara said.

He said he started carrying with him not less than four mobile telephones to be able to communicate with the captors who used more than 17 sim-cards during that period. 10 days after Susan went missing, her captors called her father and directed him to go and pick a package along the under construction Southern bypass.

On checking the said package, it was two of Susans fingers and a memory card containing a video recording they called a must-see.

Magara couldnt bring himself to watching the video. He instead forwarded it to police who told him that it was Susan pleading to him to give her captors everything they wanted so she gets freed.

The video also detailed that how Susan had lost two of her fingers. At this point Magara had already established contact with President Yoweri Museveni who would call him at least twice a day to find out the progress of the rescue efforts.

Magara was also able to see Museveni at State House in an interface that lasted about two hours and pleaded with him to allow the family deal with Susans captors without involving security agencies.

On Saturday last week the family delivered the ransom money that the captors had asked for. Magara did not reveal how much was paid as ransom but it is said the captors had demanded for $1 million (Shs 3.6 billion). However, according to people familiar with the transaction, only about Shs 700 million was paid. After paying the ransom, Magara hoped Susan would be released on Saturday.

We gave them what they had asked for and we kept it a secret among ourselves hoping to surprise people but this did not happen on Saturday, and Sunday. On Monday, I started feeling something was wrong, Magara said sending gasps among the mourners who filled to capacity the Mbuya church.

Yesterday, Monday morning, Magara received a call from Museveni saying, Mutabani omwana bamwisire, [my son, your daughter has been killed] Magara quotes Museveni as saying.

He added that Museveni told him that his people had indeed confirmed that the body that had been dumped along the Southern bypass was that of Susan. He nevertheless went to confirm and at the scene, he met with police chief Kale Kayihura.

I looked at the body and it was very fresh; she had been killed that night, Magara says. We dont know what happened, we are waiting for answers.

Cindy Magara Lukwago, a sister to Suzan but currently in Australia said in an eulogy read for her by her husband Daniel Lukwago that government must come out and explain the rampant killings and kidnap of Ugandans.

The question now is; who is next, Lukwago said. We ask UCC [Uganda Communication Commission] and telecom companies to do their jobs. How come numbers that are not registered are in use? We need answers. We want Suzan and all other people who have been killed in the last one year to get justice, Lukwago said.

Suzan Magara was born January 20 1989 in Hoima where she started her schooling at St Christina Kindergarten, St Jude primary school, completing P7 in 2001.

She later joined Mariam high school Ntinda for O-level, and St Lawrence Citizen Paris Palace for A-level completing in 2008. She had a bachelors degree in Ethics and Development from Nkozi University and a masters degree in Accounting from India.

She has been a member of the Rotaract Club of Bugolobi. Her mother Mary Maureen Kabayanja passed on about 15 years ago.

bakerbatte@observer.ugPolice in Kampala has this afternoon arrested two people suspected of having masterminded more two kidnappings of young children in the city centre in the last four months.



The suspects identified as Godie Kasenya and Sam Mugula, also known as Nicky, were picked up by the Flying Squad operatives from Kawanda, a Kampala suburb.



The arrest follows the disappearance of eight-year-old Joel Bwambale who was kidnapped from Katooke in Nansana Municipality a few weeks ago and later released after the parents paid a ransom of Shs 4 million.

Kampala Metropolitan Police spokesperson, Luke Owoyesigyire Bwambale was recovered by police on Monday this week from Kawanda. The suspects allegedly wrote a note with a mobile money phone number for depositing the ransom money and left it for the parents of Bwambale. The parents fearfully sent the money and were then informed of where the child could be found.



Operatives from the Flying Squad used the mobile money number to track down the suspects. According to the Kampala Metropolitan Police spokesperson, Luke Owoyesigyire, on arresting the suspects, it was established that a similar ransom letter written with same handwriting was involved in the kidnap of a three-year-old child in November 2017.



"We suspect that they were the same people who kidnapped a three-year-old last year and received money before releasing the child," Owoyesigyire told URN.



The two suspects are currently being held at Kawempe police station before they are transferred to Nansana police station where the case was initially reported. The arrests come just a day after the body of Susan Magara, a 28-year-old who went missing on February 7, was found dumped near Kajjansi in Wakiso district. Bwambale was recovered by police on Monday this week from Kawanda. The suspects allegedly wrote a note with a mobile money phone number for depositing the ransom money and left it for the parents of Bwambale. The parents fearfully sent the money and were then informed of where the child could be found.Operatives from the Flying Squad used the mobile money number to track down the suspects. According to the Kampala Metropolitan Police spokesperson, Luke Owoyesigyire, on arresting the suspects, it was established that a similar ransom letter written with same handwriting was involved in the kidnap of a three-year-old child in November 2017."We suspect that they were the same people who kidnapped a three-year-old last year and received money before releasing the child," Owoyesigyire told URN.The two suspects are currently being held at Kawempe police station before they are transferred to Nansana police station where the case was initially reported. The arrests come just a day after the body of Susan Magara, a 28-year-old who went missing on February 7, was found dumped near Kajjansi in Wakiso district.

Magara is believed to have been killed by the same people who kidnapped her and asked her parents for a ransom of $1 million (about 3.7 billion).



At the requiem mass at Our Lady of Africa Church in Mbuya, Kampala today, Magara's father, John Fitzgerald Magara, told mourners that the family had negotiated with the kidnappers and paid the ransom hoping to save her life.

Unconfirmed reports say Shs 700 million was paid to the kidnappers, who, in available audio recordings on social media said the family of Magara was financially capable of raising the $1 million they had asked for.



The kidnappers last week recorded a video of Susan being tortured and sent to the family together with two of her fingers that had been chopped off.Over the last decade or so, there has been a lot of political talk on patriotism in our country.

Defined by those eager to preach it as unconditional love and sacrifice for ones country, patriotism has been linked to nationalism, selflessness, development, historical awareness, military skills and so on.

In a newspaper article recently, an assistant commissioner in charge of education, information and communication at the national secretariat for patriotism clubs summed up the mission of their work: All differences, be they religious, tribal, gender and others ought to be erased in our minds.

How is such a mission of a standard, robotic society going to be executed? How are peoples minds going to be erased? These are interesting times! The fact that this mission is articulated by a senior figure in a national patriotism organization negates any possibility of such an assertion embodying isolatable views of some deluded speaker.

Such an idea might embody extracts from an underway plan of action. And this alone should scare us all into opposition against the emergence of this envisioned super human (The Patriot), socially designed to swallow all difference.

What does it mean to teach people to love their country? What makes it necessary? Should not such love, like the love of children towards their parents, be self-evident or natural?

In any case, the necessity for a special patriotism pedagogy to citizens of a country marks the first expression of failure. It is to suggest that the natural love of citizens towards their land has been rendered impossible.

Hence, if convinced that peoples love for their country has actually diminished, those professing patriotism, if they are serious, have to first ask why. Instead of aiming at erasing peoples minds, it will seek to engage them in a collective pursuit of the problem.

One can imagine that just as the failure of natural love of children towards their parents can be traced in the very being of parents; the failure of natural love of citizens towards their country can be traced in the very being of leaders. Both forms of failure can be observed in a basic shift: from naturality to enforcement.

In Ugandas case, should anyone wonder why the patriotism project is run by men and women in uniform? Love for the country, which is thought to no longer happen naturally, has to be enforced.

But then, what is it meant by their country? Is it the 241,038km geographical space called Uganda? But why should it necessitate enforcement?

This land is not only the source of our livelihood; it is an embodiment of our histories, and a site for our cultures. We are born here. We will probably be buried here.

Quite instinctively, for as long as they have it, people will die protecting their land. No need for enforcement. This being so, the reference point then lies somewhere else. Perhaps by your country the implication is your government. But even at this point, people have to be taken seriously.

If this is a government they have willingly chosen, a peoples government conducting a peoples affairs, this love should be self-evident. To need to enforce it implies a detachment of people from such government.

From the above, therefore, people do not need to be taught to love their land. Neither is the teaching necessary for people to love a government of their true choice.

What they call patriotism, at this level, is actually parrot-ism. I mean the inculcation of a parrot-like behaviour of automatic repetition of every received notion.

It is parrotism that properly defines the end result of political activities in our country deployed under the cover of patriotism. Its vision of society is one of total docility. Outright conformism! It does not simply envision this kind of society; it tries to create one.

And where else could such a programme of indoctrination be experimented than in institutions of learning? To whom could it be more effectual than on young ones, those attending school?

This is not a polemic against patriotism per se, but questions must always be raised on the necessity of its teaching.

What I totally object to is the peculiar form of patriotism being advanced by our government, one I have called parrotism. It does not teach our young people to question, but to affirm. Like parrots, to unthinkingly mimic, repeat.

The author is a PhD fellow at Makerere Institute of Social Research.Heres something you dont read every day: Akmal, a 14-year-old boy from Gowa, in Indonesia, claims that he has laid 20 eggs in the last two years, with the last two popping out at the hospital, in front of doctors.

Akmal has reportedly been hospitalised several times for his bizarre condition over the past couple of years. During his latest trip to the hospital, the boy allegedly laid two eggs in front of the baffled medical staff treating him. Doctors maintain that it is impossible for eggs to form inside the human body, and suspect that the boy has either been swallowing them whole or pushing them up his backside. An X-ray revealed a large egg high up the boys rectum, but his father, Rusli, insists that he would never put them there himself.

He never swallowed eggs whole, why would he do that? I am an imam in my village, so theres no voodoo. I only believe in the Lord, the man told local reporters in Gowa, Indonesia.

In two years he laid 18 eggs and 2 today, so in total there have been 20. I cracked the first egg and its content was all yellow, no white, Rusli added. A month later I cracked another one, and its content was all white and no yellow.

Muhammad Taslim, a spokesperson for the hospital, said that doctors believe the eggs were deliberately shoved into Akmals rectum for some bizarre reason, but since they cant prove it, they decided to quarantine the boy for a while, to see if this truly is some sort of medical oddity.

Our suspicion is that the eggs were deliberately shoved into Akmals rectum. But we did not see it directly, Taslim said. Scientifically chicken eggs cannot form inside the human body. Its impossible, especially in the digestive system.

Kompas reports that the eggs recently laid by Akmal were analysed in the lab and turned out to be chicken eggs.

If you actually want to see the boy laying eggs, you can do so on YouTube, but to be honest, I regret watching it myself, so I definitely dont recommend clicking the link unless you need a reason to throw up.By Zhou Bo

If Chinas reform and opening-up since 1979 has succeeded in bringing the country to the centre of the global stage, it has also allowed the US to see whether the communist state would become more like us in the course of liberalisation.

The results of this experiment have been disappointing from a US point of view. Liberalisation has not changed China as the Americans had hoped.

Jim Mattis, the US defence secretary, used the unveiling in January of a new national defence strategy, following the national security strategy published at the end of 2017, to underline American discontent. Great power competition  not terrorism, he said, is now the primary focus of US national security.

The new strategy argues that China has become Americas main strategic competitor by using predatory economics to intimidate its neighbours while militarising features in the South China Sea.

But the Pentagon fails to explain how, if China is so predatory, it has managed to become the largest trading partner of 130 countries and regions including most of its neighbours and the US, given that trade is generally mutually beneficial. True, China provoked worries by engaging in land reclamation in disputed areas of the South China Sea. But no international law forbids land reclamation, and other countries have also engaged in it.

The US further claims that China seeks to displace American military influence, particularly in the Indo-Pacific region. How can China possibly do that when it has just one overseas post, a logistic supply station in Djibouti, while the US has dozens, if not hundreds, of overseas military bases, including some in Chinas neighbours?

By viewing its relationship with China as a competition between great powers, the US is making another, far more consequential, misjudgment following its wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. While economic security is indeed part of national security, an all-out trade war with China will only invite retaliation. And faced with a common threat, China might opt to become closer to Russia.

Besides, maintaining economic dominance is easier said than done. Under President Donald Trumps predecessor, Barack Obama, the US tried to forge the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a collective effort to check Chinese influence in the region disguised as a trade agreement. But none of the putative members appeared willing to sacrifice their bilateral relationships with China. The pact is yet to come into force.

Today, the world faces two important questions: has the US gone into decline, and can a stronger China make the world a better place?

Although China has no intention to replace Pax Americana with Pax Sinica, the worlds centre of gravity is undoubtedly moving east. According to a Gallup poll in January, China has a higher worldwide approval rating, albeit by a slight margin, than the US. And although Chinese president Xi Jinping skipped the World Economic Forum in Davos this year, its theme of creating a shared future in a fractured world very much resonates with what he told the gathering in 2017.

Despite US claims to the contrary, Chinas achievements cannot in any way be attributed to American support. Rather, the countrys growing influence stems in large part from its patient handling of the relationship with the US  despite serious incidents such as the Nato bombing of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade in 1999 and the collision in 2001 of Chinese and American aircraft above islands that are part of Chinas exclusive economic zone.

For years now, China has been able to manage the uncertainty that tends to surround a new American presidency. And by the end of each administration, relations between the two countries have generally improved.

The question today is how the US will behave towards China, now that Mr Trump sees it as a strategic competitor. One American media outlet described the national security strategy as dead on arrival. But if this is a serious policy document, the whiff of a new cold war, it may well prove to be a watershed in Americas irreversible decline.

The writer is an honorary fellow at the PLA Academy of Military Science in ChinaJunaid Ahmed, a 22-year-old man from Peterborough, UK, is obsessed with selfies. He can spend up to three hours getting himself ready for his daily photo-shoots, and claims to snap around 200 photos of himself, uploading the best of them to his Instagram page.

An ex-fashion student and model, Junaid treats every day like a photo-shoot and even calls himself the selfie king. To make sure he looks his best for his 50,000 Instagram followers, the young man gets weekly facials, has his eyebrows done and spends hours in front of the mirror applying makeup. Over the years, he has also undergone several cosmetic procedures, including veneered teeth, chin fillers, cheek fillers, jawline fillers, lip fillers, botox under the eyes and on the head, tattooed eyebrows and fat freezing. Thats a lot for anyone, let alone a 22-year-old, but Junaid claims its all worth it as long as he gets the attention he seeks on social media.

Photo: Junaid Ahmed/Instagram

When I post a picture, in the first minute or two Ill probably get 100 likes and I love it, my phone goes crazy, its just amazing, Junaid Ahmed recently told BBC, adding that it was his obsession with selfies and social media that inspired him to upgrade himself through plastic surgery.

Years ago I never used to look like this. I used to be quite natural. But I just think with the obsession with social media I want to upgrade myself now, the self-proclaimed selfie king said. Ive had my teeth veneered, chin filler, cheek filler, jawline filler, lip filler, botox under the eyes and on the head, tattooed eyebrows and fat freezing.

A post shared by Junaid Ahmed (@junaidahmedx) on Jan 20, 2018 at 11:02am PST

Although he insists that the negative comments he sometimes gets on sites like Instagram no longer bother him like they used to, Junaid still cares a lot about positive feedback. For example, he carefully plans when he will post a photo on social media so it gets the most likes, and if it doesnt get at least 500 likes in a certain time frame, he will delete it. He only wants his most popular posts showing up on his profile.

Two years ago, when he appeared on Channel 4s Obsessed With My Body documentary, Junaid Ahmed said that his addiction to selfies and physical beauty was triggered by a darker time in his life, his school days, when he used to get bullied for his good looks.

A post shared by Junaid Ahmed (@junaidahmedx) on Oct 16, 2017 at 1:11pm PDT

It was the worst time of my life. I was bullied. They didnt like the way I looked. I was obviously one of the most good looking people in my school, and they didnt like it, he told Mail Online. They told me they wanted to light me on fire so that I wouldnt be good looking. I still think now why me? What did I do wrong? Why did people dislike me? F*** them. Theyre not as good looking as me, they never will be.

Junaids addiction to selfies is very similar to that of Danny Bowman, a fellow Englishman who also used to take around 200 photos of himself every day. However, he realized it had become an addiction and managed to get the help he needed to become selfie sober.

Fraser Seitel

In a morbidly ironic way, the February tragedy of the Parkland, Florida school massacre has given Democrats new life in their battle to win back the House of Representatives in November.

Until the tragedy in Parkland, the Democrats, for many reasons, had shown little hope of mounting much of a challenge to Republican House domination.

Now, however, Democrats have been presented a fat, newly-vulnerable public relations target at which they can aim their mounting congressional campaign: the National Rifle Association.

First, a few facts:

Democratic leadership is old and tired and out-of-touch. Nancy Pelosi in the House, despite overwhelming sentiment in her own party to ditch her, refuses to let go. Her Senate counterpart Chuck Schumer has become little more than a whiny obstructionist. Republican opposition in November would have an easy time picking both leaders apart.

Democratic progressive leaders have similarly little chance of gaining traction. Obama wannabes Senators Kirstin Gilibrand, Cory Booker and Kamala Harris are nowhere near ready for prime time. And socialists Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren are just plain scary.

Democratic policy principles are either non-existent or non-starters. Priorities such as immigration reform and Dreamer continuance and Russian election interference, while laudatory, arent exactly at the top of the list for most Americans. And Democratic revulsion at the Trump tax cuts that add money to most peoples wallets is a losing battle.

But the hope, even for a party so bereft of ideas as the Democrats, rose anew on February 14, when 17 children were tragically gunned down in Florida. Republicans, despite a growing national mood to take action against guns, generally remain too timid to confront the NRAs lobbying might.

The Democrats should have no such compunction. If they want to take back the House, they should take dead aim at the NRA by considering a public relations strategy along the following lines:

Call for a ban on assault weapons

This is the key element in any political initiative, because its what the NRA most fears.

First, theres no earthly reason for individuals to own assault weapons  not for hunting, not for self-defense, not for nothing. This reality has been corroborated by countless military veterans, who, in editorials throughout the nation since the Parkland massacre, have reaffirmed that assault rifles are designed for war, to kill people  nothing else. Thats the reason theyre banned in most civilized countries and should be in the United States.

They arent, because gun manufacturers make lots of money from the sale of assault weapons. How much? Nobody knows, because the NRA has consistently lobbied against any national gun registry that would track such purchases. Protecting the sale of assault weapons, such as the one used in Florida, is the NRAs Holy Grail, which is why Republicans, worried about NRA votes, have shied away from the topic and instead pursued safer compromises like banning bump stocks, raising gun-buying ages and fortifying background checks. In the midterms, Democrats should aggressively campaign to ban all assault weapons and force their adversaries to make a public choice.

Dana Loesch & Wayne LaPierre

Take on the NRAs new chief spokesperson

The new face of the NRA, as we learned after the Parkland shooting, is the articulate and camera-ready Dana Loesch. Big mistake.

Ms. Loesch is a Glen Beck-mentored, full-on bible-toting conservative, who tweets, blogs, authors books and appears frequently on radio and television. Shes fearless and a true believer; presumably perfect to advocate for the NRA.

But after a tragedy the likes of Parkland, where innocent children were once again struck down by a lunatic with a war weapon, a tough-talking, in-your-face, take-no-prisoners true believer like Dana Loesch is the worst spokesman you could hire.

The situation screams for empathy, especially from an NRA thats already reviled for its power and inflexibility. In the wake of Parkland, the NRA, beyond anything else, needs to convey concern and understanding and reasonableness. Thats why President Trump, having apparently learned from Charlottesville, is appearing to listen to all sides and consider various options in stopping school shootings.

Meanwhile, the NRAs Loesch singles out shoddy law enforcement and biased media coverage, rather than the need for increased gun control. Opponents, including Democrats running for Congress, should recognize that in sticking to her guns, Loesch and the organization she represents are now clearly on the wrong side of the debate and should be exploited for it.

Go after Wayne LaPierre

For nearly three decades, the Executive Vice President and guiding light behind the National Rifle Association has been an unyielding, irremovable, undefeatable force in Washington. Not anymore.

The Parkland tragedy has altered the NRA equation. When powerful, controversy-averse companies like MetLife, Chubb, Hertz, Avis, Enterprise, Symantec, Allied Van Lines and even conservative Georgia-based Delta Airlines cut ties with the NRA, you know the ground has shifted. And both the NRA and Wayne LaPierre, its gun-toting ideological leader with the French-sounding name, are now vulnerable.

So, if the Democrats truly want to win back the House, they should begin to focus their public relations sights on the one target which, in light of recent awful events, most Americans have come to believe should no longer stand.

***

Fraser P. Seitel has been a communications consultant, author and teacher for 40 years. He is author of the Pearson text The Practice of Public Relations, now in its 13th edition, and co-author of Rethinking Reputation" and "Idea Wise. He may be reached directly at yusake@aol.com.

Ian Kane

Major brands like Unilever and P&G have been clawing back ad spend as they publicly address the challenges facing digital advertising. Marc Pritchard of P&G has referenced the digital advertising ecosystem as murky at best, fraudulent at worst. Existing technological limitations allow middle men in the ad supply chain to transact in a black box. Incentives are not aligned causing both advertisers and publishers to feel they are on the losing side of the deal.

Blockchain inherently brings trust to a trust-less environment and is the ideal solution to address these issues. Lack of transparency, ad fraud, and lengthy payment terms are just some of the problems with the current ad supply chain. Ternio, which provides blockchain based technology, can improve and/or solve these issues. By utilizing a decentralized ledger with the ability for an open audit, all participants in the supply chain can feel confident they are getting what they pay for.

Digital advertising spend is $224 billion a year. 70% of that spend is transacted programmatically and $18 billion each year is wasted on ad fraud.

Ad fraud comes in the form of domain spoofing and non-human traffic. Ternios technology helps fight this by using cryptographic keys to verify the publishers ad inventory. The key uses 256-bit encryption which is relatively uncrackable and used by major websites for secure purchase processing - such as buying a product on Amazon.

There are currently more bots on the internet than humans. This number continues to increase yearly. Non-human traffic will always be a cat and mouse game of detection, however blockchain provides the underlying platform to significantly improve on the fundamentals used by todays anti-fraud companies such as identifying user agent, IP address, time spent on content, and mouse movements.

Payment float is a way some companies maintain their position in the supply chain. They collect payment upfront or Net 30 and pay out Net 60-120. Publishers suffer the most in this scenario as they deliver an impression and are then left waiting months to collect. Digital advertising is one of the only industries where a product is delivered, but isnt paid for until months later. Publishers using blockchain technology will be paid instantly on impression delivery- giving them the capital they need to run their business.

Like all new technology, there is an education process that must occur for broader adoption. Blockchain is still in its infancy, but the underlying technology is here to stay. Advertisers, agencies, and publishers should be looking at how it can help to improve their business.

The companies that will be resistant to blockchain or look to discredit it are the companies that are providing little to no value relative to their cost or are participating in outright ad fraud. By reducing the number of bad players in the supply chain it enables the good companies to thrive. Most important, advertisers get a better ROI and publishers are able to collect a higher percentage of ad dollars at the point of impression delivery.

***

Ian Kane is co-founder of Ternio.when she was charged for first-degree murder as a teen recently spoke on her life sentence.

READ: Tennessee Rejects Cyntoia Browns Appeal, Defends Her Life Sentence

Speaking to Fox17, Jeff Burks, Browns former prosecutor, said that although Tennessees law has now classified children who are being sexually exploited as victims and not prostitutes, the change has no bearing on Browns sentence.

I think she did what she wanted to do and unfortunately on this night what she wanted to do was kill him and take his stuff, Burks said.

When asked if he was in favor of her sentence being commuted Burks responded:

Well, thats for the people of the state to decide. I dont live in the state anymore, so I dont really have an issue to weigh in there. Im vocal about what the facts of the case were,not necessarily what the punishment should be. I think its a very good question what sentence a person this young should serve there are reasonable arguments on either side of that.

However, Representative Jeremy Faison spoke against Burks, saying that Browns case needs to reviewed again.

The parole board needs to bring them back up and review any other circumstances that have come up, Faison said. Lets look at it again. Society, what if its changed? What if things have changed? Lets look at this.

Last week came news that Browns appeal to challenge her conviction was denied by Tennessee.

A legal response filed Wednesday in the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals says a state courts rejection of Cyntoia Browns appeal didnt contradict U.S. Supreme Court precedent about cruel and unusual punishment, a previous report stated.

Source: Fox17Origin of Woke series, Elijah Watson highlights Georgia Anne Muldrow, the musician who introduced Erykah Badu to the word woke.

To be woke is to be black.

I posit this thought to Georgia Anne Muldrow, one of the most forward-thinking musicians of our time, as we speak on the phone in early October.

There is a brief silence.

Then:

Woke is definitely a black experience  woke is if someone put a burlap sack on your head, knocked you out, and put you in a new location and then you come to and understand where you are aint home and the people around you aint your neighbors. Theyre not acting in a neighborly fashion, theyre the ones who conked you on your head. You got kidnapped here and then you got punked out of your own language, everything. Thats woke  understanding what your ancestors went through. Just being in touch with the struggle that our people have gone through here and understanding weve been fighting since the very day we touched down here. There was no year where the fight wasnt going down.

This is only one of many profound insights Muldrow offers on the idea of wokeness during our two-and-a-half-hour talk, and what its become since she first uttered the word on Erykah Badus Master Teacher a decade ago.

Sure, shes happy to see the word woke become a rallying cry of resilience for black people in America. But she also doesnt mince her words on wokeness becoming a performative trend for the masses in recent years.

Most people who are woke aint calling themselves woke. Most people who are woke are agonizing inside, Muldrow says. Theyre too busy being depressed to call themselves woke.

I could have called Muldrow to talk about a number of topics such as her storied career or multiple collaborative albums with partner Dudley Perkins. But I wanted to talk about the word woke and her role in introducing it to the mainstream.

I embarked on this journey to discover the origins of the word woke because of the uniqueness in its present ubiquity, considering its past is shrouded in mystery. But I also hoped to highlight the erasure of the people who invented it in its political and racial context  black people.

I started this journey researching the work of Harlem author William Melvin Kelley, whos credited with coining woke in his 1962 New York Times essay If Youre Woke You Dig It, and traced its use to Badus Master Teacher almost five decades later. As important as the word is to our current political state, it is also important to understand the words ties to blackness. That the word that was passed from one black person to another, expanding its reach from the streets of Harlem to the West Coast and eventually into the airwaves for mass consumption, making Muldrow an integral part of wokes story.

Georgia Anne Muldrows life story begins in Los Angeles, California, where she was born to a musical home. Ronald Muldrow and Rickie Byars-Beckwith, her father, and mother, respectively, are acclaimed musicians, with the two having worked with Eddie Harris, Pharaoh Sanders, Roland Hanna, and others.

In the early 2000s, Muldrow relocated to New York City to attend New York University, where she enrolled in the schools jazz program. There, she met the peers who would become her frequent collaborators including Bilal, Robert Glasper, and the Harlem alto saxophonist who indirectly introduced her to woke  Lakecia Benjamin.

The way she would use [the phrase] is like Im trying to stay woke because Im tired or I was trying to stay woke but I was bored,' Muldrow recalls. It was Kecia talking about how she was trying to stay up  like literally not pass out.

As a homage to Benjamin, Muldrow had created her own t-shirt with the words stay woke, writing it in marker over her heart. But the phrase came to embody Muldrows relentless work ethic and desire to find and love herself while on the verge of a nervous breakdown.

I had a lot of sleep deprivation [at the time], I literally stayed up, Muldrow says. My self-esteem was really bad. I felt like if I wasnt productive I wasnt shit. I just felt like the only thing I was good for was making music and if I couldnt be doing that all the time then I really had to face myself.

Muldrows hectic work ethic ultimately took a toll on her. This, along with the September 11 terrorist attacks, resulted in her returning to Los Angeles. (Muldrow was reserved in discussing the incident during our conversation, but, shortly after, I discovered through an old press release for one of her shows that she was in the area when the attack occurred. She was on a subway crossing underneath the World Trade Center when the first plane crashed into the North Tower of the building that morning.)

However, little did Muldrow know she was the bearer of a coastal cultural exchange  the West Coast was about to get introduced to her theory of wokeness.

Upon returning to Los Angeles, Muldrow paired with Dibiase, Ras G, and Sa-Ra Creative Partners, the latter of whom shed originally written Master Teacher for in 2005 for the trios unreleased third album, Black Fuzz. The song that marks the entry of stay woke into the musical mainstream would ultimately find Badu, in the throes of her own creative purging.

By 2005, Badu was a Grammy award-winning, commercial and critical success, having earned the title of Queen of Neo Soul. But the title, as sincere as it seemed, simplified Badu to a typecast: an Ankh ring and head wrap-wearing, candle and incense-lighting black woman whose personal life  particularly her romantic relationships with the likes of Andre 3000 and Common  was beginning to take precedence over her creative life in the public eye.

Suffering through a string of writers block, Badu took a break from recording music and instead focused on her family, namely her new daughter Puma Rose who was born the July prior. But by the end of the year, Badu was working on music again. She received her first computer from Questlove as a Christmas gift and began receiving music from J Dilla and Q-Tip. This, along with her introduction to Apples GarageBand digital audio workstation by her son Seven, incited a creative spark in Badu.

I could be here, in my own space, with headphones on, and the kids could be doing what they doing, and Im cooking dinner still, Im making juices still, and its so easy just to sing, she said in a 2008 New York Times story. You got an idea  boom! Idea, boom!

Throughout 2005, Badu had composed more than 75 songs intended for what would ultimately become her two New Amerykah albums. In the process, she traveled across the country to work on the tracks: Luminous Sound Recording in Dallas; Electric Lady Studios in New York City; and Sa-Ras Cosmic Dust Studio in Los Angeles, where Badu and Muldrow met for the first time.

We had Georgia at the house one day and it just so happened that Badu came thru, OmMas Keith said in an issue of now-defunct British music magazine Shook. Erykah heard Georgias song and was loving itBadu kept asking about Georgia and then we were like we got this song Master Teacher.then she was like I want that song.'

The next time Muldrow would hear Master Teacher would be when it appeared on Badus 2008 album New Amerykah Part One (4th World War). By then, Muldrow was no longer frequenting the Cosmic Dust Studio and was living with her mother after having a nervous breakdown shortly after the songs completion.

I felt like my heart was crying out, Muldrow admits. My momma had to pick me up from [Sa-Ras place] and take me back to her house so I could get mentally stable again.

According to Muldrow, the final version of Master Teacher was a drastic departure from the original. Unlike the psychedelic, futuristic funk of the former, the latter was more minimal and subdued. (Muldrow compares the song to an African chant.) But the biggest revelation she offers about the track may very well be that she wasnt singing I stay woke but Id stay woke on the chorus.

I wasnt claiming that I was woke, Muldrow says. I never saw myself as woke. I saw myself as aspiring for woke, to try and stay woke. But I knew I wasnt woke.

Listening to Master Teacher, the admittance reflects the themes of self-discovery and growth present on the track.

Ive been in search of myself/Its just too hard for me to find/I am in the search of something new, Muldrow sings on the first verse. The beauty of Master Teacher was the declaration of I stay woke  that she attained the self she was searching for. But Id stay woke implies something else  that shes still searching, striving for that new self.

Its rare for Muldrow to listen to Master Teacher because of how raw the song is for her. A black woman trying to assure and support her people while simultaneously trying to help herself  this divide manifested in Master Teacher. Muldrow purged through this song, so much so that she had to leave it. Even now over a decade later she still finds it difficult to return to.

Maybe in Muldrows purging Badu saw herself, which is why she wanted Master Teacher. Both were enduring the same internal struggle  two creatives in search of something new. But in meeting one another Badu and Muldrow seemed to find that something new they were looking for, a serendipitous moment that ultimately transformed into a bond of sisterhood.

Erykah has been the person to single-handedly be consistent in shaping the aesthetic for the sisters. She single-handedly did that and she didnt have to do that, Muldrow says. What she helped to do was really something. Im really honored to have been a guest on her record.

Since Master Teachers release, stay wokes fate has been unfortunate but unsurprising. Like anything created by black people, the phrase was appropriated by the masses, transformed into a trend term before ultimately mutating into a meme and becoming a form of irony. The phrases end arguably came in July last year when, during an episode of Jeopardy!, a Stay Woke category was included. However, the topic was centered around the literal definition of woke instead of questions related to social injustices.

The moment was a sobering representation of the continual mishandling of blackness in America. Our culture is treated as a trend. But for black people stay woke is anything but  its a fucking lifestyle for us. Each and every day, having to be aware that because of the color of your skin you could be legally defined as someones property; you could be shot and hung for allegedly talking to or whistling at a white woman; you could be arrested and placed in one of the most dangerous jails in the country for a crime you never committed. Woke was simultaneously a cool and militant descriptor for our experience, a word that channeled our reality into something empowering. Now, its gone.As Chinas military looks to reform domestically, its also expanding its presence abroad.

Last week, Chinese peacekeeping troops were recognized by the United Nations for one of their missions in Africa.

And their peacekeeping missions on the continent and elsewhere are expected to develop further in the future.

Nearly 400 Chinese soldiers stood at attention at a United Nations camp in Mali this month to receive a special honor.

The Peace Medal of Honor represents the highest accolade to our peacekeeping efforts, Sgt. Han Luo of the Fifth Chinese Peacekeeping Force to Mali said.

The medal recognizes contributions to human peace by U.N. peacekeeping forces.

The dedication, the motivation and the discipline is the key for all the effective and successful work they have done so far, ATM Anisuzzaman of the MINUSMA U.N. Peacekeeping Mission said.

This is the fifth Chinese peacekeeping force to Mali which has been battling Islamist extremists in the north. Its been in the country since 2013.

China is one of the largest contributors of U.N. peacekeeping troops in Africa. Last July, Chinese troops began a mission in Djibouti to help in humanitarian and peacekeeping efforts in Africa and West Asia.

The establishment of the base will help Chinese vessels escort missions in the Gulf of Aden and Somalia, and international obligations such as humanitarian rescue missions. It also stimulates the social and economic development of Djibouti, said Geng Shuang, Spokesman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry.

Beijing emphasized it as a support facility to help establish security in the region.

It helps China to continue to make even greater contributions to the peace and stability of Africa and the rest of the world, said Geng Shuang.

In 2015, President Xi Jinping announced China would set up a permanent U.N. peacekeeping force of 8-thousand troops and provide $100 million to the African Union.

Africa has the biggest peacekeeping needs. In the long run, the international community and the U.N. should support African countries in increasing their own capacity in keeping peace and stability so that African issues can be addressed in an African way, said Xi.

For years, Chinese troops have also contributed to anti-piracy efforts off the coast of Somalia and sent military medical teams to nations battling the Ebola virus.

Beyond the African continent, China also has troops in Lebanon trying to keep the peace on the border with Israel.

According to the Peoples Liberation Army, as of last year, about 36-thousand Chinese have served in U.N. peacekeeping missions over nearly 30 years.Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered a five-hour humanitarian ceasefire in the Eastern Ghouta countryside of the capital Damascus of Syria starting on Feb. 27, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said on the evening of Feb. 26, 2018.

It is the seventh year of the Syrian civil war. In order to end the humanitarian catastrophe, all relevant parties should patiently hold consultations, shelve disputes, actively seek consensus and strive to fully implement the cease-fire resolution passed by the UN Security Council.

News Facts

Russian media reported that the humanitarian ceasefire in the Eastern Ghouta countryside of the capital Damascus of Syria was to run daily from 9:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. local time, starting on Feb. 27.

Shoigu said that humanitarian corridors have been specifically launched for the evacuation of civilians and that their coordinates will be announced shortly.

He added that Russia believes it is necessary to implement a ceasefire and a humanitarian corridor in areas controlled by the US to enable Syrian civilians to return to their homeland and start to lead normal lives.

The UN Security Council resolved on Feb. 24 that the continuous ceasefire throughout the country should last at least 30 days. However, even though the ceasefire resolution was passed, there was still cross-fire in many places in Syria on Feb. 25.

The fight between Syrian government forces and opposition forces was still intense in the Eastern Ghouta. Dozens of civilians were killed in airstrikes against the "Islamic State", an extremist organization in Deir ez-Zor Province, launched by the US and other Western countries. Turkey continues to carry out military operations against Syrian Kurds in Afrin.

Analysis

Currently, Syria is in turmoil. All the countries involved in the war are carrying out military operations in different regions. Continuous accusations by the various parties against each other make implementation of the resolution difficult.

The Eastern Ghouta is the only place near Damascus where the Syrian armed opposition has strongholds. Russian analysts believe that the main purpose of the US and Western countries' call for a ceasefire in the area is to prevent the Syrian government forces from liberating the region while the US provides supplies to the Syrian opposition and helps it grow.

Turkey's military operations show that Turkey will continue to fight the People's Protection Units, a terrorist organization that threatens the territorial integrity of Syria. Turkey believes that the People's Protection Units is a branch of the Kurdistan Workers' Party in Syria, which is classified as a terrorist organization by the Turkish government.

However, the US has always supported People's Protection Units and it is unlikely that it will stop cracking down on the Islamic State.

UN Secretary-General Guterres said on Feb. 26 that the UN Security Council resolution is only meaningful if it is effectively implemented and that the humanitarian disaster in Syria must be ended as soon as possible.

Comment

The civil war in Syria has lasted for seven years, causing serious humanitarian catastrophes, mass casualties and displacements. The UN has repeatedly proposed ceasefire initiatives and resolutions but they have not achieved any success.

All relevant parties should patiently hold consultations, shelve disputes, actively seek consensus and strive to fully implement the ceasefire resolution.

Political settlement is the only way to fundamentally end the suffering of the Syrian people. The international community should support all Syrian parties, under the mediation of the UN, as soon as possible through a political process owned and led by the Syrian people to find solutions acceptable to all parties.A SF Express cargo plane takes off from Nantong Xingdong International Airport on Feb. 8, 2018. (Photo by Visual China Group)

By Wang Weikai

EZHOU, Feb. 28 (ChinaMil) -- Chinas State Council and the Central Military Commission (CMC) jointly approved the establishment of a new civilian airport in Ezhou City of Hubei Province on Feb.23, 2018. The airport was referred to the "SF Express Airport".

SF Holding Co., Ltd. announced on Dec. 13, 2017 the signing of cooperation agreement with the Hubei Provincial People's Government to start an international logistics core hub project in Hubei, with the Ezhou Airport as the core.

According to the agreement, the Ezhou Airport will be a large airport tailored for SF Express and it will focused on air express transit operations and traditional air cargo business. When completed, it will become the Asia Pacifics first and the world's fourth dedicated cargo hub.

According to the approval of the State Council and the CMC, the airport will also function as a regional passenger hub. By 2030, it will have a passenger throughput of 1.5 million person/times and a cargo and mail throughput of 3.3 million tons. The total investment in the airport is 37.26 billion yuan, of which 18.36 billion yuan will be used for airport projects.

SF Holding Co., Ltd. said in its semi-annual report for 2017 that it had set up China's first private cargo airline in 2009 and is the largest cargo airline with the largest cargo fleet in the country. Wuhan City is located in central China's Hubei Province and has natural geographical advantages. Therefore, SF aims to build its core logistics base at there.North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and his late father Kim Jong-il used fraudulently obtained Brazilian passports to apply for visas to visit Western countries in the 1990s, five senior Western European security sources told Reuters. While North Korea's ruling family is known to have used travel documents obtained under false pretenses, there are few specific examples. The photocopies of the Brazilian passports seen by Reuters have not been published before.



A scan obtained by Reuters shows an authentic Brazilian passport issued to North Korea's late leader Kim Jong-il.

"They used these Brazilian passports, which clearly show the photographs of Kim Jong-un and Kim Jong-il, to attempt to obtain visas from foreign embassies," one senior Western security source said on condition of anonymity. "This shows the desire for travel and points to the ruling family's attempts to build a possible escape route," the security source said. The North Korean Embassy in Brazil declined to comment. Brazil's Foreign Ministry said it was investigating. A Brazilian source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the two passports in question were legitimate documents when sent out as blanks for consulates to issue. Four other senior Western European security sources confirmed that the two Brazilian passports with photos of the Kims in the names of Josef Pwag and Ijong Tchoi were used to apply for visas in at least two Western countries. It was unclear whether any visas were issued. The passports may also have been used to travel to Brazil, Japan and Hong Kong, the security sources said. Japanese newspaper Yomiuri Shimbun reported in 2011 that Jong-un visited Tokyo as a child using a Brazilian passport in 1991 -- before the issue date on the two Brazilian passports.

A scan obtained by Reuters shows an authentic Brazilian passport issued to North Korea's leader Kim Jong-un.

 'Josef Pwag' Both 10-year passports carry a stamp saying "Embassy of Brazil in Prague" with a Feb. 26, 1996, issue date. The security sources said facial recognition technology confirmed the photographs were those of Kim Jong-un and his father. The passport with Jong-un's photo was issued in the name of Josef Pwag with a date of birth of Feb. 1, 1983. So little is known about Jong-un that even his birth date is disputed. He would have been 12 to 14 years old when the Brazilian passport was issued. Jong-un is known to have been educated at an international school in Berne, Switzerland, where he pretended to be the son of an embassy chauffeur. Jong-il's passport was issued in the name Ijong Tchoi with a birth date of April 4, 1940. Jong Il died in 2011. His true birth date was in 1941. Both passports list the holders' birthplaces as Sao Paulo, Brazil. The first security source declined to describe how the passport copies had been obtained, citing secrecy rules. Reuters has only seen photocopies of the passports so was unable to discern if they had been tampered with.In one comment, a user said,"5,000 years of civilization and in one night, a step backwards 5,000 years." For some critics, the proposal to allow Xi to stay in office indefinitely and scrap what has become a predictable system of two five-year terms, marks a worrisome return to the days of Mao Zedong. Some argue the move is a sign that Xi may want to become emperor for life.

Of those posts that managed to make it past authorities' dragnet, some called the decision to allow Xi Jinping to stay in office indefinitely a "step backward," others argued that China is becoming more like North Korea.

On social media, some phrases and comments were taken down shortly after they were posted. However, phrases in Chinese such as "lifelong tenure," "emigration" and "disagree" are blocked immediately when a user attempts to post the phrase.

And while party backed media have said the amendments have the public's broad support, clearly there is much more to the debate than the communist party is letting on.

Many were caught off guard by the announcement and the response online has been persistent, despite efforts to silence the debate. The announcement comes a little more than a week ahead of meetings for China's rubber-stamp legislature, the National People's Congress. During the gathering, which wraps up around mid-March, the proposal is widely expected to become China's new reality.

A wide range of phrases in Chinese have been banned such as "constitutional amendments," "constitution rules," "emigration" and "emperor." Even the phrase "I disagree" has been blocked from China's SinaWeibo social media site.

Authorities in China have launched an intense crackdown on online commentary in the wake of a proposal by the country's communist party leaders to amend the constitution and scrap a two-term limit on the president's time in office.

On the streets in Beijing, those we spoke with, who were willing to talk -- despite the sensitivity of the issue -- voiced similar concerns. "It was a very sudden and bold move that has raised many questions and concerns and there are some who cannot understand," why the change is needed, said one man surnamed Ding, who works in the finance sector.

Ding said China's communist party leaders need to answer the public's questions and concerns and clarify whether the move is meant to give Xi lifelong tenure or just to allow him to stay in office a little longer.

"The public will undoubtedly draw comparisons and have thoughts about what is happening now and China under the leadership of Mao Zedong," Ding said.

One said emigration was something he was now considering. Others said they were taking a wait and see approach, and that they were willing to see how Xi used his extra time in office to promote more difficult reforms.

One woman surnamed Gan, an unemployed petitioner, said more time in office could be a good thing. "If a leader is constantly being changed every two to three years, can they really do a good job and be responsible? If a leader can really focus on his work more can get done," Gan said. But now, given that the proposal is unlikely to be stopped, that is something that will only become clearer over time.

The New York-based rights advocacy group Freedom House warns that the end of term limits is a sign that stepped up control and repression under Xi is likely to worsen. And the implications are both regional and global.

In a statement, Freedom House President Michael Abramowitz said, "the decision sends a chilling message to democratic voices in Hong Kong and to Taiwan, both of which have come under intense pressure from Beijing." He said it also "signals that Beijing's drive to create a new world order in which democratic institutions and norms play little or no role will be accelerated."

Party controlled media in China have rejected suggestions that the proposed amendments mean Xi is aiming to become China's next emperor or its leader for life.

Willy Lam, a veteran China watcher based in Hong Kong said that it looks like Xi will at least stay on for a third term until 2028, and perhaps one more until 2033 if health permits. At that point, Xi would be 80 years old.

Yang Kai-huang, head of Ming Chuan University's Cross-Strait Research Center in Taiwan said that Xi does not strike him as someone who wants to repeat the mistakes of Mao, nor is he someone who wants to honor the two-term limit former leader Deng Xiaoping established.

"Judging from Xi's past traits, the abolishment [of term limits] may have paved an easy path for Xi to seek his third term, but I don't think Xi wants to be an emperor for life," Yang said.

Xi is impatient and eager to get things done and put his own thoughts of governance into practice, Yang adds. And that's why the announcement of the constitutional amendment package was so sudden.Opalesque Industry Update - Maples Fiduciary, a leading global provider of specialised fiduciary and corporate administration services and division of MaplesFS, has announced the appointment of Guy Dominy as Director, Business Development in North America. Mr. Dominy brings extensive buy and sell side experience in the asset management industry, including senior roles at private equity fund managers and fund administrators. In his most recent role he was Managing Director and head of the US business development team of a global asset services provider, responsible for US growth strategy, product development and sales of all divisional and group business lines. He also brings considerable advisory experience as a funds lawyer at major international law firms. He received a Joint Honours Bachelor of Arts degree in Law and German from the University of Nottingham and completed the Legal Practice Course at Nottingham Law School. As a result of its long-established reputation for technical excellence and regulatory expertise and unique approach to client service, Maples Fiduciary has been long recognised as one of the premier service providers in the industry. The addition of Mr. Dominy serves to support Maples Fiduciary's continued growth and bolsters the firm's market expertise. Mr. Dominy will work closely with Peter Huber, Global Head of Maples Fiduciary, to drive the growth of the fiduciary services business across North America. "The addition of Guy to our team underscores our commitment to continuing to grow our presence in North America and we are confident that he will help us capitalise on new opportunities in this dynamic market," said Huber. "He brings a depth and breadth of industry knowledge and practical experience that will be invaluable to enhancing the already outstanding service offering we provide to our clients."Opalesque Industry Update - Cambridge Capital, a hedge fund with a focus on cryptocurrencies, will be joining the Apex Token Fund, the first tokenized fund of funds. The firm's mixture of long- and short-term trading strategies will add profitability and security to Apex, allowing it to achieve consistent returns for its investors. Cambridge Capital invests in a wide range of ICOs, liquid tokens, and protocols, dividing its investments into long and short categories. Long investments are chosen on the basis of code and team reviews, regulatory concerns, and likelihood of being replaced with existing coins. Meanwhile, short investments are selected based on market analysis. By hedging these two types of investments, the firm is able to safeguard investors' money while still giving them a chance to earn steep profits. As the first tokenized fund of funds for cryptocurrency ventures, the Apex Token Fund seeks to incorporate as many quality cryptocurrency investment firms and hedge funds as possible. It is particularly partial to firms that have unique strategies, as amassing the returns from multiple different investment methods decreases potential risk while raising profitability. Cambridge Capital's strategy is as unique as it is well-formulated, making the firm a valuable addition to the Apex team. Cambridge Capital Considered Cambridge Capital has risen to prominence under the leadership of fund manager Ari Nazir, who served on the US National Economic Council under the Obama Administration. Nazir has overseen the development of the firm's two-pronged investment strategy, which matches short-term investments with tokens that the firm holds over the long haul. Such investments are chosen based on the following criteria: Short Investments- To select tokens that are likely to be profitable in the short run, Cambridge Capital relies on market analysis. The firm evaluates the market for unfulfilled needs and selects cryptocurrency ventures with the potential to fill these needs. This increases the chance that the firm will participate in the next Ether, Bitcoin, or other game-changing token, thereby raising the prospect of exorbitant profits. Long Investments- Cambridge's main criterion for selecting long investments is replaceability. The firm looks for tokens that are unlikely to be replaced with a Protocol coin, Ether, or some other existing digital coin. After limiting its search to such coins, it conducts a code review on all of its products, along with due diligence on its team. Finally, it considers the mechanics of the coin's sale, as well as whether it will create any regulatory or legal issues. Only coins that pass all these tests are considered viable for the long term. Apex Token Fund places a premium on both safety and profitability. Not only does Cambridge Capital maximize both, but it does so using different specific strategies than the other funds that have joined Atlas. This increases overall security for their investors. The wider a range of strategies that the fund invests in, the more likely it is that at least some of those strategies will prove profitable during even the toughest cryptocurrency markets. As a result, investors will be able to weather difficult periods and earn high and consistent returns for the long haul.Oregon's senior senator honored Portland's biggest literary luminary Tuesday with a seven-and-a-half-minute floor speech aimed at ensuring her life and legacy would be part of the Congressional Record.

Calling the late Ursula K. Le Guin "one of Oregon's finest," Democrat Ron Wyden said, "You'd have a tough time overstating Mrs. Le Guin's impact on American literature."

"She didn't invent science fiction or fantasy literature, but what she did in true Oregon fashion is she redefined them," Wyden said.

Le Guin died Jan. 22 at age 88. Her family is working with the Portland nonprofit Literary Arts on a public tribute to be held in April or May, according to her son, Theo Downes-Le Guin.

Wyden gave the speech Tuesday because it was his first chance after the congressional recess to read his remarks into the Congressional Record, spokesman Hank Stern said by email.

After delivering a brief biography of Le Guin, a Portland resident since the late 1950s, Wyden noted some of the numerous honors and awards she had won, then quipped, "I'd be here until next week if I tried to list all of her achievements."

"As a dad who knows full well the importance of reading in a child's life, this is really a special honor today to be able to stand before this distinguished body and remember Ursula K. Le Guin, her life and her legacy," Wyden said. "Her pioneering writing is going to continue to make readers challenge their perceptions and contemplate their role in this enormously vast universe for decades to come."A 44-year-old man who admitted to killing a Clackamas County assistant weighmaster in 2014 was sentenced Tuesday to life in prison with a minimum of 25 years served before being eligible for parole.

Dirck White's sentence in Clackamas County will be combined with another he is already serving in California, where in 2016 he was ordered to serve at least 38 years and eight months stemming from a shootout with police in Hollywood. The shootout occurred nine months after the killing of 47-year-old Grady Waxenfelter.

White was ordered Tuesday to pay more than $17,000 in restitution. He also faces second-degree rape of a child charges in Pierce County, Washington, court records show.

Tedra Waxenfelter, the victim's wife, told White in court that her husband was just doing his job when he was killed.

"Grady was a wonderfully kind man that left an impression on everyone he came in contact with," Tedra Waxenfelter said according to a video recording from KOIN. "If you hadn't done what you did to him that day, you too would have been a better person just from meeting him."

White told the court that he didn't plan to kill Waxenfelter when the assistant weighmaster pulled him over near Boring in February 2014. White said he shot Waxenfelter as retaliation for every instance of misconduct by police, prosecutors and corrections officers he's seen over his lifetime.

"It doesn't excuse what I did, but that's the reason," White said, according to a video recording from KPTV.

Grady Waxenfelter

According to court documents, Waxenfelter had taken a family friend on a ride-along on Feb. 6, 2014, when he spotted White hauling a trailer without a license plate on Oregon 224. Waxenfelter's duties as an assistant weighmaster included issuing traffic citations.

Waxenfelter pulled over White's pickup. At some point, White shot Waxenfelter three times and drove off, according to the documents. Waxenfelter died at the scene.

White remained on the loose until two Los Angeles police patrol officers responded to a car break-in on Nov. 30, 2014, in Hollywood, and found White inside the burglarized car, the documents said. White exchanged gunfire with the officers, and they shot him in the face and arm.

It was later determined White had used the same gun as in Waxenfelter's killing, the documents said.

In May 2016, a Los Angeles County jury found White guilty of attempted murder, assault on a police officer with a semiautomatic firearm, exhibiting a deadly weapon while resisting arrest, possession of a firearm by a felon and second-degree burglary of a vehicle. He was sentenced to life in prison with a minimum of 38 years and eight months served before being eligible for parole.

Clackamas County hasn't allowed weighmasters to conduct traffic stops since Waxenfelter's death. The county was fined $2,100 in August 2014 by the Oregon Occupational Safety and Health Division for not properly training and equipping weighmasters for such stops.

Clackamas County agreed to pay Waxenfelter's widow $700,000 to settle a wrongful death lawsuit.

-- Everton Bailey Jr.

ebailey@oregonian.com

503-221-8343; @EvertonBaileyShame on the 13 senators who voted against closing the "boyfriend loophole" in Oregon's house bill on firearms, relationship status and abuse ("Oregon passes gun control bill aimed at domestic abusers," Feb. 22). Either they were cowards in facing intimidation from the National Rifle Association or they felt no urgency to protect abused women from being shot and killed by violent ex-boyfriends.

Thankfully most senators understood the urgency to act and passed HB 4145, sending it to Gov. Kate Brown for signature.

The statistics are grim. Every month, 50 or more women are fatally shot in the U.S. by intimate partners. Abused women are five times more likely to be killed by their abuser if the abuser owns a firearm. Two-thirds of women who die by gunshot are killed by a partner, boyfriend, husband or ex-husband.

The statistics are apparently not grim enough for the 13 naysayers. Of the 12 Republicans who voted "no," some claimed the definition of ex-boyfriend was vague, even though the same definition has long been used successfully elsewhere in the Oregon criminal code.

Democrat Betsy Johnson's objections were worse. After warning against a "largely emotional response," she claimed the new law would allow disgruntled exes to seek retribution against former boyfriends. This is the same odious claim made 40 years ago against Oregon's spousal rape law.

It is high time for legislators to take a stand against violent crime and stand up to the NRA.

-- Pete Sandrock, Southeast PortlandIn March 2017, Mayor Ted Wheeler said via Twitter that he wanted the city to look at breaking up with Wells Fargo, which held the contract to provide general banking services for the city. It was a savvy move that recognized Portlanders' deep distrust of a company mired in controversy over customer fraud cases and support of a contentious pipeline project.

So it's surprising that city staff is now in the final stages of negotiating a new contract with Wells Fargo that would lock in the scandal-plagued company as the city's partner for the next five years. After evaluating bids from five banks, the city selected Wells Fargo to maintain the city's deposits, enable the city and its bureaus to issue payments, offer a range of branch services to city employees and other functions. The agreement calls for the city to pay Wells Fargo a maximum of $600,000 for services over the life of the agreement, according to Jeff Blade, the procurement supervisor in charge of the bid.

As contracts go, the amount is relatively modest. Normally, it wouldn't even need to go before the City Council to get approval. But the mayor's spokesman told The Oregonian/OregonLive Editorial Board that the chief financial officer plans to bring the contract to the council for review.

That's a good move. While Wells Fargo scored the highest of the five bidders evaluated by the city, the council owes the public thorough consideration of whether it should do business with a company whose actions contributed to the repossession of thousands of cars, wrought havoc on many of its customers' credit scores and otherwise targeted some of the same people that City Council considers constituents.

Outrage over Wells Fargo is nothing new. Just 11 months ago, Portlanders lobbied the city to divest from Wells Fargo, due to its role as a lender to the Dakota Access Pipeline project. While the council declined to single out Wells Fargo, it did decide unanimously to pull all its investments in corporate securities.

But the public's anger predates that. There's the scandal uncovered in 2016 in which the bank's employees had opened more than 3 million fake accounts under customers' names in order to meet sales quotas. And the scandal uncovered in 2017, in which the bank was found to have charged hundreds of thousands of customers for auto insurance they did not want or need, which, the bank acknowledged, may have contributed to 20,000 people losing their cars to repossession.

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.

While Wells Fargo has made many changes in response, there's still reason for concern. As recently as Feb. 2, the Federal Reserve took the unprecedented step of restricting Wells Fargo's growth until it "sufficiently improves its governance and controls." A press release from the central bank cited the bank's "recent and widespread consumer abuses and other compliance breakdowns by Wells Fargo" for refusing to let it expand its business.

The city council should also be troubled by this pattern. They should pay particular attention to Wells Fargo's curious response to a direct question asking whether, in the previous five years, the company had to pay a fine, settlement or issue refunds; had been involved in civil or criminal actions or been the subject of significant regulatory action. Instead of mentioning the $142 million fund announced in July 2017 to settle a class-action lawsuit over the fake accounts, or mentioning the $100 million fine it paid to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau in September 2017 or mentioning the $80 million refund pool set up in July 2017 for those charged due to the auto-insurance scandal or bringing up the many federal and state investigations into its activities, Wells Fargo claimed amnesia and dodged the question.

"The disclosure requested is extremely broad in scope, and, at any given time, an organization the size of Wells Fargo may be subject to the aforementioned actions, some or all of which may be confidential in nature. At this time, and to the best knowledge of the Wells Fargo representatives preparing this response, Wells Fargo has not been subject to any of the aforementioned actions within the past five years that would have a material adverse impact on our ability to provide the services requested in this RFP," the company responded.

While Blade said company representatives addressed its business practices elsewhere and in follow-up interviews, Wells Fargo's inability to give a forthright response should be of concern to the city when it looks for a business partner.

Few banks can claim a spotless record. Wells Fargo certainly isn't the only company found to have engaged in fraudulent activity and abhorrent practices that bilked customers out of their money. And it would be unfair to assume the bank's efforts to rebuild its image and the public's trust are insincere.

But the bank simply should have to meet a stricter level of scrutiny in order to gain the city's business. Thankfully, the City Council will have the opportunity to provide that.

- The Oregonian/OregonLive Editorial Board"It seems China was attempting to spy on Korea and the U.S. in preparation for resumption of joint military drills," a government source here said. The Defense Ministry summoned three military attaches of the Chinese Embassy in Seoul to lodge a protest.

The aircraft came within 33 km of Korean territorial waters. Several Chinese military aircraft have buzzed the Korean ADIZ in recent months, but mostly in areas where the two countries' zones overlap and never so close to Korean territorial waters.

A Chinese military reconnaissance plane flew into Korea's air defense identification zone without warning on Tuesday. It flew to an area about 55 km northwest of Ulleung Island before turning back, according to the Joint Chiefs of Staff here.

The military aircraft entered the zone from southwest of Ieo Island around 9:34 a.m., the JCS said.

It was an Y-9 intelligence gathering aircraft that is capable of monitoring electronic communications. Afterwards, it flew over the Korea Strait, zigzagging across the Korean and Japanese air defense identification zones.

Around 11 a.m., it turned north from waters southeast of Busan and flew back into the Korean zone about 74 km from the coastline and kept going north until it reached waters some 55 km northwest of Ulleung Island.

Korea scrambled around a dozen fighter planes to intercept it. When it came too close to Ulleung Island, the Korean military warned the Chinese aircraft and its home base to stop provocations.

The Korean fighter jets flew just a few hundred meters from the Chinese military aircraft to identify it with the naked eye. The Chinese military claimed it was a routine training flight. The aircraft turned back by the same route around 11:34 a.m. It finally left the zone around 2 p.m.

In the meantime, two Chinese fighter jets were on standby southwest of Ieo Island, according to the JCS. "We speculate that the Chinese military aircraft buzzed the KADIZ to gather intelligence that can have effects on our military operations," a JCS spokesman said.

Air defense identification zones are not territorial airspace but require incoming planes to identify themselves to the country that claims them.

Fifty years ago, CBS's Walter Cronkite stepped from his role as objective TV anchor to call for a negotiated settlement of America's war in Southeast Asia.

"We have been too often disappointed by the optimism of the American leaders, both in Vietnam and Washington, to have faith any longer in the silver linings they find in the darkest crowds," he said in his broadcast of Feb. 27, 1968. ". . . For it seems now more certain than ever that the bloody experience of Vietnam is to end in a stalemate."

Coming from Cronkite, those words came as a shocker, not least to the man leading us in the war. After watching, President Lyndon Johnson is famously reported to have told aides: If I've lost Cronkite, I've lost middle America.

What gave Cronkite such credibility was his years as a calm, reassuring presence on the evening news. He was the anchorman most remembered for telling us the news that President John F. Kennedy had been assassinated. More than deliver the news, he seemed to share it with us. In addition to being a reporter, he was an American, carrying both our history and national feeling.

There was something else about Cronkite: his authenticity. It lay in his backstory. Many of us knew his history as a wire-service reporter in World War II. We knew that his recent tour of Vietnam was that of a seasoned war correspondent, someone who knew the look and horror of the battlefield. This wasn't an armchair general's assessment.

Who, on this half-century anniversary of Cronkite's commentary, can match his credibility and authenticity?

I nominate the students and teachers of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.

Wayne LaPierre of the National Rifle Association has attacked the "media." But his real targets are the eyewitnesses to the horror at that school. Those are the people who have brought a new credibility in the national discussion. They are the young veterans with back-from-the-front authenticity.

Consider the Parkland, Florida, teacher Greg Pittman and what he has had to say about carrying a handgun into class with him: "One, where do I put the gun? Do I put it in my pocket in a holster? In my desk? Is it locked up somewhere? . . . I am in the profession to teach. I did not sign up to be SWAT, to be a policeman."

Or the student Chris Grady on how he'd react to a teacher coming to class with a concealed weapon: "That's pretty much all I would be thinking about. You know, I know most teachers are incredible people who just want to teach, but you never know when a teacher might have a bad day or if one of them snaps and they take it out on their students. It's just a very uncomfortable thought knowing that my teacher has a weapon that could cause death."

What caught my attention early about these witnesses to tragedy - the shooting deaths of 17 students in their midst - was the language they employed. It hasn't been left vs. right or even gun control vs. "the right to bear arms." It has been something different. The survivors of Parkland don't criticize lawmakers for disagreeing with them. They nail them for speaking so dishonestly.

Cronkite spoke of politicians selling us on the "silver linings" in the nightly body counts from Vietnam. The eyewitnesses from the high school in Parkland call the talk of arming teachers "BS." And there's a reason their witness resonates. They are the students who will never forget what it felt like to see their classmates shot dead. They are the teachers who devote their careers to the education and well-being of these teenagers.

It's not "the media" the NRA is worried about. It's these students and teachers. They are the country's trusted correspondents. They are the Cronkites of this story. They are the ones telling us, as he did, "the way it is."

- - -

Matthews is host of MSNBC's "Hardball" and author of "Bobby Kennedy: A Raging Spirit."By Natalie Hval

In theory, education is the great equalizer and a tenet of the American Dream. In practice, however, Portland's children are unfairly denied the opportunity to rise up and out of cycles of poverty. We've sold their collective future short: Educational opportunity takes a back seat to corporate interests. Local politicians fail to fund schools properly. Our children are paying the price.

On one hand, Portland prides itself on being "weird": an enclave of eccentricity and progressive politics. On the other, we suffer deep historical racial and socio-economic divides. This is evident in our public-school system. Education is meant to lift youth from poverty. By many measures -- funding, instructional hours, achievement gaps, graduation rates -- Oregon's schools don't meet national standards. We're failing all our students, but children of color are the first to fall through the cracks.

New Portland Public Schools Superintendent Guadalupe Guerrero barely stepped foot onto ground when tasked with a tall order: turn a large underfunded, seismically unstable district around. But more than that, he's been tasked to deliver equity to the larger fractured district community. African-Americans, Latinos, Native Americans, English language learners and those of low socio-economic status have long been relegated to schools which, while rich in cultural identity, have been starved of fundamental resources.

Our poorest schools are under-enrolled. And since funding dollars are tied to student numbers, predominantly white schools filled to capacity have larger budgets to work with while schools serving minority and low-income students struggle. Proposed boundary changes in the North and Northeast quadrants of the city will do little to change these numbers. Many of the schools with the fewest resources will remain under-enrolled and underfunded while others will see no change. The result is de facto segregation: separate and unequal, by race and class among Portland's public schools.

Neighborhood school boundaries are a constantly shifting piece of the larger funding and equity puzzle. Higher income families typically reside near the most desirable schools and thus form fund-raising enclaves. School foundations and PTA funds subsidize specialized staff, career readiness coursework and technological equipment, contributing to upholding a system of separate and unequal schools. Although All Hands Raised, an organization affiliated with the district, attempts to redistribute some funds to poorer schools, they are getting scraps, if anything. Unlike schools in richer neighborhoods, they struggle to provide core programming and retain staff.

The school board has tried to mitigate inequities with its plan to establish two middle schools: Harriet Tubman and Rose City Park. The consolidation of students is meant to stabilize funding, staff and course offerings. This does not however take into account inequities leading up to middle school nor those encountered in high school. In addition, white, high-income parents have fought boundary changes as detrimental to their established communities and property values, a practice reminiscent of redlining.

All children have a right to a free and appropriate public education. Funding models should not operate as containment devices enhancing opportunities for some and blocking the aspirations of others based upon zip code, skin color and poverty level. And yet, this is the cumulative effect of policies which rely on boundaries. We must establish programmatic parity between schools. Providing the bare minimum does not equivalence make.

If Portlanders are so "weird" as to not believe in equal opportunity, then perhaps a more pragmatic view is in order. Our city is growing, and our economy is booming. Yet the failing facilities our students find themselves in are the direct result of budget cuts. Again, fundamental learning opportunities are denied as Portland families must advocate for the services that are legally mandated including special education, Talented and Gifted programs, physical education and even school nursing staff. Art, music, theater and technology are viewed as "add-ons" and often entirely absent.

It's no coincidence that we fall in the lower third nationally in achievement and 50th in corporate taxation, according to the Oregon Center for Public Policy. While local politicians quibble as to who bears fiscal responsibility for educational outcomes, our children are paying the price in lost potential. Stockholders, not Portlanders, are enjoying the dividends of our quickly eroding "quality of life" as profits are funneled out of state and our local workforce is hobbled through lack of education in the process.

Superintendent Guerrero landed on the ground running but he can't turn PPS around on his own or even with a new board. Our local politicians must value, prioritize and fund education: It's up to us as constituents to force that change. Call, write and email them today. Demand the funding that will provide our children with the future they deserve.

Natalie Hval is a previous Portland Public Schools student (Metropolitan Learning Center) and a current PPS parent. She lives in Southeast Portland.The Feb. 24 article, "Colleges: Student protesters shouldn't worry about admission," by the Associated Press, struck a positive chord with me. I am a student leader at Portland Community College's Cascade Campus, serving as the Environmental Justice Coordinator. I have participated in numerous protests over the years, including Black Lives Matter, NoDAPL, The Women's March, March for Science and, recently, our campus walkout in support of DACA and Dreamers.

We deserve to exercise our constitutional right to protest and use free speech and I appreciate seeing the support many colleges and universities are giving to students who desire to protest. Those institutions threatening punishment by suspensions or refusing admissions are using a bold flexing of undemocratic power that has no place in what remains of this democracy we're trying to uphold.

I find myself in an extraordinary place of privilege as I write this. I am a white, cisgendered, heterosexual male who also is fortunate enough to not have any disabilities. I recognize my position in these social justice struggles we all face. I support detangling these systemic issues of oppression that primarily impact people of color, the LGBTQ+ community and the indigenous people whose stolen lands I write these very words on.

And I'm proud my fellow students and I will be protesting on March 14 in the Enough: National School Walkout to demand Congress pass legislation on gun reform.

-- Joe Culhane, Northeast PortlandSenior North Korean apparatchik Kim Yong-chol, the head of the United Front Department, wrapped up a three-day trip to South Korea on Tuesday. Kim waved at South Korean reporters as he crossed the border but did not reply to their barrage of questions.

Apart from attending the closing ceremony of the Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, Kim was mostly holed up in his hotel, where he met with senior South Korean government officials. No photos or videos of the meetings were revealed by the government.

The government apparently tried to be discreet because Kim masterminded the sinking of the Navy corvette Cheonan in 2010, when he was chief of the General Bureau of Reconnaissance.

On his last day in South Korea, Kim and his entourage had breakfast with Unification Minister Cho Myoung-gyon and National Intelligence Service chief Suh Hoon on the 16th floor of the Walkerhill Hotel in eastern Seoul, which had been taken over by the North Korean delegation.

Historical building in Putuo to become health service hub

From:Shine | 2018-02-28 03:29

The historical building on Changshou Road in Putuo District will reopen in June as the health service center of Changshou sub-district community after renovation.

A historical building in Putuo District will reopen in June as the health service center of Changshou sub-district community after renovation.

The building, located at 170 Changshou Road, was first built in 1927 as the residence of businessman Pan Yuantai. In 1951, Soong Ching-ling, who was then vice chairperson of the Peoples Republic of China and also widow of Dr Sun Yat-sen, turned the building into a maternal and children hospital. In 1956 it became Putuo Districts maternity hospital and continued until 2014.

After reopening in June, the building will be able to house 78 patients and deal with 200 outpatients every day. Hu Shicheng, the director of the health center, told Shanghai Daily that he wishes to carry on Soongs will by both protecting the building and inheriting the spirit of service from the old days.

Pans residence has had multiple refurbishments and expansion over the past 90 years which has largely changed the structure of the building and posed challenges to the renovation team as they attempted to bring back the original style of the building.

The external walls of the building were brushed too many times in the past, it didnt protect but damaged the building, said Wu Heping from Shanghai Construction No. 5 Group Co who led the renovation project. Many structures inside the building were also damaged or decayed over time.

Jiang Xiaowei / SHINE

Traditional Chinese style carved beams on the ceiling uncovered during the renovation of the building.

Jiang Xiaowei / SHINE

The railings at the balcony of the second floor of the building.

After consulting experts from Tongji University, the team decided to restore the granite plaster facade.

Workers first applied paint remover around the building and used water cannon to uncover the original facade. But workers found the wall was damaged badly due to natural weathering and human activity over time, so they mixed pebbles of different colors with mortar and brush them onto the wall to make it look like the original.

More than half of the railings at the balcony on the second floor were damaged beyond repair. Workers modelled rail pillars after the original ones. It took about a week to make one, said Shen. We had more than 40 (railings) to make.

While renovating the building, the team found that it used to have a courtyard that was remoulded into a lobby. We built a glass ceiling instead of the iron suspended ceiling so that the sunlight can shine through like the old days, said Wu.

Another surprise the team found while renovating the ceiling was the traditional Chinese style carved beams enclosed in the ceiling of the first floor. Wu and her co-workers retained part of the beams and refurbished them.23,260 new COVID cases in Kerala after 1.28L tests on Friday

With this, the number of active COVID cases in the state rose to 1,88,926. Of the new cases, 21,983 contracted the virus through contact while 159 came from outside the state.Wednesday 28 February 2018 4:33pm



Te Runanga o Otakou chair Donna Matahaere-Atariki and Ngai Tahu kaiwhakahaere Lisa Tumahai unveil the plaque outside Te Kaika.

A new iwi-driven health village focusing on affordable, high quality health and social services in partnership with the University of Otago officially opened its doors in Dunedin today.

Around 200 people attended the opening of Te Kaika, which aims to deliver a number of health and well-being services for Maori, Pasifika and low income families. It is situated in the former College Street School in Caversham, Dunedin.

Te Kaika is a partnership between Arai Te Uru Whare Hauora, Te Runanga o Otakou, and the University of Otago. It is run by Otakou Health Limited (OHL), a charity founded in 2015 aimed at bringing affordable health and wellbeing services to Dunedin.



Komene Cassidy from the Centre for Maori Development, University of Otago, addresses the crowd at the Te Kaika opening.

The initiative, which has been three years in the making, aims to inspire other areas to take up a hub-based model of health services.

Te Runanga o Otakou chair Donna Matahaere-Atariki, one of the founders of Te Kaika, emphasised Te Kaika would embody both health and well-being services.

This is about being really pragmatic and saying people live complex lives, and we need to be able to respond to that complexity without freaking out about it, Ms Matahaere-Atariki said.

Given the group we were focused on were those historically under-served by those institutions, it wasnt about doing things for people  it was about creating an environment to help people make their own decisions.

Among those at the opening was former Whanau Ora minister Dame Tariana Turia, who praised Te Kaika for being an inspirational model of collaboration.

In many ways what youre doing is reflecting on the foundational essence of your community, and identifying the diverse strains that make us this village, and that is something to be proud of, Dame Turia told the crowd.

Te Kaika is exactly what we intended for Whanau Ora.



Dunedin dentist and former local NZDA President Dr Gary Marks and Otago University Dental School head Paul Brunton with dentistry students outside Te Kaika.

The services at the former College Street School buildings include a primary health care service (Te Mataora), which provides affordable GP and dental services.

The University of Otago will also use the centre to train a number students from across the Health Sciences schools, including medicine, dentistry, pharmacy and physiotherapy.

The Universitys Pro-Vice Chancellor (Health Sciences) Professor Peter Crampton told the crowd there were a number of key benefits for all parties.

The University of Otago is very proud, and humbled, to be a partner in this initiative led by Ngai Tahu, Professor Crampton said.

And let me remind everyone again why Te Kaika is important  because we aim to provide a range of high quality health and social services to support whanau, Pacific families and low income families in Dunedin in order for them to be in control of, and in charge of, their lives.

Professor Crampton also paid tribute to Otakou Runanga chair Donna Matahaere-Atariki and Albie Laurence, who he described as the intellectual architects of Te Kaika.

Te Putahitanga o Te Waipounamu (the South Island Whanau Ora Commissioning Agency) has provided funding for start-up and infrastructural costs, while Te Runanga o Ngai Tahu has also strongly supported the project.

Te Kaika will provide opportunities to use existing funding in ways that match the needs of whanau and low-income families.

Initially focused in the Dunedin south area, it is expected to attract families from across the city.

For more information contact:



Matiu Workman

Maori Communications Advisor, University of Otago

Email: matiu.workman@otago.ac.nz

Phone: (03) 479 9139What The Hell Is Going On With The New York Times Opinion Pages?

By Kayleigh Donaldson | Politics | February 28, 2018 |

Seasons may change, news may turn fake, but the New York Times will forever remain the star at the top of the journalism tree. The grey lady of the newspaper industry has weathered many difficult moments in time, and struggled in this demoralizing market as much as the rest of us who write for a living. Yet, through skill and investment and the sheer heft of its reputation, it stands tall as, infamously described by former editor Jill Abramson, the prettiest girl at the party. Everyone who writes dreams of doing so for the New York Times. Even for those of us who arent American, its a name that means something. It survives all conditions.

In the Trump age, however, the paper seems to have fallen into an identity crisis of sorts. The reporting is still top notch and its hard to argue that the paper remains definitively anti-Trump. Well, it is if you dont look at the opinion pages, which have become so astoundingly tone-deaf in such a short amount of time that you half wonder if its all some sort of Bialystock and Bloom style scam. There was the time they allowed a full-page of letters to run from Trump supporters, who, as described by Slates Jamelle Bouie, ran the gamut from republican partisans, [to] a few racists, and people you can fairly describe as delusional. There was the controversial hiring of conservative columnist Bret Stephens, who described Black Lives Matter as being too thuggish and loves a bit of old-school climate change denial and Woody Allen defending.

Another recent hire, Bari Weiss, quickly became such an embarrassment on Twitter for her comments on ice-skater Mirai Nagasu that journalists at the newspaper saw their grievances be leaked from a private Slack chat. By this point in time, shed already attacked the #MeToo movement by dismissing the need to believe all women who talk about their experiences. David Brookss astounding ignorance and elitism are near legendary at this point, but he still has the ability to baffle in recent months, as he did with one piece where he concern-trolled a non-university educated friend who struggled with Italian language in a gourmet sandwich shop. Another Brooks piece, entitled Respect First, Then Gun Control seems designed more to enrage than inspire. Ross Douthat recently tried to advocate for the banning of pornography. Another newer hire, Michelle Goldberg, has a questionable past in elevating anti-trans voices. Quinn Nortons tenure at the paper lasted around seven hours, as people uncovered her delightful bragging about being friends with Nazis (even the Times seems to have limits).

Oh yeah, and last week, there was a piece attacking yoga pants. Fucking yoga pants.

YOGA PANTS!

The Times opinion pages have always been mired in questions over supposed biases and questionable targets. They continue to hire Maureen Dowd, a woman who won a Pulitzer Prize for essentially attacking Monica Lewinsky for a solid year. Opinion pages are designed to encourage this kind of debate, which often swings into very heated territory. Every paper with the budget does it. But what the Times are doing now feel different. The times themselves are not what they used to be and the old ways of opinion cannot and should not apply to them without serious consideration for the repercussions.

James Bennet, who was appointed the Editorial page editor in 2016, was the one who hired Bret Stephens. When this caused a flood of subscription cancellations, following Stephenss first column that became a legitimized form of climate change denial, Bennet tried to frame this hiring in a historical context:

When Adolph Ochs set out the mission for The New York Times at the end of the 19th century, he said he hoped to make its opinion pages a forum for intelligent discussion from all shades of opinion Given how polarizing and partisan this era has become, we think its important to recommit ourselves to that goal.

This isnt the worst idea in the world, but history has also provided us with an understanding as to how such an approach can fall apart, even if the intentions are earnest. You cannot claim to be committed to understanding the partisan nature of the era when your offerings are so deliberately outrage-inducing in style and tone. Hiring a literal climate change denier has nothing to do with opinion. Thats just bad journalism, and opinion does not trump truth. The times are already horrendously anti-science, with climate change deniers in the highest offices of the land, so what point is there to giving such unequivocal lies pride of place in the newspaper of our era? If opinion has the power to sway others, what is the purpose of reinforcing the status quo, like Weiss strengthening the misogynistic lies spewed against the #MeToo movement? If our culture is so polarized, what changes when David Brooks brags about knowing what Italian sandwich to order? The opinion pages bullpen of contributors remains by and large very straight, white and male, which doesnt speak highly of understanding what made our society so divisive. Indeed, they tend to meet the demographics of those doing the dividing.

Trump fans dont like the New York Times. They dont like traditional media in any form that isnt a Fox News show being hosted by a compliant blonde or shouty white man. Part of the cult-like nature of Trump support lies in their outright rejection of everything that doesnt meet their increasingly limited definition of the truth. Regardless of what the New York Times prints, they will deem it to be fake. They can dedicate as much time as they want to telling their side of the story, as if it isnt already the most loudly amplified in our current ecosystem, but it wont work. You may change minds here and there, but the divide has grown too wide to the point where mere opinion pieces cannot provide a decent attack.

At moments, one wonders if the Times are deliberately trolling readers for the clicks. Bennet denied this, claiming to Splinter that to troll is to be deliberately offensive with the goal of infuriating people. Yet what purpose does telling women that YOGA PANTS are bad for them other than to anger? Was that truly a pressing issue of our age that needed a no-holds-barred dissection in order to further our genders wellbeing? The greatest question one has about the opinion pages nowadays is, who is this all for?

Obviously, its not all trash over there. The Times do still publish eloquent and crucial pieces in the opinion section. Theyre the New York Times - they can hire anyone they want. Thats what makes choices like Weiss and Stephens so infuriating. Youre the prettiest girl at the party but you still go home with the dude who smells like wee and wont shut up about conspiracy theories, and he still makes you pay for the taxi? Maybe we shouldnt expect better from the Times on this front, but when you have the power to subvert, challenge and demand better, it seems like such a waste when you simply reinforce the most insidious status quo then claim its upholding a fine historical tradition.

And you can wear yoga pants all day if you want, I promise.





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Kayleigh is a features writer for Pajiba. You can follow her on Twitter or listen to her podcast, The Hollywood Read.Sex: One of the few things that everyone can relate to. Naturally, entire industries have sprung around it. Whether we're talking about porn, sex work, or contraception, sex sells  literally and figuratively.

The thing is, despite being an activity everyone enjoys, transgender folk are often left out of the conversation. While a dildo or vibrator may satisfy the average homosexual/heterosexual man or woman, what if you're trans, gender nonbinary or don't feel comfortable using toys that fall under a strict binary code?

Trans folk already face enough discrimination in the sex industry. Nearly all porn produced with trans-actors/actresses fall into the fetish category, and many trans folk are unable to have healthy relationships because of public perception.

Initiating laws like allowing a trans-person to choose which bathroom they want to use in public is great. But let's not ignore some other aspects of life that cis- folk take for granted. In this case, sex toys. Here are four sex toy manufacturers selling products that all people can enjoy, regardless of what's inside your pants.

hicurious

London-based sex toy company hicurious gained International recognition when they sold sex toys that weren't designed around gender.

"At hicurious we believe sexual pleasure should be accessible to everyone," their site states. "Based in South-West London, we select (and test!) only the best and most innovative toys and accessories. In keeping with our mission to open up and cater for all types of play, we don't gender any of our products  everyone can use anything with just a bit of ingenuity."

When asked about how hicurious came into being, founder George Jeffrey told HuffPost UK:



"Firstly, when I tried to shop for some toys myself, I realized that the way toys and, by extension, sexual pleasure are presented is actually more of a turn-off than it should be. It either felt really sleazy or impersonal, which doesn't reflect how I, and I hope most people, feel about sexual pleasure."

The second was the realization that the practice of selling and labeling sex toys by gender was self-defeating.

"I'd like to think that getting off can be a creative experience and by saying to people 'this isn't for you' the industry is really stifling some of that creativity," said George, who identifies as cisgender and prefers not to label sexuality. "Plus it doesn't take into account the experiences of trans and non-binary people, who have as much of a right to pleasure as the rest of us."

With toys ranging from vibrators to various plug-ring-wand looking contraptions, you almost feel like you're shopping for contemporary art pieces. And while prices aren't exactly cheap, you'll know that your money is going towards a business that actually cares about its customers.

Chakrubs

Yup, we're talking about crystals again.



Chakrubs sells crystal sex toys that are supposed to help heal your energies. Whether you're looking for amethyst, Indian jade, or rose quartz, this site is more focused on the stone in question rather than your genitals.

Related | Healing With Crystal Sex Toys and Space Orgasms

Of course their yoni egg line is more female-centered, but who are we tell you what you can't put inside yourself?

And for those who enjoy living life on the wild side, they have The Shadow Line. With plugs, wands, dildos and even a ball gag, gender neutral BDSM was never more spiritual. Of course somebody could argue that having a dildo is gendered, but ultimately it falls on the consumer's interpretation of the design.

Maybe somebody who is trans enjoys crystal dildos! To each their own.

Buck Off

Designed by porn legend Buck Angel, the Buck-Off specifically caters to transmen. Being female-to-male himself, Angel sought to make a toy that could facilitate a transman's need to stroke.

The Buck-Off claims to be "the first product designed specifically for transmen to engage in stroking fun. Every man loves to stroke, but not every man is the same. We engineered this using Buck's vision for how the product should feel and fit. Buck has a mission to help transmen become comfortable with their bodies, and the Buck-Off is an exceptional product for achieving this."



At $29.95, it's not exactly a bad deal either.

PicoBong's Transformer

Ever wish you had a sex toy that does everything? LELO's sister-brand PicoBong tries to tackle this with their Transformer toy. Marketed as a "rabbit vibe, a clitoral massager, a cock-ring, a G-spot stimulator, a prostate massager and more," the transformer wants to be seen as a simple sex toy by all genders. If you have an extra $129.00 laying around, here's a premium toy that seems to guarantee a great time.

While the market at large is slowly beginning to cater to consumers outside of the gender binary, it's good to see that early adopters are being conscious in their efforts, as well. Because as Buck Angel told HuffPost, "When you transition, sex is a big part of that. And if you are missing out of exploring your newfound body, I think this could be harmful and does not teach self love."

Photo via InstagramAmerica's Propagandist Network, Fox News, shared a live video yesterday of Vice President Mike Pence speaking in Nashville about abortion as though it's something in vogue that will soon go out of vogue. Who feels like being upset? Let's dive in.

The speech was in support of Susan B. Anthony's List, a non-profit organization that supports the election and platforms of anti-abortion politicians, mainly women, and the Life Issues Institute, a Cincinnati, Ohio-based effort that works to assure equal legal protection through educational tools designed to change hearts and minds "from conception to natural death."

Pence said the partnership between the two organizations was "made in heaven"  but what really sealed the deal was his claim that "life is winning in America once again." Pence cited 45's reinstating of the Mexico City Policy preventing American tax dollars from funding abortions "beyond our borders," as one reason why he feels that way. Plus imperialist garbage about how American taxpayers are no longer forced to support abortions around the world. Plus his continued one-man campaign to defund Planned Parenthood: As a member of Congress, Pence sponsored the first bill to defund Planned Parenthood in 2007  and did so repeatedly through 2011, when it finally passed the House.

In this speech, after Pence said he believed abortion would be "on its way out" in our lifetime, he also unfortunately reminded us that he is the VP of America. This of course makes him President of the Senate, which means he acted as tie-breaking voter and the final nail in the coffin (pun intended, sorry) on last year's Senate bill allowing states to decide whether or not to defund Planned Parenthood. The fuckery of Pence speaking in Tennessee, a state currently working to defund Planned Parenthood, feels almost schadenfreudian.

Amazing that what's always missing from this awful man's grand speeches is any acknowledgment whatsoever of women's actual real-life legal and safe reproductive health needs. We are convinced Pence just wants folks to have babies, no matter how extreme the larger circumstances. Lest we forget he once shepherded a lovely bill called HB 1337, which called for his home state of Indiana to ban abortions for disability, block terminations due to lethal anomaly and require healthcare providers to cremate or bury fetuses.

One (okay, two) of the most important things former White House "employee" and reality-TV star Omarosa ever did was a) get fired from the White House, and b) say that Pence believes he gets these messages express direct from Jesus.

The ability of people like Pence to willfully disassociate never ceases to amaze me: the "fight for life" must go on, and yet, he is practically in bed with the National Rifle Association, having received tens of thousands of dollars from them, who, as we all know, unapologetically uphold the right to apparently bear military-grade assault rifles.

Thoughts and prayers go to the those killed in the recent tragic Parkland shootings, but of course, the "sanctity of life" protestations Pence and his ilk prop themselves up with need not apply here.

Now that we've broken that down: Want to resist and give Pence's harmful words less power? Donate to Planned Parenthood, here, the Center for Reproductive Rights, here, then proudly wear a Thank God for Abortion T-shirt, by Brooklyn artist and activist Viva Ruiz, to buy here.

Photo via GettyOver a month ago Patently Apple posted a report titled "New Report Points to a Massive iPhone Blitz coming in Q4" wherein we learned that Apple was planning to launch iPhones in 2018 with larger OLED displays up to 6.4" to 6.5." While that's a great move for those who love phablets, Apple is still playing catch up with minor smartphone players like China's Xiaomi that currently offers the Mi Max 2 smartphone with a 6.44" display. Of course Apple's will be OLED vs. LCD from most competitors, but for most, it's the size and not the type of display that matters.

In a new Bloomberg report that repeats this news, they quote Gene Munster co-founder of Loup Ventures and a long-time Apple watcher. "When you have a measurable upgrade in screen size, people go to update their phone in droves. We saw that with the iPhone 6, and we think this is setting up to be a similar step up in growth."

The report is full of maybe features such as introducing a gold model and introducing E-SIM technology (that's a big maybe). The mention of Apple choosing a next gen processor and iOS version sounds like something that's just expected and not much of a revelation. You could read more on their report here.





Samsung just released their Galaxy S9 and you could find Samsung's official press release here that highlights the new features that were introduced on Sunday morning in Barcelona.

Earlier this month Patently Apple posted a report titled "Samsung's Galaxy S9 to Feature '3D Emoji,' a Direct Ripoff of Apple's iPhone X Animoji" Samsung's mobile chief actually had the nerve to pretend that its new animated emojis were absolutely not copying Apple. The man should be a comedian.





In rewriting history he claimed that they were working on 3D emojis in 2001. So .. why did they only deliver them a few months after the iPhone X brought this feature to market?

Samsung had stated that Face ID wasn't reliable and that's why they chose iris scanning and yet, they raced to copy Apple Face ID. I guess that they had been working on that back in 1907 but just didn't get around to delivering it until Apple did. Didn't copy Apple, ha!  give me a break. They needed the new 3D depth face camera to pull off personalized emoji's.

The crazy thing to this is that they even decided to call them emojis when in fact they're really personalized Avatars. But confused customers want Samsung to match Apple's features, so they stuck with the incorrect branding of "AR Emojis." Then again we expect stupidity like this to slip in during a Samsung Keynote.



They didn't just copy Apple's Memoji, they slavishly copied Apple's 3D depth face Camera and Memoji concept in unison. That's a specific term that Phil Schiller used in Court back in 2012 in the lawsuit against Samsung that certainly applies today.

Samsung distinguished their version of Apple's Animoji by focusing on personal emoji's rather than Apple's version focusing on cuddly animals like bears, pigs, unicorns and, well, animated poo (okay, not so cuddly) as noted below.





The Korean rumor mill covering the Samsung Keynote stated that there were hints after the show that next year's Galaxy S10 (or whatever they call it) will introduce a 5G modem to get ahead of Apple's next premium iPhone in early 2019 unless Apple works with Intel to be the first smartphone to debut their 5G modem as a future-proof feature.

After Samsung's event on Sunday they were asked the question: "Do you have plans to change the naming of the next Galaxy S model?" Koh Dong-jin, head of the firm's mobile division replied that "Although Samsung will stick to Galaxy, we have been thinking about whether we need to maintain the S moniker or the numbering system."





Lastly on Samsung, the company hinted that their next-gen Bixby will debut with their Summer release of their new Galaxy Note and be superior to it's bungled first generation automated assistant.

While there will likely be more rumored features for Apple's 2018 premium iPhones, they'll likely be spread out over the year, with a ramp up over the summer, so stay tuned.

Below are a few Samsung S9 Keynote moments. The first shows their AI used with their backside camera to provide instant language translations of signs, menus and more; the second shows the S9 with Dolby Atmos audio built-in; and lastly the third shows the sizes of their new premium smartphones at 5.8" and 6.2" which beats Apple's current iPhone X display at 5.5". Maybe one of these days Apple will actually take the lead on displays sizes.

Then again, after this year's 6.4" model, there's not a lot larger that they could get unless they begin to introduce foldable smartphones which Apple is still working on.













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.Since January Patently Apple has posted three reports (one, two & three) on the topic of Apple's iCloud Service in China being opened up by the government to gain easy access to Apple's customer private data such as text messages, email and more. Now Amnesty International is weighing in on the issue with a new online posting titled "When Profits Threaten Privacy  5 Things You Need to Know about Apple in China."

The post in-part states that today "Apple will be making some significant changes to how data is stored for users of its iCloud service in China  raising major concerns that the Chinese authorities will now be able to freely monitor Apple's users in China.





Apple has a reputation for being a powerful advocate for privacy and security. The company uses strong encryption by default in its services and grabbed headlines when it appealed a US court order that would allow the FBI to get around the phone's security. Apple CEO Tim Cook even sent all Apple consumers a personal letter explaining the importance of privacy.

With China, however, a different story has emerged. Apple has been criticized for blocking Chinese users' access to the Apple News app and for removing VPN apps from the App Store in China. The changes being made to iCloud are the latest indication that China's repressive legal environment is making it difficult for Apple to uphold its commitments to user privacy and security. What do these changes mean and what options do Apple's customers have to protect themselves?

It all depends on the circumstances under which the company will allow Guizhou-Cloud Big Data Industry Development Co., Ltd ('GCBD') and the Chinese authorities  access to intelligible decrypted data on iCloud users. When users accept the terms of service for iCloud in China, they agree to allow their information and content to be turned over to law enforcement 'if legally required to do so.' Significantly, from now on Apple will store the encryption keys for Chinese users in China, not in the US  making it all but inevitable that the company will be forced to hand over decrypted data so long as the request complies with Chinese law.

Given that many provisions of Chinese law offer inadequate protection to privacy, freedom of expression and other rights, simply checking whether government information requests comply with Chinese law doesn't address whether complying with the request might contribute to human rights violations. Apple hasn't confirmed whether or how it will assess whether government information requests might violate users' human rights. We won't really know how Apple will respond until it's put to the test, and unfortunately that's probably just a matter of time.

As for 'backdoors,' or technical measures that would allow law enforcement or other government agencies to access unencrypted user data without having to ask for it, Apple's commitment to prevent their use is admirable. But the commitment is meaningless if law enforcement can get the companies to decrypt user information simply by saying that it is for a criminal investigation." You could read more of this report here.

On this very topic, Sophie Richardson, China director for Human Rights Watch weighed in by asking CNNtech: "Will Apple challenge laws adopted by the Chinese government that give authorities vast access to that data, especially with respect to encrypted keys that authorities will likely demand?"

Ronald Deibert, Director of the University of Toronto's Citizen Lab, which studies the intersection of digital policy and human rights commented that "In the past, if Chinese authorities wanted to access Apple's user data, they had to go through an international legal process and comply with U.S. laws on user rights. They will no longer have to do so if iCloud and cryptographic keys are located in China's jurisdiction."

Deibert added that "The problem with Chinese cybersecurity laws is that they also require companies operating in China to turn over user data to state authorities on demand -- Apple now included.

China is an authoritarian country with a long track record of problematic human rights abuses, and extensive censorship and surveillance practices. Apple users in China should take 'extra and possibly inconvenient precautions not to store sensitive data on Apple's iCloud."

An Apple spokesman told CNN that "Most of those users have already accepted the new status quo. So far, more than 99.9% of iCloud users in China have chosen to continue using the service. Read the full CNN Report for more.

Apple's CEO loves to be in the limelight about human rights and sensitive social issues such as gay marriages, transgender washrooms, DACA and privacy in the U.S., even if it means offending a large portion of Apple's customers. Just take a look at the comment section of a recent MacDailyNews news report on Apple's gay marriage ads to see how being overly vocal on sensitive issues is deeply dividing the Apple community.

On the all-important position of privacy that Apple has taken against the U.S. Governement and FBI, it seems hypocritical at the very least to cave into the demands of the Chinese Government.

While it was a "cancer" for the FBI to want access to Apple customer data, according to Cook, it's just fine to allow the Chinese government to gain easy access on demand. In the blink of an eye, it went from standing up for customer's privacy rights to being "business is business" when put to the test.

Senator Marco Rubio back in December slammed Cook for celebrating China's Vision of the Internet as noted in the video below.

On the issue of privacy, Apple's one-time holier-than-thou stance that Apple fans so loved has quickly vanished like a mirage. Well, at least in China today with the EU next in line.







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.Does Iran's Constitution Promote Export Of Islamic Revolution?

02/28/18

by Eldar Mamedov (source: LobeLog)

Some claims are repeated unchallenged so often that they end up becoming part of the conventional wisdom. Such is the case with the assertion that the Iranian constitution mandates the export of the countrys Islamic revolution and bestows on the Islamic Republic the responsibility to protect all Shia Muslims in the world regardless of citizenship. Saudi Foreign Minister Adel Al-Jubeir made such claims in his speech in the foreign affairs committee of the European Parliament (EP) on February 22. Before that, he claimed the same thing in the Munich Security Conference and on many other occasions.

In the EP, Ana Gomes, a centre-left Portuguese member of the Committee, challenged Al-Jubeir to produce evidence of his claims by pointing to a specific article of the Iranian constitution calling for the export the Islamic revolution to other countries. The Saudi minister skipped the question.

The truth of the matter is that there was no way for him to answer it, because there is no such an article in the Iranian constitution.

The closest the constitution gets to the idea of the export of revolution is in the preamble, which says that the Constitution, having regard to the Islamic contents of the Iranian Revolution, which was a movement for the victory of all the oppressed over the arrogant, provides a basis for the continuation of that revolution both inside and outside the country.

This language is abstract and vague enough to qualify more as a declaration of principles than a concrete injunction that the government must export the Iranian political system. This is exactly the purpose of constitutional preambles. The spirit and the language of this part are reminiscent of other revolutions with universalist aspirations, such as the French and the Russian.

The foundations of the foreign policy of the Islamic Republic are laid down in chapter X (articles 152 to 155). Al-Jubeir conveniently omits to mention article 154, which says that the Islamic Republic of Iran completely abstains from any kind of intervention in the internal affairs of other nations. It also says that it supports the struggles of the dispossessed for their rights against the oppressors anywhere in the world. But that, again, is so vague that it could as well be interpreted as no more than moral-political support for various anti-imperialist movements.

Nor does Al-Jubeirs allegation that Iran considers all the Shias in the world are under its protection hold water either. The constitution refers several times to mostafazin (downtrodden), but nowhere does it suggest that it is limited to the Shia. How would then one explain the fact that the Islamic Republic has established ties not only with Sunni Islamist movements like Hamas, but also leftist regimes in Latin America, like Cuba, Venezuela, and Bolivia? Moreover, the constitution does recognise the notion of the citizenship of the nation-state of Iran (Chapter III on the Rights of the People). The language of the article 11 calling Muslims a single nation is at most a symbolic aspiration, which in practical terms means merely prioritizing friendly relations with Muslim nations.

More important than the letter of the Iranian constitution is the fact that since its establishment the Islamic Republic had to balance expansive revolutionary-ideological goals with the practical foreign policy demands of a nation-state. The relative importance of ideology has varied depending on time and place. The exporting zeal was highest in the immediate aftermath of the revolution in the Middle East and Persian Gulf region, but even then it was tempered by occasional bouts of pragmatism. Ayatollah Khomeinis decision to release the American hostages on the day of the inauguration of President Ronald Reagan in 1981 or to end the war with Iraq in 1988 are two examples. In the 1990s, under the presidency of Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, revolutionary fervor started ceding ground to the imperatives of post-war reconstruction, which led to the relative normalization of relations with Europe and Persian Gulf monarchies, including Saudi Arabia, which had been only a decade earlier targets of inflammatory Iranian rhetoric.

Furthermore, when it comes to the South Caucasus and Central Asia, Iranian policy was almost entirely pragmatic. Iran leaned toward Armenia in its war with Shiite Azerbaijan over fears of anti-Iranian Azerbaijani irredentism. In the Central Asian nation of Tajikistan, Iran helped to broker an agreement between the post-Soviet secular ruler Emomali Rahmon and the Islamist opposition to end the countrys civil war in early 1990s. When Rahmon reneged on the agreement and banned the Islamist party of Renaissance, the Tajik Islamists criticized Tehran for failing to uphold the deal it helped to forge. And in Azerbaijan, Iran prioritized relations with official Baku over defense of Shiite Islamists persecuted by that countrys autocratic regime. So much for the export of Islamic revolution in practice.

But isnt Al-Jubeir right to point out Irans support for Hezbollah, Hamas, and other Islamist militias in the Middle East as evidence of its policy of exporting Islamic revolution? Hardly. Although there might be ideological complicity-certainly in the case of the Lebanese Hezbollah-the main reason for Irans support of these organizations is deterrence, not ideology. Since Iran has no external security guarantor, it relies on friendly forces to deter its regional rivals from aggressive actions against it. But as Irans staunch support for Syrias secular dictator Bashar al-Assad shows, this has very little to do with the promotion of Islamism. National interest, based on Irans self-perception as a preeminent power in the Persian Gulf region, plays a much bigger role in shaping Tehrans choices than revolutionary zeal. Israel/Palestine is an exception, since staunch opposition to Zionism is one of the few remaining ideological hot-button issues that allows the regime to claim faithfulness to the revolutionary heritage.

Although the constitution of the Islamic Republic does contain some language that could be construed as endorsing its universalist claims, it would be far-fetched to conclude that it mandates the government to export Islamic revolution. Irans foreign policy since 1979 shows a dynamic interplay between national interest and revolutionary goals, with the former overall gaining the upper hand more often than the latter. To present Iran as a dogmatic revolutionary power hell-bent on the export of its system of government, as Saudi officials do, serves to perpetuate a regional order based on the exclusion of Iran, which is both unrealistic and destabilizing in the long run.

This article reflects the personal views of the author and not necessarily the opinions of the European Parliament.

About the Author



Eldar Mamedov has degrees from the University of Latvia and the Diplomatic School in Madrid, Spain. He has worked in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Latvia and as a diplomat in Latvian embassies in Washington D.C. and Madrid. Since 2007, Mamedov has served as a political adviser for the social-democrats in the Foreign Affairs Committee of the European Parliament (EP) and is in charge of the EP delegations for inter-parliamentary relations with Iran, Iraq, the Arabian Peninsula, and Mashreq.Iranian Woman Injured During Compulsory Hijab Protest Denied Post-Surgery Care by Prison Officials

02/28/18

Source: Center for Human Rights in Iran

A woman who was severely injured by a policeman in Tehran while she was peacefully protesting against Irans compulsory hijab law has been denied post-surgery medical care and access to a lawyer. Given her physical condition, Maryam Shariatmadari needs urgent medical attention but the prison authorities are denying her, tweeted journalists Jila Baniyaghoob on February 25, 2018.





Baniyaghoob said that Shariatmadari had undergone knee surgery because of the fall but that the authorities had initially delayed the procedure. Shariatmadari has not received medical care since the surgery, according to Baniyaghoob.

They have placed her on the top of a bunk bed even though it is very difficult for her to move because of her leg situation, added Baniyaghoob. She has five stitches on her leg.

Baniyaghoob, a civil rights activist and recipient of the Courage in Journalism Award, also said via her Twitter account that Shahriatmadari wants to sue the policeman who caused her injury but so far she has not been allowed to do so.

It seems the authorities first want the signs of injury to heal, the reporter added.

A 32-year-old computer science major at Amir Kabir University in Tehran, Shariatmadari was pushed off a utility box on Enghelab (Revolution) St. in Tehran by a policeman on February 23, 2018.

She was protesting Irans compulsory hijab law by taking her own hijab off in public and waving it while standing on the utility platform.

Maryam was taken to Vali Asr Hospital that same night, tweeted Baniyaghoob. She was accompanied by five agents in the operating room. Suddenly the agents were ordered to shut down a mixed [gender] party. There were no other agents. Maryam was ready to undergo an operation but the agents returned her to the detention center until after the party was dealt with two-three hours later.

The journalist added: Maryam Shahriatmadari is in the public ward in Gharchak Prison in Varamin [city]. Her physical condition is not good. She has a severe leg injury and needed an operation the very first day. She needed antibiotics but the prison did not provide any during the first 24 hours. She has still not been given permission to access a lawyer.



Maryam Shariatmadari

Asked about the incident, Tehran Police Spokesman Saeed Montazer al-Mahdi made one comment on February 24, This matter is being investigated.

Interior Ministry Spokesman Salman Samani told reporters on February 25 that while police have a duty to confront visible crimes, they do not have permission to violate the law even when confronting visible crimes.

The reformist Shargh newspaper reported on February 26 that Shariatmadaris mother, Mitra Jamshidzadeh, was also detained for 25 hours when she went to the Vozara Police Station to demand her daughters release.

I think about the commanding officer and the policeman who pushed the girl and what they said to their wives and children, tweeted Iranian political commentator Masoud Behnoud, who lives in exile in London, on February 23.

Political analyst Abdollah Ramezanzadeh tweeted on February 22, Which authority, based on what law, gave police permission to throw women around?

Police in Tehran also arrested Shaparak Shajarizadeh on February 22 for removing her scarf in public in protest against the forced hijab. She was also transferred to Gharchak Prison at an unknown date.

At least 29 people had been arrested as of February 4. The detainees names have not been made public and it remains unclear how many remain in custody.

The protesting women have been mimicking the action of Vida Movahed, the first woman to be arrested after she waved her scarf on top of the same utility box on Tehrans Enghelab St. in late December 2017. The act of removing your headscarf in public and waving it like a flag has become a symbol for the Girls of Revolution Street movement, which advocates choice over compulsion for womens clothing.Some of the reasons why the boarding component in our state-assisted senior high schools must be removed. And



Now can we begin to have a calm national conversation?



Ghana has never been able to afford boarding as a major component of its state-owned education system, we cannot afford it, and not wanting to admit this puts us in some danger.



Since state-owned education was introduced over a thousand years ago in some countries, no nation on earth, has considered boarding as a necessary component of it.



That fact covers the most populous, the richest, and the most powerful nations on our planet: like China, Japan, US, and Russia (former USSR) In those countries and almost everywhere else, SECONDARY EDUCATION COVERS BETWEEN 90% AND 95% OF THE POPULATION, IT IS DAY, and IT IS FREE.



Apart from the confusion they have created around the issue by calling boarding secondaries public schools while they run them as private institutions, the British who introduced the model to us never attempted to use it for their state-owned system. (Please check this out on Google, Wikipedia, or the current UK High commissioner in Accra.)



Even for us, the British had meant boarding as a temporary measure to create a local nucleus to help them run the Gold Coast as a colonial space.



It was quite unfortunate that after independence, we not only kept boarding as part of the national educational system, but also allowed it to expand to its current unmanageable levels.



We can be bold enough to say that until the current government rolled out the free SHS program, state assistance covered less than 30% of Ghana children. The remaining 70% or so were just abandoned in the rural and urban poor areas.



It was reckless of this countrys professional and mercantile elite to insist that the Ghanaian state undertook to board and feed their children when they are most ably placed to take care of the physical needs of their children. It is also to be noted that at this stage in their lives young people eat like rabbits. That was the original African state capture!



In some or most of the co-ed institutions the girls are shared among the headmasters and the male teaching staff as special stables for their own private use.



Over the last several weeks, Dr. Anthony Nsiah Asare, Director General of the Ghana Health Service, has been struggling to get us to see that currently our boarding schools are now also sites that threaten the health of our young people.



In any group of healthy boys and girls, the SHS years are about personal biology and the exploration of different sexualities. Especially where the environment is encouraging. So boarding schools have always been spaces for the growth of homosexuality. (It is to be noted that Im not against any sexual preferences, because I dont consider myself competent or knowledgeable enough to judge.)



But it is evident of the most dangerous form of hypocrisy to insist that being gay is evil, irreligious, untraditional etc., while at the same time, we worship boarding schools as the only spaces where we can get our own and other peoples children educated properly. Worse, we try and hold ALL our governments, past and present, to ransom over this issue.



What kind of people are we?



P.S. Against this background, the idea that some religious bodies have been in conversation with governments about the possibility of taking back the management of their former missionary schools is the most confused, impracticable, backward-looking notion to enter the debate.







Source: Prof. Ama Ata Aidoo (Writer, educationist)









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Government has begun discussions with mining companies in Ghana, especially those engaged in the mining of gold, to ensure that the country derives the maximum revenue from the exploitation of our natural resources.



The Precious Minerals Marketing Company (PMMC), which is mandated by law to assay all minerals mined in Ghana, is also gearing up to acquire the necessary equipment and resources to undertake its duty.



The Vice President of the Republic, H.E. Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, made the disclosure when he gave the keynote address at the ongoing Regional Conference on Fiscal Management of Mining and Petroleum [Resources] in West Africa in Accra on Tuesday February 27, 2018.



The Conference is being hosted by the Africa and Fiscal Affairs Departments of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), with participants drawn from Ghana, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Niger, Mali, and Mauritania, as well as senior officials of the IMF.



Ghanas mining laws stipulate that the PMMC assays the gold and other minerals mined in the country but the major mining firms have for years been assaying gold mined from their mines by themselves before export. While the companies have not been accused of any wrong doing, Government believes the institution of state mandated to undertake this critical task must be appropriately resourced to discharge its duty.



It is simply not acceptable that for a very long time an institution of state with the powers to help in properly accounting for our mineral resources was not enabled nor allowed to perform its job. This has to change. I know of a bauxite mining company that over the last five years has paid no dividends to government because it claims it has made no profits yet it continues to mine vigorously. This cannot be right.



Thankfully we have now begun conversations about the process of making sure that every single bar of gold leaving our shores is properly weighed, tested, valued, and accounted for.





While the process may not be as robust as we want, it is a positive step in the right direction and we are impressed with the collaboration between the Ghana Chamber of Mines and the Precious Minerals Marketing Company in making sure we expedite the full spectrum of accounting for our gold resources.



The Vice President urged the Conference attendees to deliberate on a number of areas militating against resource rich countries, including revenue leakages by means of improper accounting for resources, locking out of resource-rich countries from the high-value ends of value chains, limited local content and the lack of full participation of local businesses in resource industries, and growing revelations of illicit financial flows through external accounts and mispricing of trade transactions, indicating that they go a long way to deprive ordinary citizen of the full benefits of their natural resources.



I would also like you to consider during your deliberations the difference between the contracts in the oil and mining sectors. In the oil sector for example, for a 100 barrels of oil drilled, per the contract, we know what Ghanas share is. This is not the case for a 100 tonnes of gold mined. Why should there be such a difference? the Vice President quizzed.

Source: Peacefmonline.com









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

Featured VideoThe trial began Tuesday for 84 people accused of masterminding a 2015 coup attempt in Burkina Faso, with the West African nations capital under tight security.

Former presidential aides Gen. Gilbert Diendere and Gen. Djibril Bassole are among those facing a military tribunal. Hundreds of security forces deployed around the court building.



The trial, however, was suspended by the military tribunal president Tuesday afternoon after defense lawyers walked out of the court, arguing against irregularities in the trial, and that a military tribunal wasnt independent enough to judge the accused.

Diendere briefly took power after the presidential guard under his command staged a coup of the transitional government in September 2015. He stepped down days later under pressure from the regional bloc, Burkina Fasos military and protesting citizens. He and others now face life in prison for charges including conspiracy against the state, murder and beatings.



Bassole, a former foreign affairs minister, is accused of treason. Many of the others accused are former soldiers in the presidential guard.



This trial is not only a historic event, it is truly another victory against the retrograde and anti-democratic forces who have always plotted to prevent truth to prevail, said the civil society organization Citizen Broom, which played a key role in the resistance against the attempted coup.



The transition government was set up after President Blaise Compaores ouster in a public uprising in 2014, ending nearly 30 years in power. A year later, as Burkina Faso prepared to transfer power to an elected head of state, the former presidential guards arrested transitional President Michel Kafando and several other officials, unhappy that Compaore supporters couldnt run in the election.



The unrest that quickly forced the coup leaders to surrender killed at least 15 people and wounded more than 200 others.There should not be revenge but only justice, Prosper Farama, a rights activist and lawyer for some of the victims, said of the trial.

Many in Burkina Faso have questioned the military tribunals ability to deliver a fair trial since its members are appointed by the ministry of defense and head of state. The military courts are outside the control of the body responsible for overseeing the independence of the judiciary, rights group Amnesty International said.



We are not going to attend a trial that doesnt respect the minimum of legal proceedings, said a defense lawyer, Benao Batis, before all defense lawyers left the courtroom.



After the lawyers left, the president of the tribunal Saidou Ouedraogo announced the suspension of the trial. It wasnt clear when it would resume.

Some of the victims burst into tears as they learned the trial has been suspended and no date has been set up for its reopening.



The president should have continued with the proceedings to set up the jury before suspending the trial, said Seraphin Some, a lawyer for the victims.

Earlier, Chrizogome Zougmore, chairman of a local human rights group, had said: This is a real test for the credibility of the justice system in our country always accused of favoring the political system in place.









Source: africanews.com









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

Featured VideoAudio Attachment: Listen to Fred Agbenyo on Peace FM's 'kokrkoo' programme.

Deputy Communications Director of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) Fred Agbenyo is pleading with President Nana Akufo-Addo to grant Presidential pardon to Mr. Abuga Pele.



An Accra High Court presided over by Justice Afia Asare-Botwe sentenced Abuga Pele, a former National Coordinator of the defunct Ghana Youth Employment and Entrepreneurial Development Agency (GYEEDA) to 6 years imprisonment after he was found guilty of causing financial loss to the state.



He was sentenced together with a representative of the Goodwill International Group (GIG), Philip Akpeena Assibit who was also implicated in the GYEEDA scandal.



Mr. Assibit will be serving a 12-year jail term.



Speaking on Peace FM's "Kokrokoo", Fred Agbenyo told host Kwami Sefa Kayi that his party respects the court verdict.



In contrast with views of NDC Member of Parliament for Odododiodio, Nii Lante Vanderpuye that the NDC when it assumes power in the year 2020 will ensure the release of Abuga Pele, Fred Agbenyo stated emphatically that the NDC has due regard for the rule of law, hence will not do anything contrary to the country's constitution.



He however intimated that the constitution makes provision for a President of the Republic to exercise prerogative of mercy and therefore grant pardon to prisoners.



He hoped "if in the wisdom of the current President, when he looks at the circumstances" and conduct of Mr. Abuga Pele and says "Okay, Im granting pardon; I think we will all be happy and our joy would be complete.



Almost every President in the fourth Republic has had the cause to even grant pardon to prisoners before. Under Jerry John Rawlings, he granted some pardons. Under President Kufour, the same thing, Professor Mills, President Mahama... he added.

Source: Ameyaw Adu Gyamfi/Peacefmonline.com/Ghana









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

Featured VideoThe New Patriotic Party (NPP) has dragged one of its National Executives before the party's Steering Committee following damning revelations of a leaked audio conversation between the leading member and an activist of the opposition party which went viral on Tuesday; eventhough the governing party considers the contents as "baseless" and "palpable" falsehoods.



In the leaked audio, Deputy NPP General Secretary, Nana Obiri Boahen, is clearly heard saying the Presidency gifted the party GH50 billion in support of the conduct of the party's 2017 National Annual Delegates Conference held at Cape Coast last August.



The governing party, in response, issued a press statement, insisting "no such thing happened and that, the claims are a palpable falsehood".



In what is panning out to be a clear case of subterfuge, the Deputy Scribe was tricked to echo his sentiments and ill feelings about the party in a private chat with an opposition NDC member, popularly known as "Kwaku Skirt".



Nana Obiri Boahen, in that recorded conversation, lamented how unfairly he was being treated as an official of the governing party, while his colleagues are supposedly grabbing and making economic gains from the partys incumbency.



GHC50 billion allegation



In the leaked audio, Nana Obiri Boahen reveals how he was given a paltry GH5,000 as a member of the resolution committee out of the GH50 billion that the Presidency gifted the party.



When we were going to Cape Coast the other time, I was given GH3,000 as a member of the Resolution Committee and an additional GH2,000 for fuel. Meanwhile, the Flagstaff House gave the party an amount of GH50 billion, he alleged.



No Office, Car & Monthly Salary?



He also bemoaned how he is being ill-treated by the party despite his selfless service since 1992.



Till date I dont even have an office at the partys headquarters. To be frank, i have been using my own private car, and the party has not given me any official car for my use as Deputy General Secretary. I buy my own fuel. And even on official trips abroad, Ill be left to my fate. When I recently went to Germany, it was an NPP Member who bought ticket for me. I went to Spain, Dortmund it was an individual that processed my trip. I do virtually everything, and I dont remember the last time I received a monthly salary from the party.



Im only watching them; what is happening now is called grabbing grabbing that is what they are doing. I have not even been contacted by any Minister for any contract or whatsoever. I have been handling late J.B Danquah Adus case from day one, and I have been using my own resources for court, and even give tips for Journalists. Nobody cares about that case. I have been following up the case and I can tell you i have an impending trip abroad and I even had to rescheduled my flight to make it to court on 21st, March in J.Bs case. Ill have to pay the penalty for rescheduling that flight, and Ill have to bear that cost alone.



Interestingly, the outspoken NPP deputy General Secretary, who has confessed to being the one whose voice was heard in the leaked tape, admitted to making those statements. He, however, claims he deliberately manufactured some lies to get information from "Kweku Skirt", the known NDC activist he had the conversation with.



Hours after the audio went viral, Acting General Secretary of the NPP, John Boadu, in a press statement issued late Tuesday, pooh-poohed the report saying "Nana Obiri Boahen himself" has "admitted to the falsity of his baseless allegation".



"Nonetheless", he said, the NPP has "tasked the Steering Committee" to get to the bottom of the issue.



"....Nana Obiri Boahen himself has subsequently admitted to the falsity of his baseless allegation. Nonetheless, the party takes serious view of his unfortunate comments and has accordingly tasked the Steering Committee to immediately look into the matter and make appropriate recommendations," the statement added.



Read below the full statement.

NPP RESPONDS TO LEAKED OBIRI BOAHEN'S TAPE

The attention of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) has been drawn to a secret recording making rounds on social media involving the deputy general secretary of the party, Nana Obiri Boahen, in which he alleged that the Flagstaff House advanced an amount of GHC 50 billion to the NPP in support of the conduct of the party's 2017 National Annual Delegates Conference held at Cape Coast.



The party wishes to place on record that, no such thing happened and that, the claims are a palpable falsehood.



Indeed, Nana Obiri Boahen himself has subsequently admitted to the falsity of his baseless allegation.



Nonetheless, the party takes serious view of his unfortunate comments and has accordingly tasked the Steering Committee to immediately look into the matter and make appropriate recommendations.



Finally, we wish to assure our members and the Ghanaian people that, the NPP is scrupulously minded of the line that exists between government and the party and would uphold the distinction at all times.



Thank you.





...Signed...





JOHN BOADU



General Secretary (Ag)

Source: Peacefmonline.com/Ghana









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

Featured VideoThe renowned Ghanaian Islamic cleric who is accredited with his accurate predictions and prophesies on all local and international channels, Mallam Sham una Ustarz Jibril says that former President John Dramani Manama will win his partys upcoming primaries convincingly.



He was emphatic that Mahama will clock 78-82% in the upcoming NDC primaries precisely in November 2018.



Mallam Sham Una Ustarz predicted Mahamas fae in the 2016 presidential election before losing the presidency to his main rival, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo.



According to him, John Dramani Mahama will be the preferred choice to lead his party in the 2020 elections  but was uncertain if he will win.



The soothsayer told Peacefmonline.com that, Ghanaians will give him [Mahama] a unique reception that he has never had. Mahama will be a threat in the 2020 elections with a new team.



In a wise term they are going for revenge. To further exhibit my spiritual talent, Mahama will be the third person to pick the form but will be the second to submit, and he will declare his intention to contest at the end of March or April, he added.

Source: King Edward Ambrose Washman Addo/Peacefmonline.com/ Twitter: @Washman5/ Instagram: Ambrose_wash









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

Featured VideoA new Afrobarometer survey report has revealed that the majority of Ghanaians have endorsed the election of Metropolitan, Municipal and District Chief Executives (MMDCEs) nationwide as part of measures to deepen Ghanas governance system.



The report, released by the Center for Democratic Development (CDD-Ghana) on Tuesday, February 27, this year in Accra, said almost seven in 10 Ghanaians, representing 69 percent, say MMDCE positions should be made elective, including 55 percent who agree very strongly with this view.



25 percent, according to the report, say they want to maintain the current system of MMDCEs appointed by the president with approval by the local assembly.



AfroBarometer Ghana Team, led by CDD-Ghana, using an error margin of +/-2 percent at a 95 percent confidence level, reportedly interviewed a total of 2,400 adult Ghanaians between September 9 and 25, 2017.



The respondents were accordingly drawn from 293 towns in about 171 districts nationwide.



Strong support for electing MMDCEs is consistent with previous Afrobarometer survey findings (60% in 2008 and 71% in 2012), it said.



According to the report, support for election of MMDCEs is strong across demographic groups, including supporters of both the New Patriotic Party (NPP) and the National Democratic Congress (NDC).



It is stronger among citizens with higher education (73% secondary and 70% post-secondary) than those with no formal education (59%), the report said.



Divergent Views



In Upper West Region, however, 52 percent of citizens preferred appointment of MMDCEs, while only about one-third, representing 36 percent, supported making these positions elective.



51 percent of the respondents said election of MMDCEs should be non-partisan like local government.



The report was released at a time when President Akufo-Addo has reaffirmed his commitment to pass a law that would make MMDCE positions elective in a bid to improve transparency and accountability at the local level.



Deputy Local Government and Rural Development Minister, O.B. Amoah, addressing journalists on the sidelines of the launch of the report, said steps were being taken to push a legislation through parliament that will ensure that a referendum be held in September 2019 during the district level elections on whether or not MMDCEs should be elected on partisan basis.



He indicated that more public sensitization works were required to ensure that members of the public clearly understand the call for electing MMDCEs.



But Executive Director of the Institute of Democratic Governance (IDEG), Dr. Emmanuel Akwatey, in a brief remark during a panel discussion at the launch, said the election of MMDCEs should be on partisan basis.



He called for major constitutional reforms that will ensure that the election of MMDCEs will yield the much-needed developmental and democratic benefits.



About Afrobarometer



Afrobarometer is a pan-African, non-partisan research network that conducts public attitude surveys on democracy, governance, economic conditions and related issues across Africa.



It conducted surveys in Ghana in 1999, 2002, 2005, 2008, 2012 and 2014.



It commenced the conduct of its round seven surveys from 2016 which is expected to end in 2018.





Source: Daily Guide









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

Featured VideoA couple of the year's biggest wine trail events start this weekend and continue throughout March, which also is marked by a number of St. Patrick's Day events and an assortment of barrel tastings for visitors.

Maple Lawn Winery Facebook page

Tour de Tanks

One of the region's oldest and biggest events start this weekend across four Pennsylvania counties and northern Maryland. It's the 13th annual Tour de Tanks event, this year involving 15 wineries putting out food and offering barrel or tank samples of its newer wines. The event runs noon to 5 p.m., Saturdays and Sundays, March 3-25. Tickets cost $30 and are available at www.MasonDixonWineTrail.com and at all participating locations. Experience special tank and barrel tastings, light food, tours and a 10 percent discount on wine bottle purchases, as well as receive a souvenir Mason-Dixon Wine Trail wine glass.

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A Ticket to Good Taste and Adventure

The Susquehanna Heartland Wine Trail's late winter signature event will take place between noon and 5 p.m. every weekend day in March at 16 participating wineries, including Armstrong Valley in Halifax, Dauphin County, seen in the photo above. Tickets are $15/person. For more, click the website here.

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Vino in the Valley

Tickets remain for the Lehigh Valley Wine Trail's Vino in the Valley, planned for each weekend day in March at all eight of the trail's wineries including Tolino Vineyards in Bangor, shown in the photo above. Tickets are $35/person. All passports purchased online need to be picked up at Vynecrest Vineyards and Winery, which is functioning as the trail's will-call window for the event. Otherwise, your favorite winery on the trail probably will have some passports available for purchase when you get there Saturday.

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Easter Eggs Hunt, for the kids and adults

At least you don't have to search for your wine. Moon Dancer Winery & Cider House in eastern York County will hold its annual Easter Egg Hunt on March 31, with the kids fanning out at 12:30 p.m., the adults at 1:30, and the music starting at 2. Check the website or Facebook page for more.

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Meatball Madness

You don't see too many wine events centered around the small balls of ground meat, but Weathered Vineyards in New Tripoli, Lehigh County, has turned this into one of its big events. the fourth annual Meatball Madness Cook-off starting at 1 on Saturday, March 24. Ticket holders will try meatballs from each contestant, enjoy wine tasting and help pick the best Italian meatball from seven to 10 contestants. Tickets are $8/advance and $12/door, if any remain. Details are here.

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St. Patrick's Weekend Celebration

Among the many St. Patrick's weekend events is this one at Crossing Vineyards and Winery in Newtown, Bucks County. Set for noon to 6 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, it will include live music from1 to 5 p.m. Tickets are $18/person online and $20/person at the door. You can find more details on the website or Facebook page, or by clicking this link.

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End of Winter Festival

Spring Gate Vineyard's End of Winter Festival will begin at noon on March 3

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Tipsy Tanks Tasting Party

Nissley Vineyards in Bainbridge, Lancaster County, is unveiling this event over three weekends in March: 9, 10, 16, 17, 23, 24. Taking place in the tank room of the winery, it will also feature live music, appetizers and a draft beer on tap. Each one will run from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m., with a cap of 200 people being put on each event. Tickets are $35/person, $25/designated drivers. Customers can purchase tickets or find out more by clicking on this link.

Moving to Maryland ..

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Romano Vineyard and Winery Facebook page

Legacy Trail and Maryland Wine Month

The new Legacy Wine Trail will celebrate Maryland Wine Month on March 17 that will include a tasting of five wines and a souvenir gift at each of four locations. This trail in Prince George's County includes Romano Vineyard and Winery, Janemark Winery and Vineyard, Gemeny Winery and Vineyards and Robin Hill Farm and Vineyards.

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New tasting room at Port of Leonardtown

Port of Leonardtown Winery, one of Maryland's premium producers and the only one tied into a co-op of vineyards, will unveil its tasting room from noon to 8 p.m. March 17 and noon to 6 p.m. March 18. The weekend will include live music on the patio, Famous Daves BBQ, lawn games, barrel room tour and tastings, local art displays, along with Green Apple Sangria by the glass and pitcher. Check out the website here.

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Winter Wine education series

Big Cork's Winter Wine education series with winemaker Dave Collins will wrap up with an in-depth look at the Petit Verdot varietal on March 30 at the Washington County, Maryland, winery. Explore the nuances of this grape and learn about our local expression. The class includes barrel tastings, samplings of our reserve wines and light food pairings. Two sessions to choose from. Tickets for each session are $60 per person, or $50 per person for BIG Corkers. Click here for more.

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Chili cook-off

Crow Vineyard and Winery in Kennedyville, on Maryland's Eastern Shore, has several interesting events planned for March, including a chili cook-off from noon to 4 p.m. on March 18. Sample and vote for your favorite chili from seven local chefs. Here's a link to more details, including ticket prices. In addition the winery has a pizza night planned for March 10 and wine seminars on March 11 and 25. You can find out more here.

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Celebrate Maryland Wine Month at Dove Valley

Dove Valley Vineyard and Winery, a multi-generation,100-acre family farm located on the outskirts of Rising Sun, Maryland, has discounts and events scheduled throughout March to mark Maryland Wine Month. Click here for all the details.

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Barrel tasting at Elk Run

One of Maryland's "old guard," Elk Run Vineyards and Winery in Mt. Airy, in Frederick County, is planning a barrel and vertical tasting from 2 to 4 p.m. March 4. Check the website and Facebook page for more information. Reservations are required.

Heading over to New Jersey ...

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Shamrock Festival, St. Patty's weekend party

Laurita Winery in New Egypt, New Jersey, will stretch the St. Patrick's celebration over two weekends, with a Shamrock Festival on March 11 and a St. Patrick's Day festival on March 17-18. You can find out more on the Garden State Wine Growers Association website.

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St. Patricks Day party

Sharrott Winery, in Hammonton, will mark St. Patrick's weekend with an event from noon to 5 p.m. March 17 and 18. Wine tasting is $8 per person and includes six samples of the winery's award-winning wines and a souvenir glass. The winery is located in Atlantic County, New Jersey, and in the process of building a new tasting room (see the photo above).

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Barrel tasting at Natali Vineyards

Natali Vineyards in located in Cape May Court House, in southern New Jersey, only a few miles from the beach. Spend 1 to 3 p.m March 10 in the barrel room with its winemaker sampling a variety of wines. Tasting will include gourmet cheese and crackers. $10/person.

Last but not least, there are two Virginia festivals planned.

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Virginia Wine Expo

The annual Virginia Wine Expo, centered around the unveiling of the Governor's Case (the state's top wines) on the evening of Feb. 27, will continue with the wine and food celebration through Sunday in Richmond. Click here for more details.

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Hops, Wines and Swines Festival

Virginia's Hops, Wines and Swines Festival is set for the Olde Dominion Agricultural Complex in Chatham, from 1 to 7 p.m. March 31. Enjoy great music by the Retro Band, while browsing local artisans and crafters offerings and tasting a variety of beverages. beverage varieties. Tickets are $20 in advance or $25 at the door. All the details can be found here.

And if you're considering a road trip ...

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Here are links to some suggested tours

Winery tour 2018: Four wineries in a trip along Chesapeake Bay

Winery tour 2018: Three northcentral Pa. wineries in one day trip

Winery tour 2017: Four wineries in a weekend trip to central Virginia

Winery tour 2017: Four Lehigh Valley wineries in one day

Winery tour 2017: Three wineries in one central Pa. day trip

Winery tour 2017: Two-day whirlwind trip to the Finger Lakes

Winery tour 2017: Two wineries in one northern Md. day trip

Winery tour 2017: Four wineries in one Cape May, N.J., day trip

Winery tour 2017: Three northwest Pa. wineries in one day

Don't EditOnce again, Bulls Head Public House in Lititz was named the state's favorite place for craft beer.

Readers of CraftBeer.com nominated the 14 E. Main St. bar as the best in the state in the Great American Beer Bars poll. It marks the third year in a row Bulls Head has been honored with the title.

Nearly 8,000 votes were cast in the poll from November to December 2017. Readers were asked to nominate their favorite craft beer bar on atmosphere, staff, beer selection and beer events.

According to CraftBeer.com:

"Modeled after a traditional British pub, Bulls Head offers great food, friendly conversation, and of course, quality beers. You can choose from 14 rotating beers on tap, two cask-conditioned ales and 80 bottles. They aim to bring the atmosphere of a traditional British pub to Pennsylvania, from a seat-yourself policy to ordering at the bar. Locals and tourists alike say it's a wonderful place to meet friends and make new ones."

It just so happens Bulls Head is also a finalist in a USA Today favorite beer bar poll.

CraftBeer.com is published by the Brewers Association. For the complete list of winners, head to their website.An Upstate New York woman is out of jail after she was arrested earlier in February for allowing her two young children to play and sleep in the same room as her 10-year-old daughter's dead body.

Serina Madden, 31, was charged with two counts of endangering the welfare of a child, WBNG-TV reported.

The body of Madden's daughter, Belladonna Loke, was found in a home in the Broome County town of Colesville on February 18. Court documents state that Madden, knowing her daughter was deceased, failed to take care of the girl's remains. She also allowed her son, 9, and younger daughter, 2, to sleep and play in the same room with the dead body for two days.

Police found Belladonna's body after a report that a child had been found unresponsive. Police said the girl had a serious medical condition, but her cause and nature of death are listed as "pending."

The family had been staying at the residence at 2097 East Windsor Road, which belongs to a relative, since December.

Madden posted bail, which was set at $4,000 cash or $8,000 bond, and was released. The investigation into Belladonna's death is ongoing.WASHINGTON (AP) -- A Minnesota law that bars residents from wearing political clothing at the polls -- from Donald Trump's "Make America Great Again" hats to Democratic Party T-shirts and union buttons -- is being debated at the Supreme Court.

Opponents say the law is overly broad. But Minnesota has defended it as a reasonable restriction that keeps order at polling places and prevents voter intimidation.

Other states have similar laws, so the case being argued before the justices Wednesday has the potential to have an impact beyond Minnesota.

The sides disagree about which states have laws like Minnesota's, which says a "political badge, political button or other political insignia may not be worn at or about the polling place on primary or election day." But both sides identify about 10 states with similar laws.

In this Feb. 16, 2018, photo, Andy Cilek poses with a Tea Party shirt at his home in Eden Prairie, Minn. Cilek was one of two voters who defied elections officials after he was asked to cover up a tea-party shirt and button. A Minnesota law that bars voters from wearing political hats, T-shirts, buttons and other apparel to the polls is about to get a look from the Supreme Court.

Minnesota elections officials have interpreted the state's law to mean voters can't wear anything to the polls with the name of a candidate or political party or supporting or opposing an issue on the ballot. They have said it also means voters can't wear clothing promoting a group with recognizable political views, such as the tea party, AFL-CIO or MoveOn.org.

Other states have narrower laws banning "campaign" apparel, clothing that supports a specific candidate or ballot issue.

Attorney Daniel Rogan, who is arguing the case for Minnesota, says he doesn't know of anyone ever issued a fine allowed under the Minnesota law.

The case is Minnesota Voters Alliance v. Mansky, 16-1435.

By JESSICA GRESKO, Associated PressPennsylvania's two senators on Wednesday weighed in on the country's raging debate on guns, both outlining proposals that, for the most part, toe the line of respective party rhetoric.

Calling for a ban on assault weapons, Sen. Bob Casey, a Democrat, said Congress had an obligation to act to reform gun laws and fight Trump administration budget proposals that would impair school safety programs. In addition to his support for a ban on assault weapons, Casey backed the so-called Fix NICS bill - which would enhance the National Instant Criminal Background Check System for gun purchases.

Casey chided Republicans and the Trump administration for trying "anything else" but common sense measures, including the "distraction" to arm teachers.

"That's not the way to approach this problem," Casey said.

His Republican counterpart, Sen. Pat Toomey, meanwhile, previewed his talking points ahead of his meeting with President Trump Wednesday afternoon.

Toomey stressed that he favored enhancing gun safety within the bounds of respecting Second Amendment rights. He reiterated his unwillingness to infringe on those rights as he laid out several proposals, notably the background check bill he co-authored with Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), which failed in 2013, following the deadly shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut.

Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pa., (left) is scheduled to meet with President Donald Trump on Wednesday, and plans to make a pitch for gun measures. This photo was taken during a Feb. 13 White House meeting on trade policy. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

Toomey said the legislation "goes a long way" in closing loop holes, and he intended to make a pitch for it to the president.

Both lawmakers addressed members of the media during telephone press conferences.

Toomey noted his support to several other measures, including enforcing existing laws that require the FBI to notify states when a known felon lies on background checks; and the so-called no-fly, no-buy proposal.

The Lehigh Valley Republican affirmed his opposition to raising the minimum required age for purchases of assault weapons from 18 to 21.

Casey supports increasing that age minimum.

"I don't think the correct age is handed down by Moses," Toomey said. "I know that vast, the overwhelming majority of 18, 19 and 21 year olds purchase semi-automatic guns for hunting and target shooting.....It is an infringement for them to have that taken away."

In the aftermath of the Feb. 14 mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, Trump has backed the idea of increasing the minimum age for purchasing weapons like the AR-15.

Rep. Charlie Dent (PA-15) on Wednesday co-sponsored legislation that would raise the required minimum age for semiautomatic rifle purchases, such as AR-15s, from 18 to 21 years of age.

Toomey said he was confident his overall proposed measures have bipartisan support.

"If the president were to support one or more of these legislative ideas, that could very well swing momentum to a positive outcome."

Casey called on Congress to answer what he said was an historic movement, referring to the wave activism among young Americans, particularly of high school age, that has emerged in the wake of the latest school massacre in Florida.

"There's nothing like this in American history on this issue," Casey said. "I think the ground has moved. I hope Republicans in Congress who have not usually responded in an appropriate fashion, I hope they would allow us to have a sustained debate on this. Have a debate and vote on the bill, have another debate and stay at this until we pass a series of measures not just one, but a series that will reduce the likelihood of a school shooting like we saw in Florida happening again."

Casey denounced the Trump administration's budget plan which proposes a cut in school safety and security programs.

Casey noted that the plan would slash $425 million from school safety and mental health assistance programs. Such measures, he said, "make problems worse."

Toomey also noted that the "level of outcry" from high school kids had contributed to the decibel of the gun debate in the country. "It is having an effect," he said.One of the biggest news stories on Tuesday was that of the extraordinary thaw that swelled temperatures in the North Pole to the melting point.

One of the chief voices helping to provide buzz-worthiness to the story belongs to a Harrisburg-area native who got his start in climate science as a student at Central Dauphin High School.

Zack Labe, a climate scientist working on his PhD at the University of California at Irvine, confirmed the analyses that stunned the science world: Temperatures across the arctic recently had risen more than 50 degrees above normal.

Labe was first interviewed by The Washington Post, whose story featured some of his tweets, which further fueled interest in the story.

Wow... truly a remarkable event ongoing right now in the #Arctic.



Current temperatures well above previous years in February (>80N latitude)! Average temperature is the bright blue line (https://t.co/kO5ufUWrKq). pic.twitter.com/BuseG4hQPE  Zack Labe (@ZLabe) February 23, 2018

Labe's phone was ringing off the hook on Tuesday as members from national and international media reached out to him for input for stories on the stunning findings.

"It's a little crazy," he said.

Labe is a little used to the attention, as a Central Dauphin student - class of 2011 - he garnered attention as of one of just 28 high school students who were accepted for membership in the American Meteorological Society.

Labe's passion for climate change goes back to those school days when he immersed himself in earth sciences and filled his bedroom state-of-the-art weather equipment. He even had an account with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration that gave him information to interpret for a weather forecast.

His predictions were usually spot on.

PennLive snapped this photo of Zack Labe back in 2010 when he was 17 and a Central Dauphin High School junior. Labe, who had been accepted for membership in the American Meteorological Society, was using advanced equipment to accurately predict the weather.

On Tuesday he once again garnered attention and perhaps, more importantly, that of non-scientists, with analysis showing that a "warm intrusion" had penetrated through the heart of the Central Arctic bringing temperatures to the entire region to the highest levels ever recorded in February.

Reached by telephone at UC Irvine, where he is completing his PhD in arctic climate variability, Labe stressed that he is "only a graduate student" and not at all a leading expert, tipping his hat to the scores of veteran scientists working in this field.

The recent persistence and widespread coverage of above average temperatures in the #Arctic is particularly noteworthy to me. Map shows the air temperature departure (anomaly) so far this winter (to-date). pic.twitter.com/RgaA6i22NS  Zack Labe (@ZLabe) February 26, 2018

Labe's specialty, though, is his knack for communicating complex scientific facts to the general public - particularly people who may not be scientifically minded. He is prolific on Twitter, posting complex but engaging graphics detailing climate change and, in particular, the recent temperature variability across the Arctic.

"I kinda find that there is an issue with science and academia. There is disconnect between communicating results with the public and hiding behind research and hot showing the implications," said Labe who graduated from Cornell University in 2015 with a degree in atmospheric sciences. "I'm hoping I can bridge the gap and improve science communication so they can see data and understand data and even find it for themselves."

Labe said he is so passionate about data and wants to share it as a way to foster interest in science in others. He says he typically makes his data available - at least the source - so that if people want to explore on their own, they can.

"I do get mean comments everytime I post something but for the most part I get people with genuine questions," he said. "They ask where can I learn more about this?"

Labe gave a rousing endorsement to NASA's climate change website.

"I don't think many people know about it," he said.

Labe called the findings on the North Pole record-breaking temperatures "extreme and certainly noteworthy," stressing that the emphasis must be placed on the long-term trends. Those point to a troubling warming trend.

"There are folks who rely on the annual sea ice for their livelihood," Labe said. If there is less ice or no ice at all, it will effect their lives. This isn't something happening into the future. They are being impacted right now."State police on Tuesday afternoon were still looking for a convicted felon accused of committing a home invasion robbery in Dauphin County after he failed to return to a privately-run work-release center.

Vincent Crockenberg didn't only terrorize the victim who was held at gunpoint in a West Hanover Township home on Monday afternoon, authorities said. His crime also prompted lockdowns at several area schools.

Terry Davis, CEO of the Keystone Correctional Services facility said Tuesday that Crockenberg didn't escape from the center on Jonestown Road in West Hanover.

Crockenberg, who has a history of burglary convictions, was allowed to leave the center on a pass and failed to return as scheduled by 7 p.m. on Feb. 18, Davis said. He said state authorities were immediately notified of Crockenberg's no-show.

Davis said state prisoners who are paroled to his facility as part of their transition back into society are granted passes to leave the center if they demonstrate good behavior. Crockenberg was supposed to use his pass to go shopping for personal items that center residents are allowed to possess, he said.

Residents who leave the center on passes or for jobs aren't subject to electronic monitoring, Davis said, and are still under supervision of state parole officials.

The owner of the home Crockenberg is accused of robbing in the 7200 block of Linglestown Road had tried to help him, Davis said. He said the man gave Crockenberg sporadic work after Crockenberg was sent to Keystone on Jan. 2.

"The guy was doing a Christian thing," Davis said.

It was not immediately known where Crockenberg was or what he was doing in the eight days between the time he failed to return to Keystone and the commission of the home invasion robbery.

Police said the victim came home and surprised Crockenberg in the act. Investigators said the victim told them Crockenberg was dressed in black, wore a black mask and had a small pistol. He pointed the pistol at the victim and demanded money, police said.

Court records show that Crockenberg, 24, of Philadelphia, was sentenced to at least 5 to 10 years in prison in 2012 after pleading guilty to a series of burglaries in that city. He also has an assault conviction from Bucks County.

Police have charged Crockenberg with 19 crimes for the West Hanover incident. Anyone with information on his whereabouts can call police at 717-671-7500.

West Hanover Township officials have at times raised qualms about Keystone Correctional's clientele.

In June 2016, Pennsylvania's Supreme Court refused to hear an appeal the township filed of a state Parole Board decision to send violent criminal offenders to the facility. That refusal upheld rulings by a county judge and Commonwealth Court.

Although the township had a rule prohibiting the housing of such offenders, that regulation was trumped by the Parole Board's authority to choose which inmates are suitable for Keystone, the lower courts found.There is a growing list of schools where students are planning a walkout against gun violence March 14.

In a nationwide movement, Women's March Youth Empower and others are encouraging students, teachers, administrators and allies to take part in a walkout for 17 minutes at 10 a.m. March 14. The time period is in memory of the 17 victims of the Feb. 14 Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in Parkland, Fla.

"What we really want to do is show the lawmakers that students are speaking up now in addition to the adults who are speaking out against gun control, and that we want them to enact sensible gun control legislation," said Michael Smith, junior class president at Carlisle High School, where a walkout is planned.

At Mechanicsburg Area Senior High School, student Austin Snelson said "We feel strongly about stopping the violence in schools because it is unnecessary...We want to make a statement and let people know we are aware and want things to change."

School officials say they have been meeting with students to plan details and ensure the event happens safely.

"We are doing pretty much the same thing as everyone else - working with students so we let their voices be heard but we also ensure their safety," said Gregory Milbrand, acting superintendent at East Pensboro Area School District.

Milbrand said there are safety concerns with having students gathering outside for a planned event such as this.

East Pennsboro won't be disciplining students who take part in the walkout. "They won't be punished for walking out of classes," Milbrand said, adding that there will be parameters set up.

Staff will also be permitted to take part, but he said they are still working on whether the community will be able to attend as well.

In a letter to the community Feb. 23, Milbrand said students are entitled by the First Amendment to participate in events such as this walkout.

Plans will also be in place for those who don't want to participate, Milbrand said.

If students' parents keep them home that day, they will be excused as long as they provide the proper documentation and follow procedures.

Bruce Deveney, acting superintendent of South Middleton School District, also said the administration is working with student leadership on plans for the March 14 walkout.

"Safety and security has been the number one focus while being respectful and supportive of all of our students - no matter which side of the issue. Precautions are being taken to provide a secure environment for the walk-out, therefore no further details will be disclosed," Deveney said.

The list of schools where students plan to participate in a walkout March 14 is evolving, but here are some of the districts, according to school officials, students and the Women's March Youth Empower web site:

Cumberland County

Boiling Springs High School

Carlisle Area High School

East Pennsboro Area High School

Mechanicsburg Area Senior High School

Students in Cumberland Valley School District are trying to organize a demonstration March 18 on the square in Carlisle.

Dauphin County

Hershey High School

Susquehanna Township High School

Lancaster County

Lebanon County

Annville-Cleona High School

York County

Northern York County High School

Dallastown Area Senior High School

Berks County

Blue Mountain Academy

Exeter Junior/Senior High School

Kutztown Area Middle School

Wilson High School

Some districts are reportedly planning walkouts at 10 a.m. April 20, which is the 19th year anniversary of the 1999 Columbine High School shooting in Colorado that left 13 dead.

This list includes:

York County

Hanover High School

York Suburban High School

Dallastown Area High School

Red Lion Junior High School

Spring Grove High School

Berks CountyHARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) -- Pennsylvania has halted the sale of work boots at all prison commissaries because an inmate is accused of killing a guard by knocking him to the floor and kicking him in the head while wearing boots.

The prison guards' union wants a permanent ban on work boots in prisons following the Feb. 15 beating of Sgt. Mark Baserman. He died of his injuries 11 days later.

The Corrections Department said Tuesday that administrators are now weighing how to deal with prisoners whose jobs require heavy boots. They say inmates may be required to store the footwear at job sites.

The agency says sales were stopped last week after a meeting between administrators and employees at the state prison in Somerset, where the beating occurred.

Pennsylvania for years has allowed inmates to buy work boots.

Paul Kendrick, 22, attacked the guard because Baserman had confiscated a towel he'd been using to block someone's view of his bunk, according a report from the Department of Corrections.

Another officer who assisted Baserman during the attack was also injured. He was released from the hospital shortly after the incident.

Kendrick was transferred to another state prison after the attack, officials said.

Kendrick, of Pittsburgh, is serving a life sentence for first-degree murder. He has been charged by state police in with Baserman's death.

Baserman had worked for the corrections department since 2007.

The last fatal staff assault by an inmate occurred at Graterford in 1979, the department said.As he headed into a White House huddle on gun-control with President Donald Trump and a bipartisan group of lawmakers on Wednesday afternoon, U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey provided ample reminder of how maddeningly difficult it is for lawmakers to reach anything approximating a consensus.

Over the course of a roughly 15-minute conversation with home state political reporters, Toomey, R-Pa., repeatedly tried to have his cake and eat it, too.

He made a push, for instance, for expanded background checks on commercial gun purchases, which is at least a baseline for beginning to stop the kind of massacres that tore through Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., last month.

He made pleasant noises about restricting gun access for the mentally ill. But provided precious little detail about how he'd tackle the "serious mental health problems and serious illness," that he said was behind the uniquely American plague of mass-murder by gun.

MORE:

"We have a serious problem that will require some time and many different approaches to really get a handle on it," he said.

Toomey sprained a rhetorical rotator cuff trying to explain why raising the minimum purchase age on long guns and rifles to 21 was an unconstitutional infringement on Second Amendment rights, while laws banning handgun sales to under 21s are not.

"The question of what is the appropriate point, reasonable people can disagree," he said. "I think it's something we can discuss and debate. I know the majority of 18, 19 and 20-year-olds who purchase long guns do so for hunting or target shooting. That's why they have a rifle or a shotgun.

"It's true that handguns are used to commit crimes with vastly greater frequency," Toomey continued. "The way I look at it, is it good policy to deny law-abiding 18-, 19- and 20-year-olds the option to buy a long gun? I remain skeptical. I'm not convinced the benefits outweigh the costs."

What?

The bereaved parents and loved ones of Parkland, where the accused shooter carried out his deadly spree with an AR-15, might disagree that the benefits of restricting ownership far outweigh the costs, however.

Toomey has also tried to have it both ways on banning bump-stocks, the modification device the Las Vegas shooter used to mow down 59 people and injure hundreds more.

In the wake of the Parkland shooting, Toomey said he "gun safety legislation should focus on keeping guns away from those who shouldn't have them, which is why I am skeptical of banning firearms or firearm accessories outright."

(The NRA, for the record, opposes a ban.)

At an appearance at the state Capitol a week or so later, Toomey said he favored regulating bump-stocks since fully automatic weapons have been regulated for decades. Thus, any device that gives another weapon the capacity of an automatic weapon, should be similarly regulated.

So which is it?

It's true that Toomey has been at least one of the saner Republican voices on gun-control, working with U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., to expand background checks.

The duo came within six votes of winning Senate passage of an expanded background checks bill in 2013 after the murders at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn.

And now that the Parkland kids are, well, everywhere, and high school and middle school kids all over the country - including Toomey's own backyard - have found their voices, the Pennsylvania lawmaker is right when he says the national mood has turned.

"What's changed is the horrific accumulation of these massacres -- that's making a difference," Toomey said. "The outcry from high school kids across the country, that's contributed to this discussion as well. Those are having an effect."

Even so, Toomey, like most Republicans (and some Democrats) is only willing to go so far.

Toomey argued Wednesday that there is no constitutional prohibition against civilian ownership of assault-style weapons.

That's far from a settled question.

At least four times in the past decade, appellate courts have ruled that assault weapon bans are constitutional, The Washington Post reported earlier this month.

And even in the case that gun-rights advocates hold up as definitive, District of Columbia v. Heller, the U.S. Supreme Court was silent on assault weapons, though the late Justice Antonin Scalia did observe that right to gun-ownership was "not unlimited."

Toomey told reporters Wednesday that he's hopes to build additional support for his background checks bill.

He also gave a shout-out to legislation sponsored by Sen. Chris Coons, D-Delaware, making it easier for states to prosecute people who lie about their criminal history on a background check application.

"It's hard to know how confident to be," about the prospects of passage, Toomey told reporters.

"I am confident there is legislation that will get 60 votes if it gets to the floor," including the Coons language, Toomey said. A bipartisan background checks bill sponsored by Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, would get overwhelming support, but not universal."

Toomey told reporters he's hoping Trump is "open to these suggestions we have. He has indicated he will do something."

Toomey's contradictions - and policy hair-plitting - are stand-ins for the contradictory positions held by other lawmakers. And they're a reminder of how just how heavy a lift it is to get a bill through the Senate, let alone through House, and onto Trump's desk.

The best intentions have been derailed before - and could be again.* This story has been updated in a separate story.

Sexual misconduct and assault complaints lodged with state House of Representative officials against a Delaware County lawmaker are under investigation by House leaders.

The complaint, disclosed Wednesday afternoon in a joint report by The Philadelphia Inquirer and the state government-oriented weekly, The Caucus, is lodged against Rep. Nick Miccarelli, a Republican from Ridley Park, Delaware County.

State Rep. Nick Miccarelli

Miccarelli, 35, has been a member of the state House since 2008. The news outlets quoted him as strongly denying any accusations of assaultive or inappropriate behavior. He could not be reached for comment Wednesday afternoon.

House Republican leaders confirmed receipt of a complaint in a statement issued just minutes after the story about the filing of the complaints appeared on The Inquirer's Web site, Philly.com.

While not naming Miccarelli specifically, the statement said in part:

"These allegations are alarming, and if true, cannot and will not be tolerated in our Caucus, in the House or anywhere. We are in the midst of investigating claims which were brought to us and have been for an amount of time," the statement continued. "We hope to conclude the investigation this week."

PennLive's effort to reach Miccarelli for this report were not successful.

The Inquirer and Caucus identifies the complainants as a state official and a political consultant, both of whom apparently had dated Miccarelli at different times between 2012 and 2014.

The complaints go to actions during and at the close of those relationships, the report says, and include claims that Miccarelli "threatened, stalked, intimidated or physically assaulted them."

The women's attorney, Terry Mutchler of the Harrisburg-based firm Mutchler Lyons, confirmed to PennLive that her firm filed a complaint with the House on behalf of the women on Feb. 8.

Capitol Bureau Chief Jan Murphy contributed to this report.A Dick's Sporting Goods store is seen in Arlington Heights, Ill., Wednesday, Feb. 28, 2018. Dick's Sporting Goods announced Wednesday that it will immediately end sales of assault-style rifles and high capacity magazines at all of its stores and ban the sale of all guns to anyone under 21. Dick's had cut off sales of assault-style weapons at Dick's stores following the Sandy Hook school shooting. But Dick's owns dozens of its Field & Stream stores, where there has been no such ban in place. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh)Bruce Hughes is photographed in the Art Manuel House in Toronto, on Tuesday, February 27, 2018. A radical treatment that provides daily doses of alcohol to people struggling with problem drinking in several Canadian cities is getting attention from other countries wanting to emulate its success. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Christopher KatsarovFrom left, Meghan Markle, Kate, Duchess of Cambridge and Britain's Prince William during the first annual Royal Foundation Forum in London, Wednesday Feb. 28, 2018. Under the theme 'Making a Difference Together', the event will showcase the programmes run or initiated by The Royal Foundation. (Chris Jackson/Pool via AP)The federal environment minister is today encouraging Saskatchewan to sign on to its national climate plan. Minister of Environment and Climate Change Catherine McKenna is reflected in a TV screen as she speaks during a press conference in the National Press Theatre in Ottawa on February 8, 2018. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Justin TangPrime Minister Justin Trudeau visits the Jama Masjid Mosque in New Delhi, India on Thursday, Feb. 22, 2018. India's Ministry of External Affairs issued a statement Wednesday stating the Indian government had no role in an attempted murderer being invited to a pair of events Prime Minister Justin Trudeau attended during his visit to India last week. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean KilpatrickA pumpjack works at a well head on an oil and gas installation near Cremona, Alta., Saturday, Oct. 29, 2016. Statistics Canada says capital spending to extract oil and gas will fall for a fourth straight year in Canada in 2018. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jeff McIntoshShirley Taylor wears a "Burnt by Phoenix" sticker on her forehead during a rally against the Phoenix payroll system outside the offices of the Treasury Board of Canada in Ottawa on Wednesday, Feb. 28, 2018. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Justin TangBroward County School Board Superintendent Robert Runcie speaks during a news conference at the Marriot Heron Bay in Coral Springs on Wednesday, Feb. 28, 2018. Students at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland went back to school on Wednesday, for the first time since the Feb. 14 shooting claimed 17 lives on campus. (Amy Beth Bennett /South Florida Sun-Sentinel via AP)The body of Indian actress Sridevi covered with the Indian flag is carried in truck during her funeral in Mumbai, India, Wednesday, Feb. 28, 2018. Lining up for hours and visibly grief-stricken, thousands of mourning fans paid their respects Wednesday to Sridevi, the iconic Bollywood actress who drowned accidentally in a Dubai hotel bathtub over the weekend. (AP Photo/Rajanish Kakade)Perryville football coach Brent Roth is already trying to erase the game from his memory. It is probably for a good reason, too.Perryville struggled to do anything well as Park Hills Central handed 

The Pirates finally put together what Perryville softball coach Lilly Pecaut called a complete game.Everything came together as Perryville got the offense and pitching to come away with 

The Perryville boys soccer team was able to show its resiliency in multiple ways as it got back into the win column. The Pirates bounced back from a lopsided loss to Notre Dame the week before, to 

St. Vincent makes Valle Catholic play in loss St. Vincent football coach Tim Schumer didnt want his team to look at the scoreboard following the game. The score may have said that the Valle Catholic Warriors won in a lopsided game, but 

Indians take advantage of miscues to claim first victory St. Vincent found itself down two scores midway through the third quarter, and despite the deficit, coach Tim Schumer was calm.The game was not over at that point, you have to play four 

Rushing attack leads Pirates to win over Owls The Perryville football team is quickly turning into a M.A.S.H. unit. With several players already nursing injuries from the previous week, they also threw in other players who were in quarantine. 

Click Here For Our Local Sports PageExxonMobil should specify, development plan, local content, Guyana's work force and their positions Ram

By Kaieter News



GEORGETOWN

Petroleumworld 02 28 2018 It is simply not enough for USA oil giant, ExxonMobil, to tell the nation that it employs more than 60 percent Guyanese for its operations. Civil society needs to see what this translates to.



They need to see how many of the 60 percent are actually employed as cooks, cleaners, and office assistants and how many are actually holding top positions or understudying ExxonMobil expatriates.



This viewpoint was recently put forward by Chartered Accountant and Attorney-at-law, Chris Ram, during an interview with Kaieteur News.



Ram was quick to point out some of the mistakes of the government as it relates to the issue of local content. He noted that it was an error in judgment for Minister of Natural Resources, Raphael Trotman, to not ensure that the production licence he granted ExxonMobil was published for all to see.



In this regard, he reminded that Guyana's laws specifically state that one of the prerequisites for granting a production licence is the submission of an effective local content plan. This plan outlines how the oil operator intends to use local goods and services in his operation and to what extent.



Ram said, Trotman must publish the production licence so we can see how he has dealt with any shortcomings in the application. If Exxon has not put forward their plan then their licence should not have been granted. It is as simple as that.



They will do what is in their best interest and if they can bypass all local content, they will. If it is in their interest to engage in low cost labour then they would not avoid it.



The Chartered Accountant continued, But you see, it is much more than that. ExxonMobil needs to tell this nation what is the phased reduction of expatriate labour in the whole scheme of arrangement. And I come back to the Omai Gold Mine Agreement in the late 80s. It specifies the number of expatriates who could be on the site.



The lawyer said, It would be good to publish the number of expatriates and the number of locals employed by ExxonMobil and the positions they hold. Government and Exxon should publish that. They have a responsibility to do so. It is not good enough to say 60 percent or 70 percent of your workforce is Guyanese 



UGANDA GETS MORE



Since the release of the Production Sharing Agreement (PSA) between Guyana and ExxonMobil, analyses and viewpoints of all fashion have been flooding the oil and gas debate. For example, some commentators contend that if one were to compare Guyana's PSA with that of other countries, the citizenry would have a clearer idea of how Guyana was robbed of several opportunities to develop its people and the industry as a whole.



This newspaper has found glaring instances where Governments of several African countries were able to negotiate much better terms for their people. The case of Uganda is a prime example of this.



In 2012, the Government of Uganda signed a PSA with British operator, Tullow Oil. That entity is also exploring in Guyana's deep waters. One of the many commonalities between Guyana's PSA and that of Uganda, is that they both address the subject of Local Content.



This speaks to the use of local goods, skills and services in the development of the oil and gas industry.



In Uganda's PSA with Tullow, the Local Content provisions are as pellucid as they are detailed.



TRAINING/ EMPLOYMENT IN UGANDA



According to Uganda's PSA, the Licensee agrees to train and employ suitably qualified Ugandan citizens in its Petroleum Operations and, following the effective date, to undertake the schooling and training of Ugandan citizens for staff positions.



The PSA specifies that these posts must include administrative and executive management positions. The Agreement states that the Licensee will also require its sub-licensees to do the same.



The PSA also makes it clear that the Licensee must undertake to gradually replace its expatriate staff with suitably qualified and experienced Ugandan citizens as are then available. However, if the Licensee satisfies the Ugandan Advisory Committee that no suitably qualified and experienced Ugandan citizens are available who are capable of filling key senior management or technical position, the Licensee shall employ expatriate staff in such positions.



The PSA goes on to state that an annual programme for training and phasing in of Ugandan citizens shall be established by the Licensee and shall be submitted for approval to the Government's Advisory Committee, along with the annual Work Programmes and Budgets. Additionally, within 30 days of the end of each calendar year, the Licensee is to submit a written report to the Government describing the number of personnel employed their nationality, their positions and the status of training programmes for Ugandan citizens.



The oil company is even required to establish an annual programme, satisfactory to the Government, to train personnel of the Government to undertake skilled and technical jobs in Petroleum Operations. It is also required to deposit with government, or its nominee, on the effective date and each anniversary of the effective date of the contract thereafter, the certain amounts for training of Government personnel selected by the Government and other associated costs for each Licence.



For the Exploration period, Tullow was called on to pay US$100,000 per six months. During the development phase, the oil operator was required to pay US$150,000 per 12 months. Following the commencement of production it was asked to deposit US$ 300,000 per 12 months.



LOCAL CONTENT & GUYANA'S PSA



When compared to Guyana's PSA, one would notice some distinct differences. Guyana's PSA notes that the local content activities will be carried out not by the Contractor, but by an Operator appointed by the three companies making up the Contractor.



In respect of goods and services, the Operator is expected to give preference to Guyanese goods and materials of a quality and quantity, timely delivery and competitive prices. In respect of Guyanese Sub-Contractors, preference is to be given if they are commercially competitive and meet financial and technical requirements.



Article 18.2 requires the Contractor to establish tender procedures for the acquisition of goods, materials and services which shall ensure that Guyanese suppliers and Subcontractors are given adequate opportunity to compete for the supply of goods and services. Further, Article 18.3 requires the Contractor to train Guyanese suppliers and Subcontractors in the procedures for participating in tenders and competing for contracts to be offered in the Operations.



The contract also outlines that the Government shall provide the necessary work permits and other approvals required by the contractor for employment of expatriate employees in Guyana for the purpose of petroleum operations.



Without prejudice to the right of the contractor to select employees and determine the number thereof in the conduct of petroleum operations, the contractor shall require the operator to employ and contractually obligate sub contractors to employ Guyanese citizens having appropriate qualifications and experience in the conduct of petroleum operations in Guyana.



During each year of the term of the petroleum prospecting licence, or any renewal thereafter the contractor shall pay to a Government account for the Ministry responsible for Petroleum the amount of US$300,000.



The money can be used to provide Guyanese personnel nominated by the Government with on-the-job training in Contractor's operations in Guyana and overseas and /or practical training at institutions abroad; send qualified Guyanese personnel selected by the Government on courses at universities , colleges or other training institutions; to send Guyanese selected by the Government to conferences and seminars related to the petroleum industry and to purchase for the Government, advanced technical books, professional publications , scientific instruments or other equipment required by the Government.



Within 60 days prior to the beginning of each year, the contractor and the Minister shall provide a yearly plan for the utilization of qualified Guyanese personnel for the upcoming year. Following the submission of this plan, the Contractor and the Minister shall meet to discuss and consider the effectiveness of the plan.



The contractor is also expected to provide half yearly reports within 30 days after the end of each half year to the Minister outlining achievements in utilising qualified Guyanese personnel during the previous half year and make appropriate adjustments to the yearly plan to better accomplish the goal of increasing the number of qualified Guyanese personnel available for use by the Contractor in its Petroleum operations and other entities performing petroleum operations in Guyana.

Story from Kaieter News



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'98,ME,XP, Vista, Windows 7,8,10 +/ 800x600 pixelsGuyana environment at risk, ExxonMobil PSA only with general environmental regulations

By Kaieter News



GEORGETOWN

Petroleumworld 02 28 2018 All Production Sharing Agreements (PSA) speak to the obligations of the oil operator when it comes to protecting the environment. But the responsibilities of the contractor may vary from contract to contract. This is evident when one compares the PSA ExxonMobil signed with Ghana to that which it inked with Guyana.



In the case of Guyana, ExxonMobil is merely told that in the conduct of its operations, it is expected to take necessary and adequate precautions in accordance with good international petroleum industry practice, against pollution and the protection of the environment and the living resources of the rivers and sea.



But merely uttering these sentiments in a PSA was not good enough for Ghana. In fact, the Government of that African nation was careful to point out exactly what it expects ExxonMobil to do as it relates to environmental safeguards.



The Ghana-ExxonMobil contract says that the Contractor shall exercise its rights and carry out its responsibilities under the Agreement in accordance with International Oil Field Practice, and shall take steps in such manner as to: result in minimum ecological damage or destruction;

control the flow and prevent the escape or the avoidable waste of Petroleum discovered in or produced from the Contract Area; prevent damage to Petroleum-bearing strata; prevent the entrance of water through boreholes and wells to Petroleum bearing strata, except for the purpose of secondary recovery; prevent damage to onshore lands and to trees, crops, buildings, or other structures; and avoid any actions which would endanger the health or safety of persons.



In the event of pollution or damage to fresh water, marine, plant, animal life, or land that is caused by Contractor as a result of Petroleum Operations; ExxonMobil, in accordance with applicable laws and International Oil Field Practice, is expected to promptly take all necessary measures, in accordance with International Oil Field Practice to control the pollution, to clean up Petroleum or other released material, or to repair, to the maximum extent feasible, damage resulting from any such circumstances.



What Ghana also makes clear to the contractor is that any oil spill or damage to the environment caused directly from the Gross Negligence/Willful Misconduct of Contractor shall be borne by ExxonMobil and cannot be considered as recoverable costs or part of petroleum costs. Guyana's contract does not make provisions for this.



Furthermore, Ghana's contract states that prior to commencing drilling of the first Exploration Well, the Contractor shall conduct a baseline environmental study of the degree of pollution in the relevant portion of the Contract Area to determine the environmental conditions existing therein.



The contract says, too, that the terms, timing, and procedure of such baseline environmental study shall be set forth in an approved Work Programme and budget. Guyana's contract with ExxonMobil makes no mention or provision for this.

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'98,ME,XP, Vista, Windows 7,8,10 +/ 800x600 pixelsMinister Trotman not longer oversees Guyana's oil, President's office to watch oil portfolio  Six out of seven Exxon wells have now struck oil By Kaieter News



GEORGETOWN

Petroleumworld 02 28 2018 Government has announced another successful strike in the oil search by ExxonMobil and its partners.



It was also announced yesterday by Minister of Natural Resources, Raphael Trotman, that he will soon be relinquishing the portfolio of oil to the Ministry of the Presidency.



That decision was as a result of the administration reeling from severe criticisms of the current production agreement it has with ExxonMobil and partners.



Trotman, especially, has come for some scalding as he is a lawyer who should have known better, critics said.



Daily, the newspapers and its letter pages have been filled with misgivings over the deal.



The government is accused of penning an agreement that when compared to the rest of the world, is one of the weakest contracts with very little for Guyana despite the magnitude of the find.



On the other hand, Government officials have said that there was very little they could have done to the renewal which was inked by another government, in 2012.



With regards to the oil portfolio, the Minister, in a taped statement, following the weekly Cabinet meetings yesterday, disclosed that last year, he proposed to President Granger that Guyana begin considering the establishment of a Department of Energy.



This department will be focusing only on the development of the petroleum sector, Trotman stressed.



Yesterday, the matter came up in Cabinet again. There was a lively discussion on the proposal. According to the Minister, it was decided and determined that Government will have the Department of Energy established in the next few months.



That department, Trotman revealed, will be housed at the Ministry of the Presidency.



Trotman is the current leader of the Alliance For Change (AFC), the smaller of the two factions forming the Coalition Government.



The Minister said that Cabinet has mandated that he heads a Task Force comprising Finance Minister, Winston Jordan; State Minister, Joseph Harmon and Public Infrastructure Minister, David Patterson, that will oversee the establishment of the department. That task force could eventually.



The task force will decide on issues like staffing and structures.

According to Trotman, his Ministry will hand over the function of petroleum to this new department and Guyana will see a more direct and focused mandate from that department.



Trotman also reported that ExxonMobil has struck more oil in its Pacora-1 well.



This well is about four miles from the Payara well. All are in the Stabroek Block controlled by that US-owned oil company.



Trotman noted that more details of this latest discovery will be shared as soon as Guyana continues to have an aggressive programme of exploration and as it proceeds towards production in 2020.



He pointed out that Exxon has drilled seven wells so far in its offshore concessions. Six of them have borne fruit an excellent record.



Trotman also congratulated the crew of the drillship, Stena Carron , which has made 90 percent of the discoveries without a day lost or injuries.



ExxonMobil announced in May 2015 that it had struck oil in the offshore concession. It was said to be high quality oil with over 3 billion barrels in that concession located about 100 miles from Guyana's shores.



The US company is now preparing for a 2020 start in commercial production but critics have insisted that despite the large find, the initial Liza 1 Well development will see Guyana getting just over US$50M in royalties with a 50/50 share in profit highly questionable as there are little systems or protections for Guyana to determine what constitutes legitimate expenses.



Already, without a drop of oil being pumped, ExxonMobil has submitted a bill of over US$400M to Guyana as its expenses that it will have to recover.

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'98,ME,XP, Vista, Windows 7,8,10 +/ 800x600 pixelsRecalibrating Caricom in the midst of confusion - Gibbings

By Wesley Gibbings



PORT SPAIN

Petroleumworld 02 28 2018

Close Caricom-watchers were justifiably sceptical about the prospects for anything positive or overly meaningful emerging from the 29th Inter-sessional meeting of regional leaders in Haiti which ended yesterday.

The pre-conference dispatch from Caricom public servants did its best to put a brave face on a rather grim scenario, but no serious observer would have been impressed or fooled.

Both Grenada and Antigua & Barbuda are on the home-stretch to general elections due on March 13 and 21 respectively; Jamaica and T&T are grappling with varying degrees of failure on criminal violence; Guyana is almost entirely distracted from the regional process on account of an imminent oil and gas windfall and president Granger indicated early he would be absent to focus on domestic issues.

Barbados is meanwhile likely to enter election season soon just as raw sewage dampens its tourist shoreline and opposition parliamentarians vow to stay off the job. It was there last week that St Vincent prime minister Ralph Gonsalves faced the wrath of women protesters drawing attention to the Yugge Farrel judicial travesty via rather politely-worded posters calling for gender justice and justice for all.

It is difficult to escape the metaphor of turbulent waters and of ships on the verge of running terminally aground. The storms of 2017 may yet pale in comparison and no better place than Haiti to host and anchor the imagery.

Port-au-Prince has hardly ever been a picture of peace and serenity. As important as the malpractice of international aid workers is, chronically dysfunctional institutions of democracy only just hold the semblance of a coherent state together in a country that recently earned obscene global mention.

Additionally, just as inclined as we have been to conflate the issues of criminal violence and the threat of terrorism the conference agenda, in tagging its main features, failed to make the technical distinction to produce meaningful discourse. It's almost as if our acting commissioner's pre-Carnival declaration of criminal terrorof criminals terrorising innocentshas, by external edict and verdict, been graduated to finely-orchestrated murderous Caribbean reality.

Don't get me wrong, it is not that there have not been longstanding connivances to replicate an international as opposed to domestic hotspot right here, but failure upon failure has correspondingly characterised our collective actions to stem the flow of blood at the hands of criminals.

In a sense, denial of this belies our own culpability in taking us to this point. It cannot be, we often contend, that it is we who have spawned such ubiquitous danger and tragedy.

Then comes the Caricom Single Market and Economy (CSME) with Jamaica's perennial self-doubt once more on public display through the (Bruce) Golding Report on the island's relations with Caricom and the Caribbean Forum within the ACP-EU process.

The report is not easily dismissed, though, especially as it draws attention to several key realities of the single market project that are of relevance to other members of the grouping including, and especially, T&T.

Regrettably, having effectively relinquished a leadership role in the process, T&T remains recalcitrant, fretting observers rather than active agents making sure it works on our behalf. This did not begin yesterday with the appointment of an uninspiring minister, but is part of a process that gained new traction between 2010 and 2015.

Yet, even though the bare bones of the existing CSME infrastructure have yielded net positive results for T&T, there is vacuous, ill-informed public discussion on this critical regional mechanism. Here, the Chamber of Commerce, the TTMA and other stakeholders need to work harder to engage their publics in enlightened discussion and debate.

I can guarantee that we will make an absolute mess of any attempt to replicate the Golding Report here, despite our more seasoned engagement of the CSME process over the years.

If the Haiti Inter-sessional achieved one thing, it ought to have been getting all of us, as interested parties, to read what the Jamaican elite have produced as their considered position on the regional project.

Ironically, the next substantive Caricom Heads of Government Meeting takes place in July in Jamaica where, by then, the political smoke would have cleared in more than one country and a clinical analysis conducted to achieve what the Golding Report describes as a firm but calibrated response to the CSME challenge.



Biofuels policy to be discuss with Trump at Tuesday meeting - sources

By Jarrett Renshaw



NEW YORK

Petroleumworld 02 28 2018

U.S. President Donald Trump will meet with senators and Cabinet officials on Tuesday to discuss ways to lower the cost of the nation's biofuels policy to oil refiners, according to sources familiar with the matter.

The meeting reflects rising concern in the White House over the current state of the U.S. Renewable Fuel Standard, a law requiring refiners to mix biofuels such as corn-based ethanol into their fuel, after a Pennsylvania refiner blamed the regulation for its recent bankruptcy.

The meeting will include Republican Senators Ted Cruz of Texas, Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania, Chuck Grassley and Joni Ernst of corn state Iowa, along with Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt, Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue, and Energy Secretary Rick Perry, according to the sources.

The meeting will also include White House legislative director Marc Short, who will seek to ensure any agreement can be achieved through executive orders and regulatory actions defensible in court, the sources said.

Representatives for those officials, and the White House, declined to comment.

U.S. farm groups urged Trump in a letter on Monday not to weaken the RFS, calling it a critical engine of rural jobs. Any action that seeks to weaken the RFS for the benefit of a handful of refiners will, by extension, be borne on the backs of our farmers, according to the letter.

Under the RFS, refiners must earn or purchase biofuel blending credits called RINs to prove to the federal government that enough biofuels are being blended into their gasoline and diesel to comply with the policy.

As biofuels volumes quotas have increased over the years, however, so have prices for the credits  meaning refiners that buy them instead of acquire them by blending fuels themselves are facing rising costs.

Oil refiner Philadelphia Energy Solutions (PES), which employs more than 1,000 people in a key electoral state, declared bankruptcy last month and blamed the regulation for its demise. Reuters reported other factors may also have played a role in the company's bankruptcy, including the withdrawal of more than $590 million in dividend-style payments from the company by its investor owners.

Two of the sources familiar with the agenda of the Tuesday meeting said at least four options aimed at reducing the cost of RINs to refiners like PES will be considered  though they noted the effort would be constrained by political and legal realities that have derailed previous reform efforts.

Prices of RINs tumbled by nearly 20 percent in the past week on expectations of a regulatory tweak.

One idea would be to count U.S. ethanol exports toward annual biofuels volumes mandates that are currently focused purely on domestic usage, an idea the sources said had been studied by Agriculture Secretary Perdue who now favors it.

Another idea would be to place a cap on the price of a RIN. Senator Cruz late last year suggested capping RIN prices at 10 cents each, far below the current value of over 60 cents, in a move that was roundly rejected by biofuels advocates.

The meeting will also consider measures to remove speculation from the RIN market, potentially by limiting RIN transactions to those directly involved in generating and consuming them: blenders and refiners, the sources said.

Any plan would also likely include a concession to the ethanol industry, they said, such as a waiver to allow gasoline containing 15 percent ethanol to be sold year round. Sales of high-ethanol blends are currently restricted in the summer due to concerns over smog.

The meeting could also look at solutions focused more directly on refiner PES - like waiving its current RIN obligation valued at about $350 million, the sources said. But any such move would likely draw a backlash from other refiners who have no hope of receiving such a waiver.



Brazil's Taesa electric transmission eyes J&F power lines after Brookfield talks collapse

By Luciano Costa



SAO PAULO

Petroleumworld 02 28 2018

Brazilian electricity transmission company Taesa is looking to buy assets that Ambar Energia Ltda, the energy arm of J&F Investimentos SA, has put up for sale, the firm's chief executive told Reuters late on Monday.

The deal comes shortly after exclusive talks between J&F and potential buyer Brookfield Asset Management Inc collapsed.

We're participating in that sale, CEO Raul Lycurgo Leite said. We have even given a non-binding offer in relation to those assets, but we don't know how fast that process is evolving.

Taesa, controlled by Colombia's ISA and Brazil's Companhia Eletrica de Minas Gerais SA, known as Cemig, is interested in at least four transmission assets owned by J&F, he added.

In July, Reuters reported that Brookfield had signed an exclusivity agreement to acquire a majority stake in Ambar.

According to a source with knowledge of the matter, who requested anonymity to discuss private matter, those negotiations took place until January, at which point the two sides gave up on a potential deal.

Ambar has almost 1,200 kilometers (746 miles) of transmission lines, as well as substations in the states of Sao Paulo, Minas Gerais, Bahia, Piaui, Distrito Federal, and Goias, according to information on the company's website.



OPEC Secretary General to meet with U.S. shale firms in Houston on Monday

By Alex Lawler, Ernest Scheyder



LONDON/HOUSTON

Petroleumworld 02 28 2018

OPEC will hold a dinner on Monday in Houston with U.S. shale firms, two industry sources said, the latest sign of the producer group widening talks about how best to tame a global oil glut.

OPEC Secretary General Mohammad Barkindo plus other OPEC officials will attend the dinner, one of the sources said. A second source said the chief executives of U.S. shale companies of various sizes have been invited.

The meeting will be on the first day of the CERAWeek energy conference in Houston. A year ago, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries held unprecedented talks with fund executives and shale producers on the sidelines of the same event.

Shale has dramatically changed the world's perception of fossil fuels, said the chief executive of one shale company, declining to be identified by name. We now have a seat at the table on pricing.

OPEC led by Saudi Arabia and non-OPEC Russia have reduced production during 2017-2018 to prop up oil prices.

The United States, which rivals Russia and Saudi Arabia for the position of the world's largest oil producer, is not participating in cuts as its industry is represented by private producers who can be sued for collusion if they join the deal.

The OPEC cut has boosted prices, which topped $71 a barrel this year for the first time since late 2014. But the rally is spurring renewed growth in shale output, offsetting the OPEC-led effort.

The International Energy Agency (IEA) said on Tuesday the United States will overtake Russia as the world's biggest oil producer by 2019 at the latest, as the country's shale oil boom continues to upend global markets.

OPEC officials say they are not worried about a renewed surge in shale swamping its efforts this year, but have urged shale producers to help curtail global supply.

It's normal for shale oil, tight oil to increase in 2018 and whenever oil prices support it, said Iraq's national representative to OPEC, Ali Nazar, at an event in Berlin on Tuesday.

But we all should look with responsibility to the market in order to keep the balance in the market as much as we can so as not to harm investors.



Peru's main LNG pipeline back in operations, resumes exports

By Reuters



LIMA

Petroleumworld 02 28 2018

Peru has exported its first shipment of liquefied natural gas (LNG) in three weeks after a pipeline rupture in the jungle disrupted production, the state energy agency Perupetro said on Tuesday.

The ship Barcelona Knutsen departed Peru for South Korea on Monday with 170,999 cubic meters (6,038,772 cubic feet) of fuel from the Pampa Melchorita plant, which is operated by the consortium Peru LNG, Perupetro said in a report.

U.S.-based Hunt Oil has a 40 percent stake in Peru LNG. Royal Dutch Shell Plc, Japan's Marubeni Corp and other companies have smaller stakes in the consortium.

Peru's LNG exports had halted after landslides and heavy rains in southeastern Peru ruptured a natural gas pipeline operated by Transportadora de Gas de Peru SA early this month.

The pipeline transports natural gas from the Camisea fields, which are operated by Argentina's Pluspetrol Camisea SA , to Pampa Melchorita, Peru's sole natural gas liquefaction facility.

Peru LNG normally exports five or six shipments of about 150,000 cubic meters each month.



Ecopetrol net profit rises sharply in 2017

By Reuters



RIO DE JANEIRO

Petroleumworld 02 28 2018

Ecopetrol, Colombia's state-run oil company, said on Tuesday its net profit during 2017 rose to 6.6 trillion pesos ($2.32 billion), its highest reported earnings in four years and more than four times its profit in 2016.

Year-on-year profit increased 323 percent over 2016, when the company was hammered by the global fall in oil prices.

2017 was a year of great operational and financial achievements for Ecopetrol, Chief Executive Felipe Bayon said in a statement to the country's financial regulator.

Today we are a more efficient and disciplined company, and we've demonstrated our technical capacity and resilience, having come out stronger after the crisis of low oil prices, Bayon said.

Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization were up 28 percent last year compared with 2016, to 23 trillion pesos, the company said in a filing to the country's financial regulator, and proven reserves were up to 1.65 billion barrels, the company said.

Debt was down by approximately 9 trillion pesos between 2016 and 2017, Ecopetrol said, while total sales were up 15.7 percent to 55.2 trillion pesos, compared with 47.7 trillion in 2016.

Shareholders will receive dividends of 89 pesos per share, the company said. Finance Minister Mauricio Cardenas said on Twitter the government would make 3.2 trillion pesos from the dividend.

The company said it met its production goal for 2017, reaching 715,000 barrels per day (bpd) despite ongoing attacks against crude pipelines by leftist rebels. Ecopetrol plans to increase output to between 715,000 and 725,000 bpd in 2018.

The company has said it will invest between $3.5 billion and $4 billion during 2018, largely in production and exploration projects.

Fourth-quarter profit was 3.42 trillion pesos, up 1,742.5 percent from 186 billion pesos in the same quarter of 2016, the statement said.

Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization was up 29.1 percent in the final quarter of 2017, compared with the same period the year before, to 5.77 trillion pesos. ($1 = 2,849.91 Colombian pesos)



Amazon's $1 billion purchase of Ring, California-based maker of a popular video home security system, looks like a big step up in the world, for a team of locally based home-automation engineers at Ring Solutions in Malvern, and their previous employer, the former home technology developer Zonoff.

It's a happy reversal from last year, when their future was left in question due to business and investor decisions far beyond their local offices.

Amazon already owned a piece of Ring through its Alexa Fund. Amazon watchers expect the company will use Ring's doorbell cameras and other home automation to improve its Amazon Key delivery-access program, protecting deliveries of Amazon goods from thieves and delays. It could even help grocery deliveries, given Amazon's $14 billion Whole Foods acquisition last year. Amazon also bought Ring rival Blink last year.

Ring fits with Amazon's plans to play a larger role in smartphone-era homes and businesses through its Amazon Echo smart speakers, which respond to the name Alexa.

"Alexa can be the brains on the inside, with Ring as the eyes on the outside," writes Internet of Things watcher Stacey Higginbotham on her Texas-based site, StaceyOnIT.com.

Higginbotham expects that Amazon will operate Ring as a separate vision, as it does "with Audible and Zappos." Or like Amazon Woot!, the "wild outpost on the fringe" of Amazon's retail business, which opened a clothes-printing plant and distribution center last fall in East Norriton, Montgomery County.

Pennsylvania is one of Amazon's main warehouse centers; Philadelphia and Pittsburgh are among 20 communities that the company is considering for a second headquarters and about 50,000 jobs.

Here's the Malvern angle: Zonoff was a 70-employee Internet of Things home-automation firm founded by onetime DivX general manager Mike Harris and backed by nearly $40 million from investors including Valhalla Partners, Grotech Ventures, and alarm giant ADT.

From its 2011 founding until its abrupt shutdown last winter, Zonoff was one of the most promising Internet of Things tech developers, supplying systems to Staples and other big retailers. State-backed Ben Franklin Technology Partners invested $200,000 in the firm (which Zonoff paid back, with interest), and U.S. Rep. Ryan Costello, a Chester County Republican, attended the company's 2015 office expansion.

But ADT's sale to billionaire Sixers owner Josh Harris' Apollo Global Management changed the payroll company's focus and the goals for its Zonoff investment. Zonoff's likely buyers were now ADT's competitors, as ADT mobilized to compete with Philadelphia-based Comcast and other companies adding home security systems.

ADT and Apollo hatched a plan to sell Zonoff to Honeywell Inc. for just $40 million, which would barely have repaid the outside investors. When the Honeywell deal fell apart, ADT cut off funds, according to court documents.

But Mike Harris didn't walk away: He led his team of 70 Zonoff professionals to join Ring, a prosperous, acquisitive company backed by Goldman Sachs, Qualcomm and Virgin Cos.' Richard Branson, among others. Ring named Mike Harris president of its new Ring Solutions automation unit, found him new offices in the quarry-turned-lakeside Atwater business park, and told him to hire more engineers.

Harris and Ring were promptly sued by ADT, which said they had walked off with Zonoff instead of supporting its sale. A Delaware chancellor initially sided with ADT, but the suit was settled last month for a reported $25 million Ring payment to ADT.

That eased the way for the Amazon deal and fueled expansive hopes for the former Zonoff engineers' future, under a very well-funded new owner.Among the restaurants damaged by fire were The Little Lion at far left, Revolution Diner, Capofitto, and the nearby Ginas 45. Read more

Capofitto  the pizzeria and gelateria located just doors from a devastating Feb. 18 fire on Chestnut Street in Old City  plans to open Wednesday, Feb. 28.

"We have risen from the ashes, cleaned up the smoke, and the health department gave us a go!" owner Stephanie Reitano posted on social media. She and her husband, John, also own the popular Capogiro shops.

Other businesses, as well as the residents of the buildings at and near 239 Chestnut St., were not so fortunate. Gina's 45, a fairly new bar on Third Street around the corner, also is closed indefinitely, as owners say they have not yet been allowed inside even to assess damage. Revolution Diner was destroyed.

The Little Lion, an American restaurant at the corner of Third and Chestnut Streets, will be down for at least two months, its owners say.

The Little Lion's Chris Younge and Jason Dills are hosting a fundraiser for employees displaced by the fire on Sunday, March 4, from 1 to 5 p.m. at Mad Rex in Fishtown. Food will be donated by Sysco and Mad Rex, as well as more than 20 restaurants and bars.

Tickets start at $35 each (or $45 at the door) and include food and two drinks. There will be a silent auction, free virtual reality, performances, and a DJ. A $75 VIP ticket will include food and unlimited drinks.

Younge and Dills are hoping to find work for their 80 employees.

In other fire-recovery news, the Foy family plans to rebuild Bridget Foy's, their restaurant at Second and South Streets, which was destroyed by fire last October. No timeline has been announced, but the owners posted a rendering on Facebook.Columnist Solomon Jones writes that many in the black community laughed bitterly when they were told that the election of Barack Obama, the nations first black president, marked the start of a post-racial era. We knew we were still followed in stores, still denied employment opportunities, still denied loans, and still denied the basic humanity that is routinely afforded to whites. Read more

I've had conversations with black people who've told me that voting hasn't changed anything for blacks in America. And while I vehemently disagree with their assessment, a new report from the Economic Policy Institute lends credence to their argument.

The new report, titled "50 Years After the Kerner Commission," measures black progress in the half-century since President Lyndon B. Johnson convened a group to examine the causes of the black uprisings that had taken place in cities across America.

The Economic Policy Institute found that as of 2016, the median black family had only 10.2 percent of the wealth of the median white family. As it's been for the last 50 years, the black unemployment rate is twice the white unemployment rate, and when blacks are employed, they make only 82.5 cents for every dollar made by whites. Even worse, the share of African Americans in prison has almost tripled since 1968, and today blacks are 6.4 times as likely to be incarcerated as whites.

It's almost as if the most famous line from the Kerner Commission's report was a prophecy. "Our nation is moving toward two societies," the report said. "One black, one white  separate and unequal."

That unequal society has arrived. Or, as many in my community would say, it's always been here. And because America hasn't had the political will to attack the root causes of our society's inequality, we've remained stuck in a time warp. A time warp fueled by racism.

Even as blacks pushed forward over the last 50 years, earning greater educational attainment, more income, and greater wealth than they had in 1968, we continued to lag behind whites. And in my view, that's largely due to the same racist attitudes that prevailed during the time of the Kerner Commission.

Many in my community laughed bitterly when we were told that the election of Barack Obama, the nation's first black president, marked the start of a post-racial era. We knew we were still followed in stores, still denied employment opportunities, still denied loans, and still denied the basic humanity routinely afforded to whites.

In many ways, the racial situation worsened with Obama's election, as racists sought opportunities to demonstrate their rage. We saw children such as Trayvon Martin killed by a self-appointed neighborhood watch volunteer named George Zimmerman. We saw unarmed blacks shot and killed by white policemen. We saw almost no one go to jail in such cases.

But we didn't truly know the extent of white rage until the backlash came to a head with the election of Donald Trump.

To deny that racism helped fuel Trump's election is to deny Trump's platform. On the campaign trail, he repeatedly identified people of color as America's problem. His proposal to build a wall to impede brown immigrants from Mexico and beyond was a racial dog-whistle, as was his proposal to ban Muslims from countries in Africa and the Middle East. His "law and order" platform for cities seemed in many ways a signal to a white working class that was weary of protests around police shootings of unarmed blacks.

But Trump's election says more about America than it does about Trump. It tells us the Kerner Commission was right to identify white racism as the foundational cause of "pervasive discrimination in employment, education and housing" in America. It tells us that the same attitudes that held sway in 1968 remain prevalent today. It tells us, most of all, that history repeats itself.

In 1968, when the Kerner Commission surprised observers by heaping the lion's share of the blame for black uprisings on white racism, America stuck its proverbial head in the sand. White politicians and media pushed back against the notion that white institutions and attitudes were at fault.

The commission recommended that the federal government work with the private sector to create two million jobs in a three-year period; that the quality of education in black schools be drastically improved, and that the federal government partner with the private sector to fight housing segregation.

Johnson refused to implement the commission's recommendations. The reasons were twofold. First, Johnson did not want to upset the white electorate and hurt Democrats' chances for winning the upcoming presidential election. Johnson also believed the commission had unfairly ignored all he had done on civil rights and poverty through his Great Society programs.

We see the same kind of defensiveness today.

Democrats have run Philadelphia for well over 50 years, and despite whatever programs they've put in place, Philadelphia remains the poorest big city in America, and that poverty is concentrated in black and brown communities. Substandard schools are concentrated in black and brown communities. Drugs, unemployment, and loan discrimination are concentrated in Philadelphia's black and brown communities.

So racism is not a Republican problem or a Democratic problem. It is a white American problem. And until we admit that sobering fact, we'll remain in the same racial quagmire that the Kerner Commission so bravely identified 50 years ago.SRC member Farah Jimenez (center) resigned her seat Wednesday. Gov. Wolf will not replace her. Read more

Farah Jimenez resigned her seat on the lame-duck School Reform Commission, effective Wednesday.

Jimenez, the CEO of the education nonprofit Philadelphia Education Fund, was appointed to the commission by then-Gov. Tom Corbett in January 2014. She said she was leaving to devote more attention to her day job.

Gov. Wolf said he would let Jimenez's seat remain vacant. The panel will cease to exist June 30.

Jimenez said she had thought about leaving the SRC for some time, even before the commission's November vote to dissolve itself. After consulting with SRC Chairwoman Joyce Wilkerson, Jimenez decided now would be the appropriate time to depart.

"Now that we don't have things that are going to need a fifth vote, it's time for me to grow the Philadelphia Education Fund," said Jimenez, adding that the unpaid SRC position is a "tremendously time-intensive volunteer gig."

For a while, Jimenez essentially worked as a commissioner full time. Since she took over as Education Fund executive, juggling commission responsibilities has been a challenge, she said.

In a letter to Wolf resigning her seat, Jimenez said: "It has been a gift to be in service to the students in Philadelphia  young people who deserve the very best in education, and a city and state committed and invested in their success."

Jimenez is viewed as warmer to charter schools than most other members of the commission; at a special meeting of the SRC last week, she voted to approve a number of charter schools that other members had concerns about and ultimately denied. She was also criticized by some education activists for her regular abstentions from SRC votes due to potential conflicts because of her and her husband's business interests. He is a lawyer whose firm has represented charter schools.

School District and SRC officials had warm words for Jimenez and her service.

"It has been an honor to serve on this commission alongside Farah over the past year," Wilkerson said in a statement. "I have admired her commitment to public service and tenacity, during years of difficult decisions, which allowed the district to stabilize and begin reinvesting in schools."

"Farah Jimenez has been a strong voice on the School Reform Commission over the last four years," Superintendent William R. Hite Jr. said in a statement. "I want to extend my heartfelt thanks to her for her leadership and service to children, parents and advocates in Philadelphia."

The SRC will be replaced by a local school board whose potential members became clearer this week. Officials in the governor's office were not immediately available for comment.

Jimenez abstained from voting on the SRC's dissolution but made it clear she had concerns. To certify that the school system no longer needed the SRC, it had by state law to certify it was no longer in dire straits.

Given a looming deficit, "there can also be no question that the School District of Philadelphia is in distress," Jimenez said in November.

She called serving on the SRC "one of the richest volunteer experiences I've ever had."Volunteer archeologists work under a tarp Friday as they exhume the remains of bodies buried at the former First Baptist burial ground. Read more

Philadelphia isn't really the city of the dead, although some unlucky developers may think otherwise.

Old burial grounds seemingly lie everywhere, and it is not an infrequent occurrence for a backhoe to dig up a human bone or a skeleton  or lots of both  along with the rocks and dirt being removed from a building site.

The Philadelphia Archaeological Forum, which has decried past haphazard handling of such cemetery locations, has now published an interactive map online that shows the locations of dozens upon dozens of cemeteries and burial grounds all over the city, from West Philadelphia to Germantown, North Philadelphia, Strawberry Mansion, Kensington, and Frankford.

The sites cover Center City almost like a bad case of measles.

And the map is far from complete.

Douglas Mooney, president of the forum, said that much data still must be uploaded. About 200 burial grounds have been entered in the map database, "with many more yet to enter," he said.

The burial ground information, which archaeologists have been gathering for about a decade, can help both the city and developers, Mooney said, noting that the information is "something that could be used to prevent inadvertent impacts on unmarked cemeteries."

Such "impacts" can be a nightmare for city officials and developers.

Last year, for instance, PMC Property Group, excavating for an apartment building foundation in the 200 block of Arch Street, stumbled onto the old burial ground of the First Baptist Church. Eventually the remains of over 400 people were exhumed from the site.

There is no city requirement that developers search historical maps in order to avoid such consequences. Mooney said that the database the archaeological forum is building could serve the city well in that capacity in the future.

"There's no way we'll ever map every cemetery in Philadelphia," he said. "But we're trying to be as comprehensive as possible."

The city Department of Licenses and Inspections has shown what could be called guarded interest in the idea in the past. Officials at L&I could not be reached for comment Monday.

"We're hoping this is a tool that could be used by private developers and city agencies to try and anticipate where these unmarked cemeteries and unmarked burial grounds could be present," Mooney said. "With advance warning, someone might decide not to develop a particular site, or they might build around it, or, in the worst case, they can at least plan for removals."

The city's role in such circumstances has often proven to be problematic, Mooney and other archaeologists have said. In the case of the Arch Street bones uncovered by PMC throughout 2017, no city agency would acknowledge jurisdiction in the matter  not L&I, not the Philadelphia Historical Commission, not law enforcement authorities, not the medical examiner's office.

PMC took the matter to Orphans' Court, which has jurisdiction over abandoned cemeteries and human remains.

Mooney said the forum is seeking "to get the city to accept the fact that it has to step up and take control." He said it is possible City Council needs to pass an ordinance clarifying responsibilities the living have to the dead and forgotten.

The map will make it difficult, Mooney said, "for someone in the future to say, 'We didn't know.'"Fresh Prince of Bel-Air fans clamoring for a reboot of the classic '90s sitcom may soon get their wish, but with one major twist.

F.P. Trademark Holdings, LLC, the company that owns the "Fresh Prince" trademark, recently filed trademark applications for the phrase "Fresh Princess" for television and other media platforms. The company also filed applications for "Fresh Princess" for merchandise including bags, pet collars, footwear, and clothing. TMZ first reported the news.

That move could mean a reboot for the Fresh Prince with a female character as the show's lead, though this is just the first step and nothing has been announced.

Last month, however, the company did file applications to use the "Fresh Prince" trademark for a line of toys, which prompted rumors online that an animated version of the show may be in the works. Fresh Prince star Will Smith added fuel to that speculation with a post on his wildly popular Instagram account praising an animated version of the Banks family.

Smith previously shot down the idea of doing a Fresh Prince reboot, telling fans in 2016 that he'd be part of a reunion show "when hell freezes over." That same year, Smith's son Jaden, told Extra TV to "leave that alone" when asked about starring in a reboot of the series. Daughter Willow, meanwhile, has not publicly discussed a Fresh Prince reboot.

>> Read more: Will Smith's Instagram: Why we're obsessed with it

But the elder Smith's attitude seems to have softened recently, judging by a December appearance on the Graham Norton Show in which Smith said he would "have to be Uncle Phil" in a reboot. While that doesn't guarantee Smith's participation, it does indicate he may be open to the idea.

Fresh Prince was originally created by Andy and Susan Borowitz and ran on NBC from 1990 to 1996.

Fresh Prince would not be the first show with Philadelphia origins to get the reboot treatment with a female lead. Boy Meets World, which ran from 1993 to 2000 on ABC and was set in the Philly suburbs, was rebooted in 2014 as Girl Meets World on the Disney Channel, running for three seasons before it was canceled.

More broadly, the reboot would put Fresh Prince among a growing list of '90s sitcoms that have found new life in recent years, including Full House, revived as Fuller House on Netflix, and Will & Grace on NBC. Reboots of even older shows, such as Murphy Brown and Roesanne, are also on the horizon.

But none of those shows have a place in Philadelphia's heart like the Fresh Prince. And, really, it's about time someone else's life got flipped turned upside down.

Though, predictably, social media seems to disagree:From left, Michael Abbate, Marissa Paternoster and Jarrett Dougherty of the band Screaming Females stand for a portrait outside the Green Line Cafe in West Philadelphia on Wednesday, Jan. 24, 2018. The band releases its seventh album, "All at Once," on Feb. 23. TIM TAI / Staff Photographer Read more

Every Screaming Females fan knows Marissa Paternoster is the shining star of the punk-rock power trio.

The powerful-voiced vocalist is the front woman for the New Brunswick, N.J.-bred band, which also includes the rhythm section of "King" Mike Abbate and Jarrett Dougherty. And Paternoster is a thrilling instrumentalist  her dazzling but never showy fretwork led Spin to name her the 77th greatest guitarist of all time in 2012.

"That's why I started playing the bass," Abbate says. "I saw her playing guitar. And I thought, 'I'll get a bass, and I can play with her.' "

Hearing the praise of her buddies and bandmates makes the soft-spoken Paternoster a tad uncomfortable. "Aw, jeez," she says. "Oh, man, I'm sweating."

She pulls off her sweatshirt to reveal a Fiona Apple T-shirt and a tattoo below her shoulder that depicts sculptor Constantin Brancusi's Bird in Space  an abstract shape that looks nothing like a bird  as though it's laying an egg, "because I have a sense of humor," she says with a smile.

There's a song on All at Once (*** 1/2) called "Bird in Space," a stately, melodic highlight of the power trio's impressive eighth album, which was released digitally and as a double vinyl LP last week on New Brunswick's Don Giovanni Records. The band will bring its highly energetic and extremely loud live show to Union Transfer on April 5.

But though Paternoster's status as an underground punk guitar hero is well deserved, the key to the Screaming Females' strength as a creative force  and to sticking together without a lineup change for 13 years  is that they function so well together as a collaborative unit.

That was underscored when the threesome gathered on a chilly January day to talk all at once about All at Once at the Green Line Cafe at 44th and Locust, where Dougherty sometimes picks up shifts when the band isn't on tour.

"Nobody's in charge of songwriting," Paternoster says. The band's arsenal of instantly memorable riffs  and All at Once, which was recorded in Seattle with producer Matt Bayles, who also helmed the Screamales 2015 album Rose Mountain, is full of them  typically come together while the musicians are together in the same room.

The partnership began when Paternoster met Dougherty while she was a freshman at Rutgers University's Mason Gross School of the Arts.

"I was terribly depressed, and I had ringworm," she says with a laugh. She had taken up guitar after her father taught her to play a Nirvana song when she was 14. But at college "I didn't have any friends, and I didn't know where the shows were. Jarrett was three years older. He could buy me beer, which was amazing. And he lived off campus with other people who like art."

Paternoster and Abbate, 30, grew up together in Elizabeth in Union County, and played together in a band in high school called Surgery on TV. After she connected with Dougherty, "I told Mike, 'I met a drummer and he can actually play the drums.' "

"I think I was just really, really stoked to be in a band. That's all I ever wanted. So when I found two cool friends who also wanted to take it as seriously as I did, I wanted to take advantage of any and all opportunities to play."

Abbate followed his friend to Rutgers the next year, and the Screaming Females have grown steadily in prowess and popularity since, touring midsize venues around the country and the world.

They've worked with luminaries like producer-engineer Steve Albini and toured with '90s alt-rock band Garbage, with whom they recorded a scalding take on Bruce Springsteen and Patti Smith's "Because the Night" in 2013. Screamales versions of Sheryl Crow's "If It Makes You Happy" and Taylor Swift's "Shake It Off," for the Onion's A.V. Club Undercover session, are newly available on Spotify.

The band came up through the all-ages, basement show scene in New Brunswick, the hometown they strongly identify with, even as they bemoan what they say is the college town's disinclination to support the arts.

"The dream of every kid in North Jersey who wasn't psyched to be in the suburbs was always to move to New York," says Dougherty. But being a struggling artist is problematic "when you're paying $1,000 a month for a room as big as a closet." Seeking a supportive affordable community, Dougherty moved to Philly first, and Paternoster followed three years ago.

So with two thirds of the power trio in the 215  Abbate still lives in North Jersey  does that make Screaming Females a Philly band?

"No," says Dougherty. "We're sort of in limbo. We do live in Philadelphia, yes. But we'll always be a New Brunswick band because that's where we played three or four shows a month for number of years. We've never had that experience here."

On the Screaming Females Bandcamp page, they're self-described as "deeply individual and steadfastly DIY." And they remain fiercely independent and self-contained. They manage and book themselves, with Dougherty handling most of that work; Abbate, who also runs a T-shirt design business, takes care of shipping and merchandise. The Screamales have never sold a song to be used in a commercial or been much interested in being on a bigger label than Don Giovanni.

"I feel like we've been really successful in what our vision of our band is," says Dougherty. "That turns a lot of industry people off, and at this point they're not going to change us. Ultimately, it always comes back to the three of us."

As the music industry focuses on hit singles played on streaming services  "The algorithm and blues," Abbate quips  the band has remained old-fashioned in their dedication to working on collections of songs that aim to stand as lasting art. "The community that we're interacting with in real life, they're making albums," says Paternoster. "And they want albums."

Paternoster's lifelong interest in visual art  her mother was an art teacher who showed her Robert Crumb's ribald comics "at an inappropriate age"  shows up on All at Once's "Bird in Space," and the equally catchy "Agnes Martin," named after the abstract expressionist painter.

Both songs dig into a theme that runs through much of All at Once and in conversation with the three Screaming Females: How to maintain concentration as a creative artist in an "all at once" era of digital overload.

Paternoster is only half joking when she says that Twitter has "ruined my life."

"The best things in life happen to you when you're alone and you're not thinking about anything," Paternaster says. "And I think that's something we don't get to do anymore because we're just surrounded by weird reflections of ourselves in our phones and everywhere else."Dr. James Lewis in the Lasik surgery suite at his practice in Elkins Park. Lewis charges $3,000 for both eyes  the price is plain as day on his website. Read more

James Lewis, an Elkins Park eye surgeon, sets the price for laser vision correction surgery in a way that may seem logical to business people, yet odd to many health-care providers: He charges what makes sense in the market.

"I know what people are charging," Lewis said. "I thought: What's the most reasonable amount I can charge and still make it worthwhile."

What's odd about that?

Health care is one of the few commodities that defies the normal rules of supply and demand, largely because few people know what they actually are paying.

Prices for common health procedures vary widely from one provider to another because Medicare, Medicaid, and private insurers each negotiate their own rates. Coverage varies by plan, and insurers are not required to make prices public.

"In an opaque pricing world, you get to charge whatever you want," said Francois de Brantes, a vice president at Altarum Institute, a health systems research nonprofit. "Who's to stop you?"

Laser vision correction surgery, known as Lasik, is an exception. The surgery is not covered by insurance, which means everyone who wants it must pay out of pocket.

The result: It's easy to find out how much the procedure will cost  Lewis advertises his rate on the homepage of his website  and prices in a given geographic area are relatively competitive.

A survey of Lasik providers in the Philadelphia area found prices for both eyes with one year of follow-up care that range from Lewis' $3,000 up to $6,000.

Similarly not covered by insurance, Botox injections for cosmetic purposes range from $11 to $17 a unit.

Those may seem like significant differences  at 100 percent and 55 percent, respectively  but they're minor compared with the range of cash charges for some services covered by insurance.

The cash price of a sleep study to diagnose disorders such as apnea (not including doctors' and reading fees) can be $577 or $4,196, according to data from the Philadelphia Inquirer/6ABC Action News health transparency tool at philly.com/healthcosts.

That is a 627 percent difference.

A common blood test, according to our data, can cost $11 or $118 when paid for in cash, depending on where you go, a 973 percent difference.

Why are they charging so much?

Dave Lange, of West Philadelphia, was shocked by the bill he received for an echocardiogram last fall.

Penn Medicine had billed his insurer, Aetna, $11,201 for the ultrasound imaging procedure, which Lange's doctor had ordered to detect heart abnormalities that could be contributing to his low blood pressure. Aetna's negotiated rate, however, was $1,176, and so that's what Lange, who hadn't met his high deductible, was billed, under the terms of Aetna's contract with Penn, according to records reviewed by the Inquirer. Penn did not respond to questions from the Inquirer about the charges.

Lange, 62, wasn't concerned about whether he could afford the bill, but wanted an explanation of numbers that, to him, seemed arbitrary.

"It just feels like a matter of principle," Lange said, explaining why he brought his bill to the Philly Health Costs project. "Why are they charging so much? Maybe it's my little stand in trying to raise some questions about the cost of procedures."

After getting the bill in mid-November, Lange said, he tried to find out why the procedure was so expensive, especially if his insurer's rate was one-tenth of the original charge. He's still waiting for answers, he said.

"The scary thing is, what do I know?" Lange said. "It almost feels like you need to be employed in the health-care industry to know what the tactic is, what the right questions are."

Case for price transparency

Health economists point to the relative uniformity and easy availability of Lasik prices as an argument for greater price transparency in all health-care services.

"When you have transparency, everyone gets to see what the price is," de Brantes said. "It creates some compression more toward the average."

Large health systems often have some of the most expensive prices, in part because they charge a higher facility fee  a relatively new line item in the world of health billing  than smaller health clinics. Their reputation and demand for their services also can command a higher price than lesser-known providers.

But when it comes to Lasik, prices at Wills Eye Hospital, the premier eye-care center in Philadelphia, are in line with those of other providers.

Among 18 Lasik providers surveyed for the Philly Health Costs project, 14 charge $4,000 to $5,000 for surgery on both eyes, plus a year of follow-up care.

Wills Eye charges $4,500 for both eyes, plus a $250 consultation fee. And now, it's even running a highly competitive special: $2,000 for both eyes.

Read the fine print

Kierstin Zetterberg decided to have Lasik at Lewis' practice after being turned off by the $6,000 quote she'd received at a large, national provider.

Zetterberg, a 40-year-old physician's assistant, had heard radio commercials advertising Lasik at $245 an eye, "but you read the fine print, there's always a catch," she said.

"I felt that spending $6,000 was too much, but I didn't want to go with a gimmicky place," said Zetterberg, who lives in Ardmore. A friend recommended Lewis, and she decided to go with him after an initial consultation.

When choosing a provider, patients consider lots of factors, such as personal recommendations, reputation, and the gut feeling they get from a doctor and their staff, said Jeff Kullgren, an assistant professor of internal medicine at the University of Michigan.

Often, they're not considering price at all.

"Even when people have a strong incentive to do so, they're not using price and quality information," Kullgren said.

Competitive pricing of Lasik surgery isn't necessarily because consumers are shopping around, but because providers think they might, he said.

Lewis once put the theory to the test by raising his Lasik rate from $3,000 to $5,500 for both eyes.

"Nothing changed," he said. "Patients came anyway. It didn't make any difference."

Lewis, who is affiliated with Wills Eye, said he ultimately reverted to his old price. He worried that patients would run into each other and feel cheated if they found out they'd been charged markedly different rates.

"I thought it was just totally weird," Lewis said. "I was very comfortable where I was  I thought it was fair and honest, and I liked that differentiation."

Submit your medical bills

It's been about a week since we launched our Philly Health Costs project, and the response has been terrific. Thousands of you have been searching our database of cash prices for at least 30 common, shoppable procedures.

And many of you also have been sharing your own billing experiences in the "crowdsourcing" part of the database, and we cannot thank you enough. Your shares  and we want to hear about every kind of procedure and test, and every kind of payment including employer-based insurance, Medicare, Medicaid, cash, you name it  will help us build the Philly Price Check database into the robust trove of information that will help consumers all over the Philadelphia area.

One extra request: Though we certainly allow anonymous submissions and we will never reveal who you are without your permission, we have noticed that some of what has been sent in requires a little extra clarification. As we all know, medical bills are ridiculously complicated. Without seeing the actual Explanation of Benefits (EOB) document (which you can upload), it can be hard for us to tell, for instance, what your insurance paid and what your obligation is. So we would be grateful if you could include an email address or phone number where we can contact you.

Here are a few more tips to help you get the most out of this resource:Despite some hopeful reports in recent years, the rates of American children who are overweight or obese appear to be on the rise, according to a new federal data analysis.

An article published this week in the journal Pediatrics reported that more than 35 percent of children ages 2 to 19 were overweight in 2016, including nearly 19 percent who were obese  steady increases over the previous five years.

"Despite intense clinical and public health focus on obesity and weight-related behaviors during the past decade, obesity prevalence remains high, with scant evidence that these efforts are counteracting the personal and environmental forces that contribute to excess weight gain in children, at least on a national scope," the article stated.

Some recent studies had suggested obesity rates had been at least leveling off, but that's not what the Pediatrics analysis found.

Many of the increases were gradual. But two of the biggest reported spikes were found in girls ages 16 to 19 and preschool-age children from 2 to 5. The teenage girls' overweight rate hit nearly 48 percent in 2016, compared with almost 36 percent in 2014, according to the data.

For the 2- to 5-year-olds, the obesity rate jumped from 9 percent in 2014 to almost 14 percent in 2016.

In children, overweight is defined as a body mass index at or above the 85th percentile for peers of the same age and sex; at the 95th percentile mark (in other words, the heaviest 5 percent) a child is considered obese.

Growing obesity rates for the youngest children in the study were especially troubling, said Asheley Cockrell Skinner, lead author of the Pediatrics article and an associate professor of population health science with Duke University School of Medicine and the Duke Clinical Research Institute.

"That's particularly concerning because when kids develop obesity younger, they're more likely to stay that way throughout their childhood and into adulthood," Skinner said. And the longer people are obese, she noted, the more likely they are to develop related health problems such as diabetes and heart disease.

Efforts like former first lady Michelle Obama's "Let's Move" campaign have been successful in calling attention to the problem, even if they haven't resolved it, Skinner noted. "The good work that's being done isn't being done in vain," she said.

On the up side, she said, some cities have made progress in reducing the rates of overweight youth with school and community nutrition programs and health initiatives.

New York City has improved, she said. And, believe it or not, so has the city of cheesesteaks and Tastykakes.

"There are certainly some cities that are doing a good job and seeing a decrease and not an increase, and Philadelphia is one of those," Skinner said.

Philadelphia hasn't experienced a big statistical drop in childhood obesity, but when compared with the national picture, any improvement is welcome, say experts.

"What we've seen is a bit of a downward trend [in Philadelphia], mostly from 2006 to 2009, and maintaining that. Things have been pretty stable since then," said Cheryl Bettigole, division director for chronic disease prevention with the city's Health Department.

The obesity rate for Philadelphia children ages 5 to 18 dropped from nearly 22 percent in 2007 to 20.6 percent in 2015.

Bettigole said numerous initiatives could be helping, including the Philadelphia School District's efforts to improve nutrition programs, and the city's 2011 campaign against sugary drinks. More green spaces could also be helping increase recreation opportunities.

"What we're not seeing, as far as we can tell, is an uptick," Bettigole said.

Meanwhile, the issue needs continued attention, say health data experts.

"The most important thing is having people realize childhood obesity is still a problem," Skinner said. "We hear some of the success stories, and we don't do a good job of understanding it's not reaching all the kids in the country. This is critical to the health of our children."The streets of America may be awash in opioids, but there's one surprising group of users that is having trouble getting hold of them: doctors.

Local health officials said the injectable versions of morphine, hydromorphone (Dilaudid), and fentanyl  staples of pain control and sedation in hospitals and hospices  are in short supply.

"The shortage of hydromorphone is beyond acute," said Beverly Philip, vice president of scientific affairs for the American Society of Anesthesiologists.

As a result, pharmacists are scrambling daily to find more and to figure out alternative dosing regimens. The constant changes put extra stress on hospital pharmacists, increase the risk of mistakes, and lead to waste and higher costs. Nishaminy Kasbekar, director of pharmacy at Penn Presbyterian Medical Center, said her hospital has had to turn to more expensive alternatives at an extra cost of $30,000 over the last three months. Three months ago, she said, the hospital could get 20 percent to 30 percent less of those three drugs than it wanted. Now, it's 50 percent to 60 percent less.

There are plenty of opioid pills, but they are often not appropriate for hospitalized patients or those in hospice.

Erin Fox, senior director of drug information at University of Utah Health, said the hard-to-get drugs are "absolutely essential, and hospitals use a very, very large amount of these."

The shortage stems from manufacturing problems and may be exacerbated by government regulations meant to prevent street sales of addictive drugs. A coalition of medical organizations on Tuesday urged the Drug Enforcement Administration to loosen its rules to help combat the shortages. The letter, signed by the American Hospital Association, the American Society of Anesthesiologists, the American Society of Clinical Oncology, the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists, and the Institute for Safe Medication Practices, raised the specter of postponed or canceled surgeries. "In some cases," it said, "this could prove life-threatening to the patient."

Small syringes and vials are in most demand, because they are safest and have long shelf lives. Pharmacies can split larger vials in a clean room, but drugs may be wasted and the resulting syringes expire much more quickly than the preloaded syringes that are in short supply.

Health officials said that so far, they have been able to avoid mistakes and keep patients' pain under control, but Louis Iobbi, pharmacy director at Doylestown Hospital, said he is worried. The hospital has enough opioids to care for patients for the next 2 to three months, he said, but Pfizer, the dominant manufacturer, has told health-care providers that "some of this stuff might not be available until July, and that's a nightmare."

Pfizer has said its "full recovery date" is in early 2019, the letter to the DEA said.

At the Visiting Nurse Association of Greater Philadelphia's inpatient hospice, medical director Stanley Savinese said his morphine supply will last about two weeks. His supplier can find enough hydromorphone to get the hospice through March. The hospice is switching patients to oral drugs whenever possible and may soon have to rely more on suppositories. "The staff is not that crazy about that, and neither are our patients or the families," he said.

Terri Maxwell, vice president of clinical education at Philadelphia-based Enclara Pharmacia, which supplies medications to the VNA and other hospices, said her company was asking clients to "ration" injectable morphine and hydromorphone. Enclara can get the liquid morphine that caregivers give hospice patients at home, but people in inpatient hospice often need stronger stuff. "We have been strongly recommending that people reserve [injectables] for only people who have intractable and rapidly escalating pain," she said.

The shortage of opioids comes on top of a national shortage of intravenous solutions. Like other hospital pharmacy leaders, Kasbekar has a daily meeting  at 7:30 a.m.  to discuss what will and will not be available. While the IV-solutions shortage has been attributed largely to plant problems in Puerto Rico in the wake of Hurricane Maria, the opioids shortage is more complicated.

In some ways, it is a typical drug shortage. These are happening more and more, Fox said, when a dominant producer has manufacturing problems and smaller companies can't ramp up enough to meet demand. In this case, Pfizer controls 65 percent to 70 percent of the market for the injectable opioids now in short supply, she said. Steven Danehy, a Pfizer spokesman, said there is a "technical and process issue" with a supplier that makes a "key component" of the pre-filled syringe systems Pfizer uses.

What complicates the picture further is that these drugs are controlled substances, and the DEA limits how much can be sold. Over the last two years, the DEA has reduced the annual quotas for morphine, hydromorphone, and fentanyl by 35 percent to 46 percent. Barbara Carreno, a DEA spokeswoman, said the rules are meant to reduce diversion to illicit drug users and reflect actual medical usage of the drugs. The limits, she said, should not be causing shortages.

However, each producer gets its own quota. Danehy said Pfizer still expects to be able to meet its annual allotment eventually. It clearly isn't meeting expectations now. Meanwhile, Fox said two smaller companies that make the same products have said they asked the DEA to produce more but received lower increases than they wanted. The DEA considers data on individual companies' quotas "proprietary" and doesn't release it, Carreno said. Fresenius Kabi and West-Ward Pharmaceuticals, the two firms, did not respond to requests for comment.

Tuesday's letter to the DEA asked it to "temporarily reallocate or revise" its quotas.

The shortage comes at a time when many medical providers have been working to reduce opioid usage to prevent patients from becoming dependent on them.

"We will learn a lot from these shortages," said Michael Ganio, director of pharmacy practice and quality for the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists. "We may find that some of these efforts to conserve or use alternative treatments are just as effective."

Jeanmarie Perrone, an emergency medicine physician at Penn Medicine, said the shortage has given another reason to stress to residents that some patients may get some pain relief from non-opioids. But, she added, "it's pretty hard to run an emergency department without IV opioids."

Fox doesn't see much of a silver lining in the shortage. The last time there was a shortage of these drugs two people died because of dosing errors, she said. "It's just a huge amount of work for hospitals to deal with this," she said. "All that labor takes away from other things."

Perrone also volunteers at a medical clinic for Prevention Point, a needle-exchange program in Philadelphia's opioid-ravaged Kensington neighborhood. "There's been unfortunately no shortage of heroin and fentanyl on the streets in Philadelphia," she said.Leola Howell has cerebral palsy, requires 16 hours of professional care a day and is wheelchair bound. She took shelter at one of the citys family homeless shelters Stenton Family Manor. However, the shelter is not well-equipped to deal with her disability. Friday, February 23, 2018. STEVEN M. FALK / Staff Photographer Read more

After Leola Howell and her 4-year-old daughter became homeless last May, they stayed on Howell's friends' couches for eight months, fruitlessly looking for a subsidized accessible housing unit of their own.

Howell, who has cerebral palsy and uses a wheelchair, hadn't slept in a bed in months and her daughter, Rylee, was struggling at her pre-K school. It was time for a last resort: a homeless shelter.

"She needs consistency. I needed sleep," Howell, 32, said.

On Jan. 29, Howell and Rylee went to the city's homeless-shelter intake center in Center City but were turned away. Not only were the shelters full, but Howell was told the system could not accommodate the personal-care aide she requires 16 hours a day because the lower half of her body is immobile.

After advocates and attorneys got involved in Howell's case, citing federal and state law allowing care aides inside homeless shelters, city officials scrambled and found a solution by Feb. 12. Staff at the Stenton Family Manor in Germantown would open a former storage room as a bedroom for mother and child, and the aides  paid for by the state  would help Howell go to the bathroom, get dressed, and manage other daily tasks.

Once she was in the shelter, Howell found a slew of problems, from not having adequate bars in the bathroom to not having a toilet seat, toilet paper, or soap. And the permanent low-income housing available didn't have big enough door frames for her 24-inch motorized wheelchair (or even bigger 30-inch one). Or the bathrooms weren't big enough.

Howell's story highlights the city's struggle to house tens of thousands of poor Philadelphians who can't afford surging rents and a public housing system that is maxed out. Add disability to the mix and it's even more difficult.

"I just feel like the runaround and the disconnect between city agencies has been  it's really pitiful," said Kendra Brooks, an education advocate who has been a mentor of Howell since the two worked at a nonprofit serving the disabled several years ago. "I understand homelessness is a major crisis here in the city in general. But just for city services to not be connected enough to speed up this process  just people not talking to each other."

City officials declined to talk about Howell's case. But Liz Hersh, director of the city's Office of Homeless Housing, said the city's 3,360 beds for emergency homeless housing are almost constantly full  sometimes over capacity.

So "offline rooms" are turned into bedrooms in a pinch, as happened with Howell.

"We're nervous about expanding the shelter system," Hersh said. Instead, the city is looking to add more temporary housing that could serve as a bridge between homelessness and permanent subsidized housing or public housing.

One of those temporary housing programs, called Rapid Rehousing, provides a subsidy to the tenant to find an apartment or house with a mix of federal, state, and city money. Hersh said the city expanded the program from 400 to 500 available units this year.

Hersh, like many of the advocates, said there was a serious need for permanent affordable housing.

Nancy Salandra, director of independent living at the advocacy group for the disabled Liberty Resources, said 16 percent of the city's population is physically or mentally disabled. And yet there aren't enough public and affordable housing options for the disabled.

"We always have on our list close to 100 people trying to get out of nursing homes" and into independent living, Salandra said. "It's constant."

In fiscal year 2017, which went through the end of June, 479 individuals who identified themselves as disabled were accepted into the city's emergency shelter system, 6 percent of the 7,903 people served that year. So far in fiscal year 2018, disabled people make up 8 percent of the 4,535 people who have been admitted to shelters, Hersh said.

"No one should be homeless, but someone who is physically unable to manage without the accessibility of an aide should never be in that situation," Hersh said. "From my perspective this is a much bigger problem and it's very frustrating."

Marsha Cohen, executive director of the Homeless Advocacy Project, said that it's not just disabled people who are having a hard time finding shelter space. She said that dozens of families with children get turned away daily.

"My educated guess is that [there are] 30 moms, many with little children, who have nowhere to go. It's been like this for months," Cohen said, adding that the situation has continued to worsen. "There is like a six-week waiting period.  It's absolutely maddening."

Hersh said her office doesn't track wait times, but she didn't dispute Cohen's figure.

The waits are affected by the length people stay in shelters, she said. People are staying an average of five to six months at a shelter. Some  like registered sex offenders who are in men's-only shelters  stay a year or two because it's hard for them to find jobs and housing.

Howell, however, says she hopes she doesn't stay in the storage room  an 8-by-12-foot room outfitted with a bunk bed and a regular bed  at Stenson for that long.

After becoming pregnant five years ago, Howell moved back in with her grandmother, Leola Wallace, who had a Section 8 voucher for an apartment at the Avenue in East Falls. The apartment they lived in had a leaky sink, a hole in the wall, and other problems that went unresolved by their landlord. After complaining to the Philadelphia Housing Authority, which manages the city's subsidized housing program, the authority gave Wallace 90 days to find a new apartment, Howell said.

The housing authority, through a spokeswoman, declined to comment on the specifics of Howell's case.

After not finding a wheelchair-accessible apartment that was suitable for both Howell and Wallace, who is 90, the family split up earlier in May. Wallace found a senior living apartment and Howell stayed with friends while continuing to look for housing, until she entered the shelter system.

"I'm here because I have nowhere else to sleep," she said, noting that she's applied for every housing program available to her. Howell and her daughter are on a waiting list for 20 public housing or affordable housing projects. Various nonprofits and city agencies have been trying to find her housing, but so far nothing has clicked.

"It started with me, but it's not even about me because someone else is going to come in the same situation just like me and they have this," Howell said. "If I don't fight for them, who's going to fight for it?"Former juvenile lifers with staff of the Youth Sentencing & Reentry Project following a workshop for juvenile lifers at the State Correctional Institution at Graterford. Read more

They were told as teenagers that they would never get out of prison, but in the last two years, more than 70 men and two women sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole have returned home to Philadelphia  and a world drastically different from the one they were removed from decades ago, as children.

They are former "juvenile lifers," who were convicted as teenagers of murder or felony murder  that is, participating in a crime that ended in a death  and were sentenced to mandatory terms of life in prison without parole (JLWOP), meaning that a judge had no choice but to impose that sentence. After decades in prison, many are now 50 and 60 years old. They are trying to find work, housing, and education, learn technology, and deal with the other demands of modern life.

Soon they will be followed by others who now have a chance at freedom because of two U.S. Supreme Court decisions.

The first case, Miller v. Alabama, in 2012, responded to scientific evidence of the diminished culpability of teenagers because of their immaturity and susceptibility to peer pressure. The ruling declared that mandatory life sentences without parole for youth are unconstitutional and that context must be considered before sentencing a child to die in prison.

The second, Montgomery v. Louisiana, decided just two years ago, made that finding retroactive for all 2,000-plus juvenile lifers in the United States.

It's a life-changing moment, but the challenge of building new lives on the outside is daunting, and in many ways it is more difficult for former juvenile lifers than for other formerly incarcerated men and women.

At the time of the Montgomery decision, nearly a quarter of all juvenile lifers in the country had been sentenced in Pennsylvania and more than 300 in Philadelphia. In the two years since, more than 230 men and women have been re-sentenced statewide, and many more could be released in the near future. As a recent Inquirer article noted, Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner has taken a new approach to extending offers in JLWOP cases, which reflect the individualized circumstances of each situation.

The Youth Sentencing and Reentry Project (YSRP) has created a new online tool, the Pennsylvania JLWOP Reentry Navigator, to make it easier for former juvenile lifers to locate resources in the community, including those that can help with housing, behavioral health, physical health, food and clothing, education, employment and volunteer opportunities, government assistance and public benefits, faith-based services, identification documents, voter registration, senior services, life skills training, case management, and transportation.

Resentencing and parole decision-makers are particularly interested in the supports and plans that a juvenile lifer has in place for when he or she returns to the community, and the Navigator can help locate them.

The need for the Navigator grew out of training we conducted inside of nearly every prison in the state with juvenile lifers. We asked what concerns they had about reentering society, and what questions they had about navigating life on the outside. The Navigator responds directly to these questions and concerns, and now exists as a resource to support folks planning to return home, as well as those who have already returned home.

We are working to help all juvenile lifers have the best possible chance at this important and overdue opportunity.

Lauren Fine and Joanna Visser Adjoian are co-directors of the Youth Sentencing and Reentry Project.With the threat of a long-duration nor'easter, the National Weather Service has posted a flood watch for most of the region from 1 a.m. Friday until daybreak Saturday, and warned of wind gusts up to 60 mph in South Jersey.

Working in tandem with the full moon, the storm forecast to explode off the Mid-Atlantic could generate minor flooding during the Friday morning high tide, and perhaps major flooding with the Saturday morning and evening high tides. A coastal flood watch is in effect from late Thursday through Saturday evening.

The conditions would represent a dramatic contrast to the last few days  the temperature at Philadelphia International Airport hit 60 on Wednesday  a fitting conclusion to an extraordinarily balmy February. By day's end, the month will have become the third-warmest February in 145 years of record-keeping, with an average temperature of 41.9, or 6.2 degrees above the long-term normal.

The month's average temperature here  and elsewhere in the East  was bumped up by the incredible warm surge of Feb. 20-21. On the 21st, the temperature hit 82 in Washington and 75 in Syracuse, N.Y. For the month, heading into Wednesday, Boston was at 6 degrees above normal; New York, 6.6, and Burlington, Vt., 8.5.

While almost snow-less  just 1.4 inches at Philadelphia International Airport  February also will rank as the fifth-wettest with just over half a foot of precipitation.

This is not the year (perhaps not even the century) to trust long-term models, but the approaching storm might signal that the first half of March looks as if it won't be resembling the last half of February.

The region won't be experiencing the unusual cold and snow that have invaded the British Isles and Western Europe, but the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast coasts are about to weather the strongest nor'easter since the January "bomb."

Once the storm ripens off the coast, it would be in no hurry to move.

That's because for the first time in weeks, a major "blocking" pattern has taken residence, with cold high pressure centered in the vicinity of Greenland. That's helping to drive a taste of Siberia into the Emerald Isle and England.

The technical label for this pattern is the negative phase of the North Atlantic Oscillation, not that names matter. What matters in the short term is that it's going to slow things down.

The Climate Prediction Center sees the pattern persisting and says the odds favor below-normal temperatures the next two weeks around here.

If the month finished near normal, March would have a decent shot at being colder than February for the second year in a row. The normal March temperature is 43.5.

So much for that. Before the precipitation shuts off this weekend, the interior Northeast, and perhaps even the Philadelphia region, could see snowflakes, with up to 5 inches in the Poconos.

Here are the five warmest Februaries in Philadelphia: 2017, 44.2 degrees; 1925, 42.2; 2018 (projected) 41.8; 1998, 41.8; and 1980, 41.4 degrees.DALLAS, Pa.  Dameon Brome is happy for his fellow juvenile lifer and partner in crime, codefendant Kempis Songster, who was released in December after 30 years in prison for a murder they committed in 1987. Songster rode a wave of goodwill all the way to attending the Super Bowl, courtesy of Eagles safety Malcolm Jenkins.

"It's fantastic," said Brome, 45. "I was overjoyed."

But Brome's own situation, after he agreed before a Philadelphia judge to a new sentence of 30 years to life in a deal with the Philadelphia District Attorney's Office, has been anything but happy.

On Dec. 20, he was rejected for parole and given what is known as a "five-year hit," a recommendation that he not be eligible for parole for five years, although he may request another hearing in a year. He was so distressed he barely told anyone, least of all Songster, who was released eight days later.

"I didn't want the joy of his release to be marred by my denial," Brome said in a recent interview in the visiting room at the State Correctional Institution-Dallas in this Luzerne County town. "I couldn't find the words to say it."

According to Sean Damon of the West Philadelphia-based Amistad Law Project, Brome's parole denial was one of two "five-year hits" given to juvenile lifers at Dallas on the same day after interviews with the same member of the Pennsylvania Board of Probation and Parole: Leslie M. Grey.

Only three juvenile lifers received five-year deferrals, according to the state board's spokeswoman, Maria Finn.

Just 16 of 142 juvenile lifers interviewed by the parole board have been denied, after new sentences had made them eligible for parole. The board has ordered 102 of the prisoners released, and 24 decisions are pending, Finn said. Following U.S. Supreme Court decisions declaring their sentences of life without parole unconstitutional, 209 of the 521 Pennsylvania juvenile lifers have been resentenced, according to state records.

During his three decades in prison, Brome has written screenplays, published a book, operated a recording studio, honed computer skills, and worked in the prison's print shop. He has no recent misconducts, his remorse and responsibility for the crime has been expressed on multiple occasions, and an 11-page plan for release included a proposed stay in a Community Correctional Center with additional options to stay with both his father in New Jersey and his mother in Delaware.

So the denial of his parole deeply troubles Damon and others advocating for his release, especially as Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner revamps policies to emphasize even earlier release for juvenile lifers.

"It feels so out of step," said Damon. "Eighty-nine percent have been granted parole in Pennsylvania. There were three people with five-year hits, two of them seen by the same board member on the same day in the same prison. They're real outliers."

Brome and Songster were 15-year-old runaways from Brooklyn, N.Y., convicted of killing a third runaway, Anjo Pryce, 17, inside a Southwest Philadelphia crack house run by a Jamaican drug gang. They turned down plea offers that would have carried prison sentences of 10 to 20 years.

Option of a halfway house

The other juvenile lifers denied parole in December along with Brome were fellow Dallas inmate David Lahoz and Yul Haward at the State Correctional Institution-Coal Township in Northumberland County. Haward was resentenced in September to 40 years to life.

Especially concerning to Brome and Damon was Grey's focus during the 45-minute interview on the option of a halfway house as less than optimal. Brome had proposed it as a way to transition to independence, look for work, enroll in college, and get a driver's license, and said the Department of Corrections had promoted the option to the juvenile lifers, including visits to prisons from operators.

"The last four years, they sold us on coming to a halfway house," Brome said.

Finn, the board spokeswoman, said a release directly to a family member or other home situation is considered preferable. She said that juvenile lifers are made aware of other options, like the Community Correctional Centers, but that the board considers those less preferable than going directly to a home. Songster was released from Graterford Prison to the home of his fiancee and her mother in Northeast Philadelphia.

Damon said the "mixed message" about the CCCs was "incredibly concerning."

Brome proposed the Community Center but also noted in his plan: "The client is strongly supported by a network of immediate and extended family members who have committed to assisting with the reentry process. Members of the family have offered financial, housing, and employment assistance to client."

In its denial, the board cited a "failure to develop an appropriate parole release plan," despite Brome's 11-page plan; misconducts despite none in the last decade; lack of remorse, minimization of the crime, and the lack of endorsement from the staff at Dallas.

Finn acknowledged that the parole board in general does not consider old misconducts, but was unable to detail how that still figured in Brome's parole denial.

"I know the rule of thumb [is] they like to have misconducts free for one year," she said.

Finn said notes from board interviews were handwritten and not available to the public. She declined to make board member Grey, who spent the bulk of her law career in business and consumer protection law, available for comment.

While at Graterford, Songster was able to network with volunteers, college professors, and advocates who cycle through the Philadelphia-area prison, resulting in job offers and testimonials. Songster described his parole hearing as like "a job interview," not the adversarial session Brome said he experienced.

1989 Camp Hill riots

Their cases were complicated by the 1989 riots in the Camp Hill prison, where they were sent as 17-year-olds. Brome originally faced charges from the riots, and says a detainer mistakenly remained on his record when he was interviewed by Dallas prison staff, indicating that he still might have to serve additional time; it has since been removed. The Department of Corrections then made a negative recommendation regarding his release.

One prison guard maintains that Brome struck him during the riots, which Brome denies. But the Camp Hill record was considered by the prosecutor and the judge at the resentencing before both agreed on the new sentence. Brome also said his interview with Dallas officials was complicated by a recent change in staffing.

Brome maintains that Grey referred incorrectly to details about the original crime, and that she may have interpreted his attempts to clarify as minimizing. He said she objected when he referred to the victim by name, and challenged his sincerity when he glanced at notes in his lap.

His father, William Brome, had said after the resentencing that he hoped it would be the "end of the torture," and he has taken the parole denial especially hard.

Meanwhile, the son is filled with remorse, even blaming himself for the decision that he and Songster made to run away to Philadelphia at age 15.

"Nobody takes more blame than I have," said Dameon Brome. "This falls on me."The scene of the vehicle crash on I-676 near 21st Street on Nov. 24, 2015, after Giovanny Cottos Toyota Camry crashed into a school bus while Cotto was fleeing Pennsylvania State Police troopers and then shot one trooper in the shoulder. After Cotto ran from the Camry, it caught on fire, destroying both vehicles. Read more

The dramatic video of a teenager fleeing Pennsylvania state troopers on two busy Philadelphia highways in November 2015  and an ensuing firefight in which one trooper was shot and injured  was played for the first time Tuesday in a public courtroom.

Giovanny Cotto, then 17, driving a white Toyota Camry after fleeing a traffic stop, pulled out a .45-caliber pistol and fired into Trooper Patrick Casey's vehicle on the Vine Street Expressway during morning traffic.

"He's got a gun! He's got a gun!" yelled a trooper in another vehicle, according to its dash-cam video played at Cotto's sentencing hearing. After the Camry, which had rammed into a school bus, came to a stop near the 21st Street bridge, Cotto continued firing as he got out and aimed toward Casey's car, which became disabled after Cotto's had sideswiped it.

"It is a miracle that you are here today," Common Pleas Court Judge Roxanne Covington told Casey before she sentenced Cotto to 35 to 70 years in state prison  a term negotiated by the prosecution and defense.

In a courtroom packed with nearly 40 state troopers, Covington thanked them for their bravery.

This shooting is "a reminder of how dangerous your job is," she said. "That when you pull someone over, you don't know what you're going to encounter.  I thank God that you are all still here."

Cotto, now 19, of North Philadelphia, pleaded guilty June 7 to three counts of attempted murder involving Casey and Troopers Timothy Jeter and William Evans, and related offenses.

It was about 8:55 a.m. Nov. 24, 2015, when Cotto was stopped by Jeter and Evans on the Schuylkill Expressway on-ramp near University Avenue for an expired registration. While waiting for a tow truck, Cotto jumped back into the Camry and fled into rush-hour I-76 traffic about 9:30 a.m.

"Go! Go! Go!" one trooper yelled in pursuit. Casey, driving another vehicle, arrived as backup. After Cotto drove onto I-676, he rammed into the side of Casey's vehicle, then the bus. From his car, Cotto began firing at Casey.

Casey, 33, told the judge he saw Cotto aim the gun at him, felt a burning sensation, and fired back.

After the vehicles stopped, Cotto got out and jumped over the median, but was caught. The Camry and bus  unoccupied after the driver got out  burst into flames.

Casey, rushed to Hahnemann University Hospital by Evans, said he wondered, "What would my parents think?" He has returned to work, but still feels pain.

His mother, Mary, who wept during the playing of the video, told the judge: "I prayed, 'Please God, let him be OK.'"

It is a miracle that no one else was hurt and that Cotto himself was not injured, Assistant District Attorney Erin Boyle said. She said after the hearing that it's not clear where Cotto got the gun, which had been reported stolen in Georgia.

Cotto briefly apologized, saying: "I deeply regret this."Mayor Kenney will deliver his budget address Thursday, with details about expected tax increases. Read more

On Thursday, Mayor Kenney unveiled his latest budget proposal, which would use tax hikes to generate new funding for city schools. Here are some basics on what we know:

Which taxes would increase under Kenneys plan?

The mayor called for increases in property taxes and the real estate transfer tax. He also proposed slowing the scheduled reduction of the wage tax.

Why is the mayor proposing tax increases?

Kenney announced in November that the city would take back control of the city's public schools, and he promised to fully fund them.

The School District has projected a budget deficit of $105 million for the 2018-19 school year, and Kenney said last fall that he would find the resources to cover that gap. His budget address Thursday included an additional $980 million in funding for the School District over the next five years.

How often does the city raise property taxes?

During former Mayor Michael Nutter's two terms, City Council voted four times to increase the property tax rate. The property tax would increase by 6 percent under Kenney's proposed budget. That increase would mean an additional $95 in taxes for the typical homeowner, officials said, and would generate an additional $475 million over five years.

Philadelphia is also exempt from a state law that requires revenue-neutral reassessments of property, which means that the city can change property assessments and bring in more real-estate tax revenue as a result.

What does the proposal mean for people who pay the city wage tax?

The wage tax, currently set at 3.8907 percent for residents of Philadelphia and 3.4654 percent for people who live elsewhere but work in the city, is currently scheduled for annual reductions.

Kenney would slow the pace of annual cuts. He would reduce the tax for residents to 3.84 percent in the next five years, instead of the reduction to 3.7 percent laid out in the existing schedule. That adjustment would generate an additional $340 million over five years, according to budget estimates.

What would a hike in the real estate transfer tax mean?

The city imposes a 4.1 percent levy on the sale price or assessed value of the property. Of that amount, 3.1 percent is taxed by the city and 1 percent by the state. Council voted last year to increase the rate by 0.1 percentage points.

Kenney proposes an additional increase of 0.35 percentage points, which would bring the total tax to 4.45 percent. City officials said that would generate an additional $66 million over five years.

The tax has been controversial. After taxpayers successfully challenged a 63 percent hike imposed in 1988, the city was forced to refund $25 million.

Could the 10-year tax abatement be changed or eliminated to raise money?

Council President Darrell L. Clarke has said that he would like to revisit the abatement program, which allows property owners to avoid taxes on new construction or improvements for 10 years.

Opponents say that the abatement amounts to a tax break for the wealthy and that the city is missing out on revenue, but supporters say it boosts development. Clarke's stance could mean that the abatement will become part of the budget debate this year.

Whats next?

Kenney shared details in his budget address to Council on Thursday morning. Council will hold hearings on the budget, make suggestions, and debate changes. Council must pass a final budget before the 2019 fiscal year begins in July.In a city plagued by an opioid addiction crisis, the large storefront office at Broad and Wolf Streets was one of South Philadelphia's most notorious sources for an easy score.

Drug users from as far away as Cape May would stand in lines  sometimes 100 deep  outside the now-defunct National Association for Substance Abuse-Prevention and Treatment for a chance to see a doctor. Street level drug dealers would send in recruits, looking for Suboxone and Klonopin pills that could be resold on the streets or traded for stronger drugs.

And the man at the top of the clinic's marquee  Dr. Alan Summers  welcomed them all unquestioningly, amassing $5 million over 13 years, one $50 to $200 prescription at a time.

But on Tuesday, a federal judge ordered Summers, 79, of Ambler, to forfeit nearly all of that fortune and to spend the next four years in prison for running what prosecutors have described as the source of "more false prescriptions than perhaps any other clinic in the history" of Eastern Pennsylvania.

"This was drug dealing, plain and simple, for money," U.S. District Judge Lawrence F. Stengel said. "It was a well-planned, well-thought-out, absolutely cynical use of a medical license to the detriment of so many people who didn't know any better and whose lives were ultimately affected for the bad."

For his part, Summers  a psychiatrist by training who pleaded guilty last year to more than 17 federal counts including conspiracy, health care fraud, and drug distribution  insisted that he founded his clinic to help his patients overcome addiction.

"I was more shocked than anyone to realize that I had become a criminal," he told Stengel in court Tuesday. "I put patients in harm's way and deluded myself into thinking that that wasn't happening."

But prosecutors maintained that Summers' slide into crime was no accident, but a conscious choice  a situation they have encountered with alarming regularity in their efforts to stem the widening epidemic of opiate abuse.

"We see a recurring problem in this district," Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert Livermore said. "Doctors who are advancing in age, who elect to sell controlled substances. He is looking at his retirement account, and he's saying, 'I don't have enough money in there to retire on.' They make a conscious decision to sell controlled substances."

Summers' prosecution is the first the U.S. Attorney's Office in Philadelphia has brought involving Suboxone, an increasingly popular treatment for heroin addiction.

But in the last several years, the office has pursued several cases against doctors profiting from  and in some cases turning their patients into  addicts by over-prescribing pain drugs.

Still, Summers stood out, not only for the volume of drugs his clinic put onto the streets  as many as 2.5 million doses each of Suboxone and Klonopin between 2001 and 2014  but also for the way he left no doubt about his intentions.

In a document that agents later seized from his computer titled "Ten Year Financial Plan," Summers laid out his goal to leave his wife and stepdaughter $5 million by the time he retired and bemoaned the fact that at his current rate of savings, he would reach only one-tenth of that sum.

"The conservative approach is a guaranteed loser," he wrote. He detailed instead a plan he described as the "aggressive approach" based on getting hundreds more patients to come to his clinic through aggressive marketing and writing prescriptions as fast as possible.

A crack house

By 2013, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration had caught on to Summers' scheme. Over three years, investigators sent at least four undercover officers and cooperating patients into his clinic, according to court filings.

One woman  a pharmacist who had become addicted to oxycodone after it was prescribed to treat legitimate medical conditions  compared Summers' practice to "a crack house."

She told agents that patients, many clearly high on heroin at the time, lined up for mass therapy sessions during which members of the doctor's staff read boilerplate speeches on addiction. Afterward, Summers or other doctors who worked for him would herd them into conference rooms for cursory examinations that often lasted less than two minutes.

At the end, every patient received a preprinted prescription for Suboxone and Klonopin in doses that varied based on how much they were willing to pay  $50 for a week's supply, $200 for a month's.

"There was no medicine being practiced," Livermore said Tuesday. "This was a clinic that was all about money. It was not about medicine."

Some witnesses told investigators that a healthy trade in Suboxone-positive urine samples sprung up in Summers' waiting room among patients who were not taking the drugs the doctor had prescribed but selling them on the streets instead. They said that lasted until they realized that Summers did not care whether their urine tests showed they were following his prescription recommendations.

When one doctor working at his clinic confronted Summers with evidence of this trade, Summers, according to court filings, flatly replied: "I am not the DEA."

In court Tuesday, Summers showed little reaction as Stengel announced his decision to send him to prison. His wife's eyes were hidden behind sunglasses as she sat in the courtroom's front row.

Stengel also ordered him to forfeit $4.6 million and pay $14,000 in restitution to health insurance providers.

And moments before the judge's decision was read, Summers' sister-in-law Anita Steinberg, a family physician from Ohio, said that despite his crimes, she would remember all the people he had helped during his three-decade career.

"Physicians, even ones as intelligent as Dr. Summers, commit crimes," Steinberg said. "These crimes, as severe as they are, do not define this man."Members of the American Federation of Teachers hold up signs depicting Education Secretary Betsy DeVos and Koch Brother, David Koch, while protesting in support of unions outside of the Supreme Court, Monday, Feb. 26, 2018, in Washington. The Supreme Court takes up a challenge in a case that could deal a painful financial blow to organized labor. The court is considering a challenge to an Illinois law that allows unions representing government employees to collect fees from workers who choose not to join. Read more

Charles and David Koch, be careful what you wish for.

For years, the right-wing billionaires have been bankrolling the effort to kill public-sector unions, and on Monday, when the fruits of their labors  Janus v. AFSCME  came before the Supreme Court, the brothers were front and center: The anti-union demonstrators outside the Supreme Court held signs prominently displaying the emblem of the Koch-funded group Americans for Prosperity.

The Kochs are getting their money's worth. The Trump administration joined the cause, and the five conservatives on the Supreme Court are widely expected to jettison a half-century of precedent. But before those justices pick up pens to sign organized labor's death warrant, perhaps they'll pause to consider, as AFSCME attorney David Frederick warned at the end of arguments Monday, that they will "raise an untold specter of labor unrest throughout the country."

In the decades since the court's 1977 Abood decision, there has been a relative truce in public-sector labor relations: Unions receive "agency fees" from nonmembers for collective bargaining and other nonpolitical activities, and such unions have generally not gone on strike.

Now the Kochs propose to abolish agency fees, saying they violate workers' free-speech rights. But to come to that conclusion requires the justices to declare that basically everything public-sector unions do is covered by the First Amendment  a massive and destabilizing change.

>> Read more: Pennsylvania needs more unions: Janus hurts everyone | Opinion

The conservative justices, who speak piously about judicial restraint, could blow up decades of labor-law precedent, while radically reinterpreting the First Amendment. They would do this even though it contradicts what the court unanimously affirmed only a decade ago and even though in this case they have no factual "record" of what the consequences would be  only a desired outcome.

I noticed Monday morning that, since my last visit to the court, rodent glue traps had been placed outside doors to the Supreme Court chamber. I'm not the only one who smells a rat.

Justice Stephen Breyer inquired whether lawyers for Janus would, after jettisoning the Abood precedent, "apply modern frameworks to all old cases, beginning with Marbury v. Madison" from 1803.

Justice Elena Kagan noted that the court would be overturning statutes of 23 states and invalidating labor contracts of thousands of municipalities covering perhaps 10 million workers. "When have we ever done something like that?"

This is radicalism, not conservatism. But it doesn't matter, because there are probably five votes against unions, derided by Justice Anthony Kennedy as advocates "for massive government, for increasing bonded indebtedness, for increasing taxes." And any justification will do. Justice Samuel Alito compared workers forced to pay agency fees to Thomas More, killed for refusing to recognize King Henry VIII as head of the church.

The Kochs, and the justices, may be haunted by what they unleash. When unions' backs are to the wall, they become more militant and look for quick wins. Beyond that, killing agency fees on free-speech grounds could give workers free-speech protection to complain publicly about employers. Former Reagan administration solicitor general Charles Fried warned in an amicus brief that the court risks setting in motion "drastic changes in First Amendment doctrine that essentially threaten to constitutionalize every workplace dispute."

Among the potential responses already being contemplated by labor: seeking to overturn laws such as Wisconsin's limiting what unions can ask for in bargaining; challenging laws that make public-sector bargaining illegal for some; and allowing workers to opt out of paying for pension-fund and municipal lobbying.

"The ruling could both wildly increase workers' bargaining power and clog the lower courts with First Amendment challenges to routine uses of taxpayer money," Shaun Richman, a former organizing director for the American Federation of Teachers, wrote in In These Times.

And the chaos won't be limited to labor law. Among the other things that might be challenged if government-imposed payments become unconstitutional "compelled speech": bar dues, student-association fees, utility bills, auto-insurance premiums, continuing-education requirements for doctors and other professionals, homeowners association dues, training for school-bus drivers and others, vaccinations, attorney-supervised real estate closings.

And perhaps people will decide that they have a free-speech reason not to pay taxes, because it compels them to support the military, or public universities. After all, the message on those Koch-brothers signs at the court Monday was sweeping: "No one should be forced to fund causes they don't believe in."

The justices can ignore precedent and reinterpret the Constitution. But they can't invalidate the Law of Unintended Consequences.

Dana Milbank writes about political theater in the nation's capital. He joined the Post as a political reporter in 2000. @MilbankMayor Jim Kenney speaks during a ceremony at Central High School November 29, 2017. He is expected to ask Council to significantly increase the school districts budget. Read more

Mayor Kenney stood in front of City Council last year and pledged to seize control of Philadelphia's schools  and cover most of their nearly $1 billion shortfall.

"The buck will stop with us," he promised.

On Thursday, he'll put his money where his mouth is.

At his annual budget address, Kenney will propose directing somewhere between an extra $700 million and $1 billion to the city's schools over the next five years, according to sources in City Hall who were not authorized to speak publicly about the financial plan.

He is going to ask Council to increase the property tax rate and the real estate transfer tax, sources said. He is also expected to suggest slowing down the previously planned reductions in the city's wage tax.

Sources said the mayor's recommended property tax hike will be about 6 percent. At the same time, they said, he will ask Council to raise the value of the homestead exemption  a property tax break for homeowners  from $30,000 to $40,000 of assessed value.

In addition to the increased school funding, Kenney's budget will also include investments in public safety departments, according to sources.

Under former Mayor Nutter, lawmakers voted to boost property taxes four times in order to pump money into the underfunded school district. The city also brought in additional cash during a real estate reassessment. Nutter sought a property tax increase of 9.3 percent during his final year in office, but Council ended up approving a lower figure, 4.5 percent, in addition to a higher parking tax and use-and-occupancy tax on businesses.

In 2016, Kenney signed Philadelphia's soda tax into law partly to expand pre-K throughout the city.

Asked for comment, mayoral spokesman Mike Dunn said "the mayor will deliver his budget to City Council tomorrow morning" and "it would be inappropriate to comment before his address to Council members, and to residents, about the challenges facing Philadelphia."Sen. Scott Wagner, R-York, center, during a campaign swing through the Pennsylvania Farm show in Harrisburg last month. Read more

Scott Wagner and Tom Wolf clearly hope that what happened before in Pennsylvania happens again in 2018.

Wagner's playing his best Trump tough guy, complete with trash talk (pun intended) plus unlikely, if not impossible, promises of things to come. Just like somebody who won the state in 2016.

Wolf's playing Wolf: Mr. Decent; drives a Jeep. Just like a guy who won the state in 2014.

How are they doing at what they're doing? Here are some details.

York County State Sen. Wagner, presumed front-runner for the GOP nod to run against Wolf this fall, used a Pennsylvania Press Club speech this week to body-slam Wolf and offer questionable solutions to school shootings.

He called for a mandatory death sentence for anyone killing anyone in a school or on school grounds. He said he's introducing legislation to make it state law.

And he called Wolf "our gutless governor" for ordering a moratorium on Pennsylvania's death penalty in Feburary 2015.

"Tom Wolf would prioritize the life of an evil school shooter over the lives of innocent children," Wagner said.

(If this was at a campaign rally, I'd expect to hear, "Lock him up! Lock him up!")

Never mind that the last execution in Pennsylvania was in 1999, long before Wolf.

Never mind that legal delays caused a de facto moratorium long before Wolf.

And especially never mind that the U.S. Supreme Court outlawed mandatory death penalties beginning in the 1970s, and reaffirmed them as unconstitutional in all instances in a 1987 ruling, effectively creating settled law.

Despite this, a Wagner campaign spokesman tells me Wagner believes his legislation will be constitutional and, if challenged, appealed "as high as necessary," and that Wagner believes the current Supreme Court would rule in his favor.

Before you call this delusional, remember that delusional thinking has never dissuaded populist pols, or prevented them from winning elections.

Wagner also called for a "highly trained armed security officer in every school building in the commonwealth."

No hint on the how, the when, the wisdom or cost. The Department of Education says there are about 3,000 school buildings in the state. Florida Gov. Rick Scott proposes spending $450 million for guards in every school in his (larger) state.

Wagner said, "People may ask, `How can we pay for this?' And my answer is simple: How can we not?" When pressed, he said, "There's money, and I'm going to find the money."

(Hey, maybe Mexico will pay for it.)

Wagner, who made millions running trucking and trash companies, ended his speech with, "We're going to start taking out the trash in Pa., and that begins with Tom Wolf."

Basic message: Wagner, savior of children; Wolf, gutless trash.

As for Wolf, he kicked off his reelection run this week with a TV ad harking back to the first ad he aired in 2014, which included him driving his Jeep and that helped propel him into the governor's office.

The new ad's titled "That's Different," but it really isn't. It's classic Wolf, in 30 seconds.

He smiles and touches people as a narrator explains he loved workers at his cabinet company, banned his government employees from taking gifts, doesn't take a government salary and still drives his Jeep to the Capitol.

After each point, an "average person" speaks to the camera and says, "That's different," because, you may recall, Wolf ran to be "a different kind of governor."

The ad ends with, "Tom Wolf, working to change Harrisburg for us."

Basic message: Wolf's a nice-guy honorable person who happens to work in a horrible place.

So, if Wagner wins the GOP primary over Pittsburgh's Paul Mango and Laura Ellsworth, expect a Trump-like trek to November. In Wolf's case, expect more Wolf. Then we'll see what piece of Pennsylvania electoral history rises and repeats itself.HARRISBURG  Two women have accused State Rep. Nick Miccarelli of sexually or physically assaulting them in separate incidents over the last six years, the Inquirer and Daily News and the Caucus have learned.

Top House leaders have launched an inquiry into the allegations, which the accusers leveled in a confidential complaint in early February, according to documents reviewed by the newspapers and interviews with multiple sources.

Miccarelli has strongly denied the accusations.

The women allege that the Delaware County Republican threatened, stalked, intimidated, or sexually assaulted them. One is a state official and the other is a political consultant. The accusers, who dated Miccarelli at different times between 2012 and 2014, are requesting that he resign, according to sources familiar with the investigation.

One of the women, who was in a relationship with Miccarelli in 2012, claimed in the complaint that during one argument, he brandished a gun while driving at speeds in excess of 100 mph, threatening to kill them both. The second woman alleges that Miccarelli forced her to have sex with him after their relationship ended in 2014.

The women said in interviews that they remained silent for years because they feared that speaking up would jeopardize their careers, if not their lives. They are coming forward as the #MeToo movement has emboldened many women across the nation to openly discuss what they describe as a pervasive culture of sexual harassment or abuse in the workplace.

Miccarelli, 35, a Ridley Park resident and Army veteran of the Iraq War who joined the legislature in 2009, denied the allegations in a text message and an interview this week, saying he had not seen the complaint and asserting that he was being denied an opportunity to directly address his accusers.

During that telephone interview, Miccarelli told a reporter: "What you are being told is absolute lies, a thousand percent lies," adding he had "never laid a hand on a woman."

In an earlier text to a reporter, Miccarelli challenged the sex-assault allegation, asserting that he and the woman had a consensual relationship and that she had never complained to him about his behavior.

In his text message, Miccarelli said hearing the claims from the newspapers was "the first time it was suggested that anyone's filed anything against me." He continued: "No one has ever given me or told me about any complaints."

He also wrote: "If you choose to ignore the truth, you do so at your own peril, and I will hold you accountable."

Sources told the newspapers that Miccarelli believes he has text messages, emails, and photos that counter the sexual assault allegations. In the interview, Miccarelli did not provide any such documentation. It was unclear if he had a lawyer. Asked if he had one, he did not name one.

The women filed the complaint on Feb. 8 with a senior House ethics officer and lawyer, saying Miccarelli's conduct violated the chamber's workplace harassment policy. The newspapers have reviewed the three-page complaint, as well as records that show House leadership has since appointed the lawyer to investigate. At least one other House lawyer is now involved in the inquiry.

The women's attorney, Terry Mutchler of the Harrisburg-based firm Mutchler Lyons, confirmed that her firm filed a complaint with the House. She said it details "serious assertions of sexual assault and domestic violence against a sitting member of the chamber." She said her clients are cooperating with the investigation.

The women were not named in the complaint but subsequently disclosed their identities to House lawyers investigating the accusations. The Inquirer and Daily News and the Caucus are withholding their names because the newspapers do not identify victims of alleged sexual assault or domestic violence unless they request that information be made public.

In their complaint, the women ask that Miccarelli be held accountable for his "heinous acts." They are also asking that "reasonable and appropriate safety measures" be put into place to protect them from retaliation, and that Miccarelli be told of the prohibition against retaliation in the chamber's policy.

The women say they and others believe Miccarelli currently may carry a gun into the Capitol  it was not clear if he has a permit to carry one  and are asking that he be banned from carrying a firearm in the Capitol complex.

Stephen Miskin, spokesman for House Republican leaders, confirmed in a statement Wednesday that the House had launched an inquiry and that "law enforcement is involved." He did not elaborate.

"The safety of the public, employees, and our members is of paramount concern," Miskin said. "These allegations are alarming, and if true, cannot and will not be tolerated in our caucus, in the House, or anywhere."

After the newspapers reported the allegations online Wednesday, Gov. Wolf, a Democrat, called on Miccarelli to resign. "This report and the conduct detailed are disturbing," the governor said in a statement.

Miccarelli also responded to the reports, posting a Facebook message in which he said he was "absolutely appalled" by the allegations and denied them "entirely." Saying he had not been treated fairly, he also wrote: "I would ask my constituents to ask themselves this: If your child was accused of something like this, would you rush to judgment, or would you wait to hear the facts?"

>>>READ: Rep. Nick Miccarelli responds to abuse, misconduct allegations

The five-term legislator's district, the 162nd in southeastern Delaware County, stretches from just outside Darby Borough to Philadelphia International Airport, and includes Ridley and Tinicum Townships as well as Glenolden and Folcroft Boroughs.

In interviews with the newspapers, the woman who dated Miccarelli in 2012 alleged that he was controlling and physically abusive, kicking, pinching and hitting her, even at legislative events they attended together.

She said she was so scared of Miccarelli that shortly before she ended her relationship with him, she stapled a note to her life insurance policy saying he should be considered a suspect in the event something happened to her. On the weekend she broke up with him, she said, she took members of her family to an undisclosed location.

In the complaint, in which she is referred to as "Client 1," the woman also alleges that Miccarelli attempted to use potentially embarrassing personal information against her. The woman said she spoke to police about it. Investigators encouraged her to provide more information, but she ultimately decided not to because she feared he would harm her.

The second woman, a campaign operative who works with state Republicans, alleged in the complaint that Miccarelli was mentally and physically abusive. They had dated off and on for about a year before that.

In the complaint, she alleges that when she tried to end her relationship with him in late 2014, he came to her home and forced her to have sex. In an interview, she said she repeatedly told him that she did not want to be intimate. She said he held her neck during parts of the alleged assault.

She also said that while the two were still in a consensual relationship, she believes, Miccarelli drugged her. In the complaint, she asserts that she became unconscious and that he engaged in "nonconsensual sexual behavior" that evening.

In his text message to the newspapers, Miccarelli said: "Let me make this clear. I've never drugged or sexually assaulted anyone."

The woman told the newspapers that she did not alert police or seek a medical examination. She said she feared for her safety and worried that she would face career reprisals. The woman has worked professionally over the last decade assisting statewide and legislative GOP campaigns.

The woman said she confided in a coworker the next day.

In an interview, the coworker, who spoke on condition of anonymity citing fear of retaliation, said the woman was unusually quiet that morning when she came into the office. The coworker asked what was wrong, and said the woman told her she had been sexually assaulted by "Rep. Nick Miccarelli."

"She was very shaken up and was very scared," the co-worker said.

Two sources have told the newspapers that the woman also has confided in at least four Republican lawmakers over the last six months about the incident, but asked them to keep her story confidential.

Emails shared with reporters also show she sought legal advice in the year following the alleged assault and initiated counseling last year to cope with the aftereffects of the incident.

In the months that followed the alleged assault, the woman said she struggled emotionally. She emailed her priest in October 2016, asking to meet with him.

"I was hoping you might say a short prayer over me," she wrote in the Oct. 31 email. "I have been having some spiritual difficulty lately I believe is a result of what happened to me."

In a Sept. 5, 2017, email, also reviewed by the newspapers, the woman sought the help of a Harrisburg-area therapist, saying: "I found your name when searching for therapists  that have experience dealing with PTSD sexual abuse issues."

Late last year, she emailed a female legislator supporting bills to strengthen sexual harassment laws. She described the alleged assault, but did not name Miccarelli, identifying him only as "an unmarried Republican House member." He has since married.

In the email, she tried to explain why she remained silent. Among other reasons, she described the impact going public would have on her father, who she said would carry "this burden in his heart for the rest of his life."

"I carry the great weight of my shame every day," she wrote. "I worry every day about what pain other women might be experiencing because I chose silence and self-preservation over doing what would have been right, although painful. I am ashamed of myself for that and I am not sure I will ever know what I can do to make up for it."

The woman said the legislator did not respond to her email.

The Inquirer and Daily News and the Caucus, a weekly publication based in Harrisburg, worked together to report this story. The Caucus is owned by LNP Media Group of Lancaster.

Caucus reporter Mike Wereschagin contributed to this article.U.S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. on Wednesday asked participants in a key Pennsylvania gerrymandering case to respond to a request from top Republican lawmakers that the nation's highest court step in and block the new congressional map.

State Senate President Pro Tempore Joe Scarnati (R., Jefferson) and House Speaker Mike Turzai (R., Allegheny) have asked the U.S. Supreme Court to stay the Pennsylvania Supreme Court's ruling overturning the previous congressional map and imposing a new one.

Alito gave participants in the case until 3 p.m. Monday to file responses to that request.

He made a similar move a few weeks ago after Scarnati and Turzai filed essentially the same request to step in and stop the Pennsylvania Supreme Court from overturning the state's congressional map drawn in 2011. In that first request, Alito also sought responses from the parties in the case before ultimately denying the request without comment and without referring it to the whole court.

Both requests use the same basic legal argument, with the lawmakers saying the state court's action violated the elections clause of the U.S. Constitution, which gives state legislatures the power to run elections.

Experts have said the current request for a stay is a long shot, especially because it is so similar to the previous one.

"The biggest tea leaf is probably what Justice Alito did the last time when he denied the stay without even referring it to the whole court," Michael Li, a redistricting expert at the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University, said Wednesday. "Republicans are essentially making a variant of the same argument, so unless Justice Alito has changed his mind, it's hard to see how you get five votes for a stay  and he may even decide again that this is not something that even needs to go to the whole court."

Richard L. Hasen, a law and political science professor at the University of California, Irvine, also has said the latest challenge before Alito is almost identical to the previous unsuccessful one.

"The only thing that's changed is the ripeness concern, that now there is a map," he said last week. Hasen said it remained unlikely that Alito would grant the request, calling it a "very, very long shot."

Participants in the case, including Gov. Wolf's executive branch and the voters who brought the lawsuit, plan to file responses.

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court, which has a Democratic majority, struck down the prior congressional map in January on the grounds that it violated the state constitution because it was a partisan gerrymander drawn to favor Republicans. The court gave the Republican-controlled legislature and the Democratic governor less than three weeks to approve a new map; when that didn't happen, the court worked with an outside expert to adopt its own.

Within days of the court's announcement that it intended to impose a new map, Scarnati and Turzai filed their first legal challenge in the U.S. Supreme Court. Their second challenge was submitted Feb. 21, just two days after the state Supreme Court handed down the new map, and was officially docketed this week.

Election analysts have said they expect Republicans would still have a slight advantage under the new maps, but not as wide an advantage as they had under the earlier maps. Since the last one was enacted in 2011, Republicans have won 13 of the 18 House seats in every election.

The redrawing, and the subsequent legal challenges, comes at a time when the Democratic Party is hoping to regain control of the Republican-led U.S. House and eyeing Pennsylvania as a place to possibly gain ground.

A separate legal challenge, filed by eight Republican members of Congress and two Republican state senators, is pending before the U.S. District Court in the Middle District of Pennsylvania. Three judges, all of whom were nominated for the bench by Republican presidents and confirmed by the U.S. Senate in bipartisan votes, were assigned to handle that case. Those declined to immediately block the map, instead fast-tracking the schedule so all sides could make their cases. A hearing for a preliminary injunction in that case is scheduled for next week.When Dilworth Plaza was transformed into Dilworth Park four years ago, a forsaken landscape suddenly became a thriving byway. While I might have wished for a less barren and stony look for the redesign, the park's popularity outweighed any aesthetic shortcomings.

Now LOVE Park, which underwent a renovation in 2016 to repair the parking lot beneath it, is on the verge of a grand reopening. But its trajectory, from vibrant to bleak, is the opposite of Dilworth's.

Despite its poor physical condition, LOVE was loved by a diverse cross-section of Philadelphians. Plan Philly's Ashley Hahn put it well : "LOVE Park may be tired, its granite slabs loose and clanky, but it works remarkably well as a truly public space. On any given day people play chess, snap photos, eat lunch, jaw with friends, soapbox, dance, read the paper, and just linger. Its diversity of casual use is a beautiful, rare thing." The park was also once so valuable to the skateboarding community, DC Shoes was willing to donate $1 million for its upkeep so long as skateboarding was permitted.

Now, the park exudes a desolation too pointed to ignore. Even after the trees are in bloom, the grass comes in and the fountain is turned on, those improvements won't entirely solve LOVE Park's problems.

Unlike the multi-tiered park of yore, the current LOVE Park is one graceless plane. As an open field, its best vistas are of ceaseless traffic on the park's borders. Though I was initially excited that LOVE would offer a clear diagonal path from one end to the other, I now sorely miss the elliptical landscaping that was the sculptural heart of the park. LOVE Park now functions like an enormous sidewalk, when its former design, with a round fountain and the round Welcome Center, signaled a retreat from the rectilinearity of downtown.

The new design ruins the much-needed distinction between park and city. The main thoroughfare now looks and feels like a sloping ramp in an airport. Previously, the fountain enticed you by forcing you to walk around it, and the LOVE statue somehow felt earned when you reached it crossing the park from west to east; now the fountain and statue are just selfie bait.

Speaking of selfies, take a look at those LOVE Park pictures from before and after the renovation. Before, a picture of the LOVE statue positioned tourist, sculpture, buildings on the Parkway, bucolic shrubs and a gushing fountain in one tight take. The LOVE sculpture sat on a trapezoidal pedestal and looked like the gem on a ring setting. The friction and exuberance of all these elements conveyed the sense of love  civic love, really  as much as the statue spelled it out.

Now, LOVE sits atop a bland square; people stand like passengers in an elevator car beneath the statue, mediocre architecture flanking them, a desert of pavers at their feet. It all adds up to a pretty bad picture.

While apparently not all the landscaping and street furniture have arrived, one can't avoid the sense that the park's emptiness is designed to discourage lingering and certain kinds of patrons. The stone benches look just comfortable enough to eat a quick food truck lunch. Grassy lawns that offer no cover will make it easier to spot and shoo away homeless people resting there. And, of course, there is no reference to or accommodation of skateboarders.

This raises the question of what kind of park we want and who we are building parks for. Yes, the old LOVE Park was dated, but its sculptural elements  boxy concrete tree containers and walls you could sit on, bollards you could lean on, and benches you could skateboard on  invited a human response. Instead of creating a park full of nooks where users can find the right place to steal a kiss or smoke a cigarette, the new LOVE Park is a sterile, corporate landscape.

Yes, corporate, because its intentional lack of landscaping will only seem active if it is commercialized. The sponsored, temporary programming that takes advantage of flat, flexible platforms like Dilworth Park is valuable, but it is also inorganic. Organic alternative uses  like skateboarding and busking  will instead be policed out of existence, because they do not fit into a prescribed set of uses for the park. Ironically, LOVE Park was once a place. Now as a non-place it will require tired place-making interventions, like movable furniture and festivals, to give it a sense of purpose.

Amid the new LOVE Park is another relic of its past: The Saucer. The mid-century Visitor Center now stands out like a beacon of authenticity and aesthetic daring. This building, which urban activist Jane Jacobs admired when she visited Philadelphia in 1962, reminds visitors that public spaces don't have to be mundane to be useful, vanilla to be popular.

It can also serve as a lesson that design isn't destiny. Just as skateboarders reimagined the old LOVE Park, we must make it our task to reimagine this landscape as something worthy of today's Philadelphia.

Diana Lind, managing director of Penn Fels Policy Research Initiative, is a board member of Philadelphia Citizen, where a version of this article was first published. dlind@sas.upenn.eduMarta Sostre Vazquez reacts as she climbs into the Rio San Lorenzo Morovis, to cross the river with family, after the bridge that crosses the river was swept away by Hurricane Maria, in Morovis, Puerto Rico, Wednesday, Sept. 27, 2017. Read more

Natural disasters stress systems, exposing weak points.

Among the worst in modern times was Hurricane Maria,which hit Puerto Rico in September. It not only exposed the island's neglected infrastructure and the federal government's failure to respond adequately, it has opened up fault lines in Philadelphia.

The hurricane washed out roads and bridges, and shut down power and communications. In the days following the storm, thousands fled the island for the mainland. An estimated 2,000 came to Philadelphia, and now, about 50 families are seeking Philadelphia Housing Authority units.

The federal government is only offering permanent housing support in Puerto Rico, where the disaster occurred. If displaced people want permanent housing off the island, they're going to have to get help from state and local officials, according to a Federal Emergency Management Agency spokesman. Those temporary shelter supports run out on March 20.

Meanwhile, the disaster is pitting two desperate groups against each other and exposing yet another weakness  Philadelphia's lack of affordable housing.

There isn't enough decent affordable housing for the people who already lived here. PHA houses about 81,000 people and says about 85,000 more are waiting for apartments. The depth of the affordable housing crisis could get even worse if President Trump succeeds in cutting $90 million from the agency.

Brian Abernathy, city first deputy managing director, says the city is hesitant to put evacuees into housing that so many Philadelphians have been waiting for so long to get.

PHA can provide housing to evacuees who can prove they were displaced by a federally declared disaster. PHA's rule on that is very clear. It grants "super preference" to those who get a FEMA referral. That means they jump to the top of the waiting list. However, even if the 50 Puerto Rican families got priority, they could wait weeks or months before apartments become available for them.

Making matters worse is that the families may not even be able to get those super FEMA referrals. The city says those families have to rely on yet another bureaucracy called a long-term recovery committee, headed by a single nonprofit organization. These committees help find permanent housing, jobs, and job training for evacuees. They receive assistance from national and local religious and civic organizations.

That hasn't happened here because factions in Philadelphia's Latino community can't agree on which nonprofit group would head the committee.

The Latino community has shown extraordinary generosity to Puerto Rican evacuees, but that help shouldn't be undercut by politics.

Fundamentally, the federal government should take responsibility for helping these disaster victims. But it won't, which leaves the fates of these families in the city's hands.

To be sure, the city has done a lot to fill in the gaps left by FEMA's limited assistance. It opened a disaster assistance center between October and December. It helped 2,000 evacuees apply for FEMA aid as well as other services, including food stamps and temporary financial assistance.

Increasingly, it is left to cities to solve big systemic problems; in this case, Philadelphia should make sure it exhausts all possible solutions, even short-term ones, to keep these 50 families from drowning in a sea of red tape.Former Cape Coral city council member Erick Kuehn died Monday. He was 74.

He served from March 2010  November 2011 after being appointed from among 17 applicants to fill the District 5 seat in the wake of the suspension of the seats elected member, Eric Grill.

A City Hall regular and prolific letter writer, Kuehn came to Cape Coral in May 2003 after he retired from a career in insurance sales in Elkhart, Ind. He was an insurance agent for 32 years, following a five-year stint as a German teacher.

He said in a 2010 interview after his appointment that he attended his first council meeting to speak out against a proposal the city was floating about metered irrigation systems, and it simply piqued his interest on the local political scene.

Kuehn became what he described as a self appointed community activist, admitting that council meetings almost became his obsession.

But it was an obsession that paid off, as he was appointed to council, partially, on the strength of his attendance at council meetings.

Flags in the city will be lowered to half-staff in Kuehns memory, officials said.

Service information will be posted when available.Meteorite hunters Tim and Patricia Heitz of Bokeelia donated a 5,800 year old meteorite to Pine Island Elementary School Thursday morning. The space rock will be on display in the schools media center.

The meteorite was part of the Campo del Cielo meteorites that fell 5,800 years ago in Argentina and discovered by the Spanish in 1576. The area lies about 620 miles north of Buenos Aires near the province of Chaco.

This is a huge crater field, Tim Heitz said. About 11 or 12 miles long and has 26 individual craters that contain iron meteorites like the one we donated to Pine Island Elementary. We can date this by carbon dating the trees that were destroyed at the time of the impact.

A meteorite is a piece of space debris that passes through Earths atmosphere and impacts with the Earths surface. Meteors can fall anywhere on the planet and large ones can create craters like the Barringer Meteor Crater in Arizona, The Odessa Meteor Crater in Texas and the Wolfe Creek Crater in Australia.

Meteorites like the one my wife and I are donating are created when a planet is impacted very hard, launching pieces of the planet into space, Heitz said. If those pieces come close enough to the Earths gravitation, it will pull them into our atmosphere where they fall to Earth for meteorite hunters to find.

Heitz first became interested in meteorite hunting in 1996 when he saw a news broadcast on television. The broadcast was about a Mars meteorite that scientists believed had evidence of microscopic bacteria life on Mars.

Thats the first thing that peaked my interest and then there was something on the Discovery Channel about buying and selling meteorites  thats where it all started, Heitz said. When I learned that people could buy and sell them, I was hooked.

Since that time Heitz has donated meteorites to the St. Louis Science Center, the Calusa Nature Center and Planetarium in Fort Myers and now Pine Island Elementary School.

I believe this is the only school with a meteorite, Heitz said. Who knows, maybe it will inspire some of these kids.

We are very fortunate and privileged that Mr. Heitz is willing to share his meteorite with the school, PIE Principal Steve Hook said. It is a great thing for our children to get to experience this special display and makes our media center even more exciting to visit. We are extremely thankful to him. We want our students to reach for the stars  now we bring outer space closer to them.Torres Del Avellano / Big new climbs in Chilean Patagonia

28.02.2018 by by Planetmountain

Will Sim and John Crook report about their climbing trip to the Torres Del Avellano in Patagonia, Chile, together with Paul Swail, John McCune and Ruth Bevan. The highlight of the expedition was a 1000 m new route up the East Face of the South Avellano Tower.

A strong team of young climbers comprised of Will Sim, John Crook, Paul Swail, John McCune and Ruth Bevan have enjoyed a highly successful three-week climbing trip to the little-known Torres Del Avellano in Chilean Patagonia, where they established a flurry of new routes. The absolute highlight, without a shadow of doubt, was the first ascent of a new line up the East Face of the South Avellano Tower that had thrwarted two previous attempts carried out by Crook in the past with Will Harris, Dave Brown and Andy Reeve. Will Sim and John Crook now provide the trip report.





Will Sim: It was 3 years ago, on a drizzly, grey, autumns day when my friend John Crook came round to where I was living in Llanberis. Without much surprise to anyone who knows John, he came armed not just with psyche to find dry rock amongst the penetrating drizzle, but also with fresh stories from far flung adventures that had come to pass since wed last seen each other.

That evening sat in the little house on Snowdon street, John showed me hundreds of photos of exploratory climbing in the Andes and Patagonia that had me squirming around restlessly on the sofa in excited jealousy... Jungle bashing to access unclimbed crags, huge dolerite columns like a photoshopped Giants causeway, big Andean ice faces, but most of all, a picture of a conical tower-slash-big wall in a remote, almost untouched range of Chilean Patagonia.

John Crook: The Avellano Towers are an incredible place in the Patagonian wilderness of Chile, which I was amazingly lucky to be introduced to 5 years ago. American alpinist Jim Donini was in contact with my climbing partner at the time, Dave Brown, luring us away from distant "weather windows" in El Chalten. Taking him up on his offer of, "something a little different", is one of the best things Ive ever done.

We made some brilliant first ascents, both with and without Jim that trip. We also made a lightweight attempt on the huge South Avellano Tower. We basically flailed around at the bottom, finding very smooth, low friction granite combined with some quite green cracks. Retreating at lunch-time, we spent the afternoon staring up at the monolith wed just tried to climb. Id never seen such a beautiful unclimbed, and I believe, un-attempted piece of rock. I came around to the fact we werent going to manage it that trip, but it was some pretty large unfinished business!

Dave and myself returned 10 months later with a pair of strong climbers: Andy Reeve and Will Harris. We made good progress on the obvious central line, before a cold storm blanketed the wall in snow and unfortunately never cleared in time.

Laid to rest for the last 4 years, this trip came around kind of by accident. Will Sim, Paul Swail and John Mcune were already keen to find a rock objective in Patagonia. I showed Will the pictures, without putting too much thought in to it and before I knew it plans were been put in place. My girlfriend, Ruth, agreed to come along and before we knew it all 5 of us were on route.



Will Sim: In all it took us ten days from arriving in Chile to reach our basecamp beneath the wall. A very rough boat ride across Lago General Carrera saw the team separated with John, Paul and myself on one side of South Americas second largest lake, and John Crook and Ruth on the other, unable to recross due to high winds and waves. Thankfully we were taken in by a nearby Gaucho until the next morning.

After regrouping on the north shore of the lake we walked for 4-5 days with the help of our new gaucho friend Luis and his horses. The last two or three days of the approach were load carrying relays where the ground was too rough for Luis horses. Throughout this period the weather was pretty bad and we didnt get a glimpse of the South Avellano tower until we were nearly at base camp.



John Crook: Getting there is quite a big adventure, involving the crossing of a big rough lake, in a little overloaded boat; horses and Gauchos to take your things 30km up a beautiful valley; then multiple load carries through rivers and rain forest. Base Camp is idyllic with running water and plenty of wood. A well-built lean to, by Will and John, made for extra comfort and cooking lessons from Ruth made for good eating.

After lots of poor weather in December, it gradually improved the closer we got and by the time basecamp was fully established the wall was ready to climb on, although still wet. We made quick progress on my original line, setting ropes to the halfway ledges over the 1st 2 days. Poor weather threatened by the end of the next day, so we made the decision to "go for it". We gained the top of the fixed ropes by daybreak and attacked the headwall in 2 pairs. The rock became more varied, with some loose flakes and areas of exfoliating rock. There was some really high quality climbing and amazing positions, particularly where we had to avoid a big wet corner for a couple of pitches. One particular pitch, Paul Swail quested up really stands out. It looked so unlikely! But after managing to place a peg in a very awkward position, he made steep moves through a roof and in to an outrageously exposed traverse. Almost to my disbelief we found a way up the wall and topped out around that afternoon. Ruth traced our progress from basecamp, with radio contact throughout and even made us pumpkin curry and cheesecake for our return! It began to rain halfway through our descent.





Will Sim: The route had been about 900 -1000 metres long and every pitch had gone free. E5 seems about right, give or take a grade or two. We were all in disbelief that our main objective had been achieved after only three days effort, we had half expected it to take us up to ten - taking in to account bad weather - and had come equipped with portaledges to give us options. I think the fact that we knocked off the South Tower so fast was partly due to the luck of the weather changing for the better just when we were ready to launch. But also due to the groundwork that John, Will Harris, Dave Brown and Andy Reeve had made in the previous attempts. Thanks boys!

With two weeks of food left in basecamp and high spirits it was a nice feeling to know that anything else we climbed was a bonus, yet there were plenty of plums for the picking. Once our bodies had recovered from the South Tower, myself, John and Paul made the first ascent of a beautiful route on an attractive mountain we got to know as "Cerro Squareface" (actual name unsure?). The climax of this fantastic route was a dream splitter crack that felt about E5 6b and was too good to be true. We strolled around on the windless summit for a few minutes in Patagonian perfection before beginning the descent.

A few days later again John, Paul and myself made another first ascent. This time it was a ridge/spur of classic alpine appearance sporting a worrying looking final tower which we had heard rumours of being attempted previously by an American team. Sure enough, after several hundred metres of serious feeling ridge traversing, the final tower reared above us in a worrying leaning nature. I was dealt with the sharp end and after some scary steep fist jamming through more death-blocks than I like to admit, I rolled on to the summit after completing yet another fantastic, virgin line. We called it the Mestizo ridge.

Our last climbing of the trip was spent trying to repeat our own route up the South Ttowers East face, but going even more direct in a section wed spotted a crack with binoculars. Unfortunately it wasnt to be as the heavens opened on us halfway up the wall. It was the only day of the trip that the forecast was wrong, but we couldnt complain given the trip we had had.

We reversed the load carrying of the approach and met up with Luis and his horses for the walk out to the lake. Hunger had well and truly set in now that we had exhausted nearly all of our provisions, but we didnt care, wed just had 3 weeks of dream climbing in a barely explored Patagonian paradise.

With time to spare before catching our flights back to Europe we relocated to Cerro Colorado. This huge dolerite column protrudes from the Chilean desert just south east of Lago General Carrera. Here we made some more first ascents. But thats a whole other story...



Links: FB Will Sim, Instagram Will Sim, FB John Crook

Share TweetThis story originally appeared in the February/March 2016 issue of

Pointe.

Ballet company auditions are hard to dodge for anyone aspiring to the profession. But they can serve as valuable learning tools by helping dancers determine which types of companies they prefer and ascertain the best ways to present themselves as artists. How can I be seen in an audition? What should I say to a director? How do I handle my nerves? Those are among the valid questions that the three professional dancers here thought about before plunging into the audition circuit. Over time, theyve discovered ways to use the audition process to their advantage to bolster, rather than sabotage, their confidence and to reveal who they are as artists.

George takes flight in Swan Lake. Photo by Michael Cairns, Courtesy Bri George.

Bri George



Make a good impression.

In 2015, after dancing principal roles with Orlando Ballet for six seasons, Bri George was ready for a change and started thinking about auditioning. Based on insight gleaned from previous jobs and auditions, she knew that a small American company would be best for her. Once I knew that, I looked at all the smaller companies that had a good repertoire and good leaders, says George, now with Ballet Arizona. That helped me decide who to audition for.

She found that having experience gave her a competitive edge. As a student, George had assembled a video of her classwork to send to potential employers. And after working as a trainee with Boston Ballet, she attended numerous cattle-call auditions before joining Orlando Ballet. But as she gained professional experience, her strategy changed. In an effort to eschew mass auditions, she pieced together performance excerpts from videos that demonstrated her stage skills and posted it to a private YouTube page, then emailed the link specifically to directors or ballet masters.

I reached out to friends in companies and got their opinion on who was the best person to contactsomeone in the company to talk to personally instead of just sending my stuff out there hoping someone would look through it, says George. Then we could take it from there, hopefully receiving an invitation to take company classes. After an audition, she found that shaking hands, stating her name, thanking the director and expressing her interest in the company helped make a good impression.

Despite her solid experience, George received a lot of rejections. Even this year, I got about 10 nos  she says, before landing her contract with Ballet Arizona. But over the years she had learned how to channel rejection in a positive way. It took a couple times of putting myself out there to fully understand how to use it as fuel to push myself harder, she says. You cant take it personally. You never know what theyre looking for.

Advice:

Dancers are so focused on how many turns they can do, or who has the highest extensions and the best feet. While thats important, you also need to be expressive in your dancing. Directors want to see you looking happy doing what you love.

Megan Zimny Kaftira in David Dawsons A Million Kisses to My Skin. Photo by Altin Kaftira, Courtesy Dutch National Ballet.

Megan Zimny Kaftira



Take chances.

Megan Zimny Kaftira joined Boston Ballet at 19, and it seemed like the perfect fit for that period of her life. But after four years, her career felt stagnant. I wanted to grow deeper, says Kaftira, now a soloist at Dutch National Ballet. Europe was calling my name.

She also knew that, unlike her younger self, she wouldnt be grateful settling for any contract. When youre inexperienced, you dont get a ton of choice, she says. As I grew older, I had developed more as a person. I could pick and choose a bit more. During the companys January break in 2010, Kaftira planned an audition tour to the UK and the Netherlands. After meticulously preparing her DVDs, photos and resume, Kaftira set out on her first trip to Europe alone, scheduling company class auditions with The Royal Ballet, English National Ballet and Dutch National Ballet. Each offered opportunities to grow artistically, she says, through their strong classical story ballet repertoire, interspersed with plenty of contemporary and Balanchine programs.

Despite her impeccable preparation, however, it wasnt all smooth sailing. Kaftira arrived in Amsterdam late in the evening the day before her audition. Searching for a grocery store, she became disoriented, walking in circles in the maze of streets along Amsterdams concentric canals. I was lost for three hours in the dark, in the rain, she says. I wore holes in my socks.

Nerves, too, were an issue. I deal with them quite a lot, she says. But accepting who I am as a person and dancer helped me be at ease with them.

Though Kaftira initially had her sights on London, she fell in love with Amsterdam. She particularly found a natural rapport with Dutch National Ballet director Ted Brandsen. Speaking with him was really easy, comfortable and honest, she says. I felt like we were more like colleagues and we could speak more freely.

While auditioning overseas was challenging, Kaftira says, the risks were worth it. Just putting yourself in an uncomfortable situation helps you grow, she says. If you dont get the contract you desire, its still a really big learning experience. It cant hurt to try.

Advice:

Its really important to see the company and meet the people youll be working with on a daily basis. Explore the city, because its a really big decision. You should love the place you choose. This career is shortyou want to enjoy it.

Griffin in Nicolo Fontes Never Stop Falling (In Love) with Oregon Ballet Theatre. Photo by James McGrew, Courtesy OBT.

Sarah Griffin



Let your confidence shine through.

Sarah Griffin relishes being the first person to arrive at an audition. I have no qualms about being auditionee number one, the first one at the barre, says the Colombian-born Oregon Ballet Theatre corps member. Being early helps me get the lay of the land, so I can see what the studios like, feel out the floor and get into my own personal warm-up zone.

How did she become such a confident auditioner? Griffin attended Barnard College in New York Cityand attended every open company audition possible. After dancing with Dance Theatre of Harlem (where she learned to own what makes me different), she moved to San Francisco to freelance, performing with Oakland Ballet Company and Amy Seiwerts Imagery. Working with contemporary choreographers, she says, gave her the skills to be seen as a singular artist. Griffin highlights the contrasting approaches of ballet auditions versus contemporary auditions, which vet dancers on their abilities to digest choreography, including through improvisation exercises or even contact improv with a partner.

Griffin recalls how unsteady she was at her first improv audition. Watching more experienced dancers from the sidelines, she thought, What makes them so good? Over time, she discovered that good improvisation demands some preparation in the studio (she culls from a catalogue of favorite phrases), as well as knowing her strengths. The key is to make smooth transitions: You need to organically move from one step to another. Improvisation skills, she says, have also improved her classical technique by sharpening her mindbody connection and imagination, and honing her eye for detail.

When Griffin, standing a statuesque 5 8, auditioned for Oregon Ballet Theatre in 2014, she was 27. I was the tallest one, the brownest one and the oldest one in the room, she says. But being experienced in a room full of 18-year-olds and showing my personality and capability made me stand out immediately.

Griffins confident communication skills with OBT artistic director Kevin Irving helped establish a working relationship from the get-go. (In another audition, she even challenged a director on his 5 7 height limit for women, claiming that there were plenty of tall men in the company to partner her.) Its not just about holding your hands and nodding and being the good girl, she says. We need to speak up for ourselves and ask legitimate questions about a contract. You can be gracious without being dull and generic.

Advice:

Its one thing to be able to show your stuff onstage with adrenaline. But you also have to channel that feeling in the studio. Youre not just auditioning as a technician, but as a complete artist.Hungary may issue Samurai bond within weeks - sources

Related article

Hungary relies on households in 2018 debt financing plan 19/12/2017 1:23pm

Hungary filed a shelf registration to the Kanto Local Finance Bureau on July 14 to issue up to 100 billion yen (USD 933 mn) of Samurai bonds and up to JPY 100 bn of Uridashi bonds, the news agency said.The sources did not say whether the Government Debt Management Agency (AKK) were just hiring or had already hired the lead banks.On 19 December, Hungary's Economy Minister Mihaly Varga said the country could issue a Samurai bond in the first half of 2018 in order to maintain its presence on the Japanese market.This would be Hungary's first yen issuance since it sold JPY 25 bn of 10-year bonds via Mizuho and Nikko Citigroup in October 2007. This was what expired last year and this is why it could be worth going to the Japanese market again. The first such bond was issued in 2004. A total of JPY 200 bn worth of yen bonds were issued by Hungary in five transactions.Television ratings are often about showing us the goods. Last Monday shaped up to be a battle between the "goods," pitting ABCs "the good doctor," the breakout freshman show of the year, against "good girls" (9 p.m., NBC, tv-14). While some are touting it as a success for "good girls," Im not sure that comedy will work out so well in the long run.

For starters, "Good Girls" had the advantage of heavy promotion during more than two weeks of Olympic coverage. It also had a two-hour lead-in from "The Voice" (7 p.m., NBC, TV-PG). That musical showcase was introducing Kelly Clarkson as the newest judge. Its audience of more than 12 million total viewers was nearly twice the size of "The Bachelor" (7 p.m., ABC, TV-14), the lead-in for "The Good Doctor." Despite all the advantages for "Good Girls," "The Good Doctor" had the larger total audience. "Good Girls" had a slight advantage in the number and share of viewers aged 18 to 49.

"The Good Doctor" will not air tonight to make way for Aries three-hour trip home on "The Bachelor" to introduce his ersatz intendeds to the family. On tonights "Good Girls," the ladies deal with their own money woes while trying to scrounge up enough dough to keep violent gang members at bay. Im no soothsayer, but given the choice between a schmaltzy feel-good drama about a boyish surgeon and a gang of female gun-toting bank robbers, viewers will consistently go with the guy in scrubs.

Speaking of formidable women, Smithsonian launches a two-part profile of "Cleopatra" (7 p.m.), part of a monthlong salute to "Epic Warrior Women." Filled with re-enactments and computer graphics, "Cleopatra" revisits the Egyptian queens story, best known from Shakespeares tragedy "Antony and Cleopatra," and adds historical information more sensational than anything dreamed up by the Bard of Avon.

Narrated by Lynda Carter, future installments of "Epic Warrior Women" will profile "Amazons" (March 19); "Gladiatrix" (March 26) and "Africas Amazons" (April 2).

Life teaches us that the best way to star on a reality show is to have already appeared on a reality show. "Fast N Loud" personality Aaron Kaufman returns to host "Shifting Gears With Aaron Kaufman" (9:17 p.m., Discovery, TV-14). Hes assembled a team at his Dallas-based shop, Arclight Fabrication, where he will assemble vehicles ready to be tested in the harshest conditions on Earth.

TONIGHTS OTHER HIGHLIGHTS

Hollywood loves a bad boy on "Lucifer" (7 p.m., Fox, TV-14).

Type-A behavior on "The Resident" (8 p.m., Fox, TV-14).

The new series "The Golden State Killer: Its Not Over" (8 p.m., ID, TV-14) focuses on efforts to identify a prolific serial killer who terrorized California in the 1970s.

Sara confronts her dark past on "The Alienist" (8 p.m., TNT, TV-MA).

The team stumbles upon an armed robbery on "Scorpion" (9 p.m., CBS, TV-14).

A three-dimensional chess game unfolds in Prague on "McMafia" (9 p.m., AMC, TV-14).

SERIES NOTES

Too many cooks on "Kevin Can Wait" (7 p.m., CBS, TV-PG) ... A return to Checkpoint Charlie on "DCs Legends of Tomorrow" (8 p.m., CW, TV-14) ... Daddys little girl on "Man With a Plan" (7:30 p.m., CBS, TV-PG).

Francos girl may be striking a pose on "Superior Donuts" (8 p.m., CBS, TV-PG) ... Elderly brains conjure up a drawing room murder mystery on "iZombie" (8 p.m., CW, TV-14) ... Chip confronts his smartphone addiction on "Living Biblically" (8:30 p.m., CBS, TV-PG).

LATE NIGHT

David Chang is booked on "The Daily Show With Trevor Noah" (10 p.m., Comedy Central) ... Kevin Hart appears on "Conan" (10 p.m., TBS) ... David Oyelowo, Chelsea Clinton and Martha Stewart are booked on "The Late Show With Stephen Colbert" (10:35 p.m., CBS) ... Jimmy Fallon welcomes Katie Holmes, Brian Tyree Henry, U.S. Womens Olympic Ice Hockey Team, Meghan Trainor and Bun B on "The Tonight Show" (10:34 p.m., NBC).

Nathan Lane, Michael K. Williams, Brad Meltzer and Zach Danziger visit "Late Night With Seth Meyers" (11:37 p.m., NBC) ... Jeff Goldblum, Marlon Wayans, Jack Hanna and Albert Hammond Jr. appear on "The Late Late Show With James Corden" (11:35 p.m., CBS).Russians. Why does that not surprise me? Boomers grew up not trusting Russians.

Its hard to completely comprehend what has happened and is happening with all the recent news about "information warfare." I guess we get it.

The national security adviser recently said there is "incontrovertible" evidence Russians are messing with us. I had to look that word up.

Back in the day, Russia and America were always messing with each other. President Kennedy showed them who was boss in 1962 during the Cuban missile crisis. The Russians backed down and pulled their nuclear missiles out of Cuba. There is more to that story, but not in this column.

Russians beat us into space with Sputnik, the first satellite, in 1957, but an American walked on the moon first in 1969. We showed them with one big step for mankind.

The duck-and-cover drills in schools in the 1950s were conducted because the Russians had figured out how to construct the atomic bomb. They could not be trusted. The Russian communist leader at the time, Nikita Khrushchev, was a tough-looking fella. The KGB, the Russian security agency, just sounded evil.

During that time we even heard about fallout shelters. The televisions series from the 1960s "The Twilight Zone" showed a few episodes about nuclear war. The threat from Russia was menacing, and if we saw that bright flash of an atomic bomb denotation, we had to be prepared. (We were unaware we didnt have a chance.)

Stirring the pot

We will be hearing and reading about the details of this information warfare for the next several months. The Russians are apparently "stirring the pot" in the already-boiling tub of discontent in our society.

Most of us in this country are in the midst of news and data overload  or in my view, communication bedlam. Certainly from what I witness there is conflict every day and every hour on social media.

Jay Furst wrote in the "Our View" editorial on Feb. 22 that this Russian mission is to "spread false information  fake news  and make fringe opinions seem more prevalent and powerful than they are."

Im just a guy who got on Facebook a few years ago to keep in touch with family, friends and classmates. In this Facebook world, you can share any information you may want your friends to read. I share nothing (except my column every week).

I feel that social media is a brutal landscape. I wish it wasnt. When something happens like the recent tragic school murders, many go to their respective corners. The bell rings and the articles, quotes, commentaries, sarcastic comments and judgments begin.

Im getting the impression (and even hoping) that more people (not only boomers but others) may be deciding to leave or scale down their involvement in the social media world.

My cousin Connie recently bailed from social media. She was into it all  Twitter, Pinterest, Snapchat, Facebook, etc. The light bulb came on that her time and her life were being consumed.

Connie said that she believes for the sake of a more convenient world, we have given up privacy, morals, ethics, manners and common sense, and our children are suffering because of it.

Meow mix

As I cycled through my Facebook page on a recent afternoon, I found stories shared by my friends, some of them on the right and some on the left side of the political spectrum. I have noted my decisions with a yes or no as to whether I read or listened to them:

Article that shows a kid stepping on the American flag: NO

Cat video: YES

Presidents ranked from worst to best: NO

Article about what happens to our country when you cant spank children: NO

Article with Jesse Ventura talking about gun control: NO

Article from Occupy Democrats: NO

Article from Robertson Family Values: NO

Video of Alison Kraus singing "When you say nothing at all": Double YES

Article about Satan slaying people: Double NO

This past week I received two phone calls that left a message saying I needed to call a number immediately because my computer was going to be obsolete if I didnt call. I think Russians may be behind this as well. The FBI needs to expand the Russian investigation.

Jay Furst ended his opinion piece with a recommendation to us to spend time with known, trusted and credible news sources. I agree.

On my Facebook account, I dont unfriend those who share articles that clearly lean one way or the other. No matter if they hate Trump or Hillary, Bush or Obama, they are still my friends.

The actor John Wayne is credited with the quote, "Talk low, talk slow and dont say too much." I agree with that as well.With the recent murder of 17 individuals in Parkland, Fla., Ive experienced and witnessed a multitude of emotions and responses, including fear, anger, frustration and motivation. And I dont think anyone is wrong for feelings they have. In fact, the vast array of responses is a necessary component if measures are to be found to prevent more tragedies like the one in Florida.

The voices that are catching my attention in the media right now are not the ones trumpeting unchangeable stances; instead, it is the people who are discussing and remaining open to the perspectives of others who stick out.

Rather than telling other sides what is so wrong with their thoughts and viewpoints, wouldnt energy be better spent forming new ideas for solutions, working to understand why others feel the way they do and attempting to refine our own ideas? All of us are human beings, capable of some degree of emotion and sadness related to the large loss of life that has taken place in U.S. schools in the past two decades as a result of gun violence. Were reminded that we share a desire to prevent such massacres from being repeated.

I dont believe there is one simple solution to gun violence, nor do I believe there is no solution at all. I do, however, hold the belief that other people can teach us a lot. But we need to listen to those with whom we differ, as well as those with whom we relate. It is still crucial to remain strong in our beliefs, and not settle for a half answer, but there must be a listening component from all sides of the issue.

Yes, nothing can be achieved by only hearing the words of those around us, but no lasting change can be created without the consideration of a range of perspectives and ideas either.

In my English classes, we have focused on the benefits of examining texts through different lenses. For example, a feminist viewpoint can reveal the authors thoughts about differences between the treatment of men and women. Perhaps the author is trying to help us see something in particular or to encourage us to question facets of our own lives. The overall literary experience is made richer.

Similarly, such an attitude can be taken toward all those with whom we interact: Perhaps they can expose something previously missed or enhance a position we already have.

Although circumstances of gun violence are never ones on which wed like to dwell for long, they are not going away. It is not a novel from which we can escape by closing the cover and setting it up on a shelf. Yet, we do have the opportunity to write the ending. Like any book, we need lead characters as well as supporting ones.

There is sure to be conflict and dialogue, but maybe by listening, examining different points of view, and refining the beliefs we already hold, we can finally finish this chapter of gun violence in our nations history.Peter Beinart proclaims that the Trump administration is preparing for a new Cold War. Against whom? Against Russia and China.

The left cant seem to make up its mind. Is President Trump a tool of Putin or an anti-Russia cold warrior?

I say hes neither. Instead, I think Trump is slowly recognizing, as President Obama never seemed to, that Russia and China are waging a Cold War against us, and is beginning to respond accordingly.

This time around, China is the stronger of our two adversaries. And it signaled its determination to escalate its Cold War against the U.S. when Xi Jinping became, in effect, dictator for life.

As the New York Times puts it:

Rather than beginning a final term next month as a lame duck, Mr. Xi will govern with new authority to pursue his agenda of making China a global power even if it risks putting Beijing in conflict with Washington and triggering a new Cold War after 40 years of mutual engagement. . . .

Cui Liru, the former president of a think tank under the Ministry of State Security that often reflects Chinese government thinking, puts it this way:

In the Asia-Pacific, the dominant role of the United States in a political and military sense will have to be readjusted. It doesnt mean U.S. interests must be sacrificed. But if the U.S. insists on a dominant role forever, thats a problem.

A problem in what sense? China has thrived economically under the status quo. It has benefited from favorable trade deals with the U.S. And the U.S. certainly has not used its political and military power to engage in aggression against China or anyone else in the region.

The problem for China is that the U.S. stands in the way of Chinese aggression and visions of regional, and indeed global, domination. Hugh White, a scholar and former defense official in Australia, explains:

It is now clear Xis agenda to rebuild an Asian order with China at its center is here to stay. I think Xi is impatient. He wants China to be the predominant power in the Western Pacific. He wants to do it himself and for it to go down in history as his achievement. That makes him formidable.

According to the Times, Chinese leaders view the U.S. as a superpower in decline. They doubt that we have the will to compete economically or militarily with China in Asia.

Their doubt is well-founded. The Democrats dont have the stomach to compete with China and until recently, Trumps willingness to do so seemed to consist only of engaging in a trade war.

Thats changed, as Beinart says. But Trump is not a dictator and he wont be president for more than the next seven years.

If China fails in its quest to dominate Asia, and indeed the globe, it probably wont be due to sustained U.S. resistance. Rather, it will be down to inherent weaknesses in the Chinese system manifested, for example, by Xis ascension to dictator for life.To the Editor: President Donald Trump has insulted all police officers/law enforcement officers by condemning Broward County Sheriffs Deputy Scot Peterson, calling him a coward, his actions disgusting, and on and on without having all the facts.

President Trumps cowardly comments about people being afraid of the NRA and his insulting comments that he would have gone into Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School without a gun, are really gutless, a lie and insulting to law enforcement officers, who train and everyday put their lives in danger to protect all Americans.

Trump now says he will fight the NRA and make recommendations to protect children and us from gun massacres, but now he is backing away from that statement and having lunch with NRA leadership. Trump is offering to arm teachers, but teachers say no  arm us with books, pencils, and resources to help our students. But Trump is stuck on the one idea he has. He has no real suggestions, no idea what to do.

The actions of Peterson must be examined, dissected and reviewed as is the practice in all departments, after a tragedy or loss of life  what can we do better, what did we do wrong.

A Detroit police officer was shot and killed by a police officer while on a drug raid, and a scout car crew was sent to the same location. It was a lack of communication that played a part in this tragic accident. The department looked and made changes in notifications and put narcotic officers in jumpsuits to make them look like a unit.

Trump is not a friend of law enforcement. He stands with the NRA and now all law enforcement officers, police chiefs associations and police unions must stand against the NRA and demand common sense gun laws, full funding for the ATF and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (gun studies).

There can be no support for the NRA from law enforcement until they stand with law enforcement officers to protect the innocents and the public.

David Malhalab

Dearborn HeightsOver the past two years, monocrystalline PERC technology, with its distinct advantages in terms of performance and cost, has been increasingly favored and recognized across the solar cell industry, a sector that has higher requirements for efficiency as a result of the push among solar power producers to reduce the cost per kilowatt hour of solar power and achieve grid parity. As a result, an increasing number of solar cell manufacturers have begun to produce monocrystalline PERC cells.

"LONGi Solar has been focusing on the R&D of monocrystalline solar cells and modules as part of its drive to make breakthroughs in monocrystalline technology. Since October 2017, LONGi Solar has broken the world record three times in terms of conversion efficiency of monocrystalline solar cells," said Dr. Li Hua, vice president of research and development at LONGi Solar. " The company achieved a new world record of 23.6% in efficiency at the beginning of 2018, after having announced on October 27, 2017 that it had reached a world record of 23.26%, exceeding the highest efficiency that industry analysts believe PERC cells can achieve. This achievement is another testament to LONGi Solar's leading technology in monocrystalline cells."

"LONGi Solar's plans are to continue to invest heavily in monocrystalline PERC cells, to quickly expand production to meet the increasing demand for high-efficiency cells and to achieve the mass production of cells with a conversion efficiency exceeding 22 per cent, delivering more value to its customers," stated LONGi Solar president Li Wenxue.

Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/646695/world_record.jpg

SOURCE LONGi SolarSYDNEY, Feb. 27, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Clarivate Analytics, the global leader in providing trusted insights and analytics to accelerate the pace of innovation, has partnered with IP Australia by providing its enhanced patent data to augment its Source IP database. The enhanced Derwent patent data will be available for a number of patents currently listed on the Source IP national initiative.

Source IP was launched in November 2015 to help expose potential collaboration opportunities to Australian businesses seeking to work with public sector research partners and to facilitate quick and easy contact. The main goal of Source IP is to increase investment in public sector IP.

Source IP will expand its current Australian patent data with additional patent fields from the enriched patent data from Clarivate Analytics, specifically the Derwent World Patents Index (DWPI). With the addition of DWPI, it will be easier for industries to search and comprehend available patents, identify what patents can be licensed from Australian universities to strengthen their own R&D efforts, and identify potential research partners. Source IP currently features research expertise from over 67 research organizations including Commonwealth research organizations, universities, Medical Research Institutes and Cooperative Research Centers.

"We have always strongly supported the Australian government's National Innovation and Science Agenda. This includes supporting the Source IP initiative with our enhanced DWPI patent data as part of our continuous efforts at Clarivate Analytics to promote greater academia-industry collaboration within the innovation communities around the world," said Jeroen Prinsen, Vice President and Head of Australasia and Southeast Asia at Clarivate Analytics.

Patricia Kelly, IP Australia's Director General, commented on the contribution from Clarivate, "We're extremely privileged to have Clarivate Analytics provide us with the Derwent abstracts. These abstracts help strengthen Source IP, which is a powerful tool helping connect IP rights holders with Australian businesses. The Derwent abstracts have increased the chance of investment in public sector IP, potentially helping many different publicly funded research parties."

Trusted by more than 40 patent offices worldwide, Derwent patent data, tools and technology, including DWPI is considered the global leader in providing research solutions to inventors, IP professionals and licensing specialists. DWPI provides the world's most trusted source of patent data, delivering editorially enhanced, authoritative and accurate patent data. Users accessing Source IP to investigate the licensing and collaboration opportunities that exist within Australia's research organizations will be able to review and access DWPI abstracts. In turn, enriched patent data provides users insight on the novelty of the respective invention and how it can be used, along with a re-written title to accurately reflect the nature of the invention for ease of comprehension. Source IP users will be able to gain a quick and accurate understanding of how the research organizations' inventions may be applied in their industry, as many original patent documents tend to use highly technical terminology to describe the invention.

About IP Australia

IP Australia is the Australian Government agency that administers IP rights and legislation relating to patents, trademarks, designs and plant breeder's rights. It contributes to the innovation system more broadly by using its specialist skills and experience to assist Australian businesses to make the most of their IP and to provide advice to government. Learn more at ipaustralia.gov.au

About Source IP

Source IP is an IP Australia initiative to facilitate innovation and commercialization by providing a means for public sector patent holders to signal their licensing intent and promote their key areas of technology within a single platform. The initiative will seek to address a current barrier to collaboration and commercialization in that business finds it hard to access information about available public sector IP. This is a goal of the Government's Industry innovation and Competitiveness Agenda, in particular its focus on boosting collaboration between science and industry. Visit: https://sourceip.ipaustralia.gov.au/

About Derwent

Derwent powers the innovation lifecycle from idea to commercialization  with trusted patent data, applications, and services. For 50 years, Derwent has been the leader in patent-smart technology and applications for inventors, patent attorneys and licensing specialists at start-ups and the largest global innovators, legal professionals at the leading intellectual property practices, and patent examiners at more than 40 patent offices. With 100% of the world's leading patent fliers relying on Derwent solutions including Derwent Innovation, Derwent World Patents Index, Derwent Patents Citation Index and Derwent Data Analyzer, the results derived from monitoring technology trends and competitive landscapes, are deemed highly relevant to informing FTO opinions, prosecuting patents, monetizing and licensing assets and supporting litigation activities. Visit: https://clarivate.com/products/derwent/

Clarivate Analytics

Clarivate Analytics is the global leader in providing trusted insights and analytics to accelerate the pace of innovation. Building on a heritage going back more than a century and a half, we have built some of the most trusted brands across the innovation lifecycle, including the Web of Science, Cortellis, Derwent, CompuMark, MarkMonitor and Techstreet. Today, Clarivate Analytics is a new and independent company on a bold entrepreneurial mission, to help our clients radically reduce the time from new ideas to life-changing innovations. For more information, please visit clarivate.com .



Media Contact

Pamela Lim

Clarivate Analytics

Senior External Communications Manager, Asia Pacific

+65 6870 3212 (o)

[email protected]

Related Links

http://clarivate.com



SOURCE Clarivate AnalyticsNuclias offers simple monitoring and configuration at the touch of a button

BARCELONA, Spain, Feb. 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- D-Link, the multinational networking equipment manufacturer, has today announced the launch of a new subscription-based, cloud-based network management solution -- Nuclias -- enabling managed service providers and business owners to remotely configure and monitor their network infrastructures anywhere, at any time.

Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/646761/Nuclias_logo.jpg

The all-new app and online portal offer a range of flexible features accessible at the touch of a button. It provides users with complete autonomy to manage wireless access points, capture and analyse insights into every connected device, and comes with enhanced design and functionality.

Nuclias provides a cloud-based management tool without the need for a local controller, reducing cost and complexity while streamlining network infrastructure. It also offers zero-touch provisioning for ease of deployment and scalable architecture to support an unlimited number of devices.

Its multi-tenant structure allows deployment across multiple sites and companies, and its advanced traffic report and data analysis tool provide business owners and IT professionals with real-time insights.

Additional features include a secure role-based administration system and auditable change logs, authentication via captive portal, 802.1x, RADIUS server and also supports Facebook and Google login for guest Wi-Fi access, and automated network monitoring.

D-Link offers two 802.11ac access points, the DBA-1510P AP and DBA-1210P AP, both with PoE support that allows for a more flexible installation where traditional power outlets may not be available. Later in 2018, D-Link will introduce a complete line-up of high-performance Gigabit smart-managed switches with optional PoE and fibre connectivity to the Nuclias family of products.

Nuclias Wireless AC Access Points

Nuclias offers access points supporting the latest dual-band 802.11ac technology with combined wireless speeds of up to 1,750 Mbps. DBA-1210P features 802.11ac Wave 2 with multi-user MIMO support to maximise your business' network efficiency. Each access point can simultaneously communicate with multiple devices, over multiple wireless bands, allowing businesses to get things done faster.

DBA-1510P

802.11ac



3x3 concurrent Dual Band (AC1750)



Gigabit Ethernet



802.3at PoE

DBA-1210P

802.11ac Wave 2



2x2 Concurrent Dual Band (AC1200)



MU-MIMO



Gigabit Ethernet



802.3af PoE

D-Link has been creating complete end-to-end networking solutions and state-of-the-art solutions to benefit businesses for more than 31 years. This includes switches, wireless devices, network security, IP surveillance, and storage and management solutions delivering best-in-class performance.

About D-Link

D-Link is a global leader in connecting people, businesses and cities. We aim to connect more homes, small businesses, medium to large-sized enterprises, and service providers. D-Link implements and supports unified network solutions that integrate capabilities in switching, wireless, broadband, storage, IP surveillance, and cloud-based network management. An award-winning designer, developer, and manufacturer, D-Link has grown from a group of seven friends since its founding in 1986 in Taiwan to more than 2,000 employees worldwide.

D-Link and D-Link logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of D-Link Corporation or its subsidiaries. All other third party marks mentioned herein may be trademarks of their respective owners. Copyright  2016. D-Link. All Rights Reserved

SOURCE D-LinkMUMBAI, February 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --

Prototyped the latest materials and finishes at In-Store Asia 2018; held in Mumbai recently

Dovetail, a pioneer in the Indian retail fixture design and manufacturing segment, announced expansion of its offerings to India's fast growing retail sector. Dovetail showcased the latest materials and finishes that are at par with international standards and introduced to Indian retailer's futuristic trends like parametric technologies at In-Store Asia 2018 held in BEC, Goregaon Mumbai recently.

Elaborating on Dovetail's solution expansion, S. Sundar, MD, Dovetail Furniture Pvt. Ltd., said, "The Indian customer today is demanding a shopping experience at par with the best-in-the-world and both global and Indian retailers are investing significantly in store design and fixtures. Dovetail has worked with leading global brands for over two decades now, to help them establish their retail presence in the country. Having strengthened our capabilities by investing 2 cr in the last 3 years, in high-end manufacturing machinery including laser cutting and powder coating technology, besides the best minds in retail design engineering, Dovetail is well-positioned to cater to India's growing retail market. The fact that we cater to global standards without compromising on quality and retaining high cost efficiency, is a value proposition that would be hard to match. By expanding our offering, we are looking to strengthen our leadership."

Talking about Dovetail's participation at In-Store Asia 2018, R.K. Nair, General Manager, Sales, Dovetail, said, "This is the 9th year we participated at In-Store Asia, the region's largest trade event for the retail sector. We had a tremendous response to the 'Augmented Reality' showcase at last year's event and it even won us the runners-up for Innovative stall design. The tremendous customer response encouraged us to offer an even better experience this year. This year also we got great response. We had created a prototype, a first-of-its-kind, wherein retailers can see, feel and experience live over 50 different materials and finishings."

According to a recent IBEF report, India has replaced China as the most promising market for retail expansion, supported by expanding economy, booming consumption and urbanizing population. Indian retail trading has received FDI equity inflows, totalling US$ 1.09 billion during April-September 2017. India is the fifth largest preferred retail destination globally. The country is among the highest in the world in terms of per capita retail store availability.

About Dovetail:

For over 2 decades, leading brands that have wanted to provide the Indian shopper a retail experience at par with the best-in-the-world, have partnered Dovetail for their shop fits. From conceptual design, value engineering, prototyping, manufacturing to installation, Dovetail has demonstrated its capabilities working with the best of international and national retail brands such as Levis, Nike, Marks & Spencer, The Children's Place, Pantaloons, Unlimited to name a few. Dovetail has invested in a state-of-the-art manufacturing facility, with end-to-end capabilities in furniture manufacture and finish. Founded in 1984 by S. Sundar, a NID graduate, Dovetail is a pioneer and end-to-end furniture and fixture design and manufacturing company.

Media Contact :

Dimna Vivek

[email protected]

+91-9535373913

Asst Manager-Brand Communication

PRHUB IMC PVT LTD



SOURCE DovetailBENGALURU, February 28,2018 /PRNewswire/ --

ElectronicsBazaar forays into entry-level mobiles segment

ElectronicsBazaar, a B2B e-distribution company, has announced the launch of Vow , a brand new feature phone aimed at India's fast-growing mobile population. With this launch, ElectronicsBazaar forays into the entry-level mobiles segment. India is the world's biggest feature phone market, experiencing an annual growth of 17%.

(Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/647498/ElectronicsBazaar_Logo.jpg )



"We are delighted to launch our first branded feature phone - Vow - today. Our vision is to make technology accessible and affordable to all, and Vow is a step in the right direction towards bridging the digital divide," said Sharad Khandelwal, Founder/CEO, ElectronicsBazaar.

Electronics Bazaar is a pioneer in e-distribution of electronic brands in India, with a focus on bridging the gap between brands and retailers across the country. Today, it has partnered with over 70 brands and built a network of over 45,000 retailers across 1,200 cities.

Vow will be available in 3 versions: V103, V104 and V105, with attractive keypad designs and colours. All models come with 1 year warranty. Dance to the tunes of Vow, the perfect music phone with wireless FM, exceptional sound quality and volume and bundled earphones, so one can listen to their favourite music on-the-go or at home with family.

Vow also brings unique and valuable features such as: the SOS functionality, which is aimed at making women feel safer; support for multiple Indian languages including Hindi, Gujarati, Tamil & Telugu; a Hindi Keypad, and is a proud product of the Make in India movement.

The name Vow was chosen carefully, and it means 'Vrat' or 'Vachan'- a solemn promise. A promise to deliver the best quality product, at the best price to Vow customers. Vow is a feature phone that one can gift their family and loved ones to represent a promise to stay in touch and be connected, always.

Key Specifications:

- 1.77" Screen

- 600 mAH Battery

- External Memory Card - Support upto 16GB

- Spreadtrum 6531e chipset

- Internal Phonebook

- Internet Support

- Earphones

Key Features:

- Music Player - with Earphones Included

- Hindi Keypad + Language Support for English, Hindi, Gujarati, Tamil & Telugu

- SOS functionality - in case of emergencies

- 1 Year replacement Warranty

- BlueTooth

- Torch

- Wireless FM Radio

- Camera

- Video Player

- Dual SIM

- Auto Call Recording

For more information, please visit: http://www.electronicsbazaar.com

One can also connect with us at: Facebook - ElectronicsBazaar India or Twitter - @electrosbazaar

About Amiable Electronics Pvt. Ltd.

Amiable Electronics Pvt. Ltd (AEPL) was established in 2014 with the aim to become the largest independent seller of consumer electronics products in India. It runs ElectronicsBazaar, http://www.electronicsbazaar.com , an online (B2B) portal created to bridge the existing distribution gap among national and international electronic product brands and millions of retailers spread across India. The prime focus of ElectronicsBazaar is to bring the best of brands at the doorstep of the consumer electronics retailers pan India. ElectronicsBazaar is headquartered in Mumbai with an office in Bengaluru.

Media Contact :

Preethi Jayapathi

[email protected]

+91-7975910858

Marketing Head

Amiable Electronics Pvt. Ltd.



SOURCE ElectronicsBazaarForm3 offers a scalable, cost-effective payment processing platform designed for volume processing at high speed

LONDON, Feb. 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Based on its recent analysis of the payment processing platform market, Frost & Sullivan recognizes Form3 with the 2018 European Customer Value Leadership Award for it's comprehensive and unique Payments-as-a-Service (PaaS) solution, which is a native-cloud-based platform.

"Form3's full Payments-as-a-Service processing solution facilitates customization for clients and creates a scalable set of services perfectly aligned with day-to-day business operations and with specific payment requirements and constraints," said Jean-Noel Georges, Global Program Director, Frost & Sullivan.

Form3 offers a unique PaaS solution within a payment processing platform ecosystem for financial institutions and regulated financial technology firms. The company's cloud-based platform supports three key areas: payment processing, clearing and settlement services. In addition, Form3 facilitates access to the entire payment ecosystem, including direct access to a wide variety of payment schemes, networks and bank partnerships. The company's innovative approach, combined with its pay-per-transaction business model, expedites its clients' migration from complex legacy banking and payment systems to a more flexible, efficient and scalable cloud-based infrastructure.

Form3's solution requires only a single internet-based API integration for clients, minimizing their upfront costs. Furthermore, the platform's micro-services architecture incorporates a modular and configurable structure that aids scalability and facilitates growth of future applications and services. The flexibility of the Form3 platform makes it easy for the company to adjust its managed services to comply with local regulations and answer new market demands as they arise, such as instant payments, sanction screening, and easier payment scheme access.

"Form3's product strategy is built around the provision of payment services which are pure and simple, running on a highly resilient platform designed for volume processing at high speed with high availability," said Georges.

Form3 has built a scalable, cost-effective, and easy-to-integrate solution that meets the changing needs of the financial services industry. For these reasons, Form3 has earned Frost & Sullivan's 2018 European Customer Value Leadership Award.

Each year, Frost & Sullivan presents this award to the company that has demonstrated excellence in implementing strategies that proactively creates value for its customers with a focus on improving the return on the investment that customers make in its services or products. The award recognizes the company's unique focus on augmenting the value that its customers receive, beyond simply good customer service, leading to improved customer retention and customer base expansion.

Frost & Sullivan Best Practices awards recognize companies in a variety of regional and global markets for demonstrating outstanding achievement and superior performance in areas such as leadership, technological innovation, customer service, and strategic product development. Industry analysts compare market participants and measure performance through in-depth interviews, analysis, and extensive secondary research to identify best practices in the industry.

About Form3

Form3 is a fully managed payment technology service combining a powerful AWS cloud processing platform, multiple-scheme payment gateways and a fully managed service model. Form3 provides complete end-to-end Payments-as-a-Service for financial institutions and regulated financial technology firms. Reliable and secure cloud-based access to FPS, BACS, CHAPS, SEPA, SEPA Instant & SWIFT payment schemes and settlement bank partnerships. The service is robust and reliable, trusted by the world's leading financial institutions. Form3 streamlines and simplifies the operation and cost of payments processing, delivering value back to the business. Form3's powerful micro-services architecture and API provide a single point of simple access to the full universe of payment schemes. Future-proofed at the point of delivery for complete peace of mind, the result is a straight-forward, easy to use and hassle-free Payments-as-a-Service. Visit http://www.form3.tech/

About Frost & Sullivan

Frost & Sullivan, the Growth Partnership Company, works in collaboration with clients to leverage visionary innovation that addresses the global challenges and related growth opportunities that will make or break today's market participants. For more than 50 years, we have been developing growth strategies for the global 1000, emerging businesses, the public sector, and the investment community. Contact us: Start the discussion.

Contact:

Ana Arriaga

P: 210.247.3823

F: 210.348.1003

E: [email protected]

Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/646966/Frost_Sullivan_Award_Logo.jpg

Related Links

http://www.frost.com



SOURCE Frost & SullivanVitamin K2 is recognized by the global healthcare community as a revolutionary vitamin. In 1934, Danish biochemist and physiologist Carl Peter Henrik Dam discovered vitamin K and verified it as a lipid soluble vitamin. Henrik Dam was awarded the Nobel Prize in Medicine in 1943 for joint work with Edward Doisy in discovering vitamin K2. K2 is now widely applied in research for the prevention of osteoporosis, arteriosclerosis and cancer in developed markets, including Europe, the United States and Japan.

Goodscend is a large high-tech healthcare company engaged in the research and development as well as the production and marketing of healthcare and pharmaceutical products. The company has attracted much attention as a result of the ongoing expansion of its presence in international markets. Leading global market intelligence provider HTF Market Intelligence Consulting Private Limited said in its 2017 report that Goodscend's MK-4, an active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) of its K2 products, continues to claim a leading position in terms of the market share worldwide and is now available in 17 countries and regions, supported by long-term partnerships with several leading global healthcare product companies.

High-purity vitamin K2

Goodscend continues to build on its technological advantages by developing proprietary high value-added and high-tech products. With years of continuous improvement in production technologies for K2 products, the purity of Goodscend's MK-4, MK-7 and MK-9 has reached 98 percent. The series of vitamins are among those with the highest percentage of active ingredients worldwide.

Forging ahead with the aim of becoming an industry leader

As a low-profile global leader in terms of the sales of K2's API MK-4, Goodscend continues in its commitment to the development of vitamin K2 healthcare products. Goodscend's K2, a fast-growing brand in the healthcare product industry, has also taken the message of the power of intelligent manufacturing in China to the world with the appearance on the large billboards overlooking New York's Times Square and in the 15th arrondissement of Paris.

Contact:

Tel:+86-755-26808826

Email: [email protected]

Website: http://www.goodscend.com

Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/647514/Goodscend_vitamin_K2.jpg

Related Links

http://www.goodscend.com



SOURCE Goodscend Pharm. Sci & Tech. Co,LtdMUMBAI, February 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --

COMPUTEX 2018 expected to attract more Indian visitors in Taipei

SMART ASIA India 2018 to be held in Bangalore in October

India has emerged as an attractive target market for many Taiwanese companies-the result of its booming economy supported by demographic dividend and growing infrastructure that has recently been emphasizing on smart cities. Propelled by the Taiwanese government's New Southbound Policy whereby India is a prominent focus, bilateral trade between the two countries reached US$6 billion in 2017, marking a 28% year-on-year increase. India currently houses some 104 Taiwanese firms which have established business operations across the country, and this trend is set to increase over the coming years. India's demand for development and Taiwan's willingness to share its expertise have led the two nations to become strategically complementary, a fact that is being leveraged for mutual progress and benefit. This is an initiative by the Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA).

The Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA) is leading this growth and maintaining economic trade relations with the South Asian country. TAITRA is the foremost non-profit trade promotion organization in Taiwan, actively assisting Taiwanese businesses and manufacturers in exploring trade and investment opportunities in India. It also analyses the Indian market in order to help Taiwanese brands seek long-term partnerships with their Indian counterparts. Recently, TAITRA is involved in an investment plan in which the state-run oil company CPC Corp. Taiwan is looking to start a petrochemical park in Mundra SEZ, Gujarat, a project estimated at US$567 million in the initial phase.

Commenting on the significant progress of bilateral relations, TAITRA's Mr. James Kuo, Deputy Executive Director of Exhibition Department, TAITRA pointed out that, "2017 was a year of success in terms of mutual trade and this number will reach US$10 billion within a couple of years. Over the same year, India made a total of 427 investments in Taiwan valued at US$57.17 million, investing in various fields including: information & communication, wholesale & retail, manufacturing, science & technology and more. We are very happy to see trade relations developing along these lines between the two sides. Taiwan is keen to offer its technological and manufacturing proficiency to help India tackle its development challenges."

TAITRA has planned year-round activities in India this year to promote closer cooperation. Activities include meetings between government officials, trade delegations, industry seminars, and B2B trade shows like COMPUTEX and SMART ASIA India. Such events serve as a common platform for Taiwanese enterprises and Indian stakeholders to discuss and embrace opportunities for various joint business possibilities and for strengthening trade relations. COMPUTEX and SMART ASIA India are a face for Taiwanese industries in India, and medium for further collaboration.

COMPUTEX is a leading global B2B ICT/IoT and start-up exhibition. Based upon Taiwan's complete ICT clusters, COMPUTEX covers the whole spectrum of the ICT industry. The show will be held in Taipei, June 5-9, 2018 and will showcase products of six themes, namely AI & Robotics, 5G, Blockchain, IoT, Innovations & Start-ups, and Gaming & VR. Considering the broad nature of the event, COMPUTEX is expecting a growth of more than 20% in Indian visitors this year. COMPUTEX will also be making its presence at Convergence 2018 in Delhi, March 7-9, displaying the winning products of the COMPUTEX d&i Awards, serving to further tap into the Indian market.

SMART ASIA 2017 partnered with trade bodies such as AIAI, AIEMA, and WTC Bangalore, facilitating an outstanding response from approximately 1400 professional visitors from Karnataka, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu. During the event, 50 world-class Taiwanese exhibitors presented innovative products and services in the fields of Smart Transportation, Smart Energy, Smart Water and IoT solutions. Following its resounding success, SMART ASIA India 2018 is anticipating to be larger in scale and attract more participants and visitors, as the expo looks toward contributing to the Modi government's ambitious Smart Cities Mission.

SMART ASIA India 2018 will be held in Bangalore, October 4-6, and will focus on three major themes: Smart City Solutions, Smart Technology Applications, and City Development Products & Services.

About SMART ASIA 2018 India

SMART ASIA India is a trade show focusing on smart tech and smart city trends and solutions. Organised by TAITRA, the show will take place October 4-6, 2018, at Bangalore International Exhibition Center (BIEC), India, and showcase Taiwan's cutting-edge smart technologies and products to a broad Indian audience. SMART ASIA India echoes the Modi government's "Smart Cities Mission", which aims to build 100 Smart Cities across India in order to improve citizens' quality of life and take the nation into a more advanced and technology-driven future.

The first edition of the show was successfully held November 23-25, 2017, receiving vast recognition and active participation from India's professional visitors. Based on this success, SMART ASIA India will return to Bangalore in 2018 and seeks to continue its partnership with the Indian government as well as various stakeholders in the Smart Cities industry, and highlight Taiwan's capabilities in facilitating the Smart Cities vision.

SMART ASIA India 2018 will focus on three main areas: Smart City Solutions, Smart Technology Applications, and City Development Products/Services. For more information, please visit the official website: http://www.SMARTASIA.com.

About COMPUTEX 2018

Established in 1981, COMPUTEX TAIPEI (called as COMPUTEX hereinafter) is the leading global ICT and IoT show with a complete supply chain and ecosystems. COMPUTEX, based upon Taiwan's complete ICT clusters, covers the whole spectrum of ICT industry, from established brands to startups and from ICT supply chain to IoT ecosystems. The mega event adopted a new position in 2016: Building Global Technology Ecosystems.

The 38th edition of the show will take place from June 5 to 9, 2018. COMPUTEX 2018 will focus on six main themes: AI & Robotics, 5G, Blockchain, IoT, Innovations & Startups, Gaming & VR. Meanwhile, there will be four featured exhibit areas, including "SmarTEX" focusing on IoT applications, "InnoVEX" exclusively for international startups, "iStyle" for Apple MFi certified products and peripherals and "Gaming & VR" to accommodate the exhibitors. Please visit official website http://www.computextaipei.com.tw for more information.

About TAITRA

The organiser of COMPUTEX TAIPEI and SMART ASIA India is the Taiwan External Trade Development Council, TAITRA, the foremost non-profit trade promotion organisation in Taiwan. Founded in 1970, TAITRA assists Taiwanese businesses and manufacturers in strengthening their international competitiveness and dealing with challenges in foreign markets.

TAITRA boasts a well-coordinated trade promotion and information network of over 1,200 trained specialists stationed throughout its Taipei headquarters, five local branch offices in Taoyuan, Hsinchu, Taichung, Tainan and Kaohsiung, and more than 60 overseas branch offices worldwide. Together with its sister organisations, Taiwan Trade Center (TTC) and Taipei World Trade Center (TWTC), TAITRA has created a wealth of trade opportunities through effective promotional strategies. In addition to organizing trade delegations and providing customised procurement services, TAITRA also hosts more than 40 international trade shows annually both in Taiwan and abroad.

About Taipei World Trade Center:

The TWTC was launched in January, 1986, by Taiwan's foremost trade promotion organisation, the Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA), to provide a single, modern venue that would combine exhibition space, conference facilities, offices, and hotel accommodation for international business. TWTC combines the gamut of services and brings together a vast consulting network for trade-related issues, trading partners, suppliers, and markets.

Media Contact:

Hesha Parekh

[email protected]

+91-9833113169

Senior Account Executive

Communicate India



SOURCE Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA)BENGALURU, India, February 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --

Infosys Finacle, part of EdgeVerve Systems, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Infosys (NYSE: INFY), announced a partnership with Moneythor, a Singapore-based data-driven digital banking provider. The Moneythor platform, integrated with Finacle, will enable financial institutions deliver personalized recommendations and insights to customers on numerous digital channels and devices.

With increasing demands from customers and businesses, many banks are struggling to provide contextual and proactive assistance across their digital channels. The new integrated solution will help banks to offer data-driven recommendations and smart Personal Financial Management (PFM) features within their existing online and mobile banking applications.

Moneythor is one of the companies that was recognized as part of the Finacle FinTech Connect, an initiative that builds on ongoing alliances and the Infosys Innovation Fund program to identify promising new FinTechs.

Highlights

The joint solution will offer an engine to classify, analyze and augment transaction data in order to generate better insights for the banks and their customers

The integrated solution will bring new interactive features and enriched transaction data, thereby enhancing customer engagement across digital channels

The solution can also be utilized by banks to publish tailor-made interactive content to assist customers with their money management needs, as well as providing contextual offers

Rule based capabilities and statistical algorithms will allow the solution to deliver data-driven personalized recommendations and insights with a quick time-to-market

Quotes

Sanat Rao, Chief Business Officer, Infosys Finacle:

"At Infosys Finacle, we are committed to enhancing customer experience and providing continuous thrust on collaboration with our clients and partners. In pursuit of this, the FinTech Connect program helps us expand the innovation ecosystem and bring to the fore promising startups. Moneythor's innovative offering will complement the Finacle suite of digital channel solutions, strengthening our value proposition and paving way for an improved digital banking experience for clients."

Olivier Berthier, CEO, Moneythor:

"We are delighted to assist Infosys Finacle in creating more value for their banking clients through innovative capabilities powered by our Moneythor solution. We are always on the lookout for partners to combine their domain expertise and solutions with Moneythor. Infosys Finacle offers such an opportunity and we are looking forward to a productive partnership."

About Infosys Finacle

Infosys Finacle is the industry-leading universal banking solution from EdgeVerve Systems, a wholly owned subsidiary of Infosys. The solution helps financial institutions develop deeper connections with stakeholders, power continuous innovation and accelerate growth in the digital world. Today, Finacle is the choice of banks across 94 countries and serves over 848 million customers - estimated to be nearly 16.5 percent of the world's adult banked population.

Finacle solutions address the core banking, e-banking, mobile banking, CRM, payments, treasury, origination, liquidity management, Islamic banking, wealth management, and analytics needs of financial institutions worldwide. Assessment of the top 1000 world banks reveals that banks powered by Finacle enjoy 50 percent higher returns on assets, 30 percent higher returns on capital, and 8.1 percent points lesser costs to income than others.

To know more, visit www.finacle.com

Safe Harbor

Certain statements in this release concerning our future growth prospects are forward-looking statements regarding our future business expectations intended to qualify for the 'safe harbor' under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, which involve a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in such forward-looking statements. The risks and uncertainties relating to these statements include, but are not limited to, risks and uncertainties regarding fluctuations in earnings, fluctuations in foreign exchange rates, our ability to manage growth, intense competition in IT services including those factors which may affect our cost advantage, wage increases in India, our ability to attract and retain highly skilled professionals, time and cost overruns on fixed-price, fixed-time frame contracts, client concentration, restrictions on immigration, industry segment concentration, our ability to manage our international operations, reduced demand for technology in our key focus areas, disruptions in telecommunication networks or system failures, our ability to successfully complete and integrate potential acquisitions, liability for damages on our service contracts, the success of the companies in which Infosys has made strategic investments, withdrawal or expiration of governmental fiscal incentives, political instability and regional conflicts, legal restrictions on raising capital or acquiring companies outside India, and unauthorized use of our intellectual property and general economic conditions affecting our industry. Additional risks that could affect our future operating results are more fully described in our United States Securities and Exchange Commission filings including our Annual Report on Form 20-F for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2017. These filings are available at www.sec.gov. Infosys may, from time to time, make additional written and oral forward-looking statements, including statements contained in the company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission and our reports to shareholders. In addition, please note that the date of this press release is mentioned at the beginning of the release, and any forward-looking statements contained herein are based on assumptions that we believe to be reasonable as of this date. The company does not undertake to update any forward-looking statements that may be made from time to time by or on behalf of the company unless it is required by law.

For further information, please contact:

Infosys

Asia Pacific

Sarah Gideon

Infosys, India

+91-80-4156-3998

[email protected]



EMEA

Margherita Di Cerbo

Infosys, Europe

Phone: +44-2075162748

[email protected]



Americas

Chiku Somaiya

Infosys, USA

+1-408-375-2722

[email protected]

This is a disclosure announcement from PR Newswire.

SOURCE Infosys LimitedBENGALURU, February 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --

LDRA Extends its Coding Standards Expertise to Support the Latest Advances in Automotive Development, Leveraging C++14 on High-End Microcontrollers for Complex Automotive Applications

LDRA, the leader in standards compliance, automated software verification, software code analysis, and test tools, has further extended its leadership in safety-critical coding standards and guidelines with support for the AUTOSAR C++14 Coding Standard within the LDRA tool suite. AUTOSAR (AUTomotive Open System ARchitecture) is a worldwide partnership of car manufacturers and ecosystem technology members working on an open, standardized software architecture for reliably controlling the growing complexity of electrical and electronic systems in motor vehicles. With the AUTOSAR coding standard integrated into the LDRA tool suite, development organizations can automate code reviews for compliance with the AUTOSAR standard to quickly identify and repair potential coding flaws and vulnerabilities, saving time and money in the production of high-assurance software applications.

(Logo: http://mma.prnewswire.com/media/613147/LDRA_Technology_Logo.jpg )

(Photo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/647464/AUTOSAR_Standard_LDRA_Tool_Suite.jpg )





The AUTOSAR C++14 coding guidelines are part of the AUTOSAR Adaptive Platform aimed at high-performance engine control units (ECUs) for use cases such as infotainment system connectivity, and advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) for highly automated and autonomous driving. For these applications, the AUTOSAR Adaptive Platform supports features such as high data-processing capacities, service-oriented communication, and over-the-air updates. The fail-safe operational capabilities of such complex systems will often require multicore microprocessors and robust operating systems potentially using a POSIX interface, a requirement that dramatically increases software development complexity. The complexity of these ECU applications, often independently developed in distributed work groups, requires automated static analysis tools to ensure standards compliance and software quality consistency across the organization.

The AUTOSAR standard, which is based on and updates the MISRA C++:2008 rules, incorporates concepts from other safety-critical standards including Joint Strike Fighter Air Vehicle C++ Coding Standards, High Integrity C++ Coding Standard Version 4.0, CERT C++ Coding Standard and Google C++ Style Guide. With AUTOSAR support in the LDRA tool suite, developers can leverage the latest advances in the C++14 standard while addressing critical and safety-related systems development.

"Today's automotive developers depend on the capabilities of high-end 32- and 64-bit microcontrollers and the latest advances in the C++ language to meet consumers' and car manufacturers' demands for innovative functionality and increased safety," said Ian Hennell, Operations Director, LDRA. "With our long-term membership on MISRA committees, including chairmanship of the MISRA C++ committee, LDRA has the experience and knowledge required to address the new and evolving AUTOSAR standard."

AUTOSAR support included in the LDRA tool suite release 9.7.2 is available now.

To learn more about the products and services offered by LDRA, please visit http://www.ldra.com. For any other queries, please send an email to [email protected].

About LDRA

For more than 40 years, LDRA has developed and driven the market for software that automates code analysis and software testing for safety-, mission-, security-, and business-critical markets. Working with clients to achieve early error identification and full compliance with industry standards, LDRA traces requirements through static and dynamic analysis to unit testing and verification for a wide variety of hardware and software platforms. Boasting a worldwide presence, LDRA is headquartered in the United Kingdom with subsidiaries in the United States and India coupled with an extensive distributor network.

For more information on the LDRA tool suite, please visit: http://www.ldra.com.

Please send reader enquiries to:

Neeraja Nair

Marketing Communications Executive

LDRA Technology Pvt. Ltd

Bangalore-560017

(c): +91-80-4080-8707

(e): [email protected]



SOURCE LDRA Technology Private Limited"Since 2009, Motiv has been dedicated to taking the guesswork out of adding all-electric vehicles to existing fleets. Moving from providing powertrain kits to manufacturing complete electric chassis is a natural evolution for us," said Jim Castelaz, founder and CEO of Motiv Power Systems. "With the debut of the EPIC chassis family, fleet buyers and operators seeking un-compromised performance and functionality, together with dramatically reduced operating and servicing costs, now have a streamlined path towards that goal."

Having received Ford's qualified vehicle modifier approval (EQVM), the new EPIC chassis family provides a broad range of capabilities in range, power, and capacity equivalent to common combustion alternatives with the added benefits of near silent operation and smooth power delivery. Featuring Motiv's award-winning and industry-proven Smart Power Control Technology, each EPIC chassis is available with universal charging compatibility and secure remote telematics and diagnostics for unparalleled charging flexibility and fleet/driver connectivity.

"With nearly ten years of operations, and with more than 350,000 miles logged in major national fleet deployments, Motiv's powertrain offerings have established a well-deserved reputation for reliability and scalability. These traits are also exemplified in the new EPIC chassis family as a turn-key, all-electric chassis," said Kash Sethi, Director of Sales at Motiv. "With EPIC, fleets can select chassis optimized for their specific range, payload, and route requirements. By providing an all-electric offering for fleet applications Motiv now closely mirrors the long-established procurement process for internal combustion engine powered chassis."

The new EPIC all-electric chassis will be on exhibit at Ford's booth #3239 at The Work Truck Show in Indianapolis, March 7-9, 2018. Attendees wanting to experience the quiet and smooth operation of Motiv power for themselves are encouraged to test drive an all-electric EPIC chassis powered AmeriPride walk-in van with a Utilimaster body, as part of a Ride & Drive event jointly hosted by Utlimaster and Motiv.

About Motiv:

Founded in 2009, and headquartered in the San Francisco Bay Area, Motiv is committed to freeing fleets from a dependence on fossil fuels. Motiv's Electric Powered Intelligent Chassis (EPIC) has received Ford's EQVM approval and is available for a number of different body configurations including walk-in vans, box trucks, work trucks, shuttle buses, school buses, trolleys, and other specialty vehicles. A Motiv EPIC chassis offers uncompromised performance and functionality without the pollution, noise, heat, and vibration of combustion power. With more than 350,000 miles logged in Fortune 50 fleet deployments throughout North America, Motiv's EPIC family eliminates 100% of vehicle emissions, dramatically reduces operating and maintenance costs, and creates a healthier environment for riders and communities, while also reducing driver fatigue.

Related Links

http://www.motivps.com



SOURCE Motiv Power Systems(Photo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/646020/Plasan_Sasa_Combat_Ship.jpg )



Armour production for the first three ships is anticipated to begin in 2018. The ships will be built in Scotland at BAE Systems facilities in Glasgow and are considered the most advanced of their type in the world.

The new Type 26 'Global Combat Ship' designed and built by BAE Systems is the new class selected for the replacement of eight anti-submarine frigates of the Duke class currently in service with the Royal Navy.



The Type 26 will provide increased capability and flexibility through innovative design that includes a multi role mission bay, large flight deck and hangar that will be able to exploit a range of manned and unmanned systems. There will also be great scope for future development.

Plasan's world leading armour technology, flexibility and innovation is well suited to the Type 26 approach and has helped to secure this important programme. The quality and production processes within Plasan underpin the confidence that has been shown in selecting Plasan's solution. Working together with Design Authority partners has strengthened the ethos of Plasan's success.

Plasan are honored to cooperate with BAE Systems on this prestigious programme.

Please visit us at: http://www.plasan.com

Follow us on LinkedIn , YouTube, Twitter

For more information please contact:

Meirav Ofir, Marcom

+972-54-2872368

[email protected]

SOURCE Plasan SasaBig Data, AI, cloud, security, and mobile technologies enable market shift toward digitized, data driven, seamlessly connected eco-system, finds Frost & Sullivan

SANTA CLARA, California, Feb. 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Digital transformation in commercial aviation is having a significant impact across all areas of the supply chain and is enabling the convergence of the air transport industry. Operations, manufacturing and air traffic management will all be highly influenced by the emergence of a digitized logistics network. The passenger, pilots and crew as well as staff will also see data-driven services enhance their experiences in air travel.

Frost & Sullivan believes that shorter term objectives for commercial aviation businesses will be to develop new revenue streams and enhanced analytics platforms to better inform decision making. In the medium term, interoperability, security, virtual reality and artificial intelligence will become the prominent areas for revenue stream development.

Frost & Sullivan's recent analysis, The Global Impact of Digital Transformation in Commercial Aviation, 2017 will focus on airline passenger management and operations; bookings through to airport arrival (landside) as well as airline flight operations, technical operations and disruption management.

For further information on this analysis, please visit: http://frost.ly/28g.

The need for real time monitoring, business intelligence and the proliferation of big data analytics drives the implementation of digital projects across the aviation ecosystem. "Major airports are looking to incorporate AI into multiple operations such as personalized online transactions, ticket pricing, revenue management, and passenger flow management," said Aravind Srimoolanathan, Senior Analyst Aerospace, Frost & Sullivan. "Additionally, the ability to accelerate passenger processing and enhance overall security is driving airports and airlines to embrace biometrics. Partnering with a supplier that can consolidate screening into a wider total addressable market (TAM) value proposition will be a key advantage."

Five major growth opportunity areas include:

Airport operations optimization by implementing self-service baggage drop zones;

by implementing self-service baggage drop zones; Air traffic management optimization across communication, navigation surveillance and automation systems for example digital flight charts;

across communication, navigation surveillance and automation systems for example digital flight charts; Maintenance, repair and overhaul optimization through predictive maintenance;

through predictive maintenance; Enterprise applications optimization with the use of equipment and asset tracking; and

with the use of equipment and asset tracking; and Airline operations optimization with the use of fuel efficiency management systems.

"As the aviation industry becomes more connected, we will see greater exchanges of data across multiple stakeholder groups. Increased data sharing will however, create more vulnerabilities and lead to continued investment in cyber solutions and data protection," noted Srimoolanathan.

The Global Impact of Digital Transformation in Commercial Aviation, 2017 is part of Frost & Sullivan's global Aerospace Growth Partnership Service program.

About Frost & Sullivan

Frost & Sullivan, the Growth Partnership Company, works in collaboration with clients to leverage visionary innovation that addresses the global challenges and related growth opportunities that will make or break today's market participants. For more than 50 years, we have been developing growth strategies for the global 1000, emerging businesses, the public sector and the investment community. Contact us: Start the discussion

The Global Impact of Digital Transformation in Commercial Aviation, 2017

MD53_22

Contact:

Mariana Fernandez

Corporate Communications  North America

P: +1 (210) 348 1012

E: [email protected]

http://ww2.frost.com

Related Links

http://www.frost.com



SOURCE Frost & SullivanCHENNAI, February 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --

RoofandFloor, India's first homebuyer-centric real estate portal has launched a new brand campaign, 'Real in Realty' that emphasises the company's brand values of 'trust' and 'transparency'.

(Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/647471/RoofandFloor_Logo.jpg )



"Our goal is to become India's most-trusted real estate portal. We want to simplify the process of buying a new home and help homebuyers manage the stress that comes along with it. Forget being spammed. Forget the undue stress of visiting hundreds of properties with dubious credentials. We believe in making home buying a fulfilling experience - with the information you can rely on. Our new brand campaign conveys exactly this message," said Gowri Shankar, CEO and Co-founder of RoofandFloor.

Gowri says that RoofandFloor's themes of trust and transparency have resonated with the Indian homebuyer, as evidenced by the enthusiastic response to the recent Great Indian Home Sale.

India's first long-video format

In 'Real in Realty', a young couple is shown worrying about the prospects of buying a home. The tension due to wasted time and energy eats away at them, and it becomes no longer about buying a 'dream' home, but a stress-ridden experience where they end up relying on false promises. But then they discover the ease of searching for projects on RoofandFloor's website, shortlisting their favourite ones, and marking for site visits the ones they want to explore.

It's a completely different world - one where online seamlessly merges with the offline, visualising the future of real estate in India. The digital campaign concept was conceptualised by Ogilvy & Mather, Bangalore.

JustPushPlay, a young start-up firm from Chennai, created the script and produced the video, focusing on portraying the stress in buying a home and the eventual resolution of it.

As part of The Hindu Group, RoofandFloor's values too focus on integrity and reliability. This digital campaign is part of RoofandFloor's commitment to changing the way India buys homes.

About RoofandFloor

Launched in September 2014, RoofandFloor comes from The Hindu Group, bringing with it 138 years of heritage and trust. RoofandFloor helps homebuyers realise their dream by delivering Content, Community, and Commerce on a single platform. RoofandFloor's mission is to become the trusted partner for homebuyers.

For more information, please visit: https://roofandfloor.com/.

Media Contact:

Ms. Geetha Raj C

[email protected]

+91-9841812629

Senior Manager - Brand Marketing & PR

RoofandFloor - KSL Digital Ventures Limited



SOURCE RoofandFloorGREATER DES MOINES, Iowa, Feb. 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- A total of 97 percent of people feel safe overall in Downtown Des Moines (DSM), and 97 percent also rated Downtown DSM streets and sidewalks clean in the latest Downtown Perception Study conducted by Operation Downtown.

Operation Downtown surveyed nearly 1,500 residents throughout the region to get their perception of Downtown DSM's safety, cleanliness and activity. The survey was conducted in late 2017.

Survey results reflect that Downtown DSM is welcoming and vibrant. Other key results include:

Safety perceptions have increased by an average of 9 percentage points in nearly all Downtown neighborhoods over the past six years.

The number of respondents who say they have shopped Downtown in the last 10 years has increased by 39 percent, while 38 percent and 26 percent more people have attended sporting events or cultural/arts events, respectively.

A total of 23 percent of respondents said they were likely to live Downtown within the next 10 years, up from 17 percent in the 2015 study.

Working behind the scenes, Operation Downtown Ambassadors have played a vital role in ensuring Downtown DSM is safe, clean and beautiful. Ambassadors maintain and empty more than 250 trash receptacles, pressure wash sidewalks, control litter Downtown and much more.

"Operation Downtown's work not only enhances Downtown, but has raised the standard of what a safe, clean and beautiful city should look like," said Amy Lego, Executive Director of Operation Downtown. "We encourage Downtown property owners to sign the petition to ensure Downtown DSM can continue its current growth and momentum."

About Operation Downtown

Created to help make Downtown Des Moines (DSM) a safer, cleaner place to work, live and visit, Operation Downtown is classified as a Self-Supported Municipal Improvement District (SSMID). Since day one, the mission has been to enhance the quality of life in Downtown DSM by keeping it welcoming and beautiful. Programs include trash cleanup, flower planting and visitor assistance. Operation Downtown, a 501(c)(6), was formed in 1998 by business leaders to provide enhanced services that are not provided by the City of Des Moines. Today, the Greater Des Moines Partnership is a partner of Operation Downtown, and helps keep DSM among the highest-rated, most vibrant regions in the country. Learn more at operationdowntown.com.

About the Greater Des Moines Partnership

The Greater Des Moines Partnership is the economic and community development organization that serves Greater Des Moines (DSM), Iowa. Together with 23 Affiliate Chambers of Commerce, more than 6,100 Regional Business Members and more than 320 Investors, The Partnership drives economic growth with one voice, one mission and as one region. Through innovation, strategic planning and global collaboration, The Partnership grows opportunity, helps create jobs and promotes DSM as the best place to build a business, a career and a future. Learn more at DSMpartnership.com.

Contact:

Sam Hoyle

[email protected]

(515) 286-4919

Related Links

http://www.desmoinesmetro.com



SOURCE Greater Des Moines PartnershipRAJKOT, India, February 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --

- Vibrant Saurashtra Summit in Rajkot from 20th to 23rd Aril, 2018

- More than 15 thousand farmers, entrepreneurs, businessmen and researchers would witness this mega event

The Octagon Communication Pvt. Ltd. is the organizer of the Vibrant Saurashtra Summit 2018. State government and central government are coming up together for Vibrant Saurashtra Expo as a part of mega projects. To develop positive agricultural environment and to felicitate farmers, government has organized a mega event for Saurashtrians, especially to promote business, employment and for the betterment of farmers at Rajkot during 20th April to 23rd February, 2018. Firstly, Vibrant Saurashtra concept has been emerged from the first initiative of Vibrant Gujarat Summit done by our Hon'ble Prime Minister Shri. Narendra Modi. This time in Vibrant Saurashtra Summit, government has given special attention for the special attractions for farmers and the emerging new trends will be the talk of the town.

Recently there is a policy consensus among all the policy making authorities that it is time to focus on rural economy, which is having tremendous potency to put Indian economy at the higher orbit. There is huge scope to give boost to the rural economy. Under this thrust, a mega event is shaping up in the name of 'Vibrant Saurashtra - 2018'. Eventually the effort is put up by two prestigious entities, SOMA and Octagon communication Pvt. Ltd. The event is blessed and very well supported by Central as well as by State Government. Also, the Central Government has decided to double the income of the farmers till 2022. In this quest the effort is being carried out.

As per the wording given by Saurashtra Oil Mill Association; Vibrant Saurashtra Summit expo is coming up with its second edition for more than 15 thousand farmers, entrepreneurs, businessmen and for professional agricultural researchers. This is an attempt to give a global platform to the local farmers. New emerging businesses like new machine equipments, processing units, chemicals, pesticides are participating in this expo. This expo will give them opportunity to expand new business segments like tourism and hospitality as well. Moreover this platform will provide them detailed information about latest technology, about globalization and they can analyze the things by themselves, which will enable them to understand the quality standards. Many distinguished guests and invitees would be attending this four day expo.

Peanut festival would be the centre of attraction for all the visitors. The main purpose of organizing the festival is to spread awareness about the other usages of peanut and variants of peanuts. They should know about the other products of peanuts like beverages, cosmetics, paint, stains, stock foods, dry coffee, butter, mayonnaise, medicines and many more things. Considering various usages of peanuts, Baba Ramdev has been invited to showcase Patanjali plant to the visitors. One more reason behind organizing this expo is strengthening the position of farming and agricultural sector in the economy. In the overall GDP of India, agricultural sector contributes 13.68%, in employment sector it contributes 54.6 % and in total export agricultural sector contributes 14.7%.

Centre of attraction and agenda of Vibrant Saurashtra Summit

India and other countries will develop agricultural sector with their efforts

and other countries will develop agricultural sector with their efforts Local farmers will be aware about the global technology of agro tech leaders

It will be a good knowledge sharing platform for the farmers

Developing the business by showcasing the best farming technologies with the globe

Demonstration of tools and technology to boost the production capacity

Farmers and businessmen will come together for a stream lined chain of requital

Ready product skill development will reduce the uncertainty of outsider's expertise

About Octagon

Octagon Communications Pvt Ltd was launched with a vision to be an expert in the field of trade fair and corporate exhibitions. Trade shows are designed for entrepreneurs and companies to meet potential customers face-to-face and get instant feedback about the product. Trade shows have been recognized internationally as a crucial part of marketing. In India, trade shows have been gaining momentum. Octagon Communications aims to provide B2B/B2C and knowledge-sharing platform for different industries and professionals by organizing trade shows integrated with summits, seminars-workshops and cultural events at a global scale across India.

For more details, contact:

Octagon Communications Pvt. Ltd.

101/A, Princess Lane Building, First Floor

B/H City Center Building

Nr. Swastik Cross Road

Navrangpura, Ahmedabad-380009

Gujarat, India

Tel: +91-9033582878

E-mail- [email protected]

Website- http://www.vibrantceramics.com



Media Contact

Matik Meman

Director

PRarambh Public Relations

+91-9328449293 / +91-8866887865

Email - [email protected]

Web: http://www.prarambhpr.com



SOURCE Octagon Communication Pvt LtdVonage recognized for its comprehensive solutions that are scalable, flexible, and drive more meaningful customer relationships for businesses

SANTA CLARA, California, Feb. 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Based on its recent analysis of the Communications Applications and Platforms as a Service Industry, Frost & Sullivan recognizes Vonage with the North American Competitive Strategy Innovation and Leadership Award for its comprehensive portfolio of solutions that offer both unified communications as a service (UCaaS) and communications platform as a service (CPaaS) capabilities via Nexmo, the Vonage API Platform, combined with extensive third-party solution integrations.

Photo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/646234/Frost_and_Sullivan___Vonage_Award_Logo.jpg

"By integrating unified communications capabilities with contextual communications embedded into website, productivity and vertical software via APIs, Vonage is positioned to drive better business outcomes for its customers," said Elka Popova, Frost & Sullivan VP and Senior Fellow. "Using cloud communications in this way can lead to accelerated decision making, enhanced employee productivity, increased speed to market, improved customer satisfaction and increased profitability for businesses."

Each year, Frost & Sullivan presents this award to a company that leverages competitive intelligence to successfully execute a strategy that results in stronger market share, competitive brand positioning and customer satisfaction.

Vonage stands out among competitors for its visionary approach to providing customers flexible, strategic and innovative options for consuming communications functionality.

Vonage has fueled its success within the UCaaS and CPaaS markets by identifying unmet customer needs, pursuing strategic acquisitions and partnerships, and changing the way its customers do business through the fusion of these end-to-end cloud capabilities:

Feature-rich and cost-effective UCaaS offerings to meet diverse technology requirements across a broad customer spectrum;

Ability to address customer need for communications integration with third-party software to enhance the user experience; and

Enhanced customer engagement through flexible CPaaS services by embedding voice, messaging and chat capabilities into web and mobile apps to deliver highly customized business outcomes.

Overall, Vonage's competitive strategy has helped it capitalize on growth opportunities in new markets and successfully reposition itself to better address evolving industry trends and the digital transformation needs of its customers.

"Vonage is honored to be recognized by Frost & Sullivan with an industry Leadership Award for the fourth consecutive year," said Alan Masarek, Vonage CEO. "This award is a reflection of how Vonage provides businesses with technology that is not only changing how businesses connect with their employees and customers, but enabling them to use communications to run their businesses better."

"Frost & Sullivan's independent analysis shows Vonage solutions provide compelling price/performance value with solutions tailored to small and mid-sized business, as well as large enterprises with hundreds to thousands of users," said Popova.

Frost & Sullivan Best Practices awards recognize companies in a variety of regional and global markets for demonstrating outstanding achievement and superior performance in areas such as leadership, technological innovation, customer service, and strategic product development. Industry analysts compare market participants and measure performance through in-depth interviews, analysis, and extensive secondary research to identify best practices in the industry.

About Vonage

Vonage (NYSE:VG) is redefining business communications. True to our roots as a technology disruptor, we've embraced technology to transform how companies communicate to create better business outcomes. Our unique cloud communications platform brings together a robust unified communications solution with the agility of embedded, contextual communications APIs. This powerful combination enables businesses to collaborate more productively and engage their customers more effectively across messaging, chat, social media, video and voice.

The Company also provides a robust suite of feature-rich residential communication solutions.

Vonage Holdings Corp. is headquartered in Holmdel, New Jersey, with offices throughout the United States, Europe, Asia and Israel. Vonage is a registered trademark of Vonage Marketing LLC, owned by Vonage America Inc.

About Frost & Sullivan

Frost & Sullivan, the Growth Partnership Company, works in collaboration with clients to leverage visionary innovation that addresses the global challenges and related growth opportunities that will make or break today's market participants. For more than 50 years, we have been developing growth strategies for the global 1000, emerging businesses, the public sector, and the investment community. Contact us: Start the discussion.

Contact:

Andrea Steinman

P: 210.477.8425

F: 210.348.1003

E: [email protected]

Related Links

http://www.frost.com



SOURCE Frost & SullivanThe V600 connects directly to China's largest social network, Tencent QQ. It also makes fast, easy and safe online payments via China's largest mobile wallet app, AliPay. The device integrates Abardeen Social Applications Suite, which includes Ding Talk (a social networking app), Ding Fit (a pedometer to track steps), Ding Community (where kids can share pictures, videos, voice messages and texts with their family and friends), and Ding Games (trivia games).

"Abardeen is a pioneer and leader in kid watches in China," said Liu Qinglong, CEO, Continental Wireless. "As consumers want more functionality, our product design and technology integration have transformed, enabling more features and experiences. Kid smartwatches have evolved from merely a calling and location device to a smart communication and learning device. With the addition of the V600 to our kid watch family, and utilizing the Qualcomm Snapdragon Wear 2100 flagship platform, we are excited to bring such capabilities as Tencent QQ, AliPay, Abardeen Social Applications suite, AI and Deep Learning to our growing customer base."

Additionally, the V600 has artificial intelligence (AI) and deep learning capabilities including analyses of user scenarios and smart optimization of power consumption, enabling standby time of up to 72 hours and active battery life of up to 36 hours.

"The kid watch segment is an exciting opportunity to make the transition from 2G to 4G," said Pankaj Kedia, Senior Director, Product Management, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. "We are delighted to be working with Abardeen to accelerate this transition in China through the combination of our state-of-the-art wearables platform, Snapdragon Wear 2100, with rich and engaging cloud capabilities such as Tencent QQ, Alipay, social networking and AI/Deep Learning that Abardeen has brought to their devices. Meanwhile, we are on our way to realizing the vision of connecting friends and families as they live, work, learn and play."

The V600 supports a myriad of cellular networks from worldwide operators including FDD-LTE and TD-LTE. The device features an optimized version of the Android 7 operating system with 1.45'' AMOLED touchscreen, 550mAh high capacity battery and 2M pixels front camera. It integrates GPS, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, as well as interactive functions such as voice command.

The V600 will be released to China market on April, 2018.

Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/647567/abardeen.jpg

SOURCE AbardeenBENGALURU, India, February 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --

Infosys Finacle, part of EdgeVerve Systems, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Infosys (NYSE: INFY), announced a partnership with Moneythor, a Singapore-based data-driven digital banking provider. The Moneythor platform, integrated with Finacle, will enable financial institutions deliver personalized recommendations and insights to customers on numerous digital channels and devices.

With increasing demands from customers and businesses, many banks are struggling to provide contextual and proactive assistance across their digital channels. The new integrated solution will help banks to offer data-driven recommendations and smart Personal Financial Management (PFM) features within their existing online and mobile banking applications.

Moneythor is one of the companies that was recognized as part of the Finacle FinTech Connect, an initiative that builds on ongoing alliances and the Infosys Innovation Fund program to identify promising new FinTechs.

Highlights

The joint solution will offer an engine to classify, analyze and augment transaction data in order to generate better insights for the banks and their customers

The integrated solution will bring new interactive features and enriched transaction data, thereby enhancing customer engagement across digital channels

The solution can also be utilized by banks to publish tailor-made interactive content to assist customers with their money management needs, as well as providing contextual offers

Rule based capabilities and statistical algorithms will allow the solution to deliver data-driven personalized recommendations and insights with a quick time-to-market

Quotes

Sanat Rao, Chief Business Officer, Infosys Finacle:

"At Infosys Finacle, we are committed to enhancing customer experience and providing continuous thrust on collaboration with our clients and partners. In pursuit of this, the FinTech Connect program helps us expand the innovation ecosystem and bring to the fore promising startups. Moneythor's innovative offering will complement the Finacle suite of digital channel solutions, strengthening our value proposition and paving way for an improved digital banking experience for clients."

Olivier Berthier, CEO, Moneythor:

"We are delighted to assist Infosys Finacle in creating more value for their banking clients through innovative capabilities powered by our Moneythor solution. We are always on the lookout for partners to combine their domain expertise and solutions with Moneythor. Infosys Finacle offers such an opportunity and we are looking forward to a productive partnership."

About Infosys Finacle

Infosys Finacle is the industry-leading universal banking solution from EdgeVerve Systems, a wholly owned subsidiary of Infosys. The solution helps financial institutions develop deeper connections with stakeholders, power continuous innovation and accelerate growth in the digital world. Today, Finacle is the choice of banks across 94 countries and serves over 848 million customers - estimated to be nearly 16.5 percent of the world's adult banked population.

Finacle solutions address the core banking, e-banking, mobile banking, CRM, payments, treasury, origination, liquidity management, Islamic banking, wealth management, and analytics needs of financial institutions worldwide. Assessment of the top 1000 world banks reveals that banks powered by Finacle enjoy 50 percent higher returns on assets, 30 percent higher returns on capital, and 8.1 percent points lesser costs to income than others.

To know more, visit www.finacle.com

Safe Harbor

Certain statements in this release concerning our future growth prospects are forward-looking statements regarding our future business expectations intended to qualify for the 'safe harbor' under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, which involve a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in such forward-looking statements. The risks and uncertainties relating to these statements include, but are not limited to, risks and uncertainties regarding fluctuations in earnings, fluctuations in foreign exchange rates, our ability to manage growth, intense competition in IT services including those factors which may affect our cost advantage, wage increases in India, our ability to attract and retain highly skilled professionals, time and cost overruns on fixed-price, fixed-time frame contracts, client concentration, restrictions on immigration, industry segment concentration, our ability to manage our international operations, reduced demand for technology in our key focus areas, disruptions in telecommunication networks or system failures, our ability to successfully complete and integrate potential acquisitions, liability for damages on our service contracts, the success of the companies in which Infosys has made strategic investments, withdrawal or expiration of governmental fiscal incentives, political instability and regional conflicts, legal restrictions on raising capital or acquiring companies outside India, and unauthorized use of our intellectual property and general economic conditions affecting our industry. Additional risks that could affect our future operating results are more fully described in our United States Securities and Exchange Commission filings including our Annual Report on Form 20-F for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2017. These filings are available at www.sec.gov. Infosys may, from time to time, make additional written and oral forward-looking statements, including statements contained in the company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission and our reports to shareholders. In addition, please note that the date of this press release is mentioned at the beginning of the release, and any forward-looking statements contained herein are based on assumptions that we believe to be reasonable as of this date. The company does not undertake to update any forward-looking statements that may be made from time to time by or on behalf of the company unless it is required by law.

For further information, please contact:

Infosys

Asia Pacific

Sarah Gideon

Infosys, India

+91-80-4156-3998

Sarah_Gideon@infosys.com



EMEA

Margherita Di Cerbo

Infosys, Europe

Phone: +44-2075162748

Margherita.dicerbo@infosys.com



Americas

Chiku Somaiya

Infosys, USA

+1-408-375-2722

Chiku.Somaiya@infosys.com

This is a disclosure announcement from PR Newswire.

SOURCE Infosys LimitedMartina's story of facing a challenge and ultimately overcoming it, will embolden readers to believe in themselves and follow their dreams, while also understanding the importance of discipline and rising to the occasion.

Currently a five-star reviewed book on Amazon, the manuscript for "Martina Ballerina" won the Supreme award from the Authors/Writers Network of New York and New Jersey in 1989.

"I wrote 'Martina Ballerina' nearly 30 years ago when my kids were little. It received an award and I nearly got it publishedbut another ballerina book beat me to it! So, I put it aside and then forgot about it," said Sobiloff. "All these years later, my adult children dug it up, worked on it, and for my 60th birthday, presented me with my own book! Over the past year, I polished it up with the aid of an illustrator and publisher, and it is now ready for readers."

With beautiful illustrations by artist David Pfendler that help showcase Martina's passion for ballet and the lessons she learns along the way, "Martina Ballerina" will entertain and encourage readers of all ages to follow their dreams. To learn more, please visit MartinaBallerina.com.

"Martina Ballerina"

By Imelda Rose Sobiloff

ISBN: 978-1-4808-5461-1 (sc), 978-1-4808-5462-8 (hc), 978-1-4808-5463-5 (e)

Available at Archway Publishing, Amazon and Barnes & Noble

About the author

Imelda Rose Sobiloff was once a little dancer herself, tapping out dance routines under her desk at school. As a journalist, writer, and editor, Sobiloff used her combined skills to create a delightful story for the youngest of aspiring dancers. Sobiloff knows the importance of giving back to her community and is a supporter of numerous non-profits where she gives annual donations to such as Ronald McDonald House, C.A.R.E. and Habitat for Humanity. She currently resides in Cresskill, New Jersey with her husband Peter, and they have two adult children, Christina and Michael, and a grandson named Aiden.

General Inquiries, Review Copies & Interview Requests:

LAVIDGE  Phoenix

Lauren Dickerson

ldickerson@lavidge.com

Related Links

http://MartinaBallerina.com



SOURCE Archway PublishingGurugram, Feb 22 : With the country's young population increasingly using smartphones and other digital devices for news consumption, going digital has never been more important for news distribution, a group of experts has said.

Customising news content with the right mix is equally important, said the experts at a discussion on digital media organised here over the weekend by Business Wire India, a platform for press release distribution.

In this digital age, incorporating videos and other multimedia elements, a local-focus, and segment-wise content targeting are some of the important elements in making news relevant and engaging, they added.

"The way people consume content has changed completely, especially young people. They need a quick story, visual story, even videos make a big impact," said journalist Saurabh Shukla, Editor-in-Chief of News Mobile.

The group of corporate and media experts at the discussion said that traditional plus digital is the approach companies must take for brand targeting.

Nidhi Mehra, Account Director, H+K India, a marketing communication company, spoke on the emergence of bloggers as a new community in the digital platform.

"Now the task is how to get into the digital space besides the traditional media. Corporates want to see this new community of bloggers to be evangelised regularly so that their brand is visible across platforms," she said.

"We need to understand how news should be projected so that audience identifies with the same in the context of their own need for information and consumption," said Rajnish Wahi, Senior Vice President, Corporate Affairs & Communications, Snapdeal, adding that more and more readers are now consuming news online.

Taru Agarwal, Managing Director, Business Wire India, contended that PR and wire services are preventing fake news from spreading.

"News distributed through a wire platform is authentic and genuine," she said.

"Checks and balances are there for fake news," Agarwal added.Bhubaneswar, Feb 23 : India on Friday successfully test-fired nuclear-capable 'Dhanush' ballistic missile from a naval ship off Odisha.

The surface-to-surface missile, with a strike range of 350 km, was test-fired from the ship positioned near Paradip in the Bay of Bengal, said a defence official.

The trial was carried out by the Strategic Force Command (SFC).

Dhanush, a naval variant of the indigenously-developed 'Prithvi' missile, is capable of carrying a payload of 500kg and hitting both land and sea-based targets, the sources said.

The missile launch and its flight performance were monitored from Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) base off Odisha coast.

The missile has already been inducted into the defence services.Seoul, Feb 24 : 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 through 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 technology to use an EUV lithography solution, in May 2017.Lucknow, Feb 24 : 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.Bhopal, Feb 27 : Senior BJP leader and former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Babulal Gaur on Tuesday taunted his own party by comparing the proposed Metro rail in the state's cities to that of the late Prime Minister Indira Gandhi's "garibi hatao" initiative.

Construction of Metro rail in Bhopal and Indore is under consideration.

"Submitting the plan for Metro construction to the Centre is similar to Indira Gandhi's proposal to get a resolution on 'garibi hatao' passed in Parliament," Gaur told media persons here.

On Monday, Governor Anandiben Patel in her address during the Assembly Budget Session said Bhopal, Indore, Gwalior, Jabalpur, Ujjain, Sagar and Satna are under active consideration for the Smart City project.

Also, she added, the proposal for Metro construction in Bhopal and Indore has been sent to the Centre.

Gaur has been the Minister for Urban Administration and Metro rail has been his dream project. To start the project, he took several initiatives, including loans from Japan, but it did not take off.Kohima/Shillong/New Delhi, Feb 27 : Over 75 per cent voting was recorded on Tuesday in Assembly elections in Nagaland and 67 per cent in Meghalaya, with the percentage expected to go up in both the northeastern states, Election Commission officials said.

While voting was peaceful in Meghalaya, a clash erupted between supporters of the ruling Naga People's Front and the Bharatiya Janata Party in Zunheboto district of Nagaland in which one person was shot dead and two persons injured.

Re-polling will be held in at least five polling stations in Nagaland.

Deputy Election Commissioner Sudeep Jain told reporters in Delhi that the voter turnout in Nagaland till 4 p.m. was 75 per cent and voters were in queues at several places at the end of polling. The 2013 Assembly elections turnout was 90.57 per cent.

Jain said two electronic voting machines were damaged by some people in the state and it was difficult to predict if the polling percentage will touch that of 2013.

"It's not possible for us to predict at this time how much it will go above 75 per cent. We can only tell once the polling parties come back," he said.

Jain said several steps were taken to see that only genuine voters cast their vote. "Posters saying you are under (CCTV) surveillance were put up at all polling stations. Whether these had any impact, only a detailed study can tell," the poll official said.

Nagaland Chief Electoral Officer Abhijit Sinha told IANS that repoll will be held in at least five booths - three in Phek district and two in Kohima.

Nagaland Police chief Rupin Sharma said police reinforcements were sent to the site of the clash in the state.

"Initially, some people prevented voters from entering the polling station, which was opposed by a rival group after which clashes erupted in Akuluto constituency. The two groups indulged in firing following which police opened fire."

Over 11 lakh voters, including 5,89,806 women and 26,900 new voters, will decide the fate of 195 candidates, that included five women and many independents.

The voting in the state was held in 59 of the total 60 constituencies as three-time Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio of the Nationalist Democratic Progressive Party (NDDP) has been declared elected unopposed from Northern Angami-II constituency.

The newly floated NDPP has cobbled together an alliance with the Bharatiya Janata Party and the two are contesting 40 and 20 seats respectively.

Both the NDPP-BJP alliance and the ruling Naga People's Front have expressed confidence about winning the elections.

The run-up to the polls saw several twists and turns, with the Core Committee of the Nagaland Tribal Hohos and Civil Organisations (CCNTHCO) demanding a solution to the vexed Naga problem before the elections.

In Meghalaya, 67 per cent of the 18.9 lakh voters exercised their franchise with hundreds still lined up to cast their ballots at the end of voting hours.

"Meghalaya saw a turnout of 67 per cent till 4 p.m. and there were people still in queues," Deputy Election Commissioner Chandra Bhushan Kumar said in Delhi. In the 2013 elections, the turnout was 89 per cent.

The voters will decide the fate of 361 candidates, including 31 women.

Counting of votes in both Meghalaya and Nagaland will take place on March 3 along with Tripura, which had gone to the polls earlier this month.

A total of 59 of 60 Assembly seats in Meghalaya went to the polls. Polling in Williamnagar constituency was countermanded following the death of Nationalist Congress Party candidate Jonathone Sangma in an IED blast in Sawilgre area of East Garo Hills district on February 18.

Meghalaya Chief Electoral Officer Frederick Roy Kharkongor said the polling percentage was expected to be above 80 per cent.

He said there is a possibility of repoll in Kyndong Tuber polling station under Raliang constituency due to an issue related to VVPAT (Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail).

The contest in Meghalaya involves the ruling Congress, BJP, National People's Party (NPP) and the newly floated People's Democratic Front.

Governor Ganga Prasad voted at the Oakland polling station in North Shillong constituency.New Delhi, Feb 27 : More than a week after Chief Secretary Anshu Prakash alleged assault by two AAP MLAs, Lt Governor Anil Baijal on Tuesday said government employees in Delhi felt insecure in the presence of elected representatives.

"Government employees in Delhi feel physically insecure, sadly in the very presence of those who have been elected to uphold democracy and rule of law," the Lt Governor said in a statement.

Baijal was responding to a letter by Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia that bureaucrats were not attending meetings called by Ministers after the February 19 attack.

Last week, Delhi employees' associations said officers will not meet the Ministers or MLAs till the Chief Minister's apology for the alleged attack.

On Tuesday, Baijal urged Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal to "reach out directly to the employees as a greater responsibility lies on him since the assault reportedly happened at his residence in his presence".

"He noted that in his long career in the government, he does not recall there being so much of a rift between the elected government and bureaucracy, despite Delhi having seen governments of different hues," the statement said.Mumbai, Feb 28 : Niharica Raizada, who is currently busy with her upcoming film "Total Dhamaal", says that she is a confident actress who believes in her craft.

Working in a multi-starrer film like "Total Dhamaal" with actors like Anil Kapoor and Madhuri-Dixit Nene can make one feel nervous.

When asked to comment on it, Niharica said: "I am a confident actor and I believe in my craft. No matter how big of a star you become or come across, it's important that you still believe in yourself."

"As for me, this is my pride and fortune that today I have this chance to work with such veteran actors. And as an actor, I hope to give my best," she added.

Without sharing much about the Indra Kumar directorial, she said: "I can't say much about the status of the film, but the cast is amazing. It was my dream to work with Ajay (Devgn) Sir which has come true with 'Total Dhamaal'."

Asked about her future projects, she said: "I have signed a new film on Valentine's Day."

Niharica has featured in films like "Masaan", "Baby" and "Alone".United Nations, Feb 28 : The UN special envoy for Yemen on Tuesday called for the political will of the decision-makers in Yemen to end the war, which has resulted in the world's worst humanitarian crisis.

"Only Yemeni decision-makers are able to stop the war and the bloodshed," Xinhua quoted Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed, UN Secretary-General's special envoy for Yemen, as saying.

He said the parties backed away from a peace proposal at the last minute due to lack of political will.

"I would like to announce, for the first time, that we were about to reach agreement on a peace proposal developed in consultation with the parties, but they refused to sign in the last minute," said Cheikh Ahmed.

"In the end of the consultations, it became clear that the Houthis were not prepared to make concessions on the proposed security arrangements. This has been a major stumbling block toward reaching a negotiated solution," he said.

Decision-makers in this conflict perceive concessions as weakness and dissent as a threat, he noted.

Regrettably they have consistently taken irresponsible and provocative actions, disregarding the daily suffering of Yemenis, he said.

"We do have a peace roadmap for Yemen. The practical suggestions to launch it and build confidence among the parties have been agreed upon. The only part missing is the commitment of parties to make concessions and give priority to the national interests. This is what makes us doubtful of their real intention to end this war," he added.

He called on the parties to cease hostilities, reactivate negotiations, make the culture of coexistence prevail over the language of war so that Yemen becomes a beacon of light in the Middle East and a model for peace and security.Washington, Feb 28 : The US administration has reached a $3.9 billion deal with Boeing for two new Air Force One planes for the President, the White House said.

President Donald Trump has reached the informal deal with Boeing on a "fixed-price contract" for the new Air Force One Program, Xinhua quoted a White House spokesperson as saying on Tuesday.

The contract would save taxpayers more than $1.4 billion, the White House said. The amount, however, cannot be confirmed yet.

Boeing said in a tweet on Tuesday that it was "proud to build the next generation of Air Force One, providing American presidents with a flying...outstanding value to taxpayers".

The Chicago-based jet maker added that Trump "negotiated a good deal on behalf of the American people".

Trump's personal involvement in the deal since his election has brought the years-long negotiations between Boeing and the US Air Force much media exposure.

Trump had earlier threatened to cancel the contract after revealing that Boeing was planning to spend $4 billion on the planes, a price, he said was "out of control". Boeing pledged to control expenditures at the time.

The US presidential planes, known as Air Force One when the president is on board, are one of the most recognised symbols of the American presidency.

The civilian version of the plane, the Boeing 747-8, is priced at $390 million, but the presidential version is much more costly due to additional security and defensive features.

Boeing said the delivery date for the new planes will depend on how much testing the US Air Force wants to do. Its initial plan was to have the planes ready by 2024.Miami, Feb 28 : Miami International Airport (MIA) has become the first major US airport to implement facial recognition technology with an eye towards shortening passport check time for visitors arriving from abroad.

"In order to meet the growing challenge of balancing traveller volumes and security, Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has partnered with industry stakeholders to leverage biometric technology and systems," said US CBP Commissioner Todd Owen on Tuesday.

For the time being, the facial recognition machines have only been installed in Concourse E, where international airlines such as Russia's Aeroflot, Spain's Iberia, Mexico's Interjet, Ireland's Air Lingus and Qatar Airways operate, Efe news reported.

The new technology can screen as many as 10 passengers per minute, said MIA authorities in a statement.

MIA -- one of the country's main international air hubs -- thus becomes the first airport in the country to install a system fully dedicated to providing expedited passport screening via facial recognition technology.

Meanwhile, Miami-Dade County Mayor Carlos A. Gimenez said that the enhancement will "improve the international arrival experience for visitors".New Delhi, Feb 28 : Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday mourned the death of Jayendra Saraswathi, the 69th pontiff of the Sankara Mutt in Kanchipuram in Tamil Nadu.

Saraswathi passed away at a private hospital in Kanchipuram on Wednesday. He was 82. He was ailing for some time and was admitted to the hospital early on Wednesday.

Modi said he was "deeply anguished" by the passing away of the pontiff of the Kanchi Kamakoti Peetham.

"He will live on in the hearts and minds of lakhs of devotees due to his exemplary service and noblest thoughts. Om Shanti to the departed soul," Modi tweeted along with his pictures with the pontiff.

He said that Saraswathi was at the forefront of "innumerable community service initiatives".

"He nurtured institutions which transformed the lives of the poor and downtrodden," Modi said.Patna, Feb 28 : The Hindustani Awam Morcha-Secular (HAM-S) on Wednesday announced its exit from the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) with the BJP and said it would enter the Grand Alliance, a party leader said.

"We have left the NDA," HAM-S spokesperson Danish Rizwan told IANS. He said HAM-S would be joining the Grand Alliance led by the Rashtriya Janata Dal, during the day.

"A press conference will be held by former Deputy Chief Minister and RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav along with former Chief Minister and HAM-S chief Jitan Ram Manjhi. They will make a formal announcement of our entry into the Grand Alliance," Rizwan added.

Manjhi stepped out of the Janata Dal-United in 2015. He formed HAM-S the same year and forged an alliance with the NDA ahead of the Bihar assembly polls in 2015.Washington, Feb 28 : Mexican-American Judge Gonzalo Curiel, whom President Donald Trump once attacked for his Mexican heritage has ruled in favour of the administration in a lawsuit attempting to block the President's proposed wall on the US-Mexico border.

Curiel, whose parents immigrated from Mexico, ruled on Tuesday against a legal challenge to the wall over environment waivers granted by the Department of Homeland Security, the Hill magazine reported.

The ruling meant that the administration will be able to continue waiving the regulations to build barriers on the border.

Trump had harshly attacked the Indiana-born Curiel during the 2016 presidential campaign, claiming that because of his Mexican heritage the judge could be biased against the mogul in the fraud case he presided over involving so-called Trump University, a legal matter that ultimately was settled out of court for $25 million.

Curiel wrote in his ruling that he did not have "serious constitutional doubts" about the administration's use of the waivers.

"In its review of this case, the court cannot and does not consider whether underlying decisions to construct the border barriers are politically wise or prudent," he said.

The lawsuit, filed by the state of California last year, argued that the Department had improperly waived the National Environmental Policy Act and other immigration and environmental rules to speed up the construction of the wall.

California Attorney General Xavier Becerra said in a statement that the state was "unwavering in our belief that the Trump Administration was ignoring laws it doesn't like in order to resuscitate a campaign talking point of building a wall on our southern border".

"We will evaluate all of our options and are prepared to do what is necessary to protect our people, our values, and our economy from federal overreach," he said. "A medieval wall along the US-Mexico border simply does not belong in the 21st century."

And Brian Segee, senior attorney for the Centre for Biological Diversity, one of the litigants in the suit, said the organization would appeal the decision, calling the waivers "unconstitutional".

"The Trump administration has completely overreached its authority in its rush to build this destructive, senseless wall," Segee said in a statement.

"They're giving unprecedented, sweeping power to an unelected agency chief to ignore dozens of laws and crash through hundreds of miles of spectacular borderlands."

But a Department of Justice spokesman applauded the ruling, saying it will allow "work vital to our nation's interest.Bhopal, Feb 28 : The Opposition Congress improved its lead in the prestigious bye-elections to the assembly constituencies of Mungaoli and Kolaras in Madhya Pradesh on Wednesday.

Following the 10th round of counting in Kolaras, Congress candidate Mahendra Singh Yadav is ahead of Devendra Jain of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) with 3,425 votes.

In Mungaoli, Congress' Brijendra Singh Yadav is leading with 3,602 votes against BJP's Bai Sahib.

In Kolaras, Congress has got 37,370 votes and in Mungaoli it has secured 37,708 votes so far in the counting of votes that began at 8 a.m.

A total of 22 candidates from Mungaoli and 13 from Kolaras were in the fray for the February 24 polls. There was 77.25 per cent voting recorded in Mungaoli and 72.82 per cent in Kolaras on Saturday.

Both these seats were keenly contested in a prestige battle between the two parties ahead of the assembly polls in the state due later in 2018.

Mungaoli and Kolaras saw high-voltage campaigns from the ruling BJP and the Congress which is keen to retain both seats.

While Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan led the BJP campaign with a host of ministers, Congress MP Jyotiraditya Scindia led the opposition attack.

Both the seats fall under Scindia's parliamentary constituency Guna and were earlier held by the Congress.

The BJP that has been in power for 15 years in the state pitched for development in the Congress bastion. Having lost two assembly bypolls to the Congress last year, the BJP was keen on recovering lost ground.

The assembly seats fell vacant after the death of sitting Congress MLAs Mahendra Singh Kalukheda (Mungaoli) and Ram Singh Yadav (Kolaras).Indore, Feb 28 : Prem Sharma sells gutka and cigarettes near the Vijay Nagar square, but the most visible part of his tiny business is the dustbin that he dare not lose. Similar is the case with all small and big businesses across the city.

"In Indore, people fear the yellow vehicles more than the police vehicles," he said referring to the vehicles of the Indore Municipal Corporation (IMC) that patrol the city round the clock and penalise those spreading litter on the streets.

The penalties for littering the city (population about 2 million) can be anything between Rs 100 and Rs 1 lakh and the IMC has done well last year, collecting spot fines to the tune of Rs 1 crore in the city.

"It's not just fear, people respect the work being done by the IMC," says Indore Mayor and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLA Malini Gaur. True, Prem Sharma takes pride in the fact that he is a resident of the city dubbed cleanest in India in a countrywide rating done by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development.

The force behind the stupendous rise of Indore on the Swachh Survekshan Rankings is Mayor Malini Gaur. Indore rose from a low of 180 in 2015, to 25 in 2016 and finally to the number one rank among 434 cities in 2017.

"The day Prime Minister Narendra Modi gave a call for Swachh Bharat from the ramparts of Red Fort in 2015, we decided to work on it," said Gaur who has another two years as Mayor. "We are quite confident of retaining the top position in 2018," she told a group of visiting correspondents. The visit was organised by BJP's Good Governance Department for some Delhi and Karnataka journalists.

With efforts on all fronts, including establishment of integrated solid waste management, the city has brought down the Respirable Suspended Particulate Matter (RSPM) from 145 microgram per unit in 2015 to about 70 now, and there is plan to cut it to 40. The safe threshold is 100.

Till date, Indore has been visited by about 250 municipal authorities from across India to learn the mantra. "It's political and administrative will, and the support of people," says the Mayor simply.

Probing further reveals the Mayor withstood all resistance -- from political parties, business lobbies and sanitation workers. It also required a conscious decision to keep out private contractors. The job is done entirely by the corporation itself -- from collection and transportation to treatment and disposal.

"Private companies are not in a position to absorb the sudden shock loads, which is common in this work," said Swachh Bharat Mission consultant to IMC Asad Warsi.

IMC engaged with various associations like those of schools, hospitals, temples and hotels to design a sustainable system that has made Indore perhaps the only city in India that is litter-free, garbage-free and free from stray animals.

The city plans to move beyond having one of the best solid waste management and sewage treatment plants. It is looking at a facility to make compost, at extracting methane gas from waste from the wholesale vegetable market to fuel some of the city buses, to making the district open defecation free (ODF), ensuring dry and wet waste segregation at a door-to-door level, and cleaning monuments and footpaths each night.

Indore has come out with a tender for sewage sludge hygienisation facility that will kill potentially infectious bacteria in the sludge and make it odour-free through radiation. It will be in place by 2019, making Indore a poster city for the BJP to advertise its achievements before the Lok Sabha polls.

Rajesh Godale, a Chief Sanitary Inspector (CSI) at IMC, while taking photographs of mechanised sweeping vehicles and footpath cleaners at work around midnight, said, "There are four CSIs who go around the city taking photographs of the cleaning process each night that is shared on a Whatsapp group as proof. I am sure Indore would be the cleanest city once again."

To keep the city spic and span, the IMC has a budget of Rs 400 crore under the Swachh Bharat Mission, but its operational cost is just Rs 160 crore after a capital investment of Rs 150 crore. "The idea is to keep the working cost low," said the Mayor.

Individual households pay Rs 60 and commercial units pay Rs 90 per month for Clean Indore.Dharamsala, Feb 28 : His salary is "less than that of an Indian postman", but it is his task to communicate his community's desire for liberty across the globe. And Lobsang Sangay, the 49-year-old Central Tibetan Administration (CTA) President, has a packed agenda, including convincing Beijing to have dialogue with the Tibetans on their rights.

"The current year is a year to engage, educate and empower ourselves and the movement," the political successor to the Dalai Lama, the Nobel laureate and global face of the Tibetan movement, told IANS in an interview here. It is also significant as March 31 will mark the beginning of the 60th year of the Dalai Lama stepping on Indian soil.

Though he has returned to his second home where he was born and brought up after spending 15 years at Harvard University, the financial constraints don't really matter.

"I am getting a salary less than an Indian postman," Sangay told IANS.

"I am here to lead a movement that campaigns globally for rights of my brothers and sisters, both in exile and Tibet," said the democratically-elected CTA President -- a position often referred to as Prime Minister of the Tibetan government-in-exile Sixty years ago, some 80,000 Tibetans, along with their spiritual leader the Dalai Lama, left Lhasa after a failed uprising against Communist rule over Tibet and fled to India. The Tibetan exile administration, called the CTA, is based in this northern Indian hill town, where the spiritual leader also lives.

Sangay, who normally dons a achuba -- a loose cloak worn by both Tibetan men and women -- believes education is the most potent and realistic investment and a tool.

He took the oath of office for his second consecutive term in May 2016. China, however, doesn't recognise his government-in-exile and hasn't held any talks with the Dalai Lama's envoys since January 2010 to resolve the Tibetan issue.

"In the past six-and-a-half years, I have been to almost all the Tibetan settlements across India, North America and Europe. Our basic purpose is to educate our younger generation -- the more skilfully we educate them, the more successfully we will develop strong foundations for the future," Sangay said.

With the Dalai Lama stepping down from diplomacy and active politics, the elected leader of Tibetan people, also known as Sikyong, has acquired added stature.

Sangay normally attends office daily from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. After finishing his work, he informally interacts with the local Tibetan communities from his two-bedroom apartment here. His cabinet meets twice a week -- every Tuesday and Friday, even in his absence.

Born in 1968 in India, Sangay pursues the Dalai Lama's advocacy of genuine autonomy for the people of Tibet.

"We do believe in the middle-way approach that international leaders and even many Chinese intellectuals support," he said. "As long as human rights violations continue, there will be resistance from our people in Tibet."

"I hope China will accept dialogue as the only way to resolve the issue peacefully".

The Tibetan administration is launching a round-the-year campaign in India on March 17 from Arunachal Pradesh to reach out to the Indian community through "Thank You India" events.

The spiritual leader entered India on March 31, 1959, through Arunachal Pradesh, along with his followers.

"It also marks 60 years of Tibet under China which is a sad and tragic chapter of Tibet's history. However, the last 60 years of the Tibetan community in exile has also been a story of success," Sangay said.

He jokingly referred the Tibetan movement as "the first and original product of India's 'Make in India' initiative".

Expressing gratitude, he said: "His Holiness the Dalai Lama calls himself as a 'son of India' because he has survived on the nutritious Indian dal-roti and also because his mind is filled with the rich knowledge of ancient India."

Around 140,000 Tibetans now live in exile, over 100,000 of them in different parts of India. Over six million Tibetans live in Tibet.

(Vishal Gulati can be contacted atAvishal.g@ians.in)New Delhi, Feb 28 : Prime Minister Narendra Modi has not told the "truth" to the opposition about the conversations he has had with the Pakistani leadership and the government's policy vis-a-vis the neighbouring country had reached a "dead end", says former External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid.

He also feels India is losing its grip on the world in foreign policy and has gone into the US camp with very little returns.

"Our policy on Pakistan is at a dead end. We are losing people every day. We keep saying we are giving it back to them. Years of losing civilians and soldiers and years of saying we are giving it back to them isn't really my idea of a good foreign policy," Khurshid told IANS in an interview.

"Pakistan is a slippery, difficult creature and (dealing with) that is what diplomacy is about," he added.

Khurshid, a senior Congress leader, said it was more than clear that "we do not have a war option with Pakistan".

"So our failure is writ large. We have to find a solution. It is not our job in the opposition to give him a solution unless he consults with us. Unless he asks us what can be done. But this is not something that can be allowed to go on indefinitely," he said.

Asked if the Congress party had any suggestions for the government, he said, "We have no suggestions except that he should first tell us to the truth".

"He has never told us the truth about Pakistan; what he has said to them, what does he do (in) meetings with them, what does he share, what do they promise. He must share with us something before we can tell him what to do," Khurshid said.

The former minister said India has been unable to go "beyond a certain point with our agenda as far as the US is concerned".

"Yes, I certainly think we have gone into the US camp. We have got very little in return. We used to get concrete results from being with the (erstwhile) Soviet Union -- not just with it, but with the rest of the world that was aligned towards socialism. So I think there are major issues there. And we have gone in blind, we haven't calculated properly."

Khurshid, whose latest book "Triple Talaq: Examining Faith" has hit the stands, said India was getting global attention not because of its foreign policy but because of its economic potential.

"Our markets are forcing people to show interest and the Indian diaspora is playing an increasingly important role in the world. These things give us stature.

"This is not the kind of stature we had when India provided leadership to the Third World under (Prime Minister Jawaharlal) Nehru and the comfort India had when the Soviet Union stood strongly with India and India was an exponent of non-alignment," he said.

He said Modi has shown an "enormous amount of energy of salesmanship" and has done a reasonably effective job in this respect because of his oratory.

"I don't think in foreign policy, if you look around the neighbourhood, if you look around West Asia, if you look around Europe, if you look at Africa, I don't think we have a consistently coordinated foreign policy posture that will be appreciated in the world. The way we are jumping from leg to leg on Israel and Palestine, the way we are dealing with China vis-a-vis Japan and China itself, the way we are keeping a very low relationship with Russia," he said.

Khurshid, who was External Affairs Minister in the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government, said India was consulted on major international flashpoints in the past -- but that was no longer the case.

"In the past, nothing moved without India being consulted. Today, in Syria nobody wants to know what India thinks, in Iraq nobody wants to know what India thinks. I think we are losing our grip on the world as far as foreign policy is concerned," he said.

(Prashant Sood can be reached at prashant.s@ians.in)New Delhi, Feb 28 : Amazon Prime Video on Wednesday announced a content deal with Disney India.

The deal will help to make Amazon Prime Video the streaming home for seven upcoming international titles from Marvel and ABC.

These shows will be available to Prime members in India immediately after they premiere in the US.

The seven shows include four Marvel series like "Inhumans" and "Runaways", that are already available to stream, as well as "Cloak & Dagger" and three ABC series including "The Crossing", "Station 19" and the already available show - "Alone Together".

Additionally, Prime members can watch complete seasons of international series like "Desperate Housewives", "Grey's Anatomy", "Criminal Minds" and "Castle".

"We are elated to bring quality content from Marvel and ABC to our Prime members. Whether it's bingeing on past seasons of an old favourite or discovering your new favourite show, we believe that everyone will find something to enjoy," Vijay Subramaniam, Director, Content, Amazon Prime Video India, said in a statement.

"With upcoming shows, we are thrilled to make the content available in India, immediately after the US premiere," he added.

Amrita Pandey, Regional Head - Media Distribution and OTT, South Asia, said: "It's critical for us to make our diverse content available to fans everywhere. This opportunity with Amazon Prime Video in India, allows us to bring some of our fan favourite shows from Marvel and ABC to Indian audiences on a device of their choice and convenience."New Delhi, Feb 28 : President Ram Nath Kovind, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Congress President Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday condoled the demise of Jayendra Saraswathi, the 69th pontiff of the Sankara Mutt Kanchipuram in Tamil Nadu.

Expressing his condolences, President Kovind wrote on Twitter: "Sad to hear of the passing of Jayendra Saraswatiji, the Shankaracharya of Kanchi Kamakoti Peetam. Our country has lost a spiritual leader and social reformer of rare eminence. My condolences to his countless disciples and followers."

Prime Minister Modi also shared on social media an old picture of his with the seer along with a condolence message.

"Deeply anguished by the passing away of Acharya of Sri Kanchi Kamakoti Peetam Jagadguru Pujyashri Jayendra Saraswathi Shankaracharya. He will live on in the hearts and minds of lakhs of devotees due to his exemplary service and noblest thoughts. Om Shanti to the departed soul," Modi said.

"Jagadguru Pujyashri Jayendra Saraswathi Shankaracharya was at the forefront of innumerable community service initiatives. He nurtured institutions which transformed the lives of the poor and downtrodden," he added.

Rahul Gandhi said he was "saddened" to hear about the death of the Kanchi seer.

"I am saddened to hear about the death of Jagadguru Pujyashri Jayendra Saraswathi Shankaracharya of the Kanchi Kamakoti Peetham," Gandhi wrote on Twitter.

"He was revered by lakhs of believers all over the world for his teachings. May his soul rest in peace," the Congress President added.

Senior BJP leader and former Union Home Minister L.K. Advani in his condolence message said that he knew the seer closely who played a key role in defusing acrimony between the Hindu and Muslim communities over the Babri Masjid dispute.

"I had the privilege of knowing Jayendra Saraswathi Swami ji very closely. Our association became closer during the rule of NDA-I, when I was the Minister of Home Affairs in the government headed by Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee ji," Advani said in a written message.

"Swami ji proactively initiated a dialogue with various religious and social leaders of the Muslim community to evolve an amicable solution to the Ayodhya dispute. This dialogue helped a lot in promoting mutual trust and goodwill between Hindu and Muslim communities," he added.

The BJP veteran said he joined millions of devotees of the Kanchi Kamakoti Mutt in "offering prayers to the Almighty and in seeking peace to the departed soul".

Saraswathi, the 69th pontiff of the Sankara Mutt in Kanchipuram passed away in Kanchipuram in a private hospital where he was admitted early on Wednesday. The 82-year-old pontiff was ailing for some time.Chennai, Feb 28 : Swami Jayendra Saraswati, the Sankaracharya of Kanchipuram Mutt in Tamil Nadu who passed away on Wednesday, was a colossal spiritual figure and initiated innumerable programmes for the downtrodden across the country.

Although he fell foul of the law over the murder of a Kanchipuram resident before being cleared of all charges, Jayendra Saraswati had a huge following both in India and abroad.

Many compared him with Ramanuja -- the legendary Vaishnavite guru and a social reformer. Jayendra Saraswati, the 69th pontiff of the Sankara Mutt in Kanchipuram, was a Saivite -- a follower of Lord Shiva.

Focussed on the uplift of Dalits, the 82-year-old guru was also interested in developing healthcare and educational facilities for the people apart from spreading spiritualism.

He was the first Hindu seer to be involved in efforts to find a solution to the Ram Janmabhoomi issue.

"We have not seen Ramanuja. But we have seen Kanchi Mutt seer Jayendra Saraswathi. At the Sankara Mutt, there was no caste discrimination. Before meeting him, I had strong views against Sankara Mutt. But later, I realised that Jayendra Saraswati or the mutt does not discriminate on caste basis," Tada Periyasamy, Managing Trustee of Nandanar Trust told IANS.

"Jayendra Saraswati had a good sense of humour and used to pull my leg. Once he told me you are Periyasamy (periya-big person) and I am a chinnasamy (chinna-small person)," said Periyasamy.

Vinayagar V. Murali, Secretary of Sri Chandrashekara Saraswati Swamigal Goshala, said: "Perhaps he was the only Hindu sanyasi who had visited the most number of slums and Dalit colonies in the country. He visited the inner most parts of the Dharavi slums in Mumbai and several other slums and Dalit colonies."

According to Murali, the Kanchi seer strongly supported the Goshala and was opposed to any move of shifting it.

He said the seer supported the anti-conversion law brought by the AIADMK government headed by Chief Minister late J. Jayalalithaa.

"He addressed a big rally on the Marina beach in support of the law addressing a crowd that numbered over 20,000 on a rainy evening."

"The seer had also travelled across India on foot thrice and had visited various jails to meet the inmates there. He used to send sweets and 'prasad' to prisoners, inmates in old age homes," Murali added.

Valasai Jayaraman, who was associated with the Sankara Mutt for a long time, said that the seer used to visit the Dalit colony.

"Citing the Nadar community that came up in the society through hardwork and education, Jayendra Saraswati used to advice the Dalits to follow Nadars to come up in life and not depend on others," Jayaraman said.

Jayendra Saraswati also helped in renovating various Hindu temples, he said.

K. Srinivasan, former banker and who was associated with the seer, said: "He was instrumental in the revival of the famous Child Trust Hospital here. Similarly, he was involved in the setting up of a famous eye hospital."

Srinivasan said Jayendra Saraswati was capable of handling any kind of media questions.

Born as M. Subrahmanyam on July 18, 1935 in Irulneekki village in Thanjavur district, Jayendra Saraswati was chosen as the junior seer in 1954. In 1994, he became the Sankara Mutt head after the death of his iconic senior Sri Chandrashekara Saraswati Swamigal.

While Sri Chandrashekara Saraswati Swamigal was focused on spiritual side, his junior Jayendra Saraswati was interested in societal activities as well and was also part of some controversies.

As a junior pontiff, Jayendra Saraswati had left the mutt for some days without informing anybody alledgedly owing to some difference of opinion with his senior. However, later he came back to the mutt and reassumed his position.

But the major test of his life was when he was arrested by the Tamil Nadu police in November 2004 on the eve of Diwali over the charges of his involvement in the murder of Sankararaman, an official of the famous Varadharaja Perumal temple in Kanchipuram.

Jayendra Saraswati was jailed for quite some time by the state police and later was acquitted of all the charges.

(Venkatachari Jagannathan can be reached at v.jagannathan@ians.in)Bhopal, Feb 28 : Madhya Pradesh Finance Minister Jayant Malaiya on Wednesday presented an over Rs 2 lakh crore budget for 2018-19 in the state assembly here. The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party termed it "historical" while the opposition Congress called it "hopeless".

The budget of Rs 2,04,642 crore focuses on agriculture, health, education, poverty and employment. It is the last budget of the incumbent government before the 2018 assembly elections in the state.

The budget deficit is projected at Rs 26,780 crore.

"The budget crossed Rs 2 lakh crore and is historical. The budget also stressed on food, clothes, shelter, education and medicare for poor and farmers and their families," Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan said.

BJP leaders Sanjay Pathak and Lal Singh Arya called it a people's budget and said it is for the common man.

On the other hand, Leader of Opposition Ajay Singh from the Congress called the budget "hopeless".

"The government is promising electricity to all the houses after 14 years in power due to the upcoming elections. The government is praising itself for the Krishi Karman Award, but the farmers are committing suicide. The budget is hopeless," he said.

Congress leader Govind Singh alleged that the government did not follow its policies, rather only announced new policies.New Delhi, Feb 28 : A week after the IAS association declared that it would not attend any government meetings till Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal apologises for the alleged assault on Chief Secretary Anshu Prakash by the ruling party MLAs, the AAP and Lt. Governor Anil Baijal attacked each other over the issue.

Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia on Wednesday responded to Baijal's Tuesday letter to Kejriwal in response to an earlier letter by him (Sisodia).

In that letter, Sisodia asked for the L-G's intervention as bureaucrats were not attending important meetings called by ministers.

On Tuesday, Baijal wrote that the government employees felt "physically insecure, sadly in the very presence of those who have been elected to uphold democracy and rule of law".

Sisodia on Wednesday condemned the L-G for showing "full support" for the IAS association's "fatwa" (diktat).

He said that the L-G's letter "strengthened" those who have not been doing their job.

"For three months, 10,000 Angadwadi workers, 10,000 Anganwadi helpers, and 10,000 Anganwadi landlords have not received their salaries because of them (IAS officers)," he said, adding that it was affecting five lakh children who are beneficiaries of Anganwadi.

"If one IAS officer comes to you with a complaint against a minister, you ignore his faults and start wiping his tears. You encourage him to boycott meetings called by the ministers."

Sisodia attacked the L-G, saying that if the latter was asked to deal with these bureaucrats, he would rather have suggestions to give to the government.

Stressing that the IAS association had the L-G's support and he was always approachable to them, he said: "But if a bunch of Anganwadi workers approach you at your office, they would be lathicharged 2 km away from your office."

"You have yourself been a bureaucrat once, please stop seeing through the eyes of one now and please look at the situation from the point of a three-year-old kid who visits an Anganwadi," he wrote.

"Please try to understand the arrangement of Raj Niwas and Secretariat. My fight is against that arrangement and not these IAS employees."

Sisodia requested the L-G to order a probe against the officers whose misconduct had led to the Anganwadi workers not being paid on time.

"Please take strict action against them."

Last week, the IAS Association decided to boycott all meetings with ministers in protest against the alleged attack on the Chief Secretary.

However, officers of the Delhi government made an exception for a Cabinet meeting related to the Budget on Tuesday.New Delhi, Feb 28 : The government on Wednesday said it had nothing to do with the presence of Jaspal Atwal, convicted for an attempt on life of then Punjab Minister Malkiat Singh Sidhu, at an event hosted by the Canadian High Commissioner in Mumbai and any suggestion to the contrary is "unacceptable and baseless".

External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Raveesh Kumar made the remarks in response to a media query after reports that Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau had stood by a senior government official who floated the theory that "rogue political factions" in the Indian establishment "orchestrated" the embarrassing invitation to Atwal to make the Canadian government appear sympathetic to Sikh extremism.

"We have seen the exchange in Canadian Parliament on the two invitations issued to Jaspal Atwal by the Canadian High Commissioner, for functions hosted in honour of the then visiting Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to India.

"Let me categorically state that the government of India, including security agencies, had nothing to do with the presence of Jaspal Atwal at the event hosted by the Canadian High Commissioner in Mumbai or the invitation issued to him for the Canadian High Commissioner's reception in New Delhi. Any suggestion to the contrary is baseless and unacceptable," External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Raveesh Kumar told the media here.

The invitation to Atwal for the Delhi reception was later rescinded.

Atwal was convicted in the attempt on the life of Punjab Minister Malkiat Singh Sidhu in 1986 when he was visiting relatives in Canada. Atwal was also charged -- but not convicted -- in the 1985 attack on Ujjal Dosanjh, who later became British Columbia premier and a federal Liberal Cabinet minister.

The Canadian media had reported that Trudeau stood by the senior government official regarding his remarks on the embarrasing invitation to Atwal.

The Opposition in Canada hit out at Trudeau in Parliament on Tuesday -- his first since his India trip -- over how Atwal was invited to the reception at Canadian High Commissioner Nadir Patel's residence in New Delhi.

Trudeau responded by saying: "When one of our top diplomats and security officials says something to the Canadians, it's because they know it to be true."

In a background briefing arranged by the Canadian Prime Minister's Office, a senior government official last week suggested that Atwal's presence "was arranged by factions within the Indian government".

The Canadian media identified the official as Trudeau's National Security Adviser Daniel Jean. The opposition pressed Trudeau to say whether he agreed with Jean's "conspiracy theory".Lucknow, Feb 28 : Gandhian and anti-corruption crusader has accused prime minister Narendra Modi of not being interested in appointment of the Lokpal at the centre. Having hit the road in the run up to the mega show of strength at the Ramlila Maidan in New Delhi on March 23, the veteran crusader Anna Hazare says Modi was "never serious about Lokpal".

The reason behind the delay in appointment of a Lokpal, he points out, is because the prime minister is afraid that once this becomes a reality his office as well as that of his cabinet members would also come under its purview.

"Panth Pradhan ka office bhi Lokpal ke neeche aa jayega, ye bhay unko satata hai" (The PMO will also come under the ambit of Lokpal and his fear stalks the PM), Hazare said during a free wheeling interview with IANS at the VVIP guest house in the state capital.

Sipping hot green tea to fight off the signs of tiredness from his visit to Sitapur, where he addressed a well-attended public rally, the 80-year-old informs that he has written 22 letters to the prime minister in the past four years but has got a reply to even one. Even as chief minister of Gujarat, Modi tried to cold shoulder the appointment of a Lokayukta in the state, he added.

He cites the section 4 clause 2 of the Lokpal Act wherein it is specifically said that in case the appointment of Lokpal is made with some members of the select panel not being there, it is in principle binding. "This government says there is no leader of opposition hence Lokpal cannot be appointed. This is all hogwash," Hazare says Ask him if graft has come down under the watch of Modi and he smiles. "Wo bolta acche hai, isliye bhrastachaar ki baat chup jaati hai par vaisa hai nahin. Aaj bhi aam aadmi bhrastachar se bahut peedit hai" (He (Modi) is a good orator, hence the issue of graft is overshadowed but the reality is that the common man continues to bear the brunt of graft), he says while pointing out how the entire political system was scared of a full-fledged and effective Lokpal.

Having addressed more than 50 rallies since he started the renewed mission from November 22 last year, Hazare bubbles with energy when one mentions how his 'andolan' in 2011 had spurred the youth of the nation.

He is quick to inform that thousands of volunteers in the movement this time around too are putting in their whole effort so that the nation could be freed from the clutches of corruption. "If the youth gets up, the fate of the nation will change for good" he says while pointing out on how his rallies in Aurnachal Pradesh, Assam, MP, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Karnataka and Haryana in the past few months had garnered immense support of women and the youth.

But how would the movement be different this time round?

"See, the last time we were successful in ensuring that a legislation which was put on the back burner and resisted by the political establishment for so many decades was passed by the parliament. This time we will ensure that it is implemented in letter and spirit, he proclaims as a group of youngsters who have come to meet him and seek his blessings breaks into a spontaneous applause. Broach the name of Arvind Kejriwal and a sadness creases his face. He informs that he had cautioned the Delhi chief minister many a times that he should not "be tempted by power" but he did not pay heed.

Kejriwal, who has many times called Hazare his mentor and guru and he have not spoken for the last many years.

Once bitten twice shy, the octogenarian has now enforced a strict rule that any body who becomes part of the outfit taking forward the anti-graft crusade will have to sign an affidavit promising no role in active politics. Over 5,000 people have already signed it, informs an aide while adding that in case someone breaches the contract, Anna can take the person to court.

Quoting the teachings of eminent Maharashtrian saint Tukaram, Hazare says the greed of power and attachment can be a great road block in national service. "I have not met my biological family for the last 45 years, I lead a simple life, don't even know what my account holds in terms of savings....my only mission is to see this country free of corruption" he muses.

As him if this much traveling doesn't trouble his aging bones and he snaps back with a smile. "At 80, I feel younger than many teenagers. Its all about 'mann' (mind and heart)" he says while pointing out how his meals are simple and fast food like burgers are strictly out.

He informs that his day starts with pranayam, followed by sprouts as breakfast and two phulka (roti) and vegetables for lunch. There is no dinner, only fresh fruit juice. He vows that "till mylast breath" he will continue his struggle against graft and that he is very optimistic that the 'Jan Sansad' (peoples' parliament) will make this happen.

(Mohit Dubey can be contacted at mohit.d@ians.in)Barcelona, Feb 28 : China-based smartphone maker Coolpad on Wednesday announced that it will integrate Amazon's smart assistant Alexa in some of its devices.

With the integration, Coolpad smartphone owners will be able to give voice command using the Coolpad Alexa app for multiple tasks.

"We are working to immerse more AI and tech into smartphones to make the experience more intelligent, friendly and beneficial for users. Incorporating Alexa in Coolpad smartphones is one such step in that direction," Syed Tajuddin, CEO-Coolpad India, said in a statement.

The handset maker will roll out Alexa in Cool Play 6, Note 5 and Note 5 via an Over-the-Air (OTA) update and its upcoming devices will come with Amazon Alexa pre-installed.

"In case of Amazon Alexa, Coolpad will be the first smartphone brand in India which will provide Amazon Alexa in smartphones," said Brandy Kang, Executive Vice President, Coolpad Group.Jammu, Feb 28 : The Pakistan Army on Wednesday resorted to indiscriminate shelling on the Line of Control (LoC) in Jammu and Kashmir's Rajouri district.

The Pakistani side used small arms, automatics and mortars to target defence and civilian facilities along the LoC in the district, a defence official said.

"Pakistani shelling and firing started at 10.30 a.m. Our positions retaliated strongly and effectively", the official said.

Pakistan's indiscriminate shelling of civilian facilities has forced the authorities to shut 72 schools close to the border in Rajouri and Poonch districts.Thiruvananthapuram, Feb 28 : Stung by all-round criticism and fearing a huge backlash, the Kerala government on Wednesday decided not to withdraw the case against six Left legislators who had indulged in vandalism in the Assembly in 2015.

During the hearing on this matter in Thiruvananthapuram, the lower court directed all the legislators to appear before it on April 21.

After this, three impleading petitions came up before the court on Wednesday against the state government's decision to withdraw the case.

The court informed the counsels of Leader of opposition Ramesh Chennithala, State BJP president Kummanem Rajasekheran and the Kerala unit of Aam Aadmi Party that the case was not being withdrawn and asked why they had filed the petition. The counsels replied that the petitions need be taken up only if the state government withdraws the case.

The Vijayan government had earlier decided to withdraw the case after one of the legislators wrote to the government seeking withdrawal, as he said it was a politically motivated move.

On Tuesday, it was the Congress party in Kerala which slammed the state government for withdrawing the case. State Congress President M.M. Hassan expressed "shock" over how the government had withdrawn the cases that had "caused a lot of shame for the state" as six legislators had created ruckus and damaged property worth Rs 2 lakh in the Assembly on March 13, 2015.

The then Speaker, N. Sakthan, had asked for a Crime Branch probe into their action. The probe concluded that six legislators, including current State Minister for Local Self Government K.T. Jaleel, and former Minister and present CPI-M legislator E.P. Jayarajan, had taken part in the attack. Others named were legislators V. Sivankutty, Kunju Ahamed, C.K. Sadasivan and K. Ajith.

The present Assembly Speaker P. Sreeramakrishnan, who was not directly involved in the action, was around when the incident took place.

Reacting to the turn of events, Jayarajan asked "what's the big deal" if the state government decides to withdraw the case. "You just take a look at the number of cases the previous Congress government (2011-16) withdrew. These things do happen all the time," he said.Lucknow, Feb 28 : The Uttar Pradesh government on Wednesday transferred nine senior IPS officials, including Navneet Sikera, the in-charge of "Women Power Line 1090", an official release said on Wednesday.

Sikera, who has served in the state capital for more than six years in different capacities, has been sent to Allahabad as IG Housing and Welfare.

Anju Gupta has been shifted from ADG (Crime and Research) to ADG "Women Power Line 1090" while Satyendra Kumar Kaul who was ADG (Logistics) has been made the new ADG (Crime and Research).

ADG Brijraj, attached to the DGP office, has been made ADG anti-corruption organisation.

Sunil Gupta, who was ADG CB-CID has been posted as ADG of the Bhimrao Ambedkar Police Academy in Moradabad, replacing KSP Kumar who has now been made the ADG Logistics.

Vijay Prakash has been named the new IG Railways.Jaipur, Feb 28 : The BJP's Rajasthan unit will extend invitations to people for Prime Minister Narendra Modi's March 8 rally in Jhunjhunu by offering them yellow rice, considered auspicious, an official said here on Wednesday.

In a meeting here, state Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)'s Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao cell President Meena Asopa urged all members to attend the Prime Minister's rally.

Cell's co-chief Ashish Gupta said a state-level meeting will be organised in Sikar and Jhunjhunu on March 4.

Besides, a vehicle rally will be taken out on March 7 in Jhunjhunu where people will be invited for Modi's rally by giving them "peele chaval" (yellow coloured rice).

Asopa directed the members concerned to organise programmes such as painting, vehicle rally, cooking and debates that portray the message of Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao.New Delhi, Feb 28 : Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Wednesday said there is a great need to evolve India into an insured society and to provide income security and pension facility to its senior citizens.

Speaking at the fourth Annual Pension Conference here, the Finance Minister said there was a need to provide for old-age income security and pension facility to the citizens in view of the evolving demographic profile, changing socio-economic structure and limitations on the fiscal resources.

He added that dependency of senior citizens was a grave challenge for the society and that it could be met with evolution of concept of pension and its expansion.

During the event, Jaitley also inaugurated the Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority's (PFRDA) website on financial literacy and pension planning.Thiruvananthapuram, February 28 : The state assembly on Wednesday witnessed noisy scenes for the third consecutive day with the opposition UDF disrupting proceedings demanding a discussion on the recent murders of youth congress activist Shuhaib, tribal youth Madhu and IUML activist Safeer.

The opposition boycotted question hour after speaker P Sreeramakrishnan turned down their demand to suspend question hour to discuss the murders.

Later, as per the speakers suggestion that the issues raised by the opposition could be considered as an adjournment motion, IUML MLA N Shamsudheen moved a notice for the motion.

Moving the notice for the motion, the opposition alleged that the law and order situation in the state had become so grave that it resembled that of north Indian states.

They demanded the arrest of those involved in the conspiracy behind the murder of youth congress activist Shuhaib in Kannur on February 12.

The opposition also called for a judicial inquiry into the killing of tribal youth Madhu by a mob. They also demanded a probe into the allegations pertaining to the involvement of forest officials in the murder.

Responding to the notice, chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan assured the opposition that no one involved in the murders would be spared. He pointed out that five persons were arrested in connection with the murder of IUML worker Safeer and 16 persons in connection with murder of Madhu.

Based on the chief ministers reply, the speaker rejected the oppositions notice for an adjournment motion.

The opposition then trooped to the well of the house shouting slogans, following which the speaker rushed through the listed business and adjourned the house for the day.

Speaking to reporters outside the assembly, Chennithala charged that Kerala had become a killers paradise, saying that the situation in the state was such that anybody could kill anyone.

The situation in the state is grave. There is complete breakdown of rule of law in the state due to a paralysis of governance. The government is unable to protect the life and wealth of citizens. By avoiding a discussion, the government is trying to whitewash everything, he said.Panaji, Feb 28 : BJP national president Amit Shah has sold out the interests of Goa and Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar by openly siding with poll-bound Karnataka over the Mhadei water dispute, state Congress president Shantaram Naik said on Wednesday.

"Shah has sold out Goa and Parrikar. He has said that Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) will resolve the Mhadei issue in favour of Karnataka. He is openly siding with Karnataka. Goa doesn't mean anything for the BJP," Naik told a press conference.

Two days back Shah, during a visit to Kalaburgi in Karnataka, had said that the BJP would resolve the Mhadei water dispute, if it comes to power in the southern state.

"I assure the people of state that if the BJP is voted to power, it will solve the Mhadei river water dispute," Shah had been quoted as saying.

Naik also said that ruling BJP MLAs in Goa should ask why Shah made a statement, which potentially compromised Goa's interests in the dispute.

Goa's Water Resources Minister Vinod Palienkar has already called Shah's comments "unreasonable" and "politically motivated".

Goa, Karnataka and Maharashtra are currently involved in a dispute over the controversial Kalsa-Bhandura dam project across the Mhadei river, through which Karnataka aims to divert water from the Mhadei basin to a nearby basin on the Malaprabha river. The Tribunal hearing the dispute is expected to deliver a verdict in a few months' time.

Mhadei, also known as the Mandovi river, is considered a lifeline in the northern parts of the coastal state. It originates in Karnataka and meets the Arabian Sea in Panaji in Goa, while briefly flowing through Maharashtra.

The river course is 28.8 km in Karnataka and over 50 km in Goa.

After a meeting with Shah in December last year, Parrikar in a letter to senior Karnataka BJP leader B.S. Yeddyurappa had offered to discuss sharing of drinking water from the Mhadei river with Karnataka on humanitarian grounds.

The letter had evoked sharp criticism from his own cabinet colleagues as well as the opposition and civil society groups, who accused the Goa Chief Minister of selling out the state's natural resources only to help the BJP, ahead of the Karnataka assembly polls.Mumbai, Feb 28 : The Maharashtra Congress and the party's Mumbai city unit on Wednesday flayed the arrest of former Union Minister P. Chidambaram's son Karti Chidambaram, calling it "political vendetta" and said the Centre was "relying on statements of "habitual liar" Indrani Mukerjea in the matter.

On the other hand, the party said, despite India's biggest bank loot happening under his watch, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had not answered a single legitimate question on the subject.

"His silence on the entire saga raises serious questions about the role of the Narendra Modi government in the escape of (Punjab National Bank scam accused) Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi," Mumbai Congress President Sanjay Nirupam said.

"It is condemnable that the BJP-led government will even manipulate a murder accused (Indrani Mukerjea) into levying random charges in exchange for leniency."

He said while the National Democratic Alliance government promptly arrested Karti on the charge of receiving a bribe of Rs 10 lakh, "Lalit Modi, Vijay Mallya, Nirav Modi and Choksi -- who looted Indian banks of more than Rs 32,000 crore -- were allowed to escape (from the country)."

"This is indeed a new style of tackling corruption by the government," Nirupam said.

Referring to Indrani Mukerjea, he alleged that she was found lying six times in court, married three times and her two marriages were kept secret from her third husband, and that she introduced her daughter as her younger sister and then murdered her.

"How can the government rely on the statements of a person who is a lair and undergoing a court trial in the murder of her own daughter to go ahead and arrest Karti Chidambaram? This is nothing but an attempt to divert attention from its failures and for letting bank scamsters escape right from under their noses," Nirupam said.

Terming it "political vendetta" of the government, Maharashtra Congress President Ashok Chavan said P. Chidambaram -- a Rajya Sabha MP from Maharashtra -- "has been systematically exposing" the government and highlighting its anti-people policies for the last four years.

"For highlighting the government's failures and scams, the government -- in its wisdom -- has decided to target and harass Chidambaram and his family members," he said.

Chavan said the Congress will not be cowed down by such tactics and will continue its campaign to expose the government's inefficiency and scandals before the public.New Delhi, Feb 28 : As a mark of protest against the alleged attack on Chief Secretary Anshu Prakash by two Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) legislators, top Delhi government bureaucrats and its employees took out a "March for Dignity" here on Wednesday.

The march, led by the Chief Secretary, started from the Delhi Secretariat and ended at Raj Ghat, which saw participation by around 800-900 officers and employees holding candles in their hands.

Last week, the Chief Secretary alleged that he was beaten up by AAP MLA Amanatullah Khan and another party MLA in the presence of Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal at the Chief Minister's residence here on February 19 night, where he had been called for a meeting.

Speaking to reporters after the march, the Government Employees Joint Forum reiterated their demand of a "written public apology" from the Chief Minister.

The forum said that they would continue to not attend meetings or talk to ministers over phone and that they would contact ministers and MLAs only through the written channel till Kejriwal tenders a "written public apology".

Manoj Parida, Principal Secretary (Home) and S.N. Sahai, Principal Secretary (Finance) were among the top bureaucrats who took part in the march.Shillong, Feb 28 : Re-polling at a booth in Meghalaya will be conducted on Thursday, Chief Electoral Officer Frederick Roy Kharkongor said on Wednesday.

The repolling at the Kyndong Tuber polling booth under Raliang assembly constituency was necessitated due to an error in the voting machine.

Meanwhile, over 84 per cent of the 18.9 lakh electors cast their votes on Tuesday in a peaceful manner to elect new members to the 60-member Meghalaya Assembly, said Kharkongor.

However, he said that the figures would increase after repolling at one booth and polling for the Williamnagar assembly seat which was countermanded following the death of Nationalist Congress Party candidate Jonathone Sangma in an IED blast on February 18.

"The voter's turnout has been robust and healthy with Williamnagar yet to vote. With sympathy wave there is hope for a high voter turnout in this constituency. Perhaps we may equal the turnout of 2013 polls," the election official told journalists.

The polling percentage in 2013 was 86.82.New Delhi, Feb 28 : Union Women and Child Development Minister Maneka Gandhi on Wednesday said that although she does not know how "illegal" brothels are running in the Capital and elsewhere in India, but a new legislation her Ministry is bringing would help address the issue.

Terming the 'Trafficking of Persons (Prevention, Protection and Rehabilitation) Bill, 2018' - cleared by the Union Cabinet on Wednesday - as "one of the best piece of laws in the world on human trafficking", Maneka Gandhi said it would plug the loopholes in earlier anti-trafficking laws and help tackle the menace of human trafficking as also the festering issue of illegal brothels by equipping the law enforcement agencies with more ammunition.

The Minister pointed out that the Immoral Traffic Prevention Act (ITPA), 1956, criminalises sexual exploitation or abuse of persons for commercial purposes but it neither legalises nor criminalises the sex trade, if taken up with free will.

As per the new Bill, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) would also act as the Anti-Trafficking Bureau and the NIA Act is being amended separately for the purpose, she said.

The Bill provides stringent punishment (upto 7-10 years of imprisonment) for buying or selling any person per se (and not just for prostitution, as provided by the existing laws); time bound in-camera trial and repatriation; monetary relief and compensation to the victims and also immunity to the victims in some cases.

She said that the Bill was in conformity with the International Conventions and Protocols on Trafficking (UNTOC).

As per the Bill, the rescued adults would be given an opportunity before the Magistrate if they want to stay in protection homes or go to their native places, she said.Chennai/New Delhi, Feb 28 : In a dramatic development in the INX Media case, former Finance Minister P. Chidambaram's son Karti Chidambaram was arrested by the CBI from Chennai airport on his return from abroad, with the Congress crying "political vendetta" and the government rejecting the charge.

Later in the evening, he was remanded to one-day custody of the Central Bureau of Investigation by a Delhi court.

The arrest of Karti came nine months after the CBI registered a FIR against him on charges of criminal conspiracy, cheating, accepting gratification by corrupt or illegal means, influencing public servants and criminal misconduct.

After his arrest in Chennai, CBI officials took him to Delhi by afternoon. He was taken to the CBI headquarters and then produced before a Duty Magistrate.

Karti allegedly received Rs 3.5 crore from the Mumbai-based INX Media, now known as 9X Media, for helping it get Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) clearance in 2007, when it was run by Peter and Indrani Mukerjea, both accused in the Sheena Bora murder case.

The FIR does not mention Chidambaram senior, though it said he cleared the FIPB approval for Rs 4.62 crore FDI in the firm at a FIPB meeting on May 18, 2007.

In Delhi, Metropolitan Magistrate Sumit Anand granted the remand till 12.30 p.m. on Thursday when a regular CBI court will hear the agency that sought a 15-day remand of Karti for detailed questioning.

The CBI counsel told the Duty Magistrate that they needed his custodial interrogation since he was not cooperating with the probe and was going abroad frequently.

Rejecting the CBI claim, senior counsel Abhishek Manu Singhvi said both charges against his client were false. He said Karti appeared before the CBI and Enforcement Directorate for 30-40 hours and cooperated.

Singhvi said after August 28 last year, the CBI never issued summonses and whenever he went abroad he took court permission. He also rejected the charge of possible tampering with the evidence by Karti, saying this was a 10-year-old case based on documents and there was no question of tampering.

Describing the arrest as "malafide", Singhvi jocularly remarked that Karti was not a "Hindustan Leaver, but Hindustan Returner" for which he got the reward of arrest at the airport.

The defence counsel said Karti was ready for any conditions like surrender of passport and remaining within the city apart from marking daily attendance.

The CBI counsel said that Indrani Mukherjea, an accused in the case, had told a magistrate that Karti had met her in a Delhi hotel and demanded $1 million in bribe for the FIPB clearance in the INX case.

While being taken to the court, Karti said his arrest was an act of political vendetta by the Narendra Modi government.

"Absolutely, political vendetta," he said and expressed confidence that he will eventually be vindicated.

At a Congress briefing, party spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala called the arrest the "political persecution of P. Chidambaram by a puppet CBI acting to serve the political agenda of its political masters" and to mask the culture of colossal corruption and cronyism flourishing under the government".

He said the CBI and ED were being used to "divert, deflect and distract" attention from bank scams totalling Rs 31,691 crore that were exposed in the last 10 days.

Union Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad rejected the Congress claim on the arrest.

"The law is taking its course, and the law must take its course. The CBI will explain all details. The government has no hand in the issue," the Minister told the media.

He said in such cases, issues are raised but evidence available against the accused speaks for itself and not the alibis of the offender.Gijon (Spain), Feb 28 : Thousands of Sporting Gijon's fans on Wednesday bid a last farewell to the Spanish club's late star Enrique Castro, best known as "Quini," at the Molinon stadium.

The stadium, which is to be re-named after Quini, saw thousands of fans lining up throughout the morning to pay their respects to the beloved striker, who died Tuesday at the age of 68, reports Efe.

Many former players and representatives of Gijon's local government also came to say their goodbyes to Quini, who made his debut at Ensidesa in 1967 before joining Sporting Gijon for a first 16-year spell.

After four successful years at Barcelona, he returned to Gijon, where he retired three years later, in 1987.New Delhi, Feb 28 : The Anti-Tank Guided Missile (ATGM) Nag was successfully flight-tested in desert conditions against two tank targets at different ranges and timings, paving the way for its induction into the Army, official sources said on Wednesday.

The third-generation fire-and-forget ATGM has been developed by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO).

"The flight tests on Tuesday once again proved its capability. With these tests, its developmental trials have been completed and it is now ready for induction," an official release said.

Director General (Missiles and Strategic Systems) Dr G. Satheesh Reddy said with the successful test flights, technologies pertaining to the ATGM to engage targets in different conditions have been established.

DRDO Chairman S. Christopher congratulated the Nag team for the achievement.New Delhi, Feb 28 : After the CBI arrested Karti Chidambaram, the Congress on Wednesday accused the Modi government of a "political witch hunt, vendetta and malicious intent" to divert attention from the PNB fraud and other scams.

The Congress said that the move came amidst the party's intense campaign to pin down the Modi government on the "culture of colossal corruption and cronyism".

With the second half of the monsoon session of Parliament to begin in a few days and the Karnataka assembly election to be held in the first half of this year, the Congress will ask questions from the BJP over the issue.

It said that the "political persecution of P. Chidambaram and the arrest of his son by a puppet CBI acting to serve the agenda of its political masters, is nothing but a cog in this wheel".

The party also alleged that in the past 10 days, scams worth Rs 31,691 crore have been exposed.

"Modi government's mask of corruption crusader lies in shambles with successive scams getting uncovered over last 45 months and zero action against fraudsters," said Congress spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala.

"Lalit Modi, Vijay Mallya, Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi have fled the country, duping 30 banks of Rs 22,606 crore and common people of an estimated Rs 5,000 crore through ponzi money for gold schemes," Surjewala added.

He said the Modi government was following old tricks in the book of using a political witch hunt, vendetta and malicious intent to deflect the heat from unprecedented bank scams.

The party said the facts of the case completely uncover the sinister diversionary tactics of the government.

"CBI interrogated Karti Chidambaram twice in August, 2017 and he cooperated fully. Yet out of the blue, arrest has been made," Surjewala said.

Neither P. Chidambaram or Karti Chidambaram or any other family member has ever been a shareholder or director or investor in either Advantage Strategic Consulting or INX Media, he said.

The party also said that Chidambaram has always maintained that none of his family members ever intervened in the functioning of his ministry.

Surjewala asked: "P. Chidambaram and his son have already filed a case in the Supreme Court. It was last heard on February 23 and has been adjourned to March 6. Isn't this, then, a prelude to preventing adjudication?"Hyderabad, Feb 28 : United States Ambassador to India Kenneth I. Juster on Wednesday visited the historic Qutb Shahi Tombs Complex.

Juster, along with the officials from the Aga Khan Trust for Culture (AKTC) and Government of Telangana's Department of Archaeology and Museums, toured the premises of the Qutb Shahi Tombs and had an opportunity to witness first hand the restoration work being carried out there.

AKTC Project Director Ratish Nanda and Department of Archaeology Director N.R. Visalatchy briefed the Ambassador on the project and the restoration works being carried out through the support of various donors, said a statement from the US Consulate.

Ambassador Juster applauded the team for their passion and dedication in preserving the Hyderabad's rich cultural heritage and raising public awareness of it.

In 2014, the project also received a grant from the US Department of State's Ambassador's Fund for Cultural Preservation to carry out excavation work on the site, which concluded in 2016.Bengaluru, Feb 28 : Citizens in India's tech hub would soon get free wireless connectivity to access internet in public places, as the city civic body plans to set up about 400 Wi-Fi (Wireless Fidelity) hotspots, said an official on Wednesday.

"Free Wi-Fi will be provided to the people with the state government's assistance in setting up 400 hotspots across the city, our offices and bus stands," Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) tax and finance committee chairman M. Mahadev said citing the budget outlay for fiscal 2018-19 from April 1.

Presenting the civic budget for the ensuing fiscal, Mahadev told corporators of the 192 wards in the city that of the Rs 9,326-crore expenditure, Rs 5,126 crore would be spent on maintenance and development works, followed by Rs 1,069 crore on garbage disposal and storm water drainage modernisation, Rs 769 crore on welfare programmes, Rs 699 crore on salaries and pension and Rs 316 crore on horticulture, forest and lakes.

The official, however, did not mention the amount earmarked for setting up the 400 hotspots for free wireless access to the city's 11-million citizens.

The budget expects to raise Rs 9,323 crore in the fiscal 2018-19, including Rs 2,751 crore from taxes, Rs 2,504 crore from non-tax revenue, Rs 3,665 crore from central and state governments grants and Rs 403 crore from recoveries and refunds.

Mahadev also earmarked Rs 5 crore to build official residences to the Mayor and the Commissioner in the city.

He has also proposed to buy digital tablets to all councillors for ushering in digital corporation.

Apart from free safety kits, the civic workers will be served midday meals from the state-run Indira Canteens, he said.

City Mayor R. Sampath Raj of the Congress, Deputy Mayor Padmavathi Narasimhamurthy of the Janata-Dal-Secular (JD-S), which is a coalition partner in the ruling civic body, and BBMP Commissioner N. Manjunath Prasad were present in the civic body council hall during the budget presentation.

The budget reflected citizen's aspirations and was pro-people, with a focus on social welfare and women's safety, Raj said.

Opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader in the civic council Padmanabha Reddy, however, said the budget "betrayed" the citizens.

"There are no new schemes in the budget, it can't even be called old wine in a new bottle," Reddy lamented.

Commissioner Prasad claimed that the civic body had implemented about A76 per cent of the 2017-18 budget.

"Some of the works taken up under the state government funds released last year will see fruition this year. The fiscal health of the civic body has improved, with no new loans," asserted Prasad.New Delhi, Feb 28 : Simultaneous elections from panchayat to Parliament were on Wednesday discussed at a meeting of BJP Chief Ministers and Deputy Chief Ministers from 19 states, party leaders said.

"Bharatiya Janata Party President Amit Shah heard our suggestions on how to go about simultaneous elections to the Lok Sabha, state Assemblies, urban and rural local bodies at one go. He is studying the issue, which is very important for the country," Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh said.

The meeting was held at the BJP headquarters here.

He said round-the-year elections at one or the other state and consequent enforcement of model code of conduct hampers develomental works.

"This cannot happen in one day, but there should be an effort to generate awareness. With close cooperation between the states and the Centre, the country should try to hold simultaneous elections from panchayats to Parliament by 2018-19 or by 2022," said the senior BJP leader after the Chief Ministers' Council meeting.

Raman Singh said the council is a good platform for sharing best practices and states can learn fron each other on better ways of tackling issues and executing various projects and schemes.

This was the third Chief Ministers' Council meeting after the ones on August 21 and September 25 last year.

The meeting was initially chaired by Amit Shah and later by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Central Ministers Rajnath Singh, Nitin Gadkari, Arun Jaitley, and Shushma Swaraj also attended.

Other issues discussed at the meeting were review of major schemes and some sectors in different states pertaining to housing, electricity, agriculture, and health.

The members also discussed ways to strengthen the BJP in different states ahead of coming polls and the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.New Delhi, Feb 28 : Rift between the bureaucracy and the political executive over an alleged attack on the Chief Secretary by two AAP MLAs widened on Wednesday with top Delhi government officials and employees taking out a "March for Dignity" and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) terming the comments made by the bureaucrats against the ministers as "illegal".

The Delhi government officers stuck to their stand that they would not meet ministers and MLAs for meetings till Kejriwal tenders a "written public apology" for the alleged assault.

On the other hand, Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia criticised Lieutenant Governor (LG) Anil Baijal for showing "full support" to the IAS Association's "fatwa" (diktat) and "encouraging" them to boycott meetings called by the ministers.

The government employees' association also attacked the Deputy Chief Minister by terming Sisodia's remarks about government officers at a seminar on Tuesday as "condemnable".

Although the Chief Minister met the LG in the evening, it did not help break the impasse. After the meeting, Baijal reiterated that Kejriwal should reach out to government employees to resolve the issue.

Last week, Chief Secretary Anshu Prakash alleged that he was beaten up by AAP MLA Amanatullah Khan and another party MLA in the presence of Kejriwal at the Chief Minister's residence here on February 19 night, where he had been called for a meeting.

Addressing the media here, senior AAP leader Ashutosh, citing tweets of bureaucrats like Amitabh Kant and Varsha Joshi, among others, said: "They have been clearly criticising the Delhi government, against rules. Why shouldn't action be taken against them?"

Hinting at the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP)'s hand in the IAS Association's protest, Ashutosh demanded that the call details of senior bureaucrats be made public to find out who was influencing them to go against the government.

Ashutosh said the bureaucrats did not condemn the attack on AAP leaders Imran Hussain and Ashish Khetan at the Delhi Secretariat last week, when the Chief Secretary made the attack allegation. "Has any of the senior officers condemned that?" he said.

Later in the evening, the "March for Dignity", led by the Chief Secretary, started from the Delhi Secretariat and ended at Raj Ghat. It saw the participation of around 800 officers and employees holding candles in their hands.

After the march, representatives of Government Employees Joint Forum said that they would continue to not attend meetings or talk to ministers over phone and officers would contact ministers and MLAs only through the written channel till Kejriwal tenders a "written public apology".

Several senior bureaucrats including, Manoj Parida, Principal Secretary (Home) and S.N. Sahai, Principal Secretary (Finance), took part in the march.

The association earlier in the day acknowledged efforts made by Delhi Social Welfare Minister Rajendra Pal Gautam and Transport Minister Kailash Gahlot to resolve the impasse, but insisted on the written public apology.

A senior member of the association told IANS that the ministers came for discussion through an informal channel and that if they were serious about it, then they should approach the association formally.

After the meeting with Kejriwal, Baijal said in a tweet: "Reassured him (Kejriwal) of my complete support for steps to remove mistrust with government employees. Encouraged again to reach out to them. It is important for all to work together in public interest in a secure and dignified work environment."

However, the Chief Minister said the meeting was to discuss desilting of drains and protection of schoolgirls from eve-teasing.

In a tweet, Kejriwal did not mention the alleged attack in the list of topics discussed at the meeting.

Earlier in the day, in a letter to the LG, Sisodia attacked the latter, saying: "If one IAS officer comes to you with a complaint against a minister, you ignore his faults and start wiping his tears. You encourage him to boycott meetings called by the ministers."

"For three months, 10,000 Angadwadi workers, 10,000 Anganwadi helpers and 10,000 Anganwadi landlords have not received their salaries because of them (IAS officers)," he said, adding that it was affecting five lakh children who are beneficiaries of Anganwadi.

Sisodia requested the LG to order a probe against the officers whose misconduct had led to the Anganwadi workers not being paid on time and urged to "take strict action against them".New Delhi/Mumbai, March 1 : The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has arrested an internal chief auditor of Punjab National Bank (PNB) in its ongoing probe into Rs 12,600 crore bank fraud case.

"CBI has on Wednesday arrested an Internal Chief Auditor of Punjab National Bank in an ongoing investigation of the cases related to Nirav Modi group and Gitanjali group," a CBI official said.

The official also said that the arrested auditor has been identified as MK Sharma, Chief Manager rank of PNB.

According to the CBI official, Sharma was allegedly responsible for auditing the systems and practices of PNB, Brady House Branch in Mumbai and report the deficiencies to Zonal Audit Office.

The CBI official also said that Sharma would be produced in a court in Mumbai on Thursday.

Diamond trader Modi and owner of Gitanjali Gems, Mehul Choksi have been accused of defrauding the PNB of Rs 12,600 crore, with Rs 1,300 being added to the fraud kitty on Monday night.

Earlier, the amount stood at Rs 11,300 crore.

The CBI had filed the first FIR in the scam on February 14 against Nirav Modi, his wife Ami, brother Nishal, uncle Choksi and his firms Diamond R US, Solar Exports and Stellar Diamond.

The agency stated that the fraud involved an amount of around Rs 6,400 crore.

Modi, his family and Choksi left the country in early January.

The CBI filed a second FIR on February 15 for Rs 4,886.72 crore fraud against Choksi's Gitanjali Group.

To date, 12 persons have been arrested by the CBI in connection with the case. The Enforcement Directorate has claimed to have attached properties worth Rs 6,000 crore.

Latest updates on Howdy Modi HoustonPyongyang, March 1 : North Korea on Wednesday accused Japanese authorities of plotting an overall suppression of pro-Pyongyang resident Koreans in Japan.

The official Rodong Sinmun said that the recent attack by two armed right-wing elements of Japan against the Central Hall of the General Association of Korean Residents in Japan (Chongryon) proved Japanese authorities were responsible for the frantic moves to "stamp out North korea and Chongryon" from Japanese soil.

"The Japanese authorities, who started an investigation into the arrested criminals, have so far pretended ignorance, to give impression that the case was committed by an individual organisation or person," Xinhua quoted the daily of the ruling Workers' Party of Korea.

"This unpardonable act (attack by right-wingers) is an open challenge to North Korea and a prelude to the overall suppression of Chongryon," said the daily.

Pyongyang regards Chongryon as its de facto diplomatic mission in Japan with which it does not have official relations.

North Korea media also accused Japanese authorities of discrimination against pro-Pyongyang resident Korean schools.

The official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said Wednesday that the Gunma prefectural authorities of Japan suspended the payment of subsidies to the Korean junior and middle school in the prefecture on Monday amid the Japanese government's unabated discrimination against Korean schools in Japan.

The Japanese authorities decided not to include subsidies to the school in their 2018 budget on the unreasonable grounds that the school has not been true to the "provisions" it is obliged to carry out, the KCNA was quoted as saying.

Those "provisions" are that the school should specify the "abduction issue" in textbooks and cease its ties with Chongryon.Personalised print marketplace Redbubble has strong results for the last half year, generating a revenue of $102.3m, up 30 per cent (or up 32 per cent on a constant currency basis) from $78.7m in the prior corresponding period (pcp).

The companys earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) for the half year was $0.9m, surging up 185.6 per cent from a loss of $1.1m for the same period the year before. Net loss after tax was $2.3m, down 17.7 per cent from $2.8m for the pcp.

The companys gross profit of $35.3m was up 24.7 per cent or 26.1 per cent on a constant currency basis from $28.3m. Gross profit after its paid acquisition was $25.7m, up 18 per cent or 18.6 per cent on a constant currency basis from $21.7m. Total acquisition costs were 9.4 per cent of revenue for the half.

[Related: Redbubble losses slow as growth surges]

Redbubble says it is growing because among its other strategies, it is advancing its cost and technological capabilities within print-on-demand and manufacturing-on-demand. In addition, the company says its shift toward combining personalisation and sharing economies on the internet have made it economically viable to produce single items for individual customers on demand.

Gross transaction value (GTV) was $129.8m, up 31.7 per cent from $98.6m the year before or 33.1 per cent for the year before. The Average Order Value (ADV) for the half was $45.90, down 5.7 per cent from $45.90 for the same period the year before, which Redbubble says is due to an increasing product share of lower value sticker items.

Redbubbles customer numbers increased by 40.2 per cent year on year to 2.35 million from 1.68 million, with there being 18 million new customers during the half year. Selling artists increased by 33.1 per cent year on year to 218,800 from 164,300 and during the half, the company reached a milestone of artists aggregated earnings exceeding $100m since the inception of the business. Visits to the site increased by 39.3 per cent year on year to 127.5 million, of which Redbubble says mobile represented 54.3 per cent. The year before Redbubbles site saw 91.6 million visits.

The company says it is on track to achieve its EBITDA guidance for FY2018.

Comment below to have your say on this story.

If you have a news story or tip-off, get in touch at [email protected]

Sign up to the Sprinter newsletterOverpricing sends the wrong message to buyer agents and buyers. Overpricing actually produces fewer showings. Choose a good real estate agent to show the seller SOLD comps from the neighborhood.

Spring is widely considered the best time of year to sell a home. The weather is nicer and theres a lot of pent-up buyer demand, said Tuesdi Arrotta, broker associate at RE/MAX Alliance.

To help better ensure a home sells this spring, Arrotta lists the following five tips:

No. 1. Price it right. It is important to always list the home at market value. Overpricing sends the wrong message to buyer agents and buyers. Overpricing actually produces fewer showings, stressed Arrotta. Choose a good real estate agent to show the seller SOLD comps from the neighborhood.

No. 2. Update the kitchen and master bath. A dated kitchen will be the next owners expensive project. If you do plan to update the kitchen, there are lots of great ideas at your grocery store magazine isle, added Arrotta. Consider replacing older appliances with stainless. Add a backsplash and pendant lighting.

No. 3: Curb appeal. The exterior of the house is the first thing a potential buyer sees. Tidy up the yard, mow the lawn, remove weeds. Freshen up the front door and repaint it. Update the door knocker, advised Arrotta. Replace the old doorbell with a new one and remove clutter near the front door.Add a new potted plant and add a new doormat. Remember that buyers are getting their first look and feel for your property as soon as they drive up.

No. 4: Lighting. For showings, turn on all lights. Replace old bulbs with new LED bright lights. This adds a bright, uplifting feel and look to every space, noted Arrotta. Not only will your home photos look great, buyers will get a great sense of home without even realizing it was the lighting.



No. 5: Freshen the air. It is imperative to air out the house before showings and open house. Foul odors and pet odors hit the buyer as soon as they enter your home, concluded Arrotta. A good cleaning and carpet cleaning will help remove odors. Why no plug-ins? Plug-ins mask odors and cause buyers to wonder what you are trying to cover up.

About Tuesdi Arrotta, RE/MAX Alliance

RE/MAX Alliance broker associate Tuesdi Arrotta works with home buyers and sellers in and around the Colorado Front Range area. She specializes in single family homes, condos and townhouses. For more information, please call (720) 863-4712, or visit http://www.homesincolorado.com/tuesdi-arrotta.

About the NALA

The NALA offers small and medium-sized businesses effective ways to reach customers through new media. As a single-agency source, the NALA helps businesses flourish in their local community. The NALAs mission is to promote a business relevant and newsworthy events and achievements, both online and through traditional media. The information and content in this article are not in conjunction with the views of the NALA. For media inquiries, please call 805.650.6121, ext. 361.Fall Adventure - Fire Tree A Blaze "We adventured for a week in the Vanagon. No gadgets, cell phone or GPS. It was the best vacation trip we ever had"by PG

WHO WOULDNT WANT A VINTAGE VW VANAGON CAMPERVAN VACATION?

In search of simplicity and a disconnect from technology, weekend warriors, families, millennials, and baby boomers alike are setting out on the open road in ever growing numbersin rented vintage VW camper vans, commonly referred to as Vanagons and Westfalias (i.e. We sties).

Surprisingly, this rising trend is not just for adventure-seekers; the versatility and back-to-nature purity of a Vanagon offers freedom and the opportunity to be as spontaneous or planned as travelers desire without the worry or constraints of hotel availability or crowded restaurants.

Sometimes called VW campervans, Vanagons, Westfalias, Hippie vans and peace vans, these iconic 40 to 50 year old vans are expensive to purchase, restore and maintain. So, there is a significant uptick to rent them, or rent and try before they buy.

Westfalia camper vans offer all the comforts of home in a compact space without requiring a special Land Yacht license to drive, or the challenges of bulky and hard-to-park RVs. Most come fully provisioned and equipped with beds, linens, cookware, dishes, utensils, a small kitchen, bathroom, and literally all the compact comforts of home. Youre not even dependent upon availability at a camp ground. With a Westie pick a nice spot in an instant, pop the top, and call it a night right there! This is very common in Federal Forests and other Federal lands.

Vanagon adventurers are limited only by their imagination and choice of destinationits easy to find a unique or remote site near the ocean, streams, lakes, mountains, and trails, and once discovered simply pop the top and its now home; free to explore, build a campfire, hook up a portable hammock and escape in a good book, do whatever the spirit leadsor nothing at all.

West campervan rentals are a vacation from the ordinary and completely customizable. There are no tour guides, no boundaries, and no restrictionsunless you want them. The convenience is just one of the factors drawing people from all walks of life, and from all over the globe. Vanagons are especially popular with the UK, Dutch, Germans and many other Europeans self touring in the USA.

Who is attracted to the #VanLife trend? Singles, couples, families, women seeking a girlfriend getaway, groups, multi-family gatherings, older couples, younger coupleseven international tourists are beginning to catch on to the true sense of adventure, freedom, and spontaneity that is inherent with van camping. There are no limits as long as someone has a valid drivers license.

Whats the draw? Is it the great memories of the iconic Volkswagen van and its magical pop-up top, and the opportunity to peace out? Or the lure of a road trip thats truly self-sustained and not reliant upon or complicated by any other factor apart from a vacationers imagination? The motivation behind the love for van glamping is as unique as the experience itself.

Theres a sense of community so strong with VW vans that renters often find random people giving them a peace sign as they drive by, nods of the head, and high-fives at stops. Some say the longing to return to a simpler time and the need to experience carefree days are a part of what drives their love of Westie vacations, and then brings them back repeatedly. Simpler times and carefree days are naturally associated with these iconic vintage vans. So is free spirit, peace and love. Vanagon adventures often comment that their lives are changed by a vacation or road trip in them.

Individuals who rent VW campervans report they appreciate most that the possibilities are nearly endless and every day presents a clean slate waiting to be filled with the vacationers dreams. Its true freedom, and many campers will testify to the fact that its the best vacation theyve ever had.

Its not necessarily about the van, Bob Muller of Vintage Van Adventures shares, it is about a truly different glamping experience thats convenient, different, fun, and completely customizable; all with the true sense of nostalgia and adventure inherent in a VW vintage camper van. We have customers from all over the world renting our vintage VW camper vans. Some return year after year, reserving a year in advance. And, they have migrated from camping/tenting on the ground to a very comfortable bed in a van.

USA Today and the Financial Times report that Europeans sometimes have a stress elimination transformation as a result of a VW camper van vacation, and this trend is growing within the USA, as well. Vintage van rental companies testify to the fact that loyal customers are seeking out rentals in different regions of the country for an annual See America road trip.

While the flexibility of a camper van vacation appeals to those who seek a return to simpler days, millennials also love the fact that they can almost instantaneously chose a stopping point, and pick up again when they choose. Unencumbered by the usual vacation restrictions, a camper van adventure is uninhibited, supports instantaneous gratification and is often in alignment with millennial idealism and purpose.

It also doesnt hurt that a Vanagon experience can provide the perfect Instagram and Snapchat photo opportunities for timelines, stories, and feeds.

Is a VW vintage camper van the perfect vacation? Many think so and call it glamping. Its difficult to find another affordable vacation option that can meet such a wide range of vacation goals and objectives like a camper van does; whether seeking a vacation that is unconfined, one that provides a sense of community, a connection with nature, the draw of spontaneity, a need for solitude, a romantic getaway, a family adventure, a newlywed couples honeymoon, or a group convoycamper van rentals can meet all these expectations, vacation dreams and more.

Bob Muller explains, Vintage Van Adventures is a professional vintage VW van rental company. They provide renovated, modernized and fully stocked camper vans with convenient pickup in Brunswick or Freeport Maine. They are fuel-efficient and economical with room, board, and transportation all in one. Everything needed for cooking, sleeping and enjoying the adventure is included. They are also 100% restored with added safety features not found in the original old vans.

While Vintage Van Adventures, ME home base is Maine, they have one of the most liberal travel areas and 1,500 free miles allowing their clients to adventure-explore all of New England and the Canadian Maritimes. They also have relationships with reliable Vanagon rental firms across the United States, and happily refer their customers who desire a trip origination in another region, or another coast, to a trusted connection. Bob Mullers additional advice? Vacation spots, like Acadia Park, Maine go fast so make reservations early. Other VW van rental firms Bob is familiar with and recommends include Peace Van Rentals, WA, Black Forest, WA and Dragon Fly Vans, MT

2018 may just be the year to experience a van rental vacation, and experience what its like to hit the open road, and design every moment of a vintage van vacation making unique memories; the only limits being the ones you choose.

Vintage Van Adventures, Mecc Inc.

Robert Muller

PO Box 309

Brunswick, Maine 04011

http://www.vintagevanadventures.com; reservations[at]vintagevanadventures[dot]com, 207-956-0699Sengenics, the functional proteomics company, today announced joining the Oslo Cancer Cluster, a strategic partnership that aims to further accelerate research and development in oncoproteomics for cancer biomarker discovery.

"We are very pleased to welcome Sengenics as a new member of the Oslo Cancer Cluster. Sengenics has unique domain expertise in functional proteomics that will complement the ecosystem towards realising cancer precision medicine," said Ketil Widerberg, General Manager of the Oslo Cancer Cluster.

The Oslo Cancer Cluster consists of 90 institutions, which include top tier universities like the University of Oslo (UiO) and pharmaceutical companies such as Bayer and Novartis, as well as other companies that have cutting edge technologies for cancer research. Sengenics therefore fits this ecosystem by providing its KREX technology which utilises BCCP as a folding marker and protein solubility enhancer. The success rate for expression of correctly folded and soluble proteins using KREX exceeds 98%. The technology can be applied in a highly parallelised pipeline resulting in high-throughput, highly consistent production of full-length, correctly folded and functionally validated proteins for autoantibody biomarker discovery. The KREX technology has also been used for making custom protein arrays for vaccine target identification, protein-protein interactions and on-array functional assays for drug screening.

Dr Arif Anwar, CEO of Sengenics said, "With healthcare comprising 5.8% of Norway's total sovereign fund investment, Norway is well positioned to be able to further drive research innovation in its healthcare holdings, with its profits being used to fund organisations like the Oslo Cancer Cluster. Their role in the EU-funded PERMIDES project and hosting of the Norwegian Immuno-Oncology Consortium has been crucial in extending the frontiers of cancer research."

Sengenics is actively involved in research on 17 different cancers and has 5 patent applications involving the discovery of multiple autoantibody biomarkers in the early diagnostics, staging and therapeutics of cancer. The company has a significant track record in securing collaborations with high-level international institutions, including 8 of the top 10 global pharmaceutical companies and top-tier universities such as Harvard and MIT.

The KREX technology is the first in the world to consistently produce correctly folded and functionally verified proteins that preserves both linear and conformational epitopes. Its unique advantages mean that KREX-derived products such as the Immunome protein array can provide an exceptionally clean signal, enhancing the quality of research at all stages for cancer research and drug discovery.

About Oslo Cancer Cluster

The Oslo Cancer Cluster is a research-based industry cluster that brings together enterprises, organisations, academic and research institutions in the field of life science and converging industries like ICT to accelerate the development of cancer diagnosis and treatment. The members of the Oslo Cancer Cluster will perform research and development to establish new knowledge and generate novel products and services including innovative solutions between research and business entities. Oslo Cancer Cluster will contribute with competence to support its members at all innovation phases, from early stage development to commercialisation.

About Sengenics

Sengenics is a functional proteomics company that leverages its patented KREX technology for production of full-length, correctly folded and functional proteins. KREX is a patented proteomics technology which was spun out from research that was commercialised as a joint collaboration between the University of Oxford and the University of Cambridge. The three key applications of the KREX technology are; discovery of autoantibody biomarkers for human diseases, autoantibody-based immunotoxicity profiling of cancer immunotherapy patients and pharmaceutical industry-specific applications such as high-throughput SAR screening, predictive toxicology and antibody generation using KREX proteins.Guadalajara

Mexicos cultural capital is gearing up for Latin Americas most prestigious film festival, the Guadalajara International Film Festival (FICG), taking place March 9-16, 2018. FICG will spotlight new works by independent Mexican and international filmmakers. Its the perfect opportunity for film buffs to visit Guadalajara and take in the best of Latin American cinema while discovering the citys rich colonial history, culture, and cuisine. The festival is open to the public and provides opportunities for fans to interact with filmmakers with film screenings taking place throughout Guadalajaras historic center and outdoor screenings at the picturesque Jardin Hidalgo in artisan town Tlaquepaque.

Festival Activities

Robust programming will include educational workshops, panels guided by industry leaders, master classes led by leading Hollywood talent, awards presentations, and a charity gala. A popular festival activity is Official Selections, which consists of screenings of select features, documentaries, childrens films, and short films that have been entered into competition. Special nightly film screenings at Teatro Diana also draw crowds who gather to see celebrities walk the red carpet. Tickets can be purchased at participating theaters.

LGBTTI Award

This year marks the seventh edition of the Premio Maguey award given to movies that encourage and promote cinema with stories around an open sexuality and LGBTTI subject matters, celebrating the best of LGBTTI cinema in the world.

Fourteen feature-length films will compete for the awards determined by an international jury. Six of the films are directed by women, with Hollywood leading actresses Ellen Page, Rachel McAdams, Rachel Weisz, Evan Rachel Wood, Margaret Qualley, and Melissa Leo starring in some of these productions. More information can be found, here.

Destination Highlights

While event hopping during the film festival, visitors can explore the neighborhoods and try a few culinary delights. Here are a few to choose from:



Guadalajaras Historic Center is one of the citys most concentrated areas of architecturally impressive landmarks, including World Heritage Site Instituto Cultural Cabanas. While exploring, visitors can try the citys signature torta ahogada, a pork sandwich submerged in a spicy salsa. The bread used for this sandwich can only be produced in Guadalajara due to the altitude and weather in the region.

Tlaquepaque is the arts district known for its high end artisanal items which can be found as low as $5. The area is particularly famous for its pottery and blown glass with some of the best handicraft in Mexico.

Tequila is one of the most popular day trips from Guadalajara. The region where Guadalajara resides is the birthplaces of tequila, so visitors can take a tequila train or tequilacopter to the distilleries to see the agave fields and partake in tastings.

Many hotels will be featuring FICG packages, including Aloft Guadalajara, which is offering nightly rates as low as $92 US, including breakfast. For additional information on Guadalajaras many attractions or to view a full list of tour packages, visit http://www.visitguadalajara.com.

About Guadalajara

The birthplace of iconic Mexican heritage including tequila and mariachi, Guadalajara is the second largest city in Mexico and considered the countrys cultural center. Each year, tourists travel to this cosmopolitan destination to experience a plethora of attractions including nearby magical towns such as Tequila, where the popular spirit is produced; explore colonial architecture; and visit museums and small towns with exquisite crafts and artwork. Guadalajara is the capital of the state of Jalisco, which is located in the center of Mexico, 350 miles west of Mexico City and 200 miles east from Puerto Vallarta along the Pacific Ocean. The metropolitan area of Guadalajara consists of four urban districts  Guadalajara, Tlaquepaque, Tonala, and Zapopan  and three suburban districts, Tlajomulco, El Salto, and Tequila.

Travel to Guadalajara is easily accessible via the Miguel Hidalgo International Airport (GDL), which is located 24 miles from the city center of Guadalajara, with non-stop daily flights from major markets across the United States and Canada.2018 Green Industry Benchmark Report With nearly 70 pages of results and analysis and more than 50 graphs, the Green Industry Benchmark Report helps green industry businesses better understand how their peers operate - and take steps to improve their businesses.

HindSite Software, a leading provider of field service software to the green industry, today released their annual Green Industry Benchmark Report, which found businesses struggling to find employees. A remarkable 88% said they found it somewhat or extremely difficult to find good applicants for their business, up slightly from a year ago.

As a result, 80% of respondents expect to raise prices next year, with 43% of employees citing rising employee costs as the primary driver of their increased process. In order to attract and retain their employees, wages are going up, with 43% expecting to increase wages by at least 3% next year.

The Green Industry Benchmark Report details the results of a two-month-long surveying effort that reflects the opinions of nearly 300 green industry business owners and managers who provide services including landscaping, irrigation service, mowing, fertilizing and snow removal. This is the sixth year HindSite Software has released a Green Industry Benchmark Report.

The Green Industry Benchmark Report is the only report of its kind, explained HindSites Marketing Manager, Chad Reinholz. With nearly 70 pages of results and analysis and more than 50 graphs, the Green Industry Benchmark Report helps green industry businesses better understand how their peers operate - and take steps to improve their businesses.

Among the key findings:



Economic optimism abounds in the green industry, with 70% of respondents expecting the economy to improve in 2018, up from 48% just two years ago.

A tight labor market is the biggest concern for a typical green industry business. 88% of respondents find it somewhat or very difficult to find employees, while just 1% said it was very easy. Additionally, attracting and retaining employees was the number one issue for the typical green industry business, with 36% saying it was their biggest issue.

As a result of the tight labor market, prices and wages will likely increase in 2018. 43% of respondents expect to raise wages by more than 3%, while 80% expect to increase prices. 43% cited rising labor costs as their primary reason for raising prices.

To combat a tight labor market, businesses are turning to field service software to be more efficient. Half of respondents now use software, up 7% from a year ago. 43% of field service software users said that the primary benefit is efficiency.

Another way businesses are combatting a tight labor market is by improving employee benefits. Last year, 40% of respondents said they offer health benefits. This year, 45% do.

Businesses expect healthy revenue growth in 2018, with 87% expecting their revenue to increase this year. 74% of businesses experienced year-over-year revenue growth in 2017.

Weekly training is an indicator of success, with those that train their employees weekly more likely to experience revenue growth in excess of 10%.

This years Benchmark Report added information about wages for typical green industry business laborers, including irrigation technicians, crew leaders and crew members.

Were always looking to improve the value of the Benchmark Report, explained Reinholz. Last year we added interviews with green industry business owners and employees. This year, we added data about wages, which we can then cross-reference with the location of the respondent to deliver regional wage averages.

The Green Industry Benchmark Report is available to download free at http://info.hindsitesoftware.com/2018-green-industry-benchmark-report.

About HindSite Software

HindSite Software has helped green industry contractors better manage and grow their businesses with field service management software since 2001. HindSite today sells two software solutions. The HindSite Solution is designed for field service businesses while FieldCentral is lawn maintenance software. Both solutions help businesses market, sell, schedule, route, manage their field employees and invoice. To learn more, visit http://www.hindsitesoftware.com.Manila Jeepney. CREDIT: Christine Wuthrich, gomanilatravel (CC) How can the way Filipinos are coping with extreme climate change-related weather and disasters inform the rest of the world about response and resilience?

When it comes to climate change, the Philippines is one of the world's most vulnerable countries. The Philippines has always been buffeted by typhoons, but scientists believe that because of climate change, they are increasing in force and frequency. Indeed, five out of ten of the country's worst storms on record have occurred since 2006. In 2013, Typhoon Haiyan, the deadliest of all so far, took the lives of over 6,000 people and caused $2 billion of damage.

How can the way Filipinos are coping with extreme climate change-related weather and disasters inform the rest of the world about response and resilience? How is the encroaching threat of climate change reshaping culture, politics and even faith in these island communities? How can the claim of economic prosperity be reconciled with the equally valid claim of sustainability and conservation?

Carnegie Council's Asia Dialogues program is accepting applications for a one-week site visit to Manila the week of October 22, 2018 to explore how climate change is affecting Philippine society. Eligible applicants should be from East Asia or the United States, under 40 years old, and with a demonstrated interest in the Philippines, Southeast Asia, and/or climate change.

The deadline for applications is March 16, 2018. For more information, go to https://www.carnegiecouncil.org/news/announcements/2018-05-02-call-for-applications-for-manila-philippines-fact-finding-trip-october-2018

ABOUT CARNEGIE COUNCIL

Founded by Andrew Carnegie in 1914, Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs is an educational, nonprofit, nonpartisan organization that produces lectures, publications, and multimedia materials on the ethical challenges of living in a globalized world. Go to http://www.carnegiecouncil.org.Kino Hawaiian Skincare The Kino brand has a premium cache and offers superior quality skincare

Minneapolis based Castello Sales announced Monday February 26, 2018 they completed a transaction to acquire Kino Hawaiian Skincare - the Honolulu based topical skincare brand with distribution at Amazon, Jet and in Whole Foods Stores.

We believe this brand fits perfectly in our portfolio today, it also aligns with our goals to own emerging brands in growth categories across retail, says Castello founder Troy Devens. The Kino brand has a premium cache and offers superior quality skincare, says Devens. One of Kinos most exciting differentiators is their give-back to Hawaii program - Preserve Your Skin, Preserve the Islands, says Devens. We will continue with that program offering $1 of each product sold to help preserve the beautiful and delicate ecosystem of Hawaii, continued Devens.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but Kino Founder Isaac Kneubuhl was reached via telephone in Los Angeles who said, Castello was the logical buyer." I initially partnered with Castello to help get the Kino established in ecommerce outlets and in stores throughout the US." Castello made that happen. When I expressed an interest in exiting Kino, I was delighted to learn Castello had interest, said Kneubuhl. More information can be found on Kickstarter, or http://www.kinoskincare.com

Castello Sales is a leading sales and marketing agency, comprised of retail executives. Castello specializes in retail representation, account management, content marketing and social influence. Founded in 2016, by Devens - Castello has offices in Hong Kong, Los Angeles and Minneapolis with Distribution in North Carolina and Southern California.The dedication, commitment and resolve that each 2018 Armed Forces Insurance Military Spouse of Year Branch winners show in the work they do in their communities, and in support of their military family, is inspiring," says Suzie Schwartz, President of Military Spouse Program.

Following another round of record internet voting from across the globe and review by a guest panel, the 2018 Armed Forces Insurance Military Spouse of the Year award presented by Military Spouse Magazine is excited to announce the Branch Winners and finalists for the overall title of Military Spouse of the Year. Voting for the ultimate title will take place on March 2 at http://www.msoy.militaryspouse.com. For the first time, the overall winner will be announced at the USO of Metropolitan Washington-Baltimore (USO-Metro) Annual Awards Dinner in Washington D.C. on May 10.

The 2018 Branch Winners are:



Army: Krista Simpson Anderson, Fort Lewis (Tacoma, WA)

See her profile

Marine Corps: Jolynn Lee, Camp Lejeune (Jacksonville, NC)

See her profile

Navy: Brian Alvarado, Naval Base Point Loma (Point Loma, CA)

See his profile

Air Force: Kristen Christy, Peterson AFB (Colorado Springs, CO)

See her profile

Coast Guard: Stacy Bilodeau, District 14, Hawaii/Guam (Honolulu, HI)

See her profile

National Guard: Shelia Brookins, Kentucky National Guard (Frankfort, KY)

See her profile

Each year, I am humbled at just how great the military spouse community is, says Suzie Schwartz, President of Military Spouse Programs. The dedication, commitment and resolve that each 2018 Armed Forces Insurance Military Spouse of Year Branch winners show in the work they do in their communities, and in support of their military family, is inspiring. Being a military spouse is not an easy task, but these individuals have demonstrated that adversity only fuels their desire to be better and do more for their community.

The Military Spouse of the Year program represents millions of past and present military spouses who dedicate their lives and families to service of a grateful nation and give back to communities in need. This years contest began with more than 700 nominations across all military branches, and nearly 87,000 votes have been cast thus far. The final day of voting will take place on March 2 at http://www.msoy.militaryspouse.com.

"Our nation's military spouses are 'the' most valuable unpaid individuals within the umbrella of the Department of Defense, said Lori Simmons, Vice President & Chief Marketing Officer, Armed Forces Insurance. Being a military spouse requires a special kind of strong, independent and dedicated individual. This incredibly supportive group directly bolsters military forces around the globe. Beyond the love they exude for their serviceman or woman, the military spouse may be confronted with the need to raise children as a single parent, manage the home front during lengthy deployments, repair a broken washing machine and/or represent the family at a PTA meeting. Armed Forces Insurance wishes to applaud the many contributions of ALL who competed. Our nations Armed Forces is unquestionably stronger because of your selfless support!

About Military Spouse:

Military Spouse is the leading destination for the nation's 1.1 million military spouses, who contribute to their communities, the military and each other every day. A division of Victory Media, Military Spouse provides online and print resources for military families on PCS, careers, education opportunities and family life. Follow us on Facebook and Twitter. Founded in 2001, Victory Media is a service-disabled, veteran-owned small business (SDVOSB) that connects the military community to civilian employment, entrepreneurial and education opportunities through its G.I. Jobs, Military Spouse, Vetrepreneur, STEM JobsSM and Military Friendly brands. Learn more at http://www.victorymedia.com.

About Armed Forces Insurance:

Armed Forces Insurance was founded in 1887 by military leaders with a single mission: to protect the property of those who protect our nation. The company provides premium quality, competitively priced property and casualty insurance to military professionals throughout the United States and overseas. Armed Forces Insurance understands that its members have unique circumstances and insurance needs, enabling the company to offer a level of personalized service that's unequalled in the industry. For more information, visit the website at http://www.afi.org or call 1-800-495-8234, and follow us on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.We know that there are many executives who want to take full advantage of social media, but lack the time and ability so when they see how easily we can help them through the process, and in their authentic voice, while generating quality conversations each month, they quickly realize the value.

Delia Associates, a leading b2b brand and marketing firm, recently announced that it has become a ConnectOps Partner. ConnectOps is a sales automation and lead generation platform for b2b brands, which connects busy sales executives with their ideal targets  then turns those new connections into meaningful conversations.

Ive spent countless hours in front of b2b CEOs and sales executives, explaining the nuances of LinkedIn, Sales Navigator, and the new methods of social selling, explains Delia Associates President, Ed Delia. Theres always tremendous interest during these conversations. Unfortunately, everyday responsibilities and time demands often undermine the do-it-yourself efforts required of them to make these tactics produce the desired results. Our partnership with ConnectOps is going to change all that.

Working with ConnectOps, Delia Associates has developed a highly efficient Do-It-For-You model. With it, b2b organizations can dramatically increase the reach of their sales teams without substantial investments in time or additional personnel. Were experts at b2b brand building and content marketing at the individual and corporate levels. ConnectOps has an outstanding model for social engagement and metrics, yielding selling opportunities totally based on quality, Delia adds, and thanks to very competitive pricing, lead acquisition costs are kept in check, especially when compared to other lead generation alternatives.

Delia also noted that many corporate executives they work with have amassed a substantial volume of social media connections. However, its not uncommon for their profile pages to be only partially complete, resulting in ineffective representations of themselves and their organization. Compounding the problem is the fact that, as a group, they tend to underutilize the capabilities of LinkedIn and Sales Navigator to open new doors. The new approach focuses on efficiently creating strong personas that result in purposeful interactions and engagements with motivated individuals.

We dont think in terms of leads. We focus on generating meaningful conversations because thats how quality business relationships are formed, Delia states. Weve observed a growing trend within social media platforms like LinkedIn, where experienced sales professionals attempt to connect with prospects under the most general of circumstances and are left wondering why so many connection requests or messages are ignored.

Delia continues, Weve changed that approach. We are providing a white-glove concierge approach to LinkedIn for our clients. LinkedIn is the largest, most comprehensive self-updating Rolodex in the world. Working with ConnectOps, weve harnessed that power to start genuine conversations that lead to interest, and then  and only then  to meaningful interaction with the right person for the right reasons.

Delia Associates began announcing the availability of ConnectOps to its clients last month, and the response has been favorable and immediate. We know that there are many executives who want to take full advantage of social media, but lack the time and ability to be more engaged, Delia concludes. When they see how easily we can help them through the process, and in their authentic voice, while generating quality conversations each month, they quickly realize the value.

# # # #

ABOUT DELIA ASSOCIATES

Founded in 1964 and based in New Jersey, Delia Associates is a second-generation lead business branding and marketing firm specializing in brand development, website development, content and search marketing. Clients range from global to regional business-to-business companies, with an emphasis on manufacturing organizations. The firms proprietary Brand Leadership Solution, a unique brand-based marketing platform, has helped hundreds of brands establish market distinction, generate increased demand, and achieve sustainable growth. For more information, please visit: http://www.delianet.com.National Noodle Month Menu Whether it be spaghetti, rigatoni, penne, or lasagna, noodles are some of the most important ingredients Macaroni Grill has to offer. Macaroni Grill imports its pasta from Pastificio Guido Ferrara, located just outside of Naples, Italy.

March is National Noodle Month and Romano's Macaroni Grill Hawaii is celebrating in grand fashion. Nationally acclaimed for its Italian roots, Romano's Macaroni Grill Hawaii provides inventive, modern flavors, showcased in a chef-driven, evolving menu. Each visit is a new and evocative experience, hand-delivered by premium, sourced ingredients. Macaroni Grill captures the Italian experience, down to each individual ingredient, and delivers the extraordinary flavors of Italy to ordinary life.

The quintessential vessel on which those extraordinary flavors are delivered is the noodle. Whether it be spaghetti, rigatoni, penne, or lasagna, noodles are some of the most important ingredients Macaroni Grill has to offer. Macaroni Grill imports its pasta from Pastificio Guido Ferrara, located just outside of Naples, Italy. Founded in 1883, Ferrara makes their pasta the old fashioned way, using bronze cutting dies. Bronze dies dull very quickly, resulting in a rough pasta with course surfaces that's perfect for holding lots of cheesy goodness. They use only the best durum wheat to make their pasta and then we import their fine Italian product to make only the best dishes.

During their National Noodle Month celebration in March, Romano's Macaroni Grill Hawaii has hand-selected some of its favorite noodle dishes for a very special menu. When you join in the celebration and order two or more signature dishes from the National Noodle Month Menu, you'll receive a special $10 Grazie Card, good for $10 off* your next visit to Romano's Macaroni Grill Hawaii."Digital objects are now becoming part of our physical world, and the next frontier in social is all about creating a 360-degree experience where people can seamlessly immerse themselves in both the online and offline worlds," said Rishab Jain, CEO and co-founder of Skrite.

Skrite, the worlds first skywriting-based augmented reality (AR) app, today announced a new feature that enables its users to teleport across the globe. The Skrite app is the first app of its kind that empowers consumers to create and post user-generated AR content  either publicly or privately  directly from their iPhone or iPad. Skrite recently integrated Apples ARKit framework (iOS 11), and ranks number four in the U.S and in the top 20 globally for ARKit-only free apps, according to data from Sensor Tower. Since its debut in June 2017, the Skrite app has been steadily climbing the Apple App Store charts and more than 200K Skrites have been posted to date. Download the Skrite app now from the Apple App Store and see how the sky is anything but the limit.

According to a recent report from MarketsandMarkets, the augmented reality market is expected to reach $61 billion by 2023, growing at a CAGR of more than 55 percent between 2017 and 2023. Apple CEO, Tim Cook recently stated that AR is big and profound and one of those huge things that well look back at and marvel at the start of it. Skrite is primed to bring its new form of AR meets social reality to users around the world. With the recent ARKit integration, Skrite's Skyer community can immerse themselves in new locations around the world by simply using their iPhones  no additional hardware or HMD (head mounted display) needed. The new teleport feature enables Skyers to experience 360-degree panorama views of skylines where Skrite messages have been posted. Never visited the Eiffel Tower in Paris or the Statue of Liberty in New York City? No problem, now you can easily teleport there by following other Skrite users or scanning the global feeds. For example, if a user makes a Skrite above the Statue of Liberty, their followers or friends get a notification. Once they choose to view the message, they are teleported to the exact location as the AR content posted in the sky above the Statue of Liberty, and can then see their friends or followers AR content for themself.

Digital objects are now becoming part of our physical world, and the next frontier in social is all about creating a 360-degree experience where people can seamlessly immerse themselves in both the online and offline worlds, said Rishab Jain, CEO and co-founder of Skrite. Were already seeing this happen in how people are interacting on the app -- with Skrites about their favorite landmarks and restaurants left for neighbors or travelers to see or even creative marriage proposals for loved ones.

Skrite features include:



Own the sky: Users choose a space in the sky they want to forever own and can then personalize the message with photos, animated filters and effects, plus a wide variety of 3D stickers.

Animated filters and 3D stickers: Messages in the sky mimic the trails that planes leave in the sky, and holiday themed 3D stickers are also included.

Image and video sharing on other social platforms: Messages can be shared through text, email or social media channels for maximum visibility. They can include a photo or running animation, such as GIFs, and can be made private or public.

Teleport across the globe through AR: No need to spend money on expensive HMD devices to experience AR, Skrite converts the iPhone into an AR-enabled device.

Physical and virtual viewing of different skylines: In a futuristic way of travel, you can see new places and also learn about different people and cultures through content that other Skyers have posted publicly.

In-app animated display while exploring: You don't always have to tilt the phone to see the places and a busy lay out on the iPhone makes an engaging channel of entertainment.

The space between the physical and digital world  the third space  cannot be seen with the naked eye, but it can be with AR, added Skrite co-founder, Arshia Siddique. Skrite is able to monetize the third space and is poised to be a game changer in the AR technology and social media sector.

About Skrite

Skrite is an augmented reality social network that enables users to upload photos, selfies, messages, text, drawings or stickers and post them in the sky to be forever remembered. Skrites can be private or public, and once a Skrite is posted, users can choose share it directly with their friends and across their social networks. Follow us on Instagram @SkriteApp, on Twitter @Skrite1, on Facebook or learn more at https://www.skrite.com.

All trademarks contained herein are the property of their respective owners.Nabila K - It's a lifestyle! Nabila K is the perfect addition to our salon, which offers our clients fresh, natural hair and body care products that not only leaves them feeling pampered, but preserves health and wellness for body and mind, said owner and stylist, Pascal Bensimon.

Nabila K Cosmetics is delighted to announce a partnership with Pascal Bensimon: Haute Coiffure Hair Salon of Atlanta, Georgia, located in the most distinguished St. Regis Atlanta hotel. Pascal Bensimon will feature Nabila K products beside its own natural science salon tested line of hair and body care products.

Nabila K is the perfect addition to our salon, which offers our clients fresh, natural hair and body care products that not only leaves them feeling pampered, but preserves health and wellness for body and mind, said owner and stylist, Pascal Bensimon.

Since its founding, Nabila K has presented products that combine the finest elements and ingredients from natural world environments and uses only those that are naturally derived, sulfate-free, and paraben-free.

Founder, Nabila Khashoggi, created an opulent brand of bubble baths, body scrubs and washes, lotions and soaps, along with other lifestyle products, such as cashmere scarves, scented candles, notebooks and travel accessories that celebrate femininity and beauty. She continues to discover creative, fresh ingredients and scents to build her cosmetics line to a world-class brand that epitomizes optimal healthiness and well-being.

Clients of Pascal Bensimon will be greeted with colorful, original hand-painted packaging that embodies a vision of beauty and refinement in an incomparable, modern way, celebrating women of culture and elegance. Artists Kinga Britschgi and Isabel Adler, bring to life unique imagery in bright hues and detail, and products emit captivating scents that stimulate the senses and have natural healing effects.

About Pascal Bensimon

From the moment you cross the threshold, you know you are not in your average Buckhead salon. The mellow, soothing atmosphere draws you in, while Pascal and his staff make you feel at home. Located inside The St. Regis hotel, Pascal Bensimon Salon has all the comforts of home: comfy leather chairs; ample tea, water, and cappuccino (prepared in the kitchen); private hairdressing rooms; and  our favorite  the shampooing beds. Visit http://www.pascalbensimon.com.

About Nabila K

Based in New York, actor, author and philanthropist, Nabila Khashoggi, built a highly sophisticated brand which enlightens consumers with evocative, unique scents for bath, body and home. Skin care products are naturally derived, sulfate-free, and paraben-free and contain no phthalates, no mineral oil, and have undergone no animal testing. Visit http://www.nabilak.com and on Instagram.Cape Air, one of America's largest independent regional airlines, and Utrip, the data-driven travel planning platform that combines the best of local expertise, human experience and artificial intelligence, today announced the beginning of a new partnership that will enable Cape Air customers to craft distinctly personalized, complete travel packages online. The integrated experience, called Soar & Explore, will become available to passengers in the second quarter of 2018 through CapeAir.com.

For travelers booking flights with Cape Air, the revolutionary platform will generate recommendations for in-destination lodging and activity options. Backed by Utrip's artificial intelligence technology, these recommendations are then automatically personalized according to each traveler's unique preferences. With 38 destinations in the US and Caribbean, Cape Air will now be able to offer their passengers a comprehensive travel planning experience, increasing customer engagement, loyalty and ancillary services.

"Because of advances in technology, today's travelers have come to expect personalized digital experiences when planning trips," said Trish Lorino, Vice President of Marketing and Public Relations at Cape Air. "We are excited to deliver that high level of personalization to every one of our customers. By offering a wide variety of bookable, on-the-ground experiences through the platform, we expect to drive revenue, and also spotlight the diverse destinations we serve."

The Soar & Explore site will feature "destination inspiration," a Utrip functionality first that allows travelers to easily determine which destinations best match their individual desires. For Cape Air passengers traveling to Boston, Chicago, St. Louis, Billings or multiple locations in the Caribbean, Utrip's artificial intelligence algorithms take into account their various traveler preferences (such as their likes or dislikes of art, shopping, food and more, or who they're traveling with, or what the purpose of their trip is, etc.) and offer recommendations of which destinations best suit them.

"Our goal at Utrip is to create a travel planning experience that is incredibly personal and I'm excited to partner with Cape Air to help us accomplish this mission," said Gilad Berenstein, CEO and founder of Utrip. "Cape Air passengers will now have the ability to plan activities and book hotels-catered specifically to them from one single online location. The platform will also enable the airline to learn much more about their customers to improve marketing efficiency and increase conversion rates."

Utrip also recently announced the start of a new pilot program with TUI Group, the largest tourism company in the world.

# # # #

About Cape Air

Now in its 29th year, Cape Air is one of the largest independent regional airlines in the United States, serving 38 cities in the US, Caribbean, and Micronesia. The employee-owned company, based in Hyannis, Massachusetts, has grown from three flights a day between Provincetown and Boston in 1989 to a fleet of 91 aircraft, 525 flights a day and service to 626,000 passengers annually. Cape Air has been recognized as "One of the Top Ten Small Airlines in the World" by Conde Nast Traveler.

About Utrip

Utrip is a data-driven destination discovery and travel planning platform that combines the best of local expertise, human experience and artificial intelligence to make trip planning easy, enjoyable and personal. Utrip PRO, our white-label product, enables destination marketing organizations, airlines, attractions and hospitality brands to offer customers a more personalized experience, thereby increasing engagement, loyalty, conversion rates and revenue. Our technology optimizes each itinerary based on a customer's preferences, budget, geography and many other relevant factors, sorting through millions of destination options, such as must-see sights, activities, events and restaurants. Together, we will reimagine the relationship you have with your customers through every step of the travel lifecycle. For more information, please visit http://www.utrippro.com.

Utrip Media Contact

Aubrey Lerche

Barokas Public Relations for Utrip

Utrip(at)barokas(dot)comBroadway Stages, one of the largest full-service TV and film production companies outside of Hollywood, has announced its support for Bill 0445-2018 proposed by Brooklyn Councilman Chaim Deutsch, which aims to eliminate alternate side parking regulations within two hundred feet of TV/film shoots on New York City streets. The bill would also suspend alternate side parking wherever else the filming will result in loss of alternate side parking spaces, or spaces with no restrictions.

Gina Argento, CEO of Broadway Stages, said, One of my greatest passions is giving back to our local communities and local small businesses; creating real, hyper-local economic stimulus through our productions. That being said, I aim to also be attentive to ongoing community issues and possible impacts being made by our productions. I care about the community, which means hearing and then addressing their concerns, and trying to propose and support smart legislation, which is rooted in common sense and practical terms.

Argento said, I am a proud member of Brooklyn Community Board 1s Transportation Committee, and I attend almost every meeting to get real feedback from the community residents. As such, I and Broadway Stages are in support of Councilman Deutschs proposed legislation to eliminate alternate side parking around permitted TV/film locations on city streets. I feel that it is important to find logical solutions that benefit both the residents of the neighborhoods and our productions, which generate tax revenue for NYC, and create local jobs and economic impact on a large and small scale.

Councilman Chaim Deutsch said, Lack of available parking spots is immensely frustrating, and affects drivers across the five boroughs. The problem is only exacerbated when film crews must temporarily remove spots during a shoot, particularly when alternate side regulations are also in effect. Intro 445 seeks to mitigate the impact that a film shoot has on a community by suspending alternate side regulations during a film shoot, thereby returning some of the unavailable parking spots to the residents of the affected neighborhood. Im looking forward to working closely with all stakeholders to advance this legislation and pass it into law in the New York City Council.

Councilman Deutschs proposed legislation calls for the Department of Transportation to suspend alternate side parking rules on blocks within close proximity to filming locations, and would require notice to be posted before the suspension. Additional information about the proposed bill can be found here: http://legistar.council.nyc.gov/LegislationDetail.aspx?ID=3343747&GUID=832CCC30-F4FD-4F44-82D8-F74B5D91ED5D&Options=ID%7CText%7C&Search=0445-2018

About Broadway Stages:

Broadway Stages is one of New Yorks largest growing full-service film, television production company. They have been an integral part of New York City for over 30 years. Broadway Stages and its clients have employed thousands of people and have created hundreds of local jobs. Broadway Stages is equipped to handle every conceivable size, style, and type of production, whether for film, television, music or commercial studio photography. Broadway Stages has over 40 sound stages in three of New York Citys 5 boroughs.

Media Inquiries: Warren Cohn warren(at)heraldpr(dot)comCode Platoon has always focused on providing veterans a top tier educational experience at an affordable price. We hope that the GI Bill will allow even more veterans to access our training and internships.

Code Platoon, a Chicago-based web development bootcamp for U.S. military veterans and service members, has been approved for GI Bill eligibility by the Department of Veterans Affairs. This means eligible students enrolled in the immersive, 14-week program will be able to use GI Bill education benefits to fund their tuition, housing and other associated costs.

Code Platoon is the first of its kind to reach this milestone in the state of Illinois, according to the bootcamps Executive Director Rod Levy. We are extremely proud to be the first coding bootcamp to be GI Bill approved by the VA in Illinois, and the only one to focus exclusively on the veteran community, said Levy. Code Platoon has always focused on providing veterans a top tier educational experience at an affordable price. We hope that the GI Bill will allow even more veterans to access our training and internships.

Since its inception in 2016, Code Platoon has offered students scholarships of up to $10,500. Students using the GI Bill may now be able to cover the full cost of tuition depending on their level of benefits. Code Platoon's program is strictly for veterans and focuses on providing a supportive learning environment, coupled with industry-supported internships, to maximize the likelihood of successfully transitioning to a new career as a software developer.

GI Bill approval will help us grow our class sizes and allow more veterans to become software development professionals, said Alicia Boddy, Code Platoons Development Director. This seal of approval from the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs and the Illinois Department of Veteran Affairs will show our current funding partners that we are continuing to cement ourselves as the leader in software development education for veterans.

The nonprofit has received generous financial support through grants and sponsorships from major corporations, including Amazon, Motorola and Boeing. GI Bill approval could help Code Platoon and its supporters further their quest to enhance the lives of U.S. service members and veterans.

I am looking forward to sharing this milestone with current and prospective funders, as this approval will help all of us further our missions to help our nation's heroes, she added. We are proud to be a mission first GI Bill approved program and look forward to welcoming more veterans into our next classes.

The next session of Code Platoons bootcamp begins on April 30 and runs through August 10. The application deadline for the upcoming cohort has been extended to March 5 in light of the GI Bill approval.

Visit the Code Platoon website for more information on the bootcamp and application process.

Information on the GI Bill can be found here.

Contact: Rod Levy, rod(at)codeplatoon(dot)org

###

About Code Platoon:

Code Platoon is a 501(c)3 non-profit that helps veterans transition into the civilian workforce by providing technical training and career placement. For 14 weeks, the students are immersed in learning the full Ruby on Rails stack. After completing the program veterans will be eligible for an internship.Dr. Naderi has been recognized for his exemplary work by the American Health Council, who has awarded their center as "Best in Healthcare" and has donated to the American Cancer Society on their behalf. The Naderi Center, located in Chevy Chase, MD, and Herndon, VA, is honored to be recognized for their outstanding workmanship. The American Cancer Society encourages patients to seek anticancer breakthroughs utilizing the very best in technology with experienced physicians, such as leading reconstructive specialists Dr. Erica Anderson who is known for her outstanding breast reconstruction skills.

Double Board Certified Facial Plastic Surgeon Shervin Naderi, M.D., FACS is a board-certified facial plastic surgeon with significant experience in reconstructive surgery of the face and neck, who years ago focused his surgical practice purely and exclusively on the nose. Dr. Naderi is honored to be recognized by the American Health Council as one of the best surgeons in healthcare. He teaches surgical residents in traditional forms of rhinoplasty and facial plastic surgery in addition to new technology that is currently being developed. Dr. Naderi is a member of the American Academy of Facial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery and many others. Dr. Naderi regularly trains other doctors, is cutting edge in his field and is listed in the global directory of Who's Who.

Dr. Naderi is honored to be recognized as "Best in Healthcare," welcoming all national and international patients. Request a Consultation with The Naderi Center surgeons, or call Chevy Chase, MD at 301-222-2020 or Herndon, VA at 703-481-0002."James is a strategic and results-driven individual. He invests in his clients' needs to deepen his understanding of their business and personal needs," said Joseph A. Kask, chief executive officer of BlumShapiro.

BlumShapiro, the largest regional business advisory firm based in New England with offices in Connecticut, Massachusetts and Rhode Island, has announced the election of a new partner, James. J. Krouse, CPA, MST.

Krouse is a partner in BlumShapiros Tax Department in Shelton, Connecticut. He joined the firm in 2017 from Grant Thornton, where he served as tax director. Krouse has over 20 years of experience, serving clients in multiple industries, including privately held businesses, high net worth individuals and family offices. Krouse is well versed in assisting clients with tax controversies, specialized transactions and estate, gifts and charitable wealth planning.

James is a strategic and results-driven tax partner who at the same times invests in his clients needs to deepen his understanding of their business and personal needs, said Joseph A. Kask, chief executive officer of BlumShapiro. James is a great example of the passion we bring to unlock the potential of all our clients.

James continues to be a valuable member of the BlumShapiro team in Shelton. Equally important, he is a mentor to many in our firm who value his experience and know-how in serving our customers day in and day out, said Jay. A Sattler, CPA, MST, managing partner  tax services at BlumShapiro.

Krouse is a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, Connecticut Society of Certified Public Accountants and New York State Society of Certified Public Accountants.

Krouse received his Bachelor of Science in Accounting from Washington State University and his Master of Science in Taxation from Golden Gate University.

He is a resident of Westport, Connecticut.

BlumShapiro is the largest regional business advisory firm based in New England, with offices in Connecticut, Massachusetts and Rhode Island. The firm, with over 500 professionals and staff, offers a diversity of services which includes auditing, accounting, tax and business advisory services. In addition, BlumShapiro provides a variety of specialized consulting services such as succession and estate planning, business technology services, employee benefit plan audits and litigation support and valuation. The firm serves a wide range of privately held companies, government and non-profit organizations and provides non-audit services for publicly traded companies....(Frederick)...offers us a strong employee base for both skilled labor & professional staff. Additional bonuses were the manufacturing-friendly taxes and simplified permitting process that exists in both jurisdictions", shares Dr. Christopher McLean, President/GM of Wilcoxon

Wilcoxon Sensing Technologies has signed a lease with St. John Properties, Inc. for 45,120 square feet of space within Riverside Technology Park, a 44-acre business community located in Frederick, Maryland. The manufacturer of vibration and sensing equipment serving industries such as food and beverage, pharmaceutical and power generation, plans to relocate its Maryland-based manufacturing, assembly and test equipment facility along with approximately 100 employees from Germantown in Montgomery County to its new facility in the City of Frederick this fall. Ken Breen of Clagett Enterprises represented the tenant and Danny Severn and Danny Foit of St. John Properties represented the landlord in this transaction.

The new Wilcoxon Sensing Technologies facility will be situated in 8435 Progress Drive and produce vibration sensor components for custom-built machinery and encompass all sales, engineering, production and testing operations for this division of the company. Last fall, the company was acquired by Amphenol Corporation, headquartered in Connecticut and recognized among the largest manufacturers of interconnect products in the world.

We were initially interested in 8435 Progress Drive based on its location within both the City of Frederick and Frederick County, explained Dr. Christopher McLean, President and General Manager of Wilcoxon Sensing Technologies. As the second largest city in Maryland it offers us a strong employee base for both skilled labor and professional staff. Additional bonuses were the manufacturing-friendly taxes and simplified permitting process that exists in both jurisdictions.

The building itself satisfied every requirement to establish a vertically-integrated facility and, with its open floor plan and concrete slab flooring, can be easily configured to support office and light manufacturing operations. 8435 Progress Drive provides a lower cost of ownership than our previous facility, and we can remain close to Washington, D.C. and three major airports. The high ceilings, dock doors, electrical service and generous parking provide exactly what we need for our manufacturing, assembly and testing requirements.

8435 Progress Drive Way is a single-story, 84,240 square foot flex/R&D building featuring 16-foot ceiling heights, dock and drive-in loading facilities and a flexible design that can accommodate office, light manufacturing, warehouse and logistics requirements. The building offers direct, ground floor access for individual tenants and is surrounded by a free, surface parking lot. Riverside Technology Park is located between MD Route 26 and Interstate 70 on Monocacy Boulevard.

We are thrilled that Wilcoxon Sensing Technologies chose St. John Properties for its new facility. Riverside Technology Park is a great fit for their multifunctional requirements combining manufacturing, logistics and office space within one high-quality space, explained Matthew Holbrook, Regional Partner for St. John Properties. The flexible and open space layout of 8435 Progress was perfectly suited to address each of these priorities, and the suburban location of the business community provides daily conveniences to employees, customers and vendors. The companys decision to relocate from Montgomery County continues a trend among corporations and organizations seeking a lower cost of business operations, less congestion with convenient access, and a plentiful highly-skilled workforce.

Riverside Technology Park is among several developments initiated by St. John Properties in Frederick. The addition of these new tenants brings the occupancy for the 487,000 square foot business community to more than 90%. Last fall, Equipment Development Company signed a lease for 29,280 square feet of space and Royal Farms announced its intentions to construct a convenience store and gas station at the site. The business community is situated within close proximity to dining and shopping amenities in Frederick and is at the intersection of three major highways providing convenient access to Baltimore via I-70 and to Montgomery County/Northern Virginia/Washington, D.C. via I-270 and US 15.

Frederick has become a top tech destination for companies like Wilcoxon/Amphenol which need inspiring spaces, talented workforce, housing options, and high quality corporate environments like Riverside Technology Park, stated Richard G. Griffin, Director of Economic Development for The City of Frederick. The City is investing in supporting public infrastructure including utility upgrades, road improvements along MD Route 26, Monocacy Boulevard, and US 15 Interchange. We welcome the leadership and staff of Wilcoxon/Amphenol to Frederick and look forward to a long prosperous working relationship.

St. John Properties, Inc., founded in 1971, has developed and owns a portfolio of more than 18.5 million square feet of Flex/R&D, Office, Retail and Warehouse space in Maryland, Colorado, Louisiana, Nevada, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Utah and Wisconsin. For more information about the company, visit http://www.sjpi.comAdvanced connector solutions for medical monitoring applications Advanced connector solutions for medical monitoring applications by ODU readily available now.

ODU, a worldwide leader in designing and manufacturing high performance connector solutions and cable assemblies, is announcing its advanced connector portfolio for medical monitoring applications including portable patient monitoring systems, blood pressure monitors, measuring sensors, portable scanners, hand-pulse oximeters and more.

ODU-USA is now offering ODU MEDI-SNAP, a lightweight autoclavable connector available for purchase online at store.odu-usa.com. Additional product features include: high chemical resistance, 2000+ mating cycles, versatile coding possibilities, sterilisable and economical housing.

ODU MINI-MED is a low cost connector solution with pre-assembled plug and inline options, IP67, 1000+ mating cycles, DEHP-free and Break-Away function. ODU offers fast sample availability for this reliable connector.

Additionally, ODU provides also advanced customer benefits including local one to one engineering support, rapid prototyping and product development, cable assembly integrated solutions, custom connector capabilities, factory direct.

ODU Group: Global Representation with Perfect Connections

The ODU Group is one of the worlds leading suppliers of connector systems, employing 1,900 people around the world. In addition to its company headquarters in Muhldorf am Inn (Germany), ODU also has an international distribution network and production sites in Sibiu/Romania, Camarillo/USA, Shanghai/China and Tijuana/Mexico. ODU combines all relevant areas of expertise and key technologies including design and development, machine tooling and special machine construction, injection, stamping, turning, surface technology, assembly and cable assembly. The ODU Group sells its products globally through its nine subsidiaries in Denmark, UK, Germany, France, Italy, Sweden, the US, China and Japan, as well as through numerous international sales partners. ODU connectors ensure a reliable transmission of power, signals, data and media for a variety of demanding applications including medical technology, military and security, eMobility, energy, industrial electronics, and test and measurement.L-R: Snoop Dogg (Performer), Erica Campbell (Performer), Tina Campbell (Performer) and Kirk Franklin (Host)

Download Images: https://goo.gl/34oh6A

2017 Video Highlight Reel: https://vimeo.com/246146189

Complete List of Nominees: http://thestellarawards.com/2017nominees.html

(CHICAGO)  Feb. 27, 2018 - Central City Productions announces a dazzling line-up of performers for the 2018 Annual Stellar Gospel Music Awards, including the reunion of contemporary gospel musics favorite sister act, Mary Mary (Erica Campbell and Tina Campbell), and the Stellar Award's debut of rapper, actor, and television personality Snoop Dogg, performing songs from his new gospel album Songs of Love at this years show. Celebrated as a "transcendent night of gospel music," the 33rd Annual Stellar Awards promises to surpass its stellar' reputation, featuring performances by the genres hottest acts. Performers scheduled to appear include: Tasha Cobbs Leonard, Travis Greene, Tye Tribbett, Anthony Brown & group therAPy, Kierra Sheard, KeKe Wyatt, Jonathan McReynolds, Tasha Page-Lockhart, Todd Dulaney, Koryn Hawthorne and Ricky Dillard & New G, among others. Returning to Las Vegas' Orleans Arena on Saturday, March 24, 2018 the Stellar Awards welcomes the return of the undisputed crown prince of contemporary gospel music, Kirk Franklin, as host.

The Stellar Awards telecast will premiere on TV One on Friday, March 30 at 9 p.m. ET/8 p.m. CT and air in broadcast syndication on 130 stations in more than 110 markets around the country March 31 - May 6, 2018.

Franklin is happy to be back in the role of host of the annual celebration. Since my first step onto the Stellar Awards stage as a 23-year-old kid from Texas, Ive lived, breathed and committed all Ive had to this incredible genre called gospel, he stated. To find myself now still blessed to serve the community I love so dearly as their host of the 2018 Stellar Awards, that young kid feels alive again and more grateful than ever. Were working hard to bring to the world the best and the brightest along with the icons and legends, the greatest night of Gods music at a time when the country needs our melody the most. Thank you and Ill see you in Vegas.

This years spectacular show open will feature Stellar Awards alum Erica Campbell reuniting with her sister Tina Campbell as the hit gospel duo Mary Mary for the first time in more than six years. The show will include an all-star tribute to the late, great Edwin Hawkins, with his sister Lynette Hawkins accepting the Edwin Hawkins Icon Award in his honor. Also expected to deliver stand out moments are the multi-platinum award-winning Snoop Dogg performing material from his new gospel album and collaborating with Tye Tribbett.

Each year we strive to bring new and innovative performances and collaborations to the Stellar Awards and this year is no different, with the inclusion of mainstream hip-hop rapper and mogul, Snoop Dogg." stated Stellar Awards Founder, Don Jackson. "Snoop expressed his desire to release a gospel album in honor of his mom who is an evangelist and he's teamed up with Gospel superstar Tye Tribbett, there's no way we couldn't bring this explosive performance to the Stellar Awards stage."

2018 Stellar Award's multi-nominee and previous host, Anthony Brown, returns this year to perform and looks forward to sharing something special with the fans. "The Stellar Awards has always been such a blessing to gospel music creators and gospel music lovers worldwide. It provides for us a platform and opportunity to share our message and our gifts with the world, shared Brown. I am so excited to take the stage again at this year's Stellar Awards. Its always so humbling and exciting. group therAPy and I are working on something special this year. I cant wait for you to see it."

Don Jackson will bestow special honors upon gospel greats who have made significant contributions to the genre. The incomparable Tamela Mann is this years recipient of the James Cleveland Lifetime Achievement Award and the legendary Rev. Milton Biggham will receive The Ambassador Dr. Bobby Jones Legends Award. Stellar Honors Hall of Fame Inductees includes Kurt Carr, Ben Tankard, and Dr. Marabeth Gentry - President of the National Convention of Gospel Choirs and Choruses.

The Stellar Awards show taping is open to the public, with ticket prices ranging from $50 - $200 at http://www.ticketmaster.com.

The Stellar Gospel Music Awards Pre-Show is scheduled for Friday, March 23 hosted by Lexi Allen and Lonnie Hunter. Among the artists performing at the Orleans Showroom that evening: Next Generation Choir, Judah Band, Tasha Page Lockhart, Isaiah D. Thomas, Ruth La'Ontra, Bryan Popin and Jason Nelson.

The Stellar Gospel Radio Awards & Showcase will be held earlier on Saturday, March 24, honoring the top radio stations and announcers who most notably serve urban gospel music audiences. This show is also full of spirit-stirring performances by newcomers Isabel Davis, Gene Moore and Kelontae Gavin; seasoned sensations Donishisa Ballard and Jason Champion; and quartet group The Virginia Aires. The event is hosted by VaShawn Mitchelland Meta Washington and is the perfect kickoff to the big show the same day. Tickets for each event can be purchased at http://www.ticketmaster.com.

More of the biggest names in gospel and a few additional surprises are being added to the growing list of top performers and presenters appearing in this years show. For more information visit us at http://www.thestellarawards.com. Follow us on social media for the latest news and updates about the greatest night in gospel!

About Central City Productions (CCP)

The Stellar Gospel Music Awards show is Executive Produced by Don Jackson, with Jennifer J. Jackson serving as Executive in Charge of Production. Michael Johnson will produce and direct this year's awards show. Erma Gray Davis is the President and Chief Operations Officer of Central City Productions. Founded in 1970 by Don Jackson, Chicago-based Central City Productions, Inc. is a distributor of original targeted programming to television and cable networks. CCP's award-winning television programs include the Black Music Honors, Stellar Tribute to the Holidays and Tribute to Mother's Day, The Black College Quiz Show Series, and Hispanic College Quiz, among many others. For more information, please visit http://www.ccptv.com.

For More Information Visit: http://thestellarawards.com/

To view the complete list of nominees: http://thestellarawards.com/2017nominees.html

FOLLOW STELLAR AWARDS ON SOCIAL MEDIA FOR UPDATES AND MORE!

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/StellarAwards

Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/thestellars

Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/thestellars

MEDIA CONTACTS

Jalila Larsuel

Jalila@jlmediapr.com

818-850-6264

Jasmine Milton

Jlmediaprassistant2@gmail.com

818-850-6264Campbell University students Sarah Page and Dylan Blackburn, alongside Troy and Sissy Templeton, place first in the Templeton Business Ethics Case Competition held at Stetson University. "Over the past four years, the Templeton has become a premier program of experiential learning for business students from universities in the United States and Canada."

The annual Templeton Business Ethics Case Competition was held recently at Stetson University on Feb. 22-23. Undergraduate students from invited institutions across the country had the opportunity to analyze and present arguments on a contemporary business issue tied to financial, legal and ethical issues.

Through the generous support of Troy and Sissy Templeton, the Stetson Business Ethics and Corporate Social Responsibility Initiative, within the School of Business Administration, sponsors the Templeton Case Competition each spring. Russel and Elin Kunz, Stetson University, Boulevard Tire Center, SAGE Publishing and Schrimsher Properties were contributing sponsors of the event.

Teams from these 16 institutions participated in the 2018 competition:

-Belmont University

-Bethune-Cookman University

-Campbell University

-Clemson University

-Elon University

-Florida Gulf Coast University

-Florida Southern College

-Florida State University

-Georgetown University

-Iowa State University

-Jacksonville University

-St. Petersburg College

-United States Naval Academy

-University of Calgary

-University of Florida

-University of North Dakota

After receiving the case, teams were given two weeks to prepare and submit an executive summary and a visual presentation. During the event, teams made an oral presentation to a panel of judges. Bracket winners then delivered a final eight-minute oral presentation to the entire body of judges in a plenary session including all conference attendees, members of the Stetson University community and the public.

Campbell University students placed first in the Competition with University of Calgary taking second place, University of Florida coming in third, and Belmont University securing fourth place. The top four teams received cash prizes and trophies.

Representatives from top companies across Central Florida volunteered their time to serve as judges for the two-day competition, including: Bobbi Baugh, Independent Studio Artist; Yvonne Chang, Director, Club Management and Regulatory Affairs, Disney Vacation Club; Randall Croom, Assistant Professor of Management, Stetson University; Helena Dabrowski, Director of Finance, Sunshine Ace Hardware; Paul Dascher, Retired Dean, Stetson University School of Business Administration; Theo Etzel, CEO and Owner, Conditioned Air; Rick Fletcher

Attorney; Founding Director, Grace Medical Home, Orlando; Brent Gibbs, Principal Counsel, Walt Disney Parks and Resorts, U.S.; Elin Kunz, Certified Health Care Compliance Specialist (Head Judge); Steve Schrimsher, Partner, Schrimsher Properties; Barb Button Shepherd, CEO and Publisher, West Volusia Beacon; Areti Vogel, Visiting Assistant Professor of Management, Stetson University.

"The Templeton Business Ethics Case Competition is a wonderful example of the transfer of learned course material to a real-world setting. The use of concrete, actual business dilemmas in the cases analyzed by student participants prompts a level of learning that significantly supplements students' curricular programs in business education," explained Jim Beasley, Ph.D., professor of management and co-director of the event. "Over the past four years, the Templeton has become a premier program of experiential learning for business students from universities in the United States and Canada."

About Stetson University

Founded in 1883, Stetson University is the oldest private university in Florida, providing a transforming education in the liberal arts tradition. Stetson stresses academic excellence and community-engaged learning, and consistently earns high marks in national rankings. Stetson encourages its students to go beyond success to significance in their lives, the lives of others and their communities. Stay connected with Stetson on social media."By building out support for Ethos, Softdocs is continuing to prioritize this partnership through new integration options that are more seamless and innovative," Vice President  Corporate Strategy, Andrew Daniel

Softdocs, the industrys only education-focused provider of enterprise content management, electronic forms and workflow solutions, today announced its expanding relationship with Ellucian, the leading provider of software and services built to power higher education. As a long-term partner of Ellucian, this announcement makes Softdocs the first ECM provider to offer support for the Ellucian Ethos Platform, Ellucians technology foundation for an empowered campus.

Softdocs collaborated with Ellucian to build an integration between Etrieve, the companys true all-in-one, browser-based ECM platform, and Ellucian Ethos to provide a secure and seamless experience for end users.

Known for its innovative and cloud-first approach to ECM, Softdocs is standardizing and simplifying the integration process for Etrieve customers. Unlike legacy integration approaches or customized integration processes, this partnership provides a robust and consistent way of communicating between applications to ease the management of student, employee and vendor information.

Over 75 percent of Higher Education institutions are utilizing software solutions from Ellucian, including Banner, Colleague and PowerCampus. Our existing integrations with these product sets have helped institutions blend technology platforms for years. By building out support for Ethos, Softdocs is continuing to prioritize this partnership through new integration options that are more seamless and innovative, said Softdocs Vice President  Corporate Strategy, Andrew Daniel.

As Softdocs continues to develop support for Ethos-based integration points, Ellucian remains an integral resource by hosting partner development workshops. Both Softdocs and Ellucian are enthusiastic about the value the Ethos Platform is providing to its joint customer base.

The Ellucian team has proven to be extremely transparent, responsive and forthcoming with best practices and recommendations as our development team has been focusing on this project, said Daniel. They continue to be a great partner and we look forward to continued support of the Ethos Platform.

Softdocs will be showcasing their integration with Banner and Colleague through the Ethos Platform at the upcoming Ellucian Live conference, April 8-11, 2018 in San Diego.

For more information about Softdocs education-focused enterprise content management, electronic forms and workflow solutions, please visit http://www.softdocs.com.

About Softdocs:

Softdocs develops enterprise content management, electronic forms and workflow solutions exclusively for the higher education and K-12 markets. With both cloud-based and on-premises deployment options, the companys Etrieve platform redefines business processes, reducing the need for paper and improving student service and employee productivity by providing educational institutions complete control over how content is captured, processed and distributed. A privately held company founded in 1998, Softdocs is headquartered in Columbia, South Carolina. For more information, visit http://www.softdocs.com.

# # #Juniper Communities "Expanding our presence in the Denver market enables Juniper to consolidate market share and pilot additional ancillary services within a concentrated hub." Lynne Katzmann, CEO, Founder.Juniper also owns/operates Juniper Village Aurora, Juniper Village Louisville, and Juniper Village Spearly Center.

Juniper Communities announces the addition of Applewood Place, A Juniper Senior Living Community and Lakewood Reserve, A Juniper Senior Living Community to its portfolio of seniors housing communities as of February 15, 2018. Nationally, Juniper ranks among the top 40 largest providers of assisted living communities. By managing these properties Juniper increases the seniors housing units under its umbrella to 1,862 in 23 communities. Both communities are located in Lakewood, one of Denvers most coveted, charismatic residential neighborhoods just 10 minutes from downtown Denver offering breathtaking views of the Rocky Mountain foothills.

Lakewood and Applewood are great communities in wonderful locations that augment the existing Juniper family of communities in the metro Denver area. We are very excited to extend our signature programs to benefit residents and their families, the team of associates there and the professional health care community, said Lynne S. Katzmann, CEO and founder of Juniper Communities. She continued, For example, our Connect4Life program, which has been recognized as an innovative model for integrating service enriched housing and management of chronic health issues, will bring the convenience of onsite primary care to the community while facilitating coordination between the community and other health providers that service our residents.

Built in 2008, Applewood Place is a 90,500 square foot, two-story community and consists of 65 assisted living and 42 memory care units. Lakewood Reserve, built in 1999, is a 112,516 square foot, two-story community that consists of 118 assisted living units and 19 memory care units.

The communities will benefit from Junipers signature programming that includes an award-winning dementia care program known as Wellspring Memory Care, a comprehensive electronic health records system, a fully coordinated healthcare delivery model Connect4Life, an integrated connections and activities program referred to as Alive in All Seasons. All are designed to foster the Juniper mission of nurturing the spirit of life in each individual served.

Expanding our presence in the Denver, CO market enables Juniper to consolidate market share and pilot additional ancillary services within a concentrated hub, stated Lynne Katzmann. Juniper currently owns and operates Juniper Village at Aurora, Juniper Village at Louisville, and Juniper Village  The Spearly Center in downtown Denver.

The newly named Applewood Place, A Juniper Senior Living Community is located at 2800 Youngfield St, Lakewood, CO 80226, (303) 233-4343. And, Lakewood Reserve, A Juniper Senior Living Community is located at 555 S Pierce St, Lakewood, CO 80226, (303) 742-4800.

About Juniper Communities, LLC

Juniper Communities, a leader in quality, value and innovation in long-term care, operates facilities in New Jersey, Florida, Pennsylvania and Colorado that emphasize residents comfort, interaction and security. Our facilities and approach to housing and care offers residents the opportunity to live a full life, regardless of age or health. Junipers innovative Connect4Life program has been proven to improve residents care by decreasing hospitalizations, re-hospitalizations and urgent care visits, while offering potential cost savings to public programs such as Medicare. To learn more about the many ways Juniper Communities innovates in support of our residents, please contact us at http://www.junipercommunities.com or 973.661.8300.As a company with a global footprint that meets the needs of companies throughout the United States, it became necessary to have a presence on the East Coast. We were attracted to Raleigh due to its reputation as an innovation and technology hub."

RapidScale, a leader in managed cloud services, has announced the opening of its dual headquarters in Raleigh, North Carolina. The new East Coast office is designed to accommodate 30 employees and is located in the heart of downtown Raleigh.

Todays announcement follows strong growth in 2017 during which the company grew revenues 112%. RapidScale makes it easy to integrate applications, users, accessibility and efficiency into a business of any size or industry with its fully-managed suite of cloud solutions and services, and 24x7x365 support for all customers. The company now offers on-site support in select regions, including Raleigh, and is staffed accordingly to support customers that need local resources.

As a company with a global footprint that meets the needs of companies throughout the United States, it became necessary to have a presence on the East Coast. We were attracted to Raleigh due to its reputation as an innovation and technology hub, said Chief Operating Officer William Hiatt. As a rapidly growing company, it is crucial we have access to a qualified talent pool to meet the diverse needs of our customers. We look forward to taking advantage of the best that Raleigh has to offer for our employees and customers.

The office is currently home to a growing representation of RapidScale executive management and employees, including engineering, support, sales and finance. The company expects to expand its East Coast presence with 57% projected revenue growth in 2018 and at least 10 local hires in engineering and support. The Raleigh team is positioned to support more than 53% of RapidScales client base.

Our team used to be predominantly on the West Coast, but to properly service our East Coast customers and improve call coverage hours, it made sense to have an East Coast office. Raleigh was a natural choice, as we already had leadership based here and a strong candidate pool from the local technology companies and universities, said Senior Vice President of Technology Duane Barnes. Our initial office space is 5,000 square feet and we already expect to outgrow that in 18 months and continue our expansion in Raleigh.

RapidScale occupies the 6th floor of the downtown office building on Raleighs main street at 555 Fayetteville St., Suite 620, Raleigh, N.C. 27601. The building is one of only two LEED Platinum office towers in the Southeast region. Raleigh is the companys third office, adding to its West Coast headquarters in Irvine and an office in Tysons, Virginia.

We are thrilled to have RapidScale expand and open their East Coast headquarters in Raleigh, said Derrick Minor, Innovation and Entrepreneurship Manager for the City of Raleigh. They have assembled a world-class team in the heart of our downtown and are exactly the type of company we are looking to have join our community.

RapidScale is holding an open house celebration of the new office on March 15th, inviting Raleigh community members, sales partners and customers in the local Mid-Atlantic region.

About RapidScale

RapidScale, a managed cloud services provider, delivers world-class, secure, and reliable cloud computing solutions to companies of all sizes across the globe. Its state-of-the-art managed CloudDesktop platform and market-leading cloud solutions are the reasons why RapidScale is the provider of choice for leading MSOs, VARs, MSPs, Carriers and Master Agents throughout the United States. RapidScale is not only delivering a service but also innovating advanced solutions and applications for the cloud computing space. RapidScales innovative solutions include CloudServer, CloudDesktop, CloudOffice, CloudMail, CloudRecovery, CloudApps, and more. For more information on RapidScale, visit http://www.rapidscale.net.

Media Contact

Sommer Figone | Marketing Manager

Marketing(at)rapidscale(dot)netNHK, Japanese public broadcaster, has announced that it will host an immersive musical 8K theater experience at the upcoming SXSW conferences between March 13  15, 2018 in Austin, Texas. The 8K theater will boast an impressive experience open to SXSW attendees focusing around musical performances that will showcase the magic of sound and vision through the lens of 8K.

Showings in the SXSW theater will include 2D and 3D musical experiences showcasing the 8K theater ranging between jazz, classical and even rock. Performances from Chick Corea and Herbie Hancock Live in New York, Toshiko Akiyoshi NY Jazz Legend 70th Anniversary Show, Barcelonas Sound of Sagrada Familia conducted by Kazushi Ono, Catalonia National Orchestra and Japanese rock group, Sakanaction will all be in rotation throughout the conference. In addition, previous NHK 8K 3D music contents from past SXSW exhibitions will be shown.

The 8K theater will be open to the SXSW public starting on March 13th and will run through March 15th from 10:00am to 6:00pm, to RSVP contact, Kosuke Tanabe: tanabe-ko@nhk-ep.co.jp

Attendees can visit the theater located inside room 401 of the JW Marriott Austin (110 E 2nd St, Austin, TX 78701)

https://schedule.sxsw.com/2018/events/OE2191

https://schedule.sxsw.com/2018/events/OE2192

https://schedule.sxsw.com/2018/events/OE2193

NHK, who has previously partnered with Frances Louvre Museum to co-create 8K content related to art has set its sights on disrupting the viewing of musical performances. The 8K theater experience boasts 8K technology that offers 33,000,000 pixels, 16 times more than that of HDTV (2K) and 4 times that of 4K. The theater will project visuals and images onto a 200-inch screen along with immersive 3D sound from a 24-unit speaker system spread throughout the theaters entirety.

We are thrilled to be able to share our passion of technology and innovation with the SXSW attendees, said Yasushi Seito, Senior Associate Director of Programming Center, NHK. SXSW is the premiere conference for the tech savvy and were excited to be making history with them as a partner.

In addition to the 8K theater experience, NHK has also announced that it will also be releasing the first ever 8K compatible satellite broadcast channel. The channel will be released on December 1, 2018.

About NHK

NHK, Nippon Hoso Kyokai (Japan Broadcasting Corporation), is Japans only public broadcaster. As a public broadcaster funded by fees received from TV viewers, NHK delivers a wide range of impartial, high-quality programs, both at home and abroad. NHK will launch an 8K satellite channel in December 2018.

http://www.nhk.or.jp/8k/index_e.html

For press inquiries please contact:

Jennifer Gross

Evolutionary Media Group

+1 (323) 658-8700

Jennifer(at)emgpr(dot)comMicrosoft Teams

The SharePoint Fest series of North American conferences is entering their 8th year with a new look. The events held in DC, Seattle, and Chicago will be expanding from their traditional 4-day format and adding a 5th day of content for attendees. David Wilhelm, President of Tech Conferences Inc., has said "our goal in this final expansion to a 5th day of content will allow us to bring content to our attendees that will cover the spectrum of the SharePoint, Office 365, and Azure platforms available to Microsoft's customers. This new addition to the events represents the completion of our goal to hold the largest SharePoint, Office 365, and Azure events globally in terms of the availability of content to attendees."

What is Microsoft Teams?

Microsoft Teams is a digital hub that brings conversations, content, and apps together in one place. Microsoft Teams allows users to create collaborative classrooms, connect in professional learning communities, and communicate with staff  all from a single experience in Office 365 Education.

Explore SharePoint Fest DC's Microsoft Teams content offerings here.

About SharePoint Fest

The SharePoint Fest series will be entering their 8th year in 2018. SharePoint Fest DC offers a three-day conference (with two optional pre-conference workshop days) that brings together SharePoint enthusiasts and practitioners, with many of the leading SharePoint experts and solution providers in the country.

Attend SharePoint Fest DC where attendees will be able to attend workshops and seminars  taught by Microsoft Certified Trainers, Microsoft engineers, and Microsoft MCM's and MVPs  covering Enterprise Content Management, Implementation/Administration, Business Value, Search, Business Intelligence, Office 365 and SharePoint Development. Attendees will be able to choose one complete learning track or mix and match based on what content best meets their current needs.

At SharePoint Fest DC, there will be sessions created for SharePoint administrators, software developers, business analysts, information architects, and knowledge workers, which will ensure that attendees walk away with as much knowledge as they desire to truly leverage SharePoint in their current environment.

Web Site: http://www.sharepointfest.com/DC"This is a great example of how a pedagogy-driven innovation, such as adaptive personalization, can drive business success," said Furqan Nazeeri, Partner, ExtensionEngine.

ExtensionEngine, a leading provider of Custom Learning Experiences, was selected by Fitch Learning, a leader in training and professional development, to partner on the development of Fitch Learning Cognition, an adaptive online learning platform for delegates preparing to take the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) Program exam. The new Fitch Learning Cognition platform delivers CFA Program exam preparation courses through a highly visual, adaptive learning experience.

Fitch Learning prepares thousands of students globally for the CFA Program exam every year, empowering them to focus on core development areas and maximize their CFA Program exam preparation experience. With Fitch Learning Cognition, students are guided through the learning phase before moving to the review and exam preparation stages. Learning channels are adaptive and multi-faceted, including instructor-led videos, practice questions and extensive course materials.

Our objective was to transform our CFA Program exam prep offering from a predominantly classroom-led experience to a global, flexible, blended solution capable of expanding into new regions and reaching new students beyond classroom walls, said Fergus Wood, Head of Digital Learning, Fitch Learning. ExtensionEngine, with its full range of resources and extensive experience, was uniquely qualified to help us achieve our objectives.

ExtensionEngine helps its clients  universities, corporations and non-profits, develop custom learning experiences. For Fitch Learning, the goal was to develop adaptive courseware that achieves four primary objectives:



Personalize the learning experience to meet the needs of a wide variety of learners, with varying degrees of previous exposure to the material through the use of adaptive learning;

Redesign content to satisfy current bite-size consumption preferences;

Increase engagement and provide users with confidence in their ability;

Ensure the platform allows for easy modifications for future courses.

With the Level II exam preparation course launch, process improvements were added as well as clearer indicators, improved text responses and other enhancements to make the platform more intuitive and easier to use.

This is a great example of how a pedagogy-driven innovation, such as adaptive personalization, can drive business success. Fitch Learning Cognition is by far the best CFA Program exam prep offering on the market and we're proud to be a part of it, said Furqan Nazeeri, Partner, ExtensionEngine. This is exactly the type of challenge where we excel  a complex subject matter that requires a sophisticated, custom learning experience.

About Fitch Learning

Fitch Learning, a preeminent training and professional development firm, offers learning solutions to the financial services industry across the globe. Focused and committed to partnering with clients to enhance knowledge, skills and conduct, Fitch Learning supports professionals through designing and delivering solutions to accelerate their performance and the organization across their career lifecycle. Fitch Learning specializes in a number of key areas: regulatory and certification exam training, professional skills development and blended e-learning solutions. To learn more, visit http://www.fitchlearning.com.

Fitch Learning is a part of Fitch Group, a global leader in financial information services with operations in more than 30 countries. Fitch Group is comprised of: Fitch Ratings, a global leader in credit ratings and research; Fitch Solutions, a leading provider of credit market data, analytical tools and risk services and BMI Research, an independent provider of country risk and industry analysis specializing in emerging and frontier markets. With dual-headquarters in London and New York, Fitch Group is majority owned by Hearst.

About ExtensionEngine

ExtensionEngine develops Custom Learning Experiences, delivering online and blended programs for universities, corporations and not-for-profits. Leveraging the latest advances in learning science and technology, the company takes a comprehensive, unbundled, fee-for-service approach to develop programs that engage learners, encourage collaboration, and increase retention. A privately held company based in Cambridge, MA, ExtensionEngine has launched over 70 programs for more than 40 organizations. To learn more, visit http://www.extensionengine.com.

CFA Institute does not endorse, promote, or warrant the accuracy or quality of the products or services offered by Fitch Learning. CFA Institute, CFA and Chartered Financial Analyst are trademarks owned by CFA Institute.

Media Contacts:

Donna von Halle

pr(at)extensionengine(dot)com

Hannah James

Fitch Group

hannah.james(at)fitchratings(dot)comTropic Ocean Airways Seaplane Our newly introduced Fly & Sail program offers guests a unique opportunity to experience the best way to see the full natural beauty the Bahamas has to offer from the air and from the water

Tropic Ocean Airways, the leading seaplane operator in the Eastern U.S., and The Moorings, the worlds premier yacht charter provider, today announced the introduction of their Fly & Sail program offering air and sea adventures to the Bahamas for discerning travelers.

The combination of Tropic Ocean Airways award-winning seaplane service, operated with factory-new Cessna Grand Caravan EX amphibian aircraft, and The Moorings live-aboard catamaran vacations in the Abacos and Exumas, provide guests the unique opportunity to experience superior personalized service and the best scenery the Bahamas has to offer by both air and water.

Guests of the Fly & Sail program may depart from Tropic Ocean Airways lounge at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airports private fixed base operations (FBO) Sheltair or the Miami Seaplane Base, which is centrally located between Downtown Miami and South Beach on Watson Island. Upon arrival, Tropic Ocean Airways dedicated lounge staff greet guests for special assistance with valet parking, bag handling, and check-in, and introduce guests to their two personal pilots. Following a less than 90-minute scenic flight to either Nassau or Marsh Harbour, guests board their private catamaran to sail south to the Exumas or around the Abacos. Island-hopping from one island to another is the ideal way to experience a truly immersive Bahamas vacation and offers the freedom and flexibility only attainable via private yacht.

Our newly introduced Fly & Sail program offers guests a unique opportunity to experience the best way to see the full natural beauty the Bahamas has to offer from the air and from the water, said Tropic Ocean Airways CEO Rob Ceravolo.

All Tropic Ocean Airways flights to and from the Bahamas feature premium seating for up to eight passengers each carrying up to 30 pounds of baggage, aboard a two-pilot crewed Cessna aircraft, seven of which were delivered to Tropic Ocean Airways brand new from the aircraft manufacturer. Each aircraft features comfortably spacious, fully air-conditioned luxury interiors.

With yachts ideal for six to 10 guests, The Moorings offers the ultimate yacht charter experience. Guests can choose between bareboat sail-it-yourself sail and power catamarans, or opt to hire a Moorings skipper to sail the yacht. For a more luxurious vacation, all-inclusive crewed yacht charters are available, complete with captain and gourmet chef.

For additional information on the Tropic Ocean Airways and The Moorings Fly & Sail program, visit https://www.moorings.com/destinations/americas/bahamas/charter-flights . To book the Fly & Sail program, email reservations(at)flytropic(dot)com, or call 1-954-210-5569 or 1-800-767-0897. Visit Tropic Ocean Airways at flytropic.com.

About Tropic Ocean Airways

Tropic Ocean Airways is a U.S.-certificated commuter air carrier, founded by U.S. Navy TOPGUN fighter pilot Rob Ceravolo in 2009. The airline safely transported nearly 20,000 passengers in 2017 aboard its fleet of 11 Cessna Grand Caravan EX aircraft, which are extremely versatile and capable of safely landing on water and land, making Tropic Ocean Airways the airline of choice for the discerning air traveler. In addition, the carrier is adding four new aircraft to its operations in 2018. Tropic Ocean Airways is the recipient of the highly-coveted ARGUS Gold rating for safety and enjoys a 5-star customer service rating on TripAdvisor. Ceravolo and his team of experienced professionals have developed and implemented standard operating procedures borrowed from the U.S. military, which ensures the highest levels of safety and service aboard each flight.

About The Moorings

After more than 45 years at sea, The Moorings has established its reputation as the world's premier yacht charter company. Its award-winning charter fleet now includes more than 400 yachts in over 20 destinations across the globe. Whether its a self-skippered monohull, a sail catamaran with a skipper at the helm, a high-performance power catamaran, or a crewed yacht with a captain and chef, The Moorings make time on the water truly unforgettable.Qualidigm, the mission-driven, national healthcare consulting think tank company based in Wethersfield, Conn., announced the new chairman and members to serve the organizations Board of Directors, effective immediately.

Rollin G. Schuster Jr. joined the Qualidigm Board of Directors in 2015 and will serve as chairman, replacing past chairman, Paul Liistro, managing partner of Arbors of Hop Brook Limited Partnerships, whose term ended in December 2018. Schuster is the managing principal of The Schuster Group, a financial services and employee benefits advisory firm based in Farmington, Conn., and also the founder and president of the non-profit, The Alliance for Non-Profit Growth and Opportunity, Inc. (TANGO). TANGO provides resources to over 1,100 non-profits helping them further their mission and create positive change in the sector.

In addition to the new chairman, three new board members have joined the Qualidigm board:

Michael Dimenstein is the vice president of system compensation and benefits at Yale New Haven Health System (YNHHS), responsible for leading the design, planning, funding and administration of a comprehensive array of employee salary and benefit programs for Yale New Haven Hospital, Bridgeport Hospital, Greenwich Hospital, Lawrence + Memorial Healthcare, Northeast Medical Group, Yale New Haven Health Services Corporation and the affiliated organizations. Dimenstein is a Certified Compensation Professional (CCP) and a board member and the past president of the Connecticut Healthcare Human Resources Association. He serves on the Advisory Board to the Connecticut Workers Compensation Commission, the Board of Directors of the Connecticut Business Group on Health, and has represented employers in the State of Connecticut Innovation Model Value-Based Insurance Design Consortium.

Brian Hinman is a seasoned executive with over 30 years experience in the field of innovation and intellectual property, holding various strategic positions within Fortune 50 companies and large multi-national corporations. Most recently, Hinman was the chief intellectual property officer of Philips, based in the Netherlands. Throughout his extensive career, he has led innovation teams in technology creation, and executed multi-faceted technology commercialization programs. Hinman created and executed complex intellectual property strategies, negotiated hundreds of patent and technology licensing agreements, conducted patent divestitures and acquisitions, been involved in creation and spinoff of high-tech based startup entities, performed numerous IP-based valuations, led and successfully resolved many offensive and defensive patent litigation cases, and served as founding chief executive officer and co-founder of two unique patent defensive entities.

Eric Rosow is the chief executive officer and co-founder of Diameter Health, a leading health information technology firm based in Farmington, Conn. He has over 25 years of experience in healthcare technology, new venture creation and executive management. Prior to co-founding Diameter Health, Eric served as the vice president and general manager of the Patient Flow business unit for Eclipsys and Allscripts. Previously, Eric was the chairman and chief executive officer of Premise, a company he co-founded and led through its sale to Eclipsys. Rosow holds several patents and has authored more than 50 academic papers, several book chapters and a textbook on virtual bioinstrumentation.

I am excited to welcome Michael, Brian and Eric to the Qualidigm board, said Timothy Elwell, Ph.D., Qualidigm president and CEO. Each will bring a wealth of diverse expertise, innovation and knowledge to Qualidigm in support of our growth strategy to expand and extend the organization on a local, regional and national level. Additionally, Rollin has been an instrumental, active member of the Qualidigm board for the past three years. As a forward-thinking visionary, I look forward to his leadership as he assumes the role of chairman of the board, said Dr. Elwell. On behalf of the board, I thank Paul for his dedication and commitment, serving as the chairman of the board for the past four years and for assuming the past chair position as he continues to support the executive board this year.

See the complete list of Qualidigm Board members.

About Qualidigm:

With its corporate headquarters in Wethersfield, Conn. and offices in Dover, NH; Barre, VT; and Providence, RI, Qualidigm's mission is to provide technical assistance and develop strategies that improve the quality, safety, and cost-effectiveness of healthcare through transformational change. Qualidigm provides consulting services to public and private sector clients nationwide. These services include consulting, data analysis, health information technology, patient safety, quality improvement, and utilization review. Qualidigm is part of a team that is serving as the Medicare Quality Innovation Network Quality Improvement Organization (QIN-QIO) under contract with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services for New England. Qualidigm is also a Patient Safety Organization (PSO) as designated by the State of Connecticut. http://www.Qualidigm.orgAlbert Dickson, Caring Transitions COO Al Scobell and Jill Dickson We have been blessed with our core staff ... They are the best thing about Caring Transitions of Treasure Valley and I cant thank them enough. - Albert Dickson

When Jill and Albert Dickson launched Caring Transitions of Treasure Valley, they were looking for a new way to serve the community before thinking about retirement. Now, in less than two years since they opened, the Dicksons have grown their business to the sixth largest franchise in the Caring Transitions system.

In recognition of their efforts, the Dicksons were presented with the Caring Transitions Shining Star Award as well as a Top 10 Award at the Caring Transitions national conference on February 9, 2018.

Albert and Jill Dickson were able to grow their business at breakneck speed. From 2016 to 2017 they achieved a growth rate of over 400 percent! Im continuously impressed by the Dicksons commitment to exceeding expectations for their clients, referral sources, employees and even staff at the home office. The Dicksons embody compassionate professionalism in everything they do and it has made a positive impact on their business and their community, Caring Transitions Chief Operating Officer Al Scobell said.

Caring Transitions is a national franchise in more than 200 markets. Caring Transitions of Treasure Valleys specially-trained team can handle organizing, packing, de-cluttering, moving, resettling, in-person and online estate sales, liquidations and preparing homes for market. Caring Transitions specializes in managing senior relocations, but the services are also perfect for busy families and individuals in need of assistance. Caring Transitions of Treasure Valley serves Boise, Meridian, Eagle, Star, Nampa, Caldwell, Kuna and Emmett in Idaho.

Earning these recognitions  especially the Shining Star Award  is a huge honor. The Caring Transitions franchise system is full of wonderful franchisees doing amazing things. To be recognized among that group is humbling, Albert said. We had set a goal to grow by 30 percent in 2017 and then we had the opportunity to acquire a second territory. It was a chance we couldnt pass up. When you combine that expansion with our focused effort on building referral partnerships, 2017 was an excellent year for us.

Albert said they are keeping up with the growth, but that expanding the team in a community with such a low unemployment rate can be challenging. Theyve promoted two of their staff members into leadership roles with expanded responsibilities to prepare for another strong year. He also said the recognitions are direct representations of the work of their staff, many of whom have been with the business before they opened.

We have been blessed with our core staff. I honestly dont know how weve gotten so lucky to have these great, compassionate people at our side as we grow the business through serving people facing a challenging time in their lives. They are the best thing about Caring Transitions of Treasure Valley and I cant thank them enough, Albert said.

Caring Transitions services are perfect for seniors moving in with family or into a safer living situation as well as busy families and people clearing out the home of a loved one who has passed. All of Caring Transitions services are customizable, so clients only pay for the services they need  whether that means managing the entire move and estate-clearing or just getting someone resettled into their new place.

Caring Transitions of Treasure Valley is bonded and insured and all W2 employees have been background-checked. For additional information about Caring Transitions of Treasure Valley, call (208)254-7629, email ADickson(at)CaringTransitions(dot)com or JDickson(at)CaringTransitions(dot)com, or visit http://www.CaringTransitionsTVID.com.Motivated by the precautionary principle to avoid dangerous anthropogenic climate change, attempts to modify the climate through reducing CO2 emissions may turn out to be futile Past News Releases RSS

As Edmonton, Alberta prepares for the IPCC Cities and Climate Change Science conference, Mar. 5-7, 2018, Friends of Science Society announces a new billboard campaign, using themes from previous campaigns that stirred significant controversy, as reported in SLATE, June 12, 2014.

Friends of Science says the billboards are meant to stimulate open, civil debate on climate change and the cost-benefits of various programs.

One billboard quotes atmospheric scientist Dr. Judith Currys statement that CO2 is not the control knob that can fine tune climate which was part of her January 16, 2014, US Senate testimony, commenting on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) AR5 report and Obamas Climate Action Plan. She noted at the time that the latest report weakened the case for human causation of global warming. Natural factors like cycles of the sun and oceans had been underestimated. She said that Motivated by the precautionary principle to avoid dangerous anthropogenic climate change, attempts to modify the climate through reducing CO2 emissions may turn out to be futile.

Global atmospheric temperatures as measured by satellites have increased by less than half of that projected by computer simulations (known as climate models) since 1978, proving that the models are faulty and over estimate how much CO2 emissions affect temperature.

A second billboard addresses the question of whether it is the sun or carbon dioxide (CO2) that drives climate change, asking viewers to consider that question. As reported by James Delingpole of Breitbart on Oct. 24, 2017, more than 400 academic papers now say anthropogenic global warming is a myth or exaggerated and of those, 106 say that the sun is the main driver of climate change.

As reported on the blog No Tricks Zone on Jan. 04, 2018, there were 485 scientific papers published in all of 2017 that support the skeptical position on climate. On Feb. 26, 2018, the No Tricks Zone blog reported that there were another 97 scientific paper published so far in 2018 that support the skeptical position on climate.

The third billboard message states: Science is about inquiry, not compliance. Friends of Science hope to remind the public that Freedom of Speech is paramount in society and more so in science. As shown in their new bilingual plain language website, ClimateChange101.ca, Rational Dissent - It's Your Right.

Friends of Science says humans do affect climate and the environment  mostly in regional and urban patterns  however, adaptation and mitigation of impact are more effective places to invest money  decarbonization is wasteful and not supported by the current scientific evidence that the sun and natural cycles of the ocean drive climate change.

About

Friends of Science Society is an independent group of earth, atmospheric and solar scientists, engineers, and citizens who are celebrating its 16th year of offering climate science insights. After a thorough review of a broad spectrum of literature on climate change, Friends of Science Society has concluded that the sun is the main driver of climate change, not carbon dioxide (CO2).

Friends of Science Society

P.O. Box 23167, Mission P.O.

Calgary, Alberta

Canada T2S 3B1

Toll-free Telephone: 1-888-789-9597

Web: friendsofscience.org

E-mail: contact(at)friendsofscience(dot)org

Web: climatechange101.caGate Labs, the San Francisco, CA based manufacturers of the worlds first, all-in-one, camera equipped smart lock announced today that it has closed a $5m Series-B round of equity financing led by Cota Capital based San Francisco.

Gate Labs, the San Francisco, CA based manufacturers of the worlds first, all-in-one, camera equipped smart lock announced today that it has closed a $5m Series-B round of equity financing led by Cota Capital based San Francisco. In conjunction with the capital investment, the company has appointed Engle Saez as its new CEO.

Mr. Saez has been chief operating officer at Gate Labs since November 2016. He succeeds Gate founder, Ehsan Saeedi, who will assume the new position of chief product officer.

We are delighted by the very meaningful milestones the Gate team has achieved under the direction of its founder, Ehsan Saeedi, said Bobby Yazdani, founder and managing partner of Cota Capital. We are equally excited to have Engle lead the organization as the CEO and look forward to accelerating the business and scaling the enterprise under his leadership, added Mr. Yazdani.

Before joining Gate Labs, Mr. Saez was President and Chief Digital officer of Ashford.com, a New York City based retailer of luxury watches and accessories. Prior to that Mr. Saez held executive leadership roles with some of the worlds most respected brands, including president of Sperry Top-Sider, SVP of marketing at Starbucks Coffee Company, CMO at Blue Nile and CMO at Eddie Bauer.

I look forward to continuing my work alongside this exceptionally qualified group of entrepreneurs and engineers said Saez. Together, we are expanding Gates unique trusted access platform to millions of homes and commercial properties across the globe said Saez.

About Gate Labs, Inc.

Gate Labs, based in San Francisco, California, is the brainchild of founder and chief product officer, Ehsan Saeedi and his co-founders Harvey Ho and Danial Ehyaei. Gate founders traveled frequently for work and lived busy lives. Regular, they missed delivery of important packages or returned home to spoiled groceries left unattended at the front door. They often dealt with the inconvenience of managing access to their home by trusted individuals, such as the dog walker or the cleaning service while they were away.

In 2014, with advanced academic degrees and experience in engineering and business, and recent stints at Google and Qualcomm, Gate founders applied their combined knowledge and expertise to create the Worlds first, all-in-one camera equipped smart lock. The GATE smart lock is the only device currently available enables users to stream live video and audio of all activity outside the home as well as inside the home. GATE is designed to fit any door that uses a standard deadbolt and can be installed in minutes with just two screws, no additional tools or accessories required. The device connects directly to the homes Wi-Fi network and can send live video to mobile devices over Wi-Fi and 4G networks.

For more information please visit Introducing Gate!With a full-month to search out and discover history, FCVB is adding a Spring Into History Scavenger Hunt as a fun way to encourage visitors and residents to explore Franklin County history.

Franklin County Visitors Bureau (FCVB) sets April 2018 as Spring Into History Month, expanding the day-long ramble into a month-long opportunity to take in Native American artifacts, frontier forts, stops on the Underground Railroad, and sites of Civil War invasions. It also offers a chance to explore genealogy and the Franklin County Military Trail of History. With 70 Pennsylvania designated history sites and nationally designated historic districts in the downtowns of Chambersburg, Greencastle and Mercersburg, Franklin County has plenty of history to fill the month.

For Spring Into History Month, Franklin County history partners are planning:



April 6-8, and April 20-22  The Old Jail in Chambersburg is hosting an escape room in the 1880 cell block.

April 7, 10 AM  4 PM  Monterey Pass Battlefield Museum Opening Day in Waynesboro

April 12, 7 PM  Gloria Swift, retired curator of the Fords Theater Museum, presents Secrets Revealed! Museum Objects Tell All! at Allison Antrim Museum in Greencastle

April 14, 4 PM  9 PM  Opening Day at Renfrew Museum in Waynesboro

April 14, 9 AM  2 PM  Preserving Our Heritage Archives & Museum in South Mountain Open House with special discounts on local history books.

April 20 & April 27, 1 PM  3 PM  Intro to Genealogy at the Old Jail in Chambersburg

With a full-month to search out and discover history, FCVB is adding a Spring Into History Scavenger Hunt as a fun way to encourage visitors and residents to explore Franklin County history. Not too difficult, the hunt requires only 20 correct answers from a list of 60 clues to win a Spring Into History keepsake, campfire mug. Also new is History Rocks, #historyrocksfcvb. Local libraries of Franklin County will be hosting rock-painting sessions where young and young-at-heart can paint a Franklin County history rock. FCVB will host a rock hiding and finding event on April 21.

Flat Ben, Franklin Countys version of Flat Stanley, is returning to ExploreFranklinCountyPA.com for 2018. Download him, color him, and photograph him at favorite Franklin County sites. Share his pix with #FlatBen.

The Franklin County Visitors Bureau invites all to explore Franklin County PA and enjoy the trails of history, art, recreation, natural beauty, and fresh foods. Experience the warm hospitality of communities like Chambersburg, Greencastle, Mercersburg, Shippensburg, and Waynesboro. Franklin County PA is located just north of the Mason Dixon Line and is an easy drive to Washington DC, Philadelphia, and Pittsburgh. Discover more. Plan a visit soon at ExploreFranklinCountyPA.com or by contacting 866.646.8060.Mark Steinbeck, President, TRAXXALL

TRAXXALL Technologies, providers of a highly innovative aircraft maintenance tracking and inventory management system, today announced a partnership with Airbus Helicopters, the worlds leading helicopter manufacturer.

All new Airbus Helicopters delivered in the US and Canada will include the TRAXXALL aircraft maintenance tracking and inventory management system for one year. Additionally, TRAXXALL and Airbus Helicopters will offer a special promotion for in-service helicopters.

The partnership will also provide customers with an end-to-end digital experience for their operations. They will benefit from a seamless data exchange between Fleet Keeper, Airbus Helicopters electronic technical logbook, and TRAXXALLs maintenance tracking system.

We are pleased to announce a partnership with TRAXXALL, says Thierry Meouchi, Head of Connected Services, North America at Airbus Helicopters. The TRAXXALL team has developed an excellent maintenance tracking and inventory management system. We are confident that our decision to include TRAXXALL with all new deliveries in the US and Canada will be greatly beneficial to our clients.

We are very proud to announce a partnership with Airbus Helicopters, continues Mark Steinbeck, President, TRAXXALL. The selection of TRAXXALL by an industry leader like Airbus Helicopters shows the confidence that operators can place in TRAXXALLs system and support. Weve assembled a unique team of aviation professionals and we look forward to serving Airbus Helicopters clients.

About Airbus

Airbus is a global leader in aeronautics, space and related services. In 2017 it generated revenues of  67 billion and employed a workforce of around 129,000. Airbus offers the most comprehensive range of passenger airliners from 100 to more than 600 seats. Airbus is also a European leader providing tanker, combat, transport and mission aircraft, as well as one of the worlds leading space companies. In helicopters, Airbus provides the most efficient civil and military rotorcraft solutions worldwide.

About TRAXXALL Technologies

TRAXXALL delivers the most innovative aircraft maintenance tracking and inventory management system on the market today. Founded by established maintenance tracking experts, TRAXXALL is headquartered in Montreal, Canada, with offices in Jacksonville, FL; Wichita, KS and London, UK. For more information, please visit http://www.traxxall.com.

Note to Editors: TRAXXALL is exhibiting at HAI Heli-Expo, Feb. 27  Mar. 1, Las Vegas Convention Center, booth 4917. To schedule an interview, please contact Mark Lowe, PRagmatic Communications: mark(dot)lowe(at)pragcom(dot)com / (514) 499-9632 / (514) 576-2519.Jan Jiracek performs on a Bosendorfer 280VC to an enthralled audience at Classic Pianos of Bellevue, Washington. "This tour was easily the most successful Bosendorfer promotion that we have ever done in the United States since Yamaha acquired Bosendorfer in 2008," said Dan Rodowicz, national sales manager of the Institutional Solutions Group, Keyboard Division, Yamaha Corporation of America.

Nearly 800 piano music lovers vicariously spent a "Night in Vienna" when International concert pianist Jan Jiracek von Arnim toured this month on behalf of Bosendorfer, one of the world's finest piano manufacturers.

The award-winning virtuoso brought the music of his beloved Vienna to appreciative audiences gathered at several Bosendorfer dealers, including Classic Pianos in Bellevue, Washington and Portland, Oregon; Music Exchange in Sacramento, Greene Music in San Jose and San Diego; Fort Bend Music Center in Houston, and Metroplex Piano in Dallas, Texas. In addition, Keyboard Concepts supported a Master Class at The Colburn School in Los Angeles, California.

Hailed by BBC Magazine for his "formidable technique and playing of emotional depth," Mr. Jiracek played a program of short pieces, followed by stories about his life performing on the concert stage, teaching at the prestigious piano department at the Vienna School of Music and serving as Artistic Director of the International Beethoven Piano Competition Vienna.

"This tour was easily the most successful Bosendorfer promotion that we have ever done in the United States since Yamaha acquired Bosendorfer in 2008," said Dan Rodowicz, national sales manager of the Institutional Solutions Group, Keyboard Division, Yamaha Corporation of America. "It was so popular that we are planning another tour this September at Bosendorfer dealers in the Midwest and on the East Coast."

"'Night in Vienna' shines a spotlight on the profound connection between Bosendorfer and Vienna," said Darren Speir, president of Metroplex Piano. "This type of event tells the legendary story of a truly one-of-a-kind piano brand."

Mr. Jiracek was pleased to share his love for Vienna with audiences here in the United States. "When it comes to classical music, there is simply no other city quite like Vienna," he said. "To me, it seems like it is alive with the sound of music. And there are references to the great classical composers at almost every corner, which I find extremely inspiring."

His instrument of choice for his performances was the legendary Bosendorfer grand piano. "I am impressed by the new Bosendorfer pianos. Each instrument carries in itself the memory of a wonderful Viennese music tradition and is particularly responsive to my ideas as an artist."

For more information about Jan Jiracek von Arnim, please visit https://www.jjpianist.com/#vita; for information on Bosendorfer pianos, please visit https://www.boesendorfer.com/en-us

-END-

About Bosendorfer

Bosendorfer was founded in 1828 and has been the instrument of choice for many of the world's most famous artists and composers. This limited production, handcrafted instrument remains one of the most sought-after instruments for musicians, institutions and piano enthusiasts worldwide.

Contact:

Peter Giles/Giles Communications

(914) 798-7120 (pgiles(at)giles.com)Hackers are using malware to breach cardholder data at unprecedented levels globally. P2PEs immediate encryption is the primary defense for merchants against this growing threat, said Ruston Miles, Chief Strategy Officer, Bluefin.

Bluefin Payment Systems, the leader in payment security, today announced the issuance of their second patent by the Japanese Patent Office on Systems and Methods for Decryption as a Service.

The patent covers aspects of Bluefins PCI-validated Point-to-Point Encryption (P2PE) solutions, including Decryptx, the companys Decryption as a Service (DaaS) product for enabling their PCI-validated P2PE solution through processors, payment gateways, and software platforms. Decryptx enables any PCI/DSS provider to enhance their platform and offer Bluefins PCI-validated P2PE solution via a simple integration. Keyed, swiped, and EMV data from point of sale (POS) systems is protected via PCI-validated controls and encryption.

The issued patent will cover Bluefins innovation in Japan, which relates to Bluefins Decryptx P2PE architecture as well as payment device and chain-of-custody management. In order to serve gateways, processors, and other large clients, Bluefin developed a high-speed and resilient decryption architecture. Specifically, the patent covers the systems and methods for parsing data from devices, device authentication and validation, key management, and decryption in a hardware security module (HSM). The patent further relates to a point to point encryption management system configured to receive information from a plurality of point of interaction devices (payment terminals).

Hackers are using malware to breach cardholder data at unprecedented levels globally. P2PEs immediate encryption is the primary defense for merchants against this growing threat, said Ruston Miles, Chief Strategy Officer, Bluefin.

Bluefins patented P2PE platform empowers payment gateways and software vendors to integrate this important security protection into their own systems quickly. To date, 65 payment gateways and software vendors have integrated our PCI P2PE solution across Europe, Canada, Latin America & Caribbean, and the United States. With the announcement of the Japanese patents, Bluefin P2PE is now available to Japanese businesses, he added.

Bluefin was awarded its first U.S. patent in June 2016 on Systems and Methods for Creating Fingerprints of Encryption Devices and its second U.S. patent in October 2016 on Systems and Methods for Decryption as a Service. The company has since received another 4 U.S. patents including Systems and Methods for decryption as a service via a message queuing protocol, Systems and Methods for decryption as a service via a configuration of read-only databases, Systems and Methods for decryption as a service via a hardware security module, and Systems and Methods for decryption as a service via a message queuing protocol (continuation). In December 2017, Bluefin received its first Japanese patent on Systems and Methods for Creating Fingerprints of Encryption Devices.

Bluefins patent portfolio covers both Decryptx and the companys P2PE Manager. Currently, Bluefin has over 65 processors, payment gateways and software platforms in the U.S., Europe and Latin America utilizing Decryptx to provide PCI-validated P2PE directly to their client base.

About Bluefin Payment Systems

Bluefin Payment Systems is the leader in payment security. The company specializes in PCI-validated Point-to-Point Encryption (P2PE) integrated and stand-alone solutions for retail, mobile, call center and kiosk/unattended environments, and secure Ecommerce technologies including transparent redirect, payment iFrame and tokenization. Bluefin is a Participating Organization (PO) of the PCI Security Standards Council (SSC) and is headquartered in Atlanta, with offices in New York, Chicago, Tulsa and Waterford, Ireland. For more information, please visit https://www.bluefin.com/.FirstService Residential, North Americas premier property management company, has announced that registration is open for its 2018 LEADS Conference (Learn. Evolve. Achieve. Discover. Succeed.).

The free, one-day event will take place March 16th at The Diplomat Beach Resort in Hollywood, Florida. Attendees will have access to more than 25 courses led by industry experts addressing the latest trends and topics impacting community associations today, including:



Disaster Planning: Before, During & After the Storm, led by featured sponsor Paul Davis Restoration

Active Shooter Scenarios: Prevention and Response

Electronic Voting: Vote for Change!

Service Animal Policies: More Bark than Bite?

Expert panel discussions including Legislative Update: What You Need to Know and The Future of Real Estate Development in Florida.

Some of the educational components will also fulfill state requirements for association board members and allow community association managers (CAMs) to complete professional development requirements with continuing education units (CEUs).

FirstService Residential is proud to deliver a program that will equip our clients with the best training and information to help them effectively manage the day-to-day operations of their communities, said David Diestel, regional president, South. This year promises to be the best event yet, with invaluable education and engagement opportunities, and new activities for conference attendees.

In addition to the days curriculum and networking opportunities, the conference will highlight the companys industry-leading technology, include an interactive spa experience to spotlight wellness components for communities, and feature the latest products and services offered by more than 200 companies serving community associations.

This event is possible due to the involvement of our generous sponsors:

Learn Sponsor: Paul Davis Restoration

Evolve Sponsors: Advanced Fire & Security, CertaPro Painters, Comcast, and Doctor Aromas

Achieve Sponsors: Becker & Poliakoff, Cintas, Epic Forensics & Engineering, HD Supply, HUB International, Park One Florida, Platinum Group Security, Pro-Max Restoration & Paint Corp., Quamec Corp., Shades By Design, Siegfried, Rivera, Hyman, Lerner, De La Torre, Mars & Sobel, PA, Stairs Gates Railings, Staples, and Waste Management

Deliver Sponsors: ADS Technology, Allied Universal Security Services, Capital Contractor Services, Elite Casual Furniture, Global Pro Recovery, National Water Restoration, Opticaltel, Pistorino & Alan Consulting Engineers, Inc., Sherwin Williams, Showtime, The Trash Chute Company, Uniflex, Union Bank HOA Services, and Vasile Elevator

To register or learn more about the 2018 LEADS Conference, visit leadsfsresidential.com

About FirstService Residential

FirstService Residential is North America's largest manager of residential communities and the preferred partner of HOAs, community associations and strata corporations in the U.S. and Canada. FirstService Residential's managed communities include low-, mid- and high-rise condominiums and cooperatives, single-family homes, master-planned, lifestyle and active adult communities, and rental and commercial properties.

With an unmatched combination of deep industry experience, local market expertise and personalized attention, FirstService Residential delivers proven solutions and exceptional service that add value, enhance lifestyles and make a difference, every day, for every resident and community it manages. FirstService Residential is a subsidiary of FirstService Corporation, a North American leader in the property services sector. For more information, visit http://www.fsresidential.comGlobal law firm Greenberg Traurig, LLP elevated to shareholder Cyril T. Brennan in the International Trade Practice and Emily G. Naughton in the Corporate Practice; the firm elevated Theresa A. Queen to of counsel in the Litigation Practice. Brennan resides in the firms Washington, D.C. office, while Naughton and Queen reside in the firms Northern Virginia office.

Firmwide, Greenberg Traurig announced the elevation of 42 attorneys to shareholder from 21 of the firms offices and 14 practice areas, with female attorneys making up 50 percent of the new shareholder class. The firm also announced global revenues for FY2017 of $1,477,180,000, an increase of 7.28 percent over the prior year. This is the fourth consecutive year of record-setting revenues for the firm.

Through their professionalism, hard work, and commitment to client service, Cy Brennan, Emily Naughton, and Teri Queen truly embody Greenberg Traurigs values, Washington, D.C. Co-Managing Shareholders Laura Metcoff Klaus and Robert Mangas said in a joint statement.

We are incredibly proud of these young leaders, as their elevations are a testament to their commitment to their clients and their craft, Northern Virginia Co-Managing Shareholders Laura Foote Reiff and Michael R. Sklaire said in a joint statement. We congratulate them and wish them much success in their new roles.

Brennan focuses his practice on international trade regulation and compliance, with an emphasis on U.S. export controls and economic sanctions. He handles matters regarding the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR), the Export Administration Regulations (EAR), and U.S. sanctions programs administered by the Treasury Departments Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) and the Department of Commerces anti-boycott regulations. In addition, he represents clients before the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), and advises clients on the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), the foreign direct investment reporting requirements of the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA), and other trade and investment-related regulations in the context of mergers and acquisitions.

Naughton focuses her practice on transactions in the telecommunications, media, and technology space, with an emphasis on cloud computing. She has represented clients in connection with real estate acquisitions, development projects and leases, mergers and acquisitions involving cloud service providers, and telecommunications network infrastructure deals. Naughton has represented some of the worlds largest content providers globally in connection with network procurement and colocation and data center leases involving providers ranging from multinational companies to single facility operators. She has experience representing property owners in the acquisition, financing, and development of real estate; landlords and tenants in a variety of short- and long-term leases and subleases; and developers on complex land use and permitting matters. Naughton has also represented contractors and subcontractors in the negotiation of construction contracts and disputes.

Queen focuses her practice on complex litigation matters. She is experienced in dealing with government contracting disputes, business litigation, employment, appellate advocacy, mass tort, and product liability claims. Queen is also experienced in dealing with class action litigation for Fortune 100 and 500 companies as well as litigating complex toxic tort and environmental cases. Within the area of toxic tort, she has managed cases throughout the United States alleging personal injury due to chemical exposure. The medical allegations in these cases have included cancer, neurological injury, birth defects, and fear of future injury. She works with experts in a broad range of relevant scientific and medical disciplines and has interviewed and deposed scientific and medical experts and other witnesses and litigated complex causation issues. She has also defended PhDs facing allegations of scientific misconduct in areas including stem cell research and bioluminescent imaging.

About Greenberg Traurigs Washington, D.C. office

Greenberg Traurigs Washington, D.C. office is home to a multidisciplinary team of lawyers and governmental affairs professionals with strategic experience helping companies of all sizes to navigate the federal government. The offices work encompasses governmental affairs, federal procurement, global trade and investment, health and FDA business, litigation, government contracts, antitrust, insurance recovery and advisory, energy, telecommunications, real estate, intellectual property, representation of foreign governments, and national defense and homeland security. Greenberg Traurigs clients range from the federal defense sector to energy, telecommunications, and health care companies, which the firm represents before government agencies, regulatory bodies, Congress, and the courts. The firms Washington, D.C. attorneys are also involved in handling a wide range of regulatory, corporate, and finance work for clients in these industries.

About Greenberg Traurigs Northern Virginia Office

Greenberg Traurigs clients rely on the more than 40 attorneys in the firms Northern Virginia office for multifaceted, broad-based legal services. Team members primary goal is to assist clients in addressing their legal needs, locally, regionally, or on a global scale. They work collaboratively with colleagues around the region, or across to Europe, the UK, Latin America, Asia, and the Middle East. And when a matter requires it, they do not hesitate to utilize the firms full slate of cross border resources. Clients come to the Northern Virginia office for their corporate and securities matters, real estate transactions, wealth management and tax planning, business immigration compliance, labor and employment issues, litigation cases, and government contract needs, among others. These include the top decision makers at tech companies headquartered in the region, as well as government contractors, health care organizations, high net worth individuals, and developers. Most of the firms Northern Virginia attorneys are admitted to practice in Virginia, Maryland, and the District of Columbia.

About Greenberg Traurig, LLP

Greenberg Traurig, LLP (GT) has more than 2,000 attorneys in 38 offices in the United States, Latin America, Europe, Asia and the Middle East. GT has been recognized for its philanthropic giving, was named the largest firm in the U.S. by Law360 in 2017, and is among the Top 20 on the 2017 Am Law Global 100. Web: http://www.gtlaw.com Twitter: @GT_Law.We are inspired by the legacy of the Rib King Randy Goss, and his dream to have a food-secure San Antonio. The County Line Music series provides meals throughout the summer, the time when people are most at risk for hunger, says Eric Cooper, President and CEO, San Antonio Food Bank.

The Ancira Chrysler Jeep Dodge Ram 2018 Live Music Series at The County Line that benefits the San Antonio Food Bank is back for its 18th year on Thursday nights. This very popular live music series will run from March 1 through July 26, 2018 at The County Line Bar-B-Q restaurant at 10101 IH-10 West (between the Wurzbach and Huebner Road exits, near the Colonnade). Concerts begin at 7:30 and run until 9 p.m.

A food booth will be available on the patio during concerts. Happy hour will run inside and outside of the restaurant, from 3 to 7 p.m. on concert days.

As always, this live music series is no cost. However, all who attend are asked to make a food or monetary donation to the San Antonio Food Bank. In 2015, the County Line was recognized by the San Antonio Food Bank for raising enough food to feed over 1 million people since the inception of the music series in 2001. In 2017 alone, it brought in a record breaking number of donations: $7,822.32 in cash and 2,386 lbs. of food, which equals 80,609 lbs. of food to feed the hungry in San Antonio area.

No cost parking is available at Hallmark College, less than one block away on IH-10 access road. Concerts are held rain or shine.

At the concerts, guests can enter a drawing for a trip for two to The Music Fest at Steamboat Springs, Colorado in January 2019; the drawing for that prize will be held during the last concert on July 26. Midway through the series, Rebecca Creek Radio will also give away a guitar signed by artists at The Music Fest at Steamboat Springs, held January, 2018.

Here are the performers for the 2018 series, as of February 23, 2018:



March 1 Mario Flores, Gabe Garcia and Clay Hollis

March 8 The Statesboro Revue

March 15 Chris Salinas

March 22 The Drugstore Gypsies

March 29 Jerrett Zoch and the OSR Band

April 5 Zac Wilkerson

April 12 TBD

April 19 Smoke Wagon

April 26 Small Town Habit

May 3 Matt & the Herdsmen

May 10 TBD

May 17 Gary Kyle

May 24 Curtis Grimes

May 31 Jamie Richards

June 7 Jake Worthington

June 14 Mario Flores & The Soda Creek Band

June 21 Clay Hollis

June 28 East Texas Ramblers

July 5 GRIT (Girls Raised in Texas) with Adrian Johnston, Bri Bagwell and Sarah Hobbs

July 12 Gabe Garcia

July 19 Jake Ward

July 26 TBD

We are so inspired by the legacy of the Rib King Randy Goss, and his dream to have a food-secure San Antonio. The County Line Music series helps provide meals for kids and seniors throughout the summer, the time when they are most at risk for hunger, says Eric Cooper, President and CEO, San Antonio Food Bank.

Sponsors of the series include Ancira Chrysler Jeep Dodge Ram; Rebecca Creek Radio; Rebecca Creek/Enchanted Rock; Comfort Air/Primo Plumbing; Stolen Smoked Rum; Hallmark University; Red Bull; Ozarka; and Pure Party Ice.

"Besides feeding millions of people, with the promise to do more going forward, County Line has a deep history of community philanthropy," says Mike Crenwelge, General Manager of the IH-10 County Line location since 1980. "Even before we started this incredible donation campaign with the San Antonio Food Bank, we have been active donors to the Food Bank's Second Servings program from the 1980s to this day. When we started the music series, we made a commitment to hold a no cost, family event that would benefit the Food Bank. Although the music series has evolved in many ways since we started it 17 years ago, we have always stayed true to our mission, and intend to keep it that way."

The County Line Live Music Series has featured some of the very best Texas and national country musicians such as Blake Shelton, Bart Crow Band, Kyle Park, Gary P. Nunn, Cory Morrow, Stoney LaRue, Randy Rogers, Jason Boland, Roger Creager, Wade Bowen, Pat Green, Aaron Watson, Radney Foster, Kevin Fowler, Bleu Edmondson and many more.

The County Line continually updates the concert line-up on its website at http://countyline.com/I10Music_shedule_sponsors.html. Follow the County Line on IH-10 on Facebook at facebook.com/CountyLineI10 for updates, and all of the restaurants events, Happy Hours and specials. Call 210-641-1998 for more information.

NOTE: Photos, advance interviews, etc. are available from Jeanne Albrecht at

(210) 392-9047 or jca(at)jeannebiz(dot)com.The work done to be nationally accredited is difficult, but worth it. We are a stronger health department and are confident that we are engaged in work that is making a difference in Eau Claire.

The Public Health Accreditation Board (PHAB) today announced it has awarded national accreditation status to nine governmental public health departments. Through the efforts of the national accrediting program, a total of 220 governmental public health departments plus one statewide public health department system have successfully placed their work for peer review against national standards, bringing new levels of transparency, credibility, and recognition to their mission to improve the health of the communities they serve.

PHAB, the non-profit, non-governmental organization that administers the national public health accreditation program, aims to improve and protect the health of the public by advancing and ultimately transforming the quality and performance of the nations state, Tribal, local, and territorial public health departments. Launched in 2011 with support from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, PHABs accreditation program is the national standard for public health in the United States. A hallmark of the national accreditation program is its ability to catapult the nations governmental public health departments toward greater levels of excellence.

This group of newly accredited health departments reflects PHABs mission to bring the benefits of accreditation to communities of all sizes throughout the United States, said PHAB President and CEO Kaye Bender, PhD, RN, FAAN. Several of the health departments accredited this month serve populations in the hundreds of thousands, while four are small health departments that serve fewer than 50,000 people. This range of diversity shows that with the proper planning and support from their community partners, health departments can work to ensure their programs and services are as responsive as possible to the needs of their communities.

To receive accreditation through the program, a health department must undergo a rigorous, multi-faceted, peer-reviewed assessment process to ensure it meets or exceeds a set of public health quality standards and measures. Hundreds of health departments are currently preparing to seek national accreditation through the program.

Commenting on the accreditation of Eau Claire City-County Health Department in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, Health Officer and Director Elizabeth Giese, MS, PHRN, said the pursuit of national accreditation has been a journey made possible by the commitment of staff, board of health members, colleagues, and community partners.

To us, national recognition means that we are deliberately focused on using data, listening to the needs of the community, and working with community and partners to make improvements, Giese said. We also are focusing on quality, best practices, efficiency, and outcomes. The work done to be nationally accredited is difficult, but worth it. We are a stronger health department and are confident that we are engaged in work that is making a difference in Eau Claire.

The value of receiving accreditation serves to recognize the professional dedication and quality of services public health staffing delivers to improve community health status, said Ronald Osterholm, health director at Cerro Gordo County Department of Public Health in Mason City, Iowa.

Achieving accreditation through the Public Health Accreditation Board is an honor, and confirms that Cerro Gordo County Department of Public Healths quality of service meets a national set of standards, Osterholm said. Achieving PHAB accreditation verifies the commitment and dedication of the board of supervisors, board of health and health department staff to providing the highest level of public health to our community.

Across the nation, public health departments are on the front lines of protecting and improving the health of people and communities. Health departments provide a range of services aimed at promoting healthy behaviors; preventing diseases and injuries; ensuring access to safe food, water, clean air, and life-saving immunizations; and preparing for and responding to public health emergencies.

National accreditation status was awarded Feb. 20, 2018 to:



Cascade City-County Health Department, Great Falls, Montana

Cerro Gordo County Department of Public Health, Mason City, Iowa

City of St. Louis Department of Health, St. Louis, Missouri

Eau Claire City-County Health Department, Eau Claire, Wisconsin

Florence County Health Department, Florence, Wisconsin

Lincoln Trail District Health Department, Elizabethtown, Kentucky

Logan County Health Department, Guthrie, Oklahoma

Public Health - Dayton & Montgomery County, Dayton, Ohio

West Central District Health Department, North Platte, Nebraska

For more information, contact Teddi Nicolaus at (703) 778-4549 ext. 118, or email tnicolaus(at)phaboard(dot)org. Learn more about PHAB and accreditation at http://www.phaboard.org. To subscribe to PHABs e-newsletter, click here.

About the Public Health Accreditation Board

The Public Health Accreditation Board (PHAB) was created to serve as the national public health accrediting body and is jointly funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The development of national public health accreditation has involved, and is supported by, public health leaders and practitioners from the national, Tribal, state, local, and territorial levels. Learn more about PHAB at http://www.phaboard.org, or click here to sign up for the PHAB e-newsletter.MOAA Military Officers Association of America (MOAA) is the nations largest military officers association with more than 350,000 members from every branch of uniformed service. MOAA is a nonprofit and politically nonpartisan organization

Military Officers Association of America (MOAA) will present its 2018 Distinguished Service Award to Tim Barone, president and CEO of Arizona-based Vantage Mobility International, in recognition of the companys outstanding contributions in support of the military community. The award will be presented at an April event on Capitol Hill; all awardees are expected to attend.

The award recognizes organizations or individuals who are not in Congress but who have greatly aided people who served in the U.S. armed forces. Barone is being recognized for the companys work helping thousands of disabled veterans achieve independence and mobility.

Tim Barone and Vantage Mobility International are helping wounded service members reclaim independence, said MOAA President and CEO retired Air Force Lt. Gen. Dana Atkins. That impacts every aspect of their lives.

The awards ceremony will also recognize Kevin Johnson, president and CEO of Starbucks Coffee Company, for Starbucks continued support in the hiring of veterans and military spouses.

Additionally, MOAA will present its 2018 Arthur T. Marix Congressional Leadership Award to U.S. Reps. Martha McSally (R) and Kyrsten Sinema (D), both of Arizona. Jorge Rueda, formerly with the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee, and Samantha Gonzalez, with the House Veterans Affairs Committee, will receive MOAAs 2018 Colonel Paul W. Arcari Meritorious Service Award.

MOAA has awarded the Marix and Distinguished Service awards since 1997. Past recipients of the Marix Award include Sens. Lindsay Graham, John McCain, and Jim Webb; past recipients of the Distinguished Service Award include Tom Brokaw, Toby Keith, and retired Army Gen. Colin Powell. The Arcari award recognizing congressional staff members was first awarded in 2000. For more information about MOAA, please visit http://www.moaa.org.

About MOAA:

Military Officers Association of America (MOAA) is the nations largest military officers association with more than 350,000 members from every branch of uniformed service, including active duty, retired, National Guard, Reserve, and former officers and their families and survivors. MOAA is a nonprofit and politically nonpartisan organization and an influential force in promoting a strong national defense. MOAA represents the interests of service members and their families in every stage of their lives and careers, and for those who are not eligible to join MOAA, Voices for Americas Troops is a nonprofit MOAA affiliate that supports a strong national defense. For more information, visit http://www.moaa.org or http://www.voicesfortroops.org/.Posted Tuesday, February 27, 2018 7:00 pm

Editors note: The Leader welcomes a new column, Books and Beyond, a monthly feature shared between the Port Townsend Public Library and the Jefferson County Library. The first column is from city library director Melody Sky Eisler. Next months article is to be from Tamara Meredith, director of the county library.

Believe it or not, librarians are passionate. Passionate about books. Passionate about reading. Passionate about sharing books, reading and whatever our libraries are doing within our communities. We dont want to be the best-kept secret in Jefferson County.

Wed much rather do everything we can to tell as many people as possible about our services, collections, special events and weekly programs. And what better way to share than a monthly library column right here in Jefferson Countys official newspaper, The Leader?

Andrew Carnegie, whose philanthropy built hundreds of library buildings across the United States in the early 20th century, including the one in Port Townsend, said, There is not such a cradle of democracy on earth as the Free Public Library.

Public libraries support a communitys cultural, educational and informational needs by bringing people, ideas and information together. We librarians want to encourage a lifelong love of reading. We are cheerleaders for knowledge, learning, creativity and adventure. With the support of the editorial team at The Leader, we now have a monthly venue to do just that.

READING MONTH

March is special in Port Townsend. The city has proclaimed March its official Reading Month  all of it dedicated to reading and building community. The program known as Community Read takes place all month long, with the explicit goal of promoting closer ties among community members through the shared experience of reading and discussing the same book and ideas raised by the book.

The concept began in Seattle in 1998, when former Seattle Public Library luminary Nancy Pearl created If All of Seattle Read the Same Book. Twenty years later, this one city, one book experience thrives in dozens of cities nationwide. It has been going strong in Port Townsend for 13 years.

MY OLD MAN

This years Community Read is My Old Man and the Mountain by Port Townsends own Leif Whittaker. It is an engaging, humorous memoir of what it was like to grow up Whittaker, a unique coming-of-age tale and climbing adventure that begins on the steep slopes of the Olympic Mountains and concludes on Mount Everest.

The book is a delightful mix of the regional and global: Whittaker bedecked in scuba mask and flippers for his Port Townsend High School graduation; Whittaker wearing Eddie Bauer mountaineering gear atop Mount Everest.

Whittaker was thrilled when I told him his book had been selected for this years Community Read. We talked about how exciting it will be for teens growing up in Jefferson County to know they can literally or figuratively climb the highest heights.

I love that high school students will meet him knowing he is an alum. Leif also shared his passion for leaving no child inside. He hopes his book will inspire not only reading, but a lifelong love of the outdoors. He is, after all, living proof that reading gets you to the top the motto on our Community Read button. Imagine our whole community sharing in such experiences, connecting and conversing at planned events centered on the book.

Leifs memoir brings courage, humor, adventure and celebration of some of our hometown heroes to our monthlong reading festivities. I hope you will join us in building community through shared reading.

Melody Sky Eisler is the library director for the Port Townsend Public Library. Her favorite book is A Wrinkle in Time, which she rereads every 10 years. She also loves to hike, make art and travel. Contact her at meisler@cityofpt.us.Posted Tuesday, February 27, 2018 7:00 pm

Note: As of press time, this concert, set for 2 p.m., March 4, has sold out according to Centrum. The next concert in Centrums Chamber Music Series features the Grammy-winning Pacifica Quartet from Indiana. The group is set to perform June 17, and tickets are selling quickly. Call Centrum at 360-385-3102

How often can one use words like finest and excellence in a single preview?

That is the conundrum presented by Sundays A Baroque Feast: Lucinda Carver, Elizabeth Blumenstock & Friends, taking place in the Joseph F. Wheeler Theater at Fort Worden. This second concert in Centrums annual Port Townsend Chamber Music Series unites one of the most lauded baroque violinists in the United States, Elizabeth Blumenstock, with feted harpsichordist and series director Lucinda Carver and some of their superb baroque-specialist friends.

The ensemble performs what Carver described, during a conference call with her, Blumenstock, and Centrum executive director Rob Birman, as five beloved concerti that showcase the glory of the late Baroque.

Thats an apt description for J.S. Bachs Brandenburg Concerto No. 5 and equally beloved Concerto for Two Violins (aka the Double Violin Concerto); Handels Concerto Grosso in A Major, op. 6, no. 11; Vivaldis Concerto for Four Violins in B minor; and, with Blumenstock as sole soloist, Tartinis Concerto for Violin in A Major.

While the concerts Baroque Top 100 offerings are no doubt partly responsible for heavy ticket demand, the excellence of the players is of equal importance.

Blumenstock, who first appeared here in April 2014, frequently serves as concertmaster of the Bay Areas justly famous Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra (PBO), and is also concertmaster of Germanys celebrated Gottingen International Handel Festival. Former concertmaster of the famed baroque opera ensemble Il Complesso Barocco  that gig ended when founder Alan Curtis died  Blumenstock spends 80-90 percent of her life couch surfing around the world as she travels from gig to gig, directs the Baroque Music Festival, Corona del Mar and works with students at five institutions, including Juilliard and the San Francisco Conservatory of Music.

Much has been said of Blumenstocks 1670 Andrea Guarneri violin.

Made by the grandfather of Guarneri del Gesu, whose instruments rival those of Stradivarius in their atmospheric price, it became Blumenstocks in 2007 thanks to anonymous gift that PBO received while Birman served as the orchestras executive director. The exceptionally generous donation, which was also intended to further raise the prestige of the orchestra, was intended for only one violinist: Blumenstock.

I loved the very rich, bright, fairly loud sound of my old violin, which was a baroque copy made in Cremona, she said. The Guarneri, which was the best of the instruments with the finest pedigree I had time to try during the search period and which also maxed out the gift due to its price, has a smaller sound, but its very colorful: incredibly sweet, very clear and rather bright. I really enjoy its wide variety of colors, which my own violin didnt have quite as much of. What it lacks in power it makes up for in tonal qualities and its incredibly quick response and very sweet tone. Its a pleasure to play.

The violin shares the smaller body and high belly of Amati-style violins of the 17th century. Although not fully baroque  it has a more modern neck and bridge  its hybrid style works well with Baroque-era gut strings and a baroque bow.

[In my opinion], the bow makes far more of a difference than the literal violin as to whether a performance sounds baroque or not, said Blumenstock. When you put on gut strings, you change even a modern violins sound somewhat.

Carver and Blumenstock first met in 1981, when they were both playing in the San Luis Obispo Mozart Festival.

Their other friends in the upcoming concert, whom Carver describes as very, very fine and in demand, are Bainbridge Island flutist Janet See, who sometimes plays in PBO; violinist Tekla Cunningham, who is central to Seattles early music scene and also directs a summer music festival on Whidbey Island; cellist Frederic Rosselet, a former student of Carvers at the University of Southern California who now plays in PBO; violinist Sarah Bleile; violist Andrew McIntosh; and bassist Moriah Neils Caruso.

THE NEW IN BAROQUE

Ultimately, however, its how the performances make us feel that makes all the difference.

Excellence and authenticity of performance are what immediately speak to audiences and mean the most, regardless of prior familiarity with the music or musicians, said Birman. Thats what people always find at Centrums chamber music workshop.

Carver stresses that the last 30-40 years have brought about a major transformation in how baroque music is approached and played. A wonderful blending of scholarship and music-making has rendered this music really fresh, new and alive. The sense of speech-like quality and highly inflective style of todays vibrant baroque playing is what differentiates it from the way it used to be played, which often sounded like a sewing machine. Its like hearing baroque music through a new lens.

Thats another way of saying that if you think Neville Marriner and the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields recordings of baroque repetoire are the be-all and end-all, you are likely to be astounded by what you hear on Sunday  if you get tickets fast.Posted Tuesday, February 27, 2018 7:00 pm

A national debate is set to make itself felt in one school in East Jefferson County, as Chimacum High School students plan to take part in a nationwide school walkout March 14.

As of Tuesday, administrators at Port Townsend High School said they had not heard whether their students were to be involved in the nationwide school walkout.

The walkout is to begin at 10 a.m., Wednesday, March 14 to honor the 17 people who died as a result of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in Parkland, Florida, Feb. 14.

Chimacum High School (CHS) students plan to walk out that day.

CHS junior Aurora Plunkett, one of four students organizing the walkout at her school, explained that their goal is not only to honor the 17 who died in the Stoneman Douglas High School shooting, but also to spread awareness in the local community about what we can do to make our schools more safe.

Plunkett elaborated that the overall movement has been organized by the National Womens March, but clarified that the event in Chimacum is not a march, but a walkout.

At 10 a.m., we will quietly remove ourselves from our classrooms, and stand outside of our high school doors, Plunkett said. The first 18 minutes will be silent, to honor those who died in the recent Florida shooting, then until 10:30 a.m., it will become a non-silent protest, because we believe we should be heard.

Plunkett reported that she expects the protest to include speakers, and participants are invited to bring signs.

This is not just a high school issue, Plunkett said. We want to see all of our schools safe. Many teachers have voiced the wish that they could do more, but they still support us. Adults are invited to come and learn more about what we want. Most of the students at Chimacum High School are participating.

ADVANCE NOTICE

Plunkett and her fellow student organizers have coordinated the event with CHSs principal, Brian MacKenzie.

I thanked them for the advance notice, as it allows us to plan appropriate supervision to keep everyone safe, MacKenzie said. While, as a public school, we cannot endorse the political content of any particular demonstration, we do encourage students to exercise free speech constructively, to articulate well-reasoned positions on civic issues. For this reason  and in gratitude for the advance notice  we will not enforce disciplinary consequences for this particular walkout, assuming it is orderly, appropriate and hews to the times indicated.

IN QUILCENE

Quilcene School Principal Sean Moss told The Leader that hes heard very little about a walkout by his own students, but hes nonetheless fully aware of what has been going on elsewhere and has met with his staff about this issue.

If a walkout were to occur, our top priority would be to ensure that students act in a safe and respectful manner, Moss said. We also look at walkouts through the lens of education, as a way to continue the conversation about civic responsibilities and stress the importance of taking part in constructive dialogue.

AT PTHS

Alex Heilig, dean of students for PTHS, said school staff had reached out to members of student government about what plans they may have for a walkout.

We have not heard back from them, Heilig said Monday. We are in talks with our students about what may happen  I know students are interested, he said.

 Reporter Chris Tucker contributed to this story.Posted Tuesday, February 27, 2018 7:00 pm

Members of the Smart Meter Objectors Group (SMOG) have taken Jefferson County Public Utility District (PUD) officials to task for email correspondence that members suggest indicates a decision to use smart meters over analog ones has not been impartial. The group obtained the correspondence through public records requests.

Gail Lucas and Annette Huenke tag-teamed at a Feb. 20 PUD meeting, each reading what they saw as relevant excerpts of emails between PUD staff members, including Kevin Streett, assistant general manager, smart-meter manufacturer Itron and other agencies.

Streett did not respond to SMOGs allegations during the meeting. After the meeting, Streett said that former general manager Jim Parker was already working on a project to replace all the electric meters with Itron meters before Streett was hired in November 2012. He also said he had recommended not switching to smart meters in 2013, because there was too much on the PUDs plate at that point, with the PUD taking over the East Jefferson County holdings of Puget Sound Energy.

Lucas and Huenke had attended the PUDs Oct. 30, 2017 meeting with the public at the Chimacum Fire Hall. They said they were so disappointed with the responses they received from PUD officials that they filed public records requests for the PUDs emails related to smart meters.

These records unfortunately illustrate an unvarnished attempt on the part of PUD staff to further their smart meter project, not only with Itron, but also with two consulting companies, EES and FCS, Lucas said.

EES Consulting has worked for the PUD on a number of projects, including a rate study. FCS Group is a utility-consulting company based in Redmond.

DRIVING THIS TRAIN

PUD officials did not correct Lucas or Huenkes statements about the emails they found, which the two read aloud at the Feb. 20 meeting.

Lucas quoted an email sent Oct. 31, 2017 at 6:09 p.m. in which Streett wrote to a representative of Itron that the meeting last night went very bad for our project. We need to regroup this morning.

Streett received a response at 6:32 a.m.: I am available after 8am.

At 11:37 a.m. that same day, according to the emails Lucas and Huenke obtained from the PUD, the Itron contact wrote to Streett, re: AMI meeting: update  I found an internal Itron resource to work on a business case for us. Target getting this to you before 11/7 board meeting  to include list of intangible benefits.

On Nov. 1 at 8:24 a.m., after PUD staff forwarded Itron The Leaders article about the PUDs Oct. 30 meeting with the public, the Itron contact highlighted the one supportive public comment mentioned in the article, writing, I like this quote, good [theme] to couple with the business case analysis and other benefits we are working on for board consideration.

Lucas said her conclusion, based on those emails, is that Itron was clearly driving this train.

A GOOD DECISION

Huenke went on to quote an email that Streett sent to EES Consulting Dec. 14, following a Dec. 12 PUD board meeting, which included the line I also have a question if you could help us with a justification of our AMI project, can we talk about this?

Gail Tabone of EES Consulting replied to Streett, I can certainly help.... Im around all day if you want to talk and supplied a phone number.

Huenke claimed that the one-page document attached to that email had been prepped by Itron as a business case analysis and titled by PUD staff as AMI Summary: A good decision.

Huenkes final quoted email was sent by Streett at 7:40 a.m. on Nov. 6 to Dana Smith, product manager of residential metering and software for Itron. In the email, he referred to his first day of work for the PUD:

First day, talked about replacing all our [Landis] and Gyr meters with Itrons.

Her reply, three minutes later: I DO LIKE THAT!!

THUMB ON THE SCALE

Huenke contrasted these emails with comments made by Streett, PUD secretary Kenneth Collins and PUD president Jeff Randall during the Dec. 12, 2017 PUD meeting.

Huenke quoted Collins as saying, My feeling is, we would be well-served to hire a consultant who specializes in this sort of analysis ... who can give us complete figures ... and a comparison upon which we can make an informed decision ... a consultant who has experience in this area, who can do the kind of objective and credible analysis we can use.

At the Dec. 12 meeting, Streett said, We could bring a consultant in. It wouldnt be very expensive. Randall replied, If we could truly get an independent source thats working for us, and would offer us the best business case and assessment of the technology thats out there ... of what the problems have been with other utilities, I think that would be helpful for everybody.

ITRON WATER METERS

After the Feb. 20 meeting, Streett responded by email to Leader questions about his experience with Itron, and noted that the PUD was working on meter replacement before he arrived.

Streett said his first day of work for the PUD was Nov. 2, 2012. At that point, Parker, then PUD general manager, was working on a project to replace all the electric meters with Itron meters.

He had chosen Itron meters because the water department uses Itron meters, Streett wrote. In his proposal, the water meter reader would read all meters, both water and electric. The reason that Jim was working on this project was because he had to make a decision in regards to the meter reading contract with [Landis and Gyr]. At that time, we were spending $500,000 a year for them to read the meters.

Streett said Parkers proposal included the pricing of meters from the same supplier as the water meters, General Pacific, also known as Itron.

He had a quote from a contractor to supply the labor to replace the meters, Streett wrote. He talked to the electrical union about the water department reading the meters, and talked to Springbrook, our billing software at the time, to see how the process worked for a meter change-out program. This was all done before Jim talked to me about the project. He also had financial justifications, based on the age of our meters, and known accuracy problems with older analog meters.

Streett wrote that, after Parker spoke to him about the project, I reached out to people I know in the industry.

After a couple of weeks, Jim and I met to talk about the project, Streett wrote. At that time, I advised against the PUD moving forward with the meter change-out program. Even though it needed to be done, it was too big a task for us to take on at that moment, given everything else we had on our plate. I believe Jim had come to the same conclusion, but Im not sure.

Prior to coming to the Jefferson County PUD, Streett described himself as very active in the utility industry, participating in a number of groups, conferences and trade organizations through which he met and befriended many people whom I still call on today for help. I do not have all the answers, but I know people who do, and Im not afraid to call and ask for help from the experts.

_____________

Status of AMI meters

The Jefferson County Public Utility District began the bidding process last year to replace analog electrical meters with AMI  advanced metering infrastructure  meters. They also are referred to as smart meters.

Commissioners initially picked Itron, a company based in Liberty Lake, Washington, to provide the meters. Itron was one of nine companies that submitted information to the PUD; Itron was the lowest bidder.

A number of PUD customers have voiced concerns about the safety of smart meters as well as other issues, including long-term cost.

The project was been put on hold, as was a decision on a policy allowing people to opt out of using smart meters, until the PUD could hire a new general manager.

PUD commissioners set a May 1 target date for staff to present findings of how other utilities have handled moving from an analog to a smart-meter technology.Posted Tuesday, February 27, 2018 7:00 pm

For Todd Morrison and his fellow emergency responders, it was a horror show in slow motion.

News broke Jan. 23 that an earthquake, initially reported as a magnitude 8.0, had struck 175 miles southeast of Kodiak Island in the Gulf of Alaska at a depth of 6 miles at 12:31 a.m. local time. The report prompted a tsunami warning that forced people to flee to higher ground in the middle of the night.

More importantly for Morrison and other emergency personnel in East Jefferson County, the National Tsunami Warning Center predicted that the first wave could reach our shores before 6 a.m. Pacific Standard Time.

We were hearing that Port Angeles could see the effects as early as 5:30 a.m., with Port Townsend to follow around 5:55 a.m., said Morrison of the Jefferson County Department of Emergency Management (DEM). We had no idea how big this could be.

IMMEDIATE ALERT

City and county public works personnel were alerted immediately, and the county DEM was on the phone with the emergency management departments for Clallam County and the state. Those departments were communicating with the National Tsunami Warning Center, but the centers website was yielding little information.

The site was dragging, Morrison said. It was taking forever to load. I was at home at 2 a.m., getting calls and trying to get the information people needed. It was concerning.

When the initial wave hit land on Kodiak, it was less than a foot high, but Morrison was mindful of warnings that deep-water waves could prove more powerful when they came ashore.

And still, we needed more information, said Morrison, who noted that the DEM had expanded its communication efforts to cover not only Clallam County, but Grays Harbor as well, as Lynn Sterbenz, DEM director, worked the phones.

We were getting ready to bring our teams in. Frankly, it was more than a little frustrating.

In the end, what had been a tsunami advisory for the coastal regions of Washington, Oregon and California, including the Puget Sound region, was downgraded to a tsunami watch, and then called off altogether.

LESSONS LEARNED

It was canceled for us around 4:30 a.m., Morrison said. You learn something from every event, but this one was disappointing, in that we were sending messages for more than two hours. We didnt want to start a general panic at 3 a.m., but one of our emergency volunteers was at the homeless shelter, and he knew that even a small wave would inundate it.

Although the federal government happened to be shut down during the earthquake and its aftermath, Morrison doubts this was the cause, and suspects that the Tsunami Warning Center was simply flooded with requests for information.

Morrison assured the public that the DEM has already developed closer contacts with the Tsunami Warning Center as a result of this incident. He also directed area residents to an evacuation brochure developed by the state and to be updated this year with even more recent data. The brochure is currently posted online at

dnr.wa.gov/Publications/ger_tsunami_evac_port_townsend.pdf

Morrison also sent The Leader a walking evacuation map, jointly developed by the Department of Natural Resources and the state Department of Emergency Management, to provide information on where and how to evacuate areas that may be inundated by a large-scale Cascadia event, measuring 9.0 on the Richter scale.

TSUNAMI WARNINGS

Please be clear, this is for a worst-case scenario, Morrison said.

Morrison also supplied a link to the revised Think, Plan, Do booklet the county has created to help people prepare for specific emergencies, at

www.co.jefferson.wa.us/DocumentCenter/View/3277

Morrison explained that tsunami warning levels come in three tiers, as follows:

 A tsunami watch is issued when a tsunami may later impact the watch area. Emergency management officials and the public should prepare to take action.

 The next level, a tsunami advisory, is more urgent. Its issued when a tsunami  with the potential to generate strong currents or waves dangerous to those in or very near the water  is imminent, expected or occurring. Significant inundation is not expected for areas under an advisory. Appropriate actions to be taken by local officials may include closing beaches, evacuating harbors and marinas, and repositioning ships to deep waters.

 The most urgent level, a tsunami warning, is issued when a tsunami with the potential to generate widespread inundation is imminent, expected or occurring. Dangerous coastal flooding, accompanied by powerful currents, is possible. Appropriate actions to be taken by local officials may include evacuating low-lying coastal areas and repositioning ships to deep waters.

Because of our location, we encourage everyone to prepare their households to be self-sufficient for 30 days, Morrison said. Access to this area may be affected dramatically in many ways, reducing the availability of supplies and services.

Think, plan, do

To download a copy of a Think, Plan, Do booklet for Jefferson County and specific emergencies, go online to

www.co.jefferson.wa.us/DocumentCenter/View/3277

or jeffcoeoc.orgPosted Tuesday, February 27, 2018 7:00 pm

The Jefferson County Public Utility District (PUD) took one of the final steps in replacing former general manager Jim Parker Feb. 23, when two of three of the PUD commissioners voted to offer the position to Larry Dunbar.

Dunbar had served as energy services director for the City of Ellensburg since 2012. Prior to Ellensburg, Dunbar was deputy director of power resources in Port Angeles for 12 years.

Jeff Randall, PUD board president, explained that Wayne King, board vice president, had been waylaid by the flu and thus was unable to attend not only that mornings public meeting, but also the previous evenings executive session, Feb. 22.

Kenneth Collins, PUD board secretary, moved that the PUD should enter into negotiations with Dunbar, citing his 34 years of progressively more responsible experience in the fields of electrical, water, sewer, stormwater and telecommunications, which, Collins asserted, demonstrates Dunbars long-term strategic thinking.

A proposed salary for Dunbar, 57, who currently lives in Sequim, was not available. Parker was making $140,000 a year after working 24 years with the PUD. Parker signed a separation agreement last September.

DIVERSITY OF OPINIONS

Collins cited the diversity of opinions in Jefferson County on smart meters and other issues, and touted what he sees as Dunbars skills in working with different groups and communities, as well as what Collins deemed very solid internal management skills.

Hes soft-spoken, Collins said of Dunbar. He listens well. He thinks before he speaks. Hes not inclined to escalate conflicts or be rattled easily.

Collins not only praised the interpersonal skills he saw in Dunbar during his candidate interviews, but also cited the aspects of Dunbars resume that he feels make for a good fit with the Jefferson County PUD.

He likes smaller organizations, Collins said of Dunbar. Hes worked in the area before. He has family in the area. Hed like to get back to this area, and his desire to take this position stems from viewing it as a challenge, rather than a way to add a layer to his pension.

Collins was also impressed that Dunbar showed he had done his homework on the Jefferson County PUD.

Dunbar did research on the PUDs numbers of employees and customers, as well as the numbers of miles between those customers, and told Collins that Jefferson County was understaffed for a PUD of comparable size.

Randall praised Dunbar not only for being able to recite relatively obscure statistics off the top of his head, but also for being able to make his technical details decipherable.

Its very easy to throw terms out there and not make yourself clear, said Randall, who appreciated Dunbars deliberate and patient explanations. He showed his depth of knowledge across an array of issues.

Randall added that Dunbars entire career has been spent in Washington state, and anticipated that, as general manager, Dunbar would not merely direct the operations of the PUD, but would take an active hand in them.

NARROWED FROM 18

PUD advisory panel member Phil Otness complimented both of the two finalists, who were among an original pool of 30 applicants. That group of applicants was winnowed down to 18 by the selection committee, with only five interviewed Jan. 22-23.

While Otness views both finalists, who were interviewed again Feb. 22, as well qualified for the position, he pointed out that Dunbar had called for the Jefferson County PUD to consider future plans that might not rely so heavily on the Bonneville Power Administration.

Fellow advisory panel member Tom Engel agreed with Otness and Collins that Dunbars long-range approach should serve the PUD well, and echoed Collins assessment of Dunbars conflict-resolution skills, predicting, If things get hot, hell know to go slow.

A third panel member, George Yount, cited his own experience as a former manager and environmental mediator to compliment what he saw in Dunbar, but also in Scott Fry, managing director of the recruiting firm Mycoff, Fry & Prouse.

Yount lauded Fry for doing an excellent job of discerning which candidates experiences and skill sets were best suited to the Jefferson County PUD, and characterized Dunbar as someone with a knack for resolving complex issues and an eagerness to take on rabbit holes.

Fry reciprocated, praising the PUDs selection process as a successful team effort, and commending acting general manager Kevin Streett for his work in the interim, a sentiment echoed by the PUD commissioners and advisory panel members.

Dan Toepper of Port Ludlow, one of the members of the public in attendance, asked how many years the PUD could expect from Dunbar, given that hes already worked for 34 years.

While Collins declined to make a firm prediction, he anticipates that the PUD could get another 10 years out of him.

I think hes got a lot of vitality, Randall said. Hes in his prime, and he clearly values this place.

Yount drew laughter from the crowd when he quipped, Well get more years from him than from our meters.Here was Jared Kushner's Tuesday afternoon: He saw his security clearance get downgraded after months of pressure for the White House to pull his access to top-secret intelligence. He appeared to violate the campaign law known as the Hatch Act. He watched his right-hand man and press aide Josh Raffel announce his departure from the White House.

Here was his evening: The Washington Post reported foreign governments from at least four countries  the United Arab Emirates, China, Israel, and Mexico  privately discussed ways they could manipulate Kushner, a senior White House adviser and Trump's son-in-law, through his business arrangements.

Breaking the law?

Just after 11 a.m. on the East Coast, the Trump campaign sent an announcement about Brad Parscale taking the reins as Trump's 2020 campaign manager. Kushner, who was integral to Trump's 2016 campaign and worked closely with Parscale, was quoted as a "senior adviser and assistant to the president" discussing how crucial Parscale was to Trump's initial campaign.

It didn't take long for some campaign experts to notice that, by using his official White House title in the release, Kushner likely was in violation of the Hatch Act  a law that bars government employees from using their titles in political efforts. It's a law that has repeatedly tripped up Trump officials.

Kushner's title was quickly removed from the copy of the release posted to Trump's campaign website.

"This appears to be a clear violation of the Hatch Act," Jordan Libowitz, a spokesman for the watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, told Business Insider in an email. "White House officials are prohibited from using their official title for campaign purposes. Our lawyers are currently exploring potential legal action."

Just before 7 p.m., CREW filed a formal Hatch Act complaint.

"The rules are clear that government officials arent allowed to use their positions for campaign activity," CREW Executive Director Noah Bookbinder said in a statement. "He may have a close relationship with the president, but the rules still apply to Jared Kushner."

Soon after the Trump campaign promoted Kushner's comment, news broke of Raffel's imminent departure. Raffel worked very closely with Kushner and Ivanka Trump and was known as a top crisis manager for the administration. A White House official told Axios that "we call Josh" when there's a crisis, adding that "he is always handling the worst stories."

And it wasn't long after that word spread that Kushner's security clearance was downgraded and some of the worst stories emerged.

Kushner's downgrade from "top-secret" to "secret" means he is no longer privy to items like the President's Daily Brief, the top-secret intelligence report.

White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders insisted that Kushner, "a valued member of the team," will "continue to do the important work that hes been doing since he started in the administration."

Kushner holds a vast portfolio in the White House, including crafting White House policy related to China, Mexico, and Canada, as well as working on Middle East peace and US innovation. Some of those countries have discussed ways to manipulate him, focusing on his complex business arrangements and lack of foreign-policy experience, according to an Washington Post story that was published later Tuesday.

"What this means: Kushner will lose access to nearly all NSA reporting (i.e., intercepted communications, among other elements)," tweeted Ned Price, a national security spokesperson for former President Barack Obama. "Whether or not he could've been successful before, he no longer can be an effective Middle East mediator."

CNN reported that Kushner "steadfastly believes" White House chief of staff John Kelly "is using this as an opportunity to take out his frustration on him."Bello Mallam, 18 and Shehu Buda, 20 were arrested in Talba Estate, Bida after they reportedly robbed one Mohammed Mohammed of the sum of N7,400 and two handsets valued at N9,000.

They further inflicted severe machete wounds on him for attempting to prevent them from raping his daughter.

After their arrest, the two young men are reported to have bravely and unrepentantly told the police that the economic hardship in the country, coupled with the wanton embezzlement of state resources by politicians left them with no option, but to rob people.

Amazingly, they told the police bluntly that as soon as they are freed from their custody, they will quickly resume the robbery.

One of the suspects, Shehu Buda said: Many people are stealing in the country, including top government officials. People are dying of hunger and there is no job.

What else do you expect me to do other than stealing? If am discharged by the police, I will still go back to rob people. The country is in a bad situation.Information reaching Pulse.com.gh indicates that a Lebanese businessman has been shot dead by armed robbers during an attack Wednesday morning.

According to an eyewitness, the Lebanese man was shot dead shortly after he went to withdraw cash from Zenith Bank at the Tema Industrial Area.

The robbers shot and killed the forty nine year old man.

READ MORE: 10 armed men rob Royal Motors in broad day light

On Tuesday, armed robbers stormed Royal Motors, an automobile company in Accra, and made away with the company's sales in a stunning daylight robbery.

The suspected armed robbers who stormed the automobile company and made away with thousands of cedis of the company's sales.

The robbers after the attack snatched a BMW saloon car and drove off.

READ ALSO: Oyibi residents live in fear over 16 robbery attacks in February

Incessant robbery attacksREAD ALSO: Transport fares to go up soon

The statement, signed by Mr George Ofori-Davis, the Deputy General Secretary/Administration, of the GPRTU, reminded the branches that the peddling drugs on commercial vehicles was a clear violation of section 118(1) of the Public Health Act 2012- Act 851.

It went on further to say, "It has come to the attention of the Management of the Food and Drugs Authority (FDA) that some of the Unions vehicles are being used as platforms by drug peddlers to practice their trade".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 police in the area are helpless in dealing with the situation because they do not have the necessary logistics.

According to Daily Graphic, 16 robbery cases have been recorded in the month of February alone.

The Oyibi-Frafraha District Police Command said it does not have a single assault rifle to fight the rising cases of armed robbery attacks.

Police Commander in charge of the District, Supt Susana Adjei Mensah in an interview on Accra-based Citi FM said "we do not even have one vehicle in the district. When I came, there was one spoilt car parked around and when I approached Commissioner Adu Poku of the Adentan station and asked him for a pickup, he said they dont have any vehicle available so I should repair the old one and make do with it. But it broke down again beyond repairs."

She said the situation has made them have to rely on the emergency patrol team to fight crime, if and when it occurs.

"...but that is not helping because when we call them, it takes them a while before they get here.

"We dont have enough bulletproof vests too," she added.

Meanwhile, Member of Parliament for Kpone-Katamanso, Joseph Nii Laryea Afotey Agbo has attributed the growing number of insecurity in his Constituency to inadequate funds released by government to the security personnel.

READ ALSO: Police constable suspected to be armed robber pulls gun on colleague

He blamed the police for not collaborating with his office to curb the rampant robbery in the constituency.Yakubu allegedly defrauded two of his victims, Stephen Osei Jones and Benjamin Kumah, of their monies, with the promise of getting them into the military.

He allegedly took GHc300 and Ghc4,300 cedis from them under the pretext of enlisting them into the Ghana Armed Forces.

However, he was later arrested by WO11 Koffie of the Defence Intelligence and Sgt. Gyan of the Military Police, who handed him over to the Police.

Upon a thorough search, it was later found that the suspect was lodging in a hotel at Evergreen Line at Ahenkofi in Takoradi.In an interview with Accra-based Starr FM, the Accra Regional Police Commander COP Dr George Akuffo Dampare assured the general public that they would make criminals uncomfortable even if it takes their lives.

We would do everything even if it means putting our lives on the line to make these criminals very uncomfortable. If ensuring there is security means we lose our lives as police officers, well allow that to ensure all citizens are safe. We are doing all we can to ensure that the good people of this country have their peace of mind and are safe. As for the robbers, they should watch out. The government has committed 800 million to retool the Police Service and we have no reason not to deliver, well become number one in Africa looking at the governments commitment.

He, however, downplayed claims that the Inspector General of Police is failing at protecting Ghanaians.

The police service is doing so much and the community should support the police administration to achieve more results. It will be very unfair and unfortunate for one to say the IGP is failing. The IGP and his men are working day and night to ensure safety for all. Visibility patrol has increased across the country. We are doing what we have been doing and have added on to ensure the safety of all. Security is a partnership, the security service and the community can help ensure safety in the country.

His comment comes after the daylight robbery at the Royal Motors in Accra Tuesday.

The incident adds to the increasing robberies in Ghana, especially in the Greater Accra region.In a secret audio recording with a known NDC activist based in the USA, (Kweku Skirt), Nana Obiri Boahen was heard bitterly complaining about how the NPP has neglected his needs since assuming power in January 2017.

"As the Deputy General Secretary of the party, NPP has been in power for 11 months, Ive not been given even a car. I swear to God, I swear by other powerful river gods, I use my personal monies to buy fuel into my own car and use it for party work. Recently when I traveled to Spain for an NPP event, the party members there bought my ticket, again when I went to Germany recently, an NPP member bought by ticket once again. I dont have even an office of my own, Ive never been paid a salary ever since I was appointed, thats the reality Im telling you.

"Recently when we were going to Cape Coast, I was given GHC3,000 as a member of the Resolution Committee and GHC2,000 for fuel, menawhile, the Flagstaff House gave to the party an amount of about 50 billion. Party Headquarters we have no car, as Im speaking to you, if you get to Kotoka International Airport and you want us to come and pick you to the Party Headquarters that will not be possible because we dont have a single car. Ive decided to keep quiet and look on.

"No Minister has called me to ask if I have a company so that some contract at the Ministry can be awarded to me. No MCE has ever told me this, No Regional Minister has said this to me. What is going on is grabbinggrabbing. Ive been very active in the NPP since 1992, if my lot didnt improve then, must it remain the same now?

Meanwhile, the party has tasked its Steering Committee to investigate claims by Nana Obiri Boahen.

The NPP, in a statement, said the Gh50 billion claim is a palpable falsehood and has referred the matter to the Steering Committee.

Below is the full statement:

NPP RESPONDS TO LEAKED OBIRI BOAHENS TAPE

The attention of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) has been drawn to a secret recording making rounds on social media involving the deputy general secretary of the party, Nana Obiri Boahen, in which he alleged that the Flagstaff House advanced an amount of GHC 50 billion to the NPP in support of the conduct of the partys 2017 National Annual Delegates Conference held at Cape Coast.

The party wishes to place on record that, no such thing happened and that, the claims are a palpable falsehood.

Indeed, Nana Obiri Boahen himself has subsequently admitted to the falsity of his baseless allegation.

Nonetheless, the party takes serious view of his unfortunate comments and has accordingly tasked the Steering Committee to immediately look into the matter and make appropriate recommendations.

Finally, we wish to assure our members and the Ghanaian people that, the NPP is scrupulously minded of the line that exists between government and the party and would uphold the distinction at all times.Dickson made this claim when he received the report of the Committee on Restructuring and other matters affecting the Ijaw nation in Yenagoa. Dickson urged the federal government to put machinery in motion, before the next general elections in 2019.

With the support of the Peoples Democratic Party and other political parties, the federal government can push through, in the quickest time possible, before the next general election, the necessary bills that can bring about a restructured Nigeria, he said.

Making reference to the report of the Restructuring Committee, Dickson said in spite of the huge oil revenues the country had earned from the Niger Delta, over the years, areas such as Brass, Forcados, Ogulagha, and Bonny, where crude oil terminals are located, remain inaccessible by road.

You said LNG alone has generated over N11 billion in the last 10 years and you are working with their own figures. You said also that from oil revenues from our territory, Nigeria has earned over N96 trillion and you say this country makes over N52 billion daily and yet, in the midst of this sacrifice, even as we speak, there is no road to the terminals from which this money is made. No road to Brass, Forcados, Ogulagha, and Bonny, that is the plight of our people and yet we continue to believe in Nigeria.

For us, as a people, 2019 elections would be a referendum. Its going to be an election that will separate those who are for a restructured and equitable Nigeria and those who are opposed to it. Our people will be mobilized, at all levels, to stand by and support those who want an egalitarian Nigeria."

Your report deals with a very important issue of how our people will survive within the context of a united Nigeria, how we can achieve a stable sustainable, progressive and prosperous Nigeria that is immune from most of the internal problems threatening to tear it apart."Compassion

When you look at the US evangelists life and ministry, his compassion stands out.

This came through when you saw his interactions with others, particularly the less privileged.

This compassion, combined with his love for God, could be said to be the major reason he went around the world doing his best to save lives.

A biographer describes this quality well writing, In a society that has been nurtured on the antics of the anti-hero and rebel, it may be time to hear from a person who offers genuine care and affection.

ALSO READ: Here is how world renowned Billy Graham died

Humility

Before his death, Graham was regarded as a really important figure, not just in the Christian community but all over the world.

Still, he never let this get to his head as he always directed all the praise to his source, God.

Youre not coming to me, youre coming to Jesus, he once said while preaching.

Once faced with high praise from former British prime minister, Sir Winston Churchill, he still redirected it to the proper recipient.

Reportedly, he had read some bible passages while ministering to Churchill, who said, I thank you. You have given an old man a renewal of faith for the future.

I hadnt, but the Bible had, was the evangelist's simple answer.

Integrity

Throughout his life, Graham earned the reputation of a man who didn't just talk the talk but also lived by what he preached.

He managed to remain scandal-free as he simply acted as Gods mouthpiece.

After failing to find any dirt on the evangelist, an investigative reporter once said, He is a man without shadows.

This was confirmed by a theologian. While analyzing a Graham sermon, he said, One thing stood out  the man was genuine. He believed what he said.Even better is the fact that Microsoft has promised to equip Kwadwo with all he needs to be more efficient at his job.

Thisisafrica.me reports that Kwadwo drew a Microsoft Word format on the chalkboard in a bid to make his students understand his computer lessons.

Shortly after the photos of Kadwo working on the Microsoft Word format diagram went viral, Cameroonian entrepreneur, Rebecca Enonchong, tagged Microsoft on Twitter to assist him.

According to the reports, Microsoft has said they will equip Kwadwo with a teaching device.

In a perfect world, a major part of a teacher's task is to make sure the students understand what they are being taught, even more so, in challenging circumstances.

Kwadwo found himself in such a position when he was to teach taught his students Information and communications technology (ICT).

Having no computer to demonstrate the use of Microsoft Word to the students, Kadwo decided to draw it on the blackboard.

The picture of Kwadwo with a Microsoft Word page drawn on the blackboard has since gone viral both on Facebook and Twitter and thankfully so.

On the Post Kadwo shared on Facebook, he wrote: Teaching I.C.T in Ghanas school is very funny. I.C.T on the board paa. I love ma (my) students so have to do what will make them understand what Im teaching.

Rebecca Enonchong had set out to find Kadwo and also sent a message to Microsoft Africa. She reportedly set out to find resources to build a computer lab.

ALSO READ:Nigerian student wins award in London University

Microsoft Africa has now responded, saying: Supporting teachers to enable digital transformation in education is at the core of what we do. We will equip Owura Kwadwo with a device from one of our partners, and access to our MCE program & free professional development resources on education.microsoft.com.

Many are applauding Kwadwo for going the extra mile in making sure that he has an impact on his students.Bolanle Olukanni was born in Nigeria to parents who were diplomats. She attended St. Saviours Primary school in Lagos and went on to Queens College for secondary school. Olukanni moved to Nairobi attended Rosslyn Academy in Nairobi, Kenya for part of her high school.

Prior to her final year of high school, she moved to America to for her senior year and attended Wichita Southeast High School in Wichita, Kansas.

In 2007, Bolanle Olukanni received a Bachelor's degree from Loyola University, Chicago, with a double degree  Bachelors of Arts in both Communications and International Studies.

ALSO READ:Bolanle Olukanni launches fashion based social enterprise

Bolanle began her presenting career with Moment with Mo, now called 'Moments.' She still co-hosts the show alongside Toke Makinwa and Michelle Dede on EbonyLife TV.

Bolanle co-hosts the hit reality music show 'MTN Project Fame West Africa' alongside the handsome Nollywood actor, Joseph Benjamin.According to the reports, the men were caught destroying farmlands at Tse-Tigir and Tse-Ndugh villages on Monday, February 26, 2018.

Instablog reports that 5 motorcycles, 2 machetes, some assorted charms and the sum of N 120,000, were recovered from the suspects.

The suspects and the recovered items have been handed over to the Nigerian Police for necessary action.

The scourge that is Fulani Herdsmen

In the Northern parts of the country, back in the 80s and 90s, the Fulani herdsmen were seen as those docile, meek and mild stick wielding shepherds who went about tending their cattle without looking for anyone's trouble or fomenting any themselves.

But nowadays, any mention of a Fulani herdsman is about illicit fear, terror, and fright. They are now licensed killers who go about wrecking havoc, destruction, and devastation everywhere they go.

Long gone are the sticks and machetes they used in chasing away dangerous animals coming for their cattle. They are now replaced with AK-47 guns, assault rifles, rocket launchers and grenades which they use to sack whole communities, kill and rape women with reckless abandon.

They are no longer the mind-your-business-I -mind-my-business guy who goes about with his flute to entertain himself while his wife milks the cows to take to town to sell Fura da nono.

No one can say exactly when the easy going Fulani herdsman became a killer and bloodthirsty war monger but the transition has taken many by surprise.

From Plateau State to Adamawa, from Benue to Kogi, Kaduna to Bauchi, Delta to Edo, Enugu to Anambra, we wake up every day to hear how Fulani herdsmen wrecked one havoc or the other, killing indigenes with reckless abandon, as if they have a license to kill and maim members of their host communities.

The menace of the Fulani herdsmen has gone for too long without a check from security forces and the government seems not able or willing to check it and nip it in the bud.

In the last two years, they have become more daring with the attacks becoming more fierce and well-coordinated that it seems they have some backing from the security agencies.

It is now a common sight to hear how they stormed a community, attack the people, kill at random, burn down houses and sack the indigenes with none of them being apprehended despite the fact that they keep occurring at an alarming frequency.

Though security agencies and the government has come out to say most of the atrocities carried out are not necessarily done by the herdsmen as most of the attackers are foreigners who sneak into the country, the bottom line still lies in the fact that nothing is being done to put them in check.

In some instances, some of the actions of government make people wonder if they are really ready to take the fight to the so-called aliens.

The state governors are doing practically nothing to provide security for their people as the rampaging herdsmen go about their killing spree, yet they collect billions as security funds every month.In a chat with Punch News, Duru accused partner of selling his child to a person identified as Mrs. Ngozi Egeonu, for a sum of N300,000. The latter who reportedly runs a baby factory rented his wife an apartment in order to have her within reach.

The husband seemed baffled about a situation that saw his wife take-in in quick succession. This ensured that he remained doubtful about the paternity of the anticipated child.

I have been looking for my wife since December. I never knew that she had already sold my baby to a woman for N300,000.

"I also learnt that she is two months pregnant; how can my wife who was delivered of a baby two months ago be pregnant?

I am not the owner of that pregnancy because I did not sleep with her. I have not seen her for the past two months and it is the police that discovered that she went to sell my baby.

"I will leave her if she fails to tell me where the pregnancy came from, says Duru.

Nwolu, who has been accused of adultery however denied engaging in the practice of grooming her babies so that they can be sold for me. The woman attributed her pregnant state to her husband's high libido.

Occasionally, he assaulted her with a cutlass in a bid to initiate sexual intercourse report says. This is after he has taken a high in-take of Indian Hemp.

My husband is the owner of the pregnancy. He impregnated me. After I gave birth to the baby, my husband would smoke Indian hemp and forcefully sleep with me.

It continued to happen like that until I noticed that I was pregnant. Each time I refused to have sex with him, he would use a cutlass to threaten me, the wife alleged to have cheated on husband revealed.

The police in Rivers State is handling the case as a conspiracy which involved an intention to sell a 2-month old baby without the consent of its father, which was only a preamble to the kicker.

It is a fact - a woman can conceive two months after child delivery

Fears raised concerning Rita Nwolu's pregnancy is only a jittery response to having little knowledge about a woman's reproductive system.

Healthline submitted an instance of how possible it is for a mother to conceive a child shortly after delivering new baby.

A conversation between a doctor and a pregnant patient expressed this.

I see here it says you had your first child [pause] nine months ago? asked a doctor.

Yes, thats right. I planned it that way.

"I wanted them to be really close in age, replies patient whose response in a report by Healthline suggests there is a power to control to pregnancy frequency.

"I had my first baby May 2nd and breast feed only. I had my first period since giving birth on July 17.

"It was like my past periods lasting about 3 days medium/heavy flow. About a week before my next period was due I started to have signs of pregnancy - Extreme fatigue, dizziness, headaches, nausea, cravings, got really sick eating peanut butter (same thing with my first pregnancy), sore/tender breasts (which I have not had breastfeeding),etc," writes Angelsrejoice in a discussion published by the Babycenter.Show contestants, Teddy A and BamBam who had sex in a toilet were the subject of the author's submission concerning a depreciation of moral values in Nigeria as depicted in the 2018 edition of BBNaija.

The former aide of President Goodluck Jonathan considered the explicit scenes observed on the show as animal behaviour.

He proposed adopting technology from leading nations as opposed to their lifestyle which seemed to have created an opening for obscenity in Nigeria.

BBNaija fans mock Bobrisky's English speaking skills while insulting Cee-c

Followers of the Big Brother Naija reality show have made a mockery of the English speaking skills of Bobrisky whose voice was heard directing insulting remarks at controversial house contestant Cee-c.

In a video posted via Instagram by the Lazy Writa Blog, the Nigerian Barbie expressed with passion his disapproval of Cee-c who had displayed a trait of pettiness since joining the show.The image was provided in a post shared by Odueko Olumide John who expressed shock concerning the incident.

A grave-looking Owolabi had a look of intent as he tilted his neck sideways as if paying attention to a more serious reality.

"What a wicked world. Luck ran out of another Yahoo big boy named Tunde Owolabi ( aka Money Talks) caught using his elder sister's 7-year-old son for money rituals in Ikoyi, Lagos State," writes John.

It is becoming rampant, occurrences that have seen impatient money lovers use their family members for wealth rituals.

In Nigeria, the situation appears to be money overshadowing the dwindling presence of love.

Yahoo boys who reportedly killed their grandmother for money rituals arrested in Edo State

Two out of a group of four Yahoo boys have been apprehended by the police in Edo State while trying to dispose the body of their grandmother Grace Ovbiedo, who was killed for money rituals.

Their arrest was revealed by DSP Chidi Nwanbuzor, the Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), for Edo State, who mentioned that the force is in pursuit of two other accomplices.

ALSO READ: Lady regrets dating Yahoo boy who eats bread and excreta for money rituals

The quartet, Dickson Oluka, Austin Enayi, Salaya Oluka and his brother Martins, who went on the run following the murder that occurred on Friday, December 12, 2017, received the instruction to murder the deceased after consulting a native doctor on how to become rich.

It was alleged that the group of wealth seekers tied a tortoise on their backs and smashed Ovbiedo's head on the wall.

This was based on a message they received from the priest who told them they can acquire their desire when a person close to them is killed.That's how we have the scoop on everything from how to nail your perfect neutral lip shade to wearing color-correcting makeup or glitter without looking like a hot mess.

And of course, makeup artists know about all the best products to use, including exactly what you should be putting in your cart at Sephora (it's literally their job to know!). So when they have a recommendation, we listen.

Recently, we polled makeup artists about the makeup remover they swear byand were stunned when three of them responded with the exact same recommendation: Bioderma Sensibio H2O Micellar Water ($10, amazon.com).

The cleanser and makeup remover is from a French beauty brand, which just recently became available in the United States. And it's a game-changer for many makeup artists, who are in the business of applying and removing makeup on the daily.

"I live for Bioderma," says Danielle Lewis, professional makeup artist. "It takes everything off in no time. It's clutch on set because it takes my clients from a glam red lip to no makeup with a single swipe."

Leah London, Note Cosmetics lead makeup artist, agrees wholeheartedly. "It is what I like to call 'miracle water,'" she says. "It removes all traces of makeup and it works for all skin tones. Plus, it's gentle and soothing to the skin and doesn't leave the skin red-raw in between makeup looks when you are shooting.

A beauty must have." And makeup artist Romy Soleimani says the Bioderma micellar water is his favorite, since it "removes most non waterproof makeup debris without leaving any film."

Bioderma's version is specifically formulated for sensitive skin. It is oil-free and has no alcohol or parabensjust micelles suspended in water and soothing cucumber extract. Clean your face simply by pouring some on a cotton pad and swiping over your face, lips, and eyelids. No rinse necessary!

Want more wisdom from makeup artist? Here's what one has to say about the right way to wear eye creams:In some parts of the world, becoming a real man is actually very simple. All he needs to do is participate in a certain initiation ritual, even if it means undergoing extreme physical and psychological pain.

Extreme Penis Modification (Australia)

In order for the boys of the Unambal tribe to be called real men, they need to suffer extreme physical pain first. Elder members of the tribe cut the skin of the boys in various areas of their bodies like their buttocks, chest, arms, and shoulders. Before the wounds can heal, they fill them with sand. This is deliberately done so that the wounds would produce decorative scars once they have completely healed.

Just like Filipino boys, young Unambal initiates are also required to undergo circumcision. However, the ritual does not end there. Once the boys develop beards, they are required to undergo subincision, a medical procedure in which the underside of the penis is cut open from the base to the pee hole. The Unambal tribe believes that performing this seemingly torturous ritual will make their penises more attractive and lighter.

ALSO READ: Travel to India to legally marry an animal

Ceremonial Dog Killing (Russia)

Archaeologists have recently discovered that Early Russian tribes required their young men to kill their own dogs. By doing so, these young boys became real menworthy to become members of their tribes roving warriors. Further investigation showed that the dogs that were sacrificed were between the ages of 7 and 12. This finding simply means that the canines were not chosen randomly. Instead, they were the pets of the young boys!

So whats the logic behind this brutal ritual? In order for the young boys to be transformed into brave ruthless warriors, they need to be stripped of their innocence first, and the best way to do that was by murdering someone they loved.

Blood Purification (Papua New Guinea)

The Matausa tribe of Papua New Guinea considers womens blood to be unclean or impure. They strongly believe that in order for their boys to become real men, they need to be purified from the unclean influences given to them by their mothers.

Elders begin the blood purification ritual by sliding two canes into the throats of the young initiates, causing them to vomit blood. Next, the elders insert reeds into their nostrils, causing them to expel both blood and mucus. Ramming the reeds back and forth is believed to cleanse them from the impure influences they might have breathed from the air. Finally, the elders repeatedly stab their tongues using an arrow-like tool, letting out contaminating influences they have received from their mothers. After completing this excruciatingly painful ceremony, the young initiates return to their community as real men.

Blood purification among the Matausas is such an important and secret rite of passage, that not all tribe members have witnessed it. Men who do not participate in this extremely painful ceremony cannot enjoy certain adult privileges like getting married. Also, they are viewed as weak members of the tribe, incapable of fulfilling their masculine roles in the community.

Infliction of Bodily Pain and Poison (Brazil)

The Matis manhood ritual consists of four extremely painful phases. In the first phase, poison is administered into the eyes of the young initiates. The Matis believes that doing so will help enhance the senses and eyesight of their boys. The second and third phases involve infliction of physical pain, as the initiates are whipped and beaten repeatedly.

In the final phase, the boys are injected with a poison called kampo, which is extracted from the monkey frog. Kampo is not hallucinogenic, though it can cause extreme psychological responses. Also, this poison can induce various physical effects such as excessive vomiting, lightheadedness, and uncontrollable bowel movements. The Matis tribe strongly believes that kampo is capable of enhancing the endurance and strength of their young boys, making them real men and adept hunters.

Skin Modification (Papua New Guinea)

The Sepik tribes regard crocodiles as highly sacred creatures. They claim to have spiritual and cultural connections with these reptiles. As such, they greatly encourage their young male population to complete a painful rite of passage designed to transform their bodies into crocodiles.

With the use of a razor, the elder members of the tribes would cut the skins of the young men over and over again. This painful process produces beautiful patterns that highly resemble that of the crocodile skin. To complete the ritual, the elders then place ashes on the cuts. Once the ceremony is finished, the boys are declared real men.

Nowadays, not all male members of the Sepik tribes are participating in this ritual nowadays. This is due to the fact that many members of the tribes are becoming more modernized. Also, this ritual is quite costly, and some parents simply cant afford it.

ALSO READ: A brief walk into the origin and lifestyle of this beautiful people

Group Lion Hunting (Kenya and Northern Tanzania)

In the Maasai tribe, boys are required to hunt lions using only clubs and shields. In the past, boys were required to hunt alone. However, due to the declining population of lions, this tradition has been changed, and its common nowadays for Maasai boys to hunt in groups.

Hunting lions is a very dangerous undertaking, and it is this element of danger that makes this activity a fitting male initiation ritual for the Maasai tribe. When Maasai boys hunt lions, they are demonstrating a kind of behavior that is believed to be possessed only by real menbravery. Its interesting to note that the Maasai tribe does not hunt lions that are injured or weak. Also, they do not target female lions since they are believed to be the givers of life.

Traditional Circumcision During Adolescence (Philippines)

Getting circumcised is a big deal in the Philippines. In fact, a report conducted in 2011 showed that 93% of Filipino men are cut. Whats more interesting is that Filipino boys are not circumcised during babyhood. Instead, they normally undergo circumcision at the age of 12. Filipino boys are only considered real macho men if they are circumcised already. Until then, they are viewed as weak and coward by society and are ridiculed as supot (uncut) by their friends. To stop the embarrassment and bullying, Filipino boys urge their parents to get them circumcised.

There are two ways of getting circumcised in the Philippines: the modern medical way and the traditional way. In traditional circumcision, anesthesia is not used. Instead, boys are given guava leaves. It is generally believed that chewing guava leaves lessens the pain caused by the operation. Instead of a knife, what is used during this painful traditional procedure is a piece of wood called subokan. After the foreskin is cut, the penis is then wrapped with white cloth.

Naked Bull Jumping (Ethiopia)

Once in every generation, the Karo tribe performs an initiation ritual that requires its male population to jump over a number of bulls, naked.

Sounds easy and fun right? Well, not really. This seemingly festive ceremony has a horrible implication. Even if a man is already full grown, he is still considered a boy if he has not performed the bull-jumping ceremony. Being a boy in the Karo tribe means two things. First, boys cannot marry. Second, they need to kill their children.

Karo babies who have been born before their fathers have participated in the initiation ritual are considered illegitimate and, according to Karo laws, illegitimate children are not allowed to live. This tradition of killing illegitimate babies is called Mingi. Mothers fill the mouths of their babies with soil and leave them in the wilderness to die. Only until their husbands have performed the bull-jumping ritual can Karo mothers let their innocent babies live.

Erasing of Childhood Memories (Canada)

The Algonquin tribe consider childhood a mere obstacle to becoming a real man. As such, they conduct initiation rituals on their young boys designed to completely erase their childhood memories. For 14 to 21 days, young members of the tribe are kept in special cages where they are forced to eat nothing but wysoccan, a very powerful hallucinogen. It does not only cause memory loss but can also induce other serious side effects such as loss of speech, palpitations, extreme delusions, aggression, loss of movement, weakness, and even death.The bill which was unanimously passedby both chambers of the National Assembly sought to give legal backing to the body which currently exist in Nigeria as a non-governmental organisation.

President Buhari refused to sign this bill into law.

His decision was conveyed in a letter to Speaker Yakubu Dogara.

lists three reasons why President Buhari refused to append his signature to the Peace Corps bill.

1. Paucity of funds

There is no doubt that the Nigerian economy has not been the way it used to.

Our mono-economic base  oil dependency  has not helped matters.

This is made worse by the drop in the price of crude oil in the international market.

The country recently exited recession. A situation, the Buhari administration daily (oh well) blames on the corruption during the sixteen-year rule of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

Establishing any agency at this time would mean payment of salaries, provision of office spaces, and so on all by the federal government. These funds are not readily available. Hence Buharis decision to decline assent to the bill.

2. Duplication of duties

Opponents to the establishment of the Peace have said that youth organization if approved would only lead to duplication of duties already been carried out by existing security outfits like the Police and Civil Defense.

They have also argued that instead of establishing another security outfit, the federal government should fund the already existing bodies in order for them perform their duties more effectively.

3. Security concerns

A major concern of some Nigerians has been the military kind of training members of the Peace Corps are meant to undertake.

Senator Godswill Akpabioraised the issue when he described the organization as operating like the infamous Ponzi scheme, MMM.

"Honestly speaking my submission will be to support the earlier speakers, it is better for us to tread on the part of caution, when you talk about para-military organisation, we may be adding to insecurity in the nation vetting and other things have to be done before we start putting uniform on people and giving ranks, Akpabio began.

Some of them are field marshals and they have not gone to any war, many of them are lieutenant-generals, I have seen some saluting as brigadier-generals, I have seen them in public occasions where the youths use their clothes to clean the seats for the commandant-general.

If an individual want to empower youths he can do that with through a foundation. He does not need a law from the national assembly. I would suggest that the appropriate thing to do is to step it down. Controversies are too many. Remember when we started with the civil defence, they were not meant to carry arms but many years later they started carrying arms.

If you know the number of armed robbers and criminals they bring out of police college in Ikeja after discovering that and they are going there just to legitimise their trade by becoming policemen. Many of them have been sacked from training. So where we are now is that when we bring another corps with uniform, we are going to legitimise illegitimacy.

'It is also almost like our government to make a law on MMM where youths have been taken advantage of and people have lost money, millions of naira and then someone brings a law to legitimise MMM which we know is a fraud. This thing is 419. Any individual that wishes to know the truth, any individual that wishes to empower the youth can go ahead through a foundation. We cannot make a law for an individual to collect millions of naira. We cannot afford to pass this bill now. I'm sure at the appropriate time we can still discuss it," the lawmaker added

Buharis decision shows conspiracy against Nigerian youths

But the national commandant of the Peace Corps of Nigeria, Dickson Akoh has described President Buharis decision as a conspiracy against the youths.The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Gov. Seriake Dickson disclosed this through his deputy, retired Rear Admiral Gborigbiogha John-Jonah.

He spoke on Wednesday in Yenagoa during the monthly transparency briefing to outline the expenditure of government during the month.

He, however, promised to sustain the school feeding programme in the state to encourage the citizens and Nigerians living in the state to acquire qualitative education.

According to him, the state spent over N2 billion on January salaries, while the increase for February will help in educational sector.

He said that the state government invested huge funds to remodel and provide adequate facilities for intensive learning for Bayelsa children and other Nigerians living in the state.

In the month of January, the state received N2.9 billion as its statutory allocation; N9.6 billion, over N730 million from VAT; N8.9 million from Forex, and N57.5 million from the refund from other states which amount to the sum of N14, 289,476,335,70 for the month, he highlighted.In withholding his assent, Buhari said the proposed Peace Corps will undertake activities currently being performed by extant security and law enforcement agencies.

In simple language, the president was saying the job of the Peace Corps is already being carried out by other law enforcement agencies. Why duplicate?

Who needs more armed men making life even more difficult for everyone and arresting the people they should be protecting? Who needs a bunch of irate officers in starched security outfits playing god all over the place?

Buhari also cited paucity of funds for rejecting the bill.

The financial implications of funding the establishment and operations of the proposed Nigerian Peace Corps, given the scarce financial resources, may pose serious challenge to the government, the president said.

In typical fashion, lawmakers are fighting back. They are planning to override the presidents veto and go ahead with their Peace Corps.

If the president doesnt assent for whatever reason to the Peace Corps Bill, we are at liberty to recall it back to parliament and muster the two-thirds in the House and Senate and pass it in spite of Mr. Presidents veto,Speaker Yakubu Dogara thundered.

Overriding vetoes

Actually, Section 58(5) of the 1999 constitution as amended, empowers the national assembly to override the presidents veto on bills.

Section 58 (5) reads thus: Where the president withholds his assent and the bill is again passed by two-thirds majority of each House, the bill shall become law and the assent of the president shall not be required.

Order 12(b)(c) of the standing rules of the House of Representatives (2016), also provides that the rejected bill could be reconsidered by the House (through a motion) and if supported by two-thirds of Reps, the bill is proclaimed law without the assent of the president.

Creating jobs

Hon Yusuf Ayinla who represents Mushin II constituency of Lagos doesnt understand why Buhari isnt sold on a bill that will help fulfill his promise to provide jobs for young Nigerians.

That bill will help the president himself for lifting zero employment to a better place, Ayinla says.

If the reasons given by Mr. President are not germane,Hon Nicholas Ossai told Daily Post, I will personally lead a lobbying process to make sure the House vetoes him.

Duplication

The problem with the Peace Corps outfit is that it will duplicate the functions of other security outfits in the country, like the president rightly noted.

The Peace Corps will be funded from the federal budget. Its money we can ill afford at this time.

The Peace Corps was probably floated by lawmakers who want to provide jobs for the boys. It is a self-serving piece of legislation--a political gimmick if you would--which was rightly trashed by Buhari.

Our problem isnt a lack of law enforcement personnel. Our problem is more to do with reforming corrupt, rudderless and overzealous law enforcement institutions.

If and when the lawmakers decide to override the presidents veto, Buhari should starve the outfit of funds while we all watch it die a natural death.

Former Director General in the presidency, Dr Joe Abah, puts it better than most: If NASS (National Assembly) goes ahead to pass the Peace Corps Bill despite presidential veto, the Budget Office of the Federation must ensure that they are not included in the federal budget proposals. Again, the constitution gives NASS the powers to insert anything they like in the budget. So.

If NASS goes ahead to enact the Peace Corp Bill and itself provides for it in the budget, the president should use his powers under section 171 of the Constitution and not appoint anyone into the Corps. With no appointments and no approved recruitment, it can never take off.Abubakar, in a statement by his Media Office in Abuja on Wednesday, also condemned similar crisis in Kaduna and other places that led to avoidable loss of lives.

He expressed deep embarrassed and utter shock of the continuing cycle of violence, revenge and counter-revenge by ethnic warriors and militias in the country that had led to needless waste of precious human lives.

He noted that the reckless disregard for the sanctity of life was not only disturbing, but showed the failure of local leaders to manage differences and grievances.

The former vice president said that bloodshed could never be the solution to grievances.

Our common humanity is greater than our ethnic and religious differences.

He added that the frequent resort to violence was inconsistent with the teachings of citizens religions about the sanctity of life.

Abubakar stressed that no society could achieve peace and happiness when love was replaced with violent, destructive hate and bigotry.

He called for a cool headed approach to conflict resolutions instead of incitements to violence by ethnic and religious leaders.

He also called for increased vigilance and prompt response to early signs of developing violence or conflicts in order to nip such crises in the bud.

While praising the efforts of security personnel and their sacrifices, Abubakar called for improved strategies and the use of human intelligence to foil mass murderers before they strike.The Lagos State Government had brought a fresh five-count charge bordering on conspiracy to kidnap, kidnapping and attempted murder against Evans and three others.

Evans is charged alongside Joseph Emeka, Ugochukwu Nwachukwu and Victor Aduba.

In the second charge, Evans is being tried alongside Joseph Emeka, Linus Okpara and Victor Aduba.

At the resumed hearing of the case on Wednesday, Counsel to the first defendant, Mr Olukoya Ogungbeje informed the court that he had filed a motion on notice to quash all the charge filed against the first defendant (Evans).

In the motion on notice, Ogungbeje said that all the charges and the proof of evidence before the court did not establish any prima facie case against the first defendant.

He also said that all the charges were grossly defective, incompetent and constituted an abuse of court processes.

He stated that the prosecution had earlier filed similar charges and amended charges bordering on kidnapping against the same first defendant pending before the same High Court of Lagos State.

He averred that the two separate charges were brought in bad faith to harass, oppress, hound, frustrate, vex and intimidate the first defendant.

It will be in the interest of justice if all the two separate charges are quashed and the defendant is accordingly discharged.

Ogungbeje, however urged the court to adopt the facts as stated in the affidavit in support of the motion on notice.

In her response to the motion, the State Director for Public Prosecutions (DPP), Ms Titilayo Shitta-Bey, said there was sufficient proof and evidence linking the first defendant to the offences brought before the court.

She,therefore, urged the court to dismiss the application.

Shitta-Bey said that the first defendant was charged with the offence of conspiracy to commit kidnapping and kidnapping of one Uche Okereafor.

She also said that other charges filed against the first defendant before other judges involved different defendants, different offences and different victims.

This particular charge is premised on Evans involvement in the kidnapping of Okereafor and collecting ransom in the sum of two million dollars from his family.

The DPP urged the court to expunge the submission of the first defendant as it constituted opinions, conclusions and argument contrary to Section 115 of the Evidence Act.

Meanwhile, the second defendant, Joseph Emeka has urged the court in a motion on notice to quash the two-count charge preferred against him.

He said the proof of evidence did not disclose any prima facie case against him.

However, the counsel to the fourth defendant Emmanuel Ochai, aligned himself with the submission and arguments of the first and second defendantss counsel.

Justice Adedayo Akintoye, after listening to all the arguments, adjourned the case until March 22 for ruling.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN ) reports that the alleged kidnap kingpin was arrested on June 10, 2017 and was in August 2017 arraigned before Justice Hakeem Oshodi at an Ikeja High Court for kidnapping.Falana said this at side-line of the NLC at 40 in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja.

According to him, it is time for the NLC to get involved in the politics and democracy because it is the only union that can fight for the interest of Nigerian workers.

 The NLC can no longer limit itself to the defence of wages alone, it has to get involved in the issue of politics as it did in the past and intervene politically

He said that NLC and it alias were the only organisations that work in the interest of the common people; no political party appeared to represent the interest of the Nigeria people.

 The union has over the years fought for the interest of the masses much more than the members of the ruling class of various fractions which sold our common patrimonies.

 The only time you see the ruling class defending the masses is when there was going to be an election and after they won election it is now preservation of the status quo and of imperialism.

According to Falana, the kind of coalition that the former president Obasanjo was advocating for cannot emerged from the dominate political party.

The NLC has always been the voice of the people and the voice must come back and take its rightful place.

 NLC must recall the role it played in the time past to fight the colonial regime, NLC must recall that it was the labour movement that fought the military and chased them out of power.

NLC must also know that it is the only organisation that can defend the people and bring about their freedom.

 I can assure you that the labour movement that will emerge from here will be a new labour movement and not a dumping ground for the ruling class party.The meeting took place at the Transcorp Hilton Hotel in Abuja.

Here's all the president said during the conference:

1. Let me begin by welcoming you to Abuja on behalf of the people and Government of Nigeria and to also thank you for honouring the invitation of the organizers to this important conference on the Lake Chad which was jointly planned by the Federal Government of Nigeria, Lake Chad Basin Commission (LCBC), and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).

2. The same welcome to our Distinguished Guests, Speakers and Delegates who have come from different parts of the world. Nigeria is indeed honoured to host you at this historic event.

3. The Lake Chad is very dear to our heartas it is a source of livelihood to over 45 million people living in the Basin.

This Lake, which is one of the oldest Lakes in Africa, is shared by Cameroon, the Central African Republic, Chad, Niger and Nigeria. The people living in the Basin depend on the Lake Chad for Agriculture, Fisheries and Livestock for their economic well-being.

4. The Lake Chad region was formerly an oasis in the desert, a hub of economic activities and food security. The farmers, fishermen, herdsmen and traders were happy because business was booming. The happiness and contentment contributed to the stability of the sub-region.

Boko Haram connection

5. Unfortunately, today that is all history. The oasis in the desert is just a desert now, due to the drying up of the Lake Chad. This has resulted in dire consequences for our people as follows:

a. United Nations (UN) Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reports that Food security has deteriorated, with more than 7 million people in the sub-region facing the threat of famine and half a million children suffering from severe malnutrition;

b. Fish varieties are long gone leaving the fishermen jobless;

c. Farmers and herdsmen struggle over the little water left;

d. Herdsmen migrate in search of greener pastures resulting in conflicts;

e. Our youths are joining terrorist groups because of lack of jobs and difficult economic conditions. This has resulted in serious instability in the sub-region.

The negative effects of the shrinkage of Lake Chad are indeed enormous.

6. Let me take a moment to thank my esteemed colleagues  Presidents and Heads of Government of the LCBC for the measures so far taken to tackle the shrinkage of the Lake.

7. We are also implementing all LCBC programmes aimed at safeguarding the ecosystem of the Basin and the development of our people.

Likewise, the Government of Nigeria has initiated several measures to cushion the plight of the people living on Nigerias side of the Basin. Notably among these include:

a. the Presidential Initiative on the North East (PINE);

b. North East Recovery and Peace Building Assessment in Collaboration with World Bank, EU, and UN; and

c. the North East Development Commission (NEDC) recently established by law.

Restoration

8. Unfortunately, the major challenges facing the Lake Chad region still remain unresolved. Our desire as a nation to restore the sub-region to its former glory is very real as evident in my numerous appeals to the international community for support towards the Lakes revival.

9. One of such appeals was made during my meeting with the Director-General of UNESCO  Ms. Irina Bokova on August 11, 2016.

During that meeting, I requested for a partnership with UNESCO in the organisation of an International Conference to reactivate and raise awareness for an international campaign to save the Lake Chad.

10. UNESCO graciously accepted my request and a Communique was issued. One of the outcomes of the Communique is the organization of this Conference, so I must especially thank UNESCO for their support.

11. This International Conference was designed with a view to finding workable solutions in resuscitating the Lake Chad to the benefit of all member countries of the LCBC and to the ecological balance of a large area of West Africa.

12. In the past two days, there have been technical sessions with delegates, experts, researchers and resource persons exchanging ideas, views, knowledge and sharing information on water resources development and management in a challenged environment.

13. This is now being followed by this high level session to consider recommendations in order to garner political and global support for the restoration option identified for recharging of the Lake.

Abuja Declaration

14. I am convinced that this Conference will not just be another talk shop but will be a platform to re-launch our partnership and commitment to our continent and the Basin in particular.

15. Your Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen, the Conference Report will be presented shortly and I urge you to consider it critically with a view to making informed and strong contributions towards its implementation.

16. Let Abuja be the starting point of this commitment and we will call this The Abuja Declaration. Abuja Declaration will be a benchmark and the bedrock upon which future engagements on restoring the Lake would be built.

17. It will also serve as a fundamental and landmark document which will contain basic principles that can be used as a yardstick for holistic development model for the Basin.

18. Such a model will be useful especially for policy and decision makers, Development partners, Donors Agencies, Investors, Researchers and Institutions.

Gratitude

19. I owe a debt of gratitude to my brothers, the Presidents and Heads of State and Government of LCBC Member Countries  Cameroon, the Central African Republic, Chad and Niger for their invaluable contributions to the development of the Basin.

20. I must also sincerely appreciate the efforts and immense technical support of the United Nations (UN) and its Agencies including FAO, UNDP and UNEP and most especially UNESCO for their invaluable contributions towards the Integrated Water Resources Management of the Basin and the organization of this Conference.

21. The Banks have been our backbone  The African Development Bank, World Bank, Islamic Development Bank, China-Exim Bank; thank you all very much for your support.

22. The African Union, the European Union, ECOWAS, ECCAS, have also contributed immensely to the sustainable development of the sub-region.

23. We are also indebted to the governments of Netherlands, Hungary, France, China, Italy, Japan, United States of America, Canada and Britain.

Journey

24. As we continue on this journey towards our goal, I wish to use this medium to solicit for your continued collaboration and support.

25. Excellencies, Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen, Let me reiterate our firm commitment to restore the Lake Chad to its former glory.

Recognizing that our efforts will be more productive with international support, we call on our International Partners  Technical and Financial to remain unwavering in their support.

26. We must treat the issues of the Lake Chad with the urgency they deserve and show the needed political commitment towards reviving the Lake.#NCT 127 NCT 127 drops 3rd studio album 'Sticker' K-pop boy band NCT 127 released their third studio album "Sticker" Friday, offering a mix of genres from hip-hop and R&B to pop and dance in a total of 11 tracks. In an onli...Governor Ambode who spoke Tuesday at the commissioning of multiple projects executed by the Church in the Gbagada area of Lagos, commended Deeper Life for mobilizing millions of its members across the world towards making life more meaningful for members of the community that live around its headquarters in Lagos.

Projects commissioned by the Governor included a link bridge on Oduwaiye Street, Gbagada, traffic lights on a number of streets and a 600 capacity multilevel car park, all built from the contributions of members of the church across the country.

Governor Ambode, who was represented by the State Commissioner for Energy and Mineral Resources, Mr Olawale Olowu said that Deeper Life has by those projects demonstrated its willingness, not only towards the spiritual uplift of its members but also on the quality of life of the people irrespective of religious inclinations.

He said the projects executed by the Church were in line with his governments drive towards the rebuilding and renewal of Lagos City and called on other religious organizations and private sector institutions to emulate the gesture as a means of expediting the revamp of infrastructure in all parts of the state.

What Deeper Life Church has done is epochal and keys into the overall drive of the State Government under the leadership of Governor Akinwunmi Ambode towards the renewal of infrastructure projects all over Lagos in line with the mega city ambition of the State. It is my considered view that if all other religious groups and private sector organizations in the state, provide similar support to the Government, a lot will be achieved and in a very short time in improving the quality of infrastructure in our Lagos, the Governor stated.

Earlier in his welcome speech, the General Superintendent of the Deeper Christian Life Ministry, Pastor William F. Kumuyi said the Church is deeply concerned about the comfort of the people of the communities where it is located, hence its decision to embark on the projects.

Pastor Kumuyi acknowledged the giant strides the State Government under Governor Ambode has made in infrastructure development and urban renewal said the projects were envisioned to support the State government towards the development of the State.

The Lagos State Government under Governor Ambode has been tirelessly working towards renewing the mega city of Lagos and I must say that this has immensely endeared him to the teeming population.

What we have done is only a token of support in the drive to ensure there is a collective contribution towards the collective aspiration of the people of this great State for a city of comfort that we all will be proud of, he stated, adding that the Church still has a number of other projects either under construction or at planning stages, all geared towards improving the quality of life of the people in support of the urban renewal programme of the State Government.The attention of the Nigerian Air Force (NAF) has been drawn to a statement being circulated to the effect that 100 NAF aircraft had been deployed in search of the missing Dapchi girls.

While paying a courtesy call on the Executive Governor of Yobe State, in company of the Chief of the Air Staff, on 27 February 2018.

the National Security Adviser, Mohammed Monguno, indeed spoke about the number of sorties so far conducted by NAF aircraft in the course of searching for the missing girls within a stated period.

Obviously, the number of sorties does not equate the number of aircraft deployed, he said.Comptroller, Federal Operations Unit Zone A, Ikeja, Lagos, Mr Mohammed Garba, disclosed this when members of the Senate Committee on Customs, Excise and Tarif visited the zone on oversight functions.

The visit was led by the Chairman of the Committee, Sen. Hope Uzodinma.

After the goods are seized, they go through the process of condemnation through the court.

The Customs and Excise Act provides that if officers of the service seized goods, they are going to be forfeited to the Federal Government.

What we do is to urge the court to grant an order forfeiting the good to the Federal Government for the purpose of auctioning, he said.

Garba added that NCS had also seized and condemned 59 vehicles including trucks.

We also condemned 33,408 unused tyres; 18,920 bags of foreign rice and 793 bale of second-hand clothes.

He added that 339 bags of new textile materials and 1,475 kegs of vegetable oil of 25 litres were also condemned.

Garba noted that the Federal Operation Unit was an anti-smuggling unit and not a revenue generating unit.

We make sure that goods that are not allowed to come in are not allowed and goods that adequate money for the government has not been collected, we ensure that such money is collected, Garba said.

On his part, Uzodinma frowned at the large number of goods and services seized which were yet to be destroyed.

He lamented that over N600 billion had been lost in the last three years as a result of importing cold rail.

Companies that use these rails have folded up. We will call on government to abrogate some of these policies if we want to grow this economy, he said.

The lawmaker assured the service of continuous support in line with the committees oversight responsibilities toward achieving improved service delivery.The VC while briefing newsmen on the university third convocation said the anti-cancer and anti-diabetic drugs developed by Dr Salihu Ibrahim Ismail of the Department of Biochemical have successfully passed the pre-clinical stage.

Mukhtar also explained that the anti-diabetic drug has gotten ethical approval for the clinical trial by the Kano state hospital management board.

ALSO READ:Top 10 Universities in Nigeria

According to her the clinical trial will commence at the Muhammad Abdullahi Wase Specialist Hospital Kano very soon

Speaking about the achievement of the university, the VC said: the university has performed exceptionally well when the National University Commission (NUC) came for accreditation of its academic programmers in May/June last year where approval was given to the university to run eight programmes.

Mukhtar also said that the university has signed an MoU with Morgan State University, Baltimore USA, aimed at ensuring students exchange, Faculty staff exchange programmes for teaching and research, conferences and workshops, exchange of academic programme materials, joint distance learning and research and publication.

Nigerian student reportedly developed cure for cancer

Recall that in July 2017, a student of the African University of Science and Technology (AUST) in Abuja, Sandra Musujusu reportedly developed an alternative cure for cancer.

However, the Media Relations Manager of the University, Atulomah Obioha, in a telephone interview with Pulse debunked the reports saying the student was misquoted as she has not developed any cure for cancer.

"The report as being circulated that Sandra Musujusu had discovered an alternative cancer treatment was not correct. She was misquoted and we have done all we could to correct it "Obioha said.Oroewiro said that the installation of the prepaid metres will last for four months, stressing that the new metres and bulk billing system will eliminate the problems associated with estimated billing in the state.

He apologised to the people of the state over the epileptic power supply being experienced in the state.

The Head of Consumer Services assured that the company was doing everything possible including the optimisation of its facilities and upgrading of its distribution network to restore stable power supply in Bayelsa.

Earlier, the leader of the coalition and chairman of CLO in the state, Chief Nengi James, had intimated the management of PHEDC of the epileptic power supply in the state.

He urged the company to improve power supply to avoid further confrontation from the people, assuring the management that the people were willing to pay for power consumed.The spokesman of the Command Army Records, Lokoja, Capt. Weri Finikumor, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on phone in Lokoja that some of the suspected kidnappers have been arrested and helping the military in its investigations.

Finikumor assured residents that operation exercise cat race was ongoing to curtail criminality and boost security in the state.

He said that the army would make details of the exercise public as soon as it was concluded.

NAN had gathered that a soldier and three suspected kidnappers lost their lives in Okene area of Kogi on Feb. 26 during a gun duel between some soldiers and a gang of kidnappers.

It was gathered that the gun duel ensued when the soldiers were attempting to rescue an oil magnate, Alhaji Momoh Otinau, from the suspected kidnappers that abducted him on Feb. 17.

Otinau was kidnapped in front of a mosque in Okene while relaxing with friends.

A relation of the kidnapped victim who has been negotiating with the kidnappers was said to have informed soldiers believed to be part of those prosecuting exercise cat race of his intention to go and drop a ransom for the kidnappers.

The soldiers then decided to follow him with the intention to rescue the victim and arrest the suspects.

This, however, proved fatal as the kidnappers on sighting the relation approaching the designated point with the armed soldiers immediately opened fire on them.

In the exchange of gun shots that followed, a soldier and three suspected kidnappers lost their lives while Otinau also sustained gunshot injury.Osaka during an inspection of the project in Lagos, said that it was being handled by some contractors, a consultant and the Federal Ministry of Power, Works and Housing.

It is a contract that has a wide scope.

It will have bridges that will be fully dedicated to moving trucks into the park.

This will be in addition to two pedestrian bridges that will separate pedestrian traffic from other road users, she said.

She said that the project had experienced various challenges since 2009 when it was awarded.

The repair of 14 kilometres of the highway was part of the project she said.

She explained that the scope of work would include the construction of 340 truck stands to hold trucks going in and out of the ports.

She added that it would also include a port exit road that would be taking traffic out of Apapa.

She said that the project was nearing completion and would have other facilities like toilets, bathrooms, a police post and trailer agents office among others.

She expressed hope that the park when in operation would be reduce huge trailer traffic off the roads ending into and out of the ports.

Right now, we have achieved 94.58 per cent completion on all the projects.

The main dedicated bridge project has been finished remaining only the asphalt surfacing.

The stands that will accommodate 340 trucks have been built and completed, two pedestrian bridges have also been built.

The port exit road has been built but not fully completed.

We hope to complete the work within this first quarter of 2018 which ends in March if the contractors are paid what they are being owed.

The contractors have submitted an interim statement but they are yet to be paid.

Contractors always tie completion of work to their payments,  she said.

Osaka also said that the Federal Government was up to date with payment to the contractors to ensure speedy completion of the project.

She said that local contents were being adhered to in the materials for the construction and personnel being recruited .

Right now we have 27 Nigerian workers on site and very few expatriates, so the local content is in order.

She added that most of the materials being used on the project were locally sourced.

They include : the granite, the sharp sand,as well as those being materials used for earth works and cement are locally sourced, she said.

Only few things like the joints on the bridge are imported , she said.

Also, Mr Paolo Prono, the Executive Director, Borini Prono Co. Nig, Ltd., the contractors handling the project said that the project was under funded in the past.

He said that there was another contract added to the project to protect the shorelines and that it would be completed in October.The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the conference is attended by Presidents Muhammadu Buhari, Mahammadou Issoufu of Niger Republic, Idriss Debby Itno of Chad, Faustin-Archange Touaderae of Central African Republic and Ali Bongo of Gabon.

The Director-General, who was represented by UNESCOs Deputy Director General, Mr Getachew Engida, said the incidence has breached the right of the victims.

Cue in audio  Engida

Let me express the support and solidarity of UNESCO to the government of Nigeria over the abduction of the schoolgirls in the North East.

As an organization promoting gender equality, peace, human rights and education we are deeply concerned by the fact that these girls are deprived of not only their rights to freedom but educationMelaye said the APC has failed to meet the expectations of Nigerians, many of whom he said, defied the odds to vote for Muhammadu Buhari as Nigerias President in the 2015 general elections.

The Kogi lawmaker stated this on Tuesday, February 27, 2018,while speaking when he was conferred with the Legislator of the Year 2017 at the Daily Asset Newspaper maiden annual awards and lecture in Abuja.

Melaye who likened the APC to Public Complaints Commission said Nigeria is current sick.

If you speak the truth, you die. If you lie, you die. I, Dino Melaye has decided to speak the truth and die, Melaye began.

The APC government has become Public Complaint Commission. I say this without fear or favour. We have more complains in the APC and even in the Presidency than service rendered. We cannot as a people continue like this.

The President said two days ago we should all embrace peace but I want to say without fear or favour that there can be no peace without justice. There is hunger in the land, there is poverty in the land, and there is unemployment in the land. A lot of decision has not been taken; yet we say we want peace. The primary objective of government is the security and welfare of the people. There is no security, there is no welfare, he said.

Nigeria is not only sick presently but equally suffers from regretful congenital abnormality. There is therefore a serious need for amelioration, palliation and correction. The question is: are you going to be part of that correction? I want to say that in an unjust society, silence is a crime, and every one of us here today, is the reason why (sic) Nigeria is sick.

It is not about the leadership; it is the inability of the followership to check the leadership. Today Nigerians have become indolent, we are suffering and smiling. We are not reactionary. We are not asking questions and that is why we are where we are.

Democracy will continue to be government of the people by the people for the people but what we have today is greedocracy which is government of the greedy by the greedy and for the greedy," he added.

ALSO READ: 5 Times senator attacked Buhari and his appointees

Melaye warned those in positions of authority not to forget that their failure to make the most of their offices in the interest of the people could turn out to hurt them.

2019 is around the corner again. Many of us are lackadaisical about the future. I delivered a lecture recently at the University of Lagos and some students from very wealthy homes, two of them said they didnt care who the president of the country is and that it was none of their business because their parents were very successful. I said to them that when the poor have nothing to eat, they will start eating the rich.

A time will come when it will be difficult to drive your expensive jeeps and cars on the streets. A time will come when it would be difficult to switch on your generator because everywhere around you is dark. Will you be the only one having light? There was no kidnapping before, and kidnapping is seen as the redistribution of both ill-gotten and legitimate wealth. People now take from the rich and they now appropriate to themselves.

The elites have divided us using tribal sentiments. When you go to the hospital, there is a column for religion on your call card, a column for tribe and local government as if this will in any way facilitate your recovery. We have become too ethnic conscious. I sponsored a bill that is about to go for a second reading.

The bill is saying that we should abolish state of origin and in its place; we should have state of residence. This is when we will have a true Nigeria when you will not need a Senators note to get job with the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN or the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, he added.Chairman of the commission, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, disclosed this on Wednesday, February 28, 2018, at a consultative meeting with leaders of political parties in Abuja.

He said, "In 2019, the dates are February 16 and March 2; in 2023, the dates are February 18 and March 4.

"In 2027, the dates are February 20 and March 6; in 2031, it is February 15 and March 1.

"In 2035, it is February 17 and March 3; in 2039, it is February 19 and March 5 and in 2043, it will hold on February 21 and March 7.

"In 2047, it is February 15 and March 2; in 2051, it is February 18 and March 1; in 2055, it is February 20 and March 6," Yakubu said.

He pointed out that in other democracies of the world, periods of elections are generally known and are not topics for speculation.

Yakubu explained that the aim is to engender certainty in the election calendar and also to allow for long-term planning by the commission and all stakeholders.

He said that certainty in election calendar was necessary to match Nigeria's democratic system with global best practices.

New political parties

The chairman said that in the last one week, INEC has received 108 applications from associations seeking to be registered as political parties.

He said that 66 of the applications did not meet the initial requirements, while 33 passed and had proceeded to the next stage, adding that nine others were at the final stage of registration.

ALSO READ: INEC sets up panel to probe underage voting in Kano

The INEC boss commended political parties for the roles they played in the governorship and National Assembly by-elections in Anambra, which ensured that the exercises are crisis-free.

Yakubu urged all existing political parties yet to comply with all relevant sections of the constitutional requirements necessary for their existence, to do so.

He advised the parties to ensure rancour-free conventions and congresses ahead of 2019 and the Ekiti and Osun governorship elections later in the year.

"Internal party democracy is critical to the overall success of the elections and it helps to eliminate some protracted litigations.

"Less than a year to the 2019 general elections, there are still cases in courts challenging the nomination of candidates in the 2015 elections," he said.Dogwa dropped this hint while speaking with newsmen on Wednesday in Abuja, adding that the All Progressives Congress (APC) was already strategising on how to win the election.

I can beat my chest and say that with the commitment we have gotten so far from major stakeholders across the country, the APC remains the party to beat.

We are battle ready for 2019 to get back to Aso Villa with Buhari as our president, in addition with the governors. We are going to add some states to the existing ones, he said.

The lawmaker said that critical decisions had been reached at the just concluded party caucus and National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting in Abuja.

NEC as the highest decision-making organ of the party discussed critical issues and plotted important strategies for the major elections next year.

We also discussed important issues bothering on how to improve the lots of our party and reconcile aggrieved members as well as ensure the security of lives and properties in the country, he said.

When asked if the APC had an alternative should Buhari decline contesting the presidency in 2019, he said: he cannot try that.

Tell Buhari that he cannot try to contemplate not accepting the desire of Nigerians to re-contest in 2019.The National President of the Union, Mr Ibrahim Khaleel who made this known at a press conference Wednesday in Abuja said two states outrightly rejected the bill.

Khaleel called for the abolition of State Independent Electoral Commission, adding that the existence of the commission has made democracy at the local government level a mockery.

Khaleel said Kwara, Benue, Niger, Plateau, Bauchi, Cross River, Bayelsa, Ogun and Ondo are the states, which have endorsed the local government autonomy bill, while Edo and Imo rejected it outright.

While accusing governors of the two states and their party, the All Progressives Congress (APC) of influencing the State Houses of Assembly to reject the bill, he said governors of the north western states also influenced their state assemblies to defer its consideration.

He urged the states to approve the bill in the interest of Nigerians.

He said that the union was not asking legislators to automatically endorse the bill, but to conduct public hearing as agreed by the Speakers Forum and the Governors Forum.

I want to call on our governors to, as a matter of respect for Nigerian citizens who have spoken and aspiring to have a local government system they can call their own, that will be free for them to participate democratically by electing their Chairmen and Councillors as and when due without undue influence from the government of the state.

The governors should begin to have some level of decorum in their approach to governance. Look at the shame brought to bear on our democracy by the election in Kano where under aged were the ones that mostly voted.

These are some of the issues that we have been trying to make Nigerians understand. That is not only in the area of democracy.

The idea behind establishing local government is by way of bringing governance closer to the people and providing a platform for everybody to participate at his own community level.Ahmed said that investing in modular refineries would address refining challenges in the country, adding that government should review its policy on refined products to encourage investors into the sector.

According to him, building a modular refinery is not easy, apart from citing refinery beside the sea; one can as well cite it near a marginal oil field.

Finance is the major reason why most investors in the modular refineries abandoned it.

No bank is ready to give loan to any investor in modular refineries; that was why it was just only two out of 40 investors given licences that were able to build it.

Government should engage the banks to provide the finance needed for building modular refineries, he said.The IPMAN boss also urged the government to overhaul the sector to encourage private investors, stressing that it is obvious that finance was the problem of building modular refineries.

He said that there was need for government to work with the licence owners to address the issue of sourcing for finance from the banks to build the refineries.

Ahmed said that financing modular refineries by banks would go a long way to address petroleum products challenges in most depots in the country.

He said that currently the five depots within the South West, comprising Ejigbo, Mosinmi, Ore, Ilorin and Ibadan, hardly got 30 trucks of petrol for IPMAN members.

Modular refineries should be encouraged and supported in Nigeria because NNPC had no capacity to meet the nations total petrol demand.

NNPC being the sole importer and distributor of petrol is not good for the nations economy because many marketers were deprived of importing due to inability to access foreign exchange, according to Ahmed.

He said that fuel scarcity would only abate if the NNPC could massively import petrol and distribute with IPMAN, Major Oil Marketers Association of Nigeria and the NNPC to all retail outlets or the corporations mega stations.

He suggested that 60 per cent should be allocated to IPMAN; MOMAN 20 per cent; and the remaining 20 per cent to the NNPC (mega stations).

The fuel scarcity will definitely continue; there is no product in the system. NNPC has no capacity to do the job they are doing now; that is importing sufficient petroleum products.She is a judge of the Supreme Court of Kenya and an advocate of the High Court. She has had an illustrious legal and political career.

After leaving Kenya High School, Njoki attended University of Nairobi where she got a Bachelor of Law; she also has a Master of Law in Human Rights and Civil Liberties from the University of Leicester. She is also a diploma holder in Women's Rights. She could easily be the most academically decorated female judge in the country.

Her career began as State Counsel to the Attorney General in 1989. Since then, the 53 year old has been known for her activism for gender equality and womens rights.

So much so that her appointment to the Supreme Court was met with mild backlash as some people dared to wonder why an activist deserves a seat on the highest bench in the country.

Njokis role in the protection of women is probably her most important.

While she served as a nominated Member of Parliament, she pushed the following bills:

Amendment on maternity and paternity rights in employment Act 2007- this sought to provide paid maternity and paternity leave.

Key Human Rights Amendment to the Refugee Bill

Sexual Offences Bill 2006.

The Sexual Offences Bill 2006 explained sexual offences and provided ways to prevent further attacks and protection of people from illegal sexual acts. It created leeway for harsh penalties for sexual offenders and eventually got passed as the Sexual Offences Act 2007.

Njoki also served as a member of the committee of experts that drafted Kenyas new constitution that was voted in by an overwhelming majority in 2010.

The judge has also earned accolades from the United Nations where she was awarded Person of the Year award in 2006 due to her campaigning for womens rights.

She also won Jurist of the Year Award in 2006 from the International Commission of Jurists.

She was awarded the Elder of the Burning Spear- one of the highest presidential commendations- in 2006 and more recently, she was awarded the Chief of the Burning Spear.The Cabinet CS was lambasted over the death of Meru University Crisis that has led to the death of a student.

Cyprian stated that he had apprised the CS of the situation in Meru University that he says has been going on for over a month.

Nyakundis tweet read;

FYI, The Meru University crisis has been on for more than One month. There is a day I made some tweets urging to intervene and sort the crisis but she was busy applying make-up

The current state in Meru University has come to the publics attention following an incident where a student leader was shot dead.

The student was Meru University secretary general. He was known as Evans Njoroge and he died after being shot on the head.In the letter, Joho took issue in his capacity as ODM Deputy Party Leader of the utterances made by Wiper's Deputy Party Leader Farah Maalim during a popular morning talk show which the orange party took offence of.

Maalim allegedly said that NASA leader Raila Odinga should retire and be a kingmaker which ODM took offensive to their party leader and the party itself.

The Wiper Deputy is also said to have called NASA as "dead as a dodo".

"In as much as i would like to remind you that NASA has other partners besides Wiper, the ODM leadership feels that we should first seek clarification from you as the WDM leader on whether Hon. Farah's remarks reflect the stand of your party. Kindly respond urgently so that we know how to engage WDM going forth," the letter signed by Joho read.

The NASA coalition has in the past few months been rocked with internal wrangles from its four constituent parties of ODM, Wiper, Ford Kenya and Amani National Congress.

The main cause of friction has been the sharing of house leadership positions in Parliament, the latest being the Parliamentary Service Commission (PSC).

The internal wrangles stepped a notch higher when the NASA co-principals Musyoka, Musalia Mudavadi and Moses Wetangula skipped Odinga's swearing-in as the People's President at Uhuru Park on January 31.

However the principals have maintained a brave face in public insisting that the coalition remains united despite the internal rivalries.Dear Sir Thank you for taking the time to share a comment on my platform. Allow me first to clarify that my name is Julie, not Judy. I felt motivated to respond to your comment because you say you are working hard hustling in Qatar. I congratulate you for your effort. I also noted that you seemed to offer or suggest that you are available as a 'toy boy', allow me to say that's not my thing, not at all. I am happily married to a Simba and by the grace of God we shall grow old together.While I do not judge your apparent willingness to be a 'toy boy' allow me to speak to you as a mother would to her son. We all start somewhere, very few are born at the top. Indeed, out of the few that are born at the top, many end up at the bottom if they cannot work hard and work smart. You are therefore underselling yourself and demeaning your own value through derogatory references to your 'status'. You are a hard working man, stand tall with your back straight and your head held high. Have pride in yourself. Focus your heart and mind on your goal and step by step, work towards it. There is no shame in hustling, I worked three jobs at one time in University, one of those jobs was literally hard labour, a twelve hour overnight shift in a baking factory. Indeed, there is no shame in your hustle, maisha 'ni kujipanga my fren'. Fanya kazi kwa bidii, and take pride in that.Embrace and understand your value and stop offering yourself to women you really don't know, and underselling yourself while you are at it. Take pride in who you are, make a plan and then live knowing that each and every person is special, is worthy, is of value because each of us are made in the image of the Almighty and HE knows YOUR name!I wish you all the best on your journey of life,Blessings,Julie Gathoni Sumira wa GichuruPS: Please, do learn to punctuate. It will be of great help should you need to communicate with potential employers, business partners etc.WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind.  The College of Engineering honored the 2018 Distinguished Engineering Alumni/Alumnae during an award ceremony Thursday (Feb. 22).

The 13 honorees were selected for their engagement in engineering work and recognized from a range of disciplines. Honorees were Christine Barman, Thomas Beutner, Arindam Bose, Dennis Cooke, Peter Kraemer, Richard Kyle, Gerald Lyles, Paul McEnroe, Michael Moses, Carlos Odio, Milo Riverso, Allen Salmasi and Kimberly Underhill.

* Christine Barman (BSME 1994) is principal at New Shore LLC. She was named one of Michigans 100 most influential women by Crains Detroit Business in 2016, and her work has made many contributions to advancements in the automotive industry.

* Thomas Beutner (BSAAE 1987) was recently named deputy director of the Tactical Technology Office for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency of the U.S. Department of Defense. His current research explores oblique wing designs, the use of flow control for alleviation of aero-optic distortions, and the development of railgun technologies.

* Arindam Bose (Ph.D. ChE 1980) a consultant at AbiologiesB LLC, a biotechnology and bioengineering consulting firm he founded in 2016. Bose had spent 35 years as an executive in the biopharmaceutical industry.

* Dennis Cooke (BSEE 1986, MSEE 1988) leads all global business for Ryder System Inc., as president of Global Fleet Management Solutions. His responsibilities include overseeing truck leasing and rental and maintenance in the U.S., Canada and the United Kingdom.

* Peter Kraemer (BSChE 1988) has spent almost 30 years working various positions at Anhueser-Busch InBev and now serves as the chief supply officer. As a fifth-generation brewmaster, he grew up visiting breweries. He now oversees 150 breweries across four continents and 25 countries.

* Richard Kyle (BSME 1988) became the CEO and president of the Timken Co., a global manufacturer of bearings and related components, in 2014. He has improved profitability and expansion of the company and has demonstrated strategic leadership in the mechanical systems industry.

* Gerald Lyles (BSCE 1964, MSIA 1971) is president of Lyles United LLC and senior vice president of Lyles Diversified Inc., his familys companies. He has led the pipeline, utility and concrete and mechanical construction firm that his parents started in 1945 to become the second-largest environmental contractor in California and a top 50 environmental firm in the nation.

* Paul McEnroe (MSEE 1960) and his team created, developed and produced the universal barcode that appears on almost all products, while he also worked as a lab director for International Business Machines. After spending decades developing new technologies and serving as a leader in his career field, he now spends his time as the owner and operator of Rancho La Purisima in Santa Ynez Valley, California.

* Michael Moses (BS, physics and astronomy, 1989; MSAAE 1995), as president of Virgin Galactic, is working to successfully send tourists into outer space. Before joining Virgin Galactic, he served as the launch integration manager for NASA and oversaw 12 space shuttle missions from start to finish. Today, he leads a team in improving all aspects of the commercial human spaceflight program, including flight planning and vehicle processing.

* Carlos Odio (BSIE 1965, BSCE 1965) improved thousands of lives in his home country of Costa Rica through co-founding TicoFruit, the third largest supplier of orange juice in the U.S. He and a partner established TicoFruit in 1986 in San Jose, Costa Rica and Odio served as president of the company until 2014.

* Milo Riverso (MSCE 1982, Ph.D. CE 1984) has worked on many famous landmarks throughout his career, including the One World Trade Center in Manhatten and the Anaheim Convention Center expansion in California. Today, he serves as the CEO of STV Group Inc., a top-ranking engineering and architectural firm in the country.

* Allen Salmasi (BSEE 1977, BSIM 1977, MSEE 1979) revolutionized wireless communication by developing and implementing the first mobile network operator service with his team at NextWave Telecom Inc. in 1996. He is now the founder, chairman and CEO of his venture capital firm, NLabs Inc.

* Kimberly Underhill (BSChE 1987) has worked for Kimberly-Clark Professional, a multibillion worldwide business-to-business company that focuses on health and hygiene products, for thirty years. She worked her way up through the company and is now serving as the global president, where she has demonstrated leadership in supply-chain and marketing across the North American commercial products industry.

More information on award recipients can be found online.

Writer: Olivia Crouse, ocrouse@purdue.edu

Source: Vanessa Buntin, associate director of special events in the College of Engineering, VMBuntin@prf.orgWEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - After more than a week of unusually heavy winter rains triggered widespread flooding in some areas, Gov. Eric Holcomb had declared a disaster emergency for 18 Indiana counties as of Feb. 27, allowing the state Department of Homeland Security to provide additional emergency services and setting the stage for possible federal assistance.

Counties covered by the disaster declaration are Benton, Carroll, Clark, Crawford, Dearborn, Elkhart, Floyd, Fulton, Jefferson, Lake, Marshall, Perry, St. Joseph, Spencer, Starke, Switzerland, Warrick and White.

As relief efforts gained momentum, Purdue Extension disaster specialists urged homeowners to use considerable caution before returning to flood-damaged properties.

Be sure to give your home time to dry out thoroughly, said Abby Hostetler, communication specialist for the Extension Disaster Education Network (EDEN). It could take weeks before a house is dry enough to begin rebuilding.

Hostetler advised anyone with flood damage to report it to the state Department of Homeland Security at https://oas.dhs.in.gov/hs/damage/ia-public.do?method=active&incidentId=IA20180220012405 or contact their local emergency management authority.

Renovating too soon could trap moisture in wood, leading to rotting and promoting the growth of mold, Hostetler noted. In addition, floors and other surfaces could be uneven or slick with standing water or mold. Roofs and walls might be susceptible to collapse.

Before re-entering a flooded home, property owners should make sure to unplug all appliances, take photos to document the damage, begin removing mud and other debris from the home while still damp and remove all keepsakes and valuables for salvaging.

Many objects can be saved if you begin salvage within 48 hours of the flood receding, she said.

But Hostetler stressed that homeowners should not rush back to flooded areas, where downed power lines and broken gas mains could pose a significant risk.

It is essential to allow authorities plenty of time to evaluate the situation and declare the area safe before you even return to your property, she said.

Homeowners should remember these tips for minimizing risks during the recovery process:

* Check with local officials about safely dealing with power and gas lines.

* Check for structural damage in your building. Look for leaning walls, sagging roofs and ceilings and weakened support columns. If you see any of those things, do not enter the property until repairs are made.

* Air out your home for several minutes before entering. This will help minimize the risk of inhaling mold or other pollutants.

* Turn off the main electrical breaker, even if the power is off in the neighborhood. If the main disconnect is inside the building, call your utility company for assistance.

Pumping out your basement too soon or too quickly could do even more damage, Hostetler advised. Water in the basement helps brace the walls against the extra pressure of the water-logged soil outside. If the water is pumped out too soon, the walls might be pushed in or the floor might be pushed up.

Purdue Extension has compiled a number of informational resources on a website to help homeowners and agricultural producers impacted by flooding. The site includes instructional videos, background materials and how-to guides produced by Extension educators and specialists.

Topics covered on the site include residential flooding, financial management, mold control, food safety and managing stress. The site is updated regularly as new resources become available.

To access the site, go to https://www.purdue.edu/floods.

Writer: Darrin Pack, 765-494-8415, dpack@purdue.edu

Source: Abby Hostetler, 765-494-4390, alillpop@purdue.edu

Agricultural Communications: (765) 494-8415;

Darrin Pack, Manager/Media Relations and Public Information, dpack@purdue.edu

Agriculture News PageBlythe, CA (92225)

Today

Partly cloudy. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. Low 79F. Winds S at 5 to 10 mph..

Tonight

Partly cloudy. A stray shower or thunderstorm is possible. Low 79F. Winds S at 5 to 10 mph.Back-To-School Wish List

Monday was the first day of classes for everyone attending NYC public schools for the 2021-2022 school year. Many parents are happy about it, some...

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34th Anniversary Party To The Editor: Hello allI hope everyone had a great end to the summer and are looking forward to the fall. As...Opinion

Ryan Bridge: The Govt's COVID-19 messaging is all over the shop - do lockdowns stop when enough Kiwis are vaccinated?UK: The iPort Rail intermodal freight terminal in Doncaster is now operational, industrial and logistics property developer Verdion announced after the first test train ran onto the site on February 20.The transformation of train operating division SNCF Mobilites continued during 2017, when its business rebounded as the economy picked up and revenue grew by 47% to reach 318bn. Revenue at long-distance passenger business Voyages SNCF was up 86% at 74bn, where revenue from domestic high speed services grew by 87%, ...SWITZERLAND: Swiss Federal Railways ran the first of its fleet of Bombardier Transportation Twindexx double-deck electric multiple-units in commercial service on February 26. The first train was IR2368, the 11.55 from Zurich to Olten and Bern.Probe opened into regional top Interior Ministry official

 RIA Novosti, Alexey Filipov

10:33 28/02/2018

MOSCOW, February 28 (RAPSI)  A criminal case has been launched against deputy head of the Interior Ministrys directorate for Krasnoyarsk Region Alexander Kuznetsov on suspicion of abuse of office resulted in heavy consequences, the Investigative Committees press service reported through its Telegram channel.

Another defendant in the case is former deputy chief of Support Services Andrey Petruchenya, the statement reads.

According to investigators, in late 2012, Kuznetsov and Petruchenya signed work acceptance protocol for construction of a temporary detention facility in the city of Norilsk and received over 200 million rubles (about $3.5 million) on this basis. However, the detention center has not built yet.

Searches are being conducted in the Interior Ministrys regional directorate.



Prosecutors demand 1.5 years in prison for teen involved in June 12 rally case

 RIA Novosti, Egor Aleev

12:45 28/02/2018

MOSCOW, February 28 (RAPSI)  Prosecutors have asked the Tverskoy District Court to sentence a teenager charged with using violence against a National Guard officer during an unauthorized rally held on June 12, 2017, in Moscow, to 1.5 years in prison, lawyer Sergey Badamshin has told RAPSI.

The teenager has been earlier put under house arrest.

According to investigators, on June 12, 2017, the defendant participating in unauthorized rally on Tverskaya Street organized by opposition politician Alexey Navalny sprayed tear gas in the eyes of a special unit officer of the National Guards Main Directorate. The officer received an eye burn as a result of the incident.

Initially, Navalny has agreed with a proposal of the city's authorities to hold a rally at Academician Sakharov Avenue in Moscow on June 12. However, shortly before the beginning of the rally he called his supporters to change its location to Tverskaya Street in central Moscow. He was arrested and later sentenced to a 30-day term in custody. The opposition politician was found guilty of violating rally organization rules specified in the Russian Code of Administrative Offences.Russian Supreme Court declares Artpodgotovka movement extremist

 RIA Novosti, Vladimir Fedorenko

15:56 28/02/2018

MOSCOW, February 28 (RAPSI)  The Supreme Court of Russia has declared the Artpodgotovka civil movement, headed by Vyacheslav Maltsev, extremist, RAPSI correspondent reports from the courtroom.

The court dismissed an appeal against a ruling of the Krasnoyarsk Regional Court.

According to Igor Eliphkhanov, who represents the interests of Maltsev, the Artpodgotovka organization has never actually existed. He noted that the movement was active only on the Internet representing will of individuals, who did not receive any directives from Maltsev.

Prosecutor Tatyana Lazareva on the other hand said that the movement had defined name, symbols and a leader who tasked the organizations members with particular goals. She added that the movements members propagated ideas of revolution and riots to dismantle the state authority. In 2017, many of these members became defendants in criminal cases over extremism.

In November 2017, the Federal Security Service (FSB) stated that it suppressed activity of the movements conspicuous cell. Allegedly on November 4 and 5, 2017, its members planned to commit extremist actions in order to provoke mass riots. Alleged extremists were arrested with 15 bottles containing inflammatory liquid in their possession. Cells in Moscow, Kazan, Krasnoyarsk, Samara, Saratov and Krasnodar were also suppressed.

According to FSB, the unregistered movement was created by Maltsev to organize a revolution in Russia.

In October, the Moscow City Court upheld a lower courts ruling on arrest in absentia for Maltsev in a criminal case over extremism. Maltsev was charged with public calls for extremist activity. He is to stay in detention for two months after the moment of his arrest in Russia or extradition or deportation from another country. Currently, he is on the international wanted list.

Earlier, media reported that the case against Maltsev was launched after his speech at the rally called For Russia without outrage and repressions related to the anniversary of a rally at Bolotnaya Square on May 6, 2012.Foreigners committed 7% less crimes in 2017  Russian Interior Ministry

 RIA Novosti, Vitaly Anikov

18:00 28/02/2018

MOSCOW, February 28 (RAPSI)  In 2017, foreign citizens committed 7% less crimes in Russia while the number of immigrants, who obtain legal permits to work in the country, is growing, Interior Minister Vladimir Kolokoltsev said in his official report on Wednesday.

According to Kolokoltsev, last year, law enforcement officers revealed over 775,000 violations in the sphere of immigration with 69,000 foreigners being deported from Russia. 190,000 foreigners were prohibited from entering the country, and 1,200 cases over organization of unlawful immigration were launched.

The minister also noted that protection of Russian economy becomes an especially relevant topic in the context of unfriendly foreign relations. Law enforcement toughened its stance on embezzlement of state funds, Kolokoltsev said. He added that 30,000 crimes were related to unlawful cashing and transfer of funds abroad. Overall, 76 billion rubles ($1.3 billion) were transferred abroad. Measures were taken to compensate damage by 35 billion rubles ($623.8 billion).

Speaking of corruption crimes, Kolokoltsev said that nearly 30,000 crimes were registered last year with 75% of them being committed by police officers. 13,000 individuals were identified as ones related to these crimes. Damage caused by corruption is estimated at 37.5 billion rubles ($668.4 million). Measures were taken to compensate damage by 26.5 billion rubles ($472.3 billion).Find a great selection of commercial real estate, manufactured homes, timeshares and more for Sale

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eliminated Sandra Shehab and determined Season 24's Top 7 finalists during Tuesday night's broadcast on VH1.Sandra, a 22-year-old from Cliffside Park, NJ, was ousted from the competition after the show's panel of judges determined she had the least impressive performance at the week's photo shoot."I feel I represented my community pretty well. I wanted to show Muslim girls that they can do whatever they want. I hope they see that," Sandra said in her final words."I hope [Kyla Coleman] wins because she wants this really bad... and she's trying really hard. But I feel [Rio Summers] doesn't really care to be here, and I hope they see that."and America's Got Talent host Tyra Banks told Sandra she is "absolutely stunning" but not necessarily fit to be an editorial model, as her beauty doesn't translate into a high-fashion photo. However, Tyra believes Sandra could make a lot of money pursuing commercial modeling.In addition to Tyra, the panel is comprised of supermodel, entrepreneur, and body activist Ashley Graham ; Chief Creative Officer of Paper magazine Drew Elliott; and celebrity stylist and image architect Law Roach.Law was missing from the panel this week due to other work obligations, so supermodel and designer Jourdan Dunn filled in for him.Sandra fell into the bottom two this week with Khrystyana Kazakova, a 32-year-old from New York, NY, who had been "inconsistent" up to that point in the competition, according to Tyra.The Top Model episode began with Tyra and Jourdan Dunn visiting the girls at their house.Tyra taught the contestants how to correctly pose for and take a mirror selfie, and then she asked them to participate in a challenge.Each girl was required to take her own mirror selfie while modeling Jourdan's clothing Line, Lon Dunn. Jourdan, who has a couple million followers on Instagram, and Tyra judged the challenge.Although Sandra -- a skilled social-media influencer with about 80,000 followers -- was in her comfort zone, the winner turned out to be Jeana Turner, who appeared relaxed and cool in her selfie.Jeana, a 24-year-old from Minneapolis, MN, got to keep the Lon Dunn outfit as a prize, and she was also told she'd be featured on Jourdan's own Instagram page to hopefully gain more followers.It then became time for the contestants to model for a photo shoot in which they had to pose with men.The contestants went through a casting process to find guys who were "big, sexy, thick, delicious and brawny," according to Tyra, and then each girl had to pose with one man while dripping in gold paint.Tyra served as the photographer of this sexy shoot.Since Jeana won the previous challenge, she was able to pose with professional male model Zach Miko, so she had a big advantage. Zach posed shirtless for the first time in his career during this particular photo shoot.At panel, the judges critiqued each girl's photo, and then Tyra revealed that Kyla, a 20-year-old from Lacey, WA, had the best photo of the week. Tyra said she flat out looked like "a supermodel."Tyra then announced which contestants were safe from elimination by handing out photos in the following order: Jeana; Shanice Carroll, a 25-year-old from Murfreesboro, TN; Erin Green, a 42-year-old from Riverside, CA; Brendi K. Seiner, a 22-year-old from Nashville, TN; and Rio, a 23-year-old from Detroit, MI. The results left Khrystyana and Sandra in the bottom two.,



We're sorry, this article is not currently availableThe banks also received a warning from the rating agency Care, in February 2016, after Firestar's financials deteriorated.

Dev Chatterjee reports.



Photograph: Rupak De Chowdhuri/Reuters

Indian lenders led by the Punjab National Bank ignored warnings from the auditor of Gitanjali Gems in March 2017 that the latter has defaulted on Life Insurance Corporation loans.

According to Ford, Rhodes and Parks LLP, the auditor of the BSE-listed Gitanjali Gems, the company defaulted to LIC for the year ending March 2017 and drew the attention of shareholders to 12 per cent non-convertible debentures issued to LIC where the company had not paid principal and interest dues of Rs 3.5 crore.

'Further, the company has not created liquid assets of Rs 1.5 crore as per rules,' the auditor pointed out.

Besides, there were overdues to be paid to ICICI Bank and IDBI Bank in foreign currency.

Principal of $8.75 million (Rs 56.74 crore) and interest of $0.97 million (Rs 6.32 crore) to ICICI ECB and principal of $0.73 million (Rs 4.77 crore) and to IDBI ECB was overdue, as per the auditor report.

The company had consolidated debt of Rs 8,250 crore as on March 2017.

Further, the auditor report pointed out that the company's overdrawn position in the working capital borrowings aggregated to Rs 31.15 crore as compared to its sanctioned limit.

The audit report was signed by chartered accountant A D Shenoy.

When contacted, Shenoy did not comment on the issue, but said all the relevant information is in the public domain.

Gitanjali shares were down 62 per cent to Rs 22.45 as on Tuesday and have lost Rs 460 crore of value since the scam broke out.

On the other hand, Deloitte, the auditor of the Nirav Modi-owned Firestar International Pvt Ltd, had also raised flags in March 2016, but the audit report failed to detect any large scale fraud in the company till March 2017.

Deloitte was the auditor of two Modi companies that are currently under investigation by various government agencies.

Deloitte was FIPL's auditor for two years and signed off the accounts for fiscal ending March 2016 and fiscal ending March 2017.

The firm continues to be the auditor to both Nirav Modi firms till date.

Interestingly, the banks also received a warning from the rating agency, Care in February 2016 after Firestar's financial metrics deteriorated.

In a statement on February 1, 2016, Care had warned clearly that FIPL was operating on stretched operating cycle till March 2015 which has led to working capital bank facilities fully utilised at a time its operational performance was on a decline.

Care then downgraded the company's debt instruments worth Rs 2,460 crore.

Care also warned about Firestar Diamonds Ltd, a subsidiary based in Hong Kong, saying the company may not be able to repay its loans unless its parent company steps in as a guarantor.

Firestar Diamond -- its American subsidiary -- has now filed for bankruptcy.Last updated on: February 28, 2018 11:31 IST

On this day in 1928, Indian scientist CV Raman discovered a phenomenon of scattering of photons.

Photograph: Keystone Features/Getty Images

February 28 is celebrated as National Science Day in India.

But do you know why?

It was on this day, February 28, in the year 1928 that scientist Sir Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman discovered a phenomenon of scattering of photons.

Known as Raman Effect, Sir CV Raman received the Nobel Prize for this remarkable discovery in 1930.

Sir CV Raman received India's first Nobel Prize for India in the field of science.

In 1986, the National Council for Science and Technology Communication (NCSTC) suggested the Government of India to celebrate February 28 as National Science Day.

To acknowledge and celebrate CV Raman's discovery of Raman Effect, National Science Day is celebrated on February 28 every year.

India celebrated its first National Science Day on February 28, 1987.

What is Raman Effect?

Sir CV Raman discovered that there is a change in the wavelength of light when a light beam is deflected by molecules.

When a beam of light travels through a dust-free, transparent sample of a chemical compound, a small fraction of light emerges in directions other than that of the incident (incoming) beam.

Most of this scattered light is of unchanged wavelength.

A small part, however, has wavelengths different from that of the incident light; its presence is a result of what is known as Raman Effect.

Who is CV Raman?

Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman was an Indian scientist who was born in Madras, Tamil Nadu on November 7, 1888.

He completed Bachelor of Arts with a gold medal in physics in 1904.

He held a Master of science degree from the University of Madras.

Besides winning the Nobel in 1930, he was awarded Bharat Ratna in 1954.

Importance of National Science Day

The purpose of celebrating National Science Day include:

To make aware and share the significance of scientific applications in our daily life

To display the activities, efforts and achievements in the field of science

To discuss issues and implement new technologies for the development of the science

To provide opportunities to the scientific minds of our country

To encourage and popularise science and technology

On this day, schools and colleges in India organise quiz contests, talk shows, debates, seminars, exhibitions and related competitions to encourage awareness of scientific knowledge among students.iStock/Thinkstock(NEW YORK) -- Run, hide, fight has been the Department of Homeland Security (DHS)s best advice to people who find themselves in mass shooting situations since the aftermath of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, but some experts say hiding is the worst thing victims can do when bullets start flying and recommend DHS drop that advice altogether in favor of just "run, fight."



Active shooter prevention expert Chris Grollnek estimates that more than 90 percent of fatalities in at least 13 active shootings he has studied were because the victims were trying to hide.



The average distance victims in mass shootings are shot from is just 18 inches, according to Greg Shaffer, a former FBI special agent and member of the bureaus elite Hostage Rescue Team and founder of Shaffer Security Group, which specializes in active shooter response.



Those hiding under desks are just making themselves easy targets, Shaffer told ABC News.



DHS recommends people find an "accessible escape path" and run to evacuate the premises in the event of an active shooter. But if an evacuation isn't possible, they advise finding a place to hide "where the active shooter is less likely to find you."



But hiding should be an absolute last resort, Shaffer said.



Hiding under your desk is hands-down the wrong thing to do, Shaffer said. There needs to be a new shift to stress the importance of getting out of the school building.



In the 19 years since 12 students and a teacher lost their lives in the Columbine shooting, schools around the country drill for active shooters as they do for fires or bomb threats, but the central tenet of the drills differs.



In fire drills or bomb threats, students practice moving away from the danger by evacuating the building. In lockdown drills for active shooters, teachers and students are taught to shelter in place in the same building with the gunman, often without proper doors and locks to barricade themselves or weapons to defend themselves, experts said.



If someone told you there was a bomb in your building, would you get under your desk or would you leave the building? Grollnek said. You would get out. An active shooter is the same thing as a ticking bomb in your building.



Both Grollnek and Shaffer agree that unless teachers and students know the gunman is right outside their classroom door, they should make every effort to evacuate the building and move away from the gunman rather than hide, potentially making themselves easy targets.



You dont want to stay there and be hunted by a sociopath, Shaffer said. The only exception is if he is right outside your door.



Shaffer advises the best way to evacuate a classroom during a shooting is out the window, rather than moving the children through hallways that the shooter might be firing down. His own daughter is a special education teacher in Virginia, and he advises her to keep heavy cans of soup and a pillowcase in her classroom. In the event of a shooting, she can put the soup cans into the pillowcase and use those everyday items as a bludgeon to break the window and move her students to safety, he said.



If a classroom is not on the ground floor, it becomes more difficult to evacuate children out the window, which is why Shaffer recommends that classrooms are outfitted with emergency ladders, which retail for as little as $35, to move students safely to the ground.



Before teachers can initiate an evacuation of their classroom, Shaffer said they need to be sure the gunman will not be able to enter their room as theyre moving children out the window. He advises schools outfit their classroom doors with hydraulic locks that have a sleeve that teachers can slide over the hinges to prevent the door from being opened.



In a high-stress situation, you cant have a door that has to be locked with a key. Your motor skills go out the window under that kind of stress, so doors have to be easily locked, Shaffer said.



Once the door is locked, teachers need to work with their students to barricade the door with as many heavy pieces of furniture as possible and look for improvised weapons they can use against the shooter in the event he is able to enter the classroom while they are evacuating out the window.



Shaffer also tells his daughter, the special education teacher, to keep a hammer, a box cutter, a screwdriver, wasp spray and a fire extinguisher in her desk. The hammer, box cutter and screwdriver can be used to wound the gunman at close range, while the wasp spray and fire extinguisher can be sprayed at the shooter from a distance. The wasp spray functions much like pepper spray does, while a shot from the fire extinguisher in the eyes will temporarily blind the gunman, Shaffer said.



Mac Hardy -- former teacher, police officer and school resource officer and current director of operations for the National Association of School Resource Officers -- agrees that, in certain circumstances, evacuating students may be the best policy, but argues that in other situations, it may not be possible to get students out of the building. In that case, teachers need to know how to shelter in place effectively, he said.



Sheltering in place is still a viable option. Evacuating is also an option, but we have to teach teachers where is a safe place to take students so they are behind cover and concealed, Hardy said.



Its not as easy as saying everyone should flee. If I have a class of 20 7-year-olds with me, we arent going to move anywhere fast, and some of these kids may not be able to move at all because of fear, he added.



What you dont want to do is evacuate into the shooters arm, said Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers. Thats part of the reason people said to shelter in place.



But Weingarten said the idea of evacuation should be considered, especially if it takes the idea of arming teachers off the table.



Arming teachers would cross a red line of schools becoming armed fortresses instead of sanctuaries of safety and learning, she said.



Even if teachers have no other choice than to move students through a hallway where a gunman might be shooting, experts say that is still a better option than hiding.



The hit rate on a moving target is less than 4 percent, so by running, you have a 96 percent chance of getting away. And even if you are hit, the fatality rate is less than 0.1 percent," Shaffer said.



Running is always your best option, Shaffer added.



When asked for comment, DHS referred ABC News to its policy.



Copyright  2018, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.Surrounded by family, one last time...

After Bollywood and her fans paid their last respects to Sridevi, it was time for her to make her final journey.

Draped in the Tricolour, the actress was taken in an open bus, decorated with white flowers to the Seva Samaj Crematorium, Vile Parle, north west Mumbai.

Her film-maker husband Boney Kapoor, stepson Arjun Kapoor and other family members were with the body as it left the building.

As crowds mobbed the vehicle -- with some climbing on trees and clambering on gates to get a better look -- Arjun requested them with folded hands to let the funeral procession pass through.

Large crowds followed the bus, as it snaked its way slowly to the crematorium.

Janhvi Kapoor, Sridevi's elder daughter, is inconsolable as her dad Boney Kapoor looks out for her.

Arjun Kapoor sets the flowers.

Khushi Kapoor, Sridevi's younger daughter, right, with cousin Akshay Marwah next to her.

Sridevi's picture dominates the bus.

Janhvi and Boney Kapoor escort her mortal remains.

Next to Boney is nephew Akshay Marwah.

Mohit Marwah, Arjun Kapoor and Anil Kapoor were also in the bus.

Huge crowds try to capture her last journey.

The cortege took one hour 40 minutes to reach the crematorium.

Nearly 200 policemen were present at the venue to keep the crowds in check.

Photographs: Pradeep Bandekar'As of now, it may be best for India to insist that Yameen honours the supreme court rulings and ensures that the next election is free and fair,' says Brigadier S K Chatterji (retd).



IMAGE: Then Progressive Party of Maldives presidential candidate Abdulla Yameen speaks to the media after casting his vote during the presidential election in Male, November 9, 2013.

Yameen is now the Maldives' president and it is uncertain if he will permit a free and fair election this November, given his recent refusal to adhere to democratic convention and honour supreme court rulings. Photograph: Waheed Mohamed/Reuters

The Maldives problem gets murkier by the day.

The Maldivian president's move to extend the state of emergency on the islands by another 30 days has run into rough waters.

With the entire Opposition walking out, the requirement of 50 percent lawmakers being present in the House could not be fulfilled.

Reports of protests have started to appear in the Maldivian press. Instead of finding a way out of the impasse, the Maldivian president has remained uncompromising. The path he will take hereafter remains unclear.

Perhaps, President Abdulla Yameen has bitten more than he can chew.

The arrests of the chief justice and another judge, half a dozen parliamentarians and reporters, the detention of former President Gayoom and the declaration of an emergency was definitely stretching it too far.

The actions taken against the judges is bound to be viewed by Maldivians as an attempt to subjugate the judiciary and extend the president's control over an institution considered off-limits by all democratic nations.

The Maldivian armed forces have so far been neutral -- as they ought to be -- and are only executing orders emanating from Male, the capital. However, should unrest on the streets continue, the current status may be stressed even further. Two senior police officers have already been shunted out.

Yameen seems to count on the support of at least three countries as he tries to clear the deck of Opposition heavyweights before the general election later this year.

His envoys visited China, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan immediately after his declaration of a state of emergency. India refused to host Yameen's envoy.

The envoys didn't come back empty handed. Saudi Arabia and Yemen promised the Maldives $16 million to develop Male airport and fisheries.

Though the Chinese have not yet displayed any signs of intended intervention, Beijing has unequivocally warned against outside intervention. This warning is undoubtedly directed at India, the Maldives' most proximate major power that has the capability of using hard power on the islands.

The Indian position thus far has been limited to the clear enunciation of what it expects the Maldives to do.

Among the Indian requirements are that Yameen respect and abide by the supreme court ruling that calls for the release of nine political prisoners. Amongst the prisoners is former president Mohammed Nasheed, currently living in exile in Sri Lanka.

The supreme court also reinstated 12 MPs who had defected to the Opposition. Effectively, the opposition will enjoy a majority in the 85 member House should these members be permitted to adorn parliament's benches once again.

India also insists on the release of the chief justice and the supreme court judge.

The cracks in the India-Maldives relationship have been widening for quite some time now. The differences were more than apparent when the Male airport development contract being executed by the Indian infrastructure company GMR was terminated in 2012 and thereafter given to a Chinese firm in 2014.

In 2016, India and Maldives signed a defence action plan during Yameen's visit to New Delhi. However, the Maldives' 'India First' policy -- touted by Yameen during his visit -- has been replaced by a 'China First' approach.

The Indian establishment has been unable to gain adequate influence in Male, notwithstanding visits by Minister of State for External Affairs M J Akbar and the previous foreign secretary, Dr S Jaishankar.

Notwithstanding the situation as it exists now, there is a need to deny more space to China in the Maldives.

Yameen had amended the Maldivian constitution in 2015 allowing foreigners to own land in the Maldives. He followed this up by leasing Feydhoo Finolhu, an uninhabited island barely 5 km from Male, to the Chinese for 40 years. The island is barely 75 km away from India's exclusive economic zone.

The Maldives has listed close to a dozen islands and three lagoons for leasing. Like Finolhu, these are also to be developed as tourist resorts. However, should the Chinese establish a radar station on Finolhu, they can monitor India's entire western coast.

The Chinese are also keen to establish a base near the One and Half Degree Channel. During the current crisis, Yameen did try to open the doors for the Chinese to send in troops when he stated that China could move in its military personnel to protect Chinese assets.

The Chinese declined, knowing only too well that such an act would lead to India moving its forces.

The threat of Chinese dominance of Male is not the only discordant note.

Radicalisation of Maldivian youth needs to be addressed urgently.

A substantial number of young Maldivians joined ISIS. Their return, after the reverses ISIS suffered in Iraq and Syria, is bound to give an impetus to radicalisation on the islands, if it is not addressed immediately.

According to some estimates, over 200 Maldivians joined ISIS. In per capita terms, the Maldives is amongst the top manpower contributors to ISIS.

As of now, it may be best for India to insist that Yameen honours the supreme court rulings and ensures that the next election is free and fair.

The Maldivian Opposition will surely ask for outside supervision of the November election and that is perhaps essential keeping in view Yameen's ham-handed ways.

Yameen did wave an olive branch when the Maldives announced the extension of the emergency. He offered talks with the Opposition. It is an opportunity that the Opposition should accept conditionally, and the conditions should include the release of political prisoners and United Nations representation.

India needs to establish a more tangible military relationship with the Maldives once the current crisis is resolved.

Such a relationship could start with positioning a military team in the Maldives to train the islands' defence forces to fight terrorism.

India must also provide additional economic assistance to the Maldives to counter the Chinese ingress.

By itself, India may be unable to match the Chinese offers, keeping in view its other contesting overseas priorities.

However, the Quad -- India, the US, Australia and Japan that needs to transform into a more dynamic partnership -- could coordinate its actions and address both the Maldives and other vulnerabilities in the Indo-Pacific.'It can't be a coincidence that he and his family, uncles and all, vanished from India only days before the scam was discovered.'

'Surely someone senior in the government alerted him that the scandal was about to break,' says Aakar Patel.



Illustration: Dominic Xavier/Rediff.com

Nirav Modi joins a list of smart young Gujarati men -- including Harshad Mehta, Hiten Dalal, Jatin Mehta and Ketan Parekh -- who have in the last few years easily taken thousands of crores each from taxpayers.

I say taxpayers because though the money vanished from public sector banks, it is the citizen's money that is being stolen.

Punjab National Bank has said it will raise about Rs 5,500 crore from the government by selling it shares at Rs 163. The market price of the share is Rs 113 and falling.

And so you and I are paying a premium of Rs 50 per share for investing in an incompetent bank that has squandered our money.

We are being assured that once this extra money is pumped in all will be fine. This is, of course, bogus and a repeat of what has happened to us in the same way several times before is bound to happen again.

What we know as the stock market scam was actually a banking fraud just like Nirav Modi's and Jatin Mehta's.

The journalists Debashish Basu and Sucheta Dalal wrote a book, The Scam: From Harshad Mehta to Ketan Parekh. They revised it with the title 'Also includes JPC fiasco and Global Trust Bank scam'. I fear they will have to keep revising it because this wretched nation seems to have no shortage of huge banking frauds.

Of the Harshad Mehta matter, Basu and Dalal write that 'the scam was so gigantic that it was easy to lose perspective. Larger than the health budget, larger than the education budget, it made millions of rupees look like loose change.'

'As the stock prices started crashing all over the country, following the most explosive and absurd rise over the previous six months, the scam -- fifty times the size of Bofors -- invaded middle-class homes like a whirlwind.'

Mehta bought securities for State Bank of India but did not deliver them, instead using the money to speculate.

Basu and Dalal write that 'in this scheme, he was aided by the blue-blooded ANZ Grindlays Bank and the National Housing Bank, the fully-owned subsidiary of the Reserve Bank of India. Both freely credited cheques to Harshad's account.'

'Harshad also managed to operate SBI's account maintained with RBI as his own, putting through fictitious purchases and sales through that account and having his own bank account credited or debited corresponding to such buying/selling.'

The infection, as is absolutely clear, is total.

It is absurd to pin it on one or two employees of any bank. The one cure and the only cure is to ensure that there is rule of law. Not in any specific case, but in all cases from traffic violations to murder.

The criminal justice system must be functional. The State must respect and follow due process -- always and without exception -- even when it may appear to be going soft on the accused.

This is very, very, hard work, but there is no other cure.

Is this the cure being administered by the government when we look at recent high profile cases and at events around us? I will leave it for the reader to judge.

Prime Minister Narendra D Modi has still to address the Nirav Modi matter. Without naming him or the bank, Modi said on Friday, 'I want to appeal to those who have been given the task of framing rules and maintaining ethics in financial institutions to perform their duty with full faith, particularly those who have been given the responsibility of monitoring and supervision.'

The prime minister said 'We will continue to take action,' and that the inappropriate use of the people's money would not be accepted by the new system created by the government.

Of course, others have said this same thing before when the money was lost under them and the scams have continued.

As a nation and a culture we seem to have no immunity at all against the smooth talking Gujarati youth who easily can take our banking system for a ride.

Harshad Mehta called his investment philosophy 'replacement cost theory'. The idea was to value an established company's shares not based on its current earnings, but what it would require to replace it if it did not exist.

Only in his early 30s when he was named Big Bull, he was celebrated and lionised as a genius.

We are told Nirav Modi had begun milking Punjab National Bank seven years ago. It cannot be a coincidence that he and his family, uncles and all, vanished from India only days before the scam was discovered.

Surely someone senior in the government alerted him that the scandal was about to break.

In that same speech referred to above, Modi appealed to those entrusted with the task of monitoring and vigilance to do their job with full diligence.

'I wish to make it clear that this government will take stringent action against financial irregularities. The system will not accept irregular accumulation of public money. This is the basic mantra of New Economy-New Rule.'

Whether or not one believes these words given the track record, we should all hope that our country develops greater immunity to the plunder of public funds.

An end to the sequence of Mehta, Dalal, Parekh and Modi would be a relief.

Meanwhile it would be a blessing on all of us if the PM could stop at least this aspect of the Gujarat Model from visiting the rest of the country again.

Aakar Patel is Executive Director, Amnesty International India. The views expressed here are his own.Suspended Bharatiya Janata Party leader Manoj Baitha, accused of mowing down nine school children in Muzaffarpur last week, has surrendered before police, a senior official said on Wednesday.

"Baitha surrendered at my official residence at about 1 am," Senior Superintendent of Police, Muzaffarpur, Vivek Kumar told PTI over phone.

Baitha had sustained injuries on his hand after his vehicle rammed into a wall after ploughing through a group of school children, killing nine of them, Kumar said.

He was taken to the Sadar Hospital at Muzaffarpur for treatment where doctors referred him to the PMCH at Patna, the police official said.

"He has been admitted to the PMCH where a police party is keeping a close watch. Further action will be taken in due course", he said.

A former district level worker from Sitamarhi district, Baitha was suspended from the BJP on Monday after the hit-and-run case that took place in Minapur police station area of Muzaffarpur on Saturday.

The opposition Rashtriya Janata Dal has alleged that Baitha was in an inebriated state while driving the vehicle, in flagrant violation of the ban on sale and consumption of alcohol in Bihar, and that the ruling dispensation was trying to "shield" him.

Meanwhile, in a statement issued in Patna, spokesman of the ruling Janata Dal-United Neeraj Kumar said, "The canards of the opposition now stand exposed. They should now apologise for indulging in politics over the tragic death of innocent children.

"Our government neither frames anybody in false cases nor does it patronize those accused of any crime," the statement added.Karti Chidambaram was arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation on Wednesday on the basis of confessional statements of INX Media Limited directors Peter and Indrani Mukerjea, alleging that they paid $7 lakh to him on the instructions of his father P Chidamabaram, as quid pro quo for a Foreign Investment Promotion Board clearance, officials said.

The statements of the Mukerjeas were recorded by the Enforcement Directorate, which is probing the money laundering angle in the case, while the CBI had only recorded Indranis statement before a magistrate as per section 164 of the CrPC, they said.

Karti, 46, was arrested by the CBI from the Chennai airport on his return from London in connection with the agencys probe in the INX Media case.

Both Peter and Indrani had alleged that they met the then Finance Minister P Chidambaram at his North Block office, seeking clearance for foreign investments in their media company after the Income Tax department detected irregularities in these instances, in 20o7.

Chidambaram had then asked them to help the business of his son and make foreign remittances for the purpose, the officials said, quoting from the statements of the Mukerjeas.

The couple had also admitted that they subsequently met Karti at a five-star hotel in Delhi, where he allegedly made a demand of $1 million, they said, adding that this was reiterated by Indrani before the magistrate as well.

Indrani, they said, had confirmed in her statement to the CBI and ED that a payment of $7 lakh was made to the bank accounts of overseas firms linked to Karti.

Peter and Indrani, facing trial for allegedly killing their daughter Sheena Bora, had said in their statement that Karti suggested to them the names of firms such as Chess Management and Advantage Strategic for the payments.

The Sheena Bora murder case is being probed by the CBI.

INX Media, as part of the alleged quid pro quo (a Latin term, meaning something for something), had made a payment of over Rs 9.96 lakh to Advantage Strategic Consulting Private Limited (ASCPL), a firm allegedly controlled by Karti, by a cheque issued on July 15, 2008, the officials said.

While the invoice issued by ASCPL claimed that the service rendered by it to INX Media was management consultancy, the ledger extract sent by the latter to the probe agencies showed that the payment was made for replying towards FIPB notification and clarification, they added.

The ED, they said, had seized four invoices of $7 lakh, drawn by ASCPL, its Singapore subsidiary, another linked company identified as NorthStar Software Solutions Pvt Ltd and Geben Trading Ltd, after it recently raided the offices of Karti and his chartered accountant, Bhaskararaman.

During the raids, the ED had also recovered digital evidence and invoices raised on INX Media Limited, sources said.

They added that ASCPL had also received payments on behalf of Karti in other cases, where money was paid in proximity to approvals given by the ministry of finance, including from Aircel Televentures Limited for an FIPB approval for the sale of its shares in Aircel Limited to Maxis in March, 2006.

Image: Karti Chidambaram, son of former Finance Minister P Chidambaram, was remanded to 1-day CBI custody. Photograph: Adnan Abidi/ReutersThe former finance minister's only child was arrested at Chennai airport.

IMAGE: Karti Chidambaram, son of former union minister P Chidambaram, being escorted by police personnel along with CBI officials to the Patiala House Court in New Delhi. Photograph: Arun Sharma/PTI Photo

Karti Chidambaram, arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation in connection with the probe into the INX Media case, was on Wednesday sent for one-day custodial interrogation by a Delhi court.

Though the CBI had sought 15-day remand for the custodial interrogation of Karti, duty magistrate Sumeet Anand granted a days custody, making it clear that he should be produced before the concerned special judge on Thursday at 2.30 pm.

Duty magistrate is a judge before whom an accused is produced when the concerned judge is not available or when any accused is produced after the regular court hours. In this case, the concerned special judge had left the court premises around 4.30 pm, about 20 minutes before Karti was brought to the court.

Karti, who was arrested in the morning at Chennai airport after he landed there from London, was produced before Metropolitan Magistrate Sumeet Anand around 4.50 pm when the CBI sought his custody to quiz him for unearthing the total conspiracy in the case claiming he was not cooperating in the probe.

During the hearing, CBIs prosecutor V K Sharma told the court that Karti has not cooperated in the investigation and he has been repeatedly travelling abroad which confirmed apprehensions that he will flee from the country.

He alleged that one of the grounds for arresting Karti was that the CBI had recorded statement of Indrani Mukerjea, former Director of INX Media (P) Ltd, before a magistrate on February 17 in which she had said that Karti had accepted one million dollars from INX Media at the Hyatt Hotel.

Karti arrest vendetta: Congress The Congress dubbed the arrest of senior leader P Chidambarams son Karti Chidambaram a diversionary tactic by the government to hide its scams and said political vendetta would not deter the party from speaking the truth. A band of Congress leaders, including the partys communications in-charge Randeep Surjewala, Kapil Sibal and Abhishek Singhvi, came out in support of Karti Chidambaram, sharply criticising his arrest. It was a classic diversionary tactic to hide corruption scams, mal-governance and mal-administration that have marred this government, Surjewala said. The Congress party will not be deterred by the unleashing of vendetta against Mr P Chidambaram or his family. We will continue to speak the truth. We will continue to expose the Modi governments corruption and we will continue to hold them accountable to the people of the country, he told reporters. Senior Congress leader Sibal termed the arrest malafide and said it was done to harass P Chidambaram. This is complete vendetta politics. This is completely malafide, he said

Opposing the CBIs contentions, senior advocate A M Singhvi, appearing for Karti, said it was a bizarre case and no grounds for arrest were made out.

It is a bizarre case at the threshold. It is not a case of arrest, leave aside police custody or judicial custody, Singhvi told the court while opposing the CBIs remand plea.

He also argued that Karti was summoned twice by the CBI on August 23 and 28 last year and he was interrogated for 22 hours by the agency.

Singhvi said, There are no reasons given for the arrest. It is because you (CBI) want to show it to your bosses that you are doing some work.

Unlike others, I (Karti) am not Hindustan leaver and instead I am Hindustan returner, he said and claimed that Karti was cooperating with the CBI and the court might impose any condition while releasing him from the agencys custody.

I (Karti) am not a fugitive, Singhvi, who was assisted by senior advocates Dayan Krishnan and Mohit Mathur, told the court.

IMAGE: Earlier in the day, Karti was taken into custody by a team of CBI officials at the Chennai airport on his return from the United Kingdom. Photograph: Ravi Choudhary/PTI Photo

The CBI, in its remand plea, has alleged that Karti had not cooperated in the investigation by joining the same until compelled to do so by the Supreme Court and he vehemently denied that he or his company had any interaction with INX Media on any matter including FIPB related matter despite evidence to the contrary.

Thus, Karti Chidambaram needs to be subjected to sustained interrogation for unearthing the total conspiracy hatched in the case and also to find out the details of overseas payments received by him from INX Media as a quid pro quo for influence exercised by him over the public servants to scuttle the punitive action required to be taken against M/s INX Media (P) Ltd for the illegal acts of receiving excess investment than the approved FDI and also for making of downstream investment without the FIPB approval. For this purpose, his police custody remand for a period of 15 days is considered essential, the remand plea said.

The agency claimed that Kartis frequent visits abroad have confirmed apprehensions of his tampering with the evidence lying abroad against him and others in the form of secret note received from the Ministry of Finance.

It said the secret note received from the finance ministry was also shown in a sealed cover to the apex court and the Madras High Court while objecting to Kartis foreign visits and justifying the look out circular issued against him.

At the outset, the court allowed the request of Kartis lawyers to have an interaction with him inside the court room for 10 minutes, after which the proceedings resumed.

When Karti was brought from CBI headquarters here to the Patiala House court premises and taken to the courtroom, he told waiting scribes, Its absolutely a political vendetta. I will be vindicated.

Earlier in the day, Karti was taken into custody by a team of CBI officials at the Chennai airport on his return from the United Kingdom.

The CBI had lodged an FIR on May 15 last year alleging irregularities in the Foreign Investment Promotion Board clearance to INX Media for receiving overseas funds to the tune of Rs 305 crore in 2007 when P Chidambaram was the Union finance minister.

It also alleged that Karti had received funds to the tune of Rs 10 lakh in the case.

The case was lodged by CBI for alleged offences under sections 120-B (criminal conspiracy) read with 420 (cheating) of the IPC and under relevant provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act.

CBI also alleged that Karti had also received money from INX Media to scuttle a tax probe. The firm was owned at the time by Peter and Indrani Mukerjea, who are currently in jail on charges of allegedly murdering Indranis daughter Sheena Bora. The Enforcement Directorate has also registered a money laundering case in the INX Media matter.Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is standing by a senior government official who suggested that a convicted Sikh terrorists presence at a formal dinner was arranged by factions within the Indian government to sabotage his visit to India, according to media reports on Wednesday.

During his first question period since arriving back in Canada, opposition MPs grilled Trudeau on Tuesday about invitations issued to Jaspal Atwal -- a Sikh convicted of attempting to assassinate an Indian cabinet minister in 1986 -- to attend two events with him in India, The Star reported.

In a background briefing arranged by the Prime Ministers Office, a government official last week suggested that Atwals presence was arranged by factions within the Indian government who want to prevent Prime Minister Narendra Modi from getting too cosy with a foreign government they believe is not committed to a united India, the paper said.

Conservatives identified the official as Trudeaus national security adviser, Daniel Jean, and they pressed Trudeau to say whether he agrees with Jeans conspiracy theory, it said.

A senior security official made these allegations. Does the prime minister agree or disavow those allegations? asked Opposition Leader Andrew Scheer.

Trudeau defended the official as a member of the professional, non-partisan public service that provides quality advice, the paper said.

He accused the previous Conservative government of using the public service for partisan ends, saying they torqued the public service every possible way they could.

And they do not understand that our professional, non-partisan public service does high quality work. And when one of our top diplomats and security officials says something to Canadians, its because they know it to be true.

Conservative MPs pressed Trudeau to provide evidence to back the assertion, but it was left to Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale to field those questions.

Before our prime minister destroys our relationship with our ally, the government and country of India, will he please tell this House what proof he has of that allegation? asked Tory MP Candice Bergen.

Goodale said Bergen was providing her interpretation of events and said her insinuations and her accusations are false.

New Democrat MP Charlie Angus asserted that Atwal -- who has been photographed over the years posing with various Liberal MPs, ministers and leaders, including Trudeau himself -- turned up on the trip because his presence was useful to local Liberals back in Canada.

He accused Trudeau of using a senior civil servant to spin a conspiracy theory that somehow the Indian government is trying to make the Liberals look bad.

What was the prime minister thinking, putting the interests of the Liberal machine ahead of national security, international relations and Canadas reputation? Angus demanded.

Atwal, a one-time member of a Sikh separatist group that is banned in Canada and India as a terrorist organisation, 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.

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.

Shortly after endorsing the officials theory that factions in the Indian government arranged Atwals presence to embarrass Trudeau, the prime minister met with Liberal MP Randeep Sarai late Tuesday.

Sarai, who had put Atwal on the guest list for a reception at the residence of Canadian high commissioner Nadir Patel in India, offered to resign as the chair of the partys Pacific caucus after the controversy. Trudeau accepted Sarais offer.

News of Atwals presence was an embarrassing setback for Trudeau, who had spent much of his trip trying to reassure Indian political leaders that Canada does not support separatist Sikh extremists.

Infrastructure Minister Amarjeet Sohi, who was also photographed with Atwal in Mumbai, said he had no idea who Atwal was and simply posed for a picture when asked.The freeze in United States security aid to Pakistan will continue as it is yet to take any decisive action against the Taliban and the Haqqani network.

"That's the current posture. And I would imagine, hopefully, in the future, well have an opportunity to (review)," General Joseph Votel, Commander of the US Central Command, told members of the Senate Armed Services Committee when asked about the future of freeze of American security assistance to Pakistan.

"So, we remain in a posture of discontinuing that support (to Pakistan)," inquired Indiana Senator Jim Banks.

Votel said the US has started to see an increase in communication, information sharing and actions on the ground in response to specific US requests.

"These are positive indicators," he said, adding that "however, ongoing national counter-terrorism efforts against anti-Pakistan militants throughout the country have not yet translated into the definitive actions we require Pakistan to take against Afghan Taliban or Haqqani leaders,"

"This problem is compounded by increasing cross-border terrorist attacks and fires between Pakistan and Afghanistan, which hinders both countries abilities to coordinate on border security," Votel said.

The US, he said, has preserved its valuable military-to-military relationship with Pakistan and attempted to increase transparency and communication with influential military leaders, while pressing its serious concerns about the country's provision of sanctuary and support to militant and terrorist groups that target the US personnel and interests.

"Achieving long-term stability in Afghanistan and defeating the insurgency will be difficult without Pakistan's support and assistance," he said.

Although most security assistance for Pakistan is currently suspended, since 2002 Pakistan has been among the largest recipients of US provided Foreign Military Financing and International Military Education and Training, the general said.

He said to date Pakistan has also been reimbursed hundreds of millions of dollars in Coalition Support Funds for counter-insurgency operations that support US security objectives in the region.

The US uses ground and air routes in Pakistan to deliver materiel to Afghanistan, he said, adding that "we also have options to utilize routes through the other Central Asian nations".

Responding to a question from Senator Banks, Votel said the pressure that the Trump Administration has put on Pakistan has contributed to the recent seen positive response from Islamabad.

"I think what is also working right now is the approach that we have in place with them. I think we have tried to be very clear in terms of the things that we Pakistan to do for us. And what I have endeavoured to do -- not always in a public way, but in a private way -- is develop a relationship that allows us to provide feedback both ways," he said.

There are things, frankly, that Pakistan has asked from the US as well, he said. "So this is a two-way street here. It is my responsibility to make sure that we have feedback loops in place that go back and forth between the things that were doing to try support each other and moving forward in that regard."

He said it was important to recognise that Pakistan as a country has suffered greatly from terrorism, "perhaps as much as anybody in the region, or maybe as anybody around the world". "They have taken a number of measures to address terrorism within their borders," the general said.

"That has contributed, over the years, to some increased security in the area. And we have to recognise at up front. So our approach is to continue to be engaged with them. We want to have a candid discussion. We want to have frequent communication. We want to build trust in this relationship," Votel said.

US says India, Pakistan would have to sit and talk on border tension

India and Pakistan need to sit and talk about their ongoing border tension, the Trump Administration said.

"We think that both sides would certainly have to sit down and have talks about that," State Department spokesperson Heather Nauert told reporters at her daily news conference.

She was responding to a question on what role the US can play to ease down the tensions between the two neighbouring countries.

The Indian and Pakistan issue was also raked up by a top American general at the US Congress.

"The enduring tension between the nuclear powers of India and Pakistan remains unreconciled," General Joseph Votel, Commander of the US Central Command, said in his testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee.

'Taliban doesn't seem to be ready for peace talks'

The Taliban as this point of time does not seem to be ready for peace talks, Nauert said, asserting that any such talks have to be "Afghan-led and Afghan-owned".

In a way, the Trump administration, ruled out direct talks with the Taliban, which was being sought by the terrorist outfit in a letter to the US.

"We certainly saw this letter and are aware of this letter. Any peace talks with Afghanistan have to be Afghan-led and Afghan-owned. That has long been our policy," the spokesperson said.

She said that the Taliban, "unfortunately", does not seem ready at this point to sit down and have conversations about peace talks.

"We hope eventually they will, because that is the best way to be able to have peace in Afghanistan," Nauert said responding to a question on the letter released by the Taliban.

"Ultimately, we don't see there being a military solution to the situation in Afghanistan. Ultimately, it has to be a political situation," she said.

"That can best be done," she said if the Taliban was willing to sit down and have talks.

"Certainly the United States could have a role in that. But that's really up to Afghanistan, but it has to be Afghan-led and Afghan-owned," Nauert asserted.'The Kanchi Mutt was energised by Pudu Periyava.'

'Instead of people coming to the Mutt, he has taken the Mutt to the people in several dimensions.'



IMAGE: Sri Jayendra Saraswati, the shankaracharya of Kanchi, with Lucknow Imam Maulana Khalid Rasheed in Lucknow, October 2014.

M R Venkatesh, the well-known chartered accountant and political commentator, has been a devotee of the Kanchi Mutt from the time he can remember.

Here, he pays tribute to the Kanchi seer, Jayendra Saraswati, who passed away on Wednesday, February 28, 2018.

As told to Shobha Warrier.

I do not know how I am going to fill the vacuum Swamiji has created in my life.

I was totally shattered by the news of his passing, but then I remembered his words -- that life is eternal. I took solace that death is inevitable.

Those who have experienced his divinity, that will be extremely personal in nature and I will remember those moments.

I have been going to the Kanchi Mutt as a child with my parents.

Going to the Mutt was like going to a second home for many of us. At that time, Periyava (Chandrashekarendra Saraswati, the senior shankaracharya of Kanchi), the Maha Swami, was alive, hence the attention was on him.

In fact, there is no devotee of a particular person. Everybody is a devotee of the Kanchi Mutt.

To all the devotees of the Mutt, till Maha Periyava was alive, he was the Guru.

Traditional Mutt devotees do not use the names of the seers. They were Maha Periyava, Pudu Periyava (Jayendra Saraswati) and Bala Periyava (Vijayendra Saraswati).

When Periyava was alive, he (Jayendra Saraswati) was Pudu Periyava. Though he had been there for 60 odd years, he was Pudu Periyava to all his devotees.

From today onwards, the head of the Mutt will be Bala Periyava.

The reverence is always to the institution as much as it is for the man.

Last year, in February, I had gone to the Mutt to pay my respects. He (Jayendra Saraswati) didn't speak much then.

After I came out, I had a call from Dr Subramanian Swamy. He wanted to know where I was.

When I said I was outside Pudu Periyava's cabin, he wanted me to go back and do namaskaram on his behalf.

I went inside and told him that Dr Swamy wanted me to do namaskaram on his behalf. He just smiled and let me do it. He then asked me to sit.

There was not much of a conversation between us and after 10, 15 minutes, when I got up to leave, he asked me to wait and went inside.

After 45 minutes, he came back, gave me darshan and gave me a spadika mala (crystal chain). I was taken aback by his love.

That was the last time I met him.

But the last time I had an interaction with the Mutt was when Republic TV broke a story on his conversation with a policeman. The channel was going hammer and tong against the Mutt and Pudu Periyava.

I kept quiet as it was an old story with no evidential value in the eyes of the law.

Then, somebody from the Mutt requested me to speak on the Mutt's behalf and I did. The next day, I got a call from the Mutt -- I do not know whether it was on instruction from Swamiji. I was told the Mutt was very happy with what I said on the channel.

I took it as his blessings.

One of the most depressing moments for all of us was when Pudu Periyava was arrested. We were not just upset, but seething with anger.

The calumny that was heaped on Pudu Periyava by the local media was basically to dismiss the fair image of the Mutt.

Thanks to a very fair trial, he came out unscathed. Today, Jayalalithaa (whose government arrested the Kanchi shankaracharya) is no more and Swamiji) also is no more.

There are times when you don't rationalise things and the relationship with the Mutt is one such thing.

The Mutt is a spiritual gangotri for most Hindus, especially south of the Vindhyas. All of us Hindus have some sort of a symbiotic relationship with the Mutt.

It is just not Brahmins who are devotees of the Mutt. Moreover, a sanyasi is not a Brahmin; he doesn't have a scared thread. There is nothing Brahminical about the Mutt.

Whenever we pass through Kancheepuram, there has to be a stopover at the Kanchi Mutt. It was like a part of our extended family. To reduce it to just a place of worship would be violence to the very thought of the Mutt.

If Maha Periyava was a disciplinarian and confined to Mutt activities, Pudu Periyava will be remembered for his conscious outreach to all sections of people, especially Dalits who were not traditionally covered.

I will not call him a social reformer or anything like that. He made an outreach to all Hindus and there were activities in the secular domain like in health and education.

That way, I would say, the Mutt was energised by Pudu Periyava. Instead of people coming to the Mutt, he has taken the Mutt to the people in several dimensions.'He will always live in the hearts of the millions of children who have studied in schools and colleges established by him and the faithful Hindus to whom he was a symbol of the invincible spirit of glorious Hindu Dharma,' says Tarun Vijay.



IMAGE: Jayendra Saraswati, the sankaracharya of Kanchi, who passed into the ages on February 28, 2018. Photograph: PTI

It was 1992. In the wake of the Ayodhya movement, I met the Kanchi seer Jayendra Saraswatiji for the first time.

I asked him: "People say a lot about the way Hindu sanyasis work. They don't help the so-called lower castes, they don't serve people, but only preach. What do you have to say?"

I was the editor of Panchjanya at that time and perhaps he didn't expect a question like this.

He paused and said: "We don't have to answer everyone. Ask them what they have done and tell them to find out what we are doing. Then you may repeat this question."

Then he laughed -- a very innocent, child-like, laugh.

I again asked: "Isn't it a reflection on Hindus that even after centuries they have not been able to get back the Ram temple?"

He smiled and said, "Why do you forget the centuries of resistance and success in protecting Dharma? It's a long struggle and soon the temple will be there. I have full faith."

On both counts, the Kanchi seer was right, and so perfectly.

Not only have I found hundreds of educational and medical centres of excellence run by Hindu monks in various parts of the country -- serving wonderfully, with humility to all, without discrimination -- I also discovered they were helping to erase caste-based hatred and apartheid.

As far as the Ram temple in Ayodhya is concerned, I think the Kanchi seer saw it coming in his last days -- and we all feel more hopeful now, more than ever before.

The Kanchi shankaracharya, Jayendra Saraswatiji, started India's best eye hospital, the Sankara Nethralaya.

Described as 'Temples of the Eye', the Sankara Nethralayas serve all -- Hindus, Muslims, Christians -- in huge numbers, from down south to Punjab and up to the north east.

It is Kanchi Shankaracharya Jayendra Saraswatiji's great vision and commitment to serve the people, providing world class medical service at minimum cost.

He was an embodiment of Dharma -- in the footsteps of the living legend, Paramacharya, the 68th Shankaracharya, Chandrasekharendra Saraswati.

He inspired and saw to it to have the best schools, colleges and medical centres across the country.

He established temples with such finesse and grace that they serve Hindus in a great, harmonious, manner, showcasing the best and brilliant in Dharma traditions.

The Sankara Nethralaya Web site tells us: 'It was in 1976 when addressing a group of doctors, His Holiness Sri Jayendra Saraswati, the sankaracharya of the Kanchi Kamakoti Peetam, spoke of the need to create a hospital with a missionary spirit.'

'His words marked the beginning of a long journey to do God's own work.'

Strangely, often, the secular Hindu class attacks the saints and priests of Hindu Dharma, but never highlight their services to humanity, provided without discrimination, given to everyone.

The Kanchi seer was ahead of his times.

He began training Dalit archakas (priests) years earlier. He visited their temples and consecrated those centres of faith. He joined Kumbhabhishekams organised by them.

His special attention on the north east -- by establishing schools, hospitals and centres of Vedic studies -- is exemplary and an inspiration to all those who want to serve India and protect Hindu Dharma.

When we started the Sindhu Darshan festival in Leh in 1996, he was happy, saying this would bring the glory of the Indus back to the nation. He wanted it to be a collective event of Hindus and Buddhists.

In spite of being a harsh, cold, climate, he visited Sindhu and performed a special Sindhu Pujan, which he never forgot and always mentioned whenever I met him.

When the Kanchi seer was invited to Rashtrapati Bhavan, Colonel Ashok Kini -- President A P J Abdul Kalam's ADC -- tweeted today: 'Dr Kalam made the saint sit on his chair. When I asked, why was this honour. His reply: "I want this chair to get blessed and whoever sits on this chair in future must get blessings of this saint".'

Jayendra Saraswatiji virtually lived India.

He lived Dharma and served all with the great ideals and incorrigible faith in Advaita in his heart.

He will always live in the hearts of the millions of children who have studied in schools and colleges established by him and the faithful Hindus to whom he was a symbol of the invincible spirit of glorious Hindu Dharma.

He represented an era and his passing has left a blank that will be difficult to be filled.Disclaimer

This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States.Greenlawn, NY -- (ReleaseWire) -- 02/28/2018 --For those seeking business or personal services, Biz Value Appraisers LTD offers an independent unbiased, a variety of solutions. Since its establishment, the firm has been working closely with law firms, corporate attorneys, insurance companies, private practitioners, arbitrators, and judges as well as corporate officials and those accused of governance. The service they provide typically addresses comprehensive litigation process which requires some preparation to settle disputes and claim redress. In addition to shareholder litigation, the company also specializes in forensic accounting in New York City and Raleigh, North Carolina.



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A great way to give yoga a chance is to try one of the classes for all levels offered in spaces other than yoga studios.

The Loveland Museum/Gallery holds a lunchtime yoga break every Thursday.

Every time you come, you can see a different exhibit and meet new people, said Candace Oates, yoga instructor with the city of Loveland. Oates has been teaching yoga for 17 years. She likes the focus on the body, mind and soul connection the practice offers.

You really become more powerful if you can connect, she said.

The class meets from noon to 1 p.m. downstairs in the Foote Gallery at the Loveland Museum/Gallery, 503 N. Lincoln Ave., Loveland. Cost is $5, and includes access to the Main Gallery. Bring your own yoga mat. Only water bottles with secure lids are allowed.

It intrigued me they were offering something during lunch, said Linda Zimmerman, of Loveland. Zimmerman takes a yoga class at McKee Medical Center, but wanted to add another class.

Its fun to have nice things on the wall, she said.

With changing shows, the room offers new pieces to concentrate on to relax.

These great pictures. When I get stuck on a pose, I just look at the (art). I like the space, said Donna Newton, of Loveland. Last Thursday was Newtons third or fourth time in the class.

It calms you down. It makes you focus on something other than running around and paying bills and all that, she said.

The class is open to all levels of yoga students.

Youre not intimidated, like at some places, said Paul Sutton, of Loveland.

Instructions are given to modify the poses for beginners to experts.

I really appreciate the museum offering this, said Sutton. I love being here in the museum, because you get to do yoga among the art exhibits.

Gallery Yoga will go through April 26. For information, go to lovelandmuseumgallery.org.

Yoga classes can be found in other locations too. Sweet Heart Winery, 5500 W. U.S. 34, Loveland, offers Yoga in the Barrel Room the first Wednesday of the month. Tickets are $20 and include a glass of wine. Zwei Brewing has a monthly class, Hatha and Hops Yoga for Hounds, with part of the $10 fee going to Animal House Rescue and Grooming in Fort Collins.

Michelle Vendegna: 970-699-5407, vendegnam@reporterherald.comHere are 15 events to enjoy in the Loveland area this week.

The Merry Widow

Loveland Opera Theatre will stage The Merry Widow at 7 p.m. Friday-Saturday, Feb. 23-24 and March 2-3, with 2:30 p.m. matinees on Sundays, Feb. 25 and March 4, at the Rialto Theater Center, 228 E. Fourth St., Loveland.

Will Baron Zeta succeed in keeping Pontevedro afloat by convincing the wealthy widow Hanna Glawari to remarry within the court? Can the Merry Widow and Count Danilo reignite their love from youth? Franz Lehars operetta combines comic scheming, fiercely clever women and happy endings.

Tickets are $35 for adults, $32 for seniors, $27 for students and $13 for children under 12.

A special The Merry Widow for Kids adaptation teaching youths about opera will be offered at 2:30 p.m. Saturdays, Feb. 24 and March 3. Tickets are $10 for children under 12 and $12 for adults and seniors.

For details, call 962-2120 or visit rialtotheatercenter.org or lovelandopera.org.

Loveland Concert Band

The Loveland Concert Band will present a concert, Scenes from the Louvre, and its annual scholarship raffle at 3 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 25, at Mountain View High School, Sue E. Wall Auditorium, 3500 Mountain Lion Drive, Loveland.

The Loveland Concert Band will be joined by guest performers from the Rocky Mountain High School Concert Band for the program of arrangements of suites from Pictures at an Exhibition by Russian composer Modest Mussorgsky.

The raffle raises money to provide scholarships to four graduating seniors in the Thompson School District.

The concert is free to the public, but donations will be accepted at the door. Raffle tickets are $2 each, six for $10 or 13 for $20. Prizes include gift certificates at area hot spots and restaurants, handmade items, tickets to theater performances and more.

For details, call 290-7674 or visit lovelandconcertband.org.

Kiss Me, Kate

Cole Porters classic Kiss Me, Kate opens Friday, Feb. 23 at Candlelight Dinner Playhouse, 4747 Marketplace Drive, Johnstown.

Kiss Me, Kate follows the travails of a touring company desperately attempting to perform Shakespeares The Taming of The Shrew while contending with the feuding between its male and female stars  with a few gun-toting gangsters thrown in for good measure.

It features Cole Porter songs including Another Opnin; Another Show, Too Darn Hot, Wunderbar, So in Love and Brush Up Your Shakespeare.

The show runs through April 15, with dinner seating at 6 p.m. and the show at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Friday and Saturday evenings, as well as Saturday matinees with dinner at noon and the show at 1:30 p.m. and Sunday matinees with dinner at 12:30 p.m. and the show at 2 p.m.

Dinner and show tickets are $52.95-$62.95 adults, $39.95 ages 13-18 and $29.95 ages 5-12.

Adult show-only tickets are $29.95.

For details, call 744-3747 or visit coloradocandlelight.com.

Alice in Whiskerland

Alice in Whiskerland, an exhibit of Grand Cats art pieces that Fort Collins Cat Rescue plans to auction off, will go on display at noon-6 p.m. Wednesday-Saturday, Feb. 21-24, at the Carnegie Center for Creativity, 200 Mathews St., Fort Collins.

The Grand Cats start out as wooden cutouts to be decorated by more than two dozen artists.

They will be auctioned off at the Whiskers N Wags Jubilee to help homeless cats and at-risk dogs in the community.

Admission to the exhibit is free.

For details, call 670-0210.

Menopause the Musical

LC Live will present Menopause the Musical at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 24, at the Lincoln Center, 417 W. Magnolia St., Fort Collins.

A humorous musical parody set to classic tunes from the 60s, 70s and 80s, the show tells of four women at a lingerie sale who have in common a black lace bra and memory loss, hot flashes, night sweats, not enough sex, too much sex and more.

Tickets are $20-$40.

For details, call 221-6730 or visit lctix.com.

Christopher Cross

LC Live will present Christopher Cross at 7:30 p.m. Friday, Feb. 23, at the Lincoln Center, 417 W. Magnolia St., Fort Collins.

Cross, whose 1980 self-titled debut album won five Grammy Awards, including Record of the Year (for the single Sailing), Album of the Year, Song of the Year (also for Sailing) and Best New Artist, is touring with a new album, Secret Ladder.

Tickets are $20-$55.

For details, call 221-6730 or lctix.com.

Back to the 80s

High Performance Dance Theatre will present Back to the 80s at 7:30 p.m. Friday-Saturday, Feb. 23-24, at the Lincoln Center, 417 W. Magnolia St., Fort Collins.

The choreographers and dancers plan a totally tubular journey through the music and movie of the 1980s.

Tickets are $12-$20.

For details, call 221-6730 or lctix.com.

New Horizons Band

New Horizons Band will present its Winter Concert at 3 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 25, at the First United Methodist Church, 1005 Stover St., Fort Collins.

The concert band directed by Glenn Shull and Kay Broughton will perform Disney at the Movies, Poudre Canyon Passage, highlights from Phantom of the Opera and more.

Admission is free, but donations are appreciated.

For details, visit northerncoloradonhb.org.

Community Peace Event

The Peace Cafe and J-Street Fort Collins will host a Community Peace Event at 1 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 25, at the First United Methodist Church, 1005 Stover St., Fort Collins.

Ra-ed el-Hadar and Noga Harpaz of Combatants for Peace will present There Is Another Way.

For details, visit afcfp.org/colorado-tour.

Family Formal Dance

Harrington Arts Alliance will hold a Family Formal Dance Night at 6:30-8:30 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 24, at 575 N. Denver Ave., Loveland.

Cost is $20 per couple and $5 per additional child.

For details, call 568-8370 or visit harringtonartsalliance.org.

Chili and Gospel Jam

Buckhorn Presbyterian Church, 8762 N. County Road 27, Masonville, will provide a chili luncheon and gospel jam at 11:30 a.m.-3:30 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 24.

Heart-to-Heart, the womens group at Buckhorn Church, will host the annual chili luncheon at 11:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m. The cost is $6 for adults, $3 for children.

A free bluegrass gospel jam and a raffle will be held at 1-3:30 p.m. on the same day.

All proceeds from the event will be used to benefit local community needs.

For details, visit www.buckhornpres.org or contact Suzanne Weber at 667-2308 or buckhornpres@gmail.com.

ChildSafe Trivia Bowl

ChildSafe will hold its annual Trivia Bowl at 6:30-8:30 p.m. Friday, Feb. 23, at the Agave Room above the Rio Grande Mexican Restaurant, 143 W. Mountain Ave., Fort Collins.

The event includes a silent auction and cash bar.

Cost is $45 per person, $85 per couple or $340 per table of eight.

For tickets, call 472-4133 or visit childsafecolorado.org.

Stan Brass Bluegrass

The Stanley Hotel, 333 E. Wonderview Ave., Estes Park, will host a Stan Brass Bluegrass Weekend at 3:30-11 p.m. Friday, Feb. 23, and 10:30 a.m.-11:30 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 24.

The two-day event will include headliners The Del McCoury Band on Saturday and the Jeff Austin Band on Friday, as well as Colorado musicians.

Tickets are $40 for general admission and $55 for VIP balcony seating on Friday, $55 general admission and $75 VIP on Saturday, or $90 general admission and $120 VIP seating for the weekend.

For tickets, visit stanleylive.com.

The Piano Men

The Piano Men will perform at 7:30 p.m. Friday, Feb. 23, at the Union Colony Civic Center, 701 10th Ave., Greeley.

Craig A. Meyer portrays Elton John and Donnie Kerh portrays Billy Joel, bringing the two piano men to life.

Tickets are $25-$53.

For details, call 356-5000 or visit ucstars.com.

Black History Live

Colorado Humanities, in partnership with the High Plains Library District, the city of Greeley and Aims Community College, will offer a portrayal of Malcolm X by national humanities and Chautauqua scholar Charles Everett Pace.

The program will take place at 2 p.m. Friday, Feb. 23, at Aims Community College in the Cornerstone Building, Room 101, 5401 W. 20th St., Greeley.

Born Malcolm Little in 1925, Malcolm X was a Black Muslim minister and national spokesman for the Nation of Islam. After rising from an early life of drug abuse and petty criminal behavior, the respected yet controversial political figure confronted a personal moral crisis: his own human bigotry. His driving quest for knowledge, self-critique and conversion to Islam changed him into an internationally revered, though still controversial, spokesman for the cause of universal human rights.

Attendees can talk with Malcolm X while the scholar is in character and then talk with Charles Everett Pace as the researcher/actor.

The program is free and open to the public.

For details, visit coloradohumanities.org.A Place for All Conservatives to Speak Their Mind.De Beers said it is in no rush to return to Zimbabwe and will remain focused on its well-established operations in southern Africa.

It held an exclusive prospecting order in the Marange area between 1993 and 1999.

The groups South African unit boss, Phillip Barton, was quoted by Bloomberg as saying early February that they looking in the longer term at opportunities in Zimbabwe and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

While we continue to monitor geopolitical matters in countries of interest and are encouraged by the progress being seen in many parts of Africa, including Zimbabwe, De Beers Groups exploration focus remains on those countries where we have well established operations  Botswana, Namibia, South Africa and Canada, the group told the Herald newspaper.

Meanwhile, De Beers said that diamond demand was stronger than ever before with a positive outlook for its operations.

In terms of the future outlook for the sector, global consumer demand for diamond jewellery is stronger than it has ever been, particularly in the key consumer market of the US, and demand fundamentals remain supportive of a positive long-term outlook, it said.

The group said it would have a responsible closure of older, smaller operations that are nearing the end of their operating life, while also continuing to invest in production capacity expansion in other assets to support its continued production requirements.

These included the Venetia underground project in South Africa, the new exploration and sampling vessel the SS Nujoma in Namibia and the Gahcho Kue mine in Canada, as well as planning for future expansions at its Botswana mines.



Mathew Nyaungwa, Editor in Chief of the African Bureau, Rough&Polished



BNSF

BNSF Railway Company plans to invest $110 million in its Nebraska network, where it moves nearly 2 million carloads of freight annually.

The 2018 state capital plan will add to the approximately $900 million the railroad has invested in the state during the past five years. BNSF says the 2018 maintenance program in Nebraska includes more than 1,000 miles of track surfacing and/or undercutting work, as well as the replacement of about 60 miles of rail and close to 90,000 crossties.

BNSF helps Nebraska farmers reach new markets by providing a vital transportation link for the states corn, wheat and other agricultural products as well as the states emerging ethanol industry, said Zak Andersen, vice president, corporate relations.

The Nebraska capital program is part of BNSFs $3.3 billion network-wide capital expenditure program for 2018. These investments include $2.4 billion to replace and maintain core network and related assets, approximately $500 million for expansion and efficiency projects and $100 million for continued implementation of Positive Train Control.

BNSF has previously outlined state capital plans for Illinois, Oklahoma, Texas, Kansas, Missouri, Montana and Washington state.HNTB

HNTB Corporation has brought on Edmond Hunter, CCM, as a senior transit and rail project manager.

Hunter, based in the firms Chelmsford office, will play a crucial role in helping the firms transit and rail clients plan and implement programs that provide vital passenger services, HNTB said.

Ed is a highly respected leader in the transportation community here in Massachusetts. He is recognized for his expertise in managing complex programs that enable transit systems to build infrastructure and operational systems needed to meet growing passenger needs, said Gary Bua, PE, HNTBs Massachusetts office leader and vice president. His executive-level experience in virtually every aspect of rail transportation provides extraordinary value for our team and our clients.

Hunter brings more than four decades of engineering and construction operations experience, officials said.

Hunter has previously served as assistant general manager for design and construction with the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) for more than a decade, where he was tasked with managing 216 projects worth more than $11 billion.

Some of the projects he oversaw included commuter rail, transit stations, facilities, bridges and tunnels as well as transit operations, as well as oversight of consultants, vendors and contractors.

In the past, Hunter also served as a resident engineer with the Massachusetts Department of Transportation on several projects, including the Central Artery Tunnel and the I-93 Tunnel and Aquarium Station modernization, among others.

An alumnus of Clarkson University, Hunter earned his bachelors degree in civil engineering. He also received a Master of Business Administration from Suffolk University.

Hunter is a member of the Construction Management Association of America, where he is designated as a certified construction manager. He is also a member of the American Society of Civil Engineers and the Boston Society of Engineers.

Hunter has been honored with multiple awards throughout his career, including the American Council of Engineering Companies of New York 2017 Diamond Award for engineering excellence.

In 2016, he was recognized by the Boston Society of Civil Engineers for Personal Government Civil Engineering for his work at the MBTA. Hunter was also awarded the CMAAs New England Chapter 2016 infrastructure project of the year award for projects less than $100 million, as well as the organizations 2011 Person of the Year award.Southwest Gas Holdings, Inc. (SWX) reported that its fourth-quarter net income rose to $96.47 million or $2.00 per share from $65.18 million or $1.36 per share in the prior year.

Consolidated Operating Revenues rose to $740.43 million from $641.53 million in the prior year.

Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected the company to report earnings of $1.50 per share and revenues of $388.47 million. Analysts' estimates typically exclude special items.

John P. Hester, President and Chief Executive Officer, said, "We believe 2018 will be another positive year for our Company and we remain focused on the path ahead. Commitment to our core principles will continue as we work to meet the growth in our natural gas service territories, fortify and expand our pipeline system, grow our construction services , and deliver the value our shareholders expect. That value commitment was reinforced when the Board approved a 5% dividend increase in February 2018."

For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com

Business NewsU.K. shares extended losses from the previous session on Wednesday as hawkish comments from Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell coupled with weak economic data from China and Japan dented investors' risk appetite.

The benchmark FTSE 100 was down 17 points or 0.24 percent at 7,264.77 in late opening deals after closing 0.1 percent lower the previous day.

Media firm ITV slumped 5 percent after reporting a fall in annual pre-tax profit due to ongoing political uncertainty in the U.K.

Hedge fund Man Group tumbled 3.8 percent despite the firm returning to profit in 2017.

Taylor Wimpey lost over 5 percent. The housebuilder reported a 6.9 percent fall in 2017 pretax profit amid increased political and economic risks.

Hotel and restaurant group Whitbread dropped half a percent after it acquired a portfolio of 19 hotels in Germany, from Foremost Hospitality Group GmbH, for an undisclosed sum.

Motor insurance firm Admiral Group advanced 1.5 percent after it posted a record Group profit before tax for the year ended December 2017.

For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com

Market AnalysisIndian shares fell for a second day running on Wednesday, although finished off their day's lows.

The benchmark BSE Sensex dropped 162.35 points or 0.47 percent to 34,184.04, with weak cues from global markets as well as disappointing manufacturing and fiscal deficit numbers weighing on markets. The broader Nifty index ended down 61.45 points or 0.58 percent at 10,492.85.

India's manufacturing sector activity fell to a four-month low in February, while fiscal deficit for the April-January period stood at Rs 6.76 lakh crore, much higher compared to Rs 5.64 lakh crore in corresponding period last year, separate reports showed.

Traders also waited for GDP data for the December quarter due later in the day to see if the will recover from the negative impact of demonetization and disruption caused by GST roll out.

ICICI Bank fell 2.5 percent after the private sector lender informed it has exposure to Gitanjali Group.

Axis Bank, Indiabulls Housing Finance, Hindustan Unilever and Vedanta dropped 2-3 percent.

Infosys advanced 1.7 percent to extend gains for the second straight session while Cipla, HPCL, Eicher Motors and UPL rose about 1 percent each.

Globally, Asian stock markets followed Wall Street to end broadly lower after hawkish comments from Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell triggered speculation that the Fed might hike rates four times this year instead of the expected three.

European stocks also traded lower in reaction to weak economic data from China, Japan and Europe.

For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com

Market AnalysisWorld's second richest man has given some negative publicity to cryptocurrencies and UK lawmakers are probing the benefits as well as risks that these pose to consumers and investors. In positive tidings, the Israeli top court prevented a bank from closing the account of a cryptocurrency broker and Taiwanese central bank's new governor signaled interest in blockchain.

Here is a wrap up of the main stories from the cryptocurrency space over the last 24 hours.

Bill Gates Says Cryptocurrencies Super Risky, Anonymity Harmful

Cryptocurrencies are super risky over the long term, and the anonymity they provide to buyers could actually be very harmful as it encourages illicit activities, according to Bill Gates. While talking at Tuesday's "Ask Me Anything" session on news and discussion site Reddit, he said "The main feature of crypto currencies is their anonymity. I don't think this is a good thing." The second wealthiest man in the world further said, "Right now crypto currencies are used for buying fentanyl and other drugs so it is a rare that has caused deaths in a fairly direct way. I think the speculative wave around ICOs and crypto currencies is super risky for those who go long."

British Parliament Launches Inquiry On Cryptos, Blockchain

The Treasury Committee of the U.K. Parliament has launched a new inquiry into digital currencies and distributed ledger technology. The inquiry will cover the opportunities and potential risks that digital currencies could pose for consumers, businesses, and Governments in the U.K. including volatility, money laundering, and cyber-crime. Chair of the Treasury Committee Nicky Morgan said, "People are becoming increasingly aware of cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, but they may not be aware that they are currently unregulated in the UK, and that there is no protection for individual investors."

Israel Supreme Court Orders Bank Not To Close Crypto Exchange Account

Israel's top court prevented a bank from terminating the account of a cryptocurrency trading company, reports said. The Israeli Supreme Court issued a temporary injunction prohibiting Bank Leumi from limiting the banking activity of the cryptocurrency broker Bits of Gold, local media reported Monday. The court order is related to the bank's decision in December to block payments to cryptocurrency exchanges amid the surge in price and demand for Bitcoin and its peers.

Taiwan Central Bank's New Chief Signals Interest In Blockchain

Taiwan's new central bank chief said the bank is open to adopting new technology such as the blockchain to improve the functioning of the financial system. In his inaugural speech, Yang Chin-long said the central bank will adopt "artificial intelligence technologies and big data analysis to better predict and analyze global economic conditions. The bank welcomes innovations and is interested in studying how fintech development could reshape the future of the whole financial industry, he added.

11-year Old Massachusetts Boy Writes Book On Bitcoin

Andrew Courey of Massachusetts was just 11-year old when he started dreaming of minting money instead of completing his studies. Courey's parents agreed that he can drop out of school if he earns $20 million by the age of 14. Courey came across bitcoin and began reading stories and watching YouTube videos about miners and early investors who had made a lot of money from it. Andrew's father Jeff Courey, a tech investor, advised his son to put the countless hours of research to good use by writing a book about the digital currency in a more simplified manner, which in turn will become a source of income.

Apple Co-Founder Steve Wozniak's Bitcoins Were Stolen

Apple's co-founder Steve Wozniak has revealed that he is a victim of Bitcoin fraud. Speaking at a Global Business Summit organized by the Economic Times Daily, Wozniak said, "The blockchain identifies who has bitcoins ... that doesn't mean there can't be fraud, though. I had seven bitcoins stolen from me through fraud," Wozniak told the gathering of global leaders, economists and policymakers in Indian capital New Delhi. "Somebody bought them from me online through a credit card and they canceled the credit card payment. It was that easy. And it was from a stolen credit card number so you can never get it back," he added.

Germany's Sikur Launches Cryptocurrency-safe, Hack-proof Smartphone

German cybersecurity firm Sikur launched Tuesday a fully encrypted hack-proof smartphone called SIKURPhone that will keep your digital currencies such as bitcoin in a built-in SIKURWallet securely. It is the first smartphone with a built-in cryptocurrency wallet, which is protected via software and hardware. It was launched at the Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona, Spain. The SIKURPhone is the successor to Sikur's GranitePhone, which was launched at the 2015 MWC. GrinatePhone was mainly targeted at security-oriented corporate and government users. SIKURPhone comes with a two-year license and the SIKURPlatform for free to use on the desktop PC. SIKURWallet is available only on SIKURPhone.

Current Prices

As of 6.28 am ET on Wednesday, Bitcoin was down 0.69 percent at $10,589.61 and Ethereum was lower by 1.31 percent at $866.65 on Coinbase.

For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com

Forex NewsIsrael's top court prevented a bank from terminating the account of a cryptocurrency trading company, reports said.

The Israeli Supreme Court issued a temporary injunction prohibiting Bank Leumi from limiting the banking activity of the cryptocurrency broker Bits of Gold, local media reported.

The court order is related to the bank's decision in December to block payments to cryptocurrency exchanges amid the surge in price and demand for Bitcoin and its peers.

The Finance Magnates website reported that Bank Leumi had claimed the decision was in line with an order by the Bank of Israel, while the said order was actually part of the rules for online gambling.

Bank Leumi had classified various cryptocurrency exchanges as gambling sites, the report added.

The Supreme Court observed that concerns expressed by Bank Leumi were merely speculative and that Bits of Gold acted transparently without violating any legal provisions over the past five years.

The temporary injunction has helped to avert a potential closure of the Bits of Gold account, but the bank can still probe specific activities of the cryptocurrency broker.

Youval Rouach, CEO of Bits of Gold, welcomed the court decision saying that it will enable his company to focus on the growth of cryptocurrency in Israel.

Bits of Gold was the first company to request the creation of rules for the activity of digital currencies and the first to comply with them, he added.

Israeli authorities are exploring ways to regulate cryptocurrencies. The latest in their efforts was the decision by the tax authorities this month to consider cryptocurrencies as property and any profits made from their sale would be subject to a capital gains tax.

For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com

Forex NewsThe Texas State Securities Board (TSSB) has issued an emergency cease-and-desist order against cryptocurrency firm LeadInvest.net, for offering unregistered securities and cryptocurrency programs as well as publishing misleading cryptocurrency investment advertisements.

TSSB notes that Panama-registered LeadInvest is registered as a " company that specializes in the development of trading software in the FOREX market and the Bitcoin currency."

However, the company is seen to be conducting several businesses and programs that are unregistered with the Securities Commission. It has been offering securities for sale in Texas at a time when the securities are not registered with the Securities Commissioner.

TSSB order says it has no permit granted for their sale in Texas of the Leadinvest Specialist program, Leadinvest cryptocurrency mining program and Leadinvest Fiat currency lending program.

The Board said the company has also been publishing misleading online advertisements targeting investors located in Texas. The company is also said to have used images of models, lawyers and judges to represent their management and legal team.

The company is making offers containing statements that are materially misleading or otherwise likely to deceive the public. Its conduct, acts and practices also threaten immediate and irreparable public harm, the order read.

The advertisements claim investors can "Relax and earn interest on the crypto market" and they direct investors to visit the LeadInvest Website to take their "First Step Towards a Better Future."

The website also affords investors the opportunity to purchase cryptocurrencies and borrow fiat currency. As of today, users have created 190,000 accounts through LeadInvest with an investment of more than $177 million.

The TSSB order said any violation of the order is a criminal offence punishable by a fine of not more than $5,000, or imprisonment for not more than two years, or by both such fine and imprisonment.

The Board had in early February issued an emergency cease-and-desist order against cryptocurrency trading company DavorCoin, citing similar reasons.

This is the fourth such restriction order that the Texas authority is issuing since the beginning of the year on a crypto firm. No other state in the US has taken strong regulatory actions against cryptocurrency fraud.

The TSSB had sent a notice to the Ponzi-scheme Bitconnect for selling unlicensed securities and then in February to the alleged "crypto bank" AriseBank, for not actually functioning as a bank.

For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com

Business NewsTaiwan's new central bank chief said the bank is open to adopting new such as the blockchain to improve the functioning of the financial system.

In his inaugural speech, Yang Chin-long said the central bank will adopt "artificial intelligence technologies and big data analysis to better predict and analyze global economic conditions."

The bank welcomes innovations and is interested in studying how fintech development could reshape the future of the whole financial industry, he added.



Further, Yang said his bank will explore the blockchain distributed ledger technology, which underlies cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, to know its effectiveness in increasing the security and efficiency of payments.

Taiwanese authorities have been open to blockchain and cryptocurrencies, a stance that contrasts with the stringent regulations in China and South Korea such as a ban on initial coin offerings.

In October last year, Taiwan's Financial Supervisory Commission Chairman Wellington Koo had said his country would take a friendlier approach to the cryptocurrency industry and blockchain to encourage their adoption and development.

For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com

Technology NewsToys R Us in the UK has fallen into administration, which has put 3,000 jobs at risk.

Administrators have been appointed to begin "an orderly wind-down" of the toy retailer after the company's UK operation failed to find a buyer. Poor sales and a high tax bill are reported to be the main reason behind bringing administrators. Meanwhile, all 105 Toys R Us stores will remain open until further notice.

The online side of the will be shut down immediately, while the remaining stock in the stores will be cleared. The company said it would continue to accept gift cards already bought.

Simon Thomas, a partner at Moorfields that has been appointed manage Toys R Us, said, "We will make every effort to secure a buyer for all or part of the business. "Whilst this process is likely to affect many Toys R Us staff, whether some or all of the stores will close remains to be decided. We have informed employees about the process this morning and will continue to keep them updated on developments."

For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com

Business News(Agencia CMA Latam) - Brazilian Attorney General Raquel Dodge asked the Supreme Court Justice Edson Fachin to add President Michel Temer to the list of people under investigation for a corruption scheme involving Odebrecht, the construction sector conglomerate tainted by several corruption charges in the last few years.

Claudio Melo Filho, a former Odebrecht executive, told investigators that in 2014 the company agreed to transfer R$ 10 million to PMDB, Temer's party, to gain an advantage in airport deals with the government.

Filho mentioned that Eliseu Padilha and Moreira Franco, both ministers and close allies from Temer, were responsible for the deal with the company. Both are already under investigation.

Temer, who chaired the PMDB at the time, was left out of the inquiry because he was the Brazilian president when Filho spoke to authorities and the previous attorney general, Rodrigo Janot, believed that he had constitutional immunity to investigations.

Dodge, however, said that the Constitution only prevents a formal indictment against the president, which could just happen after an inquiry.

"Criminal investigation, although it carries a high stigmatizing burden, is a means of collecting evidence that can disappear, of vestiges that can be extinguished with the action of time, of hearing witnesses who may die," said Dodge, quoted by Agencia Brazil official news agency.

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.Johannes Vetter, photo by PhotoRun.net

Vetter 91.22 in javelin

POTCHEFSTROOM (RSA, Feb 27): World champion in javelin Johannes Vetter showed top early shape at an open meet in Potchefstroom during his training camp in South Africa. As he informs on his twitter, he achieved 91.22 what is World lead 2018. It is third best competition of his career. Also best ever result in February. But it should be noted there was even earlier better result in the history, Steve Backley achieved 91.45 on January 25, 1992 in New Zealand. Dai Greene won the 400 m hurdles in 49.49 and booked his place for the Commonwealth Games team.With great power comes greater responsibility. The truth is that while weve all been excited and marveled at the power of the internet to transform lives, we seldom discuss the lack of awareness and education about how to use such a powerful tool.

Without a sound understanding and grounding on how to handle such power, we know the ultimate end is abuse, misuse and failure. Which is precisely what has been happening in a number of cases on these shores with the abuse of the internet, social media.

But its not just the abuse and misuse by our people that we are concerned about. With the internet, we are opening a door to the outside world, accepting all that is good and nasty about what is happening wherever whenever. In doing that, we are leaving ourselves vulnerable and open to anything and everything  including the worst forms of behaviour and scams.

And again, one more warning from the Central Bank of Samoa about the need for members of the public to be on the look out for organised criminals using social media to steal peoples money is yet another reminder about the need to educate our people about how not to use these tools.

For the uninitiated, the warning from the Central Bank was issued last week.

It has been brought to our attention that there are supposedly some people or well organized criminals that are using Facebook as a tool to get to your hard earned money, the bank warned.

They come in the form of get rich quick schemes promising you huge amounts of returns if you invest your money with them.

The business models and the products that they promote may be different (and very complicated), but the concept is still the same: invest your money with us, and we will give you a huge return!

This means, for example, if you invest $1,000 with them, you will get $10,000 in return within a few weeks. Or, invest $10,000 with them, and you get $100,000 in return within a few weeks from investing.

The Bank goes on to caution people against believing in such a scheme.

Please be alert and vigilant of these scammers on the social network (like Facebook, twitter, snapchat, instagram and the like), the Bank says.

More importantly, the Bank goes on to provide lessons to educate our people to be alert. The tips include:

 Social Networks may look harmless, but once you log in to your Facebook account for example, you better be careful of who you talk to on Facebook.

 Never trust anyone that you dont know personally or face to face. If you have never seen the person that you are talking with on Facebook before, then you shouldnt trust these types of people. You will not know who really is behind on that other side of the internet.

 Some people seem really friendly and well informed on the internet, but that is most likely not who they really are. You would not invite criminals and scammers into your home, likewise, you wouldnt want to talk with these types of people on the internet as everytime you speak with them on the internet, you are inviting them into your private life.

 And lastly, avoid being snared by easy money or get rich quick schemes. It would be prudent to avoid talking with these types of people online or people you have never seen before face to face

We acknowledge with gratitude Governor Maiava Atalina Enari and her team at the Central Bank for these very important tips. Thank you. These tips should be shouted from the rooftop of the government building and blasted on billboards from Apia to Aleipata and Salelologa to Falealupo.

Why? With the Government promoting internet as the next best thing for Samoa, it is the highest form of negligence and ignorance that they are not providing education about how such a tool can be used.

And the blame falls squarely on the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology (M.C.I.T.). They should be at the forefront of this, just as they are forever talking up the benefits of faster internet. Yes faster internet has its benefits but its a disaster in the making if our people are not prepared on how to use it. That is the downside of it all.

We are not just talking about social media and mobile phones. We are talking about everything. You see, wed like to think that M.C.I.T. should be doing its best to raise awareness of these issues for sake of the people. While the submarine cables are great (hoping that the Internet costs will reduce as they promise), the Ministry is not doing what theyre supposed to do in as far as preparing our people for whats up ahead.

When was the last time you heard or saw an outreach programme about cybercrime and teaching people how to maximise the benefits of the Tui Samoa Cable and all?

Do the relevant authorities even know what this means?

Have the Police been trained to deal with these internet issues? These are important questions and more.

Folks, there is a lot of work to be done and it involves the need to balance the bringing in of fast Internet and educating our people.

We cannot expect our people to suddenly become experts in how to use the internet when they have never been taught. This is a recipe for disaster, which unfortunately is where we are heading. What do you think?

Have a safe Thursday Samoa, God bless!The Minister of Revenue and Prisons, Tialavea Tionisio Hunt, has laughed at the call by Member of Parliament, Olo Fiti Vaai, for him to resign.

Olo made the call at the beginning of the week saying that if Tialavea cannot fix the ongoing problems at Tafaigata Prison, he should step down and let someone else get the job done.

Asked for a comment, the Minister of Prisons laughed, saying Olo is entitled to his opinion.

As for his call for me to step down, all I can say is God bless you (Olo), Tialavea responded. I also wish you (Olo) good luck with whatever it is that you are doing.

The Minister, however, took issue with the reporter noting that he was not given ample time to respond.

It doesnt matter how many times you call me, you still have to wait for me to respond in order to run your article, he said.

The story was published on Monday after the Samoa Observer had contacted Tialavea on Saturday and Sunday.

Tialavea declined to justify Olos other comments with a response.

But as the Minister of Prisons, he confirmed that it is business as usual at Tafaigata Prison after the alleged mass prison break plot, which the Police foiled.

The Minister commended the quick action taken by the management of Prisons and the Ministry of Police.

My staff acted quickly and passed on the information to the police who responded right away, he said about the incident. After all we have been working very closely with the Police.

Asked as to why notorious criminal, Tagaloasa Filipaina, and his relative Ovalegi Poli are held under the Police Custody and not in jail, he said:

Look we have not passed the buck to the Police.

They (prisoners) will be back (at Tafaigata). At the end of the day the prisoners are supposed to be incarcerated at the jail. The Police jail cell is something temporary not permanent.

Im assuming the Police may be filing charges against the prisoners and they will be taken back to the Tafaigata prison.

With regards to the inmate who has been on the run December last year, Tialavea said the search efforts are continuing.

We are working on the new prison and upon completion that will solve all the problems of inmates running away.

He added that a secured fence around the Tafaigata prison has been around since 2016 but the prisoners keep escaping.

Earlier this week, M.P. Olo called on the Minister to step down.

Olo said he is baffled about why no one from the Samoa Prisons and Correction Services has been charged for the unlawful release of notorious criminal, Tagaloasa Filipaina during the Festive season holidays.

Who is above the law and who isnt? he asked. Why is it that no one from the Samoa Prisons and Correction Services has been held accountable for the unlawful release of inmates? The law has been broken, yet nothing has been done about it.Samoa witnessed another milestone achievement yesterday with the groundbreaking ceremony of its new South Pacific Submarine Cable Depot.

The new depot, which costs US$2 million (T$5.06 million), is a joint venture between the U.S. based company, TE SubCom, and the Samoa Submarine Cable Company (S.S.C.C.).

Held at the Matautu Wharf, the celebration was attended by the Prime Minister, Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi, Cabinet Ministers, members of the diplomatic corps and invited guests.

Tuilaepa said this was a significant achievement for Samoa, especially with the Governments plans of making Samoa the hub of telecommunications in the Pacific region.

Two weeks ago we experienced a very significant milestone, when we launched Samoas very own submarine cable, the Tui Samoa, he said.

At the time I spoke explicitly about Samoas aspirations to play a more proactive role to interconnect through I.T. with all the Polynesian nations within the Polynesian Leaders Group in the Pacific, especially connections through other regional submarine cables in the pipeline, most notably the Manatua cable linking Tahiti, Cook Islands, Niue and possibly Tonga to Samoa.

And Samoa should take the initiative, which means unavoidably the hub should be Samoa.

He explained the partnership also signifies the success of the Governments policy to encourage foreign investors to invest in Samoa.

The benefits of the Cable to Samoa include and are not limited to increased revenue for Samoa Ports Authority through port charges for a minimum of 150 berthing days per annum, the creation of jobs for Samoa staff and additional employment, the employment of Samoas certified engineers to undertake the submarine cable with care and maintenance activities, not to mention the significant impact on our restaurants, bars, hotels airline, taxi owners, the Prime Minister said.

Tuilaepa emphasized the need to speed up works on the Vaiusu Port to cater for future development plans because the Matautu wharf was becoming too congested.

We can no longer wait, he said. We must build the Vaiusu port now, already we are heavily constrained because of the limited space at the wharf that our leaders established many years ago, so we need to expand and grow now.

He adds: The successful negotiations with TE Subcom lasted over a year, since they themselves were awarded the South Pacific Marine Maintenance agreement, which was previously located for more than 20 years in one of our Pacific Island neighbours.

Tuilaepa thanked TE SubCom for putting their faith in Samoa and wished the S.S.C.C. the very best with the partnership.

In a statement, TE SubCom Managing Director Marine Operations, James Herron said: Were grateful for the opportunity to add a world-class facility to our worldwide services, and are especially pleased to have found such a great regional partner in the Samoa Submarine Cable Company.

Maintenance services are a key part of our global cable operations, and as a maintenance provider, TE SubCom is dedicated to meeting the changing needs of our customers worldwide. To do this, were investing long-term in the South Pacific region and this new depot demonstrates our commitment to supporting our clientele in the area.

TE SubCom is a pioneer in undersea communications, delivering reliable, high quality solutions to organisations with undersea communications needs.

Last year, the company was awarded the South Pacific Marine Maintenance Agreement, a five-year service agreement between SubCom and 14 cable operators in the Pacific region, whereby SubCom will maintain more than 51,000km of cable that comprise 19 disparate telecommunications and power cable systems.The Chief Executive Officer of the Ministry of Women, Community and Social Development, Fuimapoao Beth Onesemo-Tuilaepa, has tendered her resignation.

But she denies that her decision to resign, and therefore not reapply for her position, is related to a Public Service Commission (P.S.C.) investigation into the handling of human resources matters at the Ministry.

I have tendered my resignation and I have three more months to serve, she told the Samoa Observer yesterday.

My strength is strategic thinking, to start things moving but sometimes, in order to sustain, complete and see the changes through I think there is a need for a whole new set of skills. I think this time, it is time for someone new to come in, sustain and continue the changes.

It has nothing to do with the inquiry.

Among the issues being investigated is her decision to replace five of seven Assistant Chief Executive Officers at the Ministry.

Speaking to the Samoa Observer yesterday, Fuimapoao, who had served as the Chief Executive Officer of P.S.C. prior to her M.W.C.S.D. role, said the changes needed to be made. She also welcomes the P.S.Cs investigation.

The terms of reference for the Inquiry is to look into human resources matters, she said. We have been going through a lot of changes of mandates, focus, approaches, programmes, lots of changes. And the challenge is the implication of these changes amongst the staff that are needed to deliver the mandates of this office.

According to Fuimapoao there was little integration, systems, services and programmes when he arrived.

So part of the changes that I have been leading in the past three years, is to change the approach and so we now take an inclusive development approach, she said.

In doing so there is no longer a division for women alone, it is now a social development division which looks at development needs of families.

The former division for youth is now doing economic empowerment for everybody and the former division for internal affairs which was the division for men in the past is now looking at governance.

These changes have been quite challenging for a lot of people.

According to Fuimapoao, in the past the Ministry carried out a lot of programmes such as giving courses for sewing and printing.

Whereas the core function of every government is policy, coordination of the implementation, planning, monitoring and its evaluation. Obviously with these changes, and just like every change, it is quite challenging, she said.

And especially when you require someone who has been doing the same work for the last twenty years to now come and do something different.

The changes have not been as smooth as I would have liked it to be.

Fuimapoao said the changes have been tough on her and the Ministry.

The reality is we have been trying to address the core issues of violence against women and girls and for many years and the recent survey in 2016 showed that the numbers are going up, she said.

And as with anything, if you try to fix the same problem with the same solutions, youll end up in the same place.

She said that part of the inquiry by P.S.C. looks at the new changes.

We now have a mandate, new focus and a new approach and they are looking at the skillset that are needed and the competencies so that the Ministry can facilitate or best deliver the new changes, she said.

I am looking forward to the report and seeing the good changes, what needs to be improved and if there are any negative changes.

I have tendered my resignation and I have three more months to serve, she said.

Asked as to why she has tendered her resignation yet her goals have not been fulfilled, she said: My strength is strategic thinking, to start things moving but sometimes, in order to sustain, complete and see the changes through I think there is a need for a whole new set of skills.

Fuimapoao said there are also issues with the employees including changes of A.C.E.O. positions and these are hard decision that had to be made.

Out of the seven originals A.C.E.O. that I had, I made changes through the merit on five positions, because you do need new leadership skills for the work that is required for the mandates.

It was not possible to get a comment from the P.S.C. yesterday.A gathering at Tafa'igata last night signified an important step for the Accredited Mediators of Samoa Association (A.M.S.A.) and the Ministry of Justice and Courts Administration (M.J.C.A.)

Held at the Samoa Cultural Center, the occasion was the official handing over by M.J.C.A. of Land and Titles Court Mediation matters to A.M.S.A.

The Minister of Justice, Faaolesa Katopau Ainuu, spoke at the gathering attended by Accredited Mediators and guests.

The move signals the Government's approval to outsource mediation services for matters relating to customary land and matai titles disputes where petitions have been lodged with the Land and Titles Mediation Division of the Ministry of Justice and Courts Administration.

Over the past two months, the Ministry of Justice and Courts Administration have been working in partnership with A.M.S.A. to develop a framework that will facilitate the mediation of L.T.C. matters by accredited mediators.

A.M.S.A. believes that mediation delivered by its accredited mediators will help resolve L.T.C. disputes with the objectives of;

 Saving relationships, especially family relationships where the parties are part and parcel of one large extended Samoan family, so it will help rebuild the relationships of estranged families.

 Also saving time, so the parties do not spend their time at the L.T.C in disputes that could stretch for years and across generations; and saving costs, where the parties get to resolve their own disputes with the help of the accredited mediator without spending too much money on taking the matter to court.

The Government believes that the services of A.M.S.A., in providing an independent accredited mediator, will allay public fears of biasness and collusion levelled against the Ministry of Justice Deputy Registrars who currently conduct mediation of L.T.C. matters.

A.M.S.A. services for mediations of L.T.C. matters will commence on Monday 5 March 2018.The Government should allow international travellers to carry controlled drugs if they are legally prescribed by an authorised person in their home countries.

This is the proposal by the Samoa Law Reform Commission in their Drug Reform report released in December last year.

Samoa does not have a provision under Samoas Narcotics Act exempting travellers who are authorised by their home countries to carry drugs for treatment services to another country, the report reads.

Currently, any illegal drug discovered at the border by Customs are seized and detained.

However, there are situations where an international traveller who is found to be in possession of such drugs can be exempted from liability on the condition that there is a certificate authorising such person to carry such drugs i.e. a prescription.

According to the S.L.R.C. report, in the 1990s there was a case where an Australian passenger was travelling to Samoa carrying illegal drugs.

This person was allowed to carry such drugs into Samoa on the basis that it was authorised by his doctor back in Australia.

Tonga and New Zealand both have exemptions for international travellers who carry with them illegal drugs required for treating a medical condition (or for a person under their care as in N.Z.), and the drug has been lawfully supplied in the country of origin by a treating medical practitioner and it is no more than a one month supply.

However, N.Z. classifies certain types of drugs that travellers can travel with. For example, cannabis-based products for medical use supplied in the US can only be permitted into N.Z. if such product has the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval.

The Commission sought submissions on whether the new drugs framework should contain such a provision regarding international traveller exemption from carrying illegal drugs.

The common view was that Samoa should allow international travellers to carry controlled drugs if legally prescribed by an authorised person in their home countries.

One submitter expressed the view that cannabis for instance, is now known to have good uses for cancer, and that the world may be heading this way particularly with the rise of cancer cases globally.

Therefore, more and more people are relying on these illegal drugs for treatment and take it with them while travelling.

It was suggested that the N.Z. approach could be used as guidance because it is reasonable.

However it was strongly emphasised that there should also be strict guidelines and conditions in place to effectively regulate such cases.

For example conditions/requirements could cover matters including the amount to be allowed into Samoa which should be less than a month supply i.e. 30 day permit, the drug was lawfully supplied in the country of origin for a certain medical condition and that it was approved by an authorised medical practitioner and as proof, proper medical documentation/evidence such as a medical report must be provided certifying that the controlled drug are prescribed for treatment.

The S.L.R.C. report says that one submitter noted that further review/discussions of the issue is needed before a decision to exempt international travellers is made.

Yet another suggested that such exemption should not be included in the law at all.

The Commission notes that the international travellers exemptions allow travellers to carry with them drugs that are otherwise prohibited in the country of destination, provided that such drugs are accompanied by a certificate issued by a medical practitioner or a relevant authorised body in their country of origin.

Such exemptions can be found in the laws of Tonga and N.Z. where travellers are allowed to do so for medical reasons, with certain conditions.

The S.L.R.C. recommended the new drugs framework should include a provision exempting international travellers who have been authorised to carry illegal drugs for treatment when entering Samoa similar to Tonga and New Zealand.

However, strict guidelines and conditions need to be in place to regulate such practice which may include the following: - the amount to be allowed into Samoa which should be less than a month supply i.e. 30 day permit; the drug was lawfully supplied in country of origin for a certain medical condition and that it was approved by an authorised medical practitioner; and- as proof, proper medical documentation/ evidence such as a medical report must be provided certifying that the controlled drug is prescribed for treatment.

Last month, Ministry of Health Director, Leausa Dr. Take Naseri said a medical card is not valid in Samoa.

Overseas, if you are prescribed to use marijuana medically, you must have a medical card to show at border control.

We are an independent State and so these medical cards are not allowed here.

He said a cancer patient from overseas requested to grow marijuana at their residence for pain relief.

Its impossible for us to allow that.

So we prescribe the medication and have it refilled.Students attending different primary schools in the Aleipata district have an extra reason to look forward to school this week.

Courtesy of N.R.L. Samoa, Business Systems Limited and AusAid, many of them are recipients of some 1600 exercise books donated. The recipient schools include Satitoa, Tiavea, Lalomanu, Samusu, Ulutogia, Lotopue and Vailoa. Each school received 200 books.

N.R.L. Samoa Development Manager, Gabrielle Apelu, said the donation is part of their Cyclone Relief Aid for schools in Samoa.

Immediately after the cyclone, school buildings were damaged and flooded and the childrens educational materials were damaged, she said.

We found one of our schools writing in printing paper as all their school books had been damaged in the cyclone and are awaiting new stock.

Ms. Apelu added that the Samoan culture is all about sharing and giving.

This is just something to assist them while they wait for their new materials, she said.

Ms. Apelu acknowledged the support of their partners in putting the donation together in a short amount of time.

We were so fortunate that B.S.L. immediately jumped to assist us with the request on such short notice, we asked them on Friday and on Monday the books were ready.

The schools in Aleipata was selected for the N.R.L League for Life Programme.

The Schools visited were extremely happy and thankful of the items received.

The Principals expressed their gratitude as it came at a time they are still awaiting their new stock and the kids couldnt be happier.A father of two needs assistance.

The unemployed Sausi Fineaso, from Saleimoa, can only dream of a better home and a bright future for his children.

For five years, hes been living in his Samoan fale made out of plywood, with its roof leaking when it rains and decaying posts.

Mr. Fineaso says this has made him fear for the lives of his two-year-old and one-year-old children.

We may not have all the wealth in the world, but we always work hard so we can have a stable life. We live in a small Samoan house because its the only house that we can afford, he said.

The wall of my home is made out of plywood, it was the only material that I found lying around and I used it to fix my house with. Plywood is easily ruined when it rains and it decays quickly, said the 34-year-old.

Where we are living right now, whenever there are heavy rains it becomes really muddy and so many mud puddles are created, which becomes a health concern.

The water comes all the way from the road to my house. It collects debris and stores it right below our house and one thing is certain it causes my children to become ill, he said.

There are more than 10 people in his home. He lives with his in-laws, his wife has nine siblings and they live together. Their kitchen is not safe for cooking.

Our kitchen is one of the problems that we have, it is very unhygienic. As you can see, we place anything that is heavy to hold the roof of our kitchen down, we cannot afford any nails, so we put our broken bikes up there together with rocks.

We have food but the problem is where we make the food, it is dirty and the flies are everywhere.

Only his parents in-law work in their family.

He shared with the Village Voice team that their toilet is their biggest health concern, and money is the only solution to replace the pipelines. But he struggles to earn money because Tropical Cyclone Gita ruined their plantation.

Our toilet needs fixing, the pipe that is connected to the septic tank has been affected by the floodwaters as well. When there are heavy rains, the pipe leaks and the waste would overflow.

But it is my responsibility to fix the problem. I cant just leave it like that. I feel for my children.

This is a recurring problem, especially during torrential rainfall.

We wanted to get gravel and pour it around where we live to avoid the dust from entering our home, but having no money is always the problem.

I have so many needs, but they all become wishes because I cannot carry out the tasks that I have in mind. Sometimes I just feel sick from the dirt and the smell of the rubbish that are being carried to our house by the floodwaters.

My main concern is for my childrens health and safety. I want a stable house where we can find refuge and not have to worry about anything.

Mr. Fineaso says they have a new house which is being half done because of financial constraints.

We are currently working on another new house for our family and we are looking for possible ways to receive help to complete our home.

For five years we have been living here and it took us a long period of time to earn some cash to build a new home, but there is a major delay because there is no money to complete it. This is all for the wellbeing of my children, which is why we are determined to build a new home.

We have raised the foundation of our new home so that floodwaters will not enter the house.

For anyone who is willing to help Mr. Fineasos family, contact the number 7718657.The Chief Executive Officer of the Electrical Power Corporation (E.P.C.), Tologata Tile Tuimalealiifano, has offered condolences to the family of an eight-year-old boy who was allegedly electrocuted from a faulty electrical wire at Tuaefu on Sunday.

Tologata has also confirmed that they have launched an investigation in connection to the death.

I am now waiting on a report from our post in Vaitele on the said matter, he said.

Its a very serious issue at hand so I cannot comment until I see the report."

I also understand the Police have launched their investigation.

Tologata said the E.P.C. wants to get to the bottom of the matter as soon as possible.

In the meantime, he said: We would like to offer our sincere condolences to the family. We are investigating the matter.

According to reports, the boy was electrocuted when he came across faulty wires from Cyclone Gita on the side of the road.

Tologata could not comment on the reports until they complete their investigation.

Last week, Tologata had issued a stern warning for members of the public who have low electricity lines to be cautious.

We will conduct a follow up soon, however we also depend on the families to report any wiring faults they come across.

According to Tologata, they have proposed to the Attorney Generals Office to consider drafting a Bill to ban planting of trees next to electricity poles and lines.

This law is mainly for the safety of the public because there are cases where families cut down a tree and it falls on a line, they will eventually call us.

Members of the public need to know that there is a huge impact of trees falling on electricity poles, in some cases, there is a possibility that this one tree will eliminate the power for the whole district.

Yet families dont really consider the impact until something goes wrong, said Tologata.

The family of the deceased boy declined to be interviewed.A Kiwi tourist who suffered as a result of an incident while enjoying the Papaseea Sliding Rocks on Tuesday is grateful to the Fire and Emergency Services Authority for their help.

The Search and Rescue team of F.E.S.A. was called the woman was stranded at the bottom, unable to get back.

Yesterday, 27th Feb 2018, on Duty Shift from Faleata Station attended a call out regarding a New Zealand Tourist stranded on the river bank, after an incident she was involved in whilst sliding from the slippery rocks at Papaseea, a statement from F.E.S.A. said.

The Kiwi tourist suffered from a twisted left ankle, and a broken left arm wrist as a result of the incident."

The responding Crew offered treatment and secured her to the spinal long board and safely carried her on shoulder to the top, where the Ambulance stationed.

The woman is reportedly recovering at the hospital.

Attempts are being made to get a comment from the hospital.If Amazon succeeds in turning Alexa into the brains of the modern smart home, then Ring will provide the eyes.

In a deal that expands Amazons network of internet-connected household gadgets  and with it, the e-commerce giants reach into customers homes  the Seattle company has agreed to buy Ring, a Santa Monica maker of high-tech doorbells, for a reported $1 billion.



For the record: An earlier version of this article said Amazon acquired Rachio and Scout Alarm. Amazon invested in those companies.

Ring doorbells are already being used by 2 million customers. Its improbable success comes five years after its founder, serial entrepreneur Jamie Siminoff, was rejected on the TV show Shark Tank.

But the company proved there was demand for video-enabled doorbells, which enable users to see outside their homes via smartphone or computer. The technology provides a sense of security and a salve for one of the most nagging problems in the e-commerce era: package thieves.

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Thats a huge benefit for Amazon, which has revolutionized the way people shop and the way goods are delivered.

But theres more to this acquisition than protecting parcels, analysts say.

Amazon has been quietly investing in technology to bolster its smart home capabilities.

Amazon has in recent years focused extensively on Alexa, the popular home speaker that also doubles as an artificial intelligence device that can answer questions and make Amazon purchases. In 2015 the company invested in smart lawn sprinkler company Rachio. That same year it also invested in home security company Scout Alarm.

Amazons really watering the grass, so to speak, to grow into our homes and become more integrated in our lives in ways we havent even fathomed yet, said Matt Schreiber, president and chief investment strategist at WBI. This isnt just about Rings doorbell technology.

Theyve envisioned Alexa as your personal assistant, as your butler, as the hired help without having a hired help. This is the help for everyone on the planet, and theyre not done yet.

With investments in so many industries  retail, grocery, hardware, AI  its not a stretch to imagine a future where someone can tell Alexa to buy groceries, a delivery worker can pick up the food from an Amazon-owned Whole Foods, and a customer can monitor doorstep delivery via Ring.

This is like I, Robot, Schreiber said, referring to the 2004 science fiction film in which humans create robots to serve as personal assistants. Hopefully the robots wont take over, though. That would be terrifying.

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One of the newest, and most controversial, experiments includes Amazon Key, a service that allows couriers to enter homes to drop off packages. If successful, it could eradicate package theft. If unsuccessful, it could erode consumer trust in Amazons business.

Rings camera-equipped doorbells could give hesitant Amazon shoppers some reassurance in letting strangers open their doors.

This shows how serious Amazon is about privacy and security, said Michael Pachter, an analyst for Wedbush, who thinks Ring will give Amazon a jumping-off point to expand even further into home security.

With Ring, you can set camera zones, Pachter added. You can pull it up on your phone, trigger a light, and see what your camera sees. Theres no reason why it cant trigger an alarm too.

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Siminoff came up with the idea for a video-enabled doorbell after he realized he couldnt hear his front door ring while brainstorming business ideas inside the garage of his Pacific Palisades home.

Despite the Shark Tank setback, his TV appearance in November 2013 sparked an uptick in sales, giving the company new life.

Nothing ever will supersede Shark Tank. Wed have been gone, Siminoff told The Times last year.

Ring has raised more than $200 million in funding and counts Richard Branson among its investors. The company has also received capital from Amazons Alexa Fund, which invests in companies developing voice-enabled technology.

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Siminoff has said in the past that he works very closely with Amazon, but was wary of the company because of its size and influence.

To say Amazon will not compete with you is lunacy because they compete with everybody, he told CNBC. Theyre like nuclear power. They are very, very powerful and you can get amazing, clean energy from them, but theres also the possibility of getting human radiation if youre not careful.

Rings sale marks the biggest exit for an L.A.-area start-up since Unilever bought Dollar Shave Club for $1 billion in 2016. At least three local venture capital firms have invested in Ring: Upfront Ventures, QueensBridge Venture Partners and VTF.

A spokesperson for Ring said the company employed 2,000 team members, but did not clarify how many were full-time workers. The company had 2 million customers and sales of $160 million in 2016, according to IHS Markit.

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The acquisition of Ring also gives Amazon more ammunition to take on rival Google, which is expanding into video doorbells with its line of smart home hardware called Nest.

Amazon faces the risk of confusing consumers now that it has so many overlapping products, analysts said.

The tech giant already offers a smart camera called Cloud Cam, which is used for Amazon Key. And it acquired smart camera and doorbell start-up Blink in December.

Its like heres this widget, heres that widget, said Frank Gillett, an analyst with Forrester. Confusion would not be surprising given theyve just run out and bought a bunch of companies. Thats the mess theyre headed into.

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Amazon will have to figure out whether it wants to continue partnering with different companies or consolidate the services its hardware provides, Gillett said.

Neither Ring nor Amazon would discuss the terms of the deal. Reuters, citing an unidentified source familiar with the matter, reported that the price is more than $1 billion.

It would mark Amazons second-biggest acquisition after the nearly $14-billion purchase of Whole Foods in June.

Well be able to achieve even more by partnering with an inventive, customer-centric company like Amazon, Ring said in a statement. We look forward to being a part of the Amazon team as we work toward our vision for safer neighborhoods.

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Rings home security products and services have delighted customers since Day 1, Amazon said in a statement. Were excited to work with this talented team and help them in their mission to keep homes safe and secure.

To read this article in Spanish click here

Times staff writer Alejandra Reyes-Velarde contributed to this report.

UPDATES:

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7 p.m.: This article was updated with a new focus on smart home technology.

3:25 p.m.: This article was updated to include more context about Rings history.

This article was originally published at 1:35 p.m.A nearly two-decade-long fight between neighboring school districts over a long-sought high school for Alpine is over.

The Alpine Union School District and Grossmont Union High School District announced on Wednesday that after three years of court fights, they have reached an accord. The truce also includes the Alpine Taxpayers for Bond Accountability, a group that was fighting Grossmont.

A joint statement released by the school districts says that the Alpine groups wont fight the most recent California Court of Appeals decision about the matter. Grossmont has promised that it will not seek recovery of its court costs from either Alpine group.

Grossmonts trial court costs were $28,987, according to its attorneys. Appellate costs have not been calculated officially but district officials say those were between $1,000 and $2,000.

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Grossmont has spent more than $3 million fighting the Alpine groups. Alpine has spent about $700,000 fighting Grossmont over the years. The tax group says it has spent more than $100,000.

In mid-January, the state Board of Education denied Alpines bid to add a high school to the rural towns K-8 district. That decision came on the heels of an appellate court decision, also in January, that upheld findings by a Superior Court judge that the Grossmont Union High School District does not have to build a high school for Alpine.

Grossmont district voters passed bonds totaling nearly $700 million  Proposition H in 2004 and Proposition U in 2008  that included language about the plan to construct a new high school.

In Prop. U, the bond language states that a school for Alpine would be built after district-wide enrollment at the existing comprehensive high school sites, including the two current charter schools, equals or exceeds 23,245.

Those enrollment numbers were met in 2008-09, 2009-10 and 2010-11, according to Grossmont school board documents. The district maintained that it had not acquired the land at those times for the school, and that now the enrollment is below the threshold. The district currently has 21,709 students. Officials dont expect to return to the enrollment trigger until after 2020.

Under the settlement agreement, the Alpine parties agreed to recognize court decisions that found former Grossmont Superintendent Ralf Swensons actions were sound and reasonable exercises of their discretion with respect to the (Alpine) school, the joint statement said.

The agreement also reiterates language about Prop. Us enrollment condition for construction of a new high school in Alpine not being satisfied and thus Grossmont is not authorized or obligated to begin and complete construction of the new high school.

Current Grossmont Union Superintendent Tim Glover said with the agreement in place, the groups can now focus on serving the students of East County.

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Grossmont school board president Rob Shield at the January state school board meeting noted that his board is committed to building a high school in Alpine when it is appropriate.

Alpine Union School District Superintendent Rich Newman said he and Glover understand the need for the districts to work together.

(We are) dedicated to improving student outcomes and preparing all students to achieve their potential for success in life, career and as contributing members of society, he said in a media release.

Since 2002, Alpine has tried to create an independent educational district, unifying a high school with its elementary schools and lone middle school.

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Grossmont Union High School District schools currently serve about 22,000 students. After finishing eighth grade at Joan MacQueen Middle School, students in Alpine typically go to Granite Hills High School in El Cajon or Steele Canyon High School in Jamul  about 700 students in total. Getting to either school involves long drives along the freeway or winding local roads.

Alpine parent Wendy Gilbert said that she is frustrated with the situation overall.

She and her husband, Chad, moved to Alpine in 2004 with hopes that by the time their son, Dane, was born in September of that year, there would be a high school for him to attend down the line.

Dane will be graduating from Joan MacQueen this year with about 150 other eighth-graders, and will attend Granite Hills next year.

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A high school for Alpine has been in the works for so long, Gilbert said. Theres been so much excitement about it. We were getting the ball rolling, bonds were passed, property was bought, weve been paying for it all along. Its frustrating because people are leaving Alpine and not moving to Alpine because theres not a high school here.

Gilbert said talk around town is that a group may form to help Alpine start a charter high school. Steele Canyon in Jamul is a charter school in the Grossmont Union High School District, as is Helix in La Mesa.

As a last hope, I hope there is an opportunity to break away from Grossmont Union and go charter, Gilbert said. Thats a possibility, and that would be amazing.

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karen.pearlman@sduniontribune.comPHOTO ABOVE: The North Coast Corvette Club raised more than $36,000 at its 6th annual Vettes for Veterans car show to help injured area veterans. The show last fall featured 240 Corvettes. The proceeds along with matching funds from the Go Daddy Foundation of Bob and Renee Parsons and the Easterday Family Foundation will go to the Semper Fi Fund based at Camp Pendleton and the local chapter of Cal Diego Paralized Veterans to help injured service members and their families. From left, Ed Reardon and Ruth Kurisu, cochairpersons of the car show; JD Duncan, show creator; Gunnry Sgt. Brian Meyer, a Semper Fi Fund recipient and community representative and Sandy Hendren, event manager. The club is sponsored by Weseloh Chevrolet. Visit northcoastvettes.org.

Circus vargas is in town (Courtesy Circus Vargas )

PHOTO ABOVE: Circus Vargas runs through March 5 at the Westfield North County mall in Escondido.This years show, titled, Dreaming Pirates features acrobats, aerialists and daredevils along with other entertainers who will perform in the big top tent at the mall, 272 E. Via Rancho Pkwy. The circus moves to Temecula March 8. Tickets generally range from $15-$72. Visit circusvargas.org/index.html.

More community news...

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CARDIFF

Lecture to discuss sexual harassment

MiraCosta College is sponsoring a lecture on sexual harassment as part of the lifelong learning lecture and movie series from 1 to 3 p.m. Friday at the San Elijo Campus, 3333 Manchester Ave., Room 201. Hayley Schwartzkopf, director of labor relations and Title IX Coordinator for MiraCosta College, will discuss the differences between sexual misconduct, sexual harassment and criminal sexual behavior in the workplace. Other topics include: what do employers need to do to comply with State and Federal regulations?; and what are the personal, professional and criminal consequences of these various types of behavior. Email lifesanelijo@gmail.com.

CARLSBAD

Foundry Artists offer oil painting classes

The Foundry Artists at New Village Arts are sponsoring a complete course in Representational Oil Painting from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturdays beginning March 3 at the New Village Arts Building at 2787 State St. The course consists of 12 weekly classes and is appropriate for beginners and intermediate-level artists who want to improve their skills. The instructor is an experienced artist and teacher. The instruction is provided for free but students will need to acquire their own equipment and art supplies. Email rubob91@hotmail.com.

ENCINITAS

Mobile blood drive set for Thursday

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The San Diego Blood Bank will hold a mobile blood drive from 9:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Thursday at the Encinitas City Hall parking lot, 505 S. Vulcan Ave. Donors must be age 17 and older (age 16 requires a parental consent), weigh at least 114 pounds and be in good health. It is recommended that donors consume an adequate meal and plenty of fluids prior to giving. Bring photo identification. Appointments are recommended but walk-ins are also welcome. To schedule an appointment, call (619) 469-7322 or visit SanDiegoBloodBank.org.

MS support group to host speaker

The Encinitas Multiple Sclerosis Connection Group will meet and host a guest speaker from 6 to 8 p.m. Friday at the San Diego County Credit Union, 501 N. El Camino Real. This is a support group for those with Multiple Sclerosis, their families and caregivers. Call (760) 944-4549 or (760) 805-6390 or email melindabrizendine@gmail.com.

ESCONDIDO

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Grandmothers to hold luncheon

The Grandmothers Club will hold a meeting and potluck luncheon at noon Thursday at Carefree Ranch Mobil Home Park, 211 N. Citrus Ave. The main dish will be corned beef. Attendees are encouraged to bring a dish to share plus their own eating utensils. You dont have to be a grandmother to join. Call (760) 745-0215 or (818) 219-3040.

Fall prevention workshop to be held

A free Safe Home: Fall Prevention workshop will be held from 9:30 to 11:30 a.m. Friday at 220 W. Crest St., Room 111. The guest speaker will be from the Southern Caregiver Resource Center who will discuss identifying trouble spots in the home as well as provide helpful tips on how to make the home safer. She will also provide attendees with some a list of community resources. Call (760) 739-7300.

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NORTH COUNTY

Support group to hold social events

The Catholic Widows and Widowers of North County will hold these events in March:

March 2: Lenten fish dinner at St. Elizabeth Seton Catholic Church, Carlsbad.

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March 3: Walk at the Batiquitos Lagoon with lunch at Tip Top Meats Market, Carlsbad.

March 6: Whale-watching excursion and lunch at Stratford Restaurant, Oceanside Harbor.

March 7: Brogue Wave concert at California Center for the Arts and lunch at OSullivans Irish Pub, Escondido.

March 7: Dance classes at Ed Brown Senior Center, Rancho Bernardo.

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March 9: Lenten fish sinner at St. Thomas More Catholic Church, Oceanside.

March 10: Dartmore County Spelling Bee at MiraCosta College, Oceanside.

This is a support group for those who desire to foster friendships through various social activities. Reserve at (858) 674-4324

Scholarship open to female senior students

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Soroptimist International Oceanside-Carlsbad is offering up to three $2,000 art scholarships to current high school senior female students to be applied to their continuing education. Applicants must reside in either Oceanside or Carlsbad. The Zona Murray for the Arts Scholarship application may be downloaded from siooceansidecarlsbad.com or from local high school websites. 2018 applications are being accepted in two categories: visual or performing arts. Applications must be received by April 7.

OCEANSIDE

Library holds ESL classes weekly

Oceanside Public Library holds its English as a Second Language (ESL) Conversation Class on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 10 to 11:35 a.m. through May 17 in the second-floor Foundation Room at the Civic Center Library at 330 North Coast Highway. New students are enrolled in the class every Tuesday. The class is a free noncredit course offered in partnership with MiraCosta College. Visit oceansidepubliclibrary.org. For more information on MiraCosta College classes and programs, visit miracosta.edu/continuinged or call (760) 795-8736.

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VALLEY CENTER

Docents sought as attendance increases

The Valley Center History Museum, which reported a 2016 attendance that was double that of the previous year, is accepting inquiries from individuals who would like to serve as docents. Volunteers greet visitors, host tour groups and become involved in childrens programs. Since opening in 2003, the museum has attracted more than 34,000 adult visitors from each of the 50 U.S. states and from 34 foreign countries. Docents undergo a brief training period and can volunteer as little as one afternoon a month or more. The museum is at 29200 Cole Grade Road. Hours are noon to 4 p.m. Tuesdays through Saturdays. Visit vchistory.org, email info@vchistory.org or call (760) 749-2993.

VISTA

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Attorneys to discuss legal topics

Volunteer attorneys will provide basic information on the following legal topics as part of a series sponsored by the Vista Library:

Landlord Tenant Law, March 1

Trusts and Estate Law, March 22

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Personal Injury, April 5

Small Claims, April 26

Sessions begin at 6 p.m. at the library, 700 Eucalyptus Ave. Call (760) 643-5100.

Senior center seeking volunteers

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The McClellan Senior Center is looking for volunteers to assist at the visitor information desk and providing kitchen help at 1400 Vale Terrace Drive. The information desk position is available from 1 to 4 p.m. weekdays. Kitchen help is needed from noon to 12:30 p.m. weekdays. Interested persons can email their contact information to whartman@cityofvista.com.

Show to focus on Streisands music

The McClellan Senior Center will present Barbara Streisand Through the Decades Show, featuring Regina Keith and her daughter, Kathryn, at 11 a.m. Friday at 1400 Vale Terrace Drive. The duo will perform the most popular songs of Streisands career spanning more than 60 years. Call (760) 643-5288.Glen Heggstad sent a message to burglars this past weekend: dont mess with Palomar Mountain residents.

Heggstad spends most weekends at his 37-acre ranch, where he has a trailer and a small cabin that he shares with his best friend and adjacent property owner, Phil Nelissen.

Sunday morning, Nelissen drove to his land and found the gate broken and the trailer parked near Heggstads cabin gone.

Squatters had clearly been there very recently. A campfire was going. Lawn chairs had been set up. A mirror had been hung. A generator was running and a pitcher of ice tea sat on a table. There were also a lot of odd items that appeared to have been stolen from other cabins sitting in wheelbarrows and elsewhere nearby.

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Nelissen notified authorities, Heggstad and other neighbors to be on the lookout for whoever was responsible.

The pickup truck stuffed with stolen items from local cabins (Glen Heggstad )

The next morning, a neighbor spotted a black pickup near the cabin and called Nelissen, who in turn texted Heggstad, who was staying in his nearby trailer.

Heggstad jumped into his truck and drove to the cabin.

I got down there and sure enough, there was this fool asleep in the truck, which was filled with stolen chain saws, power tools and other things, he said. Apparently, they were using my brothers place (he refers to Nelissen as his brother) as a staging area because they had other stolen goods stashed there.

Heggstad pounded on the window of the truck and asked the man inside what he was doing there. The man, later arrested and identified as Geoffry Brister, 36, came out swinging, Heggstad said.

He didnt know that Heggstad, a very fit 65-year-old former Hells Angel and martial arts expert, would be way too much for him to handle.

How do I put this delicately, Heggstad said. I exercised self-defense techniques against him. He took a couple of swings and I did, too, probably more than a couple. I took a pocket knife away from him and finished defending myself.

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In the course of him attacking me, he probably took the worst beating of his lifetime, he said.

Heggstad said he wasnt afraid of getting hurt during the altercation. I was only afraid he might get away, he said.

It was about 20 minutes before Sheriffs deputies arrived in force, he said.

During that time, Heggstad said he questioned Brister about the location of his friends trailer, which he admitted was stashed near Lake Henshaw. It has since been recovered.

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Valley Center Sheriffs Sgt. Russ Ryan confirmed that Brister was arrested and hospitalized for his injuries, which included either a broken or severely hurt jaw.

Weve been able to tie the suspect to at least three or four other burglaries between Palomar Mountain and Big Bear and possibly more, Ryan said.

Brister is a transient with ties to San Bernardino and Big Bear City, Ryan added.

Brister has been charged with robbery, burglary, vehicle theft and receiving stolen property. He is being held without bail at the Vista Detention Facility because of an outstanding warrant from another jurisdiction, according to the Sheriffs Departments jail information website.

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Ryan said property from numerous burglaries was recovered near the cabin and the investigation is ongoing. There was evidence of a second vehicle, but no other suspects have been identified. Ryan said evidence suggested Brister, and possibly others, had been squatting on the land for at least a few days.

Palomar Mountain has historically been the focus of burglars stealing from unoccupied cabins. Ryan said it doesnt appear that Brister was connected to any recent long-running theft series.

Heggstad said landowners on the mountain are pretty much on their own because law enforcement doesnt have the manpower to patrol the sparsely populated area on a regular basis. The community looks out for one another, he said.

Heggstad said he wishes Bristers booking photo, showing his facial injuries, could see print to send a message to others thinking of targeting the mountain.

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Its up to the landowners, he said. We dont want to look like vigilantes but what we are are really, really pissed off homeowners. We want these guys to know its not going to be easy. Were not easy pickins up here. There is a price to pay.

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jharry.jones@sduniontribune.com; 760/529-4931; Twitter: @jharryjonesCarlsbads iconic windmill building on Palomar Airport Road will soon be transformed into a food hall with 11 restaurant concepts, a full bar and childrens games.

Windmill Food Hall, which will open in the summer, will fill the 12,000-square-foot space formerly occupied by TGI Fridays restaurant, which closed in 2016.

Windmill Food Hall is the latest brainchild of Carlsbad restaurant entrepreneur James Markham, who developed the national chains Pieology, Project Pie and MOD Pizza, as well as his newer local concepts Crackheads, Rolled Up, Doughballs and Jarfood.

Markhams ahead-of-the-curve thinking has led to glowing write-ups in numerous trade publications, including Restaurant Hospitality, Business News Daily, Fast Casual, Pizza Marketplace and PMQ Pizza Magazine.

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In 2015, Entrepreneur magazine wrote that Markham may not have created fast-casual pizza. But the serial entrepreneur is definitely the Johnny Appleseed of custom quick-serve pies.

Carlsbad restaurant entrepreneur James Markham will open his Windmill Food Hall in Carlsbad in summer 2018. (James Markham )

So if Markham is known for hitting home runs with his food ideas, does he see food halls as the next big thing? Yes, but he plans to improve on the concept.

I think that food halls are here to stay, he said in an interview on Tuesday. Most of the stuff I do is a little different than everyone else. Food halls now are daytime-driven, dependent on the lunch and early-day weekend crowd. None of them have created an atmosphere that draws people in at night. We plan on doing that.

Windmill Food Hall will have 11 individual food-service areas that will be leased to different vendors. Some will be Markhams own concepts, like Crackheads, an all-day breakfast sandwich eatery, and maybe Doughballs, which serves wood-fired pizzas. But others will be up-and-coming, locally-born restaurants that Markham wants to help transition up from farmers markets and food trucks.

To keep the venue family-oriented, Markham said there will be childrens games like Skee-Ball, a vintage Pac-Man video game, Ping-Pong, Jenga and other hands-on games and play items.

And for the grown-ups, Markham will be introducing a single-point payment system, similar to the one used last fall at the KAABOO festival in Del Mar. When parties arrive at the check-in desk, theyll be issued a key fob or bracelet synced to their credit card, which can be swiped at any booth or the bar.

Markham said this will simplify the purchasing process for large parties and free up cocktail waiters, so they can concentrate on filling table-side drink orders without having to process credit cards.

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An artists rendering of the Windmill Food Hall, which will open in Carlsbad in the summer. (James Markham )

Windmill Food Hall, which is aiming for a June opening, is one of three food halls now in the works around San Diego County.

This summer, the Little Italy Food Hall will open next to the pedestrian-friendly Piazza della Famiglia on West Date Street between Columbia and India streets.

Also this summer, Whisknladle Hospitality will reopen the former San Diego Tech Center in Sorrento Valley as Park Commons, a 10,000-square-foot food hall and event space. One chef will oversee multi-concept food stations that will serve salads, Middle Eastern wraps, street tacos, poke, sandwiches and coffee, plus an evening bar.

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They all join Liberty Public Market, a highly successful 30-vendor food hall that opened two years ago at Liberty Station in Point Loma.

The lease for the Windmill property was handled by Bill Shrader, David Maxwell, and Serena Patterson of Colliers International San Diego Regions Urban Property Team.

Shrader said the explosion of food halls is part of a nationwide trend among diners to have more than just a meal when they go out to eat.

The interior of the former TGI Fridays restaurant in Carlsbad will soon become the Windmill Food Hall. (Pam Kragen/San Diego Union-Tribune )

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Experiential retail and restaurant concepts will continue to thrive as consumers want choice when dining out, he said. The Windmill Food Hall will deliver an exciting, new concept in one of North Countys iconic buildings.

The Windmill Food Hall will open at 890 Palomar Airport Road, just west of The Flower Fields and Legoland California. The 150-room lodge portion of the property is the Carlsbad By the Sea hotel.

The windmill-topped building was constructed in 1982 as the southernmost location of Pea Soup Andersens, a cafe/hotel company founded in Buellton in 1924 by Denmark-born restaurateur Anton Andersen. The buildings were sold to Holiday Inn in 1998. Last September, RAR Hospitality assumed management of the hotel. The company is planning a $1 million refreshment of the property.

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pam.kragen@sduniontribune.comMarijuana tax dollars boost local economies, but they likely wont solve every budget shortfall.

An expert who helped write Denvers marijuana regulations says cannabis taxes account for three percent of that citys general fund  about $43 million.

Thats a ton of money, but its not what I would call game-changing amounts of money, said Dan Rowland, a consultant who used to work at Denvers Office of Marijuana Policy.

It does not repair any one city or states fiscal issues. It doesnt allow you to start redoing parks and redoing all of your roads and bridges. But it does fund the cost of regulation and it does fund very carefully selected special projects.

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Rowland joined a handful of cannabis experts in Chula Vista to talk about the economic benefits of legalization during a forum hosted by the South Bay Economic Development Corp. Representatives from Chula Vista, Imperial Beach and National City attended the forum to learn more about the impact of regulating a legal marijuana market.

For Chula Vista, the forum was a preview of regulations its City Council voted on Feb. 27. The ordinance called for 12 dispensaries or delivery services and had no limits on cultivation, manufacturing or distribution sites. City staff spent months traveling to Colorado and gathering public input.

What we found out from some of the others that went before us is that some of them jumped in a little too quickly and didnt think of all of the impacts, said Chula Vistas Deputy City Manager Kelley Bacon. So weve really tried to learn from other places.

Imperial Beach City Manager Andy Hall attended the forum to hear from people who have already gone through the process. The city, after months of research and gathering community input, started to write a draft of its ordinance last week.

Hall was particularly receptive to Rowlands view that marijuana tax revenues are not an economic savior but another tool to help fund city programs.

This isnt going to be the panacea that solves all of the communitys problems, he said. Its just another piece of the economic engine.

Imperial Beachs proposed regulations, which are subject to change as the City Council continues to deliberate, currently dont allow cultivation and limit dispensaries to one along state Route 75.

National City, which has been most resistant to recreational marijuana, was at the forum to listen. Mayor Ron Morrison said they are in the information-gathering campaign, and criticized the economic forum for not being balanced.

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I want to see what the benefits will be, but I also want to see what the downsides will be, he said.

Still, the mayors presence surprised members of the marijuana community particularly because the city has not embraced marijuana in the past.

I was surprised to see the mayor there, as well, said Dallin Young, executive director of the Association of Cannabis Professionals. We hadnt seen much of an appetite in National City, so we hadnt pressed it there, plus they werent the most favorable.

The Association of Cannabis Professionals has been lobbying cities in San Diego County to write marijuana regulations. Theyve also written regulations themselves through initiative ballots. The group filed successful initiatives in La Mesa and Lemon Grove.

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On Feb. 6, the association ruffled feathers in Imperial Beach by introducing a ballot initiative just before the City Council was scheduled to have a public discussion of its own ordinance.

Councilman Ed Spriggs called the move puzzling and disturbing in an Op-Ed to the local website digimperialbeach.com. The City Council thought the association would hold off on an initiative if the city made a good-faith effort to write its own ordinance.

Young countered that the citys ordinance of one dispensary along state Route 75 is too limited. The initiative, which was rejected by the city clerk because of wording issues, called for manufacturing, cultivation, and marijuana lounges on the state route and Seacoast Drive.

Ballot initiatives have sprung up throughout California, said David McPherson, a former police officer, tax administrator, and compliance auditor who now helps cities draft their own policies.

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Its kind of spot checking all over the place and its the smaller cities that have limited resources to prevent that, McPherson said.

The problem with ballot initiatives is they dont always consider everything that the cities consider, such as land use or environmental issues. There is also concern that they are biased in favor of industry groups, he added.

Contact Gustavo Solis via Email or TwitterBoth Cade Slattery and Ivan Salazar were still young kids when they decided to heed the beat of a different drummer  in about as literal a way as you can imagine.

The two performers and former locals are now key cast members of Stomp, the percussion-centric stage phenomenon that gets its ensemble pounding on everything from trash cans to steel pipes to giant inner tubes to their own bodies.

But it all started when they happily found themselves in the orbit of Chris Rubio, the longtime East County percussion czar who has shepherded legions of upstart drummers through his Junior Crew, part of Rubios wide-ranging Arts in Motion organization.

Their experiences a decade or so ago with that troupe and with Rubio, a longtime Stomp performer and the shows former rehearsal director, have taken the two friends on a path has included long stints with both the shows off-Broadway production and its touring version.

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And now they make a long-awaited homecoming, as the Stomp road show lands at San Diegos Balboa Theatre this week for its first local visit in some seven years.

Looking back on when he first heard of the show, Salazar  who grew up in Tecate, Mexico, before moving to San Diego with his family  admits he thought it sounded kind of cheesy and lame.

Then he saw the thing. (At the Balboa, as it happens.)

When I watched it, (I realized) there s something very visceral about the show, Salazar says. Maybe its just the vibration you get from hearing the bass go through your seat and into your body.

They like to say its a show for anyone, because we dont speak, we just use physical language and comedy that anyone can understand and relate to.

In a lot of ways, it feels a little primitive, but its also grounded in music. I havent met a person who says they dont like music. So if we do a good job, it gets people bobbing their heads and getting into it.

Salazar, who has been with Stomp for more than four years now, primarily plays the role of Sarge, who serves as more or less the shows lead performer.

Slattery, who joined Stomp about two years ago, has been portraying Mozzie, the shows comic relief and the main antagonist (in a playful way) to Sarge.

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Hes a character the audience is kind of rooting for, says Slattery, who also has played the role of Ringo, a shy but lovable character who interacts with the crowd.

The production has 12 cast members altogether, including three women, although only eight people are in each performance because the shows physical demands mean everyone needs frequent rests.

Both Slattery and Salazar sound excited about their return to town  San Diegos burritos and beaches are high on their to-do lists.

Both also look forward to seeing family and friends  although distance didnt stop Slatterys very proud mom from previously packing her sons five siblings into the car and driving to see him at a performance in Arizona.

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Salazar, a marching-band drummer in his school days, lets his excitement ring as loud as the crack of cymbals (or a pair of trash-can lids).

I get to perform with one of my oldest and best friends, and were at the helm of the show, as he puts it. Its very otherworldly and very crazy for me. I know its going to feel like a little bit of dream.

Stomp

When: 7:30 p.m. Friday; 2 and 7:30 p.m. Saturday; 1 and 6 p.m. Sunday.

Where: Balboa Theatre, 868 Fourth Ave., downtown.

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Tickets: About $60-$95

Phone: (619) 570-1100

Online: broadwaysd.com.

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jim.hebert@sduniontribune.com

Twitter: @jimhebertBritish Prime Minister Theresa May is facing a new battlefront in her negotiations over Britains withdrawal from the European Union after the opposition Labor Party laid out its vision for a future trade deal, setting the stage for a possible showdown during a parliamentary vote.

In a speech on Monday, Labor leader Jeremy Corbyn branded the EU an institution that Britain should not see as the root of all evil, and said he will push for the country to maintain some sort of customs agreement with the remaining 27 EU members once Brexit takes effect. He said the cost of severing all ties was simply too high.

The EU customs union provides a free-trade zone for European goods and imposes a common tariff on goods entering the zone.

Corbyns stance runs counter to the strategy put forward by May, who has said she wants to cut all ties with the EU  both Britains membership in the single European market and the customs union  in order for Britain to prosper and forge new lucrative trade deals with non-European nations.

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Opposition Labor Party leader Jeremy Corbyn gives a speech on Brexit at Coventry University in Coventry, England, on Feb. 26, 2018. (Ben Stansall / AFP/Getty Images )

It also raises the real possibility that some pro-EU members of her Conservative Party could break ranks and side with Labor when the government asks Parliament to vote on its post-Brexit trade bill.

It seems to be clear political positioning, said Tim Bale, a professor of politics at Queen Mary University of London. It puts Labor into a position where it can put forward an amendment [to the trade legislation] that Conservative rebels can support.

The Labor Party is looking for a Brexit that puts the working people first, Corbyn said during his speech Monday which, for the first time, clearly set out his partys stance.

We have long argued that a customs union is a viable option for the final deal, he said. So Labor would seek to negotiate a new comprehensive U.K.-EU customs union to ensure that there are no tariffs with Europe and to help avoid any need whatsoever for a hard border in Northern Ireland.

The speech was immediately applauded by many members of the business community who fear failing to maintain close economic ties with Europe and creating new trade barriers will result in the loss of jobs and a decline in productivity and living standards.

Many thousands of ambitious U.K. firms are looking to break into new markets, said Carolyn Fairbairn, director-general of the Confederation of British Industry, or CBI, which represents 190,000 businesses. These companies need government to focus on making access to markets simpler, not putting up barriers to our most important trading partner.

The news also gave a glimmer of hope to pro-European lawmakers and voters around the country who voted to remain in the EU and hope that a softer Brexit could still be on the table.

Labors announcement comes just days before May is due to deliver her own key speech on Brexit on Friday, when she is expected to shed new light on her negotiating strategy as stage two of the talks with the EU are about to formally get underway.

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Last year, phase one of the negotiations concluded when both sides agreed on three key issues: the rights of the 3 million EU citizens living in the U.K. and the 1 million U.K. citizens living in the EU; the relationship between Northern Ireland, which will leave the EU along with the mainland United Kingdom, and the Republic of Ireland, an EU member; and how much Britain must pay in order to cease its membership.

But those talks were far from simple and involved a last-minute dash to Brussels by May to finally seal the deal.

At the time, European Council President Donald Tusk warned that phase two of the talks would probably be even more fraught. And last Friday, he told reporters that Britain was operating on pure illusion if media reports were accurate when they suggested Mays government hoped to maintain close trade ties in some areas, while moving away in others.

Twenty months after the referendum in which Britain voted 52% to 48% to leave the EU, May remains in an unenviable position and her party remains deeply fractured over Brexit.

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British Prime Minister Theresa May is shown inside 10 Downing St. in London on Feb. 21, 2018. (Chris J. Ratcliffe / EPA/Shutterstock )

Those in the remain camp argue the country was never asked what sort of Brexit it wanted to see, while Euroskeptics say that the vote to leave was a vote to regain complete independence over Britains laws, trade agreements and borders, and they will settle for nothing less.

May has also been in a weak position politically ever since she called a snap general election last June hoping to strengthen her partys hold on power; it backfired spectacularly.

She lost her partys majority and now depends on an alliance with the Democratic Unionist Party, which only gives her a working majority of 13. Rumors of leadership challenges are rife.

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Corbyn, by contrast, made huge gains during the election, especially among younger voters who overwhelmingly voted to remain in the European Union, and many Conservatives fear he is edging his way into power.

Ministers in Mays government will therefore be trying to get those rebels on [its] side in the next few weeks, before any Brexit trade deal is put to a vote, Bale said, in order to prevent the country from diving headfirst into yet more political turmoil.

Even though analysts doubt Labors Brexit strategy will cause May to change her own negotiating position, it did set off a new war of words around Britains ability to successfully go it alone.

International Trade Secretary Liam Fox, a prominent member of the leave camp, said Tuesday that that any form of customs union with the EU would be a disaster for Britain and a complete sellout of Britains national interests.

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The inevitable price of trying to negotiate with one arm tied behind our back is that we would become less attractive to potential trade partners and forfeit many of the opportunities that would otherwise be available, he said.

On the other side, Martin Donnelly, a former official within Foxs department, said leaving the single market and customs union would be akin to rejecting a three-course meal now in favor of the promise of a packet of [chips] later.

ALSO

British judge upholds arrest warrant for WikiLeaks founder, says he should have courage to face consequences

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Leaders of Britain and France seek to strengthen security and intelligence ties ahead of Brexit

Germanys Merkel sets the stage for her eventual exit by picking a successor

Boyle is a special correspondent.The bustling Myeongdong neighborhood has long been this citys most-visited tourist spot, a place where foreign shoppers fill rolling suitcases with South Koreas coveted cosmetics, clothing and electronics.

But over the last year even the street vendors have noticed a steep decline in sales.

There arent as many tourists to attract in the streets, said 38-year-old Park Jeong-soo, who sells chicken skewers from a cart. It was the worst at the end of last year.

The reason: South Koreas new missile defense system, known as THAAD. China objects to it and has been flexing its economic muscle in protest, carrying out an aggressive campaign of economic retaliation that includes sending fewer tourists. In 2017, just over 4 million Chinese visited South Korea, down from roughly 8 million a year earlier after several years of steady growth.

I dont know why we have to be the ones that suffer because of politics, said Park. I watch the news more closely now, especially about THAAD. In a sense, my livelihood depends on it.

The Terminal High Altitude Area Defense was installed last spring on a former golf course in the countrys south by South Koreas most important ally, the United States. The system is designed to shoot down medium-range missiles from North Korea over parts of South Korea.

China says the systems radar encroaches on its sovereignty and threatens its national security.

South Korean President Moon Jae-in has tried to patch things up, visiting Beijing in December and agreeing to not install any new missile systems or link the current one with the United States overall defense network in Asia.

The meeting seemed to help, but merchants say the effects of the retaliation linger.

They say THAAD retaliation is over, but I think it will take awhile for us to recover, said Han Soo-young, 42, a clothing store manager in Myeongdong. Ive lost a lot of customers since our relationship with China became worse. I have even had to get rid of employees, and now I run the store alone.

The U.S. installed the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense system at a former golf course in the southern county of Seongju last spring. China objected, saying the antimissile system's radar encroaches on its sovereignty. AFP/Getty Images

In addition to sending fewer tourists to South Korea, China also limited domestic distribution of South Korean entertainment, such as streaming of popular television shows and movies, according to a report by the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission.

The retaliation also reduced sales of South Korean cosmetics, which are enormously popular in China, and South Korean automobiles, with Hyundai and Kia seeing big drops in their exports to China.

South Koreas leading retail conglomerate, Lotte, which gave Seoul the land for the missile-defense system in a real-estate swap, has also been targeted, suffering cyberattacks and losing hundreds of millions of dollars in the closure of more than 70 of its stores in China because they failed to pass fire-safety inspections.

But South Koreas tourism industry perhaps suffered most, both economically and psychologically.

The decline began in March 2017, when the China National Tourism Administration ordered domestic travel agencies to stop selling package deals to South Korea.

It was obvious and immediate across the country, especially as the peak summer season opened in places such as Myeongdong, which was visited by 81% of all foreign tourists in 2016, according to a survey by the governments Tourism Ministry.

Given that Chinese tourists spend about $1,900 on average during a visit, the cost of Chinas travel restrictions could be as high as $15 billion, according the Hyundai Research Institute. The figure is a small fraction of South Koreas $1.4-trillion economy  the 11th largest in the world  but it hurt nonetheless.

Restaurant owners and hoteliers on South Koreas Jeju Island, once a popular beach destination for Chinese, saw their revenue decline precipitously. The island attracted about 1,200 visitors from China last year during the popular fall holiday known as Chuseok  down from roughly 8,800 visitors during the 2016 holiday.

Nationwide, Chinese visits during the holiday fell 87%, according to the islands tourism association.

The Korea Tourism Organization has tried to make up for the losses by focusing its marketing on countries in Southeast Asia as well as Chinese who are willing to travel independently and not as part of an organized tour group. But that has barely helped.

Business owners across the country, and particularly in Seoul, have been left to wonder why their companies were caught up in a geopolitical row.

Kim Ji-seon, who manages a cosmetics store, used to see so many Chinese customers  up to 40 a day  that she hired Chinese-speaking clerks to serve them. Now those workers might help 10 of them a day.

Unfortunately we dont use Chinese that much anymore, said Kim, 34. There were very few Chinese tourists in Myeongdong this winter. Not a lot of people come into the stores. As you can see, its empty right now.

Stiles is a special correspondent.On the afternoon of Jan. 12, 2010, Edeline Felizor was leading a class at a teachers college in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, when the building began to sway.

At 4:53 p.m. that day, a 7.0-magnitude earthquake struck the island nation, laying waste to its capital city and killing more than 160,000 people. Felizor had been teaching on the second floor of a four-story building that pancaked to the ground, crushing her and dozens of others in a mountain of rubble.

Miraculously she survived, but with devastating injuries that eventually brought her to San Diego on a humanitarian visa for post-surgical care. As terrible as the experience was, Felizor sees it as a blessing from above.

If not for the quake, she never wouldve met Byron Shewman of Oceanside and Stephanie Hoffman of La Jolla. They helped her heal and they made her dream come true  the opening of Institut Edeline, a school for poor and orphaned children in Haiti.

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Im grateful to God for having you both ... the way youve embraced me as your family, the way you care about all of the children and my community, she told Shewman and Hoffman last week. I feel like if I pass away, at least God gave me a chance to meet you.

Steph Hoffman, co-founder of Institut Edeline in Croix-des-Bouquets, Haiti, with some of the grade-schools students on a recent visit. (Brian Biery )

Since they opened the doors of Institut Edeline in 2012, the K-5 grade school in Croix-des-Bouquets, Haiti, has grown to serve 200 pupils each year.

Shewman, 70, and Hoffman, 55, have worked with Felizor to raise $55,000 each year to cover the costs for faculty, nurse, cooks and staff who provide the children with free uniforms and books and two meals a day.

Felizor said the school has made a great difference in the lives of these children, many of whom lost their homes, and in some cases their parents, in the quake and subsequent after-shocks.

This school is changing the childrens lives, Felizor said. Theyre happy to be there, theyre eating, theyre learning a lot. Theres even a summer program where they can learn trades.

Because of the great need for schools like this in Haiti, theres a long waiting list for Institut Edeline (pronounced Ed-uh-LEEN). When the grade school opened five years ago, 12-year-old Sherie was too old to apply.

Instead, she crouched on the ground outside a classroom window for weeks listening in on lessons. Seeing Sheries passion to learn, the school enrolled her in kindergarten, where she learned to read and write. Now 17, she wants to become a teacher someday.

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Hoffman, who runs La Jolla Shores Physical Therapy, said seeing these transformational stories first-hand has changed her life.

Whenever you go there, you come back with renewed energy that youve got to help, she said. Weve been exposed to a different way of life. A simpler way of life. What they do with so little and their positive outlook on life is really an inspiration.

Institut Edeline would never have happened if not for Shewman, a retired English teacher and humanitarian who has been helping needy children in the U.S., Mexico and Haiti for more than 20 years.

Shewman played volleyball in college and served on the USA Mens Volleyball team from 1971 to 1976. He later played professional volleyball in Spain and taught the sport in France.

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In 1996, he and Olympian Kim Oden co-founded Starlings, a junior volleyball/academic program for low-income youth thats now in 40 cities nationwide. In 2005, he started Youth Without Borders, a nonprofit to help poor children in Tijuana. Institut Edeline is now the nonprofits sole focus.

While living in Europe years ago, Shewman learned fluent French and has often volunteered his translation service to medical teams responding to disasters in Third World countries.

Thats how he crossed paths with Felizor when he went on a medical mission a few days after the Haiti quake. He found her laying in a community hospital bed, near death, with a broken neck, broken ribs and no feeling in her arms or legs.

Felizor had been trapped in the buildings rubble for 24 hours before rescuers pulled her body free and then she lay in the street for two days. She remembers praying, singing hymns and listening to the dying cries of those around her.

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I asked God for a miracle, she said. I was very scared. I was crying and in pain. But I had faith that only God could help us

All of the citys hospital beds were full, so Felizors younger sister Isemene commandeered a truck that took her sister to a nearby town where she was given a bed but no other care. It would be 10 days before Felizor, with help from Shewman and Haitian pastor Garry Auguste, would receive an X-ray that found damage to the C1 and C2 vertebrae in her upper spine. She later underwent spinal fusion surgery aboard the USNS Comfort hospital ship.

Because of Felizors extensive rehabilitation needs, Shewman arranged a humanitarian visa that brought her and Isemene to San Diego about three weeks after the quake.

Many local doctors and therapists, including Hoffman, offered Felizor free services. She said that Felizor arrived in a wheelchair but was walking without a walker within a month. The rest of her recovery was slow. Her body and health are fragile and she still lacks the mobility to drive a car.

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Shewman welcomed the sisters, who are in their mid-30s, into his home. Theyve lived there ever since. Today, both work as nursing aides.

For the past eight years, I have had two daughters, Shewman said. We are a family. Theyre wonderful people and everyone loves them. They cook and clean and take care of me. Theyre Americans now.

As Felizor was recuperating in 2011, Hoffman asked her if there was anything they could do to fulfill her dreams. She had just one wish  to help the poor children of Haiti by building a school.

Hoffman and Shewman started by holding dinners with friends to raise money. Eventually, some larger foundations joined the fold: Oliver McMillan Group, the Epstein Family Foundation and Greater Good Org.

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Through Project Edeline, donors can sponsor a student for a year ($300) or a teachers salary ($1,000). There are also special project funds, like an effort to turn a shipping container into a computer lab and library, as well as student internships.

Hoffman and Shewman have each visited the school more than a dozen times, but Felizor has not. For many years, her health didnt permit her to travel and her visa doesnt allow her to leave the U.S. But next year, the visas for her and Isemene will run out and they will move back to Haiti.

Felizor said this news makes her both happy and sad, because she is excited to see the school but will miss Shewman and Hoffman, who are like her family.

Its all been a miracle, she said. I never planned to come here. I didnt even have a passport. But I put myself in Gods hands and God guided Byron and Stephanie to do his work.

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pam.kragen@sduniontribune.comFederal banking officials have agreed to consider revising money-laundering regulations that a new report blames for a rash of bank closures along the Mexican border in recent years.

The regulations are having the unintended consequence of prompting banks along the border to close branches and terminate accounts, according to a long-awaited report released Monday by the U.S. Government Accountability Office.

The branch closures and account terminations, which are called de-risking, are creating headaches for small businesses and forcing some residents to go without bank accounts from San Ysidro to parts of Arizona, New Mexico and Texas.

The 117-page report, the result of a 16-month investigation, says the Federal Reserve, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and other agencies must conduct comprehensive, retrospective reviews of the regulations.

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The reviews, which the agencies immediately agreed to conduct, will aim to determine how the regulations can be loosened without sacrificing their ability to curb money-laundering activities associated with drug dealing and terrorism.

The regulations have helped detect money laundering and other financial crimes, but there are also real concerns about the unintended effects, such as de-risking, the report says. We have found that reduced access to banking services can have consequential effects on local communities.

Branch closures and account terminations have been prompted by the regulations because they require time-consuming and expensive compliance measures, and banks risk large federal fines if they dont catch money-laundering activity.

The report says branches along the border filed nearly 30 percent more currency transaction reports than branches elsewhere in their state, and about 60 percent more than branches in other counties outside the region considered high-risk.

In addition, the report says 80 percent of border banks had terminated personal or business accounts for reasons related to the Bank Secrecy Act and money-laundering regulations.

Critics have been lobbying for such a comprehensive analysis and softening of the regulations. Some also want legislation creating incentives for banks to open near the border, and looser regulations on start-up community banks.

One of those critics, Rep. Juan Vargas, D-San Diego, said Tuesday that the report creates an opportunity for change.

I am in the process of reviewing the GAO report and considering drafting legislation to enact the recommendations included in the report, said Vargas, whose district includes San Diegos border communities.

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The Border Trade Alliance, a national business organization, called the report a vindication of concerns theyve been raising for several years.

The report basically corroborates our concerns and creates an opportunity for change, said Russ Jones, who is spearheading the groups efforts on the border banking problem. The last almost 10 years no one has been willing to address any re-looking at regulations.

The regulations are part of the Bank Secrecy Act, which was initially approved in 1970 and notably strengthened in 2001 as part of the U.S. Patriot Act.

The money-laundering crackdown was added in 2011 as part of comprehensive banking reform in the wake of the national mortgage crisis.

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Since then, banks have slowly but steadily closed near the border and many customers with the smallest of red flags have had their accounts terminated by frightened bankers, Jones said on Tuesday.

Many say the closures are stifling business along the border, where cash remains crucial to commerce, and threatening long-term prosperity by leaving a trail of empty storefronts and making loans harder to secure.

In addition, many small businesses need banks to get change, to get cash for supplies and to make nightly deposits for security purposes.

Other factors clearly play a role in branch closures, particularly the rise of online banking making brick-and-mortar locations less essential. But Jones said the regulations have obviously been the chief driver, and the new report agrees.

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Its not unusual to see Congress overreach, he said. The problem is the unintended consequences.

The report is particularly welcome news to chambers of commerce along the border and other merchant organizations, who have struggled to bring in new jobs and businesses in areas where banks are scarce.

Theyve been crying in the wilderness for some time now with no one really listening, Jones said of merchant organizations along the border.

A spokeswoman for the American Bankers Association declined to comment on the new report.

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Jones said his group has been careful not to blame the banks.

Were not mad at the banks, he said. They have responded, as they always do, to their stockholders and risk.

The report is based on a survey of 406 banks across the nation, with a particular focus on 115 that operate near the border.

A small team of federal officials also interviewed business and community leaders during site visits in three places: San Ysidro; Nogales, Arizona; and McAllen, Texas.

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The report can be found here: https://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-18-213

david.garrick@sduniontribune.com (619) 269-8906 Twitter:@UTDavidGarrickDemocrats have been worrying that they could be shut out of the November election in the 49th Congressional District.

Now they have something else to worry about even if they arent.

If Republicans dont take both of the top two primary spots, Democrats could wind up with a candidate some leaders might not want to support.

Doug Applegate came within a whisker of defeating Republican incumbent Darrell Issa in 2016, despite revelations that Applegate was accused of stalking, harassing and threatening his ex-wife, who obtained a restraining order against him in 2002 and another in 2004.

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The retired Marine colonel also was ordered by the court to relinquish two firearms.

Applegates campaign manager at the time said the allegations were dismissed, the restraining orders rescinded, and his handguns were returned.

Still, thats a lot of baggage under any circumstances, and even more so in the #MeToo era and at a time when Democrats have sharply criticized the Trump administration for hiring two White House aides who have been accused of domestic violence by ex-wives.

After details about Applegates contentious divorce surfaced in the fall of 2016, his former wife, Priscilla Greco, put out a statement defending him.

People again are being reminded about Applegates turbulent past  and it doesnt seem to be from Republicans this time.

The campaign issued a similar statement from Greco on Monday following the state Democratic convention in San Diego over the weekend.

Im disappointed that uninformed people are yet again making disrespectful and personal attacks against our family, she said.

We went through a difficult divorce as many people have, but to take things out of context and make Doug out to be an abuser is absurd. Doug and I are parents first, and we raised two amazing children together. I support his run for Congress and I will be voting for him in June and November 2018.

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Nevertheless, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and other top Democrats may be hard pressed to support Applegate and pour resources into his campaign. Like most everyone else, they were blindsided by Applegates background late in the 2016 campaign. They cant say that now.

He entered the race as an unknown long-shot, but almost pulled off a huge upset as Issas standing in the district plummeted after he became an early, strong supporter of Donald Trumps presidential bid.

The incumbents political prospects were so grim in the district where he was once so strong that he decided not to run for re-election

For Democrats to ignore Applegates past or try to explain it away could come off as hollow, if not offensive, as the treatment of women has become one of the defining social and political issues of the day.

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But he is their front-runner, at least for the moment.

Applegate landed ahead of 11 other candidates in a recent San Diego Union-Tribune/10News poll in the 49th district, which stretches from La Jolla to Dana Point in southern Orange County. He was supported by 18 percent of likely voters, while another retired Marine colonel, Republican Assemblyman Rocky Chavez, garnered 17 percent.

Rounding out the top of the field were Republican Board of Equalization member Diane Harkey with 10 percent, Democratic environmental attorney Mike Levin at 8 percent and San Diego County Supervisor Kristin Gaspar with 7 percent.

The poll had 27 percent undecided and with so many candidates  some of whom only recently entered the race  things are nowhere close to being settled with the June primary months away. At the moment, there are seven Republicans and five Democrats running.

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Still, Democrats see a scenario where Chavez and possibly Harkey or Gaspar make it to the finals in the Republican-leaning district. Under Californias primary system, the top two vote-getters advance to November regardless of party affiliation.

Its by no means a given that Applegate will remain the top Democrat.

Levin, a former executive of the Orange County Democratic Party, has significant support among party activists. He received 53 percent of the state convention endorsement vote, but 60 percent was required to get the nod. Applegate got 27 percent.

Democratic leaders are trying to thin the field, not just in the 49th but in the 39th district in northeastern Orange County as well. They are moving gingerly so as not to appear heavy-handed.

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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, Rep. Ted Lieu, D-Torrance, western vice chair of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, told the Los Angeles Times.

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 percent or 4 percent in some districts  theres zero path to victory.

Oddly, Applegate almost helped them out on that front. He moved his residence from San Clemente to Oceanside and was intent on jumping to the District 5 San Diego County supervisors race. But he just missed the voter registration deadline that would have allowed him to run, so hes staying put.

Democratic critics point to that as the latest self-inflicted political wound by Applegate. Beyond the marital discord, Democratic operatives not affiliated with the 49th district race said in 2016 his campaign lacked organization and was using outdated voter data.

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In the current race, Applegate has fallen behind some of his Democratic competitors. Levin has demonstrated he can raise serious money, while nonprofit CEO Sara Jacobs, granddaughter of Qualcomm founder Irwin Jacobs, already has begun tapping the millions at her personal disposal.

But Applegate brings other positive things to the table. He gained national attention for nearly knocking off Issa and has residual good name identification. His career in the Marines, including service in the infantry and as a judge advocate, cant be understated in a congressional district that includes Camp Pendleton and thousands of military retirees.

He holds down-the-line liberal positions on virtually all issues, putting him in sync with Democratic Party progressives.

But his biggest political attribute in 2016 was running against an unpopular incumbent. That advantage has now gone away.A San Diego federal judge on Tuesday found no constitutional problems with the Trump administrations use of a law to waive environmental laws in its rush to begin border wall projects in Southern California, an order that gives a green light to current and future barrier construction.

The state of California and a coalition of environmentalist groups sued the U.S. Department of Homeland Security  in three separate cases that were combined  arguing that the government had overstepped its bounds by using a law to avoid complying with environmental regulations for three projects: building eight border wall prototypes on Otay Mesa and replacing existing fencing in both San Diego and Calexico.

The plaintiffs argued that the law the government depended on was outdated and not intended to give never-ending authority for border projects.

But U.S. District Judge Gonzalo Curiel ruled, in a 101-page order, that the law does not violate the constitution and it gives DHS wide discretion when it comes to border security.

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The judge declined to rule on other claims that were non-constitutional, pointing to a part of the law that precludes him from doing so unless he can find the government violated a clear and mandatory statutory provision. He said that an analysis found that that high burden could not be met  partly because the arguments of both sides were plausible at times, and because the law itself is not a model of legislative precision.

DOJ spokesman Devin OMalley said in a statement late Tuesday that the administration is pleased DHS can continue this important work vital to our nations interest.

Border security is paramount to stemming the flow of illegal immigration that contributes to rising violent crime and to the drug crisis, and undermines national security, OMalley said.

The ruling comes more than two weeks after all sides argued the case in a San Diego federal courtroom.

The case has garnered special attention due to Curiels touchy history with President Donald Trump. Curiel presided over two class-action lawsuits against Trump University and ultimately approved the cases $25 million settlement. Early on in the litigation, Trump on the campaign trail called out Curiel for his Mexican heritage, suggesting the judge was biased against him because of Trumps strict border views.

In his ruling Tuesday, Curiel at the outset acknowledged the border walls political divisiveness  and hinted at the extra scrutiny he and this case are under  but stressed that his decision here does not and cannot consider whether such border barrier plans are politically wise or prudent.

He then quoted U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts  who he pointed out is a fellow Indiana native: Court(s) are vested with the authority to interpret the law; we possess neither the expertise nor the prerogative to make policy judgments. Those decisions are entrusted to our Nations elected leaders, who can be thrown out of office if the people disagree with them. It is not our job to protect the people from the consequences of their political choices.

The order means a barrier-replacement project that began last week in Calexico wont be interrupted. The plan, which was initiated well before Trump took office, calls for replacing two miles of decades-old landing mats with 30-foot bollards placed closely together.

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As for the wall prototypes  which Trump apparently plans to visit sometime in mid-March  that project has already been completed, and the barrier replacement project elsewhere in San Diego is not set to begin for several months.

Brian Segee, a senior attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity, which filed the initial lawsuit in the case, said the group intends to appeal this disappointing ruling, which would allow Trump to shrug off crucial environmental laws that protect people and wildlife.

The Trump administration has completely overreached its authority in its rush to build this destructive, senseless wall, Segee continued. Theyre giving unprecedented, sweeping power to an unelected agency chief to ignore dozens of laws and crash through hundreds of miles of spectacular borderlands. This is unconstitutional and shouldnt be allowed to stand.

California Attorney General Xavier Becerra said in a statement that the office will be evaluating its options and is prepared to do what is necessary to protect our people, our values, and our economy from federal overreach.

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A medieval wall along the U.S.-Mexico border simply does not belong in the 21st century.

The government relied on a 2006 law that allows the DHS secretary to waive several federal laws to speed construction of border infrastructure projects. The state and environmental groups  Center for Biological Diversity, Defenders of Wildlife, the Sierra Club and the Animal Legal Defense Fund  claim the law was intended to expedite a specific goal to build no less than 700 miles of fencing but that the waiver authority had since expired.

In San Diego, the waiver of environmental regulations could significantly impact several listed threatened and endangered species, including the Quino checkerspot butterfly and San Diego fairy shrimp, the lawsuits contend.

Attorneys for the Department of Homeland Security argued that the law should be read more broadly, that it gives wide discretion to DHS and that it had survived past legal challenges.

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At the motions hearing earlier in the month, Curiel had asked for further briefing on whether the government had followed rules that require pre-construction consultation with stakeholders  such as land owners, environmental agencies, local governments and tribal authorities.

In his ruling, Curiel concluded that the government did consult with the necessary stakeholders before the prototype project, but questioned if enough was done on the Calexico plan.

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kristina.davis@sduniontribune.com

Twitter: @kristinadavisA San Diego fire captain choked back tears as he testified Tuesday about finding a little girls body in a smoke-filled bedroom.

As I was sweeping across the bottom bunk, Capt. Jared Cheselske said, then stopped.

He blinked back tears, told the judge he was all right, and started over. As I was sweeping across the bottom bunk, I found what appeared to be a small child.

She was lying face up as if she was sleeping next to a teddy bear, he said.

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The San Diego Fire-Rescue Department captain described the scene during a preliminary hearing that opened for Henry Lopez in San Diego Superior Court.

Lopez is charged with two counts of involuntary manslaughter, child endangerment leading to death, and reckless fire starting that killed his children, Isabella, 7, and Cristos, 10.

He faces up to 14 years in prison if convicted.

Prosecutors allege Lopez was in a drunken sleep in his Rancho Bernardo condominium when he dropped a lit cigarette that started a fire in his master bedroom on Oct. 28.

A melted whiskey bottle was found near his bed, authorities have said. His blood-alcohol level was .26 percent, well over the legal limit for driving in California.

Neighbors who saw the flames called 911 about 3:20 a.m.

Firefighters found Lopez badly burned and lying at the top of a second-floor landing. Isabella was found tucked into bed, and Cristos was lying on the master bedroom floor, face-down.

Both children were taken to a hospital, where they died of smoke inhalation.

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Their mother, Nikia Lopez, testified that her husband was an alcoholic who frequently passed out, drunk. She would help him to bed so the children wouldnt see him sleeping in a chair the next morning, she said.

The couple separated in 2015 and shared joint custody, with Lopez keeping the children over the weekends, she said.

According to court documents, Nikia Lopez said that in a text message exchange regarding a missed mortgage payment on the condo, Lopez replied that he would burn it all down and threatened to kill her.

Investigators found blood spatters near a large front window that was smashed out and along the wall of the inside staircase leading to where Lopez was found, police homicide detective Christopher Leahy testified.

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On cross-examination by defense lawyer Paul Neuharth Jr., Leahy said he believes Lopez broke out the window with his hands. It was not clear whether Lopez did so after waking from the fire and going downstairs, then returning up the stairs and being overcome by the smoke.

The hearing will resume Wednesday, when Judge Melinda Lasater is expected to decide whether there is enough evidence against Lopez to hold him for trial.

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pauline.repard@sduniontribune

Twitter: @pdrepardAttorney C. Keith Greer held a plastic-wrapped chefs knife in his hands, placing his fingertips on the blade where Rebecca Zahau had left her own fingerprints.

The angle of his hands, he said, made sense only if he held his hands behind his back, the blade facing up.

It was, Greer said, just as Zahau must have held the blade to try to cut the rope binding around her wrists, where her alleged killer had tied them.

Greer demonstrated the motion to jurors in San Diego Superior Court on Wednesday in opening statements in the wrongful death lawsuit filed on behalf of Zahaus mother, sister, and other family.

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1 / 15 Adam Shacknai in San Diego Superior Court on Tuesday. He is accused in a wrongful death lawsuit of strangling and hanging Rebecca Zahau at the Coronado mansion of her boyfriend, Jonah Shacknai. (Nelvin C. Cepeda / San Diego Union-Tribune) 2 / 15 Judge Katherine Bacal listened to testimony given by Mary Zahau-Loehner during cross examine in the wrongful death of her sister Rebecca Zahau. (Nelvin C. Cepeda / San Diego Union-Tribune) 3 / 15 Attorney Keith Green makes his opening statement to the jury during the civil trial in San Diego for the wrongful death of Rebecca Zahau. (Nelvin C. Cepeda / San Diego Union-Tribune) 4 / 15 Attorney C. Keith Greer held a plastic-wrapped chefs knife in his hands, placing his fingertips on the blade where Rebecca Zahau had left her own fingerprints. (Nelvin C. Cepeda / San Diego Union-Tribune) 5 / 15 Attorney C. Keith Greer held a plastic-wrapped chefs knife in his hands, placing his fingertips on the blade where Rebecca Zahau had left her own fingerprints. (Nelvin C. Cepeda / San Diego Union-Tribune) 6 / 15 Attorney C. Keith Greer held a plastic-wrapped chefs knife in his hands, placing his fingertips on the blade where Rebecca Zahau had left her own fingerprints. (Nelvin C. Cepeda / San Diego Union-Tribune) 7 / 15 Judge Katherine Bacal in San Diego listened to opening statements in the civiil trial for the wrongful death of Rebecca Zahau. (Nelvin C. Cepeda / San Diego Union-Tribune) 8 / 15 Adam Shacknai in San Diego Superior Court on Tuesday. He is accused in a wrongful death lawsuit of strangling and hanging Rebecca Zahau at the Coronado mansion of her boyfriend, Jonah Shacknai. (Nelvin C. Cepeda / San Diego Union-Tribune) 9 / 15 Attorney Keith Greer put on display for the jury this last known photograph of Rebecca Zahau during his opening statement. (Nelvin C. Cepeda / San Diego Union-Tribune) 10 / 15 Adam Shacknai in San Diego Superior Court on Tuesday. He is accused in a wrongful death lawsuit of strangling and hanging Rebecca Zahau at the Coronado mansion of her boyfriend, Jonah Shacknai. (Nelvin C. Cepeda / San Diego Union-Tribune) 11 / 15 Judge Katherine Bacal gave special instructions to the jury before witness Mary Zahau-Loehner could answer the question during cross examine. (Nelvin C. Cepeda / San Diego Union-Tribune) 12 / 15 Adam Shacknai in San Diego Superior Court on Tuesday. He is accused in a wrongful death lawsuit of strangling and hanging Rebecca Zahau at the Coronado mansion of her boyfriend, Jonah Shacknai. (Nelvin C. Cepeda / San Diego Union-Tribune) 13 / 15 Attorney Keith Green makes his opening statement to the jury during the civil trial in San Diego for the wrongful death of Rebecca Zahau. (Nelvin C. Cepeda / San Diego Union-Tribune) 14 / 15 Attorney Keith Greer put on display for the jury this last known photograph of Rebecca Zahau during his opening statement. (Nelvin C. Cepeda / San Diego Union-Tribune) 15 / 15 Adam Shacknai in San Diego Superior Court on Tuesday. He is accused in a wrongful death lawsuit of strangling and hanging Rebecca Zahau at the Coronado mansion of her boyfriend, Jonah Shacknai. (Nelvin C. Cepeda / San Diego Union-Tribune)

Six men and six women were selected this week as jurors in a trial expected to last a month. Strings of investigators and experts are lined up to testify for both sides.

Attorney Keith Greer points out where Rebecca Zahaus fingerprints were found on a kitchen knife found on the Coronado property where she died. (Nelvin C. Cepeda / San Diego Union-Tribune )

The suit alleges Zahau was struck on the head, strangled, stripped naked, bound and tossed off a balcony with a noose around her neck by her boyfriends brother, Adam Shacknai.

Shacknais attorney, Dan Webb, told jurors in his opening statements that no evidence connects his 54-year-old client to Zahaus death.

There is no evidence to show that Adam Shacknai did any of those things described by Greer, Webb said. I believe there will be a complete failure of proof in this case.

Greer told jurors that Shacknai, who had stayed overnight in the mansion guest house, may have sexually assaulted Zahau after she stepped out of a shower.

She was a very energetic person. Positive. Cared about people. Bright, Greer said of Zahau. She ate well, was very healthy, didnt drink or do drugs.

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Her life ended needlessly and early.

The Zahau familys lawsuit was filed after sheriffs homicide investigators and the county Medical Examiners Office ruled that Zahaus July 13, 2011 death at her boyfriends Coronado mansion was a suicide.

Her family has firmly rejected that notion.

My sister was murdered, Mary Zahau-Loehner said on the witness stand Wednesday. It is pretty obvious that she was murdered.

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Authorities who declared Zahaus death a suicide suggested that she felt deep remorse for being in charge at the mansion two days earlier when 6-year-old Max Shacknai fell from the second floor into the foyer and suffered major head trauma.

The child, who died several days later, was the son of Zahaus boyfriend, Arizona pharmaceuticals millionaire Jonah Shacknai and his ex-wife Dina Shacknai.

Investigators said Jonah Shacknai left a phone message for Zahau the evening before her death, saying the prognosis for his son was grim, that at best he would never walk or talk again.

Under cross-examinination by Webb, Zahau-Loehner said she doesnt believe Jonah Shacknai left such a dire message, and criticized sheriffs investigators for failing to retrieve the message, which had been deleted from Zahaus phone.

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Adam Shacknai called 911 at 6:48 a.m. on July 13 to report that he had just found Zahau hanging from the balcony. While still on the phone with the 911 operator, he fetched a kitchen knife, shoved a table under her body and stood on it while he cut the rope.

He lowered her to the ground. Medics and police showed up a few minutes later.

Sheriffs homicide detectives and the San Diego Regional Crime Lab aided Coronado police in a two-month investigation.

Webb said investigators found none of Shacknais DNA on the ropes binding Zahau or on the bed legs where the noose was fastened on one end.

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On the other hand, the attorney said, Zahaus DNA or prints were found on the metal bed post and other items collected as evidence.

He also said that investigators believe Zahau herself used black paint from her art supplies to scrawl a message on the bedroom door: She saved him can he save her.

I dont believe there will be any testimony on exactly what the words mean, Webb said.

Greer said in the early days while Max was in the hospital, the family believed Zahau had saved the boy by trying CPR and getting her little sister to call 911.

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Webb hammered at Zahau-Loehner for more than an hour about her familys lawsuit, and why it originally alleged that Dina Shacknai and her sister Nina Romano were involved in Zahaus death.

That was the theory we had in our family at the time, Zahau-Loehner said. She added that the official ruling of suicide didnt leave us any option but to start from scratch. We didnt have enough evidence to exclude any of them.

She said one neighbor reported seeing Dina Shacknai at the mansion front door before Zahaus death. It was only later that the family attorney, Greer, found evidence that Dina Shacknai and Nina Romano were elsewhere that night, and dropped them from the lawsuit.

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pauline.repard@sduniontribune

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Twitter: @pdrepardSeveral former and current members of the Coastal Commission could be forced to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines for alleged undisclosed meetings with developers and others seeking to curry favor.

A court hearing kicked off Tuesday in San Diego Superior Court to determine whether the defendants failed to properly disclose such private meetings, known as ex-parte communications, as required under the Coastal Act.

The law requires commissioners to publicly divulge all such communications pertaining to decisions before the quasi-judicial body within seven days or face fines of up to $7,500 per violation.

State Deputy Attorney General Joel Jacobs defended the group in court Tuesday before Judge Timothy Taylor, arguing that their intention was always to comply with the spirit of the law.

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When the commissioners did not strictly comply with the Coastal Act requirements, it was not for the purpose of deceiving anyone or hiding anything, Jacobs said at Tuesdays trial.

The lawsuit was brought by nonprofit Spotlight on Coastal Corruption, formed in the runup to filing the lawsuit in 2016. The group contends that the five defendants failed as commissioners to properly disclose hundreds of private meetings.

Commissioners are required to file written documents with the agency summarizing these ex-parte communication. If a conversation occurs within seven days of a relevant commission meeting, it must be disclosed verbally at the public session.

If the legal strategy succeeds, former commissioners Steve Kinsey, Martha McClure and Wendy Mitchell, as well as commissioners Erik Howell and Mark Vargas could be forced to pay as much as $3 million in civil penalties.

The defendants lack of transparency is a crime against democracy, said Cory Briggs, attorney for the nonprofit in his opening remarks.

Worst of all, your honor, these defendants knew what they were doing, he added.

Spotlight on Coastal Corruption turned down a settlement offer by the state Attorney Generals office last week that sought to pay fines and attorneys fees in the sum of $250,000.

Briggs said his clients rejected the offer because it would have allowed the state to pick up the tab for the alleged violations, instead of forcing the defendants to cover the costs personally.

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At Tuesdays trial, the defense said the accused had been well-intentioned volunteers with no financial incentive to cozy up to developers or others. Jacobs said they should not be forced to pay for what was at least substantial compliance with the law.

In the question of whether money should be taken from the defendants for doing their jobs, substantial compliance is not a situation where the court should be imposing monetary fines, he said.

In response, Briggs said the defendants were seduced into backroom deals by the favors and adulation of developers and others and should be punished to send a message to future commissioners.

They were lured by being important, he said, adding: If it werent for some pretty dogged, shoe-leather reporting, the public wouldnt have known.

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Briggs specifically called out Commissioner Mark Vargas, who made headlines after it was discovered that he traveled to Ireland in 2015 for a U2 concert and ex-parte meeting with the bands guitarists David Evans, the Edge.

The trip, which Vargas has said he paid for on his own dime, came days before the commission voted unanimously to allow Evans to develop a Malibu coastline. The approval came after a years-long debate over the project.

The Coastal Commission has faced numerous accusations in recent years of not fully disclosing private meetings with those looking to build along the states shoreline.

Commissioners have staunchly denied the allegations, which heated up in early 2016 after the commission voted with little explanation to fire the agencys then-executive director Charles Lester.

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Lester, perhaps the states foremost authority on the Coastal Act, had broad support from the environmental community who saw the ouster as a coup by pro-development forces.

While environmental groups, government officials and private individuals also meet frequently with commissioners, developers and their associates have constituted the majority of contacts in recent years.

After Lesters firing, members of the legislature pushed for a new law that would prohibit ex-parte communication. However, the effort failed, in part, because many feared it could create longer coastal commission meetings, which take place three times a month in different locations around the state.

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Twitter: @jemersmith

Phone: (619) 293-2234

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Email: joshua.smith@sduniontribune.comMany immigrants will spend the duration of their court proceedings in custody following a Supreme Court decision that on Tuesday reversed a Ninth Circuit ruling requiring periodic bond hearings.

In a 5-3 ruling, the courts conservatives took issue with the way the Ninth Circuit had read immigration law relating to mandatory detention of certain groups of non-citizens. Justice Stephen Breyer wrote an impassioned dissent on behalf of the liberal side of the court. Justice Elena Kagan recused herself from the case.

Immigration law requires mandatory detention of several groups of non-citizens including those who were convicted of certain crimes and those who were placed in the system when they arrived at the border. That second group includes many asylum seekers.

Under the Ninth Circuit ruling, those going through immigration court proceedings were entitled to bond hearings after six months in detention and again at six month intervals after that. At those hearings, which became known as Rodriguez bonds, the federal government had to prove that the person was either dangerous to society or not likely to show up in court for an immigration hearing.

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Now that many of those going through the immigration court system in San Diego will no longer have bond hearings scheduled with judges, unless judges can move through cases more quickly, the number of people detained is likely to grow.

Because of increased enforcement and policy changes under President Trump, the two detention facilities in the San Diego area have been so full in recent months that in December, it caused a backlog of asylum seekers at the border. Some have had to wait in Tijuana for weeks before there was room for them to ask for asylum.

In Jennings v. Rodriguez, Justice Samuel Alito wrote in the courts ruling that the Ninth Circuit had misapplied the canon of constitutional avoidance, which tells courts to opt for a way of reading a law that does not make it unconstitutional.

In the decision, Alito said that immigration law about mandatory detention is straightforward and does not allow for an interpretation requiring bond hearings every six months.

Spotting a constitutional issue does not give a court the authority to rewrite a statute as it pleases, Alito said.

The case was based on Alejandro Rodriguez, a green card holder from Mexico who was convicted of joyriding and misdemeanor drug possession. After hed been in immigration detention for three years fighting his case, the American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit on his behalf arguing that he had a right to a bond hearing.

Rodriguez eventually won his immigration case. The lawsuit arguing that he couldnt be held in detention indefinitely became a class action and made its way up to the Supreme Court.

In his dissent, Breyer argued that the majority opinion would likely make the mandatory detention part of immigration law unconstitutional.

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We cannot here engage in this legal fiction, Breyer wrote. No one can claim, nor since the time of slavery has anyone to my knowledge successfully claimed, that persons held within the United States are totally without constitutional protection.

The Supreme Court did not decide whether immigration law concerning mandatory detention is constitutional. It sent that question back to the lower courts.

Lauren Cusitello, founder and director of Crossroads Justice Center of San Diego, said attorneys are worried that until a court makes a decision on the constitutionality of the law, immigration judges may say they dont have jurisdiction to grant bond to some detainees.

Even waiting six months to get a bond hearing  I think its hard for most people to understand just how difficult that is and how hard being detained can be for people, Cusitello said.

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Officials with Immigration and Customs Enforcement have some discretion in deciding who will be placed in detention.

Under the Trump administrations immigration policies, ICE officers have generally kept people in detention until judges decide to release them on bond.

It is not common now, Cusitello said of ICE choosing to release people. It is in fact quite rare now in my experience.

Other court cases still require bond hearings for more specific groups of immigrant detainees, said Ahilan Arulanantham, legal director of the ACLU in Southern California and lead attorney in the Rodriguez case.

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A district court decision will still require bond hearings for many immigrants in the Los Angeles area as well, he said, but that will not apply to people in immigration detention in San Diego or Imperial counties.

In the short term, it will increase the number of people detained and further exacerbate all of the systemic problems that arise by worsening backlogs, Arulanantham said.

Arulanantham said he plans to push for lower courts to rule quickly on the constitutionality of the detention law.

The Department of Justice hopes that this decision will allow immigration judges to put more time into working cases from the courts backlog  currently over 650,000 cases.

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We are aggressively working to implement common sense reforms to reduce that backlog, and todays Supreme Court decision ensures that immigration judges in the Ninth Circuit can focus their valuable docket time on matters actually required by law, said Devin OMalley, a spokesman for the department.

Some bond hearings that are already scheduled because of the previous Rodriguez ruling may still happen, an official from the DOJ said. The department has an internal coding system to help identify those cases.

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Immigration Videos On Now New developments in family separation case 9:53 On Now A San Diego woman volunteered as a medic in Texas helping migrant families 2:35 On Now Immigration policy protests in Carlsbad nearly cancelled after permit issue 1:38 On Now When children are separated from their parents at the border, here is where they go next On Now Prospects of a deal for 'Dreamers' may hinge on separating Trump from hard-liners on his staff On Now What is DACA? On Now Border wall prototype contractors selected On Now Video: Ukrainian boxer wins asylum in U.S. On Now 30 apprehended after Border Patrol agents discover tunnel On Now Video: Kurdish diaspora prepare to vote on independence

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kate.morrissey@sduniontribune.com, @bgirledukate on TwitterA 15-year-old boy was arrested Tuesday after he allegedly told other students he planned to shoot up their Torrey Highlands high school, San Diego police said.

School officials told police the teen told other students they shouldnt attend class at Westview High School on Wednesday after telling them of his plans, San Diego police acting Capt. Paul Phillips

Officers were immediately sent to the Camino Del Sur campus and took the boy into custody. He was later arrested on suspicion of making criminal threats and was booked into juvenile hall.

Police searched the boys home and did not find any weapons.

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Investigators dont believe any other students were involved in the incident.

Twitter: @LAWinkley

(619) 293-1546

lyndsay.winkley@sduniontribune.comA free two-day camp set for this weekend designed to give up to 100 girls a glimpse at careers in the fire service and other public safety agencies has been canceled after a local attorney sent a letter to the city saying the event violated state and federal anti-discrimination statutes.

Attorney Alfred Rava sent a letter to City Attorney Mara Elliott last Thursday saying his client, Rich Allison, had a son interested in the Girls Empowerment Camp but was deterred from enrolling because boys were not invited to attend.

Rava said hosting a no-boys-allowed camp violated several California and federal anti-discrimination statutes, including the state and U.S. constitutions. He asked the city to do a reset, reschedule the event and invite boys and girls.

Everyone should be treated equally, no matter their sex  especially by the City of San Diego, Rava wrote. San Diego boys, as well as San Diego girls, should know the important steps to respond to and revive a grandfather or grandmother in cardiac duress.

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The next day, Gerry Braun, Elliotts chief of staff, sent Rava a two-sentence reply: Our office is in receipt of your February 22, 2018, letter. The event has been canceled.

Monica Munoz, spokeswoman for the San Diego Fire-Rescue Department, said the camp was canceled after the fire department and the San Diego Fire-Rescue Foundation were notified that the city attorney recommended they cancel it.

However, the City Attorneys Office said it had not recommended the event be scrapped  rather, it had informed the nonprofit foundation, which organized the camp, that city resources could not be used for the event due to its gender-specific nature.

Our office made no recommendation as to the foundations plans for their event, Cheryl Nolan, assistant for community outreach, said in an email Monday. The foundation then informed our office that, given the citys position, the event would not go forward at this time.

Rava said his client timely submitted an application to register his 17-year-old son for camp and that when Allison contacted the foundation to follow up about the registration, the foundation ignored him.

Not so, says Rachel Laing, a board member on the San Diego Fire-Rescue Foundation. Laing posted on Twitter that the boy who was supposedly denied entry didnt apply and that his father didnt contact the foundation to see if boys were excluded.

We have no record of the young man attempting to register, nor of his attempting to contact the foundation, Laing said in an email Tuesday. We can only surmise that he might have attempted to register after the camp was already full (it fills up within 36 hours) and got a notification indicating the camp was full.

Laing said if he had tried to register while slots were available, he would have been admitted because gender isnt one of the criteria for enrollment.

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The camp is held at the San Diego Fire Departments training facility at the Naval Training Center. It was organized the first time in 2017, when about 75 girls between the ages of 14 and 18 participated.

Staffed by firefighters volunteering from all over the state, campers get hands-on training with firefighting tools and equipment, learn CPR and how to use an external defibrillator. Participants also get to use a chain saw, climb up a 110-foot aerial ladder and rappel down from a second-story window.

San Diego Fire Chief Brian Fennessy has praised the program, saying it may help with his goal of recruiting more female firefighters to join the fire department.

A department spokeswoman said it hasnt been determined if the camp will be rescheduled.

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Word of the cancellation was greeted with dismay.

Martine Blair said her twin 15-year-old daughters registered for the camp, which she praised for attracting girls to the male-dominated industry of the fire service. She was surprised when the event was canceled and wished organizers had been given the opportunity to make modifications so the camp could continue.

I would rather the camp continue with boys than have it canceled, she said. Ideally they could be two different camps in the future.

Fourteen-year-old Alexandra Mondragon said she had been looking at the date on the calendar for weeks, knowing the camp was coming up. She said shes disappointed she wont be able to go.

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I was really upset, she said. My mom told me what happened and I was kind of sad and a little bit angry because this guy is taking away a camp for so many girls that they have already signed up for and registered for... I feel this is really taking away from female empowerment.

Rava said he is an advocate for equal treatment of California consumers under Californias Unruh Civil Rights Act. By his count, he has worked on approximately 300 matters involving sex discrimination.

Advocating for the equal treatment of people based on their race, sex, age, religion, sexual orientation, and other protected personal characteristics is a professional and personal campaign of mine, Rava said.

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karen.kucher@sduniontribune.comSan Diego police are asking the public to help them find a man they believe is responsible for a series of groping assaults targeting pedestrians in the Nestor area since last fall.

The most recent of the three crimes occurred about 7:30 p.m. Sunday, when an unidentified heavyset man grabbed a womans breast while walking past her in the area of Iris Avenue and Oro Vista Road and then fled to the south, according to San Diego police.

The victim described the assailant as a roughly 5-foot-6-inch, 220-pound Latino who appeared to be in his early 20s, police Lt. Brent Williams said.

Investigators believe the same man may be responsible for two highly similar crimes that occurred on Oro Vista Road near Iris Avenue on Oct. 30 and Jan 17, the lieutenant said.

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Anyone with information about any of the cases was asked to call San Diego police at (619) 531-2000.A 17-year-old girl who was twice thrown to the ground by a La Mesa officer last month spoke out about her experience for the first time Tuesday, calling for police to build better bridges with young people so similar incidents dont occur.

Brianna Bell, a senior at Helix Charter High School, spoke at a news conference with about a half-dozen other Helix students in front of the San Diego Unified School Districts main office.

Controversy erupted after video surfaced of Bell being body slammed by La Mesa police Officer Scott Wulfing. Police said the teen had refused to leave campus, where she had previously been suspended.

The day after, hundreds of students walked out of their classes to protest the incident. Wulfing was placed on administrative leave while police investigate the incident.

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Bell said Tuesday that every time she walks on campus shes reminded of what happened and experiences a moment of disbelief that it took place at her school.

I cant even put into words how I feel, she said.

The teen declined to answer any specific questions about the incident, instead using the opportunity to call for better de-escalation training for officers.

At the walkout there was a sign that read Anti-police brutality, not anti-police, meaning there is a need for unity, she said. ...we need to connect these broken bonds.

A spokesman for the La Mesa Police Department said there were no new findings to announce, and that the situation remains under investigation.

When asked why she chose to speak out about her experience, Bell said she felt it would be easier for people to connect to the situation and participate in the conversation if she wasnt just an unnamed student.

She said when the incident happened she felt helpless, like she wasnt being heard and that her opinion didnt matter. But as other students started coming forward to stand up for what they felt was right, she began to feel differently about the situation.

Our voices matter, she said.

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Twitter: @LAWinkley

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(619) 293-1546

lyndsay.winkley@sduniontribune.comMore than a month after a burglary crew pried open the doors of a high-end fashion store in Fashion Valley mall and made off with $500,000 in goods, authorities released close-up images of people investigators deem of interest in the heist.

San Diego Crime Stoppers, which is offering a reward of up to $1,000, shared the images Wednesday in hopes someone will recognize the men and come forward.

San Diego police Lt. Dan Smyth said evidence at the scene led investigators to a store where the images were captured. He said that the images were taken relatively close in time to the time of the heist, but declined to say why investigators had zeroed in on the men as persons of interest in the caper.

At 4:18 a.m. on Jan. 21, a three-vehicle caravan of burglars drove into Fashion Valley Mall off Friars Road near state Route 163.

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Authorities on Wednesday released this surveillance image of people of interest to investigators looking into the Jan. 21 heist at the Hermes store in Fashion Valley. (photo courtesy San Diego Crime Stoppers )

Ten people got out of the vehicles  two blue sedans and a white Chevrolet Suburban, all of which had paper license plates. The people all wore hooded sweatshirts and gloves.

Using a crowbar, the thieves pried open the front door of Hermes de Paris.

In two minutes inside the high-end store, the crew swiped purses, jewelry and clothing worth more than $500,000.

Related

10 people steal luxury items worth $500,000+ from high-end store

Smyth said the break-in shared the same hallmarks as a series of other heists at high-end stores in Southern California over the last several months and may be related.

Anyone with information about the case can call San Diego Police Departments Western Division at (619) 692-4860.

Anonymous tips can be left with Crime Stoppers at (888) 580-8477. Go to www.sdcrimestoppers.org to learn how to send anonymous tips via email or text.

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teri.figueroa@sduniontribune.com

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(760) 529-4945

Twitter: @TeriFigueroaUTA 28-year-old man was arrested Wednesday on suspicion of operating an illegal marijuana delivery business out of a home in Chula Vista.

Officers served a search warrant at a residence on Amador Street near Santa Lucia Road in the Otay Ranch neighborhood of Chula Vista around 8 a.m. Wednesday. Police seized 5 pounds of high-grade marijuana, edibles and other products, $3,900 in cash and business documents, said San Diego police Lt. Matt Novak.

Joseph Galindo, who was identified as the owner of the business, Calis Finest Delivery, was arrested on suspicion of operating a business without a license and selling marijuana, Novak said.

An employee at the home was arrested on the same charges and issued a citation.

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Novak said the business was based in Chula Vista but delivered extensively to San Diego residents.

The city of Chula Vista is in the process of setting up rules for licensing marijuana businesses. None in the city has been authorized to operate yet.

The city of San Diego has 13 licensed marijuana outlets open and operating within the city limits, but only some of those offer delivery services.

karen.kucher@sduniontribune.comA victim was robbed of cash then stabbed in the hand and head by a pair of young men in Oak Park on Tuesday afternoon, a San Diego police officer said.

The incident happened shortly before 3:30 p.m. in the area of College Grove Drive and Caminito Chollas, Officer Dino Delimitros said.

After the robbery and stabbing, the assailants, described as men about 18 or 19 years old, took off in a gold- or copper-colored vehicle, Delimitros said.

The victim was taken to a hospital, police said.

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Detectives in the departments Southeastern Division are investigating.

teri.figueroa@sduniontribune.com

(760) 529-4945

Twitter: @TeriFigueroaUTA driver  who may have been drunk  was pulled from his vehicle shortly before a train plowed into it early Tuesday morning in San Diegos Little Italy neighborhood, a sheriffs official said.

Officers were able to pull the driver from the car before the oncoming Amtrak train slammed into it.

Shortly after 1:30 a.m., the train was headed south, going about 35 miles an hour, when its operator saw a vehicle stopped in the middle of the tracks. The vehicle was about 100 yards ahead, at the intersection of West Grape and California streets, Deputy Giovani Pantoja said in a news release Tuesday.

The operator hit the emergency brakes, but it was too late. But before the train hit the vehicle, officers pulled out the driver  who was subsequently arrested on suspicion of drunken driving, Pantoja said.

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Anyone with information about the case was asked to call the Sheriffs Departments non-emergency line at (858) 565-5200.

teri.figueroa@sduniontribune.com

(760) 529-4945

Twitter: @TeriFigueroaUTA freshman at West Hills High School in Santee was arrested on suspicion of making a terrorist threat after he posted a photo of a LEGO rifle on social media with a threatening caption, a school district official said.

The 14-year-old ninth grader was arrested at his home Tuesday, said Catherine Martin, a spokeswoman with the Grossmont Union High School District.

We thank law enforcement for their quick action, Martin said on Twitter.

School officials told deputies of the post about 10 p.m. The student had posted to Instagram what appeared to be an AR-15 rifle out of LEGO pieces along with the caption, Dont come to school tomorrow.

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Another student asked the suspect to take the post down, but he refused, sheriffs Lt. Chris Steffen said. An assistant principal at the Mast Boulevard campus said other students said they were fearful of the suspect.

Deputies found the student at his Lemon Grove home and spoke with his mother and stepfather. They learned the teen has access to hunting rifles; investigators are working to determine if he had access to any other weapons.

The student was later booked into Juvenile Hall.

The arrest comes as schools across the country have had to respond to threats of violence in the wake of the Feb. 14 school shooting in Florida that left 17 students dead. Since the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, there have been at least 12 threats logged by schools in San Diego County, including cases of graffiti left on campus walls and threats circulated through social media, authorities said.

Also on Tuesday, San Diego police arrested a 15-year-old boy who attends Westview High School in the Torrey Highlands neighborhood after he allegedly told other students he planned to shoot up the campus.

School officials told police the teen told other students they shouldnt attend class on Wednesday after telling them of his plans, San Diego police acting Capt. Paul Phillips said.

Officers were immediately sent to the campus and took the boy into custody. He was later arrested on suspicion of making criminal threats.

Sheriffs officials said any student who hears or sees a threat of violence or even possible violence can speak with school resource deputies or call the anonymous Crime Stoppers tip line at (888) 580-8477.

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Staff writer Lyndsay Winkley contributed to this report.

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karen.kucher@sduniontribune.com

UPDATES:

11:55 a.m. This story was updated with additional details.

8:55 a.m.: This story was updated with additional details.

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This article was originally published at 7:25 a.m.Authorities have identified the 35-year-old San Diego man who died in a wrong-way crash on the transition road from north Interstate 5 to Interstate 8.

Justin Villafranca Callahan died early Monday morning from multiple blunt force injuries in the crash that also seriously injured the East County woman driving the other car, the Medical Examiners Office said.

Based on evidence at the scene, investigators suspected Callahan, who was in a Volkswagon Jetta, got onto Interstate 8 at Sunset Cliffs Boulevard heading east in the westbound lanes, California Highway Patrol Officer Tommy Doerr said.

At about 1:55 a.m., Callahan then allegedly attempted to head south on Interstate 5 in the northbound lanes. The crash happened near the curve in the transition road.

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A Jeep Cherokee behind the Camry slowed, but the 25-year-old Los Angeles-area man behind the wheel was unable to stop and tapped the rear-end of the Toyota, Doerr said.

Officers said although Callahan was initially suspected of driving the wrong way, the investigation is ongoing.

Callahan died before he could be taken to a hospital.

The 22-year-old Santee woman driving the Camry sustained major injuries and was taken to Scripps Mercy Hospital, authorities said.

A 36-year-old El Cajon woman who was a passenger in the Camry suffered moderate injuries and was taken to UCSD Medical Center in Hillcrest. Nobody in the Jeep was injured.

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UPDATES:

This story was updated to reflect that while officers initially suspected Callahan was driving the wrong way, the investigation into the crash is continuing and certain findings may change.Supreme Court justices sounded skeptical Tuesday about Microsofts refusal to turn over emails sought by U.S. law enforcement agents with a criminal search warrant but stored by the software giant in overseas servers.

The case of the United States vs. Microsoft has been hailed by some as a major test of privacy in a world where electronic traffic is stored in a digital cloud. Many observers say the federal law known as the Stored Communications Act of 1986 is hopelessly outdated. And some said the court should stand aside until Congress adopts a new law.

But most of the justices seemed to agree with Justice Department lawyer Michael Dreeben, who argued that the court needed to decide the case before them based on the current law and on the idea that a criminal search warrant from a judge must be honored.

The dispute arose during a routine federal drug trafficking investigation in the New York area. In 2013, federal agents went to court there and obtained a search warrant based on probable cause for all emails for a still-unidentified Microsoft customer. But when the warrant was served at Microsofts headquarters in Redmond, Wash., the company refused to turn over the contents of the emails, saying they were held in a data center in Dublin, Ireland.

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Though the agents said Microsoft simply needed to push a button in Redmond to download the emails, the company said they were outside the reach of the U.S. law because they were stored on a server in Ireland.

A federal judge was prepared to hold Microsoft in contempt for its refusal to comply. But to the surprise of federal authorities, the U.S. 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals agreed with Microsofts contention that the federal law on stored communications did not allow for an extraterritorial application. Unlike the other major cases about searches and seizures, the case turned only on the federal law, and not the 4th Amendment to the Constitution.

The Justice Department appealed to the Supreme Court, fearing that the ruling, if left intact, could undermine criminal prosecutions on many fronts.

During Tuesdays argument, Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. said Microsofts position would be good news for people who want to break the law.

They could conduct illegal business via email in the United States with the assurance their messages would remain safe and off-limits to U.S investigators because they were held in Canada or Ireland, Roberts reasoned. It could be a good business move for the company as well, he said.

There is nothing under your position that prevents Microsoft from storing United States communications, every one of them, either in Canada or Mexico or anywhere else, and then telling their customers, Dont worry. If the government wants to get access to your communications, they wont be able to, Roberts said.

Joshua Rosenkranz, a lawyer for Microsoft, denied that customers would seek out the giant company to escape U.S. law enforcement. If customers do not want their emails to be seized by the government, they dont use Microsofts services, he said. Instead, he said, such people would use foreign-based services with no U.S. presence and no obligation to turn over information to the U.S. government.

Outside on the courts plaza after the argument, Microsoft President Brad Smith said Congress needs to take action to resolve the matter.

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We need 21st century laws to protect 21st century technology, he said. This case is fundamentally about a law that was passed across the street in Congress in 1986. It is a law that was never intended to reach around the world or into our data center in Ireland.

He pointed to a proposal known as the Cloud Act, which has bipartisan support in Congress, but has yet to win approval in a House or Senate committee.

Major questions before the Supreme Court this year 

david.savage@latimes.com

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On Twitter: DavidGSavage

UPDATES:

2:45 p.m.: This article was updated with additional reaction.

This article was originally published at 10:40 a.m.Supervisor Kristin Gaspar unveiled an ambitious plan to open a recovery center for ex-convicts, substance abusers, the homeless and others Tuesday night, the centerpiece innovation in a State of the County address focused on change and self-reliance.

The newly sworn-in chairwoman of the county Board of Supervisors said $2 million in donations already had been secured for the project, which will be modeled after a successful transition program in Salt Lake City, Utah.

It was a home, a school, a business, Gaspar said about her visit to the center last fall. Against all odds, The Other Side Academy is turning ex-convicts into assets for the community.

According to Gaspar, the project runs a successful moving company and houses former inmates while fostering a drug-free, can-do culture.

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Gaspar, who did not identify the donors, said her staff will join Sheriff Bill Gore and District Attorney Summer Stephan in searching for a location as soon as this spring.

She said the project would not require ongoing county tax dollars but did not provide funding details.

The combination home, school and recovery center was the showcase of a 35-minute speech focused on innovation and personal responsibility.

Gaspar touted a host of recent accomplishments by the Board of Supervisors, including investments in infrastructure, services for seniors, establishment of a $25 million housing trust fund and a network of backcountry cameras to reduce the threat of wildfires.

The state of the county is innovative and strong, she said.

While Gaspar accentuated the positive, however, protesters converged on the sidewalk in front of the Scripps Seaside Forum in La Jolla.

A dozen or more homeless advocates criticized Gaspar and her board colleagues for not doing more to solve the housing crisis confronting San Diego County.

Theyve got $2 billion in reserves and we have tens of thousands of people who are homeless and housing insecure, said Martha Sullivan, who runs a program called the Grassroots Oasis in the Old Town neighborhood of San Diego. The county should invest hundreds of millions of dollars they have socked away in low-income housing.

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Gaspar, the former Encinitas mayor who was elected to the county board in November 2016 and named chairwoman last month, delivered her first State of the County address.

Earlier this month, she announced she was running for the open congressional seat being vacated by Rep. Darrell Issa.

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jeff.mcdonald@sduniontribune.com (619) 293-1708 @sdutMcDonaldA 15th legal complaint related to alleged sexual misconduct by a former deputy has been filed against San Diego County.

The latest case comes days after Richard Fischer was arraigned on 14 criminal counts.

Fischer remains on unpaid leave from the San Diego Sheriffs Department.

Days after a veteran San Diego sheriffs deputy was arraigned on criminal charges related to sexual misconduct allegations lodged by 14 women in recent months, a 15th woman has filed a new claim alleging that she was victimized.

According to the complaint filed Wednesday in San Diego Superior Court, Deputy Richard Fischer groped a woman who manages an apartment complex in Vista in October 2016.

The woman came forward after seeing news coverage of Fischers criminal arraignment last week, when he pleaded not guilty to eight felonies and six misdemeanor charges of sexual battery, assault, battery and false imprisonment.

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The lawsuit claims that after responding to a trespassing call at the apartment complex, Fischer, 31, hugged plaintiff without her asking him and embraced plaintiff very tightly and rubbed her back and buttocks with his hands.

At one point, Fischer followed her to her room but she told him you better go, the suit added.

The Sheriffs Department and District Attorneys Office did not comment on the latest claim. Fischers attorney, Richard Pinckard, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Last week, the attorney said of Fischer, He categorically denies each of the allegations and looks forward to clearing his name.

The criminal charges announced last week were the culmination of a lengthy investigation by sheriffs investigators, who opened their probe last fall after other alleged victims reported improper behavior.

According to the 15 civil claims and lawsuits, one woman warned officials in a letter about suspicious behavior by Fischer nearly two years ago, and the department failed to respond appropriately.

The department continues failing and refusing to impartially investigate citizens complaints of alleged abuse or misconduct by peace officers, the lawsuit states.

San Diego lawyer Dan Gilleon, who represents the alleged victims in the civil cases, said a recent mediation session did not result in a settlement.

Fischer, who faces years in prison if convicted of all charges, is on unpaid leave from the Sheriffs Department.

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jeff.mcdonald@sduniontribune.com (619) 293-1708 @sdutMcDonaldThe consumer group Public Watchdogs is seeking to join the San Onofre power plant case pending before the California Public Utilities Commission.

CEO Charles Langley said a recent agreement to stop $775 million in consumer charges for the 2012 nuclear plant closure does not do enough to protect ratepayers from unfair charges.

Public Watchdogs said other consumer groups that agreed to the latest San Onofre agreement may be compromised by the prospect of collecting fees related to the settlement.

A San Diego nonprofit opposed to the latest plan to settle costs related to the San Onofre nuclear plant failure is seeking party status in the long-running proceeding before the California Public Utilities Commission, saying it is the only consumer group left fighting for ratepayers.

In its 11-page filing Wednesday, Public Watchdogs said other parties claiming to represent Southern California Edison and San Diego Gas & Electric customers may be more focused on getting paid if the settlement is approved than saving money for consumers.

Intervention of Public Watchdogs is necessary at this stage of the proceeding to ensure that ratepayer interests are represented in evaluating the proposed settlement, the application said.

The request, which will be decided by utility regulators, comes a month after plant owners Edison and SDG&E and a host of consumer groups announced a change to an earlier settlement adopted by the commission in 2014.

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The 2014 agreement assigned $3.3 billion of the $4.7 billion in premature shutdown costs to ratepayers rather than utility shareholders. The proposed change announced in January as a settlement to a federal lawsuit would shave $775 million from customers share of those charges.

But Charles Langley of Public Watchdogs said consumer attorneys were motivated by money to agree to a new deal  especially the Aguirre & Severson law firm that filed the federal case and would receive more than $5 million in fees.

The attorneys in this case have stabbed the public in the back in exchange for a $5.4 million payday, and the other participants are also lining up at the trough for easy money at the publics expense, Langley said in a statement.

The utilities maintained for years that the 2014 settlement was fair to all sides. The consumer groups that negotiated the January settlement said it was the best deal they could reach.

Just north of Oceanside, the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station closed in 2012 after newly installed replacement steam generators leaked. Public Watchdogs said ratepayers should not have to pay billions of dollars for a plant failure they did not cause.

Public Watchdogs is a California nonprofit organized in 2016. The organizations mission is to investigate, expose, advocate and serve as a catalyst for reforming unaccountable government agencies, according to its website.

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jeff.mcdonald@sduniontribune.com (619) 293-1708 @sdutMcDonaldSchool shootings are the result of multiple issues within our society that are complex in nature and cannot be solved with one solution. Unfortunately, school shootings are likely to continue until society decides to address the root causes, including troubled kids who fall between the cracks of society, a mental health system that needs modernizing and the breakdown of family structure.

Over the last 100 years in California, there have been approximately 22 events that fit what most people would define as a school shooting. Of the 22 shootings, 17 were between 1990 and 2018. Even one school shooting is unacceptable, but these events are rare, and most schools will never experience a shooting incident.

While even one school shooting is unacceptable, the reality is that in a free and open society of 320 million people, these incidents are impossible to accurately predict or prevent. Metal detectors and controlling all entry points onto the campus are options, but as we saw in the tragic Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, being physically secure did little to impede the attacker. If we cant prevent them, the question becomes how do we minimize the loss of life by stopping the attacker quickly.

Related: Should teachers be armed? No: Guns dont belong on school campuses

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Related: Schools should propose arming teachers, staff

Related: Why Trump plan to arm teachers fails to make the grade

Related: A San Diego students view on arming teachers

One way is to end the practice of gun-free school zones and allow staff to protect themselves and students, or to hire armed security or law enforcement. Only armed defenders can stop armed attackers and there is more than one option.

First, at a premium cost, schools can hire armed private security or contract with local law enforcement. Some school districts currently contract with local law enforcement agencies to provide a school resource officer (SRO). The SRO provides armed security for the school at an annual cost of between $100,000 and $250,000. This is an effective solution but an expensive one that could be difficult to afford.

Many school districts in California are struggling financially. Funding armed security that will likely never have to stop a violent crime is a major expense for educating students and serving the community. If a district chooses armed security as the best approach, each district would have to decide if it provides security to all schools or some, what is the legal liability if only some schools are protected, and what the training standards should be.

Second, for less cost, but more organizational work, schools can use trained, armed volunteers drawing from retired law enforcement, veterans and qualified parents. This option has not been fully implemented in enough places to have a true track record. It requires a lot of infrastructure to organize people, schedules and training.

Third, the most cost-effective and easy option to manage is to allow school staff to volunteer to be trained to carry concealed firearms while working. To be clear, no one is talking about forcing teachers to be armed. What is being suggested is to allow faculty who are already-proficient gun owners to carry a concealed firearm after they undergo specialized training. These individuals are not intended to replace law enforcement, but to provide protection while waiting for law enforcement to arrive.

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Training for teachers is inexpensive and, in some cases, granted free from many local and national organizations. School districts working with the community and local law enforcement are no longer allowed to determine how best to protect their students due to Assembly Bill 424, which passed the Legislature and was signed into law last year by Gov. Jerry Brown. Prior to passage of the legislation, school district superintendents had the authority to provide written permission for a person to possess a firearm within a school zone. AB 424 takes choice away from school districts to allow school staff to defend the lives of their students so implementation of this plan would require action by Sacramento.

Aaron Feis at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School lost his life attempting to shield students from the shooter. Its likely loss of life could have been reduced had he been armed.

Preventing trained teachers from being able to defend their lives and their students has proven to be a bad idea. We dont prevent executives, lawyers, politicians, doctors, business owners or stockbrokers from defending their lives. A childs life is just as important. Allowing trained staff to be armed and carry concealed weapons on campus is the best short-term solution.

Drammissi, the parent of two grown children who attended San Diego schools, is a board member with the San Diego County Gun Owners, a political action committee promoting Second Amendment rights.

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ALSO

Poll: Do you support arming teachers?Re Report finds San Diegos progress on climate plan transportation goals illusory (Feb. 14): This article completely mischaracterizes a recent report card on San Diegos Climate Action Plan (CAP). Instead of reporting facts along with valid critiques from the report card, the article focused on one sentence of the 69-page document to leave readers with the wrong impression that progress isnt being made.

We expect to be held accountable, and the report lays out areas for improvement. But it also gave the city the highest scores of any in the region with a gold and bronze ranking for its plan and implementation  calling the CAP very strong across the board.

San Diego is a national leader on climate action with a CAP that has bipartisan support from environmentalists and businesses. Were breaking new ground, learning lessons and setting the example  and were only two years into the 20-year plan.

Theres much more work to do  and were committed to getting it done.

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Cody Hooven

City of San Diego

Chief Sustainability Officer

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Follow @UTLetters on Twitter and UTOpinion on Facebook.President Donald Trump has derided U.S. District Judge Gonzalo Curiels Hispanic descent and even called him a hater, but on Tuesday the two found themselves on common ground after Curiel ruled in the Trump administrations favor in a lawsuit aimed at blocking the U.S.-Mexico border wall construction.

Curiel concluded that the Department of Homeland Security was within its authority to waive environmental protection rules, giving the Trump administration one less obstacle to begin building the wall along the U.S. border. Eight wall prototypes exist already, but Congress has not authorized funding to start construction.

Maybe Trump will look at the ruling, consider Curiels professionalism and apologize to him because his past attacks on the San Diego-based federal judge were out of line. Maybe not.

How bad did things get before? Heres a recap of all the ways Trump publicly singled out Curiel.

Totally biased-hates Trump

Trump of course criticized Curiel on Twitter, calling him totally biased and an unfair judge in late May and early June.

A hater, hes a hater.

During the 2016 election cycle, Trump University was subject to two lawsuits. As a district judge, Curiel oversaw one of them in San Diego.

As Trump campaigned on a promise to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, the Republican candidate lashed out at Curiel, saying the judge could not be impartial in the case because of his Hispanic descent. Curiel was born in Indiana, but Trump called him a Mexican judge.

"Everybody says it, but I have a judge who is a hater of Donald Trump, a hater. Hes a hater. His name is Gonzalo Curiel. And he is not doing the right thing, Trump said while campaigning in San Diego in 2016.

"I was told ... The Lawyer said "Don't do that ..." .... "So, I end up with a lawsuit. And it ends up in San Diego, in federal court. And it's a disgrace the way the federal court ...

Absolute conflict.

Trump continued his criticism of Curiel in major media interviews.

In an interview with The Wall Street Journal, Trump said Curiel had an absolute conflict in overseeing the case because of his Mexican heritage and because he is a member of a Latino lawyers group.

Im building a wall, Mr. Trump told the Wall Street Journal. Its an inherent conflict of interest.

A lot to do with it.

In an interview with CBS Face The Nation, host John Dickerson asked Trump to clarify his position on Curiel.

Dickerson: Let me ask you about, what does the Mexican heritage of the judge in the Trump University case have to do with anything?

Trump: I think it has a lot to do with it.

He is a member of a club or society, very strongly pro-Mexican, which is all fine, Trump went on to say. But I say he's got bias.

Politifact would later call that statement mostly false because the California La Raza Lawyers Association is said to be a group that encourages Latino students to pursue a career in law.

Comments  misconstrued

Trumps comments about Curiel drew backlash from Democrats and Republicans alike. Not long after his wave of criticism, Trump issued a statement backing down from those comments.

It is unfortunate that my comments have been misconstrued as a categorical attack against people of Mexican heritage, Trump said in a statement that was archived by Vox.

Textbook fashion.

Fast forward to November 2017, attorneys for Trump relayed a change of heart for the now-President of the United States: Trump thought Curiel did a good job that month.

At a hearing then, attorneys for Trump said Curiels handling of a settlement in a class-action lawsuit against Trump University was done properly. When asked by federal judge Andrew Hurwitz whether Trumps view of judge Curiel had changed, the attorneys said yes.

"Your honor, yes. It's our position that Judge Curiel administered this settlement in a textbook fashion, an attorney for Trump said.

Fellow Indiana native.

In his ruling siding with the Trump administration on the border wall case on Tuesday, Curiel referred to his own Indiana roots by quoting Chief Justice John Roberts, who is also from Indiana.

That detail did not go unnoticed on Twitter.

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.It is a fair question to ask: Are the border wall prototypes as impenetrable as President Donald Trump would want them to be?

Attempts to breach the 30-foot prototypes have been undertaken not only by specially trained agents of U.S. Customs and Border Protection but also by the U.S. military, a fact that surfaced in a Fox News segment Wednesday morning with one contributor saying that not even Americas special forces could breach them.

"Special Forces operatives and members of our Navy SEAL community were asked to try and breach the wall prototypes and they could not do it, Fox News contributor Katie Pavlich said in this clip.

Update: For clarification, no U.S. Navy SEALs were involved in the testing of the wall prototypes, a U.S. Naval Special Warfare Command spokesman in Coronado confirmed it with The San Diego Union-Tribune.

The Fox News segment caught the attention of people on Twitter, where some pointed out that, yes, given the right tools, Americas special forces cold probably breach the prototypes. Some wondered how Pavlichs comment could possibly be true given the high level of skills special U.S. forces possess. Others were skeptical.

To be clear, Pavlichs statement on its face is (partially) true. But the context for her comment is a little more nuanced.

In January, the Associated Press reported on the results of a three-week test by U.S. military forces and CBP special units. During those three weeks, specially trained units attempted to breach the prototypes using only jackhammers, saws, torches and other tools and climbing devices.

The prototypes stand at 30 feet tall and are made from a range of materials including concrete and steel. During the tests, the AP reported, highly trained testers scaled 16 to 20 feet unassisted but needed help after that and that testers expressed safety concerns about getting down from 30 feet.

Only once did a tester manage to land a hook on top of the wall without help, a source told the AP.

Its unclear if U.S. military forces testing the prototypes used military-grade tools to try to breach the walls. That is a question that perhaps the federal government can answer one day.

What do you think  do you believe that the border wall prototypes are impenetrable? Could you think of other tools that someone could use to breach them? If you were asked to breach the wall, how would you do it?

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.

UPDATES:

2:35 p.m.: This article was updated with additional details.

This article was originally published Feb. 28 at 12:50 p.m.Poways LMD vote should be delayed

The City of Poway is erroneously trying to include Upper Windmill in the LMD 83-1 March vote. Prop. 218 does not contain authority to annex. Upper Windmill has never been in LMD 83-1 and is no more eligible to participate in the March vote than any other current non-member of LMD 83-1. Including ineligible people in the vote should render the outcome invalid.

Additionally, the ballot will contain only two choices for members of LMD 83-1: 1) maintain current level of funding ($118.48) and 2) approve a new re-engineered LMD with increased assessment funding, including an annual index (CPI)  $229 the first year  93.28 percent increase. Missing from the ballot will be the obvious third choice of reducing the current fee.

The so-called benefit analysis the city is using to include Upper Windmill is also in error and counter to the definitions contained in Prop. 218.

Its time to remove Upper Windmill from the vote now. In fact, a lot more thinking should be done before the voting begins. The March vote should be canceled or at least delayed until after the obvious errors are corrected.

Donald Stampfil

Poway

Grateful to Trump for protecting the unborn

In response to Mr. Levines article (Feb. 15), I would say, No, it isnt that bad!

President Trump has helped to raise hope in many hearts and minds that human life will be given the respect it deserves. He has signed legislation protecting innocent unborn human life. That is our first line in our constitution. It is an unalienable right, which he has confirmed by his words and actions. We are grateful!

Susan Kent

Rancho Bernardo

Opinion of Levine has changed

We moved to Poway fairly recently, and have been enjoying the Chieftain since weve arrived. My political outlook is best described as right-center. I think ideologues on either side ultimately hinder progress in our form of government, and I think that is what the Founding Fathers had in mind. I work hard to see the other sides point of view on issues, and Harvey Levine seemed to be a good source for that. He struck me as a level-headed, left of center gentleman.

His article on Feb. 15 damages his credibility. In recent times the end of our republic was foreseen during the Bush administration, and of course the Obama administration as well, but our country survived. I believe our system will survive Trumps presidency as well. To compare Hitlers rise to power in Germany to any U.S. administration is ludicrous, and saying that only hope stands in the way of the dismantling of our constitutional republic is delusional.

This country has experienced a lot of internal trauma throughout its relatively young life, and has come through these episodes, sometimes smarter and stronger, sometimes not. Both sides have grievances with the others policy-making. Our system is designed to account for this, and through attrition, find the best possible path.

Mr. Levine, please stop with the theatrics. They made Obamas detractors look silly, just as they do Trumps now.

Kevin Bunker

Poway

The U.S. is better now

I was not impressed by Mr. Levines yes it is that bad left wing progressive diatribe. It would probably take several pages to do a proper response, but I will offer at least a few words.

Harvey had a tough reaction to the voters will and I can empathize because I would have felt poorly if his candidate was elected. Ms. Clinton is almost off the stage now and not a minute too soon. She is a despicable, crooked woman who penned her college thesis on Saul Alinskys Rules for Radicals, which was the handbook for the Obama administration.

The weaponizing of the IRS, the FBI, the DOJ and the State Department to attack Americans and to protect Ms. Clinton from a proper investigation was quite obvious.

Finally, I would like to note that the rise in the stock market has enriched 401k plans and stockholders by a couple of trillion dollars since November 2016 and the fact that the average American workers will receive a larger paycheck in 2017 as well as the bonuses given by dozens of corporations. Got to drain the swamp.

Richard G. Taylor

Poway

Theres a reason for no outrage

All I can say is wow, Harvey Levine, youve really gone off the deep end (Feb. 15). Either youre taking the wrong kind of drugs or not taking the right ones.

Maybe if you step out of your leftist bubble for a little bit you might see how none of the fears youre expressing are based on reality. Obama is the one who moved our country towards totalitarianism, and Clinton would have just continued it.

You just refuse to see it because youve bought into the Trump boogeyman idea. You clearly see attacks that arent there, and support that isnt real. Thats why there is no outrage.

Roland Wiggin

Poway

Levines anger is misplaced

Sorry Mr. Levine (Feb. 15) fears the Gestapo banging on his door at 3 a.m. Oops, that was the FBI and Paul Manafort. Perhaps he can join Chelsea Handler and her marijuana in a safe space.

Some things do frighten me. The lack of free speech on college campuses and progressives ranting hysterically President Trump is Hitler and Sarah Sanders, Goebbels. They have surpassed conservative fear mongers raving about our previous socialistic Kenyan dictator. But I have faith in the Constitution.

The president does have a huge ego and should use Twitter less. But I doubt he is in the White House basement wearing a bed sheet burning crosses. Nor will he repeal the 19th Amendment. Regarding the wall, it will have minimal impact on those already north of it. If you agree with Nancy Pelosi and other millionaire Democrats, tax cuts are crumbs, you can return them to the IRS.

While progressives spew vitriol at President Trump, they are actually angry at his voters. Everyone deplorable. But they should blame themselves and their misguided faith in Hillary Clinton. A seriously flawed candidate, poor campaigner and as likable as the flu. She lost to a first-term Senator and a reality show star. Seventeen Republicans initially ran because she was beatable. Joe Biden couldve waltzed into the White House.

Ill focus my anger at the do-nothings in Congress who only care about the next election.

Tom Drzewiecki

Poway

Levine is unnecessarily hysterical

Harvey Levine needs to calm down. His column (Feb. 15) describing Trump and the policies he has implemented can only be described as hysterical. Mr. Levine obviously has no confidence in the ability of the American political, judicial and governing structure to prevent the overthrow of the Constitution and protect the rights and welfare of Americas people.

I have full confidence in those institutions and a dispassionate review of our record over the past 230 years shows that we have overcome every crisis  from invasion, civil war, economic collapse and cultural change to emerge better than before.

If Mr. Levine is interested in noting presidential assaults on the Constitution, he might start with ex-President Obama who signed a treaty with Iran without getting Senatorial approval, changed immigration law with the stroke of a pen and politicized the IRS.

And by the way, the strength of America is illustrated by this newspaper, which publishes both Dick Lyles and Harvey Levine, whose political and cultural views cant be more different.

David G. Epstein

Rancho Bernardo

A Republican, but not Trump fan

Bravo! Harvey Levines column (Feb. 15) is magnificent, articulate piece! Titled Yes, it is that bad is another brilliant fire alarm!

We are living in perilous times and our nation has elected a deceitful, distracting demigod. Sorry. The president is not serving us with moral, rightful leadership. Our government and democracy are threatened daily! (I am a registered Republican.)

Roger Taylor

Poway

Levine shows the left is unhinged

I want to personally thank Harvey Levine for providing a sterling example of how unhinged, bitter and shallow the left has become.

His article Yes, it is that bad (Feb. 15) was lazy and about an inch deep. He used all the typical and tiresome isms/ists, and even a pathetic Hitler reference, to attack those with whom he disagrees. Its no wonder that the day after the election Mr. Levine, a grown man, found himself bawling in the fetal position because he didnt get his way.

TE Meyers

Poway

The Second Amendment needs revision

The interpretation of certain Constitutional amendments can become a convenience. For example, the First and the Fifth.

Most prominent is the Second Amendment that was written at a time when citizens exercised their freedom owning front-loader rifles. However, the concept of a regulation in one particular aspect was already there.

Today we have AR-15s with added features, and it might make sense to revise that amendment and curtail its convenient misuses. I cannot think of a reason why anyone would want to own a speed-gun and enrich the world with extra spent ammunition, as a kind of pastime or sport.

It is remarkable that people who are opposed to government bureaucracy will advocate the monumental task of background checks that clearly have failed in cases. At the root is a profit motive in assault-weaponry and ammo, and it would be a blessing if the promoters would find other venues of lucrative enterprise.

Let there be an end to the flooding of our nation with high-efficiency murder-devices that are regrettably worshipped in many thriller-movies.

Fritz Woeller

Rancho Bernardo

School volunteers are crucial

Thank you Superintendent Kim-Phelps for sharing your wish list with the community. You are absolutely right when you stated volunteers go the extra mile.

As a volunteer for the Poway Unified School District for 25 years, with the last 14 as one of the founding members of the Rancho Bernardo High School Friends of the Library, this organization was created to assist in the needs of the library. I have witnessed some great young people achieve wonderful careers because of the excellent education received here.

We used to receive $28 per student and shortly thereafter it was reduced to zero. We could not disband because we were needed more than ever. Everyone in the PUSD is involved in fundraising and every business knows that they will be asked to support us. I feel the staff at RBHS deserves our continued support and presently there are only two members with students attending school. At one time we had no parents in our FOL, but there was no way we would give up.

So I say again thank you for shining a light on this subject. Your light has brightened our path and we will not give up and we will continue to speak out.

Shirley Black

Poway

Lyles is a hypocrite

I have avoided responding to Dick Lyles hateful and deceptive columns, but his latest regarding womens rights (Feb. 8) pushed me over the edge. I think his laughable arguments about womens roles have already been addressed. The hypocrisy I want to highlight is his comment about the lefts need to maintain networks of victimhood. This is worse than the pot calling the kettle black. The Womens Marchers are addressing legitimate concerns that need to be rectified. Marching, protesting and making truthful arguments heard are traditional components of our democratic process.

It is the cry-baby right that incessantly plays the victimhood card and uses scare-tactics for non-existent problems to motivate their voters. Classic examples include the war on Christmas (everyone likes Christmas, but some people are polite), they are coming to take your guns (no theyre not, but re-implementing reasonable controls on assault weapons is a good idea to stop mass child killings), the need to defend marriage (from what I dont know), immigrants are taking your good-paying jobs (not really, corporations sent most of them overseas) and Islamic terrorists are coming to kill you (there is a better chance of being hit by lightning and winning the lottery, and there is a much better chance of being killed by a right-wing domestic terrorist).

I defend Dicks right to express his opinion, but I dont understand why he is given a megaphone in the form of a newspaper column to spread his hatred and dishonesty.

Mike Hegstad

PowayDeficit federal budgets are nothing new. Its been a long slide into policies of national debt. We can go back to the Ronald Reagan era to track tinkering with fiscal responsibility. Over the last 37 years, we can find only three years (Clinton era) where the deficit was not enlarged. Reagan wasnt so much into spending, but into relieving the nation of high taxes. A trickle-down theorist, Reagan added to the long history of trickle-down failures by retaining the entitlements and special interest handouts while reducing taxes.

Harvey Levine

George W. Bush, in bringing the nation into a two-country war and building protection from terrorists, abandoned fiscal restraints to fund defense spending and homeland security.

Faced with the mortgage crisis, Barack Obama was burdened with a damaged economy. Bailing out failing banks and industries (TARP) and instituting an expensive stimulus program added to the ballooning deficit.

Somehow, the economy recovered during the previous administration and in 2017 we were in an excellent position to reverse the damage. This could have been an opportunity to start paying down the deficit. But politics interfered with judgment and trickle-down was ushered in for another go at a disproven economic theory.

I would have preferred a smaller tax reduction on business, but I understand the political pressures. Its what happened after the tax bill was signed that disturbs me most. After dodging a bullet with a three-week continuing resolution, Congress faced another deadline on Feb. 8. This time, both parties showed their inability to rein in uncontrolled spending. This new continuing resolution, approved on Feb. 9. violates all fiscal responsibilities and constraints. Each party got what it wanted with no compensating cuts in expenditures. Thus, it passed the burden of paying the bill on to future taxpayers.

This legislation was not a bi-partisan compromise. It was a bi-partisan assault on our children and grandchildren. It was a wholesale violation of future generations of Americans, saddling them with burgeoning debt  piling on to the outrageous financial burden caused by the recent tax legislation. The latest continuing resolution made it worse. The December tax bill at least acknowledged the need to have a ceiling on the deficit. The current resolution abandoned all pretense of a limit.

By now we know what drives legislators votes. It is certainly not their consciences or their values. This resolution was a grand hostage-taking, with each party trolling for votes and blaming the other. There was no plan, no strategy, and no attempt at a sustainable solution. The sequester of 2011, which put limits on spending, was called off by this bi-partisan deal to fund more defense requests and to provide funding for the Childrens Health Insurance Program, opioid addiction programs, and mental health. All additional funding with no offsets. All with borrowed money.

The deficit hawks apparently lost their voices. The House Freedom Caucus was against the deficit and was apparently silenced. Libertarian Rand Paul spoke out against the deal. But he did vote for the tax cuts which inflamed the deficit in the first place. Any chance of a compromise with bi-partisan fiscally sustainable solutions went out the window with the passage of the December tax cut legislation and its impact on the deficit.

We always face the need to make choices. But we must remember that we can only choose between the options we have, not from options we wish we had. In this case, Congress decided to choose something that was not a viable option  that being taking on even more debt.

Congress and the president are apparently assuming that there are no practical limits to the exploding national debt. But how does the debt get repaid? Left unrestricted, we will eventually reach the point where the entire federal income must go to repay debt obligations. So there is a limit  and the chance of default. Move over Greece, here we come.

To add to this travesty, Trumps proposed budget for FY 2019 slashes most public support programs, including Medicare and Medicaid, and increases military funding. Any thought of balancing the budget is absent. This proposed budget, even with all its severe cuts (as usual aimed at the poor and middle class) would add another $526 billion to the deficit. The budget mirrors Trumps values as it decimates every vital social safety net and cuts the federal government. Yet, the funding for military and defense still adds to the deficit.

As demonstrated by the tax legislation, the compromise continuing resolution and the proposed Trump budget, Washington has abandoned even the appearance of limiting the national debt. In doing so, both parties have undermined the solvency of the nation. And they have passed an unmanageable financial burden on to future generations - our children and grandchildren.Human rights activist Naomi Tutu will be the keynote speaker during the San Diego Womens Weeks Dare to Dream luncheon in Rancho Bernardo on March 21.

The luncheon is one of three events planned for the ninth annual week focused on womens empowerment that is organized by the North San Diego Business Chamber.

Tutu  the daughter of Archbishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa  will talk about ways to build the world you want to live in.

Chamber officials said that as of Monday only 40 tickets were still available for the luncheon that will be held from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Wednesday, March 21 at Sony Electronics, 16535 Via Esprillo in Rancho Bernardo. Tickets are $79, available until March 16. Purchase at sdwomensweek.com. No tickets will be sold at the door. Parking is free.

The week will open with the Women and Wine event at the Bernardo Winery, 13330 Paseo del Verano Norte in Rancho Bernardo. It will be held from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. Monday, March 19 and attendees must be 21 and older. Tickets are $45 through March 18 if purchased online or $60 at the door.

Admission will include five wine tastings, food tastings, a souvenir wine glass, wine bag, discount on wine purchase and unique shopping while networking. Parking is free.

The week will conclude with a leadership conference from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Friday, March 23 at the Town and Country Resort & Convention Center, 500 Hotel Circle North in Mission Valley. Tickets are $199 through March 22 if purchased online and $250 at the door. Parking is $5.

The event will include speakers, panel discussions, swag bag (while supplies last), vendor village, morning coffee bar with pastries, lunch and afternoon dessert bar.

San Diego County District Attorney Summer Stephan will speak about talking with your children and other young people about sexual harassment and assault. A national leader in the fight against sexual exploitation and human trafficking, Stephan was a deputy district attorney for 27 years before being appointed district attorney last year.

Lesia Cartelli, a People magazine Hero of the Week and founder of Angel Faces, is scheduled to speak about The many faces of resilience. As a 9-year-old, Cartelli was severely burned over 50 percent of her body, including her face, during a gas explosion at her grandparents home. The Encinitas-based Angel Faces offers week-long supportive retreats for girls, ages 11 to 19, who have experienced severe burns.

Actress, comedienne, author and playwright Kim Coles will present Your stories are powerful, amazing and yours. Auschwitz survivor Edith Eger will talk about choosing to embrace the possible. Janice Freeman, a cancer survivor and contestant on NBCs The Voice will talk about always believing something good is about to happen.

Speaking about finding ones voice will be actress and author Mariel Hemingway, while Marine Corps Capt. Corrie Mays, who as a member of the Blue Angels was the teams events coordinator and squadron naval flight officer, will talk about dreaming big.

Email: rbnews@pomeradonews.com

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.A new study by researchers from the University of Western Australia and the University of Exeter shows that in wild Australian magpies (Gymnorhina tibicen), individuals that live in large groups show increased cognitive performance, which is linked to increased reproductive success.

Headed by University of Western Australia researcher Dr. Ben Ashton, the team examined the cognitive performance of 14 wild groups of Western Australian magpies (Gymnorhina tibicen dorsalis, also known as Cracticus tibicen dorsalis) in Perth, ranging in size from three to 12 birds.

The birds were tested away from other birds to prevent social factors influencing the results.

The scientists tested the cognitive ability of each magpie with four cognitive tasks that tested inhibitory control, associative learning, reversal learning and spatial memory.

The tasks included a detour-reaching task, where the birds had to find food hidden in a transparent cylinder, two foraging tasks to test associative learning, where food was hidden in different colored containers and a memory task where a food reward was hidden in the same place many times.

The challenges of living in complex social groups have long been seen as drivers of cognitive evolution, however evidence to support this is contentious, and has recently been called into question, Dr. Ashton said.

It was possible that differences in energy intake and task attention could also affect cognitive performance, and for this reason body weight, foraging efficiency and reluctance to engage in the task were also taken into account in the study.

Our results suggest that the social environment plays a key role in the development of cognition, he said.

They also suggest a positive relationship between female cognitive performance and reproductive success indicating there is the potential for natural selection to act on cognition.

Together, these results support the idea that the social environment plays an important role in cognitive evolution.

This is one of the first studies to conduct large-scale cognitive tests on wild populations and find a strong link between cognition, group size and reproductive success.

The findings were published in the February 15 issue of the journal Nature.

_____

Benjamin J. Ashton et al. 2018. Cognitive performance is linked to group size and affects fitness in Australian magpies. Nature 554: 364-367; doi: 10.1038/nature25503The connection between Michigan and Austin, Texas may not seem an obvious one. But the "Michigan House" spotlighting Michigan leaders and products has grown steadily at Austin's annual South by Southwest (SXSW) conference and will this year expand again to include more significant representation for Ann Arbor.

This year's SXSW, which runs March 9-18, will be the fourth for Michigan House, a project of Detroit-based nonprofit Creative Many Michigan (formerly ArtServe Michigan). Creative Many has had a presence at the media, music, film, and tech conference in Austin for at least 10 years, according to Joe Voss, the organization's director of strategic partnerships.

Creative Many members would attend and also send speakers to SXSW, since Creative Many's mission is to foster the development of creative professionals in Michigan. They'd also take ideas back to Michigan from SXSW.

Five years ago, Voss noticed that a lot of Michigan groups, companies, and individuals were attending SXSW, and thought that they could do even more if they worked together. From that came the first Michigan House in 2015.

"We essentially rented a house, took everything out of the house, and put all Michigan stuff in it," Voss says. "It became a hospitality experience for Michigan-connected organizations, companies, and individuals, and it's grown from there."

For the 2018 conference, the Michigan House will move into a venue right downtown near the Austin Convention Center. Creative Many worked out a deal with SXSW so that its members get discounted admission to the conference. Michigan House panels on March 10 will be part of SXSW's official programming, though other Michigan-related panels are scheduled throughout the conference.

There has been some Ann Arbor participation from the first Michigan House, but that has expanded in 2018 to include more panelists with Washtenaw County connections, including representatives of Ann Arbor SPARK, the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor coworking space Cahoots, and autonomous microtransit company May Mobility, in addition to many representatives from Detroit, Lansing, and Grand Rapids.

Voss says that a Michigan story that sparked a lot of interest this year was the issue of mobility, so several panel discussions will feature that topic. Many Michigan House panels will also focus on the issue of water and the Great Lakes, as well as some community health issues.

"It's awesome to have Ann Arbor in the mix more than ever," Voss says.

A full list of participants and a schedule of Michigan House panels is available here.

Sarah Rigg is a freelance writer and editor in Ypsilanti Township. You may reach her at sarahrigg1@gmail.com.

Photos courtesy of Michigan House.What can we do better? When the YWCA of Kalamazoo started asking itself that question in 2015 throughout the organization change began to happen.Baby steps is how Nichole Westrate, director of the Childrens Center at the YWCA in Kalamazoo, describes the actions taken in the childrens program since then. Yet, better behavior among the children served and huge savings in the amount spent on food are already being realized.The YWCA, dedicated to eliminating racism and empowering women, started reflecting on its practices across the board in 2015. When the organization received funding that allowed it to serve more families that were in transition and experiencing a crisis or toxic stress, the need emerged to stop and evaluate the work it was doing to determine what might better fit the needs of those being served.The organization realized that what was needed was beyond the services that they were able to provide at the time. Then, Westrate says, the questions asked were: But where else were the kids going to go? And if we don't take this challenge on are we really living out our mission?The YWCA accepted the challenge.We decided as an organization that this is our work, says Westrate. And so we started exploring every avenue that we could think of as it relates to supporting healthy brain development, empowering families to be their child's first teacher, and act as a role model for them.Westrate leads the Childrens Center which encompasses Early Childhood Learning, Youth Development, and Family Advocacy. For the Childrens Center, two concerns emergedchildren were not able to process their emotions in the classroom and high overhead costs, of which food was a significant expense.Their exploration to find new ways to cut food costs led them to the Farm to School grant program through the Michigan State University Extension Program, which helps Michigan children and families have better access to good food.The YWCA also uncovered the Hoop Houses for Health , a program of the Michigan Farmers Market Association (MIFMA) that helps vulnerable families and farmers at the same time. Through the program, farmers receive funds to build a hoop house. MIFMA works with community partner organizations, including Head Start and Great Start Readiness Programs, such as those at the YWCA to connect them with farmers.Through the program, the YWCA has developed a strong relationship with the local farmers Ben Martin and his partner Sarah of Soil Friends and the YW also would like to work with other local farmers. Right now we are looking to partner with more farmers, more growers, so that's my plug, Westrate says with a laugh.Discovering the two healthy food programs as it pursued best practices for dealing with food processing, buying, and research was significant for the Childrens Center.All of those avenues converging together at once, that set us on our course, Westrate says. And we're still early into that. I would say we're still in the infancy stages. It's about mind shift, and culture change, not just as an organization, but with all of our individual staff, and that's difficult, Westrate says.Because the kitchen staff had not eaten or been served a lot of fresh food throughout their lives the changes were not always easy to adapt to. They had eaten a certain kind of food in school and so they served the same kind of food.It's just the way it's done, right? Westrate says. And so that's why we saw this as part of our work. We feel at the YWCA of Kalamazoo that our work is to disrupt systems and really focus on how the change systems that keep people oppressed and keep our most vulnerable in poverty and violent situations.  It's so interesting how all of this work, even in the Childrens Center and our farm-to-preschool program, really meshes with the Cradle Kalamazoo initiative, which is the initiative to address infant mortality. Because what that initiative is proving through data and their work is that kiddos start out behind before they are born.So we see our farm-to-preschool program as one way to disrupt that cycle and help our kids catch up equitably. Our kids need the freshest foods. Our kids need to know how to source local foods at little to no cost. Our families need to know that.Working with the Food Innovation Center at Kalamazoo Valley Community College and its Valley Hub, which provides a link from farms to those who serve large numbers of meals, has changed the way children and families eat in the Childrens Center.What I love about the Valley Hub is they have their in-season foods, Westrate says. So right now (in February) what are people in homes typically eating as far as fruits and veggies? It's canned or frozen. And so my staff in the kitchen can get on the Valley Hub list and place their order and it's in-season items that they might not typically have thought of.With funds from the MSU farm-to-preschool grant, the YWCA purchased a number of kitchen tools that help with serving fresh produce. Westrate says with a laugh that the dehydrator is her favorite. Right now on the Valley Hub, they have beets and root vegetables. And so with the dehydrator, I'm telling my kitchen staff, I want to see the sweet potato chips. I want to see the beet chips. Let's play around with this.At first, the youngsters were not sure what to make of the fresh food. But Westrate had read that it can take up to 20 servings of a new food before young ones will develop a taste for it. So if a child does not like a certain food the first time they are likely to find it cooked in a slightly different manner and served again and again. There will be other foods for them to eat until they learn to like the new, fresh food being offered. Slowly, they learn to expand their food horizons.Westrate says some youngsters who refused any fruit or veggies that did not come from a can are now avid salad eaters. Now, these kids chow down any type of salad, Westrate says. When in doubt, put some type of creative salad on the menu, and they will love it.Sometimes the produce being offered on the Food Hub is something the kitchen staff has never heard of. We look it up. And we come up with five to 10 recipes that we can use it for. And that's why we have a Pinterest page, she says with a laugh. So that is helping us learn. It's helping us introduce these ideas. It's keeping us innovative. Its saving us money.How much money?We've cut our spending on food in half, compared to what was spent in 2012-2013, she says. A combination of things brought about those reduced costs. We're being more intentional about how we approach our kitchen. Our staff is better trained. We have nutrition education across the board for our staff and our kiddos.There are many ways to teach nutrition education but none of them in the Childhood Center involve sitting in a classroom getting traditional instruction. Instead, in the Early Childhood Education Center nutrition ed is woven into the dinner conversation during family style meals.We're all sitting around the table. We have big bowls that the kids can scoop from and we pass around. So we're having lots of math conversations, and social-emotional conversations, and talking about these beautifully colored foods.You'll hear kids say, I had spaghetti squash at my house once, and then another girl's like, Well, I've never had that before, and so there's all this really rich conversation and questions that come up. And then, maybe, another kid says, Well, what's spaghetti squash? And our skilled teachers would say, Yeah, what is spaghetti squash? What do you think that could be? and maybe those questions develop their next topic of study because we want to take their interests and the things that are relevant to them and use that as the driver for what the curriculum looks like.The kitchen staff has received nutrition training in partnership with the Van Buren Intermediate School District. As the program has evolved, the kitchen recently hired a part-time person to work with the woman who runs the kitchen and their volunteers. That will give the kitchen leader time to explore more innovative ways to feed the children.It's like told her yesterday, If you think about being on the surface of the Earth, I feel like we've been digging down to where the worms are. We need to dig down to where the dinosaur bones are, Westrate says with a laugh. We need to go further.That's really part of the work, answering those questions like 'how much food are we using'? 'How much food can we buy in-season and store later on?' Theoretically, we could buy most of our food in the spring and summer, and not purchase a whole lot in the fall and winter. And we just aren't there yet. But we are open to partnerships and support. So if anybody is like, You know what? I want to help the YWCA dig down to the dinosaur bones  we are all about that.When it came to dealing with childrens ability to process their emotions, serving better food was only one intervention. The YWCA program was dealing with children in the classroom who were being triggered and who found that for a variety of reasons and they couldn't be in the room. So they would run out. They ended up in Westrates office.Ultimately, one part of the solution was to take grant funding and turn what had been Westrates office into a multi-sensory space where children spend time. Through trial-and-error, they found it worked best with a schedule that allowed every child enrolled in the Center time in the multi-sensory space. Small groups also take place there.The food program has been a big piece of those universal precautions that really have changed things for us in the Children's Center and we don't have the run outs. We don't have run outs anymore. They're done. So that tells me that children are able to process their emotions in their classrooms, and that was the goal originally.For Westrate, its not just about the food, that's just a vehicle.It's more than just let's give the vulnerable kids fresh food. It's more than just that, she says. There are so many aspects  theres creativity involved, it enriches the conversation, its something to connect school to home.  Its about impacting families in positive ways and this is just one way to do it.She goes on to say: This is part of our work as the YWCA. Eliminating racism and empowering women doesn't just have to be a protest or a training on racism. It can be those things, but it's also really reflecting on your own practices as an individual and as an organization to say What am I doing? What is our organization doing that continues to keep people where they are? And how can we be different?' We can make the rules for ourselves, we can make the rules for our organization. So if something doesn't work then change it. It's really that easy and that difficult.This article is part of Michigan Nightlight, a series of stories about the programs and people that positively impact the lives of Michigan kids. It is made possible with funding from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation . Read more in the series hereASIA

Afghanistan

Expected Council Action

In March, the Council will renew the mandate of the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA), which expires on 17 March. It will also hold its quarterly debate on Afghanistan, during which it will consider the Secretary-Generals 90-day report on UNAMA. The debate is scheduled to coincide with International Womens Day (8 March), and the Netherlands, the Council president in March, and the penholder on Afghanistan, may encourage members to highlight womens issues in their statements. Tadamichi Yamamoto, the Secretary-Generals Special Representative for Afghanistan and head of UNAMA, is expected to brief.

Key Recent Developments

The situation in Afghanistan occupied much of the Councils attention during Kazakhstans presidency in January. The Council went on a visiting mission to Kabul from 12 to 15 January to get a better understanding of conditions on the ground and to demonstrate its support for the governments efforts to restore peace and stability. On 19 January, the Council held a ministerial-level debate on the broader issue of regional partnerships in Afghanistan and Central Asia, focusing on the security and development nexus. During the meeting, the Council adopted a presidential statement that, among other things, emphasised the importance of regional, interregional and international cooperation to achieve stability and sustainable development in Afghanistan and the Central Asian region.

The security situation deteriorated further since the beginning of the year. During January, which was a particularly violent month, the Taliban and the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) launched a series of attacks on various civilian and government targets. On 4 January, an ISIL suicide bomber killed at least 15 and injured another 25 people in Kabul. On the night of 20 January, six Taliban fighters laid siege to the Intercontinental Hotel in Kabul, killing more than 40 people, including 14 foreign nationals, and injuring more than a dozen others. The siege ended the next day when government forces took control of the hotel and killed the attackers. On 24 January, ISIL claimed responsibility for an attack on the international humanitarian organisation Save the Children in Jalalabad in which at least five people were killed. The deadliest attack this year occurred on 27 January when the Taliban activated a suicide car bomb in Kabul, killing more than 95 and injuring around 160 people. The Council issued press statements condemning all these attacks.

Last year, the Secretary-General concluded a report on the strategic review of UNAMA and recommended that its findings be incorporated into the next UNAMA mandate. The report states that Afghanistan is not a post-conflict situation where there is adequate stability to allow a focus on institution-building and development-oriented activities. One of the main recommendations in the report is that UNAMA should support all efforts to reach sustainable peace and self-reliance in Afghanistan. Among its main findings was that UNAMA as an impartial actor could play an important mediating role.

The Secretary-General thus recommended that UNAMA increase its role in supporting and promoting bilateral and multilateral cooperation with the aim of enhancing international support for the Afghan peace process. Regarding structural and staff changes, the Secretary-General recommended abolishing the military, police and rule of law advisory units. His report recommended closing the office in Farah province and exploring the possibility of further nationalising functions in remaining provincial offices. Furthermore, the Secretary-General recommended exploring the option of reducing international staff and forming smaller, multidisciplinary teams.

During his last Council briefing, Yamamoto emphasised the importance of holding parliamentary elections in 2018 and presidential elections in 2019, although he acknowledged that there has been little progress regarding preparatory activities for the elections. On 18 January, the Independent Election Commission announced that parliamentary elections, initially planned for July, would be postponed until October. The ability of Afghanistan to conduct inclusive elections will also depend on the security situation, which has continued to worsen over the past several months.

Sanctions-Related Developments

On 29 December 2017, the 1988 Afghanistan Sanctions Committee published its annual report detailing the activities of the committee. During 2017, the committee removed one individual from the sanctions list. By the end of the year, there were 135 individuals and five entities on the list.

Human Rights-Related Developments

On 15 February, UNAMA and the UN Human Rights Office released a joint annual report on the impact of the armed conflict on civilians. According to the report, a total of 10,453 civilian casualties3,438 people killed and 7,015 injuredwere documented in 2017. Women and children remained heavily affected by conflict-related violence. The report documented 359 women killed and 865 injured, as well as 861 children killed and 2,318 injured. The report attributes close to two-thirds of all casualties to anti-government elements and one-fifth to pro-government forces. Attacks where anti-government elements deliberately targeted civilians accounted for 27 percent of the total civilian casualties, mainly from suicide and complex attacks directed at civilians or civilian objects. In response to the reports findings, High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Raad Al Hussein said in a 15 February statement that such attacks are prohibited under international humanitarian law and are likely, in most cases, to constitute war crimes. The perpetrators must be identified and held accountable. The Human Rights Council will consider the High Commissioners report on Afghanistan (A/HRC/37/45) during its 37th session in March.

Key Issues and Options

The Council faces a variety of ongoing issues that have continued to grow in their complexity. Afghan civilians continue to bear the heavy burden of the worsening security situation as is evident from the latest UNAMA casualty report. The security situation is further complicated by the increased presence of ISIL and other terrorist groups. Insurgency in Afghanistan continues to be closely interlinked with illicit drug production and trafficking, activities that reached record levels during 2017. Efforts for negotiations between the government and the Taliban have borne no results so far and are further jeopardised by the Talibans increased hostilities. Amidst all these concerns, holding credible and inclusive parliamentary elections in 2018 and presidential elections in 2019 is a top priority for the Council.

However, the most immediate issue for the Council is the renewal of UNAMAs mandate. In this regard, the Council could endorse the strategic review recommendations and also consider including specific language in the renewal resolution that:

deplores the high number of civilian casualties and demands that all sides avoid killing and injuring civilians, recalling that targeting civilians is a war crime;

underscores the need for the international communityand particularly neighbouring countriesto continue to support and cooperate with Afghanistan;

stresses the need for holding parliamentary and presidential elections in an inclusive and timely manner;

emphasises the linkages between extremism, drug production and illegal exploitation of natural resources (e.g. talcum, marble and gold); and

highlights the importance of reconciliation in an effort to bring an end to the insurgency in Afghanistan.

Council Dynamics

Council members are generally concerned about the progressively volatile security environment and its implications for the civilian population. In addition to concerns regarding the recent surge of hostilities by the Taliban, the presence of ISIL and its violent tactics has added another layer of complexity to the conflict with a potential to deepen ethnic and sectarian tensions. Among permanent members, Russia has continued to emphasise the threat posed by ISIL in Afghanistan, given that the group has now been defeated in its former strongholds in the Middle East. At the last debate, Russia noted that Afghanistan is now the main centre where the terrorists are concentrated, and that ISIL has put down roots in the country. Several other Council members, most notably France, Kazakhstan and Russia, continue to stress concerns regarding the interlinkages between insurgency and drug production and trafficking.

Council members have been generally supportive of the strategic review recommendations and have called for their implementation. Russia and Kazakhstan have both emphasised the importance of the regional context and the valuable role played by regional organisations, such as the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation and the Collective Security Treaty Organization, in addressing the situation in Afghanistan. Russia has questioned the utility of the US and NATO presence in the country, which it maintains does not help to stabilise the military and political situation.

The Netherlands is the penholder on Afghanistan, and Kazakhstan chairs the 1988 Afghanistan Sanctions Committee.

UN DOCUMENTS ON AFGHANISTANTHEMATIC ISSUES

Conflict and Hunger

Expected Council Action

In March, at the initiative of the Council president, the Netherlands, the Council is expected to hold a high-level briefing on conflict and hunger. Possible briefers include representatives of the UNs Rome-based agencies.

Key Recent Developments

In response to a 21 February 2017 letter from Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to member states, the Security Council began focusing considerable attention last year on the risk of famine facing a number of conflict situations on its agendanorth-eastern Nigeria, Somalia, South Sudan and Yemen. In his letter, Guterres highlighted the global food crisis and warned that without decisive action, 20 million people in these four countries were at risk of famine.

Council members sought to respond to this warning, organising an Arria-formula session on the risk of famine in these countries on 16 June 2017. The Council then adopted a presidential statement on 9 August 2017 that expressed grave concern about the threat of famine presently facing Yemen, Somalia, South Sudan and north-east Nigeria. The statement deplored the failure of certain parties in these conflicts to ensure unfettered and sustained access for deliveries of vital food assistance and other aid, and called on member states to provide resources and funding to avert famine.

In October 2017, Guterres briefed the Council on progress towards addressing the famine risks in these countries, an update that the Council had requested in its August statement. The Secretary-General described a scaled-up humanitarian response that had managed to keep famine at bay. This included donors having delivered on nearly 70 percent of funding requirements for relief efforts. The number of people at risk, however, had increased, which included, according to Guterres, an additional 5 million severely food insecure people in South Sudan since the start of 2017. Guterres noted that of the 815 million people globally suffering from hunger, 60 percent live in the shadow of conflict.

Concerns over the risk of famine in Yemen were elevated in November 2017 when the Saudi Arabia-led coalition imposed a complete blockade of the country following the 4 November firing of a ballistic missile by Houthi rebels towards Riyadh. Yemeni government-controlled entry points were re-opened after one week, but the coalition did not restore access to the rebel-held Hodeidah port, through which around 70 percent of Yemeni imports pass, until 26 November. The coalition has since announced that Hodeidah would remain open for 30-day periods and allowed in January delivery of World Food Programme (WFP)-procured cranes to replace those destroyed by airstrikes, after having prevented the delivery for a year. A January report by the Panel of Experts monitoring the Yemen sanctions regime described the blockade as using the threat of starvation as an instrument of war, and recommended that the Security Council call on the Saudi-led coalition not to misuse the Council-mandated arms embargo as a justification to obstruct the delivery of essential goods and humanitarian aid. The report also described access constraints and diversion of aid inside Yemen by the Houthis.

Meanwhile, in north-eastern Nigeria, a significantly increased humanitarian response over the course of 2017 saw a reduction in the number of people facing food insecurity from 5.1 million to 3.9 million. At the launch of the UNs 2018 humanitarian response plan for north-east Nigeria on 8 February, UN Humanitarian Coordinator in Nigeria Edward Kallon noted that an estimated 930,000 people are in areas that are hard to access because of insecurity. In Somalia, a drought continues, along with violent conflict, to create food insecurity for more than half the population, according to the 2018 humanitarian response plan for the country. On 26 February, the WFP, the United Nations Childrens Fund and the Food and Agriculture Organisation warned that 7.1 million people in South Sudannearly two-thirds of the populationcould become severely food insecure in the coming months.

Key Issues and Options

The upcoming session is being organised to follow up last Octobers Council briefing on the four countries that are threatened by famine. The meeting, however, is not meant to be limited to these four countries. It is intended to also consider more broadly a trend in food insecurity linked to conflict, and to raise awareness of international laws and norms to protect civilian populations from hunger and food insecurity during war. According to last years inter-UN agency report The State of Food Security and Nutrition, the increase in global food insecurity, in which 2017 recorded the most food insecure people since 2000, can be traced to the greater number of conflicts, often exacerbated by climate-related shocks. The report further states that conflict is a key driver of situations of severe food crisis.

Key issues include obstacles to humanitarian access and ensuring compliance with international humanitarian law. Other factors that contribute to hunger in conflict are threats to food sources, such as infrastructure for delivering food and insecurity from fighting that hinders access to farmland; while underlying fragilities, such as climate change, underdevelopment and poverty, make some countries in conflict more vulnerable to hunger crises. In considering the link between conflict and hunger, another issue that may be raised is how food insecurity can create tensions that lead to conflict.

While no specific Council product is envisioned for this session, issuing a Council statement reaffirming the prohibition on starving civilians during conflict, and the obligations of parties to armed conflict to comply with international humanitarian law could be an option.

Council Dynamics

There have been some divergent views among members about the role of the Council in addressing the issue of hunger and famine in conflict situations. Russia initially objected to the presidential statement eventually adopted in August, feeling the issue was not appropriate for the Council. Several other members during negotiations on the statement also raised concerns about over-emphasising the link between conflict and famine at the expense of other contributing factors.

The P3, Sweden, and last years African Council members (Egypt, Ethiopia and Senegal) were among the co-sponsors of the Arria-formula session that initiated Council efforts to more broadly consider the risk of famine facing some of the conflict situations it was seized with. Sweden initiated and served as penholder for the presidential statement.

UN DOCUMENTS ON CONFLICT AND HUNGER

This was on the threat of famine in Yemen, Somalia, South Sudan and north-east Nigeria. This was a briefing by Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on country-specific impediments to an effective response to the risk of famine in Yemen, Somalia, South Sudan and northeast Nigeria. This was a briefing on the humanitarian situation in South Sudan, Somalia, Yemen and Lake Chad Basin. This was the final report of the Yemen Panel of Experts.

Additional Useful Resource

The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2017. Building resilience for peace and food security. FAO, IFAD, UNICEF, WFP and WHO, 15 September 2017.AFRICA

Democratic Republic of the Congo

Expected Council Action

In March, the Security Council is due to renew the mandate of the UN Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), known as MONUSCO, which expires on 31 March.

The newly appointed Special Representative and head of MONUSCO, Leila Zerrougui, is expected to brief the Council beforehand.

In addition, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Mark Lowcock is expected to brief the Council on the humanitarian situation in the DRC in a separate meeting.

Key Recent Developments

The deplorable security situation in the east has taken another turn for the worse. In response to the increased activities of the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) Islamist rebel group in North Kivuincluding a deadly attack on Tanzanian peacekeepers on 7 December 2017 that resulted in 15 peacekeepers killed, 53 wounded and one who remains missingUganda and the DRC have launched a large military campaign against rebel groups in the region. The DRC said that the Forces Armees de la Republique Democratique du Congo (FARDC) succeeded in annihilating rebel forces loyal to William Amuri Yakutumba in South Kivu since 21 January. Uganda claims that its military has had success in attacking the ADF in North Kivu. One Pakistani peacekeeper was killed and another injured in a rebel group attack on South Kivu on 27 January. Council members issued a press statement condemning the attack.

One effect of the offensive has been the increased movement and activity of rebel groups, resulting in increased violence and massive displacement of civilians. According to UNHCR, 34,000 DRC refugees have arrived in Uganda since the beginning of the year, bringing the total number of refugees from the DRC to about 630,000. UNHCR also warned on 6 February of rising violence in Ituri, where at least 30 people are reported to have been killed amid conflict between the Hema and Lendu ethnic groups over the four previous days.

There continues to be serious concerns on the political front in the DRC. President Joseph Kabila, whose second and last term (under the countrys constitution) ended in December 2016, remains in office. According to an agreement reached between Kabila and the opposition on 31 December 2016, elections were to be held by the end of 2017, and Kabila was not to initiate amendments to the constitution and run for a third term. Kabila, however, has refrained from stating his intentions over the last year, and the opposition fears that Kabila has purposely stalled the elections to remain in power further beyond his constitutional term. DRC Information Minister Lambert Mende directly addressed the issue for the first time on 5 February, saying that Kabila will not run for re-election.

Citing logistical difficulties preventing the elections from being held on time on 5 November 2017, the Independent National Electoral Commission (CENI) announced the publication of a new electoral calendar, including technical benchmarks, for combined presidential, legislative and provincial elections to take place on 23 December 2018. Opposition figures denounced the new calendar and called for protests, but the authorities in major cities have banned protests and have reportedly arrested opposition leaders as part of a wider trend of curbing the political freedom of the opposition and freedom of the press.

Council members issued a press statement on 28 November 2017, taking note of the new electoral calendar and emphasising the critical importance of ensuring that elections are not postponed beyond 23 December 2018. They also called for transparent, credible and inclusive elections.

On 31 December 2017, demonstrations against Kabila in Kinshasa and other cities, organised by Catholic and opposition groups, were met with violence by security forces. According to the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), the death toll totalled nine people and 98 others were injured.

Council members issued a press statement on 16 January, noting with serious concern the continued political impasse and the violent incidents against protesters. They recalled the importance of taking urgent measures to restore confidence between the actors involved and to defuse the political tension, within the spirit of the 31 December 2016 Agreement, including the release of political prisoners and the full implementation of all other confidence-building measures, several of which are yet to be implemented.

Another wave of demonstrations occurred on 21 January, leading to the death of six persons, as well as 68 injured and 121 arrested, according to OHCHR. Tear gas was fired into churches in various parts of the country, and military police also fired tear gas towards at least three UN patrols.

On the initiative of the US, Council members held an Arria-formula meeting on 12 February focused on the DRC elections, co-hosted with Cote dIvoire, Equatorial Guinea, France, the Netherlands, Sweden and the UK. In a joint statement, the co-hosts observed that fulfilling the agreement, releasing political prisoners, ending politically motivated prosecutions, and respecting freedom of assembly and expression are essential to creating the political space necessary for credible elections. Noting the CENIs plan to use an electronic voting system, Ambassador Nikki Haley (US) said that using an unfamiliar technology for the first time during a crucial election is an enormous risk. Panellist Ida Sawyer of Human Rights Watch noted that concerns have already been raised about potential fraud during the voter registration process.

Sanctions-Related Developments

The DRC Sanctions Committee held an open briefing on 26 January. The Coordinator of the Group of Experts assisting the Committee, Zobel Behalal, highlighted the groups findings regarding the involvement of DRC army officials in the illicit trade of natural resources and the diversion of arms to armed groups. He also cited ongoing violations of human rights and international humanitarian law as well as the rise of political and security tensions related to the holding of elections. Representatives of regional countries spoke, including a representative from the DRC, who said that private companies from certain states on the Council have been profiting from the illicit exploitation of natural resources.

The committee added four individuals to the sanctions list on 1 February. The listings include Muhindo Akili Mundos, a general in the FARDC, for committing acts that constitute human rights violations or abuses or violations of international humanitarian law.

Human Rights-Related Developments

In January, the UN Joint Human Rights Office in the DRC (UNJHRO)composed of the Human Rights Division of MONUSCO and the OHCHRreleased a report on the human rights situation in 2017. From January to December 2017, UNJHRO documented 6,497 human rights violations and abuses throughout the DRC, which represents an increase of over 25 percent compared to 2016. Over 20 percent of the violations documented were linked to the restriction of democratic space and fundamental freedoms, with a rise in the number of human rights abuses committed by armed groups and militias. The report documents violations of the right to liberty and security of person; the right to physical integrity, including 759 incidents of sexual violence; the right to property; the right to life, including 1,176 victims of extrajudicial killings by state agents; and an increase in violations related to forced labour.

Spokesperson for the Secretary-General Stephane Dujarric announced on 12 February that UN and South African investigators would conduct a joint probe into allegations that South African peacekeepers in the DRC beat a 17-year-old and committed sexual exploitation. The probe is said to take up to 90 days. According to MONUSCO, 18 alleged cases of sexual abuse and exploitation by its peacekeepers and civilian personnel were opened in 2017.

Key Issues and Options

The primary political issue for the Council in the upcoming period is ensuring that elections take place as scheduled. The Council may expand on MONUSCOs role in providing logistical assistance to the DRC elections in its new mandate and act to ensure it has sufficient resources to do so. In this context, the Council could consider asking the Secretary-General to appoint a High Representative for the elections in the DRC, similarly to the action it took in resolution 1603 of 3 June 2005, with respect to Cote dIvoire.

Additionally, timely elections should be free and fair and should take place in an inclusive environment conducive to participation in the political process. While renewing MONUSCOs mandate, the Council may, in coordination with regional actors, reiterate its call on all stakeholders to remain committed to the electoral calendar as the only way forward and to refrain from violence. It may also threaten or move to sanction actors that undermine the electoral process.

The ongoing violence in different parts of the country, and the military operations in the Kivus in particular, are of continuing concern, and the protection of civilians remains a top priority for MONUSCO. The Council may review the changes made in the mandate last yearwhich included a troop reduction and changes in MONUSCOs posturein light of recent events and reconsider the adequacy of MONUSCOs mandate and posture to address these threats.

The Council could choose to visit the DRC to reinforce the importance of free, fair and timely elections and to assess the security situation and MONUSCOs response to it.

Looking ahead, an option for the Council could be to consider seeking an African member as co-penholder on the DRC to share the pen with France, to enrich the approach with experience from the region.

Council and Wider Dynamics

All Council members remain concerned about the ongoing political crisis and the security situation. There is a consensus about the imperative of holding the elections on 23 December without further delays, in alignment with the position of regional actors. During the 9 January consultations, several Council members took the position that the Council should remain focused on the DRC throughout the year, including through a possible Council mission.

At the same time, divisions persist as to how to define the political crisisas a constitutional issue or one with wider national and regional implicationsand the appropriate response. The 16 January press statement took almost two weeks to negotiate. Initially, it was supposed to be a short statement condemning excessive force used by the government to crack down on protests. However, some Council members felt that the draft circulated by France was overly critical of the government and should be expanded to address the wider issues. Thus, it took two weeks to negotiate a comprehensive text that was critical of the government (but less so than the original draft) and also called on the opposition to respect the rule of law.

With respect to the mandate renewal, much emphasis is expected to be put on preparations for the elections, with some Council members wanting to ensure that MONUSCO is given appropriate resources to assist in this respect. The efficiency of the missionand the performance of MONUSCO contingents in particular, which was a main focus for the US during the negotiations over the previous mandatemay lead to further negotiations over possible adjustments to the mandate and review of its contingents, including the Force Intervention Brigade.

France is the penholder on the DRC, and Kuwait chairs the 1533 DRC Sanctions Committee.

UN DOCUMENTS ON THE DRCIn Hindsight: Procedural Votes

Procedural votes have been quite rare in the past quarter of a century, with some years during that period registering none. The two procedural votes in 2017 marked the first time since 2000 that the Security Council had more than one procedural vote in a calendar year. On 24 October 2017, a Russian motion to postpone a meeting during which it would cast the first of its three vetoes to prevent the renewal of the Joint Investigative Mechanism on the use of chemical weapons in Syria was defeated. Then, on 11 December 2017, China called for a procedural vote in an effort to block the Councils consideration of the human rights situation in the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea (DPRK); however, for the fourth consecutive year, the motion to discuss the situation in the DPRK passed.

Security Council voting procedures are governed by Article 27 of the UN Charter, which distinguishes between votes on procedural matters and those on all other matters. All decisions (i.e., resolutions) require at least nine affirmative votes to be adopted, but those on procedural matters, unlike those on other matters (or substantive matters), are not subject to a veto by one or more of the permanent members. Thus, when voting on procedural matters, a negative vote cast by a permanent member does not in itself defeat the decision, and the draft will be adopted, so long as it garners at least nine votes.

On 14 April 1949, the General Assembly adopted resolution 267(3) on The problem of voting in the Security Council. In this resolution, the General Assembly recommended to the Security Council that it consider as procedural several types of issues listed in detail in an annex. These included inter alia:

submitting to the General Assembly any questions relating to the maintenance of international peace and security;

requesting the General Assembly to make a recommendation on a dispute or situation with respect to which the Council is exercising the functions assigned to it in the Charter;

requesting the Secretary-General to convene a special session of the General Assembly;

approving annual reports to the General Assembly;

holding of meetings at places other than the seat of the UN; and

establishing subsidiary organs the Council deems necessary for the performance of its functions.

Nonetheless, divergences of view persisted throughout the UNs early history regarding what constituted a procedural or substantive issue. This often necessitated a vote first on the nature of the matteri.e. procedural or substantivefollowed by a second vote on the matter at hand. The first vote was referred to as a vote on the preliminary question, in keeping with the terminology used at the San Francisco conference that established the UN. Depending on the outcome of the vote on the preliminary question, the Council would then proceed to a procedural or substantive vote.

Over time, Council practice indicated an acceptance of the procedural nature of certain issues. These have included, for example, whether or not to include an agenda item, to convene or suspend a meeting, to call for an emergency session of the General Assembly, or to extend invitations to participate in Council meetings.

Procedural votes were common during the Cold War. From 1946 to 1989, 153 procedural votes were recorded. However, they have occurred with much less frequency in recent decades, with members often arriving at procedural decisions by consensus. At times, painstaking efforts to achieve consensus could perhaps be avoided if there were greater willingness to table a procedural motion for a vote.

Between 1990 and 2017, there were 21 procedural votes. Of these, 12 were votes on requests to participate in a meeting, six were on whether to adopt an agenda item, one was to postpone a meeting, one was to adjourn a meeting, and one was to suspend a meeting.

Certain patterns have emerged. In the early 1990s, the procedural vote was almost exclusively used to determine participation in meetings. From 1990 to 1992, there were 11 procedural votes (all of which passed), ten of which pertained to the participation of the Permanent Observer of Palestine in Council proceedings and one of which focused on whether to suspend a meeting on the Occupied Palestinian territories. These votes took place at a time when Israel and the Palestinians were embroiled in the First Intifada. After 1992, there was not another procedural vote in the Council until 2000.

Since 1990, 18 of 21 procedural votes have succeeded. Nonetheless, the vote tally on these procedural motions has demonstrated how controversial they have been. None of them received more than 11 affirmative votes, and five of them received the bare minimum of votes (nine) needed for adoption. Furthermore, procedural motions have often related to issues that had been or would be the subject of vetoes. Drafts on Israel/Palestine have frequently been vetoed by the US. There have also been procedural motions related to Zimbabwe, Myanmar and Syria since the mid-2000s; resolutions on these issues have been the subject of vetoes.

The fact that procedural motions are not subject to the veto is particularly relevant to the voting patterns. In 17 of the 18 cases since 1990 in which a procedural motion was adopted, one or more of the permanent members registered a negative vote. In other words, these 17 motions would have failed if the veto had been in play.

The three procedural motions that failed to pass since 1990 happen to be based on proposals by Russia. The first occurred on 23 June 2000 regarding whether to allow several speakers to participate in a meeting on the Balkans; the second, during the same meeting, was a vote on whether the Permanent Representative of Serbia should be permitted to participate in the meeting (S/PV.4164). The third was the Russian proposal to postpone the meeting on Syria on 24 October 2017 during which Russia vetoed a draft resolution that would have renewed the Joint Investigative Mechanism.

Six of the seven most recent procedural votes, dating back to 2005, have concerned whether to adopt the agenda in order to hold a meeting on a controversial issue. In these six cases, this entailed Council engagement on politically charged country casesZimbabwe (2005), Myanmar (2006), and as noted above, the DPRK (2014, 2015, 2016, and 2017).

The fact that procedural votes are occurring more frequentlythere have been five since 2014, whereas there were only two in the decade prior to thatmay be a reflection of the difficult dynamics in the Council in recent times, as well as the willingness of members to push for the Council to address specific issues, in spite of opposition from some members. Procedural votes can also be viewed as a useful way to of raise awareness and create a record of the Councils efforts to engage on critical issues.Lake Chad Basin

Expected Council Action

The Netherlands, as Council president in March, is organising a briefing on the Lake Chad Basin, with a specific focus on the root causes of the Boko Haram crisis. Speakers are expected to include representatives from the Secretariat, possibly the Lake Chad Basin Commission, and a civil society organisation.

Key Recent Developments

The Boko Haram insurgency continues into its ninth year, affecting north-eastern Nigeria, Cameroons Far North region, the Diffa region of Niger, and the Lac region of Chad. When the Special Representative and head of the UN Office for West Africa and the Sahel (UNOWAS), Mohamed Ibn Chambas, briefed the Council in January this year, he noted that Boko Haram suicide attacks using children numbered 135 cases in 2017, a five-fold increase compared to 2016. The terrorist group, which has declared loyalty to the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), has increasingly relied on such asymmetric attacks while regional militaries, including the Multinational Joint Task Force (MNJTF), have taken back most of the territory held by the group over the past three years.

According to OCHA, more than 2.3 million people were displaced by the violence across the Lake Chad Basin as of 22 January. Borno State, Nigeria, remains the epicentre of the violence and the humanitarian crisis, accounting for over 1.3 million of the 1.6 million displaced persons in north-eastern Nigeria. Cameroons Far North region is the second most-affected area, with an estimated 236,000 people internally displaced and hosting 89,000 Nigerian refugees.

On 8 February, the UN launched its 2018 Humanitarian Response Plan for north-east Nigeria, seeking $1.05 billion in order to reach 6.1 million people with assistance. During its launch, UN Humanitarian Coordinator for Nigeria Edward Kallon said the humanitarian response had been significantly scaled up over the previous year and described the protracted nature of the crisis. By the end of 2017, 3,000 humanitarian workers were presentmore than three times as many as in 2016five humanitarian hubs were established, including in hard-to-reach areas such as Bama and Gwoza, and food insecurity in north-east Nigeria had fallen from 5.1 million to 3.9 million. The 2018 plan outlines a three-pronged approach meant to address; (1) peacebuilding, political and security challenges; (2) further scaling-up and consolidating the humanitarian response; and (3) tackling the root causes of the crisis, including underdevelopment and governance concerns, poverty and climate vulnerabilities. Three months earlier, from 2 to 4 November 2017, the AU and the Lake Chad Basin Commission, an intergovernmental organisation that oversees water and other natural resource usage in the basin, organised a regional stabilisation conference in NDjamena. The meeting was held as a possible first step towards developing a regional strategy to address the root causes of the Boko Haram crisis.

On 25 February, the Nigerian government confirmed that 110 school girls remained missing following a suspected Boko Haram attack on a boarding school in Dapchi, Yobe State six days earlier.

The Security Council last held a dedicated session on the Lake Chad Basin on 13 September 2017. It considered the Secretary-Generals first report to the Council specifically on the crisis, which the Council had requested in resolution 2349, adopted on 31 March 2017. In a 30 January presidential statement on the West Africa and Sahel region, the Council reiterated that the Secretary-General should include an assessment of the implementation of resolution 2349 in his regular UNOWAS reporting, with specific attention in his next report on the region in July.

The next day, on 31 January, the Secretariat provided a situational awareness briefingthese are informal briefings for Council members to be informed by the Secretariat on situations of concernon the Lake Chad Basin. Assistant Secretary-General for Human Rights Andrew Gilmour briefed on behalf of the Inter-Agency Task Force on Boko Haram. Meanwhile, the Councils Informal Expert Group on Women, Peace and Security held a 30 January session on the Lake Chad Basin. Briefers included Kallon and UNOWAS Deputy Special Representative Ruby Sandhu-Rojon. Discussion covered sexual exploitation in internally displaced persons camps and efforts to ensure a gender perspective in the counter-terrorism strategy for a crisis in which women and girls have been subjected to forced marriages and used as suicide bombers.

Issues and Options

The situation in the Lake Chad Basin is characterised as a protection and displacement crisis, with lower levels of hostilities but an increase in asymmetric attacks. The upcoming Council meeting is meant to focus on the root causes of the crisis, which resolution 2349 was notable for highlighting. These root causes have been identified as poverty, lack of education, the need for job creation and economic development, poor governance, and the impact of climate change and the shrinking of Lake Chad. During the Council visiting mission to the region prior to adopting resolution 2349, government and UN officials that the Council met with said that these factors have fostered radicalisation and, unless addressed, are likely to cause continued instability.

Having recently adopted a presidential statement on West Africa and the Sahel that requested more detailed reporting on the Lake Chad Basin, it appears unlikely that the Council will adopt a new product at the upcoming session as it awaits the next UNOWAS report. Council members may issue a press statement reiterating the importance of the response of countries in the region and of the UN in addressing the underlying challenges facing the Lake Chad Basin, expressing support for the 2018 humanitarian response plan, and calling on donors to contribute to the plan.

Council Dynamics

Several members have sought to maintain Council attention to the Lake Chad Basin following the Councils March 2017 visiting mission and adoption of resolution 2349 later that month. Following the Secretary-Generals September report on the Lake Chad Basin, he has provided further updates on the situation, as requested in resolution 2349, through UNOWAS and the UN Regional Office for Central Africa (UNOCA), which the UN had already been doing as part of these offices bi-annual reports on regional developments. Some members have found this arrangement insufficient, and during consultations in January with Chambas on UNOWAS they expressed their concerns about the reporting. Thus, the presidential statement on UNOWAS included a request for more detailed reporting on the Lake Chad Basin in the next UNOWAS report due in July. It seems that this critique may have prompted the Secretariats situational awareness briefing at the end of January.

One challenge for the Secretary-General in this reporting is that there is no mandated UN presence across the Lake Chad Basin countries to report more closely from the ground than UNOWAS and UNOCA, which monitor developments from Dakar and Libreville, respectively. This has so far also resulted in somewhat fragmented reporting on the situation, as Boko Harams presence exists across both regions covered by the two offices. A related issue seems to be identifying what greater role the Security Council can play at this point besides generating international attention to the crisis, which for much of its history has been overlooked by the Council and the broader international community. Council members have continued to call for the region to develop a strategy that tackles the drivers that contributed to the emergence of Boko Haram and longer-term development needs.

The UK has served as the penholder on the Lake Chad Basin.

UN DOCUMENTS ON THE LAKE CHAD BASINMIDDLE EAST

Lebanon (1701)

Expected Council Action

In March, Acting UN Special Coordinator for Lebanon Pernille Dahler Kardel, and possibly a representative of the Department of Peacekeeping Operations (DPKO), will brief Council members in consultations on the Secretary-Generals report on the implementation of resolution 1701, which called for a cessation of hostilities between Hezbollah and Israel in 2006.

The mandate of the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) expires on 31 August.

Key Recent Developments

On 4 November 2017, Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri announced his resignation in a televised address from Saudi Arabia, citing Irans meddling in Arab affairs and an alleged assassination plot against him. In a statement issued the next day, the Secretary-General expressed concern about the news of Hariris resignation while reiterating the UNs continued support for the security, sovereignty and territorial integrity of Lebanon. After spending almost three weeks outside Lebanon, Hariri returned to Beirut, saying he would delay his resignation in an effort to advance the dialogue among political actors on the countrys relations with the rest of the region. On 5 December, Hariri formally withdrew his resignation after the government reaffirmed Lebanons policy of disassociation from the conflicts in the region.

Hariri attended the 8 December 2017 ministerial-level meeting in Paris of the International Support Group for Lebanon (ISG), chaired by France and the UN. A joint statement issued by the group welcomed Hariris decision to return to his post and the decision of the government to disassociate itself from the conflicts in the region. On 12 December, Ambassador Francois Delattre (France) briefed Council members under any other business on the situation in Lebanon and the Paris ISG meeting. Council members welcomed Hariris return to Lebanon in a press statement on 19 December.

On 5 February, UNIFIL head of mission and force commander Major General Michael Beary hosted the most recent tripartite meeting with senior officials from the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) and the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). The discussions were focused on the IDFs construction of the border wall in the area south of the Blue Line, the border demarcation between Lebanon and Israel. According to media reports, Lebanon has claimed that the wall passes through its territory and thus constitutes a violation of its sovereignty, while the IDF emphasised that all construction work is being done on Israeli territory. At the tripartite meeting Beary noted that, overall, there has been a period of relative calm in UNIFILs area of operations but acknowledged that there has been increased activity along the Blue Line. He also said that both parties have shown restraint to ease the tensions.

Another point of contention between the two countries has emerged over the prospect of exploring for hydrocarbon resources off the coast of Lebanon. Earlier this year, Lebanon concluded a deal with oil and gas companies Total, Eni and Novatek regarding offshore exploration and production of oil and gas. Israel and Lebanon have unresolved maritime borders in some of the areas where the exploration would take place, and Israel has warned against exploration in the disputed waters. During his visit to Lebanon on 15 February, US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson weighed in on this issue, saying that the US would continue to engage with both sides in an effort to end the current impasse. He also voiced his concerns regarding Hezbollahs engagement in regional conflicts and its destabilising effects on Lebanon.

In February, US Acting Assistant Secretary of State David Satterfield held meetings with representatives of both countries in an attempt to mediate the border dispute. According to media reports, the speaker of Lebanons parliament, Nabih Berri, rejected US proposals on the border issue after meeting with Satterfield on 16 February. In a televised address the same day, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah threatened retaliation against Israel should it exploit gas sites in Lebanese territorial waters. After meeting with Satterfield on 18 February, Israeli energy minister Yuval Steinitz emphasised that a diplomatic solution would be preferable to both sides.

Issues and Options

While the situation in UNIFILs area of operations has been generally calm, the Council remains concerned about the lack of progress towards implementing the main objectives of resolution 1701, including the permanent ceasefire, more than a decade after its adoption.

A principal issue for the Council is that Hezbollah and other non-state actors still maintain significant amounts of weaponry. This inhibits the governments ability to exercise full authority over its territory, poses a threat to Lebanons sovereignty and stability, and contravenes its obligations under resolutions 1559 and 1701. Another related issue is Hezbollahs involvement in the Syrian civil war and the movement of arms from Syria to Hezbollah.

Last years UNIFIL renewal resolution requested the Secretary-General to look at ways to enhance the missions efforts, including increasing its visible presence, patrols and inspections. Some Council members might be interested to hear more on this issue. The Council could request a briefing by DPKO focusing on whether and how UNIFILs work has changed since the adoption of resolution 2373 and what impact this has had on the overall security situation.

Council Dynamics

Although the Council continues to support UNIFIL and values its contribution to stability in the region and between Israel and Lebanon, there are some differences among members concerning the role of the mission. The US in particular has expressed criticism of UNIFIL. It has advocated for a more proactive role for the mission in confronting the threat of Hezbollah and has been increasingly vocal about what it believes is the rising threat of Hezbollah and its proliferation of weapons. At the last mandate renewal, France and some other members, particularly UNIFIL troop-contributor Italy, which has since left the Council, have been cautious about the prospect of a more proactive approach by the mission, tending to believe that this could threaten the fragile calm in southern Lebanon that has been maintained for the past ten years. However, there is a general consensus among Council members about supporting Lebanons territorial integrity and security, condemning acts of terrorism, and recognising the crucial role the LAF plays in responding to security challenges.

France is the penholder on Lebanon.

UN DOCUMENTS ON LEBANONAFRICA

Libya

Expected Council Action

In March, the Council is expected to receive a briefing from the Special Representative and head of the UN Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL), Ghassan Salame, followed by consultations. Ambassador Olof Skoog (Sweden), the chair of the Libya Sanctions Committee, is also expected to brief the Council.

UNSMILs mandate expires on 15 September, and the mandate of the Panel of Experts assisting the Sanctions Committee expires on 15 November.

Key Recent Developments

February marked the seven-year anniversary of the uprising that toppled Colonel Muammar Qaddhafi. Despite the signing of the Libyan Political Agreement (LPA) on 17 December 2015, little progress has been achieved in establishing unified and legitimate institutions with the capacity to deliver basic services.

At a Council briefing and consultations on 17 January, Salame stated that the Council should remain alert about Libya, since the spectre of violence remains present and military forces are flexing their muscles in many parts of the country. He updated the Council on his efforts to implement the UN action plan that the Council endorsed in October 2017. This plan involves working in parallel to amend the LPA, organise a national conference, finalise a new constitution, and prepare parliamentary and presidential elections. He said that the fabric of Libyan society is frayed and requires meaningful reconstitution if it is to be mended, and discussed his initiative to work towards reconciliation from the bottom up by holding town hall meetings and local dialogues between communities formerly in conflict.

While holding elections is a key element of the action plan, Salame warned that before credible elections can be conducted, much work remains to be done. In addition to the constitutional, legislative, security and logistical measures that need to be in place, there must be a commitment by the parties to accept the results.

A civil society representative, Hajer Sharief, the co-founder of Together We Build It, briefed the Council as well. In her remarks, she criticised the persistence of violence in Libya and reflected on the 2011 military intervention. While resolution 1970 had been a life-saver for many Libyans, hope turned to despair as Libyans realised that the international community and the Council had no follow-up plan or strategy to empower the Libyan people beyond the military intervention.

Efforts to implement the UN action plan continue, and the deadline for electoral registration was extended until 15 February. By 1 February, more than 2.25 million Libyans had registered according to the Electoral Commission. On 14 February, Libyas Supreme Court dismissed a challenge to the draft constitution by an administrative court in the eastern city of Al-Bayda.

Violence in Libya continues, and clashes among armed groups in the east and the west have persisted. On 15 January, clashes near the Mitiga airport in Tripoli resulted in the death of some 20 people and the suspension of all flights to and from Tripoli for five days. A double bombing in Benghazi on 24 January resulted in the deaths of at least 30 civilians, including children. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres condemned the attack and the summary execution of ten individuals reportedly carried out in retaliation by the Libyan National Army (LNA) in Benghazi. UNSMIL also condemned the reports of summary executions and demanded that the LNA commander reportedly involved in the executions, Mahmoud al-Werfalli, be handed over to the ICC. It argued that it had documented at least five similar cases in 2017 alone carried out or ordered by al-Werfalli. The situation in Libya was referred to the ICC in 2011 through resolution 1970, and the ICC issued an arrest warrant against al-Werfalli in August 2017. In early February, al-Werfalli reportedly handed himself in to the military police in eastern Libya.

Between November 2017 and 23 February 2018, UNHCR has evacuated 1,211 refugees from Libya to emergency transit locations from where their applications for refugee status are being processed (770 to Niger, 312 to Italy, and two to Romania). Despite a recent agreement to return internally displaced persons expelled from Tawergha seven years ago, some 40,000 remain stranded and prevented from returning to their hometown.

UNSMIL is poised to increase its presence in Libya, security conditions permitting, following the deployment of a Nepalese guard unit that became fully operational in late December 2017 and which is tasked to protect the UN compound in Tripoli and mission staff.

Sanctions-Related Developments On 17 January, the Deputy Permanent Representative of Sweden, Irina Schoulgin Nyoni, briefed the Council on behalf of the chair of the 1970 Libya Sanctions Committee. At the meeting, she updated the Council on the two vessels that are listed by the Committee for attempting to illicitly export petroleum from Libya. Syria had informed the Committee that a national company had unloaded diesel oil from one of these ships, the Capricorn, although it had instructed concerned authorities not to receive that vessel again. Since then, the Sanctions Committee has amended the entry of the Capricorn to reflect its change of name (Nadine), flag state (Palau) and location (off the coast of Oman, outside of its territorial waters). The Committee has since considered the interim report of the Panel of Experts, which highlighted how military dynamics in Libya and conflicting regional agendas show a lack of commitment to a peaceful solution. The report raised concerns regarding the role of armed groups, often nominally affiliated with official security institutions, in human smuggling and trafficking. The recommendations addressed to the Council, such as the proposal to ban listed vessels from circulating through maritime canals, are expected to be discussed by the Council when it renews the sanctions regime later this year.

Human Rights-Related Developments On 1 February, UNSMIL released a human rights report on civilian casualties for January, which documented 102 civilian casualties39 deaths and 63 injuriesduring the conduct of hostilities across Libya, a sharp rise from previous months. The majority of civilian casualties were caused by vehicle-borne improvised explosive devices, followed by explosive remnants of war, gunfire and shelling, the report said. The special rapporteur on the human rights of internally displaced persons (IDPs), Cecilia Jimenez-Damary, conducted her first official visit to Libya from 25 to 31 January. In a statement on 2 February, the special rapporteur said the displacement crisis in Libya is one of huge complexities, exacerbated by the fact that the capacity of the government to meet the needs of the IDPs is limited, and UN agencies are constrained by a lack of access due to security concerns and a general lack of funding to deal with the internal displacement situation. She will present a report to the Human Rights Council (HRC) in June. The HRC will hold an interactive dialogue on the report of the High Commissioner for Human Rights on human rights in Libya (A/HRC/37/46) during its 37th session in March.

Key Issues and Options

Supporting the UN-led mediation efforts is a key issue for the Council. At the appropriate time and in support of Salames work, they might consider a visiting mission to Libya and neighbouring countries to engage with key stakeholders to ensure progress in the implementation of the UN action plan.

Furthermore, the Council could issue a presidential statement condemning any unilateral actions that undermine the political process and question the LPA as the only framework for the political transition. It could also recall that these actions constitute designation criteria in the 1970 sanctions regime.

A long-standing issue for which the Council is responsible, but which continues to be unresolved, is the impact that the freezing of assets resulting from resolution 1970 is having on Libyas wealth. In his November 2017 briefing, Salame criticised the mismanagement of frozen assets (by not being reinvested) and urged the Council to revisit this issue. Since 2015, the Panel of Experts has recommended the Sanctions Committee to issue guidance allowing for the reinvestment of frozen assets to prevent economic losses for the Libyan people. The Council has also received several letters from Libya in this regard. An option in this context would be for the 1970 Libya Sanctions Committee to address this issue.

Council and Wider Dynamics

Overall, Council members are united in their support to Salames mediation efforts. However, despite recent unanimous Council outcomes, which included the Councils endorsement of the UN action plan and a presidential statement ahead of the 17 December 2017 anniversary of the LPA, Council members have often had different sensitivities regarding the way forward to achieve a solution.

The UK is the penholder on Libya, and Sweden chairs the 1970 Libya Sanctions Committee.

UN DOCUMENTS ON LIBYAOverview

In March, the Netherlands takes over the presidency of the Security Council. It has chosen as its centrepiece an open debate on Collective Action to improve UN Peacekeeping Operations, which is expected to be chaired by the Prime Minister of the Netherlands, Mark Rutte. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres will brief.

There will be two meetings connected to issues of scarcity of natural resources. The first is a briefing on the Lake Chad Basin, with a specific focus on the root causes of the Boko Haram crisis. The second is a briefing on Conflict and Hunger, which is a follow-up to last years August meeting and presidential statement on famine.

The Council will hold its regular quarterly debate on Afghanistan during which a resolution extending the mandate of UNAMA is expected to be adopted. The meeting will be held on International Womens Day and may therefore have a specific focus on women, peace and security issues in Afghanistan.

Council members will follow closely the humanitarian situation in Syria after the adoption of a resolution calling for a 30-day humanitarian cessation of hostilities was adopted on 24 February. The resolution requested the Secretary-General to report on the implementation of the resolution and the compliance of parties every 15 days. In addition, Council members will receive their regular briefing on the political developments in Syria by Special Envoy Staffan de Mistura. Instead of the regular briefing on chemical weapons, there will be an informal interactive dialogue on Syria chemical weapons with the Office of Disarmament Affairs and the Director General of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons participating.

There will be discussions on several other Middle East issues this month:

Golan Heights, quarterly briefing on UNDOF;

quarterly briefing on UNDOF; Israel/Palestine, monthly briefing and consultations; and

monthly briefing and consultations; and Lebanon, update on UNIFILs activities.

Regarding African issues, the Council will have several meetings on the DRC. A briefing, followed by consultations, on the situation in the DRC is planned for early in the month ahead of the adoption of a resolution to renew the mandate of MONUSCO. In addition, a briefing on the humanitarian situation has been scheduled in order to hear from the Under-Secretary General for Humanitarian Affairs, Mark Lowcock, who will have visited the DRC in March.

The mandate of the UN Mission in South Sudan will be renewed in March. On Darfur, there will be a meeting on the Secretary-Generals report on UNAMID, and the quarterly briefing by Ambassador Joanna Wronecka (Poland), chair of the 1591 Sudan Sanctions Committee, on the Committees work.

Other African issues on the programme include:

Libya, update on UNMIL and sanctions;

Somalia, renewal of UNSOM and consultations on the 751/1907 Somalia/Eritrea Sanctions Committee; and

Western Sahara, on the activities of MINURSO.

The mandate of the Panel of Experts of the 1718 DPRK Sanctions Committee will be renewed.

Finally, the annual briefing on the activities of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe will be held.PEACEMAKING, PEACEKEEPING AND PEACEBUILDING

Peacekeeping Operations

Expected Council Action

In March, at the initiative of the Netherlands, the Security Council is expected to hold an open debate on Collective Action to Improve UN Peacekeeping Operations. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is expected to brief the Council at the meeting, which will be chaired by the Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte. A presidential statement taking into consideration the positions stated at the meeting is likely to be negotiated following the open debate.

Background and Key Recent Developments

The open debate will be an opportunity to discuss how to reform peacekeeping operations to make them respond better to challenges on the ground. In 2015, the report of the High-Level Independent Panel on Peace Operations (HIPPO) noted that mandates have become lengthier and more detailed and at times less realistic, manageable or achievable. The report pointed out how mandates are not always in line with the operational challenges in the field, and made extensive recommendations for improving speed, capability and performance for uniformed personnel, many of which then Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon accepted in his follow-up report for implementation. Since then, the Secretariat and member states have undertaken some efforts to address the gap between mandates and their implementation.

Among the issues that the Council, member states and the Secretariat face is how to adapt to the deployment of peace operations in complex and high-risk environments where peacekeepers are targeted by asymmetrical attacks. In 2017, 61 peacekeepers were killed as a result of hostile acts, the highest number since 1994. A report on improving the security of UN peacekeepers, commissioned by the Secretariat, was published in December 2017. The report, prepared by a team headed by Lieutenant General (ret.) Carlos dos Santos Cruz, concluded that a change of mindset is needed to adapt to the new contexts in which the UN flag no longer offers natural protection, and break from a certain Chapter VI Syndrome that leads peacekeepers to deploy without a full appreciation of security risks and the operational approach needed to address them. The report argues that a more proactive posture will contribute to the credibility of peacekeeping operations and their ability to protect civilians and their own personnel.

Participants in the open debate may also take into account the report of an Independent Special Investigation assessing the performance of the UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) after a July 2016 crisis in Juba, led by Major General (ret.) Patrick Cammaert. The report described how lack of preparedness, ineffective command and control, deficient leadership, and a risk-averse posture contributed to a failure to effectively protect civilians in need, and made recommendations that the Secretariat committed to implement in UNMISS and other missions.

In addition to increased threats and performance issues, the Council and member states have focused increasingly on the lack of adequate capabilities to fulfil Council mandates. Force enablers such as helicopters and aircraft are critical to the success of missions in high-risk environments. In the case of Mali, for example, the Council has repeatedly urged member states to provide troops and police with the adequate capabilities, training and equipment to fill outstanding gaps and develop creative ways of ensuring critical capabilities, such as through long-term rotation schemes.

At a Council briefing on 6 April 2017 on the review of peacekeeping operations, Guterres stressed that these operations need clear, realistic and up-to-date mandates from the Council, with well-identified priorities, adequate sequencing and flexibility to evolve over time. This was in line with one of the key conclusions of the HIPPO report, which underlined that political strategy must drive the design and implementation of peace operations. Over the last year, the Council has requested several strategic reviews of peacekeeping operations (in Cyprus, Darfur, the Democratic Republic of the Congo) and special political missions (in Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya). In parallel, the Department of Peacekeeping Operations (DPKO) began commissioning senior independent experts to lead the reviews of various peacekeeping operations in 2017 and 2018. The first such review carried out at the initiative of the Secretariat, focusing on the operation in South Sudan, has just been completed. The stated aim of these reviews is to examine in depth the conditions for success in each operation and to inform a strategic dialogue with member states on the efficiency, role and perspectives of UN peacekeeping. These reviews are expected to offer bold options and proposals on restructuring and on alignment between mission resources and mandate implementation.

The Council took note of the intention expressed by the Secretary-General to conduct reviews of peacekeeping missions in a 21 December 2017 presidential statement. This statement identified seven areaslinked with peacebuilding and sustaining peacethat the Council said it will consider when reviewing the mandates and configuration of peacekeeping operations:

assessment of mandate implementation in all its dimensions, including cooperation of the host state, with a view to ensuring the full delivery of the mandated tasks as well as, when relevant, the adjustment of tasks;

support to the national ownership of the political processes;

existence of clearly defined goals and objectives guided by specific, agreed-upon milestones towards peacebuilding and sustaining peace;

periodic strategic and integrated analysis of the opportunities, risks and challenges faced by national and local authorities to build and sustain peace;

progress in and quality of delivering the political and operational aspects of the missions mandate in a coherent manner;

clarity on roles and responsibilities of UN peacekeeping operations, UN country teams and other relevant actors; and

existence of an exit strategy that seeks to help lay the foundation for long-term and sustainable peace.

The open debate may provide an opportunity, following discussions in the Special Committee on Peacekeeping Operations (C34), for the broader membership to address some of the issues mentioned above and devise ways to deliver in a more effective way on the collective responsibility to improve peacekeeping operations.

Key Issues and Options

In a 25 November 2015 presidential statement, the Council underlined the significant impact its statements and actions can exert in situations of armed conflict or in support of peace processes. However, the Council has often failed to agree on a political strategy in support of peace operations for many reasons, including decision-making processes that do not favour the emergence of strategic or collective thinking, divergent political priorities, inadequate Secretariat analysis and planning, and the resistance of host states. The Council could use its Working Group on Peacekeeping Operations to draw lessons on how it agrees on strategic objectives for these missions, designs mandates, and monitors the capacity to achieve them. The outcome of such processes could benefit from the engagement of all Council members on the overall direction of the mission before the proper negotiation of the renewal resolution. The Working Group could submit recommendations for the Councils consideration after engaging with a broad range of actors, including Secretariat officials and troop- and police-contributing countries. As DPKO continues to roll out a new methodology to carry out strategic reviews, including an independent element, the Council could agree on the way in which it expects to consider the conclusions of such reviews. The presidential statement that is expected to be adopted at the meeting could cover how the Council plans to address some of these issues.

Council Dynamics

One of the defining elements of the discussions on peace operations is the gap between those who decide on the mandates of peace operations and carry their financial burden and those who deploy troops and police to implement them. The financial pressure from the US to cut the peacekeeping budget has featured prominently in mandate renewal discussions over the last year. In the past, some of the issues mentioned above, such as the posture of peacekeeping operations or references to performance, have been controversial and further polarised the relationship between the Council and troop- and police-contributing countries.

Cote dIvoire chairs the Working Group on Peacekeeping Operations.

UN DOCUMENTS ON PEACEKEEPING OPERATIONSAFRICA

Somalia and Eritrea

Expected Council Action

In March, the Council is expected to renew the mandate of the UN Assistance Mission in Somalia (UNSOM), which expires on 31 March.

The Council is also expected to receive a briefing in consultations from the Chair of the 751/1907 Somalia and Eritrea Sanctions Committee, Ambassador Kairat Umarov (Kazakhstan).

Key Recent Developments

On 24 January, Special Representative and head of UNSOM Michael Keating briefed the Council on the latest report of the Secretary-General. Speaking one year after Somalias peaceful transition of power and the election of President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed Farmajo, Keating commended the governments national agenda, which embraces financial reform, job creation, inclusive politics, conflict resolution, and reform of the security sector, stressing that the focus is now on the essential task of developing a plan for security transition. He outlined a number of major challenges faced by the government in implementing its agendaincluding the mobilisation of adequate technical and financial capacity, ensuring coherent and coordinated approaches by both national and international actors, and successfully managing such powerful constituencies as the federal member states, parliamentarians, clan power brokers, the private sector, and international partners.

Addressing the state-building process, Keating highlighted the need for progress in three key areas: review of the provisional federal constitution, preparation for the 2020-2021 elections, and conflict resolution and reconciliation. He noted that the national constitutional convention scheduled to begin in March or April is expected to launch the next phase of the constitutional review process.

Further, he warned that the militant group Al-Shabaab remains a potent threat, despite financial pressures, counter-terrorism operations and air strikes, highlighting the 14 October terror attack in Mogadishu. This was the most deadly attack by an improvised explosive devise ever perpetrated, with an estimated 512 people killed, nearly all of whom were civilians.

Concerning the AU Mission in Somalia (AMISOM), Keating noted that the Federal Government of Somalia has undertaken an operational readiness assessment of the Somali National Army and the Somali Police Force to provide a much clearer understanding of their capability. The assessment revealed multiple deficits and the enormous challenge ahead in translating the national security architecture into reality on the ground. He asserted that AMISOMs continued presence will therefore be essential. The premature drawdown of AMISOM forces would be a gift to Al-Shabaab, he said, and would risk undermining the gains that have been made, at great human and financial cost, over the past decade.

The Special Representative of the Chairperson of the AU Commission and head of AMISOM, Francisco Caetano Jose Madeira, also briefed the Council via video teleconference from Addis Ababa. He said that 2018 would be crucial for AMISOM in Somalia, recalling that Security Council resolution 2372 had requested that the mission reduce its troop levels, increase its police contingent, and conduct offensive operations against Al-Shabaab.

Madeira noted that AMISOM was in regular contact with the government to discuss a conditions-based and responsible withdrawal, and said that AMISOM would work with the Somali National Army in carrying out robust operations against Al-Shabaab, although such operations would be subject to the availability of requisite force enablers and multipliers. He said that the AU and AMISOM shared the federal governments assessment that the Somali National Army was not currently in a position to take over from AMISOM forces. The mission was carrying the burden of security and would continue to mentor the Somali military and police, as requested by the Council, until Somalia is ready to fully assume its security responsibilities. He emphasised the need for predictable and sustainable funding for AMISOM and the Somali security forces, stressing that the mission expected generous contributions following the appointment of two AMISOM financing envoys, whose roles would be crucial in the coming months.

The day after the briefing, Council members issued a press statement welcoming Somalias political commitment to security sector, economic and political reforms, praising the progress made to date, and emphasising that all parties should make 2018 a year of implementation. The members of the Council also reaffirmed the importance of accelerating implementation of the national security architecture and focusing on a gradual transfer of lead security responsibility from AMISOM to the Somali government. They also noted the importance of UN and AU efforts to explore options available in order to establish future funding arrangements for AMISOM.

The Council also issued a press statement on 25 February that condemned in the strongest terms the two terrorist attacks of 23 February in Mogadishu that killed and injured innocent Somalis.

On 19 February, the Somali government announced that it had appointed new police and intelligence chiefs nearly four months after their predecessors were fired in the aftermath of the 14 October terror attack. Former Deputy Health Minister Hussein Osman Hussein was named head of Somalias intelligence service, and deputy head of police Bashir Abdi Mohamed was promoted to police chief.

Human Rights-Related Developments The Human Rights Council will hold an enhanced interactive dialogue on Eritrea and receive an oral update on the situation in the country during its 37th session in March.

Key Issues and Options

Ensuring that UNSOM is properly equipped to support the Somali government in the three priority areasstate-building, security strategy, and socio-economic reformis the key issue. This includes UNSOMs support for the government in facilitating key political processessuch as the constitutional review; preparations for one-person, one-vote elections; and establishing a functional federal stateas well as advising and assisting the government on security matters and promoting economic development. The most likely option for the Council will be to extend UNSOMs mandate for an additional year, taking the opportunity to make modifications to the mandate to reflect the peacebuilding and state-building gains made in the last year.

Concerning AMISOM, a key issue is ensuring that the mission is equipped to adequately strengthen the Somali forces so they can progressively take the lead in providing security, as a premature handover of security responsibilities would risk undermining Somalias security and political gains. Closely related is the need to secure predictable and sustainable funding for AMISOM and Somali security institutions.

On sanctions, the key issue for Council members is assessing how the Somalia sanctions regime can more effectively keep weapons out of the hands of Al-Shabaab and other militants in Somalia, including by taking into account ways to thwart the groups increasing use of improvised explosive devices and its ability to continue to profit from charcoal sales, despite the charcoal ban established by the Council.

A contentious issue in the Council has been how to approach the sanctions on Eritrea in light of the fact that for the fourth year in a row, last years report of the Somalia and Eritrea Monitoring Group found no conclusive evidence that Eritrea was providing support to Al-Shabaab. This finding is complicated by the fact that the Eritrean government, which has not allowed the monitoring group to visit the country since 2011, continues to block the group from visiting. Nevertheless, the Council could revisit attempts that began last year to review the sanctions measures on Eritrea and pursue an outcome in that regard, while continuing to seek the cooperation of the Eritrean government.

Council Dynamics

On Somalia generally, Council members are united in supporting state-building processes and in their support for UNSOM, as demonstrated by unified messages conveyed during the Councils visit to Somalia in May 2016 and the uncontentious adoption of several recent Council outcomes on Somalia.

Concerning AMISOM, some Council members have expressed more caution about the drawdown of troops than others.

The Council is also largely united on issues pertaining to sanctions on Somalia. On Eritrea, however, members are divided between those who believe the Council should reconsider sanctions measures against Eritrea and those who stress that Eritreas other activities in the region also warrant sanctions. All Council members would like to see Eritrea increase its engagement with the UN.

The UK is the penholder on Somalia, and Kazakhstan is the chair of the 751/1907 Somalia and Eritrea Sanctions Committee for 2017.

UN DOCUMENTS ON SOMALIA AND ERITREAAFRICA

South Sudan

Expected Council Action

In March, the Council will renew the mandate of the UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) and the authorisation for the Regional Protection Force (RPF), before their 15 March expiration.

Key Recent Developments

The human cost of the conflict in South Sudan has reached epic proportions UNHCR head Filippo Grandi said on 1 February, following his visit to South Sudanese refugee camps in Uganda and Kenya. The number of refugees is now projected to exceed 3 million by the end of this year, making South Sudan Africas largest refugee crisis since the Rwanda genocide. UNHCR has launched a funding appeal for $1.5 billion to support South Sudanese refugees and $1.7 billion for those in need in the country. Approximately 1.9 million people are displaced inside South Sudan and more than 2 million refugees are in neighbouring countries. Over 5.1 million people (nearly half the population) are severely food insecure.

On 14 December 2017, UNMISSs current mandate was rolled over until 15 March, to allow for the completion of the independent review of UNMISS initiated by the Secretary-General in October 2017, one of the eight major peacekeeping operations to be reviewed by June. On 20 February, Council members received the Secretary-Generals special report presenting a summary of the review teams findings as well as observations and recommendations. The review teams findings included that the mission should increase protection of civilians to the maximum extent possible within existing resources, adjust the RPFs mandate as the threat of military conflict in Juba has considerably diminished, and reinforce the protection of civic space. The Secretary-Generals observations and recommendations included that the current UNMISS mandate remains valid and should be extended for another year, with some modifications. While the current language on the missions protection of civilians mandate was deemed valid, the Secretary-General has directed UNMISS and DPKO to review the current model for providing security to protection of civilians sites and explore whether a more efficient model requiring fewer troops could be contemplated, with an overall aim to free up more troops for outward projection of the missions military footprint. The Secretary-Generals recommendations on the mandate included the addition of capacity-building and training of security and government institutions, and strengthening outreach and advocacy to raise the visibility of the human rights situation. The Security Council should continue supporting the peace process, including by holding the parties accountable.

The second phase of the South Sudan High-Level Revitalization Forum (HLRF), convened by the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), took place from 5 to 16 February in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The stated areas of focus at the outset of the second phase were on a permanent ceasefire; the full implementation of the Agreement on the Resolution of the Conflict in South Sudan (ARCSS) signed in August 2015; and a revised and realistic elections timeline. According to a 16 February joint statement by the parties attending the second phase, broad consensus was reached on key principles for guiding deliberations and on certain provisions and proposed adjustments to the ARCSS, on which deliberations are set to continue when the forum reconvenes in March. In the joint statement, the parties also recommitted to the 21 December 2017 Cessation of Hostilities Agreement (CoHA), concluded at the first phase of the HLRF, which has been violated on several occasions. The members of the Troika (Norway, the UK and the US) said in a statement on 16 February that useful dialogue had taken place but that there was much more for the parties to do, calling on them to reconvene as soon as possible without preconditions. The statement also emphasised that elections in 2018 are not viable given the continuing conflict, lack of security, displacement of one-third of the population, and severe food insecurity affecting half the population.

On 2 February, the EU imposed sanctions on three current and former South Sudanese officials implicated in human rights violations and obstructing the peace process. The sanctions come five months after the US took similar action against the same three individuals. Also on 2 February, the US Department of State announced that it was implementing restrictions on the export of defence articles and services to South Sudan, and that the US was seeking support for a Security Council arms embargo.

The AU Peace and Security Council adopted a communique on South Sudan on 8 February, which among other things urged the AU Commission, in consultation with IGAD, to develop and submit possible punitive measures that could be applied against all those who continue to obstruct efforts towards the restoration of peace and security in South Sudan. It also called on UNMISS, the South Sudanese government, and the troop-contributing countries to ensure that the deployment of the RPF was completed in the next three months.

On 27 February, the Council received a briefing on South Sudan from Assistant Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations Bintou Keita and IGAD Special Envoy for South Sudan Ismail Wais (the meeting had not yet taken place at press time).

Human Rights-Related Developments

UNMISS and OHCHR released a joint report on 22 February, on the right to freedom of opinion and expression, documenting 60 verified incidents, including killing, arbitrary arrest and detention; closure, suspension or censorship of newspapers; and blocking of websites from July 2016 to December 2017. The Human Rights Council will hold an interactive dialogue with the Commission of Inquiry on Human Rights in South Sudan and consider its most recent report (A/HRC/37/71) during its 37th session in March. The report documents human rights violations against civilians, including massacres; sexual violence; and the destruction of homes, hospitals and schools. The Commission also identified more than forty senior military officials who may bear individual responsibility for war crimes and crimes against humanity in the country, whose names have been communicated on a strictly confidential basis to the High Commissioner for Human Rights.

Key Issues and Options

An immediate issue for the Council to consider is what changes are necessary to the mandate of UNMISS. The most likely option is for the Council to renew the mandate for one year, maintaining core elements such as the protection of civilians, monitoring and verification of human rights violations, and facilitation of humanitarian access.

In doing so, the Council might consider including language on some of the following findings and recommendations of the special report on UNMISSs review:

 increasing the effectiveness of protection efforts beyond protection of civilians sites;

 encouraging current efforts to make the mission more robust, nimble and proactive;

 reviewing the RPFs mandate to adapt to the current political and security environment;

 including capacity-building and training of security and government institutions on international humanitarian law, sexual and gender-based violence, and other serious human rights violations; and

 urging the mission to increase systematic and detailed documentation of human rights violations through accurate, strategic and timely monitoring and reporting.

Additional language might also be considered in relation to:

 increasing the flexibility of the missions political strategy and responsibilities to support the ongoing and evolving peace process and regional efforts;

 encouraging support of local-level mediation and reconciliation efforts, where appropriate;

 emphasising the strategic importance of UNMISSs presence at Juba airport and at the missions adjacent Tomping base; and

 appropriate measures (i.e. additional targeted sanctions and an arms embargo) if the government continues to obstruct the mission.

Another key issue for the Council is how to support IGADs efforts to revitalise the political process in South Sudan and what consequences it should impose on those who undermine the process. In an effort to reduce the level of violence and exert leverage on the parties, Council members could decide to revisit the proposals for an arms embargo and targeted sanctions. In the context of sanctions, an option would be to involve the chair of the 2206 South Sudan Sanctions Committee as a co-penholder.

Council Dynamics

Council members share deep concern about the crisis in South Sudan, as set out in the presidential statement adopted on 14 December 2017. Given the ongoing instability in South Sudan, Council members believe that the protection of civilians, the facilitation of humanitarian access, and human rights monitoring should remain core elements of the UNMISS mandate. Members are concerned about the challenging and unpredictable environment UNMISS operates in, the slow deployment of the RPF (currently at less than a quarter of the authorised personnel), and the violations of the Status of Forces Agreement that UNMISS continues to encounter.

Council members are also closely monitoring the political process and are unified in supporting IGADs efforts to revitalise the peace process, but differences still exist over potential consequences in line with the long-standing divide in the Council over whether to impose an arms embargo and further targeted sanctions. The recent presidential statement refers to the need for cost and consequences for those who undermine the HLRF process. Potential Council action will likely be determined by assessments of the extent of violations of the CoHA and the level of commitment and progress made by the parties at the third round of the HLRF in March.

The US is the penholder on South Sudan. Poland chairs the 2206 South Sudan Sanctions Committee.

UN Documents on South SudanStatus Update

Mali

On 5 February, the 2374 Mali Sanctions Committee held its first meeting at which four members of the Panel of Experts were introduced. Although the committee was established in September 2017, it took Council members four months to negotiate its guidelines.

Working Methods

On 6 February, the Council held its first open debate on working methods since mid-2016. Kuwait, which assumed the chairmanship of the Councils Informal Working Group on Documentation and Other Procedural Questions on 1 January, stated in the concept note prepared for the debate, that by organising the open debate it wanted to afford all Member States the opportunity to provide practical proposals that contribute to enhancing the efficiency of the working methods  thus enabling the Council to better fulfil its obligations in maintaining international peace and security (S/2018/66). Security Council Reports Executive Director Ian Martin briefed the Council. In addition to all Council members, representatives of 42 member states took the floor (S/PV.8175).

Kosovo

On 7 February, Zahir Tanin, Special Representative of the Secretary-General and head of UNMIK briefed the Council (S/PV.8176) on the latest report on UNMIK (S/2018/76). Tanin expressed concerns about the attempts of the Kosovo parliament to repeal the law on the special court that is supposed to investigate the crimes committed by the Kosovo Liberation Army during the 1990 war in Kosovo. He also called on all parties to work together to ensure accountability for the assassination of Kosovo-Serb politician Oliver Ivanovic. Minister for Foreign Affairs of Serbia Ivica Dacic and Vlora Citaku, Kosovos ambassador to the US, also spoke.

Counter-Terrorism

On 8 February, Under-Secretary-General Vladimir Voronkov, the head of the UN Office of Counter-Terrorism, briefed the Security Council on the Secretary-Generals strategic-level report on the threat emanating from the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL or Daesh) (S/2018/80), followed by consultations (S/PV.8178). The director of the Regional Anti-Terrorist Structure of Shanghai Cooperation Organization, Yevgeniy Sergeyevich Sysoyev, briefed the 1267/1989/2253 ISIL (Daesh) & Al-Qaida Sanctions Committee on 12 February. The Chair of the CTC also participated. On 13 February, the Chair of the 1373 Counter-Terrorism Committee (CTC), Gustavo Meza-Cuadra (Peru), briefed the Council on the implementation of resolution 2341 concerning critical infrastructure (S/PV.8180). On 22 February, Igor Sirotkin, the Deputy Director of the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation, head of the National Anti-Terrorism Committee Central Office, and Deputy Chairman briefed the CTC, the 1267/1989/2253 Committee, and the Afghanistan Sanctions Committee in a joint meeting. The CTC held a meeting afterwards, where the Secretary-General of the World Customs Organization Kunio Mikuriya and a representatives of the Counter-Terrorism Executive Directorate briefed the committee.

Iraq

On 13 February, the Council formally approved the terms of reference for the investigative team to support Iraqs domestic efforts to hold ISIL accountable as mandated by resolution 2379. On 20 February, Special Representative of the Secretary-General and head of UNAMI Jan Kubis briefed the Council (S/PV.8184) on the latest report on UNAMI (S/2018/42) and on recent developments. Kubiss briefing focused on the Iraqi donor conference hosted by Kuwait, preparations for parliamentary elections, and relations between Baghdad and Erbil among other topics.

Myanmar

On 13 February, the Council was briefed by High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi (via video teleconference) and Assistant Secretary-General for Political Affairs Miroslav Jenca (S/PV.8179). This was followed by consultations where, in addition to Grandi and Jenca, representatives from the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and OCHA were present to answer questions. The meeting was held at the request of eight members of the Council: Equatorial Guinea, France, Kazakhstan, Netherlands, Poland, Sweden, the UK and the US. Grandi warned that a major new emergency was looming as the monsoon season could bring with it flooding or landslides that could affect areas where some of the refugees were living in Bangladesh. He also said that the lack of humanitarian access was a major concern. Jenca expressed concern over whether the humanitarian needs of the refugees were being met and stressed that humanitarian access should be immediately granted. Jenca also covered developments in Kachin and northern Shan States and how they affected ongoing peace negotiations. A number of Council members highlighted the need for humanitarian access and stressed the need for the safe return of refugees. In addition, there were calls for the implementation of the recommendations of the Rakhine Advisory Committee.

Guinea-Bissau

On 14 February, Special Representative and head of UNIOGBIS Modibo Toure briefed the Council via video teleconference from Bissau (S/PV.8182). His briefing included updating Council members on the decision of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) to impose sanctions on 19 individuals for obstructing implementation of the Conakry Agreement. Ambassador Mauro Vieira (Brazil), chair of the Guinea-Bissau configuration of the Peacebuilding Commission also briefed. Consultations were canceled and all 15 members made public remarks. On 21 February, Council members issued a press statement, stating their support of ECOWASs efforts to resolve the ongoing political and institutional crisis in Guinea-Bissau and taking note of its 4 February 2018 decision to impose sanctions (SC/13218). On 28 February, the Council adopted resolution 2404, extending the mandate of UNIOGBIS for an additional year.

Israel/Palestine

On 14 February, Council members received a briefing via video teleconference under any other business from Special Coordinator Nickolay Mladenov on the situation in Gaza, requested by Bolivia and Kuwait. On 20 February, the Security Council held its monthly meeting under the agenda item, the situation in the Middle East, including the Palestinian question (S/PV.8183). Mladenov briefed the Council, following opening remarks from UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas also addressed the Council. On 22 February, Kuwait, Bolivia, France and Sweden hosted an Arria-formula meeting entitled, Prospects for the two-State solution for peace. A statement was delivered on behalf of former US President Jimmy Carter by Ambassador Richard Murphy, followed by briefings by former UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process Robert Serry, former Commissioner-General of the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees Karen AbuZayd, and Secretary General of the Norwegian Refugee Council Jan Egeland.

UN Charter

On 21 February, there was a ministerial-level briefing on the purposes and principles of the UN Charter in the maintenance of international peace and security (S/PV.8185). Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and former Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon briefed, and Kuwaiti Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Sabah Al-Khalid Al-Sabah presided.

Central African Republic

On 22 February, the Council was briefed on CAR by Special Representative to the CAR and head of MINUSCA Parfait Onanga-Anyanga; the chair of the 2127 CAR Sanctions Committee, Ambassador Bernard Tanoh-Boutchoue (Cote dIvoire); the chair of the Peacebuilding Commission CAR configuration Ambassador Omar Hilale (Morocco); the Special Representative of the AU to the CAR, Bedializoun Moussa Nebie (via video teleconference); and the Director General of the EU Military Staff, Lieutenant General Esa Pulkkinen (S/PV.8187). Assistant Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations Bintou Keita participated in the consultations that followed the briefing. On 27 February, Council members released a press statement, deploring attacks against civilians and incitement to ethnic and religious hatred and violence. They also reaffirmed their support to the African Initiative for Peace and Reconciliation in the CAR as the main framework for a political solution (SC/13226). The 2127 CAR Sanctions Committee amended identifying information regarding an individual on its sanctions list on 16 February (SC/13212). The committee was briefed by the Panel of Experts assisting it in informal consultations on 23 February.

Yemen

On 26 February, the Council adopted resolution 2402, extending the Yemen sanctions regime. At the adoption, members first voted on a draft resolution prepared by the UK, which Russia vetoed, objecting to references to the Yemen Panel of Experts findings that Iran was in non-compliance with the arms embargo. Eleven members voted in favour, China and Kazakhstan abstained with Bolivia also voting against (S/2018/156). Council members then unanimously approved a draft resolution Russia had presented that was based on last years resolution 2342, with technical amendments to extend the sanctions measures for a further year. The next day, 27 February, UN Special Envoy for Yemen Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed briefed the Council (S/PV.8191). This was Ould Cheikh Ahmeds final briefing as the Secretary-Generals Special Envoy for Yemen. The Director of Operations for OCHA John Ging also briefed, as did Ambassador Gustavo Meza-Cuadra (Peru), as the chair of the 2140 Yemen Sanctions Committee. Consultations followed the public session.

Burundi

On 26 February, the Secretary-Generals Special Envoy, Michel Kafando, briefed the Council (S/PV.8189) on the Secretary-Generals latest report (S/2018/89). The chair of the Peacebuilding Commission Burundi Configuration, Ambassador Jurg Lauber (Switzerland) also briefed the Council. After the briefing, the Council held consultations.AFRICA

Sudan (Darfur)

Expected Council Action

In March, the Security Council will be briefed on the 60-day report of the Secretary-General on the AU/UN Hybrid Operation in Darfur (UNAMID). Ambassador Joanna Wronecka (Poland), chair of the 1591 Sudan Sanctions Committee, is expected to provide the quarterly briefing to Council members on the Committees work. The mandate of UNAMID expires on 30 June 2018.

Key Recent Developments

Although major armed clashes between the government of Sudan and Darfur armed groups were last reported in July 2017, no significant progress has been made on the political process, including implementation of the Doha Document for Peace adopted in 2011 and agreement on a permanent ceasefire. Nor has improvement in the overall security situation translated into a commensurate reduction in the level of human rights violations and abuses, such as sexual and gender-based violence and serious violations against children, which continue to be perpetrated with impunity. With the total population of Darfur estimated at around 10 million, there are still approximately 2.7 million internally displaced persons (IDPs), including 2.1 million in need of assistance, across Darfur. Inter-communal conflicts remain a source of violence, although at lower levels than in previous years. The governments mandatory weapons collection programme, launched in October 2017, has strengthened the control of the Sudanese Armed Forces/Rapid Support Forces (RSF) over the security situation. While there have been no major recent incidents, the disarmament campaign has raised tensions in some contexts, particularly at the Kalma IDP camp in South Darfur, considered a stronghold of the Sudan Liberation Army/Abdul Wahid rebel group.

In accordance with the timeline set out in resolution 2363, UNAMID concluded phase one of its reconfiguration at the end of 2017 and commenced phase two on 31 January. Scheduled to end on 30 June, phase two will include further reductions of UNAMIDs authorised troop and police ceilings from 11,395 to 8,735 military personnel and from 2,888 to 2,500 police personnel. The assessment report of the Secretary-General and the Chairperson of the AU Commission, requested in resolution 2363 on phase one of the reconfiguration, found that while it is still early to reach conclusions on the full impact of the reduction and reconfiguration in areas where the 11 UNAMID team sites closed, as required under phase one, no adverse effects have been reported so far. However, the report said that the closure of team sites has created a gap in early-warning mechanisms, and human rights teams continue to have only limited access to verify human rights violations. The report concluded that because of the security situation in Kalma camp, some adjustments will be made to enable continued military coverage for Kalma camp until the end of phase two.

On 31 January, the Council adopted its first presidential statement on Darfur since April 2012. The statement dealt with the security and political conditions in Darfur, the situation of IDPs, and the governments weapons collection campaign. It requested UNAMID and the UN Country Team to continue to monitor closely the impact of the reconfiguration on the situation on the ground. It also specified that the handover of Kalma camp to UNAMID Formed Police Units would be conducted by the end of phase two. It welcomed the signing at the end of January of a memorandum of understanding on the opening of a temporary operating base in Golo, while expressing regret over the governments delayed consent as the base was required to become operational during phase one. The statement requested a written report of the review of UNAMIDs mandate by 1 June. (For more details see our Whats In Blue story from 30 January.)

The Council was last briefed on Darfur on 10 January by Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations Jean-Pierre Lacroix, who presented the findings of the assessment report on phase one of the reconfiguration and recommended the review of UNAMIDs mandate ahead of its 30 June expiration, as called for in the assessment report.

Sanctions-Related Developments

On 2 February, the 1591 Sudan Sanctions Committee met with representatives from Sudan, Central African Republic, Chad, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Libya, South Sudan and Uganda to discuss the implementation of sanctions measures. On 8 February, the Council adopted a resolution extending the current mandate of the Panel of Experts assisting the 1591 Sudan Sanctions Committee until 12 March 2019. It expressed the intention to regularly review the measures on Darfur in light of the evolving situation on the ground, and requested the Panel of Experts to provide an interim report by 12 August and a final report by 12 January 2019.

Key Issues and Options

A key issue that Council members will want to follow closely is the effect of further troop reductions on the security and human rights situations. An option in this context would be to invite the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights to provide an update on the human rights situation.

Another key issue is to support efforts to break the ongoing impasse in the negotiations between the government and Darfuri rebel movements, leading to a durable cessation of hostilities and a final settlement. One option is to invite Thabo Mbeki, chair of the AU High-Level Implementation Panel, to address the Council on his efforts as well as Special Envoy for the Sudan and South Sudan Nicholas Haysom. Another option moving forward could be for the Council to consider seeking an African member to share the pen as co-penholder on Darfur with the current penholder, the UK, to enhance African involvement on this issue in the Council.

The Council may also need to tackle how to promote intercommunal reconciliation, given the high levels of intercommunal fighting in Darfur in recent years. An option for the Council would be to request the Joint Special Representative for Darfur and head of UNAMID, Jeremiah Mamabolo, to brief on the issue.

Council Dynamics

Improvements in the overall situation in Darfur, combined with the completion of phase one of the reconfiguration without major incidents to date and the governments cooperation during the process, have created an opportunity for a degree of unity amongst Council members, evidenced by the adoption of the first presidential statement on Darfur in almost six years on 31 January. However, during the course of negotiations of the presidential statement, one of the key issues was determining the appropriate tone to take with regard to the actions of the government of Sudan and the evolving situation in Darfur. While some members advocated more guarded recognition of progress, other members, including Russia and Ethiopia, generally sought to include references to improvements in the situation in Darfur and positive steps the government of Sudan has taken to date.

At the 10 January briefing, seven Council members made statements. Bolivia, Ethiopia, Equatorial Guinea, Kazakhstan and Kuwait assessed positively the situation in Darfur and the governments actions in general. Cote dIvoire emphasised the need for progress on the political front, while Peru highlighted continued violations of human rights.

The UK is the penholder on Darfur; Poland chairs the 1591 Sudan Sanctions Committee.

UN Documents on DarfurMIDDLE EAST

Syria

Expected Council Action

In March, the Council expects to receive the monthly briefings on political and humanitarian developments in Syria, as well as an additional briefing on the implementation of resolution 2401. Council members are also expected to hold an informal interactive dialogue on the use of chemical weapons in Syria.

Key Recent Developments

The conflict in Syria enters its eighth year in March amidst a marked intensification of violence. In a 10 February statement, Secretary-General Antonio Guterres characterised the current moment as one of the most violent periods in nearly seven years of conflict. Mentioning deadly airstrikes leading to civilian casualties in Eastern Ghouta and Idlib, High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Raad Al Hussein said the same day that [t]he term de-escalation area is becoming all too reminiscent of the so-called safe areas in Bosnia, which proved anything but safe.

On 6 February, the Humanitarian Coordinator and other UN representatives in Syria had called for a cessation of hostilities of at least one month to improve the humanitarian situation. That statement had drawn attention to the dire humanitarian situation in several parts of the country. It outlined the various areas where the situation is most critical for civilians: Afrin, where military operations by Turkey and the reported blockage of exit points by other forces had trapped many civilians; Raqqa, with the scourge of unexploded ordnance and the lack of services; Idlib, which is densely populated and is being subjected to ongoing military operations by the Syrian government; Eastern Ghouta, where medical evacuations continue to be urgently needed in the midst of continuous besiegement and airstrikes by the government and its allied forces; Foua and Kafraya, which are besieged by armed groups; and the Rukban camp, which remains inaccessible to the UNs Damascus-based humanitarian team.

In response to this call, Kuwait and Sweden (the humanitarian penholders on Syria in the Council) asked for a briefing from Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Mark Lowcock under any other business on 8 February. At the briefing, Lowcock elaborated on the urgent need for an immediate cessation of hostilities of at least one month to enable the delivery of humanitarian aid and services, the evacuation of the critically sick and wounded, and the alleviation of peoples suffering. With this objective in mind, Kuwait and Sweden circulated a draft resolution on that same day.

As Council members negotiated the draft, the humanitarian situation in Syria continued to deteriorate. In a statement on 21 February, with the military offensive on Eastern Ghouta resulting in more than 1,200 civilian casualties since early February, High Commissioner Raad Al Hussein asked: [h]ow much cruelty will it take before the international community can speak with one voice to say enough dead children, enough wrecked families, enough violence, and take resolute, concerted action to bring this monstrous campaign of annihilation to an end?. On that same day, the Secretary-General reminded all parties, particularly the guarantors of the Astana agreementsIran, Russia and Turkeyof their commitments regarding de-escalation areas.

On 21 February, Kuwait and Sweden put the draft resolution into blue. Right after that, Russia requested a public meeting on Eastern Ghouta in order to allow all sides to present their vision, their understanding of the situation and come up with ways of getting out of this situation, according to its ambassador, Vassily Nebenzia.

At a 22 February briefing, Lowcock told Council members: You can still save lives in eastern Ghoutaand elsewhere in Syria. I urge you to do so. Millions of battered and beleaguered children, women and men depend on meaningful action by this Council. At the meeting, Russia, which highlighted the presence of terrorist groups in Eastern Ghouta, announced the circulation of amendments to the draft in blue for the consideration of the Council. Russias amendments were related to the role of the Council regarding the cessation of hostilities and the details of its implementation, including timing.

Intense negotiations ensued, and the Council was able to unanimously adopt resolution 2401 on Saturday, 24 February. The resolution demands that all parties cease hostilities without delay and engage immediately to ensure full and comprehensive implementation of this demand by all parties for a durable humanitarian pause of at least 30 consecutive days throughout Syria. The resolution also demands that, immediately after the start of the cessation of hostilities, all parties allow safe, unimpeded and sustained access each week to the humanitarian convoys of the UN and its implementing partners, including to hard-to-reach and besieged locations. At the same time, the UN and its implementing partners are to be allowed to undertake safe, unconditional medical evacuations, based on medical need and urgency. Military operations against the Council-designated terrorist groups, such as the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), Al Qaeda and Al-Nusra Front are not covered by the cessation of hostilities. At press time, violence had persisted in Syria, including indiscriminate attacks in Eastern Ghouta and the use of chemical weapons.

In addition to the deterioration of the humanitarian situation, several factorsincreased tensions between Israel and Syria, deadly clashes between the US-led coalition to counter ISIL and pro-government forces, Turkeys offensive against Kurdish forces in Afrin and the incursion of pro-government forces into Afrin to repel the offensivehave further intensified tensions among member states involved in Syria.

On 14 February, UN Special Envoy Staffan de Mistura briefed the Council on his efforts to bring about a constitutional committee, including to define the mandate and terms of reference, powers, rules of procedure, and selection criteria for its composition. The establishment of a constitutional committee was the main outcome of a conference of Syrians hosted in Sochi on 29-30 January by Russia, along with Iran and Turkey, which had been boycotted by key opposition groups. Earlier that day, the government of Syria questioned the legitimacy of such a committee. At the Council meeting, Russia reiterated the coherence between its initiative and the intra-Syrian talks in Geneva, announcing that it had circulated the final communique of the Sochi meeting as an official document of the Council.

Reports regarding the use of chemical weapons in Syria continue. In addition to alleged attacks in January, at least three additional ones have reportedly taken place in February (in Idlib on 4 February, in Afrin on 16 February and in Eastern Ghouta on 25 February). Briefing the Council on 5 February, High Representative for Disarmament Affairs Izumi Nakamitsu highlighted how the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) continues to believe that there are gaps, inconsistencies and discrepancies with the initial declaration of the Syrian government that have not been addressed. At press time, the OPCW fact-finding mission was expected to submit to the Council a report on allegations of the use of chemical weapons in Syria, the majority of which involve the use of toxic chemicals, such as chlorine, in areas not under the control of the government.

The polarisation among Council members on the issue of chemical weapons continues. On 23 January, Russia circulated a draft resolution to establish a new investigation mechanism to replace the OPCW-United Nations Joint Investigative Mechanism (JIM). By press time, Council members had met twice on the draft, but Russia had not addressed in a new draft any of the issues raised by other Council members.

Human Rights-Related Developments

In a 6 February statement, the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Syria expressed deep concern over the further escalation of violence in Idlib governorate and in Eastern Ghouta. Since the beginning of the year, the increase in violence in Idlib has resulted in another upsurge of internal displacement with over a quarter of a million civilians fleeing the fighting, according to reports received by the Commission. The Commission has also received multiple reports, which it is now investigating, that bombs allegedly containing weaponised chlorine have been used in the town of Saraqeb in Idlib and in Douma in Eastern Ghouta, the statement added. In a 10 February statement, High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Raad Al Hussein called for urgent international action after a week of soaring violence and bloodshed, mostly caused by airstrikes, in the opposition-held Eastern Ghouta and Idlib regions. According to the statement, the UN Human Rights Office received reports indicating that at least 277 civilians were killed between 4 and 9 February230 of them in airstrikes by the Syrian Government and its allieswith a further 812 civilians injured, bringing the total number of civilian casualties during the first week of February to around 1,089. The no-holds-barred nature of this assault is evidenced by reports that at least nine medical facilities, six of them in Idlib and three in Eastern Ghouta, were hit by airstrikes, the High Commissioner said. Even by Syrias atrocious standards, these are exceptionally deplorable developmentsand a cruel irony given that both have been declared de-escalation areas. The Human Rights Council (HRC) will hold an interactive dialogue to discuss the report of the Commission of Inquiry on Syria (A/HRC/37/72) during its 37th session in March. There will also be a high-level panel discussion about violations of the human rights of children in Syria, as requested in HRC resolution 36/20.

Key Issues and Options

During the seven years of the war, P5 divisions have limited the options at the disposal of Council members. In order to mark this anniversary, Council members could hold an informal, unscripted and forward-looking meeting at ambassador-level to discuss the concrete steps that the Council could take unanimously to alleviate suffering on the ground, build trust among the parties, and reinvigorate the political process.

Most of the Councils attention to Syria has been spent hearing the conflicting narratives put forward by different member states rather than engaging in active diplomacy able to make a difference on the ground. In this context, the efforts of the humanitarian penholders to respond to Lowcocks call and demand a cessation of hostilities shows the potential role of elected members in the Council. In order to amplify the messages and receive specific suggestions from those affected by the recent wave of violence, Council members could organise a formal or informal meeting to hear these voices.

Following the circulation of the Russian draft to establish a new mechanism to investigate the use of chemical weapons, Council members could negotiate in a genuine effort to achieve consensus. If reaching an agreement proves impossible, Council members could request options from the Secretary-General to devise such a mechanism, taking into account the positions expressed by Council members in the failed negotiations to renew the JIM.

Council and Wider Dynamics

Council dynamics on Syria are characterised by increased polarisation, including with regard to humanitarian matters. The 10 February statement by the Humanitarian Coordinator in Syria and other UN officials highlighted how [t]he humanitarian response has become a hostage to fighting and competing politics in Syria and characterised this as a shame for all.

In addition to the difficulties in agreeing to resolution 2401, this dynamic was also made evident in the negotiation of a presidential statement circulated by Kuwait and Sweden in January. The draft, which responded to a request by Lowcock after his first visit to Syria, could not be adopted, as the differences among members in two rounds of negotiations could not be overcome. Russia challenged the prioritisation of five areas identified by Lowcock as needing progress and questioned the need for such a statement by the Council. The penholders, which had minimised references to particular locations in Syria to bypass Council divisions, proposed not to specifically outline in the statement the five areas mentioned by Lowcock, nonetheless urging progress on them. The P3 argued that the language used in the statement was not strong enough, and that the efforts to make it palatable to Russia and others had diluted its substance.

It remains to be seen whether Council members will be able to preserve space for compromise on the Syria humanitarian track in the future.

Kuwait and Sweden are the penholders on humanitarian issues in Syria.

UN DOCUMENTS ON SYRIAMIDDLE EAST

UNDOF (Golan Heights)

Expected Council Action

In March, the Department of Peacekeeping Operations will brief Council members in consultations on the UN Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF). No outcome is expected.

UNDOF was established in 1974 to monitor the ceasefire between Israel and Syria. Its mandate, which is renewed bi-annually, expires on 30 June.

Key Recent Developments

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made a rare visit to the Golan Heights on 6 February. Netanyahu was accompanied to a hilltop observation point, some three kilometres from the 1974 ceasefire line, by his security cabinet. According to a statement by the prime ministers office, Israels armed forces chief and the military commander of the northern region briefed the group on the security situation in the area. In broadcast remarks made during the visit, Netanyahu asserted that Israel is prepared for any scenario and I wouldnt suggest to anyone that they test us.

On 23 January, the Israeli Public Broadcasting Corporation reported that the Palestinian militant Islamist group Hamas was seeking to set up a military force in the Syrian Golan Heights to fire rockets at Israel. The broadcaster quoted Israeli security sources as saying that Iran had instructed Hamas to set up such a force in order to strike Israel from the north.

The 6 December 2017 report of the Secretary-General, covering the period from 10 September to 24 November, noted that during the reporting period the ceasefire between Israel and Syria was maintained, albeit in a volatile environment attributable to the ongoing conflict in Syria and notwithstanding a number of violations of the Disengagement of Forces Agreement of 1974.

There were three reports of spillover fire from the Bravo (Syrian) side across the ceasefire line into the Alpha (Israeli) side during the reporting period, on 18, 19 and 21 October. While open sources reported that the IDF responded to the incidents with retaliatory fire across the ceasefire line, UNDOF was unable to confirm the incidents.

According to the report, Syrian armed forces and non-state armed opposition groups engaged in exchanges of heavy weapons fire in the area of separation and the area of limitation on the Bravo side, while various armed groups, including Jabhat Fath al-Sham, which is listed as a terrorist group by the Security Council, and Jaysh Khalid Ibn al-Walid, which pledged allegiance to the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant, continued to exchange fire in the UNDOF area of operation.

Fighting intensified on 3 November in the northern part of the area of separation and the area of limitation on the Bravo side when armed groups launched an attack involving heavy machine gun, small arms, and indirect fire from the tri-village area of Jubbata al-Khashab, Turunjah and Ufaniyah in the area of separation against pro-government forces in the vicinity of Hadar, largely inhabited by members of the Druze community. Preceding the attack, open sources reported that a vehicle-borne improvised explosive device targeted a pro-Syrian forces checkpoint in Hadar, killing nine people.

On the same day, approximately 200 civilians from Majdal Shams, which is inhabited by members of the Druze community on the Alpha side, gathered at the Israeli technical fence gate leading to UN observation post 73, reportedly in support of the Druze community in Hadar. The civilians dismantled the Israeli technical fence gate and crossed the ceasefire line. Approximately 150 Israel Defense Forces (IDF) personnel, equipped with riot control equipment, were deployed in the area.

During the reporting period, UNDOF made progress towards the limited return to Bravo-side operations, in line with the phased UNDOF plan. Following the completion of phase one of the plan, with the re-establishment of the UNDOF presence at Camp Faouar on 14 November 2016, UNDOF continued to develop the infrastructure at Camp Faouar and steadily improve the living conditions at the camp. Phase two will involve, over a period of six to eight months, the resumption of limited patrolling of the northern part of the area of separation by the Nepalese mechanised infantry company from Camp Faouar.

Human Rights-Related Developments The Human Rights Council will consider the Secretary-Generals report on human rights in the occupied Syrian Golan (A/HRC/37/40) and the report of the High Commissioner for Human Rights on Israeli settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and in the occupied Syrian Golan (A/HRC/37/43), during its 37th session in March.

Key Issues and Options

Considering the security situation in the Golan, the full return of UNDOF to the Syrian side seems unlikely in the foreseeable future. This is a significant issue in as much as it constrains the missions ability to carry out its monitoring tasks.

An ongoing issue for the Council is the violation of the ceasefire on numerous occasions, including the presence of Syrian heavy weapons in the area of separation monitored by UNDOF and Syrian and Israeli airstrikes. No military forces other than those of UNDOF are allowed in the area of separation.

The Council is, however, rather limited in its options for UNDOF. It was established as a Syria-based mission, and how it operates, including the use of enhanced equipment or new technologies, is subject to the disengagement agreement. Any changes require agreement by Israel and Syria, which is unlikely, as is any outcome in March.

Council and Wider Dynamics

There is general agreement within the Council that UNDOF contributes to stability in the region given the absence of a peace agreement between Israel and Syria. The missions observation role has been limited since its September 2014 relocation to the Alpha side of the ceasefire line. However, the missions liaison function continues to be considered important in avoiding further negative developments in the region.

Israel and Syria value UNDOFs presence and want to see the mission return to the Bravo side. However, the security situation on the Syrian side is still not conducive to full redeployment of UNDOF troops. Council members continue to support the eventual complete return of UNDOF to the Bravo side but are mindful that this would require a favourable security environment, which is crucial for maintaining the confidence of troop-contributing countries.

Since June 2012, Russia and the US have been the co-penholders on resolutions renewing UNDOF.

UN DOCUMENTS ON THE GOLAN HEIGHTSAFRICA

Western Sahara

Expected Council Action

In March, Council members are expected to meet in consultations to receive a briefing from the Secretary-Generals Personal Envoy on Western Sahara, Horst Kohler, who was appointed on 16 August 2017, and Special Representative Colin Stewart, appointed to head the UN Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO) on 1 December 2017.

The briefing, originally slated for February, is in response to resolution 2351, adopted on 28 April 2017. In renewing the mandate of MINURSO for an additional year, the resolution requested the Secretary-General to update the Security Council within six months of the appointment of the new personal envoy. The resolution called for information about the ways in which the envoy, working with the parties, was progressing towards a mutually acceptable political solution that would provide for the self-determination of the people of Western Sahara; how MINURSOs performance measures were being developed and implemented; and how structures and staffing could be reorganised to achieve mission goals efficiently.

MINURSOs mandate expires on 30 April.

Key Recent Developments

Kohler has been holding consultations with various actors in relation to Western Sahara. He met representatives of the Polisario Front in Berlin in late January. Reports indicate that he had extended an invitation to Morocco to meet with him separately in Berlin as well. However, this meeting did not materialise. He also met with representatives of neighbouring countries Algeria and Mauritania in Berlin, and with Chairperson of the AU Commission Moussa Faki Mahamat in Addis Ababa on 12 January.

Early in the year, tensions heightened on the ground in the area of Al-Guerguerat, in the buffer strip below the Berm near the Mauritanian border. On 5 January, the Department of Peacekeeping Operations (DPKO) sent a letter to the Council with an update on developments in the context of the Africa Eco Race, during which vehicles in an auto rally were scheduled to cross through the buffer strip in the Al-Guerguerat area on 8 January on their way to Mauritania.

The note said that on 29 December 2017, three apparently unarmed uniformed personnel of the Polisario Front arrived in Al-Guerguerat and informed MINURSO military observers there that the Polisario intended to stop vehicles participating in the auto rally. On 3 January, three Polisario uniformed personnel temporarily took up position in Al-Guerguerat and stopped several vehicles approaching the border before allowing them to proceed.

Also that day, Polisarios coordinator with MINURSO conveyed to the mission that the group viewed such races as a violation by Morocco of the terms of the ceasefire and that it would not accept the passage of the race through Al-Guerguerat. He also recalled Polisarios warning that, unless the provisions of resolution 2351 were implemented, the Polisario was ready to redeploy to Al-Guerguerat at any time. In particular, the Polisario insisted that the provision contained in operative paragraph 3 of the resolution, whereby the Council recognised that the recent crisis in the buffer strip in Al-Guerguerat raises fundamental questions related to the ceasefire and related agreements and encourages the Secretary-General to explore ways that such questions can be resolved, must be implemented.

In discussions with Stewart, the Moroccan coordinator on 4 January warned of serious consequences in case of interference with the auto rally and noted that the presence of uniformed Polisario elements, which he characterised as military, constituted a violation of Military Agreement No. 1 of the 1991 ceasefire.

On 5 January, eight Polisario personnel in two vehicles took up position in the buffer strip at Al-Guerguerat. They wore police uniforms but insisted that they were unarmed and had no orders to interfere with the race. The Moroccan coordinator reiterated his position of the day before, indicating that the mere presence of Polisario personnel, in whatever uniform, was a provocation, and that Morocco considered their presence unacceptable regardless of whether or not they interfered with the race. In the end, the Polisario personnel remained in place and the race went on without incident.

Council members were last briefed on Western Sahara in consultations on 22 November 2017 by Kohler and the outgoing Special Representative, Kim Bolduc, on her final day on the job.

The last Council outcome on Western Sahara was resolution 2351 of 28 April 2017, which renewed MINURSOs mandate. The resolution called on the parties to resume negotiations under the auspices of the Secretary-General without preconditions and in good faith to facilitate a just, lasting and mutually acceptable political solution. The resolution reaffirmed the need to fully respect military agreements reached with MINURSO on the ceasefire and called for full adherence to those accords, and it recognised that the crisis in the Al-Guerguerat buffer strip that began in August 2016 raised fundamental questions about the ceasefire and related agreements.

Key Issues and Options

The main issue is that the parties to the conflict remain deadlocked and the political process has stalled because the parties respective proposals for the basis of a political solution as outlined in 2007 are mutually exclusive. The Council may consider ways in which it can support the new personal envoy in his endeavours to convene a fifth round of negotiations between the parties. Council members may consider how they can encourage the parties, collectively or bilaterally, to approach such talks in good faith.

Council Dynamics

Council members are deeply divided on how they view the conflict. These divisions have rendered the Council largely unable to agree to outcomes on Western Sahara, even during successive recent crises. Following Moroccos expulsion of MINURSOs civilian component in March 2016 and the crisis in Al-Guerguearat that August, the Council remained mostly silent because of the insistence of some members, notably permanent member France, which staunchly supports the Moroccan position concerning Western Sahara.

The African members of the Council do not have a common position. As with the composition of the Council last year, it appears that Ethiopia is the only African member that recognises an independent Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR), as proclaimed by the Polisario in 1976. Neither Cote dIvoire nor Equatorial Guinea recognise SADR, and so once again there is unlikely to be a unified African position in the Council.

No other new Council member recognises SADR. However, continuing member Bolivia does, and the parliament of another member, Sweden, voted to recognise Western Sahara in 2012. The Swedish government has not implemented this.

The US is the penholder on Western Sahara, and resolutions on Western Sahara are initially discussed among the Group of Friends (France, Russia, the UK, and the US, joined by Spain, the former colonial power).

UN DOCUMENTS ON WESTERN SAHARAPress Release

February 27, 2018 Villanueva seeks protection, job security of AFP reservists Senator Joel Villanueva sought the protection and job security of Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) reservists who are called to fulfill their military service. In a co-sponsorship speech, Villanueva shared the sacrifices being faced by AFP reservists who had to take a leave from their current jobs and be away from their families to perform their call of duty. The senator said he believes that it is every citizen's dream to serve the country but it is also equally important to ensure his or her job security while being called for public service. "Hindi po dapat mawalan ng trabaho ang isang Reservist dahil sa pagtugon n'ya sa imbitasyong maglingkod sa bayan, na sa palagay ko'y ang pinakamataas at pinakamarangal na uri ng gawaing maaaring gampanan ng kahit sinong Filipino," Villanueva said. In 2017, the AFP has a total of 385,116 Reservists--almost three times the number of active force in the AFP. In fact, the AFP remains among the least capable militaries in the region in terms of warring capability but not when it comes to the number of reservists it has like engineers, IT experts, bankers, doctors, among others. Villanueva, who is an AFP reservist himself, said he believes more individuals would be enticed to join the country's Reserve Force if the government would ensure their protection and job security. Thus, Villanueva co-authored Senate Bill No. 1698 or the "Reservist Employment Rights Act" that seeks to address any discrimination in the workplace, whether public or private, based on one's association with the military. The measure was principally authored and sponsored by Senator Bam Aquino. Under the bill, reservists are entitled to their original position without loss of seniority rights or reduction of pay. Also, their military service should not be considered a break in the employment for retirement purposes. "Reservists have the right to return to the same job they were doing before they were mobilized; they have the right to receive the same salary level prior to their call to military service; and they have the right to equal treatment in the workplace," Villanueva emphasized. "I believe the benefits of this measure are definitely tangible to any employer - Reservists are highly valued because they have the confidence, resourcefulness and attitude that service in the armed forces necessitates and harnesses," the senator said.Sen. Bam supports local scientists, fights for funding of independent PH Rise research

With the government in a better fiscal position to invest in manpower and equipment, Sen. Bam Aquino committed to support Filipino scientists and other government agencies closely working in the Philippine Rise.

"We should be investing in our own capacity to do research. Huwag dapat tayong laging dependent sa mga foreign partnerships," said Sen. Bam as he presided over the investigation on the Philippine Rise as chairman of the Committee on Science and Technology.

"Pondohan natin ang mga proyektong makakabuti sa kinabukasan ng bansa. Let's make the extra effort to support our scientists and ensure that we can maximize the Philippine Rise, and protect it from any threat," said Sen. Bam

As vice chairman of the Committee on Finance, Sen. Bam said he will find ways to support Filipino scientists and other government agencies in their effort to protect and explore the Philippine Rise.

"Ngayong nakakabili na tayo ng gamit para sa modernisasyon ng ating Armed Forces, dapat na ring isabay ang pangangailangan ng ating mga scientist at iba pang ahensiya na katuwang sa pagsasaliksik at pagbibigay ng proteksiyon sa lugar," said Sen. Bam, adding that the ideal scenario has Filipino scientists at the forefront of the research and exploration in the area.

During the Senate hearing, it was discovered that China conducted hydrographic surveys in the Philippine Rise without required consent of the Philippine government.

China recently named the five features found during their unauthorized research in the undersea territory through the International Hydrographic Organization (IHO).

In response, Sen. Bam stressed that the government must explore all channels to nullify China's naming rights.

"Let's be more vigilant with the Philippine Rise. Ipaglaban naman natin ito," Sen. Bam said.Press Release

February 28, 2018 HONTIVEROS FILES UNIVERSAL HEALTHCARE MEASURE, SAYS HEALTH SHOULD BE GREAT EQUALIZER To help realize universal health care for all Filipinos, Akbayan Senator Risa Hontiveros today filed a measure that seeks to address barriers in health governance, health human resources, regulations, service delivery, and health information that would prevent Filipinos from accessing care. Senate Bill No. 1714 or "The Healthy Pinoy, Healthy 'Pinas Act of 2018" seeks to address the issue of the fragmentation of health care delivery system by providing a framework for the integration of the health system at the level of provinces and highly urbanized cities, and by defining the minimum requirements of a service delivery network. The measure also aims to strengthen community empowerment by emphasizing the role of community health workers in service provision, health education, health navigation, among others. It also details and delineates the roles and functions of different stakeholders within the health sector. Hontiveros' bill also wants to institute changes in the operations of the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PHILHEALTH) to enhance its delivery of benefits to all Filipinos. "Healthcare must be our great equalizer. Its universal fulfillment will deepen our democracy and is a step towards eradicating inequality," Hontiveros said. "In a country where the gap between the rich and the poor remains wide, the level of healthcare service between private and public must be narrowed down. The government needs to expand the country's healthcare infrastructure to cover the remotest towns and barangays. We need to make healthcare less intimidating by ensuring that all Filipinos, young and old, rich and poor, have financial risk protection," Hontiveros added. Some of the other highlights of Hontiveros' bill are: 1. Designation of one physician/ doctor (primary care provider) per family. 2. Automatic inclusion of all Filipinos in the national health insurance program or PHILHEALTH. 3. Recognition of the role of citizens' groups and community-based groups as part of the health service delivery network, particularly in reaching the poor and the marginalized. 4. Providing ethical guidelines in public health practice: declaration of conflict of interest, full disclosure of financial engagement with pharmaceuticals, and institutionalization of ethics committee in health-related professional societies. 5. Expanding the role of provincial governments in ensuring public investment on health and in service delivery at the loca level. 6. Establishment of Super Barangay Health Center through designation of primary out patient facility and primary care facility with diagnostics services and birthing facility. 7. Institutionalizing practice of no-balance billing (NBB) in public and private hospitals wherein government hospitals are required to allot 90% of their bed capacity for NBB while private hospitals are required to allot 10% of their bed capacity for NBB.Press Release

February 28, 2018 Akbayan Senator Risa Hontiveros' Co-Sponsorship Speech on the Bangsamoro Basic Law The conflict in Mindanao has been a democratic and developmental struggle that has spun decades, claimed hundreds of thousands of lives, uprooted millions, resulted in inhumane levels of poverty, lawlessness, and uncertainty. It has changed the historical landscape of the Southern part of our country: from the brave kingdom of our anti-colonial resistance to the situs of decades-long insurgencies and countless rebellions: the Jabidah Massacre, Zamboanga Siege, Jolo Bombing, Marawi Crisis, and countless more. It has written the continuing story of Mindanao filled with narratives of violence, oppression, and marginalization. This afternoon, Mr. President, my dear colleagues, we change that narrative. With the Bangsamoro Basic Law, a bill I proudly co-sponsor, we renew our commitment to democracy. The persistent strife and poverty in the region took its damaging toll to our democratization project. Providing a measure of politico-economic and socio-cultural autonomy of people belonging to the Moros, with assurance of political participation and representation of Indigenous Peoples, does not only make Bangsamoro a compliance to an unflinching mandate from our Constitution. It furthers a democratic society that does not succumb to the tyranny of the majority but one that protects the vulnerable, the disenfranchised, and the historically disempowered. The Bangsamoro Basic Law establishes the political and economic infrastructure that will facilitate fixed capital formation, increase government funding, and international development aid infusion into the region. A legitimate share in the resources and their management will translate into growth, productivity, security, and ultimately, empowerment. It will equip the regional government with the crucial resources that can address socioeconomic needs of our Bangsamoro people. It is our answer to the question that is the disproportionate utilization and distribution of wealth in this country. Bangsamoro, Mr. President, is our commitment to equitable development. Furthermore, the establishment of a Bangsamoro autonomous government will be an institutional recognition of the justness and legitimacy of the cause of the Bangsamoro people. It is the fulfillment of our promise to put in the front and center of their political future their needs, their aspirations, their dreams. Finally, Bangsamoro is our commitment to peace. A peace that is built on and strengthened by democratic ideals, empowerment, progress and justice. A peace that has long been awaited by a nation that is trying to heal from its fractured history. Maraming martyr at bayani na ang ating nailibing. Marami ang nawalan ng bahay, lupa, at ari-arian. Marami ang nawalan ng oportunidad at pag-asa. Sa pagpunta naming mga Senador sa Mindanao para sa pagdinig sa BBL, kasabay nito sana ang pagsasara ng yugtong ito ng kasaysayan ng Mindanao. Tumatak sa aking ang mga placard na "No Peace Without Women". Na panawagan ng mga kababaihan na nagpalaki na ng mga anak nila sa evacuation center. "Pass BBL Now", ng kabataang sumalubong sa amin, nagpa-selfie, nagpahayag ng suporta. Mga kwento ng mga MILF na first time nakasakay ng C130 ng AFP na hindi sa gitna ng engkwentro. Mga kwento ng pag-asa. At this point, Mr. President,my dear colleagues, I'd like to thank the men and women of Bangsamoro Transition Commission for their hard work and unwavering zeal in coming up with this revolutionary piece of legislation. Ngayon sa plenaryo, babaguhin natin ang kasaysayan ng lupang uhaw sa kapayapaan. Nawa'y maipagpatuloy natin ang momentum na ito para sa kapayapaan. Magandang Hapon. Maraming Salamat.Press Release

February 28, 2018 PDP Laban at 36: Fulfilling the promise of Change The Partido Demokratiko Pilipino - Lakas ng Bayan (PDP Laban), the country's ruling Party, celebrated its 36th anniversary at The Peninsula Manila in Makati City on Tuesday in an affair graced by some of the country's highest officials. Senate President Aquilino "Koko" Pimentel III, the Party's President, along with Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez and Energy Secretary Alfonso Cusi, the Party's Secretary General and Vice Chairman, respectively, led over 200 members of the Party in the celebration. "We are now the ruling party in the Philippines where we are building a society which provides a comfortable, fair, and safe life for all Filipinos", said Pimentel in his State of the Party Address during the event. Pimentel enumerated six promises made by the Party which are now fulfilled: all-out war against drugs and corruption, lower income tax, increased pay for military and uniformed personnel, free irrigation, free tuition, and an independent foreign policy. As part of the Party's support for Duterte's independent foreign policy, it established party-to-party relations with United Russia and the Communist Party of China (CPC), with PDP Laban celebrating the 1st Anniversary of its Cooperation Agreement with the latter at the same time as the Party's founding anniversary. Pimentel also discussed the three promises that the Party is now working to fulfill: peace in Mindanao through the Bangsamoro Basic Law, an end to endo, and Federalism. The Party President said, "Nine promises, six already fulfilled, all done within one year and a half (1) of a six-year term! What a way to start a term! We did it because of team work. This is what we can deliver because our Team is united, not by personalities, but by ideology. We are all moving in the same direction, guided by common principles." Pimentel also reminded the gathered Party members of the origins of the country's largest political party. Pimentel said, "Our Party began with a handful of members which grew to 600 in its very first assembly in 1982. PDP Laban began as a "non-traditional party" with some "unusual" fundamental principles like belief in God and belief in the dignity of the human being." The Senate leader added that despite the Party now having control of the executive and legislative branches, it remained the same "non-traditional party", as its objectives and guiding principles have remained the same. PDP Laban's ideology is based on its guiding principles of theism, humanism, enlightened nationalism, democratic socialism, consultative and participatory democracy, and Federalism. In his speech, Pimentel thanked the Party Chairman, President Rodrigo Roa Duterte, for "for the strong and visionary leadership he is providing for our country." Pimentel also called Duterte "the best recruiter to our Party." The Party's leader then thanked Alvarez for building the Party in Congress, where it now has 122 members, and the latter's role in recruiting in the grassroots. Pimentel highlighted the role of Cusi as the Party's organizer and head of discipline, assuring the quality of the Party's membership. The Party leader also thanked the cadres of the Party, who led the basic membership seminars, training, and recruitment in the grassroots. The anniversary event was attended by a delegation from the Communist Party of China, led by Vice Minister Guo Yezhou, as part of the concurrent celebration of the anniversary of the agreement between PDP Laban and the CPC.Press Release

February 28, 2018 Sponsorship Speech on SB No. 1717 or the

"Bangsamoro Basic Law"

under Committee Report No. 255

By Sen. Juan Miguel F. Zubiri "Bangsamoro Basic Law, Towards a Just and Dignified Peace" Mr. President, distinguished colleagues, I am honored to sponsor a landmark bill, with so much promise, with so much hope ..... for a lasting peace in Mindanao, and the rest of the country. This Senate Bill No. 1717, under Committee Report No. 255, jointly submitted by the Committees on Local Government, Ways and Means, and Finance, and the Subcommittee on the Bangsamoro Basic Law, is a product of 11 public hearings, 6 whole days of technical working group meetings and several thousand man-hours of labor. But before I proceed to the rest of my sponsorship, let me thank the Chairman of the Local Government Committee, the mother committee, Senator Sonny Angara, for graciously acceding to the creation of a subcommittee to hear this bill. Also to the Senate President for granting many of our requests and as the principal author of the bill. This bill, whose other co-authors, aside from this representation, are Senator Bam Aquino and Senator Risa Hontiveros, is a collective effort of the entire chamber. Nowadays, it is very rare that we see a measure with so strong bipartisan support, but fortunately and for good reasons, we have a very clear bipartisan support in this bill. And I thank all my colleagues for such support, especially those who attended our hearings, both in the Senate and our out-of-town hearings in all the provinces of the current ARMM, Senators Sonny Angara, JV Ejercito, Sherwin Gatchalian, Bam Aquino, Risa Hontiveros, Cynthia Villar and the Senate President. I was told by my staff that in recent Senate history, the out-of-town committee hearings we conducted made a record of sort, for being one of the highest in attendance by members, the one in Zamboanga City had 7 members in attendance including the Senate President. It shows the importance the chamber has accorded this bill. And the reception of the people we consulted on the bill was amazing and most have voiced their strong support for the immediate passage of the bill. We also thank the secretariat and the Senators staff for their untiring assistance, and the media for their coverage and documentation of our hearings. May we also recognize the Bangsamoro Transition Commission members and their staff and supporters who are in the plenary today to witness this historic moment. In the course of our hearing Mr. President, we also made another record, for having the highest number of Senators who simultaneously visited an MILF camp, Camp Darapanan in Maguindanao. The visit to the MILF Camp by the Senate panel cemented the mutual trust and confidence with each other. We also took a side trip in the Marawi City "ground zero" or ruins, which is still close to the public and even the former residents of the houses and buildings were not allowed to enter the site, for us to better assess the damage and personally see the horrors a war could bring to a once vibrant and thriving community. When we saw the destruction of Marawi City, we could not hold back our tears Mr. President. What once were imposing, sturdy and colorful structures are now reduced to rubbles. Such a horrific sight. And I must say, enough of these wars, Mr. President. Our Moro brethren had suffered long enough. Bangsamoro Historical Narrative The advent of Islam in southern Philippines started during the end of the 13th century and the beginning of 14th century when Arab traders arrived in Sulu and performed missionary activities. This is the phase of the coming of the Makhdumin and the first seeds of Islam were sowed by them. At that time, the inhabitants in the area were animists. The arrival of the Sumatran Islamic influences and political institutions followed at the end of the 14th century. This phase is represented in the Sulu tarsilas by the coming of Rajah Baguinda Ali who arrived in Sulu with ministers and soldiers and established a principality. This was followed by the establishment of the sultanate of Sulu in the middle of the 15th century under the Sherif Abu Bakr, an Arab who had travelled extensively in Malaysia. The establishment of the sultanate assumes that a large number of coastal inhabitants had become Moslems and responsive to such Islamic institution. Islam then spread to the Cotabato basin and subsequently spread to the Lanao area during the end of the 15th century. This is signified in the Mindanao tarsilas by the coming of Sherif Muhammed Kabungsuan. Islamic influences in Sulu and Mindanao increased through greater maritime contacts with Malacca, Java and Borneo, and the occasional visits of Moslem traders and missionaries from Arab and Indian lands. By the second half of the 16th century, Manila was already ruled by the members of the Bornean aristocracy and signified the Islamization of the area around Manila Bay. We know the name of Rajah Sulayman and when the Spaniards came to Manila in the last quarter of the 16th century started the fall of Manila as a Moslem principality. Despite attempts by the Spaniards to colonize Sulu, Maguindanao and Lanao areas during their more than 300 years of presence in the Philippines, the Spaniards were not successful to convert the Moslems in the area to Christianity and maintained their Islamic way of life and political institutions. Then came the Americans and the short-lived Japanese government in the country who were not successful as well in colonizing the Muslim Mindanao. Bangsamoro, loosely translated to English, means Moro nation or Moro land. The term came into being when the Spanish colonizers arrived in Manila in the mid-1500s and saw a strong Muslim settlements in the area. They had expelled the Moors from Spain after nearly 800 years of conflict. The Spaniards nicknamed the Philippines Muslim inhabitants the Moros, a corruption of the word Moors. The Bangsamoro people take pride for not having been colonized by these foreign powers. And I say, we too, Christians, should be proud of that. It is their sense that they were able to preserve their cultural, religious and historical identity. But despite such triumphs, biases and prejudices by the Filipino Christians toward the Bangsamoro people exists. It is in that context that the Bangsamoro people aspire to correct such historical injustice through self-determination. The Muslim Secessionist Movement This aspiration for self-determination can be regarded to have started or resurfaced during the 70s when the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF), a splinter group of the Muslim Independence Movement and formed by Nur Misuari, sought an independent Islamic state or autonomous region for the Filipino Muslim minority. From then on, the MNLF had metamorphosed into several organizations and groups, including the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) founded by Hashim Salamat, primarily seeking an independent Islamic state in Muslim Mindanao. And the rest, as they say is history. The Muslim secessionist movement is now regarded as the second oldest internal conflict in the world. The Costs of Internal Conflict Since the fighting between the Philippine government and Moro secessionist movements started in 1970s, a World Bank study (Campo and Judd, 2005) had roughly estimated the direct economic costs of the conflict from 1970 - 2001 to be at $2 to $3 billion. That is the lowest estimate for direct cost of the conflict, Mr. President. Aside from the direct economic costs are the heavy human and social toll of the conflict. The same study estimated the death toll since 1970 at 120,000 people, and unaccounted numbers of wounded and disabled. Internally displaced people at two million, of whom 1 million in 2000 alone during the "all-out-war." The ARMM Organic Law We have attempted twice through the enactment of RA 6734 or the Act Providing for an Organic Act for the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao and the subsequent amendatory law, RA 9054 or an Act to Strengthen and expand the Organic Act for the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao. Unfortunately, according to at least two administrations, "it was a failed experiment." I believe that, if we consider those two laws a failure, they failed because no real full-autonomy was given to the Muslim Mindanao, especially on the fiscal aspect. If our Muslim brothers and sisters have an annual pilgrimage to Mecca and Medina for their hajj to purify theirsouls, so too the ARMM leaders for their annual pilgrimage to Malacanang and Congress to beg for funds from the so-called imperial Manila. Funds that would otherwise accrue to them automatically that they can allocate based on the needs and development plans for their people. That and other important aspects heavily contributed on the failure of the previous autonomous government in Muslim Mindanao. The new Bangsamoro Basic Law Which brings me to the proposed measure on the floor. This new Bangsamoro Basic Law gives greatest latitude if not full autonomy to the Bangsamoro government that will be established, to assert their political and economic self-determination and pursue development programs for their people according to their peculiar historical, cultural, religious and national identities. Salient Features Here are some of the salient features of the proposed law. 1. Territory On Territory. The bill proposes to cover what remains of the traditional homeland of the Bangsamoro, which overtime has lost much of their territory due to colonization and some policies that have deprived them of their lands and marginalized them such as the earlier land registration acts that did not provide them opportunity to register their lands or settlement programs that offered their lands to settlers from Luzon and the Visayas. This is part of the historical injustice that the Bill proposes to address. The core territory includes the present territory of the ARMM, 6 municipalities in Lanao del Norte, cities of Cotabato and Isabela, 39 barangays in North Cotabato, and contiguous areas that may petition to join the Bangsamoro. Note that the 6 municipalities of Lanao del Norte and the 39 barangays in North Cotabato already voted yes in the 2001 plebiscite for inclusion in the ARMM. However, due to a technical issue in the manner by which the plebiscite question was designed and the manner of appreciation of the majority of votes, they were not included as part of the ARMM as it then required them to obtain a double majority. The Bill proposes to address this challenge by following the suggestion of Justice Adolf Azcuna during the hearing, by constituting these 6 municipalities in Lanao del Norte and 39 barangays in North Cotabato into geographic areas, so that we can give life to the provision of the 1987 Constitution on autonomy that allows municipalities and geographic areas to join the autonomous region. This too, will give life not only to the peace agreement we signed with the MILF but also to the MNLF. 2. Powers of Government Reserved powers are matters over which authority and jurisdiction are retained by the Central Government. The list of reserved powers would pertain to powers that are the attribute of a sovereign country and are important in maintaining its independence and ability to relate to other countries such as foreign policy, defense, citizenship and others. The concurrent powers are powers shared by the Central Government and the Bangsamoro Government within the Bangsamoro. The Basic Law enumerates 14 powers exercised by both the Central Government and the Bangsamoro Government. Constitutional Offices in the Bangsamoro shall continue to remain under the direct control and supervision of its National Head Office. To guard against allegations of rampant corruption in the ARMM this Basic Law is providing that aside from the regional office of the Commission on Audit in the Bangsamoro, the Bangsamoro Government shall also create a Bangsamoro Auditing Office (BAO) which shall conduct pre-audit and post-audit. On the other hand, the exclusive powers that are granted the Bangsamoro are powers essential to deliver services to its people and enable them to develop as communities such as agriculture, public administration, waste management, etc. It is a truism that these matters are best left to the Bangsamoro government which is closest to the ground. 3. Intergovermental Relations Mechanism/Bodies These bodies are provided to ensure coordination and cooperation between the Central Government and Bangsamoro Government on matters such as environment, energy, fiscal and natural resources among others. These bodies are created as mechanisms to allow a degree of synchronization while allowing a reasonable latitude of discretion for the Bangsamoro government to exercise its power in the spirit of the autonomy granted them. In a more context-specific case for the Bangsamoro and the MILF, these mechanisms will allow them to transition in their assertion of their legitimate grievances from an armed struggle to a more democratic and peaceful means. In a way the Intergovernmental Relations (IGR) mechanism is the venue for ventilating their issues and provide them a platform to continue their assertion and advocacy, but this time around, no longer by the power of the guns but by the power of the pen. 4. Bangsamoro Government The Bangsamoro Government will allow them self-governance that will put an end to their feeling of alienation which for decades have fueled their rebellion. This will be a government of their own, a Parliamentary government with the Chief minister as head of government and supported by a cabinet. The Parliamentary System of government is closer to their tradition as the Parliament mirrors their traditional leadership such as the Ruma Bichara (Council) of the Sultanate of Sulu or the Atas (Council) Bichara of the Sultanate of Maguindanao. The Parliamentary System with this innovative features of party representation, district representation, and reserved seats and sectoral representation ensures that no one is left behind. Everyone will have a voice in the Parliament. The party representation, constituting 50 percent of the Parliament will infuse new dynamics and hope in the Bangsamoro Government for the eventual triumph of genuinely principled parties. Candidates will now be voted on the basis of party platforms and programs and no longer based on popular personalities. The reserved seats and sectoral representation will ensure that marginalized sectors and other identities will have a voice in the Parliament. An innovation included in this Bill is a provision that penalizes the unprincipled transfer from one party to another which is a problem in this country. This Bill proposes that if Member of the Parliament, after having been elected under the proportional representation system, transfers to another during his incumbency, he will forfeit his seat. Section 18, Art VII. An anti-dynasty provision in the Parliament has also been included under section 15, Art VII which provided that no party representative should be related within the second civil degree of consanguinity or affinity to a district representative or another party representative in the same parliament. 5. Bangsamoro Justice System The Bangsamoro Justice System allows them to implement the civil and commercial and minor criminal aspects of the Shariah law if the parties are Muslims or where parties have voluntarily submitted to the jurisdiction of the Shariah court. Also, regular courts will continue to function and allow for the other indigenous peoples in the region to continue to practice their customary laws. The justice system allows them to practice their religions and recognize the uniqueness of their culture and identity while maintaining the control and jurisdiction of the Supreme Court over the Shariah Court system. 6. Public Order and Safety On Public Order. The Bangsamoro Police remains a part of the PNP. The Bill operationalizes Section 21, Article 10 of the Constitution that gives local authorities the ability to manage peace and order. 7. Fiscal Autonomy On Fiscal autonomy. The Bill will give meaning to the concept of true fiscal autonomy by providing them sufficient freedom to determine their priorities and how best to spend their funds with the least intervention from the central government. The block Grant will be 6 percent of the net collections both of the BIR and the Bureau of Customs. This will be automatically appropriated and regularly released to the Bangsamoro akin to the system adopted for the IRA of the LGUs. This measure addresses the gap in the ARMM Autonomy Act that treated the ARMM only as a national government agency and even less autonomous than ordinary LGUs. To further strengthen their fiscal autonomy, the Bill proposes to provide a share to the Bangsamoro in the taxes collected in the region as well as the revenue derived from exploration development and utilization of natural resources found therein. For taxes the sharing is at 75-25 in favor of the Bangsamoro and for fossil fuels the same will be divided equally. This will put a stop to their long standing grievance that we have been exploiting their resources such as Lake Lanao for power generation but that they have been deprived of the benefits that are derived from the exploitation of the resources found in their area. 8. Special Development Fund The SDF of 100Billion is designed to rehabilitate damaged infrastructure in the region as a result of decades of war. The fund will be released in 10 equal installments for a period of 10 years and will be utilized based on Development Plan crafted by them. This fund will allow them also to catch up with the rest of the country. 9. Plebiscite The plebiscite provisions in the Bill effects the Constitutional mandate to secure the consent of the governed and ratifies the autonomy law for the Bangsamoro. This is not an ordinary law and the Constitution has set the parameters for its enactment different from ordinary legislation where after its passage in Congress, the signature of the President is sufficient to make it into a law. This Bill proposes that the Plebiscite be held in the following areas: 1. The ARMM 2. The 6 municipalities in Lanao del Norte 3. The 39 barangays in North Cotabato 4. Contiguous areas who may petition for inclusion in the Bangsamoro To give full meaning to the constitutional provision for the creation of the autonomous region and to honor our commitment to the peace agreements we signed, we have designed the plebiscite to ensure the preservation of the gains of autonomy by allowing the ARMM, as a geographic area, to vote as one unit. For the 6 municipalities and to effect the mandate of the constitution to allow municipalities and geographic areas to join the autonomy, the determination of majority will be at the level of the municipalities. This is also true with respect to the geographic area constituting the 39 Barangays in North Cotabato. For contiguous areas, we have raised the number of petitioners to 20 percent of the registered voters and also to allow them only to join if their mother unit allows them to do so. This is ofcourse is without prejudice for Congress to declare them as geographic units, in which case they may subsequently join as such local government units where the determination of majority will only be at the level of their concerned local government units. To put a closure to the GPH-MNLF process which has already undergone a Tripartite Review with the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, we have proposed a subsequent plebiscite but only on three (3) occasions for a period of 15 years. This process will finally shift the struggle of our brothers from an armed revolutionary struggle to one of democratic and peaceful as they need not fight with guns as there is an avenue for them to join their brothers in the autonomy thru this periodic plebiscite. Our hope is that this provision will finally put a closure to our peace process with the MNLF and usher in a new era of peace and prosperity in the Bangsamoro and in the whole country as well. 10. Bangsamoro Transition Authority The Bangsamoro Transition Authority (BTA) will be the interim government and allows the MILF to transition from a rebel organization into governance through a peaceful democratic process. While the BTA will be led by the MILF, other sectors in the Bangsamoro will be represented. The transition period under the Bill will be for 3 years which will be a sufficient time to stabilize the region and hopefully kick start development and reforms. Concluding Statement Mr. President, in the course of the Bangsamoro struggle for political and economic self-determination so much blood had been shed, so many lives had been lost and so much hope had gone. The Senate, through this bill, now has this rare chance to give justice to the historical injustice in the Bangsamoro. We can correct the mistakes of the past. Let us seize this opportunity. Let us not be bystanders in the passing of history, let us make this spot in our history a meaningful one for the Bangsamoro, let us not be cowed from our responsibilities, just the like the rich tradition of this Senate. Mr. President, I do not want to sound like a warmonger, but if we do not heed this clamor for change in the Bangsamoro, God forbid, restlessness among the armed groups in Mindanao could spiral out of control. The possibility of another Marawi siege would not be far from the horizon. The country can no longer afford more bloodshed. Our generation has suffered long enough from the clutches of poverty, from the evils of war. Let not our children and their future suffer some more. Never Mr. President, never. So much now is upon our shoulders. Let us thrust ourselves on the right side of history, and certainly, passing the BBL now is on the right side of history. This is ourburden now and yet this could be our road to a just and dignified peace not only in Mindanao but in the whole of Philippines. Thank you Mr. President. Please check against delivery.PARKLAND, Fla. (AP)  The Latest on the aftermath of the mass shooting at a high school in Parkland, Florida (all times local):

7:55 a.m.

The suspect in the mass shooting at a Florida high school refused to let the district continue providing him with mental health services after he turned 18 and the superintendent of schools says federal law kept them from doing anything about it.

Broward Schools Superintendent Robert Runcie tells the Sun Sentinel You cant make someone do something when the law says they have the right to make that determination.

Nikolas Cruz, now 19, is accused killing 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School on Valentines Day.

Runcie says Cruz had attended a school with programs for emotionally and disabled students, and returned to Douglas in August 2016. By November, he says the situation had deteriorated. With the support of his mother, Cruz refused special needs services and remained at the school until February 2017.



7:35 a.m.

A court hearing on procedural matters for Florida school shooting suspect Nikolas Cruz has been canceled.

Court records show a hearing that had been scheduled for Tuesday is no longer on the docket. No immediate explanation was given.

Prosecutors had sought in the hearing to obtain an order allowing them to get hair and DNA samples from Cruz, as well as fingerprints and photographs.

The 19-year-old Cruz is charged with 17 counts of murder in the Valentines Day shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. Police say Cruz confessed to the crime.

Cruz wasnt expected to appear at the hearing.



6:15 p.m.

The Florida Senate Rules Committee has voted 9-4 for a bill that would raise the age to purchase rifles from 18 to 21 and create a three-day waiting period to buy the weapons.

Those rules are already in place for handguns. The bill also would make it easier to block gun sales or confiscate weapons from people who show violent tendencies or signs of mental illness.

The bill approved Monday also would let Florida counties authorize teachers to carry concealed weapons in school if they undergo law enforcement training and are deputized by the local sheriffs office.

But the committee refused to add an overall assault-style weapon ban in the bill, voting that amendment down 6-7 after more than two hours of testimony from dozens of gun safety advocates. Those advocates pleaded with lawmakers to ban weapons like the AR-15 used to kill 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School on Valentines Day.



Follow the APs complete coverage of the Florida school shooting here: https://apnews.com/tag/Floridaschoolshooting .WASHINGTON (AP)  President Donald Trump declared hes willing to take on the National Rifle Association over gun legislation, but Republicans who control Congress arent so sure. They prefer to consider only modest changes to firearms limits in response to the mass shooting at a Florida high school.

Congress returned to work Monday without following Trumps lead on any of the major initiatives he has tossed into the debate since the massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. Despite public calls for stricter gun laws, Republican leaders have largely kept quiet after the shooting which left 17 dead and ushered in another phase in the gun debate, prompted in large part by the activism of the young survivors. Some students visited with lawmakers Monday.

Over the weekend, Trump spent time talking to Republican House Speaker Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, and the White House is inviting lawmakers from both parties for meetings this week. But Trumps ideas to arm many teachers, lift the minimum age for purchasing assault rifles to 21 and impose stricter background checks were falling flat.

You guys, half of you are so afraid of the NRA, the president said Monday at a meeting with the nations governors. Theres nothing to be afraid of. And you know what? If theyre not with you, we have to fight them every once in a while. Thats OK.

Instead, Senate Republicans are hoping to consider more modest legislation from Sens. John Cornyn, R-Texas, and Chris Murphy, D-Conn., to strengthen the National Instant Criminal Background Check System, or NICS. The Fix NICS bill, similar to one approved last year in the House, would penalize federal agencies that dont properly report required records used to determine whether someone can legally buy a gun.

Cornyn, the Senates No. 2 Republican, questioned Trumps proposal to raise the age limit for assault weapons, noting that the minimum age to enlist in the military is 18.

Im not sure I understand the 21 age. I think there are better ways to address it than just an arbitrary age increase, he told The Washington Times.

Trump insisted Monday that sometimes political leaders need to buck the NRA, which builds its political power by major campaign spending and motivating gun rights supporters to vote. Though he did not mention increasing the minimum age for rifle purchases, he wants to toughen the Cornyn bill with stricter background checks, a change the NRA has opposed.

Were going to strengthen it, Trump said. Were going to make it more pertinent to what were discussing.

Democrats have long pressed for more sweeping changes toward a universal background check system, including requiring inquiries for online and gun show purchases.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York said Monday that if all Congress can accomplish is passage of the Fix NICS bill it would be an abject failure and a dereliction of our duty.

Sens. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., and Pat Toomey, R-Pa., are reviving their background check bill, which failed earlier, including after the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in 2012. Manchin said opponents at the time worried then-President Barack Obama would impose even stricter restrictions. Well theyre not having that fear right now with President Trump, he said.

At a minimum, Congress should approve universal background checks, Schumer said, denouncing NRA-backed bills that make Republicans feel better without meaningfully addressing the issue of gun safety.

In the House, many Democrats want to reinstate an assault weapons ban that expired more than a decade ago.

But House Republican leaders believe its up to the Senate to take the next steps, according to a top House GOP aide, who spoke only on condition of anonymity because he wasnt authorized to discuss legislative strategy.

The House passed legislation in December that included changes to the background-check system. It was part of a broader package that stalled in the Senate because it included expanded gun rights by requiring states to recognize conceal-carry permits issued by other states.

The House package also included a measure to study bump stocks, the devices that turn rifles into automatic-style weapons and were used in the Las Vegas assault last fall, the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history.

In the Senate, Republican leaders see the best route to passage in separating the issues of background checks and state reciprocity measures. They were testing support Monday for quick consideration of the background checks bill, which was introduced last fall after the shooting of churchgoers in Texas. At the time, authorities acknowledged having failed to report the Texas gunmans domestic violence conviction to the National Criminal Information Center database.

Im for doing whats achievable, Cornyn told reporters.

But even the Fix NICS bill faced resistance from some in the GOP ranks.

Sens. Mike Lee of Utah and Rand Paul of Kentucky said the bill would encourage federal agencies to encroach upon constitutionally guaranteed rights without affording robust due-process protections.

At the same time, some Republican lawmakers appeared willing to go further, particularly in outlawing bump stocks, which the Trump administration wants to do through administrative action as the NRA prefers, rather than legislation.

Rep. Ryan Costello of Pennsylvania said he supports a ban on bump stocks, whether its done through legislation or a change in federal regulations.

Thats sort of simple stuff that we should get done for the American public, he told The Associated Press.

Costello, who faces a stiff re-election challenge in a district that has been redrawn to favor Democrats, also supports the Fix NICS bill and a measure to raise age limits on purchases of certain assault weapons.

At the White House, Washington Gov. Jay Inslee, one of two Democrats to address Trump publicly, expressed his concerns over the idea of arming teachers as a response to the school shootings. We need a little less tweeting, a little more listening, Inslee said.

-

Associated Press writers Alan Fram, Ken Thomas, Andrew Taylor and video producer Padmananda Rama contributed to this story.

Follow Mascaro on Twitter at https://twitter.com/LisaMascaro and Daly https://twitter.com/MatthewDalyWDCBy Matt Murphy

State House News Service

BOSTON  The path to a compromise this session over state immigration enforcement legislation got a little narrower after the Baker administration told two key lawmakers over the weekend that it opposes a compromise they struck with local police groups.

Public Safety and Security Secretary Daniel Bennett wrote to Sen. Jamie Eldridge, of Acton, and Rep. Juana Matias, of Lawrence, to express his continued concerns with the latest version of the Safe Communities Act, which would allow local police to honor federal detention requests under certain circumstances.

Eldridge and Matias unveiled the rewritten legislation last week as a compromise reached between immigrant advocates on Beacon Hill and the Massachusetts Major City Police Chiefs Association (MMCC) and the members of the Massachusetts Chiefs of Police Associations executive and legislative committees.

The two police groups had previously backed a separate measure filed by Gov. Charlie Baker, but plan to join Eldridge and Matias at the State House on Tuesday for a press conference in the afternoon where the stakeholders will help detail the compromise opposed by Baker. The chiefs of police organization last week called the redrafted bill an effective balance of both building and improving trust in our respective communities while simultaneously enhancing public safety across the entire State.

Bennett, however, said that not only would the revised bill make unlawful an agreement that the Department of Correction has had with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security since 2007, but it also contains loopholes that would prevent police from holding potentially dangerous suspects.

The Safe Communities Act would have prohibited state and local police from asking about a persons immigration status or arresting someone solely because of their immigration status, and would have banned police from holding immigrants on a federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement detainer if they had no other cause to do so.

The redrafted version of the bill, however, would allow law enforcement to hold individuals on requested ICE detainers for up to six hours in cases where the detainee has a prior criminal record that includes convictions for serious violent offenses like sexual assault, abuse or drug trafficking.

Police agencies would also be allowed to honor ICE detainer requests for up to six hours if the detainee is under arrest for terrorism charges and the Department of Correction would be authorized to notify ICE when it releases or plans to release inmates who serve time for serious violent offenses.

Baker, as well and some Democrats in the Legislature, oppose the idea of making Massachusetts a so-called sanctuary state, but the Supreme Judicial Court created a new impetus to reach a compromise last July when it ruled that state law law does not permit officials to detain immigrants solely at the request of federal immigration officials.

The ruling upended current practices of many police departments and law enforcement agencies, and Baker responded by filing a bill (H 3870) that would allow, but not require, police to honor a written request from ICE to hold an individual for up to 12 hours if that person has engaged in or is suspected of terrorism or had been convicted of a serious felony.

I believe that the Governors legislation is the best solution to address the Lunn decision, Bennett wrote to Eldridge and Matias in a Feb. 25 letter.

Bennett outlined a number of concerns the administration has with the redrafted bill, including its belief that the six-hour hold provision is not actually a hold. It is a delay in setting of bail, Bennett said.

The secretary explained that he believes the hold provision would expire six hours after someones arrest and would not allow authorities to hold a suspect even for one minute after they are due to be released from state custody.

It would also impose new restrictions on communication between state and local authorities and Homeland Security, applying not just to ICEs deportation branch, but also Homeland Securitys investigations bureau and the Secret Service, according to the administration.

Eldridge and Matias, according to Bennetts letter, had requested a meeting with the secretary to review the new language of the bill, but Bennett said he had already examined the differences between the original Safe Communities Act and the revised version.

Bennett said that the redrafted bill would force police departments, even those in cities that self-identify as sanctuary cities, to detain people for up to six hours if they receive an ICE detainer request even if the local police do not view the person as a public safety threat, while other dangerous criminals could be set free.

According to the administration, the list of prior convictions that would trigger the hold provision is also too narrow. For instance, Bennett said a person with a past domestic violence conviction arrested for rape while in possession of an unlicensed firearm would not qualify for the delay in setting bail.

The Baker-Polito administration believes that local officials are in the best position to decide whether and to what extent they should cooperate with the federal government on immigration detention matters, and the Governors bill respects discretion at the local level, Bennett wrote.

Furthermore, Bennett said the compromise bill would make a current agreement between the Department of Correction and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security unlawful, preventing DOC staff from assisting in the deportation of dangerous convicted felons. The agreement was originally signed in 2007 by then-Gov. Deval Patrick and has been renewed several times.

The bill, in the administrations reading of it, would also put new restrictions on communication between state and local authorities and Homeland Security, applying not just to ICEs deportation branch, but also Homeland Securitys investigations bureau and the Secret Service.LANCASTER  Former lieutenant governor nominee Steve Kerrigan announced Monday that he would withdraw from the 3rd Congressional District race.

Kerrigan, whose mother died a few weeks ago, sent an email to supporters detailing his decision, saying he hopes to focus on other ways to have an impact in (his) community.

I have learned a lot about myself  from my family and many friends  over these past trying weeks, Kerrigan, 46, wrote. Service is about more than a title or an election. That is why I have decided to end my race for Congress.

Over the weekend, there was chatter on the campaign trail focusing on Kerrigan and whether he would continue.

His email to supporters Monday reflected on his mothers influence and those Kerrigan met on the campaign trail.

My happiest times in life have been when I have had a chance to serve, he wrote. Our mom and dad passed on to my brother, sister and I the obligation and the drive to help others. It was imprinted in our DNA and nurtured by their example.

Fellow candidates in the 3rd District race took to Twitter to express their sympathies and praise Kerrigan for the campaign he ran. Barbara LItalien described him as an intensely dedicated public servant. Alexandra Chandler said Kerrigan had elevated our conversation. Beej Das wrote that Kerrigan made all of us better.

With Kerrigans departure, the field of candidates seeking to succeed U.S. Rep. Niki Tsongas is down to 13 Democrats and one Republican. He said he does not plan to endorse a candidate in the primary race.

Kerrigan, who was the Democratic nominee for lieutenant governor in 2014 and CEO of the 2012 Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, North Carolina, had raised about $159,000 in the early months of the 3rd District race.

Follow Chris on Twitter @ChrisLisinski.Vista Group, the cinema software and applications company, posted a 57 percent jump in full-year operating profit as more cinemas bought its products and sales growth ran ahead of costs. Vista shares, which sank to a two-year low last week, jumped 9.8 percent to $2.80.

Operating profit rose 57 percent to $20.4 million, the Auckland-based company said in a statement. Revenue rose 20 percent to $106.6 million, marking the fourth straight year that sales have jumped by at least a fifth while expenses rose about 14 percent to $86 million. Net profit fell to $9.98 million from $49.5 million in 2016, when it took a $41 million one-time gain from the sale of Vista China.

Vista, with six offices around the world, is one of the biggest suppliers of cinema management, film distribution and customer analytics software products. Subsidiary companies provide software and applications to various film industry segments. Vista Cinema, the largest member of the group, added almost 800 new cinemas in 2017, to the more than 5,550 already taking its software products. It also brought 11 new countries on board, including Brazil, Italy and Austria, taking total countries to 93.

These [new] countries, together with China, Japan and Saudi Arabia, represent some of the largest markets for Vista in FY18 and beyond, the company said. This together with the increase in average customer spend provides confidence in the ongoing growth aspirations of Vista Cinema in the future.

Vista said it expects to deliver the first modules of its new cloud version of Vista Cinema in the first quarter this year.

The company increased its 2017 dividends by 28 percent, with the final dividend set at 1.74 cents per share, saying that given the positive financial result, the board set the payment "at the top of the policy range (50 percent). The record date is March 12, for payment on March 23.

Meanwhile, Vista co-founder and chief executive Murray Holdaway will hand over the leaders mantle at the beginning of April to Kimbal Riley, in what the company says is a succession planning process.

Holdaway, who founded the company in 1996, will instead take on the chief product officer role and will remain an executive director on the Vista Group board.

(BusinessDesk)

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Methven reported a flat first-half profit as its New Zealand business underperformed with Christchurch activity settling down after the rebuild, but is encouraged by its restructuring plans to widen margins and chase global markets.

Net profit was unchanged at $3.2 million, or 4.5 cents, in the six months ended Dec. 31, on a 5.7 percent gain in revenue to $52.8 million, the Auckland-based company said in a statement. Stripping out $516,000 of costs from its 'Fit 4 the Future (FFF)' restructuring programme, earnings rose 12 percent, in line with expectations and giving the tapware manufacturer reason to affirm annual guidance for a 10 percent gain in normalised profit on a constant currency basis.

The New Zealand division was the company's laggard in the period, with a 2.4 percent increase in earnings before interest and tax to $2.3 million on a 10 percent decline in sales to $15.9 million, of which almost half the revenue decline came from Canterbury activity slowing down in the post-quake rebuild environment.

"Our absolute focus remains on delivering on our tapware plans in New Zealand so that we can benefit from our positive momentum in international markets and the ongoing upside of our FFF programme," chair Alison Barrass said.

At Methven's annual meeting in November, the company warned first-half profit wouldn't rise due to spending on the restructuring programme, which seeks to widen gross margin by 300 basis points, cut fixed costs by 10 percent, and lower the level of sales needed to breakeven by $1 million a month.

Chief executive David Banfield said the programme is on track, and he's "extremely encouraged by our strong international performance", which "reduces our reliance on the New Zealand market."

Methven's Australian unit lifted ebit 76 percent to A$2.3 million on a 7.5 percent gain in sales to A$21.6 million, due to an expanded product range and new contracts, while UK earnings rose 15 percent to 304,000 British pounds on a 13 percent increase in revenue to 6.7 million pounds.

The company's increased Chinese sales to $507,000 from $81,000 a year earlier, delivering earnings of $3,000 compared to a loss of $89,000 a year earlier and said it's in final negotiations with a number of new distributors to expand its presence in Asia's biggest economy.

The board declared an unimputed interim dividend of 4 cents per share, payable on March 29 with a March 16 record date. That's unchanged from a year earlier.

The shares last traded at $1.05 and have dropped 17 percent over the past 12 months.

(BusinessDesk)

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Tower has reached a settlement with reinsurer Peak Re over a dispute relating to its 2015 adverse conditions cover, and will get about half what it's claimed.

Auckland-based Tower will receive $22 million of the $43.8 million claimed under the reinsurance contract and all sums claimed in arbitration proceedings, it said in a statement. Writing off the residual amount will reduce annual profit by about $15.2 million, it said. The shares rose 2.2 percent to 68.5 cents.

"During our recent capital raise, the board indicated that real risk existed in both the process and the binary nature of the arbitration," chair Michael Stiassny said. "The board determined that a commercial settlement satisfactorily dealt with this unpredictability for both parties, and created welcome certainty for our shareholders and our business."

Tower has been repeatedly surprised by the mounting cost of the 2010 and 2011 Canterbury earthquakes, taking on the adverse development cover to protect its balance sheet if costs escalated further.

The general insurer was in the middle of a bidding war last year, with Canada's Fairfax Financial Holdings and Australia's Suncorp Group vying for the NZX-listed firm. It ultimately sided with Suncorp's superior offer, but the takeover was rejected by the Commerce Commission over concerns it would reduce competition.

Tower raised $70.8 million last December at a deep discount to get enough headroom to deal with anymore cost escalation from Canterbury, using the funds to repay bank debt and boost its regulatory solvency capital.

The company today said the Peak Re settlement will give it solvency capital of $136 million, some $28 million above the Reserve Bank's minimum requirements.

(BusinessDesk)

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Veritas Investment's proposed sale of the Mad Butcher franchisor to chief executive Michael Morton for $8 million is fair to non-associated shareholders, avoiding "more dire" consequences if it doesn't go ahead, says the independent adviser on the transaction.

The company's shareholders will vote on the transaction at a special meeting in Auckland on March 16, and the food and beverage investor's independent directors unanimously recommended the deal, the notice of meeting said. Independent adviser Simmons Corporate Finance says the $8 million price tag falls within its estimated value of between $7.2 million and $9.4 million and that the transaction is fair to shareholders not associated with Morton and if it doesn't proceed could see lender ANZ Bank New Zealand appoint receivers to the company.

"The consequences of the Mad Butcher transaction not proceeding may be more dire for the non-associated shareholders than if the transaction did proceed," the report said. "Under either a receivership or liquidation scenario, we estimate that there would be no financial return to the companys shareholders."

Veritas has been selling assets to repay debt it took on to buy a series of businesses since embarking on a strategy of building a food and beverage business with the backdoor listing of the Mad Butcher business five years ago. The company paid $40 million for Mad Butcher, half in cash and the rest in scrip, raising $25 million to help fund the deal.

If approved, the proceeds will go to repaying $27 million owed to ANZ and leave the Better Bar Co as Veritas's remaining asset.

"The companys strategic focus may change to solely operating hospitality businesses (rather than being a wider investment company) and it may seek to pursue mergers and acquisitions in the sector," the report said. "In addition, Veritas would be a more attractive acquisition target as it would hold a single sector investment compared with its current portfolio of a hospitality business and a meat franchisor business which have limited synergies between them."

Veritas reported its first-half result yesterday, which showed Better Bar Co's earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation rose 1.9 percent to $3.1 million in the six months ended Dec. 31. on an equivalent increase in revenue to $12.2 million.

The adviser's report notes Morton will get to buy back the business for less than what he sold it for, although it's "contracted significantly" since then.

Chair Tim Cook said the board is still in active discussions with "a number of parties" on a potential sale or merger of the Better Bar Co business, or finding alternative finance arrangements. Keeping ANZ's extension of credit "will be helpful in securing the best possible outcome," he said.

The shares were unchanged at 5 cents, valuing the company at $2.2 million.

(BusinessDesk)

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Fri., Sept. 17, 6-9 p.m.

3Sixteen Wine Bar 316 N. Main St., Chatham Chatham

Free

Live Music

In celebration of 3Sixteen Wine Bar's 4th Anniversary, this live musical opportunity is being brought to YOU by the 'Back to the Music,' a project of "the next 10" organization sponsored by the Community Foundation for the Land of Lincoln in partnership with the Springfield Area Arts Council. (Thank You!) Micah Walk is an amazing local singer songwriter in the genre of folk, americana, and country. Great covers and even better originals. 217-697-8569Chennai: Karti Chidambaram, former Finance Minister P Chidambaram's son, was arrested by the CBI at the Chennai airport in connection with its ongoing probe into the INX media case, an official said on Wednesday.

The Central Bureau of Investigation official said that he was arrested from the airport after he returned from London. He will be brought to Delhi later in the day.

In 2007-INX Media owned by Peter & Indrani got FIPB approval for Rs.5 crore only as FDI. But they brought Rs.305 cr & IncomeTax caught. Indrani & Peter approached Karti & paid Rs. 5 cr & FIPB under father Chidambaram gave post facto approval to save J Gopikrishnan (@jgopikrishnan70) February 28, 2018 On May 15, 2017, the CBI had registered an FIR against Karti Chidambaram on charges of criminal conspiracy, cheating, accepting gratification by corrupt or illegal means, influencing public servants and criminal misconduct.

Karti Chidambaram allegedly received Rs 3.5 crore from the Mumbai-based INX media, now 9X Media, for helping it get Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) clearance for Rs 305 crore, when it was run by Peter and Indrani Mukerjea, both accused in the Sheena Bora murder case.

The FIR does not mention Chidambaram senior, though it said he cleared the FIPB approval for Rs 4.62 crore Foreign Direct Investment in the firm at an FIPB meeting on May 18, 2007.

Indrani Mukerjea's confession key evidence; Karti sent to one-day police custody

Congress leader and one India's top advocates Abhishek Manu Singhvi appeared for Karti Chidambaram in Delhi's Patiala House Court.

Singhvi told the Court that the CBI's case against his client is most bizarre.

The arrest is motivated. He hasn't been given a single summons in the last six months and the CBI allegations that he is not cooperating come despite no summons having been issued against Karti after August 2017, Singhvi argued.

Earlier, Indrani Mukherjea had given a statement to the CBI that Karti had sought 1 million dollars for FIPB clearance and it was on the basis of her statement that the CBI sought his custody.

The court after hearing the arguments sent Karti to one-day police custody. His lawyers will file a fresh bail plea when he appears before the court on Thursday.

Diversionary tactic, vendetta politics: Congress

In the morning, Congress Party spokesperson Priyanka Chaturvedi said that the move smells of "vendetta politics" of the Bharatiya Janata Party against its opponents.



"Classic diversionary tactic of the Modi government to hide their own corrupt governance model that is being exposed on a daily basis - be it Nirav Modi, Mehul Choksi, Dwarka Das Seth Jewellers," Chaturvedi said.



"The BJP government continues its vendetta and vindictive politics to target opponents. However, it will not stop the Congress from bringing the truth out before the people," Chaturvedi said.

Karti Chidambaram arrested. Oho! Now, all the TV channels will be selling their bathtubs & wine glasses, and buying handcuffs and sun-glasses.  Ramesh Srivats (@rameshsrivats) February 28, 2018

At least CBI has figured out how to arrest someone in the arrival lounge of an airport.

Next step - Departure lounge.  Ramesh Srivats (@rameshsrivats) February 28, 2018Thousands of fans joined a long procession to mark the final journey of veteran Bollywood actress Sridevi, which started from near her residence to a crematorium in Vile Parle this afternoon.

A tall, air-conditioned truck, fully decorated with white flowers -- her favourite colour -- carried her body which was first draped in the National Tricolour and then accorded a police gun salute, as cries of "Sridevi Amar Rahe" rent the air.

Maharashtra government has accorded full state honours for the funeral of Sridevi, who was conferred a Padma Shri in 2013, which included draping her body in the national Tricolour, elaborate arrangements by the Mumbai Police, and a gun salute before the cremation.

Inside, Sridevi was lying serene with full make-up, a large south Indian style 'sindoor' wearing a ceremonial gold and maroon Kanjeevaram sari, a necklace, since she died a 'suhaagan' (still married), and almost appeared like a goddess in a deep slumber.

Her grieving family members, including husband Boney Kapoor, his son Arjun Kapoor and brothers Anil Kapoor and Sanjay Kapoor were among those who travelled in the truck with the body.

The approximately six km long journey was expected to be completed by 3.30 p.m. as the truck slowly wend its way through some of the poshest areas of Andheri and Vile Parle sububrbs, a massive portrait of Sridevi visible from a distance as the truck moved ahead.

The procession was led by several family members, close relatives, friends and even neighbours of the Green Acres CHS where the family lived in Lokhandwala Complex.(Courtesy of Ikea)

Ikea to open Staten Island warehouse facility

The Swedish furniture giant Ikea has signed a lease to open a 975,000-square-foot warehouse distribution center in Matrix Global Logistics Park in Bloomfield.

Here are some facts about the project:

Don't Edit

Inside Matrix Global Logistics Park

The international company has been engaged in negotiations since last year to occupy the first building constructed at the 200-acre Matrix Global Logistics Park Staten Island.

"As we expand across the country and grow our online presence, we want to ensure we have sufficient warehouse capacity to support the efficient and timely delivery and shipment of products to our customers," said Lars Petersson, IKEA U.S. president.

Don't Edit

(AP Photo/Mike Derer)

Opening this year

The distribution center should be open sometime in late 2018, said Petersson.

Don't Edit

(AP Photo/Jens Meyer/File)

First warehouse to be built onsite

Joseph S. Taylor, president and CEO of the Cranbury, N.J.-based Matrix Development Group said the warehouse that Ikea will be leasing was built on speculation.

"This building was built entirely on spec. Ikea is a great company," said Taylor.

Don't Edit

(Courtesy of Washington Post, photo by Matt McClain)

200 jobs

The new facility will employ about 200 people.

Said Borough President James Oddo, who has been a proponent of the project: "We promised that the 'jobs coast' would attract major companies, and we are watching that promise come to fruition. Each of these announcements means new job opportunities for Staten Islanders. Thank you again to Joe Taylor and his team at Matrix for making their historic investment on our West Shore that has so far attracted Amazon and IKEA, along with the new jobs they will create."

(The photo above shows a skateboarder jumping over an Ikea table)

Don't Edit

Don't Edit

(AP Photo/Ng Han Guan/File)

It's a $33.2 million project

In its application to the city Economic Development Corporation (NYCEDC), Ikea said the total development cost would be $33.2 million and the project would create jobs with salaries ranging from $16 per hour to $65 per hour.

There are more than 300 IKEA stores in 38 countries, including 37 in the United States.

Don't Edit

(Courtesy of Ikea)

Increasing accessibility to New Yorkers

Ikea hopes more New Yorkers will purchase Ikea products.

"Our goal is to increase accessibility to IKEA products, and a new fulfillment center in Staten Island will help us meet the home furnishing needs of our customers in the New York metropolitan area," said Petersson.

Don't Edit

(AP Photo/Mark Lennihan)

Focused on online orders

The fulfillment center at Matrix Global Logistics Park will focus on delivering items to customers who order products online or purchase larger items at an IKEA store, according to the company.

FOLLOW TRACEY PORPORA ON FACEBOOKSTATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary School in Brooklyn's gritty Red Hook section closed its doors in 1975.

But the two-story brick structure, wedged on a side street behind the parish's Gothic Revival-style church building was resurrected a quarter-century later in 2000 to serve the neighborhood in another way - as a community justice center.

"What better place to learn about justice?" says Wally Bazemore, a Red Hook community activist who played a significant role in the center's founding.

But this is not your typical court, Bazemore and others quickly point out.

It's a one-stop spot where community members - even those without pending criminal cases - can access a wide variety of social services, including referrals to drug or mental-health treatment. Housing services, as well as clinical, educational and employment services for youths, adults and families are also available on-site, as are services for criminal victims.

For criminal defendants, the Red Hook Community Justice Center offers an alternative to incarceration and a chance to get their lives back on the right track.

"We see everyone who comes through the system as part of our community," Justice Alex M. Calabrese told reporters and Staten Island elected officials who recently visited the center. "We are able to reduce incarceration and get people to do what they need to be doing. It's working with people, not treating them as docket numbers. You produce better results."

Calabrese presides over the problem-solving court, which handles certain criminal, housing and family court matters arising from three local police precincts, with a deft touch.

He favors encouragement and personal connection over harsh words and glares, but will lay the law down if a defendant veers off course.

The criminal cases entail misdemeanors and lesser offenses - such as petty thefts, lower drug crimes, fare-beating -- and some low-level nonviolent felonies.

D.A., BP TRYING TO BRING COURT TO S.I.

Impressed by the results, District Attorney Michael E. McMahon and Borough President James Oddo are leading the charge to establish a community justice center on Staten Island.

"It's an amazing, amazing place," Oddo said. "It's an oasis. It's out of the box, creative. We want to make it happen on Staten Island."

"It would be a great thing," said McMahon.

The D.A. said he believes a community justice center can help treat root causes underlying some low-level crimes - be it drug addiction, lack of work, mental-health or housing issues - and potentially break the cycle of recidivist criminal behavior.

"The answer is not decriminalization; it's individualization," said McMahon. "It's looking at each individual case and finding out why they're in the criminal justice system. It's not just retribution."

According to a 2013 study by the National Center for State Courts, the Red Hook Community Justice Center reduced the number of defendants receiving jail sentences by 35 percent and lowered recidivism by 10 percent for adults and by 20 percent for juveniles.

The study, which cited data from 2008, said the center cost $7.46 million to run, but wound up saving nearly $6.9 million in resources, processing and various court costs.

"The goal is to prevent them from coming back through the system," said Amanda Berman, the center's project director.

The court handles about 3,000 cases a year, she said.

Accountability is key.

The process begins with an arraignment and on-site evaluation. Defendants are referred to the appropriate service office at the center.

Once before Calabrese, they quickly learn he runs his courtroom like no other judge.

Calling to mind a beneficent, but firm parent or relative, he takes a direct interest in defendants, almost always inviting them up to the bench for a chat or quick pep talk.

He scopes out information about a defendant's family and interests. That knowledge helps him relate to defendants in a personal way.

Calabrese said he'll ask how a person's kids, grandkids and other relatives are doing. And he'll tell the defendant what he or she needs to do, such as adhering to treatment, or performing required community service, to keep or re-establish those family ties, and to stay out of jail in the process.

Most people are motivated to try harder for a loved one's sake, he said.

A RECENT DAY IN COURT

On a recent Thursday, several defendants come before Calabrese for progress updates.

They've been previously assessed at the center and directed to treatment or other programs.

One teenager recently got a job.

"You like it?" Calabrese asks.

"I like it," she replies.

The judge tells the girl to keep it up and stay with her program.

Another defendant, a thin woman, is told she's been recommended to enter a detoxification program and to undergo 90 days of mental-health and drug treatment.

Prosecutors offer to adjourn her case in contemplation of dismissal if she accepts.

She does.

"This is a great decision. You can do this. I know you can do this," Calabrese assures her.

During the session, the judge will also shake the hand of a gray-haired, middle-aged defendant who's doing well in drug treatment and offer him encouragement.

And he'll also warn an older man with a history of petty crimes he faces inpatient drug treatment if prescribed outpatient treatment fails.

The man, who had pleaded guilty the previous day to a criminal charge, had tested positive for cocaine before returning to court.

'VERY RARELY' GET JAIL SENTENCES

Calabrese said he evaluates each case individually. Defendants "very rarely" end up with a jail sentence, he said.

But those who are incarcerated usually receive longer sentences than those sentenced in a traditional court, according to the 2013 study.

Calabrese said he updates cases frequently at first to ensure a defendant's compliance with their social-service or community-service requirements.

He'll lengthen the time between court appearances if the person is doing well.

About 40 to 45 percent of defendants get clean and stay clean after rehab, he said.

While Red Hook's center focuses on three local precincts, McMahon and Oddo said a center on Staten Island would serve the entire borough.

Christopher Pisciotta, senior attorney-in-charge of the Legal Aid Society on Staten Island, is an enthusiastic supporter of the Red Hook Community Justice Center and said it could serve as a model for Staten Island.

The community-driven center gives voice to people "too long ignored" as resources were pulled elsewhere, he said. Most importantly, it is tailored to address needs expressed by the community, such as safety issues and drugs in the local housing, access to social services, opportunities and programs for youth, as well as jobs.

"The result is a place where all residents can go for education, GED, job skills, interview skills, and social services," said Pisciotta. "For Staten Island, we too should follow the lead of Red Hook and listen to the people of our community. What are their needs and how can we best address those needs? We would need the same ground-up approach to give voice to those in need."

But there's a long way to go. And nothing's definite.

Compiling a strategic action plan is the first step in the process.

WHAT'S NEXT?

McMahon's office is putting up $70,000 to fund the first part of the plan in conjunction with the nonprofit Center for Court Innovation, a public/private partnership between the state court system and the Fund for the City of New York.

The study is expected to take about six months to complete and would explore the costs and potential benefits associated with creating and running a community justice center.

It would also help determine how many cases a center on Staten Island could handle.

The second part of the plan would involve siting issues.

McMahon and Oddo say the former Stapleton Criminal Court is the ideal spot for a community justice center.

Others fear the Targee Street building, with its jail cells and harsh connotations, defeats the purpose of making a community justice center a less-intimidating experience for participants.

The D.A. and borough president believe those hurdles can be overcome.

And many agencies need to be on board, including the state Office of Court Administration, the Police Department, the city Correction Department, local elected officials, as well as the defense bar.

The state Office of Court Administration will have the final say.

An OCA spokesman said no decision has been made regarding a community justice center on Staten Island.STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Authorities charged two people Tuesday in Staten Island Criminal Court after they were allegedly found with a veritable arsenal.

Anthony Clark, 31, of Georgia, and a woman, Celes Ramos, 28, of Brooklyn, are facing 37 counts of various weapons charges, according to a criminal complaint.

The duo was arrested at the 121 Precinct Monday after they were allegedly found in a car with nine loaded guns, two unloaded guns, a stockpile of ammunition, and an unspecified number of stun guns.

The loaded guns were eight 9mm pistols, and one .38-caliber pistol. The unloaded guns were a .40-caliber pistol, and a .22-caliber revolver.

A spokesman for the NYPD could not provide information on the investigation, but said Ramos and Clark were identified from information obtained through the Joint Firearms Taskforce.

Clark and Ramos were arraigned Tuesday. Ramos was issued bail of $150,000 cash or bond, and Clark was issued bail $200,000 cash or bond. They are due back in court on Friday.STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- The searing grief caused by the death of Staten Islander Sean Collins at age 29 has been inflamed by a hellishly "broken system" in Puerto Rico that so far is preventing a proper burial, according to his family.

Collins, a Sunnyside resident who was a linesman for Northline Utilities on Staten Island and a member of IBEW Local 3, was found dead on Feb. 20 inside a rental car after he didn't return home from a vacation in Puerto Rico.

"We need to put out a plea for help," David Drogon, a brother-in-law of Collins, said with desperation in his voice during a phone call to the Advance from Puerto Rico.

"It's totally unacceptable what is happening to my family and I am really angry."

All the family wants to do is pay their final respects and lay their loved one to rest.

"We just want to get him home so he can be with his loved ones," Drogon said. "We don't want to have to cremate him in Puerto Rico. We want to bury him next to his father in St. Peter's Cemetery."

Harmon Home for Funerals in West Brighton is poised to handle the arrangements once Collins is back on Staten Island, Drogon said.

But the family is wondering when, or even if, Collins will return to our borough.

Dealing with the morgue has been one of the most distressing aspects of the family's unfathomable ordeal.

Collins was dead for days before the family knew. The 29-year-old man was brought to the morgue on the Tuesday that he was found dead. That Friday, the family was pleading on TV for the safe return of their loved one whom they still thought was alive, but missing, Drogon said.

"His family was not notified" of Collins death by the authorities, Drogon said. "His family just randomly drove to the morgue and we found him for ourselves and then it was the family that notified police, not the other way around."

The misery continues since, despite repeated requests from the family, officials at the morgue have not released Collins' body or supplied a timeline for when he will be reunited with his family, Drogon said.

The morgue where Collins' body has been kept for the past week does not have the capability to properly preserve bodies for extended periods of time, Drogon contended.

"It's not the police," Dorgon said, adding that cops have given Collins' belongings back to the family.

The family recognized Collins' tattoos, the autopsy was performed and the toxicology tests were done, but the morgue has not yet scientifically identified him though the dental records have been provided, Drogon said.

"They don't need to do anything else, what are they waiting for?" a clearly exasperated Drogon said.

The family has contacted the local politicians in Puerto Rico.

Rep. Dan Donovan has helped.

"We've been in repeated contact with senior Puerto Rican officials about what's happening and our intervention has been effective," said a spokesman for Donovan.

Drogon thinks that the family might need help from the highest levels of government, perhaps even President Trump.

He is asking people to put pressure on officials at all levels via social media and other forms of communication from Staten Island to Puerto Rico to bring Collins home.

People wanting to offer the family assistance could send emails to david.drogon@gmail.com.STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- As fear over the school shooting in Parkland, Fla., lingers, the NYPD has received and investigated several reports of possible threats at Staten Island high schools this week and determined every one to be unfounded, according to a law enforcement source.

At least two of the incidents occurred on Monday.

A mother and daughter were shopping in a store on the borough when they were discussing the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland and whether Tottenville High School, which the younger woman attended, could be susceptible to such an attack, the source said.

The conversation was overheard by another individual who thought it could be interpreted as a threat against Tottenville and informed police, the source said.

All parties were interviewed by detectives and it was deemed unfounded.

Still, word of the investigation prompted fears from Tottenville parents on social media.

Also on Monday, a student at Susan Wagner High School saw another student at the school share on SnapChat a SpongeBob Squarepants meme which referenced going "Sandy Hook" on "this f------ boating school," the source said.

"Boating School" is the name of an episode in the cartoon.

Sandy Hook is an apparent reference to a mass shooting at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newton, Conn., in 2012.

The meme, however, appeared to be simply forwarded and was not created specific to Susan Wagner or meant to reference the school in any way, the source said.

Parties were interviewed and the threat deemed unfounded.

The NYPD is being vigilant and investigating all reports of threats received in the wake of Parkland, the source said.

The Advance has also received reports from parents about a lockdown at Port Richmond High School on Tuesday, but the source was not aware of a threat in connection with that facility.

A woman who answered the phone at the school Wednesday declined to confirm or deny the reports.

Meanwhile, on Tuesday afternoon, a 16-year-old student at McKee High School in St. George was found on school grounds with 35 rounds of ammunition and a three-inch blade, according to an NYPD spokesman.

The student did not possess a gun or make any threats, police said.

He was charged with violation of local law, which is a misdemeanor, police said.

Citywide, there have been at least 40 threats made against schools in New York City reported to the FBI since the deadly shooting in Florida, according to a New York Post report.

"Everyone's calling in school threats," said Bill Sweeney, assistant director in charge of the FBI's New York division, according to the Post report. "There's a couple that are credible. But we don't dismiss anything outright."CITY HALL -- As Mayor Bill de Blasio celebrated the start of construction of Manhattan's new Lower East Side ferry landing Wednesday, he said the "ultimate destination" of the New York City ferry system is a "fairer city, a city that works better for all New Yorkers."

"This is about preparing this city for a new reality, a city that is growing in population, but also has to grow in fairness and opportunity in all five boroughs, not just in this one, but in all five boroughs, that's what NYC ferry is all about," de Blasio said.

But with no immediate plans for a fast ferry for Staten Island in sight, some wonder how "fair" the mayor's ferry plan really is.

Construction on the new Lower East Side dock is part of the mayor's "citywide" ferry service plan that began in May and will eventually reach 21 stops in all boroughs except Staten Island.

Routes to Rockaway, South Brooklyn and Astoria in Queens have started or have already launched, while the city is working on ferries to Soundview in the Bronx and Lower East Side this year.

Service to Stapleton was part of a proposed phase of the system's roll out that hasn't been funded or scheduled yet.

Whether the South Shore -- or even Staten Island -- is ever included depends on the popularity of existing service, the administration has said.

Over the summer, de Blasio said the city was "seriously" looking at adding a South Shore dock to his "citywide" ferry service.

CALLING IT 'FAIR' IS 'INSULTING'

But almost two months into the new year, Island officials say they have yet to hear of any plans for a South Shore fast ferry from the de Blasio administration and don't see what's "fair" about the plan.

The mayor said Wednesday that the city focused its ferry services on places that had been "historically underserved."

"The Rockaways are a great example ... Red Hook Brooklyn, a place that was in many ways isolated, now so much more connected to the city, Astoria ... for folks here, they're going to be able to walk right over here and get on a ferry and that's going to cut down their travel time," de Blasio said.

South Shore Councilman Joe Borelli said he has not been contacted by the administration for any input on a potential site for a South Shore fast ferry and does not anticipate any progress on that front either.

"Once again, Staten Island taxpayers are being called upon to subsidize a ferry system to which they themselves have no access," Borelli said. "The excuse that there isn't a viable waterfront location on an Island of a half-million people is incredible, especially considering that Islanders have used the bay to access our neighboring boroughs since the Lenape paddled their canoes out to meet Henry Hudson."

The office of Mid-Island Councilman Steven Matteo also said it has yet to hear of any plans for any fast ferry and wouldn't count on it anytime soon.

"There is nothing 'citywide' about a ferry service that does not include a ferry for residents of the South Shore or the East Shore - who have the longest commutes in the country, thanks in large part to the lack of public transportation options," Matteo said. "To call this five borough ferry plan 'fair' is insulting to Staten Islanders, who have to pay twice as much for a commute to Manhattan that takes twice as long as most other residents."

ISLAND INCLUSION 'COULD BE FEASIBLE'



At a town hall meeting on Staten Island, the mayor admitted he made a mistake when he called it a five-borough ferry plan and said the Island was not included because the borough already has a ferry.

He promised though that this year, decisions would be made on where and when the ferry service could be expanded, but it boiled down to cost.

When asked Wednesday if the city was still planning to bring a fast ferry to the South Shore of Staten Island, the mayor's office said it was still looking into it.

"Given the higher than expected ridership we've seen from the NYC Ferry lines launched so far, we're looking with fresh eyes at more neighborhoods across the city -- including Staten Island -- where further expansions could be feasible," Melissa Grace, a spokeswoman for the mayor, told the Advance in an email.

In recent months, the mayor has been touting his push to make New York City not just the safest big city in America, but also the "fairest" in his second term.

FAIRNESS CAN'T BE ACHIEVED WITHOUT EFFICIENT TRANSPORTATION

On Wednesday, he also emphasized that fairness could not be achieved without efficient transportation.

"Our goal for the second term of this administration is to make New York City the fairest big city in America, to make sure that people can live a good life here no matter how much money they make, to make sure there's opportunity that's spread around fairly," de Blasio said. "And you can't get opportunity in the modern world if there isn't mass transit."

Borough President James Oddo recently criticized the mayor on Facebook on his push to make the city the fairest in the country without a fast ferry for Staten Island.

"You can't attain the appellation of "Fairest Big City in America" when you run a fast ferry that serves 4 out 5 boroughs and the only one it doesn't serve is the borough with 2 hour commutes and the fewest number of mass transit options," Oddo wrote earlier this month on Facebook.

But after a discussion with the mayor over dinner last week, Oddo said he called de Blasio out on his ferry plan, which does not include the only borough with two hour commutes and one with the fewest mass transit options.

Oddo said de Blasio made no promises of starting ferry service, but agreed to work with him to bring "everyone back in the room and have a new, genuine assessment of fast ferry" for Staten Island.STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- A man convicted of murdering his Staten Island girlfriend in 2011 will serve up to 50 years in prison, according to an NJ.com report.

The body of Ramona Jackson, then 40, of Mariners Harbor, was discovered with a fatal gunshot wound in July of that year, on a remote street in Elizabeth, N.J.

In December, a jury convicted Abdul Shahid Aziz, now 51, for murder and two weapons-related charges.

According to the sentence imposed by Superior Court Judge John M. Deitch, Aziz must serve at least 42 years before he is eligible for parole, according to the report.STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- The 29-year-old Sunnyside man found dead inside a rental car in Puerto Rico will be returned home, his family said Tuesday night.

Sean Collins' family had been struggling to bring his body home from the island commonwealth after he was found dead on Feb. 20.

Collins' brother-in-law, David Drogon, told the Advance Tuesday night Sean Collins' body had been scientifically identified and an undertaker would be bringing Collins home to Staten Island.

Harmon Home for Funerals in West Brighton is poised to handle the arrangements once Collins is back on Staten Island, Drogon said.

Dealing with the morgue has been one of the most distressing aspects of the family's unfathomable ordeal, family said.

Collins was dead for days before the family knew. He was brought to the morgue on the Tuesday he was found dead.

Later that week, the family was on TV pleadeing for the safe return of their loved one, whom they still thought was alive, but missing, Drogon said.

"His family was not notified," of Collins' death by the authorities, Drogon said. "His family just randomly drove to the morgue and we found him for ourselves and then it was the family that notified police, not the other way around."

Drogon said morgue officials did not release Collins' body, despite repeated requests from his family to do so, even though they identified Collins' tattoos, and the autopsy and the toxicology tests were done.

Rep. Dan Donovan said he worked with Secretary of State of Puerto Rico, and his staff, who "bent over backwards."

"I'm glad this family can finally put their loved one to rest here at home. I can't imagine dealing with this bureaucratic nightmare while grieving an unexpected loss," Donovan said.

"It looks like the officials on the ground that dealt with the family directly were not helpful or sympathetic at all."By THOMAS ERIK BASCOME, KAYLA SIMAS and ANNALISE KNUDSON

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- An unfounded report of a gun at Susan E. Wagner High School prompted a lockdown of the school Wednesday, terrifying students and causing panic amongst parents.

The Sea View school was placed under lockdown after a male caller stated that one student overheard another say there was a gun in the boys locker room at 12:27 p.m., according to an NYPD spokesman.

Students were locked in their classrooms for approximately two hours as police searched the building for a gun, before eventually being dismissed at 2:30 p.m.

A group of juniors who were inside their classrooms during the lockdown described the hectic situation.

"We were scared. A lot of kids were screaming. No one was allowed to leave the classroom or allowed in," said one junior.

We were sitting in a closet for over two hours. No one told us what was going on other than a lockdown. NYPD didnt come into our classroom until right before we were dismissed, thats when we knew we were safe, said another.

As the events unfolded, hundreds of parents gathered outside the school demanding answers from police officers on scene.

Once the students were dismissed, parents and their children could be seen crying and embracing in the streets following the ordeal.

IT WAS SCARY

A freshman recalled: It was scary because none of us knew what was happening, but the teachers kept very calm and followed protocol.

"Some of us had no service and were asking ones who did if we could use their phones to contact parents," another junior added.

Though not in the school at the time, one Susan E. Wagner senior was worried about a younger sibling inside.

"My little sister is hiding under a desk scared," the senior said. "How do they expect us to go back and feel safe? It's not normal to go to class where the teacher announces this is what you do if this happens."

"It's sad when a teacher with kids of her own says she would save us and not go home to her own," the senior added.

According to a Susan E. Wagner junior, the school had been preparing for a situation such as this in the wake of the nationwide school shooting epidemic.

"We have soft lockdown drills on a [regular] basis, but today we were told hard lockdown and we ran out of the lunchroom." the junior said.

After reuniting with her mother, one female student was overheard saying "I don't want to come back tomorrow."

The Advance has obtained footage from several Susan E. Wagner High School students showing the terrifying lockdown inside the school Wednesday.

Students sent clips from their Snapchat accounts detailing the incident and can be seen evacuating the school's lunchroom while an administrator shouts directions over a loud speaker.

Other students are seen barricaded inside their classrooms, while school safety officers are seen checking lockers.

The incident marked the latest unfounded report of a threat at a Staten Island school that the NYPD has received in the wake of the Parkland, Fla., massacre.

OTHER ISLAND STUDENTS SHAKEN

On Monday, a misheard conversation regarding school shootings was reported as a possible gun threat to Tottenville High School.

Despite no evidence of a legitimate threat, Tottenville students on Wednesday were shaken none the less by the possibility of a school shooting given the current social climate.

"A lot of people didn't show up to school because of the threat," said one Tottenville junior. "And of those who did, a lot of them left early."

Though ultimately electing to attend school, it wasn't an easy decision for the student.

"I spent the whole day questioning whether or not I was going to leave because I was so nervous about everything that was happening," the junior said.

According to the student, she wasn't the only one who felt this way.

"I was talking to a girl in first period and she said 'every little noise I hear I get paranoid,' and honestly I feel the same way," the junior added.

While noting that the security guards and deans have been on "high alert" in recent days, some students voiced dissatisfaction with the fact that no metal detectors were brought in and no bag checks conducted in response to the gun threat.

"I don't understand why they can check our bags on Halloween but can't check our bags when there's a gun threat," said another junior.

One Tottenville student, whose best friend attends Susan E. Wagner, said that she's shaken by the recent string of events that have seen both of their school's fall victim to gun threats in a matter of three days.

Knowing everything that happened at Tottenville earlier this week, and everything thats happening down in Florida, its a really scary thought. Its just not nice to think about, the student said.STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- An apparent police pursuit Wednesday morning ended after a person abandoned a truck on a dead-end street in Stapleton, according to a witness and emergency radio communications.

Marked police cars filled Pleasant Court, where a Dodge truck with New Jersey license plates could be seen with its driver's side door open.

A witness told the Advance that he was standing near his own car on Coursen Place around 9 a.m. when he and his vehicle were nearly struck by the truck. The truck then narrowly avoided another parked car as it rounded the corner onto Pleasant Court, the witness added.

The driver abandoned the vehicle on Pleasant Court, then took off on foot before he was apprehended by police nearby, according to emergency radio communications and the witness.

It was not immediately clear if the driver was arrested.

A spokesman for the NYPD's Deputy Commissioner of Information was not immediately able to provide information about the incident.STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- A New Springville man apologized to his family on Tuesday, moments before being sentenced to four years in prison for the mini-arsenal of assault weapons cops found inside his home five months ago.

"I just want to tell my family I love them, and I'm sorry," Anthony Romano said.

Romano, 36, was busted on Sept. 8 after officers discovered the weapons and ammunition inside his Bridgetown Street home.

The stash included three AR-15 assault rifles, a disassembled AK-47 assault rifle, a disassembled Uzi submachine gun, three disassembled 1911 pistols, 40 rounds of .223-caliber armor-piercing ammunition, seven rounds of .44-caliber 1911 ammunition and 10 high-capacity magazines, said a criminal complaint.

"I purchased all those items on a website, but I don't remember which site it was," the complaint quotes Romano as telling police.

Last month, Romano pleaded guilty in state Supreme Court, St. George, to attempted third-degree criminal weapon possession.

Besides prison time, the bearded defendant was sentenced as a second violent felony offender to five years' post-release supervision.

He also received a concurrent sentence of a year in jail for violating the terms of his probation.

In July 2016, Romano was sentenced to 90 days in jail and five years' probation after previously pleading guilty to attempted second-degree criminal weapon possession.

In November 2015, cops discovered a cache of real and fake weapons in Romano's home.

He admitted to possessing a semiautomatic AR-15 assault rifle.

"My client accepts the terms of his plea and the sentence as appropriate," Patrick V. Parrotta, Romano's lawyer, said outside court on Tuesday.

Assistant District Attorney Kate Malloy prosecuted the case.China factory expansion slows to 19-month low in February



Beijing, Feb 28 (AFP) Feb 28, 2018



China's factory expansion slowed again in February as output and export orders dropped due to the Lunar New Year holidays, hitting a 19-month low, official data showed Wednesday.

The manufacturing purchasing managers index (PMI), a gauge of factory conditions, came in at 50.3 in February, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said, compared to 51.3 in January.

Anything above 50 is considered growth while a figure below that points to contraction.

The indicator fell short of the 51.1 reading that analysts expected, according to a survey by Bloomberg News.

It marked a slowdown for the third consecutive month and the lowest reading since August 2016.

"The growth rate of the manufacturing industry has eased to some extent", NBS analyst Zhao Qinghe said in a statement, adding that factories had reduced output during the week-long Chinese New Year holidays.

Workers went home for the Spring Festival and prices fell due to weaker supply and demand. New export orders and imports also fell, Zhao said.

"This highlights the risk of a cyclical downturn in the global electronic supply chain and has a direct bearing on the regional trade outlook," Raymond Yeung at Australia & New Zealand Banking Group told Bloomberg.

Although Spring Festival falling in February this year distorted the data, when "averaging across the first two months of the year, the data still point to a clear slowdown in early 2018", Julian Evans-Pritchard of Capital Economics said in a research note.

Nomura's chief China economist Zhao Yang believes the data suggests "a weakening of growth momentum in the manufacturing sector, possibly led by a slowdown in property and fixed asset investment."

China has curbed activity in heavy industries in the country's northeast in an effort to reduce surplus capacity and lessen the heavy smog that typically blankets the region during the winter months.

"Looking ahead, I think the overcapacity cuts will still be a major theme this year, only that the focus might be shifted to sectors such as cement and glass from steel and coal in 2017," Iris Pang, an economist at ING Group told Bloomberg News.The drugging of the American boy.

The United States government first collected information on mental disorders in 1840, when the national census listed two generally accepted conditions: idiocy and insanity. A century later, psychiatrists knew more. They had options when making diagnoses, and by the 1940s difficult kids were classified as "hyperkinetic." Other terms would follow, like minimal brain dysfunction. In 1955, there came a pill doctors could prescribe for these children to temper their hyperactivity and make them behave more like "normal" children. It was a stimulant, so called because it heightened the brain's utilization of dopamine, which can improve attention and concentration. The active ingredient was a highly addictive compound called methylphenidate. The drug was called Ritalin.

By 1987, the American Psychiatric Association (APA) had settled on a more refined name for a disorder among children who exhibited the same set of symptoms, including trouble concentrating and impulsive behavior: attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder. ADHD. At the time, in American schools, it was still considered unusual for a child to take Ritalin. It was, frankly, considered weird.

Today, it has simply become a default method for dealing with a "difficult" child.

"We are pathologizing boyhood," says Ned Hallo-well, a psychiatrist who has been diagnosed with ADHD himself and has cowritten two books about it, Driven to Distraction and Delivered from Distraction. "God bless the women's movement--we needed it--but what's happened is, particularly in schools where most of the teachers are women, there's been a general girlification of elementary school, where any kind of disruptive behavior is sinful. What I call the 'moral diagnosis' gets made: You're bad. Now go get a doctor and get on medication so you'll be good. And that's a real perversion of what ought to happen. Most boys are naturally more restless than most girls, and I would say that's good. But schools want these little goody-goodies who sit still and do what they're told--these robots--and that's just not who boys are."

[...]

48% OF SUBJECTS OF ONE STUDY WHO TOOK ADHD MEDICATIONS EXPERIENCED SIDE EFFECTS LIKE SLEEP PROBLEMS AND "MOOD DISTURBANCES." IN ANOTHER, 6% OF CHILDREN SUFFERED PSYCHOTIC SYMPTOMS, INCLUDING THOUGHTS OF SUICIDE.System error

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The Governor, is meeting with the leaders of the political parties that obtained seats in Parliament (the United Democrats, the National Alliance, the United St. Maarten Peoples Party and the Sint Maarten Christian Party), as well as with the chairperson of Parliament, the vice chairperson of the Council of Advice and the chairperson of the Central Voting Bureau. During these meetings, the outcome of the elections and consequences thereof for the formation process for a new cabinet are discussed. The consultations will continue tomorrow.PHILIPSBURG:--- Lenovo and Antek had already donated 32 Lenovo ThinkPad Chromebooks in January to MPC and Sint Maarten Academy, which were personally handed over by Michael Abplanalp, Lenovo Director of Channel Sales. Those 32 donated systems matched 32 Lenovo Chromebooks purchased and donated by the Foresee Foundation for the DigiTeenz project. Mike was so impressed with the project that was set up by MPC to utilize these Chromebooks for the students that during his visit he committed Lenovo to donate another 20 units.

Sergio Blomont, Coordinator VSBO-PKL/PBL and Renaldo Baker in charge of integration of technology in the classrooms received the Lenovo systems on behalf of MPC and were very appreciative of the donations as they will allow MPC to finalize this important IT project for the students. The students and teachers in attendance were also very appreciative and enthusiastic at the potential for learning and teaching these systems will provide.

Luca Zambrini, a former MPC student, presented the systems on behalf of Antek IT Solutions and Lenovo.PHILIPSBURG:--- The Princess Juliana International Airport, SXM, will be featured prominently in Routes News, one of the most reputable publications in Aviation. Editor, Ed Robertson interviewed Michel Hyman, COO and Michael Lake, Director of the Finance Division while both were attending the 11th Annual Routes Americas conference in Quito, Ecuador. The title of the magazine feature is Three Questions for.

Hyman explained that the purpose of being at the Routes Americas was to let the aviation community know that St. Maarten and its associated hub partners were opened for leisure and business travel. He further stressed that the theme for the reconstruction of the terminal building is Rebuilding bigger and better, and gave additional insight into the proposed US Pre-Clearance, which will allow passengers on US-bound flights to be pre-cleared effortlessly at SXM Airport. This is forecast to bring some additional 1 million passengers to SXM Airport

The Routes News Editor was especially impressed by the fact that SXM Airport was operational again by October 10, 2017, a little over a month after the catastrophic hurricane Irma struck on September 6, 2017.

Director of the Finance division, Michael Lake took the rare opportunity to announce that a temporary air-conditioned Departure Pavilion opened recently, offering both food and beverage and retail concessions and a more comfortable experience for departing passengers. Lake also added that the Arrival Pavilion will be opened shortly.

Routes News was also given an update on the demolition of the interior of the Terminal Building, the reconstruction plan, and the construction of a modern Fixed Based Operations (FBO) facility.

Routes Americas serves as the central network event whereby international senior airline decision makers build high-value relationships with some of the most influential aviation professionals across the region. Routes News is produced by industry experts TTG Media on behalf of UBM and features a digital edition on www.ttgmedia.com and www.routesonline.com.

More than 7,000 copies of Routes News are published six times a year and mailed to specific individuals involved in route development worldwide. It also reflects the mix of airlines, airports, tourism authorities and local government organizations involved in route development. Routes News is focused on conducting much more media coverage on the Caribbean, and they are set to produce a Caribbean guide in the near future. This meshes well with the PJIA vision to boost additional communication efforts on its progress trajectory and growth to the world.MARIGOT:--- The Collectivite of Saint-Martin informs you the census of the population will be done between March 8th to April 12th, 2018.

Every year, the National Institute of Statistics and Economical Studies (INSEE) performs the census of the population living in France, in partnership with the Collectivite of St Martin.

Your home has been selected and you are invited to answer the forms that will be presented to you by a census officer during the above-mentioned period. Census officers have been recruited and trained by the Collectivite. They will present you an official Identity badge and are strictly bound by professional secrecy. The census officer will notify you of the necessary information and provide you with help to fill out the surveys.

This census operation is important for our territory because it will determine the number of people living in Saint-Martin. This population figures are also used to define public policies adapted to the territory like collective facilities, programs for the renovation of neighborhoods, means of transport. In addition, the census also provides statistical information on the age and family composition.

Whereas our island has been strongly impacted by hurricane Irma, on September 6th, 2017, we definitely need to get these statistical figures for the reconstruction of St Martin. For all these reasons, your participation is essential. It is made mandatory by law, and it is above all a civic duty that I ask you to fulfill.

For more information, please visit the website www.le-recensement-et-moi.fr or contact the census office of the Collectivite (Madam Rosette PAROTTE) at 0590 52 27 30  Sustainable Development Department located at number 6 Fort Louis road - Marigot.

The Collectivite thanks you in advance for participating in the census of Saint-Martin.Solar Novus Today Has Been Integrated

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The 2018 Environmental Performance Index (EPI) finds that air quality is the leading environmental threat to public health. Now in its twentieth year, the biennial report is produced by researchers at Yale and Columbia Universities in collaboration with the World Economic Forum.

The tenth EPI report ranks 180 countries on 24 performance indicators across 10 issue categories covering environmental health and ecosystem vitality. Switzerland leads the world in sustainability, followed by France, Denmark, Malta, and Sweden.

Switzerlands top ranking reflects strong performance across most issues, especially air quality and climate protection. In general, high scorers exhibit long-standing commitments to protecting public health, preserving natural resources, and decoupling greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from economic activity.

India and Bangladesh come in near the bottom of the rankings, with Burundi, Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Nepal rounding out the bottom five. Low scores on the EPI are indicative of the need for national sustainability efforts on a number of fronts, especially cleaning up air quality, protecting biodiversity, and reducing GHG emissions, said the researchers. Some of the lowest-ranking nations face broader challenges, such as civil unrest, but the low scores for others can be attributed to weak governance, they note.

EPI Rankings

The United States places 27th in the 2018 EPI, with strong scores on some issues, such as sanitation and air quality, but weak performance on others, including deforestation and greenhouse gas emissions. This ranking puts the United States near the back of the industrialized nations, behind France (2nd), the United Kingdom (6th), Germany (13th), Italy (16th), Japan (20th), and Canada (25th).

Of the emerging economies, China and India rank 120th and 177th respectively, reflecting the strain population pressures and rapid economic growth impose on the environment, note the researchers. Brazil ranks 69th, they add, suggesting that a concerted focus on sustainability as a policy priority will pay dividends  and that the level and pace of development is just one of many factors affecting environmental performance. Sustainability outcomes among emerging economies remains highly variable.

Seychelles ranks as the most-improved country over the past decade, due largely to its commitment to combating greenhouse gas emissions. Sao Tome and Principe, Kuwait, and Timor-Leste also increased their ranking due to several factors, including the establishment of areas protecting biodiversity and habitat. Burundi, Central African Republic, Madagascar, the Bahamas, and Latvia slipped significantly in environmental performance, largely due to sub-par performance on climate change. All trend analyses are based on backcasting this years EPI methods on historical data.

2018 EPI Trends

The 2018 EPI offers not only a snapshot of where countries stand today but also reflects important trends in environmental performance at both the national and global levels. The global community is generally improving on a number of issues, such as health outcomes related to drinking water and sanitation and protection of marine ecosystems, while on other issues significant challenges remain.

Fisheries continue to deteriorate in most countries, with significant problems in El Salvador, Papua New Guinea, and Portugal. Substantial populations still suffer from poor air quality, most notably in India, China, and Pakistan. And on some issues, a small number of countries are failing to address critical problems. Indonesia, Malaysia, and Cambodia, for example, have experienced significant deforestation over the past five years, reflecting broad policy failures, said the researchers.

EPI and Policy

Analysis of the policy drivers underlying the 2018 EPI rankings makes it clear that income is a major determinant of environmental success, said the researchers, noting that investments in safe drinking water and modern sanitation, in particular, translate quickly into improved environmental health results. Yet at every level of development, some countries achieve scores that exceed their peer nations with similar economic circumstances, demonstrating that good governance and careful policy choices also affect outcomes, they add.

As the world community pursues new sustainable development goals, policymakers need to know who is leading and who is lagging on energy and environmental challenges, said Daniel C. Esty, director of the Yale Center for Environmental Law & Policy and the Hillhouse Professor at Yale University. The 2018 EPI confirms that success with regard to sustainable development requires both economic progress that generates the resources to invest in environmental infrastructure and careful management of industrialization and urbanization that can lead to pollution that threatens both public health and ecosystems.

EPI and Global Sustainability Data

The EPI builds on the best available global data from international research entities, such as the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, the World Resources Institute, and the Sea Around Us Project at the University of British Columbia, as well as international organizations such as the World Bank and the UN Food and Agriculture Organization.

Nevertheless, serious data gaps limit the ability to measure results  and particularly changes in performance  on a number of important issues. As the EPI project has highlighted for two decades, better data collection, reporting, and verification across a range of environmental issues are urgently needed, said Zach Wendling, principal investigator of the 2018 EPI. The world needs better data on sustainable agriculture, water resources, waste management, and threats to biodiversity. Supporting global data systems is one of the most important steps the world community can take to achieving sustainable development goals.

Complete methods, data, and results  including those for individual countries  are available online here.

Source

YaleNews 2018Like thousands of Indians, Surinderpal Singh Pali, 38, of Kalyanpur village in the State of Punjab had a burning desire to go to Canada.

But his passage to a new world, ended in murder.

Now Punjab police say that he was the victim of a kidnapping gang that preyed on those wanting to immigrate to Canada.

But unlike other similar criminal enterprises which would cheat the wannabe-migrant, this one held them captive for ransom. When the money from the family does not come, they killed their captives.

Police in the town of Hoshiapur, Punjab said they have arrested two men from the neighbouring state of Haryana, in connection with the murder of Surinderpal Singh Pali last December 6th.

His body was found in Bengaluru in Southern India, where he was being held hostage.

Police said their initial investigations show that two men arrested - Paras Ram and Sumit  were part of a gang of criminals who would take youths desperate to go abroad and extort money from them and their families after keeping them in confinement.

In Palis case, he left his family home on December 3, after his handlers had promised to send him to Canada and assured him that he could pay about CAD$40,000 to them on reaching there.

However, his handlers took him to the southern Indian state of Bengaluru where the held him captive and demanded he call his family for the money.

When he refused, he was beaten to death and his body left on the streets.

According to police, the two men arrested have revealed the names of other gang members operating in other Indian cities.

They have disclosed that they have 8-10 members and they lure Punjabi youth by promising to send them to Canada. Once the youth are with them, the accused take them to different locations in the country and extort money from their families, said a police spokesman.

Another Punjabi youth identified as Mani said he too was a victim of the gang.

He was released after his family paid about CAD$40,000 to the gang.

A third victim, identified as Jatinder Kumar, a youth from Ballowal village of Nawanshahr district of Punjab also revealed that he was taken to another state on a similar pretext.

His family agreed to pay about CAD $20,000 to the kidnappers. However, he managed to escape from the clutches of criminals on December 21. Fake immigration scams are rife in India, especially in Punjab.India and Canada have resolved to combat terrorism and violent extremism in all forms and manifestations and agreed that no country should allow its territory to be used for such activities, an agreement that came during the weeklong visit by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau that was marked by controversies over the perceived softness of Canada towards Khalistani separatists on its soil.

The two countries also signed a framework for cooperation in which they named Sikh extremist groups Babbar Khalsa International and International Sikh Youth Federation along with terror groups such as Al Qaeda, the Islamic State, the Haqqani Network, Lashkar-e-Toiba and Jaish-e-Mohammed and committed themselves to work together to neutralise their threats.

After one-on-one and delegation-level talks and with Trudeau by his side, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said there is no place for misuse of religion for political and divisive purposes.

"Terrorism and extremism are threats to our democratic and pluralistic societies," Modi told the media along with Trudeau following one-on-one and delegation-level talks between between the two countries here.

"It is very important for us to come together to fight these forces," he said. "There should be no space for those who misuse religion for political purposes and divisive politics."

He said those who challenge the sovereignty, unity and integrity of the two countries will not be tolerated.

Modi's candid remarks came during the last leg of Trudeau's week-long visit, which was earlier marked by a certain cold attitude from New Delhi towards the visiting dignitary because of Canada's perceived support to Khalistani elements.

In a major embarrassment to Trudeau, on Thursday his country's High Commission here had to rescind an invitation to a convicted Khalistani separatist, Jaspal Atwal, for a reception that was hosted in honour of Trudeau.

In a joint statement issued after the talks, the two countries pledged to combat terrorism in all its forms and manifestations while declaring that no country should allow its territory to be used for terrorist and violent extremist activities.

"Recognising that terrorism, violent extremism and radicalisation to violence present acute challenges to global peace, stability and prosperity, the leaders resolved to combat terrorism and violent extremism in all their forms and manifestations," the joint statement said.

"They called for bringing terrorists to justice and holding accountable state sponsors of terrorism, including cross-border terrorism. They further emphasised that no country should allow its territory to be used for terrorist and violent extremist activities."

Modi and Trudeau also welcomed the agreement on a bilateral Framework for Cooperation on Countering Terrorism and Violent Extremism that was signed between the two countries.

The Framework 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.

The two sides emphasised the need to deny operating space to terrorist and violent extremist groups.

Bilateral trade between India and Canada stood at a C$8.02 billion (around $6 billion), which does not reflect the true potential.

Following the talks, the two sides signed a joint declaration of intent for cooperation in the field of ICT and electronics, terms of reference for the India-Canada ministerial energy dialogue, and memorandums of understanding (MoUs) for cooperation in the areas of sports, intellectual property rights (IPRs), higher education, and science, technology and innovation.

Stating that there are over 120,000 Indian students in Canada, Modi said that the renewal of the MoU on higher education would benefit students and teachers in both countries.

He also called for increased exchange of skilled professionals and said that there are immense possibilities in the technology partnership.

Describing Canada as an energy superpower, the Prime Minister said the North American country can help India meet its increasing energy needs.

With Canada being home to around 1.2 million people of Indian origin, Modi said that people-to-people contacts formed an important foundation for the strategic partnership between the two countries.

"We are committed to maintaining friendship and amity with the Indian community in Canada and seek their active participation in India's progress and development," he said.

On his part, Trudeau said that both India and Canada share a set of values that make them natural allies.

He had earlier announced $1 billion in two-way investment that will create 5,800 jobs in Canada.Greenpeace protesters jailed for French nuclear stunt



Thionville, France, Feb 27 (AFP) Feb 27, 2018



A French court on Tuesday sentenced two Greenpeace activists to a minimum of two months in jail for breaking into a nuclear power plant and setting off fireworks last year.

Six other protesters were handed five-month suspended sentences for the October stunt at the plant in Cattenom, near the border with Luxembourg, which was intended to show the facility's vulnerability to attack.

Greenpeace France, represented by local head Jean-Francois Julliard, was also fined 20,000 euros ($24,500) by the court in the northeastern town of Thionville.

"Greenpeace crossed a red line," said prosecutor Christelle Dumont, adding that any debate about nuclear safety "must be in accordance with the law".

Greenpeace lawyer Alexandre Faro said the protesters were fighting for ideals and "they do not deserve hard time in prison".

The prosecution had requested six-month suspended sentences for six of the activists, including Greenpeace France's chief anti-nuclear campaigner Yannick Rousselet.

Non-suspended six-month sentences were requested for the two other activists, who had previously been convicted of breaking into two other French nuclear sites.

The eight activists broke into Cattenom before dawn on October 12, and the state-owned EDF energy company that operates the plant said the protesters were detained before they reached the nuclear zone, and that the plant's safety was not threatened.

Greenpeace said the fireworks were set off at the foot of a spent fuel pool -- where nuclear plants store highly radioactive fuel rods that are removed from reactors after their use.

After Greenpeace activists broke into another nuclear plant in November, the French government opened a parliamentary inquiry into nuclear safety and security.

mk/ha/lp/dl/bpUS lawmaker concerned over nuclear overtures to Saudi



Washington, Feb 28 (AFP) Feb 28, 2018



An American legislator has expressed concern over the Trump administration's efforts to sign a nuclear cooperation accord with Saudi Arabia, which is preparing to build its first reactors.

Riyadh plans to announce at the beginning of March who will construct the first two of up to 16 reactors, and negotiations are under way with the United States for its agreement to export technology needed for their construction.

Democratic Senator Ed Markey, of Massachusetts, says any deal is "almost certain" to require a non-proliferation accord, known as a "123 agreement," that is designed to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons.

"Previous US efforts to conclude a 123 agreement with Saudi Arabia have been unsuccessful because of its long-standing refusal to commit to foregoing any uranium enrichment or spent-fuel reprocessing on its territory -- the so-called... 'gold standard' for 123 agreements," Markey, of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said in a letter to Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Energy Secretary Rick Perry.

His concerns come with US-Iran tensions high over the civil nuclear program of Riyadh's regional rival Tehran.

US President Donald Trump has threatened to tear up a 2015 global pact under which Iran -- facing suspicions it was working towards a nuclear bomb -- agreed to curb its nuclear program in exchange for a lifting of sanctions.

Both Washington and Riyadh have complained of Iran's "destabilizing" acts in the Middle East.

Markey says Saudi Arabia's "unwillingness" to commit to a "gold standard" 123 agreement "is particularly concerning in light of comments made by Saudi officials and members of the royal family suggesting that a nuclear program may be as much for geopolitical purposes as for electricity generation."



- Competition from other countries -



According to US media, Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman -- the main driver of a more aggressive regional push by the kingdom -- is to visit the United States in early March to meet with Trump.

The visit has not been officially confirmed by either country.

Ties between the kingdom and Washington have strengthened since Trump assumed office early last year. His first official trip abroad was to Saudi Arabia, which is trying to diversify its oil-based economy and energy sources.

In his letter dated Monday, Markey asks the two US officials to explain "the impetus for renewed discussions on a nuclear cooperation agreement between the United States and Saudi Arabia."

He also questions whether the kingdom asked the US administration "to consider concluding a 123 agreement that does not include the gold standard or did the Trump administration independently decide to consider this prospect?"

In mid-February on the sidelines of a conference in Munich, Saudi Arabia's Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir, speaking with US television channel CNBC, suggested Riyadh could turn to other countries if the Trump administration did not support its civil nuclear program.

Besides the US company Westinghouse, Russian, French, Chinese and South Korean firms have all been seeking the Saudi contracts.

Markey on Tuesday said that Perry, who will reportedly meet Saudi officials including Energy Minister Khaled al-Faleh in London, must brief him, and the rest of the Foreign Relations Committee, "on what transpired during his trip" upon his return.

"And the Trump administration must explain more fully... why it is considering compromising" in a potential 123 agreement with Saudi Arabia.Eleven sick after envelope opened at US military base



Washington, Feb 28 (AFP) Feb 28, 2018



An envelope containing an "unknown substance" was opened at a US base near Washington on Tuesday, leaving 11 people sick, including military personnel, officials said.

The envelope was received at Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall, leading to an evacuation of the building, the US Marine Corps said in a statement.

Base officials "are coordinating with local HAZMAT teams and FBI. Several Marines are receiving medical care as a result of this incident," the statement read.

"No additional details are available at this time as the investigation is ongoing."

The Arlington Fire Department tweeted that "11 people started feeling ill after letter was opened in consolidated admin building."

CNN reported that a corporal, gunnery sergeant and a colonel complained of a "burning sensation" on their hands and face.

Marine spokesman Major Brian Block said it was too soon to say whether the incident was being considered a terror attack.

"It's way too early to start speculating on any of that, we have to wait and let the investigators do their jobs," Block told AFP.

Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall overlooks Arlington Cemetery just across the Potomac River from Washington.Trump yet to order spies to retaliate against Russia: NSA chief



Washington, Feb 28 (AFP) Feb 28, 2018



President Donald Trump has not yet ordered his spy chiefs to retaliate against Russian interference in US elections, the head of the National Security Agency told lawmakers Tuesday.

"We have not opted to engage in some of the same behaviors we are seeing," said Admiral Michael Rogers, who heads both the NSA -- the leading US electronic eavesdropping agency -- and the new US Cyber Command, the military body charged with online combat.

Asked in a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing if he had received orders from Trump to fight back against Moscow's meddling, Rogers said: "No, I have not."

Rogers denied claims that the agency is doing nothing to push back against Russian hacking, theft of US cyber secrets and other activities.

However, he acknowledged: "They have not paid a price that is sufficient to change their behavior."

Rogers echoed the comments he and five other US intelligence chiefs made two weeks ago at the House Intelligence Committee, where all said they had not been ordered by Trump to counter the Russians.

The US has accused Russia of actively interfering in the 2016 presidential election, stealing Democratic party communications and pushing out disinformation through social media.

It also accuses Moscow of stealing hacking secrets of the US intelligence community.

Rogers said an order for Trump is needed before the US intelligence community and military can undertake offensive online operations against the Russians.

"What I see on the Cyber Command side leads me to believe that if we don't change the dynamic here, that this is going to continue, and 2016 won't be viewed as isolated," he said.

But he said that at a lower level, the NSA and Cyber Command could take some unspecified actions to rebuff attackers.

Asked about the exchange in Congress, White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders suggested the president does not need to act.

"Nobody is denying him the authority," she said of Rogers.Malian families accuse army of killing 7 civilians



Bamako, Feb 28 (AFP) Feb 28, 2018



Families on Wednesday accused Mali's military of killing seven civilians during an operation in the centre of the country a week earlier, as the government opened an enquiry into the deaths.

In a separate incident in the same region, six Malian soldiers were killed on Tuesday when their vehicle struck a mine, the army said on Wednesday.

Malian soldiers and international forces are battling jihadists and criminal gangs in the north and centre, where an Islamist insurgency has taken root and the state is largely absent.

Nouhoun Sarr, the nephew of one of seven men killed on February 21 after their arrest by the military, said the authorities informed him on Wednesday morning of his uncle's fate.

"They called us to tell us our relatives were killed during the operation, without elaborating," he told AFP.

A UN report published this month found that "at least 20 percent" of recorded incidents in 2016 and in the first of half of 2017 that endangered civilian lives involved the Malian authorities -- essentially the security forces.

"According to our information, the seven civilians arrested on February 21 by the Malian army in Sokolo were killed by soldiers," said Yehia Ag Mohamed Ali, a former minister and member of the opposition Sadi party.

The government said in a statement on Wednesday that the army was "carrying out reconnaissance missions and searches in the Sokolo area, during which civilians unfortunately lost their lives.

"An enquiry has been opened," it added.

The army suffers losses on a weekly basis at the hands of jiahdists, and on Tuesday a lieutenant was among the six killed, an army statement said.

The soldiers were travelling in the Segou region when they "triggered an improvised explosive device" at 6:30pm (1830 GMT) on Tuesday, according to the statement.

Islamic extremists linked to Al-Qaeda took control of the desert north of Mali in early 2012, but were largely driven out in a French-led military operation launched in January 2013.

In June 2015, Mali's government signed a peace agreement with coalitions of armed groups. But the jihadists remain active, and large tracts of the country are lawless.Malian families accuse army of killing 7 civilians



Bamako, Feb 28 (AFP) Feb 28, 2018



Families on Wednesday accused Mali's military of killing seven civilians during an operation in the centre of the country a week earlier, as the government opened an enquiry into the deaths.

In a separate incident in the same region, six Malian soldiers were killed on Tuesday when their vehicle struck a mine, the army said on Wednesday, and a forest ranger was gunned down in a third incident.

Malian soldiers and international forces are battling jihadists and criminal gangs in the north and centre, where an Islamist insurgency has taken root and the state is largely absent.

Nouhoun Sarr, the nephew of one of seven men killed on February 21 after their arrest by the military, said the authorities informed him on Wednesday morning of his uncle's fate.

"They called us to tell us our relatives were killed during the operation, without elaborating," he told AFP.

A UN report published this month found that "at least 20 percent" of recorded incidents in 2016 and in the first of half of 2017 that endangered civilian lives involved the Malian authorities -- essentially the security forces.

"According to our information, the seven civilians arrested on February 21 by the Malian army in Sokolo were killed by soldiers," said Yehia Ag Mohamed Ali, a former minister and member of the opposition Sadi party.

The government said in a statement on Wednesday that the army was "carrying out reconnaissance missions and searches in the Sokolo area, during which civilians unfortunately lost their lives.

"An enquiry has been opened," it added.

The army suffers losses on a weekly basis at the hands of jiahdists, and on Tuesday a lieutenant was among the six killed, an army statement said.

The soldiers were travelling in the Segou region when they "triggered an improvised explosive device" at 6:30pm (1830 GMT) on Tuesday, according to the statement.

A forest ranger was also gunned down on Tuesday in Douentza, central Mali, a military source told AFP, describing the assailant as a "terrorist" -- the word most frequently used for armed jihadists in Mali.

In Mali, forest rangers are paramilitaries and dress in military fatigues while carrying out their work.

Islamic extremists linked to Al-Qaeda took control of the desert north of Mali in early 2012, but were largely driven out in a French-led military operation launched in January 2013.

In June 2015, Mali's government signed a peace agreement with coalitions of armed groups. But the jihadists remain active, and large tracts of the country are lawless.Children killed, wounded in Yemen air strike: UN



Sanaa, Feb 28 (AFP) Feb 28, 2018



Two children were killed and eight wounded in an air strike on the northern Yemeni rebel stronghold of Saada, a UN agency said Wednesday.

A Saudi-led military coalition allied with Yemen's government is the only party known to conduct air raids over areas controlled by Yemen's Huthi rebels.

The United Nations Children's Fund tweeted that two children died and eight were wounded in an air raid on Saada governorate on Tuesday.

"For how long must #ChildrenUnderAttack in Yemen continue to be killed when it can be avoided?" UNICEF asked.

The coalition, which has fought the Iran-backed Huthis since 2015, was last year blacklisted by the UN for the killing and maiming of children.

More than 9,200 people have been killed and tens of thousands wounded in Yemen's three-year-old war, which is seen as both a civil conflict and a proxy war between regional titans Saudi Arabia and Iran.

The war has triggered what the UN calls the world's largest humanitarian disaster, with 8.4 million people now facing imminent famine.

Yemen is also battling cholera and diphtheria outbreaks.Four UN troops killed in central Mali mine blast



Bamako, Feb 28 (AFP) Feb 28, 2018



Four UN peacekeepers were killed on Wednesday when a mine exploded under their vehicle in central Mali in a deliberate attack, capping a bloody week for civilians and security forces in the West African nation.

Jihadists have ramped up their activities in central Mali in recent months, targeting domestic and foreign forces in violence once confined to the restive north.

The UN said in a statement that the "explosion of a mine or IED against a MINUSMA vehicle on the Boni-Douentza road" in the Mopti region killed the four peacekeepers and wounded four more.

The mission, known by the acronym MINUSMA, counts almost 11,000 peacekeepers and has been deployed in Mali since 2013 to counter a jihadist insurgency and general lawlessness.

"MINUSMA is currently upgrading its security presence in central Mali," Mission chief Mahamat Saleh Annadif said. "Cornered, the terrorists are multiplying their attacks."

Six Malian soldiers were killed on Tuesday when their vehicle struck a mine, the army said on Wednesday, and a forest ranger was gunned down in a third incident blamed on jihadists.



- Enquiry into security forces' abuses -



Mali's military is frequently accused of abuses themselves, with families on Wednesday pointing the finger at the army in the killing of seven civilians during an operation in the same area a week ago.

A UN report published this month found that "at least 20 percent" of recorded incidents in 2016 and in the first of half of 2017 that endangered civilian lives involved the Malian authorities -- essentially the security forces.

Nouhoun Sarr, the nephew of one of seven men killed on February 21 after their arrest by the military, said the authorities informed him on Wednesday morning of his uncle's fate.

"They called us to tell us our relatives were killed during the operation, without elaborating," he told AFP.

Yehia Ag Mohamed Ali, a former minister and member of the opposition Sadi party, told AFP: "According to our information, the seven civilians arrested on February 21 by the Malian army in Sokolo were killed by soldiers."

The government said in a statement on Wednesday that the army was "carrying out reconnaissance missions and searches in the Sokolo area, during which civilians unfortunately lost their lives".

"An enquiry has been opened," it added.

Islamic extremists linked to Al-Qaeda took control of the desert north of Mali in early 2012, but were largely driven out in a French-led military operation launched in January 2013.

In June 2015, Mali's government signed a peace agreement with coalitions of armed groups. But the jihadists remain active, and large tracts of the country are lawless.Optimization

Are you frustrated with a slow pc or a hard disk not performing as it should?

Try SLOW-PCfighter to speed up boot time on a slow PC, or try a free scan of FULL-DISKfighter to recover space on a full disk. The latest offering is DRIVERfighter to update your driver updater. Get complete PC optimization and extend the life of your PC with these must-have software tools.Italy's Strange Campaign Berlusconi, Five Star and the Road to Political Gridlock

A disillusioned electorate, multi-billion-euro campaign promises and the return of Silvio Berlusconi: Italy is muddling its way through a strange election campaign with an uncertain outcome. The consequences for Europe could be significant.Reporter Podcast 'It Was Suffocating, and the Ground Was Shaking'

Children are risking their lives in India's illegal mica mines. Journalist Marius Munstermann talks about what he saw and experienced while reporting on the mines -- and how the earth shook with every blow of the pickaxe.Reporter Podcast Exploring One of Europe's Last Wild Rivers

The last wild river in Europe is in danger. Holger Dambeck and Jonathan Miske accompanied researchers to the site in Albania, and in the Horweite podcast, they spoke about the different accents of nightingales, introverted snail collectors and the charms of village life.Smara (Sahrawi Refugee Camps), Feb 28, 2018 (SPS)- The Decision of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) which excludes the territorial waters of Western Sahara from EU-Morocco fisheries agreement has come to confirm its previous decision and complies with the requirements of the international law and the international humanitarian law, said Tuesday President of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR), Secretary General of the Frente POLISARIO Brahim Gali.

In his speech on the occasion of the festivities commemorating the 42nd anniversary of the proclamation of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic in Smara, Gali said that the decision made today by CJEU has come to confirm its previous decision and complies with the requirements of the international law and the international humanitarian law, stressing the importance of the consent of the Sahrawi people through the voice of its only legal representative the Frente POLISARIO on any exploitation of the Sahrawi natural resources.

This decision is a new victory for the Sahrawi people and their fair struggle and also for the legality, the values of justice and human rights, EUs founding principles, said Sahrawi President, reiterating his call to the European Commission to rigorously comply with the requirements of this decision and that preceding it, and thus the European law and international law.

He also called the Commission to refrain from signing any agreement with Morocco comprising the territories or the territorial waters of Western Sahara.

CJEU announced Tuesday the fisheries agreement concluded between EU and Morocco valid insofar as it is not applicable to Western Sahara and the Sahrawi territorial waters.SPS

125/090/700Ingenico Group innovates for micro-merchants with a PIN on Glass solution

Press Release Paris,

February 28, 2018

Ingenico Group (Euronext: FR0000125346-ING), the global leader in seamless payment, has developed an innovative payment solution for micro-merchants based on a technology generally called PIN on Glass (PoG) or PIN on Mobile (PoM). It will enable consumers to insert their cards in a compact smartcard reader and manually enter their PIN on the personal mobile device of the merchant. This concept was developed with our technological partner, MYPINPAD, a global leader in payments software authentication solutions headquartered in the United Kingdom.

At Ingenico, we believe that PIN on Glass technology will accelerate the deployment of mPOS solutions among micro-merchants as it offers excellent customer experience without compromises on security.

The solution is comprised of:

A secure card reader (SCR) to read EMV and contactless bank cards,

A mobile PIN entry application (MPEA) to enter the PIN on the merchant's device,

A back-end Trust Service to Analyseand verify that the execution environment of the merchant's device is secure before manual PIN entry.

Ingenico Group has successfully integrated PIN on Glass into the overall payment process and existing infrastructure. Its solution has been approved by the main card schemes such as Mastercard. Ingenico Group has received waivers to conduct field tests in several countries, which are about to be launched.

Ingenico Group has anticipated the new security requirements published by the PCI Security Standards Council in January 2018, on which this innovation is based. The Council will also release the certification framework during the course of 2018.

'This PIN on Glass solution will perfectly complement existing Ingenico offers. It will allow our clients to build disruptive business models and extend card acceptance among micro-merchants, with a solution designed for their specific payment needs.' said Patrice Le Marre, Executive Vice President, Banks & Acquirers Business Unit, Ingenico Group.

'Digital innovation is happening at a rapid pace, and standards are critical to ensuring the security, consistency of experience and adoption of new technology. It is great to see Ingenico develop a PIN on Glass solution that advances our vision of every device being a secure acceptance device.' said Bruce Rutherford, Senior Vice President of security standards and solutions at Mastercard.

About Ingenico Group

Ingenico Group (Euronext: FR0000125346 - ING) is the global leader in seamless payment, providing smart, trusted and secure solutions to empower commerce across all channels, in-store, online and mobile. With the world's largest payment acceptance network, we deliver secure payment solutions with a local, national and international scope. We are the trusted world-class partner for financial institutions and retailers, from small merchants to several of the world's best known global brands. Our solutions enable merchants to simplify payment and deliver their brand promise.

Stay in touch with us:

www.ingenico.com twitter.com/ingenico

For more experts' views, visit our blog.

Contacts

Communication

Coba Taillefer

External Communications Manager

coba.taillefer@ingenico.com

T./ +33 1 58 01 89 62



Investors

Laurent Marie

VP Investor Relations &

Financial Communication

laurent.marie@ingenico.com

T./ +33 1 58 01 92 98



Investors

Kevin Woringer

Investor Relations Manager

kevin.woringer@ingenico.com

T./ +33 1 58 01 85 09





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: INGENICO via Globenewswire

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Shares puts on free Investor Events throughout the year across the country. They provide an opportunity for investors to learn more about companies on the stock market and hear from a range of investment experts including fund managers and Shares journalists.A training exercise that ended a life By Kumudini Hettiarachchi Many questions are raised on how a 52-year-old school principal met with an untimely death during a mandatory outdoor team-building and leadership programme View(s): View(s):

Mata godak amarui, hisa pelenna wage.

Those were the final words, Im in a lot of agony, my head feels as if it will burst, that Thilakaratne Abeysinghe heard from his beloved Sudu Hamine.

It was around 7.45 on the night of February 17 and when he saw her next, she was dead.

His Sudu Hamine was 52-year-old Rohini Kumari Atapattu, the mother of his four daughters and the Principal of the Tzu Chi National School in Hambantota. (The school takes its name from a foreign organization which had helped rebuild it after the 2004 tsunami.)

Rohini was buried on Monday and the family, caught unaware by this sudden tragedy, is struggling to come to grips with her death.

While an open verdict has been returned on her death and the inquest will be taken up again on March 8, the Police and also the Education Ministry are conducting two separate investigations, the Sunday Times learns.

Education Minister Akila Viraj Kariyawasam has ordered a prompt probe into the incident and suspended the Leadership Training Programme until the investigation is completed, said the Media Secretary of the Education Ministry, Kalpa Gunarathna.

When the Sunday Times asked several crucial questions such as how the organisation, the Sri Lanka Outdoor Adventure School based in Mirigama, which trained this group of Principals was chosen; why Principals need dangerous adventure training; what safety measures to break a fall were in place; and whether there are any medical tests before Principals have to undergo such training, Mr. Gunarathna requested that an official of the ministrys Human Resources Department should be contacted.

Several calls to this officials mobile were not answered and when finally the official did so, he said he was not responsible for the arrangements and suggested that other officials should be contacted. With passing the buck seeming to be the practice, the Sunday Times was not able to get answers to these vital questions at the time of going to press.

How did Rohini meet with an untimely death? On Friday, it is from Rohinis husband, Thilak that we attempt to gather exactly what had happened, even though he too has no clear idea of the details of that fateful evening of February 17, six days earlier.

Having received a letter from the Education Ministry that National School Principals have to undergo a mandatory Team-building and Leadership Programme, Rohini packed her bag with the stipulated stuff including a track suit and canvas shoes and bid goodbye to her family on February 16 and left for the Wayamba Training Centre in Wariyapola.

According to the letter, the programme was to be conducted by the Sri Lanka Outdoor Adventure School based in Mirigama, Thilak said.

The family was not unduly worried as Rohini had already undergone two other training programmes, two years ago and one year ago respectively. Those programmes were conducted vidimathva by the army, the first at Rantambe and the other at Kuda Oya in Moneragala. After the first programme she had secured the rank of Second Lieutenant.

Throughout her journey to Wariyapola, she was in touch with them and the next day (17th) even though Thilak tried to call her all morning there was no answer. She, however, called back around 2.45 p.m. and told him that she had just had her lunch and would be having a heavy schedule from 3 p.m. until about 10.30 in the night. She had also spoken to their daughters, while requesting Thilak to meet her at Embilipitiya the next evening as she was returning then.

It was around 7.30 that night (17th) that Thilak got a call from a male, gently urging him not to get kalabala (upset) and that his nona had been in an accident. He was requested to call another mobile. Frantically, he tried his wifes mobile, but there was no answer. In a panic, he called the mobile number given to him. It was answered by another Principal who said baya wenna epa, podi anathurak wela and explained that his wife was in hospital and she was by her side. On his anxious plea, she had handed over the mobile to his wife who told him that she was in much pain.

Up to that time no one else, not the organisers of the programme nor the Education Ministry, had informed him that his wife had been injured during the training programme, says Thilak.

From here and there, Thilak gathered the terrible details  the incident had occurred just after 6 p.m. Rohini had been taken to the Wariyapola Hospital and was then transferred to the Kurunegala Hospital where a CT Scan had been done, and then she had been transferred to the National Hospital of Sri Lanka (NHSL).

From what the family gathered, Rohini was admitted to the NHSL at about 11 p.m. and died soon after, while Thilak was still in Tangalle, having quickly arranged transport and leaving Hambantota in a rush. He was able to come to the NHSL around 1.30 a.m. on the 18th, only to be barred, despite his tearful pleas, by the NHSL security personnel from entering the NHSL and seeing his wifes body.

At the NHSL were several Education Ministry officials. Devastated and in tears, Thilak was told by the officials to accompany them to the home of an official in Kottawa.

It was only around 10.30 a.m. on the 18th during the police investigation at the NHSL mortuary that Thilak was asked to identify his wifes body. She was in a blue T-shirt that had been given by the organisers for the activities, says distraught Thilak.

Attempting to piece together the final hours of his wife, he has spoken to many and been told that she along with several others climbed a hill to shimmy down a rope. The Judicial Medical Officer at the inquest had said that she had fallen from a height of about 5-6 feet.

As the family strives to deal with their loss and grief, there is an urgent need to find out what happened that evening at the Wayamba Training Centre.

Standards to follow By Oshani Alwis Sri Lankan Standard  Adventure Tourism  Safety Management Requirements came into being in July 2017, said the Acting Director-General of the Sri Lanka Standards Institution, Nayana Satharasinghe. Explaining that standards are not compulsory but meant to be used voluntarily, she said that regulatory bodies, however, can use these standards as their criteria. The SLS 21101 published in July 2017 states: Adventure Tourism Activities involve an accepted, inherent element of risk and challenge. Taking risks brings reward but also brings dangers. In order to maximise the rewards, adventure tourism activity providers need to operate as safely as practicable. International standards of ISO/TR 21102 and ISO 21103 provide for adventure tourism activity providers to plan, communicate about, and deliver adventure tourism activity as safely as practicable. Purpose of International Standards: To set out the minimum requirements for a safety management system for adventure tourism activity providers; safety management system provides a framework for the delivery of safe adventure tourism activities; and to analyse their adventure tourism activities, understand participants requirements, define the process that ensures safety and keep the process under control. Requirements: A provider can use this international standard for the following  to enhance safety performance; to meet expectations of participants and staff safety; to demonstrate safe practice; and to support compliance with the applicable legal requirements. Risk treatment: Process to modify risks  avoiding the risk by deciding not to start or continue with the activity that gives risk to the risk; removing the risk source; and retaining the risk by informed decisions. Safety: The state in which the risk of harm or damage is limited to an acceptable level. Adventure activity for tourism purposes that involves a degree of instruction or leadership and a deliberate accepted element of risk. Adventure tourism activity provider: Individual or organisation having overall responsibility for all aspects of the provision of adventure tourism activities. Actions to address risks and opportunities: Ensure the Adventure Tourism Standard Management System can achieve its intended outcome and prevent or reduce undesired effects.

A shortage of answers No, seems to be the resounding answer to the following questions which the Sunday Times attempted to clarify: Are there any rules and regulations which govern adventure training programmes which include rock-climbing and abseiling or rappelling, which means descending a rock face or other near-vertical surface by using a doubled rope coiled round the body which is fixed at a higher point?

Can anyone set up such an organisation to engage in such activity which could be harmful to participants? Do they need a licence from a regulatory authority?

Is there a set of safety measures  such as helmets, harnesses, nets or water to break a fall  stipulated for such gruelling workouts and who checks the equipment as well as these measures?

Who decides whether participants in such programmes are medically-fit to undergo them? When asked by the Sunday Times, the Director-General of the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), Dr. Champika Amarasinghe said that regulations should be mandatory to ensure the safety of people who participate in such programmes. There should be guidelines not only on personal protection, but also other protective measures are needed when carrying out these programmes. The participants should be screened to ensure that they are medically fit and have no non-communicable diseases which could result in heart attacks etc during strenuous activity. The gear such as ropes and safety equipment should be checked regularly, she pointed out. Meanwhile, Marketing Advisor Cyril de Silva of the Outward Bound Trust of Sri Lanka and the Sri Lanka Business Development Centre which conduct adventure as a training medium to develop skills told the Sunday Times that they are registered under the Company Registration Act and also the Trust Ordinance. Every two years, Outward Bound International based in the United Kingdom carries out a safety and quality review of their activities. He was of the view that in recent times many adventure activity companies have mushroomed in Sri Lanka, easily more than 25, and no one knew who was checking their activities. There is no licensing scheme for adventure activity companies in Sri Lanka as far as he knew, Mr. de Silva said. According to Mr. de Silva, a week before the Outward Bound Trust of Sri Lanka holds a programme, its team checks every detailed application submitted by the participants which would include their medical history. They would group the participants so that before the training programme they can advise those who are medically-unfit not to engage in the more strenuous activities. Outward-bound training is a management training programme for trust-and-team building inclusive of group games, with no classroom activities and everything being done outdoors, he said, explaining that there is a demonstration by their staff before any activity is launched. Mr. de Silva said that the safety precautions are stringent  the participants have to wear a helmet, harness and a carabiner or karabiner which is a specialised type of shackle. The instructors meticulously check whether the helmet and other equipment are strapped securely, while there are also safety ropes and safety lines. Citing the example of abseiling, he added that around eight of their instructors would be at the top where the participant would start his/her descent, with four more at the bottom. There would also be a doctor and a Safety Auditor.Find an expert for comment Search for a Swinburne researcher or academic expert who is available for media comment about their field of expertise.

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PM says he stands by official who suggested Indian factions sabotaged trip



Mike Blanchfield and Joan Bryden, The Canadian Press

Published Tuesday, February 27, 2018 3:25PM EST

Last Updated Tuesday, February 27, 2018 4:37PM EST







OTTAWA -- Justin Trudeau is standing by a senior government official who suggested factions within the Indian government were involved in sabotaging the prime minister's visit to India last week.





During his first question period since arriving back in Canada, opposition MPs grilled the prime minister Tuesday about invitations issued to Jaspal Atwal -- a B.C. Sikh convicted of attempting to assassinate an Indian cabinet minister in 1986 -- to attend two events with the prime minister in India.





In a background briefing arranged by the Prime Minister's Office, a government official last week suggested that Atwal's presence was arranged by factions within the Indian government who want to prevent Prime Minister Narendra Modi from getting too cosy with a foreign government they believe is not committed to a united India.





Conservatives identified the official as Trudeau's national security adviser, Daniel Jean, and they pressed Trudeau to say whether he agrees with Jean's "conspiracy theory."

"A senior security official made these allegations. Does the prime minister agree or disavow those allegations?" asked Opposition Leader Andrew Scheer.

Trudeau defended the official as a member of the professional, non-partisan public service that provides quality advice. He accused the previous Conservative government of using the public service for partisan ends, saying "they torqued the public service every possible way they could."

"And they do not understand that our professional, non-partisan public service does high quality work. And when one of our top diplomats and security officials says something to Canadians, it's because they know it to be true."

Conservative MPs pressed Trudeau to provide evidence to back the assertion, but it was left to Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale to field those questions.





"Before our prime minister destroys our relationship with our ally, the government and country of India, will he please tell this House what proof he has of that allegation?" asked Tory MP Candice Bergen.





Goodale said Bergen was providing "her interpretation of events" and said "her insinuations and her accusations are false."





New Democrat MP Charlie Angus asserted that Atwal -- who has been photographed over the years posing with various Liberal MPs, ministers and leaders, including Trudeau himself -- turned up on the trip because his presence was "useful" to local Liberals back in Canada. And he accused Trudeau of using a senior civil servant to "spin a conspiracy theory that somehow the Indian government is trying to make the Liberals look bad."





"What was the prime minister thinking, putting the interests of the Liberal machine ahead of national security, international relations and Canada's reputation?" Angus demanded.





Atwal, a one-time member of a Sikh separatist group that is banned in Canada and India as a terrorist organization, 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.





Trudeau's office says Atwal's 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 minister's wife.





News of Atwal's presence was an embarrassing setback for Trudeau, who had spent much of his trip trying to reassure Indian political leaders that Canada does not support separatist Sikh extremists.





British Columbia MP Randeep Sarai, one of several Liberal MPs in India with Trudeau, has taken responsibility for inviting Atwal and acknowledged he should have used better judgment. Trudeau said he planned to meet with Sarai later on Tuesday.





Infrastructure Minister Amarjeet Sohi, who was also photographed with Atwal in Mumbai, said he had no idea who Atwal was and simply posed for a picture when asked. He declined to say whether he shares the belief that factions in the Indian government were behind the embarrassment.





"(It) doesn't help to be speculating on these kind of things," Sohi said.Fake news: Calgary councillor headshots used in staff bios for fake news websiteBryan PassifiumePublished:February 27, 2018Updated:February 27, 2018 6:23 PM ESTIts a new career path that came as a surprise to one Calgary city councillor, and he cant wait to start throwing his weight around.Coun. Sean Chu was amused to discover Tuesday morning that his official City of Calgary headshot displayed prominently on the staff biography page of chicagoeveningpost.com, listing the veteran municipal politician as Dean Weaver, intrepid senior editor for the online news site.Right away, my thought was . . . wow, thats funny, Chu said with a laugh.And then I saw my title as senior editor with all of the other councillors at the bottom  and I thought, finally, now I can boss them around! The Evening Posts newsroom is rounded out by five other veteran newshounds, depicted by photos of four other Calgary councillors, as well as a photo of Detroit, Mich., city councillor Mary Sheffield, listed as deputy politics editor Elizabeth Antoski.Dean Weavers biography is oddly specific, purportedly born in the central Illinois city of Peoria, and stating he cut his teeth as a beat report (sic) in Buffalo and Pittsburgh.None of the names or biographies seemed to match any actual journalist, and by Tuesday afternoon the images were removed from the Evening Posts website.While appearing to be a legitimate site featuring Chicago-centric news stories, dont count on dropping by their newsroom for a visit.Closer inspection reveals the Evening Posts offices are at a non-existent address in the North Chicago neighbourhood of Ravenswood, located in the middle of a street between an investment office and busy juice/espresso bar.A phone number listed on the website went to a voice mail box belonging to 1011.The Evening Posts website claims to be operated by the Perpetual Publishing Company, a 24/7/365 news syndication service, publishing platform and information technology partner.That company appears to be associated with a number of news aggregator websites of questionable pedigree, including Canadian Business Tribune, a site purporting to be an authoritative insight on Canadian business, financial and tech news, and The Advocator, featuring articles affecting Canadas minority population and claiming to be owned by Quebecor Media.Nothing but a desolate stretch of rural road exists at the Montreal address listed for Canadian Business Tribune, while the Gatineau, Que.-based Advocator  which lists the same street address  is actually a pizzeria about a kilometre-and-a-half north of the Ottawa River.Both list downtown Toronto postal codes.Photographs of Calgary city councillors used on a fake news aggregator website. Screen captureStaff bios for the Tribune and Advocator are likewise fake, featuring actor headshots stolen from southern Ontario theatre companies, including the Stratford Festival and Soulpepper.One of those is Toronto-area actor Evan Buliung, who tells Postmedia he was stunned to find his face associated with a fictional Canada Business Tribune journalist.I was surprised, but not overly shocked, he said.These things are readily available on the internet.Buliung, Stratford Festival mainstay and cast in this Aprils Mirvish production of the Tony award-winning production Fun Home, has requested his image be removed from Canada Business Tribunes site.I still think Trump calling out Fake News is bunk, and a deflection of the truth, he added.Richard Henderson, Global Security Strategist at Vancouver-based Absolute Software, said sites such as this exist to collect advertising revenue by making news stories  either collected from legitimate or fabricated sources  go viral on social media.In most cases, the names of the journalists are made up, and these platforms solely exist to create advertising revenue, he said, noting many of the ads hosted on these sites contain malicious or dangerous content.Many of these sites will create or steal deliberately inflammatory content, rewrite headlines to make them more inflammatory . . . in the hopes of getting a story to go viral and be shared on social media platforms.Fake news websites are at the centre of meddling allegations during the 2016 United States presidential election, alleging Russian hackers crafted fraudulent articles endorsing Donald Trump and made them go viral on Facebook.Henderson said Google began clamping down on AdSense placements on fake news aggregators due to their disregard of intellectual property rights by unashamedly scraping content from other, more valid, news sources.Some of that advertising can be very dangerous for the content viewers, he said.Many of the ads peddle get-rich-quick schemes through mechanisms such as cryptocurrencies, while others will attempt to get you to install questionable or downright malicious browser extensions that can steal your personal information.Or worse.On Twitter: @bryanpassifiumeFULTON, N.Y. -- An Oswego County man faces two new charges after being accused of rape last summer, according to New York State Police.

Daniel Pyne Jr., 36, now has been charged with criminal sexual act and sexual abuse, police said.

On June 9, Pyne was charged with rape, endangering the welfare of a child, course of sexual conduct against a child and criminal sexual act. He has been accused of having oral sex and sexual contact with a child younger than 11 years old while he lived in Fulton, police said.

Pyne's new charges stem from an investigation after he was arrested in June, according to police.

He was remanded to Oswego County Jail on $5,000 bail or $10,000 bond, police said.ITHACA, N.Y. -- A man suspected of robbing a Domino's Pizza delivery driver at gunpoint was arrested Tuesday night after an hours-long standoff in Ithaca.

Dennis Noonan, 25, was arrested late Tuesday in the West Village apartment complex by the Ithaca Police Department. He has been charged with stealing about $30 from a Domino's worker on nearby Elm Street.

The investigation started just before 9 p.m. Monday in the 400 block of Elm Street.

Noonan approached a Domino's deliveryman and demanded money, police said. He rifled through the worker's pockets before pulling out a small, black gun and again demanding money, police said.

Afte searching the deliveryman again, Noonan fired the gun twice into the road, police said. He then stole a change pouch and ran toward West Village, police said.

No injuries were reported.

Noonan was identified as a suspect on Tuesday. Around 8 p.m., officers learned Noonan had barricaded himself inside a 150 West Village Place apartment, police said.

Ithaca's SWAT team convinced Noonan to surrender after hours of negotiations, police said.

Noonan was charged with second-degree robbery, a felony. He was remanded to the Tompkins County Jail in lieu of $50,000 cash or a $100,000 bond.

After the man was arrested, officers found evidence of a small meth lab in the apartment, police said. New York State Police's Contaminated Crime Scene Emergency Response was called to the scene to investigate.

No drug-related charges have been filed yet, police said.Natasha Paremski, who will perform with Symphoria March 3, began piano studies at 4 in Moscow and continued at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music after her family immigrated to the United States. At 9, she made her professional debut with the El Camino Youth Symphony.

She will be featured in Symphoria's all-Russian-composer program with Music Director Lawrence Loh conducting. The program opens with Borodin's "In the Steppes of Central Asia."

Prokofiev is next on the program when Paremski, who has garnered critical acclaim, a host of young artist prizes, and guest appearances in the world's major performance centers, will play his four-movement Piano Concerto No. 2 in G minor. Prokofiev's original second concerto, which he debuted himself in 1913, burned in his apartment during the Russian Revolution. He created a new score in 1923, after he'd already written the third piano concerto.

"This concerto is at once full of rage, extraordinary furor, cynicism, lyricism, and sensuality," Paremski says. "While it has a reputation of being bombastic, I focus on the full spectrum of emotions the work offers so as to offset its monstrous elements."

In this concerto, the audience will hear a five-minute cadenza in the first movement and other long solo passages in addition to the dialogue between the orchestra and piano.

Emphasizing the athleticism required to perform the Prokofiev, Paremski calls the final movement "target practice" because of the many leaps and crossovers, and she compares the second movement to the flight of a bumblebee. "But," she says, "the bumblebee took some drugs and has spun out of control."

Closing the Masterworks Series concert, Loh will lead the orchestra in Igor Stravinsky's provocative 1913 "The Rite of Spring"--Part I: "Adoration of the Earth," and Part II: "The Sacrifice." Tales of audience outrage at opening night persist. "The Rite of Spring" had been commissioned to accompany dances by the Paris Ballets Russes, and the frenzied performance incited booing and walk-outs. But, the music, in concert form, has become widely accepted and is recognized from Walt Disney's "Fantasia."

Pops for St. Patrick's Day

Principal Pops Conductor Sean O'Loughlin will lead the March 17 "Celtic Celebration: Music from the Emerald Isle."

"Audiences will be excited to welcome violinist Maria Kaneko Millar back to Syracuse," he says. O'Loughlin, who calls the Crouse-Hinds theater "the biggest stage in town" says Millar last appeared with Symphoria in the 2015 Celtic concert.

A composer-artist, Millar has logged 170 performances as Solo Fiddler in Broadway's "Riverdance," and she has also toured North America and Asia with "Riverdance: The Show." She holds bachelor's and master's degrees in performance from The Juilliard School and is known for her ability to improvise and create innovative performances.

Symphoria will premiere Millar's composition, "Fall," inspired by Scottish folk music, and will play Malcolm Arnold's "Four Scottish Dances, as well as traditional favorites "When Irish Eyes Are Smiling," "Irish Rover," and "Galway Bay."

Syracuse Pops Chorus joins the orchestra on vocals for several numbers, including the finale, O'Loughlin's original arrangement--with bagpipes--of "Amazing Grace."

Mendelssohn and Mahler

Chee-Yun, a violinist acclaimed for flawless technique, compelling artistry and dazzling performances, will join Symphoria and Maestro Loh March 24 to play Felix Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto in E minor.

Loh will also conduct the orchestra in Leonard Bernstein's "On The Town: Three Dance Episodes," a nod to the iconic American composer/conductor's 100th anniversary this year.

The concert continues after intermission with Gustav Mahler's 1901 Symphony No. 4, "The Tragic" symphony. The emotion-filled work concludes with a soprano solo in the fourth movement.

Concert artist Sari Gruber, praised by Opera Magazine as "nothing short of sensational," will join Symphoria to sing what is described as a child-like view of Heaven. The lyrics describe a peaceful place, where benevolent angels reside and glorious music prevails.

All three concerts begin at 7:30 p.m. at the Crouse-Hinds Theater, John H. Mulroy Civic Center.

Tickets

Tickets are priced according to series and seat selection with reduced price options available. Purchase tickets by phone, 315-299-5598; online at experiencesymphoria.org; at the office, 234 Harrison St.

Original film contest

Symphoria offers a prize of $250 and screening for an original film of four- to five-minutes length to be shown at the April 20 Spark Series concert at the Palace Theater. The submission deadline is April 1.

Entries may be live or animated and must not include sound. The winning film will be that which most successfully conveys the theme of liberty as revealed in Jennifer Higdon's chamber composition "Sky Rising." The piece will be performed during the showing of the film.

Entries may be submitted through https://filmfreeway.com/Symphoria. For a full list of contest rules, visit www.experiencesymphoria.org/the-community/film-contest.SAMMYs, CNY RV & Camping Show: 11 things to do in CNY this weekend

By Jacob Pucci | jpucci@syracuse.com

After one of the warmest months of February on record in Central New York, it looks like March will bring with it snow and cold temperatures this weekend. Because if there's anything we can predict about CNY weather, it's that it's unpredictable.

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Gary Walts | gwalts@syracuse.com

CNY RV & Camping Show

Campers and RVs of all shapes and sizes will be on display across four buildings at the New York State Fairgrounds as part of the CNY RV & Camping Show, which has been held annually since 1970.

With nine dealers and hundreds of campers and RVs, the event is billed as the largest of its kind in New York.

Where: New York State Fairgrounds, 581 State Fair Blvd., Geddes.

When: Thursday, March 1, from noon to 9 p.m.; Friday, March 2 and Saturday, March 3, from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. and Sunday, March 4, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.

How much: Tickets are $10 for adults and free for children under 16. Visit cnyrvshow.com for a $2 off coupon.

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Loverboy

While this show is on Thursday, you'll be "Working for the Weekend" when Loverboy, the 80s rockers whose other hits include "Turn Me Loose" and "Lovin' Every Minute of It," make the trip to Central New York.

The group headlined the 2013 Taste of Syracuse.

Where: del Lago Resort & Casino, 1133 State Route 414, Waterloo.

When: Thursday, March 1 at 8 p.m.

How much: Tickets start at $23. All guests must be over 21.

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Kate Collins

CNY Young & Amazing Awards

Central New York's brightest rising stars will be honored at the third annual CNY Young & Amazing Awards. Winners from each of the nine categories will receive a $500 scholarship. Past winners include a student who started a bow tie business and raised $5,000 for his home village in Kenya and the Baldwinsville Boys Varsity Lacrosse Team, which raised $3,000 for charity as part of the annual B'ville Big Chill.

Note: This event is organized by Advance Media New York, the parent company of syracuse.com, NYup.com and The Post-Standard.

Where: Everson Museum of Art, 401 Harrison St., Syracuse.

When: Thursday, March 1, from 6 to 8 p.m.

How much: General admission General admission tickets are $5.

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Book of Moron

Comedian Robert Dubac's one-man show tells the story of a man trying to cut through the haze of modern pop culture, politics and more in his attempt to regain his memory after suffering a brain injury.

Where: Oncenter Carrier Theater, 411 Montgomery St., Syracuse.

When: Friday, March 2 and Saturday, March 3, at 8 p.m.

How much: Tickets start at $48.

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Leo Crandall

Syracuse Acoustic Blues Festival

Nearly a dozen local blues musicians, including Leo Crandall, Butternut Creek Revival and Hondo Mesa and Midnight Mike will perform at this evening of cool acoustic blues.

Where: Bishop Harrison Center, 1342 Lancaster Ave., Syracuse.

When: Friday, March 2, at 6 p.m.

How much: $3 per person or $5 for a family.

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Bengt Washburn

Bengt Washburn (pronounced "bent") is a small-screen veteran, having appeared on the likes of "The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson," Comedy Central's "Live at Gotham" and TBS' "Conan." He's also appeared on NPR, Public Radio International and "The Bob & Tom Show."

Now he's bringing his stand-up comedic stylings to Central New York.

Where: Cortland Reportory Theatre, 24 Port Watson St., Cortland.

When: Friday, March 2, at 7:30 p.m.

How much: Tickets are $20 in advance or $25 at the door.

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Scott Schild | sschild@syracuse.

SAMMY Awards

Local bands DOVE, The Merry Pranksters, Elephant Mountain, Count Blastula and Professional Victims will perform at the annual Syracuse Area Music Awards show, hosted at the Palace Theater in Eastwood.

DOVE, who is reuniting for the performance, is among four bands/musicians that will be inducted into the SAMMYs Hall of Fame this year.

Read: 2018 SAMMY Awards: Nominees, Hall of Fame inductees announced

Where: Palace Theater, 2384 James St., Syracuse.

When: Friday, March 2, at 7 p.m.

How much: Tickets are $20.

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Keller Williams

Update: The concert has been rescheduled to April 19.

After playing at Ray Brothers BBQ in Bouckville in September, Keller Williams is getting a second helping of Central New York. The acoustic multi-instrumentalist and singer is bringing his unique combination of folk, rock, reggae and bluegrass to the Center for the Arts in Homer.

Where: Center for the Arts, 72 S. Main St., Homer.

When: Friday, March 2 at 8 p.m.

How much: Tickets range from $25 to $30.

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Courtesy of the Syracuse Chiefs

Syracuse Chiefs Open House

After a long winter, baseball season is coming. The annual open house is the first chance fans have to purchase individual game tickets for the upcoming season, as well as an opportunity for fans to take guided stadium tours, see the Wall of Fame, take a few swings in the batting cage, take a photo with Scooch and Pops and more.

General Manager Jason Smorol will host a fan forum for fans to ask questions about the team and learn more about the 2018 season.

Where: NBT Bank Stadium, 1 Tex Simone Drive, Syracuse.

When: Saturday, March 3, from 9 a.m. to noon.

How much: Free to attend.

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Stephen D. Cannerelli | scannerelli@syracuse.com

Syracuse men's basketball vs. Clemson

A win in the Carrier Dome this weekend won't be quite as big of an upset as it was when the two schools faced off on the football field in the fall, but Syracuse is looking up at Clemson in the ACC standings and needs this win to boost its NCAA Tournament resume.

Where: Carrier Dome, 900 Irving Ave., Syracuse.

When: Saturday, March 3, at 2 p.m.

How much: Adult tickets start at $30.

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Deer Tick

Alternative rock band Deer Tick is bringing its "Twice is Nice" tour to Syracuse. They'll be playing two sets: One acoustic and the other electric.

While the band is based in Rhode Island, Deer Tick does have a local connection: They recorded an EP and their third studio album, "The Black Dirt Sessions," in Upstate New York.

Can't catch the Syracuse show? Deer Tick will be playing at The Haunt in Ithaca on March 3.

Where: Lost Horizon, 5863 Thompson Road, Syracuse.

When: Sunday, March 4 at 7 p.m.

How much: Tickets are $25 in advance or $30 at the door.

Don't Edit

Thinkstock Photos

Spring high school musical schedule for Central New York

Don't EditNorth Syracuse, NY -- A longtime North Syracuse village justice was found dead Monday after not showing up for court, state court officials said.

Robert J. Bertrand, 65, was a village judge for 36 years and was a partner in the law firm Bertrand, Arno & Welch.

Bertrand didn't come into his law office Monday.

But when Bertrand didn't show up for his evening court job, police officers and his sister -- who is the court clerk -- went to his residence, state court officials said.

Bertrand's law partners said they were there within an hour, too. His cause of death has not been released, but he died of natural causes, his longtime law partner, Dan Arno, said.

Arno and Tom Welch had been law partners with Bertrand for nearly four decades. Bertrand did a variety of law, including real estate, Medicaid and trusts.

His associates both remembered Bertrand as a man who was content in his work and enjoyed serving as justice.

"He just loved being a judge, being of service to people in the village," said Welch, who has worked with Bertrand since 1983.

Arno said Bertrand had remained a constant in their partnership that began in 1978: "A fine gentlemen, a fine lawyer and a great friend."

Bertrand was working as usual last week and didn't seem to be ill.

"We didn't think he was sick, either," Arno said of the shock of losing him.

Bertrand's daughter just flew into town and the family has not yet finalized memorial arrangements, friends said.

The court system expressed its condolences.

"Judge Bertrand was a valued member of the...judicial community, having served the village of North Syracuse community for the past 36 years," said Dave Gideon, special counsel to town and village courts. "Judge Bertrand's judicial wisdom in the handling of the matters before the court will be missed."

Bertrand was born in Syracuse and graduated Nottingham High School. He attended Virginia Tech and worked his way through Syracuse University's law school doing repair work at an apartment complex, Welch said.

He then settled in North Syracuse, where he spent his entire law career, settling for the past few decades at 107 S. Main St.

Bertrand was predeceased by his wife, Deborah, in 2009. He is survived by his daughter, his mother, siblings and other family.To the Editor,



Activist Christopher Travis' commentary calling for farmworkers' right to unionize (Feb. 22, 2018) misses the mark on many levels. Farmers recognize that farmworkers are essential to the planting, harvesting and production of food. They value their skills, hard work and commitment.



USDA statistics show the average farmworker wage now is around $13 per hour, well above the minimum wage, and it is rising every year as farmers compete for good labor. However, as production costs rise, farm income is dropping. It has declined by two-thirds in this state since 2013 because of low commodity prices. Unionizing workers and giving them the right to strike when ripe food must be picked or cows need to be milked can place a season's worth of work or an animal's health in jeopardy.



What Travis also fails to understand is that it isn't that farmers don't want to pay more. It is they can't afford to pay more, especially in this down farm economy when dairy farms in particular can't set their own prices. Mandating additional wage rates would only make a dire situation worse and put our farms at a further competitive disadvantage against states and countries that have much cheaper wage rates. Thankfully, Sens. Dave Valesky and John DeFrancisco understand the bigger picture. It is important to work on areas where we can agree, like providing workers with a voluntary day off each week and supporting immigration reform that will improve the lives for our valued farmworkers.



Paul Fouts

Dairy farmer and New York Farm Bureau District 5 State Director

CortlandThe following commentary was submitted by Nadim Jabaji, of Baldwinsville, Rev. Donald Kirby, S.J., of Syracuse, and Elaine Rubenstein, of Cazenovia, on behalf of SAMED, the Syracuse Area Middle East Dialogue group.

Special to Syracuse.com

On Dec. 6, 2017, President Donald Trump recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and announced his unilateral decision to move the U.S. Embassy there. He declared that by taking this decision, he did not intend to prejudice the negotiated agreements that the Israelis and Palestinians might reach. But then, a little later, he said he had taken Jerusalem off the negotiation table. Furthermore, he and Vice President Mike Pence made it clear the embassy move would be expedited rapidly. He cut in half the U.S. contribution to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), which is the major support for Palestinians refugees. He announced he was considering closing the Palestine Liberation Organization office in Washington, D.C. Clearly, he is acting to impose a one-sided settlement on the Palestinians, which favors Israel.

Members of SAMED, the Syracuse Area Middle East Dialogue group, who are from the Jewish, Arab, and diverse other communities in the Syracuse area, have considered these actions. As Americans familiar with the Middle East, we believe these actions to be gravely harmful to the United States.

Bad consequences for America are already evident and more will become evident as this unilateral policy of imposition is pursued. These actions have destroyed U.S. mediation efforts that were underway. The president's declaration to move the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem ignored widely understood international law and was decried by nearly all governments in the world, as demonstrated by the overwhelming votes against it in the U.N. Security Council and U.N. General Assembly. This harms American standing and influence in the world. Furthermore, Trump's policy of one-sided imposition increases the chances that fanatics in many parts of the world will undertake terror attacks against Americans. Indeed, organizations that wish to limit or counter U.S. influence and presence in the Middle East will be more able to recruit, mobilize and support such fanatics.



An imposed, one-sided solution will have other grave consequences for America. The many ways in which the United States presently aids and cooperates with Palestinians in the occupied territories will break down, causing grave security and economic problems there. Consequently, the Israelis and the United States might be forced to play an even greater and more dangerous role there.



Finally, Trump's actions feed greater partisanship and division within our country, since he gives no credence to the many people in this country who see the policy as morally and strategically misguided.



What can we American citizens do to counter this mistaken and damaging policy? First, we should urge members of the Trump administration involved in implementing the president's coercive imposition policy to consider the propriety of their actions and their long-term consequences, and then help alter that policy.

We should also urge Republican and Democratic members of Congress to check the current misguided policy, and instead pursue affirmative policies to foster peace negotiations that may achieve a sustainable peace. Ultimately, we must elect members of Congress and a president who will pursue foreign policies in the Middle East that are not self-damaging and are respectful of the peoples there and serve American long-term interests.

A negotiated two-state solution remains the best way to achieve peace, security, and justice for Israelis and Palestinians.WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Donald Trump renewed his verbal attacks on his attorney general Wednesday, describing as "disgraceful" his handling of Republican complaints that the FBI abused its surveillance power during the early stages of the Russia investigation.

Jeff Sessions, who rarely responds publicly to criticism from his boss, didn't keep quiet this time and said the Justice Department he leads had acted appropriately.

"As long as I am the attorney general, I will continue to discharge my duties with integrity and honor, and this department will continue to do its work in a fair and impartial manner according to the law and Constitution," Sessions said.

Sessions on Tuesday suggested that the department's internal watchdog will evaluate whether prosecutors and agents wrongly obtained a warrant under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act to monitor the communications of a onetime Trump campaign associate. Sessions referred the allegations to the inspector general in response to pressure from congressional Republicans who, like Trump, have fumed about what they believe to be bias within the FBI.

The office has acknowledged receiving Sessions' request but hasn't said it's investigating.

But that step by Sessions apparently was not enough to satisfy Trump, who has spent the past year berating the former Alabama senator who was the first member of the Senate to endorse Trump's White House candidacy.

"Why is A.G. Jeff Sessions asking the Inspector General to investigate potentially massive FISA abuse. Will take forever, has no prosecutorial power and already late with reports on Comey etc. Isn't the I.G. an Obama guy? Why not use Justice Department lawyers? DISGRACEFUL!"

Why is A.G. Jeff Sessions asking the Inspector General to investigate potentially massive FISA abuse. Will take forever, has no prosecutorial power and already late with reports on Comey etc. Isnt the I.G. an Obama guy? Why not use Justice Department lawyers? DISGRACEFUL!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 28, 2018

Trump is angry that Sessions referred the allegations of Justice Department employee misconduct to the inspector general, but that's exactly what that office is charged with doing. Its lawyers are part of the department and, contrary to Trump's claims, can and often do refer matters for prosecution.

The office has been working on a separate review of the FBI's handling of the Hillary Clinton email investigation under former Director James Comey, but that report is not late and is expected to be released around March or April.

It was the latest of Trump's verbal volleys aimed at Sessions, who continues to faithfully execute Trump's agenda. A day earlier, for example, Sessions said his department was working toward banning rapid-fire "bump stock" devices at Trump's urging, even though the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives had previously said it was powerless to do so without action from Congress.

Sessions until now has been largely silent in the face of Trump's taunts. Critics say that strains department morale and makes Sessions seem eager to appease the president, at the risk of dangerously politicizing the department. A spokeswoman declined to comment Wednesday.

The two bonded early in Trump's campaign over their shared priorities of fighting urban crime and illegal immigration.

But their relationship was strained by Sessions' decision to step aside from the Russia investigation after facing questions about his own contacts during the 2016 campaign with Moscow's ambassador to the United States. Trump blames that move for the eventual appointment of special counsel Robert Mueller to oversee the sprawling investigation. Sessions has become a scapegoat for Trump's anger. Trump has refrained from directly challenging the special counsel.

The criticism was so harsh that Sessions offered last year to resign; Trump refused. Trump has since been relentlessly pressuring Sessions to investigate political rivals.

Trump and Republicans also have encouraged Sessions to look further into the surveillance abuse allegations. White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders suggested Tuesday that Trump would be pleased with Sessions' referral to the inspector general.

"It's something that he's clearly had frustration over so I would imagine he certainly support the decision to look into what we feel to be some wrongdoing," she said. "I think that's the role of the Department of Justice and we're glad that they're fulfilling that job."NEW YORK CITY -- Two Syracuse developers facing charges in a six-week long corruption trial say they have innocent explanations for their alleged bribes.

Syracuse-based Cor Development executives Steven Aiello and Joseph Gerardi are accused of paying former top governor's aide Joseph Percoco $35,000 in bribes for influence in state government.

According to prosecutors, the payments were funneled through a "shell company" set up by lobbyist Todd Howe. But Aiello and Gerardi contend they never agreed to pay Percoco and didn't know Howe was writing him checks.

They argue they have innocent explanations for the whatever "favors" they got from the state.

"Bribe, my foot!" Aiello lawyer Steve Coffey said.

Junior's raise

The defense portrayed Percoco's efforts to give a raise to Aiello's son, Steve Aiello Jr., as much ado about nothing. Aiello Jr. worked for Percoco in Gov. Andrew Cuomo's executive chamber.

Lawyers pointed to multiple witnesses who said Aiello Jr. worked hard and earned the pay increase.

Coffey argued that an angry text message sent by the elder Aiello came out of frustration about a raise that had been promised to Steve Jr., as well as issues involving Cor projects.

"You're going to criticize a father for doing that?" Coffey said. "He should never have to apologize for being a father."

Gerardi lawyer Milt Williams chimed in on this.

"Fathers act like fools sometimes, especially when it comes to their kids," he said.

Where was Percoco's hammer when they needed it?

The defense emphasized testimony from two state officials they say were the "decision-makers" on Cor matters that the government says are crimes.

A lawyer at Empire State Development testified she changed her mind about whether Cor would need a potentially costly labor agreement because she was provided new information.

A state budget director said Percoco had approached her about releasing funds to Cor, but testified Percoco used a very polite tone and she didn't feel he had pressured her.

Williams questioned why Percoco -- who has a reputation for being "the hammer" in the governor's chamber -- wouldn't have wielded that hammer more aggressively on behalf of Cor, if the executives were bribing him. He pointed to emails in which Percoco gets involved in Cor matters.

"[The prosecutor] tried to make it look like hammertime," Williams said. "There's nothing hammer-esque about that email."

Another labor consultant

Prosecutors have pointed to an email in which Gerardi asks Howe to "engage our labor consultant" as clear-cut evidence the Cor executives were participating in a scheme with Percoco.

Howe testified the labor consultant was Percoco. The defense has done everything it can to attack Howe's testimony and credibility.

But on top of that, defense lawyers have presented another theory for who Gerardi was referring to as the "labor consultant."

At time of the email, Cor was trying to obtain the $1.4 million grant for Inner Harbor parking lot, which triggered the labor agreement at issue in this case. Prosecutors say Cor bribed Percoco to avoid having to enter the agreement.

The defense says around this time Cor was also seeking other sources of funding for the multi-million-dollar Inner Harbor project. Potential funders included the Mathis Harple Group, a labor relations firm in Washington, D.C.

Defense lawyers say Gerardi and Aiello believed they were paying Howe for work on the Mathis Harple funding. They presented evidence to show Howe was interacting with the firm at the time. At one point, Howe helped a consultant who was involved create an invoice to bill him for labor financing work.

A prosecutor deemed this theory "the ridiculous Mathis Harple argument," and told jurors to dismiss it as a distraction.

Closing arguments will continue in the trial today. Syracuse.com is covering the case from New York City. Check back for updates.

Read our continuing coverage of the trial

Public Affairs Reporter Julie McMahon covers courts, government and other issues affecting taxpayers. She can be reached anytime: Email | Twitter | 315-412-1992German town to keep Protestant church bell honouring HitlerAssociated PressMore from Associated PressPublished:February 27, 2018Updated:February 27, 2018 12:14 PM ESTThe town council of Herxheim am Berg, Germany, has voted to keep a church bell, with a swastika and a German inscription that translates as "Everything for the fatherland Adolf Hitler," ringing. (FILE PHOTO/OUTUWE ANSPACH/AFP/Getty Images)BERLIN  A small town in southwestern Germany has decided to keep a church bell dedicated to Adolf Hitler ringing, but as a memorial to spark dialogue about violence and injustice.The dpa news agency reported Tuesday the Herxheim am Berg council voted 10-3 to preserve the bell, which carries the inscription Everything for the Fatherland  Adolf Hitler above a Nazi swastika, as a memorial in its Protestant church.Erykah Badu claims Hitler comments were misconstruedHitlers chef feared she had one foot in the graveHitler-Auschwitz display removed from Indonesia wax museum after protestsHitler, Nazis within a hair of having nukesHitlers mom was the only the person he genuinely lovedState church authorities had offered to fund replacing the bell, which were widespread during the Nazi era but mostly removed after the war.But a study had concluded removing it would be akin to fleeing from an appropriate culture of remembrance and recommended either leaving it in place with an explanatory plaque, or putting it in a museum.NEW YORK CITY -- "Think of all the people Todd Howe has deceived!"

And add one more: The U.S. government.

That's what a lawyer for a Syracuse developer challenged the jury to do as the New York corruption and bribery case nears an end.

Steve Coffey, representing Cor Development CEO Steven Aiello, argued the U.S. Attorney's entire case against his client is predicated on the testimony of a con man.

Lawyers have claimed Howe deceived everyone from his dog walker to Gov. Andrew Cuomo -- including the prosecutors in this case.

"At the end of the day Todd Howe is a constant con man," Coffey said. "He plays them like he plays everyone."

Howe has pleaded guilty to eight felonies in connection with the corruption scheme, and faces up to 130 years in prison.

He was arrested midway through his seven-day testimony after evidence surfaced that he attempted to defraud a credit card company. He admitted on the witness stand to altering dozens of emails and breaking dozens of contracts.

Coffey took issue with the government's allegation Cor was "in bed with" Howe.

"The government -- talk about being in bed -- you can't separate the two of them!" Coffey said during his animated, two-hour closing statement that included a few thunderous bangs on his podium and a handful of objections from prosecutors.

Coffey and lawyer Milt Williams, who represents Cor executive Joseph Gerardi, finished their closing statements this afternoon. Lawyers for former top governor's aide Joseph Percoco and Hudson Valley energy executive Braith Kelly are also delivering statements before the jury begins its deliberations.

The businessmen are accused of paying Percoco bribes for influence in state government.

Coffey and Williams argued that Howe's testimony -- which they say is unreliable -- is the only evidence against their clients in this case. Prosecutors earlier asked the jury to look to what the men say in emails, which the government argues is "more than enough" evidence to convict.

Williams suggested prosecutors are "so bedazzled" by Howe that "they continue to condone his behavior. By condoning [his actions] and relying on his testimony, they're ... ruining or destroying other people's lives." Williams said.

Howe's version of events, the defense argued, is being used to twist innocent actions by the Cor executives into "bribes."

Coffey reminded jurors they just need to have "reasonable doubt" to find the defendants not guilty.

"Todd Howe is a walking, talking reasonable doubt," Coffey said. "If ever a man exemplified reasonable doubt, it is Todd Howe."

Coffey told jurors Howe lied to them on the stand, and asked them to finally put an end to his "devil's bargain" with the government.

"At this time and place, let it stop."

Read our continuing coverage of the trial

Public Affairs Reporter Julie McMahon covers courts, government and other issues affecting taxpayers. She can be reached anytime: Email | Twitter | 315-412-1992BALLSTON SPA, N.Y. (AP) -- New York's state Commission of Correction says a former Long Island priest and convicted sex offender has been found dead in a jail cell.

The Times Union reports that 51-year-old Michael L. Hands was found dead in the Saratoga County jail on Tuesday.

Authorities say his death was a suspected suicide. However, an autopsy is planned and the correction commission is investigating.

Hands was set to be sentenced to state prison this week for molesting a teenage boy last summer in Charlton, New York.

Hands also was convicted in 2003 of molesting another teenage boy on Long Island. He served two years in prison and cooperated with a grand jury investigation into abusive priests.All eight city schools in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., are closed today (Wednesday, Feb. 28) due to a school shooting threat.

The Poughkeepsie City School District announced all classes are canceled Wednesday with a message from Superintendent Nicole Williams on Tuesday night. will be closed Wednesday due to a school shooting threat, officials announced Tuesday night.

Dear Poughkeepsie City School District Staff Members and Families:

The Poughkeepsie City School District is aware of a recent social media post regarding the threat of a school shooting at Poughkeepsie High School. Please be assured every threat is taken seriously. Immediate action has been taken. We are working closely with the City of Poughkeepsie Police Department and the FBI. The appropriate authorities are actively investigating this issue with the highest priority. The safety of our staff and students is our number one priority. Out of an abundance of caution, please be advised, the Poughkeepsie City School District will be closed on Wednesday, February 28, 2018. Further information will be provided as it becomes available.

According to PIX-11, the school shooting threat was posted on social media, but details were not disclosed.

Williams told the Poughkeepsie Journal that the district is working with City of Poughkeepsie police and the FBI to investigate the threat.

"Please be assured every threat is taken seriously. Immediate action has been taken," she told the newspaper.

Similar threats have been reported in other Upstate New York schools and across the U.S. in the wake of a Florida school shooting that left 17 dead this month. School officials and law enforcement are on high alert after Nikolas Cruz, 19, opened fire with an AR-15 assault-style rifle at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla.SCOTIA, N.Y. (AP) -- The first group of hundreds of Air National Guard members deployed on an annual South Pole mission will be returning to their Upstate New York base.

The New York National Guard says 22 airmen with the 109th Airlift Wing are scheduled to land Wednesday morning at Stratton Air National Guard Base in Schenectady County. They'll be arriving aboard a C-17 Globemaster cargo plane assigned to the Air National Guard's 105th Airlift Wing based in Newburgh in the Hudson Valley.

Each fall some 300-plus members of the 109th deploy to McMurdo Station in Antarctica as part of Operation Deep Freeze, a five-month mission providing support to U.S. research efforts there.

Since October the unit has flown 2.7 million pounds of cargo and 135,000 gallons of fuel aboard ski-equipped LC-130 aircraft to research stations across Antarctica.A judge in Charlottesville, Virginia, ruled Tuesday that local officials must take down the black shrouds covering two Confederate monuments while a lawsuit continues over the city's plan to permanently remove the controversial statues.

The towering bronze sculptures of Confederate generals Robert E. Lee and Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson, each in a public park, were draped in black by the city after an Aug. 12 rally by hundreds of white supremacists erupted in violence. The demonstration drew throngs of counterprotesters, and one of them, Heather Heyer, 32, was killed in the mayhem.

In a victory for monument supporters, Judge Richard Moore of Charlottesville Circuit Court rejected the city's argument that the statues should remain shrouded as a symbol of mourning until the first anniversary of Heyer's death.

The plaintiffs in the lawsuit, who are fighting the city's plan to get rid of the decades-old statues, said at a hearing this month that a suitable period of mourning for Heyer has long passed. They alleged that the city was keeping the shrouds in place simply to hide the monuments from public view in violation of an earlier court order.

Last year, Charlottesville joined other communities across the South in deciding to remove or alter conspicuous public memorials to the Confederacy, which critics say are emblems of racism. After the City Council voted to get rid of the Lee statue, white supremacists made the monument the focal point of their Aug. 12 rally.

Amid the violent clashes with counterprotesters, an Ohio man who had long espoused pro-Nazi views allegedly rammed his car into another vehicle intentionally on a crowded street, killing Heyer and injuring 35 others. The suspect, charged with second-degree murder and other crimes, remains jailed in Charlottesville.

Stunned by the violence, the City Council soon afterward voted to also tear down the Jackson statue. But Moore issued an injunction last year barring the city from removing or altering the monuments while the litigation seeking to preserve them is pending. The lawsuit, filed by a group of Confederate heritage enthusiasts, appears to be headed for a trial in Moore's courtroom this year.

The judge initially prohibited the city from disturbing the statues during the lawsuit, but he allowed the shrouds to be put up after Heyer's death. Although the plaintiffs did not immediately object, they eventually grew tired of waiting for the tarps to come down.

At issue in the lawsuit is a 1904 Virginia law that generally bars officials from removing or altering public war memorials. The plaintiffs contend the law applies to the Lee and Jackson monuments. The city says it does not.Healdton, Okla. -- As schools across the country scrutinize security in the wake of the Parkland, Florida shooting, a small district in Oklahoma is expanding its use of bulletproof classroom shelters.



Healdton Public Schools first installed the shelters in its elementary school in 2014. It followed with shelters in its middle school in 2017 and is now working to add them to its high school.



The school was initially motivated by a lethal tornado that tore through Moore, Oklahoma in 2013, although officials were concerned about shootings as well. In addition to being bulletproof, the shelters are designed to withstand natural disasters, according to The Daily Ardmoreite in Oklahoma.

Seven shelters are in place in Healdton schools already, according to KOCO in Oklahoma. The town, with a population of about 3,000, is about 100 miles south of Oklahoma City.

The district is one of numerous locations around the country to deal with threats against schools since the Parkland shooting earlier this month. A number of districts in Central and Upstate New York have investigated threats since the Florida incident as well.

The company that builds the shelters, Shelter-In-Place, even tested the one with Healdton Superintendent Terry Shaw inside before the initial installation, according to KOCO.



"I did not feel comfortable putting these in my building is I wasn't willing to do it myself," Shaw said, according to the station. "It was very surreal, but I felt very comfortable. Very safe."



The structures can hold up to 35 students and two teachers.



The shelters in Healdton were the first to be installed in the country, KOCO said. Shelter-In-Place has since installed them in another Oklahoma district and is in talks with more.



"There will be security in knowing no matter what happens, it will be safe for me to pick them up in the evening," said Melissa Hudson, a Healdton mother and president of the district's parent-teacher organization.

Contact Kevin Tampone anytime: Email | Twitter | Google + | 315-454-2112Denver -- The mayor of Denver has apologized after a city police detective accused him of sexual harassment.



Det. Leslie Branch-Wise worked on Mayor Michael Hancock's security detail in 2011 and 2012. During that time, she said he made inappropriate comments and sent her harassing text messages, according to Denver7.



"It was a hard time in my life," Branch-Wise said, according to Denver7. "I didn't have anyone to tell. I didn't have anyone to talk to. That's my boss."



Branch-Wise also said she doesn't plan to pursue legal action now.



"I just want people to know that I'm a woman, I have children and I'm a victim of sexual harassment," she said. "It made my physically sick. It was extremely scary. And I dealt with it at the time the best way that I could."



In one text, Hancock told Branch-Wise she made it hard for him to concentrate at work. He called her sexy and complimented her haircut.



"You make it hard on a brotha to keep it correct every day," he wrote, according to The Denver Post.



In another text, the mayor asked about pole dancing classes and whether Branch-Wise had ever considered taking one. Hancock is married with children and said he has talked with his family about the situation.



He said he is hopeful they'll forgive him.



Hancock admitted sending the texts, but said he does not believe his behavior amounted to sexual harassment, the Post said. He characterized the interactions with Branch-Wise as friendly banter, but now realizes the texts were inappropriate.



"We became friends and I blurred the lines between our friendship and being a boss," Hancock said, according to the Post. "And these text messages are inappropriate. They're too familiar, too casual. For that, I accept responsibility and I apologize."



Branch-Wise still works for the Denver Police Department, according to Denver7. She said she's worried she may face consequences for speaking out, but Hancock told the station she has nothing to worry about.

Contact Kevin Tampone anytime: Email | Twitter | Google + | 315-454-2112As Washington and Seoul try to maintain a unified front against North Korea, the case of two cargo ships shows how Kim Jong Un's regime keeps finding ways to evade increasingly tough international sanctions aimed at halting its nuclear weapons program.

Both vessels have gone through repeated changes of names and owners, part of an international shell game that has undercut the escalating sanctions led by the U.S. and backed by the United Nations. President Donald Trump's administration has vowed to maintain its "maximum pressure" campaign on North Korea even as America's ally, South Korean President Moon Jae-in, pursues a fragile detente sparked by the Olympics.

North Korea earned almost $200 million in the first nine months of last year from banned commodity exports, providing crucial foreign currency for the isolated regime, according to a confidential United Nations report, portions of which were seen by Bloomberg News. The panel of experts who wrote the study said Kim's regime had shipped coal to ports in Russia, China, South Korea, and Vietnam, mainly using false paperwork and front companies that concealed the origin of the coal.

The banned exports and imports are transported on vessels flagged by countries in Africa, the Caribbean and Hong Kong. Sanctioned ships take on new flags, new companies are created to mask ownership and the vessels get new identities. Then they keep plying the same waters. That was the case with the two ships, the Jin Teng and the Jin Tai 7.

The Jin Teng, sanctioned by the U.S. in March 2016, became the Shen Da 8 and then the Hang Yu 1 last November, according to Kharon, a Los Angeles-based firm that identifies sanctions risks for banks and companies. The Jin Tai 7, also sanctioned by the U.S. in March 2016, changed its name to Sheng Da 6 two months later and then to Bothwin 7 last November, Kharon said. That was before a new round of UN sanctions was agreed on in December. Both ships remain on the U.S.'s sanctions list despite the name changes.

The Bothwin 7 visited the port of Lianyungang, China, in January, the same month that the Hang Yu 1 stopped at the Port of Ningbo-Zhoushan, also in China. Both ships, once part of a fleet owned by Ocean Maritime Management Co., based in Pyongyang and sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury Department and the UN, changed their names to evade detection, according to Kharon, whose researchers drill down into company releases as well as court and corporate filings to establish links between front companies and sanctioned entities.

"Sanctions against North Korea are largely symbolic gestures of disapproval that do not demonstrate any capability to change the political behavior of the Kims," said Robert Huish, an associate professor at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Canada, who has been monitoring the country's shipping traffic.

Enforcing sanctions is the biggest challenge for the Trump administration, which has led efforts at the UN Security Council to impose an increasingly tight net of restrictions. Last week, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin announced a raft of new sanctions against 27 entities and 28 vessels, which he said would "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."

The latest action was significant because of the range "of where these vessels are located or flagged -- from East Asia and the Pacific to Africa and Central America," showing how diversified North Korea's trade is, said Ben Davis, a former Treasury official who's head of research at Kharon.

Finding and tracking North Korea's joint ventures and covert relations is a difficult task for the Treasury and for UN investigators.

"Some of these partner firms maintain dynamic commercial interests and supply chains with European and Asian firms," Davis said.

More than half the UN member nations required to file implementation reports hadn't done so as of September 2017. UN investigators complain many countries respond inadequately to allegations and evidence of sanctions violations. Many member states either have weak domestic law enforcement agencies or competing political or legal priorities, leaving sanction violators unchecked.

Despite China's moves to reduce its trade with North Korea, it remains Kim's economic lifeline. Chinese aid, trade and investment is critical to North Korea's social stability and economic productivity and a key source of technology and hard currency. Although China has ordered North Korean businesses and joint ventures between Chinese and North Korean companies to close, U.S. officials say China can still do more to enforce sanctions against North Korea.

Untangling links between Chinese and North Korean companies is the hardest task of all, researchers say. Last August, Treasury sanctioned Chinese coal company Dandong Zhicheng Metallic Material for selling North Korean coal and for allegedly using the revenue to purchase other items for Pyongyang, including nuclear and missile components.

Zhicheng, based in the Chinese city of Dandong, on the North Korea-China border across the Yalu River, had a corporate page on Alibaba before being sanctioned, according to the court filing, and more than a dozen trading partners, including two state-owned Chinese entities, according to Kharon.

"Increasingly, the Treasury is going after Chinese actors to send a message to China's leaders that no entity is safe," said George Lopez, a sanctions expert and professor emeritus at the University of Notre Dame. "The administration is betting that it will make China worry about sanctions enforcement in a way that they hadn't done before and make the sanctions bite."

But China isn't the only source of trade with North Korea.

The UN report cites Singapore-based OCN (S) Pte Ltd, a wholesaler of electronic appliances and luxury goods, as having links with North Korea through exports of sanctioned luxury goods to the country and establishing improper financial relationships in the country.

In July, OCN (Singapore) Director Leo Ng told the local Straits Times newspaper that claims the company had exported banned items to North Korea were "all false." Ng would be available to comment Wednesday afternoon, according to a person who answered the phone in OCN's Singapore office.

Yet OCN has been linked to North Korea's Office 39, "a secretive branch of the government of North Korea that engages in illicit economic activities and generates revenues for North Korean leadership," according to the U.S. Treasury.American intelligence officials say Russia compromised U.S. election systems in seven states, according to a new report.

NBC reports Russian hackers breached state websites or voter registration databases in Alaska, Arizona, California, Florida, Illinois, Texas and Wisconsin ahead of the 2016 elections. Federal intelligence officials never told the states, though some were informed that a foreign entity attempted to probe their systems but didn't disclose it was Russia.

Sources told NBC that not all information was shared due to the classification of sensitive information involving spies eavesdropping on Russian communications.

A spokesman for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) told Reuters that the report was "factually inaccurate and misleading" in a statement.

It's unclear how much was compromised, but all state and federal officials who spoke with NBC said that "no votes were changed and no voters were taken off the rolls."

U.S. intelligence agencies agreed in 2016 that Russia intentionally attempted to interfere with the presidential election to help Republican candidate Donald Trump defeat Democrat Hillary Clinton. Thirteen Russians and three Russian entities were charged by Special Counsel Robert Mueller earlier this month and accused of using bogus social media postings and advertisements fraudulently purchased in the name of Americans to sway political opinion during the race.

According to NBC, the DHS told 21 states in September that they had been targeted, and officials acknowledged that some of those attempts were successful.

NBC reports six of the seven breached states still deny they were breached based on their own cyber investigations, suggesting a high level of sophistication in the Russian attack and a lack of preparation for U.S. states to protect themselves in the 2018 midterm elections. Only Illinois election officials have confirmed a breach, allowing foreign hackers to access 90,000 voter registration records.

According to Vox, Sam Liles, the then-acting director of the Cyber Division of the DHS, testified that Russians were likely testing American election systems' vulnerability for a possible larger attack in the future.

Adm. Mike Rogers, head of U.S. Cyber Command and the National Security Agency (NSA), reportedly told lawmakers on Tuesday that America is "taking steps, but we're probably not doing enough" to stop more Russian interference: "They haven't paid a price at least that's sufficient to get them to change their behavior."Syracuse,

N.Y.

-- A

headed for the East Coast could drop up to a foot of snow on parts of Upstate New York Friday.

The National Weather Service has issued winter storm watches for most of Upstate New York beginning overnight Thursday and lasting all day Friday.

"Difficult travel conditions are possible, including during the morning commute on Friday," the watch said. "Gusty winds and wet heavy snow could cause tree branches to fall. Significant reductions in visibility are possible."

Five to 10 inches of snow is possible along the Lake Ontario shoreline, and up to a foot in the hills south of Syracuse.

"Total snow accumulations of 6 to 10 inches, with localized amounts up to 12 inches in the higher terrain are possible" in Chenango, Cortland, Delaware, Madison and Otsego counties, the weather service said.

Heavy snow could fall Friday in Upstate New York, particularly at higher elevations.

Forecasters say this is a tricky storm to predict, though, so stay tuned for updates as the storm gets closer.

"Forecast confidence is lower than normal as temperatures will be near the freezing mark and a wide range of snowfall totals remains possible," the weather service said.

Precipitation will start as rain Thursday night, and then turn to snow as temperatures drop overnight. That will happen more quickly at higher elevations, such as the Southern Tier and the Catskills, where the air will get colder faster. How much snow and how much rain ends up falling depends on how quickly temperatures fall below freezing.

Contact Glenn Coin: Email | Twitter | Google + | (315) 470-3251No need to cite common knowledge Walter.You would know that if you had gone to school.Its never too latepay close attention to reason 5 - making a contribution to society. That would be a hell of a change for you.This page no longer exists or may have been moved.If you believe this is a mistake please emailWelcome, DISH customer! Please note that we cannot save your viewing history due to an arrangement with DISH.

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ACCEPTCountry of Origin: United States of America

Leaf Appearance: dark, long and wiry

Steep time: 5 minutes

Water Temperature: 212 degrees

Preparation Method: glass infuser mug

Liquor: dark amber

I first made the acquaintance of the folks at The Great Mississippi Tea Company when I attended World Tea Expo 2015. It was super exciting to hear about the possibilities of tea becoming a viable crop here in the U.S. and Ive eagerly followed their progress since then. Fast forward a few years and their first harvest was sent out to those who participated in their Adopt a Tea Tree campaign. I had meant to jump on board at the time but somehow never got around to it.

Reports started rolling in and I expressed my disappointment in missing out on Reddit thread. Much to my amazement and glee, Erin of Caravan Tea offered to share some of her stash with me. How cool is that? Her generosity is a great example of why I love our little tea community. Ill try my best to pay it forward to others.

The dry leaf of this tea was impressively long and spindly. If I didnt know better, Id guess that it was a Chinese oolong like Dan Cong. While beautiful leaves dont necessarily equate to good taste, they certainly help the experience and Ive got to give them props for that. Some green was visible after the first infusion but otherwise, the oxidation was pretty uniform.

The taste was mellow and sweet with hardly any astringency. Floral notes faded into a refreshing and fruity finish. The flavor profile was complex but it was also fairly mild as far as black teas go, reminding me a bit of the Japanese black teas that Ive tried in the past. It held up well to multiple infusions so Id really love to gongfu-ing it a try.

The Great Mississippi Tea Companys teas are exclusively sold at The Cultured Cup in Dallas. Production is still small and it sells out quickly so make sure you sign up for their newsletter if youd like to give this tea try. It will hard to come by otherwise.

For some reason, the pictures that I took came out looking extra blue. Color correcting it made the background a bit pink but it is a lot closer to what the leaf looked like in person. The many joys and frustrations of photographing tea!

You can find out more about The Great Mississippi Tea Company here.The just-announced Galaxy S9 pretty much looks the same as last year's Galaxy S8. But that's okay. The Galaxy S8 itself was a pretty radical departure from the S7 before it, featuring really tiny bezels and a gorgeous Infinity Display.

So, how does it differ from last year's model? Easy: variable aperture.

Samsung Galaxy S9 Gets 'Revolutionary' Camera

Samsung calls the rear shooter on both the Galaxy S9 and S9 Plus as "the revolutionary camera that adapts like a human eye." This feature has only ever appeared on one smartphone ever, and that was 2009's Nokia N86. It might seem new, but actually, this special camera mechanism has been around since the early days of film photography in the mid-1800s.

Variable aperture means that the aperture on the phone is able to change. In the case of the Galaxy S9 phones, those are f/1.5 and f/2.4. For perspective, the Galaxy S8 had a fixed aperture of f/1.7. A lower number means a wider aperture, and the wider it is, the more photos look brighter, even in low-light conditions. Having a variable aperture brings both phones a step closer to DSLRs, which are capable of using multiple apertures, not just two.

That's not to say that the Galaxy S9's camera is comparable to DSLRs. It's just that engineering tiny camera phones are extremely difficult, and one that changes apertures on the fly is an astonishing achievement.

How The Variable Aperture On Samsung Galaxy S9 Works

So, how does variable aperture work? First, think of the aperture as a human eye. When it's really bright out, a person might squint a little to see better. When it's really dark, it's the opposite. The Galaxy S9's camera automatically switches from its two apertures to give the best photo possible.

When shooting in low light, the phone will automatically switch to its f/1.5 setting, delivering brighter photos with less noise. When there's plenty of light source, however, it will shoot using the f/2.4 setting, giving correctly exposed photos, as the narrower aperture prevents excessive sunlight from overexposing the shot.

Variable aperture isn't the only astonishing thing about Samsung's new flagships. At f/1.5, the lens is also the widest aperture seen on a smartphone thus far, surpassing the LG V30's f/1.6 lens.

Combined with optical image stabilization, complex image processing, variable aperture could really put the Galaxy S9 at the forefront of smartphone photography. Time, however, will tell.

 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.A man in China who was having a heart attack was able to get help by throwing some cash before falling to the ground.

The middle-aged man was reportedly struggling to reach for his medicine before collapsing.

Heart Attack

The man -- of whom only the last name, Li, was revealed -- was about to buy a ticket at a train station in Shijiazhuang, China, before collapsing outside the main entrance, according to Hebei Youth Daily.

The man was reportedly supposed to visit his sick mother in the city of Qinhuangdao on Saturday, Feb. 24. While running to buy the ticket, Li began to feel an extreme pain in his chest.

Li had undergone heart stent surgery previously.

After collapsing, Li began coughing blood. He struggled to open a bottle of pills with his right hand but could not manage to open it. He was having a hard time trying to ask for help. Acting quickly, he threw the money that he was still holding with his left hand to catch the attention of anyone who could help him.

A police officer noticed Li on the ground and went to see what was happening to him. The officer stated that when he first approached Li, he thought that he might've been drunk. As he got closer, he noticed that something was seriously wrong with Li.

The officer noticed Li's bleeding and immediately gave him pills from the bottle, which seemed to ease up the condition that the man was suffering from. He then called medical staff, who arrived with another officer, to check on Li until they could let him go safely. They made sure that his blood pressure had gone back to normal and that he had recovered.

Heart Stents

Li told authorities that he has had two surgeries already for his heart disease. Li had the heart stent implanted in 2017. A heart stent is used to prop open blocked arteries. It is a tiny wire mesh tube that keeps arteries open and blood flowing. Narrowing of coronary arteries is caused by fatty deposits that reduce blood flow.

Chest pain can occur when blood flow to the heart is low. When blood flow completely stops due to a blood clot forming, this can lead to a heart attack. Heart stents reduce the chance of a heart attack.

One in every four Americans dies of heart disease every year.

 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.It may sound strange but the Moon will be getting its own network. Three major companies are teaming up to bring a 4G network to the Moon. This is part of a project that is working on the first privately funded mission to the Moon.

The decision to make it 4G instead of 5G was done purposefully.

Moon Mission

The three companies working together to make this network possible are carrier Vodafone Germany, phone maker Nokia, and carmaker Audi. Vodafone announced that it would be working with Nokia to develop a space-grade network that would have to be a tiny device that would weigh less than one kilogram.

All three companies are working along with PTScientists on a mission to the Moon. Audi will be making two Quattro rovers. These rovers will be exploring the surface of the Moon and returning to the landing site of the Apollo 17 mission.

This 4G network being brought to the Moon will be able to provide high-definition video of what's happening on the mission. This will allow the mission to collect images and videos of the lunar surface.

The 4G network will be on the 1800 MHz frequency. It will be able to make contact with the Autonomous Landing and Navigation module. Using the 4G network scientists will be able to transfer a larger amount of data between the rovers and the base station.

The decision to use 4G instead of 5G because the technology is more reliable and it is easier to use in space.

This lunar mission is set to launch in 2019. It will launch from Cape Canaveral from a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.

Nokia chief technology officer and Bell Labs president, Marcus Weldon, said he welcomes the challenge of the mission and the possible ramifications it could have on the future of humanity.

This important mission is supporting, among other things, the development of new space-grade technologies for future data networking, processing, and storage, and will help advance the communications infrastructure required for academics, industry and educational institutions in conducting lunar research," said Weldon in a press release about the project. "These aims have potentially wide-ranging implications for many stakeholders and humanity as a whole, and we look forward to working closely with Vodafone and the other partners in the coming months, prior to the launch in 2019."

Chief executive of PTScientists Robert Bohme praised the 4G network. Bohme says that using the 4G network allows them to use more power in other areas of the mission.

 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.Elon Musk's bright red convertible was launched into space aboard the SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket in early February with the mannequin passenger Starman and some mementos from Earth.

Despite the excitement this generated, some scientists are not amenable of sending a car into orbit around the sun. Some fear that the car, which brings along with it the largest amount of bacteria from Earth to ever enter space, may also contaminate Mars.

Planetary Protection Protocols

NASA follows strict guidelines to ensure all hardware sent into space or designed to land on other planets is completely sterile before these are launched. The U.S. space agency also observed measures to prevent contamination.

The Cassini spacecraft, for instance, was deliberately terminated despite being still serviceable. This is to comply to the so-called planetary protection protocols aimed to minimize the risk of depositing earthly microbes into an environment where these living organisms can potentially reproduce.

"Planetary protection is essential for several important reasons: to preserve our ability to study other worlds as they exist in their natural states; to avoid contamination that would obscure our ability to find life elsewhere  if it exists; and to ensure that we take prudent precautions to protect Earth's biosphere in case it does," NASA explained.

Tesla Car In Orbit May Contaminate Mars If Not Sterilized

Scientists at Purdue University, however, think that the car in orbit was not sterilized before it was launch.

"Even if they radiated the outside, the engine would be dirty," Jay Melosh, earth, atmospheric, and planetary sciences professor at Purdue University, said. "Cars aren't assembled clean. And even then, there's a big difference between clean and sterile."

Melosh said that while a crash is unlikely, there is a possibility that the Tesla car would land on planet Mars, as it is in an orbit that crosses those of the Red Planet and Earth.

Organisms From Earth

The space is inhospitable for living organisms because of extreme temperatures, cosmic radiations, and low pressure, but it does not kill all organisms. Some just go dormant and wake up again once the conditions are favorable. This means trouble if Musk's car lands on Mars before this world is visited by humans,

"NASA goes to great lengths sterilizing spacecraft designed to land on Mars, in order to make sure there's no chance of Earthly microbes contaminating the surface," said Jason Davis, of The Planetary Society. "Such a contamination could harm existing life and muddle scientific efforts to search for said life."

 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.At the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain, where all the major smartphone unveilings are happening, Asus just unwrapped three new phones: ZenFone 5, ZenFone 5z, and ZenFone 5 Lite.

Like the previous Zenfone Max models, these new phones represent the company's transition into bezel-less designs, but the thing about them is not only are they bezel-less, they also have huge aspect ratio displays.

Asus ZenFone 5 And ZenFone 5z

In particular, the ZenFone 5 and 5z look like a behemoth phones: both have a 6.2-inch AMOLED display on the front, with hardly noticeable bezels and an iPhone X-style notch at the top. The resemblance is undeniable  even Asus admits it:

"Some people will say it's copying Apple, but we cannot get away from what users want. You have to follow the trends," said Marcel Campos, head of global marketing at Asus.

That seems to settle it. Asus isn't even apologizing for copying the iPhone X, but should it? Smaller manufacturers copying top tech firms is hardly new, and ripping off others is often how the smartphone industry moves forward. In fact, the upcoming Huawei P20 is rumored to be embracing the notch, and Android P will reportedly embrace it, too.

Asus backs up the phone's sleek design with specs to match. The ZenFone 5z, similar in all aspects to the ZenFone 5 save for significant spec bumps, comes packed with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 chip with up to 8 GB of RAM and a 3,300 mAh battery. Meanwhile, the standard ZenFone 5 gets a Snapdragon 636 processor with up to 6 GB of RAM and a similar battery capacity.

On the back of both phones is a dual camera system, one of them a 12-megapixel shooter. The Verge notes that these sensors proved promising, especially considering that its 1.4-micron pixel size is not far behind the Google Pixel's own shooter.

Finally, Asus says both the phones have artificial intelligence capabilities, but they're a little vague. There's a thing called AI display, which functions like True Tone on the iPhone X; AI boost, which overclocks certain apps; and AI charging, which tops the phone up with 80 percent charge at night then proceeds to charge all the way up to 100 percent upon the user's wake-up time. These sound like pretty nifty features, but the use of AI branding is questionable. Asked what they mean by AI, Asus said it's "adopting a broad definition of AI."

Asus ZenFone 5 Lite

Not to be left out is the ZenFone 5 Lite, sporting a 6-inch 18:9 display with very minimal bezels as well. The primary difference between the ZenFone 5 Lite and the higher-end ZenFone 5 and 5z is the fact that it's got dual cameras on both the back and the front, complete with a front-facing flash. The selfie shooters include a 20-megapixel Sony IMX376 sensor, and a 120-degree wide angle sensor to squeeze more people in when taking selfies.

Asus will ship the ZenFone 5 Lite in March, then release the ZenFone 5 and 5Z in April and June, respectively. Pricing remains to be announced.

 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.In an updated Right to be Forgotten Transparency report, Google revealed that out of the 2.4 million URLs requested to be taken down under the program, it has only deleted 43 percent.

Google published an infographic on the current statistics of the Right to be Forgotten ruling, revealing a few interesting tidbits about the program.

The Right To Be Forgotten Ruling In Europe

Google has been complying with the Right to be Forgotten ruling since the European Court of Justice passed it into law in 2014. The Right to be Forgotten ruling allows people to ask Google to remove search results that involve their names and personal details.

Simply requesting for the information to be delisted from search results, however, does not guarantee a deletion. Google considers if the information in question is "inaccurate, inadequate, irrelevant or excessive" and if there is public interest for the information to stay online.

To show how it has handled the Right to be Forgotten requests that it has received, Google published an updated Right to be Forgotten Transparency report with an expanded scope.

Google Deleted Only 43 Percent Of Right To Be Forgotten Requests

In an infographic released by Google, it revealed that it has received requests to take down about 2.4 million URLs from its search results from 2014 to 2017, but it has only delisted 43 percent of them. Apparently, not much has changed from Google's Right To be Forgotten statistics from a few years ago.

According to Google, this is because of the possibility of alternate solutions, technical reasons, and duplicate requests. Determining if the requested information to be deleted is of public interest also comes into play, though the issue is more complex and takes into account several different factors.

The most requested type of information to be delisted was professional information at 24 percent, and the top types of websites where the information is hosted are directories at 19 percent, personal information at 7 percent, and news articles at 18 percent.

Google also revealed that 89 percent of requests come from private individuals, while 11 percent come from a combination of minors, corporate entities, politicians, and celebrities.

Google also drew attention to a small group of requesters, consisting mostly of law firms and reputation management agencies, that account for a disproportioned bulk of the requests. The top 1,000 requesters, which is just 0.25 percent of the total number, have filed 14.5 percent of the requests and 20.8 percent of the URLs for delisting.

Google In Legal Battle Over Right To be Forgotten

Google, meanwhile, currently finds itself in a legal battle with France.

The current form of the Right to be Forgotten ruling only requires Google to delist URLs from the European versions of its search engines. France, however, argues that the delisting should apply to all of Google's search engines worldwide.

 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.After 168 days of scientific research in the International Space Station, three crew members of Expedition 54 landed safely on Feb. 28 at 9:31 p.m. EST in Kazakhstan.

Aboard the Soyuz MS-06 spacecraft are flight engineers Mark Vande Hei and Joe Acaba of NASA, as well as commander Alexander Misurkin of Roscosmos.

During their time in the low-Earth orbit, NASA made history as the crew conducted more than 100 hours of research in just one week.

Highlights include studies on creating fiber optic filaments in microgravity environments, enhancing the accuracy of glucose biosensors, and measuring the amount of energy the Sun emits to the Earth.

Scientific Contributions Of The ISS Crew Members

Individually, each Expedition 54 crew member has made significant contributions to the field of science. For instance, this mission is only Vande Hei's first but he was able to complete a total of four spacewalks throughout his 168-day stay.

He successfully performed maintenance work around the station, including the replacement and lubrication of the Canadarm2's Latching End Effectors.

Acaba, meanwhile, finished one spacewalk for the lubrication of an effector and installation of new cameras outside the facility. He accumulated a total of 306 days in space.

Together, the two astronauts participated in more than a dozen of significant learning events aboard the ISS under NASA's Year of Education on Station program.

Misurkin spent the longest time aboard the space station, by logging 334 days. Along with his fellow cosmonaut Anton Shkaplerov, he made one spacewalk in February which ranked as the longest in the history of Roscosmos.

For eight hours and 13 minutes, the Russian pair replaced an electronics box of the Zvezda module's communications antenna.

Return To The Home Planet

The Soyuz spacecraft departed the ISS right on schedule at 6:08 p.m. EST. It plunged through the atmosphere three hours later at a speed of five miles per second but was left undamaged because of a heat shield capable of enduring temperatures over 2,500 degrees Fahrenheit.

After decelerating with a force three times stronger than the Earth's gravity, the Russian module began slowing down and then deployed the main parachute to make a landing southeast of Dzhekazgan, Kazakhstan.

"All three appeared healthy and in good spirits, smiling and chatting with recovery crews amid satellite phone calls to family and friends," states a report.

Duties Of Remaining Crew Members

Immediately after the Soyuz spacecraft undocked from the station, Expedition 55 automatically began aboard. Anton Shkaplerov of Roscosmos, Scott Tingle of NASA, and Norishige Kanai of JAXA will continue operating the station until the arrival of three new crew members by March 23.

NASA has announced Feb. 22 that Oleg Artemyev of Roscosmos together with Ricky Arnold and Drew Feustel of NASA will head out to space from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on March 21 to complete the new ISS crew.

 2021 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.Banijay Group has acquired non-scripted indie 7Wonder.

The deal marks the first UK non-scripted acquisition for the super-indie following a number of scripted additions over the last year.

7Wonder founders Alexandra Fraser, Liza Abbott, and Simon Ellse will continue to run the business as Chief Creative, CEO and CFO respectively. The deal that sees over 160 hours of 7Wonder programming added to Banijay UKs non-scripted slate.

Since its creation in 2014, 7Wonder has won various returnable commissions including BBC Twos Back to the Land with Kate Humble, Sky Arts series Tate Britains Great British Walks (660), CBeebies pre-school reality series Do You Know? ; and the UK adaptation of My Kitchen Rules for Channel 4.

Upcoming for the indie is Channel 4 series Seven Year Switch (660) airing in March, and BBC Two documentary Heart Transplant (w/t), a topical 90 minute special filmed at the Institute of Transplantation in Newcastle set to air this Spring.

7Wonder will work collaboratively with fellow Banijay UK award-winning prod cos RDF and IWC Media, and will explore opportunities for co-productions in the UK and around the wider global Banijay Group. 7Wonders previous partnership with Seven Network Australia has concluded and Banijay Rights will distribute 7Wonder content going forward.

Alexandra Fraser, Chief Creative, 7Wonder said: We are absolutely delighted to be joining Banijay. With RDF and IWC, Banijay already enjoys a strong reputation for delivering high quality factual programming in the UK which we hope to build on, but were tremendously excited, too, by the international opportunities that will now open up to us."

Peter Langenberg, COO Banijay Group said: We are thrilled that 7Wonder are to become the first non-scripted acquisition for Banijay UK. Alex and the 7Wonder team have an excellent track record of creating and executing successful returnable formats and authentic factual programming; they will be the perfect complement to our existing non-scripted labels RDF and IWC, and we could not have hoped to have found a better addition to the Banijay family.

Share this storyEach year about 30,000 tires get illegally dumped in New Orleans, and Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality Secretary Chuck Carr Brown is on a personal mission to knock it off in the Crescent City and throughout the state.

If Baton Rouge wants to help in the battle agains blight, he said he's here to listen.

Higher fines? Threat of jail? Tire recycling? No easy answers in Baton Rouge blight fight In the battle with blight, one Baton Rouge councilman wants to introduce an industrial shredder and district court judges into the mix.

Brown spoke before the East Baton Rouge Metro Councils blight committee Tuesday afternoon as the group's members discussed various carrots and sticks they could employ to make polluters stop leaving old tires around. Tires contain toxic materials and are a fire risk, so they cant be stored or thrown away like normal waste.

Councilwoman Tara Wicker showed photos of a pile of old tires across the street from her own house.

I have to drive through trash just to get home, she said.

Top stories in Baton Rouge in your inbox Twice daily we'll send you the day's biggest headlines. Sign up today. e-mail address * Sign Up

The councilwoman advocated for harsh penalties.

Brown said his enforcement officers can turn findings of illegal dumping over to local district attorneys, but, those offices must focus their energy on matters like homicide, so prosecution of litterers winds up taking a back seat.

Its not to blame anyone, its just the way it is, he said.

Councilman Matt Watson has previously advocated for buying a tire shredder. Some tire shred may be sold to companies that can recycle it to build levees and asphalt or just playground mulch.

If East Baton Rouge wants to become a tire collection center, theyre welcome to, Brown said, though no official action was taken.Louisiana's attorney general isn't recommending prosecution of two former Wildlife and Fisheries workers who were accused of keeping state-owned equipment for personal use that was bought with oil spill recovery money.

A spokeswoman for Attorney General Jeff Landry said Tuesday the office isn't suggesting that Baton Rouge's district attorney pursue charges against Eric Newman and Monique Savoy.

"Our office thoroughly investigated this complaint and determined there is currently insufficient evidence for a successful prosecution," Ruth Wisher said in a statement.

A June 2017 investigative report from Legislative Auditor Daryl Purpera's office said auditors looking for $55,000 in missing state-owned fishing equipment believe they found many of the items with Newman and Savoy, who are married and own a charter fishing company.

Audit: Ex-Louisiana Wildlife and Fisheries employees used state-issued credit cards to buy fishing, sports gear An investigative audit report released Monday accuses two former employees of the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries of taking alm

"The evidence seems to suggest that they never did anything wrong and that they were good employees of Wildlife and Fisheries," the couple's lawyer, Vincent Wynne, said Tuesday.

The missing equipment  such as high-end coolers, rods and reels, binoculars, a paddle board and spear guns  was bought by the Department of Wildlife and Fisheries using money from BP PLC after the massive 2010 Gulf Coast oil spill.

The money was supposed to pay for seafood safety testing.

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Auditors said the equipment couldn't be located after Newman and Savoy left the office in January 2014. The couple had items totaling $19,762 that matched descriptions of the missing equipment in their possession or offered for sale online, the audit said. The report said the workers may have violated state law in keeping the state-owned equipment for personal use.

Wynne said the audit "was absolutely replete with falsities, misrepresentations and inaccuracies throughout."

East Baton Rouge Parish District Attorney Hillar Moore didn't return requests for comment.

Newman oversaw the fish-testing operations based in the Plaquemines Parish community of Venice. The June 2017 audit grew out of a review released by Purpera's office six months earlier that questioned whether many of the equipment purchases were needed for the fish-testing program and that found insufficient sampling of fish and excessive spending.

In a written response to the earlier audit, Wynne had said there wasn't a way to track which items may have broken or been lost amid the fish testing.

___

Follow Melinda Deslatte on Twitter at http://twitter.com/melindadeslatteTransforming Louisiana's forests into various tree-based products made from fast-growing pine to hardwood such as oak is a growing business asEarly stages of work are done in New Iberia on part of the Sasol ethane cracker project being built in Westlake. The company has hired 550 plant workers. Phased commissioning of the plant is set to begin this year. By 2019 Sasol's overall employment will top 1,150 in southwest Louisiana, officials say.Purchases made via links on our site may earn us an affiliate commissionThe Rev. Gregory Boquet, president-rector of Saint Joseph Seminary College, third from left, accepts a $13,000 donation check from Louisiana State Council of the Knights of Columbus representatives, from left, Eric Miller, Rennan J. Duffour, Delmas Forbes, George Martin and Vernon F. Ducote.The drills have become standard in school districts, especially in the wake of deadly mass shootings.

Students act out what they would do if an armed intruder appeared on campus: lock the doors, cover the windows and stay where they are quietly until the crisis passes.

In the two weeks since the Feb. 14 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, that left 17 dead, students and teachers throughout the Baton Rouge area have been going through these exercises designed to help prepare them for how they would respond to a threat like a shooter on campus. While districts require schools to hold a certain number of crisis drills throughout the year, some principals timed their lockdown drills in response to that shooting, school system officials said.

Florida sheriff disputes reports of deputies waiting outside after school shooting as criticism grows over response The Florida sheriff whose department responded to this month's high school massacre defended his leadership Sunday while insisting that only o

Local teachers said the drills can be helpful, an occasion to bring up potential dangers with their students, though they hope the preparation turns out to be unnecessary. In fact, they'd like more specialized training specifically instructing them on how best to respond and ensure safety in possible active shooter situations.

"My students and I have discussions about safety," said Cyndy Rutherford, a third-grade teacher at Westminster Elementary School. "We talk about what we would do in the event of a school shooting. We play out different scenarios, but who can ever truly prepare for such an event?"

A challenge some teachers brought up was getting students to take the drills seriously, especially elementary students who tend to see turning off the lights in the classroom and having to scramble under their desks to hide as a fun break from classroom instruction.

"A lot of times, I have to make sure they understand the severity of the issue," said Erika Adams, a fifth-grade teacher at Cedarcrest-Southmoor Elementary School. "It's just insane that this is our reality now. When I was in school, we just had hurricane and fire drills."

Christopher Jones, who teaches geometry at McKinley Senior High School, said the current procedures and safety protocols on his campus are fine but could be improved.

"I think we're in the process of still working on them," Jones said.

Jones said he's in favor of better notification to teachers when a serious threat is on campus and incorporating more armed security guards instead of the current model to place one school resource officer on each campus.

"As teachers, we didn't sign up to place our lives on the line to educate kids. We need protocols to protect ourselves," he said.

The most recent school shooting also has sparked a national debate around arming teachers with concealed handguns, an idea President Donald Trump has repeatedly raised as a potential strategy. He has advocated arming teachers who already have military experience or specialized training.

The proposal has received a considerable amount of backlash nationwide. Jones and other teachers said they, too, have no desire to bring a weapon to school.

"It's just absurd," Adams said. "Some teachers and I were talking about this. Now you want me to carry a gun, but you're paying me $40,000 a year? We already have enough expectations placed on educators and now this is what we're going to do?"

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In the days immediately following the Feb. 14 shooting, local authorities were on high alert after an alarming stream of copy cat threats were posted on social media targeting various campuses throughout the region.

After Florida shooting, Louisiana schools respond to 'copy cat' threats, many on social media Since the deadly mass shooting at a Florida high school last week, law enforcement and school officials across south Louisiana said they have 

For example, Ascension Parish authorities have investigated several online threats involving Dutchtown High School. On Tuesday, a juvenile was arrested after making a threat on the Dutchtown campus and released to his parents, a Sheriff's Office spokeswoman said.

Carli Francois, the school's principal, sent a note to parents saying that they did not feel the safety of students was ever "compromised" but noted that all threats are treated seriously. In a message to parents Monday, school Superintendent David Alexander encouraged them to speak with their children about being cautious about how they express anger involving others at school.

"We are taking very seriously each and every reported situation that could be considered a potential threat," Alexander said.

Jackie Tisdell, the spokeswoman for the Ascension Parish School District, said this week that there hadn't been an increase in the number of crisis drills in the district following the Florida shooting or the perceived threat at one of their schools.

Tisdell said the district already has a "rigorous" drill schedule of at least one lockdown or fire drill each month. The district also partners with local law enforcement to conduct random "step-up drills" where school administrators and students are taken through real-life crisis scenarios.

But West Baton Rouge Parish schools Superintendent Wesley Watts said the Florida shooting inspired several principals in his district decided to lockdown drills on their campuses in addition to the ones that were already scheduled.

"Some of them chose to do that because of the timing," he said.

In East Baton Rouge Parish, Taylor Gast, a school system spokeswoman, said at least 20 schools have held such drills over the past two weeks. At least eight of those drills occurred at high schools, or about one per day, a rate modestly higher than in the first weeks of the current semester, Gast said.

Starting next year, Gast said East Baton Rouge Parish schools will be obliged to log every single drill they conduct.

The lockdown drills cover a wide range of possible emergencies, not just shooting situations, and schools are obliged to conduct at least two a year, though they can do more, she said. They are not as common as fire drills, which occur once a month.

Last fall, representatives from every one of the 80-plus schools in the system received training in Emergency Response Information Portal, where they have access to updated floor plans and school emergency plans. The portal also has training videos on a variety of topics and is used by school officials to probe for security vulnerabilities. Gast said that training will occur twice a year starting next school year.

The topic of school safety also will be addressed at this week's West Baton Rouge Parish School Board meeting.

"We want to be vigilant and review what we have in place and make sure we're doing everything possible, in terms of drills, to make our students and teachers are safe," Watts said.A dispute on whether state officials should have routine access to video recordings in early learning centers is about to heat up again.

State Sen. Beth Mizell, R-Franklinton, has filed a bill for the 2018 regular legislative session that would impose strict rules to get the recordings and require officials of the state Department of Education to obtain an administrative search warrant.

The measure is backed by the Childcare Association of Louisiana, which represents operators of child care centers.

Looking at a video recording, "you are not seeing the whole picture," said Cindy Bishop, executive director of the group.

"There is a lot of room for misinterpretation and subjective interpretation," Bishop said Tuesday.

Meanwhile, the president of the state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education on Tuesday reiterated his view that state officials should be able to see the videos.

"I can't imagine why it wouldn't be in the public's interest," said Gary Jones, who lives in Alexandria. "We are putting money into those programs."

The debate will play out when the regular session begins March 12.

The argument stems from a rule that BESE adopted in August.

Louisiana child care operators, state in tug-of-war on access to cameras monitoring children Operators of early childhood centers and the state Department of Education are embroiled in a battle on whether state officials should have ac

The state has about 1,500 licensed child care centers, and cameras are not required.

Louisiana seeks more time to implement new criminal background checks for child care workers State officials said Wednesday they expect to get an one-year extension in their overhaul of criminal background checks for at least 16,000 em

Under the change, recordings were added to the list of items available to state inspectors for the 25 percent or so of centers that have them.

Backers said it is critical for state officials to have access to the recordings to keep children safe. They also said videos can shed light on whether operators responded properly.

Opponents said video systems were installed for the benefit of operators, not for parents or the state.

Child care center operators gear up for big hike in costs of background checks Operators of Louisiana child care centers said Friday they are bracing for sweeping changes in criminal background checks for about 16,000 emp

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Mizell said she hoped her request for an attorney general's opinion would shed light on the dispute.

But the five-page opinion, which was issued in December, failed to settle the issue. Attorney General Jeff Landry's office concluded that a video recording may be considered a record. But whether that recording can be viewed as part of a routine inspection is dependent on whether doing so would further Louisiana's "regulatory scheme," it says.

Inspections are limited in scope, Landry's office said, but absent any regulations on video recordings, "we are unable to determine whether the inspections of video recordings have a properly defined scope."

Mizell's bill is aimed at creating rules to govern access to the recordings.

The measure, Senate Bill 71, would require state officials to get an administrative search warrant if they sought a recording and were turned down by an early learning center operator.

In addition, any state request would have to focus on a specific incident, including the date, time, location and people involved.

The legislation would ban state officials from using the recordings for "regular inspection purposes" or to develop a center's quality rating.

Mizell was unavailable for comment.

Sydni Dunn, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Education, said in an email, Nothing is more important than the safety of children. We look forward to discussing the issue further in the Legislature.

Bishop said the cameras have limited value because they do not cover the entire center.

"So camera recordings should not be used to make determinations on supervision, child/staff ratios, all the things you could be cited for," she said.

Alan Young, legislative chairman for the association, praised the legislation.

"This is a privacy issue," said Young, who operates a center in Shreveport.

"The system was not put in for the benefit of the state," he said. "The systems were put in for the benefit of the owner."

BESE may take a position on Mizell's proposal when it meets March 12-13.Gov. John Bel Edwards has called for the immediate resignation of Secretary of State Tom Schedler following sexual harassment allegations against the state official.

Ive consistently said that any instances of sexual harassment in the workplace should not be tolerated," Edwards, a Democrat, said Wednesday. "Elected officials must live by an even higher standard. Because of the number of specific and serious allegations in the lawsuit and the fact that he has admitted to conduct that by definition is sexual harassment, he should immediately resign his position. I believe this would be the best path forward for Tom and the state of Louisiana.

Prominent Republican elected officials and party executives, however, say the facts are in dispute, and Schedler has denied the allegations, so the courts should sort it out before the secretary of state makes a decision on his future.

A woman who works in the Secretary of State's Office filed a lawsuit last week claiming Schedler had harassed her for more than a decade.

Schedler, a St. Tammany Parish Republican, has said he had a "consensual sexual relationship" with the woman in the past  a claim that the woman denies.

"I guess Im more troubled by his own admission, which by textbook definition constitutes sexual harassment," Edwards told reporters after giving a luncheon speech to the Rotary Club of Baton Rouge. The governor said he hasn't spoken directly to Schedler but was informed the secretary of state "wanted some time to think, some time to ponder."

But, at least for the governor, that time has elapsed. Edwards said that while Schedler is under no legal obligation to do so, he should resign immediately because the controversy will dog the office that oversees elections and business incorporations for months, possibly years as the legal action plays out.

Edwards call came after state Sen. Sharon Hewitt, from Schedler's hometown of Slidell and who has been mulling a run for governor, became the highest-profile Republican to publicly call upon Schedler to resign.

Ive read the detailed and documented accusations of sexual harassment against Tom Schedler," Hewitt said in a statement Wednesday. "It is very sad to read charges about someone Ive known for years and consider a friend. His admission of an inappropriate relationship with a state worker that reported to him is indefensible."

Schedler would not comment Wednesday. "We're not going to be releasing anything today," said Meg Sunstrom, the office's spokeswoman said in response to the calls that Schedler resign.

Democratic Sen. Regina Barrow, who chairs a committee investigating the states sexual harassment policies, agreed with her colleague Hewitt.

I share her sentiment, and I agree he should resign, Barrow said, adding that the situation is very difficult for her because she has long respected and liked Schedler.

I always thought he was a little head and shoulders above. I would have expected it from other folks but not him, said Barrow, of Baton Rouge. But his defense  that the affair with a subordinate was consensual  raises problems for her. Its definitely unethical, Barrow said.

Hewitt and Barrow were joined later in the day by Rep. Helena Moreno, chairwoman of the Louisiana Legislative Women's Caucus. Consistent with my values and core beliefs, and despite the personal respect I have for Secretary Schedler's service and friendship, I feel it is imperative that he resign from office in order to ensure the public's trust in the Secretary of State's office, Moreno said in a statement.

His lawyer in the lawsuit, Floyd Falcon, of Baton Rouge, said he had not spoken to Schedler, but his role was to represent the secretary of state in the legal action and not provide political advice.

Both Falcon and Jill Craft, the Baton Rouge lawyer representing the accusing employee, said whether Schedler resigns or not would have no impact on the lawsuit.

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Craft said while her client denies any consensual relationship took place, Schedler said it did. Many government agencies, private companies and the U.S. military have policies that forbid sexual relations between a boss and employee. Generally, courts have recognized that when one partner has power over the other at work, any sex can be seen as nonconsensual.

Sexual harassment is about power, period, Craft said.

Louis Gurvich, the newly elected chairman of the Louisiana Republican Party, said the state party doesnt have a position on whether Schedler should resign. But, personally, he says the court should resolve the matter first.

If the allegations made by the complaint are true, then Secretary Schedler should resign forthwith. However, the claimant has filed a lawsuit, Gurvich said. Any talk before the court rules is probably premature.

+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 

Republican Sen. Mike Walsworth, of West Monroe, took a similar line saying he was concerned that Schedler had admitted to an affair with an employee. "That's something we all understand you can't do, obviously," Walsworth said. "Tom is going to come up with the right decision."

Metairie state Sen. Danny Martiny said the 25 Republican members of the Senate, a delegation which he chairs, will caucus Wednesday. As for himself, Martiny said, When the smoke clears and if evidence is shown that he used his position to effect his relationship with this woman, then he should consider resigning.

Republican U.S. Sen. John Kennedy, of Madisonville, said in a statement, Ive always known Tom to be an honorable person. I trust that the court will fairly and objectively sort out whether sexual harassment occurred.

The lawsuit says Schedler would send the woman Valentine's Day cards addressed to "My Dearest Sunshine," roses, bottles of wine, clothing and sex tapes, despite her telling him she was not interested in a sexual relationship.

"Everyone has the right to work in a safe environment, free from sexual harassment," Hewitt said in her statement. "Sadly, Ive reached the conclusion that Secretary Schedler can no longer be an effective leader or role model for our state. In the coming days, I hope that he too will reach the same conclusion and consider stepping down.

+2 Investigation ongoing into sexual harassment allegations against ex-Edwards aide, as state braces for lawsuit Gov. John Bel Edwards' administration is investigating the circumstances of the sexual harassment allegations that have been lodged against a 

Hewitt previously requested that the Louisiana legislative auditor look into sexual harassment in state government after a top aide to Edwards resigned amid harassment allegations. Johnny Anderson, the governor's deputy chief of staff, has denied any misconduct.

"Everyone has the right to work in a safe environment, free from sexual harassment. That level of decency should exist whether you work in the Governors administration or for the Secretary of State," Hewitt said.

Schedler, 68, became secretary of state in November 2010 after stepping in as interim when Jay Dardenne was elected lieutenant governor. He had taken an executive level job in the Secretary of State's Office after stepping down from the Senate in 2008 because of term limits. He and Dardenne, who now is Edwards commissioner of administration, had served together in the state Senate.

He won election in his own right in 2011, beating then-House Speaker Jim Tucker, R-Terrytown, by about 8,500 votes out of nearly 1 million cast statewide. In 2015, Schedler cruised to a second term, winning 62 percent of the vote.

Prior to joining the Senate to represent St. Tammany Parish in 1996, Schedler, who now lives in Mandeville, was a longtime member of the Slidell City Council and, before that, was chairman of the Slidell Board of Zoning and Adjustment.When the often fractious U.S. House majority steps out of line, it's Whip Steve Scalise's job to wrangle unruly lawmakers and usher through votes needed for critical legislation.

But Scalise, a former state legislator who is now Louisiana's longest-serving and highest-ranking member in Congress, is publicly staying out of the stalemate that has ensnared the Louisiana State Capitol of late.

After coming to loggerheads in the 17-day, revenue-focused special session Monday, the GOP-controlled Louisiana House is scheduled to return to Baton Rouge on Wednesday with a renewed concentration on shoring up the state's finances before temporary tax measures adopted in 2016 expire June 30.

"Obviously, there are some philosophical issues dealing with the taxes that are expiring and what do you do about that," Scalise said in a recent interview, when asked for his take on what's happening in state politics and his old stomping grounds in the State House. "I think it's not just that you have some people who don't want to work with this guy or that guy, but there are some changes that our state needs to make."

Scalise, a Jefferson Republican who survived a near-fatal gun injury during a mass shooting last year, has often been mentioned as a possible rival to Democratic Gov. John Bel Edwards in his 2019 re-election bid. Though Scalise has largely dismissed the gubernatorial run speculation, he hasn't ruled it out entirely.

Scalise spent a dozen years in the Capitol in Baton Rouge before heading to Congress. He said he thinks deep philosophical partisan divides back home have yet to be addressed in the state's seemingly never-ending cycle of budget shortfalls.

+2 Louisiana House tax talks hit a snag; members return Wednesday to continue negotiations After hitting another special session impasse on Monday that prompted several public disagreements among leaders, the state House will wait un

"If you look at our state, we're still operating a lot of the vestiges of Huey Long. You look at the other Southern states around us, and they have changed to meet the new environment and have thrived because of it," he said. "Our state's lagged behind."

The state House, which needs a bipartisan 70 votes to pass revenue-raising measures, has been badly fractured between Republicans who favor relying on cuts or changes in the sales tax to bridge the looming billion-dollar budget gap and Democrats who want to alter the state income tax structure before agreeing to a continued sales tax hike.

Two bills on the House calendar are seen as critical to any compromise: One would cut a tax break for middle- and upper-income people who itemize deductions when they file their taxes each year  a Democratic priority. The other is a Republican-backed sales tax proposal that would allow the state to continue collecting taxes on some items exempted before the 2016 changes and to extend 0.25 percent of sales tax that would otherwise expire June 30.

No votes were taken Monday as state House members publicly voiced their frustrations over negotiations. Lawmakers opted to take Tuesday as a behind-the-scenes work day.

The special session must end by March 7. Any legislation that makes it through the House must be vetted by the Senate to pass.

It's unclear how much direct influence Scalise has been willing to wield in State Capitol politics, though he is close to those in powerful posts and shares their views on many issues.

Scalise has been spotted in the halls of the State Capitol multiple times in the two years since state House Republicans bucked tradition and ignored Edwards' recommendation for the chamber's top leadership post. Last month, Scalise attended a fundraiser for House Speaker Taylor Barras and House leadership in Washington during D.C. Mardi Gras festivities. House Appropriations Chair Cameron Henry, a Metarie Republican who has been a key foil to Edwards' efforts, is a former top aide to Scalise, and the two remain close.

"I don't tell them what to do because we have our own problems in Washington," Scalise said when asked about how much advice he gives, though he praised Henry's "strong direction of where he thinks things need to go."

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+28 La. House begins advancing tax legislation; here's what comes next The state House burst through a logjam that has kept most important pieces of legislation holed up in committee this special session, during a

Scalise said he just wants to see Louisiana thrive.

"We should be as much of a growing state as every other southern state  because every other southern state is growing except us," he said. "We ought to look inside and see what our problems are so that we can change and we can compete again."

On Tuesday, U.S. News and World Report ranked Louisiana, for the second year in a row, as the worst state in the country in an analysis based on health care, education, infrastructure, crime and other quality-of-life measures.

Louisiana received low marks across individual rankings on crime and corrections (48), economy (44), education (49), fiscal stability (48), health care (47), infrastructure (44), opportunity (50) and quality of life (42).

"If our state's not competitive, they need to look internally and decide what changes need to be (made)," Scalise said in the Friday interview, before the ranking report came out. "There is no reason that Georgia, Texas or Florida or any other state should beat us out in competitions, but it's not my business to tell them how to fix it."

Edwards' administration has pushed back on the legitimacy of U.S. News' analysis.

"The metrics used to compile this report date as far back as seven years when it comes to education and do not take into account the significant improvements the state has made in many important areas," Edwards spokeswoman Shauna Sanford said. "Unfortunately, this is a recurring problem with this report, which has previously used data a decade old in ranking our state."

Addressing a packed house of business leaders just after the "Best States" ranking was released, Edwards said the state is making strides in improving its business climate and he wants to see it continue to build upon that.

"We're getting stronger every day and we do have a lot of momentum," he told attendees of the statewide economic development summit held in Baton Rouge.

Edwards recounted recent jobs announcements and the state's recent drop in unemployment to a standing-room-only crowd.

"The key to our continued economic development growth is workforce investment," Edwards said.

Edwards also touched on the issues that have bogged down the special session, calling for compromise.

"By definition, it is hard because you have to exchange some things you don't like to get something you do like," he said. "We have to summon the courage to do what is hard but what is necessary."When they're not voting on anything that would bail the state out of its fiscal mess  and that's been most of the time during this special seContemporary circus troupe Cirque du Soleil will stage five performances of its Corteo show at the Smoothie King Center this weekend. Thousands of tickets will be sold, grossing hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Last week, a Cirque du Soleil employee solicited the local Soul Brass Band to perform at a private event at the House of Blues on Friday, after Cirques opening night show at the Smoothie King Center.

In the offer, submitted through an online form on the band managers website, the Cirque rep requested Soul Brass Band play two sets, starting at 11 p.m.

But in lieu of payment, she proposed a service exchange: Two free Cirque du Soleil tickets for each musician.

That didnt sit well with Oren Krinsky, Soul Brass Bands manager.

Its an egregious example of exploitation, said Krinsky, whose clients include several other New Orleans bands. As a talent manager, I see so much of this, and it's disgusting.

What really struck me is that Cirque du Soleil can absolutely afford to pay the musicians fairly.

Can't see video below? Click here.

Cirque du Soleils own roots are humble enough. The troupe was founded in 1984 by street performers in Montreal.

Supported early on by grants from the Canadian government, they developed an innovative, thoroughly modern circus. No animals were used. Instead, aerialists, acrobats, dancers and other performers in artful costumes create characters and convey a storyline set to live music.

Cirque du Soleil has grown into a hugely successful global brand, reportedly the largest producer of theatrical content in the world. According to the company, its 42 different productions have played to more than 180 million spectators in 60 different countries. The company employs more than 4,000 people from all over the world, including 1,300 performers.

All of them, presumably, are paid.

Krinsky responded to the service exchange offer to Soul Brass Band by pointing out that musicians cant pay rent with Cirque du Soleil tickets. His email concluded with, You should never ask bands to work for free, its offensive.

He received no response.

Thirty minutes later, he sent a follow-up email that spoke to the source of his growing outrage: Almost 1 billion dollars of revenue annually at your company, and you come to New Orleans and ask musicians to work for you free?

Still no response.

It wasnt the most pleasant email, but neither was the offer pleasant, Krinsky said. I responded forcefully, but thats how people should respond to these kinds of offers. If we're too nice, no one will know there's a real problem.

So he called the Cirque employee to give her a chance to do the right thing and make a reasonable offer, with a real payment, for the bands services.

Instead, according to Krinsky, she informed him they had nothing to discuss, and hung up.

After the phone call, Krinsky, who previously posted about the exchange privately on Facebook, made the post public and encouraged musicians to share it.

I felt like I needed to speak up, he said. This is a caricature of exploitation.

I reached out to the Cirque du Soleil employee who made the initial offer. She didnt respond. However, a Cirque du Soleil publicist did.

The situation is an unfortunate misunderstanding, Maxwell Batista wrote in an email. The service was requested for an employees private event and not for an official Cirque du Soleil company event. We are sorry if the band manager was offended by the proposition. Therefore, we will not make any further comments.

Whether the House of Blues gig is a private event is debatable. On the online form, the Cirque employee named the buyer organization as Cirque du Soleil Las Vegas and described the party as a company event.

Maybe the employee was tasked by her boss with putting together a party on a limited budget. Maybe she genuinely believed a group of New Orleans musicians would be happy to give up a lucrative Friday night in exchange for tickets to a Cirque du Soleil show and whatever networking opportunities may result.

And maybe some musicians would be. Some accept gigs for less  for free drinks, for tips, for exposure.

Theres not necessarily anything nefarious here. Someone makes an offer. Musicians are free to accept or decline.

And placing a dollar value on a performance is not an exact science. How much is a musicians time worth? How much are the years of practice they spent to be able to play the music worth?

As Krinsky sees it, music should at least be valued enough to be considered a mandatory cost. Cirque du Soleil pays plenty of costs during a tour  airfare, hotel rooms, venue rental, backstage catering, etc.

At the House of Blues on Friday, there will be a whole bunch of people there doing their jobs and getting paid, Krinsky said. Why shouldnt the musicians get paid? The notion that the music should just be free is weird.

He sees a larger problem, one that many New Orleans musicians, especially brass band musicians, sometimes face.

The music of New Orleans is sacred. When anyone who has money wants the music for free, its an insult to the culture. I think we should all be asking Cirque du Soleil and any other companies who do this, Why are you attempting to extract this culture for free?

As it turned out, Soul Brass Band wasnt available Friday night anyway. Several of its members, including founding drummer Derrick Freeman, also perform in the hip-hop tribute band the Low End Theory Players. Theyre scheduled to perform a tribute to OutKast at Tipitinas on Friday.

And they wont be working for free.Louisiana's greatest faceoff of 2018: dog vs. crawfish.

In a video posted on Monday that quickly went viral, a pitbull puppy can be seen battling with a crawfish that wasn't backing down.

"Only in Louisiana will you walk outside to find your dog fighting a crawfish," read the text accompanying the post from Twitter user @sayloravarra. The post had been retweeted more than 74,000 times as of Wednesday morning.

Can't see the video below? Click here.

While the playful video spurred thousands of fun comments, the battle didn't have the happiest of ends for the crawfish:ST. ELIZABETH ANN SETON SCHOOL: The executive board of the St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Home & School Association will meet at 6:15 p.m. Tuesday, March 6, in the cafeteria of the school, 4119 St. Elizabeth Drive, Kenner.

JEFFERSON PARISH PUBLIC SCHOOL SYSTEM: Weather caused students in the Jefferson Parish Public School System to miss instructional time on Jan. 4, 17, 18 and 19. The time will be made up as follows:

Feb. 19 to May 15: Schools will add 10 minutes to the instructional day by taking time from a combination of lunch, change of class time, recess, etc. The school day will not be extended.

March 15: Students will attend a full day of school. This day was originally a student holiday for teacher professional development and parent conferences. March 12-16 will be designated as parent-teacher conference week. Parents should contact their school for information.

May 23: All students will attend a full day of school. This day was originally a half-day for middle and high school students.

ST. MARY'S DOMINICAN HIGH SCHOOL: Registration is open for the free Black and White Friday Night student recruitment event from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. Friday, March 16, at St. Mary's Dominican High School, 7701 Walmsley Ave., New Orleans. Attractions will include food, games, crafts, a cupcake station and a photo booth. To register, visit www.stmarywdominican.org by March 12.

'SEUSSICAL" The Stagehands of St. Charles Catholic High School will present "Seussical," a musical based on the books of Dr. Seuss, at 7:30 p.m. March 22-24 at the St. John Theatre, 115 W. Fourth St., Reserve. Tickets are $10 at the school office or at the door. For information, contact Tricia Lowry at (985) 652-3809, ext. 112, or lowry.tricia@stcharlescatholic.org.

ST. MARY'S DOMINICAN HIGH SCHOOL: Prospective students in grades five through seven will have opportunities to spend a day at St. Mary's Dominican High School, 7701 Walmsley Ave., New Orleans, on March 23, March 27, April 9, April 13, April 16, April 20 and April 26. They will be paired with a Dominican student and follow her throughout the school day, meeting faculty, socializing with students and engaging in classes and activities. To register, visit www.stmarysdominican.org.Jennie Merrill, director of education at the Southern Food and Beverage Museum, will discuss the influence of native African ingredients and cooking techniques on the food of New Orleans menus, grocery shelves and kitchen tables at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 28, at the Hubbell Library, 725 Pelican Ave. This program is sponsored by the Friends of the Hubbell Library.

FINANCIAL LITERACY: The library has partnered with Marigny deMauriac, of Edward Jones, to develop a financial literacy series with the goal of helping people gain the knowledge and skills to manage financial resources effectively for a lifetime of financial well-being. A Financial Planning 101 session focusing on Social Security, health care and retirement will be presented from 5 p.m. to 6 p.m. Monday, March 5, at the Rosa F. Keller Library & Community Center, 4300 S. Broad St.; and again from 5 p.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesday, March 6, at the Milton H. Latter Memorial Library, 5120 St. Charles Ave. The full schedule of financial literacy programs is available at nolalibrary.org.

RESUME WRITING: A workshop on resume writing will be held at 6 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 28, at the Alvar Library, 913 Alvar St. Personnel consultant Jessica Rareshide will discuss topics including resume creation, resume trends and formatting, and what to do when a resume isn't getting interviews. This program is sponsored by the Friends of the New Orleans Public Library.

POETRY SLAM PREPARATION: A poetry workshop for young people who want to prepare for the New Orleans Youth Poetry Festival's annual slam competition will be held Saturdays from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. through March 31 at the Keller Library & Community Center, 4300 S. Broad St. To let the organizers know you're coming, email noyouthopenmic@gmail.com or text (504) 228-2179. The workshops are being held in partnership with the NOLA Youth Open Mic.

FICTION WRITING: Allison Alsup will lead a creative fiction writing workshop series on Mondays from 6 p.m. to 7:45 p.m. through March 19 at the Childrens Resource Center Library, 913 Napoleon Ave. The workshops are geared toward adults, both beginners and seasoned writers. The workshop series is made possible through a grant from Poets & Writers.

FAMILY READING TIME: Prime Time is a free family reading program being held Tuesdays from 5:30 p.m. to 7 p.m. from March 6 through April 3 at the East New Orleans Regional Library, 5641 Read Blvd. Families that attend Prime Time can hear stories, talk about books, enjoy a free, balanced meal and win prizes. To register, email Adam Beebe at abeebe@nolalibrary.org. Prime Time is sponsored by the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities.

TAX HELP: AARP is offering free tax-preparation assistance; AARP membership is not required. A picture ID, Social Security card, income documents, previous year's completed taxes, and any other appropriate tax documents are required for assistance. AARP tax assistance hours are:MEDITATION CLASS: Be Well-Come Together will present free meditation classes three Wednesdays each month, beginning from 6:45 p.m. to 7:45 p.m. Feb. 28, at 2525 Apollo Avenue, Harvey. To register, email bewellcometogether@gmail.com or call (504) 368-2525.

KEEPING MEDICAL RECORDS IN ORDER: Elizabeth Gambel, a nutrition agent with the LSU AgCenter, will present "Take Charge of Your Health: Keeping Your Medical Records in Order" at 7 p.m. Tuesday, March 6, at the East Bank Regional Library, 4747 W. Napoleon Ave., Metairie. Topics will include medications, doctors, insurance and advance directives.

PARKINSON'S SUPPORT GROUP: Representatives of Home Care Solutions will give a presentation when the Big Easy Fleur de Lis Parkinsons Support Group meets from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. Monday, March 26, in the Esplanade I room of the first-floor conference center at East Jefferson General Hospital, 4200 Houma Blvd., Metairie. For information, visit bigeasyfleurdelis.org or contact Sissy Roniger at (504) 237-2302 or sroniger1@cox.net.

CO-DEPENDENTS ANONYMOUS: The Co-Dependents Anonymous 12-step group for people seeking help with relationships will meet from 7 p.m. to 8 p.m. Monday at Aurora United Methodist Church, 3300 Eton St., New Orleans. For information on the self-help organization, visit coda.org.

HELP WITH PRESCRIPTION COSTS: The New Orleans Council on Aging offers prescription assistance through its Aging and Disability Resource Center/Senior Rx helpline. The assistance is available to seniors, adults with disabilities and their families. Email mhorton@nocoa.org, or call (888) 922-8522 or (504) 827-7843. Have ready a Medicare number or insurance information, effective date for Medicare parts A or B, or Social Security number, along with a list of medicines. People with no insurance also may call.

WALKING GROUPS: Walking groups meet Saturdays at the New Orleans Museum of Art, 1 Collins Diboll Circle, in City Park, and at St. Roch Park, 1800 St. Roch Ave. The City Park group, the AARP Soul Steppers, gathers at 9 a.m. The St. Roch group gathers at 9:30 a.m.St. Tammany Parish Sheriff Randy Smith says that he and 22nd Judicial District Attorney Warren Montgomery are asking state Attorney General Jeff Landry to review the case of former Deputy Ricky Steinert, who resigned in the face of an internal affairs investigation that found that he falsified a DWI arrest report.

The Sheriff's Office cited concerns about Steinert, a former deputy of the year, raised in a story published in The New Orleans Advocate and aired on WWL-TV this week.

Smith said in an interview for the story that he didn't think a crime was committed when Steinert put false information in the arrest report for Slidell resident Ryan Heyd, a member of the National Guard.

But his news release took pains to note that the DA could have prosecuted Steinert if he wanted to.

"All the information that WWL-TV and The Advocate have reported on this case has been in the hands of the District Attorneys Office for several months," Smith said in the release. "After consulting with District Attorney Montgomery, we both agree that an independent review of this case by the Office of the Louisiana Attorney General is appropriate in order to put any concerns to rest that the public still may have about this and other cases."

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Smith said his office is reviewing "other past cases involving former employees that may warrant review by the Attorney Generals Office."

He concluded by saying his office is looking forward to the review "so we can put these issues of the past behind us."

An internal affairs investigation said that Steinert admitted "copying and pasting" information from one DWI report into another.

His arrest report described in detail Heyd's supposedly poor performance on a field sobriety test in January 2016. However, a cellphone video taken by a friend of Heyd's showed otherwise, and the DA's Office dropped the case.

The DA is now reviewing several dozen cases in which Steinert's testimony was involved. He made 117 arrests from 2015 to 2017, records show.The St. Tammany Parish Sheriff's Office arrested three students Tuesday for making threats at two Slidell-area junior high schools  the latest in a rash of arrests of students across the metro area accused of making threats following the deadly school shootings this month in Parkland, Florida.

A 14-year-old boy at Clearwood Junior High School in Slidell was arrested after he told a teacher he was going to bring a gun to school and shoot the teacher and his classmates. He allegedly told the teacher, in front of a class full of students, that he would then shoot up the school," Meredith Timberlake, a spokeswoman for the Sheriff's Office, said in a news release.

The school contacted the Sheriffs Office, and the student was taken to the Florida Parishes Juvenile Detention Center, where he was booked on a count of terrorizing.

A 12-year-old boy, also at Clearwood, was issued a summons for simple assault and released into the custody of a family member after he was overheard in a hallway saying he was going to bring a gun to school and shoot another student. A teacher overheard the comment, and the Sheriffs Office was contacted.

A 15-year-old girl who attends Boyet Junior High was also arrested and booked on terrorizing after she posted a video on Snapchat that said there would be a murder, homicide and suicide at the school, Timberlake said. She also threatened to kill people, Timberlake said.

The Slidell Police Department was made aware of the video and contacted the Sheriffs Office to investigate. The girl was booked into the Florida Parishes Juvenile Detention Center.

There were at least four arrests of students in the metro New Orleans area last week on allegations of making school-related threats. Two of them were over 18 and were booked as adults. Another two were cited for noncriminal offenses.

Jefferson Parish Sheriff Joe Lopinto said the number of complaints there recently has been extreme, going from one or two a month to as many as four in one day.

The principal of Boyet Junior High School, John Priola, sent out a robocall to parents Monday assuring them that rumors going around had been "thoroughly investigated" by the school and law enforcement and that they were unsubstantiated. "There is no threat to our school and there never has been," he said in the call.

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The principal of Clearwood, Judi Camhout, sent a robocall to parents Tuesday afternoon that said three "situations" had been investigated by law enforcement officials that day and in each situation there was "no creditable threat."

She asked parents to talk to their children about school safety, adding that any comment made about a threat, even those made sarcastically or as a joke, "will be taken seriously" and law enforcement will be notified.

Daniel Seuzeneau, spokesman for the Slidell Police Department, said his agency has checked out many rumors since the Parkland massacre that killed 17 students and adults.

No weapons were located at either Slidell-area school. All three students will face expulsion hearings, Timberlake said.

Sheriff Randy Smith said his office takes all threats seriously.

We will continue to actively investigate and take enforcement action whenever necessary in these cases, but we need parents help, Smith said. Talk to your children about the seriousness of making threats and statements that can be perceived as threats. If you or your child hears of a potential threat or sees one posted on social media, please call 911, and do not help to spread rumors by sharing and posting hearsay on social media.

St. Tammany School Superintendent Trey Folse echoed that thought.

The safety of students and staff is our priority, so each of these situations must be considered potential threats and have to be taken very seriously," Folse said. "Students must understand that we will contact law enforcement and there will be serious consequences."

Local police chiefs and Smith all met with Folse last week to talk about school safety following the Florida shootings.He was known as a go-getter in the St. Tammany Parish Sheriffs Office, an aggressive cop who made a lot of arrests, especially for DWI cases. He was named deputy of the year in 2016 in part because of his work getting drunks off the streets.

But Ricky Steinert resigned from the Sheriffs Office last year under the cloud of an internal affairs investigation into a drunken-driving arrest he made that year. A cellphone video showed motorist Ryan Heyd had performed well on a field sobriety test, but Steinerts arrest report failed the truth test.

Now, the 22nd Judicial District Attorneys Office is reviewing several dozen cases in which Steinerts testimony was involved. The office has already dropped three cases and set aside a conviction, and at least one pending prosecution  a felony drug case  might be in jeopardy, District Attorney Warren Montgomery has said.

Can't see video below? Click here.

So far, the north shore's famously tough criminal justice apparatus has gone easy on a deputy caught lying. St. Tammany Sheriff Randy Smith said he doesn't believe a crime was committed when Steinert put false information in an arrest report.

Montgomery said he will look into the matter following questions raised by The Advocate and WWL-TV.

Smith said he believes the 41-year-old deputy was a good cop. In his 11 years on the force, Steinert racked up many commendations, and Smith chose him to be one of the faces of the agency when the St. Tammany Parish Sheriffs Office was featured on the television show Live PD last year. He arrested 117 people since 2015, records show.

But at least one of those arrests was fatally flawed. According to the internal affairs report, Steinert "admitted he had fabricated his arrest report by coping (sic) and pasting the probable cause from a previous DUI offense." The report described Heyd as swaying, losing his balance and losing count during the field sobriety test.

Smith said Steinert resigned before even going in for an interview about the arrest, filling out the paperwork as soon as he heard that he was wanted for an internal affairs meeting. The internal affairs report says that he told those interviewing him he intended to resign. He did so on May 11.

Last week, Steinert, who is living in Natchitoches, told The Advocate and WWL-TV that he had no knowledge of an internal affairs investigation. He gave a far different account of his departure, saying he left to take a better-paying job.

But emails between the District Attorney's Office and the Sheriff's Office make clear that there was an investigation and that it showed Steinert had not been truthful in his report on Heyd's arrest.

For Heyd, the stakes couldn't have been higher. A member of the National Guard, the combat veteran, then 30, already had a DWI conviction on his record. A second one would mean losing his commission.

That's likely what would have happened if a friend had not videotaped the encounter, providing compelling evidence that strongly contradicted the deputy's account.

Officer vs. driver

DWI misdemeanor cases generally come down to the arresting officer's word against that of the driver, according to Jack Hoffstadt, a former assistant district attorney who prosecuted such cases and now does DWI defense work. That's especially true when a driver refuses to take a breath test, as Heyd did.

Hoffstadt said he never lost a DWI case in many years as a prosecutor, and he estimated that more than 90 percent of defendants wind up pleading guilty.

John Lindner, the chief public defender for St. Tammany Parish, agreed that trials are rare. "Most people don't go to trial; most people just plead because it's hard," he said.

Hoffstadt, who is certified in field sobriety testing, also does training for attorneys on the three tests involved: walk and turn, one-leg stand and horizontal gaze nystagmus, which tests for involuntary jerking of the eyes, a sign of inebriation.

Done correctly, Hoffstadt said, the tests are extremely accurate in gauging impairment.

In viewing the video of Heyd's test at the request of The Advocate and WWL, however, Hoffstadt said he saw nothing that indicated impairment.

Prosecutors, who received a copy of the tape from Heyd's attorney, were apparently baffled as well. The District Attorney's Office contacted the Sheriff's Office about the stark contradictions between the video and Steinert's report. Among other things, the report said that Heyd lost his balance from the starting position three times before beginning a walk-and-turn test and missed four steps in all, stepping off the line.

But the video shows him walking heel to toe, arms at his sides, without wobbling.

Heyd declined to be interviewed. But his lawyer, Michael Bradley, said that prosecutors are usually able to rely on the testimony of police officers because the assumption is that they are not going to fabricate things. He said he was shocked by how detailed the untrue arrest report was.

"It's very clear that what this guy is saying in the report just flat-out didn't happen," Bradley said. "I understand lying to get somebody out of trouble. I don't understand lying to get somebody in trouble."

While it's not clear what motivated Steinert to lie, he was working an overtime shift paid for with a grant from the Louisiana Highway Safety Commission aimed at getting drunken drivers off the road. Some similar overtime programs, such as Local Agency Compensated Enforcement, have been criticized for operating under an informal quota system.

Cases dropped

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In Heyd's case, the District Attorney's Office decided not to prosecute, dropping the case on May 26. But by then, and before the incriminating video surfaced, another driver who was stopped by Steinert the same month as Heyd had already been convicted of DWI.

Steinert was the lone witness for the prosecution in that case.

The language in the arrest report Steinert wrote about Darren McFarland, 53, was identical in key passages to that of the report on Heyd. For instance, both reports said the arrested subjects had to be told four times not to move their heads during the eye test.

McFarland had a clean record, and like Heyd, he decided to fight the charge. He blew 0.063 on the breathalyzer, below the level where one is presumed intoxicated. McFarland's lawyer, Michael Moore, said his client suffers from gout, which he felt explained what Steinert described in a police report as poor performance on one field sobriety test.

But gout couldn't excuse his alleged poor performance on the horizontal gaze nystagmus test, Moore said, and Judge August Hand found McFarland guilty on April 28, 2017.

Moore soon learned from Heyd's attorney that there was a video showing Steinert lied about a DWI. The defense attorney went to the district attorney to say that information should have been disclosed to his client under the U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Brady v. Maryland, which requires prosecutors to tell defense attorneys if they have evidence that could call a police officer's testimony into question. Moore said he would file a Brady motion.

Instead, the District Attorney's Office vacated the conviction then dismissed the case, Moore said.

Moore's boss, Lindner, said it's rare for a conviction to be vacated. But he said he doesn't believe the district attorney's work cleaning up the mess is done.

"In my opinion as the chief public defender, at this point, the DA has an obligation under Brady ... to disclose to defense counsel what happened to Steinert in whatever case he handled, DWI or any other," Lindner said.

Steinert arrested at least 117 people since 2015. The St. Tammany Parish Sheriff's Office does not have cameras in its vehicles or body cameras on deputies.

Without a video like the one Heyd's friend took, it's the word of the officer against the defendant, Lindner said. "If theyre not being honest, weve got a problem."

Montgomery said his staff is looking at "several dozen" cases involving Steinert, including some that haven't been prosecuted yet. That doesn't mean the office will drop all cases where Steinert is involved, he said. Instead, he said, the decision will be made on a case-by-case basis and will depend on whether guilt can be proved some other way.

Facing prosecution?

It's unclear whether Steinert might face prosecution. While Smith said he does not believe the deputy broke the law, ethics expert Dane Ciolino sees a clear violation.

"If a police officer is knowingly and purposefully filing false police reports, that certainly is a crime under Louisiana law. And that is police misconduct of the highest order," he said.

Ciolino said the Sheriff's Office should open an investigation looking at all of Steinert's prior reports, pulling a number of DWI arrests to see if there was a wholesale cutting, pasting and lifting of allegations from one report to another. That information should be given to the district attorney, he said.

The identical language about the nystagmus test that appears in the reports on Heyd and McFarland also shows up in another Steinert arrest report: that of Jeremiah Jones, who was arrested by the deputy in April 2016. That case has been dropped by the district attorney as well.

Ciolino said it's not uncommon for law enforcement agencies to ask an independent investigator to conduct such a review. "That would be appropriate here," he said.

But Smith said he didn't believe that was necessary. "I didn't see it as a criminal act," Smith said. "I'm the hiring and firing authority as the sheriff. I make those decisions to whether we open up an internal investigation."

The internal affairs report concludes by saying, "This case is considered closed."

Ciolino said the sheriff should not "make the unilateral decision that this should go no further.

"These are serious allegations of misconduct, and perhaps, criminal conduct. They need to be fully investigated in an impartial manner and then the results of that investigation need to be given to the DA to make the determination if charges are appropriate."

Under state law, filing false public records is punishable by up to five years in prison. It's defined in part as filing with any public office any document containing a false statement  with knowledge that it's false.

Smith said he didn't believe Steinert should have been arrested because there was no evidence he was acting for self-gain, although the statute does not require such a finding. But he called the deputy's actions very dishonest. "No one, especially me, wants bad deputies on the force," he said.

Montgomery said the Sheriff's Office should look into the matter, and his office will do so.

We are reviewing open cases that involve Officer Steinert as a witness to determine if we can proceed with the prosecution of those matters," he said. "Separate from that review, if we determine that a crime has been committed, we will take appropriate action. No one is above the law.

When an officer lies, Montgomery said, it's a major problem for the criminal justice system. "There's plenty of crime out there," he said. "We don't need to make crime up."A man implicated in a deadly Central City shooting from several years ago has been jailed in New Orleans following his arrest last month at a drug treatment facility in Massachusetts.

Police on Sunday booked Wallace Gilmore, 41, on suspicion of second-degree murder in connection with the slaying of 36-year-old Danny "Disco" Nelson. He is the second suspect in the killing to be captured  in late 2015, a grand jury charged George Short, 42, with Nelson's murder.

Authorities building a case against Short uncovered evidence that Gilmore had also been responsible for the death of Nelson, who was fatally shot near the corner of Washington Avenue and South Robertson Street in June 2014, said Ken Daley, a spokesman for the Orleans Parish District Attorney's Office.

Investigators then learned Gilmore was making a living as a construction worker and had enrolled in a drug treatment program in New Bedford, Massachusetts, according to a report from southcoasttoday.com, a media outlet in that community.

Police in New Bedford were notified that Gilmore was an accused murderer, and they picked him up at the treatment center without incident before jailing him as a fugitive, southcoasttoday.com reported.

Gilmore waived extradition proceedings before being transferred to New Orleans, where he was also booked on seven counts of theft involving what appeared to be a separate set of allegations.

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In other matters recently handled by local law enforcement:

 A 21-year-old man was hit in the back of the head as he entered his home and robbed of his cellphone after he dropped it by a man who leapt off the porch and fled in a red Honda Civic about 10:45 p.m. Monday in the 2700 block of Palmyra Street in Mid-City, New Orleans police said.

 New Orleans police on Tuesday released surveillance camera images of two people being sought for a fight on Mardi Gras in the 300 block of Bourbon Street.

 Michael Crawford, 42, of Houma, was charged with distributing heroin between Jan. 20 and Jan. 30, the U.S. Attorney's Office in New Orleans said Tuesday.

 The Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office on Tuesday warned calls soliciting donations for the so-called "American Police Officers Alliance" are a scam. No such organization is registered as a legitimate charity anywhere, said the agency, which noted several of its members had received calls asking for donations for the alleged group.Authorities have arrested the alleged triggerman in a shooting that wounded two teenagers following a large fight in the Central Business District on Mardi Gras afternoon, New Orleans police said Tuesday.

Police had obtained an arrest warrant for Jerald Bordere, 18, in a shooting that happened Feb. 13 in the 700 block of Union Street as parades rolled a block away on St. Charles Avenue.

Bordere was located Monday night at a hotel in Chalmette, along with his brother, Christopher Bordere, and their mother, Tahitian, police said Tuesday. They were arrested by St. Bernard Parish deputies and New Orleans officers.

Jerald Bordere was booked in Orleans Parish on two counts of attempted second-degree murder, illegal carrying of a firearm at a parade and illegal use of a firearm.

Christopher Bordere was booked as a principal to second-degree murder after police found evidence that he "assisted" his brother with the shooting, said Nicholas Gernon, commander of the NOPD's 8th District.

A search of the hotel room revealed two handguns, one of which had been reported stolen from Jefferson Parish.

Christopher Bordere and Tahitian Bordere were also arrested in connection with the stolen gun and for harboring Jerald Bordere, Gernon said.

Can't see video below? Click here.

During their investigation, New Orleans police had released a surveillance image taken near the scene that showed three people believed to be involved in the shooting.

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After seeing news reports, a "tipster" in St. Bernard Parish recognized the suspects and called authorities, Gernon said. The St. Bernard Sheriff's Office then contacted the NOPD, he added, and the two agencies worked together to obtain arrest and search warrants.

"We really do want to thank our partners at the St. Bernard Sheriffs Office for their swift action," Gernon said.

The third suspect, Kentrell Howard, 17, was arrested Thursday and booked on two counts of being a principal to attempted murder. His arrest also occurred after someone recognized him in the surveillance photo released to media.

NOPD said the shooting broke out during a fight about 3:15 p.m. that involved about 10 people. Eleven shots were fired from a 9 mm pistol.

One of the victims was in critical condition after being struck in the head, while the other was hit in the leg. The victim in critical condition was still unconscious as of Tuesday, Gernon said.

Gernon said police don't think the incident was gang-related.

The same day the teenagers were shot on Union Street, another person, 29-year-old Maurice Williams, was shot and killed Uptown. That homicide happened in the 2400 block of St. Charles Avenue.

Police have jailed Eddie Dingle, 21, on a count of second-degree murder in Williams' slaying. Through his attorney, Dingle has claimed he was defending his family during a brawl when he pulled the trigger.

Both shootings happened as the Elks Orleanians and Crescent City truck parades rolled.From 1957 on, our planet began to warm, seismic and volcanic activity began increasing, as did natural disasters and our wildlife began to die, slowly at first but increasing all the time, culminating into the unlivable hell-hole many people are experiencing at the moment.Are you watching The Assassination of Gianni Versace on FX? The series is the second in the American Crime Story anthology, the folks who brought you The People versus OJ Simpson. It's based on the book Vulgar Favors by Maureen Orth about Andrew Cunanan's murderous spree in 1997 that ended in the shooting of the famous designer on the steps of his Miami mansion.

With openly gay Hollywood producer Ryan Murphy (executive producer, known for creating Nip/Tuck, Glee, Feud, and American Horror Story, among others) at the helm, The Assassination of Gianni Versace is sensational. Truly, it causes all the sensations. It's super gay. It's got fabulous '90s Versace fashions. It's violent, bloody, and disturbing. It's a little bit sexy (as sexy as you can be in a series about a spree killer) with a soupcon of nudity and a smidge of S&M. There are drugs, nightclubs, models, and hot military guys. It's got an amazing cast, starring Darren Criss as Cunanan, Penelope Cruz savagely portraying Donatella Versace, Ricky Martin as Versace's partner Antonio, and Edgar Ramirez -- who looks and acts so much like the real Versace that it's spooky -- and featuring performers such as Judith Light, Mike Farrell, Finn Wittrock, and Broadway's Annaleigh Ashford. The plot contrasts the pampered opulence of Versace's privileged life with the underbelly creepiness of Cunanan and his development from a pathetic, disillusioned liar into a deranged, notorious killer. It's fantastic, delicious television.

The show also includes a very powerful HIV storyline. Gianni Versace is revealed as being HIV positive at a time in history when homophobia and AIDS panic were rampant. Not only is Versace portrayed as HIV positive, he is shown to be at times so weak from advanced sickness that he needs help even to walk. Then, in later scenes, he's shown to be recovered after (presumably) being put on antiretroviral therapy, which became available in the mid-1990s.

After his recovery, Versace decides to use his new lease on life not only to continue creating fashions but also to come out as gay at a time when not many celebrities were brave enough to do so.

Related: Embracing My Inner Annie to Combat HIV Stigma

"I was sick, but I didn't die," he says in Episode 5 of the show. "I have a second chance. It's a miracle that I'm alive. And yet, I ask myself every day, what have I done to deserve this? Why am I still here? To be afraid? No. I'm alive, and I must use it."

The Assassination of Gianni Versace might be the first major media movie or television show to present a person sick with advanced HIV infection and then recovered and vibrant due to the miracle of HIV medications. This is an amazing and important landmark for HIV in film/television, and the storyline is told with a lot of respect for those of us living with the virus. By exploring other aspects of the AIDS crisis and its implications in the aftermath of Versace's murder, the series shows in living color what it was like to be living in the good ol' bad ol' '90s.

I had a phone conversation with award-winning executive producer Brad Simpson and screenwriter and author Tom Rob Smith about the production, the creative process, and the decision to use HIV in the storyline.

Charles Sanchez: Why do you think it's important to tell this story about Andrew Cunanan and Gianni Versace at this time?

Brad Simpson: This story, in a lot of ways, was a journey through the politics of gay identity and what it meant to be out in the 1990s. The 1990s being this volatile time -- even though it's still volatile for a lot of people -- of the Defense of Marriage Act, and Don't Ask, Don't Tell, and celebrities starting to come out, and the sort of shift and also the transformation with AIDS drugs that happened and a generation of activists who'd been politicized by the AIDS crisis, all intersecting in this decade -- and it felt like, you know, for us, true crime is bigger than just a murder. It really felt to us like there was something to be said about the 1990s and about where we are today, by telling this story.

Tom Rob Smith: [Cunanan] is very unusual. One of the things we've confronted is that people are talking about him as being a serial killer, and that's just simply not the case. This is someone who didn't have a pathology of violence. He wasn't committing arson or sexual assault, all of the early warning signals that you have with lots of serial killers. This is someone that, if you had jumped back and met him at age 20, and said, "You're going to be a killer," he would have found it impossible to believe. Exploring him presents lots of challenges, and ... it was very interesting to contrast [Versace] as someone who creates, as someone who is curious about the world, and someone who experienced intolerance and managed to navigate around it, with Cunanan, who just seemed to be defeated by it.

Simpson: Gianni Versace was one of the few people who were celebrities who were out [as gay] in the 1990s. It was actually shocking to us. We went back to make a list of who was out pre-Ellen [DeGeneres] coming out, and the list is 5, 6, 7 famous people? No fashion designers.

I think this is a show that only Ryan Murphy could get on the air. Because I like to think that we're incredibly advanced, but the show is deeply gay and touches on things that you haven't seen dealt with on TV before. There's a freedom that Ryan's success gives to allow us to tell a story like this.

Sanchez: Speaking of things we've never seen before, I think it's the first time I've ever seen [on film], from an HIV standpoint, a person with HIV, sick and near death, turning around and becoming miraculously better through medications. What was the process of deciding how to tell that part of the story?

Smith: The reason we told that ... it was just very powerful that Versace was very sick in '93-'94 when his symptoms became severe, and it's debated by the family, so I should put it in as a caveat that the family, they dispute this, but ...

Sanchez: I believe in the book it says that, publicly, he had cancer.

Smith: Yeah, that's right. I think they say "ear cancer," and we know that is infamous [as code for HIV]. But we do know that he was very sick in '93-'94, that he was on the brink of death, that is uncontested, and we know that he was refusing to submit to this illness. And that he would walk, still, when he was very sick, from his house in Miami to that news kiosk; he would go with Antonio [his partner], and he'd be so weak that Antonio would have to carry the magazines back. I thought it was a remarkably powerful structure [for the script] to have that walk contrasted with the walk when he's then fully recovered. And he is then, in '97 [when he's shot], walking to that newsstand, not needing anyone's help. He's full of the joy of life in many ways. This medication gave him a rejuvenation.

And it was a great life force, you know, [Versace] was saying: "I want to live, I have so much more to give. I have so much more work, but also in terms of the people I love, my grandchildren, my family. I'm going to cling on to life for as long as I can." And this new wave of medication came along, and he was saved.During their 13 months in power, the Trump administration has made it abundantly clear that they have no desire to protect the rights of the LGBT community and, if anything, are actively looking to undermine them. Last weekend, POLITICO published a report on the various ways that the Trump administration has been chipping away at Obama-era protections for LGBT Americans, especially in matters of health. The piece highlights a series of steps taken by the Trump administration over the last year that will have a significant impact on the ability of LGBT individuals to access care. As evidence, it cites Trump administration decisions to:

Freeze a series of LGBT-friendly rules from taking effect, including an expansion of anti-discrimination protections for transgender individuals enrolled in Medicare and Medicaid,

Reinterpret and opt not to defend the ACA's anti-discrimination mandate (Section 1557),

Pull questions on sexual orientation and gender identity from Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) surveys, and

Form the new Conscience and Religious Freedom Division at HHS' Office of Civil Rights to offer greater protections for health care workers who decide not to treat LGBT patients.

These actions by the current administration pose serious threats to the health and well being of LGBT Americans, but they also pose a threat to hundreds of thousands of Americans living with HIV. What's more, the Trump administration's neglect and mistreatment of the LGBT community seems to extend to our own HIV community as well. Time and again, this administration has demonstrated an indifference to the well being of those affected by the disease, pursuing policies and promoting funding cuts that would do lasting damage to efforts to end the HIV epidemic in the United States.

Related: HIV Activists Prepare for What Lies Ahead in 2018

While reports that President Trump complained that all immigrants from Haiti "had AIDS" were beyond troubling, even more alarming are the steps he and his administration have taken to undermine our national progress to end AIDS. In his 2018 budget request, Trump proposed, among other things:

Cutting HIV prevention funding at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) by 19 percent,

Completely eliminating the Ryan White Program's AIDS Education and Training Centers (AETC) and Special Projects of National Significance (SPNS) programs,

Eliminating the HHS Secretary's Minority AIDS Initiative Fund and reducing SAMHSA's Minority AIDS Initiative programs, and

Cutting funding for Housing Opportunities for People with AIDS (HOPWA) by $26 million.

His recent FY2019 request did much of the same.

What's more, his administration's strategic plan for Health and Human Services hardly referenced HIV or STDs, while completely ignoring LGBT needs, failing to include a single reference to them. He similarly failed to mention the LGBT community's unique needs in his World AIDS Day remarks as well. This culture of silence appeared like it was expanding into official policy when reports surfaced that staff at CDC had been instructed not to use specific words when drafting their budget justification documents for Congress, including "transgender" and "evidence-based," among others.

President Trump also dismissed, without any warning or explanation, all remaining members of the Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS (PACHA) in December while everyone was away celebrating the holidays, and still has not announced any replacements. Perhaps equally as troubling, Trump has yet to appoint a head of the White House Office of National AIDS Policy as well.

We continue to hope that this administration will recognize that providing care and prevention services for people living with and vulnerable to HIV is both a moral and public health imperative. However, absent a 180 degree turn in White House health care policy, we will have to rely on Congress to do the right thing -- a prospect that's also far from assured. That's why we are counting on you to register and join us for this year's AIDSWatch in DC on March 26th and 27the. Learn more about this year's event here and join us in urging Congress to stand up to this administration's deliberate efforts to divide us and demand fair and immediate action to protect all Americans' health.

[Note from TheBody: This article was originally published by AIDS United on Feb. 23, 2018. We have cross-posted it with their permission.]Gleann Mor Spirits Co releases 2018 Firkin Gin

Gleann Mor Spirits Co has released Firkin Gin 2018, its first limited edition cask aged gin of this year, which has been matured for 1,000 days.

The gin has been made using a blend of rye and London dry style spirit, which has been matured for 1,000 days. The blend was rested in American and French Oak barrels that previously held Cote du Rhone wine.



Bottled at 48% ABV, the highest volume Firkin Gin yet, this new release is the latest in a series of cask aged gins.

Bottles can be purchased direct from Gleann Mor Spirits Co, priced at 49 for a 700ml bottle, or from selected stockists throughout the UK.

27 February 2018 - Sam Coyne The Drinks Report, news editorAir New Zealand has added another star-studded safety video to their collection. They released an over-four-minute clip this morning.

The video is set in Antarctica and features Hollywood filmmaker and environmentalist Adrian Grenier.

The video builds on Air New Zealand's partnership with Antarctica New Zealand and sees Grenier teaming up with Scott Base scientists to track penguin populations, study ice core samples and visit early explorer Ernest Shackleton's hut and the vast Dry Valleys.Warning: this article contains some spoilers for upcoming Married at First Sight episodes

As you may or may not be aware, Australia is a liiiitle ahead of us when it comes to Married at First Sight. Tha means that we're getting a small glimpse into the future of Gabrielle and Nasser's relationship.

Nasser refused to meet Gab's friends and today Gabrielle told The Fix that he didn't seem to be interested in her when the cameras were off.

"Unfortunately, his inflexibility and stubbornness and just no interest in being a part of the experiment, other than fun activities, meant that he really wasn't there when the cameras weren't there." Eeek.Share this article Whatsapp

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Linkedin Dyah Pitaloka and Hendri Yulius (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Wed, February 28, 2018 16:19 1297 2c798a31c212039f000dc5df9c7bbb55 3 Opinion marriage,health,#health,#marriage,love,wedding Free

In mid January, the Jakarta Health Agency announced that engaged couples are required to undergo health check-ups and obtain medical certificate before tying the knot. This primarily aims to detect contagious and genetic diseases that are potentially transmitted to their offspring or among the pairs themselves.

Without such documentation, the Health Agency head Koesmedi Priharto declared to media that the marriage applications would be rejected. As an intrinsic part of the OK-OCare program by the new Jakarta administration, this policy has reportedly been informed to the Religious Affairs offices, which manage marriage registrations.. What is both equally surprising and disturbing from this account is the involvement of medical requirement into marriage, or what we refer to as the medicalization of marriage.

What does such a new development tell us about the current state of gender and sexuality politics in Indonesia? What is the underpinning logic behind such medicalization?

When institutionalized, the relationship, indeed, moves from personal to public matters. Marriage then does not only make a relation legitimate; it is also permeated by and aligned with states ideology.

There has been voluminous scholarly work by activists and scholars exploring the entanglements and connections between marriage, the Indonesian states gendered ideology, and also the conception of ideal citizenship.

Julia Suryakusuma coined the term state ibuism (state motherhood) to characterize the ways in which the New Order states practices constructed women primarily as housewives and mothers, and simultaneously preserving and promoting traditional heterosexual family norms. Critically exploring the connection between marriage and citizenship, Tom Boellstorff explores the cultural significance of heterosexual marriage as a primary marker of adulthood and ideal citizen, which in turn contributes to gay Indonesians decision to enter heterosexual marriage to conform such constructs.

The authoritarian Soeharto regime popularly deployed the family principle (azas kekeluargaan), not only to naturalize heterosexual family as the essential basis of nation-state. Citizens were expected to contribute to the states welfare, in the same way as family members are supposed to contribute to and protect their own respective family without any expectation. Thats the insidious relations between marriage, family, and ideology.

Of course, marriage and family do not exist in a vacuum. As intimate lives cannot escape from state interference, they are fertile terrain for regulation and control. Such medicalization of marriage clearly pushes further the relationship between marriage and state, marking a transition to what the French philosopher Michel Foucault calls biopolitics.

This term briefly refers to the way in which biological bodies are increasingly scrutinized and monitored, producing the porous classification of bodies. These attempts are tacitly influenced by risk and calculation, ubiquitous in this neoliberal era. Such way of thinking subsequently treats and differentiates bodies based on their capacities, and also incapacities.

Bodies are then expected to be productive to contribute economically. Unproductive bodies are increasingly seen as a burden to the state. The state then often legitimates certain arrangements, while others are prohibited or increasingly monitored.

As marriage in Indonesia is primarily directed to reproduction, capacity of reproduction becomes a vivid sorting mechanism. And it is profoundly gendered. The 1974 Marriage Law explicitly allows polygamy for men under certain conditions: if the wife is unable to perform her duties as a wife, if she has physical defects or an incurable disease, or is incapable of reproduction. This stipulation in turn does not only reveal how womens bodies are insidiously reduced into its reproductive functions, but also allows certain arrangements based on bodily capacity to achieve specific aims.

Bodily arrangements are produced, made possible, or even modified. Thus the wifes incapability of reproduction could conveniently be used as a reason to bring another woman into the family. Unfair as it is, men are free from such pressure. Indeed, this treatment might be linked to the New Order gendered ideology, which again positioned women as mothers and wives.

The requirement of physical wellness in the marriage is now branching out to both sexes. For some people perhaps it more or less echoes able-ism. Certain bodies with diseases are deemed disabled to perform certain functions and hence prevented from access or need more surveillance. But, what counts as disability is often difficult to pin down, because it depends on how it is defined and how it also categorizes certain impairments under disability but not others.

When contagious and genetic diseases (that might potentially also include diabetes and HIV!) are also seen as physical inferiority, do we need a new vocabulary to complicate such common binary of disability vis-a-vis ability?

As such, the queer theorist Jasbir K. Puar in her 2017 book, The Right to Maim, introduces the term debility. While some bodies may not identify or may not be classified as disabled, they can be debilitated through exclusion or different treatments that impede certain access or resources. The medicalization of marriage can then be viewed as a debilitating means. First, it monitors and classifies bodies. And then, those bodies are given with or impeded from certain access. Particular arrangements are made possible, while others deemed unproductive are prevented.

This is then an invitation to start rethinking about bodies, capacities, and equally important, health. As bodies are increasingly seen under the rubric of economic productivity and states burden, health has a potential to be an area in which new regulations are exercised. In this regard, it is not only about personal well-being. But rather, it is an astute sorting mechanism to enable certain arrangements in order to exclude others.

***

Dyah Pitaloka is a lecturer in Indonesian Studies at the School of Languages and Cultures, the University of Sydney, Australia.

Hendri Yulius, who obtained his Masters in public policy from the National University of Singapore, is the writer of Coming Out and a lecturer of gender and sexuality studies.

---------------

We are looking for information, opinions, and in-depth analysis from experts or scholars in a variety of fields. We choose articles based on facts or opinions about general news, as well as quality analysis and commentary about Indonesia or international events. Send your piece to academia@jakpost.com.

Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not reflect the official stance of The Jakarta Post.An exhibition of 37 works by Dyan Anggraini at the National Gallery of Indonesia follows the path of meditative reflection exalting the creative process underlying the building of Borobudur temple.

Addressing an art historical vacuum that has largely excluded women, Dyans works are like an ode to the unsung heroines of the glorious temple in Central Java.

The women potters from the neighboring Klipoh village and environs appeared to have been the backbone of the temples construction workers as they took care of their daily food intake. Yet, there is no written record of their work.

Inspired by the enormous gap between the Klipoh women and those in the reliefs, Dyan  in her works  juxtaposes todays women living around the temple with the reliefs that are revealed in stone.

I spoke to these women and its their oral history that impressed me deeply, Dyan said. At the time of Borobudurs construction, women took care of cooking the food for the workers and they also made household utensils.

I was struck by the overwhelming [hidden] role of these women that conspicuously contrasted to the images of women in the 1,500 reliefs at Borobudur, said Dyan, whose research during the past three years included visits to villages in the vicinity.

Transformasi (Transformation) by Dyan Anggraini (National Gallery of Indonesia /File)

The lives of those women in Klipoh came to mind when looking at the reliefs at the temple, which are mostly dominated by women.

There are 1,500 panels at Borobudur, according to Suwarno Wisetotromo who is the curator of the exhibition entitled Perempuan (di) Borobudur (Women (in) Borobudur) that runs until March 5.

Using striped blankets to denote the poor, Dyan makes a powerful statement about the enduring inequality in society.

Likewise, the paintings of women with paper birds made from bank notes flying away refer to the women of Klipoh who continue to live in economic hardships and are still deprived from enjoying the benefits of the sites thriving tourism industry.

While the soft colored paintings are revealing of how the artist views the reliefs through todays lens, and perhaps touch our hearts, it is her installations that make a huge mark as Dyan excels in making the intangible, tangible.

A case in point is the installation Geram (Upset), in which refined aesthetics make the notion of frustration and exasperation poignantly felt. From afar, the installation looks beautiful and even on closer inspection the hands squeezing pieces of paper are presented in an utterly refined manner. In fact it is so beautiful it almost hurts to look at it.

The same is true for her installation entitled Jerit Terjerat (Entanglement) in which hands entangle with cloth in exasperation.

Terbang Pulang (Flying Home) by Dyan Anggraini (National Gallery of Indonesia /File)

That such frustration can result in huge explosions has been noted in the chronicles of time. In this exhibition, Dyan refers to the Javanese Tiwikrama, a point when a person metamorphoses into giant with fearsome attributes.

Tiwikrama in this exhibition is featured as a fearsome giant with multiple arms and masks flying around, the personification of exploding anger.

It may well be a self-portrait of Dyan, whose soft-spoken and fragile appearance belies a strong character and great energy with the ability to evoke a metamorphosis of sorts.

Perempuan Gerabah (Crockery Woman) by Dyan Anggraini (National Gallery of Indonesia /File)

Interestingly, writer and poet Landung Simatupang was inspired to write some poems pertaining to Dyans works. She then obliged by placing the handwritten poems across her sculptures.

This is Dyans 9th solo exhibition since she started her professional career as an artist in the mid-1970s. A student of the Taman Siswa School, which promotes progressive education of equality and nationalism, Dyans oeuvre has consistently pursued such idealism using various means such as paint, resin, embroidery, drawings, etchings and the like.

It is an important momentum in the history of women artists in Indonesia, when the Borobudur reliefs are taken as a contemporary gender issue. It is somehow a follow-up on the works some decades ago by Inda Citraninda Noerhadi who at the time painted the darker side of womens lives and the violence marking womens lives in the reliefs of Karmawibangga.Laut Bercerita (The Sea Speaks His Name) is a short film adapted from Leila S. Chudoris latest book of the same name. The 30 minute film was helmed by Pritagita Prita Arianegara and written by Leila herself.

The novel and film tell the story of Biru Laut Wibisono (Reza Rahadian), who, as a college student and pro-democracy activist in 1998, was abducted from his apartment in Klender, East Jakarta, by four mysterious people. He was then kept in an unknown place for months alongside fellow activists; Alex Perazon (Tanta Ginting), Naratama (Ade Firman Hakim) and Sunu Dyantoro (Haydar Saliszh).

They were held captive, tortured and interrogated. The abductors demanded information about the person behind their movement at that time.

The film not only depicts the suffering of the characters, but also shows Lauts family including his parents (Tio Pakusadewo and Aryani Willems) and younger sister Asmara Jati (Ayushita Nugraha), and his girlfriend, Anjani (Dian Sastrowardoyo). Some scenes explore how the family's happiness changed after Lauts disappearance. Asmara then actively participates in the search for justice for her brother and other missing activists.

Read also: Film adaptation of 'Laut Bercerita' restrained, but powerful

Those who have read the book may feel the film needed to have a longer duration. While it includes the necessary scenes from the book, there are other parts that still needed to be included to give audiences a greater sense of the emotion. The film preserves the books humanity, and the audience are drawn to feel close to the characters, especially Laut.

After the screening at Salihara Community in South Jakarta on Wednesday, Feb. 21, Prita explained that the film was initially made to be screened during the books launch. Leila has been known to include other elements in her book launch event, such as readings and black-and-white film. But this time they wanted to make something different, like a short film to begin the launch, Prita said. Actually there was a time when I was confused and afraid that the film wouldnt represent the novel, but in the end Mbak Leila said, Calm down, Ill make the scenario and these are the parts that Ive chosen'.

After the scenes were chosen, Prita said the preproduction took around two weeks, while the shooting took only three days because of the limited budget. The three days included scenes in prison, in houses and underwater, Prita said. (mut)Share this article Whatsapp

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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Wed, February 28, 2018 07:00 1298 2c798a31c212039f000dc5df9c79d1de 1 City sidewalks,restoration Free

The Jakarta administration has dismantled a road median and removed trees that separate the fast and slow lanes on Jl. Sudirman in South Jakarta to make way for sidewalks.

The median was dismantled last night and will be covered with a zinc roof so as not to disturb traffic, the citys Bina Marga road agency head, Yusmada Faizal, said on Tuesday, as quoted by kompas.com.

The planning of the new arrangement was under review because it awaited Jakarta Governor Anies Baswedans approval, Yusmada added.

The median will make way for a new road arrangement under the Jl. Sudirman and Jl. MH Thamrin sidewalk restoration plan. There will be four lanes for vehicles from the Hotel Indonesia traffic circle to the Senayan traffic circle in South Jakarta and a motorcycle lane that will be mixed with a regular bus lane on the left side of the road, which will be separated from the Transjakarta busway lane.

Anies said he would publicly announce by the end of February the new design of the long-planned sidewalk restoration to welcome the Asian Games.

The initial concept of the sidewalk restoration was drafted under the previous administration. However, Anies decided to change the concept to accommodate motorcycles.

The planned expanded sidewalks will also be a colorful haven for traditional art motifs and will be decorated with statues and other cultural objects.

The sidewalks in the Senayan area will be designed like a walk of fame featuring well-known athletes who will also interact with pedestrians at certain times. (wnd)Share this article Whatsapp

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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Wed, February 28, 2018 08:00 1298 2c798a31c212039f000dc5df9c79eac0 1 City Tanah-Abang,road-closure,anies-baswedan Free

The Jakarta Police plan to question Jakarta Governor Anies Baswedan over his controversial repurposing of Jl. Jatibaru Raya in Central Jakarta, which he had closed for motorists to accommodate street sellers.

"[Once] the letter ordering the start of an investigation is issued, we will summon [Anies]," Jakarta Police special crimes unit head Sr. Comr. Adi Deriyan said on Tuesday, as quoted by tribunnews.com. He added that the letter may be issued as early as this week.

The investigators, Adi said, would also summon Jack Boyd Lapian, secretary-general of the Cyber Indonesia community organization, who reported Anies to the force on Feb. 22, accusing the governor of violating regulations on roads.

Jack said Aniess decision had done more harm than good.

Previously, the Jakarta Police traffic directorate has recommended that the administration repeal the policy, as it exacerbated congestion in the area. (fac)Share this article Whatsapp

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Linkedin (Agence France-Presse) Washington  Wed, February 28, 2018 08:20 1298 2c798a31c212039f000dc5df9c79fb78 2 World US,consumer-confidence Free

US consumer confidence leapt to a 17-year record in February, driven higher by strong expectations that jobs will remain plentiful in the near-term, according to a survey released Tuesday.

Consumers' outlook about the future was also rosier, with more expecting their incomes to rise in the coming months, according to the Conference Board.

The results could point to strong consumer spending in the early months of 2018, helping support continued GDP expansion.

The consumer confidence index jumped more than six points to 130.8, its highest level since November of 2000, well beyond analyst expectations, which called for only a 2.2 percentage point gain.

"Despite the recent stock market volatility, consumers expressed greater optimism about short-term prospects for business and labor market conditions, as well as their financial prospects," Lynn Franco, the Conference Board's head of economic indicators, said in a statement.

"Overall, consumers remain quite confident that the economy will continue expanding at a strong pace in the months ahead."

The share of survey respondents saying business conditions were "bad" fell 2.2 percentage points to 10.8 percent, while those saying jobs were "plentiful" jumped 2.2 points to 39.4 percent.

Consumers expecting business conditions to improve over the next six months gained 4.3 points to reach 25.8 percent and those expecting higher incomes in the months ahead rose to 23.8 percent, up 3.2 percentage points.

With US unemployment at historic lows and expected to fall further, employers are struggling to fill open positions and some are beginning to increase wages.

Corporations have also attracted publicity by announcing employee bonuses tied to December's sweeping corporate tax cuts. Economists however warn this does not mean workers will primarily benefit.

Ian Shepherdson of Pantheon Macroeconomics said changes in consumer confidence often lagged behind movements on Wall Street, meaning this month's selloff on stock markets may not yet be reflected in the index.

Still, the readings "appear consistent with rocketing consumers' spending," he said in a research note.

Shepherdson however noted that, with incomes growing only two percent on an annual basis and savings at record lows, "the 4.5 percent growth in spending apparently signaled by the confidence numbers just can't happen."Share this article Whatsapp

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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Wed, February 28, 2018 12:55 1297 2c798a31c212039f000dc5df9c7ad1ad 1 City angkot,drunk-driving,arrest,West-Jakarta Free

West Jakarta Police arrested an angkot (public minivan) driver near Rawa Buaya railroad on suspicions of drunk driving and driving on the wrong side of the road.

Insp. Ruben George said on Wednesday that the suspect, identified as Taufik, was found by the polices street crime taskforce while on patrol in the area.

Officers smelled alcohol from the drivers mouth, and therefore searched him and the vehicle, said Ruben on Wednesday as quoted by kompas.com.

Police confiscated a Rajawali alcoholic drink in a 600 ml mineral water bottle as well as a 20 cm knife from the suspect, who only carried his ID card and drivers license with him.

The suspect failed to show registration papers for the vehicle and is currently being detained at the Cengkareng Police office for further questioning. (jlm)Share this article Whatsapp

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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Wed, February 28, 2018 13:39 1297 2c798a31c212039f000dc5df9c7b1e4c 4 Business kppu,closure,house-of-representatives,fit-and-proper-test,candidates Free

The Business Competition Supervisory Commission (KPPU) is temporary closed as of Wednesday after the House of Representatives rejected to confirm any of the KPPU candidates, who were submitted by the government in November, 2017.

Business group Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Kadin) deputy chairman Shinta W. Kamdani criticized the House for its reluctance to hold a fit and proper test of the KPPU commissioner candidates. We have called for the immediate election of the new commissioners, she said as reported by kompas.com.

Meanwhile, head of the Indonesian Employers Association (Apindo) expert team Sutrisno Iwantoro said although the KPPUs decisions were often counterproductive to businesses, its existence was legal under Law No. 5/1999 on the prohibition of monopolies and unhealthy business competition.

The House should buy time. The President carried out his constitutional obligation by submitting the KPPU candidates. The ball is in the House court, Sutrisno.

In November 2017, President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo submitted 18 KPPU candidates to the House, which is required to elect nine as KPPU commissioners.

The office term of the outgoing KPPU commissioners ended on Dec. 27, 2017. The President extended their terms until Feb. 28. But the President had not issued any decree to extend the commissioners terms as of Tuesday night.

Previously, House Commission VI chairman Teguh Juwarno argued that the commission had not held fit and proper tests for the 18 KPPU commissioner candidates, as lawmakers saw many irregularities in the selection of the candidates. (bbn)Share this article Whatsapp

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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Wed, February 28, 2018 17:45 1297 2c798a31c212039f000dc5df9c7c198f 1 City zero-down-payment-housing,groundbreaking,North-Jakarta Free

The Jakarta administration will postpone the groundbreaking ceremony for its zero down-payment housing program in Rorotan, North Jakarta, which was initially set to take place on Wednesday.

Jakarta Deputy Governor Sandiaga Uno said officials were still deliberating the prices and payment scheme.

I dont want to rush [the start] if weve yet to find the best solution and synchronize all parties in the program, Sandiaga said, noting that the decision to delay the program had been discussed with Governor Anies Baswedan.

One hundred houses will reportedly be constructed in the area. The city administration has appointed developer PT Nusa Kirana, which also owns the land, to execute the project.

One things for sure is that the housing is only for those with monthly earnings of between Rp 3.7 million (US$270) and Rp 7 million, Sandiaga added as quoted by kompas.com.

The city administration previously held a groundbreaking ceremony for the Klapa Village apartments in Pondok Kelapa, East Jakarta under the scheme on Jan. 18. The construction of Klapa Village is being carried out by city-owned developer Pembangunan Sarana Jaya. (vla)While many decide to avoid Bali during Nyepi or the Day of Silence, the holiday actually offers a unique once-in-a-lifetime experience for those who decide to share this special moment with the locals.

Traveling to Bali on the Nyepi holiday should be planned accordingly because of the nature of the holiday celebration. The day of silence observation isnt only for locals but for foreigners visiting the island as well.OTTAWA, Feb. 27, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- While the Canadian Convenience Stores Association (CCSA) is encouraged by some measures in todays federal budget to support small businesses, the governments decision to hike excise rates could upend the commitment to fight contraband tobacco, which convenience retailers have been calling on the government to address for years.



The federal governments decision to make red tape reduction a priority for growing the economy is good news for small businesses said CCSA President, Satinder Chera. We look forward to working with them to identify costly, outdated and impractical regulations, which includes mitigating the impact of proposed plain packaging/standardization of cigarettes (Bill S-5) and marketing (Bill S-228) rules in c-stores.

Retailers will also work with government to provide ongoing feedback on their efforts to provide a more fair and balanced tax system, which started with the welcome cut in the small business tax rate in 2017 and went further today with clearer rules around the tax treatment of passive income in private corporations. Providing more targeted tax relief to support ongoing changes in the convenience channel should be the next step, which would help to address food deserts across the country.

That said, the decision to hike tobacco taxes is a big step in the wrong decision, which only benefits the black market at the expense of law-abiding corner stores. First, we applaud the federal government for putting additional resources into tackling Canadas $3 billion black market for tobacco, and we look forward to hearing more details, said Chera. However, hiking tobacco taxes at the same time will only grow the problem, without any demonstrable impact on reducing smoking rates in Canada. Raising taxes also contradicts the governments low-tax approach to wrestling the cannabis market away from criminals.

How the government addresses these concerns will influence the ability of convenience retailers to benefit from todays budget, including whether the new food safety measures will address grey market confectionary in our channel, and our long-standing concerns over credit card fees on merchants.

The cost associated with accepting credit card payments hits small retailers hard, with fees for accepting card payments as high as 4% per transaction. Other countries, including Australia and the EU, have capped these fees. Small retailers patiently await the outcome of the Department of Finances review of merchant fees, said Chera. We hope the governments commitment to focus on supporting small businesses will result in much needed relief for small merchants soon, said Chera.

MEDIA CONTACT: Katlyn Harrison Consultant, Summa Strategies, 613-235-1400 / kharrison@summa.ca

The Canadian Convenience Stores Association (CCSA) is a national, not-for-profit trade association that represents the interests of convenience store retailers and distributors in Canada. C-store retailers employ over 234,000 people, collect over $22 billion in tax revenue for governments and serve 10 million customers every day in communities across the country.Share this article Whatsapp

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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Wed, February 28, 2018 15:47 1297 2c798a31c212039f000dc5df9c7b8af7 4 Business DMO-domestic-market-obligation,coal-price,comments Free

The Indonesian Geological Experts Association (IAGI) has urged the government to not hurriedly decide on domestic coal prices under the domestic market obligation (DMO) as a mechanism to help curb electricity rates, as demanded by state-owned electricity company PLN.

IAGI chairman Singgih Widagdo said the separation of domestic and international coal prices was related to the countrys long-term energy vision.

He added that the decision on the coal DMO should include the Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry, the Finance Ministry and regional administrations, as well as coal investors.

So, the Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry should not decide the DMO only based on the increase of primary energy costs, Singgih said in Jakarta on Tuesday as reported by kompas.com.

Singgih said the association appreciated that the government had decided the coal reference price (HBA), including the obligation of coal miners to pay royalties to the state before they sold the commodity to a third party.

Singgih said the separation of domestic and international coal prices was not only a matter of economic consideration, but it related to the way the government managed natural resources for the interest of the people.

PLN previously proposed a special coal price of US$65 per ton for coal supplied under the DMO, or $20 below the proposed price from the Indonesian Coal Mining Association (APBI) of $85 per ton.

Coal accounts for more than 57 percent of PLNs electricity supply costs, meaning that increases in global coal prices will be a major blow to the company. (bbn)Share this article Whatsapp

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Linkedin Anton Hermansyah (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Wed, February 28, 2018 16:47 1297 2c798a31c212039f000dc5df9c7bd3fa 1 Business Jokowi,oil-and-gas-holding,approval,Rini-Soemarno,Sri-Mulyani-Indrawati Free

President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo has given the green light for the establishment of a state-owned oil and gas holding company supported by state-owned energy company Pertamina and state-owned gas distributor PT Perusahaan Gas Negara (PGN).

State-Owned Enterprises Minister Rini Soemarno said on Wednesday that a presidential regulation (Perpres) on the establishment of the holding company would be signed before March 25, the deadline PGN decided on during an extraordinary shareholders meeting on Jan. 25, 2017.

Rini said the plan to establish the holding company had received approval from minority stakeholders, namely private shareholders of PGN.

The establishment of the holding will be in late March or early April, soon after the President signs the Perpres," she said after meeting with Jokowi at the Presidential Palace.

Under the plan, government shares in PGN will be transferred to Pertamina. Currently, the government owns 56.96 percent of PGN, while the remaining shares are owned by private entities.

The meeting on Wednesday was also attended by Coordinating Economic Minister Darmin Nasution, Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati and Development Finance Comptroller chairman Ardan Adiperdana.

Sri Mulyani said with the synergy between Pertamina and PGN, the government hoped to eliminate the overlapping investment in the two state-owned companies.

"The President wanted to know about the business model. He wants the synergy to result in a positive output," the minister added.

Prior to the establishment of the holding company, Pertamina subsidiary PT Pertamina Gas will be merged into PGN. (bbn)

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Linkedin Olga Kharif (Bloomberg) Portland, United States  Wed, February 28, 2018 16:39 1297 2c798a31c212039f000dc5df9c7bd05e 2 Business cryptocurrency,Marshall-Islands,parliament Free

The Republic of the Marshall Islands plans to release its own cryptocurrency to serve as an official legal tender, according to two government officials.

Members of parliament voted this week to proceed with the plan, Kenneth Kedi, a senator and the bodys speaker, said in a phone interview. A council still has several days to object, a move he said is unlikely.

The digital coin, to be known as the Sovereign, will probably be issued this year, David Paul, minister-in-assistance to the president, said in a phone interview. The government will arrange an initial coin offering and exchanges will be allowed to apply to trade the currency, he said. The move is seen as a way to bolster local budgets, he said.

This was specifically targeted for the long-term needs of the country, Paul said.

Roughly 70,000 people live in the Marshall Islands, a collection of more than 1,100 islands and islets in the Pacific. Some proceeds from the crypto offering will be used to provide health care to locals affected by US nuclear tests conducted in the area decades ago, Paul said.

Several governments have sought to strengthen their finances with cryptocurrencies. This month Venezuela launched its own digital token, the Petro.Share this article Whatsapp

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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Wed, February 28, 2018 19:22 1297 2c798a31c212039f000dc5df9c7c5486 4 National MUI,Jokowi,joko-widodo,Joko-Widodo,Abu-Bakar-Baasyir,terrorism,clemency Free

The chairman of Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI), Maruf Amin, has called on President Joko Jokowi Widodo to grant clemency or a sentence reduction to radical cleric and terrorist convict Abu Bakar Baasyir due to his failing health.

If possible, the President can grant him a clemency. But its up to him, Maruf told reporters on Wednesday, as reported by tempo.co.

Baasyir has been in prison for nearly seven years after being sentenced to 15 years by the South Jakarta District Court in 2011. The court found him guilty of funding a military training camp for a terrorist group in Aceh.

The 79-year-old spiritual leader of Jamaah Ansharut Tauhid was initially locked up in a high security prison in Nusakambangan in Cilacap, Central Java. However, due to his declining health, authorities relocated him to Gunung Sindur prison in Bogor, West Java, in 2016.

Maruf also asked Jokowi to allow Baasyir to be admitted to hospital.

I have expressed that to the President and his response was good, he said without giving further details.

Meanwhile, presidential spokesman Johan Budi Saptopribowo refused to comment on the proposal, saying that he needed to confirm with the President first.

The Law and Human Rights Ministry granted Baasyir a third three-month sentence cut on Independence Day on August 17 last year.

The ailing radical cleric was admitted to Harapan Kita Hospital last year after developing swollen feet due to clogged blood vessels. (sha/rin)Share this article Whatsapp

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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Wed, February 28, 2018 20:19 1297 2c798a31c212039f000dc5df9c7c68fe 1 City zero-down-payment-housing,Rorotan Free

Jakarta Public Housing and Public Buildings Agency head Agustino Darmawan said the zero down-payment housing program, which is carried out under the housing financing liquidity facility scheme, would not provide landed houses.

Zero down-payment housing in the city must be vertical housing; it cant be accommodated by the scheme if its landed housing, he said, as quoted by kompas.com on Wednesday.

Even if there were landed houses being sold through the scheme, Agustino added, the price would not be more than Rp 140 million (around US$10,000). The price of a house at the project in Rorotan, North Jakarta, would likely be more than that hence it was not using the scheme nor was it part of the citys housing program, he said.

No matter how competitive the price of land is, no developer will build and sell a house that is priced under Rp 140 million in Jakarta.

Previously, the media reported that the city administration had allocated Rp 800 billion to fund one of Jakarta Governor Anies Baswedans key campaign promises. (vla)Share this article Whatsapp

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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Wed, February 28, 2018 20:39 1297 2c798a31c212039f000dc5df9c7c76c6 4 City zero-down-payment-housing,Rorotan,North-Jakarta Free

Hundreds of people packed Rorotan in North Jakarta, where a zero down-payment housing project will reportedly be constructed. They were eager to get more information about the housing program.

The housing projects groundbreaking was slated to be held on Wednesday morning, however Jakarta Governor Anies Baswedan said the project in Rorotan did not belong to the city administration.

Syarif, a Rorotan resident who sought more information on the purchase requirements, said Ive been longing to have my own house and I thought I could realize it [through the zero down-payment housing], he told kompas.com.

Similar to Syarif, Cipinang Melayu resident Rusman said he had traveled quite far to visit Rorotan and had gathered as much information as he could to purchase a house there.

Another visitor, Maulana, said Ive got news [about the housing project] from Facebook and from other people. Im here to check out what the fuss is all about.

At least 100 homes will reportedly be built on 1.3 hectares owned by developer PT Nusa Kirana.

The housing scheme was among Anies campaign promises. (vla)Share this article Whatsapp

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Linkedin Viriya P. Singgih (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Wed, February 28, 2018 17:10 1297 2c798a31c212039f000dc5df9c7be83d 1 Business DMO-domestic-market-obligation,PLN,march Free

State-owned electricity firm PLN says the government has decided to set a fixed price for coal supplied to the company under the domestic market obligation (DMO), a move that is expected to ease its financial burden.

With coal-fired power plants accounting for 57 percent of Indonesias power generation capacity of 60,491 megawatts last year, the increase in coal prices over the past year has been problematic for PLN.

Therefore, the Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry plans to introduce a new price formula for coal supplied to PLN by domestic mining firms.

We believe that this coal price issue has been settled. President [Joko Jokowi Widodo] will issue a presidential regulation that will set a fixed price for coal [supplied to us], PLN president director Sofyan Basir said on Wednesday, adding that the regulation would be issued in March.

PLN has previously suggested that the ministry set a price floor of US$55 and a ceiling of $70 per ton for coal supplied under the DMO.

Meanwhile, the Indonesian Coal Mining Association (APBI), which represents more than 70 percent of PLN's coal suppliers in the country, has suggested that the ministry fix the coal price at $85 per ton for a certain period, such as a year or two.

The Indonesian Geological Experts Association (IAGI) has called on the government to thoroughly discuss the issue before deciding on the DMO coal price. (bbn)Share this article Whatsapp

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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Wed, February 28, 2018 21:53 1297 2c798a31c212039f000dc5df9c7c9f85 1 City zero-down-payment-housing,Rorotan,North-Jakarta,anies-baswedan Free

Developer PT Nusa Kirana held a groundbreaking ceremony for its zero down-payment housing project in Rorotan, North Jakarta after Governor Anies Baswedan denied the project belonged to the city administration.

Although the backdrop erected at the event read Groundbreaking of Pesona Rorotan Zero Down-Payment Housing DKI Jakarta Program, the companys government relations officer, Dhiky Kurniawan, denied a blunder had been made.

This [housing project] is, indeed, not related to the city administrations program, this is genuinely private sector. [Governor Anies] would have come if officials were involved in the housing project, he explained as quoted by kompas.com.

Meanwhile, North Jakarta Deputy Mayor Junaedi, who was spotted at the ceremony, refused to answer questions from reporters.

No comment. Im here as a guest, he said.

The housing projects groundbreaking, which was slated to be held on Wednesday morning, began at 3 p.m. At least 100 homes reportedly will be built on 1.3 hectares owned by Nusa Kirana.

Hundreds of Jakarta residents packed the area to gather information on the requirements to take part in the program.

However Anies said that the project did not belong to the city administration.

Jakarta Deputy Governor Sandiaga Uno said that the administration canceled the groundbreaking ceremony earlier on Wednesday because city officials were still deliberating the prices and payment scheme.

The city administration previously launched its first zero-down payment housing project in Pondok Kelapa, East Jakarta, on Jan 18, called Klapa Village. (vla)Share this article Whatsapp

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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Wed, February 28, 2018 17:42 1297 2c798a31c212039f000dc5df9c7c068c 4 Business Construction-Safety-Committee,elevated-projects,moratorium Free

The Construction Safety Committee has allowed 13 elevated projects to resume work after being halted for two weeks, following the collapse of the Bekasi-Cawang-Kampung Melayu toll road section in Kebon Nanas in East Jakarta recently.

Committee chairman Syarif Burhanuddin said in a statement on Tuesday that the recommendation to resume work was based on the committee's evaluation of 17 projects on Monday.

He added the four other projects would be allowed to resume work after they implemented the safety measures recommended by the committee.

The four are the Becakayu toll road project, the Depok-Antasar project, the Double-Double Track (DDT) railway project and the Jakarta-Cikampek toll road project.

According to the committee, Becakayu is required to finalize its formwork, the Depok-Antara toll road is required to complete a lifting procedure and the DDT project contractor is required to replace a launcher gantry. Meanwhile, the committee would inspect the Jakarta-Cikampek toll road project on Wednesday before issuing any recommendations.

Meanwhile, the 13 other projects that will resume work are the Pasuruan-Probolinggo toll road, Surakarta-Ngawi toll road, Ciawi-Sukabumi toll road, the light rapid transit (LRT) Kelapa Gading-Velodrom section, Palembang LRT, Greater Jakarta LRT, Terbangi Besar-Kayu Agung-Pematang Panggang toll road, Jakarta toll road, Serpong-Cinere toll road, Kayu Agung-Palembang-Betung toll road, Krian-Legundi-Bunder-Manyar toll road, Cibitung-Cilincing toll road and Cimanggis-Cibitung toll road.

Committee member Danis Sumadilaga said as reported by tempo.co that the team had begun to evaluate 36 elevated projects soon after the Becakayu accident. (bbn)Share this article Whatsapp

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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Wed, February 28, 2018 16:00 1297 2c798a31c212039f000dc5df9c7b9092 1 City becakayu,toll-road,incident Free

State-owned construction company PT Waskita Karya will provide legal assistance to one of their chief executive officers, AA, who has been named a suspect in the investigation into the Bekasi-Cawang-Kampung Melayu (Becakayu) toll road incident by the Jakarta Police.

Were following the legal procedures as requested by the police, while at the same time improving the companys standard operating procedures, said chief public relations and CSR officer of Waskita Karya, Poppy Sukmawati, as quoted by kompas.com on Tuesday.

The Jakarta Police also named another suspect, AS, who is a supervisor for state-owned engineering and management consultancy firm Virama Karya.

According to the East Jakarta Police and the National Polices forensic laboratory, the collapse of a pier-head formwork on the Becakayu toll road construction site in Feb. 20 was caused by human error.

We questioned several witnesses, construction experts and investigated the location until we concluded that the incident occurred because of the suspects negligence, said East Jakarta Police chief, Sr. Comr. Tony Surya Putra recently.

We haven't arrested the suspects, although they should still take responsibility and follow the legal process, he added.

The incident caused seven workers to be rushed to the Indonesia Christian University (UKI) Hospital and the National Police Hospital. Six reportedly left the hospitals on Feb. 23, after receiving treatment. (vla)Taipei, Taiwan, Feb. 28, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Visitors to the 2018 Taiwan Lantern Festival hosted by the Chiayi County government were surprised to find that they could feast eyes on the aesthetics of not only Asian relics but also that of western countries as a result of the incorporation of technological arts with oriental architectures.



The lantern festival, opened Feb. 16 in the Southern Branch of the National Palace Museum , will run through March 11.

Domestic and foreign artists from Australia, the United States and Singapore were displaying their contemporary installment art works featuring projection mapping during the event.

Hexogon Solution, an artistic team from Singapore, which set New Guinness World Records title for the Greatest Light Output in A Projected Image at the opening of the 28th Southeast Asian Games, showcased its work Lanterns of Water Reflection Dance Ensemble.

The team turned the Zhimei Bridge (in the Southern Branch of the museum) into a giant projection screen in addition to creating a water curtain on the Zhishan Lake. When the light sculpture was projected from the bridge, the pictures of the artistic short films were reflected on the waters of the lake to be in tune with the effect of the water curtain, thus forming a three-level air, land and water light-shadow show and enabling visitors to appreciate the beauty of Chiayi from different angles.

While showcasing works in the Water Art Lantern Zone included Taiwanese artists Ding Jian-zhong (River of Time) ; Tsai Yi-Ting (Sailing with Light and Shadow) ; and Huang Lan-Ya ( Splashing) .

Besides, the alternative light sculpture work Birds of Lumos , which was created by the Australian team The Amigos by using the geographic characteristic of the Southern Branch, also added to the colors of Chiayis beautiful night.

About 2018 Taiwan Lantern Festival in Chiayi

Date: February 16 to March 11, 2018.

Location: Southern Branch of the National Palace Museum, Taizi Blvd, and Chiayi County Administrative District.

Website: www.taiwan.net.tw/2018taiwanlantern

Visit the links at https://goo.gl/GZ6KXA



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Linkedin News Desk (The Daily Star/ANN) Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh  Wed, February 28, 2018 16:20 1297 2c798a31c212039f000dc5df9c7bc594 2 World #Rohingya,#RohingyaCrisis,#Bangladesh,#Myanmar,#MyanmarRohingya,#CoxsBazar,#Nobel,#refugees,#RefugeeCrisis Free

They made the promise after hearing from many Rohingya women about the harrowing tales of torture they had endured in Myanmar.

We are your voice and we will fight for justice for you, said Nobel Women Initiative's Media Consultant Veronica Pedrosa, quoting two of the three visiting laureates as saying to the Rohingya women at Ghundhum of Naikkhangchari in Bandarban.

Over 6500 Rohingya people took shelter in the no-man's land close to Ghundhum, while nearly 700,000 other Rohingyas are staying in refugee camps in Cox's Bazar. Fearing persecution in their homeland Myanmar, they started entering Bangladesh late last year.

Nobel laureate Mairead Maguire from Northern Ireland said to the Rohingyas in the no-man's land: You should be proud to say 'I come from Rakhine State and I come from an area of Burma. I am a Rohingya'.

The Rohingyas from the no-man's land replied in unison: I am a Rohingya.

The Nobel laureates were able to communicate very powerful messages to the Rohingya women, said Veronica, who accompanied the trio to Ghundhum yesterday morning.

Myanmar military and locals have been accused of carrying out massacres against Rohingyas, raping Rohingya women and children, and looting and burning down their villages. Several rights bodies term the incident 'genocide' and 'crimes against humanity'.

On completion of six months of the Rohingya crisis, three Nobel Peace Prize winners -- Tawakkol Karman of Yemen, Mairead Maguire of Northern Ireland and Shirin Ebadi of Iran -- came to Bangladesh to highlight the crisis and raise their voice for the Rohingya, one of the most persecuted minorities of the world.

Nobel Women's Initiative, a platform of six female Nobel Peace Prize winners, in partnership with Bangladeshi NGO, Naripokkho, organised the visit that began on Sunday.

On Sunday and Monday, the trio visited Rohingya camps in Kutupalong, Balukhali and Thyangkhali. On the last day of the camp visit yesterday, Tawakkol Karman and Mairead Maguire listened to the Rohingya women and children of the no-man's land from around 10:00am.

As the news of their arrival spread, over a hundred of Rohingya female and children refugees crossed a small creek into Bangladesh territory in Konapara village, reports our correspondent from Cox's Bazar.

Encircling the laureates, they shared the stories of atrocities they faced before fleeing to the no-man's land.

Thirteen-year old Ayesha, who along with her five siblings fled her village of Kachubunia in Rakhine, alleged that Myanmar soldiers killed her mother in front of her and then picked up her father six months back. Her father has been missing since then.

Another woman Hosne Ara, 35, said Myanmar security forces killed her husband and snatched her two-year-old son and then threw the baby into a fire. She then fled her home and took shelter in no-man's land.

During their two-hour stay in the no-man's land, the Nobel laureates became emotional. They cried and hugged the women, and assured them of raising their voice in the global arena for justice.

We witnessed the manifestation of this crisis: stateless, disposable people deprived of rights at home, the crimes they suffered not recognised, tweeted Nobel Women's Initiative Director Liz Bernstein, who also accompanied the laureates.

She said they heard harrowing tales from women whose husbands were murdered, from women who were raped and whose houses burned, and also about the generosity of Bangladeshi villagers.

The laureates shouted support and solidarity for Rohingya people and promised to pursue justice, Liz Bernstein said.

During their visits to the Rohingya camps on Sunday and Monday, the laureates vented anger at Aung San Suu Kyi, asking her to speak out and stop the genocide against the Rohingya.

If she [Suu Kyi] could not stop all this crime, she has to resign now, Yemen's Tawakkol Karman told reporters on Monday.

Mairead Maguire demanded that the international community works effectively to stop the genocide and take Myanmar military to the International Criminal Court.

As a human family, we cannot allow genocide of a whole people. The world must act, she said on Monday.

Shirin Ebadi said they were working to pave the way for taking Myanmar military to the ICC, and sought cooperation from Bangladesh.

The Nobel laureates, who returned to Dhaka yesterday, are scheduled to hold a press conference on the Rohingya crisis today and attend a discussion on their movements for peace and human rights in their native lands and beyond.

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This article appeared on The Daily Star newspaper website, which is a member of Asia News Network and a media partner of The Jakarta PostWhen news of a man being prohibited from flying to Bali after he was spotted smoking when boarding the plane while it was being refueled was made public recently, people were reminded of how dangerous such a situation could be.

Basic rules on flights include wearing a seat belt during take-off and landing and no smoking whatsoever, even in lavatories.

The rule was first enforced 28 years ago when the United States banned smoking on domestic flights that were more than six hours in duration. Ten years later, smoking was prohibited on flights between the United States and foreign destinations.

Secondhand smoke on flights is considered a serious health hazard.

Sara Nelson, the international president of the Association of Flight Attendants, started working as a flight attendant in 1996 when smoking was still permitted on many international flights.

Even as a passenger, I remember getting off the airplane and feeling like I had to scrape off layers and layers of ick, with eyes stinging, throat hurting and all of the other symptoms of exposure to secondhand smoke, she recalled.

Read also: Citilink passenger removed from flight for smoking

A sad reminder came from Varig Flight 820, which made an emergency landing in France in 1973 as a result of smoke inside the cabin, triggered by a fire in one of the lavatories. It resulted in 123 deaths, with only 11 survivors. The suspected cause was a cigarette thrown into a trash bin filled with flammable tissues.

Kompas reported that Sriwijaya Air first banned inflight smoking in 2003. Sriwijaya Air senior manager of corporate communications Agus Soedjono said the ban ensured all passengers well-being.

As far as I know, no inflight smoking is allowed on any Indonesian airliners, said Agus. He said he had not heard of any passengers smoking on Sriwijaya aircraft.

Citilink corporate communication manager Benny Butar stated on Monday that the smoking passengers behavior had threatened the safety and security of the flight.

In the airline industry, we need to ensure that no safety rule is violated, guaranteeing that flight operations run safely, smoothly and comfortably, he said.

Flight safety in Indonesia is regulated in Law No. 1/ 2009 and Law No. 80 /2017 on the Transportation Ministrys national flight safety program. Violations carry a five-year prison sentence and a Rp 2.5 billion fine.

Ashtrays can still be found on aircraft, usually next to the lavatory, despite the smoking ban. This is for safety reasons in that there still needs to be a safe place to put out a lit cigarette.

A requirement by US law, the regulation states: "Regardless of whether smoking is allowed in any other part of the airplane, lavatories must have self-contained, removable ashtrays located conspicuously on or near the entry side of each lavatory door. (wen)Posted Tuesday, February 27, 2018 2:53 pm

Rev. George Leo Morelock, 80, of Chatham,died Sunday, Feb. 25, 2018, at St. Josephs Home in Springfield after a brief battle with cancer.

Visitation will be held Friday, March 2, from 4 to 6 p.m. at St. Joseph the Worker Church in Chatham. A Funeral Mass will follow in the church at 6 p.m., officiated by Thomas J. Paprocki along with other priests of the Diocese.

A semi-private interment service will be held on Saturday, March 3, at 11 a.m. at Virden Cemetery in Virden, with his nephew Deacon Greg Maynerich officiating. Curry Funeral Home in Pawnee is in charge of the arrangements.

Mr. Morelock was born on Jan. 3, 1938, in Thayer, the son of Thomas and Mary (Mateychick) Morelock. He and his family were members of Sacred Heart Parish in Virden.

A graduate of Virden High School in 1955, he later enrolled in the Springfield diocesan seminary in Sept. 1957. He attended St. Johns Home Mission Seminary in Little Rock, AR in 1958.

He was ordained May 22, 1965, and served the Diocese of Springfield as the associate pastor at St. Elizabeth in Granite City from 1965 to 1969; St. Agnes in Springfield from 1969 to 1973; Our Lady of Lourdes in Decatur in 1973; St. Matthew in Alton from 1973 to 1977; and Blessed Sacrament in Springfield from 1977 to 1980.

His first pastoral assignment was St. John the Baptist in Coffeen and Sacred Heart in Panama from 1980 to 1988. He served at St. Raymond in Raymond from 1988 to 1994 and St. Agnes in Hillsboro from 1994 to 1998. Bishop Daniel Ryan appointed him as chaplain at the Graham Correctional Center in Hillsboro from 1980 to 2008. Completing his time at Graham, he returned to parish ministry, serving as a parochial administrator at SS Mary and Joseph Church in Carlinville and St. Raymond from 2005 until his retirement in 2008.

He resided in Chatham since his retirement and assisted the pastor at St. Joseph the Worker Church as senior priest. His secret to a happy retirement was to keep active with family and friends, to nurture the spiritual life, to read and to learn. His life was one of service and charity, to the community, to his parish and to his family. He was always willing to pray for others, offer needed guidance, just talk or provide an encouraging word. He was a priests priest, helping many to explore their calling to the priesthood.

He was an avid lover of pets and took in numerous rescue dogs over his lifetime. He loved music from the Rat Pack big band era, show tunes, theater and the fine arts, and of course, Fox News. He loved to laugh and use "the microphone," sing and entertain others with his guitar, and he had a charming baritone voice that was loved by so many. He will remain alive in everyone's memories and their hearts. He was a Knights of Columbus Fourth Degree member of Pope John XXIII Assembly in Hillsboro.

He is survived by many nieces and nephews, great-nieces, great-nephews, as well as many great-great-nieces and great-great-nephews.

In addition to his parents, he was preceded in death by his brothers, John, Thomas, Joseph and infant brother, Edward Morelock; and sisters Agnes Maynerich and Mary Mathias.

Online condolences may be left at www.curryfh.com.Community Board 3 last night approved a land use application to create a Union Square Tech Training Center at 124 East 14th St.

As we reported Feb. 9, the proposal for a 21-story commercial tower won the support of CB3s land use and economic development committees. Local preservationists and other community activists were pushing for conditional approval of the tech hub, linking the land use application to a rezoning of the blocks to the south of the development site.

The board stopped short of an ultimatum, but did add the following language in the resolution approved yesterday:

Consistent with previous board support for rezoning the Third and Fourth Avenue corridor, including the December 2017 board resolution, CB3 urges the city to commence the process of rezoning this area as well as incentivize affordable housing and exclude certain use groups such as hotels and big box stores.

The new tech industry hub would be built on a city-owned site that formerly housed a P.C. Richard & Son store. The partners  including RAL Development Services and Civic Hall (a tech training and collaboration non-profit)  plan to create a digital skills training center, flex-office space for startups, market rate office space for established firms and a food hall within the building. There would also be a large meeting facility.

The project is a major priority for the de Blasio administration. In a statement released this morning, Anthony Hogrebe of the citys Economic Development Corp., said:

The tech training center will establish a physical access point to the citys tech industry  creating a place where New Yorkers can gain digital skills, access a good-paying job, or start and grow a company. Were thrilled to receive the support of Community Board 3, and of so many residents in lower Manhattan who have been calling for these resources for years. We thank the members of the community board for their thoughtful recommendations and look forward to working with them throughout  and beyond  the public approval process to make this project a reality.

The Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation (GVSHP) has been leading a coalition battling for zoning protections. Andrew Berman, GVSHPs executive director, said last night hes satisfied with the outcome at CB3:

This (resolution) sends an important message to Mayor de Blasio and developers that we do not want the East Village and Greenwich Village transformed into Silicon Alley or Midtown South. A Tech Hub on 14th Street which provides training and services to New Yorkers and small start-ups can be a valuable addition to our city; but it must be accompanied by zoning protections for the surrounding residential neighborhood which ensures that tech and other development doesnt push out longtime residents and businesses, or fundamentally change the character of these neighborhoods. What we are proposing is a win-win  the Tech Hub proceeds on 14th Street, and the Mayor lives up to his rhetoric about preserving and promoting affordable housing by advancing this rezoning for the surrounding area that would prevent out of scale development and encourage affordable housing development and preservation. So far he has adamantly refused, only supporting the zoning changes for the Tech Hub, which is to be developed by his campaign donors. We hope he will now listen.

At last nights meeting, people for the tech hub and those concerned about over-development showed up to speak out about the controversial issue. CB3s vote was the first step in the citys Uniform Land Use Review Procedure (ULURP) . The application now goes to the Manhattan Borough President, followed by the City Planning Commission. Finally, there will be a decisive vote by the New York City Council.

Newly elected City Councilmember Carlina Rivera appeared at last nights meeting. In brief remarks before the vote, Rivera said, In my negotiations for the rezoning and the tech hub, I wish they were going better than they were. [City Planning has expressed little enthusiasm for a rezoning.] As a community, added Rivera, we have a history of resisting and we have a history of pushing forward what we know is best.

I honestly think we could use both (the tech center and zoning protections), said Rivera. The tech center has the potential to be something great, but we also know that this kind of development can incentivize large-scale buildings and things that maybe we dont necessarily think are priorities. Whatever you choose. I can use both resolutions. I will use the language to push through what I know are our priorities.VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Feb. 27, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Association for Mineral Exploration (AME) expresses its support for Budget 2018 as tabled by Canada Finance Minister Bill Morneau today in Ottawa.



Todays budget provides the fiscal platform necessary for Canada to maintain its position as the top global destination for mineral exploration, says Ms. Edie Thome, President & CEO of AME. We welcome the one-year extension of the Mineral Exploration Tax Credit that was announced today by Minister Morneau. We believe that the extension of METC, together with continued investment in scientific innovation, will facilitate mineral exploration throughout Canada, and provide opportunities for community development.

The 15% Mineral Exploration Tax Credit (METC), extended through March 31, 2019, complements the B.C. Mining Flow-Through Share Tax Credit, which results in a combined investment tax credit for an individual resident of B.C. of approximately 32%. Finance Canada has estimated that the flow-through share system stimulates $3 in exploration spending for every $1 in foregone tax revenue. Such incentives are critical in the globally competitive mineral exploration industry. S&P Global Market Intelligence notes that Canada attracted 13.8% or US$1.10 billion in non-ferrous mineral exploration in 2017, slightly ahead of Australia, which attracted 13.6% or US$1.08 billion.

Budget 2018 also provides continued support for innovation, and the federal government previously announced five supercluster recipients on February 15 including the Digital Technology Supercluster. One function of the B.C.-based supercluster is the Earth Data Store. This initiative will facilitate and improve data collection, sharing and visualization in the resource sector  enhancing how information about resource projects is shared between project proponents, Indigenous Peoples, governments and communities.

Canada is regarded as a leader in scientific innovation in the resource sector, notes Dr. Lyn Anglin, Chair of the Board of Directors of AME. We applaud the federal governments commitment to research and innovation. We hope to see increased investment in resource-related science and technology, particularly in geoscience and mineral exploration, in support of the discovery of new mineral resources and their responsible development. New technologies for exploration and new mineral discoveries are critical to the future of Canadas mining sector.

About AME:

AME is the lead association for the mineral exploration and development industry based in British Columbia. Established in 1912, AME represents, advocates and promotes the interests of thousands of members who are engaged in mineral exploration and development in B.C. and throughout the world. AME encourages a safe, economically strong and environmentally responsible industry by providing clear initiatives, policies, events and tools to support its membership.

Media Contact:

Jonathan Buchanan

Director, Corporate Affairs, AME

jbuchanan@amebc.ca

778.840.0620The Commissioner for Public Appointments, Peter Riddell, published acriticising the department for failing to practice due diligence in appointing Young as the new higher education regulator. Mr Young was encouraged to apply by the Universities Minister Jo Johnson, who has now stepped down from the role. He held his appointment for nine days before resigning in the face of public and media pressure.The suitability of the highly controversial Spectator columnist for the role was questioned, not least because of a series of offensive tweets and writings about women, eugenics and the working class . The Commissioner disagreed with the DfE's argument that "it was neither proportionate nor normal to trawl through potentially large mounds of social media activity", given that the tweets surfaced almost immediately after his appointment. The Commissioner also found that DfE's failure to consider Young's tweets was inconsistent with their close scrutiny of one particular candidate for the student experience representative on the board. According to his report, "No 10 Googlers" and "special advisers" from Downing Street had been involved in this process. Downing Street advisers had "heavily influenced" the decision not to appoint the particular candidate for student experience representative. The report stated that the candidate was found unsuitable in light of their political views, with the DfE claiming that their opposition to the allegedly anti-extremism Prevent duty and support of no-platform policies would "undermine the intended policy goals of the [Office for Students]". The Commissioner found that the competition for student experience representative had "serious shortcomings" in fairness and transparency as a result.SAN JOSE, Calif., Feb. 27, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Cohesity, the leader of hyperconverged secondary storage, announced today that the company has further expanded its presence in the Asia Pacific market, bringing on Theo Hourmouzis as managing director, Australia and New Zealand (ANZ), and selecting Arrow Enterprise Computing Systems ANZ as its regional distribution partner. Cohesity increased revenue by 600 percent in 2017 with its completely channel-focused sales approach, and continues to build on its large base of customers and partners across the globe.



Companies are struggling to move beyond the legacy approach to secondary storage, which covers all non-primary data use cases  including data protection and backup, file and object shares, test/dev, and analytics  and has created a fragmented landscape of separate solutions and silos that typically account for 80 percent of enterprise data. Cohesity DataPlatform consolidates all of these workflows on a unified, scalable platform for the cloud or on premises. Cohesity delivers a radically simpler solution with a single interface, reducing cost, data center footprint, and making it easier to manage and extract insights.

As managing director, Hourmouzis will be responsible for Cohesitys development and growth in the region, helping customers understand how to achieve radically efficient secondary storage and building relationships with partner resellers. Hourmouzis joins Cohesity after more than five years serving as senior director of sales, Asia Pacific, for Nimble Storage, which was recently acquired by HPE. Combined with his previous experience working for NetApp, Hourmouzis brings deep knowledge of the storage industry and regional technology partners to this new role.

Cohesity has the unique ability to fundamentally change the way enterprises manage and extract value from their secondary data, a space that has seen very little innovation and is ready for a new approach, said Theo Hourmouzis, Cohesitys managing director, Australia and New Zealand. Im excited about the opportunity to grow Cohesitys presence in the ANZ market and empower more customers to consolidate their secondary storage environment, realizing efficiencies and cost saving with a focus on data mobility into the cloud.

Arrow ECS ANZ, the leading value-add distributor for Australia and New Zealand, has partnered with Cohesity to deliver its hyperconverged secondary storage solutions to enterprises in the region. Cohesity has also established partnerships with several channel resellers in the region that will work directly to educate and sell to customers that want to overcome secondary storage obstacles.

We see Arrows partnership with Cohesity as a key opportunity for partners engaging in traditional backup and storage deals. We know end-users are looking for modern solutions to contemporary challenges, and partners are looking for new revenue opportunities and ways to differentiate, said Nick Verykios, managing director, Arrow ECS ANZ. Cohesity, together with Arrow, has the capacity to address all those points with the revolutionary secondary storage offering they bring to market.

The Fortune Global 500 energy management company Schneider Electric recently adopted Cohesity DataPlatform to replace legacy data protection and backup solutions for its Energy & Sustainability Services division in the ANZ region. Cohesitys hyperconverged secondary storage platform empowered Schneider Electric to simplify and streamline IT processes, achieve much faster recovery times, and seamlessly extend backup data into the cloud.

Cohesity has brought our once aging and legacy backup process into the modern day  providing a breath of fresh air in a previously tedious and frustrating process, said Anthony De Luca, manager, IT Operations, Energy & Sustainability Services, Schneider Electric. With Cohesity, our entire environment is backed up to the hour  every hour. Utilizing secondary cloud storage  with simple yet powerful storage policies  we know our data is securely backed up. What makes Cohesity so great is its ease of use, especially in recovering data almost immediately, running virtual machines straight from a snapshot, and finally, the incredibly responsive support team at Cohesity.

We have seen incredible momentum across the globe driven by Cohesitys revolutionary approach to secondary storage, and were excited for Theo to expand our presence in the region with Arrow ECS ANZ as a distributor, said Rob Salmon, president and COO, Cohesity. We value quality over quantity in our channel ecosystem; rather than adding thousands of resellers, we want to cultivate a small number of partners and show true value to them and to their customers.

Meet Cohesity at the Cisco Live 2018 Conference

Customers and partners will have a chance to meet the newly expanded Cohesity team during the upcoming Cisco Live 2018 Melbourne conference in March, at the companys exhibition-floor booth, #E34.

What: Cisco Live 2018 Melbourne When: March 6-9, 2018 Where: Booth #E34, Melbourne Convention & Exhibition Centre (MCEC) 1 Convention Centre Place South Wharf, Melbourne, Australia

About Cohesity

Cohesity makes your data work for you by consolidating secondary storage silos onto a hyperconverged, web-scale data platform that spans both private and public clouds. Enterprise customers begin by radically streamlining their backup and data protection, then converge file and object services, test/dev instances, and analytic functions to provide a global data store. Cohesity counts many Global 1000 companies and federal agencies among its rapidly growing customer base and was named to Forbes Next Billion-Dollar Startups 2017, LinkedIns Startups: The 50 Industry Disruptors You Need to Know Now, and CRNs 2017 Emerging Vendors in Storage lists. For more information, visit our website www.cohesity.com and blog https://cohesity.com/blog/, follow us on Twitter https://twitter.com/cohesity and LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/company/3750699/ and like us on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/cohesity/.

Media Contacts

Jenni Adair

Head of Corporate Communications

jenni@cohesity.com

650-400-1871

BOCA Communications for Cohesity

cohesity@bocacommunications.com





forbidden students A school in Norfolk hasfrom wearing the new, trendy Meet me at Mcdonalds hairstyle. The school has warned parents that their children would be either sent home or put in isolation if they disobeyed the rules.

Mr. Barris Smith, headmaster of the Great Yarmouth Charter Academy has told parents that the school is able to provide a PowerPoint showing the styles considered too extreme and not standard, that will result in punishment. Besides that, the school is showing examples of the unacceptable hairstyles on display boards around the building.

Lets break this down. What makes this hairstyle so different and rule-breaking? We dont know. It features a shave on the sides and back of the head, with a long, messy top- quite vulgar, I would say. Its designation remains a mystery for everyone, including a hairdresser from Gingers Hair Studio, just down the road from the school, who said they had no idea where the name came from.

However, the Meet me at Mcdonalds hairstyle was popularised by a 13-year-old Blackpool rapper, Little T. With his millions of viewers and huge fan base, he influenced many teens to copy his apparently unique style. According to him, it is supposed to be called Little T cut but looks like somebody thought of a more original name. Its probably getting called Meet me at McDonalds because all the kids meet there!, Littles T mother, Donna, jokingly stated.

But it is not the mystery of the Meet me at Mcdonalds designation that bothers me.

People come up with rather creative names for everything and despite its randomness, I find this one inoffensive. What is, however, disturbing, is banning hairstyles in schools. The dress code is, sometimes, understandable- such as wearing a uniform or a specific type of clothes.

But when it comes to hairstyles, something so unique, it only seems like a barrier for self-expression and personal growth, especially in such a crucial age for kids to develop their personality.

The Great Yarmouth Charter Academy has made its decision- with its notoriously strict code, their list of unacceptable hairstyles includes variations of a Mohican, shaved parting lines or hair with excessive height.

the letter sent to parents Thankfully parents, opposed to Mr. Barris Smith, have common sense. Therefore,containing the "unacceptable" hairstyles' list was posted on social media, and many comments argued how absolutely ridiculous the decision was, in one of the words of one of the mothers. More mothers have manifested their opinion, and none of them were in favour: You cant take time off sick as it affects your education but they will happily send you home because they dont like your hairstyle, Rachael Havens said.

This letter sent to parents is particularly interesting because it provides a detailed list of haircuts that, for some reason, are not allowed. Mr Barris took his time to write it but didnt give any explanation on why these hairstyles are against the rules. Instead, he just named them as too extreme. To make it worse, the list applies only to boys as girls hair is generally not a problem. So if a girl wanted to shave the sides of her head, what would happen? And why shouldnt she?

A school is an institution that educates students in various subjects, that is all. Hairstyles, fashion and students likes and dislikes go way further its aim. Unless it could affect students education, it shouldnt even be up for discussion. Unfortunately, this isnt the first time that the controversy around haircuts comes up.

Haman Harin , a 13-year-old student at St. Marys College One year ago,, Hull, was sent to pastoral care after his teacher argued that his haircut, the Meet me at Mcdonalds one, was affecting his education. He was also sent out of mainstream lessons.

According to his mother, the school simply doesnt like it when students have the sides of their head shaved and a perm on the top. Teachers were constantly bringing his hair up, stating that the hair should be all blended. This does not seem like an explanation to me. Maybe his long hair on top would disturb his vision in class, or even distract him, but again this is hearsay and none of his teachers mentioned it anyway.

The pastoral care predictably made it worse: I dont like it. Its stopping me learning and I would really like to be back in the classroom so I can get my education, Haman said. The school has been asked to comment on this and I doubt they can find a good way to justify this rule.

Why not focusing on what matters? There is no possible relation between hairstyles and education that I can think of, but there is indeed a significant correlation between how schools treat students and the way they grow up, and it is hard to understand (or impossible) how that still isnt the priority. And, come on, its called Meet me at Mcdonalds. What can be so bad about it?London Fashion Week 2018 was heightened by a surprise drop in from Her Majesty. She attended Richard Quinn's catwalk show and sat next to Dame Anna Wintour where she appeared to be having a great time. However, it seemed to create a fashion vs etiquette storm on social media surrounding Wintour's decision, not to remover her signature large sunglasses in front of the Queen.

The responses were aimed against Wintour such as "Very bad taste and ignorant", "So naff" and "she needs to learn some respect" as if the basic forms of etiquette involve removing all forms of concealing eyewear. This may be more understandable given that they were inside and that the glasses may or may not have prescription lenses, but that's going to lead to the whole debate about whether sunglasses inside are trendy or not.

Not many would dare to argue with the editor in chief of Vogue, but some thought that even she would remove them in the presence of the world's most revered royal. Only when the Queen wears a pair of sunnies indoors will we have her absolute approval, but if that's the case then there are a lot of clothes that she hasn't approved which is going to take ages on every person she's ever met.

When Buckingham Palace was asked about the non-removal business they appeared unoffended with their response, "The Queen meets thousands of people each year in the UK and overseas. Before meeting Her Majesty, many people ask how they should behave. The simple answer is that there are no obligatory codes of

behaviour, just courtesy." Despite what some people think, there are no set rules on what to wear and what to remove when meeting the Queen, and at her age, she probably doesn't care too much. As long as Wintour remained polite, respectful and ready with some interesting topics of conversation, what she wore should not stand in the way of how the Queen perceived her as a person.

Perhaps the Royals wanted to come across as up to date with the latest trends and accessories and to not be a downer on an event that is all about statement clothing and expressing confidence in your style. Maybe Her Majesty assumed that the sunglasses were the new craze and was intrigued, suggesting her appearance at the event was part of a mission to adopt a new style. But in terms of what is and isn't appropriate to wear in front of her, Wintour clearly decided for herself that her glasses were absolutely fine and not something to kick a fuss against during one of her busiest weeks of the year.

The whole sunglasses being stylish or stupid argument was fuelled by the editor of The Lady magazine Sam Taylor who said "It's a mystery to me why any fully sighted person would wear sunglasses indoors. But I'm sure The Queen really didn't bat an eyelid that the woman seated to her left was dressed for the beach." Well according to Wintour and the many other fashionistas who attended in a pair, they are a vital form of accessory, plus they are perfect for slipping on in the morning to cover the bags. What we've learned is that no one, not even the Queen, is going to come between Anna Wintour and her signature look. For anyone who's been inspired, Spec-Savers is a great place to go.When you talk about growing antisemitism in Britain, a lot of people will claim it a smear campaign designed to undermine the credibility of the left in this country. However, it is all part of a worrying trend in modern Europe, and nowhere is this more evident than Poland.

This January, as the world was set to mark Holcaust Memorial Day, a day to remember the victims of the Holcoaust, as well as atrocities in Cambodia, Bosnia, and Darfur, Poland passed a law essentially outlawing any suggestion Poles were complicit in the genocide. This was criticised by France and the United States.

The term "Polish death camps" is now prohibited and punishable with a fine or three years in prison. The government does not wish to allow anyone to undermine the stance that the Polish people were heroes during the Second World War. There is no doubting that several of the people in the country performed heroic deeds during the war and the occupation. This includes in the Holocaust, and several Polish citizens have been honoured by the State of Israel for their roles.



Polish historian Jan Grabowski says to say there was no complicity whatsoever is false. According to his study, 20,000 Jewish deaths came as a result of direct or indirect betrayal by Polish neighbours . Some Jews were even hunted down and turned over to the Nazi's.

In Jedwabne on 10th July 1941, 340 Jews were burnt to death in a barn. In 2003, the Polish Institute of National Remembrance, this massacre was conducted by the Polish inhabitants of the town, with around 40 believed to be involved.



A year after the war had ended, 42 Jews were murdered and another 40 wounded in a pogrom in Kielce.



But according to President Andrezuj Duda and Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki's government, this did not happen.

Ignoring the freedom of speech implications as that's a completely separate issue, this is very worrying.

It denies history and absolves the perpetrators of their crimes, as though the thousands of Jews massacred somehow do not matter, it also cheapens the deeds of Poles who protected Jewish neighbours , their task made harder by the fact the had to protect Jews from their own neighbours .

Morawiecki was then seeing paying respects at a grave to the Holy Cross Mountains Brigade, a resistance unit that has been accused of collaborating with the Nazis.

To make matters worse Morawiceki told an Israeli journalist that there were "Jewish perpetrators" at the Munich Security Conference.

Setting aside the diplomatic repercussions, this accusation is one that is deeply offensive towards many Jews. It also demeans the message of The Holocaust and undermines attempts to educate and eradicate with regards to the issues that lead to genocide. The notion of Jewish people being involved in the crimes automatically paints a picture that the plight of European Jews was not as bad as made out, which is one of the first steps on the slippery slope to full-blown Holocaust denial.

Poland has also frozen the Holcoaust Survivors' Restitution Bill, which would have returned confiscated property to victims of the Holocaust, both Jewish and otherwise. Poland is the only major European country which has not enacted a law returning such property.

These victims had their land illegally removed from them, due to their ethnicity - what good reason is there not give it back?

This all at a time of heightening tension, a coalition of Jewish groups in Poland expressed growing fear over anti-semitic attitudes which they believe to have infiltrated the public sphere and into national media.

It's no wonder - the actions of Morawiecki are just plain wrong. Very few would accuse Poland have been behind the Holocaust, but to say Polish people had no role in it whatsoever is to deny history and encourage Holocaust denial.

To absolve yourself from blame is to deny yourself the opportunity to learn and move forward. It also suggests a through disdain towards Jewish people that they will not take the oppression committed upon them seriously.

This then, in turn, enables anti-semitic elements within Polish society. People think they can get away with it, as after all if the government denies the crimes of Jedwabne, why would they make a big deal or a stand out of a racist attack?

That is why these actions create problems for Jewish people living in Poland today. It is unclear how many Jews live in Poland today, with estimates ranging from 10,000 to 100,000, but the government have put their livelihoods under threat.The Chinese New Year started on February 16th and, like each year, there is an animal that represents it. The Chinese zodiac is on a 12-year cycle, and 2018 is The Year of the Dog.

To celebrate The Year of the Dog here are some places that you can visit to celebrate all things dog!

1. Dog sledding

If you fancy a dog-themed adventure then head somewhere cold and snowy and try out dog sledding. Some of the best-known destinations to visit for this are Alaska, Norway, Greenland and Sweden. Dog sledding with huskies is the best way to experience some of the worlds best frozen landscapes. If youre someone who loves exhilarating activities and dogs, then this is perfect for you.

2. Dog-friendly hotels

If you love travelling but hate leaving your dog at home then why not check into a dog-friendly hotel? They cater for all your human and canine needs. It may not be exactly like the hotel from the movie Hotel for Dogs but it wont be far off, with some hotels even offering massages for dogs and their owners.

Popular accommodation websites such a Booking.com, Trivago and Hotels.com have the option to filter your search for dog-friendly hotels. There's even a specific website for dog-friendly hotels called Pets Pyjamas Travel.

The Barkley Pet Hotel, Los Angeles has everything for your canine companions from flat-screen televisions, webcam access and custom furniture.

At the Actuel Dogs Hotel in Paris, dogs can expect to be treated to fine cuisine. Activites such hiking, biking, and jogging are also on offer to all dogs that stay at this hotel.

3. Dog-friendly beaches

When we travel, we love to visit the beach, whether its to lay on the sand and sunbathe or to take a splash in the sea. But dogs also love beaches, and here are some of the best dog-friendly beaches in the world.

Fiesta Island off-leash dog park in San Diego, California - Most of this large sandy island is designated to dogs and they are free to run and splash around as much as they wish.

Crikvenica, Croatia - This beach is Croatias first dog-friendly beach. The Montys Beach Bar offers ice creams and beers for you and your canine companions.

Noordwijk, Netherlands - If youre looking for somewhere to walk your dog with a beautiful seaside view then head to this beach, located on the Netherlands North Sea coast. With beautiful dog walking routes and dog-friendly cafes and restaurants along the way, it makes for the perfect day out.

4. Dog Cinema

Dog cinemas are now a thing and theyre huge! The PictureHouse Central cinema in London shows films that are dog-themed and offer dog treats and water bowls for each dog. Blankets are also given out to keep the cinema as fur free as possible. The best news is that dogs go free!

So even if you dont have a dog, coming along to the cinema can be a great way to meet some fluffy friends and watch a movie at the same time.

Swansea, Wales is another city to offer dog-friendly cinema screenings at Cinema & Co. The cinema will be showing the Disney classic Homeward Bound for pets and their owners to enjoy.

5. Dog bus tour

Bus tours of London are popular amongst tourists, as they are a great way to see the sights without having to spend hours walking through the busy streets. And now theres one specifically for dogs.

The tour shows owners the best of Londons dog-friendly parks and walking spots, allowing them to disembark the bus and go for a walk through parks such as Hyde Park and Green Park if they wish. The tour also consists of live onboard commentary for dog owners, with the host sharing all there is on Londons canine history. Guests will also be provided with a handy leaflet mapping dog-friendly pubs, bars and restaurants in the area.

6. Dog cafes

If youre without a canine companion but are in need of some time to spent with dogs then head to a dog cafe. Designed for those with dogs to meet up and have a coffee whilst their pets have a doggy play date. Dog cafes are also popular amongst those who dont own a dog. The Dog Cafe in Los Angeles, California is the first known dog cafe. And the cafes mission is to help rescue dogs get adopted into loving families. There are many dog cafes across the world from Bau House Cafe in Seoul, South Korea to Central Bark Cafe in Manchester, England (which of course is a play-on to the name of the cafe in Friends).English French

OTTAWA, Feb. 27, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Our members have overwhelmingly said that Phoenix cannot be fixed and must be nixed; the investment of $16M into investigating an alternative to the Phoenix system is a good first step, said Debi Daviau, President of the Professional Institute of the Public Service of Canada (PIPSC). It is vital that any new system is built and operated by the governments own computer systems professionals.



Todays budget also saw a significant investment in the existing, problem-plagued pay system. The Institute remains concerned that the bulk of these funds may be going to Phoenix developer IBM. PIPSC is also disappointed that no funds were allocated to much-needed compensation or damages for the victims of Phoenix.

In fact, despite spectacular failures such as the Phoenix fiasco, which has left Canadian taxpayers on the hook for close to a billion dollars, this budget remains silent on reducing costly and wasteful outsourcing, continued Daviau. Though the Budget makes a number of commitments to ambitious digital service delivery improvements, for the sake of all Canadians we hope the government has learned from its failed IT projects of the past. It must engage public servants, not consultants, in their design, testing and implementation.

While the federal governments latest Budget represents a step forward for gender equality in Canada by including commitments for pay equity and improved parental leave, and provides some much-needed investment in public science, notably at the National Research Council, it still falls short of the Institutes expectations on a number of fronts, such as reducing the governments costly and wasteful reliance on outsourcing and ensuring tax fairness for all Canadians.

Major strides have been made to improve scientific integrity in Canadas public service over the past few years, and this Budget continues with the governments efforts to restore the scientific capacity within federal departments that was so badly damaged over the last decade. The government is committing more funds to the National Research Council and investing in Canadas scientific community, said Daviau. This is exactly what we have been looking for from the government for years. Its good for science and its good for Canada.

Years of budget cuts have left our tax system in dire need of major investment. While crackdowns on tax evasion and tax avoidance are a positive step forward, without long-term, sustained investment, the government will lack the resources to make a fairer tax system, concluded Daviau.

PIPSC represents some 55,000 public-sector scientists and other professionals across the country, most of them employed by the federal government.

Follow us on Facebook and on Twitter (@pipsc_ipfpc)

For further information:

Johanne Fillion (613) 228-6310 ext 2303 (office) or (613) 883-4900 (cell.)

jfillion@pipsc.caSAN FRANCISCO, Feb. 27, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- (Elastic{ON} 2018)  Elastic, the company behind Elasticsearch and the Elastic Stack, today announced recipients of the second Elastic Cause Awards at the Elastic{ON} 2018 opening keynote address. Celebrating the passion, innovation and dedication of the Elastic community, the 2018 Elastic Cause Awards recognize four projects that push the boundaries of Elastic software to improve the world. This years honorees are: Dimagi, Libraries Without Borders (Bibliotheques Sans Frontieres), Refugee Datathon Munich, and Thorn: Digital Defenders of Children.



The Elastic Cause Awards are part of Elastics expanding philanthropic mission, which will continue to grow to further benefit nonprofits using the Elastic Stack. Now in its second year, the Cause Awards included nominations from dozens of organizations working to advance the human condition, improve the environment or help a local, regional or global population in need. Judges included Elastic Founder and CEO Shay Banon, VP of Human Resources Leah Sutton and a panel of Elastic developer, product, and customer experts, who evaluated entries based on their impact, altruism, and reach. Each of the selected project teams received complimentary conference tickets and hotel stay for up to two project members and will be featured in various events at Elastic{ON} 2018.

When we started Elastic, I knew our software products could be used to help developers solve critical use cases within their organizations, but I never anticipated the impact it would have on solving humanitarian, and environment issues around the globe, said Banon. Im inspired by the life-changing initiatives weve learned about through this years Elastic Cause Awards, and humbled by the small part we play in making it possible.

Dimagi

Dimagi is helping to fight the tuberculosis (TB) epidemic in Indiawhich accounts for 23 percent of TB cases worldwidewith an integrated mobile and web application that helps healthcare workers keep track of TB patients. Built on Dimagis software platform, CommCare, the app leverages the Elastic Stack to follow beneficiaries from the time of their initial diagnosis and throughout the course of their care, providing actionable data throughout. The app currently aggregates real-time data to track 150,000 patients in select districts.

Every three minutes in India, two people die of tuberculosis. Its an epidemic needing immediate attention and innovative solutions, said Farid Rener, senior engineer, Dimagi. We believe that mobile solutions can transform the efficiency, quality and impact of service delivery programs. By combining our mobile data collection platform with the power of the Elastic Stack, we are improving the efficiency that workers can follow-up with patients, and giving government decision makers a more accurate and timely view of the efficacy of current programs.

Libraries Without Borders (Bibliotheques Sans Frontieres)

Libraries Without Borders facilitates free, open access to information and education, equipping vulnerable communities around the world with the tools and skills to learn and to thrive. The organization is rolling out digital libraries (KoomBook) as well as portable, pop up digital media centers (Ideas Box) that provide educational and cultural resources to communities in need, including refugees and displaced persons in camps around the globe and underserved communities in developed countries. Log analysis and dashboards delivered through the Elastic Stack provide instantaneous insight into digital resource usage and users browsing habits and interests, enabling the organization to more effectively assess impact and relevance, and improve the user experience.

The Elastic Stacks capacity to process various raw logs while at the same time generating appealing visuals perfectly matches our needs, said Steven Walliman, Digital Projects Manager, Bibliotheques Sans Frontieres. In providing the IT team with a better view of performance and stability, and librarians with the ability to measure relevance of their choices, the Elastic Stack enhances the impact of our projects. We look forward to deepening the links between our two organizations as we make good on our vision to empower vulnerable populations and transform the lives of millions people around the world.

Refugee Datathon Munich

Amidst a massive wave of support for refugees in Munich, Refugee Datathon Munich was started in autumn 2015 to provide up-to-date and reliable numbers for pro-refugee activists across Europe. The organizations software extracts statistical data on asylum seekers from official websites, then relies on the Elastic Stack to visualize the data before publishing the information. The software helps activists stay on top of current trends in asylum (e.g. approval rates by countries of origin), while serving the general public by disproving erroneous statements and biased reports about refugees.

When we saw activists struggling with Excel to explain the refugee situation, we realized there was a need to give them more explorative power with more up-to-date data and less work, said Suny Kim, Data Architect, Refugee Datathon Munich. The Elastic Stack helps us unlock the wealth of data from Eurostat statistics and visualize the information in an interactive way. For us, this is what democracy is about: get informed, get involved. The global refugee situation is one of the great challenges of our time, and our project is part of the democratic process to meet this challenge in a decent and adequate way."

Thorn: Digital Defenders of Children

Co-founded by Ashton Kutcher and Demi Moore, Thorn builds technology to defend children from sexual abuse. Every moment counts when it comes to finding and saving more kids.Thorn uses the Elastic Stack throughout its products to streamline features that help law enforcement search through millions of records and quickly find the small pieces of information to identify a child. In 2016 and 2017, Spotlight, which accelerates identification of child victims of sex trafficking, helped identify 5,791 child sex trafficking victims (eight per day.) Thorns other product, Solis, has been used by law enforcement in 17 countries and has rescued 72 victims of child sexual abuse whose images were being distributed on the dark web.

Its by partnering with leading technology companies like Elastic that were able to build cutting-edge tools that find child sexual abuse victims faster, make online environments safer, and deter criminal behavior, said Julie Cordua, CEO of Thorn. Working at the intersection of child sexual abuse and technology, we know technology is powerful, and we choose to use it for good -- to successfully fight child sex trafficking and other online trafficking.

Elastic Cause Award finalists include:

Learn More

About Elastic

Elastic builds software to make data usable in real time and at scale for search, logging, security, and analytics use cases. Founded in 2012, the company develops the open source Elastic Stack (Elasticsearch, Kibana, Beats, and Logstash), X-Pack (commercial features), and Elastic Cloud (a hosted offering). To date, there have been more than 225 million cumulative downloads. Backed by Benchmark Capital, Index Ventures, and NEA with more than $100 million in funding, Elastic has a distributed workforce with more than 800 employees in 30 countries. Learn more at elastic.co.

Media Contacts

Michael Lindenberger

Reidy Communications for Elastic

Michael@reidycommunications.com

(415) 531-1449

EMEA

Rory MacDonald

Age of Peers Ltd for Elastic

rory@ageofpeers.com

+44 (0)7899 965232Ottawa, Feb. 27, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Canadian government took a significant step toward protecting species at risk today with a $1.3 billion budget commitment over five years. World Wildlife Fund Canada welcomes this important and historic investment in nature.

Wildlife loss is a Canadian problem outlined by WWFs recent Living Planet Report Canada: 50 per cent of monitored vertebrate species are in decline, and the most imperiled  those listed under the federal Species at Risk Act (SARA)  are continuing to decline. Alarmed by these numbers, WWF-Canada, as part of the Green Budget Coalition, asked the government of Canada to make protected areas a priority and ensure SARA related programs were sufficiently funded.

The federal 2018 budget is an important response to these concerns, allocating dedicated funding to support land-based and marine protected areas, promising to increase federal capacity to protect species at risk, and investing in the specific protection and recovery of endangered North Atlantic right whales, southern resident killer whales, and St Lawrence estuary belugas.

These programs and commitments have the potential to support long-term conservation gains in Canada. There are many details around implementation, funding and timelines still to be worked out, and some concern that funding is spread over five years, well beyond Canadas 2020 deadline for meeting international commitments to protecting 17 per cent of land and inland waters, but WWF looks forward to working with the federal government to ensure these programs help to reverse the decline of wildlife in Canada.

Megan Leslie, president and CEO of WWF Canada, said:

The Canadian government is clearly concerned about wildlife and habitat loss in Canada and this budget shows good intentions to protect new habitats and help species in decline to recover. While there are still many details missing from the budget, we look forward to working with the government over the coming months to ensure strong protections and effective wildlife recovery initiatives for the future.

The dedicated funding for endangered whales is critically needed. The North Atlantic right whale has seen a tragic spike in deaths in the past year and require immediate action to stop their decline. And this is an important step.

We do have lingering questions about specific funding for the implementation of the Species at Risk Act, a program we have found to be under-resourced in the past, but this budget is a great starting point to begin the critical task of reversing the decline of wildlife.

About World Wildlife Fund Canada

WWF-Canada creates solutions to the environmental challenges that matter most for Canadians. We work in places that are unique and ecologically important, so that nature, wildlife and people thrive together. Because we are all wildlife. For more information, visit wwf.ca.

Attachment:

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/f84f0521-4d11-4107-9b90-64363e7246d0But will the publisher continue to bury books unpopular with the alt-right?

Source: Press Release

IDW Publishing Founder & CEO Ted Adams has joined the Board of Directors for The Comic Book Legal Defense Fund. The CBLDF is a non-profit organization dedicated to protecting First Amendment rights. Adams joins fellow Board members Reginald Hudlin, Jennifer L. Holm, Paul Levitz, Larry Marder, Jeff Smith, Jeff Abraham, Dale Cendali, Milton Griepp, Katherine Kelle, Christina Merkler, and Chris Powell.

In a statement, Adams said:

"The freedoms we have because of the First Amendment can only survive if everyone knows and understands their rights, and if we're willing to fight to keep them. I've long admired the work the CBLDF does to achieve those principles. My goal is to help the office team and Board continue to educate the comics community about their rights and to be there to defend those rights whenever and wherever necessary."

Someone whose defense Adams wouldn't come to though is former G.I. Joe writer Aubrey Sitterson, who came under fire from the alt-right last September after tweeting about 9/11. Neither Adams nor the CBLDF came to Sitterson's defense of his right to free speech. Facing backlash, IDW failed to promote Sitterson's followup Scarlett's Strike Force and cancelled it after three issues citing poor sales.

Actual photo of Ted Adams

Here's to Adams helping "bolster the organization's efforts to protect First Amendment rights of readers, creators, librarians, retailers, publishers, and educators who face the threat of censorship."Pinehurst officials have determined improvements would not be required on Rattlesnake Trail to accommodate additional traffic generated by a nSD's new three-duck license option could make life easier for hunters

A three-duck option will allow hunters the choice to choose a license that will allow them to shoot three ducks of any species and/or sex per day.Norwegian English

The Group's comprehensive income amounted to NOK 443 million in the 4th quarter, an earnings growth of NOK 9 million compared with the 3rd quarter. The earnings growth is explained by strong loan growth, stable margins, good cost control and stable credit quality. The earnings growth must be seen in relation with a NOK 50 million gain for sale from non-performing loans in Norway in the 3rd quarter.

The strong customer and loan growth continued in the 4th quarter, with a loan growth of NOK 2.5 billion, while deposits increased NOK 1.7 billion. The bank recruited 66,000 customers in the 4th quarter.

The group's comprehensive income in 2017 amounted to NOK 1,605 million, an earnings growth of NOK 681 million compared with 2016. The earnings growth on an annual basis is explained by customer and loan growth, stabile margins, good cost control and stable credit quality. The comprehensive income includes gains from sale of non-performing loans in Norway and Sweden of NOK 50 million and SEK 43 million. The bank recruited more than 292,100 customers in 2017 and the loan growth was NOK 8.2 billion, corresponding to NOK 9.5 billion adjusted for sale of loan portfolios.

At the end of 2017 the bank had a customer base of 1,233,000 customers, which can be broken down into 896,300 credit card customers, 170,400 loan customers and 166,300 deposit customers.

The bank has during the last year worked on the implementation of the accounting standard IFRS 9. IFRS 9 requires write-downs on loans to be calculated using different assumptions about future development of losses. The bank has made partial calculations of losses under IFRS 9 based on a base scenario. The calculations at 31.12.17 show an immaterial change in write-downs on loans compared with the write-downs on loans under IAS 39. The bank does not expect to utilize the transitional rules.

Bank Norwegian started its operations in November 2007 and offers consumer loans, credit cards and deposit accounts to retail customers distributed through the Internet in the Nordic market. Bank Norwegian offers, in cooperation with the airline Norwegian, a combined credit card and reward card. The bank started operations in Sweden in May 2013. In December 2015 the bank launched consumer loans and deposit accounts in Denmark and Finland, while credit cards were launched in June 2016.

Bank Norwegian is a digital bank that offers simple and competitive products to the retail market. The strategy is based on leading digital solutions, synergies with the airline Norwegian, attractive terms for our customers, cost-effective operations and effective risk selection.

For further information, see the annual report 2017 and the investor presentation for the 4th quarter available at:

https://www.banknorwegian.no/OmOss/InvestorRelations

If you have questions you may call;

CEO Tine Wollebekk; phone: +47 40805557

CFO Pal Svenkerud; phone: +47 93403904NOT FOR RELEASE, PUBLICATION OR DISTRIBUTION, IN WHOLE OR IN PART DIRECTLY OR INDIRECTLY, IN AUSTRALIA, CANADA, JAPAN OR THE UNITED STATES OR ANY OTHER JURISDICTION IN WHICH THE RELEASE, PUBLICATION OR DISTRIBUTION WOULD BE UNLAWFUL. THIS ANNOUNCEMENT DOES NOT CONSTITUTE AN OFFER OF ANY OF THE SECURITIES DESCRIBED HEREIN.

Reference is made to the stock exchange release by Awilco Drilling Plc (the "Company") on 27/28 February 2018 regarding the successfully completed private placement (the "Private Placement"). The Company intends to carry out a subsequent offering of up to 1,400,000 new shares in the Company (the "Offer Shares") for gross proceeds of up to approximately USD 5 million (the "Subsequent Offering").

The Subsequent Offering will, on the basis of a prospectus approved by the Norwegian Financial Supervisory Authority, expected to be launched in early April 2018, be directed towards shareholders who (i) are shareholders in the Company as of 27 February 2018, as registered as shareholders in the Company's register of shareholders with the Norwegian Central Securities Depositary (Nw. Verdipapirsentralen) (the "VPS") as of expiry of 1 March 2018 (the "Record Date"), (ii) were not offered to participate in the Private Placement, and (iii) are not resident in a jurisdiction where such offering would be unlawful or, for jurisdictions other than Norway, would require any prospectus, filing, registration or similar action (the "Eligible Shareholders"). The Eligible Shareholders will be granted non-tradable subscription rights based on their shareholding as of the Record Date.

The subscription price in the Subsequent Offering is NOK 29 per Offer Share, being the same as the subscription price in the Private Placement. The subscription period in the Subsequent Offering will commence shortly after publication of the Prospectus (publication of the Prospectus expected early April 2018).

The following key information is given with respect to the Subsequent Offering:

Date of announcement of terms of Subsequent Offering: 28 February 2018

Last day including right to receive subscription rights: 27 February 2018

First day excluding right to receive subscription rights: 28 February 2018

Record date: 1 March 2018

Date of approval of Subsequent Offering: Expected on or about 26 March 2018

Maximum number of Offer Shares: up to 1,400,000

Subscription price: NOK 29 per Offer Share

For further information, please contact:

Jon Oliver Bryce, CEO

Phone +44 1224 737900

Cathrine Haavind, IR Manager

Phone: +47 93 42 84 64

Email: ch@awilcodrilling.com

This information is subject to the disclosure requirements pursuant to section 5-12 of the Norwegian Securities Trading Act"

Important information:

The release is not for publication or distribution, in whole or in part directly or indirectly, in or into Australia, Canada, Japan or the United States (including its territories and possessions, any state of the United States and the District of Columbia) or any other jurisdiction in which the release, publication or distribution would be unlawful. This release is an announcement issued pursuant to legal information obligations, and is subject of the disclosure requirements pursuant to section 5-12 of the Norwegian Securities Trading Act. It is issued for information purposes only, and does not constitute or form part of any offer or solicitation to purchase or subscribe for securities, in the United States or in any other jurisdiction. The securities mentioned herein have not been, and will not be, registered under the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the "US Securities Act"). The securities may not be offered or sold in the United States except pursuant to an exemption from the registration requirements of the US Securities Act. The Company does not intend to register any portion of the offering of the securities in the United States or to conduct a public offering of the securities in the United States. Copies of this announcement are not being made and may not be distributed or sent into Australia, Canada, Japan or the United States. The issue, exercise, purchase or sale of subscription rights and the subscription or purchase of shares in the Company are subject to specific legal or regulatory restrictions in certain jurisdictions. Neither the Company nor the Manager assumes any responsibility in the event there is a violation by any person of such restrictions.

The distribution of this release may in certain jurisdictions be restricted by law. Persons into whose possession this release comes should inform themselves about and observe any such restrictions. Any failure to comply with these restrictions may constitute a violation of the securities laws of any such jurisdiction. The Manager are acting for the Company and no one else in connection with the Private Placement and will not be responsible to anyone other than the Company for providing the protections afforded to their respective clients or for providing advice in relation to the Private Placement and/or any other matter referred to in this release.

Forward-looking statements:

This release and any materials distributed in connection with this release may contain certain forward-looking statements. By their nature, forward-looking statements involve risk and uncertainty because they reflect the Company's current expectations and assumptions as to future events and circumstances that may not prove accurate. A number of material factors could cause actual results and developments to differ materially from those expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements.Lithuanian English

Elektrenai, Lithuania, 2018-02-28 08:55 CET (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Lietuvos Energijos Gamyba, AB, legal entity code 302648707, registered head office address Elektrines Str. 21, Elektrenai (hereinafter referred to as the Company). The total number of registered ordinary shares issued by the Company is 635 083 615, ISIN code  LT0000128571.

RESULTS OF LIETUVOS ENERGIJOS GAMYBA OF 2017: MORE ELECTRICITY FROM WATER AND SUSTAINABLE PROFITABILITY INDICATORS

Financial indicators of Lietuvos Energijos Gamyba of 2017 reflect successful efforts of the electricity producer, which is a part of Lietuvos Energija Group, to adapt to the changing market and to efficiently manage operating expenses. The Company managed achieving sustainable profitability indicators: the adjusted EBITDA of 2017 reached EUR 53.7 million, and adjusted EBITDA margin was 35.9 percent (36.8 percent in 2016)

The results of 2017 were significantly affected by the volume of electric power generated and sold in Kaunas Algirdas Brazauskas Hydroelectric Power Plant, which increased by more than a quarter - last year was record both in terms of the amount of water and the generated electricity. Effectively exploiting market opportunities and being more actively engaged in intraday trading on the market, we also produced somewhat more electricity in the Kruonis Pumped Storage Power Plant compared to 2016. Changed market conditions resulted in lower electricity production in Elektrenai Complex only. In 2017, we have ensured high availability and reliable operation of all power plants, responding to the needs of the market and the transmission system operator. Reliable contribution to stable operation of the energy system and its security is one of our most important goals, Egle Ciuzaite, Chair of the Board and Chief Executive Officer of Lietuvos Energijos Gamyba commented the performance and the results of the power plants of the Company.

A total of 1.147 TWh of electricity was generated in the power plants owned by the Company in 2017, which is 16 percent less than in 2016 (1.371 TWh). Elektrenai Complex generated 0.139 TWh of electricity, or 71.8 percent less than in 2016 (0.491 TWh in 2016), Kruonis PSP - 0.549 TWh or 6 percent more than in 2016 (0.517 TWh in 2016), Kaunas A. Brazauskas HPP - 0.459 TWh or 26 percent more electricity than in 2016 (0.363 TWh in 2016).

Key indicators of Lietuvos Energijos Gamyba of 2017:

Despite the decreased electricity generation in Elektrenai complex, the Companys sales revenue remained fairly stable - in 2017, it totalled EUR 147.2 million and was only 3 percent lower than in 2016 (EUR 151.8 million). The Companys revenue totalled EUR 149.8 million in 2017 and was 13 percent lower than in 2016 (EUR 172.9 million). The main factor having determined the decline was the positive result of the sales of a part of business accounted for in 2016.

Operating expenses of the Company decreased by 14 percent and were EUR 20.0 million in 2017 (compared to EUR 23.1 million in 2016). Excluding impairment of an amount receivable reflected in expenses for 2016 in relation to the shares of Kauno Energetikos Remontas UAB and NT Valdos UAB, operating expenses would be slightly higher than in 2016 due to higher expenses of dismantling project.

The adjusted (comparative) EBITDA * of the Company totalled EUR 53.7 million in 2017 and were 16 percent lower than in 2016 (EUR 63.7 million). This indicator mainly changed due to increased costs of works of dismantling of Units 5 and 6 of Elektrenai Complex started in 2017 and decreased sales of activated secondary power reserve of Kruonis PSP in 2017 compared to 2016, also due to lower EBITDA of regulated activity of Elektrenai Complex.

Net profit of the Company was EUR 20.5 million in 2017, i.e. 44 percent lower than in 2016 (EUR 40.0 million). The Companys profit decreased as a result of the impact of one-time factors in 2017: the positive result of the sales of a part of business (EUR 15.4 million) was accounted for in 2016, and the decline in the value of assets of Units 7 and 8 of Elektrenai complex was accounted for in 2017 (negative effect of EUR 31.4 million on profit before tax).

The Companys investment in non-current tangible and intangible assets totalled EUR 1.9 million in 2017 and EUR 3.3 million in 2016.

*The Companys EBITDA results are reported after the adjustments made by management by eliminating the impact of one-off factors. These adjustments are made aiming to disclose the results of the Companys operating activities after the elimination of the impact of non-typical, one-off factors or factors that are not directly related to the current reporting period. All adjustments made by management are disclosed in the Companys interim and annual reports.

28 February, 2018 at 4:00 pm the Chief Executive Officer of Lietuvos Energijos Gamyba will introduce the Companys financial results for the year 2017 and will answer the participant questions in the Investor Conference Webinar. To join the webinar, please follow the link.Posted Tuesday, February 27, 2018 7:16 am

Those attending Woodlands alternative high school have help in the only private practice for mental health services in the city as Woodland Public Schools and Licensed Clinical Social Worker Stacie Crochet have formed a partnership to prove services to TEAM High School students.

Woodland Public Schools said they would now offer free mental health services to students at TEAM High School, the districts alternative high school program, thanks to funding from the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), the federal plan that succeeded No Child Left Behind (NCLB).

Therapy offers an effective method for students to receive care from a professionally-trained practitioner who actively listens to them and helps them cope with difficult issues that may be interrupting their learning, Woodland Public School Executive Director of Learning Supports and Alternatives (And TEAM High School principal) Jake Hall said in a news release. For many students, therapy is a key for success in academic and behavioral growth.

Woodland Public Schools received funding from the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) earmarked for student academic support and enrichment to pay for student health services, the release stated. Stacy Brown, Business Services Manager, alongside Hall decided to start by providing free mental health services to TEAM High School students.

We decided to start at TEAM as the school doesnt currently have support of this kind on a regular basis like our other schools, Brown stated in the release. In addition, the district will continue to receive these funds annually so we will be able to ensure TEAM High students have access to these services in future years, too.

The district works with local practitioners including Stacie Crochet, a Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW), and the Woodland Wellness Center to provide students with free services.

Last year, Stacie reached out to us to let us know she was moving her practice to Woodland from Vancouver and wanted to help our students if there was a need, Hall stated. When we started putting together this program, I knew she would be an excellent fit with her professional background working with youth and her practices convenient location within walking distance of TEAM High School.

Crochet jumped at the opportunity, in part due to her offices being so close to the schools location. She also added that the chance to work with adolescents was another plus, citing years of past experience in a variety of locations, from Florida and even Germany on a military base.

Crochet knew from an early age that listening to and helping others was her calling, the release recounted.

As a kid, all of my friends would talk to me about their problems, and I realized how much I enjoyed providing comfort and direction to others in need, Crochet stated. I love working with adolescents because I truly appreciate their honesty  they often have no issue discussing how and why they may be having difficulty in their lives.

Crochet mentioned some of what parents should look out for, signs that a listening ear like Crochets might be beneficial.

Sudden changes in behavior such as withdrawing from family activities, acting out, or a drop in grades can indicate anxiety or depression while unintended weight loss or weight gain can be indicators theres something going on in your childs life, Crochet stated.

Specifically for TEAM high Crochet noted the different lifestyle and demographic differences that might happen at the high school  they might be the breadwinner of the family but still want to get their degree, she commented.

Crochet noted that although bigger metropolitan areas have ample support systems, should something befall TEAM High School there was not much there when a crisis would arise.

Coming from Boston, if theres a crisis there are 5,000 counselors ready to jump in and help out, and thats just not available here, Crochet said. Her partnership with the district was in part to meet that need.

Regarding outreach for those who might need the services, teachers and support staff keep an eye out for students who might benefit from therapy and offer them the option to receive free mental health services, the release stated.

Our teachers and staff work with many students who deal with a wide variety of stressful issues during their busy lives  both in and out of school, Hall stated. Having a licensed professional listen and provide support can make a huge difference in their learning.

The release stated that the program will be closely monitored by Hall and his team to make any changes deemed fit.

All of Woodlands teachers and support staff keep a close eye on our students needs in order to identify ways we can help them learn effectively and live healthy lives, Hall stated.

Woodland Public Schools is excited to be working with Stacie and the Woodland Wellness Program to help take care of our students mentally and physically.

Students attending TEAM High School interested in receiving help can speak to their teachers, the schools support staff, or reach out to Stacie directly through her website at staciecro

chet.com or by email at info@staciecrochet.com.

As of now funds provide services exclusively for TEAM High students as Woodlands other schools have dedicated counselors and social workers on-site. Parents of students attending one of the districts other schools or programs believing their child may need help are asked to speak with the students teacher, call the schools office or reach out to the schools counselors or social workers directly. More information for each schools staff can be found on the districts website at woodlandschools.org.Posted Tuesday, February 27, 2018 7:36 am

Clark County is joining forces with eight other Washington cities and counties in a civil lawsuit targeting the pharmaceutical industry for its alleged part in the national opioid crisis.

The Clark County Board of County Councilors voted unanimously to retain Seattle-based law firm Keller Rohrback in order to file a suit against pharmaceutical manufacturers and wholesalers that make and sell opioids. Clark County will join King, Skagit, Pierce and Clallam counties and the cities of Tacoma, Mount Vernon, Burlington and Sedro-Wooley, who also have suits led by Keller Rohrback, a release from the county stated last week.

The goal of the suit is to recoup costs associated with hard opioid addiction, the release stated. The law firm will be paid only if Clark County recovers damages in a settlement or at trial.

During discussion before a vote to retain the law firm, Clark County Undersheriff Mike Cooke gave some perspective on Clark Countys drug crisis, saying, in no uncertain terms that the opioid epidemic has been devastating to many of our citizens in this county, and its been a burden to the Sheriffs Office and our social services.

A significant contributor to this epidemic has been the intentional and deceptive practices of pharma companies who produce and market opiate-based medication, Cooke said.

Cooke said the county had its first look at the epidemic several years ago with the closure of a pain clinic that left patrons in a panic. Some took desperate measures to get ahold of opiate-based medication in the aftermath of the clinics closing including pharmacy robberies or faking traffic accidents to get access to the drugs.

Over the last decade Clark Countys drug task force, usually more focused on high-level drug distribution and activity, began to notice more street-level trafficking of prescription painkillers, Cooke said. Prices could be $25 to $50 for a single pain pill, with increasing costs making individuals transition to heroin in order to fill the addictions need.

For people dependent on opiates, the switch to heroin was a very easy jump for them to make, Cooke said, adding now there was a new generation addicted to heroin in large part to pharmaceutical companies and unscrupulous practices regarding their potent drugs.

Cooke talked about how the Sheriffs Office was trained on how to investigate and apprehend street-level drug activity, holding them accountable in court if found guilty of a crime.

What happens when that drug dealer is a pharmaceutical company, and not some guy lurking in a parking lot? Cooke said. How do we hold the corporate drug dealers responsible for what amounts to the same crime?

Given litigation happening across the state, Cooke said the evidence was becoming clear that companies were engaging in deceptive practices, in turn hurting communities like Clark County.

Answering a question from Councilor Eileen Quiring, Cooke explained that compared to other addictions the onset for opioid dependence is fairly quick with the dependence being very physical in nature. He said the addiction starts with average, everyday people that get prescribed the medication from a job injury or other incident.

They have no idea that what they are taking is extremely physically addictive, Cooke said, adding that simply getting off of a medication can result in intense withdrawals.

Cooke said that when he started police work in the San Francisco Bay area in the late 1980s heroin was prevalent. Eventually the biggest illicit drug use switched to methamphetamine, leaving essentially a generation of individuals whose concept and understanding of heroin and opioids was limited at best.

The idea that you have a legitimate drug, a physician that tells you its OK and youre taking it according to the prescription, many people have no idea whats to come; they have no idea of what actual medications they are taking and their potential for abuse, Cooke said.

He stressed it was important to get away from the stereotype of the addict.

Were talking about our friends and neighbors and community members that really had no idea what was about to happen to them, he said.

In their efforts to combat the epidemic, Cooke said deputies are now trained and issued naloxone inhalers, a drug that can reverse overdoses. In the jail people on medications like methadone can continue to take the drug when in jail to continue the process of treatment.

Councilor John Blom commented on how the latter can make the difference between success or failure from someone recovering from addiction.

Even if someone is only in the jail for a couple of days, if they werent getting that treatment, that could trigger an entire relapse, Blom said. He said that signing onto the lawsuit absolutely is the right thing to do for our community.

But we cant lose sight that its only one small step of what needs to be done to work on this epidemic, Blom added, mentioning that work in law enforcement for treating overdoses and allowing treatment, to medical professionals changing their prescription practices as well as community awareness were necessary.

Other councilors showed unusual support for signing onto the lawsuit, given generally they were litigation-averse.

Where normally I am not quick to jump onto a lawsuit and look for recovery of costs as a jurisdiction, in this case its a much more unique situation, Councilor Jeanne Stewart commented, adding that the board was aware of the epidemics impact to its departmental functions.

Statistics provided by the county showed since 2014 there have been 91 deaths with opioid-related causes in addition to 51 heroin deaths. Clark Countys therapeutic Drug Court has opioid users making up one-third of defendants in 2010  as of January 2018 its more than half.

Our citizens are paying the cost of taking care of this problem now, Stewart remarked.

Councilor Eileen Quiring agreed with Stewart, adding that hearing the entire story regarding the epidemic it was a different story than simply suing a company to recoup perceived losses.

I do think that we need to hold the people who created this problem accountable, Quiring said.

Quiring touched on the generational aspect of opioid abuse where children can get ahold of their parents pain medications. She added that other efforts for combating the crisis included awareness of drug take back programs to keep unused prescriptions off of the streets and out of landfills and waterways.

The countys decision to file a lawsuit highlights the national opioid crisis. According to the countys release and information from Councilor Julie Olson, since 1991 the rate of prescriptions for opiates has multiplied, going from 76 million in that year to 289 million in 2016  a nearly four-time increase.

Although national in scope, Clark County Council Chair Marc Boldt expressed skepticism that real change could be enacted at the state or national levels, citing the kinds of funds lawmakers at those levels receive from the kinds of companies at the heart of the lawsuit.

You cant do this when you get pharma checks all the time, Boldt said. The only place this will get handled is in the local government.Posted Tuesday, February 27, 2018 7:23 am

Job creation and property taxes were hot topics during an hour-long telephonic town hall hosted by Sen. John Braun, R-Centralia, and Rep. Ed Orcutt, R-Kalama, on Monday, Feb. 19. The two Republicans are from the state Legislature represent Washingtons 20th District. Since they share constituents, the politicians opted to host a joint Town Hall call on Presidents Day.

Both Braun and Orcutt touted the telephone town hall as a practical way to communicate directly with voters from all over the wide-ranging 20th District, which includes portions of Lewis, Cowlitz, Clark and Thurston counties. A moderator noted that a few hundred people called in to listen to the town hall and questions were posed from all over the district map.

The subject that was broached most often by taxpayers was property taxes. One question sent in by email sought to understand how, despite the failure of a school bond or levy in a particular district, and no recent upgrades to the senders property, their property taxes went up again this year.

Sen. Braun, who is a ranking member on the Ways and Means Committee, noted that prior to this year, property taxes had been declining in Washington for about a decade, and he is hoping to see another decrease soon. Braun, who pointed out that state Democrats recently released a proposal to reduce property taxes, added, Its not exactly how I would have done it, but I do appreciate their willingness to work on the issue.

According to Rep. Orcutt, an assistant member on the finance committee, those property tax talks have enough of a head of steam that property owners should expect a decrease in state property tax beginning next year.

Later in the town hall, Al from Kalama called in to ask about school funding as it relates to property taxes. Braun and Orcutt explained that while local property taxes go toward local school districts, state property taxes are not generally allocated toward education. Rather, public education in Washington is paid for through the sale of natural resources, such as timber from state forests. According to Braun, the state has been failing to generate enough income to properly fund schools.

Theres lots of pressure from the marbled murrelet and the spotted owl, but we haven't been meeting our harvest goals for 10 years, said Braun. He says he wants state timberlands to be reevaluated in order to calibrate the most economically productive way to manage those lands and resources.

This is a problem that we have not been doing well on, frankly, for the last two decades, said Braun.

If that reworking of forest management is effective, Braun says that it could result in a reduction in property taxes for most Washingtonians as well as an across-the-board increase in public education funding.

We need to fund our schools, we need to do it properly and we need to do it in a way that is equitable between rural and urban districts, said Braun. Were working toward it, but were not quite there yet.

Orcutt added that many senior citizens are eligible for property tax discounts through government programs and advised citizens to contact their county assessor for specific details.

Looking at the local economy and job market, both Braun and Orcutt doubled down on their support for the proposed Millennium Bulk Terminal in Longview and the methanol plant in Kalama. Those responses were generated by a phone call from Andy who wanted to know why the politicians decided to back those projects despite a laundry list of environmental concerns described by opponents.

I have to support the Millenium Bulk Terminal and the methanol plant in Kalama, said Orcutt. We do need the jobs. Were still not to full employment yet, so we still have people looking for jobs.

Orcutt, who sits on the Agriculture and Natural Resources Committee, added, People say coal is bad but the coal that we would be shipping over to China would actually be replacing dirtier coal.

He insisted that the project would represent a net positive for global air quality.

Braun countered the environmental concerns by playing up the strength of environmental standards covering the projects. He said that the United States has some of the most strict policies in the world, and Washington is one of the strictest states in the union.

We are not just letting this run wild with environmental destruction without keeping an eye on it, said Braun, who was adamant that companies should have the right to do business in Washington so long as they follow the rules.

A question about homelessness from Lisa in Centralia brought both politicians back around to job creation and the economy again. Lisa wanted to know what the state plans to do about the homeless population epidemic in the region and specifically asked about state-funded affordable housing and referral services for at risk populations.

According to Braun and Orcutt, the creation of more jobs is the best way to help the homeless. Both men stated that government funds should not be used to buy vulnerable populations into safer situations. Instead, both Braun and Orcutt reasoned that if they can manage to bring in more industrial and mill-type jobs to the area that more homeless people will be able to buy their own homes.

In another phone call, Gaeling from Centralia noted how the recent train derailment over Interstate 5 revealed a glaring lack of alternate routes for travelers heading north and south in western Washington. She wanted to know what the state plans to do about creating, or designating alternate routes in the future.

Orcutt said that he is already in talks with the Department of Transportation about alternative routes.

We do need to look to see if there are some other more local roads that can be used in incidents like that, said Orcutt.

Thomas from Rochester phoned in to gripe about the fact that the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife requires a Social Security number in order to attain a fishing license. Thomas noted that he has been a victim of identity theft in the past and expressed his extreme reluctance to hand over such sensitive information for something as trivial as a fishing license.

Braun said that he was unaware of the requirement and promised to look into the matter in order to find a reasonable solution. I do know that last year we did have the hack on the Fish and Wildlife contractors and many of us had our personal information stolen, admitted Braun.

In perhaps the most topical discussion, Arland from Onalaska called in to find out when, or if, the state government will ever find the political courage to restrict access to, and the sale of, assault weapons like AR-15s.

Whens the state going to do something about disqualifying the use of assault weapons? We dont need assault weapons in this state. I mean Im 69 years old. Im a two time Vietnam War veteran. I was in the war twice and the only time that weapon is used is to kill people, not to hunt, and I dont understand how the government allows that to go on in this country, said Arland. I cant get it around my head why the government keeps letting this thing just slide by. Its like the NRA is in everybodys pockets.

Braun was quick to defend the right of American citizens to own weapons and spent time hashing over the difference between automatic and semi-automatic weapons, noting that automatic weapons are already illegal.

Fundamentally this is a right protected by the constitution, said Braun, who added that, We do need to do more to prevent gun violence. His ideas for accomplishing that task included funding for police, mental health services, and support for high school counselors.

We need to get after the root cause of this violence, added Braun.

Greg from Kelso was the next caller on the line and he spoke up to back both Braun and Orcutts pro-assault weapon stance. Greg noted that he is also a military veteran, although he missed the war, and that he collects firearms, particularly old military stock.

The Second Amendment is not just to hunt. Its the right to bear arms, and kill people if necessary, said Greg.

Another life and death matter discussed during the telephonic town hall was the proposal to banish the death penalty in Washington. Richard from Tenino expressed his displeasure that the death penalty may be abolished without a vote of the people.

Both Braun and Orcutt noted that they oppose the proposed repeal of the death penalty and noted that since that punishment was put on the books by a public vote, it should only be taken off by a public vote.

Orcutt added that while he believes some changes should be made, such as the number of appeals allowed in death penalty cases, a complete abolition goes too far.

I think there are some crimes that are just so heinous that the punishment fits the crime, said Orcutt.Posted Tuesday, February 27, 2018 7:31 am

Local right-wing activist Joey Gibson is eyeing a spot in the U.S. Senate following an announcement at an event late last week.

Gibson announced his decision at the Red Cross Building at the Fort Vancouver National Site Feb. 25 that he is vying for Democratic Sen. Maria Cantwells seat in this years election. Gibson is the founder of Patriot Prayer, a local activist group he started in 2016 and has been featured on the national political rally scene since nearly its inception.

In his announcement speech Gibson said he planned on focusing on getting to the root cause of problems, using the analogy of automotive work as how to fix the system. He said so often lawmakers are interested in more laws, adding superficial improvements while not fixing the engine, the heart of the problem.

One of Gibsons main focuses was a push for term limits to get rid of the Nancy Pelosis, the Maxine Waters the Maria Cantwells, all of them who have been a cancer to this system, Gibson said. Specifically for Cantwell he said that years in Congress had made her tired.

D.C. has sucked the life out of her, and I dont believe she has what it takes to motivate the American people, to bring us together, Gibson said.

Gibson also touched on simplifying the tax code in order for the benefits of the tax system not to go to big corporations who can find the loopholes. His suggestion was abolishing the Internal Revenue Service and go to a fair tax system, going strictly by sales tax, something he said could stop corporate loopholes while also getting black markets to pay.

No matter who you are if you buy products of the United States of America, you are paying your taxes, you are paying your fair share, Gibson said.

Gibson also took issue with the U.S. healthcare system, commenting that the whole thing is a fraud.

We have a corrupt Big Pharma that has teamed up with the FDA, he said, with one of his policy points being to make it illegal for doctors to get paid for prescribing certain drugs over others. He also pushed for a full audit of the FDA,

Thats part of freedom, to be healthy and to be able to go and to see a doctor without these crazy rising costs and the fact that they (Big Pharma) have a monopoly on the entire system, Gibson said.

Gibson said he would also push for allowing veterans to see private doctors on the governments dime if they cannot receive care through the VA.

Regarding another topical policy issue, gun control, Gibson said he would put freedom first.

We have to put freedom before every single policy question, we have to. That has to be the foundation. That has to be the principle, Gibson said. He gave the example of gun ownership as a freedom that currently younger individuals are pushing against, something he said was a right that those individuals didnt realize they had.

Gibson said he would push for the right of citizens to own rifles, citing the need for the American people to defend themselves in the possibility of a foreign invasion.

Though running as a Republican, Gibson called out to moderate Democrats who were disenchanted with the perceived leftward shift of their party, saying that in him they could find a voice celebrating Americans rights.

Im here to give you a home. Not for the big banks, not for the big business, not for big pharma, not for the corrupt DNC, but for the American people, Gibson said.

Currently Gibson is the only Republican slated to run against Cantwell in this years election.Posted Tuesday, February 27, 2018 7:39 am

Those in Woodland having trouble landing a job now have a new resource thanks to Woodland Action as the center has opened up an Employment Resource Room that will connect residents with opportunities for work or training.

The room, which officially opened Jan. 30, is located in a room located off of the main thrift shop floor of Woodland Action. A cozy theme backed by rugs and an electric fireplace frames eight computers that individuals, both Woodland Action clients and others, can use to craft resumes, search and apply for jobs and have access to training opportunities.

The whole purpose of it is to help our community and the clients that we serve to be able to overcome whatever limitations they might see or have when it comes to unemployment, Woodland Action Board Chairman Jonathan Christopherson said.

While some might need training, something that Christopherson said was helped via a partnership with WorkSource, in some cases it could be as simple as crafting a good resume or learning basic computer skills for applications and programs such as Microsoft Office. He added that in some cases felony-friendly employment or those that dont drug screen might be looked at.

In order to get the room up and running, funding came through grants from Kaiser Permanente and U.S. Bank, with support from Cowlitz County United Way through a volunteer day to get the room ready, Christopherson said.

Really we just didnt have the resources for the up-front costs, the hardware for the computers, the furniture, Christopherson said.

The center will look for more donations to keep operations growing, hoping to prove the success of the room to would-be donors.

With the funds for the physical needs of the employment room in hand, someone was needed to run the operation. Employment Resource Navigator Kevin Hawley had been a volunteer for about a year so the center was aware of his particular skill set, Christopherson said.

Hawley had been a system manager and database designer, everything on big iron computers, for a 30-year career, he said, making the management of the room match with his work experience. He said he has turned from a self-professed computer nerd to a people person, making the work with clients rewarding.

It feels good to give back, Hawley said. Im just trying to help people at this point.

The room is already turning out success stories. Julia and Danielle Raynor, mother and daughter, were one such case, as both have found job opportunities through using the room.

Though Danielle was able to land a solid job as well, Julias results were particularly good. She managed to find her dream job as a hotel manager back in her hometown of Flagstaff, Arizona. She credited being able to use both Hawleys expertise at helping to craft a perfect resume as well as being able to conduct a video interview for the interstate job.

Instead of being in an RV with hardly any heat and eating out of the food bank, on the sixth I fly to Flagstaff, Raynor said.

As of Feb. 22, Christopherson said they had 10 clients become a part of the program. By midday the following Saturday, during one of the big days for the center, an additional two clients had used the room, Hawley said.

Only a month in, the center and Woodland Action are just getting started.

Our goal is to have this room full when were open, Christopherson said.Posted Tuesday, February 27, 2018 8:07 am

Following last weeks rapid-fire vote on a bill to exempt the Legislature from state public records laws, lawmakers are going into damage control with public backlash mounting.

The bill, SB 6617, explicitly exempts lawmakers from the states Public Records Act, and applies immediately and retroactivelymeaning that existing records going back to statehood would be off limits to disclosure requests. The legislation allows disclosure of lawmakers calendars and communications with registered lobbyists, but only documents created after July 1, 2018.

Introduced on Wednesday, Feb. 21, the bill was rushed at break-neck speed to a vote two days later in both the state Senate and House on Feb. 23. It passed both chambers in 20 minutes with wide margins and no floor debate.

In my 18 years in the Legislature, this is by far the fastest I've ever seen a bill pass, from beginning to end, said Sen. Mark Miloscia, RFederal Way, who was one of the seven state senators to vote against SB 6617. He called the bills quick turnaround a world record in my book.

The last-minute introduction of the law and the rush to enact it comes after a January ruling by Thurston County Superior Court Judge Chris Lanese, who determined that the Legislature is subject to public records laws.

The decree was prompted by a lawsuit brought by the Associated Press, the Washington Newspaper Publishers Association, and other regional papers against lawmakers who denied a records request that journalists made last year for lawmakers internal communications and information on incidents of sexual harassment.

Lawmakers have appealed the ruling to the state Supreme Court, where the litigation is ongoing.

Public outcry over the bill was immediate. On Feb. 27, 13 daily newspapers across Washington state published front-page editorials condemning the bill, and the Seattle Times reported that over the weekend, Governor Jay Inslee had received over 500 emails from citizens criticizing the legislation. On Monday, Feb. 26 alone, his office received 200 phone calls from people opposing the bill, according to the report.

Sen. Jamie Pedersen, DSeattle, who voted for SB 6617, said in a phone interview that he hasnt received any constituent emails that support the bill.

Now, some lawmakers are going into damage control over the backlash. Since their vote on Friday, legislators who supportedthe bill began issuing press releases and statements on Facebook and other platforms defending their vote. They are framing the legislation as a win for both constituent privacy and government transparency.

In a Feb. 23 statement, Sen. Manka Dhingra, DKirkland, said that the bill balances the privacy of constituents with transparency. I am happy that we are moving in the direction of more transparency, she wrote.

The same day, Rep. Sharon Wylie, DVancouver published a statement on her website in which she slammed media coverage on the issue: Media reports that claim this is a way of avoiding transparency and bypassing a court decision are incorrect, she wrote.

Rep. Gael Tarleton, DBallard, argued in a Feb. 25 blog post that while the process by which the bill passed was flawed, she thought it was necessary to counteract Judge Laneses January ruling. She wrote that the ruling would impose obscene financial costs to legislators to administer records requests and paralyze the ability of legislators to properly represent their constituents.

Additionally, several House members circulated a defense of the bill authored by Sen. Pedersen, with largely word-for-word similarity. Pedersen said that he had shared his messagewhich was originally published in The Standwith the Senate Democrats communications staff, who then passed it over to House Democrats staffers, who distributed it among their members. In the essay, Pedersen said that the bill has been widely misunderstood.

Theres no real attempt to have any balance in the reporting, said Pedersen of media coverage on the issue in a phone interview. He also characterized the numerous newspaper editorials as an unprecedented use of resources by the plaintiffs in the lawsuit to try and stir up opposition to the bill.

The press and open government advocates were quick to fact-check the messaging from lawmakers. Seattle Times Editorial Board member Melissa Santos argued on Twitter on Feb. 26 that health information and many personal details are already exempt from disclosure under the Public Records Act, contrasting with claims from lawmakers that SB 6617 is needed to protect constituent privacy.

Sean Robinson, a reporter for the Tacoma News Tribune, slammed legislators characterizations of both the bill and media coverage of it on Twitter: The media covered it truthfully. You guys ran a deceitful, abusive process that prevented scrutiny, cut out public hearings and denied your own members the chance to speak in dissent. Own it and be honest, he wrote on Feb. 24.

For the most part, what were hearing the legislators saying is not true, said Michele Earl-Hubbard, the attorney representing the media organizations in the lawsuit.

In response to criticisms of the bills rushed passage, Pedersen claimed in his essay that the bill needed to be pushed through at the end of the legislative session because Judge Laneses ruling came in late January and he refused to suspend his order until the case had gone through the appeals process. If the ruling had come in October, we could have done this differently, he wrote.

Earl-Hubbard countered that lawmakers never requested a stay from Judge Lanese. Its not true that they asked him to stay his order and he turned them down. They never asked him, she said.

Following the January ruling, attorneys representing the legislators filed for a stay with the state Supreme Court, but the court has yet to rule on the request, according to Earl-Hubbard.

Sen. Miloscia said that the bill was rushed to passage within three days due to its strong support among lawmakers and the likelihood that it would garner public opposition. When there is complete and utter agreement among a vast number of legislators on a bill that people will get upset over, those bills go extremely fast, as fast you can make it, and thats exactly what happened, he said.

Miloscia said that the bill basically says that the politicians decide what the people have the right to know, and that legislators knew exactly what they were voting for.

The bill currently sits before Governor Jay Inslee, who could choose to sign the bill, let it pass without his signature, or veto it. He has until Thursday, March 1, to make a decision.

During a Feb. 27 appearance on MSNBC, Inslee said that, while he thinks the bill is a bad idea, he cant veto the legislation because lawmakers passed the bill with a veto-proof majority. He added that he doesnt have control over over the legislation.

When asked if the governor would veto the legislation, Inslee spokesperson Tara Lee merely wrote in an email that their office is reviewing it.

The governor has vetoed legislation that has received super majorities in the legislature before. Last year, Inslee vetoed an across-the-board manufacturing tax cut that was passed by both chambers.Posted Tuesday, February 27, 2018 7:32 am

The Interstate 5 bridge replacement project will have the backing of WSDOT should a supplemental transportation budget pass the Legislature before the March 8 ending of the 2018 session.

A release from the office of Sen. Annette Cleveland, D-Vancouver, heralded the bills language last week as a way to signal Oregon officials that Washington is committed to working together on a new I-5 bridge.

Senate Bill 6106 provides that WSDOT shall support the work of a joint Oregon-Washington bridge replacement committee to develop a scope, a schedule, and a budget that would reinvigorate the bi-state effort for a future replacement bridge, according the the substitute bill that had passed the Senate as of press time. The proviso would be within existing appropriations, not requiring additional funds.

The joint task force was proposed and passed by the 2017 Legislature spurred by Cleveland and several other Clark County state legislators, including Sens. Ann Rivers and Lynda Wilson, and Reps. Sharon Wylie, Monica Stonier, Paul Harris and Brandon Vick.

The proviso makes it clear that as follow-up to the inventory of past bridge work, WSDOT is to support the work of our Legislative Action Committee this year, Cleveland said. In addition, our state has taken the same step as Oregon did recently by adding the new I-5 replacement bridge to a project list. I believe these additional actions will be viewed positively by our Oregon partners and positively by our community.

This work is in preparation for the 2019 legislative budget cycle. The bill will have to pass the House and be signed by Gov. Jay Inslee before it can become law.

This is another in a series of careful, concrete steps to continue moving forward on a new bridge, Cleveland said. I wish we could have a new bridge even sooner, as I am sure everyone does, but only by taking the time to build consensus and demonstrate serious commitment will we be able to successfully work with our partners in Oregon to finally replace the antiquated I-5 bridge.Posted Tuesday, February 27, 2018 7:28 am

Congresswoman Jaime Herrera Beutler addressed the Feb. 14 shooting in Parkland, Florida Feb. 21 in her latest telephone town hall. This was her first time commenting on one of the most deadly school shootings in United States history in the week since it happened. 17 people, students and school staff, died in the shooting, which has reignited the already heated debate over gun control amongst lawmakers and citizens alike.

First, Herrera Beutler started the evening by listing off a number of now familiar items of concern to Southwest Washington and what her plan for action is  tolling, threat to Salmon, the Bonneville Power Administration, and opioid abuse. The Battle Ground resident also spent roughly four minutes praising the recently passed GOP tax bill, saying that she has seen more than just one-time bonuses handed down, but raising wages and benefits, as well.

Her solutions for school shootings was prompted by the first caller-question of the night.

John from Battle Ground asked, that in the wake of the Parkland Florida shooting, if Herrera Beutler would elaborate on the National Rifle Association giving her an A rating (the NRA rates lawmakers on scale of A  F).

Herrera Beutler said she strongly supports the constitutional rights of all law abiding citizens, including the second amendment, and that is why the NRA has given her such a high rating.

If were talking about legislation, or regulation, that protect those rights, Im in favor, she said.

Herrera Beutler then offered her solutions, explaining they (lawmakers) need to do a better job of keeping guns away from people who shouldnt have access, not hunters, and homeowners using firearms for protection.

Much like president Trump responded to shootings during his campaign and now into his presidency, Herrera Beutler pointed to the Florida shooters mental health issues and said this is continued proof that there needs to be better access to public mental health and that more funding needs to go towards it.

Herrera Beutler also talked of more thorough background checks and not allowing guns into the hands of those on the terror watch list, if a judge felt they were a threat.

She said there are laws currently in place, that if more adequately enforced and funded, could have headed off some of the shootings in recent years.

Herrera Beutlers direct reaction to the Parkland shooting was at the end of the town hall when Harry from Hockinson expressed concern that post-shooting pushes for more gun control by liberal lawmakers would lead to the second amendment being stripped down and implored his congressional representative to not be caught up in the fever of it.

There isnt a person, I dont care what your political strife is, who didnt hear about this most recent tragedy and whose heart didnt break, she said of Parkland. Quite frankly, I know mine did.

In regards to a sweeping ban of weapons often used in mass shootings, Herrera Beutler shared a belief common amongst gun advocates.

Taking the rights away from a law abiding citizen does not stop a criminal from breaking the law, she said.

Herrera Beutler again expressed her push to expand mental health programs and to help law enforcement stop criminals from purchasing guns.

She noted that in regards to mental health, an individual would first need to be found, through the court system, to be a danger to themselves or others before their right to keep and bear arms was stripped from them.

You cant pick and choose what constitutional amendments your going to stand by, she said. When I took this job, I swore an oath to defend the constitution and I intend to continue to do just that.English Finnish

SATO Corporation, Press release, 28th February 2018 at 11:00 am

Those looking for a rental home in Helsinki's Herttoniemi or Kalasatama will have more to choose from as 239 new SATO rental homes will be constructed in the districts in the coming years. The Herttoniemen Laivalahdenkaari 1 property will have 143 SATO rental homes and Kalasataman Capellan puistotie 96 SATO rental homes.

The demand for rental homes is high in districts such as Herttoniemi and Kalasatama that have excellent transport links and services. The areas are undergoing strong development, which is increasing their appeal even further.

- SATO is continuing its growth in its main operating areas, and our aim is to offer new rental homes close to good public transport links and diverse services. Herttoniemi and Kalasatama are spot on in this respect as locations, and we're happy to be able to offer more choice for those looking for a rental home in the next few years, says Antti Aarnio, Vice President, Investments, from SATO.

Block complex with a fresh look under construction in Herttoniemenranta

Laivalahdenkaari 1 is the last undeveloped site in the new section of Herttoniemi. A total of 143 new SATO rental homes will be completed on the site by the end of 2019. A competition based on invitations was organised for the development of the area, and the winner was the architectural firm Arkkitehdit Soini ja Horto Oy (AS&H) with its entry called 'Kutteri' ('Cutter'). The construction contractor is NCC.

- The apartments will range from various sizes of studios and one-bedrooms to family homes, which means they will be a good match to the demand in an area like this. The metro and the centre of Herttoniemi with its developing services can be found nearby. The block will have an inner courtyard and a pedestrianised street on one side of the building. And to top it all as regards services, there will be a grocery store on the ground floor of the building, says Aarnio.

Brand new residential district in seafront Kalasatama

A total of 96 SATO rental homes will be completed at Capellan puistotie 21 by the end of 2020. This is a brand new residential district under construction in the southern part of the Verkkosaari area and only a stone's throw from the new REDI shopping centre.

- This is an area where we're able to construct rental homes next to brand new services. The City of Helsinki organised a competition for the entire area, of which we and Skanska won the entity covering the central section of the area. Skanska will construct rental homes for us, in addition to which non-subsidised as well as Hitas owner-occupied homes will be built in the area, Aarnio says.

For more information please contact:

SATO Corporation

Antti Aarnio, Vice President, phone +358 201 34 4200 or +358 40 164 7052

http://www.sato.fi/en

SATO is one of Finland's leading rental housing providers. SATO aims to offer a comprehensive choice of rental housing and an excellent customer experience. At year-end 2017 SATO owned around 25,800 apartments in Finland's largest growth centres and in St Petersburg.



We promote sustainable development and initiative through our operations and work in open interaction with our stakeholders to generate added value. We operate profitably and with a long-term view. We increase the value of our housing assets through investments, divestments and repairs.

The SATO Group's net sales in 2017 were 280 million, operating profit 231 million and profit before taxes 185 million. The value of SATO's investment assets is roughly EUR 3.6 billion.Posted Wednesday, February 28, 2018 3:41 am

Along its 150-mile course the Skagit River crosses boundaries political and natural, as its journey carries water from British Columbia to Washington state, cutting through the high, dry air of the Cascade Mountains before settling in the low wetness of Puget Sound.

The Skagit Basin is the third-largest watershed on the West Coast, and the largest river that flowsinto Puget Sound.

Yet many of Skagitsresident landowners are unable to acquire water for their homes, which are not served by public water systems.

Nestled between the banks of the river and Mount Bakers formidable shadow is Forest Park Estates, a planned neighborhood development. A sign at the entrance marks 10 lots out of 29 as sold, but a quick meander down the road reveals a flat, overgrown mass of weeds encircling the developmentsonly home.

The home belongs to JoAnn Walker. In a letter published by the Citizens Alliance for Property Rights, Walker said she and her husband bought twolots in 2012, and started building on the property in 2013.

They were unaware until the end of 2013 that water was unavailable for development, meaning they could not draw any water from a well.

The Walkers had moved to the area to start a new life in Skagit County, andwere suddenly left without career opportunities and with property quickly depreciating in value.

Walker wrote that she and her husband fought for their water rights, with her husband testifying before state lawmakersin Olympiato no avail.Walker said her husband died three months after testifying in Olympia.

With one home and another empty lot in Forest Park Estates, Walker stated her land is essentially worthless, and that her empty lot would usually be worth $75,000 but was valued by Skagit County at $13,000.

Walkers son said she has moved to the Washington coast and hopes to sell her Skagit County residence.

Hopes dashed

The past two legislative sessions brought Skagit County hope for relief, but that hope went unfulfilled.

In 2016, the state Supreme Court ruled in Whatcom County v. Hirst that counties could not rely on the state Department of Ecology to determine whether water is available for a given development and mustmake the decision for themselves.

The ruling, known as the Hirst Decision, essentially froze development projects across the state, since proving availability of water would require expensive hydrology studies.

The Hirst decision was a contentious issue between state Republicans and Democrats during the 2017 legislative session. Republicans refused to support an unrelated capital budget proposal unlessDemocrats could bring a Hirst fix to the table.

Water was bound to dominate the 2018 legislative session proceedings, but the issuewas resolved just ten days into the sessionon Jan. 18, witha bill restoring water access to landowners in Washington. Only Skagit County was explicitly left out of the new law, which leaves resident landowners stuck in the same place theyve been for nearly two decades.

House Minority Leader Dan Kristiansen, R-Snohomish, said in a Feb. 8 press release that Skagit Countys exemption came at the request of negotiators, supported by the tribes.

Kristiansen, a leader in the Hirst fix discussions, represents apart of Skagit County impacted by the water situation,and called the countys exclusion complete politics.

He said that his support for the Hirst bill was due to his role as a leader within his party and chamber.

I knew 100 people were going to die, and I had a chance to save 95 of them, said Kristiansen, using a metaphor to explain his predicament. Heres my problem: The five I couldnt save were in my own district, in Skagit.

Another potential solution for Skagit County came in the form of House Bill 2937, sponsored by Rep. David Taylor, R-Moxee, and a bipartisan group of representatives.

Taylors bill would have rolled Skagit County water laws back to a 1996 agreement that allowed rural landowners the ability to access water through their own wells.

HB 2937 never made it to committee for a public hearing, which Kristiansen said was due to Democratic control in the House.

But Rep. Brian Blake, D-Aberdeen, who chairs the House Committee on Agriculture and Natural Resources and is a sponsor on the bill, said the measure to benefit Skagit was introduced too late in session for public hearing.

Decades of struggle

Skagit Countys fight for water wasraging long before the Hirst Decision.

In 2001, the Department of Ecology established the Skagit County Instream Flow Rule, designed to protect the basin from withdrawals that might hinder water levels in streams and the river. The new rules essentially brought a halt to development in Skagit County, since the use of nearly any well would violate the rule.

Noticeably absent from the 2001 rule was a clause that would allow exempt wells to be drilled for single homes spaced too far apart for public water systems to reach. An exempt well is one that does not require a permit.

Such a clause was in the original version of the instream flow rules agreed upon in 1996, but had vanished from the rules published in 2001.

Ecology in 2006 added an amendment for Skagit County creating reservations of a limited amount of water for specific future uses that are not subject to the existing instream flow rules. The amendment would have provided water to landowners, and Ecology determined in their analysis that the probable benefit of the rule amendment is greater than the probable cost.

But the Swinomish Indian Tribal Community challenged Ecology in court, arguing that the state agency had acted beyond its authority. Thurston County Superior Court ruled in favor of the department in Swinomish v. Ecology, only for the state Supreme Court to overturn that court ruling in 2013, siding with the Swinomish.

Kristiansen said the Supreme Courts decision locked up 800 parcels of land and caused property values in Skagit County to drop by $22 million.

Local conflict

One of the better-documented resident struggles has been that of Richard and Marnie Fox, who in 2014 were denied a building permit for land they purchased and built a well on in 2000. The Foxes took the issue to court in an attempt to get the county to either issue a permit or explain why the permit had been refused.

A trial court allowed Ecology and the Swinomish to involve themselves in the case, and the state Court of Appeals eventually ruled against the Foxes, arguing that they had no legally available water, and that a permit-exempt well would violate instream flow rules.

While the Foxes hoped the case would go to the state Supreme Court, Richard Fox said the Hirst decision ended any chance of that happening.

The Foxes both pointed to the Swinomish as the primary barrier to development in Skagit County, and said the tribes political spending gives Swinomish a powerful voice.

According to data from the Public Disclosure Commission, the Swinomish Tribe has spent nearly $650,000 in combined contributions to political committees and candidates since 2006. Contributions come from the tribal community itself, as well as the Swinomish Casino & Lodge. PDC data shows 31 tribes making political contributions in that time frame, with only the Puyallup, Muckleshoot and Tulalip spending more than the Swinomish on political donations.

The tribe is the main instigator here, but you have a lot of followers: the Legislature, the governor, and the judicial section, Richard Fox said. How can money outvote us?

Zachary Barborinas owned property on the south side of the Skagit Basin in Snohomish County. He said his lot was part of a 40-acre development that received approvals to drill wells, but not to use them. Barborinas went on to say that Ecology wouldnt issue mitigated water right permits, and that he thinks the agency was afraid of a Swinomish lawsuit.

It was eventually determined that the development was drawing more than half of its water from the Stillaguamish River watershed, so lot owners were eventually allowed to use their wells.

By then, Barborinas had sold his lot, frustrated at the legal and political complications. He went on to co-found the Just Water Alliance, an organization of farmers, landowners and residents of Skagit County determined to change water policy in the area.

In 2016 Swinomish asked the federal Bureau Of Indian affairs to approve an amendment to its Swinomish tribal constitution. Skagit County opposed the amendment, claiming it would have extended the reservation boundaries. Skagit County called the process annexing and sent a letter to affected residents on Fidalgo Island, warning that their property could become part of the reservation.

Swinomish responded in a press release and said the county had not consulted with the tribe before sending its letter to residents, and that the information was outdated and of limited understanding.

In any case, Skagit County attorney Will Honea sent a letter to the federal agency asking that it deny approval ofthe amendment. In its objections, the county referenced the clash over water rights as context for the relationship between the county and the tribe.

Honea wrote that under Tribal Chairman Brian Cladoosbys leadership, the Swinomish have, since the mid-90s, pursued a broad-ranging and programmatic effort to assert direct control over the Skagit River ecosystem at the expense of its democratically-elected governments, asserting rights over taxation, land use, water rights and a broad range of issues on a constant and ongoing basis.

Swinomish tribal leaders did not respond to repeated emails and phone messages seekingcomment on Skagit Countys exemption from the Hirst fix. Swinomish Environmental Policy Director Larry Wasserman said they do not discuss private conversations with legislators.

Science and politics

According to the Environmental Protection Agency, one in five U.S. homes uses an onsite septic system to treat wastewater, the same system that would presumably be used in many of the rural homes in Skagit County not serviced by a public water system.

The EPA also claims that septic systems provide benefits to public health, the environment and the economy. In contrast to the argument that rural development would negatively impact instream flows, the EPAs website reads that wastewater treatment removes pollution from surface water, recharges groundwater, and replenishes aquifers.

Barborinas said that around 5,700 landowners were affected by instream flow rules, and if they had been able to build homes and use 350 gallons per day with a 50 percent septic recharge, their combined water usage would have been around 1 million gallons each day.

Barborinas said this impact is a very generous estimation, and even then would use just over a thousandth of a foot of the Skagit River, an impact less severe than a boat knocking waves upon the shore.

Were trying to bring a rational solution to an irrational problem, Barborinas said. Its creating a tremendous amount of animosity in the community.

The recently-passed Hirst bill allows for 950 or 3,000 gallons of domestic water use per day, depending on which watershed a given well draws from. Kristin Johnson-Waggoner, water resources communications manager for Ecology, said a household of four uses an estimated 60 gallons of water per day.

Nobody cares about anything logical, Richard Fox said. This isnt about water, its about politics.

No relief in sight

Mike Newman, a real estate agent in Skagit County, said that the statewide nature of the Hirst decision gave Skagit residents another chance at water access, but that the county may have run out of opportunities now that the rest of the state has been saved,

Weve tried common sense, weve tried state courts, none of its worked, Newman said. Maybe federal court will be next.

With the Hirst fix passing by a considerable margin in both chambers, members of both parties championed the bipartisan nature of the new bill and the relief it would bring to Washington landowners. When the legislation passed in January, it did so by a 35-14 vote in the Senate.

Sen. Barbara Bailey, R-Oak Harbor, cut through the celebratory noise and asked a simple question on the Senate floor: What about Skagit?

The Senator, whose district covers southwestern Skagit County, said the bill would be good for the future of Washington state, but that she could not reconcile the harm that would be brought to her constituents, who were provided no saving grace.

I wish there had been something done for Skagit so I could vote yes, because the rest of the work on this bill is good, Bailey said. Youve got friends and neighbors that this bill does not help.Turns out playing COD for hours on end CAN lead to solid career prospects, and don't let anyone tell you otherwise.



John Duttenhofer, a strapping young stoner from Colorado who was partial to 13-hour Call of Duty sessions, travelled all the way to Syria to fight alongside the Kurdish People's Protection Units, or YPG, in Raqqa as they worked to liberate the city from ISIS.



John attributes the time he spent on COD to his survival and success.

I could sit down and put 13 hours in like it was nothing.



John spoke to the Daily Mail and said: "Video games prepared me in a way for knowing strategies and how not to get killed, like how to use cover and not to stand in the open."VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Feb. 28, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Venzee Technologies Inc. (TSX-V:VENZ) (Venzee or the Company) is pleased to announce that a leading Canadian Textile Importer and Distributor has chosen Venzee to deliver enriched, error-free product information to retailers.



The Canadian distributor is currently building an international distributor network, and has chosen Venzee to help concentrate on growing its business, creating a return on investment, and delivering rich, error-free data to its distribution network.

Venzee transforms product information from suppliers and manufacturers into the requirements of retailers, a labor intensive and costly process that the retail industry still performs using spreadsheets.

Peter Mackay, CEO of Venzee, commented, Adding global businesses with an expanding network is a testament to our software and how it can grow with any type of business. Over the course of 2018, we will continue to add clients over a variety of verticals to continue Venzees growth.

Venzee provides high-value customized SaaS (software-as-a-service) solutions to mid-market and Tier 1 enterprise clients around the world. Additionally, it accommodates the budgets of up-and-coming retailers hosted on platforms like Shopify.

According to Statista, in 2016, the global e-commerce industry achieved estimated US$1.8 trillion dollars in sales, and is expected to grow to US$4.5 trillion by 2021. As e-commerce sales continue to grow at staggering rates, the need for better delivery of product information for businesses is now solved with the Venzee software solution.

About Venzee

Venzee is a SaaS company that launched in 2014 to help e-commerce vendors and retailers easily share product information in a US$23 trillion retail industry (source: Statista). Traditionally, this was done using spreadsheets which created a labor-intensive process that delayed products from reaching the marketplace. Venzees technology, leveraging artificial intelligence to streamline product information management, allows thousands of vendors and retailers to seamlessly share information, avoiding delays and getting products to market faster than ever. The Company graduated from notable startup accelerator program 500 Startups and is already powering some of the biggest brands in the world.

To learn more about Venzee, visit https://venzee.com. For more about Mesh, visit https://meshblockchain.com.

Investor Relations

Caleb Jeffries

Investor Relations, Kin Communications Inc.

1-866-684-6730

VENZ@kincommunications.com

Forward-Looking Information

This press release contains forward-looking information within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities legislation. Forward-looking information includes, but is not limited to, statements with respect to the execution of the Companys growth strategy. Generally, forward-looking information can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as plans, expects or does not expect, is expected, budget, scheduled, estimates, forecasts, intends, anticipates or does not anticipate, or believes, or variations of such words and phrases or state that certain actions, events or results may, could, would, might or will be taken, occur or be achieved. Forward-looking information is subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the actual results, level of activity, performance or achievements of the Company to be materially different from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking information, including but not limited to: general business, economic, competitive, geopolitical and social uncertainties; and regulatory risks. Additional information about these assumptions and risks and uncertainties is contained under Risk Factors in the Companys filing statement dated December 12, 2017, which is available under the Companys SEDAR profile at www.sedar.com, and in other filings that the Company has made and may make with applicable securities authorities in the future.

Although the Company has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in forward-looking information, there may be other factors that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. There can be no assurance that such information will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking information. The forward-looking information contained in this news release is expressly qualified in its entirety by this cautionary statement. The Company does not undertake to update any forward-looking information, except as required by applicable securities laws.

Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.English Danish

28 February 2018

Announcement No. 2

Notice convening the NKT Annual General Meeting

The Annual General Meeting of NKT A/S will be held on Thursday 22 March 2018, at 3:00 pm CET at Tivoli Hotel & Congress Center, (auditorium Carstensen) Arni Magnussons Gade 2, 1577 Copenhagen V (Conference Entrance).

Attached please find invitation and agenda with the full content of proposals and exhibits, including overview of candidates for the NKT Board of Directors and draft of remuneration policy.

Admission cards can be requested until Monday 19 March 2018 at 10:00 am CET via NKT Shareholder Portal at www.nkt.com or via Computershare A/S on telephone +45 4546 0997.

The NKT 2017 Annual Report can be found and printed from www.nkt.com.

Contact

Investor Relations: Michael Nass Nielsen, Head of Investor Relations, Tel.: +45 2494 1654

Press: Helle Gudiksen, Head of Group Communications, Tel.: +45 2349 9098Montreal, CA (H4T1V6)

Today

Cloudy with light rain in the morning...then becoming partly cloudy. High 24C. Winds N at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 80%..

Tonight

A few clouds. Low 12C. Winds N at 5 to 10 mph.Selbyville, Delaware, Feb. 28, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) --



Commercial Drone / UAV Market is expected to reach USD 17 billion by 2024; according to a new research report by Global Market Insights, Inc. The shipments surpassed 100,000 units in 2016. The growth of the market is credited to increasing venture capital investment in the market space. In 2016, there were about 105 deals with an approximation of USD 541 million. It was estimated that the investment in commercial drones moved from hardware to software in 2017 with the Venture Capitals (VCs) targeting end-to-end solutions, software, and counter-drone technology. One of the most important investments in 2017 was of 3D Robotics of about USD 53 million Series D round from Atlantic Bridge CapitalTrue, VenturesFoundry and GroupMayfield. It witnessed the transition from hardware to software services.

Moreover, commercial drone market companies which led the funding were targeting industrial and enterprise inspection. With an ever-growing adoption of commercial drones, it implies great affordability for businesses and operators. Furthermore, manufacturing techniques of computer chips, economies of scale, and software advances are driving the cost of drone sensors and platforms and solutions.

Request for a sample of this research report @ https://www.gminsights.com/request-sample/detail/115

The technological advancements and innovation in the commercial drone market space is also estimated to drive the revenue. The integration of artificial intelligence and advanced machine learning algorithms has developed several new avenues for utilization of UAVs capabilities. For instance, retail industry is also leveraging the capabilities for delivering package. In December 2016, Amazon successfully completed one of the first ever commercial deliveries in Cambridge, UK. Similarly, Zipline, a U.S. based robotics company deployed its fleet of drones to deliver blood in Rwanda to provide medical relief in remote areas of the East African region. The company even plans to utilize the capability of civil drones to delivery one of the largest drone delivery network in Tanzania.

Browse key industry insights spread across 350 pages with 210 market data tables & 30 figures & charts from this 2018 report Commercial Drone/Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) Market in detail along with the table of contents:

https://www.gminsights.com/industry-analysis/unmanned-aerial-vehicles-UAV-commercial-drone-market

The agriculture industry has emerged as one of the major end-users in the commercial UAV market. They are used for a wide range of applications such as planting, soil and field analysis, crop monitoring, health assessment, crop spraying and irrigation in the complete crop cycle. Other use cases include producing a precise 3D map for soil analysis, which can guide in planning of seed planting patterns. A drone-driven method of soil analysis offers data for nitrogen level and irrigation management, which is also estimated to be a major factor driving the commercial UAV market demand.

Asia Pacific is estimated to gain substantial growth during the forecast period owing to the rapid increase in awareness for civilian drone applications and relaxation by government for the use of UAVs for commercial purposes. Furthermore, the presence of substantial number of drones manufacturers in the region, especially in China, such as DJI and Xiaomi, is also estimated to be drive the growth of the commercial UAV market. The market is also aided by adoption of drones by the customers and enterprises in fields such as agriculture, retail, and construction.

The major vendors in the commercial UAV market are 3D Robotics, Airobotics, AeroVironment, Airware, Amazon Prime Air, Bae Systems, Cyberhawk Innovations Ltd., DroneDeploy, DJI, Ehang Inc, Hoverfly Technologies, Intel Corporation, Parrot, PrecisionHawk, senseFly, and Yuneec International. These players are leveraging on the various strategies such as product launch, and strategic alliance to enhance their product portfolio and gain market share. For instance, In January 2017, DJI acquired Hasselblad, a Swedish camera company. The acquisition will strengthen DJIs presence in high-end camera drones landscape by combining DJIs aerial drone technology with Hasselblads cameras.

Make an inquiry for purchasing this report @ https://www.gminsights.com/inquiry-before-buying/115





Browse Related Reports:

Agricultural Drones Market Size By Product (Hardware [Fixed Wing, Multi Rotor, Nano, Hybrid], Software [Data Management, Imaging, Data Analytics]), By Application (Field Mapping, Variable Rate Application, Crop Scouting), Industry Analysis Report, Regional Outlook (U.S., Canada, Germany, UK, France, Italy, China, Japan, Australia, South Korea, India, Brazil, Mexico), Application Potential, Price Trends, Competitive Market Share & Forecast, 2017  2024

https://www.gminsights.com/industry-analysis/agricultural-drones-market

Precision Farming Market Size By Component (Hardware [Automated Steering System, Drones, UAVs & Camera, Mobile Device, Global Positioning System (GPS) & Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS)], Software, Services [Consulting & Training, Maintenance & Updates, Managed Services, Integration]), By Technology (High Precision Positioning System, Geomapping, Remote Sensing, Integrated Electronic Communication, Variable Rate Technology (VRT)), By Application (Weather Monitoring, Yield Monitoring, Field Monitoring, Irrigation Management, Waste Management, Financial Management), Industry Analysis Report, Regional Outlook (U.S., Canada, UK, Germany, France, Spain, Netherlands, Turkey, Poland, Russia, Australia & New Zealand, China, India, Japan, South Korea, South East Asia, Brazil, Mexico, Argentina, Colombia, Peru, South Africa, Saudi Arabia, Egypt), Growth Potential, Competitive Market Share & Forecast, 2017  2024

https://www.gminsights.com/industry-analysis/precision-farming-market





About Global Market Insights

Global Market Insights, Inc., headquartered in Delaware, U.S., is a global market research and consulting service provider; offering syndicated and custom research reports along with growth consulting services. Our business intelligence and industry research reports offer clients with penetrative insights and actionable market data specially designed and presented to aid strategic decision making. These exhaustive reports are designed via a proprietary research methodology and are available for key industries such as chemicals, advanced materials, technology, renewable energy and biotechnology.

Contact Us:

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.Organisation: United States Peace Corps

Duty Station: Kampala, Uganda

Reports to: Training Manager

About Peace Corps:

The Peace Corps is an agency of the United States Government, which

sends American Volunteer development workers to assist in capacity building and

technical assistance activities in over 70 countries worldwide. The

United States has enjoyed diplomatic relations with Uganda for over 30

years. Ambassador Scott H. DeLisi currently heads the U.S Mission to

Uganda. The Mission is composed of several offices and organizations all

working under the auspices of the Embassy and at the direction of the Ambassador.

Among the offices operating under the U.S Mission to Uganda are:

United States Agency

for International Development (USAID)

Centers for Disease

Control

Peace Corps

Job Summary: The Language and Cross-Cultural

Facilitator (LCF) is responsible for planning, delivering and evaluating

language and intercultural training at Pre-Service, In-Service and other

required opportunities for Peace Corps/Uganda. Working hand in hand with the

Language & Cross-Cultural Coordinator, the LCF is expected to offer ongoing

language and intercultural support to new Volunteers by carrying out interest

survey (needs assessment) of each Volunteers so as to come out with strategies

to address them in subsequent trainings.

Key Duties and Responsibilities:

Area of Expertise:

Design lesson plans

and deliver them to the Peace Corps Trainees, using appropriate techniques

and methodology

Prepare at least 10

session designs during TOT, which are ready to be delivered in the initial

weeks of PST

Conduct language

classes in the Ugandan Language of expertise

Make daily Trainee

assessments and adjust lesson plans according to the learning needs of

Trainees

Actively participate

in Pre-Service Training research for collection of teaching materials

relevant for language-technical and Cross Cultural training

Tutor learners with

special needs as, and when, such needs arises

Cross-Cultural Informant Guide:

Using your knowledge

as a Ugandan, act as a guide in teaching about Ugandan cultures, with

specific emphasis on the uniqueness of your cultural grouping

The incumbent will be

using their expertise in language teaching to impart cultural knowledge to

Trainees during formal sessions

Works closely with

homestay families in fulfilling the Trainer role for the Trainee

Serve as a link between

the trainee and homestay family in clarifying any training related issues

that may arise

Perform daily

check-ins for the Trainee to gauge their adjustment process

Equip the Trainees

with skills to take care of their own safety and security by helping them

learn the appropriate language, understand the local customs and cultural

practices and dynamics of the political and social set up of the

communities that may impact on Trainees lives

Training Design/Implementation:

Actively participate

in designing an integrated Pre-Service Training Program

Integrate technical

training through close collaboration and guidance from Program Specialist

Documentation and Reporting:

Maintain file of

written lesson plans, handouts and other language supplementary materials

for PST and IST

Send weekly reports to

the Language & Cross-Cultural Coordinator detailing the progress of

each Trainee, what has been covered, what needs improvement and the

following weeks plans

Routinely inform the

Language and Cross-Cultural Coordinator periodically about the learning

progress of each Trainee and on matters related to the Trainees general

suitability for service.

Team Member:

Participate in team

building activities designed to develop team spirit and responsibility

Attend meetings as scheduled

Share individual

talents and expertise with colleagues

Other: Perform any other duties as may be assigned

by the Language & Cross-Cultural Coordinator and the Training Manager









Qualifications, Skills and Experience:

The ideal candidates

for the US Peace Corps Language and Cross-Cultural Facilitator job

should hold Diplomas in the area of specialization

Past experience in

teaching a local Ugandan language preferably to Peace Corps Trainees.

Significant experience

in teaching and analyzing a Ugandan language.

Past experience in

adult education training and community development

Excellent

interpersonal, counseling and cross-cultural skills

Good judgment and

problem solving ability

Management and

supervision experience and/or aptitude.

Money and resources

management experience and/or aptitude.

Willingness to live

away from home in a training location for the duration of the training (in

a rented house or Guest House)

Language Proficiency: Level IV English ability.

Excellent communication skills in English and at least one Ugandan language

How to Apply:

All Applicants should send their electronic applications clearly

indicating their names and the position applied for in the subject line of the

cover email as well as on all the attachments: For example Katungu Bonita_LCF

Lusamia for the LCF Lusamia Position. Do not write any other words in the

subject line of your mail.

Please submit word formatted

Letter of interest / cover letter (3 pages

max)

Updated Curriculum Vitae with names and

contact addresses of three professional referees.

Submitted documents become the property of the Peace Corps and will not

be returned. You will be contacted ONLY if you are deemed qualified. If

invited for an interview, you will be expected to bring a reference letter from

your Local Council (LC1) and your academic credentials.

Submit Application to: applications@ug.peacecorps.gov

Deadline: 9th March, 2018 by 4:45 pmEnglish Finnish

Municipality Finance Plc

Stock Exchange Release

28 February 2018 at 12 noon (EET)

Changes in Municipality Finance Plc's Executive Management Team

Following Esa Kallio's appointment as the President and CEO of Municipality Finance Plc (MuniFin) on 28 February 2018, Mari Tyster (born 1975, Master of Laws), has been appointed as the deputy to the CEO. Tyster is the company's Executive Vice President, Legal and Governance and member of the Executive Management Team. MuniFin's deputy to the CEO has to pass the fit and proper assessment by the supervisory authority, the European Central Bank. Tyster's assessment process is currently on-going.

Simultaneously, Joakim Holmstrom and Rainer Holm have been appointed as new members to the Executive Management Team.

Joakim Holmstrom (born 1977, M.Sc. Econ.), joined MuniFin in 2008. Since 2010 he has headed the company's funding operations. As Holmstrom joins the Executive Management Team he will assume the responsibility of leading the company's capital markets operations. He will lead the funding, treasury and corporate social responsibility and communications departments.

Rainer Holm (born 1973, M.Sc. Econ.), has worked for MuniFin since 2016 heading information technology, information solutions and business development operations.

Toni Heikkila, Jukka Helminen and Marjo Tomminen continue as members of the MuniFin Executive Management Team. Heikkila is responsible for the company's risk management, Helminen for customer finance and Tommila for finance.

All members of the Executive Management Team report to Esa Kallio, President and CEO. The appointments are effective on 1 March, 2018.

MUNICIPALITY FINANCE PLC

Further information:

Esa Kallio, President and CEO, tel. +358 50 337 7953, esa.kallio@munifin.fi



Measured by the group's balance sheet, MuniFin (Municipality Finance Plc) is Finland's second largest credit institution: the company's balance sheet totals nearly EUR 35 billion. The company is owned by Finnish municipalities, the public sector pension fund Keva and the Republic of Finland.

MuniFin's mission is to build a better future in line with the principles of responsibility and in cooperation with its customers. MuniFin's customers are Finnish municipalities, municipal federations, municipally controlled companies and non-profit housing corporations. Lending is used for environmentally and socially responsible investment targets such as public transportation, sustainable buildings, hospitals and healthcare centers, schools and day care centers, and homes for the elderly.

MuniFin's customers are domestic but the company operates in a completely global business environment. It is the most active Finnish bond issuer in international capital markets and the first Finnish green bond issuer. The funding is exclusively guaranteed by the Municipal Guarantee Board.

The Municipality Finance Group also includes the subsidiary company, Financial Advisory Services Inspira Ltd.

Read more: www.munifin.fiAway from the cameras' flash and the eyes of her millions of fans in India, the actress Sridevi's body made its way to a simple mortuary in the United Arab Emirates, where one man helped sign out her remains to return home.

Listed only as "Ashraf" on the official paperwork in Dubai is Ashraf "Sherry" Thamarassery, a 44-year-old Indian from Kerala who has become a ferryman of sorts for those who die here in the UAE.

From indebted labourers to the moneyed elite, Thamarassery has helped repatriate 4,700 bodies to 38 countries across the world. He views it as a noble responsibility in this desert sheikhdom that draws so many far from their homes, chief among them his compatriots.

"For them, you or me, it's all the same and everyone is equal. If someone dies in their room, they will take them to the hospital and then to be checked at the police mortuary," said Thamarassery.

"It's the same process, whether Dubai or Sharjah or any emirate. ... Whether you're poor or rich, it doesn't matter."

Sherry offered shrugs when talking about Sridevi, saying he helped repatriate five other bodies yesterday including the famed Bollywood star. But it's hard to overstate the power Sridevi had over the imagination of many in India.

The 54-year-old Sridevi died February 24 in Dubai while in the UAE for a wedding. Police and prosecutors say she drowned in a hotel bathtub after losing consciousness, calling her death accidental.

While Indian officials quickly cancelled her passport and prepared the other documents, Thamarassery said a needed police clearance slowed Sridevi's repatriation. He received hundreds of calls from journalists, officials and others in the interim.

When the clearance came, he travelled to a simple government-run mortuary in a dusty neighbourhood of squat, square buildings that house some of Dubai's immense population of foreign workers, many of whom come from South Asia.

There, officials embalmed her corpse as Thamarassery handled paperwork for her and three others. Curious Indian labourers spoke softly among themselves about the actress while standing outside of the mortuary. An ambulance then carried her body to a private jet reportedly sent by an Indian billionaire to take her home to Mumbai to be cremated.

By last night, Thamarassery returned home to the apartment he shares with his wife and daughter in Ajman, a small, dusty emirate in the UAE that serves as a bedroom community to skyscraper-studded Dubai some 35 kms to the southwest. There, Thamarassery runs a mechanics shop but focuses largely on his philanthropic efforts.

Shelf upon shelf in his home bears honours and awards. A framed picture hangs on the wall showing him meeting Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

I do this "to earn blessings, but also when someone dies here, people don't know how to manage the repatriation procedures," he said. "That's why I do it." All the while, his phone never stopped ringing, some of them undoubtedly new calls for his help.The way India prevents human trafficking, and rescues and rehabilitates victims trafficked for various purposes may soon turn out to be the best among the South Asian countries, thanks to a new law on the subject, approved by the Union cabinet on Wednesday.

Called the Trafficking of Persons (Prevention, Protection and Rehabilitation) Bill, 2018 , it is expected to introduced in Parliament when it reassembles for the Budget session on March 5.

Maneka Gandhi, the Union minister for women and child development, revealed that when they were in Argentina in November last for the IV Global Conference on the Sustained Eradication of Child Labour, she had not taken the draft bill as it had to be approved by the cabinet, but Indias Nobel laureate Kailash Satyarthi had carried it with him.

To check how good the bill was, the child rights activist showed it to leaders from about 30 countries, who told him that it would be amongst the best in the world.

Gandhi pointed out that the bill was one of compassion because it focuses on rehabilitation of the victims. I am not going to wait for the court to convict the traffickers before we start with the rehabilitation of the victims. The traffickers are not going to spend on it. So the rehabilitation will begin almost immediately, she said.

Once it becomes law, the bill will fulfill all the factors that are part of the UN Protocol on it that India had signed. The bill has been prepared in consultation with ministries, departments, state governments, NGOs and domain experts. A large number of suggestions received by the ministry of WCD in hundreds of petitions have been incorporated in the bill, the minister elaborated.

The bill addresses the issue of trafficking from the point of view of prevention, rescue and rehabilitation. Aggravated forms of trafficking, which includes trafficking for the purpose of forced labour, begging, trafficking by administering chemical substance or hormones on a person for the purpose of early sexual maturity, trafficking of a woman or child for the purpose of marriage or under the pretext of marriage or after marriage, among others, come under the new bill.

The bill also makes fast tracking of all aspects of the cases mandatory.

While it provides for time bound trial and repatriation of the victimswithin a period of one year from taking into cognizancethe provision for retaining the confidentiality of victims, witnesses, and complainants by not disclosing their identity is also built into the new bill. The victims are entitled to interim relief immediately within 30 days to address their physical and mental trauma, and further appropriate relief within 60 days from the date of filing of charge sheet.

Union Law Minister Ravi Shanker Prasad described the Trafficking of Persons (Prevention, Protection and Rehabilitation) Bill, 2018, as a historic one, and said it was a substantive law.

Pointing out that the bill creates dedicated institutional mechanisms at district, state and Central level that will be responsible for prevention, protection, investigation and rehabilitation work related to trafficking, he said the National Investigation Agency (NIA) will perform the tasks of Anti-Trafficking Bureau at the national level.

Punishment ranges from rigorous minimum of 10 years to life and fine not less than Rs.1 lakh. In order to break the organised nexus, both at the national and international level, the bill provides for the attachment and forfeiture of property and the proceeds from crime.

Trafficking of human beings is the third largest organised crime, violating basic human rights. There is no specific law so far to deal with the crime.If anything happens to me, please tell my story. This was...This story was first published in THE WEEK issue dated July 6, 2003

It sounds too good to be true. And probably is. Never before in the 18-year history of the Ram Janmabhoomi movement has a final resolution to the problem appeared so imminent. Sankaracharya Jayendra Saraswati of Kanchi, key negotiator in the proposed settlement, is bursting with optimism. The government is in a tizzy, with senior ministers constantly in touch with the seer over the telephone. Defence Minister George Fernandes and Finance Minister Jaswant Singh even flew down to Kanchipuram on June 22 to confer with him. "The Sankaracharya is making a sincere bid to end this controversy once and for all, and it is the duty of all right thinking people to support him," said BJP general secretary Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi.

The Sankaracharya is confident of a breakthrough by July 6, the day on which the 51-member working committee of the All India Muslim Personal Law Board meets in Lucknow to consider his proposals for solving the problem. Has a golden compromise, never thought of in all these years, been found? Will the Sankaracharya formula find at least partial acceptance?

Neither the Sankaracharya nor the chairman of the board, Maulana Rabe Hasan Nadwi, have revealed what the proposals are. A two-page letter on the Sankaracharya's letterhead reached Nadwi in Lucknow on June 21, but neither sender nor recipient is willing to say a word till July 6.

But informed leaks hint that the key suggestion is that the Muslim communityspecifically the Central Sunni Waqf Board, which is contesting the original Ayodhya title suitgive up its claim to the exact spot on which the Babri Masjid had stood before it was demolished in December 1992, in lieu of which the Hindus will forsake forever their demand for disputed religious sites at Kashi and Mathura. To sweeten the pill further, the proposals reportedly maintain that the Central government will not only provide land to rebuild the Babri Masjid, but also pay for the constructionbut obviously its location will be some distance away from the original site.

Will the board even consider this? Right from the start of the movement it was the site on which the Babri Masjid had stood that was the bone of contention. No Muslim ever objected to the building of a grand Ram temple at Ayodhya: it was the slogan, mandir wohin banayenge, which brought him up short. If the site had not been crucial to Muslim sentiments, wouldn't the issue have been resolved long ago? "The Babri Masjid site was never negotiable and still isn't," said Kasim Rasul Ilyas, convenor of the board. "I have not seen the proposals myself yet, but if they involve rebuilding the masjid at a different site, we cannot even consider them."

The concessions on Mathura and Kashi cut no ice with Ilyas. He pointed to the Religious Places Act, passed more than a decade ago, which decrees that at all shrines, barring the Ram Janmabhoomi, the status quo which existed at Independence would be maintained. "We don't recognise any controversy over the Gyanvapi mosque at Kashi, or the Idgah mosque at Mathura," Ilyas said. "The law provides that they will remain as they are. Any agitation the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) ever mounts against these two shrines, will be completely illegal." Muslim leaders were equally dismissive of the reported government offer to pay for the construction of a new masjid.

The Kanchi Sankaracharya first made an attempt to broker a settlement on Ayodhya in March last year, when the VHP was insistent on starting construction of the Ram temple in the area adjacent to the disputed spot. It was a more modest effort, as he sought to persuade the board to allow the VHP to begin construction. The board turned down this plea; the Supreme Court too subsequently upheld the board's position. Is it feasible that the board will now surrender the disputed area?

Ilyas expected the negotiations to resume from the point where they were broken off last year. "At that time we were told that the VHP would wait for the judicial verdict," he said. "We were told that the VHP was even willing to shift to another site, if the court ruled against it. We expect the Sankaracharya to stand by that." Muslim leaders said there had been no major development since then to prod them into radically alter their position.

Statements by other board members have been different. In Lucknow, Maulana Sajjad Nomani, considered close to the board chairman, sounded much more conciliatory. "The Board has always been willing to consider an honourable proposal, and this one fits the bill," he said soon after receiving the letter. How did he feel about giving up the coveted, controversial Babri Masjid site? "The exact location of the two structures, the temple and the mosque, can be worked out after creating the right atmosphere," he said. "We will discuss the proposal with an open mind."

When the Sankaracharya revealed on June 8 that he had resumed discussions on Ayodhya with Muslim leaders, a host of them, led by Syed Shahabuddin and Ilyas, contradicted him. "It is unfortunate that the Sankaracharya is making such a baseless claim," Ilyas then stated. As it later emerged, the Sankaracharya had met the board chairman in Lucknow, of which these leaders were unaware.

Later, of course, a fig leaf of an explanation was provided to say that the Sankaracharya met the ageing cleric only to enquire about his health! Are different Muslim leaders then pulling in different directions, with some keen to put Ayodhya behind them, and others determined not to yield an inch? Why has the Sankaracharya claimed that Muslim leaders were willing to hand over the disputed site to religious heads, but not to organisations politically inclineda clear barb at the VHP?

The July 6 meeting of the board promises to be tempestuous. Will the hawks carry the day or the doves? "Why should we reject the formula outright?" asked Ilyas. "Maybe we will suggest modifications."

Muslim opinion may be divided over the Sankaracharya's formula, but Hindu hardline opinion definitely is not. The VHP is furious at the likelihood of the Sankaracharya stealing its thunder. "After conducting an agitation for 18 years we certainly do not want anyone else muscling in," said senior VHP leader Champak Rai. From June 9, a day after the Sankaracharya revealed he had been making efforts to resolve Ayodhya, the VHP diatribe against himand the government for encouraging himhas been unceasing. VHP President Ashok Singhal compared the Sankaracharya's suggestions to "serving halwa in a commode". "All kinds of secret deals are being made," he charged, "but Hindu society will not tolerate any compromise with its interests."

Pure panic appeared to overtake the VHP as Singhal and Pravin Togadia rushed to RSS supremo K. Sudarshan to complain; Singhal flew down to Kanchipuram to warn the Sankaracharya against interfering; a bunch of pro-VHP sadhus passed a resolution in Ayodhya urging the Sankaracharya to abandon his efforts; a national executive was convened in Raipur on June 26 to find ways to meet the challenge. Fortunately for the VHP, the RSS lent it complete support. "No solution to Ayodhya is possible without the involvement of the VHP," declared RSS spokesman Ram Madhav. "The VHP's views must be accommodated."

What are these views? No compromise of any kind. Neither will the claims on the Kashi and Mathura mosques be given up, nor will any masjid be allowed to be constructed anywhere in the vicinity of the Ram temple, even if the Muslims are prepared to give up their claim on the disputed site. "Ayodhya is a Hindu holy town. Why should a mosque be allowed to come up there? There are too many mosques in Ayodhya as it is," declared Rai. On both issues the RSS has thrown its weight behind the VHP.

The VHP has even laised the spectre of the Sankaracharyawith complete government backing -making other concessions to Muslims. "There is talk of allowing namaz in about 1,000 ASI controlled heritage mosques," noted Ram Madhav. "The RSS does not think it is feasible at all." There has even been wild speculation that the government is considering job reservations for Muslims in return for the disputed site! In fact, neither of them figure in the Sankaracharya's proposals.

Convincing its fellow parivar members, of the efficacy of the Sankaracharya's formula will be even more difficult for the BJP than eliciting Muslim support. Ayodhya has always been a tough nut to crack. It has not softened with age.After months of illness, Jayendrar Saraswathi, the senior pontiff of Kanchi Sankara Mutt at Kancheepuram in Tamil Nadu, passed away on Wednesday. He was 83.

Sources in he Mutt say the seer was rushed to the ABC Hospital in Kanchipuram after he suffered respiratory difficulties early in the morning. Later he suffered a cardiac arrest. Sources also say that he had been under continuous medical care for months.

Appointed as the 69th pontiff of the most popular Kanchi Kamakoti Peedam Sankara Mutt in 1994, Jayendra Saraswathi Swamigal, as he is known, was the one who brought lots of changes in the Mutt and reached out to sections of the society, unlike his predecessors.

But he was also the most controversial figure from the conservative Mutt. The infamous Kanchi Sankararaman murder case and his arrest there after, his involvement in the government and the animosity that former chief minister Jayalalithaa developed against him had made headlines in 2003-2005.

Deeply anguished by the passing away of Acharya of Sri Kanchi Kamakoti Peetam Jagadguru Pujyashri Jayendra Saraswathi Shankaracharya. He will live on in the hearts and minds of lakhs of devotees due to his exemplary service and noblest thoughts. Om Shanti to the departed soul. pic.twitter.com/pXqDPxS1Ki  Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) February 28, 2018

Compared to his predecessors, Jayendrar was leading a much high profile life. His immediate predecessor Chandrasekharendra Saraswathi was the most respected and non-controversial personality. But Jayendrar was even looked at as a powerful person not just among the seers but also in the political circles. It was during Jayalalithaa's second term as chief minister in 2001-2006, when his involvements in advising the government for changing the existing rules in government controlled temples were reported.

Later he fell out with Jayalalithaa and in 2004, the famous Sankararaman murder case came up. After his midnight arrest at the Chennai airport, he fought a long legal trial in the case to finally come out clean. He was acquitted in in 2013.

He was also an accused in the auditor assault case that came up in 2002. However in 2016, he was acquitted in that case also.

Jayendrar joined the Mutt as the 69th pontiff in 1954 when he 29. He became the head of the Mutt or the senior pontiff in 1994, after the death of Chandrasekara Swamigal.

It may be recalled that in 1987, he suddenly went missing from the Mutt. It was reported that he had already planned to leave the Mutt for various reasons. After three days of continuous search, he was was found at Talacauvery in Karnataka and brought back to the Mutt. The reports of him fleeing the Mutt eventually died down after he took over in 1994 as the senior pontiff of the Mutt.

When Jayendrar had gone missing, Vijayendra Saraswati, his successor, was chosen and anointed as the 70th head of the mutt for the smooth conduct of daily rituals at the Mutt.

Vijayendrar was recently pulled into controversy for not raising up and respect Thamil anthem at an event in Chennai.PURCELLVILLE, VA, Feb. 28, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Norways child welfare agency (called Barnevernet) recently sparked international outrage when officials brutally tackled and seized 12-year-old Kai Kristiansen, removing him from his parents custody. The reason? Kais parents had chosen to homeschool him after he had experienced bullying and even death threats at his local school.



A video of the harrowing event taken by Kais mother Terese went viral on Facebook, gaining over 700,000 views before it was removed as a condition of Kais return. In order to get their son back, Terese and her husband Leif were also required to surrender their passports and agree to enroll Kai in school even though homeschooling is legal in Norway.



An international petition initiated by Home School Legal Defense Association garnered more than 25,000 signatures and emails to Norwegian embassies and the Minister of Barnavernet. The petition was a major factor in Kai being returned home within weeks instead of months, as is usually the case when Barneverent takes a child into custody.



We are convinced that the international pressure was a major factor in Kai coming home and we are so grateful, Terese said. HSLDA was so helpful and was a tremendous source of support. We still have work to do before the matter is resolved and we so appreciate the international support.



HSLDA Global Outreach Director Mike Donnelly, who organized the petition that helped bring Kai home, says that HSLDA is ready to take this case all the way up to the European Court of Human Rights, if necessary.



HSLDA will continue to support the family and seek acknowledgement of the violation of their rights, Donnelly said. Homeschooling is never a reason to remove a child from their family. This case demonstrates the battle that we must continue to fight to advance homeschooling freedom, so that no family need fear such a traumatic nightmare when making decisions that are in the best interest of their child.



With over 80,000 member families, HSLDA is the largest advocacy organization defending the rights of homeschooling parents worldwide.

Attachment:

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/c47602b7-4ca3-4533-ad6d-f7d7b8fbdb6eIIT Madras found itself in the middle of a storm after the students sang a Sanskrit religious song at a government function attended by Union minister Nitin Gadkari on Monday. The incident has sparked widespread protests and drawn criticism from various corners including actor-turned politician Kamal Haasan who termed it condemnable.

"In Tamil Nadu they should sing the Tamil anthem or invocation," he said, and added that rendering a religious song is condemnable.

Usually, at every government functions in the state, the invocation song of mother Tamil (Tamil Thaai Vazhthu) is played in the beginning and the national anthem at the end.

However, at the foundation stone laying ceremony of National Technology Centre for Ports, Waterways and Coasts, to be set up along with IIT Madras, students opted to sing the Sanskrit Vinayakar stotram Maha Ganapathim Manasa Smarami.

Both the ruling AIADMK and the opposition DMK have condemned the incident, though the prestigious institute clarified that it was not a planned recital.

Tamil Thaai Vazhthu was penned by Manomaniam Sundaram Pillai while Maha Ganapathim Manasa Smarami are the lines of late composer Muthuswami Dikshithar.In a show of communal harmony, a noted Muslim cleric in Lucknow has shifted the timing of the Friday namaz prayers by an hour in order to avoid any clash with Holi revellers and also appealed to others to do the same.

Imam-e-Eidgah Maulana Khalid Rasheed Firangi Mahli, who is also executive committee member of the All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB), appealed to the imams of different mosques, especially those in sensitive areas, to shift the timing of the Friday prayers by 30 minutes to an hour and, in the process, send a message of communal amity.

"We have shifted the prayer timings by an hour at the Idgah here. It will now be held at 1.45pm," Mahli said on Wednesday.

"In the past, there have been incidents of riots breaking out with the Holi revellers throwing colour on those going to offer namaz... we have taken this step especially keeping in mind the sensitivity in the mixed population areas," he said.

The cleric said that Shia scholar Maulana Kalbe Jawwad had also decided to shift the prayer timings at the Asifi mosque where it will be held this time at 1pm instead of 12.20pm.

He said this decision will send a positive message of the country abroad and remove the impression that an atmosphere of communal tension prevailed in India.

Pointing out the examples in the past of similar action being taken by the Hindu community, Mahli said the Lord Jagganath Yatra this year was delayed by two hours and the route was also changed when it coincided with Bakrid.

"During Ramzan too, we had made an appeal to three families who had their weddings scheduled at the Ram Lila ground opposite the Idgah to postpone fireworks and DJ and music programmes while the tarabi was performed between 7.30pm and 10.30pm and they obliged willingly," he pointed out.With stealth jets entering service, leaked pictures of new high-tech naval artillery and proud reports of maneuvers that dare to shine the sword, Chinas armed forces are putting on a show of power as they lobby for greater defense spending.

Although it is the worlds largest military, the Peoples Liberation Army has been privately unhappy that it got less than double-digit funding increases the past two years. It has recently been making the case that it needs more money to deal with increased global uncertainty, diplomats and several sources with ties to the armed forces say.



In the run-up to the defense budgets release at the annual meeting of Chinas parliament next week, state media outlets have been filled with coverage of military drills, advanced new equipment and thrilling tales of derring-do in a new film very loosely based on Chinas evacuating people from Yemens civil war in 2015.



The overall message is clear: China faces serious challenges, from U.S. President Donald Trumps threats of force against nuclear-armed North Korea to an increasingly tense border dispute with India and what Beijing sees as efforts by self-ruled Taiwan to assert its sovereignty.



Confronting those challenges requires cash, a point the military is now trying to drive home.



If you keep telling your people China is facing all these threats, you have to be able to back it up to show you are spending enough, said a senior Beijing-based Western diplomat.



President Xi Jinping promised in his keynote speech to the Communist Party Congress in October to make Chinas armed forces world-class by the middle of the century. The military has deployed an increasingly sophisticated propaganda machine to make sure that promise stays top of mind.



A professionally shot air force video released to celebrate the Lunar New Year this month entitled New fighters of the great power to safeguard the new era led with footage of the latest fighter to enter service, the J-20 stealth jet, designed as a counterpart to the radar-evading the Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor.



It looks like they are making the case for a large rise in defense spending, said an Asian diplomat, speaking of the recent uptick in military-related stories in China.



NERVOUS NEIGHBORS

Chinas defense spending is only about one-quarter that of the United States, if official figures are accurate. China has repeatedly said that it has no hostile intent, that its military is for defensive missions, and that defense spending is transparent.



Many of the countrys neighbors beg to differ, calling out what they see as Chinese sabre-rattling as it ramps up drills in the region.



Vietnam, one of the most vocal opponents of Chinas South China Sea claims, has tightened its military relationship with the United States. Taiwan has pledged to grow defense spending, and wants to buy new, advanced U.S. equipment.



The official Peoples Liberation Army Daily said this month that although China was committed to a defensive military policy, it had to dare to shine the sword with air patrols far from Chinas coast, whether close to Taiwan or over uninhabited islets disputed with Japan in the East China Sea.



Such flights, it said, protected Chinas bottom line on strategic issues.



One source with ties to the military said another pressing area for more spending was salaries, which have not kept up with those of private-sector workers.



Simply relying on the great Xi to lead us to victory wont cut it, the source said, referring to efforts to recruit the best and the brightest into the military by appealing to national pride.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau did not refute the 'conspiracy theory' that Indian government factions sabotaged his trip by approving the visa for Pro-Khalistani terrorist Jaspal Atwal.

Responding to a Conservative leader's question about the "allegations" made by a senior government security source, Trudeau said, "When one of our top diplomats and security officials says something to Canadians it's because they know it to be true." Adding that it was the previous Conservative government that "torqued the public service every possible way they could."

Meanwhile, reports also suggested that the Indian government was denied access to the guest list for Trudeau's reception.

Amidst questions over invitation of Khalistani terrorist for Justin Trudeau's reception in India, reports have emerged that the Indian government authority was denied access to the guest list, reports CTV News.

On that note, the Prime Minister's Office in Canada does not allow even the security services track their guest list. Earlier, Canada's Public Safety Minister hailed the security services in relation to the visit.

"All Canadians can be assured that our police and our security agencies have done their job in relation to this visit and they have done it very well", said Ralph Goodale, Canada's Public Safety Minister, in the assembly, as quoted by CTV News.

During Prime Minister Trudeau's visit to India, Atwal was invited to dine with him at a formal event hosted by Canadian High Commissioner to India Nadir Patel. The invite was later rescinded.

Prime Minister Trudeau also received backlash over his wife Sophie Trudeau's photo with convicted pro-Khalistani terrorist.

Canadian Member of Parliament (MP) Randeep S. Sarai, however, took responsibility for inviting Atwal to Trudeau's reception dinner in New Delhi.

Jaspal Atwal was convicted of the attempted murder of Punjab minister, Malkiat Singh Sidhu, on Vancouver Island in 1986.Republican leaders of the US Congress said on Tuesday they would not raise the minimum age for gun buyers, in a sign that one of President Donald Trumps proposals likely will not get far on Capitol Hill after a deadly Florida school shooting.

The second-deadliest shooting at a US public school has reignited the long-running national debate over gun rights, pitting many of the students who survived the Feb. 14 high school shooting in Parkland, Florida, against powerful gun rights groups like the National Rifle Association.

Several of those students visited lawmakers on Capitol Hill on Tuesday to press Congress to enact new restrictions on gun ownership.

Republicans in Congress have rejected those efforts after similar mass shootings in the past, and party leaders said they were not likely to act this time either.

We shouldnt be banning guns from law-abiding citizens. We should be focusing on making sure that citizens who should not get guns in the first place dont get those guns, House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan told a news conference.

Trump has suggested arming teachers and raising the minimum age to buy semiautomatic rifles to 21 from 18, but Ryan said Congress was not likely to act on either idea.

Local governments, not Congress, should decide whether to arm teachers, he said.

Trump still supports raising the age limit and will release specific policy proposals this week, White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said.

Ryans comments made it clear that more aggressive gun limits, like a ban on the military-style rifle used by the 19-year-old Parkland shooter, were unlikely to gain traction in Congress.

Ryan met later in the day with Parkland students, who pushed for a ban on assault weapons and large-capacity magazines, as well as other school-safety features, said Representative Ted Deutch, a Democrat who represents the district.

This isnt the last time they theyre going to come to Washington, Deutch said. Its really just the beginning of that effort.

Background checks

Prosecutors have said Nikolas Cruz killed 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland with a legally purchased rifle. Federal and local law enforcement agencies have acknowledged receiving multiple warnings about Cruzs potential for violence.

Trump and his fellow Republicans are under pressure to act following the massacre, but they also must avoid angering Republican voters who broadly support gun rights as well as interest groups like the NRA, which spent $55 million in the 2016 election.

The House voted in December to bolster a database of people not legally allowed to buy guns and to spur federal agencies and states to upload more data into the system after the Air Force failed to provide records that could have flagged a former service member who killed 26 people at a church in Sutherland Springs, Texas, in November.

That legislation has broad support in the Senate as well, and Senator John Cornyn of Texas, the chambers No. 2 Republican, said he wanted a vote to take place this week.

Senate Democratic leader Charles Schumer said that measure by itself would not be adequate. He called for Congress to expand the background check system to cover all gun sales, including those conducted at gun shows and over the internet.

That legislation has failed in Congress twice over the past five years, and it fell short again in the House on Tuesday as Republicans rejected an effort by Democrats to bring it up for a vote.

We Democrats, at a minimum, believe we should be passing a universal background check legislation that assures that guns dont fall into the wrong hands, Schumer told reporters.

The White House does not back that idea, Sanders said.

Action in Florida

As Congress has failed to tighten gun laws after other mass shootings, states have taken action on their own.

A House of Representatives committee of the Republican-controlled Florida legislature voted on Tuesday to raise the minimum legal age for purchasing all rifles to 21 from 18 and impose a three-day waiting period for any gun purchases. Buyers of handguns must already be at least 21 and submit to a three-day wait.

The measure would also create a statewide program to arm specially trained teachers - subject to school district approval - while assigning more police as school resource officers and allowing police to confiscate weapons from people who are involuntarily committed as a danger to themselves or others.

In addition, the measure would outlaw the sale of bump stocks, devices that enable semiautomatic rifles to be operated as fully automatic machine guns. The panel rejected a Democratic-backed amendment to ban assault-style weapons.

The package must now win approval in the full legislature before it goes to Republican Governor Rick Scott for signature.

Cruz, charged with 17 counts of premeditated murder, was due back in court on Wednesday for a hearing to determine whether he has sufficient assets to pay for his own lawyer. His mother died in November.

Stoneman Douglas students were scheduled to return to class on Wednesday for the first time since the massacre. The building where most of the bloodshed occurred will remain closed. The bill adopted by a state House Appropriations Committee on Tuesday would provide funding to demolish the building and replace it with a memorial to shooting victims.

-ReutersEnglish French

Dassault Aviation Launches Falcon 6X

New twinjet to offer best-in-class comfort and performance,

setting new standard in long-range large-cabin segment

February 28, 2018 (Saint-Cloud, France) Dassault Aviation today unveiled the Falcon 6X, the most spacious, advanced and versatile twinjet in business aviation. This new 5,500 nm aircraft will make its first flight in early 2021 and begin deliveries in 2022.

Pratt & Whitney Canada's PurePower PW800 engines have been selected to power the Falcon 6X that offers the largest, quietest and most comfortable cabin of any aircraft in its class and more cabin volume than any other Falcon ever designed. It comes equipped with the industry's most advanced digital flight control and cockpit technologies, drawing on heritage from other recent Falcon models and fighter jet programs.

The 6X is largely based on the Falcon 5X aerodynamics and system features which were validated during the 5X preliminary flight test program. It has been optimized to take advantage of the new engine, offering a greater range and a longer cabin.

"We wanted to further push the boundaries with this new aircraft, to provide the best flight experience possible using today's aviation know-how," said Eric Trappier, Chairman & CEO of Dassault Aviation. "The Falcon 6X will offer a mix of range, comfort and capability no other large cabin business jet can match while guaranteeing fully mature systems and a proven powerplant."

Falcon 6X-Industry Leading Cabin Space

The Falcon 6X cabin is six feet, six inches (1.98 m) high and 8 feet 6 inches (2.58 m) wide -- the highest and widest cross section in a purpose built business jet - and is nearly 40 feet 8 inches (12.3 m) long. The cabin can accommodate 16 passengers in three distinct lounge areas, affording room for multiple configurations including a large entry way/crew rest area and a spacious rear lounge.

Every element of cabin style and design has been totally rethought, the result of an extensive survey of customer tastes and inputs from Dassault Aviation's own in-house Design Studio. Flowing uninterrupted lines enhance the feeling of space and declutter the cabin.

Significantly more natural light floods into the cabin thanks to 29 extra-large windows including a unique galley skylight - the first in business aviation - designed to provide additional brightness in an area usually devoid of natural light.

"The industry has been moving towards ever wider and higher interiors, and customers told us what they wanted most in our new Falcons was more space," continued Trappier. "So we designed the Falcon 6X from the cabin out, making it as passenger-centric as we could while still delivering the high performance and other flying qualities that customers value in Falcons."

Proven PurePower PW800 engines, next generation aircraft systems

The Falcon 6X has a top speed of Mach 0.90 and a maximum range of 5,500 nautical miles (10,186 km), longer than any other jet in its category. It can fly directly from Los Angeles to Geneva, Beijing to San Francisco or Moscow to Singapore at long range cruise speed. It can also connect New York to Moscow, Paris to Beijing or Los Angeles to London at a cruise of Mach 0.85.

The Pratt & Whitney Canada Pure Power PW812D engine rated at 13,000-14,000 lbs thrust has been selected to power the Falcon 6X. The PurePower PW800 engines feature the common core technology of the Pratt & Whitney Geared Turbofan, which is shared by 16 different engine applications and have amassed over 585,000 flight hours.

Equipped with a low maintenance single piece fan and emission reducing Talon combustor, the PurePower PW800 engines offer the highest efficiency, reliability and maintainability in the 10,000-20,000 lb class and have accumulated over 20,000 hours of testing to date.

The Falcon 6X is equipped with an ultra-efficient wing that minimizes the impact of turbulence and a next generation digital flight control system that controls all moving surfaces, including a novel control surface called a flaperon. The 6X is the first business jet to use a flaperon, which considerably improves control during approach, especially on steep descents.

The aircraft also comes with industry leading noise suppression systems, based heavily on experience with the new Falcon 8X - the current benchmark in noise comfort - and an all-new cockpit and third generation EASy III all digital flight deck.

It will be delivered with a full package of equipment, including Dassault's FalconSphere II electronic flight bag and the revolutionary FalconEye Combined Vision System - the first head up display to combine enhanced and synthetic vision capabilities.

All Falcon 6X systems and critical equipment will be extensively validated on the ground through new Highly Accelerated Life Tests and Highly Accelerated Stress Screening endurance campaigns intended to enhance reliability and ensure that the aircraft is fully mature from the day of first delivery.

"There is still today a strong market need for a brand new long range aircraft with a very large cabin. The Falcon 6X will be best value for money in the 5,000 nm segment, a class all its own." concluded Trappier.

* * *

About Dassault Aviation :

With over 10,000 military and civil aircraft delivered in more than 90 countries over the last century, Dassault Aviation has built up expertise recognized worldwide in the design, development, sale and support of all types of aircraft, ranging from the Rafale fighter, to the high-end Falcon family of business jets and military drones. In 2016, Dassault Aviation reported revenues of 3.6 billion. The company has 12,000 employees.

https://www.dassault-aviation.com/en/

Twitter : @Dassault_OnAir

Press Contacts :

Corporate Communications

Stephane Fort

Mathieu Durand

Tel: +33 (0)1 47 11 86 90

Tel: +33 (0)1 47 11 85 88

stephane.fort@dassault-aviation.com

mathieu.durand@dassault-aviation.com

Falcon Communications

Vadim Feldzer

Marie-Alexandrine Fouillard

Tel: +33 (0)1 47 11 44 13

Tel: +33 (0)1 47 11 64 23

vadim.feldzer@dassault-aviation.com

marie-alexandrine.fouillard@dassault-aviation.com

For high-definition photos:

http://mediaprophoto.dassault-aviation.com/

For high-definition videos:

http://mediaprovideo.dassault-aviation.com/Persimmon boss Jeff Fairburn is in line for an 88m bonus

Housebuilder Persimmon has been accused of trying to buy shareholders silence over a massive bonus scheme with a multi-billion-pound bung.

The lender has announced a bumper dividend for investors over the next three years, which will take total returns since 2012 to 4.1billion.

Critics said the bonanza was a shameful attempt to shut down criticism of a share bonus worth 88million coming to chief executive Jeff Fairburn.

Paula Higgins of the Homeowners Alliance said: The shareholders are cashing in on the housing crisis, just like Mr Fairburn. Its absolutely shocking.

Were so reliant on a few big housebuilders getting subsidies from the Government, and these payouts seem completely unreasonable.

Reuben Young of housing pressure group Priced Out said: Persimmon is using these dividends as a bribe to shareholders so they can put up with outrageous bonuses being paid to directors.

It can get away with this because its propped up by the Governments ludicrous Help to Buy scheme, which inflates house prices and housebuilders profits, while making housing even more unaffordable for average people.

Agreed in 2012, Fairburns bonus has seen him branded Britains new face of corporate excess. The boss was branded Mr 131million last year because at one stage the share price meant this was the value of his bonus.

The firms share price has jumped almost 250 per cent since the plan was announced, receiving a completely unexpected boost from Help to Buy, where the State loans first-time buyers up to 40 per cent of the value of their property to use as a deposit.

Buyers must eventually pay this money back but in the meantime the cash is handed straight to developers such as Persimmon.

Campaigners say Fairburns payout is a reward for accepting a government subsidy.

A few shareholders have spoken out, with Standard Life Aberdeen and Royal London Asset Management among those to have raised concerns. But most have refused to say anything, despite describing themselves as champions of corporate governance.

Among those in line for payouts are US behemoth Blackrock, which will get up to 221million from the dividend plan; Wall Street bank JP Morgan, set for 164million; and Vanguard Group, due for a 153million payout. Blackrock has raised concerns in the past few months, though it never did so publicly.

Recent pressure from investors led Fairburn to take a 30 per cent cut to his bonus, which is due to pay out in 2021, and he has also promised to give an undisclosed sum to charity.

Yesterday, he said he regretted what had happened and would have liked to take action sooner, but added he believed the payout was now proportionate.

He said: We came to a decision as quickly as we could. Weve worked really hard to improve the business and get to the position that were in.

Fairburn, 51, said he did not see Help to Buy as a subsidy because the loans are paid back by house buyers, and that he believes it has been good for ordinary people.

It came as Persimmon reported a 25 per cent surge in profits to 966.1million in 2017, and unveiled plans to pay dividends of 235p per share for the next three years  125p more than expected.

It sold 16,043 houses last year  nearly half through Help to Buy  while average selling prices climbed 3.2 per cent to 213,321.

Persimmon sources said the dividends are solely intended to return excess capital to shareholders and are not linked to the bonus scheme in any way.

Shares jumped 4.7 per cent, or 116p, to 2604p.CUPERTINO, Calif., Feb. 28, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Mist, the pioneer in self-learning wireless networks powered by Artificial Intelligence (AI), today announced the close of an over-subscribed $46 million Series C financing, taking the total investment in the company to approximately $88 million. The round was led by Kleiner Perkins, with additional funding from Lightspeed Venture Partners, Norwest Venture Partners, GV (formerly Google Ventures), NTT DOCOMO Ventures, and Dimension Data. In addition, Mamoon Hamid (General Partner at Kleiner Perkins) and Rob Lopez (Group Executive  Networking and Data Centre at Dimension Data) join Mist as board observers.



With the latest round of financing, Mist will grow sales and marketing resources globally and continue to invest in engineering, especially in the area of Artificial Intelligence. In addition, the company will continue to develop a robust channel of Managed Service Providers (MSPs) and collaborate with leading ecosystem and Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) partners.

"Mist is leading the AI-driven IT space with the worlds first self-learning Wireless LAN, which automates wireless operations, minimizes costs and provides unprecedented insight into mobile user experiences, said Sujai Hajela, CEO and co-founder of Mist. We are humbled by the amazing array of customers who have trusted their wireless infrastructure to Mist, and grateful to the investment community for their unwavering supporting of Mist as we fulfill our mission of being the leader in AI-driven IT.

Mist first began shipping the Mist Learning WLAN in 2016. The subsequent year the company saw approximately 1000 percent sales growth, with over 250 customers at the end of 2017. The company has over 150 reseller partners worldwide, including distributors in North America, EMEA, and Japan. Mist has been honored with many industry accolades in the past two years, including distinction as a visionary in two recent Gartner Magic Quadrants (Wired and Wireless LAN Access Infrastructure and Indoor Location Services, Worldwide).

"Mist is revolutionizing mobile user experiences with its unique blend of AI-driven and cloud-based wireless networking products," said Kleiner Perkins General Partner and Managing Director Mamoon Hamid. We are thrilled to be working with such an outstanding company, and look forward to continued success as Mists self-learning networks become the IT norm.

Helpful Links:

About Mist

Mist built the first AI-driven wireless platform, designed specifically for the Smart Device Era. The Mist Learning Wireless LAN makes Wi-Fi predictable, reliable and measurable by providing unprecedented visibility into the user experience and by replacing time consuming manual IT tasks with proactive automation. In addition, Mist is the first vendor to bring enterprise-grade Wi-Fi, BLE and IoT together to deliver personalized, location-based wireless services without requiring battery-powered beacons. All operations are managed via Mists modern cloud architecture for maximum scalability, agility and performance.

The Mist team consists of leading experts in wireless, machine learning and cloud, who are responsible for building the largest and most advanced networks in the world. Founded in 2014, the company is based in Cupertino, CA and funded by top investors, including Lightspeed Venture Partners, Norwest Venture Partners, GV (formerly Google Ventures) and Cisco Investments. For more information, visit www.mist.com.

About Kleiner Perkins

Kleiner Perkins partners with the brightest entrepreneurs to turn disruptive ideas into world-changing businesses. With $10 billion raised through 20 venture funds and four growth funds, the firm has invested in over 850 companies including pioneers such as Google, App Dynamics, Amazon, Flexus Biosciences, Nest, Waze, Twitter, JD.com and Square. Kleiner Perkins offers entrepreneurs years of operating experience, puts them at the center of an influential network, and accelerates their companies from success to significance. For more information, visit http://www.kpcb.com and follow us @kpcb.

Media Contact

Tanaya Lukaszewski

Offleash PR for Mist

(916) 712-3791

OLmist@offleashpr.comThousands of drivers are preparing to sue car manufacturers after discovering the used vehicles they bought were once taxis or rental cars.

Nearly every major car manufacturer faces claims that their dealerships falsely advertised their cars.

It is estimated that as many as one million drivers unwittingly buy a former taxi or rental car every year.

Often, they don't discover this until they are sent their logbook up to six weeks after the purchase.

Hard life: It is estimated that as many as one million drivers unwittingly buy a former taxi or rental car every year

Many people don't find out for months because they don't bother to check their logbook when it arrives.

Experts say the daily short journeys that taxis and mini cabs make can put a huge strain on the car's engine, clutch and gearbox, which could leave drivers with unexpected repair bills.

Drivers fear they may have overpaid as a result, and may be left out of pocket when they come to sell.

Now, more than 4,000 drivers have signed up to a group action to sue leading car manufacturers and dealers for compensation.

Big names such as Nissan, Jaguar, Vauxhall, Ford and Peugeot are among the firms that may face claims.

Law firm Harcus Sinclair, which has taken on the case, believes car dealers are failing to alert customers when a second-hand car has been used for business purposes and says drivers may be entitled to compensation.

Under the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008, dealers must not misrepresent goods or include false details in advertisements.

The Motor Ombudsman's code of practice also states dealerships must not 'withhold information about a vehicle's history or usage that may affect a decision to purchase the vehicle'.

Experts say the daily short journeys that taxis and mini cabs make can put a huge strain on the car's engine, clutch and gearbox, which could leave drivers with unexpected repair bills

The advertising watchdog has warned dealers that it expects them to be honest about a car's ownership history.

Back in October, the Advertising Standards Authority ruled that Fiat Chrysler Automobiles UK and an approved dealer had not made it clear that two Alfa Romeo cars on sale were once used by company employees or for training.

The case was brought by campaigner Ashley Rumbold, who set up the website usedcarscandal.co.uk to raise awareness about the issue.

Damon Parker, the solicitor leading the group action, says the practice is widespread and urges drivers to check their logbooks. 'It is shocking to find a pattern of misrepresentation to consumers, given that this is contrary to the industry's code of practice and the guidance the Office of Fair Trading gave from 2010,' he says. 'We hope to put an end to the practice.'

Richard Stubbs bought an 18-month-old Nissan Qashqai for 16,000 in January last year from the Nissan Wirral dealership. It was a gift for his wife, Aimee, 28, who had just given birth to their second child, George.

He received the car's logbook around a month after buying the car, which had around 21,000 miles on the clock.

Wear and tear: Most former taxis been used for short journeys that involve a lot of stopping and starting and carry lots of different passengers

But it wasn't until June last year that he discovered the car had previously been owned by a company called ERAC UK Ltd  also known as Enterprise Rent-A-Car. He says that he wouldn't have bought the car if he had known it had belonged to a rental company.

The 28-year-old finance broker says the car has since developed a rattling under the bonnet.

Now, Richard says he is worried about letting his family drive and about its future value.

'I would have expected a dealer to have said it was an ex-rental car,' says Richard.

Every year, thousands of former taxis and mini cabs are released on to the second-hand car market. Most have been used for short journeys that involve a lot of stopping and starting and carry lots of different passengers, which can cause wear and tear to the vehicle.

This can knock up to a fifth off the value of a car, according to expert David Agnew, who runs the website vehicleancestry.co.uk.

The site allows drivers to check if a vehicle has been registered as a taxi. Of the 8,000 checks he has done for drivers, he says around 500 were ex-taxis.

Retired cardiac ambulance technician David Hart, 61, bought a 43,000 Jaguar XJ in 2016 from H.A.Fox, part of the Inchcape Group, an approved Jaguar dealer, in Southampton.

Staff told him that the then-11-month-old car, which had done just 8,000 miles, had been used by Jaguar management.

But in January this year, his son, Christian, urged him to check his logbook after finding his own car was an ex-rental.

It turned out that the previous owner of David's Jaguar was Scot Group, the parent company of rental firm Thrifty in the UK. David says: 'I felt completely hoodwinked.'

Sue Robinson, of trade body the National Franchised Dealers Association, said dealers are committed to upholding regulated standards and helping the consumer find the right vehicle to suit their needs.

She adds: 'Ex-rentals are the main source of nearly new cars in the market and are often serviced above the minimum requirements, allowing consumers to gain great value for money in the second-hand car market.'

Nissan Wirral and H.A.Fox declined to comment.

p.thomas@dailymail.co.ukSky investors will be licking their lips. The intervention of Comcast, with a 22billion indicative offer for the west London-based broadcaster, will send Rupert Murdoch and Disney back to the drawing board.

Murdoch has been hugely successful at leveraging his minority stakes to best advantage. The cash involved in 21st Century Fox's bid for Sky largely was raised by making the UK broadcaster pay for the Fox minority interests in Sky Deutschland and Sky Italia.

Comcast's straight-talking proprietor Brian Roberts is making the right noises.

He pledges to build on Sky's investment in technology and creativity at Osterley in west London, having been impressed with Sky's Q Box on an anonymous visit to its Westfield store.

Irritation: Comcast's offer for Sky is a setback for Rupert Murdoch, pictured here with wife Jerry Hall

Indeed, Sky has just announced new features, including access to music streaming service Spotify and greater personalisation of services.

The big advantage of the cable giant, which owns the NBC/Universal family of news channels, is that it has no direct media outlets in the UK so should face less regulatory scrutiny.

One trusts it will at least match the Murdoch offer of running Sky News independently for another decade.

The Comcast offer is worth 16 per cent more that 21st Century Fox and Sky stock jumped 20 per cent. This will be a source of joy for Crispin Odey and Elliott Management who have been agitating for a better offer.

Now they have the delicious prospect of a bidding war with Fox or Disney coming back, either directly or indirectly, with a higher bid.

We should not underestimate how deep are the Comcast pockets, with $30billion (21.4billion) of free cash flow, or the determination of Roberts to get what he wants.

Pity is that, whatever happens, one of the few high-tech UK quoted giants will end up as small corner of a global media empire.

Doing the splits

GKN may have been thinking about doing the splits for a long time but the hostile Melrose cash and shares bid speeded up the process. This is how Anglo-Saxon capitalism is meant to work, by driving value creation and efficiency.

It is to the credit of GKN's feisty chief executive Anne Stevens that she has risen to the challenge. The emergence of two GKNs  Driveline and Aerospace  should provide focus.

The concern will be that it might also make GKN Aerospace, with its brilliant wing technology and work on Pentagon programmes including F18 fighters, helicopters and the new bomber programme, more vulnerable to an overseas bid.

Nevertheless, since Melrose is a seller rather than a long-term holder of enterprises, continued ownership by GKN investors is infinitely preferable.

For a company defending itself against a bid, GKN's results are less than impressive. But it is worth noting that Driveline is doing exceptionally well with sales up 9 per cent, and it has an early grip on the edrive (electricity drive) market.

As a supplier of components to 50 per cent of the world's car makers, it is part of an industrial base which the UK can ill afford to sacrifice, even though GKN's operating profits may have slipped in 2017.

That was a year of transition that at the pre-tax level (after one-off charges and a beneficial sterling impact) they more than doubled at 658million.

Melrose has worked overtime claiming GKN is not a top Ministry of Defence contractor (no one said it was) and that there is no national security interest.

This only works if we think the UK's strategic co-operation with the US is of no consequence. It also delights in disparaging musical chairs on GKN's board. Refreshing boards under fire is about better governance.

Chairman Mike Turner, the GKN board and investors must remain defiant even if Melrose (as expected) ups its offer.

Housing pariah

After the appalling handling of the pay and bonuses of Jeff Fairburn and his fellow executives, Persimmon clearly thinks it can sweet talk investors with promise of a handsome 1.2billion of extra dividends.

All this does is underline the greedy thinking of a firm which believes that taking back 25million of Fairburn's 112million bonus is a fitting response to a scandal that has brought disgrace upon the housebuilders.

Meanwhile, the disgrace of a lack of affordable housing and the homeless on our freezing streets becomes worse.

Shameless.My brother was admitted to hospital in August after a stroke. He spent three weeks in intensive care and is very ill.

Before this, he had ordered a number of gold coins for 824.90 from The London Mint Office. I found the parcels at his address and, realising he would not have the funds to pay for them, rang the company on September 1.

I returned them the following day and paid for insurance to cover them.

The London Mint then wrote to my brother on September 19, claiming the items had not been received.

I wrote, providing evidence from Royal Mail that they were signed for on September 4. I also included a copy of a letter from the hospital confirming that my brother was not in a condition to manage his financial affairs.

I then received a letter from debt collectors Creditlink Account Recovery Solutions (CARS), asking for 902.80.

I rang CARS on December 14 and was told it would freeze the account. But we have since received a further letter.

L. U., by email.

One reader was left facing a demand for 900 from a debt collection agency after their brother's gold coins went missing in the post

You have handled a very difficult period in a brave and practical manner. Your full letter explains in detail the lengths you have gone to in trying to sort out your brother's affairs.

But you have been hampered to some extent because you do not yet have power of attorney.

You provided everything The London Mint and CARS needed to resolve this case  yet both failed to act on it.

After the initial helpful conversation you had with CARS, and the promise to freeze the account, your brother received a further letter dated January 15, 2018.

CARS tells me that, in cases such as this, the account should be passed to the vulnerable customer team, who would provide details to the client (in this case, London Mint). The account at CARS would then be closed.

This failed to happen, which resulted in a 'Please contact us' letter being sent to your brother, which, again, referred to the sum of 902.80.

The issue is being dealt with internally. The London Mint has written off the value of the coins and any charges applied. CARS has cancelled the supposed debt and offered 50 compensation.

The London Mint says that, although it is clear the coins were signed for, they had not been returned to your brother's account  begging the question of what happened to them.

YOU HAVE YOUR SAY Every week, Money Mail receives hundreds of your letters and emails. Here are some from our report about how families across Britain are getting such a poor broadband service that some have resorted to installing internet masts on their homes... I have been on phone to my internet provider for days about my slow broadband. It booked an engineer to come out on Wednesday. We got a text on Tuesday to cancel. Ill be calling tomorrow to move firms. E. M., Crieff, Perthshire. We live in the country, ten miles outside of Bridgnorth, Shropshire, and the broadband is woeful. Ironically, superfast broadband was enabled in our village last year, yet we cant access it, despite living almost on top of the exchange  I can see it from my window. L. B., by email. Internet firms shot themselves in the foot when they began ad campaigns bragging of higher speed connections than each other. Now, everyone expects superfast broadband, even in remote areas. It takes a lot of time, money, manpower and access to reach everywhere in the country. And the obsession with speed will only increase as technology advances. A. S., London. I had a problem when a cable across a field was damaged by a hedge fire. For more than six months, my provider did nothing. When I complained about the almost negligible speed, an executive told me they sold download capacity, not speed. S. B., Cardiff. Many people choose a rural life to get away from the city, with all of its conveniences, but then complain about church bells and a lack of fast-food outlets and fast broadband. T. K., Harare, by email. The regulator has to do something or reduce charges until service improves. Perhaps firms should have to pay those with the slow service 50p a month to encourage them to sort it out. B. A., Coventry.

I bought a television from Currys. Just under a year later, I received a letter from its insurance arm, Team Knowhow, asking if I wanted to take a further four years' insurance. I sent a cheque for 124.

A month later, I received a letter saying it was unable to process my application because the cheque was missing.

I contacted my bank, and have a statement showing that it was cashed on December 20 last year.

I phoned Team Knowhow, which asked me to send details, including a copy of my bank statement. I have still not had a response.

B. G., Middlesbrough.

Currys acted extremely swiftly when I made contact. It told me it was unclear where your cheque had gone.

However, as you sent in proof of it being cashed, it has set up the four-year insurance agreement for your TV anyway.

A representative of Currys has called you to explain and the paperwork should already be winging its way to you.

I understand you also contacted your bank to see whether fraud has been committed and have promised to keep Currys in the loop.

STRAIGHT TO THE POINT If I name a solicitor as executor of my will, how can I be sure theyll do as I ask after I die? Ive no near relatives, just a few cousins scattered far and wide. P. C., Cornwall. Anyone appointed executor of a will  regardless of whether they are a solicitor  has a legal duty to distribute the estate of the deceased in accordance with their wishes. A regulated, independent solicitor who wont benefit from your will should be free of any bias. You could appoint a friend as a co-executor to oversee the solicitors work. Consider writing a letter to those affected by your will, explaining your decisions. Ask for it to be distributed after you die. *** I read an article about rip-off charges for booking seats on flights that mentioned TUI. What does it stand for? P. M., by email. TUI is the company behind Thomson and First Choice. The Thomson brand was retired in October last year  all stores, planes and its website have now been rebranded as TUI. *** I understand everyone should have a workplace pension, but my employer refuses. Who can I contact for help? L. L., Barnet, North London. By Law, all firms must enrol workers over age 22 and earning more than 10,000 a year into a pension. Contact industry watchdog The Pensions Regulator if your employer is not complying with these rules. You can call 0345 600 7060 or fill in a form online  visit thepensionsregulator.gov.uk and select individuals, followed by whistleblowing and other concerns. *** Ive been trying to claim compensation for a three-hour flight delay that occurred last year when travelling from Malaga to London Southend Airport. EasyJet refuses to pay, claiming the delay was a result of bad weather. I dont think this is true, as staff gave a different reason at the time. What do I do next? J. R., Essex. Easyjet should have sent you a final rejection letter that explains how you can refer your case to an independent dispute service. It is signed up to a scheme called CEDR. You can complain online at cedr.com, where youll be asked to explain what happened and provide any evidence such as boarding passes. Or you can request a paper form by calling 020 7536 6099. There is a 25 fee, but this will be refunded if you are successful. You should get a final response within 90 days.

A company called McAfee took 79.99 from our bank account on January 4.

I had taken out a three-year deal for computer protection in January 2015 over the phone.

But I am sure I never agreed to it being automatically renewed after three years.

I no longer use email, so contacted the firm by phone.

It says it has no record of our address or phone number, but keeps asking for our bank card  which I refuse to give over the phone.

Our bank has stopped any further payments, but says it is unable to help regarding this 79.99, because it feels I was probably informed of it being taken by email. But our email no longer exists.

M. P., Somerset.

McAfee immediately offered to refund your money when I made contact. The reason the phone operator asked for your card details would have been so that they could locate your account, as they couldn't find it using your phone number.

However, you were naturally cautious and preferred not to give it out.

You needn't have worried on this occasion, because McAfee is a well-known operation offering popular virus-checking and computer protection software.

McAfee says when a customer subscribes, they agree to their subscription automatically renewing during the purchase process and before installation takes place.

Customers are notified of the renewal by email and, if these details change, you should inform customer service.

I have now acted as middleman. Once we had your old email address, it was able to find your details and your money has now been returned.US cable television giant Comcast may have stolen the show yesterday with a 22billion bid for Sky, but it was also a busy day for the small-caps.

Shower gel and deodorant maker Swallowfield bought ultra-cool mens grooming brand Fish in a deal worth up to 3million.

Fishs range of hair gels and waxes were first sold from the salon of the same name, which has cut hair for the likes of supermodel Kate Moss and comedian Johnny Vaughan, in Londons Soho district.

Now you can find them in chains such as Boots, Superdrug, Tesco and Waitrose, generating 1.7million in sales a year.

Following the purchase, Swallowfield says it wants to grow the brand in the UK and add to the Fish range. Its shares kicked up 5.4 per cent, or 17.5p, to 340p.

Cleaning up: Shower gel and deodorant maker Swallowfield bought ultra-cool men's grooming brand Fish in a deal that could be worth up to 3m

Digital marketing agency Jaywing has agreed a deal to buy Sydney-based rival Frank Digital to boost its presence in Australia.

The Sheffield-based company plans to raise 1.3million in a new placing of shares to get the deal over the line, although this is subject to approval.

However, it seems as though Jaywing might find shareholder support hard to come by, given the poor performance yesterday of its shares, which tanked 5.9 per cent, or 1.5p, to 24p.

Trafalgar New Homes gave investors something to cheer about, however, after announcing a deal to buy Beaufort Homes.

As part of the agreement, the owners of Beaufort will receive 186m shares in Trafalgar.

STOCK WATCH - COATS GROUP Shares in sewing thread maker Coats Group flew as it upgraded its profit forecast. It boosted its revenue by 4 per cent and its profits by 10 per cent in the year ending December 31. It expects 2018s profits to be boosted by a deal to buy Patrick Yarn Mill, which makes cut and flame-resistant yarns. Rajiv Sharma, group chief executive, said: 2018 adjusted operating profits are expected to be slightly ahead of previous management expectations. Shares jumped 11.1 per cent, or 8.3p, to 83p.

Beaufort specialises in homes for the elderly and has agreements in place for a number of sites in the south-east of England. Shares in Trafalgar rose by 3 per cent, or 0.02p, to 0.85p.

Shares in wealth manager AFH Financial Group flew 2.7 per cent, or 9p, to 339p after it announced a deal worth up to 738,000 to buy Hertfordshire-based financial adviser Harrison White.

The deal will generate an additional 410,000 of revenue for AFH and place 55million of funds under its management.

Aim-listed engineering firm Versarien signed a deal with shoemaker Vivobarefoot to develop a range of shoes that are reinforced with graphene, the purest form of carbon, which is harder than diamonds and is the worlds thinnest substance.

Versarien and Vivo hope they can use graphene in the fibre and resins of shoes to make them stronger.

Shares in Versarien rocketed 13.5 per cent, or 9.5p, to 80p at closing.

Britains index of blue-chip companies, the FTSE 100, finished down 0.1 per cent, or 7.13 points, at 7282.45 points.

However, the FTSE 250 ended the day up 0.24 per cent, or 47.05 points to 19875.78.

Short-sellers had a shocker yesterday and will be wishing they had sold their shares in troubled doorstep lender Provident Financial earlier.

They had taken huge bets that the firms share price, which has already fallen 81 per cent from its peak, would tank further.

It is thought short-sellers had borrowed as many as 12m of the firms shares.

But a 331million rights issue to cover fines, customer redress and to boost its capital caused its share price to rocket an enormous 70.4 per cent, or 414p, to 1002p.

It was also a pretty tough day for car dealer Inchcape, which warned of a challenging year ahead despite reporting profits rising by a third to 370million.

Sales fell in the UK in the second half of the year and demand for diesel cars has plummeted. Shares dipped 2.9 per cent, or 20.5p, to 679.5p.

Rival Pendragon, however, fared better, its shares rising 1.3 per cent, or 0.35p, to 27.1p.Toys R Us and electricals retailer Maplin have gone bust, putting 5,500 jobs at risk.

Britains largest speciality toy retailer, saved from collapse just weeks before Christmas, has been scrambling to find 15million to fund a VAT bill due to the taxman today.

Its collapse has put 3,000 jobs at risk and leaves the Pension Protection Fund facing a 37million bill.

Game over? Britains largest speciality toy retailer is on the brink of administration, throwing the future of its 105 stores and 3,200 employees into further doubt

Meanwhile, some 2,500 Maplin workers could lose their jobs as the retailer also went into administration today after talks with a potential buyer over a possible rescue deal failed.

Discussions between Maplin and Philip Day, who owns fashion chain Peacocks and Edinburgh Woollen Mill, are thought to have broken down last night.

All 105 Toys R Us stores will remain open 'until further notice' while all stock 'will be subject to clearance and special promotions', administrator Moorfields said.

In terms of job losses, it said that 'many staff are likely to be affected' but added it had not yet decided whether some or all of the stores will close down.

Moorfields has been appointed to conduct what it called an orderly wind-down of the company's store portfolio, although Toys R Us insisted it is still seeking a buyer.

Simon Thomas, Moorfields partner, said: 'We will be conducting an orderly wind-down of the store portfolio over the coming weeks.

What Toys R Us collapse means for members of the firm's pension schemes The Pension Protection Fund, the lifeboat for failed firms, is expected to be left nursing a 37million bill as it takes on the firms pension liabilities. Ian Browne, pension specialist at Old Mutual Wealth, said there was no need for members of the companys pension schemes to panic. 'When schemes collapse they fall into the hands of the PPF, who have the responsibility for paying workers pensions. Those who already reached the schemes normal pension age will receive 100% of their pension. 'For those who havent reached the normal pension age, the PPF will pay 90% of what their pension is worth, up to a cap. This cap is currently just over 38,500 per year for someone retiring at 65, so it only affects the highest earners. 'Members of the scheme can still take early retirement and a tax-free cash lump sum. In fact, the way PPF calculates these can sometimes be more generous than a typical scheme.'

'All stores remain open until further notice and stock will be subject to clearance and special promotions.

'We're encouraging customers to redeem their gift cards and vouchers as soon as possible.

'We will make every effort to secure a buyer for all or part of the business.'

Toys R Us secured a lifeline in December after it agreed to pay 10million into its 18.4million pension black hole, allowing it to carry on trading through the Christmas period and close a quarter of its least profitable stores.

However, sales over the festive period are said to have been disappointing, making its financial position increasingly vulnerable.

It comes as Maplin called in administrators PwC after attempts to rescue the chain failed.

Maplin, which has 217 stores in the UK, said stores will remain open for now while administrators try to find a buyer for the group.

PwC said there are no immediate plans to close any stores or make any redundancies, although this will remain under review.

Zelf Hussain, joint administrator and PwC partner, said: 'Our initial focus as administrators will be to engage with parties who may be interested in acquiring all or part of the company. We will continue to trade the business as normal whilst a buyer is sought.

'Staff have been paid their February wages and will continue to be paid for future work while the company is in administration.'

Outstanding customer orders will be delivered as usual and the administrators are currently assessing the status of gift cards.

In the meantime, gift cards will continue to be honoured in stores and online.

Collapsed: Maplin called in administrators PwC after attempts to rescue the chain failed

Hannah Maundrell, editor in Chief of money.co.uk said: 'Maplin have decided to continue trading for the moment, however if the administrator decides to suspend gift vouchers and refunds, you could be in for a lengthy battle to get your money back if you paid via cash.'

Maplin is the latest firm to be hit by the rise of online shopping. Last year, major credit insurers also refused to offer its suppliers vital cover for customer orders.

Graham Harris, the company's chief executive, blamed this, plus the pound's devaluation and a weak consumer environment, for the firm's demise.

'These macro factors have been the principal challenge, not the Maplin brand or its market differentiation,' Harris added.

Neil Wilson, senior analyst at ETX Capital, said: 'In both cases the Amazon effect is all too clear to see, but there is more to it than that  there are retailers out there who are adapting and prospering.'

He added: 'Clearly these are tough times in UK retail, with a combination of structural game-changers and a softening in consumer confidence affecting larger ticket items. Low rates and a buoyant economy kept them afloat for longer maybe than they ought to.'Flight fright: John Heslam, 66, and his wife Annette paid 70 to guarantee seats together

Britain's biggest travel firm TUI is reviewing its airline seat booking policy after a passenger paid for a window seat that didn't have a window next to it.

John Heslam, 66, and his wife Annette, 61, from Foxton, Cambridgeshire, had booked a two-week Caribbean cruise in March last year, starting in Barbados.

They'd paid 70 to guarantee seats together on the nine-hour flight from Gatwick and the return trip  35 each.

John had deliberately chosen a window seat for himself, as he enjoys the view during take-off and landing.

But when the couple boarded, they discovered they were seated in a row on the plane with no window, and so John was sat next to a blank wall.

It was the same on the way back.

When they got home, the couple complained and asked for a 70 refund to cover the cost of booking the seat, but TUI refused.

John, who used to work in sales, says: 'It's so easily avoidable. Just make a note on the seating plan that row 37 doesn't have a window.

Then I could have chosen a different one.' TUI has since agreed to refund the 70 seat booking fee.

When they got home, the couple complained and asked for a 70 refund to cover the cost of booking the seat, but TUI refused

A spokesman for TUI says: 'We'd like to thank Mr and Mrs Heslam for bringing this matter to our attention.

'In light of this issue, we will be reviewing our booking processes and procedures for customers who wish to select their seats.'

v.bischoff@dailymail.co.ukTORONTO, Feb. 28, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Compass Gold Corp. (TSX-V:CVB) (Compass or the Company) is pleased to provide an update on the shallow soil geochemical survey program on the primary target within the Ouassada exploration permit on its Sikasso Property in Southern Mali (see Figure 1 below).

Highlights

Two parallel, northwest-trending gold anomalies identified over strike lengths up to 12 km and widths up to 1 km (see Figure 2 below).





Highest soil samples contain 3,800 parts per billion (ppb) gold (Au) (3.8 grams per tonne (g/t) Au) 550 m north of artisanal workings at Farabrakoura, and 1,200 ppb Au from a surface nodular iron oxide 350 m west of the workings at Farabrakoura. Highest gold concentrations are associated with areas near current artisanal gold workings, although anomalous samples are not restricted to known workings.





A total of 2,342 shallow geochemical samples were collected over the main target area on the Ouassada permit where the average gold background for shallow soil samples was 5 ppb and 8 ppb for nodular iron oxide samples.





Deep soil auger sampling continues on the primary target area while the near surface geochemistry teams move to the next target areas on the Ouassada and Sankarani permits.

Compass CEO, Larry Phillips, commented, The Compass technical team, led in the field by Dr. Madani Diallo, and overseen by our Technical Director, Dr. Sandy Archibald, has done an exceptional job of identifying two significant gold anomalies on our very first target. Returning these results at such an early stage in our exploration program clearly demonstrates the prospective nature of our properties. We all look forward to exploring the bedrock below these highly encouraging surface and near surface anomalies, while our team continues surface testing on our other targets across the Sikasso Property permit area.

Added Dr. Sandy Archibald, P.Geo, There is a clear correlation between areas of known mineralization and the geochemical anomalies that this first program has revealed. Also, the lateral extent of the anomalous areas is suggestive of additional targets. We are awaiting the results from the auger drilling on the first target and, if we find that the near surface anomalies are also present at depth, we will bring forward our bedrock drilling program.

A total of 2,342 shallow geochemical samples have been collected in a 4-km wide, 15-km long, north-northwest-trending zone within the permit (Target Area 1, Figure 1). This first target was identified by the presence of vein-hosted gold mineralization (up to 47.6 g/t Au) within an extensive zone of artisanal mining, in a similar geological and structural setting to the Yanfolila (formerly Komana) gold mine, located 40 km along strike to the southwest (see Figure 1 below.)

Photos accompanying this announcement are available at:

http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/e02b8637-45ee-46a7-87a3-b29cde791720

http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/63a876c7-7a63-47bb-a85f-83321f0bf29d

Detailed Results

A total of 1,174 nodular iron oxide samples were collected at surface over the primary target area (target 1) and analyzed by fire assay analysis at SGS Bamako. Simple statistical analyses were performed on the data to determine the degree of sample anomalism. Background values were considered to be 5 ppb Au or less (number (n) = 775), weakly anomalous (5 - 11 ppb Au, n = 278), moderately anomalous (11 - 18 ppb Au, n = 76), strongly anomalous (18 - 81 ppb, n = 38), and extremely anomalous (> 3 standard deviations from the mean, 81 - 1200 ppb Au, n = 7).

In addition to the nodular iron oxide surface samples, a total of 1,168 shallow soil samples were also collected over the primary target area. Background values were considered to be 8 ppb Au or less (n = 901), weakly anomalous (8 - 14 ppb Au, n = 159), moderately anomalous (14-21 ppb Au, n = 57), strongly anomalous (21 - 90 ppb, n = 43), and extremely anomalous (90  3,800 ppb Au, n = 8).

Based on similar geochemical sampling programs in southern Mali, gold concentrations greater than 20 ppb in the sample materials are considered anomalous.

Geochemical Survey Program

The purpose of this sampling program was to test the effectiveness of a variety of near surface geochemical exploration techniques to identify gold mineralization concealed by thick and extensive laterite cover.

Three types of samples were collected at Ouassada: nodular iron oxide at the surface, shallow soil (typically at a depth of 0.4 m), and truck-mounted power auger soil samples collected to a depth of up to 20 m, but more typically a depth of 12 to 15 m. All samples were collected on an east-west grid with a line spacing of 500 m and a sample spacing of 100 m. Only the nodular iron oxide and shallow soil samples have been completed, the power auger sampling program is continuing.

The results of both completed sampling methods were generally in good agreement (Figure 2) and identified a number of north-northwest linear trending gold anomalies. The longest continuous anomaly is defined by shallow soil anomalism and is 12 km in length. It extends from the artisanal gold workings at Kabangoue, through the largest concentration of workings at Farabrakoura, and extends for an additional 9 km to the north-northwest. A second sporadic anomaly with the same trend occurs 1 km to the west, and is present for a strike length of 6.5 km. The anomaly pattern for both techniques also identified a 3.25 km northeast-trending zone in the centre of the target area.

In the northern half of the target area, a second semi-continuous linear gold anomaly was identified to the west of the main 12 km long anomaly identified by both geochemical techniques. This anomaly appears to be a splay off the main anomaly, suggesting a secondary mineralized structure.

The maximum width of anomalism occurs near Kabangoue, where the anomaly is 1 km wide. Generally, the linear anomalies are at least 300 m wide (i.e., two sample points). These surface widths are not unusual in prospective gold areas in Mali covered by laterites.

Based on these initial results, the Company is eagerly awaiting the results of the recently completed 1,134 hole (14,851 m) truck-mounted power auger soil samples over target 1. The results of this program will be reported as soon as available. The results will be used to determine the location of drill holes to test the presence of bedrock mineralization.

The surface geochemistry teams have completed work over target areas 2 and 3, and are now moving on to the adjacent Sankarani permit. Samples collected in both of these areas have been dispatched to the assay laboratory.

Summary

Compass is continuing to advance its initial exploratory drill program on the broad gold targets previously identified on the Ouassada permit area, before moving to examine the numerous other targets identified on the rest of the Companys Sikasso Property permits. The Company looks forward to informing the market of the results of this work on a timely basis as it becomes available.

About Compass Gold Corp.

Compass, a public company having been incorporated into Ontario, is a Tier 2 issuer on the TSX-V. Through the recent acquisition of MGE and Malian subsidiaries, Compass holds gold exploration permits located in Mali that comprise the Sikasso Property. The exploration permits are located in three sites in southern Mali with a combined land holding of 1,179 km2. The Sikasso Property is located in the same region as several other multi-million ounce gold projects, including Morila, Syama, Kalana and Kodieran. The Companys Mali-based technical team, led in the field by Dr. Diallo and under the supervision of Dr. Sandy Archibald, P.Geo, is initiating a new exploration program. They are examining the first of numerous anomalies noted for further investigation in Dr. Archibalds August 2017 National Instrument 43-101 Technical Report on the Sikasso Property, Southern Mali.

Qualified Person

The technical information in this news release has been reviewed and approved by Dr. Sandy Archibald, P.Geo, Compasss Technical Director, who is the Qualified Person for the technical information in this news release under National Instrument 43-101 standards.

ForwardLooking Information

This news release contains "forwardlooking information" within the meaning of applicable securities laws, including statements regarding the Companys planned exploration work and management appointments. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forwardlooking information. Actual results and developments may differ materially from those contemplated by such information. The statements in this news release are made as of the date hereof. The Company undertakes no obligation to update forwardlooking information except as required by applicable law.

For further information please contact:

Compass Gold Corporation Compass Gold Corporation Larry Phillips  Pres. & CEO Greg Taylor  Dir. Investor Relations & Corporate Communications lphillips@compassgoldcorp.com gtaylor@compassgoldcorp.com T: +1 416-596-0996 X 302 T: +1 416-596-0996 X 301

Website: www.compassgoldcorp.com

NEITHER THE TSX VENTURE EXCHANGE NOR ITS REGULATION SERVICES PROVIDER (AS THAT TERM IS DEFINED IN THE POLICIES OF THE TSX VENTURE EXCHANGE) ACCEPTS RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE ADEQUACY OR ACCURACY OF THIS RELEASE.MBABANE  Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Swaziland Sugar Association (SSA), Philemon Mnisi, has stood as surety for a pastor who stands charged with rape.



Sithembiso Magagula (30) of Msinda in Mandlangempisi, who is a pastor at Potters House Church, has been arrested for allegedly raping a 15-year-old member of the church. Magagula, who is married, is alleged to have raped the minor on several occasions. Due to trauma, the minor is reported to be attending counselling sessions at the National Psychiatric Hospital, in Manzini.



According to the Crown, Magagula allegedly abused the relationship of trust with the complainant as he was her pastor. Coincidentally, Magagula was arrested on February 18, 2018, which was a Sunday. The exact place where the alleged rape took place is not mentioned in the charge sheet except for the location, which is Mliba.



The clergyman is alleged to have raped the young congregant during the month of August 2016. The Crown submitted that the rape was accompanied by aggravating circumstances as envisaged by Section 185 of the Criminal Procedure and Evidence Act 67/1983. The aggravating circumstances, according to the Crown, included that he allegedly inflicted life trauma on the complainant who was a minor and that he allegedly raped her several times.



Through his attorney Sifiso Jele of Mabila Attorneys, the accused yesterday filed an application for bail at the High Court. He denied having committed the offence and alleged that the charge against him was trumped up.

Magagula told the court that he was arrested by members of the Royal Swaziland Police based at Mliba and subsequently charged with rape.



I am innocent of the charge against me and I will plead not guilty to same, submitted the pastor. He said pending the hearing of his matter, he was desirous of being admitted to bail as he had great prospects of success. Magagula contended that he also had a good defence to the charge.



I did not commit the offence of rape as I have never had the intention or the opportunity to do that, argued the man of the cloth. The accused told the court that he strongly believed that these false allegations were perpetrated by the mother of the complainant. He claimed that he was not in good terms with the mother of the complainant despite that they attended the same church.



I humbly state that in the year 2016, I rented a shop at Mliba together with one General Magagula. The complainants mother asked that we allow her to sell her wares at the shop and we agreed, alleged Magagula.

According to the pastor, the mother of the complainant then added her items to include those that they were already selling. This, according to the pastor, led to differences between them.

He averred that the relationship between them deteriorated to such an extent that they decided to remove her from the premises.Tax season is often an anxiety-ridden time, especially for small businesses. The mission of Delta Effects is to reduce that anxiety and support small businesses in their path towards success. We are an accounting firm focused on supporting small businesses, says Anu Singh, senior accountant at Delta Effects. The company offers services catered towards small businesses and individuals. This includes bookkeeping, payroll, entity formation, Human Resources administration and, of course, tax preparation. Delta Effects also offers nonprofit, estate and trust support including tax preparation.

While investing in an accountant and financial advisor is an important step towards financial security, it can also be one of the most expensive. Delta Effects works to provide top-notch, high-quality service at a price that works for individuals and small businesses. Our prices are so reasonable and affordable that people can actually have someone like us on their team, says Singh. We work with the clients who otherwise cannot afford an accountant, accounting firms, bookkeeping or payroll. We offer quality service at a reasonable cost to the businesses that need us most. With Delta Effects, business owners can save money while still ensuring that their companys finances are in experienced hands.

Delta-effects is a small 10-plus member team lead by three lead partners: Anu Singh, Donna Lyle and Khandan Poureftekhar. The leadership team has a combined 100 years+ of experience in a variety of fields, which allows each of them to bring a unique perspective to their operations. Each is a member of the National Association of Enrolled Agents and the Colorado Society of Enrolled Agents.

Singh, an enrolled agent (EA) Federally Licensed Tax Professional, offers an extensive experience with various industries in accounting. Her accounting experience includes corporate accounting, payroll, audits, valuation, cost accounting, and various analysis. Additionally, Singh has experience with proposal writing, grant writing and government contracts. Singh also specializes in various tax filings.

Singh is joined by Donna Lyle at Delta Effects who is also a registered enrolled agent. Lyle offers in-depth knowledge of tax laws, audits, and representations. She has headed tax seminars and has been an instructor at various companies. Along with all other types of taxes, Lyle specializes in Non-Profits, Estate, and Trust Tax filings.

The leadership team is completed by Khandan Poureftekhar, a senior accountant with auditing and grant application experience. In addition to be a registered Enrolled Agent (EA) with the IRS, Poureftekhar offers experience in various accounting industries along with comprehensive experience with tax preparations. She specializes in Non-Resident Taxes, Foreign Income, businesses, and various other types of tax filings.

In addition to their collective experience with auditing tax preparation, the Delta Effects team prides itself on a fierce loyalty and commitment to each individual client. We are nurturers by nature and we really take care of our clients, Singh says. Just recently, a client told Singh, You make us feel like we are the only client you have. While that isnt true  the team is in the process of completing more than 650 tax returns from their small office  the mission of Delta Effects is to provide that individualized, catered experience to their customers. We bend backwards and then some for every single client we have, says Singh. Customer satisfaction is our number one priority. We dont discriminate on how you dress, what kind of work you do  when you walk into Delta, youre a most valued Delta customer.

What Delta Effects customers say

Drew Dolan became a customer of Delta Effects in 2014 after doing a quick Google search for bookkeepers. In addition to bookkeeping, the company does payroll and tax accounting for Dolans real estate investment and holding company, which owns and manage mobile home parks, self storage and other investment real estate. One aspect that set Delta Effects apart from everyone else is that, when I hired them, they were willing to learn an accounting and management software that is specific to my industry, Dolan says. They have a yes-we-can attitude and they have backed that up with results. They are willing to adjust to the needs of their client instead of trying to have the clients adjust for Delta Effects. Dolan also noted the nurturing, familial feel that Delta Effects works to provide for all of their customers. They are truly concerned about your success, he says. They treat you like family and they also have the extensive expertise and knowledge that is necessary to support even a complicated small business-like mine.

Dr. Harald Joessar, of Gunbarrel Family Dentistry started using Delta Effects for bookkeeping, accounting and tax services three years ago. Unhappy with his firm at the time, Joessar stopped by the Delta Effects office to inquire about accounting services. They asked for my business reports and we set up a meeting for a few days later, he says. At the meeting, I was blown away by their level of expertise. They completely rebuilt my books for that initial meeting and I wasnt even a client. Joessar discovered the Delta Effects team had been up until early hours of the morning the night before the meeting, working tirelessly to earn his business. Ive used five different accounting firms through the years, including a one-man show, online services, and a full-service dental accounting firm, says Joessar. Delta Effects offers me a personalized service, great work and affordable prices in one place. I trust them absolutely.

Delta Effects is so sure that clients will be pleased with their service that they offer free consultations. This no-risk arrangement allows customers to learn exactly what Delta Effects can provide them before committing any of their hard-earned money. When you leave our desk, you will have more knowledge than what you walked in with, Singh says.

Not only does Delta Effects work to support small startups, they provide scalable fees and work with a number of nonprofit organizations, many of whom pay a flat fee for bookkeeping and tax preparation. When someone walks in here and their business cant afford the services we have to offer, but they clearly need us, we will support them, says Singh. In keeping with their commitment to service, Delta Effects offers a 15 percent discount to teachers, military, police and emergency workers.

From individuals to businesses, startups to established companies, Delta Effects enjoys working with each and every one of their clients. We love that we get to be an integral part of each clients team, Singh says. We support them from within to help them create healthy, prosperous and profitable businesses. With a centralized location in Gunbarrel, Delta Effects can provide their services to customers in Longmont, Loveland, Superior, Louisville and beyond. For more information or to schedule a free consultation visit delta-effects.com or call 720.542.8235. Come visit Delta Effects offices to meet and experience for yourself what its professional accountants can do for you.

6525 Gunpark Drive, Ste. #320, Boulder

500 9th Ave. Longmont

Phone: 720.542.8235

Web: www.delta-effects.com

HOURS: Monday-Friday, 9 a.m. to 8 p.m.

Saturday, 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Sunday by appointment.Editors note: An earlier version of this story misspelled Aidan von Grabows first name. It has been corrected.

Attorneys for the 15-year-old accused of stabbing a Longmont woman to death last year hinted in court Friday that Accutane  an acne-treatment drug that some have linked to erratic behavior  may be cited by the defense in explaining the teens alleged actions.

Aidan von Grabow is charged with first-degree murder and 10 other counts in the stabbing death of Makayla Grote on Nov. 18, 2017.

Prosecutors are trying to charge von Grabow as an adult, but because he is under the age of 16, they will have to convince Boulder District Judge Andrew Macdonald to transfer the case out of juvenile court during a weeklong hearing starting on March 5.

Attorneys at that hearing also will argue as to whether there is enough evidence for the case to proceed to trial.

During a hearing Friday, Boulder Deputy District Attorney Adrian Van Nice objected to several of the defenses witnesses, including Dr. Doug Bremner, a psychiatrist known for his studies on isotretinoin, which is better known for its brand name, Accutane.

Used to treat severe acne, there has been debate for decades about whether Accutane causes depression and psychosis.

While defense attorneys Steve Jacobson and Mike Rafik never specifically stated von Grabow used Accutane, they said they plan to call Bremner to testify how the drug could possibly cause aggressive or violent behavior in a person who had never before exhibited those types of behaviors.

Van Nice objected to Bremner being used for the transfer hearing, pointing out that another doctor who saw von Grabow already would be citing Bremners research, and that bringing Bremner in was redundant and not relevant for the purposes of the transfer hearing.

Jacobson argued Bremner could testify as to how a person could be rehabilitated after stopping Accutane use.

But Macdonald agreed with prosecutors, saying the role the drug may have played in the alleged stabbing was not relevant for the reversal hearing, which is designed to determine if the juvenile or adult criminal justice system is more appropriate  not assign guilt or innocence.

Macdonald also pointed out that Bremner had never met von Grabow.

But while Bremner will not testify at the reversal hearing, he could still possibly be called during a trial.

Macdonald also said he would limit the testimony of Douglas Jacobs, a psychiatrist and a consultant to Hoffmann-La Roche, the company that sells Accutane. Jacobs was listed by the prosecution as a rebuttal witness to several witnesses, including Bremner.

Both Bremner and Jacobs were cited in a New York Times article about the drug published in 2002 after a teen, Charles Bishop, committed suicide by flying his plane into the side of a building in Florida. His mother sued Hoffmann-La Roche, blaming Accutane for her sons depression, but later dropped the suit.

Von Grabow is accused of killing Grote, 20, at her apartment in Longmont, though police believe he had intended to kill Grotes younger sister, who prosecutors say was on von Grabows death list.

Prosecutors say the sister was showering when Grote was killed and was able to lock herself in another room.

Grote, her younger sister and von Grabow all attended Green Mountain High School in Lakewood at some point.

In addition to first-degree murder, von Grabow faces 10 other counts, including three counts of attempted first-degree murder for pursuing Grotes younger sister and at least two other people named on the alleged list.

Mitchell Byars: 303-473-1329, byarsm@dailycamera.com or twitter.com/mitchellbyarsIf you go What: Longmont City Council meeting When: 7 p.m. Tuesday Where: Civic Center council chambers, 350 Kimbark St., Longmont More information: The full Tuesday night council agenda, including links to staff reports about the items up for consideration, can be viewed at: tinyurl.com/yc52lz9c

Last year, complaints filed with the city about noise from airplanes flying to and from Longmonts Vance Brand Municipal Airport soared from 2016 levels  with most of the complaints from one person, according to airport manager David Slayter.

In Slayters annual written report to the City Council about the airport, which hes to present during the councils Tuesday night meeting, he said the city received 949 aircraft noise complaints in 2017  up from 257 in 2016.

Slayter reported that 825 of last years 949 logged complaints came from one individual, a person the airport manager identified Monday as John Palmer.

Slayter said in a Monday interview that he reviews the complaints received and lets the people making the complaints know that hes willing to talk to them about their noise concerns.

He said: I did attempt to communicate with Palmer. However, Slayter said, there was a lack of interest on (Palmers) part to have a meeting or discussion.

Another individual, identified by Slayter as Kimberly Gibbs, was the source of 67 of last years noise complaints.

Gibbs, a Gunbarrel resident, is the founder of Citizens for Quiet Skies, an organization that, along with Gibbs and other plaintiffs, unsuccessfully sued Mile-Hi Skydiving in 2013 over noise from its operations.

In December 2016, the Colorado Court of Appeals sided with Mile-Hi Skydiving after hearing an appeal of a Boulder District Courts May 21, 2015, ruling against the plaintiffs. Last October, the Colorado Supreme Court denied Citizens for Quiet Skies request to review the Court of Appeals decision.

Palmer, a Niwot-area resident, could not immediately be reached for comment on Monday afternoon.

Despite the outcome of her lawsuit, Gibbs said in a telephone interview that she has continued to notify about what she believes is a nuisance from noisy aircraft  particularly Mile-Hi Skydivings planes  because I think its important. I think its an important quality of life issue.

She said the number of complaints logged by the city annually are a rough measure of community annoyance, but that many people have given up registering their concerns with Longmont after feeling they were ignored after reaching out in the past.

City officials appear to feel their hands are tied by regulations tied to accepting federal airport grants, Gibbs said. She said Longmont needs to regain local control over that airport.

Slayter said all but 20 of the 949 total complaints filed in 2017 with the Link2Longmont logging system were directed at the activities of Mile-Hi Skydiving, one of the municipal airports tenants.

Touch-and-go operations generate the majority of non-skydiving complaints and, as in past years, the majority of the complaints are received on weekends from May through September, which are the busiest months at the airport, he said in his written report, which the citys Airport Advisory Board reviewed and approved on Feb. 14.

The highest percentage of the households that called with complaints not associated with skydiving-related operations reside within the Airport Influence Zone, Slayter said.

Generally, flying the pattern at one-half to three-quarters   of a mile on each side of the runway has been adhered to during less active time periods. However, the times where the pattern becomes congested, flying a wider pattern is necessary. This is also the case for the larger aircraft that operate in the traffic pattern, he said.

He wrote in his latest report, as he did in the 2017 annual report about 2016 airport operations, that he has been involved in conducting a neighborhood outreach program that allows him to discuss concerns about airport operations, as well as making presentations to local civic organizations.

Slayter said there were 1,653 complaints in 2014, falling to 969 in 2015 and plummeting to 257 in 2016. The total number of people making complaints decreased to 28 last year, from 33 in 2016.

He said there were three people who made positive comments about the airport through the citys online system in 2017, plus one persons notification that someone had been operating a hobbyist drone within 5 miles of the airport.

Slayters annual report also cited a number of airport accomplishments, including:

 August 2017 completion of a preliminary planning study for the future layout of utility and drainage systems for development on the airports south side.

 May 2017 wildfire training exercises by the Colorado National Guard, Boulder County and the Longmont Fire Department that used the airport for that training event.

 A July 2017 airport workday, coordinated between the city and volunteers, to revitalize the airports entry by removing dead plants, installing new mulch and rock, and repairing an irrigation system.

 August 2017 completion, with the airport manager working with the Airport Advisory Board, of a marketing plan that Slayter said can be used as a guide for attracting tenants, investors, and development to the airport.

 October 2017 spending of $24,000 for pavement maintenance, part of which included grinding the runway to correct high spots that had been causing premature departures on takeoff rolls, and sometimes a second landing for arriving aircraft.

 A November 2017 start of Longmont Power and Communications installation for NextLight on the airports north side, allowing investors and users to connect to the citys high-speed internet service.

 March through September 2017 Longmont Fire Department hangar inspections to provide safety tips to hangar owners while ensuring a safe environment for aircraft storage and aeronautical activities.

Contact Staff Writer John Fryar at 303-684-5211 or jfryar@times-call.com or twitter.com/jfryartc- Protocol changes to the control arm of the pivotal Phase 3 trial for Iomab-B well received at the Companys investigator meeting and by Iomab-Bs scientific advisory board

- Product theater presentations featuring heads of transplant at Memorial-Sloan Kettering and Weill Cornell highlighted the myeloablative capabilities of Actiniums CD33 program Actimab-M and Actimab-MDS clinical trials

NEW YORK, Feb. 28, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Actinium Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NYSE American:ATNM) ("Actinium" or "the Company") highlighted its progress and activity at the recently concluded BMT Tandem Meetings, the combined annual meetings of the American Society of Blood and Marrow Transplantation (ASBMT) and the Center for International Blood & Marrow Transplant Research (CIBMTR). Actiniums lead product candidate, Iomab-B, is currently being studied in a pivotal Phase 3 trial as a myeloablative conditioning agent prior to a bone marrow transplant. Recently, Actinium announced that it had amended the protocol of its pivotal Phase 3 SIERRA trial to expand the number of salvage chemotherapy agents included in the control arm. The response from clinical trial principal investigators to this change has been positive. In addition, Actinium recently announced that it had activated Stony Brook University as the 16th clinical trial site in the SIERRA trial.

Dr. Mark Berger, Chief Medical Officer of Actinium said, As we have made significant progress with the SIERRA trial, we recognized that the regimens in the control arm needed to be expanded, based largely on feedback from our investigators and advisory board. We believe that investigators recognized the imbalance between groups, evidenced by the crossover component of the trial, so we were eager to make these changes, which have been very well received by trial investigator. As a result, we believe physicians have a more receptive view to the control arm that will lead to accelerated rates of enrollment. Once again, the BMT Tandem Meetings have proved to be an invaluable conference for us and we look forward to capitalizing on the positive momentum we generated in our interactions with the transplant community to complete enrollment of the SIERRA trial.

In addition, Dr. Sergio Giralt, Chief, Adult Bone Marrow Transplant Service at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and Dr. Koen van Besien, Director, Stem Cell Transplant Program at Weill Cornell Medical Center highlighted trials from the Companys CD33 program in the Companys well attended product theater. Dr. Giralt highlighted the myeloablative potential of Actiniums CD33 prior to a bone marrow transplant for patients with multiple myeloma that is being studied in the Actimab-M Phase 1 trial. Currently, Actimab-M is the only trial for a CD33 targeting agent and alpha-particle based therapy for multiple myeloma. Dr. van Besien also highlighted the myeloablative potential in patients with high-risk myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) with a p53 genetic mutation that is expected to be studied in a planned Phase 2 trial for Actimab-MDS. The Actimab-MDS trial will be conducted with the MDS Clinical Research Consortium and this trial will be led by Dr. Gail Roboz, Director of the Leukemia Program and Professor of Medicine at Weill Cornell New-York Presbyterian Hospital and her colleagues at the Cleveland Clinic, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Johns Hopkins, MD Andersen Cancer Center, Moffitt Cancer Center and Weill Cornell.

Sandesh Seth, Actiniums Executive Chairman said, We were incredibly excited for Tandem this year as we were able to showcase our multi-disease, multi-target pipeline focused on myeloablation for the first time at this conference. There are great advances being made in the field of bone marrow transplant and we are excited to be at the forefront of improved myeloablation, which is a critical aspect of the patients journey and where we can make significant impact to patient access and outcomes. We came away from the conference incredibly excited by the opportunities that we see emerging in transplant and cell therapies that our technologies and growing pipeline are ideally suited for and also the opportunity to be the market leader providing superior conditioning in this growing area.

About BMT Tandem Meetings

Annually, the BMT Tandem Meetings are the largest gathering in North America of worldwide experts in blood and marrow transplant patient care, clinical investigation and laboratory research. Over 3,000 transplant physicians in over 500 transplant centers from >50 countries participate in the CIBMTR. The ASBMT has a membership of over 2,300 clinicians and researchers. By combining our meetings, we expect over 3,200 participants at next years meetings representing more than 50 countries, with approximately 20% coming from outside the United States.



About Actinium Pharmaceuticals, Inc.

Actinium Pharmaceuticals Inc. is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on developing and commercializing targeted therapies for potentially superior myeloablation and conditioning of the bone marrow prior to a bone marrow transplant and for the targeting and killing of cancer cells. Our targeted therapies have demonstrated the potential to result in significantly improved access to bone marrow transplant with better outcomes, namely increased marrow engraftment and survival. Our targeted therapies are ARCs or Antibody Radio-Conjugates that combine the targeting ability of monoclonal antibodies with the cell killing ability of radioisotopes. We have four clinical trials based on our AWE or Actinium Warhead Enabling Technology Platform that utilizes the isotope Actinium-225 (Ac225) which emits alpha particles. In addition, our most advanced product candidate, Iomab-B, an ARC developed by the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, is comprised of an anti-CD45 monoclonal antibody labeled with iodine-131. We are currently conducting a pivotal Phase 3 trial of Iomab-B for myeloablation and conditioning of the bone marrow prior to a bone marrow transplant for patients with relapsed or refractory acute myeloid leukemia (AML) age 55 and older. A bone marrow transplant is a potentially curative treatment for patients with AML and other blood cancers including leukemias, lymphomas and multiple myeloma as well as certain blood disorders. Iomab-B has been tested in several of these other cancers with over five hundred patients treated in several Phase 1 and 2 trials with promising results. Upon successful completion of our Phase 3 clinical trial for Iomab-B we intend to submit this candidate for marketing approval in the U.S. and European Union where it has been designated as an Orphan Drug. We are also developing a potentially best in class CD33 program using an ARC comprised of the anti-CD33 monoclonal antibody lintuzumab labeled with the alpha-particle emitter actinium-225. Our most advanced CD33 program candidate, Actimab-A, is currently in a Phase 2 clinical trial for patients advanced over the age of 60 who are newly diagnosed with AML and ineligible for standard induction chemotherapy. Actimab-A also has Orphan Drug designation in the US and EU. Actimab-M, our second CD33 program ARC, is being studied in a Phase 1 trial for patients with refractory multiple myeloma. Actinium is also planning a Phase 2 trial for Actimab-MDS, our third CD33 program candidate, as a conditioning regimen prior to a bone marrow transplant for patients with MDS that have a p53 genetic mutation. Our Phase 1 trial studying Actimab-A with CLAG-M is our fourth CD33 program clinical trial for patients with relapsed or refractory AML. Our AWE or Actinium Warhead Enabling Technology Platform, originally developed in conjunction with Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, is focused on leveraging Actiniums know how and intellectual property to create additional ARC drug candidates by labeling 225Ac to targeting moieties that we will either progress in clinical trials ourselves or out-license.

More information is available at www.actiniumpharma.com and our Twitter feed @ActiniumPharma, www.twitter.com/actiniumpharma.

Forward-Looking Statements for Actinium Pharmaceuticals, Inc.

This press release may contain projections or other forward-looking statements within the meaning of the safe-harbor provisions of the private securities litigation reform act of 1995 regarding future events or the future financial performance of the Company, which the Company undertakes no obligation to update. These statements are based on managements current expectations and are subject to risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially from the anticipated or estimated future results, including the risks and uncertainties associated with preliminary study results varying from final results, estimates of potential markets for drugs under development, clinical trials, actions by the FDA and other governmental agencies, regulatory clearances, responses to regulatory matters, the market demand for and acceptance of Actiniums products and services, performance of clinical research organizations and other risks detailed from time to time in Actinium's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the SEC), including without limitation its most recent annual report on form 10-K, subsequent quarterly reports on Forms 10-Q and Forms 8-K, each as amended and supplemented from time to time.

Contact:

Actinium Pharmaceuticals, Inc.

Steve O'Loughlin

Principal Financial Officer

soloughlin@actiniumpharma.com

Investor Relations

Marek Ciszewski, J.D.

949.574.3860

ATNM@liolios.com



Tim Waters is poised to win the Longmont special election for the City Council Ward 1 seat, holding a lead of 325 votes over Josh Goldberg with the 10:45 p.m. unofficial ballot tally.

Waters had 2,675 votes for 46.3 percent of the total cast, Goldberg had 2,350 votes for 40.7 percent and Russ Lyman was third with 747 votes and 12.9 percent.

An unknown number of ballots sent from military members have yet to be counted, as well as 57 reserve ballots and 28 ballots with signature or identification issues, the results of which will all be added to the official final tally March 7.

Waters is a retired educator, Goldberg is the community and events manager for Left Hand Brewing and Lyman is a senior network engineer with CenturyLink.

Presuming he holds on for the victory, Waters will take the seat vacated by Brian Bagley since his win in the November mayoral election. The new Ward 1 representative will be sworn into the City Council on Monday evening at the council chambers.

The winners term will expire in November 2019.

Waters, assuming he wins the seat, said he would consider running for the full four-year term next year.

Assuming I remain attracted to the work, I cant imagine having come this far and not be interested in continuing, Waters said. I think I can continue if I feel like I can contribute and am worthy of the support.

Goldberg was unsure if he would run again for a council seat, and Lyman said he would not consider another run.

I wish Tim wonderful success. Im not sure what Im doing this weekend, so its hard to know what Ill be doing in 2019. In the meantime, Ill continue to serve Longmont, which is what I love to do, Goldberg said. From the beginning, Ive said Im not a partisan politician hung up on any particular issue. I think my strength would be and would have been to build consensus on that council.

Waters credited the Colorado Sierra Club for spending $10,678 on a mailing and a postcard supporting his candidacy for helping to garner the votes, while also thanking the volunteers that supported his campaign by knocking on thousands of doors and calling thousands of phone numbers.

I think all three people in this race were in it for the right reasons; we all ran positive campaigns. I dont think there was any one issue that differentiated my campaign from the others, Waters said.

If elected, he hopes to bring an added focus on the council to preserving improvements on the St. Vrain Creek corridor and developing the area north of its banks between Main and Sunset streets into an asset or collection of assets that I think would differentiate Longmont from communities up and down the Front Range.

What we are doing right now on the restoration of the St. Vrain and the intended transportation hub in our lower downtown, and what I have seen as the initial architectural renderings of mixed-use businesses and higher-density housing around that hub, I believe the council needs to develop a bold and clear vision for our lower downtown along the north side of the St. Vrain corridor from Main Street to Sunset, Waters said.

The winner will join Bagley, Marcia Martin, Joan Peck, Bonnie Finley, Polly Christensen and Aren Rodriguez on the council.

For me, this was a privilege to have this opportunity. I met so many incredible people whose paths I would not have crossed, Waters said. I learned so much about the community. I hope serving on the council is as much fun as running for it has been. I have high regard for the people serving on the council now and look forward to working with the council members and the mayor.

Sam Lounsberry: 303-473-1322, slounsberry@prairiemountainmedia.com and twitter.com/samlounz.Longmont City Council members heard Tuesday night from several critics of Vance Brand Municipal Airport and the noise that emanates from that airports operations  particularly from airport tenant Mile-Hi Skydivings activities.

Those people spoke during a public-comment portion of the councils meeting that preceded what was scheduled to be airport manager David Slayters presentation of his annual report later in the meeting.

Two people who signed up as residents of The Greens neighborhood, Gayle and Steve Allen, objected to Slayter having revealed the names of the people who made the most complaints last year.

After the Times-Call made an open-records request, Slayter on Monday identified John Palmer as having filed 825 of last years 949 logged complaints, and Kimberly Gibbs as having filed 67 of those complaints.

The Allens told the council that people whose identities are made public after making complaints to the city can face what Gayle Allen said can be negative consequences and open those airport critics up to possible retaliation.

Allen said other communities give citizens making such complaints a right of privacy. She said Longmonts willingness to identify complainants may be one reason more people dont file complaints about airport noise.

Steve Allen said there is a noise problem  one that hes observed as far away from Longmont as at Boulder Countys Hall Ranch Open Space area near Lyons, where he said it is annoying.

Allen said that we want to have transparency about peoples concerns about airport noise but that Longmont should allow people to express their opinions without retributions.

Gibbs, a Gunbarrel-area resident and longtime airport noise critic, suggested that fewer individuals may have made noise complaints last year than in previous years  28 people last year, down from 33 in 2016, Slayter reported  because many may have given up hope that anything will be done about the noise from Mile-Hi Skydivings aircraft.

Would you bother to register complaints knowing its a waste of time? Gibbs asked the council members.

The tallies of complaints received are not an accurate representation of the level of annoyance in the community, said Gibbs, who suggested that the airport install noise monitoring equipment.

She said the real solution to address the noise problem would be for Longmont to restore local control of the facility and not accept the federal money that has restrictions against such local decisions.

Joann Burton, a Snowberry Street resident, said noise from the skydiving operation has ruined a wonderful experience for people who otherwise enjoy visiting open-space areas  even in the wintertime.

Normally, Burton said, I look forward to the winter because I get a break from the skydivers, but she indicated that hasnt been the case this winter.

Scott Stewart, a Grant Street resident, told the council that the airport has a real effect on the qualify of life for those of us who live on the ground.

Stewart also objected to possible future expansions of the airport, asking, Isnt this airport big enough?

He said Federal Aviation Administration grant money is like an infection that lasts for 20 years.

As is the usual practice during Longmont council meetings, council members did not respond to the concerns those people raised during the public-comment portion of the agenda.

The council decided later in Tuesday nights meeting to postpone Slayters presentation of his annual report to a future meeting.

John Fryar: 303-684-5211, jfryar@times-call.com or twitter.com/jfryartcA Longmont man faces numerous felony assault and sexual assault charges after police say he repeatedly choked and raped a woman with whom he was in a romantic relationship that was coming to an acrimonious end.

A police arrest affidavit states Robert Dale Dunlap, 35, faces two counts of felony assault, four counts of felony sexual assault and numerous misdemeanor charges from an alleged incident that occurred earlier in February.

Police said the case came to their attention when Dunlap tried to report the woman for harassment. When police spoke to the woman, she told them that officers had come to a disturbance at her home and told her and Dunlap to separate for the night.

When police left, she told investigators that Dunlap dragged her to a room and raped her numerous times, at one point choking her until she passed out.

Dunlap remained in custody at the Boulder County Jail on Friday afternoon on a $100,000 bond. He is expected to be formally charged on Tuesday. He has a previous conviction for check fraud in Colorado, according to online court records.

John Bear: 303-473-1355, bearj@dailycamera.com or twitter.com/jonbearwithmeLongmont officers on Monday were dispatched to a child abuse and neglect call in the 2700 block of Copper Peak Lane. Two juvenile males were engaging in sexual misconduct. The case is under investigation.

A 37-year-old man reported that he left his cell phone at a business on Saturday in the 200 block of Emery Street, but a find-my-phone search was showing the cell phone was at a different location in Longmont. The case is closed due to a lack of investigative leads.

A juvenile male was placed on a mental health hold due to suicidal statements and actions at about 6:45 p.m. Monday in the area of 21st Avenue and Terry Street.Police were called to a restaurant in the 1200 block of South Hover Streeet on Monday after a man passed out inside. Officers found that the man had multiple warrants and arrested him.

Officers pulled over a suspicious vehicle on Tuesday in the 900 block of Longs Peak Avenue. The male driver ran from the vehicle but was caught and arrested on multiple felony warrants. The passenger, also a male, was arrested on suspicion of methamphetamine possession.

A Longmont business called police on Tuesday to report an on-going trespassing issue. The man, who had been warned by multiple officers about trespassing at the business on Feb. 16 and then issued a ticket on Feb. 17, was issued another ticket and released.A St. Vrain Valley School District official, a representative of a teacher union, a former teacher and a high school student all said President Donald Trumps idea of allowing teachers to be armed in schools wouldnt work and would harm the classroom culture.

One week after Nikolas Cruz entered Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., and killed 17 people, Trump suggested at a White House listening session Wednesday that some teachers in schools should be armed in order to combat school shootings.

If you had a teacher who was adept with a firearm, they could end the attack very quickly, Trump said, according to a CNN report. This would be obviously only for people who were very adept at handling a gun.

But in Colorado, Democratic state lawmakers on Wednesday rejected a Republican bill that would have allowed people with concealed-carry permits to take firearms onto school grounds.

Colorado schools are gun-free zones, with only school resource officers and, in limited instances, campus security guards, allowed to carry guns.

Steve Villarreal, the president of the St. Vrain Valley School District teacher union, said he hasnt heard any teachers approach him because they want to be able to carry firearms in the classroom.

I have not heard from one person  who is saying, Id love to be able to pack or to carry a gun or be one of those guys,' Villarreal said. Thats just not something teachers are comfortable with.

Additionally, Villarreal said, an armed teacher trying to protect students could be in danger in a school shooting situation.

Everything Ive read and heard about these situations is that its chaotic and its confusing, he said. Law enforcements job is to immediately disarm people who enter schools to kill people. It adds to the confusion, in my opinion, if law enforcement is not able to distinguish a good guy from a bad guy. It would only compound the situation.

Richard Martyr, a retired high school chemistry teacher who now serves on the St. Vrain Valley school board, echoed this concern. Martyr clarified that he was sharing his personal opinion and not a consensus of the board.

In a shooting situation, an armed teacher becomes a target, he said. If Im a teacher with a gun trying to track down a perpetrator and law enforcement enters, then Ive got a target on my chest.

Martyr also criticized the idea of having armed teachers in schools as out of touch.

Its a ridiculous idea and one which could only be conceived of by someone thats not part of the academic community and has not spent any significant time trying to understand what is happening in the schools themselves, Martyr said.

School Board President Bob Smith said while it may seem simple to add more armed staff to a school campus, the reality is much more complicated.

Im reminded of the saying that the further away you are from a problem, the easier it is to solve, Smith said. Ive spoken to the police about this as well and the police feel that the policing should be left to them.

Smith said that there is a school resource officer in every St. Vrain Valley high school. There is one officer assigned to every two middle schools in the district.

Boulder Valley School District interim Superintendent Cindy Stevenson said she looked extensively at the issue of arming teachers in her 12 years as superintendent in the Jefferson County School District.

Police departments recommended against allowing teachers to carry guns because research shows that even highly trained police officers miss 70 percent of their shots  and it drops to 18 percent when a suspect returns fire, she said.

Theres this mythology that bad guys will get shot, but thats not always true, she said. Sometimes, the good guys get shot. Our teachers should be worried about effective teaching, not managing firearms in classrooms.

Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel said during a Thursday news conference that the SRO at the Parkland, Fla., school was armed and in uniform but stayed outside while the shooting was ongoing, NBC News reported.

Scott Peterson, a sheriffs deputy assigned to the school, was suspended without pay pending an internal investigation of his inaction. Peterson has resigned.

Regardless, Smith said that the district has discussed school safety extensively and has taken measures to protect students and staff.

We had this discussion a couple years ago after one of the other shootings and we felt that there were many other things we could do and put in place to keep our kids safe, he said. The community has been very supportive of us in the recent bond, so weve got locked entrances, cameras, SROs and a variety of other things. I personally do not think arming teachers would help.

Smith added that Superintendent Don Haddad had planned another spate of community meetings about school safety set for the spring before the Florida shooting.

Martyr said that arming teachers would be antithetical to what calls people to teaching.

Theyre called to the profession in order to help equip students to be successful in the future. By nature, theyre nurturing and supporting, he said. A teacher in front of the class with open carry or if a teacher had a gun in their desk, it changes the character of the relationship between a teacher and a student to the detriment of that relationship.

Villarreal said expecting teachers, at their relatively low salary levels compared to law enforcement officers, to fire on a shooter would reduce the pool of people who want to go into the profession.

They do it for the love of the children and feeling like youd need to be armed or have to carry. I dont see where that would really attract teachers, he said. People Ive talked to say if they wanted to become a police officer, theyd become a police officer. If you want to become a teacher, become a teacher.

Madison Hadley, a 14-year-old freshmen at Mead High School, said she would not feel comfortable if she knew a teacher had a gun in the classroom with her.

Some kids would feel safe, but me personally, I would find it very hard to concentrate almost, she said, adding that even if a teacher had training, it doesnt mean that a student couldnt get to a gun in the classroom.

Hadley added that she thinks if students knew teachers had firearms, it might cause some students to make trouble in order to goad teachers into using them.

If we arm teachers or even just have guns in schools for people who arent SROs, its giving more fuel to the fire to start conflict in schools and get teachers to use their guns, she said.

Staff writer Amy Bounds contributed to this report.

Karen Antonacci: 303-684-5226, antonaccik@times-call.com or twitter.com/ktonacciToronto, Feb. 28, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Advocates pressing for federal investment to address ovarian cancer are today re-iterating the need for specific and targeted investments in ovarian cancer research. While Budget 2018 made important investments in the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), the lack of funding earmarked for Canadas most fatal womens cancer means that thousands of women who will be diagnosed with ovarian cancer this year must continue pressing for more research.

Ovarian Cancer Canada has called for an immediate and additional $10M in federal funding for ovarian cancer research, which will enable Canadian scientists to develop new research models, identify and prioritize new treatments, and maximize patient enrollment in clinical trials.

While Ovarian Cancer Canada is encouraged by the federal governments commitment to advancing health research, Budget 2018 leaves much to be desired for women living with ovarian cancer, says Elisabeth Baugh, CEO, Ovarian Cancer Canada. The case for prioritizing ovarian cancer is long overdue and we continue to call on the government to invest funds to support Canadian mothers, sisters, daughters, and wives.

Fifty-six per cent of women diagnosed with ovarian cancer do not live to see another five years, making ovarian cancer the most fatal gynecological cancer in Canada. Survival rates havent improved in 50 years because significant underfunding in this area has stalled research.

CIHR is the federal agency responsible for allocating funds for health research. Under its charge, investments in ovarian cancer research have fallen far behind other cancers with higher incidences and lower mortality rates.

Between 2010 and 2014, CIHR invested $81.M in breast cancer research, $39.8M in research on prostate cancer, and only $16.9M in ovarian cancer research. With substantial financial backing, both breast cancer and prostate cancer have seen marked advances in treatment and survival, however very little has changed in screening or treatments for ovarian cancer. In fact, few treatments for this disease have become publicly available in Canada since the 1990s.

For years, Ovarian Cancer Canada has been leading advocacy efforts urging government to invest more in ovarian cancer research. Following pre-budget consultations in 2017, the issue was brought forward in a recommendation from the Standing Committee on Finance.

This is a matter of basic justice and equity in health care, adds Baugh. Funding for ovarian cancer research will turn the tide on a disease that has been overlooked despite unacceptably high mortality rates, it would also show a commitment to womens health and the right of every woman with this disease to live better and longer.

About Ovarian Cancer Canada

Ovarian Cancer Canada is the only registered Canadian charity solely dedicated to overcoming ovarian cancer. The organization provides leadership by supporting women and families living with the disease, raising awareness, and funding research into prevention, improved treatments, and ultimately, a cure.

Attachments:

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/5eec075c-9efd-4f5a-9315-598c841495ce

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/b2dfa74f-4447-48a8-a224-5096b9de97f6

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/f4777bb5-1914-4fa3-8546-4ecc483ffd5fHere is a collection of comments on stories posted by the Times-Call on its Facebook page the week of Feb. 19.

St. Vrain Valley officials reject Trumps armed teachers suggestion

Matt Stewart: Because liberals are a bunch of cowards and would rather die on their knees than fighting for the lives of students and themselves. I for one will never die on my knees begging for my life. Wake up people!

Monika Pearsall: Thank goodness. If nobody noticed, even the darned resource officer in Florida hid behind a wall. He was armed, and youre expecting teachers to do his job? Also, who is paying for this? They get stiffed on supplies and hourly pay as it is. Who is paying for the weapons, bullets and training or will that come out of the military budget? Where will the teachers keep their weapons? How will they keep students from accessing them? Teachers did not sign up for law enforcement, they signed up to teach our kids and have a passion to do so. Let them live their passion.

Joe Illingworth: The logistics of the kind of liability insurance they would need to have to allow this make it a non-starter. Check out what law enforcement are required to insure against these days and extrapolate the additional cost of specifically being around children all day without any professional training or certifications to show competency.

Shelly Oltmans Nolen: But when the private citizen shot the shooter at the Baptist church killings, which caused him to crash and die, everyone called him a hero. They are not saying each and every teacher do it, but I bet one or two would feel comfortable doing it to protect the kids.

Nick Stratton: Thats just not something teachers are comfortable with. All of them? I know of at least three at my kids school alone that are more than willing. Quit with the hyperbole simply to advance your agenda. And a teacher with a gun, fighting back, becomes a target? Do they think that a teacher or student cowering under a desk isnt a target? How often does a victim of a crime  any crime  become a target simply by displaying an ability and willingness to fight back?

Rosalind Mayfield: Lets put metal detectors in the schools. (They) cost about $5,000, similar (th the) cost of a funeral. And of course people to man them. Its a small price to pay for our childrens lives and safety.

Longmont City Council to discuss affordable housing issues with developers

Lance Goff: You may want to look at the building code too. Are there giveaways to green special interests which increase costs?

Vicky Marchino: There must be financial incentives to encourage the development of affordable homes to own in Longmont. Dont punish developers for building in Longmont and making a profit, because they wont build here. When affordable homes are built and purchased, that will increase the vacancy rates for rentals, therefore reduce the rental prices. If we dont make renters home-owners, the home prices and rental rates will never settle down.

Brad Lawler: The problem is the land, building materials, labor, everything costs the same no matter if you rent the space for $100 or $1,000, so why would a developer spend their money to build something they will take longer to break even on? Dont like what is being built, spend your money and build something that is cheaper to rent or buy.

Boulder County 4-H leaders remove Friends of NRA ad from monthly newsletter

Mona Cevin Hopp: More than 4,000 people die each year in motorcycle accidents. Many more are injured. In 2006 and 2008, it was over 5,000 per year. Political correctness says we need to ban powersports as well.

Mike Dazzo: The political climate demands it regardless of your personal opinion. If they didnt it would only be a matter of time before people started to get enraged about it.

Terry Coble: Good. Shows they are less tone deaf than the current administration. 4-H used to teach gun safety, which is more appropriate.

AR-15-style guns flashpoint in Boulder County, national debate after Florida shooting

Randy Durden: There is no point in having a gun such as an AR-15. Im all for guns and gun rights, but how many of your kids have to die for you to agree ?

Jose A. Rodriguez: So when our freedom is taken away (it will happen, maybe not in our lifetime, history does repeat itself) and a revolution happens against our own government, you think the government should be the only ones allowed to have these type of weapons?

Doug Walker: Put a metal detector in every school. What the hell are school districts waiting for? Put it in the budget. Oh, and raise the age to buy a firearm. 25- to 30-years old? By the time they reach this age they wont want to go back to school. Schools are sitting on their hands doing nothing. Wake up. Times have changed over the past 40-50 years. Schools have not.

Karl Lee Do people understand that AR-15 style rifles have been sold to civilians for the past 50 years. Yes, that us right, 50 years. This new behavior of mass shootings has only been growing since we gave trophies for nothing, glamorized drugs and gang life, decided personal responsibility was a thing of the past. We have brainwashed the public that violent movies and video games dont effect some people to behave in the same violent ways they are desensitized to.

Dave Eipper: Many mass shooters are known copycats, and as long as the media keep informing them of every detail, up to and including the guns and ammo used, they will continue choosing that particular gun. After all, the whole of the nations press repeatedly tells them thats part of the blueprint for successfully gaining notoriety by committing a mass shooting.Lotto winner

This is about Lotto is a rip-off. Really, TC Line? Youre getting a call in because people lost money on their Lotto tickets? Well, this man didnt. I won 590 bucks in 10 days by spending $60. Thats what it takes sometimes. If you dont feel comfortable playing Lotto, dont play.  Im sure the girls up at King Soopers will tell you different when I give them $10 when I cash in my winnings.

Dont ban big dogs

I just want to make a comment about the woman who wants to ban large dogs in her neighborhood. My service dog is 76 pounds and docile as can be. I have walked him and have had small dogs attack him. In addition, people bring fake service dogs into the stores who are small dogs who have also attacked him. Banning dogs (based on) sizes is not correct.

Gun control

 So let me see if Ive got this straight. We should seriously believe teenagers about gun control. OK, but arent these the people who as a group (are) so naive that we have to change Tide Pods so they dont eat them? And you think we should pay attention to them and then take them very seriously about something theyre so clearly ill-informed about?

 I am an NRA certified range safety officer and certified to train pistol and shotgun shooting. Im also an avid hunter. I would gladly give up my right to own semiautomatic rifles with removable magazines. Like fully automatics and hand grenades, they are weapons of war and should only be available to our warriors.

 Our children are feeling the responsibility of going to the statehouses to beg for their safety in schools from immature and selfish state legislators. The kids should spend their time in school preparing for college, but theyre at the state legislatures begging for their lives because they have a fear that theyll never live long enough to get the college. Why have we created a culture where our children are more sensible than the adults?

 Theres talk about arming teachers yet again. That really sounds smart. Then the poor kids would be caught in the crossfire, instead of having bullets coming from only one direction. Youd probably have 50 percent more casualties. This is not Entebbe, Uganda.

NRA and PP

With a lot of groups abandoning the NRA, maybe its time to realize that the NRA kills zero people a day and receives zero dollars from taxpayers each year. On the other hand, Planned Parenthood kills 887 babies a day. One every 90 seconds, and gets over $500 million from taxpayers each year. Who should be protesting what? Something to think about.

Everything is topsy-turvy

You know its a topsy-turvy world when its the Democrats who are warning about Russian subversion while the Republicans are enabling it. You know its a topsy-turvy world when our leaders are acting like children and our children are acting like leaders.Far-right logic

The logic of the far-right wing is always entertaining. First, they tell us public school teachers are communist atheists who are out to indoctrinate and corrupt our children. And now they want to give those same teachers guns.

East-side grocery

Dear City Council and Mr. Mayor: help us east-siders out. All of these new homes and new apartments, and we only have one grocery store. Getting in and out of that store is getting to be a real headache. Please do something about our old Safeway and replace it with the new grocery store.

Airport noise

This is in regard to the 2017 complaints  about the noise at Vance Brand Airport. I am a Longmont native. That airport has been here ever since I can remember, and that goes back quite a few years.  I wonder how long the people who are complaining about the noise have actually lived by the airport, and if it was there when they moved there, why didnt they move someplace besides by the airport? Its a proven fact airplanes make some noise.

AR-15 and tyranny

 The reason you own an AR-15 is not actually for hunting, not actually for support, although those are important reasons, but you own an AR-15 in case you come upon a tyrannical government, which the Obama administration was heading for.

 For 242 years prior to the existence of the AR-15, tyranny was not commonplace. Our government has always been armed and capable of crushing their citizenry if they wished, and that is not changed even with the AR. You have been sold a bill of goods. The well-armed militia is the U.S. Army Reserves and the National Guard.

Rambo Trump

Its unfortunate that our president, Rambo Trump, didnt have a chance to quell the chaos at Parkland. Also, had he not had bone spurs, Im sure Vietnam would have ended differently and much sooner.

More guns?

Anyone who believes that more guns solve gun violence must be insane.

Your fears

I think it is you rather than me that is motivated by fear. I have guns and enjoy shooting them. I also enjoyed doing other things with my friends and family. How come when something happens with the gun, everyone wants to take away all guns, but when the drunk driver kills people, no one says lets take away all alcohol? Think about your fears.

Save our kids

I agree with those who think the common presence of firearms in our country is a nuisance, a temptation and a real problem, but what about computer games? No one ever bleeds in an Xbox that I know of.  Harris and Klebold at Columbine grew up on computer games. We maybe we ought to start saving our kids and stop spoiling them.HIGHLIGHTS



High grades confirmed on LSC/Dajin Joint Venture property in Salinas Grandes

Concentrations range from 281mg/l Li to 1,353mg/l Li, averaging 591mg/l Li

60% of assays >500mg/l Lithium and 8% >1,000mg/l Li

TORONTO, Feb. 28, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- LSC Lithium Corporation (LSC or together with its subsidiaries, the Company) (TSXV:LSC) is pleased to announce that surface sampling of the Salinas Grandes LSC/Dajin Resources Corp. (Dajin) joint venture property of San Jose/Navidad has been completed. This surface pit sampling exercise was conducted as part of the first phase of exploration on the property.

Ian Stalker, the Companys President and CEO commented, This sampling program, focused on the 550 hectares of salar surface on the LSC/Dajin joint venture, extends the Companys lithium mineralized footprint1 to the east of the current limit and establishes the high grade nature of the salar in the Salta section which can be expected to continue as one moves to the north east through the Jujuy section of the salar. This successful sampling program will be followed up with geophysical surveys to generate a subsurface target and thereafter drilling later this year.

Of the 25 shallow pit samples taken, 60% of them have returned grades in excess of 500mg/l Li and 8% in excess of 1,000mg/l Li. The peak value returned for this section of the sampling was 1,353mg/l Li. Concentrations range from 281mg/l Li to 1,353mg/l Li, averaging 591mg/l Li.

Exploration Methodology

The 24 sample points were pre-planned on a 500m east/west and north/south grid, utilizing the Companys geographical information system and located in the field with a hand held GPS. At each sample site, an augering drill was used to excavate an 8-inch diameter hole to a depth of 2m. Thereafter, a bailer was used to extract brine 0.5m to 1m below the phreatic level after the brine had been given time to stratiphy over a 30-minute period.

Sampling and QA/QC

The bailed brine from each hole was decanted into four sterilized plastic litre size bottles and sealed without any air being trapped in the bottle. Samples were labelled and labels covered in clear tape to prevent erasure of sample information. All samples remained in the possession of the site geologist until delivery to Alex Stewart Laboratory in Jujuy, Argentina.

LSC has a well-developed QA/QC program. Brine assays are undertaken at Alex Stewart Argentina (ASA) SA. in Jujuy, Argentina. ASA is independent of LSC and has significant experience in assaying lithium brines and is certified to ISO17025 standards. Brine assays are undertaken using ICP, gravimetric, potentiometric and volumetric methods as detailed in a press release from LSC dated April 10, 2017. ASA runs internal duplicates at a rate of 1 in 20. LSC inserts blanks and standards in sample batches at a rate of 1 in 20. Standards are internal standards developed by LSC that have been independently certified by round robin testing. LSC uses distilled water as blanks.

Qualified Person/Data Verification

The scientific and technical information included in this press release is based upon information prepared and approved by Donald H. Hains, P.Geo. Mr. Hains is a qualified person, as defined in NI 43-101 and is independent of LSC. Mr. Hains has verified all sampling, analytical and test data underlying the information contained in this press release and review of certified assay certificates against the assay data base.

ABOUT LSC LITHIUM CORPORATION:

LSC Lithium has amassed a large portfolio of prospective lithium rich salars and is focused on developing its tenements located in five salars: Pozuelos, Pastos Grandes, Rio Grande, Salinas Grandes, and Jama. All LSC tenements are located in the Lithium Triangle, an area at the intersection of Argentina, Bolivia, and Chile where the worlds most abundant lithium brine deposits are found. LSC Lithium has a land package portfolio totaling approximately 300,000 hectares, which represents extensive lithium prospective salar holdings in Argentina.

For further information please contact:

LSC Lithium Corporation

Ian Stalker

President & Chief Executive Officer

151 Yonge Street, 11th floor

Toronto ON, Canada M5C 2W7

(416) 304 9384

Email: info@lsclithium.com

Web: lsclithium.com

Forward-Looking Statements

Certain statements contained in this news release constitute forward-looking information. These statements relate to future events or future performance, including statements as to the high grade nature of the Salinas Grandes salar and the ability to conduct and the timing of geophysical surveys. The use of any of the words could, anticipate, intend, expect, believe, will, projected, estimated and similar expressions and statements relating to matters that are not historical facts are intended to identify forward-looking information and are based on LSC's current belief or assumptions as to the outcome and timing of such future events. Whether actual results and developments will conform with LSC's expectations is subject to a number of risks and uncertainties including factors underlying management's assumptions, such as risks related to: title, permitting and regulatory risks; exploration and the establishment of any resources or reserves on LSC properties; volatility in lithium prices and the market for lithium; exchange rate fluctuations; volatility in LSCs share price; the requirement for significant additional funds for development that may not be available; changes in national and local government legislation, including permitting and licensing regimes and taxation policies and the enforcement thereof; regulatory, political or economic developments in Argentina or elsewhere; litigation; title, permit or license disputes related to interests on any of the properties in which the Company holds an interest; excessive cost escalation as well as development, permitting, infrastructure, operating or technical difficulties on any of the Company's properties; risks and hazards associated with the business of development and mining on any of the Company's properties. Actual future results may differ materially. The forward-looking information contained in this release is made as of the date hereof and LSC is not obligated to update or revise any forward-looking information, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by applicable securities laws. Because of the risks, uncertainties and assumptions contained herein, investors should not place undue reliance on forward-looking information. The foregoing statements expressly qualify any forward-looking information contained herein. For more information, see the Company's filing statement on SEDAR at www.sedar.com.

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange Inc. nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

The TSX Venture Exchange Inc. has neither approved nor disapproved the contents of this press release.

1 Company press release dated January 17, 2018.Latvian English

Riga, 2018-02-28 13:45 CET (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- AS Latvenergo invites bondholders, investors, mass media representatives and other stakeholders to join its investor conference webinar scheduled on March 7, 2018 at 16:00 (EET). To join the webinar please follow the instructions below.

Webinar will be hosted by Guntars Balcuns, AS Latvenergo Chief Financial Officer. The presentation will be held in English.

During the webinar Guntars Balcuns will analyze Latvenergo Group financial results of 2017 and inform about current issues in the Group.

After the presentation investors are welcome to ask questions. Due to the limited webinar time, please send in your questions in advance until March 6 to e-mail: elizabete.kalnozola@nasdaq.com.

What is webinar?

Webinar is a virtual conference, during which companys representative gives information about the company, its activities and future plans. Webinar allows interactive communication and provides an opportunity to ask questions and get answers directly from the company.

How to join the webinar?

All you need is a computer with internet connection and headphones.

To join the webinar, we invite you to register via http://ej.uz/Latvenergo_122017.

You will be provided with the webinar link and instructions to join webinar successfully. When joining the webinar for the first time, you will be asked to download the system application on your computer which will take only few seconds.

For more information on webinar service please visit: http://www.nasdaqbaltic.com/en/products-services/webinars-3/

Additional information:

Janis Irbe

Group Treasurer

Phone: +371 67 728 239

E-mail: investor.relations@latvenergo.lv

www.latvenergo.lv

About Latvenergo

Latvenergo Group is the largest pan-Baltic power supply utility operating in electricity and thermal energy generation and trade, natural gas trade, electricity distribution services and lease of transmission system assets. Latvenergo AS has been acknowledged as the most valuable company in Latvia for several times. International credit rating agency Moodys has assigned Latvenergo AS an investment-grade credit rating of Baa2/stable.

Latvenergo Group is comprised of the parent company Latvenergo AS (generation and trade of electricity and thermal energy, trade of natural gas) and seven subsidiaries - Latvijas elektriskie tikli AS (lease of transmission system assets), Sadales tikls AS (electricity distribution), Elektrum Eesti OU (trade of electricity and natural gas in Estonia), Elektrum Lietuva UAB (trade of electricity and natural gas in Lithuania), Energijas publiskais tirgotajs AS (administration of mandatory electricity procurement process) and Liepajas energija SIA (generation and trade of thermal energy in Liepaja, electricity generation). All shares of Latvenergo AS are owned by the state and held by the Ministry of Economics of the Republic of Latvia.VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Feb. 28, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- North Arrow Minerals Inc. (TSXV:NAR) is pleased to report final diamond recoveries from a 209.8 tonne mini-bulk sample collected in July 2017 from the diamondiferous Q1-4 kimberlite at the Naujaat Diamond Project, Nunavut. Highlights of this announcement include:



A total of 1,991 diamonds greater than +1 DTC (~1 mm) weighing 64.25 carats were recovered from 209.84 dry tonnes of kimberlite for an overall sample grade of 30.6 cpht (carats per hundred tonnes).

The three largest recovered diamonds are 5.25, 2.09 and 1.06 carats.

Yellow diamonds, representing a range of hues and tones, represent approximately 10.7% (by stone count) of the recovered diamonds (21.2% by carat weight).

Diamonds recovered from a subsample of the A88 phase (Blue kimberlite) include a similar proportion of yellow diamonds as seen in 2014 sampling of the A28 phase.

The Green kimberlite unit, also processed as a separate subsample, is interpreted as a previously unrecognized and volumetrically minor unit in the Q1-4 kimberlite and contains proportionately fewer coloured diamonds than the A88 and A28 phases.

Ken Armstrong, President and CEO of North Arrow, commented, Diamond results from the 2017 mini-bulk sample have confirmed the presence of an important yellow diamond population in the A88 phase of the Q1-4 kimberlite. Further, the identification of the Green kimberlite as a new, previously unrecognized phase within Q1-4 underscores the under-evaluated nature of this diamond deposit. Q1-4 requires further evaluation, in particular the collection of a larger bulk sample of sufficient size to better determine the spatial and size distributions of Q1-4s diamond population including potentially higher value coloured diamonds.

The 2017 mini-bulk sample consisted of 209.8 dry tonnes collected from a single sample pit at the multiphase Q1-4 kimberlite, located just seven kilometres from the Companys laydown near the Hamlet of Naujaat, Nunavut. The overall sample was divided and processed separately as three subsamples: Green Kimberlite (31 bags; subsample C1), Blue Kimberlite (A88 phase; 60 bags; sub sample C2), and Mixed Blue-Green Kimberlite (159 bags; subsample C3). A summary of the diamond recoveries from each subsample is provided in the table below along with comparable results from the 2014 bulk sample collected from the A28 phase of Q1-4 (sample A282014).

Sample Weight # Diamonds Carats Sample Grade Proportion Yellow Diamonds1 (Dry tonnes) (+1 DTC) (cpht2) By Stones By Carats C1 27.06 344 8.46 31.2 2.6% 3.1% C2 51.73 467 12.99 25.1 9.9% 9.9% C3 131.04 1,180 42.80 32.6 11.6% 28.2% C1+C2+C33 209.84 1,991 64.25 30.6 10.7% 21.2% A2820144 1,353.3 11,083 384.28 28.4 9.0% 21.5%

1 includes very pale to pale to intense/dark yellow + green yellow diamonds; same colour breakdown as undertaken for sample A282014.

2 carats per hundred tonnes

3 total 2017 Pit C sample determined by arithmetic

4 As reported in North Arrow news release dated May 5, 2015.

Diamond recoveries from the overall sample include 1,991 diamonds greater than +1 DTC (~1 mm) weighing 64.25 carats from 209.84 dry tonnes of kimberlite for an overall sample grade of 30.6 cpht (carats per hundred tonnes). Recovered diamonds include 6 diamonds larger than the 3 grainer (~0.6 carat) size. The three largest diamonds, all recovered from the C3 subsample, are 5.25 carats (dark translucent, yellow to brown to white cubic aggregate), 2.09 carats (pale grey rounded aggregate with inclusions), and 1.06 carats (very pale green-yellow rounded flattish diamond with inclusions). The 2.09 carat stone retains some external kimberlite coating that would be removed with cleaning.

Yellow diamonds, representing a range of hues and tones, were compiled and documented for each of the subsamples and comprise approximately 2.6% by stone count and 3.1% by carat weight of the diamonds recovered from the C1 (Green kimberlite) subsample and 9.9%, by both stone count and carat weight, of the diamonds recovered from the C2 (A88) subsample. Yellow diamonds comprise approximately 11.6% by stone count and 28.2% by carat weight (reduced to 18.1% if the 5.25 ct diamond is removed) of the diamonds recovered from the C3 subsample, which contained a mixture of A88 and Green kimberlite.

The purpose of the 2017 sample was to acquire further information on the commercial sized (+1 mm) diamond population in the under sampled A88 phase of the kimberlite. The sampled kimberlite was easily accessed, using a small excavator, beneath approximately one metre of glacial till in a location 400m southwest of a large 1,350 tonne sample of the A28 phase collected in 2014. As reported in North Arrow news release dated September 12, 2017, the 2017 sample pit exposed a north trending internal contact between two distinct kimberlite phases. The majority of the pit area (~70%) was comprised of the volcaniclastic A88 kimberlite (field name: Blue kimberlite). The remainder of the sample pit area consisted of a dark green, coherent kimberlite unit (field name: Green kimberlite). Ongoing detailed evaluation of the Green kimberlite, including a review of drilling information, indicates this unit is a previously un-identified, volumetrically limited phase within Q1-4 that crosscuts A88 and possibly the A48b and A61 kimberlite phases of the pipe. Based on the identification of two distinct kimberlite units within the 2017 sample pit.

Mr. Armstrong continued, As intended, this point source mini-bulk sample will help provide an indication of the diamond population and recoverable grade in a previously under sampled but accessible area of Q1-4 with the goal of providing information to help plan the collection of a larger bulk sample for the purposes of diamond valuation in support of an economic assessment of the deposit.

The diamond results reported in this release are based on dense media separation (DMS) and caustic fusion processing and diamond extraction work completed by Microlithics Laboratories, Thunder Bay, Ontario, and I&M Morrison Geological Services Ltd, Delta, British Columbia, both independent mineral process and sorting laboratories. The sample was processed at Microlithics through a 1.5 tonne per hour DMS plant configured to recover diamonds retained on a 0.8 mm square mesh sieve. Kimberlite was fed directly into the DMS plant with plus 150 mm oversize material first crushed to 75 mm. All plus 10 mm material was subsequently reduced through staged, secondary jaw and cone crushing circuits and re-introduced into the plant. DMS concentrates were then upgraded by caustic fusion processes (single burn) and the resultant residues were shipped to I&M Morrison where they were sieved and fractions retained on a +0.85 mm Tyler (square mesh sieve) were sorted for diamonds. Some sieved fractions were further upgraded using paramagnetic separation techniques prior to diamond extraction. Quality assurance protocols, security and actual operating procedures for the processing, transport and recovery of diamonds conform to industry standard Chain of Custody provisions. 100% of inserted density tracers and natural etched diamond spikes were recovered during processing and diamond extraction. As part of North Arrows ongoing QA/QC programs, DMS tails, sorted caustic fusion residues, and other materials are subject to audit. Any significant changes in recovered diamond contents will be reported when available.

North Arrows diamond exploration programs are conducted under the direction of Kenneth Armstrong, P.Geo. (ON), President and CEO of North Arrow and a Qualified Person under NI 43-101. Mr. Armstrong has reviewed the contents of this press release.

About North Arrow Minerals

North Arrow is a Canadian based exploration company focused on the identification and evaluation of diamond exploration opportunities in Canada. North Arrows management, board of directors and advisors have significant successful experience in the Canadian diamond industry. In addition to evaluating the Naujaat Project, North Arrow is also preparing for exploration drilling programs this spring at the Loki and LDG Projects in the NWT and to test newly discovered diamondiferous kimberlite at the Mel Project (NU). The Company is also awaiting till sample results from its Pikoo (SK) Project and maintains a 100% interest in the Hope Bay Oro Gold Project (NU), located approximately 3 km north of TMAC Resources new Doris Gold Mine.

North Arrow Minerals Inc.

/s/ Kenneth A. Armstrong

Kenneth Armstrong

President and CEO

For further information, please contact:

Ken Armstrong

Tel: 604-668-8355 or 604-668-8354

Website: www.northarrowminerals.com

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider accepts responsibility

for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

This news release contains "forward-looking statements" including but not limited to statements with respect to North Arrows plans, the estimation of a mineral resource and the success of exploration activities. Forward-looking statements, while based on management's best estimates and assumptions, are subject to risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to be materially different from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements, including but not limited to: risks related to the successful integration of acquisitions; risks related to general economic and market conditions; closing of financing; the timing and content of upcoming work programs; actual results of proposed exploration activities; possible variations in mineral resources or grade; failure of plant, equipment or processes to operate as anticipated; accidents, labour disputes, title disputes, claims and limitations on insurance coverage and other risks of the mining industry; changes in national and local government regulation of mining operations, tax rules and regulations. Although North Arrow has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in forward-looking statements, there may be other factors that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. North Arrow undertakes no obligation or responsibility to update forward-looking statements, except as required by law.Tim Geibel, general manager of CATA and Venango County Transit; and Kristin Arndash, planning manager for CATA, explain the proposed fixed bus route that would take riders from Titusville to Meadville during a public meeting on Tuesday at Benson Memorial Library.[February 27, 2018] ASUS Unveils the All-New ZenFone 5 Series at MWC 2018

ASUS CEO Jerry Shen today unveiled the all-new ZenFone 5 Series at a special event in the Italian Pavilion at MWC 2018 in Barcelona, Spain. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180227006304/en/ ASUS ZenFone 5 Series (Photo: Business Wire) The lineup includes the ZenFone 5Z and the ZenFone 5, exciting high-performance 6.2-inch dual-camera smartphones that are the first ever ZenFone models to harness the power of artificial intelligence (AI), and which feature all-screen displays with a 90% screen-to-body ratio in a remarkably compact size that's comparable to a standard 5.5-inch smartphone. The ZenFone 5Z - which starts at just $499 - is a high-performance version of the ZenFone 5 powered by the latest flagship Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 Mobile Platform with the Qualcomm Artificial Intelligence Engine (AIE), featuring 6GB of RAM (News - Alert) and 64GB of storage for breathtaking performance and accelerated AI experiences. The ZenFone 5 is the first smartphone available worldwide to be powered by the latest Qualcomm (News - Alert) Snapdragon 636 Mobile Platform. The ZenFone 5Q (introduced onstage at MWC as the ZenFone 5 Lite, but available in the North America as the ZenFone 5Q) is a stylish 6-inch smartphone featuring a premium true four-camera system, with a high-resolution camera and a 120 wide-angle camera at both front and rear. "We embarked on the ZenFone project four years ago with the idea to create empowering luxury for everyone to enjoy," said Mr. Shen. "Today, the ZenFone 5 Series is the most intelligent ZenFone series ever, utilizing advanced AI algorithms and big-data analytics to provide users with a unique slate of intelligent camera, communication and convenience features." Joining Mr. Shen on-stage for the announcement, Qualcomm President Cristiano Amon commented, "We are excited to continue to work with ASUS to bring the latest advancements in mobile to consumers with the ZenFone 5 Series. Powered by powerful Snapdragon Mobile Platforms, ZenFone 5Z (Snapdragon 845 with the AIE) and ZenFone 5 (Snapdragon 636) will support superior user experiences that include dual cameras and artificial intelligence." Following the press event, OK Go - a multi-award-winning rock band from the US, whose honors include a GRAMMY - performed live at the after party. OK Go has joined in partnership with ASUS to work on the ZenFone 5 marketing campaign. In addition to the products unveiled on stage, the brand-new ZenFone Max M1 smartphone and the ASUS NovaGo always-connected laptop were also showcased in the demo area. ZenFone 5Z and ZenFone 5 The ZenFone 5Z is an exciting next-generation 6.2-inch, dual-camera smartphone that comes with a beautiful all-screen display featuring a 90% screen-to-body ratio, packed in a 5.5-inch body size. It's the first-ever ZenFone model to harness the power of the latest Snapdragon 845 Mobile Platform with AIE, featuring a 3rd Generation AI platform that includes the Hexagon 685 Vector DSP, Adreno 630 Graphics, and Kryo 385 CPU. The ZenFone 5Z also benefits from the Snapdragon X20 Gigabit LTE (News - Alert) modem, delivering speeds that surpass the gigabit barrier for a 'wireless fiber' experience, as well as integrated 2x2 802.11ac Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 5 for ultra-low-power wireless earbuds. The high-performance ZenFone 5Z comes with 6GB of RAM and 64GB of storage, offering breathtaking performance combined with outstanding energy efficiency for long-lasting battery life. The ZenFone 5 features an exquisitely crafted design, an amazing dual-camera system, and is powered by the latest Snapragon 636 Mobile Platform. Both the ZenFone 5 and ZenFone 5Z feature intelligent dual-camera systems that adapt and learn, delivering perfect photos every time. Equipped with the latest flagship Sony IMX363 sensor with large 1.4m pixels, an f/1.8 wide-aperture lens, a 120 wide-angle secondary camera, four-axis optical image stabilization (OIS) and AI-enhanced camera features - including AI Scene Detection for 16 different scenes and objects, AI Photo Learning, Real-time Portrait and Real-time Beautification - the ZenFone 5Z and ZenFone 5 encourage creativity and free the user to concentrate on the subject rather than the camera.



ZenFone 5Q The ZenFone 5Q is a stylish 6-inch smartphone featuring a premium true four-camera system with high-resolution and wide-angle cameras at both front and rear. The ZenFone 5Q removes the limits on photographic creativity, with a high-resolution main camera - 20MP Sony at the front, 16MP at the rear - and, uniquely, a secondary 120 wide-angle camera at both front and rear. Unlike rival systems, each camera works independently every time for perfect selfies, group selfies (wefies), landscapes, portraits or groups shots. The 6-inch Full HD+ IPS display has a Full View 18:9 aspect ratio and an ultraslim bezel, making the pocket-friendly ZenFone 5Q as compact as a standard-aspect-ratio 5.5-inch phone. Powered by the Snapdragon 630 Mobile Platform, the ZenFone 5Q combines incredible performance, optimized power efficiency and a 3300mAh battery with advanced security and convenience features - including NFC, triple-slot SIM/microSD card holder, rapid face unlock and fingerprint recognition - for a complete smartphone experience.

ZenFone Max M1 The ZenFone Max M1 is the latest model in the new ZenFone Max Series - renowned for its high battery capacities. The ZenFone Max M1 has a 5.5-inch full-view display in an amazingly compact body that's no larger than many standard 5-inch smartphones, yet comes packed with a high-capacity 4000mAh battery. With its expanded viewing area, compact size, dual rear cameras (one wide-angle), and convenient fingerprint-based unlocking, the ZenFone Max M1 offers a class-leading combination of features designed to encompass all life's adventures. The ZenFone Max M1 has the stamina to go the distance, and lets photo-lovers see the bigger picture with a wider range of creative options - all in a stylish metallic-finished design that's ergonomic and comfortable to hold. ASUS NovaGo The ASUS NovaGo is the world's first Gigabit LTE-capable laptop designed for truly connected mobility, providing users with an always-on, always-connected experience. This ultrathin and light convertible laptop is powered by the Snapdragon 835 Mobile PC Platform, and features a Snapdragon X16 Gigabit LTE modem for download speeds up to 3-7 times faster than average broadband speeds, and has integrated 2x2 11ac Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 5 support. It has up to a 22-hour battery life with over 30 days of modern standby. Quick-charge functionality gives the NovaGo up to five hours of battery life from a 15-minute charge. The NovaGo is a new breed of laptop designed for the tech-savvy user who is aware of the new and exciting always on, always connected possibilities. It provides familiar Windows experiences plus new features such as Windows Ink, Windows Hello and Cortana with blazing-fast connectivity and exceptional on-the-go power efficiency. PRODUCT IMAGES AND ADDITIONAL ANNOUNCEMENTS https://tinyurl.com/asus-mwc2018 AVAILABILITY & PRICING Please contact your local ASUS representative for further information. ASUS at Mobile World Congress (News - Alert) 2018: If you are interested in meeting with ASUS, and checking out the ZenFone 5 Series or the ASUS NovaGo at Mobile World Congress, please reach out to the press contacts listed below. RELATED PRESS RELEASES: ASUS Unveils the All-New ZenFone 5 Series at MWC 2018

ASUS Announces the Brand-New ZenFone 5Z

ASUS Announces the All-New ZenFone 5

ASUS Announces the ZenFone 5Q

ASUS Announces ZenFone Max M1

ASUS Announces NovaGo with Qualcomm and Microsoft

ASUS ZenFone Max Plus M1 Now Available About ASUS ASUS is one of Fortune magazine's World's Most Admired Companies, and is dedicated to creating products for today and tomorrow's smart life. Our comprehensive portfolio includes Zenbo, ZenFone, ZenBook and a range of IT devices and components, along with AR, VR and IoT. ASUS employs more than 16,000 people worldwide and over 5,000 world-class R&D talents. Driven by innovation and committed to quality, the company won 4,511 awards and earned approximately US$13 billion of revenue in 2017. Qualcomm, and Snapdragon, Hexagon, Adreno, and Kryo are trademarks of Qualcomm Incorporated, registered in the United States and other countries. Qualcomm Snapdragon, Qualcomm Artificial Intelligence Engine, Qualcomm Hexagon, Qualcomm Adreno, and Qualcomm Kryo are products of Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. and/or its subsidiaries. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180227006304/en/

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ][February 27, 2018] Glancy Prongay & Murray LLP Commences Investigation on Behalf of FMC Corporation Investors (FMC)

Glancy Prongay & Murray LLP ("GPM") announces an investigation on behalf of FMC Corporation (NYSE: FMC) investors concerning the Company and its directors' and officers' possible violations of state laws. To obtain information or aid in the investigation, please visit the FMC investigation page on our website at www.glancylaw.com/case/fmc-corporation.



If you purchased FMC stock, have information, or would like to learn more about these claims, or have any questions concerning this announcement or your rights or interests with respect to these matters, please contact Lesley Portnoy, of GPM, 1925 Century Park East, Suite 2100, Los Angeles, CA (News - Alert) 90067 at 310-201-9150, Toll-Free at 888-773-9244, or Bryan Faubus, of GPM, 230 Park Avenue, Suite 530, New York, NY 10169 at 212-682-5340 or at bfaubus@glancylaw.com, or visit our website at www.glancylaw.com. If you inquire by email please include your mailing address, telephone number, and the number of shares purchased. This press release may be considered Attorney Advertising in some jurisdictions under the applicable law and ethical rules.

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180227006756/en/

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ][February 27, 2018] The Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization (ADAO) Extends Gratitude to Congresswoman Bonamici and Original Cosponsors for Introducing House Companion Bill for The Alan Reinstein Ban Asbestos Now Act

The Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization (ADAO), an independent nonprofit dedicated to preventing asbestos exposure, today applauds Congresswoman Susan Bonamici (D-OR)-along with cosponsors Reps. Steve Cohen (D-TN), Anna Eshoo (D- CA (News - Alert) ), Zoe Lofgren (D-CA), Betty McCollum (D-MN), Jim McGovern (D-MA), Mark Pocan (D-WI), Jamie Raskin (D-MD), Jan Schakowsky (D-IL), and Paul Tonko (D-NY)-for the introduction of the House companion bill for The Alan Reinstein Ban Asbestos Now Act of 2017 (ARBAN). With this Act, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) would be able to make the manufacture, processing, use, commercial distribution, and disposal of asbestos illegal after 18 months of its passage. This is in stark contrast to the current review cycle that can take up to 7 years, as mandated by the Frank R. Lautenberg Chemical Safety for the 21st Century Act that passed in the summer of 2016. Annually, an estimated 15,000 Americans die from preventable asbestos-related diseases, yet the imports and use continue. The timing of the bill is critical, noted ADAO's Presient Linda Reinstein and widow to the bill's namesake.



"ADAO is extremely thankful to Congresswoman Bonamici for the introduction of The Alan Reinstein Ban Asbestos Now Act of 2017," said Reinstein. "The facts are irrefutable -- asbestos kills. In 2016, the asbestos imports nearly doubled as the chemical industry shamefully continued to put profits over people. With the passage of ARBAN, we can work to end the asbestos man-made disaster." "We have known about the dangers of asbestos for decades, and many countries have banned it for good reason. It's past time for Congress to take action and save lives," said Congresswoman Suzanne Bonamici. "Congress and the EPA must immediately work together to protect the health of our communities from this known carcinogen. Families in Oregon and around the country have lost parents, children, and loved ones to asbestos-related diseases, and there is no reason more families should have to suffer. We must protect our communities and make sure that nobody else is exposed to this deadly toxin."

Early supporters for ARBAN include: the American Public Health Association (APHA); Center for Asbestos Related Disease (CARD), Libby, MT; Environmental Information Association (EIA); Environmental Working Group (EWG); Global Ban Asbestos Network (GBAN); Less Cancer; Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC); Safer Chemicals, Healthy Families (SCHF); and internationally, Associacao Brasileira dos Expostos ao Amianto (ABREA). About the Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization The Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization (ADAO) is a global leader in combining education, advocacy, and community initiatives to prevent and end asbestos exposure. ADAO seeks to raise public awareness about the dangers of asbestos, advocate for an asbestos ban, and protect asbestos victims' civil rights. ADAO, a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, does not make legal referrals. For more information, visit www.asbestosdiseaseawareness.org. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180227006783/en/

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ][February 27, 2018] Budget 2018 Brings Canadian Biotechnology Ecosystem Opportunity for Growth

BIOTECanada, the national industry association representing biotechnology companies welcomes the initiatives and measures of the 2018 Federal Budget which support the growth and competitiveness of the biotechnology ecosystem in Canada. "The industry applauds the Budget's investment to support the work of researchers at post-secondary institutions and research hospitals, the newest funding for fundamental research through the granting councils in Canadian history. The Canadian biotechnology sector is a great example of home grown talent with hundreds of early stage companies emanating from great Canadian research. The Government's innovation agenda is well aligned with the biotechnology sector's key objective of moving research into globally competitive Canadian companies in agriculture, health and industrial biotechnology. Together these initiatives will align public policy to meet the demands of a 21st century economy bringing together: world-class universities and research institutes; biotech entrepreneurs; a significant multinational industry presence; and, a highly educated workforce," commented Andrew Casey, President ad CEO BIOTECanada. "Also, the funds committed to key existing programs such as the Industrial Research Assistance Program and the Strategic Investment Fund will significantly enhance support for the early stage growth of Canadian biotech companies. Moreover, the measures to create an efficient and predictable regulatory system particularly for the agri-food, aquaculture and health/bioscience sectors will significantly enhance Canada's global competitiveness in these areas."



"The industry supports the establishment of the Advisory Council on the Implementation of National Pharmacare. As the Budget states, the existing patchwork of coverage is failing to provide all Canadians with equal and affordable access to drugs and therapies. The industry supports the government's initiative to increase coordination and predictability in the healthcare system as it will support improved accessibility, affordability and ultimately attract investment into Canada's biotech sector. In this context the industry stands ready to work with the Dr. Hoskins and the Council over the course of its mandate," Casey concluded. All told, the Canadian national biotech ecosystem is an economic strength that positions Canada well to compete in the emerging global bio-economy. The Budget will help harness many of these strengths to accelerate Canada's biotechnology innovation progress.

BIOTECanada is the national industry association with more than 200 members located nationwide, reflecting the diverse nature of Canada's health, industrial and agricultural biotechnology sectors. In addition to providing significant health benefits for Canadians, the biotechnology industry has quickly become an essential part of the transformation of many traditional cornerstones of the Canadian economy including manufacturing, automotive, energy, aerospace and forestry. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180227006792/en/

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ][February 27, 2018]

Good start but not enough to save newspapers, media union says

TORONTO, Feb. 27, 2018 /CNW/ - Canada's largest media union says the Liberal budget announcement of $10 million per year for five years for community newspapers is on the right track, but not enough to rescue local news.

"The money will do some good in small communities," said Unifor national president Jerry Dias. "But the threat to local news exists in every one of 100 Canadian cities, big, middle and small. This budget commitment doesn't rise to the challenge."

Dias said that the $10 million is a token commitment towards the $350 million that the news industry needs, and a fraction of the $150 million that the Liberal government acknowledged was necessary to revive the CBC.







"Google and Facebook own the advertising market that used to sustain Canadian news outlets," said Dias. "The government can't just watch while local newsrooms disappear."

Dias said the federal government should reconsider industry recommendations to align the tax rules on digital advertising with print and broadcast media.

The government doesn't have to write big cheques to Canadian newspaper companies if it treats Google and Facebook the same as American print and TV companies, Dias said.

"We need more money to support frontline news, and we need a revamp of the federal tax laws that is fair to Canadian online journalism," said Paul Morse, president of Unifor Local 87-M, which represents about 2,000 media workers across southern Ontario, primarily in newspapers.

Canadian newsrooms have shrunk by 25 per cent since the Liberals took office in 2015.

SOURCE Unifor Local 87-M[February 27, 2018] SWIFT gpi reduces cross-border payment times to minutes, even seconds

- 50% of SWIFT gpi payments are credited in less than 30 minutes

- Payments are being sent across 220 country corridors

- New corridors are being opened every day

- More than 100 billion USD in gpi payments made per day BRUSSELS, Feb. 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- SWIFT announces today that more than 100 billion USD in SWIFT gpi messages are being sent every day, enabling payments to be credited to end beneficiaries within minutes - many within seconds. Overall, nearly 50% of SWIFT gpi payments are credited to end beneficiaries within 30 minutes[i], and almost 100% of payments within 24 hours. Those that take longer are typically delayed due to the completion of more complex foreign exchange conversions, compliance checks or regulatory authorisations. SWIFT gpi has been adopted by more than 150 financial institutions around the world and hundreds of thousands of payments, representing nearly 10% of SWIFT's cross-border payments traffic, are being sent daily across 220 international payment corridors. This includes major country corridors such as USA-China, where gpi payments already account for more than 25% of the payment traffic. In addition to the 150 financial institutions that have adopted gpi, more than 50 payment market infrastructures are already exchanging gpi payments, enabling domestic exchange and tracking. Payment market infrastructures have a critical role to play in facilitating the end-to-end tracking of cross-border payments because as soon as international payments hit the destination country, they are typically cleared through local payment infrastructures. By being able to continue to track the payments in real-time, banks and their corporate clients can optimise their funds. "Thanks to SWIFT gpi, banks are able to credit payments within minutes and even seconds, while their customers are facing shorter supply cycles and able to ship goods faster. This is a very significant step forward for banks and for their customers," says Harry Newman, Head of Banking, SWIFT. "In addition, banks receive fewer queries and have told us their enquiry-related costs are reduced by as much as 50% when they use SWIFT gpi. This is a major service improvement to end-users and a considerable cost saving for the industry." "We have seen a surge in both gpi adoption rates and number of transactions, and we expect adoption of SWIFT gpi to now grow very significantly. Instead of focussing on a limited number of bilateral routes which has limited value both for banks and their customers, gpi already offers very extensive coverage across banks, markets and geographies. By adding new banks and corridors every day, SWIFT gpi ensures banks and their customers get a truly global, fast, secure, and transparent cross-border payments service." About SWIFT gpi The SWIFT global payments innovation (SWIFT gpi) is the largest change in cross-border payments over the last 30 years and is the new standard. SWIFT gpi dramatically improves the customer experience in cross-border payments by increasing their speed, transparency and end-to-end tracking. Hundreds of thousands of cross-border payments are today being sent using the new gpi standard, and payments are made quickly, typically within minutes, even seconds. SWIFT gpi allows corporates to receive an enhanced payments service from their banks, with the following key features: Faster, same day use of funds within the time zone of the receiving gpi member

Transparency of fees

End-to-end payments tracking

Remittance information transferred unaltered As an initiative, SWIFT gpi engages the global banking industry and fintech communities to innovate in the area of cross-border payments while reducing their back-office costs. Since its launch in January 2017, gpi has dramatically improved the cross-border payments experience for corporates in over 200 country corridors. Key features of the gpi service include enhanced business rules and a secure tracking database in the cloud accessible via APIs. Thanks to SWIFT gpi, corporates can grow their international business, improve supplier relationships, and achieve greater treasury efficiencies. About SWIFT

SWIFT is a global member owned cooperative and the world's leading provider of secure financial messaging services. We provide our community with a platform for messaging and standards for communicating, and we offer products and services to facilitate access and integration, identification, analysis and regulatory compliance. Our messaging platform, products and services connect more than 11,000 banking and securities organisations, market infrastructures and corporate customers in more than 200 countries and territories. While SWIFT does not hold funds or manage accounts on behalf of customers, we enable our global community of users to communicate securely, exchanging standardised financial messages in a reliable way, thereby supporting global and local financial flows, as well as trade and commerce all around the world. As their trusted provider, we relentlessly pursue operational excellence; we support our community in addressing cyber threats; and we continually seek ways to lower costs, reduce risks and eliminate operational inefficiencies. Our products and services support our community's access and integration, business intelligence, reference data and financial crime compliance needs. SWIFT also brings the financial community together  at global, regional and local levels  to shape market practice, define standards and debate issues of mutual interest or concern. Headquartered in Belgium, SWIFT's international governance and oversight reinforces the neutral, global character of its cooperative structure. SWIFT's global office network ensures an active presence in all the major financial centres. For more information, visit www.swift.com or follow us on Twitter: @swiftcommunity and LinkedIn: SWIFT. Contacts:

Jaime Lee

+852-2107-8860

jaime.lee@swift.com







[i] SWIFT gpi defines a payment as 'successfully completed' when it is credited by a bank to an end beneficiary's account  typically a bank's corporate or retail client. This is a key differentiator over other systems which focus on the speed of transfers between two banks without considering the additional time taken to process the payment by the receiving bank.

Logo - http://photos.prnasia.com/prnh/20160127/8521600559Logo SOURCE S.W.I.F.T.SCRL

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ][February 28, 2018] TalentSprint Launches Data Science for Managers in Association With Praxis Business School

HYDERABAD, India, February 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- The company has embarked on a plan to create 100,000 experts in disruptive technologies including Data Science, Blockchain, FinTech, AI and ML Aligning with India's mission to empower 2 Million professionals with future technologies, TalentSprint has embarked on an ambitious plan to enable 100,000 professionals to gain expertise in disruptive technologies including Data Science, Blockchain, FinTech, AI and ML. To that end, company has announced the launch of 'Data Science for Managers' in partnership with Praxis Business School. (Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/642911/TalentSprint_Logo.jpg ) (Photo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/647482/TalentSprint_Praxis_Business_School.jpg )



Speaking to media, Dr. Santanu Paul, MD & CEO, TalentSprint, said, "We want to enable 100,000 working professionals gain expertise in disruptive technologies in the next five years. We are launching programs in association with best-in-class partners. Our newest program - Data Science for Managers - is with Praxis, a leading B-school known for its data science and analytics expertise. Our FinTech and Blockchain program is with global industry leaders: Ripple, PayPal, Paytm Payments Bank, ICICI Bank, Indian Angel Network." According to a forecast by PWC, 2.7 million new data science and analytical jobs will be created by 2020. Business decisions are taken based on data. With volumes of data exploding on one hand and business decisions becoming complex on the other hand, it is critical for modern managers and business leaders to gain expertise in using data science oolchains. This is a universal skillset required across all industries, not just IT.



Speaking on the occasion, Charanpreet Singh, Co-founder and Director, Praxis Business School Foundation, "We realize that, moving forward, all managers need to be data fluent. Praxis enjoys a nationwide #2 ranking for its full-time programs in business analytics. Data Science for Managers is specifically designed for managers and business leaders across all sectors. It emphasizes case studies as a primary tool to build expertise in Data Science and is in sync with Praxis' mission to empower managers with deep data skills. Praxis is happy to partner TalentSprint and bring its program to the working professionals of Hyderabad." The Data Science for Managers program, ideal for practicing managers and business leaders across all sectors, will start from March 2018. It will be initially offered in Hyderabad. The program will be led by the reputed experts: Dr. Prithwis Mukherjee, Charanpreet Singh and Asokan Pichai. More on the program at: http://www.talentsprint.com/dsfm

TalentSprint also announced the Hyderabad batch of Foundations of FinTech and Blockchain program. This program is offered in association with global industry leaders Ripple, PayPal, Paytm Payments Bank, ICICI Bank and Indian Angel Network. The first batch in Hyderabad will start from March 2018. The program will be delivered by Ritesh Modi and Sameer Singh Jaini, who are recognized experts in the fields of Blockchain and FinTech respectively. More on the program at: http://www.talentsprint.com/ftbc About TalentSprint: TalentSprint is a new-age digital platform to transform the lives of job seekers and working professionals. Its blended bootcamps empower professionals with high end disruptive skills. The AI-powered digital platform enables learners to get ahead and stay ahead in a hyper-competitive world. Funded by Nexus Venture Partners and the National Skill Development Corporation, TalentSprint aims to empower ONE MILLION professionals by 2020. For more information please visit http://www.talentsprint.com About Praxis

'Praxis' - the translation of theory into practice - has been the guiding philosophy of the institution and has enabled its evolution into a contemporary, industry-facing Business School. Praxis Business School pioneered analytics teaching in the country in 2011. Praxis programs have been well received by the industry and has been consistently ranked as one of the top 5 programs in data science in India. Praxis has been chosen as the academic partner for the Andhra Government's International Institute of Digital Technologies and has also signed up with Pune University as its analytics partner. For more information see: http://www.praxis.ac.in

For more information please contact:

K. Sridhar

Chief Digital Officer

TalentSprint

sridhark@talentsprint.com



Tanushree Kulkarni

tanushree@candour.co.in

+91-8861005345

Candour Communications





[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ][February 28, 2018] TDK to acquire Chirp Microsystems, aiming for leadership in ultrasonic sensing solutions

TDK Corporation (TSE: 6762) (President and CEO: Shigenao Ishiguro, hereinafter "TDK") announced that it has reached an agreement with Chirp Microsystems, Inc. (Headquarters: Berkeley California U.S., hereinafter "Chirp"), a pioneer in high-performance ultrasonic sensing, in which Chirp becomes a wholly owned subsidiary of TDK. TDK expects to close the acquisition within the coming days. Chirp is engaged in high-performance ultrasonic sensors featuring smaller sizes and lower power consumption compared with existing sensors. Chirp's solutions are expected to find broader applications, such as augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR), in addition to areas such as smartphones, automobiles, industrial machinery and other ICT applications. Chirp solutions enable extremely precise sensing, ranging from several centimeters to several meters, sensing the distance to an object and expanding the way users can operate with AR and VR, detect the proximity distance when using smartphones, and track the variance between a vehicle and obstacles when driving. In addition, the sensor operates with low power consumption and enables products to be reduced in size, providing an outstanding sensor solution that is extremely easy for consumers to use. Furthermore, the addition of Chirp's ultrasonic sensor solutions in combination to the existing fingerprint sensors offered by TDK subsidiary InvenSense, will significantly expand TDK's ultrasonic sensor solutions. "TDK is committed to contributing to the growth of systems deployed in the automotive, mobile, health-care and industrial industries. Our vision is to be the leading solutions provider of sensors for motion, sound, environmental elements (pressure, temperature and humidity), and ultrasonic sensors for the Internet of Things (IoT) era," said Noboru Saito, Senior Vice President, TDK and CEO of Sensor Systems Business Company. "Chirp'sunique and high value-added 3-D sensing technologies will fill out our lineup of sensor solutions, positioning TDK as the leader in ultrasonic MEMS technology. We aim to continue to be a reliable partner that can provide solutions to the challenges our customers face."



"Our team is excited to be part of the TDK family. We believe together we can bring ultrasonic sensors to a wide variety of products at an even greater speed and scale than we could on our own," said Michelle Kiang, Chirp's CEO. "We see so many synergies with TDK technologies; EPCOS is a world-leader in piezo-ceramic sensors and actuators, and InvenSense is a world-leader in MEMS sensors for consumer electronics." The acquisition will further accelerate TDK's sensor and actuator business, providing an extensive sensor product lineup, including pressure, temperature, current, and magnetic sensors, as it continues to expand its sensor business.

TDK Corporation and Chirp are available for on-site discussions at the upcoming Mobile World Congress (News - Alert) , along with additional innovative sensor solutions in Meeting Space - 2C40MR, Hall 2 of the Gran Via at MWC 2018, February 26 - March 1, 2018, Barcelona, Spain. For additional information or to set up a meeting appointment, please contact dalmoslino@invensense.com. About TDK Corporation TDK Corporation is a leading electronics company based in Tokyo, Japan. It was established in 1935 to commercialize ferrite, a key material in electronic and magnetic products. TDK's portfolio includes passive components, such as ceramic, aluminum electrolytic and film capacitors, ferrites and inductors, high-frequency products, and piezo and protection components, as well as sensors and sensor systems and power supplies. These products are marketed under the product brands TDK, EPCOS, InvenSense, Micronas, Tronics and TDK-Lambda. TDK's further main product groups include magnetic application products, energy devices, and flash memory application devices. TDK focuses on demanding markets in the areas of information and communication technology and automotive, industrial and consumer electronics. The company has a network of design and manufacturing locations and sales offices in Asia, Europe, and in North and South America. In fiscal 2017, TDK posted total sales of USD 10.5 billion and employed about 100,000 people worldwide. About Chirp Microsystems Chirp Microsystems mission is to bring ultrasonic sensing to everyday products. Founded in 2013 based on pioneering research performed at the University of California, Chirp's piezoelectric MEMS ultrasonic transducers offer long range and low power sensing capabilities in a micro-scale package, enabling products to accurately perceive absolute position in the three-dimensional world in which we live. Combined with Chirp's embedded software library, these sensors advance user experiences with VR/AR, mobile, wearables, robotics, drones and occupancy detection. For more information, please visit: http://www.chirpmicro.com. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180227006302/en/

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]Team Tankers International Ltd ("Team Tankers" or the "Company") is pleased to announce that it has entered into share purchase agreements to acquire all outstanding shares in each of Laurin Shipping AB ("Laurin Shipping") (the "Laurin Shipping Transaction") and Anglo-Atlantic Steamship Company Ltd. ("Anglo-Atlantic") (the "AA Transaction"). In combination with associated ship purchases, the total estimated enterprise value of the series of transactions is approximately $206 million. Upon completion of the transactions, Team Tankers will grow its fleet from 37 to 52 vessels.

With the acquisition of Laurin Shipping, trading under the Laurin Maritime brand, Team Tankers adds a leading medium range tanker ("MR") operator with commercial and technical expertise to the Company's robust chemical tanker platform. The acquisition of Anglo-Atlantic secures a critical mass of sophisticated MRs and a broad portfolio of contracts of affreightment which, combined with Team Tanker's deep-sea chemical transportation expertise, will create a leading player in the long-haul transportation of chemical and clean petroleum product cargoes.

Team Tankers' Chief Executive Officer, Hans Feringa, commented: "We have communicated to the market the need for consolidation in the chemical tanker industry. As a first step towards further consolidation, we are pleased to announce this combination with Laurin Shipping and Anglo-Atlantic. Team Tankers will benefit greatly from Laurin Shipping's deep relationships, years of experience and Anglo-Atlantic's contracted cargo coverage. We believe that the current level of asset prices in the shipping cycle provides a favorable point of entry for this investment "

Laurin Maritime's CEO Mikael Laurin stated: "We are excited to join forces with a leading listed chemical tanker operator. The combination of the three companies will create a focused and integrated entity with ample muscle to make the most of future market opportunities."

The consummation of the Laurin Shipping Transaction and the AA Transaction (jointly, the "Transactions") is subject to terms and conditions set out in the agreements. The series of transactions between the Sellers and Team Tankers that equates to an estimated $206 million total enterprise value consists of:

The purchase of the MR "Tosca" (completed 2 Feb 2018)

The purchase of Laurin Shipping - commercial and technical operator of MRs

The purchase of Anglo-Atlantic - ship owning company with 6 owned, 3 bareboat chartered and 6 time-chartered MRs currently

The expected purchase in May 2018 of the 3 MRs currently bareboat chartered by Anglo-Atlantic with purchase options attached to the charters

In addition to increasing Team Tankers' owned vessel fleet by 10 MRs, the Transactions should deliver significant operational synergies. The combination of platforms is expected to result in overhead savings that will reduce the Company's administrative costs on a per ship day basis. Further, Team Tankers gains access to Laurin Shipping's in-house technical management expertise which should lead to enhanced operational control of the Company's fleet resulting in high-quality service to the Company's customers. On the commercial operating front, Laurin Shipping's dense Atlantic basin cargo network fits well with the Team Tankers' historical strength in trans-Pacific chemical transportation.

Financing for the Transactions will come from Team Tankers' cash on hand and a new $220 million senior secured credit facility that will refinance the existing indebtedness of both Team Tankers and Anglo-Atlantic. The $220 million facility will consist of a $200 million term loan and a $20 million revolver and will contain terms similar to Team Tankers' existing loan agreements. ABN AMRO has been appointed sole bookrunner and agent for the facility.

The Transactions are subject to the completion of the financing described above and the election of Mikael Laurin to the Team Tankers Board of Directors. The Transactions are expected to close by 6 April 2018. Further information about the Transactions can be found below.

Further Information about Laurin Shipping AB

Laurin Shipping AB is a private company incorporated in Sweden and founded in 1980 by Hans and Agneta Laurin. Laurin Shipping and its subsidiaries, trading under the Laurin Maritime brand, are engaged in the full-service operation of sophisticated medium range tankers, providing commercial, technical and administrative services. Laurin Maritime's core fleet consists of modern MRs which can switch between clean petroleum products and large parcels of chemicals to provide maximum flexibility of operation. The current operated fleet consists of 15 MRs between 45,000 and 50,000 dwt.

The senior management includes the CEO of Laurin Shipping Ulrika Laurin, the CEO of Laurin Maritime Mikael Laurin, COO Michael Wilson, Commercial Director Steen Eriksen, Technical Director Bertil Andersson, HR & Quality Director Carina Wermelin and CFO Hakan Skogstrom.

The Board of Directors of Laurin Shipping consist of Ulrika Laurin (Chairperson), Anneli Delmas, Marissa Laurin and Mikael Laurin.

As of 31 December 2017, Laurin Shipping had 43 employees in four global offices: Gothenburg, Sweden; Houston, USA; Singapore and Manila, Philippines.

Further information may be found on Laurin Maritime's website: www.laurinmaritime.com.

As of December 31, 2016, Laurin Shipping had total assets of SEK 33.4 million (2015: SEK 28.7 million, 2014: SEK 23.8 million) and shareholders' equity of SEK 15.7 million (2015: 13.4 million, 2014: 7.7 million). For the year ended December 31, 2016, Laurin Shipping reported total revenue of SEK 106.7 million (2015: 99.8 million, 2014: 84.1 million) and net income of SEK 11.6 million (2015: 9.8 million, 2014: 5.0 million).

Further information about Anglo-Atlantic Steamship Company Ltd.

Anglo-Atlantic Steamship Co. Ltd. is a private company incorporated in the Isle of Man engaged in the ownership and chartering of tanker vessels. Currently, the fleet consists of 15 MRs: 6 vessels are owned, 6 vessels are currently on time charters, and 3 vessels are on bareboat charters.

The Board of Directors of Anglo-Atlantic consist of Ulrika Laurin, Christian strup, Winifred Kearns and Barry Hughes.

As of December 31, 2016, Anglo-Atlantic had total assets of $173.7 million (2015: 251.5 million, 2014: 255.5 million) and shareholders' equity of $87.2 million (2015: 136.0 million, 2014: 138.6 million). For the year ended December 31, 2016, Anglo-Atlantic reported total revenue of $153.8 million (2015: 145.0 million, 2014: 137.4 million) and net income/loss of -$50.9 million (2015: -3.5 million, 2014: -19.4 million).

The Transactions

The Laurin Shipping Transaction has been entered into with Ulrika Laurin, Mikael Laurin, Anneli Delmas and Marissa Laurin (collectedly referred to as the "Laurins") and concerns the sale and purchase of all outstanding shares in Laurin Shipping. The AA Transaction has been entered into with Thunder Bay Ltd ("Thunder Bay") and concerns the sale and purchase of all outstanding shares in Anglo-Atlantic.

The purchase price payable for the shares in Laurin Shipping and Anglo-Atlantic is estimated to be approximately $10 million and $55 million, respectively, but will be subject to adjustments upon the consummation of the Transactions. The purchase price in the Laurin Shipping Transaction shall be settled through cash payment to the Laurins. The purchase price in the AA Transaction shall be settled through a combination of cash and shares in Team Tankers (the "Consideration Shares"). The Consideration Shares will partly consist of currently held treasury shares by the Company and newly issued shares. The number of Consideration Shares to be delivered to Thunder Bay is calculated based on an estimated price of NOK 15.73 per Consideration Share. The final price of the Consideration Shares will be subject to adjustments upon the consummation of the AA Transaction including the USD/NOK exchange rate at closing. The aggregate cash payment to the Laurins and Thunder Bay in connection with the Transactions is expected to total approximately $23.5 million.

The consummation of the Transactions is subject to customary closing conditions, including, but not limited to, that (i) the Company shall have obtained sufficient financing, (ii) the Transactions are consummated simultaneously, (iii) no material adverse effect shall have occurred or be threatening, and (iv) a person appointed by Thunder Bay shall have been elected to the Board of Directors of Team Tankers.

The Laurins and Thunder Bay have agreed to customary representations and warranties, and Thunder Bay undertakes not to dispose of the Consideration Shares for a period of 6 months after closing of the Transactions. It is expected that Thunder Bay will acquire shares representing approximately 10% of the pro forma outstanding shares in the Company. Team Tankers has currently 3.8 million treasury shares amounting to 2.0% of current issued shares, and the Company therefore expects to issue approximately 17-21 million new shares in connection with the AA Transaction. The Company does not expect to announce any prospectus in connection with the Transactions, but an information document pursuant to section 3.5 of the Continuing Obligations for companies listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange.

Agreements with directors and executive management in connection with the Transactions

Apart from the payment of the purchase price to the sellers of Laurin Shipping and Anglo-Atlantic, the Company has not entered into any agreement for the benefit of directors or executive management in the Company, Laurin Shipping and Anglo-Atlantic in relation to the Transactions.

***

Hamilton, Bermuda, 28 February 2018

Team Tankers International Ltd.

For further information, please contact:

Hans Feringa, President and CEO

T: +1 203 221 3420

Kevin Kilcullen, CFO

T: +1 203 221 3433

This information is subject of the disclosure requirements pursuant to section 5-12 of the Norwegian Securities Trading Act and section 3.4 of the Continuing Obligations for companies listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange.[February 28, 2018] MDxHealth contract SelectMDx with Roman Hospital

NEWS RELEASE MDxHealth enters into commercial agreement for SelectMDx with Fondazione Luigi Maria Monti - Istituto Dermopatico dell' Immacolata Hospital in Rome HERSTAL, BELGIUM and IRVINE, CA - 07:00 CEST, February 28, 2017 - MDxHealth SA (Euronext: MDXH.BR ) a world-leading player in the field of molecular diagnostic prostate cancer testing, today announces that it has entered into a commercial service agreement with Fondazione Luigi Maria Monti - Istituto Dermopatico dell' Immacolata (IDI), a leading research Hospital in Rome, to provide SelectMDx for prostate cancer as a service test. SelectMDx is a proprietary urine-based, molecular diagnostic test that offers a non-invasive 'liquid biopsy' method to assess a man's risk for prostate cancer. Under the terms of the agreement, the IDI Laboratory of Clinical Molecular Diagnostics, will perform SelectMDx testing locally by purchasing SelectMDx CE-marked IVD kits from MDxHealth, initially using the MDxHealth Central Lab in Nijmegen, The Netherlands for processing tests. "We are excited that Istituto Dermopatico Immacolata Hospital is going to offer SelectMDx service testing to assist physicians in identifying patients at increased risk of harbouring aggressive, potentially lethal, prostate cancer" said Dr. Jan Groen, CEO of MDxHealth. "IDI's broad hospital network will significantly contribute to the successful market penetration of SelectMDx in Italy." "We are delighted to offer this innovative test to our patients," commented Prof. Antonio M. Leozappa, President of Fondazione Luigi Maria Monti - IDI Hospital - Italy. "This partnership reinforces our commitment to provide our oncologists and urologists with a service test facilitating individualized and personalized medicine paths for patients. We believe that utilising state of the art diagnostics such as SelectMDx will allow our hospital to give our patients the best possible care." === END OF PRESS RELEASE === About SelectMDx for Prostate Cancer

Of the nearly 2 million prostate biopsies performed each year, less than a third find cancer. Most of these men could have avoided a painful and invasive prostate biopsy procedure, with its associated complications and costs. SelectMDx for Prostate Cancer is a proprietary urine-based, molecular diagnostic test that offers a non-invasive 'liquid biopsy' method to assess a man's risk for prostate cancer. SelectMDx helps identify men at increased risk of harbouring aggressive, potentially lethal, prostate cancer who may benefit most from a prostate biopsy and earlier detection. The test delivers a negative predictive value (NPV) of 98% for clinically significant disease, helping o reduce the need for MRI procedures and invasive prostate biopsies by up to 50%, thereby reducing healthcare costs.



About MDxHealth

MDxHealth is a multinational healthcare company that provides actionable molecular diagnostic information to personalize the diagnosis and treatment of cancer. The company's tests are based on proprietary genetic, epigenetic (methylation) and other molecular technologies and assist physicians with the diagnosis of urologic cancers, prognosis of recurrence risk, and prediction of response to a specific therapy. The Company's European headquarters are in Herstal, Belgium, with laboratory operations in Nijmegen, The Netherlands, and US headquarters and laboratory operations based in Irvine, California. For more information, visit mdxhealth.com and follow us on social media at: twitter.com/mdxhealth, facebook.com/mdxhealth and linkedin.com/company/ mdxhealth. About IDI

Since 1990 Istituto Dermopatico dell' Immacolata Hospital has been recognized by the Italian Ministry of Research and Health as a Research Hospital. The Hospital has several Research Departments looking after rare dermatological diseases, varying from inflammatory ones, to immune-mediated diseases to skin tumors, being the Reference Centre for whole Lazio Region. The Laboratory Diagnostic Department, following the Hospital strategies and clinical patient needs, as per the efficacy, efficiency and safety criteria, performs lab tests on different biological materials, for health promotion, prevention, diagnosis, prognosis, monitoring and therapeutic surveillance. The laboratory is composed by several units such as biochemistry, allergology, immunology, microbiology, pharmatoxicology, molecular biology and genetics. www.idi.it

For more information: MDxHealth



Dr. Jan Groen, CEO



US: +1 949 812 6979



BE: +32 4 364 20 70



info@mdxhealth.com IDI:



Dr. Andrea Barbieri



Tel. +39 06 66464564 - +39 06 6464454



Email: ufficio.stampa@idi.it

LifeSpring Life Sciences Communication



Leon Melens



NL: +31 6 538 16 427



lmelens@lifespring.nl Consilium Strategic Communications (IR & PR)

Amber Fennell, Chris Welsh & Hendrik Thys

VK: +44 20 3709 5701



mdxhealth@consilium-comms.com This press release contains forward-looking statements and estimates with respect to the anticipated future performance of MDxHealth and the market in which it operates. Such statements and estimates are based on assumptions and assessments of known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors, which were deemed reasonable but may not prove to be correct. Actual events are difficult to predict, may depend upon factors that are beyond the company's control, and may turn out to be materially different. MDxHealth expressly disclaims any obligation to update any such forward-looking statements in this release to reflect any change in its expectations with regard thereto or any change in events, conditions or circumstances on which any such statement is based unless required by law or regulation. This press release does not constitute an offer or invitation for the sale or purchase of securities or assets of MDxHealth in any jurisdiction. No securities of MDxHealth may be offered or sold within the United States without registration under the U.S. Securities Act of 1933, as amended, or in compliance with an exemption therefrom, and in accordance with any applicable U.S. securities laws. NOTE: The MDxHealth logo, MDxHealth, ConfirmMDx, SelectMDx, AssureMDx, PredictMDx and UrNCollect are trademarks or registered trademarks of MDxHealth SA. All other trademarks and service marks are the property of their respective owners. Attachment: //www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/17820ace-a36d-4ac4-87ad-4de8124f0604

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ][February 28, 2018] Philips Launches Digital Ingenia Elition MR Solution, Delivering Premium Digital Image Quality up to 50% Faster [1]

AMSTERDAM, February 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Debuted at ECR 2018, the newest addition to Philips' digital MR solutions portfolio provides breakthrough in speed, improved patient experience and clinical confidence Royal Philips (NYSE: PHG, AEX: PHIA), a global leader in health technology, today announced the newest addition to its digital Ingenia MR portfolio, the Ingenia Elition, a new 3.0T MRI solution. Integrating the latest innovations in systems, software and services, the Ingenia Elition MR solution offers extraordinary image quality and performs exams up to 50% faster [1], with no compromise in image quality - empowering a faster, smarter and simpler path to confident diagnosis, elevating the patient experience and helping to improve patient care. (Photo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/647079/Philips_Ingenia_Elition_3_0T_MR_solution.jpg )

(Photo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/647082/Philips_VitalEye.jpg )

(Photo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/647085/MR_exams.jpg )

"As value-based care initiatives challenge healthcare organizations to drive better outcomes, radiology departments are specifically caught between ever-increasing imaging volume demands, while also facing pressure to engage more deeply with both referring physicians and patients," said Arjen Radder, Business Leader MR at Philips. "Philips is responding to these challenges through the development of solutions such as Ingenia Elition to improve image quality and the patient and staff experience, as well as operational efficiency." Intelligent and patient-friendly MR platform The Ingenia Elition MR solution delivers patient-centric imaging from patient set-up to the final image. By uniting Philips' unique dStream digital broadband technology with Compressed SENSE [2], and 3D APT across its new digital MR portfolio, radiologists have the tools necessary to help solve challenging clinical situations, improve the patient experience and set new directions for clinical research.



Unique patient sensing technology New patient sensing technology and AI-driven SmartExam analytics for automatic planning, scanning and processing of exams help improve the entire MR workflow, from image acquisition to reading preference. Ingenia Elition's VitalScreen offers operators fully guided patient setup with a newly designed user interface for workflow optimization and VitalEye brings a unique patient sensing approach, enabling respiratory signal without any interaction from the operator. VitalEye technology and algorithms process over two hundred body locations in parallel to intelligently extract signs of breathing - allowing routine exam set-up time to occur in less than a minute, even for less experienced operators.[3]

Philips Ambient Experience and in-bore Connect solution, offering an immersive audio-visual experience to calm patients and guide them through MR exams, further improves the patient experience. A study at Herlev Gentofte University Hospital in Denmark showed that the Ambient Experience in-bore Connect solution helped reduce the number of rescans by up to 70% [4], allowing radiologists to handle more patients per day. The unique combination of innovations that the new Ingenia Elition offers is improving the entire workflow from image acquisition to reading preferences. All-new Ingenia digital MR portfolio The Ingenia Elition 3.0T is part of the all-new Ingenia digital MR portfolio and complements the recently introduced Philips Ingenia Prodiva 1.5T MR solution. Philips' new MR portfolio supports radiology departments to enhance productivity, improving the patient and staff experience, while delivering better value-based care through improved patient outcomes at lower costs. Philips will officially unveil Ingenia Elition and its newest MR innovations, alongside its full suite of solutions for diagnosis and treatment during the 2018 European Congress of Radiology at booth #402 in X4 at the Austria Center in Vienna. For more information about Philips' presence at ECR 2018, including our virtual reality MR experience, visit www.philips.com/ecr, and follow @PhilipsLiveFrom for #ECR18 live updates. About Royal Philips Royal Philips (NYSE: PHG, AEX: PHIA) is a leading health technology company focused on improving people's health and enabling better outcomes across the health continuum from healthy living and prevention, to diagnosis, treatment and home care. Philips leverages advanced technology and deep clinical and consumer insights to deliver integrated solutions. Headquartered in the Netherlands, the company is a leader in diagnostic imaging, image-guided therapy, patient monitoring and health informatics, as well as in consumer health and home care. Philips' health technology portfolio generated 2017 sales of EUR 17.8 billion and employs approximately 74,000 employees with sales and services in more than 100 countries. News about Philips can be found at http://www.philips.com/newscenter. [1] Using Compressed SENSE technology and compared to exams without Compressed SENSE [2] 510k pending. Not available for sale in the USA or Canada. Not yet CE marked. Not yet available for delivery. [3] Based on in house testing. [4] Results from case studies are not predictive of results in other cases. Results in other cases may vary. For further information, please contact:

Joost Maltha

Philips Group Press Office

Tel.: +31-6-10-55-8116

E-mail: joost.maltha@philips.com

Twitter: @JoostMaltha



Danielle Friskes

Philips Diagnostic Imaging

Telephone: +31-6-54291037

Email: danielle.friskes@philips.com





[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ][February 28, 2018] American Tower and Citybeacon Form Global Alliance to Provide a Wireless and Digital Smart Hub Platform for an Enhanced City Experience

American Tower (NYSE: AMT (News - Alert) ), a global leader in wireless communications infrastructure, and Citybeacon, a pioneer in the development of next-generation digital smart hubs, today announced a global alliance to accelerate wireless densification and enhance city services. The companies are developing a connected smart hub that enables smart city applications and provides shared wireless infrastructure for a complete, multimedia digital city experience. The state-of-the-art smart hub is designed for cities to communicate with citizens more effectively, ensure the safety and security of public spaces, use data to enable smarter decision making and provide reliable and robust connectivity. The open platform enables a variety of city and commercial applications, such as Internet of Things (IoT) sensors for environmental monitoring, information station for visitors, local or state-wide announcements, targeted digital advertisements, emergency services and, now with the alliance, wireless infrastructure for multiple mobile network operators. "The goal at Citybeacon is to bridge the gap between the digital and physical world. The alliance with American Tower (News - Alert) will provide a complete digital city solution that will include the ability to provide wireless broadband, the backbone of connected technology and a key requirement for any smart city," said Arthur Van e Poll, CEO of Citybeacon. "Citybeacon has gained great traction with cities in Europe and Asia, including our support at the upcoming Asian Games in the City of Palembang, Indonesia. We are excited to work with American Tower to accelerate the digital transformation of cities in the U.S. and worldwide."



The co-developed product addresses two critical needs in urban markets today: mobile network densification through small cell technology and access to numerous new digital amenities and services for cities and their citizens. "This alliance with Citybeacon supports our urban strategy to provide more prime, street-level site locations for mobile network operators, as they densify their networks and transition to 5G and beyond," said Steven Marshall, President, U.S. Tower, a division of American Tower Corporation. "Network densification in cities is, and will continue to be, a focus for our customers. This innovative solution provides wireless real estate, hiding in the form of a streamlined multifunction smart hub, to be deployed quickly and efficiently."

About American Tower American Tower, one of the largest global REITs, is a leading independent owner, operator and developer of multitenant communications real estate with a portfolio of over 150,000 communications sites. For more information about American Tower, please visit the "Earnings Materials" and "Company & Industry Resources" sections of our investor relations website at americantower.com. About Citybeacon Citybeacon is a market leader in first-class, multifunctional, intelligent next-gen infrastructure solutions powered by a scalable, secure and open platform. For more information about Citybeacon, please visit citybeacon.info. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180228005345/en/

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ][February 28, 2018] TUV India and Vadict USA Inc. Association to Provide the Artificial Intelligence (AI) for the Industrial Enterprises

MUMBAI, February 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- TUV India Pvt. Ltd., part of TUV NORD GROUP, is pleased to announce its association with Vadict USA Inc. as a knowledge partner to provide the Artificial Intelligence (AI) for the industrial enterprises. (Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160930/413730LOGO ) TUV India offers a comprehensive and diverse range of technical services to its large customer base which includes leading corporate houses, public sector organizations, and medium and small scale enterprises. TUV India provides various services in Management Systems Certification, Industrial Inspection Services, Infrastructure, Roads & Highways, Petroleum, Chemicals & Gas Services, Laboratory Testing, Training, Automotive Services, Product Testing and Certification, Sustainability Services and Renewable Energy. Vadict Platform is applicable to middle scale to large scale organization w.r.t. Energy Monitoring and Analysis. Furthermore this product can be expanded for predictive analysis, environmental and sustainablity compliance. This expansion of platform met the requirement of GRI, ISO 14064 and other ISO standards. Combination of operational data, informational and contextual data using modern technologies like IoT will help the organization for real time monitoring & benchmarking. This product has more merits for the organization with multi location operation.



This association of TUV India as an energy management / energy audit service provider with Vadict tool to capture and analyze data will offer value added solutions to customers. Industrial enterprises will be able to get real time intelligence on key performance indicators in diversified areas like energy efficiency, environment, sustainability and operations leveraging Vadict's technology and TUV India's extensive industry expertise. TUV India has a pool of experienced professionals to conduct detailed electrical and thermal study across diverse industries. Similarly, TUV India is closely associated with energy efficiency improvement projects.

Vadict Inc., a Silicon Valley, California company is focused on providing complete Industrial IoT solutions using latest advances in IoT, smart sensing, data science, data security, mobile and cloud computing. About TUV India TUV India Pvt. Ltd. part of TUV NORD GROUP was established in 1989 - as part of the German RWTUV group's Indian operations. With over 10,000 satisfied customers and over 600 employees in more than 25 locations and state-of-the-art laboratories across India, TUV India is never far from its customers. TUV India Pvt. Ltd. provides diverse services in Management Systems Certification, Industrial Services, Infrastructure, Roads & Highways, Petroleum, Chemicals & Gas Services, Laboratory Testing, Training, Automotive Services, Product Testing and Certification, Sustainability Services, and Renewable Energy. Media Contact:

Trupti Dalal

trupti@tuv-nord.com

022-66477000

Assistant Manager - Corporate Communication

TUV India Pvt. Ltd.



[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ][February 28, 2018] MyCRM Launches Latest Release of Mapping Integration for Microsoft Dynamics

NEWPORT, Isle of Wight, February 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Solution Provider and Software Development Company MyCRM has today announced the next release to market of eMap for Microsoft Dynamics CRM/365, using the Bing Maps API. The latest solution can be downloaded as a trial or as an update from the MyCRM download Centre: https://downloads.mycrmgroup.com/Products/2016/eMap (Logo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/628362/MyCRM_Logo.jpg )

(Photo: https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/646199/eMap_MyCRM_Infographic.jpg )

eMap from MyCRM is an extensive data management tool that enables Microsoft Dynamics CRM/365 users to manipulate and work directly with CRM data from an integrated Bing Map. eMap includes a range of great sales and marketing tools, from building complex advanced find queries by location through drawing areas on a Map, to building Marketing lists and planning routes t visit customers or prospects. eMap is one of the only solutions to also include external data sources by location and gives access to 85 million external business records globally with basic contact information in CRM, this creates a powerful prospecting and research solution.



CEO Alistair Dickinson said: "We are very proud of the eMap solution for Microsoft Dynamics CRM/365 as it enables organisations to increase productivity and significantly enhances their investment in Microsoft Dynamics. "WOW!" is the most common expression used when gaining feedback from our customers and end users." The eMap solution is a cost effective subscription based solution, offered with a compelling licence model that only requires a subscription for those users that need access to the eMap functionality not every Microsoft Dynamics user that is enabled. Subscriptions can be purchased monthly or annually with discounts available for volume and duration, and can be increased and decreased as needed.

About MyCRM MyCRM is now in its 9th year of trading and has seen continued growth and profits. We continue to innovate and offer a unique, friendly and honest service to customers worldwide. MyCRM is a private limited organisation registered and based in the UK, with more than 300 customers located in 27 countries around the world. Trial Software MyCRM can provide a fully featured eMap trial including business data integration for a limited period of 14 days. Please register here: https://downloads.mycrmgroup.com/Products/2016/eMap Watch our YouTube videos We have recently uploaded new content to our YouTube channel demonstrating eMap's simple to use features. All the videos can be viewed on our website here: https://downloads.mycrmgroup.com/Products/2016/eMap If you would like to find out more you can email Mike Spink at sales@mycrmgroup.com, or call +44(0)1983-245-245. SOURCE MyCRM

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ][February 28, 2018] BizBash Relaunches Augmented Reality-Enhanced Print Magazine

NEW YORK, Feb. 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- David Adler, C.E.O. and founder of BizBash Mediathe largest media company covering the meeting and event industryannounced an augmented reality-enhanced relaunch of its award-winning print magazine that will debut in Fall 2018. "BizBash is taking a leadership role in getting back into publishing print magazines. By combining augmented reality with our print issues, the page becomes a portable mobile screen that is an experience without distraction," stated Adler. "When you see what will.i.am has done with augmented reality in his graphic comic series, you can see how the technology is a game changer for the print industry. We want to start that journey with our readers to enhance what they see and what they learn from picking up a print edition of BizBash." The Fall 2018 Holiday/Fall Venues Issue will focus on new venues and fresh Fall and Holiday event ideas, as well as the premiere of The BizBash 500 , a list of the most influential players in face-to-face experiences--including meetings, events, festivals, conferences, trade and consumer shows, fund-raisers, and event marketing. Augmented Reality will enhance the storytelling in both adverising and editorial features.



Starting as a print publication, BizBash magazine gradually shifted to digital-only issues in 2017. In an effort to combine the success of digital magazines and reimagine print publications, the brand will release two print and digital magazines as well as two digital-only magazines in 2018. The new edition, which has an advertising deadline of July 20, 2018, will be distributed in print to 20,000 power planners, as well as thousands of planners digitally, who organize programs and events in the major markets of New York, Los Angeles/Southern California, Chicago, Las Vegas, Washington, D.C., Miami/South Florida, Boston, San Francisco, and Toronto, as well as to leading professionals in outside markets. ABOUT BIZBASH

BizBash empowers event professionals with ideas, intelligence, and resources to create smarter events. Each month more than 200,000 unique users across North America and beyond look to BizBash for venue discovery, event style, technology, and tools for their next event. Visit us at www.bizbash.com. Follow us at @bizbash on Twitter and Instagram or www.facebook.com/bizbash.

CONTACT: Brittany Bucceroni, Bbucceroni@bizbash.com, 646-839-6846 View original content:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/bizbash-relaunches-augmented-reality-enhanced-print-magazine-300605439.html SOURCE BizBash

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ][February 28, 2018] Cyber Insurer Coalition Raises $10 Million to Solve Cyber Risk for SMBs

SAN FRANCISCO, Feb. 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Coalition Inc., the first technology-enabled cyber insurance solution, announced today that it raised $10 million in Series A funding from leading technology investors including Vy Capital, Ribbit Capital, Valor Equity Partners, Sam Altman (President, Y Combinator), and Deep Nishar (Senior Managing Director, Softbank Vision Fund). Founded by technology entrepreneurs Joshua Motta and John Hering, Coalition is a technology company that offers cyber insurance products supported by the financial strength of leading global insurers Swiss Re Corporate Solutions and Argo Group. The company began offering insurance and cybersecurity to small to midsize businesses (SMBs) in November 2017 and is licensed to offer insurance nationwide. "Our mission is simple, yet monumental: to solve cyber risk for SMBs. We now have the team, technology, investors, and resources to do this," said Joshua Motta, CEO & Co-founder, Coalition. "Solving cyber risk doesn't mean solving security failures. It means allowing companies to embrace technology while remaining resilient to the risks that accompany it. We provide companies with free cybersecurity to prevent loss before it occurs, and expert response and comprehensive insurance coverage when all else fails." Through Coalition's cyber risk management platform, any business can easily access and configure a number of cybersecurity tools including threat and intelligence alerts, ransomware and denial of service protection, and patch and vulnerability notifications, all without any complex setup or configuration. Coaliton's customers include leading technology companies, investment firms, retailers, banks, manufacturers, and healthcare providers.



"We believe that cybersecurity should be a public good, and now we have the backing and resources to democratize access to the technology SMBs need to protect themselves," said John Hering, Co-founder and Director of Coalition. "The response from customers has been overwhelmingthis may be the first time an insurance company has helped actually prevent a data breach." "Today, more than ever, cyber protection is critical for all businesses, creating an enormous market opportunity. Coalition has the right DNA and the best team to build a trusted brand that understands and addresses the cyber risk exposures of any SMB, giving business owners the peace of mind to focus on what matters the most to them," said Micky Malka, Managing General Partner at Ribbit Capital.

Coalition's team includes technology entrepreneurs and executives that helped build Cloudflare, Lookout and OpenDNS, former members of the US Intelligence Community, and cyber insurance innovators. Their combined expertise puts Coalition in a unique position to understand and address today's cyber risk challenges. Proceeds from the funding will be used to grow Coalition's engineering team and expand its cyber risk management platform. Read more about Coalition's plans on the Coalition blog, Solve Cyber Risk. About Coalition

Coalition, the cyber risk solution from Joshua Motta and John Hering, combines comprehensive insurance and free cybersecurity tools to help businesses manage and mitigate cyber risk. Backed by A+/A rated insurers Swiss Re Corporate Solutions and Argo Group, Coalition provides companies with up to $10M of cyber and technology insurance coverage in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. Coalition's cyber risk management platform provides automated security alerts, threat intelligence, expert guidance, and tools to help businesses remain resilient in the face of cyber attacks. Coalition is headquartered in San Francisco. For more information about Coalition, visit www.thecoalition.com or follow us on Twitter @SolveCyberRisk. View original content with multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/cyber-insurer-coalition-raises-10-million-to-solve-cyber-risk-for-smbs-300605520.html SOURCE Coalition, Inc.

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ][February 28, 2018] 4medica to Advance its One Patient, One Record Mission at HIMSS18

MARINA DEL REY, Calif., Feb. 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Healthcare leaders and members of the media with an interest in patient data integrity management and access are invited to meet with 4medica, the clinical data exchange company at HIMSS18, March 57, in Las Vegas. Company leaders including co-founder Dr. Oleg Bess, an informatics expert and one of the best-known OB-GYNs in the nation, and president Gregory Church will be on hand to discuss how we can overcome the longstanding barriers to creating a single, comprehensive view of patient health. Meet 4medica and Zen Healthcare at Booth #12447 To kick off its new partnership with Zen Healthcare, the HIE interoperability expert, 4medica will co-appear with Zen at Booth #12447 in Hall G of the conference center. The two companies have partnered to help health information exchanges (HIEs), Health Information Networks (HINs), health plans, and hospitals equip healthcare stakeholders of all types with the full picture of patient health needed for initiatives that range from combatting chronic health conditions, opioid abuse to practicing value-based care. This strategic pairing melds 4medica's big data master patient index solution (4medica Big Data MPI) with Zen Healthcare's full integration and interoperability platform for healthcare organizationsgiving customers new access to a historic view of patient health, while assuring the right data is matched to the right patient at the right point of care. Join 4medica, SHIEC and eHI for cocktails Tuesday evening



Tuesday, March 6 th, from 6:30 to 7:30 pm , in the Venetian Congress Center, Level 3 Lido Ballroom, Room 3104. This event promises to be one of the best informal networking events at HIMSS18 to meet with representatives from state and national healthcare interoperability organizations, and 4medica, the company that is helping healthcare achieve the long wished for " One Patient , One Record " paradigm. Discover the 4medica Big Data MPI at HIMSS18

4medica solves a diverse set of challenges associated with the lack of a national patient ID. First, the 4medica Big Data MPI solution matches patient health information to the right patients with unbeatable accuracyusing the best multi-patented risk scoring methodology in the industry. The 4medica solution is also adept at identifying duplicate records, overlays, overlaps and then eliminating all but the best record to use. Taking this several steps further, the 4medica Big Data MPI also automatically updates fields where data is missing using its proprietary data augmentation matching engine; a considerable time-saver for customers. Lastly, the Big Data MPI solution is built to perform in a real-time transactional mode, ideal for organizations with millions of identities and millions of transactions each day. HIMSS18 will be an ideal opportunity to speak directly with the company behind this groundbreaking patient identity matching technology, and to learn about its free duplicate record assessment offered to any healthcare organization. Additionally, 4medica's existing lab outreach customers who will be attending HIMSS are invited to learn how 4medica is augmenting its popular lab orders management solutions suite with revenue cycle management, patient matching and audit protection solutions. Collectively, these solutions help labs process what 4medica calls the Perfect Order. "This promises to be our most exciting HIMSS ever. We look forward to meeting with anyone who is seeking real solutions to achieve data integrity, data access and the tight integration of both," said Gregory Church, president, 4medica. To schedule a meeting with 4medica at Booth #12447 or to request an invitation to the Tuesday evening cocktail event co-hosted by 4medica, SHIEC and eHI, contact Stephanie Janard at sjanard@acmarketingpr.com. About 4medica 4medica provides the industry's leading SaaS (Software-as-a-Service) Big Data MPI and clinical data exchange platform to help healthcare organizations of diverse types create a seamless view of the patient care experience and further drive better health outcomes. The 4medica Big Data MPI and ClinXdata Clinical Data Exchange platform integrate with and build upon disparate systems to facilitate patient identity management and interoperable data exchange across various care settings to promote care continuity. The cloud computing model is scalable, lower cost, maintenance-free, easy to use and deployable in a few months or less, eliminating large capital outlays or resource utilization. 4medica connects hundreds of organizations including ACOS, HIEs, HINs, hospitals, health systems, physicians, laboratories, and radiology imaging centers. Learn more at www.bigdatampi.com. Media Contact: Stephanie Janard

Amendola Communications for 4medica

1.704.418.874

sjanard@acmarketingpr.com View original content with multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/4medica-to-advance-its-one-patient-one-record-mission-at-himss18-300605463.html SOURCE 4medica

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ][February 28, 2018] Siyata Mobile Expands Global Distribution

MONTREAL, Feb. 28, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Siyata Mobile Inc. (the "Company" or "Siyata") (TSX-V:SIM) (OTCQX:SYATF) is pleased to announce it has entered an agreement with Logic Wireless Ltd., (Logic Wireless) a specialized distributor of two-way radio products, to distribute Siyata Mobile Push-to-Talk Over Cellular (PoC) products across Australia and New Zealand.

Founded in 2004, Logic Wireless focuses on distributing high quality communication solutions through an extensive dealer network, focused within the government, utility, forestry, mining, and transportation sectors. Logic Wireless has an extensive portfolio with over 13 years of experience, servicing Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific Islands region. For more information see https://www.logicwireless.co.nz/ or https://logicwireless.com.au . Dave Hicks, co-founder and Director of Logic Wireless, commented, We have built Logic Wireless based on a very high-quality product offering, understanding customers needs and then matching with existing or new technologies. The Siyata Mobile solution is truly unique and we believe this will offer land mobile radio users and existing cellular users with a whole new workforce communications proposition. It is critical that companies like Siyata Mobile innovate to provide solutions to meet the needs of a modern workforce. Marc Seelenfreund, CEO and Chairman of Siyata Mobile, added, We are pleased to partner with one of the leading distributors of high quality communications solutions in Australia and New Zealand. This is an important agreement for Siyata, as it proves testament to the global reach of the Push-to-Talk technology and our continued objective to be a global player in this emerging innovative market. According to a recent report by Inkwood Research, the global public safety and security market is projected to grow to $537.2-billion by 2024 at a compound annual growth rate of 10.91 per cent between 2016 and 2024. The report notes: "Citizens and enterprises face continuous threats from cybercriminals, natural disasters and terrorist attacks. This has increased the demand for public safety and security solutions across the world."



To see a list of Siyata Mobile products on Logic Wireless Ltd., please visit https://www.logicwireless.co.nz/page/siyata-mobile-devices/. About Siyata





Siyata Mobile Inc. is a leading global developer and provider of cellular communications systems for enterprise customers, specializing in connected vehicle products for professional fleets, marketed under the Uniden Cellular brand. Since developing the worlds first 3G connected vehicle device, Siyata has been a pioneer in the industry, launching the worlds first 4G LTE all-in-one fleet communications device in 2017. Incorporating voice, push-to-talk over cellular, data, and fleet management solutions into a single device, the company aims to become the connected vehicle communications device of choice for commercial vehicles and fleets around the world.



Siyata also offers rugged phones for industrial users and signal boosters for homes, buildings, and fleets with poor cell coverage. Siyatas customers include cellular operators, commercial vehicle technology distributors, and fleets of all sizes in Canada, the U.S., Europe, Australia, and the Middle East. Visit www.siyatamobile.com and http://www.unidencellular.com/ to learn more. On Behalf of the Board of Directors of: SIYATA MOBILE INC. Marc Seelenfreund

CEO and Chairman Investor Relations:

Arlen Hansen

Kin Communications

1-866-684-6730

SIM@kincommunications.com Sales Department:

Glenn Kennedy, VP Sales

Siyata Mobile Inc.

416-892-1823

glenn_kennedy@siyatamobile.com Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. This news release may include forward-looking statements that are subject to risks and uncertainties. All statements within, other than statements of historical fact, are to be considered forward looking. Although the Company believes the expectations expressed in such forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions, such statements are not guarantees of future performance and actual results or developments may differ materially from those in forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in forward-looking statements include market prices, continued availability of capital and financing, and general economic, market or business conditions. There can be no assurances that such statements will prove accurate and, therefore, readers are advised to rely on their own evaluation of such uncertainties. We do not assume any obligation to update any forward-looking statements except as required under the applicable laws.

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ][February 28, 2018] Calian Announces Executive Leadership Appointments

OTTAWA, Feb. 28, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Calian Group Ltd. (TSX:CGY) is pleased to announce three executive leadership appointments in support of the companys long-term growth strategy.

The appointments are Jerry Johnston as Chief Information Officer, Lynn Stevens as Chief Human Resources Officer and Donald Whitty as Vice President, Training. I am very pleased to announce these appointments. Calian continues to review our corporate structure to ensure we maintain and develop a strong foundation, stated Kevin Ford, President and CEO of Calian. Jerrys role as CIO is to embrace risk management, process management and technology as growth enablers. We are very excited to have Lynn as our new Chief Human Resources Officer, whose appointment comes as we execute a critical talent management strategy supporting our long-term objectives. I am also thrilled to bring aboard Don, our new Vice President, Training, who joins Calian with broad experience as well as a real passion for the evolution and innovation currently taking place in training. Jerry Johnston, CIO Jerry has over 35 years of experience in management at Calian and other high-tech companies in the Ottawa region. Since joining Calian in 1992, he has held a number of leadership positions, including Director of Engineering, Vice President, Outsourcing, Vice President, Operations and Vice President, Training. Each of these roles required a focus on performance excellence, customer satisfaction, and service offering evolution. As CIO, Jerry will bring this same focus to Calian Group Ltd. by appropriately integrating enterprise risk management, process management and information technology. These enablers will allow Calian to achieve growth targets while maintaining its reputation for delivery excellence. Currently Vice President, Training, Jerry assumed the additional role of CIO in November 2017. With the addition of Don Whitty to Calians executive leadership team effective February 26, 2018, Jerry will effect a transition of the VP Training position through March, with Don taking full responsibility for the role effective April 1, 2018. Lynn Stevens, Chief Human Resources Officer At the heart of Calians long-term growth is its employees. Lynn, working with the HR team, is responsible for developing and executing human resource strategy in support of Calians overall business plans and strategic direction. Lynn will leverage best practices in the development of Calian employees while providing a focal point for the integration of employees from future acquisitions. Her strong strategic leadership will support the communication of HR needs and plans t the executive leadership team and the translation of those needs into specific actions, with positive impacts for Calian team members. Prior to Lynns appointment as Chief Human Resources Officer, she was BTS division Vice President of Human Resources; her prior role at BTS will not be replaced. Before joining Calian, Lynn held senior-level HR roles at Thermo Fisher Scientific, Amdocs (formerly Solect Technology Group) and Corel Corporation. Lynns appointment was effective February 7, 2018.



Donald Whitty, Vice President, Training Don is a Certified Training and Development Professional (CTDP) with a passion for learning and development. He brings learning industry expertise from the national and international levels and has the business acumen required to achieve growth targets. Don joins Calian with broad experience and understands the learning and development landscape beyond the companys current markets. He has run programs for pharma, technology, telecom and oil and gas, and has large private enterprise experience having worked on the learning programs of many Fortune 500 clients. Throughout his career, Don has undertaken visiting faculty engagements at universities in Canada, the United States and Ireland, and has conducted research on next-generation learning approaches including gamification, augmented reality and multimedia. Don was CEO of Mosaic Technologies before serving as Director of Information and Knowledge Management for Suncor Energy from 2009 to 2015, and then Chief Learning Strategist for Tata Interactive Systems until the end of 2017.

About Calian

Calian employs more than 2,900 people with offices and projects that span Canada, U.S. and international markets. The company's capabilities are diverse with services delivered through two divisions. The Business and Technology Services (BTS) Division is headquartered in Ottawa and includes the provision of business and technology services to industry, public and government in the health, training, engineering and IT services domains. Calians Systems Engineering Division (SED), located in Saskatoon, plans, designs and implements complex communication systems for many of the worlds space agencies and leading satellite manufacturers and operators. SED also provides contract manufacturing services for both private sector and military customers in North America. For investor information, please visit our website at www.calian.com or contact us at ir@calian.com Kevin Ford Jacqueline Gauthier Media inquiries: President and Chief Executive Officer Chief Financial Officer Simon Doyle 613-599-8600 613-599-8600 613-599-8600 x 205

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

DISCLAIMER Certain information included in this press release is forward-looking and is subject to important risks and uncertainties. The results or events predicted in these statements may differ materially from actual results or events. Such statements are generally accompanied by words such as intend, anticipate, believe, estimate, expect or similar statements. Factors which could cause results or events to differ from current expectations include, among other things: the impact of price competition; scarce number of qualified professionals; the impact of rapid technological and market change; loss of business or credit risk with major customers; technical risks on fixed price projects; general industry and market conditions and growth rates; international growth and global economic conditions, and including currency exchange rate fluctuations; and the impact of consolidations in the business services industry. For additional information with respect to certain of these and other factors, please see the Companys most recent annual report and other reports filed by Calian with the Ontario Securities Commission. Calian disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. No assurance can be given that actual results, performance or achievement expressed in, or implied by, forward-looking statements within this disclosure will occur, or if they do, that any benefits may be derived from them.



[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]DELRAY BEACH, Fla., Feb. 28, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Diversified life sciences company, PositiveID Corporation (OTC:PSID), today announced the list of 2018 trade shows its wholly owned, professional-grade thermometer subsidiary Thermomedics plans to attend.



Thermomedics mission is to establish its Caregiver thermometer as a healthcare standard due to the cost savings and reduced cross contamination enabled by its non-contact, plastic cover-free features. Single-use, plastic covers cost up to $.10 per unit with millions consumed in the U.S. annually.

The latest version of Caregiver is Bluetooth-enabled allowing automatic entry of temperature readings into patient records and better patient care from improved monitoring.

We intend to capitalize on the increasing vigilance against instrument contamination as well as improved treatment arising from medical record digitization by expanding our marketing, commented William J. Caragol, PositiveID Chairman and CEO.

In addition to the Companys Feb 21-23 exhibit at the Journal of Emergency Medical Services (JEMS) Conference and Exposition, Thermomedics plans to attend the following trade events in 2018:

April 11 - 14 ASCA Ambulatory Surgery Center Association Boston, MA April 29 - May 3 ASPAN PeriAnesthesia Nurses Anaheim, CA May 21 - 24 AACN / NTI Critical Care Nursing Boston, MA May 31 - June 2 Pri-Med WEST Primary Care Anaheim, CA June 13 - 15 APIC Infection control, epidemiology Minneapolis, MN September 13 - 16 AMSN Medical-Surgical Orlando, FL October 17 - 19 HCP Hospital supply chain Chicago, IL November 2 - 6 AAP Academy of Pediatrics Orlando, FL December 7 - 9 Pri-Med EAST Primary care Boston, MA





ABOUT POSITIVEID

PositiveID Corporation is a holding company focused on life sciences, diagnostics, medical devices, and mobile laboratories. PositiveID's ExcitePCR subsidiary is developing the FireflyDX family of pathogen detection systems, portable devices offering rapid sample-to-result detection in less than 30 minutes using real-time polymerase chain reaction chemistry. PositiveID's E-N-G Mobile Systems subsidiary is a leader in the mobile technology vehicle market, with a focus on the laboratory market and homeland security. PositiveID's Thermomedics subsidiary markets the FDA-cleared Caregiver non-contact thermometer for clinical use. For more information on PositiveID, please visit http://www.psidcorp.com, or connect with PositiveID on Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn.

SAFE HARBOR

Statements about PositiveID's future expectations, including the likelihood that the Company plans to accelerate sales of new Bluetooth-enabled, non-contact Caregiver thermometer; the likelihood that the Company will attend the list of 2018 trade shows; the likelihood that the Company intends to capitalize on the increasing vigilance against instrument contamination as well as improved treatment arising from medical record digitization by expanding its marketing; constitute "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, and as that term is defined in the Private Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties and are subject to change at any time, and PositiveID's actual results could differ materially from expected results. These risks and uncertainties include, without limitation, the Companys ability to target the professional healthcare market; the Companys ability to raise capital; as well as other risks. Additional information about these and other factors that could affect the Company's business is set forth in the Company's various filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including those set forth in the Company's 10-K filed on March 31, 2017, and 10-Qs filed on November 13, 2017, August 14, 2017, and May 15, 2017, under the caption "Risk Factors." The Company undertakes no obligation to update or release any revisions to these forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances after the date of this statement or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events, except as required by law.

Contact:

PositiveID Corporation

Allison Tomek

(561) 805-8044[February 28, 2018] Enablon and TapRooT Partner to Deliver Expert Incident Management and Investigation in EHS Operations

CHICAGO, Feb. 28, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Enablon, a Wolters Kluwer business, and TapRooT, each world leaders in EHS Operations, announce a partnership today that will enable their customers to be even more efficient in preventing incidents and maximizing safety. With a connector between both software platforms, customers can track and trend incidents in the Enablon solution and perform the Root Cause Analysis with TapRooT without duplicating efforts. The partnership is the first of its kind in the EHS industry.

Leading companies around the world use the TapRooT process and software to investigate and fix the root causes of major accidents, incidents and near-misses. Many of the same companies rely on Enablon to ensure EHS compliance and risk management. Combining our expertise and connecting our platforms will make a real difference to our customers. Incident data will be automatically synchronized, making the root cause analysis process easier and more efficient, and allowing action plans to be launched much faster, said Dan Verlinde, Vice President and Chief Technology Officer of TapRooT. The contribution TapRooT Incident investigators can now bring to their companies is significant ad goes far beyond efficiency in understanding the root cause and acting upon it, said Taylor Allis, Vice President of Product at Enablon. It increases production effectiveness and reduces cost, which in turn adds business value to companies. At Enablon, we continuously work on innovating our solution to better assist our customers in making a difference. We do this not only through adding new features or applications but also by working with other recognized expert providers. The technology partnership with TapRooT allows us to do just that.



The Enablon-TapRooT connector is available for customers using the Enablon 8.4 or 8.6 and Taproot 6.3 software versions. About Wolters Kluwer

Wolters Kluwer N.V. (AEX:WKL) is a global leader in information services and solutions for professionals in the health, tax and accounting, risk and compliance, finance and legal sectors. We help our customers make critical decisions every day by providing expert solutions that combine deep domain knowledge with specialized technology and services. Wolters Kluwer reported 2017 annual revenues of 4.4 billion. The company, headquartered in Alphen aan den Rijn, the Netherlands, serves customers in over 180 countries, maintains operations in over 40 countries, and employs 19,000 people worldwide. Wolters Kluwer shares are listed on Euronext Amsterdam (WKL) and are included in the AEX and Euronext 100 indices. Enablon, a Wolters Kluwer business, is the worlds leading provider of EH&S, Operational Risk Management and Sustainability Software. More than 1,000 global companies and 1 million users rely on Enablon software solutions to manage their environmental and social performance, minimize risks and improve profitability. Enablon offers the most comprehensive platform in the industry, and is consistently recognized as a global leader and visionary. For more information about Enablon: www.enablon.com. Press Contact Elke Colpaert

Communication Director Wolters Kluwer | Enablon

elke.colpaert@wolterskluwer.com

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ][February 28, 2018]

Aeris & TracPlus Team Up to Track Assets on Land, Sea & Air via IoT

SAN JOSE, Calif., and DUNEDIN, New Zealand, Feb. 28, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Aeris, a technology leader in the Internet of Things (IoT), said today it is collaborating with TracPlus, a global tracking, communication and collaboration solutions provider, to offer an IoT connectivity solution that allows TracPlus and its customers to track their personnel and physical assets in real time.

Christina Richards, Vice President of Global Marketing, Aeris





The Aeris IoT Services platform is being used by TracPlus to allow companies and organizations to monitor and communicate with personnel fighting fires, performing rescue missions, installing powerlines, saving vessels and providing other land, sea and air services. Aeris IoT Connectivity services offer many innovative features that allow TracPlus to improve its service delivery and increase service radius.

TracPlus is an established and proven global service providing real-time tracking, event and messaging with personnel using vehicles, vessels and aircraft. TracPlus solutions span desktop, web and mobile platforms.

Aviation Services Unlimited of Rome, N.Y. uses TracPlus solution to track its helicopters and provide aerial services to utility companies, inspect and maintain electric transmission lines, patrol ground-over-gas lines and provide emergency services during power outages.

TracPlus was founded by Chris Hinch following a tragedy in May 2003 off New Zealands North Otago coastline when a fishing vessel carrying five passengers capsized. Three perished due to a record-keeping error at the national search and rescue headquarters that sent a rescue aircraft approximately two and half hours away instead of dispatching a helicopter located 20 minutes away. TracPlus has offices in USA, New Zealand and Chile, and serves customers in over 35 countries.

CLCK TO TWEET: Aeris (@AerisM2M) and @TracPlus team up to track assets by #land, #sea and #air via #internetofthings. #IoT #AerisIoT #tracplus #tracking #firefighting #aviation #helicopter http://www.aeris.com/news/







Supporting Quotes

Chris Hinch, Founder and Chief Innovation Officer, TracPlus

Our customers operate in harms way and in the service of others. As such, we need partners who meet our standards of availability, reliability and excellence in customer service. Aeris have made it easy for us to deliver cost-effective and reliable cellular IoT connectivity to our customers in North America, and we look forward to expanding our range of services through this relationship.

Mike Slattery, General Manager and Chief Pilot, Aviation Services Unlimited

We selected TracPlus because it allows us to track our assets in real time, which is mission critical when working with our staff and providing our aviation services. TracPlus provides excellent customer service and support. I can sleep at night knowing that TracPlus tracking and communication solution, enabled by Aeris, is helping us monitor and manage our two most important assets, personnel and helicopters.

Christina Richards, Vice President of Global Marketing, Aeris

Aeris is an Internet of Things industry leader and through our work with TracPlus we can allow their customers the opportunity to track in real time their most important assets, personnel and equipment. The Aeris IoT Services platform is built for IoT and has been globally tested at scale. For more than a decade, we have unlocked IoT value for businesses and look forward to helping TracPlus be the preeminent provider of real-time tracking of assets by land, sea and air.

Digital Assets

Supporting Resources

About Aeris

Aeris is a global technology partner with a proven history of helping companies unlock the value of IoT. For more than a decade, weve powered critical projects for some of the most demanding customers of IoT services. Aeris strives to fundamentally improve businesses by dramatically reducing costs, accelerating time-to-market, and enabling new revenue streams. Built from the ground up for IoT and road tested at scale, Aeris IoT Services are based on the broadest technology stack in the industry, spanning connectivity up to vertical solutions. As veterans of the industry, we know that implementing an IoT solution can be complex, and we pride ourselves on making it simpler.

About TracPlus

TracPlus provides global tracking, communication and collaboration services to private, business and government customers and agencies in more than 35 countries throughout the world. Our customers track land, sea and air assets including personnel, across numerous markets including oil & gas, utilities, mining & exploration, construction, agriculture, tourism, security and emergency services.

For more information, contact:

Kevin Petschow

Aeris

+1.312.985.9182

Kevin.Petschow@aeris.net

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at //www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/60b09c0b-ce54-4152-8368-3a2d83052ec6[February 28, 2018] Sogou Inc. Files its Annual Report on Form 20-F

BEIJING, Feb. 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Sogou Inc. (NYSE: SOGO) ("Sogou" or the "Company"), an innovator in search and a leader in China's Internet industry, today announced that the Company filed its Annual Report on Form 20-F for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2017, with the Securities and Exchange Commission on February 28, 2018. The Annual Report is available on the Company's investor relations website at http://ir.sogou.com. The Company will provide a hard copy of the Annual Report containing the audited consolidated financial statements of the Company, free of charge, to a shareholder or holder of the Company's American depositary shares upon request. Requests should be directed to Investor Relations Deprtment, Sogou Inc., Level 15, Sohu.com Internet Plaza, No. 1 Unit Zhongguancun East Road, Haidian District, Beijing, People's Republic of China, 100084.



About Sogou Sogou Inc. (NYSE: SOGO) is an innovator in search and a leader in China's internet industry. With a mission to make it easy to communicate and get information, Sogou has grown to become the second largest search engine by mobile queries and the fourth largest internet company by MAU in China. Sogou has a wide range of innovative products and services including the Sogou Input Method, which is the largest Chinese language input software for both mobile and PC. Sogou is also at the forefront of AI development and has made significant breakthroughs in voice and image technologies, machine translation, and Q&A, which have been successfully integrated into our products and services.

For investor enquiries, please contact: Jessie Zheng

Sogou Investor Relations

Tel: +86 10 5689 8068

Email: zhengyan@sogou-inc.com For media enquiries, please contact: Rachael Layfield

Brunswick Group

Tel: +86 10 5960-8600

Email: sogou@brunswickgroup.com View original content with multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/sogou-inc-files-its-annual-report-on-form-20-f-300605743.html SOURCE Sogou Inc.

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ][February 28, 2018] BlueJeans and Voicera Partner to Deliver a Modern Meeting Experience Powered by AI

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. and MENLO PARK, Calif., Feb. 28, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Blue Jeans Network, Inc., the first cloud service to connect desktops, mobile devices and room systems in one video meeting, and Voicera, the leader in voice AI for the workplace, today announced availability of in-meeting transcription powered by an artificial intelligence assistant, Eva. BlueJeans customers now enjoy full meeting notes of all participants that are easily stored, shared, edited and retrieved for later reference. Businesses are starting to incorporate more emerging technologies as one important step in executing a digital transformation strategy to make meetings more engaging and productive.

BlueJeans' customers now enjoy full meeting notes of all participants that are easily stored, shared, edited and retrieved for later reference. Businesses are starting to incorporate more emerging technologies as one important step in executing a digital transformation strategy to make meetings more engaging and productive.



Application leaders must develop a UCC strategy in cooperation with representatives from lines of usiness, digital workplace transformation leaders, and end-user computing and communications specialists. Such cooperation enables consideration of a wide range of needs and assets, with a view to encouraging the use of new and emerging technologies  in other words, improving "digital dexterity"  in pursuit of better business outcomes, wrote Drew Kraus and Mike Fasciani of Gartner.*



This is a game changer for our industry. We have pushed this platform to adopt technology before the customer asks for it. Meetings are the perfect environment for digital assistants where mundane tasks like note-taking can be automated and the strategic skills are left to the human participants, said Steve Weinstock, Sr. Manager of Business Development and Integration Partnerships at BlueJeans. The BlueJeans meetings platform, with its powerful open APIs, is designed to make it easy for partners like Voicera to build innovative solutions that have a functional and lasting impact for our customers. Just knowing that Eva is present in the meeting helps to increase productivity and ensure that ideas and action items carry over and help move the business forward. Available to all BlueJeans users, Eva participates in your meeting by taking notes, providing a full recording with a fully searchable transcript and word-cloud, and highlighting key moments, all of which can easily be shared with others. Using the service allows you to connect what happens in your meetings to the rest of your work day, and ultimately makes your meetings more actionable.

We wanted to offer BlueJeans customers the first chance to have full meeting transcriptions, said Omar Tawakol, CEO of Voicera. This is a service we now offer through Voicera but it works best with partners who provide higher quality audio streams. The audio that comes from BlueJeans with Dolby Voice, delivered in a crisp 16k format, lends itself very well to transcription. In addition to the transcripts, Eva can create a highlight reel that is error corrected and delivered with much higher accuracy. To learn more or sign up for a trial of Voicera, please visit www.voicera.com/integrations/bluejeans *Gartner, Planning, Selecting and Deploying Unified Communications and Collaboration Primer for 2018, Drew Kraus, Mike Fasciani, 23 January 2018. About BlueJeans

BlueJeans is the meetings platform for the modern workplace and the first cloud service to connect desktops, mobile devices and room systems in one video meeting. Thousands of global companies use BlueJeans every day for meetings and events, so people can work productively where and how they want. For more information, visit www.bluejeans.com. About Voicera

Voicera leverages A.I. to harness the power of voice in the workplace and connect what happens in meetings to the rest of the collaboration workflow. Voicera does this by offering Eva, your Enterprise Virtual Assistant. Eva is an in-meeting assistant that listens, takes notes and identifies actions from your meetings. Eva surfaces value in person-to-person conversations and enables that value to be shared through the rest of the enterprise. Voicera is headquartered in Menlo Park, Ca. and is led by veterans from Oracle, Facebook, and LinkedIn. For more information on Voicera and to sign up for Eva visit www.voicera.com. A photo accompanying this announcement is available at //www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/a9dce04d-e65b-4cec-a55d-b1df0a8bec76 Contact:

Megan Maxwell

megan@gmkcommunications.com



[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ][February 28, 2018] Siemens addresses digital enterprise with Valor IoT Manufacturing Analytics and MindSphere

SAN DIEGO and PLANO, Texas, Feb. 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- IPC APEX Expo 2018: San Diego, California -- Siemens today announced the Valor IoT Manufacturing Analytics product, a new comprehensive big data and business intelligence platform that monitors and manages global electronics manufacturing operations for accurate, real-time manufacturing utilization and overall equipment effectiveness (OEE). Building on the acquisition of Mentor Graphics, Siemens continues to invest in software solutions to realize innovation and power each customer's digital enterprise. This new solution is powered by MindSphere. By collecting and managing rich data sources from Valor shop-floor modules, the product provides visibility into all shop floor equipment, materials management, product quality, traceability, and supply-chain operations globally for optimum supply-chain performance. This new product is an extension of the Valor Manufacturing Solution, a robust, scalable and secure plug-and-play IoT device and data acquisition product for electronics manufacturing. Only Siemens provides integrated software solutions across the entire customer value chain, from initial conceptual design through manufacturing planning and execution, to service and support of both the products and the plants that produce them. "Our Valor plug-and-play IoT device and data acquisition tool for electronics manufacturing has evolved to today's new IoT Manufacturing Analytics solution, which aligns with Siemens' commitment to developing innovative technologies for factory automation," stated Dan Hoz, general manager of the Valor Division of Mentor, a Siemens business. "Our new technology will provide invaluable performance data and real-time visibility to shop-floor management so they can deliver high-quality, high-yield products as a key competitive advantage." This open and scalable Valor solution captures and explores complete materials, quality and process traceability data for printed circuit boards (PCB) and assemblies, measuring and analyzing how resources are utilized with real-time work-in-progress tracking and optimum efficiency. It manages data from all manufacturing sites and production lines, including machine performance analysis and utilization. PCB manufacturing executives, line managers, and manufacturing engineers can now realize design-to-manufacturing efficiency for their customers' work orders by detecting factors that affect yield and identifying areas for improvements. "Smart capture and utilization of technical data is essential for enabling analysis of manufacturing floor processes," reports Laurie Balch, Chief Analyst at Gary Smith EDA. "Manufacturing teams ave found it incredibly challenging to obtain the critical data they need. Providing solutions to streamline and simplify that process, as with the Valor IoT Manufacturing Analytics solution, is crucial to improving their data analysis capabilities and empowering their decision making."



MindSphere, Siemens' open cloud-based Internet of Things (IoT) operating system provides the ability to develop robust industrial IoT solutions on a shorter timeline for customers across many industries. MindSphere delivers a wide range of device and enterprise application connectivity protocol options, industry applications, advanced analytics and an innovative development environment that utilizes both Siemens' open Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) capabilities along with access to native cloud services. Valor IoT Manufacturing Analytics powered by MindSphere provides a holistic set of IoT solutions and services matching customer requirements, providing numerous opportunities to build and operate digital offerings. The introduction of this new technology expands Siemens' offerings for the manufacturing digital enterprise. Siemens' expertise in digital manufacturing provides digital twins of the product and process as part of the planning phase, and then captures a digital twin of the equipment/performance as part of the execution phase. By acquiring EDA leader Mentor Graphics, Siemens will leverage Mentor's leading IC, PCB and software design tools with the growth in the digitization and automation of global manufacturing. In the same way Siemens brings digitalization to mechanical manufacturing, digitalization is available to electronics through an end-to-end solution covering the entire PCB design through manufacturing flow. The new Valor IoT Manufacturing Analytics solution is the next step in the future vision for Siemens' digital enterprise for electronic engineering, with a goal to enable a seamless connection between the electronic and mechanical flows, with real-time updates between each discipline.

"We look forward to a clear vision of one integrated solution for the entire manufacturing process and production system," said Zvi Feuer, senior vice president of Manufacturing Engineering Software for Siemens PLM Software. "By closing the loop between manufacturing and design, customers will be able to use advanced analytics to help turn vast amounts of data into clear and useful insights, enabling key improvements in the areas of preventative maintenance and inventory turnover optimization. This latest product from the Valor team takes us one step closer to our future vision." To learn more, please visit Booth 2621 at the IPC APEX Expo February 21 through March 1, 2018. For more information on Valor IoT Manufacturing Analytics, visit: https://www.mentor.com/pcb-manufacturing-assembly/iot-valor-manufacturing/ Siemens PLM Software, a business unit of the Siemens Digital Factory Division, is a leading global provider of software solutions to drive the digital transformation of industry, creating new opportunities for manufacturers to realize innovation. With headquarters in Plano, Texas, and over 140,000 customers worldwide, Siemens PLM Software works with companies of all sizes to transform the way ideas come to life, the way products are realized, and the way products and assets in operation are used and understood. For more information on Siemens PLM Software products and services, visit www.siemens.com/plm. Follow us on Twitter at: www.twitter.com/siemens_press Siemens AG (Berlin and Munich) is a global technology powerhouse that has stood for engineering excellence, innovation, quality, reliability and internationality for 170 years. The company is active around the globe, focusing on the areas of electrification, automation and digitalization. One of the world's largest producers of energy-efficient, resource-saving technologies, Siemens is a leading supplier of efficient power generation and power transmission solutions and a pioneer in infrastructure solutions as well as automation, drive and software solutions for industry. The company is also a leading provider of medical imaging equipment  such as computed tomography and magnetic resonance imaging systems  and a leader in laboratory diagnostics as well as clinical IT. In fiscal 2017, which ended on September 30, 2017, Siemens generated revenue of 83.0 billion and net income of 6.2 billion. At the end of September 2017, the company had around 377,000 employees worldwide. Further information is available on the Internet at www.siemens.com. Note: Siemens and the Siemens logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Siemens AG. Valor is a trademark or registered trademark of Mentor Graphics Corporation. All other trademarks, registered trademarks or service marks belong to their respective holders. View original content with multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/siemens-addresses-digital-enterprise-with-valor-iot-manufacturing-analytics-and-mindsphere-300605506.html SOURCE Siemens

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ][February 28, 2018] 3rd Annual Global Drug Bioavailability Enhancement Summit (Philadelphia, PA, United States - June 5th-6th, 2018) - ResearchAndMarkets.com

The "3rd Annual Global Drug Bioavailability Enhancement Summit" conference has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering. Most drugs on today's market display poor solubility, but the use of modern solubilization technologies can improve a drug product's bioavailability and performance. Even the most promising API, monoclonal antibody or therapeutic peptide can only be turned into an effective and marketable drug if formulated in such a way that it is bioavailable. However, finding the ideal solution that gives a particular drug the desired profile is still a major headache for pharmaceutical firms. Additionally, biopharmaceutical firms hoping to develop oral delivery alternatives for biologics will also need to work out how to maximize the bioavailability, safety and effectiveness of their products. Small-and large-molecule therapeutics urgently need to overcome drug formulation and delivery challenges in order to improve bioavailability and therapeutic performance. Back by popular demand, this summit will be providing a holistic overview to bioavailability enhancements. We will be covering everything from large molecules to small molecules; oral drugs and parenterals (including nasal, pulmonary, transdermal, microneedles, ocular and more); as well as will be bridging the gap from early to late stage dscovery and development. Throughout the program we will be bringing real-world stories and case-studies and covering the sessions and topics with best practices and lessons learned in interesting and interactive sessions, panels and roundtables instead of the standard, mundane traditional-style presentations.



In addition, this summit strives to provide you unique and interesting solutions that can assist you and others on your team. We know that prediction and modeling tools and technologies; the move to continuous manufacturing; manners and methods to utilizing data; and legal, regulatory solutions amongst others are important to your role and company. And, our goal is to make sure we can provide you a wide array of ideas, tools, technologies, perspectives and thoughts to make your job easier. This event will truly provide to you and your colleagues great ideas and perspectives to share and further improve your strategies to bring novel formulations to-market more quickly.

This event is co-located with the 3rd Annual Peptide Drug Design & Delivery Summit. Attendees and sponsors have access to this event as a value add. Benefits of Attending: 40+ Industry-led Speakers

150+ Senior Participants

10+ Networking Hours Who Should Attend: Pharmaceutical, biotech and medical device professionals responsible for: Formulation/Preformulation

Solubility/Solubilization

Pharmaceutics/Biopharmaceutics

Pharmacokinetics/Pharmacodynamics/DMPK

Manufacturing

CMC

Drug Delivery

Medicinal Chemistry

Preclinical Development

Analytical Development

Material Science

Regulatory Affairs

Toxicology

Physicochemistry

Process R&D This Program Will Also Be of Interest to: Solubility and Formulation Service Providers

Drug Delivery Service Providers

API Manufacturers

CROs

CMOs For more information about this conference visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/nk5vfx/3rd_annual_global?w=4 View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180228005812/en/

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ][February 28, 2018] Netwrix Experts to Present at HIMSS 2018

IRVINE, Calif., Feb. 28, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Netwrix Corporation, provider of a visibility platform for data security and risk mitigation, announced today that Netwrix is exhibiting at HIMSS 2018, which is hosted in Las Vegas, NV, March 59, 2018. During the event, Netwrix professionals will present an educational session titled "Lessons Learned from the Biggest Healthcare Breaches." Netwrix expert Deborah Kohls will explain how healthcare organizations can mitigate insider threats through visibility into user activity, continuous risk assessment and other techniques, illustrating them using examples of well-known healthcare breaches. TOPIC: Lessons Learned from the Biggest Healthcare Breaches TIME: 2:302:50 pm, Thursday, March 8, 2018 LOCATION: Las Vegas, Venetian Convention Center, Veronese Booth 8500 SPEAKER: Deborah Kohls, Sales Account Executive, Netwrix As an exhibitor, Netwrix will run a live demo of Netwrix Auditor 9.5 at booth #8600-71 in the Cybersecurity Pavilion. Netwrix Auditor is a visibility platform for user behavior analysis and risk mitigation that empowers IT teams in healthcare organizations to focus on what they are best at and sleep soundly at night instead of worrying about compliance failures, data exfiltration or ransomware. The platform provides security intelligence to identify security holes, detect anomalies in user behavior and investigate threat patterns in time to prevent real damage.



For more information about the session hosted by Netwrix, please visit: http://www.himssconference.org/session/lessons-learned-biggest-healthcare-breaches To find out more about the event, please visit: http://www.himssconference.org/

About Netwrix Corporation Netwrix Corporation was the first vendor to introduce a visibility and governance platform for hybrid cloud security. More than 160,000 IT departments worldwide rely on Netwrix to detect insider threats on premises and in the cloud, pass compliance audits with less effort and expense, and increase productivity of IT security and operations teams. Founded in 2006, Netwrix has earned more than 100 industry awards and been named to both the Inc. 5000 and Deloitte Technology Fast 500 lists of the fastest growing companies in the U.S. For more information, visit www.netwrix.com CONTACT: Erin Jones

Avista PR for Netwrix

P: 704.664.2170

E: pr@netwrix.com View original content with multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/netwrix-experts-to-present-at-himss-2018-300605806.html SOURCE Netwrix Corporation

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ][February 28, 2018] Red Hat Honors Instructors Who Champion Open Source Education

Red Hat (News - Alert) , Inc. (NYSE: RHT), the world's leading provider of open source solutions, today recognized eight higher education instructors for their continuing efforts to incorporate open source philosophies, methods and tools into their academic work. For the second year, Red Hat is honoring the work of higher education instructors who are committed to teaching the open source development process to their students. The majority of honorees are past participants in Professor's Open Source (News - Alert) Software Experience (POSSE). Launched by Red Hat in 2009, POSSE is a cultural immersion in the tools and practices of open source communities, designed for instructors looking for ways to bring their students into active participation in those communities. These workshops are made possible through National Science Foundation grants awarded to Drexel University, Nassau Community College and Western New England University, and by Teaching Open Source, a member project of the Software Freedom Conservancy. Corporations such as Red Hat and Google (News - Alert) provide support through Teaching Open Source and their participation in POSSE workshops, which are co-taught by members of the academic and open source communities. The instructors who are honored have demonstrated their commitment to teaching open source through a range of contributions, including: creating open source programs and courses at their institution; contributing materials to the growing open source curriculum base; or speaking about teaching open source at conferences like the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing and the SIGCSE (Special Interest Group on Computer Science Education) Technical Symposium. This year's list of instructors leading the way in teaching open source are: Aria (News - Alert) Chernik, lecturing fellow, Social Science Research Institute, and director, Open Source Pedagogy, Research and Innovation (OSPRI), Duke University

Joshua Dehlinger, assistant/associate professor, Department of Computer and Information Sciences, Towson University

Robert Duvall, lecturer, Department of Computer Science, Duke University

Joshua Pearce, professor, Department of Materials Science and Engineering; professor, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering; and advisor, Open Source Hardware Enterprise, Michigan Technological University

Alan Rea, professor, business information systems, Haworth College of Business, Western Michigan University

Wes Turner, senior lecturer, computer science, School of Science, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

Stewart Weiss, associate professor, Department of Computer Science, Hunter College of the City University of New York

Sabine Wojcieszak, lecturer, University of Applied Science Kiel The efforts of these instructors both to integrate open source into their classrooms and to grow a community of like-minded educators are making a difference in the lives of students and making the world a more open and collaborative place. Supporting Quote Gina Likins, university outreach, Open Source and Standards, Red Hat

"As more organizations use and develop open source technology, the need for graduates skilled in open source grows. Red Hat is proud to recognize educators who embrace the open source way and are committed to teaching the next generation about the potential of a career in open source. These educators are helping to pave the way for their students' success and for othe instructors who can benefit from the resources they create."



Additional Resources Learn more about Red Hat's commitment to open source education Connect with Red Hat

Learn more about Red Hat

Get more news in the Red Hat newsroom

Read the Red Hat blog

Follow Red Hat on Twitter

Join Red Hat on Facebook

Watch Red Hat videos on YouTube

Join Red Hat on Google+

Follow Red Hat on LinkedIn About Red Hat, Inc. Red Hat is the world's leading provider of open source software solutions, using a community-powered approach to provide reliable and high-performing cloud, Linux, middleware, storage and virtualization technologies. Red Hat also offers award-winning support, training, and consulting services. As a connective hub in a global network of enterprises, partners, and open source communities, Red Hat helps create relevant, innovative technologies that liberate resources for growth and prepare customers for the future of IT. Learn more at http://www.redhat.com. Forward-Looking Statements Certain statements contained in this press release may constitute "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements provide current expectations of future events based on certain assumptions and include any statement that does not directly relate to any historical or current fact. Actual results may differ materially from those indicated by such forward-looking statements as a result of various important factors, including: risks related to the ability of the Company to compete effectively; the ability to deliver and stimulate demand for new products and technological innovations on a timely basis; delays or reductions in information technology spending; the integration of acquisitions and the ability to market successfully acquired technologies and products; fluctuations in exchange rates; the effects of industry consolidation; uncertainty and adverse results in litigation and related settlements; the inability to adequately protect Company intellectual property and the potential for infringement or breach of license claims of or relating to third party intellectual property; risks related to defects in our offerings and third-party hardware upon which our offerings depend; risks related to the security of our offerings and other data security vulnerabilities; changes in and a dependence on key personnel; the ability to meet financial and operational challenges encountered in our international operations; and ineffective management of, and control over, the Company's growth and international operations, as well as other factors contained in our most recent Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q (copies of which may be accessed through the Securities and Exchange Commission's website at http://www.sec.gov), including those found therein under the captions "Risk Factors" and "Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations". In addition to these factors, actual future performance, outcomes, and results may differ materially because of more general factors including (without limitation) general industry and market conditions and growth rates, economic and political conditions, governmental and public policy changes and the impact of natural disasters such as earthquakes and floods. The forward-looking statements included in this press release represent the Company's views as of the date of this press release and these views could change. However, while the Company may elect to update these forward-looking statements at some point in the future, the Company specifically disclaims any obligation to do so. These forward-looking statements should not be relied upon as representing the Company's views as of any date subsequent to the date of this press release. Red Hat and the Shadowman logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Red Hat, Inc. or its subsidiaries in the U.S. and other countries. Linux is the registered trademark of Linus Torvalds in the U.S. and other countries. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180228005098/en/

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]The Annual General Meeting of Awilco Drilling PLC will be held Friday 23 March 2018 at 10:00 noon (UK time), at the offices of Awilco Drilling on 2 Kingshill Park, Venture Drive, Arnhall Business Park, Westhill, Aberdeen, AB32 6FL, UK.

The notice including agenda for the General Meeting is attached to this disclosure. The notice will be sent by mail or e-mail to the shareholders.

The notice has also been made available on our website www.awilcodrilling.com.





Aberdeen, 28 February 2018





For further information please contact:



Jon Oliver Bryce, CEO

Phone: +44 1224 737900



Cathrine Haavind, IR Manager

Phone: +47 93 42 84 64

Email: ch@awilcodrilling.com





This information is subject of the disclosure requirements pursuant to section 5-12 of the Norwegian Securities Trading Act.LAS VEGAS, Feb. 28, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- CV Sciences, Inc., (OTCQB:CVSI), preeminent manufacturer and distributor of hemp-derived phytocannabinoids including CBD oil, announced today that it will be presenting at 30th Annual ROTH Conference. The Conference is being held on March 11-14, 2018 at The Ritz-Carlton in Dana Point, California.



Joseph Dowling, Chief Financial Officer of CV Sciences, will deliver a corporate presentation covering CV Sciences' two distinct business segments: the Companys industry-leading brand of hemp CBD consumer products distributed to more than 1500 retail stores throughout the U.S.; and, the Companys drug development business segment, highlighting, CVSI-007, the Companys lead drug candidate which utilizes synthetically-formulated CBD for use in the treatment of smokeless tobacco addiction. Mr. Dowling will also be conducting one-on-one meetings with investors and analysts.

The 30th Annual ROTH Conference, with close to 550 participating companies and over 4,700 attendees, will feature presentations from public and private companies in a variety of sectors including business services, cleantech, industrial growth & solar, consumer, healthcare, resources: oil & gas / metals & mining, technology, internet & media.

About CV Sciences, Inc.

CV Sciences, Inc (OTCQB:CVSI), located in San Diego, California and Las Vegas, Nevada, focuses on drug development activities on products containing cannabidiol (CBD) as the active pharmaceutical ingredient, and also is engaged in the manufacturing, marketing and sale of end consumer products containing CBD, which is refined into its own PlusCBD Oil brand. Additional information is available from OTCMarkets.com or by visiting PlusCBDoil.com.

FORWARD-LOOKING DISCLAIMER

This press release may contain certain forward-looking statements and information, as defined within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, and is subject to the Safe Harbor created by those sections. This material contains statements about expected future events and/or financial results that are forward-looking in nature and subject to risks and uncertainties. Such forward-looking statements by definition involve risks, uncertainties.

CONTACT INFORMATION:



Robert Haag

Managing Director

IRTH Communications

CVSI@irthcommunications.com

866-976-4784404 - Page Not Found

Sorry, this page was not found. Try visiting our homepage or using the search function in our menu.Security researchers from Cloudflare have started to see an increase in DDoS amplification attacks caused by attackers who exploit memcached, a distributed server caching system.

Memcached Amplification Attacks

The amplification technique essentially tricks servers into sending traffic to certain targets due to how their protocols usually work. These protocols often demand a response from the server when someone makes a request to the server. One of the protocols that works like this is memcached, which some attackers have started to abuse lately to launch DDoS attacks.

At peak, Cloudflare has seen DDoS attacks with a bandwidth of 260 Gb/s of inbound UDP memcached traffic. This attack is significant by amplification attack standards, according to Cloudflare. One of the reasons why the malicious actors were able to create such powerful attacks was that the packets sent by the memcached servers are quite large. The majority of the packets are 1,400 bytes in size.

The researchers noted that due to how the UDP protocol is used by memcached, this makes memcached one of the best protocols for amplification attacks. There are no checks done by the memcached system to see if the request to the server is legitimate. Therefore, the attackers are able to request large responses of up to 1MB per response.

How Memcached Attacks Are Launched

To make things worse, it doesnt seem too difficult to set up a memcached amplification attack. The attackers first need to implant a malicious payload on a memcached server. Then, they spoof the get request so that the server sends the large responses to the target source IP (the target whose service the attackers are trying to disrupt).



Cloudflare researchers saw memcached attacks that amplified 15 bytes of requests by 10,000 to 51,200 times. Most vulnerable memcached servers seem to be located in North America and Europe.

How To Stop Memcached Attacks

Cloudflare recommended memcached users to simply disable the UDP support, as it tends to be enabled by default. This should be the most effective way to stop this type of attack dead in its tracks.

Additionally, system administrators should also set-up firewalls that restrict the traffic flow of their memcached servers.

Ultimately, if we want to stop amplification attacks for good, Cloudflare believes we should fix vulnerable protocols and end IP-spoofing. As long as IP-spoofing is possible, amplification attacks on the internet through other protocols or vulnerabilities will continue.Special Committee of Independent Directors Reviewing Trading Activity by Maricann Directors and Matters Involving its Chief Executive Officer



Raymond Stone and Neil Tabatznik Resign As Directors

Paul Pathak Appointed Interim Chairman of the Board

Not for dissemination or distribution in the United States or through U.S. newswire services.

TORONTO, Feb. 28, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Maricann Group Inc. (CSE:MARI)(OTCQB:MRCCF)(FRANKFURT:75M), Maricann or the Company) announced today that it has been advised orally by the underwriters that they are not prepared to proceed with the previously announced bought deal offering of 17,500,000 units of the Company, for gross proceeds of $70,000,000 (the Offering). The Company has not received an official notice of termination of the Offering.

The Company also announces the resignations of Raymond Stone and Neil Tabatznik as directors and the appointment of Paul Pathak as interim chairman of the board.

The Company also announced that the Ontario Securities Commission (OSC) has advised it that the OSC is conducting a review of the timing and reporting of certain trades in securities of the Company beneficially owned, directly or indirectly, or over which control or direction is exercised by Messrs. Stone and Tabatznik and Eric Silver or their respective associates and affiliates or by other persons otherwise directly or indirectly related to them, as the case may be, that were effected prior to the announcement of the Offering. Messrs. Stone, Tabatznik and Silver have advised the Company that they are fully cooperating with the OSC in its review.

By letter dated February 8, 2018, Staff of the OSC also advised that Ben Ward is the subject of an investigation into his activities while he was CEO of Canadian Cannabis Corp., a company wholly unrelated to the Company. Prior to this, the Company was unaware of the matter. The Company is unaware of any facts that could reasonably lead it to conclude that this investigation has had, or will have, any impact on the ability of Mr. Ward to properly and effectively carry out his duties as CEO or director of the Company. Staff of the OSC have advised the Company that they are unable to provide it with any further information at this time. Mr. Ward has advised the Company that he is subject to the same restrictions under applicable securities law. The Company is advised by Mr. Ward that he is fully cooperating with the investigation and that he believes that he has acted at all times in a manner that is compliant with applicable securities law.

In connection with these matters, the Maricann board of directors established a special committee of independent directors that has full authority to review these trades and the OSC investigation involving Mr. Ward and any related matters and to make recommendations to the board on appropriate steps to be taken in response. The special committee became aware of the trades involving persons related to Mr. Silver only recently and is only beginning its review of that situation. The special committee retained Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt LLP to act as its independent legal counsel in connection with these matters.

On behalf of the special committee, director Paul Pathak said, We have heard from many significant shareholders of the Company about their concerns with these matters, and we share them. In these circumstances, we appreciate Messrs. Stone and Tabatznik having resigned. The special committees review is ongoing, but we are committed to providing the stakeholders of the Company with a further update on its review shortly.

As a result of these developments, the Company will not be in a position to file a final prospectus and obtain a receipt therefor for the qualification of the units underlying the 20,125,000 special warrants issued on January 9, 2018 before the deadline of 5:00 p.m. on February 27, 2018. Although the Company plans to file an amended preliminary prospectus and continue to seek qualification of the units underlying the special warrants, each unexercised special warrant will thereafter entitle the holder to receive, upon the exercise thereof, for no additional consideration, 1.05 units (instead of one (1) unit) provided, however, that any fractional entitlement to such units will be rounded down to the nearest whole unit.

About Maricann Group Inc.

Maricann is a vertically integrated producer and distributor of marijuana for medical purposes. The company was founded in 2013 and is based in Toronto, Canada and Munich, Germany, with production facilities in Langton, Ontario, Canada where it operates a medicinal cannabis cultivation, extraction, formulation and distribution business under federal licence from the Government of Canada and Dresden, Saxony, Germany. Maricann is currently undertaking an expansion of its cultivation and support facilities in Canada in a 942,000 sq. ft. (87,515 sq. m) build out, capable of producing 95,000 kg of dry cannabis flower per year to support existing and future patient growth.

For more information about Maricann, please visit our website at www.maricann.ca

Forward Looking Information

Certain statements in this document, contain forward-looking statements which can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as believes, expects, may, desires, will, should, projects, estimates, contemplates, anticipates, intends, or any negative such as does not believe or other variations thereof or comparable terminology. No assurance can be given that potential future results or circumstances described in the forward-looking statements will be achieved or will occur. By their nature, these forward-looking statements, necessarily involve risks and uncertainties, including those discussed herein, that could cause actual results to significantly differ from those contemplated by these forward-looking statements. Such statements reflect the view of the Company with respect to the qualification of the special warrants and other future events, and are based on information currently available to the Company and on assumptions, which it considers reasonable. Management cautions readers that the assumptions relative to the future events, several of which are beyond Managements control, could prove to be incorrect, given that they are subject to certain risk and uncertainties, and that actual results may differ materially from those projected. Factors which could cause results or events to differ from current expectations include, among other things: the outcome of the special committees review, the OSCs review and any regulatory investigation; fluctuations in operating results; the impact of general economic, industry and market conditions; the ability to recruit and retain qualified employees; fluctuations in cash flow; increased levels of outstanding debt and obligations under a capital lease; expectations regarding market demand for particular products and the dependence on new product development; the impact of market change; and the impact of price and product competition. Management disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by applicable securities laws. The reader is cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking information.

Contact information:

Investor Relations:

Graham Farrell

Director of Investor Relations

graham@maricann.com

647-643-7665

Corporate Headquarters (Canada)

Maricann Group Inc. (Toronto)

845 Harrington Court, Unit 3

Burlington Ontario L7N 3P3

Canada

289-288-6274

European Headquarters (Germany)

Maricann GmbH

Thierschstrasse 3, 80538 Munchen, Deutschland

The Canadian Securities Exchange has not reviewed, approved or disapproved the

content of this news release.



KC mayor invites Delta Airlines to bring headquarters here using new KCI as bait KANSAS CITY, Mo. - Kansas City Mayor Sly James is moving in fast to try and lure Delta Airlines to moving its headquarters to our city. Delta is in the middle of a little bit of a squabble with Republicans in Georgia.

Gun Rights activists arefor a biz decision that didn't work to keep them out of the gun debate . . . And now Mayor Sly extends an olive branch and desperately needed #BetterKCI promo . . ."Witnesses told police that a truck ran a stop sign and hit a white SUV that ended up crashing into a home. Officials say a third party was involved that got into an altercation with the truck's driver. The driver of the truck was shot and killed.





"Police say the suspect is described as a Hispanic male wearing an orange jacket. The suspect fled the scene in a 2003 White Chevrolet Trailblazer with license plate number UJ0-J2U."









Check the latest local murder report after a neighborhood car crash debate goes horrible wrong . . .Pix put on blast by police:This is the 16th homicide so far this year compared to 18 at this time last year.Check the links . . .Developing . . .Raytown school district holds meeting on school security In the wake a school threat Monday, Raytown School District held a meeting focusing on security with teacher and student leaders Tuesday night. The meeting was closed to the public but discussed mostly panning on school security improvement. That includes metal detectors, which the district has researched, along with facial recognition and increased security for stadium.

Here's a look at the plan to turn a local school into something that resembles a prison as the public panics over rising violence . . . Read more:Extreme weather phenomena are a relatively rare winter occurrence in Greece, which is famous in the whole world for its great climate all year round

The Greek Meteorological Services (EMY) issued an extraordinary bulletin warning of an extreme wave affecting many regions of the country beginning on Tuesday evening from the north-west. The main characteristics will be heavy rain, storms, and strong south winds, while hail is also forecast for some areas. The phenomena will hit tonight the Ionian Islands, Western mainland Greece, and the Peloponnese.

-For Wednesday morning the regions affected will probably include the Cyclades island group and by mid-day the islands of the northern and eastern Aegean and the Dodecanese.

Occasional snowfall is expected tonight in the areas of Epirus (over 400-500m altitude), Thessaly and western-central mainland Greece (Sterea-over 600-700m altitude), central Macedonia and lowland areas in eastern Macedonia and Thrace.

On Wednesday, snow is to be expected across the areas of Western and Central Macedonia (mainly Chalkidiki) (higher than 200 metres) and in the afternoon locally in the lowlands of Eastern Macedonia and Thrace.

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: Marek Bakajsa License: CC-BY-SA

Source: protothema.grLeading telecom services operator Viva Bahrain has announced that it will be celebrating eight successful years of its operations in the kingdom with value-added offers for its retail and enterprise customers.



With the anniversary celebrations kicking off tomorrow (March 1), the telecom operator has lined up an exciting range of product promotions, community-driven activities and CSR initiatives.



First and foremost, acknowledging the valued support of the local community, Viva Bahrain has brought back its immensely popular Thank You Van that will travel across the kingdom to give away gifts at the press of a button.



This initiative targeted at reaching out to the wider community will be complemented by Viva also offering 50 per cent discount to the first 1,000 customers who book Cineco tickets online through cinema.bh.



Adding to the eighth anniversary celebrations, the telecom group will be rewarding its customers through a special retail initiative at its Bahrain City Centre, Seef Mall, Gosi Mall and Hamad town outlets.



Viva customers visiting these outlets with tickets that feature the number 8 will be eligible for a BD100 ($263) gift voucher, when they upgrade or renew their existing subscriptions or complete Postpaid/Prepaid mobile or broadband transactions.



An exclusive product promotion has also been lined up with up to BD50 discount offered on the latest iPhone X and the Huawei Mate 10, which can be availed on contract subscriptions of 18 and 24-months.

Furthermore, all Viva mobile customers can also avail the 3GB free data bundle, which will be valid for three days. The company has also partnered with online food service delivery, Carriage to offer its customers free delivery using a special code on orders made between March 1  3.



Continuing with the anniversary offers, its business customers can also benefit from the special Business Mobility package which offers mobile and broadband subscribers free 8GB data on all registered devices. This offer will run for one month until March 31.



With CSR at the core of its operations, the telecom operator is also hosting activities at a labour camp to mark anniversary celebrations and promote SIM card registration.



Commenting on the celebrations, CEO Ulaiyan Al Wetaid said: "Our strong subscriber base is the foundation of Vivas continued growth and success. They have been the key drivers for us to pursue technological innovations and deliver product portfolios that are relevant and responsive to their discerning needs."



"The special offers are our way of celebrating the group's successful telecom journey with our customers and recognising their unparalleled trust and support in us," he added.-TradeArabia News ServiceSwiss-Belhotel International has appointed Bert Plas as the general manager for Grand Swiss-Belresort Seef in Bahrain.



The Grand Swiss-Belresort Seef is a five-star luxury resort featuring 193 rooms and suites equipped with the finest facilities and is expected to open by June 2018.



Working with leading international brands, Plas has over 25 years of outstanding hotel management experience across Europe, the Middle East, North and South America and the Caribbean region.



Making the announcement, Laurent A. Voivenel, senior vice president, Operations and Development for the Middle East, Africa and India for Swiss-Belhotel International, said: We are delighted to welcome Plas to our team and are confident his superb experience will prove to be invaluable at a time when we are rapidly expanding our footprint in Bahrain where we have enjoyed great success with our acclaimed property Swiss-Belhotel Seef. The new developments in the country are in line with our multi-brand growth strategy and reinforce our commitment to Bahrain where we continue to see a strong demand for quality hotels.



Plas entered the hospitality industry upon completion of his education from the prestigious Hesser Hotel Management School in Zurich, Switzerland and Hotel Management School in Zwolle, Netherlands. During the course of his distinguished career, he had the opportunity to work in many senior roles including the position of general manager with a number of successful hotels such as Crown Plaza Hotel in Trinidad Tobago and Le Meridien Hotel, British Guyana. In 2009, Plas joined the Sofitel Hotels & Resorts where he stayed for over eight years serving various properties as the general manager. Prior to joining The Grand Swiss-Belresort Seef, Plas was the general manager of Sofitel Jeddah Corniche in Saudi Arabia since September 2015. - TradeArabia News ServiceHRH Prime Minister Prince Khalifa bin Salman Al-Khalifa hailed Bahrains efforts in developing the kingdom's into a leading tourist destination during the recent inauguration of the Jumeirah Royal Saray Bahrain, said a report.



At the inauguration, the Prime Minister underlined Bahrains steady success in developing the tourism sector, earning a marked standing on the regional and international tourism map, said a report in Bahrain News Agency (BNA).



He reiterated the governments drive to encourage tourism development and provide all facilities which woo the private sector to invest in the vital sector.



He stressed the importance of expanding tourism facilities and building hotels as part of efforts to diversify the sources of revenues and invest in all potential, including markets, museums, archeological vestiges, resorts and modern shopping outlets, the report said.



Jumeirah Royal Saray Bahrain chief executive officer, Marc Dardenne, expressed deep thanks and gratitude to HRH the Premier for opening the new milestone, hailing his support and the governments drive to provide all facilities for the project.From left to right: Brad Kimzey, Charlotte Page and John Witherspoon of Witherspoon Platt Associates.

Conservation Advisors of North Carolina, a real estate and land conservation firm in Brevard, has announced that it has adopted a new name, Witherspoon Platt Associates, to better reflect its diversity of real estate and conservation services.

The firm will continue to work out of offices in Brevard alongside Platt Architecture, PA, and Platt Management Group.

"We've built many, many great relationships and have acquired an extensive understanding and knowledge of the unique land markets in Western North Carolina," says John Witherspoon, broker-in-charge at Witherspoon Platt Associates. "We felt it was time to re-establish our company to build on our experience and provide buyers and sellers with a comprehensive resource.

"Conservation Advisors has established a solid, reliable reputation for integrity and success in every facet of real estate, including private homes, commercial real estate and large tract properties, and now Witherspoon Platt Associates will concentrate our efforts on helping buyers and sellers tap into that experience."

Witherspoon Platt Associates includes long-time Conservation Advisors personnel John Witherspoon and Brad Kimzey, and has added real estate broker Charlotte Page to the team. Services include brokerage, marketing, research and customized individual strategies for each property and client. Witherspoon Platt Associates continues to provide full conservation strategy services, analysis and consultation to select clients pursuing conservation-based projects.

For 20 years, Conservation Advisors has been helping land owners protect the natural landscapes of Western North Carolina through conservation and management. Clients of Conservation Advisors have placed more than 8,000 acres of land into conservation easements, permanently protecting the land from development. Conser-vation Advisors has stayed on the point of conservation theory, law, and practice, evolving its scope of work to serve clients ranging from families and farmers to corporations and developers.

For over a decade, Conservation Advisors has been a leading real estate company as well, building a reputation for integrity and attention to detail.

Witherspoon Platt Associates will draw on the company's depth of knowledge and experience to continue working at the same high level for real estate clients across Western North Carolina.

Conservation Advisors was created by Al Platt, Parker Platt and John Witherspoon to provide landowners with thoughtful options for realizing their property's value, while also protecting water and air quality, habitat diversity, forest health and scenic landscapes.Mission Hospital has earned a three-star rating from The Society of Thoracic Surgeons (STS) for its patient care and outcomes in coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) surgery and lobectomy (a partial lung resection) for lung cancer.

The three-star rating, which denotes the highest category of quality, places Mission Health among the elite for cardiothoracic surgery in the United States and Canada, according to a press release from the hospital.

Mission Health has a long history of providing excellent care. Our cardiac surgeons and cardiologists are among the best in the nation and these results showcase both their skill and daily commitment to providing the best outcome for our community in Western North Carolina, said Brad Kappalman, vice president of heart services at Mission Health.

The Society of Thoracic Surgeons has developed a comprehensive rating system for the quality of cardiothoracic surgery among hospitals across the country.

In the current analysis of national data covering the period from July 2014 through June 2017, only 6 percent of more than 1,000 participating hospitals received the three-star rating for CABG and 10 percent received the three-star rating for lobectomy.

The STS star-rating system is one of the most sophisticated and highly regarded measures of quality in health care, rating the benchmarked outcomes of cardiothoracic surgery programs in both the United States and Canada, according to the release.

The star rating is calculated using a combination of detailed, patient-specific quality measures for specific procedures performed by STS surgery database participants.

The Society of Thoracic Surgeons congratulates STS National Database participants who have received three-star ratings, said David M. Shahian, MD, chair of the STS Council on Quality, Research, and Patient Safety. Participation in the database and public reporting demonstrates a commitment to quality improvement in health care delivery and provides patients and their families with meaningful information to help them make informed decisions about health care.

The STS National Database was established in 1989 as an initiative for quality improvement and patient safety among cardiothoracic surgeons.

The STS database houses approximately 6.3 million surgical records and gathers information from more than 3,700 participating physicians, including surgeons and anesthesiologists from more than 90 percent of hospitals that perform cardiothoracic surgery in the US. STS public reporting online enables STS participants to voluntarily report to each other and the public their heart surgery scores and star ratings.In the coming weeks and months, it appears as if state houses across the country, if not Congress, may reconsider regulations on guns. While the images of the school shooting in Parkland, Fla., remain fresh in peoples minds, changes to the law should be based on facts. Those facts should lead to reasonable debate and plausible solutions to gun violence in America. To wit:

America has more guns and more mass shootings than any other country. Of the 41 states in which the number of households with guns exceeds the U.S. average, 28 have gun death rates above the national average of 10.5 per 100,000. Of the nine states in which gun ownership is below the national average, only one had gun death rates above the national average. The states with more guns had more gun-related deaths.

The greatest number of gun-related deaths are suicides. In 2016, there were an estimated 22,000 suicides by gun. That year there were roughly 11,600 gun-related homicides. Mass shootings that year accounted for 456 deaths, or 1.2 percent of gun-related deaths. Incidents in which victims killed perpetrators accounted for 589 deaths, or 1.6 percent of all gun-related deaths. Accidental shootings and other classifications of shooting claimed 3,500 lives.

 In 1995, Connecticut tightened its gun laws; it saw homicides decrease by 40 percent and suicides decrease by 15 percent. In 2007, Missouri eased its gun licensing laws; it saw homicides increase by 25 percent and suicides increase by 16 percent. Similar results have occurred in industrialized countries in which stricter gun laws have been enacted.

Bullets from semi-automatic 9mm handguns leave linear damage that is no larger than the bullet itself. The entry and exit wounds are roughly the size of the bullet. Bullets used in AR-15s leave the barrel three times faster than a typical bullet from a 9mm handgun and have three times the energy. According to Heather Sher, the radiologist who saw victims from the Parkland shooting, The high-velocity bullet causes a swath of tissue damage that extends several inches from its path. It does not have to actually hit an artery to damage it and cause catastrophic bleeding. Exit wounds can be the size of an orange. Bullets fired from AR-15s are much more deadly than bullets fired from handguns.

Passed in 1994, the federal assault weapons ban prohibited rifles like the AR-15 and large-capacity magazines. After the ban was allowed to expire on Sept. 13, 2004, the frequency and number of people killed in mass shootings has increased dramatically.

Based on these and other statistics, its reasonable to conclude that more guns do not equate to greater safety; gun laws, like traffic laws, can reduce the number of gun-related deaths; restricting the use of certain types of bullets would improve a persons chances of living if they were shot; and we could use more counselors to prevent people from committing suicide.

As for the Second Amendment, the right to bear arms is not absolute. It is illegal to own automatic weapons. Former Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, in the Heller vs. District of Columbia decision, wrote, Like most rights, the right secured by the Second Amendment is not unlimited. From Blackstone through the 19th century cases, commentators and courts routinely explained that the right was not a right to keep and carry any weapon whatsoever in any manner whatsoever and for whatever purpose.nothing in our opinion should be taken to cast doubt on longstanding prohibitions on the possession of firearms by felons and the mentally ill, or laws forbidding the carrying of firearms in sensitive places such as school and government buildings, or laws imposing conditions and qualifications on the commercial sale of arms.

Furthermore, on Feb. 21, 2018, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear an appeal on Californias 10-day waiting period for the purchase of a firearm, in essence supporting the Ninth Circuits opinion that the 10-day wait is reasonable precaution for the purchase of a second or third weapon, as well as for a first purchase.

Since the government has broad authority to regulate guns, as well as an obligation to promote the general welfare, its time for our elected officials to take action, based on facts, that will actually reduce the inordinate number of gun-related deaths in the country.TORONTO, Feb. 28, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Leading experts in cybersecurity are addressing such pressing topics as frontline realities, risk management, and cyber talent challenges at this weeks CyberCanada Senior Leadership Summit. The event, which will takes place today and March 1 at The Globe and Mail Centre in Toronto, is cohosted by The Boston Consulting Group (BCG), the Council of Canadian Innovators, and the Centre for International Governance Innovation. The Globe and Mail serves as media partner.



The summit features globally renowned experts such as Michael Chertoff, a former US Secretary of Homeland Security; Melissa Hathaway, the leader of the Comprehensive National Cybersecurity Initiative for US President George W. Bush and the head of the Cyberspace Policy Review for US President Barack Obama; and high-profile Canadian innovators such as Jim Balsillie, chair of the Council of Canadian Innovators. Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness Ralph Goodale will address the participants in a virtual conversation, speaking about current developments in Canadas cyberstrategy.

BCG panelists include Walter Bohmayr, a senior partner and the global leader of the cybersecurity topic; Michael Coden, who heads cybersecurity at BCG Platinion, and Toronto-based partner Vadim Gouterman.

Potential cybersecurity breaches threaten Canadian corporations and institutions, yet much of the current discussion focuses on alarming threats and specific events, says Keith Halliday, the director of BCGs Centre for Canadas Future. The summit is providing enterprise leaders with tools and approaches for proactively managing risk and protecting valuable corporate data.

Participants are invited to take part in an immersive cyberattack exercise led by BCG cyberexperts. According to Gouterman, This exercise, which has been battle tested with boards and executive teams around the world, simulates a real-life cyberattack in which executives, acting as leaders of a hypothetical corporation, face critical questions, make real-time decisions, and learn from a facilitated post-attack discussion.

To learn about the CyberCanada Senior Leadership Summit, please visit www.cybercanadasummit.ca.

About The CyberCanada Senior Leadership Summit

The goal of the CyberCanada Senior Leadership Summit is to contribute to the national dialogue on the critical topic of cybersecurity. The event was organized by a private-sector consortium led by the Council of Canadian Innovators, the Centre for International Governance Innovation, The Boston Consulting Group, and media partner the Globe and Mail. For more information, go to www.cybercanadasummit.ca.

About the Globe and Mail

The Globe and Mail, founded in 1844, is Canadas foremost news media company. Each day, the Globe leads the national discussion by engaging Canadians through its award-winning coverage of news, politics, business, investing, and lifestyle topics, across multiple platforms. The Globe and Mail print and digital formats reach 6.4 million readers every week, with Report on Business magazine reaching 1.7 million readers every issue in print and digital. The Globe and Mail is owned by Woodbridge, the investment arm of the Thomson family.

About the Centre for International Governance Innovation

The Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI) is an independent, nonpartisan think tank with an objective and uniquely global perspective. Its research, opinions, and public voice make a difference in todays world by bringing clarity and innovative thinking to global policymaking. Working across disciplines and in partnership with the best peers and experts, CIGI is the benchmark for influential research and trusted analysis. Our research programs focus on governance of the global economy, global security and politics, and international law in collaboration with a range of strategic partners and with support from the Government of Canada, the Government of Ontario, as well as founder Jim Balsillie.



About the Council of Canadian Innovators

The Council of Canadian Innovators is a 21st-century business council focused exclusively on helping high-growth Canadian technology firms scale up globally. The Councils mandate is to optimize the growth of Canadas innovation-based sector by ensuring Canadian tech and public-policy leaders are working together to improve Canadas innovation outputs.

About The Boston Consulting Group

The Boston Consulting Group (BCG) is a global management consulting firm and the worlds leading advisor on business strategy. We partner with clients from the private, public, and not-for-profit sectors in all regions to identify their highest-value opportunities, address their most critical challenges, and transform their enterprises. Our customized approach combines deep insight into the dynamics of companies and markets with close collaboration at all levels of the client organization. This ensures that our clients achieve sustainable competitive advantage, build more capable organizations, and secure lasting results. Founded in 1963, BCG is a private company with offices in more than 90 cities in 50 countries. For more information, please visit bcg.com.

The Boston Consulting Group

Alexandra Corriveau

Head of Media Relations, The Americas



Tel +1 212 446 3261

corriveau.alexandra@bcg.comSeveral days ago Mr. Trump stated that he would have rushed into Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School without regard for his own safety. In fact, his exact words were, I would have run in there even if I did not have a weapon. So says the man who received five deferments saving him from the draft during the Vietnam War.

While thousands of men and women fought and died in this horrible war, Mr. Trump was pursuing women for his sexual pleasure. This admission was made by Mr. Trump during an interview with Howard Stern on his radio talk show in the early 1970s.

What gives this man, Mr. Trump, the right to project his bravery, or lack thereof, into this school tragedy when he has proven himself to be a coward.

The Emperor has no Clothes!

Sarah Kane

BrevardUnder Galakiwi management, Hotel Albemarle recently won a 2018 Travelers Choice award from TripAdvisor for being among the top 25 Small Hotels in Ecuador, and the #1 ranked Small Hotel on Isabela Island in the Galapagos Islands.



(TRAVPR.COM) ECUADOR - February 28th, 2018

Hotel Albemarle, one of the finest hotels on Isabela Island in the Galapagos, has been a part of many Galakiwi tours ever since it opened more than a decade ago.

We are excited to announce that Galakiwi recently took over operations of the hotel, in a move that will ensure we can continue to provide exemplary customer experiences to our guests who visit the largest island of the Galapagos Archipelago.

Hotel Albemarle is already known for its high level of customer service, having recently been awarded a 2018 Travelers Choice award from TripAdvisor for being among the top 25 Small Hotels in Ecuador, and the #1 ranked Small Hotel on Isabela Island in the Galapagos.

Under Galakiwi management, a number of improvements have been made to the hotel over the past year. Upgrades and improvements include re-designed dining and pool areas, new air conditioning units and ceiling fans, online reservations, and improved room amenities and bed linens. With more changes coming in 2018, Hotel Albemarle is slated to remain the hotel of choice for travelers booking a vacation in the Galapagos Islands.

Reservations are available at www.hotelalbemarle.com. View a video of the hotel, showcasing its premier beachfront location in Puerto Villamil, Galapagos Islands.

For more information, including room photos and rates, contact:

Timothy Cooney, Hotel Albemarle

Phone: +593 5 252 9489

Email: info@hotelalbemarle.com

------

About Hotel Albemarle

For more than a decade Hotel Albemarle has been the baseline to which other hotels on Isabela Island are compared. Offering a location that is unrivalled right on the beautiful white, sandy beach of Puerto Villamil, the hotel is a favorite for vacationers visiting from the rest of the Galapagos, mainland Ecuador and around the world. A highly attentive staff, spacious rooms, complimentary breakfast, and modern amenities and furnishings consistently help rank Hotel Albemarle among the best hotels in Ecuador.

------

About Galakiwi

As a land-based tour operator in the Galapagos Islands, Galakiwi tours benefit dozens of local families who operate and work for the hotels, boats and restaurants their travelers visit. For Isabela Island, it had been a challenge in recent years to obtain sufficient rooms during peak season in the Galapagos Islands. By taking control of Hotel Albemarle, Galakiwi can now ensure their travelers will always have a comfortable, clean and safe place to stay on Isabela Island that meets or exceeds their expectations.

###OTTAWA, Feb. 28, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- A report released today by MiningWatch Canada examines the track record of Vancouver-based international mining corporation Hunter Dickinson Inc. (HDI) and exposes its affiliate Northern Dynasty Minerals, Ltd., the company promoting the controversial proposed Pebble mine in Alaskas sensitive Bristol Bay, as a highly risky speculative investment, calling its risk levels unprecedented even among other junior mining companies.



The report, Behind the Pebble Mine: Hunter Dickinson Inc., the Canadian Mining Company Youve Never Heard Of, analyzes the risks for potential long-term investors in the Pebble Partnership, based on a review of nineteen past and current projects promoted by the Hunter Dickinson family of companies. The report concludes that the long-term outcomes of HDI projects have not been good news for investors, for communities, for governments or for the environment. It shows the proposed Pebble mine to be one of many troubled and troubling projects controlled and promoted by Hunter Dickinson over the past twenty-five years.

The report examines the Hunter Dickinson family of companies, their track records and current situations, and the implications for the prospects of Northern Dynasty and the Pebble Partnership. The report was prepared for the benefit of all investors and stakeholders, said MiningWatch Canada spokesperson Jamie Kneen. He added, MiningWatch Canada is deeply concerned about the mining sectors institutional practices and financial accountability, especially the risk of unfunded liabilities. In this case, we have found much that is of concern, and we want to make sure investors are aware of it.



Kneen said, The report exposes a pattern of institutional weaknesses, especially when it comes to following projects past promotion and development, as well as a poor record of stakeholder and community relations, especially with Indigenous peoples. He added, Obviously, this is a question of primary importance in the case of the proposed Pebble Mine.



The reports author, Joan Kuyek, commented, Despite its promotional claims, Northern Dynasty seems to be effectively broke, with a deficit exceeding its market capitalization. Even a potential limited investment from First Quantum Minerals Ltd. to help Northern Dynasty apply for permits will not change that dynamic. Northern Dynasty has failed to find any partners willing to help build the proposed Pebble Mine, which is fiercely opposed by most Alaskans.

In addition to extensive analysis of Northern Dynasty Minerals, the proposed Pebble mine, and Hunter Dickinson itself, the report looks at historic HDI-related companies and projects as well as the current projects of Taseko Mines Ltd. in British Columbia and Arizona; Amarc Resources Ltd. in British Columbia; HDI Northcliff Resources Ltd. in New Brunswick; HDI Rathdowney Resources in Poland; and Heatherdale Resources in Alaska.

The report will be available at 11:00 am Eastern time on Wednesday, February 28th at https://miningwatch.ca/publications/2018/2/28/behind-pebble-mine-hunter-dickinson-inc-canadian-mining-company-you-ve-neverFORT WORTH, Texas, Feb. 28, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- KMG (NYSE:KMG), a global provider of specialty chemicals and performance materials, today announced the Company will provide fiscal second quarter financial results on Thursday, March 8, 2018 after the close of the market. At 5:00 p.m. ET that same day, KMG management will host a conference call to review the companys financial results. Listeners may access the conference call live via a dial-in number or audio webcast.



Thursday, March 8, 2018

5:00 p.m. Eastern Time

Dial-in Numbers:

Domestic: (844) 316-8066; International: (703) 736-7353

Conference ID: 1178959

The conference call will be webcast live via the Investors section of the Companys website at http://kmgchemicals.com.

The conference call transcript will be archived on the KMG website. A replay of the teleconference will also be available for one week, starting at 8:00 p.m. ET on March 8, 2018. To access the replay, call (855) 859-2056 (domestic) or (404) 537-3406 (international) using conference ID 1178959.

About KMG

KMG Chemicals, Inc., through its subsidiaries, produces and distributes specialty chemicals and performance materials for the semiconductor, industrial wood preservation, and pipeline and energy markets. For more information, visit the Company's website at http://kmgchemicals.com.

During the course of the conference call, KMG may make certain forward-looking statements that are based upon assumptions that in the future may prove not to have been accurate and are subject to significant risks and uncertainties, including statements as to the future performance of the company. Although the company believes that the expectations reflected in its forward-looking statements are reasonable, it can give no assurance that such expectations or any of its forward-looking statements will prove to be correct. Factors that could cause results to differ include, but are not limited to, successful performance of internal plans, product development acceptance, the impact of competitive services and pricing and general economic risks and uncertainties.

KMG Investor Relations

Eric Glover, 817-761-6006editorial@tribune.com

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, February 28

The district administration organised a meeting of various department to review their progress here today. The meeting was presided over by Additional Deputy Commissioner (ADC), Development, Ravinder Singh.

During the meeting, the ADC asked health officials to ensure increase in the rate of institutional child deliveries so as to check mother mortality rate and child mortality rate. He also asked the officials concerned to regularly check the working of private ultrasound scan centres in the city to curb sex determination tests.

The ADC also asked officials of the Public Works Department to complete repair work of all roads in district by March 31. He also instructed the officials for speeding up the work of BRTS corridor so that metro buses can be started on all routes at the earliest.

Railway officials were asked to ensure cleanliness at the workshop and disposal of old tyres so that efforts of the Health Department to check malaria could be supplemented as such tyres facilitate mosquitoe breeding.editorial@tribune.com

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, February 28

While military response is not the only solution to deal with Pakistan, military diplomacy, which is a very important and growing facet of foreign policy, needs to be given a greater role while engaging with Pakistan.

Stating this while delivering the valedictory address during a seminar on Emerging Geostrategic Manifestations in Pakistan  Implications for India at Panjab University here today, the General Officer Commanding-in-Chief, Western Command, Lt Gen Surinder Singh, said this would enable militaries on both sides to work with each other, develop confidence and move forward.

A long-term consistent plan involving different ministries and government agencies that does not get derailed by border incidents, needs to be put in place, which includes diplomacy, economic engagement, cultural exchanges and people-to-people contact, he said. All possible options need to be brought into play to improve relations with Pakistan, he added.

Remarking that Chinas influence over Pakistan will increase further, reducing it to a client state, Lt Gen Surinder said, India needs to improve relations with China and enhance diplomatic and economic linkages with it, which can then be leveraged against Pakistan.

Pointing out that Pakistan can be pushed conventionally or militarily only up to a limit as no nuclear nation can be brow beaten beyond a particular stage, he said it had positioned itself well with nuclear deterrence at one end and a significant sub-convectional capability at the other end, thus reducing the window for conventional warfare.

Manpreet Badal, Minister of Finance and Planning, Punjab, said Pakistan had become a failed state because over the past 70 years, they had systematically degraded their institutions, be it military, parliament, judiciary or the police. He said an important lesson to be learnt from Pakistan was that, while preserving our institutions, we must desist from pursuing divisive politics based upon caste, creed or religion.

Former GOC-in-C, Northern Command, Lt Gen DS Hooda delved upon the dynamics of infiltration along the Line of Control (LoC) and the emerging ramifications of the escalation of ceasefire violations.Sharat Sabharwal

Sharat Sabharwal

Former High Commissioner to Pakistan

Disqualified from holding the office of Prime Minister last year by the Supreme Court, Nawaz Sharif has now been barred by the same court from being the head of his party, PML (N). Ostensibly a matter of corruption in high places, his disqualification has a strong subtext of civil-military tussle in Pakistan.

As the 2013 Pakistan election approached, the security establishment was concerned at the prospect of a Nawaz victory because of his popularity in Punjab that carries more than 50 per cent seats in the National Assembly. The anxiety stemmed from Nawaz's tense relationship with his army chiefs during two tenures as Prime Minister, his bitterness against the army at his treatment after the 1999 coup and repeatedly professed desire to promote better relations with India. In 2011, Imran Khan, whose Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf had failed to make a mark since its founding in 1996, appeared on the scene out of nowhere to relaunch his political career by opposing American drone strikes in Pakistani territory and corruption in the ruling parties. The then DG, ISI, was reported to be the architect of his sudden rise, a move that subsequent events would prove to be farsighted in filling the gap left by the reluctance of the two major parties  PPP and PML (N)  wiser with the experience of the past, to collaborate with the army against each other. Closer to the election, Tahir ul Qadri, a Canada based cleric of Pakistan origin, landed up to push for its postponement. However, these machinations failed and Nawaz won a third term with a comfortable majority in the election held in May, 2013.

In this backdrop, the civil-military equation under Nawaz was expected to be anything but smooth. Differences emerged quickly on Musharraf's trial, policy on terrorism and relations with India. The army managed to secure Musharraf's exit from Pakistan, prevailed against Nawaz's misplaced policy of dialogue with the anti-Pak terror groups and systematically undermined his agenda to improve relations with India.

Imran's agitation against the alleged rigging of the 2013 election, which kept Nawaz on the back foot vis a vis the army, came a cropper when a judicial commission ruled against him in July 2015. However, the linkage of some offshore companies to the Prime Minister's family, revealed in the Panama papers, gave Imran and his mentors another opportunity to target Nawaz. In July 2017, the Supreme Court disqualified Nawaz from holding public office. Significantly, the decision was based on the report of a six-member joint investigation team, constituted by the court that included a representative each of the ISI and Military Intelligence. Since these highly disciplined individuals would not have approved the report without a nod from the army leadership, the damning report, combined with the track record of the Pakistan judiciary kowtowing to military dictators, had left little doubt about the fate of the Prime Minister and was an indicator of provenance of the decision to oust him.

The run-up to the 2018 election bears an eerie similarity to the events preceding the 2013 election. The actors seeking to destroy Nawaz's political future are the same, with the addition of the Supreme Court and Pakistan's terror brand ambassador, Hafiz Saeed. The army would be loath to see his return to power. The PPP has sought to exploit Nawaz's misfortunes for political gains in Punjab, but being an experienced party, would not go the extent of playing the security establishment's game. That is not true of Imran. Egged on by his ambition, he is blind to the army's design. Tahir ul Qadri is again around. The security establishment aims to deprive Nawaz of another victory by undermining him in Punjab. Hafiz Saeed's services have also been enlisted for good measure by releasing him from preventive detention. Though the Election Commission has not recognised his party, Milli Muslim League, because of opposition of the PML (N) government, he could be expected to put up independent candidates to erode Nawaz's vote.

Nawaz and his children face charges in an accountability court, with the sword of conviction and imprisonment hanging over their head. Besides depriving him of the presidency of his party, all decisions taken by him in that capacity since July 2017 have also been declared null and void. However, counting on his popularity in Punjab, which he hopes to boost by playing the victim card, Nawaz refuses to desert the field. Attempts to cause any major fissures in his party and wean away his brother, Shahbaz Sharif, have failed so far. Nawaz, being the vote getter, is indispensable to the party. An efficient technocrat, Shahbaz complements Nawaz, but cannot replace him. Deprived of the presidency of PML (N), Nawaz threatens to lead it in the election in his individual capacity in the hope of ruling through a proxy, as he is doing now. If jailed, his loyalists could fight in his name. He thus dares the army to either go the whole hog and stage a coup, inviting international opprobrium, or face the prospect of seeing him rule, even if by proxy.

The selective accountability that has claimed Nawaz's head not only implies the departure of an individual from office, but can also target every politician, capable of winning popular mandate and consequently inclined to chart out a course independent of the worldview of the army. Nawaz, after all, was disqualified as per a Zia era constitutional amendment requiring elected representatives to be 'sadiq' (truthful) and 'ameen' (righteous), subjective criteria that can be used by the Deep State to throw out anyone not in agreement with them. The civil-military imbalance and the resulting dysfunctionality of the state that have become a curse for Pakistan and the region will get redressed essentially by opposition within Pakistan to the stranglehold of their army, with external pressure at best playing a supportive role. Therefore, though a matter internal to Pakistan, the ongoing tussle and its outcome should be of interest to us.

Views are personalmonicakchauhan@gmail.com

Indianapolis, February 28

Both Houses of the US' Indiana state legislature have unanimously passed resolutions praising the "significant contribution" of Sikh Americans in the country.

The House of Representatives, the lower house passed the Sikh resolution today, within days of the Senate, the upper house, passing a similar resolution.

A Sikh prayer marked the opening of the day's proceedings at the House of Representatives in Indiana, which has a population of about 10,000 Sikhs who own around 3,500 businesses in the state.

Noting that Sikhs in America pursue diverse professions and walks of life, making rich contributions to the economic vibrancy of the US as farmers, engineers, doctors, scientists, and business owners, the resolution said Sikhs continue to make strides toward securing religious liberty as patriotic members of the United States Armed Forces.

It observed that Sikhs have served on local, state, and federal levels of government in the US, and said the community provided significant contributions to and continued to serve the country, state and the communities.

"As such the faithful service of the Sikh community to this state and the country merits appreciation as an integral thread in the fabric of American plurality," said the resolution sponsored by Representative Cindy Kirkhofer and co-authored by House Speaker Brian Bosma.

Indiana's growing Sikh community continues to make tremendous contributions to our state, and it's an honour to formally recognise them and their efforts today at the Statehouse," Bosma said.

Thousands of Sikhs call Indiana home, which adds to our state's vibrancy and diversity while strengthening our economic engine," he added.

Asserting that Indiana is home to a large and thriving Sikh community, Kirkhofer said as owners and operators of businesses, Sikhs play a vital role in the state's economy, providing jobs, services and goods to Hoosiers.

They are also deeply involved in philanthropic and civic activities that make Indiana more vibrant and stronger. I look forward to fostering relationships with the Sikh community as our state continues to grow," the state legislator said.

Earlier the day's proceeding of the Indiana House of Representatives opened with a Sikh prayer by Gurinder Singh Khalsa, founder and head of Sikhs Political Action Committee.

Sikhs across Indiana are honoured to receive this recognition," Khalsa said. "We are dedicated to the future of Indiana and the United States and we commit ourselves to serving with an open, honest heart," he added.

The House proceedings, he said, was an opportunity for others, perhaps who are not even aware of exactly who the Sikhs are, to hear a little bit about the community.

Acknowledging that the Sikh community has been a victim of maltreatment, because of their traditional attire, Bosma said the religion itself was created as a protector. "We understand here that the (Sikh) community just wants to live the American dream... We can learn about the Indian dream and the Sikh dream as well. It's good for those cultural exchanges," he told PTI.

The Speaker, who is yet to travel to India, said he wants to visit the "largest vibrant democracy" of the world.

It is the largest democracy, most populated democracy in the world. While we've had some differences here and there, we've been key allies through much of the twentieth century and continues to be key allies through the 21 first century, particularly as the East and the Middle East continues to be a point of conflict, its critical for us to have close ties with India, he said in response to a question.

Bosma said there are some key business ties that are beginning that he is aware of and some that have not yet been announced but are in the works.

"It's exciting for us to continue the strong relationship, a historical relationship that we've had. And we want to expand it, particularly in the economic arena in both directions," he added. PTIamansharma@tribunemail.com

Gurugram, February 28

A special court here on Wednesday acquitted 44-year-old Ashok Kumar, the bus conductor of a private school where a Class-2 student was murdered in September last year.

Kumar was arrested as the main accused in the case but the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) gave him a clean chit in its primary chargesheet filed in the court on February 5.

The Special Children Court of Additional Sessions Judge Jasbir Singh Kundu acquitted Kumar and ordered to merge the FIRs by police and the CBI. It asked that the final chargesheet be filed by April 10.

Two officials of the school -- Francis Thomas and Jayesh Thomas -- booked under section 75 of the Juvenile Justice Act for negligence in the safety and security of children in the school were also directed to appear before the court on April 10. They are currently out on bail.

On September 8, Kumar was arrested and booked under Section 302 (murder) of the Indian Penal Code, 25 of Arms Act and 12 of Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act for allegedly brutally murdering the seven-year-old student in the washroom of the school in Bhondsi on Sohna road.

The case was handed over to the CBI on September 22. It did not find any evidence against Kumar and on November 8, took a Class 11 student (nearly 17 years old) into custody.

Kumar got bail on November 21.

CBI officials said the accused murdered the boy just to defer a unit test and a scheduled parent-teacher meeting.

The Gurugram Juvenile Justice Board on December 20 ordered that the accused, who is in an observation home in Faridabad in Haryana, be tried as an adult.

Earlier, the court had barred the media from using the name of the 17-year-old accused in the case and asked it to use fictitious names instead.

While the victim was named Prince by the court, the juvenile accused was named "Bholu" and the private school in Bhondsi was referred to as "Vidyalaya".

A bail plea for the minor accused was rejected on January 8.

The court also slapped a Rs 21,000 fine on the defence for filing "unnecessary" applications and "wasting the time" of the court.  IANSeditorial@tribune.com

Ludhiana, February 28

A workshop-cum-training on Pharmacovigilance was held today at Department of Pharmacology in Dayanand Medical College and Hospital.

The workshop was inaugurated by principal Sandeep Puri. Dr Bharti Mahajan extended warm welcome to the dignitaries and participating delegates.

Dr Mahajan said the workshop will prove of immense help to the participating delegates in the field of pharmacovigilance.

Dr Sandeep Kaushal, in his address, introduced the various faculty and guest speakers to the audience.

Pharmacovigilance, also known as drug safety is a broad term that describes the science and activities relating to the detection, assessment, understanding and prevention of adverse effects or any other drug-related problem, said Dr Kaushal.amansharma@tribunemail.com

New Delhi, February 28

The junior HRD minister, Satyapal Singh, has courted another controversy with his comment that 'mantras' had codified laws of motion before Isaac Newton, even as he sought to clarify his earlier remarks on Darwin's theory that had raised eyebrows, saying it was his "personal opinion".

At a meeting of the Central Advisory Board of Education (CABE) which was chaired by Union HRD Minister Prakash Javadekar, the IPS-turned-politician said "certain 'mantras' codified the laws of motion much before they were discovered by Isaac Newton, according to the minutes of the meeting held last month.

Singh had also suggested that Vaastu compliance of educational buildings was important for learning.

CABE is the government's highest advisory body for policy making in education.

"Whatever I had said on Darwin was my personal opinion. It has nothing to do with the government or party's line," the minister said at the National Science Day event here today.

He, however, refused to comment on the controversy over his Newton remarks.

Singh had drawn flak last month when he claimed that Darwin's theory of evolution was incorrect and should not be taught in schools and colleges.

Nobody, including our ancestors, in written or oral, have said they saw an ape turning into a man.... Humans appeared on Earth as humans from the very beginning, he had said at an event in Aurangabad.

Javadekar had asked Singh to refrain from making such comments and leave the science to scientists as it is their domain.  PTIpardeepdhull@gmail.com

Washington, February 28

Aligning with Indias posture, a top American General on Wednesday said Chinas access to Pakistans Gwadar Port has the potential to increase its strategic presence in the Indian Ocean.

General Joseph Votel, Commander of the US Central Command, said China was pursuing long-term, steady economic growth that bolsters its international influence and access to energy resources.

Its Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), which includes the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), could serve as a stabilising, profit-generating project in the region, but could also improve Chinas military posture, he told members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee during a Congressional hearing.

Votel said the collection of infrastructure projects provides China access to the Gwadar Port in Pakistan which has the potential to increase its strategic presence in the Indian Ocean. India has been raising the same concern repeatedly.

China also recently established its first overseas military base adjacent to the Bab al Mandeb (BAM) in Djibouti. While Beijing claims both locations support peacekeeping and humanitarian operations, the new military base and port allow China to project forces more permanently within the region and influence strategically valuable trade waterways, he said.

China, Votel said, also seeks to increase its economic and diplomatic cooperation with Iran.

The lifting of UN sanctions under the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) opened the path for Iran to resume membership application to the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, a Eurasian political, economic, and security organisation. This, along with the existing BRI cooperation between the two nations, increases Chinas ties to Iran, he said.

China considers its relationship with the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states critical for its current economic needs, he added.

The Gulf States provide approximately one-third of Chinas oil, and Qatar is its single largest supplier of natural gas, Votel said.

The general said like Russia, China has sought to arbitrate some conflicts in the region, offering to mediate between Saudi Arabia and Iran. While China will continue to develop its relationships with nations in the Middle East, Beijing will likely maintain its stance of avoiding a major role in ongoing conflicts, he noted.

Votel said an increasingly assertive China is not only testing Russias dominance in the economic and security arenas of Central Asia but also posing challenges to US influence. China seeks to capitalise on regional concerns over what it perceives as waning US influence and support, he said. Toward this end, Beijing is building and strengthening trade, infrastructure, defence, and political relationships across the Middle East, Central and South Asia, he added. PTImonicakchauhan@gmail.com

New Delhi, February 28

Karti Chidambaram, arrested in connection with the probe into the INX Media case, was on Wednesday remanded to one-day CBI custody by a Delhi court.

46-year-old Karti, son of former Finance Minister P Chidambaram, was produced before Metropolitan Magistrate Sumeet Anand and the CBI sought his custodial interrogation for 15 days claiming that he was not cooperating in the probe.

The duty magistrate remanded him to one-day CBI custody and asked the agency to produce Karti before the concerned judge tomorrow.

Earlier in the day, Karti was taken into custody by a team of CBI officials at the Chennai airport on his return from the United Kingdom.

The CBI had lodged an FIR on May 15 last year alleging irregularities in the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) clearance to INX Media for receiving overseas funds to the tune of Rs 305 crore in 2007 when P Chidambaram was the Union finance minister.

The agency has alleged that Karti had received funds to the tune of Rs 10 lakh in the case.

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has also registered a money-laundering case in the INX Media case.

Earlier on Wednesday, Karti's lawyer Abhishek Manu Singhvi questioned the delay in bringing him to court.

Singhvi said in a tweet: Sitting in CBI designated court, room 4 at patiala Hs since 2 pm 2oppose Karti C remand but CBI not produced him yet. Hope they r not waiting for a late evening hearing. Why the delay? They landed frm chennai at 120 pm. No cause for this xcept to go to duty magis post 430 pm (sic).

Sitting in CBI designated court, room 4 at patiala Hs since 2 pm 2oppose Karti C remand but CBI not produced him yet. Hope they r not waiting for a late evening hearing. Why the delay? They landed frm chennai at 120 pm. No cause for this xcept to go to duty magis post 430 pm.  Abhishek Singhvi (@DrAMSinghvi) February 28, 2018

The agency told the court that Karti was evasive and uncooperative during investigations. They also accused of making incorrect statements.

Karti said his arrest was an act of political vendetta by the Narendra Modi government at the Centre.

"Absolutely, political vendetta," he said while being taken to a court, adding he was confident he would be vindicated eventually.

The CBI alleged Karti also received money from INX media to scuttle a tax probe. The firm was owned at the time by Peter and Indrani Mukerjea, who are currently in jail on charges of murdering Indrani's daughter Sheena Bora.

The CBI and the ED had carried out a series of raids on the houses and offices owned by the Chidambarams. Karti Chidambaram was questioned several times by the ED.

A lookout notice, which prevents a passenger from travelling abroad, was issued against him as the agencies suspected that he would try to close foreign accounts where he had parked the money from the kickbacks. In November, the Supreme Court allowed Karti Chidambaram to go to the UK for his daughter's admission to the Cambridge University.

The Congress labelled his arrest as "vendetta" and "diversionary tactic" by the Modi government to hide its scams and "mal-governance".

Karti Chidambaram's arrest would not deter the party from speaking the truth to hold the government accountable, the party's communications in-charge Randeep Surjewala said.

The CBI is also probing the alleged irregularities in grant of the FIPB clearance to the Aircel-Maxis deal in 2006.

According to the CBI, INX Media clearly states in its records that Rs 10 lakh was given to Advantage Strategic Consulting (P) Limited, a firm "indirectly" owned by Karti, for management consultancy charged towards FIPB notification and clarification.

The FIR also alleges that invoices of approximately Rs 3.5 crore were raised in favour of INX group in the name of other companies in which Karti had substantial interests "directly or indirectly".

The agency has registered an FIR against Karti, his company Chess Management Services, the Mukerjeas, INX Media, Advantage Strategic Consulting Services and its Director Padma Vishwanathan.

The allegations levelled by the CBI are based on the information given by "source", the FIR has claimed.  AgenciesMontreal, Quebec, Feb. 28, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) --

Adacel Inc. (Adacel or the Company) announced today it has formally signed a contract with the Directorate of Air Navigation Services of France (DSNA) for the deployment of two new ATM systems for the French Overseas Territories of Guadeloupe and Martinique in the Caribbean.

The contract is the second in a series planned by the DSNA to modernize air traffic management systems in overseas territories of France. In 2015, Adacel was awarded a contract by DSNA for a new ATM system for French Guiana in South America. The system was installed in the Cayenne-Felix Eboue Centre and successfully commenced operational service in 2016.

Speaking of the award, Gary Pearson, Adacels Chief Executive Officer said, We are very pleased to sign this contract and, with development work already commenced, look forward to completing the system installation for Guadeloupe in FY2019, followed by Martinique. Furthermore, we look forward to continuing to develop and expand the relationship with DSNA, one that started with the system installation for French Guiana.

The Adacel Aurora systems will provide controllers in Guadeloupe and Martinique with the latest in Air Traffic Management technology including electronic flight strips and advanced flight and surveillance data processing capabilities as well as airport information displays that help to effectively manage traffic and provide better service to airlines and the travelling public.

Adacels Aurora ATM automation system is a global system that manages all types of airspace and domains from the Oceanic, En Route, Terminal and Approach Sectors to the Control Tower Unit. The system is scalable and configurable to meet present and future requirements and incorporates the latest in CNS/ATM technologies. Aurora automation technology is currently in operational use in airspaces controlled by Fiji, France, Iceland, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal and the United States.

-ENDS

About Adacel

Adacel applies the knowledge of our customers and the expertise of our team with cutting-edge technologies to be the company of choice for advanced air traffic management systems, speech recognition applications and simulation and training solutions for air traffic control and other public safety domains. Adacel has pioneered the integration of speech recognition into simulation products and operational systems; and holds a number of patents on applications to optimize speech processing. Adacel has built a strong international reputation for its products and services through commitment to technological leadership and customer support. We understand the importance of our products and the direct impact their use has on public safety. These responsibilities are reflected in the quality of everything we do. Adacel: Everyday Excellence. For more information please visit www.adacel.com.

Attachments:

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/f85b5631-d8b0-4e6e-8944-b5d0aba2571bmonicakchauhan@gmail.com

Aditi Tandon

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, February 28

Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will head the drafting committee for the upcoming Congress plenary session while his ex-ministerial colleague P Chidambaram will head the drafting sub-group on economic affairs.

Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday formed three major committees for the session.

The organising committee will be headed by AICC Treasurer Motilal Vora, drafting committee by Manmohan Singh and the constitution amendment committee by Ghulam Nabi Azad, Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha.

Chidambaram has found a place in all major committees despite the unfolding events around his son Kartis arrest in the INX Media money laundering case.

He will also be part of panels drafting to resolution on foreign affairs besides being on the constitution amendment panel.

Former Haryana Chief Minister gets to head the drafting resolution sub-committee on agriculture, employment and poverty alleviation, which has among members Punjab CM Amarinder Singh and Congress media head Randeep Surjewala.

Kuldeep Bishnoi, Haryana Congress leader, has also been named special invited to the organising committee of which Punjab Finance Minister Manpreet Badal is a member.

Former Defence Minister has been asked to head the drafting sub group on politics with Rajya Sabha MP from Haryana and former minister Selja named the convenor.

Sub-group on international affairs will be headed by Anand Sharma with Jyotiraditya Scindia as convenor.

Senior Congress leader and general secretary organisation will convene the crucial constitution amendment committee. AICC session is to be held in the capital from March 16 to 18.monicakchauhan@gmail.com

Toronto, February 28

Amidst questions over invitation of Khalistani terrorist for Justin Trudeau's reception in India, reports have emerged that the Indian Government authority was also denied access to the guest list, reports CTV News.

On that note, the Prime Minister's Office in Canada does not allow even the security services track their guest list.

Earlier, Canada's Public Safety Minister hailed the security services in relation to the visit.

"All Canadians can be assured that our police and our security agencies have done their job in relation to this visit and they have done it very well, said Ralph Goodale, Canada's Public Safety Minister, in the assembly, as quoted by CTV News.

Pro-Khalistani terrorist Jaspal Atwal was invited to dine with Prime Minister Trudeau at a formal event hosted by Canadian High Commissioner to India Nadir Patel.

The invite was later rescinded.

Prime Minister Trudeau also received backlash over his wife Sophie Trudeau's photo with convicted pro-Khalistani terrorist Jaspal Atwal.

Canadian Member of Parliament (MP) Randeep S. Sarai, however, took responsibility for inviting Atwal to Trudeau's reception dinner in New Delhi.

Jaspal Atwal was convicted of the attempted murder of Punjab minister, Malkiat Singh Sidhu, on Vancouver Island in 1986. ANImonicakchauhan@gmail.com

Kolkata, February 28

Thirty-three inmates, including six Rohingyas, of a state-run shelter home for women and girls will walk the ramp for a government sponsored fashion show on March 7.

The girls, including some trafficking survivors, aged between 10 and 16 years will take part in the show, West Bengal Commission for Child Rights Chairperson Ananya Chakraborty said.

The initiative has been taken following instruction of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee who wants to economically empower these girls, Chakraborty said.

This will help the girls, lodged at Liluah Home in Howrah district, to develop skill and re-integrate with the mainstream, she said.

The girls will be wearing clothes designed by their fellow inmates, who have been trained by famed Bangladeshi fashionista Bibi Russel since last year.

The clothes will be marketed under 'Bangali' brand, a brain-child of the chief minister, Chakraborty said.

Embroidery work, products made of 'gamcha' (traditional cotton towel) which is Bibi Russell's specialty, handloom sarees will be showcased in the fashion show.

The state government sponsored fashion show will also help in the marketing of the products under the brand.

After the products are sold, part of the profit would be distributed among the inmates of Liluah home where over 200 women and girls, including 16 Rohingyas, are now lodged, she said.

Hailing the initiative, state Women and Child Development Minister Sashi Panja said, "This will definitely help the girls in a big way. The show is being planned under the guidance of Russell and I am quite positive that it will help us in reviving handloom." PTIpardeepdhull@gmail.com

Ottawa/New Delhi, February 28

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is standing by a senior government official who floated the theory that rogue political factions in the Indian establishment orchestrated the embarrassing invitation of a convicted Khalistani separatist to a formal dinner in India to make the Canadian government appear sympathetic to Sikh extremism, the media reported.

The Opposition hit Trudeau hard during question period on Tuesdayhis first since his India tripover how Jaspal Atwal was invited to the reception at the residence of Canadian High Commissioner Nadir Patel in India, the National Post reported.

Atwal was convicted of attempting to assassinate Indian Cabinet minister Malkiat Singh Sidhu in 1986 when he was visiting relatives in Canada. He was also chargedbut not convictedin the 1985 attack on Ujjal Dosanjh, who later became British Columbia premier and a federal Liberal Cabinet minister.

In a background briefing arranged by the Prime Ministers Office, a senior government official last week suggested that Atwals presence was arranged by factions within the Indian government.

According to the Canadian media, the official was identified as Trudeaus National Security Adviser Daniel Jean and the opposition pressed Trudeau to say whether he agreed with Jeans conspiracy theory.

Trudeau responded by saying: When one of our top diplomats and security officials says something to Canadians, its because they know it to be true. The opposition reasoned that Trudeau must, then, believe that the Indian government helped sabotage his trip. Trudeau did not stand up to contradict this interpretation.

Conservative MPs pressed Trudeau to provide evidence to back the assertion. Before our Prime Minister destroys our relationship with our ally, the government and country of India, will he please tell this House what proof he has of that allegation? asked Tory MP Candice Bergen.

New Democrat MP Charlie Angus asserted that Atwalwho had been photographed over the years posing with various Liberal MPs, ministers and leaders, including Trudeau himselfturned up on the trip because his presence was useful to local Liberals back in Canada.

And he accused Trudeau of using a senior civil servant to spin a conspiracy theory that somehow the Indian government is trying to make the Liberals look bad. Atwal was photographed with Trudeaus wife, Sophie Gregoire Trudeau, and with Infrastructure Minister Amarjeet Sohi at a Mumbai event last week, before the Prime Ministers office said an invitation to a subsequent dinner was flagged and rescinded.

Liberal British Columbia MP Randeep Sarai took full responsibility for putting Atwals name on a list of prospective invites provided to the High Commission, the Canadian Prime Minister said.

Meanwhile, India on Wednesday said it had nothing to do with the presence of convicted Khalistan terrorist Atwal at the event hosted by the Canadian High Commissioner in Mumbai.

We have seen the recent exchange in the Parliament of Canada regarding two invitations issued to Jaspal Atwal by the Canadian High Commissioner, for functions hosted in honour of the Canadian Prime Minister in India.

Let me categorically state that the Government of India, including the security agencies, had nothing to do with the presence of Jaspal Atwal at the event hosted by the Canadian High Commissioner in Mumbai or the invitation issued to him for the Canadian High Commissioners reception in New Delhi, External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said.

He added, Any suggestion to the contrary is baseless and unacceptable. Kumar said this in response to a query on the controversy which erupted last week after Atwal was photographed with Trudeaus wife Sophie Gregoire at the event in Mumbai and then an invite extended to him to the dinner reception at the Canadian High Commissioners residence in Delhi.

As the invite for the reception to the convicted Khalistan terrorist triggered a huge controversy in the midst of Trudeaus visit, Canadian High Commissioner Nadir Patel cancelled the invite to Atwal.

Atwal was a Sikh separatist active in the banned International Sikh Youth Federation when he was convicted for attempting to murder Punjab minister Malkiat Singh Sidhu in Vancouver in 1986. IANS/PTIvermaajay1968@gmail.com

Kabul, February 28

Afghan President Mohammad Ashraf Ghani outlined a new peace map on Wednesday during an international meeting, which is aimed at finding negotiated settlement to the countrys lingering crisis.

The Afghan government offers peace talks to the Taliban without any preconditions, Ghani told participants at the Kabul Process for Peace and Security Cooperation meeting, Xinhua reported.

Ghani said new measures for the peace and reconciliation efforts include a ceasefire, recognition of the Taliban as a political party, making efforts for a transitional trust building process as well as holding free and fair elections.

If we did not have the confidence and assurance that a peaceful and stable future is within our grasp, we might have lost the will to forge ahead in the face of such brutality that is being waged against our people, Ghani said.

He said the Afghan government was ready for amendment in the countrys constitution based on the articles of the constitution.

Releasing Taliban prisoners and removing some Taliban leaders names from international sanction lists as well as opening an office for Taliban in Kabul or other Afghanistan cities were also included in the new peace map, according to President Ghani.  IANSvermaajay1968@gmail.com

Copenhagen, February 28

Norway is moving to ban semi-automatic firearms as of 2021, which will mark a decade since mass murderer Anders Behring Breivik used such weapons to kill 69 people, most of them teenagers, before surrendering.

Peter Frolich of the Norwegian Parliaments judicial affairs committee said private persons, including hunters, should not have the right in Norway to access such weapons. He said a broad majority in169-seat parliament back the center-right government's proposal.

Breivik is serving a 21-year sentence for the 2011 attack where he first set off a car bomb and later openend fire on the summer camp Labor Partys youth wing. APuttara@tribuneindia.com

Ankara, February 28

Turkey on Wednesday sharply criticised France and the United States for arguing a ceasefire in Syria should apply to its military operation against Kurdish militia, as new tensions mounted between Ankara and its NATO allies.

The United Nations Security Council, crucially including regime ally Russia, has agreed a 30-day nationwide ceasefire in Syria although this has yet to be implemented or end the violence in rebel-held Eastern Ghouta.

Turkey has welcomed the ceasefire but repeatedly insisted any truce will not affect its over month-long operation in the Afrin region against Kurdish militia Ankara believes to be terrorists.

French President Emmanuel Macron told his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan in telephone talks Monday the ceasefire must be applied across the country including in Afrin, the French presidency said.

But the Turkish foreign ministry Wednesday accused Paris of giving a false readout of the conversation, saying Macron did not refer to Afrin in the discussion on the ceasefire.

It said Turkey had informed the French authorities that their statement showed a "lack of candour" and made the error of misinforming public opinion.

In Washington, meanwhile, US State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert also insisted that the ceasefire did apply to the Afrin operation.

Turkey is more than welcome to go back and read the exact text of this UN Security Council resolution, and I would suggest that they do so, she said.

Nauert argued that only campaigns against Islamic State jihadists, al Qaeda and other extremist Islamist groups were exempted from ceasefire.

The Turkish foreign ministry said in a separate statement that Nauert's comments were devoid of any basis, insisting that the Afrin campaign was a fight against terrorists and a matter of self defence for Turkey.

Turkey's operation against the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) militia has raised tensions with Washington, which works closely with the YPG in the fight against jihadists in Syria.

Ankara sees the YPG as the Syrian branch of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which for over three decades has waged an insurgency against the Turkish state and is banned by Turkey, the US and the European Union as a terror group.  AFPpardeepdhull@gmail.com

Beijing, February 28

A vice-minister of public security, a close confidant of President Xi Jinping, is tipped to take over as China's spy master, five sources said, as the country looks to clean up its security apparatus and plug intelligence gaps.

China has poured billions of yuan into domestic security, but the secretive Ministry of State Security and the Ministry of Public Security in recent years have been hit with high-level corruption scandals and intelligence failings.

Wang Xiaohong, 60, a vice-minister of public security, will replace Chen Wenqing as minister of state security during the session of parliament which begins on March 5, three sources with ties to the leadership and two foreign diplomats said.

Chen, 58, will become the country's top prosecutor after a little more than a year as minister of state security, three of the sources said. The ministry is responsible for counter-intelligence, foreign intelligence and national security.

The change of guard is part of a broader cabinet reshuffle during the two-week parliamentary session.

Wang and President Xi have long-standing ties. Wang is a native of the southeastern province of Fujian, where Xi spent 17 years cutting his teeth from 1985 to 2002.

Wang was deputy director of the Public Security Bureau of Fuzhou, the provincial capital of Fujian, from 1993 to 1998 and the city's top police official from 1998 to 2002. Xi was Fuzhou party boss from 1990 to 1996 and provincial deputy party secretary until 2002.

"They are very close," a source with leadership ties said.

"Wang Xiaohong used to help look after Xi Jinping's daughter." A second source with leadership ties said Wang's rise had been fast-tracked in the same vein as other allies whose careers had overlapped with Xi in Fujian, most notably the Beijing party secretary Cai Qi, and Huang Kunming, who was promoted to head the central propaganda department late last year.

Wang, a one-time fan factory worker joined the police force in Minhou county in Fujian in 1979.

Neither the Communist Party's Organisation Department, which oversees personnel decisions, nor the State Council Information Office, which doubles as the party spokesman's office, responded to a request for comment.

The Ministry of State Security does not have publicly listed contacts.

Xi has made bolstering security, both domestic and overseas, a priority.

In 2013, a year after Xi assumed power, China set up a new national security commission, which Xi also heads. While details of exactly how it operates and what it does are sketchy, the government has implied it has more of a domestic focus.

Experts say it is based on the National Security Council in the United States and would increase coordination among the various wings of China's security bureaucracy, split now among the police, military, intelligence and diplomatic services.

Possible international flashpoints for China include North Korea, Taiwan and the South China Sea.

The Ministry of State Security is also still recovering from a graft scandal.

In 2015, Ma Jian, then counter-intelligence chief at the ministry, was put under investigation for corruption and expelled from the party the following year. There has been no official update on his case since February last year, when China's judiciary said it would prosecute him for suspected bribery.

A video confession surfaced on Chinese websites and social media in April in which Ma admitted to accepting bribes. He also said he abused his position to help China's highest profile fugitive, Guo Wengui, an exiled U.S.-based billionaire who has made incendiary claims of corruption at the highest levels of the Chinese government.

Guo has denied Ma's allegations.

Ma, once a vice minister of state security, is the most senior security official to be investigated since the former domestic security tsar Zhou Yongkang was ensnared in a graft scandal and jailed for life in 2015.

The government announced in February last year that Ma would be prosecuted, but has given no other information since.

"He's coming in to sort out the mess Ma left behind," said one Asian diplomat, speaking of Wang, the likely new minister.

While China's domestic security spending outstrips defence spending, though the government stopped providing exact figures four years ago, it has also struggled with some pointed intelligence failures.

One of those has been to prevent Uighurs, a Muslim people from China's far western region of Xinjiang, from travelling clandestinely to Turkey via Southeast Asia, where China says some of them have joined militant groups in Syria and Iraq.

"China has poor intelligence on their movements and has been unable to produce much evidence" that they are indeed involved in militancy, said another diplomatic source, who is familiar with Chinese efforts to prevent the Uighurs from leaving and then trying and get them deported back to China.THIS NEWS RELEASE IS INTENDED FOR DISTRIBUTION IN CANADA ONLY AND IS NOT INTENDED FOR DISTRIBUTION TO UNITED STATES NEWSWIRE SERVICES OR DISSEMINATION IN THE UNITED STATES.



NAPANEE, Ontario, Feb. 28, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- ABcann Global Corporation (TSXV:ABCN) (ABcann or the Company) is pleased to announce that it has closed its bought deal financing, as previously announced on January 29, 2018, of: (i) 11,500,000 units (each, a Unit) of the Company at a price of $3.50 per Unit, for aggregate gross proceeds of $40,250,000 (the Unit Offering); and (ii) 30,000 6.0% unsecured convertible debentures (each, a Convertible Debenture) of the Company at a price of $1,000 per Convertible Debenture, for aggregate gross proceeds of $30,000,000 (the Debenture Offering and collectively with the Unit Offering, the Offering). The Offering was conducted by a syndicate of underwriters led by Canaccord Genuity Corp. and Eight Capital and including GMP Securities L.P. and PI Financial Corp. (collectively, the Underwriters). In addition, the Offering included 862,500 Warrants (defined below) and 4,500 Convertible Debentures sold pursuant to the exercise of the Underwriters over-allotment option, for additional aggregate gross proceeds of $4,793,250.



Completion of the Offering further increases our cash position to over $135 million and will allow us to pursue multiple opportunities and execute our strategic vision, stated Barry Fishman, ABcanns Chief Executive Officer.

The Units and the Convertible Debentures were offered by way of a short form prospectus (the Prospectus) in all provinces of Canada except Quebec. The net proceeds of the Offering will be used for the expansion of the Companys Vanluven facility, construction and development at the Companys Kimmett facility, corporate development, product development and general working capital.

The Prospectus also qualified the distribution of 20,000,000 common shares of the Company (each, a Common Share) issuable on conversion of the $30,000,000 of aggregate principal amount of 7.0% unsecured convertible debentures of the Company issued on December 21, 2017.

The Unit Offering

Each Unit is comprised of one common share (each a Unit Share) of the Company and onehalf of one common share purchase warrant (each whole warrant, a Warrant). Each Warrant entitles the holder thereof to acquire one additional Common Share (each, a Warrant Share) of the Company at an exercise price of $4.25 per Warrant Share, subject to adjustment in certain circumstances, until February 28, 2020. The Warrants were issued pursuant to the terms of a warrant indenture entered into between the Company and TSX Trust Company, as warrant agent. In the event that the Common Shares have a daily volume weighted average trading price of $7.00 or higher on the TSX Venture Exchange (the TSXV) for a period of 15 trading days, the Company shall be entitled to accelerate the exercise period of the Warrants to a period ending not less than 30 days from the date written notice of acceleration is provided to Warrant holders.

The Debenture Offering

The Convertible Debentures mature on February 28, 2021 (the Maturity Date) and the outstanding principal of the Convertible Debentures bears interest (the Debenture Interest) at 6.0% per annum, payable semi-annually in arrears on June 30 and December 31 in each year, commencing on June 30, 2018. The Convertible Debentures have been issued pursuant to the terms of a debenture indenture entered into between the Company and TSX Trust Company, as debenture trustee. Each Convertible Debenture is convertible into Common Shares (each, a Conversion Share) at the option of the holder at any time prior to the close of business on the earlier of the last business day immediately preceding the Maturity Date at a conversion price of $4.00 per Conversion Share, subject to adjustment in certain circumstances.

About ABcann:

ABcann holds production and sales licenses from Health Canada. Its flagship facility in Napanee, Ontario contains proprietary plant-growing technology, centred on its specially designed, environmentally-controlled growing chambers. This approach results in the production of pharmaceutical-grade cannabis products.

The Company is expanding its cultivation capacity and pursuing partnerships and product development opportunities domestically, as well as in select international markets, such as Germany, Australia and Israel.

ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Barry Fishman

Barry Fishman

CEO and Director

Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Disclaimer for Forward Looking Statements

Certain statements in this news release are forwardlooking statements, which are statements that are not purely historical, regarding the beliefs, plans, expectations or intentions of ABcann and its management regarding the future. Forward looking statements in this news release include statements relating to: the proposed use of proceeds from the Offering; and the fact that the Offering will allow ABcann to pursue multiple opportunities and execute its strategic vision. Such statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results, performance or developments to differ materially from those contained in the forwardlooking statements, including: that the Company may not use the proceeds from the Offering as expected; that the Offering may not allow ABcann to pursue multiple opportunities and execute its strategic vision; and other factors beyond the Companys control. No assurance can be given that any of the events anticipated by the forwardlooking statements will occur or, if they do occur, what benefits the Company will obtain from them. Readers are urged to consider these factors, and the more extensive risk factors included in the Prospectus, which is available on SEDAR, carefully in evaluating the forwardlooking statements, and are cautioned not to place undue reliance on such forwardlooking statements, which are qualified in their entirety by these cautionary statements. The forwardlooking statements in this news release are made as of the date hereof and the Company disclaims any intent or obligation to update publicly any such forwardlooking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or results or otherwise, except as required by applicable securities laws.HOUSTON, Feb. 28, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Audubon Companies, an EPC service provider, is pleased to announce the latest West Texas project update on two new greenfield central processing facilities in the Delaware Basin of West Texas.

Delaware Basin Project Advances According to Schedule

The West Texas project commenced in early 2017 and is on schedule to be operational at the end of the first quarter of 2018. The central processing facilities (CPF) are currently in the construction phase of execution and are proceeding with an impressive safety and quality record. When completed, the two new 200 MMSCFD CPFs will include four 400 GPM amine units and four TEG dehydration units. In addition, each facility included the installation of 10 compressor packages (Ariel-CAT) for a total of 75,000 HP of compression with a total flow rate of 400 MMSCFD.

Modularized Approach

The facility execution and installation model are based on a modularized approach for standard packages and pipe rack modules to allow for expedited delivery with decreased construction durations. Each facility is a greenfield site and includes all major equipment and auxiliary balance of plant equipment and E/I infrastructure.

Scope of Work

Audubon Companies scope of work includes project management, procurement, detailed engineering & design, process safety, construction management & inspection, and commissioning & start-up.

Talal El Awar, Project Director of Audubon Companies, said:

The central processing facilities projects are continuing to meet key milestones. We are pleased to be recognized for our complete turnkey design, construction capability, and expertise in processing facilities. Our team has been working closely with our client from feasibility, through detailed design, and now into project execution phase, providing a complete end to end service. The project development schedule for the West Texas Plant remains on track to commence commissioning at the end of the first quarter of 2018.

About Audubon Companies

Audubon Companies is a full-service EPC provider for the oil & gas industry. Our services include engineering, turnkey EPC execution, fabrication, integrated pipeline, and field services. For more information, visit auduboncompanies.com

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/d148c137-8bd7-490a-8fb9-564c2bb6079c

For further project information, please contact:

Audubon Companies

Talal El Awar, PE

telawar@auduboncompanies.com

Media Contact:

Ivonne Hallard

communications@auduboncompanies.comWashington, D.C., Feb. 28, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Today, Ray W. Washburne, President and Chief Executive Officer of the Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC), the U.S. Government's development finance institution (DFI), issued the following statement after bipartisan legislation was introduced in Congress to create the United States International Development Finance Corporation:

Today, Congress took the first step toward creating a new, standalone Development Finance Institution to better advance U.S. development and foreign policy goals. A new DFI will enhance Americas global competitiveness and provide us with greater capability to expand our influence and drive economic growth in the developing world. We look forward to working with Congress as this exciting proposal moves forward to reflect the Administrations view of a DFI with strong links to State and USAID, and to ensure it is positioned for long-term success."

During his November 2017 Asia trip, President Trump committed, in a speech, to reforming U.S. development finance institutions and highlighted the importance of development finance and mobilizing the private sector in the National Security Strategy. This new DFI is a tangible result of the Presidents Executive Order on the Comprehensive Plan for Recognizing the Executive Branch, which called for streamlining the government and improving its effectiveness.

The FY19 Budget proposes consolidating the various United States Government development finance functions, such as OPIC and USAIDs Development Credit Authority, to create a new stand-alone DFI with strong linkages to foreign policy and development goals. The DFI will have expanded but streamlined capacity  including a request for $96 million in administrative expenses and $38 million in additional programming funds  as well as various reforms to enhance taxpayer protections.

The objectives of the new DFI include: 1) Advancing U.S. government development and national security objectives; 2) Catalyzing private sector investment; 3) Benefiting the U.S. economy; and 4) Operational efficiency and effectiveness.

###

The Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC) is a self-sustaining U.S. Government agency that helps American businesses invest in emerging markets. Established in 1971, OPIC provides businesses with the tools to manage the risks associated with foreign direct investment, fosters economic development in emerging market countries, and advances U.S. foreign policy and national security priorities. OPIC helps American businesses gain footholds in new markets, catalyzes new revenues and contributes to jobs and growth opportunities both at home and abroad. OPIC fulfills its mission by providing businesses with financing, political risk insurance, advocacy and by partnering with private equity fund managers.

OPIC services are available to new and expanding businesses planning to invest in more than 160 countries worldwide. Because OPIC charges market-based fees for its products, it operates on a self-sustaining basis at no net cost to taxpayers. All OPIC projects must adhere to best international practices and cannot cause job loss in the United States.

Attachment:

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/1f3dadd3-65d8-4730-a4fd-facd59dafb49The domain turkeytelegraph.com may be for sale. Please click here to inquireLithuanian English

Vilnius, Lithuania, 2018-02-28 16:10 CET (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Lietuvos Energija, UAB, (hereinafter  the Company or Lietuvos Energija) identification code 301844044, registered office placed at Zveju str. 14, Vilnius, Republic of Lithuania. The total nominal value of issued bonds 300 000 000 EUR; ISIN code XS1646530565.

On the 28th of February, 2018 Lietuvos Energija signed a Proportional Transfer Agreement for Green Bonds (hereinafter referred to as the Agreement) on 13 October, 2017 with Energijos skirstymo operatorius, AB (hereinafter referred to as ESO) for EUR 100 million of the issue of Green Bonds transfer to the ESO. This amendment increases the amount of the loan granted to the ESO from EUR 100 million to EUR 166.288 million.

Other terms of the contract are not subject to change. Additional funds will be allocated to ESO's long-term investment in the upgrade of distribution networks in accordance with the Lietuvos Energija Green Bond framework.Songdo, Republic of Korea, 27 Feb  The Green Climate Fund (GCF) approved three new climate change adaptation project proposals developed through interagency partnerships led by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in its board meeting this week.

The proposals mobilize more than US$80 million in funding from the GCF for climate resilience initiatives in Bangladesh, Georgia and Zambia. With co-financing agreements in place that leverage resources from national governments, UNDP and other sectors, the projects will catalyze more than US$239 million toward climate resilience efforts in these three nations.

In Bangladesh, the new project will provide assistance to 25,000 women and girls to adopt resilient livelihoods, while ensuring reliable, safe drinking water for 130,000 people through community-managed rainwater harvesting solutions.

In Georgia, the project will scale-up early warning systems and climate information services to protect lives from fast-acting floods and insulate the nation from the economic shocks that changes in climate patterns can bring.

In Zambia, a country where climate impacts threaten to derail efforts to reduce hunger, malnutrition and poverty, the new GCF-financed project will support nearly 1 million farmers in building more climate resilient lives.

The projects, implemented by their respective governments, will be supported by the UN System, including UNDP, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), World Food Programme (WFP) and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO).

By supporting countries to mobilize partnerships between the Green Climate Fund, important sectors of civil society, and the broader UN System, UNDP is serving as a broker to connect vulnerable nations with the resources, capacity and tools they need to build low-carbon climate-resilient development, notes Adriana Dinu, Director, Global Environmental Finance, UNDP. This will facilitate efforts to achieve climate commitments under the Paris Agreement, as well as make progress against the Sendai Framework on Disaster Risk Reduction and the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda.

With the approval of the three new projects, UNDP has supported a total of 17 countries to access more than US$500 million in GCF finance for full-sized climate change projects. Since the GCFs inception, UNDP has received more than 80 formal requests from Nationally Designated Authorities to support the development of funding proposals, and to provide readiness and preparatory support as a delivery partner. To date, 21 Readiness and National Adaptation Plans proposals supported by UNDP have been approved by the Executive Director of the GCF Secretariat, totaling US$11 million in additional support for climate change adaptation planning for 17 countries worldwide.

The approved projects touch on issues related to food security, access to water, and resilient infrastructure, said Pradeep Kurukulasuriya, the Head of Climate Change Adaptation, UNDP. This is a clear demonstration that climate action is critical to advancing and securing development gains.

Learn More

Bangladesh to empower women and girls in the face of increasing climate impacts

New early warning system project in Georgia provides increased protection for 1.7 million people from the heightened risks of climate change

United Nations led partnership together with the Green Climate Fund to support nearly 1 million farmers in ZambiaTurkey: Refugee children build their own virtual reality city

Millions of children from Iraq and Syria have had to flee their hometowns and cities, but a few are now recreating a virtual version of them from their dreams and memories. The Future Aleppo project, inspired by 16-year-old Mohammed from Syria, is hosting workshops in which refugee children create a city out of paper, then turn it into a virtual reality experience.

Inspired by Mohammed Kteish, the ongoing Future Aleppo project is supported by UNHCR. For more information or to download the mobile VR app created at the workshop; please visit www.futurealeppo.com.India, Algeria agree to enhance ties during MoS Muraleedharan's visit 18 Sep 2021 | 12:26 AM New Delhi, Sep 17 (UNI) India and Algeria agreed to give further impetus to their bilateral economic engagement in diverse fields, including energy, chemicals and fertilizers and also hold the 10th round of the bilateral Joint Commission Meeting at an early date. see more..

PM hails health-care workers, thanks people for wishes on his birthday 17 Sep 2021 | 11:48 PM New Delhi, Sep 17 (UNI) Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday attributed the record vaccination in the country to health-care workers and also expressed his gratitude to the BJP cadres and people for their wishes and public service program. see more..

Wanted accused held in Delhi 17 Sep 2021 | 11:36 PM New Delhi, Sep 17 (UNI) Delhi Police on Friday arrested a man who was wanted in a firing case at Swaroop Nagar in North Delhi. see more..

Nafed board proposes 15 per cent dividend to member federations and societies for FY21 17 Sep 2021 | 11:35 PM New Delhi, Sep 17 (UNI) The board of National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India Ltd (Nafed) proposed a dividend of 15 per cent to the member federations and societies for the year ending 2020-21, Chairman Bijender Singh said during the annual general meeting (AGM) on Friday. see more..NEW YORK, NY, Feb. 28, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- GoIP Global, Inc. (symbol GOIG.pk ) announced today that the Company has entered into a Reseller Agreement with Circuit Meter of Canada to resell their system for Energy Management, Real Submetering and Energy Analytics. Circuit Meters analytics enables clients to identify and take action in 3 categories: turn off what you dont need, optimize what have and replace equipment with more efficient alternatives.



Jeffery Lines, GoIPs President, whose mission is to develop GoIPs Blockchain Green Energy Trading Platform, commented, Circuit Meter enables GoIP to collect data which is a key component of our Green Energy Trading Platform. In addition, marketing Circuit Meter services in New York is timely since Circuit Meter is NYSERDA (RTEM) compliant which provides 30% cost share incentives for implementation in New York State. Circuit Meter Sub Metering complies with New York City Local Law 88, which requires all commercial buildings 50,000 sq. feet or greater to install sub meters in their building by 2025. We are looking forward to working with Circuit Meter and building our blockchain Energy Trading Platform. We are continuing to explore and review opportunities for acquisition.

About GoIP Global, Inc., an IoV Company

GoIPs mission is exploring and developing the strategic opportunities of Blockchain. Focusing on Energy, for Industry Transformation, Competitiveness, Management and Public Value. The technology that will enable secure and formalize the digital relationships shaping the future of enterprise, government and the global economy. The first generation of the digital revolution brought us the Internet of Information. The second generation- powered by Blockchain Technology  is bringing us the Internet of Value: a new, distributed platform that can help us create the digital relationships that will reshape the world of business and transform the old order of human affairs for the better.

About CircuitMeter

CircuitMeter builds and markets advanced electrical energy submetering systems and integrated Big Data, cloud-based software designed to analyze real time, detailed energy usage and enable energy users to better manage their energy consumption and reduce their costs. CircuitMeters low cost WebMeter permits facility managers to capture data related to energy usage from every circuit in an electrical panel within the building. CircuitMonitoring operates as a cloud based energy management platform and dashboard, providing building operators with a circuit-by-circuit view of their electrical usage and trends, as well as notifications of trends and anomalies. The combination of WebMeter and CircuitMonitoring provides historical and real-time detailed analysis through the use of visual dashboards and reports. Facility managers have the ability to receive their energy information at an enterprise level, and at the individual circuit level within a facility. In September 2015, CircuitMeter Inc. was named as a recipient of one of Canadas 2016 Clean50 awards that annually recognize national leaders in sustainability. For more information visit their web site at www.circuitmeter.com

Safe Harbor Statement Information in this news release may contain statements about future expectations, plans, prospects or performance of GoIP Global, Inc. that constitute forward-looking statements for purposes of the safe harbor Provisions under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. The words or phrases "can be," "expects," "may affect," "believed," "estimate," "project," and similar words and phrases are intended to identify such forward-looking statements. GoIP Global, Inc. cautions you that any forward-looking information provided by or on behalf of GoIP Global, Inc. is not a guarantee of future performance. None of the information in this press release constitutes or is intended as an offer to sell securities or investment advice of any kind. GoIP Global, Inc.'s actual results may differ materially from those anticipated in such forward-looking statements as a result of various important factors, some of which are beyond GoIP Global, Inc.'s control. In addition to those discussed in GoIP Global, Inc.'s press releases, public filings, and statements by GoIP Global, Inc.'s management, including, but not limited to, GoIP Global, Inc.'s estimate of the sufficiency of its existing capital resources, GoIP Global, Inc.'s ability to raise additional capital to fund future operations, GoIP Global, Inc.'s ability to repay its existing indebtedness, the uncertainties involved in estimating market opportunities and, in identifying contracts which match GoIP Global, Inc.'s capability to be awarded contracts. All such forward-looking statements are current only as of the date on which such statements were made. GoIP Global, Inc. does not undertake any obligation to publicly update any forward-looking statement to reflect events or circumstances after the date on which any such statement is made or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events.



FORM 8.3

PUBLIC OPENING POSITION DISCLOSURE/DEALING DISCLOSURE BY

A PERSON WITH INTERESTS IN RELEVANT SECURITIES REPRESENTING 1% OR MORE

Rule 8.3 of the Takeover Code (the "Code")

1. KEY INFORMATION

(a) Full name of discloser: Elliott Capital Advisors, L.P. (for itself and related general partners and investment managers) (b) Owner or controller of interests and short positions disclosed, if different from 1(a):

The naming of nominee or vehicle companies is insufficient. For a trust, the trustee(s), settlor and beneficiaries must be named. Elliott International, L.P.

Liverpool Limited Partnership

Elliott Associates, L.P



(c) Name of offeror/offeree in relation to whose relevant securities this form relates:

Use a separate form for each offeror/offeree Sky Plc (d) If an exempt fund manager connected with an offeror/offeree, state this and specify identity of offeror/offeree: (e) Date position held/dealing undertaken:

For an opening position disclosure, state the latest practicable date prior to the disclosure 27th February 2018 (f) In addition to the company in 1(c) above, is the discloser making disclosures in respect of any other party to the offer?

If it is a cash offer or possible cash offer, state "N/A" No

2. POSITIONS OF THE PERSON MAKING THE DISCLOSURE

If there are positions or rights to subscribe to disclose in more than one class of relevant securities of the offeror or offeree named in 1(c), copy table 2(a) or (b) (as appropriate) for each additional class of relevant security.

(a) Interests and short positions in the relevant securities of the offeror or offeree to which the disclosure relates following the dealing (if any)

Class of relevant security:







Interests Short positions Number % Number % (1) Relevant securities owned and/or controlled: 75,000 0.0044% (2) Cash-settled derivatives:



43,267,852 2.5170% (3) Stock-settled derivatives (including options) and agreements to purchase/sell:



TOTAL: 43,342,852 2.5214%

All interests and all short positions should be disclosed.

Details of any open stock-settled derivative positions (including traded options), or agreements to purchase or sell relevant securities, should be given on a Supplemental Form 8 (Open Positions).

(b) Rights to subscribe for new securities (including directors' and other employee options)

Class of relevant security in relation to which subscription right exists: Details, including nature of the rights concerned and relevant percentages:

3. DEALINGS (IF ANY) BY THE PERSON MAKING THE DISCLOSURE

Where there have been dealings in more than one class of relevant securities of the offeror or offeree named in 1(c), copy table 3(a), (b), (c) or (d) (as appropriate) for each additional class of relevant security dealt in.

The currency of all prices and other monetary amounts should be stated.

(a) Purchases and sales

Class of relevant security Purchase/sale



Number of securities Price per unit ORD Purchase



75,000 13.315

(b) Cash-settled derivative transactions

Class of relevant security Product description

e.g. CFD Nature of dealing

e.g. opening/closing a long/short position, increasing/reducing a long/short position Number of reference securities Price per unit ORD CFD







Increasing a Long position



450,000



GBP 13.315

(c) Stock-settled derivative transactions (including options)

(i) Writing, selling, purchasing or varying

Class of relevant security Product description e.g. call option Writing, purchasing, selling, varying etc. Number of securities to which option relates Exercise price per unit Type

e.g. American, European etc. Expiry date Option money paid/ received per unit

(ii) Exercise

Class of relevant security Product description

e.g. call option Exercising/ exercised against Number of securities Exercise price per unit





(d) Other dealings (including subscribing for new securities)

Class of relevant security Nature of dealing

e.g. subscription, conversion Details Price per unit (if applicable)





4. OTHER INFORMATION

(a) Indemnity and other dealing arrangements

Details of any indemnity or option arrangement, or any agreement or understanding, formal or informal, relating to relevant securities which may be an inducement to deal or refrain from dealing entered into by the person making the disclosure and any party to the offer or any person acting in concert with a party to the offer:

Irrevocable commitments and letters of intent should not be included. If there are no such agreements, arrangements or understandings, state "none"









(b) Agreements, arrangements or understandings relating to options or derivatives

Details of any agreement, arrangement or understanding, formal or informal, between the person making the disclosure and any other person relating to:

(i) the voting rights of any relevant securities under any option; or

(ii) the voting rights or future acquisition or disposal of any relevant securities to which any derivative is referenced:

If there are no such agreements, arrangements or understandings, state "none"









(c) Attachments

Is a Supplemental Form 8 (Open Positions) attached? NO





Date of disclosure: 28th February 2018 Contact name: Michael Cross Telephone number: 0203 009 1305

Public disclosures under Rule 8 of the Code must be made to a Regulatory Information Service.

The Panel's Market Surveillance Unit is available for consultation in relation to the Code's disclosure requirements on +44 (0)20 7638 0129.

The Code can be viewed on the Panel's website at www.thetakeoverpanel.org.uk.Latvian English

The Company was established in 1900 as the Riga`s first state alcohol warehouse and operates under the current name since 1970. Due to SPI Group internal reorganization the major shareholder of Latvijas balzams AS from October 2014 is Amber Beverage Group SIA, which owns 89.99% of the Companys equity capital.

Nowadays Latvijas balzams operates two alcohol production facilities in Riga  production plant for strong alcohol beverages and a production plant for sparkling wines and light alcohol beverages. We use ingredients from around the world and have retained our traditional beverage production technologies. The recipes for some of our signature products date back hundreds of years, for example the recipe o Riga Black Balsam is rotated back in 1752, but our renown Moskovskaya Vodka dates back to the end of the 19th century.

The company keeps the leading presence in all key spirits segments, as well as in sparkling wines, ciders, and RTDs, in the Baltic region. The newest generation of spirits, including Riga Black Vodka and Amber Gold Vodka, are produced using innovative filtration technologies that results in particular character profiles for beverage connoisseurs.

We are proud for our ability to produce high quality liquids consistently, and develop new products driven by consumer insights. On the same time we are able to maintain high-quality international standards required by SPI Group, so that sales of Stolichnaya are possible around the world, including sales to Japan.

Latvijas balzams AS is the largest producer of alcoholic beverages in the Baltic States with a range of more than 100 different brands. Our products are exported to more than 170 export markets as mediated by SPI Group, and to 42 markets via the Company`s direct export route.

The Company`s Activity

The unaudited turnover of the Company was 78.3 million euro, which is 3.4% more than in 2016. Increase in turnover was achieved by increase of orders from our biggest Private Label customer SPI Cyprus, as well as due to significant growth in sales of Latvijas Balzams brands within local market through Amber Distribution Latvia. Additional positive effect on turnover come from increased level of warehouse and logistics services provided to both 3rd part and Group companies.

From beginning of 2016, the Company is providing a number of warehouse and logistics services, mostly to beverage companies  like transit assurance services, bonded warehouse services, 3-rd party logistic services, value added services, picking, etc. Actions taken, has allowed to utilize the available resources and assets in more efficient way. Latvijas balzams AS has been performing as European hub for group distributed brands in Europe, including Scandinavia and Russia (KAH, Bayou, Arinzano, Achaval Ferrer). From third quarter Latvijas balzams Customer service center has also overtaken customer service and inventory management service for those brands.

The unaudited profit for the reporting period is 8.58 million euro that represents 14% increase in comparison to Year 2016.

Profit result is materially affected by changes in taxation principles as stipulated by the Law on Corporate Income Tax of Republic of Latvia effective from 01.01.2018. As a result of those changes the Company in these condensed financial statements has fully reversed the deferred tax liability and recognized the gain from reversal through income tax expense position in Income Statement.

Profit from operational activities are in line with last year, even last year results include income from oneoff transactions like compensation received from insurance company for fire case in 2014 in amount of 280 thousand EUR and profit from sale of real estate in amount of 594 thousand EUR It is mainly achieved through higher sales volumes and more effective business operations.

Latvijas balzams AS is one of the largest local taxpayers. During the reporting period, the Company paid 59.7 million euro to the state budget, including excise tax, amounting to 47.5 million euro.

Future prospects

In 2018 the Company will keep focusing on investment opportunities in existing and new export markets with strong growth potential and accelerating sales. Well keep the strong focus on our core brands - Riga Black Balsam and Cosmopolitan Diva - investing into international recognition, brand equity and increasing market share.

The Company will also continue to improve the efficiency of production with focus on purchasing, planning and infrastructure improvements to support our goal - to deliver quality products with a competitive cost advantage.

Company has developed large-scale plant modernization and reconstruction project with aim to merge both production plants into one territory. Project will allow to improve company`s competitive positions among the region producers by decreasing labour, logistics and production costs. Total costs of project estimated at amount of 23 million euro. Latvian government supported project by granting CIT discount after fulfillment of the project. At this moment Company finalizing technical project works and is going to present project to shareholders to obtain their final approval on investment during regular shareholder meeting.

Latvijas balsams AS is an active member of Latvian Alcohol Industry Association and cooperates with core non-governmental organizations, representing the interests of industry in any dialogue with legislators and law enforcement institutions. The Company supports development of well - considered industry policy in Latvia and promotes responsible consumption and public education on these issues, as well as continues to combat the illegal production and distribution of non-commercial alcohol.

Intars Geidans

Chairman of the Board

Riga, 28 February 2018February 28 2018

Lawrence McPherson Architects have returned to Premier Inn at Glasgows Pacific Quay four years after checking out with a 180-room waterfront hotel.Invited back by Whitbread to design a 54-bed extension with a ground floor coffee bar the work will leave the existing hotel largely untouched while expanding its footprint over a car park to the south.In their design brief LMA wrote: The proposal aims to redefine the scale and character of the original 180 bedroom hotel with an extension that would turn the existing linear block design into an L-shape building and emphasize the pedestrian corridor to the promenade along the Clyde and Bells Bridge as well as reflecting the design of the urban block to the existing.The new wing will be identical to existing accommodation in terms of its massing, scale and materials with exterior stair cores used to break up the monotony of the floor to ceiling aluminum and glass facades.Hard landscaping to the western frontage will be used to help marry the proposal to a pedestrian corridor linking to Bells Bridge.Avondale, Pennsylvania, Feb. 28, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Today Rodale Institute, the global leader of regenerative organic agriculture, announced it has received a grant for $5,995,000 from the William Penn Foundation to partner with Stroud Water Research Center, the global leader in the advancement of knowledge and stewardship of freshwater systems, on a groundbreaking project to improve soil health and water quality. The project will focus on improving farm productivity and profits while reducing water pollution associated with agricultural runoff.

The Delaware River Watershed covers 8.7 million acres across Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey and Delaware, and provides drinking water to 15 million people. According to the USDA National Resources Conservation Service, cultivated cropland and other agriculture lands (pasture, hayland, and horticulture) make up 26 percent of this area. The 2007 Census of Agriculture reported about 15,000 farms in the Delaware River Basin. Today, agricultural runoff from these farmssuch as rain running off corn fieldscarries fertilizers, pesticides, manure, and soil into our rivers, polluting the environment and contaminating drinking water.

Agricultural runoff poses a significant threat to clean water in the Delaware River watershed, said Andrew Johnson, Program Director for Watershed Protection at the William Penn Foundation. Rodale Institute and Stroud Center are nationally recognized for their expertise in agricultural practice, and through this collaboration they expect to unearth new reasons and new ways to scale practices that farmers can embrace to minimize their impact on the environment here and around the country.

The partnership between Rodale Institute and the Stroud Center will evaluate different types of agricultural management practices and how they improve soil health which, in turn, improves farm production and profitability while helping to mitigate agricultural runoff pollution.

Building on Rodale Institutes Farming Systems Trialthe longest running side-by-side comparison of organic versus conventional farming practices in North Americanew farming systems (including regenerative organic, conservation, and conventional) will be established at the Stroud Preserve in Chester County, Pennsylvania. Here, the partners will collect new data on water infiltration, runoff, soil health, stream water quality, and contaminants with the goal of ultimately changing management practices of 50,000 acres in the watershed. Research from Rodale Institutes Farming Systems Trial, started in 1981, has already shown that organic farms increase groundwater recharge, reduce runoff, and reduce nitrate and herbicide leachates in groundwater.

Stroud Preserve is one of 44 nature preserves owned and managed by nonprofit Natural Lands, whose mission is to save open space, care for nature, and connect people to the outdoors.

Rodale Institute is extremely excited about the opportunity to partner with another world-class organization, Stroud Water Research Center, to bring our two focus areas, soil health and freshwater, together for monumental impact, said Jeff Moyer, Rodale Institute executive director. We have the ability to conduct cutting-edge research and outreach that will ultimately lead to improved farming practices that not only help farmers be successful, but will have true impact on the lives of families who interact with the watershed every day.

The partners will also conduct farmer training and education, a consumer awareness campaign, citizen science initiatives, and a plan for financial incentives for farmers to transition management practices.

Stroud Water Research Center works with farmers and landowners to implement best management practices based on our decades of research on streams, rivers, and their ecosystems. Much of that research has underlined the important role streamside forests play in protecting streams and creating healthy stream ecosystems. With this exciting new partnership, we will build on that knowledge as we investigate the relationship between healthy soils and healthy streams, said David B. Arscott, Ph.D., Stroud Center executive director, president, and research scientist.

The funding comes from William Penn Foundations Watershed Protection Program, which grants more than $30 million annually to ensure an adequate supply of clean drinking water to the 15 million people who rely on the Delaware River Watershed.

# # # #

About Rodale Institute

Rodale Institute is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit dedicated to pioneering organic farming through research and outreach. For nearly 70 years, the Institute has been researching the best practices of organic agriculture and sharing findings with farmers and scientists throughout the world, advocating for policies that support farmers, and educating consumers about how going organic is the healthiest option for people and the planet. Today, Rodale Institute is the global leader in regenerative organic agriculture. Learn more at RodaleInstitute.org.

About Stroud Water Research Center

Stroud Water Research Center seeks to advance knowledge and stewardship of freshwater systems through global research, education, and restoration and to help businesses, landowners, policymakers, and individuals make informed decisions that affect water quality and availability around the world. Stroud Water Research Center is an independent, 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization. Learn more at StroudCenter.org.

About the William Penn Foundations Watershed Protection Program

The William Penn Foundations Watershed Protection Program aims to protect and restore the Delaware River watershed, ensuring an adequate supply of clean water within this 13,500-square-mile system which provides drinking water for more than 15 million people across four states. The program focuses its more than $30 million annual grantmaking budget on building effective networks and fostering collaboration among environmental conservation organizations to maximize collective impact. Program grants support local and regional non-governmental organizations focusing on research, policy and advocacy, environmental education, trails, and on-the-ground conservation in the watershed. The Foundation awards grants that are intended to catalyze additional funding sources, and works closely with other private regional and national funders to advance water quality.

Attachments:

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/641e2e24-f905-42eb-b5f3-5cfeaaeb33db

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/19f43e50-6b27-463a-8fb4-94c6c9aa0b10

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/4925b302-64c5-49fc-9e2c-8ca03851d700STEM Professionals to Meet UW Students in Speed Mentoring Event

More than 20 University of Wyoming undergraduates will receive firsthand guidance from 11 professionals in a variety of science disciplines Thursday, March 1.

The Wyoming Research Scholars Programs (WRSP) first speed mentoring event will take place from 5:30-7:30 p.m. in the atrium of the Michael B. Enzi STEM Facility.

We have invited STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) professionals from a variety of disciplines to meet with WRSP students in a mentoring format based on speed dating, where students meet with mentors and chat for a few minutes and then rotate to talk to someone else, says WRSP Director Jamie Crait, who credited the UW Foundation for helping launch the idea.

Part of UWs Science Initiative, the WRSP pairs undergraduate students with faculty mentors to participate in research for multiple years. In addition to the all-important mentorship aspect, the program includes a student salary for each students research time, funding for research support and supplies, and money for travel to meetings and conferences.

The program began with four students in the fall of 2015 and has grown to more than 30 undergraduates.

Additionally, undergraduates participating in other UW programs -- including McNair Scholars, the NASA Space Grant Consortium and Wyoming IDeA Networks of Biomedical Research Excellence (INBRE) -- will take part in the speed mentoring event.

Here is the list of professionals who will meet with the WRSP students Thursday:

-- Greg Brown, associate dean of the UW College of Arts and Sciences and professor of botany. He is an expert on the ecology and systematics of tropical plants in the bromeliad family and holds a Ph.D. from Arizona State University.

-- Katie Cheesbrough, a habitat biologist for the Wyoming Game and Fish Department based in Saratoga. Along with monitoring various wildlife habitats and implementing habitat enhancement projects, she works closely with both the Baggs and Platte Valley mule deer initiatives. She previously was a wildlife biologist for the U.S. Forest Service in Douglas. She holds a masters degree in zoology and physiology from UW.

-- Dave Freudenthal, former two-term Wyoming governor and an attorney with the firm of Crowell & Moring in Cheyenne. Before serving as governor, he was U.S. attorney for the District of Wyoming. A graduate of UWs College of Law, he co-chaired the task force that oversaw the development of the Science Initiative.

-- Lyman McDonald, co-founder and senior biometrician with Western EcoSystems Technology Inc. (WEST). He is a biometrician/statistician with more than 40 years of experience in the application of statistical methods to design, conduct and analyze environmental, wildlife and fisheries studies. He holds a Ph.D. in statistics from Colorado State University.

-- Cheryl Eddy Miller has had a 25-year career as a staff hydrologist with the U.S. Geological Survey in Cheyenne, where she started as an undergraduate intern. She has worked on a variety of projects in Wyoming, including countywide groundwater and surface-water assessments and statewide sampling of groundwater and surface water for pesticides. She has an M.S. in agricultural and chemical engineering from Colorado State University.

-- Lorna Pehl, director of systems engineering at Metrohm Raman in Laramie. Her company produces spectrometers and was previously Snowy Range Instruments before being acquired by Metrohm. She was a faculty member at Eastern Wyoming College in Torrington and holds a Ph.D. in chemistry from UW.

-- Annie Reiser, technical communications specialist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) in Boulder, Colo. She has worked at NOAA for almost 19 years and now develops products that convey NOAA science to a variety of audiences. She has an M.A. in German from the University of Colorado.

-- Shibely Saha is an analytical scientist with Millipore-Sigma, and her primary job includes analyzing secondary pharmaceutical standards. She completed her Ph.D. in chemical engineering from UW in 2016. Her Ph.D. research was focused on designing and characterizing low-cost and durable catalysts for proton exchange membrane fuel cells.

-- Christine Schultz is the field operations manager for the Observatory Operations Group in the NOAA Earth System Research Laboratorys Global Monitoring Division. She also served as a NOAA Commissioned Corps officer for over eight years. She holds a master's degree in geographic information science and technology from the University of Southern California.

-- Edmund Synakowski is the vice president for research and economic development at UW. He was associate director of science with the Department of Energy (DOE) from 2009 until 2017, when he came to UW. Before his time with DOE, Synakowski headed the Fusion Energy Program at the Lawrence National Laboratory in California and worked at Plasma Physics Laboratory at Princeton University. He holds a Ph.D. in physics from the University of Texas-Austin.

-- Kurt Tuggle is a UW graduate in civil engineering and serves as executive vice president and chief operations officer with Trihydro Corp., an environmental consulting and engineering firm based in Laramie. During his 25-year tenure at Trihydro, he has served as an environmental technician, remediation engineer, project manager and senior manager.

For more about the WRSP or the speed mentoring event, call Crait at (307) 766-6310 or email craitj@uwyo.edu.French English

MONTREAL, Feb. 28, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Beaufield Resources Inc. (Beaufield or the Corporation) (TSX-V:BFD) is pleased to announce the results of voting at its Annual Meeting of Shareholders (Shareholders) held on February 27th, 2018 in Montreal, Canada.

Shareholders voted in favour of the three items put forward by management.

Messrs. Hao Liu, George N. Mannard, Donald R. Siemens, Ronald W. Stewart, Herve Thiboutot and Robert P. Wares, nominated for the Board of directors, were elected.

Shareholders also voted in favour of appointing Raymond Chabot Grant Thornton LLP, as auditors of the Corporation for the ensuing year and authorizing the directors to fix their remuneration.

Shareholders adopted a resolution approving, ratifying and confirming the Corporations new by-law No. 2018-01 regarding the advance notice.

A total of 79.7 million Beaufield common shares were voted, representing approximately 38% of total shares issued and outstanding as at the record date of the meeting.

PDAC Convention

Beaufield will have a booth at the upcoming Prospectors & Developers Association of Canada (PDAC) Convention in Toronto March 4 to 7, 2018. Beaufield welcomes visitors at booth # 2903.

About Beaufield:

Beaufield is a mineral exploration company with its exploration activity focused in Quebec and Ontario. Please refer to Beaufield's website to view the Corporation's properties in Urban, Eleonore-Opinaca, Tortigny, Hemlo and Launay. The Corporation is actively exploring, is well financed with approximately $5 million in working capital, has no debt and has excess work credits on its properties.

The information set forth in this press release includes certain forward-looking statements. Such statements are based on assumptions exposed to major risks and uncertainties. Although Beaufield deems the expectations reflected in these forward-looking statements to be reasonable, the Corporation cannot provide any guarantee as to the materialization of the expectations reflected in these forward-looking statements. The Corporation expressly disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by applicable law.

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) has reviewed or accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this Release.28.02.2018: Borregaard ASA ("Borregaard", OSE ticker: BRG)

Reference is made to the stock exchange notice of 16 February 2018 where Borregaard announced the intent to repurchase up to 300,000 of its outstanding common stock.

Borregaard has today purchased 20,000 own shares through broker at an average price of NOK 74.2083 per share.

After this transaction Borregaard holds a total of 334,764 own shares, representing 0.34% of total shares outstanding.

Contact

Lotte Kvinlaug, Investor Relations Officer, +47 922 86 909

This information is subject to the disclosure requirements pursuant to Section 5-12 of the Norwegian Securities Trading Act.By: Dezan Shira & Associates

Editor: Koushan Das

The economic cooperation between Japan and Vietnam has grown consistently in the last few years, especially since the two countries established an extensive strategic partnership for peace and prosperity in Asia in 2014. Driven by a growing bilateral trade and investments from Japan, especially in infrastructure and energy projects, Japan has emerged as one of the leading economic partners for Vietnam.

RELATED: Pre-Investment Advisory Services from Dezan Shira & Associates

Japan is the largest official development assistance provider, second largest foreign investor, third largest tourists source, and fourth largest trading partner for Vietnam. As of 2017, Japan was the leading foreign investor, with over 2,500 Japanese firms currently operating in Vietnam.

Bilateral trade

Both Japan and Vietnam are part of the bilateral Vietnam  Japan Economic Partnership Agreement (VJEPA) and the multilateral ASEAN  Japan Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (AJCEP).

Bilateral trade in 2017

Bilateral trade between the two countries reached US$ 33.43 billion in 2017, up 12.4 percent compared to 2016. Imports from Japan grew by 10.2 percent, while exports increased by 14.8 percent, with each accounting for almost half of the bilateral trade. Vietnam had an export surplus of US$ 249.14 million.

Vietnam mainly imports machinery, industrial goods, and raw materials from Japan. Machines, equipment, tools, and accessories accounted for over a quarter of the total imports, valued at US$ 4.26 billion, up 2.2 percent compared to 2016. Computers, electronic products, and components followed closely, accounting for 19.2 percent, worth US$ 3.18 billion. In addition, Vietnam also imports cloth materials, petroleum and pharmaceutical products, paper and rubber from Japan.

RELATED: Vietnams Key Regions and Economic Zones

Trade in 2018

In line with tariff commitments under the VJEPA and AJCEP, Vietnams import tariffs for Japanese goods will further reduce in 2018. Under the new import tariffs for 2018, 5,545 products will have lower tax rates, compared to 2017.

Under the VJEPA, a zero percent tariff will be applicable to 456 tariff lines, for products such as fats, sugar, construction stones, organic chemicals, wood, pulp, fabrics, pearls, iron, aluminum, tin, hand tools, machinery and equipment, vehicle parts and musical instruments. In addition, tariffs will be reduced by 50 to 67 percent for 2918 tariff lines, 20 to 45 percent for 604 products, and 4 to 18 percent for 1,567 products.

Meanwhile, under the AJCEP, 6,201 tariff lines will see reduction and exemptions in tariff lines, which include 3,426 tariff lines with zero percent rate, effective from April 1, 2018. The products include machinery, equipment, tools and spare parts, iron, steel, copper, metals, and articles of iron, steel, base metals, fabrics, apparel, and other articles.

RELATED: Market Entry Modes for Vietnam

Japanese investments

As of 2017, Japan is the second largest foreign investor in Vietnam, second only to South Korea. Total investments stood at US$ 49.46 billion for 3,599 projects.

Last year, Japan was the largest foreign investor in Vietnam, with investments reaching US$ 9.11 billion, accounting for a quarter of the total investments. Majority of the investment capital was invested into two BOT thermopower projects in Thanh Hoa and Khanh Hoa, worth US$ 5.37 billion.

Manufacturing to retail

For a long time, the majority of the investments from Japan focused on the manufacturing, infrastructure, and energy production industry. However, in the last five years, Vietnam has also started to attract Japanese investments in consumer goods, retail, and hospitality services. Japanese convenience stores such as 7-Eleven, FamilyMart, and Ministop have already set up their franchises in Vietnam, along with Japanese shopping mall operators such as Aeon and Takashimaya, who continue to expand. Apart from direct investments, Vietnam has also seen an increase in M&A activities from Japanese investors. According to Stoxplus, a business information provider, Japanese investors conducted 11 Vietnam-based M&A deals in consumer goods and retail between 2014 and 2017.

As per Vietnams Ministry of Industry and Trade, the retail trade will grow by 11.9 percent in the 2016-20 period to US$ 179 billion. Going forward, Japanese convenience stores will have a first mover advantage, as Vietnam is forecasted to be the fastest-growing convenience market in Asia by 2021, according to data released by the international grocery research organization the Institute of Grocery Distribution (IGD).

RELATED: Korean Investment in Vietnam

Going forward

As economic cooperation increases, Vietnam will continue to be a favorable investment destination among Japanese investors. As per a recent Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO) survey of 654 enterprises in Vietnam, 65.1 percent of firms recorded a profit in 2017, an increase of 2.3 percent from 2016. Majority of the profit-making firms are involved in the processing of exports in the manufacturing and processing industry. In addition, 70 percent of Japanese firms are planning to expand their businesses in Vietnam, which is relatively higher than regional countries such as the Philippines, Indonesia, and China.

Going forward, the manufacturing and processing sectors will continue to attract investments, along with the infrastructure and retail industry. In the infrastructure sector, Japan is considering major investments in projects connecting Da Nang Port with the East-West Economic Corridor, and Cai Mep-Thi Vai Port with the Southern Economic Corridor.

RELATED: FDI Opportunities in Vietnam in 2018

Major factors contributing to increased investments in Vietnam include the easing of investment conditions, socio-political stability, labor costs, and a growing domestic market. However, Japanese investors continue to face issues such as unclear legal framework, complicated tax procedures, underdeveloped infrastructure, and low localization rate. Vietnam has implemented numerous regulations easing the investment environment and has started to increase its investments in infrastructure, and should continue to do so, to maintain its advantage for long.

Dezan Shira & Associates Brochure

Dezan Shira & Associates is a pan-Asia, multi-disciplinary professional services firm, providing legal, tax and operational advisory to international corporate investors. Operational throughout China, ASEAN and India, our mission is to guide foreign companies through Asias complex regulatory environment and assist them with all aspects of establishing, maintaining and growing their business operations in the region. This brochure provides an overview of the services and expertise Dezan Shira & Associates can provide.

An Introduction to Doing Business in Vietnam 2017

An Introduction to Doing Business in Vietnam 2017 will provide readers with an overview of the fundamentals of investing and conducting business in Vietnam. Compiled by Dezan Shira & Associates, a specialist foreign direct investment practice, this guide explains the basics of company establishment, annual compliance, taxation, human resources, payroll, and social insurance in this dynamic country.



Managing Contracts and Severance in Vietnam

In this issue of Vietnam Briefing, we discuss the prevailing state of labor pools in Vietnam and outline key considerations for those seeking to staff and retain workers in the country. We highlight the increasing demand for skilled labor, provide in depth coverage of existing contract options, and showcase severance liabilities that may arise if workers or employers choose to terminate their contracts.The logo of AccorHotels group. (Source: REUTERS/Athit Perawongmetha)

The deal will give the French firm, which includes the Pullman, Raffles, Novotel and Mercure brands, resources to expand while it will continue to manage the properties under long-term contracts.

"The entry of new shareholders and the deconsolidation of AccorInvest will provide AccorHotels with substantial leeway to enhance our dynamic growth and innovation strategy and create value for shareholders," AccorHotels chief executive Sebastien Bazin said in a statement.

Accor separated AccorInvest into a separate legal entity last year in order to bring in new investors.

According to the statement the new investors include the Public Investment Fund and GIC, which are the sovereign wealth funds of Saudi Arabia and Singapore respectively.

Institutional Investors include Credit Agricole Assurances, Colony NorthStar and Amundi among others.

Bazin said "AccorInvest will take advantage of its new powerful shareholders' support, as well as a strengthened financial structure to execute its roadmap and continue to reinforce its portfolio of assets."

AccorInvest currently has a portfolio of 891 hotels, the majority of which are located in Europe.

AccorHotels will operate the hotels under contracts that will last for up to 50 years for luxury properties, with possibilities for extensions.

The group posted a net profit of 441 million last year.BASF growth driven by continued investment in innovation and strong partnerships

Product candidates from all indications have reached advanced development phases. Global registration is proceeding key technologies such as the Revysol fungicide and Inscalis insecticide.

In 2017, BASF spent 507 million ($620 million) on research and development in the Crop Protection division. Continued investments in innovation are planned to expand the portfolio in and beyond crop protection, such as biological solutions and digital tools and devices.

With market entry in sight for various developments across our pipeline, we are looking forward to expanding our offer to farmers globally with more comprehensive solutions for improved crop and pest management.

With market entry in sight for various developments across our pipeline, we are looking forward to expanding our offer to farmers globally with more comprehensive solutions for improved crop and pest management, said Markus Heldt, president of BASFs Crop Protection division.

The seed and trait research and development capabilities we plan to acquire from Bayer will further strengthen our innovation potential in relevant markets and key crops. They will also provide direct market access for our own trait discovery research, he said.

BASF is preparing the introduction of its latest fungicide, the Revysol. The first Isopropanol-azole with an outstanding biological performance shows a new level of disease control. It will be an essential tool for resistance management in many important crops, including cereals, soy, and corn, as well as in fruits and vegetables.

The company also anticipates two new herbicides that are being prepared for regulatory submission in 2018, with two more advancing in early discovery. These first two chemicals have been specifically developed to control resistant grass weeds, one primarily for blackgrass and the other for key grass and broadleaf weeds, to ensure farmers around the globe can continue to count on effective weed management solutions.

In addition, BASF continues to grow its herbicide family with herbicide tolerance and weed resistance management technologies. The new Provisia Rice System provides enhanced weed control in rice and is expected to be launched for the 2018 season in the US. Provisia will provide rice farmers with a new tool for the post-emergence control of a broad range of grass weeds.

For improved insect pest control, BASF is advancing its insecticide portfolio with new compounds showing unique modes of action. The most advanced example is Inscalis.

The new compound, co-developed with Japanese company Meiji Seika Pharma Co., Ltd., will offer farmers an essential tool to protect a wide range of crops from critical piercing and sucking insect pests. Pending regulatory approval, the first Inscalis-based products are expected to be launched in 2018 in numerous countries.

Another new insecticide, co-developed with Japanese company Mitsui Chemical Agro Inc., is Broflanilide, which has a novel mode of action (IRAC Group 30) and will help farmers to control chewing insects, such as beetles and caterpillars, in specialty and field crops.

Broflanilide will also have seed treatment applications. It will also be an important technology to control ants, cockroaches, and flies in the professional pest management markets, too. Broflanilide will be launched in key regions in 2020.

For BASF, the potential of active ingredients goes beyond traditional crop protection. A current example in public health is the first use of the insecticide chlorfenapyr in an innovative new approach to malaria control.

BASF has successfully formulated the active ingredient as the basis for Interceptor G2, a new generation of its Interceptor long-lasting insecticide-treated mosquito net, and Sylando 240SC, an indoor residual spray to coat the walls and ceilings of homes. Interceptor G2 has been evaluated successfully in 2017 by the WHO Pesticide Evaluation Scheme to ensure it meets international safety standards. Sylando 240SC is under WHO evaluation.

To meet the increased demand for biologicals, BASF is planning to introduce several innovations in key regions in the next decade, including the Velifer biological insecticide, which has an extended spectrum of application against target pests and can be used in integrated pest management (IPM) programs in both greenhouse and field settings.

For applications in agriculture, BASF is proceeding with the market introduction of Velondis, a biological fungicide for seed treatment designed to boost the protection of seedlings and plants from key soil-borne diseases.

Nitrogen stabiliser opportunities also continue to grow, including Limus urease inhibitor launches planned in Europe and South America.

BASF is also developing digital innovations to support farmers agronomic decisions linked to the firms core crop protection offering. One example is the Maglis brand, under which BASF offers different digital tools for farmers and distribution partners, as well as BASFs own sales force worldwide.English Latvian

Riga, 2018-02-28 17:26 CET (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) --

In 2017, Baltic International Bank actively worked to transform its operations in line with the Banks new investments-based business model. Upon concluding the organisation of the Banks assets and introducing the new business model, the structure and number of customers of the Bank changed, and deposits decreased significantly.

In the 2nd half of 2017, Baltic International Bank significantly strengthened its clients service team and actively focused on attracting new clients, as well as establishing a new level of business relations with existing clients, thus in the 2nd half of 2017, all financial indicators relating to the amount of client funds increased.

In the 2nd half of 2017, the total of customer funds grew by 18% and reached EUR 444 million, the amount of deposits attracted by Baltic International Bank went up by 25,5% during the reporting period. The assets under management at the end of 2017 amounted to EUR 68,17 million, and the value of financial instruments in brokerage service  EUR 120,71 million.

At the end of December 2017 term deposits amounted to 33% of the total deposit portfolio, providing opportunities for new investment projects and financing for Bank customers  private individuals and companies both in Latvia and overseas.

According to the unaudited results of Baltic International Bank, at the end of December 2017 the banks assets amounted to EUR 303,35 million, which is 13,5% more than at the end of first half of 2017. The Banks loan portfolio totalled EUR 69,77 million or 23,0 percent of the total assets as of 31 December 2017.

The financial asset structure is still predominantly represented by investments in available-for-sale financial assets: EUR 43,72 million or 14,4 percent of the total assets. High-quality liquid assets (assets carrying investment-grade credit rating and balances due from the Bank of Latvia) amounted to EUR 159,44 million or 52,6 percent of the total assets. Investments in government bonds totalled EUR 26,87 million or 8,9 percent of the total assets.

Operations related to changing the business model and customer structure, as well as the quality assessment of some historically acquired assets of the Bank created an expected temporary negative impact on the Banks financial indicators, thus the Bank ended 2017 with a loss of EUR 2,67 million. The financial results were also influenced by investments in continued improvement of the internal control system, development of information technologies and infrastructure that Baltic International Bank carried out in 2017, as well as investments in staff and strengthening their competence.

The operating income totalled EUR 15 million, which is less than at the end of previous period. The management of the bank appreciates the dynamics of the income structure - the percentage of fee and commission income increased to 24,8 percent compared to the same period last year when the fee and commission income totalled 17,7%. The net interest income increased by 17,3 percent compared to the same period last year when The net interest income totalled 11,3%.

Administrative costs reached EUR 13,74 million, which is 5,8 percent below the level of the previous year.

The liquidity ratios exceed the regulatory thresholds. As of 31 December 2017, the liquidity ratio was 92,29 percent. The structure of liquid assets is well diversified, as represented by bonds 20 percent, due from credit institutions 13 percent, due from the Bank of Latvia 66 percent and cash 1 percent. The liquidity coverage ratio (LCR) totalled 376,43 percent. The net stable funding ratio (NSFR), characterizing the availability of a stable funding profile in relation to the composition of assets and off-balance sheet activities, reached 154,64 percent.

As of 31 December 2017, the Banks own funds totalled EUR 29,97 million. The Banks Tier I capital ratio (CETI) totalled 11,60 percent. Total capital ratio reached 14,98%.

Having reached 14,98 percent, the total capital ratio by 2,08 percentage points exceeds the individual ratio set for the Bank by the Financial and Capital Market Commission.

As Banks shareholders actively support the development of Baltic International Bank, basing on the new business model, shareholders meeting in January 2018 made the decision to increase Banks capital by EUR 6 million. We firmly believe that the capital-increase will give a decisive fillip to the expansion of banks business both domestically and internationally, and the banks current and potential customers will all be winners!

In 2017, Baltic International Bank continued to implement a broad range of social responsibility projects promoting the development of culture, art and public opinion in Latvia. Baltic International Bank supported the publication of several books in the series Mes. Latvija, XX gadsimts (Us. Latvia. The XX century) and other publications of significance to Latvias cultural history. In 2017, the Bank also supported the development of start-ups. The Baltic International Bank Latvian Barometer surveys were carried out throughout the year, providing a unique monthly insight into the general mood and public opinion in Latvia regarding various current topics of national importance. Thanks to its sustainable model of operations and broad range of social responsibility initiatives, Baltic International Bank ranked in the Gold category of the 2017 Sustainability Index.The cold snap across Europe has brought snow even to the balmy Mediterranean island of Corsica. (Photo: AFP/Elise Bretaud)

The frigid temperatures, down to -24C in parts of Germany and -29C in Estonia overnight, have prompted warnings for the most vulnerable homeless and elderly.

Cities across the continent have been providing emergency shelter and relief to rough sleepers, who accounted for most of the deaths since Friday.

Poland has reported at least nine deaths with four in France, including an nonagenarian who was found on Tuesday outside the gate to her retirement home. Five have died in Lithuania, three in the Czech Republic and two in Romania, including an 83-year-old woman found on the streets covered in snow, and one homeless person in Italy.

The frigid weather was set to continue on Wednesday, with temperatures down to -12C expected in northern France and -6C in the usually mild south.

More snow was forecast for Spain, including Catalonia where school transport has been cancelled. Classes have also been suspended in the Canary Islands which is being lashed by powerful winds.

While the Arctic is seeing record high temperatures, the cold snap across Europe has brought snow even to the balmy Mediterranean islands of Corsica and Capri.

BLANKET APPEAL

In Belgium, towns including Etterbeek, Verviers and Charleroi have resorted to ordering police to detain homeless people if they refuse to go to shelters.

The Red Cross, which has set up emergency teams across Europe, urged people to keep an eye on neighbours and relatives.

"Just knocking on someone's door to check they have everything they need can make a huge difference. It could even be the difference between life and death," it said.

The charity also issued public appeals for 10,000 blankets in France, where about 50 local officials in the Paris region have vowed to spend Tuesday night outdoors to call attention to the plight of those with nowhere to sleep.

"The point is not to stage a show, but to denounce a system that isn't working," said Mama Sy, a deputy mayor in the Paris suburb of Etampes.

Paris authorities counted 3,000 rough-sleepers in the city's first-ever homeless census this month, warning it was likely significantly underestimated.

'SIBERIAN BEAR'

In England, where heavy snow was dumped on London on Tuesday, tabloids have dubbed the snap "the Beast from the East", while the Dutch are calling it the "Siberian bear" and Swedes the "snow cannon".

British Airways cancelled roughly 60 flights in and out of London Heathrow airport.

The Met Office forecaster said rural communities could be cut off for days by snowdrifts, warning of "long interruptions to power supplies and other services such as telephone and mobile phone networks."

Some of the iciest conditions were reported in Italy, where many schools and daycare centres were closed, to the consternation of parents already preparing for closures next week linked to this weekend's general election.

Italians' anger was also growing over nationwide disruptions to rail services as a lack of defrosting equipment on the tracks meant workers having to clear snow and ice by hand.

In Naples, the airport was closed early Tuesday and bus services in the city halted because of ice, though the weather was getting warmer in Rome, where schools were expected to reopen Wednesday.

A driver in Turin got a fright when an ice shard broke off from an overhead bridge and shattered his windshield - though he managed to keep control of his vehicle.

Russia's Gazprom, a major gas supplier to Europe, said it had sent record exports to the continent over the past six days, peaking at 667 million cubic metres (23.6 billion cubic feet) on Monday as people turned up their thermostats.This programme aims to enhance access to sustainable energy in Vietnams rural areas and contribute to a more sustainable energy sector by promoting efficient, clean, and renewable energy available to all citizens.

EU-Vietnam Energy Facility, co-financed by the EU and the German Federal Ministry for Economic Co-operation and Development-BMZ in the framework of Phase II of the Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Project, will be operated by Deutsche Gesellschaft fur Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH in close co-operation with the Ministry of Industry and Trade.

The EU-Vietnam Energy Facility is aimed to support sustainable energy development in Vietnam

At the launch, the European Commissions Director-General of International Co-operation and Development, Stefano Manservisi, said, Our ambitious 108-million ($133.1-million) programme will not only support the government of Vietnam to achieve its objectives of the 2013-2020 programme on supplying electricity to rural, mountainous, and island areas to provide reliable and sustainable electricity access to up to 1.2 million households, but it will also enhance the governance of the energy sector to facilitate the shift to a more sustainable energy development path.

Stefano Manservisi addresses the launch

Vietnam, one of the most exposed countries in the world to climate change, is facing major energy challenges to maintain the path of its socioeconomic development. While the EUs response cannot address all these challenges, it can work with other development partners to influence policies and choices that could make the sector cleaner and more sustainable."

Minister of Industry and Trade Tran Tuan Anh also said that in the past years, the Vietnamese energy sector has been developing rapidly and sustainably. This development is a key factor to maintaining the high socioeconomic growth of the country.

It reaffirms the European Unions leading role in supporting the fight against climate change and in the promotion of renewable energy.

The Vietnamese government commits to socioeconomic development, ensuring access to power for the whole country, including remote areas where 2 per cent of the population still do not have access to electricity, Tuan Anh said. In this context, the government of Vietnam is very grateful to the EU for its support in sustainable energy development through its Multi-Annual Indicative Programme for Vietnam in 2014-2020 and particularly the Financing Agreement for the Energy Sector Policy Support Programme to Enhance Access to Sustainable Energy in Rural Areas of Vietnam signed on December 1, 2017.

The EUs grant allocation of 346 million ($426.54 million) supporting the Vietnamese energy sector in 2014-2020 is the largest grant contribution provided by the EU so far to a single country in support of sustainable energy development.

It reaffirms the European Unions leading role in supporting the fight against climate change and in the promotion of renewable energy.Do Thi Thu Hang - Associate director of Research & Consultancy, Savills Hanoi

Game-changing office alternatives

Office alternatives are a worldwide trend that started years ago and include flexible office spaces like business centres in hotels, which later evolved into the serviced office concept, co-working space, and mixed-use models like officetels. As opposed to the inflexibility of traditional offices with long lease terms and large leasable areas, these alternatives provide flexible lease by the desk on weekly or monthly bases, with the flexibility to add on extra services (meeting room, printing, food and beverage) as required. Rent ranges from luxury serviced office, which suits business travellers and international companies with short-term small office demand, to affordable co-working spacean economical solution for young businesses.

The development of office alternatives in recent years has been nurtured by two factors: the rising startup movement in Vietnam and the new generations changing working habits. 2017 was a booming year for the startup culture, as the Vietnamese government has approved and implemented many encouraging policies for young enterprises.

According to statistics announced on December 25, 2017 by the Business Registration Management Agency of the Ministry of Planning and Investment, the number of newly registered companies in 2017 reached a record high at 126,859. Small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) remained in the majority (97 per cent), creating a large demand for smaller office space at a more reasonable price than traditional offices. And office alternatives provide just that!

Additionally, changes in the social behaviour of the new generation of white-collar workers should be taken into account. Freedom, creativity, and flexibility are increasingly valued by millennials (generation X) and generation Y. Office alternatives allow them to choose between working independently in privacy or working in an open space where they can socialise, network, and share ideas with like-minded people. Many professionals believe these environments improve work performance, making office alternatives an increasingly popular choice.

Traditional offices going strong

2017 witnessed excellent performance from traditional offices, particularly Grade A offices in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City. According to the latest statistics from Savills Vietnam, Grade A occupancy remained above 90 per cent throughout 2017, and a significant improvement since 2014s 70 per cent. The central business districts (CBD) observed impressive occupancy at above 95 per cent and average rent at $33-34 per square metre. As office space remains limited, many developers have promptly converted their land use certificates and constructed new office buildings in the two cities, which are expected to provide a new supply for the commercial market in 2019.

For foreign investors, traditional offices in Vietnam remain an attractive asset class. According to Savills World Office Yield Spectrum, Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City offered the highest office yields in the world, surpassing 52 other cities, such as Perth (Australia), Manila (the Philippines), and Chicago (the US). As occupancy remains high, rents are expected to increase in the next 2-3 years, bringing high yields to investors in the traditional office class.

Birds of a different feather

At the moment, traditional offices still dominate the Vietnamese market, as the market share of office alternatives is insignificant in commercial leasing. However, these concepts are expanding at an exponential rate, following a worldwide trend. It needs to be asked: will office alternatives one day replace traditional offices?

Instead of looking at these two models as rivals, we should consider them as two different branches of the evolutionary tree of the office market. Office alternatives, which originated as a solution for the inflexibility of traditional offices, are now evolving to respond to changes in the way the millennial generation works. In developed markets, the concept is thriving and is being incorporated in other property types, such as retail and urban hotels due to the buzz shared office space creates.

On the other hand, traditional offices could also incorporate the flexibility of office alternatives, like creating multi-functional common spaces to match the new workforces demand to work in a more open and connected environment. This movement does not necessarily lead to the end of either one model, but is rather a lesson for office developers and landlords to adapt and move towards flexibility as a norm in the new decade.Le Hoang Chau - Chariman, Ho Chi Minh City Real Estate Association

Following a period of slowdown in the local real estate market, in 2015 the Ho Chi Minh City property sector started to gain momentum. In 2016 the entire real estate market encountered a slight dip, but then sprung back again in 2017 with a rather impressive growth of 4.07 per cent on-year, accounting for 0.21 per cent of the total GDP (according to the General Statistics Office). The market is right in the process of being fully restructured and rapidly invested, with focus laid on the development of the affordable housing segment in a bid to meet the actual demand of homebuyers.

The outstanding debts of the real estate sector in Ho Chi Minh City have so far accounted for around 10 per cent of the total outstanding debts in the city, higher than the sectors national total outstanding debt ratio. Some 10,260 individuals and households, meanwhile, have secured housing support worth up to VND5.244 trillion ($238.36 million).

The stock market has emerged as a new channel for capital mobilisation in recent years, fuelling the real estate market and contributing to the rise of many real estate companies now listed on the local stock exchange like Vingroup, FLC, Novaland, Nam Long, Khang Dien, Coteccons, Hoa Binh, and Dat Xanh.

The flow of foreign direct investment (FDI) into the real estate sector has increased over time. Among the international investors, Japan has become the largest foreign investor in Vietnam and particularly in Ho Chi Minh City. The flow of funds into the real estate sector from the East Asian country has also risen to the top. Overseas remittances received by the city in 2017 have been forecast at $5.2 billion, an increase of 4.5 per cent compared to 2016, and some 22 per cent of the remittances are expected to stream into the property sector.

Ho Chi Minh City is making huge investments into robust infrastructure development

Last year, there were 92 housing projects (located primarily in the southern and eastern districts of the city) verified by the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Construction for capital mobilisation. Of these projects, 42,991 units are to be developed, 37,502 of which will be apartments and 5,489 will be villas, shophouses and terraced houses. The total funds required for these projects are estimated at around VND86.4 trillion ($3.92 billion).

Out of the 92 projects, the high-end segment will account for 10,987 units or 25.5 per cent of the total (up 3,747 units or 22.9 per cent compared to 2016). The mid-end segment will take up 45.5 per cent, an increase of 1,081 units or 16.4 per cent compared to 2016. The affordable housing segment will welcome some 12,495 units, accounting for 29.1 per cent of the total units (over 5,000 units or some 67.3 per cent higher than in 2016).

The mid-end and affordable segments account for the largest share of the housing units to be launched in the market in the near future. This could well be a positive signal for the real estate market as property investors and developers have reshaped their product structure to suit the market demand.

The number of affordable housing units, nevertheless, merely adds up to 12,495 in total, a rather petite supply compared to the vast demand arising from government officers, public servants, military officers, and low-income workers.

The real estate market has also witnessed a shift towards green investment which incorporates greenery, lakes, water- and energy-saving features, and environment-friendly facilities into the living environment of many residential urban projects. A few names to mention here include the Phu My Hung township, Sala City, and the Ehome 5 project. Local real estate developers have continued to reiterate their dominance in the segment, taking the lead in various large-scale mergers and acquisitions (M&A) during the year, with a number of renowned businesses, including Vingroup, Novaland, Him Lam Land, FLC, Bitexco, Sun Group, and many others.

The mid-end housing segment accounts for 45.5 per cent of the new units in the pipeline in Ho Chi Minh City

Building a megacity

In 2018 the real estate market is forecast to carry on its positive growth path or at least remain stable as seen in 2017. The affordable housing market segment, with 1-2 bedroom units at the price of approximately VND1 billion ($44,000) apiece, is expected to be the main lead of the market this year.

The high-end segment, on the other hand, will go through massive restructuring in a bid to meet the market demand (as in the case of Vingroup and its high-end product Vincity). Meanwhile, the condotel and landed property segments are also predicted to grow rapidly.

Factors that will affect the real estate market this year include a pilot resolution recently passed by the National Assembly aimed for the specific development of Ho Chi Minh City and the city itself has put 19 programmes in place to develop a smart city.

During the period of 2018-2020 the real estate market will continue addressing the supply and demand gap to promote the sustainability of the market in the long term. The gap will be narrowed in a way that more affordable properties are to be built to meet the demand of mid- and low-income earners.

The city is seeking to reassign a third of its land bank designated for agricultural purposes to industrial and residential use. These land areas will then be utilised in developing Ho Chi Minh City into a smart city. The expansion of the city will run through the northwest, becoming the basis for the further development of the real estate market in the medium to long run.

Ho Chi Minh City has a total population of 13 million, three million of whom are migrants from other cities and provinces. The middle-income class is growing rapidly and the GDP per capita is expected to reach $9,800 by 2020, which will in turn boost the demand for residential properties.

The increasing population and the interconnected infrastructure system in the city have led to the expansion of the local real estate market, which now goes beyond the border of the city, extending to the neighbouring provinces, such as Dong Nai, Binh Duong, Long An, and Ba Ria-Vung Tau.

It is also worthwhile to note that a trend of co-operation between real estate enterprises has emerged lately. M&A transactions are anticipated to grow tremendously as a result. Also, thanks to the resolution on resolving bad debts as well as strong FDI and remittance flows into the property sector, the finances needed for the sectors development are rather plentiful.

Industry 4.0, together with the Internet of Things, artificial intelligence, and green property development are the new trends that property investors and developers ought to take note of to meet the demand of the new generation.

On the note of a property bubble, we believe such an event is unlikely to happen this year as there is timely and effective monitoring by the government to keep things from going ugly.

Through the experience of the past property crises, all stakeholders are smarter now: from the government to investors, property developers, banks, and last but not least, homebuyers themselves.According to the Indian Embassy in Vietnam, at the invitation of Ram Nath Kovind, President of the Republic of India, Vietnamese State President Tran Dai Quang would undertake a state visit to India on March 2-4, 2018.

Quang would be accompanied by his spouse Nguyen Thi Hien and a high-level official delegation including Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Pham Binh Minh, ministers, provincial Party secretaries, and a number of deputy ministers.

This is the fourth presidential visit from Vietnam to India, the earlier ones being paid by President Ho Chi Minh in 1958, President Tran Duc Luong in 1999, and President Truong Tan Sang in 2011. From India, President Rajendra Prasad visited Vietnam in 1958, President Pratibha Devisingh Patil in 2008, and President Pranab Mukherjee in 2014.

Indian Ambassador to Vietnam P. Harish talking about State President Tran Dai Quang's visit

During the visit, President Quang will visit Bodh Gaya and New Delhi. He will also have meetings with President Kovind, delegation-level talks with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and meetings with a number of other Indian leaders.

Sushma Swaraj, Minister of External Affairs, will also call on President Quang.

Quang will also be accompanied by a large delegation of senior Vietnamese businessmen and industrialists and would be attending and addressing the Vietnam-India Business Forum organised by the Associated Chambers of Commerce of India (ASSOCHAM), Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), and the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI).

The speaker of Lok Sabha (House of the People) of the Indian Parliament, Sumitra Mahajan, will also call on President Quang who will also meet the India-Vietnam Parliamentary Friendship Group in the Indian Parliament.

2017 was a year of many milestones in our relationship with Vietnam and has been celebrated as the Year of Friendship to commemorate the 45th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations and the 10th anniversary of our Strategic Partnership.

2017 was a year of many milestones in our relationship with Vietnam and has been celebrated as the Year of Friendship to commemorate the 45th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations and the 10th anniversary of our Strategic Partnership, said Indian Ambassador to Vietnam P. Harish.

Numerous activities have taken place in India and Vietnam to mark these milestones. President Quang is also expected to attend the opening ceremony of the Vietnam Cultural Days in India function in New Delhi to conclude the Year of Friendship celebrations.

The two countries have upgraded their relations to a comprehensive strategic partnership in 2016 during the visit of Prime Minister Modi to Vietnam.

During the current state visit, a number of important agreements would be signed to further strengthen this partnership in the areas of co-operation in the peaceful uses of atomic energy, economy and trade, agriculture, and defence and security.

The bilateral trade between the two countries, according to data from India, has crossed the $10-billion mark, and both countries remain committed to work to achieve the of $15-billion bilateral trade target set by our leaders by 2020, Harish said. Vietnam is the fourth largest trading partner of India among the ASEAN countries and India is among the top ten trading partners of Vietnam.

President Quang is also expected to deliver a policy speech and meet Indian scholars at the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library in New Delhi.

Coming after the successful and fruitful visit of Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc and his high-level delegation to India in January 2018 for the ASEAN-India Commemorative Summit, where he was a guest of honour at the Republic Day Parade of India, the state visit of President Quang provides an important opportunity for interaction between the leaderships of the two countries at the highest level, to give a strong impetus to the comprehensive strategic partnership between the two countries, and to lay out a roadmap for enhanced bilateral engagement in the future, Harish said.

Currently, India has 168 projects in Vietnam, operating in the sectors of energy, mineral exploration, agro-processing, sugar manufacturing, agrochemicals, IT, and car components.

Currently, India has 168 projects in Vietnam, operating in the sectors of energy, mineral exploration, agro-processing, sugar manufacturing, agrochemicals, IT, and car components.

In 2013, Tata Powerpart of Tata Groupwas awarded a $2.1-billion thermal power project in the Mekong Delta province of Soc Trang, which is the largest Indian investment project in Vietnam to date. Other Indian firms with active projects include Reliance Industries, Gimpex, JK Tires, and Glenmark Pharmaceuticals Ltd.

Australia, US, India and Japan in talks to establish alternative to China's Belt and Road initiative SYDNEY: Australia, the United States, India and Japan are talking about establishing a joint regional infrastructure scheme as an alternative to China's multibillion-dollar Belt and Road ...

Vietnam attends Indias travel fair SATTE 2018 The Ho Chi Minh City Tourism Department and various Vietnamese travel firms are participating in the International Travel and Tourism Trade Show (SATTE 2018) that ...Prior to March 8, JW Marriott Hanoi hastens to do the final touches of the exquisite dining experience programme held in its restaurants, offering male customers a chance to express their gratitude to the important women in their lives or their female colleagues and friends.

On this special occasion, JW Cafe brought a mouth-watering buffet including seafood with caviar and French oysters at prices starting from VND790,000 ($34.52) per adult for lunch and VND1,250,000 ($54.63) per dinner.

Seafood buffet at JW Cafe

Chef Jean Francois Nulli brought what he describes as modern-classic culinary style to the venerated French fine-dining experience, with a less-is-more approach to cooking which enhanced the flavours of the a-la-carte menu.

Chef Nulli brings out his modern-classic culinary style to the special menu

Whether looking for a quick bite for lunch or a sit-down dinner, JW Marriotts chefs offer gourmets aromatic dishes that could leave them speechless.

Traditional Beijing Duck prepared with sophistication

Prepared with great attention to tiny details, the Beijing Duck was one of the best-selling dishes at Crystal Jade Palace restaurant. The crispiness of the skin, the soft and juicy duck meat, along with fresh cucumbers and spring onions, wrapped in homemade pancakes, dipped into traditional sweet sauce and sugar create a delightful harmony of flavours. The price of one Beijing Duck dish goes from VND980,000 ($42.82) per whole duck.

The forward-thinking electronic music band Funky Cat performing at Cool Cats Jazz Club

On March 24, Joshua Lebofsky and band will bring a night infused with funky, vibrant, and retro tunes to jazz lovers at Cool Cats Jazz Club.

A celebration of women and gastronomy, customers need to RSVP JW Marriott's dinners while they can

Celebrated on March 21 in 150 countries, Gout de France or Good France is a delightful celebration when chefs around the world embrace the vitality of French cuisine. With the purpose of honouring French gastronomy, Chef Jean Francois Nulli will be introducing a special set menu which will surely tantalise gourmets.Essener Tafel said last week it had taken the step in order to avoid friction between needy locals and foreigners that could harm acceptance of the newcomers. (Photo: AFP/Patrik Stollarz)

Essener Tafel, a charity that serves free meals to the poor, had come under fire after it said it would now require new customers to produce German identity papers as a huge migrant influx was displacing locals in need.

In an interview late Monday with RTL television, Merkel said: "One should not make such categorisations. That is not good."

At the same time, the German leader acknowledged that the incident demonstrates the pressure that the volunteers are coming under.

More than 1.2 million asylum seekers have come to Europe's biggest economy since 2015 - more than half from war-torn Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan - in a mass wave that sparked a xenophobic backlash.

Essener Tafel said last week it had taken the step in order to avoid friction between needy locals and foreigners that could harm acceptance of the newcomers.

Vandals at the weekend sprayed the word "Nazis" on the charity's building and vans, an act police believe was in response to the food bank's migrant halt.Ninh Binh Nitronegous Fertiliser is looking for short-term solutions for its deep-rooted ails

According to information from Vu Van Nhan, general director of Ninh Binh Nitrogenous Fertiliser One-Member Co., Ltd., after surmounting technical problems, the plant has resumed operations on January 22, 2018 at 80 per cent of its designed capacity. Within one week (January 22-29), the plant manufactured 27,000 tonnes of urea fertiliser, 22,000 tonnes of which was bought.

Nhan stated that at present, the plant is in stable operation, however, it is difficult for Ninh Binh nitrogenous fertiliser company to maintain operations on the long run because the firm lacks floating capital and suffers from massive debts. Notably, in 2017, the firm reported VND1.172 trillion ($51.5 million) in revenue, however, it still suffered a massive loss of VND933.5 billion ($41.03 million).

Furthermore, as of August 2017, the company shouldered debts of VND4.502 trillion ($198.69 million) from various banks. VND3.263 trillion ($143.4 million) of this is long-term loans from VietinBank, VND1.184 ($52.04 million) from BIDV and Vietcombank, and VND55 billion in interest payments to BIDV and VietinBank.

Besides, the company had to borrow from Vietnam National Coal-Mineral Industries Holding Corporation Limited (Vinacomin) VND133 billion ($5.85 million) worth of materials to maintain its operations until the end of this March. In the next short-term period, the company needs an additional VND80 billion ($3.5 million) to buy 40,000 tonnes of coal for production.

At the working session with Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade Do Thang Hai, the companys Board of Directors requested support from the government, the Ministry of Industry and Trade, as well as banks.

Notably, the Board of Directors proposed MoT to guarantee a loan of VND350 billion ($15.38 million) of floating capital from banks for the companys manufacturing and trading activities. Besides, the company proposed a three-year loan of VND200 billion ($8.79 million) to overhaul the plant this year.

Hai stated that MoIT will co-operate with Vinacomin to support Ninh Binh Nitrogenous Fertiliser plant to deal with its financial and technological problems. The ministry will organise a working session with Vietnam National Chemical Group (Vinachem)the investor of the plantand Vinacomin to discuss Vinacomin providing 40,000 tonnes of coal in advance to ensure the plant remains in operation.

However, in reality, the company will have to make some radical changes to remain on the surface at an oversupplied urea fertiliser market. Besides, with the plants bleak business results, banks will not be forthcoming with further loans.Location is becoming secondary to facilities and services

According to real estate services firm Savills Vietnam, in 2017 Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City continued overtaking other cities around the world to top the list of cities with the most attractive office rental returns. The Grade A office segment in the downtown area of these two cities has a rental occupancy rate of over 95 per cent.

A survey by Prime Benchmark showed that in the second half of 2017 the rental rate for high-end office space in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City were reported at $38.8 and $52.2 per square metre, significantly lower than neighbouring markets like Taipei (China), Sydney (Australia), Singapore, Seoul (South Korea), and Shanghai (China). The high office occupancy rate, meanwhile, is due to the market size that is still much smaller than other regional markets. To be specific, the office rental market in Hong Kong (China), Singapore, Japan or Korea are some 7-10 times bigger.

Nguyen Bich Trang, director of CBRE Vietnams Hanoi Branch, noted that the growth rate of the office leasing segment depends on a number of factors, including the new supply of office properties, foreign investment, and the quantity of available office buildings. However, in the past years, foreign investment in the local real estate sector has chiefly fallen into the residential segment and hardly went into office buildings.

According to Trang, foreign investors are not interested in the office leasing space as the segment has a surplus of office buildings as a result of a supply boom back in the 2014-2016 period. Yet in 2017, the office leasing segment has been showing positive signals.

2017 has been a year that will absorb the supply of office properties and 2018 will be a stepping stone for the segment to bloom during 2019-2020, Trang said.

Shifting demands

It is worthwhile to note that the office leasing market in Vietnam has witnessed a shift in supply in 2017, as tenants have moved to new office buildings to get better services and amenities, while rental rates are not significantly higher.

According to industry insiders, the factors contributing to office developers success today are far more different from those in the past. If it was the location that decided the popularity of an office building, nowadays, tenants pay more attention to factors like the quality of the building, the amenities attached or the management services and the value-added features.

The services that accompany the office for rent are crucial, especially for first grade office buildings. Foreign companies, when choosing to rent an office space, will be very much concerned with who would manage the office building. And this is particularly true for not only the office leasing segment but also residential properties, said Hoang Dieu Trang, senior manager of the Commercial Leasing Department at Savills Hanoi.

Apart from these factors, to further attract tenants, according to Trang, office building developers ought to also pay attention to the facilities that can add value to the offices, such as the information system, security system, and artificial intelligence in the management system.

Grade A offices in need

With the increasing number of foreign investors coming to Vietnam, the demand for Grade A office space is expected to continue to grow in the near future, especially for premium-rated offices in line with international standards. The prospects for high-end office development are very positive as they often attract long-term tenants. For example, in Ho Chi Minh City, a Grade A office building that complies with international standards can impose a rental rate twice as high as the average, yet still enjoy a high occupancy rate.

It is observed that while the demand for Grade A office buildings is high, there are, however, only a few developers interested in them. The reasons, according to an expert, come down to the high initial investment costs and the uncertainty of the occupancy rate.

Key to success

CBRE Hanois Trang, meanwhile, shared that prior to leasing their offices, developers must have a long-term vision, as the local office leasing market has been lagging behind the other markets for years.

Should developers want to carry on with their office rental projects, they have to learn about tenancy trends (as trends are changing real fast now) in a bid to come up with the right products that suit the modern market and adjust to future trends. In addition, they also need to take care of the quality and services of their projects, said Trang.

Echoing the same view, Trang from Savills Hanoi said that the key to success in the office leasing segment is to conduct thorough marker research and develop a building that can meet the requirements of tenants as soon as it is completed and ready to go to the market. What is more, factors including the location, services, facility, and the marketing strategy are also essential to the success of an office building project. For instance, it is important to determine if a location is right for an office building, if the area is home to similar businesses or whether the location can fit other types of buildings.

In addition, to decide whether an office building project is successful or not, market research has a significant role. It helps develop an orientation for long-term growth, thus requiring a consultancy unit to accompany the project from the start, to provide pre-development advice, as well as help hammer out marketing and rental strategies, Trang said, adding that flexibility in rental rates and rental strategies will also ensure property developers success.UAE Oil Minister and the current OPEC Conference President, Suhail Mohamed al-Mazrouei, attends the Global Financial Market Forum in Abu Dhabi. (GIUSEPPE CACACE/AFP)

"I am optimistic that this year, we will achieve a market balance" between supply and demand, Mazrouei, also the energy minister of the United Arab Emirates, told the Global Financial Markets Forum in Abu Dhabi.

Oil producers from OPEC and non-OPEC countries struck a historic deal in late 2016 to cut output by 1.8 million barrels per day, following a surplus in crude supply that sent prices crashing in 2014.

Compliance to the cuts hit 133 per cent in January, which Mazrouei said exceeded the percentage required in the deal. The compliance rate was 129 per cent in December and 122 per cent in November.

Oil prices have rebounded to around US$70 a barrel as a result of the policy.

Mazrouei said cooperation between oil producers including Russia had reached levels that were "more than expected".

The minister said earlier this month that OPEC aimed to forge longer-term partnership with non-OPEC producers to stabilise the market.

Mazrouei warned however that with the balance returning to the oil market and demand picking up, the energy sector would require hefty investment in the near future - not only by the oil-rich Gulf states, but also international oil companies.

"We need to add 15 million barrels daily by 2040 to meet demand," he said, putting the needed investment at US$10.5 trillion.IRVINE, Calif., Feb. 28, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- When competing in todays global marketplace, real-world experience is a valuable advantage for students and graduates. An immersive educational experience may make the difference for university admissions teams or hiring managers seeking to fill a limited number of spaces. To meet the demand for international experiential learning opportunities, University of California, Irvine Division of Continuing Education introduces Experience University Research (EUR). This full-time, three-week, non-credit program, offered on the UCI campus  a #9 ranked public university by the U.S. News & World Report, offers international students the opportunity to live and learn as UCI students in a city that has earned the FBIs Safest City designation for the 12th consecutive year.

Tailored specifically for high school and university students from abroad (aged 15+), EUR allows learners to select from and delve into some of UCIs most popular academic areas of study. Students will develop strong research, writing and presentation skills in English through hands-on classroom study while partnering with native English-speaking UCI students. In addition to coursework, students will explore southern California with university staff, live in campus dormitories, and enjoy UCIs campus amenities.

Experiential learning gives students the opportunity to bridge academic study and life, developing skills and knowledge that will be easily recalled and applied later in the classroom or on-the-job, says Karl Kottman, Manager, ESL & TEFL Custom Designed Programs, UCI Division of Continuing Education. Emphasizing both classroom learning and direct involvement, EUR allows active, engaged learners to effectively transfer what they learn in the classroom to new environments and contexts.

Registration is currently open for both 2018 program dates: July 8-28, and August 5-25. Applicants must be at least 15 years old, in high school or university, and possess an F-1 Student Visa. It is recommended that candidates have a TOEFL iBT score of 60 (or equivalent) and apply by May 1, 2018.

Students may select from these elective areas of study:

Social Ecology  Environmental Analysis and Design

Biology  Biology of Oriental Medicine

Engineering  Designing and Integrating IoT Devices

Business  Project Management

Law  International Business Law

Computer Science  Advanced Programming

For more information about the Experience University Research program, please visit the website or email kkottman@uci.edu.



About UCI Division of Continuing Education : The University of California, Irvine Division of Continuing Education (DCE) provides lifelong learning opportunities to thousands of students worldwide each year  fulfilling the schools 60-year curriculum platform to connect degree programs to the world of work and achievement after graduation. The Division offers a broad range of certificate programs, specialized studies, and sequential courses to local, regional and global markets through online, on-campus and on-site delivery. A leader in the open education movement, the Division offers free Massive Online Open Courses (MOOCs) and content through the UCI Open initiative. For more information about UCI Division of Continuing Education, visit here.

About the University of California, Irvine : Founded in 1965, UCI is the youngest member of the prestigious Association of American Universities. The campus has produced three Nobel laureates and is known for its academic achievement, premier research, innovation and anteater mascot. Led by Chancellor Howard Gillman, UCI has more than 32,000 students and offers 192 degree programs. Located in one of the worlds safest and most economically vibrant communities, its Orange Countys second-largest employer, contributing $4.8 billion annually to the local economy.

MEDIA CONTACT:

Vivian Slater

(714) 573-0899 x 235

vivian@echomediateam.comEnglish French

Paris, February 28th, 2018

LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton announces the availability of its 2017 audited consolidated financial statements.

The French version of this document was filed with the "Autorite des Marches Financiers" (AMF) on February 28th, 2018. The English translation of this document may be consulted in the Publications section of the Company's website (www.lvmh.com).Eleanor Langhoff, age 95, of Villard, formerly of St. Paul, died Monday, September 6, 2021. A memorial service will be held at 11 AM, Wednesday, September 22, 2021 at First Lutheran Church in Alexandria. Visitation will be from 10 to 11 AM Wednesday at the church. Arrangements are with the AMANILA, Philippines, Feb. 28, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- At the Artificial Intelligence Conference hosted by the Chamber of Commerce of the Philippine Islands, Wave Computing announced it is expanding its facility in Manila as part of its plan to scale commercial operations in 2018 and beyond. Waves new AI Center of Excellence (CoE) will grow its presence in the Philippines to complement its existing data science, engineering and customer support capabilities, while furthering its ongoing collaborations with the countrys leading universities, private sector enterprises and government institutions in the areas of AI and deep learning. Waves Manila-based CoE also enhances the companys recent organizational growth that includes the addition of new sales, marketing and engineering talent in its Silicon Valley-based headquarters as well as other global locations.



Derek Meyer, CEO of Wave Computing, said, The Philippines is increasingly being recognized for its growing pool of talented, highly qualified professionals that span multiple high-technology disciplines. Our enhanced presence here is in recognition of this trend, which is particularly evident in the fields of data and computer science, and builds upon Wave Computings footprint that was established in 2017. And, Waves Manila-based CoE will help us better service the growing deep learning customer opportunities throughout Asia across industries such as retail, financial services, manufacturing and more.

Denissa G. Venturanza, Executive Director of the Chamber of Commerce of the Philippine Islands, said, We are thrilled that Wave Computing has chosen to grow its operations here in the Philippines. Wave is helping expand the possibilities of AI to make it easier to leverage by businesses who have a wealth of data but limited deep learning resources. Their vision will not only benefit companies throughout Asia, but also offer new opportunities to the growing data science ecosystem here in the Philippines that is increasingly being recognized as a world-leading resource for top talent.

Dr. C.P. David, Professor at the University of the Philippines and former Executive Director of the DOST Innovation Council, said, In 2017, the Philippine government undertook a comprehensive effort to improve the countrys AI and data science capabilities. By collaborating with private industry, academia and the local data science community, we have been able to grow the talent pool that is helping fuel the global AI phenomenon. This included partnerships with Google, Coursera and Wave Computing, which helped us catch up with the newest technologies and tools in AI and data science. Lastly, I am pleased to see Waves increased global R&D investment in the Philippines which is a testament to the country being both a viable market and a rich source of talent in these emerging fields.

Stephanie Sy, Founder and Data Scientist at Thinking Machines, one of the leading data science consultancies in the Philippines, said, Todays data revolution is hugely changing how companies, governments and academic institutions leverage data to improve decision making. Global professionals are helping fuel this trend by leveraging their expertise at cutting-edge companies in Silicon Valley to Asia and beyond. Wave Computings expanded investment here is yet another affirmation of the value the data science community in the Philippines offers to todays global industry.

About Wave Computing

Wave Computing, Inc. is the Silicon Valley company that is revolutionizing artificial intelligence and deep learning with its dataflow-based solutions. Waves vision is to follow the data and bring deep learning to customers data wherever it may befrom the datacenter to the edge of the cloud. Offering its solutions to customers globally, Wave Computing has been named Frost & Sullivans 2018 Machine Learning Industry Technology Innovation Leader, and has been recognized by CIO Application Magazine as one of the Top 25 Artificial Intelligence Providers.

Wave Computing is a registered trademark of Wave Computing, Inc. All other trademarks are used for identification purposes only and are the property of their respective owners. 2018 Wave Computing, Inc. All rights reserved.

Media Contact:

Lee Flanagin

Wave Computing

lflanagin@wavecomp.comAmsterdam, March 12-14, 2018

NANTES, France, Feb. 28, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- OSE Immunotherapeutics (ISIN:FR0012127173) (Mnemo:OSE), announces it will be featured as a presenting company at the 12th Annual Conference BIO-EUROPE SPRING. The conference is being held on March 12-14, 2018 in Amsterdam.

Dominique Costantini, Chief Executive Officer of OSE Immunotherapeutics, will provide an overview of the Companys business during the presentation and will participate in one-to-one meetings with business leaders who attend this conference dedicated to partnering in the worldwide biopharmaceutical industry.

Date and time of the presentation: Wednesday 14 March at 9:15 AM

Place: Amsterdam RAI Convention Center, Room E106

ABOUT OSE IMMUNOTHERAPEUTICS

Our ambition is to become a world leader in activation and regulation immunotherapies:

OSE Immunotherapeutics is a biotechnology company focused on the development of innovative immunotherapies for immune activation and regulation in the fields of immuno-oncology, autoimmune diseases and transplantation. The company has several scientific and technological platforms: neoepitopes, agonist or antagonist monoclonal antibodies, ideally positioned to fight cancer and autoimmune diseases. Its first-in-class clinical portfolio offers a diversified risk profile.

In immuno-oncology:

Tedopi , 10 combined neo-epitopes to induce a specific T lymphocyte activation. Phase III trial in advanced NSCLC: after temporary pause of new patient accrual end of June 2017, new recruitment strategy in December 2017, following the recommendation of the trials Independent Data Monitoring Committee, to focus the trial on patients who failed a previous treatment with a PD-1/PD-L1 immune checkpoint inhibitor. In February 2018, the first approvals to resume patient accrual, based on a revised protocol, have been granted in the United States by the Institutional Review Boards.

Phase II with Tedopi in combination with an immune checkpoint inhibitor planned in advanced pancreatic cancer, in collaboration with GERCOR, a cooperative group of clinical research.

, 10 combined neo-epitopes to induce a specific T lymphocyte activation. Phase III trial in advanced NSCLC: after temporary pause of new patient accrual end of June 2017, new recruitment strategy in December 2017, following the recommendation of the trials Independent Data Monitoring Committee, to focus the trial on patients who failed a previous treatment with a PD-1/PD-L1 immune checkpoint inhibitor. In February 2018, the first approvals to resume patient accrual, based on a revised protocol, have been granted in the United States by the Institutional Review Boards. in combination with an immune checkpoint inhibitor planned in advanced pancreatic cancer, in collaboration with GERCOR, a cooperative group of clinical research. OSE-172 , new generation checkpoint inhibitor targeting myeloid cells via the SIRP- receptor - In preclinical development for several cancer models. Clinical program planned end of 2018.

, new generation checkpoint inhibitor targeting myeloid cells via the SIRP- receptor - In preclinical development for several cancer models. Clinical program planned end of 2018. OSE-703, cytotoxic monoclonal antibody against the alpha chain of IL-7R - Under a research collaboration with Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York.

In auto-immune diseases and transplantation:

FR104 , CD28-antagonist in immunotherapy - Phase 1 trial completed  For the treatment of autoimmune diseases and for use with transplantation - Licensed to Janssen Biotech Inc. to pursue clinical development.

, CD28-antagonist in immunotherapy - Phase 1 trial completed  For the treatment of autoimmune diseases and for use with transplantation - Licensed to Janssen Biotech Inc. to pursue clinical development. OSE-127, interleukin receptor-7 antagonist - In preclinical development for inflammatory bowel diseases and other autoimmune diseases. Clinical phase planned end of 2018. License option agreement with Servier for the development and commercialization.

The portfolios blockbuster potential gives OSE Immunotherapeutics the ability to enter global agreements at different stages of development with major pharmaceutical players.

Immunotherapy is a highly promising and growing market. By 2023 Immunotherapy of cancer could represent nearly 60% of treatments against less than 3% at present * and the projected market is estimated at $67 billion in 2018 **. There are more than 80 autoimmune diseases that represent a significant market including major players in the pharmaceutical industry with sales towards $10 billion for the main products. The medical need is largely unmet and requires the provision of new innovative products involved in the regulation of the immune system.

*Citi Research Equity

**BCC Research



Click and follow us on Twitter and Linkedln

Contacts

OSE Immunotherapeutics

U.S. Media: LifeSci Public Relations

Sylvie Detry Matt Middleman, M.D. Sylvie.detry@ose-immuno.com matt@lifescipublicrelations.com +33 143 297 857 +1 646 627 8384 French Media: FP2COM U.S. and European Investors Florence Portejoie Chris Maggos fportejoie@fp2com.fr chris@lifesciadvisors.com +33 607 768 283 +41 79 367 6254

Forward-looking statements

This press release contains express or implied information and statements that might be deemed forward-looking information and statements in respect of OSE Immunotherapeutics. They do not constitute historical facts. This information and statements include financial projections that are based upon certain assumptions and assessments made by OSE Immunotherapeutics management in light of its experience and its perception of historical trends, current economic and industry conditions, expected future developments and other factors they believe to be appropriate.

These forward-looking statements include statements typically using conditional and containing verbs such as expect, anticipate, believe, target, plan, or estimate, their declensions and conjugations and words of similar import.

Although the OSE Immunotherapeutics management believes that the forward-looking statements and information are reasonable, the OSE Immunotherapeutics shareholders and other investors are cautioned that the completion of such expectations is by nature subject to various risks, known or not, and uncertainties which are difficult to predict and generally beyond the control of OSE Immunotherapeutics. These risks could cause actual results and developments to differ materially from those expressed in or implied or projected by the forward-looking statements. These risks include those discussed or identified in the public filings made by OSE Immunotherapeutics with the AMF. Such forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance.

This press release includes only summary information and should be read with the OSE Immunotherapeutics Reference Document filed with the AMF on 28 April 2017 under the number R.17-038, including the annual financial report for the fiscal year 2016, available on the OSE Immunotherapeutics website.

Other than as required by applicable law, OSE Immunotherapeutics issues this press release at the date hereof and does not undertake any obligation to update or revise the forward-looking information or statements.Washington has decided to relegate its project for the destruction of states and societies in the Greater Middle East to second place in its preoccupations, and to concentrate its forces on opposing the Chinese project for the Silk Road. This has apparently been implemented by President Donald Trump and the Prime Minister of Australia Malcolm Turnbull (representing the British), on 24 February at the White House.

This is not just the traditional conflict between the Anglo-Saxon maritime Empire on one side and the land-based Chinese project on the other. It also concerns the potential threat that Chinese industry represents for the whole of the developed world. To put it simply, while in Antiquity, Europeans were eager to obtain Chinese silks, today, all the Western powers fear having to the compete with Chinese cars.

Since Beijing has abandoned the project of re-opening the Silk Road along its historic route through Mosul and Palmyra, the United States have nothing to gain by sponsoring jihadists to create a Caliphate straddling Iraq and Syria.

It was also on 24 February that Russia and the United States presented Resolution 2401 to the Security Council - a text which had been ready since the night before, and in which there had been no changes made, although everyone pretended to continue their bargaining.

Allegedly adopted in response to the French media campaign aimed at saving the population of the Ghouta, this Resolution deals, in reality, with a solution for almost all of Syria.

It puts on hold the question of the withdrawal of Turkish and US troops. Concerning the latter, it is not impossible that they balk at leaving the extreme North-East of the country. Indeed, if China decided to route the Silk Road through Turkey, Washington would fan the flames in order to create a Kurdistan in Kurdish territory (if we accept that South-East Anatolia is no longer Armenian territory since the genocide) and block Beijings way.

Moscow has moved new planes to its base in Hmeimim, including two Su-57 stealth aircraft  jewels of technology that the Pentagon imagined would not be operational before 2025.

Above all, Moscow, which until now had limited its engagement in Syria to its air force and a few Special Forces, has now secretly moved in infantry troops.

On the morning of 25 February, the Russian land army moved into East Ghouta alongside the Syrian Arab Army.

It is now impossible for anyone at all to attack Damascus, or attempt to overthrow the Syrian Arab Republic, without automatically provoking a Russian military riposte.

Saudi Arabia, France, Jordan and the United Kingdom, who had secretly formed the  Little Group  on 11 January in order to sabotage the peace conference at Sotchi, will be unable to take any further decisive action.

The gesticulations of the British and French Ministers for Foreign Affairs, Boris Johnson and Jean-Yves Le Drian, cannot disguise the new agreement between the White House and the Kremlin, nor the international legality of the Russian military presence and its military action in favour of the civilians who are prisoners of the jihadists.

They can not hope to question this agreement, as their respective countries did in July 2012, taking into account the evolution of the local and international situation.

If necessary, we will pretend not to know that the two armed factions present in East Ghouta (pro-Saudi and pro-Qatari) are run by Al-Qaida. They will be discreetly exfiltrated. The officers of the British MI6 and the French DGSE (who are operating under cover of the NGO Medecins sans Frontieres) will be repatriated.

The war has not yet ended for the whole of the territory, but it is already over for Damascus.Postponement of Schools' World Book Day

In the light of the Severe Weather warnings, it has been decided to postpone all schools World Book Day celebrations until Thursday of next week, 8 March.

Much of the childrens enjoyment of the day comes from dressing up and their involvement in outdoor activities  both of which would be adversely affected by the rain and strong winds which are forecast for tomorrow.



Parents are advised that all schools will operate as normal tomorrow. Children should attend in their school uniforms and not in Book Day costumes.



At the John Mackintosh Hall, tomorrows school-time activities planned for the children will also be cancelled. However, the book fair, local authors fair and after-school activities will continue as planned. The storytelling/performance is scheduled for 4.30pm.Americas Next Top Model Beauty Is Social Season 24 Episode 8 Editors Rating 2 stars * * Photo: VH1

What hath late capitalism wrought? Apparently a pretty pointless episode of Top Model themed on social-media influence, which these eight remaining girls must constantly cultivate in order to one day represent a line of duvet ponchos. For all the self-branding evangelism that defined Cycle 23, this season seems okay with simplifying Instagram success using reductive hashtag acronyms (#hashtacronyms?), so that even us normals at home can get a blue check just by taking mirror selfies. This is very cool, because as Tyra says, You can make a lot of money taking selfies for companies! What a time to be a meaningless node in the world.

First, lets check in on the house and examine the thinly painted character narratives being foisted upon us out of nowhere. Suddenly Kyla is stupid and Rio is a total bitch for calling Kyla stupid, and were supposed to just go with it. This all defies the overall conservation of matter as far as reality-show conflicts go, since weve never really seen Kyla and Rio butt heads. The only emotional tethering to any of this is Kyla recalling a volleyball injury from high school that gave her a learning disability, but otherwise theres no real texture to this fight.

As a small coterie of girls chats downstairs about how mean Rio is, Jeana overhears and dutifully Dorit Kemsleys the situation over to Rio, whose attempt at denying her remarks is laughably transparent. Whoa, what? I would  no  what? Smooth, Ri. She then says in confessional, Kylas doing this simply to get attention or something. I dont even know what thats about. Cool. If anything, this makes us miss the real ANTM fights and villains of yore, when girls would pour each others Red Bulls down the drain or hog the phone for three hours or were named Eva Marcille. This new shit is weak, or as Rio would say, stupid, a word she will literally use to describe Kyla in a confessional moments later.

After Tyra Mail arrives and makes no bones about a social-media-based challenge around the corner, Ms. Banks herself barges into the house and clomps down the staircase, feeling salty about all the youngs today taking mirror selfies completely wrong. She then gives the models a crash course on the rules of proper selfie-taking as though theyve been canonized in a Conde Nast boardroom years ago.

The three big lessons are #SLAY (So Look At Yourself) for making proper eye contact, #CIAO (Crop It All Out) for getting rid of phone reflections in a post, and #DipItLow, which is an underrated Christina Milian single. Were treated to many examples of what not to do, featuring mirror selfies of set PAs who knowingly took bad ones or of unsuspecting women who signed a release form they didnt read.

After the lesson, Jourdan Dunn, a famous person we should know, saunters into the living room and shares a moving account of not being interested in modeling until she saw Tyra Banks and thought, I could do that. The girls are then tasked with taking sponsored-content selfies while modeling Jourdans athleisure line under a time limit, and everyone (including the viewer) just thinks, Okay, I guess were doing this.

As the girls rush to put on clothes by the pool and claim a mirror, we get some quick rundowns on each models Instagram follower count (at the time of filming). Sandra leads the pack with 80,000 and posts a steady stream of faux-pensive portraits in which she leans against various objects (cars, yachts, palm trees, office chairs). Khrystyana trails behind with 70,000 followers, the majority of which she gained after posting photos with a body-positive bent. Everyone else falls in between them and Erin, who has 43, which is Erins age plus one. Everyone at home playing the Erin Is Old drinking game can take a shot. She doesnt get social media! Russians hacked our election and destabilized our democracy using what? Face Book? Ugh, Erin has no time for any of this mess! She is ancient and writes on parchment!

Performances are pretty varied throughout the house: Jeana, Rio, and Sandra excel while Kyla and Erin struggle. Once the time limit ends, the girls gather in the living room and receive critique from Jourdan and Tyra, who scold Kyla for ignoring every sacrosanct mirror-selfie commandment. It is at this moment that Rio calls Kyla stupid again in confessional, which is itself stupid. Soon enough, Jourdan and Tyra declare Jeana the winner, much to Sandras disappointment. She was supposed to be good at phones.

Later on, Kyla and Rio sit down and talk about Rios indiscretions, which Kyla does an admirable job of repeating back to her tormentor. Rio backpedals the whole thing, claiming it to be a big misunderstanding as if there could be one at all. Cut to confessional, where Rio more freely states that Kyla is overreacting. Were not even sure what were we supposed to be following anymore, but we guess were rolling our eyes anytime Rio rolls hers.

That night another Tyra Mail surprises the girls, implying that theyll pose with male models for this weeks photo shoot. Sandra freaks out over the idea. I cant do this, Im engaged! she says, invoking her religious background and betrothal. The rest of the girls shrug while Rio snarkily anticipates posing with fat-ass dudes, to which Khrystyana rebuts with something to the effect of Dadbods is models too! Rio shames overweight people but promptly backpedals, promising everyone shes not an insensitive bitch despite her insensitive and bitchy comments. This may or may not be true and doesnt even really matter to us at this point. Hats off to the producers for stirring up drama that none of us could possibly care for.

At the photo shoot warehouse/off-season haunted house the next day, Tyra greets the models and tells them of her amazing, completely organic discovery of the worlds first brawny male supermodel Zach Miko, who happens to be right there! We then see the girls hold a casting call for other male models to pose with at the shoot who must also be brawny. Well leave the use cases of brawny and plus-sized to our gender linguistics professor we never had.

After seeing several men and also a pair of backflipping twinky twins, the girls pick the finalists the producers told them to choose and slather themselves up in gold paint for the shoot, with the editorial POV having something to do with the unexpected, as Drew says. Sure, okay. Erin does well with her partner and emanates a goddesslike regality while Khrystyana struggles for the first time in the cycle, feeling understandably triggered by a male stranger touching her.

Sandra is uncomfortable standing next to a man while Drew tells her to be more fierce. He demonstrates by thrusting his face in the air and growling like a dog, which is pretty great. When its Kylas turn, he remarks that she finally looks like a true woman, which is pretty not-great. We do get a fun moment of Kyla screaming at Tyra at the top of her lungs, Whens Life-Size 2 coming out?! and we happily take back all the bad things weve said about Kyla this season. She should win.

Elsewhere, Rio is bad and thats the full scope of what the show presents us, so well leave it at that.

At the judging panel the next day, Law is noticeably absent but is image architecting someone right now according to Tyra. Jourdan returns to fill in, but surely her credentials dont include telling Celine Dion to dye her hair black, so were not sure shes earned her spot here as Laws replacement.

Kyla scores her first big win with a stunning Best Photo, showing erstwhile volleyball players everywhere that they too can be supermodels, even if theyre bad at spon-con. Jeana and Shanice perform well too, and Erin bounces back from last episodes off week with a fourth-place finish. Rio then narrowly escapes the bottom two before Sandra and Khrystyana get called up. Stunning is not necessarily the thing that will make you high fashion, Tyra says to Sandra, even though were pretty sure being stunning is absolutely a high-fashion requirement. Khrystyana is told she might be inconsistent, which is categorically untrue given her string of wins. Ultimately, Sandra gets the boot and tearfully leaves the house, but not before declaring herself #TeamKyla and shitting on Rio before rolling off with her suitcase.

There may or may not be something admirable in the ways that Top Model has attempted to keep up with the times, but strip enough of the modernized veneer away from the franchise and what does it still have? Not much beyond one-dimensional character tropes and a few lessons on where to hold your phone in a mirror selfie. If thats where were at as a society, fine, but at least get us a better yardstick than this show to measure how far weve spiraled out.Mary-Louise Parker. Photo: Michael Stewart/FilmMagic

Right in the middle of Red Sparrows psychosexual insanity exists a phenomenal short film that I have titled Mary-Louise Parker Doesnt Really Give a Shit About Your Little Spy Movie, Jennifer Lawrence (alternatively: Drinking Out Loud with Mary-Louise Parker or even Mary-Louise Parker Fucking Rules, followed by more exclamation points than AP style allows). In a single scene that lasts for approximately ten minutes, MLP drunkenly hobbles away with JLaws entire movie.

Here are the basics (spoilers, duh): Parker plays Stephanie Boucher, the chief of staff for an American senator. Power, control, blabbity blah  all that matters here that Boucher has a lot of secrets, and shes not going to sell them to the Russian government before having a few drinks. When another Russian sparrow (Marta, played by Thekla Reuten) is unavailable, Jennifer Lawrences sex-spy Dominika steps in to handle a pending transaction with Stephanie, whos Martas asset. She meets Stephanie in an oppressively bright hotel bar. Two important things happen here: Stephanie is wearing sunglasses indoors for a few beats too long, and she approaches the bar muttering simply, Vodka. With one word, we know everything about her: Shes not here to play around  and sure, because who goes to hotel bars during the daytime to make good decisions?

Dominika and Stephanie go upstairs to make the exchange: a duffel bag of cash for a handful of floppy disks with American secrets. A henchman oversees the swap, and Dominika excuses herself to another room to confirm the authenticity of Stephanies files (though as a Russian spy turned American spy, shes actually swapping Stephanies floppy disks for dummy disks). With JLaw out of the room, were free to notice that Stephanie is incredibly and hilariously  shit-faced. More drunk than a freshman during orientation weekend or Emma Thompson at the Golden Globes, Stephanie drunkenly rambles about Russia, paying for her kids college tuition, and the butt-faced Russian bad guy. Its a cinematic chefs kiss.

Red Sparrows spying, sex, and triple-double crossing arent put on hold during Parkers scene; everything else just ceases to matter. Wonder what government secrets Mary-Louise Parker is selling? Who cares. Does it matter that Red Sparrow seemingly takes place in the present day, yet these secrets are being traded on floppy disks? Again, whatever, its Mary-Louise Parkers Oscar-worthy short film now. And what exactly is going on with Jennifer Lawrences bangs? Just go with the flow. All that we care about for ten straight minutes of Red Sparrow is that Mary-Louise Parker is very drunk and very rude: Why are Russian women so sexy, she asks the gruff henchman lurking in a hotel room as she and Dominika make their exchange, and all the men look like toads?

At Red Sparrows New York City premiere, Vulture caught up with Parker to ask her about the scene. I just thought it would be fun to do a character that comes on in such a short span of time, and could make quite saturated choices that you might get sick of over the course of two hours, she said. Hopefully you can handle ten minutes of her.

Setting aside the fact that Parkers character very quickly meets her untimely demise, thus concluding this glorious short, I humbly request an entire Stephanie Boucher cinematic universe: What happens when this character is drunk and high? When shes drunk and dancing? When shes drunk and on the phone with AppleCare? Can Mary-Louise Parker as Stephanie Boucher have her own episode of Drunk History? Preferably shell be explaining the Mueller investigation, Donald Trump, and Russian collusion.

Red Sparrow takes itself very seriously, and thats fine. But in between all the sex, death, and skin grafts, theres Parkers performance, showier and more fun than Jennifer Lawrence in that unauthorized Casino sequel (more commonly known as American Hustle). The added bonus is that it all seems entirely of Parkers devising. If theres any justice in the world, Red Sparrow will be remembered not for its nudity or its torture, but for a truly extraordinary few minutes where Mary-Louise Parker does whatever the hell she wants.Ta-Nehisi Coates Photo: Shahar Azran/WireImage

After days of speculation in the comics press, Ta-Nehisi Coates dropped a bombshell: Hell be writing Marvel Comics Captain America. In a short essay published at his literary home, The Atlantic, Coates announced that hell be taking over writing duties on the series in a new No. 1 issue, set to be published on the Fourth of July. The art team is high profile: Leinil Francis Yu (Phoenix Resurrection, Secret Empire) will do the interior pencils and Alex Ross (Marvels, Kingdom Come) will paint the covers.

According to Coates, the idea was first suggested by former Marvel editor-in-chief Axel Alonso, and Coates has wrestled with what to do with it ever since. Writing is about questions for me  not answers, he wrote. And Captain America, the embodiment of a kind of Lincolnesque optimism, poses a direct question for me: Why would anyone believe in The Dream? What is exciting here is not some didactic act of putting my words in Captain Americas head, but attempting to put Captain Americas words in my head.

Its hard to overstate how fertile the thematic ground is here. Coates began writing comics with Marvels Black Panther in 2016 (which hell continue to write) and hes explored nationalism and patriotism in that series, as well as the co-written spinoffs Black Panther: World of Wakanda, Black Panther and the Crew, and Rise of the Black Panther. But the notion of putting one of the most prominent and thoughtful critics of the American experiment in charge of a character who is, in many ways, supposed to be that experiments living embodiment? That should be interesting.While some people might feel like theyre still recovering from the 2016 presidential election, Trevor Noah is ready to dive into the next round of political races. Luckily for The Daily Show host, the names in this segment were mostly familiar. Remember Stacey Dash? Chers best friend in Clueless? Well, now shes running for Congress. Former presidential candidate Mitt Romney is also back in the mix, this time in Utah, and Bernie Sanderss son Levi is looking to follow in his dads footsteps. We trust youll know whos who even if you watch the clip on mute.Florence police are asking for help finding an Athens man who's wanted for robbery.

Police said Tervarius Eugene Horton, 29, of Athens walked into the Walmart on Hough Road in the early morning hours of Feb. 13 and loaded a television and other items into a shopping cart. He went through the self checkout and tried to make it look like he paid for the items, police said.

When store employees tried to stop him, police said Horton pushed past one and threatened to hurt others. Horton then loaded his items into a vehicle and left.

Police identified Horton by contacting the dealership tag on the vehicle in store surveillance video and finding out who bought the vehicle.

Anyone with information about Horton's location is asked to contact the Florence Police Department or their local law enforcement agency.Berkeley, Feb. 28, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) --

Eko, the leader in acoustic cardiac monitoring, today announced a $5 million Series A led by ARTIS Ventures. Additional investors in the round include Strategic Partners, Dreamlt Ventures, 1812 Ventures, and FOUNDER.org. The funding will be used to grow Eko's commercial team and to expand clinical studies on the use of Eko's platform for valvular heart disease screening and heart failure monitoring.



According to the American Heart Association, more than 92 million adults are living with some form of cardiovascular disease or the after-effects of stroke, and direct and indirect costs of these ailments are estimated to total more than $316 billion. Ekos FDA-cleared devices and accompanying software, which are used by clinicians at more than 1,000 hospitals and health systems, help physicians better monitor their patients cardiac health, both in the hospital and at the patients home.



"We partner with investors that are passionate about solving meaningful problems; together we can transform the way clinicians and patients monitor heart disease, said Connor Landgraf, Eko's co-founder and CEO. This investment will enable us to integrate cardiac decision algorithms into our platform to help physicians better track their patients cardiac health.



In addition to its recent FDA clearance of Eko DUO, Eko has received UCSFs Institutional Review Board (IRB) approval for a clinical study focused on valvular heart disease screenings. The study will be led by Dr. John Chorba, Associate Professor and Cardiologist at UCSF.

Eko and ARTIS Ventures are of likemind in that we both want to tackle the use of technology to improve peoples lives, and for the longest time weve relied on the ability for a trained ear to diagnose heart problems, said Vasudev Bailey, partner at ARTIS Ventures. By elegantly applying machine learning to the largest database of sounds, Eko has made it possible for physicians and consumers to imagine a world where we can quickly and easily diagnose medical conditions. While cardiology is a natural starting place, the solutions have extensions to pulmonology and gastroenterology as well, without forcing a change in patientphysician flow. Their solution easily provides a smarter way to track, and diagnose, medical aberrations.

For more information about Eko and its products visit https://ekodevices.com/.

About Eko

Eko is a platform of non-invasive cardiac screening devices, care coordination software, and machine learning algorithms that enables more effective screening and management of cardiovascular diseases. The companys first FDA-cleared device, CORE, is a smart stethoscope and accompanying platform now used by clinicians at more than 1,000 hospitals and health systems around the globe, and was recognized as a Best Invention of the Year by TIME Magazine. Eko's latest FDA-cleared device, DUO, is the first cardiac monitor to combine digital stethoscope and ECG technology for in-clinic and at-home monitoring, offering 28 million heart disease patients the ability to seamlessly send cardiac data to their physicians. Ekos physician advisors include industry-leading cardiologists from Massachusetts General Hospital, UCSF, and the Mayo Clinic, and investors include ARTIS Ventures, FOUNDER.org, the founders of Shazam, Stanford Universitys StartX Fund, and DreamIt Ventures. For more information visit www.ekodevices.com or email contact@ekodevices.com.

About ARTIS Ventures

Founded in 2002, ARTIS Ventures supports and partners with entrepreneurs who are driven to positively impact their world through disruptive technological innovation. ARTIS was the first institutional investor in cancer-curing Stemcentrx, which was acquired for as much as $10.2 billion in 2016, making it the largest venture-backed acquisition in the history of life sciences. Other notable companies the firm has backed include YouTube, Modern Meadow, Nimble Storage, Aruba Networks, Quid, Fabric Genomics, IDbyDNA, Versa Networks, Cohesity, ExcisionBio Therapeutics, Locus Biosciences and many more. The firm supports its portfolio companies throughout their entire life-cycle, from initial venture investment to initial public offering and beyond. For more information visit www.av.co or email contact@artisventures.com.

#A doctor, who was under suspicion for running a possible pill mill in Alabama, had his new office in Tennessee raided by federal agents Tuesday.

Less than two years after shutting down his medical practices in Alabama, Dr. Mark Murphy's new office in Lewisburg, TN was the subject of a federal probe.

Federal Search Warrant Federal Search Warrant

WAAY 31 first covered Dr. Murphy back in December 2016, when he abruptly shutdown his practices in Decatur and Madison amid a formal medical complaints from the state.

The Alabama Board of Medical Examiners filed a formal complaint against Dr. Murphy in August of that year. The Complaint accuses Murphy of giving controlled substances for non-medical reasons and performing unnecessary diagnostic tests.

That complaint was later dismissed in early 2017, because Murphy did not renew his medical license to practice in Alabama, so no disciplinary action could be taken by the state.

A year later, the pain medicine specialist is once again under suspicion. A representative for the U.S. Attorneys office confirmed a federal search warrant was executed Tuesday on the doctors new office in Lewisburg, TN. They could not tell is why or what agents from the Drug Enforcement Agency, the Federal Bureau of Investigations and the Internal Revenue Service removed from the office.

According to ProPublica an independent, nonprofit, investigative online site when doctor Murphy was practicing in Alabama he topped the list of physicians for prescribing Oxycodone to his patients.

Attempts to reach Dr. Murphy Tuesday were unsuccessful.Tonight, a WAAY 31 I-Team Instant Investigation.

The bankruptcy of a Priceville used car dealership exposed questionable connections between Morgan Countys sheriff and a key person inside the business who is on the wrong side of the law.

Morgan County Sheriff Ana Franklin has been accused of loaning $150,000 to a felon. Franklin is on record claiming she didn't know the felon had a stake in Priceville Partners, LLC.

Greg Steenson is an ex-con. He pleaded guilty to bank fraud and conspiracy. The felon owned 40% of Priceville Partners, LLC. Greg Steenson is an ex-con. He pleaded guilty to bank fraud and conspiracy. The felon owned 40% of Priceville Partners, LLC.

Steve Ziaja is Sheriff Franklin's ex-boyfriend. Ziaja is one of the creditors listed in Priceville Partners bankruptcy filing. Ziaja is in trouble with the law. He's charged with 11 felony counts of computer tampering and one count of using his job as an Steve Ziaja is Sheriff Franklin's ex-boyfriend. Ziaja is one of the creditors listed in Priceville Partners bankruptcy filing. Ziaja is in trouble with the law. He's charged with 11 felony counts of computer tampering and one count of using his job as an Morgan County Sheriff Ana Franklin has been accused of loaning $150,000 to a felon. Franklin is on record claiming she didn't know the felon had a stake in Priceville Partners, LLC.

When the used car lot filed for bankruptcy, it left creditors holding the bag for nearly five and half million dollars.

The latest complaints in the Chapter 11 filing point fingers at Priceville Partners owners, managers, employees and investors.

One of those investors is Sheriff Ana Franklin.

WAAY 31 obtained the latest in a series of bankruptcy complaints. The court filings state Sheriff Franklins connection to Performance Auto Sales which was located on Point Mallard Parkway.

The sheriffs involvement began with a $150,000 cashiers check dated June, 5th 2015.

The complaints claim Franklin used your tax money for the loan to Priceville Partners, LLC.

She eventually paid that money back to replenish the jail food account.

Creditors want to know why Sheriff Franklin invested in a business partly owned by someone with a criminal record.

WAAY 31 contacted Franklin. She told us she cant talk about a pending legal matter.

That matter involves felon Greg Steenson.

Steenson pleaded guilty to conspiracy and bank fraud and was sentenced in 2002. The ex-con owned 40 percent of the business and now faces additional theft and forgery charges.

Franklin insists she never knew Steenson was involved and thought Harold Jeffereys was the sole owner of Priceville Partners.

Jeffereys owned only 60 percent of the business after buying out his sons stake. Ben Jeffreys had owned 40 percent.

The bankruptcy trustee, attorney Stuart Maples, complains when Priceville Partners started to collapse in 2016, people inside and outside the business violated bankruptcy laws by transferring assets.

Among the violations: embezzeling money, giving cash and cars to family and friends, even giving lavish gifts like homes and a lakeside condo.

The bankruptcy suit also points at Sheriff Franklins daughter, Alyssa.

She worked for Priceville Partners and is accused of giving below market auto loans and cancelling debts owed by her husband.

Documents also reveal one more connection to the sheriff: an ex- boyfriend. Steven Ziaja is an Alabama Alcohol Beverage Control officer. Hes also one of the creditors listed in the bankruptcy filing.

He faces 11 felony charges of computer tampering and one count of using his job as a state agent for personal gain.

Earlier this month, Franklin announced she wont seek re-election.FRANKLIN, Tenn. (AP) - A superintendent in Tennessee who is charged with assault in an encounter with a student will not be asked by the school board to take a leave of absence or end his contract.

The Tennessean reports the Williamson County education board voted unanimously Monday to support a statement expressing confidence in county schools superintendent Mike Looney to continue working pending the charge's resolution. Every board member reviewed security video of the encounter.

Franklin police said in a statement that Franklin High School staff, paramedics and the student's mother were working to transport the girl to a hospital for a reported psychological emergency Feb. 20 when Looney grabbed the student and forced her out of the school to his vehicle.

Looney declined to comment to The Tennessean. He is due in court March 8.

___

Information from: The Tennessean, http://www.tennessean.com

(Copyright 2018 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)

2/27/2018 6:02:15 AM (GMT -6:00)DENVER, Feb. 28, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Buscar Company, Inc. (OTC:CGLD) announced today that the company finished the year 2017 with solid revenue and that shareholders can expect exponential growth in 2018.



The company sold two weanlings in November at the Keenland Auction for a combined total of $330,000. The two weanlings are the first two foals produced by the mares owned by the company. The company has ramped up operations with the purchase of yet another mare, Lazy Susan, bringing the total number of mares owned by the company to four as of the end of February.

The company has been busy developing business ties with companies that own some of the top sires in the country. As a result, the company fully expects to see individual weanling sales increase incrementally over time. For example, one of the weanlings sold in November was a colt produced by company owned mare, Sweet Dreams who was sired with Kentucky Derby winner, Street Sense. The sale represented the largest transaction for Street Sense in five years. Other mares have been or are being bred with other top notch sires that should yield impressive revenue results in the coming months.

The demand and interest in quality weanlings and the price that buyers are willing to pay has picked up significantly as of late. As long as that is the case, weanling sales will remain as the main focus of the company. Buscar has more exciting news to share with shareholders in the coming weeks on the company mares and sires like Tapit, Quality Road and American Pharoah, and the expected revenue results. In the interim, the company would like to thank shareholders for their ongoing support.

About Buscar Company: Buscar is engaged in the buying, selling and racing of thoroughbreds. More information can be found at www.buscarcompany.com

Notice Regarding Forward-Looking Statements in this press release which are not purely historical are forward-looking statements and include any statements regarding beliefs, plans, expectations or intentions regarding the future. Actual results could differ from those projected in any forward-looking statements due to numerous factors. These forward-looking statements are made as of the date of this news release, and we assume no obligation to update the forward-looking statements, or to update the reasons why actual results could differ from those projected in the forward-looking statements. Although we believe that any beliefs, plans, expectations and intentions contained in this press release are reasonable, there can be no assurance that any such beliefs, plans, expectations or intentions will prove to be accurate.

Contact:

Corporate Offices

Info@BuscarCompany.comTORONTO, Feb. 28, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Star Navigation Systems Group Ltd. (CSE:SNA) (CSE:SNA.CN) (OTCQB:SNAVF) ("Star" or the "Company") is pleased to announce the launch of an online marketing program and CEO Verified Discussion Forum on AGORACOM. The forum will serve as the Companys primary social media platform to interact with both shareholders and the broader investment community in a fully moderated environment.



The Company will receive significant exposure through millions of content brand insertions on the AGORACOM network and extensive search engine marketing over the next 12 months. In addition, exclusive sponsorships of invaluable digital properties such as AGORACOM TV, the AGORACOM home page and the AGORACOM Twitter account will serve to significantly raise the brand awareness of the Corporation among small cap investors. AGORACOM is the only small cap marketing firm in North America with a verified Twitter account.

MODERATED DISCUSSION FOR PUBLIC COMPANY EXECUTIVES AND SHAREHOLDERS

AGORACOM CEO Verified provides the first ever identity verification of small cap executives on a finance platform. For the first time ever, small cap CEOs and other company officers can post or communicate within a discussion forum without the risk of impersonation leading to catastrophic consequences. As the ultimate influencers of their own companies, CEO Verified Forums will create incredible levels of engagement between companies and investors that have long desired civilized, constructive and factual conversation, with no limitations as to the number of characters.

Posts to AGORACOM are shareable on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn, which enables the Company and its shareholders to continue utilizing these channels while making AGORACOM the primary HUB of investor engagement.

There are no log-in requirements for investors to visit the forum and read posts. Those wishing to post questions, comments and interact with company officers can quickly log-in using their Facebook or LinkedIn accounts, or create an anonymous new user account.

The Star Navigation Discussion Forum can be found at:

https://agoracom.com/ir/StarNavigationSystems

Verified officers at launch are:

Viraf Kapadia, Chairman and CEO

Jean-Louis Larmor COO

Roger S. Peacock

Viraf Kapadia stated, "We believe the time is right for Star Navigation to begin reaching a larger audience of investors that has a strong interest in small cap technology companies. At the same time, we are now taking control of our online messaging by providing shareholders with a moderated social media platform that creates intelligent discussion. To our knowledge, AGORACOM is the only firm capable of providing both of these critical elements. The combination of these two elements will help us create an online community of Star Navigation investors that will benefit the company for years to come."

George Tsiolis, AGORACOM Founder, stated, The Star Navigation client roll of companies such as Lockheed Martin, Raytheon, Northrop Grumman Italy and others provides the third party validation necessary for AGORACOM to confidently include the company in our online marketing channels reaching millions of investors. The Companys willingness to be accessible and engage with online investors through its CEO Verified Discussion Forum is a strong sign of confidence in its future."

SHARES FOR SERVICES

The Company intends to issue shares for services to AGORACOM in exchange for the online advertising, marketing and branding services (Advertising Services). Pursuant to the terms of the agreement, the company will be issuing:

$39,000 (plus HST) worth of Common Shares upon commencement and initial set up of the Services on February 28, 2018;

$9,000 (plus HST) worth of Common Shares at end of third month of the Agreement being May 28, 2018;

$9,000 (plus HST) worth of Common Shares at end of sixth month of the Agreement being August 28, 2018;

$9,000 (plus HST) worth of Common Shares at end of ninth month of the Agreement being November 28, 2018;

$9,000 (plus HST) worth of Common Shares at end of twelfth month of the Agreement being February 28, 2019.

The number of common shares to be issued at the end of each period will be determined by using the closing price of the common shares of the Company on the CSE on the first trading day following each period for which the Advertising Services were provided by AGORACOM.

In addition, AGORACOM has been granted options to purchase 1,500,000 shares of Star at a price of seven cents ($0.07) per share.

The agreement/arrangement is subject to exchange approval and applicable securities regulations.

The term of the Agreement is for 12 months effective February 28.

About Star Navigation

Star Navigation Systems Group Ltd. owns the exclusive worldwide license to its proprietary, patented In-flight Safety Monitoring System, STAR-ISMS, the heart of the STAR-A.D.S. System. Its real-time capability of tracking performance trends and predicting incident-occurrence enhances aviation safety and improves fleet management while reducing costs for the operator.

Stars' M.M.I. Division designs and manufactures high performance, mission critical, flight deck flat panel displays for defence and commercial aviation industries worldwide. These displays are found on aircraft and simulators, from P-3 Orion and C-130 aircraft, to Sikorsky and AgustaWestland helicopters, as examples.

Certain statements contained in this News Release constitute forward-looking statements. When used in this document, the words "may", "would", "could", "will", "expected" and similar expressions, as they relate to Star or its management are intended to identify forward-looking statements. Such statements reflect Star's current views with respect to future events and are subject to certain risks, uncertainties and assumptions. Many factors could cause Star's actual performance or achievements to vary from those described herein. Should one or more of these factors or uncertainties materialize, or should assumptions underlying forward-looking statements prove incorrect, actual results may vary materially from those described herein as intended, planned, anticipated, believed, estimated or expected. Star does not assume any obligation to update these forward-looking statements, except as required by law.

Neither the Canadian Securities Exchange nor its Market Regulator (as that term is defined in the policies of the Canadian Securities Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of the content of this release.

Please visit www.star-navigation.com or

Viraf S. Kapadia, (416) 252-2889 Ext. 230

viraf.kapadia@star-navigation.com

About AGORACOM

AGORACOM is the pioneer of online marketing, broadcasting, conferences and investor relations services to North American small and mid-cap public companies, with more than 300 companies served. AGORACOM is the home of more than 767K investors that visited 5.2 million times and read 53 million pages of information every year. The average duration of visit of 8min 43sec is more than double that of global financial sites, which can be attributed to the implementation and enforcement of the strongest moderation rules in the industry (All Metrics Average 2008 - 2017).

AGORACOM traffic ranks within the top 0.5% of all websites around the world. These traffic results are independently tracked and verified by Google analytics. AGORACOM traffic can be attributed to its strategy of maintaining the cleanest, moderated small-cap discussion, as well as, implementation of the first ever Investor Controlled Stock Discussion Forums in 2007. 10 years later, in 2017, AGORACOM launched the first ever CEO Verified Discussion Forums to allow Small Cap CEOs and Company officers to post comments in a fully verified, moderated and social media shareable environment.



Addresses significant unmet need to identify benign lung nodules, with high probability, to avoid unnecessary invasive procedures.

Clinical validation was based on the PANOTPIC clinical trial, a large prospective lung nodule clinical trial.



Data supported a CMS coverage determination finalized in July 2017

SEATTLE, Feb. 28, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Integrated Diagnostics today announced the e-publication of full results of a large prospective clinical trial validating its Xpresys Lung 2 in the peer-reviewed medical journal CHEST, the official journal of the American College of Chest Physicians, titled: Assessment of Plasma Proteomics Biomarkers Ability to Distinguish Benign From Malignant Lung Nodules: Results of the PANOPTIC (PulmonAry NOdule Plasma proTeomIc Classifier) trial.

Lung nodules are a diagnostic challenge with an estimated yearly incidence of 1.6 million in the United States. The majority of these patients have benign lung nodules, however, there are significant costs, morbidity and mortality associated with the invasive biopsies needed to determine which nodules are cancerous. These avoidable procedures are most common in patients with nodules that are low to moderate risk for cancer.

Integrated Diagnostics pioneered the liquid biopsy approach to lung nodules based on proteomic (protein) analyses of blood plasma samples from hundreds of patients with nodules, stated CEO Dr. Albert Luderer. This research resulted in the discovery of several lung cancer-associated changes in a patients plasma proteome. The original findings were published in Science Translational Medicine and the Journal of Thoracic Oncology, and collectively demonstrated that specific protein changes could be detected in early stage lung cancer and utilized to exclude cancer in patients with benign nodules.

The newly published clinical validation represents the performance of the second generation diagnostic test of Integrated Diagnostics original published work and is termed Xpresys Lung 2 (XL2). This new test combines five standard-of-care clinical factors such as patient age and nodule size in combination with the measurement of two proteins into a single risk assessment. The validation study confirmed the high accuracy of XL2 in identifying benign nodules in patients with a pretest probability of malignancy of 50% and less.

Co-authors Paul Kearney, PhD and Steven Springmeyer, MD commented that, to establish a high level of evidence, we conducted two prospective studies, one for discovery and the other for validation, that focused only on Stage 1A lung nodules. This is incredibly important as these are the lung nodules that are the hardest to assess. We integrated clinical risk factors and found that the proteomic signal was additive to the clinical risk factors. So in a real sense, XL2 is providing physicians with a molecular insight that they have never had before.

The outcomes of the PANOPTIC prospective, multi-center, observational trial are significant as they validate a new approach leveraging the proteome  to accurately distinguish between benign and malignant nodules to rule out early stage lung cancer, added senior author Dr. Peter Mazzone, MD, MPH, Cleveland Clinic, Director of the Lung Cancer Program and Lung Cancer Screening Program for the Respiratory Institute. Through this large-scale research, we have shown that this may provide the needed objective assessment of lung nodules to better determine the best treatment path forward, which could reduce or avoid invasive biopsy or surgery procedures and create improved patient outcomes.

State-of-art instrumentation used multiple reaction monitoring mass spectrometry to measure the relative abundance of two plasma proteins, LG3BP and C163A. These proteins were integrated into a ratio that is associated with the malignant condition - LG3BP is elevated and C163A is diminished.

The low to moderate risk subgroup of 178 patients with a clinician assessed pCA50% had a 16% prevalence of lung cancer. XL2 demonstrated a sensitivity of 97% (CI 82%-100%), a specificity of 44% (CI 36%-52%) and a negative predictive value (NPV) of 98% (CI 92%-100%) in distinguishing benign from malignant nodules. When XL2 performance was contrasted to other standard-of-care diagnostic modalities performed on these patients, the classifier performed better than all other modalities including positron emission tomography (PET), validated lung nodule risk models and physician estimated cancer probability (p<0.001). If the integrated classifier results were used to direct care, 40% fewer procedures would be performed on benign nodules while only 3% of malignant nodules would be misclassified. This low XL2 error rate contrasts dramatically to the trials observed standard of care misclassification of cancers (45%).

Reference:

CHEST. February 26, 2018. Assessment of Plasma Proteomics Biomarkers Ability to Distinguish Benign From Malignant Lung Nodules: Results of the PANOPTIC (PulmonAry NOdule Plasma proTeomIc Classifier) trial.

Available online: http://journal.chestnet.org/article/S0012-3692(18)30307-6/fulltext

About Indi

Indi (Integrated Diagnostics) is redefining molecular diagnostics and creating powerful new tools for physicians to non-invasively assess and more effectively manage complex diseases to improve patient outcomes, reduce complications, and lessen costs to the healthcare system. With the companys breakthrough test, Xpresys Lung 2, which measures blood proteins and identifies lung nodules with a high probability of being benign, physicians have the potential to reduce risks and the need for unnecessary invasive procedures.

The company was co-founded in October 2009 by systems-biology pioneer Dr. Lee Hood, a recipient of the National Medal of Science from the U.S. government. His groundbreaking research is based on a systems biology approach, which measures hundreds of protein biomarkers found in blood to report on the physiological state of the bodys 50 major organs, such as the lungs.

Foundational intellectual property is exclusively licensed from the Institute for Systems Biology and Caltech.

Learn more at www.indidx.com.

IndiDx Contact:

Albert A. Luderer, PhD

Phone: (206) 576-6301

Email: aluderer@indiDx.com

Media Contact:

Cari P. Randall, Vice President

The Ruth Group

Phone: (646) 536-7002

Email: crandall@theruthgroup.comEnglish Danish

The bank held its Annual General Meeting (AGM) Wednesday 28 February 2018 with the agenda as previously published.



Minutes of the AGM as per the points on the agenda.

The chairman of the board of directors, Jens Lykke Kjeldsen, welcomed the attendees to the general meeting.

1. Election of chairperson

Lawyer Allan Srensen, deputy chairman of the shareholders committee, was elected chairman of the AGM.

2. The board's report on the banks activities during the previous year,

3. Presentation of the annual report for approval, and

4. Decision on allocation of profit or covering of loss under the approved annual report

Jens Lykke Kjeldsen, chairman of the board of directors, presented the report of the board of directors on the banks activities during the previous year.

John Fisker, CEO, presented the annual report for 2017 for approval and explained the proposed profit allocation. John Fisker advised that with the introduction of the new MREL requirements, the

bank would operate with new capital targets, so that common equity tier 1 could thus decrease to approximately 13.5% in the long term, and with new targets for the total capital ratio of approximately 17% and for total capital including MREL add-ons of approximately 22%. These changes will be made to adapt the bank to the new rules and bring it in line with other banks that are using the standard model. The changes will also help the bank to continue the capital planning it has been following in recent years.

The report of the board of directors was noted.

The annual report for 2017 was adopted.





The AGM resolved to distribute the profits for the year as follows (DKK):



Appropriated for ordinary dividend 201,150,000 Appropriated for charitable purposes 500,000 Transfer to net revaluation reserve under the equity method -20,000 Transfer to retained earnings 387,010,000 Total 588,640,000









5. Election of members of the shareholders committee

The following members retired by rotation: Niels Ole Hansen, Tonny Hansen, Leif Haubjerg, Niels Erik Burgdorf Madsen, Lars Mller, Martin Krogh Pedersen, Kristian Skannerup and Allan Srensen.



In addition, Jens Lykke Kjeldsen must retire from the shareholders committee due to the provision on age in the articles of association.



The following members were re-elected to the shareholders committee:

Niels Ole Hansen, Ringkbing, business consultant, born 1951

Tonny Hansen, Ringkbing, school principal, born 1958

Leif Haubjerg, No, farmer, born 1959

Niels Erik Burgdorf Madsen, lgod, manager, born 1959

Lars Mller, Holstebro, municipal chief executive, born 1957

Martin Krogh Pedersen, Ringkbing, CEO, born 1967

Kristian Skannerup, Tim, manufacturer, born 1959

Allan Srensen, Ringkbing, lawyer, born 1982

The following new member was elected to the shareholders committee:

Toke Kjr Juul, Herning, manager, born 1978

6. Election of one or more auditors

The shareholders re-elected the auditor:

Revisionsfirmaet PricewaterhouseCoopers, Statsautoriseret Revisionspartnerselskab



7. Authorisation of the board of directors to permit the bank to acquire own shares in accordance with current legislation until the next annual general meeting to a total nominal value of ten percent (10%) of the banks share capital, such that the shares can be acquired at current market price +/- ten percent (10%)

The authorisation proposed below for the board of directors was adopted:

The board of directors proposes that it be authorised to permit the bank to acquire own shares in accordance with current legislation until the next annual general meeting to a total nominal value of ten percent (10%) of the banks share capital, such that the shares can be acquired at current market price +/- ten percent (10%).

8. Any proposals from the board of directors, the shareholders committee or shareholders

8a. Proposed amendments to the articles of association

The proposed amendments to the articles of association with the following new wording were adopted:

2. The banks share capital shall be nom. DKK 22,350,000 in shares of nom. DKK 1.

2a. The general meeting has decided to authorise the board of directors to increase the share capital by cash payment in one or more rounds by up to nom. DKK 14,210,980 to nom. DKK 36,560,980 by subscription for new shares for which the board shall determine the price. The capital increase shall be fully paid. This authorisation shall apply until 27 February 2023. The capital increase shall take place with right of pre-emption for existing shareholders.

and

2b.The general meeting has decided to authorise the board of directors to increase the share capital by payment in values other than cash in one or more rounds by up to nom. DKK 14,210,980 to nom. DKK 36,560,980 by subscription for new shares for which the board shall determine the price, as payment for the banks takeover of an existing company or specific asset values corresponding to the value of the shares issued. The capital increase shall be fully paid. This authorisation shall apply until 27 February 2023. The capital increase shall take place without right of pre-emption for existing shareholders.

8b.Proposal to reduce the banks share capital by nom. DKK 500,000 by cancellation of own shares

The following proposal for the reduction of the share capital and the amendment of the articles of association was adopted:

The board of directors proposes a reduction in the banks share capital from nom. DKK 22,350,000 to nom. DKK 21,812,000 by cancellation of 538,000 nom. DKK 1 shares from the banks holding of own shares, to a nominal value of DKK 538,000.

It is advised in accordance with Section 188 (1) of the Danish Companies Act that the object of the reduction in the banks share capital is payment to shareholders, and the amount of the reduction will be used as payment to shareholders for shares acquired by the bank under previous authorisation of the board of directors by the general meeting.

The share capital will consequently be reduced by nom. DKK 538,000 and the banks holding of own shares will be reduced by 538,000 nom. DKK 1 shares. It is advised in accordance with Section 188 (2) of the Danish Companies Act that the shares in question were acquired for a total sum of DKK 169,883,411, meaning that apart from the reduction in nominal capital, DKK 169,345,411 will be paid to shareholders.

The board of directors proposed reduction of the share capital is being made to maintain flexibility in the banks capital structure.

If the proposal is adopted, it will mean an amendment to Article 2 and of Articles 2a and 2b of the banks articles of association such that the amount of 22,350,000 in Article 2 is changed to 21,812,000 and the amount of 36,560,980 in Articles 2a and 2b is changed to 36,022,980.

8c. Proposal for adoption of a buyback programme to implement a subsequent capital reduction

The following proposal for a new buyback programme was adopted:

The board of directors proposes the establishment of a special buyback programme, under which the board of directors can permit the bank to acquire own shares up to a market value of DKK 170,000,000, but to a maximum of 1,000,000 nom. DKK 1 shares before the next annual general meeting. This special buyback programme requires purchase of the shares at market price. It is also proposed that the board of directors be authorised to cancel or reduce the buyback programme if this is considered commercially appropriate for the bank, in the banks long term interest, or the banks circumstances with respect to capital otherwise so require. The shares covered by the buyback programme will be acquired by the bank for subsequent implementation of a capital reduction.

8d. Proposed authorisation for the board of directors or its designated appointee

The following proposed authorisation for the board of directors or its designated appointee was adopted:

The board of directors proposes that the board of directors, or whoever the board may so designate, be authorised to apply the decisions which have been adopted at the general meeting for registration and to make such changes to the documents submitted to the Danish Business Authority as the Authority may require or find appropriate in connection with registration of the decisions of the general meeting.

Yours sincerely,

Ringkjbing Landbobank

John Fisker Jrn Nielsen

http://prlibrary-eu.nasdaq.com/Resource/Download/df58c2a3-9030-440f-9e2f-7c5ffc03a908IMAGINING Arts was about all we could do over the last 18 months or so, but now we need imagine no more. Celebrating its 20th...A remorseful Martin Shkreli promised the judge who's going to sentence him next week that he'll be "more careful, open and honest" if she doesn't impose a long prison term, acknowledging "I was a fool. I should have known better."

"I assure you that any mercy shown at sentencing will be met with a strict adherence to this oath and I hope to make your honour proud of me in the years ahead," Shkreli said in a letter penned from the Brooklyn lockup where he's been since September.

Loading

It's a turnaround for Shkreli, who was dubbed the most-hated-man in America after raising the price of a life-saving drug by 5,000 per cent. He blasted members of a congressional panel who had quizzed him about the price hike, calling them "imbeciles" on Twitter.AGL will invest $200 million to upgrade the Bayswater coal-fired power station in NSW to replace the power it will lose when it closes the Liddell power station.

The upgrade will add another 100 megawatts in capacity to the Bayswater power station by improving its operational efficiency.

The Bayswater upgrade is designed to replace power lost after the shutdown of the Liddell power station.

Bayswater is AGLs largest coal-fired power station and is currently capable of producing 2640 megawatts.

AGL first flagged its intention to upgrade the power station as part of its plan to replace the 2000 megawatts that will be removed from the system when the Liddell coal-fired power station  which is located less than five kilometres from Bayswater  closes down in 2022.If you had a youngster leaving school, what would you encourage them to do? Get a job, go to university, or see if there was some trade that might interest them? For a growing number of parents, that's a no-brainer: off to uni with you. But maybe there should be more engaging of brains.

It's widely assumed that, these days, any reasonably secure, decently paid career must start with a university degree.

Illustration: Simon Letch

Don't be so sure. The latest projections by the federal Department of Employment (since renamed by Malcolm Turnbull's spin doctors as the Department of Jobs and Small Business) are for total employment to grow by 950,000 over the five years to 2022.

The department projects that fewer than 100,000 of those extra jobs  less than 10 per cent  will be for people with no post-school qualifications.I see some blog readers get a bit frustrated about Dorothy Dixers, the planned questions that MPs from the governing party get to ask their ministers.

The reason I record them in the blog is that there has actually been quite a lot of appetite for our coverage of Question Time to go through every single question, whether it comes from the government or the opposition.

Yes, it's true that Dixers are nothing more than soft and sometimes tedious opportunities for the government to get their message across. They are not really a tool of scrutiny. But you can argue they provide an insight into what issues the government is seeking to prioritise. With this government, for example, you see a focus on tax cuts and national security. You should also keep an eye out for which MPs the government picks to ask the questions  this speaks to which states and electorates they want to highlight. These choices can also be linked to internal politics. And answers to Dorothy Dixers do, occasionally, yield important and new information that the government wants to get out.

It may also be argued that the opposition's questions are nothing more than their own opportunity to score points and prosecute their own message. It definitely isn't pure scrutiny  although Question Time does remain an important accountability forum.

And here's a little fun fact on why Dorothy Dixers have that name:

In the 1950s, American journalist Elizabeth Meriwether was the original agony aunt and her advice column had a massive readership. Meriwether wrote her column under the pen name Dorothy Dix and it was widely suspected that she wrote questions for herself in order to have more interesting material.SEATTLE, Feb. 28, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Exposing truths, good and bad, about modern adoption and foster care, The Children Money Can Buy, arms readers with much-needed tools for navigating a complex and emotional landscape. Through stories of real children and parents, this new publication from Rowman & Littlefield will move any reader interested in the motivations of love and family, while preparing birth and adoptive families (and the professionals who guide them) for the creation of ethical adoptions.



Based on decades of first-hand experience as an adoption specialist, Anne Moody shares stories that illustrate the dramatic societal changes in foster care and adoption practice, including the ever-evolving definition of open adoption, the gradual acceptance of gay and lesbian adoption, the proliferation of unregulated adoption facilitators in the U.S., concerns about international adoption, and the role money inevitably plays in the foster care and adoption systems. Moody gives special attention to the practice of baby brokering, and the accompanying financial incentives encouraging birth mothers to relinquish their babies, that permeate much of U.S. infant adoption today.

The Children Money Can Buy was written to give voice to birth parents, adoptive families, and the various professionals involved in adoption and child welfare. While it contains a wealth of information specifically aimed at adoptive families, the book has a broader reach as well, presenting knowledge and insight in the form of compelling stories that illustrate larger life lessons about the way our society valuesand fails to valueparents and children.

Anne Moody has enjoyed a long career as a counselor, focused first on the U.S. foster care system, then on both domestic and international adoption. Anne is the Director of Adoption Connections, based on Bainbridge Island, Washington, and is also an adoptive parent. Both her professional and personal background inform her work as an adoption specialist who advises clients on all aspects of the adoption experience.

"Anne Moody's writing helps open wide the heart, says Rebecca Wells, author of Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood. A perfectly arranged mixture of memoir and analysis, The Children Money Can Buy looks back over the author's long career of helping people navigate the shifting and confusing landscape from her experience. Her stories are moving, instructive, and unforgettable, told in a voice that fills the reader with respect and trust.

Publishers Weekly adds, For any family that has faced the difficult issues of adoption or fostering from any perspective, Moodys book will be a valuable tool.

The book is now available for purchase online in hardback and ebook form at Rowman & Littlefield, Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble.

Media Contact

Jaime Quick, ChangeUp

206-229-5183, jq@changeupadvisors.com



Editors Note: More information, quotes, video and photography are available at: authorannemoody.com

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/6374757a-0cf1-45e0-bdbe-a6b61d89a025Corrupt former NSW Labor minister Eddie Obeid has asked the High Court to hear an appeal against his conviction and sentence for misconduct in public office, in a last-ditch bid to be freed from prison.

The 74-year-old was jailed in December 2016 for at least three years - with a maximum of five years - after a Supreme Court jury found him guilty of misconduct for lobbying a senior bureaucrat over his family's secret business interests at Circular Quay.

Eddie Obeid outside the Darlinghurst Supreme Court in December 2016. Credit:Daniel Munoz

In June last year a five-judge bench of the NSW Court of Appeal, headed by Chief Justice Tom Bathurst, dismissed his appeal against conviction and sentence.

Obeid's defence team had mounted the novel legal argument that the courts did not have the power to hear cases involving allegations of misconduct in public office.A 26-year-old woman has been arrested over the stabbing death of man aged in his 70s, who was believed to her boyfriend.

The woman and another man, believed to be her 57-year-old father, were arrested at the scene after the man was fatally stabbed in Meadow Heights in Melbourne's north on Wednesday morning.

Nine News has identified the woman as Meadow Heights resident Ruby Gold.

It is believed she lived at the unit with her father and that the deceased was in a relationship with Ms Gold.

The two were released on Monday night pending further inquiries.The severed head and torso of the iconic C Y O'Connor statue has been found on the ocean floor of North Coogee Beach.

The search for the top half of the statue began after the City of Cockburn received reports regarding damage done to the statue over the weekend.

The damaged statue.

"The City is investigating how Tony Jones' famous bronze sculpture of celebrated 1800s engineer C Y O'Connor at North Coogee Beach came to be damaged over the weekend," the city said in a social media post.

"We have received numerous reports of the damage which has left the 19-year-old statue cut-off at the torso with the rider's hips and the horse still in place, 30 metres offshore."Washington: A senior US general has accused Russia of playing a destabilising role in Syria and acting as "both arsonist and firefighter," as a brief truce unilaterally declared by Moscow in the eastern Ghouta region collapsed.

The US and Russia have been on different sides of the multi-sided seven-year-war, with Russia being the key ally of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad whose forces are besieging eastern Ghouta, a rebel-held area near Damascus.

Smoke rising from Ghouta after a Syrian government airstrike. Credit:AP

"Diplomatically and militarily, Moscow plays both arsonist and firefighter, fuelling tensions among all parties in Syria ... then serving as an arbitrator, to resolve disputes, attempting to undermine and weaken each party's bargaining positions," said US Army General Joseph Votel.

Votel is the head of the US military's Central Command. He was speaking to a House of Representatives Armed Services Committee hearing.TORONTO, Feb. 28, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Datametrex AI Limited (the Company or Datametrex) (TSXV:DM) (FSE:D4G) is pleased to announce that it has, through its Graph Blockchain (Graph) subsidiary, drawn strong interest from several banking and insurance companies. It is currently presenting with IBM, its partner, to a number of financial and insurance institutions for blockchain projects. Recently, Graph entered into a definitive agreement to develop a large-scale Graph Database and Blockchain solution prototype in partnership with IBM for an electric power and utility project. The solution will assist in analyzing charging stations. The value of the initial prototype is approximately $400,000.



The project will use all of Graphs unique IP which provides a compelling way of organizing, analyzing and displaying Blockchain transactional data in real time. The Graph database technology being developed processes Blockchain data up to 1,000 times faster than traditional methods from 7 transactions per second (TPS) to 7,000 TPS. Additionally, information can be presented much faster and more effectively. It is believed to be one of the most effective technologies to store, manage and present Blockchain transactions specifically in peer-to-peer networks, and has shown unique advantages for mission critical applications.

"We have deep domain expertise in Graph databases and their inherent value in analyzing and presenting data more effectively than traditional table-based structures. Bringing this technology to help build out this large project with IBM is opening up a lot of opportunities. Graph Blockchain can increase the transaction performance and data presentation layer considerably," said Andrew Ryu, Chairman and CEO of Graph Blockchain.

Additionally, Ronin Blockchain, Datametrex AIs cryptocurrency mining subsidiary, is speaking at the Polycon 18 conference in the Bahamas this week. The conference will bring together the worlds of high finance and blockchain, attracting institutional investors, retail advisors and high net worth individuals, as well as some of the most exciting and fastest-growing blockchain companies from around the world.

About Graph Blockchain

Graph Blockchain is a joint venture formed between Datametrex and Bitnine. The JV mandate is to bring the value of Graph Database technology to the blockchain environment where there is a great need to enhance performance and present the verified and authenticated data in unique ways.

About Datametrex AI Ltd.

Datametrex AI Limited is a technology-focused company with exposure to four exciting verticals. Big Data, Collecting data from retail point of sale environments, Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning through its wholly owned subsidiary, Nexalogy (www.nexalogy.com). Implementing Blockchain technology for secure Data Transfers through its joint venture company, Graph Blockchain (www.graphblockchain.com). and Industrial Scale Cryptocurrency Mining through its wholly owned subsidiary, Ronin Blockchain Corp. (www.roninblockchain.com)

To stay informed about Datametrex, please join our Investor Group on 8020 Connect http://bit.ly/2fPUNwF for all upcoming news releases, articles comments and questions.

For further information, please contact:

Jeffrey Stevens  President & COO

Phone: (647) 400-8494

Email: jstevens@datametrex.com

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Forward-Looking Statements

This news release includes certain forward-looking statements within the meaning of Canadian securities laws. Such forward-looking information and statements are not representative of historical facts or information or current condition, but instead represent only the Company`s belief regarding future events, plans or objectives, many of which, by their nature, are inherently uncertain and outside of the Companys control.

Generally, such forward-looking information or statements can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as plans, expects or does not expect, is expected, budget, scheduled, estimates, forecasts, intends, anticipates or does not anticipate, or believes, or variations of such words and phrases or may contain statements that certain actions, events or results may, could, would, might or will be taken, will continue, will occur or will be achieved.

The forward-looking information contained herein includes, but is not limited to, statements regarding the terms, timing and completion of the Public Listing, the anticipated use of proceeds and the Review. By identifying such information and statements in this manner, the Company is alerting the reader that such information and statements are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the actual results, level of activity, performance or achievements of the Company to be materially different from those expressed or implied by such information and statements.

Although the Company believes that the assumptions and factors used in preparing, and the expectations contained in, the forward-looking information and statements are reasonable, undue reliance should not be placed on such information and statements, and no assurance or guarantee can be given that such forward-looking information and statements will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such information and statements. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on any forward-looking information or statements contained in this press release.

The forward-looking information contained in this press release is made as of the date hereof, and the Company does not undertake to update any forward-looking information that is contained or referenced herein, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except in accordance with applicable securities laws. All subsequent written and oral forward-looking information and statements attributable to the Company or persons acting on its behalf are expressly qualified in its entirety by this notice.TORONTO, Feb. 28, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Generic Gold Corp. (Generic Gold or the Company) is pleased to announce that the Company has received final approval to list its common shares (the Shares) on the Canadian Securities Exchange (the CSE). The Shares will begin trading on the CSE under the symbol GGC at the opening of trading on March 1, 2018.



About Generic Gold Corp.

Generic Gold is a Canadian mineral exploration company focused on gold projects in the Tintina Gold Belt in the Yukon Territory of Canada. The Companys exploration portfolio consists of ten projects with a total land position of 39,820 hectares, all of which are 100% owned by Generic Gold. Several of these projects are in close proximity to significant gold deposits with multi- million ounce NI 43-101-compliant resources, including Goldcorps Coffee project, Victoria Golds Eagle Gold project, White Golds Golden Saddle project, and Western Copper & Golds Casino project. Generic Gold's board of directors and management team is led by experienced mining industry professionals, with expertise in exploration, finance, capital markets, and mine development. For information on the Companys property portfolio, visit the Companys website at genericgold.ca .

For further information contact:

Kelly Malcolm, President and CEO

Tel: 647-299-1153

kmalcolm@genericgold.ca

NEITHER THE CANADIAN SECURITIES EXCHANGE NOR THEIR REGULATION SERVICES PROVIDERS ACCEPT RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE ADEQUACY OR ACCURACY OF THIS RELEASE.

Certain statements in this press release are "forward-looking" statements within the meaning of Canadian securities legislation. All statements, other than statements of historical fact, included herein are forward-looking information. Forward-looking statements in this press release include, without limitation, statements regarding obtaining final approval from the CSE to list the Company's common shares on the CSE. Forward-looking statements are generally, but not always, identified by the words "expects", "plans", "anticipates", "in the event", "if", "believes", "assets", "position", "intends", "envisages", "assumes", "recommends", "estimates", "approximate", "projects", "potential", "indicate" and similar expressions, or that events or conditions "will", "would", "may", "could" or "should" occur. Forward-looking statements are necessarily based upon the current belief, opinions and expectations of management that, while considered reasonable by the Company, are inherently subject to significant litigation, business, economic, competitive, political and social uncertainties and other contingencies. Many factors could cause the Company's actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied in the forward looking statements. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements and forward-looking information. The Company does not undertake to update any forward-looking statements or forward-looking information that are incorporated by reference herein, except in accordance with applicable securities laws. Investors are cautioned not to put undue reliance on forward-looking statements due to the inherent uncertainty therein.Charlottesville, Va., Feb. 28, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- In response to the Parkland school shooting, a national, interdisciplinary group of violence prevention experts, including Drs. Dewey Cornell and Catherine Bradshaw from the University of Virginia Curry School of Education, developed a Call for Action to Prevent Gun Violence in the United States of America." The group laid out a three-tiered public health approach to protect children and adults from gun violence, which includes eight policy recommendations around implementing gun control legislation, improving mental health services and threat assessment, and making broad improvements to school discipline and school climate.

While security measures are important, they are insufficient, said Dr. Dewey Cornell, Bunker Professor of Education at the University of Virginia Curry School of Education. We need to shift our mindset and policy from reaction to prevention, which begins long before a gunman enters the school.

In less than a week, the statement has won the endorsement of 57 national organizations that represent over five million professionals, including: American Federation of Teachers, American Psychological Association, Coalition for Juvenile Justice, Committee for Children, National Association of School Psychologists, National Association of Secondary School Principals, National Education Association, National PTA, and Society for Prevention Research. This call-to-action advocates for three levels of prevention that include:

Universal approaches to promoting safety and well-being;

Practices to reduce risk and increase protective factors for youth experiencing difficulties; and

Interventions for individuals where violence appears imminent.

Each of these levels offers a distinct set of policy recommendations, beginning with a national call-to-action to promote positive school climate and a ban of all assault-style weapons. Along with improved mental health services and threat assessment practices, the authors of the statement also call for policies such as: universal background checks, removal of barriers to sharing safety-related information, and gun violence protection orders.

Leading organizations and individuals from across the country are signing on to build national consensus around the planand compel state and federal legislatures to enact these prevention-focused policies.

This important call to action reflects the input and support of numerous researchers and professional organizations spanning multiple fields, said Dr. Catherine Bradshaw, professor and associate dean at the University of Virginia Curry School of Education. It is our sincere hope that this report helps to focus policies, programs, and resources on issues related to the promotion of school safety and mental health, and address community gun violence more broadly.

To learn more about the approach, and sign onto the statement today, please click on the links for organizations and individuals here.

About Curry School of Education

The University of Virginias Curry School of Education located in Charlottesville, Va., is ranked among the nations top 20 graduate schools of education. To its 2,300 undergraduate, graduate and professional students, the school offers nationally-ranked degree programs in education and health centered around human development. Through 3 research centers, nearly 20 labs, and dozens of individual projects, faculty and students at Curry conduct rigorous, practical research that supports both the quality of teaching, learning and clinical practices and the decision making of district, state and national leaders.

Interdisciplinary Group on Preventing School and Community Violence

(statement author names in alphabetical order)

Ron Avi Astor, Ph.D., University of Southern California

George G. Bear, Ph.D., University of Delaware

Catherine P. Bradshaw, Ph.D., University of Virginia

Dewey G. Cornell, Ph.D., University of Virginia

Dorothy L. Espelage, Ph.D., University of Florida

Daniel Flannery, Ph.D., Case Western Reserve University

Michael J. Furlong, Ph.D., University of California, Santa Barbara

Nancy Guerra, Ed.D., University of California, Irvine

Robert Jagers, Ph.D., University of Michigan

Shane R. Jimerson, Ph.D., University of California, Santa Barbara

Matthew J. Mayer, Ph.D., Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, New Brunswick

Maury Nation, Ph.D., Vanderbilt University

Amanda B. Nickerson, Ph.D., University at Buffalo, State University of New York

Pedro Noguera, Ph.D., University of California, Los Angeles

David Osher, Ph.D., Takoma Park, MD

Russell Skiba, Ph.D., Indiana University

George Sugai, Ph.D., University of Connecticut

Daniel W. Webster, Sc.D., Johns Hopkins University

Mark D. Weist, Ph.D., University of South Carolina

Attachment:

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/0944b91d-661f-45c6-9950-397e069fd742Two northern Virginia teenagers have been arrested after police say they tried to impress a girl by posting threats to carry out a school shooting.

Fairfax County Police said Wednesday that the 14- and 15-year-old boys have been charged in juvenile court with threatening to commit harm on school property. They've been released to their parents' custody.

Police say the boys posted the threats against Walt Whitman Middle School in the Alexandria section of Fairfax County to impress a girl but did not have the means to carry out the threat.

Police said they have investigated 24-school-related threats in the county since a Feb. 14 shooting at a Florida school that left 17 dead. This is the only one of those cases that resulted in criminal charges. But police emphasized they take the issue seriously, and said that they filed criminal charges against five students between August and December, when they investigated 28 separate incidents of threats against Fairfax County Public Schools.English French

OTTAWA, Feb. 28, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Hundreds of members of the Professional Institute of the Public Service of Canada (PIPSC), the Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC) and other unions gathered in Ottawa today to protest the inability of the federal government to Fix Phoenix.



The rally was held from 12:00 to 1:00 p.m. in front of the government offices at 90 Elgin Street in Ottawa. Speakers included PIPSC President Debi Daviau; Robyn Benson, National President, PSAC; Chris Aylward, National Executive Vice-President, PSAC; and Greg Phillips, President, CAPE.

Budget 2018 committed $16M towards the building of an alternative pay system to replace the problem- plagued Phoenix. I see this as a glimmer of hope in a long two years of constant stress and financial worry for our members, said PIPSC President Debi Daviau. We told them our members had lost confidence in Phoenix. We said Nix Phoenix - we deserve better and they have listened.

The project promises to engage experts and unions in the development of a new system. PIPSC will work hard to ensure that our own government IT professionals are tasked with building a pay system that works.

Budget 2018 also makes significant investments in the current system promising to hire more pay and compensation staff in the pay centre and within departments and agencies. We know that more people are needed to make the system work so we are worried that the funding appears to be only for a year explained Daviau. The Institute remains concerned that the bulk of these funds may be going to Phoenix developer IBM.

Although we finally see a glimmer of hope when it comes to Phoenix we will be working hard to keep up the pressure. We wont stop until all of our members come to expect to be paid correctly and on time  all of the time, said Daviau.

Other rallies are also planned today across the country.

The Professional Institute of the Public Service of Canada represents approximately 55,000 public service professionals across Canada, including 13,000 federal IT professionals.

Follow us on Facebook and on Twitter (@pipsc_ipfpc).





For further information:

Johanne Fillion, 613-228-6310, ext 4953 or 613-883-4900 (cell), jfillion@pipsc.caTORONTO, Feb. 28, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Andrew Thomson (the Acquiror) has today filed an early warning report (the Early Warning Report) advising of his acquisition of common shares (the Common Shares) and warrants (Warrants) of Palamina Corp. (the Company).



On February 26, 2018, the Company completed a non-brokered private placement of 7,166,667 (Units) of the Company at a purchase price of $0.30 per Unit (the Issue Price), for aggregate gross proceeds of $2,150,000.10 (the Offering). Each Unit separated immediately upon issuance into one Common Share and one Warrant. Each Warrant is exercisable to acquire one Common Share at a price of $0.50 until August 26, 2019, provided that if after four months and one day following the closing of the Offering, the closing price of the Common Shares on the TSX Venture Exchange (TSX-V) is equal to or greater than $0.90 for 10 consecutive trading days, then the Issuer may accelerate the expiry date of the Warrants by disseminating a press release, and in such case the Warrants will expire on the 45th day after the date on which such press release is disseminated.

The Acquiror subscribed for and purchased 196,667 Units (the Acquired Units) at the Issue Price pursuant to the Offering, for aggregate consideration of $59,000.10, resulting in the issuance to the Acquiror of 196,667 Common Shares (the Acquired Shares) and 196,667 Warrants (the Acquired Warrants).

Prior to the Offering, the Acquiror beneficially owned, or exercised control or direction over, directly or indirectly, 2,222,777 Common Shares, and options to purchase 450,000 Common Shares (the Options) representing an aggregate of 2,672,777 Common Shares owned, controlled or issuable, or 11.6% of the outstanding Common Shares immediately prior to the Offering, on a partially diluted basis, assuming the exercise of the Options.

After giving effect to the Offering, the Acquiror beneficially owned, or exercised control or direction over, directly or indirectly, 2,419,444 Common Shares (including Common Shares underlying the Options and Acquired Warrants), representing 10.1% of the outstanding Common Shares on a partially-diluted basis, assuming exercise of the Options and Acquired Warrants.

The Acquired Shares and Acquired Warrants were acquired for investment purposes. The Acquiror may, from time to time, take such actions in respect of its holdings in securities of the Issuer as it may deem appropriate in light of the circumstances then existing, including (i) acquiring, exercising, converting, exchanging, selling or otherwise disposing of securities of Issuer or securities exercisable for, or convertible or exchangeable into, securities of Issuer, and (ii) developing plans or intentions or taking actions which relate to or would result in one or more of the transactions or matters referred to in paragraphs (a) through (k) of Item 5 of the Early Warning Report filed on SEDAR.

This news release is being issued as required by National Instrument 62-104  Take-Over Bids and Issuer Bids and relates to the Company, whose head office is located at 145 King Street West, Suite 2870, Toronto, Ontario, M5H 1J8, and to the Acquiror. A copy of the Early Warning Report can be obtained at www.sedar.com under the Companys company profile, or by contacting Andrew Thomson at 145 King Street West, Suite 2870, Toronto, Ontario, M5H 1J8, telephone: (416) 204-7536.TORONTO, Feb. 28, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) --

NOT FOR DISTRIBUTION IN THE UNITED STATES OR OVER UNITED STATES WIRE SERVICES

Crius Energy Trust ("Crius Energy" the "Company" or the "Trust") (TSX: KWH.UN) is issuing this news release in response to false and misleading statements in a blog posting issued today by an anonymous, self-described short seller of our trust units.

The Trust will in due course issue a follow-up news release that addresses the substance of the false and misleading statements made by the short-seller. In the meantime, Crius Energy would like to remind investors that a reputable syndicate of eight investment banks conducted due diligence on Crius Energy at the time of the Trust's initial public offering in November 2012, and have participated in, and conducted further due diligence in respect of, subsequent prospectus offerings of the Trust in June 2015, June 2016 and June 2017.

Other than the issuance of the false and misleading blog posting by the anonymous, self-described short seller, Crius Energy confirms that it is not aware of any undisclosed material change in the business, operations or affairs of the Company that would account for the recent increase in trading activity, and related decrease in trading price, of the trust units of the Trust on the Toronto Stock Exchange.

The Trust cautions investors that the self-described short seller has chosen to conceal the identity of the persons and entities who are responsible for the blog posting, and who stand to profit, at the expense of our unitholders, from false and misleading statements about Crius Energy.

About Crius Energy Trust

With over 1.4 million residential customer equivalents, the Company provides innovative electricity, natural gas and solar products to residential and commercial customers through exclusive partnerships, direct-to-consumer, digital, and broker marketing channels. Our unique brands offer consumers a broad suite of energy products and services including fixed and variable contracts, renewable energy, and bundled products to support their energy needs beyond what is offered by their local utility. Company growth is achieved organically with customers acquired through our diversified marketing channels and through accretive acquisitions in the deregulated energy and solar industries, where there is a significant opportunity to participate in the consolidation of market participants. The Company currently sells energy products in 19 states and the District of Columbia with plans to continue expanding its geographic reach. The Company is well-positioned to deliver capital appreciation and stable distributions to investors.

Material information pertaining to Crius Energy may be found on SEDAR under the Trust's issuer profile at www.sedar.com or on the Trust's website at www.criusenergytrust.ca .

For further information please contact:

Michael Fallquist

Chief Executive Officer

mfallquist@criusenergy.com

(203) 663-7545

Roop Bhullar

Chief Financial Officer

rbhullar@criusenergy.com

(203) 883-9900

Kelly Castledine

Investor Relations

kcastledine@criusenergy.com

(416) 644-1753

Source: Crius Energy TrustChicago, Illinois, Feb. 28, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Specialty programs at The John Marshall Law School in Chicago have once again been rated among the nations best. For the second year in a row, preLaw magazine rated John Marshall as one of the top law schools in the country for its Alternative Dispute Resolution and International Law programs.





John Marshall was the only law school in Illinois to receive an A rating in international law and an A- rating in alternative dispute resolution. The law schools Alternative Dispute Resolution program also received and A- in 2017, while John Marshalls International Law Program moved up from A- in 2017 to an A in 2018.

John Marshalls Alternative Dispute Resolution program is part of the law schools Center for Advocacy & Dispute Resolution, which offers a J.D. Certificate in Alternative Dispute Resolution. The certificate allows graduates to distinguish themselves by honing their practical skills in arbitration, client counseling, mediation and negotiation. Students also must complete an approved externship.

At John Marshall, we have a long tradition of excellence in our Advocacy and Dispute Resolution program, said Kelly Navarro, Associate Director of John Marshalls Center for Advocacy & Dispute Resolution. We offer a wide variety of alternative dispute resolution courses and an ADR certificate program. Our mediation, arbitration, negotiation and client counseling teams are highly competitive and we host an American Bar Association Alternative Dispute Resolution competition each year.

Through our clinical program, students become certified mediators and mediate cases in the Cook County court system. Students also work in a variety of alternative dispute resolution-related externship placements. Our program emphasizes professionalism, collegiality and collaboration, said Navarro.

John Marshalls International Law program also earned top honors from preLaw magazine, which noted the growing importance of international law in an increasingly global and interconnected world.

With the ever-changing international landscape, it is more essential than ever that lawyers have a grounding in the world of international business and trade law. The John Marshall LL.M. in International Business & Trade Law introduces our students not just to doctrinal international law, but also to faculty and students trained in a wide array of legal cultures. We are delighted that the program has been recognized for its excellence, said Professor Paul Lewis, Director of the Center for International Law.

John Marshall offers J.D. and LL.M. students a variety of certificate programs, including one in International Human Rights and three in International Business and Trade Law.

The law schools Center for International Law also sponsors a variety of programs, seminars and conferences, manages the Global Markets Law Journal and regularly welcomes visiting international lawyers, judges and scholars. On April 10, the Center will welcome Judge Joan E. Donoghue of the International Court of Justice to speak at John Marshalls annual Herzog Memorial Lecture Series.

About The John Marshall Law School

The John Marshall Law School, founded in 1899, is an independent law school located in the heart of Chicago's legal, financial and commercial districts. The 2018 U.S. News & World Report's America's Best Graduate Schools ranks John Marshall's Lawyering Skills Program 5th, its Trial Advocacy Program 13th and its Intellectual Property Law Program 19th in the nation. Since its inception, John Marshall has been a pioneer in legal education and has been guided by a tradition of diversity, innovation, access and opportunity.

Attachment:

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/d6bc1213-f644-43f5-b2c9-9ac684df68e0Fort Polk, LA (71446)

Today

A few showers in the morning with scattered thunderstorms arriving in the afternoon. High 86F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 40%..

Tonight

A few clouds from time to time. Slight chance of a rain shower. Low 71F. Winds light and variable.After interviewing three candidates, a new leader for Kimball Public Schools has been hired and is expected to start July 1, 2018.

Dr. Elizabeth Owens, of Ivanhoe, Va., will be taking over as Kimball Public Schools Superintendent.

The Kimball School Board held a public meeting on Tuesday, Feb. 27 to approve Owens contract for two years.

Owens completed her Bachelor of Arts in Elementary Education with a concentration in philosophy at the University of Virginias College at Wise, Va. She followed with a masters degree in special education at East Tennessee State University and then became an educational specialist in educational leadership and policies at Virginia Polytechnical Institute and State University. Finally, she received her educational doctorate at East Tennessee State University.

She began working as a special education teacher at Wise County Public Schools in 1989 and in 1992 she became that districts vocational evaluator and transition coordinator. She became the coordinator of the Regional Learning Academy at Wise County Public Schools in 1995 and three years later Owens was named the principal. As such, she supervised nine program options serving three school districts.

In 2000 Owens became a supervisor at Washington County Public Schools in Abingdon, Va., and in 2006 she took on the superintendent duties at Grayson County Public Schools in Independence, Va.

She moved to Richmond, Va., and became a school improvement contractor for the Virginia Department of Education in 2012, a position she has maintained until accepting the position in Kimball.The difference a year makes can be huge.

During a full school lockdown on Wednesday, Feb. 21, the Kimball Police Department, along with Kimball Public Schools, Kimball County Sheriffs Office, the Deuel County canine unit and the Nebraska State Patrol, performed a contraband search at the Kimball Jr. Sr. High School.

This year, Kimball Police Chief Andy Bremer said, no contraband was found, and when compared with last years search, that is a vast improvement.

The fact that we found nothing is a huge improvement. I couldnt be more proud; this made my day, Bremer said. Id like to thank the school and everyone else who worked so hard to make this happen during a full school lockdown and keep these kids safe.

Last year dozens of students were found with items such as tobacco, illegal substances, paraphernalia and weapons on school grounds.

We lined up a couple of drug dogs from outside the area to come in, Kimball High School Principal Eugene Hanks said, They swept inside around the lockers and in the parking area.

All staff in the Kimball School District have been educated to find and deal with students who may be at risk.

Additionally, the crisis team and manual have been updated, implemented random drug testing to provide students a reason to say no, and at retired State Trooper Chuck Elleys advice, the school has named each classroom with a letter or number from both indoors and out.

Hanks added that the intercom, bell and phone system will be updated soon to include the newer additions to the High School, as well as, the disconnected buildings.

We are trying to make the school safe overall, Hanks said.Dakota Kuhns/Western Nebraska Observer

County Government Day was started in Nebraska by Chief Justice Robert Simmons in 1942 to teach students about county government. Again this year the Kimball County offices hosted KHS students for County Government Day, on Tuesday, Feb. 27. Larry Engstrom, Chairman of the Kimball County Board of Commissioners began the day welcoming the students, with County Commissioner Tim Nolting opening with a prayer and leading the Pledge of Allegiance. Kimball County Veterans Service Officer, Robert Jenner, along with local veteran Don Olson, beautifully demonstrated the Folding of the American Flag while Nolting described the meanings to each fold and local veteran Mary Kay Jenner played Taps. Students once again experienced a fun-filled and educational day with a breakdown of each office and essential duties to insure the County Government is running as it should be.Four R-cut intersections in McCracken, Graves County to be finished soonEnglish Norwegian

Evaldas Budvilaitis, SVP StrongPoint Technology, has today through his fully owned company UAB NV Invest, sold 25 098 shares to an average price of NOK 9,78.

After this sale Evaldas Budvilaitis owns 373 463 shares in StrongPoint ASA through his fully owned company, UAB NV Invest. This represent 0,8 per cent of the outstanding shares.

The shares were sold through Oslo Brs.

For further information, please contact:

Anders Nilsen

CFO, StrongPoint ASA

Phone +47 932 59 410

About StrongPoint:

StrongPoint's mission: Driving Retailers' productivity by providing innovative integrated Technology Solutions enabling retailers to perform to their full potential.

StrongPoint has its headquarter at Rlingen, and has approximately 580 employees in Norway, Sweden, the Baltics, France, Germany, Belgium, Spain, Russia and Malaysia.

StrongPoint has the ticker "STRONG" on Oslo Stock Exchange.

For further information: www.strongpoint.com

This information is subject to the disclosure requirements pursuant to section 5-12 of the Norwegian Securities Trading Act.Teachers and school employees across the state continued their strike on Monday, picketing in protest over pay, fully funding the Public Employees Insurance Agency, seniority issues, and whats known as the paycheck protection act. The latter, if passed, would require employees each year to approve union payments being deducted from their checks.

As of Monday, the teachers and school employees in Wetzel and Tyler counties held work stoppages on Thursday, Friday, and Monday.

Meanwhile, the state Superintendent of Schools Steven Paine said officials were considering legal action regarding the stoppage.

County superintendents from across West Virginia participated in a conference call with Paine Saturday, Feb. 24, during which administrators contemplated their response to the walkouts. Late Saturday, Paine issued a statement regarding the call.

Many asked whether the state was planning to pursue legal action in this matter. A decision will be made on Monday if an agenda item will be added to the State Board of Education meeting scheduled for Tuesday to discuss legal action. If an item is added and the agenda is amended, the public will be notified on Monday, Paine said.

Paines statement follows that of Attorney General Patrick Morrisey, who has characterized the strike as illegal.

On Sunday, Feb. 25, Wetzel County Schools Superintendent Ed Toman released a statement regarding the cancellation of school on Monday, Feb. 26.

Toman said the announcement of the continuation of the work stoppage came as a surprise to many.

The superintendent said after gathering information from sources, locally and statewide, WCS would remain closed on Feb. 26. He said the status of Feb. 27 is unknown and would be provided as quickly as it is known.

Toman said all 261-day employees would report to work on Monday, and he noted that the Wetzel County Board of Education would examine the school calendar and may convert March 28, 29, 30 and April 2 and 3 into instructional days.

This would remove the Spring Break and provide an earlier ending to the school calendar year.

Toman said extracurricular activities, practices, and games will continue as scheduled.

Toman said the West Virginia State Board of Education would be meeting on Tuesday night in Charleston to discuss possible legal action concerning the work stoppage.

Your continued support is valued and appreciated, Toman said.

Also on Sunday, Feb. 25, Tyler County Schools released a statement, reporting there would be no school on Monday, Feb. 26. It was stated this day would not have to be made up by the students.

Furthermore, Tyler County Schools reported that the Methodist and Presbyterian churches in Sistersville, along with the Indian Creek Baptist Church in Blue, offered to provide childcare on Monday for working parents, as well as breakfast and lunch for those children.

In other matters related to the stoppage, teachers and employees have found support through a variety of local entities.

As previously reported, the Wetzel and Tyler boards of education have passed resolutions supporting higher wages and fully-funded insurance benefits for their respective teacher and service personnel.

At its Feb. 20 regular meeting, the Wetzel County Commission released a letter of support for state employees.

The letter noted that the commission supports teacher, service, and state employees in their effort to obtain a pay raise and affordable healthcare benefits.

We certainly realize this is a difficult issue, but action is needed now to avoid the further loss of good teachers and other essential state employees.

The letter of support was signed by all three commissioners and will be delivered to state lawmakers.

Visit Wetzel County also released a statement supporting fixing PEIA for our teachers and all public employees.

We are in support of increasing the budget for Tourism in the State of WV in order to increase tax revenue for the State, noted Sandy Hunt, President/Chief Executive of the Wetzel County Convention and Visitors Bureau.

Longwoods Research, an international firm focused on tourism, has shown that for every dollar spent on tourism, $8 in revenue comes back to the state. The current State budget on tourism is $6 million dollars (compared to Ohio, which is over $40 million). The Division of Tourism has asked for an increase of $14 million dollars, which is a one-time increase if you consider the revenue it will generate. $20 million spent on tourism will bring $160 million per year back to the state and local governments, Hunt continued.

PEIA budget is currently in the vicinity of $375 million dollars with Governor Justice wanting to increase it by $10 million dollars while only agreeing to a one year freeze on premiums. An increase in tourism will increase general revenue that could be used to help with additional funding for PEIA. Currently, without tourism dollars, each person in the state of WV would pay an additional $700 per year in taxes. It doesnt have to be a debate between the teachers and tourism; the State should be able to do both, Hunt said.

In that spirit, we are supporting our local teachers and sponsoring your current Red Out in Wetzel County. And we support an increase in the tourism budget as well, Hunt said on behalf of Visit Wetzel County.

The Wetzel County Democratic Executive Committee also took action at its Feb. 20 meeting, announcing full support and endorsement of the Statewide action by school librarians, custodians, cooks, teachers, bus drivers, all school employees and State Troopers in their rightful, strong and unified effort to negotiate with the State Legislature for pay raises and health insurance security.At its Feb. 13 meeting, Pine Grove Town Council unanimously voted to continue to lease the towns ball fields to Youth League President Joey Barker. Barker had previously received a letter written by City Attorney Gary Rymer, advising him he defaulted on the lease agreement. Barker attended the Feb. 13 meeting to dispute that claim and defend his reputation.

Barker came prepared with social media posts and exact dates proving the time and dedication he puts into the upkeep of the field. After the flood, Barker spent several days, with little help, cleaning up the damage. He paid $635 to have the fields mowed between April and June. He noted he, himself, mows the fields frequently as well. From the time he took over, Barker has raised over $20,000 in donations for the park. Hes also used money from his own pockets for projects.

During Pine Grove Town Councils January meeting, the council made a motion to give the lease to the Wetzel County Board of Education, per a request from WCS Brian Jones, to use the field for the Valley High School girls softball team. Although the motion passed, a lease was never signed, and Barkers lease was not officially deactivated.

Barker said that hes more than willing to work with the board and WCS Assistant Superintendent Shane Highley, so the softball team can use the field as well.

I want to work with the board. I want the best fields we can have, from kindergarten to seniors in high school. Thats my goal, Barker said. He continued, Everything I do around here for the community is for the youth of the community and the betterment of them, not for self-recognition. Its for the kids.

When asked by Mayor Barb King about a proposed solution, Barker said that he would like to continue his lease to October 11, 2018.

Ive read the lease, and you were not in default of the lease. You were not in default. Theres no reason that the email should have been sent. No reason that any of this should have been done, Council member Casey Pingley said.

Council apologized and passed the motion to retract the letter that was sent and to continue the lease with Barker and the youth league.

In another matter, Mayor Barbara King presented a letter, that was approved by the sewer board, requesting permission from the county commission to use the $55,000 that was donated by them, but never touched, on Phase III of the towns sewer project. She also requested for council to read the plan of action for the violations against the sewer. They will be sent to the DEP and will wait for a response from them on the matter.

King informed council that she is requesting at least three summer youth workers to work for the town of Pine Grove.

Im willing to give up my summer to be one of the supervisors if necessary, King said.

Projects that King has in mind for the youth workers include painting the sidewalk and helping the senior centers clean up their properties. King also sent a letter to Wheeling Jesuit, requesting college students to volunteer.

Wheeling Jesuit sends students out. They have a community project, and they will send students out to help little communities, King explained.

I think its about time we start getting this town cleaned up. This town is a mess, King remarked.

In another matter, the mayor said that City Recorder Rhonda Spencer is preparing the budget to be submitted by the March 1 deadline.

Council approved the following business:

* The minutes of the Jan.9 meeting with one correction. The minutes stated the flood was July 28 instead of June 28

* Payment of bills.

The next council meeting is March 13 at the Byrd Center at 7 p.m.VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Feb. 28, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Mundoro Capital Inc. (TSXV:MUN) (www.mundoro.com) ("Mundoro" or the "Company") is pleased to announce drilling results from the East and West Zone on the Zeleznik exploration license (Zeleznik) in north-eastern Serbia. Zeleznik is one of the four licenses being sole funded under the Agreement between Mundoro and Japan Oil, Gas and Metals National Corporation ("JOGMEC") announced March 7, 2016. Zeleznik is located directly north of the Serbian state-owned Majdanpek copper-gold mine and at the north end of the Timok Magmatic Complex (Timok) (see Figure 1: Location Map).



Teo Dechev, CEO and President of Mundoro commented, "Results from the drill program in 2017 have further demonstrated the potential for mineralized zones. In particular, the East Zone has demonstrated copper and gold mineralized zones starting from surface which remain open along strike to the south, the east and at depth. Our technical team is incorporating the new drilling data into our model of the systems and looking forward to developing a follow up drilling program for 2018. We have also completed ground magnetics over the entire 6,774 hectares of the project. This magnetic data along with the structural interpretation and regional soil analysis will be used to further define new target areas over the project. 

ZELEZNIK EAST ZONE AND WEST ZONE TARGET AREAS

The 2017 Phase III drill program on the Zeleznik East Zone and West Zone target areas comprised of 16 inclined diamond drill holes totaling 4,200 m. Nine drill holes were completed at the West Zone and seven drill holes at the East Zone. The drilling was designed to follow up on the previous two drilling campaigns totalling 3,200 m of drilling that successfully intersected near-surface porphyry type mineralisation at both the East and West Zones.

East Zone Drilling Confirms Gold and Copper Mineralization Remains Open Along Strike and Towards East

The East Zone drill holes were designed as fences to previously completed holes ZELDD06, ZELDD05 and ZELDD04 and to further test the carbonate-replacement type mineralization at the porphyry-limestone contacts (see Figure 2: East Zone Drill Hole Location Map).

Porphyry-marblized-limestone contacts are marked by narrow intervals of massive magnetite and/or semi-massive sulphide of carbonate-replacement origin and the previously reported copper and gold values from the East Zone are usually associated with these contacts and structurally controlled mineralisation (see press release November 4, 2016). In addition to this type of mineralization, the recent drilling has also now identified near-surface quartz-magnetite vein type mineralization at the eastern part of the mapped porphyry intrusion. Drill hole 17-ZEL-23 collared to test depth extension of the surface channel of 30 m with 0.66 g/t gold and 0.1% copper intersected 52 m with 0.32 g/t gold from surface and suggestive for strong correlation between the observed quartz-magnetite vein type mineralisation and the gold.

These results from 2017 drill program now open new potential to the East Zone target towards the south-southwest along strike of the mapped diorite porphyry and to the east-southeast beneath the carbonate cap as supported by the gold-in-soil anomaly (see Figure 2). The Company believes the East Zone target merits a follow-up drill program of fence drilling along these two open zones. Tetratech has been engaged to assess an initial resource based on the drill results to date.

Table 1: Highlights from East Zone drill results

Drill Hole

ID From

(m) To

(m) Thickness

(m)3 Cu

(%) Au

(g/t) Ag

(g/t) CuEq1

(%) AuEq2

(g/t) 17-ZEL-15 4.0 8.0 4.0 0.16 0.21 0.26 0.32 0.43 and 33.0 53.8 20.8 0.2 0.26 1.01 0.40 0.55 including 34.0 41.0 7.0 0.23 0.37 1.29 0.51 0.71 including 49.0 53.8 4.8 0.46 0.43 3.15 0.81 1.11 17-ZEL-17 No significant intercepts 17-ZEL-19 45.0 50.0 5.0 0.26 0.44 0.5 0.59 0.8 17-ZEL-21 83.0 91.0 8.0 0.08 0.35 - 0.34 0.46 17-ZEL-23 0.0 52.0 52.0 0.06 0.32 - 0.29 0.4 and 95.0 110.0 15.0 0.19 0.26 3.0 0.41 0.57 including 97.0 101.4 4.4 0.44 0.54 5.1 0.89 1.22 and 135.0 144.0 9.0 0.3 0.09 1.33 0.38 0.52 and 173.3 174.5 1.2 0.65 1.95 3.8 2.12 2.9 and 213.0 215.0 2.0 0.19 0.26 - 0.38 0.52 and 228.0 231.0 3.0 0.15 0.25 0.77 0.34 0.47 17-ZEL-25 46.0 81.0 35.0 0.29 0.32 0.1 0.52 0.72 including 61.0 71.0 10.0 0.75 0.65 1.6 1.24 1.7 including 63.0 67.1 4.1 1.22 1.02 3.2 2.00 2.74 and 170.2 178.0 7.8 0.27 0.23 1.6 0.46 0.63 including 172.5 174.0 1.5 0.4 0.55 1.5 0.82 1.12 including 176.0 178.0 2.0 0.41 0.06 3.2 0.49 0.67 17-ZEL-28 No significant intercepts

1. Cu Eq % = (Cu Eq $/t + Au Eq $/t + Ag Eq $/t)/Cu $ per lb/2204.6

2. Au Eq g/t = (Cu Eq $/t + Au Eq $/t + Ag Eq $/t)/Au $ per oz x 31.1

Price used for CuEq and AuEq calculations are: US$2.60/lb Cu, US$1300/oz Au, US$20/oz Ag

3. All thicknesses from intersections from drill holes are down-hole drilled thicknesses and not true widths. The current exploration model has not had sufficient drill testing to be able to determine true thickness of mineralization.

West Zone Drilling Demonstrates Wide Mineralized Envelope Remains Open Along Strike South, East and Depth

Drill holes were collared on three parallel sections at approximately 100 m between fences and 100 m between holes on each fence (see Figure 3: West Zone Drill Hole Location Map). The aim of the drill program was to further test the West Zone copper potential where one of the previously completed drill holes returned an intercept of 25.8m @ 0.39% copper.

The technical team has identified four types of porphyry dykes according to their textural composition and geochemistry that are intruded into a metamorphic basement of Timok. The four phases porphyry intrusions confirm the multistage porphyry system at Zeleznik. Copper mineralisation is associated with early-mineral stage dykes containing A-type quartz veinlets and B-type quartz-pyrite-chalcopyrite veins, as well as disseminated pyrite-chalcopyrite mineralisation. Both the early-mineral dykes and the surrounding wall-rock gneiss are mineralized and form an envelope of above 0.1% Cu that is widening towards south-southeast. Within this mineralised domain narrow sub-vertical zones with more intensive quartz-chalcopyrite veining have been intersected and returned samples with greater than 0.3% copper. Pyrite is the dominant sulphide mineral and chalcopyrite the principal copper mineral with lesser chalcocite occurring in veins.

The West Zone mineralisation remains open to the south and east supported by the extension of the copper-gold-in-soil anomaly for an additional 500 metres along strike (see Figure 3). The Company believes this target merits a follow-up drilling across the entire system and test depth potential.

Table 2: Highlights from West Zone drill results

Drill Hole

ID From

(m) To

(m) Thickness

(m)1 Cu

(%) Au

(g/t) CuEq2

(%) AuEq3

(g/t) 17-ZEL-13 178.0 196.0 18.0 0.2 0.06 0.24 0.33 and 228.0 254.0 26.0 0.2 0.04 0.23 0.31 including 230.0 234.0 4.0 0.41 0.08 0.47 0.64 17-ZEL-14 20.0 24.0 4.0 0.19 0.03 0.21 0.29 17-ZEL-16 0.0 71.0 71.0 0.14 0.02 0.16 0.21 17-ZEL-18 0.0 168.3 168.3 0.19 0.04 0.22 0.3 including 14.0 31.5 17.5 0.24 0.05 0.28 0.38 including 99.9 112.0 12.1 0.31 0.06 0.35 0.49 including 128.0 137.0 9.0 0.32 0.06 0.36 0.5 including 152.4 168.3 15.9 0.25 0.05 0.29 0.39 and 193.9 251.8 57.9 0.17 0.03 0.19 0.26 17-ZEL-20 0.0 67.85 67.85 0.2 0.04 0.23 0.31 and 75.8 130.0 54.2 0.17 0.04 0.2 0.27 17-ZEL-22 16.0 248.1 232.1 0.15 0.03 0.17 0.24 including 16.0 23.0 7.0 0.23 0.03 0.25 0.35 including 125.0 129.0 4.0 0.25 0.05 0.29 0.39 including 149.0 157.4 8.4 0.21 0.03 0.23 0.32 including 164.0 175.0 11.0 0.23 0.05 0.27 0.37 including 231.0 248.1 17.1 0.21 0.04 0.24 0.33 17-ZEL-24 40.0 58.0 18.0 0.2 0.01 0.21 0.28 including 46.0 48.7 2.7 0.27 0.02 0.29 0.39 including 52.0 56.7 4.7 0.25 0.01 0.26 0.35 and 185.0 302.6 117.6 0.15 0.02 0.17 0.23 and 243.0 253.0 10.0 0.22 0.04 0.25 0.34 and 279.2 288.0 8.8 0.21 0.04 0.24 0.33 17-ZEL-26 0.0 121.0 121.0 0.16 0.03 0.18 0.25 including 45.0 70.0 25.0 0.22 0.04 0.25 0.34 including 56.0 62.0 6.0 0.37 0.08 0.43 0.59 and 204.0 213.0 9.0 0.24 0.06 0.28 0.39 and 231.0 237.0 6.0 0.19 0.02 0.21 0.28 17-ZEL-27 75.0 301.0 226.0 0.18 0.03 0.2 0.28 including 109.0 115.5 6.5 0.35 0.05 0.39 0.53 including 210.0 267.0 57.0 0.22 0.05 0.26 0.35 including 219.0 228.0 9.0 0.27 0.06 0.31 0.43 including 245.6 251.0 5.4 0.33 0.09 0.4 0.54

1. Cu Eq % = (Cu Eq $/t + Au Eq $/t + Ag Eq $/t)/Cu $ per lb/2204.6

2. Au Eq g/t = (Cu Eq $/t + Au Eq $/t + Ag Eq $/t)/Au $ per oz x 31.1

Price used for CuEq and AuEq calculations are: US$2.60/lb Cu, US$1300/oz Au, US$20/oz Ag

3. All thicknesses from intersections from drill holes are down-hole drilled thicknesses and not true widths. The current exploration model has not had sufficient drill testing to be able to determine true thickness of mineralization.

New Ground Magnetics Survey Completed for Further Targeting

To date, the systematic exploration program at Zeleznik has identified four main target areas: West Zone, East Zone, Central Zone and North Zone. The Central Zone and North Zone have yet to be drill tested. To further assist with the exploration of the project as a whole, which now includes 67.74 sqkm (6,774 hectares) over three licenses: (i) Zeleznik license (60 sqkm), (ii) Radjina license (4 sqkm), and (iii) Fresenis license (3 sqkm), a ground magnetic survey over the entire project began in October 2017 and was completed in February 2018. The survey was designed to cover the project at 100 meter line spacing. This magnetic data along with the structural interpretation and regional soil analysis will be used to further define new target areas over the project.

Qualified Person

Technical information contained in this Press Release has been reviewed and approved by Mr. G. Magaranov, P. Geo., Qualified Person as defined by National Instrument 43-101.

Sampling, Analysis and Quality Assurance and Control (QA/QC)

Drill hole orientations were surveyed at approximately 30 metre intervals. Company personnel monitored the drilling, with drill core delivered daily to the Companys core storage facility where it was logged, cut and sampled. Core recovery is recorded as 95-100% in most intervals. The samples were collected in accordance with the Companys protocols that are compatible with accepted industry procedures and best practice standards at one or two-meter lengths from mineralised intervals and three meter lengths from non-mineralised intervals.

The samples were submitted to ALS Laboratory in Bor, Serbia, for sample preparation and analysis. In addition to the laboratorys internal QA/QC procedures, the Company conducted its own QA/QC with the systematic inclusion of certified reference materials every 20 samples, blank samples every 20 samples and field duplicates at every 25 samples. Drill core samples are assayed using 50-grams charge for fire assay with atomic absorption finish and multi-element method MS 61 by ALS laboratory.

On behalf of the Company,

Teo Dechev, Chief Executive Officer, President and Director

About Mundoro Capital Inc.

Mundoro is a Canadian mineral exploration and development public company focused on building value for its shareholders through directly investing in mineral projects that have the ability to generate future returns for shareholders. The Company currently holds a diverse portfolio of projects in two European countries as well as an investment in a producing gold mine in Bulgaria and a feasibility stage gold project in China. The Company holds eight 100% owned projects in Serbia, the four Timok North Projects are in option to JOGMEC, and the four Timok South Projects are being advanced by Mundoro. Mundoros common shares trade on the TSX Venture Exchange under the symbol "MUN".

For further information please contact:

Teo Dechev, CEO, President and Director of Mundoro Capital Inc. at +1-604-669-8055

Caution Concerning Forward-Looking Statements

Information included, attached to or incorporated by reference into this News Release may contain forward-looking statements. All statements, other than statements of historical fact, included or incorporated by reference in this News Release are forward-looking statements, including, without limitation, statements regarding activities, events or developments that the Board expects or anticipates may occur in the future. These forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of forward-looking words such as "will", "expect", "intend", "plan", "estimate", "anticipate", "believe", promising, encouraging or "continue" or similar words or the negative thereof. The material assumptions that were applied in making the forward looking statements in this News Release include expectations as to the Company's future strategy and business plan and execution of the Company's existing plans. There can be no assurance that the plans, intentions or expectations upon which these forward-looking statements are based will occur. We caution readers of this News Release not to place undue reliance on forward looking statements contained in this News Release, which are not a guarantee of performance and are subject to a number of uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. These factors include general economic and market conditions, changes in law, regulatory processes, the status of Mundoro's assets and financial condition, actions of competitors and the ability to implement business strategies and pursue business opportunities. The forward-looking statements contained in this News Release are expressly qualified in their entirety by this cautionary statement. The forward-looking statements included in this News Release are made as of the date of this News Release and the Board undertakes no obligation to publicly update such forward-looking statements to reflect new information, subsequent events or otherwise, except as required by law. Shareholders are cautioned that all forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties and for a more detailed discussion of such risks and other factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements, refer to the Company's filings with the Canadian securities regulators available on www.sedar.com.

Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Photos accompanying this announcement are available at

http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/eaaf6062-7598-4475-be3c-bae802f36df2

http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/61ab4d00-e206-4696-9b5a-46069b0254c9

http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/4986fd7f-ec1e-43f6-a476-2462bfc2da77COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo., Feb. 28, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Housing & Building Association of Colorado Springs (CSHBA) today announced the launch of an expanded regional campaign to promote Careers in Construction (CIC)  funded by a grant from the Colorado Department of Labor & Employment.

The grants purpose is to build on the success of CIC, a workforce program developed locally by the CSHBA, Associated General Contractors of Colorado (AGC/C) and area high schools. Careers in Construction was launched in 2015. More than 300 students from four school districts across the Pikes Peak region participate in the program.

Until now, CIC has been entirely funded by donations from construction and trade businesses in Colorado Springs. Now the CSHBA and its allies have more funding to show teens across the Pikes Peak region  as well as their families, educators and community leaders  the value of learning a trade, both for the satisfaction of building a versatile skillset and the career and educational opportunities it will open up later in life.

The initiative includes a newly launched website (GoBuildCO.com), which will be the nerve center for a region-wide multimedia campaign encouraging teens to sign up for shop class and learn about opportunities in trade careers, while also serving as a job placement platform for students and employers looking for skilled trade employees. The campaign also aims to expand the program into new schools while winning more support from local construction and trade businesses.

This is a win for everybody, said Renee Zentz, CSHBAs CEO. Weve got a bigger megaphone to tell students about how shop class can give them personal pride, skills they can use their whole life, and even a new career or path to higher education. Many of the successful professionals in the industry today started their careers this very way  in the classroom. To see a program like this reviving that opportunity in our community is very exciting. 

To learn more about Careers in Construction, visit GoBuildCO.com.

###

About Careers in Construction

Careers in Construction was launched in 2015 to help young people connect with construction trade education in the Pikes Peak and Southern Colorado regions  and to encourage our allies in the construction industry to join us in creating good career opportunities while helping their industries.



Careers in Construction is funded through a grant by the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment and by voluntary contributions from homebuilders and tradespeople in the Pikes Peak Region. Hundreds of students from six are high schools are learning construction career skills through CIC-supported classroom education.

About the Housing & Building Association of Colorado Springs

Homes are a cornerstone of the American dream and a major driver of our economy. The Housing & Building Association of Colorado Springs (CSHBA) was founded in 1950 as the voice of the homebuilding community and associated trades. We advance best practices, advocate for affordable housing, contribute expertise to regional development issues and serve our community through our workforce initiatives and HBA Cares programs. Find out how were helping to build a better Colorado Springs at cshba.com and hbacares.org.

About American General Contractors of Colorado

The AGC of Colorado is Colorado's leading professional association for the state's commercial building industry, representing over 500 firms. AGC/C provides benefits and business resources ranging from: networking opportunities in Denver, Colorado Springs, Fort Collins and the Mountain Region. The membership of AGC/C is comprised of general contractors and specialty contractors (both union and non-union shops, public and privately owned; and, from very large to very small), suppliers and professional service providers. Every year, AGC/C members complete over 70% of the commercial building in Colorado.

Attachment:

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/3242d847-dc20-47f1-b6b2-8ac0c0b117beHelsinn Files Petition for Writ of Certiorari for Supreme Court Review Regarding Patent Covering Aloxi in the US Market

Lugano, Switzerland, and Woodcliff Lake, N.J., February 28, 2018 - In response to the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit holding certain patents covering the antiemetic agent ALOXI (palonosetron hydrochloride) injection to be invalid in patent infringement litigation against Teva Pharmaceuticals USA, Inc. and Teva Pharmaceutical Industries, Ltd. (collectively "Teva"), Helsinn Healthcare S.A. has filed a petition for writ of certiorari with the U.S. Supreme Court. Helsinn's petition requests that the Court review and reverse the judgment of the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit ("Federal Circuit").

Helsinn specifically asks the Supreme Court to consider whether, under the Leahy-Smith America Invents Act, the definition of what qualifies to invalidate a patent has changed. More specifically, Helsinn asks the Supreme Court to consider whether, under the Leahy-Smith America Invents Act, an inventor's sale of an invention to a third party that is obligated to keep the invention confidential is an act that can invalidate a patent, which is a question that the courts are addressing for the first time.

This filing was made based upon the belief by Helsinn and Eisai Inc., which markets Aloxi in the U.S., that the Federal Circuit decision was in error and that protecting intellectual property is critical to a company's ability to continue developing medicines that will make a difference in the lives of patients. Helsinn and Eisai maintain their position that the patents protecting Aloxi are valid and will continue to pursue all available options to protect and enforce these patents.

END

About the Helsinn Group

Helsinn is a privately owned pharmaceutical group with an extensive portfolio of marketed cancer care products and a robust drug development pipeline. Since 1976, Helsinn has been improving the everyday lives of patients, guided by core family values of respect, integrity and

quality. The Group works across pharmaceuticals, biotechnology, medical devices and nutritional supplements and has expertise in research, development, manufacture and the commercialization of therapeutic and supportive care products for cancer, pain and

inflammation and gastroenterology. In 2016, Helsinn created the Helsinn Investment Fund to support early-stage investment opportunities in areas of unmet patient need. The company is headquartered in Lugano, Switzerland, with operating subsidiaries in Switzerland, Ireland, the U.S., Monaco and China, as well as a product presence in approximately 190 countries globally.

To learn more about Helsinn Group please visit www.helsinn.com

About Eisai Inc.

At Eisai Inc., human health care (hhc) is our goal. We give our first thoughts to patients and their families, and helping to increase the benefits health care provides. As the U.S. pharmaceutical subsidiary of Tokyo-based Eisai Co., Ltd., we have a passionate commitment to patient care that is the driving force behind our efforts to discover and develop innovative therapies to help address unmet medical needs.

Eisai is a fully integrated pharmaceutical business that operates in two global business groups: oncology and neurology (dementia-related diseases and neurodegenerative diseases). Each group functions as an end-to-end global business with discovery, development, and marketing capabilities. Our U.S. headquarters, commercial and clinical development organizations are located in New Jersey; our discovery labs are in Massachusetts and Pennsylvania; and our global demand chain organization resides in Maryland and North Carolina.

To learn more about Eisai Inc., please visit us at www.eisai.com/US

For more information:

Helsinn Group Media Contact

Paola Bonvicini

Group Head of Communication

Lugano, Switzerland

Tel: +41 (0) 91 985 21 21

Info-hhc@helsinn.com

Please visit www.helsinn.com

www.helsinn.com We are on Twitter. Follow us @HelsinnGroup

@HelsinnGroup We are on LinkedIn. Follow us @ Helsinn Group

Eisai Inc. Media Contact: Patricia Councill

201-746-2139

Patricia_Councill@eisai.comBy Jina Belcher Ground zero for federal efforts to boost communities reeling from the downturn[Read More]BIRMINGHAM, Ala. and BRISTOL, United Kingdom, Feb. 28, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Command Alkon, the global leader in integrated software and technology solutions for the heavy building materials industry, is proud to exhibit at the 8th Annual UK Concrete Show. The UK Concrete Show is Europes largest event dedicated to concrete, where hundreds of exhibitors and product groups gather to showcase everything from cement to pumps, precast manufacturing products, technology, admixtures, testing and repair, and much more. This event is the ultimate opportunity to see the latest products and to network with new and existing suppliers. The show will take place in Birmingham Halls 17 & 18 at the National Exhibition Centre.



The UK Concrete Show is a great venue dedicated to the actual concrete producers and contractors who utilize the product in the market, said Michael Hoagland, EMEA Sales Manager at Command Alkon. Many shows include anything within the construction materials space. Not this show. Its strategically focused on Ready Mix Concrete.

Command Alkon will be showcasing its technologies that deliver automation, visibility, collaboration, and simplification across these business lines:

Production & Quality Control

Dispatch & Logistics

Trucking & Telematics

Direct Materials Management

Sales Automation

Business Systems

Opening Hours:

Wednesday, March 21  09.00 to 17.00

Thursday, March 22  09.00 to 16.00

This show is a personal favorite of mine; not only does it provides a unique opportunity to engage and connect with practitioners from around the world, but it also provides a platform to participate with the concrete producers within my territory all under one roof, said David Taylor, UK Areas Sales Manager at Command Alkon. Attendees leave with further knowledge of best practices and problem solving strategies through collaboration and educational seminar sessions.

David Taylor will be hosting a seminar session on Wednesday, March 21 titled Challenging the Status Quo of the Concrete Industry. During the seminar, David will discuss the overall Customer Experience that yields a huge competitive advantage by challenging the norm, changing the landscape, and in turn, the market in general. Embracing modern technology generates a world class customer experience and can support many aspects of a business. Costumes will be included, making this a fun session that attendees do not want to miss!

All educational seminar sessions for the show will be available at the following times:

Wednesday, March 21  10-14.45

Thursday, March 22  11-14.45

For more information about The UK Concrete Show 2018, visit the website here.

About Command Alkon

Command Alkon offers expertise and technologies that automate and streamline all aspects of the construction materials supply chain for producers, suppliers and haulers of ready-mixed concrete, aggregates, asphalt, cement, and manufactured concrete. A comprehensive suite of industry specific software and automation offerings combined with employees invested in the success of construction materials operations differentiates Command Alkon as an industry partner. Command Alkon is headquartered in Birmingham, Alabama and has offices in locations around the globe. For more information, visit www.commandalkon.com.

For More Information, Contact:

Becky Boyd

MediaFirst PR

(770) 642-2080 x 214

Becky@MediaFirst.Net

Ed Rusch

Command Alkon

(205) 879-3282 x 2965

erusch@commandalkon.comToronto, Feb. 28, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- While we are encouraged by the governments commitment to address labour shortages through immigration measures and tax incentives to encourage work, Restaurants Canada is disappointed by the governments lack of appreciation for the fiscal challenges that the foodservice industry and small businesses everywhere are faced with today.

For example, Canadian small business owners still face some of the highest credit card fees in the world. After a year-long study of the payment sector the budget offers more consultation instead of action.

Payroll taxes are scheduled to increase significantly over the next five years due to CPP contribution increases. Instead of providing an offset for labour-intensive businesses that are hardest hit by these profit-insensitive payroll taxes, EI premiums are scheduled to increase.

Continuation of the dangerously precedent-setting escalator tax on alcohol is also disappointing.

We would have also liked to have seen better protections for in-family business transfers and better recognition of the non-paid contribution of shareholders in the budget.

Absence of any new or additional funds or indications about culinary tourism also comes as a surprising omission.

On a positive note, we welcome governments efforts to focus on the expediency of processing immigrant and refugee applications so new Canadians can receive residency status in a timely manner so that they can quickly be matched with employers experiencing labour shortages.

Also helpful to an industry with wide-spread labour shortages is the expansion of the Working Income Tax Benefit, now the Canada Workers Benefit (CWB) program, which will provide incentives for unemployed Canadians to join the workforce.

We are happy to have clarification on small business tax changes and the threshold on passive income. The budget modifications are recognized as a positive step for the industry.

Pushing the implementation of some of the most complicated new proposals to 2019 is also appreciated, as it provides operators more time to adjust to tax reforms. We commend the government for the progressive aspect of this new system, which is consistent with Restaurants Canadas recommendation.

Overall we believe that there are important positive steps in the budget that will provide some support for our industry but we believe that much work remains and we look forward to partnering with government to move one of Canadas key growth sectors forward.

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.

Attachment:

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/2598659e-1fca-4de0-905b-c170de927f46PLANO, Texas, Feb. 28, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Board of Sharing Services, Inc. (OTC Markets:SHRV) today announced that the launching of their new sales platform last quarter was very successful and exceeded all expectations.

"The Company has been planning this product launch for several months and we are very pleased with the results thus far, stated, Robert Oblon, Chairman of Sharing Services. The company has seen substantial growth recently and we are excited that the sales of our products have exceeded expectations, commented Oblon.

Management also stated that, The growth it has experienced over the last quarter is very promising, as it continues to build the product line and sales organization throughout the Country. The company expects this growth to continue and looks forward to finally reporting sales figures in the company on its quarterly report which should be filed soon.

About Sharing Services, Inc. Sharing Services, Inc. is a diversified holding company specializing in the direct selling industry. SHRV owns, operates, or controls an interest in a variety of companies that either sell products to the consumer directly through independent representatives or offers services that range from manufacturing, processing, training, and travel benefits. Visit http://www.sharingservicesinc.com, call 714.203.6717, or email info@sharingservicesinc.com, to learn more.

The statements contained in this press release that are not purely historical are forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 31E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, including statements regarding the Company's expectations, hopes, beliefs, intentions, or strategies regarding the future, including the Company's operating margin and rolling average annual growth in tangible book value per share, constitute forward-looking statements. Prospective investors are cautioned that any such forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and involve risks and uncertainties, and that actual results may differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements as a result of various factors. All forward-looking statements included in this document are based on information available to the Company on the date hereof and the Company assumes no obligation to update any such forward-looking statement. Prospective investors should also consult the risks described from time to time in the Company's Reports on Forms 10-K, 10-Q and 8-K and Annual Reports to Shareholders.

Contact:

Sharing Services, Inc.

Investor Relations

(714) 203-6717

info@sharingsevicesinc.comCALGARY, Alberta, Feb. 28, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- West High Yield (W.H.Y.) Resources Ltd. ("West High Yield" or the "Company") (TSXV:WHY) announces that it proposes to complete a non-brokered private placement of units ("Units"). There is no minimum subscription for this offering and a maximum of 2,428,571 Units will be issued at a price of $0.35 per Unit for gross proceeds of up to $850,000. Each Unit will consist of one common share in the capital of the Company (a "Common Share") and one-third of one common share purchase warrant (a "Warrant"). Each whole Warrant would entitle the holder to purchase one additional Common Share at an exercise price of $0.55 for a period of one year from the date of issuance of the Warrant.



The proposed private placement is subject to receipt of all necessary regulatory approvals including the approval of the TSX Venture Exchange. The Company confirms that, as of the date of this press release, there is no "material fact" or "material change" (as those terms are defined under applicable securities laws) related to the Company which has not been generally disclosed.

Assuming the maximum offering is completed, approximately $750,000 of the net proceeds are expected to be used for the continuation of the environmental base line study, environmental assessment study and mine plan and permit application and Industrial Quarry Permit application for its Record Ridge deposit near Rossland, British Columbia and the balance of the net proceeds will be used for general corporate purposes.

The Industrial Quarry Permit sought under the Mines Act (British Columbia) will allow for the extraction and sale of up to 249,999 tonnes per annum of industrial rock. The Company is also in the process of developing potential customers with processing facilities and the ability to process the industrial rock. It is anticipated that industrial rock sales will provide cash flows from operations while continued mine plan and permit application efforts are being made.

About West High Yield

West High Yield is a publicly traded junior mining exploration company focused on the acquisition, exploration and development of mineral resource properties in Canada with a primary objective to locate and develop economic gold, nickel and magnesium properties.

For further information please contact:



Frank Marasco

President and Chief Executive Officer

West High Yield (W.H.Y.) Resources Ltd.

Telephone: (403) 660-3488

Facsimile: (403) 206-7159

Email: frank@whyresources.com Dwayne Vinck

Chief Financial Officer

West High Yield (W.H.Y.) Resources Ltd.

Telephone: (403) 257-2637

Facsimile: (403) 206-7159

Email: vinck@shaw.ca

Reader Advisory

This press release contains forward-looking statements and forward-looking information within the meaning of applicable securities laws. The use of any of the words "expect", "anticipate", "continue", "estimate", "objective", "ongoing", "may", "will", "project", "should", "believe", "plans", "intends" and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking information or statements. More particularly and without limitation, this press release contains forward looking statements and information concerning the terms and timing of the proposed non-brokered private placement of Units, the proposed allocation and use of proceeds, the Company's business plans and the anticipated sales of industrial rock. The forward-looking statements and information are based on certain key expectations and assumptions made by the Company. Although the Company believes that the expectations and assumptions on which such forward-looking statements and information are based are reasonable, undue reliance should not be placed on the forward looking statements and information because the Company can give no assurance that they will prove to be correct.

Forward-looking information is based on the opinions and estimates of management at the date the statements are made, and are subject to a variety of risks and uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual events or results to differ materially from those anticipated in the forward-looking information. Some of the risks and other factors that could cause the results to differ materially from those expressed in the forward-looking information include, but are not limited to: general economic conditions in Canada and globally; industry conditions, including governmental regulation; failure to obtain industry partner and other third party consents and approvals, if and when required; the availability of capital on acceptable terms; the need to obtain required approvals from regulatory authorities; stock market volatility; competition for, among other things, skilled personnel and supplies; changes in tax laws; and the other factors. Readers are cautioned that this list of risk factors should not be construed as exhaustive.

Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on this forward-looking information, which is given as of the date hereof, and to not use such forward-looking information for anything other than its intended purpose. The Company undertakes no obligation to update publicly or revise any forward-looking information, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by applicable law.

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this press release.GRIMSBY, Ontario, Feb. 28, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Andrew Peller Limited (TSX:ADW.A) (TSX:ADW.B) (APL or the Company) announced that Mr. Brian D. Athaide, Chief Financial Officer of the Company has resigned effective March 16, 2018 to pursue other interests. Mr. Peter Patchet, APLs former retired Chief Financial Officer will rejoin the Company on an interim basis during the formal search process for a new executive.



On behalf of the Board of Directors and everyone at the Company, we would like to thank Brian for his valuable contribution over the last three years and wish him well in the future, said Randy Powell, President.

About Andrew Peller Limited

Andrew Peller Limited is one of Canadas leading producers and marketers of quality wines and craft spirits. The Companys award-winning premium and ultra-premium Vintners Quality Alliance (VQA) brands include Peller Estates, Trius, Thirty Bench, Wayne Gretzky, Sandhill, Red Rooster, Black Hills Estate, Tinhorn Creek, Gray Monk Estates, Raven Conspiracy and Conviction. Complementing these premium brands are a number of popularly priced varietal offerings, wine based liqueurs, craft ciders and craft spirits. The Company owns and operates 101 well-positioned independent retail locations in Ontario under The Wine Shop, Wine Country Vintners, and Wine Country Merchants store names. The Company also operates Andrew Peller Import Agency and The Small Winemakers Collection Inc., importers and marketing agents of premium wines from around the world. With a focus on serving the needs of all wine consumers, the Company produces and markets premium personal winemaking products through its wholly-owned subsidiary, Global Vintners Inc. (GVI), the recognized leader in personal winemaking products. More information about the Company can be found at www.andrewpeller.com.

Forward Looking Information

Certain statements in this news release may contain forward-looking statements within the meaning of applicable securities laws, including the safe harbour provision of the Securities Act (Ontario) with respect to Andrew Peller Limited and its subsidiaries. These forward-looking statements are subject to the risks and uncertainties discussed in the Risks and Uncertainties section and elsewhere in the Companys MD&A and other risks detailed from time to time in the publicly filed disclosure documents of Andrew Peller Limited which are available at www.sedar.com. Forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and involve risks, uncertainties, and assumptions which could cause actual results to differ materially from those conclusions, forecasts, or projections anticipated in these forward-looking statements. The Companys forward-looking statements are made only as of the date of this news release, and except as required by applicable law, the Company undertakes no obligation to update or revise these forward-looking statements to reflect new information, future events or circumstances or otherwise.

For more information, please contact:

Mr. Randy Powell, President

(905-643-4131)



SANTA ANA, Calif., Feb. 28, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) --



When: Thursday, March 1, 2018; Press Conference starts at 10:00 a.m.



What:

The City of San Clemente commissioned the IBI Group, an internationally respected traffic and engineering firm, to study the Transportation Corridor Agencies (TCA) proposed $2,000,000,000 extension of the SR-241 toll road. The stunning results of their study will be released to the public on Thursday morning.

In addition to the IBI Group and members of the San Clemente City Council, elected officials from neighboring cities, concerned citizens from South Orange County and others will be addressing the media following the presentation of the results of the IBI Group traffic study.

Where: Orange County Hall of Administration, 333 W. Santa Ana Blvd, Santa Ana

Additional Background:

The Transportation Corridor Agencies (TCA) was originally formed in 1986 to oversee the San Joaquin Hills, Foothill and Eastern Toll Roads, but has not built any new toll roads since 1996, existing solely to continue to collect development fees and manage the existing roads while spending millions to battle Orange County residents and other stakeholders who oppose TCA projects. The proposed SR-241 Toll Road Extension would mostly benefit those traveling from Los Angeles County to San Diego County, with little actual benefit for those living and working in Orange County.

In 1996, Paul Glaab, the director of public affairs for the TCA stated We're a single-purpose public agency, [whose purpose] is to finance, design and build the roads and then go out of business. (Heavy Lobbying Helps Spare Tollway Agency Los Angeles Times, April 22, 1996., http://articles.latimes.com/1996-04-22/news/mn-61460_1_toll-road ). Since 1996, the TCA has not built any new toll roads nor have they gone out of business.

Contact: Adam Englander: (310) 717-8311 or adam@ekapr.com

Source: City of San ClementeHIGHLIGHTS

High Lithium grades confirmed on Salinas Grandes salar

Peak assay returned 1,353 milligrams/liter Lithium

60% of assays >500 mg/l Lithium and 16% >800 mg/l Lithium

VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Feb. 28, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Dajin Resources Corp. (Dajin) (TSX-V:DJI) (OTCQB:DJIFF) (Germany:C2U1) management is pleased to report that LSC Lithium Corporation (LSC) has completed phase one surface exploration of the northwest portion of the San Jose/Navidad mina located on the Salinas Grandes salar in the Province of Jujuy, Argentina. The mina forms part of a 93,000 hectare land package being earned by LSC (51%). To fulfill the terms of the earn-in agreement LSC must complete CDN$2,000,000 in expenditures. LSC is the operator of the exploration project.

The 25 shallow brine samples cover an area of 550 hectares (5.5 km2) in the northwestern corner of the 4,300 hectare (43 km2) San Jose/Navidad mina. Concentrations range from 281 mg/l to 1,353 mg/l, averaging 591 mg/l Lithium. Click here to see Geochemical Map

Exploration Methodology

The 25 sample points were pre-planned on a 500m east/west and north/south grid, utilising the company geographical information system and located in the field with a hand held GPS. At each sample site an auger drill was used to excavate an 8 inch diameter hole to a depth of 2m. Thereafter a bailer was used to extract brine 0.5m to 1.0m below the phreatic level after the brine had been given time to settle over a 30 minute period. The bailed brine was then decanted into four sterilized plastic litre size bottles and sealed without any air being trapped in the bottle. There after the samples were delivered to the laboratory for analyses.

Sampling and QA/QC

Brine sampling involved collection of brine from the sample pits by a bailer and decanted into a 20-litre container, which was flushed with fresh brine several times prior to collection of the sample. Brine was poured into 1-litre sample bottles which had been previously flushed with fresh brine from the 20-litre container several times. Sample bottles were filled to the top to eliminate the inclusion of air and sealed with a leak-proof lid. Samples were labelled and labels covered with clear tape to prevent erasure of sample information. All samples remained in the possession of the site geologist until delivery to Alex Stewart Laboratory (ASA) in Jujuy, Argentina.

LSC has a well-developed QA/QC program. Brine assays are undertaken at ASA in Jujuy, Argentina. ASA is independent of LSC and has significant experience in assaying lithium brines and is certified to ISO17025 standards. Brine assays are undertaken using ICP, gravimetric, potentiometric and volumetric methods as detailed in a press release from LSC dated April 10, 2017. ASA runs internal duplicates at a rate of 1 in 20.

LSC inserts blanks and standards in sample batches at a rate of 1 in 20. Standards are internal standards developed by LSC that have been independently certified by round robin testing. LSC uses distilled water as blanks. The analytical results for standards, blanks, and replicate samples submitted as part of this project meet established protocols for accuracy and precision.

Qualified Person/Data Verification

The scientific and technical information included in this press release has been approved by Donald H. Hains, P.Geo. Mr. Hains is a qualified person, as defined in NI 43-101 and is independent of LSC and Dajin. Mr. Hains has verified all sampling, analytical and test data contained in this press release and review of certified assay certificates against the assay data base.

About Dajin: (www.dajin.ca)

Dajin, is an early stage Lithium exploration company. Through its interest in Dajin Resources S.A. (Dajin S.A.), it holds concessions or concession applications in Jujuy Province, Argentina that were acquired in regions known to contain brines with Lithium, Potassium and Boron values. These land holdings exceed 93,000 hectares (230,000 acres) and are primarily located in the Salinas Grandes and Guayatayoc salt lake basins (salars). San Jose/Navidad minas form part of the 93,000 hectare land package covered by the joint venture between LSC (51%) and Dajin (49%). LSC is the operator of the exploration project and is required to complete CDN$2,000,000 in expenditures.

In Nevada, Dajin holds a 100% interest in 403 placer claims covering 7,914 acres (3,202 hectares) in the Teels Marsh valley of Mineral County, Nevada. These claims are known to contain Lithium and Boron values and are adjacent to the birth place of US Borax Corps first borax mine. Dajin also holds a 100% interest in 278 placer claims covering 5,591 acres (2,262 hectares) in the Alkali Lake valley of Esmeralda County, Nevada, located 7.5 miles (12 kilometers) northeast of Albemarles Silver Peak Lithium brine operation in Clayton Valley. Dajin is moving forward with construction of roads and pads at its Teels Marsh valley project in preparation for drilling of four (4) large diameter exploration wells.

ON BEHALF OF DAJINS BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Brian Findlay

President & CEO



For further information please contact:

Julie Hajduk at 604-609-6151 or julie@dajin.ca

Head of Corporate Development

The TSX Venture Exchange has not reviewed and does not accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.Close Get email notifications on Mike Holloway daily!

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Digital Issue Would you like to receive our Digital Issue? Signup today!Top honour for Science Educator

Professor Marissa Rollnick is admired for her efforts in unlocking more creative teaching practices among science educators.

A teacher can affect eternity: (s) he can never tell where (her) his influence stops - Henry Adams

This is an apt quote to describe the impact of science educator Professor Marissa Rollnick whose reach goes beyond Wits and the training of local teachers.

NARST, a worldwide organization for improving science teaching and learning through research has bestowed on Rollnick, its highest honour, the 2018 NARST Distinguished Contribution to Science Education through Research Award.

The award recognises scholars who have made contributions to, provided notable leadership in, and had substantial impact on, science education through research over a period of at least 20 years said the organization. NARST celebrates its 90th anniversary this year.

I feel that this award that marks the pinnacle of my career, and beyond my wildest expectations says Rollnick, an NRF B-Rated researcher.

Rollnick who has over 34-years experience in the area is not only respected for her research but is admired for her efforts in unlocking more creative teaching practices among science educators.

This can only be done by instilling confidence in teachers, she maintains.

Her inaugural lecture was titled The complex dilemma of subject matter knowledge for Chemistry teachers. What is to be done?

Having worked first with Foundation Programme students in the science faculty and then with both pre-service and in-service teachers to change their understanding and teaching of science content, she is encouraged that there are signs of progress. Formerly her research was based on the effect of language on the teaching and learning of science but now she looks at Pedagogical Content Knowledge (PCK) which is specialised knowledge possessed by teachers on how they transform science content to make it comprehensible to learners. Her current research focuses on how PCK can impact learner achievement. Her proximity to teachers does not colour her outlook and does not hesitate to share her views with the public, through media commentary, about the state of science education in South Africa.

Her ongoing mission is to improve teaching in our classrooms through the use of conceptual, rather than rote learning approaches and to improve subject matter for teaching science in our country.

In 2013 she was recognised with the Long Service Award by the Southern African Association for Research in Mathematics, Science and Technology Education (SAARMSTE). The body has congratulated Rollnick on this latest accolade which brings honour to the region.

About Professor Marissa Rollnick

Emeritus Professor Rollnick completed her BSc and teaching diploma at Wits University. She thereafter obtained her masters in chemical education at the University of East Anglia and her PhD in 1988 at Wits University.

She has taught at teachers colleges and universities in Swaziland for 15 years before returning to South Africa in 1990 to take up a position in the University. In 2005 she was appointed Chair of Science Education in the Marang Centre for Mathematics and Science Education at the School of Education. She held the positon of Director at the Centre from 2010 to 2016 before retiring.

She has graduated 16 doctoral and 27 masters students and has published 72 refereed articles, book chapters and books. Her book Identifying Potential for Equitable Access to Tertiary Level Science: Digging for Gold (2010) explores the issues of access focusing on the ways in which equal opportunities to learn have been implemented in tertiary education in Southern Africa, where models include the provision of access, foundation or second chance programmes that have opened the door to vast numbers of new students.

In South Africa, where the push for equity has been strong since the demise of apartheid, programmes have been established at all tertiary institutions, with some of the most successful of these programmes based at universities characterised by a high research output. As a result, the last decade has seen a great deal of research into the effectiveness of these programmes. Although examining the issue internationally, the book draws heavily on lessons from South Africa where considerable experience of such programmes has been accumulated.

Book synopsis extracted Springer.HOLLAND PATENT  Officials with the Holland Patent Central School District say there is no credible threat after numerous reports of a possible safety concern have surfaced on social media.

Tuesday evening NewsChannel 2 received several Facebook messages from parents in the school district concerned about rumors of a student making a hit list targeting other students.

The school district released a statement Wednesday morning, saying We have received concerns over rumors about possible threats made to the HS. The Oneida County Sheriff's Office has investigated the matter with the District and determined there is no credible threat. To reassure the community of your safety, we are working with the Sheriff's Office to review this matter. Thank you for your support.

NewsChannel 2 has reached out to parents and administrators for more information and will have a full report this afternoon.UTICA  An Illinois man who was found in Rome with a missing 16-year-old girl last month has pleaded guilty to two charges.

In Oneida County Court Tuesday morning, 27-year-old Dakota Adair pleaded guilty to one count of third degree rape and one count of criminal possession of a weapon. Rome Police say they found Adair with the teenager at the Red Carpet Inn in Rome on January 17, three days after she was reporting missing from her home in Illinois. Police say they also found a gun in the glove compartment of his car.

Police say the teen was uninjured and offered counseling through the Oneida County Child Advocacy Center.

Adair is scheduled to be sentenced on May 2. He faces one year of jail time for each of the two charges, to be served concurrently. Adair is also wanted in Wills County, Illinois on a charge of child abduction.PARKLAND, Fla. (AP) - The Latest on the return of students and teachers to classes following the killings of 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School(all times local):

9:20 a.m.

Students are returning to the Florida high school where 17 were killed in a shooting two weeks ago, but they've been told to leave their backpacks at home.

Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School principal Ty Thomas said in a tweet that "our focus is on emotional readiness and comfort not curriculum: so there is no need for backpacks."

Armed officers were on hand as students returned to the school Wednesday morning.

___

8:30 a.m.

Dick's Sporting Goods will immediately end sales of assault-style rifles in its stores and won't sell guns to anyone under 21 years old following the school massacre in Parkland, Florida.

Dick's Chairman and CEO Edward Stack said on ABC's "Good Morning America" on Wednesday that after the shooting the company "felt it needed to do something."

Stack says that the accused gunman, 19-year-old Nickolas Cruz, had purchased a gun at a Dick's store, but not the one used at the school shooting, even though all existing rules were followed. Stack says the system that's in place won't stop sales to dangerous people and said lawmakers must do something.

Stack said Dick's is prepared for any potential backlash, but won't change its policies on gun sales.

____

7:40 a.m.

One of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School students who has become a leader in the anti-assault weapon campaign says he felt scared when he saw a photo of a police officer armed with a rifle outside his school.

David Hogg said it was a picture of education in fear in this country. Hogg has been calling for an assault weapon ban since the Valentine's Day massacre killed 17 people at his school.

Hogg has spent the last two weeks making the rounds on network talk shows and speaking with legislators in Tallahassee, seeking gun legislation.

Students returned to the school Wednesday for the first time since the deadly shooting.

___

7:15 a.m.

Members of the Broward County Police Benevolent Association handed carnations out to students as they entered Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School two weeks after a former student gunned down 17 people inside the freshman building.

For Madison Geller, Wednesday offered an opportunity to get back into a routine, in spite of her fears.

"When I walk in there, I'm going to replay the whole thing in my head. But we have to come here and try to learn," the high school junior said. "This week we will try to be comfortable and get back into the same routine."

Angelyse Perez, a senior, said returning offers a chance for everyone to "get through this and be together."

"But I'm graduating," she said. "I just want to get out of here."

___

6:30 a.m.

Teachers and students are arriving early at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, their first day back after an expelled classmate with an AR-15 killed 17 people in a Valentine's Day massacre that has profoundly altered the lives of survivors.

A long line of cars bringing people back to the school in Parkland, Florida is being guided by police as dozens of television trucks and vehicles camp out nearby.

Only students, parents and staff are being allowed through a security cordon. The main entrance is covered with a sign saying "Welcome Back Eagles."

___

2 a.m.

The walkway leading onto the campus of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School is lined with flowers and photographs, memorials to the 17 students and teachers killed in a Valentine's Day massacre that forever altered their lives and thrust them into the center of the nation's gun debate.

Alexis Grogan, a 15-year-old sophomore, was among those planning to wear maroon, a Stoneman Douglas color, among other things honoring those who died. She said she's nervous after losing her friend Luke Hoyer, who sat two seats behind her in Spanish. Still, she says support from her fellow students and their fight to strengthen gun control laws is keeping her strong.

Relatives of the victims kept up pressure Tuesday in Florida's capital with emotional testimony during a legislative hearing to discuss raising the age limit to buy long guns from 18 to 21.

The bill also would create a program that allows teachers who receive law-enforcement training and are deputized by the local sheriff's office to carry concealed weapons in the classroom, if also approved by the school district. The school's superintendent has spoken out firmly against that measure.

(Copyright 2018 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)CARROLL COUNTY, Ind. (WLFI)  Last week's flooding is now leading to a flood of scams for some homeowners.

However, the Indiana Attorney General Office is on it. Staff visited White and Carroll counties Tuesday to make people aware.

Staff members dropped off checklists to various spots in White and Carroll counties. The checklists include how to protect yourself from what they call storm-chaser scams. The list describes ways you could be misled. It includes getting tricked into signing a contract without knowing all the charges. It also says always get a written contract.

News 18 spoke with one flood victim who said there's another way criminals are targeting flood victims.

"We basically lost everything," flood victim Dan Money said.





Money is slowing trying to pick up the pieces. Last week's flooding swept up years of Money's memories. In exchange, it left a damp, ruined home in Carroll County.

"We've been married 40 years. There's 40 years worth of memories, of our memories, that's in this house," said Money.

The flooding led to plenty of problems for dozens of others.

"The scams, I've heard about, but I haven't seen it," said Money. "These kind of things always bring out that type of people."

To avoid being scammed, Money and his family are planning on rebuilding what is broken.

"We're not going to give the scam artists an opportunity; we're going to do it ourselves," said Money.

Money has noticed other ways criminals are taking advantage of the flooding victims in his neighborhood.

"People are setting things out in their driveway, so that they can clean up in their house and they're stealing that stuff," said Money.

He said the weather made some hardships for him and his neighbors and it's going to be tough to rebuild. However, he knows he'll get through it.

"We'll recover because God is good," said Money.

The attorney general's staff is expected to travel to other affected areas this week, warning people about the scams.

The governor's office has also been working to assess flood damage. Tuesday it added Jasper County to the list of counties in a state of emergency. Benton, Carroll and White counties were already on that list.WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. (WLFI) - Elementary students in West Lafayette are celebrating a victory at the Indiana Statehouse.

Yesterday the house passed a bill making the Say's Firefly the official state insect.

Cumberland Elementary students began to lobby lawmakers about four years ago.

As each year passed, the bill was never voted on.

Students continued writing letters and even spoke before the general assembly.

Governor Eric Holcomb showed his support in this year's state of the state address.

Happy Hollow fifth grader Kayla Xu started the firefly campaign when she was in second grade.

She says her patience paid off.

"I was getting a little restless in the third and fourth year. I was like, 'Geez. You guys need to -- there's nothing against this. It's just a state insect. It's a state symbol. The wheels of the government turn slow, but they do turn," said Xu.

The bill passed with 93 'YES' votes to three 'NO' votes.INDIANAPOLIS (WISH)- Could light rail roll on into Indiana? One state lawmaker wants it to be an option on the table.

Lawmakers on Tuesday signaled their support for the idea in a bill heard in a hearing of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Transportation. The bill would repeal the prohibition that prevents certain counties from purchasing, leasing, acquiring, constructing or operating a light rail project.

State Rep. Justin Moed, a Democrat from Indianapolis, said Times change. Now were in an environment where Indianapolis is being looked at by major companies.

Those businesses include Amazon, which is considering Indianapolis as a home for its second headquarters. Moed said he knows public transport is high on their list.

Moed said, Detroit got knocked out of the rounds because they werent planning for transit. We are planning for transit. We just want to make sure we have a full comprehensive plan.

Central Indiana has the Red Line Bus Rapid Transit in the works, but the Indy Chamber said light rail could bode well for the regions future.

Mark Fisher with the Indianapolis Chamber of Commerce said Tuesday during testimony on the light rail transit idea, We currently have no plans for light rail, but this is an opportunity to put more tools in the toolbox and let these decisions be made where they should be, at the local level.

The bill passed the committee 7-2 on Tuesday.

But State Sen. Mike Delph, a Republican from Carmel, voted no in a committee hearing Tuesday. He said hed rather see money go toward fixing Indys pothole problem.

I think we need to focus on a laser beam on getting these potholes fixed, Delph said. I also think we need to have some accountability and transparency in terms of the total cost of this light rail project. I think someone knows about plans.

Some people on the street said they like the idea of Indiana light rail transit.

Amanda Dickinson, who said she would use light rail in Indianapolis if it existed, said I have a friend who doesnt drive. She has specifically told me the only reason she wont move to Indianapolis is because we dont have a good public transportation system.

Another woman, Patricia Angotti, said she probably would not ride on an Indianapolis light rail system because I wouldnt go anywhere it goes.

The bill returns to the full Senate, where, Moed said, hes expecting bipartisan support. The bill passed the House 90-5 in January.INDIANAPOLIS, (WLFI)  The Say's Firefly bill is headed to Indiana Governor Eric Holcomb's desk for approval. The bill passed unanimously through the Indiana Senate but there were three Republican Representatives in the House who voted no.

News 18's Kayla Sullivan tried tracking those lawmakers down at the Statehouse to find out why they voted against the bill.

"It was somewhat personal to me," said Representative John Young. "I started doing research into it. In my 30 plus years of collecting insects, I have never found a Say's Firefly, at least where I live."

Young, as a self-proclaimed amateur entomologist who represents Indiana's District 47, said Say's Firefly is only located in certain areas of Indiana.

"Say's Firefly is I believe is really restricted to the Southern and Central Counties of Indiana I'm not sure if it's that predominant in Northern Indiana," said Young. He also says the Say's firefly species is difficult to identify.

"I didn't want people going out and finding say Pyractomena Pennsylvanicus OK versus Pyractomena angulata thinking it was the state insect," said Young.

A second representative who voted against the bill was 18th District Representative David Wolkins. He isn't quite as passionate about the topic. In fact, he's not big on state insects, flowers or any designated symbol.

"I've never really voted for it in the past so I decided to be consistent and not vote for it," said Wolkins

Both Young and Wolkins agree it was a great educational opportunity for the students but they would have liked to have seen this opened up to all classrooms in Indiana.

"Could have made it a competition," said Young

Wolkins said, "Simply made it a class exercise across the board."

That could still happen. Indiana symbols don't have to be final. According to Young, the state flower has been changed four times.

Just because they voted no, doesn't mean they don't encourage more students to get involved in the legislative process.

There was a third no vote in the House, State Representative Milo Smith. He declined to comment on why he chose to vote against the Say's Firefly.

The governor still has to sign the bill before it becomes the official state insect.INDIANAPOLIS (AP)  A transgender student is suing a southern Indiana school district for denying him use of male restrooms.



The American Civil Liberties Union of Indiana filed a federal complaint against the Evansville Vanderburgh School Corp. last week on behalf of the student. It says the high school junior identified only as J.A.W. was told he's not allowed to use male restrooms and instead could use the school nurse's bathroom.

J.A.W. is listed as female on his birth certificate but identifies as male.

School district spokesman Jason Woebkenberg tells The Indianapolis Star the district believes it meets state and federal legal requirements as they relate to transgender students.

A federal appeals court in May ruled in favor of a transgender student who challenged a Wisconsin school district's policy limiting his bathroom usage.Jaime Settle is W&M's latest 'Rising Star'

She shines brightly Jaime Settle will be honored with the State Council for Higher Education in Virginia's Rising Star award on March 1. Its given to a faculty member who shows extraordinary promise at the start of his or her academic career and has no more than six years of continuous service as a fulltime faculty member. Photo by Stephen Salpukas Photo - of - Hide Caption

Truth be told, Jaime Settle began her career as a teacher long before she became an assistant professor for government at William & Mary.

I started math tutoring when I was in fifth grade, she recalled. I tutored all through middle school and high school, fellow students, younger siblings of my friends. I entered college knowing that I enjoyed teaching.

She once dreamed of going to Washington, D.C., and tackling the problems she diagnosed in science illiteracy and (lack of) effective regulation of biomedical research.

I realized issue advocacy wasnt my strength, she said. Teaching is the reason I went to graduate school. I love research; it lights my fire, gets my brain going, but at the end of the day I find teaching more rewarding. Thats where I stand to have the greatest impact.

The State Council for Higher Education in Virginia will acknowledge her contributions on March 1 by honoring her with a 2018 Rising Star award. Part of the annual Outstanding Faculty Awards, its given to a faculty member who shows extraordinary promise at the start of his or her academic career and has no more than six years continuous service as a fulltime faculty member.



{{youtube:medium:center|DoLipMQC9mg, Settle and the W&M SNaPP lab}}



Two W&M professors are being honored with Outstanding Faculty Awards this year at a reception to be held in Richmond. The university has had more faculty receive the award since its inception than any other institution of higher education in the state. In addition to Settle, Deborah Bronk, Moses D. Nunnally Distinguished Professor at W&Ms Virginia Institute of Marine Science, will receive an OFA this year.

Settle, who had been nominated once before, was taken aback by the news. The congratulatory phone call came from a number with an 804 area code. Settle has lots of friends whose numbers carry that prefix. She assumed the call was from one of them.

It was one of those moments where you are left without words momentarily before you can pull yourself together and make an appropriate response, she said.

Influences

The value of impacting the lives of others was reinforced the moment she began undergraduate studies at the University of Richmond in 2003. She was attending free of charge, courtesy of a scholarship set up by two people she wouldnt meet until after shed matriculated, Dortch and Sis Oldham.

I didnt realize that there would be people so willing to be generous with strangers theyd never met and had no previous connection to, said Settle. They wanted young people to be successful. They could have spent their money in any number of ways, but it was important to them to give opportunities to people who wouldnt have had it otherwise.

That left an impression on me. I knew that given my interests I probably wasnt going to go into business and make millions of dollars, but it left this imprint that I wanted to find a way to have an impact on other people.

Settle has found several ways to follow in the Oldhams footsteps while at W&M. The SCHEV award is predicated on excellence in teaching, discovery, integration of knowledge and service. Settle has made notable achievements in each.

In her first year at W&M, Settle established the Social Networks and Political Psychology Lab, a research lab comprised entirely of undergraduate students. Each year, 15 undergrads work collaboratively with her on several research projects that explore the biological, psychological and social underpinnings of political behavior. Since the lab was established, Settle has worked with 43 students, paved in part by a $150,000 National Science Foundation grant she received in 2014.

The best part of that was the number of students who benefited in some way, everything from the chance to be a proctor for one of our lab experiments and just get a sense for what that part of the research process is all about, to one of the assistants in my lab who really got to help design and execute these studies, she said. There were graduate students from other universities as well who had the opportunity to come to our lab and visit. I felt like I was able to expand the impact beyond just me and one or two students.

In addition, Settle has taught several classes about social media and political polarization at the W&M Washington Center, where students can interact with policymakers and make site visits in the nations capital.

A prolific scholar

At the same time that she guides and shapes research and scholarship opportunities for her students, Settle continues to be a prolific scholar herself. She had published 18 peer-reviewed articles or book chapters. Five of her papers have more than 100 citations each; overall her work has been cited more than 2,000 times.

One of the main takeaways from her upcoming book Frenemies: How Social Media Polarizes America is that American political discourse has changed rapidly in the preceding decade.

I got the sense that it was likely only to get worse and probably worse at an accelerated rate, she said. The change in the way people communicate about politics predates the rise of social media, but you really started seeing the shift in people using Facebook as a way to express their political view. Coinciding with the rise of the Tea Party, the culture on the site changed and people began to feel more comfortable signaling their viewpoints. The outcome of the 2016 election has motivated more people to speak up, more loudly.

Living her faith

Despite all of the awards and research grants, the peer-reviewed publications, the seminars to which she has been an invited speaker, Settle adheres to one abiding principle.The Jewish concept of tikkun olam was a constant in her home, synagogue and her social circle. It translates to repair the world, and charges that humanity has a responsibility to change, improve and fix its earthly surroundings. It implies that each person has a hand in working towards the betterment of society as well as the lives of future generations.

She thought about mentors who had the greatest impact on her life: an academic advisor whose enthusiasm for research was contagious and whose methods inspired her with a passion for collecting and analyzing data. There was a thesis advisor who went above and beyond the call of duty, including e-mailing her right up to the time she went into labor. And there were the countless faculty members genuinely committed to making sure she succeeded.

Those close relationships made it clear to her that the potential to engage students with the substance of political science was enormous, she said.

I hoped I could inspire students to apply their knowledge toward more constructive political conversations and activities, instead of speaking past one another parroting partisan talking points, she said.

I believed then and continue to believe now that I am able to make the greatest difference in my capacity as a college professor. I think of this as a multiplier effect  what I invest in my students is repaid many times over by their impact on society.



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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Reformed EU Emissions Trading System approved

28 February 2018

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The revision of the EU Emissions Trading System (EU ETS) for its next phase (2021-2030) was approved by the Council of the European Union yesterday. Foratom, the European nuclear trade body, welcomed the reform but said more must be done to decarbonise Europe's economy.

The EU ETS was launched in 2005 and operates in 31 countries - all 28 EU countries, plus Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway. It is designed to limit greenhouse gas emissions from more than 11,000 heavy energy-using industries (power plants and manufacturing facilities) and airlines operating between these countries. It covers about 45% of the bloc's GHG emissions.

A centrepiece of the EU's 2030 energy and climate policy framework is the binding target to reduce overall GHG emissions by at least 40% below 1990 levels by 2030. To achieve this cost-effectively, the sectors covered by the EU ETS will have to reduce their emissions by 43% compared with 2005, while non-ETS sectors will have to reduce theirs by 30%.

The European Commission published its proposal in July 2015 to revise the directive on the EU ETS for the 2021-2030 period. Its proposal for a market stability reserve (MSR), adopted in October that year, takes 12% of the surplus allowances out of the market from the beginning of 2019.

Yesterday the Council of the European Union approved revisions to the ETS. These introduce a 2.2% reduction on the cap on the total volume of emissions, as well as a temporary doubling of the number of allowances to be placed in the MSR until the end of 2023. A new mechanism to limit the validity of allowances in the MSR above a certain level will also become operational in 2023.

Foratom welcomed the revision to the ETS, but said more should be done if the EU wants to restore confidence in the EU ETS as its main driver for decarbonising the European economy in an affordable way.

Foratom Director General Yves Desbazeille said: "The revision of the EU ETS is a step in the right direction as it should enhance cost-effective emissions reduction. However, it may not be enough to boost the development of all low-carbon technologies in the EU or fully align the system with the conclusions of the Paris Agreement."

He added: "The EU ETS should be spearheading the switch from fossil fuels to low-carbon energy sources, including nuclear energy. If the necessary investments are to be incentivised, the carbon price needs to increase significantly, starting now. Without it, the EU will fall short of fulfilling its climate goals."

Foratom called for the European Commission to ensure that there are no overlaps with other EU and national climate policies when introducing the revised EU ETS. Priority should be given to the EU ETS and overlapping policies discouraged, it said.

The formal approval of the Council marked the final step in the legislative process. The new directive will enter into force on the 20th day following its publication in the Official Journal.

Researched and written

by World Nuclear News

Related topicsViewpoint: Ontario's nuclear advantage

28 February 2018

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Those who enter the workforce in the coming years will be greeted with the opportunity to be a part of one of Canada's most exciting industries, Glenn Thibeault, Ontario's energy minister, told delegates at the Canadian Nuclear Association's Annual Conference & Trade Show, which was held in Ottawa on 23 February.

"Not only that, but tomorrow's advanced nuclear technology, built right here in Ontario, will play a key role in addressing climate change - our generation's greatest challenge.

Thanks to the refurbishment and continued operation of our nuclear fleet - Pickering, Darlington, and Bruce - Ontario will continue to benefit from a clean and stable supply of electricity both today and well into the future.

And we are well-positioned for the inevitable transition towards a low-carbon economy. This is where - to quote from the CNA's recent public awareness campaign - 'the nuclear advantage' comes into play.

Nuclear is the backbone of Ontario's energy system. That's because it currently supplies more than 60% of the power Ontarians use each and every day. And because of nuclear energy's undisputed role as a reliable source of baseload power. Nuclear energy is also a competitively priced source of power. In Ontario, for example, the average cost of nuclear energy is about seven cents per kilowatt-hour of electricity, making nuclear energy one of the cheapest sources of power for our province. Equally important, nuclear energy is free of greenhouse gas emissions.

The use of nuclear energy is allowing Ontario to move closer to meeting its greenhouse gas emission reduction targets in its Action Plan against climate change. Emissions-free nuclear energy played an important role in the ecological shift in the electricity grid. This same network will meet the demand for more electric vehicles on Ontario's roads. An electrical network that is now 96% without emissions. But that's not all. Thanks in large part to nuclear energy and its obvious ability to provide Ontarians with reliable base energy, at any given time, Ontario was able to eliminate coal-fired electricity generation in 2014.

At that time, Al Gore hailed this precedent-setting achievement as the "largest greenhouse gas reduction initiative in North America". And with the elimination of dirty coal-fired generation in Ontario, coupled with forward-thinking investments in clean energy generation, Ontarios air quality dramatically improved. The figures speak for themselves.

In 2005, Ontario had 53 smog days. On those days kids who live with severe asthma couldnt play outside because of the serious risks posed by poor air quality. Now fast forward to last year, Ontario reported zero smog advisories. This significant improvement in our air quality should be a point of pride for Ontarians. It has improved our quality of life. And it has reduced a serious strain on our healthcare system. Both air pollution hospitalisations and air pollution deaths are way down. Ending coal generation has not only been a big environmental success, but an enormous public health success.

But the benefits of nuclear energy have a significant economic impact as well. For example, Ontarios globally-recognized nuclear supply chain supports over 200 companies and some 60,000 jobs. These highly skilled, good-paying jobs, in turn, help grow the economy at both the local and regional level over the long term. The refurbishment of the Bruce and Darlington Nuclear Generation Stations provide good examples of this.

According to an economic impact study conducted by a consortium of our energy sector partners, Bruce Power will create and sustain 22,000 direct and indirect jobs annually, while contributing $4 billion to Ontarios economy. This also provides a huge boost to the local economy with suppliers establishing a local presence and building up the community in the Bruce-Grey-Huron region.

Darlington's refurbishment - once complete - and in operation over the next 30 years will boost Ontario's GDP by approximately CAD90 billion dollars. Added to this, Darlington's refurbishment will generate an average of 14,200 jobs annually. This includes 2600 onsite jobs at Darlington.

Now, earlier this month, my team was able to celebrate with OPG an important milestone at Darlington. Unit 2's refurbishment is 50% complete. And is on time and on budget. Darlington's success to date is a testament of the good work done by OPG, the Ontario government, and the nuclear energy sector in keeping this project on track. This collaborative work involved advanced preparation, the sharing of knowledge amongst various parties and multiple levels of oversight. In addition to the strong support provided by an assortment of host communities.

As the minister of energy, I would say that the refurbishment of the four reactors at the Darlington Nuclear Generating Station, as well as the six reactors at the Bruce Kincardine Nuclear Generating Station, will not only provide 9800 low-cost, reliable and emission-free megawatts, but with the deferral of the Pickering plant closure in 2024, reaffirm that nuclear energy is undeniably a central pillar of Ontario's energy future.

Our commitment to nuclear energy, and particularly to these refurbishments, is also emphasised in our long-term Energy Plan, entitled Ensuring Fairness and Choice. More specifically, this plan highlights the important role that the nuclear sector has played - and will continue to play - in innovation in energy and non-energy applications.

Ontario, with its knowledge of the nuclear field, is a pioneer in nuclear research and medicine. Think of the production of isotopes, which help save the lives of millions of people around the world. And that's not all.

Ontario is also creating new export opportunities for nuclear innovations in a wide variety of fields that include small modular reactor technology, nuclear fuel research and hydrogen. I should add: this re-affirmation of nuclear energy extends beyond our Long-Term Energy Plan.

Last November, in a report issued by the Financial Accountability of Ontario, our provinces independent financial watchdog stated: "There is no alternative clean, emissions-free generation that could effectively replace nuclear generation at a comparable cost for Ontario's ratepayers." As our government prioritises clean, reliable and affordable electricity, this is a strong endorsement. And proves, once again, the critical role our nuclear sector plays.

So, I would like to thank the CNA for its work on the 'Ontario Nuclear Advantage' campaign helping to spread awareness of the value of nuclear. In this room, we all know the advantage of nuclear power. And, as Ontario's experience shows, the strong support of host communities is essential. We all must do our part to continue to promote the benefits of nuclear power as a solution to future energy and environmental priorities.

Priority number one is to continue our success with refurbishments, demonstrating that with proper preparation, oversight, and cooperation that we can successfully execute on these large infrastructure projects, protecting ratepayers and creating benefits for future generations in in Ontario.

This will continue to be a top priority for me as minister, and I know that virtually everyone here has a part to play. I look forward to continuing to work with you all to ensure that a decade from now, we can return to this forum to announce that all of Ontarios nuclear refurbishments were completed on time and on budget, for the benefit of future ratepayers and all Ontarians."

Researched and written

by World Nuclear News

Related topicsMaplin enters administration  town store at risk

This article is old - Published: Wednesday, Feb 28th, 2018

Maplin has entered administration, putting around 2,500 jobs at risk across the UK.

Maplin has a store on Island Green in Wrexham.

Graham Harris, Maplins chief executive, issued a statement this morning that reads: I can confirm this morning that it has not been possible to secure a solvent sale of the business and as a result we now have no alternative but to enter into an administration process. During this process Maplin will continue to trade and remains open for business.

The business has worked hard over recent months to mitigate a combination of impacts from sterling devaluation post Brexit, a weak consumer environment and the withdrawal of credit insurance. This necessitated an intensive search for new capital that in current market conditions has proved impossible to raise. These macro factors have been the principal challenge not the Maplin brand or its market differentiation.

We believe passionately that Maplin has a place on the high street, and that our trust, credibility and expertise meets a customer need that is not supported elsewhere.

We will now work tirelessly alongside Zelf Hussain, Toby Underwood and Ian Green, from PWC, who have been appointed as the as Joint Administrators of Maplin Electronics Limited, to achieve the best possible outcome for all of our colleagues and stakeholders.

Maplin will be kept open, and business will continue as a buyer is sought.

Maplin has around 200 stores and 2500 staff, and this mornings statement notes that staff will still be paid.

More shortly.

Earlier today Toys R Us also entered administration.World Socialist Web Site International Editorial Board chairperson David North called January 16 for the formation of an international coalition of socialist and anti-war websites and journalists to counter Internet censorship.

North issued the call during a livestreamed webinar with journalist Chris Hedges, Organizing Resistance to Internet Censorship. The webinar attracted a substantial global audience and was viewed more than 15,000 times on Facebook and YouTube in the 24 hours after it aired. A statement from WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange supporting the event was read during the broadcast.

A coalition needs to be formed to rigorously defend internet freedom, net neutrality, to organize the defense of both websites and individuals who come under attack, North said. He urged participation in the coalition of all those who are committed to the fight for socialism and opposition to war, adding, The World Socialist Web Site and the International Committee are willing on this principled basis to work with those who understand the critical issues involved.

Full video of the webinar Organizing resistance to Internet censorship

The discussion between North and Hedges explored the political context of the efforts to censor the Internet and abolish net neutrality, including the historic levels of social inequality. Both North and Hedges stressed the inseparable connection between war and the destruction of democratic rights, including free speech.

Hedges stated, Corporate capitalism, globalization, neo-liberalism, whatever you want to call it, is in crisis. First of all, the ideology itself has lost credibility. It no longer holds any currency across the political spectrum. It has been exposed as a lie The ruling elites are frightened because they watched the political charade that they had set up, in both the Republican and Democratic Party, where the leadership, whether it was the Bush dynasty or the Clinton dynasty, or Barack Obama, have all been servants of the corporate state.

North and Hedges also examined the pretexts used to justify the suppression of free speech and discussed political strategies to defend democratic rights, including the need for any such movement to be independent of the Democratic Party.

Of course, the elites seek and have been quite successful at it, channeling energy back into a dead system, i.e., the Democratic Party, Hedges said. And this was why, not that he cared or that it mattered, I would not endorse Bernie Sanders because all of that money and energy, remember he even used the word revolution, ended up in him running around the country telling everyone to vote for Hillary Clinton.

North stressed the importance of a free and open Internet for the building of an international revolutionary movement of the working class. Above all we want to defend Internet freedom because we believe that the need for the development of an understanding of the crisis of capitalism, the fight for a revolutionary program is the most critical issue.

In the course of the event, North reviewed the WSWSs campaign against censorship of left-wing and anti-war websites, which began last year after the WSWS noted a significant decline in its own referrals from Google search results.

This decline was not the accidental outcome of an algorithm update, North explained, but was an intentional effort to block access to websites that published anti-war and anti-capitalist content. Out of 150 top search terms that previously directed Google users to the WSWS, including socialism, Trotskyism, and Russian Revolution, by June, 145 no longer did so.

[C]ritics of capitalism, critics of imperialism, critics of the structure, such as myself, Hedges said, have been pushed to the margins, out of mainstream publications like the New York Times, where I worked for 15 years. Now, what were seeing in essence is that they no longer have a counter-argument to make that anybody is buying. So these marginalized criticsthe World Socialist Web Site will print critiques of capitalism, lift up the abuse of the working class, as will a handful (were not talking about many) of sites; Counterpunch is very good, Alternetthey are being targeted because the ruling elites now find these critics to be dangerous and potent.

The discussion drew messages of support from Assange, documentarian John Pilger and anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan which were read out during the broadcast.

Assange, who has been trapped in the Ecuadorean embassy in London for five and a half years, said he commended the WSWS for the event. He noted the danger that the Internet poses to the ruling elite, while warning about their efforts to control the expression of ideas online.

While the internet has brought about a revolution in peoples ability to educate themselves and others, the resulting democratic phenomena has shaken existing establishments to their core, Assange said. Google, Facebook and their Chinese equivalents, who are socially, logistically and financially integrated with existing elites, have moved to re-establish discourse control. This is not simply a corrective action. Undetectable mass social influence powered by artificial intelligence is an existential threat to humanity. (Read Assanges full statement here)

Pilger pointed to the mainstream medias role in justifying censorship of the Internet: Dissent once tolerated in the mainstream has regressed to a metaphoric underground as liberal capitalism moves toward a form of corporate dictatorship. This is an historic shift, with journalists policing the perimeters of the new order. Witness the anti-Russia hysteria and the #MeToo witch-hunts, especially in liberal newspapers such as the Guardian and the New York Times. With independent journalists ejected from the mainstream, the world wide web remains the vital source of serious disclosure and evidence-based analysis: true journalism.

Sheehans statement explained that the ruling class was attempting to silence oppositional voices online in order to stampede the American population into supporting war.

[T]he national security state is devising more and more ways to not only suppress dissent, but guide internet users to think the way the empire wants us to think: The owner of the largest social media site has brazenly admitted as such with surprisingly mild, if any, outrage against it (present company excluded). And, hey, if propaganda isnt working fast enough to have us marching in lockstep with the war machine, a very convenient, yet fake, ballistic missile warning to the people of Hawaii might do the job?

Go to endcensorship.org to view the full discussion and join the fight against Internet censorship.New details have emerged about the attempted execution of Alabama death row inmate Doyle Hamm last week. Hamm, 61, who has spent more than half of his life on death row, was subjected to about two-and-a-half hours of torture Thursday night in the Holman prison death chamber before prison officials called off the execution.

Hamm was convicted and sentenced to death in 1987 for the robbery-murder of Patrick Cunningham, a motel clerk in Cullman County.

It was a gory, botched execution, said Bernard Harcourt, Hamms longtime attorney, and a professor at Columbia University law school. They gave up when they could not find a vein.

Harcourt had argued in appeals that because Hamm had cranial and lymphatic cancer and a history of drug use his veins could not support the lethal injection, and to attempt it would constitute cruel and unusual punishment, banned by the Eighth Amendment to the US Constitution.

The gruesome spectacle in Alabamas execution chamber was allowed to proceed after the US District Court in Birmingham prohibited the state from trying to access veins in Hamms arms and hands and ordered officials to try his lower extremities. The Eleventh Circuit US Court of Appeals in Atlanta required the presence of a doctor and ultrasound equipment. The twisted practice of capital punishment often enlists the services of unscrupulous medical professionals and doctors, who are sworn to First, do no harm and save lives, to participate in state killings.

It was the US Supreme Court that finally gave the go-ahead for the execution. The high court granted a temporary stay just before the execution was scheduled to begin at 6 p.m. local time. The stay was then vacated at approximately 8:40 p.m., over the joint dissent of Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Sonia Sotomayor, and a separate dissent by Justice Stephen Breyer.

Ginsburg and Sotomayor wrote: The District Court and Eleventh Circuit erroneously premised their rejection of Hamms claims on novel understandings about how Hamms execution would be carried outunderstandings gleaned from a stipulation and an affidavit to which Hamm was given no opportunity to respond.

According to an account published on the Columbia Law Schools website, immediately following the denial of stay by the Supreme Court, Hamm was taken into the execution chamber and strapped onto the gurney. Harcourt said two members of the IV execution team entered the chamber and began to work on Hamm below his knees, on both the left and right sides, simultaneously searching out peripheral venous access.

At one point, the IV team turned Hamm over onto his stomach, slapping his legs trying to find a vein. After repeated attempts they stated aloud that they could not get anything. Other IV personnel next tried to gain central venous access by attempting to insert a catheter into Hamms right groin, causing severe bleeding and pain, according to Harcourt.

This went beyond ghoulish justice and cruel and unusual punishment, Harcourt was quoted by the website. It was torture. It was precisely the kind of torture that the UN Human Rights Rapporteurs had warned about to the Governor of Alabama.

The execution was called off at about 11:27 p.m., when Jefferson Dunn, commissioner of the Alabama Department of Corrections, determined there was insufficient time to begin the injection of the lethal injection drugs before Hamms execution warrant expired at midnight. Dunn, however, insisted that it was simply a time issue, and the two-and-a-half hours of torturous prodding had not been a problem.

Harcourt visited Hamm in prison on Friday afternoon. In an update posted on Sunday, Harcourt related:

Just walked out of Holman Prison with Dr. Mark Heath after a two-plus hour physical examination of Doyle Hamm. Very quickly, Thursday nights execution was worse than anticipated.  The IV personnel almost certainly punctured Doyles bladder, because he was urinating blood for the next day. They may have hit his femoral artery as well, because suddenly there was a lot of blood gushing out. There were multiple puncture wounds on the ankles, calf, and right groin area, around a dozen.

They were grinding a needle in his shin area for many minutes, painfully. He seems to have six puncture marks in his right groin, and large bruising and swelling in the groin. He has pain going from the lower abdomen to the upper thigh. He is limping badly now and terribly sore. During the execution, Doyle was lying there praying and hoping that they would succeed because of the pain, and collapsed when they took him off the gurney. The doctor working on his groin twice insisted he could continue and gain access after the execution was called off. This was clearly a botched execution that can only be accurately described as torture.

Doyle Hamms execution-gone-wrong was one of three scheduled for Thursday evening. Florida put to death Eric Branch, 47, after the US Supreme Court failed to halt his execution. Before his execution, he denounced Florida Governor Rick Scott and Attorney General Pam Bondi. Let them come down here and do it! he yelled. As his lethal injection began, Branch repeatedly yelled, Murderers! as he violently thrashed on the gurney, according to the Pensacola News Journal .

In a rare occurrence for Texas, Governor Greg Abbott, a Republican, spared the life of Thomas Bart Whitaker just minutes before his execution was scheduled to begin. Whitakers sentence was commuted to life in prison without the possibility of parole for the fatal shootings of his mother and brother in Houston. Whitakers father, Kent, who was also shot but survived, pleaded with the authorities to spare the life of his son, his last living relative.

There are at least 12 executions scheduled in the US for the remainder of 2018, according to the Death Penalty Information Center (DPIC), with four of these in Ohio. As of July 1, 2017, there were 2,817 prisoners on death row across the US, DPIC says, including 374 in Florida, 243 in Texas and 191 in Alabama. The attorney general of Tennessee, with an estimated 62 inmates, is trying to fast-track the execution of eight prisoners, who are not currently on the schedule, before June 1.

In April 2017, the state of Arkansas sought to execute eight death row inmates over the course of 11 days, before its supply of the sedative midazolam ran out. In the end, four of these executions were carried out, including one double-execution.The further integration of the US corporate-controlled media with the American intelligence apparatus was signaled by the recent announcement that the National Broadcasting Company (NBC), a subsidiary of the cable TV giant Comcast, has hired former CIA Director John Brennan as a news analyst. Brennan will be a paid contributor and senior national security and intelligence analyst for NBC News.

Brennan is implicated in some of the most criminal policies enacted under the Bush and Obama administrations, including the CIA torture program and the drone assassination program. The latter, under Brennans tenure first as Obamas deputy national security adviser for homeland security and counterterrorism and then as CIA director, was used to kill thousands of innocent civilians along with alleged terrorists, including US citizens. It continues to operate in at least half a dozen countries in Africa and the Middle East.

As director of the National Counterterrorism Center under George W. Bush, Brennan played a major role in the extraordinary rendition program, whereby suspected terrorists were kidnapped and sent to CIA black sites, where they were systematically tortured.

One would be hard pressed to find any figure in the intelligence establishment with more open disdain for human rights, the rule of law, civil liberties and the framework of checks and balances between the three branches of governmentexecutive, legislative and judiciallaid down in the US Constitution.

In 2014, Brennan became embroiled in a major scandal that pointed to the increasing tendency of the CIA to act unchecked as a law unto itself. With Obamas support, he had worked to block the release of a Senate Intelligence Committee report on the results of its investigation into the post-9/11 torture program initiated by the Bush administration.

In March of 2014, then-Intelligence Committee Chair Dianne Feinstein took to the floor of the Senate to denounce Brennan and the CIA for hacking into the computers of committee staffers working on the torture report, calling it a flagrant attack on Congress, which is tasked with overseeing the CIA, and a direct violation of the Constitution. Obama, who had blocked any prosecution of Bush officials involved in the torture program, sided with Brennan, who responded to Feinsteins denunciation by filing a criminal referral with the Justice Department to prosecute Intelligence Committee investigators for allegedly stealing classified CIA material.

In December of 2014, the committee released a 600-page declassified version of its 8,000-page report, which contained horrific and damning details about the CIA torture program. Feinstein quickly dropped her criticisms of Brennan and the media almost immediately buried the torture report.

Now, using his platform at NBC/MSNBC, Brennan will continue to serve the interests of American imperialism at home and abroad, albeit in a different role. He joins the ranks of CIA, NSA and Pentagon mouthpieces embedded in mainstream news outlets, such as Michael Morell, deputy director and for a time acting director of the CIA under Obama. Morell, also known for his defense of torture and drone assassinations, appears regularly on CBS News to make hysterical denunciations of Russian meddling and agitate for a war of aggression against North Korea.

The list of retired generals and intelligence agents extends far beyond these two men and includes Jack Keane (Fox News), Mark Hertling (CNN), Montgomery Meigs (NBC/MSNBC) and many others. Very little effort is made to uphold any pretense of impartiality on the part of these representatives of the intelligence/military/industrial complex within the news media.

One particularly blatant case is retired general Barry McCaffrey, a long-time military analyst at NBC/MSNBC, who for years has used his platform on national television to call for massive increases in defense spending. In an obvious conflict of interest, McCaffrey is also a paid lobbyist for defense contractors Dyncorp and Defense Solutions.

The infiltration and co-opting of American news outlets by the Pentagon and the intelligence agencies is not a new phenomenon and has been official (though unstated) policy since the late 1940s, when CIA chief Allen Dulles began a program to secure the cooperation of powerful media bosses in advancing the interests of American foreign policy. Dulles developed a personal relationship with a number of network heads, including CBSs William Paley.

Paley was an eager collaborator, making sure that information deemed unfavorable to the CIA went unreported and providing cover for numerous paid CIA operatives to work as journalists and correspondents at the network. Arthur Hays Sulzberger, editor of the New York Times in the 1950s, developed a similar relationship with Dulles. Through the CIAs sustained campaign for influence and editorial control, the mainstream media was made to function to a large degree as an arm of the agency.

These activities were revealed in a 1976 report by the Senate committee headed by Idaho Democrat Frank Church, which found that approximately 50 [CIA assets] are individual American journalists or employees of US media organizations. The Church committee based its investigation on information supplied by the CIA itself, which no doubt presented only the tip of the iceberg with regard to its involvement in manipulating the mainstream media. It is safe to assume that, aside from the high profile former agents and generals at the various news networks, there remains a legion of unidentified CIA assets providing their services when called upon.

The efforts of the intelligence agencies and the military to co-opt and control the mass media, as successful as they have been, cannot fully account for the near-total integration of these two pillars of American capitalism. There is an organic alignment of interests that leads mainstream networks, themselves massive business interests, to work in lockstep with the intelligence agencies and the military in advancing the interests of American imperialism.

US wars and interventions are, in the final analysis, operations to secure the profit interests of American corporations and the thin layer of owners and stockholders who derive their tremendous wealth from them. In the case of NBC, this relationship is glaringly obvious. General Electric, NBCs parent company until 2011, makes tens of billions of dollars selling hardware for Americas endless wars and interventions.

One of the primary tasks presently allotted to CIA-connected media personalities and journalists is to support the drive to isolate and dismember the Russian Federation by repeating as established and indisputable facts unsubstantiated allegations of Russian meddling made by the intelligence agencies. Russias disintegration would spell a bonanza for corporate America and its prospects for expansion throughout Eurasia and the Middle East.

The same can be said for China, a country with a $12 trillion-economy and plans to vastly expand its economic reach, which finds itself in the crosshairs of the Trump administration and the American ruling class. Iran and North Korea are likewise being targeted for dismemberment. The media are virtually silent on the fact that war against any of these nations could easily lead to a nuclear conflict that would result in the annihilation of all life on earth.

As the drive to war escalates, the major Internet conglomerates are also playing a key role in suppressing domestic dissent and limiting the populations access to information and left-wing perspectives. This is accomplished through blatant acts of censorship.

Socialist and anti-war news sources such as the World Socialist Web Site have been scrubbed from Google search results and demoted on Facebook. Content from trusted and authoritative news sources such as the New York Times and the Washington Postboth notorious for their record of publishing fabricated storiesis being promoted, driving stock values for the two media outlets to new heights.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg also recently announced that the social media giant will begin deprioritizing news and political content. National and international news stories will be demoted in favor of local stories for the benevolent purpose of building community--both on and offline, and making sure that Facebook isnt just fun but also good for your well-being and for society.

Meanwhile, the promotion of militarism and state violence in the media is reaching nauseating levels. A recent advertisement for the Marines aired to tens of millions of Americans during Super Bowl LII features warplanes taking off from an aircraft carrier and bombing a Middle Eastern-looking city, while soldiers go door-to-door in tactical teams firing off their assault rifles.Three right-wing newspapers have launched a filthy coordinated attack on Grenfell activist and North Kensington resident Joe Delaney.

Rupert Murdochs Sunday Times led on February 24 with an article headlined, Homeless Grenfell Tower activist Joe Delaney has flat with a subtitle alleging, A campaigner claiming cash for food while put up in a hotel is still using his own home.

The tabloid Sunalso owned by Murdochand the Daily Mail recycled these smears against Delaney the next day.

Delaney is living in a hotel room after he was evacuated following the Grenfell Tower fire that killed 71 people. But according to the Times, Mail and Sun, he is living the high-life on the public purse, still using his north Kensington apartment while claiming food allowances of up to 300 per week and has a hotel room funded by the taxpayer.

All three newspapers referred to Delaney as being homeless, in quotation marks.

The Times article is a political sting operation in the best traditions of the Murdoch press, complete with surveillance and undercover photography and unexplained access to Delaneys personal data:

A Sunday Times investigation found Delaney had not regularly been using the room paid for by the council at the Novotel hotel in west London, wrote Times journalist Gabriel Pogrund. Last week, he was photographed by this newspaper on two occasions leaving his flat close to Grenfell in the morning.

Officials from the Conservative-run Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea (RBKC) council have denied accusations they supplied tenancy and financial records to the Times, but no credence can be given to their denials.

The accusations by the Times, Mail and Sun should be met with contempt by the thousands of Grenfell residents who know Delaney, and by workers and young people in the UK and internationally who have solidarized themselves with the victims of Grenfell.

Delaney is being attacked for the crime of  visiting his old flat. As for 300 in living expenses, this equates to just 42 a day for three meals in one of the worlds most expensive cities. Delaney, like hundreds of other survivors and residents surrounding Grenfell Tower, still has no cooking facilities and no safe home.

On February 8, the Grenfell Action Group (GAG) described conditions for residents of Hurstway, Testerton, Barandon and Grenfell Walkways surrounding Grenfell Tower where many are still dealing with intermittent hot water and central heating more than eight months after the fire.

GAG quoted the councils own admission that there were problems with intercom systems, gas supplies and interruptions to heating and hot water and that additional fire safety works had not yet been completed on the block. As a result, at least 66 households have not moved back to the estate.

Not a word of any of this found its way into the Times so-called investigation.

In an interview with the Grenfell Action Group (GAG), Delaney explained what its like for nearby residents: People are still either living in a crime scene or stuck in hotels, yet RBKC believe that they can resume charges for services that residents are not benefiting from in buildings that are still unsafe and unfit for purpose 

The tower hasnt even been covered so people not only live in the shadow of a crime scene, they are also forced to view the charred remnants of a building in which their friends, family and neighbours horribly perished.

Is it any wonder that Delaney, like hundreds of other traumatised residents, wants permanent accommodation away from Grenfell Tower?

Delaney, whose block faces Grenfell, was woken within minutes of the fire on June 14 and rushed onto the street with neighbours to try and alert those asleep in Grenfell Tower. Along with GAG, he had warned about a possible catastrophic event resulting from the dangerous living conditions at Grenfell Tower and the neglect of health and safety legislation that [RBKC] inflict upon their tenants and leaseholders.

But according to the Times and Pogrund, it is Delaney who is the criminal!

The campaign against Delaney was launched just four days after Grime artist Stormzy used his appearance at this years music BRIT Awards to launch an impassioned attack on Prime Minister Theresa May and her Conservative government over Grenfell. The event was broadcast live on prime time to millions.

After performing his song, Blinded By Your Grace, Stormzy launched into an unscripted denunciation of the May government and its responsibility for the fire. He rapped, Yo Theresa May, wheres the money for Grenfell? Do you think weve just forgotten about Grenfell? Youre criminals! 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 and see if you can manage this!

Stormzys heartfelt lyrics went viral on social media because millions feel the same way about trying to stop a cover-up by the government and authorities who are responsible for mass murder at Grenfell.

The day after the BRIT Awards, Stormzy urged his million-plus Twitter followers to add their signatures to a petition by survivors of the Grenfell fire calling for measures to prevent the May governments official inquiry from perpetrating a whitewash. Within hours, tens of thousands signed the petition, quickly surpassing the 100,000 signatures needed to force a debate in Parliament. More than 150,000 people have now signed.

The class sentiments evoked by Grenfell have evoked fear and hatred in ruling circles.

Following Stormzys appearance, several Tory MPs denounced ITV for allowing the rappers comments to be aired, sending a letter of protest to ITV head, Sir Peter Bazalgette. The attack on Delaney is of a piece with this authoritarian response, aimed at suppressing the fight by Grenfell survivors and their supporters for justice.

The witch-hunt against Delaney is only the latest attack on Grenfell campaigners by the media, which will stop at nothing to prevent the truth emerging and has appealed to the most right-wing and fascistic forces that have been encouraged to vent against Delaney and survivors of Grenfell on social media.

Earlier this month, the Times and Daily Mail attacked the documentary film Failed by the State: the Struggle in the Shadow of Grenfell as Russian propaganda. The film exposed the responsibility of the ruling class for social murder in Britains wealthiest borough. Prior to that, Justice for Grenfell and other left-wing organisations and activists were singled out for attack, with the Times and Sun leading the pack.

The Socialist Equality Party has established the Grenfell Fire Forum to fight for the independent interests of the working class. We are encouraging the fullest democratic discussion and participation. The fight for justice means opposing all of the institutions and representatives of the capitalist state, including the May governments official inquiry.

The next meeting of the Grenfell Fire Forum will be held on Saturday March 17 at 2 p.m. at the Maxilla Social Club. Full details below. For further information visit the Grenfell Fire Forum Facebook and Twitter pages.





Maxilla Social Club

2 Maxilla Walk

London, W10 6SW

(nearest tube: Latimer Road)

The author recommends:

Grenfell fire families challenge government inquiry cover-up

[5 December 2017]A recently published study in the Journal of Environmental Health Perspective studying the impact of electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes) on daily users reported that the heating coils in these devices cause the release of toxic heavy metals in the vapors being inhaled.

E-cigarettes have been growing in popularity as a substitute for tobacco and method for smoking cessation despite uncertainties regarding their impact on the health of users. The device generates nicotine and non-nicotine containing vapors through a process where the e-liquid solution (these contain propylene glycol, glycerin, water, nicotine, and flavorings) is heated by metallic coils.

Two commonly used alloys in manufacturing these coils include Kanthalmade of iron, chromium, and aluminum which have a wide range of resistance and high-temperature applicationand Nichrome, made of nickel and chromium.

Exposure to these toxic metals including the lead in the e-liquid solution has the potential for considerable health consequences. Lead has been known to cause neurotoxicity and cardiovascular disease while nickel and chromium have been implicated in respiratory ailments.

The reusable e-cigarettes come with a cylindrical-shaped battery and a mouthpiece that has a tank to refill with the e-liquid. These devices have diverse voltages and coil composition as they can be assembled and manipulated by the user.

Fifty-six participants were recruited into the study. The information recorded included the type of device used, the voltage of their device, type of coil, and frequency of coil changes. They collected three types of samples: the e-solution before contact with the coils, the aerosol generated by the e-cigarette, and the e-solution remaining in the tank after vaping.

The increase in metal concentrations in the aerosol/vapor and residual in the dispenser when compared to the e-liquid were all statistically significant for aluminum, cadmium, chromium, copper, iron, manganese, nickel, lead, antimony, tin and zinc. The ratio-increase for zinc was 29.5 in the aerosol and 36.7 in the tank; lead 25.4 and 116; nickel 8.43 and 64.6; chromium 6.78 and 70.7. The authors also pointed to concerns about arsenic in 10.7 percent of the e-liquid dispensers as those appear to get transferred to the aerosol and the tank as well. They attribute the source of most of these toxic metals to the heating coils in the e-cigarettes while the lead and arsenic appear to come from the dispensers of the e-solution.

According to standards established by the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR), 57 percent of e-cigarettes exceed the daily chronic Minimum Risk Level (MRL) for nickel, 68 percent exceed the daily MRL for chromium hexavalent, while for lead 48 percent exceed the EPA National Ambient Air Quality Standards. The authors also note that their data on the aerosol concentrations may be an underestimation as they assumed daily exposures as equivalent to 50 puffs, whereas recent investigation indicates that the average is closer to 200 puffs per day.

Interestingly, a study from 2017 found that e-cigarettes contained 35 of 36 elements and metals they screened for while only 15 of these were detected in conventional tobacco smoke. Some of these elements were present in much higher concentrations in e-cigarettes than in tobacco. They attributed these elements and particles to the filaments, thick wire, brass clamp, solder joints and wick and sheath of the e-cigarette devices.

The findings of the present study suggest that using e-cigarettes instead of tobacco results in less cadmium exposure but not to other hazardous material found in tobacco. They noted that emission rates were higher for cadmium, chromium, and nickel in e-cigarettes while lead and zinc seemed to be in similar concentration ranges with tobacco cigarettes.

The exposure to lead is of significant concern as decades of data suggest no observable lower threshold that can be considered safe and therefore all lead exposure should be avoided. Also, chromium and nickel are considered to have high carcinogenic potential (cause cancers). Iron can cause respiratory irritation and lead to lung fibrosis. Manganese can cause chronic bronchitis and reduced lung function as well as neurological dysfunctions. Copper may lead to coughing, chest pain and chronic nasal drip. Zinc can lead to shortness of breath, coughing and chest pain from reduced lung functions. Arsenic has the potential to cause cancer and cardiovascular diseases.

In a recent 2017 survey conducted on vaping by the NIH, they noted that one in three students in the 12th grade said they had used some vaping device in the last year. In December 2017, almost 7 percent of eighth graders, 13 percent of 10th graders and 17 percent of high school seniors reported having vaped in the past month.

More than 2 million middle and high school students were current users of e-cigarettes in 2016. This translates to 11 percent of high school and 4.3 percent of middle school students in the United States considered current users. From 2011 to 2015 e-cigarette use rose from 1.5 percent to 16 percent among high school students. Despite the recent studies that have exposed the potential health hazards of e-cigarettes the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) remains on the fence as to how to regulate e-cigarettes. Currently, they are treated under the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act as equivalent to tobacco products, which means they regulate the marketing, labeling, and manufacturing of devices and e-liquids. Even according to the FDA review published in 2014, they admitted that e-cigarettes not only contain varying levels of nicotine, but also of potentially harmful nitrosamines, aldehydes, metals, volatile organic compounds, phenolic compounds and other substances.

The e-cigarette was invented in 2003 by a Chinese pharmacist and was first sold in 2004. The e-cigarette market, which includes more than 250 brands, saw exponential growth in 2006 with several million users worldwide and every major tobacco company engaged in the manufacturing and selling of these devices. Industry experts believe the consumption of e-cigarettes will surpass conventional tobacco cigarettes in the next decade.

As of 2018, operating profit pools for e-cigarettes was over $4 billion. It is estimated that by 2022 that figure will exceed $12 billion and surpass those of tobacco cigarettes. An April 2015 analysis published in the American Journal of Public Health found that smokers who used e-cigarettes were 59 percent less likely to quit smoking than those who never smoked e-cigarettes. The authors concluded that there was no compelling scientific evidence that e-cigarettes were better than nicotine patches, prescription drugs or behavioral techniques in helping smokers quit.

What is alarming is the number of youth who have turned to vaping without understanding the consequences of this activity to their long-term health. The more important but seemingly rhetorical question is to ask why these corporations do not test the safety of their products before bringing them to market. The profit motive is the most plausible explanation.In a scandal underscoring the social gulf separating workers from reactionary pseudo-left parties of the affluent middle class like Syriza (the Coalition of the Radical Left), two Greek ministers were forced to resign this week in a rent subsidy scandal.

Thanks to a 2015 law passed by Syriza, Deputy Minister for Labor Rania Antonopoulou and her husband, Economy Minister Dimitri Papadimitriou, obtained 23,000 over two years in state rent subsidies for their apartment in the upscale Kolonaki neighborhood of Athens. This is nearly 50 percent more than the gross salary of a Greek minimum wage worker, of 683.76 per month, over that period. They obtained these rent subsidies even though they in fact owned the apartment and declared an annual household income of over $500,000.

At the same time, the Syriza government of which they were a part continued to impose billions of euros in devastating European Union (EU) austerity measures on the Greek people.

Antonopoulou initially tried to ride out the scandal after it broke in Eleftheros Typos on Friday. However, she resigned after it was announced on Monday that Syriza Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras had met her to express his disappointment. Papadimitriou resigned yesterday.

Both husband and wife are high-ranking economics professors on leave from Bard College in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York. As a professor and senior scholar at the Bard Colleges Levy Economics Institute, Antonopoulou specialized in feminist economics and globalization and did consulting work for the UN and the International Labor Organization. She became a minister immediately after Syriza won the January 2015 Greek election.

Papadimitriou has been president of the Levy Economics Institute since 1986. He served in top finance and government posts and in various associations includingfittingly enoughthe Hellenic-American Bankers Association. He became economy minister in November 2016.

Such cynical profiteering by wealthy individuals falsely purporting to be left vindicates the World Socialist Web Sites (WSWS) critique of the privileged class basis and reactionary outlook of the Stalinist and anti-Marxist middle-class tendencies that make up Syriza. They took power pledging to end six years of EU austerity that had slashed wage levels by 30 to 40 percent, hiked taxes, and devastated Greece. After only a few weeks in power, Syriza betrayed its pledge to end the EU austerity Memorandum; it then went on to impose billions in new EU cuts.

The WSWS alone warned about Syriza before January 2015while pseudo-left groups like the International Socialist Organization in the United States, Podemos in Spain, Die Linke in Germany and the New Anti-capitalist Party in France all hailed Syriza as a great step forward for the left.

Shortly before Syrizas election, the WSWS warned: For working people, a Syriza government would not represent a way out of the crisis; on the contrary, it would represent an enormous danger. Despite its left-wing facade, Syriza is a bourgeois party that rests on affluent layers of the middle class. Its policies are determined by union bureaucrats, academics, professionals and parliamentary functionaries, who seek to defend their privileges by preserving the social order.

Politically-connected Greek academic economists at US universities were a key constituency in Syriza. As Tsipras repeatedly crossed the Atlantic to visit the United States starting in 2013, they played a key role in helping win Washingtons support for the prospect of a Syriza government.

The most prominent was University of Texas at Austin professor and then briefly Syriza Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis. In a 2013 New York Times column titled Only Syriza Can Save Greece, Varoufakis and fellow UT Austin economist James Galbraith tried to reassure Washington that Syriza would do the bidding of Wall Street and the Pentagon. Syriza doesnt intend to leave NATO or close US military bases in Greece, they wrote, adding that the banks could safely buy Greek debt under a Syriza government, because they know it will be paid.

Antonopoulous pet project for a Greek New Deal, which she played around with for a while at Greek taxpayers expense, reflected this social layers anti-worker outlook. Speaking to German state broadcaster Deutsche Welle in February 2015, she explained that her plan was meant to give the unemployed a publicly funded job at minimum wage, which the EU had just cut 20 percent to its current abysmal level. However, she said, financing her plan was difficult.

Syriza refused to tax the rich or defy the EU, and Antonopoulou predictably found no money for her project. Nothing came of her Greek New Deal except her own handsome salary.

In July 2015, under the predictable threat of a cut-off of credit from the European Central Bank (ECB), Syriza capitulated to the EU. Even after Greek workers delivered a landslide no vote in Syrizas own referendum on austerity, they stampeded to impose more EU austerity packages in order to keep the ECB from expelling Greece from the euro currency. Throughout, they refused to make any appeal to the European working class to defend Greece against the EU.

Their pro-imperialist outlook, their cowardice and their treachery were, as the WSWS noted at the time, rooted in definite material class interests, which Antonopoulou and Papadimitriou personify.

The WSWS wrote, Syriza legislator Dimitris Tsoukalas (with declared personal savings in 2013 of over 1 million), Finance Minister Tsakalotos (whose stock portfolio is worth over 500,000), Economy Minister Giorgios Stathakis (426,000 invested with JP Morgan), former Syriza leader Alekos Alavanos (350,000 in savings, a stock portfolio and 11 real estate properties), and former Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis (whose wife Danae Stratou is a millionaire) cannot imagine or tolerate a break with the EU becauselike the rest of the Greek ruling elitethey would lose a great deal of wealth if Greece exited the euro and their assets were re-denominated in a heavily devalued national currency.

And that summer, as Syriza plundered billions from the Greek people with more cuts to schools, pensions, and other basic services, it also passed the rent subsidy law that Antonopoulou and Papadimitriou used to siphon of tens of thousands of euros into their pockets.

The basis of socialist and left-wing politics, as the great Marxists have always insisted, is the working class. While the International Committee of the Fourth International seeks to build itself as the leadership of a revolutionary movement in the international working class, its petty-bourgeois pseudo-left opponents are going down in history as a collection of militarists, swindlers, and parasites.

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The Political Lessons of Syrizas Betrayal in Greece

[13 November 2015]In a 5-3 decision handed down on Tuesday, the United States Supreme Court ruled in Jennings v. Rodriguez that the government can arrest and indefinitely detain immigrants, depriving them of the fundamental right to bail.

As a result, hundreds of thousands of immigrants will be locked up in internment camps as their immigration cases proceed, with no opportunity for release until their cases are decideda process that often takes years. Roughly 450,000 immigrants were jailed in detention centers at some point during the last year, and that number will increase astronomically after yesterdays ruling.

The decision makes no distinction between undocumented immigrants and those with legal permanent residency. It means millions of immigrants living in the US are subject to arrest and indefinite detention.

This milestone event has passed with virtually no comment in the corporate-controlled press. As of Tuesday evening, the online front pages of the Washington Post, CNN, MSNBC and Politico had no coverage of the ruling, while the New York Times had a single article far down its page. At the same time, these five sites featured a combined 23 front-page articles on the anti-Russia witch hunt.

No major Democratic Party official has made a statement on the ruling, and the Twitter accounts of Bernie Sanders, Nancy Pelosi, Elizabeth Warren, Charles Schumer, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama are all silent.

The case was initiated by Alejandro Rodriguez, a Mexican citizen who was jailed in 2004 and held in detention without bond as his case made its way through the arduous immigration appeals process. In 2007, after being imprisoned for three years, he filed a habeas corpus petition challenging his long detention. The District Court for the Central District of California ultimately certified a class of plaintiffs including thousands of similarly situated immigrants on whose behalf the suit was fought. Many class members have been detained for longer than six months.

Justice Samuel Alitos majority opinion shows the depth of support within the ruling class for police-state methods of rule. Detention during [immigration] proceedings gives immigration officials time to determine an aliens status without running the risk of the aliens either absconding or engaging in criminal activity, the decision reads. The ruling overturns a Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals decision mandating bond hearings after six months of detention. Alito scolded the Ninth Circuit for the implausible argument that indefinite detention raise[s] serious constitutional concerns.

Alito, joined by Justices Clarence Thomas, Anthony Kennedy, Neil Gorsuch and John Roberts, mocked the three-justice dissent for devoting the first two-thirds of its opinion to a disquisition on the Constitution. Thomas and Gorsuch agreed with the result but said the court should throw the challenge out because immigrants do not have the habeas corpus right to even question the legality of their detention.

Justice Stephen Breyer, whose dissent was joined by Ruth Bader Ginsberg and Sonia Sotomayor, warned:

No one can claim, nor since the time of slavery has anyone to my knowledge successfully claimed, that persons held within the United States are totally without constitutional protection. Whatever the fiction, would the Constitution leave the Government free to starve, beat or lash those held within our boundaries? If not, then, whatever the fiction, how can the Constitution authorize the Government to imprison arbitrarily those who, whatever we might pretend, are in reality right here in the United States? The answer is that the Constitution does not authorize arbitrary detention. And the reason that it is so is simple: Freedom from arbitrary detention is as ancient and important a right as any found within the Constitutions boundaries.

Elsewhere, he added, We need only recall the words of the Declaration of Independence, in particular its insistence that all men and women have certain unalienable Rights, and that among them is the right to Liberty.

Although the Democratic appointees dissent makes additional warnings about the impact of yesterdays decision, there has been no comment on the role of the Democratic Party in paving the way for the decision. Democratic nominee Elena Kagan recused herself from the decision because she was solicitor general when the Obama administration argued against granting the plaintiffs a bond hearing in the lower courts and in support of indefinite immigrant detention.

The statutes cited by the Alito majority were passed with bipartisan support. When Clarence Thomas and Neil Gorsuch argued that immigrants have no right to even file habeas corpus petitions based on final deportation orders, they cited a statute enacted as part of the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996, which had bipartisan approval in Congress, including from Democrats such as Harry Reid, Dianne Feinstein, Elijah Cummings, Steny Hoyer and Sheila Jackson-Lee, and was signed into law by Democratic President Bill Clinton.

The case now heads back to the Ninth Circuit. In rejecting the six-month bond requirement set by that court, the Supreme Court remanded for further deliberation on the merits of the immigrants constitutional claims.

Jennings v. Rodriguez is further proof that the Bill of Rights is a dead letter. Both parties have signed off on mass surveillance, illegal war, state torture, black site prisons and drone assassinations of US citizens without warrants or trials. The decision of the political and media establishment to downplay the significance of Tuesdays ruling shows that there is no constituency for the defense of democratic rights in the American ruling class.

The authorization for a regime of mass indefinite detention is an existential threat to workers of all national origins, regardless of immigration status. There is a history in the US, including during miners strikes in Bisbee, Arizona in 1917 and Colorado from 1901 to 1903, of the government indefinitely detaining and even deporting striking workers from one state to another at the behest of the corporations. Not only will the decision be cited as the Trump administration expands the network of immigrant internment camps across the country, it will soon be turned against US citizen workers as well.World Socialist Web Site reporters spoke to lecturers, other university staff and students at picket lines and rallies on Monday and Tuesday. They were the first two days of this weeks three-day strike against attacks on the Universities Superannuation Scheme (USS) by the employers body, Universities UK (UUK).

Lecturers and students at a rally at the University of Leeds during the strike on Monday

Matt, a University of Leeds lecturer, said, The pension is really important, particularly for younger colleagues coming through. The terms and conditions in Higher Education (HE) in every other respect are pretty tough but the pension is a good compensation. If that goes whod want to be an HE lecturer? It wouldnt be very good, it wouldnt be very attractive in many ways.

Matt continued, Higher Education is in turmoil. There are all the accountability pressures that are on us to produce papers, grants, students and youve got the whole fee thing with undergrads paying a lot of money, PhD students paying a lot of money. The workforce will be pretty disaffected if we lose.

Matt saw the struggle as one involving all workers. This is really big and I do think theres a wider issue, if this pension scheme is destroyed or the benefits, defined benefits are ... whos next? With teachers or health service, you know theyll say, Oh, all the defined benefits are going out the window so yours can go as well! I dont know if thats part of the agenda, but I wouldnt be surprised if it was. Its another attack on workers basically. He concluded, Its like a business isnt it, everyone at the top earns loads and everyone else gets not very much.

Another striker picketing at Leeds, Fiona, who works in the university library explained, As a casualised worker Im in danger already but its something I feel very strongly about. The pension seems to be disappearing as I stand here, thats what my main concern is.

Angela

Angela works in the library at the University of Leeds. Asked her thoughts on the governments overall attack on education, Angela said, Im a parent of a child in primary school who is suffering from what happens in primary schools, all of the ridiculous shenanigans about the curriculum, about SATS [Standard Assessment Tests] and things like that. It just feels very draconian. It doesnt feel like a progressive stance towards education.

Class sizes are enormous, classes of 32 children. I know people who pay for private education and the class sizes are 15, so why cant we all have that?

Angela opposed the marketization of higher education, saying, Education shouldnt be about the money, it shouldnt be driven by how much money youve got in your bank account. Or what you will make in the future.

Angela said that she was employed full-time and had been working at the university for 20 years, though, I do know people that have struggled to get permanent contracts, in many different institutions, not just at Leeds. They have been several years post-PhD, and they have found that environment very tough. And thats really difficult when you have a mortgage and want to have a family. [It makes] you think: I am going to have to give up and retrain and do something else.

Sarah (right) on a picket line at Sheffield University

Sarah, a neuroscience researcher in the University of Sheffields Faculty of Medicine, said, A lot of my colleagues are NHS employees and in different unions so not necessarily in a position to strike, but that doesnt mean they dont support us. It seems to be quite a political issue. If theyre going to try and take our defined-benefits pension, theyll presumably try to take it off teachers and other sectors, and it will spread through the system.

I started working in 2010 and the situation is certainly in decline across all of the universities. Since theyve changed the funding structure theyve started to operate more like businesses.

With students  if youre paying 9,000 a year for a product, theres a certain expectation that youll not only pass but get a good degree, regardless, and I almost cant blame them for that really. The students have been pretty supportive as a whole across the country. They are the ones that will come in to work as academics and will start off with the terrible conditions left by their predecessors.

Sarah explained that one effect of the gutting of pensions would be that medical students might avoid a career in pure research as the pensions would be inadequate compared to working within the NHS.

She also pointed to the 2008 financial crash and the huge bailout of the banks that took place at the expense of the majority of the population. I do think there is a swelling now of people feeling pissed off with everything that this [strike] is revealing. My mother went through the movements in the 1970s and 80s and she feels like the time is happening again, she can see big things happening in the future.

Maureen

Maureen, a lecturer at the University of Southampton, said, We are fighting about the USS scheme for lecturers but at the same time there is a proposal for a local pay scheme for our lower grade staff. That is also going to be changed from defined benefit scheme to a defined contribution and this would have a massive impact on lower paid members of staff. One of their [the universitys] answers to resolve the economic problems is to reduce the level of outgoings like pensions.

Pip

Pip studies in the language faculty of the University of Southampton. She said, I think its totally wrong that their pensions are being cut and they are expected to do more work for less money. I dont agree with this at all, especially people at the top are receiving horrendous amount of money. Education is not a business commodity. She added, Cuts in general, to education, to health and to welfare are an attack on everyone. Its not only an attack on the pensions of university academics.

Charlie, a student in the history and politics faculty of Southampton University, reported, Our sympathies are with the striking lecturers. Weve seen this consistent and relentless assault on education over the last 10 years. The fightback we have first seen by lecturers is something our hearts are invested in.

Charlie

Susanne, who originates from Germany, has lectured at the University of Manchester for 22 years in the accounting and finance department. She was dissatisfied with how the unions were conducting the strike, saying, Shouldnt there be some better coordination with the unions. Lots of Unison [the largest public sector trade union] members said they would have liked to have been balloted and come out. She continued, Im not voting here, but even if I was what choice have you got? Corbyns fake socialist talk. The older I get the more I am in favour of internationalism, not national socialism. [I think] attacks on immigration are so dehumanising.

Simeon has been an academic for 12 years and has worked at the Sackville Street site of Manchester University for four years. He said UUK was looking to gamble with our pensions6 billion is a huge amount of money to move to the free market, and theyre not underwriting any of it. The universities are making huge capital investment in buildings but not in their staff. They are moving us to a privatisation model, increasing student debt and decreasing lecturers security. And its not just the academic staff but professional support and IT support staff. I feel let down by the university, how it treats us as a commodity. Capitalism is a short-sighted approach.

Asked what he thought about the UCU, he said, Its always short-term gains, then the gradual erosion of our rights. Thats what its like if we dont consistently fight for our rights.All the political problems that confront workers and young people across Europe are expressed in concentrated form in the elections to be held in Italy this Sunday.

The elections take place against the backdrop of a deepening social crisis. According to official statistics, 8 percent of the population lives in absolute poverty. The official unemployment rate is 11 percent and has hit 30 percent among youth. Many people who eke out a meagre existence without regular employment are not even counted in these statistics. At 58 percent, Italy has one of the lowest employment rates in the euro zone.

The second factor hanging ominously over the election is the growing danger of war. The United States, the leading power within NATO, is threatening to go to war with Russia and China. The European Union, of which Italy was a founding member, is preparing to assert its great power ambitions and to wage wars in the Middle East, Africa, Eastern Europe, and Central Asia under German and French leadership. Europe needs a shared projection of power in the world, declared German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel this month at the Munich Security Conference. It cannot make do without military rearmament, because as the only vegetarian, we will find it damn hard in the world of carnivores.

There is strong opposition to both social inequality and war in Italy. Class tensions are at the breaking point. The Italian working class possesses a long tradition of militant struggle, stretching back to the Resistenza, the working-class struggle against Mussolinis fascists. Fifteen years ago, in Rome alone three million took to the streets to protest against the war in Iraq. But this opposition finds no political expression in the current election campaign.

The chief reason for this is the rightward shift of political tendencies and parties that once portrayed themselves as left or socialist. Italys horrendous levels of unemployment and poverty are largely the product of policies pursued by so-called centre-left governments. While the right-wing governments under Silvio Berlusconi were characterised by unrestrained corruption and self-enrichment, the names of the centre-left prime ministers Romano Prodi, Massimo DAlema and Matteo Renzi are inseparable from public spending cuts and austerity directed against the working class.

An especially despicable role was played by parties like Rifondazione Comunista and Sinistra Ecologia Liberta (SEL), which recruited their members from sections of the former Communist Party, petty-bourgeois protest parties, and the trade unions. While they attempted to dominate the protests against social attacks and war, they always backed the capitalist state and government when they came under pressure from below. In 2006, Rifondazione even entered the hated Prodi government.

More than 25 years of experience with these tendencies, which have repeatedly regrouped and renamed themselves, has irrevocably demonstrated that these are not left-wing or socialist working-class organisations. Instead, they are right-wing parties of the upper-middle class and union bureaucracy, which always defend the capitalist order against a threat from below.

Some of them are now participating in the election under the name Potere al Popolo (Power to the people). This is an alliance of political bankrupts whose main task is to discredit socialism. Besides Podemos (Spain), Die Linke (Germany) and La France insoumise (France) of Jean-Luc Melenchon, one of their role models is Greeces Syriza, led by Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, who has imposed the brutal austerity diktats of the Troika on the Greek working class.

The bankruptcy of the so-called Left is the reason for the rise of the Five Star Movement (M5S) led by the comedian Beppe Grillo. In 2014, M5S won a quarter of all votes after Mario Monti, another prime minister supported by the centre-left parties, offloaded the impact of the global economic crisis onto the working class by enforcing brutal austerity measures. Grillos success was due above all to his tireless and repeated denunciations of the political elites corruption.

However, it is now obvious that M5S is a right-wing, bourgeois party. This is demonstrated by M5S support for anti-immigrant chauvinism, its alliance with Britains UKIP and the Alternative for Germany at the European level, and its involvement in corruption in cities like Rome where it is in government. Two days after the announcement of the election date, M5S also struck a passage from its constitution prohibiting it from forming coalitions with other parties.

It is time to enter government, stated lead M5S candidate Luigi Di Maio. We will not leave Italy in chaos, but issue an appeal to all political forces on election night and initiate discussions. Di Maio has not declared who his favoured partner would be. But all parties are in principle potential candidates, including the far-right Lega and Berlusconis right-wing Forza Italia.

If M5S is leading the polls with almost 30 percent of the vote, it does so only because there exists no serious left-wing alternative capable of mobilising the working class against capitalism and war.

Social anger is at the boiling point. For this reason, all parties have focused their election campaigns on agitating against refugees and immigrants. This anti-refugee agitation is aimed at dividing the working class, and directing the anger of the exploited and oppressed against the most vulnerable section of the population. At the same time, it is encouraging and strengthening right-wing fascist tendencies, which are raising their heads with growing confidence.

The 81-year-old Berlusconi, who is barred from standing due to a tax fraud conviction, has aligned his Forza Italia with the far-right Lega and the neo-fascist Fratelli dItalia. This coalition currently leads in the polls. It is benefiting from the current Democratic Party (PD) governments xenophobic policies, including the arming of militias in Libya and the construction of concentration camps to block refugees from crossing to Italy.

Since the beginning of February, when a Lega supporter fired indiscriminately on immigrants in the town of Macerata, fierce conflicts between racists and antifascists have dominated the election campaign. Last Sunday 100,000 demonstrated in Rome against racism and fascism, while in Milan 50,000 attended a xenophobic rally.

The elections on 4 March will intensify Italys social and political crisis. While the PD, its allies, and to a lesser extent Berlusconi and M5S promote the EU and its austerity policies, the Lega and fascistic groups attack it from the standpoint of Italian nationalism. Both policies lead down a blind alley and contain immense dangers.

The danger of war, the rise of the far-right and fascist forces, and the attacks on democratic and social rights can only be stopped by a movement that mobilises the revolutionary potential of the Italian, European and international working class. This requires the building of an Italian section of the International Committee of the Fourth International.

The sections of the ICFI, the Socialist Equality Parties, are the only political tendency that has defended the Marxist programme of socialist internationalism against social democracy, Stalinism and their pseudo-left supporters.

We fight for a programme that links the struggle against war, fascism and social attacks with the fight against their source: the capitalist profit system. Not a single social problem can be resolved without expropriating the major banks, corporations and super-rich, and organising society according to social need rather than the accumulation of private profit. Our answer to the European Union is not the strengthening of the nation state, but the United Socialist States of Europe.With Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbulls Liberal-National Coalition government unraveling, Australias main mouthpieces of the corporate ruling class have begun highlighting Labors preparations to return to office as a thoroughly committed pro-business government.

While the Murdoch tabloids and other mass media outlets conducted a sensationalist sex scandal affair to remove Deputy Prime Minister and National Party leader Barnaby Joyce, another political operation was underway in the Australian and the Australian Financial Review.

Over the past two weekends, both newspapers published lengthy feature interviews with Labors shadow treasurer Chris Bowen, anointing him as possibly Australias next federal treasurer.

The publications hailed Bowens vows to revive the Hawke-Keating reform agenda that restructured Australian capitalism at the expense of the working class from 1983 to 1996. They presented Bowen as a potential new Paul Keatinga dedicated protege of the former treasurer and prime minister, whom Bowen described as his mentor.

Frustrations are mounting throughout the financial elite over the failure of the Coalition government, in office since 2013, to enforce its agenda of sweeping cuts to company tax and social spending. These concerns have intensified amid growing signs of Australian capitalisms vulnerability to US-China military conflicts, global trade wars, the bursting of a six-year property bubble and soaring household debt levels.

The Labor Party is being groomed, and grooming itself, to again impose on the working class an all-out assault on jobs, working conditions and basic rights, in the name of economic reform, as it did in close partnership with the trade unions under Prime Minister Bob Hawke and Treasurer (later Prime Minister) Keating.

Labor leader Bill Shorten, alarmed by the intensifying popular disaffection with the entire parliamentary establishment, is cynically posturing as an advocate of fairness and compassion for people who feel left behind. But Bowens interviews sent a clear message to business leaders: This is simply an electoral and political facade to enable a Labor government to find ways to implement their demands.

In last weekends Australian Financial Review Magazine (AFR Magazine) Bowen declared that Labors aim was to take office with a mandate for a comprehensive reform agenda, including budget repair to eliminate the deficit, which is still running at more than $30 billion a year.

Bowen accused the Liberal-National government of derailing economic reform by taking office in 2013 with a small target strategy that sought to hide its austerity plans. Reform was not dead, he declared, but needed a new consensual approach, as delivered by Hawke and Keating. Labor would harness the forces of the broad progressive left to appeal to people on economic grounds.

By these forces, Bowen means the trade union bureaucrats, upper middle class layers and their pseudo-left cheerleaders who have combined to suppress working class struggles over the past three decades. Starting with the Labor-trade union Accords and the Australian Reconstructed program of the 1980s, they used the demand to make Australian competitive to forcibly slash jobs, wage levels and hard-won conditions.

Bowen claimed that Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and French President Emmanuel Macron have shown that you can win the arguments. Far from winning arguments, Macron has effectively retained emergency powers and imposed labour decrees allowing bosses and unions to police mass sackings and pay cuts, while moving to gut the public service and privatise the railways. Trudeau, a big business Liberal, hailed by the trade unions as labour-friendly, is offering low-wage conglomerates like Amazon a business-friendly environment.

Bowen told the AFR magazine he has been working hard to raise his profile with the business community. He claimed to have the mobile phone numbers of most CEOs of the countrys 50 largest companies and done a very substantial number of board lunchessometimes several in a week.

The AFR Magazine confirmed that in the past six months Bowen has had discreet boardroom meetings with more than a dozen companies, including ANZ, ASX, BlackRock, Coca-Cola Amatil, Mirvac, QBE, Rio Tinto and Westpac.

Bowen said he wanted to take the economic debate to a sensible place: less confrontation and recognising that the old paradigms have not got us very far. We need wages growth but we want wages growth that is generated by economic growth.

In other words, the suppression of the class struggle must continue and workers must accept ongoing real wage cutseven as prices for essentials like electricity, healthcare, petrol and housing soaruntil rising profits supposedly spur economic growth.

Under the sub-heading bad cop, good cop, Bowen and others harked back to the Hawke-Keating partnership, describing a two-faced division of labour between Bowen and party leader Shorten. Bill [Shorten] and I have very complementary skill sets, Bowen said. We work very well together.

To try to contain social discontent, Shorten has opposed the governments proposed $65 billion company tax cuts and railed against the greedy banks that put profits ahead of the national interest and the interest of mums and dads.

Unnamed Labor insiders told the AFR Magazine that Shortens role was chief salesman for Labor to the masses who are frustrated by stagnant wages. Whereas, Bowens job was to be the link between Labor and business.

One Labor strategist said: Bill [Shorten] will be the bad cop and Chris [Bowen] the good cop. But these are matters of presentation, not of fundamentally different views about policy.

Shorten told the magazine: We are not anti-business. The Labor leader said he had a huge regard for Bowen. I would actually characterise our relationship as a bromance... Chris has got the policy nous and the bravery to be a great Labor treasurer.

Keating also sang Bowens praises, saying his protege had the right stuff to take up his mantle of the reforming Labor treasurer.

Business chiefs joined the applause. Catherine Livingstone, chair of the Commonwealth Bank, said she has long had a constructive relationship with Bowen, saying: I have always found him thoughtful and open. Australian Industry Group chief executive Innes Willox endorsed Bowens good economic sense, although Labors opposition to the governments company tax cut plan was a problem.

That problem will not last long. In an extensive interview with Bowen, published on February 17, Australian editor-at-large Paul Kelly reminded his readers that in a 2013 book Bowen advocated promoting growth through cutting company tax as a Labor thing.

The Hawke and Keating governments slashed the company tax rate more than any other governmentfrom 49 to 33 percent. Kelly predicted: Provided the budget improves, you can expect Bowen as treasurer at some point to propose a cut in the corporate tax rate.

Kelly, a long-time Murdoch newspaper editor and opinion writer, proclaimed that Bowen plays a pivotal role. His central mission was the creation of a new Labor reform agenda for volatile and fracturing times.

It would be a blend of Hawke-Keating refurbished and government intervention, dressed up as delivering social mobility and economic opportunity. Bowen sits at the heart of Labors strategy to tap into public disaffection by devising policies to better spread the dividends from growth.

That mission is fraught, however, precisely because decades of working-class sacrifices enforced by the Labor and union machine since Hawke and Keating have generated deep hostility. In two recent speeches, Labor Party national president Mark Butler sounded an alarm about the accelerating collapse of membership and support for both the Labor Party and the trade unions.

Bowens interviews must be taken by workers and youth as a warning of the preparations being made for an even more reactionary and vicious Labor government, backed by the unions.Thousands of rail and bus workers in New Zealand and Australia are threatened with job losses, wage cuts and attacks on their working conditions.

In New South Wales, the Rail, Tram and Bus Union (RTBU) is seeking to impose an Enterprise Agreement on rail workers across Sydney and NSW that would effectively freeze wages and axe an unspecified number of jobs.

In New Zealand about 200 onboard train managers could be made redundant in a plan by Auckland Transport and private company Transdev to introduce Driver Only Operated (DOO) trains. In Wellington, commuter rail workers also employed by Transdev, under contract from the Greater Wellington Regional Council, are facing a determined attempt to drive down their wages.

Bus drivers in the NZ capital are likewise facing pay cuts when a new employer, Tranzit, takes over the council contract in July from current operator NZ Bus.

Workers in both countries are seeking a way to fight back against these pro-corporate attacks. The entire working class is confronting soaring living costs, stagnant wages repeated rounds of layoffs, privatisations and other attacks in the wake of the global financial crisis.

However, workers face not only the combined power of the state and big business, but also the trade unions, which are working to suppress any resistance, isolate and demoralise workers, and impose sellout agreements.

In opposition to the unions, the Socialist Equality Group (New Zealand) and Socialist Equality Party (Australia) are fighting to arm the emerging movement of transport workers with a socialist and internationalist perspective. To defend their jobs and conditions, workers must establish new independent organisations, that they control, and unite across borders.

The struggles of Australian and New Zealand transport workers are objectively interconnected. Pro-business restructuring by successive New Zealand Labour and National Party-led governments has been mirrored in the Australian transport sector. Often the attacks have been carried out in both countries by the same bureaucrats and private companies.

The 19841990 New Zealand Labour government of Prime Minister David Lange turned the rail service into a profit-making business in preparation for privatisation. This was part of a far-reaching agenda of pro-market deregulation, which resulted in soaring living costs and mass redundancies.

In May 1989, NZ Railways CEO Kevin Hyde addressed a World Rail Conference in London, outlining how NZR had cut staff numbers by 55 percentalmost 10,000over five years and transformed from a protected public service into a commercial business. Hyde stressed the critical role of the rail unions, which supported the Labour government and accepted the redundancies.

Also at the conference was New South Wales State Rail Authority CEO Ross Sayers, who had been CEO at NZR before Hyde, from 1986 to 1988. He oversaw same brutal cost-cutting in NSW. In July 1989 the state Liberal Party government demanded that staff on country rail operations be slashed from 18,000 to 10,000. During the 1990s and 2000s several rail lines were shut down, maintenance services were outsourced and jobs axed, under Liberal and Labor governments alike.

New Zealand Rail was sold in 1993 to local and US-based investment bankers. In 2003 the then-Labour government arranged the sale of the network to Australian transport company Toll Holdings, which cut hundreds more jobs and ran down the network, until it was finally bought back by the government in 2008, mainly in order to bail out Toll.

Now even deeper attacks are being prepared on both sides of the Tasman Sea to drive down costs and maximise profits. Workers seeking to oppose this onslaught must draw the lessons from decades of bitter experiences with Labour and the unions.

Analysing the defeats inflicted on the working class internationally during the 1980s, the International Committee of the Fourth International (ICFI), the world Trotskyist movement, drew attention to the profound political implications of the globalisation of production. The global mobility of capital and the development of transnational corporations facilitated attacks on wages and conditions. But these developments also strengthened the objective unity of the international working class.

The ICFI explained: It has long been an elementary proposition of Marxism that the class struggle is national only as to form, but that it is, in essence, an international struggle. However, given the new features of capitalist development, even the form of the class struggle must assume an international character. Even the most elemental struggles of the working class pose the necessity of coordinating its actions on an international scale (Perspectives Resolution of the ICFI, August 1988).

The trade unions were organically hostile to this perspective. These organisations, rooted in the capitalist nation-state, were incapable of responding in a progressive manner to the globalisation of production. The Labour Partys former program of limited reforms within protected national economies was no longer viable.

The unions transformed from defensive workers organisations into the enforcers of factory closures, mass redundancies, privatisation and wage cuts. Today they function as instruments of big business and the state to police workers and compel them to sacrifice for the national economy. Workers in different countries are pitted against one another in a never-ending contest to lower wages and conditions.

The RTBU and RMTU have remained silent about the disputes underway on the opposite side of the Tasman Sea. Both unions are desperate to prevent a unified movement of transport workers, which they fear could become a focal point for growing anti-capitalist sentiment, fuelled by record levels of inequality.

In New Zealand, the RMTU is promoting illusions in the recently-installed Labour Party government of Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, despite Labours long record of attacks. The demands for cost cutting at the Auckland and Wellington rail services come from councils led by former Labour Party MPs.

In New South Wales, the RTBU enforced an order by the governments Fair Work Commission to cancel a strike planned for January 29, which had been overwhelmingly voted for by members. It is now seeking to push through a new contract that includes job cuts.

The SEP, the Australian section of the ICFI, and the SEG, which is fighting to build a section in New Zealand, call on workers to rebel against the pro-capitalist trade unions and the Labour Parties.

Workers must demand to see the full details of the sellout agreements being negotiated behind the backs of workers by the union bureaucracy, government officials and corporate management. Mass meetings must be held in Australia and New Zealand to discuss a joint fight to defend jobs, wages and conditions in both countries.

To carry out this fight, workers need to build workplace committees that they control democratically, independent from the trade unions and the political establishment. These committees will link the struggles of rail, bus and other workers internationally.

Such a struggle can only succeed to the extent that it is consciously guided by a socialist program. All claims that there is no money for decent public transport services and well-paid jobs must be rejected. The billions of dollars wasted to prepare the Australian and New Zealand militaries for war should be immediately redirected to social services. Major industries, including transport, must be fully nationalised and transformed into public services under the control of the working class. Workers governments are needed to refashion society from top to bottom to meet the pressing social needs of the majority, not profit requirements of wealthy few.

We urge transport workers who want to discuss this program to contact the SEP and the SEG.Update: On Wednesday evening, teachers reported to the WSWS that the strike in West Virginia will continue in many counties, and possibly state-wide, in defiance of the order to return to work by the unions and the governor. The WSWS will post updates on the developing situation as they become available.

Teachers unions in West Virginia announced yesterday that they will end the state-wide strike of teachers and school employees and instruct workers to return to work on Thursday. The union executives hailed a worthless agreement with the state officials for an inadequate pay increase that may never be adopted and leaves untouched soaring health care costs that have meant a continual decline in the real income of educators.

The attempt to shut down the strike on this basis, even as it is winning growing support from teachers and other workers throughout the country, is the latest in a long line of such betrayals. It confirms the warnings made by the World Socialist Web Site throughout the strike that teachers confront as bitter enemies not only the Republican and Democratic officials, but also the organizations that take workers dues money and claim to represent their interests.

This essential function of the unionsto suppress working class resistance to attacks by corporations and the governmentwas articulated explicitly just one day earlier in US Supreme Court oral arguments in the case of Janus v. AFSCME (American Federation of State County and Municipal Employees). The case concerns the constitutionality of union agency feesthe requirement that public service employees in some states pay the equivalent of dues even if they opt out of joining a union.

In his argument before the court, David Frederick, representing AFSCME Council 31 in Illinois, stated: The key thing that has been bargained for in this contract for agency fees is a limitation on striking. And that is true in many collective bargaining agreements.

Fredrick continued: The fees are the tradeoff. Union security is the tradeoff for no strikes. If the court makes the decision to overturn prior precedent allowing states to mandate agency fees, he warned, you can raise an untold specter of labor unrest throughout the country.

The argument could not be clearer: The financial stability of the trade union apparatus is essential for preventing the growth of working class opposition. This extraordinarily frank statement was made before one of the most important state instruments of the ruling class, the Supreme Court. It demonstrated how conscious the unions are of their role as industrial police for the US corporate elite and its state institutions.

The position of AFSCME before the court was supported by the state of Illinois, which is one of 20 states that permit contracts that require agency fees. Illinois Solicitor General David Franklin argued that the state has an interest in being able to work with a stable, responsible, independent counterparty thats well-resourced enough that it can be a partner with us. The purpose of this responsible partnership is underscored by the situation in Illinois, where the state has implemented ruthless austerity measures and relied on the unions to impose cuts to public education, health care and state workers wages.

The relationship between the unions and the state described by Frederick and Franklin applies to the entire AFL-CIO. Over the past four decades, the unions have worked systematically to suppress any organized opposition to the social counterrevolution carried out by the American ruling class.

In 2017, there were only seven work stoppages involving more than 1,000 workers, the second smallest number since at least 1947. The lowest was in 2009, the first year of the Obama administration, immediately following the 2008 financial collapse and the government bailout of Wall Street. The number of workers involved in large-scale work stoppages fell from an average of 1.5 million per year in the 1970s to 70,000 this decade (and only 25,000 last year)a decline of more than 95 percent.

This same period, from the 1980s to today, has seen an enormous concentration of income and wealth in the ruling elite. The national income share for the bottom half of the population fell from 20 percent in 1980 to 12 percent in 2014, while the income share for the top 1 percent rose from 12 percent to 20 percent. Wealth and income is even more heavily concentrated in the top 0.1 and 0.01 percent of the population.

The unions have been indispensable in effecting this transfer of wealth from the working class to the rich. This is not primarily a matter of corruption on the part of individual union officials. Of that there is plenty, as evident in the scandal that has erupted in the United Auto Workers (UAW) union involving payments from the auto companies to UAW executives involved in negotiating union contracts. This corruption, however, is an expression of the nature and function of the organizations themselves.

The 1980s, following Reagans firing and blacklisting of the PATCO air traffic controllers, was a decade of immense working class resistance to plant closures, mass layoffs, wage cuts and union busting. But the unions ensured the defeat of every one of the hundreds of battles in the mines, in auto, steel, transport and meatpacking, and among teachers and other public-sector workers. They sabotaged these struggles to break the militancy of the working class and facilitate the transformation of the unions into fully corporatist adjuncts of the corporations and the state.

During the major class battles of the 1980s, the Workers League, the predecessor of the Socialist Equality Party, played a central role in organizing opposition to the betrayals of the unions. It sought to mobilize the rank-and-file against the pro-capitalist trade union leadership as part of a fight to develop an independent political and socialist leadership of the working class.

In the aftermath of these struggles, the International Committee of the Fourth International (ICFI) drew far-reaching conclusions about the nature of the unions. The response of these national-based organizations to the globalization of production and the decline of American capitalism was to integrate themselves into the framework of corporate management and the state and become responsible partners in the intensification of the exploitation of the workers. In return, the executives in the union apparatus were given bigger payoffs in the form of corporate stock, control of health care trusts, access to union-management slush funds and outright bribes.

The trade unions, the ICFI concluded, could no longer be called workers organizations. In an earlier period, when the unions, despite their pro-capitalist leadership and their subordination of workers to the Democratic Party, served to increase the income of workers or at least protect it from diminution, this categorization remained valid. But as Leon Trotsky, the founder of the Fourth International, explained in 1937, should these organizations defend the income of the bourgeoisie from attacks on the part of the workers; should they conduct a struggle against strikes, against the rising of wages, against help to the unemployed; then we would have an organization of scabs, not a trade union.

This is precisely the role of the trade unions today, not only in the US but internationally. All those pseudo-left political tendencies that insist on upholding the organizational stranglehold of the trade unions on the working class function as accomplices in their anti-working class agenda.

The strike by West Virginia teachers is an expression of a much broader development. There is deep anger in all sections of the working class over social inequality, declining wages, soaring health care costs and all of the manifold manifestations of social crisis. The specter of labor unrest that terrifies the unions no less than it terrifies the ruling class is beginning to materialize.

The development of the emerging movement of the working class requires the formation of new organizationsrank-and-file factory, neighborhood and workplace committees, independent of the unions and both big-business parties, and democratically controlled and accountable to the workers. The formation of such committees will mark an immense advance in developing the initiative of the workers and bringing together their struggles, in the US and internationally, to forge a common offensive against the capitalist class and its political instruments.

The formation of such organizations is bound up with the building of a political leadership in the working class to bring into its struggles a socialist program directed against the capitalist system and the social inequality, repression and war it breeds.On Monday, French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe announced plans to end the French rail workers statute and privatize the French National Railways (SNCF). Aware of deep anger among workers at his agenda, amid rising class struggles across Europe and internationally, he declared he would unilaterally impose the reform using President Emmanuel Macrons labor decrees. This aims to give him time to drum up support from legislators and pro-corporate trade unions.

Philippe confirmed that he intends to eliminate the social rights granted to French rail workers in recognition of their participation in the defeat of Nazi Germany, led above all by the Soviet Union, in World War II. He said, To new generations, apprentices, all those looking to join the SNCF, we say that they will enjoy the guarantees on working conditions enjoyed by all Frenchmen, those of the Labor Code.  In the future, at a date that will be worked out, there will be no further recruitment based on the rail workers statute.

Claiming the SNCFs situation is alarming, Philippe called on parliament to pass an enabling act to allow the government to impose its reform using Macrons labor decrees. He said, Faced with urgency, the government is determined to get key principles passed before the summer.  In mid-May we will submit a draft Enabling Act to the parliament. Using the decrees will allow for broad negotiations with SNCF management and the unions. He also called for privatizing the SNCF, which would be transformed into a corporation whose shares are partially owned by the state.

The policy of Philippe and Macron is illegitimate and anti-democratic, both in its form and content, and deserves to be rejected with contempt.

The claim that there is not enough money to maintain the French rail workers statute and, more broadly, workers living standards across Europe, is a political lie. While attacking SNCF workers, Macron is handing over billions of euros in tax cuts for the rich (ISF). The French state gave the banks 360 billion in loan guarantees overnight during the 2008 Wall Street crash, and supported the European Central Banks lending of trillions of euros to the banks since then.

What is driving this reactionary policy is the war drive of the major imperialist powers: Macron is intending to finance a surge of French militarism at the workers expense.

On February 17, at the Munich Security Conference, French Defense Minister Florence Parly announced a 35 percent surge to a 300 billion military budget for 2018-2024. To join in the ongoing militarization of the European Union (EU), carried out together with Berlin, Macron intends to throw the workers back decades in order to finance wars in Mali, Syria and beyond, including wars directly between the major nuclear powers.

The governments vision of the future, as shown by its plans to impose its labor decrees on PSA autoworkers and the SNCF rail workers, is to reduce all workers to temps without any social rights. Philippes promise to offer rail workers the protections of the Labor Code is a cynical fraud. The labor law passed with Macrons participation in the 2012-2017 Socialist Party (PS) government of President Francois Hollande allows the bosses and union to agree to violate the Labor Code. Even the protections Philippe claims to offer are, in fact, being repudiated.

That is what was shown when the unions and the French chemical industry agreed last year on a contract in which workers are paid under the minimum wage, which is defined in the Labor Code.

No real struggle can be mounted against Macrons regressive policies without carrying out a struggle against war and social inequality in the working class across Europe.

As Macron presents his plan to liquidate the SNCF, there is rising opposition and militancy in the working class internationally after a decade of accelerating social attacks since the 2008 crash. Since the beginning of 2018, there have been mass workers protests in Iran and Tunisia, strikes by German and Turkish metalworkers, British rail workers, and by Greek workers against the Syriza (Coalition of the Radical Left) governments austerity policies.

In the United States, the powerful American proletariat is entering into struggle. Amid rising anger among autoworkers over the corporate bribing of United Auto Workers (UAW) union officials to impose a reactionary contract, teachers across the entire state of West Virginia are defying a right-wing governor and mobilizing to demand better wages and working conditions.

And in France, the rail workers face the necessity of organizing a struggle amid growing strikes by Air France and health care workers.

To oppose Macrons attacks, workers cannot accept the straitjacket of a few symbolic trade union protests organized at the national level. The key question is to take the struggle out of the hands of the union bureaucracy and its political allies, who are leading the negotiations with Macron, and organize independently to wage a political struggle against the anti-democratic and militarist policies of Macron and the EU.

The government is counting on a purely national mobilization of rail workers in France, isolated from other layers of workers already targeted by Macronauto, chemical workers, and retirees. He aims to divide and rule, exhausting or breaking up protests in various industries, isolated from their class brothers and sisters internationally. The French trade unions are adamant that the struggles now taking place inside France should not be unified, and sections of the press are gloating that it will be possible to inflict a humiliating and demoralizing defeat on the rail workers.

Speaking to Le Monde, pollster Jerome Sainte-Marie advised Macron as follows: For him it would be best for the reform of the SNCF to take on the appearance of a battle. If victory were too easy, he would get less out of it politically. It would be better if it were like the miners strike for Thatcher, a heroic struggle against the dreaded fantasy of the trade union monster that he ultimately wins.

The reference to the 1985 miners strike in Great Britain, in which the trade unions isolated a strike controlled by the National Union of Mineworkers, and allowed British Prime Minster Margaret Thatcher to wage a broad assault on workers living standards, is a warning as to Macrons plans.

The bourgeoisies strategy depends critically on the treachery of trade unions who fundamentally share the nationalist and militarist perspective of Macron. The call by leading members of Jean-Luc Melenchons Unsubmissive France (LFI) to spend billions more on the army is a clear reflection of the reactionary outlook of these layers, which include the so-called class struggle unions linked to LFI, like the Stalinist General Confederation of Labor (CGT).

Willing to modernize the country and promote its competitiveness and its power on the world stage, they are willing to accept any of the social attacks they are negotiating with Macron.

The unions are desperately seeking to posture as forces for opposition, while avoiding organizing any opposition. The CGT initially called for a symbolic one-day strike on March 22, and even the French Democratic Labor Confederation (CFDT), which hailed Macrons labor decrees and voted the sub-minimum wage contracts in the chemical industry, briefly declared it wanted to launch an extendable strike starting on March 14.

Yesterday, however, it was announced that the unions would postpone all decisions on strike action over the SNCF reform until March 15.A US air strike in Syrias eastern Deir Ezzor province killed at least 25 civilians Monday, the majority of them women and children.

The American bombing raid, which struck the settlement of Dahra Alounik, was reported by the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a war monitoring group that is hostile to the Syrian government of President Bashar al-Assad.

A Pentagon spokesman provided the standard and indifferent US military response to the exposure of such atrocities. We take all allegations seriously and as we always do we will put it into our civilian casualty assessment and we will publish the results of those on a monthly basis, Col. Ryan Dillon told the Reuters news agency.

The American air strike was reported by the Turkish Anadolu agency to be part of a broader bombing campaign in Deir Ezzor aimed at halting the advance of forces loyal to the Assad government on strategically important gas and oil fields and facilities that had been under the control of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), which handed them over to the US military and its proxy ground forces dominated by the Syrian Kurdish YPG militia.

The same area saw a savage onslaught by US warplanes and artillery batteries on February 7 against a column of Syrian government forces in which at least 100 were killed, including a number of Russian military contractors.

The latest killing of Syrian civilians by US bombscarried out in open violation of a supposed 30-day truce mandated by the United Nations Security Council last Saturdayattracted scant attention in the Western media, which has returned to the kind of full-throated outcry over alleged atrocities by the Syrian government and its principal military ally, Russia, which has not been seen since the siege of Aleppo at the end of 2016.

The sole focus of attention regarding the ceasefire has been the Damascus suburb of Eastern Ghouta, which has been under the control of Islamist militias since 2013. Syrian and Russian forces have carried out an intense bombardment of the semi-rural district for the past 10 days, reportedly killing between 400 and 500 people. The Syrian military has massed troops around the district for a planned offensive to retake one of the last strongholds of the Al Qaeda-linked rebels armed and funded by the CIA and Washingtons regional allies.

The hypocrisy of the Western medias denunciations of the brutal methods employed by the Syrian government and its allies in eastern Ghouta is underscored by their near total silence on the far more extensive slaughter wrought by the US military in its devastating sieges against the Iraqi city of Mosul and Raqqa, the so-called Syrian capital of ISIS. Both cities were effectively razed to the ground by US airstrikes and artillery bombardment, while the number of casualties is estimated in the tens of thousands.

The same television networks and newspapers now repeating the phrase that eastern Ghouta has been turned into a hell on earthor as USA Today put it a tragedy beyond wordssummoned up no such outrage as Mosul and Raqqa were reduced to rubble. While in Ghouta, they have faithfully repeated every allegation made by the so-called White Helmets, an ostensible civil defense group that functions as a propaganda outlet for the Al Qaeda-linked forces, no expression was given to the suffering of the populations subjected to the Pentagons onslaught.

The one result of the UN ceasefire resolution has been Russias imposition beginning on Tuesday of a five hour9 a.m. to 2 p.m.daily truce in Eastern Ghouta with the aim of allowing civilians to leave the war-ravaged enclave.

The so-called rebels, however, no doubt acting with the approval of Washington, sought to sabotage the initiative, launching fresh mortar attacks on Damascus on Monday night and firing rockets against a humanitarian corridor and checkpoint designated for evacuation to prevent anyone from leaving. They also reportedly launched an attack on Syrian army positions as the truce was to take effect.

The UN-affiliated Reach Initiative, which monitors humanitarian crises, has reported that the rebels have consistently blocked civilians, including women and children, from leaving the zones under their control. Women of all ages, and children, reportedly continued to be forbidden by local armed groups from leaving the area, the aid agency said in a recent report.

While in both Mosul and Raqqa, the Pentagon and its stenographers in the US and other Western media routinely charged ISIS with using civilians as human shields, the phrase is never applied to eastern Ghouta, where it is clear that the Al Qaeda-linked militias are forcibly detaining civilians to serve just that function.

The denunciations of Damascus and Moscow over civilian deaths in eastern Ghouta has been joined by a series of unsubstantiated allegations of the Assad governments use of chemical weapons against the areas population. The first such alleged attack came immediately after the Russian government issued a warning that the rebels had brought chlorine and gas masks into the region with the aim of staging an incident that could then be blamed on the government, providing a motive for Western intervention.

A gas attack in the same area in 2013 brought the US to the brink of direct military intervention against the Syrian government before the Obama administration accepted a Russian-brokered agreement to secure the complete destruction of the Syrian militarys chemical stockpile. There was strong evidence that that attack had also been staged by the rebels.

Similarly, a chemical weapons incident in Khan Sheikhoun last April was seized upon by the Trump administration as the pretext for launching 59 cruise missiles at Syrias Shayrat airbase. Damascus insisted that it had not carried out the attack, and indeed had no discernible motive to use such a weapon, which was certain to provoke Western retaliation.

The US, British and French governments have all issued threats to stage military attacks on Syria in the event of another chemical weapons attack. British Foreign Minister Boris Johnson reiterated this threat on Tuesday, saying that his government would carry out strikes if there was incontrovertible evidence of Syrian government responsibility.

Adding fuel to the fire, the New York Times Tuesday published a front page article titled  U.N. Links North Korea to Syrias Chemical Weapon Program, which consisted of a series of unsubstantiated allegations and what amounts to propaganda for US wars against both countries.

The article echoes similar charges published in the Times about Iraqi weapons of mass destruction in the run-up to the US war of aggression in 2003. It states that an unpublished UN report has alleged trade between North Korea and Syria that could allow Syria to maintain its chemical weapons while also providing North Korea with cash for its nuclear and missile programs.

Having constructed this new axis of evil, the Times goes on to acknowledge that the alleged shipments involved materials that could be used for both military and civilian purposes and that Experts who viewed the report said the evidence it cited did not prove definitively that there was current, continuing collaboration between North Korea and Syria on chemical weapons.

Joining the drumbeat for a major escalation of the US military intervention against Syriaand with it the prospect of a far more dangerous armed confrontation between US imperialism and both Iran and Russiaa group of 200 activists issued an open letter entitled Stop pretending that you cant do anything to save Syrians.

Published by the New York Review of Books on Tuesday, the letter dismisses the United Nations as ineffectual and directly appeals to the major imperialist powers to act under the Responsibility to Protect (R2P) doctrine. For the agony of the people of Syria to come to an end, it must be forcibly stopped, the letter states.

Among the signatories are Eric Ruder, a writer for the International Socialist Organizations Socialist Worker in the US, Gilbert Achcar, a professor at the School of Oriental and African Studies of the University of London and the principal spokesman on the Middle East for the Pabloite United Secretariat and its web site International Viewpoint and Michael Karadjis, a leading member of the Australian organization Socialist Alliance.

The appeal for armed action issued by these pseudo-left elements, reflecting a privileged upper middle-class layer whose interests are directly tied to imperialism, is an unmistakable warning that a major new war is being prepared.We post here a talk given by WSWS arts editor David Walsh to several college audiences in December and January, to mark the centenary of the October Revolution.

But the new art, which will lay out new landmarks, and which will expand the channel of creative art, can be created only by those who are at one with their epoch 

Trotsky, Literature and Revolution

The October Revolution in Russia in 1917 was the greatest event in modern history, the first stage of the world socialist revolution, the completion of which it is our task to carry out.

The working class and the rural poor in Russia, under the leadership of the Bolshevik Party of Lenin and Trotsky, rose up 100 years ago, took power and established their rule in the face of a ferocious counter-revolution and the intervention of all the great powers.

This past year, our international movement has marked the anniversary in a series of meetings, as well as extensive discussions of the events and personalities on our website, the World Socialist Web Site. No other political movement has paid one-tenth, perhaps one-hundredth the attention we have to the Russian Revolution, because we begin from the urgency of the present conditions, the massive crisis of capitalism, threatening poverty, dictatorship and war for the mass of the worlds population.

We are once again approaching social upheavals, and the experience of the greatest revolutionary events in history is vital to us and to the working class as a whole. While other so-called left movements circling in the orbit of the Democratic Party are caught up in the anti-Russian campaign or the hysteria over allegations of sexual misconduct, along with our other interventions in the working class and among young people we have been studying and learning a great deal from the October Revolution.

October Revolution of 1917

Our discussion this evening centers on what this enormous event meantand continues to meanfor art and culture, which has at least two sides to it: where the revolution and its implications directed or oriented art, as it were, and where modern art actually went. This report will deal principally with the first point. I hope it will encourage you to investigate further.

I want to emphasize that we are not only speaking of the development of the Soviet Union, although I will concentrate on that, but of global developments. What did the opening up of an epoch of world social revolution, with its perspective of doing away with exploitation and class society and creating a society based on solidarity, mean for the cultural life of humanity as a whole?

In fact, once that reality had come to pass in October 1917, nothing would ever be the same. All subsequent cultural and artistic trends and problems would have to be seen in relation to the fate of the revolution, including negatively, in periods of defeat and reaction.

In his Introduction to Literature and Revolution, written in the early 1920s, Leon Trotsky, a leading member of the revolutionary workers government in the Soviet Union, wrote:

There are decades of struggle ahead of us, in Europe and in America. Not only the men and women of our generation, but of the coming one, will be its participants, its heroes and its victims. The art of this epoch will be entirely under the influence of revolution.

Leon Trotsky

I believe this argument, despite superficial appearances to the contrary, is profoundly true and gives us the most accurate picture ofand challenges toart and culture in our time.

This, if you like, is a central theme of this evenings discussion. The greatest achievements, both in terms of the cultural advancement of wide layers of the population in the Soviet Union and in terms of artistic work internationally, came as a result of conscious efforts to align culture and artistic thinking with this understanding or intuition to some extent, that the Russian Revolution had opened up a new era, that human society was proceeding to a higher stage. This viewpoint provided the most productive and truthful starting point for intellectual and social life. It provided the most fruitful approach to treating the contradictions of contemporary reality in art.

Further, we would argue, to the extent that the influence of social revolution and the understandingor, again, intuition in partof the importance of this influence have receded, for complex historical reasonsabove all, the crimes of Stalinism and the defeats suffered by the working classthis helps explain the weakening of artistic life in recent decades and, in fact, its tremendous crisis. I will return to this.

Because the Russian Revolution was the first successful, long-term taking of power by the working class, it is hated and reviled by the establishment in every capitalist country. The artistic and cultural achievements of the Revolution, including its profound influence on significant artists everywhere in the world, are also subjects for attack.

However, because the artistic and cultural accomplishments in the Soviet Union were so considerable and so undeniable, the attack often involves the effort to separate the Revolution from the art, to argue that the artistic development had nothing to do with the Revolution, that the artists themselves were naive or utopian, dreamers, or dupes, and that Stalinist repression in the 1930s revealed the true face of Bolshevism and Communism.

In the centenary year of 2017, there were relatively few major exhibitions held and books published on Russian Revolutionary art. There was an exhibition in New York, at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) early in the year, and later, a larger one at the Royal Academy in London, and there were others, including one at the Art Institute of Chicago last fall. Predictably, these shows brought out a combination of anxiety and anti-communist venom. None of the exhibitions or new books about early Soviet art dealt in any serious way, often in any way at all, with the role and legacy of Trotsky and the socialist opposition to Stalinism. They all took the line that Stalinism was the inevitable outcome of the revolution.

Exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art, 2017

This is one of the nervous comments, a response to the MoMA exhibition, in the business publication, Forbes:

The terrible fate of the Russian avant-garde is of more than historical interest in this time of political tumult. As artists strive to present radical alternatives to a reactionary incoming [Trump] administration, theres a strong urge to organize in alignment with the popular political opposition. One lesson to be learned from the Soviet experience is that meaningful art is incompatible with political rhetoric. Another lesson is that populism of any persuasion has scant tolerance for independent thinking. Jonathon Keats, MoMAs New Exhibition of Russian Revolutionary Art Calls Out to the Present Political Moment, Forbes, January 19, 2017

What does it mean to say that meaningful art is incompatible with political rhetoric? Political rhetoric reflects, for better or worse, the passions, disputes, conflicting interests, andtaken as a wholethe ideas and spirit of a given historical period. To say that art is incompatible with political rhetoric, without elaboration and clarification, can be taken to mean that art has nothing to do with the passions, problems and ideas of its time. Of what possible value is such art?

One might say, legitimately, that art cannot merely be a mirror image of political rhetoric. It must take a critical (and, ideally, revolutionary) attitude to the rhetoric of the times, hostile if necessary, supportive if possible, but always seeking to strengthen, intellectually and emotionally, that which is genuinely humane and progressive.

As for the second lessonthat all populism is intolerant of independent thinkingthis reflects a truly contemptuous attitude toward the strivings of the suffering and oppressed. Keats expresses the outlook of the complacent, well-to-do middle class.

Here is a slanderous comment, from an ex-leftist, in regard to the Royal Academy exhibition in London:

The way we glibly admire Russian art from the age of Lenin sentimentalises one of the most murderous chapters in human history. If the Royal Academy put on a huge exhibition of art from Hitlers Germany there would rightly be an outcry. Yet the art of the Russian revolution is just as mired in the mass slaughters of the 20th century. Jonathan Jones, We cannot celebrate revolutionary Russian artit is brutal propaganda, Guardian, February 1, 2017, in a review of Revolution: Russian Art 1917-1932

It is not surprising that journalists who are paid to defend this system should defame or distort the history of the Russian Revolution. Its disgusting, but not surprising. The Revolution remains alive today, a threat, a specter.

So these continue to be highly disputed, ferociously fought-over questions. Art is very much of this world, whatever the artist or critic might imagine. Writers, filmmakers, playwrights, poets, musicians and painters are regularly rounded up by repressive governments and thrown in jail, sometimes killed, when the authorities dont like what the artists are saying and doing. This was the experience of the twentieth century. This is the case in many countries today, and it is certainly what Donald Trump and the Democrats too would like to do here. This is the meaningin an effort only in its initial stagesof the censorship by Google of left-wing websites, the phony anti-Russian campaign and the attacks on so-called fake news. They are gearing up for full-scale repression in this country.

The concerns of the authorities have a basis in reality. Artists contributed to the downfall of the Russian tsar in 1917. Over the course of the previous century, Russian novelists, poets, playwrights and others had criticized the society for its poverty, backwardness and cruelty, sensitized the population, helped prepare the most advanced elements for socialist ideas, although they were not socialists themselves.

The list is long: Pushkin, Lermontov, Nekrasov, Gogol, Goncharov, Uspensky, Turgenev, Tolstoy, Dostoyevsky, Ostrovsky, along with social and literary critics like Herzen, Belinsky, Chernyshevsky and others. This was Trotskys attitude, for example, toward the great novelist, Leo Tolstoy, author of War and Peace, Anna Karenina, and Resurrection:

Anton Chekhov and Leo Tolstoy

Tolstoy did not consider himself a revolutionary and was not one. But he passionately sought the truth and, having found it, was not afraid to proclaim it.  Everything that Tolstoy stated publicly: about the senselessness of rule by the czar, about the criminality of military service, about the dishonesty of landed property, about the lies of the churchin thousands of ways all this seeped into the minds of the laboring masses Although not a revolutionary, Tolstoy nurtured the revolutionary element with his words of genius. In the book about the great storm of [the] 1905 [Revolution] an honorable chapter will be dedicated to Tolstoy. Leon Trotsky, On Tolstoys Death (1910)

As I noted, one of the most widely repeated arguments made by contemporary critics of Russian Revolutionary art is that the Revolution and its art were utopiani.e., that they represented at best a fantastic, unrealizable ideal, as the subsequent fate of the Revolution under Stalin demonstrated.

A recent work about the Soviet Union, edited by three individuals, is titled Utopian Reality (2013), and it is based on a conference along the same lines in 2011. In the introduction, the three authors write:

Marxism was clearly utopian in proposing that a political revolution would lead to a centralised structure and an improvement in human behavior, which in turn would reverberate throughout society, resulting in the achievement of socialism and the ultimate withering away of the coercive state apparatus. Introduction, Utopia and Dystopia: The Impulse of History, Utopian Reality (2013), edited by Christina Lodder, Maria Kokkori and Maria Mileeva

It can be established quite clearly that the Russian Revolution was the least utopian popular rising or revolution to that point in history. Taken at face value, the aspirations of Oliver Cromwell and the English Revolution of the 1640s for godly, righteous government; of Thomas Jefferson and the American Revolution to create a society on the basis of the right to Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness; and of Robespierre and the French Revolution for France to be animated by liberty, equality and fraternity have all proven utopian, given the historical limitations of the times and considering the present realities in those countries, all of which are ruled by corrupt thieves and enemies of democracy.

In fact, Marxism emerged in a struggle, in part, against utopianismas its opposite. This was Marx early on:

We develop new principles for the world out of the worlds own principles. We do not say to the world: Cease your struggles, they are foolish; we will give you the true slogan of struggle. We merely show the world what it is really fighting for, and consciousness is something that it has to acquire, even if it does not want to. Karl Marx, Letter to Arnold Ruge, September 1843

Karl Marx

The Bolsheviks based themselves on the global development of the productive forces and the fact that those productive forces had outgrown the limits of the nation and state, explosively expressed in World War I, in which the great powers bloodily fought to divide the world among themselves. The Russian Revolution, in short, was the most rationally planned mass event in history, systematically discussed and prepared over the course of decades and carried out by the most conscious and advanced sections of the working class and intelligentsia.

It is a particularly loathsome symptom of the decline of intellectual and cultural life that the proposition that human society could be rationally and scientifically organized to satisfy elementary wants and eliminate starvation, poverty and war, and build a humane world, is considered a wild-eyed, utopian ideal.

Then you get this sort of combination of academic jargon, ignorance and class prejudice, in the introduction to the catalogue for the exhibition that opened in Chicago in late October at the Art Institute, Revoliutsiia! Demonstratsiia! Soviet Art Put to the Test:

Revoliutsiia! Demonstratsiia! Soviet Art Put to the Test at the Art Institute of Chicago, 2017

When the Bolshevik Revolution convulsed Russia in October 1917, it was not clear whose cause it served. [Yes, it wasworld socialist revolution.] Although Communist Party propaganda [It wasnt even named the Communist Party yet] was unequivocal about the identity of its addresseethe proletariatthis political entity was anything but evident. [It was very evident, especially throughout 1917.] First, the industrial working class was scarce in this largely agrarian country and became even more endangered as a result of the civil war that ravaged Russias economy over the next five years [What does the latter point have to do with the situation in 1917?] . What is more, from the perspective of Marxist theory, the proletariat was technically not a class at all [This is novel!] but rather the social force that abolishes class affiliation as such to establish for the first time in history the condition for a truly universal subjectivity. [A genuine dialectician!] A universal subject, however, can have no inherent identity [?]. As a result, one could neither define the beneficiary of the Bolshevik Revolution theoretically nor manifest it empirically. [Absurd.] Devin Fore and Matthew S. Witkovsky, Introduction, Revoliutsiia! Demonstratsiia! Soviet Art Put to the Test (2017)

In any event, none of the so-called experts can explain how it is that this act of political and intellectual madness, the Russian Revolution, produced some of the greatest achievements in artistic culture, as well as taking gigantic strides in industry, science and popular culture. The arguments are not coherent ones, but few people, aside from ourselves, challenge them.

The degeneration of the Russian Revolution under Stalin was not the result of its delusional, impractical objectives, but came about because of the isolation of the Soviet Union resulting from the defeats or betrayals of revolutionary opportunities in Europe and Asia and the terrible Russian backwardness and poverty that the Bolsheviks inherited from tsarist Russia.

And this brings us to a central issue. The great question in the aftermath of the Russian Revolution was the extension of the revolution, so that the advanced technology and industry of Germany, for example, could be shared with the Soviet Union and its enormously difficult economic situation could be relieved. There was a revolutionary situation in Germany in the autumn of 1923, but that opportunity was squandered for reasons that lie outside this talk.

Given then the temporary but prolonged isolation of the USSR, a great deal depended on the correct approach to economic and cultural life. Russias backwardness created an immense pressure on the workers regime, encouraging selfishness, acquisitiveness and corruption.

Lenin, Trotsky, Aleksandr Voronsky, Anatoly Lunacharsky and others tirelessly promoted the cultural welfare of the population, in its most elementary aspects (literacy, family relations, alcoholism, cultured speech, punctuality, etc.), as well as in its most complex.

In December 1917, the Bolshevik government issued a decree on education that stated in part:

Every genuinely democratic power must, in the domain of education, in a country where illiteracy and ignorance reign supreme, make its first aim in the struggle against this darkness. It must acquire in the shortest time universal literacy, by organizing a network of schools answering to the demands of modern pedagogics: it must introduce universal, obligatory, and free tuition for all. On Popular Education, December 1917, a decree signed by A.V. Lunacharsky, Peoples Commissar of Education

Around the turn of the twentieth century in Russia, fewer than half the male population could read and only one-eighth of the female population. Lenin argued, The illiterate person stands outside politics. First it is necessary to teach him the alphabet. Without it there are only rumors, fairy tales and prejudicesbut not politics. A famous poster illustrated the argument: the illiterate man is like a blind man.

In December 1919, Lenin signed a nine-point decree on illiteracy. These are a few of the relevant passages:

The illiterate, 1920 (Bolshevik poster)

For the purpose of giving the entire population of the Republic the opportunity for conscious participation in the countrys political life, the Council of Peoples Commissars has decreed: 1. Everyone in the Republic from ages 8 to 50 who is unable to read or write is obligated to learn how to read and write in Russian, or in their native language, according to their choice 3. The Peoples Commissariat of Education and its local organs are given the right to recruit, for teaching the illiterate, the countrys entire literate populationas a labor responsibility 5. For those learning to read and write who are working at hourly wagesthe work day is abbreviated by two hours for instruction, with the same wages.

In 1920, the Bolshevik government established a special commission to attack the problem of illiteracy. It recruited more than 100,000 literate party members as teachers, the majority of them from the Bolshevik youth organization. The commission set up around 30,000 literacy schools, as well as 33,000 libraries or reading rooms. The Bolsheviks also printed more than 6 million textbooks to support their literacy programs.

Soviet literacy class, 1930s

By the end of the Second World War, 90 percent of the Soviet population was able to read and write.

This lifting up of the entire population was the only genuine basis for culture and art of a new character.

When Lenin spoke of the cultural revolution, he saw its basic content as raising the cultural level of the masses.  Without generalizing thought and without art, human life would be bare and poverty-stricken. But after all, that, to a large degree, is how life is now for millions of people. The cultural revolution must consist in opening up the possibility that they can truly gain access to culture, and not just its leftover stubs. But this is impossible without creating the greatest material preconditions. That is why a machine which automatically produces bottles is for us at the present moment a first-rate factor in the cultural revolution, while an heroic poem is only a tenth-rate factor.  Only this kind of cultural revolution deserves the name. Only on its foundations will a new philosophy and a new art begin to flourish. Leon Trotsky, Culture and Socialism (1927)

Trotsky, 1922, by Annenkov

This fight for long-term cultural growth and nourishment went hand in hand with the struggle against the false conception of proletarian culturein the first days of the Russian Revolution a utopian-idealist theory of a working class culture developed in a laboratory apart from the general transformation of world and Soviet conditions. Later, in the hands of the Stalinists, the theory of proletarian culture became part of the argument in favor of socialism in a single country and a system of bureaucratic command over art and a way of impoverishing it. (Trotsky)

Here are merely a handful of examples of the artistic and cultural developments in the Soviet Union, which included free arts education.

Sovetskoe foto (Soviet Photography)

The other journal to debut in 1926 was Sovetskoe foto [Soviet photography]. It was aimed at a general audience of amateur photographers and photojournalists. Every grade school, institution of higher learning, and business enterprise had a photography club, so the magazines circulation increased from 10,000 to 16,000 in 1935-36. Alexander Lavrentiev, Soviet Photography of the 1920s and 1930s in Its Cultural ContextThe Photo Landscape of the Period, in The Power of Pictures: Early Soviet Photography, Early Soviet Film (2015)

The freshness and vigor of Soviet films, in Trotskys phrase, caught the imagination of the entire world. The number of Soviet feature films increased from 9 in 1921 to 123 by 1924. Movie-going in the Soviet Union was obviously popular. In 1928, 300 million tickets were sold. An average film was seen by 2.5 million people. (Jens Hoffman, Film Is Conflict, in The Power of Pictures: Early Soviet Photography, Early Soviet Film, 2015)

There were many important Soviet films in the 1920s and early 1930s. To name a few:

Lev Kuleshov, The Extraordinary Adventures of Mr. West in the Land of the Bolsheviks, 1924

The Extraordinary Adventures of Mr. West in the Land of the Bolsheviks, 1924

Yakov Protazanov, Aelita: Queen of Mars, 1924

Sergei Eisenstein, Battleship Potemkin, 1925; October: Ten Days That Shook the World, 1927

Grigory Kozintsev, The Overcoat, 1926

Vsevolod Pudovkin, Mother, 1926; Storm over Asia, 1928

Boris Barnet, The House on Trubnaya, 1928

Dziga Vertov, Man with a Movie Camera, 1929

Alexander Dovzhenko, Earth, 1930

Poster for The Man with the Movie Camera, 1929

One of the most remarkable developments was the emergence of filmmaking in Soviet Central Asia, in regions where prior to the October Revolution the population was nomadic and living, through no fault of their own, in the most backward and primitive economic conditions, pre-capitalist conditions.

In a pattern repeated throughout much of the Soviet Union and reflective of the national filmmaking boom of the 1920s, Central Asian republics began to establish their own production studios At the height of productivity, Central Asian studios collectively produced over 20 feature films, 40-60 shorts and over 100 documentaries annually, and are estimated to have produced up to 800 full-length films through to the end of the Soviet Union. Barry Mowell, Political, economic and historical foundations of Central Asian cinema, in Social and Cultural Change in Central Asia: The Soviet Legacy, edited by Sevket Akyildiz, Richard Carlson

Classical music played an immense role in Soviet society until the end. Dmitri Shostakovich and Sergei Prokofiev were internationally renowned composers.

Prokofiev was, of course, one of the greatest of twentieth century composers. But it must be noted that he returned to the Soviet Union in the early 1930s. He had already established a world reputation. However, it can be argued that his greatest music was composed after his return, despiteor perhaps because ofall the terrible difficulties confronting artists. One thing is certain: Prokofiev was deeply engaged, as was Shostakovich, with his times. Both composers managed to identify with the Soviet experience and, I believe, support the revolution and condemn its betrayal.

Sergei Prokofiev

Performers like Emil Gillels and Sviatoslav Richter drew large audiences all across the Soviet Union. Major concerts were major events, the subject of considerable discussion and controversy.

Poets were sometimes treated like rock stars. Tens of thousands of people used to flock to Moscows Luzhniki stadium for poetry readings, writes one commentator.

Lyubov Popova

I would like to discuss briefly some of the individual artists, especially those known as the Soviet avant-garde artists, including Vladimir Tatlin, Alexander Rodchenko and Varvara Stepanova, Kazimir Malevich, El Lissitzky, Lyubov Popova among her students, Vladimir Mayakovsky and others. However, presenting them raises quite important questions.

It is sometimes said rather superficially that these artists were, so to speak, the artistic expression or equivalent of Bolshevism. And we have probably said that kind of thing too, a little lazily, at times.

October 1917 brought radical cultural change.  Initially, most avant-garde artists welcomed the revolution because Lenins idea of a political avant-garde as an agent for social change legitimised their own calls for radical action to combat conservative attitudes to art and society. For Marxists like [Vladimir] Tatlin, here was an opportunity to make real and meaningful change. He recalled: To accept or not accept the October Revolution. There was no such question for me. I organically merged into active creative, social and pedagogical life.  Christine Lindey, Art and the Bolshevik Revolution, 2015

Lindey is a visual arts critic for the Morning Star, the newspaper of the Communist Party of Britain.

Vladimir Tatlin

The relationship between the Marxist party, the party of the working class, and the artists is much more complex and problematic than this suggests.

As a matter of fact, Tatlin was an anarchist before the revolution, and his initial attitude, along with the entire group of avant-garde artists, was not especially friendly toward the October Revolution. Theres no need to invent left fairy-tales to make everyone feel good.

In fact, artistic circles in the pre-World War I period, in Russia and elsewhere in Europe and America, were not generally sympathetic to Marxism and the struggle of Marxists to build parties in the working class.

Artistic circles were far more influenced by Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900) and various forms of irrationalism and subjectivism, if the truth be told.

Tatlins Monument to the Third International

Nietzsche was a German thinker who was very hostile to socialism and democracy. He sharply criticized contemporary capitalist society and culture, but from the right, from essentially an elitist and aristocratic point of view. He argued that the enslavement of the working class was necessary, so the great intellects, the highest individuals, the heroes, the free spirits, could be allowed to attain their fullest development.

This is a typical remark:

Here we must think through to the fundamentals and push away all sentimental weakness: living itself is essentially appropriation from and wounding and overpowering strangers and weaker men, oppression, hardness, imposing ones own forms, annexing, and at the very least, in its mildest actions, exploitation. Friedrich Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil (1886)

These are not attractive views. So why was Nietzsche appealing to many, many artists, including intelligent, progressive figures such as Heinrich and Thomas Mann, George Bernard Shaw, Jack London and many of the Russian artists Ive mentioned?

Nietzsche was a subtle and intelligent writer. He wrote scathingly about bourgeois mediocrity and complacency, he criticized religion and Christian piety and slavishness. He appeared to many as a hyper-revolutionary figure, destructive, apparently anti-establishment, anarchistic. He stood for the liberation of the instincts, spontaneity, egoism. Nothing is true, everything is permitted, Nietzsche declared. He privileged chaos, incoherence, subjectivity, intoxication. 

Friedrich Nietzsche in 1882

This was more tempting to many artists than facing up to life as it was in a period of enormous transformation, examining reality, and it was certainly more alluring and apparently poetic than looking at the difficult, often harsh, often tedious conditions of the working class.

Artistic circles on the eve of World War I were strongly colored with irrationalism, they were also dominated by nationalism, patriotism. It is another myth to believe that there was a large body of radical, anti-war artists who rejected in August 1914 the nationalism and chauvinism of the various ruling elites in the name of the broad interests of humanity at the outset of the war. The artists, in this regard, responded to the patriotic appeals like much of the petty bourgeoisie as a whole, with initial enthusiasm. It cost many painters and poets their lives. Many others, of course, became deeply disillusioned, radicalized.

The Italian Futurists were among the most belligerent. A number of their leading figures later went over to Mussolini and fascism. This is from their Manifesto of Futurism (1909):

1. We want to sing the love of danger, the habit of energy and rashness 3. Literature has up to now magnified pensive immobility, ecstasy and slumber. We want to exalt movements of aggression, feverish sleeplessness, the double march, the perilous leap, the slap and the blow with the fist 7. Beauty exists only in struggle. There is no masterpiece that has not an aggressive character. Poetry must be a violent assault on the forces of the unknown, to force them to bow before man.  9. We want to glorify warthe only cure for the worldmilitarism, patriotism, the destructive gesture of the anarchists, the beautiful ideas which kill, and contempt for woman. 10. We want to demolish museums and libraries

Italian Futurist Filippo Tommaso Marinetti

The Italians may have been the most bellicose, but there were many German, Austrian, British and French artists, Expressionists, Fauvists, Cubists, Vorticists and more, under the influence of Nietzsche and other retrograde philosophers, who welcomed the war as a massive act of social hygiene that would purify Europe and wipe away all the rottenness and stagnation in a burst of flame.

Malevich and Mayakovsky, two of the future Soviet avant-garde artists I mentioned, produced Russian patriotic propaganda. The horrors of the war, as I say, subsequently disillusioned many.

The October Revolution itself came as a shock to the artists, even the most radical. It would be wrong to think that iconoclastic extremes and a fondness for intellectual or other kinds of intoxication prepare one for the spectacle of the mass of the oppressed intervening and having the audacity to declare themselves the new rulers of the country.

The avant-garde artists infatuation with the future and the need to reject the bourgeois past, Trotsky noted, had more in common with a bohemian nihilism than a proletarian revolutionism. In fact, despite the verbal radicalism of many poets and painters, the 1917 Revolution, Trotsky continued, appeared to the intelligentsia, including its literary left wing, as a complete destruction of its known world, of that very world from which it broke away from time to time, for the purpose of creating new schools, and to which it invariably returned.

In other words, between the Bolsheviks, the revolutionary party, and the artists, even the most sympathetic, there were inevitable differences, contradictions, frictions.

The ousting of the Provisional Government and the Bolshevik takeover gave most intellectuals outside the radical leftist parties such a shock that they remained silent for several months or passively boycotted the new rulers. Hubertus Gassner, The Constructivists: Modernism on the Way to Modernization, in The Great Utopia (1992)

In fact, when Peoples Commissar of Education Anatoly Lunacharsky extended a well-publicized invitation to Petrograd artists to come to the Smolny Institute to discuss prospective cooperation a few days after the revolutionary insurrection, only six persons showed up: the poet Aleksandr Blok, the publicist Larisa Reisner, painters David Shterenberg and Nathan Altman, theater director Vsevolod Meyerhold and poet Vladimir Mayakovsky.

Theater production directed by Vsevolod Meyerhold

The bourgeois intelligentsia in Russia as a whole was hostile to the socialist revolution, that is, the bulk of the academics, lawyers, engineers, bank workers, professionals of many sorts, even the teachers. (Teaching was obviously a narrower, more privileged profession in tsarist Russia.) Lunacharsky issued a sharply worded appeal in May-June 1918, calling on teachers to stop their boycott of the workers government.

Anatoly Lunacharsky in 1925

In Russia for the first time the masses came out independently with their own program, and the desire to take the government into their own hands. And how did the Intelligentsia meet the heroic attempt of the proletariat to create on the brink of destruction, a strong government of the peoplethe attempt to organize the country, to put an end to the war? It met this attempt with hatred. It not only refused all help to the proletariat, but it rejoiced in every conspiracy against it. Anatoly Lunacharsky, To All Who Teach, May-June 1918

Speaking specifically of the visual artists again, it is remarkablein light of their political histories (many of them were anarchists, Nietzscheans and subjectivists) and sometimes strident commentsthat over the course of 1918-1919 virtually all of the significant left artists, including Malevich, Tatlin and Rodchenko, agreed to cooperate or work directly for one or more of the new revolutionary states institutions.

Alexander Rodchenko and Varvara Stepanova

This came about above all because the Bolshevik government showed its seriousness to defend the workers state with great determination and even ruthlessness, in the face not only of foreign imperialist attack, but attacks from within by various petty bourgeois, anarchist and pseudo-revolutionary leftists. Trotsky commented: The law of social attraction (towards the ruling class) which, in the last analysis, determines the creative work of the intelligentsia, is now operating to our advantage. That is, the petty bourgeoisie was being drawn to the class that acted strongly and decisively.

Having been won, with whatever hesitations and vacillations, to the side of the Bolsheviks, the most far-seeing artists threw themselves into a variety of activities, under conditions of extreme privation.

Posters designed by Mayakovsky for ROSTA

Poet Vladimir Mayakovsky painted and supplied verse for more than 2,000 posters put out by ROSTA (the Russian Telegraph Agency). The posters were designed to raise the political consciousness of the workers and peasants during the Civil War. His subjects ranged from the simplesthow to clean ones rifle, how to sew on buttonsto the most complexhow to destroy the forces of the White generals, how to build socialism.

El Lissitzky designed Beat the Whites with the Red Wedge, a famous 1919 lithographic Soviet propaganda poster. Vladimir Tatlin became one of the leaders of the Moscow Board of the Visual Arts Section of the Peoples Commissariat of Education. In 1919-1920, he designed his famous Monument to the Third International, the international organization of Communist Parties, whose goal was world revolution.

Varvara Stepanova carried out her ideal of engaging with industrial production in the following year when she, with Lyubov Popova, became designer of textiles at the First State Textile Factory near Moscow. Rodchenko turned to photography.

Designs by Varvara Stepanova

The emergence of the Stalinist bureaucracy, with its nationalist, reactionary and ultimately counter-revolutionary policies, stamped out the creative atmosphere, as it did even more ruthlessly the democratic political life of the working class.

As Trotsky commented in 1936, The most eminent artists either commit suicide, or find their material in the remote past, or become silent. (The Revolution Betrayed, 1936)

There is a remarkable photograph from the late 1920s of composer Dmitri Shostakovich, theater director Vsevolod Meyerhold, poet Vladimir Mayakovsky and artist-designer-photographer Alexander Rodchenko. Shostakovich, because of his international fame, survived, but the fates of the others illustrate Trotskys point: Mayakovsky committed suicide, Meyerhold died in the purges, Rodchenko became silent.

Four artistic geniuses. There is a deeply tragic element to the fate of the Russian Revolution and its participants and supporters, almost unimaginably so.

Mayakovsky was hounded toward the end of his life by the artistic representatives of the new bureaucratic caste. He was repelled by the officialdom, as Trotsky put it, even though he was not able to understand it theoretically and therefore could not find the way to overcome it. The poet spoke of himself as one who was not for hire. These are a few lines from one of his last major poems, At the Top of My Voice.

My most respected

comrades of posterity!

Rummaging among

these days

petrified crap,

exploring the twilight of our times,

you,

possibly,

will inquire about me too. 

Agitprop [Agitation-propaganda]

sticks

in my teeth too,

and Id rather

compose

romances for you -

more profit in it

and more charm.

But I

subdued

myself,

setting my heel

on the throat

of my own song. 

The enemy

of the massed working class

is my enemy too

inveterate and of long standing.

Years of trial

and days of hunger

ordered us

to march

under the red flag.

We opened

each volume

of Marx

as we would open

the shutters

in our own house;

but we did not have to read

to make up our minds

which side to join,

which side to fight on.

Our dialectics

were not learned

from Hegel.

In the roar of battle

it erupted into verse,

when,

under fire,

the bourgeois decamped

as once we ourselves

had fled

from them. 

I dont care a spit

for tons of bronze;

I dont care a spit

for slimy marble.

Were men of a kind,

well come to terms about our fame;

let our

common monument be

socialism

built

in battle.

Men of posterity

examine the flotsam of dictionaries:

out of Lethe

will bob up

the debris of such words

as prostitution,

tuberculosis,

blockade.

For you,

who are now

healthy and agile,

the poet

with the rough tongue

of his posters,

has licked away consumptives spittle.

With the tail of my years behind me,

I begin to resemble

those monsters,

excavated dinosaurs. 

Comrade life,

let us

march faster,

march

faster through whats left

of the five-year plan.

My verse

has brought me

no rubles to spare:

no craftsmen have made

mahogany chairs for my house.

In all conscience,

I need nothing

except

a freshly laundered shirt.

When I appear

before the CCC [Central Control Commission]

of the coming

bright years,

by way of my Bolshevik party card,

Ill raise

above the heads

of a gang of self-seeking

poets and rogues,

all the hundred volumes

of my

communist-committed books.

Mayakovsky shot himself on April 14, 1930, two years after Trotsky was sent into exile by the Stalinist regime. They met a number of times, and also corresponded. Trotsky sought out Mayakovskys views when he was writing his chapter on Futurism in Literature and Revolution. The poet praised Trotskys work.

Vladimir Mayakovsky

It could not be the primary subject of this discussion, but the influence of the Russian Revolution and the epoch it opened up transformed international artistic life, in fact formed the basis for the most important and ground-breaking work in the twentieth century.

The number of artists who responded, in one way or another, to the October Revolution or to the existence of the Soviet Union, which is not of course the same thing, is very great. How could it not be? The Russian Revolution pointed the way out of the bloody violence, poverty and oppression offered by capitalism.

Just to take the example of the United States, supposedly a hotbed of anti-communism.

Many black artists, poets and novelists in US saw the struggle against racism as part of the fight against capitalism.

Every Negro who lays claim to leadership should make a study of Bolshevism and explain its meaning to the coloured masses. It is the greatest and most scientific idea afloat in the world today, declared Claude McKay in 1919, a black writer who attended the Fourth Congress of the Communist International in 1922.

Richard Wright

In 1932, novelist Richard Wright (Native Son) began attending meetings of the John Reed Club, a Communist Party-sponsored literary group. He later wrote: The revolutionary words leaped from the page and struck me with tremendous force. My attention was caught by the similarity of the experiences of workers in other lands, by the possibility of uniting scattered but kindred peoples into a whole. It seemed to me that here at last, in the realm of revolutionary expression, Negro experience could find a home, a functioning value and role. Wright later turned sharply to the right, but his important writing was accomplished under the influence of the Russian Revolution.

Ralph Ellison, Langston Hughes, Paul Robeson and Lorraine Hansberry all supported or joined the Communist Party at one point or another because of the influence of the October Revolution.

Lorraine Hansberry

Theodore Dreiser, never a socialist, nonetheless visited the Soviet Union and toward the end of his life joined the Communist Party. F. Scott Fitzgerald followed the development and degeneration of the Soviet Union with great interest and, ultimately, dismay. In the period 1932-1935, he considered joining the Communist Party. He met with members of the Stalinist party and was not favorably impressed. Ernest Hemingway was one of the Popular Front artists and a friend of the Soviet Union for a time, especially during the period of the Spanish Civil War.

Edmund Wilson, the leading American literary critic and a friend of Fitzgerald, was propelled to the left by the Depression, toward the Communist Party and eventually toward Trotsky in the late 1930s. Novelist and critic Mary McCarthy too was attracted for a time by Trotskys ideas and defended him against the Stalinist slanders in the late 1930s.

Theodore Dreiser

Three of the leading figures in American postwar literary life, James Baldwin, Norman Mailer, Saul Bellow, all passed through the periphery of the Trotskyist movement.

To one extent or another, each of these writers was deeply influenced by the Russian Revolution, the Communist Party, Stalinism or Trotskys fight against Stalinism.

This same exercise could be repeated in every country with a significant cultural life in the twentieth century.

Of course, the relationship between the artists and October Revolution was complex and often problematic, as we have seen in the case of the left Russian artists themselves, and many were more attracted to the stability of the Soviet Union and Stalinism than they had been to the workers taking power in 1917. Nonetheless, it is impossible to treat culture in the last century without placing the Revolution at the center of it.

This leads us to the concluding point. In our view, art is not merely a matter of self-expression, or the individual creative imagination, although it is impossible without the latter. Art is one of the ways human beings struggle to discover and communicate to one another the truth about life and reality, in the form of concrete images.

Mary McCarthy in 1933

Art is not merely form. The artist is not an empty machine for producing pleasing or complex form, nor the reader or viewer a machine for consuming it. Each is a social being, with an outlook and psychology shaped by social and historical conditions.

In the final analysis, form does not speak to the viewer or reader deeply as a thing in itself, it speaks to us to the degree that it conveys or vibrates with important ideas and feelings about the world. Great artists like Tolstoy and van Gogh disdained talk about technique. They were obsessed with unveiling life and reality, bringing out its essence. Of course, they developed extraordinary technique and form, but that was always a subordinate element.

The development of art follows the development of the world. The social revolution is the great question of our day, it overshadows every other one. The Russian Revolution showed the way forward, but the revolution was thrown back, for decades. But it remains the only way out of the crisis of human society.

The artists had to grapple with this question, because it was the central human question. Those who avoided it, or rejected it, would simply have less and less to say to their readers or viewers. This was not a command of the Marxists, it was simply a historical, moral reality. How could art remain indifferent to the convulsions of the epoch? And, as I indicated before, what would be the value of art that was indifferent to those convulsions?

This does not mean that the social revolution is the only possible subject. Of course not. But the strength of a love poem too comes ultimately from an urgency about life, often from a protest against a world that makes ones love difficult or even impossible. Postmodern cynicism, social indifference, the view that human beings are basically rotten and that nothing can be done about the way the world isany or all of those positions make a poor basis for creating a personal lyric, or anything else.

Trotsky, speaking to the post-revolutionary artists in the Soviet Union, urged them to assimilate and absorb the character and characteristics of the revolutionary epoch into their bone and marrow.

But the new art, which will lay out new landmarks, and which will expand the channel of creative art, can be created only by those who are at one with their epoch.  The Revolution is reflected in art, for the time being only partially so, to the extent to which the artist ceases to regard it as an external catastrophe, and to the extent to which the guild of new and old poets and artists becomes a part of the living tissue of the Revolution and learns to see it from within and not from without. Leon Trotsky, Literature and Revolution

Of course, we have in opposition to this:

And yet Trotsky was one of those who laid the foundations for the Soviet tradition of valuing artistic works for their political and not for their aesthetic value: an approach which would have consequences that were devastating for Russian literature and fatal for its practitioners. Bengt Jangfeldt, Mayakovsky: A Biography (2014) He [Trotsky] praised and condemned according to the works relationship to the revolution, not by a set of purely artistic criteria. Ian D. Thatcher, Trotsky (2003)

Art is part of human social development, not something outside of it. There is a relationship between the truth and power of the artists ideas and feelings and the ability of his or her work to move, influence and endure.

To speak of purely artistic criteria is a symptom of intellectual decline. As the nineteenth century Russian critic Belinsky once observed, an artist is great and enduring only because he or she is the organ and mouthpiece of the times, the society, and, consequently, humanity as a whole.

Art has to speak to life and its great challenges, or it withers and dies. This is our criticism of contemporary art. The declining influence of social revolution and a lack of concern with the fate of wide layers of the population in particular have damaged and weakened artistic life.

What are we to understand under the term realism?  A definite and important feeling for the world. It consists in a feeling for life as it is, in an artistic acceptance of reality, and not in a shrinking from it, in an active interest in the concrete stability and mobility of life. It is a striving either to picture life as it is or to idealize it, either to justify or to condemn it, either to photograph it or generalize and symbolize it. But it is always a preoccupation with our life of three dimensions as a sufficient and invaluable theme for art. In this large philosophic sense, and not in the narrow sense of a literary school, one may say with certainty that the new art will be realistic. Leon Trotsky, Literature and Revolution

This is our perspective, the struggle for art and cultural life centrally oriented to the reality and the biggest problems of our time, to the human situation in its totality. This totality in our time, is worldwide in scope. The greatest art will give expression to the international and, therefore, truly universal character of the struggle for world socialism. Such art will reject every form of anachronistic narrowness, which divides the human species into the reactionary categories of present-day gender and race politics. This demands an intense, even obsessive concern with the great mass of humanity, suffering and under attack everywhere, by every government and every major party, threatened by war and dictatorship. The artists must not shun political rhetoric, but engage him- or herself, actively and critically, with the conflicts of the age.

The most important single factor in reviving art in our period will be a mass movement against capitalism in which the working class comes forward as an independent political force. This will transform the atmosphere in artistic circles. We are dedicated to the development of that movement.Despite the decision of the UN Security Council for a ceasefire across Syria, which the Turkish government ostensibly supported, Ankara has sent additional special forces troops to prop up its operation in the Syrian Kurdish enclave of Afrin. Two days ago, Turkeys Deputy Prime Minister Bekir Bozdag told NTV that Ankara has deployed special police and gendarmarie forces to Syrias Afrin region in preparation for the new battle that is approaching.

Turkeys Dogan news agency also reported that gendarmerie and police special forces teams have entered Afrin to take part in urban fighting and to hold villages which Turkish forces have seized.

Speaking at his ruling Justice and Development Partys (AKP) provincial congress in Sanlurfa on Sunday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan once more confirmed that Turkish troops are moving toward Afrin.

We will clear Manbij of the terrorists and continue our fight until there is not even a single terrorist left along our borders, he said. When his followers chanted, Chief, take us to Afrin, Erdogan called on citizens with notification to be ready, though there was no need at the moment.

Turkey had launched its Operation Olive Branch on January 20 to clear militants of the Kurdish Peoples Protection Units (YPG) from Afrin. According to the Turkish general staff, more than 2,000 Kurdish fighters and 33 Turkish troops have been killed, while seven Turkish civilians have lost their lives and 125 others have been wounded in Turkish towns as a result of cross-border shelling by the YPG. Turkish officials also insist that there have been no civilian casualties in Afrin.

Syrias state-owned news agency SANA, however, presents a very different picture. On Sunday, SANA reported that the continuous Turkish aggression on the Afrin area has resulted in the killing and injuring of more than 700 civilians, the displacement of thousands of civilians from their homes, the suspension of education in hundreds of schools, and the destruction of infrastructure and services.

Following weeks of an international campaign over the attack of the Syrian government on the eastern city of Ghouta, the UN Security Council unanimously approved a resolution on Saturday demanding a 30-day ceasefire across Syria without delay.

Turkish government officials, however, insist that the resolution does not apply to the invasion in Afrin, which it claims is directed against terrorists. Bozdag said on Sunday, The decision will not impact our Olive Branch operation in the Afrin region.

On Monday, Erdogan and his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron had a phone conversation over the latest developments in Syria. Macron told Erdogan that a UN call for a ceasefire across Syria also applied to Syrias Afrin region, where Turkish troops are preparing a siege of the town of Afrin. The conversation came a day after phone calls between Macron, Germanys Angela Merkel and Russian President Vladimir Putin over the Syrian crisis.

According to a statement issued by the French presidency, Macron told Erdogan that it was imperative to fully respect the ceasefireanother sign of opposition to the Turkish invasion within NATO.

Amid growing conflicts over the Syrian war, another point of contention in the deterioration of relations between Ankara and its European partners came to light when the Czech authorities arrested Saleh Muslim, a top Kurdish politician and former co-chairperson of the Syrian Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD) on Sunday. He was released two days later after he promised to cooperate with the Czech authorities.

Muslims arrest came at the behest of Turkey, where a high criminal court had filed a case against him for a 2016 terrorist attack in Ankara. He was charged with damaging national unity and integrity, deliberate murder, damaging public property and transferring dangerous materials. Recently, Turkeys Interior Ministry had listed Muslim as a most wanted terrorist and offered a bounty of nearly $1 million for his capture.

Turkey has officially requested the extradition of Muslim from the Czech Republic. Bozdag claimed that he was a leader of a terrorist group and still actively plotting terrorist attacks against Turkey.

The arrest of Muslim by Czech authorities provoked a harsh response from the Kurdish leadership in Iraq and Syria. According to a statement published on the official website of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), Kurdistan Regional Government Deputy Prime Minister Qubad Talabani called for his release.

Thus, the controversy over Muslim has been added to various other conflicts that have brought EU-Turkish relations to the brink of collapse.

Less than two weeks after US Secretary of State Rex Tillersons Middle Eastern tour, during which he tried to patch up sharp conflicts between Washington and Ankara, Turkey-US relations are as fragile as before.

Last Thursday, US State Department spokeswoman Heather Neuert said that Washington has contacted many countries to explain the significance of the Countering Americas Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA), and what possible consequences would arise in the wake of arms agreementsabove all Turkeys purchasing of Russian-made S-400 missile systemswith Moscow.

On January 30, the Trump administration published a list of Russian politicians, oligarchs and firms affected by sanctions on the basis of CAATSA and announced it would cut off US arms sales to any country doing business with any banned Russian firms. Rosoboronexport OJSC, the producer of S-400, is included in the list of Russian firms banned by Washington.

Earlier this month, the chairman of the Defense Committee of the Russian Federation Council, Colonel General Viktor Bondarev, made public that Syria, Iraq, Sudan and Egypt are potential clients for the S-400 defense systems. In December, Ankara signed a deal to buy S-400 missiles from Russia, despite expressions of concern and criticism from its NATO allies.

The US has already called on Turkey to reconsider possible consequences of its decision to purchase the S-400 system, while proposing to find a way to boost Turkish air defense capabilities as an alternative to the Russian deal.

Turkey will be the first NATO member country to acquire the Russian S-400 system, which Moscow has so far only sold to China and India.

The Turkish government, however, continues to ignore Washingtons threat of sanctions. Yesterday, Turkeys pro-government daily Sabah cited comments of the Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Fikri Isik, saying, When the US includes the company selling the S-400 system in its sanctions list, there is a possibility that Turkey might be indirectly affected by this. However, they cannot impose direct sanctions against Turkey.

The ever-growing militarist rhetoric of the Turkish government, its recklessness in the ongoing military operations in Syria and its indifference to its NATO allies cannot be dismissed as merely an attempt to whip up nationalism to further domestic political aims. Under conditions in which various imperialist and regional powers are paving the way to a regional war that could rapidly escalate into a direct clash between the worlds nuclear-armed major powers, Ankaras latest moves are clear signs that the Turkish ruling elite is fully engaged in the drive to war to further its own predatory interests.The WSWS urges teachers in West Virginia to contact us to receive updates and information on opposing the agreement.

To the shock and anger of West Virginia teachers and school employees, union leaders announced Tuesday evening that they were shutting down the statewide strike and ordering educators back to the classrooms Thursday without achieving any of their demands.

The West Virginia Education Association (WVEA) and American Federation of Teachers-West Virginia (AFT-WV) are trying to end the powerful strike based on a flimsy pledge by Governor Jim Justice that the Republican-controlled state legislature will approve a one-time, five percent pay increase sometime in the coming days or weeks.

Even if the measure were passedand that is far from guaranteedthe proposal would leave teachers pay near the bottom in the nation. It does nothing to address the strikers main demand: to fully fund the states Public Employee Insurance Agency (PEIA). This means that any raise will be eaten up by rising medical costs for educators, many of whom are already forced to rely on second jobs or food stamps to feed their families.

Teachers and school employees should reject this stab in the back and demand the right to vote before any of the more than 30,000 striking workers return to work. The efforts to sabotage the strike underscore the necessity of teachers and support staff taking the conduct of the struggle out of the hands of the unions by electing rank-and-file strike committees in every school, workplace and community.

Instead of retreating, educators should reach out to all workersstate employees, coal miners, hospital workers, factory workers and students and young peopleand mobilize the broadest support for their fight for living wages, affordable health care and quality public education.

The deal came after backroom discussions between union officials and Justice, the states billionaire governor, on Tuesday afternoon. It was announced at a 6:00 pm press conference at the capitol in Charleston. The governor praised the wonderful union reps and said, We have concluded at least as far as an agreement as we could possibly, and the teachers will go back to work on Thursday.

The pay increase, he said, was a very small part of the overall budget, and would not result in any increased taxes on corporations, which were reaping large profits from the uptick in the economy, the rising stock markets and Trumps tax reform.

As far as the PEIA is concerned, the governor said, a task force, which would include the leaders of the two teacher unions and the school service workers union, would dig in and look for permanent solutions for a PEIA fix. The same bogus pledge has been made by governors, Democratic and Republican alike, for the last three decades, and public employees are still burdened with crushing health care costs.

While the governors spokesman stumbled over a reporters question about inevitable opposition from state legislators, the union officials stepped in to give their blessing to this fraud.

What we are saying is, we are calling for our teachers and service professionals to go back into schools on Thursday, WVEA President Dale Lee said. We are taking this bill in good faith at this point, but we reserve the right, if things get bogged down, our people may have to be called out again. We are going to have to see how this legislative process goes. But our teachers and service professionals want to be back in the classrooms and with their students, so we will be out tomorrow but going back in on Thursday.

AFT-WV President Christine Campbell also defended the sellout, saying, This has been a huge step in the right direction. We have a commitment.

I believe [teachers] dont want to be first in the country in pay, Campbell, who has a union salary of $121,000, said. They know where we live in West Virginia. They want to be out of 48th in the nation. This isnt the end. If things get better, we can begin to focus on public education. We never doubted the governors commitment to public education, but we needed evidence, the teachers needed evidence. This is a commitment that better things are going to happen.

The unions are using Wednesdays cooling off period to try to sell the agreement to an angry membership. Although Campbell repeatedly claimed that all the actions of the union had been voted on by the membership, teachers will have no right to vote on being forced back to work without anything but more worthless promises.

Regardless of the statements about reserving the right to go out on strike again, the unions have done the dirty work of Justice, the state legislature and the corporate interests behind them by demobilizing school employees and delivering them to the mercies of the corporate-controlled politicians.

The deal was immediately hailed by state Democrats, whom union executives falsely have presented as friends of the teachers. The Democrats have controlled the governors office for 32 out of the last 40 years. They serve the mining and energy bosses no less ruthlessly than the Republicans.

Without knowing anything about the sellout, teachers were told to go to the state capitol, where they were used as extras when the deal to end the strike was announced on the national broadcast of NBC Nightly News. Despite the effort to generate enthusiasm with celebratory music, when officials came out to announce details of the deal they were met with anger and frustration.

According to a striker who spoke to the WSWS Teacher Newsletter, one educator began screaming at a union official, saying his wife was sick and they needed to fix the PEIA. The teacher was quickly taken away by what appeared to be security. A lot of people know they are grandstanding, and we see through it.

I am really unhappy, upset and frustrated by this decision, another West Virginia teacher, Nicole, told the WSWS. Why should we believe anything this legislature has to say to us? I dont believe anything. All they have ever done is attack teachers and public education!

We have spent literally years of begging and pleading to them to please help us, to please make sure our children are fed, that we should be able to feed our own children. They dont look at us as people, but as pawns.

Weve been wearing buttons saying we deserve a competitive wage for five or six years. Five percent doesnt even touch competitive. Jim Justice came up with an anecdote about a child changing his thinkingmy goodness, how many times have we begged and pleaded!

I was at the capitol again today, and there were about 1,500 people there, inside and out. Its not the same show of force. It took drastic measures to even get the legislature to notice us. But once we go back, teachers would be less likely to come out again.

A teacher at the Glen Fork Elementary School said, Five percent is not enough. We have to fix the PEIA. They have been promising to fix the PEIA every year, but the rates just keep going up and up.

I would not be in favor of going back to work without the PEIA being fixed. What would be the point? The politicians just want to get elected again and just give us promises. If they dont fix the PEIA, we end up taking a pay cut.

Another thing that we dont hear much about is what is happening to those teachers that are retired or on disability. I know one person who is disabled and has to use almost his entire check to pay for his health insurance. What is going to happen as the insurance goes up? He will be left with nothing.

The West Virginia Education Associations own Facebook page recorded the anger of educators. Vickie Lawrence Osborne said, Im sitting here seriously re-thinking my WVEA membership.

Cooling off for whom? asked Debbie Jones. Teachers are ready. Parents and children are ready. We wont be anywhere near the people we need cooling from! Lol.

Debra Wooten McClain added, Dale Lee should be ashamed of himself. The teachers need a fix for PEIA. Thats what this whole thing was about. The union looks like it sold out.A self-described Russian "seductress" is asking for US help to escape a Thai detention center in exchange for information on alleged links between US President Donald Trump and Russia, according to her Instagram account.

Anastasia Vashukevich, who also goes by the name Nastya Rybka, says she's being held in Thailand after being arrested on February 26, along with nine other Russians, in the city of Pattaya for running so-called "sex training" sessions. Rybka has said she's from Belarus but entered Thailand on a Russian passport, a Thai immigration official told CNN.

While on the way to prison in Pattaya, Rybka published a video on her Instagram account begging US journalists to help her.

"I'm ready to give you all the missing puzzle pieces, support them with videos and audios, regarding the connections of our respected lawmakers with Trump, Manafort and the rest. I know a lot. I'm waiting for your offers and I'm waiting for you in a Thai prison," she said.

Rybka has come under the spotlight in recent weeks after the Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny published an investigation earlier this month on his anti-corruption foundation website into her connections with some of Russia's richest and most powerful men.

Rybka has described herself as a seductress and has published a "diary" on "how to seduce a billionaire." In the investigation, Navalny published video from Rybka's Instagram account showing an August 2016 yacht trip with Russian billionaire Oleg Deripaska and Deputy Prime Minister Sergey Prikhodko.

Navalny said the two men could be heard in the video discussing Russia's poor relationship with the United States. Navalny suggested Deripaska and Prikhodko may have served as a link between the Kremlin and the Trump campaign. CNN has repeatedly tried to contact Prikhodko for comment but has received no response.

Deripaska previously worked with President Trump's former campaign manager Paul Manafort. According to emails described to The Washington Post, Manafort, through an intermediary, offered to provide Deripaska with "private briefings" about the state of the Trump campaign. But a spokesperson for Deripaska told CNN that the billionaire "never received any communication about it." Manafort's spokesman told the Post that any briefing offered on the state of the campaign would have been "routine," but that no briefings took place.

When he was confronted by CNN last year, Deripaska called allegations that he may have been a back channel from the Kremlin to the Trump campaign "fake news." In a post on his Instagram account, he called the most recent allegations contained in Navalny's investigation "outrageous" and "false."

In a statement provided to CNN, his spokesperson said he was suing Rybka and her business partner because they "maliciously made his private photos and personal information public. If someone sneaked onto your house and then published photos from it you would do the same. This information was then used by Mr. Navalny as bait to drum up the interest of an audience, and make up a story far from any truth."

CNN contacted Rybka after Navalny's report came out but she failed to provide any evidence about Russian meddling in the US election.

The Russian Embassy consul in Thailand, Vladimir Sosnov, told the Russian state news agency RIA Novosti that 10 Russians, including Rybka, were detained for running "illegal training" sessions and were "awaiting trial and deportation from Thailand."

The deputy chief of Pattaya's immigration police office told CNN that Rybka, who was traveling on a Russian passport, was released on bail after being held for working in Thailand without a work visa. She was subsequently detained again and is being held in custody prior to deportation because her tourist visa was revoked, police Lt. Col. Dulayapat Techapornchayasin said.

Rybka has claimed she was arrested in Thailand on the orders of the Russian government because of the videos she published with Deripaska and Prikhodko.

"If we go back to Russia we will die in Russian's [sic] prison or they will kill us," a post on Rybka's Instagram account said. "This is very serious. ... Please USA help us not to die from Russians!"

After she was detained, a post on Rybka's Instagram account suggested her arrest was connected to the recent arrival in Thailand of Nikolai Patrushev, the head of Russia's Security Council and former head of the FSB.

The Kremlin dismissed any such suggestion, saying "such visits are, of course, organized in advance. It is quite ridiculous to associate it with the arrests of Russian citizens in Thailand."TERRE HAUTE, Ind. (WTHI) - Many have died across the country due to the flu this season. For patients, complications from the flu can play a large role in that.

The CDC says deaths from pneumonia and flu are up in Indiana this week. Resident Jane Totten says she's especially careful this time of year.

Wabash Valley resident and pulmonary rehab patient, Jane Totten, shares more about the certain risks she faces during cold and flu season. (WTHI Photo, Lacey Clifton) Wabash Valley resident and pulmonary rehab patient, Jane Totten, shares more about the certain risks she faces during cold and flu season. (WTHI Photo, Lacey Clifton)

She says, "I'm kind of unique. I have one lung. I had a lung removed when I was 20 due to histoplasmosis, which is the fungus from pigeons."

The Centers for Disease control says the worst of the flu season may be behind us. The number of doctor visits for flu symptoms fell to about one out of 16. But again, the concern is still flu-related complications like pneumonia.

Totten says, "For me it's especially a trying time. I have to be really careful about what I do. Make sure I get my pneumonia shot, my flu shot, and just try to have good hand washing techniques."

If you've had the flu, you know it takes a lot out of you. Union Hospital Registered Respiratory Therapist Jimmy McKanna says someone battling both diseases are at greater risk of being hospitalized or death.

He says, "So you have a weakened immune system and maybe you stopped drinking as much, so your mucus in your airways gets kind of thick, it's hard to get up. Everything stops working the way it should."

As far as pneumonia is concerned, the disease targets lung function. McKanna says this can have a horrible impact on your body.

He says, "When that system gets taxed with a virus or bacterial infection, you're going to become short of breath. That's going to decrease the amount of oxygen you get to your blood cells, therefore the rest of your organs are going to be affected by that."

Of course pulmonary rehab patients like Jane are at a higher risk of having complications. But McKanna says the usual flu-affected age groups need to stay on their toes.

McKanna says, "They don't have as much functional lung tissue at the upper ages, and then at the younger ages, just smaller size of airwaves. It doesn't take a whole lot to clog them up, or inflammation inside of them to close them off."

McKanna adds another risk factor to the equation, which is smoking. "The number one thing that will increase somebody's probability of getting pneumonia is if they smoke. Because you're no longer using your cilia in your air way the way you should. You're deadening them, so that mucus is not pushed out the way it should."

Jane herself had pneumonia a few years ago and she says it really took a toll on her. She shares what she learned from the experience.

Totten says, "Im one of these people who wait until the very last minute. I will use everything in my cabinet before I make the trip to the ER, and that's not a good thing. Don't be a hero whenever you know you're in trouble and need help."

McKanna says there are three types of pneumonia, and they're all treated differently. For that reason he says reach out to your doctor for testing as soon as possible.

To view the latest flu and pneumonia data from the Centers for Disease Control, click here.MARSHALL, Ill. (WTHI) - Police in Marshall, Illinois credit a quick investigation for resolving a situation centered around a threat towards one of its schools.

Marshall Police posted an announcement about the arrest on its Facebook page last night.

The threat came in the evening, according to police. From there, they launched an investigation and developed one suspect. Police say an arrest has been made and charges were filed.

Marshall Police report 19-year-old Jonathonn Siler made the verbal threat.

The release concluded that Marshall PD takes all school threats seriously, and they will work "swiftly and efficiently" to eliminate those threats.

"This investigation is not finished, we will continue to follow up on information as we receive it. The safety of our students is a top priority. Therefore Officers of the Marshall Police will continue to be present at the Marshall Schools for the rest of this week and we are working with the School Administration to continue officer presence at the schools after this week."VIGO COUNTY, Ind. (WTHI) - One of the leading intelligence organizations in the Air National Guard is right in our own backyard. The 181st Intelligence Wing in Terre Haute has a world-wide impact.

Over the last 10 years men and women have been very busy adapting on base. News 10's Melissa Crash gets us up to speed in the special report, Racing into the Future.

WORLD-WIDE IMPACT (Part One):

We're opening the door to new heights.

It was 2007 when News 10 introduced you to the 181st Intelligence Wing. That's when the fighter wing was given a new mission. A new chapter for the racers centering in, on highly classified missions. So secretive, we weren't able to pass security doors.

Fast-forward to 2018, the racers legacy continues. We returned and found a base with more people and more missions.

Commander, Col. Christopher Colbert remember the past. The flying billboards were pretty obvious,

he added, "I remember in 1968-1969 laying in my backyard listening in the day when you could still fly past the speed of sound listening to sonic booms, wondering where that came from."

But he's excited for what's happening now. Nearly 1,000 airmen occupy the 181st. Over the past decade, all of them have adapted into their new roles.

Col. Colbert said, "It's difficult to take someone who used to load bombs on an airplane, it was tough to envision them sitting in front of a computer screen."

From the field to this, a computer screen. An essential key, to world-wide missions.

Col. Christopher Alderdice may be somewhat new to the base as Commander, but he sure sees the effectiveness of what theyre doing. He sat down with us to explain. "They have done an admiral job, coming up on mission and becoming absolute experts in their fields."

Col. Alderdice adds, in the past, it wasn't every day soldiers made a major impact from Terre Haute. Impact in the forms of relaying information - keeping close watch on what's happening around the world from miles away. "It's totally different. From the stand-point of a fighter pilot, in today's missions and what they're doing at the 181st Intelligence Wing, if you want to have world-wide daily impact it's in these missions."

Their ammunition fueled by technology.

"We feel very comfortable now, after a decade that we're really good at what we do. Now we look at, how do we communicate with the community? said Col. Colbert.

And that's the other biggest change in the last 10 years. The 181st and their focus on growing our community. They want you to know its impact. In fact, in 2017 the men and women working for our country here - invested nearly $73 million. Thats investment, they create jobs and are a significant impact on our economy. They serve and protect the community, state and nation.

"We are you - you are us. We need to work together. There's a lot of energy in this smaller community, said Col. Alderdice.

In the next 10 years, technology will continue to evolve behind closed doors. But don't be surprised to see physical growth. As this empty land has potential for expansion and new partnerships. "Energy to better quality of place, develop economically, bring great corporations to this town, said Col. Alderdice.

Strengthening the bond of the 181st and our community, and combatting issues together.

I'm really proud to be a Hoosier airman, said Commander Col. Alderdice.

RECRUITMENT (Part Two):



Now weve brought you up to speed on what the 181st Intelligence Wing has been adapting to over the last 10 years. It's been a long journey, but the airmen are not slowing down.

In fact, they're taking what they've learned to continue on their legacy. And the key to that, is recruitment. Now the airmen, need your support.

It takes a certain person to take on the integrity of a racer, an airman.

"It's really eye-opening to see the world-wide impact they have, right in your own backyard." News 10 spoke with Airman Denver. He enlisted as a senior at Terre Haute North Vigo High School. He's now prepping for basic training.

Denver added, "I've always wanted to be a part of something bigger, and I think that's what I have out here at the Air National Guard."

Airman Denver says it's a sense of pride. The 181st is always looking to expand.

Master Sgt. Kelli is in charge of training new recruits. "I know it makes me very proud to know Im able to assist our Airmen, Soldiers, Marines, and Sailors everywhere around the world with what we provide."

Master Sgt. Kelli knows the ins and outs of Intel missions, fighting behind the screens and helping trainees, become experts. "It's a good feeling, you're also able to go home to your family at night, which is a luxury not everyone has and still have an impact on the world."

Wearing the uniform, and embracing the behavior. The 181st wants to find more people in our community who represent their core values. Those are, integrity, service before self, and excellence in all we do.

Then, they can add to those values by preparing for difficult missions. Tech Sgt. Garrett is on the other side. He's served 14-years in the Air Force and has seen it all.

"When you actually deploy and put it into use and you're making a difference. You're making a decision that will save lives, or you're making a decision that could potentially could eliminate someone that's bad, said Garrett.

Leaders, soldiers - helping recruit future airmen. That's the new mission.

Airman Denver said, "I actually never thought Id be in this position up until senior year. I started to look more into it when I needed to pay for college, it really opens up a lot of opportunities and the networking, and the people you meet is just amazing."

Training them to protect our future.

To learn more about the recruitment process, click here to visit the 181st Intelligence Wing website.DRESSER, Ind. (WTHI) - Water is receding in many parts of the Wabash Valley but one community is preparing for more rain and damage.

The town of Dresser sits along the Wabash River in between Terre Haute and West Terre Haute. Residents there say flooding is a regular problem.

Sandbags from years ago still line the streets and water has already damaged some property this season. Residents say they're worried rain in the forecast will make the situation worse.

Patsy Tapp says she has lived in the small town all her life and at least three generations of her family have called Dresser home.

Flood water has already covered the ground surrounding her son's property. Tapp says neighbors are concerned the water will reach other areas and the community church.

"It's going to raise it up again, maybe be worse. I hope not but I just hope it don't flood and ruin all our stuff and basically, and mainly not kill somebody."

News 10 helped connect neighbors with the Vigo County Emergency Management Agency so they could get new bags and sand.

Deputy Director J.D. Kessler says the situation is Dresser serves as an important reminder to plan ahead and request help.

Kessler says the agency is monitoring the river and communicating with the National Weather Service as more rain is expected.

"For the short term, we feel pretty comfortable right now. If it goes south of us, obviously it's not a concern to us. If it goes north then it becomes more of a concern to us."

Sand was delivered to the Dresser community so people can get to work filling bags before more rain hits.

If you need bags and sand you can contact the Emergency Management Agency in your area. In Vigo county that number is (812) 462-3217.CRAWFORD COUNTY, Ill. (WTHI) - A local community is preparing for possible education changes.

Tuesday night was the final community forum for the consolidation of two Illinois school corporations.

They are Palestine Unit 3 and Hutsonville Unit 1.

A special committee held a series of meetings on the topic. People have been able to get information and voice their opinions.

Voters will ultimately make their voices heard in March.PARKLAND, Fla. (AP)  Nearly two weeks after a shooting at a high school killed 17 people, the Florida Legislature took a step closer Tuesday to passing a bill that would allow for armed teachers and raise the age limit to buy rifles, among other changes.

A House committee approved the bill that would raise the minimum age to buy rifles from 18 to 21 and creates a three-day waiting period for all gun purchase. The bill would also create a program that allows teachers who receive law enforcement training and are deputized by the local sheriffs office to carry concealed weapons in the classroom if also approved by the school district.

The 23-6 vote Tuesday followed more than four hours of emotional discussion, including from parents of some of the 17 killed at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School on Valentines Day.

Democratic Rep. Jared Moskowitz, a former Parkland vice mayor, said he didnt like the bill, but still voted for it. He explained, It doesnt go far enough, and now it goes too far in other areas. But the NRA opposes it and I will not vote with the NRA.

Max Schachter, father of 14-year-old victim Alex Schachter, said the bill the House committee approved Tuesday, doesnt go far enough, but it still could have saved his son.

President Donald Trump says he doesnt want all teachers to carry guns - just those who have a natural talent. (Feb. 26)

While the proposed bill does not meet all of my goals, the components of the bill would have saved my little boy Alex, he said. And if we would have had these measures in place, I would not have had to bury my son next to his mother a week and a half ago.

Unlike Monday, when hundreds of sometimes rowdy protesters jammed a Senate meeting to consider a similar bill, Tuesdays proceedings were more orderly. But still, several speakers spoke in favor of the assault weapons ban, including Parkland resident Amber Hersh.

Our children lost a friend. Our friend lost a daughter. This is your opportunity. The world is watching, she told the committee.

An amendment to ban assault weapons was rejected on an 18-11 vote.

A Senate committee was going to take up a similar bill later in the day.

As the bill moves through the Legislature, the court case of Nikolas Cruz, the 19-year-old accused of killing 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, is underway.

A judge has refused to step aside from the case as requested by his lawyers. Court records show Broward County Circuit Judge Elizabeth Scherer denied the request Monday.

Cruzs lawyers claimed Scherer has made rulings and comments that indicate favoritism for prosecutors. They said in court papers that Cruz cant get a fair trial, but Scherer disagreed.

Cruz is charged with 17 counts of murder in the Valentines Day shooting.

A Tuesday morning hearing in the criminal case against Cruz was canceled after lawyers reached an agreement for prosecutors to get hair samples, fingerprints, DNA and photographs of him.

Students are scheduled to return to school Wednesday, for the first time since the Feb. 14 shooting.

In Mississippi, lawmakers proposed letting teachers and other school employees with special training carry guns onto campus. The Senate Judiciary A Committee on Tuesday amended House Bill 1083, allowing public and private school administrators to establish school safety programs that would allow teachers to carry guns. School employees would have to receive 12 hours of training every two years from the Mississippi Department of Public Safety.

Meanwhile, Broward Schools Superintendent Robert Runcie told the Sun Sentinel that the districts hands were tied by federal law after Cruz turned 18 and refused to let the school system continue providing him with crucial mental health and other services.

You cant make someone do something when the law says they have the right to make that determination, Runcie told the newspaper.

Cruz was transferred to a school with programs for emotionally and disabled students when he was in eighth grade but wanted to be mainstreamed back into his home school, Runcie said.

He often perseverates on the idea that his current school is for students that are not smart and that he can now handle being in regular school, according to a Broward school system report from June 2015, the end of his ninth-grade year.

Starting in January 2016, Cruz was allowed to spend half his day at the alternative school and half at Stoneman Douglas to ease him into the less-structured environment.

In August 2016, he started back to Stoneman Douglas, but the situation had deteriorated by November, Runcie said. Thats when Cruz, who had turned 18 in September 2016, refused the mental health services offered by the school. Runcie said Cruz had the support of his mother.

He remained at the school until February 2017, when school officials finally decided to remove him after unspecified behavior issues. He was told his only option was an alternative school.

Runcie said he would like to see the aged raised to 21 for students to be allowed to refuse such services.

The Legislature has just proposed raising the legal age by which you could purchase firearms to 21. Maybe 21 should also be the age they can refuse services, he told the newspaper.

___

Associated Press writers Freida Frisaro and Adriana Gomez Licon in Miami; Gary Fineout in Tallahassee, Florida; Tamara Lush in St. Petersburg, Florida; and Jeffrey Collins in Columbia, South Carolina; contributed to this report.

___

Follow the APs complete coverage of the Florida school shooting here: https://apnews.com/tag/Floridaschoolshooting .INDIANA (WTTV) - One of several bills tackling the legalization of CBD oil in the Indiana statehouse passed the House and is headed to Governor Holcombs desk.

Senate Bill 52, Low THC extract, passed the House with a 93-0 vote on Tuesday afternoon. The bill would allow the sale and use of cannabidiol (CBD) oil in Indiana.

Under SB 52, all Hoosiers would be able to purchase CBD oil that contains .3 percent or less of THC, the component of the cannabis plant which causes intoxication. With the low amount of THC, CBD oil users would reportedly not experience a high feeling that conventional marijuana users may encounter.

CBD oil has been shown to help with various medical conditions such as cancer, epilepsy and severe pain.

The author of SB 52, State Sen. Michael Young (R-Indianapolis), says the bill builds upon a law passed last year, which legalized the use of CBD oil strictly to individuals diagnosed with epilepsy.

So many people have benefited from using CBD oil to treat a variety of problems like epilepsy, cancer and anxiety, Young said. Since we are limiting how much THC can be in the product, there is no risk for people to use this to get high. My hope with this bill is that more Hoosiers will be able to use this product to treat their ailments.

The oil would be available for purchase over-the-counter from retailers across the state.

The bill now moves to Governor Holcombs desk.

*This story was originally published by WTTV in Indianapolis.PARKLAND, Fla. (AP)  Students and teachers hugged and cried Wednesday as they returned under heavy police guard to Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School for the first time since a teenager with an assault rifle killed 17 people and thrust the huge Florida school into the center of a renewed national gun debate.

The half-day began with fourth period so that the nearly 3,300 students could first be with the people they were with during the shooting.

In the beginning, everyone was super serious, but then everyone cheered up and it started being the same vibes we had before the shooting. People started laughing and joking around, said Kyle Kashuv, a junior who said he hugged every single teacher.

On the way in, teens were guarded by hundreds of police officers. The police were accompanied by comfort animals, including dogs, horses and a donkey. One of the horses had eagle pride painted on its side. A nearby woman held a sign offering free kisses.

After school dismissed, members of the Guardian Angels wearing their trademark red berets lined the streets at a crosswalk.

Kashuv said he was amazed by the outpouring of support from the community, including the police presence, the animals and many well-wishers. There were letters from all over the world and banners on every single wall, he said.

Theres heavy security at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School as classes resumed for the first time since 17 students and teachers were killed by a teenager with an AR-15, thrusting them into the center of the nations gun debate. (Feb. 28)

Some of the officers carried military-style rifles, and Superintendent Robert Runcie said a heavy police presence would continue for the remainder of the school year. The heavy arms rattled some students.

This is a picture of education in fear in this country. The NRA wants more people just like this, with that exact firearm, to scare more people and sell more guns, said David Hogg, who has become a leading voice in the student movement to restrict assault weapons.

About 150 grief counselors were on campus to provide a lot of love, a lot of understanding and to help students ease back into their school routines, Runcie said.

The freshman building where the Feb. 14 massacre took place remained cordoned off.

Students were told leave their backpacks at home. Principal Ty Thomas tweeted that the schools focus would be on emotional readiness and comfort, not curriculum.

In each classroom, colored pencils, coloring books, stress balls and toys were available to help students cope.

Its not how you go down. Its how you get back up, said Casey Sherman, a 17-year-old junior. She said she was not afraid to be return, just nervous.

Then she saw all the officers.

Oh, wow, there are a lot of police, she said as she pulled up to the entrance. Oh my goodness, yeah, that is a lot.

Many students said the debate over new gun laws helped them process the traumatic event and prepared them to return.

Alexis Grogan, a 15-year-old sophomore, was concerned that it might be too soon to go on as usual without slain friends such as Luke Hoyer, who sat two seats behind her in Spanish class. But the effort to strengthen gun laws has buoyed her spirits.

I am so proud of how the kids at my school have been fighting because we all want change to happen and, as we see the progression, it really shows us that people do care. And they do hear what we have to say, Grogan said in a text message.

As students went back to class, Dicks Sporting Goods, a major U.S. retailer, announced that it would immediately halt sales of assault-style rifles and high-capacity magazines at all of its stores and ban the sale of all guns to anyone under 21.

A House committee voted Tuesday in favor of a bill to raise the minimum age to buy long guns from 18 to 21 and to create a program allowing teachers to carry concealed weapons in classrooms if their school district allows it. Those teachers would receive law-enforcement training and get deputized by the local sheriffs office.

State lawmakers continued their investigation of how the suspected shooter, Nikolas Cruz, managed to slip through local law enforcement despite previous warning signs.

The Florida House voted Wednesday to subpoena records from Broward County and the school board, as well as sheriffs offices in Broward and Palm Beach counties and the city of Coral Springs. The subpoenas demand that the records be turned over by Tuesday.

Florida Gov. Rick Scott said he hopes a gun and school-safety bill is passed before the annual legislative session ends March 9. The measures he proposed did not include arming teachers, but he declined to say Tuesday whether he would veto a sweeping package that includes that provision.

The Broward superintendent has spoken out firmly against the idea of arming teachers.

Marion Hammer, a lobbyist for the National Rifle Association and Unified Sportsmen of Florida, said she supports school security and keeping guns out of the hands of the mentally ill, but guns are not the problem.

Kashuv said he was most moved by a tattoo his teacher got that said MSD Strong with a giant eagle.

The shooting doesnt define us, he said. Were really moving past it and trying to heal right now.

___

Associated Press writers Brendan Farrington in Tallahassee, Florida, and Curt Anderson in Miami contributed to this report. Video journalist Robert Ray also contributed.

___

Follow the APs complete coverage of the Florida school shooting here: https://apnews.com/tag/Floridaschoolshooting .TERRE HAUTE, Ind. (WTHI) - There's nothing quite like learning by seeing something in action. That was the case for a courtroom full of Indiana State University students on Tuesday afternoon who witnessed "Appeals on Wheels."

That's a program where the Indiana Court of Appeals brings an actual court case for public viewing.

In this case, students saw a real court case in a room that housed federal proceedings for nearly a century. They met in what was once the federal courtroom in Terre Haute, now part of Federal Hall on the ISU campus.

The audience heard "Jerry Decker vs. the State of Indiana."

Decker was convicted by a Clark County, Indiana jury on a Level 3 felony charge of Attempted Aggravated Battery. He's serving time at the Indiana Department of Correction.

In his appeal, he's contesting some of his convictions, some on lack of evidence, others on double jeopardy. Both sides had oral argument before the panel of three judges, who also interrupted them with poignant questions.

"The students in advance read the briefs the parties filed," said David Bolk, a member of ISU's legal studies faculty. "They had the chance to really learn what goes on in an appellate court."

The judges promised the students they'll be among the first to read their opinion on Decker's case once it becomes public.WASHINGTON (AP)  The security clearance of White House senior adviser and presidential son-in-law Jared Kushner has been downgraded, significantly reducing his access to classified information, according to two people informed of the decision.

Kushner had been operating with an interim clearance at the top secret/sensitive compartmented information level for more than a year. Now he is authorized to access information only at the lower secret level, according to a White House official and a person familiar with the decision, both of whom spoke on condition of anonymity. Neither source was authorized to discuss the decision publicly.

Tuesdays news set off rampant speculation among Trump allies that Kushners days in the White House might be numbered. On the same day, the departure of a third Kushner ally in the West Wing in as many months was announced. And the selection of a Kushner ally to serve as Trumps 2020 campaign manager appeared to suggest the campaign could provide Kushner with a convenient place to land after his White House duties end.

Kushner lost his access to the nations deepest secrets after chief of staff John Kelly ordered that White House officials with interim clearances pending since before June 1, 2017, be cut off if they hadnt received permanent clearances by last Friday. A White House official confirmed to The Associated Press that Kellys order has been implemented.

President Donald Trump could have reversed Kellys decision and unilaterally offered Kushner a clearance, but deferred to Kelly. Kushner is one of dozens of White House aides who have been working without permanent security clearances for the better part of a year.

His attorney told the AP that Kushners ability to do his job wont be affected by any change to his clearance.

Those involved in the process again have confirmed that there are dozens of people at Mr. Kushners level whose process is delayed, that it is not uncommon for these clearance reviews to take this long in a new administration, and that the current backlogs are now being addressed, said Peter Mirijanian, a Kushner spokesman.

Kushners portfolio once included the U.S. relationships with China and Japan and a host of domestic priorities, including infrastructure, trade and economic development. But his freewheeling reach in the foreign policy space  which was viewed as undermining Secretary of State Rex Tillerson  already had been curtailed somewhat under Kelly.

Still, Kushner is reportedly said to have reviewed the highly secret presidential daily brief and has been in the room for some of Trumps most consequential domestic and foreign policy decisions.

White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders told reporters Tuesday that she would not comment on individual security clearances but called Kushner a valued member of the team, and he will continue to do the important work that hes been doing since he started in the administration.

The Washington Post reported Tuesday that officials in at least four countries had privately discussed ways they could manipulate Kushner by taking advantage of his complex business arrangements, financial difficulties and lack of foreign policy experience.

The nations included the United Arab Emirates, China, Israel and Mexico, the Post reported, citing current and former U.S. officials familiar with intelligence reports on the matter. The newspaper said it was unclear if any of those countries had acted on the discussions, but said Kushners contacts with foreign government officials had raised concerns within the White House and were among the reasons Kushner had not yet been able to obtain a permanent security clearance.

Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., said the report about Kushners business dealings and efforts to influence him is exactly what the security clearance process is designed to avoid.

Kushners contacts with foreign officials also have been a part of special counsel Robert Muellers investigation, a former U.S. official told the AP. Muellers team, in its interviews for the ongoing Russia probe, has asked people about the protocols Kushner used when he set up conversations with foreign leaders.

The Kushner Cos., for example, had attempted to raise money for its struggling 666 Fifth Avenue skyscraper in New York from a large Chinese insurer with ties to the ruling Communist Party. Those talks ended after lawmakers and government ethics experts expressed worry that China could be using a deal to curry favor with the White House.

Kushner stepped down as CEO of his familys real estate company to join his father-in-laws administration.

With a top-secret clearance, Kushner would have had access to information about covert operations and intelligence sources and methods. With a secret clearance, he would still have access to intelligence assessments, but not necessarily the information behind why the U.S. knows what is being shared with him.

The downgrade would mean that anyone giving top-secret material to Kushner could be accused of mishandling classified material, according to David Priess, who wrote a history of the Presidents Daily Brief, the highest-level intelligence document produced in the United States. Still, a president has the ultimate authority to classify or declassify information, so he could show the brief  covering hot spots around the globe, U.S. covert operations and intelligence about world leaders to whomever he damn well pleases, Priess tweeted.

The White Houses handling of security clearances has come under intense scrutiny in the wake of revelations that former White House staff secretary Rob Porter had worked for more than a year with only interim clearance. Porter, whose job gave him constant access to the most sensitive of documents, had been accused of domestic abuse by his two ex-wives. The White House has repeatedly changed its timeline about who knew what and when about the allegations.

Kushner has been forced to repeatedly correct omissions in his SF-86, the government-wide form used to apply for clearances, as well as his financial disclosure forms, which experts said could delay or even nix his chances of earning a clearance through the normal process.

___

Lemire reported from New York. AP writers Deb Riechmann, Ken Thomas, Catherine Lucey and Jill Colvin contributed from Washington.BRAZIL, Ind. (WTHI) - Three Wabash Valley schools received Four-Star status.

The Indiana Department of Education announced the newest round of Four-Star schools.

Jackson Township and Staunton Elementary schools in Brazil along with Flaget Elementary school in Vincennes made the high honor.

Clay Community schools say they are proud to put education first. Jackson Township Elementary in Brazil was awarded Four-Stars for the 6th year in a row.

Daniel Webster has been teaching at Jackson Township Elementary for 26 years. He teaches fifth-grade.

"Those are my kids," Webster said. "I care about each and every one of them."

The school means everything to him.

"Hard work pays off," he said.

Webster says it's the dedication to the kids and everyone in the building that makes such a honor even possible.

"We're more than a team, we are a family here," he said.

Rachel Rounds, a fifth-grader at Jackson Township Elementary, says she loves coming to school every day.

"The teachers make it easy and are nice," Rounds said. "They take their time to teach it to us."

Schools must meet a certain criteria to receive four-stars, that includes excellent in ISTEP pass rates and they must receive an "A" for the year.

Brad Ennen, principle at Jackson Township Elementary, says it is not only the faculty to thank for.

"I always tell parents that you are the best teacher your child is ever going to have," Ennen said. "I always tell parents that you are the best teacher your child is ever going to have."

238 Hoosier schools received the award.VINCENNES, Ind. (WTHI) - Its small enough you might just miss it driving through Vincennes, but the parents who bring their kids to Flaget Elementary school every day know the effort given to each student.

"The teachers, they work so hard for our children that its nice to see that their efforts be recognized," said Molly Weiss who has children who attend Flaget.

The Indiana Department of Education recognized the teachers and staff at Flaget Elementary. The department named the institution a Four-Star school.

Principal Lori Wissel says its a title that is given when a school meets certain requirements.

"We try to keep class sizes small. In most of our classes they are between fifteen and eighteen students in each class so that's very helpful," said Wissel.

The school must get an "A" letter grade from the state while also getting exceptional results on the state ISTEP exam.

"But we try to prepare the best we can and we were very very excited to hear. It's a great honor for us to be recognized," said Wissel.

Even though the honor has to be earned again next year, the parents of these students are not concerned. They just hope to continue to grow as a school, educating each student while helping them grow as a person.

"I hope they can just carry on as they are. They raise the bar every year so that makes me feel great because i know my children are not only being educated but that they loved, said Weiss.

This was the first time Flaget received the honor but they were not alone. If you would like to see all the four start schools named this year check out the link here.TERRE HAUTE, Ind. (WTHI) - Addiction is a health crisis in the United States and opioid abuse has been front and center.

On Tuesday night, Indiana State University hosted a webinar on addiction.

It was in partnership with the local chapter of the American Chemical Society. They talked about the chemistry behind addiction.

The group also discussed how to combat overdoses with that same science.

Students, faculty and people from the community attended.At least 20 people have died in the Pacific nation of Papua New Guinea (PNG) after a 7.5 earthquake shook the country Monday, cutting off roads and destroying buildings.

Jim Andrews, Deputy Police Commissioner and Chief of Operations, said in a statement Wednesday authorities were working to restore services in the badly-affected provinces of Hela, Enga and the Southern Highlands.

Andrews said in the statement there had been severe damage to the three provinces, adding police would be assisting aid efforts.

The earthquake struck central Papua New Guinea on Monday morning, according to the United States Geological Survey (USGS), at a depth of 35 kilometers (22 miles).

A number of strong aftershocks were also reported by the USGS.

Immediately following the initial disaster, Papua New Guinea Prime Minister Peter O'Neill said disaster management teams had been sent to the areas close to the earthquake.

"There are communities that have suffered from this natural disaster, and we are sending our soldiers and other Government agencies to support our people in their time of need," he said in a statement on his official Facebook account.

"We know that there have been houses lost, roads cut by land slips and disruption to services."

The Red Cross in Papua New Guinea said they had been having trouble reaching volunteers near the damaged areas due to damage to the mobile networks.

Julie Bishop, Australia's Foreign Minister, said in a statement the government was sad to hear reports of injuries and deaths in neighboring Papua New Guinea.

"We expect that the extent of the damage will become clearer in coming days," the statement said.

"At the request of the Papua New Guinean Government, Australia is today providing a RAAF C-130 to conduct aerial surveillance and provide logistical support to the Papua New Guinea Defence Force."ABERDEEN, Miss. (WTVA) - According to Aberdeen police, three missing children from Aberdeen have been found safe near Miami, Florida.

Aberdeen Interim Police Chief Quinell Shumpert confirmed Wednesday that Jachin Graham, 3, Nasir Brown, 4, and Niyeema Prigeon, 6, have been found safe.

Ashli Brown and three missing children from Aberdeen

Photo: U.S. Marshals Service Photo: U.S. Marshals Service Ashli Brown and three missing children from Aberdeen

The woman accused of taking the children is their biological mother, Ashli Brown, 27, is now in police custody, Shumpert confirms.

According to the U.S. Marshal Assistant Chief Manny Puri, Brown was tracked down to her ex-boyfriend's house in Opa-locka, where she was arrested without incident.

He says she attempted to change her appearance by cutting her hair short and dying her hair blonde.

The group has been missing since early February. The Mississippi Bureau of Investigation says the children were abducted from their home in the 400 block of Columbus Street sometime near 2 p.m. on February 7.

Puri says Brown's newborn child was also found. She reportedly used the newborn to lure the children out of their grandparents' home in Aberdeen. Their grandmother is their foster parent.

The children are in the custody of the Department of Child & Famiy Services.

Shumpert says his department is working to bring the children back to Aberdeen.ELLISVILLE, Miss. (AP)  A Republican state lawmaker who came close to unseating one of Mississippi's U.S. senators during a bitter 2014 race says he will run against the state's other U.S. senator this year.

Chris McDaniel announced Wednesday that he will challenge Sen. Roger Wicker in the June 5 GOP primary.

Chris McDaniel Chris McDaniel

Chris McDaniel says hes running against Sen. Roger Wicker for the GOP nomination. Live coverage ahead on #WTVA9News at 4:00. pic.twitter.com/99lyjn67GG  Craig Ford (@cfordwtva) February 28, 2018

Wicker has been in the Senate a decade, and President Donald Trump had tweeted his support for Wicker on Tuesday.

McDaniel was backed by tea party groups when he tried to defeat Mississippi's senior senator, Thad Cochran, in 2014. At the time, McDaniel positioned himself as the outsider trying to topple the political establishment. The same dynamic would be in play in any race against Wicker.

Following McDaniel's announcement, Wicker released the following statement:

"Gayle and I are looking forward to this campaign and sharing my record of successfully fighting to reduce job-killing regulations, confirm conservative judges, enact historic tax cuts, rebuild our military, and honor our veterans. We will work hard to once again earn the votes and support of all Mississippians."AMORY, Miss. (WTVA) - Amory Police Chief Ronnie Bowen said a local woman received a scam call Monday asking for donations for the police department.

The caller couldnt name the organization he was representing nor information on where the money would go exactly.

"First of all, the Amory Police do not solicit money period, even from known organizations," said Bowen.

The call was from a local number, but it isn't confirmed if the number is registered or fake.

Bowen said if they do decide to receive donations, they would use the media to get the word out.

"When we are doing one for a K-9, we dont solicit the money. We will use the media to let them know where they can donate the money."

The chief said if someone calls you asking for money to donate to a police department, call the department to confirm before giving money.ATLANTA (WTXL) - Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr is alerting Georgians victimized by a scam involving Western Union's money transfer system that they have until May 31, 2018, to file claims.

The claims can be filed by consumers who lost money to scammers who told them to pay via Western Unions money transfer system between January 1, 2004, and January 19, 2017.

Affected consumers should go to FTC.gov/WU to file claims, learn more or get updates on the claims process.

Filing a claim is free. So consumers should not pay anyone to file a claim on their behalf. No one associated with the claims process will ever call to ask for consumers bank account or credit card number.

Carr said his office's Consumer Protection Unit will continue to fight back against scammers on behalf of Georgia consumers. "We are glad to see that money from this settlement will now be rightfully returned to those affected," he said.

The refund program follows a settlement with Western Union, which in January 2017 agreed to pay $586 million to resolve charges brought by the Federal Trade Commissions and the U. S. Department of Justice.

The FTC alleged that fraudsters used Western Unions money transfer system to get payments from their victims.

The FTC said Western Union was aware of the problem and received hundreds of thousands of complaints about fraud-induced money transfers made for fraudulent lottery and prizes, family emergencies, advance-fee loans, online dating and other scams.TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WTXL) - A couple has been arrested after deputies found a large amount of meth and more than 10 stolen credit cards inside their car.

Karla Sinaloa, 20, and Christopher Hamlin, 34, were arrested on several drug charges. Additionally Sinaloa is facing charges selling meth and for the stolen cards.

Hamilin has also been charged for driving with a suspended license.

According to an arrest document, the Leon County Sheriff's Office was doing a proactive patrol on Apalachee Parkway Tuesday afternoon when they spotted a car with a stolen tag pull into a parking lot.

Deputies stopped the car and detained the driver, Hamlin, before approaching the passenger, identified as Sinaloa. An investigation revealed that Sinaloa had several outstanding warrants for her arrest.

After both were arrested, deputies searched the car.

LCSO says they found more than 30 grams of meth, 12 stolen credit cards, two stolen Florida drivers licenses, digital scales, drug paraphernalia, and Hydromorphone pills.

When deputies interviewed Sinaloa, she admitted that the meth belonged to her and Hamlin. She said that they cut the meth with another drug and planned on selling the drugs to make money.

She said that she and Hamiln had been dating for a month.

When deputies talked to Hamilin, however, he said that he knew Sinaloa had drugs but didn't know how much. He also stated that he knew his license was suspended.

Both were arrested and taken to the Leon County Jail.Updated : 2018-02-27

(chinadaily.com.cn)

'

Feb 24 marked the official commencement of the Taibo Temple Fair, Wuxi's first temple fair of the Year of Dog. [Photo/WeChat account: meicunrizhi]

Feb 24 marked the official commencement of the Taibo Temple Fair, Wuxi's first temple fair of 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.

The event attracted almost 180,000 people, a year-on-year increase of 30 percent. The square parade, the fair's most anticipated activity, made its debut after the Taibo Temple Fair was listed as one of China's national intangible cultural heritage programs in September 2014.

The parade features 22 performance troupes, and performances will include the lion dance, waist drum, stilt walking and other local folk art shows. The folk parade stretched 2.5 kilometers around Meili town, Xinwu district, Wuxi.

During the opening ceremony, Meili town announced its plans to cooperate with Zhouzhuang town and Bacheng town in Kunshan, Jiangsu province to develop "all-for-one" tourism.[Photo/wxrb.com]

During the opening ceremony, Meili town announced its plans to cooperate with Zhouzhuang town and Bacheng town in Kunshan, Jiangsu province to develop "all-for-one" tourism. The three ancient towns share a mutual connection through Wu culture.

Xinwu district, Wuxi also signed an agreement with famous online travel agent Tongcheng Tourism, aiming to further develop "all-for-one" tourism through the use of modern technology. Tourists can use Tongcheng's website to look up information on scenic spots and special activities, as well as order tourism itineraries.

The eight-day event will last until the Lantern Festival, and will feature traditional trading fairs, demonstrations of intangible cultural heritages and folk art, and public cultural activities.Source: Xinhua| 2018-02-27 22:54:40|Editor: Mengjie

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BEIJING, Feb. 27 (Xinhua) -- China's State Bureau for Letters and Calls Tuesday published the names and contacts of the spokespersons for 32 provincial-level petition authorities.

On the bureau website (gjxfj.gov.cn) users can obtain the names, titles, telephone numbers and fax numbers of the spokespersons.

The contacts are only used for answering calls or faxes from media. The public can petition through letters, official websites, messaging app WeChat and other mobile phone apps, as well as visiting the bureaus.

This is the third consecutive year for the bureau to release the information of spokespersons at provincial-level bureaus before the annual sessions of the country's top legislative and political advisory bodies.

Publicizing the information is an important move for the country to make petitioning channels more transparent.

The bureau started receiving petitions via the Internet in July 2013, though some local bureaus allowed petitioning through mobile apps from 2012.

This year, the bureau said it would smoothen petitioning channels and handle online petitions publicly.A newlywed Chinese couple surrounded by their friends and relatives walk through Red Square in Moscow, Russia, July 5, 2017. (AP Photo)

MOSCOW, Feb. 27 (Xinhua) -- The visa-free tourist flow from China to Russia rose 23 percent year on year to 944,000 people in 2017, the Russian travel association "World without borders" said Tuesday.

A total of 1.24 million Chinese tourists visited Russia in the first nine months of 2017, it said in a statement.

Group tourists from China and Russia can visit each other's country visa-free.

"China is our strategic partner in the sphere of tourism and the leader in terms of visitor numbers," the statement quoted Oleg Safonov, head of the Russian Federal Agency for Tourism, as saying.

"We pay great attention to the creation of comfortable travel conditions for Chinese citizens in our country, developing special routes and programs for them and training Chinese-speaking guides," he added.

According to the association, the most popular routes among Chinese tourists on the visa-free basis were Moscow and the second-largest city St. Petersburg, which attracted 52 percent of the visitors, followed by border regions and some parts of Siberia.

The number of Russians who visited China visa-free last year was 415,000, an increase of 20 percent from a year ago, it said, adding that most of them were residents of the bordering regions.Source: Xinhua| 2018-02-28 00:05:04|Editor: Yamei

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MANILA, Feb. 27 (Xinhua) -- A Chinese delegation held a symposium on Tuesday in the Philippine capital here, introducing Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era to the ruling party and political communities in the Philippines.

The delegation, headed by Guo Yezhou, vice minister of the International Department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC), fully explained the background against which Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era was created, as well as its rich contents.

At the opening of the 19th CPC National Congress last October, Chinese President Xi Jinping said that socialism with Chinese characteristics has crossed the threshold into a new era.

About 400 people from the Philippines' ruling PDP-Laban (Democratic Party -- Power of the Nation) party and media groups attended Tuesday's symposium, including Aquilino Pimentel, party president and Senate president, and Pantaleon Alvarez, secretary general of the party and speaker of the House of Representatives.

The Chinese delegation also donated 600 copies of the second volume of Xi's book "Xi Jinping: The Governance of China" to the PDP-Laban party.WASHINGTON, Feb. 27 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. State Department on Tuesday said it has designated seven Islamic State (IS)-affiliated groups and two leaders as Specially Designated Global Terrorists (SDGTs).

Three of the seven groups, namely the IS-West Africa, IS-Philippines and IS-Bangladesh, were also designated as Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTOs). U.S. persons are generally prohibited from engaging in transactions with them, and their property and interests in property subject to U.S. jurisdiction are blocked.

In addition, it is a crime to knowingly provide, or attempt or conspire to provide, material support or resources to these organizations.

The other four groups designated as SDGTs were IS-Somalia, Jund al-Khilafah-Tunisia, IS-Egypt, and the Maute Group, and the individuals are Mahad Moalim and Abu Musab al-Barnawi.

Among other consequences, all property and interests in property of the SDGT designees are blocked, and U.S. persons are generally prohibited from engaging in any transactions with them.

In announcing these designations, U.S. Coordinator for Counterterrorism Nathan A. Sales emphasized that "these designations target key ISIS-affiliated groups and leaders outside its fallen caliphate in Iraq and Syria. Today's actions are a critical step in degrading ISIS's global network and denying its affiliates the resources they need to plan and carry out terrorist attacks."

The State Department also said that the latest designations aim to notify the U.S. public and the international community that these groups and individuals have committed or pose a significant risk of committing acts of terrorism.

"Terrorist designations expose and isolate entities and individuals, and deny them access to the U.S. financial system. Moreover, designations can assist the law enforcement activities of U.S. agencies and other governments," it added.

These designations were also part of a larger comprehensive plan of the United States to defeat IS in coordination with the Global Coalition.

In addition to designating IS as a FTO and a SDGT, the Department of State has also designated over 40 IS leaders and operatives so far.

U.S. State Department Monday said the United States will host an international conference on mobilizing law enforcement efforts to defeat the Islamic State (IS) on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Participants of the two-day conference are expected to seek to establish a common understanding of "the depth and breadth" of the evolving IS global threat. It will also discuss how to enhance law enforcement and other civilian tools to counter IS.

In addition, the conference will also identify specific actions to help countries disrupt potential attacks, according to the State Department.

The agency said that although the IS has lost nearly all of its former territory in Iraq and Syria, the international community cannot underestimate the evolving threat IS networks and local adherents pose elsewhere.Source: Xinhua| 2018-02-28 05:51:49|Editor: yan

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TEHRAN, Feb. 27 (Xinhua) -- Iran's Foreign Ministry on Tuesday lauded Russia's veto of a Britain-drafted resolution accusing Iran of violating the UN arms embargo on Yemeni rebels, calling it a "defeat" for the United States.

Iran's Foreign Ministry Spokesman Bahram Qasemi said in a statement that the resolution proposed by Britain "was blocked because of it being far from reality."

He said the Britain-drafted resolution "turned into another setback, particularly for the United States."

Qasemi added that the U.S. and British approaches at the UN Security Council in the past three years "have been unconstructive."

Instead of taking advantage of the UNSC as an international mechanism to resolve conflicts, Washington and London have used it merely to legitimize the aggressions and covering up the war crimes committed in Yemen, the spokesman said.

On Monday, Russia blocked in the UN Security Council a Britain-drafted resolution, which slammed Iran's "non-compliance" with the UN sanctions regime that embargoes arms to the Shiite Houthi militants in Yemen.

The council then put to vote the Russian-drafted text, which won unanimous support of the 15 members of the council. The Russian text was adopted as Resolution 2402, in which no reference was made to Iran.

Iran's Ambassador to the United Nations Gholamali Khoshroo said Tuesday that the Britain-drafted text aimed to cover up Saudi Arabia's crimes in Yemen.

Khoshroo rejected the allegations that the Islamic republic has violated the UN embargo.

On Tuesday, Qasemi urged the international community to help stop the "violence of foreign troops in Yemen and the massacre of thousands of innocent Yemenis."

He also blamed the United States and and Britain for what he called "playing a destructive role in Yemen ... by destabilizing the region through arming the Saudi-led coalition with modern weapons and arsenals."

Saudi Arabia has been leading a mostly Arab military coalition to fight the Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen since March 2015.

The Houthis have been controlling much of Yemen's north by force, including the capital Sanaa since 2014.

The war in Yemen has killed more than 10,000 Yemenis, mostly civilians, and displaced over 3 million others, according to humanitarian agencies.

The West and its regional allies have accused Iran of violating the UN arms ban on the militants in Yemen. Tehran has denied the allegations.LONDON, Feb. 27 (Xinhua) -- London police issued a public appeal Tuesday to find a missing Chinese student.

Yan Sihong, 35, was reported missing to police on Monday. The Westminster police said they are growing increasingly concerned for the welfare of the missing college student.

Yan was last seen at noon time on Feb. 14 at her university, King's College London, by her friend, according to police.

"She is a Chinese female, around 5ft 5ins tall, slim build, with black hair," the appeal said, attaching a picture of her.

Police said Yan suffers with a long-term back condition which sometime does cause her mobility issues, but there are no other known issues at this time.

Officers urge anyone with information on her whereabouts to call police on 101 or Missing People on 116000.

The Chinese embassy in Britain confirmed in a statement Tuesday that Yan's family has turned to the embassy for help and already reported to the British police.

"The embassy will continue to pay close attention to the case, to coordinate with students unions to help find the missing student, as well as to keep in touch with her family member and the British police," it said.Source: Xinhua| 2018-02-28 06:21:59|Editor: Yamei

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Smoke rises over rebel-held areas in the Eastern Ghouta of Damascus, capital of Syria, on Feb. 26, 2018. A recent UN Security Council resolution called for a 30-day humanitarian ceasefire in Syria, mainly in Damascus' rebel-held Eastern Ghouta region, but excluded military operations against the terror-designated groups. (Xinhua/Ammar Safarjalani)

by Burak Akinci

ANKARA, Feb. 27 (Xinhua) -- Turkey has sent hundreds of police and gendarmerie special forces to northern Syria, signaling a new stage in its major offensive against the Kurdish militia as urban fighting looms.

Turkey's latest military deployment is aimed at creating a safe zone along its border with Syria.

Turkish forces and their Syrian rebel allies have launched an air-ground campaign dubbed Operation Olive Branch into the Afrin region in Syria since Jan. 20. It aims to clear the Turkish border of the People's Protection Units (YPG), regarded by Ankara as the Syrian affiliate of the banned Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).

"The special forces is in preparation for the new battle that is approaching," Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Bekir Bozdag told NTV news channel.

"The fight will shift to places where there are civilians, as the zone of fighting narrows," he said, adding that the special forces units have experience in fighting militants in residential areas.

Gendarmerie and police special forces would take part in urban fighting and holding villages which Turkish forces have already seized, defying international warnings.

Most of the larger towns in Afrin region, including the town of Afrin itself, remain under YPG control and the advance of Turkish troops could lead to some urban clashes, said observers.

"A new stage of the fight is looming because, after having captured small villages, there are bigger and more populated settlements on the way of the soldiers now," said political commentator and Hurriyet daily columnist Deniz Zeyrek.

TURKEY FORMS "CRESCENT" IN SYRIA

Turkish state media also confirmed that the Turkish army took control of the outer edge of Syria's Afrin region, creating thus a de facto safe border zone and a "crescent" of control on Syria's side of the border.

While Turkish troops are progressing in Syria in an open-ended incursion, Turkey said that Saturday's UN Security Council demand for a 30-day truce across Syria does not apply to its offensive in Afrin.

"Some regions such as eastern Ghouta are part of the UN cease-fire decision in Syria, but Afrin is not one of them," said Bozdag, who is also the government spokesman.

The cease-fire does not apply to military operations against Islamic State (IS), al-Qaida and groups associated with them or other groups designated as terrorist organizations by the Security Council.

But French President Emmanuel Macron, in a phone conversation with his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Monday, insisted that the Turkish operation should fall within the realms of the UN decision.

Turkey regards the YPG as an extension of the PKK which has waged a three-decade-old insurgency in the southeast of Turkey. The PKK is listed as terror group by the United States and European Union, but the YPG is Washington's main ally in the fight against IS in northeast Syria.

Washington's military support to the YPG has severally strained the relations between Turkey and the United States.

The two sides decided during Secretary of State Rex Tillerson's crucial visit to Ankara to normalize ties and create tension diffusing mechanisms.

TURKEY COULD REFRAIN FROM ENTERING AFRIN

Some experts, however, argued that Turkey will eventually have to yield to international pressure and refrain from entering the town of Afrin.

Kerim Has, a Turkish academic who lectures at Moscow State Academy, said neither Russia nor the U.S. wishes the Turkish operation turns into an urban warfare.

Russia, a major player and military supporter to the Syrian regime, will tolerate only for some time the Turkish military near Afrin town, Has said.

"Russia will then push Ankara and Damascus towards dialogue and a deal," Has said, noting that Moscow gave a green light to the Turkish offensive solely in order to establish first a rapprochement between Ankara and Damascus, and then a reconciliation, in line with Moscow's policy to prevent Ankara falling on Washington's side in the Syrian crisis.

Turke severed all cordial ties with the Syrian regime at the beginning of the civil war in Syria and was adamant in ousting Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

But for the moment the Turkish operation has raised tensions between Ankara and Damascus. The Syrian government has condemned the operation as a violation of the country's sovereignty and sent militia to Afrin to reinforce the Kurds in their resistance against Turkish troops.

The reports were disputed by Ankara, which said the pro-government forces were prevented from entering the region.

Erdogan has signaled that the Turkish operation would last for months, though it was initially supposed to last for only a few weeks.

He also repeated that the siege of Afrin's town center was imminent in front of a crowd of his supporters hailing Turkish troops advance.

"We are on the eve of a new resurrection," said Erdogan during a rally in the southeastern city of Kahramanmaras.

To help the Turkish forces, a 600-strong Kurdish force trained by the army in Turkey, the Kurdish Falcons, has also been deployed in the Afrin region under the leadership of the Turkey-backed Syrian Rebels.

Apart from valuable military engagement, the Kurdish unit would also provide language assistance in the event of an urban assault, according to warfare specialists.

Turkish officials have vehemently rejected concerns over civilian casualties voiced mostly by the YPG, claiming that utmost care is being taken to prevent collateral damage.Source: Xinhua| 2018-02-28 06:27:01|Editor: Chengcheng

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DAMASCUS, Feb. 27 (Xinhua) -- At least 24 civilians were killed Tuesday by fresh U.S.-led airstrikes on areas in Syria's eastern province of Deir al-Zour, state news agency SANA reported.

The airstrikes targeted a gathering of displaced people in the Zahrat al-Elwani area in the countryside of Deir al-Zour, said SANA.

It added that several people were wounded, some critically, which could lead to a rise in the death toll.

On Feb. 25, the U.S.-led airstrikes killed 29 civilians in Deir al-Zour, while last week, 15 civilians there were killed by similar strikes, SANA said.

In a statement issued Tuesday, the Syrian Foreign Ministry renewed the Syrian government's condemnation of the U.S.-led anti-terror coalition, which has started its operation in Syria in 2014.

The ministry said the coalition is committing "massacres" against the Syrian people and supporting the remnants of the Islamic State (IS) militants.

It charged that the U.S.-led coalition's only goal is to undermine Syria's sovereignty, unity, and territorial integrity, and it aims to prolong the Syrian crisis.

"The Syrian Arab Republic demands that the Security Council shoulder its responsibility of preserving international peace and security and act immediately to stop the war crimes and the crimes against humanity committed by the coalition against the Syrian people," the ministry said.

The ministry also renewed the demand for an end to the "illegal presence of the U.S. forces on Syrian soil."Source: Xinhua| 2018-02-28 07:02:09|Editor: Mengjie

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SAN FRANCISCO, Feb. 27 (Xinhua) -- Martha Bleshman, a resident in San Francisco Bay Area in the west coast of the United States, spent quite some time examining a painting of lotus by a Chinese artist more than 300 years ago.

She said she was impressed by what she saw in the painting. "When I look at paintings of lotus, I mostly see flowers, but in this one I see mostly leaves," she told Xinhua.

The Lotus by Ming Dynasty master Shitao in 1706 depicts the plant with only black ink in an abstract and eccentric manner.

Also on display at the ongoing exhibition at the UC Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive (BAMPFA) are 10 other works of art by the Chinese artists and connoisseurs of the 17th century.

The exhibition, which runs through May 13, is designed to offer American audience a glimpse into the cultural world during the turbulent times when China was in transition from Ming Dynasty to Qing Dynasty.

"As a child, we went to the Metropolitan Museum in New York and looked at the Chinese landscape paintings. I would imagine myself in the mountains," said Bleshman.

"The sense of the vastness of the space and the people being little within it -- I think it is represented beautifully through the distinguished style," she said.

The traditional Chinese paintings appeal to the contemporary audience because the figures and human dwellings depicted in the paintings resonate with how people live today, said Julia White, senior curator for Asian art at BAMPFA.

"It's important for people to look carefully and experience the paintings not only as an overall composition but also in terms of the brush work -- how the artist creates a three-dimensional scene simply with a brush," she said.

To Judith Berling, a professor of Chinese and comparative religions at Graduate Theological Union, the lack of Chinese knowledge does not prevent a viewer from appreciating the traditional Chinese paintings.

"It's a lovely exhibit. It shows the life of the Ming Dynasty city of Nanjing," said Berling, while guiding a group of three friends through the exhibition on Tuesday.

Nanjing, known as Jinling at that time, was a flourishing urban center of pleasure and artistic innovation.

A similar exhibition, which just concluded last month at BAMPFA, focused on Chen Hongshou, the finest artist in the 17th century China. His bird-and-flower paintings display a freshness that appeals to modern viewers.

"I think the American public is being made aware of the traditions of Chinese culture through exhibitions like these, where they can see up close and be personally engaged with these works of art," said White.

"The fact that these paintings have been collected, preserved and now shown here in Berkeley 300 years after they were made is in itself quite remarkable," she said.by Alessandra Cardone

ROME, Feb. 27 (Xinhua) -- With less than one week left before general elections, Italy's campaign was being dominated by "hardly sustainable" promises, failing to address many issues crucial for the country's future, an Italian analyst warned.

Three major contenders were competing in the national ballot scheduled on March 4: a three-party center-right coalition, a center-left front led by Democratic Party (PD) -- which has ruled the cabinets in the last 5-year legislature, and the populist Five Star Movement (M5S) running alone.

None of them would have really engaged in debating extensively the topics most crucial for the country's development, according to president of Rome-based Institute of International Affairs (IAI) Ferdinando Nelli Feroci.

"All political forces have mainly focused their campaign on making promises to the electorate that would hardly be (financially) sustainable after the vote, and they all know it very well," Nelli Feroci, also a former diplomat, told Xinhua in a recent interview.

THREE KEY TOPICS

Depending on the side of the political spectrum, such promises may concern tax cuts, fiscal bonuses, or new reforms that would actually not be possible to implement considering Italy's current budget situation, according to the expert.

The public debate was especially missing three key topics. "A first issue is the need for the country to carry on with structural reforms enacted by the (center-left) cabinets in this legislation... It is something that should be continued," he explained.

A second key matter was Italy's public debt, which was equal to some 132.5 percent of gross domestic product (GDP), and the second highest in the euro-zone after Greece. This was perhaps the most crucial issue for the country's financial sustainability -- especially in the eye of foreign investors -- and its future development, according to the analyst.

The current government has planned a reduction path starting from 2017 but, apart from that, none of the political forces -- with the exception of small, center-left Lista Bonino -- have clearly said how they would move to cut the debt.

Last but not least, the analyst noted the lack of debate around the "productivity of the country's economic system", which was indeed a long-lasting problem.

Italy's labor productivity per person was at 97.9 index points in 2016, the second lowest in Europe after Greece, and far from the 103.7 averagely registered in the Eurozone, data from EU statistical office Eurostat showed.

The Italian index had been at 99.9 in 1996, and showed more or less an upward trend until 2008, when the global financial crisis severely hit the country.

FLAT-TAX PROPOSAL

Despite all that, other issues have prevailed since the electoral race kicked off, and especially immigration, security, fiscal and pension reforms, and morality in politics.

In the center-right coalition, for example, former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi's Forza Italia (FI) party was pushing hard on a proposal to introduce a "flat tax" threshold at 23 percent.

Rightwing, anti-immigrant League led by Matteo Salvini supported the flat-tax idea (with an even lower threshold), promised to expel some 500,000 migrants and to put "Italians first". The League also pledged to cancel a pension reform implemented by the Italian government in 2011, which has progressively increased the retirement age.

On its part, the M5S expressed a less clear position on the flat-tax proposal, pledging more generically to reduce taxes on low and medium-income households and individual businesses. A strong point in the M5S' electoral agenda was instead the proposal of a basic income system to grant low-income individuals and families a regular payment from the government.

Consistent with the work done in the cabinets in the last 5 years, the PD defended the progressive nature of Italy's fiscal system -- those who earn more, pay more -- and yet pledged further gradual tax cuts.

There were also other promises from all around the spectrum, including increasing the minimum pension payment, or the public spending, or the number of police officers.

None of the major candidates explained thoroughly how their proposals would be covered financially, and how they could reconcile them with the need to reduce the huge debt.

Considering all that, the analyst expected the political leadership to "get rid of all of the non-sustainable promises after the vote."

"I hope the political forces in charge of the next government will be finally able to address the crucial topics just mentioned," Nelli Feroci stressed.

EUROPE & VOTE OUTCOME

Finally, the analyst acknowledged that Europe was another issue major candidates were addressing only vaguely. "European topics have been mainly discussed in the form of tough criticism, and particularly towards the so-called austerity policies of the EU," Nelli Feroci noted.

Yet, the analyst remained quite optimistic, whatever the outcome of the vote would be. "I have seen the toughest anti-European stands -- used in recent months by the League and the M5S for example -- disappearing from the political propaganda in the last weeks of campaign," he said.

For example, the most sensitive idea of holding a referendum on Italy's eurozone membership -- mentioned by both those parties -- has disappeared.

The analyst said something might indeed change in Italy's stand within the EU with respect to some issues, but ruled out "the risk of a clash with the EU after the vote."

As for the outcome of the vote, he agreed with most forecasts, according to which "the center-right should emerge as the largest coalition, and the Five Star Movement as the most popular single party".

"Yet, the M5S alone would not be able to get enough seats to form a majority and govern by itself; therefore, the most likely scenario will be a victory of the center-right," the analyst explained.

As for center-left PD, Nelli Feroci said it was quite normal for leading political forces in Western countries to lose ground after some years in the government.

Nonetheless, he suggested caution against taking forecasts for granted, because a new electoral law would apply to the next vote, and its effects on the distribution of seats were yet to understand fully. Furthermore, at least one-third of Italians were yet unsure whether to vote, and, in case, for whom.Source: Xinhua| 2018-02-28 07:17:13|Editor: Mengjie

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CHICAGO, Feb. 27 (Xinhua) -- As two-week long Chinese New Year, or Spring Festival, holiday comes to its climax with Lantern Festival, citywide celebrations in the U.S. city of Chicago will culminate with a lantern procession on March 3.

The Art Institute of Chicago (AIC) has announced its special event called "Lantern Celebration" featuring lantern-making workshop, Chinese music, Chinese handicrafts, and a lion dance-led lantern procession.

The museum will also provide visitors with Chinese language tour, and offer Chinese festival food at the museum's restaurant.

Apart from lantern celebration to celebrate Chinese New Year, AIC opened an exhibition titled "Mirroring China's Past: Emperors and their Bronzes" which began on Sunday and lasts till May 13.

AIC keeps a close relationship with China, and it has organized many exhibitions of its collection from China, held several events to introduce Chinese culture, such as Chinese lunar festival celebration, including Lunar New Year and Mid Autumn Day.

As a world renowned museum, AIC receives over 1 million visitors each year, and among them, more than 100,000 are Chinese.

Chicago is the first U.S. city to launch Chinese New Year celebration in the name of city government, and 2018 will be the fifth year for the City of Chicago to mark Chinese New Year.Source: Xinhua| 2018-02-28 08:42:15|Editor: Chengcheng

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A student plays violin at a cultural center in Sanaa, Yemen, on Feb. 27, 2018. Amid the difficult circumstances caused by three-year conflict, some Yemenis attend free music classes to alleviate their sufferings. (Xinhua/Mohammed Mohammed)NEW DELHI, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- Jordan King Abdullah II arrived in New Delhi on Tuesday night for a three-day visit. He is accompanied by a business delegation.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi welcomed the King at the Delhi airport.

"India attaches great importance to its ties with Jordan," tweeted Indian external affairs ministry spokesman Raveesh Kumar.

During the visit, the two sides will hold talks on issues ranging from bilateral relations, regional and international issues of mutual interest, said sources in Indian external affairs ministry.

During the visit, the two sides are expected to sign memorandums of understanding and agreements in diverse areas of bilateral cooperation.Source:Xinhua| 2018-02-28 08:37:28|Editor: Mengjie

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The photo taken on Feb. 25, 2018 shows a view of the temporary exhibition "Eleusis, The great mysteries" at the Acropolis Museum in Athens, Greece. A new temporary exhibition dedicated to the Elefsinian Mysteries opened at the Acropolis Museum in the Greek capital on Monday, taking visitors to a journey back to one of the most important religious sites of ancient Greece which remained a secret through the centuries. (Xinhua/Lefteris Partsalis)Source: Xinhua| 2018-02-28 09:42:41|Editor: Chengcheng

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BRASILIA, Feb. 27 (Xinhua) -- Brazil's Public Security Minister Raul Jungmann Tuesday fired head of federal police Fernando Segovia who took up the position three months ago.

Segovia's replacement is Rogerio Galloro who was previously the secretary of public security at the Ministry of Justice.

Segovia had been faced controversy during his short time in office. He once had to explain to the Supreme Court why he had made a statement that indicated the federal police might drop corruption investigations into President Michel Temer.

In December, Brazil's former Attorney General Rodrigo Janot told the press that Segovia had been appointed by Temer "to complete a mission, to divert the focus of the investigations."Source: Xinhua| 2018-02-28 09:57:47|Editor: Mengjie

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DUBAI, Feb. 27 (Xinhua) -- Panama's President Juan Carlos Varela said here on Tuesday that the Central American country supports the China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative and seeks to be part of it.

Speaking to Xinhua on the sidelines of the ongoing two-day Global Business Forum on Latin America organized by the Dubai Chamber of Industry and Commerce, the president said "We believe in a planet which has enough resources for everybody and a planet that is better connected."

Proposed by China in 2013, the Belt and Road Initiative aims to build trade and infrastructure networks connecting Asia with Europe and Africa, and beyond, based on ancient land and maritime trade routes.

As a specific project, Varela said "We are proposing the construction of a railroad between Panama and other Central American countries, with a 450-km track to our northern neighbor Costa Rica as the first step."

"We hope to get Chinese companies and Chinese technology to complete the entire project between 2022 and 2026. A railway connecting Central America could help to increase the flow of goods arriving from East Asia in Panama City," he said.

"Currently, 50 percent of cargo ships which come from China's east coast to us go back 50 percent empty. An enhanced infrastructure in our region can help reduce the number, improve two-way trade especially in food and agricultural products and make it more cost-efficient," said Varela.

Earlier in the day, Varela also praised Dubai's role as a hub within the framework of the Belt and Road Initiative, which helps connect Latin America with Africa and Asia through its free port and its airport.TOKYO, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- Japan's industrial production dropped in January from a month earlier owing in part to a slump in output by automakers, the government said in a report on Wednesday.

According to the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, industrial production dropped 6.6 percent on month in December, following a revised 2.9 percent increase logged in December.

The ministry's preliminary report said the output at factories and mines stood at 99.5 in January against the base of 100 on a seasonally adjusted basis, marking the first time in four months the index has dropped.

The index of industrial shipments fell 5.6 percent to 98.3, the ministry's data showed, while that of inventories retreated 0.6 percent to 108.8 in the recording period.

Based on the latest data, the ministry downgraded its basic assessment of production from saying previously that it is "picking up" to saying it is "picking up slowly."

As for the outlook for factory output here, manufacturers said they expect production to jump 9.0 percent in February.Source: Xinhua| 2018-02-28 10:07:53|Editor: Chengcheng

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SAN FRANCISCO, Feb. 27 (Xinhua) -- China has made great achievements in poverty reduction, environmental protection and assistance to third world countries since China adopted the policy of reform and opening up 40 years ago, a U.S. expert on China said Tuesday.

In a written interview with Xinhua, Charlotte Christensen, a board member of Oregon-China Sister State Relations Council, said China has lifted over 800 million out of poverty over the past 30 years.

"With this accomplishment alone, China has provided a remarkably positive example for the world," she said.

"And now China's government is acting on a sound plan to fully eradicate extreme domestic poverty by 2020," she said, adding that these are exciting developments for many people in the United States.

In contrast, Charlotte noted that conditions for low-income working people in the United States have declined with poverty on the rise, and that there are growing problems for those people with access to clean water, adequate food, medical care and steady full-time jobs.

China is also leading in a bold new approach to global sustainable development that promotes peace and inclusiveness rather than conflict and division, and China is reaching out to assist developing nations on all continents, said the expert from Oregon, a coastal state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States.

"China's foreign policy provides the world with another extraordinary example of how to make historic achievements in elevation of the lives and livelihoods of many millions of people worldwide," she said.

At the same time, she said, China is making new strides in policies and programs to restore, protect and manage its vast natural environmental resources.

Even though China's environment suffered as a result of carrying the burden of manufacturing products for the developed countries in the last quarter of the 20th century, it has decidedly reversed that trend, Charlotte said.

"China is becoming an 'Ecological Civilization' and now leads the world in environmental policies and practices," which are consistent with the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development agreed upon by 193 countries, she said.

"Many of us in my home state of Oregon -- and throughout the U.S. -- respect China for her achievements of real-life solutions for working people and the environment," she noted.

She expressed her hope to promote mutually beneficial trade agreements, as well as cultural and educational exchanges between China and the State of Oregon on the sub-national level.

Oregon-China Sister State Relations Council is a non-profit organization dedicated to seeking opportunities to improve people-to-people exchanges, mutual respect and prosperity between Oregon and China.OTTAWA, Feb. 27 (Xinhua) -- The Canadian federal government released its 2018-19 budget here on Tuesday with an emphasis on bringing more women into the workforce and more investments in indigenous communities.

Titled "Equality and Growth for a Strong Middle Class," the budget is set to take various measures to encourage women's participation in the workforce in sectors ranging from science to skilled trades in order to enhance productivity and to offset an aging population.

The 370-page budget also offers new cash to tackle the opioid crisis, cope with a surge in asylum seekers crossing the border from the United States, and improve living conditions for indigenous people.

Indigenous communities in the country will see an investment of nearly 4.7 billion Canadian dollars (3.7 billion U.S. dollars) over the next five years, in addition to dollars already earmarked in the previous budget. The money will be used to tackle long-standing problems such as infrastructure and social services.

Analysts said in the new budget, the government offers no direct response to uncertainty about the fate of the North American Free Trade Agreement and the competitive corporate tax rate in the United States.

Canadian Conservative Party Leader Andrew Scheer was critical of the government's fiscal plan.

"(Canadian Prime Minister) Justin Trudeau promised he would spend money on infrastructure that would grow the economy over the long term, but the reality is that infrastructure investments are actually being cut, things like roads, and bridges, ports and highways," he told reporters after the budget was tabled.Source: Xinhua| 2018-02-28 10:48:05|Editor: Chengcheng

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WASHINGTON, Feb. 27 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday spoke respectively with leaders of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Saudi Arabia, when he encouraged the two nations to enhance the Gulf cooperation to counter Iran's regional influence.

The White House said in a statement that in Trump's call with UAE Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed, Trump extended hope that all Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states could better counter Iran's "destabilizing" activities and defeat terrorists and extremists.

In a separate call on Tuesday too with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Trump thanked the crown prince for boosting GCC cooperation to counter Tehran's influence and agreed with him on the importance of a united GCC to "mitigate regional threats and ensure the region's economic prosperity."

Last year, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, among other countries accused Qatar of supporting terrorism and undermining regional security by seeking closer ties with Iran.

Qatar strongly denied what it called the "unjustified" and "baseless" accusation.

The standoff, rather than showing any signs of abating, has been exacerbated by Trump's remarks in June that Qatar had funded terrorism "at a very high level."Source: Xinhua| 2018-02-28 10:53:06|Editor: Mengjie

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BEIJING, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- China is "strongly discontent" with U.S. steep import duties on aluminum products from China, an official said Wednesday, adding the country will take "necessary measures" to defend its interests.

"The United States ignored rules of the World Trade Organization (WTO) and seriously damaged the interests of Chinese aluminum foil exporters," Wang Hejun, head of the trade remedy and investigation bureau under the Ministry of Commerce, said in an online statement.

The U.S. Department of Commerce on Tuesday announced a final ruling to impose stiff anti-dumping and anti-subsidy duties on Chinese aluminum foil.

In the investigations, the United States still treated China as "a non-market economy" based on its domestic laws and used the "surrogate country" approach to calculate unreasonably high anti-dumping duties ranging from 48.64 percent to 106.09 percent, Wang said.

Under the "surrogate country" approach, importing countries can easily adopt trade remedies by using production and price data in a third country to calculate the degree of dumping. It expired on Dec. 11, 2016 according to the protocol on China's accession to the WTO nearly two decades ago.

Wang said the anti-subsidy duties ranging from 17.16 percent to 80.97 percent were also groundless. "The U.S. Department of Commerce wrongly identified Chinese raw material providers and financial institutions as 'public institutions.'"

"China will take necessary measures to defend its interests in response to the wrong practice of the United States," Wang said, without providing more details.

The United States has said aluminum foil imports from China jeopardize its domestic industries.

Many U.S. businesses withdrew from aluminum foil production to direct more resources into other aluminum markets that were more profitable more than 20 years ago, Wang said. "Dropping U.S. aluminum foil output and shrinking market shares are attributed to the choices of U.S. producers, rather than imports."

Instead of reviving domestic industries, the unreasonable, excess trade remedy measures by the United States will curb domestic employment and harm the benefits of U.S. consumers, Wang said.Source:Xinhua| 2018-02-28 11:01:35|Editor: Mengjie

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Tourists visit a lantern fair to greet the upcoming Lantern Festival in Danzhai County, southwest China's Guizhou Province, Feb. 27, 2018. The Lantern Festival falls on the 15th day of the first lunar month, or March 2 this year. (Xinhua/Huang Xiaohai)Source: Xinhua| 2018-02-28 10:58:08|Editor: Mengjie

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DUBAI, Feb. 27 (Xinhua) -- Panama's President Juan Carlos Varela said here on Tuesday that Chinese technology will not only enhance infrastructure connectivity in Central America, but also help connect the two peoples.

Speaking to Xinhua on the sidelines of the ongoing two-day Global Business Forum on Latin America organized by the Dubai Chamber of Industry and Commerce, the president said: "The new technology we have seen that is developed in China is amazing."

"We see a lot of potential in sharing information and connecting peoples, especially in education and healthcare," he said.

Varela also praised the role of Chinese technology in infrastructure construction.

"We are proposing the construction of a railroad between Panama and other Central American countries, with a 450-km track to our northern neighbor Costa Rica as the first step," he said.

"We hope to get Chinese companies and Chinese technology to complete the entire project between 2022 and 2026. A railway connecting Central America could help to increase the flow of goods arriving from East Asia in Panama City," he said.

Earlier in the day, it was reported that the China-designed bridge over the Panama Canal is 80-percent completed.

"The future is not only defined by infrastructure but also by connecting people in order to improve their quality of life," Varela said.YANGON, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- Myanmar has vowed to cooperate with countries in the region to combat transnational distributors of counterfeit medicine, Myanmar News Agency reported Wednesday.

At a meeting with French Ambassador Olivier Richard and diplomat Jean David Levitte, President of the Board of Directors of the International Institute of Research against Counterfeit Medicine (IRACM), Deputy Attorney-General U Win Myint warned of the dangerous side effect of counterfeit drugs that Myanmar and the rest of the world have to face, stressing the need to enforce effective laws and punishment to dissuade producers of such drugs.

There is an upcoming anti-counterfeit medicine workshop in the Greater Mekong Subregion where laws, policies and implementation to target counterfeit medicine are set to be discussed.

Myanmar has signed the UN Convention against Transnational Organized Crime and enacted the National Drug Law in 1992 with amendment in 2014.

According to earlier report, over 1.8 billion kyats (1.32 million U.S. dollars) worth of seized fake medicines were destroyed in Yangon in last December.

Myanmar imported most of medicines from foreign countries as the country produces below 15 percent of national requirement.

The state-run Myanmar Pharmarceutical Factory (MPF) currently produces only 10 percent of the total consumption.Source: Xinhua| 2018-02-28 11:33:20|Editor: Yamei

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TRIPOLI, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- The UN Humanitarian Coordinator for Libya Maria Ribeiro on Tuesday called for the protection of internally displaced people (IDPs) in the town of Tawergha in northern Libya.

"The UN Humanitarian organizations and partners in Libya are deeply concerned about the situation faced by Tawergha men, women and children who are unable to return home and currently living in makeshift-tented settlements with precarious conditions in Qararat al-Qataf and Hwara," Ribeiro said in a statement.

She said hundreds of people have been stuck in open areas with difficult weather conditions without access to basic services for over three weeks. Their safe and dignified return should not be delayed any further and Tawerghans should not be held hostage to the political crisis in the country.

"The Libyan authorities have the primary responsibility to provide protection and humanitarian assistance to IDPs," and "the UN stands ready to support these efforts," said Ribeiro.

The return of Tawerghans, which was scheduled on February 1, was halted after armed groups from nearby Misurata District denied them entrance and Misurata city demanded the postponement of the return a day earlier.

During the 2011 uprising, some residents of Tawergha allied with the forces of former Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi against the rebels in Misurata. They fled to other cities in Libya after Gaddafi's regime was toppled.WASHINGTON, Feb. 27 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday spoke respectively with leaders of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Saudi Arabia, when he encouraged the two nations to enhance Gulf cooperation to counter Iran's regional influence.

The White House said in a statement that in Trump's call with the UAE's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed, the two leaders discussed regional development and opportunities to further enhance bilateral partnership on security and economic issues.

Trump expressed the hope that all Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states could better counter Iran's "destabilizing" activities and defeat terrorists and extremists.

The two leaders also said that a united GCC is important "to mitigate regional threats and ensure the region's economic prosperity."

In a separate call with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia on Tuesday too, Trump also talked about regional development.

The two leaders vowed to further enhance the American-Saudi partnership on security and economic front.

Thanking the crown prince for boosting GCC cooperation to counter Tehran's influence, Trump agreed with him on the importance of having a united GCC "mitigate regional threats and ensure the region's economic prosperity."

Last year, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain, and Egypt accused Qatar of "supporting terrorism" and "undermining regional security" by seeking closer ties with Iran.

Qatar strongly denied what it called the "unjustified" and "baseless" accusations.

The standoff, rather than showing any signs of abating, has been exacerbated by Trump's remarks in June that Qatar had funded terrorism "at a very high level."MOSCOW, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- A Russian Su-24MR warplane performed a planned mission over the Sea of Japan, local media reported Wednesday.

"The crew of the Su-24MR warplane from the Eastern Military District carried out a planned flight over the Sea of Japan," Sputnik news agency quoted a statement from the Eastern Military District as saying.

The flight was carried out in strict accordance with international rules for the use of airspace. The borders of other states were not violated, added the statement.

The Sukhoi Su-24 is a supersonic, all-weather attack jet designed in the Soviet era. The aircraft has a variable-sweep wing, twin-engines and a side-by-side seating arrangement for two crew members.BRATISLAVA, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico announced on Tuesday that the government will offer a 1-million-euro (1.2-million-U.S.-dollar) reward to anyone who can provide information about the murder of investigative journalist Jan Kuciak.

Jan Kuciak, a 27-year-old investigative reporter for Slovak news website Aktuality, whose focus was mainly on suspicions of major tax frauds, was found shot dead in his house with his girlfriend in Velka Maca, western Slovakia last week.

"If the death of investigative reporter Kuciak had been linked to his journalistic work, it would be an unprecedented attack on freedom of the press and democracy in Slovakia," Fico said earlier Monday, adding that the murder of two young people should not have taken place in Slovak society under any circumstances.

Kuciak is the fifth journalist murdered in the EU in the last decade, according to Reporters Without Borders.

"His murder was most probably related to his journalist activities," Slovak Police Corps President Tibor Gaspar told a press conference on Monday.CANBERRA, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- As many as 250 Australians are developing dementia every day, a report has found.

The Dementia Australia report, released on Tuesday, indicated that more than 425,000 Australians were living with dementia.

Dementia refers to a group of degenerative brain diseases including Alzheimer's disease, vascular dementia and Lewy body dementia.

Maree McCabe, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Dementia Australia, said that dementia is the second leading cause of death among all Australians and number one among women.

"There is a perception in the community that nothing can be done following a diagnosis of dementia," McCabe said in a media release on Wednesday.

"However, with an estimated 425,000 Australians living with dementia this year alone, which is expected to soar to 536,000 people by 2025 and more than 1.1 million people by 2056, it is vital people understand the right support can make the world of difference to everyone impacted by dementia.

"Good support and services can help people cope better with the uncertainty and changes that come with dementia."

Isabelle Burke was 20 when her 54-year-old mother Christine was diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer's disease in 2014.

"Being so young when mum was diagnosed, I really knew very little about dementia and the impact it was going to have on our lives," Burke said.

"But through Dementia Australia we have been able to find out what information we needed at every step along the way, which has just made such a difference.

"The support services have allowed me to cope with massive changes in my and my family's life and to use what can be seen as a crushing diagnosis as a way of coming together to support each other as a family."Source: Xinhua| 2018-02-28 12:28:38|Editor: Yamei

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DUBAI, Feb. 27 (Xinhua) -- Panama's President Juan Carlos Varela said here on Tuesday that his country and China will be connected not only through ports and infrastructure, but also through people-to-people ties.

He spoke to Xinhua on the sidelines of the ongoing two-day Global Business Forum on Latin America organized by the Dubai Chamber of Industry and Commerce.

"The future is not only defined by infrastructure but also by connecting people in order to improve their quality of life," said the president, adding that the Central American country supports the China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative and seeks to be part of it.

"We believe in a planet which has enough resources for everybody and a planet that is better connected," he said.

Proposed by China in 2013, the Belt and Road Initiative aims to build trade and infrastructure networks connecting Asia with Europe, Africa and beyond, based on ancient land and maritime trade routes.

As a specific project, Varela said, "We are proposing the construction of a railroad between Panama and other Central American countries, with a 450-km track to our northern neighbor Costa Rica as the first step."

"We hope to get Chinese companies and Chinese technology to complete the entire project between 2022 and 2026. A railway connecting Central America could help to increase the flow of goods arriving from East Asia in Panama City," he said.

"Currently, 50 percent of cargo ships which come from China's east coast to us go back 50 percent empty. An enhanced infrastructure in our region can help reduce the number, improve two-way trade especially in food and agricultural products and make it more cost-efficient," said Varela.

Earlier in the day, it was reported that the China-designed bridge over the Panama Canal is 80-percent completed.

The president praised the role of Chinese technologies in people-to-people connectivity, saying "The new technology we have seen that is developed in China is amazing."

"We see a lot of potential in sharing information and connecting peoples, especially in education and healthcare," he said.

In his earlier speech, Varela also praised Dubai's role as a hub within the framework of the Belt and Road Initiative, which helps connect Latin America with Africa and Asia through its free port and its airport.

Varela made his first state visit to China in November 2017 after the Central American nation established diplomatic relations with China in June.CANBERRA, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- More than 1.5 million Australian women have experienced violence at the hands of a current or former partner, a landmark report has found.

Australia's first ever comprehensive report on family, domestic and sexual violence, published by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) on Wednesday, found that one in six women, equating to 1.6 million women, have been subjected to physical or sexual violence.

Comparatively, one in 16, or half a million, men were abused by a spouse.

Three in four victims of domestic violence reported the perpetrator as a male.

On average, one woman per week and one man per month is killed by a current or former partner.

Among women who experienced sexual abuse, 96 percent said the perpetrator was male, while split was more even among male victims, 49 percent of who said the perpetrator was female and 44 percent male.

"Women are more likely to experience violence from a known person and in their home, while men are more likely to experience violence from strangers and in a public place," AIHW spokesperson Louise York said in a media release on Wednesday.

The report also found that children who were abused younger than 15 years were three times as likely to suffer abuse later in life as those who were not abused earlier in life.

Women who, as children, witnessed domestic violence towards either of their parents were twice as likely to be a victim of domestic violence as an adult.

Barry Sandison, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the AIHW, said that while the report was significant it only served to prove that there was more work to be done on domestic violence.

"We know that family, domestic and sexual violence is a major problem in Australia, but without a comprehensive source of evidence and analysis, tackling such a complex issue will continue to be difficult," he said.

"It's important to note that while looking only at the numbers can at times appear to depersonalise the pain and suffering that sits behind the statistics, the seriousness of these issues cannot be overstated."SEOUL, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- Bank lending rates in South Korea continued to rise for three straight months since the central bank raised its policy rate in November last year, Bank of Korea (BOK) data showed Wednesday.

Bank loan rates stood at an annualized rate of 3.69 percent in January, up 0.07 percentage points from the previous month, according to the Bank of Korea (BOK). It was the highest in nearly three years.

The lending rate kept rising since the BOK raised its benchmark rate last November by a quarter percentage point to 1.5 percent, the first rate increase in almost six and a half years.

Rate for household loans rose 0.1 percentage points over the month to 3.71 percent in January, marking the highest since September 2014.

The figure for corporate loans gained 0.04 percentage points to 3.68 percent, the highest since May 2015.

Meanwhile, bank deposit rates fell 0.01 percentage point to an annualized rate of 1.80 percent in January as banks refrained from raising the savings rate despite the policy rate hike.

The gap between lending and savings rates widened to the highest since November 2014, according to the BOK.Source: Xinhua| 2018-02-28 13:28:51|Editor: Mengjie

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BEIJING, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on Wednesday released a communique on economic and social development in 2017, focusing on economic fundamentals and China's contribution to world economic growth.

NBS chief statistician Sheng Laiyun said the communique highlighted sound economic growth, greater overall national strength and international influence, better quality growth, and new growth drivers.

The communique showed China's contribution to the world economic growth stood at around 30 percent in 2017. Chinese economy remained an important growth driver for the world's economic recovery.

World Bank data showed that China contributed 34 percent to world economic growth from 2012 to 2016, more than that of the United States, European Union and Japan combined.

Solid efforts have also been made in environmental protection and energy saving, Belt and Road construction, opening-up policy, poverty relief, and improvement in people's life.

Sheng stressed that China has the condition and capability to maintain sound economic growth in 2018 despite challenges home and abroad.CANBERRA, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- More than 2.3 million cars with potentially deadly airbags have been recalled by the Australian government.

The compulsory recall is one of the biggest product recalls in the Australian history and follows voluntary recalls by car manufacturers in 2017.

The Takata airbags have been linked to at least 23 deaths globally, including one in Australia in 2017.

The faulty products contain a defect that can cause inflators to explode and propel shrapnel into drivers and passengers.

Major car manufacturers Toyota, Mazda, Honda, BMW, Lexus, Subaru, Nissan and Mitsubishi issued a voluntary recall in 2017 but Michael Sukkar, Assistant Minister to the Treasurer, said it had not been robust enough.

The new recall applies to vehicles made by more than 25 manufacturers.

"The previous voluntary recall has not been satisfactory overall and it's the safety of all Australians which is the first priority of this government," Sukkar told reporters in Canberra on Wednesday.

"The compulsory recall will force manufacturers, dealers, importers and other suppliers to ensure that all dangerous Takata airbags are located and replaced as quickly as possible."

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) said that manufacturers would bear the costs of all replacements.

ACCC Chairman Rod Sims said that people who had their airbags replaced as part of the voluntary recall would need to check again if their vehicle was listed under the compulsory recall.

He said this was because in some cases faulty airbags had been replaced with like-for like.

All defective airbags must be replaced by December 31, 2020 under the recall.CANBERRA, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- The Australian Taxation Office (ATO) has announced major crackdowns on work expenses and Bitcoin investors.

In a submission to a parliamentary inquiry examining tax issues, the Australian government said that Australians claimed 22 billion Australian dollars (17.1 billion U.S. dollars) in work-related expenses in the financial year ending in June 2017.

It said that the ATO would provide Treasury with information that could lead to sweeping policy changes to end the "systemic abuse" of work expenses.

"We have seen work-related expenses being over-claimed by both self-preparers and tax agents, and we will continue to increase attention, scrutiny and education on work-related expenses for tax time this year," an ATO spokesperson told Fairfax Media on Wednesday.

The ATO estimates that 1.94 billion U.S. dollars is lost to wrongful expense claims every year, similar to the amount of revenue lost via multinational tax avoidance.

"While each of the individual amounts over-claimed is relatively small, the sum and overall revenue impact for the population involved could be significant -- in the vicinity of, or even higher than the large market tax gap of (1.94 billion U.S. dollars) -- and that's just for this category of deductions, work-related expenses," ATO Commissioner Chris Jordan said.

In the government's submission to the parliamentary inquiry, Treasurer Scott Morrison asked for methods for recouping the revenue lost to dodgy claims to be investigated.

He said he was hopeful that recouping that lost revenue would compensate for the revenue that would be lost if the government successfully cuts the company tax rate by 5 percent.

News of the crackdown on work expenses came as the ATO announced that Bitcoin investors would be confronted by the full investigative powers of the body.

Under new anti-money laundering legislation, the ATO will use 100-point identification checks to take on the anonymous nature of crypto-currency investments.

Will Day, Chris Jordan's deputy, said that the ATO would rely on "increased transparency."

"The Anti-Money Laundering Counter-Terrorism Financing Act ensures that there is investor transparency through 'know your client' requirements," Day told News Corp Australia.

"The increased transparency the law provides, combined with our data-matching techniques and a range of existing powers which address unexplained wealth, strengthen the ATO's ability to tax crypto-currency profits."

The new laws will also require crypto-currency exchanges to report any suspicious transactions or cash transactions exceeding 10,000 Australian dollars (7,794 U.S. dollars).

The ATO said that there would be no tax implications for Bitcoin investors in cases where it is used "to purchase goods or services for personal use or consumption ... provided the cost of the Bitcoin is 10,000 (Australian dollars) or less."

The increased transparency surrounding crypto-currency comes after Coinbase, one of the world's biggest crypto-currency exchanges, received a summons from the U.S. Internal Revenue Service (IRS) for the account details of 13,000 investors.

Paul Drum, policy chief at Certified Practicing Accountant (CPA) Australia, described the new policy as a "watershed moment."

"The effectiveness of the anonymity of Bitcoin and other crypto-currencies is starting to fade. These coming changes mean that people shouldn't assume they can hide forever behind blockchain technology, nor should they assume there are no tax consequences," he said.Source: Xinhua| 2018-02-28 13:43:54|Editor: pengying

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Pakistani security officials gather at the attack site in southwest Pakistan's Quetta on Feb. 28, 2018. Two policemen were killed in a targeted attack on the convoy of a senior police officer in Pakistan's southwestern city of Quetta on Wednesday, local Urdu TV channels reported. (Xinhua/Irfan)

ISLAMABAD, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- Two policemen were killed in a targeted attack on the convoy of a senior police officer in Pakistan's southwestern city of Quetta on Wednesday, local Urdu TV channels reported.

According to the reports, the incident took place at about 9:30 a.m. local time when two unknown attackers, who were riding a bike, opened fire on the vehicle of Divisional Superintendent of Police Hameedullah Dasti when he was reportedly going to his office.

The incident took place at Samungli Road in Quetta, the provincial capital of the country's southwestern Balochistan Province.

The senior officer remained safe in the incident while two policemen deployed for the security of Dasti received bullet injuries and succumbed to their wounds, said a senior police officer in the city, adding that the assailants escaped unhurt after the attack.

Following the incident, security and rescue personnel reached the site, cordoned off the area and kicked off a search operation to apprehend the on-the-run assailants.

No group or person has claimed the attack yet.

Earlier on Feb. 14, four personnel of Paramilitary Frontier Cops were killed during an attack on their vehicle while they were on routine patrol in Langvabad area of Quetta, said officials.Source: Xinhua| 2018-02-28 13:48:55|Editor: Mengjie

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BEIJING, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- The Chinese mainland on Wednesday released new measures on exchanges and cooperation with Taiwan, effective immediately.

The 31 measures were unveiled by the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council and the National Development and Reform Commission, after consulting other departments. They cover several areas of industry, finance and taxation, land use, employment, education, culture, and health care.

"They are aimed at sharing the opportunities of the mainland's development with Taiwan compatriots," a statement from the office said.

The measures include 12 on equal treatment for Taiwan enterprises.

Taiwan institutions can cooperate with mainland counterparts to provide small payment and credit services for Taiwan compatriots, according to the document.

The measures can help Taiwan businesses reduce their manufacturing and operating costs, speed up transformation and upgrading and expand the domestic demand market.

There are also 19 measures on offering Taiwan people equal treatment to mainlanders on study, setting up businesses, and working and living in the mainland.

There will be no limit to the number of mainland films and television programs Taiwan people can produce and the number of Taiwan's films and television dramas to the mainland.UNITED NATIONS, Feb. 27 (Xinhua) -- A latest review of the United Nations peacekeeping operation in South Sudan has found that reaching a political solution to the ongoing conflict is the most effective way to protect civilians, a senior UN official said Tuesday.

"A sustainable political resolution of the conflict is also the only avenue to chalk out a viable exit strategy" for the UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS), Assistant Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations Bintou Keita told the UN Security Council, urging a renewed focus on supporting the political process.

UNMISS was established in 2011 as a capacity building tool to assist the South Sudan government that lacked the capability to deliver services to its people, she said.

However, following the December 2013 outbreak of violence, UNMISS evolved into a mission whose main focus was to protect civilians.

"This requirement unfortunately remains valid," she said, noting that tens of thousands of civilians are estimated to have been killed since the conflict began while over 4 million have been displaced, half of whom are now refugees in neighboring countries.

As documented once again by the Human Rights Council Commission of Inquiry which published its report last Friday, human rights violations and abuses, including horrific incidents of sexual violence, have reached alarming levels, and impunity for these crimes remains the norm, Keita said. Moreover, over 200,000 internally displaced people continue to be protected on UNMISS bases with the assistance of humanitarian partners.

The review found that largely over 50 percent of the mission's uniformed personnel are currently devoted to protecting these sites.

These sites only cover a fraction of the South Sudanese civilians in need of protection.

"There are no easy answers to this dilemma. There will never be enough troops to protect both the 'protection of civilians' sites and extend UNMISS's protection footprint to other areas of large displacements, in a country as large as South Sudan," she said.

Increasing the effectiveness of protection efforts beyond these sites will need to continue being a major priority of the mission, notably through the development of an integrated and "people focused" system-wide protection approach, aimed at filling existing gaps, generating synergies and removing duplication and thus possible wastage of resources.

Since the Security Council decision in August 2016 to deploy the Regional Protection Force (RPF), the security condition in Juba has changed substantially. Today, while the risk of instability and violence remains, the threat of military conflict in the capital has considerably diminished.

The current environment of Juba, therefore, may call for some adjustment of the RPF mandate, Keita said.Source: Xinhua| 2018-02-28 15:31:56|Editor: Xiang Bo

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Tourists visit a lantern fair to greet the upcoming Lantern Festival in Minqin County of Wuwei City, northwest China's Gansu Province, Feb. 25, 2018. The Lantern Festival falls on the 15th day of the first lunar month, or March 2 this year. (Xinhua/Jiang Aiping)Source: Xinhua| 2018-02-28 14:24:04|Editor: Chengcheng

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BRASILIA, Feb. 27 (Xinhua) -- The Brazilian Supreme Court Judge decided Tuesday to extend an investigation into alleged acts of corruption involving Brazil's President Michel Temer for 60 days.

The investigation is looking into an approval by the federal government of a series of concessions to promote national and foreign investment in Brazil.

The police has voiced suspicions that the presidential decree, approving these measures, was designed to favor certain companies.

Besides Temer, the investigation is also looking into Rodrigo Rocha Loures, a former advisor of Temer, and entrepreneurs Antonio Celso Grecco and Ricardo Mesquita of port company Rodrimar.

Since this case began, Temer has denied any wrongdoing and said the measures had been finalized after a long negotiation between the government and the port sector.

The Supreme Court has received documents and recorded phone conversations involving Rocha Loures.

In one of the calls, Temer was allegedly recorded giving information to Rocha Loures about the decree, and Rocha Loures then transmitted it to Mesquita. But the president has categorically denied any knowledge of this.MEXICO CITY, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- Mexican corn producers Tuesday called on their government to limit imports of the grain in the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) renegotiations.

Juan Pablo Rojas, president of Mexican National Federation of Corn Farmers, said that the 2.7 million corn producers in the country had the capacity to supply enough produce for local companies, which now import a large number of the grain from the United States.

"We have no purpose to produce more corn each year and have nowhere to sell it, because large national consumers already make their purchases on the international market," said Rojas at a press conference.

According to U.S. Department of Agriculture data, Mexico buys far more corn from the United States than Brazil, taking 14.7 million tons in 2017 and estimating more this year.

Rojas expressed his worry that more corn imports from the United States will increase local costs in the long term.

"If you replace the imports of corn from the United States with those from Brazil, Argentina and other countries, the price will be more expensive and this will lead to a price increase of tortillas in Mexico," he said.

The seventh round of NAFTA talks began here Sunday and runs through March 5, but it's looking increasingly likely that negotiators are digging in for the long haul.Source: Xinhua| 2018-02-28 14:44:11|Editor: Yamei

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BEIJING, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- A new industry guideline approved by the State Council will help sustainable and healthy development of the express delivery sector.

The industry has grown by an average 42 percent a year in the past decade, Ma Junsheng, head of the State Post Bureau, told a press briefing on Tuesday.

The sector has topped the world for four years, with over half of the world's deliveries made by Chinese companies, according to Ma.

The new regulations improved rule-making and protection of consumers' interests, said Zhang Jianhua, an official of the Legal Affairs Office of the State Council.

A total of 40.1 billion parcels were delivered last year. The sector generated 496 billion yuan (77 billion U.S. dollars) in 2017.Source: Xinhua| 2018-02-28 14:49:12|Editor: Xiang Bo

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BEIJING, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- With China's Belt and Road Initiative gaining more recognition globally, Western banks are rushing in for a piece of the pie in this once in a generation opportunity.

British and U.S. banks, including Citigroup, HSBC and Standard Chartered have been seizing opportunities brought about by the initiative proposed by Chinese President Xi Jinping in 2013.

The initiative aims to create greater trade, infrastructure and people-to-people links between Asia, Europe, Africa and beyond by reviving and expanding the ancient Silk Road routes. The modern version comprises an overland Silk Road Economic Belt and a 21st Century Maritime Silk Road.

According to Financial Times, the big banks have held conferences on the Belt and Road Initiative, appointed senior bankers to champion their role in the initiative and set up committees to coordinate their approaches across different business activities.

Standard Chartered has taken the initiative as a key part of its plan to generate the revenue growth necessary to achieve its target of making a return on equity above 10 percent.

The bank has won 20 financing deals linked to the initiative over the past four years, such as a 515 million U.S. dollars project financing for a power plant in Zambia, a 200 million dollars loan for a Bangladesh electricity plant, and a 42 million dollars export credit facility for a gas terminal in Sri Lanka.

Gerry Keefe, head of corporate banking in Asia-Pacific at Citigroup, said "our multinational clients -- both from the U.S. and Asia -- see the Belt and Road Initiative as a generational opportunity to expand the scale and reach of their businesses."

Christopher Heathcote, head of the G20 Infrastructure Hub, a group established following the 2014 G20 summit in Brisbane, has said that the Asia Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) will play an important role "through its very diverse international ownership structure."

Heathcote, who is working with the AIIB, believes that "the AIIB can have a very powerful impact on making sure projects are well planned ...making sure that the projects that are being built are actually projects the countries need."

The AIIB, created through negotiations of all the 57 founding member countries and now has 84 members, is duty-bound to support projects related to the Belt and Road Initiative.

Neil Harvey, chairman of Greater China at Credit Suisse, said in May 2017 when attending the Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation in Beijing said "with our market leading global investment banking franchise, Credit Suisse can support the OBOR initiative," referring to the acronym for One Belt, One Road, namely the Belt and Road Initiative.

He said Credit Suisse had undertaken financing deals with the Belt and Road countries and was involved in some of the larger ones, including the sale of a controlling stake in Pakistan's K-Electric to Shanghai Electric Power for 1.8 billion dollars.

Among the banks sending top-ranking staff to Beijing to court their business at the forum were HSBC, Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Credit Suisse and more.

Jim Yong Kim, World Bank (WB) president, said when attending the Second "1+6" Roundtable on Sep. 12 in Beijing that Belt and Road investments "can bring substantial development benefits to participating countries through improved infrastructure, greater trade, and higher cross-border investment."

He said "we applaud One Belt One Road, and we're working to support it in any way we can."

The Belt and Road Initiative is set to lead the world toward "a common community of a shared future for humankind," another vision devised by China out of its responsibility to respond to changes in the global landscape, and inscribed in multiple UN resolutions.

The initiative well serves the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, according to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres. In a message to a November forum in New Zealand, Guterres noted "clear synergies" between them.

Both strive to "stitch countries together in networks of trade and mutual gain," and aim to "deepen global connectivity," he said.Source: Xinhua| 2018-02-28 16:46:50|Editor: Liangyu

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Villagers perform dragon dance to greet the upcoming Lantern Festival in Sancha Township of Xiaogan City, central China's Hubei Province, Feb. 27, 2018. The Lantern Festival falls on the 15th day of the first lunar month, or March 2 this year. (Xinhua/Li Wenyong)LUANDA, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- Angolan Interior Minister Angelo Veiga Tavares on Tuesday urged Angolan police to fight corruption, impunity, money laundering, terrorism and illegal immigration, local media reported.

In a congratulatory message sent to the National Police for their 42nd founding anniversary, Tavares also called on the police to be committed to moralizing society, strengthening the democratic rule of law and social welfare of all Angolans.

The Angolan official recalled the role of the National Police in preserving national independence, defending the country's territorial integrity and maintaining public order and tranquility in a context of invasion of foreign armed forces.

"I commend all officers, both senior and subordinates, sub-chiefs, agents and civilian workers who have contributed directly or indirectly to the construction and development of the National Police, and I take this opportunity to encourage the youngest members of the corporation to follow with dedication the example," said Tavares.

Since taking office months ago, Angolan President Joao Lourenco has made moves to clean up the nation's ailing, corruption-riddled economy, as he promised in his election campaign.

Lourenco is the third president of Angola since independence in 1975. He was elected in the general elections of Aug. 23, 2017. The Angolan president has described international terrorism as a main threat, and austerity as a cure to the country's struggling economy.Source: Xinhua| 2018-02-28 15:24:19|Editor: Xiang Bo

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SAN FRANCISCO, Feb. 27 (Xinhua) -- A self-driving tech start-up firm based in the San Francisco Bay Area on the U.S. west coast said Tuesday that it has successfully launched the first self-driving car rides on city roads to the general public in China earlier this month.

Pony.ai, an autonomous driving startup with its head office in Fremont, California, said in a statement that it has become the first company to launch the trial service on a short and well-mapped route of about 1.7 miles (about 2.7 km) in Nansha District, Guangzhou in southern China, where Pony.ai's Chinese headquarters is based.

In addition to the trial rides, Pony.ai has entered into a strategic partnership with China's second-largest carmaker, Guangzhou Automobile Group (GAC Group), which is also a Fortune 500 corporation.

Founded in late 2016, Pony.ai showcased six cars in the trial rides on Feb. 2, which included four Lincoln MKZs and two GAC Chuanqi models.

Pony.ai said its autonomous driving platform has already learned to deal with specific road conditions such as road congestion, inclement weather, and driving behaviors typical of urban Chinese drivers.

During the trial riding in Guangzhou, Pony.ai's team has developed a specific software module that enables the cars to handle severe weather such as heavy rain, a technical breakthrough which has enabled Pony.ai to achieve new heights in reliability and safety, said the company.

The young startup of artificial intelligence-powered auto technology has also been testing its technology on California roads with retrofitted Lincolns.

Pony.ai, which raised 112 million U.S. dollars in Series A funding last year, is one of several companies with headquarters in Silicon Valley that are racing for an early lead in self-driving vehicles in China.

The startup was co-founded by James Peng, a former chief architect at the autonomous driving division of China's search giant Baidu, and Lou Tiancheng, who once worked for the self-driving tech department of Google and Baidu.MAIMANA, Afghanistan, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- Two people were killed and three others injured as Taliban militants ambushed a patrol team of pro-government militias in northern Faryab province on Wednesday, a police spokesman in the restive province said.

According to Abdul Karim, a team of pro-government local militia was on patrol in Koza Qala village of Khawja Sabzposh district Wednesday morning when Taliban insurgents opened fire, killing two people on the spot and injuring three others.

The militants escaped following the incident as the police force reached the area, the official added.

Taliban militants who are active in parts of Faryab province, have not commented on the ambush.Source: Xinhua| 2018-02-28 15:29:20|Editor: pengying

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Photo taken on Feb. 27, 2018 shows the entrance of Svalbard Global Seed Vault on Norway's remote Arctic archipelago of Svalbard. The underground agricultural seed bank in Norway will receive a 13-million-U.S.-dollar grant for upgrade as it celebrates its 10th anniversary this year, the Norwegian government has said. The Svalbard Global Seed Vault, dubbed the "Doomsday" and the "Noah's Ark" vault, was established as a backup of crop seed samples stored in other seed banks around the world. It is considered to be a vital international facility to safeguard global food supply amid growing threats of both natural and man-made disasters. (Xinhua/Liang Youchang)

OSLO, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- An underground agricultural seed bank in Norway will receive a 13-million-U.S.-dollar grant for upgrade as it celebrates its 10th anniversary this year, the Norwegian government has said.

The Svalbard Global Seed Vault, dubbed the "Doomsday" and the "Noah's Ark" vault, was established as a backup of crop seed samples stored in other seed banks around the world. It is considered to be a vital international facility to safeguard global food supply amid growing threats of both natural and man-made disasters.

The renovation was announced by the vault on Monday, when it celebrated its 10th anniversary by adding more than 76,000 seed samples to its frozen storage chambers, bringing the total number of deposits above the 1-million mark to 1,059,646.

The latest additions were shipped from across the world. They include varieties of rice, wheat and maize, the black-eye pea -- a major source of protein in Africa and South Asia, and Bambara groundnut -- a drought-tolerant, peanut-like crop originating in West Africa.

The vault opens about twice or three times a year for deposits and its doors are kept shut during other times. The staff check inside the vault through cameras and remote sensors.

The Norwegian government said technical improvements are needed at the vault after a decade of operation. It will offer 100 million Norwegian krones (12.7 million dollars) in 2018 for the upgrades.

The work will include the construction of a concrete access tunnel, a building for emergency power and refrigerating units, as well as electrical equipment that will emit heat through the tunnel.

The entrance of the vault was flooded last year as a result of extreme weather, but fortunately, the water didn't reach the actual storage chambers located some 120 meters underground.

New waterproof walls have since been erected. Ongoing reinforcement work will protect the vault against warmer and wetter conditions caused by climate change.

One of the vault's recent contributions was giving seeds to Syria through the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas to help re-grow the crops destroyed by the civil war there.

"It's not for Doomsday. It is truly a safety net," Lise Lykke Steffensen, director of the Nordic Genetic Resource Center, said while giving Xinhua journalists a guided tour of the vault.

Steffensen said the seeds in a gene bank in Aleppo, Syria, became inaccessible due to the war in 2015 and 2017. However, their backups in the vault helped grow the crops in Syria again.KABUL, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- Afghan President Mohammad Ashraf Ghani outlined a new peace map on Wednesday during an international meeting, which is aimed at finding negotiated settlement to the country's lingering crisis.

"The Afghan government offers peace talks to the Taliban without any preconditions," Ghani told participants at the Kabul Process for Peace and Security Cooperation meeting.

The Afghan president said the new measures for the peace and reconciliation efforts include a ceasefire, recognition of Taliban outfit as a political party, making efforts for a transitional trust building process as well as holding free and fair elections.

"If we did not have the confidence and assurance that a peaceful and stable future is within our grasp, we might have lost the will to forge ahead in the face of such brutality that is being waged against our people," Ghani said.

However, the Afghan president noted the government was seeking "to strike a truthful and sustainable peace deal with conciliatory Taliban," and the armed apposition who have had links with international or regional terror groups will not be accepted.

"To support an Afghan vision for peace, the strongest commitment of regional partners and key stakeholders is now needed more than ever," he said.

Ghani also said that in efforts to reach a peace settlement, the Afghan government was ready for amendment in the country's constitution based on the articles of the constitution.

Measures must be taken to reintegrate the armed opposition members, who renounces violence and joins peace process, and the refugees who return from neighboring countries, he noted.

Releasing Taliban prisoners and removing some Taliban leaders' names from international sanction lists as well as opening an office for Taliban in Kabul or other Afghan cities were also included in the new peace map, according to Ghani.

The announcement came one day after the Taliban said it was ready to talk with the United States over Afghan crisis but not with the Afghan government or its peace council.

Over the past years, the insurgent group has categorically rejected the peace offer, saying there will be no talks until foreign troops leave the country.

Since 2015, Afghan security forces have assumed the full security mission from NATO and U.S. forces, but around 16,000 foreign troops have remained to train and assist local security forces in their fight against the insurgents.

The Wednesday's meeting was the second of such conference held in Kabul over the past one year. The previous Kabul conference was held in June 2017.

Delegates from more than 20 countries and international organizations attended the Kabul conference.

The latest move for peace comes as scores of security force members and civilians have been killed in strings of deadly terror attacks across the country.Source: Xinhua| 2018-02-28 15:54:26|Editor: Mengjie

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People visit the stand of Chinese company Beijing Asia-Latinamerica International Co. (WANA) during the Habanos Festival in Havana, Cuba, Feb. 27, 2018. Cuba's annual celebration of its cigar-making industry, the Habanos Festival, kicked off Monday here, drawing over 2,000 cigar aficionados and buyers from 70 countries. Just as China has become the top emerging market for Cuban cigars with a 33-percent year-on-year growth in 2017, several Chinese companies decided to provide Cuban and international firms with various products related to the industry. (Xinhua/Joaquin Hernandez)

by Raimundo Urrechaga

HAVANA, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- Cuba's annual celebration of its cigar-making industry, the Habanos Festival, kicked off Monday here, drawing over 2,000 cigar aficionados and buyers from 70 countries.

The festival, organized by Habanos S.A., a joint venture between state-owned Cubatabaco and Altadis, a French-German subsidiary of the British multinational Imperial Tobacco, which markets the cigars worldwide, also features gala dinners, tours of cigar factories and tobacco farms, and a renowned auction of custom-made humidors, with funds going to support the country's free healthcare system.

Just as China has become the top emerging market for Cuban cigars with a 33-percent year-on-year growth in 2017, several Chinese companies decided to provide Cuban and international firms with various products related to the industry.

Such is the case of Shenzhen Raching Technology, China's leading cigar cabinet maker founded in 2004, which specializes in the design and manufacture of large scale cigar humidors as well as wine cabinets and cellars.

"We are optimistic about the platform provided by the Habanos Festival because Cuban cigars are the equivalent of a pearl on the crown in the whole cigar industry," Chen Liang, chairman of Shenzhen Raching Technology, told Xinhua.

According to Chen, this is the second time the company has participated in Cuba's cigar festival, where it has been showing wood humidors and cabinets designed with fine taste and elegance.

"In technological design we are the company with the most stable humidity and temperature control in China. The cabinet uses a precision temperature control technology to ensure more stable cigar storage for temperature and humidity," Chen said.

Chen noted that Raching's core concept of cigar humidor production is keeping 70 percent humidity and 20 degrees Celsius in temperature "so the cigar can enjoy better purification and fermentation in the cabinet."

The Chinese firm introduces new products every year and this time they have come to the festival with three humidors of different appearances and cooling functions.

"Many Cuban customers are seeing our innovative products year after year while we improve technical indicators. They're increasingly confident about our humidors and cabinets and the number of orders is growing too," Chen said.

Another Chinese company at the festival is Beijing Asia-Latinamerica International Co. (WANA), which has been in the local market for over a decade and also commercializes cigar and wine cabinets as well as high-end accessories for humidors.

During the first two days of the exhibition, many people passed by WANA's stand looking for metal accessories for humidors or popular products like cigar knives, cutters as well as holders.

"I think these should be available for all craftsmen and artists who produce humidors in Cuba because they have a formidable quality," said Moises Gonzalez, a Cuban who has dedicated himself for more than 20 years to the production of humidors.

Chinese company Bellotour has developed a mobile app which "contains information of the trade exhibition, the festival's site and an introduction for those attending the event," Terry Jiang, president of Bellotour, told Xinhua.

The app, We Go Cuba, also provides users with directions to local Casa del Habano where the cigars are sold, so that participants can take back home as much tobacco as they want.

"The software is free," said Jiang, "and users could simply scan the QR code and download it directly on their phones and start using it right away."Source: Xinhua| 2018-02-28 16:37:41|Editor: pengying

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A girl with disability participates in a dance competition during an art competition festival for disabled students from elementary schools and high schools in Jakarta, Indonesia. Feb. 28, 2018. (Xinhua/Agung Kuncahya B.)MOSCOW, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- Russian Soyuz MS-06 spacecraft with three members of the International Space Station (ISS) crew successfully landed in Kazakhstan's steppe on Wednesday, the Russian State Space Corporation Roscosmos said.

It said in a statement that Russian cosmonaut Alexander Misurkin and U.S. astronauts Mark Vande Hei and Joseph Acaba were feeling well after spending 168 days in the orbit.

During the stay at the ISS, the crew carried out an extensive program of scientific and applied research, and installed the various equipment which were delivered to the station by cargo spacecraft.

An international crew, including Russian astronaut Anton Shkaplerov, U.S. astronaut Scott Tingle and Japanese Norishige Kanai, continue working on the ISS.JAKARTA, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- Indonesia is targeting the Indian tourism market following surge of Indian tourist arrivals in Bali in recent years, Tourism Minister Arief Yahya said on Wednesday.

The Tourism Ministry recorded 485,314 Indian tourists to Bali last year, up 30 percent from 2016. The figure has placed India among top five countries with highest tourist arrival growth in Bali.

"We are aiming for this positive potentials. With favoring conditions, the arrival number would continue to grow this year," the minister said, referring to Indian tourists' double-digit growth.

"India has a big size tourism market. We should maximize efforts to tap this market so as to attract more of them to come here," the minister added.

The ministry recently dispatched a sales mission to the Indian city of Kolkata, with dozens of Indonesian tour package sellers meeting with their Indonesian counterparts at a business-to-business event.

Indonesian authorities have downgraded the volcano's alert level from the highest IV to III following the decreasing volcanic activities in recent months.

Bali is now deemed safe for tourism except for certain areas declared as danger zones, which only accounted for 2 percent of the Bali island.

Indonesia has allocated 100 billion rupiah (about 7.2 million U.S. dollars) to finance efforts to save Bali from tourism demise following the closure of airports due to volcanic eruptions in November last year.Source: Xinhua| 2018-02-28 17:45:01|Editor: Yurou

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BEIJING, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- China on Wednesday denied that a Chinese military aircraft had flown illegally inside a Republic of Korea (ROK) air defence identification zone (ADIZ), saying the complaint was "completely unreasonable."

Spokesman Lu Kang made the remarks at a routine news briefing when asked for comment that the ROK had summoned the Chinese ambassador on Tuesday to lodge a complaint.

China's movement of aircraft in the region for military exercises was in complete accord with international law and practice, said Lu.

"I must emphasize that an ADIZ does not equal territorial airspace," Lu said. "The ROK's complaint is completely unreasonable."Source: Xinhua| 2018-02-28 17:50:02|Editor: Yurou

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BEIJING, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- The Chinese mainland resolutely opposes any form of official or military contact between the United States and Taiwan, a spokesman said Wednesday.

The Chinese mainland firmly objects to U.S. arms sales to Taiwan under any pretext, said An Fengshan, spokesman for the State Council Taiwan Affairs Office, at a press conference.

The one-China principle is the political foundation of China-U.S. relationship and the fundamental guideline for handling issues regarding Taiwan for the two countries, An said.

Asked about some Taiwan media stirring up trouble following remarks by members of a U.S. think tank, An said some "unscrupulous" people from the island acted actively as other countries' tools, at the cost of peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait and the wellbeing of people on both sides.

An called on both sides across the Strait to work hand in hand to create brilliance.Source: Xinhua| 2018-02-28 18:30:11|Editor: ZD

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BEIJING, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- China and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) will hold the 23rd Joint Working Group meeting on the Implementation of the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea (DOC) from March 1-2 in Nha Trang, Vietnam.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lu Kang told a daily news briefing that relevant parties will exchange views on implementing the DOC, promoting maritime cooperation as well as consulting on the Code of Conduct (COC) in the South China Sea.

Currently the situation in the South China Sea has been stabilized due to the efforts of China and regional countries, Lu said.

"China and ASEAN countries have the will and confidence to continue dialogue and cooperation, strive for more progress and consolidate the improving situation in the area," Lu said.Source: Xinhua| 2018-02-28 19:40:26|Editor: pengying

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ADDIS ABABA, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- The UN Special Envoy for the Great Lakes region, Said Djinnit, has urged more resolve for the commitments made under the Peace, Security and Cooperation Framework (PSCF) agreement towards lasting peace and stability in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and the Great Lakes region.

The PSCF agreement was signed on 24 Feb. 2013 by 11 African countries with firm commitments at national, regional and international levels to address the root causes of instability in the DRC and the region, one of the regions which suffered the most from the scourge of conflicts in Africa.

A stakeholders' workshop organized jointly by the African Union (AU) and the UN to mark the 5th anniversary of the signing of the PSCF agreement for DRC and the region, was wrapped up on Wednesday in Ethiopia's capital Addis Ababa.

Despite encouraging developments, the region remains at a cross-roads towards lasting peace and stability, said the UN Special Envoy in his remarks at the workshop.

Reiterating the commendable efforts to neutralize negative forces in the region, Djinnit has expressed concern that some illegal armed groups, such as the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), have continued to strengthen their capacity and perpetrated massacres in the areas of Beni and Eringeti.

The Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), the oldest foreign armed group which settled in eastern DRC, also remains active, the Special Envoy has warned.

"While the region is still struggling with these negative forces, it has also witnessed new and persisting conflicts in South Sudan and the Central African Republic, as well as the emergence of political and electoral crises in the DRC and Burundi," he said.

"In addition to the suffering that these crises are bringing to the people of the region, they contributed to perpetuating tension and mistrust among the countries of the region," he added.

The persisting conflicts and political crises in the Great Lakes continue to affect millions of people fleeing their homes, causing an increasingly severe humanitarian crisis.

Over 11 million people are currently displaced in the region, including close to 5 million refugees and 7 million Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs), according to the UN.

"It is one of the world's largest displacement crises," he said, "In a context of growing humanitarian needs and dwindling funding, urgent durable solutions are needed to address the challenge of displacement in the region."

Therefore, the Special Envoy has called for more resolve and efforts to ensure that the commitments made under the PSCF agreement, together with other key regional instruments, such as the the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region (ICGLR) Pact, are fully implemented to deliver their promises for lasting peace and stability to the people of the region.

"In this regard, resolving, as a matter of priority, the crises in Burundi and the DRC and conflicts in South Sudan and Central African Republic is critical to create the conditions for the pursuit of efforts towards the full implementation of the Peace, Security and Cooperation Framework," he noted.

The PSCF agreement was signed five years ago, by eleven countries, in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, to break the recurring cycles of violence in the eastern DRC and ensure sustainable peace in the region.

The workshop has been held to assess the implementation of the PSCF and formulate concrete recommendations on how best to address the underlying root causes of conflict in the region and advance the implementation of the Framework agreement, according to AU.

The agreement was signed by 11 countries, namely, Angola, Burundi, the Central African Republic, the Republic of Congo, the DRC, Rwanda, South Africa, South Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia, with UN, AU, ICGLR and the Southern African Development Community (SADC) acting as Guarantors. In early 2014, Kenya and Sudan became the 12th and 13th signatories of the Framework Agreement respectively.Source: Xinhua| 2018-02-28 20:00:32|Editor: Xiang Bo

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MANILA, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- China will organize three roadshows of the first China International Import Expo (CIIE) in different cities in the Philippines next month to invite local enterprises to join the event, said an official from Chinese embassy on Wednesday.

Chinese embassy's Economic and Commercial Counsellor Jin Yuan met on Wednesday with Senen Perlada, Philippine Department of Trade and Industry Export Marketing Bureau Director. During the meeting, both have agreed to hold three roadshows of the CIIE in March. The first roadshow will be held on March 16 in Metro Manila, the second one will be held on March 20 in Cebu, the second largest city in the Philippines and the third one will be held on March 23 in Davao, a major city in the southern Philippines.

All the three roadshows of the CIIE will be organized by the Chinese embassy in the Philippines and the Philippine Department of Trade and Industry (DTI). The roadshow in Metro Manila will invite about 300 local businessmen and the ones in Cebu and Davao will invite around 100.

The CIIE, a major event organized by the Chinese government to promote a new round of high-level opening-up, will be held in Shanghai from November 5 to November 10 this year.

According to the Chinese embassy, the Chinese government will promote the CIIE through videos, speeches and consultations in the roadshows. Philippines enterprises will be invited to register and join the CIIE to seek business opportunities in China.

The CIIE will include exhibitions and forums, provides a platform for trade and services, and offers opportunities for closer international cooperation.

State leaders, entrepreneurs and scholars from over 100 countries and regions are expected to participate in the expo.

The Philippine government already confirmed to participate in the expo and booked 100 booths.10 dead, 15 wounded in Egypt's train crash Source: Xinhua 2018-02-28 20:05:33 CAIRO, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- At least 10 people were killed and 15 others wounded in a crash between two trains in Beheira province northern the capital Cairo, official MENA news agency reported. Editor: pengyingGround personnel carry Alexander Misurkin of Russia after the Soyuz MS-06 capsule landed in a remote area outside the town of Dzhezkazgan (Zhezkazgan), Kazakhstan, February 28, 2018. (REUTERS PHOTO)

MOSCOW, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- Russian Soyuz MS-06 spacecraft with three members of the International Space Station (ISS) crew successfully landed in Kazakhstan's steppe on Wednesday, the Russian State Space Corporation Roscosmos said.

It said in a statement that Russian cosmonaut Alexander Misurkin and U.S. astronauts Mark Vande Hei and Joseph Acaba were feeling well after spending 168 days in the orbit.

During the stay at the ISS, the crew carried out an extensive program of scientific and applied research, and installed the various equipment which were delivered to the station by cargo spacecraft.File photo shows a released Chibok girl hugs her relative in Abuja, Nigeria, May 20, 2017. (Xinhua/Olatunji Obasa)

ABUJA, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- A teenage Boko Haram fighter clutching an AK-47 assault rifle was among the abductors of 110 schoolgirls in Nigeria's northeastern state of Yobe on Feb. 19, four students and a local guard who witnessed the incident told Xinhua on Tuesday.

The teenage Boko Haram fighter shot sporadically in the air and ordered the students of the Government Girls Science and Technical College in Dapchi area of Yobe to hop into three waiting trucks stationed by the terror group at the entrance of the school on the day of the incident, one of the four students said.

"The boy looked like a 13-year-old. If not that he was holding a gun and shooting it so easily, I would have held and overpowered him," said the 14-year-old student.

Three other girls, all students of the all-girl college, corroborated this narration.

The four girls were among 48 girls who escaped by jumping over the fence and fled to a nearby bush, about five kilometers away from the school, on the day of the attack.

"The three trucks were parked at the school's main gate and manned by some of the attackers, while several others stood at strategic points to capture the distraught students and teachers.

"The teenage Boko Haram fighter and a few others marched to our hostels while shooting endlessly to scare us all," said the students, in the local Hausa language widely spoken across many African countries.

According to them, the attackers did not hurt any of the students or teachers but the fear of imminent abduction made most of the students and local school workers to run in different directions.

The school's 58-year-old guard Halilu Adamu said he fled the scene upon sighting the three trucks stationed at the main gate.

"I saw the boy, young enough to be my grandson, wielding a big gun. From the way he moved, it was obvious that the gun's weight was too much for him," Adamu said.

Many young boys had been taken by Boko Haram in the past and following their conscription into the terror group, they're being used as either suicide bombers or trained to handle firearms during attacks, Afolabi Adewuyi, a Nigerian security expert in the Yobe State capital, told Xinhua by telephone.

Nigerian authorities on Tuesday gave a description of each of the 110 missing schoolgirls, saying the girls' ages range from 11 to 19 years.

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.

Only 107 of the Chibok girls have been rescued or returned amid ongoing government negotiation with Boko Haram.CAIRO, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- At least 10 people were killed and 15 others wounded on Wednesday in a crash between two trains in Beheira province northern the capital Cairo, the Egyptian Health Ministry said in a statement.

The Health Ministry's spokesman said that more than 30 ambulances have rushed to the crash scene to move the wounded people to nearby hospitals.

Meanwhile, Beheira security chief Alaa El-Din Abdel-Fattah told official MENA news agency that "the accident took place as two cabins derailed from a passenger train and hit a cargo train in Kom Hamada district of Beheira."File photo taken on May 10, 2017 shows a view of Bujumbura, capital of Burundi. (Xinhua/Lyu Tianran)

BUJUMBURA, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- Burundi on Tuesday refuted claims by UN human rights chief describing the East African country among "the most prolific slaughterhouses of humans in recent times."

"It's very surprising, especially considering what we currently observe countrywide and considering the progress made in all aspects of the human rights sector," Jean Baptiste Baribonekeza, chairman of the Burundian National Independent Human Rights Commission said in Burundian capital Bujumbura.

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein on Monday at a session of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva decried "some of the most prolific slaughterhouses of humans in recent times", including Burundi, some areas in the countries of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Yemen, Myanmar and Syria.

Baribonekeza said there are no signs of mass killings or activities jeopardizing the human rights sector underway in Burundi.Source: Xinhua| 2018-02-28 20:40:47|Editor: Xiang Bo

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BEIJING, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- China's renewable energy registered an installed capacity of 650 million kilowatts in 2017, a record high, according to a senior energy official.

The renewable energy made up 36.6 percent of the country's total installed capacity of power and generated electricity of 1.7 trillion kilowatt hours last year, according to Liu Baohua, deputy head of the National Energy Administration.

China made better use of renewable energy with less waste last year. The Utilization rate of hydraulic power reached about 96 percent while curtailment rates of wind power and photovoltaic power dropped by 5.2 percentage points and 4.3 percentage points, respectively.

The country plans to raise the percentage of non-fossil fuel power consumption to 15 percent of the total energy mix by 2020 and to 20 percent by 2030.

"China still has much room for improvement in power utilization and the government aims to control waste of renewable power to within a reasonable range in three years," Liu said.LASHKAR GAH, Afghanistan, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- Air raids against illicit drug centers in the poppy growing southern Helmand province have left 13 Taliban fighters dead, said a statement of Miwand Army Corps released here on Wednesday.

According to the statement, the airstrikes conducted in the troubled Khanshin district on Tuesday killed 13 Taliban insurgents and destroyed their drug stores.

According to the statement, 3,400 kg of opium poppies were also destroyed in the air raids.

Taliban militants who have always rejected their link to drug business, haven't commented on the report.Source: Xinhua| 2018-02-28 20:50:51|Editor: Xiang Bo

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Graphics shows gross domestic product and the growth rates from 2013 to 2017, according to the National Bureau of Statistics of China. (Xinhua/Qu Zhendong)

BEIJING, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on Wednesday released a communique on economic and social development in 2017, focusing on China's firm economic fundamentals and its contribution to world economic growth.

The communique highlighted sound economic growth, greater overall national strength and international influence, better quality growth, and new growth drivers, said NBS chief statistician Sheng Laiyun.

Solid efforts have also been made in environmental protection and energy saving, Belt and Road construction, opening up, poverty relief, and general improvement in quality of life, Sheng said. The communique showed China's contribution to world economic growth stood at around 30 percent in 2017.

"Chinese economy remained an important growth engine for the world's economic recovery," said Sheng.

World Bank data showed that China contributed 34 percent of world economic growth from 2012 to 2016, more than that of the United States, EU and Japan combined.

China's economy expanded 6.9 percent last year, picking up for the first time in seven years and well above the government target of around 6.5 percent.

The performance not only fuelled optimism for a global recovery, but secured greater sustainability through domestic consumption, trade and new technology, which increased external demand and international productivity.

Sheng stressed that China can maintain sound economic growth in 2018 through continued reform and opening up. Indeed, as reform and opening up enters its 40th year, the policy is of even greater importance in a new era of high-quality development.

Reform and opening up is the very reason behind China's growth and will remain the key driving force of high-quality development, said Sheng.

China's social and economic development in 2017 in numbers:

Gross domestic product (GDP) expanded 6.9 percent to 82.7 trillion yuan (12.8 trillion U.S. dollars), around 15 percent of the world total.

Foreign exchange reserves, the world's largest, reached 3.1 trillion dollars.

Grain output stood at about 618 million tonnes.

A total of 13.5 million new urban jobs were created. Registered urban unemployment fell to 3.9 percent, the lowest since 2002.

Consumer prices rose by 1.6 percent, well within the government target.

Industrial capacity utilization hit 77 percent, the highest in five years.

The area of unsold commercial buildings decreased by 106 million square meters.

Profits of industrial companies with annual revenue over 20 million yuan rose 21 percent, 12.5 percentage points faster than in 2016.

The service sector expanded 8 percent to account for 51.6 percent of GDP.

Increased consumption contributed 58.8 percent to GDP growth.

An average of 16,600 new companies were registered each day.

Clean energy, including natural gas, wind and nuclear power, accounted for 20.8 percent of total energy consumption, up 1.3 percentage points.

Trade with countries along the Belt and Road rose 17.8 percent to 7.4 trillion yuan.

Per capita disposable incomes grew 7.3 percent.

The number of rural people living below the poverty line was reduced by 12.9 million to 30.5 million.Source: Xinhua| 2018-02-28 21:00:54|Editor: pengying

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DOHA, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- Qatar and the European Union exchanged views on enhancing investment and economic opportunities amid a siege Doha is suffering, Qatar News Agency (QNA) reported Wednesday.

The discussion came at a meeting between Qatari Minister of Economy and Commerce Sheikh Ahmed bin Jassim Al Thani and the EU's ambassadors to the Gulf country on Tuesday.

During the meeting, Al-Thani highlighted the strategic ties between Qatar and the EU, which is considered the second largest partner of the tiny gas-rich state.

The Qatari minister also overviewed the economic challenges his country has met since the blockade was imposed last June.

''Despite the unjust blockade which aims at undermining Qatar's position as an economically independent and sovereign state, Qatar has succeeded in strengthening its position and independence more than ever before,'' he said.

The siege has prompted Qatar to explore more opportunities to open to more countries by developing direct trade lines with a number of strategic ports, Al-Thani added.

In January, the EU High Foreign Policy Chief Federica Mogherini called on all parties to enter into negotiations during her visit to Kuwait.

A month later, Ali bin Smaikh al-Marri, the chairman of the National Human Rights Committee, called on the EU to support efforts for an immediate end to the siege imposed on Qatar during his visit to France.

In June 2017, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates and Egypt severed diplomatic ties as well as all air, sea and land links to Qatar, accusing the gas-rich Gulf state of supporting terrorism and aligning with Iran against Arab interests, which Doha has repeatedly denied, calling such islolation "diplomatically unjustified."MOGADISHU, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- The Somali National Army (SNA) on Wednesday captured Moqokori, a very strategic town in Hiraan region in central Somalia where Al-Shabaab militants were in full control earlier, an official said.

"The Somali National Army took control of Moqokori town and other villages nearby in an operation this morning. There was no resistance from the militants and it was a successful operation. Our aim is to open to districts in this region," Ahmed Mohamed Taredisho, a Somali Army Commander in Hiraan region, confirmed to the reporters.

He added that they are committed to liberating more areas still under Al-Shabaab militants who have upped their attacks against the government.

Al-Shabaab militants have not commented on the latest capture of the key town in central Somalia.Source: Xinhua| 2018-02-28 21:00:56|Editor: ZD

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BEIJING, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- In a few days, China's annual sessions of top legislative and political advisory bodies will open a window for the world to gain an insight into the country's economic transition in the coming decades -- a drive toward "high-quality development."

During the meetings starting early March, national legislators and political advisors will review and discuss specific measures designed to push the economy to steadier and greener growth.

"China's economy has been transitioning from a phase of rapid growth to a stage of high-quality development," said the report delivered to the 19th Communist Party of China National Congress in October. "This is a pivotal stage for transforming our growth model, improving our economic structure, and fostering new drivers of growth."

What does the new growth pattern mean for China and the world? What should global businesses and investors anticipate with the economic shift? The upcoming meetings, known as "two sessions," are about to shed new light on such questions.

MORE STABLE GROWTH

China's growth target, expected to be released in the government work report during the two sessions, will continue to attract worldwide attention this year. The closely-watched figure had remained stable during the past five years as policy makers put stronger emphasis on quality and became more tolerable to GDP slowdown.

Economists expect China to maintain the near 6.5-percent reading this year as part of the efforts to improve economic quality and performance. In fact, some provincial authorities have softened their goals during local sessions in January.

Although it has bid farewell to breakneck expansion, China will continue its role of stabilizing the global economy.

World Bank data has showed that China contributed 34 percent to world economic growth from 2012 to 2016, more than that of the United States, European Union and Japan combined.

Lian Ping, economist with Bank of Communications, said the economy would be more stable this year with less quarter-to-quarter volatility in GDP increases as consumption has overtaken investment to be the main economic driver.

Along with other economic policies written into the government work report, the annual growth target is subject to approval of the top legislature, which, along with the top advisory body, plays an important part in shaping national policies from employment to environment.

BIGGER MARKET

Free trade will be another hot topic during the two sessions as China's high-quality development will create an enormous consumer market causing huge demand for products from the rest of the world.

With the country's first free trade zone (FTZ), Shanghai is on the forefront of foreign trade and is still looking for more opportunities.

Ying Yong, national legislator and mayor of Shanghai, said during local sessions that the city will push its FTZ to meet the highest international standards and will grope for ways to develop the "free trade port," an area that features minimized trade control measures.

The Ministry of Commerce forecast last November China would import more than 10 trillion U.S. dollars of goods and services in the next five years.

On the back of the booming imports is China's rising middle-income group, which, with a population of around 300 million, accounts for 30 percent of the world's total. The influence has been reflected in their increasingly bigger role in driving growth and trade.

China will make more efforts to cut tariffs on products including cars, senior Chinese official Liu He said at the World Economic Forum annual meeting in January. Import taxes on 187 products were slashed last year, with the average rate down from 17.3 percent to 7.7 percent.

The first China International Import Expo will be held in Shanghai in November, which is expected to bring together thousands of enterprises from more than 100 countries.

BROADER MARKET ACCESS

As China will mark the 40th anniversary of its reform and opening up this year, analysts expect more specific measures to widen market access for global businesses during the two sessions.

At the WEF meeting, Liu said China would make more efforts to further open the country's finance, manufacturing and service sectors, and step up protection of intellectual property.

The negative list that determines where foreign participation is prohibited or limited will become shorter. Foreign firms will continue to receive equal treatment, with their interests well protected. The Belt and Road Initiative will be pushed forward, with the focus on international industrial cooperation.

Foreign direct investment in the Chinese mainland hit an all-time high of 878 billion yuan (around 140 billion U.S. dollars) last year against a backdrop of lackluster global investment, and 35,652 foreign-funded businesses were established.

China's central bank Monday announced a decision to abolish old regulations, to smooth operation of foreign-funded businesses, while another banking regulator also rolled out measures during the weekend to cut red tape for foreign lenders.

Observers have said the country's resolution to further integrate into the global economy is evident.

Despite the rising protectionism in major economies, China will champion "a community with a shared future for humanity," and further promote globalization, according to Wei Jianguo, vice president of the China Center for International Economic Exchanges.Source: Xinhua| 2018-02-28 21:15:59|Editor: Xiang Bo

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CHENGDU, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- Southwest China's Sichuan Province plans to train over 2,000 locals from rural areas as tourism experts in 2018.

The provincial government has allocated 11 million yuan (1.7 million U.S. dollars) from this year's tourism development fund for the training program, aiming to promote tourism as a boost for the rural economy and help lift the rural population out of poverty.

About 180 farmers, technicians and businessmen attended the first session of the seven-day training that started Tuesday in Mianzhu city. Government officials, university scholars and business experts were invited to teach tourism planning, catering, environmental protection and other tourism related courses on the training program.

"It broadened our horizon and changed our way of thinking on rural tourism," said Zhou Xiaobo, an official of Jiulong township, Mianyang city. "We start thinking about how to introduce the concepts of Artificial Intelligence and Internet into traditional rural tourism."

The remaining 19 training programs will be held later this year in different cities.

Rural tourism has seen robust growth in Sichuan during recent years as more city-dwellers look for a taste of the country life. And it has played a significant role in promoting rural economic development.

In 2017, the total revenue of rural tourism in Sichuan reached 228.3 billion yuan, an increase of 13.3 percent year on year.

According to the China National Tourism Administration, the country aims to lift 12 million people out of poverty through tourism from 2016 to 2020.Source: Xinhua| 2018-02-28 21:21:01|Editor: Xiang Bo

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by Marian Draganov

SOFIA, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- During the last 40 years, China has become a promoter of global stability and prosperity, former Bulgarian Parliament Speaker Mihail Mikov said Tuesday in an interview with Xinhua.

Since the implementation of its policy of reform and opening-up in 1978, "China has done a lot," Mikov said.

HELPING PEOPLE

Due to its strong economic development and sustainable policy, China has effectively addressed many domestic problems like poverty and food security, and paid special attention to ecological problems by developing renewable energy sources, Mikov said.

"Every time, I am impressed by China's extraordinary progress, including its infrastructure development, and the improvement of citizens' living standard," said Mikov, speaker of Bulgaria's National Assembly from 2013 to 2014, and chairman of the Bulgarian Socialist Party from 2014 to 2016, who has visited China four times.

Meanwhile, China has been playing an increasingly important role in international organizations such as the United Nations (UN), and in particular has been seeking a connection between the economies in Asia and the Eurasian region, as well as Africa and Latin America, Mikov said.

"In this sense, China is a major positive factor for balanced and sustainable international relations," he said.

FOR A SHARED FUTURE

In 2015, at the summits commemorating the 70th anniversary of the founding of the United Nations, Chinese President Xi Jinping put forward a vision of building a community with a shared future for mankind,China's answer to building new international relations.

"In any case, such a policy, such a vision, takes into account the ability of every country, culture, civilization and economy, to take an equal place in the future world," Mikov said.

This would be a future without wars, international conflicts, or interference by any power, he said.

China's continued adherence to the UN Charter, as well as consistent follow-up and support for this sustainable world order, has demonstrated the country's pursuit of its great goal for a shared future, Mikov said.

ENHANCING INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION

Mikov said the Belt and Road Initiative proposed by China in 2013 is one of the best cooperation mechanisms to build a community with a shared future, which has gained more and more supporters.

"It connects Europe and Asia, builds infrastructure links, and overcomes customs and tariff barriers that hinder international trade," Mikov said.

Besides, the "16+1" mechanism, or the China-Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) cooperation framework, a platform created in 2012 by China and 16 CEE countries, is also useful and necessary, Mikov said.

"This cooperation mechanism will enable Bulgaria and other CEE countries to actively engage in the realization of the great Belt and Road Initiative," he said.

Mikov said considering the opportunities brought by China, Bulgaria should fully express its desire to join the programs and make good use of the chances offered.

During the country's rotating Presidency of the Council of the European Union in the first half of the year, Bulgaria had the responsibility to promote European participation in these initiatives, Mikov added.Source: Xinhua| 2018-02-28 21:36:03|Editor: Zhou Xin

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Photo taken on Feb. 28, 2018 shows a train crash accident site in Beheira province, north of Egypt's capital city Cairo. The death toll of the train crash that took place in Beheira province northern the capital Cairo on Wednesday has risen to 15, official MENA news agency reported. Beheira security chief Alaa El-Din Abdel-Fattah explained earlier on Wednesday that the accident took place as two cabins derailed from a passenger train and hit a cargo train in Kom Hamada district of Beheira. (Xinhua/Ahmed Gomaa)

CAIRO, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- The death toll of the train crash that took place in Beheira province northern the capital Cairo on Wednesday has risen to 15, official MENA news agency reported.

"The number of victims of Beheira train crash mounted to 15 dead and 40 wounded so far," MENA quoted Transport Ministry's spokesman Mohamed Ezz as saying.

Transport Minister Hesham Arafat hurried to the accident place to follow up the developments, according to the Egyptian state TV.

Beheira security chief Alaa El-Din Abdel-Fattah explained earlier on Wednesday that the accident took place as two cabins derailed from a passenger train and hit a cargo train in Kom Hamada district of Beheira.

Health Ministry's spokesman Khaled Megahed said that more than 30 ambulances have rushed to the crash scene to move the wounded people to nearby hospitals.

"They raised alert to utmost degree in the province's hospitals of Damanhour, Wady al-Natroun and Kafr al-Dawwar to receive any cases," Megahed said in the statement.

Egypt's public prosecutor assigned an engineering committee to find out the reasons behind the crash.

Egypt witnessed a number of deadly train accidents over the past few years in which hundreds were killed and wounded.

Last August, the collision of two trains in the coastal province of Alexandria northern Cairo left at least 49 dead and more than 100 injured.NAIROBI, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- Kenya's weatherman on Wednesday warned of heavy rains set to begin pounding several parts of the East African nation following months of intense heat.

The Kenya Meteorological Department in its three-day weather forecast, however, said the rains due to start on Wednesday are not the proper onset of the March-May rainfall season.

It warned that the downpour that could cause floods is likely to occur from Thursday to Saturday in counties in Western, Rift Valley, Nyanza, Central, and Nairobi area including Southeastern lowlands.

"Residents in urban areas are advised to be on the lookout for flash floods. In dry river beds moving water may suddenly appear. Soil erosion may occur in areas that have been dry and have bare soils," the weatherman said.

It urged residents to continue listening to local media as updates which will be provided if conditions change significantly.

According to MET department, counties to be affected by the heavy rainfall include Kisii, Kericho, Bomet, Narok, Migori, Kakamega, Kajiado, Nakuru, Kwale, Marsabit, Turkana, Samburu, Nairobi, Nyeri, Kiambu, Murang'a, Kitui, Machakos, Makueni, Taita Taveta.

The forecast came as the East African nation is experiencing one of the highest temperatures across the country.

According to Peter Ambenje, the director of Kenya Meteorological Department, the normal temperatures that were experienced in the 1970s and 1980s have abnormally continued to increase, hence affecting agriculture, energy, water resource management, transport, health, environment and livestock sub sectors.

Ambenje said the intense heat is also negatively impacting the level of water in the country hence causing panic amongst stakeholders in the sub sector.

The government has imposed a three-month ban on logging and timber harvesting to protect water towers from drying up.

"The government has with immediate effect imposed a moratorium on timber harvesting in all public and community forests for a period of ninety days to allow reassessment and rationalization of the entire forest sector in Kenya," said Deputy President William Ruto on Saturday.

Ruto noted that the country has faced an acute water shortage for the past three years due to the destruction of forests and encroachment of water towers.

"Deforestation, degradation and encroachment of water towers and other catchment areas, uncontrolled human activities including wanton logging have threatened and undermined the country's capability to ensure food security. This situation poses a threat to the achievement of the big four agenda items of the Jubilee Government," said Ruto.NAIROBI, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- Kenya on Wednesday launched guidelines for treatment of Kala-azar that aims to boost efforts to eradicate the disease by 2025.

Jackson Kioko, the director of Medical Services at the Ministry of Health told journalists in Nairobi that the revised guidelines on Prevention, Diagnosis and Treatment of Kala-azar provides a road map to reduce the level of exposure to the seven million people at risk of contracting the parasitic disease in six endemic counties.

"The guidelines also introduce the World Health Organization (WHO) recommended Sodium Stibogluconate and Paromomycin combination therapy as a first line treatment for the vector borne disease," Kioko said.

Kala-azar or Visceral Leishmaniasis, is characterized by irregular bouts of fever, substantial weight loss, swelling of spleen and liver, and anemia. The treatment is currently based on pentavalent antimonials whose full treatment required injections for a period of 30 days.

Kioko said the new drug regime will go a long way in addressing the disease burden as it has reduced treatment to 17 days hence improving drug compliance.

In addition, he noted that the new guidelines recommend use of Ambisome, for patients with special needs.

Data from the Ministry of Health indicates that approximately 2,500 people are infected with the disease annually.

Rudolf Eggers, the WHO Country Representative in Kenya said his organization has been supporting Kenya to control Kala-azar.

"Core activities supported include procurement of medicines and diagnosis kits, training of healthcare workers on appropriate prevention, diagnosis and case management of this disease and development of guidelines and strategies for use by healthcare workers and partners," Eggers said.

In 2017, Kenya experienced an outbreak of Kala-azar in Marsabit county which the WHO, ministry of Health and the other partners coordinated a multi-agency emergency response and the outbreak was contained.PYONGYANG, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- Official media of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) on Wednesday rejected accusations by U.S. officials that the DPRK is seeking to achieve a forcible reunification with South Korea with its own system by means of nuclear arms.

A commentary of the official daily Rodong Sinmun said such claims are "just last-ditch struggling of those much upset by the international opinion being built to the effect that the nuclear possession of the DPRK was attributable to the U.S. nuclear threat and hostile policy toward the DPRK."

The United States is also worried about "the dramatic phase of reconciliation being created between the north and the south of Korea entering this year," said the official daily of the ruling Workers' Party of Korea.

"The sordid aim sought by the U.S. is to brand the DPRK's nuclear weapons as the ones for 'achieving unification by imposing the communist system on the south' and then justify arms buildup in and around the Korean peninsula under the pretext of 'defending allies,'" it said.

It also accused Washington of trying to incite hostility toward the DPRK among South Koreans, driving a wedge between the north and the south and spoiling the atmosphere for the improvement of ties.

Top U.S. intelligence officials have suggested at Congressional hearings and other public appearances that the DPRK's ultimate goal is to achieve unification through nuclear weapons, according to media reports.

Adm. Harry Harris Jr., top commander of U.S. forces in the Pacific, have also said that the DPRK is pursuing more than just defending its social system through access to nuclear weapons and its purpose is to reunify the Korean Peninsula.DUBAI, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President Donald Trump and Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al-Nahyan on Wednesday discussed ways to enhance "friendship and cooperation" between the U.S. and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), during a phone call, UAE state news agency WAM reported.

"The U.S. president thanked Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al-Nahyan for his leadership role in mobilizing regional and international support in effectively countering the destabilizing activities of Iran, while the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi thanked President Trump for his key role in combating extremism and terrorism," said WAM.

The two sides also agreed on the importance of regional cooperation and the role of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) in reducing regional threats and ensuring the economic prosperity of the region.

Founded in 1981, the GCC comprises Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Kuwait, Bahrain and Oman.

Last year, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain, and Egypt accused Qatar of "supporting terrorism" and "undermining regional security" by seeking closer ties with Iran.

Qatar strongly denied what it called the "unjustified" and "baseless" accusations.

The standoff, rather than showing any signs of abating, has been exacerbated by Trump's remarks in June that Qatar had funded terrorism "at a very high level."Source: Xinhua| 2018-02-28 22:09:08|Editor: Xiang Bo

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Tang Caixia (1st L) poses for a group photo with family members at the gate of her home in Yaogou Village of Nanshu Town in Laixi, east China's Shandong Province, Feb. 27, 2018. Tang Caixia, aged 37, has supported her uncle for over four years. Five years ago, Tang's uncle Ge Songting got very sick. Though he was rescued from death, he was paralyzed. Ge has never got married before, so there's no immediate family to support him. In this case, he had to be sent to nursing home. When Tang visited her uncle at the nursing home four years ago, she decided to bring him home for Spring Festival. Since then, Ge was not sent back to nursing home and supported by Tang Caixia. In order to take care of her uncle, Tang gave up her previous peddling business and planted peach trees in village. In this way, she could make some money through peach selling and conveniently look after uncle. Thanks for Tang Caixia, her uncle is able to walk with assistance now. (Xinhua/Ding Hongfa)Source: Xinhua| 2018-02-28 22:01:19|Editor: Zhou Xin

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Russian military policemen guard a designated point to evacuate the ill civilians from the fighting Eastern Ghouta countryside in the Wafidin area, the countryside of Damascus, of Syria, on Feb. 28, 2018. The second day of the Russian-proposed humanitarian pause ended with no civilians leaving the rebel-held Eastern Ghouta hotspot east of the capital Damascus. (Xinhua/Ammar Safarjalani)

DAMASCUS, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- The second day of the Russian-proposed humanitarian pause ended with no civilians leaving the rebel-held Eastern Ghouta hotspot east of the capital Damascus.

At the Wafidin area in the northeastern countryside of Damascus, buses and ambulances waited for five hours, the designated timeframe of the daily cease-fire, yet with no civilians leaving Eastern Ghouta and reaching the crossing point in the adjacent area.

The humanitarian pause was designed to give a five-hour lull to the fighting in Eastern Ghouta on a daily basis to allow civilians to evacuate the rebel-held enclave on the eastern flank of Damascus.

Like the first day, the humanitarian pause ended on Wednesday afternoon with both rebels and the Syrian government forces trading accusations over the faltering truce.

State news agency SANA said the rebels inside Eastern Ghouta fired several mortar rounds at the crossing point in Wafidin to prevent civilians from reaching government-controlled areas, saying the rebels have violated the truce.

The sounds of mortar shells and war planes were clearly heard during the pause, with black plumes of smoke billowing above several areas near Wafidin.

Meanwhile, the pro-rebel London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said there were no civilian causalities during the five-hour pause, adding that the Syrian warplanes resumed targeting Eastern Ghouta after the pause.

Despite the failure of civilians evacuation so far, relative calm prevailed in Damascus after the humanitarian pause went into force.

The pause entered into force at 9 a.m. (0700 GMT) and is designed to continue until 2 p.m. in the conflict-torn area.

Such humanitarian pause, however, will take place every day within the same period of time to allow evacuation of civilians from the rebel-held zone.

The humanitarian pause comes just days after the UN Security Council adopted Resolution 2401, which requires all parties in Syria to immediately cease clashes and provide a sustained humanitarian break for at least 30 days.

But terror-designated groups such as the Islamic State (IS) and the al-Qaida-linked Nusra Front are excluded from the resolution, as the battles against them continue.

The UN organizations have already sounded the alarm about the situation in Eastern Ghouta, where 400,000 people are believed to be trapped in the sprawling area east of Damascus.

The military showdown started to intensify between the Syrian army and rebels 10 days ago, with mortar shells from rebels hitting Damascus while the Syrian forces continued their massive bombardment against rebel positions in Eastern Ghouta.NAIROBI, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- Kenya on Wednesday launched a task force on blockchain that aims to help the country to leverage technology in order to boost economic growth.

Joe Mucheru, the Cabinet Secretary in the Ministry of Information, Communication and Technology (ICT) told journalists in Nairobi that the body will have 90 days to develop a 15-year roadmap that will enable the country to tap into the emerging opportunities in the technology space.

"The taskforce will comprise of key sector experts and technology enthusiasts to explore and analyze upcoming digital technologies that demonstrate great potential to transform Kenya's economy," Mucheru said.

He said the specific objectives of the task force will be to critically review distributed ledgers and artificial intelligence technologies with a view to contextualize how the application of these technologies can deliver the country's big four priorities of food security, universal healthcare, manufacturing and affordable housing.

He noted that the government is keen to deploy use of ICT to promote and enhance delivery of government services including health, education and security.

Mucheru said the government has embarked on a number of ambitious projects that include a single source of truth, with the aim of providing every Kenyan a single unique identity from birth.

"From these projects, the country should expect to see increased job creation, growth of companies with several to be listed at the Nairobi Securities Exchange and the emergence of thousands of investors in the technology sector," he added.

Mucheru said Kenya is positioning itself as a hub for regional trade by tapping into emerging technologies in semi-conductor and electronic manufacturing, e-commerce and financial technology.MADRID, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- A man has died while airports, roads and rail links have been affected by the snap of cold weather that hit Spain on Wednesday, placing some 40 provinces on alert.

The Spanish media said a 65-year-old man died after slipping on a snow-covered pavement and hitting his head on the ground in the town of Galdacano, close to Bilbao in the Basque Region of northern Spain.

Around 20 centimeters of snow left Bilbao's Loiu airport closed until 11:00 a.m., leading to the cancellation of several flights, while other northern airports at San Sebastian, Pamplona and Logrono were also affected.

Meanwhile, high winds affected airports in the Canary Islands, with Lanzarote airport closed at 9:40 a.m. and flights cancelled from the islands of El Hierro and La Palma.

The cold weather also affected rail services with delays of up to 40 minutes on the high-speed train services linking Madrid and Barcelona and Barcelona and Figueres. There were also disruptions on services between Madrid and the north-west of Spain, and regional services have been badly hit in the northern areas of Aragon, La Rioja and the Basque Region.

Dozens of roads have also been closed in the northern half of Spain, with the General Direction of Traffic urging drivers to check forecasts before setting out on journeys.

Temperatures are expected to rise in the coming days, but the bad weather is expected to last past the coming weekend.KWALE, Kenya, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- The Kenyan police on Wednesday launched investigation into the killing of two suspected Al-Shabaab returnees in the coastal county of Kwale.

Kwale police commandant Tom Odera said bodies of the two with multiple gunshot wounds were found dumped at forest by unknown people.

"The bodies were found dumped at Shimba Hills forest with gunshot wounds on the head," said Odera. He said the two bodies were found decomposing in the forest and had no identification documents.

A preliminary police report indicated that they might have been tortured before they were shot dead at close range.

"Detectives are relying on fingerprints lifted from their bodies to identify the two," a senior officer, who sought anonymity, said.

"An autopsy will be conducted once we get the families of the two to assist in the investigation," the officer added.

Sources within the National Intelligence Service and criminal investigations agency said the two might have been on police terror watch.

The Kenyan authority has maintained that despite a decline of terror activities in the country, terrorism remains a major security threat in the region.

This month security agents recovered over 36 grenades, 18 improvised explosive devices, and five AK-47 rifles from suspected terrorists in Merti, Isiolo County.DHAKA, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- Bangladesh is in need of more Chinese support to build its digital infrastructure, a minister has said.

The country's Telecommunication and ICT Minister Mustafa Jabbar told Xinhua recently that "We have priorities for building digital Bangladesh. If you ask me, my priorities are also to look to the Chinese government to help us to build a digital infrastructure in Bangladesh."

"Digital Bangladesh" is a major goal of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's for the country, and so special emphasis is given on the application of digital technologies to realize an ICT based modern nation by 2021.

This would comprise an adequate power supply, well-networked infrastructure, availability of the internet, the use of open-source software, e-banking, e-commerce and e-governance.

Jabbar, who has recently been entrusted with the responsibility of an entire telecom ministry, said his government needs more Chinese support to speed up the implementation of the digital dream.

He said China is a large country which has similarity with Bangladesh in many areas. "China has the largest human resources and Bangladesh also has sizable manpower. Bangladesh also has the advantage of having a large young population. A minimum of 65 percent of the population is aged below 30 years old that is an advantage," said Jabbar.

"So it is important whether we can utilize all human resources for our national development," added Jabbar, an iconic Bangladeshi businessman and technology entrepreneur.

He is best known for being the creator of the Bijoy software, which is a simple and easy-to-use software for typing in Bangla. He pioneered the Bijoy Bengali Keyboard, the first Bengali keyboard in 1988, which is still a widely used Bengali input method around the world.

"We can definitely get support from China which is one of the world's most successful and largest economies. And Bangladesh also has a good relationship with China and we are finding that this Chinese government is financing different projects events related to my ministry," said the minister.

"So we hope that China will extend their supportive hands though G2G (government to government) endeavors. Or even help the private sectors. I hope the Chinese government will definitely help us in all these areas. We are very hopeful. What we feel that the circumstances in Bangladesh are now ripe for manufacturing."

He also called upon more Chinese businesses involved in manufacturing digital devices and electronic goods to set up hubs in Bangladesh.

"I have talked to some of the Chinese companies. They find that this is a good opportunity for establishing a manufacturing plant here. We can assure them that there will be good market for them here."

"We have 160 million people. Out of that 55 million are students and these students will be purchasing digital devices," he said.

Regarding foreign companies' investment in Bangladesh's IT sector, the minister said they encourage Bangladeshi and Chinese joint venture investments.Source: Xinhua| 2018-02-28 22:41:37|Editor: yan

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CAIRO, July. 28 (Xinhua) -- The Egyptian top prosecution on Wednesday ordered the investigation of websites and social media outlets that publish false news or information undermining Egypt's national security and interests, official MENA news agency reported.

"In the light of the recently noticed attempts of evil forces to undermine the nation's security and safety by publishing and spreading lies and false news through different media outlets and social media websites, it is decided to follow up these websites attentively to pursue whatever they publish that harms the nation's interests," the prosecution said in a statement.

A day earlier, Egypt's State Information Service (SIS) called on Egyptian officials and elites to boycott cooperation with the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) after its recent report on human rights in Egypt which the SIS described as "absolute falsification and fabrication."

In a documentary last week, the BBC showed a mother complaining of the alleged torture and forced disappearance of her 23-year-old daughter Zubeida by the Egyptian police.

Two days later, however, an Egyptian private TV channel aired an interview with Zubeida who denied her mother's claims.

In the interview, the young Egyptian woman said she got married without her mother's knowledge and disappeared for a year, denying any police involvement behind the event.

But she acknowledged that she was once detained along with her mother for a few months after being arrested in a protest supporting the currently-outlawed Muslim Brotherhood group.

The SIS, which runs the country's press center, called on Egyptian officials and public figures to boycott conducting media interviews and meetings with BBC correspondents and editors until it issues "a formal apology" and publishes the SIS statement refuting its "professional errors, violations and allegations" regarding the situation in Egypt.

Since May 2017, Egypt has banned dozens of local websites over spreading false news against the country's national security and interests.HELSINKI, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- Finnish President Sauli Niinisto has said in a recent interview with Xinhua that he has three major challenges during his second tenure of presidency, namely fighting climate change, regulating migration, and enhancing international security.

Niinisto was re-elected following a landslide victory in the national election in January, and officially took office on Feb. 1. He attributed his popularity to the voters' preference for stability.

Reviewing his first term, Niinisto said it was a turbulent period. The six years witnessed warfare in the Middle East, clashes in eastern Ukraine, and refugee crisis across Europe. "My idea has been to try to keep Finland on a stable road, having good relations with our neighbors and even worldwide. So far it has been successful," said Niinisto.

While the Finnish prime minister is in charge of domestic issues and matters related to the European Union (EU), the president has largely played a key role in maintaining the country's relations with the outside world especially non-EU countries.

In the year 2017, Niinisto met Chinese President Xi Jinping, Russian President Vladimir Putin, as well as U.S. President Donald Trump in different occasions. He said he did so not only to enhance Finland, but to discuss the wider issues.

"It is useful for us to know what the big ones are thinking, and sometimes we can also give so-called good services if needed," said the Finnish president.

Looking to the future, Niinisto singled out climate change as his primary challenge. "In a sense, whatever happens the other side of the globe has an impact on us, and the other way round. So we are in a common boat," he said.

The migration wave poses another challenge for the president, especially the migrants from Africa to Europe. He believed that it is crucial to help the Africans live a better life in their hometown rather than to relocate them in Europe. As for the Middle East migrants, it is "a question of peace building," he added.

Niinisto also called for a common policy within the EU, with keeping the EU borders guarded as one focus.

The president sees security worldwide as another challenge, saying trying to build peace will be one of his main targets. He explained that the situation in the Middle East and Korean peninsula affects everybody.

Committed to curbing the negative impact of the above three global issues on Finland, Niinisto mentioned the importance of international cooperation, including the efforts from China.

Finland has signed the Paris agreement on fighting climate change. "China is very much enhancing the agreement," said Niinisto, "and we must work together so that everybody is on board."

He stressed the need to respect the principles laid out in the agreement, especially as Finland is chairing the Arctic Council in 2017-2019.

"There is a specific problem in the Arctic, which is black carbon." Through emissions, black carbon may spread over the ice and snow in the Arctic, and speed up the melt.

"If we lose the Arctic, we lose the globe," he underlined.PYONGYANG, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) Wednesday accused Japanese authorities of plotting an overall suppression of pro-Pyongyang resident Koreans in Japan.

The official Rodong Sinmun said that the recent attack by two armed right-wing elements of Japan against the Central Hall of the General Association of Korean Residents in Japan (Chongryon) proved Japanese authorities were responsible for the frantic moves to "stamp out the DPRK and Chongryon" from Japanese soil.

"The Japanese authorities, who started an investigation into the arrested criminals, have so far pretended ignorance, to give impression that the case was committed by an individual organization or person," said the daily of the ruling Workers' Party of Korea.

"This unpardonable act (attack by right-wingers) is an open challenge to the DPRK and a prelude to the overall suppression of Chongryon," said the daily.

The DPRK regards Chongryon as its de facto diplomatic mission in Japan, with which it does not have official relations.

The DPRK media also accused Japanese authorities of discrimination against pro-Pyongyang resident Korean schools.

The official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said Wednesday that the Gunma prefectural authorities of Japan suspended the payment of subsidies to the Korean junior and middle school in the prefecture on Monday amid the Japanese government's unabated discrimination against Korean schools in Japan.

The Japanese authorities decided not to include subsidies to the school in their 2018 budget on the unreasonable grounds that the school has not been true to the "provisions" it is obliged to carry out, the KCNA said.

Those "provisions" are that the school should specify the "abduction issue" in textbooks and cease its ties with Chongryon.Source: Xinhua| 2018-02-28 23:11:49|Editor: Zhou Xin

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CAIRO, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- Arab League (AL) Secretary-General Ahmed Aboul-Gheit said on Wednesday that normal Arab relations with Israel cannot be achieved without a just and permanent settlement of the Palestinian cause.

"It will not be possible to establish normal relations between the Arabs and Israel before settling the Palestinian cause fairly and permanently, ending the Israeli occupation and establishing an independent Palestinian state based on the pre-1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital," said Abul-Gheit.

He made the remarks after a meeting with Mikhail Bogdanov, Russian deputy foreign minister and special envoy of the Russian president to the Middle East, at the AL headquarters in Egypt's capital Cairo.

Aboul-Gheit and Bogdanov discussed the outcomes of a mini-Arab ministerial meeting with European ministers on the Palestinian-Israeli peace process in the light of the U.S. decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and move Washington's embassy from Tel Aviv to the the disputed holy city.

Earlier in the month, the U.S. Department of State announced the decision to relocate the embassy in Israel to Jerusalem by May 14, the day that marks the 70th anniversary of the Arab defeat in the 1948 war that led to the displacement of more than 700,000 Palestinians and the Western-backed creation of Israel.

The Arabs, Palestinians in particular, refer to the day as Nakba (Catastrophe) Day, while Israelis call it Independence Day.

The U.S. decisions on Jerusalem have been met by regional and international backlash.

On Dec. 21, two weeks after U.S. President Donald 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 in 1967 demands Israeli withdrawal from the territories occupied in 1967 including Jerusalem, while Resolution 478 in 1980 rejects Israel's attempted annexation of Jerusalem and its declaration of the city as its capital.

Israel is also blamed for disrupting the Middle East peace process by expanding settlements on Palestinian occupied territories.Source: Xinhua| 2018-02-28 23:11:50|Editor: yan

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HONG KONG, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- A man who had robbed the headquarters of the Bank of East Asia in China's Hong Kong Special Administrative Region on Wednesday was arrested, police said.

The robbery happened at around 15:30 local time Wednesday, when the man, holding a pistol-like object, went into the bank on Des Voeux Road in Central, Hong Kong's central business district, the police said.

The incident was captured by the bank's CCTV, showing a staff member being threatened by the robber to put money into a plastic bag. The robber then grabbed the bag and left.

No one was injured in the incident and the bank was reported to have lost 70,000 HK dollars (about 8,974 U.S. dollars). The police launched a manhunt in Central for the robber.

A police official told Xinhua that the suspect, aged 57, was arrested a few hours after the robbery.BRUSSELS, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- The European Defense Agency (EDA) on Wednesday signed an agreement with the European Investment Bank (EIB) to strengthen cooperation in area of defense.

According to the EDA's statement, the two institutions will team up to support the EU policy objectives, in particular as regards the common security and defense policy.

The EIB will further finance projects promoted by the member states in defense research and development activities.

"In line with our mission, we look forward to supporting in particular investment projects that target dual-use technologies, which can be commercialized also in civilian applications," said EIB Vice-President Alexander Stubb.

"Today's cooperation agreement is welcome news for Europe's security as it will help the EDA and the EIB better contribute to EU policy goals," Stubb added.

"The agency will support the EIB in the identification and assessment of projects as well as by putting its defense expertise at the service of the bank," said Jorge Domecq, chief executive of the EDA.

EDA is an EU agency based in Brussels. Its primary mission is to support the member states and the Council of the EU in their effort to improve European defense capabilities.KIEV, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- Ukraine's state electronic auction platform "ProZorro.Sale" won the international competition of anti-corruption projects "Shield in the Cloud," the Ukrainian Economic Development and Trade Ministry said Wednesday.

The "ProZorro.Sale" project was recognized by the jury as an anti-corruption instrument that can be an example for other countries, the ministry said in a statement on its website.

Launched in 2016, the "ProZorro.Sale" project has helped the Ukrainian government to sell about 222 million U.S. dollars of toxic banks' assets through online auction.

Currently, the Ukrainian government auctions off the assets of various state and municipal enterprises through the "ProZorro.Sale" electronic auction.

More than 60 projects have been entered in the competition of "Shield in the Cloud," which was organized by the international investment firm C5. The prizes were awarded in the three categories "Dream Big," "Not for Profit" and "Government."

The Ukrainian project was nominated in the category of "Government."A Turkish special forces soldier takes aim on a mountain on the Syrian-Turkish border, north of Azaz on January 28, 2018. (AFP Photo)

ANKARA, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- Turkey has sent hundreds of police and gendarmerie special forces to northern Syria, signaling a new stage in its major offensive against the Kurdish militia as urban fighting looms.

Turkey's latest military deployment is aimed at creating a safe zone along its border with Syria.

Turkish forces and their Syrian rebel allies have launched an air-ground campaign dubbed Operation Olive Branch into the Afrin region in Syria since Jan. 20. It aims to clear the Turkish border of the People's Protection Units (YPG), regarded by Ankara as the Syrian affiliate of the banned Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).

"The special forces is in preparation for the new battle that is approaching," Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Bekir Bozdag told NTV news channel.

"The fight will shift to places where there are civilians, as the zone of fighting narrows," he said, adding that the special forces units have experience in fighting militants in residential areas.

Gendarmerie and police special forces would take part in urban fighting and holding villages which Turkish forces have already seized, defying international warnings.

Most of the larger towns in Afrin region, including the town of Afrin itself, remain under YPG control and the advance of Turkish troops could lead to some urban clashes, said observers.

"A new stage of the fight is looming because, after having captured small villages, there are bigger and more populated settlements on the way of the soldiers now," said political commentator and Hurriyet daily columnist Deniz Zeyrek.

TURKEY FORMS "CRESCENT" IN SYRIA

Turkish state media also confirmed that the Turkish army took control of the outer edge of Syria's Afrin region, creating thus a de facto safe border zone and a "crescent" of control on Syria's side of the border.

While Turkish troops are progressing in Syria in an open-ended incursion, Turkey said that Saturday's UN Security Council demand for a 30-day truce across Syria does not apply to its offensive in Afrin.

"Some regions such as eastern Ghouta are part of the UN cease-fire decision in Syria, but Afrin is not one of them," said Bozdag, who is also the government spokesman.

The cease-fire does not apply to military operations against Islamic State (IS), al-Qaida and groups associated with them or other groups designated as terrorist organizations by the Security Council.

But French President Emmanuel Macron, in a phone conversation with his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Monday, insisted that the Turkish operation should fall within the realms of the UN decision.

Turkey regards the YPG as an extension of the PKK which has waged a three-decade-old insurgency in the southeast of Turkey. The PKK is listed as terror group by the United States and European Union, but the YPG is Washington's main ally in the fight against IS in northeast Syria.

Washington's military support to the YPG has severally strained the relations between Turkey and the United States.

The two sides decided during Secretary of State Rex Tillerson's crucial visit to Ankara to normalize ties and create tension diffusing mechanisms.

TURKEY COULD REFRAIN FROM ENTERING AFRIN

Some experts, however, argued that Turkey will eventually have to yield to international pressure and refrain from entering the town of Afrin.

Kerim Has, a Turkish academic who lectures at Moscow State Academy, said neither Russia nor the U.S. wishes the Turkish operation turns into an urban warfare.

Russia, a major player and military supporter to the Syrian regime, will tolerate only for some time the Turkish military near Afrin town, Has said.

"Russia will then push Ankara and Damascus towards dialogue and a deal," Has said, noting that Moscow gave a green light to the Turkish offensive solely in order to establish first a rapprochement between Ankara and Damascus, and then a reconciliation, in line with Moscow's policy to prevent Ankara falling on Washington's side in the Syrian crisis.

Turke severed all cordial ties with the Syrian regime at the beginning of the civil war in Syria and was adamant in ousting Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

But for the moment the Turkish operation has raised tensions between Ankara and Damascus. The Syrian government has condemned the operation as a violation of the country's sovereignty and sent militia to Afrin to reinforce the Kurds in their resistance against Turkish troops.

The reports were disputed by Ankara, which said the pro-government forces were prevented from entering the region.

Erdogan has signaled that the Turkish operation would last for months, though it was initially supposed to last for only a few weeks.

He also repeated that the siege of Afrin's town center was imminent in front of a crowd of his supporters hailing Turkish troops advance.

"We are on the eve of a new resurrection," said Erdogan during a rally in the southeastern city of Kahramanmaras.

To help the Turkish forces, a 600-strong Kurdish force trained by the army in Turkey, the Kurdish Falcons, has also been deployed in the Afrin region under the leadership of the Turkey-backed Syrian Rebels.

Apart from valuable military engagement, the Kurdish unit would also provide language assistance in the event of an urban assault, according to warfare specialists.

Turkish officials have vehemently rejected concerns over civilian casualties voiced mostly by the YPG, claiming that utmost care is being taken to prevent collateral damage.Source: Xinhua| 2018-02-28 23:36:58|Editor: Mengjie

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CHANGCHUN/SHENYANG/HARBIN, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- Heavy snow hit northeast China Wednesday, causing flight delays and expressway shutdowns and the suspension of school classes.

As of 5:30 p.m., all sections of expressway in northeast China's Jilin Province were shut down due to snow, according to the local expressway authorities.

The airport in Changchun, capital of Jilin, was closed. More than 100 inbound and outbound flights were delayed, and some 20 inbound flights have been diverted to other airports.

Rescue workers have been dispatched to clean snow and ice from roads and at railway stations.

In Liaoning Province several sections of 15 expressways were closed or began traffic control due to snow, according to the provincial transportation authorities.

Several bus stations also suspended service at several sections of road in Liaoning.

In Harbin, capital of Heilongjiang Province, the city's education bureau ordered classes be halted Thursday and Friday for kindergartens, primary schools and middle schools in nine districts.

The Heilongjiang observatory issued an alert for heavy snow at 11 a.m., forecasting that at least 6 millimeters of snow would fall in the cities of Daqing, Suihua, Yichun, Harbin, and Mudanjiang from 2 p.m. Wednesday to 2 a.m. Thursday.

The National Meteorological Center has issued a yellow alert for snowstorms for Wednesday and Thursday in northeast China, including Heilongjiang, Jilin and Liaoning provinces. Some areas are expected to see blizzards.

In the country's four-tier, color-coded weather warning system, red is the most severe, followed by orange, yellow and blue.KIEV, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- Ukraine expects its first deliveries of weapons from the United States within a few weeks, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko announced here Wednesday.

"We are talking about a variety of supplies, first of all, about counter-sniper complexes," Poroshenko told reporters during a press conference in Kiev.

According to the president, the supplies would help to reduce the casualties among the Ukrainian troops participating in the conflict with pro-independence rebels in the eastern part of the country.

In the near future, Ukraine hopes to receive means for electronic warfare and air defense equipment from the United States, Poroshenko said.

In December last year, the U.S. State Department announced the United States would supply advanced weapons to Ukraine to update the latter's defense capabilities.

Washington's move has angered Russia, which said it would lead to "new bloodshed" in Ukraine, whose eastern Donbas region remains in the grip of an armed conflict after almost four years.

Ukraine launched a military operation in Donbas in April 2014 after armed groups seized cities and towns in the region and declared independence.

The confrontation has claimed more than 10,000 lives and left about 24,000 people injured.24 civilians were killed in fresh U.S. -led airstrikes on areas in Syria's eastern province of Deir al-Zour on Tuesday. (Reuters Photo)

DAMASCUS, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- At least 24 civilians were killed Tuesday by fresh U.S.-led airstrikes on areas in Syria's eastern province of Deir al-Zour, state news agency SANA reported.

The airstrikes targeted a gathering of displaced people in the Zahrat al-Elwani area in the countryside of Deir al-Zour, said SANA.

It added that several people were wounded, some critically, which could lead to a rise in the death toll.

On Feb. 25, the U.S.-led airstrikes killed 29 civilians in Deir al-Zour, while last week, 15 civilians there were killed by similar strikes, SANA said.

In a statement issued Tuesday, the Syrian Foreign Ministry renewed the Syrian government's condemnation of the U.S.-led anti-terror coalition, which has started its operation in Syria in 2014.

The ministry said the coalition is committing "massacres" against the Syrian people and supporting the remnants of the Islamic State (IS) militants.

It charged that the U.S.-led coalition's only goal is to undermine Syria's sovereignty, unity, and territorial integrity, and it aims to prolong the Syrian crisis.

"The Syrian Arab Republic demands that the Security Council shoulder its responsibility of preserving international peace and security and act immediately to stop the war crimes and the crimes against humanity committed by the coalition against the Syrian people," the ministry said.

The ministry also renewed the demand for an end to the "illegal presence of the U.S. forces on Syrian soil."LUSAKA, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- The Green Climate Fund (GCF) has approved 84.5 million U.S. dollars to support two projects in Zambia in the energy and agriculture sectors, state media reported on Wednesday.

Of the approved funds, 52.2 million dollars will be for the Zambia Renewable Energy Financing Framework supported by the African Development Bank (AfDB) while 32.3 million dollars were meant for an agriculture project development by the Ministry of Agriculture and supported by the United Nations Development Program, according to state broadcaster, the Zambia National Broadcasting Corporation.

The project fund was approved at the ongoing 19th GCF Board Meeting in South Korea and the approved funds will trigger additional financing and raise the total net of the two projects to 281 million dollars.

GCF Mitigation and Adaptation Division Director German Velasquez said the projects will help strengthen climate resilience of agricultural livelihoods in some parts of Zambia and mitigate the effects of climate change on the energy sector.

The project being funded in the agriculture sector will cover smallholder farmers in 16 districts affected by the negative impact of climate change while in the energy sector, the approved funding was expected to result in generation of 80 megawatts of renewable energy, largely solar and will help improve access to electricity for rural households, he added.

Chola Chabala, Permanent Secretary in Zambia's Ministry of National Development Planning, said the approval of financing of the projects was expected to encourage private sector investment in agriculture and energy sectors.LONDON, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- British Prime Minister Theresa May rejected any plans Wednesday that would mean a Brexit border between Northern Ireland and neighboring Irish Republic.

Speaking to MPs in the House of Commons during her weekly prime minister's questions, May said no British prime minister could ever agree to a Brexit treaty that would see borders dividing any parts of Britain.

Responding to a question by the Northern Ireland DUP MP David Simpson, May confirmed she will never agree to any trade borders between Northern Ireland and the rest of Britain.

May said she stood by commitments she has made previously on the border issue. She said the draft legal text the European Commission had published would, if implemented, threaten the constitutional integrity of Britain by creating a customs and regulatory border down the Irish Sea, adding: "No UK prime minister could ever agree to it."

May added: "I will be making it crystal clear to (European Commission) President Jean-Claude Juncker and others that we will never do so. We are committed to ensuring that we see no hard border between Northern Ireland and Ireland, but the December text also made clear that there should continue to be trade between Northern Ireland and the rest of the United Kingdom as there is today."

Main opposition leader Labour's Jeremy Corbyn accused May's government of being in disarray over Brexit.

May insisted there was no disagreement with Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson on the Irish border question. "The foreign secretary and I are absolutely committed to ensuring that we deliver no hard border between Northern Ireland and Ireland," May told Corbyn.

She added: "That's the position of the UK government. It's the position of the parties in Northern Ireland, it's the position of the Irish government, and it was what we agreed in the December agreement of that joint report."

Labour's Shadow Brexit Secretary Kier Starmer said: "The EU-UK government war of words needs to end. There can be absolutely no deviation from the solemn commitments made to Northern Ireland at the end of the first phase of Brexit negotiations. That means no hard border or any agreement that would undermine the Good Friday Agreement."NEW DELHI, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- India's Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) Wednesday arrested a top internal auditor of the state-owned Punjab National Bank in connection with the the country's biggest-ever bank fraud of 1.8 billion U.S. dollars.

"The bank's internal auditor M.K. Sharma has been taken into custody. He was responsible for auditing the systems and practices of Punjab National Bank's Brady House Branch, from where fraudulent Letters of Undertaking were issued to firms owned by billionaire jeweller Nirav Modi," a senior official said.

With this arrest, the number of those taken into custody by investigators has risen to 13, though they have not yet charged Modi for the crime.

Modi is at the centre of the bank fraud. And India's External Affairs Ministry has already revoked the passports of Modi and his uncle and business partner Mehul Choksi for their involvement in the scam.

Indian authorities have also launched a massive crackdown on companies linked to Modi, and seized 10,000 luxury watches and nine luxury cars last week, apart from freezing his personal shares and mutual funds.

Modi is said to have defrauded Punjab National Bank, India's second largest state-run bank, of 1.8 billion U.S. dollars, though he has said that he owed the bank only 775 million U.S. dollars, in a letter to the bank's management.

The celebrity jeweller -- the mastermind of the massive fraud -- is said to have fled the country and was reportedly last seen in New York after his appearance at World Economic Forum in Davos as a part of an Indian delegation.Source: Xinhua| 2018-02-28 23:52:07|Editor: yan

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BEIJING, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- A total of 29 live-streaming platforms have been investigated and punished for spreading pornography since the end of last year, China's anti-pornography office said Wednesday.

During a national campaign, operators of live-streaming platforms were found to have profited through online pornography, according to a statement from the National Office Against Pornographic and Illegal Publications.

"Anti-pornography offices at various levels have stepped up efforts to crack down on similar illegal online activities and cut the profit chain of illegal live streaming," it said.

Some of the suspects may face criminal charges.

In one case, 13 suspects were detained and eight captured by police in the provinces of Guangdong, Henan and Heilongjiang in July last year for illegal live streaming, according to the statement.

The suspects have been transferred to prosecution authorities.

In another case, police in Wuxi city in east China's Jiangsu Province captured 52 suspects in September last year for organizing female anchors to spread obscene content using mobile apps.

The suspects made more than 3.5 million yuan (about 550,000 U.S. dollars), according to the statement.

Live streaming has emerged in China in recent years, however, problems such as obscenity, violence and other inappropriate content have surfaced as the market has grown. Chinese authorities have intensified efforts to crack down on illegal online activity.

Seven crimes concerning spreading pornography through online games were also exposed by the anti-pornography office on the same day.

In one case, the 9877n website was investigated by police in Zhengzhou city in central China's Henan Province where the server was based.

Police found that more than 500 of the 4,255 games on the website contained pornographic content. Suspect Chen Changyang was arrested on charges of spreading pornography, and confessed to the crimes.HARARE, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- The Zimbabwe government is compiling a list of missions to be invited to observe the forthcoming elections scheduled for mid-year, a senior official told state media Wednesday.

Secretary for Foreign Affairs and International Trade Joey Bimha told the Herald newspaper that invitations to foreign observer missions would be sent soon.

Among those expecting to make a return to observing the country's elections are the European Union and the United States who had been barred from the country by the previous government led by Robert Mugabe.

Prior to his resignation last November, then President Robert Mugabe had indicated that foreign observer missions from areas such as the European Union and the U.S. would still not be allowed in the country.

However, new president Mnangagwa has since said those previously barred from observing the elections would be allowed to do so, while promising free, fair and credible elections.

The exact date for the elections is still to be proclaimed but the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission has said they should be held between July 31 and Aug. 21 in terms of the constitution.YEREVAN, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- Armenia's gross domestic product (GDP) grew by 7.5 percent in 2017, the highest growth rate in the last 10 years, according to a report published by the country's National Statistical Service (NSS) on Wednesday.

Armenia's GDP in 2017 amounted to about 5.5 trillion AMD (11.4 billion U.S. dollars), according to the report by the NSS.

Armenia recorded double-digit GDP growth between 2002 and 2007. But in 2009, Armenia's GDP had fallen by almost 15 percent amid the international financial crisis.

As a member of the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU), the country signed a Comprehensive & Enhanced Partnership Agreement with the European Union (EU) last November, becoming the first EEU member to sign such an accord with the EU.HARARE, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- A top government official has said rich diamond deposits have been discovered in southern Zimbabwe and will boost the fortunes of the country, state media reported Wednesday.

Minister of State for Provincial Affairs for Masvingo province, Josaya Hungwe, told a press conference that the discovery of the diamonds was made in Chivi District, to the west of the province.

The state Herald newspaper reported Wednesday that Hungwe said he had been briefed about the discovery of kimberlite pipes rich in diamonds.

"We have made it clear to investors who are interested in extracting the gems to come up with proposals on how they plan to exploit the diamonds and government will make a decision on how the diamonds will be mined," he said.

Chivi is a semi-arid area which is predominantly occupied by subsistence farmers.

According to empowerment laws seeking to uplift the lives of indigenous Zimbabweans, 51 percent of shareholding in diamond investment is reserved for locals.HARARE, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- Veterinary authorities in Bindura, 100 km north of Harare, have ordered residents of the town to lock up their dogs within their premises following an outbreak of rabies in and around the town or risk them being shot and killed.

No cases of human casualties have been reported in the area so far, but at least one person reportedly died from rabies in the Midlands Province in late January.

A notice issued Wednesday by Mashonaland Central Provincial Veterinary Officer Wilmot Chikurunhe said the dog tie-up would be effective March 19-23 while dog vaccinations were currently underway up to Friday.

"During the tie-up period and beyond, personnel from the Veterinary Services will conduct a 6pm to 6am operation to terminate all dogs seen on the streets. Owners are advised to keep their dogs in fences and (security) walls in accordance with municipal by-laws so they do not escape into the streets," he said.

He also advised those who had challenges keeping their dogs to surrender them to the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals before the tie-up period.

Rabies is a notifiable disease in Zimbabwe and in humans is mostly transmitted through the bite of the domestic dog.

According to the law, all dogs should be vaccinated against rabies.ISLAMABAD, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- At least four security personnel were killed and six others injured in a suicide attack in Pakistan's southwest city of Quetta on Wednesday evening, local media reported.

Local Urdu channel Samaa TV quoted security sources as saying that a suicide bomber attacked the personnel present at a camp of Frontier Corps, a paramilitary force, in Nauhisar area located at the outskirts of Quetta, the provincial capital of Southwest Balochistan province.

Additional contingents of security forces and rescue teams rushed to the site and shifted the bodies and injured to the Combined Military Hospital in the district.

The death toll might further rise as some of the injured are in critical condition. Earlier reports said the attack took place in Khooni Talaab area.

According to the reports, heavy firing was also heard after the attack. Security forces have cordoned off the site and launched a search operation in the nearby areas to arrest the aids of the attacker.

No group has claimed the attack yet.

Earlier in the day, at least two policemen were shot dead in a targetted attack at the convoy of a deputy superintendent of police in Quetta city.HARARE, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa on Wednesday implored investors not to worry about political uncertainty as the nation gears up for elections to be held mid this year.

In a speech read on his behalf by acting president Constantino Chiwenga at a mining conference, Mnangagwa urged both local and foreign investors to take advantage of the country's rich mineral resource base to invest in the sector.

"We are a peaceful country and we urge all of you to take advantage of the peaceful business environment to do business with us.

"We will soon be going for harmonized elections. However, there is no need to worry about political uncertainly and this should not adversely affect your investment decisions.

"My government is fully committed to the holding of free, fair and credible elections which are in line with Southern African Development Community and African Union principles and guidelines governing democratic elections," Mnangagwa said.

He said his new government was rolling out a raft of economic reforms to enhance Zimbabwe's competitiveness and re-position it as an investment destination of choice in Africa.

Since coming into power last November, the new government had implemented policy measures to improve the mining environment, including reviewing the controversial indigenization policy which now restricts minority ownership in mining firms by foreigners to only two minerals - platinum and diamonds, the president said.

He said government had also deferred the 15 percent tax on unrefined platinum, lithium and granite exports to January 2019 to allow miners to build beneficiation plants.

The tax will be implemented on a sliding scale which takes into account the level of beneficiation, he added.

"In other words, the higher the level of beneficiation, the less tax one pays," he said.

The president reiterated that the mining sector remained critical to Zimbabwe's economic growth as it continued to be a major foreign currency earner.

"We therefore need to expeditiously come up with strategies on how local, regional and global finance can be mobilized so that we realize maximum value from our mineral resources," he said.

Mines Minister Winston Chitando said Zimbabwe needs more capital to fully exploit its mining sector potential.

"We have abundant minerals resources. We do have a good human capital base but what we have lacked as a country is enough capital to take advantage of the resources we have," he said.

It is estimated that the mining sector requires 7 billion U.S. dollars to fully recapitalize.

Zimbabwe has over 40 known minerals resources that are not being fully exploited due to lack of capital.

Chitando said Zimbabwe is working on ramping up investment in lithium production, adding that the country is aiming to produce at least 10 percent of the world's lithium in the next four years.

He also said government will in March float a tender for the establishment of a joint venture that will set up a plant in the Midlands city of Kwekwe to process refractory gold that is mainly found in Lupane, Matabeleland North Province.Source: Xinhua| 2018-03-01 00:12:13|Editor: Mengjie

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BEIJING, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- China and Germany have set up 11 innovation cooperation platforms, Minister of Science and Technology Wan Gang announced Wednesday.

The platforms cover fields such as electric vehicles, bioscience, clean water, intelligent manufacturing and clean energy, Wan said at the 5th Sino-German Innovation Conference.

Wan noted that over the past four decades, China and Germany had initiated effective cooperation models and promoted the transformation of scientific and technological achievements.

"Sino-German scientific cooperation has set a successful example of technological cooperation between major countries," Wan said.

Georg Schuette, state secretary of the Federal Ministry for Education and Research of Germany, said that the German government attached great importance to science and technology innovation cooperation with China, and would strengthen cooperation with China in areas such as climate change, environmental protection, the Internet of Things and lightweight manufacturing.

China and Germany have respectively adopted "Made in China 2025" and "Industry 4.0" strategies in response to the new round of technological and industrial revolution.

Many German companies such as BMW and BASF have established large research and development centers in China.

Chinese enterprise investment in Germany has increased significantly in recent years, with many Chinese companies setting up research and development centers in Germany. The increasing number of China-Germany industrial parks also foster strong industrial cooperation between the two countries.Source: Xinhua| 2018-03-01 00:12:15|Editor: ZD

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Yu Zhengsheng, chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), presides over the 71st chairpersons' meeting of the 12th CPPCC National Committee in Beijing, capital of China, Feb. 28, 2018. (Xinhua/Li Xueren)

BEIJING, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- The 12th National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) on Wednesday convened a meeting of the chairman and vice chairpersons to discuss preparation for the first annual session of the 13th CPPCC National Committee.

The meeting was chaired by Yu Zhengsheng, chairman of the CPPCC National Committee. At the meeting, participants listened to reports on preparation for the upcoming annual session and other issues.

The meeting deliberated and adopted the draft name list of the presidium, executive chairman, hosts of the presidium meeting, general secretary and vice general secretaries of the 13th CPPCC National Committee's first session, which is set to open on March 3.

It also adopted the agenda for the session's preparatory meeting, as well as the draft of the organizational setup and tasks of the session's secretariat.

Yu said that during the past five years, the CPPCC had always upheld the Communist Party of China leadership, worked under the themes of unity and democracy, and demonstrated the strong and distinctive features of socialism with Chinese characteristics.

He called on his fellow members to carry on their good work for the remaining work of the 12th CPPCC National Committee, and bring a successful conclusion to their jobs.

Recommended by attendees of the meeting, Yu will report the overall work of the 12th CPPCC National Committee at the first annual session of the 13th CPPCC National Committee.

Wan Gang, vice chairman of the CPPCC National Committee, was also recommended to make a report on the proposed management of the top advisory body over the last five years.

The meeting also decided that Wang Guoqing will be the media spokesman of the first session of the 13th CPPCC National Committee.NAIROBI, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- Kenya's defense forces will enhance surveillance along its coastline to ensure that development of blue economy, key to achieving food security, is not interrupted by emerging security threats like piracy, officials said on Wednesday.

Raychelle Omamo, Cabinet Secretary for Defense, said a secure coastline is key to stimulating growth of productive sectors of the economy like agriculture, fisheries, transport and manufacturing.

"A vibrant blue economy falls squarely within our government's big four agenda especially food security and manufacturing. Our blue economy strategy seeks to harness locally available marine resources to create wealth and new jobs," Omamo remarked.

She spoke at a roundtable for foreign envoys attached to Kenya to explore bilateral cooperation in maritime security and blue economy.

Omamo said Kenya has developed a robust policy and legislative framework to facilitate prudent utilization of marine ecosystem to address endemic challenges like hunger, malnutrition, unemployment and diseases.

She noted that the vast resources in the territorial waters can be harnessed to propel growth of fisheries and pharmaceutical industry.

"The blue economy can deliver real benefits to Kenya like trade, new industries and job creation. But we must secure our territorial waters to ensure they deliver on those benefits," Omamo told envoys.

She noted that growth of Kenya's blue economy is hampered by a plethora of threats like piracy, illegal fishing, discharge of toxic waste, maritime terrorism and climate change.

"All these threats exacerbate poverty, hunger and under-development. They precipitate revenue loss and encourage uncontrolled migration," said Omamo, adding that regional cooperation is key to tackle maritime threats effectively.

Kenya has borrowed international best practices to develop its blue economy and achieve social and economic benefits outlined in the country's vision 2030.

Mwangi Kiunjuri, Cabinet Secretary for Agriculture and Irrigation, said the government has prioritized development of supportive policies, infrastructure and man power to stimulate growth of the blue economy.

"We look forward to coordinated exploitation of marine resources to achieve our transformation agenda," Kiunjuri said.File Photo: U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during an announcement on the White House Initiative on Historically Black Colleges and Universities in the Roosevelet Room of the White House on Feb. 27, 2018 in Washington, DC. (Xinhua/AFP)

WASHINGTON, Feb. 27 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday spoke respectively with leaders of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Saudi Arabia, when he encouraged the two nations to enhance Gulf cooperation to counter Iran's regional influence.

The White House said in a statement that in Trump's call with the UAE's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed, the two leaders discussed regional development and opportunities to further enhance bilateral partnership on security and economic issues.

U.S. President Donald Trump (L) welcomes Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al-Nahyan, Abu Dhabi Crown Prince of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), at the White House in Washington D.C., the United States, on May 15, 2017. (Xinhua/Yin Bogu)

Trump expressed the hope that all Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states could better counter Iran's "destabilizing" activities and defeat terrorists and extremists.

The two leaders also said that a united GCC is important "to mitigate regional threats and ensure the region's economic prosperity."

In a separate call with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia on Tuesday too, Trump also talked about regional development.

Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman drinks coffee during the graduation ceremony of the 93rd batch of the cadets of King Faisal Air Academy, in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Feb. 21, 2018. (Xinhua/REUTERS)

The two leaders vowed to further enhance the American-Saudi partnership on security and economic front.

Thanking the crown prince for boosting GCC cooperation to counter Tehran's influence, Trump agreed with him on the importance of having a united GCC "mitigate regional threats and ensure the region's economic prosperity."

Last year, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain, and Egypt accused Qatar of "supporting terrorism" and "undermining regional security" by seeking closer ties with Iran.

Qatar strongly denied what it called the "unjustified" and "baseless" accusations.

The standoff, rather than showing any signs of abating, has been exacerbated by Trump's remarks in June that Qatar had funded terrorism "at a very high level."JUBA, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- A senior South Sudanese official on Wednesday urged the United Nations to make public more than 40 senior military officers implicated in a recent report on human rights crimes and abuses during the nation's more than four years of conflict.

President Salva Kiir's spokesman Ateny Wek Ateny disclosed that they are unaware of the names of the South Sudan Army (SPLA) officers that include 17 Major Generals, eight Brigadier General, eight Colonels and three state governors implicated by the UN human rights investigators in South Sudan.

"We were told that over 40 officers were implicated but the names were not given. We challenge the UN to come up with the (officers) names and evidence," Ateny said in Juba, adding that they are waiting for the official submission of the report to find out if it differs from past reports.

The UN human rights investigators on Feb. 23 issued the report highlighting and mentioning the officers for the first time to have committed the most cruel human rights abuses against civilians during the violence between 2016 and 2017.

The confidential list of 41 suspects has been forwarded to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein.

"If there is real evidence that points to crimes committed by those generals, then the government will leave no stone unturned," Ateny disclosed.

He added that this will not tarnish the entire army and its leadership since the SPLA has been disciplining rogue elements within its rank and file.

South Sudan descended into violence in December 2013, after political dispute between President Salva Kiir and his former deputy Riek Machar led to fighting between mostly Dinka ethnic soldiers loyal to Kiir against Machar's Nuer ethnic group.

The 2015 peace agreement to end the violence was again violated in July 2016 when the rival factions resumed fighting in the capital forcing Machar to flee into exile.

The conflict has killed tens of thousands of people and displaced millions that have sought refuge in neighboring countries.TRIPOLI, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- Renewed clashes erupted in the southern Libyan city of Sabha on Wednesday, killing one person and injuring four others.

"The center received one body and four wounded people from the clashes in Sabha since last week," Osama Al-Wafi, spokesman for Sabha Medical Center, told Xinhua.

Al-Wafi confirmed that the center was hit by indiscriminate shelling.

The city of Sabha, located some 800 km southwest of the Libyan capital Tripoli, is witnessing unprecedented insecurity, with rising levels of crime and kidnappings by armed groups, as well as frequent tribal clashes.

The Libyan National Human Rights Commission on Monday confirmed that tribal clashes in Sabha killed two civilians and injured another.

Libya has been suffering insecurity and chaos since the fall of Gaddafi's regime in 2011.Source: Xinhua| 2018-03-01 00:32:20|Editor: yan

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RIYADH, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- The Saudi-led coalition involved in a war against Houthi militias in Yemen highlighted on Wednesday that their humanitarian plan has aided 959,000 Yemenis, Al Arabiya local news reported.

The coalition spokesperson Colonel Turki al-Maliki stressed that 18,000 relief vessels are now docked in Yemen, while 22 relief posts are currently operating.

He also affirmed the coalition forces' commitments to fighting terrorism and to human rights laws.

Regarding the Yemeni government, he noted that it did not prevent media professionals from entering Yemen and issued instructions to them to facilitate their entry.

He added that the militants must abide by the international resolutions and stressed that the Houthi militias are moving children from schools to the front lines.

He also called for the protection of archaeological monuments and the need to prevent their trafficking and smuggling.

The coalition will complete its third-year war in Yemen in March. The war has led to thousands of deaths of civilians because of airstrikes, clashes between armed groups and contagious diseases.Source: Xinhua| 2018-03-01 00:32:20|Editor: yan

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BEIJING, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) signed two Memorandums of Understanding Wednesday with the State Information Center of China and the China Institute for Development Planning at Tsinghua University to strengthen research on a special edition of the National Human Development Report (NHDR).

The report will review China's social and economic development over the past 40 years, highlighting tax reform, state-owned enterprise reform, social welfare, membership of the World Trade Organization and flexible exchange rates.

It explains the shift of China's development philosophy from the income oriented approach to the Scientific Outlook on Development proposed by the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) in 2003, as well as the five development concepts of innovation, coordination, green development, opening up and inclusiveness, laid out in 2015.

"Since its opening up and reforming in 1978, China has made significant strides in the field of human development," said Nicholas Rosellini, UN Resident Coordinator and UNDP Resident Representative for China.

"For instance, universal coverage for compulsory education and basic health insurance has now been generally achieved in the country, more than 10 million Chinese citizens have been freed from poverty and deprivation since 2012, and people's general standard of living have greatly improved," Rosellini said.

The report will also examine challenges in sustainable development, including urbanization, the aging society and slowdown in economic growth. Practical policies for making China into a well-off society and addressing existing and potential challenges will be proposed.

"We hope that through this study, we can systematically analyze the relationship between the human development concepts made by the United Nations and China's five development concepts, and identify the importance of the five development concepts in promoting the well-being of people's livelihoods," said Cheng Xiaobo, president of State Information Center.

"China's phased strategy to poverty reduction, broad-based approach to poverty alleviation by 2020, as well as its flexible institutional design that facilitates the delivery of human development outcomes can also serve as valuable building blocks for other countries seeking to achieve similar results in human development," Rosellini said.

NHDR is the UNDP's flagship publication. Eight NHDRs featuring China have been published since 1997. This report will be launched in December 2018.NAIROBI, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- Hundreds of small traders in Kenya have clung onto plastic bags for packaging their products despite a ban effected last September by the government.

The traders across the East African nation using the bags include those selling vegetables, clothes, cooked food and milk.

Their usage of the bags has given life to illegal production and sale of the products that are a threat to the environment.

While traders are aware of the ban and the penalties, they still use the bags to pack products, noting they have no alternatives.

"I cannot pack my vegetables in manilla bags. It cannot work because I wash the vegetables," Grace Mutuku, a grocery store operator in Komarock on the east of Nairobi said on Wednesday.

"A small bag of sliced vegetables goes for 0.2 dollars. This is what customers are used to. I tried to use the khaki bags but it did not work because of the water in the vegetables," she recounted.

As many other traders in the capital, she buys the plastic bags from shops in River Road in downtown Nairobi or from Gikomba market.

"The traders sell but not openly. They have to know you to sell lest they are arrested," she said.

Food seller Moses Mugendi said he has stuck with plastic bags because customers are not willing to pay for plastic tins.

He sells a cup of githeri (maize and beans mixture) at 0.25 dollars and packs it in plastic bags for free.

"If I am to sell it in a container, I will charge 0.45 dollars, a price customers are not willing to pay," he said.

Sarah Ajwang, a businesswoman in Busia, a town on the border of Kenya and Uganda, who sells children clothes also said Wednesday that she lacks alternative packaging to plastic bags.

"I move from town selling my clothes in different open air markets. These markets are dusty and the only way to protect the clothes from getting dirty is to pack them in the bags," she said.

She added that the khaki bags cannot work with her because she needs to display the products for customers to see before they buy.

"I buy the clear bags from Uganda where they are not banned. A pack of 200 pieces goes for 1.4 dollars," she said.

However, as the traders cling on the bags that they have used for decades, supermarkets across the East African nation have managed to transit, but this is because they sell the new bags to customers at between 0.10 and 0.80 dollars.

The National Environment Authority (Nema) has intensified crackdown on those using the plastic bags, with inspectors raiding several places to ensure the public complies, but this seems to have offered little deterrence especially for the traders in upcountry towns and the suburbs in Nairobi.

Last week, Nema ordered the closure of Burma market in Nairobi over what it called "high level of violation of the plastic ban".

The agency also arrested 31 traders in Mombasa for being in possession of plastic bags, and were taken to court, each fined 500 dollars for the offense after pleading guilty.

With the use of the plastic bans ongoing, total transition to alternative packaging materials across the East African nation remains a dream, as plastic bags from neighboring countries find their way into the country.

"Total elimination of use of the bags requires more than just a ban. It needs change of attitude and public education on the danger of the bags to environment. If people stop buying vegetables packed in plastic bags, traders will stop using them," said Ernest Manuyo, a business management lecturer in Nairobi, adding that the small traders need workable solutions to plastic bags.

Alternative packaging materials the agency recommends are bags made from paper, bamboo straws and clothes. Citizens are also advised to buy unpackaged food.

Kenya used up to 24 million plastic bags monthly, with half ending up in the environment due to poor disposal. With the ban, the number has declined significantly but it still remains high with the continual use of the bags.Source: Xinhua| 2018-03-01 00:42:24|Editor: Zhou Xin

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A customer uses his mobile phone to pay with bitcoin at a coffee shop in the center of Athens, Greece, Feb. 25, 2018. Greece's bitcoin community grows in recent years, buoyed by the capital controls imposed on the traditional banking system since the summer of 2015, users and investors told Xinhua, although local authorities warn about the risks of crypto currencies. (Xinhua/Lefteris Partsalis).

by Maria Spiliopoulou, Valentini Anagnostopoulou

ATHENS, Feb. 28 ((Xinhua) -- Greece's bitcoin community grows in recent years, buoyed by the capital controls imposed on the traditional banking system since the summer of 2015, users and investors told Xinhua, although local authorities warn about the risks of crypto currencies.

In a small cafe near the Acropolis hill in the center of Athens, Dimitris Tsapakidis is buying a coffee using his mobile to pay with bitcoin.

Tsapakidis, with a background in mathematics, computer science and information security, is one of the co-organizers of the bitcoin community in Athens. He is into crypto currencies over the past two decades.

Vassilis Papadopoulos, the cafe's owner, is comparatively new in the community. He placed the welcome sign "bitcoin accepted here" a year ago, and said a lot of the transactions in Greece are from tourists.

There are at least 2,000 people all over Greece interested in bitcoin and crypto currencies that have registered with the community and attend regular meetings asking for information or are already making transactions, Tsapakidis told Xinhua.

They include young tech savvies and grey-haired professionals. There are about 70 businesses accepting bitcoin and other crypto currencies as a means of payment nationwide, ranging from restaurants and coffee shops to dentists and lawyers, as well as bitcoin ATMs.

The numbers are quite high compared to other countries, Tsapakidis noted, attributing crypto currencies' growing popularity in Greece partly to the capital controls imposed amid the debt crisis to avert the collapse of the traditional banking system.

The capital controls have gradually loosened ever since, but with the restrictions many Greeks sought and seek alternative paths.

"There was an explosion in interest for bitcoin in Greece in the middle of 2015, when we had capital controls in Greece and when the banks closed. A lot of people were interested because they couldn't use the money in the banks. A few people also had to make payments abroad and the only way to make payments abroad at the time was with bitcoin and crypto currencies," Tsapakidis explained.

Media reports about bitcoin's meteoric rise in 2017 to over 10,000 U.S. dollars also intrigued people and more Greeks turned to the community asking for information, he said.

Tsapakidis has invested in bitcoin which first circulated in 2009, after weighing up the advantages and disadvantages.

"I got involved in crypto currencies about 20 years ago, when we had some early crypto currencies, but were centralized and they all failed. The innovation of bitcoin and other crypto currencies is that they are decentralized. That is what makes them survive. There is no single bank that issues crypto currencies," he explained.

Tsapakidis is more than happy that for the first time it is possible for people to exchange value without anyone being in control. One can make an almost instant transfer across borders with a very low fee without having to ask any permission.

However, this lack of control and inspection by authorities so far, for the critics of crypto currencies, is the biggest warning sign.

As most countries across the globe have still not set up a clear legal framework to ban or regulate the digital currency, bankers and other representatives of the mainstream financial system worldwide warn that investors in virtual currencies are facing a pricing bubble risk and losses without a minimum safety net.

"This is a bubble which serves no need and poses great risks for citizens who are attracted by the promise of making easy profit... We warn consumers to stay away from such trading to protect themselves," Haralambos Gotsis, President of the Hellenic Capital Markets Commission, said in a statement earlier this month.

He pointed to a similar joint warning issued by the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA), the European Banking Authority (EBA) and the European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority (EIOPA) on the high risks of buying and holding the so-called Virtual Currencies (VCs).

"The VCs currently available are a digital representation of value that is neither issued nor guaranteed by a central bank or public authority and does not have the legal status of currency or money. They are highly risky, generally not backed by any tangible assets and unregulated under EU law, and do not, therefore, offer any legal protection to consumers," they warned.

Tsapakidis acknowledges the issue of bitcoin's extreme price volatility. Within a year it went up about 19 times and then dropped in half.

"It is a little early to guess what would happen. Greece will follow what happens in Europe in terms of law. So a lot depends on how the EU governments will decide to treat crypto currencies, whether they will make it an acceptable form of payment, depends on how they will tax it. Right now it acts more like a store value, not as a form of payments (for Greeks)," he said.ULAN BATOR, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- The Mongolian government announced on Wednesday it would impose a ban on the burning of low-grade coal for domestic use in its capital Ulan Bator beginning on May 15, 2019, in an effort to reduce air pollution.

This decision does not apply to the thermal power plants operating in Ulan Bator, the Mongolian government press office said in a press statement Wednesday.

The Mongolian Government has ordered the mayor of the capital city and relevant ministers to study production, sales and price reduction of processed fuel.

It is estimated that it is possible to replace the low-grade coal consumed by the residents of Ulan Bator with 600,000 tons of processed fuel.

In other words, a household that burns 4-5 tons of coal in the six-month-long winter season will use 3 tons of processed fuel. Using the processed fuel is economically beneficial and eco-friendly than burning low-grade coal. Coal is purchased at 170,000 MNT (71 U.S. dollars) per ton. Five tons of coal will cost 850,000 MNT (355 U.S. dollars) whereas three tons of processed coal will cost 660,000 MNT (275 U.S. dollars), thus saving 190,000 MNT (79 U.S. dollars).

The Mongolian government hopes that replacing low-grade coal with processed fuel will sharply reduce air pollution.

Air pollution is the most pressing issue for the Mongolian capital.

More than 800,000 residents, over half of Ulan Bator's population, live in slums, also known as ger districts. They have to rely on burning raw coal and other flammable materials such as plastics, old tires to stay warm and cook meals during the six-month-long winter season.

It is estimated that 80 percent of air pollution in Ulan Bator is caused by ger stoves. The rest is caused by transportation, thermal power plants, and solid wastes.ATHENS, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras proceeded to a mini cabinet reshuffle, government spokesman Dimitris Tzanakopoulos announced on Wednesday following the resignation of both the economy minister and his wife, a deputy labor and social solidarity minister, earlier this week.

The cabinet's core remained unchanged. Yannis Dragassakis was appointed the new economy minister while remaining also deputy prime minister, according to the announcement broadcast live on Greek national broadcaster ERT.

The shake-up comes after the outgoing economy minister Dimitris Papadimitriou and his wife Rania Antonopoulou, who served as deputy labor and social solidarity minister, stepped down over a state subsidy they received to rent an apartment in Athens.A Yemeni man carries a bag of food aid in the northern district of Abs in Yemen's Hajjah province, on February 18, 2018. (AFP Photo)

RIYADH, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- The Saudi-led coalition involved in a war against Houthi militias in Yemen highlighted on Wednesday that their humanitarian plan has aided 959,000 Yemenis, Al Arabiya local news reported.

The coalition spokesperson Colonel Turki al-Maliki stressed that 18,000 relief vessels are now docked in Yemen, while 22 relief posts are currently operating.

He also affirmed the coalition forces' commitments to fighting terrorism and to human rights laws.

Regarding the Yemeni government, he noted that it did not prevent media professionals from entering Yemen and issued instructions to them to facilitate their entry.

He added that the militants must abide by the international resolutions and stressed that the Houthi militias are moving children from schools to the front lines.

He also called for the protection of archaeological monuments and the need to prevent their trafficking and smuggling.

The coalition will complete its third-year war in Yemen in March. The war has led to thousands of deaths of civilians because of airstrikes, clashes between armed groups and contagious diseases.ISLAMABAD, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- The UN refugee agency's voluntary repatriation program for registered Afghan refugees from Pakistan will resume on Thursday after the winter break, the agency said here Wednesday.

Based upon the agreement among the governments of Afghanistan, Pakistan and United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees(UNHCR), the voluntary repatriation operation had been suspended for the winter period from Dec. 1, 2017 to Feb. 28, 2018.

Pakistan continues to host some 1.4 million registered Afghan refugees who are holding Proof of Registration cards. Around 4.3 million Afghan refugees have returned to Afghanistan under the UNHCR-facilitated voluntary repatriation program since 2002, a UNHCR statement said.

The Proof of Registration cards legally allow Afghan refugees to stay in Pakistan temporarily.

"Every Afghan refugee has the right to return to Afghanistan as long as his or her decision is well-informed and voluntary," said Ruvendrini Menikdiwela, UNHCR Representative in Pakistan, adding that the UNHCR continues to advocate that the repatriation of Afghan refugees needs to be voluntary, safe, gradual and carried out in a dignified manner.

Menikdiwela said that the UNHCR acknowledges the people and government of Pakistan for hosting Afghan refugees for nearly four decades.

She called upon the international community to provide support to Afghan refugees and their host communities in Pakistan, as well as provide targeted development assistance in Afghanistan to support the sustainable reintegration of returnees to avoid further displacements.

The UNHCR provides approximately 200 U.S. dollars to every registered individual upon their return to Afghanistan. Returnees receive the cash grant at UNHCR encashment centers in Afghanistan.Source: Xinhua| 2018-03-01 01:36:53|Editor: ZD

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Xi Jinping , general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, makes an important speech at the third plenary session of the 19th CPC Central Committee in Beijing, capital of China. The session was held from Feb. 26 to Feb. 28, 2018. (Xinhua/Ju Peng)

BEIJING, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- The 19th Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee issued a communique at the end of its three-day third plenary session, which concluded Wednesday.

Xi Jinping, general secretary of the CPC Central Committee, made an important speech at the session presided over by the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee.

The meeting was attended by 202 CPC Central Committee members and 171 alternate members of the CPC Central Committee. Deputy secretaries of the CPC Central Commission for Discipline Inspection and senior officials of relevant departments were also present at the meeting.

The plenary meeting heard and discussed a work report delivered by Xi, who was entrusted by the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee.

The session adopted a list of proposed candidates for state leadership, which is scheduled to be recommended to the first session of the 13th National People's Congress (NPC).

It also adopted a proposed candidate list for the leadership of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), which is to be recommended to the first session of the 13th CPPCC National Committee.

The plenary session decided to recommend the two lists respectively to the presidium of the first session of the 13th NPC and the presidium of the first session of the 13th CPPCC National Committee, according to the communique.

The annual sessions of the NPC and CPPCC National Committee are scheduled to open on March 5 and March 3, respectively.

According to the communique, the plenary session reviewed and adopted a decision by the CPC Central Committee on deepening reform of Party and state institutions as well as a plan for the reform.

The session also agreed to put part of the reform plan to the first session of the 13th NPC for deliberation in accordance with due legal procedures.

The communique said the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee well implemented the spirit of the 19th CPC National Congress and the first and second plenary sessions of the Central Committee in face of complicated international situation and heavy domestic tasks of advancing reform and development and maintaining stability.

The Political Bureau has upheld Marxism-Leninism, Mao Zedong Thought, Deng Xiaoping Theory, the Theory of Three Represents, the Scientific Outlook on Development, and Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, and enhanced Party's leadership over all work, according to the document.

The Political Bureau has upheld the underlying principle of pursuing progress while ensuring stability, had the courage to break new ground, worked diligently, and ensured coordinated implementation of the five-sphere integrated plan and the four-pronged comprehensive strategy, the document said.

Leading the whole Party and people of all ethnic groups with firm faith and strong motivation, the Political Bureau has worked hard to deepen reform in all areas, maintain stable and healthy economic growth, promote law-based governance and the system of socialist rule of law with Chinese characteristics, forestall and defuse major risks, carry out targeted poverty alleviation, prevent and control pollution, exercise strict governance over the Party, improve work style, promote economic, political, cultural, social and ecological advancement and management of the Party, the communique said.

The first sessions of the 13th NPC and the 13th CPPCC National Committee are important for mobilizing the whole Party and Chinese people of all ethnic groups to secure a decisive victory in building a moderately prosperous society in all respects and strive for the great success of socialism with Chinese characteristics for a new era, the document said.

Deeper reform of Party and state institutions is a profound evolution in modernizing China's system and capacity for governance, it said.

Party and state institutions form an important part of the socialist system with Chinese characteristics and a significant guarantee for Party's governance, it noted.

Led by the CPC, China established socialism as its basic system and gradually created the system for the function of Party and state institutions with Chinese characteristics after the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949, it read.

During the process of socialist construction and reform and opening up, the Party actively advanced the reform of Party and state institutions and gradually optimized and standardized their functions, it said.

Since the 18th CPC National Congress in 2012, the CPC Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at the core has worked toward the overall goal of improving and developing the system of socialism with Chinese characteristics, while modernizing China's system and capacity for governance.

The CPC Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at the core strengthened Party leadership, focused on solving problems, highlighted major fields, deepened reform of Party and state institutions, made major progress in important fields and key areas, which provided a guarantee for the historic achievements and shifts in the cause of the Party and the country, it said.

Faced with new requirements for various tasks in the new era, the current function and structure of Party and state institutions are not completely suitable for coordinately implementing the five-sphere integrated plan and the four-pronged comprehensive strategy, nor for modernizing China's system and capacity for governance, it said.

The whole Party must unite in thought, be confident, grasp opportunities and resolve to tackle obstacles and disadvantages of the system for Party and state institutions during the process of deepening reform in all areas.

The whole Party must accelerate and advance the modernization of China's system and capacity for governance and give full play to the advantages of China's socialist system, it said.

Overall Party leadership must be implemented and upheld, while the people-centered, optimized, coordinated and efficient principle, as well as law-based governance must be upheld in deepening reform of Party and state institutions, according to the communique.

The guiding thought for deepening reform of Party and state institutions is to implement the spirit of the 19th CPC National Congress, follow the guidance of Marxism-Leninism, Mao Zedong Thought, Deng Xiaoping Theory, the Theory of Three Represents, the Scientific Outlook on Development, and Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era.

The reform should also adapt to the needs of the development of socialism with Chinese characteristics for a new era, uphold the underlying principle of pursuing progress while ensuring stability, keep the reform in the right direction, take a people-centered approach and adhere to law-based governance.

To carry out the reform, it is essential to take strengthening the Party's overall leadership as the overarching principle, take modernization of state system and capacity for governance as the guidance, and take enhancing efficiency and optimization of Party and state institutions as the focus of efforts, it said.

The communique also called for efforts to reform the institutional setting, optimize function disposition, and improve efficiency and effectiveness to provide an institutional guarantee to secure a decisive victory in building a moderately prosperous society in all respects, as well as embark on a new journey to fully build a modern socialist China and realize the Chinese dream of national rejuvenation.

The goals of deepening reform of Party and state institutions include:

-- establishing a Party and state institutional function system that is well conceived, fully built, procedure based, and efficiently functioning;

-- forming a CPC leadership system that ensures the Party always provides overall leadership and coordinates the efforts of all involved, a law-based administrative governance system with clear functions and responsibilities, a world-class armed forces system with Chinese characteristics, as well as a sound work system of people's organizations for bridging and serving the general populace;

-- promoting coordinated actions and resultant forces among the people' s congresses, governments, political advisory bodies, and supervisory, judicial and prosecutorial organs, people's organizations, enterprises, public institutions, and social organizations under the unified leadership of the CPC.

Deeper reform on the CPC and state institutions will improve China's governance level and capacity, according to the communique.

A primary task of deepening reform of the Party and state institutions is to improve the system for upholding overall Party leadership in a bid to strengthen the CPC's leadership in every sector, ensure its all-encompassing coverage and make it more forceful.

Efforts should be made to establish and improve the institutions and mechanisms by which the Party exercises leadership over major tasks, and elevate the status of Party organizations among organizations of the same level.

The reform should also give better play to the role of the Party's functionary department, set up Party and government institutions with integrated plans, and advance reform of the Party's disciplinary inspection and the country's supervisory systems.

The CPC Central Committee has stressed the need to transform government functions and the resolve to remove institutional barriers so that the market plays the decisive role in resource allocation and the government plays its role better.

The transformation should focus on promoting high-quality development, developing a modernized economy, adjusting and optimizing functions of government institutions as well as allocating the functions of macro-management institutions in a reasonable way, according to the document.

It called on efforts to further streamline administration and delegate powers.

It also stressed better systems of market supervision, natural resources and environmental management, and public service management.

The government must strengthen operational and post-operational oversight, enhance administrative efficiency and government effectiveness to build itself into a service-oriented government able to satisfy the needs of the people, according to the communique.

The CPC will promote coordinated reforms of institutions in the Party, the government, the military and people's organizations, according to the document.

Such reforms are necessities for strengthening the centralized and unified leadership of the CPC leadership as well as achieving the coordinated and effective functions of these institutions, according to the communique.

The reform should eye optimizing the functions of Party departments, state organs, people's organizations and public institutions. The arrangement of Party and government organs should be improved, according to the communique.

It calls on deepening reforms for the people's congresses, political advisory bodies and judicial organs.

The reform should strengthen the CPC leadership, enhance the government's administrative capacity, inspire vitality of the people's organizations and social organizations, sharpen military combat capability so that various institutions connect and coordinate with each other.

The CPC Central Committee called for improved relations between central and local authorities.

A relationship with clearly defined responsibilities is key to governing a big country like ours, said the communique.

It said the setup of central and local institutions and the allocation of responsibilities should be improved to build a smooth, vigorous system in which orders are executed without fail.

While the central authorities will strengthen macro-management, the local authorities should carry out orders from the top to the detail and do their jobs well. More decision making power should be given to organs at and below the provincial level.

At local levels, the setup of institutions should be improved, each with clearly defined work responsibilities to strengthen local governance, the document said.

The CPC Central Committee envisions a lean and effective grassroots governance system.

The communique also said it was important to legalize the staffing of institutions. Rules and regulations should be drawn to better define the functions, powers, responsibilities and operations of such institutions.

Identifying reform as a complex project, the plenary session asked Party committees and governments at various levels to concentrate on fully implementing the reform decision and to provide guarantees to reform in accordance with the law and regulations. They were also required to pursue reform in a more systematic, holistic, and coordinated way.

The plenary session called on the whole Party and Chinese people of all ethnic groups to rally closely around the CPC Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at the core, achieve unity in thought and action, and ensure the full implementation of tasks in institutional reform. Continued efforts are needed to improve the system of Party and state institutions that are well-conceived, fully built, procedure based, and functioning efficiently, said the communique.

It also called for hard work to secure a decisive victory in finishing the building of a moderately prosperous society in all respects, to speed up the socialist modernization and to realize the Chinese dream of national rejuvenation.Source: Xinhua| 2018-03-01 01:12:33|Editor: Zhou Xin

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Michel Barnier (Xinhua file photo)

BRUSSELS, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- Chief Brexit negotiator of the European Union (EU) Michel Barnier on Wednesday unveiled the union's draft Withdrawal Agreement on Brexit, calling on the two sides to accelerate "if we want to succeed in this negotiation".

It is an "important moment for negotiation", and "I would almost say a key or pivotal moment in this long complex process of this extraordinary negotiation that we want to succeed," Barnier told reporters at a press conference for the release.

The 119-page document, which sets out the arrangements for the withdrawal of Britain from the Union and from the European Atomic Energy Community, will be discussed over the coming weeks with the Council (Article 50) and the Brexit Steering Group of the European Parliament before transmission to the British authorities for negotiation.

Including 168 articles, the agreement "translates into legal terms the Joint Report from the negotiators of the European Union and the United Kingdom Government on the progress achieved during phase 1 of the negotiations, published on 8 December 2017, and proposes text for those outstanding withdrawal issues which are mentioned in, but not set out in detail, in the Joint Report", said EU in a statement after Barnier's conference.

Consisting of six parts, the document identified EU's redlines on such key issues as citizens' rights, financial settlement, transitional arrangements and the border of Ireland and Northern Ireland, among others.

On citizens' rights, the agreement develops the Joint Report of December 8, 2017 and the EU-Britain Joint Technical note in more detail in order to fill in the blanks not expressly covered in the December document, and offers much more detail on safeguards to persons protected by the Joint Report.

In addition, the provisions of the draft Withdrawal Agreement on citizens' rights will apply as of the end of any transitional period, i.e. all EU citizens arriving in the Britain during this period should have exactly the same rights as EU citizens who arrived before the withdrawal, said the agreement.

After the end of the transition period, those EU citizens, and British citizens who arrive in an EU member state after withdrawal but before the end of the transition period, should be covered by the personal scope of the Withdrawal Agreement, it noted.

Britain requested a transition period of "around two years", which according to the agreement "shall start on the date of entry into force of this Agreement and end on 31 December 2020."

During the "two years", the entire Union acquis communautaire will continue to apply to Britain. This means that Britain will have to comply with the EU's trade policy and will continue to be bound by the Union's exclusive competence, in particular in respect of the Common Commercial Policy, said the agreement.

"As a result...the UK cannot become bound by new agreements on its own in areas of Union competence unless authorized to do so by the EU," said the agreement.

As to the financial settlement, the agreement translates into legal terms the agreement reached on December 8, 2017, between the EU and Britain on the terms of the financial settlement and includes certain practical modalities, such as payment deadlines, as proposed by the European Commission.

On the Irish border issue, the draft text spells out in detail how the principle of "regulatory alignment" agreed in last December would be implemented if Britain fails to find technological or diplomatic solutions to keeping the border open.

If such solutions are not found, "the territory of Northern Ireland, excluding the territorial waters of the United Kingdom ... shall be considered to be part of the customs territory of the Union," said the agreement.

"I hope that, thanks to this document, thanks to the negotiations we are about to have, we will continue to move as I wish towards an orderly withdrawal from the United Kingdom of the European Union," said Barnier.

However, London didn't echo Barnier's optimism as expected.

Answering questions in the Commons less than an hour after the publication of the text, British Prime Minister Theresa May told MPs that "The draft legal text the Commission have published would, if implemented, undermine the UK common market and threaten the constitutional integrity of the UK by creating a customs and regulatory border down the Irish Sea, and no UK prime minister could ever agree to it."

"I will be making it crystal clear to (European Commission) President Juncker and others that we will never do so."

She said she stood by the deal struck in December, but left no doubt that she wants the withdrawal text rewritten, stating that British negotiators would talk to Brussels about how the Joint Report "should be translated into legal form in the withdrawal agreement".

The long-awaited Brexit talks was launched on June 19 2017, nearly one year after Britain voted to leave the bloc by a narrow margin on June 23, 2016.

May sent a notification letter to the EU in late March last year, triggering a two-year countdown to Britain's withdrawal of the bloc after more than 44 years of membership.Source: Xinhua| 2018-03-01 01:12:34|Editor: ZD

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The goals of deepening reform of Party and state institutions include:

-- establishing a Party and state institutional function system that is well conceived, fully built, procedure based, and efficiently functioning;

-- forming a CPC leadership system that ensures the Party always provides overall leadership and coordinates the efforts of all involved, a law-based administrative governance system with clear functions and responsibilities, a world-class armed forces system with Chinese characteristics, as well as a sound work system of people's organizations for bridging and serving the general populace;

-- promoting coordinated actions and resultant forces among the people' s congresses, governments, political advisory bodies, and supervisory, judicial and prosecutorial organs, people's organizations, enterprises, public institutions, and social organizations under the unified leadership of the CPC.

Deeper reform on the CPC and state institutions will improve China's governance level and capacity, according to the communique.

A primary task of deepening reform of the Party and state institutions is to improve the system for upholding overall Party leadership in a bid to strengthen the CPC's leadership in every sector, ensure its all-encompassing coverage and make it more forceful.

Efforts should be made to establish and improve the institutions and mechanisms by which the Party exercises leadership over major tasks, and elevate the status of Party organizations among organizations of the same level.

The reform should also give better play to the role of the Party's functionary department, set up Party and government institutions with integrated plans, and advance reform of the Party's disciplinary inspection and the country's supervisory systems.

The CPC Central Committee has stressed the need to transform government functions and the resolve to remove institutional barriers so that the market plays the decisive role in resource allocation and the government plays its role better.

The transformation should focus on promoting high-quality development, developing a modernized economy, adjusting and optimizing functions of government institutions as well as allocating the functions of macro-management institutions in a reasonable way, according to the document.

It called on efforts to further streamline administration and delegate powers.

It also stressed better systems of market supervision, natural resources and environmental management, and public service management.

The government must strengthen operational and post-operational oversight, enhance administrative efficiency and government effectiveness to build itself into a service-oriented government able to satisfy the needs of the people, according to the communique.

The CPC will promote coordinated reforms of institutions in the Party, the government, the military and people's organizations, according to the document.

Such reforms are necessities for strengthening the centralized and unified leadership of the CPC leadership as well as achieving the coordinated and effective functions of these institutions, according to the communique.

The reform should eye optimizing the functions of Party departments, state organs, people's organizations and public institutions. The arrangement of Party and government organs should be improved, according to the communique.

It calls on deepening reforms for the people's congresses, political advisory bodies and judicial organs.

The reform should strengthen the CPC leadership, enhance the government's administrative capacity, inspire vitality of the people's organizations and social organizations, sharpen military combat capability so that various institutions connect and coordinate with each other.

The CPC Central Committee called for improved relations between central and local authorities.

A relationship with clearly defined responsibilities is key to governing a big country like ours, said the communique.

It said the setup of central and local institutions and the allocation of responsibilities should be improved to build a smooth, vigorous system in which orders are executed without fail.

While the central authorities will strengthen macro-management, the local authorities should carry out orders from the top to the detail and do their jobs well. More decision making power should be given to organs at and below the provincial level.

At local levels, the setup of institutions should be improved, each with clearly defined work responsibilities to strengthen local governance, the document said.

The CPC Central Committee envisions a lean and effective grassroots governance system.

The communique also said it was important to legalize the staffing of institutions. Rules and regulations should be drawn to better define the functions, powers, responsibilities and operations of such institutions.

Identifying reform as a complex project, the plenary session asked Party committees and governments at various levels to concentrate on fully implementing the reform decision and to provide guarantees to reform in accordance with the law and regulations. They were also required to pursue reform in a more systematic, holistic, and coordinated way.

The plenary session called on the whole Party and Chinese people of all ethnic groups to rally closely around the CPC Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at the core, achieve unity in thought and action, and ensure the full implementation of tasks in institutional reform. Continued efforts are needed to improve the system of Party and state institutions that are well-conceived, fully built, procedure based, and functioning efficiently, said the communique.

It also called for hard work to secure a decisive victory in finishing the building of a moderately prosperous society in all respects, to speed up the socialist modernization and to realize the Chinese dream of national rejuvenation.ADDIS ABABA, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- The United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) will, between March and June, organize high level meetings in a bid to keep the global momentum on the implementation of the 2030 Agenda and its Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as well as Africa's Agenda 2063.

The announcement was made by UNGA President, Miroslav Lajcak, during his meeting with senior officials of the UN Economic Commission for Africa (UN-ECA) on Wednesday in Ethiopia's capital Addis Ababa.

The high level meetings are expected to discuss financing for development, peace and security, water for development, and the youth and education as an impetus towards the realization of the SDGs and Africa's Agenda 2063, according to the statement by the UN-ECA.

According to the UNGA president, the event on the youth that will be held in May, focusing on education, employment and the prevention of radicalism is first on the cards.

"Africa is well known for having a youthful population and this presents huge potential. In this meeting we just do not want to talk for the sake of talking," he said, adding that "we want to discuss real issues, real problems and come up with real solutions otherwise we will be wasting our time."

The water meeting will focus on the nexus between the precious liquid and energy and development, it was noted.

Financing for development meeting is also said to be another agenda, which will see UNGA engage with partners and stakeholders on how to raise the required resources to finance the SDGs agenda and ensure effective implementation of the targets on the ground.

Lajcak and UN-ECA officials on Wednesday also discussed on various global and regional issues including migration, sustainable development, aligning the global UN's 2030 Agenda with Africa's Agenda 2063, and on-going UN reforms.Source: Xinhua| 2018-03-01 01:32:37|Editor: yan

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GENEVA, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- The people of Syria are facing a huge humanitarian crisis, but militants and their sponsors are preventing the delivery of humanitarian aid and evacuation of civilians in Eastern Ghouta, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Wednesday.

Lavrov made the statement while addressing the high-level segment of the 37th Regular Session of the UN Human Rights Council here and was referring to UN Security Council Resolution 2401.

He said this outlines the framework for all parties to coordinate conditions for easing the suffering of civilians throughout Syria.

Lavrov was speaking four days after the UN Security Council on Saturday unanimously adopted a resolution demanding a ceasefire of at least 30 days across Syria that would allow humanitarian access and urgent medical evacuations.

"Russia and the Syrian government have announced the creation of humanitarian corridors in Eastern Ghouta" near Damascus, he said.

"But the militants and their sponsors are hindering the delivery of humanitarian aid and the evacuation of all civilians who wish to leave, as well as continue to shell Damascus," said Lavrov.

He urged the "member states of the so-called U.S. coalition" to provide similar humanitarian access to the Syrian regions they control, including the Rukban refugee camp and the area around al-Tanf.

Lavrov said that an emergency mission from the UN and the International Committee of the Red Cross must be dispatched to review the situation in Raqqa.

On the Human Rights Council, he said some UN members are preserving dividing lines "to add a political dimension to the council's operations."

"This prevents us from joining efforts to find answers to the common civilization challenges and to ensure genuine respect for the dignity and value of the individual," said Lavrov.

He said Russia considers the division of terrorists into "good" and "bad" unacceptable.

"Russia will continue to fight the detestable practice of double standards, in particular, by helping the Syrian Army eradicate the terrorist threat," said the Russian foreign minister.

He said the fight against terrorism needs to be based on the solid foundation of international law and national legislations.

"In this context, we are deeply concerned about the decision of the U.S. administration to keep open the Guantanamo Bay detention center, where the inmates who have been incarcerated without any trial are regularly tortured," said Lavrov.ADDIS ABABA, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- Ethiopia earned 35.06 million US dollars from energy exports to Sudan, Djibouti and Kenya in the first six months of the current Ethiopian Fiscal Year, which started on July 9, 2017, an Ethiopian official said on Wednesday.

Speaking to Xinhua, Bizuneh Tolcha, Director of Public Relations and Communications Directorate at the Ethiopian Ministry of Water, Irrigation and Energy, said the revenue met 81 percent of energy exports target during the six-month period.

Ethiopia had planned to earn 43.3 million US dollars during the stated period from energy exports.

Tolcha said the energy export revenue was earned through selling 100 MW of energy to Sudan, 70 MW of energy to Djibouti and 10 MW of energy to Kenya.

Ethiopia and Kenya are also building a 1,045 km electricity transmission line that will link grids of the two countries. Once completed the transmission line will have the ability to carry up to 2,000 MW of energy.

"Ethiopia's energy exports are part of a broader plan to economically integrate the East African region including through electricity," said Tolcha.BARCELONA, Spain, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- Given that it is uninhabited and totally devoid of life, the moon might appear to be the last place that needs the building of a 4G mobile network, but thanks to Vodafone and Nokia it could get one very soon.

The two companies used the Mobile World Congress (MWC), currently being held in Barcelona, to confirm they will take advantage of the plans of German engineering company, PTScientists and car manufacturer Audi, to complete a privately-funded moon landing in 2019 and build the network.

Vodafone explained that the 4G network on the moon will be the lightest ever developed and will weigh less than one kilo. However, that will be enough to allow the robot Audi vehicles which are sent on the mission to transmit HD video and data from the lunar surface.

This video will then be fed to a live audience via a mission control in Berlin.

"This project requires a radical innovative approach to the development of a mobile network infrastructure," said Vodafone Germany's CEO, Hannes Ametsreiter in the MWC's Mobile World Daily publication.

Robert Bohme, CEO of PTScientists, commented that the project was the "crucial first step" towards further exploration of the solar system.

"In order to leave the cradle of Earth, we need to develop infrastructure beyond our home planet," Bohme said.WINDHOEK, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- Improper waste management is harmful for Namibia's tourism sector, Environment Minister Pohamba Shifeta said Wednesday.

He was speaking at the launch of the country's Solid Waste Management Strategy in the capital Windhoek.

Last year, Namibia lost its status of being the cleanest country in Africa due to the increasing amount of waste accumulating along its national roads, in towns and villages.

According to Shifeta, the degradation of landscapes will damage the country's reputation as tourism destination of choice.

"If we cannot keep our streets clean, tourists will wonder about the quality of our water and food," he said.

Under the Solid Waste Management Strategy, the country is looking at introducing a levy on the use of plastics with consultations at an advanced stage.

The country is also looking into developing regulations on waste management as well as banning of non-biodegradable plastics.TIRANA, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- The Albanian state police on Wednesday said they had seized at Durres Port 613 kg of cocaine originating from Colombia, the biggest cocaine seizure ever recorded in Albania.

"Albanian police in cooperation with the Prosecution of Serious Crimes and the Directory of Customs Investigation have successfully concluded the operation code-named Last Snow that resulted in the seizure of cocaine with an estimated market value of 180 million euros," General Chief of Police Ardi Veliu told a news conference Wednesday afternoon.

Veliu said that the cocaine was hidden in the floor of a container loaded with bananas, a shipment coming from Colombia, passing through Italy and Malta, and then landed in Durres Port on Feb. 19.

Two citizens transporting the shipment, Donaldo Lushaj and Armando Pezaku, were handcuffed, while the owner of the company that had ordered the banana shipment is now on the run, according to the police.

Albania's Prime Minister Edi Rama hailed the police operation as a major step forward in the confrontation of Albanian state with organized crime.

"The truth of the matter is that the entirety of this operation has taken place in the territory of Albania, without any warning from the European countries where the shipment had transited before entering the port of Durres. This raid is a testimony to the law-enactment power we have today, beginning from the customs points," Rama said in a statement.BERLIN, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- The number of unemployed Germans in February has fallen to its lowest monthly level since the beginning of recordings in 1990, official figures published on Wednesday by the Federal Labor Office (BA) show.

The Nuremberg-based government agency put the number of jobseekers at 2.546 million, marking a monthly decrease of 24,000 compared to January and a decline by 216,000 compared to the same period last year. As a consequence, the official unemployment rate in February fell by 0.1 percentage points to 5.7 percent.

Speaking to press on Wednesday, BA director Detlef Scheele said that the findings underlined the healthy state of the German labor market and wider economy which still showed no sign of deteriorating.

"I do not expect a reversal of the trend or weakening thereof," a statement by Scheele read. The BA director substantiated this claim by drawing attention to strong simultaneous growth in Germany's employment rate.

Some 44.28 million Germans were employed in January, according to the Federal Statistical Office, an increase of 625,000 compared to the same period last year.

Scheele gave an optimistic forecast that the total number of jobseekers could decline further to 2.1 million in the course of 2018. Such an outcome was "achievable" if economic momentum was sustained through the Spring and Fall.

Katarina Barley (SPD), the acting labor minister, was similarly upbeat about the latest unemployment data. "The German labor market is in a positive dynamic and offers many opportunities," Barley said.

The SPD politician highlighted the need to make use of the currently favorable labor market conditions to ensure that young Germans benefited from its dual education system as a "foundation for a successful career."

Wednesday's figures offered a slightly less rosy picture when individuals who are in jobs training or unable to work due to health issues were also included in the category of unemployed inhabitants.

Within these wider parameters, the number of jobseekers in February rose by an annual 970,000 to 3.514 million. However, the figure still marked a monthly decline of 32,000. At the same time, the number of unemployed asylum seekers appears to have stabilized at around 180,000 after an initially steep upward trajectory since 2015.OTTAWA, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- Seven of the 10 Bloc Quebecois members of parliament in the House of Commons of Canada Wednesday announced to quit the party because they dislike the party head Martine Ouellet's leadership style.

The seven made the announcement after a Bloc caucus meeting in Ottawa Wednesday morning. The caucus was divided into two camps. Those who support Ouellet as leader and the seven who accuse her of being authoritarian.

One of the seven MPS is Louis Plamondon, who has been in the House of Commons since 1984, including the last 25 years as a Bloc MP. He said he is "leaving the leader" but "is not leaving the Bloc Quebecois."

The six other MPs are Luc Theriault, Gabriel Ste-Marie, Rheal Fortin, Michel Boudrias, Simon Marcil and Monique Pauze.

"We were faced with two options: either Madame Ouellet stepped down, or we walked," Theriault said.

Ouellet, who does not have a seat in the House of Commons, is a former Parti Quebecois cabinet minister who is still sitting in the Quebec legislature as an independent. She became Bloc leader last March.

The quit is seen as a crushing blow to the Bloc Quebecois, which under then leader Lucien Bouchard formed Canada's official opposition party in the House of Commons after it secured 54 seats in the 1993 election.

Gilles Duceppe then took over the reins of the party and led it in five consecutive elections in which it won at least half of the seats in Quebec. Duceppe also guided the party in the 2011 and 2015 elections, leading them to only four and 10 seats respectively.

"The crisis shaking the Bloc Quebecois is bad for both the party itself and the sovereigntist movement," said the party in a statement.

Bloc Quebecois is devoted to Quebec nationalism and promotion of Quebec sovereignty. It was formed by members of parliament who defected from then federal Progressive Conservative Party and Liberal Party during the collapse of the Meech Lake Accord. The party seeks to create the conditions necessary for the political secession of Quebec from Canada and campaigns actively only within Quebec province during federal elections.

The party has been described as social democratic and separatist. Its support ebbed after the 1995 independence referendum.Source: Xinhua| 2018-03-01 03:28:13|Editor: yan

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by Fatima AbdulKarim

RAMALLAH, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- 13-year-old Gaza girl In'am Al-Attar was reunited with her mother Salwa Al-Attar Wednesday after arriving in Ramallah to receive kidney transplant amid current humanitarian crisis.

The child drew attention on social media by refusing to enter the hospital without her mother.

The moment of reunification was heavy with emotions, as the mother and daughter went through an exceptional process to allow her mother a permit by Israeli authorities, after high level interventions by the Palestinian government, according to Ramallah governor Laila Ghannam.

Salwa Al-Attar expressed her feelings to Xinhua saying "I left behind my ill husband and all my other children for the sake of my beloved daughter, this is all for In'am's sake, she is my only daughter after six sons.

"Her childhood innocence touched me when she was saying come mama, because she is always attached to me and we are always together," she said.

The mother explained that it is very difficult for her to leave her duties in Gaza, but was grateful that she was able to get an exception to be with her daughter during her scheduled tests, which were impossible to have them done in Gaza due to the crisis in the humanitarian crisis.

Al-Attar is in dire need of kidney transplant and has arrived with her maternal uncle to take necessary tests to check if her uncle Khaled is a positive match.

In her simple words, she wished for children to live healthily, especially those suffering from kidney failure condition.

"I pray for all ill children to find cure, and for all those who need kidney transplant to get one," she said.

After her story went viral on social media demanding for her mother to be with her, the governor of Ramallah Laila Ghannam rushed to her help, accompanied by mothers of Palestinians killed by Israeli forces who went to stress a message of solidarity.

Ghannam said contact were held with all relevant parties, including the health ministry and the civil affairs commission in hope of getting a permit for the child's mother to cross Israeli controlled crossing into the West Bank.

She affirmed that President Mahmoud Abbas followed her story, and the private sector donated for the child's accommodation and needs.

"We were with her from the first moment by orders from the President. She is our daughter and we don't need a reason to make us look after her or just to raise her issue in the media, but we dealt with the matter quickly," said Ghannam.

International organizations have warned against the consequences of the worsening humanitarian and public health conditions is the blockaded coastal enclave.

The World Health Organization (WHO) recently issued an urgent appeal last week stating that the occupied Palestinian territories are affected a protracted crisis and chronic humanitarian needs.

There has been a further deterioration of the humanitarian situation in Gaza which impacts two million people and is life threatening for vulnerable patients, due to the limited power sources, lack of waste management and the movement restrictions.SKOPJE, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- Macedonia is set to solve the name row with Greece in a dignified way that is mutually accepted by both sides, Macedonian government spokesman Mile Bosnjakovski told a news conference on Wednesday.

Government representative noted that optimism to solve the two-decade long dispute existing between Macedonia and Greece was still high.

"We are not negotiating via media and are not sending messages through media, but saying that positions of both sides have approximated," Bosnjakovski said.

The spokesman also rebuffed a report published by news agency Reuters on Tuesday, which quoted Macedonian Prime Minister Zoran Zaev as saying that Macedonia was ready to make small changes to country's constitution.

Bosnjakovski said that Zaev never mentioned that the constitution could undergo slight changes.

Also, the report said that Zaev said during the interview with the agency that Macedonia had put forward four names regarding the name change.

Even for such a statement, Bosnjakovski told the press conference that Zaev had reiterated the proposals were provided by United Nations envoy Mathew Nimetz.

"These are not Macedonia's proposals, but part of the package that Nimetz has put forward to Macedonia and Greece," he explained to reporters here.

Bosnjakovski added that Reuters had corrected their news item regarding the interview of Zaev, since its initial report was erroneous.

Athens and Skopje have been at odds over the use of the name of Macedonia since Greece's northern neighbor broke away from Yugoslavia in 1991.

Macedonia is formally called Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) at the UN. Macedonia is also the name of a northern province in Greece and Athens is worried that the use of the same name by the neighboring state could lead to territorial claims.

The solving of name row that exists between two countries is seen as main obstacle that Macedonia has to overcome in order to make progress towards the European Union and NATO integration.

During the NATO summit in Bucharest in 2008, Greece vetoed FYROM's application to enter the alliance without having solved the name issue. As Skopje has renewed efforts to join the EU and NATO, Greece has signaled that its position remains unchanged.HELSINKI, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- Cold weather and lack of wind created a peak in Finnish electricity prices on Wednesday, media reports said.

Business newspaper Talouselama reported that the average price for electricity in Finland was 210 euros (256.5 U.S. dollars) per megawatt hour for six hours on Wednesday morning. In neighboring Sweden, the price for the same period was 58 euros per megawatt hour.

The average for the whole Wednesday was 90.22 euros per megawatt hour, while it was 51 euros on Tuesday. The most expensive hour was between 8 and 9 a.m. when the price reached 249.97 euros per megawatt hour.

Finland is part of the Nordic energy market where the power tariff is based on commercial factors. The transfer capacity between Finland and Sweden is restricted and affects the price.

Most households have fixed rate agreements on the purchase of electricity and the price fluctuations have no impact on them. Major users and industries are more affected with market rate changes.

Due to low temperatures in central and southern Finland, quite often below 25 degrees Celsius, the demand increased to over 14,000 megawatt hours for several hours. There was no acute shortage of electricity, however, and none of the reserve capacity power plants were turned on.

Due to the low wind levels, the capacity of wind energy production could not be used. While lakes and rivers are frozen, the production of hydro electricity is also relatively low.

Usually during peak demand, Finland imports electricity mainly from Sweden and Russia.

In the production statistics of 2016, roughly 33 of electricity production in Finland was based on nuclear power, 23 percent on hydro, 10 percent on coal, 16 percent on biomass, 5 percent on natural gas and under 5 percent on wind. The remainder comprises peat, oil and general waste as sources.Source: Xinhua| 2018-03-01 04:08:27|Editor: yan

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ADEN, Yemen, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- At least nine Yemeni civilians were killed and several others injured by Saudi-led airstrikes in two provinces of the war-torn Yemen on Wednesday, medical officials told Xinhua.

Local medical sources said about four Yemeni civilians were killed in airstrike that targeted a house in the northern province of Sa'ada, the major stronghold of the Shiite Houthi group.

Houthi-affiliated media outlets also reported that heavy artillery shelling by the Saudi forces targeted residential buildings in Sa'ada province, causing casualties and damages there.

Elsewhere in western Yemen, fighter jets of the Saudi Arabia-led coalition launched airstrikes against Houthis, but mistakenly targeted a farm and killed four girls in the port city of Hodeidah.

Meanwhile, fierce fighting continued between the Iranian-backed Houthis and the forces allied with the internationally-backed government in various areas of Yemen.

According to the country's defence ministry website, more than 17 Houthi rebels were killed in fighting with pro-government forces in Nihm district near the capital Sanaa.

The Saudi-backed Yemeni government forces also managed to arrest 33 Houthi rebels during the ongoing fighting near the Houthi-controlled capital Sana'a, the ministry website said.

Yemen's government, allied with the Saudi-led Arab military coalition, has for about three years been battling Iran-backed Shiite Houthi rebels over control of the country.

The coalition began a military air campaign in March 2015 to roll back Houthi gains and reinstate exiled Hadi and his government to power.

The coalition also imposed air and sea blockade to prevent weapons from reaching Houthis, who had invaded the capital Sanaa militarily and seized most of the northern Yemeni provinces.

UN statistics show more than 10,000 people, most of them civilians, have been killed since the coalition intervened in the Yemeni civil war that also displaced around 3 million.

The Arab country is also suffering from the world's largest cholera epidemic since April, with about 5,000 cases reported every day.Israel alarms Wednesday that the Dead Sea water level is shrinking fast. (Reuters Photo)

JERUSALEM, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- The decreasing of water level of the Dead Sea is raising concerns, Israel's Ministry of Environmental Protection said in a status report of the country's environment, with disturbing information about the situation of the Dead Sea.

The rate of the Dead Sea water levels decreasing is at an average of 1 meter of depth a year.

The face of this special place is becoming unrecognizable and a new reality is settling in, however difficult it may be to admit.

The report deals with other environmental challenges that Israel is facing, but the unique characteristics of the Dead Sea, the lowest place on earth, are of great concern.

The sharp decrease began in recent decades and is a result of policies undertaken by both Israel and Jordan, who share a border in the salty body of water.

The two countries, facing a continuous lack of water, needed to divert water that would normally runs into the Dead Sea.

This decision was critical to the fate of the unique body of water.

"In both places you have (an) increasing population, you have (an) increase in the need of water...(it is) not really a commodity that is available," Sinaia Netanyahu, chief scientist of the ministry and the author of the report, explained the situation.

"As long as water is not going to the Dead Sea, we don't see a solution," she said.

The Dead Sea, which used to be one continuous body, is now dotted with small salt islands. It is a stark visual reminder of how quickly it is drying up.

The coastline has also gone farther inwards compared to where the sea used to be. There are stranded lifeguard posts where water once used to be but is no more.

Will the Dead Sea soon be a thing of the past?

"The sea level is going to drop ... further, but it's not that the Dead Sea is going to disappear, because it is deep enough," Netanyahu said, "accessibility to the water is going to much more cumbersome."

In the past, a tourist could take a quick walk to the coastline and dip their feet in the salty water. Today, hotels and beaches supply vehicular transportation to the water because it has become so far.

"The access is going to be much more complicated and infrastructure needs to be invested in order to make it more accessible to the public," said Netanyahu.

A Jordanian plan is slated later this year. Named the Red Sea-Dead Sea Conveyance project, its aim is to alleviate the problem by laying a pipeline from the Red Sea that will supply water for areas in need, including the Dead Sea.

It is a controversial plan which has some environmentalists concerned. In any case, it will not completely solve the issue.

But for the chief scientist, there is a more realistic goal, which is acknowledging that these negative changes are here to stay and work around them, trying to leverage what may currently be seen as disadvantages and turning things around.

This is especially relevant for the sinkholes that have transformed the landscape around the Dead Sea.

There are about 6,000 of them and they are causing grave danger. Several areas have been sealed and the entrance to them is forbidden. The view is astounding.

The sinkholes are a direct result of the drying up of the Dead Sea which has created a vacuum underground that eventually causes the earth to cave in. The danger cannot be underestimated.

"It's something you cannot reverse. It's there, you cannot change it, you cannot fill them with other materials." Netanyahu said.

She added that maybe the sinkholes can be changed into a tourism spot, but this out-of-the-box approach requires acknowledging the troubling reality.

There are other factors that are contributing to the deterioration of the situation in this natural gemstone.

Although the ministry does not consider it a major factor, there are factories in the area which extract the salt from the sea for manufacturing products.

Cosmetics from the region are world renowned for their healing properties for many skin ailments.

In order to manufacture potash, a salt in a soluble form, water is regularly extracted from the Dead Sea by these factories.

All of this is disrupting the delicate natural balance that has created this place.

Netanyahu said all these moves are essentially changing "the creation," an attempt to meddle with nature that has disastrous results.

But the main cause for the negative developments is climate change. As the planet is getting warmer and weather patterns are changing, the Dead Sea is paying a heavy price.

"Climate change is here and we are going to have less water. We have to acknowledge that," said Netanyahu.

Clearly, the area will not return to its glory days of decades ago.

While a plan must be implemented to guarantee the situation does not deteriorate further, governments and organizations need to come to terms with the new reality and make the best of it.NICOSIA, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- The resumption of negotiations to reunify Cyprus is at present "impossible", Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades said on Wednesday, accusing Turkey and Turkish Cypriots of violating international law and existing agreements on natural gas sharing.

"Unfortunately Turkey, and our Turkish Cypriot compatriots, appear not to be willing (to negotiate) but by resorting to more violations of international law and unacceptable demands make the resumption of talks impossible, at least at the present time," Anastasiades said.

He was addressing parliament after taking the oath for a second presidential term officially starting on Tuesday.

Turkey prevented a drill ship from proceeding to its designated area southeast of Cyprus for a fresh natural gas drilling in early February, claiming that it did so to safeguard the rights of the estranged community of Turkish Cypriots.

Turkey occupied the northern part of Cyprus, moving there almost all of Turkish Cypriots after forcing out Greek Cypriots in a 1974 military operation prompted by a coup organized by the military rulers of Greece at the time.

A breakaway state was set up in the northern occupied part of Cyprus that was recognized only by Turkey which is also claiming intervention rights over Cyprus.

Anastasiades said that he is ready to resume a peace dialogue with Turkish Cypriots if Turkey ceased illegal actions against Cyprus, an EU member state. Turkish Cypriots rescinded "unacceptable positions and demands" over the management of the state's resources.

"I have conveyed the above position to (Turkish Cypriot leader) Akinci via the UN Secretary General's Special Representative Elizabeth Spehar," Anastasiades told the deputies.

He said the management of natural gas resources had been agreed in peace negotiations by his predecessor and the previous Turkish Cypriot leader Mehmet Ali Talat.

"It has been agreed that the natural resources will come under the jurisdiction of (the future) central federal government and that the proceeds will be distributed among all Cypriots in an equitable way," he said.

Anastasiades added said that legislation is pending before parliament for the creation of a sovereign hydrocarbons fund on the lines of the Norwegian model to handle the wealth from natural gas.

Cyprus owns two known natural gas fields in the eastern Mediterranean, one near Israeli gas beds containing up to six trillion cubic feet of natural gas and one off its southwestern shores with an estimated potential of up to eight trillion cubic feet of gas.

Hopes of resuming the Cyprus peace negotiations now center around a visit by United Nations Undersecretary General for Peacekeeping Operations, Jean-Pierre Lacroix who arrived in Cyprus on Wednesday.

The main purpose of his visit is to be kept abreast of the UN peacekeeping operation in Cyprus, where one of the oldest international peace army serves since 1964.

Lacroix will meet with government officials, local authorities and community representatives, including President Anastasiades and Turkish Cypriot leader Mustafa Akinci, to probe their intentions on continuing their stalled negotiations.

He will report back to Secretary General Antonio Guterres, who said would be available for a new peace initiative on Cyprus provided the two leaders would inform him of a joint plan to move forward.HELSINKI, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- Hundreds of academic employees of the University of Helsinki on Wednesday protested against the university for failing to raise salaries of staff members.

Demonstrators said a state mediator suggested a raise of their salaries by roughly 2 percent, but the federation of higher education institutions had rejected the mediation result.

Professors also joined the walkout on Wednesday, marking the first time for university professors to go on strike in Finland.

Ainur Elmgren, a project worker, told Finnish media that it was "education that raised Finland to independence," and "now it is being thrown away."

Meanwhile, employers said government financing of universities has been cut back by 400 million euros (488 million U.S. dollars) since 2015, and the level of pay increase based on export industries cannot be applied to university staff members.

If an agreement cannot not found, six more universities including the Aalto University will go on strike on March 7 and seven more on March 14, unions said.

Wednesday's strike coincided with the parliamentary interpellation debate on education. Opposition parties accused the government of education cutbacks that have endangered the Finnish school tradition.RABAT, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- Morocco and Bangladesh signed agreements here on Wednesday to deepen bilateral cooperation.

The Moroccan foreign minister Nasser Bourita met with his Bangladeshi counterpart Abul Hassan Mahmood Ali, and a draft agreement on bilateral consultations between the foreign ministries was signed.

They also inked an agreement to avoid double taxation and tax evasion regarding income tax.

Mahmood Ali hailed in a statement the "historical" ties linking the two countries, highlighting the importance of these agreements in consolidating and developing bilateral diplomatic relations.

The meeting was also an opportunity for the two officials to discuss ways to further strengthen relations, he said.Source: Xinhua| 2018-03-01 05:18:46|Editor: yan

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UNITED NATIONS, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- Senior UN officials have expressed frustration on Wednesday over the failure to implement a Security Council resolution that demands a cease-fire throughout Syria.

"There are no words to express our frustration over the collective failure of the international community to end this war. But that frustration is nothing compared to the suffering and destruction visited ceaselessly upon the Syrian people. We are here again today because the brief respite you unanimously demanded only days ago in Resolution 2401 has not materialized," Jeffrey Feltman, UN Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs, told the Security Council.

The airstrikes, shelling, and ground offensives have continued in Syria. There are even reports of yet another chlorine gas attack, said Feltman. "What we need is implementation of 2401, and that is not happening."

Resolution 2401 affirms that the cessation of hostilities shall not apply to military operations against terrorist groups, he said. "But there must be a frank assessment of what this means in relation to the humanitarian tragedy we are witnessing in Eastern Ghouta."

The scale of the Syrian government's "indiscriminate military attacks" against the rebel-held enclave cannot be justified on the basis of targeting fighters of Al-Nusra Front, a terrorist group, said Feltman, who also condemned shelling from Eastern Ghouta that has injured or killed civilians in nearby Damascus.

"Efforts to combat terrorism do not supersede obligations under international humanitarian and human rights law," he said.

Feltman noted that the United Nations has not seen any confirmation by the Syrian government of its commitment to implementing Resolution 2401, which was passed in the Security Council unanimously last Saturday.

UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Mark Lowcock, who briefed the council before Feltman, said that more than 580 people have reportedly been killed and over 1,000 others wounded due to air and ground-based strikes in Eastern Ghouta since Feb. 18, when government troops intensified efforts to re-take the rebel stronghold.

At the same time, he said, hundreds of rockets from Eastern Ghouta into Damascus have reportedly killed 15 people and injured more than 200 others.

Lowcock said UN convoys are ready to go to 10 besieged and hard-to-reach locations. They include a 45-truck convoy with aid for 90,000 people in Eastern Ghouta. But UN humanitarian workers have not been given permission to access those locations since the adoption of Resolution 2401.

No civilians have been able to leave Eastern Ghouta and there has been no improvement in the humanitarian situation in Eastern Ghouta, the last major rebel-held enclave in the country, he added.

"What the Syrian people need has been made abundantly clear: protection, access to basic goods and services, an end to sieges, respect for international humanitarian law and international human rights law. You have unanimously supported all this in passing Resolution 2401," he told the Security Council.Source: Xinhua| 2018-03-01 06:04:02|Editor: yan

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HAVANA, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- Units from the Cuban army helped put out a fire which broke out last week on the perimeter of the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay in the southeast of the island, local media reported Wednesday.

The official daily Granma quoted officials as saying that Cuba provided personnel, vehicles and a helicopter that dropped water from the air to extinguish the flames.

The situation, which saw the evacuation of a part of the American personnel, was brought under control on Feb. 22, despite the "logistical and practical complications" due to the "illegal" U.S. occupation of Cuban territory.

"In recent years, a level of communication has been maintained between Cuban and American authorities for emergency situations on the Naval Base," wrote Granma.

This facility was opened in 1903 and constitutes the oldest U.S. military base on foreign soil.

Cuba has repeatedly demanded the return of this territory, considering it an illegal occupation, where Washington has maintained a prison since 2002.

Despite pressure to close it, U.S. President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Jan. 30 to maintain the prison open.RABAT, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- Morocco and Bahrain reaffirmed on Wednesday their determination to reinforce bilateral cooperation in all areas and continue coordinating their positions on all matters of common interest.

The pledge was made during talks between the Moroccan Prime minister Saad Eddine El Othmani and visiting Bahraini Foreign Minister Khaled Bin Ahmed Bin Mohamed Al Khalifa in Rabat.

The talks discussed means to boost efforts for the optimal implementation of the dozens of cooperation agreements signed between the two countries, according to a statement from the Moroccan PM.

The two officials commended, on this occasion, the excellent fraternal relations between the two kingdoms.

They also hailed the positive outcome of the 4th session of the Moroccan-Bahraini Joint Committee, held on Tuesday in Rabat chaired by Al Khalifa and his Moroccan peer Nasser Bourita.

The session resulted in the signing of several cooperation agreements in various fields of common interest, including air transport, political consultation, diplomacy, information and communication, sport, employment and social security.Source: Xinhua| 2018-03-01 06:14:06|Editor: yan

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BRASILIA, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- Brazil's newly named minister of public security, Raul Jungmann, said Wednesday that one of his objectives in the role is to make public security a universal right.

In his first press conference, Jungmann said that Brazil had succeeded in making health and education accessible to everyone.

"We have not succeeded in making the right to security universal. The creation of this ministry is a step in that direction," he said.

The minister also announced a series of new initiatives to resolve security "bottlenecks." For example, the ministry will hire 1,000 new federal police officers, while its budget has been set at 2.7 billion reais (830 million U.S. dollars) for the first year to avoid any shortfalls.

"Given the need and urgency to reinforce personnel, especially in the federal police and the federal highway police, we are authorized to begin exams for 500 new federal police officers and 500 new federal highway police officers," stated Jungmann.

Furthermore, the ministry will double federal officers dispatched to border crossings. The fight against corruption will also be reinforced with 20 police commanders to be reassigned to the sector.

Jungmann also intends to ensure more "police on the streets," pointing to Rio de Janeiro as an example of having too many officers in administrative roles.

Jungmann set the target of having a maximum of 2 percent of police officers in administrative roles.SAN FRANCISCO, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- U.S. technology-enabled cyber insurer Coalition Inc. said Wednesday that it has successfully raised 10 million U.S. dollars from leading tech investors to provide security protection for small- and medium-sized businesses (SMBs).

The funds raised in Series A from leading tech investors such as Vy Capital, Ribbit Capital and Valor Equity Partners, will be used to solve cyber risks for SMBs, Coalition said in a statement.

"Solving cyber risk doesn't mean solving security failures. It means allowing companies to embrace technology while remaining resilient to the risks that accompany it," said Joshua Motta, CEO and Co-founder of Coalition based in San Francisco on the U.S. west coast.

He said Coalition provides companies with free cybersecurity to prevent loss before it occurs, as well as expert response and comprehensive insurance coverage when all else fails.

"We believe that cybersecurity should be a public good, and now we have the backing and resources to democratize access to the technology SMBs need to protect themselves," said John Hering, Coalition's co-founder and director.

Coalition, a tech company that offers cyber insurance products, is financially supported by top-rated global insurers, Swiss Re Corporate Solutions and Argo Group.

Its cyber risk management platform provides automated security alerts, threat intelligence, expert guidance, and tools to help businesses fight against cyber attacks.

The company began offering insurance and cybersecurity to SMBs in November 2017.WASHINGTON, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- Paul Manafort, former campaign chairman of U.S. President Donald Trump, pleaded not guilty on Wednesday to new charges levied against him in the probe into alleged Russian meddling in the 2016 election and will face trial in September.

Manafort's formal plea of not guilty came during a brief hearing in a Washington federal court regarding a second indictment accusing him of acting as an unregistered foreign agent and directing an international money-laundering conspiracy stemming from his political work in Ukraine.

It's Manafort's first court appearance since his longtime business associate Rick Gates, also a former Trump campaign aide, pleaded guilty and cut a deal with Special Counsel Robert Mueller, who is leading the Russia probe.

In court, Judge Amy Berman Jackson reprimanded Manafort for making a public statement about Gates' plea last week, saying the statement violated a gag order she put in place early in the case.

Jackson set the trial to start on Sept. 17 in Washington D.C. It is expected to stretch for several weeks and even through the U.S. midterm elections in early November.

The new charges filed Friday in Mueller's Russia probe said Manafort, with the help of Gates, used offshore accounts to wire more than 2 million euros (about 2.5 million U.S. dollars) to unnamed former senior European politicians in 2012 and 2013 on behalf of the then pro-Russia government of Ukraine.

The superseding indictment came hours after Gates pleaded guilty to charges of conspiracy against the United States and making false statements to the Federal Bureau of Investigation and pledged to cooperate with Mueller in the ongoing Russia probe.

In a statement prior to Friday's indictment, Manafort said he continued to maintain his "innocence" and that Gates' plea would not alter his commitment to defending himself against "the untrue piled up charges."

Manafort and Gates were originally indicted in October on charges of conspiracy and fraud stemming from their lucrative lobbying work in Ukraine, a case that arose out of Mueller's investigation into Russia's role in the election and possible collusion with the Trump campaign.

So far, none of the charges against them made reference to alleged Russia meddling nor accusations of collusion between Moscow and Trump' campaign.

Manafort alone was indicted in October on 12 counts related to unlawful financial dealings. The authorities at the time said Manafort laundered more than 18 million dollars.

Trump has vigorously denied allegations of collusion between his campaign and Moscow during the election. The Russian government has also repeatedly dismissed the accusations of interference.

So far, Mueller has charged nearly 20 people as part of his inquiry. Former Trump national security advisor Michael Flynn and former campaign foreign policy aide George Papadopoulos have each pleaded guilty to one count of lying.Source: Xinhua| 2018-03-01 06:29:09|Editor: Mengjie

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SAN FRANCISCO, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- U.S. Northeastern University (NU) announced Wednesday the launch of a new computer science program that will utilize "pop-up classrooms" to train working professionals on computer science, data science and software engineering.

The new program will be offered at its Silicon Valley campus and in San Francisco to people who wish to earn a master's degree in computer science, and classes will bolster the knowledge of students who already have experience in this field.

NU said courses will cover the areas of search, deep learning, and data visualization, with a wider range of topics introduced over the coming year.

The program, named as the Professional Topics, will be led by Ricardo Baeza-Yates, chief technology officer of NTENT, a semantic search technology company based in Carlsbad, California.

NU said Baeza-Yates' research interests include algorithms and data structures, information retrieval, web search and data mining, and data science and visualization.

The Professional Topics series is the second in a suite of newly-announced computer science programs offered in the Bay Area.

Previously, NU announced a partnership with a leading mobile security startup to launch a micro credential program in San Francisco that allows working professionals to bolster their skills in emerging areas of computer science.

Founded in 1898, NU is a global research university that is a recognized leader in experiential learning, powered by the world's most far-reaching and innovative cooperative education program.HELSINKI, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- Experts of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) have suggested that Finland should give up the plan for a universal basic income, which has caught the eyes of international audience.

In its country report for Finland published on Wednesday, OECD concluded that the envisaged Finnish basic income plan would either be too expensive to the state or provide scanty social security and could even increase poverty. The current system should be developed instead.

Finland started to test the basic income for the unemployed at the beginning of 2017, as an effort to see if the unconditional financial support will increase the incentive for recipients to look for jobs. The second phase of the test was to include other groups than unemployed, but no decision has been taken to start it.

The economic survey of Finland presented by OECD Deputy Secretary General Mari Kiviniemi, former prime minter of Finland, noted that a Finnish jobless person would earn less by taking up a job than the counterparts in Sweden or Norway.

As a recommendation to create incentives for work, Kiviniemi told a press conference in Helsinki that Finland should adjust taxation and decrease benefits given to working age people. Social security should be maintained at its present level.

The current financial compensation for taking care of children at home should be terminated as well, the report suggested.

The remarks from OECD came just weeks after the current Finnish coalition government gave up a plan to reduce the compensation for taking care of under-three-year-olds at home. The reform was called off due to the opposition from the populists and centrists that have their core support in rural communities.

Local commentators said on Wednesday that the ideas of curbing the benefits for working age people would create strong political resistance.

Parliamentary elections will take place in April next year and the current coalition is not likely to introduce any new plans to reduce benefits.

Finland has just experienced a wave of labor action in protest against fresh legislation to reduce jobless benefits if the recipients do not look actively for work.

OECD admitted that the financing of a welfare state is increasingly difficult due to international tax competition. At the same time, Finland should decrease the taxation on salaries in order to make employment attractive.

To compensate the decline in income tax revenue, the report recommended an increase in real estate taxation. Currently, the Finnish real estate tax levels are below the real value of the properties.

It also criticized the system that allows a lower value-added taxation for several branches such as food and medicine.

Finland has decreased the corporate tax levels more than some of its competitive countries and OECD did not suggest an increase. Instead, it underlined the need to succeed in international efforts to curb tax evasion by companies.

OECD predicted that the economic growth in Finland would be 2.5 percent this year and 2.0 percent next year.

The recommendations given by OECD have been generally followed by Finland in recent years. Many policies of the current center-right coalition government have appeared earlier in suggestions given by OECD.WASHINGTON, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- White House Communications Director Hope Hicks said Wednesday that she is resigning, becoming the third person to leave the post during Trump's tenure.

"There are no words to adequately express my gratitude to President Trump. I wish the President and his administration the very best as he continues to lead our country," Hicks said in a statement.

The announcement came one day after Hicks testified in front of Congress on Russia's alleged interference with the 2016 presidential elections, during which she said she had told "white lies" while working for the administration.

As Hicks announced her departure, U.S. President Donald Trump and other senior White House officials showered her with praises.

"Hope is outstanding and has done great work for the last three years. She is as smart and thoughtful as they come, a truly great person. I will miss having her by my side but when she approached me about pursuing other opportunities, I totally understood. I am sure we will work together again in the future," Trump said in a statement.

John Kelly, the White House Chief of Staff, said Hicks was "strategic, poised and wise beyond her years," add that she has done a "tremendous job" .

Hicks, Trump's longest serving aid, has been working under Trump for three years since before he announced his candidacy for Presidency. She entered Trump's team as a communications aide, and gradually evolved into one of Trump's most trusted advisors.

It has been reportedly that the 29-year-old Hicks had considered resigning for months, saying she wanted to explore opportunities outside of the White House.

She was raised to the role after former communications director Scaramucci resigned last summer. It is expected that she will leave the White House in the next few weeks.

The Deputy White House communications director Josh Raffel has announced his resignation a day earlier.WASHINGTON, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- White House Communications Director Hope Hicks said Wednesday that she is resigning, becoming the third person to leave the post during President Donald Trump's tenure.

The announcement came a day after Hicks testified in Congress, during which she said she had told "white lies" while working for the administration.

"There are no words to adequately express my gratitude to President Trump. I wish the President and his administration the very best as he continues to lead our country," Hicks said in a statement.

"Hope is outstanding and has done great work for the last three years. She is as smart and thoughtful as they come, a truly great person. I will miss having her by my side but when she approached me about pursuing other opportunities, I totally understood. I am sure we will work together again in the future," U.S. president Donald Trump said in a statement.

John Kelly, the White House Chief of Staff, said Hicks was "strategic, poised and wise beyond her years," add that she has done a "tremendous job."

Hicks, one of Trump's longest serving aides, has reportedly considered resigning for months. She was raised to the role after former communications director Scaramucci resigned last summer. It is expected that she will leave the White House in the next few weeks.This has been a long time in the making, but in our continuing pursuit to bring only the best of firearms, 2nd Amendment and defence related news to our readers, we are very excited to announce the next step in our evolution as a company.

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Washington, DC - During the month of St. Patricks Day, we celebrate IrishAmerican Heritage Month and the tremendous role Irish immigrants and their descendants have played in the development of our great Nation. Irish-American Heritage Month is a great opportunity to celebrate the nearly 33 million Americans with Irish ancestry and their tremendous contributions to the betterment of our country. This month, and every month, we appreciate their efforts in helping usher in a new era of American prosperity.

Irish Americans have distinguished themselves in every sector of American life. Many have been among the key architects of our countrys greatness. Nine of the men who signed our Declaration of Independence were of Irish origin. Presidents Andrew Jackson, John F. Kennedy, Ronald Reagan, and many others have traced their roots to the Emerald Isle. Businessman Henry Ford, founder of one of Americas most iconic companies, was the son of an Irish immigrant.

For centuries, the tenacious Irish spirit, paired with American self-reliance, has helped Irish immigrants and their descendants realize incredible dreams. With religious devotion, strength rooted in the love of family, and confidence in the promise of America, Irish Americans have engaged in the American experience in robust and meaningful ways. Their neighborhoods, schools, churches, and workplaces have affirmed the importance of faith, industry, and learning. It is, therefore, no wonder that American art, business, and public life are marked by Irish names and symbols.

This month, Americans across the country will don the traditional green garb as we celebrate the patron saint of Ireland in an annual tribute to our shared and cherished heritage with that great country. As we spend this month honoring Irish Americans, we also pledge to further strengthen our relationship with the Emerald Isle itself, as we look forward to a bright future of greater friendship, cooperation, and commerce for centuries to come.

NOW, THEREFORE, I, DONALD J. TRUMP, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim March 2018 as Irish-American Heritage Month. I call upon all Americans to celebrate the achievements and contributions of Irish Americans to our Nation with appropriate ceremonies, activities, and programs.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this twenty-eighth day of February, in the year of our Lord two thousand eighteen, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and forty-second.

DONALD J. TRUMPLatest News

Phoenix, Arizona - Attorney General Mark Brnovich filed his 9th legal brief urging a court to reject another unfair class action settlement. Leading a bipartisan coalition of 19 state attorneys general, Brnovich filed the latest brief urging a federal district court in New Jersey to reject a proposed class action settlement against WTSO.com (Wines Til Sold Out). Under the proposed settlement being challenged, $1.7 million will go to attorneys while consumers are left with a highly restrictive coupon.

As Attorney General, I am focused on making sure consumers are fairly compensated in class action lawsuits," said Attorney General Mark Brnovich. Settlements focused on diverting money to special interests must be vigorously opposed. We will continue to file legal briefs opposing unfair class action settlements as long as lawyers continue to profit off of the backs of consumers."

The class action alleges the pricing on the WTSO.com was misleading, showing larger discounts on the wines sold than the actual price. WTSO.com and the class action lawyers who brought the case have proposed settling the claims of more than 200,000 consumers by paying $1.7 million in a cash payout to the lawyers while giving class members a highly restrictive coupon worth $2 off per bottle of certain eligible wines on WTSO.com.

In the Amicus Brief, Attorney General Brnovich asked the court to recognize the settlement is deeply imbalanced, as the coupons offered to consumers were highly restrictive and of questionable value to consumers. The coupons: expire in one year, are not transferable, are only useful for a restricted selection of wines on the Defendants website, and can only be used in maximum increments of $2 per bottle of wine, thereby requiring class members to spend their own money to take advantage of the face value of the coupons." As one consumer noted, in order to exhaust their credits, they would have to buy almost 60 bottles of wine in the next year and spend over $1,000. The brief also emphasized that class members would have to complete a multi-step claims process before even accessing and being able to redeem the highly restrictive credits.

The brief was filed in Cannon v. Ashburn Corp., No. 16-1452 (D.N.J.) as a friend of the court under Attorney General Brnovichs statutory authority to speak on behalf of Arizonans in connection with federal class action settlements.

Arizona is taking the lead in the case. Joining Arizona are attorneys general from Alabama, Arkansas, Idaho, Indiana, Louisiana, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Nevada, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas, Washington, and Wyoming.Mesajul premierului Citu pentru Kelemen Hunor, la congresul UDMR: Vom sta la guvernare patru ani de zile

Mesajul premierului Citu pentru Kelemen Hunor, la congresul UDMR: Vom sta la guvernare patru ani de zile Mesajul premierului Citu pentru Kelemen Hunor, la congresul UDMR: Vom [citeste mai departe]Iranian President Hassan Rouhani (R) and Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif attend a meeting with Muslim leaders and scholars in Hyderabad, India, February 15, 2018. (Reuters Photo)

TEHRAN, Feb. 25 (Xinhua) -- Iran has stepped up building marine nuclear propulsion systems partly in response to Washington's increasingly "hostile" stance on the nuclear deal, Financial Tribune reported Sunday.

The Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) said that the nuclear propulsion issue has been on the national agenda for some time.

However, its acceleration could be related to the approach of the United States towards the Iranian 2015 international nuclear deal, Behrouz Kamalvandi, spokesman of the AEOI, was quoted as saying.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has been provided with the requited information at this stage, and further information availability would depend on the feasibility assessment of the project, said Kamalvandi.

Earlier this month, the UN nuclear watchdog's report on Iran reaffirmed that Tehran had informed the agency of a "decision that has been taken to construct naval nuclear propulsion in future."

The report said Iran has yet to respond to the IAEA's request for "further clarifications and amplifications."

U.S. President Donald Trump had earlier demanded the nuclear deal be altered to eliminate sunset clauses for some of the restrictions it places on Iran, and harden the inspection rules and to limit development of Iran's long-range missiles.

Trump has constantly criticized the pact inked between Iran and Russia, Britain, France, China, the U.S. and Germany, in which the West promised to relieve sanctions on Tehran in exchange for a halt in Iran's efforts to develop a nuclear weapon.

Iran said it will not take any measures beyond its commitment to the JCPOA, nor will it accept changes to this agreement now or any time in the future.

Iran has threatened to likely withdraw from the nuclear deal if it cannot receive economic benefits.Bihar BJP leader Manoj Baitha, who is accused in the Muzaffarpur hit-and-run case, has surrendered.

He has been shifted to Patna Medical College and Hospital from Muzaffarpur's Sri Krishna Medical College and Hospital for treatment of the injuries he suffered during the accident, news agency ANI reported.

#Muzaffarpur Hit & Run Case: Accused #ManojBaitha admitted at Patna Medical College for treatment of injuries he suffered in the accident, that killed 9 school students, denies driving the vehicle involved in the incident. pic.twitter.com/IBzjEoTmOD  ANI (@ANI) February 28, 2018

Nine children were killed and many others injured after his car mowed into a crowd on Saturday afternoon. The children were reportedly aged between 8 and 10 years.

Baitha, a BJP leader from Sitamarhi district, has since been suspended by the BJP for six years.

Baitha's car had lost control and ploughed through the group of children outside the Dharmpur Government School building in Bihar's Muzaffarpur district. The children were returning from the school when the accident happened.

He had gone into hiding after the accident, sparking protests from the opposition RJD on Tuesday. The RJD alleged that Baitha was drunk and driving the car when the accident happened. It had also attacked Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, who is in power in alliance with the BJP, over Baitha's alleged drunkenness, since it was the Nitish Kumar government that had imposed prohibition in the state.

RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav had accused the Nitish government of shielding Baitha since he was a member of the BJP.

BJP leader and Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi had however rubbished this allegation, saying political affiliation would have nothing to do with how Baitha is treated for his alleged crime. He said he had directed the police to take the sternest possible action against Baitha.

The BJP and CM Nitish Kumar also anounced that they would not celebrate Holi to mourn for the children killed in the accident.

The accident sparked rage in the area. Local residents had vandalised the school, beat up teachers and set fire to the chairs and benches.

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar had 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.

(With inputs from ANI)Patna: Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Wednesday came down heavily on the opposition RJD, blaming it for his exit from the grand alliance involving the Congress in the state, and charged it with using power for amassing wealth.

Replying to a discussion on the Motion of Thanks to the governor's address, Kumar said his remaining in the 'mahagathbandhan' comprising his JD(U), the RJD and the Congress would have put him in an "embarrassing position" in the event of conviction of Lalu Prasad in fodder scam cases.

"We had formed the grand alliance for seva (service), not for mewa (wealth). I am accused of betraying the mandate. Was the mandate given for grabbing land through benami transactions?" he said during his more than an hour-long speech.

His speech was interrupted by RJD MLAs, led by Leader of Opposition Tejashwi Yadav, during the first 45 minutes, after which opposition MLAs, barring one RJD member, walked out of the House.

Kumar has been repeatedly attacked by opposition parties for quitting the grand alliance in July 2017, and rejoining the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA).

"Good governance, marked by development and justice, has been my motto since 2005. I did not compromise on the ideals even during the 20 months (when the grand alliance was in power)," Kumar said.

"I had tried hard to persuade them to change their thinking and behaviour, but they refused. I asked them to explain, but even then they declined. Was it me who owed an explanation?" Kumar said referring to the RJD's refusal to heed his suggestion that Tejashwi Yadav, then the deputy chief minister, offer a public explanation after his name cropped up in corruption cases.

"Now, the judgment has come in the 21-year-old case (of the fodder scam). Had I been in the mahagathbandhan, I would have been expected to speak on the development as a coalition partner, may be even pay visits in the jail," he said in an obvious reference to Lalu Prasad.

The chief minister also said that his government has given the highest priority to the law-and-order situation.

Expressing dismay over the death of nine children in a road accident involving a BJP worker in Muzaffarpur last week, Kumar said prohibition had led to a decline in accidents.

The government was working on developing infrastructure, modifying laws and increasing awareness to further reduce such mishaps.

Kumar also accused the RJD of supporting prohibition while they were sharing power and "backtracking now".

The chief minister said many crimes resulted from land disputes. His government was, therefore, updating land records with the help of aerial surveys and re-mapping of revenue villages.

He highlighted efforts to publicise Bihar's heritage through modern museums of international standards and decried the "cynical ridicule" of such endeavours.

He also spoke of the public grievance redressal system and measures taken to ensure that officials were made accountable to the people.

Kumar's reply to the motion was approved by a voice vote.

After staging the walkout, Yadav told reporters that his party was dissatisfied over a lack of response from Kumar to the demand for adequate action in the Rs 880 crore Srijan scam.

"Names of persons had been pointed out in whose accounts the money which had been withdrawn had gone. Since they had links with Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi, he should have been asked to make a clarification," he said.

"In fact, the chief minister should have given a clarification about his name having figured in a murder case" and about tainted ministers from the state in his own ministry and at the Centre.

As regards to the NDA's contention that no proof had been furnished by the RJD in these matters, he said no evidence had yet been cited against him and other leaders in his party either and yet investigating agencies were taking action against them.

It is because of lack of proof that they had not yet been chargesheeted, Yadav added.

The RJD, he said, was dissatisfied with the manner in which prohibition was being implemented and action being taken only against the poor, not against senior civil or police officials for violating the prohibition law.

"The NDA is in power in the country. Let it implement prohibition across the country, we will support it," he said.

RJD MLA Maheshwar Yadav was conspicuous by his presence inside the House even after the walkout by the other MLAs of the party.

Party leader and MLA Shakti Singh Yadav said action will be taken for this act of indiscipline.New Delhi: Karti Chidambaram, son of former finance minister P Chidambaram was on Wednesday arrested by the CBI in Chennai over his involvement in INX Media money laundering case.

The Congress leader was arrested for his non cooperation with the CBI.

On February 16, Karti's chartered accountant S Bhaskararaman was arrested from a five-star hotel in Delhi. Last week, Karti had moved the Supreme Court seeking a stay on the Enforcement Directorate's ( ED ) summons against him in the INX Media case.

Here is all you need to know about the INX Media bribery case involving Karti Chidambaram

- The INX media bribery case involving Karti Chidambaram is linked to clearances given to it, which was once owned by Peter Mukerjea .

- According to the CBI, INX Media stated in its records that an amount of Rs 10 lakh was given to Advantage Strategic Consulting (P) Limited, a firm the CBI said was "indirectly" owned by Karti, for management consultancy charges towards an FIPB notification and clarification.

- The CBI had also recovered vouchers of Rs 10 lakh which were allegedly paid for the services.

- The CBI had filed an FIR against Karti and the Mukerjeas on charges of criminal conspiracy, cheating, receiving illegal gratification, influencing public servants and criminal misconduct.

- It is alleged that Karti received money from INX Media for using his influence to manipulate a tax probe against it in a case of violation of Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) conditions to receive investment from Mauritius.

- Along with a CBI FIR on this case, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) has also registered a money laundering case against Karti Chidambaram.

- The central probe agency has registered an Enforcement Case Information Report (ECIR), ED's equivalent of a police FIR, against the accused named in the CBI complaint including Karti, INX media and its directors, Peter and Indrani Mukerjea, and others.

- The ECIR has been registered under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA),

- The ED is probing the alleged "proceeds of crime" generated in this case and may also attach assets of the various accused.

- The CBI has so far carried out out several searches at the homes and offices of Karti across various cities for allegedly receiving money from the media firm owned by the Mukerjeas to scuttle a tax probe.

- The Chidambarams have denied all the charges made against them.New Delhi: Karti Chidambaram, son of former Finance Minister P Chidambaram, was on Wednesday arrested by the CBI in connection with its probe in the INX media case.

Karti was taken into custody by a team of CBI officials at the Chennai airport on his return from the United Kingdom.

Here is the Timeline of INX media bribery case involving Karti Chidambaram

The CBI on May 15 last year had alleged irregularities in the FIPB clearance to INX Media for receiving overseas funds to the tune of Rs 305 crore in 2007 when P Chidambaram was the Union finance minister.

Karti Chidambaram has been charges of criminal conspiracy, cheating, accepting gratification by corrupt or illegal means, influencing public servants and criminal misconduct.

Karti Chidambaram allegedly received Rs 3.5 crore from the Mumbai-based INX media, now 9X Media, for helping it get Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) clearance, when it was run by Peter and Indrani Mukerjea, both accused in the Sheena Bora murder case.



FIPB board allowed that only Rs 4.62 crore could be received and for investment in INX News Pvt Ltd.

The company however allegedly violated the conditions set by the FIPB.

It received investment to the tune of 26 percent in the capital of INX News including foreign investment.

INX News allegedly generated more than Rs 305 crore of FDI against the approved inflow of Rs 4.62 crore.

INX News issued shares to foreign investors at a premium of more than Rs 800 per share.



Income tax department detected investment amount of Rs 305 crore in the year 2008.



Role of Karti Chidambaram

Chess Management Services Private Limited (that deals in legal compliance and audit business) and Advantage Strategic Consulting Pvt ltd are the two firms linked to Karti Chidambaram. Both the companies are under the scanner for receiving money for services rendered by Karti. Rs 3.5 were allegedly routed to Karti via these companies.

CBI FIR has named the following persons in connection with the case



INX Media trough Directors Indrani Mukherjea and Peter Mukherjea



Karti P Chidambram



Chess Management Services Pvt Ltd( Karti's Company)



Advantage Strategic Consulting Pvt Ltd (Karti's Control)



Unknown Officials of Finance Ministry

- (Reported by Jitender Sharma)New Delhi: Karti Chidambaram, son of former Finance Minister P Chidambaram was on Wednesday arrested by the CBI from Chennai in connection with its ongoing probe into the INX media case.

The CBI had registered an FIR against Karti Chidambaram last year on charges of criminal conspiracy, cheating, accepting gratification by corrupt or illegal means, influencing public servants and criminal misconduct.

Karti Chidambaram allegedly received Rs 3.5 crore from the Mumbai-based INX media, now 9X Media, for helping it get Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) clearance, when it was run by Peter and Indrani Mukerjea, both accused in the Sheena Bora murder case.

Here are other cases and allegations against Karti Chidambaram

Forex violation case involving Vasan Health Care Private Limited

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has issued showcause notice to Karti in connection with allegedly violating Fema norms to the extent of Rs 45 crore. The notice has been issued to a company, Ms Advantage Strategic Consulting Private Limited, which is reportedly linked to Karti Chidambaram for alleged foreign exchange violations.

As per the investigating agency, the violations on different occasions have been found to be committed Ms Advantage Strategic Consulting Private Limited in the process of selling shares worth Rs 45 crore of Vasan Health Care Private Limited to overseas investors.

The total amount of contravention identified by the ED, under the provisions of the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA), by M/s Vasan Healthcare Private Limited and its overseas investors on different counts in the investments received from overseas investors is around Rs 2,100 crore and and additional Rs 162 crore, thereby totalling to Rs 2,262 crore..

Aircel-Maxis deal

The ED is investigating P Chidambaram and his son Karti's alleged role in the controversial Aircel-Maxis deal. He allegedly played a role in breach of norms in permitting Malaysian firm Maxis to acquire stake in Aircel through FDI. Karti's role is being questioned for getting a go-ahead to foreign funding in the deal between Aircel and Maxis when his was the finance minister under the UPA government.

Allegedly, the senior Chidambaram illegally permitted sale of 100 percent shares of an Indian company Aircel to the Malaysian company Maxis when legally, the limit was 74 percent. It also has been alleged that the Malaysian company, through many other companies, gave a bribe to Karti.New Delhi: State Bank of India's (SBI) has the revised examination dates for the recruitment of junior associates (customer support and sales).

"Further to our advertisement No. CRPD/CR/2017-18/10 dated 20.01.2018, regarding recruitment of Junior Associates (Customer Support and Sales) in Clerical cadre in SBI, we have to inform that the Preliminary Examination scheduled to be held tentatively in the month of March/April 2018 has been deferred and it will now be held tentatively in the month June/July2018," says a notification by the SBI.

SBI is a public sector bank. It is said to be one of the largest employers in the country with 209,567 employees as on 31 March 2017, out of which there were 23% female employees and 3,179 (1.5%) employees with disabilities.New Delhi: The bus conductor was acquitted by the child special court on Wednesday in the Gurugram school murder case.

Earlier in November 2017, bus conductor Ashok Kumar was released from the Bhondsi jail.

Mohit Verma, lawyer of bus conductor Ashok had said then, "Police had planned everything, an innocent was trapped. Police had done injustice to Ashok, adding that As soon as the closure report comes, we will file the bail plea for Ashok and once he is discharged, we will file a defamation case against the police and the school management.

The bus conductor was arrested by the Gurugram police in connection with the murder of 7-year-old boy who was found dead in the toilet of the school with his throat slit on September 8, 2017. Hours later, the city police had detained the school bus conductor claiming it had cracked the case.

Gurgaon Police Commissioner Sandeep Khairwar had declared in a press meet on September 10 that Ashok was the killer and that he had tried to sexually assault the minor.

However, on November 6, 2017, in a sudden turn of events, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) apprehended a Class 11 student in connection with the killing and said that it did not find any evidence against Ashok, who was apprehended by the Gurgaon Police.

The Class 11 suspect is also from the same school and is said to have murdered the child in a bid to create a situation whereby the upcoming examinations would get postponed.

(With Agency inputs)In a shocking incident, a nine-year-old boy has been mauled to death by street dog in northern Andhra Pradesh.

The victim, identified as R Jaswanth, was rushed to the hospital, but succumbed to injuries on the way. He was a Class III student in the government school in his village. He was a resident of the Ammapalli village near Balijipeta, about 150 km north of Visakhapatnam.

Jaswant was reportedly going to a farm in his village when the attack happened, news agency ANI reported. It is not clear what caused the dog to attack the boy.

Stray dogs have been reported as a menace from different parts of the country in recent years. The issue has been an especially hot-button topic in Kerala. In that state alone, the number of reported cases of people bitten by stray dogs was a whopping 53,000. In May last year, a 50-year-old fisherman succumbed to his injuries after being mauled by a pack of stray dogs in Trivandrum's Pulluvila. Prior to that, a 75-year-old man was found dead after being allegedly attacked by a pack of stray dogs in Kerala's Attingal.

Before that, stray dogs were seen as a massive problem in Bengaluru, where a child was killed by a pack of dogs.

More recently, stary dogs have been reported as a menace in as wide-ranging laces as Delhi, Noida and Odisha's Bhubaneswar. They have also been reported to have become an issue in Punjab's Nabha, Karnataka's Mysuru, Pune in Maharashtra and Ladakh in Jammu & Kashmir.

The most common response of local administrations has been mass culling campaigns, that are usually met with outrage from animal rights activists. They advocate mass sterilisation drives as a more humane alternative to killing the dogs en masse.

(With inputs from ANI)New Delhi: The Congress on Wednesday dubbed the arrest of senior leader P Chidambaram's son Karti a "diversionary tactic" by the government to hide its scams.

It added that "vendetta" would not deter the party from speaking the truth.

Several Congress leaders, including the party's communications in-charge Randeep Surjewala and Kapil Sibal spoke out against Karti's arrest.

It was a "classical diversionary tactic" to hide "corruption scams, mal-governance and mal-administration that have marred this government", Surjewala said.

"The Congress party will not be deterred by unleashing of vendetta against P Chidambaram or his family. We will continue to speak the truth. We will continue to expose the Modi government's corruption and we will continue to hold them accountable to people of the country," he told reporters.

Senior Congress leader Sibal also termed the arrest "malafide" and said it was done to harass P Chidambaram. "This is complete vendetta politics, this is completely malafide," he said.

Sibal challenged the agencies to produce evidence against Karti. "They are always misusing the law," he said.

Karti was arrested at Chennai airport around 8 am on Wednesday when he returned from the United Kingdom. An FIR filed by the CBI on May 15, 2017, had alleged irregularities in the FIPB clearance to INX Media for receiving overseas funds to the tune of Rs 305 crore in 2007 when Chidambaram was Union finance minister.

It is alleged that Karti received funds to the tune of Rs 10 lakh in the case, officials said, PTI reported.

"Modi governments mask of corruption crusader lies in shambles with successive scams getting uncovered over last 45 months and zero action against fraudsters. Post-escape of Lalit Modi, Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi have fled the country, duping 30 banks of Rs 22,606 crore and common people of an estimated Rs 5,000 crore through ponzi money for gold schemes. PNB alone, as on yesterday (Tuesday), estimated its loss at US$ 2 billion or Rs 13,000 crore. Add to this, the Rotomac bank scam of Rs 3,695 crore and defrauding of OBC of Rs 390 crore by Dwarka Dass Seth International Private Limited, it is clear that jandhan loot scams of Rs 31,691 crore have been exposed over last 10 days," the Congress' statement said.

"To divert attention and distract the narrative, Prime Minister, Narendra Modi and his government are following their old trick in the book of using political witch hunt, vendetta and malicious intent to deflect the heat from unprecedented bank scams, loss to public exchequer caused by the culture of crony capitalism. Political persecution of P Chidambaram and arrest of his son, Karti by a puppet CBI acting to serve the agenda of its political masters is nothing but a cog in this wheel," it added.

The Congress statement further said, "The FIPB approval was granted on 18.05.2007. FIR was lodged in May, 2017 i.e. after 10 years. CBI interrogated Karti Chidambaram twice in August, 201 and he cooperated fully. Yet out of the blue, arrest has been made on 28th February 2018 i.e. nearly after 11 years. FIR does not name Karti Chidambaram as an accused. Modi governments/CBI charge is that a sum of Rs 10 lakh was given by cheque to M/s Advantage Strategic Consulting (P Ltd) towards management consultancy charges by M/s INX Media Private Limited for FIPB approval. Neither P Chidambaram or Karti Chidambaram or any other family member has ever been a shareholder or director or investor in either of the two companies. Advantage Strategic Consulting (P Ltd) agrees receiving the consultancy money and has reflected the same in its income tax return. Simple question is how does it establish any culpability on part of Karti Chidambaram."

"...P Chidambaram has always maintained that none of his family members ever had any intervention in the functioning of his ministry or of FIPB in any manner. Karti Chidambaram has categorically stated that he has no connection with FIB nor met any person, who is a member of or connected to FIPB in any manner whatsoever. In light thereof, CBI hasnt been able to remotely establish any culpability. The absurdity of the allegation can be gauged from the fact that it is being alleged that inducement was given not to take money out of the country but to bring money into the country as an investment. Be that as it may, what connection does it have to P Chidambaram or his family members has not been disclosed. P Chidambaram and his son have already filed a case in the Supreme Court. It was last heard on 23rd February, 2018 and has been adjourned to 6th March, 2018. Isnt this, then, a prelude to preventing adjudication?... Congress party and its leadership will not be deterred for speaking truth to the power and asking the government to hold itself accountable in peoples court."

(With PTI inputs)NEW DELHI: The arrest of Congress leader Karti Chidambaram has predictably unleashed a war of words between the Congress and BJP. Even as the Congress cried vendetta, the BJP said the case for Karti's arrest was straightforward.

Sources in the BJP were quoted as saying that there is nothing surprising about Karti's arrest, and that the case against him was 'open and shut'. They said the investigation agencies were only doing their job. "Politics should not be done. This is a legal matter. No one is bigger than the Constitution," said BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra.

Karti was arrested by the CBI from Chennai Airport on Wednesday morning in relation to the case over the approval given by the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) for receipt of funds to INX Media. The event in question had happened while Karti's father, P Chidambaram, was Union Finance Minister.

"Congress will not be deterred by unleashing of vendetta against P Chidambaram and his family. We will continue to bring out the truth," said Congress spokesperson Randeep Surjewala.

"Karti Chidambaram arrested by CBI. Is Modi still trying to distract from #NiravModiLootsIndia via headline management?" tweeted Swati Chaturvedi, another Congress spokesperson.

Karti Chidambaram arrested by CBI. Is Modi still trying to distract from #NiravModiLootsIndia via headline management?  Swati Chaturvedi (@bainjal) February 28, 2018

In another tweet, she added that more such arrests of Congress leaders could be expected in coming months. "Expect some "political action" from the caged parrot CBI in general election season post the collapse of the 2 G case & #NiravModiLoot as Bjp scrambles to retain anti corruption plank," she said.

Expect some "political action" from the caged parrot CBI in general election season post the collapse of the 2 G case & #NiravModiLoot as Bjp scrambles to retain anti corruption plank https://t.co/GT9eyB4zmg  Swati Chaturvedi (@bainjal) February 28, 2018

Congress leaders said the arrest should have been handled differently. "Mr Karti Chidambaram was arrested when he landed at Chennai airport, he was not trying to escape from India like Nirav Modi then arresting him on his arrival at airport is funny. Karti Chidambaram was cooperating the CBI, the CBI could have summoned him," said senior Congress leader and former Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot.

Mr Karti Chidambaram was arrested when he landed at Chennai airport, he was not trying to escape from India like Nirav Modi then arresting him on his arrival at airport is funny. Karti Chidambaram was cooperating the CBI, the CBI could have summoned him.  Ashok Gehlot (@ashokgehlot51) February 28, 2018

The CBI has alleged that Karti received money from INX Media for using his influence to manipulate a tax probe against it in a case of violation of Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) conditions to receive investment from Mauritius.NEW DELHI: Congress leader Karti Chidambram was on Wednesday arrested by the CBI from Chennai for violating the Foreign Exchange Managament Act (FEMA).

Karti was arrested from Chennai Airport, news agency ANI reported. He appears to have been arrested as soon as he landed in Chennai. He had been on a visit to the United Kingdom, specifically his alma mater at Cambridge University. He had sought permission from the Madras High Court last week to travel abroad.

This case relates to the approval given by the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) for receipt of funds to INX Media, which had happened while his father P Chidambaram was Union Finance Minister.

The central probe had registered an Enforcement Case Information Report (ECIR), the EDs equivalent of a police FIR, against the accused named in a CBI complaint, including Karti Chidambaram, INX Media and its directors -- Peter and Indrani Mukerjea.

The ECIR was lodged under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).

It was the Enforcement Directorate which had provided information about the alleged illegal payments made by INX Media, based on which the CBI had filed its FIR.

The CBI had also carried out searches at the houses and offices of Karti Chidambaram across four cities for allegedly receiving money from the media firm owned by the Mukerjeas to scuttle a tax probe.

The Chidambarams, however, have denied all the charges made against them.

The CBI had filed the FIR against Karti and the Mukerjeas on charges of criminal conspiracy, cheating, receiving illegal gratification, influencing public servants and criminal misconduct.

The agency has alleged that Karti received money from INX Media for using his influence to manipulate a tax probe against it in a case of violation of Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) conditions to receive investment from Mauritius.

The CBI FIR was made out against Karti, his company Chess Management Services, the Mukerjeas (currently in jail on charges of murder of their daughter Sheena Bora), INX Media, Advantage Strategic Consulting Services and its director Padma Vishwanathan.

(With inputs from ANI)The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Wednesday produced Congress leader Karti Chidambaram before a special court in Delhi, hours after he was arrested at Chennai airport for allegedly violating the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA).

During the hearing in the court, the CBI stated that Karti Chidambaram has been evasive in his replies and investigation. The CBI further said, He made incorrect statements with respect to evidence. All this delays the conclusion of investigation.

Responding to this, Congress leader and lawyer Abhishek Manu Singhvi, who appeared for Karti, termed the allegations by the CBI as bizarre. Alleging that the arrest is motivated, he said, "He hasn't been given a single summon in last six months." Dismissing allegations made by CBI that he is not cooperating, Singhvi pointed that the last summon issued against Karti was in August 2017.

Karti Chidambaram, son for former home minister and veteran Congress leader P Chidambaram, was arrested from Chennai Airport soon after his flight from United Kingdom landed in the Tamil Nadu capital. He had been on a visit to the United Kingdom, specifically his alma mater at Cambridge University. He had sought permission from the Madras High Court last week to travel abroad.

His arrest triggered a war of words between the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party, with the former alleging vendetta. The BJP, however, asserted that the Congress leaders arrest was straightforward.

Sources in the BJP were quoted as saying that there is nothing surprising about Karti's arrest, and that the case against him was 'open and shut'. They said the investigation agencies were only doing their job. "Politics should not be done. This is a legal matter. No one is bigger than the Constitution," said BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra.

The Congress, meanwhile, said that it would not be deterred with the vendetta against Chidambaram and his family. Party spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala said, "Congress will not be deterred by unleashing of vendetta against P Chidambaram and his family. We will continue to bring out the truth."

Another Congress spokesperson, Priyanka Chaturvedi, targeted Prime Minister Narendra Modi tweeting, "Karti Chidambaram arrested by CBI. Is Modi still trying to distract from #NiravModiLootsIndia via headline management?"

The CBI has alleged that Karti received money from INX Media for using his influence to manipulate a tax probe against it in a case of violation of Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) conditions to receive investment from Mauritius.The Patiala House Court in Delhi on Wednesday sent Congress leader Karti Chidambaram to one-day police custody. This came hours after the Congress leader was arrested at Chennai airport by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), and later produced before the court in Delhi.

The court ordered the custody of Karti after the CBI argued in the court that the Congress leader has been evasive in his replies and investigation. The CBI further said, He made incorrect statements with respect to evidence. All this delays the conclusion of investigation.

Responding to this, Congress leader and lawyer Abhishek Manu Singhvi, who appeared for Karti, termed the allegations by the CBI as bizarre. Alleging that the arrest is motivated, he said, "He hasn't been given a single summon in last six months." Dismissing allegations made by CBI that he is not cooperating, Singhvi pointed that the last summon issued against Karti was in August 2017.

Karti Chidambaram, son for former home minister and veteran Congress leader P Chidambaram, was arrested from Chennai Airport soon after his flight from United Kingdom landed in the Tamil Nadu capital. He had been on a visit to the United Kingdom, specifically his alma mater at Cambridge University. He had sought permission from the Madras High Court last week to travel abroad.

His arrest triggered a war of words between the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party, with the former alleging vendetta. The BJP, however, asserted that the Congress leaders arrest was straightforward.

Sources in the BJP were quoted as saying that there is nothing surprising about Karti's arrest, and that the case against him was 'open and shut'. They said the investigation agencies were only doing their job. "Politics should not be done. This is a legal matter. No one is bigger than the Constitution," said BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra.

The Congress, meanwhile, said that it would not be deterred with the vendetta against Chidambaram and his family. Party spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala said, "Congress will not be deterred by unleashing of vendetta against P Chidambaram and his family. We will continue to bring out the truth."New Delhi: Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti met Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday.

During the hour-long meeting, Mufti briefed the PM on the security situation in the Valley as well as along the border with Pakistan, which has been witnessing heavy cross-border firing and continuous attempts of infiltration by militants, an official said.

The two leaders also discussed the ongoing peace initiatives undertaken by the Centre's representative, Dineshwar Sharma, the official added, as per PTI.

PM Modi and the CM also discussed various aspects of the implementation of the Rs 1 lakh crore package for J&K, which was announced by the Prime Minister in 2015.

The central government has already sanctioned a total of Rs 62,599 crore of the package.

Later the J&K CM tweeted:

Met @PMOIndia @narendramodi to discuss reconciliation between regions, parties & countries. Also spoke about the timely implementation of AoA & how to ensure better coordination in the coalition to further deliver results to the people of J&K.  Mehbooba Mufti (@MehboobaMufti) February 28, 2018

Meanwhile, on Monday, the General Officer Commanding of the Army's Srinagar-based Chinar Corps, Lt Gen AK Bhatt, had said a large number of terrorists were waiting at launching pads across the Line of Control (LoC) to cross over into Kashmir and that the ceasefire violations by Pakistan were an attempt to facilitate the entry of the infiltrators.

There were 515 incidents of infiltration in Jammu and Kashmir in 2017, in which 75 militants were killed. In 2016, there were 454 such cases, in which 45 militants were killed.

In January alone, eight civilians and six security personnel were killed and around 70 injured in ceasefire violations by Pakistani troops along the Indo-Pak border in the Jammu region.

The Pakistani troops had carried out intense shelling along the International Border (IB) in Jammu, Kathua and Samba districts and from across the LoC in Poonch and Rajouri districts between January 18 and January 22, 2018.

While no ceasefire violation by Pakistan was reported along the IB since January 22, intermittent shelling has taken place along the LoC.

(With PTI inputs)New Delhi: The Pakistani Army is planting IEDs at their own post to counter Indian Army's reply to their shelling and ceasefire violations.

As per a Zee Media report, the Pakistani Army has asked their units deployed at Line Of Control (LoC) to plant IEDs at their own post. They have formed special units to execute the task.

The Pakistani Army reportedly had a meeting with officials of ISI recently and a decision was taken to lay IEDs at many locations of their post to possibly counter Indian Army.

Meanwhile, on Monday, the General Officer Commanding of the Army's Srinagar-based Chinar Corps, Lt Gen AK Bhatt, had said a large number of terrorists were waiting at launching pads across the LoC to cross over into Jammu and Kashmir and that the ceasefire violations by Pakistan were an attempt to facilitate the entry of the infiltrators.

There were 515 incidents of infiltration in J&K in 2017, in which 75 terrorists were killed. In 2016, there were 454 such cases, in which 45 terrorists were killed.

In January alone, eight civilians and six security personnel were killed and around 70 injured in ceasefire violations by Pakistani troops along the Indo-Pak border in the Jammu region.

The Pakistani troops had carried out intense shelling along the International Border (IB) in Jammu, Kathua and Samba districts and from across the LoC in Poonch and Rajouri districts between January 18 and January 22, 2018.

While no ceasefire violation by Pakistan was reported along the IB since January 22, intermittent shelling has taken place along the LoC.

(With PTI inputs)New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Jordan's King Abdullah II bin Al-Hussein will hold talks on Thursday on bilateral ties.

Palestinian issue and ways to deal with terrorism, radicalisation and extremism are likely to figure prominently in the deliberations, PTI quoted official sources as saying.

King Abdullah arrived in India on February 27, 2018, on a three-day visit. He was accorded a grand welcome with Prime Minister Narendra Modi receiving him at the airport, in a special gesture.

The Jordanian King's visit comes nearly three weeks after PM Modi travelled to Jordan as part of his trip to West Asia, including Palestine.

Meanwhile, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj on Wednesday called on King Abdullah and discussed with him ways to enhance bilateral ties in a range of sectors.

On the other hand, the Union Cabinet on Wednesday gave its nod to sign a host of pacts with Jordan, including cooperation in the field of health, manpower, customs and mining.

It approved signing a MoU with Jordan on cooperation and mutual administrative assistance in customs matters. This will help in the availability of relevant information for prevention and investigation of offences related to customs violation.

"The agreement is also expected to facilitate trade and ensure efficient clearance of goods traded between the countries," an official statement said.

The Union Cabinet, chaired by the Prime Minister, also gave its approval for a pact for cooperation between India and Jordan in the field of manpower.

The pact aims at enhancing collaboration between the two sides in promoting best practices in the administration of contractual employment, reflect the latest reforms in recruitment processes and enhance protection and welfare of Indian workers in Jordan.

"Collaboration between the two sides in use of online portal for recruitment of Indian manpower is expected to usher in greater transparency and curb malpractices in the recruitment process," the statement said.

The Cabinet also gave its approval for cooperation between the two countries in health and medical science and will cover areas like Universal Health Coverage (UHC), health system governance, services and information technology in health, among others.

The areas also include health research, national health statistics, health finance and economy, chronic disease control, tobacco control, diagnosis, treatment and medication in tuberculosis and regulation of pharmaceuticals and medical devices.

(With PTI inputs)New Delhi/Mumbai: The CBI has written a mail to jeweller Nirav Modi on his official email address asking him to join the investigation. Replying to the investigative agency, he said, "we have businesses abroad so I can't join the investigation."

The CBI is reported to have again written to Nirav Modi to contact the High Commission of the concerned country and told him that the agency will arrange his travel.

They have directed him to join investigation next week saying it was mandatory.

Meanwhile, earlier, the diamond trader, a key accused in the alleged PNB fraud which is now pegged at close to USD 2 billion, faced more heat on Tuesday with the Enforcement Directorate (ED) moving a court for a non-bailable warrant (NBW) and another court issuing summons to him in a tax evasion case.

As Nirav Modi's international jewellery business Firestar Diamond filed a bankruptcy plea in the US, officials said the CBI questioned the CEO and the MD of Allahabad Bank Usha Ananthasubramanian in the Punjab National Bank fraud case that allegedly involved him and his uncle Mehul Choksi.

Ananthasubramanian was the Managing Director and the CEO of PNB since August 14, 2015, before being appointed in Allahabad Bank on May 6, 2017.

In Mumbai, Special PMLA Court Judge MS Azmi heard the arguments of ED's special counsel Hiten Venegoankar on Tuesday on the agency's plea seeking issuance of the NBW against Nirav Modi who is believed to be in the US.

Venegoankar told the court the ED registered a case against Nirav Modi on February 15 and from that time issued three summonses to him to appear before the agency.

He said the summonses were issued on February 15, February 17 and February 22, asking him to appear before the ED on February 16, February 22 and February 26, respectively.

The ED lawyer said Nirav Modi did not appear before the agency for questioning and hence it has sought issuance of an NBW was against him.

A local court in Mumbai issued summons against Nirav Modi in connection with an income tax evasion probe against him and his companies, officials said.

They said the court of Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate issued the summons and asked Nirav Modi to appear before it on March 12.

The court issued the notice after the Income Tax Department had last week filed a chargesheet against him for alleged evasion of taxes and the court took cognisance of it on Tuesday.

The chargesheet was filed under sections 276 C (1) (wilful attempt to evade tax), 277 A (false statement in verification), 278 B (offences by companies) and 278 E (presumption as to culpable mental state) of the Income Tax Act, 1961.

On questioning of Ananthasubramanian, a CBI official said in Delhi that agency wants to get clarifications from her as to how huge transactions were bypassing surveillance system in the PNB and whether audit reports were red flagging these transactions.

The 60-year-old banker, who was recently elected as the chief of Indian Banks' Association, had held senior positions in the PNB where Modi and Choksi were allegedly getting fraudulent guarantees since 2011.

The PNB has said that the alleged fraud perpetrated by Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi may be around USD 2 billion, over USD 204 million more than previously estimated.

In a late night filing to stock exchanges on Tuesday, the state-owned lender said that "the quantum of reported unauthorised transactions can increase by USD 204.25 million."

The bank had earlier put the defrauded amount at Rs 11,394.02 crore (USD 1.77 billion). Adding another Rs 1,323 crore would take this to Rs 12,717 crore.

(With PTI inputs)New Delhi: February 28, 2018, marks the 55th death anniversary of India's first President Rajendra Prasad.

Born on December 3, 1884, at Ziradei village in Siwan district of Bihar, Prasad, a trained advocate, joined the Indian National Congress and the Independence Movement.

A trained lawyer, he was elected the President of the Constituent Assembly, which prepared the Constitution of India and then re-elected in 1957, making him the only President to serve two full terms.

He passed away on February 28, 1963, and was cremated at Bans Ghat in Patna, where a memorial  Rajendra Smriti Sangrahalaya  has been constructed in his name.

Let's have a look at some facts on Dr Rajendra Prasad:

Dr Rajendra Prasad did his early studies in Chhapra, Bihar and he completed the rest of his education in Calcutta.

He learned the Persian language, Hindi, and arithmetic at the age of five after his parents placed him under the tutelage of a Moulavi, an accomplished Muslim scholar.

He had a habit of sleeping early in his childhood and he used to wake up early in the morning. According to his autobiography, despite many efforts to stay up late, he used to go to sleep by eight o'clock in the night.

He got married to Rajvanshi Devi at the early age of 12.

After his marriage, Prasad went to study at T.K. Ghosh's Academy in Patna for a period of two years. He secured the first rank in the entrance examination to the University of Calcutta and was awarded Rs 30 per month as a scholarship.

As a teacher, Rajendra Prasad served in various educational institutions. After completing his M.A in economics, he became a professor of English at the Langat Singh College of Muzaffarpur in (Bihar) and went on to become the principal.

In 1909, while pursuing his law studies in Kolkata he also worked as Professor of Economics at Calcutta City College.

In 1915, Prasad appeared in the examination of Masters in Law, passed the examination and won a gold medal. He completed his Doctorate in Law from Allahabad University in 1937.

Prasad's first association with Indian National Congress was during 1906 annual session organized in Calcutta, where he participated as a volunteer while studying in Calcutta.

He was elected as the President of the Indian National Congress during the Bombay session in October 1934. He again became the President when Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose resigned in 1939.

On 8 August 1942, Congress passed the Quit India Resolution in Bombay which led to the arrest of many Indian leaders, including Rajendra Prasad, who was arrested from Sadaqat Ashram, Patna and sent to Bankipur Central Jail.

On September 2, 1946, under the leadership of Jawaharlal Nehru, Rajendra Prasad got the Food and Agriculture department, after the formation of Interim Government of 12 nominated ministers. He was later elected the President of Constituent Assembly on December 11, 1946.

He was re-elected Congress President for the third time on November 17, 1947, after JB Kripalani resigned.

In 1962, after serving twelve years as the President, he announced his decision to retire.

After his retirement, he was awarded the Bharat Ratna, the nation's highest civilian honour.Spiritual guru and Art of Living founder Sri Sri Ravishankar has said that a solution to the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid Ayodhya dispute is not possible in the court of law. He said that while one party will lose the case in the court and accept the verdict initially, they will again make noise about the same in future.

Sri Sri further said that an out-of-court amicable settlement was the best way to resolve the dispute. Hitting out at his critics, the AOL founder said that everyone has the right exhibit their lack of knowledge.

Sri Sris attempts for out-of-court settlement in the Ayodhya dispute has been opposed from various counters. While the Babri Action Committee asked Sri Sri to stay away from Ayodhya dispute, some politicians have also rejected his offer to mediate.

Earlier, the AOL founder had asked Hindus and Muslims to come together and solve the centuries-old dispute. I am speaking to many stakeholders. Both the communities should come together. Out of court settlement is the best, he had said.

Sri Sri has claimed that most Muslims are not opposing the construction of Ram temple in Ayodhya. "I know some may not agree with this, but Muslims by and large are not opposing the Ram temple," he said, further adding that a solution may sometimes seem impossible "but our people, youth and leaders of both communities can make it possible."

The Supreme Court began the final hearing in the Babri Masjid-Ram Janmabhoomi case on December 5, 2017.

The Supreme Court bench, headed by Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra, had said that it would deal with the instant matter as a "pure land dispute". The special bench of the apex court was seized of a total 14 appeals filed against the high court judgement delivered in four civil suits, PTI reported.

A three-judge bench of the Allahabad HC, in a 2:1 majority ruling, had in 2010 ordered that the land be partitioned equally among three parties - the Sunni Waqf Board, the Nirmohi Akhara and Ram Lalla.San Francisco: While Google`s rise has helped its parent company Alphabet break all revenue records, Google`s Indian-born CEO Sundar Pichai neither receives any financial information about Alphabet`s "Other Bets" nor has any decision-making power over them.

In newly-released government documents to the US Security and Exchange Commission (SEC) and reported by CNBC late Monday, Alphabet has published details about the structure of its overall businesses.

"Pichai also does not have authority over Alphabet`s overall resource allocation to Google," the report said, quoting from the Alphabet`s letter to SEC.

However, when it comes to Google, Pichai receives weekly and quarterly reports which include individual financial information for Google product areas.

These reports include YouTube, advertising and hardware and operating results, capital expenditures and headcount for Google.

"Neither Alphabet CEO Larry Page nor his co-founder, Alphabet President Sergey Brin, receive the weekly and quarterly reports received by Pichai," the SEC document said.

Without Page`s approval, Pichai can commit Google to non-standard licensing or similar arrangements, investments, mergers and acquisitions.

"Although Susan Wojcicki and Diane Greene both have "CEO" titles within Google, for YouTube and Cloud respectively, Pichai is the only Google executive who reports directly to and maintains regular contact with Page," said the report.

The Alphabet CEO receives regular financial information about every Alphabet company but doesn`t allocate resources to individual product areas within Google or within individual "Other Bets".

"Other Bets" holds 11 different companies, which includes self-driving car unit Waymo and healthcare arm Verily.

"Page proposes compensation for Google CEO Pichai and all aOther Beta CEOs, but no other executives below that," the report added.London: Google has received more than 2.4 million requests to remove URLs from its Search under Europe's "Right to be Forgotten" laws since they were introduced in May 2014.

In a landmark ruling, the European Court of Justice established the "right to be forgotten," or more accurately, the "right to delist", allowing Europeans to ask search engines to delist information about themselves from search results.

"Since 2014, we've provided information about "right to be forgotten" delisting requests in our Transparency Report, including the number of URLs submitted to us, the number of URLs delisted and not delisted, and anonymised examples of some of the requests we have received," Michee Smith, Product Lead, Google Transparency Report, said in a blog post.

In deciding what to delist, search engines like Google must consider if the information in question is "inaccurate, inadequate, irrelevant or excessive" -- and whether there is a public interest in the information remaining available in search results.

"We're expanding the scope of our transparency reporting about the "right to be forgotten" and adding new data going back to January 2016 when our reviewers started manually annotating each URL submitted to us with additional information," Smith added.

About a third of the removal requests were related to social media and directory services, while around 21 per cent were URLs related to news outlets and government websites that mostly covered someone's legal history, The Verge reported on Wednesday.

According to Google, it shows a breakdown of the requests made by private individuals vs. non-private individuals -- like government officials or corporate entities.

"We classify the content that the individual has asked us to delist into a set of categories: personal information, professional information, crime, and name not found, meaning that we were not able to find the individual's name on the page," Smith further said.

"When we evaluate a URL for potential delisting, we classify the website that hosts the page as a directory site, news site, social media, or other," he added.

Google has also released draft of a new research paper called "Three Years of the Right to be Forgotten" which has been submitted for peer review.SRINAGAR: Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti today welcomed the Centre's decision to slash airfare for Hajj pilgrimage this year.

The reduction, announced by the Union Minority Affairs Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi yesterday, will be applicable to passages on Air India, Saudi Airlines and Flynas, an air carrier based in Saudi Arabia, to Jeddah and Medina from 21 airports in India.

"I welcome the decision of the central government and thank @narendramodi ji for substantially reducing the airfare for Hajj pilgrims from India from this year," Mehbooba tweeted.

The chief minister said this will help many more Muslims "experience the holy pilgrimage to Kaaba".

Notably, the central government in January had abolished subsidies given to those on the pilgrimage in view of a 2012 Supreme Court order.Lucknow, Feb 27 (PTI) Uttar Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya today urged the electorate to ensure that Kaushalendra Singh Patel, the BJP's candidate for the bypoll to Phulpur parliamentary constituency, wins the election.

Gorakhpur and Phulpur Lok Sabha constituencies were vacated by Chief Minister Adityanath and his deputy Maurya respectively after they became members of the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Council.

Voting for Lok Sabha bypolls there will be held on 11 March, while counting of votes will be held on March 14.

Addressing an election meeting in Phulpur Lok Sabha constituency, he said, "If Uttar Pradesh has to become 'sarvottam pradesh' (best state), then a pledge has to be taken to ensure that lotus blooms here."

Lotus is the election symbol of the BJP.

At the election meeting, state Cabinet minister Brijesh Pathak, said, "You (youths) will have to play a significant role in ensuring historic win, which the party will experience on March 14."

"Both the SP and Congress were governments of scams, and both of them are out of state and Centre. Both the parties are known for nepotism and dynastic politics. Their chances of staging a comeback is virtually impossible," he said.MUMBAI: The opposition Congress and NCP today criticised the BJP-led Maharashtra government in the state Assembly for not providing relief to farmers whose crops were affected by the 'pink bollworm' during the kharif season.

However, the members of the treasury benches alleged that the opposition was "shedding crocodile tears" over farmers' issues.

As soon as the House assembled for the day, Leader of Opposition Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil, Prithviraj Chavan (of the Congress) and Jayant Patil (NCP) sought a discussion on the issue.

They alleged that there were contradictions between the state's assurance during the winter session of the Legislature in December last year and a Government Resolution (GR) issued earlier this month over the compensation issue.

They said their adjournment notice on the issue should be taken up for discussion.

To this, Speaker Haribhau Bagde said a debate on the hailstorm and unseasonal rains affecting crops was listed on the agenda, but he was willing to suspend the Question Hour and take up an immediate discussion on the farmers' problems.

However, the opposition members said their issue was specific to the "contradictions" between the GR and the assurance given in the House last year, and not related to the debate initiated by the treasury benches.

Vikhe Patil said the opposition was ready for a debate, but the Congress and the NCP members continued to shout slogans against the government for its alleged apathy towards the farmers.

Jayant Patil said there should a debate on their adjournment notice -- of no compensation to farmers whose crops were affected by the pink bollworm (a crop pest) -- and not the one listed on the agenda by the treasury benches.

Amid the din, the speaker rejected their demand and adjourned the House for 10 minutes.

Later, when the House reassembled, the presiding officer again adjourned it for 15 minutes as the opposition members continued to shout slogans against the government.

When the House resumed later, a debate began on the farmers' crops suffering damages due to the unseasonal rains and the hailstorm earlier this month.

The government had in December last year given an assurance in the House that a compensation would be given to farmers whose crops were affected by the pink bollworm during the last kharif season.

Later on February 23, prior to the commencement of the budget session, the revenue department issued a GR saying the compensation would be given from the state disaster relief fund.

Chavan and Vikhe Patail said despite the assurance, the farmers whose crops were affected by the pink bollworm during the last kharif season were yet to get a compensation.?

However, the members of the treasury benches said the opposition was shedding crocodile tears over farmers' issues.New Delhi: Popular international star Zayn Malik has a strong fan base in India. His fondness for Shah Rukh Khan has been talked about much. Also, remember the coolest selfie which had SRK and Zayn together? Well, it sent the fans into a tizzy and Twitterati couldn't keep calm for days.

Now, the international sensation shared a small video of him singing Kailash Kher's popular track 'Teri Deewani'. Zayn's rendition on guitar will literally give you goosebumps and oh boy how we wish he would fly to India.

WATCH the video here:

Tere deewani by zayn A post shared by Zayn Malik (@zayn) on Feb 26, 2018 at 3:19pm PST

The video has already got 775,668 likes on Instagram as of now and it's just been a day since he posted. The social media is abuzz with Zayn's rendition of 'Teri Deewani' and we can't wait to hear him sing more of Hindi songs.

Sometime back, Zayn, who was formerly a member of popular boy band One Direction took to his Instagram account and shared a major throwback picture of his father.

The adorable picture has Zayn's daddy posing with none other than the legendary Dilip Kumar. Yes! It's possibly a rare gem, you can't afford to miss.

Zayn is currently dating supermodel Gigi Hadid and the duo looks stunning together.

In 2015, King Khan met Zayn at the fifth annual Asian Awards held in London to collect their respective trophies. SRK flew to London to be a part of the awards ceremony and personally accepted his award for Outstanding Contribution to Cinema.

This was Zayn's first public appearance post his separation from the 1D boy band. Well, it was the golden tweet of that year, and rightly so!Mumbai: One of Indian cinemas most talented artistes  Sridevi  was cremated with full State Honours today at the Vile Parle Seva Samaj Crematorium. Family, friends and fans bid tearful adieu to Indias first female superstar, who won a million hearts across the globe by her spellbinding performances in a career spanning over 5 decades.

Sridevis passing away is an irreplaceable loss to the entire nation. The untimely demise of the beloved actress had plunged the country and millions of her fans worldwide in a state of shock and disbelief.

The Kapoor, Ayyappan and Marwah families issued a joint statement Wednesday evening remembering Sridevi.

Excerpts from the statement:

Past few days have been trying times for us. Today, particularly, has been one of the hardest. We laid to rest a beautiful soul who has gone too soon. She leaves behind a legacy that is unique. Sridevi had same connect with her family. Let us all who loved Sridevi, envelope her two little ones, her life, as she often called them, with as much or more love than we gave Sri so that they can live their lives ahead with a little less ache in their hearts.

Let's help them remember their mother fondly & help them build life & be what Sridevi had dreamt for them. We ask that you respect our privacy & allow us space to grieve. Sri lived her life with dignity& we implore, you give her the same respect."

Anil Kapoor, Sridevi's brother-in-law, took to Twitter to share a copy of the joint statement.

The veteran actress breathed her last on Saturday (February 24) at around 11 pm in Dubai. She died of drowning in the bathtub of room number 2201 of Jumeirah Emirates Towers Hotel after loss of consciousness the Dubai Police stated on Monday following the completion of post-mortem autopsy conducted on the late actress.

Sridevi was in Ras Al Khaimah in UAE last week, along with husband Boney Kapoor, younger daughter Khushi and other relatives to attend nephew Mohit Marwahs wedding ceremony.New Delhi: Actor Rani Mukerji today remembered Bollywood diva Sridevi as a "guiding light" in her life, saying her untimely death is the most painful thing she has dealt with after her father's demise.

The actor said she felt close to Sridevi, known has India's first female superstar, considered her an "inspiration personally and professionally."

"For me it's the most painful thing I have dealt with after my dad's passing away. And her face is coming in front of me again and again. The love she had for me was so tremendous and intense that I feel somewhere I have lost a guiding light in my life.

"She has been my inspiration personally and professionally. She was very close to me. She was like my 'maasi'. She was someone I looked up to. I just feel there is one more person I have lost in my life I loved and who loved me back," Rani told PTI.

The 54-year-old actor passed away in her hotel room in the Jumeirah Emirates Towers late on Saturday.Mumbai: Three days after Sridevi's shocking demise in Dubai, condolences from the film fraternity continued to pouring in on Tuesday.

After visiting the grieving family, Bappi Lahiri said he worked in 11 Silver Jubilee films with the deceased actress, who was "the one and only lady superstar".

"I still can`t believe she is no more with us, my heart sinks thinking about it."

He said that he would like to dedicate the song "Kabhi Alvida Na Kehna" to her memory. "Never say goodbye! She will always remain an integral part of our industry. She will always remain our superstar."

The 54-year-old actress died due to "accidental drowning" in her hotel bathtub in Dubai on Saturday night. She was there with husband Boney Kapoor and younger daughter Khushi Kapoor to attend nephew Mohit Marwah`s wedding last week.

Waheeda Rehman, who shared screen space with Sridevi in films like "Chandani", "Himmatwala" and "Lamhe", was seen at Anil`s Kapoor`s Juhu residence. Anupam Kher and "Welcome" director Anees Bazmee were also spotted there, besides "Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhania" director Shashank Khaitan.

Sara Ali Khan was also seen at Anil Kapoor's residence. Ramesh Sippy with wife Kiran Juneja, Akshay Kumar, Madhur Bhandarkar and actress Katrina Kaif also visited the mourning family on Tuesday.

Tamil actress and politician Khushboo Sundar said she still cannot believe that Sridevi is no more. "I am numbed, it`s yet to sink in that she is no more with us. Most of us are still in denial mode...the most beautiful actor who could put any hero to shame with her charm and talent. Gone too soon.

"Warm and beautiful person from within, her childlike laughter plays like a chime in my head. My heart goes out to her husband Boneyji and their two young daughters on the threshold of what the mother always dreamt about. As a woman, she will continue to inspire the millions who have dreams in their eyes. She lived with dignity and commanded respect till the end."

The news of Sridevi's death was confirmed by brother-in-law Sanjay Kapoor late on Saturday (February 24) and ever since the entire nation and the film fraternity has not stopped mourning.

Sridevi' s body was handed over to her family on Tuesday by the Dubai Police authorities after conducting investigation into her death. Same evening, her body was flown back to Mumbai and her funeral is scheduled for Wednesday afternoon.While lakhs of government employees are waiting for the benefits of the 7th pay commission, reports have said that mid-level employees may not get much hike with the implementation of the same. According to a report in The Sen Times, Finance Ministry sources have said that theres disparity in benefits that employees from different categories are getting.

The report claims that the government has kept its focus largely on the employees who are either at the higher or at the lower end of pay scale. It also talks about the attempt by the government to reduce the number of employees in the middle level, by merging Group B officers and Group C staff of directorates under Central Board of Excise and Customs. The move was implemented on February 12.

Meanwhile, on the implementation of enhanced pay scale and fitment factor hike under 7th Pay Commission, reports have said that employees may hear some good news in April.

The Finance Ministry also reportedly has set up a panel that will take a final call on demands of these employees by April this year.

Reports have also added that the central government is working on a strategy to accomodate the concerns of lower-level employees of pay matrix between level 1 and 5 with reports coming in that it is contemplating hike in pay with fitment formula 3.00 times of basic pay of 6th pay commission.

The new scales of pay provide for entry-level basic pay going up from Rs 7,000 per month to Rs 18,000, while at the highest level i.e. Secretary, it would go up from Rs 90,000 to Rs 2.5 lakh. For Class 1 officers, the starting salary will be Rs 56,100.

However, the central government employee unions had demanded for hiking minimum pay of Rs 18,000 to Rs 26,000. They also demanded that fitment factor be raised from 2.57 times to 3.68 times.New Delhi: Science is an important part of our everyday life, even more so than we notice. From our fancy gadgets to the technologies we cant live without, from our humble light bulb to the space explorations, science has certainly changed the way we look at the world.

To honour those brilliant minds who have helped and are helping the nation progress scientifically, February 28 is celebrated as National Science Day in India.

February 28 marks the discovery of the Raman effect by Indian physicist Chandrashekhara Venkata Raman on the same day in 1928.

Let's have a look at seven Indian scientists who achieved global recognition:

CV Raman

Born in Tiruchirapalli on November 7, 1888, Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman became the first Asian and first non-White to receive a Nobel Prize in Science for his pioneering work on scattering of light in 1930.

Raman also worked on the acoustics of musical instruments. He was the first to investigate the harmonic nature of the sound of the Indian drums such as the tabla and the mridangam.

Known as the Raman effect, he discovered that, when light traverses a transparent material, some of the deflected light changes in wavelength. The phenomenon is also called the Raman scattering.

He died of natural causes on November 21, 1970.

Homi J Bhabha

Homi Jehangir Bhabha was born on October 30, 1909, in Bombay (now Mumbai) and played an important role in Quantum Theory.

He was the first Chairperson of the Atomic Energy Commission of India. He began his scientific career in nuclear physics from Great Britain, but then returned to India and played a key role in convincing the Congress Partys senior leaders, most notably Jawaharlal Nehru, to start the ambitious nuclear programme.

Bhabha is generally acknowledged as the father of Indian nuclear power, however, not many people are aware that he was absolutely against India manufacturing atomic bombs, even if the country had enough resources to do so. Instead, he was the one who suggested that the production of an atomic reactor should be used to lessen Indias misery and poverty.

He died when Air India Flight 101 crashed near Mont Blanc on January 24, 1966.

Visvesvaraya

Notable Indian engineer, scholar and statesman Sir Mokshagundam Visvesvaraya was born on September 15, 1860.

He was the Diwan of Mysore during 1912 to 1918 and a recipient of the Indian Republics highest honour, the Bharat Ratna.

He has inventions like automatic sluice gates and block irrigation system which are still considered to be marvels in engineering to his credit.

His birth anniversary each year is celebrated as Engineers Day in India.

Since river beds were costly, he came up with an efficient way of filtering water through Collector Wells in 1895 which was rarely seen anywhere in the world.

S Chandrashekhar

Born on October 19, 1910, in Lahore, British India, he was awarded the 1983 Nobel Prize in Physics for his mathematical theory of black holes. The Chandrasekhar limit is named after him. He was the nephew of CV Raman. In 1953, Chandrashekhar became a United States citizen.

His most celebrated work concerns the radiation of energy from stars, particularly white dwarf stars, which are the dying fragments of stars. He died on August 21, 1995, at the age of 82 in Chicago.

Srinivasa Ramanujan

A noted name in the field of Mathematics, Ramanujan was born on December 22, 1887, in Tamil Nadu.

A mathematician and autodictat, he had no formal training in pure mathematics but made extraordinary contributions to mathematical analysis, number theory, infinite series, and continued fractions.

By the young age of 11, he had exhausted the mathematical knowledge of two college students who were lodgers at his home. He was later lent a book on advanced trigonometry written by SL Loney. He completely mastered this book by the age of 13 and discovered sophisticated theorems on his own.

He faced a lot of health issues while living in England due to the scarcity of vegetarian food. He returned to India and died at a young age of 32.

Ramanujans home state of Tamil Nadu celebrates Ramanujans birth anniversary as State IT Day, memorializing both the man and his achievements.

Jagadish Chandra Bose

Acharya JC Bose was a man of many talents. Born on 30 November 1858 in Bikrampur, West Bengal, he was a polymath, physicist, biologist, botanist, and archaeologist.

He pioneered the study of radio and microwave optics, made important contributions to the study of plants and laid the foundation of experimental science in the Indian sub-continent.

Being the first person to use semiconductor junctions to detect radio signals, JC Bose demonstrated wireless communication for the first time.

Another of his well-known inventions is the crescograph, through which he measured plant response to various stimuli and hypothesized that plants can feel pain, understand affection etc.

He is considered the father of Bengali science fiction.

APJ Abdul Kalam

Avul Pakir Jainulabdeen Abdul Kalam, born on October 15, 1931, was an Indian scientist who worked as an Aerospace engineer with Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) and Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO).

Kalam started his career by designing a small helicopter for the Indian Army. Kalam was also part of the INCOSPAR committee working under Vikram Sarabhai, the renowned space scientist.

In 1969, Kalam was transferred to the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) where he was the project director of Indias first indigenous Satellite Launch Vehicle (SLV-III) which successfully deployed the Rohini satellite in near earths orbit in July 1980.

He served as the 11th President of India from 2002 to 2007. Kalam advocated plans to develop India into a developed nation by 2020 in his book India 2020.

He has received several prestigious awards, including the Bharat Ratna, Indias highest civilian honour. Known for his love for children, Kalam had set a goal of meeting 100,000 students in the 2 years after his resignation from the role of scientific adviser in 1999.

Kalam passed away at the age of 83 on July 25, 2015, due to cardiac arrest.

(Image credits: Wikipedia)New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi today greeted scientists on the National Science Day and also saluted science lovers.

"Greetings on National Science Day. I salute all science lovers and wish them the very best as they enhance their scientific zeal. India is extremely proud of our scientists", the Prime Minister said in his message.

Referring to the National Science Day in his monthly 'Mann ki Baat' radio address on Sunday, the PM had said that the relentless quest to ask questions for knowing the truth is very important.

"Never rest till every why, what, and, how are answered," he had said.Washington: Elon Musk's red Tesla car, that recently shot into space as part of SpaceX's rocket test flight, may have carried the largest load of earthly bacteria to ever enter space, scientists say.

NASA's Office of Planetary Protection makes sure that spacecraft planning to land on other planets are sterile, said researchers at Purdue University in the US.

Much like an invasive species, organisms from Earth could thrive on another planet and wipe out native organisms, they said.

"If there is an indigenous Mars biota, it is at risk of being contaminated by terrestrial life," said Jay Melosh, a professor at Purdue University.

Melosh said the Office of Planetary Protection does not regulate spacecraft that plan to stay in orbit.

The car was sent into space as part of the payload for SpaceX's Falcon Heavy test flight on February 6.

While rocket test flights usually have a dummy payload, SpaceX founder Musk sent up his personal Tesla Roadster instead.

Since the Tesla was never intended to land, it was not cleaned before takeoff, Melosh said.

"Even if they radiated the outside, the engine would be dirty," he said.

"Cars are not assembled clean. And even then, there is a big difference between clean and sterile," Melosh said.

The Tesla could potentially land on Mars, although it is unlikely, according to Melosh.

The car is in an orbit that crosses Earth's and Mars', and it will probably end up striking Earth, but it could be millions of years before that happens, he said.

"The load of bacteria on the Tesla could be considered a biothreat or a backup copy of life on Earth," said Alina Alexeenko, a professor at Purdue.

Extreme temperatures, low pressure, and unfiltered cosmic radiation make space an inhospitable environment for living organisms.

It does not always kill them, though  some bacteria go dormant in the vacuum of space and wake up again when conditions are right.Kabul: Afghan President Ashraf Ghani offered recognition of the Taliban as a legitimate political group, as part of a proposed political process that could lead to peace talks aimed at ending more than 16 years of war.

At a meeting on Wednesday of nations involved in the so-called Kabul Process, aimed at building a platform for peace talks, Ghani proposed a ceasefire and a release of prisoners, saying he would be ready to accept a review of the constitution as part of a pact with the Taliban.FORT LAUDERDALE: Students and teachers traumatized by one of the deadliest U.S. mass shootings ever were due back in classes on Wednesday for the first time since a gunman killed 17 people in their Florida high school two weeks ago.

Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in the affluent Fort Lauderdale suburb of Parkland, was scheduled to reopen its doors at 7:40 a.m. local time for a half-day schedule, though the building where most people died will remain closed indefinitely.

State legislators are considering a bill that would pay to demolish Building 12, widely known as the freshman building, and replace it with a memorial to the victims of the Feb. 14 massacre.

Teenage survivors of the carnage have launched an extraordinary student-led campaign to lobby lawmakers on Capitol Hill and the statehouse in Tallahassee for new restrictions on firearms.

But many express deep trepidation about returning to the scene of a shooting rampage that ranks as the second-deadliest act of gun violence at an American public school.

"Its just really hard to think about," David Hogg, a senior who has become one of the school`s leading gun-safety activists, told NBC News on Tuesday.

"Imagine getting in a plane crash and having to get back on the same plane again and again and again and being expected to learn and act like nothings wrong."

A former Stoneman Douglas student, Nikolas Cruz, 19, who authorities say was expelled last year for unspecified disciplinary problems and had numerous run-ins in the law, has been charged with 17 counts of premeditated murder.

As surviving students face a daunting return to the hallways and classrooms where classmates and teachers died, Cruz was due back in court on Wednesday for a hearing to determine whether he has the assets to pay for his own defence.

His mother died in November.

He is accused of carrying out the shooting rampage with a semiautomatic AR-15-style assault weapon that he legally purchased from a licensed gun dealer last year when he was 18 years of age.

Besides reigniting a national debate between advocates of tougher firearms restrictions and proponents of gun rights enshrined in the Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, the shooting has raised questions about the role of law enforcement in events leading up to the massacre.

The Broward County Sheriff`s Office and the Federal Bureau of Investigation have faced criticism that they failed to properly follow through on multiple tips warning that Cruz had the potential and capacity for deadly violence.

Sheriff Scott Israel has come under heavy criticism after disclosing that one of his armed deputies, assigned as the school resource officer, stayed outside of the building while it was under attack rather than make entry to confront the gunman.

The deputy later resigned rather than face disciplinary action, Israel said.

The sheriff has acknowledged his office is examining reports from a neighbouring police department that three more deputies who were present took cover outside the building with guns drawn rather than go to the school immediately.

Israel, a Democrat first elected sheriff in 2012, has said that calls for his removal by a group of 74 Republican state lawmakers is politically motivated and that he has no intention of stepping down.

On Tuesday in Tallahassee, the state capital, the House Appropriations Committee voted to raise the minimum legal age for purchasing all rifles to 21 from 18 and impose a three-day waiting period for any gun purchases. Buyers of handguns must already be at least 21 and submit to a three-day wait.

The measure would also create a statewide program to arm specially trained teachers - subject to school district approval - while assigning more police as school resource officers and allowing police to confiscate weapons from people who are involuntarily committed as a danger to themselves or others.

In addition, the measure would outlaw the sale of bump stocks, devices that enable semiautomatic rifles to be operated as fully automatic machine guns.

The panel rejected a Democratic-backed amendment to ban assault-style weapons, like the one used by the gunman in the Florida school attack.

The package must now win approval in the full Republican-controlled legislature before it goes to Governor Rick Scott, also a Republican, for his signature.Washington: US President Donald Trump launched a fresh attack on Wednesday against his attorney general, calling Jeff Sessions` decision to have the Justice Department inspector general - and not prosecutors - investigate alleged surveillance abuse "disgraceful."

Trump lashed out against Sessions on Twitter for assigning the probe of alleged government surveillance abuse to Inspector General Michael Horowitz and not to prosecutors.

Key Republican lawmakers balked at the president`s latest breach of the principle that holds that the Justice Department and the judiciary should be independent of the White House.

"Why is AG Sessions asking the Inspector General to investigate massive FISA abuse," Trump wrote, referring to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which regulates government monitoring of the communications of suspected foreign agents.

"Will take forever, has no prosecutorial power and already late with reports on Comey, etc.," Trump continued. "Isn`t the IG an Obama guy? Why not use Justice Department lawyers? Disgraceful."

Horowitz was sworn into his post in April 2012, during the Obama administration.

Trump has violated the principle of preserving judicial and prosecutorial independence numerous times, for example by promising to have his 2016 presidential opponent Hillary Clinton investigated and criticizing court decisions on his immigration policy.

Representative Peter King, a Republican member of the House of Representatives Intelligence Committee, criticized Trump for attacking Sessions.

"Not to incur the presidents wrath, but I wouldnt do that. Jeff Sessions is loyal to the president," King told Fox News.

Trey Gowdy, the Republican chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, defended Sessions` decision to refer the matter to Horowitz.

Horowitz "has been fair, fact-centric and appropriately confidential with his work," Gowdy said in a statement. "I have complete confidence in him."

Trump has previously attacked Sessions, mostly notably for recusing himself from the Justice Department investigation, headed by Special Counsel Robert Mueller, into whether there was collusion between Russia and Trump`s 2016 presidential election campaign.

Trump has repeatedly denied there was any collusion and Russia has said it did not meddle in the election, contradicting the assessment of senior U.S. security officials.

The president`s latest attack on Sessions came a day after Sessions said that he was referring to Horowitz the allegations of FISA surveillance abuses by the Republican chairman of the House of Representatives Intelligence Committee, Devin Nunes.

Nunes charged in a memo released on Feb. 2 that the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Justice Department improperly obtained a September 2016 FISA warrant to monitor the communications of Carter Page, a former Trump campaign foreign policy adviser who had numerous Russian contacts.

Trump declassified the Nunes document over the opposition of the Justice Department and the FBI.

On Saturday, the House Intelligence Committee released a rebuttal of the Nunes memo by the panel`s Democratic minority.

The Democrats called Nunes` memo "a transparent effort to undermine" the FBI, the Justice Department, Mueller and congressional probes into possible collusion between Russia and the Trump campaign.WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump has been looking at ways to prevent Russian meddling into the internal affairs of the US, White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said on Tuesday, adding the previous President Barack Obama was responsible for the meddling, if any, and not the Trump administration.

The White House official said, "The US is looking at a number of different ways that we can put pressure (on Russia). This President has been much tougher on Russia than his predecessor.

Let`s not forget that this happened under Obama. It didn`t happen under President Trump.

If you want to blame somebody for past problems, then you need to look at the Obama administration.

"Talking about Admiral Mike Rogers, the head of the National Security Agency (NSA) staff, who has not been granted any additional authority by the President to confront Russian cyber intrusion, interference with the US` election systems, the Press Secretary replied, "Nobody is denying him the authority.

"She said 40 million dollars was given to the Global Engagement Center to begin providing immediate support to private and public partners that expose and counter Russian and Chinese propaganda and disinformation.

Admiral Rogers should go and confront Russian intrusion at the source, the official said, adding the President was looking at all of the different causes and ways that we could prevent it.

She argued that blame lied with the Obama administration for allowing the attacks to happen on its watch and that there were ongoing conversations on this topic at the National Security Council, but no presidential-level meetings scheduled.

Talking about Parkland school shooting, Sanders said the President still supported "raising the age limit to 21 for the purchase of certain firearms".

"The President is going to be meeting with bipartisan lawmakers tomorrow, and that will be another one of those topics discussed, and we`ll have further specific policy announcements later this week."US President Donald Trump on Tuesday all but announced his seriousness about contesting the election in 2020. He has talked about it often - staying in office for eight years - and set up a fund raising organisation even before he took charge as president in 2017. But when he announced that Brad Parscale would be his campaign chief, it was the most concrete announcement yet.

The announcement was made by Eric Trump, the president's son, in a prepared statement on Tuesday. "Brad is an amazing talent and was pivotal to our success in 2016. He has our family's complete trust and is the perfect person to be at the helm of the campaign."

And that is not just the typical hyperbole that Trump and those around him are prone to. Parscale had been the digital director of Trump's successful and surprise 2016 bid for the White House. He is credited with using social media platforms, especially Facebook, as a crunching force multiplier to devastating effect against Democrat Hillary Clinton.

US media reports said Parscale has been tasked with building up the manpower and infrastructure necessary for a presidential bid for the 2020 re-election. Not only that, the Trump campaign said he would help Republican candidates in the round of elections scheduled for this year.

Trump announcing his seriousness to run for the White House again hardly surprised anyone. Even before he had taken oath, he had prepared the paperwork for his re-election even before he took oath in January 2017.

However, it remains to be seen if he even manages to get the Republican nomination. The Grand Old Party (GOP) had been unable to stop him from clinching the ticket in 2016. And with many Republican seats in the US Senate and House of Representatives coming up for re-election this year, many candidates are running away from any association with Donald Trump.

Trump-backed candidates have faced a string of defeats in elections. Of all the defeats, the one that stung the most was that of Roy Moore to Democrat Doug Jones. The seat was in the deeply Republican Alabama, where it was considered impossible for the Democrats to score a victory.

If many more Republican candidates lose in 2018 due to the anti-Trump wave, the chances that the Republican Party may find enough reason to come together to keep Trump away.LAGOS: Nigeria's government has said it has set up a panel to investigate the abduction of 110 girls from their school last week by suspected members of the extremist Boko Haram group.

Information and Culture Minister Lai Mohammed said a major-general will head the panel of Nigerian security agencies that will examine what security was in place at the school and in its northern town, Dapchi in Yobe State, before the attack.

The military had withdrawn from Dapchi weeks before the February 19 attack, saying its troops were needed elsewhere and claiming that security was handed over to police.

Police deny that, saying the military never entrusted security to it.

Nigeria said the girls missing from the Government Girls Science and Technical College range from 11 to 19.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called for "the immediate and unconditional release of all missing girls and for their safe return to their families," UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said.

The UN chief urged Nigerian authorities to swiftly bring those responsible for their abduction to justice, Dujarric said, and he reiterated the UN's support to Nigeria and countries in the region in their fight against terrorism.Ukraine's president spoke on next Ukraine's elections, trip to the Maldives, and Ukraine's hostages

Read the original text at 112.ua

On Euro-Atlantic integration and NATO standards

My team is currently discussing a proposal to "anchor" the European and Euro-Atlantic integration in the Constitution... These amendments enjoy broad support within the society... The amendments to the Basic Law could become a kind of insurance against any surprises and an imperative for all political forces for the next years.

Even during the war, we must accept the appointment of the civilian Minister of Defense, share the positions of the commander-in-chief and the chief of the General Staff, make a number of major reforms to translate the country into NATO standards and implement the norms in the strategic defense bulletin.

On the growth rates

I keep getting the feeling that we have not done everything that we could... It is obvious that the rates are unacceptable and insufficient to provide a symbolic but tangible increase in salaries ...

Unfortunately, most Ukrainians do not feel a positive effect from many reforms, because the lives of Ukrainians have not improved significantly. The level of life, especially devastated by the war and economic aggression, is just starting its recovery, and the pace is too slow. As the president, I am not satisfied with it. But many facts mean that changes are noticed, that the changes are recognized and appreciated by the world.

On the trip to the Maldives

I want to firmly emphasize that I crossed the border using my name and my passport, and it has been accordingly registered by the border guards... I have paid for the plane and the hotel from my bank account in a Ukrainian bank.

Not a single hryvnia from the state budget was spent on this. All the funds were declared, I have paid all the taxes.

At the beginning of January (during the trip to the Maldives, - Ed.) I have not entrusted my duties (the president and the supreme commander-in-chief, - Ed.) to anyone.

On his participation in the elections and life after the elections

I will definitely participate in the presidential elections 100% as a voter... I emphasize that after the elections I will definitely live in Ukraine.

I have not lost any electoral program in my life.

I am definitely not going to participate in the parliamentary elections.

On hostages

I can say that by the end of this week, we will bring home two more of our hostages. We have already negotiated on a place and date; I believe that our deal will not fail.

On early elections

The Parliament is doing everything I do not conduct any negotiations, if the parliament instead of dealing with (the laws) would be busy with the elections, it will lead to this.

Undoubtedly, I will do everything possible to ensure effective coordination of the activities of the president, the government, the parliamentary coalition, and the parliament.

On the transfer of ships from Crimea

We are ready to receive ships from Crimea only together with Crimea. I am sure that this is a unanimous position of both the Ukrainian authorities and the Ukrainian society.

On the Armed Forces of Ukraine

Our armed forces must be strengthened to such an extent that they are not only capable of defense but also capable of liberating the occupied territories. This is our unconditional right, and it must be provided with sufficient military capabilities.

On peacekeepers and the situation in Donbas

Peacekeepers are an important component of restoring the sovereignty, territorial integrity, and independence of our state.

The issue of peacekeepers is very complex... We do not have an absolutely safe component for the implementation of any processes in the East.

The presence of peacekeepers is not just a matter of separation of the parties, it is unacceptable for us, peacekeepers must act throughout the occupied territory. The first thing it will lead to is that Russia will have to withdraw its occupation forces because the world will see them and it just could not explain it. Second, peacekeepers will be able to disarm illegal armed groups. Third, peacekeepers can take control of an uncontrolled section of the Ukrainian-Russian border and stop the infiltration of Russian troops and weapons into the occupied territory. Fourth, Ukraine will be able to resume its humanitarian missions, because the occupied part of the territory has faced a humanitarian catastrophe. And the fifth is that the aggressor country or neighbors cannot participate in the peacekeeping operation.

I will do everything to introduce peacekeepers as quickly as possible because for today this is the only option that can stop the killing of Ukrainians and restore Ukrainian sovereignty in occupied Donbas.

On the middle class

We must take this and other steps to get the middle class on its feet again, which was attacked by all the challenges of the recent years. And unlike the richest class, this middle class did not have big reserves that would allow it to survive during the hard times. In contrast to the poorest, they were circumvented by subsidies, and it turns out that the middle has suffered the most.

On the supply of weapons

Unfortunately, I cannot report the details of the talks, but the first delivery of this weapon should take place in few weeks.

We are talking about a number of supplies, starting with anti-sniper complexes... We are also talking about the means of electronic combat, air defense and many other types of weapons.

On the Crimean Tatar Autonomy

I have not seen the proposals of the working group, they should be approved by the Constitutional Commission. Immediately after our meeting, I would ask the Constitutional Commission to hold a public discussion on the working group proposals. As soon as the final version is negotiated on the question about national, national-cultural autonomy, as I promised, I will initiate the amendments to the Constitution before the parliament.

On his life

I do not want to discuss my life now, but trust me, it is not that sweet... I can say that when I have won the elections, my income was much higher than now. I am the only president who follows this dynamic.

On the war of "all against all"

They want to bring depression and discouragement to the Ukrainian society, and not only within the country. Social networking applications, fake news, programs are a component part.

On relations with Poland

Our relations are developing very dynamically.

Trust me, we do not need anyone to tell us what Ukrainian heroes should we honor or dishonor. Let us handle this for ourselves. We do not advise Poland which heroes should they respect or not.

On the murder of journalist Sheremet

I am not God, and I do not know who has killed Pavlo Sheremet, but I feel the same pain as you do.

Unfortunately, journalists are dying. Recently a journalist in Slovakia was killed, and this also hurts everyone.

On Saakashvili and his readmission

I do not think that he is now a happy man, but this is his own business.

Readmission issues were conducted flawlessly from the point of view of Ukrainian legislation, from the point of view of Ukraine's international obligations, and from the point of view of the rule of law.

On Medvedchuk

I emphasize that I will work with anyone who can effectively return at least one Ukrainian hostage home... I must admit that the most effective figure here is Viktor Medvedchuk because the decision on the release is taken directly by Putin.

On Changing Electoral Legislation

I would definitely deal with changes in electoral legislation, I emphasize this.

I am sure that we should sharply increase the responsibility for buying votes, and I will ask the parliament to increase the transparency of the electoral process, increase the responsibility for falsifying the elections in the polling stations.

On deoligarchization

Deoligarhization is the deprivation of the oligarchs of the political power in the country.

Some oligarchic media are capping the president, I am not afraid of it.Open source

In total, since the beginning of the day in the Donbas conflict zone 5 shelling of Ukrainian forces from the side of militants has been reported. None of the Ukrainian servicemen were injured. This is reported on the HQ press center in Facebook.



During the day, the continued activity of Russian-occupation troops was observed in the area of antiterrorist operation. In particular, the aggressor continued to use mortars of various calibers to attack the positions of defenders of Ukraine.



In Luhansk direction, the enemy fired from 120-mm mortars, grenade launchers and heavy machine guns at positions near the Luhanske village. Using mortars of the 82 mm caliber, the enemy fired at the support points of the Ukrainian forces in Troitske area. According to the defenders of Novoaleksandrivka, the invaders used 82-mm mortars, grenade launchers of various types, large-caliber machine guns and small arms.

Related: Ukrainian political prisoner Sentsov absent in correctional colonyFinland supports the UN peacekeeping mission in Donbas and urges to not narrow the list of the countries that can help Ukraine. Jussi Niinisto, the Defense Minister of Finland claimed this as Reuters reported.

'When it comes to a number of troops, it is too early to say anything. But Finland, Sweden, Austria, Switzerland and Ireland cannot put up all the troops needed for this kind of operation. We need more countries. But the deal needs the approval of both Ukraine and Russia', he noted.

According to him, there is a necessity for the preservation of the sanctions against Russia, the country-aggressor.

'The bilateral relation of our departments should be constructive and I welcome the improving and deepening of the cooperation. I am sure that the initiative on the overcoming of the crisis in the east of Ukraine by the involvement of the UN mission is the possible way but we need to provide the maximal efficiency of the mission', Niinisto noted during the meeting with Stepan Poltorak, the Defense Minister of Ukraine on February 27 as the ministry reported

Earlier Finland claimed on the readiness to send the peacekeepers in Donbas.

As we reported Sauli Niinisto, the President of Finland thinks that the Donbas Conflict is the biggest problem on the European continent.The Minister of Finance of Ukraine Oleksandr Danyliuk has announced that the European Commission has agreed upon a new Macro-Financial Assistance (MFA) program for Ukraine, UNIAN reports.

I welcome the decision to approve a new financial assistance program for Ukraine, which is an important measure for the support of reforms in Ukraine and the financial stability of the nation, the minister posted on his Facebook page.

Since the beginning of the crisis in Ukraine in early 2014, the European Commission has allocated a total of 3.4 billion in macro-financial support via three consecutive programs of low-interest loans. This is the highest amount ever provided by the European Union to a non-member state. Out of that sum, 1.61 billion were provided in 2014 and 2015 under the first two MFA operations (MFA I and II).

In April 2015, the European Union decided to provide a third MFA program of up to 1.8 billion to Ukraine (MFA III). The first tranche under the program (600 million) was disbursed to Ukraine on 22 July 2015. The second tranche of the same amount was transferred on 4 April 2017.

On 1 December 2017, the European Commission announced it wasnt in a position to disburce the last trance of the present MFA program, adding that it would consider further Macro-Financial Assistance to Ukraine, provided reform momentum is boosted.Particularly, the financing aims to solve the issue of the children's education

The European Commission announced the allocation of 24 million euro of the humanitarian aid for the satisfying of the requirements of the people suffered from the Donbas Conflict. The proper decision was made on February 28.

'Four years of conflict have put a tremendous strain on the civilian population in eastern Ukraine. We cannot overlook that there's a humanitarian crisis at the European Union's doorstep. Supporting all those in need, wherever they are, is a priority for the EU. Our new aid package will provide essential assistance such as food, healthcare and education for children', Christos Stylianides, the Commissioner for Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Management emphasized.

It is noted that the humanitarian needs in particular in the areas controlled by the non-government organizations increase notably due to restrictions of humanitarian organisations' work in these areas, and the suspension of payment of social benefits, including pensions. The provision of essential services, such as water and electricity, is constantly complicated on both sides of the contact line by the regular attacks.

It is noted that the EU expressed the concern on the deterioration of the humanitarian situation in the east of Ukraine for many times and constantly urged to the full implementation of the Minsk Agreements.

Earlier the European Commission approved a new program of the macro-financial support for Ukraine.

Petro Poroshenko, the President of Ukraine claimed in November 2017 on the achievement of the agreement toward the new EU program of the macro-financial support for Ukraine for 2018-2019.

Earlier the Finance Ministry estimated the volume of the new program in 1.8 billion euro. It corresponds to the volume of the macro-financial support approved in 2015 and that expired in January 2018.

Ukraine got two tranches in the total sum of 1.2 billion euro from the provided 1.8 within the old program. The EU Commission refused to provide the third tranche as the authorities of Ukraine fulfilled only 17 preliminary conditions out of 21.

Ukraine did not fulfill four demands: the remove of the ban for the export of the round-wood, launch of the automatic check of the electronic declarations, law on the credit register of the National Bank of Ukraine and check of the information on the self-benefiting owners of the companies.

.The language scandal that became the personnel one took place in Dnipro Mayor Office. Borys Filatov, the Mayor of Dnipro initiated the dismissal of his deputy Svitlana Epifantseva who criticized the showing of the movies in the cinemas of the city and Ukraine in the state language.

Epifantseva published a post on Facebook on February 25 where she spoke on the closing of the cinemas in Dnipro due to their unprofitability caused by the showing of the Ukrainian-language films. Later she removed the post but the mass media made a screenshot of it.

The next day the official explained that she deleted the post due to the discussion that took place in the comments.

Today, the Mayor of Dnipro offered Epifantseva to resign due to her 'statement on the status of the state language and violation of the ethics of the official'.

'Recent time, Mrs. Epifantseva systematically allowed herself the controversial public statement and called the fair public outrage', Filatov explained and added that he does not intend to endure 'laziness, rudeness, excessive drinking and stupidity in the social networks'.

Later the Mayor revealed the details of his decision on the dismissal of Epifantseva.

The official complained that she did not succeed to get to her workplace in the morning.

According to the mass media, Epifantseva has been working in the Dnipro City Council more than two years. Her appointment raised the critics by the citizens and she was involved in the number of the scandals during the time of her work, including her controversial posts in the social networks that she used to delete.According to Ukrainian President, the readmission of former Odesa governor Mikheil Saakashvili was flawless according to legislation and rule of law

Former governor of Odesa and ex-President of Georgia Mikheil Saakashvili has wrecked his own prospects in Ukraine and the procedure of his readmission was flawless, President Petro Poroshenko said in the press conference broadcasted by 112.ua today.

Unfortunately, Mikheil has wrecked them (the prospects) himself, and Im sorry about it. I dont think he is happy now. But its his problems and his affairs, Poroshenko said.

He emphasized that the readmission of Saakashvili to Poland was operated without violations.

The issue of readmission to Poland after the violation of the law committed by Saakashvili and his group of individuals while crossing the border, which has been confirmed by the court after a comprehensive study, the issue of readmission was conducted legally flawlessly from the point of view the Ukrainian legislation, and from the point of view of Ukraines commitments, and from the point of view of the rule of law, Ukrainian President said.

As we reported earlier, Saakashvili was detained by the task force of the Border Guard Service in a restaurant in downtown Kyiv and sent to Poland.

On Sep. 22, 2017, the Mostysky court in Lviv found Saakashvili guilty of unlawfully crossing Ukraines border. In January 2018, the District administrative court of Kyiv refused Saakashvilis appeal to the Migration service as to recognizing him a refugee. On Feb. 6, the court denied this claim again. This way, Saakashvili was readmitted to the country from which he had illegally come to Ukraine.The car with the citizens of Ukraine crashed into the passenger train

The deadly car accident took place at the entrance to Opole, Poland. Volkswagen Passat with four people went under the passenger train at the railway crossing. Three passengers and the driver died at the scene as Naszemiasto reported.

The incident took place on February 27 about 19:00. The driver of the car went to the railway where it crashed into the suburban train. Three women and a man died in the result of the accident. The youngest of them was 20 and the oldest was 60.

At the moment, it is known that all of them are the citizens of Ukraine. The Consul of Ukraine to Krakow and Honored Consul to Opole assume all measures to identify the perished and provide the transfer of the bodies to Ukraine.

The local police reported that the railway-crossing is well-lit. The circumstances of the accident are investigated.

The Opole-Nysa highway was temporarily closed for the vehicle traffic.Open source

Ukrainian political prisoner Sentsov is still in correctional colony-8 Labytnangi in the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous District of Tyumen Region. Natalia Kaplan, his sister wrote that on her Facebook page.

According to a credible source, Oleh was there all the time, in correctional colony-8 Labytnangi. As it turned out, the wrong date of birth was stated in the letter, she wrote.

Earlier, Nikolai Polozov, the Russian lawyer, commenting on the information about Sentsov absence in the colony said that he could have been convoyed for a prisoners swap or transported into another colony. Crimea.Realities wrote that.

There are two case scenarios. The first: theres some political decision taken against Sentsov, for example, to exchange him  this is a positive result. And the negative result could be that he is transferred into another Russian colony. The prisoner transport is always complicated for a prisoner, sometimes it can be called a torture and may be estimated as pressure for Sentsov by Russian authorities, Nikolai Polozov noted.

As we reported earlier, Yana Goncharova, the human right activist got this response by the correctional colony's administration that Oleh Senstsov was not listed in the correctional colony in Labytnangi. It was noted that the letter was sent on February 25 through the electronic system of the FSIN and the response came on February 27. The letter from the administration of the colony states that 'Administration of correctional colony-8 Labytnangi informs you that the letter cannot be delivered as the addressee is not kept here. Try to specify the address data'.

As it is known, Ukrainian movie director Oleg Sentsov and Crimean activist Oleksandr Kolchenko were detained by the Russian FSB in the annexed Crimea. Both were taken to Russia. Sentsov was charged with preparing a terrorist act in Crimea and sentenced to 20 years in the high-security penal colony. Kolchenko was sentenced to ten-years-long imprisonment.

It was considered that Oleh Sentsov, the citizen of Crimea, was detained in the Russian prison in Labytnangi until today.North Korea has been shipping supplies to the Syrian government that could be used in the production of chemical weapons, United Nations experts contend, the New York Times reported.

The evidence of North Korean connection comes as the United States and other countries have accused the Syrian government of using chemical weapons on civilians, including recent attacks on civilians in the Damascus suburb of eastern Ghouta using what appears to have been chlorine gas.

According to the NYT, the supplies from North Korea include acid-resistant tiles, valves, and thermometers, according to the report by United Nations investigators. North Korean missile technicians have also been spotted working at known chemical weapons and missile facilities inside Syria, according to the report, which was written by a panel of experts who looked at North Koreas compliance with United Nations sanctions.

The report highlights the potential danger posed by any such trade between Syria and North Korea, which could allow Syria to maintain its chemical weapons while also providing North Korea with cash for its nuclear and missile programs, the NYT writes.

The possible chemical weapons components were part of at least 40 previously unreported shipments by North Korea to Syria between 2012 and 2017 of prohibited ballistic missile parts and materials that could be used for both military and civilian purposes, according to the report, which has not been publicly released but which was reviewed by The New York Times.

It is unclear when, or even whether, the report will be released.

I dont know about its publication date if any, Stephane Dujarric, a United Nations spokesman, told reporters on Tuesday in response to queries. Asked to comment on the report, he said, I think the overarching message is that all member states have a duty and responsibility to abide by the sanctions that are in place.The proposal will be sent to the European Council and European Parliament next week

Open source

The European Commission is ready to give Ukraine a tranche in the amount of 1 billion euro. Rikard Jozwiak, Radio Svoboda reporter wrote this on Twitter.

the European Commission is ready to offer a new MFA worth 1 billion euro to #Ukraine. proposal likely to be sent to Council & EP next week. if everything goes well, the 1st tranche can be paid out July-Sep. story coming up soon...  Rikard Jozwiak (@RikardJozwiak) 28  2018 .

After the proposal comes, the EU countries and the European Parliament will discuss it. Valdis Dombrovskis, Vice-President of the European Commission commented on this for 112 Ukraine TV channel.

The European Commission supported the new program of macro-financial assistance for Ukraine, yet the procedures are still being conducted. I think, that the European Commission will make an official proposal next week. There will be an official proposal, which will be discussed by the EU countries and the European Parliament, Dombrovskis said.

As we reported earlier, Oleksandr Danylyuk, the Finance Minister, said that the European Commission approved a new program of macro-financial assistance for Ukraine.Petro Poroshenko announced that two hostages illegally kept in Russia will be returned to Ukraine till the end of this week. He said it during the conference on air of 112 Ukraine TV channel.

I can say, that till the end of this year we will return back home two more of our hostages. It has been discussed already, the place and the date. I think it will not go wrong. This is my top priority and I deal with this myself. I can say that in Russia decisions concerning each are made on the highest level, the President said.

Later the Presidents spokesman explained that the hostages will be back in Ukraine till the end of the current week.

Two persons, who are kept in Russia now, according to the negotiations conducted, I plan, that we can return them till the end of the week, maybe even on Friday, Poroshenko explained his mistake.

As we reported earlier, according to Ukraines Foreign Ministry, around 20 Ukrainian political prisoners are illegally kept in Russia. Some Ukrainian citizens were illegally arrested in annexed Crimea.Ruslan Kravchenko, the prosecutor of the Chief Military Prosecutor's Office of the Prosecutor General's Office of Ukraine claimed that Viktor Yanukovych, the former president of Ukraine accused of the state treason will assist the prosecution by his press conference in Moscow. He claimed this at the Obolon District Court of Kyiv as Ukrayinska Pravda reported.

'Accused Yanukovych assists the prosecution by such speeches. Of course, we will gather the information on the press conference', Kravchenko said.

He added that the announced press conference confirms for one more time that the accused is informed on the state of the court process toward him and it means that the trial in absentia is a legal process and it does not violate the human rights.

'The trial in absentia takes place in accordance with the legislation of Ukraine and European norms on the human rights. There are no violations because one of the grounds for the execution of the special trial proceeding is the fact that the accused should be informed on the proceeding toward him. The press conference is the confirmation and it is not the first one', Kravchenko claimed.

As we reported Viktor Yanukovych plans to hold the press conference on March 2. Today's court session did not take place due to the non-appearance of the defense as they went to Russia to meet their client.Viktor Muzhenko, the Head of General Staff of Ukraines Armed Forces and Sir Stephen Hillier, Chief of the Air Staff of the UK discussed the perspectives of the continuation of the training of the Ukrainian pilots in the Royal Air Force College as the press service of the Defense Ministry of Ukraine reported.

'We will carry on teaching the Ukrainian cadets in our military educational institutions in 2018', Hillier claimed.

Also, they discussed the issues of the material, technical and advisory support for the equipping of the Center for ombat Use of Aviation of the Air Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and the complex modernization of the particular airfields.

The Royal Air Force College is the first in the world aviation academy founded in 1919. It provides the basic training of the cadets of the flying crew. The Ukrainian cadets take the course for the flying crew of the army within the British mission Orbital.

Earlier the Defense Ministry reported that more than 5, 000 soldiers of the Armed Forces of Ukraine passed the international drills since 2015.Recently it became known that ex-president of Ukraine Viktor Yanukovych, suspected in state treason, will conduct a press conference on shootings on Maidan in Russia on March 2

An ex-president of Ukraine Viktor Yanukovych had four years to tell everything and confess, but now whatever he says - it will not be interesting. Poroshenko expressed his opinion in the press conference broadcasted by 112.ua.

I will honestly tell you, I am not interested in what Yanukovych says, in what he is doing If he considers himself a runaway president, he can come to Kyiv, he can explain everything to his country, where he has done so much damage. Especially, after his appeal to Putin concerning the introduction of Russian troops. I think, that everyone treats him the same. I think, most of Ukrainians do not care what Yanukovych says. He had four years to speak and confess, Poroshenko said.

As we reported earlier, Poroshenko was questioned as a witness in Yanukovuchs state treason case on February 21.

Recently it became known that the ex-president of Ukraine Viktor Yanukovych, suspected in state treason, will conduct a press conference about shootings on Maidan in Russia on March 2. Representatives of the General Prosecutors Office said that they intend to gather information.A fter booking passage on the ship from Naples, I spotted the bay of Palermo, the Conca dOro. My family was supposed to be meeting me at th...PRINT | EMAIL | PERMALINK Found Objects Abstract Stitches Join the folks at Hip Stitch (2320 Wisconsin NE) for a First Friday event that you aren't likely to see in a lot of other spots. This Friday, March 2, they host pieces from the quilt collection of Marjorie Childress. The quilts that Childress has amassed over the years redefine the ideas of abstract and contemporary art, apply them to the age-old practice of quilting. The quilts are made from all manner of fabricfrom wool to reclaimed denim, and the pieces span a huge timeline, some dating back to the 19th century. The formal reception for the works takes place between 5 and 8pm and is free to the public. View in Alibi calendar

Bowled Over Little Bird de Papel (1222 Mountain NW), everyone's favorite spot for handmade art and other goods, is partnering with Off Center Community Art for the Soup is Love project. This project welcomed more than 100 local makers and supported the creation of more than 800 bowls over the course of a year. After so many months of work, these unique pieces are up for grabs on First Fridaythat is March 2, from 4 to 7pm. Prices start at just $5 and are capped at $20, and all proceeds go to sustaining the operations of Off Center. Of course, bowl upon bowl of soup is served as well. Head over to Wells Park with cash in hand to support the nonprofit, community space.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!)Eric Williams Photography

On the first day of the year, I invited a few friends over to my house and cooked a big meal for all of them: grits, collard greens and black-eyed peas. I felt like a good Southern girl for doing it. Black-eyed peas (or Hoppin John, as the dish is called) are traditionally served on New Years Day in the Southits believed to ensure prosperity for the new year. As a kid growing up in Texas, I remember eating Hoppin John on New Years Day, along with fresh pork tamales made by my neighbors or small crawfish that I picked apart over a table laid with butcher paper, elbow-to-elbow with men wearing overalls and drinking beers out of a cooler. My culinary experience of the Southespecially in the cosmopolitan city of Houstonwas always that of a melting pot of many cultures, and it was a melting pot that I came to identify with and be proud of as I moved to other cities across the country. Southern food was my food.

After living in Illinois, then California and then New Mexico for many years, my relationship with Southern food is now tangential at mostIll make fried green tomatoes or grits on occasion, and the annual feast of Hoppin John, but thats about it. Southern food is not mine. My new love is, of course, New Mexican food, and devouring frybred tacos, blue corn enchiladas and green chile stew. When friends come to visit me from out of town, I take them to El Patio and Monroes for greasy plates of chile-covered goodness. I love New Mexican food, but in no way is it mine, either.

Earlier this month I read an essay from 2016 titled Who Owns Southern Food? The essay, co-written by John T. Edge, the director of Southern Foodways Alliance and Tunde Wey, a Nigerian-born chef and food writer, is a response to a growing national dialogue on cultural appropriation in the culinary worldespecially the culinary world of South Carolina, and the trend of rockstar white chefs profiting from cooking dishes that are largely based in African cuisine. Between that and the bombshell that was The New York Times historical reporting on the enslavement of Native Americans in New Mexico, this year has prompted me to do a lot of thinking about the history that most of us would rather forget, and what that has to do with the food we cook and eat now.

In parallel to Edge and Weys essay, I wonder: Who owns New Mexican food? Of the three dishes I mentioned above, all are based in traditional Dine (Navajo) cooking. Frybread is, in fact, a recipe from the infamous Long Walk, when Dine people from Arizona were forced to walk the 300 miles to the Bosque Redondo reserve and had to survive on meager government rations of flour and lard. Consequently, some Native American people today see the food as a symbol of the fortitude and ingenuity of their ancestors, while some see it as a reminder of bloody and ever-present colonialism.

Of course, New Mexican food also has components of Mexican and Spanish cuisine, as well as that of the Germans and other Europeans who settled here. To say New Mexican food originates from or belongs to any particular one of these cultures would be obviously false. It is, like Southern food, mestizo, composed of many parts, some getting more credit than others. Our job, thenthat is, mine and John T. Edgesis to shed some light on the parts that dont get as much credit: the immigrant chefs, the born-of-necessity meals that turn into haute cuisine in Brooklyn restaurants, the foods with violent histories.

With all this in mind, Im seeking pitches about the Native American roots of New Mexican food. I want to share the histories of the farmers, hunters and cooks who dont often get written about; the plants and animals that fed the people in this country for generations before Cortez. All of us should know where our food comes from, and not just in terms of what farm it grew on. Its my hope that these stories could be something of a series here in the Alibi. If you have a story idea along these lines, please let me know about it at robin@alibi.com.Levi The Poet Cataracts ( Self-released )

I left Albuquerque in 1994 and went to Uxbridge. I hated slam poetry. It was everywhere, especially in rock clubs. On weeknights, dudes with poet voice and dames with super-articulation of the hands ruled joints like The Dingo Bar. When I got back to Burque at the end of the millennium, that shit was as dead as a doornail, thank Hashem. Ironically its derivatives are alive and well in Europe if not here at home. Thats where Burqueno flow-master Levi the Poet continues to get a substantial draw. His work is interesting in that his spoken words are often at dynamic odds with the music in the background. That techniqueand this albumremind me of the time The Doors recorded themselves jamming out while Morrison read his obscure poems. When it works its glorious; when it doesnt, it sounds more contrived than Uncle Junior singing Italian love songs. Same here, dudes, same here.PRINT | EMAIL | PERMALINK Show Up! The Right to Party No guns, no violence, only music Courtesy of the artist Your pop caught you smoking, and he said, no way!/ That hypocrite smokes two packs a day/ Man, living at home is such a drag/Now your mom threw away your best porno mag (busted!)/ You gotta fight for your right to party/ You gotta fight/ Don't step out of this house if that's the clothes you're gonna wear/ I'll kick you out of my home if you don't cut that hair! Your mom busted in and said, what's that noise?/ Aw, mom you're just jealous it's the Beastie Boys!Fight for Your Right by Rick Rubin, Adam Horwitz and Adam Yauch. Theres no mention of partying in the Declaration of Independence, save for the bit about the pursuit of happiness. Further, the framers of the Constitution were not that concerned about individual agency as they wrangled over the content and consequences of one of the greatest human documents on Earth; they were way more interested in the perpetuation of the democratic state. Since they were into the ideals and culture of the Enlightenment, they probably listened to stuff written by dudes like Vivaldi and Bach. Theyd probably freak the fuck out if they heard something by our above referenced pals from Brooklyn. Likewise, theyd be shocked, but maybe still fascinatedin the manner most men are fascinated by machines, even the kind that killif say, Ben Franklin got his hands on an AR-15. Draw your own conclusions from the above diatribe, readers and listeners. But while youre pondering such weighty issues, consider the following showswhich you should attend in order to demonstrate that the right to party is an inalienable aspect of the thing called being alive; a concept that is tragically antithetical to the specific mission of machines like the AR-15.

Thursday Courtesy of the artist Launchpad (618 Central Ave. SW) to an organization whose expressed purpose involves taking direct, non-violent action to defend Mother Earth. Having the agency to make decisions regarding ones health and body is a fundamental right, yet many humans continue to suffer because of lack of access to education, birth control and health care options. This problem is especially true in parts of our nation where endemic post-colonial poverty has resulted in a multitude of consequential problems. Self-advocacy has done much to change this troubled landscape; organizations like Indigenous Women Rising have done much to advocate for progress and change; their abortion fund provides resources for those in need. On Thursday, March 1, Thursday Nite Girl Fighta series of concerts that tunefully explores the rocktastic world of women musicians in Albuquerquewill donate the proceeds of their latest iteration at(618 Central Ave. SW) to an organization whose expressed purpose involves taking direct, non-violent action to defend Mother Earth. It so happens that the bands playing this gig are some of the truest, most badass artists in the area. They include Ermine, the desert dada project of Tannex provocateur Marya Errin Jones, anti-folk transgender performance artist Bella Trout, Burque supergroup Cat Teeth and the enigmatic and expansive Lilith, a metallic yet translucent duo from outta the Western lands. 9pm  $5  21+

Friday Courtesy of the artist PNB Rock makes music that contains itself within hip-hop conceits with tremulous consistency, yet seems to function, musically anyway, through intercourse with that wide pathway of whats au currant: Heavy use of R&B arrangements and vocals, superfluous use of auto-tune, heavy dancehall bass beats and trap-like percussives combine for an effect that millions of American humans absolutely dig. Thats cool, I can listen to his work for about half an hour on Friday night before the tequila sinks in and I go searching for my vinyl copy of Yobs second album. Anywho, PNB Rock is headlining at the Historic El Rey Theater (622 Central Ave. SW) on Friday, March 2, but I gotta admit that I consider the opener, Lil Baby, more to my tastes. Like a lot of hardcore entities out and about these days, this dude from Atlanta references the old school reverently but with innovation and experimentation of traditional forms at the heart of his musical enterprise. I did a video cruise of his work and settled on My Dawg as an example what the epitome of that new/old sound technique can achieve. 7pm  $24.50  All-ages (13+) makes music that contains itself within hip-hop conceits with tremulous consistency, yet seems to function, musically anyway, through intercourse with that wide pathway of whats: Heavy use of R&B arrangements and vocals, superfluous use of auto-tune, heavy dancehall bass beats and trap-like percussives combine for an effect that millions of American humans absolutely dig. Thats cool, I can listen to his work for about half an hour on Friday night before the tequila sinks in and I go searching for my vinyl copy of Yobs second album. Anywho, PNB Rock is headlining at the(622 Central Ave. SW) on Friday, March 2, but I gotta admit that I consider the opener,, more to my tastes. Like a lot of hardcore entities out and about these days, this dude from Atlanta references the old school reverently but with innovation and experimentation of traditional forms at the heart of his musical enterprise. I did a video cruise of his work and settled on My Dawg as an example what the epitome of that new/old sound technique can achieve. 7pm  $24.50  All-ages (13+)

Saturday Courtesy of the artist Dead Meadow, a group of earnest if head-blown lads from our nations capital who are coming to the Duke City on Saturday March 3 at Sister (407 Central Ave. NW) to rock the fuck out with local commanders of the surf and savage guitars, Black Unicorn (a rippling, roaring power trio that features former skate board trickster Jeremy McCollum of SuperGiant up front). Ill be brief. This one will be a rager. The future is in your hands, kids. 9pm  $10 to $13  21+ I mean come on. Really. Who wouldnt love a band whose influences were dredged from the deep, dank, cave-hidden, bottomless pool of liquid darkness that contains the works of Lovecraft while hissing out sounds that resemble, after a bizarre fashion, the music of elder days, the utterances of lords such as Sabbath and Zeppelin as well as their descendants such as Kyuss. Those descriptives pretty much sum up, a group of earnest if head-blown lads from our nations capital who are coming to the Duke City on Saturday March 3 at(407 Central Ave. NW) to rock the fuck out with local commanders of the surf and savage guitars,(a rippling, roaring power trio that features former skate board trickster Jeremy McCollum of SuperGiant up front). Ill be brief. This one will be a rager. The future is in your hands, kids. 9pm  $10 to $13  21+Eight years ago, the NRA supported my re-election campaign to the US House of Representatives, along with other Democratic incumbents in New Mexico. They did not support me when I ran for the US Senate in 2012, and I have since donated their 2010 contribution to charity.

I am an outdoorsman, a hunter and gun owner, and I have always supported responsible gun ownership and public safety policies. I have also been heartbroken by our inability to take even the most basic steps around gun safety and the NRAs role in fighting them at every turn.

The shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary took place just a month after I was first elected to the Senate. It was one of the worst and most horrific mass shootings in American history. The American people clamored for actionanything to help reduce the threat of gun violence, especially in our schools.

The reforms people demanded were common sense and bipartisan; simple steps that would allow us to tell our children, never again. The president rallied to the cause, and so did many of my new colleagues. And yet when it came time to deliver real legislative change, nothing happened.

Nothing happened because the NRA opposed any common sense reforms. I watched as many of my colleagues in the House and Senate fell in line.

In my five years in the Senate, weve seen dozens of mass shootings. After each incident, we clamor for action. We promise ourselves, never again. And yet here we are again.

While its no secret that Congress is the most polarized its been in generations, it is far past time we take action to ensure we keep guns out of the hands of those that would turn them on our communities.

Since my first days in office  just after the tragedy at Sandy Hook  I have reached across the aisle to put together common sense legislation that could actually pass in this polarized environment. I have been willing to work with anyone to actually get something  anything!  done, and yet at every turn the NRA and their supporters in Congress have blocked our efforts.

I have called for expanding background checks on all commercial firearms sales, limiting magazine capacity and cracking down on straw-man gun purchases that allow guns to fall into dangerous hands. Ive gone through the background check process enough times to know that anyone who cant pass a background check has no business buying a firearm.

Ive worked with my friend and Republican colleague Senator Jeff Flake to try and close the domestic violence loophole that allowed the shooter in Sutherland Springs to buy a firearm.

After the Orlando shooting, I worked feverishly with a bipartisan group of senators on a No Fly No Buy bill to prevent those on the No Fly list from purchasing guns something I assume most people think is already the law. But only eight Republicans supported the bill  probably because the NRA came out against it.

Just this week I called for the repeal of the Dickey Amendment. Passed in 1996 at the NRAs request, this amendment effectively froze all federal research into preventing gun violence. There is no reason to keep this law on the books.

The shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School feels like a turning point. Like so many of us, I am inspired by the students demanding lawmakers act to protect them. We need to listen to them. Since so many of my NRA-backed colleagues claim to need the facts before they can make decisions, lets start by making sure those facts are readily available.

While the NRA hasnt rated me for this election yet, if my work in the Senate to pass gun violence reform hasnt earned me an F rating, I suspect this op-ed will. And thats fine by me.

We need to get something done. How many more times can we say, never again? If we cant get something as logical as keeping suspected terrorists banned from flying on planes from purchasing guns, we have to ask ourselves why. We all know it is the NRAs influence and it is time for my colleagues to do what I have done, and that is to part ways and actually seek solutions.Shout-outs were heard for Albuquerques African American community, the citys domestic violence advocates and a new fire chief at the Feb. 21 Albuquerque City Council meeting.

We Are One New Mexico

Councilors invited members of the local African American community to take part in a proclamation honoring February as Black History Month. Councilor Pat Davis read the better- late- than- never proclamation as several members of the citys black community gathered at the podium. New Mexico Black History Month organizer Cathryn McGill said it was wonderful that the Council did this on their own without a prompt.

National Black History month was launched in February 1926 by Carter G. Woodson, the 1916 founder of The Journal of Negro History. The proclamation says that we celebrate the deep cultural, intellectual and historical richness the black community brings to the city and the state. What we want to see is not a history of a selected race, but a history of the world devoid of race hate, McGill said. She encouraged all of us to live up to what our state flag and the Zia symbol representa perfect friendship among cultures.

Here to Help

Albuquerques Shelter and Family Empowerment House (SAFE House) was lauded for its 40 years of service to the community. SAFE House is the only domestic violence shelter in the city. It focuses on survivors of intimate partner violence and is not gender-oriented. The organization houses men, women, children and members of the LGBTQ communities. They emphasize crisis intervention, safety planning, personal empowerment and economic sustainability for the survivors and their children.

SAFE House administrator Patricia Gonzales said that currently over 60 percent of the residents at the 85-bed shelter are under 17 years old. Domestic violence is especially difficult for children, she said. Last year, the shelter answered more than 1,100 crises calls, served 30,000 meals and helped 31 survivors get into housing with one of their enterprising programs called Rapid Re-Housing which helps get families stable quicker. Log on to www.safehousenm.org to see what you can do to help.

New Fire Chief

Councilors approved the mayors appointment of Paul W. Dow as the citys new fire chief. Dow worked at the Rio Rancho Fire Department prior to coming to the Albuquerque Fire Department in 2000. He has served as a battalion commander and has an undergraduate degree in Fire Administration; he is also a fire science instructor at Central New Mexico Community College.

Councilor Cythia Borrego said she has a special place in her heart for firefighters because her dad was a firefighter. But when taking tours of the firehouses in her district, she did not notice any fireman poles in those stations. We may have to look into that issue, Borrego said.

Stepper Uppers

Councilor Don Harris said he was pleased to see the recent increase in the number of people wanting to serve on the citys important boards and commissions. Councilors named Woody Duncan and Charlotte Shoenmann to the Arts Board; Joe McKinney to the Landmarks and Urban Conservation Commission; Richard N. Meadows to the Environmental Planning Commission; Cathryn L. McGill and Tushar N Patel to the Lodgers Tax Advisory Board; Enrique G. Aguilar to the Human Rights Board; Deborah Good to the Albuquerque Museum Board of Trustees; Elena Gonzales to the Affordable Housing Committee and Mariah Harrison and Andrea Yost to the ABQ Volunteers Advisory Board.

Councilor Borrego asked a good question about the vetting process for the candidatesIs it willy-nilly, the councilor wondered. Chief Administrative Officer Sarita Nair explained that the appointments are not willy-nilly.  She said candidates first apply, then they have to answer a bunch of questions, in writing and in person, and get a formal city background check. Check out all citizen input boards and commissions at: www. cabq. gov/ clerk/ boards- commissions.

Blue Tax

In a bi-partisan move, Councilor Trudy Jones and Ken Sanchez introduced a measure that would increase the citys gross receipts tax by three-eighths of a cent per dollar, a tax increase that is expected to rake in about $55 million a year. The money will to go toward improving public safety programs. The citys gross receipts tax rate is currently 7.5 percent.

The new tax schedule will help offset the phaseout of the hold harmless subsidies given out by the state for not collecting gross receipts tax on food. Sanchez said those hold harmless payments to the city will be gone in a couple years, taking about $37 million in annual tax money with them.

The citys police union wants a commitment regarding a set tax percentage aimed at bringing funds into the police department budget. Councilors will take up this issue at their March 5 meeting.

Quick Hits

 Heres what the Council set aside: an ordinance directing the mayor and the City Council to make fully funding the Albuquerque Police the number one priority every year; a measure to prohibit city boards, commissions and committees from sponsoring or hosting public forums; and an appeal of some text amendments to the Mesa del Sol Level B plan.

 Councilors dropped a request to audit Dr. James Ginger, the federal monitor overseeing the Albuquerque Police Departments federal court ordered reform measures. Former state treasurer James Lewis was just hired to oversee the process.

 The session became enlightening when the Council was eloquently reminded during public comments that we are all just stardust brought to life.Newscity

Gov. Martinez Ordered to Give Deposition

A state district court has ordered Gov. Susana Martinez to submit a deposition answering questions in a defamation lawsuit.

According to the Deming Headlight, Sixth District Judge Timothy L. Aldrich issued a subpoena to Martinez earlier this month requiring she answer written questions pertaining to a defamation case. The case involves a 2014 incident at a political event in Deming, when a group of ranchers were physically removed from the venue by law enforcement officers.

The lawsuit claims that the plaintiff, Scott Chandlerwho was accused of abusing at-risk teens while acting as the head of Tierra Blanca Ranch in 2013was removed by state police officers assigned to Martinez' security detail while he and a group of supporters attempted to deliver a petition to the governor. The petition was related to abuse allegations leveled against the Tierra Blanca Ranchincluding claims that children were being chained and beaten.

The lawsuit alleges that the group's eviction constituted defamation and assault. It names the police officers involved in the incident as defendants as well as the New Mexico Department of Public Safety, journalist Rene Romowho wrote about the ranchand San Diego attorney Steve Cowen, who reported allegations of abuse to the Sierra County Sheriffs Office and the New Mexico Children, Youth and Families Department.

Martinez is not a defendant in the case. The judge ruled that the governor has relevant knowledge about the incident and said she cannot refuse the order to answer questions in a written deposition on any basis. The case is set to go to trial in April 2018.In cooperation with Japan's New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO), RusHydro will build a new 3.9 MW wind-diesel complex in the township of Tiksi. The two companies and the government of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) have signed a cooperation memorandum, Interfax reports.

At the same time, Russia's Sakhalinenergo (owned by RusHydro) and Japan's Takaoka Toko signed an agreement on joint activity, which distributes the work and responsibilities of the parties during the implementation of the project.

The Japanese firm will provide the wind farm with the main equipment at their own expense, while RusHydro will perform the logistics, construction and installation, the agency reports. The wind-diesel complex will consist of three 900 kW wind turbines, 3 MW diesel generators and a power storage system. The diesel generators will run on crude oil.

The installation of wind turbines and electric power lines is to be completed by December, 2018, while the installation of diesel generators and power storage and distribution systems is to be completed by the end of next year. The complex will be operated by Sakhalinenergo.YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 28, ARMENPRESS. Armenians worldwide commemorate the 30th anniversary of the mass massacres of Armenians in Sumgait during those days, Armenpress reports.

On February 27-29, 1988, the mass massacre and deportation of the Armenian population of Sumgait was carried out by the leadership of Soviet Azerbaijan. The massacres were accompanied by looting of the property of the Armenian population.

The goal of this crime against the Armenian people was to prevent the Artsakh movement, intimidate Armenians with the prospect of new bloody actions, prevent the spread of the Artsakh liberation fight. According to the USSR official data, several dozen people were killed during the Sumgait massacres, but according to non-official data, more than 1000 people were killed majority of whom were burned after tortures. After these events nearly 500.000 Armenians left different Azerbaijani cities. Nearly 400.000 of them were settled in Armenia.

On February 29 the Soviet troops entered Sumgait, but on that day as well the violence and killings continued. The army didnt receive an order to use weapons and didnt help Armenians. Only in the evening it took decisive actions and prevented the further massacres.

Only 94 people from massacre perpetrators were held accountable, and only one of them was sentenced to death. The remaining ones were charged with murders, rape, massacres, and in all cases the justification of the crime was called hooligan motives. Instead of involving all crimes in one single case, the Soviet authorities divided it in several parts conducting the trials in the courts of different Soviet cities. During the trials gross violations of judicial procedure and rights of the victims were registered. After the collapse of the Soviet Union some of the crime perpetrators were released. The crime has not been officially condemned and no condolences were extended to the relatives of the victims. Not giving an adequate political assessment to these events led to resumption of mass massacres of Armenians in Baku, Kirovabad and other Azerbaijani settlements.

Although the international community hasnt still given an adequate assessment to the Armenian massacres in Sumgait and didnt call them as genocide, the massacres were condemened by the European Parliament in 1988, the US Senate and the Parliament of Argentina in 1989.

The Armenian Parliament on February 28 will debate the draft statement on the 30th anniversary of the Sumgait Pogroms. The draft statement has been approved by the parliamentary standing committee on foreign affairs. All 4 parliamentary factions  the Republican Party of Armenia, the ARF, Tsarukyan and Yelk, authored the draft statement.

English  translator/editor: Aneta HarutyunyanYEREVAN, FEBRUARY 28, ARMENPRESS. Eleven people became ill at a US military base in Arlington, Virginia, after opening a suspicious letter. Three were taken to the hospital after a hazardous material situation was declared, RT reports.

The Arlington Fire Department responded to a hazardous material call at Joint Base MyerHenderson Hall, which is located near the Pentragon. Fire crews and hazmat units rushed to the scene. Three people were taken to the hospital and are currently in a stable condition, Arlington County Fire Department reported on Twitter

At least five people were displaying symptoms such as nose bleeds and itching after coming in contact with the substance.

The base was evacuated as a precaution, a Marine official said, according to ABC News.

Several hours after a scheduled press conference on the incident was cancelled, the US Marine Corps reported that the envelope was removed from the site and the building was screened and cleaned.

An investigation into the incident is being led by the Navys criminal investigative service and the FBI

English translator/editor: Stepan KocharyanYEREVAN, FEBRUARY 28, ARMENPRESS. Locals of Syunik, Armenia have rushed to help a young Georgian citizen after the latter crashed his car on the Kapan-Kajaran road, Sputnik Georgia reported citing the countrys emergency situations service.

The driver, Zurab Etipashvili, 29, crashed his Mercedes 200 meters downhill a canyon.

Locals of the Syunik province rushed to the car and transported the driver to a hospital before emergency personnel even reached the scene.

Doctor said the driver is in a fair medical state.

English translator/editor: Stepan KocharyanYEREVAN, FEBRUARY 28, ARMENPRESS. The Armenian Parliament paid a tribute to the memory of Armenians who were killed during the massacres organized at the state level in the Azerbaijani city of Sumgait 30 years ago with a moment of silence, Armenpress reports.

At the beginning of the Parliament session Speaker Ara Babloyan made this proposal.

30 years ago on these days hundreds of Armenians were brutally killed as a result of the crime organized at the state level in the Armenian-populated Sumgait city of Azerbaijan. The mass massacres conducted by the Azerbaijani authorities aimed at intimidating Armenians with a new genocide and forcing them to refuse from the national liberation movement. 30 years ago the crime committed by the Azerbaijani leadership against the Armenian people, unfortunately, hasnt yet received an adequate political and legal assessment at the international platforms, Speaker Babloyan said.

He added that the absence of condemnation further encouraged Azerbaijan to carry out ethnic cleansings and massacres in Kirovabad, Baku, Maragha and other Armenian-populated settlements of Azerbaijan.

Dear colleagues, I suggest to pay a tribute to the memory of our compatriots who became the victims of that crime with a moment of silence, he said.

English  translator/editor: Aneta HarutyunyanYEREVAN, FEBRUARY 28, ARMENPRESS. According to US media, Iran has established a new permanent military base in Syria which houses hangars for storing missiles.

According to Fox News, the facility is located 12km north east from Damascus. Fox News even posted satellite images allegedly showing the base.

Another similar Iranian base was discovered last year near Damascus, which was destroyed by Israeli airstrikes, according to Fox News.

Israel has accused Iran in building factories of precision guided missiles in Syria and Lebanon.

English translator/editor: Stepan KocharyanYEREVAN, FEBRUARY 28, ARMENPRESS. The Lebanon-based Zartonk daily, one of the favorites of the Armenian community, for 80 years covered the key and urgent events taking place both in the community, Armenia and the world. It contributed to strengthening the Armenia-Diaspora ties, provided pages to materials depicting the homelands prosperity in the fields of science, culture and etc, published the works and articles of Armenian and Soviet authors. Zartonk kept in its spotlight the international, civil and national life of the Diaspora-Armenians.

Sevak Hakobyan  editor-in-chief of Zartonk daily, gave an interview to ARMENPRESS talking about the newspapers achievements, programs and future prospects.

-Certainly, by some pauses, Zartonk is being published for 80 years keeping many readers alongside with it. In your opinion, what is the greatest achievement of the daily during those years?

-The fact that the Armenian press has worked uninterrupted in the Diaspora for 80 years is already a victory. It is published without any state assistance, material or any other support. The newspaper has been formed in 1937 on the eve of the World War II. It faced that war, the Lebanese civil war and reached our days.

-I would like you to outline the main principles which Zartonk followed for years.

-Our mission is to publish good articles. Press is not a business for us. There are several devotees who served the newspaper. There are employees who contribute to the newspapers development, do everything for its publishing. There are national, even commercial institutions, which, not so believing in their advertising power, finance us just helping the newspaper, want the newspaper to be published and continue having a contribution to the preservation of the Armenian language.

It plays a great role in the life of the Diaspora-Armenians. When Armenians arrived in these countries, almost all were Turkish-speaking people. Later a generation came who was speaking in Armenian, and this was not accidental. The Armenian church and the newspaper had their contribution in this matter.

-Its not a secret that nowadays the online media is more actual, than the print one. What steps do you take for not losing your readers?

-The print media is retreating in connection with the lack of the reader and the requirement of time. Even if we have only one reader, we must publish the newspaper. In line with the print media we also report news online.

The region is completely under danger: Lebanon is also under danger, and we think that its necessary to save the history of Zartonk. We have newspaper issues collected over these 80 years. The isues of each year are summed up in one book. But they can no longer be kept in such condition, therefore, we digitize them by cooperating with the National Library.

-Zartonk covers public, political and other spheres. In the 21st century what articles are mostly of interest of the readers?

-We publish national, party-related, literary and other articles, present reviews. There have been periods when we had a special appendage dedicated to art and literature. We mainly cover national issues. 100% of our readers are Lebanese-Armenians and we touch upon issues of their concern and interest. The technologies helped us to quickly disseminate the news across the world: this came to balance the retreat of the print media. There was no lack of readers, and from now on we cannot say that Azdag, Zartonk and Ararat are only Lebanese newspapers. I also want to state that we also cooperate with ARMENPRESS since 1967. Deciding to expand the cooperation last year we signed an agreement of mutual work with Director of ARMENPRESS news agency Aram Ananyan.

-How do you see the future of the Armenian press in the Diaspora?

-The average age of the readers of the print media is high, it should be reduced. The online media greatly contributed to this, and this encourages us and promotes our work. This means that the Diaspora needs the press, and I hope we will celebrate more 80th anniversaries.

Interview by Angela Hambardzumyan

English  translator/editor: Aneta HarutyunyanYEREVAN, FEBRUARY 28, ARMENPRESS. Film director and scriptwriter Albert Mkrtchyan, the younger brother of acclaimed actor Mher Mkrtchyan, passed away on February 28, just one day after turning 81 years old.

The Mher Mkrtchyan Artistic Theater told ARMENPRESS that the filmmaker was battling a long time disease.

Albert Mkrtchyan was born in 1937 in Leninakan, present day Gyumri.

He graduated the Moscow Cinematography Institute in 1971. From 1960 to 1966 he was the director of the Armenian TV studio, and in 1971 director of the HayFilm Studio.

He served as artistic director of the Gyumri Drama Theater from 1999, and from 2000 as artistic director of the Yerevan Mher Mkrtchyan Artistic Theater.

Mkrtchyan delivered lectures in the State Pedagogical University of Yerevan and the Theater and Cinema Institute.

English translator/editor: Stepan KocharyanYEREVAN, FEBRUARY 28, ARMENPRESS. On the occasion of the 30th anniversary of Sumgait Pogroams, the Armenian community of Washington D.C. held a protest outside the Azerbaijani embassy calling on to recognize and stop the killings of the innocent civilians, Voice of America reported.

Aram Hamparian, director of the Armenian National Committee of America, said the protesters addressed their voices not only to Azerbaijan, but also the United States.

We tell the US government  its necessary to stand on the right side, Aram Hamparian said.

The protesters reminded numerous atrocities following the Sumgait events, such as the ax murder of Armenian officer Gurgen Margaryan by an Azerbaijani criminal in Budapest, and the beheading of soldier Kyaram Sloyan during the 2016 April four-day war.

The Sumgait events took place 30 years ago, but we can state that if Aliyev and his army have a chance, they will again commit a similar massacre against Armenians, Aram Hamparian said.

According to the official data of the Soviet period, 26 Armenians were killed in Sumgait on February 27-29, but the number of Armenians killed in Sumgait is more than a hundred. Its worth mentioning that the Soviet leadership was trying to hide the fact of these massacres by all possible measures.

Haykanush Kazanchyan, participating in the protest with her family, wants to inform the whole world about the Sumgait tragedy. Its very important to inform the world that such tragedy is not being forgotten, she said.

English  translator/editor: Aneta HarutyunyanYEREVAN, FEBRUARY 28, ARMENPRESS. Sergey Avetisyan, director of Armenias General Department of Civil Aviation (GDCA) held a meeting with Brussels Airlines Vice President Herman Carpentier, the GDCA told ARMENPRESS.

At the meeting the sides discussed re-launching the Brussels-Yerevan-Brussels flight by the Belgian national carrier.

The Brussels Airlines vice president said that the company is seriously considering the possibility of launching the flight, especially taking into account that positive developments are taking place in the Armenian aviation market in the recent years and that the pace of growth of passenger flow can positively impact profitability of flights linking Armenia to Central Europe.

Sergey Avetisyan expressed readiness to assist the Belgian airline in organizing flights and mentioned that in case the Armenia-EU common aviation zone deal is signed the GDCA will create more favorable conditions for expansion of flight routes.

Marcelo Wende, manager of the Armenian International Airports was also in attendance and offered his assistance for organizing the flights.

English translator/editor: Stepan KocharyanYEREVAN, FEBRUARY 28, ARMENPRESS. The ministry of culture of Armenia said that a governmental funeral commission will be formed on the occasion of the passing of renowned film director Albert Mkrtchyan.

Film director and scriptwriter Albert Mkrtchyan, the younger brother of acclaimed actor Mher Mkrtchyan, passed away on February 28, just one day after turning 81 years old.

The Mher Mkrtchyan Artistic Theater told ARMENPRESS that the filmmaker was battling a long time disease.

Albert Mkrtchyan was born in 1937 in Leninakan, present day Gyumri.

He graduated the Moscow Cinematography Institute in 1971. From 1960 to 1966 he was the director of the Armenian TV studio, and in 1971 director of the HayFilm Studio.

He served as artistic director of the Gyumri Drama Theater from 1999, and from 2000 as artistic director of the Yerevan Mher Mkrtchyan Artistic Theater.

Mkrtchyan delivered lectures in the State Pedagogical University of Yerevan and the Theater and Cinema Institute.

English translator/editor: Stepan KocharyanYEREVAN, FEBRUARY 28, ARMENPRESS. Armenian lawmakers elected 5 members of the Supreme Judicial Council.

Chairman of the temporary counting committee Gagik Melikyan released the voting results. 98 lawmakers were participating in the voting.

96 Members Of Parliament voted in favor of Gagik Harutyunyans candidacy, 2 Members Of Parliament voted against, Melikyan said, adding that Harutyunyan has been elected as member of the Supreme Judicial Council for a 5-year term.

90 MPs voted in favor of Gevorg Danielyan as the second member of the council. 7 MPs voted against and one ballot was declared invalid. Danielyan was elected to the Supreme Judicial Council for a 5 year-term.

The third candidate was Liparit Melikjanyan, who was also elected to the council for a 5-year term with 82 votes in favor and 15 against. Only one ballot was declared invalid.

86 MPs voted in favor of Hayk Hovhannisyan, who was the candidate for the 4th position. Hovhannisyan was elected to the council for a 3-year term with 11 votes against and one ballot being invalid.

Sergey Meghryan was elected for the 5th position in the council for a three year term. 87 MPs voted in favor, 10 voted against and one ballot was declared invalid.

The newly elected members of the Supreme Judicial Council assumed office after a swearing-in ceremony.

English translator/editor: Stepan KocharyanYEREVAN, FEBRUARY 28, ARMENPRESS. Armenian foreign minister Edward Nalbandian, while on a working visit to Geneva, met with Michael Mller, Director-General of the United Nations Office at Geneva, the foreign ministry told Armenpress.

During the meeting both officials expressed satisfaction over Armenias active engagement in the UNs and its structures activities.

FM Nalbandian and Michael Mller exchanged views on the 37th session agenda of the UN Human Rights Council, Armenias initiative on preventing genocides and crimes against humanity. In this context minister Nalbandian said Armenia, on the occasion of the 70th anniversary of the Convention on Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, came with an initiative to adopt a new resolution of the Human Rights Council containing concrete action proposals and the activity of the UN and its member states concerning the prevention of genocides. The FM informed that Armenia will hold the third global forum Against the Crime of the Genocide on the International Day of Commemoration of Genocide Victims on December 9 which will be dedicated to the prevention of genocides through education.

The officials also touched upon the goals included in the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda, attached importance to their effective implementation and the cooperation of the UN member states in this regard. In this context the FM presented Armenias engagement and activities carried out so far within the frames of the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals.

The meeting also touched upon the summit of the International Organization of La Francophonie which will be held in Yerevan in October 2018.

Edward Nalbandian also presented the efforts of Armenia and the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chair countries aimed at peacefully settling the Karabakh conflict.

English  translator/editor: Aneta HarutyunyanYEREVAN, FEBRUARY 28, ARMENPRESS. A parliamentary statement on Condemning The Azerbaijani crimes against Armenians, authored by all factions, was debated and unanimously adopted by Armenian MPs during todays session.

Chairman of the foreign relations committee of the parliament Armen Ashotyan delivered remarks, pointing out the symbolism behind the fact that the parliament is debating the draft statement on the 30th anniversary of the Sumgait pogroms.

All political factions have joined this statement because this is one of those important issues when internal political disagreements are shifted to the background and the imperative of national state interests comes forth, Ashotyan said.

The statement clearly mentions all Azerbaijani state-sanctioned crimes against Armenians, crimes which are viewed as a manifestation of a continuous policy of annihilation and displacement of Armenian people from their home, which has begun since 1918 and has continuous nature.

The Armenian Parliament condemns the mass violence, murder and displacements committed by Azerbaijan against the peaceful population, as well as the Armenophobic racist policy and aggressive military actions unleashed against Nagorno Karabakh,

Commemorates the memory of the innocent victims and calls on parliament, parliamentary assemblies, international organizations and human rights structures to condemn the continuous crimes committed by Azerbaijan against the peaceful population with violations of international humanitarian rights, which threaten the security, stability and development of not only the Armenian people, but also the entire region, the statement reads.

Ashotyan said the statement will be available in foreign languages also.

English translator/editor: Stepan KocharyanYEREVAN, FEBRUARY 28, ARMENPRESS. Doctor in economics, professor Hayk Sargsyan  dean of the YSU Faculty of Economics and Management, considers a new conceptual situation the emphasis of President Serzh Sargsyan according to which the economic growth should be inclusive and affect every citizen.

Hayk Sargsyan told Armenpress that in such circumstances the Armenian government will direct its activity for increasing the populations prosperity, but this requires sufficient mechanisms.

The President clearly defined the task that the economic growth should eventually contribute to the economic development, and one of its components is that each member of the society feels that this growth has been recorded, the professor said, adding that in the conditions of income over-polarization, the impact of the economic growth on different layers of the society is not characterized for sure.

Hayk Sargsyan says inclusive economic growth can be ensured by increasing the pensions, incomes of public officials. In line with this, the private sector also must be able to proportionately solve the issue of hired workers.

Commenting on the question according to which by the 2018 state budget there are no plans to increase the social expenditures, how it will be possible to ensure an inclusive economic growth, Hayk Sargsyan said the economic development leads to increase in capacities in case of which everyone can have an increase in incomes perhaps not from the budget. I think this path of development  increase of result through investments, which will lead to increase in budget resources, will solve these issues in the upcoming years. Moreover, it has no alternative, the investments should be constant and desirable at least by 1/5 of the GDP, he noted.

Hayk Sargsyan stated that as announced, investments up to 1 billion USD were made in Armenias economy last year, but he added that this is not enough. Our investments should exceed the threshold by up to two times so that we will have the same 7% or more economic growth. If this economic growth continues for several years, many problems will be solved. When the base changes, that 7% becomes a new threshold for greater opportunities. And as I said, these opportunities exist, he said.

President Serzh Sargsyan on February 27 held a consultative meeting with the countrys socio-economic policy-makers to discuss and summarize the results recorded in the socio-economic sphere in 2017. The President urged the meeting participants to provide for inclusive economic growth, stressing that all the layers of society, and especially the vulnerable groups, should benefit from economic growth.

Interview by Ani Nazaryan

English  translator/editor: Aneta HarutyunyanYEREVAN, FEBRUARY 28, ARMENPRESS. The Parliament of Artsakh adopted a statement during the February 28 plenary session on the 30th anniversary of the massacre of the Armenian population of Sumgait.

ARMENPRESS presents the full statement:

Statement of the Parliament of the Republic of Artsakh on the 30th anniversary of the massacre of the Armenian population of Sumgait

On 27-29 February 1988, atrocities against and forced deportation of the Armenian population was carried out by the Azerbaijani authorities in Sumgait, just 30 kilometers from Baku. Hundreds of Armenians, mostly women, children and elderly people fell victim to a pre-planned massacre; thousands of Armenians were forcibly deported and their property plundered.

The crime committed in Sumgait was another manifestation of the policy of discrimination, ethnic cleansing and expulsion of Armenian people, which, following the example of Nakhichevan, was carried out with impunity by the Azerbaijani authorities during the Soviet period. It later continued in Baku, Gandzak (Kirovabad) and other Armenian settlements of Northern Artsakh. By these atrocities, the Baku authorities threatened the Artsakh Armenians stood to defend their rights, and keeping the Armenians of Eastern Transcaucasia as a hostage. Meanwhile, the national liberation struggle that was unfolding in Artsakh in those days was called to put an end to the infringements of national dignity of the Armenian people and the genocidal policy of the Azerbaijani authorities.

Paying tribute to the memory of the innocent Armenians who fell victim to the genocide in Sumgait and being convinced that the impunity for the pogroms and massacre of the Armenian population organized at state level led to new crimes and a war by Azerbaijan against the people of the newly independent Nagorno-Karabakh Republic, the Parliament of the Artsakh Republic:

condemns any manifestation of discrimination, xenophobia and intolerance,

believes that official Baku continues to pursue a policy of genocide, the latest evidence of which were crimes committed against the civilian population of Artsakh in April 2016,

reaffirms that the Artsakh Republic will be consistent in restoring and protecting the rights of Azerbaijani Armenians who were exposed to violence and deportation,

urges parliamentary structures and international human rights organizations, on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of mass pogroms and atrocities against the Armenian population of Sumgait, to condemn the genocidal acts committed by Baku against the Armenians of Azerbaijan.

28 February 2018

StepanakertYEREVAN, FEBRUARY 28, ARMENPRESS. The Sumgait pogroms victims were commemorated today in the Tsitsernakaberd Memorial Complex in Yerevan. A wreath was placed at the cross-stone on behalf of the President of Armenia.

MPs, scholars, students, public figures, as well as former residents of Sumgait laid flowers at the monument in honor of the innocent victims.

Holding photos of murdered family members, the former residents of Sumgait were recalling the state-sanctioned Azeri massacres with tears in their eyes.

Karine Melkumyan, a former resident of Sumgait, recalled the horrors she faced in the Azeri town. She said that five family members of hers were murdered during those days. Today we are commemorating our family members. For three days Armenians were being murdered in Sumgait. Our family was attacked on February 29. They tortured and murdered our family with extreme cruelty. Our entire family resisted the crowd for three hours. Armenians were heroically struggling, trying to save their wives, children and grandchildren. And all of this took place before the eyes of the police and Soviet army, she said. The ex-resident of the Azeri town are emphasizing that the crime doesnt have an expiry date, and that the Azerbaijani perpetrators should face justice.

Larisa Alaverdyan, executive director of the Against Legal Arbitrariness NGO, mentioned that we must continue commemorating and demanding justice.

Not only should we commemorate our countrymen, but we should also succeed in organizing persecution against all those individuals who are standing next to the Azeri regime and operate under Nazi policy, who speak in Azerbaijan with a vocabulary which has been denied back in the beginning of the 20th century, she said.

She said that international persecution under international rights must be launched against the perpetrators.

MP Arman Saghatelyan said that one of the main calls is that the Sumgait events havent gotten proper legal and political assessment up to this day.

Photos by Gevorg Perkuperkyan

English translator/editor: Stepan KocharyanYEREVAN, FEBRUARY 28, ARMENPRESS. On the sidelines of the Armenian-Iranian inter-governmental commission session in Yerevan, state revenue committee president Vardan Harutyunyan and Irans deputy minister of economy and finance, president of the customs service Forud Asgari signed a protocol on initial e-data exchange on international shipments of goods and transportation services.

The sides also signed a memorandum of understanding on facilitating shipments under customs transit procedures.

The Iranian partners were briefed on the FEZ main principles under EEU and Armenia customs legislation exhibition.

The Iranian delegation later toured the SRC monitoring center and viewed the administration system.

English translator/editor: Stepan KocharyanYEREVAN, FEBRUARY 28, ARMENPRESS. Armenias minister of economic development and investments Suren Karayan held a meeting with the delegation of Brussels Airlines Vice President Herman Carpentier, the ministry told ARMENPRESS.

At the meeting the sides discussed prospects of boosting tourism between Armenia and Belgium. In this context the Brussels Airlines executives discussed the steps which will be able to carry out if the Brussels-Yerevan flight is re-launched.

Ara Khzmalyan, director of the Armenian Tourism Development Foundation, presented the possible joint marketing actions for increasing tourism flows from both Belgium and neighboring countries.

The sides agreed to continue cooperation in designing tourism projects.

English translator/editor: Stepan KocharyanYEREVAN, FEBRUARY 28, ARMENPRESS. Armenias minister of energy infrastructures and natural resources Ashot Manukyan met with the delegation led by Iranian minister of energy Reza Ardakanian on the sidelines of the 15th session of the Armenian-Iranian intergovernmental commission held in Yerevan on February 26-27, the ministry told Armenpress.

Minister Manukyan once again welcomed the Iranian delegations visit to Armenia and said it will contribute to further boosting the activity of the intergovernmental commission.

The officials discussed the process of programs of mutual interest, as well as the opportunities for new investments projects. In this context, they in particular touched upon the ongoing construction works of the Iran-Armenia 400 kW third high-voltage power transmission line. Based on the implementation of this project the electricity export volume from Armenia to Iran can reach up to 1400 MW.

The Iranian minister thanked for the reception and stated that the sessions of the inter-governmental commission are effective platform to discuss the issues of the Armenian-Iranian cooperation agenda and find solutions.

The ministers also touched upon the Armenian-Iranian cooperation in the fields of nature protection, in particular, the water resources management field. Minister Ashot Manukyan expressed readiness to continue the joint works on this path.

The two ministers also exchanged views on the investment program for constructing the Meghri hydropower plant and reached an agreement to organize a meeting in Tehran with the participation of the concerned sides aimed at attracting additional financial resources.

English  translator/editor: Aneta HarutyunyanYEREVAN, FEBRUARY 28, ARMENPRESS. The investments made in Armenia in 2017 by state, loan resources and grants, as well as by private funds, public-private partnership comprised a total of 856.5 million USD, according to the report on the investment programs released by the government.

Programs with a total of 170.9 million USD volume have been implemented in the provinces which are not included in the aforementioned figure. Overall, 614 programs have been implemented in the provinces.

The government has provided different privileges to a number of companies, and the ministry of economic development and investments has conducted a monitoring during the year over the privileges assumed through an investment program by these companies. According to the monitoring results, nearly 506 million USD investments were made in 2017 which is included in the 856 million USD investments.

English  translator/editor: Aneta HarutyunyanYEREVAN, FEBRUARY 28, ARMENPRESS. During a working meeting with President Serzh Sargsyan, minister of education and science Levon Mkrtchyan reported on the implementation process of instructions given by the President, the works carried out so far aimed at ensuring high-quality education, implementing new innovative programs for this purpose, the ministrys priority issues and the activities for 2018, the Presidential Office told Armenpress.

The minister reported that the draft law on Approving the State Education Development Program until 2030 has been developed and submitted for the governments approval. The draft law aims at forming an education system directed towards future.

Commenting on the innovative educational programs being implemented in parallel with the centers for excellence, including the Araratian Bachelors Program, minister Mkrtchyan said it has already received an international recognition. He added that based on the Presidents instruction the system of centers for excellence is being installed also in high schools of the Republic.

As for the development of public-private sector cooperation in the field of education as tasked by the President, the minister reported that new programs have been introduced. In particular, the network of TUMO Center has expanded, in addition to Yerevan, the Center also has branches in Dilijan, Gyumri, Stepanakert and enables 14.000 children annually to develop their skills by the art and IT programs. According to other projects, the Robotics development program has been introduced jointly with the Union of Information Technology Enterprises (UITE): as of January 2018, there are 225 groups involving nearly 5000 children.

The education minister also presented the activities conducted for increasing the teaching effectiveness of foreign languages with the goal to improve the education quality. He said the construction works of school teaching Chinese are underway, and it is expected to launch the school on September 1, 2018 thanks to the nearly 11 million USD investments made by the Chinese side.

English teaching clubs were established by the assistance of the UK government in 6 communities of the Republic which include nearly 400 students, and over 200 teachers have undergone training. French language is being taught in 10 schools.

The minister also reported on the process of social assistance programs, stating that in 2017 1-12th grade students in 49 schools of 39 communities received textbooks for free at the expense of the state budget resources.

As a result of the expansion of the Stable School Food national program, the Tavush province joined the program in 2017, and the program will be introduced in the Shirak province in 2018.

Stating that one of the priority directions for education development is the transition to the universal inclusive education which aims at creating high-quality education opportunities for all children in school, the minister said the universal inclusive education has been introduced in Syunik, Lori and Tavush provinces, and the system will be installed in Armavir province this year.

Levon Mkrtchyan also informed that the professional group for reforms of the higher education system formed by the Presidents task has completed the development of the draft law on Higher Education. The draft law is in the Parliament at the moment.

As for the activities for 2018 the minister mentioned the works to be carried out on revising the principles of providing the universities state funding mechanisms and student scholarships, installing a single information system for management of higher education, increasing the accountability and on several other directions.

English  translator/editor: Aneta Harutyunyan



YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 28, ARMENPRESS. President of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan extended condolences to the Mkrtchyan family on the passing of film director, Honored Artist of Armenia Albert Mkrtchyan.

The president expressed deep condolences to the family, friends, colleagues and audience of the prominent artist.

Albert Mkrtchyans contribution in the development and popularization of Armenian cinema and theater is significant. Many of his films have been warmly received by demanding critics and have been loved by tasteful audience, the president said in the letter, praising also the filmmakers contribution in teaching the younger generation.

Film director and scriptwriter Albert Mkrtchyan, the younger brother of acclaimed actor Mher Mkrtchyan, passed away on February 28, just one day after turning 81 years old.

The Mher Mkrtchyan Artistic Theater told ARMENPRESS that the filmmaker was battling a long time disease.

Albert Mkrtchyan was born in 1937 in Leninakan, present day Gyumri.

He graduated the Moscow Cinematography Institute in 1971. From 1960 to 1966 he was the director of the Armenian TV studio, and in 1971 director of the HayFilm Studio.

He served as artistic director of the Gyumri Drama Theater from 1999, and from 2000 as artistic director of the Yerevan Mher Mkrtchyan Artistic Theater.

Mkrtchyan delivered lectures in the State Pedagogical University of Yerevan and the Theater and Cinema Institute.

English translator/editor: Stepan KocharyanYEREVAN, FEBRUARY 29, ARMENPRESS. Armenias minister of foreign affairs Edward Nalbandian had a meeting with Zeid Raad Al Hussein, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights in Geneva, the foreign ministry told ARMENPRESS.

At the meeting, the UN High Commissioner welcomed Nalbandian and highly praised Armenias consistent efforts aimed at protection of human rights and welcomed Armenias initiative steps aimed at prevention of genocides and crimes against humanity.

FM Nalbandian present to Zeid Raad Al Hussein Armenias new Genocide Prevention Resolution for the 37th Sitting of the Human Rights Council on the occasion of the 70th anniversary of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.

The agenda of the meeting also included the implementation process of the constitutional reforms in Armenia and the transitioning to a parliamentary administration system.

Minister Nalbandian reaffirmed Armenias commitment to further strengthen democratic institutions, rule of law, the judicial system, effective governance, and continue reforms by relying on the support of colleagues, including the UN.

The sides also addressed the situation in the Middle East and the migration flows. In this context the UN High Commissioner spoke positively about Armenias practice of receiving migrants and integration programs.

English translator/editor: Stepan KocharyanYEREVAN, 28 FEBUARY, ARMENPRESS. The Central Bank of Armenia informs Armenpress that today, 28 February, USD exchange rate is down by 0.18 drams to 480.81 drams. EUR exchange rate is down by 5.70 drams to 587.50 drams. Russian Ruble exchange rate is down by 0.07 drams to 8.55 drams. GBP exchange rate is down by 3.33 drams to 667.89 drams.

The Central Bank has set the following prices for precious metals.

Gold price is down by 127.52 drams to 20493.97 drams. Silver price is down by 1.03 drams to 256.76 drams. Platinum price is down by 52.14 drams to 15365.65 drams.YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 28, ARMENPRESS. The National Assembly of Armenia has issued a statement on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the Armenian massacres in the Azerbaijani city Sumgayit. The statement particularly calls on the Parliaments and the Parliamentary Assemblies, the international organizations, the human rights organizations to condemn the committed and ongoing atrocities of Azerbaijan against the peaceful population as well as the violations of the humanitarian law which threaten not only the Armenian people, but also the security, stability and development of the whole region. As ARMENPRESS was informed from the press service of the parliament of Armenia, the statement runs as follows,

Acknowledging that Sumgait pogroms were planned and organized by the Azerbaijani authorities 30 years ago, and were another manifestation of Azerbaijan's consistent policy of extradition and extermination of the Armenian people from its cradle, commenced with the establishment of Azerbaijan in 1918 through the massacres of Armenians, particularly in Baku - 30,000 (1918) and Shushi - 20,000 (1920), then continued in the Soviet era through the forcible eviction of Armenians of Nakhijevan and other regions, as well as repressions against the Armenians of Artsakh. This process gained the momentum, particularly, by the massacres committed against the Armenians in Sumgait, Baku and Gandzak (Kirovabad) from 1988 to 1991; since 1991 a large-scale aggression against Artsakh, with the involvement of thousands of mercenaries, closely related to the international terrorist organizations, the ethnic cleansings and deportations in 22 Armenian villages through Koltso (Ring) military operation, killings of elderly, women and children living in Maragha village in 1992, the annexation and de-armenization of the Shahumyan region and part of Martakert region in 1992, the murder of the population of the Khojaly town nearby Aghdam committed by the Azerbaijani armed groups and aimed at using it for the internal struggle for power in Azerbaijan and ascribing it to the Armenians, the glorification of those who committed crimes against the Armenians, disseminating anti-Armenian hatred and intolerance, the annihilation of the Armenian historical-cultural heritage, falsification of history, violation of the 1994-1995 trilateral ceasefire agreements, which have no time limitation, and subversive penetrations, murder of peaceful population and the military personnel, targeted bombings of civilian infrastructure, the new large-scale aggression against Artsakh in April 2016, which was accompanied by the gross violations of the principles of the humanitarian law - killings of children, women and elderly, the mutilations of corpses of killed soldiers, beheadings of the captured Armenian soldiers in the style of terrorist groups.

Acknowledging the fact, that the anti-Armenian violence, pogroms and deportations perpetrated by the Azerbaijani authorities in response to the peaceful demands of the people of Artsakh, who were under the threat of ethnic cleansings, de-Armenization and physical extermination, to exercise, in accordance with the norms and principles of the international law and in line with the existing at that time legislation, the implementation of one of the fundamental principles of international law - equality and self-determination of peoples, together with the extreme anti-Armenian state propaganda, has made the existence of Armenians in Azerbaijan impossible.

Stating that the Azerbaijani authorities, opposing the efforts of the international community and the Co-Chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group, undermine the negotiation process on the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and continue to rely on the use of force and threat of force.

The National Assembly of the Republic of Armenia

Condemns the massive violence, murders and deportations as well as the Armenophobic, racist manifestations and aggressive military actions against the Nagorno-Karabakh.

Commemorates the innocent victims of Azerbaijani crimes against Armenians.

Calls on the Parliaments and the Parliamentary Assemblies, the international organizations, the human rights organizations:

to condemn the committed and ongoing atrocities of Azerbaijan against the peaceful population as well as the violations of the humanitarian law which threaten not only the Armenian people, but also the security, stability and development of the whole region.

to undertake practical steps to prevent them.

English translator/editor: Tigran SirekanyanYEREVAN, FEBRUARY 28, ARMENPRESS. The United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres received Permanent Representative of Armenia, Ambassador Zohrab Mnatsakanyan on February 27.

As ARMENPRESS was informed from the press service of the MFA Armenia, the Armenian Ambassador conveyed to the Secretary-General the greetings and the good wishes of the President of Armenia and the Foreign Minister. Then Ambassador presented in details the preparations for the Yerevan summit of La Francophonie and the events scheduled for the summit.

Antonio Guterres thanked Ambassador Mnatsakanyan for the greetings and recalled the meeting with the President of Armenia on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in September 2017, as well as visits to Armenia in his previous capacity.

The Secretary-General warmly recalled the event in celebration of the 25th anniversary of Armenias membership to the UN, which he had the pleasure to attend. Welcoming the decision to host the 17th Summit of La Francophonie in Yerevan, the Secretary-General reaffirmed the commitment to promoting the growing partnership of the UN with the International Organization of La Francophonie and Armenia.

Ambassador Mnatsakanyan and Secretary-General Guterres exchanged views on cooperation within the United Nations and its structures and on the initiatives being implemented within the international multilateral processes. The UN Secretary-General reaffirmed the United Nations continued support to the peaceful settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict within the framework of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairmanship and on the basis of their proposals.



English translator/editor: Tigran SirekanyanYEREVAN, FEBRUARY 28, ARMENPRESS. A range of events dedicated to the 30th anniversary of Karabakh (Artsakh) Movement took place at the European Parliament attended by MEPs, diplomats, representatives of European NGOs and Armenian organizations, international experts and journalists.

ARMENPRESS reports the MEPs issued a statement condemning the Armenian massacres in Sumgayit and together with the numerous attendees honored the memory of the innocent victims with a minute of silence.

Discussions were held over Nagorno Karabakh conflict settlement, the right of Artsakh to self-determination and its political grounds, as well as the role of the EU.

English translator/editor: Tigran SirekanyanDoncaster-based The Topping Pie Company is to launch a Pie Eating Contest on the 4 March at Frenchgate Shopping Centre.

Co-inciding with British Pie Week (5-11 March), ten competitors will race to eat three Toppings steak pies in the shortest amount of time to claim the Donnys Top Pie Eater accolade.

The current female world pie eating champion, Vicky Lindley, will judge the competition.

The winner will receive a hamper of Toppings products, including a Chilli Pork Pie, Stilton Topped Pork Pie and Caramelised Red Onion Dinky Pies with chutneys.

The event also aims to raise money for its chosen charity, YMCA Doncaster, which supports homeless people in the area.

We hope pie eaters from Doncaster and beyond will come down and join in the fun, as well as support our chosen charity, said The Topping Pie Company sales director Matthew Topping. We are delighted to involve the current female world pie eating champion who will make sure the content is a fair feast.

The Topping Pie Company will be running promotions throughout British Pie Week on products such as Peppered Chicken Pie, Dinky Pies and 920g Pork Pies.Leavening agents producer Kudos Blends has named James Youngman as the companys first finance director.

Youngman joined the business in 2016 as a chartered accountant and has strengthened the companys financial management and governance during his time at the company, according to Kudos.

The move comes as Kudos sets out plans for further growth and is currently undergoing a 1m expansion of facilities at its site in Cleobury Mortimer, Shropshire, providing new packing lines, expansion of its test bakery and an additional warehouse.

He (Youngman) has brought rigour and professionalism to our financial regime, and has contributed strongly and creatively, developing and refining our expansion plans, said Kudos Blends managing director Dinnie Jordan.

James is a complete all-rounder with a consistently positive approach, which is exactly what our company needs as it builds on the platform we have established from our base in Cleobury Mortimer.We've detected that JavaScript is not enabled in your browser.

You must enable JavaScript to use craigslist.Now that it is fully apparent, to all who have the ability to pay some modicum of attention, that Imposter President Biden has extreme cognitive issues, in addition to being an inveterate liar: Can OUR Republic continue with this Executive Office that has completely failed, so many times, on far too many issues here at this early date in this abysmal presidency?

No, Joseph R. Biden is completely unqualified, morally and cognitively, to represent real Americans, and lead this Republic of disparate peoples.

Yes, Joseph R. Biden has started whispering again, even softer now than before; so, I know he still cares, plus, OUR media will soon stop reporting on Afghanistan in favor of OUR Socialist issues. This is an updated status on 2 earlier blog postings (included below) about the Construction of a Giant Net along the Golden Gate Bridge to prevent people who want to jump off of the bridge to commit suicide from committing suicide once they jump off of the bridge. My Fellow Americans, they are actually going ahead with construction! Some politician or some politician's brother-in-law is going to make a lot of money off this craziness. I know some of you think I make things up to make my Blog entertaining. Those of you who think this way think this way based on the flimsy evidence that I have actually been known to make things up to make my Blog entertaining. This is not one of those times. I say again, they are actually going ahead with construction! Actual installation will begin in mid 2018 and be finished in 2021. In my first blog (below) about this craziness I said we had been told that the construction of the net would cost between $40 and $50 Million. I speculated the final cost would be closer to the $50 Million number. Later I read that the price tag had risen to $75 Million. On April 13, 2017 at the Golden Gate Bridge Suicide Deterrent Commemoration Ceremony the cost is listed as $211 Million.If you care to read all about the Golden Gate Bridge Suicide Deterrent Commemoration Ceremony in agonizing and minute detail, click on this link The quote I like the best (not really) is,I contend that there is no way to know it will save one $211 Million Life...The determined suicide-inclined person might just go shoot himself or go into his bathroom and slit his wrist or take a bunch of pills or jump off of another bridge. The determined suicide-inclined person might look over at the net and fear that he might get all scuffed up by falling into the net and instead go shoot himself or go into his bathroom and slit his wrist or take a bunch of pills or jump off of another bridge. What do you wanna bet that in the future we will be seeing reports about how many lives were saved because no one tried to jump off of the bridge because of the net? Those Lives Saved Estimates just might rise up to 211 Million!------------------------Here is my first Blog Posting about this silliness on October 15, 2008...Finding Another WayIf someone wants to commit suicide, they will find another way.I read where the city of San Francisco is considering a stainless steel net under the Golden Gate Bridge to prevent people from committing suicide by jumping off the bridge.This net will cost somewhere between $40 & $50 million. What do you want to bet it will end up being closer to that $50 million figure?There is no law that requires a person who commits suicide to jump off of the Golden Gate Bridge. If someone wants to kill himself, there are a lot of other ways to get the job done. What is next for the suicide prevention minded city council of San Francisco? ... Nets under all tall buildings, trees and ladders? Outlawing all tall buildings, trees and ladders? Requiring all tall buildings, trees and ladders be short?I may be one step ahead of the city council but I wonder if they have thought of the possibility that the suicide minded person might just scramble across the stainless steel net and continue their plunge?I know what they could do if the jumpers started crawling across the net... They could shoot them!Would I kid u?SmartFella?Political scientist McLennan sees enthusiasm from Republicans and Democrats as debates over policy become more partisan

With the nation split down the middle on myriad issues, political parties are operating - or not - in a toxic atmosphere.Meredith College political science professor David McLennan said.He believes the 2018 legislative elections could help to thaw icy relations between minority Democrats, and Republicans, who hold veto-proof majorities of 35-15 in the Senate and 75-45 in the House. To do that, he said, Democrats would have to take enough Republican-held seats to trim that margin.McLennan said.In typical midterm elections, the party controlling the White House loses seats in the General Assembly - since 1950, an average of 11 seats . This year, both Republican President Trump and Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper may drive turnout in each party.McLennan said.He cited a recent Meredith College poll of registered voters that found no enthusiasm gap among Republican, Democratic, and unaffiliated voters, and a plurality of North Carolinians believe the state is headed in the right direction. The economy was the top satisfaction item among voters of all affiliations, among all age groups, between whites and blacks, and men and women.McLennan said.But he doesn't think the current imbroglio over the $57.8 million Atlantic Coast Pipeline escrow fund Gov. Roy Cooper's office negotiated outside of normal constitutional requirements will spur turnout on either side.McLennan said. Republican gerrymandering, and the lawsuits it spawned, could be an exception because that issue has gotten so much attention.The redistricting power struggles between Cooper and the General Assembly, and the legal battle over Republicans trying to merge the state elections and ethics board, might just be background noise for voters, McLennan said.State Rep. Jimmy Dixon, R-Duplin, believes Cooper's pipeline deal is a symptom of the 2018 election season, and just the beginning of an all-out Democratic effort to re-elect Cooper in 2020 and give Democrats confidence they can end GOP control of the General Assembly.Dixon said. That attention is raising the political temperature preceding this year's elections.in legislative debate and votes, Dixon said.For those following the combative politics in Raleigh, it's likely no surprise Dixon responds with equal resolve to the Democrats' political efforts.Dixon said,He's not the only elected official suspicious of the other side.Senate leader Phil Berger R-Rockingham, and other legislative Republicans say the deal Cooper worked out with the energy company coalition building the Atlantic Coast Pipeline was a slush fund intended to reward the governor's supporters, including friendly business owners.Cooper said he had to shut Republican lawmakers out of the negotiations over the pipeline fund and keep the deal secret because Republicans were untrustworthy. He said they would convene in back rooms to figure out how to use the money to their benefit.Contact: White House

White House Press Office

Well, thank you for the warm welcome. And I trust you all have had a productive and meaningful morning.And to Governor Sandoval, to Governor Bullock, and to all of America's governors who are gathered here for this important national meeting, on behalf of the First Family and our entire Cabinet, thank you for being here today. And, more importantly, thank you for your service to the people of your state and to the people of this nation. We are proud of our governors across America. (Applause.)One year ago, President Trump told all of you at this gathering that, in his words, "Under this administration, we're going to have a true partnership" - a true partnership of collaboration and cooperation with governors in America. And as a former governor, I'm very proud to see the progress that we have all made together for the American people.Since day one of this administration, we've been partnering with each and every one of you, in good times and in challenging times. We've been working on the issues that matter most to the American people - jobs, energy, combatting opiate abuse, land management, and so much more. We've been inspired. We've been inspired by the leadership of governors of our states and territories in the midst of hurricanes and wildfires. And we commend our governors for your outstanding leadership in these challenging times. (Applause.)Through all of it, we've generated real results for the American people. Thanks to the President's leadership and all of your efforts, we've made remarkable progress in the past year: 2.5 million new jobs; unemployment at a 17-year low; wages are beginning to rise all across America; business confidence is soaring; and the American economy is roaring back.We all share the credit for that. We all share the responsibility of serving all the people of this great nation. So we thank you for your collaboration and your partnership in the progress that we've made.But today is about partnering with you for what matters most: ensuring the safety and security of our children and schools. As President Trump said in the immediate aftermath of the horrific attack in Parkland, Florida, "No child, no teacher, should ever be in danger in an American school." And President Trump, as he will reiterate to you today - President Trump has made school safety our administration's top priority. (Applause.)One week ago, in this very room, the President and I met with the family of Meadow Pollack, a beautiful young lady who lost her life in the terrible attack in Florida. We met with other students and families reeling from that attack. We also sat with families from Sandy Hook and from Columbine, who still bear the scars in their hearts from similar incidents that took place in their communities. And as the President said, and I can echo, we'll never forget that time.President Trump has been busy listening to law enforcement officials. But at the bottom line, he recognizes that public safety and education are principally a state and local function.So today, we want to hear from you, America's governors. We want to hear what you're doing. We want to hear your ideas for reform at the federal level.It's good for me to be among some former colleagues and friends. And let me share with each and every one of you - I've now served with this President for over a year, we've become very close. I cherish our friendship. What I know of this President is he's got broad shoulders and a big heart. And like governors all across America, I also know that this President is all about results. As the President said, "It's not enough to simply take actions that make us feel like we're making a difference. We must actually make that difference." And I promise you he means it from the bottom of his heart.So today, I urge you to bring your candor and your counsel to this President, and know that he's listening - he's listening with the respect that's generated from knowing the jobs that each and every one of you do every day for the citizens of your states all across this country. And I know in my heart that with President Trump's leadership, with your leadership in your states, and with God's help, we'll end this evil in our time.So now it is my high honor and distinct privilege to introduce to you my friend and a leader who is absolutely committed to working together with each and every one of you to advance the safety and the prosperity of the American people, the 45th President of the United States of America, President Donald Trump. (Applause.)Republican Primary for Sheriff: Donald Dixon Files

News Release:



My name is Donald Dixon, and I'm running for Sheriff of Beaufort County.



I am running for Sheriff because we need a change in the Sheriff's Office. We do not need a person who believes he is a king as Sheriff. We do not need a Sheriff who refuses to operate in an open, cooperative and transparent manner. We need someone who sees himself as a servant of the people, not as a potentate. We need a Sheriff who believes in cooperating with other county officials and agencies. As Sheriff, my number one priority will be to protect the rights of the law-abiding citizens of Beaufort County. I will be that kind of Sheriff if you elect me.



Many of you may realize that this isn't the first time I've run for this position, I have campaigned and walked many miles all across our County listening to the people. Each time I sign my name to begin these adventures, I am reminded of what a great country we live in. In America we can vote for who we believe will do the best job, we can run for office ourselves and be that candidate that will make a difference. I count myself truly blessed to be here again, and with so much support.



I do not take this lightly. It is an honor and a privilege to run for any public office, and the Sheriff's Office is one for which I have worked and for which I have trained for over 12 years. Your vote is worth the effort, and I would never ask for your support if I wasn't willing to give the position my very best.



I promise you, the citizens, the deputies, and officials of this County, that I will work towards fixing the problems at the Sheriff's Office. I believe we can reduce the Sheriff's wasteful spending of tax dollars, have a professional relationship with the Commissioners and judges, and diminish drugs and crimes in our county. That is the end goal, to increase the quality of life of our citizens - our families. I believe that takes leadership-working with people and agencies, not bullying them.



I believe I am more qualified by training, experience and temperament than my opponent to lead the Sheriff's Office. As an officer, I carried out my duties in a professional and ethical manner. I have worked as a deputy and supervisor in this county for 5 years and a licensed investigator throughout North Carolina for over 13 years. I hold a Bachelor of Science degree from Mount Olive College and a Masters degree from ECU, both in criminal justice. I am currently the lead Criminal Justice Instructor at Martin Community College. I have also been self-employed as a small business owner for over 30 years in Beaufort County. I know what it is like to meet a payroll and pay property taxes before you draw a paycheck yourself.



Undoubtedly, the greatest attribute that I can add to my resume for Sheriff is my Christian faith. Having grown up in a loving Christian home, I've learned life lessons that I have held fast. Of course, I've learned right from wrong, but also lessons of loving thy neighbor, forgiveness, living a moral and ethical life, just simply doing what's right and serving my fellowman. These are things that I've tried to practice in my life, and have passed on to my daughters.



I realized, even at a very young age, that I do not have all the answers. I believe that answers come from teamwork. We now have a Sheriff who believes deputies and staff in the Sheriff's Office work for him. I will view myself as working with a team of dedicated professionals. The Beaufort County Sheriff's Office will no longer be cloaked in darkness and held out of sight from the citizens it serves. I will assure that information that may answer hard questions, or ease a family's suffering, or that brings justice, is made available in a timely manner. Our Commissioners and the public will not be wondering where their hard-earned tax money goes, or if the Sheriff is serving the citizens' best interest. There will be no more private use of county taxpayer funded equipment.



The hard-working Deputies in Beaufort County will all be invited to keep their employment, they will not need to worry about rumors of a new Sheriff "cleaning house". Policies will be put in place to insure officer safety and increased job performance and satisfaction.



I promise that you can look back at any time after I'm elected Sheriff and be proud of your vote cast for me, Donald Dixon. I will be the Sheriff you were hoping to elect. You will see a professional organization that is able to work well with other agencies, businesses, and citizens to accomplish more.



Thank you for your vote and support.



Contact: Donald Dixon dondi@vol.com

Amazon will acquire Ring, the Santa Monica, CA-based home video surveillance maker.

'The companies are expected to announce the acquisition this afternoon,' GeekWire first reported.

The surprise acquisition marks the latest move by the Seattle-based tech giant into the smart home technology market. Financial terms were not disclosed. Amazon is expected to treat the Ring deal similar to past acquisitions such as Zappos, Twitch and Audible, pursuing product and feature integrations where appropriate but maintaining the Ring brand and largely allowing the company to continue operating as it has in the past.

"Ring is committed to our mission to reduce crime in neighborhoods by providing effective yet affordable home security tools to our neighbors that make a positive impact on our homes, our communities, and the world," a Ring spokesperson said in a statement. "We'll be able to achieve even more by partnering with an inventive, customer-centric company like Amazon. We look forward to being a part of the Amazon team as we work toward our vision for safer neighborhoods."

Amazon is positioning its Echo smart speaker, with the embedded Alexa voice assistant as a home technology hub.

"Ring's home security products and services have delighted customers since day one," an Amazon spokesperson said in a statement. "We're excited to work with this talented team and help them in their mission to keep homes safe and secure."When Disney built Euro Disney (now Disneyland Paris), it was required to partner with a French company that borrowed heavily, couldn't get out from under its debts, and ended up beholden to creditors who forced it to limit spending on the park, trapping it in a cycle of unpopularity and underinvestment.



Half-hearted attempts to improve the park followed, most notably the construction of a "second gate," the Walt Disney Studios, modeled on Florida's Disney-MGM Studios (now Disney Hollywood Studios, a park with a most unfortunate acronym). The Studios park is unquestionably the worst Disney park in history, ill-conceived, understaffed, and uninspired, though it was notably improved by the recent addition of a Ratatouille ride.





Disney now controls its French partner, having bought out the company's debt, and this has sparked an ambitious across-the-board redevelopment of Disneyland Paris, which is about to enter a new phase with a 2B ($2.5B) expansion that will include a Star Wars land, a Marvel Comics, and a Frozen land.

The development won't start until 2021.



The real surprise is the Frozen land which was not expected, at least in the Walt Disney Studios. The fact that Marvel and Star Wars universe are mostly "boys" universe ( even if a lot of girls are Star Wars fans ) may be the reason why a Frozen land has been chosen as DLP needed to have at the WDS a land for young girls, and obviously a Frozen land will do it. It don't look to be a land similar to the one they will build soon at Hong Kong Disneyland or to the Frozen land announced previously and designed for Tokyo DisneySea, but taking elements from each. Anyway there won't be probably any costs for "research and development" as they will have been paid by the others parks and that may have had an influence too in the decision to build a Frozen land at the WDS. Or may be it is the recent snowy weather and "frozen" temperatures  along with the stunning pictures of the parks covered by snow  which helped to finally made the final choice for the Frozen land. Just imagine this big mountain covered by real snow! Below, a zoom in the new concept-art on the Frozen land for the WDS. I bet that the show building for the attraction  because of course there will be one  will be inside the mountain. Note also on the full artwork at the top that the land on the right of Frozen land and over Toy Story Playland is quite empty, leaving room eventually for a future land there, too.



MAJOR BREAKING NEWS : Disneyland Paris Announces Development Plan of New Lands and Rides For TWO BILLION EUROS ! Star Wars Land, Marvel Land AND Frozen Land Coming to Walt Disney Studios!!! [Disneyland and More]





(Thanks, Toby)





Tenyo is a Japanese magic trick company that's been around since 1960. They are well known for making clever props. (My friend Richard Kaufman, who often writes for Boing Boing, wrote a 1,400-page two-volume set about the company, called Tenyoism)

Here's a Tenyo puzzle trick called The Perpetual Puzzle (It's available on Amazon). You start by showing a rectangle made from 5 pieces. The rectangle fits snugly in a black plastic frame. Next, you show a sixth piece and combine it to the other five to make a larger rectangle. This rectangle also fits perfectly inside the frame. Finally, you show an even larger seventh piece, add it to the other six to form a rectangle. It, too, fits into the frame. How is it done? (If you know, please don't reveal the secret in the comments.)Helen Foster was chief administrative officer for the Department of Housing and Urban Development until she was demoted; she says she was punished for refusing to violate rules limiting how much money Secretary Carson could spend redecorating his office and fixing up his home.

She has sworn out a complaint with the Office of Special Counsel alleging that she was repeatedly pressured to go beyond the $5000 cap on redecorating Carson's office, a project that was overseen by Carson's wife. She says that in addition to being an ethics violation, the redecoration project was a major distraction, preventing senior HUD staff from doing their jobs as they scrambled to find money for new furnishings. She was told that the budget would not suffice for Secretary Carson's office, because "$5,000 will not even buy a decent chair."





She was also pressured to find a way to get taxpayers to spring for a new security system for Ben Carson's private residence, despite the fact that "the threat assessment for Carson was low."

She also fought with her bosses over their discovery of a $10.8m shortfall in HUD finances, which she wanted to disclose.



In the months following, Foster saw her stock at HUD fall. She said it was retaliation for her refusal to write the memo justifying spending money on an alarm system for Carson and her refusal to "find money" for Carson's office redecoration.



In the complaint, Foster also says she was retaliated against for pushing for her superiors to report a $10 million budget shortfall at the HUD dating back to 2016 under the Obama administration. Foster says the "agency leadership was unwilling to report the $10.8 million funding deficit to the appropriations staff."



HUD did not immediately respond to a request for comment on this allegation.



On March 22, 2017, just 20 days into Carson's tenure at HUD, Foster received a perfect score on an employee review, her second outstanding score in the course of three months. Just four months later, she said was demoted and reassigned to oversee privacy and FOIA requests. "I was put into a job that was made up, something in the federal government we call the 'rubber room,' and then I protested and asked to be put on detail until I could find another job," she told CNN.

'$5,000 will not even buy a decent chair': HUD staffer files complaint over Ben Carson office redecoration [Rene Marsh/CNN]





(Image: Guillaume Piolle , CC-BY)A woman told police that casino mogul Steve Wynn raped her, and that she became pregnant and had a child from the rape, ' while another has reported she was forced to resign from a Las Vegas job after she refused to have sex with him,' reports AP.

The news is the most recent in a series of credible claims that led to his ouster.

The Associated Press obtained copies of the police reports recently filed by each of these women over charges against Wynn that date back to events of the 1970s.

One report shows a woman told police she gave birth to a girl after Wynn raped her at her Chicago apartment around 1973 and 1974.



The other says she had consensual sex with Wynn while she worked as a casino dealer at the Golden Nugget but was fired when she told him no in summer 1976. Wynn has resigned as chairman and CEO of Wynn Resorts amid sexual misconduct allegations.

[PHOTO: Mike Blake/Reuters]By

Your

February 14, 2018, open letter to the American people asked us to evaluate the future of American forces in light of the prevailing realities in Afghanistan. I can answer only for myself, as an academic and former American diplomat who has been trying to understand Afghanistans realities for thirty-five years. Many Afghans claim that any answer should go not to you but to the Pakistani generals and intelligence operatives who shelter your movement. I disagree. I have interacted with you directly and indirectly since January, 1997, when I chaired a meeting at Columbia University with a delegation you sent to New York to ask for Afghanistans seat at the United Nations. I have concluded that your opponents underestimate your independence and abilities. But you may also underestimate theirs.





On Wednesday, the Afghan government will host a second meeting of the

, an effort to begin peace talks, which will be attended by twenty-three countries. The United Nations announced earlier this month that

Afghan civilians were killed or wounded in Afghanistan in 2017, two-thirds of them in anti-government attacks.





You highlight the civilian casualties inflicted by U.S. air power, the shame of Guantanamo, and the losses suffered by American soldiers and their families. I would cite the thousands of Afghan civilian casualties inflicted by your attacks and suicide bombings. The International Criminal Court

into war crimes in Afghanistan last fall. In less than three months, Afghans submitted accounts of 1.17 million atrocities. I prefer to respond here to your appeal for dialogue.





Few would disagree with your call to solve the Afghan issue through peaceful dialogues, if they thought it were possible. On January 29th, after your organization used a car bomb disguised as

to kill nearly a hundred people in Kabul, President Trump did say, I dont think were prepared to talk right now. That was an impulse, not a strategy. As you yourself

on Monday, the United States has kept the doors of dialogue open for the Taliban.





The flaw in your call for dialogue is that it is addressed only to Americans, not your fellow Afghans. You accuse Afghans opposing you of committing treason against our nation, but the government of Afghanistan, corrupt and divided as it may be, is recognized by every nation in the worldnot just Washington and its allies. Your dialogue with the U.S. government cannot replace dialogue with that government and the millions of other Afghans who fear your attacks and your return. Trying to exclude them repeats the mistake the U.S. made by excluding you.





The list of missed opportunities for peace in Afghanistan since 2001 is long. On December 6, 2001, your leaders signed an agreement with Hamid Karzai, who had just been named the chairman of Afghanistans interim administration at talks convened by the United Nations in Bonn. You agreed to a truce and handed over the four provinces you still controlled to Karzais government. In return, you did not ask for government positionsjust an amnesty that would allow you to live in dignity. - Read More



Rowan County county clerk Kim Davis famously refused to issue licenses to gay couples after same-sex marriage was legalized in Kentucky. She was briefly jailed for contempt of court after refusing a judge's order to do her job or quit it, making her a hero to conservatives. Now she is writing a book.

"Under God's Authority: The Kim Davis Story" is being promoted and sold by the Orlando-based Liberty Counsel, which defended Davis in her legal battles and describes itself as "a nationwide public interest religious civil liberties law firm."

A description of the book says "Kim chronicles her dramatic encounters with furious, fist-pounding, homosexual men and the hate mail that flooded her office."

James Bridle (previously) is the latest contributor to The Atlantic's excellent series on the future of cities (Bruce Sterling, Molly Sauter, Adam Greenfield); in a new piece, Greenfield discusses the phenomenon of "virtual citizenship," and how it affects cities that are either turned into dumping-grounds for inconvenient poor people, or rootless, tax-dodging one-percenters.



It's an open secret that countries are willing to sell passports to the very wealthy  notoriously, New Zealand sold citizenship to Peter Thiel, who is part of a wave of Libertarian preppers who fantasize about going to ground in the south seas when the poors rise up to tax the rich  but I wasn't familiar with the phenomenon of Gulf States that trick stateless semi-enslaved laborers into becoming citizens of the obscure nation of Comoros, so they could be deported there when they agitated for human rights.

Statelessness and refugee crises have a powerful impact on the shape of cities, as does wealth inequality and looting.



For now, the weird enclaves of virtualized citizenship amount to an international, distributed version of gentrificationthe urban scenario in which those with resources dramatically alter the social conditions in a city, with little benefit accruing to those who were there already, or cannot enter. The virtualization of citizenship mostly benefits those whose individual, state-sponsored sovereignty doesn't match their personal wealth. At the same time, the same mechanisms that allow Chinese citizens to establish businesses in Estonia and legal residency in Cyprus, and thus the EU, also disempower and marginalize the stateless populations of Emirati Bidoon and Syrian refugees. In principle, nothing would prevent the Estonian model from being generalized to other guarantors of state protection, including wider legal rights and health care, which are of more concern to the less fortunate. Estonia already runs its citizens' health-care registry on the blockchainthe cryptographic record that underlies Bitcoin, but that can be applied beyond currency transactions to verify the authenticity of a record via computational "proof of work." Blockchain health records allow both patients and medical practitioners to access and review their data, while securely tracking who has access to it. Independent groups are following suit, with start-ups such as Bitnation proposing a "peer-to-peer voluntary governance system" to replace the arbitrariness of birth as the decider of one's citizenship. Blockchain governance could allow for the creation of virtual citizenship and autonomous communities distinct from territorial nation-states.

The Rise of Virtual Citizenship [James Bridle/The Atlantic]Jordan Watson, the New Zealand-based father-of-three behind "How to Dad," demonstrates how to rock a baby to sleep in his latest video. It's cute.

In my personal experience, the "Invisible Trampoline" is the most effective for knocking newborns out but then again I've never tried waltzing.

(This one goes out to my brother and his family who just welcomed my nephew Benjamin to the world!)

(Likecool)Viacom issued a statement this afternoon that the "Heathers" TV series, which was scheduled to premiere on March 7, will be delayed "out of respect for the [Florida shooting] victims, their families and loved ones." They should also probably stop saying the series is "based on the killer cult classic."

Paramount Network's original series "Heathers" is a satirical comedy that takes creative risks in dealing with many of society's most challenging subjects ranging from personal identity to race and socio-economic status to gun violence. While we stand firmly behind the show, in light of the recent tragic events in Florida and out of respect for the victims, their families and loved ones, we feel the right thing to do is delay the premiere until later this year.

Image: Paramount Network/YoutubeI'm just about to go to the airport to fly to Sydney for tonight's event, What should we do about Democracy?



It's part of the Australia/New Zealand tour for Walkaway, and from Sydney, I'm moving on to the Adelaide Festival and then to Wellington for Writers and Readers Week and the NetHui one-day event on copyright.



It feels like democracy is under siege, even in rich, peaceful countries like Australia that have escaped financial shocks and civil strife. Populist impulses have been unleashed in the UK and USA. There is a record lack of trust in the institutions of politics and government, exacerbated by the ways in which social media and digital technology can spread 'fake news' and are being harnessed by foreign powers to meddle in politics. Important issues that citizens care about, like climate change, are sidelined by professional politicians, enhancing the appeal of outsider figures. Do these problems add up to the failure of democracy? Are Brexit and Trump outliers, or the new normal? Join a lively panel of experts and commentators explore some big questions about the future of democracy, and think more clearly about what we ought to do.

Speakers Cory Doctorow, A.C. Grayling, Rebecca Huntley and Lenore Taylor

Chair Jeremy MossFeatured Post Navajo Women March for Justice Sept. 17, 2021 Photos video screenshots Censored News Dine' women are marching today to demand justice for Navajo women, children and elderly, with fun...

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From the publisher Censored News is published by Brenda Norrell, a journalist in Indian country for 39 years. Norrell created Censored News after she was censored and terminated as a staff reporter at Indian Country Today in 2006. She began as a reporter at Navajo Times during the 18 years that she lived on the Navajo Nation. She was a stringer for AP and USA Today and later traveled with the Zapatistas through Mexico. She has been blacklisted by all the mainstream media for 14 years. Contact brendanorrell@gmail.com

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by Staff reporter

A 44-year-old Harare man who raped his friend's 40-year-old mentally-challenged sister, was on Monday sentenced to an effective eight years in jail.Fungai Chimonyo pleaded not guilty to rape, but was convicted after a full trial before Harare regional magistrate Mr Elijah Makomo.Mr Makomo sentenced him to 10 years in prison before setting aside two years on condition of good behaviour.In passing sentence, Mr Makomo said, "The society must be protected from people like you, hence, you deserve to be locked away. You committed a serious offence, therefore, a deterrent sentence needs to be passed, so that a clear message is send out there that crime does not pay."Prosecutor Mrs Mollyn Mavhondo proved that on December 27 last year, the complainant was alone at home when Chimonyo went to the house looking for his friend.He spoke to the victim at the gate.She told him that her brother and aunt had gone out and she was alone.Chimonyo then asked her to open the gate and she complied, while inside the yard, he closed the gate and asked the victim to kiss him, but she refused.He then pushed her to the ground before raping her.The victim's neighbour who had observed Chimonyo's movements, became suspicious when he saw him entering the yard.He peeped over the precast wall and saw Chimonyo raping the woman and confronted him.Chimonyo quickly dashed out of the gate and disappeared.News / Press Release

by MM Changamire

The Zimbabwe Campaign For Good Governance (ZCGG) is dismayed by the disruption of the National Peace and Reconciliation Commission consultative meeting at Lupane on Tuesday the 26th of February 2018.In our last communication on the 1st of February 2018, we urged communities, pressure and interest groups to attend the NPRC meetings and express the views and opinions in a peaceful and orderly manner.The disruption of the Lupane meeting by the Mthwakazi Republic Party is not only illegal but criminal. People have the right to protest and not to disrupt.Disruption is a violation of the rule of law and the denial of other citizens the right to be heard. ZCGG is also concerned that tribal/ ethnic issues are raised on the composition of the Commission. We should desist from actions and statements that hurt our national unity.Responsible citizens have the duty to nurture, grow and prosper unity and not to destroy it. ZCGG acknowledges the bitter and unpleasant things that happened in our dark past but perpetual protests and disruptions are not the answer.In the name of accountability, rule of law, transparency, human rights and democracy, give the National Peace and Reconciliation Commission its constitutional duty to promote good governance in our country.May God bless Zimbabwe.MM ChangamireINFORMATION - ZCGGAn Alberta man has posted an open invitation for a First Nations family to share his five-acre property.

"We want to share our tiny piece of stolen land with a First Nations family, and find freedom and self-sufficiency together," said Joel Holmberg.

His Facebook pitch ends with, "If you are Indigenous, have kids, are clean and sober, and want to be free on the land, we have a home for you here. No rent, no bills, just live free"

Holmberg lives near Barrhead, Alta., about 100 km northwest of Edmonton. He said he was inspired to share his land and its resources after witnessing the backlash stemming from the acquittal earlier this month of Saskatchewan farmer Gerald Stanley accused in the killing of First Nations man Colten Boushie.

Seeing racist commentary toward First Nations break out online spurred him to take action.

"I've always been treated with kindness and shown how good First Nations people are," said Holmberg.

He said he attended a healing ceremony at Boushie's home community of Red Pheasant First Nation in Saskatchewan a few years ago while undergoing treatments for Hepatitis C.

"The other Canada is very cold and racist. It's uncomfortable.... I wanted to express that not all Canadians feel that way [toward Indigenous Peoples]."

Holmberg said he has long acknowledged that Canada is "really all stolen land"  even his own property that he has worked hard for, and still has about another 20 years until it's paid off.

But he said injustice toward the First Peoples stems from land thefts by governments and settlers, even by his ancestors. Now, he said, he wants to do his part to try to make things right and hopes his idea could one day become a model for others to follow.

He links it to the signing of treaties when settlers and First Nations agreed to live side by side, and share the land and resources. But those agreements were not adhered to.

"I don't think anybody agreed to sell Canada or the resources to anybody. I believe in the original vision of sharing the land," he said.

Story continues

Alberta 'a very redneck place'

Holmberg grew up in the west Kootenays of B.C. and said he developed close relationships with local First Nations elders as a young boy. He said he learned about First Nation culture and history that isn't taught in schools.

"There's a lot of falsehoods about Indigenous people," he said.

"[Other] people don't understand their good character and nature. There's a lot of ignorance and racism to overcome, especially in the Prairies."

He said he tries to engage in conversations with non-Indigenous community members to help relieve racial tensions. So far, he said he's found that most negative perceptions are held by people with a lack of understanding and connection to each other.

"Alberta, it's a very redneck place, but I educate people as best I can," he said.

"If people can really see what happened here, you just know in your heart it's unethical. But there's a lot of people, like me, who know whose land they're on and know the real history and really want to see some change."

Holmberg first extended the invite for a First Nations family to live on his land via Facebook post on Sunday morning. So far, he said he's received responses from all over Canada and the United States.

He said he plans to interview anyone interested and may invite them out to his property for an in-person meeting. The only stipulations are they must have a connection to or interest in traditional culture and not consume alcohol or drugs.

Holmberg said he is excited to work together with the right family to become self-sufficient and learn to live off the land.

"We can hunt together, tan hides, have sweats," he said.

"I'll know when we have the right family. For me it's about intuition. We'll work together, one day at a time, and figure it out together."'Competition is here' for Uber and Lyft, Pallister government says as 4 other firms play ball with MPI

No fewer than four companies are trying to gain a foothold in Winnipeg's new vehicle-for-hire market before major industry players Uber and Lyft determine how to adapt their business models to Manitoba.

Crown Services Minister Cliff Cullen said Tuesday four companies are working with Manitoba Public Insurance as a prelude to competing with taxi companies as soon as March 1.

In addition to Edmonton's TappCar, which announced plans last week to operate in Winnipeg, Calgary's Cowboy Taxi, Toronto's InstaRyde and the Winnipeg-registered U2GO are going through the regulatory process, Cullen told reporters in his office.

That process involves acquiring commercial automobile insurance from MPI, ensuring their drivers attain top-ups to their personal vehicle motor-vehicle insurance, and getting licensed as a dispatch company by the Winnipeg Parking Authority.

Cullen said Uber and Lyft are speaking to MPI but have no plans yet to operate under Manitoba's insurance framework, which requires individual drivers to top up their insurance by a percentage that depends on when they intend to drive for ride-hailing services.

Cullen said Manitoba has no intention of changing its insurance product offerings in order to please the better-known U.S.-based firms.

"Well, their competition is here and they're going to be doing business. It's up to Uber and Lyft to make that decision," Cullen said, referring to a decision to play by Manitoba's rules.

"From Uber and Lyft's perspective, obviously it's a different business model than they're used to. We are the first province that has public insurance to go down this road.

"So obviously it's new to them, it's a new game to them and they're probably trying to understand how they can manage their business model in our framework."

The owner of Cowboy Taxi, which employs about 20 drivers in Calgary and its bedroom communities of Airdrie and Okotoks, applauded Manitoba for creating a level playing field.

Story continues

Cowboy Taxi founder Mo Benini accused the Alberta government of tilting the market in favour of Uber.

"I think Winnipeg is going to be the best market we have because of the rules MPI and the City of Winnipeg drafted. It's very business-friendly," he said in a telephone interview Tuesday.

Benini said Cowboy Taxi has received all of its government approvals to operate in Manitoba but does not have drivers in place. TappCar, in contrast, claimed more than 300 people have applied to drive for the company in Winnipeg.

The City of Winnipeg has been asked to confirm the licensing status of all four companies.

Meanwhile, Uber and Lyft are sending representatives to Winnipeg this week to continue discussions with MPI and engage in a public-relations campaign.The new federal budget focuses on ones and zeros over tanks and troops by pouring hundreds of millions of dollars into new and improved cyber and national security defences.

Several federal departments will not only see upfront cash but promises of long-term spending to counter both the threat of hackers  state-sponsored and otherwise  and cyber-criminals.

National Defence, by comparison, is seeing virtually nothing in terms of new spending on the nuts and bolts of the military, other than initiatives outlined in the recently tabled national defence policy.

The 2018 budget is, on the surface, a tacit acknowledgement that the nature of threats to national security  the nature of modern warfare itself  is changing.

The budget recycles the government's $3.6 billion pledge last December to provide veterans with the option of a pension for life and better services.

But cyber-security was, by far, the headline national security measure in the budget.

Finance Minister Bill Morneau's fiscal plan sets aside $750 million in different envelopes  much of it to be spent over five years  to improve cyber security and better prepare the federal government to fend off online attacks and track down cyber-criminals.

More for CSE

It also promises an additional $225 million, beginning in 2020-21, to improve the capacity of the country's lead electronic intelligence agency, the Communications Security Establishment, to gather foreign signals intelligence.

The Liberals will soon pass new national security legislation  C-59  and CSE will receive important new powers and responsibilities to disrupt global cyber threats.

"These are brand new tools. They're going to need lots of resources  technological resources, personnel resources  to engage in those kinds of operations," said Wesley Wark, a University of Ottawa professor and one of the country's leading experts on cybersecurity and intelligence, in an interview prior to the budget.

Story continues

The sense of urgency about getting the country's cyber-security house in order is being driven in part by the fallout from Russian hacking and meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, said a former assistant parliamentary budget officer.

"With what we've seen south of the border, I think cyber-security and cyber-threat has been elevated in this budget to a high-priority item," said Sahir Khan, now the executive vice president of the Institute of Fiscal Studies and Democracy.

The budget creates two new entities to deal with online threats.

The first, the Canadian Centre for Cyber Security, will assemble all of the federal government's cyber expertise under one roof  a plan that will require new legislation.

The second organization will be run by the RCMP and be known as the National Cybercrime Coordination Unit.

It will coordinate all cybercrime investigations and act as a central agency to which the public can report incidents.

The budget also includes cash for Public Safety's National Cyber Strategy, which not only aims to protect federal government networks but is meant to collaborate with the corporate financial and energy sectors to boost their defences.

Military procurement a work in progress

The budget's dearth of new spending on the real-world military  at a time of significant global insecurity  is due to reasons that are partly political and partly organizational, said Khan.

The former Conservative government's inability to deliver on promises of new equipment during its nine-year tenure was a political "albatross around its neck," he said.

The Liberals may have produced a clear defence policy but they have yet to straighten out the procurement system, he added.

The Trudeau government has promised a lot of military capital spending down the road. Khan said it seems determined to keep the issue out of the spotlight in the meantime.

What's missing from the new budget is a clear commitment that National Defence will get the cash it needs as those needs arise.

"I think there was a lot of clarity in the policy direction coming out of the government [defence] white paper," said Khan. "What a lot of us are trying to understand is whether the money  is accompanying that change in direction  so that DND has a stable footing to meet its needs."

He said he still has questions about whether promised future spending on fighter jets and warships has been baked into the federal government's long-term fiscal plans.

A senior federal official, speaking on background prior to the release of the budget, insisted that military capital spending is welded into fiscal plans going forward into the 2030s.

Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan has said repeatedly, since the strategy was released last June, that the defence plan was "fully costed" into the future.

Up until 2016, National Defence produced an annual list of planned defence purchases.

The Liberals promised to produce their own list of planned acquisitions and table it this year. Khan said it "needs to be presented to Parliament and the public."

Training and retaining?

The cyber initiatives in Monday's budget drew a mixed response from the high-tech sector.

On the one hand, the Council of Canadian Innovators praised budget signals that suggest the Liberals are open to dealing with home-grown companies rather than buying off-the-shelf from major U.S. firms.

"The imperative to build domestic cyber capacity is not just economic. It's existential," said Benjamin Bergen, the council's executive director.

"Without a domestic capacity in cyber we risk becoming a client state. Innovators welcome the announcement of a new Canadian Centre for Cyber Security, which will allow for information sharing between the public and private sector."

What the budget didn't offer was a clear commitment to training and retaining highly-skilled software engineers and IT professionals.

"We would have liked to have seen a retention strategy. There wasn't one," said Bergen. "We know Canada produces amazing graduates but we're struggling to keep that talent here."

The council estimates there will be up to 200,000 job openings in high-tech by 2020, which will put pressure on the industry and on the federal government as it bulks up its cyber capability.

Adam Froman, CEO of the Toronto-based data collection firm Delvinia, was blunt when asked if the federal government will be able to fill all of the cyber-security job openings created by this budget.

"They're not going to be able to. Plain and simple," he said. "Or they're going to have to outsource those jobs to foreign companies."By Andrea Shalal and Michelle Martin BERLIN (Reuters) - German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Monday a new governing coalition she is seeking with the center-left Social Democrats would not allow new taxes or new public debt. Merkel, seeking to stem growing criticism about her longtime leadership, underscored the core focus of her Christian Democratic party on economic conservatism, individual liberties and Christian humanism, while calling for efforts to recapture voters after heavy losses in the September national elections. "We need orientation for our country, orientation for our party," Merkel said, citing public concerns about globalization, digitalization and unease about establishment political parties. "It is our continuing responsibility as a party to give answers to these questions." The chancellor, who needs approval from both political blocs to secure a fourth term in office, said her party would stick to its hardline stance against new tax increases and government debt, both at home and within the European Union. "Reliability means being sensible with how you treat the money of the citizens," she said. "So we will stick to the clear line of the (conservatives): No new debts, no tax increases and at the same time, record investments in the big future areas." CDU members are expected to later on Monday to endorse a renewal of the "grand coalition" that has ruled Germany since 2013. Around 464,000 SPD members will complete a far more uncertain, but binding, mail ballot on Friday, with results due out on Sunday. Merkel also called for a renewal of Europe, saying the EU was vital to ensure that German interests were addressed globally, but was "too weak and too slow" at present, and urgent work was needed to address the current patchwork of different regulations on border security, defense and capital markets. "We need more commonality," the chancellor said. She said Europe's largest economy would continue to show solidarity with those EU members who "did their homework" on financial matters, but not with those who relied on others to carry their burdens. "It will not be possible ... that others take a rest at our cost," she said to loud applause. Merkel also underscored Germany's commitment to a strong EU defense union and the NATO alliance. "We need to pick up the pace, we need a new dynamic. If Europe wants to be a global player, then it has to act like a global player." (Reporting by Andrea Shalal and Michelle Martin; editing by Mark Heinrich)An Island man who teaches in a Florida city just hours from where more than a dozen students and teachers died in a recent school shooting says he'll quit his job if teachers in the United States are required to carry guns in the classroom.

Mark Stevenson teaches in Edgewood Academy in Fort Myers, Fla., two hours from the city of Parkland where 17 students and teachers died two weeks ago.

The tragedy renewed the debate around gun laws in the U.S. and even raised the question of whether teachers themselves should be trained to use firearms.

Stevenson said President Donald Trump's musings about offering teachers incentives to carry weapons are "very unsettling," and said he would resign as a teacher if that became a requirement.

He wondered how teachers would keep guns secure and questioned how a teacher would be able to disarm a shooter in a close space like a classroom.

"What happens if you're trying to disarm the shooter and a student gets caught in the crossfire? How would you live with the consequences?" he said.

'Sad how good we are at doing lockdowns'

Stevenson got emotional when asked about the Parkland shooting Feb. 14. He has daughters in high school and intermediate school in Florida.

It's "surreal," said Stevenson, to think that being an elementary school teacher is a risky job because of the probability of being shot. "It's mind boggling," he said.

"It's really sad how good we are at doing lockdowns," because they have become so routine at the school, Stevenson said.

Lockdowns 'part of our reality'

On Tuesday, Stevenson's own school was on lockdown because of nearby gunfire.

"Three gunshots went off and one of the classroom aides that was taking my kids down went right into think mode  we all got into my classroom, we covered the windows, she got a fire extinguisher, put herself at the door, we got the kids against the wall crouched down," he said. "Sadly, that's part of our reality."

Story continues

Stevenson said this was the first lockdown of the year at the school but said last year the school was locked down about every six weeks as it faced the potential of an armed intruder.

The school district provides active shooter training so everyone knows what to do.

Police later confirmed that no one had come onto the school grounds at Edgewood Tuesday.

Hope for a 'sea change'

Stevenson hopes teens now lobbying for stricter gun laws will be able to influence political change, he said.

"It's just a tragedy that it's taken 17 more lives to be a catalyst for people really examining the gun culture here," he said. "I hope that there's a sea change because of what's happened."

- MORE P.E.I. NEWS | Charlottetown army reserve captain found not guilty of disgraceful behaviour

- MORE P.E.I. NEWS | Premier to promote P.E.I.'s population plan at Toronto partyBUDAPEST (Reuters) - Hungarian director Ildiko Enyedi's first film in nearly two decades, nominated for the 2018 Oscar in the foreign film category, tells the story of two people searching for love - in their dreams as deer in a forest. Aiming to bag Hungary's third Academy Award in three years at the weekend, "On Body And Soul" features Endre and Maria who each night share the same dream, despite finding it difficult to connect with each other during their lives. As deer, they meet and fall in love in a beautiful, wintry landscape. The scenes where the elegant deer meet by a lake to drink and court one another run parallel with Endre and Maria's shy, awkward attempts to get closer to each other in the slaughterhouse where they work. Filming the real deer, named Picur (Tiny) and Goliat, proved a challenge, said Zoltan Horkai, who runs an animal training center in Godollo, near Budapest. "Deer are not like domesticated animals, cooperating with man is not coded in them," Horkai said. "In winter, bucks and does are not even together normally and we had to convince them to move in tandem." The movie scooped the Golden Bear at the 67th Berlin International Film Festival last year. "When Ildiko came to me with the script, she told me these two people act really awkwardly in life, and she would like to show how it works with the animal scenes," Horkai said. "And it worked... although their relationship was built more on trust than love." Horkai, who specializes in studying and training wolves, used two wolves on leashes to herd the deer from a distance. Hungarian movies "Son of Saul" won the 2016 Oscar for best foreign language film and "Sing" best live action short in 2017. (Reporting by Krisztina Than and Krisztina Fenyo; Editing by Janet Lawrence)By Marc Jones LONDON (Reuters) - Macedonia is looking at four options to settle a decades-long dispute with Greece over its name, Prime Minister Zoran Zaev told Reuters in an interview on Tuesday. The small ex-Yugoslav republic and its southern neighbor Greece have agreed to step up negotiations this year to resolve the dispute, which has frustrated Skopje's ambition to join NATO and the European Union. Athens, which like all members of both organizations has a veto over admissions, objects to the use of the name Macedonia, arguing that it, along with articles in Skopjes constitution, could imply territorial claims over a northern Greek region of the same name. Macedonia hopes the issue can be resolved in time for an EU meeting in June and a NATO summit in July, and is proposing a geographical 'qualifier' to ensure there is clear differentiation in the two names. "The suggestions are Republic of North Macedonia, Republic of Upper Macedonia, Republic of Vardar Macedonia and Republic of Macedonia (Skopje)," Zaev said in a television interview after attending a summit on the Western Balkans in London. Asked whether Greece would be happy with one of these options he added: "Yes ... They have more preferred options and some not so preferred options (in terms of the name)." He said the question that remained was whether there was "a real need" to change Macedonia's constitution, something Greece had also asked for in recent months. DIGNITY Greece's demand for an amendment of references to the 'Republic of Macedonia' in the national constitution could prove the toughest issue unless some room for maneuver can be found. The foreign ministers of the two countries are due to hold further talks and Zaev also plans to meet Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras in March. "Of course we hope we would find a solution (on the constitution). But we must take care about the dignity and identity of both sides because friends take care of each other," he said. Several thousand people gathered in Skopje on Tuesday evening to protest against negotiations with Greece. They waved Macedonian flags and held banners reading "Stop Greek racism" and "Stop negotiations." A Greek flag was set on fire during the protest. Asked what changes Greece wanted to the name in the constitution and what issues Skopje might have with that, Zaev used the examples of Germany and Greece which also have national variations of their names in their own constitutions. "We are prepared to do a change," Zaev said, adding however that it would not be by very much "because it is very difficult". "They (Greece) don't have a region of the Republic of Macedonia, they are the Republic of Greece. And inside (our country) how we use it to communicate, from ministries to municipalities and other institutions, is really our right and doesn't have implications for anybody." Zaev later contacted Reuters through his spokesman to say that his position was that "a solution can be found without a change of the constitution of the Republic of Macedonia". If an agreement between the two countries can finally be found, Macedonia will then hold a referendum to ask its population of around two million to back the change. "I think if we save dignity - that is the important thing - of course the citizens will support it. Why? Because it is that (on which) depends our integration in NATO and the European Union." (Additional reporting by Kole Casule in Skopje and Ivana Sekularac in Belgrade, Editing by Gareth Jones, Catherine Evans and William Maclean)By Kate Kelland LONDON (Reuters) - Wild bees and honeybees are put at risk by three pesticides from a group known as neonicotinoids, Europe's food safety watchdog said on Wednesday, confirming previous concerns that prompted an EU-wide ban on use of the chemicals. The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) report, which covered wild bees and honeybees and included a systematic review of scientific evidence published since EFSA's 2013 evaluation, is seen as crucial to whether the European moratorium on neonicotinoid use remains in place. The updated risk assessment found variations due to factors such as species of bee, exposure and specific pesticide, "but overall the risk to the three types of bees we have assessed is confirmed," said Jose Tarazona, head of EFSA's pesticides unit. The European Union has since 2014 had a moratorium on use of neonicotinoids - made and sold by various companies including Bayer and Syngenta - after lab research pointed to potential risks for bees, which are crucial for pollinating crops. EU nations will discuss a European Commission proposal to ban three neonicotinoids next month in the Plant Animal Food and Feed Standing Committee. "This is strengthening the scientific basis for the Commission's proposal to ban outdoor use of the three neonicotinoids," a spokeswoman for the EU executive said. Crop chemical companies have argued that real-world evidence is not there to blame a global plunge in bee numbers in recent years on neonicotinoid pesticides alone. They say it is a complex phenomenon caused by a number of factors. The industry lobby said that while it allows that there may be a risk to bees, EFSA has overstated it. It argued that any risk can be managed and a ban would cause further harm by forcing farmers to extend agricultural lands. "Farmers need access to a broad range of tools to protect their crops," Graeme Taylor of the European Crop Protection Association said. Two major field studies in Europe and Canada published last year that sought to examine real-world effects gave mixed results. They found some negative effects after exposure to neonicotinoids in wild and honeybee populations, and also some positives, depending on the environmental context. Environmental campaigners said the study confirmed regulators should act to ban the use of neonicotinoids. "National governments must stop dithering ... to prevent the catastrophic collapse of bee populations," said Franziska Achterberg, Greenpeace EU food policy adviser. Wednesday's EFSA report looked in detail at three specific neonicotinoids - clothianidin, imidacloprid and thiamethoxam and assessed bee exposure to them via three routes: residues in bee pollen and nectar, dust drift during sowing or application of treated seeds, and water consumption. Some scenarios, such as when the pesticides are used on crops inside glass greenhouses, present a low risk to bees, Tarazona told Reuters. But others, such as using neonicotinoids on flowering field crops that attract bees, are high risk. He said EFSA's findings would now be shared with European Commission risk managers and then with EU member States, who will decide on any potential changes to current restrictions. (Reporting by Kate Kelland; Additional reporting by Alissa de Carbonnel in Brussels; Editing by Jon Boyle; Editing by William Maclean)Province orders Northern Pulp to clean spill that company says it dealt with weeks ago

Nova Scotia's Department of the Environment appeared to be cracking down Tuesday on Northern Pulp for a spill at its Abercrombie mill, but the company says the order to clean up the site comes weeks after the work was completed.

The spill of ash slurry (water containing tiny pieces of burned wood) happened on Feb. 9 in a pipe that carried the slurry from the power boiler to an ash pit located on company property.

According to Kathy Cloutier, spokesperson for Paper Excellence, which runs the mill, the "leak in the ash line sent wood ash to a ditch located in front of the mill."

She estimated the spill at 15 to 20 wheelbarrow loads of wood ash, which she said had been cleaned up "right away."

Same day as protest

Cloutier said the pipe had been repaired, inspected and returned to service by the time the province's order arrived Tuesday afternoon.

Environment Minister Iain Rankin told reporters he wasn't aware of any of the details surrounding the spill when he was asked about his department's order. He said he wasn't even aware of when the spill had occurred.

"Given this is a directive from the staff level they are autonomous to do that action," he said. "If it was a ministerial order I'd have the time stamps for you."

The order was issued the same day dozens of people unhappy with the mill and its plan to pump treated effluent into the Northumberland Strait descended on Province House to pressure the government to crack down on Northern Pulp.

'Litany of failings'

Pictou resident Terry Dunbrack, member of Clean the Mill and No Pipe, two environmental groups opposed to the mill's operations, weren't overly impressed with the province's action.

"I think it's good that the department is issuing a directive to clean it up," he said. "Unfortunately it doesn't stop the litany of failings of Northern Pulp has.

"They've had 12 infractions since 2012, plus ministerial orders and compliance orders and directives."

Story continues

Dunbrack said he was unaware of the spill or the order until informed by CBC News.

Prevention plan due

"For a company that's on Canada's environmental offenders list it seems strange that they seem to get given so much level of trust in what they can do, especially when you see the continued failings at the plant."

As for the company, Cloutier was at a loss to explain why the company was being ordered to do what it had already done.

Late Tuesday afternoon, Environment Department spokesperson Chrissy Matheson sent an email explaining the department's action.

"Although they are already in compliance with some of the directive, there are still outstanding items," she wrote. For example, a prevention plan is due by March 23, and there will be frequent inspections monitoring the situation until June 29.'We're all in this together': federal minister urges Sask. to sign climate plan

The federal minister of environment and climate change is urging Saskatchewan's leaders to sign on to a nationwide climate change bill.

"The province needs to do what all other provinces and territories have done which is support our made-in-Canada climate change plan," said Catherine McKenna.

Saskatchewan will lose $62 million in federal money for emission reduction programs if it refuses to sign on to Ottawa's plan.

The deadline for signing the Pan-Canadian Framework on Clean Growth and Climate Change is Feb. 28, which McKenna said was communicated to the Saskatchewan government, in a letter, in December.

Saskatchewan remains the only province that has not ratified the deal.

If that holdout continues, the province will lose its share of money  $62.05 million available over five years  from Ottawa's $1.4-billion Low Carbon Economy Leadership Fund, which typically helps finance clean energy programs.

In a recent statement to CBC News, Sask. Environment Min. Dustin Duncan said they will only consider signing on when the federal government "relents on their threat to impose a tax on our people, industries and communities."

McKenna said all the province has to do to access the money is sign on and support the plan.

However, there are strings attached.

Sign the deal, get the cash: Ottawa

"They need to say they support the measures in the plan and I would hope that they would do this because we're all in this together," said McKenna.

In the outline for the Pan-Canadian Framework on Clean Growth and Climate Change carbon pricing is a key part of the plan.

"All that is required to sign on to our climate plan is to say that you support the Pan-Canadian climate plan. That is all that's required," said McKenna.

However the report states:

- Carbon pricing should be a central component of the Pan-Canadian Framework.

- The approach should be flexible and recognize carbon pricing policies already implemented or in development by provinces and territories.

Story continues

"When you sign on you acknowledge that putting a price on pollution is important," said McKenna.

She added that each province would be in charge of designing their own carbon pricing plans  cap and trade, tax or hybrid systems are possible options to enact carbon pricing.

In signing the plan Saskatchewan would, by extension, recognize the need for carbon pricing  something it is opposed to.

Province still owed $62M: Premier

Premier Scott Moe said the $62 million is still owed to the province, since every other province will be receiving federal dollars.

"We intend to make every effort to achieve what we can here and contribute to that here in the province of Saskatchewan," said Moe.

"We're not able to sign on the Pan-Canadian Framework for the reason that it requires a carbon tax to be implemented in the jurisdiction."

Moe added his government will "do everything that we can to reduce our emissions and do better here in the province."

McKenna says recognition of climate change needed

If the province misses Wednesday's deadline, McKenna said the money will be funnelled to the Low-Carbon Economy Challenge  a pot of money available for governments, First Nations and businesses looking to finance clean energy projects.

With the deadline looming, McKenna said she is hopeful that an agreement can be reached. However, Saskatchewan's recognition of climate change and its severity was required.

"Climate change is one of the biggest challenges we face and people in Saskatchewan know that as much as anyone else," she said. "Whether it's drought or floods, rising temperatures."

"We need to be working together and everyone else has signed on."

Currently Saskatchewan has a plan called Prairie Resilience which is opposed to a federal "carbon tax."

Saskatchewan's plan

Brett Dolter, a postdoctoral research fellow at the University of Regina, said the provincial plan has a number of blind spots. For example, there is no incentive for people making their homes more energy efficient nor is there anything to encourage people to buy fuel-efficient cars.

"Carbon pricing would fill those gaps, and until we have something in those gaps, I don't think we have a full plan here in Saskatchewan," said Dolter.

Dolter said he thinks people in the province might not understand how a carbon tax could work, which might explain the lack of support.

"A lot of people hear carbon 'tax' and they think, well, tax  that's bad. We don't want that," he said. "There's not the recognition that any money collected could be used to reduce other taxes. So it doesn't have to be a net tax increase."

Consistency is key when it comes to nationwide carbon pricing, according to Dolter.

"You don't want one jurisdiction to be the place you can go to pollute for free," said Dolter.

In September of 2018 the federal government plans to assess how effective these provincial plans are. If the plan does not meet the federal standards, a new program can be implemented.

"If provinces don't do it, there will be a price," said McKenna.By Angus McDowall and Stephanie Nebehay BEIRUT/GENEVA (Reuters) - A Russian call for a five-hour truce on Tuesday failed to halt one of the most devastating campaigns of the Syrian war, where residents said government warplanes resumed striking the eastern Ghouta region after a brief lull. Diplomatic sources meanwhile said the chemical weapons watchdog, the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, opened an investigation into attacks in eastern Ghouta to determine whether banned munitions were used. Political leaders in France, the United States and Britain said this month they would back targeted military action against Damascus if there were proof chemical weapons had been used by forces under President Bashar al-Assad, Russia's ally. Moscow and Damascus blamed rebels for the collapse of the truce, saying fighters had shelled a safe route intended for civilians to leave the enclave. The insurgents denied such shelling, and a senior U.S. general accused Moscow acting as "both arsonist and firefighter" by failing to rein in Assad. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Moscow would press on with a plan to stage similar daily pauses in the fighting, allowing aid to be delivered to eastern Ghouta through what Russia describes as a humanitarian corridor. But the United Nations said it was proving impossible to aid civilians or evacuate wounded, and said all sides must instead abide by a 30-day truce sought by the U.N. Security Council. "We have reports this morning there is continuous fighting in eastern Ghouta," U.N. humanitarian spokesman Jens Laerke said. "Clearly the situation on the ground is not such that convoys can go in or medical evacuations can go out." Hundreds of people have died during 10 days of government bombardment of the eastern Ghouta, an area of towns and farms on the outskirts of Damascus. The assault has been among the most devastating air campaigns of a war now entering its eighth year. The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said it was ready to access eastern Ghouta to deliver life-saving aid, but the proposed five-hour pause was too short. Without mentioning Russia, the author of the proposal, ICRC Middle East director Robert Mardini said humanitarian corridors had to be well-planned and agreed to by all warring sides, while people should be allowed to leave of their own free will. With its Ghouta offensive, the Syrian government is drawing on the military methods it has used to crush its opponents in other parts of Syria, including eastern Aleppo in late 2016. "DEATH UNDER BOMBARDMENT" Intensifying bombardment of the besieged area has been coupled with probing ground assaults to test rebel defenses. With no sign of decisive international pressure to stop the attack, eastern Ghouta seems likely to meet the same fate as other areas won back by the government, where humanitarian corridors eventually became escape routes for defeated rebels. "A concrete humanitarian corridor has been set up that will be used to deliver humanitarian aid, and, in the other direction, a medical evacuation can take place and all civilians who want to leave can," Lavrov told a joint news conference in Moscow after meeting French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian. But the local branch of the opposition Syrian Interim Government's Ministry of Health dismissed Russia's truce call as a ploy to circumvent the U.N. month-long ceasefire resolution. The call in effect offered residents a choice between "death under bombardment" or a forced displacement, it said, calling on the United Nations to send in relief aid immediately. U.S. Army General Joseph Votel accused Russia of playing a destabilizing role in Syria as "both arsonist and firefighter", saying Moscow had failed to rein in its Syrian ally. "I think either Russia has to admit that it is not capable, or it doesn't want to play a role in ending the Syrian conflict. I think their role is incredibly destabilizing at this point." Russia's military said rebels in eastern Ghouta started new offensives with intense artillery and gun fire after midday, Interfax news agency reported citing a Russian general. ESCALATION Residents in several towns in the eastern Ghouta described a brief pause in fighting, but said bombardment swiftly resumed. In Hammouriyeh town a man who identified himself as Mahmoud said helicopters and planes were in the sky and conducting strikes. Siraj Mahmoud, a spokesman for the Civil Defence rescue service, which is funded by Western governments and operates in rebel areas, said artillery and air strikes had hit the region. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group said helicopters and warplanes had struck four towns and artillery shelling killed one person. A U.N. Security Council resolution passed on Saturday called for a 30-day ceasefire across the entire country, but did not specify when it should start. It excludes some militant groups which are among the rebels in eastern Ghouta. That has meant the ceasefire has not been observed in practice. U.N. spokesman Laerke declined to comment on the Russian proposal for a five-hour truce, but called instead on all sides to obey the full 30-day ceasefire. "It is a question life and death ... we need a 30-day cessation of hostilities in Syria as the Security Council demands," Laerke, of the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Assistance, told a Geneva briefing. A rebel spokesman said people in eastern Ghouta did not want to leave the area despite the bombardment, because they feared arrest, torture or conscription by the government. Russia said it would guarantee the safety of any civilians who left. Eastern Ghouta, where the United Nations says around 400,000 people live, is a major target for Assad, whose forces have clawed back numerous areas with military backing from Russia and Iran. Rebels based in eastern Ghouta have intensified shelling of government-held Damascus. A medical official in the capital said on Monday 36 people had been killed in four days. Syrian state media reported eight people hurt by rebel shelling on Tuesday. Damascus and Moscow say the campaign in eastern Ghouta is needed to halt such shelling. The multi-sided Syrian war has killed hundreds of thousands of people and driven half of the pre-war population of 23 million from their homes. Fighting has escalated on several fronts this year, with the collapse of Islamic State giving rise to conflict between other Syrian and foreign parties. As Assad has pressed the offensive against eastern Ghouta, Turkey has launched an incursion against Kurdish fighters in the northwestern Afrin region. Tensions have also flared between Iran and Israel, alarmed by Tehran's influence in Syria. Syrian air defenses shot down an Israeli F-16 earlier this month as it returned from a bombing raid on Iran-backed positions in Syria. Diplomatic sources said the OPCW would examine attacks including one on Sunday which health authorities said killed a child and caused symptoms consistent with chlorine gas exposure. Opposition-held areas in Eastern Ghouta were the scene of chemical attacks in 2013 in which hundreds of civilians were killed in the deadliest use of chemical weapons in decades. (Reporting by Stephanie Nebehay, Tom Perry, Ellen Francis, Dahlia Nehme, Angus McDowall, Suleiman al-Khalidi, Anthony Deutsch, Idrees Ali and Phil Stewart, Editing by Peter Graff and William Maclean)Alleged Russian meddling in German and French elections has caused at least one NATO official to express concern that Canada might be Vladimir Putins next foreign target. Photo from Getty Images.

A top NATO researcher has sounded alarm bells over how far Russia will go to undermine Western institutions, and Canada is no exception.

The Canadian Press spoke to Janis Sarts, the director of the NATO Strategic Communications Centre of Excellence, for an interview about alleged Russian meddling in foreign elections.

Sarts explained that destabilizing Canada would undermine the cohesion of the NATO alliance and could potentially damage Canadas policy in Europe, which would benefit Russia by allowing their influence to flourish.

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Sarts told The Canadian Press the decision to interfere in elections could help Russian President Vladimir Putin show other countries are afraid of Russia and bolster support for his government.

The moment somebody can question the integrity of the elections and the election result, democracy is in trouble, Sarts said.

Following Russias alleged meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, its not surprising to hear the Russians would meddle again.

Moscow has also been accused of trying to disrupt elections in Germany, France, the Netherlands and the Czech Republic.

Last year, Canadian troops arrived in Latvia as part of a NATO mission to deter further acts of Russian aggression. The alliances move was seen as a direct response to Russian activity in Ukraine.

Our position here is entirely defensive and proportionate in response to Russian actions, Lt.-Col. Wade Rutland told CBC News in June 2017.

The issue of alleged Russian meddling has caused a political distraction south of the border, and theres concerns it will happen again unless serious steps are taken. On Tuesday, U.S. National Security Agency director Michael S. Rogers said no orders have been given from the White House to combat Russian meddling now or in the future.

In Canada, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has entrusted 30-year-old Democratic Institutions Minister Karina Gould with protecting the integrity of the next federal election. A spokesperson for her office told The Canadian Press they are closely monitoring foreign threats.

Are you concerned about Russia potentially meddling in Canadas next federal election? Out of the three major political parties, is there one you can see the Russians preferring over the others?

Have your say by voting in our poll above and sharing your thoughts in the comment section below.The festivals press conference was held on Tuesday in Tehran, during which the main agenda and objectives of the festival were explained by the organizers.





Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, the Secretary-General of the International Conference on Supporting Palestinian Intifada and an international advisor to Irans Parliament Speaker, told the press conference that the Hourglass Festival is a symbol of the imminent collapse of the Zionist regime of Israel, as predicted by the Leader of Irans Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei.Agile Cigar Reviews are cigar assessments where we use a lightweight, shorter format. These will never take the place of our comprehensive reviews. They are only used on blends we have previously assessed. This might be a blend we are re-scoring or giving a score for the first time. It might be a blend we are looking at in a different size. Today we look at the QuickDraw Connecticut Corona Gorda by Southern Draw Cigars. This is a cigar we last assessed back in the Short Panatela size back in April 2016.

Wrapper: Ecuadorian Connecticut

Binder: Ometepe (Nicaraguan)

Filler: Esteli, Condega (Nicaraguan)

Country of Origin: Nicaragua

Corona Gorda: 5 1/2 x 46

Last month, Southern Draw Cigars released its first major batch of Corona Gorda line extensions to the three blends of its QuickDraw line of cigars. The QuickDraw line of cigars is a line of connoisseur-size cigars available in three blends  Connecticut, PA (Pennsylvania) Broadleaf, and Habano. As the name indicates, the QuickDraw is meant to provide a cigar geared for a short, quick cigar experience. At the same time, the QuickDraw line is offered to consumers as a value price point. Today we take a look at the Corona Gorda size of the QuickDraw Connecticut.

Word of the new Corona Gorda line extensions were first announced prior to the August 8th, 2016 deadline for pre-market approval put in place by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. The initial batch of the QuickDraw Corona Gorda were released to Famous Smoke Shop as an exclusive with plans to move this as a regular offering to Southern Draw retailers.

While 2017s Rose of Sharon garnered significant acclaim as a Connecticut Shade offering by Southern Draw Cigars, the QuickDraw Connecticut was the companys first Connecticut Shade cigar. The QuickDraw Connecticut was released in 2016 in a petit corona and short panatela size and would join the QuickDraw Habano and QuickDraw Broadleaf lines. It would feature an Ecuadorian Connecticut Shade wrapper over an Ometepe binder and fillers from Esteli and Condega. The Corona Gorda line extensions measure 5 1/2 x 46 and feature a covered footer and pig-tail cap.

Flavor-wise, the QuickDraw Connecticut Corona Gorda delivers notes of classic wood, cream, cedar, and black pepper. There are some background citrus notes that surface during the first third. During the first half of the smoking experience, I found the creamy notes to be dominant. During the second half, the cedar and classic wood notes became more prominent. By the last third, much of the creaminess dissipated and there was an increase in the black pepper. During the smoking experience the QuickDraw Connecticut Corona Gorda starts out mild to medium in strength and body before progressing into medium territory in the second third.

I found the Corona Gorda line extension to be an excellent representation of the QuickDraw Connecticut blend. I had enjoyed the 5 1/2 x 40 Short Panatela size in the QuickDraw Connecticut, but I liked what the extra thickness of the Corona Gorda size did for this blend. This is a cigar I could recommend to any cigar enthusiast any time of the day. As for myself, its a cigar I would smoke again  and its one of which I would certainly buy multiples to keep in my humidor.

Summary

Key Flavors: Cream, Classic Wood, Cedar, Black Pepper, Citrus

Burn: Excellent

Draw: Excellent

Complexity: Medium Plus

Strength: Mild to Medium (1st 2/3), Medium (Remainder)

Body: Mild to Medium (1st 2/3), Medium (Remainder)

Finish: Good

Rating

Value: Buy Multiples

Score: 90

References

Previous Assessment: QuickDraw Connecticut Short Panatela by Southern Draw Cigars

News: Southern Draw Announces QuickDraw Corona Gorda Initially Heading to Famous Smoke Shop

Price: $6.31

Source: Southern Draw Cigars

Brand Reference: Southern Draw

Photo Credits: Cigar CoopWEDNESDAY, Feb. 28, 2018 (HealthDay News) -- A new study calls for regular monitoring of "moderate" cervical lesions that might point to the potential for cancer later on, rather than immediate treatment.

Moderate cervical lesions -- formally known as cervical intra-epithelial neoplasia grade 2 (CIN2) -- are abnormal cells on the surface of the cervix.

CIN is not cervical cancer, but does have the potential to progress to cancer. However, in many cases these cells may also return to normal or remain unchanged.

Right now, CIN2 is typically treated. But some studies have suggested that CIN2 lesions often regress completely without treatment and should therefore be simply monitored instead.

Some experts feel that approach could be especially important for younger women, since treating these lesions can pose a risk to future pregnancies.

But is a monitoring-only approach to CIN2 lesions the safest route to take?

To help find out, a British team led by Maria Kyrgiou of Imperial College London reviewed data from 36 studies. These studies included 3,160 women with CIN2 who were actively monitored for at least three months.

After two years, 50 percent of the lesions had regressed, 32 percent persisted, and 18 percent progressed to more serious stages.

However, in women younger than 30, the rate of regression rose to 60 percent, the researchers noted, while the rate of persistence was 23 percent, and the rate of progression was 11 percent.

Only 15 cases of cervical cancer (0.5 percent of all patients) were reported -- most in women older than 30.

Based on their findings, the researchers concluded that regular monitoring, rather than immediate treatment, is justified in cases of CIN2.

Two U.S. gynecologists unconnected to the study said the research helps confirm what many specialists already suspected.

"Dr. Kyrgiou's findings from her recent study confirms what most gynecologist have known for a long time -- that CIN 2 often regresses and does not necessarily require treatment, especially in young women," said Dr. Adi Davidov. He directs gynecology at Staten Island University Hospital in New York City.

"Many gynecologists are already treating CIN 2 conservatively," he noted. "The American Society for Colposcopy and Cervical Pathology actually has guidelines that if a young patient has CIN 2 she can be observed without treatment."

Still, Davidov and another expert agreed that the final decision must be made by a properly informed patient.

The new study "gives us confidence" to recommend observation (and not treatment) in these cases, said Dr. Mitchell Kramer, chair of obstetrics and gynecology at Huntington Hospital in Huntington, N.Y.

"Having said that, it is important that a physician review all options and information about this issue, so the patient can make an educated, informed decision about treatment they are comfortable with," Kramer added.

Kyrgiou and her colleagues published their findings Feb. 27 in the BMJ.

More information

The U.S. National Cancer Institute has more on cervical changes.TUESDAY, Feb. 27, 2018 (HealthDay News) -- Along with reducing conventional smoking, anti-tobacco laws in the United States may tamp down use of electronic cigarettes, a new study suggests.

New York University researchers found that states with anti-tobacco regulations -- such as smoke-free air laws and cigarette taxes -- had fewer vapers as well as fewer cigarette smokers.

"Our research adds to the understanding of the geographic and sociodemographic factors underlying e-cigarette use within the existing tobacco control environment," said lead author Dr. Omar El-Shahawy. He's a postdoctoral fellow in the NYU School of Medicine.

"Several decades of research on traditional cigarettes guided the existing tobacco control environment. E-cigarettes are relatively new and constantly evolving, which makes the [U.S. Food and Drug Administration's] task in regulating them very challenging," El-Shahawy said in a university news release.

The researchers analyzed 2012-14 national data. About 5 percent of adults said they were e-cigarette users, and 17 percent said they were cigarette smokers.

E-cigarette use varied widely by state, with vaping most prevalent in Oklahoma (10 percent) and least so in Delaware (less than 3 percent).

There are still many unknowns pertaining to the link between tobacco control and battery powered e-cigarettes, El-Shahawy said. Some experts believe vaping helps smokers quit the tobacco habit. Others argue that e-cigarettes are harmful, too.

"Until this ongoing debate is settled, tobacco control advocates and policy makers should continue focusing on enforcing the existing tobacco control interventions and regulatory framework," El-Shahawy concluded.

The study findings were published Feb. 27 in the journal Nicotine & Tobacco Research.

More information

The U.S. National Institute on Drug Abuse has more about e-cigarettes.TUESDAY, Feb. 27, 2018 (HealthDay News) -- Cleaning and greening vacant lots in a city's poor neighborhoods can put a damper on gun violence and other types of crime, a new study has found.

Abandoned lots account for about 15 percent of land in U.S. cities, according to the researchers.

For the study, the researchers worked with the U.S. Forest Service to remove trash and debris from 541 vacant lots in Philadelphia and then plant grass on those lots. Eighteen months later, police reports revealed as much as a 29 percent drop in gun violence and a 22 percent decrease in burglaries. In addition, other problems -- vandalism, noise complaints, public drunkenness and illegal dumping -- had fallen by 30 percent, the study found.

People who lived near the restored vacant lots said they felt much safer when going outside, and more than three-fourths said they spent much more time outside relaxing and socializing, according to the study.

"Our findings showed that restoration of vacant land helps to deter crime and violence and represents a pragmatic upstream infrastructural investment strategy to address complex social issues in cities," study lead author Charles Branas said in a Columbia University news release. He's chair of epidemiology at Columbia's Mailman School of Public Health in New York City.

"Given a city like Philadelphia's prior experience with gun violence, the 29 percent reduction in crime reported in this trial could translate into hundreds of fewer shootings each year if the vacant land interventions tested here were scaled beyond just the locations of the study," Branas said.

"Our study shows that direct changes to vacant urban spaces may hold great promise in breaking the cycle of abandonment, violence and fear in our cities and do so in a cost-effective way that has broad, citywide scalability," he concluded.

The study findings were published online Feb. 26 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

More information

The Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence has more on gun violence.Share this: Twitter

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New York, February 28, 2018Egyptian authorities should immediately cease their intimidation campaign against independent news outlets, and let journalists report freely, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.

Egypts Prosecutor General Nabil Sadiq today ordered state prosecutors to monitor media reports and take action against any outlets publishing false news, [false] statements, and rumors, AP and Reuters reported. Sadiq also urged Egyptian media regulatory bodies to report alleged irregularities in news reports to prosecutors, the news outlets said.

Sadiqs directive is part of a larger government crackdown on the media in Egypt ahead of scheduled presidential elections next month in which President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi is running virtually unopposed, according to media reports.

The prosecutor generals latest order means that the Egyptian government is putting its relentless campaign against journalists into writing, as well as stepping up the rhetoric that undermines trust in the independent media, CPJ Middle East and North Africa Program Coordinator Sherif Mansour said from Washington DC. If the government is truly conducting free and fair elections next month, then it should show that it has nothing to fear from critical reporting and rescind this order.

The prosecutor generals office did not immediately respond to CPJs request for comment.

After the prosecutor generals announcement, Egyptian authorities arrested Ahmed Tarek Ibrahim Ziada and ordered the detention of Selma Alaa Eddin over their roles in the making of a critical documentary film in production, Minus 1095 Days, according to news reports. The two film producers are activists in the anti-government April 6 Youth Movement and were making the film as an attempt to rebut claims in a state-produced film, 1095 Days, which highlights el-Sisis accomplishments in office. They have both been charged with insulting the Egyptian state, according to the reports.

According to news reports, authorities were searching for several other April 6 Youth Movement activists involved with the film. The movement, formed in the wake of 2008 labor movement protests, was at the forefront of 2011 protests that toppled former President Hosni Mubarak and has since been active against el-Sisis government as well.

Egyptian authorities have been ratcheting up official rhetoric against international media outlets as part of its larger media crackdown. The BBC drew increased government scrutiny after the broadcaster aired and published a story on enforced disappearances in Egypt. The government-run State Information Service and the privately owned ONTV both ran reports that allegedly offered proof that the BBCs reporting was false.

The government-run State Information Service subsequently ordered all Egyptian officials and sectors of the Egyptian elite wishing to do so to boycott interviews and meetings with the BBC until the network offered an apology. A BBC spokesperson responded by saying the broadcaster stands by the story.

In January, Sadiq ordered a criminal investigation into the New York Times after the paper reported that a senior intelligence officer ordered Egyptian talk show hosts to report positively on the U.S. decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Egypt.

At least 20 journalists were behind bars in Egypt as of December 1, 2017, according to CPJ research, and more than half of those detained are charged with spreading false news.Share this: Twitter

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Bangkok, February 28, 2018Draft anti-terrorism legislation under consideration in Singapore would imperil press freedom by banning journalists from covering terror attacks, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.

The Public Order and Safety Bill, also referred to as the Special Powers Bill, was introduced in Singapores parliament on Tuesday, and would empower police to issue a communications stop order for all information pertaining to a terrorist attack pending approval from the home affairs minister, according to news reports.

The order would prevent journalists and others from taking photographs or videos at terror attack sites, and ban any communication about police operations underway at those sites, Reuters reported.

Penalties for violating the law would include a maximum two-year prison sentence, and fines of up to 20,000 Singapore dollars (US$15,200), a home ministry spokesperson told Reuters.

Singapores proposed ban on photographing or videoing terror attacks would black out the news precisely when the public needs to be accurately informed, said Shawn Crispin, CPJs Southeast Asia representative. Independent reporting is crucial to public safety in crisis situations. This draft law should be scrapped or amended to protect and uphold reporters rights.

In justifying the proposed censorship measures, the Interior Ministry said that live broadcasts of attacks in other countries had at times revealed police positions and unwittingly helped the attackers, the English-language daily, the South China Morning Post said.

Singapore has not suffered a major terrorism-related attack, but authorities claimed to have foiled several plots, including an Islamic State plan to fire a rocket at the island nation from a nearby Indonesian island inn 2016, reports said.The Union Cabinet has approved the Trafficking of Persons (Prevention, Protection and Rehabilitation) Bill, 2018 for introduction in the Parliament.

Human Trafficking is third largest organized crime violating basic human rights. At present there is no specific law to deal with this crime. The bill addresses the issue of human trafficking from point of view of prevention, rescue and rehabilitation.

Features of Bill

It takes into consideration aggravated forms of trafficking. It includes trafficking for purpose of forced labour, begging, trafficking of a woman or child for the purpose of marriage or under the pretext of marriage or after marriage, trafficking by administering chemical substance or hormones on a person for the purpose of early sexual maturity etc

It prescribes punishment for promoting and facilitating trafficking of person. It includes producing, printing, issuing or distributing unissued, tampered or fake certificates, registration or stickers as proof of compliance with Government requirements, or commits fraud for procuring or facilitating acquisition of clearances and necessary documents from Government agencies.

It deals with confidentiality of victims and witnesses and complainants by not disclosing their identity. It will be maintained by recording their statement through video conferencing (it will help trans-border and inter-State crimes).

It has provision for time bound trial and repatriation of the victims. It will be within a period of 1 year from taking into cognizance. It provides immediate protection of rescued victims and their rehabilitation. The victims will be entitled to interim relief immediately within 30 days to address their physical, mental trauma etc. and further appropriate relief within 60 days from the date of filing of charge sheet.

It creates Rehabilitation Fund for the first time. It will be used for physical, psychological and social well-being of victim including education, skill development, health care and psychological support, legal aid, safe accommodation etc. It mandates designation of courts in each district for the speedy trial of the cases.

It creates dedicated institutional mechanisms at District, State and Central level. They will be responsible for prevention, protection, investigation and rehabilitation work related to trafficking. The tasks of Anti-Trafficking Bureau at the national level will be performed by National Investigation Agency (NIA).

The punishment prescribed under it ranges from rigorous minimum 10 years to life and fine not less than Rs. 1 lakh. In order to break the organized nexus, both at national and international level, it mandates for attachment & forfeiture of property and also proceeds for crime.

It comprehensively addresses transnational nature of the crime. It entrusts National Anti-Trafficking Bureau (NATB) to perform functions of international coordination with authorities in foreign countries and international organizations.

Significance

The Bill addresses one of most pervasive yet invisible crimes affecting most vulnerable persons especially women and children. It will make India leader among South Asian countries to combat trafficking, as UNODC and SAARC nations are looking forward to India to take lead by enacting this law. 



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This website follows the DNPA Code of Ethics.Tamil Nadu: Coast Guard rescues five TN fishermen

by J Arockiaraj |

February 28,2018 | Source: The Times of India

Indian Coast Guard ship Abhiraj on Tuesday rescued five fishermen on a boat that was drifting 10 nautical off Periathazhai coast in Tamil Nadu after suffering an engine failure. The boat left Periyathazhai coastal village on February 24 on a five-day fishing expedition. It started drifting after suffering an engine failure on Monday morning.



Upon receiving the message, Indian Coast Guards maritime rescue coordination centre in Chennai intimated the ship around 8.50pm on Monday about the stranded boat and fishermen. The Indian Coast Guard station, Tuticorin, coordinated the search plan by diverting the Coast Guard ship Abhiraj, which was on routine patrol in the area, to the position. The ship reached the spot at 7.30am on Tuesday and confirmed that the condition of the crew was healthy. It was found that repair of the boat at sea was not feasible due to lack of critical spares. Since there was no other fishing vessel in the vicinity and inclement weather was prevailing, the Coast Guard ship towed the boat to Tuticorin. They reached in Tuticorin safely at 5pm.India: Pakistan yet to decide participation in WTO meet in India

by Mehtab Haider

February 28,2018 | Source: The International News

India invited Pakistan to attend an important ministerial conference scheduled next month in New Delhi to iron out differences on fisheries subsidies and duties on ecommerce, an official said on Monday, but the latter is yet to decide the participation given the frequent border skirmishes and the formers attempt to fail Islamabad-hosted regional moot two years back.



A spokesperson of the ministry of commerce said neighboring India invited Pakistans minister of commerce to attend an informal mini-ministerial conference of the World Trade Organization (WTO). India is hosting mini-ministerial meeting in New Delhi in March with an intention to make fresh efforts for evolving consensus among the developed and developing member states of WTO on key issues on which the last meeting remained unable to achieve apparent and desired progress. The Commerce Minister Pervaiz Malik has been invited to attend the mini-ministerial, the spokesperson of ministry of commerce said in a statement. However, it has yet not been decided if he will be able to attend the meeting.



The 11th ministerial conference took place between 10 and 13 December 2017 in Buenos Aires, Argentina, which was headed by Minister Susana Malcorra of Argentina. The conference ended with a number of ministerial decisions, including on fisheries subsidies and e-commerce duties, and a commitment to continue negotiations in all areas. However, member states could not agree on a number of issues to secure a deal on elimination of fisheries subsidies by the next ministerial in December 2019.



Officials said reluctance on the part of China and India to make immediate commitments thwarted a deal on fisheries at the Buenos Aires meeting. Now efforts are underway to move towards consensus on important issues. The officials said it is yet to see that how much the upcoming mini-ministerial conference would succeed in forging consensus among the member states because stalemate will lead international trade nowhere in near future.



In November 2016, Pakistan convened 19th South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (Saarc) summit in Islamabad, but India pulled out of the regional conference on its concerns over terrorists attacks and other member states of the eight-member body followed suit.



The unresolved political issues between the regions two biggest economies are main hurdles in the regional economic integration. Bilateral trade between the two countries moved with snail pace due to trust deficits and perennial political differences. Pakistans exports inched up to $392 million in 2014 from $337 million in 2005, while its imports from India increased to $2.1 billion from $576 million during the period.



A business advocacy group said there is a considerable trade potential between Pakistan and India. India, in addition to possessing very high export potential to Pakistan, offers substantive support to its producers in the form of subsidies and export support schemes and maintains intractable non-tariff barriers to discourage imports, Pakistan Business Council said in a report. Pakistan possesses considerable export potential to India, but it offers little support or protection to its producers and exporters, and has relatively low non-tariff barriers.Ukraine showcases kamikaze-style RAM UAV at UMEX 2018 exhibit in UAE

RAM UAV is a catapult-launched system with a maximum flight range of 30 kilometers and a loitering duration of up to 40 minutes.

If you see a spelling error on our site, select it and press Ctrl+EnterInfrastructure Minister: Another 2 low-cost air carriers may enter Ukrainian market in 2018

The minister is "90% sure" about one of them.

If you see a spelling error on our site, select it and press Ctrl+EnterNaftogaz resumes gas imports from EU

The daily amount of imports is 12 million cubic meters per day.

If you see a spelling error on our site, select it and press Ctrl+EnterUkraine remains 10th in WSA's rating in Jan

All the 64 countries ranked by the WSA boosted steel output by 0.8% in January 2018 y-o-y, to 139.4 million tonnes.

If you see a spelling error on our site, select it and press Ctrl+EnterEuropean Commission green-lights new macro-financial assistance for Ukraine

From early 2014 to late 2017, the European Commission mobilized a total of EUR 3.4 billion in macro-financial assistance through three consecutive programs of low-interest loans.

If you see a spelling error on our site, select it and press Ctrl+EnterFirst toll highway in Ukraine to connect Lviv with Poland border

CEO of Ukraine's road management agency hoped that the first concession agreement on road construction will be signed off as early as this year.

If you see a spelling error on our site, select it and press Ctrl+EnterEU accounts for almost half of agri-food supplies to Ukraine in 2017  expert

Shipments in monetary terms from Europe increased to US$2.27 billion in 2017, from $1.94 billion in 2016.

If you see a spelling error on our site, select it and press Ctrl+EnterIn his speech at the U.S. Department of Energy in June 2017, President Trump made it clear that his administration would pursue not just American energy independence, but American energy dominance. He stated that the United States would develop its energy resources, rather than obstruct investment. Now the Trump administration could potentially create a barrier for the energy sector by withdrawing from Nafta. Such a decision would severely handicap the energy industry in all three nations and slow economic growth.

The ongoing energy renaissance has resulted in an unprecedented expansion in the energy sector with decreases in consumer prices and significant increases in employment and wages. In 2015, the oil and natural gas industry accounted for almost eight percent of total U.S. GDP. This renaissance is in part due to states such as Texas that have pioneered new energy technologies such as hydrofracturing.

However, another factor of growth has been the increased role of trade in the U.S. energy market. Trade, specifically with our Nafta partners, has helped pave the way for the United States to become a net energy exporter by 2022 and has made the United States the largest producer of energy in the world. This industry growth is not limited solely to the U.S. market. Global Energy Institute President and CEO Karen Harbert estimated that North American countries now provide 19 percent of crude oil, 28 percent of natural gas, and 12 percent of coal output globally.

Although the United States previously imported large amounts of energy from its Nafta partners, crude oil and petroleum product exports to Canada and Mexico have grown exponentially since 2010, as illustrated in the graph below. From 2000 to 2017, U.S. exports of crude oil and petroleum to Mexico have increased from 131 million to 322 million barrels per year and to Canada from 40 million to 342 million barrels per year.

This rapid increase in exports helped create a $10 billion energy surplus with Mexico and lowered the deficit with Canada to $37 billion in 2016. Innovations in the energy industry, including hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling, have led to sharp increases in the supply of U.S. natural gas which are helping to further reduce the deficit with Canada.

Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration, Petroleum and Other Liquids.

The integration of our economies has placed North America closer to achieving energy self-sufficiency, a goal espoused by President Richard Nixon and successive presidents thereafter. This energy independence would not be achieved through producing more expensive green energy, as was advocated by many Republican and Democrat presidents, but by providing less-expensive gas and oil from fracking.

As early as 2020 North America will produce enough liquid fuel to satisfy regional demand and to export. This will transform North America into a dominant energy power and decrease the possibility of cost increases due to supply disruptions. The United States will be able to offset the power of those who use energy dependence as a political weapon, such as Russia's withholding of natural gas from Ukraine.

Unfortunately, North American energy dominance could remain little more than a dream if policy leaders fail to reach a Nafta consensus. The agreement made energy trade economically feasible through tariff elimination, investment protection, and a focus on removing trade barriers. The current agreement eliminated tariffs on crude oil, natural gas, and refined products such as kerosene-type jet fuels and distillate fuel oil. Each of these products could cost significantly more if higher tariffs were reinstated.

In addition to lowering prices, Naftas market access policies played a large role in decreasing trade barriers for each nation. This allows producers to take their products to the best possible consumers at the lowered price. Investment Protection clauses, such as the Investor-State Dispute Settlement, include provisions that offer investors protection by guaranteeing them timely and fair compensation against expropriation, giving companies the confidence to invest substantial amounts of capital in hopes of strong returns.

The effects of this liberalized energy trade could disappear if the United States fully withdraws from the agreement as President Trump has suggested. The result would be an increase in the price at the pump, a possible rise in industry unemployment, and a stall in future market expansions.

The energy sector, possibly more than any other, would become uncompetitive by any approach that does not focus on a Do No Harm renegotiation. The backbone of the American economy is dependent on trade with foreign nations. Nafta renegotiations should reflect this by strengthening the original agreements push to eliminate tariffs, increase market access policies, and focus on investment protections.

Jacob Reyes is a contributor to Economics21. Follow him on Twitter @Jacob_DReyes

Interested in real economic insights? Want to stay ahead of the competition? Each weekday morning, E21 delivers a short email that includes E21 exclusive commentaries and the latest market news and updates from Washington. Sign up for the E21 Morning Ebrief.The Department of State has designated Ansarul Islam as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist.This designation imposes strict sanctions on foreign individuals determined to have committed, or pose a significant risk of committing, acts of terrorism that threaten the security of Americans or the national security, foreign policy, or economy of the United States.

This designation seeks to deny Ansarul Islam the resources it needs to plan and carry out further terrorist attacks. Among other consequences, all of its property and interests in property subject to U.S. jurisdiction are blocked, and Americans are generally prohibited from engaging in any transactions with the group.

Ansarul Islam is a terrorist group based in the west African nation of Burkina Faso. The group has launched numerous attacks in northern Burkina Faso near the border with Mali, including a December 2016 attack against an army squad that killed a dozen soldiers, one of the deadliest ever attacks against Burkina Fasos military.

Ansarul Islam also carried out a February 2017 strike on two police stations in the country and is believed to be responsible for the March 2017 murder of a school director and another man in Kourfayel, Burkina Faso.

This terrorist designation notifies the U.S. public and the international community that Ansarul Islam has committed or poses a significant risk of committing acts of terrorism. Terrorism designations expose and isolate organizations and individuals, and deny them access to the U.S. financial system. Moreover, designations can assist the law enforcement activities of U.S. agencies and other governments.

The United States remains committed to rooting out all terrorist groups, including Ansarul Islam, wherever they may lurk.A delegation from the U.S. governments Millennium Challenge Corporation, or MCC, visited Lesotho recently to discuss the development of a second MCC compact to reduce poverty and promote economic growth in partnership with the government of Lesotho.

During their visit to restart development of a second MCC compact, the U.S. delegation met with senior Lesotho Government officials and political party leaders, civil society and the private-sector to discuss MCCs approach to country partnership and the compact development process going forward.

Using an approach that reflects a countrys own priorities, MCC provides time-limited grants and assistance to developing countries that meet rigorous standards for good governance, from fighting corruption to respecting democratic rights. Working with local partners, MCC tackles some of the most pressing challenges that developing countries face, such as access to electricity, clean water, land rights and roads.

The decision by MCCs Board of Directors to reselect Lesotho is acknowledgement of the government of Lesothos actions to address MCCs ongoing rule of law concerns, including the implementation of the Southern African Development Community recommendations, said Principal Deputy Vice President Kyeh Kim. Lesothos continued commitment to rule of law, accountability and investing in its people will remain important as we work toward our shared goal of reducing poverty through economic growth.

U.S. Ambassador to Lesotho Rebecca Gonzales noted, The ongoing positive impact of the first MCC compact is a testament to the tremendous collaboration between the United States and Lesotho, and we look for the Government of Lesothos continued commitment to these early investments. As we build on this partnership of mutual accountability, we remain committed to supporting Lesotho as it undertakes an inclusive, transparent, and comprehensive national reform process, which is essential in achieving sustainable economic growth and long term stability.A conservative member of Irans parliament has accused a faction of the Gonabadi dervishes of espionage and collaboration with U.S. and Israeli intelligence services.

Without presenting any evidence, the deputy chairman of Iranian parliaments influential National Security and Foreign Affairs Committee, Abolfazl Hasan Beigi, says there are two breakaway sects of the Sufi Muslim religious order that believe in armed insurrection.

Beigis comments come on the heels of bloody clashes between police, plainclothesmen militia affiliated with Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), and dervishes that started last December when security forces tried to install a checkpoint on an avenue in Tehran leading to the residence of the Gonabadi dervishes leader, Nour Ali Tabandeh.

In an interview with the state-run Mehr News Agency (MNA), Beigi claimed that these two factions of the Gonabadi order have separated from the mainstream Sufi school of Gonabadi dervishes led by the 90-year old Tabandeh.

Beigi, who is an IRGC commander, says the dervishes collaborating with foreign intelligence are mainly based in the cities of Qom, Shiraz, and Boroujerd. He insists that these dervishes reject the Islamic Republics ruling system and have already admitted they are working in cahoots with the CIA and Mossad.

Beigi did not specify where and when members of the dervish community supposedly admitted to such collusion.

The MP went on to allege that a second dervish fringe group is stockpiling weapons.

The members of this extremist wing composed of former Gonabadi dervishes have procured guns. They believe in armed resistance and have already tried to use firearms in different places, He said.

The two groups, Beigi alleges, try to pull levers with the UN Security Council and human rights groups in an attempt to involve the U.S. in Irans internal conflicts and pave the way for more sanctions to cripple the country.

Beigis comments echoed recent remarks made by different authorities in Iran, including the Chief of Tehran Metropolitan Police Hassan Rahimi.

"The rioters disrupting security on Pasdaran Avenue (the street leading to Tabandehs home, where protests broke out in late February) were directed and puppeteered by foreign hands and foreign-based anti-establishment terrorists, MNA cited Rahimi as saying February 25.

Hardline clergymen and supporters of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei have also made declarations against the dervishes.

At least five policemen and plainclothes militia were killed in the clashes. According the New York based Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI), approximately 170 Gonabadi dervishes were hospitalized in Tehran following the confrontations with police and security forces.

Two of them, Mohammad Labbaf and Nematollah Riahi, are in serious condition, the faiths spokesman, Farhad Nouri, told CHRI February 23.

In a statement attributed to Nour Ali Tabandeh by Iranian state media, the dervish leader has called for peace and order, and for his followers to exercise restraint.Tehran Police Chief Hassan Rahimi has warned Iranian women protesting the Islamic Republics compulsory hijab rule of a zero-tolerance policy against protesters.

Speaking to reporters February 27, Rahimi outlined the polices anti-hooliganism project, and said police officers have been told to treat all of people according to the law.

He called on Iranians to observe Islamic rules regarding the hijab.

The police will not tolerate this kind of behavior, and will deal with protesters firmly, Rahimi said in reaction to the release of a video showing the polices violent treatment of a young woman protesting compulsory hijab, adding, We have told our officers to behave lawfully when dealing with anyone, including suspects. We hope that kind of behavior will not reoccur.

The woman in the video, Maryam Shariatmadari, whose image is now famous in Iran and abroad after video of her protest and treatment by police went viral, had to undergo surgery to treat serious wounds she suffered when police forcefully brought her down from an electrical box where she was standing.

In the video, Shariatmadari stands atop the electrical box on a busy Tehran street and waves her hijab above her head. Police trying to remove her can be heard using vulgar language and threatening bystanders.

The video spurred widespread criticism both of Irans policy of compulsory hijab for women, as well as the treatment of protestors by police.

Meanwhile, Tehran-based journalist Jila Bani Yaqoub tweeted that Shariatmadari is still in serious need of medical attention at a Tehran prison.

Shaparak Shajarizadeh, another young woman who emulated Shariatmadaris protest, was beaten while in police custody, her family says.

Social media users reported another incident February 24 in which a plainclothes officer broke the arm of a young protestor named Hamraz Sadeqis while arresting her.

Although the sentence for not wearing a hijab is two months in prison, anyone encouraging others to take off their hijab will be jailed for 10 years, Iranian police announced February 24, according to Fars News Agency.

The statement is based on the polices interpretation of article 639 of the Iranian penal code, which calls for one to 10 years imprisonment for those convicted of opening brothels and encouraging people to engage in prostitution.

In another development, Chairman of the Tehran City Council Mohsen Hashemi called on the authorities to observe ethics, laws, and religious values while dealing with those protesting the hijab.

He said veiling is a personal matter and individuals may or may not observe certain dress codes based on their personal beliefs, adding that it would be wrong to turn a social issue into a security concern.

Hashemi further warned that continued harsh treatment of women protesting the compulsory hijab may backfire by escalating dissent and opposition to religious rules.

In the meantime, power and telecommunications authorities have modified utility boxes in downtown Tehran to prevent protesters from standing on them. They attempted to justify the modifications as purely technical.Baku, Azerbaijan, Feb.28

By Gulgiz Muradova  Trend:

Moldova, in the status of the Chair of the Organization for Democracy and Economic Development GUAM, has urged the international community to be more vocal about the protection of the fundamental rights of people affected by conflicts in the GUAM area.

This was announced by Moldovan Minister of Foreign Affairs and European Integration Tudor Ulianovschi when presenting the joint statement of the four GUAM member states - Georgia, Ukraine, Azerbaijan and Moldova at the 37th Session of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva.

He stressed that efforts to protect the human rights of all citizens of the GUAM member states are hindered by the ongoing conflicts and violations of the territorial integrity.

Moldova assumed the Chairmanship of the Organization for Democracy and Economic Development GUAM on Jan. 1.

The Organization for Democracy and Economic Development GUAM was established on May 23, 2006, at the first Summit of GUAM in Kyiv. Cooperation between Georgia, Ukraine, Azerbaijan and Moldova started with the GUAM consultative forum, established on October 10, 1997 in Strasbourg.A commemorative event dedicated to the 26th anniversary of the Khojaly genocide was held at Monterey Peace and Justice Center in Monterey, California at the initiative of the Consulate General of Azerbaijan in Los Angeles on February 26, 2018.

A documentary film, titled Running from the Darkness was also screened at the event.

Opening the event, former Monterey Council member Nancy Selfridge informed the attendees about the Khojaly massacre, one of the most brutal incidents of inhumane warfare to take place in modern times committed by Armenian armed forces against Azerbaijani civilians in February 1992.

She stressed the importance to educate wider audiences about what happened in Khojaly in 1992 so that similar tragedies do not occur again.

Speaking afterwards, student of the Naval Postgraduate School Emin Gurbanzada talked about Armenias military aggression against Azerbaijan and stated that many Azerbaijani civilians were killed and around 800 thousand people lost their homes as a result of the occupation. Despite the fact that the UN Security Council adopted four resolutions condemning this occupation, Armenia has not fulfilled them to this day.

Then the film Running from the Darkness was screened. Produced in 2015-2017 in Los Angeles by American filmmakers, Running from the Darkness premiered in February 2017 at the Museum of Tolerance of the world-famous Simon Wiesenthal Center, which is one of the biggest (400,000 families) and most influential Jewish human rights organizations in the world. The documentary was also screened at the prestigious Red Rock Film Festival in Cedar City, Utah in November 2017.

Based on interviews with many survivors of the Khojaly Massacre, as well with U.S. elected officials, reporters, academic experts, Christian, Jewish and Muslim faith leaders of Los Angeles and an Armenian human rights advocate, the film vividly tells the horrific story of the tragedy.

The documentary also highlights how Azerbaijan, confronted with Khojaly tragedy as well as the illegal occupation and ethnic cleansing of around 20% of its sovereign territory by neighboring Armenia in the early 1990s, did not allow the hatred and intolerance to take hold of itself, but on the contrary worked actively to strengthen its age-old identity and traditions of interfaith harmony and tolerance.

The film was received with much interest by the audience.

It should be noted that Monterey and the city of Lankaran in Azerbaijan have been enjoying sister city relationship since 2011.Baku, Azerbaijan, Feb. 28

By Fikret Dolukhanov  Trend:

The Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict is different from other ones because it is not a contradiction or a tension between a central power, a maternal and paternal state, and a breakaway republic, but it is also an interstate conflict, Sergey Markedonov, Director of the Ethnic Relations Problems Department at the Moscow Political and Military Analysis Institute said on Feb. 27.

Markedonov made the remarks during his speech in a Remedial secession in theory and practice: The case of Nagorno Karabakh round table, organized by the "European Armenian Federation for Justice and Democracy".

According to the expert, the conflict is actually between Armenia and Azerbaijan.

It is different. For Russia, it is also different from Abkhazia and South Ossetia. It is necessary to understand, he added.

The remark contrasted with Armenian position on the issue, trying to present the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict as a war for freedom.

People [of Armenian origin] in Nagorno-Karabakh Oblast [region] appealed to Miatsum, a unification with mother Armenia. However, people of Azerbaijani background living around this oblast did not think about this Miatsum, Markedonov said.

It seems that organizers of the event invited famous political analyst in an attempt to give credibility to their uninteresting small-scale discussion. However, Markedonovs speech was quite neutral and strongly contrasted with claims and assertions that Armenian side brought to the event.

The event itself passed in an uninteresting atmosphere with complete indifference of participants, some of whom were sleeping or staring in their phones and tablets or even blank papers.

Another fruitless and meaningless effort of Armenian political circles and their supporters ended with a fiasco.AK AL AS AZ AR CA CO CT DE DC FL GA GU HI ID IL IN IA KS KY LA ME MD MA MI MN MS MO MT NE NV NH NJ NM NY NC ND OH OK OR PA PR RI SC SD TN TX UT VT VI VA WA WV WI WYBaku, Azerbaijan, Feb. 28

By Ilhama Isabalayeva  Trend:

Armenians are newcomers not only in the South Caucasus, but on the whole Asian continent, Academician Yagub Mahmudov said.

Mahmudov, who is also director of the Institute of History of the Azerbaijan National Academy of Sciences and MP, made the remarks at an international symposium in Ankara Feb. 28 dedicated to the 26th anniversary of the Khojaly tragedy.

The fact that Armenians are newcomers has been testified by the sources and "Father of history" Herodotus, he said.

He said that as a result of research conducted by the Institute of History, it was proved that until 1918 an Armenian state never existed in the South Caucasus.

Under the pressure of big countries and some political circles of the Ottoman Empire, on May 29, 1918 the government of the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic ceded the ancient Azerbaijani city of Irevan, along with the adjacent territory with an area of 9,000 square kilometers, to the Armenians, Mahmudov added.

"Russia and European countries will never create "Great Armenian state" for Armenians, which is unprofitable for them, he said. But they use Armenians to realize their shady intentions."

He added that in an interview with UK journalist Thomas de Waal, Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan admitted that he was one of the organizers of the Khojaly genocide.

"Sargsyan said that before Khojaly, the Azerbaijanis thought Armenians could not raise their hand against civilian population, but claimed that Armenians were able to destroy that stereotype," said Mahmudov, reminding of Sargsyan's comments to Thomas de Waal.

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. 28

Trend:

UN supports the efforts of the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs for the peaceful settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

This was stated during the meeting of the Secretary General of the organization Antonio Guterres with the Permanent Representative of Armenia to the UN.

"The UN Secretary General has confirmed the UN's continued support to the efforts of the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs for a peaceful settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict," the Armenian media notes.

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. 28

Trend:

The Second Kabul Process Conference has kicked off in Afghanistans capital.

The Embassy of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan in Baku told Trend that the conference is being attended by representatives of 25 countries.

Azerbaijan is represented by Deputy Foreign Minister Araz Azimov in the conference.

Kabul Process meeting is a gathering of 23 nations, the EU, UN and NATO, which is intended to discuss security and political issues in the country.

This process is being managed with the initiative and leadership of the Afghan government.

Its first meeting was held eight month ago with the participation of the representatives of 23 countries and several international organizations.Baku, Azerbaijan, Feb. 28

By Farhad Daneshvar, Samir Ali  Trend:

Armenian media distorted the opinion voiced by Seyed Hassan Ameli, a representative of Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran, regarding the Khojaly genocide, Ameli's press service told Trend Feb. 28.

The information spread by the Armenian media is not true, said the press service.

"Seyed Hassan Ameli condemns the Khojaly genocide committed by Armenians against Azerbaijanis, and pays tribute to the victims. This tragedy should not be forgotten. We are ready to take revenge for Karabakh martyrs, added the press service.

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.Baku, Azerbaijan, Feb. 28

By Rufiz Hafizoglu  Trend:

A trilateral meeting of foreign relations committees of parliaments of Azerbaijan, Turkey and Georgia has been held, according to a message posted on the website of Turkish parliament.

The message says that speaking about the importance of relations between the three countries, Chairman of the Turkish parliaments Foreign Relations Committee Volkan Bozkir stressed the importance of further strengthening of these relations.

He noted that the liberation of the occupied territories of Azerbaijan is one of the most important issues in the region.

Chairman of Azerbaijani parliaments Committee on International and Inter-parliamentary Relations Samad Seyidov, MPs  Sevinj Fataliyeva, Asim Mollazada and Javanshir Feyziyev  attended the meeting.

A number of regional issues were discussed at the meeting and exchange of views was held on the development of mutually beneficial relations of delegations in international organizations.Details added (first version posted on 12:16)

Baku, Azerbaijan, Feb. 28

Trend:

President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev has received credentials of the newly-appointed ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary of Egypt, Adel Ibrahim Ahmed Ibrahim.

Ambassador Adel Ibrahim Ahmed Ibrahim reviewed a guard of honor. He then presented his credentials to President Ilham Aliyev.

President Ilham Aliyev then spoke with the ambassador.

Saying that Azerbaijan is a very beautiful country, Adel Ibrahim Ahmed Ibrahim noted that he feels himself at home here. He stressed that the people of Egypt have sincere attitude towards Azerbaijan and the people of Azerbaijan. The ambassador expressed confidence that relations between Azerbaijan and Egypt will continue to develop with the support of the two countries' leadership.

President Ilham Aliyev said Azerbaijan attaches importance to developing bilateral ties and establishing close partnership with Egypt. Touching upon the importance of reciprocal visits between the two countries, the head of state hailed the recent successful meeting of Azerbaijan-Egypt Intergovernmental Joint Commission in Cairo.

Expressing his hope that the two countries will maintain close cooperation within international organizations, President Ilham Aliyev said Azerbaijan and Egypt demonstrate mutual support in the UN, Organization of Islamic Cooperation and other organizations, and emphasized the significance of continuing the political dialogue.

Stressing the importance of doing greater work in the economic sphere for increasing the bilateral trade, the head of state underlined that the two countries enjoy great opportunities in this area. Saying that Azerbaijan and Egypt can benefit from the mutual import-export potential, President Ilham Aliyev noted the importance of exploring investment opportunities and establishing the necessary conditions for the activities of the two countries companies.

The head of state said Azerbaijan intends to establish close relations with Egypt in all areas, and pointed out the discussions on cooperation in the field of tourism. President Ilham Aliyev touched upon the significance of establishing direct flights for organizing regular trips.

President Ilham Aliyev expressed confidence that ambassador Adel Ibrahim Ahmed Ibrahim will spare no effort to contribute to developing friendly ties between the two countries during his tenure in Azerbaijan.Baku, Azerbaijan, Feb. 28

Trend:

The Azerbaijani youth, having interfered in the event held in the building of the European Parliament, once again prevented provocative propaganda of Armenia.

It was planned to hold a propaganda event in the building of the European Parliament on Wednesday with the support of the Armenian lobby in Brussels and the deputies of the European Parliament, who were wanted by Azerbaijan.

However, the representatives of Azerbaijani youth who joined the event put pro-Armenian speeches in a difficult position after the speeches ended.

It was noted that the Armenian lobby is trying to deceive the international community and specifically represents the Armenian side as the only one suffering from the conflict.

After such statements, Frank Engel announced a minute of silence in memory of all the victims of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and left the hall.Baku Higher Oil School (BHOS) and Career center under the Volunteers School of ASAN Service are implementing their first joint project, namely First Career Exhibition. It will be organized at the BHOS campus from 10am to 5pm on March 1, 2018.

The event, which is held by the Career center with organizational support of the Higher School, aims to promote youth employment and help young people to build a successful career at the leading companies operating in Azerbaijan and looking for young talents.

More than 50 companies and organizations are expected to participate in the exhibition. They include, among others, SOCAR, Pasa Sigorta, Gilan Holdinq, EY, KPMG, Deloitte, PwC Azerbaijan, Azercell, BP Exploration Caspian Sea Azerbaijan, Atsgah Sigorta, Azr Turk Bank, Fireworks HR Agency, Coca-cola Bottlers Ltd, Azrsun Holding, Holday Inn Hotel Baku, Kapital Bank ASC, JW Marriott Absheron Baku, Rabitabank ASC, Baku International Trade Sea Port, Silk Way Bank, European Tobacco Baku ASC, SOCAR Polymer, Kapital Bank ASC, NOVA Digital Solutions and NOVCO Group. The exhibition gives the visitors an opportunity to meet with representatives of the employer companies and learn about their vacancies and employment procedures. It also provides all necessary conditions for informal meetings, discussions and information exchange.

Both the Higher School and ASAN service pay special attention to the issues of youth employment and job placement. As of today, all BHOS graduates are employed and 860 young people found jobs after completion of training courses at ASAN Volunteers Schools Career Center.Baku, Azerbaijan, Feb. 28

Trend:

The tax training courses have been launched at UNEC with the support of the Ministry of Taxes of the Republic of Azerbaijan.

The trainings will be conducted by the experienced scientists and experts of the sphere of tax.

Asaf Asadov, the director of Business Center of UNEC said that, the goal is to inform the students about the key trends of modern tax administration, the development trends and modern analytical techlogies and to strengthen the role of knowledge management approaches.

Asadov stressed that, the trainings would be conducted on the tax administration and management, tax audit, ICT and tax analysis and at the end, the examinations would be held and the certificates would be presented to the successful students.

On the first day of the training, the correspondent member of the Azerbaijan National Academy of Sciences, professor Akif Musayev trained the students on the such topics as history of taxation, basic concepts, the importance for the state, the legal basis and the international taxation. At the end, professor answered the questions of the students.Details added (first version posted on 10:29)

Baku, Azerbaijan, Feb. 28

By Ilhama Isabalayeva  Trend:

Diseases caused and spread by food purposely or unintentionally endanger the future or even the existence of people, Aynur Karimova, head of Department of Communications and Information Technologies of the newly created Food Safety Agency, told in an interview with Trend and Azernews.

She said that food security is a part of the countrys national security.

The health and well-being of the countrys population and the healthy growth of future generations are directly dependent on food security, Karimova noted.

Harmful food is even more dangerous than armed attacks, she added.

Providing food security for the health of our population, our people today is one of the main tasks for us, the department head said.

Meanwhile, compliance with local products, packaging, transport, sanitation and hygiene must be ensured, according to Karimova.

She mentioned that Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev signed a decree on November 13, 2017 to ensure the activities of the Food Safety Agency.

Meanwhile, the president signed a decree on the transfer of state property, consisting of laboratories, administrative buildings and logistics under the property of the Ministry of Economics, Ministry of Agriculture and Ministry of Healthcare to the property of the Food Safety Agency. All these actions allow us to begin to work with greater readiness, she said.

Moreover, we are studying international experience in the field of food safety, and the working mechanism of similar organizations in a number of countries, she noted.

Karimova noted that the Food Safety Agency will oversee the food safety at all stages of the food supply chain in the country and will deal with consumers rights protection.

Protection of consumer rights will focus on providing them with healthy food, she added. Our mission is to work closely with all the participants of the food supply chain.

A farmer, an importer of the final product, a dealer or a supplier - everyone should understand that his task is to provide people with healthy and safe food. We want our control mechanism to support local producers, she added.

Implementation of standards and fulfillment of food safety requirements should increase the sales of local producers products across the country and increase their market share, and competitiveness of exported products, Karimova added.

Speaking of the legislative and legal acts, aimed at achieving food security in the country, Karimova stressed that there are numerous legislative acts, standards, sanitary and hygienic norms related to the safety of food products in Azerbaijan.

There is a legal framework in the country that prohibits the production and sale of products with GMOs. Standards for halal products and standards for various food products have been approved. At present, the regulatory and technical base of the Food Safety Agency is under development, she noted.

The head of the department highlighted that a food safety project is currently being developed, and the proposals on a number of bills have been submitted to the Azerbaijani Parliament.

She said that a number of proposals have been prepared to the laws of the Republic of Azerbaijan On Food Products, On Standardization, On Sanitary and Epidemiological Well-Being, On Phytosanitary Control, On Veterinary Medicine.

Azerbaijans Food Security Institute, which will be created under the Food Security Agency under a presidential decree, will carry out scientific research on food safety, risk assessment based on scientific principles, prepare draft normative-technical acts in the field of food safety, voluntary use of international standards on food safety by manufacturers of food products, research services on food safety indicators, she said.

There are similar institutions in European countries, the U.S., and Australia. These institutions play a very important role in the conduct of scientific research, especially in the field of food safety.

We are sure that we will be able to create such institution in Azerbaijan, Karimova concluded."Assault" weapon is a term used in the United States to define some types of firearms. The definition varies among regulating jurisdictions, but usually includes semi-automatic firearms with a detachable magazine and a pistol grip, and sometimes other features such as a flash suppressor or barrel shroud.

SPRINGFIELD - In a vote along party lines - with a few exceptions - the Illinois House Democrat majority voted to raise the age for purchase of certain firearms to age 21. Except for one, House Republicans opposed the measure.

Passing a law that makes it illegal for a 20-year-old to purchase a shotgun for hunting or adult single mother from purchasing the most effective self-defense rifle on the market punishes law-abiding citizens for the evil acts of criminals, an NRA spokesman told The Hill.

Any law that requires an individual to be 21 or older to buy a firearm effectively prohibits adults aged 18-20 from buying a firearm "deprives them of their constitutional right to self-protection.

The shooter in the Parkland Florida school massacre was age 19 and obtained an AR-15 - considered a semi-automatic - legally. AR-15s cost an average of $1500.

The bill that will now head to the Illinois Senate, HB 1465,

Makes it unlawful for any person within the State to knowingly deliver or sell, or cause to be delivered or sold, an assault weapon, assault weapon attachment, .50 caliber rifle, or .50 caliber cartridge to, any person under 21 years of age.

Makes it unlawful for any person under 21 years of age to knowingly possess an assault weapon, assault weapon attachment, .50 caliber rifle, or .50 caliber cartridge 90 days after the effective date of the bill. Provides exemptions and penalties.

Provides that it is unlawful for any person within the State to knowingly deliver or sell, or cause to be delivered or sold, a large capacity ammunition feeding device to a person under 21 years of age.

Provides that it is unlawful for any person under 21 years of age to possess a large capacity ammunition feeding device within the State.

Republican gubernatorial candidate Jeanne Ives voted no on the measure, and expressed her concern about the issue earlier this week when Illinois Review asked her about raising the age buying a gun to age 21.

"What other rights are we going to raise to age 21?" Ives answered. "The age is arbitrary. The average age of a mass shooter is somewhere in the 30s."

The roll call on HB 1465:Baku, Azerbaijan, Feb. 28

By Ali Mustafayev - Trend:

The three-day visit of the Deputy Administrator of the USAID Bureau for Europe and Eurasia Brock Bierman to Azerbaijan ended. The aim of the visit was to discuss the prospects for cooperation between USAID and Azerbaijan.

"Azerbaijan and the United States have been actively cooperating for many years, and during several meetings with representatives of Azerbaijan's state structures we also discussed issues of granting tax benefits," Bierman said at a press conference on the results of his visit to Baku on Feb.28.

According to him, despite the fact that the issue of concessions has not been resolved, USAID and Azerbaijan continue to cooperate, and the parties are currently working on several projects.

"Undoubtedly, we achieved significant results on some projects in Azerbaijan. But, full implementation of all USAID projects in the country is slowing down because of the issues that we have to solve with the state structures," Bierman said.Baku, Azerbaijan, Feb. 28

By Rufiz Hafizoglu - Trend:

A new road tunnel Cankurtaran will open in the Artvin province in the northeast of Turkey, the Ministry of Transport, Maritime Affairs and Communications of Turkey told Trend Feb. 28.

The opening of the tunnel is scheduled for March 1.

Construction of the tunnel in the Artvin province started in 2010, and the total length of the tunnel is 5.9 kilometers, the ministry said.

Presently, 40 road and three railway tunnels operate in Turkey.Baku, Azerbaijan, Feb. 28

By Anvar Mammadov  Trend:

The Azerbaijan Export and Investment Promotion Foundation (AZPROMO) and the South African Embassy in Azerbaijan signed a memorandum of understanding.

The memorandum was signed during presentation of investment opportunities of South Africa, which was held in Baku Feb. 28. The document was signed by AZPROMO head Rufat Mammadov and ambassador of South Africa in Turkey and Azerbaijan Pule Isaac Malefane.

The document envisages the exchange of information on investment and trade opportunities between the two countries, Mammadov told Trend Feb. 28.

"At the same time, the document envisages the exchange of information on regulation of investment activity, he said. The South African embassy will support the work of Azerbaijani companies in South Africa. In our turn, we will support the South African companies willing to work in Azerbaijan."

Mammadov said that in general, the memorandum covers cooperation in trade and investment promotion between the two countries.

Trade turnover between Azerbaijan and South Africa amounted to $7.16 million in 2017, according to the Azerbaijani State Customs Committee. Most of that amount accounted for import of products from South Africa. The trade turnover increased by 9.8 percent in 2017 compared to 2016.Baku, Azerbaijan, Feb. 28

By Rufiz Hafizoglu  Trend:

The number of Azerbaijani citizens who visited Turkey in January 2018 increased by 10,618 people, the Turkish Ministry of Culture and Tourism said in a report.

According to the report, 48,073 Azerbaijanis visited Turkey during the reporting period.

In January 2018, 3.29 percent accounted for the share of Azerbaijani citizens in a total number of foreign citizens who visited Turkey. During the reporting period, 1.4 million foreigners visited Turkey.

In January 2017, 3.55 percent accounted for the share of Azerbaijani citizens in a total number of foreign citizens who visited Turkey.

---

Follow the author on Twitter: @rhafizogluBaku, Azerbaijan, Feb. 28

Trend:

Kazakhstans President Nursultan Nazarbayev signed a law, which envisages the expansion of tax cooperation with Azerbaijan, the Kazakh media reported.

This a law on ratification of a protocol between the governments of Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan on making changes and additions to the convention between the two countries governments on avoidance of double taxation and prevention of tax evasion with respect to taxes on income and on property, dated Sept. 16, 1996.

The protocol will allow the development of cooperation between the tax services of both states by increasing the exchange of information and applying domestic legislation in the case of finding out the tax evasion and abuse of provisions of the convention.

Earlier, presenting the relevant bill in the parliament, Kazakh Finance Minister Bakhyt Sultanov said that the trade turnover between Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan amounted to $3.2 billion over the past 10 years.

Kazakhstan mainly exports wheat, oil products obtained from bituminous rocks and rolled iron. The structure of imports is dominated by sugar, hazelnuts. Investments from Azerbaijan to Kazakhstan totaled $168.7 million over the past 10 years.Baku, Azerbaijan, Feb. 28

By Anvar Mammadov  Trend:

Creditors of Azerbaijans Bank Standard propose reforming of the Creditors' Committee.

The proposal has been voiced by Chairman of the Creditors' Committee Akram Hasanov in a meeting of the committee.

According to him, at most five people from the original members of the committee currently attend the meetings.

This also causes issues in courts, where members of the committee have to participate. Therefore, I propose to reform the committee, approve a new structure, consisting of 25 people maximum, Hasanov said.

Deputy Chairman of Azerbaijan Deposit Insurance Fund (ADIF) Vugar Abdullayev offered to create a new list of people, willing to become members of the committee, and to submit the list to ADIF

We will check if the persons listed are actually creditors of the bank and will hand over the list to the court for approval, Abdullayev said.

A creditors committee has been established for Bank Standard in April 2017.

The committee consists of nine individuals, the National Fund for Entrepreneurship Support, the Khazar University, the Center of Azerbaijans Youth Rights Protection, Azercell, SOCAR Cape LLC, SOCAR Marketing and Operations Department, Standard Insurance, GESCO Group, Unileasing, Qala Life and FINCA Azerbaijan.

The license of Bank Standard was revoked on October 1, 2016, and the bank was declared bankrupt on October 4.

Bank Standard was established in 1995.Baku, Azerbaijan, Feb. 28

By Nigar Guliyeva - Trend:

Uzbekistan has completed restoration of the railway line connecting the south of the country with Tajikistan, Tajik media reported.

Reportedly, Uzbekistan has completed work on rebuilding the Galaba-Amuzang railway branch, through which Uzbek railways reach Tajikistan.

The first freight train is scheduled to arrive from the Uzbek station "Termez" in the Surkhandaryn region of Uzbekistan to the Tajik station "Khoshadi", which is located on the territory of Shahritus district of Khatlon region, on March 1.

Tajikistan and Uzbekistan lost the railway communication through the Galaba-Amuzang line in November 2011 due to collapse of the bearing supports of the railway bridge.

In early 2012, Uzbek railroad workers dismantled part of the railroad tracks up to the border with Tajikistan.

Previously, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan had difficult ties due to a number of issues, including the demarcation of the state border.

However, following Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev's coming to power, Tashkent 'reset' its relations with neighbors, in particular, with Tajikistan. The parties resumed the dialogue on border and water and energy issues, opened air communication between the capitals, and now intend to abolish the visa regime.

Mirziyoyev is expected to visit Tajikistan in early March to mull development of the bilateral cooperation.Baku, Azerbaijan, Feb. 28

Trend:

Azerbaijan was a leader in tomato export to Russia in 2017, Russian media reported citing Federal Customs Committee.

Azerbaijan increased its export volume by 50 percent to 151,000 tons ($151 million). Azerbaijans share in Russian tomato import increased from 22 percent in 2016 to 30 percent in 2017.

Russia accounted for 99.8 percent of Azerbaijans total tomato export in 2017.

China held the second place with 109,000 tons (a 26-percent increase from 2016). Morocco went down to the third place from the first place it held in 2016. The countrys share correspondingly decreased to 23 percent with 97,000 tons.

Belarus with 70,000 tons and Iran with 9,000 tons also entered the Top 5.Baku, Azerbaijan, Feb.23

By Leman Zeynalova  Trend:

The Netherlands can offer technical support for the Baku International Sea Trade Port in Alat township in Azerbaijan, former president of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), chairman of the Dutch Friends of Azerbaijan Group Rene van der Linden said in an exclusive interview with Trend.

He noted that in March a high-level delegation from the Port of Baku will visit Venlo, the most important logistics center in the Netherlands on the mainland.

"We have huge industrial settlements, all connected to logistics facilities. We can offer the most modern innovative way of dealing with logistics," said Rene van der Linden.

He noted that at the moment, the discussions are being held at the level of Dutch government and the Port of Baku.

Azerbaijan is now building a modern port with all the facilities and the Netherlands can render technical support on the basis of its longstanding experience.

Earlier, Azerbaijans Economy Minister Shahin Mustafayev said that the first phase of construction of the Baku International Sea Trade Port in Alat settlement will be completed in May 2018.

Mustafayev noted that after the first phases completion, the ports capacity will be 15 million tons per year.

"The ports capacity will be increased up to 25 million tons of cargo and 500,000 containers per year at the second stage, and up to one million containers per year  at the next stage," noted the minister.

In 2017, the volume of freight traffic through the Baku International Sea Trade Port (excluding the oil terminal) rose by 31 percent and totaled 4.4 million tons as compared to 2016. About 85.7 percent of the total volume accounted for the share of transit cargo transportation.

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Follow the author on Twitter: @Lyaman_ZeynBaku, Azerbaijan, Feb. 28

By Leman Zeynalova  Trend:

BP and Azerbaijans SOCAR TURKEY ENERJI A.S. (SOCAR Turkey) have entered into a licensing agreement for BPs latest generation purified terephthalic acid (PTA) technology, said a message from BP.

SOCAR Turkey intends to deploy the technology in its new 900,000 tons per annum (tpa) unit at Aliaga, Turkey, expected to come on stream by 2023 once the final investment decision is taken.

BP is committed to providing products and solutions to help our customers reduce their carbon footprint. We are proud to build on BPs long-standing relationship with SOCAR Turkey to license and deploy this technology into their facility in Turkey. This is a testimony to the advantages of BPs technology, said Rita Griffin, chief operating officer, BP Petrochemicals.

This investment is highly strategic for us, fulfilling our intent to create a value chain by integrating our newly-announced aromatics complex adjacent to the STAR refinery and PETKIM plant in Aliaga with the most competitive PTA technology. This will create the most competitive asset in Turkey and the Middle East and will serve the high demand for PTA in Turkey and surrounding regions, said Emil Eminov, SOCAR Turkey chief operating officer.

BP Petrochemicals PTA technology has significantly lower capital and operating costs when compared with other PTA technologies. The technology is more energy efficient, uses less water and produces less solid waste than similar technologies on the market. BP Petrochemicals continues to invest in proprietary PTA technology to maintain its position as a market leader and technology of choice. New innovations are available to licensees.

PTA is the primary feedstock for polyesters used in the textile and packaging industry.

SOCAR TURKEY ENERJI A.S (SOCAR Turkey) is a subsidiary of SOCAR, the State Oil Company of the Azerbaijan Republic, and is Turkeys largest international investor with multiple investments in the energy area.

SOCAR Turkeys investments include: PETKIM, Turkeys leading petrochemicals manufacturer; STAR Refinery, which is due to begin operations in 2018; and PETLIM, the largest container port on Turkeys Aegean Sea coast. SOCAR Turkey intends to construct a new aromatics unit to produce paraxylene (PX) unit adjacent to the newly-constructed STAR refinery located in Aliaga.

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Follow the author on Twitter: @Lyaman_ZeynAs a defense lawyer in the Gosnell movie for abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell said: Dr. Gosnell was only serving the needs of the poor women of Philadelphia. What he did was in keeping with a women's right to choose."

Producers Phelim McAleer, Ann McElhinney , who have so far produced six documentaries on an array of topics, have been conducting sneak peek screenings of the Gosnell movie throughout the nation since last fall as a way to promote their movie that Hollywood and others dont want gotten out to the general public.

A sneak peek screening of Gosnell, America's Biggest Serial Killer, was shown last Saturday evening to an overflow audience at Christian Liberty Academy in Arlington Heights. The film, which focuses on one of the most deadly abortionists in American history, is scheduled to be released to the public in October.

As independent distributors of the film, McElhinney and McAleer will continue the sneak peak screenings up until the movie is featured in 600 big screen theaters this coming October. At that time, the censorship of the Gosnell story will end.

Rev. Calvin Lindstrom

The idea of doing a movie on Gosnell as a prolific serial killer originated when Phelim McAleer was in Pennsylvania, doing a documentary on fracking. On his day off, McGosnell decided to attend a session of the Gosnell trial that was then taking place at the time. Sitting in an almost empty press section, "Baby Boy A" evidence was shown to the jurors on a large home screen (Only pro-choice jurors had been selected to serve. Later some of them did change to pro-life.).

Upon hearing jurors gasp at the notion that Dr. Gosnell had performed 40,000 such abortions, McAleer knew this story had to be told. Upon returning home, relating what he had seen, McAleers wife, Ann McElhinney, concurred. The consensus was that the finished product not only had to portray Gosnell's war on abortion, but also had to show Gosnell as a criminal and the monster that he was.

Instrumental in bringing the showing to Christian Liberty Academy was Suzanne Probst, who with her son had seen Gosnell last summer at the National Right to Life Convention in Milwaukee, WI, where the movie was shown to all attendees by Phelims wife, Ann McElhinney. Returning home, Suzanne asked people from all over Illinois if they would be willing to sponsor a sneak peek. The condition was that the sponsor would need to pay for all travel expenses as well as expenses for promoting it.

Suzanne asked Christian Liberty's Pastor Lindstrom to sponsor the movie.He agreed. Along with Pastor Lindstrom, several other organizations in Illinois helped to financially sponsor the movie: St. Peter Church, Volo; Father Anthony Rice; Heritage Church; Pastor Skyler Goodman; Christian Liberty Academy; Pastor Calvin Lindstrom; Lake County Right to Life; Illinois Family Institute; the Probst, Swambar and Roger Williams families.

Phelim McAleer flew from Los Angeles just to do the peek screening at the Christian Liberty Academy. The movie wont be shown in Illinois again as a sneak peek because no one else has consented to sponsor it. Mr. McAleer indicated that the Christian Academy sneak peek was his and his wife's biggest one in the entire nation.



Phelim McAleer

About the Gosnell Movie

Gosnell tells the true story of Kermit Gosnell, a Philadelphia abortionist who was convicted on three counts of first-degree murder in 2013. Gosnell was also convicted of involuntary manslaughter, on 21 felony counts of performing late-term abortions, where he regularly and illegally delivered live, viable, babies in the third trimester of pregnancy and then murdered these newborns by severing their spinal cords with scissors, and on hundreds of other lesser counts, including corruption and more than 200 violations of the 24-hour informed consent law. Over the years, many people came to know that something was going on here, but no one put a stop to it. The Philadelphia Police Homicide Department received a complaint about Gosnell years before he was caught, gave it a cursory look, and ignored the evidence.

The 300-page grand jury report reads like a horror script of its own; it explains the doctors penchant for a practice he termed snipping, in which he killed babies born alive at his office by severing their spinal cords with scissors. Gosnells medical office was described in the report as a baby charnel house, with bloodstained furniture, unlicensed physicians and nurses and fetal remains stored in plastic jugs and bags in the basement freezer. Gosnell was ultimately sentenced to life without parole plus an additional 30 years in prison.



News Media Blackout of Trial

Despite Gosnell's heinous crimes, the case was likewise notable because of the mainstream and liberal media outlets refusal to cover it. Ignored were facts that emerged from the trial, like how the babies Gosnell murdered suffered terribly. Also discounted by the media was that Gosnell killed more people than Gary Ridgeway, John Wayne Gacey, The Zodiac Killer, and Ted Bundy combined over a 30-year killing spree, during which time Dr. Gosnell is thought to have killed thousands of babies.

During his Christian Liberty Academy presentation, Phelim McAleer placed blame on Tom Ridge, a "pro-choice" Republican governor, whose 1994 election put a stop to Pennsylvania Health Department inspections for seventeen years. Previously inspections had been done yearly.

As to Gosnell's incarceration in Huntingdon Correctional Center in PA, Phelim McAlleer related that Kermit Gosnell is disappointed he wasn't accepted into its poetry class, but he does play piano in its band. Gosnell is reading the Koran in two translations because he wants to know both views. Gosnell was also described as a psychopath who is still living in the weird Gosnell world. Dr. Gosnell does call Mr. McAleer collect from prison from time to time just to talk.

Funding of Gosnell movie

Just as Hollywood had no interest in promoting an abortion film, it also had no interest in funding such a project. McAleer and McElhinney raised funds for their Gosnell movie through a revolutionary website called Indiegogo, which allows movie makers to bypass the usual funding sources for movies. The budget to make the Gosnell film was set at $2.1 million, but with one condition. If producers McAleer and McElhinney failed to raise their targeted $2.1 million budget, Indiegogo would return all the funds, the producers would receive nothing, and the film would never be made. The Indiegogo campaign was a success by raising $2.25 million; however, there were many, having missed the deadline, who still wanted to contribute. They were able to do so when Indiegogo extended an invitation for McAleer and McElhinney to join their pilot program called Forever Funding which allows projects to re-open their crowdfunding campaign and continue raising funds. All total $4 million was raised to make the Gosnell movie.

Cast of Actors

The filming of Gosnell began in September of 2015. Even though the movie could be considered a low budget film, credible actors were hired to perform the key roles. Among them were Dean Cain, Michael Beach, Sarah Jane Morris, with Earl Billings playing the abortion doctor, Kermit Gosnell. The film was written by Andrew Klavan of True Crime and was directed by Nick Searcy, best known for his portrayal of Chief Deputy United States Marshall Art Mullen on FX's Justified. See here for the Full Cast & Crew of Gosnell: America's Biggest Serial Killer. View here a movie trailer for the Gosnell move.

As to how producers McElhinney and McAleer were able enlist such a fine cast of actors, related was that many actors don't have calendars. They accept because the story is good. There were actors who having accepted a role, came up with an excuse when friends told them it would sully their careers if they did do. Even so, some actors are apolitical. Most of the actors haven't yet seen the film yet.

October Showing of Gosnell Movie

Regarding the October 2018 showing of the Gosnell movie in this area and in other selected theaters here in Illinois, it is the responsibility of pro-lifers to ask 10 others go to see the movie so theaters will be filled. Producers McAleer and McElhinney made a conscious decision to aim for a PG-rating by omitting some of the most graphic material, so as many people could see the film as possible. Said McElhinney, "It's not horrific but was prepared to resemble a Law and Order episode."

Once the film becomes a success in theaters, it has a good potential to become a hit. Remember that Hollywood wants it to fail - and that should be enough reason to prove there is a market for Gosnell-type movies. There are people who want to make movies about issues that are controversial, but they are told they won't be successful. Despite how one feels about abortion, the Gosnell movie is an important story to tell. Once a DVD comes out, it will be translated into 13 or 14 languages.

Information about where the Gosnell film in October will be shown here in Illinois will be announced by Suzanne Probst when known.

State Rep. Tom Morrison

Audience encouraged to support pro-life project

Following the showing of the Gosnell movie, Republican Illinois state Rep. Tom Morrison, District 54, spoke about the race for governor between Rep. Jeanne Ives and incumbent Governor Rauner in Illinois' March Primary Election on March 20, 2018. Morrison did speak to Governor Rauner about not signing HB40, which he signed on 9/28/2018, that provides state health insurance and Medicaid coverage for abortions. Morrison specially mentioned the Hyde Amendment passed in 1976 which blocks federal funds from being used to pay for abortion outside of the exceptions for rape, incest, or if the pregnancy is determined to endanger the womans life. The law has dramatically limited coverage of abortion under Medicaid, as well as other federal programs. Cashing in on taxpayer funded abortions, in the aftermath of HB 40, Planned Parenthood is opening up more abortion clinics in Illinois. Some clinics haven't been inspected for 15 years. Morrison cited two abortion clinics, although not as bad as the Gosnell clinic, that were shut down by the Health Department in Lincolnwood and Rockford, IL. Others were cited

Morrison revealed a plan for helping Rep. Jeanne Ives be successful in the March 20th Illinois Primary election. That plan is for sending a mailer out to all pro-life households in Illinois at a cost of $38,000, but financial help is needed.

Morrison requested help from event attendees but also needs your help and the help of your friends. Please send your contribution to cover the cost of the Ives mailers as soon as possible to: Illinois Citizens for Life PAC, P.O. Box 1214, St. Charles, IL 60175Baku, Azerbaijan, Feb. 28

By Nigar Guliyeva - Trend:

Dushanbe and Tashkent have agreed on the supply of Tajik electricity to Uzbekistan, Tajik media reported.



Reportedly, Tajikistan will begin supplying electricity to Uzbekistan in late March or early April this year. The total volume of exports will be at least 1.5 billion kilowatt hours a year.

Under the agreements, in the summer period, Uzbekistan will purchase Tajik electricity for 2 cents per kilowatt, in winter - for 2.5 cents per kilowatt.

Earlier, Energy and Water Resources Minister of Tajikistan Usmonali Usmonzoda said that the country is ready to begin supplying electricity to Uzbekistan in summer 2018.

Usmonzoda said that Tajikistan and Uzbekistan are determined to restore the United Power System of Central Asia. However, for this, it is necessary to restore 60 km of power lines from the Uzbek side, as well as implement a project on relay protection and automation.

The minister further added that in 2017, Tajikistan produced over 18 billion kilowatt hours of electricity.

Presently, Uzbekistan imports electricity from Kyrgyzstan. Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan have concluded an agreement on the export of electricity from December 2017 to March 2018 in the amount of 550 million kilowatt-hours. The cost of one kilowatt-hour under the contract is 2.4 cents.

In Uzbekistan, more than 60.09 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity were generated in 2017, which is 3 percent more than in 2016.Baku, Azerbaijan, Feb. 28

Trend:

A new innovations center of High-Tech Park LLC of Azerbaijans Ministry of Transport, Communications and High Technologies will be created and commissioned before late 2019, Tural Karimli, head of High-Tech Park LLC, said Feb. 28 at an innovation forum organized by Microsoft in Baku.

He said the new innovations center, with a total area of 7,000 square meters, will be based at the Khatai telecommunications center of Baku Telephone Communications LLC.

All IT companies operating in the center will receive the status of resident, which will allow them to enjoy tax preferences, Karimli said.Details added (first version posted on 13:33)

Baku, Azerbaijan, Feb. 28

By Huseyn Valiyev - Trend:

Revenues of Azercell Telecom LLC, an Azerbaijani mobile operator, amounted to about 411 million manats in 2017, Serdar Yilmaz, head of the companys financial department, said Feb. 28 in Baku at a press conference on the companys activity last year.

He said that compared to 2016, the growth was 5 percent.

In 2016, the companys revenues were about 393 million manats, Yilmaz said.

As for the company's 2018 investment policy, Yilmaz said the investment amount will not be less than the amount invested by the company in 2017.

In 2017, the investments reached about 50 million manats.

By implementing numerous projects in corporate social responsibility throughout its activity, Azercell invested more than $1 million in 2017 and over $18.7 million in 1996-2017 in the development of the social sphere, as well as business and human resources.Baku, Azerbaijan, Feb. 28

Trend:

The Permanent Mission of Uzbekistan to the United Nations developed a draft resolution on Strengthening regional and international cooperation for peace, security and sustainable socio-economic development in the Central Asian region, the Uzbek media reported.

The launch of the initiative of Uzbekistan to promote and adopt such a document was officially announced at a round table at the UN headquarters on Feb. 23.

The participants were provided with detailed information on background and prerequisites of the need to develop a universal resolution.

It was stressed that over the past two years, an unprecedented level of cooperation has been observed in Central Asia thanks to the purposeful and consistent policy of the leadership of Uzbekistan.

Heads and representatives of delegations of the countries of Central Asia, Afghanistan, Russia, India, Germany, EU, Iran addressed the round table.

The delegations of the Central Asian countries unanimously expressed their full support for the initiative of Uzbekistan and expressed their readiness for further joint work to advance the resolution.Baku, Azerbaijan, Feb. 28

Trend:

Uzbekistan and Afghanistan held a meeting of specialists of water authorities of the two countries in Termez from Feb. 26 to Feb. 27, 2018, the Uzbek Foreign Ministrys press service said in a message Feb. 28.

The meeting was held at the initiative of Afghanistans Ministry of Energy and Water.

During the meeting, the sides exchanged views on the implementation of shore protection along the Amu Darya River.

Proposals were made for exchanging experience and organizing regular meetings at the level of representatives of the Ministry of Water Resources of Uzbekistan and the Ministry of Energy and Water of Afghanistan.Baku, Azerbaijan, Feb. 28

By Gazenfer Hamidov  Trend:

Iran loaded and unloaded 983,392 tons of metal products at its ports over the last Iranian calendar month ending Feb. 20.

The figure indicates a 72.3 percent increase year-on-year, according to the latest report released by Irans Ports and Maritime Organization.

However, on a monthly basis, loading/unloading of metal products through Iranian ports witnessed a rise of 12.5 percent.

The Islamic Republic of Iran exported 796,432 tons of metal products through its ports across the country over the last Iranian calendar month (Jan. 20-Feb. 20), which indicates a 23 percent rise compared to the preceding month.

In the meantime, the country imported 186,960 tons of metal products through the organizations ports.

The organization loaded and unloaded 3.32 million tons of minerals and construction materials in the one-month period, which is 4 percent less than in the same month of the preceding year.

About 3.033 million tons of minerals and construction materials were exported through the countrys ports compared to 2.3 million tons in the preceding month.

The report also says that 55,201 tons of machinery, vehicles and spare parts were loaded and unloaded at Iranian ports, 6.5 percent more year-on-year.

Irans machinery, vehicle and spare part imports via the ports amounted to 49,069 tons in one-month period.

Iranian ports saw loading and unloading of a total of 13.903 million tons of various goods and commodities, including food and metal products between Jan. 20 and Feb. 20, 4.5 percent more year-on-year.

In total, over 144 million tons of various goods were loaded/unloaded at Iranian ports during the current fiscal year.

The volume is 6.7 percent more than the loaded/unloaded products in the same period of preceding year (March 20, 2016-March 21, 2017).Baku, Azerbaijan, Feb. 28

By Gazenfer Hamidov  Trend:

Japan will help Iran to equip vocational training workshops in two underdeveloped provinces.

Under a deal, which was signed on Feb. 26 the Japanese government will give Technical & Vocational Training Organization of Iran 138,500 euros in grants to help it buy equipment for vocational training workshops in provinces of Hormozgan and South Khorasan, the official IRNA news agency reported.

The deal foresees granting 71,488 euros for equipping the organizations training workshops in southern province of Hormozgan and 67,065 euros for workshops in eastern South Khorasan province.

The grants will be allocated during Japans current fiscal year.

The contract envisages equipping of home appliances, computers and sewing workshops in South Khorasan province and workshops of building electric, industrial electric and welding in Hormozgan province.

Technical and Vocational Training Organization (TVTO), affiliated to the Ministry of Cooperatives, Labor and Social welfare, is the main institution in charge of short-term technical and vocational training in Iran.

TVTOs main task is providing vocational training and research through 1 - 18 months courses. The organization trains skilled and semi-skilled labor force which is needed by industry, agriculture and service providers throughout the country.Baku, Azerbaijan, Feb. 28

By Gazenfer Hamidov  Trend:

Iran exported over $163,410 worth of dairy products to Russia through the Astara border checkpoint, Bahram Pourzarb, head of Astara Veterinary Bureau, said.

The cargo, including 32,682 kilograms of cream and cheese, was sent to Russia Feb. 28, Pourzarb said, the state-run IRNA news agency reported.

The cargo was shipped from Irans northern Mazandaran province, he added.

The official further said that during the current fiscal year (started March 2017) over 669 tons of cream cheese, 1,740 kilograms of cream, 143 tons of trout, and 143 tons of powdered milk were exported to Russia, Georgia and Azerbaijan.

Iran exported $2,274.1 million worth of agricultural and food products in the first half of the current fiscal year (started March 2017), 3 percent less year-on-year.

Over $52.4 million worth of food products were exported to Russia in the period.

Astara is on Irans border with Azerbaijan and is the countrys door to Central Asia and the Caucasus.Baku, Azerbaijan, Feb. 26

By Gazenfer Hamidov  Trend:

Iran imported 1.359 million tons of staple food products through its ports during the last calendar month (ended Feb. 20).

The figure indicates a fall by 25.6 percent compared to the preceding month, according to the data released by Irans Ports and Maritime Organization.

The food products mentioned in the report include wheat, barley, butter, soy, rice, sugar, cooking oil, and meat products.

The country loaded and unloaded 1.409 million tons of food products at its ports in the one-month period, indicating a 5.8 percent fall year-on-year.

The figure was 1.873 million tons in the Iranian calendar month from Jan. 20 to Feb. 20.

In the meantime, the country exported 50,605 tons of staple food products through the organizations ports in the period, compared to 45,977 tons in the preceding month.

According to the report, 18 ports - Abadan, Astara, Arvandkenar, Imam Khomeini, Amirabad, Anzali, Bushehr, Tiab, Jask, Chabahar, Chavibdeh, Khorramshahr, Shahid Bahonar, Shahid Rajaee, Fereydounkenar, Qeshm, Lengeh and Noshahr - were involved in loading/unloading of staple food products during the period.

The report also unveils that over 345,884 tons of fertilizers and chemicals were loaded/unloaded at Iranian ports, which was 10 percent less compared to the same month of preceding year. The volume of the unloaded fertilizers and chemicals was 90,123 tons in the one-month period from Jan. 20 to Feb. 20, 2018.

Iranian ports saw loading and unloading of a total of 13.903 million tons of various goods and commodities, including food and metal products between Jan. 20 to Feb. 20, 4.5 percent more year-on-year.

In Total, over 144 million tons of various goods were loaded/unloaded at Iranian ports during the current fiscal year.

The volume is 6.7 percent more than the loaded/unloaded products in the same period of preceding year (started March 20, 2016).Baku, Azerbaijan, Feb. 28

By Khalid Kazimov  Trend:

Iran's President Hassan Rouhani has praised Russia for blocking a resolution at the United Nations Security Council on Monday that would have pressured the Islamic Republic over the use of Iranian-made missiles by Houthi rebels in Yemen.

We appreciate Russia for taking right stances at the UN Security Council. We denounce the US and the UK, who sought plot against the Iranian nation, Rouhani told a gathering of people in the southern province of Hormozgan on Wednesday.

The initial draft by the Western powers sought to include a condemnation of Iran for violating an arms embargo on Houthi leaders and include a council commitment to take action over it.

Many describe the Russian veto as a defeat for the US, which has been lobbying for months for Iran to be held accountable at the UN.

President Rouhani also touched upon Irans efforts to boost the countrys defense capabilities, saying the Islamic Republic will not seek permission from other countries to enhance its defense capabilities.But while Rauner deserves his share of the blame for Illinois continued decline, the reform policies he initially espoused cant be blamed. They were never implemented. Other than a misguided increase in funding for K-12 education, Rauners reforms were constantly rejected by House Speaker Mike Madigan.

For three years, he couldnt convince the legislature to pursue his reform agenda. He made things worse when he abandoned those reforms over time. As a result, the end of the two-year budget impasse left Illinoisans with no reforms and a 32 percent income tax hike. Now, in his latest budget address, Rauner has willingly embraced the tax hike he opposed just months ago. Gone is the reformer who would turn around Illinois.

Gov. Bruce Rauners leadership failures have deflated the political pressure for spending and economic reforms in Illinois.

Rauner didn't succeed in bringing about change. But his inability to reform anything, ironically, only strengthens the case for structural reforms. The longer Illinois status quo policies remain in place, the more this state will continue to decline.

Anyone honestly seeking a balanced picture of why reforms are so urgent  and an understanding of why the status quo has to change immediately  should examine the facts before and during Rauners term. Illinois destructive status quo will become quite apparent. Take five examples:

Illinois manufacturing lagged that of its Midwest peers long before Rauner took office. Since 2000, Illinois has lost more than 300,000 manufacturing jobs, or nearly a third of its manufacturing base, to other states and countries. Over 98 percent of those losses happened before Rauners term.

The budget impasse propelled spending, and consequently, the states unpaid bills, to a record $16 billion. But Illinois backlog has been a chronic problem since at least 2001, the last year that Illinois had a balanced budget. Unpaid bills reached as high as $9 billion in 2013, two years before Rauner took office.

Illinois unbalanced budgets and growing pension liabilities led to 13 credit downgrades between 2009 and 2013, all under Gov. Quinns watch. Five of those downgrades occurred during the 2011-2014 tax hike. In fact, Illinois was already the nation's worst-rated state by 2010.

In 2000, the shortfall in the states pension funds equaled $16 billion. By the time Rauner was elected in 2014, it had already ballooned to $105 billion. Politicians fixes resorted to borrowing and tax increases. That was a mistake. More money only fueled an increase in out-of-control total pension benefits owed to state workers and retirees.

In 2016 and 2017, Illinois netted record domestic outmigration losses of 110,000 and 115,000, respectively. Critics blame Rauner and his policies for that outflow, but once again, they ignore the fact that people were fleeing Illinois long before then. From 2000-2014, Illinois lost a net of more than one million people to other states. Thats the equivalent of wiping Aurora, Rockford, Joliet, Naperville, Springfield, Peoria, Elgin and Waukegan off the map.

Finally changing the status quo

Rauner's record has made it easy for lawmakers to divert the failures of the status quo  most of them decades old  onto him and, more importantly, his attempts at change. That may doom Illinois to many years without any new efforts to pass comprehensive reforms.

That should not be the case. The worsening of every financial and economic statistic during Rauner's term serves as a powerful condemnation of Illinois status quo. The reality is, Illinois' long-term decline belongs to career politicians like Madigan.

That fact should be used as ammunition to repel any proposed tax hikes and to promote tax relief.

It proves, in combination with Wirepoints recent research on pension benefit growth, that Illinois needs aggressive action to cut the cost of benefits today and to end pensions going forward.

And it shows Illinois needs aggressive workers comp and labor reforms to create and attract jobs for Illinoisans.

All these reforms, and more, should be bipartisan. These changes arent about left or right, Republican or Democrat.

Theyre about making Illinois livable again for all Illinoisans.Baku, Azerbaijan, Feb. 28

By Fikret Dolukhanov - Trend:

The Armenian media outlets have recently spread provocative news, referring to the statements of Seyyed Hassan Ameli, the representative of Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, regarding the Khodjaly genocide of 1992.

The news claimed that Ameli in one of his speeches allegedly blamed Azerbaijani side for the tragic events and voiced ideas contradicting Irans official position on the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

The provocative tone of the article triggered to start a research, which led to surprising results. The "news" material was actually a reprint of a 7-year old bogus propaganda story. Moreover, the article never mentioned any sources or places, or circumstances the alleged statements might have been made.

The same story was spread once more in 2014 by an anti-Azerbaijani website, which didn't bother with any proof or sources as well.

Further investigation led to believe that this "news" was apparently fake. What followed was a call to Seyyed Hassan Ameli himself, to clarify the issue.

As expected, the press office of Ameli said his opinion on the Khodjaly genocide has been distorted.

"Seyed Hassan Ameli condemns the Khojaly genocide committed by Armenians against Azerbaijanis, and pays tribute to the victims. This tragedy should not be forgotten. We are ready to take revenge for Karabakh martyrs, the press service told Trend.

This, of course, is not the first time the Armenian side tries to justify or shift the responsibility for the Khojaly massacre.

In 1997, former Armenian Foreign Minister A. Arzumanyan sent a letter to the renowned Human Rights Watch (HRW) international organization in an attempt to justify Armenian crimes in Khojaly.

In a response letter to the Armenian government Executive Director of the HRW Holly Cartner reaffirmed results of the independent investigation carried out by the organization in March 1992 and placed direct responsibility for the incident upon the Armenian forces.

We place direct responsibility for the civilian deaths with Karabakh Armenian forces We welcome the use of our reports by governments and intergovernmental organizations, and we sincerely hope that there will be no further misrepresentation regarding the contents of our 1992 report, the letter, which is available of the HRWs web-site, said.

Further misrepresentation was especially for Foreign Minister A. Arzumanyan.

Armenia's current government seems to be going the same way - spreading around its unfounded, sacrilegious and hypocritical position by any means possible.

The "re-launch" of the above mentioned bogus story now, amid the comprehensive development of the trilateral interstate relations in MoscowBakuTehran and AnkaraBakuTehran format, accompanied by implementation of numerous integration projects, makes one think about a childish jealousy of Yerevan towards Baku.

That is the main reason for Armenia trying to drive a wedge between Azerbaijan and its partners. That also perfectly describes the motives behind recent interview with Russian politician Konstantin Zatulin and invitation of Russian political expert Sergey Markedonov to the pro-Armenian conference on Karabakh.

Yerevan's childish tricks however can hardly be called efforts. Azerbaijan is a serious and successful player on international political scene. Other countries are interested in cooperation with Baku and consider its opinion on different matters.

It is time for Armenia to finally understand that, stop with cheap provocations and try to absorb some wisdom. After all, the country is not in the best of positions.Georgias Ministry of Internal Affairs is negotiating with three countries  Spain, Italy and Ukraine - on granting international legitimacy to Georgian driving licenses, Agenda reports.

The negotiations aim to make it possible for drivers living in these three countries to continue using their Georgian licenses for up to six months after the expiration of their driving documents.

Currently, Georgian drivers licenses are valid only for six months starting from the date of entry into a foreign country that recognises Georgian licenses. After six months, drivers are obliged to take driving license exams in the country of their residence.

The deadline for the recognition of Georgias license certificate is valid until September 2018, according to the Association Agreement (AA) signed between Georgia and the European Union (AA) in 2014.

"Work is underway in two directions. One is to take the drivers test into the real space and the infrastructure is being arranged and the routes are being identified; and the second direction is the recognition of Georgian driving licenses abroad, said Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs Natia Mezvrishvili.Vodafone and Nokia are to build a lunar telecoms network after teaming up to support the first privately funded mission to land on the moon, Financial Times reports.

The telecoms companies have backed plan by PT Scientists, a German space company, to land equipment on the surface of the moon in 2019. The 4G network, which will weigh less than a bag of sugar, will be used to live stream video and transmit data back to a mission control facility in Berlin. It will also allow the scientists to control two rovers, developed by Audi, that will revisit the 1972 landing site of Nasas Apollo 17 mission, the last time humans set foot on the moon.

Marcus Weldon, chief technology officer of Nokia and head of Bell Labs, said that the mission will be critical to future space exploration, as trips will require that equipment is able to perform in extreme conditions. Whether it is meteor mining or lunar landing or Mars we have to learn how to communicate in space, he said.

Robert Boehme, founder and chief executive of PT Scientists, said that the communications technology needs to be of the highest possible level and could determine future developments of the mobile and space industries. This is about laying the foundations for future space exploration, he said.

Mr Boehme explained that the computing power of a smartphone is vastly greater than the systems that were originally used to land on the moon. However creating a 4G system to communicate with earth is problematic particularly due to energy constraints with the small network reliant on solar power.

PT Scientists said the budget for the mission will run to tens of millions of dollars. It plans to use a Space X rocket but share it with other companies to offset the cost.The European Unions top diplomat has written to the foreign ministers of Russia, Iran and Turkey urging them to uphold a ceasefire in eastern Ghouta and allow aid into besieged areas.

Appealing to the trio as the leaders of the Syrian peace talks in the Kazakh capital Astana, EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini called on them to implement a genuine humanitarian pause for at least 30 consecutive days throughout Syria.

In the Feb. 26 letter seen by Reuters, Mogherini also urged Russia, Turkey and Iran to take all necessary steps to ensure that the fighting stops, that the Syrian people are protected, and finally that urgent humanitarian access and necessary medical evacuations are taking place.

Mogherini said in the letter, which was also sent to all 28 EU foreign ministers and to the secretary-general of the United Nations Antonio Guterres, that a ceasefire would give a chance for U.N.-led peace talks to make progress.

After helping turn the tide of the war in Syria in favor of its ally President Bashar al-Assad, Russia has cast itself as a Middle East peace broker.

Mogherini appealed to Moscow to make good on a July agreement for de-escalation zones, saying the United Nations Security Council resolution for a 30-day countrywide ceasefire was an opportunity to consistently implement the spirit of the decisions taken in Astana.

As the regions top aid donor, the European Union believes it can use an international conference on Syria in Brussels on April 24-25 to persuade Moscow to stop the fighting if it wants international money to rebuild Syria.

The EU will continue to play its part fully and to mobilize all political and humanitarian tools at its disposal, Mogherini said in the letter.

A donors conference last year for Syria saw the European Union pledge 1.2 billion euros ($1.5 billion) for 2017 and the bloc, as well as some 70 other countries, is expected to offer fresh money this year.Israeli Energy Minister Yuval Steinitz says the ministry will bar the import of cars that run on gasoline and diesel fuel by the year 2030, Jewish Press reports.

Speaking Tuesday (Feb. 27) at an energy conference in Tel Aviv, Steinitz said Israel plans to base the transportation and energy industry on natural gas and/or electricity within the next 12 years.

By 2030, the ministry is aiming for production of electricity using a mix of 83 percent natural gas and 17 percent renewable energy with zero pollutants, he said.

Already by the end of 2018, Steinitz said electricity production is to be reached with 71 percent natural gas, about 25 percent coal and 2 to 4 percent renewable energy. By 2030, coal will only be used for emergencies and back up purposes, he said.

Steinitz added that the natural gas deal signed this month between the Leviathan gas field consortium of Israels Delek Drilling and Noble Energy of Texas, and Egypts Delphinus (Dophinus) Holding, as well as the earlier natural gas export deal signed in September 2016 with Jordan, together have worked to strengthen the peace axis in the region  a geopolitical success he said was made possible because of the natural gas from the Tamar and Leviathan gas fields.The European Union on Wednesday laid out how it expected to regulate Northern Irelands trade if no better solution was found in the rapidly shrinking window before Britain quits the EU, prompting furious reactions in London and Belfast, Reuters reported.

Brussels chief negotiator Michel Barnier, presenting the EUs draft of an exit treaty, denied that the proposal, intended to avoid a disruptive EU-UK hard border on the island of Ireland, would loosen Northern Irelands constitutional ties to the rest of the United Kingdom.

But British leader Theresa May told her parliament that no prime minister could ever agree to these terms, which would threaten the constitutional integrity of the UK.

The hardline Unionist allies in Belfast on whom she relies for a slim majority denounced them as constitutionally unacceptable and economically catastrophic as they would distance Northern Ireland from mainland Britain.

Establishing a common regulatory area with Ireland and 26 other EU states, as the draft treaty proposes, would in effect put the British province in a customs union with the bloc.

Northern Ireland shall be considered to be part of the customs territory of the Union, the draft read.

Barnier said Britons should not be surprised by a text that merely translated an interim accord with London into legal language.

And he said the border proposal was only a backstop solution, which could be changed if Britain offered alternatives along the lines of those it hinted at during talks in December.Baku, Azerbaijan, Feb. 28

By Rufiz Hafizoglu  Trend:

The Turkish Armed Forces have started liquidating underground tunnels established by the PYD/YPG terrorists in the liberated territories of Syrias Afrin district, a source in the Turkish General Staff told Trend.

Presently, over 300 tunnels dug by the terrorists have been located in the liberated territories, the source noted.

On Jan. 20, the Turkish Armed Forces, together with the Free Syrian Army, launched the Operation Olive Branch in Afrin, Syria.

---

Follow the author on Twitter: @rhafizogluBaku, Azerbaijan, Feb. 28

By Rufiz Hafizoglu  Trend:

February can be called the most event-rich month of the recent period in Turkey. Most of all, the development of Turkeys national defense industry can be highlighted in the context of Olive Branch Operation.

It is noteworthy that Turkey tested new models of military equipment during the anti-terror operation in Syria.

Below is the list of the most notable events that happened in Turkey in February 2018.

Turkey strengthens defense industry

Turkey's National Defense Minister Nurettin Janikli announced successful testing of HISAR anti-air missile system in early February 2018. The mid-range anti-air missile system was tested in Aksaray province of Turkey.

Turkey's Nurol Makina, the manufacturer company of the armored combat vehicles, also announced that it was developing a new technology for Ejder Yalcin 4x4 armored combat vehicles that will make their operation possible without a driver and crew.

Turkeys defense company Aselsan announced development of a new tank armor system, which will be called Pulat. It will be possible to integrate the new system into the Leopard 2 and M 60 tanks.

Turkey also developed an engine for the home-produced ANKA drones, a new anti-tank remotely controlled turret (ARCT) that can be installed on any type of armored vehicle and military car and also launched construction of its third submarine  Murat Reis.

Construction of three more submarines  Aydin Reis, Seydiali Reis and Selman Reis  will begin after Murat Reis is built.

But the most remarkable event was President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's announcement concerning plans to manufacture next generation unmanned tanks.

Turkey's population grows

In 2017, Turkeys population reached 80.81 million people, which is 995,654 people more than in 2016, the Turkish Statistical Institute (TUIK) said in a message in early February 2018.

In 2017, 40.535 million people in Turkey accounted for males, and 40.275 million people - for females.

According to statistics, males account for 50.2 percent, and females - for 49.8 percent of Turkeys population, the message noted.

Some 18.6 percent of Turkish citizens live in Istanbul. The citys population amounts to 15.029 million people.

According to TUIK's forecast, Turkeys population may grow to 100 million people during the next 22 years.

Historic visit of Erdogan to Vatican

Erdogan visited Vatican at the invitation of Pope Francis. This was the first visit of senior Turkish official to Vatican over the past 59 years at the level of the countrys president.

As part of the visit, the sides discussed the US decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and the so-called "Armenian genocide".

Turkey expressed its displeasure to the Vatican over the claims of Armenians in connection with the events of 1915.

Erdogan said that Pope Francis listened to his statements.

"Pope Francis is in solidarity with Turkey on the occasion of the so-called Armenian genocide," Erdogan said.

Growing political tension between the Netherlands and Turkey

The recent tensions between Netherlands and Turkey go back to March of 2017, when the Netherlands government withdrew the permission for Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu to fly to Rotterdam to participate in the Turkish communitys rally on the eve of the referendum in Turkey.

Growing further from there, the Netherlands recalled its ambassador to Turkey, and reportedly doesn't plan to allow Turkey to appoint its ambassador to Amsterdam, according to reports.

Later in Feb. 2018, the Dutch Parliament decided to recognize the so-called Armenian genocide. In this regard, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said that Turkey deems Dutch Parliaments decision on the 1915 events unacceptable.

He noted that there are no historical facts confirming a "genocide" of Armenians.

Cavusoglu added that negative attitude has been observed in the relations between the Netherlands and Turkey over the past year.

Turkish CKK consortium out of the Akkuyu nuclear power plant project

The companies of the CKK consortium couldn't reach an agreement on some commercial points of the Akkuyu project.

In June 2017, Rosatom State Atomic Energy Corporation signed an agreement on the main conditions for the Turkish energy companies Cengiz Holding, Kolin Insaat and Kalyon Insaat to join the shareholders of the Akkuyu Nuclear JSC, which is implementing the Akkuyu nuclear power plant project.

The Turkish consortium claimed 49 percent in Akkuyu Nuclear company. The amount of the possible transaction has not been disclosed.

The construction project of the Akkuyu NPP in Turkey is being implemented based on the Intergovernmental Agreement signed between the Russian Federation and the Republic of Turkey in Ankara in May 2010. The project, estimated at $20 bln, stipulates the construction of four power units with VVER-1200 reactors with total capacity of 4,800 MW

Tillerson's visit to Ankara: Turkey demands US to stop supporting terrorists in Syria

Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan met with the US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson in Ankara. During the meeting, the Turkish side put forward a number of demands.

Reportedly, first of all, Turkey demanded the US to immediately stop to support terrorists from the Kurdish Peoples Protection Units (YPG).

The sides discussed the situation in Syria and Iraq, as well as the fight against terrorism.

Turkey creates national aerospace agency

A total of $6 billion will be allocated for the formation of Turkeys national space agency, which is planned to be created by 2023.

The territory of the national space agency will be 500 hectares, and 100 hectares of the territory are planned to be allocated for the construction of a special center for the development of space technologies.

In February 2017, a draft law on establishment of the national space agency was submitted to the Turkish parliament for consideration, the source noted.

The project is being developed as part of the government plan titled 2023 Vision.

Turkish army takes control over all settlements along borders of Syrias Afrin

Operation Olive Branch reached the next stage: Turkish Armed Forces took control over the whole border with Syrian Afrin district.

Turkish army prevented the so-called Syrian National Defense Forces from entering Afrin.

According to Erdogan, about 10 cars with allegedly pro-government forces wanted to enter Afrin. Turkish army opened a preventive fire, forcing intruders to retreat.

Turkish oppositional, ruling parties agree on joint actions in presidential election

Turkeys opposition Nationalist Movement Party and ruling Justice and Development Party agreed on joint actions during the presidential election in 2019.

Reportedly, the decision was made as part of an agreement between Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Nationalist Movement Party leader Devlet Bahceli.

In January, Bahceli refused to nominate a candidate from the party in the presidential election in favor of the ruling Justice and Development Party.

He said the party will support the countrys incumbent President Erdogan if he puts forward his candidacy in the elections.

Turkey will hold presidential, parliamentary and municipal elections in 2019.

Turkey announces 2018 the Year Against Child Labor

According to Turkish media, all state organizations of Turkey will fight against the child labor beginning this year.

Corresponding events are to be held in the country.

About two million children are currently subjected to the child labor in Turkey, Turkish media said.

Turkey is discontent over Prague's decision over ex-PYD leader

On Feb. 27, the Czech court released terrorist Salih Muslim, who had been detained two days ago. The Czech side said that they are ready to hold talks with Turkey on extradition of ex-leader of PYD earlier.

The Turkish Interior Ministry included Muslim into the list of especially dangerous criminals. He is accused in infringement attempt against the integrity and unity of Turkey and in a number of other serious offenses. The Ministry announced a $1 million bounty for cooperation in his capture.

Turkeys Deputy PM Bekir Bozdag said that Salih Muslims release from the Czech court will negatively affect the Turkey-Czech relations.

Bozdag added that Turkey condemns the decision of the Czech court, however it has been expected.

Erdogan visits African states

Late February is remembered by Turkish President Erdogan's visit to African states. Visiting tour started on Feb. 26 and will last until March 2, 2018.

Erdogan has already visited Algeria and plans to visit Mauritania, Senegal and Mali.A Florida teenager, who lives just miles from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, was arrested after a pipe bomb and other weapons were allegedly found during a raid on his home, RT reports.

The 16-year-old had threatened to kill students while playing an online video game, according to a statement from Broward County Sheriffs Office. Police raided the teenagers home at around 4:00 pm local time on Monday after receiving a tip from a member of the public. A homemade pipe bomb and other weapons were allegedly found at the house.

The bomb squad was at the scene along with investigators from Homeland Security and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). The teen is facing a felony charge for possessing explosives, the sheriffs office said.

The arrest was just the latest in a string of arrests following online threats to harm students in the wake of the shooting at the Parkland high school, which left 17 people dead on February 14.Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is expected to travel to the United States for a short visit from March 19 to 22, a Saudi government source said on Wednesday.

The prince is expected to visit Washington D.C., New York City and Boston, the source told Reuters, adding that the details of the trip have yet to be finalized.

The trip will be the Prince Mohammeds first since he was named heir to the throne last summer, pushing aside his older cousin Mohammed bin Nayef.

Prince Mohammed will also begin a visit to Britain on March 7 which will include talks with Prime Minister Theresa May on topics such as extremism and societal reform.KYODO NEWS - Feb 28, 2018 - 16:25 | Urgent, Feature, All

Local authorities on Wednesday reopened a crater area of Mt. Aso to tourists for the first time in three and a half years following diminished volcanic activity and the installation of safety measures.

The crater area of the 1,592-meter active volcano had been one of the most popular tourist spots in Kumamoto Prefecture in southwestern Japan before it was closed to visitors in August 2014 after a small-scale eruption.

About 60 people from the local governments and sightseeing industry attended a ceremony in a park 1 kilometer from the crater to celebrate the reopening. They hope it will lead to the revitalization of the local economy, which is reeling from a series of huge earthquakes that hit the region in April 2016.

"We have taken measures so we can lift the entry ban and further promote the recovery from the Kumamoto earthquake. I am really glad to reopen the crater area to tourists," said Aso Mayor Yoshioki Sato at the ceremony.

However, the operation of the gondola lift service connecting the park with an entrance to the crater remains suspended after its equipment was severely damaged in a large-scale eruption in October 2016. Instead, a shuttle-bus service is available while cars can also reach the entrance through a toll road.

The Japan Meteorological Agency confirmed a small-scale eruption and raised the alert level for the volcano by one notch to 2 in August 2014, prompting the local authorities to make the area within 1 kilometer of the crater off-limits.

The alert level was lowered to 1 in February 2017, which allows entry to the crater zone, but it required some time to install volcanic gas detectors and repair a fall protection railing after they were damaged in the massive 2016 eruption.KYODO NEWS - Feb 27, 2018 - 21:10 | Sports, All, News

The government plans to build a system using artificial intelligence to ease spectator congestion at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics, sources close to the matter said Tuesday.

The system will help guide spectators to less crowded routes after watching competitions, as some 10 million spectators are expected to come to the Summer Olympics and Paralympics hosted by the Japanese capital from July to September 2020.

Spectators will receive congestion forecasts at various points every 30 minutes after a competition ends through electronic boards, set up around the venue, and smartphones and will be guided to less congested routes to train stations.

The AI-based system will obtain information on the flow of people needed to make such forecasts through roadside cameras and with the number of people accessing the internet on smartphones. The government will consider ways to protect individuals' information in using the data.

The system will also help effectively dispatch security guards to locations where particularly large crowds are expected.

Congestion around venues was a major issue at the Rio Summer Olympics in 2016 but countermeasures have so far focused mainly on vehicle traffic controls.

The government plans to start collecting necessary data from major events this fall for setting up the new system. It has yet to decide at which venues it will use the system. Competition venues for the Tokyo Olympics are spread throughout various areas in Japan, from the northernmost prefecture of Hokkaido to Shizuoka in the central Japan.

The government plans to ask companies to participate in the project, particularly those with advanced data analysis technology.

At the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics in South Korea, Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. showcased a traffic control system, that it plans to implement at the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics.

After the Tokyo Olympics, the government plans to use the know-how obtained through the new system for disaster countermeasures such as guiding evacuees.Description

As part of the Hauppauge Industrial Association of Long Island's (HIA-LI) Strategic Committees, we invite you to our February meeting. It is a joint meeting for our Education/Workforce Connection, Technology for Business, & Young Professionals Committees.

Join us for a discussion with Dr. Fotis Sotiropoulos, Dean of the College of Engineneering and Applied Sciences. He will also be joined by additional Stony Brook University staff that play a major role in preparing their students for the workforce.

Dean Fotis Sotiropoulos will be speaking on the program, technology innovation, quality of the students, research Stony Brook University is participating in and opportunities for businesses on the island to work with the University and its students.

Please pre-register for this event as complimentary parking is limited. RSVP by Thursday, February 22 in order to obtain a parking voucher for the Administration Parking Garage.

Anyone registering after February 22nd as well as anyone choosing to park in any metered parking lot on campus will be personally responsible for parking garage fee/feeding the meter for the duration of the meeting (8 am to 10 am).Bill Gates is not a fan of cryptocurrency.

During a recent "Ask Me Anything" session on Reddit , the Microsoft co-founder said that the main feature of cryptocurrencies is the anonymity they provide to buyers, and Gates thinks that can actually be harmful.

"The government's ability to find money laundering and tax evasion and terrorist funding is a good thing," he wrote . "Right now, cryptocurrencies are used for buying fentanyl and other drugs, so it is a rare technology that has caused deaths in a fairly direct way."

When a Reddit user pointed out that plain cash can also be used for illicit activities, Gates said that crypto stands out because it can be easier to use. "Yes  anonymous cash is used for these kinds of things, but you have to be physically present to transfer it, which makes things like kidnapping payments more difficult," he wrote.

Gates also warned that the wave of speculation surrounding cryptocurrencies is "super risky for those who go long."

Gates isn't the first big name to speak out against the speculative assets . His close friend Warren Buffett also predicts a disappointing outcome. "In terms of cryptocurrencies, generally, I can say with almost certainty that they will come to a bad ending ," the chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway said.

"When it happens or how or anything else, I don't know," he added in an interview on CNBC's " Squawk Box " from Omaha, Nebraska. "If I could buy a five-year put on every one of the cryptocurrencies, I'd be glad to do it, but I would never short a dime's worth."

Legendary investor Jack Bogle agrees. "Avoid bitcoin like the plague. Did I make myself clear?" said the Vanguard founder in response to an audience question at a Council on Foreign Relations event.

Other investors are less hostile to the idea. Billionaire Mark Cuban says that, once you've built up an emergency fund, it's OK to put up to 10 percent of your savings in high-risk ventures such as bitcoin and ethereum "if you're a true adventurer." However, you've just "got to pretend you've already lost your money," he told Vanity Fair , adding that it's like throwing "the Hail Mary."

Story continues

Don't miss: Ellen DeGeneres asked Bill Gates to guess the prices of groceriesand he was totally lost

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bill gates

Alex Wong/Getty Images

In a Reddit AMA, former Microsoft CEO Bill Gates shared his two favorite books of 2018.

Those books are "Factfulness," by the late Hans Rosling, Anna Rosling Ronnlund, and Ola Rosling, and "Enlightenment Now," by Steven Pinker.

The authors of both books argue the world is getting better, not worse, and provide the data to support that perspective.



Bill Gates' favorite books that he read in 2018 both "explain that the world is getting better."

The former Microsoft CEO said as much in a Reddit AMA.

Those two books are "Factfulness," by the late Hans Rosling, Anna Rosling Ronnlund, and Ola Rosling, and "Enlightenment Now," by Steven Pinker. Both are "amazing" and "very readable," Gates said in the AMA.

"Factfulness" will be published April 3, 2018. The authors outline the 10 instincts that make us think the world is in worse shape than it really is.

Hans Rosling was a professor of global health at the Karolinska Institute in Sweden. He spent the last few years before his death in February 2017 working on "Factfulness," saying it was "the last battle in my life-long mission to fight devastating ignorance."

Anna Rosling Ronnlund and Ola Rosling are his daughter-in-law and son, with whom he often collaborated.

Gates called the book "an indispensable guide to thinking clearly about the world."

"Enlightenment Now," which was published February 2018, makes a similar case: Life is improving overall. On his blog, Gates said it was the best book he'd read in a decade.

As Business Insider previously reported, the book devotes a chapter to each of 15 measures of progress. Pinker, who is a cognitive psychologist at Harvard, includes facts like the global average IQ score is steadily rising and we're less likely to die on the job then we were several decades ago.

Gates wrote: "I read the book slowly since I loved it so much, but I think most people will find it a quick and accessible read. He manages to share a ton of information in a way that's compelling, memorable, and easy to digest."

Story continues

Business Insider previously reported on a Time editorial by Bill Gates, in which he also argues that "on the whole, the world is getting better," citing a decrease in global poverty, for example.

"Enlightenment Now" is still one of Amazon's most sold and read books. And "Factfulness" has received some rave reviews among early readers.

One of them wrote on the website Goodreads: "Factfulness gives real, data-based information about how we use information and how to do that better. It is frank and it is real and I have never felt so empowered in my life."

NOW WATCH: How Bill Gates makes and spends his billions

See Also:

SEE ALSO: Bill Gates has a new favorite book  and he says everyone should read itFILE PHOTO: The BlackRock logo is seen at the BlackRock Japan headquarters in Tokyo, Japan, October 20, 2016. REUTERS/Toru Hanai/File Photo

By Trevor Hunnicutt

NEW YORK (Reuters) - BlackRock Inc (BLK.N), the world's largest asset manager, on Wednesday said that commentary by third parties suggesting possible adverse impacts from the growth in index investing could pose a risk to its business.

"As a leader in the index investing and asset management industry, BlackRock has been the subject of third-party commentary citing concerns about the growth of index investing," the company said in a new risk disclosure its annual report, filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

"If the conclusions advanced by such commentators were to gain traction or result in the enactment of policy measures that place limits on asset managers, BlackRock's business operations, reputation or financial condition may be adversely affected," it said.

Most publicly traded U.S. companies are required to file annual 10-K reports with securities regulators, disclosing among other details their most essential risks in plain language.

Criticism of index investing is not new, but BlackRock's highlighting a particular thread of concern as a primary risk factor in this way is. The company manages $1.8 trillion in iShares-brand exchange-traded funds (ETFs), most of which track an index, and another $2.4 trillion in non-ETF index funds.

BlackRock zeroed in on one argument about index investing that says index funds' "common ownership" of several companies in a single market segment reduces competition between those companies, imposing a cost on society that may need to be regulated. The asset management company and other researchers have disputed academic studies coming to that conclusion.

BlackRock also referenced commentary about the risk of index investing "to distort investment flows, create stock price bubbles, or conversely, exacerbate a decline in market prices."

(Reporting by Trevor Hunnicutt; Editing by Leslie Adler)It's been a rough five years or so for Cameco (NYSE: CCJ) shareholders. The stock has lost 57% in that span, while the global nuclear industry has been walloped by a seemingly endless stream of bad news. But things have to get better, right? Shouldn't long-term investors brush off the broader fear and take a position in the world's leading uranium stock?

Well, not necessarily. Nuclear energy seems to be on the way out in the United States and Europe. Japan's severe energy insecurity likely means it will be forced to lean on atomic power for the foreseeable future, but the island nation has struggled to bring its sidelined reactors back online since disaster struck in 2011.

While China is expected to drive global growth in nuclear capacity, it may not be the savior Cameco or investors are expecting -- for more than one reason.

Cooling towers at a nuclear power plant.

Image source: Getty Images.

Why China is unlikely to resurrect uranium markets

A swelling industrial economy and middle class have resulted in unprecedented electricity demand growth in China in the last decade. The trend is expected to continue well into the future, which means it's all hands on deck -- renewables, liquefied natural gas, and nuclear -- to respond and boost supply. The government's massive investments in new nuclear reactors haven't gone unnoticed by investors, and rightly so.

China's nuclear fleet currently comprises 38 nuclear reactors boasting 33 gigawatts (GW) of capacity, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. That will grow by 19 reactors and 20 GW once all construction projects currently underway are successfully completed. It won't stop there. The nation could overtake the United States -- which owns 99 GW of atomic capacity -- as the top nuclear power producer by 2032, although that's an ambitious target.

Cameco has highlighted China's investments and expected growth in nuclear power in its investor presentations. And, again, why not? Nuclear reactor construction is an important driver of growth for uranium demand. While that's true, it's important to take a step back and consider the complete picture.

Story continues

Even with China's rise, total global nuclear capacity may only grow at 1.6% per year between now and 2040 after accounting for closures elsewhere, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. That growth rate may not be exactly what investors had in mind, although it could provide a noticeable boost to Cameco's portfolio of long-term supply contracts.

A form of uranium called yellow cake.

Image source: Getty Images.

More importantly, China is much more likely to look outside of Canada (where Cameco and its reserves call home) for the vast majority of its future uranium supply, and likely one country in particular: Kazakhstan. The country is the world's leading supplier of uranium and also happens to sit in a very advantageous position along the Silk Road corridor, an extensive network of direct trade routes connecting European and Chinese markets -- and everywhere in between. It's part of China's massive "One Belt One Road" economic project, which has seen the country spend over $100 billion on infrastructure and gobbling up resources it needs for various industries back home. That includes uranium.

In fact, China's first major deal along the Silk Road was for Kazakh uranium in late 2015. It included a 49% stake in certain reserves, the future construction of a fuel assembly production facility, and plans to ship every kilogram of product back to China.

Of course, increased uranium demand from China has the potential to create a rising tide in global uranium prices. So even if Chinese nuclear reactor growth doesn't directly benefit Cameco, it could indirectly benefit the company by sending a ripple effect through the market. But it might not.

Given Kazakhstan's recent struggles in balancing its own uranium production and sales, investors should entertain the idea that what happens on the Silk Road might stay on the Silk Road. The country could boost uranium production, but within the closed loop of sending it directly to China. Similar to how American shale toppled OPEC in recent years, the rising fortunes for Kazakh uranium could skip over other global producers. That would wipe out Cameco's single largest growth prospect.

Pass on this dividend stock

Cameco is an interesting company to consider for long-term investors. It's supported by an incredible management team, has maintained a healthy stream of cash flow, and continues to stand its ground in a very challenging market. However, I think investors should consider just how tricky the road ahead will be.

For Cameco to rebound and sustain a higher level of operations, it needs uranium prices to return to levels closer to their historical average. That requires a sharp reduction in output and predictable growth in demand. Right now, there's not much certainty for that scenario playing out. So, despite the low share price, I think it's best not to get greedy with this uranium stock.

More From The Motley Fool

Maxx Chatsko has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Exxon Mobil (XOM.N) is planning to build a Mozambique liquefied natural gas (LNG) export project and is looking to expand operations at its Papua New Guinea and Qatari LNG projects, a senior company official said on Wednesday.

The company is also concerned by the lack of new LNG project approvals over the past two years even as many projects were cancelled, said Frank Kretschmer, senior vice president of Exxon Mobil Asia Pacific's LNG Marketing division.

"It is concerning that very little has happened on new final investment decisions over the last two years and at the same time we have seen quite a few projects cancelled," he said.

"Being the most reliable, lowest cost project is the only way to survive industry cycles."

(Reporting by Oleg Vukmanovic; editing by Richard Pullin)[caption id="attachment_4175" align="aligncenter" width="558"]

Attorney General Jeff Sessions testifies before the Senate Intelligence Committee on June 13, 2017. Photo: Diego M. Radzinschi/ALM,[/caption] Attorney General Jeff Sessions criticized federal judges on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit after they ruled Monday that Title VII of the Civil Rights Act bars employment discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation.The Justice Department filed a friend-of-the-court brief in the case last year, arguing that if Congress intended the law to cover sexual orientation, lawmakers would have explicitly included that language. Sessions, speaking to a group of state attorneys general in Washington, D.C., Tuesday, said the court's ruling goes against those of nine other circuit courts, and noted the Second Circuit originally ruled the opposite, but that the court, sitting en banc, reversed its own precedent."We believe we're on the right principle there," Sessions said. "And I guess maybe the judges woke up that morning, read the New York Times or something, and decided their previous ruling was wrong."The Second Circuit is the latest appeals court to rule that Title VII bars LGBT discrimination in employment, following the Seventh Circuit last year. In the court's ruling Monday, the majority opinion mentioned the changing legal landscape around the issue.Sessions also echoed his previous criticisms of district court judges who have issued nationwide injunctions against the Trump administration's policies, such as the travel ban executive orders and the rescission of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. Sessions said courts have entered 20 nationwide injunctions against the administration this year, more than any other president. He said plaintiffs and lawyers have "judge-shopped around the country" to get "favorable outcomes." "Nationwide injunctions like the one in [the travel ban] case are a growing problem," Sessions said. The rally against nationwide injunctions is a familiar refrain for Sessions, who often mentions the issue in speeches. Recently, the Justice Department discussed nationwide injunctions in a filing with the U.S. Supreme Court in the travel ban case, calling the actions by courts "disturbing." The high court is set to hear that case in April.[caption id="attachment_5417" align="alignleft" width="620"]

Johnson & Johnson's baby powder

Johnson's baby powder[/caption] Johnson & Johnson asked the Missouri Supreme Court on Tuesday to transfer a talcum powder case out of St. Louis in the latest attempt to avoid a venue where juries have awarded multimillion-dollar verdicts to ovarian cancer victims and their families. Michael Blaes filed his lawsuit after his wife, Shawn Blaes, died from ovarian cancer in 2010. The case is among thousands against Johnson & Johnson over its baby powder and other talcum powder products. At issue is whether Rex Burlison, the St. Louis judge overseeing the case, abused his discretion in allowing Blaes, who originally sued in St. Louis County Circuit Court, located in Clayton, Missouri, to go to trial in the city of St. Louis. The Missouri Supreme Court temporarily halted an Oct. 16 trial of Blaes case, taking up a writ of prohibition filed by Johnson & Johnson. But the arguments focused on Missouris rules that permit, in certain circumstances, multiple plaintiffs to be joined in the same case and tried in the same venue. Blaes and other talc plaintiffs have used those rules to turn St. Louis into a boundless venue, Johnson & Johnson attorney Thomas Weaver of Armstrong Teasdale wrote in his appeal brief. Burlison has allowed hundreds of plaintiffs outside St. Louis to join St. Louis residents so that their talc claims are in a single case. In 2016 and 2017, juries in St. Louis, hearing the claims of some of those nonresident plaintiffs, awarded verdicts ranging from $55 million to $110 million. Mr. Blaes is one of hundreds of plaintiffs with no business in St. Louis City who have nevertheless brought their claims there, he wrote. They have done so through manipulation of joinder rules, linking dozens of cases to the claims of a few plaintiffs with no connections to the forum. Johnson & Johnson and Imerys Talc America, which also appealed the Blaes case, called on the Missouri Supreme Court to provide some guidance. The appellate courts are listening, said Imerys attorney Susan Robertson of The Robertson Law Group in in Kansas City, Missouri. Everyone wants guidance on what to do. A Johnson & Johnson spokeswoman did not respond to a request for comment. Imerys spokeswoman Gwen Myers said in an emailed statement: Imerys continues to maintain that it is subject to neither personal jurisdiction nor venue in the City of St Louis. But plaintiffs attorney Ted Meadows, who is spearheading the talc trials in Missouri, said the Blaes arguments were simply a delay tactic to avoid trial. This is pretty specific as to the Blaes plaintiff, said Meadows, of Beasley, Allen, Crow, Methvin, Portis & Miles. Our interpretation of the rules is that its properly joined and therefore should go forward in St. Louis City along with the other cases it was filed with. And I think thats what you'll see the appellate court rule. I dont think a ruling here will have an impact on other cases. In fact, he said, the Missouri Supreme Court on Jan. 23 refused to take up Johnson & Johnsons writ of prohibition to halt the next trial in June that involves 22 plaintiffs. Procedural fights have mired the Blaes case from the start. After Johnson & Johnson removed the case from St. Louis County to federal court, Blaes dismissed it in 2016 and refiled it in the city of St. Louis. In court papers, Johnson & Johnson accused Blaes lawyers of blatant forum shopping, insisting they made the tactical move soon after a St. Louis jury awarded $72 million in the first talc trial. The Blaes case was consolidated into another case that involved 61 plaintiffs, most of whom arent from Missouri. Blaes went to trial in June, along with the husbands of two other women who werent from Missouri. But Burlison declared a mistrial after the U.S. Supreme Courts June 19 ruling in Bristol-Myers Squibb v. Superior Court made it harder for plaintiffs to sue in states outside their own. Bristol-Myers, however, didnt prevent Blaes from going to trial in Missouri, so Burlison scheduled a retrial in October. After Burlison rejected a request by Johnson & Johnson to move the case out of his courtroom, Johnson & Johnson filed a writ of prohibition on Oct. 3 before the Missouri Supreme Court, which temporarily granted it. On Tuesday, plaintiffs lawyer Edward Chip Robertson, a partner at Leawood, Kansas-based Bartimus Frickleton Robertson, argued that severing the Blaes case would run afoul of Missouris rules, which focus on efficiencies in mass torts. Were left now with a decision by a trial court that it wants to try to be efficient and expedient, he told the panel. Is this the case where the court wants to plant its flag? Weaver acknowledged that, under Missouri rules, cases could be joined together but insisted that judges should be allowed to sever a plaintiffs claims ahead of trial. He asked the high court to make its writ permanent by severing Blaes claims from the underlying case and transferring his case back to St. Louis Countythe proper venue. Otherwise, what you are doing is putting ahead the efficiencies purportedly gained from joinder ahead of protecting the rights of the parties to litigate the case without prejudice, he said. Weaver, the group leader of his firms appellate practice, convinced a Missouri Court of Appeals panel to reverse the $72 million talc verdict in October. In the Blaes appeal, Weaver is relying in part on a concurring opinion that was part of the Missouri Supreme Courts Sept. 12 ruling in Barron v. Abbott. The appeal involved a $38 million verdict in a case involving a Minnesota woman who alleged her baby was born with birth defects after she took the anti-epileptic drug Depakote while pregnant. Her claims joined more than a dozen other non-Missouri plaintiffs in a case that went to trial in St. Louis. Abbott Laboratories challenged the verdict on several grounds, including venue and joinder, which the majoritys opinion denied. In a concurring opinion, Judge Paul Wilson, backed by two of the five other judges on the Missouri Supreme Court, found that the trial judge should have severed the claims of nonresident plaintiffs once their cases approached trial, but he affirmed the majoritys holding due to Abbotts ambiguous severance arguments. On Tuesday, the Missouri Supreme Court heard Abbotts arguments in another writ of prohibition granted in the same Depakote case involving a different plaintiff. Weavers Armstrong Teasdale colleague, former Missouri Supreme Court Judge Ray Price, argued that the St. Louis judge overseeing the case should have severed the plaintiffs claims.- By Alberto Abaterusso





Monsanto Co. (MON) closed at $122.70 per share on Wednesday. The stock dipped 0.16% compared to the previous day's closing. By early Thursday, however, shares were up 0.86% to just under $124 a share.

More upsides are highly expected in the share price of the U.S. global agrochemical and agricultural biotechnology corporation over the next days of trading on the heels of Werner Baumann's - Chief Executive Officer of Bayer AG - statement on the Monsanto - Bayer merger.





About the merger with Monsanto, at the presentation of Bayer's financial results for full fiscal 2017, Werner Baumann said:

"We are very confident that we will receive final antitrust approval in the second quarter of 2018."

According to the CEO of Bayer,significant value will be created as a result of the merger, not only for the customers of both companies but also for the shareholders.

The merger will be a further step toward the goal of feeding a growing worldwide population in a more sustainable way, ecologically speaking:

"Providing food in high quality, sufficient quantity and at affordable prices is crucial to human coexistence. And we want to contribute to that," Bayer CEO said.

In late summer of 2016, Bayer inked a binding agreement for the purchase of Monsanto Company. The transaction was approved by the shareholders of Monsanto on Dec. 13, 2016.

To date, the German international pharmaceutical and life sciences company has received clearance in half of the countries where it asked for regulatory approvals of the merger. Some of these countries are Colombia, Paraguay, Ecuador, Israel, South Africa and the Philippines. The company is closely working with the authorities of the remaining countries to receive the regulatory approvals to a merger that is expected to be closed no later than the second quarter of this year.

Story continues

For the first entire fiscal year subsequent the merger, a significant increase in sales and adjusted Ebitda is highly excepted by the two giants as well as an increase in the net income per share from the core business operations of the new entity created.

Year to date, Monsanto earned 4.41% and outperformed the S&P 500 by 2.61%.

Source: Yahoo Finance

The stock has a 52-weeks range of $111.92 to $124.20 per share. Monsanto is currently reporting a market capitalization of $54.09 billion, a price-book (P/B) ratio of 8.19 times versus an industry median of 1.82 times, a price-sales (P/S) ratio of 3.72 times versus an industry median of 1.44 times and a price-earnings (P/E) ratio of 22.72 times versus an industry average of 22.11 times.

The forward PE ratio is according to GuruFocus 21.74 times versus an industry median of 15.70.

According to below chart powered by GuruFocus, Monsanto's share price is in between the Peter Lynch earnings line (P/E = 15) and the Price at Med P/E without NRI (P/E = 25.8):

In addition, Monsanto Co. has a forward dividend and yield of $2.16 and 1.76%. The industry in which Monsanto operates has a forward dividend yield of 1.92%.

The recommendation rating is 2.6 out of a total of 5. The average target price is $125.82 as a mean of a seventeen $115 to $128 per share ranging estimates.

(Disclosure:I have no positions in any security mentioned in this article.)

This article first appeared on GuruFocus.





Craig Wright, the self-proclaimed inventor of bitcoin, is accused of swindling more than $5 billion worth of the cryptocurrency and other assets from the estate of a computer-security expert.

Wright, who claimed in 2016 that he created the computer-based currency under the pseudonym Satoshi ?Nakamoto, allegedly schemed to use phony contracts and signatures to lay claim to bitcoins mined by colleague Dave Kleiman, another cryptocurrency adherent, who died in 2013, according to a lawsuit filed by Kleinmans brother.

Kleimans family contends they own the rights to more than 1 million Bitcoins and blockchain technologies Kleiman mined and developed during his lifetime and that the assets value exceeds $5 billion, according to the Feb. 14 filing in federal court in West Palm Beach, Florida.

Craig forged a series of contracts that purported to transfer Daves assets to Craig and/or companies controlled by him, lawyers for Kleimans family said in the complaint. Craig backdated these contracts and forged Daves signature on them.

Wright, an Australian who lives in London, couldnt immediately be reached for comment on the suit, which also accuses the entrepreneur of violating partnership duties to Kleiman and unjustly enriching himself at his colleagues expense. There is no attorney listed for Wright on the docket.

Wright and Kleiman formed a Florida-based company, W&K Info Defense Research LLC, in 2011 to focus on cybersecurity, according to the court filing. The pair also had earlier worked together on the development of Bitcoin and had extensive mining operations, according to the family s lawsuit.

The pair controlled as many as 1.1 million Bitcoins at the time of Kleimans death, according to the suit. They were held trusts set up in Singapore, the Seychelles Islands and the U.K., the suit says.

Wright said in a 2016 blog post and interviews that he was the main participant in a team that developed the original Bitcoin software under the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto. After skeptics questioned the claims, Wright said that he decided not to present any further evidence to prove that he is the creator of Bitcoin.

Story continues

In the filing, Kleimans brother includes what he says is email traffic between himself and Wright in which the entrepreneur indicates he may have been holding 300,000 of Kleimans Bitcoins.

Dave mentioned that you had 1 million Bitcoins in the trust and since you said he has 300,000 as his part, the computer experts brother wrote. I was figuring the other 700,000 is yours, he added in the email. Is that correct?

Around that, Wright wrote back. Minus what was needed for the companys use.

The case is Ira Kleiman v. Craig Wright, No. 18-cv-80176, U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida.[caption id="attachment_9422" align="aligncenter" width="620"]

Florida Supreme Court. Photo: Tim Ross via Wikimedia Commons.[/caption] The state Supreme Court disciplined three South Florida attorneys for infractions including filing frivolous lawsuits against a former employer, the Florida Bar announced Tuesday. The high court suspended Mordechai Breier of North Miami Beach for 30 days starting Jan. 11, to be followed by a one-year probation. Two clients filed grievances against Breier for how he handled their insurance cases. The bar also found Breier shared fees with a consulting firm and didn't let clients know the correct fee amount paid to the adjuster. Barry Gainsburg of Plantation was suspended for 90 days starting Jan. 22, to be followed by a three-year probation. According to the bar, he filed frivolous lawsuits against his former employer, cannabis software company BioTrackTHC, and its counsel Shiner Law Group. His claims in the litigation included defamation and civil conspiracy. "He used the legal system to divulge confidential client information regarding his former client corporation and sent the civil complaint to the media," the bar said in a statement. Gainsburg also used "unethical litigation tactics" to get judges disqualified from his cases, according to the bar. Luis Fernandez of Miami will be publicly reprimanded for failing to adequately supervise Jorge Tabares, a former lawyer who lost his license and later worked as a paralegal in Fernandez's office. Another attorney communicated with Tabares about a case for about a year, believing he was a lawyer. Tabares took a disciplinary resignation in 1992. In 2010, Fernandez asked him to accept a retainer check from a client in a probate matter, according to Florida Supreme Court records. Tabares advised the woman she should open a parallel proceeding in the Dominican Republic. An attorney in the Dominican Republic then wrote a letter to Fernandez's office referring to Tabares as a lawyer. Fernandez told the bar he corrected the misunderstanding. He took responsibility for the ensuing confusion. The Florida Bar will also review Fernandez's office procedures and records.After a routine flight Friday from Houston to Colorado Springs, a United Express regional jet began heading northwest. Way, way northwest.

It flew all the way to China, making many stops along the way. The regional jet's far-flung destinations caught the attention of aviation enthusiasts and led to speculation on Twitter.

It turns out the plane's manufacturer, Embraer SA, is leasing the 76-seat E175 as a demonstration for a prospective Chinese customer.

Inc. agreed to the short-term lease by its regional operator, Mesa Air Group Inc., and expects the aircraft to return to regular U.S. service by the end of the week, spokesman Charles Hobart said Tuesday. Phoenix-based Mesa flies a fleet of 53 of the aircraft for United.

The plane departed from Colorado on its way to Seattle and then on to Anchorage on Friday evening, according to Flightradar24 and FlightAware. On Sunday, it headed to Russia for stops in two cities before landing at the port city of Vladivostok on Tuesday. From there, the next stop was Hohhot, west of Beijing, where it arrived early Wednesday.

A Chinese company is considering purchasing the type of Embraer aircraft, Mesa CEO Jonathan Ornstein said in an email. "Promise, aircraft carried no reconnaissance equipment," he joked.

An Embraer spokesman declined to immediately comment. The company's next-generation version of the regional jet family, called the E2, is scheduled to debut in April with Wider?e Airlines of Norway. Brazilian regulators are expected to certify the new E2 on Wednesday.

See original article on Fortune.com

More from Fortune.comTrump Kicks Off Re-Election Campaign Earlier Than Any President in History

Just over a year after taking the oath of office, President Donald Trump is seemingly already starting his bid to retain the Oval Office.

Trump will reportedly announce his 2020 plans to run for re-election, according to multiple outlets, including CBS News and Drudge Report. Brad Parscale, who oversaw digital operations for the Trump campaign in 2016, will be named campaign manager.

Its highly unusual for a sitting president to formally launch a campaign this early in a term. There are 980 days before the next presidential election.

That makes Trumps expected announcement a record among sitting presidents. The previous record holder was Barack Obama, who announced his intention to run for office with 582 days remaining before the election. Prior to that, Bill Clinton had announced plans to run for re-election the earliest in his term.

Of course, Trump has made no secret that he intends to hold the job as long as possible.

He filed the paperwork with the Federal Election Commission to run in 2020 just hours after he was inaugurated, according to CBS News.

Trump may have foreshadowed his plans last Friday when giving a speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC). Rather than sticking to the scripted remarks, which focused on North Korean sanctions and Parkland, Fla, he held something that more closely resembled a campaign rally.The PTScientist teams Alina lander and Audi Quattro rover are on display at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. (PTScientists Photo via Twitter)

Can you hear me now, on the moon? Not yet, but Nokia has just signed onto a team that aims to extend 4G coverage to the lunar surface as early as next year.

The Finnish company says it will be Vodafones technology partner in an industry-supported moonshot led by PTScientists, a German-based team that was one of the competitors in the soon-to-be-ended Google Lunar X Prize competition.

Even though PTScientists couldnt make the deadline to go for the prize, its still working on a plan to send its Alina lander and two Audi Quattro rovers to the lunar surface. The team has a contract with Seattle-based Spaceflight to ride on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket or an alternative by as early as 2019.

In line with the X Prize mission scenario, PTScientists aims to beam high-definition video from the lunar surface to Earth. Vodafone is planning to set up a 4G mobile network as a data connection between the rovers and a base station on the lander.

Nokia Bell Labs will take on the task of creating a space-grade version of its Ultra Compact Network system that will weigh less than a kilogram (2.2 pounds). Thatll facilitate sending data to the base station and onward to Earth.

Vodafone testing indicates that the base station should be able to broadcast 4G using the 1800 MHz frequency band and send back the first-ever live HD video feed of the moons surface, which will be broadcast to a global audience via a deep-space link that interconnects with the PTScientists server in the Mission Control Center in Berlin, Nokia said today in a news release.

Reuters quoted an unnamed executive at this weeks Mobile World Congress in Barcelona as saying the team went with 4G rather than the emerging 5G standard because 5G technology is still in the trial stage and not quite settled enough for use in the lunar environment.

PTScientists mission calls for careful study of NASAs Apollo 17 lunar roving vehicle, which was driven around the moons Taurus-Littrow Valley during the last crewed lunar mission in 1972.

Story continues

In a statement, PTScientists founder and CEO Robert Bohme said he saw next years mission as a crucial first step for sustainable exploration of the solar system.

With Mission to the Moon, we will establish and test the first elements of a dedicated communications network on the moon, Bohme said. The great thing about this LTE solution is that it saves so much power, and the less energy we use sending data, the more we have to do science!

Update for 12:45 p.m. PT Feb. 27: This report has been updated with further detail on PTScientists launch arrangements.

More from GeekWire:Warren Buffett: The new GOP tax law benefits Berkshire and acts as a 'huge tailwind for businesses'

Corporate tax reform is a "huge tailwind" for American businesses, says the Berkshire Hathaway chairman and CEO.

The new GOP tax law lowers the federal corporate tax rate from 35 percent to 21 percent.

Berkshire's net-worth increased last year to $65.3 billion, with $29 billion of that coming from the change in tax law.

Billionaire investor Warren Buffett , who did not support the Republican plans to cut taxes, told CNBC on Monday his Berkshire Hathaway BRK.A stands to benefit from the new corporate rate.

Corporate tax reform is a "huge tailwind" for American businesses, he said, referring to the new GOP tax law that lowers the federal corporate rate from 35 percent to 21 percent.

The 87-year-old Berkshire chairman and CEO released his annual to shareholders on Saturday, and revealed that the company's net-worth increased last year to $65.3 billion, with $29 billion of that coming from the change in tax law.

Buffett explained the reason, in part, for the gain.

"We had about $100 billion of unrealized gain in equities. When they're sold you pay tax on that. And previously when the tax was 35 percent we would have had a $35 billion reserve for taxes against that as a liability. That would drop to about 21 billion," he said. "So $14 billion, roughly, was a reduction in the amount of tax that when we sell those securities we will pay. It wasn't cash now. But it reduced a liability. When you reduce a liability net worth goes up."

In his letter, Buffett also said the Omaha-based conglomerate has amassed a $116 billion war chest to spend on a deal but feels prices were too high to act in a big way last year.

Buffett, also nicknamed the "Oracle of Omaha" for his successful track record of stocks picks and his market commentary that's widely-followed by the investment community, joined CNBC from Omaha, Nebraska. He became the controlling shareholder of Berkshire in the 1960s.

WATCH: Buffett: Berkshire will save cash from new tax law



More From CNBC

The Ulaanqab municipal government and Apple Inc recently negotiated the construction of a data center in the city, the first iCloud computing base headed for North China.

According to the agreement, Apple will register a company in Ulaanqab and conduct construction and operations projects there. The venture, which will utilize clean and renewable energy, is scheduled for completion and launch by 2020.

Apple plans to bring more services to its Chinese users, reduce the cost of data storage and transmission, and enhance the performance of iCloud services.



Ford Motor Company (NYSE: F) is bringing its prototype self-driving delivery vehicles to Miami.

Ford said on Tuesday that it is beginning pilot autonomous-vehicle testing programs to Miami, in collaboration with urban delivery start-up Postmates and Domino's Pizza (NYSE: DPZ), to help it learn more about how humans interact with commercial vehicles that drive themselves.

A blue and white Ford Fusion with visible self-driving sensor hardware on a Miami street.

Self-driving Fords will soon be a common sight on Miami streets. Image source: Ford Motor Company.

What Ford said: This is a research effort

In a Medium post, Ford autonomous-vehicles chief Sherif Marakby said that for now, Ford's goal is to learn more about how humans interact with self-driving delivery vehicles at all points of its journey:

The types of questions we're trying to answer include:

-- Before a self-driving vehicle makes a delivery, how will employees stock it and send it off?

-- At the end of its journey, how will customers interact with the vehicle to retrieve their food or groceries, and how far from their homes are they willing to walk to get it?

-- What benefits could and should people get from a self-driving experience?

These aren't simple questions to answer. Marakby said there will be trade-offs in moving from human-driven to self-driving commercial vehicles:

Today, deliveries can be made to someone's door, though there is usually an extra charge involved. Oftentimes, drivers illegally double-park when they can't find a space, potentially causing traffic congestion for others. A self-driving vehicle won't need to be tipped and it won't park illegally. So, from the outset we understand there are both hurdles and benefits to self-driving delivery in cities and we intend to learn all of these ins and outs so that we can serve people in a way that's most intuitive and convenient.

The pilot program with Domino's builds on the lessons learned from Ford's experimental self-driving delivery effort with Domino's in Ann Arbor, Michigan, which began last year. The Miami test with Domino's has already begun, Ford said; its test with Postmates will begin next month.

Story continues

At least at first, Ford plans to operate a small number of self-driving delivery vehicles from a new "autonomous vehicle operations terminal" near downtown Miami. More vehicles, more partners, and more cities could be added in time, Marakby said.

A white Ford Fusion with visible self-driving hardware is parked outside a Domino's Pizza restaurant. A Domino's employee is loading something into the vehicle via its passenger-seat window.

A Domino's employee loads food into a self-driving Ford delivery vehicle. Part of Ford's research involves understanding the interactions between its self-driving vehicles and the workers who load and dispatch them. Image source: Ford Motor Company.

Laugh it up, but this is important stuff for Ford

Ford's initial test with Domino's in Ann Arbor was presented in a lighthearted way, but that test -- and these new pilot programs in Miami -- have a serious business purpose: Ford wants to understand, at a very deep level, what its customers will want out of a self-driving vehicle.

The customers Ford will be targeting with its first self-driving vehicles won't be retail buyers; they'll be commercial-fleet operators. Ford has been a dominant player in commercial vehicles around the world for decades, and it wants to build on that strength as self-driving vehicles become mainstream. Ford already understands commercial vehicles at a deep institutional level. It's now working to understand how self-driving commercial vehicles will interact with humans in a similarly deep way.

This isn't just pie-in-the-sky stuff, either. Ford is planning to begin production of its first commercial self-driving vehicles in 2021. The market for such vehicles could be huge, and Ford could be in position to win a big slice of it -- if it comes up with a winning design that works well with both human customers and the humans who will have to load and dispatch the vehicles.

That's what these pilot programs are about. Ford is at work learning the things that will help it come up with the best possible designs for its self-driving commercial vehicles so it can continue to be a dominant player in commercial vehicles once those vehicles have learned to drive themselves.

More From The Motley Fool

John Rosevear owns shares of Ford. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Ford. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.Earlier this month, I sat next to the Pakistani general leading tens of thousands of troops in a northwestern region once considered the epicenter of global terrorism.

Major General Azhar Iqbal Abassi, an infantryman, was cordial, and our meeting was frank and candid. With the help of PowerPoint, he gave us a detailed briefing about the achievements of his forces since they launched the Zarb-e Azab offensive. In June 2014, Islamabad unleashed all its military might on North Waziristan, where myriad Islamist militant groups had run a de facto jihadist state for more than a decade.

His upbeat assessment was, however, in contrast with the reality of life outside the tightly guarded sprawling garrison in Miran Shah, the administrative capital of North Waziristan.

Its true that most militants fled Zarb-e Azab, and they no longer control territories in North Waziristan. But more than 1 million of its civilian residents braved death, injury, and displacement and have only recently returned to destroyed homes and ruined businesses in demolished bazaars.

On top of that, they had to put up with long waits and harassment at security check posts, deal with violence after the occasional militant attacks, and live without key rights and civic services taken for granted in the rest of Pakistan.

I know this because North Waziristan is my home. I grew up in Darpakhel, a village north of Miran Shah, and our February 15 meeting with military officials was aimed at finding a solution to some very basic problems that North Waziristan residents face. While security, the rule of law, and access to basic services are a given in most societies, we are fighting hard to get them.

Everyone in the delegation I led was proud of our achievements. In hours of deliberations, we demanded that civilians should not be harassed or tortured or a curfew imposed in their communities following a militant attack. They agreed to streamline the cumbersome checks on numerous checkpoints across the regions roads. They promised to look into the issue of disappeared people and some people have been reunited with their families since.

In a major concession for civic freedom, all political parties will be able to campaign freely in the run-up to this years parliamentary elections. They also accepted our demands for letting North Waziristan residents rebuild their markets and promised to reopen the Ghulam Khan border crossing with neighboring Afghanistan so that the local economy, mainly based on trade and transport, can recover.

In a sign of how difficult it is to live in North Waziristan today, we were also promised that the government would implement development projects, reopen major roads connecting parts of the region, and restore mobile telephones and Internet and help reopen branches of a local bank.

I do not think that these small concessions will turn Waziristan into a haven, but it might make it barely habitable.

The road to get the authorities to agree to very basic demands was, however, not easy. The meeting in Miran Shah was a follow-up to our numerous meetings with civilian officials and military generals in Islamabad and neighboring Rawalpindi earlier this month. We prompted them to take notice after we braved 10 cold nights in the open while protesting outside the National Press Club in Islamabad from February 1.

Popularly dubbed as the Pashtun Long March, our sit-in protest galvanized years of grievances in Waziristan, other districts in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) and the neighboring provinces of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan. The Pashtun heartland in these regions turned into a frontline on the war against terrorism after 9/11.

Closed to outside observers, millions of Pashtuns in FATA paid a particularly heavy toll. They were first terrorized by militants and then affected by the militarys counterterrorism sweeps. They constitute a majority of the 50,000-plus civilians Pakistani officials estimate have died in more than 15 years of unrest. More than 6 million Pashtuns were displaced by fighting. Thousands are still unaccounted for. Pashtun laborers, traders, students, and professionals face harassment, stereotyping, and racial profiling across Pakistan.

The January murder of one such Pashtun victim spurred our movement for reclaiming our lost dignity, rights, and privileges. Naqeebullah Mehsud, an aspiring model and shopkeeper, was killed in what a government probe declared to be a staged shootout with the police in the southern seaport city of Karachi. Like thousands of Pashtun victims, his suspected murderer still remains at large.

My generation grew up in a world defined by intolerance, hatred, and fear. But the one we want to build now for future generations must be defined by love, tolerance, and emancipation.

This awakening heralds a tectonic shift in northwestern Pakistan that the world needs to pay close attention to.

Mohsin Dawar (@mjdawar), a lawyer, is the Chairman of National Youth Organization and a senior leader of the newly formed Pashtun Tahafuz Movement or Pashtun Protection Movement. These views are the author's alone and do not represent those of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.Could a national database help the opioid crisis?

Lawmakers gathered with health care experts to determine what role data and technology can play in easing the opioid crisis that kills thousands of Americans every year. There was consensus in at least one area: More data is needed.

MORE INFO W.Va. county building opioid data hub Although the bulk of the data will come out of the county's computer-aided dispatch system, the plan is include health and education information. Read more. In opioid epidemic, states intensify prescription drug monitoring At least 39 states are insisting that health professionals use prescription drug-monitoring programs to analyze each patients prescription drug use before writing another prescription for highly addictive drugs. Read more. Data key to cracking opioid crisis, experts say With the opioid crisis ravaging communities across the country, social services, law enforcement and health officials are leveraging data to help curb the problem. Read more.

Technology and data offer important opportunities to address the opioid crisis, prevent addiction, and avoid the tragedies so many families are facing, Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) said in her opening statement at a Feb. 27 hearing of the Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions on the opioid crisis.

Two witnesses argued for a centralized database of national opioid prescriptions, and Sanket Shah, a clinical assistant professor of health informatics at the University of Illinois at Chicago, said predictive analytics could help determine some of the root causes of the opioid crisis.

Shah pointed to one study that found that the duration of the opioid treatment was a better predictor of abuse and overdose than the opioid dosage. But researchers need more data to get the most benefit from predictive analytics and to ensure the accuracy of those predictions. The government can step in to fill this gap, he told lawmakers.

The federal government has the means and infrastructure to create an integrated data environment, which we can source from at local and state levels, Shah said. Having access to such a vast data repository will enable the creation of robust predictive analytics that leverages multiple variables such as social determinants of health, family and medical history, and access to complete episodes of care.

Such a database, when combined with machine learning, could help find patterns at both the provider and patient levels, he said.

The Prescription Drug Monitoring Act of 2017 would be one way to get such a database started, he said. The bill would require states receiving federal funding under the Harold Rogers Prescription Drug Monitoring Program make their PDMP data available other states. The bill also describes a single interstate data sharing hub of de-identified data that could be used for statistical, research or educational purposes.

There are components within that act that would help fund a sharing hub, Shah told GCN after the hearing.

Sherry L. Green, CEO of Sherry L. Green & Associations and the co-founder of National Alliance for Model State Drug Laws, agreed there should a federally funded data repository.

Then we can create the kind of uniformity and standards [for the data] that were looking to do, Green said.

But the government should be careful about confusing research for treatment with surveillance for criminals, warned Westley Clark, the deans executive professor in the public health program at Santa Clara University. Placing such a database within the Department of Justice could give it the optics of being for surveillance rather than treatment, he said.

Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), who chairs the committee, said he didnt think the government should be creating and managing such a database and suggested the private sector may be better suited to the task.

The federal government lacks capacity, in many cases, to do things well, Alexander said, pointing to Healthcare.gov as an example. It was a disaster, he said of the website.

Murray, the committee's ranking Democrat, pushed back against Alexander's characterization.

Actually the data hub on Healthcare.gov was the part that actually worked, she said. The part that didnt work, that failed, was the websites ability to support high traffic and allow enrollees to browse through the options -- and that was actually a private contractor, CGI Federal.Danish English

Company Announcement No. 2-2018, 28 February 2018

The Board of Directors hereby convenes the Annual General Meeting to be held on Thursday 5 April 2018 at 4 pm (CET) at the offices of the company, Vigerslev Alle 77, DK-2500 Valby.

Agenda:

The Board of Directors' report on the company's activities in 2017



Presentation and approval of the 2017 Annual Report



Approval of the Board of Directors' fees:



a. Final approval of fees for 2017.



The Board of Directors proposes unchanged approval of the fees for 2017 that were pre-approved by the general meeting in 2017.



The fees are based on a base fee of DKK 450,000 (the "Base Fee") with twice that amount to the vice chairman and three times that amount to the chairman. An additional fee of DKK 125,000 is paid for membership on a board committee, whereby, however, such additional fee for committee chairmen constitutes DKK 225,000. The chairman and the vice chairman do not receive committee fees. a. Final approval of fees for 2017.The Board of Directors proposes unchanged approval of the fees for 2017 that were pre-approved by the general meeting in 2017.The fees are based on a base fee of DKK 450,000 (the "Base Fee") with twice that amount to the vice chairman and three times that amount to the chairman. An additional fee of DKK 125,000 is paid for membership on a board committee, whereby, however, such additional fee for committee chairmen constitutes DKK 225,000. The chairman and the vice chairman do not receive committee fees.

The total remuneration to the members of the Board of Directors for 2017 amounts to DKK 6.6 m, cf. note 7.1 in the Annual Report (page 109).

In addition to the above-stated remuneration, the company pays out-of-pocket expenses, including travel and transport costs, associated with the services rendered for the Board of Directors, and the company may also pay foreign social charges and similar charges, charged by foreign authorities in relation to the fees.



b. Preliminary determination of fees for 2018

The Board of Directors proposes that fees of the Board of Directors remain unchanged in 2018. The fees for 2018 will be presented at the Annual General Meeting in 2019 for final approval. Distribution of profits or covering of losses in accordance with the approved Annual Report



The Board of Directors proposes a dividend of DKK 8 per share, corresponding to a total dividend distribution of DKK 410m for 2017.



Election of members to the Board of Directors



The Board of Directors proposes the re-election of Vagn Ove Srensen, Tom Knutzen, Caroline Gregoire Sainte Marie, Marius Jacques Kloppers, Richard Robinson Smith (Rob Smith) and Anne Louise Eberhard to the Board of Directors.



Information on the qualifications and positions held by the individual candidates is presented in Appendix 1 and is also available on the company's website, www.flsmidth.com.



Election of company auditor



The Board of Directors proposes the re-election of Ernst & Young Godkendt Revisionspartnerselskab in accordance with the recommendation of the audit committee. The Audit Committee has informed the Board of Directors that it has not been influenced by third parties and is not subject to any agreements with third parties that restrict the general meeting's election of specific auditors or audit firms.



Proposals from the Board of Directors



The Board of Directors submits the following proposals:



7.1 - Amendment of the articles of association - renewal of the Board of Directors' authorisation to increase the company's share capital



The Board of Directors proposes that the existing authorisation granted in Article 4a of the Articles of Association to increase the company's share capital is extended so that it is applicable until and including 1 April 2023.



The new article 4a(1)(3) and (2)(3) will be worded as follows:



"The authorisation shall apply for the period until and including 1 April 2023."



The proposed amendments to the articles of association appear from Appendix 2 and is also available on the company's website, www.flsmidth.com.



7.2 - Treasury shares



The Board of Directors proposes that it be authorised until the next Annual General Meeting to let the company acquire treasury shares equivalent to a total of 10% of the company's share capital at the time of the authorisation, provided that the company's total holding of treasury shares at no point exceeds 10% of the company's share capital. The consideration must not deviate by more than 10% from the official price quoted on Nasdaq Copenhagen at the time of acquisition.



Any other business

------------



Adoption requirements

The proposal set forth in item 7.1 of the agenda must be adopted by at least 2/3 of both the votes cast and of the share capital represented at the general meeting. The remaining proposals on the agenda can be adopted by a simple majority of votes.





Size of the share capital and the shareholders' voting rights

The company's share capital amounts to nominally DKK 1,025,000,000, divided into shares of DKK 20 each. Each share of DKK 20 carries 20 votes.



The date of registration is 29 March 2018.



Shareholders holding shares in the company on the date of registration have the right to attend and vote at the general meeting. The number of shares held by a shareholder is calculated at the date of registration based on the recording of the shareholder's shares in the register of shareholders as well as any notices concerning ownership received by the company to be recorded in the register of shareholders. Attendance is also subject to the shareholder having timely obtained an admission card as described below.



Admission card

Shareholders who wish to attend the Annual General Meeting must request an admission card. The request must be received by the company not later than Tuesday 3 April 2018 at 11.59 pm (CET). Admission cards may be ordered via FLSmidth's InvestorPortal at www.flsmidth.com/gf.



FLSmidth & Co. A/S sends out admission cards by email. In order to receive an admission card, the shareholder's email address must be registered at FLSmidth's InvestorPortal at www.flsmidth.com/gf. Following registration the shareholder will receive an electronic admission card, which must be presented at the Annual General Meeting by using e.g. a smartphone or tablet. Alternatively, a printed version of the admission card may be presented. If the admission card is not presented, access may be granted to the general meeting on presentation of due proof of identity.





Proxy

Proxies must be submitted electronically via FLSmidth's InvestorPortal at www.flsmidth.com/gf (requires electronic password) or in writing by using the proxy/postal vote form that can be downloaded at www.flsmidth.com/gf. If the form is used, the completed and signed form must be received by VP Investor Services, Weidekampsgade 14, Postboks 4040, 2300 Copenhagen S, Denmark (fax: +45 4358 8867 or a scanned version to vpinvestor@vp.dk) not later than Tuesday 3 April 2018 at 11.59 pm (CET).

Postal vote

Postal votes must be submitted electronically via FLSmidth's InvestorPortal at www.flsmidth.com/gf (requires electronic password) or in writing by using the proxy/postal vote form that can be downloaded at www.flsmidth.com/gf. If the form is used, the completed and signed form must be received by VP Investor Services, Weidekampsgade 14, Postboks 4040, 2300 Copenhagen S, Denmark (fax: +45 4358 8867 or a scanned version to vpinvestor@vp.dk) not later than Wednesday 4 April 2018 at 12 noon (CET). A postal vote cannot be withdrawn.





Additional information

Until and including the day of the Annual General Meeting, the company's website, www.flsmidth.com/gf, will provide additional information about the general meeting, including the 2017 Annual Report, information about the total number of shares and voting rights on the date of the notice, this notice with the agenda and the complete proposals, including appendices, the proxy/postal vote form for the Annual General Meeting and the articles of association. The 2017 Annual Report is only available in English.



As of Wednesday 14 March 2018, the information will also be available for inspection by the shareholders at the company's head office at Vigerslev Alle 77, 2500 Valby, Denmark.





Questions from shareholders

Shareholders may submit questions to the agenda or documents etc. to be used at the Annual General Meeting in writing to FLSmidth & Co. A/S, Vigerslev Alle 77, 2500 Valby, Denmark, or by email to corpir@flsmidth.com.

Electronic voting

Electronic voting (e-voter) will be used if one or more items on the agenda are put to vote.

E-voters will be handed out at the entrance to the Annual General Meeting.

Webcast

The entire Annual General Meeting will be webcasted live on the company's website, www.flsmidth.com/gf, and the webcast will subsequently be availabe on the website. The webcast will only cover the podium.





Parking

The company's address is at Vigerslev Alle 77, 2500 Valby, Denmark. There are only a limited number of parking spaces at the address.

The Annual General Meeting ends after the consideration of the last item on the agenda, but before the Annual General Meeting begins it will be possible to enjoy a cup of coffee and some cake.

Valby, 28 February 2018

FLSmidth & Co. A/S





The Board of DirectorsVANCOUVER, British Columbia, Feb. 28, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The British Columbia government shouldnt hold a single referendum on electoral reformit should hold two, like New Zealand, finds a new study released today by the Fraser Institute, an independent, non-partisan Canadian public policy think-tank.



B.C. voters have until today (Feb. 28) to comment online on the governments plans to hold a referendum this fallthe third in 15 years.

How governments get elected is perhaps the most important part of any democracy, and efforts to change the electoral system require very careful consideration, said Lydia Miljan, Fraser Institute senior fellow, associate professor of political science at the University of Windsor and co-author of Designing a Referendum Question for British Columbia.

The study highlights best practices from Canada and the world for referenda on electoral reform.

For example, before their government changed their electoral system, voters in New Zealand participated in two referenda. The first gauged the appetite to change the voting system, and also asked which alternative electoral process should replace the existing one. Following this referendum, a legislative committee designed an alternative electoral system, complete with new riding boundaries and rules for coalitions and minority governments.

Only after this initial public consultation and education process, which clearly explained the consequences of change, did a second referendum ask New Zealanders whether they wanted to adopt the new alternative or maintain the status quo.

In addition, given B.C.s size and unique population distribution, the study also urges that broad support be garnered from different parts of the province.

Getting a legitimate mandate to fundamentally change the way citizens elect their governments is no easy task, and it requires buy-in from people across B.C.not just in a few heavily-populated ridings in the Lower Mainland, Miljan said.

If the B.C. government wants to properly and fairly pursue electoral reform, it should hold two referenda that allow voters to truly understand the consequences of change.

The Fraser Institute will release several essays on electoral reform in B.C. over the next few months.

MEDIA CONTACT:

Lydia Miljan, Senior Fellow

Fraser Institute

For interviews with Lydia Miljan or for more information, please contact:

Bryn Weese

Media Relations Specialist, Fraser Institute

Office: (604) 688-0221 ext. 589

bryn.weese@fraserinstitute.org

Follow the Fraser Institute on Twitter and Facebook

The Fraser Institute is an independent Canadian public policy research and educational organization with offices in Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto, and Montreal and ties to a global network of think-tanks in 87 countries. Its mission is to improve the quality of life for Canadians, their families and future generations by studying, measuring and broadly communicating the effects of government policies, entrepreneurship and choice on their well-being. To protect the Institutes independence, it does not accept grants from governments or contracts for research. Visit www.fraserinstitute.orgfrostakhil wrote:

Hello club members. This is my first post on this forum. I have my GMAT in 25 days and I am still not able to figure out a pattern in my mistakes. I've studied for roughly (on and off) 4 months now and have started attempting practice tests recently. My biggest problem is that my performance is not consistent and I'm unable to figure anything out. I've attempted many questions ( and other sources) and it happens that sometimes when I think that (for example) SC is my strongest suit, in the very next set of practice questions, I may fail miserably in SC. Sometimes I do a question correctly, sometimes I do it wrong (same type of question). Please help me. I now think that doing questions and tests indefinitely won't help me. My wrong answers don't follow any kind of pattern here and I'm unable to identify the WHY factor for wrong answers. When I read explanations after doing a question wrong, it's like oh yeah this was simple, just a silly mistake or something. I need to do something specific here like take out all my previous attempts and maybe analyze it? I don't know. I've kinda hit this barrier with my accuracy. Please PLEASE help me. My target is 770 (impossible?)

I took some practice tests recently and here are my scores:

Kaplan1: 580 (q43, v26, IR3)

2: 680 (q46, v38, IR4)

GMATPrep1: 680 (q49, v34, IR4)

: 650 (q45, v34, IR4)

The analysis will give you your five weakest areas on Quant as well as Verbal sections together with a lot of other analytics that will help you in analyzing the level of your preparation.thepalisades wrote:



Would you mind elaborating on that conversation with admissions a bit? I'm preparing to ask for that extension (2 weeks, though, not a week) and wondering how your's played out.

bb wrote:

Well... you can see it from their perspective. If your girlfriend or boyfriend asked to move the Friday night date to next week so that they could go out with another person and check them out. You probably would not be the usual accommodating nice you.



I called to talk about a few things and then asked the question. Honestly I didn't think a week extension would be a big deal so essentially said I was leaning towards Kellogg wanted to make sure I was 100% sure I was choosing the right school, and if there was a procedure in place if I were to make a request for just a few days' extension. It sounded as though they were reading from a script and basically rolled out a bunch of reasons why they wouldn't help. Please let me know how your discussion goes with Kellogg!To use your analogy...there's no commitment here and Kellogg isn't my partner yet. hahaEveryone knows we're dating multiple people and there is absolutely no exclusivity assumed this early!But, yes, you're right, I do see this now. However, (and perhaps I'm being a little naive here!) I thought schools cared a lot about 'fit'; after all, they go on about it so much! For Kellogg to effectively say: "Actually, we care more about our yield than whether you think we're the right fit" felt kinda strange. I get it, but it certainly didn't make me feel good about Kellogg, which is a shame. Maybe it's not this simple, but I do wonder why Sloan have scheduled their admit weekend after other peer schools' decisions deadlines.We all know that February through April is widely known as meeting season for most farmers. The business of the holiday season is over, but were not yet able to get in the fields. Its the only span of time that youre going to get us off the farm and into a conference room. Of course, free donuts and/or lunch dont hurt.

Aside from the free food, there are many of reasons to attend meetings. Sometimes, they cover new technologies youre hoping to implement on your dairy. Other times, they are a workshop about how to feed your calves to get more milk out of them when they mature. Perhaps you should attend a meeting because you need the credits to keep your pesticide license current.

For the last few years, Ive noticed a few recurring themes in meeting topics that have reflected the signs of the times: growing financial awareness (how to treat your farm more like a business) and risk management. Basically, its getting harder to make money in dairy farming, and we need to learn more about being businessmen instead of farmers.

I cant help but feel that maybe its too late. As a third farm in my area sells out since the beginning of the year, I cant help but feel a little hopeless. Even the farmers I know who have always had hope have lately been doubting their future. I know that these meetings are meant to help. Theyre meant to show us that maybe its not hopeless, these companies are trying to give us tools to better our situation. But most days, it feels less depressing to stay home and hide.

The author dairies in partnership with her parents and brother at Spruce Row Farm in Pennsylvania. Jessica is a graduate of Pennsylvania State University, and since 2015, she has been active in promoting dairy in her local community. You can find her and her 250 Jersey cows on Facebook at Spruce Row Dairy or on Instagram at @seejessfarm.Washington, Feb 28 (IBNS): Three members of the Expedition 54 crew aboard the International Space Station (ISS), including NASA astronauts Mark Vande Hei and Joe Acaba, returned to Earth on Tuesday after months of performing research and spacewalks in low-Earth orbit.

Vande Hei, Acaba and cosmonaut Alexander Misurkin of the Russian space agency Roscosmos landed at 9:31 p.m. EST (8:31 a.m. Feb. 28 in Kazakhstan) southeast of the remote town of Dzhezkazgan in Kazakhstan.

Their time on station marked the beginning of the first long-term increase in crew size on the U.S. segment, enabling NASA to double the time dedicated to research and achieve a record-setting week of research that surpassed 100 hours. Highlights from this research include investigations into the manufacturing of fiber optic filaments in microgravity, improving the accuracy of an implantable glucoses biosensor, and measuring the Suns energy input to Earth.

The crew also welcomed four cargo spacecraft delivering several tons of supplies and research experiments. Orbital ATKs Cygnus spacecraft arrived at the station in November on the company's eighth commercial resupply mission, followed in December by SpaceXs Dragon spacecraft on the companys thirteenth resupply mission. Two Russian ISS Progress cargo craft arrived at the station in October and February.

Vande Hei logged 168 days in space on this, his first, mission. He ventured outside the space station on four spacewalks to perform work that included replacing and lubricating the Latching End Effectors on both ends of the Canadarm2. Acaba completed one spacewalk to lubricate an end effector and install new cameras on the stations arm and truss. He now has accrued 306 days in space on three flights. Acaba and Vande Hei also participated in dozens of educational events while in space as part of NASAs Year of Education on Station.

Misurkin conducted one record-setting spacewalk with fellow cosmonaut Anton Shkaplerov to replace an electronics box for a high-gain communications antenna on the Zvezda service module in February. The spacewalk timed out at 8 hours and 13 minutes, the longest in Russian space program history. Misurkin now has spent 334 days in space on two flights.

Now operating the station are Expedition 55 crew members Commander Anton Shkaplerov of Roscosmos and Flight Engineers Scott Tingle of NASA and Norishige Kanai of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency. Astronauts Ricky Arnold and Drew Feustel of NASA, and Oleg Artemyev of Roscosmos are scheduled to launch March 21 and arrive at the space station two days later, returning the crew size to six.

Image: NASA Television



In December, Nikki Haley, the US ambassador to the UN provided evidence of Iranian manufacture for missiles that were fired into Saudi Arabia from Houthi-controlled territory. That evidence was largely corroborated by a UN report this month, leading in turn to the British-authored resolution, which passed by a vote of 11-2, with two abstentions, before being subject to veto by any of the five permanent members. Russia was the only one of these five to vote against the resolution, joined by Bolivia. China, a fellow permanent member and Iran ally, abstained alongside Kazakhstan.

The collapse of this measure led immediately to the resumption of hardline rhetoric from the Trump administration, with Haley threatening unilateral action by the United States, as well as the pursuit of a strategy that involves US allies but utilizes tactics that cannot be single-handedly thwarted by Russia. She did not provide detail of what those tactics might be, however.

According to Reuters, the Russian obstruction was not taken for granted in advance, despite the longstanding collaborative relationship between Moscow and Tehran, which have been jointly supporting the Assad regime throughout Syrias seven-year civil war. International policy analysts have variously suggested that Russian and Iranian interests might meaningfully diverge even in the context of that war, making Russia a potential tool for reining in the Islamic Republic.

Additionally, Tuesdays resolution contained language that had been deliberately weakened in hopes of securing Russian support. Rather than explicitly condemning Irans violation of arms control resolutions, the text simply made notice of the violation with particular concern.

Following rejection of even this weakened language, Haley accused the Russian government of feeding Irans sense of impunity in international affairs and reinforcing the message that the Islamic Republic gets a pass for its dangerous and illegal behavior. Haleys commentary also tied the ballistic missile issue to the ongoing disputes over the future of the 2015 nuclear deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action. For the Trump administration and many critics of the JCPOA, the nuclear issue is inseparable from the issue of Irans missile capacity despite it not being mentioned in the agreement, because long-range ballistic missiles are inherently capable of carrying nuclear warheads.

Despite the Russian veto, Tuesdays vote showcased the broad agreement among the US and its allies over at least some issues of Iranian misbehavior, at a time when the White House is struggling to convince the JCPOAs European signatories of the need for action to reinforce key provisions of an agreement that President Donald Trump has decried as the worst deal ever.

Recent reports have suggested that European leaders are concerned over Trumps demands, which focus on eliminating sunset provisions in the JCPOA, expanding nuclear inspectors access to possible nuclear sites in Iran, and addressing Irans regional activities in general and its missile activities in particular. The details of these demands reportedly remain unclear to those who are in a position to establish a new agreement with the US, and there is some concern that Trump might reject any European proposal in favor of simply torpedoing the agreement.

Nevertheless, recent reports also suggest that there has been meaningful progress on at least some elements of the would-be renegotiation. And this perception is reinforced by the various signals that European policymakers share some of the White Houses concerns. This is arguably most evident with regard to the need for constraining Irans ballistic missile activities. And the signs of agreement on this issue certainly re-emerged in the wake of the Russian veto.

Reuters reported, for instance, that French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian held direct talks with his Russian counterpart and then used a news conference to reiterate French support of the resolution over Irans very worrying ballistic missile activities. Le Drian also declared that it was necessary for Western governments to take actions that would prevent that missile program from posing a threat to Irans neighbors in the region.

But despite the tentative commitment on this somewhat tangential issue, the White House may still face an uphill battle in connecting strengthened arms control to strengthened provisions of the nuclear agreement itself. Irans ballistic missile development is not mentioned in the JCPOA itself, but an associated Security Council resolution calls upon the Islamic Republic to avoid work on nuclear-capable weapons. Another parallel agreement would thus be comparatively easy to enforce without risking violation of the nuclear agreement, to which the Europeans generally view as a success and an agreement worth keeping.

For the most part, the Trump administrations threats to walk away from the deal have been its only means of pressuring Europe to strengthen the restrictions imposed by the JCPOA itself.

ut the persistence of this situation was called into question on Tuesday by a Washington Post report that highlighted complementary pressures coming from within the Middle East region.

Specifically, that report noted that Saudi Arabia, Irans main regional rival, had signaled that it might be more willing to voluntarily accept restrictions on its own prospective nuclear program if the Iranian restrictions under the JCPOA were strengthened. This perspective emerged following a trip to Saudi Arabia by US Energy Secretary Rick Perry to discuss an atomic energy agreement that could comprise billions of dollars in Saudi contracts for American companies.

As terms of these contracts, Saudi Arabia would be expected to abide by whats known as 123 Agreements, which bar the recipients of American nuclear technology and know-how from personally enriching uranium or reprocessing plutonium. According to the Post, this threatens to create a situation in which an agreement designed to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon lets it do more than its rivals, since the JCPOA permitted Iran to keep much of its uranium enrichment infrastructure operational.

The article quotes Mark Dubowitz of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies as highlighting the potential for additional restrictions on Iran to be sold to the international community as a means of preventing dangerous nuclear development not only there but throughout the region. Its a critical step in demanding adherence to the gold standard as opposed to the Iran standard, he said, hinting at oft-repeated criticisms of the 2015 agreement as excessively lenient and neglectful of longstanding demands regarding Iranian nuclear activity.

Of course, it remains to be seen whether other US allies will view the recent Saudi commentary as an incentive for further nuclear restrictions or as a sign that a nuclear arms race will be difficult to avoid regardless of the future of the JCPOA. Meanwhile, the danger of the latter scenario is all but certain to appear more prominent as long as the various other tensions between Iran and its regional rivals continue to worsen.

With respect to these broader issues, the expansion of Irans regional influence is of particular concern, and it is not clear that there is much agreement among international powers about how to counter that influence and mitigate the anxieties of Saudi Arabia and its partners. In fact, a report that appeared in The Hill on Tuesday suggested that there is not even a great deal of agreement among the American political and military leadership about unilateral US strategy.

That report quoted General Joseph Votel, the head of US Central Command, as telling a congressional panel that countering Iran is not one of the coalition missions in Syria. Votel went on to qualify this remark by saying that the US troop presence could certainly contribute to the building or relationships inside Syria and Iraq that help prevent the solidification of communication and transportation corridors leading from Tehran to those countries and beyond. Nevertheless, his characterization of the US mission was seen by some members of the panel as being at odds with early comments by Secretary of State Rex Tillerson suggesting that an American military presence was crucial to preventing Iran from strengthening its position in Syria and exploiting the situation in order to take more aggressive aim at US allies in the region.

The tension between the two mens positions was scrutinized in the midst of international efforts to secure a 30-day ceasefire in Syria. Tehran accepted those efforts in public statements but also cautioned that its fight against anti-Assad rebels would continue because the Islamic Republic considered those groups to be terrorists. Previous ceasefire efforts have already been violated by Iran-backed forces, and these incidents seemingly fueled further speculation about Irans possible break with Russia, which has played a leading role in negotiations and has generally abided by the ceasefires.

However, by continue to defend Iran over its missile activities, Russia is effectively encouraging skepticism over its willingness to criticize Iran or counter its position in other regional affairs.By INU Staff

INU  Iranian police have threatened women with lengthy prison sentences for participating in protests against the compulsory veil. The police said in an official statement last week that women could be charged with inciting corruption and prostitution.

Since December, there have been dozens of women attacked and arrested in Iran for peacefully protesting against compulsory veiling  a practice that Amnesty International has described as discriminatory and abusive.

This is just one more example of how the authorities in the country are escalating a violent crackdown on the rights of women.

The Deputy Director for the Middle East and North Africa at Amnesty International, Magdalena Mughrabi, said: This is a deeply retrograde move by the Iranian authorities in their ongoing persecution of women who dare to speak out against compulsory veiling. It places many women at serious and immediate risk of unjust imprisonment while sending a chilling message to others to keep quiet while their rights are being violated.

She added that womens rights in Iran are violated by authorities that are compelling them to cover their hair. Mughrabi said that this practice has been going on for decades and goes against their dignity. Rather than threatening women with jail terms for claiming their human rights, the authorities should immediately abolish the discriminatory, abusive and degrading laws and practices of compulsory veiling.

Reports and videos are circulating on social media, and last week Maryam Shariatmadari was seen being violently pushed off a concrete structure. She has been seriously injured and requires surgery, but is being held in Shahr-e Rey Prison and is being denied medical attention. The following day, Shariatmadaris mother  Mitra Jamshidzadeh  was detained for over a day in a detention centre in the countrys capital. Her lawyer has advised that she was violently attacked when she tried to find out where her daughter was being held.

According to Iranian law, veiling is compulsory. However, international law states that this is a blatant violation of numerous human rights. It is discriminatory and denies females the right to freedom of expression, thought, conscience, religion and privacy.

A spokesman for Irans judiciary said that women who are not properly veiled are being instructed by organized criminal groups or are acting under the influence of synthetic drugs.

Amnesty International is calling for law enforcement officials that are condoning such actions to refrain from making any more statements that incite further human rights abuses.

Furthermore, the NCRI Womens Committee has called on all international organisations defending human rights and womens rights to urgently act so that all women who are jailed as a result of improper veiling are immediately freed.

The committee has said that the people who are protesting are honorable and brave and has urged the people of Iran  in particular women and young people  to defend them and to support their families.

Iranian authorities have said that 29 women have been arrested for not being veiled.

This practice is unacceptable is further proof that regime change, as per the request of the nation, is the only way forward.Congo Sends Asylum Seekers Back to U.S., Calling Deportation Inhumane

(GIN)  Six Congolese nationals and two Zambian citizens were sent back to the U.S. after Congolese officials called their deportations inhumane.

The six arrived last week aboard an American aircraft at Ndjili airport, said Congolese Human Rights Minister Marie Ange Mushobekwa, handcuffed, chained to the ankles and hips as slaves. Further, the expelled persons were given diapers as they were prohibited from getting up from their seats to use the toilet.

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They traveled under those conditions for more than 20 hours, which the government official called unacceptable.

Even if they were to be repatriated, the Minister said, it should be done in accordance with the agreement signed between the two countries, with respect for human dignity.

Meanwhile, Rwandan police opened fire at a protest by several thousand Congolese refugees last week, whose food rations had been cut by 25%. At least eleven refugees were killed and 20 injured at the camp, police said Friday. Seven policemen were also injured.

The refugees, around 3,000 of them, had camped out outside U.N. offices over the cuts by the U.N. refugee agency (UNHCR).

On Thursday, police tried to disperse them using teargas, said police spokesman Theos Badege.

Rwandan police had confirmed only five dead in a statement on Friday that said they had acted after demonstrators armed with stones, sticks and metal projectiles assaulted and wounded seven police officers.

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The demonstrations demanding better living conditions or relocation began Tuesday in Kiziba camp, which hosts over 17,000 Congolese refugees.

UNHCR spokeswoman Cecile Pouilly expressed regret that 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, she said in a statement.

In January, UNHCR said it was cutting rations because only 2 percent of their funding appeal of 2018 had been funded. The World Food Program has warned of more cuts if its monthly requirements of $2.5 million are not met. w/pix of Somali refugee being deported by Kenya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.

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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.

About Veterans Health Solutions

Veterans Health Solutions (www.veteranshealthsolutions.org) is a public benefit nonprofit organization representing veterans and the underserved communities in the United States and the Caribbean. The organization is committed to educating, defending, protecting and establishing equal access to cannabis for a better quality of life for the veteran and underserved community.Gifted Filmmaker Praised for Immense Talent Passes in Burkina Faso

(GIN)  Just days before a major retrospective of his cinematic work in Brazil, Idrissa Ouedraogo passed away in his home country of Burkina Faso. He was 64.

We talked two weeks ago, said a grieving Janaina Oliveira of Brazils Center for Afro-Brazilian and Indigenous Studies in a Facebook post. I was bringing him to Brazil. Tickets, screening, tributeit was all set. He was so happy.

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The prolific Ouedraogo was best known for Tilai, a complicated story about a man returning to his village after a long absence, only to find that his father has married his fiance. Even though she is now officially his mother, they begin an affair, and trouble ensues. The film won the Cannes Jury Prize in 1990.

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.

President Roch Marc Christian Kabore said in a statement that his country has lost a filmmaker of immense talent, noting that the director truly contributed to turning the spotlight on Burkinabe and African cinema beyond our borders.

His first film, Yam Daabo , arrived in 1986, followed by Yaaba, an unusual love story between a young boy and an elderly woman spurned by her village.

He made several 3-minute films for the series Art for the World, an NGO associated with the U.N. Dept. of Public Information which sees art as an important tool for fostering dialogue among diverse peoples, cultures, and worldviews, encouraging tolerance and solidarity in the defense of human rights.

Malian filmmaker Cheick Omar Cissoko, secretary general of the Panafrican Federation of Filmmakers commented: Idrissa has made human stories of such intensity, built around extremely strong characters () His writing is a leap forward within African cinema. He was always looking for the best.

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The films can be seen on YouTube. w/pix of I. OuedraogoMugabe Lets Loose in Fury at Former Allies Who Ousted Him

(GIN)  After weeks of silence, former Zimbabwe president Robert Mugabe came out of his shell and delivered a furious tirade against his one-time party allies who engineered his ouster last November in an action they called Operation Restore Legacy.

Mugabe, in a rare display of resentment and bitterness, called his removal by military members of his own Zanu-PF party unconstitutional. He was speaking at a private party at his Harare mansion where guests had gathered to celebrate his 94th birthday, according to the Standard newspaper which attended the event.

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Speaking for close to two hours, Mugabe said the country was effectively under military rule and that even his own security was not protected.

To start with, the political and security situation in Zimbabwe has radically changed since Nov. 15; certainly not for the better, but for worse, Mugabe told the group that included ex-members of his cabinet.

Mugabe recounted his military history in Zimbabwe until the early days of his ouster.

I was pressured by the army to resign; I did so in order to avoid conflict and bloodshed in my country. I was worried because people had been intimidated, attacked, homes had been raided at gunpoint and destroyed, and weapons confiscated from other state security agencies, Mugabe alleged.

The army had been deployed without permission of the commander-in-chief and soldiers continue to be used in this operation  yet some of his officials dare call me a dictator.

They must accept and apologize that what they did was wrong, he declared. The ouster has even affected his wife, he said, who cries daily.

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Please dont appease them, he urged Moussa Faki Mahamat, the head of the African Union Commission during a recent visit.

The AU chief, however, had a different take on his talk with the ex-president. I met him (Mugabe), we exchanged views, and he explained why he resigned. It was for peace and development of the country. And we appreciated that very much, Mahamat was quoted as saying.

Zimbabwe is indeed open for business, he wrote on Twitter.

Meanwhile, military elements within the ruling Zanu-PF are reportedly maneuvering to install Constantino Chiwenga who led the takeover that ended Mugabes 37-year rule. Since then, Chiwenga has been named vice president and defense minister but is also on the EU sanctions list.

Tensions and mistrust are certainly building up in government, although things may appear rosy on the surface, according to an observer. w/pix of M.F. Mahamat, R. Mugabe and G. MugabeNigerian Parents Plead with Officials to Speed Up Rescue of Abducted Girls

(GIN)  Parents of young teenage girls are pleading with Nigerian officials to speed up rescue efforts for their children kidnapped by Boko Haram.

We dont want these girls to stay long with those militants. Anything can happen to them, said Kachalla Bukar, father of a 14 year old girl, one of 110 abducted by Boko Haram from the Government Science and Technical College in northeastern Yobe state.

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Mr. Bukar says his wife cannot stop crying and he cannot sleep since their brilliant daughter Aisha disappeared.

But even as he begged for action, officials were still disputing the details of the kidnapping.

Initially, after the attack last Monday, the governors office claimed that 50 girls were unaccounted for.

They later released another statement to say the missing girls had been rescued by the Nigerian army, although they didnt specify the number rescued.

Soon, the state government did another about face, admitting that the girls had not actually been found or rescued.

Officials apologized in the retraction for the erroneous statement and said it was based on inaccurate information.

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Faced with apparent government inaction and contradictory statements about the whereabouts of their children, the girls parents have joined forces, tracking their own list of missing girls and forming an association.

Of the Dapchi students who survived, thirteen-year-old Hassanah Mohammed recounted the terrifying moment when gunmen wearing military uniforms burst into the school.

We were about to start evening prayers when we heard gunshots outside the school. Everybody was terrified and we rushed to the gates and frantically scrambled to jump over the fence. I, my younger sister and two classmates managed to jump over the fence, she said. I lost grip of my sisters hand in the confusion. I managed to return home with my two classmates but my sister has not been seen since then. I believe she was among the girls taken by the gunmen.

President Muhammadu Buhari has promised the families of the missing girls that theyll be found and their attackers brought to justice.

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.

In a similar incident, Boko Haram militants 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. w/pix of a relative of one of the missing Dapchi girlsCambodia is criticizing the United States government for deciding to cut the amount of aid it gives the country.

The Trump administration said in a statement Tuesday it was stopping or reducing aid programs worth $8.3 million. It said the cuts were being made because of recent setbacks in democracy in Cambodia.

The setbacks had caused U.S. officials deep concern, the statement said. The concern led the government to review its assistance to Cambodia to ensure that American taxpayer funds are not being used to support anti-democratic behavior.

The cuts relate to assistance programs provided by the Treasury Department, USAID and the U.S. armed forces.

In Phnom Penh, a government spokesman said Wednesday Cambodian officials were saddened and shocked over the disrespectful decision. The official defended his countrys record and promised Cambodia would maintain and continue democracy with energy.

The U.S. announcement came days after Cambodian Senate elections in which the ruling Cambodian Peoples Party (CPP) claimed victory in all 58 seats.

The vote was held after thousands of opposition lawmakers and local leaders were denied voting rights. Senate seats are elected by parliament members and local officials across Cambodia.

Rights groups and members of the opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party, or CNRP, called the vote a sham and undemocratic.

White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders told reporters the elections had failed to represent the genuine will of the Cambodian people.

Until last November, the CNRP was the only opposition party in parliament. Then, acting on a government request, Cambodias Supreme Court ordered the party dissolved. The high court also barred its members from holding office in the future.

Cambodia has been led for more than 30 years by Hun Sen, who currently serves as prime minister. Political observers say they think general elections planned for July will extend the rule of his Cambodian Peoples Party.

Kem Sokha, the leader of the CNRP, was arrested in September. He is accused of trying to overthrow the government with U.S. support. He remains jailed on treason charges. U.S. officials and rights groups have criticized the Cambodian government actions as part of a larger effort to crush political opposition and independent media.

In a report, Cambodias main media watchdog group said a facade of media freedom collapsed in the country in 2017.

The Cambodian Center for Independent Media spoke with more than 70 local journalists working in Cambodia. They came from both pro-government and more independent media organizations. The center says the study was carried out anonymously.

As one example, the report noted the closures of 32 radio stations that produced broadcasts often critical of the government. It said the government had also forced other often-critical media organizations to suspend operations because of tax investigations.

One of them is the Cambodia Daily newspaper, which was ordered closed over a disputed tax bill.

Radio Free Asia suspended its Cambodia operations last year, noting threats and a dispute over its tax situation. Radio Free Asia and VOA are each part of the U.S. government-supported Broadcasting Board of Governors.

Im Bryan Lynn.

Bryan Lynn wrote this story for VOA Learning English. His story was based on reports from VOANews.com, Radio Free Asia, the Associated Press and Reuters. George Grow was the editor.

We want to hear from you. Write to us in the Comments section, and visit our Facebook page.

________________________________________________________________

Words in This Story

setback  n. a problem that make progress difficult or success less likely

ensure  v. make sure something is done or happens

fund  n. an amount of money set aside for a special purpose

review  v. to examine or study

sham  n. something that is not what it appears to be and that is meant to trick or people

genuine  adj. real; not a copy or reproduced

dissolve  v. to officially end

facade  n. a way of behaving or appearing that gives other people a false idea of your true feelings or situation

journalist  n. someone who writes or reports a study for a media company

anonymously  adv. not named or identifiedNorway has announced it will spend 100 million Norwegian crowns, or $13 million, to make improvements to a special seed vault in the Arctic.

The Norwegian government built the Svalbard Global Seed Vault in 2008 to store seed samples of the worlds crops and plants. The vault serves as a natural deep freeze, and is meant to protect important genetic material in case of a major man-made or natural disaster.

It holds seed varieties of crops from around the world, including corn, rice and grains. The vault received its one-millionth seed sample on February 26, its 10th anniversary. It has the ability to hold about 2.5 billion seeds in total.

The vault is located on an island about 1,000 kilometers from the North Pole. The samples are buried deep below a mountain.

Svalbard was chosen as the site of the seed bank, in part, because of the areas permafrost  a thick layer of soil that stays frozen throughout the year. It makes for excellent underground cold storage.

But in late 2016, the permafrost began to unexpectedly melt. This caused water to flow into the entrance of the vault tunnel. Officials said the seeds were never in danger. However, the event raised concerns about the need to better protect the samples.

Norways Agriculture Ministry said improvements to the vault will include a new entry tunnel. They also include construction of a service building for emergency power and cooling units and electrical equipment that might send heat through the tunnel.

Jon Georg Dale is Norways minister of agriculture and food. He announced the plans. He said they will help the vault continue to be a secure storage area. It is a great and important task to safeguard all the genetic material that is crucial to global food security, he said.

The Svalbard vault acts as a backup to many of the worlds seed banks. In 2015, researchers took out seeds from the vault to help build seed collections in Lebanon and Morocco. Those sites were set up to protect materials from an important seed bank in Aleppo, Syria, which was damaged by violence from the countrys civil war.

The seeds were re-grown and returned to the Svalbard vault last year.

Dale said such efforts show that the seed vault is a worldwide insurance for food supply for future generations.

Im Pete Musto.

Pete Musto adapted this story for VOA Learning English using Reuters news reports and other materials. Ashley Thompson was the editor.

We want to hear from you. What other major plans do you think the worlds governments should make to prepare for huge disasters? Write to us in the Comments Section or on our Facebook page.

________________________________________________________________

Words in This Story

vault  n. a locked room where money or valuable things are kept

sample(s)  n. a small amount of something that gives you information about the thing it was taken from

varieties  n. particular kinds of people or things

underground  adj. located or occurring below the surface of the earth

tunnel  n. a passage that goes under the ground or through a hill

construction  n. the act or process of building something

unit(s)  n. a machine or part of a machine or system that has a particular use

safeguard  v. to make someone or something safe or secure

crucial  adj. extremely important

insurance  n. protection from bad things that may happen in the future

Students in Parkland, Florida returned to their high school on Wednesday, two weeks after a gunman killed 17 people there. A former Stoneman Douglas student, Nikolas Cruz, carried out the attack.

About 50 heavily armed police officers from several states surrounded Marjory Stoneman Douglas high school. The officers were there to make the community feel safe.

However, some students said they felt less secure seeing officers carrying AR-15s, the same rifle used in the attack February 14.

Student David Hogg said This is a picture of education in fear in this country. The NRA wants more people just like this, with that exact firearm to scare more people and sell more guns.

Hogg has become an activist in a nationwide student movement for gun law reform, including a ban on semi-automatic guns.

Preparing for the return

Grief counselors also are deployed at the school. Broward County school official Robert Runcie said the workers were called in to help students ease back into their school life.

Volunteers passed out cookies and other treats to students. Comfort animals including dogs, a donkey, and two horses are also available at the school.

Officials have barred the use of backpacks for now.

The school day schedule was changed for the first day. Students returned to the classes they were in when the attack began.

The building where most of the shooting happened remains closed.

Student Casey Sherman thinks the schedule change was a good idea to help kids, in her words, get it over with. The 17-year-old said she is not afraid to be returning, just worried.

We did go through a tragedy, she said. It was terrible but if you let it stop you ... its not how you go down, its how you get back up.

Sherman is among the student activists preparing to protest March 14 in a national school walkout to stop gun violence.

Some students remain severely injured from the shooting, both physically and psychologically.

Alexis Grogan is a 15-year-old in the 10th grade. She said it might be too soon to continue normal school life without her friends who were killed. But she said the activism of the Parkland students is helpful.

She added, I am so proud of how the kids at my school have been fighting because we all want change to happen and, as we see the progression, it really shows us that people do care and they do hear what we have to say.

Im Jonathan Evans.

The Associated Press reported this story. Phil Dierking adapted it for VOA Learning English. Caty Weaver was the editor.

______________________________________________________________

Words in This Story

grief counselor - n. a health professional that aims to help people cope with saddnes and mourning following the death of loved ones, or with major life changes that trigger feelings of saddness.

backpack - n. a bag for carrying things that has two shoulder straps and is carried on the back

comfort - n. a state or situation in which you are relaxed and do not have any physically unpleasant feelings caused by pain, heat, cold, etc.

cookie - n. a sweet baked food that is usually small, flat, and round and is made from flour and sugar

NRA - n. The National Rifle Association, or NRA, is an organization that is active in supporting the rights of U.S. citizens to own guns.

semi-automatic - adj. able to fire bullets one after the other quickly but not automaticallyAd Legacy Research New this week - 64 interested

Are you ready for Congress Wealth Transfer Act?

The mainstream media will NOT cover this story But luckily Teeka Tiwari is revealing all the details of this terrifying new bill thats working its way through Congress. Hell even give away the name and ticker of his #1 investment for this new trend.BASF SE operates as a chemical company worldwide. It operates through six segments: Chemicals, Materials, Industrial Solutions, Surface Technologies, Nutrition & Care, and Agricultural Solutions. The Chemicals segment provides petrochemicals and intermediates. The Materials segment offers advanced materials and their precursors for applications and systems, such as isocyanates and polyamides, as well as inorganic basic products and specialties for plastic and plastic processing industries. The Industrial Solutions segment develops and markets ingredients and additives for industrial applications, such as polymer dispersions, pigments, resins, electronic materials, antioxidants, light stabilizers, oilfield chemicals, mineral processing, and hydrometallurgical chemicals. The Surface Technologies segment offers chemical solutions and automotive OEM which include refinish coatings, surface treatment, catalysts, battery materials, and base metal services for the automotive and chemical industries. The Nutrition & Care segment provides nutrition and care ingredients for food and feed producers, as well as pharmaceutical, cosmetics, detergent, and cleaner industries. The Agricultural Solutions segment offers crop protection products and seeds, such as fungicides, herbicides, insecticides, and biological crop production products, as well as seed treatment products. The company has a strategic partnership with IntelliSense.io. BASF SE was founded in 1865 and is headquartered in Ludwigshafen am Rhein, Germany.

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.Legislative Assembly (AL) president Ho Iat Seng stressed yesterday during a meeting between journalists and lawmakers that the political system of Macau privileges the predominance of executive power, with a relationship of complementarity between this power and the legislative, whilst the judicial power enjoys its own autonomy. Consequently, Ho said that the AL has been operating in the context of predominance of the executive power.

During yesterdays event, the AL president also addressed the Sulu Sou case, although avoided any direct reference to the lawmaker. The AL president said that a recent case has been dealt with due respect for judicial autonomy and by the principle of non-interference in judicial bodies. Ho added that the Basic Law and the statute of lawmakers were respected during the process.

Talking with journalists on the sidelines of the meeting, Ho Iat Seng said that he mentioned the case because the speech cannot be the same every year and, as always, this year we must also talk about issues that are on the agenda.

Also attending the event, lawmaker Sulu Sou, who is currently suspended  a decision of the AL plenary he is appealing  commented on Hos speech saying that local courts could be called to check if AL procedures were made according to the law. I always disagree that the Legislative Assembly should be 100 percent independent, he told TDM.

Sou also said that the AL is not very successful when monitoring the government.The last emperor of China, Pu Yi, abdicated in 1912. He was the 12th emperor of the historically important Qing dynasty, which lasted 267 years. With his departure, two millenniums of empire, usually with a single individual dominating all of China, ended. Since then, the nation has moved toward an authoritarian system under Communist Party control, but has frequently changed leaders since the death in 1976 of Mao Zedong. Over recent decades, the party has observed a limit of two five-year terms  a system that has provided reasonable stability while also allowing some level of change. That era seems to be ending.

In an increasingly predicted maneuver, the Chinese Central Committee is likely to formally abolish the term limit on presidential power, creating the conditions for the incumbent, Xi Jinping, to remain in office indefinitely. Xi will also be bringing in his long-term associate Wang Qishan as vice president, further hampering younger officials from developing centers of political power. This has been foreshadowed for at least two years in a series of power moves by Xi, ranging from the harsh anti-corruption campaign (headed by the 69-year-

old Wang) that eliminated many rivals, to his appearing in military garb at official events, emphasizing his control of the Peoples Liberation Army.

While Xi had already established himself as the most powerful Chinese leader since Deng Xiaoping, this latest maneuver is still a radical change, presenting both opportunities and challenges for his nation.

In terms of opportunity, Xi has demonstrated that he is a competent, serious, balanced leader who has improved the economy, enhanced Chinas global reach, strengthened its already significant military capability, and reduced corruption  a significant set of achievements in the publics eyes. With his potential to rule China for another decade or longer, China will experience a steady hand on the tiller of public policy.

Xis popularity is already strong, and this move  at least in the short term  will enhance his already powerful public persona. Finally, the 64-year-old Xis presumed longevity will provide China a leader with a clear, boldly stated strategic goal for its expanding role on the global stage. He laid this out in a major speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, roughly a year ago.

But there will be challenges as well. No matter how competent and effective a leader he is, Xi will be faced with several knotty problems: a badly damaged environment; a superheated real-estate market; badly skewed gender demographics (far more men than women); geopolitical and international legal disputes over the South China Sea; and an aging population (as the saying goes, China will grow old before it grows rich). When growth begins to slow significantly, which it must over time, these irritants in the political and economic system will build up internal pressures and create political discontinuities, just as they always have in other authoritarian societies.

This presents the greatest risk for China. In the end, democracy, for all its flaws and shortcomings, is a safety valve for society when things become frustrating or go wrong  and something always goes wrong. Democracy allows the people to change leaders without bloodshed and anarchy. The Chinese people have been relatively content with their authoritarian system while hitting growth targets of 10 percent annually, building glittering new infrastructure, moving millions out of the countryside and into the urban settings, and lifting hundreds of millions of people out of poverty. But what will happen when internal pressures grow and there is no mechanism to change leaders?

From the U.S. perspective, Xis consolidation of power will make China an even more formidable competitor both within East Asia and globally. Countries in the neighborhood  most of which are U.S. allies, partners or friends  will see a single, powerful figure at the top of the Chinese leadership structure and be more inclined to enter into cooperative agreements with what they correctly view as a stable power. Globally, over the long term, authoritarian leaders also have advantages over the revolving door of real democracy. They gather decades of experience and can develop ambitious strategic plans that they will execute themselves.

Contrast this with the U.S. tendency to whipsaw in policy when we change administrations  look at Barack Obama and the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement, followed by Donald Trumps complete rejection of the treaty and tendency to blame China first for our economic problems. Washington will have to respond with an overarching strategy for dealing with China that transcends our individual administrations. This will be challenging but not impossible: The idea of containment against the Soviet Union (obviously not the right approach for China) in the Cold War, for example, was a consistent pillar of foreign policy for decades of presidents.

Perhaps most worrisome is the possibility that if Xi eventually comes under serious domestic pressure, he may be inclined to create external threats to maintain his own popularity. Authoritarian leaders like Hugo Chavez in Venezuela and Vladimir Putin in Russia have done so, painting the U.S. as a nefarious enemy.

A hypernationalist turn in Beijing could lead to confrontation between the U.S. and China, and a path toward the so-called Thucydides Trap, in which a rising power confronts an existing power  a dynamic that has led so often to war over the past 2,400 years. It will take diplomacy, economic cooperation and leadership on both sides to avoid this.

One of the most iconic novels in the long history of China was written in the mid-18th century: The Dream of the Red Chamber by Cao Xueqin. It is a huge, sprawling depiction of Chinese society under the Qing dynasty, when rival families fought for power in a complex hierarchy under a powerful emperor, with a vastly changing international environment as backdrop. The lesson is that influence rooted in friendship with the emperor (who is never actually named in this dreamy novel) is fragile and uncertain. Much as in the Red Chamber, leaders in China will have to maneuver in a deeply complex internal world, even as China emerges as a fully formed leading actor in the global scene. This will challenge Western democracies at every level. Let us hope we are ready. James Stavridis, BloombergLAS VEGAS  A woman told police she had a child with casino mogul Steve Wynn after he raped her, while another reported she was forced to resign from a Las Vegas job after she refused to have sex with him.

The Associated Press today [Wednesday, Macau time] obtained copies of police reports recently filed by the two women about allegations dating to the 1970s. Police in Las Vegas revealed earlier this month that they had taken the statements after a news report in January revealed sexual misconduct allegations against the billionaire.

One police report obtained by the AP shows a woman told officers that Wynn raped her at least three times around 1973 and 1974 at her Chicago apartment. She reported she got pregnant and gave birth to a girl in a gas station restroom.

In one instance, the woman claimed that Wynn pinned her against the refrigerator and raped her. She said he then made a phone call, kissed her on the cheek and left. The report does not explain how Wynn is alleged to have entered the apartment or if they knew each other. The woman claimed she did not give him a key.

The second police report shows a woman told police she had consensual sex with Wynn several times while she worked as a dealer at the downtown Las Vegas casino-hotel Golden Nugget, but felt coerced to perform the acts. She reported she was forced to resign when she turned him down.

In the Summer of 1976, Wynn approached her in the back hall and wanted her to go with him, according to the report filed Jan. 29. (S)he told him, no, she was done and had someone she was seeing. She was soon after accused of stealing $40.00 and forced to resign.

The womens names are redacted on the reports, and police said they do not identify people who say they are victims of sex crimes.

Wynn resigned as chairman and CEO of Wynn Resorts on Feb. 6, less than two weeks after the Wall Street Journal reported that a number of women said he harassed or assaulted them and that one case led to a USD7.5 million settlement. The casino magnate denied the allegations.

MDT/APFormer lawmaker Melinda Chans hotel construction plan changed in order to address societys concerns, according to a report by TDM. Chan, who is the president of the Fishermans Wharf, International Investment Ltd. had originally planned to build a 90-meter-tall hotel near the Fishermans Wharf. To ease societys uneasiness, Chan said that the height will be shortened to 60 meters. It is unnecessary to make part of the people feel uncomfortable, said Chan. The former lawmaker hopes that her company will be able to apply for permission from the government soon.

Environmental evaluation of vehicle detention center expected in Q2

A public tender for the environmental evaluation of the Public Security Police Force (PSP)s new vehicle detention center opened yesterday. The awarded company will be in charge of the centers air, noise and ecological evaluation. The 10 bids that were received by the Land, Public Works and Transport Bureau (DSSOPT). were from companies based in mainland China, Hong Kong and Macau. The maximum service length is 220 days. The evaluation is expected to start in the second quarter of this year. The center occupies an area of approximately 6,000 square meters.

Court rejects STDMs appeal over land plot

The Court of Second Instance (TSI) rejected the appeal of the Sociedade de Turismo de Divisoes de Macau, S.A. (STDM), regarding the concession of a land plot located in the landfill zone of the outer harbor of Macau. On November 8 of 2016, the Macau government issued a Chief Executive order declaring the end of that lands lease. The company appealed to the TSI, alleging that the CEs order contained flaws, including breaching the principles of impartiality and the lack of a prior hearing before the announcement.The Macau Jockey Club (MJC) was yesterday granted a 24-year concession in a surprise move that appears to have caught off-guard the companys own director.

The government yesterday revealed that the MJC will be permitted to continue its exclusive operation of horse racing until August 31, 2042, but with strings attached.

Under a plan presented to the government, the company is to invest between MOP1.5 billion and MOP2 billion for the improvement of the sites facilities and for the development of non-gambling activities. Lawmaker and a director of SJM Holdings, Angela Leong, said yesterday that the companys diversification plans may include a riding school for children as well as a shopping center.

The details of the plan are expected to be revealed today in the governments Official Gazette.

The government said that should the company fail to adequately invest in the facility, its concession would be suspended.

The new concessions 24-year lifespan took many by surprise, including  possibly  the director of the Macau Horse Racing Company, Thomas Li, who told Ponto Final on the weekend about his confidence that a new concession would last over two years.

The agreement announced yesterday, around 12 times longer than that estimated by Li, was justified in a statement from Secretary for Economy and Finance Lionel Leong, who said that the concession would help to develop Macau as a world center of tourism and leisure.

Everyone knows that there have always been losses in the past. We hope that with this large investment the company can reverse its financial situation and, more importantly, contribute to the Macau SAR Government with more non-gambling elements, Lionel Leong said yesterday, according to Radio Macau.

The secretary refused to take questions from journalists on the matter.

The Macau Horse Racing Company has posted annual losses since 2004, accumulating a deficit exceeding MOP4 billion and debts amounting to MOP1.3 billion.

For this reason, economist and animal rights activist Albano Martins is doubtful that a MOP1.5 billion injection can be put to good use.

It doesnt make sense to invest MOP1.5 billion in a company that is [essentially] bankrupt, he told the Times yesterday. The company will need to pay off its debt with some of that money and after that, what remains [of it]?

Moreover, Leong is also insisting that the company work to pay its outstanding tax obligation to the government sooner than previously thought. This will represent a further drain on the MOP2 billion injection.

Asked about the possible intentions behind the 24-year concession, Martins speculated that the concession is for [MJC] to redevelop the land  I can only assume  for real estate purposes.

[But] the decision to grant the concession was, in political terms, a very unwise decision, he added. This is land that could be used for housing or schools. Nobody gives that sort of concession for a company that is broke. It is very strange. In terms of [socio-economic] cost-benefit, this decision is a disaster.

Martins thinks that the official terms of the concession, which according to Macau law must be published today in the Official Gazette, will outline the proportion of the Jockey Club site that can be utilized for non-horse-racing activities, such as real estate.

The silver lining for Martins is that he believes that the new deal with mark the final days of the companys horse-racing activities.

[Soon] they will not have any animals there, so I am very happy that this business is finishing. My only point [of concern] now is that of an economist.A Flag Day ceremony in Mexico has gone awry, with troops flying the countrys red, white and green tri-color upside down.

Local media show images of the giant flag fluttering over Mexico Citys Campo Marte parade ground last Saturday with its iconic eagle inverted.

President Enrique Pena Nieto acknowledged the gaffe, but he added that, Upside down or right side up, backward or forward, the flag is a symbol that gives us a sense of identity, of belonging, of pride in being Mexicans.

In some countries flying a flag upside down can be considered a desecration, a distress signal or a form of protest. Some Mexicans took to social media to mock it as emblematic of Pena Nietos unpopular government.Human Rights Watch says it has found new evidence that authorities in one of Chinas most repressive regions are sweeping up citizens personal information in a stark example of how big-data technology can be used to police a population  and potentially abused.

The rights group used publicly available government procurement documents, media reports and interviews to assemble details of the policing program called the Integrated Joint Operations Platform in Xinjiang, a sprawling area in northwest China that security officials say harbors separatist and religious extremist elements.

Unidentified sources inside Xinjiang described to Human Rights Watch the computer and mobile app interfaces of the IJOP software that tracks almost all citizens of the Turkic-speaking Muslim Uighur ethnic minority and stores detailed information including their travel history, prayer habits, the number of books in their possession, banking and health records.

Procurement notices show that the IJOP also deploys license plate tracking and facial- recognition cameras to follow people in real time and provide predictive warnings about impending crime, Human Rights Watch said.

Although surveillance is pervasive in many countries, including the United States, and has the potential for abuse, the technology is being deployed far more broadly in Xinjiang, said Maya Wang, senior China researcher at Human Rights Watch and the reports author.

In China the programs are very explicitly focused on people who are politically threatening or an entire Uighur ethnic group, Wang said.

An official in the press office of Xinjiang police headquarters this week confirmed APs questions had been received but said leaders were out and he had no idea when or if there would be a reply. The official, like many Chinese bureaucrats, declined to give his name because he wasnt authorized to speak to reporters.

Chinas 10 million Uighurs already face a raft of restrictions not imposed on people of the Han ethnicity, who are the overwhelming majority in China. Uighurs face multiple hurdles in procuring passports and those who have them are required to leave them with the police. Hotels are required to register their presence with the local authorities and frequently turn them away to avoid the hassle. Frequent road blocks and checkpoints across the vast Xinjiang region enable authorities to stop people and check their mobile phones for content that might be deemed suspicious.

Such pressure was ratcheted up following a series of deadly attacks blamed on Uighur extremists seeking independence from Chinese rule.

A 2017 investigation by The Associated Press showed that thousands of Uighurs in Xinjiang, and possibly many more, have been sent to an extrajudicial network of political indoctrination centers for months at a time for reasons including studying abroad and communicating with relatives abroad.

The AP also found evidence in government documents and procurement contracts of the Xinjiang government compiling biometric and personal data and systematically rating its Uighur citizens political reliability.

The Human Rights Watch report reveals for the first time that the disparate data collection efforts appear to be unified under one central digital database that calculates citizens political risk. APArual Longar was 9 years old when she decided to become a beauty queen. Growing up in refugee camps, the South Sudanese native watched her aunt compete on the world stage and dreamed of doing the same.

Today, the soft-spoken winner of last years Miss World South Sudan says shes harnessing her powers to preach love and unity in her conflict-torn country.

South Sudan is a place of war, the 25-year-old said. But it cant stop us from achieving things.

Amid the ethnic violence, famine and mass displacement in five years of civil war, a Miss World pageant carries on in one of the worlds most devastated countries.

Held in Freedom Hall, the main event venue for the elite of the capital, Juba, the pageant bears the signatures of any beauty contest worldwide. The young women compete on stage in front of hundreds of people and are judged on appearance and performance as well as intellect.

The Miss World qualifying pageant launched in 2011, the year South Sudan gained independence from Sudan. What began with 20 applicants from around the country and the diaspora has now grown to about 60. The global organization funds the local pageant; South Sudans government, while supportive, says it doesnt contribute money.

The first round of auditions for this years event will begin in the coming weeks, with the winner to be announced in August. The new Miss South Sudan will compete for the global title of Miss World.

This is a positive thing for women, said Shelina Doro, a womens protection officer with the United Nations. Even though beauty pageants can be up for interpretation, she said that at the moment in South Sudan this is what we have.

Women and girls have been targets for horrific physical and sexual violence amid the civil war that began in late 2013, enduring the threat of rape as they go about the daily basics of gathering water and firewood to survive. For the vast majority of people in the deeply impoverished East African country, the annual beauty pageants are unknown or simply a dream.

But the organizers are determined to deliver on the theme beauty with a purpose. Each years Miss World pageant requires contestants to pick a cause that supports communities.

Whatever it is they want to do, we help them push it out, Eva Lopa, one of the longtime judges, told The Associated Press. She said many of the young women choose issues close to home such as HIV/AIDS or campaigns to help the elderly who have suffered from years of conflict.

Since winning the Miss South Sudan title four years ago, 25-year-old Modong Manuela said shes been given an unprecedented platform to travel the country advocating for girls education.

Ive been able to give back to my community, Manuela said. Every time I talk, girls say: OK, its possible to access things to study and become an important, empowered person.

After winning the pageant, Manuela created her own line of reusable sanitary napkins that allow girls to attend school while theyre menstruating, a challenge for many young women across Africa.

However, other womens advocates cautioned against the idea that women must be paraded and judged on their beauty before they are heard.

It continues to perpetuate stereotypes of women, providing unrealistic expectations to young women and girls that looks are the most important when they could be focusing on other things that show the whole range of skills and capacities that they have, said Funmi Balogun, a womens rights activist working with U.N. Women in South Sudan.

But organizers said not only has the pageant been successful in drawing attention to the plight of girls in the country, making it more socially acceptable for women to work hard and have brains, it also has had a significant impact globally.

It really helps our country in terms of how were perceived outside, said Clara Benjamin, a former supermodel involved with the pageant. They think were just a war-torn country and were always fighting and then they see our girls and are like: Youre from South Sudan?

The beauty pageant encourages the countrys women to be proud of their looks, Benjamin said.

Its the epitome of being comfortable in your own skin, she said. Weve been taught to be beautiful and black and proud and gorgeous.

Pageant organizers are now considering applying for Miss Universe, once owned by President Donald Trump. Despite Trumps reported vulgar comments about African nations, Benjamin said she thinks he would be a big supporter of South Sudans participation: I think itll be great for his public relations. Sam Mednick, Juba, APThe bill would overturn a ban due to come into force on May 1

Austrian government MPs presented a bill on Wednesday which would continue to allow smoking in bars and restaurants, despite a huge groundswell of opposition.

The bill, which would overturn a ban due to come into force on May 1, was branded a "huge step backwards for public health" by the opposition.

The far-right Freedom Party (FPOe) insisted on the ban being dropped as a condition of entering government with the centre-right People's Party (OeVP) of Chancellor Sebastian Kurz after elections last year.

A petition to keep the planned ban launched by Austria's medical association has now been signed by 420,000 peoplealmost five percent of Austria's population.

The opposition Social Democrat Party (SPOe) has asked health minister Beate Hartinger-Klein to explain how the bill is compatible with Austria's commitments to the World Health Organization.

Several prominent figures within Kurz's own party, including former leader Reinhold Mitterlehner, have expressed their opposition to the ban being repealed. The OeVP supported the ban under the last government.

But Kurz, despite being a non-smoker and having supported the law under the previous government, says he is bound by his coalition agreement with the FPOe.

FPOe leader Heinz-Christian Strache has defended his opposition to the ban, saying it infringes on "freedom of choice" and saying the new plan would protect "smokers, non-smokers and restaurant owners", whose businesses he says would be hit by a ban.

Under current law smokers in bars and restaurants have to be seated in a separate areaalthough this is not always rigidly implemented.

But no separate area is necessary in establishments smaller than 50 square metres (540 square feet) if the owner is happy to allow smoking on the premises.

Some 13,000 people die of tobacco-related causes in Austria each year. The country has the third-highest proportion of smokers in the EU (30 percent of those over 15), according to Eurostat.

Explore further Austria set to stub out smoking ban

 2018 AFPIt's not only the number of migrating cancer cells that determines the risk for metastasis, but also their characteristics, scientists from the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) report in Nature Communications. For circulating cancer cells to invade tissues and settle at other sites in the body, they have to exhibit a specific polarity. This discovery might contribute to better predicting individual risk for metastasis and find appropriate therapies that can reduce it.

Metastatic tumors form when cancer cells break away from a tumor and migrate via the lymph system and the bloodstream to distant sites in the body. However, the quantity of circulating cancer cells in the body is not the only factor that determines a patient's risk of developing metastatic sites. "Some patients display high quantities of circulating tumor cells and have no or only a few metastatic sites, while in others who suffer from many metastases, hardly any migrating tumor cells can be found," said Mathias Heikenwalder from the German Cancer Research Center (Deutsches Krebsforschungszentrum, DKFZ) in Heidelberg.

The team led by Heikenwalder has therefore taken a closer look at the properties of migrating cancer cells. In human cancer cells as well as in patients with different types of cancer, and also in mice, they observed that a portion of the circulating cancer cells exhibit a specific polarity. "Under the microscope, this looks as if the cells had a kind of nose," Heikenwalder described. Two cytoskeletal proteins called ezrin and merlin play a key role in the formation of this structure. Furthermore, the scientists also found that the number of freely circulating tumor cells exhibiting this special polarity correlates with the risk of developing metastasis, both in human tumor cell lines and in mice.

"This polarity seems to help the free cancer cells return from the blood vessels into body tissue," explains Anna Lorentzen, who is the first author of the publication. With the polarized end, i.e., the "nose," the cells attach to the endothelial layer lining the interior of the vessels. Subsequently, the pole is shifted to the side facing the attachment site and the tumor cell migrates through the endothelial layer into the tissue.

As a cross-check, the researchers used a cell-biological trick to block polarization of the circulating cells. Both in culture and in mice, the manipulated cells were no longer able to attach efficiently to endothelial cells. With this discovery, the DKFZ researchers have not only found a new mechanism promoting the formation of metastatic sites"we have also found a link that might in future be used to better predict and even reduce the risk for metastasis in cancer patients," Heikenwalder said.

Explore further Researchers use a molecular Trojan horse to deliver chemotherapeutic drug to cancer cells

More information: Anna Lorentzen et al, Single cell polarity in liquid phase facilitates tumour metastasis, Nature Communications (2018). Journal information: Nature Communications Anna Lorentzen et al, Single cell polarity in liquid phase facilitates tumour metastasis,(2018). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-018-03139-6Credit: nhungboon/Shutterstock

Fully 94% of the cannabis seized by British police in 2016 was high-potency cannabis known as "skunk", our latest research reveals. By comparison, skunk comprised 85% of cannabis seized in 2008, and just 51% in 2005. This should be cause for alarm as previous research has shown that using skunk increases a person's risk of developing psychosis, roughly threefold, compared with those who never use cannabis. Cannabis potency is also linked to rising rates of treatment for cannabis-related problems. Cannabis now accounts for around 50% of all first-time admissions to specialist drug treatment centres.

There are broadly three preparations of cannabis. The first is skunk, which is made from the unpollinated flowers of the female plant and contains high levels of the active ingredient tetrahydrocannabinol (THC). The second is traditional herbal cannabis, which is made from the flowers and leaves of the female cannabis plant. It has less THC than skunk and also contains cannabidiol (CBD), which is known to lessen the risk of psychosis caused by TCH. The third form is hashish, which is the made from cannabis resin. As with herbal cannabis, hashish has less THC than skunk and it does contain some CBD.

Since the 2008 survey of cannabis seized by the police, we have been in the dark about changes to the types of cannabis and their potency available across England. To address this issue, we set out to quantify the relative proportions of skunk, traditional herbal cannabis and hashish being used at the time of police arrest in 2015 and 2016 in London, Sussex, Kent, Derbyshire and Merseyside.

Although skunk now clearly dominates the market, the potency has remained about the same since 2005, with average concentration of THC at 14% and no detectable traces of CBD.

An important change, however, is the sharp reduction in availability of weaker cannabis resin (hashish): from 43% in 2005, to 14% in 2008, and then just 6% in 2016 (and only 1% in London). The average concentration of THC in resin has also increased from 4% to 6%. We also found a reduction in CBD content in cannabis resin since 2005-2008 with a consequent change in the ratio of THC to CBD  no longer the benign 1:1, but now 3:1.

A sample of the cannabis seized by British police in 2016. Credit: David Potter

The disappearance of choice

The disappearance of a type of cannabis rich in CBD, which is almost entirely absent from skunk, poses a significant hazard to users' mental health, and reduces their option to choose more benign forms of the drug.

A recent study even suggested that CBD might help to improve symptoms in patients suffering from a psychosis. This is in contrast with the research showing that daily use of cannabis that is high in THC and lacking in CBD, such as skunk, increases the risk of developing psychotic disorders fivefold.

Our study emphasises the importance of developing public education campaigns on the different types of street cannabis and their potential hazards. Public education is our most powerful tool in primary prevention, as tobacco-harm awareness campaigns have proven.

Explore further Study adds to evidence that high strength cannabis is associated with an increased risk of becoming dependent

This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.Credit: University of Plymouth

Organisations cannot exploit strategic opportunities or protect themselves from potential losses or failures, without a clear steer from the top on appropriate risk taking, according to a new report led by the University of Plymouth for the ACCA (Association of Chartered Certified Accountants).

Company boards are closely connected to effective risk management, and risk assessment, reporting and control help to enhance a board's governance and control policies, keeping organisations aligned with their objectives.

ACCA's report highlights the key challenges boards face when performing their roles, but also shines a light on current good practices across both smaller and larger organisations.

Jo Iwasaki, ACCA's head of corporate governance, says:

"It is so important for the research to shed light on the existing practices. It helps us find out how effective existing measures are in raising the awareness and quality of board engagement in risk management. We can then highlight emerging good practice to promote improvement at every level. This helps us have informed conversations with people in practice, but also those who are in the position to set the framework for good risk management."

The research was commissioned in association with academics from the the University of Plymouth, University of Nottingham and Glasgow Caledonian University.

The lead researcher of the report, Dr. Simon Ashby, Associate Professor of Financial Services in the Plymouth Business School at the University of Plymouth, says:

"Time pressured boards operating in complex and dynamic environments can find it hard to place risk in a positive context. But those who do make connections between their organisation's strategy and risk management decisions can reap significant rewards. With risk comes opportunity, providing boards weigh up the risks and returns associated with different strategic options, We learned that risk management can enhance organisational value, as well as preserve it.

"In addition to improving professional practice we hope that policy makers will take note of our report. Corporate governance regulation, such as the UK Corporate Governance Code are a major influence on board level risk management practices, we learned that mostly this influence is positive, but there can be unintended consequences. In particular policy makers need to recognise the difference between separation and segregation. Boards, and especially non-executives, need to maintain a degree of independence, but that does not mean they should be kept apart from the people within the organisation. Boards should understand and steer the culture of an organisation so that it promotes an appropriate balance between risk and control."

Dr. Cormac Bryce from Nottingham University Business School, says:

"The presence of risk diversity on a board, those skills, knowledge, expertise, education and training around risk that ensure a board remains risk intelligent is crucial to effective strategic decision making within the boardroom."

Patrick Ring, senior lecturer at Glasgow Caledonian University, says:

"This report highlights the importance of the relationship between the business strategy and risk appetite of an organisation. If a board is to take advantage of business opportunities, it must also have the range of expertise and skills to enable it to identify and manage the key risks that are likely to arise. This report should enable both executives and non-executives on boards to reflect on the risk governance and how best to integrate risk into their decision-making."

Explore further Get on board tech train or risk running out of steamCredit: Springer

Understanding how the blood flow within this part of the heart affects the way it works could help prevent cardiac problems. In a new study in the European Physical Journal E (EPJ E), published by Springer, EDP Sciences and Societa Italiana di Fisica (SIF), Valentina Meschini from the Gran Sasso Science Institute, L'Aquila, Italy and colleagues introduce a model that examines the mutual interaction of the blood flow with the individual components of the heart. Their work stands out by offering a more holistic and accurate picture of the dynamics of blow flow in the left ventricle. The authors also perform some experimental validations of their model.

The left side of the heart is the part that is most vulnerable to cardiac problems. Particularly the left ventricle, which has to withstand intense pressure differences, is under the greatest strain. As a result, people often suffer from valve failure or impairment of the muscle tissue known as myocardium.

In this 3-D numerical simulation study, the authors develop a mathematical model taking into account the fact that parts of the left side of the heart, including the left ventricle, the mitral valve and the heart strings, are coupled in a twofold manner with the blood flowing through the heart. The mitral valve has two flaps and lies between the left atrium and the left ventricle, while the heart strings are cord-like tendons that connect the heart muscles to the heart valves.

Until now, most cardiac models have considered separate components of the heart, either the ventricle or the mitral valve. But they have never approached the whole combination as a synergistic system. Another key shortcoming of previous models was their failure to take into account either the interaction between the blood and the heart structure, which can lead to deformation of the heart, or the structure of the heart chambers under the load of the passing blood flow.

"The inclusion of a chorded mitral valve in an already complex system like the left ventricle is a challenging step forward to an uncompromised computational model of the heart," says Meschini.

The authors conclude that the effects of the heart strings on the mitral valve are more complex than initially assumed. They also reveal the importance of the effects of blood dynamics and a different type of ventricle deformation caused by the pulling action of the heart strings on the myocardium.

"The next step in this work would be to replace the imposed flow-rate with an active contraction/relaxation of the ventricle. This could be achieved by coupling the fluid-structure interaction model with an electrophysiology model able to provide the propagation of the electrical stimulus through the whole ventricle. This additional feature will make the computational model much more realistic and reliable," says Meschini.

Meschini explains that the final goal is to simulate the whole heart, so that the right ventricle and the two atriums in the system work synergistically.

"We believe that coupling this with the electrophysiology model is key, and would give us a reliable tool which can be used for virtual checks, to test new medicine or different intervention measures and avoid in vivo experiments with animals or real patients," she says.

Explore further New design for mechanical heart valves

More information: Valentina Meschini et al. Effects of mitral chordae tendineae on the flow in the left heart ventricle, The European Physical Journal E (2018). Journal information: European Physical Journal E Valentina Meschini et al. Effects of mitral chordae tendineae on the flow in the left heart ventricle,(2018). DOI: 10.1140/epje/i2018-11634-7Childhood cancer is highly curable and, through collaboration, effective treatment is possible even in a crisis, according to an analysis from St. Jude Children's Research Hospital and the Children's Cancer Center of Lebanon (CCCL) at the American University of Beirut Medical Center. The report appears online today in the journal Cancer.

The study focused on how St. Jude and the American University of Beirut Medical Center, which have been working together since 2002 to improve pediatric cancer care in Lebanon, responded to the refugee crisis triggered by the war in Syria. Since the war began in March 2011, almost 600 non-Lebanese children have received cancer-related evaluations, treatment, consultations or referrals at the Beirut medical center or through its national health-care provider networks.

The lessons learned from that experience offer a blueprint other countries can use to improve treatment of chronic conditions like cancer during national or regional emergencies, researchers said. The successful effort in Lebanon prompted St. Jude and the American Lebanese Syrian Associated Charities (ALSAC), its fundraising and awareness organization, to launch a similar collaboration in Jordan. Jordan is second only to Lebanon in its per capita population of refugees.

St. Jude researchers and ALSAC are also at work on forming a regional network to develop and implement broad, sustainable solutions for treatment of displaced children with cancer throughout the Middle East. Representatives are reaching out to key public and private stakeholders in the region, including health care workers, social scientists, advocacy groups and international agencies, to work together and maximize the impact of ongoing efforts.

"Our experience demonstrates that effective treatment of pediatric cancer is possible even in crisis situations," said Sima Jeha, M.D., a member of the St. Jude Departments of Oncology and Global Pediatric Medicine. "As the war in Syria continued, we were able to treat more, not fewer refugees. We showed that children can be saved who otherwise would have died because they happened to have cancer at a time when their family was displaced by war.

"We showed that refugees are not at an increased risk of dying from complications of cancer treatment. They do not abandon treatment or follow-up care."

More than 1.5 million refugees have poured into Lebanon since the war in Syria began in 2011. Lebanon now has the highest per capita number of refugees of any country in the world. Officials estimate that refugees make up more than 25 percent of Lebanon's population and account for at least 90 cases of pediatric cancer each year.

Between January 2011 and May 2017, 575 non-Lebanese children with suspected cancer were evaluated at the Beirut hospital. Of those, 311 received complete or partial treatment covered by the CCCL and its partner networks. The remaining 264 patients received medical consultations, including treatment and referral recommendations.

Treatment outcomes

A majority (58 percent) of the 275 treated patients have completed treatment and were in remission at the last follow-up. The group included 62 patients who had been in remission for more than two years since completing treatment. Twenty percent of patients were still in treatment.

Thirty-five patients (13 percent) had relapsed or experienced cancer progression. Three patients (1 percent) had died of treatment-related infections. Five patients could not be located and were lost to follow up. Seventeen patients had left Lebanon to return home or relocate to another country. Those patients were believed to be continuing treatment.

Strategic collaborations

Just as ALSAC was established as a nonprofit organization to support the mission of St. Jude, the Children's Cancer Center of Lebanon was created to support pediatric cancer treatment at the American University of Beirut Medical Center. In response to the refugee crisis, ALSAC has provided dedicated resources, shared insights and discussed best practices to support the American University of Beirut Medical Center efforts to care for displaced children with cancer. The medical center and the CCCL provided additional support, including staff, medical infrastructure, funds and advocacy.

The Children's Cancer Center at the American University of Beirut Medical Center is the leading pediatric cancer hospital in Lebanon. The medical center treats about 30 percent of Lebanese pediatric cancer patients. The foundation covers all unreimbursed treatment costs for an average of 70 Lebanese children treated at the medical center each year. The foundation also provides partial coverage, including specialty medical services, for an additional 30 to 90 Lebanese pediatric cancer patients annually.

Lessons learned

Researchers offered the following recommendations:

Establish professional networks to encourage collaboration and expand medical services networks nationally and regionally before a crisis occurs.

In Lebanon, the pediatric cancer provider networks were in the works before the war in Syria started. "Having these national networks in place was crucial. Health care providers and hospitals had experience working together and could be mobilized to respond to the crisis," said first author Raya Saab, M.D., of the Children's Cancer Institute at the American University of Beirut Medical Center.

Revisit priorities as conditions and resources change.

Initially, refugee children were eligible for treatment if their cancers were newly diagnosed, if they had not received prior treatment and if funds were available. As the crisis continued, eligibility changed and was limited to patients whose cancer was considered curable. In an effort to treat more patients, coverage ended for bone marrow transplantation, which is an expensive treatment.

Continue to mobilize regional and international advocates to develop and support coordinated approaches for treatment of displaced children with cancer.

"The global humanitarian response to the Syrian crisis has focused mostly on meeting basic needs," Jeha said. "Funding for non-communicable diseases like cancer has been largely nonexistent. Our experience demonstrates what is possible."

Explore further Serious health risks from Lebanon waste burning: reportScanning electron micrograph of a human T lymphocyte (also called a T cell) from the immune system of a healthy donor. Credit: NIAID

An international team of researchers has genetically engineered cancer-killing immune cells that can hunt brain tumors displaying a new molecular target that is highly prevalent on brain cancer cells. Based on the findings from their early, preclinical studies, the researchers believe their approach holds promise for a new immunotherapy treatment for glioblastoma, which is the most lethal primary brain tumor.

In the journal Science Translational Medicine, researchers from the University of North Carolina Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center, in collaboration with the Fondazione Istituto di Ricerca e Cura a Carattere Scientifico in Milan, Italy, report they modified immune cells to hunt brain tumors displaying a new molecular target called CSPG4, which they determined is highly prevalent on brain cancer cells. Their preclinical studies of immune cells engineered to recognize CSPG4 showed promise for controlling tumor growth in mouse and cell models for glioblastoma.

New treatments are sorely needed for the disease, as conventional treatments, which can include surgery, radiation and chemotherapy, typically produce a survival benefit of less than a year and a half. Only about one-third of patients with brain and other nervous system cancers live five years.

"Glioblastoma is a tumor of the brain that has a very low chance of being cured with current available therapies," said UNC Lineberger's Gianpietro Dotti, MD, a professor in the UNC School of Medicine Department of Microbiology and Immunology and the senior author of the study. "This is a potential new way to treat these tumors using the immune system."

The study is part of a research program launched at UNC Lineberger to develop personalized immune-based treatments called chimeric antigen receptor T cell, or CAR-T, therapies. This approach involves removing a patient's immune cells and genetically engineering them to recognize and attack cancer. Other centers have launched CAR-T clinical trials for glioblastoma, but the UNC Lineberger team designed immune cells that hunt CSPG4, a different target on the surface of glioblastoma cells that they believe could be more potent than other targets.

"We know that the CAR-T cells can work in glioblastoma; we have evidence from clinical studies from other people," Dotti said. "The problem is the target antigens used in trials have been suboptimal. We identified a target that is highly expressed in glioblastoma."

Dotti and his colleagues report they were able to genetically engineer immune cells called T-cells to attack glioblastoma cells displaying CSPG4. Since CSPG4 was highly expressed in 67 percent of their brain cancer samples, they believe this could be a more effective approach to CAR-T cell therapy for a significant number of patients with glioblastoma.

"The critical point is the antigen needs to be expressed in a high proportion of tumor cells, and not in normal cells of the brain," Dotti said. "We found that the CSPG4 antigen is strongly expressed in 67 percent of the tumors that we analyzed. We also found that this target is also expressed in what we call cancer-initiating cells, which are the stem cells of the tumor. We know it's very important to target these cells as well because they are probably the cause of tumor recurrence. If you don't target them, they will come back."

Other investigational therapies have genetically engineered immune cells that recognize different targets, such as epidermal growth factor receptor variant III (EGFR III), IL-13Ra2 and HER2. Researchers reported that one issue with other approaches has been tumor "heterogeneity" - in which glioblastoma cells do not all express the target, allowing some cancer cells to evade detection by the T-cells.

"Our hypothesis is that targeting CSPG4 would overcome some of this heterogeneity," Dotti said.

UNC Lineberger researchers found that T-cells genetically engineered to target CSPG4 controlled the growth of tumor cells in multiple models of the disease. In cell cultures, the engineered T-cells efficiently eliminated glioblastoma cells displaying CSPG4, while the cancer continued to grow in the presence of regular T-cells. The engineered T-cells also prolonged survival and controlled tumor growth in glioblastoma models in mice.

"This approach was very potent in vitro and in murine studies," Dotti said. "While it didn't cure all of the tumors, we think it is very promising as a single agent, and also could be studied in combination with other investigational approaches."

In addition, they discovered a mechanism to potentially increase the potency of the investigational therapy by upregulating the expression of the CSPG4 target on tumor cells. In mouse studies, high levels of a molecular signal called TNF-alpha was linked to increased expression of CSPG4. Researchers believe exploiting the TNF-alpha pathway could make CAR-T cell treatments that target CSPG4 more effective.

Dotti noted that they did see an immunosuppressive response by brain cancer cells that could limit response of CAR-T cells to glioblastoma - a problem that researchers hope to tackle in future studies.

Overall, the researchers said the early studies showed promise for CAR-T cell treatments that target CSPG4. UNC Lineberger researchers have already launched clinical trials for CAR-T cell-based therapies in patients with blood cancers, but Dotti said they are planning to try to investigate this approach for solid tumors as well.

"It is our intention to extend this therapeutic approach to solid tumors, and glioblastoma is one of the tumors that we are planning to treat in the near future," Dotti said.

Dotti, along with Barbara Savoldo, MD, PhD, assistant director of the UNC Lineberger Immunotherapy Program and professor in the UNC School of Medicine, and Jonathan Serody, MD, UNC Lineberger's associate director of translational research and Elizabeth Thomas Professor in the UNC School of Medicine, plan to launch clinical trials for glioblastoma in partnership with UNC Lineberger's Matthew Ewend, MD, Van L. Weatherspoon Jr. Eminent Distinguished Professor and chair of the UNC School of Medicine Department of Neurosurgery, and UNC Lineberger's Simon Khagi, MD, director of UNC Lineberger's brain tumor program and assistant professor in the UNC School of Medicine Division of Hematology/Oncology and Department of Neurosurgery.

As envisioned, the trial would focus on patients with advanced disease that has recurred and requires additional surgery. To further ensure the safety of patients participating to the future study, researchers plan to incorporate a so-called "safety switch" into the therapy that would allow for the rapid elimination of the T cells in case toxic effects are observed.

"We are working on a potential new way to try to treat this aggressive tumor," Dotti said. "The experiments in vitro and in vivo were promising, but we need to see what happens in patients."

Explore further Identification of PTPRZ as a drug target for cancer stem cells in glioblastoma

More information: On Target: Directing CAR T Cells to Aggressive Brain Cancers, Science Translational Medicine (2018). Journal information: Science Translational Medicine On Target: Directing CAR T Cells to Aggressive Brain Cancers,(2018). stm.sciencemag.org/lookup/doi/  scitranslmed.aao2731This photomicrograph reveals Mycobacterium tuberculosis bacteria using acid-fast Ziehl-Neelsen stain; Magnified 1000 X. The acid-fast stains depend on the ability of mycobacteria to retain dye when treated with mineral acid or an acid-alcohol solution such as the Ziehl-Neelsen, or the Kinyoun stains that are carbolfuchsin methods specific for M. tuberculosis. Credit: public domain

A molecule made in the lab may change the way tuberculosis is diagnosed in the field.

Chemically tweaking a sugar molecule known as trehalose lets it slip inside the bacteria that causes tuberculosis (TB) and glow. The method offers a quick, simple way to detect the pernicious bug, and may help counter TB, a deadly lung infection that's particularly common in developing countries.

Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) Investigator Carolyn Bertozzi and colleagues report the work February 28, 2018, in the journal Science Translational Medicine.

Despite its devastating toll on health, the bacteria behind TB, Mycobacterium tuberculosis, can be hard to spot. Current tests rely on chemical stains that have been around for decades and can be finicky. Estimates put the sensitivity of these stains anywhere from 32 percent to 94 percent.

Better detection methods are sorely needed to combat TB, which killed more than 1.7 million people worldwide in 2016, says Bertozzi, of Stanford University. "If you can't even get an accurate diagnosis, how do you treat people?"

As a chemist, Bertozzi, along with her colleagues, studies the molecules that make up bacterial cell walls. Early discoveries by her lab revealed that some bacteria use sugar molecules called trehalose as building blocks. Bertozzi found the cell walls of M. tuberculosis particularly compelling. "There's some really interesting biology there." She began working with a team of scientists who held personal stakes in tuberculosis research. After a chance encounter at a meeting at Janelia Research Campus, Bertozzi decided to collaborate with study coauthor Professor Bavesh Kana of the University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa.

The researchers realized that trehalose molecules - those cell wall building blocks - might offer a way to flag living M. tuberculosis cells. But first, the team needed to find a chemical beacon that would make the flag visible. One chemical, called DMN, seemed to fit the bill. DMN can glow under certain wavelengths of light - but only when it is out of water. Because the M. tuberculosis cell wall contains a membrane that's a "thick layer of grease," Bertozzi says, it's the perfect place for DMN to light up.

That insight - that DMN was "off" until a cell tucks it into its membrane - was key, Bertozzi says. "It's such a simple thing, but simple things like that make all the difference between something that can be deployed or not."

After linking trehalose to DMN in the lab, the researchers tested their hybrid molecule, called DMN-Tre, on an M. tuberculosis relative. Just as they had hoped, the bacteria grabbed the molecule and, within minutes, incorporated it into their cell membranes, where it began to glow under a fluorescent microscope.

In tests on sputum samples from 16 people with TB, DMN-Tre picked up M. tuberculosis cells in all of the samples. The new technique performed similarly to the standard - but more complex and time-consuming - labeling method based on the Auramine O stain, a dye that sticks to acids in bacterial cell walls.

Other tests showed that DMN-Tre is selective to Actinobacteria, the bacterial phylum that includes M. tuberculosis. Human cells and other types of bacteria, both of which are plentiful in sputum samples, don't incorporate the molecule, the researchers found.

Unlike existing TB detection methods, DMN-Tre can also distinguish cells that are metabolically active from those that are not. Because the molecule relies on bacteria to actively incorporate it into the membrane, only healthy cells are labeled, whereas cells that are compromised by drug treatment do not label as well. That property may allow clinicians to monitor how well treatments are working in people, and perhaps even test whether certain mixtures of drugs would work against specific strains of M. tuberculosis.

More work remains before the molecule is ready for use in the field, Bertozzi says. But she's optimistic that the new method could prove useful in the global fight against TB.

Explore further Simple new test could improve diagnosis of tuberculosis in developing nations

More information: M. Kamariza el al., "Rapid detection of Mycobacterium tuberculosis in sputum with a solvatochromic trehalose probe," Science Translational Medicine (2018). Journal information: Science Translational Medicine M. Kamariza el al., "Rapid detection of Mycobacterium tuberculosis in sputum with a solvatochromic trehalose probe,"(2018). stm.sciencemag.org/lookup/doi/  scitranslmed.aam6310A black rat in a Palmyra Atoll, before the invasive mammal's disappearance from the island. Credit: Hillary Young

Palmyra Atoll is a tiny speck in the Pacific Ocean, roughly 1,000 miles south of Hawaii and less than 3 square miles in area. Its only human inhabitants are small groups of scientists who use the island as a natural laboratory. For a long time, they endured attacks from another of Palmyra Atoll's residentsmosquitoes.

"It was really hard to do field work there during the day without getting massacred by mosquitos," said National Science Foundation (NSF) program officer Daniel S. Gruner. While working toward his doctorate at the University of Hawai'i, Manoa, Gruner conducted fieldwork on the atoll in 2003, studying insects attacking native Pisonia grandis trees.

But when researchers returned years later, they realized something was missing.

"One of the first things our team noticed was that we weren't getting eaten alive by mosquitos," said Hillary Young, a researcher at the University of California, Santa Barbara. "One of the things about being out there historically was that we were constantly having to slather on repellant. We didn't have to anymore."

Mosquitoes active at night were still there. But the daytime pest, the Asian tiger mosquito, Aedes albopictus, was gone.What changed? In 2011, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Nature Conservancy and Island Conservation began a multi-year campaign to systematically eradicate all of Palmyra Atoll's 40,000 rats, an invasive species and the island's only year-round mammal inhabitants. But the mosquitoes, in theory, could have survived the disappearance of the rats. Asian tiger mosquitoes are aggressive, daytime biters that will feed on non-mammalian species, and thousands of birdstypical Aedes preystill called Palmyra Atoll home.

"We were asking 'Where did all the mosquitos go?'" Young said.

Young is the senior author on a new, NSF-supported paper published in Biology Letters from a research team that worked to answer that question. The research project provided training for a new generation of scientists and showed that sometimes, being in the right place at the right time can take science in unexpected directions.

Graduate student Ana Miller-ter Kuile walks between sampling sites at Palmyra Atoll during a research trip. Palmyra Atoll is a remote location in the Pacific, and rats likely reached it on ships during World War II. Credit: Michelle Lee, UCSB

"This was really serendipity," said Gruner, who served as a co-author in his capacity as a researcher at the University of Maryland. "If you're prepared for a surprise, you can take advantage."

Insect disappearance

Young and Gruner didn't go to Palmyra Atoll with any intention of studying the relationship between mosquitoes and the hosts they feed off. Like Gruner, Young, with NSF support, was studying trees and working toward her doctorate in 2010 by researching how invasive coconut palms harmed the island's native plants.

"Mosquitos were not on our radar," she said.

Their interest in bugs was limited to investigating those that might have affected tree growth. In fact, while the researchers had collected Aedes samples from in the 2000s, that was mostly by accident. The mosquitoes were so prevalent that they were caught in traps designed for other bugs.

The researchers' focus shifted around 2014, when they realized they could work all day with no bites. For two years, they looked for the mosquitoes, setting ten times the previous number of traps and checking in with the scientists working on the island to see if anyone had been bitten. They brought in equipment designed to catch daytime mosquitoestraps that use scent as a lure. Nothing. That, Gruner said, was odd. Asian tiger mosquitoes aren't native Palmyra Atoll inhabitants, but eradicating them past the point of return is incredibly difficult.

"These things can breed in a pool of water the size of a bottlecap," he said.

The Asian tiger mosquito, Aedes albopictus, will normally feed on non-mammalian species, and thousands of sea birds nest at Palmyra Atoll. However, the mosquitoes went extinct from the atoll when the rats disappeared, indicating that they had grown specialized to feed on mammals. Credit: James Gathany, CDC

Given the limited size and population of Palmyra Atoll, the team immediately began looking at the rat eradication as a likely factor in the mosquitoes' disappearance.

Rise and fall of invasive species

Many of the mammals found at remote islands across the worldrats, cats, foxesare invasive species introduced by humans, intentionally or unintentionally, over centuries of exploration and shipping. Scientists estimate that these invasive mammals have been responsible for large-scale extinctions of native birds and reptiles, with rats being the worst culprits. They can multiply into the thousands, attacking other species and choking out their food sources. To combat that damage, conservation agencies in the U.S. and other countries have worked to eradicate rats from hundreds of islands.

Rats likely first came to Palmyra Atoll during World War II, when the U.S. Navy used the island as an air base, building the runway that scientists still use today to visit. The rats preyed on fiddler crabs, coconut crabs and the ate the seeds and seedlings of native trees.

While getting rid of the rats increases the island's value as a national wildlife refuge and a scientific research station, it shouldn't have put an end to the mosquitoes. Aedes requires blood for food, and females need a meal in order to lay eggs. Yet, there was no shortage of blood on the atoll due to the seabirds living there. In fact, the island's surviving mosquito species, Culex quinquefasciatus, which feeds at night, was still thriving thanks to the birds.

After consulting the scientific literature concerning Asian tiger mosquitoes, the researchers were left to conclude that the ones on Palmyra Atoll had grown specialized. Biologically, the mosquitoes were still Aedes and able to feed on non-mammalian animals, but they didn't do so. Instead, their survival on the island depended on blood meals from rats, and the rapid elimination of their preferred food source drove them to extinction.

"This seems to be the first documented accidental secondary extinction of a mosquito," the research paper says. "Furthermore, it suggests that preferred host abundance can limit mosquito populations, opening new directions for controlling important disease vectors that depend on introduced species like rats."

A rat in a Pisonia tree at Palmyra Atoll. Credit: Hillary Young

One vital scientific resource helped them make that connection: museum archiving and curation. The researchers were able to compare their samples to those collected by Fish and Wildlife in 2002 and stored at Hawaii's Bishop Museum, providing evidence of how the extinct mosquitoes bred. Without those samples providing a baseline of past Aedes mosquitoes on the island, the team could not have followed up on its hunch.

Host control

Young and Gruner are quick to point out, however, that the lesson from their study shouldn't be that "get rid of the rats, and the mosquitoes disappear" applies universally. Such a strategy wouldn't work in, say, an urban area in the mainland United States. Even if it were possible to eliminate all the rats from a city, there would still be plenty of humans and other mammals for the mosquitoes to bite.

Still, the findings suggest an intriguing possibility for further study: Perhaps host control could play a role in regulating mosquito populations.

Eradicating rats from a city might not eliminate mosquitoes, but it could possibly reduce their numbers by cutting out one source of the insects' meals. When public policy organizations and scientists talk about mosquito prevention, Young said, host control hasn't typically been part of the conversation.

The study now becomes another clue in the scientific community's growing understanding of basic ecology. "It shows you have adaptations that are more specialized than you think, given what we know about a species." Gruner said.

The research also provided training opportunities for those pursuing careers in biology. Dozens of university students helped set and check mosquito traps and prepare samples in the lab. That work wasn't always easy, Young said. "You have no idea how hard it is to keep electronics working in a place that gets 4.4 meters of rain a year, with critters that love to chew things."

Explore further A new way to thwart disease-spreading mosquitoesHip replacement surgery not only improves quality of life but is also associated with increased life expectancy, compared to people of similar age and sex, reports a study in Clinical Orthopaedics and Related Research (CORR), a publication of The Association of Bone and Joint Surgeons.

Through a decade after surgery, patients undergoing elective total hip arthroplasty (THA) have a slightly improved survival rate compared to the general population, according to the study by Peter Cnudde, MD, of the Swedish Hip Arthroplasty Register, Gothenburg, and colleagues. Dr. Cnudde comments, "Our study suggests that hip replacement can add years to life as well as adding 'life to years'increasing the chances of longer survival as well as improving the quality of life."

Through Ten Years, Higher Survival in Patients Undergoing Hip Arthroplasty

The researchers analyzed postoperative survival rate in nearly 132,000 patients undergoing THA in Sweden from 1999 through 2012. Average age at hip replacement was about 68 years. During a median follow-up of 5.6 years, about 16.5 percent of patients died.

Survival after THA was longer than expected, compared to people of similar age and sex in the Swedish general population. In the first year, survival was one percent better in THA patients versus the matched population.

The difference increased to three percent at five years, then decreased to two percent at 10 years. By 12 years, survival was no longer different for THA patients compared to the general population.

The survival difference was significant mainly among patients diagnosed with primary osteoarthritis. This condition, reflecting age-related "wear and tear," accounted for 91 percent of patients undergoing THA. In patients with certain other diagnosesincluding osteonecrosis, inflammatory arthritis, and "secondary" osteoarthritis due to other health conditions or risk factorssurvival after THA was lower compared to the general population.

Not surprisingly, patients with more accompanying medical conditions (comorbidity) had lower survival after THA. Lower education and single marital status were also associated with lower survival.

Total hip arthroplasty has a proven track record in increasing mobility, reducing pain, and improving quality of life in people with hip pain and dysfunction. The researchers note "strong indications" that patients' survival after THA is improving, and that patients undergoing THA tend to live longer than a matched general population. The new findings support that impression, showing a small but significant improvement in expected survival in patients undergoing THA.

"The reasons for the increase in relative survival are unknown but are probably multifactorial," the researchers write. They note some important limitations of their registry study, including the fact that that only patients in relatively good health are selected for THA.

"While no surgeon would recommend THA to the patients just to live longer, but it is likely that the chances of surviving longer are associated with undergoing the successful operation, for patients in need of a hip replacement," says Dr. Cnudde. He notes that this could be proven only by a randomized controlled trialwhich would be impossible to perform for ethical reasons. "So data gathered by registers as part of a well-conducted observational study can provide these answers, in our opinion."

The study provides new insights into the lifelong health benefits and economic value of THA, according to an accompanying CORR Insights article by Hannes A. Rudiger, MD, of Schulthess Clinic, Zurich. Especially as the procedure is performed in younger patients, information on the long-term rates of repeat (revision) surgery will be essential. Dr. Rudiger writes, "As surgeons, we need more data in order to advise a patient about what one can and cannot expect from an intervention and how it will affect them for the rest of their lives."

Explore further Decreased survival when surgery refused for esophageal cancerPicture: Chandrasekahr Kanduri. Credit: Johan Wingborg

By turning down the activity of a specific RNA molecule researchers at Sahlgrenska Academy, Sweden, have cured lung tumors in mice by 40-50 percent. The results, published in Nature Communications, represent the tip of the iceberg in an extensive research project in which 633 new biomarkers for 14 types of cancer have been identified.

A research group led by Chandrasekhar Kanduri, professor of Medical Biochemistry and Cell Biology, studied how tumor development is influenced by long non-coding RNA molecules. These molecules are produced from the part of genome that previously classified as junk DNA, but have been shown to regulate cell division, among other functions.

The evidence supporting the research findings is extensive. The researchers studied 16 different cancer types comprising 6,419 solid tumors, and 701 normal tissue samples which were used as controls. The aim of the research was to find long noncoding RNA molecules that are active during the phase of cell division in which the genetic material is copied.

Using a inhouse developed technology and modern RNA sequencing, the researchers identified 570 long noncoding RNA molecules that are expressed differently depending on the type of cancer, as well as 633 new independent biomarkers that can be used to predict and treat 14 types of cancer. The results are expected to be important for cancer researchers in many parts of the world.

"Since there is a strong link between cell division cycle and cancer, we are using it as the basis for identifying the important long non-coding RNA molecules that play a key role in cancer growth. Higher expression of some of these long noncoding RNA molecules during cell division cycle may cause cells to divide uncontrollably to become cancerous, explains Chandrasekhar Kanduri.

"This link is known, but no one has made such a broad and extensive analysis previously, nor examined long noncoding RNAs so specifically," he continues.

The mouse models carrying human lung cancer tissues were injected with a substance (lock nucleic acid modified antisense oligonucleotides, LNA-ASO) that blocked the function of relevant long noncoding RNA molecule. Antisense oligonucleotides were injected twice a week and in 15 days, and the size of the tumors had decreased by almost half.

"Thus we have identified a new method, optimized it in a lab environment, and identified long noncoding RNA molecules that are involved in uncontrolled cell division. By taking aim at these specific molecules, we have reduced cancer growth. Furthermore, the molecules can also be used to predict the disease," says Chandrasekhar Kanduri.

"We are proposing that this RNA-based method be used to treat lung cancer, for which the survival rate after five years is currently only 18 percent," he continues. "We need to conduct more studies to see if there is potential to carry out clinical trials in patients, but we believe there is a future for RNA-based treatment in the treatment of cancer."

Explore further Novel classification can lead to new ways to diagnose and treat cancer

More information: Mohamad Moustafa Ali et al. PAN-cancer analysis of S-phase enriched lncRNAs identifies oncogenic drivers and biomarkers, Nature Communications (2018). Journal information: Nature Communications Mohamad Moustafa Ali et al. PAN-cancer analysis of S-phase enriched lncRNAs identifies oncogenic drivers and biomarkers,(2018). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-018-03265-1Credit: CC0 Public Domain

A team of medical researchers at the University of Pennsylvania has all but ruled out a sonic weapon as the cause of the mysterious ailments suffered by personnel working at the U.S. embassy in Cuba last year. Instead, they have found that while the symptoms are real, they cannot identify the cause. In their paper published in JAMA, the team describes the health problems identified in people working at the embassy last year.

In late 2016, employees at the U.S. embassy in Cuba began describing hearing odd sounds while in their hotel and experiencing a variety of symptoms including nausea, hearing loss and vertigo. Such complaints continued through most of 2017 until the U.S. recalled the employees to the U.S., where 24 of them were examined by the research team in Pennsylvania.

After thoroughly studying the patients, the team reports that the embassy staff members have symptoms of concussion without having suffered external trauma. They found instances of cognitive difficulties, along with problems with balance, eye tracking, sleep disturbances and headaches. But they also note that none of the theories advanced in the press regarding the cause are likely. The symptoms could not have come from audible or infrasound waves, for example, because neither would cause the symptoms observed in the patientsplus, other people at the hotel would have heard them or been impacted in similar ways. The researchers note also that it does not seem likely the symptoms were due to infection or the introduction of a chemical agent. The team also ruled out mass hysteria as a possibility, because many of the patients had observable physical symptoms, such as damage to the inner ear. They also pointed out that despite a report by the Associated Press claiming researchers had found damage to white matter in the brains of the patients, there was no such damage.

They sum up their report by acknowledging that they have no answers regarding the source of the ailments experienced by the embassy staff.

It is not likely the JAMA report will quell conspiracy theories, howeverthe study conducted by the team in Pennsylvania was commissioned by the U.S. government, and U.S. officials have declined to share patient information with Cuban officials who have commissioned their own study of the mysterious ailments.

Explore further Comprehensive evaluation of patients with concussion-like symptoms following reports of audible phenomena in Cuba

More information: Randel L. Swanson et al. Neurological Manifestations Among US Government Personnel Reporting Directional Audible and Sensory Phenomena in Havana, Cuba, JAMA (2018). Journal information: Journal of the American Medical Association Randel L. Swanson et al. Neurological Manifestations Among US Government Personnel Reporting Directional Audible and Sensory Phenomena in Havana, Cuba,(2018). DOI: 10.1001/jama.2018.1742

 2018 Medical XpressFor many people, a small cut on their finger heals quickly. But for some patients, impaired wound healing poses a major problem. Credit: Colorbox

Time heals all wounds  or so the saying goes. But our ability to heal damaged organs or tissues, such as the skin, is by no means perfect and results in formation of a scar. Scars are more fragile and less elastic than undamaged skin, and they lack hair follicles, sebaceous glands and sweat glands as these do not regenerate. In particular, large wounds like those caused by burns can lead to serious functional and cosmetic impairments.

Salamanders can regenerate their limbs, and freshwater polyps and flatworms can even grow a new head if they lose theirs. Mammals, on the other hand, possess only rudimentary capacities in this area: mice of all ages and children can at least regrow lost finger tips if they still have part of the nail. The fact that humans possess certain regenerative capacities raises hope for scientists like myself that we can activate them more efficiently one day.

The regeneration of entire human limbs is certainly a long way off, and is perhaps something we will never attain. But in my view, improved treatment for wound healing disorders is a realistic research aim for the years ahead.

Frequent healing disorders

Advances in this area are urgently required, as wound healing disorders are on the rise due to the growing number of aged people, patients suffering from diabetes and cancer, and patients undergoing immunosuppressive treatment. These patients often suffer from non-healing skin ulcers, which can be painful, produce an unpleasant smell, and lead to functional impairment. The treatment of skin ulcers also takes a long time and requires ongoing medical care and support. Skin ulcers are a major health problem that significantly reduces the quality of life and the life expectancy of patients.

Large and raised (hypertrophic) scars develop when the healing process is excessive, and pose another wound healing problem. Current treatment options for hypertrophic scars are also limited.

Personalised medicine for wound healing

In order to develop efficient strategies to combat skin ulcers and hypertrophic scars, we need a better understanding of the mechanisms underlying these wound healing disorders. We can gain this through intensive fundamental research using different model organisms, patient tissue and wound exudates.

However, the mechanisms underlying wound healing disorders can differ greatly depending on the location of the wound, its size and depth, infection of the wound with various pathogens, immune system activity, and external stress factors. We therefore need personalised medicine in the field of wound healing to allow us to develop approaches that are specifically tailored to the patients. Research in this area is extremely important and is part of the work carried out by Skintegrity, a large-scale, interdisciplinary project in Zurich that I oversee together with a colleague.

The collaboration between experts from various fields in this project works really well, in particular because the scientists also understand each other very well on a personal level. We are training a new generation of researchers, medical doctors and engineers, whose knowledge and expertise is not limited to their own field.

Skin transplantation and promotion of healing

The project is still in the early stages and the development of new therapies will take some time yet. But even after just one year, the team has made many important findings, for example in the field of transplantation of skin grown in the laboratory and the characterisation of stem cells that aid the wound healing process. And we are continuously improving our understanding of the mechanisms underlying wound healing disorders. Finally, in recent years the pharma and biotech industries have also shown a greater interest in the development of new therapies to improve healing. We've launched several projects with industry as part of Skintegrity.

This gives me confidence that we can achieve ambitious goals such as the treatment of wound healing disorders and, longer term, perhaps also the regeneration of tissues, including for example the skin with its hairs and nails or the cornea, without leaving scars.

Explore further Unexpected helpers in wound healingImportant stuff you won't get from the liberal media! We do the surfing so you can be informed AND have a life!Remotely Controlled Weapon Systems designed and produced by ASELSAN of Turkey will continue to be in service of the Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency (MMEA), the company said on February 23, 2018.

Remotely Controlled Weapon Systems designed and produced by ASELSAN of Turkey will continue to be in service of the Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency (MMEA), the company said on February 23, 2018.

A MMEA OPV

(Credit: Malaysian Coast Guard)

The defense system solutions provider of Turkey, ASELSAN, has signed a contract with a Malaysian shipyard in scope of her 30mm SMASH Remote Controlled Weapon System, High Accuracy Stabilized Gimbal (HASG) and Pintle Mounted 12.7mm Machine Gun to be integrated on new Offshore Patrol Vessels of the MMEA.

The delivery of the systems will be completed between 2019-2020.

As of today, ASELSAN products and systems have been exported to 60 countries worldwide, including some EU and NATO member countries. ASELSAN Remote Controlled Weapon Systems are in use of fourteen countries worldwide. The recent contract stands as an indication that, the delivery of ASELSAN Remote Controlled Weapon Systems to Southeast Asian countries will continue in the upcoming years.

ASELSAN's weapon system is a remotely controlled and stabilized pedestal with an independent electro optic suite consisting of thermal camera, day TV camera and laser range finder. The system has automatic target detection / tracking capabilities as well as night operation under harsh weather and terrain conditions. The main function of the system is better locating and tracking (automatic when desired) the target as well as maximizing the hit accuracy while providing maximum security for the gunner.

Due to the stabilization feature, the system can perform precise firings against stationary or moving targets while the platform is on-the-move. This shoot-on-the-move capability has vital importance for crew survivability, especially when faced with multiple armed adversaries shooting from different directions.

The system can be automatically slewed onto targets assigned by a command control system. It's advanced fire control computer incorporating sophisticated algorithms maximizes the hit probability of the system.

As per the commitment of ASELSAN of Turkey, on technology and know-how transfer to Malaysia, National Defence University of Malaysia (UPNM), Malaysian Industry-Goverment Group for High Technology (MIGHT) and ASELSAN MALAYSIA Sdn. Bhd. signed a Memorandum of Understanding on 22 February 2018. The parties agreed on the local development of Remote Controlled Weapon Systems in Malaysia and the co-development of R&D programs that are to be determined.

ASELSAN MALAYSIA SDN. BHD., which is %100 owned by ASELSAN, established in 2017 with the purpose of local production of Remote Controlled Stabilized Weapon Systems and act as a hub for sales, after-sales and R&D activities. In this context, the local 30mm SMASH System assembly, integration and tests were the first steps of ASELSAN MALAYSIA SDN. BHD. and the company targets to make further investment in Malaysia for the serial production and R&D.

The Remotely Controlled Weapon Systems designed and produced by ASELSAN will continue to be in service of the Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency (MMEA) at MMEA's new Offshore Patrol Vessels. On 22 February 2018 ASELSAN has signed a contract with a Malaysian shipyard in scope of her 30mm SMASH Remote Controlled Weapon System, High Accuracy Stabilized Gimbal (HASG) and Pintle Mounted 12.7mm Machine Gun to be integrated on new Offshore Patrol Vessels of the MMEA. The delivery of the systems will be completed between 2019-2020.Armenia continues to implement the National Plan of Action for Human Rights Protection, the main objective of which is to formulate a unified policy document in the area of human rights protection.

Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian on Tuesday stated the aforesaid in his address at the High Level Segment of the 37th Session of the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC), in Geneva, Switzerland.

In 2015 upon the initiative of Armenia the United Nations Human Rights Council passed a unanimous Resolution on the Genocide Prevention, Nalbandian noted, in particular. In its development, again upon our initiative, the UN General Assembly assigned December 9th as an International Day of Commemoration of the Victims of Genocide. As recently the United Nations Under Secretary General Mr. Michael Mller stated, Armenia has become a leading voice for safeguarding the importance of the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.

What is happening in front of our eyes in different parts of the world, related to the identity-based crimes against ethnic and religious groups vividly manifests that the world is not immune from this odious scourge and that it remains imperative to redouble the international efforts aimed at reinvigoration of the prevention agenda.

During this session of the Human Rights Council Armenia presents a resolution on Genocide Prevention which will mark the 70th anniversary of the Convention with specific recommendations for actions and reflect on the activities of the UN and its member states in this regard. On December 9th, we will host the Third International Global Forum Against the Crime of Genocide, in Yerevan. It will stand as a solid platform for manifestation of our collective resolve against the recurrences of this heinous crime, for raising awareness and promoting education for the prevention of Genocides.

Armenia continues to implement National Plan of Action for Human Rights Protection, the main objective of which is to formulate a unified policy document in the area of human rights protection. We have a good record of submissions of national and follow-up reports to the UN treaty bodies. Armenia supports the Universal Periodic Review process and we are going to submit our UPR second mid-term report on a voluntary basis.

Our country is completing its transition to parliamentary system of governance. Throughout the whole process of transition including the Constitutional referendum, the subsequent amendments of the key laws in Armenia and the parliamentary elections were conducted in an inclusive manner, in close cooperation with our international partners and have demonstrated that the progress achieved in upholding fundamental freedoms is sustainable and irreversible.

We will continue the reform process in our country also making use of the good offices provided by our partners, including the United Nations.

I would like to assure of Armenias continued commitment for the further consolidation of democratic institutions, rule of law, strengthening of judiciary, good governance, which remain high among our priorities.The Taliban draft new Constitution of Afghanistan

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Armenia Deputy PM on current situation on Goris-Kapan road: Authorities didn't have a choiceAzerbaijan attempts to by all means conceal the Sumgait massacre, to avoid responsibility and to shift attention from it through fabricated accusations.

The Foreign Minister of Armenia, Edward Nalbandian, on Tuesday noted the abovementioned in his address at the High Level Segment of the 37th Session of the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC), in Geneva, Switzerland.

This year we mark the 70th anniversaries of two fundamental documents in the field of human rights protection, namely the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, said the Armenian FM. The Universal Declaration is widely acknowledged as a milestone document in the history of human rights. Nevertheless, its provisions have not only been continuously ignored, but grossly violated in many parts of the world.

Thirty years ago, during these very days in February 1988 anti-Armenian pogroms broke out in Azerbaijani Sumgait leaving numerous Armenians killed, maimed and deported. They were perpetrated by the authorities of Azerbaijan with the aim to punish Armenians for the peaceful aspirations of the people of Nagorno-Karabakh for self-determination. Those atrocities were the very reason why Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Andrei Sakharov wrote that even if some doubted it before Sumgait, no one sees a moral opportunity to insist on territorial unity of Nagorno-Karabakh and Azerbaijan after this tragedy happened.

The Sumgait massacre was widely condemned by the international community, including by the resolution of the European Parliament. Regrettably, the masterminds and perpetrators of this crime were not duly punished. As it happened many times in the human history, impunity opened the door for new atrocities, including Armenian massacres and ethnic cleansing in Baku, Kirovabad (Gandzak), Maragha and many other places.

By all means Azerbaijan attempts to conceal these atrocities, to avoid responsibility and to shift attention from them through fabricated accusations, including by the so-called Khojaly campaign, trying to portray themselves as victims and discredit Armenians as alleged perpetrators of the violence.

It is a part of Azerbaijans xenophobic anti-Armenian policy. The UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, European Commission Against Racism and Intolerance and many other organizations in charge of human rights expressed concern at constant cases of hate speech in Azerbaijan used against Armenians by political leaders, educational institutions and media and that an entire generation of Azerbaijanis has grown up listening to this hateful rhetoric. It is this kind of anti-Armenian propaganda that has incited continuous atrocities against Armenians, including the gross violations of international humanitarian law committed by the armed forces of Azerbaijan in April 2016 in Nagorno-Karabakh - killing of children, women, elderly people, mutilation of the corpses, beheadings of captured soldiers in the style used by notorious terrorist organizations.Within the framework of his official visit to Geneva, Switzerland, Azerbaijan Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov met with president Peter Maurer of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), reported APA news agency of Azerbaijan.

Among other matters, Mammadyarov spoke also about the chances for the release of Dilgam Asgarov and Shahbaz Guliyev, Azerbaijani prisoners in Nagorno-Karabakh (Artsakh), and attempted to portray them as innocent victims.

The Azerbaijan FM, however, said nothing about Armenian captives Arsen Baghdasaryan and Zaven Karapetyan.

Karapetyan was captured on June 20, 2017, and he had mental problems. Even though his psychological disadvantages were outwardly apparent, this did not prevent Azerbaijan from presenting him as a soldier.

Azerbaijani citizens Shahbaz Guliyev (born in 1968), Dilgam Asgarov (born in 1960), and Hasan Hasanovwho was killed by the Republic of Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh Republic/NKR) armed forces while rendering these saboteurs ineffectivehad illegally crossed the NKR state border on June 29, 2014, and they were armed with weapons and ammunition. The three had entered the territory of the Shahumyan Region of Karabakh, and as spies, to collect information and carry out espionage.

On July 4, 2014, they had kidnapped and subsequently murdered Karabakh citizen Smbat Tsakanyan, 17, whose body was found on July 15, 2014, and with gunshot wounds, in a forest at the Shahumyan Region.

In addition, on the evening of July 11, 2014, Hasanov had killed Armenia capital city Yerevan resident Sargis Abrahamyan (born in 1971), and severely wounded Armenias Dzoraghbyur village resident Karine Davtyan, on the Vardenis-Karvachar Highway. Hasanov was armed and he resisted arrest; as a result, he was neutralized by the NKR special forces. Guliyev and Asgarov, on the other hand, were detained, and they faced trial in the NKR.

Asgarov was charged with espionage; unauthorized border trespass; kidnapping and violence against a minor, committed by an organized group; murder committed by an organized group motivated by ethnic hatred; and attempt of murder of two persons, committed by an organized group, motivated by ethnic hatred.

Guliyev was charged with espionage; unauthorized border trespass; kidnapping and violence against a minor, committed by an organized group; and murder committed by an organized group motivated by ethnic hatred.

And on December 29, 2014, the First Instance General Jurisdiction Court of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic sentenced Dilgam Asgarov and Shahbaz Guliyev to life and 22 years, respectively, in prison.A statement on the 30th anniversary of the massacre of the Armenian population of Sumgait, Azerbaijan, was adopted at Wednesdays plenary sitting of the Republic of Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh Republic/NKR) National Assembly.

On 27-29 February 1988, atrocities against and forced deportation of the Armenian population was carried out by the Azerbaijani authorities in Sumgait, just 30 kilometers from Baku, the statement reads. Hundreds of Armenians, mostly women, children and elderly people fell victim to a pre-planned massacre; thousands of Armenians were forcibly deported and their propertyplundered.

The crime committed in Sumgait was another manifestation of the policy of discrimination, ethnic cleansing and expulsion of Armenian people, which, following the example of Nakhichevan, was carried out with impunity by the Azerbaijani authorities during the Soviet period. It later continued in Baku, Gandzak (Kirovabad) and other Armenian settlements of Northern Artsakh. By these atrocities, the Baku authorities threatened the Artsakh Armenians stood to defend their rights, and keeping the Armenians of Eastern Transcaucasia as a hostage. Meanwhile, the national liberation struggle that was unfolding in Artsakh in those days was called to put an end to the infringements of national dignity of the Armenian people and the genocidal policy of the Azerbaijani authorities.

Paying tribute to the memory of the innocent Armenians who fell victim to the genocide in Sumgait and being convinced that the impunity for the pogroms and massacre of the Armenian population organized at state level led to new crimes and a war by Azerbaijan against the people of the newly independent Nagorno-Karabakh Republic, the National Assembly of the Artsakh Republic condemns any manifestation of discrimination, xenophobia and intolerance; believes that official Baku continues to pursue a policy of genocide, the latest evidence of which were crimes committed against the civilian population of Artsakh in April 2016; reaffirms that the Artsakh Republic will be consistent in restoring and protecting the rights of Azerbaijani Armenians who were exposed to violence and deportation; [and] urges parliamentary structures and international human rights organizations, on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of mass pogroms and atrocities against the Armenian population of Sumgait, to condemn the genocidal acts committed by Baku against the Armenians of Azerbaijan.A conference dedicated to Nagorno-Karabakh and its relations with the EU was organized in the European Parliament on Wednesday.

Nagorno-Karabakh & the EU 1988/2018 was hosted by MEP Frank Engel who is also the Chairman of the Friends of Nagorno-Karabakh group in the European Parliament.

Participants at the event stood up in silence to honor the victims of the Sumgait pogroms.

Members of the European Parliament Eleni Theocharous and Jaromir Stetina delivered speeches during the event.

Speaking about Karabakh, Eleni Theocharous said the region was always inhabited by the Armenians, adding that the right to self-determination is a universal right.

She emphasized that the resolution of the conflict is important and called on the European Union not to remain inactive.

For his part, Jaromir Stetina said there is a sense of historical justice to support Karabakh.

Hate policy which began in Sumgait continues. The war for freedom of Karabakh continues, and diplomatic efforts to stop the conflict continue but they are unsuccessful, he added.

The politician said the Karabakh people realized that international community would not help them and took the arms.

Its time to act on the recognition of Nagorno-Karabakh, he said addressing the European Union.

Another speaker was Bulgarian journalist Tsvetana Paskaleva who told the moving story of her first trip to Karabakh in 1991 and the horrors of the aggression against the Karabakh people.

I want to see Karabakh with peace and recognition. Theyre ready for it, she added.

The discussion was organized by the European Friends of Armenia and AGBU Europe.Iran will continue to build its defense potential and does not need permission from anyone, President Hassan Rouhani said.

Our message to the countries of the Persian Gulf is Iran was and will be a good neighbor for you, he noted.

Rouhani said that the attempts of the current US administration to break Irans nuclear deal only led to the isolation of Washington, as today all the European countries are on the Iranian side.

Commenting on the British draft resolution on Yemen, which accused Iran of illegal arms to the country, Rouhani called it an American conspiracy.

He said if they really care about Yemen, they have to stop supplying cluster bombs to Saudi Arabia, to remove the blockade of the country so that humanitarian aid could be delivered to the Yemenis.Speaker of House of Representatives, Mr Yakubu Dogara, on Tuesday, asked security agencies to take responsibility for failing to stop the abduction of 110 schoolgirls in Dapchi, Yobe, on Feb. 19.

He said that the buck-passing between the Nigerian Army and the Nigeria Police Force was unacceptable.

In a statement by Mr Turaki Hassan, Special Adviser on Media and Public Affairs to Dogara said rather than trading blames, the security agencies should strengthen inter-agency collaboration towards rescuing the girls.

He said that the statements credited to the Army and the Police in which they tried to exonerate themselves from any culpability in the unfortunate abduction of the girls from their school were highly condemnable.

This is unacceptable and the House of Representatives, and indeed Nigerians, will hold the security agencies responsible. They all bear responsibility for this unfortunate incident.

The traumatic experience of the Chibok abduction which is still fresh in our minds should have served as a warning signal to security agencies to provide adequate protection to all schools in the North-East.

I want to use this medium to console the parents of the abducted girls and the entire Dapchi community over this unfortunate incident.

I also urge all Nigerians and people of goodwill from all over the world to pray for the safe return of the girls, Dogara said.

(NAN)Home | News | General | IPOB, MASSOB disrupt Igbo leaders meeting in Enugu

By Emeka Mamah & Chinedu Adonu

ENUGUMEMBERS of the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, yesterday, disrupted a gathering of the Eastern Consultative Assembly, ECA, where some Igbo leaders including the Chairman of Igbo Leaders of Thought, ILT, Prof Ben Nwabueze, and first President of Nigeria, Late Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe were to be honoured.

Also, to have been honoured included the First Republic Minister, Chief Mbazulike Amaechi and the late former Governor of old Imo State, Chief Sam Mbakwe, late Margret Ekpo and late Philip Effiong (all post humous) among others.

The event which attracted Dr. Azikiwes widow, Prof Uche Azikiwe; Chief Mbazuklike Amaechi, a former member of the Zikist Movement; the former Director-General of the National Orientation Agency, NOA, Prof Elochuwu Amucheazi; Prof Nwabueze; Anieken Akpan from the Niger Delta; a Kalabari Leader, Mr Douglas Warmate; Chief (Mrs) Maria Okwo; Chief Kiamse Okoko; Prof Obasi Igwe; Emeka Onyeaso; Mr Charles Effiong and Dr Alex Mbakwe among others ended in a fiasco.

IPOB members

The organizer of the event and Founder of the Igbo Youth Movement, Evangelist Elliot Ugochukwu- Uko said the aim of the gathering was to discuss the restructuring of the country as well as honour deserving Igbo, living or dead.

However, when Amaechi began to talk about the need to restructure the country into six zones, the Biafran agitators began to interrupt him, saying they did not want to hear anything about Nigeria.

After several interventions by Evangelist Ugochukwu-Uko, Amaechi was allowed to complete his speech, saying that Nigeria was an illegality, and that the country was being ruled by banditry, which attracted a loud applause from the crowd.

Professor Nwabueze spoke after Amaechi but his voice was muffled by the noise from the IPOB/MASSOB members.

Zik, cause of our painIPOB

However, hell was let loose when Ugochukwu- Uko announced that it was time to give a post-humous award to Dr. Azikiwe for his contributions towards national development.

As soon as Ziks name was mentioned, the Biafran agitators rose in condemnation of Ziks efforts to keep the country united, just as they blamed the late nationalist for the current travails of the Igbo in the country.

As the crowd became restive, Ugochukwu- Uko threatened to deal with any trouble maker in the hall but his utterances angered the agitators the more and they descended on the people on the high table and in the commotion that ensued, they removed Prof Amucheazis red cap from his head and his eye glasses.

Some of the leaders ran helter-skelter as their cars were stoned leading to the shattering of the wind shields.

Apparently, not satisfied with scattering the event, the mob chased journalists out of the venue before moving to the streets of Enugu metropolis, where they blocked roads, displaying the photographs of their leader, Nnamdi Kanu.

No restructuring

They condemned restructuring, saying that they would not settle for anything other than Biafran Republic.

However, as they were marching, the police confronted them in front of the Presidential Hotel, by firing tears gas canisters on them.

Ugochukwu-Uko said that trouble erupted at the hall, following his refusal to give the pro-Biafrans the platform to talk about dismemberment of the country.

For more than 20 years, I have been advancing the cause of restructuring and people were saying I was mad. Today, they are calling me a prophet, he added.

Enugu State Police Public Relations Officer, PPRO, Ebere Amaraizu confirmed the story saying some IPOB/MASSOB agitators were arrested.

Nigeria, an illegality Mbazulike Amaechi

First Republic Minister, Mbazulike Amaechi, yesterday said that Nigeria is an illegality, saying that it was being ruled with laws unknown to majority of the people of the country.

Amaechi said that the agreement by the countrys founding fathers including the former Governor General, late Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe, the Premiers of the old Western and Northern Regions, Chief Obafemi Awolowo and Sir Ahmadu Bello respectively among other nationalists was jettisoned.

He spoke at a meeting of the Eastern Consultative Assembly, ECA, at the Universal Hotel, Enugu, yesterday.

Continuing, Amaechi asked the people of the Eastern Region to reject the proposed cattle or grazing colonies, saying they were meant to Islamise Nigeria.

According to Amaechi, the Fulani in the country were waging both the Boko Haram and herdsmen wars on Nigerians as part of plans to force Christians or worshippers of other religions to become Muslims.

In Borno, they are killing the Kanuri who defeated the jihadists from the Uthman Dan Fodio Empire. They are also killing people of Zangon Kataf in Kaduna, Tivs in Benue, as well as natives of Taraba- the Jukuns

In the southern part of Nigeria, it is only Governor Ayo Fayose that is fighting for the people. The governors of the South East are like jelly fishes. They are hiding their heads in the sand like ostriches,  he said.

Police arrest suspected IPOB members in Enugu

Meanwhile, Nigeria Police Force, Enugu Command, has arrested 11 persons suspected to be members of the outlawed Biafran group in Enugu.

The suspects were arrested yesterday around WAEC Bus-Stop in Independence Layout within Enugu metropolis at about 1p.m.

The Commands spokesman, SP Ebere Amaraizu, made this known in a statement he issued to pressmen in Enugu.

They were nabbed based on intelligence information gathered which guided the police operatives on the successful operations carried out, he said.

Those arrested are helping the operatives in their investigations in relation to their alleged nefarious activities and will be arraigned properly in a law court after investigations are concluded, he said.

According to him, members of the public are enjoined to be law- abiding and be security conscious.

The command is also calling on members of the public to partner with police to ensure that the state continues to maintain the tempo of the safest and most secured state in the country.

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Loading...Home | News | General | LASG pays N139M death benefits to families of LASUBEB staff

By Olasunkanmi Akoni

Lagos State Government through the State Universal Basic Education Board, LASUBEB, has disbursed over N139 million insurance death benefits to 40 relations of its teaching and non-teaching staff who died between October, 2016 and October, 2017.

The Executive Chairman of the Board, Dr. Ganiyu Sopeyin, during the presentation of cheques to the beneficiaries of the deceased staff at the SUBEB office, noted that the state government had always set the pace for others to follow.

Akinwunmi Ambode

According to him, While some states are struggling to pay salaries, the Lagos State Government has plans also for its staff who died while in service, thereby, making the state number one in Nigeria. May our prayers ease you through this moment. Words may not suffice to express the heartfelt sorrow that we feel for the passing of your loved ones, the gesture we have shown you today, is an indication that this government cares.

He urged the beneficiaries to use the money judiciously, stressing that the deceased would be glad if the proceeds are channelled to profitable ventures for the service of humanity.

Sopeyin reiterated that the state governments effort towards uplifting the standard of basic education, adding that the state had established six additional primary schools, recruited more teachers, provided additional training for its teachers, provisional of infrastructure among others.

He also urged both the teaching and non teaching staff in the state basic education system to reciprocate government kind gesture by always doing their best at all times.

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Loading...Former JBS CEO authorised to leave jail

Brazil

Wesley Batista from holding company J&F Investimentos, owner of meatpacking giant JBS SA, was released from prison under court order on February 24.

After serving a six-month prison sentence, Wesley Batista is banned from leaving Brazil without approval from the court of justice as well as from participating in the management of companies owned by J&F, or any other market activities. He will also have to wear an ankle monitor and present himself to police quarters once a week.

His brother, Joesley Batista and former JBS Chairman, is to remain in prison as he has a second federal warrant arrest against him for, allegedly, having concealed information during negotiations over a previous plea bargain.

As previously reported by ILM, the Batista brothers were charged with insider trading after prosecutors revoked plea-bargain agreements made in May 2017.

Source: G1Home | News | General | Tension in Onitsha as Navy, sand dealers clash

By Nwabueze Okonkwo

Palpable tension arose in the commercial city of Onitsha, Anambra state, as members of Sand Dealers Association, Anambra state chapter, staged a peaceful protest against officers and men of the Nigerian Navy, Onitsha Naval base, for what they termed a transferred aggression against their members at the River Niger Creek, Onitsha, Anambra state.

The demonstrators numbering over 50, gathered at their Ukwu Akpu operational base at Harbour Industrial Layout, along the River Niger Creek, Onitsha and carried placards with such inscriptions as Navy, we are not criminals, stop harassing us, we pay our royalties to the federal government, Stop attacking our members.

Naval officers

Addressing the demonstrators, State Vice Chairman of the association, Comrade Ikechukwu Obidimma, alleged that men of the Navy from the Onitsha Naval base on Tuesday morning, invaded the River Niger Creeks where they dredged sands for sale and unleashed mayhem against their members. Flanked by Chief Gilbert Udemadu, chairman of Ukwu Akpu unit; Uzonna Ndukuba, one of their injured members, Chief Boniface Ezenwaka, Chairman of Ose Ogbe Ijaw unit, Desmond Onyekpu, who claimed his dredging boat was sunk during the incidence, among other executive members, Obidimma stated that the Naval men on arrival, siad they were trailing one of the tipper drivers who knocked down a Naval personnel.

He noted that in the process of chasing their members out of the creeks, the Naval men injured some of them with gun butts, chased about 10 others into the River Niger and sunk one of their double-engine boats carrying about 10 trips of sand, adding that about 200 tippers were taken to the Naval Base and seized.

He contended that the naval men has no justification to unleash such a volume of terrors on their members and at the same, grinding their dredging businesses to a halt, just because a tipper driver knocked down a Naval personnel who mounted a road block and was extorting money from tipper drivers plying the roads, adding: we see it as a transferred aggression.

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Loading...Home | News | General | World Bank tackles N20m water, electric projects in Enugu community

By Chinedu Adonu

ENUGU  There was excitement in Amufie and Umachi communities in Igbo- Eze North Local Government Area of Enugu State last week following the presentation of N20 million for water and electricity in the areas. The projects are sponsored by the World Bank in collaboration with the Enugu State Government, through the states Agency for Community and Social Development Project, CSDP.

Asogwa presenting a cheque to leaders of the community

Presenting separate cheques for the first tranche of the money for the projects to the leaders of the communities, the General Manager of CSDP, Dr Maximus Asogwa commended the state government for keying into the project, while urging the benefiting communities to make judicious use of the funds.

Asogwa said: We are here to release the first tranche, being 50 per cent of the over N10 million earmarked for the projects. You should show seriousness and complete the water project in good time so as to commence work on energisation and extension of electricity.

Our coming here is just to fulfill one of the things expected of the agency by the development partners and we assure you that once this water project is completed, we will also commence work on your second project which is electricity extension and energisation.

Leader of another community receiving a cheque

He further asked the communities to start work immediately to ensure potable water for the rural people just as he called for transparency and accountability by members of the Community Project Management Committee, CPMC, in the execution of the projects, warning that every stage of the jobs would be supervised to avoid complications.

We understand that the borehole in Amufie is a very big one compared to what they used to have before. The rehabilitation cost is as big as digging new one. You can come and collect another money when you finish the first tranche of the money. We hope that the project will be completed within the next few months to provide drinking water for the community, Asogwa added.

In their separate reactions, both the traditional ruler of Amufie Autonomous Community, Igwe Lawrence Ossai and the President-General, Amufie Town Union, Mr. Johnson Odo, commended the state governor, Hon. Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi for providing democracy dividends to communities across the state.

They noted that Ugwanyi had only spent three years but development has entered every community in the state, adding that, before the end of his second term, Enugu will be developed like London.

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Loading...Home | News | General | Bayelsa residents protest two months power outage

By Emem Idio

YENAGOAHUNDREDS of Bayelsa State residents yesterday, took to the streets of the state capital to stage a peaceful protest to the operational office of Port Harcourt Electricity Distribution Company, PHEDC, over two months power outage.

Black out as charactriesed by lack of effective power (electricity) supply in Nigeria

The protest, which was organised by a coalition of Civil Society Organisations, CSOs, was coordinated by the state branch of the Civil Liberties Organisation, CLO, in collaboration with Ijaw Youth Council, IYC, Niger Delta Self Determination Movement, NDSDM and the Environmental Rights Action, Friends of the Earth Nigeria, ERA/FoEN.

The protesters, mainly youths, wielded different placards with various inscriptions, such as Enough of darkness in Bayelsa, No light no billing, We say no to blackout and over estimated bills in Bayelsa, among others.

Addressing newsmen and officials of PHEDC at the operational business office of PHEDC on Isaac Boro Expressway, state chairman of CLO, Chief Nengi James, lamented the power situation in the state, regretting that the state has been in darkness since December last.

His words: You will agree with me that Bayelsa State and its environs have been experiencing epileptic power supply since part of December till date.

To commemorate the World Non Governmental Organisations, NGOs Day, we are using this opportunity to register our grievances over the power situation in the state to the whole world today.

In his remarks, chairman of Ijaw Youth Council, IYC, Central Zone, Tare Pourri, said it was regrettable that was only in Bayelsa State that this thing was happening, adding: Bayelsa state has been thrown into total darkness, yet the company keeps forcing residents to pay for the light they have not consumed through overestimated bills by fraudulent light committees but we are giving PHEDC two weeks to begin the process of installing prepaid metres in households.

They must immediately restore power supply to all houses. We will not come back for this negotiation, if they are not ready to do the needful, they should park and leave Byaelsa State because there are other companies willing to take over this business from them.

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Loading...Home | News | General | Oyo govt destroying forest reserves  Timber contractors

By Ola Ajayi

IBADAN THE Oyo State Timber contractors and Saw Millers Association has accused the state government of converting forest reserves and plantations across the state to commercial farmlands.

The association, which has threatened to file a suit against the state government, described the policy as an invitation to ecological disaster to the state and the entire South West.

According to the association which said it has about 5,000 members, the exposure of the forest reserves to environmental degradation could threaten the ecological support fund that the country enjoys from international donor agencies.

In a letter of protest through their counsel, Mr Remi Alli to the Commissioner for Agriculture, Natural Resources and Rural Development, the timber contractors argued that before the state government ventured into the project, it should have made it pass through the statutory environmental impact assessment report which the government allegedly failed to do.

The state government should have looked elsewhere for vacant lands for its commercial farmlands and not the forest reserves knowing the grave consequences of deforestation.

Governor Abiola Ajimobi led administration, had, in a letter marked 411/27 and dated September 25,2017 approved the creation of agricultural zones from the existing forest reserves in the state. The letter was signed on behalf of the state government by A.B Oladejo who signed for the Director of Forestry.

The government had listed the forest reserves in Gambari, Ijaiye, Osho, Igangan, Lanlate, Olokomeji, Olasehinde, Okoo-Iro and Opara with 250,000 hectares of land as areas where the commercial farmlands would take place.

The government policy will affect 11 out of the 33 local government areas of the state.

Vanguard gathered that the lands had allegedly been allocated to top government officials including Governor Ajimobi who has reportedly got thousands of hectares of land in Oluyole and Oke Ogun areas of the state.

But the association said, We believe that this is yet another attempt at destroying the legacies of the founding fathers of the Yoruba race, to wit, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, Chief Ladoke Akintola and others and we shall vehemently but legally resist this attempt at selling off our patrimony and destroying our environment for the present and future generation.

The conversion of forest reserves to commercial farmlands would result in soil erosion and flooding not just in the state but in the region as a whole. The objectives of the National Environmental (Soil Erosion and Flood Control) Regulations, 2001 are to resist or prohibit land disturbing activities which are dangerous to health, safety and property due to water induced erosion caused by increased flow velocity and volume of surface run-off; and to regulate the alteration of natural floodplains, stream channels, and natural protective barriers, which are responsible for the accommodation and conveyance of flood waters.

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Loading...The Air Force has deployed 100 fighter jets in the search for the 110 schoolgirls abducted on February 19, the Federal Government said yesterday.

The students of the Government Girls Science and Technical College (GGSTC), Dapchi, Yobe State were abducted from their hostels by terrorists.

Twenty of the jets have flown 200 hours as at Monday evening, according to a fact sheet on the search released by Minister of Information, Culture and National Orientation Lai Mohammed.

Chief of Air Staff Air Marshal Sadique Abubakar relocated yesterday to Yobe State to personally superintend the search for the girls, the minister said.

He also released the details of the missing girls. Eight are in JSS1, 17 in JSS2, 12 in JSS3, 40 in SS1, 19 in SS2 and 14 in SS3. The girls ages range from 11 to 19 years.

The list, which also contains the contact address and phone number of each missing girl, was verified by a 26-member Screening Committee that include the Executive Secretary, State Teaching Service Board, Musa Abdulsalam; Director, Schools Management, Ministry of Education, Shuaibu Bulama; Principal of GGSTC, Adama Abdulkarim; the two Vice Principals, Ali Musa Mabu and Abdullahi Sule Lampo; Admission Officer Bashir Ali Yerima, and the Form Masters for all the classes, Mohammed said.

National Security Adviser (NSA) Babagana Monguno, who constituted a 12-member committee to unravel the circumstances surrounding the abduction, gave the committee March 15 deadline to submit a report.

Gen. Munguno, who visited Governor Ibrahim Gaidam in Damaturu, the Yobe State capital, yesterday announced that 80 other planes would join the search for the girls.

He told the governor: The Nigerian Air Force has deployed 20 aircraft in Maiduguri and 80 others on their way. So far, 200 hours have been utilised in flying sorties looking for these girls.

We have also been made aware of the fact that the Nigerian Air Force will step up its operation regardless of the very hard and severe weather condition.

Giving further details of the security measures in place as well as efforts to get the girls back, Munguno said: Back in Abuja, we have set up our own machinery in dealing with this situation. All the security agencies have been working together. The situation room has been expanded  the one in the office of the National Security Adviser that is linked directly to all other security agencies but most importantly to the theatre command over here.

I have made efforts with my counterparts across the region to try and work and share intelligence together and see how quickly we can bring to an end this very unfortunate situation. But, apart from that, we are also looking at other measures in dealing with past occurrences and how to forestall any future occurrence. 

Air Marshal Abubakar and some other military chiefs were with Munguno at the meeting with the governor, who praised President Muhammadu Buhari for his efforts so far and for sending the third high-level delegation to the state within one week of the girls abduction.

Gaidam, nevertheless, said it is unfortunate that prior to the attack, the Army units stationed in Dapchi and Bayamari towns were removed. We are, therefore, of the opinion that there is no reason whatsoever to take that untimely action since Dapchi is the headquarters of one of the frontline local governments and Bayamari too is one of the major settlements close to the neighbouring Republic of Niger associated with porous terrain that should be protected.

Munguno assured that the government will continue to push harder, dealing with all organisations  local and international  and engaging with every group that comes forward to see that these girls are brought back safely to their parents. This is a commitment that the government has made.

The NSA committee to be inaugurated in Abuja today will be chaired by a military officer of the rank of Major General. It comprises one senior Provost each from the Army, the Navy and the Air Force; representatives of the National Intelligence Agency (NIA); Defence Intelligence Agency (DIA); the Police; Department of State Services (DSS); Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC); two representatives of the Yobe State Government and a representative of the Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA).

The terms of reference of the Committee include ascertaining the circumstances surrounding the abduction of the girls, confirming the presence, composition, scale and disposition of security emplaced in Dapchi as well as in GGSTC before the incident and suggesting measures that can lead to the location and rescue of the girls.Home | News | General | EFCC releases photo of ex-Governor Joshua Dariyes son Nanle Miracle arraigned for alleged laundering of N1.5bn

- Nanle Miracle, the son of former governor of Plateau state, Joshua Dariye, was arraigned for alleged money laundering to the tune of N1.5 billion

- Miracle was arraigned before Justice Ijeoma Ojukwu of the Federal High Court in Abuja

- He has been remanded pending when he would meet his bail condition

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has arraigned Nanle Miracle, the son of former governor of Plateau state, Joshua Dariye, on a six-count charge of money laundering to the tune of N1.5 billion.

Miracle was arraigned before Justice Ijeoma Ojukwu of the Federal High Court, Abuja alongside Apartment le Paradis hotel where he was a director.

According to a statement by the EFCC, the defendant failed to report a cash transaction to the tune of N1.5 billion which he received through the hotels account in one of the old generation banks.

READ ALSO: Herdsmen reportedly invade Benue community, order residents out

The amount is above the threshold of the N1 0million permissible by law. Additionally, the hotel was also not registered with the Designated Non-Financial Institution (DNFI).

Miracle Dariye. Credit: EFCC

According to the statement, the offence is in contravention of section 5(1) (a) of the money laundering prohibition act, 2011 as amended and punishable under Section 5 (b) of the same Act.

NAIJ.com learnt that the defendant pleaded not guilty to the charge when they were read to him while counsel to the EFCC, George Adebola, asked the court to fix a date for trial and for the Miracle to be remanded in prison custody.

However, Miracle's counsel, Charles Abalaka, pleaded that the he was yet to file application for bail as he was served with the charge late on Monday, February 26.

He further urged the court to admit his client to bail, while presenting two sureties - Amana Yusuf, a grade level 12 civil servant working with defence ministry and one Rose, a grade level 13 officer working with office of Head of Service (HoS) in Abuja.

The statement said Justice Ojukwu admitted the defendant to bail in the sum of N5 million with two sureties like sum and who must be resident of Abuja and must provide tax evidences for 2015, 2016 and 2017.

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The defendant is also to submit his international passport and certificate of occupancy as the judge adjourned the case to April 10 to 12, 2018 for commencement of trial.

The defendant is to be remanded in EFCC custody pending the fulfillment of the bail conditions, the judge added.

NAIJ.com earlier reported that the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) recently urged the federal government to recover the more than N40 billion so far received by ex-governors currently serving as senators and ministers.

A statement by executive director of SERAP, Adetokunbo Mumuni, on Sunday, July 16, said the politicians were already enjoying pensions and other privileges and ought not to receive further emoluments from the federal government.

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Loading...High-profile cyber attacks, like Russian interference in the 2016 election, are grabbing the headlines, but corporations should be more concerned with a security risk closer to home. Corporate data is leaking out via insecure mobile apps, and many corporations dont even know it. In fact, the potential for exfiltration of your data via mobile apps is emerging as the biggest blindspot in corporate security efforts.

Mobile apps often collect a large amount of data that isnt necessary for the apps use, such as specifics about the device and the users physical location. The problem is that apps often offload the processing of this data to the cloud. And when your data goes to the cloud, any miscreant who knows where to look can potentially gain access to your valuable corporate information.

A recently discovered vulnerability, dubbed HospitalGown , illustrates the risk when mobile apps send enterprise data to unsecured backend databases. A new research report documented more than 1,000 enterprise apps with this backend vulnerability, exposing an estimated 280 million records. These records were accessible as a result of weakly secured databases that did not require authentication of any kind to access the data.

This means that corporate data is sitting unencrypted in publicly available databases that dont require so much as a password to access them. In other words, your data is out there for the taking, which is why there have been an increasing number of reports over the past few months of content being stolen from data stores and held for ransom.

The particularly scary aspect of vulnerabilities like HospitalGown is that no amount of on-device security can protect against those applications that store sensitive data in a lax manner. HospitalGown in particular poses a direct risk to enterprises, opening them up to an easy breach, exfiltration of sensitive data, and the ensuing costs of remediation, lawsuits, compliance infractions, and loss of brand trust.

The onus is now on app developers to use secure APIs when interfacing with backend servers and protect data in transit with encryption. Meanwhile, on that backend, the servers should either be firewalled from public internet access or at least protected behind a secure API.

Of course, the onus is also on corporations to do a better job of securing sensitive data. Here are some mobile app best practices that every company should adopt:

1. Educate employees about the risks of the apps they download. Employees have a direct impact on the overall security posture of the organization they work for because theyre the ones deciding which apps to install and why. So, its in ITs best interest to educate these users by arming them with tools and training to make better decisions about the apps they download. You have two options: allow your employees to be part of the problem or empower them to be part of the solution.

2. Create and enforce a policy for managing mobile use. Most organizations already have policies for other platforms, such as the management of firewalls and the sharing of data with partners. Its just as important to create a security policy for mobile. You need visibility into what apps your employees are using and what those apps are really doing. And you need to be proactive. If there is a particular file-sharing app you dont want employees to use, you should offer an alternative app that they can use. Otherwise employees will go on using the original app.

3. Make sure to vet apps you recommend to employees. Be mindful of the apps that your company chooses to share or recommend to employees, including those that employees bring into the organization. Maybe youre recommending that everyone use a particular CRM app or collaboration app without properly vetting it first and ensuring its safety. If there are vulnerabilities in that app, such as HopitalGown, there are then vulnerabilities on the device of every employee using that app. That puts your organization at extreme risk. This is especially important as new compliance standards and regulations, such as the General Data Protection Regulation, go into effect. Under the GDPR rules, not only will the app developer be liable for fines but so will each enterprise that pushed that app to its employees. How big are the fines? GDPR calls for up to 4 percent of a companys revenue. Thats big.

4. Only download apps from authorized app stores. Every app in the Google Play and Apple (News - Alert) App stores is reviewed before its put on the shelf. But the same cannot be said about third-party app stores. Most do not regulate security and cannot ensure a users privacy and safety. But even then, the reviews that Apple and Google (News - Alert) conduct are not stringent enough for most enterprises, so its important to go further and deploy a mobile threat protection solution.

5. Delete apps that you no longer use. Apps become risky to your privacy and corporate data when theyre not updated with security patches and other upgrades, which youre less likely to do if youre not using them. Either delete or update apps that you havent used in three months or longer.

6. Every time a new app is downloaded, check the permissions. Does the app ask for your location? How about access to your camera or phone? Does the app really need that access to do its job? Does tracking occur all the time or only when the app is in use? Update your permissions and delete apps that require information unrelated to the apps function. Adjust your settings for apps where permission makes sense at certain times.

Mobile apps are quickly emerging as the most glaring blindspot at corporate security departments. As your organization grows more mobile, you must more actively defend against these mobile threats. You should institute mobile security policies and encourage sound security habits to protect your organization from an embarrassing and costly breach.

About the Author: Domingo Guerra is founder and president of Appthority (www.appthority.com).

Edited by Mandi NowitzHome | News | General | In less than 2 months after his murder, DSS arrests suspected killers of lawmaker

- The Department of State Services (DSS) said the nabbing of a 23-year-old Isaiah Suwe led to the further arrests

- The DSS described Suwe as an accomplice of Terwase Akwaza (also known as Ghana) who is on the wanted list of security agencies

- Suwe reportedly led the DSS to arrest Barnabas Torva Amadu

The Department of State Services (DSS) has announced the arrest of Barnabas Torva Amadu, who is believed to be a member of a gang that kidnapped and killed Hosea Ibi, a lawmaker at the Taraba state House of Assembly recently.

The Punch reports that the DSS said Amadu was arrested on February 25, at Takum in Taraba state, after a joint team of service operatives and the military arrested a 23-year-old Isaiah Suwe.

READ ALSO: Herdsmen reportedly invade Benue community, order residents out

According to the report, Suwe led the team to Gbise Village in Katsina Ala local government area of Benue state where Madu and members of his gang were arrested.

Quoting a statement signed by the spokesperson for the DSS, Tony Opuiyo, in Abuja on Tuesday, February 27, the report listed other arrested members of Suwes gang as Aondi Tersoo, Nengenen Mbaawuaga Damian, Aondoase Kayitor, and Ternenge Terso.

The DSS described Suwe as an accomplice of an alleged kidnapper, Terwase Akwaza (also known as Ghana) who is on the wanted list of security agencies.

On the other hand, Amnadu was said to have participated in the kidnap and murder of the lawmaker in January, 2018.

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The report said about nine SIM cards, different telephone brands and accessories as well as a First Bank ATM Card, a flash drive, one voter card and one identity card belonging to one Moses Yaro, a member of Vigilante Group of Nigeria (VGN) in Taraba state were recovered from the suspected gang.

NAIJ.com earlier reported that troops of 23 Brigade deployed to Wukari on Ex Ayem Akpatuma and team of Department of State Services from Jalingo arrested suspected kidnappers and killers Honourable Hosea Ibi.

In an earlier released statement by the deputy director, army public relations, Colonel KO Ogunsanya, the arrested suspects include Jaka Ejukun (24years), Peter Isaga (33years) and Arachukwu Bedforth (21years).

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Loading...Home | News | General | Herdsmen reportedly storm Benue community, sack 5,000 residents

- Fulani herdsmen reportedly attacked a community in Benue

- The herdsmen asked the residents to vacate

- The police commissioner confirmed the incident

Suspected herdsmen reportedly stormed Chille Island in the Mbatoho area, a suburb community in Makurdi Local Government Area of Benue state and ordered the residents to vacate.

According to New Telegraph, the herdsmen invaded the community on Tuesday, February 27 and asked the residents to leave.

READ ALSO: National Assembly confirms Buhari's rejection of Peace Corps bill

Mr. John Terhemen who is the leader of the community led other members to the office of the deputy governor, Engineer Benson Abounu to narrate their ordeal in the hands of the herdsmen.

He said the herdsmen asked them to vacate their lands to allow them graze their cattle.

He however said the invaders did not harm anyone and did not burn down our home, they simply asked us to leave.

Fatai Owoseni, the commissioner of police in the state also confirmed the report saying we have received a report about that

The deputy governor said they had gotten report of the story and wanted to confirm it veracity.

He said: The people said the Fulani herdsmen have sacked them, and it is just across the River in Makurdi town. But I have sent the Special Adviser on Security to go there and determine the authenticity of the story. Until that is done, then we will know the next action to take.

Meanwhile, Gunmen suspected to be herdsmen have invaded Gwamba community in Demsa local government area of Adamawa state.

The attackers reportedly stormed two villages in the community in the early hours of Tuesday, February 27, and opened fire.

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Several houses are reported to have been set ablaze, while the residents fled in different directions.

Though details of the casualties are yet to be ascertained, an eyewitness who spoke to Channels Television said security forces have been drafted to the area to contain the attack.

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Loading...Home | News | General | Excercise Ayem Akpatuma: Soldiers kill 10 herdsmen in Adamawa, recover AK 47

- Armed herdsmen reportedly attacked a village in Benue state

- The herdsmen were said to have set the village ablaze but were resisted by the troops

- The troops engaged them and killed 10 of them

Troops of 101 special forces battalion on Excercise Ayem Akpatuma (Cat Race) deployed at Numan local government area of Adamawa state swiftly responded to a distress call and supported troops at Gwamba village under attack by herdsmen on Tuesday, February 27.

According to a statement sent to NAIJ.com by the director, army public relations, Brigadier-General Texas Chukwu, despite the swift reaction to rescue the village from destruction, the notorious herdsmen set the village ablaze before the troops arrived.

The herdsmen arrested by the troops while setting ablaze Gwamba village. Photo credit: Nigerian Army

READ ALSO: Benue Youth Forum expresses concerns over Exercise Cat Race

However, the troops were said to have trailed the herdsmen and arrested 6 of them at Garigiji village while trying to escape.

Some of the herdsmen rifles recovered by the troops. Photo credit: Nigerian Army

During the process of the arrest the herdsmen show resistance, which made the alerted troops to engage them and killed 10 of them, the statement said.

Items recovered from the herdsmen are: one AK 47 rifle, 41 rounds of 7.62mm special, one locally made rifle with 25 cartridges, one cutlass, looted clothes and one motorcycle.

Some other items recovered from the herdsmen by the troops. Photo credit: Nigerian Army

NAIJ.com had reported that the attackers stormed two villages in a community in the early hours of Tuesday, February 27, and opened fire.

Several houses were set ablaze, while the residents fled in different directions, even as details of the casualties are yet to be ascertained.

Eyewitnesses however confirmed that military personnel have been drafted to the area to contain the attack.

READ ALSO: Police releases phone numbers of state commissioners nationwide

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Loading...Home | News | General | STATE OF THE NATION: Nigerias in the belly of vultures

By Monsuru Olowoopejo

CHIEF Tola Adeniyi, a former Managing Director of Daily Times of Nigeria, Plc, in this interview with Vanguard, bares his mind on the challenges confronting the nation and possible solutions. Adeniyi, who is set to launch a book referencing some of his media works gave reasons for making the publication at this time. Excerpts:

Adeniyi: The governments nepotism worse than corruption

Why did you publish this book at this time, considering the state of the country?

I am bowing to pressure from friends, colleagues and the younger generation, who want to know about Tola Adeniyi and other details about the country and wish to have it in a permanent form. Journalism is history written in hurry but once they have it in a book form, they can always refer to it.

In over 50 years of writing, I wrote over 20, 000 articles. The first edition is Nigeria in the belly of Vultures. The second edition is titled: Nigeria in the belly of Vampires and the last edition is Nigeria in the belly of the Military: 1966 to 1999.

With the topic of your book, Nigeria in the belly of Vultures, what does vulture symbolise?

It means those that have killed Nigeria. This is because vultures do not eat fresh food but dead animals. Some people saw that Nigeria was dying and they began to feed on it. They have gone beyond vulture and that was why I titled the second series of my book, Nigeria in the belly of Vampires. They have started sucking the blood of the country and commenced their activities before President Muhammadu Buhari came to power.

And rather than the president ending their activities completely, they became emboldened. We have vultures everywhere. Aside the local vultures, the British and the Americans are on the throats of Nigeria and they are ready to suck the blood of the country. I think Britain and the United States of America, USA, are among the vultures sucking the nation.

What should Nigeria do to get out of the grip of the foreign vultures? Should it align with China?

That was what affected many of the first generation of African leaders because they shifted alignment to Russia. Nigeria isnt stable enough to align with anyone. The leadership that we have seems not to understand international politics. And to buttress this, in the current government, we have former Ekiti State governor, Dr. Kayode Fayemi, who is a leading expect in international politics; rather than make him the Minister of Foreign Affairs, the Buhari administration asked him to oversee mining. It is a misplacement of priority.

At this stage of our democracy, why are we still battling with such challenges?

Nigeria is a building that has been cracking over the years. And it is a building that is about to collapse. What everyone is doing, specifically, is to patch it to prevent it from caving in; except for few years when it was learning how best to seat and crawl.

It has been a tale of woes. But when the Obafemi Awolowos, Nnamdi Azikiwes and Ahmadu Bellos were tending it to sit down, it had some stability. This is because it was experiencing regionalism, self determination and healthy competition, allowing the component parts filled with people who were selfless, genuine and focussed than those who took over from them.

Nigeria is a country that had good beginning, specifically in the hands of those who ruled it from independence to 1966.

Even before then, we all knew that it was a house built on a mirage because the amalgamation was a fraudulent document. And we all knew that sooner or later, the country will go the way other amalgamations like India, Sudan and others went. That is unless leaders of thought quickly join hands together to rescue this building before it finally collapsed.

Can the Buhari administration rescue Nigeria before it collapses?

The present administration has failed woefully. It is unfortunately headed by someone who doesnt believe in Nigeria but a cabal. He cant claim to love the country by his antecedents. What he has done in the last two years, he cannot claim to love Nigerians that are slaughtered daily by the herdsmen under his watch. I believe he isnt doing anything about it. But if he claims to be working tirelessly to address the issue, it is all pretence and pretentiousness. He cannot claim to love the country if he parades the degree of nepotism, the like that had never been seen in Nigerias history, which is the worst form of corruption.

This government parades corruption, insensitivity, impunity and shows unconcern about to the sufferings of Nigerians. It cannot claim to be working in the interest of the citizens. Buhari has failed Nigerians and it has no business seeking for re-election in 2019, considering the insecurity that had enveloped the country in the last two years.

What do you think Buhari can do to end the mirage of challenges facing Nigeria after 57 years of existence?

The best solution is that governments; both federal and state, must stop to exist. We need to restructure before anything. If we go ahead to conduct the 2019 election, we will be electing public office holders who will be unable to pay salaries, improve security and parade impunity.

They will continue the same insensitivity. So it is continuity into oblivion. Thus, there is no way any reasonable Nigerian should support the call for continuity for an administration that does not care about security of lives and property of its citizens.

So we should we not go ahead with the 2019 election?

What I will advocate for is a national government where each ethnic group will be represented. Buhari could still be retained to complete his term while the national government takes charge of the countrys affairs and restructure the country. It will not be affected by religion and nepotism because the government will include everyone from different backgrounds. But if that fails, I believe that Buhari isnt the only candidate that can represent the North.

They should present another candidate and not Buhari. The candidate should be someone who is well travelled and broadminded. He must also be someone who understands the arithmetic of Nigerias politics.

If you are asked to suggest any candidate, which one would you recommend for the north?

I cannot suggest anyone for them, though I know quite a number of leaders from the north but I am not in the position to do that for them.

When do we start the national government and how many years do we experiment with it?

This administration cannot continue to lead the country. It is wobbling. So, we must start the national government now. If he dissolves his cabinet today and asks every group to send their representatives, it would be done.

And the national government could last for another one and half years. It is easy for any country that wants to arrest its challenges. We dont need 20 years to plan to have a national government. And I dont think Buhari is interested in doing so because his mind isnt tilting towards that.

You were one of the die hard supporters of Buhari. Are you going to support him in 2019?

I had Buharis photograph on the screen of my telephones since 2003. I have never for once sat down with the president but I shook hands with him when he was the head of state at the instance of General Abisoye. But in 2014, I founded a group called Global Intelligential for Buhari. We were 19 in the executive. Among the team were Dr. Babatunde Segoe, Prof. Durotoye, who was the secretary-General of the group, Mrs. Ojikutu was the leader for United Kingdom. I was the chairman. Our head office was in Canada while we had branches in United Kingdom, France, Germany, Holland, Australia, China and United States of America, USA. We campaigned and sourced for funds for him. We held our meetings through tele-conferences. After raising the funds, we sent the money to director of his campaign team, former governor of Lagos State, Babatunde Fashola, now minister for Power, Works and Housing. After receiving the funds, he wrote an acknowledgement letter thanking us for the service we rendered.

Asides, I wrote more articles than anyone on the immediate past administration. It was on how it failed to address the challenges facing the country and why Nigerians should change the ex-President, Goodluck Jonathan. Looking at the present administration. I have told the administrator of that platform that he should change the name to Global Intelligential against Buhari.

So, why the change of name?

The reason is that he has disappointed us. What we had hoped for was not what we are experiencing now.

If your group is persuaded by Asiwaju Bola Tinubu to sheath sword, what will your team do?

I will thank Tinubu because I respect him; he is a wonderful aburo (brother). But I will remind him of the nepotism the present administration has committed especially in its kitchen cabinet.

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Loading...Home | News | General | IPOB, MASSOB, Ohanaeze youths, Obi mourn Achuzia

By Anayo Okoli & Chimaobi Nwaiwu

NNEWITributes have continued to pour in from far and near over the death, last Monday of Col. Joe Achuzia (Retd.), a Biafran war veteran popularly known as the Biafran Hannibal and Biafra Air Raid.

*Joe Achuzia

Among those who paid their glowing tributes to the late Achuzia were the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB; Movement for the Actualization of Sovereign State of Biafra, MASSOB, Campaign for democracy, CD and former Anambra Governor, Mr Peter Obi.

In its tribute yesterday, the Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra, MASSOB, commiserated with the family, Ndigbo and all Biafrans over the death of late Col. Joe Achuzia.

MASSOB in a statement by its National Director of Information, Comrade Edeson Samuel, said its leader Comrade Uchenna Madu, is shocked over the irreparable loss to death of Col Joe Achuzia, the fearless general who never gave up until the war was over.

The leadership of MASSOB under Comrade Uchenna Madu, wishes to commiserate with the family, Ndigbo and all Biafrans over the death of our leader, mentor and hero, Col. Joe Achuzia, the peoples general who joined our ancestors on Monday.

Col Achuzia was commander of commanders of Biafra Army; he led Biafra commandos units to recapture many sectors that fell for the enemies. Achuzia laid down his life because of his people; he never gave up the fight for the emancipation of Ndigbo and Biafrans from Nigeria enslavement through the British imposition.

MASSOB has lost a father, a motivator and a true Biafran leader. Ndigbo, Biafrans and the entire world will always remember his heroism, we are consoled by the fact that the course which he fought for all his life will never be forsaken.

Immortalise AchuziaCD

Similarly, the the Campaign for Democracy, CD has called on the Federal Government to immortalise the late Col.Joe Achuzia, by naming one of the Federal Governments institutions after him for being a patriotic Nigerian even after the Nigerian-Biafra civil war.

National Publicity Secretary of CD, Dede Uzor A. Uzor, in a statement in Onitsha, Anambra State described late Col. Joe Achuzia as a courageous Biafran Army officer.

Late Col. Achuzia, served in the Biafran Army, during the Nigerian civil war and participated prominently during the reconciliation that led to the end of the war and reintegration of Biafrans into Nigeria.

The Federal Government should fully take over his burial because he was instrumental and participated prominently in the reconciliation exercise that finally led to the end of the Nigeria-Biafra civil war, CD stated.

Opponents feared himOhanaeze youths

Ohaneze Youths Council, OYC, in their message of condolence described him as one of Biafras indomitable commanders.

According to OYC, beyond fighting gallantly for Biafra during the civil war, especially at Oguta, Abagana, Okigwe and Port Harcourt sectors of the war, Achuzia was a champion of the unity of the Igbo race.

Ohanaeze youths will always remember that Col Achuzia was fearless and instilled fear in his opponents. His bravery and suicidal features at war fronts earned him the title of Air Raid. With maternal root at Ezza in Ebonyi state and paternal root at Asaba in Delta State, Col Joe Achuzia died defending Igbo cause and seeking for a just, equitable and fair Nigerian state, OYC said in a statement signed by Mazi Okechukwu Isiguzoro, the National President, Mazi Okwu Nnabuike, National Secretary and Engr. Obinna Adibe, the publicity secretary.

The statement added: Col. Joe Achuzia died as a role model and a mentor to millions of Igbo youths and Biafrans.

Ohanaeze Ndigbo Youths urge governors of South East to give him a befitting burial as we declare 4 days of mourning for him.

I paid him periodic visitsObi

In his condolence message, former Anambra Governor, Peter Obi recalled that Achuzia was one of the elderly Igbos he paid periodic visits and described his death as the loss of one of those not afraid of their own voices and prayed to God to grant him eternal rest.

He was our heroIPOB

In its condolence message, IPOB said: Col. Joe Achuzia will be remembered by history as one of the finest and bravest soldiers the world had ever seen. Though his exploits, as a soldier, were in a quickly forgotten war in black Africa, the magnitude of his accomplishments put in context ranks amongst the greatest military feats of the modern era.

From his heroics in the famous Abagana Sector victory over Murtala Mohammed, to his recapture of Owerri, Col. Achuzia left an indelible mark that will be acknowledged by every generation of Biafrans until the end of time.He is our icon and all time hero.

Achuzia marched his footsteps on the hallowed soil of Biafra during his youthful days for the liberation and betterment of Biafra.

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Loading...Home | News | General | Like Baru, like Yusuf: Corporate governance failures in PMBs govt

By Mazi Sam Ohuabunwa

ONE of the greatest virtues President Muhammadu Buhari, PMB, is associated with is Integrity. This popularly marketed virtue is the back bone of the faith Nigerians have in PMB to fight corruption. This was the primary promise made to the people of Nigeria and this was also the main reason Nigerians voted him into power.

Therefore one would expect that the President would ordinarily not do or permit to be done anything that would impugn his integrity. When the story about his former SGF Babachir Lawal broke, following Babachirs indictment by the National Assembly, many Nigerians were shocked that it looked as if he was being shielded from facing the law.

PMB quickly set up an-in house committee to investigate the indictment and he was soon absolved. This was not a surprising outcome. Because friends will always stand behind their friends. The FEC can not investigate itself. That is antithetical to good corporate performance practices. But the National Assembly stuck to their gun, supported by the civil society and subsequently forced PMB to set up another investigative committee now headed by the Vice President. It took nearly six months for the report to be acted upon. Babachir was found culpable by the VPs Committee which showed the strength of character of the VP and PMB had to replace him. Since then, we have read that the EFCC has begun to question him on the grass-cutter deal. It was bewildering to many that PMB would drag his feet in dealing with a corruption matter.

Given Nigerians current revulsion to issues related to corruption and their expectations, they thought that such a weighty accusation should have involved the EFCC immediately the accusation was made by a responsible government body like the Senate of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. Then enter Dr. Maikanti Baru who was appointed the Group Managing Director of NNPC by PMB. Some time last year, Ibe Kachikwu the Minister of State for Petroleum wrote a memo to PMB which eventually became public that Kanti Baru was awarding contracts without the approval of either the Minister of State or the NNPC Board.

Indeed Ibe accused Baru of insubordination and sidelining of the NNPC board which he chaired. It was then reported that for some of those approvals Baru either went to meet PMB on his sick bed in the UK or went to meet PMBs Chief of Staff. Baru was reported to have responded that he did not need the approval of the NNPC board to award either procurement or sales contract. Rather he only needed to go to the NNPC Management Procurement committee which he Baru chaired. This explanation was supported by the Presidency and the matter was closed after Ibe was admonished to mind his business, know his limits and to concern himself with the mundane assignments of the minister of state with his lame statutory board.

Baru was vindicated and Ibe was humiliated. In all my years in corporate governance practice, I am yet to come across this kind of arrangement where a corporate statutory board does not have an approving power over certain levels of contracts or procurement, and the Nigerian Government under PMB believes it is okay. Up till today, I find this arrangement bewildering. While we were still trying to understand how this NNPCs troubling corporate governance structure promotes transparency and ethical conduct, the story of Maina broke out.

Abdulrasheed Maina was accused of misappropriating billions of Naira when he was chairman of a Presidential Task Team on Pensions Reform, PTTPR, set up by President Goodluck Jonathan. He was relieved of his appointment and dismissed from the civil service and later invited by the National Assembly and the EFCC.

He declined the invitations and was declared wanted by the EFCC. Maina took a walk across the border and waited for the fall of President Goodluck Jonathan. PMB came to power and authorised the Attorney General, Malami, to visit Maina in the UK and negotiate his return.

Maina made a triumphant return and between the DSS, AGF, Minster of Interior and the Presidency he got reabsorbed into the federal civil service and received double promotion. The current head of the civil service briefed PMB that the reabsorption of Maina into the service was going to affect PMBs anti-corruption fight. She was ignored and Maina resumed and was paid his arrears of salary at the new level from 2013 when he was sacked by Jonathan. Maina was posted directly from Presidency to the Ministry of interior, with a copy of the letter sent to the Head of Service.

The civil society and the media raised the red flag and after dithering for a while, PMB authorised his sack. The EFCC invited him again, he refused and rather took another walk across the border back to his base in self exile. EFCC then declared him wanted a second time. And nobody was queried or sanctioned. It was just an ordinary matter. Neither the DSS, nor the Police, nor the Immigration, nor the Ministry of Interior was put to any task. Then the National Assembly set up a committee to investigate how all these happened under the watch of PMB. The AGF goes to court to stop the investigation. Truly bewildering!

When we were hoping that we had seen the end of this kind of troubling incidents, then entered Prof. Usman Yusuf who was (or is) the Executive Secretary of the National Health Insurance, NHIS. Yusuf was accused of impunity, corruption and other elements of malfeasance. The Minister of Health, the distinguished Professor Isaac Adewole did a preliminary investigation and sent Yusuf on suspension to enable him do a more detailed investigation. Yusuf resisted going on suspension claiming that he was appointed by the President and, therefore, could not be disciplined by the Minister. After some ding-dong, he succumbed and proceeded on an indefinite suspension.

Meanwhile, the Minister ordered a full scale investigation and thereafter submitted the report to the President. I am told that the report confirmed the indictment. As the Hon. Minister waited for the presidential review of the report and the recommendation, he and the entire Nigerian people were shocked to hear that the Presidency had ordered Yusuf to resume work without recourse to the Minister nor to the recommendations of the investigative panel. Since then, neither Yusuf nor the NHIS has had peace. The workers union and their labour leaders have occupied NHIS in protest against the presidential recall. A few days later a pro-Yusuf group (similar to pro-govt group that demobilized the our mumu don dogroup) also joined in occupying the NHIS, fully paralyzing an organization that was already partially paralyzed under Prof. Yusufs leadership.

That this would happen where a case of corruption seems to be overlooked and where the authority of the minister seems undermined left me thoroughly and completely bewildered. And I exclaimed like Baru like Yusuf! What litany of corporate governance dissonance. God Help me!

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Loading...Home | News | General | Gunmen kidnap Akwa Ibom monarch

By Chioma Onuegbu

UyoTHE Village Head of Ikot Edet in Etim Ekpo Local Government Area of Akwa Ibom State, Chief Mfon Udoessien, has been kidnapped by gunmen.

Chief Udoessien was said to have been picked up from his palace, yesterday, by the gunmen after a fierce gun battle with the security agents drafted to provide security in the volatile area.

It was learned that the monarch is a brother-in-law to a former Head of Civil Service in Akwa Ibom State.

A resident of the area, who is simply identified as Eno, told newsmen that the monarch, a retired primary school headmaster and former Chairman, Nigeria Union of Teachers, NUT, in the area, might have been abducted following his stance on cultism.

According to him, Udoessien has relentlessly been waging war against the activities of gunmen, who have kidnapped no fewer than eight persons in the village.

He said the whereabouts of the monarch is unknown, as the kidnappers are yet to contact the victims family.

Eno said: We think the kidnappers came after the Village Head because of how he has been opposing their activities.

As of now, we dont know his whereabouts as the kidnappers are yet to contact any members of the monarchs family.

The Police Public Relations Officer in the state, Odiko Macdon, who confirmed the kidnap, said a meeting of the local government chairman and the security chiefs had been convened and far-reaching decisions taken to address the security challenges.

According to Macdon, security measures are in place; we just concluded a meeting with all the local government chairmen and the security chiefs in the state. That issue came up during the meeting; it is being addressed.

The monarchs kidnap happened this morning (yesterday) and our men ran into action immediately. The DPO led a team to the palace.

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Loading...Home | News | General | Breaking: Military employs fishermen, farmers to search for missing Dapchi schoolgirls

The services of local fishermen and farmers has been employed by Nigerian army in the search for the abducted Dapchi school girls.

Maj. Gen. Rogers Nicholas, head of counter-insurgency operation in the northeast (Operation Lafiya Dole), disclosed this at the inauguration of helipad, office complex and residential quarters for officers and airmen at the newly established 171 Nigerian Air Force Detachment in Monguno town, Punch reports.

He also disclosed that over 200 hours have been spent by crafts combing the Theatre for the schoolgirls.

READ ALSO: PDP spokesperson, 13 others confirmed dead in Adamawa herdsmen-farmers clash

He said: What this means is that nobody is sitting down, sleeping over it. It means that the government is serious in rescuing these abducted girls. Primarily, that is why the NSA is here to see things for himself and add value to what we are doing.

Having said that, the NSA has also introduced us to some locals  fishermen and farmers  who have very good knowledge of this terrain to work with us in terms of intelligence to contribute to the search efforts we are making.

The Nigerian Air Force has been airborne since the last three days and we will also declare additional platforms to do this exercise. As I speak, many areas have been covered, over 200 hours have been spent flying, combing the whole Theatre in search of the girls.

Additionally the ground force are there in various places searching in various places identified.

Meanwhile, NAIJ.com had earlier reported that the National Security Adviser (NSA) Maj.-Gen. Babagana Monguno (rtd) accompanied by the chief of air staff, Air Marshal Sadique Abubakar and the Theater Commander, Operation Lafiya Dole, Maj.-General Nicholas Rogers and other senior military officers, on Tuesday, February 27, joined the search team for the Dapchi schoolgirls.

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The NSA-led search team for the missing schoolgirls moved to areas around the Nigeria-Niger border before returning to Damaturu, the Yobe state capital for a courtesy visit to Governor Ibrahim Gaidam.

At the government house, Damaturu, Gen. Monguno said the federal government would not relent in its efforts until the schoolgirls are found and reunited with their families.

Nigerians react as Boko Haram terrorists kidnap over 100 girls in Dapchi, Yobe on NAIJ.com TV:

[embedded content]

Source: Naija.ng

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Loading...Home | News | General | Dapchi school girls: National Security Adviser joins search in Yobe state

- Maj.-general Babagana Monguno (rtd), the National Security Adviser, (NSA) has on Tuesday, February 28, joined the search team for the Dapchi schoolgirls

- The NSA-led search team for the missing schoolgirls moved to areas around the Nigeria-Niger border before returning to Damaturu

- NSA also said the Nigerian Air Force has deployed 20 aircraft to the region to support efforts to rescue the girls

The National Security Adviser (NSA) Maj.-Gen. Babagana Monguno (rtd) accompanied by the chief of air staff, Air Marshal Sadique Abubakar and the Theater Commander, Operation Lafiya Dole, Maj.-General Nicholas Rogers and other senior military officers, on Tuesday, February 27, joined the search team for the Dapchi schoolgirls, according to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN).

NAN reports that the NSA-led search team for the missing schoolgirls moved to areas around the Nigeria-Niger border before returning to Damaturu, the Yobe state capital for a courtesy visit to Governor Ibrahim Gaidam.

At the government house, Damaturu, Gen. Monguno said the federal government would not relent in its efforts until the schoolgirls are found and reunited with their families.

Giving an update on ongoing efforts to locate and rescue the abducted schoolgirls, the NSA said the Nigerian Air Force has deployed 20 aircraft to the region to support efforts to rescue the girls.

READ ALSO: Henry Okah appeals terrorism conviction at International Court of Justice

He said: In spite of the harsh weather, the Nigerian Air Force has so far conducted 20 sorties and a total of 200 hours of flying time, in search of the schoolgirls.

The office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA) is directly relating with security agencies and cooperating with other contacts across the border, while the situation room has been expanded to intensify the search for the girls, the NSA added.

Governor Gaidam, in his response, thanked the federal government for its swiftness in searching for the whereabouts of the schoolgirls and urged government to deploy more security personnel to schools in the area since it remains one of the frontline states in the fight against insurgency.

He said there should be no complacency in the efforts to decimate Boko Haram insurgents from their strongholds in the northeast and in any other location in Nigeria.

Also during his visit to the northeast, the NSA commissioned an office complex and residential accommodation built for officers and airmen at the newly established 171 Nigerian Air Force (NAF) Detachment in Monguno town, Borno State.

General Monguno said the new NAF unit would add value to the overall fight against insurgency especially in the northern part of Borno.

According to him: The completion of these projects is a milestone in NAFs continuous expansion drive to project airpower in all the nook and crannies of the country and to provide Nigeria with additional military options in conducting aerial surveillance of the countrys border with Niger Republic to curb terrorist activities and other criminal groups.

On his part, the chief of Air Staff, Air Marshal Sadique Abubakar, said the NAF detachment is meant to enhance the endurance limitations of airpower in the militarys counter-insurgency operations in the northeast and especially in northern Borno.

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He said: The establishment of this unit will expand as well as increase the reach of NAF platforms in operations around border areas.

The projects commissioned by the NSA include an office complex, a block of 11 flats for airmen, a block of flats for Officers and a newly constructed helipad.

Meanwhile, NAIJ.com had reported that Osun state governor, Rauf Aregbesola on Tuesday, February 27, described perpetrators of the recent kidnap of over 100 students of Government Girls Science College, Dapchi, Yobe, as coward individuals.

The governor who spoke at a 2-day conference of Osun Officials Wives Association (OSUNWA) hosted by his wife, Sherifat Aregbesola also called on Nigerians to intensify prayers for the timely release of the school girls.

Nigerians react as Boko Haram terrorists kidnap over 100 girls in Dapchi, Yobe on NAIJ.com TV:

[embedded content]

Source: Naija.ng

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Loading...Home | News | General | Senate probes allegation of double registration against Bello

Expresses concerns over issuance of Card to him by INEC

By Henry Umoru

ABUJA- THE Senate has begun probing of allegations of double registration leveled against governor Yahaya Bello of Kogi State.

Gov Yahaya Bello

The Senate has however mandated its committee on Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC to immediately carry out a holistic investigation and submit report at plenary for its consideration within two weeks.

The upper chamber yesterday expressed worry on why the issuance of Temporary Voters Card (TVC) to governor Bello last week by INEC.

Resolutions of the Senate Wednesday were sequel to a point of Order by Senator Mohammed Hassan, PDP, Yobe South.

Senator Hassan who came under Order 43 of the Senate Standing Orders 2015 as Amended, said that the investigation would help in sanitising the electoral system.

In his presentation, he said, There is this situation going round regarding the Governor of Kogi State. It was reported recently in the newspapers that the Governor of Kogi State was involved in double registration in the voter registration exercise. Again, some days or weeks after, INEC held a press conference in which they confirmed getting three members of staff of INEC sacked.

Now, we are concerned again. It was reported again by the newspapers that he had been issued another voter card from another ward. We are concerned about this and I think it is very important that the Senate Committee on INEC investigates and get to the root of this matter. It is very important.

It was reported everywhere that he cannot be prosecuted because he has immunity but for the purpose of getting this picture very right, I think the Senate Committee on INEC should investigate this and get this matter right.

Senate President Bukola Saraki who presided said, The issue that youre talking about is one that is important because the stability of our democracy depends on the credibility of our electoral processes. And as such, we must ensure that the processes are always what we can be proud of, especially now that countries all over are looking up to our electoral processes.

I am happy that the Chairman of INEC is seated here. It is something that he could look into and come back to tell us where the issue is.

INEC had last December dismissed two of its officials over their alleged roles in the electoral scam.

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Loading...Home | News | General | Dapchi schoolgirls: UNESCO condemns attack, pledges support to Nigeria

Director-General of UNESCO, Ms Audrey Azoulay, has condemned the abduction of schoolgirls from the Government Girls Technical College, Dapchi, Yobe.

Azoulay, who was speaking at the ongoing International Conference on Saving the Lake Chad in Abuja on Wednesday, said the organisation would support Nigeria in ensuring the girls safe return.

Newsmen report that the conference is attended by Presidents Muhammadu Buhari, Mahammadou Issoufu of Niger Republic, Idriss Debby Itno of Chad, Faustin-Archange Touaderae of Central African Republic and Ali Bongo of Gabon.

The Director-General, who was represented by UNESCOs Deputy Director General, Mr Getachew Engida, said the incidence has breached the right of the victims.

Let me express the support and solidarity of UNESCO to the government of Nigeria over the abduction of the schoolgirls in the North East.

As an organization promoting gender equality, peace, human rights and education we are deeply concerned by the fact that these girls are deprived of not only their rights to freedom but education

UNESCO strongly condemned this act and jointly with other UN agencies we will reinforce our support to the government of Nigeria, he said.

The Federal Government had confirmed the missing of 110 schoolgirls of the college during an attack by Boko Haram sect last week.

According to a list published by the government on Tuesday, 37 of the girls are in JSS 1 to JSS 3, while 73 are in SSS 1 to SSS 3.

Buhari on Monday pledged to safely rescue all abducted persons by insurgent groups, including the schoolgirls.

NAN

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Loading...Home | News | General | Heat-related diseases: Lab. scientist recommends bathing twice daily

A Laboratory Scientist, Mrs Monica Okoro, has advised Nigerians to take their bath twice daily during the hot season to prevent heat-related diseases.

Okoro, a staff of the University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital (UNTH) Ituku/Ozalla, Enugu, gave the advice in an interview with newsmen in Enugu on Wednesday.

She said that the effect of heat bringing out sweat, which was salt water, combined with other atmospheric virus and bacteria could cause skin-related diseases such as dandruff, eczema and acne.

The expert said that after sometime, the sweat not washed away might lead to an infection that could cause sexual-related diseases, especially in women.

It is good for everyone to take his or her bath twice daily especially as the heat season gears-up.

However, women should not miss it at all and bathing should be part of their daily routine.

They (women) should ensure that they wear clothes, especially under-wears made with cotton materials and not nylon materials, to allow free-flow of air, she said.

The expert also urged Nigerians to cultivate the habit of washing their hands and faces to prevent eye itching caused by the bacteria that could come in contact with the eyes through sweat.

You can do well by washing your face with a mild soap and water to prevent eye itching and acne as a result of sweat and bacteria action on the face, she said.

Newsmen report that most cities are presently experiencing heat due to inclement weather.

NAN

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Loading...Home | News | General | Pollution : Rome to ban diesel cars

The Mayor of Rome, Virginia Raggi has said that Rome will ban diesel cars in an attempt to combat air pollution.

Now cars with diesel engines will be banned from heading into the centre,the mayor said.

Virginia Raggi, Mayor of Rome

Raggi announced the decision on her Facebook page on Tuesday, saying: If we want to intervene seriously, we have to have the courage to adopt strong measures.

Her comments followed a court ruling in Germany that cities there can ban the most heavily polluting diesel cars from their streets.

About two-thirds of the 1.8 million new cars sold in Italy last year were diesel, according to industry figures.

The Italian capital is one of the most traffic-clogged cities in the world. But the damage done by those engines is threatening the thousands of historic monuments that are found there.

Rome has no major industries, so nearly all of the air pollution in the Italian capital is caused by motor vehicles.

The city regularly tries to ban older, more polluting vehicles from roads on days when pollution reaches critical levels.

It has also tried to reduce pollution by allowing only cars whose number plates end in either odd or even numbers to circulate on alternate days.

But both regulations are widely flouted and lightly enforced by traffic police. To skirt the alternate days regulation, many families buy a used car with a different number plate.

Apart from health issues, pollution from combustion engines causes severe damage to Romes many ancient outdoor monuments.

According to a study last year by a branch of the culture ministry, 3,600 stone monuments and 60 bronze sculptures risk serious deterioration because of air pollution.

Ahead of celebrations marking the start of the new millennium in 2000, the darkened facade of St. Peters Basilica at the Vatican was cleaned as part of a project that lasted several years.

But fresh signs of pollution-related stains are visible again.

Before the German courts ruling on Tuesday, officials in highly industrialised Milan, in northern Italy, had already announced plans to make the city diesel free by 2030

NAN

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Loading...Home | News | General | Despite alleged N3bn loot, court grants ex NNPC GMD leave to go abroad for medical treatment

- Former NNPC GMD Andrew Yakubu has been granted medical leave abroad by the Federal High Courts Abuja Division

- His counsel had begged that Yakubu be permitted to travel outside the country to undertake a routine medical check-up

- The former NNPC chief is accused by the EFCC of looting the sum of N3bn which was discovered stashed in foreign currencies in his Kaduna guesthouse

Andrew Yakubu, the former group managing director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), has been granted leave to travel abroad for medical treatment by the Abuja division of the Federal High Court, Vanguard reports.

Yakubu is facing a six-count charge leveled against him by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), after the sum of N3billion was found stashed at his Kaduna guest house.

He was undergoing medical treatment in the United Kingdom when the EFCC, acting on a tip-off, raided the guest house and recovered the alleged loot which was in foreign currencies.

READ ALSO: Court orders forfeiture of Diezanis $4.760m Ikoyi properties to FG

NAIJ.com gathers that the leave was granted by the presiding judge, Ahmed Mohammed, following the filing of an application by the defendants lawyer, Ahmed Raji, SAN.

In the application dated February 26, Raji had begged that his client be permitted to travel outside the country to undertake a routine medical check-up.

The court was also informed by the EFCCs counsel, Ben Ikani, that the anti-graft agency was not opposed to the application.

PAY ATTENTION: Install our latest app for Android, read best news on Nigerias #1 news app

Meanwhile, NAIJ.com previously reported that Yakubu said the money recovered from his Kaduna home by the EFCC was part of gifts he received during ceremonies.

However, the former NNPC boss did not mention the ceremonies at which he got the money or those who gave him the gift; but denied that the funds were proceeds of crime.

He was said to have made the claim in a court document filed on his behalf before the Federal High Court in Abuja by Dolapo Kehinde, one of his lawyers.

Former NNPC group managing director Andrew Yakubu in court over fraud allegations - on NAIJ.com TV:

[embedded content]

Source: Naija.ng

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Loading...Home | News | General | Theres still conflicting report on number of abducted Dapchi girls, their identity  FG

*As it set up a12-man probe panel

By Joseph Erunke

ABUJA  THE Federal Government said Wednesday that there were still conflicting reports on the actual number of students abducted from Government Girls Science Technical College, Dapchi,Yobe State, recently by Boko Haram terrorists.

Hassana Mohammed, 13, who scaled a fence to escape an alleged Boko Haram attack on her Government Girls Science and Technical College, stands outside her home 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 /

The National Security Adviser, NSA, Major General Babagana Mungusum, Rtd, who said this while inagurating a 12- man committee to unravel the circumstances leading to the kidnap of the school girls, tasked the committee not only to unravel the actual number of abducted girls but also their identity.

He described the abduction as worrisome, saying it was an embarrassment to the country at large.

The committee is to determine the exact number of persons abducted alongside their identity as there are conflicting reports in this regard, to confirm the presence, composition, scale and disposition of security emplaced in Dopchi, as well as the school itself before the incident, he said.

The NSA added:The abduction of the school girls by the terrorists is a worrisome incident that requires deliberate, urgent and relentless efforts on the part of government.

There has been conflicting reports from various quarters on the event that led to the abduction, the number of persons abducted, as well as their identity.

This does not portray the country in good light. There have also been reports, especially in the social media which tends to support some level of inactivity by relevant organizations.

Therefore, there is a need to verify the circumstances surrounding the abduction of these girls from the Government Girls Secondary School.

According to him, for the avoidance of doubt, I will quickly re-emphasis that the terms of reference of the committee are as follows: to determine the circumstances surrounding the abduction of the students from the school on the 18thof February.

Other terms of reference includee to determine the exact number of persons abducted alongside their identity as there are conflicting reports in this regard, to confirm the presence, composition, scale and disposition of security emplaced in Dopchi, as well as the school itself before the incident.

They also include to ascertain the existing communication in the Dapchi and their functionality.

To suggest measures that can lead to the location and immediate rescue of the abducted girls.

To recommend measure to be emplaced in preventing future occurrences, any other detail the committee may deem necessary.

Mungonu added that considering the importance of the issue and the urgency required to promptly address the terms of reference and associated concerns, you are to commence sitting immediately and submit your report to me in two weeks time.

I, therefore, implore members of the committee to be objective in their findings in order to address this ugly development.

I must emphasis here also that there is a lot of cynicism outside in the wider society.

This is not the first time such incident has taken place. On the 14th of April, 2014, a lot of girls were abducted from a secondary school in Chibok.

A committee was set by the previous administration to look into the circumstances that led to the abduction of those girls.

What I want to emphasis to you is that this investigation has to be done with all the seriousness it deserves.

This is not going to be another exercise in futility. We are using the money of tax payers to carry out this assignment and they are entitled to getting results for whatever this committee does.

Again, the inclination to push things under the carpet, to be sympathetic to groups or organizations will not be tolerated.

You must unravel everything. Where people are culpable, it should come out in your report.

He informed the committee that the report also will be followed by a white paper. The president is extremely concerned about this incident which I have already told you, is beginning to cast a dark shadow on not just the administration but the country.

The truth of the matter is that security is all embracing. It is not just for agencies of government.

There is always an interface between the wider society and security agencies, especially in the context of the 21st century issues of insecurity. This time around, your work is going to permeate into the population not just in Yobe state, probably in Borno, Adamawa, Bauchi, Gombe states and so on and so forth.

He added that the basic motivation in this very exercise is to get result. I want results; this is not just going to be something theoretical, paper or suggestions that will end up on someone desk without anything happening.

We must let the people of Nigeria know that we have taken this incident with all the seriousness it requires and we are going to solve this problem.

I wouldnt want a situation whereby you are going to be suppressed by any individual, any group or organisation or agency because we are not going to allow anybody to cover up anything in this matter.

These are peoples children, our children and we must be seen to be doing the right thing.

Speaking, Chairman of the committee, Real Admiral Victor Adedipe assured the NSA of the commitment of the members to ensure that the findings are authentic and unbiased.

Adedipe stated that given the current plight of the families, the committee will put in its best to unravel the circumstances that lead to the kidnapping of the school girls.

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM: General

Loading...Home | News | General | Kanu not in GhanaIPOB

By Chimaobi Nwaiwu

NNEWITHE Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB,Wednesday described as a charade, ruse and tales by the moonlight, and sponsoring of falsehood by the security forces, that its leader Mazi Nnamdi Kanu and his wife were recently spotted in Ghana.

Nnamdi Kanu

IPOB in a statement by its Media and Publicity, Comrade Emma Powerful said the Federal Government is sponsoring falsehood about the whereabouts of its leader they kidnapped and possibly killed during the invasion of his fathers house in Afara Ukwu Umuahia by soldiers of the Nigerian Army.

It was a fake non-existent DSS computer generated IPOB leader they christened Okwudili Ezenachukwu who nobody has ever seen or heard from before; today we are being entertained with yet another tale by the moonlight that our leader Mazi Nnamdi Kanu and his beautiful devoted wife were spotted in Accra Ghana.

The originators of this fake news and their merchants went as far as publishing old pictures of the couple to lend credence to what is in essence a calculated attempt to absolve the APC regime of involvement in the abduction of our leader.

IPOB statement read: The fact still remains that Nigerian soldiers, exclusively comprised of Hausa Fulani men, invaded the home of our leader and abducted him alive or took him away on the 14th of September 2018.

Planting diversionary stories in the media to lessen the intensity of international pressure on present APC controlled Federal government to produce Mazi Nnamdi Kanu will not achieve the much desired intention of misleading the public, rather, it will keep reminding the world that our leader is still missing and presumed dead.

No amount of fabrication and idle unsubstantiable speculation will deflect or weaken our resolve in pursuit of freedom for our leader and Biafra. This is not the first, second or third time such frivolous speculation has been placed in the public domain.

It started with our leader being spotted around Cameroonian border, disguised as a Yoruba woman. When that failed to be substantiated with pictorial proof or evidence, they moved to situating him in a militant camp in the Niger Delta, under the protection of our brothers the Niger Delta Avengers.

After a few months went by without any shred of proof they alleged that our leader was ferried by boat through the Atlantic Ocean to Ivory Coast. When again that failed to gain traction, they came up with the miraculous sightings in Ghana.

These sightings are beginning to assume the same dimension as those of Elvis Presley reportedly seen severally over the years around his home in Graceland Memphis USA.

We are waiting for the next installment of these comical sightings or where they will say our leader is. Hopefully this time around one of the Nigerian security agencies will have guts and decency to come forward to say they have him in their custody.

IPOB is asking Nigerians to tell the Nigerian Army and Federal government that the sooner they speak the truth about the whereabouts of our leader, the better it will be for Nigeria, otherwise the APC government will continue to face the current challanges that is destroying the party and making it unpopoualr and lier to the people it promised change.

Understandably and rightfully so, a lot of people are angry about what has befallen our leader and they are beginning to manifest their irritation whenever the name Nigeria is mentioned in a public gathering in Biafraland.

How long the high command of IPOB can keep this anger under control is unknown to us, but what we do know is that those holding our leader or his body should not let this anger become uncontrollable.

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM: General

Loading...I played the 'token': Stars from Dawson's Creek, Buffy, Seinfeld, Frasier, Felicity and more dish on what it's like to be the only black actor on a white show. https://t.co/4hY3Orpmzy pic.twitter.com/VRkE5umgNb  The Undefeated (@TheUndefeated) February 27, 2018

-90s actors Phil Morris, Biance Lawson, Vanessa A. Williams, Markus Redmond, Kenn Michael, Kim Coles, Tangi Miller, and Shaun Baker discuss their experiences in tv where often times they were the token black character.-Phil Morris talks about having dinner with Aaron Spelling & Darren Star wherein he told them that they needed more black actors on their show. They told him that it was all casting! They would love to have him on the show! They would write a role for him! When he went out for a role on the show later on he was informed that he wasn't right for it and that they wanted a white actor.-Bianca Lawson was originally offered for the role of Cordelia Chase on BTVS but turned down the role to star in a black sitcom 'Goode Behavior' (that lasted for 23 episodes) where the producers had kept their word and wrote her a part for the series. She came back to Buffy to play the Vampire Slayer known as Kendra. She hoped that the role would last longer but it ended up only being a 4 episode stint. Being the first black actress on Buffy and Dawsons Creek never really occurred to her when she was younger.-Vanessa A. Williams who was in the first season of Melrose Place speaks about sitting down with Darren Star and asking him to change her characters reaction to the LA riots who originally distanced herself from the black community.-Shaun Baker talks about his experience on the set of VIP where he was a full time cast member. In his history of acting if they couldn't "find" a black stunt double for action scenes they would have the white stunt doubles don black face. For VIP they stated that they couldn't find a black circus performers to stunt for a scene he was to be in. He refused to have a white performer pretend to be black and demanded to be written out of the scene if they couldn't find a black performer for the stunt. They ended up writing him out of the scene.The rest can be found at the source.So I missed the on sale for LA, and when I last looked there were still a ton of seats available, just not good ones. Now they are all sold out, but all these other dates are flopping?? Hmmm.



I don't know whether to try to get decent tickets when the second show goes sale on Monday, or just wait til the week of the show and see what's up on Stubhub.

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Definitely see what you can get on Monday, and then leave it to Stubhub if you have to. Good luck bb!

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Yeah, I am thinking I will use this strategy. You get decent seats?

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I saw a funny headline that said "Despite all their rage, Smashing Pumpkins tour isn't selling well."

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This may be my favorite opening line to an article that I've ever seen in my entire life. pic.twitter.com/HOWqFymYNk  Matthew D'Ambrosio (@drmattdambrosio) February 26, 2018



I yelled

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lmao yes and I forgot about that opening line. Cackling. Even as a Smashing Pumpkins fan, I'm still laughing. And I'm slightly happy because this what they get for not coming near me.

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cackling omg

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LMAO

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Billy Corgan, frowning politely

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Lmaooooooooo

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ONTD, have you ever been to a poor-selling concert?



Yes. In 2009 when Julian Casablancas was doing his solo thing, he did a show at a venue that held 1500 people and there were maybe like 75 people total that showed up.

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held 1500 people and there were maybe like 75 people total that showed up



omg nooooo

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jesus! I have never seen a venue that empty.

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omg ! where was that!? I saw Albert Hammond Jr a few years at a small bar but it at least had like 200-250 pplo lol pobrecito julian.lol

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Yikes, poor Julian. Did you guys all gather close and try to meet him? I feel like that would be my response.

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Damnnnn I'm surprised they didn't just cancel at that point tbh. That sounds like it would either be incredibly cool or incredibly awkward haha

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wow Julian's solo stuff wasn't that bad was it

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I'm not going to the Chicago one even though they were (are? if I just think of SP as ceasing to exist before the Zeitgeist era lol) my favorite band and I used to be so obsessed. Having said that, with the news of their ~reunion I've recently fallen down a rabbit hole of listening to their [old] music again and rewatching my fav. live performances on YouTube for the first time in like 8 years and ahhhh GODDAMNIT BILLY

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Due with my second baby Aug 10th... would you chance it for an Aug 8th show? hahaha epic labour story? Fack.

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Orrrr hope the baby comes a few days early and Stubhub your way there? What a dilemma.

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This is an option, but who am I kidding? Im either going to be super huge and annoyed by hitting people with my belly or recovering from my third degree vagina tear. Its the thought that counts, I hope you get to enjoy :)

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Dont start of your babys life by having him or her listen to 2018s Billy Corgan.







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ugh disgusting

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*laughs in Kim Gordon*

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That was straight up my favorite part of her book lol

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what's the tea

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As far as poor selling shows, I haven't been to any that were embarrassingly empty. One of the million Conor shows I've seen went a bit too large venue-wise, and the back 1/6 of the seats were covered up, which was noticeable because his shows typically sell out. And a Yeasayer show I went to in Santa Ana was GA and there was a lot of personal space for each attendee, but the crowd that was there was into it.

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I might road trip from Minneapolis for that show!

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I'm envious of everyone in the East coast getting to see them in larger venues (20k), because they had more chance to get a ticket.

Last time they toured they went mostly in the West Coast but in mid-size venues (5-8k) and all the tickets sold out within 5 minutes. I was so mad.

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omg it will be amazing! i saw them in KC last April and they are my fave band and it WAS EVERYTHING. wish i could make it to another one this year but everything is so far away from me.

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"The Shiny and Oh So Bright tour"??

idg why this corny ass band was popular in the first place tbh...

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Yeah that really was not a good tour title

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D'arcy is cackling right now

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I was thinking the same thing!

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I saw dev at a 800 capacity venue and like maybeeee 1-200 people showed up? She had to call everyone to get close to the stage because some people were just chilling in the back sitting down lol



The crowd was lively at least so it wasnt that bad

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They are playing Golden 1 Center in Sacramento and Im almost certain it will be cancelled. Idk what they are thinking booking that giant and very expensive venue.

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I wish that there were better public transportation options to get to the arena they're playing in my city. It's actually out in the burbs so with traffic it's like a ~30-40 min drive away and I don't want to deal with that (or otherwise a crazy expensive Uber) after a show, there's a lot of tours I've skipped because of it :/ So I'm undecided on going, I like the Smashing Pumpkins but I don't know if I $100+ (by time you pay out fees, transportation, etc.) like them.



I've never been to a noticeably under-capacity regular concert but I have been to the ballet or the opera when it's half-empty :/

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Which city?

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The second Chicago date has some expensive ass tickets. Billy Corgan right now:













The Chicago date definitely didn't sell out quickly at all, I logged in a few days ago and there were still plenty of seats lolThe second Chicago date has some expensive ass tickets. Billy Corgan right now:

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Were they shitty seats? I logged on an hour after ticket sales opened and couldn't find any seats together that weren't the top level. I ended up just getting tix on stub hub.

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LinkIs Your Safety Plan Comprehensive? What You May Be Missing

Safety should be any business's top priority. The aim of any workplace safety program should be no injuries. It makes good business sense, and it keeps your people from being harmed. What's more important?

Still, injuries and fatalities continue to plague businesses, to the tune of $170 billion a year, according to OSHA. The safety agency notes that these are "expenditures that come straight out of company profits" and that this can be the difference between success or failure.

The other side of these numbers is human suffering and even death. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that workplace fatalities have been steadily on the rise since 2008, up 13 percent through 2016.

These are heavy statics. But the truth is that most businesses suffer the costs of injuries even with a proper safety plan and good compliance. So what's missing? Maybe your plan doesn't consider all of the factors that go in to establishing total safety.

The True Cost of Injuries

Before diving into the elements to include in your safety plan, let's first turn to why your goal should be zero injuries. Injuries represent costs: direct and indirect, human and financial. To start, injuries hurt! They may also cause permanent damage.

Injuries are expensive. Even the smallest injuries, ones that many employers and employees assume will take place, are more detrimental than might be obvious at first glance.

Consider that one laceration costs a business on average $41,000. That could be traded for a lot of worker hours put into crafting an outstanding safety program. It could pay, for instance, for a lot of incentives or improvements.

All accidents disrupt work flow, reduce productivity, and decrease morale. They can lead to paid time off, workers' compensation, and ongoing physical therapy. If an employee is sidelined for days or weeks, add on the cost of training a temp worker or new employee and the inefficiency that accompanies such a change. On top of that, there may be damaged or ruined equipment.

The bottom line is that accidents should be eliminated because they are nothing but bad.

Start With the Basics

Any safety plan should start with the basics: OSHA regulations. Build from there. In other words, meet regulations as your starting point and go beyond them. Get specific. What are the hazards in your particular environment? Identify the problems and find the solutions.

It's natural and common to create a safety protocol in reaction to an accident. This is good, but it's better to find potential problems and remove or mitigate them before the accident happens. This requires walking the floor often and paying close attention to how workers complete tasks.

It's also important to keep your safety plan nimble, as new hazards will crop up. An easy example is changing weather: Protocols for dealing with ice and snow will apply in the winter, while protocols addressing overheating will apply in the summer.

Make Safety Priority One From the Start and Repeat Often

Each new hire needs to understand from the very beginning that safety is the company's top priority and that there is a no-tolerance policy regarding non-compliance. This should be backed up with a comprehensive safety training program that each employee must complete before beginning work.

Thereafter, follow up with regular safety meetings and messaging, and keep it varied. People learn in different ways, so spread your safety reminders in different ways. Use videos, posters, texts or emails, loudspeaker announcements, hands-on training, and role play. Add humor to capture you staff's attention.

The goal is to keep safety at the forefront of everyone's thoughts.

Get Employees Involved

To develop and implement the best safety plan possible, you must involve your workforce. Bonus: They'll make your job easier! You can't be everywhere all the time; let them be your proxy. They're the ones who are experts about the workplace environment and the equipment. This puts them in the best position to identify trouble before it happens.

Assign safety ambassadors or teams. In addition to helping create safety protocols, empower them with the ability to make sure those procedures are enforced. Encourage them to lend a helping hand to others, when appropriate, and to correct any situation where they see a co-worker being unsafe.

By and large, people don't like to be dictated to. Giving employees a voice in the safety plan will make it much more likely that they'll fully participate in a healthy safety culture. This also means allowing them to have a choice in, say, PPE. If there is a dispute about certain elements of your plan, let workers know the reason it's being implementedthat it's not just a "because I say so" situation.

Address Mental and Emotional Health

An important key to staying safe is mental and emotional healththis is an aspect that is often overlooked. However, workers under emotional stress are less productive. They are also more likely to be distracted, tired, and stressed. And stress is one of the most common causes behind accidents.

Emotionally and mentally taxed employees may also be more prone to inappropriate behaviors such as drug or alcohol use in the workplace, or lashing out at other employees verbally or physically. Employee-on-employee violence is another top cause of injuries.

Be sure to include education about the importance of emotional well-being in your safety talks and training. Dispel any possible discomfort workers may have about this topic by treating it as a normal aspect of your safety program.

Provide resources about where to seek counseling for different types of problems. Offer to fully or partially pay for treatments as a way of encouraging such proactive behavior. Put that saved $41,000 to work for you and your team.

If employees are having issues in the workplace, be they problems with co-workers or management or just a need for help, let them know whom they can go to in the company. Make it clear that expressing their vulnerability in this way is not only OK, but encouraged. When people know they can ask for help, they work better as a team. And safety is always a team effort.

Address Physical Health

Physically healthy employees are safer employees. Physically unwell people are more likely to lack mental clarity and to be fatigued. And fatigue is yet another primary cause of workplace injuries.

Unhealthy people are also more likely to get sick, which results in days off, potentially infecting the rest of your staff, or both.

Exercise is a critical aspect of health. Consider paying for gym memberships or offering on-site workout classes. Encourage breaks and suggest that employees get up and move and stretch regularly. This will also help reduce another primary cause of workplace injuries: repetitive movement strain.

As regards nutrition, while you can't control everything your workforce eats, you can control what you offer on site and at work meetings and events. Replace soda with healthier options in vending machines. Stock the cafeteria with nutrient-rich options; eliminate processed foods. Ditch the office donuts for fruit and yogurt.

As with all other aspects of your safety program, include education about exercise and nutrition in your safety training, too.

Safe Workers Are Better Workers

Workers who feel safe and cared for are more productive, do higher-quality work, miss less work, return to work more quickly after an illness or injury, and are more satisfiedwhich means they stick around longer.

While accidents are all bad, staying safe is all good.

TJ Scimone founded Slice, Inc. in 2008, in search of creating the safest cutting tools possible. The result is a unique line of tools including box cutters, utility knives , and craft cutters. All of Slice's tools are ergonomic and feature finger-friendly blades.Are you a doctor? Want to work with Apple employees? Here's your shot.

Employees working at Apple's Cupertino, Calif. headquarters will soon benefit from a new "concierge-like healthcare experience," more evidence of big companies leveraging healthcare to both lure talent and streamline a costly expense.

A new company called AC Wellness on Monday began advertising jobs both on its website and on sites such as Glassdoor for positions that include care navigator, phlebotomist and acute care physician.

A lead care navigator overseeing the care of Apple employees will make around $144,000 a year and is expected to "always appear polished and composed," according to Glassdoor. "Personal hygiene must be impeccable," the ad reads.

Citing a launch date of 2018, AC Wellness describes itself as an "independent medical practice dedicated to delivering compassionate, effective healthcare to the Apple employee population."

Apple declined to comment. AC Wellness did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

LinkedIn, Facebook and other tech companies feature on-site doctors for their employees, a perk that is in line with tech company benefits that often include chef-cooked meals, massage therapists and bowling alleys.

More: 4 ways Amazon-Berkshire-JPMorgan deal could shake up health care

More: Walgreens and AmerisourceBergen deal talks have cooled as takeover looks unlikely

More: Apple clinics for your health? It almost just happened

The more than 10,000 employees who work at Apple's old Infinity Loop campus in Cupertino, between San Francisco and San Jose, access medical assistance through Apple Wellness Centers. Some of the new AC Wellness jobs are for Apple Park, the company's new spaceship-like offices which eventually will house most of the iPhone-maker's workers.

Apple currently provides medical services through Crossover Health; the company's Wellness Center site asks for employees to input their Crossover Health ID. In October, CNBC reported that Apple had been in discussions to acquire Crossover Health, but the deal fell through.

The new venture, first reported by CNBC, is part of a growing shakeup of the traditional healthcare provider system and one that seems designed to give particularly large employers more control over their healthcare costs.

Health care spending was 17.9% of the U.S. economy in 2016, or about $10,348 per person, according to the U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.

Amazon recently announced it was joining forces with Warren Buffett's Bershire Hathaway and JP Morgan Chase to reinvent the healthcare space.

Although few details are available about how the trio might handle such a makeover, experts say that there are savings to be had in both streamlining prescriptions and investing more heavily on disease and injury prevention.

At Apple's recent shareholder meeting, CEO Tim Cook said the company could make a "significant contribution" in the healthcare space, one that perhaps eventually incorporates the Apple Watch's ability to track basic fitness markers.

Apple also is looking to use its iPhone Health app to better aggregate and streamline patient medical records, something that could come into play when employees use the in-house Wellness Center.

Tech rivals such as Google, Microsoft and Samsung have similar ambitions to untangle a records thicket that frequently leaves patients frustrated.

Explore further Apple clinics for your health? It almost just happened

2018 USA Today

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.An image taken in June 2017 by a camera mounted on a drone displays the exposed remnants of Fort San Juan. Excavations of this area of the site will be continued in June 2018. Credit: Ryan Wallace

Chris Rodning, the Paul and Debra Gibbons Professor in the Tulane School of Liberal Arts' Department of Anthropology, unravels early entanglements between Native Americans and European explorers, revealing how their interactions shaped the history of the American South.

"Native Americans' responses to Spanish explorers and colonists form an important part of the story behind the history of European colonialism in North America," said Rodning, who conducts archaeological research at Fort San Juanthe earliest known permanent European settlement in the interior United States, located near Morganton, North Carolina.

Since 2001, Rodning has collaborated with David Moore, an anthropology professor from Warren Wilson College, and Rob Beck, an associate professor of anthropology from the University of Michigan, to excavate the site.

"In 2013, we identified the archaeological footprint of the fort," said Rodning, noting that the team has since focused on learning how the structure was built and where it was located in relation to a nearby Native American settlement called Joara.

In 1540, the conquistador Hernando de Soto traversed this part of western North Carolina.

"He threatened communities with violence, demanded food and sometimes attacked when they did not comply with his demands. He also pressed Native Americans into service as porters to carry supplies for his men," said Rodning.

Hannah Hoover, a Tulane senior double majoring in anthropology and classical studies, digs dirt from excavation squares at the Fort San Juan site and throws it up to sifters to screen the dirt in search of artifacts. Credit: Christopher Rodning

One generation after de Soto's expedition, Spanish explorer Juan Pardo arrived with another group of soldiers and established Fort San Juan in 1566.

"When Pardo marched inland, the town of Joara was a much more powerful town than it had been 26 years previously," said Rodningpossibly because of Joara's previous interactions with de Soto.

At first, an alliance formed between Pardo and the people of Joara, but in 1568, warriors from Joara sacked the fort and burned the compound.

"Architectural materials and designs of burned houses at the site demonstrate evidence of the typical Native American style of architectural design and construction, but some wooden fragments also indicate that they were cut and shaped with metal tools. The significance of that is Native Americans didn't have those types of metal tools," said Rodning.

Rodning said that it's likely that Native Americans gained access to these new tools from Spanish soldiers, or that Spanish soldiers participated in the construction and maintenance of houses where the men garrisoned at Fort San Juan lived.

Rodning said his team remains committed to the project in hopes of understanding how early moments and subsequent episodes of Spanish contact changed Native American communities in this region.

University Press of Florida published the group's findings in a 2016 book called Fort San Juan and the Limits of Empire: Colonialism and Household Practice at the Berry Site.

Explore further Oldest European fort in the inland US discovered in AppalachiansCredit: Harvard University

A team of astrophysicists and planetary scientists has predicted that Neptune-like planets located near the center of the Milky Way were transformed into rocky planets by outbursts generated by the nearby supermassive black hole.

These findings combine computer simulations with data from recent exoplanet findings, as well as X-ray and ultraviolet observations of stars and black holes.

"It's pretty wild to think of black holes shaping the evolutionary destiny of a planet, but that very well may be the case in the center of our galaxy," said Howard Chen of Northwestern University in Illinois, who led the study.

Chen and collaborators from the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA) examined the environment around the closest supermassive black hole to Earth: the 4 million solar mass black hole known as Sagittarius A*.

It is well known that material falling into the black hole in occasional feeding frenzies will generate bright flares of X-ray and ultraviolet radiation. Indeed, X-ray telescopes such as NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory and ESA's XMM-Newton have seen evidence for bright outbursts generated in the past, ranging from about 6 million years to just over a century ago.

"We wondered what these outbursts from Sagittarius A* would do to any planets in its vicinity," said John Forbes, a co-author from the CfA. "Our work shows the black hole could dramatically change a planet's life."

The authors considered the effects of this high-energy radiation on planets within 70 light-years of the black hole that have masses in between Earth and Neptune's.

They found that the X-ray and ultraviolet radiation would blast away a large amount of the thick gas atmosphere of such planets near the black hole. In some cases this would leave behind a bare, rocky core. Such rocky planets would be heavier than the Earth and are what astronomers call super-Earths.

"These super-Earths are one of the most common types of planet that astronomers have discovered outside our solar system," said co-author Avi Loeb, also of CfA, "Our work shows that in the right environment they might form in exotic ways."

The researchers think that this black hole impact may be one of the most common ways for rocky super-Earths to form close to the center of our galaxy.

While some of these planets will be located in the habitable zone of stars like the sun, the environment in which they exist would make it challenging for life to arise. The super-Earths would be buffeted by supernova explosions and gamma ray bursts, which might damage the chemistry of any atmosphere remaining on the planets. Additional outbursts from the supermassive black hole could provide a knockout punch and completely erode a planet's atmosphere.

These planets would also be subjected to the gravitational disruptions of a passing star that could fling the planet away from its life-sustaining host. Such encounters might occur frequently near the Milky Way's supermassive black hole since the region is so packed with stars. How crowded is it in the Galactic Center? Within about 70 light-years of the center of the galaxy, astronomers think the average separation between rocky worlds is between about 75 and 750 billion kilometers. By comparison, the nearest star to the solar system is 40,000 billion kilometers away.

"It is generally accepted that the innermost regions of the Milky Way are not favorable for life. Indeed, even though the deck seems stacked against life in this region, the likelihood of panspermia, where life is transmitted via interplanetary or interstellar contact, would be much more common in such a dense environment." said Loeb. "This process might give life a fighting chance to arise and survive."

There are formidable challenges required to directly detect such planets. The distance to the Galactic Center (26,000 light years from Earth), the crowded region, and the blocking of light by intervening dust and gas all make it hard to observe such planets.

However, these challenges may be met by the next generation of extraordinarily large ground-based telescopes. For example, searches for transits with future observatories like the European Extremely Large Telescope might detect evidence for these planets. Another possibility is searching for stars with unusual patterns of elements in their atmosphere that have migrated away from the center of the galaxy.

Explore further Hubble sees a supermassive and super-hungry galaxy

More information: Howard Chen et al. Habitable Evaporated Cores and the Occurrence of Panspermia Near the Galactic Center, The Astrophysical Journal (2018). Journal information: Astrophysical Journal Howard Chen et al. Habitable Evaporated Cores and the Occurrence of Panspermia Near the Galactic Center,(2018). DOI: 10.3847/2041-8213/aaab46Learning by doing. The field experience team learns how to 'pick out' cashew seed at the home of Terese Tillett and Landis Wade in Belize. Credit: Katherine Pendleton

A new paper on fieldwork in rural Belize serves as a case study for how an established anthropology fieldwork model can be used to both develop site-specific cultural and historical exhibits and train a new generation of public history scholars. The paper also highlights the importance of diversity to research teams when engaging in research - especially community-based scholarship.

"Public history, as a field, focuses on both sharing information about history and working with the public to place history in context - and understand how people already relate to their cultural and regional history," says Alicia McGill, an assistant professor of history at North Carolina State University and author of the paper.

"For this project, we worked with two Belizean villages - Crooked Tree and Biscayne - that are in close proximity to the Mayan ruins of Chau Hiix," McGill says. "Most of the residents in both villages are Belizean Kriol, of African descent. Our goal was to develop exhibits and educational materials that could be used by the villages to foster tourism and support educational efforts."

To that end, McGill led a team of public history graduate students from NC State and undergraduates from the University of New Hampshire (UNH) and Galen University, in Belize, as well as collaborating with archaeological researchers from UNH. The team worked closely with residents of Crooked Tree and Biscayne to ensure that the exhibits and related materials addressed not only the Mayan civilization, but the importance of Kriol culture to the region.

"We learned several things over the course of the project that I think are broadly applicable to other public history efforts," McGill says.

First, that the methodology of anthropological fieldwork can easily be adapted to the field of public history, particularly in regard to community engagement.

"It works so well because you are engaging in cultural immersion, which offers unique insights into the subject matter," McGill says.

Second, identifying local and regional partners is critical to success.

"We worked with national, regional and local partners, who provided us with resources, access and cultural and political insights that we may otherwise have missed," McGill says.

Lastly, the project also drove home the importance of having an ethnically diverse research team.

"For example, we found that local residents of African descent raised different topics when talking with African American members of our research team than when talking with other members of the research team," McGill says. "It gave us more insight and different perspectives on the subjects we were studying and the nature of our community engagements.

"And while I think all of these observations hold true for public history fieldwork in the U.S., they may be particularly valuable for public historians interested in international work," McGill says.

Explore further Critical thinking instruction in humanities reduces belief in pseudoscience

More information: Alicia Ebbitt McGill, Examining the Pedagogy of Community-Based Heritage Work through an International Public History Field Experience, The Public Historian (2018). Alicia Ebbitt McGill, Examining the Pedagogy of Community-Based Heritage Work through an International Public History Field Experience,(2018). DOI: 10.1525/tph.2018.40.1.54Earths geomagnetic field surrounds and protects our planet from harmful space radiation. Credit: Flickr user NASA Goddard Space Flight Center

Using new data gathered from sites in southern Africa, University of Rochester researchers have extended their record of Earth's magnetic field back thousands of years to the first millennium.

The record provides historical context to help explain recent, ongoing changes in the magnetic field, most prominently in an area in the Southern Hemisphere known as the South Atlantic Anomaly.

"We've known for quite some time that the magnetic field has been changing, but we didn't really know if this was unusual for this region on a longer timescale, or whether it was normal," says Vincent Hare, who recently completed a postdoctoral associate appointment in the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences (EES) at the University of Rochester, and is lead author of a paper published in Geophysical Research Letters.

Weakening magnetic field a recurrent anomaly

The new data also provides more evidence that a region in southern Africa may play a unique role in magnetic pole reversals.

The magnetic field that surrounds Earth not only dictates whether a compass needle points north or south, but also protects the planet from harmful radiation from space. Nearly 800,000 years ago, the poles were switched: north pointed south and vice versa. The poles have never completely reversed since, but for the past 160 years, the strength of the magnetic field has been decreasing at an alarming rate. The region where it is weakest, and continuing to weaken, is a large area stretching from Chile to Zimbabwe called the South Atlantic Anomaly.

In order to put these relatively recent changes into historical perspective, Rochester researchersled by John Tarduno, a professor and chair of EESgathered data from sites in southern Africa, which is within the South Atlantic Anomaly, to compile a record of Earth's magnetic field strength over many centuries. Data previously collected by Tarduno and Rory Cottrell, an EES research scientist, together with theoretical models developed by Eric Blackman, a professor of physics and astronomy at Rochester, suggest the core region beneath southern Africa may be the birthplace of recent and future pole reversals.

"We were looking for recurrent behavior of anomalies because we think that's what is happening today and causing the South Atlantic Anomaly," Tarduno says. "We found evidence that these anomalies have happened in the past, and this helps us contextualize the current changes in the magnetic field."

The researchers discovered that the magnetic field in the region fluctuated from 400-450 AD, from 700-750 AD, and again from 1225-1550 AD. This South Atlantic Anomaly, therefore, is the most recent display of a recurring phenomenon in Earth's core beneath Africa that then affects the entire globe.

"We're getting stronger evidence that there's something unusual about the core-mantel boundary under Africa that could be having an important impact on the global magnetic field," Tarduno says.

John Tarduno and his students collect measurements at a field site in southern Africa. Credit: University of Rochester photo / John Tarduno

A pole reversal? Not yet, say researchers

The magnetic field is generated by swirling, liquid iron in Earth's outer core. It is here, roughly 1800 miles beneath the African continent, that a special feature exists. Seismological data has revealed a denser region deep beneath southern Africa called the African Large Low Shear Velocity Province. The region is located right above the boundary between the hot liquid outer core and the stiffer, cooler mantle. Sitting on top of the liquid outer core, it may sink slightly, disturbing the flow of iron and ultimately affecting Earth's magnetic field.

A major change in the magnetic field would have wide-reaching ramifications; the magnetic field stimulates currents in anything with long wires, including the electrical grid. Changes in the magnetic field could therefore cause electrical grid failures, navigation system malfunctions, and satellite breakdowns. A weakening of the magnetic field might also mean more harmful radiation reaches Earthand trigger an increase in the incidence of skin cancer.

Hare and Tarduno warn, however, that their data does not necessarily portend a complete pole reversal.

"We now know this unusual behavior has occurred at least a couple of times before the past 160 years, and is part of a bigger long-term pattern," Hare says. "However, it's simply too early to say for certain whether this behavior will lead to a full pole reversal."

Even if a complete pole reversal is not in the near future, however, the weakening of the magnetic field strength is intriguing to scientists, Tarduno says. "The possibility of a continued decay in the strength of the magnetic field is a societal concern that merits continued study and monitoring."

In the Field: "Archaeomagnetism" at work

The researchers gathered data for this project from an unlikely source: ancient clay remnants from southern Africa dating back to the early and late Iron Ages. As part of a field called "archaeomagnetism," geophysicists team up with archaeologists to study the past magnetic field.

The Rochester team, which included several undergraduate students, collaborated with archaeologist Thomas Huffman of the University of Witwatersrand in South Africa, a leading expert on Iron Age southern Africa. The group excavated clay samples from a site in the Limpopo River Valley, which borders Zimbabwe, South Africa, and Botswana.

During the Iron Age in southern Africa, around the time of the first millennium, there was a group of Bantu-speaking people who cultivated grain and lived in villages composed of grain bins, huts, and cattle enclosures. Draughts were devastating to their agriculturally based culture. During periods of draught, they would perform elaborate ritual cleansings of the villages by burning down the huts and grain bins.

"When you burn clay at very high temperatures, you actually stabilize the magnetic minerals, and when they cool from these very high temperatures, they lock in a record of the earth's magnetic field," Tarduno says.

Researchers excavate the samples, orient them in the field, and bring them back to the lab to conduct measurements using magnetometers. In this way, they are able to use the samples to compile a record of Earth's magnetic field in the past.

Explore further First measurements taken of South Africa's Iron Age magnetic field history

More information: Vincent J. Hare et al. New Archeomagnetic Directional Records From Iron Age Southern Africa (ca. 425-1550 CE) and Implications for the South Atlantic Anomaly, Geophysical Research Letters (2018). Journal information: Geophysical Research Letters Vincent J. Hare et al. New Archeomagnetic Directional Records From Iron Age Southern Africa (ca. 425-1550 CE) and Implications for the South Atlantic Anomaly,(2018). DOI: 10.1002/2017GL076007Around 40 million people live on or around Lake Chadbut the vital resource is shrinking fast under the impact of climate change and water mismanagement

It sounds like something from Wakanda, the futuristic African kingdom of the hit movie "Black Panther".

But "Transaqua" is a very real proposal for a very real problemhow to replenish the shrinking waters of Lake Chad.

It imagines a 2,600-km (1,600-mile) canal from the Democratic Republic of Congo across the Central African Republic to meet the Chari River that feeds into the freshwater lake.

Lake Chadwhere the borders of Cameroon, Chad, Niger and Nigeria meethas been synonymous in recent years with Boko Haram Islamists, whose insurgency has blighted the region.

But climate change and water mismanagement have contributed to a staggering 90-percent decline of the lake's surface area in the past 40 years.

The 40 million people who live around and on the lake are among the poorest in the world, with the UN estimating that a quarter are in need of food handouts to survive.

The region's worsening fragility has become a recruiting sergeant for Boko Haram. The jihadists have found it far easier to win over impoverished subsistence farmers and fishermen, and to base themselves on many of the lake's islands.

At the same time, creeping desertification has forced cattle herders from the lake's once-fertile hinterland, putting them increasingly at odds with farmers farther south.

Experts met in Abuja for two days this week to discuss ways to stop Lake Chad from drying upand Transaqua, although still in its infancy and facing many hurdles, attracted interest.

Proponents argue it is the only way to address an environmental and humanitarian crisis from spiralling out of control.

Sanusi Abdullahi, executive secretary of the Lake Chad Basin Commission which oversees the use of water and other natural resources, said they were running out of choices.

"Inter-basin water transfer is not an option but a necessity," he said.

"We are faced with the possibility of the Lake Chad disappearing and that would be catastrophic to the entire African continent."

Frustration

At the conference, pent-up frustration at a lack of progress on the Lake Chad issue was directed at western countries.

Paris-based UNESCO has launched a new $6.5-million (5.3-million-euro) research and conservation programme involving Cameroon, Chad, Niger and Nigeria, as well as the CAR.

But Horace Campbell, an African studies professor at the University of Ghana, called the UN cultural and heritage organisation's project a "diversion".

Loss of their livelihood is pushing fishermen and farmers into deeper poverty, prompting some to turn to Boko Haram or look for a new life in Europe

"What the French intellectuals have been promoting is resilience and livelihood. But you can't have that without replenishing the lake," he told delegates.

Transaqua has been proposed by Italian engineering and consulting firm Bonifica, in partnership with the Power Construction Corporation of China (PowerChina).

For Italy, the project, which according to one estimate could cost as much as $14 billion (11.45 billion euros), may help slow the flow of migrants seeking to leave Africa for Europe.

"The vision of hundreds of people dying in the Mediterranean sea" had spurred Italy into action, according to Bonifica technical director Franco Bochetto.

"In recent years the situation has rapidly changed and what did not seem possible in the 80s has become of interest," he said.

For China, the project is an opportunity to deepen its already strong ties with Africa.

"We work here for projects and we want to take social responsibility," said Ziping Huang, an engineer at PowerChina.

'Complex and severe'

In addition to the funding, the engineering and geo-political challenges facing Transaqua are daunting. The canal would have to cross vast and hugely diverse terrain, through countries mired in a reputation for graft and instability.

Critics point out that plans for similar projects elsewhere, such as replenishing the Dead Sea, have not taken off.

In the case of Lake Chad, time is pressing, and the initial feasibility study may take at least three years to be completed.

Huang said working on such a project given the security situation in the region was "beyond our company's imagination".

No-one disputes the situation in Lake Chad is dire. But what is more difficult to agree on is how the four countries whose borders meet on the lake can work together.

English-speaking Nigeria for example has long had strained ties with its francophone neighbours, although the countries have come together in a joint regional force to fight Boko Haram.

"Lake Chad stands out in its complexity and severity at the moment," said Florian Krampe, of the climate change and risk programme at the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI).

"These countries at the end of the day have to cooperate if they want to address these transnational risks, there is simply no other way of doing it.

"The question is, are the institutions ready?"

 2018 AFPAcer miyabei. Credit: University of Tsukuba

The conservation of river floodplain ecosystems is one of the greatest challenges of the 21st century. Forests on the banks of rivers or along streams often support a rich and unique array of plant and animal life, due, in part, to the high soil moisture. These areas are important in maintaining water quality, preventing erosion and provide important habitat for wildlife. Many of these so-called riparian forests have been fragmented or developed due to their waterside location. The utility of rivers in transportation, for example, has led to the development of these forests into agricultural and residential areas. Flood prevention and control measures have also fragmented many of these sites. It is well-known that this fragmentation affects the ability of plants and animals to move freely, as well as affecting other ecological processes, such as nutrient and gene flow. Ensuring that these forests remain connected with each other through the establishment of "corridors," areas of habitat connecting otherwise fragmented habitats, is vital in conserving these ecologically important sites. Information on how to implement a network of these corridors to allow maximum effectiveness is limited, especially for river floodplain ecosystems.

How do we identify candidate areas to be established, preserved or restored as riparian forest corridors? One approach is to study the effects of forest fragmentation on gene flow, as reported in the journal Biological Conservation. A team of scientists lead by Dr. Ikuyo Saeki of the University of Tsukuba, Japan, examined gene flow in the endangered maple, Acer miyabei, using landscape genetics, a powerful and increasingly popular tool in conservation projects. It involves the integration of population genetics and landscape ecology, in order to examine how recent landscape changes, for example, habitat fragmentation, have affected the genetic diversity of species.

Acer miyabei only inhabits rare and undisturbed lowland floodplains in northern Japan. Its population is declining due to habitat loss and fragmentation. Over the past 50 years most of the flat lowlands and natural forests have been largely converted to urban and agricultural uses. A. miyabei is pollinated by insects and its seeds dispersed by wind and water. Its long lifespan allows comparison between genetic variation in young (small) and mature (large) individuals. In the study, trees were categorised as young or mature by measuring the diameter of the largest stem at breast height (DBH)young trees had a smaller DBH than older trees. Leaf tissues for DNA extraction were collected from 290 trees at 13 sites covering seven river basins. A DNA genotype was then obtained for each tree and compared between the 13 populations and between small and large trees within each population using advanced landscape genetic techniques.

Overall, the small tree groups had a higher level of genetic differentiation than the large tree groups. This suggests that smaller (i.e. younger) trees are exposed to greater genetic isolation than larger (i.e. older) trees owing to recent forest fragmentation. Because the gene flow between younger populations of trees is reduced, they share fewer alleles (variant forms of a gene). This effect may be explained by the tree's method of reproduction, in which pollination is mainly by Diptera (flies) which reproduce in leaf litter. Thus, the loss of forests likely reduces gene flow via pollination. The study also found that surrounding forests, as well as forests along rivers, are important for maintaining gene flow in A. miyabei.

Dr. Saeki concludes that "remnant populations of A. miyabei are important as reservoirs of genetic diversity and their habitats should be conserved." To promote connectivity, the study recommends preserving forests along rivers as well as the forests surrounding them. Areas around genetically isolated populations should be given priority. Dr. Saeki hopes that the results of this study will help to identify candidate areas to be restored or preserved as corridors in the conservation of other riverside forests in the future.

Explore further Genetically isolated sloth bears rely on habitat corridors to connect populations

More information: Ikuyo Saeki et al. Landscape genetics of a threatened maple, Acer miyabei : Implications for restoring riparian forest connectivity, Biological Conservation (2018). Journal information: Biological Conservation Ikuyo Saeki et al. Landscape genetics of a threatened maple, Acer miyabei : Implications for restoring riparian forest connectivity,(2018). DOI: 10.1016/j.biocon.2018.01.018With the scheduled March 1 launch of a new weather satellite, scientists at The University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH) are looking forward to getting a unique stereo view of lightning in storms over the United States.

"We are very interested in comparing the two. For example, it will be important to understand the circumstances when we see lightning in one instrument but not in the other," said Dr. Hugh Christian, a research professor in UAH's Earth System Science Center and the leader of UAH's lightning research group. "We'll have a very good stereo effect."

The GOES-S weather satellite, scheduled for launch on Thursday, carries a Geostationary Lightning Mapper (GLM) identical to the GLM instrument that was carried into geostationary orbit aboard the GOES-R (now GOES-16) weather satellite in November 2016.

Each GLM is designed to watch for lightning over most of the Western Hemisphere. Its cameras collect 900 million pixels of data every second, looking for the sudden and significant change in brightness in one pixel or small cluster of pixels that might signal a lightning flash in a storm deep in the Earth's atmosphere.

A piece of hardware designed and built at UAH picks up those events and formats the data for transmission to Earth, where software (also developed at UAH) decides whether each event is lightning or a false alarm caused by such things as sunlight reflecting from a white cloud top or high energy radiation hitting the CCD.

Once that is donein near real timethe lightning data are used by forecasters to track storm systems as they move, grow and ultimately die.

GOES-16 has been tested, deemed ready to be put into service and moved into place over the eastern portion of the U.S.

"It's worked really well," Christian said of the first GLM. "It's going to exceed all of its performance requirements. There are still some issues with ground-based processing. We've got to remove the chaff from the wheat, but it performs pretty much like we expected it to."

While it is being tested and readied for service as GOES-17 over the western U.S. and the eastern Pacific Ocean, GOES-S will be parked at 90 west.

"Once it is moved to its permanent location over the west coast, we will have instrument coverage from the edge of New Zealand all the way to the western edge of Africa," Christian said. "It'll be pretty awesome."

Christian and other scientists hope to use the lightning data from GLM to study severe storms. For instance, they want to determine how much energy is dissipated by lightning and how that fits into the overall evolution of storms.ATLAS team carefully lowers the instrument onto a platform, held up by wire-rope-coils, in a specifically designed transporter truck. Credit: NASA/Desiree Stover

Once in orbit after it launches this fall, NASA's ICESat-2 satellite will travel at speeds faster than 15,000 miles per hour. Last week, the satellite's instrument began its journey toward space riding a truck from Maryland to Arizona, never exceeding 65 mph.

ICESat-2, or the Ice, Cloud and land Elevation Satellite-2, is slated to launch in September to measure the height of Earth's surface, particularly the changing polar ice. To do that, it uses a laser instrument called the Advanced Topographic Laser Altimeter System, or ATLAS, that precisely times how long it takes light particles to bounce off Earth and return to the satellite.

ATLAS, which was designed, built and tested at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, arrived in Gilbert, Arizona, at Orbital ATK's facility on Feb. 23, where it will be joined with the spacecraft structure. To deliver the instrument safely to the spacecraft for assembly and testing, the ATLAS team developed special procedures for packing, transporting and monitoring the sensitive hardware.

"There was a lot of care and feeding that went with ATLAS along the road," said Kathy Strickler, ATLAS integration and test lead.

The trip followed a successful series of tests, designed to ensure the ATLAS instrument will function in the harsh environment of space. After the instrument passed those tests, including some in a thermal vacuum chamber, engineers inspected ATLAS to make sure it was clean and in the correct travel configuration. Then, they attached probes to the instrument that would check for vibrations as well as temperature and humidity.

"These probes tracked what ATLAS actually sensed when going over road bumps, and what ATLAS felt as far as temperature and humidity," said Jeffrey Twum, the ATLAS transport lead.

The team then wrapped the instrument - about the size of a Smart Car - in two layers of anti-electrostatic discharge film, to prevent any shocks en route. With its protections in place, a crane lifted ATLAS into a transporter container. The team bolted it to a platform supported by a series of wire-rope coils used to soften the ride, and the cover of the transporter was fastened shut, sealing up the cargo.

The truck carrying ATLAS left the NASA Goddard campus outside Washington around 3 a.m. on President's Day - timed to avoid the worst traffic on Washington's busy Beltway.

Planning the drive itself was a challenge, Twum noted. The convoy - a scout car, the transport truck, a trail vehicle and other support cars - can't drive through state capitals or big cities during rush hour. The convoy can't drive at night without special approvals. It requires permits for some stretches of roads, and is routed to avoid certain construction zones.

he lead car, driving a quarter-mile ahead of the truck, looked out for accidents or debris in the road; anything that could impact the transporter. The trailing SUV helped switch lanes when necessary, and watched out for other drivers. The support vehicle carried quality assurance personnel and technicians, who were keeping an eye on the environment within the truck, monitoring any bumps or jostling, and controlling the air flow through the trailer so no dust particles settle on the ATLAS instrument. They stayed at hotels with big parking lots along the way, taking shifts to monitor the instrument overnight.

The 2,000-mile trip took four and a half days.

The ATLAS instrument is now at Orbital ATK, where engineers will attach it to the spacecraft and conduct additional testing. Then, the complete satellite will be repacked and trucked to its last stop before low-Earth orbit: Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.Credit: Pixabay

Even as CRISPR gene-editing technology is offering insights into genetic diseases, researchers are discovering new things about how it actually works.

In the first of two papers just published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society (JACS), researchers at The Ohio State University report that they've figured out the mechanism by which the CRISPR gene-editing enzyme Cas9 determines where and when to cut DNA strandsa discovery that could help prevent gene-cutting errors.

In the second paper, they overturn the widely held belief that Cas9 cleaves DNA evenlythat is, cuts both sides of the DNA "ladder" to the same lengthby demonstrating that it actually trims one side shorter than the other. That discovery could come in handy for the field of gene-editing and for manipulating DNA for biotechnology applications.

Zucai Suo, professor of chemistry and biochemistry at Ohio State, leads the project.

"The gene-editing enzyme Cas9 has been widely and successfully used in biotech and agriculture as well as drug discovery," Suo said. "I hope that our work paves the way for scientists to minimize or eliminate gene-editing errors and discover new applications for Cas9."

The CRISPR system mimics a technique that bacteria use against attacking viruses, and is considered revolutionary because it is the first technology that can edit the DNA of a living organism with ease. The Cas9 enzyme can be tailored to target and cut out specific genes or insert new ones. It's already being used to treat cancer and viral infections, and researchers hope that it will one day cure a host of genetic ailments.

But while CRISPR works very well, the mechanism by which Cas9 determines which genes to cut and which to leave alone is not entirely understood.

Ohio State doctoral student Austin Raper, lead author of the first JACS paper, explained that CRISPR rarely targets unintended genes. But such errors can have very serious consequences when they do happen. For instance, if Cas9 were to accidentally target and cut a tumor suppressor gene from someone's DNA, that person would be much more likely to develop cancer.

"If CRISPR is to advance to its full potential, it is paramount that scientists fully understand how Cas9 functions and determine why it sometimes makes these errors," Raper said. "Our new result is exciting because now we understand how Cas9 decides to cleave DNA, which is fundamental in the quest to prohibit unintended, off-target DNA cutting."

Raper and his co-authors determined that two different parts of the large and labyrinthine Cas9 molecule communicate with each other to set the location and timing of a cut. As the first part of the molecule moves to cut its respective strand of DNA, it subtly changes shape and nudges the second part, triggering it to cut the second strand.

The first cut happens quickly. The second cut happens much more slowly, and wouldn't happen at all without the trigger, the researchers concluded. Now the same group is studying how non-target genes may affect the timing and location of cuts.

The second JACS paper concerns some unusual behavior of the Cas9 enzyme that nobody had noticed before.

Doctoral student Anthony Stephenson and his co-authors examined what Cas9 does after it cuts DNA. Previously, researchers believed that the enzyme would grab onto DNA, make one clean cut and then let go. But the Ohio State researchers found that the enzyme stays attached to the DNA long enough to take a second snip out of just one half of the DNA strand, leaving edges of different lengths.

Why? Cas9 carries a strong positive charge and DNA carries a strong negative charge, Stephenson explained, so the two form a very strong bond. Meanwhile, the guide RNA molecule that directs Cas9 to a particular DNA sequence becomes strongly paired with one side of the DNA strand.

"In other words, it is not easy for Cas9 to untangle itself from the DNA. So while Cas9 remains stuck to the DNA following the initial double-stranded DNA cut, it continues to trim small pieces of DNA off the loose DNA strand," Stephenson said.

The team will now explore ways of preventing or even enhancing this behavior to benefit the field of gene-editing, perhaps allowing for more efficient gene insertion. The staggered edges make the DNA sticky, allowing for multiple pieces of DNA to be attached together in a specific order and orientation, Stephenson added.

More information: Austin T. Raper et al. Functional Insights Revealed by the Kinetic Mechanism of CRISPR/Cas9, Journal of the American Chemical Society (2018). Austin T. Raper et al. Functional Insights Revealed by the Kinetic Mechanism of CRISPR/Cas9,(2018). DOI: 10.1021/jacs.7b13047 Anthony A. Stephenson et al. Bidirectional Degradation of DNA Cleavage Products Catalyzed by CRISPR/Cas9, Journal of the American Chemical Society (2018). DOI: 10.1021/jacs.7b13050 Journal information: Journal of the American Chemical SocietyWorld renowned artist Pablo Picasso and fabricator Carl Nesjar's vision to build the world's tallest concrete sculpture on the campus of the University of South Florida in Tampa. Credit: University of South Florida Library

It's been 50 years since world renowned artist Pablo Picasso (1881-1973) announced his vision to create the world's tallest and one of his final sculptures on the campus of the University of South Florida (USF) in Tampa. For the first time, a key researcher at USF has pieced together the project's historical significance with the discovery of a now obsolete audio reel ("x1200' 7'), which included a 1974 recording made by famed collaborator Carl Nesjar.

"When I found the reel, I had a feeling it was going to be a major piece to the puzzle," said art historian and archaeologist Kamila Oles, University of South Florida. "It took a really long time to find a company with the technology to convert it to MP3. When I realized it was Carl Nesjar speaking, my jaw nearly hit the floor."

Nesjar worked with Picasso for 20 years, turning his drawings and models into large public sculptures, such as the 36-foot "Bust of Sylvette," currently displayed at New York University. It predates the 1971 PicassoUSF project, in which he donated a small-scale model of "Bust of a Woman" to the Tampa campus. In addition to Nesjar's oration, Oles discovered a copy of Picasso's approval photograph and sketches, which demonstrated their vision of building a 100-foot sculpture made of reinforced concrete, surrounded by an architectural art center designed by world famous architect Paul Rudolph. Rudolph lived in Sarasota, Florida at the time and had already built several structures throughout the state.

The State Board of Regents approved construction of the massive sculpture and center on April 9, 1973, the day after the artist's death, but never agreed to fund the estimated $10 million project. It eventually failed due to lack of donations. While PicassoUSF never came to fruition in its form, individuals and researchers across the world will soon have the ability to study "Bust of Woman" and Rudolph's art and visitor center in its original architectural context through a virtual gallery.

"We are the next artisans who will bring to life the biggest project of the world's most renowned artist by means of new technologies," said Oles. "It is an extraordinary pleasure to realize Picasso's desire. I believe he would be very enthusiastic about our virtual reality methods."

Explore further Unprecedented study of Picasso's bronzes uncovers new detailsIn this April 15, 2002, file photo, members of the U.S. Army's High Altitude Rescue Team from Fort Wainwright Army Base near Fairbanks, Alaska, unload supplies from the team's CH-47 Chinook helicopters for the National Park Service's 7,000-foot level Mount McKinley base camp on the Kahiltna Glacier near Talkeetna, Alaska. The National Park Service is considering new rules for the disposal of human waste generated by climbers on North America's tallest mountain, Denali. (AP Photo/Al Grillo, File)

Climbers on North America's tallest mountain may have to start packing out more of their poop after a researcher determined a glacier in which much of it has been dumped over the past decade probably is not decomposing the human waste.

Michael Loso, a glacier geologist, calculates that 36,000 climbers between 1951 and 2012 deposited 152,000 to 215,000 pounds (69 to 97 metric tons) of feces onto Kahiltna Glacier, part of the most popular route to Denali's summit.

For more than a decade, the National Park Service has required that climbers keep waste off the Alaska mountain's surface. Mountaineers captured their poop in biodegradable bags held by portable toilets and pitched it into deep crevasses on the glacier.

However, Loso's research indicates human waste never reaches the bottom of the glacier, will never be exposed to extreme temperatures and disintegrate, and likely will reappear downstream as stains on Kahiltna Glacier's surface where melting exceeds annual snowfall.

Park Service officials say the dumping of human waste that does not decompose is not a practice they want to continue in a national park and a wilderness area.

"These changes are in direct response to the research," Chris Erickson, a mountain ranger, said by phone from nearby Talkeetna.

The proposed regulations would allow mountaineers to drop waste in only one crevasse at high elevation. They would have to carry out the rest.

Human waste is a concern on most mountains that attract multitudes of climbers, and the issue of poop littering the routes up Mount Everest in Nepal is well-documented. Some mountains are trying to minimize the human waste problem. In Japan, bio-toilets have been set up along the route to Mount Fuji's summit, and incinerator toilets are situated at the top. In Tanzania, latrines have been built for climbers making their way to Kilimanjaro's summit.

The waste can be more than just bothersome. Climbers on Denali, 130 miles (210 kilometers) north of Anchorage, get all their drinking water by melting snow. And snow contaminated by human excrement can spread dangerous bacteria such as E. coli, causing climbers intestinal distress and diarrhea leading to dehydration, a life-threatening condition at high altitude.

Denali is the centerpiece of Denali National Park, a sprawling expanse of forestland, tundra, glaciers and snowy peaks. Each year about 1,100 people try to reach its summit at 20,310 feet (6,190 meters). More than 90 percent use a route that starts from a landing strip for small airplanes on Kahiltna Glacier.

Starting in 2007, the Park Service required that human waste be collected in "Clean Mountain Cans," a portable toilet invented by a Denali park ranger that looks like an extended coffee can. Under current rules, climbers between the base camp and 15,000 feet (4,572 meters) are allowed to toss filled liners into crevasses. Rangers even marked safe places to do so.

Loso for more than a decade has studied Denali human waste management to determine whether feces broke down, and if not, where it went. He buried human waste, dug it up after a year and found it remained at temperatures just below freezing, without undergoing temperature extremes or ultraviolet light that kills bacteria.

"For most bacteria, that's a really comfortable place to be," Loso said.

He forecasts that poop could emerge soon on the glacier surface 7 miles (11 kilometers) below the base camp, where the surface melts faster than snow accumulates.

The area is so remote, future visitors are unlikely to see the emerging waste, but Loso's findings motivated the Park Service to re-examine its rules. The agency also doesn't want pollution reaching the Kahiltna River, which flows from the glacier.

Under proposed rules, all Denali dung must be deposited in one of two places: the ranger station at Talkeetna or in a crevasse at "Camp Four," a campsite at 14,200 feet (4,330 meters). Waste dumped there tumbles down a huge ice cliff and is likely to be pulverized and rendered inert, said Erickson, the mountain ranger.

Tom Kirby, a guide for American Alpine Institute, said his company supports any effort to get the waste problem under control.

"I think that's a pretty reasonable thing to do to promote cleanliness and to keep water coming out of Kahiltna Glacier reasonably clean," he said.

Colby Coombs, owner of Alaska Mountaineering School, which guides visitors on Denali, said he fully supports the Park Service balancing the safety of climbers, who want to move quickly through dangerous terrain without extra weight, while protecting a wilderness area within a national park.

"Who would like to see a big pile of human waste?" he asked. "That's disgusting.

 2018 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.The hacker group known as APT28which has been linked to Russia's GRU military intelligencemanaged to plant malware in the German ministries' networks for possibly as long as a year

Russian hackers have infiltrated Germany's foreign and interior ministries' online networks, German news agency DPA reported Wednesday quoting unnamed security sources.

The hacker group known as APT28which has been linked to Russia's GRU military intelligence and accused of attacks on Hillary Clinton's 2016 presidential campaignmanaged to plant malware in the ministries' networks for possibly as long as a year, the news agency said.

German security authorities only detected the online spying in December, it said, adding that an isolated government IT network had also been hit.

If confirmed, the attack would be the biggest to hit the German government.

Top security officials had repeatedly warned during Germany's 2017 general elections that Russia hackers may seek to disrupt the polls.

While authorities did not have concrete proof, they have pinned the malware attack that crippled the Bundestag parliamentary network in 2015 for days on the APT28, also known as "Fancy Bear" or "Sofacy".

The attack netted 17 gigabytes of data which, officials feared, could be used to blackmail MPs or discredit them.

Amid the rising frequency of attacks, Germany's defence ministry in 2016 set up a cyber department to coordinate a response to online intrusions.

Explore further Suspected Russian cyberattack targets German parties, media

 2018 AFPThis artist's rendering shows the universe's first, massive, blue stars embedded in gaseous filaments, with the cosmic microwave background just visible at the edges. Using radio observations of the distant universe, NSF-funded researchers Judd Bowman of Arizona State University, Alan Rogers of MIT and their colleagues discovered the influence of such early stars on primordial gas. Although they can't directly see the light from the massive stars, Bowman's team was able to infer their presence from dimming of the cosmic microwave background (CMB), a result of the gaseous filaments absorbing the stars' UV light. The CMB is dimmer than expected, indicating that the filaments may have been colder than expected, possibly from interactions with dark matter. Credit: N.R.Fuller, National Science Foundation

Long ago, about 400,000 years after the beginning of the universe (the Big Bang), the universe was dark. There were no stars or galaxies, and the universe was filled primarily with neutral hydrogen gas.

Then, for the next 50-100 million years, gravity slowly pulled the densest regions of gas together until ultimately the gas collapsed in some places to form the first stars.

What were those first stars like and when did they form? How did they affect the rest of the universe? These are questions astronomers and astrophysicists have long pondered.

Now, after 12 years of experimental effort, a team of scientists, led by ASU School of Earth and Space Exploration astronomer Judd Bowman, has detected the fingerprints of the earliest stars in the universe. Using radio signals, the detection provides the first evidence for the oldest ancestors in our cosmic family tree, born by a mere 180 million years after the universe began.

"There was a great technical challenge to making this detection, as sources of noise can be a thousand times brighter than the signal - it's like being in the middle of a hurricane and trying to hear the flap of a hummingbird's wing." says Peter Kurczynski, the National Science Foundation program officer who supported this study. "These researchers with a small radio antenna in the desert have seen farther than the most powerful space telescopes, opening a new window on the early universe."

In each instrument, radio waves are collected by an antenna consisting of two rectangular metal panels mounted horizontally on fiberglass legs above a metal mesh. The EDGES detection required the radio quietness at the Murchison Radio-astronomy Observatory, as Australian national legislation limits the use of radio transmitters near the site. This discovery sets the stage for follow-up observations with other powerful low-frequency facilities, including HERA and the forthcoming SKA-low. Credit: CSIRO Australia

Radio Astronomy

To find these fingerprints, Bowman's team used a ground-based instrument called a radio spectrometer, located at the Australia's national science agency (CSIRO) Murchison Radio-astronomy Observatory (MRO) in Western Australia. Through their Experiment to Detect the Global EoR Signature (EDGES), the team measured the average radio spectrum of all the astronomical signals received across most of the southern-hemisphere sky and looked for small changes in power as a function of wavelength (or frequency).

As radio waves enter the ground-based antenna, they are amplified by a receiver, and then digitized and recorded by computer, similar to how FM radio receivers and TV receivers work. The difference is that the instrument is very precisely calibrated and designed to perform as uniformly as possible across many radio wavelengths.

The signals detected by the radio spectrometer in this study came from primordial hydrogen gas that filled the young universe and existed between all the stars and galaxies. These signals hold a wealth of information that opens a new window on how early stars - and later, black holes, and galaxies - formed and evolved.

"It is unlikely that we'll be able to see any earlier into the history of stars in our lifetimes," says Bowman. "This project shows that a promising new technique can work and has paved the way for decades of new astrophysical discoveries."

This detection highlights the exceptional radio quietness of the MRO, particularly as the feature found by EDGES overlaps the frequency range used by FM radio stations. Australian national legislation limits the use of radio transmitters within 161.5 miles (260 km) of the site, substantially reducing interference which could otherwise drown out sensitive astronomy observations.

The results of this study have been recently published in Nature by Bowman, with co-authors Alan Rogers of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Haystack Observatory, Raul Monsalve of the University of Colorado, and Thomas Mozdzen and Nivedita Mahesh also of ASU's School of Earth and Space Exploration.

A timeline of the universe, updated to show when the first stars emerged. This updated timeline of the universe reflects the recent discovery that the first stars emerged by 180 million years after the Big Bang. The research behind this timeline was conducted by Judd Bowman of Arizona State University and his colleagues, with funding from the National Science Foundation. Credit: N.R.Fuller, National Science Foundation

Unexpected results

The results of this experiment confirm the general theoretical expectations of when the first stars formed and the most basic properties of early stars.

"What's happening in this period," says co-author Rogers of MIT's Haystack Observatory, "is that some of the radiation from the very first stars is starting to allow hydrogen to be seen. It's causing hydrogen to start absorbing the background radiation, so you start seeing it in silhouette, at particular radio frequencies. This is the first real signal that stars are starting to form, and starting to affect the medium around them."

The team originally tuned their instrument to look later in cosmic time, but in 2015 decided to extend their search. "As soon as we switched our system to this lower range, we started seeing things that we felt might be a real signature," Rogers says. "We see this dip most strongly at about 78 megahertz, and that frequency corresponds to roughly 180 million years after the Big Bang," Rogers says. "In terms of a direct detection of a signal from the hydrogen gas itself, this has got to be the earliest."

The study also revealed that gas in the universe was probably much colder than expected (less than half the expected temperature). This suggests that either astrophysicists' theoretical efforts have overlooked something significant or that this may be the first evidence of non-standard physics: Specifically, that baryons (normal matter) may have interacted with dark matter and slowly lost energy to dark matter in the early universe, a concept that was originally proposed by Rennan Barkana of Tel Aviv University.

When did the first stars light up the universe? Credit: National Science Foundation

"If Barkana's idea is confirmed," says Bowman, "then we've learned something new and fundamental about the mysterious dark matter that makes up 85 percent of the matter in the universe, providing the first glimpse of physics beyond the standard model."

The next steps in this line of research are for another instrument to confirm this team's detection and to keep improving the performance of the instruments, so that more can be learned about the properties of early stars. "We worked very hard over the last two years to validate the detection," says Bowman, "but having another group confirm it independently is a critical part of the scientific process."

Bowman would also like to see an acceleration of efforts to bring on new radio telescopes like the Hydrogen Epoch of Reionization Array (HERA) and the Owens Valley Long Wavelength Array (OVRO-LWA).

"Now that we know this signal exists," says Bowman, "we need to rapidly bring online new radio telescopes that will be able to mine the signal much more deeply."

The antennas and portions of the receiver used in this experiment were designed and constructed by Rogers and the MIT Haystack Observatory team. The ASU team and Monsalve added the automated antenna reflection measurement system to the receiver, outfitted the control hut with the electronics, constructed the ground plane and conducted the field work for the project. The current version of EDGES is the result of years of design iteration and ongoing detailed technical refinement of the calibration instrumentation to reach the levels of precision necessary for successfully achieving this difficult measurement.

More information: Judd D. Bowman et al. An absorption profile centred at 78 megahertz in the sky-averaged spectrum, Nature (2018). Judd D. Bowman et al. An absorption profile centred at 78 megahertz in the sky-averaged spectrum,(2018). DOI: 10.1038/nature25792 Rennan Barkana. Possible interaction between baryons and dark-matter particles revealed by the first stars, Nature (2018). DOI: 10.1038/nature25791 Journal information: NatureLike traveling medicine hucksters of old, doctors who run into trouble today can hopscotch from state to state, staying ahead of regulators.

Instead of snake oil, some peddle opioids. Others have sex with patients, bungle surgeries, misdiagnose conditions or are implicated in patient deaths.

Even after being caught in one state, they can practice free and clear in another; many hold a fistful of medical licenses.

Stories about individual doctors avoiding discipline in a second state have been reported before. An investigation by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and MedPage Today shows how widespread the problem is: At least 500 physicians who have been publicly disciplined, chastised or barred from practicing by one state medical board have been allowed to practice elsewhere with a clean license.

And their patients are kept in the dark  even as more become victims  thanks to an antiquated system shrouded in secrecy.

In Colorado, Gary Weiss care of a multiple sclerosis patient prompted four doctors to complain to the state medical board when the patient died in 2011. The board and Weiss agreed that he was "permanently inactivating" his license in 2014, meaning he could never get it back.

But in Florida, where Weiss has a long-standing practice, officials applied no restrictions despite malpractice lawsuits from seven other patients in two states, all accusing him of misdiagnosing them with multiple sclerosis.

Plastic surgeon John Siebert had sex with a patient in New York, got his license suspended for three years and was permanently ordered to have a chaperone in the room with any female patients. But he operates free of medical board restrictions in Wisconsin. In fact, he was appointed to an endowed chair at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, funded in part by billionaire Diane Hendricks, a patient and a major political contributor to Gov. Scott Walker.

Look up Jay Riseman on the website of the Division of Professional Registration in Missouri, where he practices as a hospice doctor: It lists no disciplinary history, no red flags.

But in Illinois, where a medical board official once called him an imminent danger to the public, the families of three patients who died remain haunted by what he did. Riseman continues to practice, despite having prescribed massive amounts of pre-surgery laxatives to infants and failing to act in the case of an older woman with a blood infection.

Among the more than 500 doctors identified by the Journal Sentinel and MedPage Today, the single biggest reason for board action was medical errors or oversights. One fifth of the cases were a result of putting patients in harms way.

All have slipped through a system that makes it difficult for patients, employers and even regulators in other states to find out about their troubling pasts.

The list represents a fraction of the nations roughly 200,000 physicians who hold licenses in more than one state, but likely far underestimates the scope of the problem. Most medical errors are never noticed, much less reported, said Julia Hallisy, founder of the Empowered Patient Coalition, a California-based patient advocacy group.

"The numbers you're showing are not anywhere near the real numbers, she said. If something goes wrong in a surgery, or you get an infection, or your 80-year-old mother is given the wrong medicine, you may never know that came from this doctor, their impairment, their lack of skill.

People who want to make the case that we have bigger fish to fry: this is bigger than we know."

A 30-year-old federal database, the National Practitioner Data Bank, was supposed to keep state medical boards and hospitals apprised of doctor transgressions around the country.

But it has never been available to the public, provides only portions of troubled medical backgrounds and even state medical boards rarely turn to it.

Some officials werent aware of the misconduct of doctors licensed in their state until it was brought to their attention by reporters.

In an age of transparency and big data, consumers can tap into a wealth of information online to make choices about everything from choosing a restaurant to hiring a painter.

But patients will have a difficult time finding out how many times their doctor has been sued for malpractice, slapped with a disciplinary action or hit with the loss of hospital privileges.

They may not even be able to find out if their doctor has been charged with a crime.

The data bank should be open to the public, said Robert Oshel, former director of research at the National Practitioner Data Bank. The advantages far outweigh the disadvantages. Its something that ought to be done.

In the meantime, some states dont take action, even when others do.

More than three years after Weiss gave up his Colorado license, officials in Florida this month approved a letter of concern that would not restrict his license.

While regulators in New York said plastic surgeon Siebert showed a moral unfitness to practice, Wisconsin officials considered the case against him to be minor.

Tom Ryan, executive director of the Wisconsin medical examining board, would not answer questions about whether he or the board, all appointed by Walker, knew that a Siebert patient and Walker donor had endowed a university chair for the doctor.

To suggest that the board made decisions based on anything other than evidence would be pure conjecture, spokeswoman Nicole Anspach said in an email.

Despite more than a dozen malpractice lawsuits, officials in Kansas eventually gave Riseman a license that allows him to perform surgeries -- though they made him promise not to actually do any.

Asked to explain the decision, Kathleen Lippert, executive director of the Kansas State Board of Healing Art, wrote in an email: There is little or nothing to add.

Not so, say the families left in his wake.

One doctor, three deaths

Gayle Simpson Bowman remembers the days when her young son and daughter were doted on by their grandmother, Frances Simpson.

Family photo Frances Simpson, 68, who died of a blood infection while in the care of Jay Riseman.

Family photo Frances Simpson, 68, who died of a blood infection while in the care of Jay Riseman.

Simpson was like a third parent. She got the children ready for school each morning and spent summer days playing with them.

One year, she created a sunflower house in her backyard. The sunflowers formed a room, and she and the children would hold private tea parties at a table and chairs tucked inside.

She was so smart and so kind, Bowman said. She loved my kids so much.

In 1998, Simpson, 68, underwent elective colon surgery; she was expected to fully recover.

Then Riseman got involved in her care, overseeing her recovery.

According to court records, he failed to remove and relocate a catheter even after test results showed signs that a staph infection had spread to her blood. He further failed to act when she showed symptoms of sepsis, including severe vomiting, disorientation and fever.

Simpson died a few days later.

My mom was a great woman who died a painful and avoidable death, Bowman said. The hardest part is to know that he still is practicing medicine. I dont know how that can happen in this world.

Wrist-slap discipline has followed Riseman throughout his career, as he has moved from state to state. He racked up more than a dozen malpractice lawsuits. According to the lawsuits and state medical boards, Riseman:

Sliced into one patients bile duct and misread anothers breast biopsy.

Neglected to tell patients he wasnt a pediatric surgeon and performed unnecessary surgeries on infants.

Prescribed massive amounts of a powerful laxative for babies on whom he was set to perform colon surgery.

Molly Hobbie, of Springfield, Ill., recalls confronting Riseman about the laxative he ordered for her infant daughter, Megan, prior to a planned surgery in 1999.

Jay Riseman Over 20 years, a trail of patients who were harmed or died followed Jay Riseman as he moved among states that took different approaches to sanctions. Here is a look at his case: Riseman fails to remove and relocate a catheter in Frances Simpson, a 68-year-old Illinois woman in his care who developed a staph infection that had spread to her blood. He also fails to act even when she shows symptoms of sepsis. Simpson dies.



View lawsuit Prior to a planned surgery, Riseman orders a bowel preparation for 1-year-old Megan Hobbie of Illinois. The dose, which was administered with a nose tube, was twice that recommended for an adult. Only about a third of the laxative was given. Still, the baby was admitted to the hospital because of dehydration caused by the laxative.



View complaint Morgan Brooks, a two-month-old from Illinois, dies after being given a massive amount of the same pre-surgery laxative that was ordered by Riseman. The cause of the girls death was cardiac arrest.



View complaint The Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation temporarily suspends Risemans license, citing his incapacity or incompetence in pediatric surgery and failure to properly perform a biopsy. The state eventually decides to put his license on probation for not less than five years.



View order The Illinois medical board files a complaint saying Riseman had violated his probation terms. Another doctor agreed to be a consulting physician for Riseman in May 2002, and Riseman moved his practice to another city in April 2003. Surgical procedures performed by the respondent after this time were in violation of the terms and conditions of probation, an attorney writes. She then lists procedures Riseman performed without adequate supervision from 2002 through 2004.



View document Riseman is granted a medical license in Missouri, despite the problems in Illinois. Risemans application for licensure in Colorado is denied.



View document Kansas approves Risemans application for a medical license, but the state prohibits him from practicing surgery, citing his 13 malpractice cases since 1993.



View document After twice asking Kansas regulators to lift the limitation on practicing surgery, the state agrees  so long as Riseman agrees not to actually perform any surgeries.



View document The Illinois medical board files a complaint against Riseman for not fully answering a question on its annual renewal form. When asked whether he had faced any discipline or been denied a license in another state, Riseman did not disclose his Colorado denial or his limitation in Kansas. His is fined and reprimanded.



View document Risemans Illinois medical license expires. Riseman registers as a partner in an Illinois medical marijuana dispensary. The license says he has never been disciplined in Illinois. Riseman begins doing hospice and palliative medicine at St. Lukes Hospital in Kansas City, where he remains today. In response to questions, the hospital releases a statement noting that Riseman has been awarded 2017 Distinguished Physician of the Year from the Missouri Hospice and Palliative Care Association. We are grateful for his expertise as he serves our patients, their families, and our community, the statement says, in part. Show More



Jay Riseman Over 20 years, a trail of patients who were harmed or died followed Jay Riseman as he moved among states that took different approaches to sanctions. Here is a look at his case: Riseman fails to remove and relocate a catheter in Frances Simpson, a 68-year-old Illinois woman in his care who developed a staph infection that had spread to her blood. He also fails to act even when she shows symptoms of sepsis. Simpson dies.



View lawsuit Prior to a planned surgery, Riseman orders a bowel preparation for 1-year-old Megan Hobbie of Illinois. The dose, which was administered with a nose tube, was twice that recommended for an adult. Only about a third of the laxative was given. Still, the baby was admitted to the hospital because of dehydration caused by the laxative.



View complaint Morgan Brooks, a two-month-old from Illinois, dies after being given a massive amount of the same pre-surgery laxative that was ordered by Riseman. The cause of the girls death was cardiac arrest.



View complaint The Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation temporarily suspends Risemans license, citing his incapacity or incompetence in pediatric surgery and failure to properly perform a biopsy. The state eventually decides to put his license on probation for not less than five years.



View order The Illinois medical board files a complaint saying Riseman had violated his probation terms. Another doctor agreed to be a consulting physician for Riseman in May 2002, and Riseman moved his practice to another city in April 2003. Surgical procedures performed by the respondent after this time were in violation of the terms and conditions of probation, an attorney writes. She then lists procedures Riseman performed without adequate supervision from 2002 through 2004.



View document Riseman is granted a medical license in Missouri, despite the problems in Illinois. Risemans application for licensure in Colorado is denied.



View document Kansas approves Risemans application for a medical license, but the state prohibits him from practicing surgery, citing his 13 malpractice cases since 1993.



View document After twice asking Kansas regulators to lift the limitation on practicing surgery, the state agrees  so long as Riseman agrees not to actually perform any surgeries.



View document The Illinois medical board files a complaint against Riseman for not fully answering a question on its annual renewal form. When asked whether he had faced any discipline or been denied a license in another state, Riseman did not disclose his Colorado denial or his limitation in Kansas. His is fined and reprimanded.



View document Risemans Illinois medical license expires. Riseman registers as a partner in an Illinois medical marijuana dispensary. The license says he has never been disciplined in Illinois. Riseman begins doing hospice and palliative medicine at St. Lukes Hospital in Kansas City, where he remains today. In response to questions, the hospital releases a statement noting that Riseman has been awarded 2017 Distinguished Physician of the Year from the Missouri Hospice and Palliative Care Association. We are grateful for his expertise as he serves our patients, their families, and our community, the statement says, in part. Show More



Hobbie and a home health care nurse tried to give the drug to her daughter, but the girl began vomiting and would only take about one-third the amount Riseman prescribed -- still twice the dose recommended for an adult. After the surgery, Hobbie confronted him with the package that showed her daughter had been prescribed far too much.

I threw a fit with Dr. Riseman, she said. It fell on deaf ears.

She said she has no doubt her daughter would have died had she been given the full amount.

A week later, Riseman prescribed a similar amount for a smaller and younger baby girl, 2-month-old Morgan Brooks. The dose was more than twice what is allowed for an adult and about 10 times what should be given to a child five to nine years old.

The dose was so out of line that a pediatric nurse at first refused to administer it. But Riseman wrote a new order  for it to be given over eight hours.

The baby died.

Its something you dont ever get over, said Tonya Brooks, who lives in Decatur, Ill., and says she thinks about her daughter every day.

Riseman never apologized for what he did, she said.

Family photo Two-month-old Morgan Brooks with her brother, Matthew.

Family photo Two-month-old Morgan Brooks with her brother, Matthew.

I have chosen to not follow what he does. Only because, if I did, it would drive me crazy in the long run, she said. My baby was going to be fine, but no, he took that away from us.

In April 2002, the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation put Riseman on indefinite probation, allowing him to perform surgery only after consulting with an approved surgeon. The order was based on the cases involving the babies and other allegations of malpractice.

One year later, he moved his practice to Harrisburg, Ill., and performed at least 14 surgeries without supervision, according to a 2004 complaint from the Department of Professional Regulations.

Even though he had ignored the requirement, the board lifted his indefinite probation in 2007, five years after it was put in place.

Riseman started to pursue a career in another state.

He obtained a license in Missouri in 2008 and practices there today.

In May 2009, Colorado denied Risemans attempt to get licensed in the state. Nearby Kansas issued him a license later that year.

While he was granted the Kansas license, the states Board of Healing Arts noted his problems in Illinois and prohibited him from performing surgery of any kind.

Over the next two years, Riseman asked the Kansas board to reconsider his limitation three times. The first two times, he was denied.

In 2011, Riseman tried a new tactic: He promised not to perform any surgeries in Kansas if the limitation was lifted.

It worked.

Licensee has satisfied the Board's requirement to protect the public by and through Licensee's assurance that he will not practice surgery in the state of Kansas, the board wrote. ... the Board hereby grants Licensee's request to terminate the practice limitation against practicing surgical procedures imposed on Licensee.

Riseman declined to be interviewed or respond to questions for this article.

News Tips Know of something that needs to be investigated? We want to hear from you.

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News Tips Know of something that needs to be investigated? We want to hear from you.

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Laurel Gifford, a spokeswoman for St. Lukes Hospital in Kansas City, where he now works, said Riseman has created a career he can be proud of: From his perspective, he had a hard time, and he's moved on.

She also released a statement that said, in part, During the past eight years Dr. Riseman has served his patients, their families and his staff with clinical excellence, patience, and insight. His commitment to the field of hospice and palliative care has enriched the lives of many he has touched with his thoughtful care and attention.

That he was practicing at all came as a shock to Hobbie, the mother of the baby who survived.

That is just unbelievable to me, she said. The man has a God complex in that he is right and he is not going to listen to what anybody else says.

Lack of data, transparency

Faced with a lack of publicly available data, the Journal Sentinel and MedPage Today worked with TruthMD, a private company that compiles doctor dossiers drawn from thousands of sources  including civil and criminal courts, state medical boards and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. The data goes back 15 years and includes about 1 million doctors.

The company provided an initial summary of doctors who had been in trouble in one state since 2011, but continued to hold clean licenses elsewhere.

From there, reporters verified the cases, investigated individual examples and obtained thousands of pages of documents from criminal and civil courts around the country, as well as state medical boards, the FDA and other sources.

The lack of a single source for backgrounding doctors led to firms such as TruthMD, LexisNexis and PreCheck stepping in to provide data.

Gerardo Vitale Gemma Cunningham, founder and CEO of TruthMd, with Charles Rosen, TruthMD co-founder and medical director and professor of orthopedic surgery at the University of California-Irvine.

Gerardo Vitale Gemma Cunningham, founder and CEO of TruthMd, with Charles Rosen, TruthMD co-founder and medical director and professor of orthopedic surgery at the University of California-Irvine.

TruthMD founder and CEO, Gemma Cunningham, said she believes that 95% of doctors are ethical and caring.

"It's such a small percentage who have lost their integrity, she said. But when you look at the impact, its huge.

A 2016 paper in the New England Journal of Medicine found that 1% of doctors were responsible for 32% of paid malpractice claims.

Doctors who had licenses in multiple states before being rebuked accounted for most of those practicing freely in one state after being disciplined in another. But in about 20% of the cases, doctors sought new licenses after getting in trouble.

Its a highly flawed system, said Robert Wachter, chairman of medicine at the University of California, San Francisco, School of Medicine. It has created a patchwork of accountability. It takes something pretty bad to get in trouble with your state licensing board.

Two states, two results

In 2014, Weiss agreed to an order that barred him from ever getting his Colorado medical license back. He was accused of failing to diagnose a brain infection in a 63-year-old woman he had put on an expensive multiple sclerosis drug  a drug known to cause such infections.

Gary Weiss After facing problems and permanently agreeing never to re-apply for a license in Colorado, neurologist Gary Weiss continued to practice in Florida, despite facing a series of malpractice lawsuits from the two states. Here is a look at his case: A 63-year-old Colorado woman whose multiple sclerosis had been treated by neurologist Gary Weiss dies of a viral brain infection that is known to be caused by the MS drug that he had put her on. Four neurologists at the University of Colorado School of Medicine who had been involved in treating the woman after Weiss, send a letter of complaint about him to the Colorado medical board, saying Weisss actions were far below the standard of care for neurologists.



View lawsuit A panel of the Colorado Medical Board reviews the Weiss case and determines that a formal complaint against the doctor is warranted. Weiss stops practicing in Colorado and focuses on Florida, where he had also been practicing for years. Weiss says he had to leave his Vail, Col., practice because of personal health issues that prevent him from living at high altitude. Weiss and the Colorado board agree that he is permanently inactivating his Colorado license after a formal complaint was issued in March.



View complaint

View order Anthony Scarsella, a Florida resident, files a malpractice lawsuit against Weiss alleging that he failed to accurately read an MRI resulting in an aneurysm bursting in his brain and causing disability. Weisss insurance company settles the case for $250,000.



View lawsuit Based on the Colorado case, Weiss agrees to permanently relinquish his medical license in Illinois, which had expired in 2002.



View agreement Five Colorado patients file separate lawsuits in federal court, alleging that Weiss had misdiagnosed them as having multiple sclerosis. Weiss says the lawsuits are opportunistic and totally unfounded.



View lawsuit Two Florida patients malpractice lawsuits, alleging that Weiss misdiagnosed them has having multiple sclerosis. Weiss says the lawsuits are copycats with no more hope of prevailing than those in Colorado.



View Beaty complaint

View Tolliver complaint Florida reaches an agreement with Weiss in which it will issue a letter of concern, a $5,000 fine, and a requirement that he take continuing medical education courses. The agreement does not stop him from practicing.



View agreement In a sworn affidavit, John Corboy, a University of Colorado MS specialist, says Weiss misdiagnosed many, many people (in Colorado) with MS. Corboy said patient records also revealed that Weiss ordered excessive amounts of MRIs, which were taken at the facility he owned and that he was prescribing unnecessary medications, both for financial gain.



View affidavit In an email to the Journal Sentinel, Weiss said he and Corboy have a history. It is safe to say that he does not like me. For him to say I ever ordered a single MRI or treatment for financial gain is outrageous and flaty wrong. Corboy is one of the four doctors who filed the 2011 complaint against Weiss. The attorney for Vivian Gallegos, one of the Colorado patients who had sued Weiss, agrees to dismiss the lawsuit against him. It cant be re-filed.



View dismissal Show More



Gary Weiss After facing problems and permanently agreeing never to re-apply for a license in Colorado, neurologist Gary Weiss continued to practice in Florida, despite facing a series of malpractice lawsuits from the two states. Here is a look at his case: A 63-year-old Colorado woman whose multiple sclerosis had been treated by neurologist Gary Weiss dies of a viral brain infection that is known to be caused by the MS drug that he had put her on. Four neurologists at the University of Colorado School of Medicine who had been involved in treating the woman after Weiss, send a letter of complaint about him to the Colorado medical board, saying Weisss actions were far below the standard of care for neurologists.



View lawsuit A panel of the Colorado Medical Board reviews the Weiss case and determines that a formal complaint against the doctor is warranted. Weiss stops practicing in Colorado and focuses on Florida, where he had also been practicing for years. Weiss says he had to leave his Vail, Col., practice because of personal health issues that prevent him from living at high altitude. Weiss and the Colorado board agree that he is permanently inactivating his Colorado license after a formal complaint was issued in March.



View complaint

View order Anthony Scarsella, a Florida resident, files a malpractice lawsuit against Weiss alleging that he failed to accurately read an MRI resulting in an aneurysm bursting in his brain and causing disability. Weisss insurance company settles the case for $250,000.



View lawsuit Based on the Colorado case, Weiss agrees to permanently relinquish his medical license in Illinois, which had expired in 2002.



View agreement Five Colorado patients file separate lawsuits in federal court, alleging that Weiss had misdiagnosed them as having multiple sclerosis. Weiss says the lawsuits are opportunistic and totally unfounded.



View lawsuit Two Florida patients malpractice lawsuits, alleging that Weiss misdiagnosed them has having multiple sclerosis. Weiss says the lawsuits are copycats with no more hope of prevailing than those in Colorado.



View Beaty complaint

View Tolliver complaint Florida reaches an agreement with Weiss in which it will issue a letter of concern, a $5,000 fine, and a requirement that he take continuing medical education courses. The agreement does not stop him from practicing.



View agreement In a sworn affidavit, John Corboy, a University of Colorado MS specialist, says Weiss misdiagnosed many, many people (in Colorado) with MS. Corboy said patient records also revealed that Weiss ordered excessive amounts of MRIs, which were taken at the facility he owned and that he was prescribing unnecessary medications, both for financial gain.



View affidavit In an email to the Journal Sentinel, Weiss said he and Corboy have a history. It is safe to say that he does not like me. For him to say I ever ordered a single MRI or treatment for financial gain is outrageous and flaty wrong. Corboy is one of the four doctors who filed the 2011 complaint against Weiss. The attorney for Vivian Gallegos, one of the Colorado patients who had sued Weiss, agrees to dismiss the lawsuit against him. It cant be re-filed.



View dismissal Show More



Over the months the infection went undetected, Weiss continued to treat the woman with the drug as she deteriorated, according to a 2011 complaint filed with the states medical board by four neurologists from the University of Colorado School of Medicine.

The woman became forgetful and had trouble speaking. She soon had to use a wheelchair and eventually had to go into a nursing home.

If the (condition) had been diagnosed in a timely fashion and treatment instituted, (her) prognosis would have been improved and (she) would have avoided much suffering, the doctors wrote to the medical board. It accused Weiss of acting far below the standard of care for neurologists.

In his settlement with the Colorado Medical Board, Weiss denied that his treatment of the woman fell below the standard of care.

He also provided to the Journal Sentinel and MedPage Today a letter sent to the Colorado board from a doctor who reviewed the case of the woman who died. That doctor, Ray Lopez of Miami, said the accusations made against Weiss may well stem from the conflict of cultures between the purely academic and the private practitioner and that Weiss had offered an appropriate standard of care.

Allegations against Weiss didnt end with the womans death in 2011 or the permanent loss of his Colorado license in 2014.

Five other Colorado patients filed malpractice lawsuits, accusing him of misdiagnosing them with multiple sclerosis and treating them with dangerous drugs. According to their lawsuits, five other doctors determined that the patients did not even have the disease, which causes a spectrum of symptoms, including muscle weakness, fatigue, numbness and difficulty with walking and vision.

One case was dismissed this month and will not be re-filed. The other cases still are pending; no final judgments have been made as to Weisss fault or liability.

In August, two patients in Florida, where Weiss has practiced since the 1980s, filed malpractice cases with similar allegations.

State medical boards can discipline a doctor based on the actions of another state.

Family photo Anthony Scarsella and his wife, Christy, of Palm Bay, Fla.

Family photo Anthony Scarsella and his wife, Christy, of Palm Bay, Fla.

For instance, after Colorado acted to stop Weiss from renewing his license, Weiss agreed with Illinois regulators in July 2015 to permanently relinquish his license, which had expired in 2002.

Florida did not act until last August, when regulators reached a deal with Weiss in which it would issue a letter of concern, a $5,000 fine, and a requirement that he take continuing medical education courses. The agreement does not limit his ability to practice.

The agreement was approved by the Florida Board of Medicine in early February.

I think it is disgraceful, said Christy Scarsella, a resident of Palm Bay, Fla., whose husband, Anthony, 48, had gone to Weiss in 2013 with complaints of shoulder and neck pain, headaches and numbness in his hands.

In a malpractice lawsuit, they alleged Weiss performed an MRI, but failed to accurately read it, resulting in an aneurysm bursting in Scarsellas brain.

The Scarsellas could not discuss details of the case, due to a confidential settlement, but their lawsuit said Anthony Scarsella suffered disability, the loss of the ability to earn money and needed nursing care.

Records from the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation indicate the couple settled the case for $250,000 in 2015.

Christy Scarsella said she plans to file a complaint with the Florida medical board in hopes that she can get Weisss license revoked.

It is an injustice to people who are seeking proficient medical help, she said.

Doctor faces malpractice lawsuits Brenda Culhane is one of four people in Colorado now suing doctor Gary Weiss, claiming he misdiagnosed them as having multiple sclerosis and put them on potentially dangerous drugs.

Culhane went to Weiss at his Vail office in 2007 because she began experiencing weakness in her upper extremities, according to her lawsuit, filed in August 2016.

After diagnosing her with MS, Weiss put her on the drug Tysabri. The expensive and highly restricted drug, which has to be infused every month, can cause a viral brain infection known as progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy (PML). Though rare, it usually is fatal or causes severe disability.

Those infusions  more than 100  continued through 2014, when another doctor, Enrique Alvarez of the University of Colorado, determined Culhane did not have MS.

She said the faulty diagnosis caused depression and anxiety.

"There is no cure for MS, so I was living with the knowledge that eventually I would be completely incapacitated, she said. That was a very difficult thing to live with all those years."

In a sworn statement filed as part of a lawsuit, Andrew Solomon, a neurologist and multiple sclerosis specialist at the University of Vermont who reviewed Culhanes medical records, said Culhane does not and never did have MS.

Solomon said he also reviewed the records of 10 other Colorado patients Weiss had diagnosed with MS.

To a patient, while Dr. Weiss diagnosed them with MS, while they were put on MS medications with considerable risk for morbidity and even death, and while they received MS treatment for prolonged periods of time, it is my opinion that none of these individuals ever actually had MS, he said.

Concerns also were raised about Weiss in a sworn affidavit from John Corboy, a University of Colorado MS specialist.

Corboy was one of four University of Colorado neurologists who filed a 2011 complaint against Weiss with the Colorado medical board after a Weiss patient died of a PML infection that is known to be caused by the drug Tysabri, which Weiss put her on.

Based on my review of medical records, as well as numerous conversations with other neurologists throughout Colorado, Dr. Weiss has misdiagnosed many, many people with MS, Corboy said in a December 2017 affidavit filed in connection with one of the lawsuits.

Patient records also revealed that Weiss ordered excessive amounts of MRIs, which were taken at the facility he owned and that he was prescribing unnecessary medications, both for financial gain, Corboy said.

In an email provided through a spokesman, Weiss said he and Corboy have a history. It is safe to say that he does not like me. For him to say I ever ordered a single MRI or treatment for financial gain is outrageous and flaty wrong.

He also questioned whether Culhane changed her mind about the care she got from him after talking to a lawyer or being contacted by the doctor to whom Weiss sold his Colorado medical practice. That doctor sued Weiss over the sale but later dropped the case.

He said the doctor told some of his former patients that they had been misdiagnosed.

Weiss also said that making an MS diagnosis is a difficult, subjective process and that early treatment of suspected cases is important to prevent symptoms years later.

The fact that a patient is doing well today may mean that the treatment worked or it may mean that he or she was one of the fortunate 30% who looked like they have MS, but dont, he said. No one knows. In any case, if a patient is healthy, Im happy.

 John Fauber Show More

In an email provided by a spokesman, Weiss said the payment to the Scarsellas was made only because of an insurance companys business decision to settle the case -- a decision he disagreed with.

Weiss said the Colorado malpractice lawsuits are opportunistic and totally unfounded and the Florida lawsuits are copycats with no more hope of prevailing than those in Colorado.

I refuse to settle any of the cases for even a penny, he said.

Weiss said he only agreed to give up his license in Colorado, which expired earlier that year, because he had developed his own health issues that made it impossible for him to live in a high-altitude setting.

That led him to focus on Florida, where he also had a practice, he said.

Even in the unlikely event that I did not prevail in a hearing on the Colorado complaint, it was not the kind of issue that would have led to significant discipline or loss of my license, he said. He termed the action in Florida a very low-level letter of concern triggered by my giving up my Colorado license.

In fact, the Colorado board said that if the allegations regarding the MS patient who died were proven at a hearing it would amount to a prima facie case of unprofessional conduct.

Wide variation among states

The Journal Sentinel and MedPage Today surveyed 62 boards across the country that regulate physicians at the state level. In some cases, there are two boards in a state  one for medical doctors and another for osteopathic physicians, who focus on the musculoskeletal system. Governors appoint some or all members of 56 of them.

Each board can have wildly different rules. A 2016 study in the British Medical Journal found annual average rates of discipline ranged from 1.9 actions per 1,000 doctors in Massachusetts to 10.3 in Delaware. In other words, Delaware disciplines doctors at over five times the rate of Massachusetts. The rate in Wisconsin was 4.4.

There are also huge differences in the amount and quality of information each board makes available about doctors to the public.

Consider Julie Sullivan of Oceanside, Calif. That states licensing website shows a clean record. No hospital disciplinary actions. No action taken by other states. No court orders or anything else that might raise eyebrows.

It does not mention the problems listed on the Texas Medical Boards website, stemming from her care of a patient who complained of headaches and extreme sensitivity to light. Despite the patients prior similar symptoms and history of aneurysms, Sullivan did not perform a specialized eye exam, and discharged him with a diagnosis of a severe headache, according to records from the Texas Medical Board.

Less than six hours later, the man went to an emergency room where a CT exam showed a cyst in his brain. He was in an ambulance on the way to another hospital when he suffered cardiac arrest and died.

The California site also doesnt mention that a health insurance company had trouble getting information from Sullivan about the encounter, for which it issued her a corrective action plan. Thats only available on the Texas site.

Sullivan declined to comment for this piece. A spokesman for the Medical Board of California said the site does not include Sullivans record in Texas because the incidents there preceded her licensure in California.

When it comes to problems, there are many sources of information, but each only covers a portion of a doctors background: discipline by a medical board; discipline from other states; malpractice claims and payouts; loss of hospital privileges; criminal convictions; Medicaid/Medicare exclusions and fraud charges; and actions by the federal regulators, such as the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the Drug Enforcement Agency.

Medical boards across the U.S. Click a state to see information about its medical board, including who appoints its members, how often it disciplines doctors and what information it posts online. Highlight states based on What boards post online Discipline rate Clear Board discipline Discipline by other state boards Felony convictions Medicare/Medicaid exclusions and fraud cases Loss of hospital privileges Malpractice claims and/or payments DEA actions The board . The board is composed of What do they post online? Board discipline Loss of hospital privileges Discipline by other state boards Malpractice claims and/or payments Felony convictions Actions by DEA and FDA Medicare/Medicaid exclusions and fraud cases Close

No states website consistently reports all of the pieces of the puzzle.

According to a Journal Sentinel/MedPage Today analysis, only five states include at least six of the seven categories  Florida, Kansas, Maryland, Massachusetts and North Carolina. Five other states regularly reported five: California, Georgia, Indiana, New York and Tennessee.

The majority report only their own disciplinary actions.

Should all state medical boards list all of these elements? Absolutely, said Sidney Wolfe, a physician and director of the patient advocacy group Public Citizen. A background check on a doctor you have, or one youre thinking of going to, may have more of an effect on your health than anything else.

Even when state medical boards make this information available, they often rely on physicians to report their own transgressions. At license renewal time, doctors are asked a series of questions about whether theyve been disciplined by other states, had run-ins with the law or paid malpractice claims.

The federal National Practitioner Data Bank allows state boards to keep tabs on their doctors who hold licenses in other states. Boards rarely take advantage of the system, though.

The Federation of State Medical Boards has its own system for tracking state actions and credentials, but doesnt have all the same information as the data bank.

Insurance companies say they have their own protections.

All doctors are reviewed through a credentialing process when added to a network, said Armando Deltoro an official with Americas Health Insurance Plans, an industry group. Most insurance plans re-screen their members again every three years, sooner if they become aware of a problem with a doctors record, he said.

He said he could not provide the number of doctors who had been excluded after screenings.

Hiring doctors can be a buyer beware situation for hospitals, said William Golden, medical services director for the Arkansas Department of Medical Services.

Medical boards tend to believe in the power of redemption and letting people make a living.

From New York to Wisconsin

Consider Siebert, the UW-Madison plastic surgeon.

Between 2000 and 2008, he performed multiple surgeries at New York University Medical Center on a woman with whom he had a sexual relationship between 2006 and 2008. An investigation began in 2009 and New York disciplined Siebert for the relationship in 2013.

His inappropriate intimate relationship with a patient was determined to be professional misconduct and his license in New York was suspended for three years. The board stayed the suspension, put Siebert on probation and ordered him to have a chaperone whenever he saw a female patient. It is a condition that stays with him for as long as he is licensed in New York.

John Siebert Plastic surgeon John Siebert faced sanctions in New York after having sex with a patient. In Wisconsin, regulators did not follow suit. Here is a look at his case: Plastic surgeon John Siebert begins what is later termed a two-year inappropriate intimate relationship in New York with a married patient on whom he had performed multiple surgeries. The womans husband later files a complaint with the New York state medical board. Siebert tells New York state investigators that he bought a cell phone for the patient he was having sex with because her husband was becoming suspicious. Siebert says he resigned from New York University Medical Center because he wanted to work full-time at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Siebert tells an investigator with the New York State Department of Health that he had resigned from Lenox Hill Hospital in New York, which has an academic residency affiliation with NYU, four months earlier in lieu of being fired. The University of Wisconsin hires Siebert on a full-time basis. Siebert works as a plastic surgeon and a professor in the medical school. The New York State Board of Professional Medical Conduct says Sieberts affair with the female patient showed a moral unfitness to practice. It issues an order suspending his medical license for three years, though the suspension is stayed and he is put on probation. The state also issues a permanent requirement that a chaperone be present whenever he sees a female patient in that state. Siebert agrees to the order.



View charges

View order Billionaire businesswoman Diane Hendricks, a Siebert patient who also is one of the biggest political supporters of Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, puts up $1.75 million to fund two endowed chairs at UW, including one for Siebert. Hendricks told the Journal Sentinel she never talked to Walker about Siebert. After a review, an advisor to the Wisconsin Medical Examining Board, which is appointed by Walker, and a staff attorney, decide no action should be taken against Siebert, saying that while the New York case may have been a minor or technical violation, it was not seriously harmful to the public.



View memo In an email to the Journal Sentinel, Siebert says the incident in New York was a mistake. I have accepted responsibility and followed all requirements. I am proud Ive been given the opportunity to move ahead and provide the care that I was trained to give. Show More



John Siebert Plastic surgeon John Siebert faced sanctions in New York after having sex with a patient. In Wisconsin, regulators did not follow suit. Here is a look at his case: Plastic surgeon John Siebert begins what is later termed a two-year inappropriate intimate relationship in New York with a married patient on whom he had performed multiple surgeries. The womans husband later files a complaint with the New York state medical board. Siebert tells New York state investigators that he bought a cell phone for the patient he was having sex with because her husband was becoming suspicious. Siebert says he resigned from New York University Medical Center because he wanted to work full-time at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Siebert tells an investigator with the New York State Department of Health that he had resigned from Lenox Hill Hospital in New York, which has an academic residency affiliation with NYU, four months earlier in lieu of being fired. The University of Wisconsin hires Siebert on a full-time basis. Siebert works as a plastic surgeon and a professor in the medical school. The New York State Board of Professional Medical Conduct says Sieberts affair with the female patient showed a moral unfitness to practice. It issues an order suspending his medical license for three years, though the suspension is stayed and he is put on probation. The state also issues a permanent requirement that a chaperone be present whenever he sees a female patient in that state. Siebert agrees to the order.



View charges

View order Billionaire businesswoman Diane Hendricks, a Siebert patient who also is one of the biggest political supporters of Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, puts up $1.75 million to fund two endowed chairs at UW, including one for Siebert. Hendricks told the Journal Sentinel she never talked to Walker about Siebert. After a review, an advisor to the Wisconsin Medical Examining Board, which is appointed by Walker, and a staff attorney, decide no action should be taken against Siebert, saying that while the New York case may have been a minor or technical violation, it was not seriously harmful to the public.



View memo In an email to the Journal Sentinel, Siebert says the incident in New York was a mistake. I have accepted responsibility and followed all requirements. I am proud Ive been given the opportunity to move ahead and provide the care that I was trained to give. Show More



In 2011, Siebert became a full-time employee at UW-Madison, where he had been working part time.

After New York imposed the chaperone requirement in 2013, UW-Madison worked out its own such requirement with Siebert, but unlike New Yorks, which is permanent, the UW requirement can be reopened in the future. And the requirement only applies to Sieberts work for the university; it does not apply to any work he might do on the side or should he leave the university system and continue practicing in Wisconsin.

After New Yorks disciplinary action, the Wisconsin medical board looked into the case and decided to put no restrictions on his license. Its review included an interview with Siebert and documents from UW-Madison and the New York medical board.

While New York said Siebert showed a moral unfitness to practice, Wisconsin officials described his sex with a patient as a minor or technical violation, that was not seriously harmful to the public.

A month earlier, it was announced that Wisconsin billionaire Hendricks, who was treated by Siebert in 2014, had put up $1.75 million to help fund two endowed chairs at the University of Wisconsin, including one now held by Siebert.

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Siebert was paid $841,000 by University of Wisconsin-related entities in the most recent fiscal year. About $73,000 of that is base salary, with the rest coming from the UW Medical Foundation, which includes income from his practice as a doctor and surgeon.

With a net worth of $4.9 billion, Hendricks, 70, is the second-richest woman in America, according to Forbes magazine. She has been a major contributor to Scott Walker, who appoints all 13 members of Wisconsins medical board. She gave $500,000 to Walker's 2012 recall campaign and $5 million toward his 2016 presidential run.

In a telephone interview, Hendricks said she never discussed Siebert with the governor. She said she was aware of a blemish on his record before she funded the UW endowed chair.

To me it was insignificant, she said, adding: He is a wonderful physician.

A spokeswoman for the board said the Walker administration is not involved in reviewing complaints against doctors.

In an email response to questions, Siebert said the incident in New York was a mistake that I made and for which I have accepted responsibility and followed all requirements. I am proud Ive been given the opportunity to move ahead and provide the care that I was trained to give.

In a statement, UW spokeswoman Lisa Brunette said Siebert was hired because he is one of the most gifted surgeons in the nation, perhaps the world, noting that he is a leader in treatment of a rare deformity, Parry-Romberg Syndrome, involving soft tissues in the face.

However, just before he was hired by UW, Siebert told New York state investigators, who were looking into his affair with a patient, that he had recently resigned in lieu of being fired from Lenox Hill Hospital. The hospital has an academic residency affiliation with NYU.

Siebert said that while he recalls making the comment, he was not going to be fired.

It was meant to be sardonic in light of a difficult situation, he said in an email.

Few checks made by states

Congress created the National Practitioner Data Bank in 1986, saying it would improve healthcare quality and reduce fraud and abuse.

The database was designed as a central tool for recording malpractice payments, state disciplinary actions, restrictions from health plans or hospitals and other limits on any health care professional  doctors, nurses, dentists, physical therapists and others.

Inside a medical board hearing The Florida Board of Medicine met this month on the case of Gary Weiss, a neurologist who in Colorado agreed to forever give up his right to practice after allegations that his care of a patient who died was far below the standard of care for neurologists.

When it did, it only got a partial view of Weiss legal record.

At a hearing on the proposed settlement, one Florida board member said the Colorado discipline seems unusually harsh. Is there something thats going on?

Another board member raised a concern about a doctor barred from practicing in one state being allowed to practice in Florida:

Are we okay having someone having a license in Florida that cannot hold a license in another state, where they were banned from practicing medicine and they cannot hold a license there?

Another board member said there was plenty of evidence that Weiss was not a danger to the public in Florida.

Then, another board member asked Weiss if he had any other malpractice cases.

Weiss acknowledged a case in Florida that he had settled.

Then, he added, But I had no malpractice cases.

However, court records indicate that at the time of the board meeting Weiss had been sued seven times since he left Colorado, including five malpractice cases brought by former patients in Colorado and two by Florida patients. (Since then, one of the Colorado cases has been dismissed as part of an agreement by the attorneys.)

Through a spokesman, Weiss said he was referring to adjudicated or settled lawsuits.

Brad Dalton, a spokesman for the Florida medical board, said information about other malpractice cases against Weiss was not included in materials reviewed by board members, "as that was not part of the complaint against Dr. Weiss in this particular case."

 John Fauber Show More

"The intent was to help make sure that physicians were not able to go from state to state without any past history of activity being known, said David Loewenstein, who oversees the data bank.

He acknowledged the listings dont provide a full picture of a doctors history.

"We by no means hold ourselves out to be the all-encompassing definition of good and bad practitioners, he said. We're a data point, to be used along with others.

The bank now has more than 1.3 million records of adverse actions going back to 1990. The resource is open to hospitals, insurers, and state medical boards. In 2016, the data bank logged 7.5 million searches from those groups, with state medical boards accounting for a small share.

The same legislation that created the tool shrouded it in secrecy. Public versions of the database dont include doctors names or other identifying information.

That makes it impossible to determine what happened in several cases where reporters asked officials why doctors with license problems in other states were allowed to practice in their state without issue.

In each case, officials said it was the first time they heard of the misdeed.

Oshel, who formerly oversaw the data bank, said its likely the information was in the data bank. Most state boards report actions as required by law, he said.

It was very unusual to get queries from a state board, he said. There were states that maybe didn't submit any queries at all, or one or two.

Though doctor searches cost only about $3 each, most states, he said, performed only 10 to 20 searches every year.

States can even sign up for automatic updates from the data bank, which will run doctor names every 24 hours and report any new actions.

Of the 64 state medical boards, only 13 subscribe.

John Fauber is a reporter for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Matt Wynn and Kristina Fiore are reporters with MedPage Today.

This story was reported as a joint project of the Journal Sentinel and MedPage Today, which provides a clinical perspective for physicians on breaking medical news at medpagetoday.com.

How we reported this story

To pursue this investigation, reporters at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and MedPage Today worked with TruthMD, a Los Angeles-area company that collects information on doctors from thousands of sources.

The company provided records of doctors who had faced a public board action in one state between 2011 and 2017, and no action in at least one other state where they were licensed.

More than 500 such cases were identified. Each one was checked with the state medical board that took the initial action against the doctor. The reporters also verified that the other board took no public action of its own.

Additionally, reporters obtained thousands of pages of medical board records, court filings, Medicare records, and federal actions on specific cases. In the analysis, reporters excluded cases where the initial action was dismissed or found baseless. In some cases, a board took action well after another state issued a public notice. Cases were included if there was a gap of at least a year between the first states action and the follow-up in a second state.

To identify cases where a doctor applied for a license in a new state after an investigation started in another, reporters flagged cases where the physician pursued a license after the action that eventually resulted in discipline.

Reporters also interviewed dozens of people, including families of those alleged to have been harmed, state medical board officials and experts in the field of doctor discipline, as well as individual doctors accused of wrongdoing." " Chilean fog collectors on the Spanish Canary Island of Tenerife use large canvas nets to trap the condensation contained in the fog. Water droplets are then collected after flowing down the net. DESIREE MARTIN/AFP/Getty Images

On the whole, the Namib Desert in Southern Africa doesn't see much rainfall. To stay alive, a few species there rely on a different source for moisture. In the Namib, fog is way more common than rain. Some of it gets blown over on Atlantic winds; some of it radiates up from the ground. Altogether, there are usually between 60 and 200 foggy days in the desert each year.

The Namib grass Stipagrostis sabulicola exploits those foggy days. Airborne water droplets get caught on its leaves and tiny vertical grooves then redirect the liquid down to its roots. Small black insects in the Namib do something similar. On cool mornings, Namib beetles (Stenocara gracilipes) use their forewings to collect fog droplets and channel them into their mouths.

It's an ingenious hydration trick. So could mankind ever harvest fog? You bet. In fact, people all over the world are doing it right now.

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Moisture and Gravity

Historians don't know exactly how old the practice of fog collection is. Modern engineers have been tinkering with the idea since at least 1901, when fog capture experiments were carried out on Table Mountain in South Africa.

The country took a huge leap forward in 1969. That year, South Africa's government was looking to find a suitable source of water for its Air Force personnel at the Mariepskop radar station. Two plastic nets  measuring 91.8 feet (28 meters) long by 11.8 feet (3.6 meters) high  were set up near the facility. Placed at right angles to each other, their purpose was to gather and store windblown moisture on foggy days. The screens stayed up for 15 months. In that time, they yielded a daily average of 11 liters (2.9 gallons) of water per square meter (3.28 square feet) of collection surface area. Not too shabby.

Think of fog banks like grounded clouds. The product of condensation, fog is made up of visible water droplets that congregate in large clusters near Earth's surface. Fog nets  like the ones built for the Mariepskop radar station  are made of fine mesh and typically held up by poles in the ground.

When it's foggy outside, tiny water droplets cling to the mesh. As they accumulate, some of the droplets merge together into beads. When they increase in size, the beads grow heavy and gravity pulls them down. At the base of a fog net is a gutter that collects these descending water droplets that can then be diverted into a reservoir for storage.

Ultimately, the Mariepskop nets were dismantled once a different water source presented itself. But the world hadn't seen the last of fog harvesting. Halfway across the planet, a renaissance in this field was set to unfold.

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A Global Harvest

The Chilean mountain village of Chungungo  like the Namib Desert  is arid and rain is hard to come by. Typically, the area experiences less than 6 centimeters (2.36 inches) of precipitation per year. Generations of residents have had to import drinking water by the truckload from Chile's wetter regions. And yet, Chungungo itself is not some moisture-free wasteland. Regular, heavy fogs blow in from the Pacific. So late in the 20th century, scientists decided to try and harness this resource.

In 1992, The New York Times reported on a collaboration between Chile's National Catholic University and the International Development Research Centre of Canada. Researchers from both organizations descended on a hill overlooking Chungungo where they tested out different net materials. Eventually, the teams settled on a design. Some 50 nets were made, with each containing two layers of tight, polypropylene mesh.

Though the harvest yields varied seasonally, a 2001 report from Scientific American found that the nets gathered an average total of 11,000 liters (2,905 gallons) of water every day. That was enough to provide each one of Chungungo's 300 residents with 33 liters apiece (8 gallons) daily.

The feel-good story garnered lots of headlines. Inspired by the success at Chungungo, other countries began to set up their own fog-harvesting net systems. Today, these contraptions can be found in more than a dozen nations  including Peru, Morocco and Nepal. In areas where lakes, rivers or water wells aren't options for drinking water, they can be highly useful.

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Netting the Future

Fog collection technology continues to evolve. In 2013, scientists from the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology announced a vastly improved mesh screen design. Through rigorous testing, they learned that thin fibers made for more effective nets. So, they created a net out of stainless steel filaments with three to four times the thickness of an isolated human hair. Then, a specially made coating was applied in order to help water droplets slide down the mesh more easily. According to the researchers, this new design represents a 500 percent improvement in fog-collection efficiency.

Now That's Interesting Roadrunners can stay alive without directly drinking water. These flightless birds simply extract all the water they need from the animals they eat. For the record, roadrunners prey on snakes, lizards, insects, rodents and smaller birds  as well as fruit.Recently, a group of scientists got genetic evidence of interbreeding among the ancestors of modern-elephants, mammoths, and mastodons occurring during the Pleistocene Epoch. They found out that the three modern-day species of elephants have distinct genetic profiles and their ancestors interbred with other species of the Elephantid family to cope up with changing climate.

What worried the scientists were the two modern species that never interbred with each other. And those two species were the only leftover African species name that forest and savanna elephants. If these two African elephant species do not interbreed with each other, then their population will be in danger. So we might see the African Elephants being listed as endangered species in future if we do not ensure interbreeding among elephant species. Interbreeding among species is considered very important for maintaining genetic diversity. With the climate change intensifying day by day, interbreeding has become an important criterion for controlling the decreasing population of different species.

As the latest study revealed that the two leftover African elephant species do not interbreed, it becomes important to specifically concentrate on conserving those African elephant species. The latest study was conducted by a group of scientists from McMaster University, the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Uppsala University, Harvard Medical School and the University of Potsdam. The research team did DNA sequencing of 14 genomes from both currently living elephants and the extinct elephant species of Asia and Africa, a Columbian mammoth, two American mastodons and a 120,000-year-old straight-tusked elephant. From this study, scientists got to know that the ancestors of modern-day African and Asian elephants interbred with mammoths and mastodons.

The scientists discovered a gene flow between the mammoths and mastodons and the ancestors of modern elephants that revealed about the complex genetic and evolutionary history of the elephants. But they found out that no interbreeding occurred in between forest and Savannas elephants of Africa and both the African species lived in near-complete isolation for the past 500,000 years in spite of their close geographical proximity. So, the latest study revealed two things. First is, scientists got to know that the African Elephants are not a single species but are two different species. Second is the dark future of those two African species because they do not interbreed.

As per Wikipedia

African elephants were listed as vulnerable by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) in 2008, with no independent assessment of the conservation status of the two forms. In 1979, Africa had an estimated minimum population of 1.3 million elephants, with a possible upper limit of 3.0 million. By 1989, the population was estimated to be 609,000; with 277,000 in Central Africa, 110,000 in eastern Africa, 204,000 in southern Africa, and 19,000 in western Africa. About 214,000 elephants were estimated to live in the rainforests, fewer than had previously been thought. From 1977 to 1989, elephant populations declined by 74% in East Africa. After 1987, losses in elephant numbers accelerated, and savannah populations from Cameroon to Somalia experienced a decline of 80%. African forest elephants had a total loss of 43%. Population trends in southern Africa were mixed, with anecdotal reports of losses in Zambia, Mozambique and Angola while populations grew in Botswana and Zimbabwe and were stable in South Africa.

African elephants receive at least some legal protection in every country where they are found, but 70% of their range exists outside protected areas. Successful conservation efforts in certain areas have led to high population densities. As of 2008, local numbers were controlled by contraception or translocation. Large-scale cullings ceased in 1988, when Zimbabwe abandoned the practice. In 1989, the African elephant was listed under Appendix I by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), making trade illegal. Appendix II status (which allows restricted trade) was given to elephants in Botswana, Namibia, and Zimbabwe in 1997 and South Africa in 2000. In some countries, sport hunting of the animals is legal; Botswana, Cameroon, Gabon, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Tanzania, Zambia, and Zimbabwe have CITES export quotas for elephant trophies.CHPO in Berlin: In early July 2017 Stockholm based skateboarders Jesper Lind and David Jakinda got in a minibus and headed down south to Malmo.

In Malmo they picked up both Fernando Bramsmark and Sarah Meurle, and after half a day of Malmo based skating they drove down through Denmark in to Germany, and on to the German capital of Berlin. There they picked up Don Nguyen and Vanessa Torres for what was planned to be a week of skating

The first two days went as planned with good skating and good weather, Berlin at its best! The rest of the week a monsoon rain joined the group and even though they skated the local indoor park, they spent most of the days enjoying the Vietnamese kitchens of Berlin led by Nuge and friend, Paul Otvos.

The photographer on the trip was Robin Boon Nilssen, the filmer Fritte Soderstrom and their tour guide was Skateistan employee and Berlin local Felix Spowage.

Take a scroll down the page for some of Robin Boon Nilssens photos from the trip.Skateistan launched their Phnom Penh Skate School in Cambodias capital last week with various visitors from the US alongside over 100 local kids keen to check out their new skatepark. Check the press release and a few photos below then go peruse their website for more of the good work they do!

SKATERS AND STUDENTS CELEBRATE A BRIGHT NEW SKATE SCHOOL FOR SKATEISTAN IN CAMBODIA

Skateistan, the award-winning non-profit organization empowering children and youth through skateboarding and education, launched a new Skate School in Phnom Penh, Cambodia on Friday (February 23rd). Over 100 children celebrated alongside special guests from around the world, including skaters Sky Brown, Mimi Knoop, Jim Thiebaud and funding partner, The Skateroom.

As soon as the ribbon was cut by students to officially open the Skate School, girls took to the new 500 square meter skatepark to put on a demo for the crowd  dropping in from the highest ramps and showing off new skills they had already learned on the concrete features built by New Line Skateparks. This was followed by a pro skate demo in which 9-year-old Sky Brown wowed the local children (and her new friends) on the mini ramp. There was also breakdancing, a magic show, interactive wall art and a 360-degree nature experience. It was a magical day celebrating the power of skateboarding and creativity to change the lives of children in Cambodia.

Skateistan first began running programs in Phnom Penh in 2011 and recently moved to a new location, within the creative hub of Factory Phnom Penh, to better meet the needs of local children, in particular girls and children living with disabilities. 240 children and youth are currently part of the programs (Outreach, Skate and Create and Youth Leadership) in Phnom Penh, of which 53% are girls. This new space will enable Skateistan to provide skateboarding and educational opportunities to even more children in the local community surrounding the Skate School whilst continuing to work with multiple partner organizations in the city.

Built in partnership with Building Trust International, the new Skate School was funded by The Skateroom through sales of limited edition skate decks featuring the artwork of Grayson Perry and Andy Warhol. The facility consists of a skatepark, classroom, library, office and large green space. It was designed by architects at Atelier Cole, with input from local Skateistan staff and the skate community. Its the perfect new space for Skateistan to run their programs, which are supported by Jochnick Foundation, Google.org, Laureus Sport for Good Foundation, Swedish Postcode Foundation, CHPO, FYF, Shining Pictures and InMaat Foundation. The skatepark is the first of its kind in Cambodia and, when not in use by Skateistan students, will be open for the public to enjoy.

This bright new start for Skateistan in Cambodia sees the non-profit organization further integrating into the community and providing a safe space for local children to play and learn for many years to come.What role did climate change play in this winters US freezes, heat, and drought?

Posted on 28 February 2018 by dana1981

This is a re-post from the Citizens' Climate Lobby Blog by Dana Nuccitelli and Doug Sinton, CCL Science Policy Network Team

There is growing scientific evidence suggesting that human-caused global warming is causing rapid changes in the Arctic, which in turn is altering the atmosphere, causing wavy patterns to form more frequently in the jet stream. On the West Coast, this can cause persistent high-pressure systems to form in the Pacific, exacerbating droughts by blocking storm systems. It can also allow frigid Arctic air to spill into the USA, creating especially cold winter weather. In sum, these freezes, heat, and droughts are made more likely by rising global temperatures, and as they rise further, such extremes may well become more common.

Abnormal winter weather

This winter, the eastern USA was hit by frigid cold weather, although at the same time, the western states (and most of the rest of the world) were relatively toasty:

This prompted a presidential tweet suggesting, Perhaps we could use a little bit of that good old Global Warming. Its a natural reaction, when in the midst of frigid weather, to wonder how such cold conditions can strike in a world thats being heated by global warming. However, scientific research has suggested that, counterintuitively, climate change appears to be playing a role in making these cold winter weather events happen more often in some regions.

Connecting global warming, the Arctic, and the wobbly jet stream

The jet stream plays a key role here. Jet streams are bands of fast-moving air currents about five to seven miles above Earths surface. The polar jet stream influences weather in North America, and in turn is influenced by changes in the Arctic due to human-caused global warming.

The Arctic is the fastest-warming part of the planet, in large part because sea ice is disappearing so rapidly. White ice is reflective, but dark oceans arent. When sea ice sitting on top of the ocean melts, the Arctic surface becomes less reflective, absorbing more sunlight, which in turn melts more ice in whats known as a positive feedback. Because the colder Arctic is warming faster than the warmer area to its south (e.g. North America), the temperature difference between the regions is shrinking.

That temperature difference is a big part of what normally keeps the jet stream strong and moving in a straight west-east line. When it shrinks, that allows more and larger wobbles (waves) to form in the weakened jet stream. As a result, weather patterns can get stuck as those waves slow down in the weaker jet, and the weather systems can become quasi-stationary or blocked. Picture a river with a slower current having more and larger meanders than a faster flowing one. (2)

Consequences: Drier West Coast, cold weather in the East

These jet stream waves (3) tend to cause different types of extreme weather in different parts of the country. On the West Coast, persistent high-pressure ridges tend to form in the Pacific Ocean, creating warm, dry weather in California as storms pass to its north. One such high pressure system, coined the Ridiculously Resilient Ridge, contributed to Californias 20122016 drought, which a 2014 study concluded was the states most intense in over 1200 years. A 2016 study published in Science found that these persistent high-pressure ridges are forming more often off the West Coast in a hotter world.

In the Midwest and on the East Coast, a southward dip in the jet stream tends to cold Arctic air to spill into those states. Rutgers climate scientist Jennifer Francis described this scenario:

In response to the strengthened western ridge of atmospheric pressure, the winds of the jet stream usually also form a deeper, stronger trough downstream. Deep troughs act like an open refrigerator door, allowing frigid Arctic air to plunge southward, bringing misery to areas ill-prepared to handle it. Snowstorms in Texas, ice storms in Georgia and chilly snowbirds in Florida can all be blamed on the Terribly Tenacious Trough of December 2017 and January 2018.

While this is a topic of active research and significant uncertainty, a 2018 study published in Nature Communications found additional evidence that the jet stream has become increasingly wavy over the past 50 years, to a degree unprecedented in the past 290 years, which can generate more frequent mid-latitude blocking patterns and facilitate persistent periods of extreme weather.

How to accurately communicate climate-extreme weather connections

Communicating these sorts of climate-weather connections can be tricky. Its often tempting to begin by hedging that we cant say that any given weather event was caused by global warming. However, that approach emphasizes what we dont know instead of what we do know.

A National Academy of Sciences Committee on Extreme Weather Events and Climate Change Attribution report tackled this question:

A reoccurring theme of this report is the importance of the framing of any attribution question. Although climate scientists are frequently asked Was a given observed weather event caused by climate change? we believe this is a poorly formed (or ill-posed) question that rarely has a scientifically satisfactory answer. The report discusses appropriate ways to frame attribution questions as well as the interplay between meteorological and human-made factors in the realization of extreme events.

When Barry Bonds was setting home run records during the steroid era, people used to ask if his latest homer was due to steroid use. The same dynamic occurs after each extreme event and global warming. Its more useful to assign a higher probability to extreme weather events because of global warming just as it was more instructive to look at Barry Bonds overall home run record than any single home run.

As climate scientist Kevin Trenberth noted in a 2012 paper, all weather events now happen on a planet with a climate that weve made hotter:

The answer to the oft-asked question of whether an event is caused by climate change is that it is the wrong question. All weather events are affected by climate change because the environment in which they occur is warmer and moister than it used to be.

That is the proper framing when discussing these types of extreme weather events. In this case, there is growing scientific evidence suggesting that human-caused global warming is causing rapid changes in the Arctic, which in turn is altering the atmosphere, causing wavy patterns to form more frequently in the jet stream. On the West Coast, this can cause persistent high-pressure systems to form in the Pacific, exacerbating droughts by blocking storm systems. It can also allow frigid Arctic air to spill into the USA, creating especially cold winter weather.

Footnotes:

Volunteers should carefully consider what audience this information may be most appropriate for. For example, if presented to a layperson, ensure it is done in a manner that is easy to understand. Rutgers climate scientist Jennifer Francis explains these changes to the jet stream and impacts on weather systems here A video illustrating the jet stream waves is available here

Dana Nuccitelli is an Environmental Scientist and writes about climate change for The Guardian and Skeptical Science. Doug Sinton is a meteorology professor at San Jose State University (retired).

The Science Policy Network is a team of CCL leaders and supporters with a diverse background in the field of climate science. These network contributors write regular guest posts, offering thorough insight into topics that fall within their expertise. This post and other resources are available in the form of white papers on CCL Community.The FBI is having a good cultural moment. Coming shortly after the return of beloved heroes Mulder, Scully, and Dale Cooper to the small screen, millions of Americans are counting on real-life former FBI director Robert Mueller and his intrepid team of investigators to deliver them from Donald Trump. Now, a new miniseries suggests that 9/11 and the decades of strife and horror that followed could all have been avoidedif only wed listened to the G-men.

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The Looming Tower, which premiers on Hulu on Wednesday, is billed as an adaptation of the 2006 Pulitzer Prizewinning nonfiction book by Lawrence Wright, who is also one of the series executive producers. But thats a bit misleading. Wrights book is a magisterial history of the events leading up to the World Trade Center attack, beginning with Sayyid Qutbs development of what would become jihadi ideology in the 1940s and tracing the origins of al-Qaida through decades of history in Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and Afghanistan. The series, created by Wright, documentarian Alex Gibney, and Capote screenwriter Dan Futterman, is focused exclusively on the U.S. efforts to track Osama Bin Ladens terror network in the three years leading up to 9/11, which arent introduced until about two-thirds of the way through the book. Its an understandable choicethe investigation is a more straightforward story to tell than the origins of al-Qaida and an easier one for American filmmakers to pull offbut the effect is to turn the story into a police procedural where everyone knows the bad guys are going to get away with it and the personal struggles of the main characters feel especially low stakes given the tragedy we know is inevitable.

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The series also spends an inordinate amount of time focused on the bureaucratic turf war between the CIA and FBI over the Bin Laden investigation. While well-documented, the CIAs failure to adequately share information with other agencies during this period doesnt seem like either the most important or most dramatically interesting pre-9/11 story one could put on screen.

The hero of the story, which begins just before the bombing of two U.S. embassies in East Africa in 1998, is John ONeill (Jeff Daniels, a little miscast as a Jersey Irish tough guy), the hard-charging, bon vivant leader of the FBIs investigation into al-Qaida. ONeill is a genuinely fascinating figurethis is the second miniseries to tell his storyas one of the few people in the U.S. government who recognized the threat posed by al-Qaida. Adding to the tragedy of his story (this is a spoiler, I suppose, though one available on Wikipedia), he became one of the groups victims, having taken a post-FBI job running security at the World Trade Center just days before the attacks. He was also an intriguingly flawed figure, who undermined his own career with sloppy professional mistakes, and a conflicted Catholic with an incredibly messy personal life: He had ongoing relationships with at least two women who were unaware of each other and that he was still married to a third. (The manner in which that last fact is revealed in the first episode of The Looming Tower is an egregious rip-off of the pilot of Mad Men.)

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ONeill is teamed up with a rookie agent, Ali Soufan (French actor Tahar Rahim, from 2009s A Prophet), one of only eight Arabic speakers in the entire bureau at the time. Pitted against them is the CIAs own al-Qaida unit, led by analyst Martin Schmidt (Peter Sarsgaard) and his creepily obsequious protegee Diane Marsh (Wrenn Schmidt). Alec Baldwin has a brief cameo as CIA Director George Tenet. White House counterterrorism czar Richard Clarke (played with grandfatherly benevolence by a bewigged Michael Stuhlbarg) has the unenviable task of mediating between the two sides.

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Much of the three episodes available for reviewthere are 10 altogetheris devoted to the lead-up to and investigation of the embassy bombings, as well as the Clinton administrations ill-fated decision to launch airstrikes in Sudan and Afghanistan in response. Both sides see Bin Laden as a major threat at a time when most of Washington is distracted by the Monica Lewinsky affair but differ on what to do about it.

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The creators stack the deck in favor of the FBI unit, a mix of lovable salt-of-the-Jersey-earth types and improbably beautiful field agents. ONeill and Soufan are seemingly proven right in every conflict with rival agencies and their superiors. Schmidt (seemingly based on controversial CIA veteran Michael Scheuer, though its understandable that the characters name was changed) is a creepy, unsympathetic basement dweller. The FBI agents refer to the bearded Schmidt and his gaggle of devoted female subordinates as the Manson family.

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The creators of the show seem to intend it as not only a critique of U.S. government actions in the years leading up to 9/11 but what followed as well. Schmidt is prone to Cheney-esque pronouncements about the need for extreme measures to fight terrorism. He enthusiastically turns suspects over to Egyptian custody, knowing theyll be tortured, and is indifferent to the potential civilian casualties that will result from the airstrikes he recommends against al-Qaida targets. This is well-trod territory for Wright, as well as his co-producer Gibney, the prolific documentary filmmaker who made the Oscar-winning film Taxi to the Dark Side about U.S. torture in Afghanistan.

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ONeill and his team suggest that the best way to treat al-Qaida is as criminals and the best way to combat them is by catching them and putting them on trial. (Since leaving the FBI, the real Soufan has become a prominent opponent of the use of torture against terrorism suspects.) When someone tells ONeill at one point that the country is at war with the terrorists, he replies, Only if we choose to be. He is put forth as an alternative model of how 9/11 could have been prevented, and how we, as a nation, could have responded to it. It could be thought of as a response to Zero Dark Thirty, with its CIA focus and ambivalent portrayal of torture.

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The argument would be more convincing if Schmidt werent such a flimsy straw man, arguing that he doesnt care if non-Americans are accidentally killed moments before we literally watch a young Afghan boy become radicalized as his friend is torn apart by a U.S. bomb. It doesnt help that the dialogue is clunky and the subplots about Soufan and ONeills romantic lives feel superfluous. A fictionalized budding romance between a grizzled FBI agent and an employee of the doomed Nairobi embassy is almost ghoulish.

The drama does pick up a bit in the third episode, when the FBI agents begin to fan out across the globe to Kenya, Albania, and Britain to hunt down the terrorists. Hopefully, as the show goes on, the portrayal of ONeill and the FBI gets a little more nuanced and the CIAFBI dialectic at the shows heart a little less cartoonish.

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Given its source material, one of the most striking things about The Looming Tower is its seeming indifference to al-Qaida itself. For all the lectures we get from ONeill and Soufan about the importance of understanding the culture and grievances motivating their enemies, we dont actually learn much about them, other than a few snippets about how they want U.S. troops out of Saudi Arabia. A handful of scenes set in al-Qaida training camps in Afghanistan dont do much to advance the plot or expand the shows ideas.

While a number of senior al-Qaida officials, including current leader Ayman al-Zawahiri and Anas al-Libi, are portrayed by actors, Bin Laden himself appears only in archival footage, skillfully if awkwardly edited into re-enacted scenes. Almost seven years after his death and 17 since 9/11, filmmakers have gotten more comfortable tackling the events around Bin Laden, but the man himself remains off limits.On Tuesday night, Seth Meyers took a look at Donald Trumps handling of Americas opioid epidemic. And if you think you already know how this is going to go, youre right: it turns out Donald Trump is not doing a very good job at handling the opioid crisis. So much so thatlike every other thing in his entire presidencyit might have been better for everyone if hed never tried to do anything at all. Heres Trumps big idea for fighting drug addiction:

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Maybe by talking to youth and telling them, No good! Really bad for you in every way!

Yeah, Donald Trump just re-invented Just Say No, nearly four decades later. That didnt work for marijuana, so its charming to think its going to work for addictions that begin at the doctors office. Meyers walks us through some of the lowlights of Trumps approach, from appointing Kellyanne Conway to lead the fight to slashing the budget of the office nominally in charge of coordinating drug policy by 95%. Its almost like no one involved in Trumps battle against the opioid epidemic has given the problem any serious thought! Its a paradox: learning more about Trumps approach to opioids numbs the nerves and dulls the senses better than the strongest painkiller. But as with anything to do with the president, its the opposite of addictive.In terms of oft-given, rarely-sought relationship advice, never go to bed angry is right up there with classics like if your partner is jealous, it means they love you and put your kids above your marriage. On its face, this tidbit of wisdom makes sense: Going to sleep before resolving an argumentespecially a you-never-water-the-plants petty onecan encourage stewing in your own wrath, each person spinning (or rage-dreaming) themselves into a mental tizzy. But as Jaya Saxena wrote in a recent Cut piece in defense of dozing off mad, gritting through a fight at all costs has its own consequences, and sometimes the only solution is to pass out and start again.

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Saxenas reasoning is convincing, especially around how earth-shattering divisions tend to feel more manageable in the daylight and how lack of physical energy can get in the way of productive discussion. But her argument relies on an important assumption: Your relationship needs to be pretty functional for this to solution to work. I knew why I didnt mind falling asleep before things were entirely resolved, Saxena writes, Because there was no doubt in my mind that wed both still be there in the morning. That lack of insecurity seems key.

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As a member of the perpetually single caste, I dont yet have a first-hand opinion on how these opposing strategies work in a romantic context. (Though trust me, Ive heard some iteration of dont let the sun rise on an argument at least once every holiday season where tryptophan and free-running red wine loosens the lips of every auntie.) But I have noticed this advice slipping into my platonic relationships as well. Among my friends, Ive noticed a weird pressure to resolve a fight (about poor life choices or whether they can afford a dog) as quickly as possible, increasing desperation and anger tinging our words as we race to beat some arbitrary deadline.

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For example, on the eve of our graduation, my best friend and I ended up in an argument that more than anything else was about the fear that once we were apart we wouldnt know how to communicate. As our inevitable separation loomed, any disagreement that lasted longer than 30 minutes, even this healthy one, felt like the end. While we ended up resolving our issues, I can only imagine how much less painful that wouldve been if we had both taken a step back. When tiredness set in, the argument inevitably started spiraling into tangents that moved us further and further away from an end goal.

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Based on an informal survey here at Slate, the rule still seems to be doled out fairly often despite most people acknowledging that it is probably not the best advice. For friends and lovers, the dont go to sleep angry rule doesnt take a lot of things into account, including the fact that sleep deprivation and high emotions mix about as well as Mountain Dew and tequila. Speaking of which, add in alcohol, and youve got a recipe for an over-the-top fight, not to mention an emotional hangover, the (likely dumb) origins of which it can be messy to piece back together in the light of day. And as one colleague noted, the external pressure of trying to resolve an argument in an allotted amount of time means one person will most likely end up artificially capitulatingeffectively ruling out a productive solution to whatever problem youre having.

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Rather than refusing to go to sleep angry, most couples here seemed to agree that the most important part of an argument was re-affirming that both sides were on the same team. Putting a pin in fights and revisiting them with a cup of coffee in the morning sounds much more pleasant than duking it out to the soundtrack of late-night television or your neighbors 2 a.m. rager. And the same goes for friends: Waiting until youre both in better headspaces to resolve a conflict is much better than word-vomiting all your feelings against a made-up clock. So along with shag carpet and strict gender roles, maybe we can finally let this piece of advice die in the 21st centurydisagreements, whether between partners or friends, should be handled intelligently. And intelligence often requires sleeping on something till the morning.A teacher who reportedly locked himself inside his classroom at a high school in Dalton, Georgia before firing a weapon has been taken into custody, police say. One student is said to have injured an ankle while evacuating, but no major injuries have been reported.

Police have identified the teacher as 53-year-old Jesse Randall Davidson, a social studies teacher. Per the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Davidson is the radio play-by-play announcer for the schools football and basketball teams. He reportedly locked his classroom while alone inside and then fired at least one shot before later surrendering to police. His motivations are not yet known.

The news comes, of course, two weeks after the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, and amid national discussion of whether teachers should be encouraged to carry weapons. (Georgia allows anyone who has the permission of school administrators to bring guns onto school grounds.)

This post has been updated with new information.The National Rifle Association knows exactly whom to blame for the Feb. 14 mass shooting in Parkland, Florida. The real culprit, says the NRA, is the Federal Bureau of Investigation. As the NRA points out, the FBI failed to heed warnings about the shooter. But theres a bigger story behind this rebuke. To protect its political allies, the NRA has become an enemy of law enforcement.

Wayne LaPierre, the NRAs CEO, likes to talk about criminals and good guys. He uses police officers as props. But backstage, the NRA sabotages law enforcement. It limits inspections of firearms dealers and argues against penalties for violating record-keeping laws. It forces the destruction of background-check records. It impedes prosecutions of illegal gun sales. It blocks background checks for person-to-person sales. It opposes the use of police to execute background checks, as well as federal mandates that would provide the necessary information.

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If youve been investigated, arrested, or convicted, the NRA can help you. Are there police reports or drug arrests on your record? The NRA says they mustnt be included in your background check for buying a gun. Nor should you be held back by a judges restraining order. The NRA opposed legislation that would let judges suspend firearm possession, even for just a week, when issuing temporary protective orders concerning domestic violence. It opposed a Justice Department rule that allowed federal agents to seize property involved in controlled substance offenses.

When good guys break gun laws, LaPierre doesnt blame the offenders. He blames the laws. Too many states refuse to recognize right-to-carry permits that are issued by other states. And honest, good, peaceful people often go to jail as a result, LaPierre told the Conservative Political Action Conference three years ago. Good guys shouldnt be forced to break the law to exercise their God-given constitutional right to protect themselves and their families.

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The real villains, according to LaPierre, are the law enforcers. In 1995, he charged that a federal ban on assault weapons gave jack-booted government thugs more power to take away our constitutional rights, break in our doors, seize our guns, destroy our property, and even injure or kill us. LaPierre alleged that under President Bill Clinton, If you have a badge, you have the governments go-ahead to harass, intimidate, even murder law-abiding citizens. In 2014 and 2015, LaPierre denounced the Internal Revenue Service as a weapon against conservatives.

If youve been investigated, arrested, or convicted, the NRA can help you.

You could argue that in those cases, the NRA was defending gun owners. But its harder to explain why the NRA is now hounding federal agents for investigating a supposedly unrelated matter. On Jan. 24, 2017, Trumps thennational security adviser, Michael Flynn, lied to the FBI about his conversations with Russias ambassador to the United States. Three weeks later, on Feb. 13, Flynn resigned. The next day, the New York Times, citing phone records and intercepted calls that alarmed American intelligence and law enforcement agencies, reported that Trumps aides and associates had repeated contacts with senior Russian intelligence officials in the year before the election.

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If the NRA genuinely believed in law enforcement, it might have deferred to the investigating agencies. At a minimum, it would have kept silent. Instead, it attacked the agencies. NRA TV host Grant Stinchfield and NRA TV commentator Dana Loesch denounced the officials who had outed Flynn. Stinchfield called Flynns exposure a concerted effort with Obama loyalists inside these bureaucratic agencies, from the Justice Department to the intelligence community, trying to undermine the president.

A week later, addressing CPAC, LaPierre charged that the media, hysterical over the RussianAmerican equation, had found willing co-conspirators among some in the U.S. intelligence community. He went on: A hundred years ago, if you use eavesdropped and published the affairs of the head of state, you would have been tracked down and hanged for treason. Shortly afterward, Trump accused Obama of wiretapping him in Trump Tower. The charge was bogus, but LaPierre endorsed it.

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On March 20, FBI Director James Comey confirmed that the FBI was investigating the nature of any links between individuals associated with the Trump campaign and the Russian government. On May 9, Trump fired him. Comeys friends released memos documenting Trumps attempts to corrupt the director and quash the investigation. Again, the NRA chose to attack the investigators. Loesch, newly installed as the NRAs spokeswoman, mocked Comeys memos. Trump has the right to fire him, she said. Another NRA TV host, Chuck Holton, dismissed the Russia story as a diversion.

On June 8, Comey testified about Trumps attempts to subvert the investigation. Loesch, in an interview on NRA TV, said Comey should be investigated for taking notes and leaking privileged information. Three times during the interview, she called the Russia investigation a witch hunt. Her interviewer, NRA TV host Bill Whittle, said there was no evidence against the president. Stinchfield defended Trumps demand for loyalty from Comey, and he told NRA TV viewers, falsely, that Comey had denied that Trump sought to obstruct justice.

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In the months that followed, Trump escalated his assault on the FBI. NRA representatives stood by him. They ridiculed the Trump/Russia narrative and the medias obsession with Russia. They accused Comeys FBI of conspiring to surveil innocent Americans. They also defended Trump against detailed allegations of sexual assault and harassment.

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Thats where the NRAFBI relationship stood two weeks ago, before the bloodbath in Parkland. The NRA was at war with the bureau, not for doing too little, but for doing too much. On Feb. 17, three days after the shooting, Trump accused the FBI of missing warnings about it because the bureau was spending too much time trying to prove Russian collusion with the Trump campaign. The NRA agreed. Stinchfield called for a purge of FBI officials, blaming the tragedy on leadership inside the FBI focusing on politics and Russian investigations instead of making sure that people are safe. Holton charged that federal law enforcement was working actively against our president.

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The FBI did botch a clear warning in the Parkland case. But the NRA is using that failure to undercut the Russia investigation. Speaking at CPAC on Thursday, Loesch blamed the shooting on Comey, chiding him: Maybe if you politicized your agency less and did your job more, we wouldnt have these problems. LaPierre told the CPAC audience: As weve learned in recent months, even the FBI is not free of its own corruption. He asked why no one at the FBI stood up and called BS on its rogue leadership.

Thats a good question. But its a question for the NRA, not the FBI. Millions of decent people pay dues every year to sustain the NRA. They think theyre supporting law and order. What theyre really supporting is the nations most effective anti-police lobby. The NRAs campaign against the FBI, just for doing its job, is the culmination of a long descent into anarchism and corruption. Perhaps its time that someone at the NRA stood up and called BS on its rogue leadership.Speaking before the Conservative Political Action Conference last week, the National Rifle Associations executive vice president, Wayne LaPierre, denounced the news medias coverage of the deadly school shooting in Parkland, Florida, pointing to it as proof that journalists dont care about our schoolchildren and want to make all of us less free. Hours later, NRA spokesperson Dana Loesch told the crowd that the news media love[s] mass shootings, because [c]rying white mothers are ratings gold. Loeschs comments echoed an NRA video, released earlier in the week, accusing the media of exploiting mass shootings to juice their ratings and push their agenda.

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Reports that the NRA is attacking the press are hardly shocking. And the organization, of course, is certainly not alone in blaming the press for what it sees as Americas ills. President Donald J. Trump, for example, derides the press on an almost daily basis and has declared it to be the enemy of the American people. Right-wing radio has turned criticizing the news media into an art form.

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But the NRA has a little known and unique relationship with encouraging hostility toward the press. In many ways, in fact, it was the organizations decision more than 50 years ago to embrace a systematic anti-press stance that ultimately shaped the NRA into the powerful nationwide gun lobby we know today

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For the first 40 years of its existence, the NRA was generally not known as a lobbying organization but rather as a group that offered firearm-education programs and marksmanship training. At the time, the NRA had what could best be described as a love-hate relationship with the news media. As long as the presss coverage of guns was about the positive aspects of shooting and hunting, the NRA was satisfied. Yet if the news media reported on gun-related violence or expressed approval of legislative restrictions on firearms, the NRA urged its members into action. Its early tactics were relatively gentle, asking its members to try to educate journalists about the societal benefits of guns. As one NRA publication cautioned: We are to blame, all of usall shootersif this ignorance continues to breed prejudice and fear and opposition to guns and shooting.

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Many people flocked to join the NRA , because they believed that the negative news-media coverage was part of a larger anti-gun conspiracy.

At times, though, the NRA would go further, in one instance accusing a journalist of intentionally disseminating vicious propaganda aimed at disarming the American citizen. When sufficiently motivated against the media, the NRA might urge its members to take aggressive action, which would usually involve flooding the respective journalist or news organization with degrading letters and telegrams. When, for example, Ralph McGill, a Pulitzer Prizewinning reporter, wrote an article in 1962 calling for federal gun control legislation, his office was inundated with antagonistic letters, telegrams, and phone calls. One letter accused McGill of writing a piece that was an affront to all liberty loving good citizens and included Communists [sic] material practically verbatim to take arms away from citizens.

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It was the 1963 assassination of President John F. Kennedy, however, that led the NRA to drop any positive affiliation with the mainstream press. Following the presidents death, investigative journalists began exposing the NRAs behind-the-scenes practice of pressuring legislatures to vote against firearm regulations. The NRA responded by either denying the truth of the reports, claiming that a given news organization was anti-gun, or hinting that anti-gun elites, Communists, or a foreign government seeking to disarm the United States had funded an objectionable story.

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The news medias increased coverage of the NRAs legislative dealings had two effects that significantly impacted the organization. It forever cemented in the American publics mind that the NRA was, in effect, the gun lobby, and it sparked unparalleled growth. From 196067, NRA membership more than doubled from 325,000805,000.

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Many people flocked to join the NRA, because they believed that the negative news-media coverage was part of a larger anti-gun conspiracy. For instance, writing in 1964, NRA member and Wood, Field and Stream columnist Oscar Godbout postulated that the media was targeting the NRA so that its ability to inform its members of unreasonably restrictive legislation will be impaired with a greater chance for such legislation to pass unnoticed before shooters can make their views known to their legislators.

Many political conservatives joined the group out of fear that political liberals wanted to destroy the Second Amendment and the Constitution, especially the concept of states rights. The NRA did not shy away from amplifying these fears. After the passage of the 1968 Gun Control Act, in an editorial appearing in American Rifleman, the NRA declared that future Americans would look back on that moment as a classic example of the media pressing the panic button. This editorial went on to claim that Congress passed the law because of a richly-endowed [anti-gun] propaganda machine.

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The sudden increase in membership in the 1960s would forever change the NRA. For the first time, the NRA was comprised primarily of members who joined for the express purpose of defeating gun control laws. And these new members urged the NRA to embrace its role as the nations gun lobby.

But not everyone in the NRA agreed with this new organizational model. From the mid- to late-1970s, the organization was plagued by infighting over its identity as a lobbying group devoted to fighting firearms legislation. At the NRAs pivotal 1977 annual convention, however, the new wave of NRA members successfully voted out the groups existing officers and replaced them with new leaders who were staunch opponents of gun control laws.

Thus, whenever the modern NRA attacks the press for its coverage of guns, its not just following the crowd but rather continuing a tradition that it pioneeredthe tradition of turning the press into the common enemy in order to harness the anger of its supporters for political gain.On Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Gonzalo Curiel rejected a legal challenge to a prototype of Donald Trumps proposed wall along the Mexican border. The state of California joined with environmental groups to block the wall in court, alleging that the Department of Homeland Security violated environmental protection laws in authorizing the prototypes construction. Curiel tossed out their lawsuits, ruling that DHS has authority to waive the regulations in question.

Trump cheered the decision, declaring on Twitter that a U.S. judge sided with the Trump Administration and rejected the attempt to stop the government from building a great Border Wall on the Southern Border. The presidents views on Curiel have apparently evolved since the 2016 campaign, when the judge oversaw the notorious Trump University fraud case. In June 2016, Trump pilloried Curiel in explicitly racist terms, telling CNNs Jake Tapper: Hes a Mexican. Were building a wall between here and Mexico.  Ive had horrible rulings, Ive been treated very unfairly by this judge. Now, this judge is of Mexican heritage.  Look, hes proud of his heritage, OK? Im building a wall. Trump also called Curiel a hater.

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Now that Curiel has ruled in favor of the Trump administration, the president seems to have upgraded him from a deeply biased Mexican to a U.S. judge. In fact, Curiel has been American all long: He was born in Indiana to Mexican immigrants, making him a citizen from birth. Trumps earlier intimations to the contrary were mere nativist ramblings. Curiel appears to have set aside any personal resentment he might understandably feel toward Trump in the impartial discharge of his judicial duties. But he did sneak a very sly jab at the president into his opinion:

Judge Curiel left an Easter egg for us in this opinion. h/t @zamartin pic.twitter.com/LvUVMvenfL  southpaw (@nycsouthpaw) February 28, 2018

Thats right: In a citation to the Supreme Courts first Obamacare ruling, Curiel pointed out that both he and Chief Justice John Roberts are Indiana native[s].

This barbed easter egg appears in the second paragraph of the 101-page opinion. No one expects Trump to read the whole thing. But if the president can at least make it through the first two pages, hell see that his new favorite U.S. judge hasnt forgotten about the time that Trump questioned his integrity and citizenship solely on account of his heritage.There are many reasons why Jared Kushner has no business holding a senior policy job in the White House, but the downgrading of his security clearance last week, from top secret to secret, is the clincher.

Heres the secret about documents marked secret: They dont contain any real secrets. When lowly congressional aides apply for a top secret clearance, they are given an interim secret clearance, no questions asked. As far as anyone knows, the aides might be Chinese spies or ISIS sympathizers, but it wouldnt matter because any documents they might pass along to their handlers wouldnt harm national security in the slightest.

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For some examples of what the government stamps secret lets look at a document from Edward Snowdens cache of stolen files, Presidential Policy Directive 20, U.S. Cyber Operations Policy, signed by President Obama in October 2012. PPD-20 is marked top secret/no forn, which means, besides being top secret, it cannot be distribution to foreigners. But, as with many classified documents, each paragraph has its own label. Some are labeled TS (top secret), some C (confidential), some U (unclassified). So lets look at some paragraphs marked S (secret):

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The United States Government has mature capabilities and effective processes for cyber collection.

You dont even need a subscription to Wired to know that.

The information revealed to other countries in the course of seeking consent [to conduct cyber operations] shall be consistent with operational security requirements and the protection of intelligence sources, methods, and activities.

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What those specific operations are, as well as their attendant security requirements, sources, methods, and activitiesall that is the stuff of TS/SCI (top secret/sensitive compartmented information). That is the kind of information Kushner can no longer see.

Deputies and agency heads conducting [cyber operations] covered under this directive shall report annually on the use and effectiveness of operations of the previous year to the President through the National Security Adviser.

This paragraph conveys the interesting bit of information that the U.S. conducts enough cyberoperations over the course of a year to report on their effects to the president, though this should surprise no one. And again, Kushners downgrading means he can no longer read those reports or sit in on the meetings where theyre discussed.

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Kushners assigned duties are, for the most part, now out of his reach, even if he otherwise had the time and talent to tackle them.

During the absurd flap over Hillary Clintons emails, it was revealed that one of the eight missives that should have been classified top secret was an account of a discussion with the president of Malawi. Apparently, all discussions with foreign leaders are almost always top secret. In other words, Kushner will no longer have access to discussions with foreign leaders.

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In short, the duties that Trump assigned to his 37-year-old son-in-law at the start of his terma preposterously massive portfolio that included Middle East peace talks, trade with China, the opioid epidemic, and the reform of the federal governmentare, for the most part, now out of his reach, even if he otherwise had the time and talent to tackle them.

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Last week, when discussions of Kushners security clearance first grew contentious, John Kelly, the White House chief of staffwho would later be the one to strip Kushner of his top secret clearancereleased a statement saying, 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.

This was either total rubbish or a rare display of Kellys mordant humor; it may have been his way of noting that the Israeli-Palestinian peace effort is kaput, that our relationship with Mexico isnt far from dead, and that the young princelingwho has long chafed against the retired generals assertions of authoritywill henceforth have no meaningful portfolio.Director of the National Security Agency Mike Rogers testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee Tuesday was notable for its candor, while somehow simultaneously telling us something we already knewthat President Trump has done very, very little to correct past security flaws in order to protect the U.S. against future Russian election meddling. It gives you a sense of the level of deception and disinformation coming from the Trump White House that simply stating or confirming what is largely public knowledge at this point is considered a refreshing act of truth-telling.

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Mike Rogers testimony was extraordinary in that it confirmed the sky is blue and the presidential malpractice of Donald Trump when it comes to addressing and correcting past election vulnerabilities. There were several statements by Rogers, who is retiring in April, and notable back-and-forth exchanges with senators Tuesday that left the unmistakable impression that the presidenteither out of self-interest or self-delusion or something elsehas refused to take significant steps to investigate and eliminate Russian efforts to undermine the American electoral system.

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WATCH: NSA Director Rogers on Russian cyberattacks: "I believe that President Putin has clearly come to the conclusion there's little price to pay here, and that therefore I can continue this activity." https://t.co/zRRnBrgsgz pic.twitter.com/zlJnSsNOAQ  NBC News (@NBCNews) February 28, 2018

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 Have you been directed to [go after the Russian attacks at their origin], given this strategic threat that faces the United States and the significant consequences you recognize already? Democratic Sen. Jack Reed of Rhode Island asked Rogers. No, I have not, Rogers replied.

 I believe that President Putin has clearly come to the conclusion theres little price to pay here, and that therefore I can continue this activity, Rogers said.

 Everything, both as the director of NSA and what I see on the cyber command side, leads me to believe that if we dont change the dynamic here, this is going to continue and 2016 wont be viewed as something isolated, Rogers said. This is something that will be sustained over time.

 They havent paid a price at least that is sufficient to get them to change their behavior, Rogers said. It hasnt changed the calculus, is my sense  It certainly hasnt generated the change in behavior that I think we all know we need.

 I believe theyre attempting to undermine our institutions, Rogers said of Russias strategic objective.

 Clearly, what weve done hasnt been enough, Rogers said.

Theres no other way to read this other than a staggering dereliction of duty by the president.On Tuesday night, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrested more than 150 people in Northern California suspected of being undocumented immigrants. More than 850 others, immigration officials said, slipped through their fingers.

That large number is being blamed on the actions of Oaklands mayor, Libby Schaaf, who on Saturday made the controversial decision to go on television to warn the immigrant community in Oakland that she had heard from multiple credible sources that ICE was preparing an immediate, large-scale immigration raid in the Bay Area.

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My priority is for the well-being and safety of all residents  particularly our most vulnerable, she said in a statement. She also directed undocumented immigrants and their friends and family to a resource about their rights.

ICE Deputy Director Thomas Homan condemned Schaafs irresponsible actions, saying in a statement Wednesday that sanctuary jurisdictions like San Francisco and Oakland shield dangerous criminal aliens from federal law enforcement at the expense of public safety.  The Oakland mayors decision to publicize her suspicions about ICE operations further increased [the] risk for my officers and alerted criminal aliensmaking clear that this reckless decision was based on her political agenda with the very federal laws that ICE is sworn to uphold.

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Homan also asserted that ICE does not conduct sweeps or raids that target aliens indiscriminately, and the agency prioritizes public and national security threats, immigration fugitives and illegal reentrants. However, roughly half of the immigrants rounded up in the raid had no criminal convictions.

Schaaf, who worked on deportation cases as an attorney earlier in her career and who has said she felt a moral obligation to warn residents, told the Washington Post on Tuesday that she made the decision as part of the resistance to the Trump administrations immigration enforcement policies.

She told the Post that because she found out about the sweep through unofficial sources and not government channels, she does not think she obstructed justice or broke the law. At least one former federal prosecutor disagrees.An ugly public spat has broken out between two sets of Texas anti-abortion advocates in advance of the states March 6 Republican primary. One group, the Texas Catholic Conference of Bishops, is accusing another, Texas Right to Life, of attacking perfectly pro-life Republican incumbents. Texas Right to Life says that the conference supports death panels and that conservatives in the state legislature arent doing enough to ban abortion.

The Texas Catholic Conference of Bishops, the public policy arm and organizing federation for Catholic parishes in the state, has gone so far as to tell Texas Catholics to stop volunteering with Texas Right to Life and to stop letting the group use the grounds of Catholic churches or schools. In a recent letter, the conference stated that [p]art of the dispute is rooted in Texas Right to Lifes rejection of incremental pro-life reforms, which bishops support following the guidance of St. John Paul IIs Evangelium Vitae. Texas Right to Life is a state affiliate of the National Right to Life Committee, the countrys largest anti-abortion advocacy group, which did not return a request for comment.

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The letter also alleges that Texas Right to Lifes legislative scorecard, which ranks each legislators voting record on abortion, manipulates the data in a way that punishes sitting Republicans. We believe this publication is not based on a fair analysis of a legislators work, but rather upon whether the legislator has followed voting recommendations of Texas Right to Life, the letter says. Unfortunately, a number of legislators who have consistently voted for pro-life and end of life legislation have been opposed by Texas Right to Life.

The voting recommendations of Texas Right to Life apparently involve a lot more than abortion and end-of-life issues, leaving room for a staunch opponent of abortion rights to nevertheless run afoul of the group. In a December post titled Accountability Season Begins Now, the organization lists several conservative issues its members should address, in addition to abortion, like sanctuary-city protections, government spending, and allowing men to prey in womens bathrooms. The post castigates Texas Republicans for failing to pass enough right-wing legislation, despite holding significant majorities in both chambers of the legislature and all statewide offices.

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At Texas Monthly, R.G. Ratcliffe suggests that clues to Texas Right to Lifes politics may lie in its funding. He reports that just four familiesall committed religious social conservativeshave supplied 95 percent of Texas Right to Lifes $1.9 million in political funds since January 2017. The vast majority, $1.25 million, came from fracking-equipment manufacturers Dan and Farris Wilks, who have poured money into Tea Partyactivist trainings, anti-gay hate groups, and organizations that teach that the Bible opposes unions and the minimum wage. Another $100,000 came from Tim Dunn, who spent years trying to oust Republican House Speaker Joe Straus, a bete noire for far-right Texas Republicans.

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The current rift between Texas Right to Life and the Texas Catholic Conference of Bishops is something of a proxy for a larger ideological battle in the Republican Party.

The political agenda of these funders helps clarify why Texas Right to Life is currently opposing 14 incumbent Republican legislators, several of whom scored 100 percent on the groups 2017 pro-life scorecard. For some, any allegiance to Straus, who notoriously resisted a proposed anti-transgender bathroom bill, was sin enough to earn a spot on the groups hit list. The organizations political director told Ratcliffe that one legislator on the list had a perfect anti-abortion voting history but supported and propped up moderate House leadership that obstructed strong pro-life billsin other words, sided with Straus against the more conservative Texas Freedom Caucus, which counts Texas Right to Life as an enthusiastic supporter.

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The current rift between Texas Right to Life and the Texas Catholic Conference of Bishops is something of a proxy, then, for a larger ideological battle in the Republican Party. Its also a natural consequence of an argument anti-abortion groups have been having for decades. Texas Right to Life favors an all-or-nothing approach that often leads to bills that dont pass constitutional muster. The Texas Catholic Conference of Bishops and other groups, including Texans for Life, take their victories where they can get them, even if that means accepting imperfect legislation in the hopes of improving it in a friendlier political future. According to the Catholic doctrine cited in the conferences recent letter, a vote on such legislation does not in fact represent an illicit cooperation with an unjust law, but rather a legitimate and proper attempt to limit its evil aspects. In practical terms, a restriction on abortion rights that Catholics consider unjust might include exceptions for rape, incest, or the health of the pregnant person.

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Texas Right to Life claims to support incremental approaches to anti-abortion advocacy too. One day we will live in a society where all unborn children and pregnant women are offered legal protection from abortion, but until that day arrives, it is our mission to extend legal protection to as many innocent lives as politically possible, the group states in a post on its website about rape and incest exceptions. But its legislative scorecard and attacks on vehemently anti-abortion conservatives befit an organization more committed to ideological purity than actual lawmaking. Texas Right to Life is particularly fixated on what it calls a discriminatory loophole that allows exceptions to abortion restrictionssay, a ban on abortions performed after 24 weeks gestationin cases of fetal abnormalities. (Texas Right to Life calls them disabilities.) Because such abnormalities often mean a fetus will not be able to last until the end of a pregnancy or survive outside the womb, such exceptions are popular among voters and, consequently, many anti-abortion legislators.

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Nevertheless, Texas Right to Life is punishing legislators who supported a motion to table an amendment that would have eliminated this exception, calling it a hostile anti-Life motion that presented a test of loyalty to House leadership  versus loyalty to the Pro-Life cause. The group added, not all Republican House members who profess Pro-Life views actually believe that all unborn children, regardless of health conditions, should be protected. On the legislative scorecard, which rates legislators on a 100-point scale and uses a stoplight color code to tell followers how to cast their votes, a 10-point demerit that leaves a lawmaker at 90 percent is enough to knock him or her down from green to yellow. One of the organizations recent Disappointment Profiles of Republican legislators featured Lance Gooden, rated 90 percent, whose sole transgression was introducing an amendment that would have prohibited health insurance companies from covering abortion procedures as part of regular plans, then yielding when the Speaker of the House told him it was not germane to the rest of the bill. The policy later passed as its own bill.

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By positioning itself as an uncompromising roadblock to incremental legislation, Texas Right to Life is trying to mobilize single-issue anti-abortion voters to replace conservative Republicans with members of the far right. Depending on the makeup of the next Texas legislature, the strategy could backfire for pro-lifers: Without a critical mass of fundamentalists, radical anti-abortion bills would simply not pass. In any case, many would likely get crushed in the courts, as did the states ban on the most common second-trimester abortion procedure. Texas Right to Lifes funders may not care. If the organization succeeds in ousting supporters of a House leadership the far right hates, the legislature will greenlight more Freedom Caucusapproved bills that have nothing to do with abortion, and moderate Republicans will consider changing their ways. We are about improving pro-life policy, education, and legislation, not eating our own, wrote the leader of Texans for Life, another anti-abortion group, in a post criticizing Texas Right to Lifes extreme tactics last year. [U]nlike others, we do not lob gratuitous or false attacks against lawmakers or use our issue as a weapon during the election cycle. A not-insignificant wing of the Republican Party is betting on the reverse strategy. Whats the use in staking ground on a highly emotional issue if it cant be weaponized?The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons launched an investigation last weekend into allegations that the Syrian government has on several occasions used chlorine gas in its ongoing offensive in the Ghouta region near Damascus.

It was Syrias use of chemical weapons against civilians that prompted U.S. President Trump to launch a surprise missile attack against Bashar al-Assads military last year. Could the same thing happen again?

Chlorine gas is much less deadly than sarin gas, the nerve agent used in the Khan Sheikhoun attack that prompted last years intervention, but it can kill and is prohibited under the Chemical Weapons Convention. One attack killed a child on Sunday, according to the local volunteer organization known as the White Helmets. Syria and its ally Russia have both denied the use of chlorine by government forces.

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Syria signed that convention in 2013, as part of a Russian-brokered deal following a chemical attack that killed hundreds of people in eastern Ghouta, under which Syria agreed to give up its stockpiles of chemical weapons. Since 2013, there have been continual reports of the Assad regime using chlorine in violation of its international agreements.

President Obama was assailed by critics, including Trump, for agreeing to the deal after the Ghouta attack rather than enforcing the red line Obama had infamously drawn regarding Assads use of chemical weapons. I wouldnt have drawn the line, but once he drew it, he had no choice but to go across, Trump said during a televised debate in September 2015. Somehow, [Obama] just doesnt have courage. There is something missing from our president.

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Trump, not normally an enthusiast of either international law or the United Nations, cited both in justifying his Tomahawk strike in April, telling the nation in a televised statement, It is in this vital, national security interest of the United States to prevent and deter the spread and use of deadly chemical weapons. There can be no dispute that Syria used banned chemical weapons, violated its obligations under the Chemical Weapons Convention and ignored the urging of the U.N. Security Council.

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Since then, however, the U.S. has on several occasions accused Syria of using chemical weapons and developing new ones. This has prompted some questions from observers about what ever happened to Trumps own red line.

U.S. officials have said off the record that Trump would be willing to consider new military action if sanctions and diplomatic pressure dont work. French President Emmanuel Macron has gone farther, saying that France will strike if chemical weapons use is proven. Trump, who expressed a strong emotional reaction to the photographs of slain children at Khan Sheikhoun to the point that he essentially reversed his Syria policy, has had almost nothing to say about the similarly grim scenes in eastern Ghouta. A White House statement calling for a halt to the violence last week did not mention chemical weapons. There doesnt seem to be much political momentum toward intervention this time around.

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Does Trumps injunction that the U.S. will use force to respond to chemical weapon attacks apply only to sarin? Secretary of Defense James Mattis suggested this, speaking to reporters on Feb. 2. He called chlorine a somewhat separate category from sarin. Speaking of sarin use, he said, you all have seen how we reacted to that, so theyd be ill-advised to go back to violating the chemical convention. This statement is somewhat confusing given that chlorine also violates the convention.

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Over the past seven years of war, Assad has shown that he will gradually escalate his aggression to test the boundaries of what the international community will tolerate. Assad is currently getting the message that there are limits to Trumps willingness to enforce the chemical weapons convention. Theres every reason to believe he will use more deadly weapons in the future.

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There are very good reasons to be wary of intervention in this case, including the extremist affiliations of some of the rebel groups fighting in eastern Ghouta and the mind-boggling complexity of the overall Syrian conflict and Americas place within it.

Of course, this was also true before the American missile strike last year. These are the very reasons Obama was so reluctant to intervene five years ago. The president has credited himself for enforcing the red line that Obama shied away from, but what Trump has doneissuing an ultimatum he never intended to enforcereally is not so different.If youre in the market for a magazine speed loader for a firearm like an AR-15 or AK-47, Etsy and Google Shopping have you covered. If youre an Amazon Prime member, you only have to wait two days if you order feeding components for pistols and semi-automatic weapons that have been used in mass shootings, like a magazine loader for a Glock 17 or a .45-caliber Glock.

The weapons themselves arent available for sale, but the magazine loaders are used to rapidly queue rounds of bullets are and can be purchased without showing any proof of age or training on how to use the weapons. One Etsy page boasts that its magazine loaders make it possible to load your 30 round AR-15 and mags in seconds with ease.

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According to Google, the company doesnt allow merchants to sell guns or gun accessories through its shopping platformits policy since at least the summer of 2012, when Google sent a letter to sellers alerting them of the change. That letter, which was shared in an online petition from the time, says that Google does not allow the promotion or sale of weapons and any related products such as ammunitions or accessory kits on Google Shopping. I asked Google how speed loaders for assault weapons fit into this policy but did not receive a response.

Google itself doesnt sell the accessories but rather allows outside merchants to do so in exchange for compensation for listing the product as Google Shopping search results that include a photo with the listing, the store name, the price, and other details. Google calls each search result on the Shopping page an ad, which is then displayed on Google and on websites that serve Google ads. One search for AK-47 magazine on Google Shopping returned seven results of AK-47 magazines on the first page, and a search for an AK-47 magazine loader returned 18 results on the first page, plus an ad at the bottom for other firearm accessories on Amazon.

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Nikolas Cruz used an AR-15-style semi-automatic weapon when he allegedly murdered 17 people at a high school in Parkland, Florida, earlier this month. Another variant of an AR-15 was used by Devin Patrick Kelley to murder 26 people in a rural Texas church in November, and the month before, when Stephen Paddock massacred 58 people and wounded more than 400 in Las Vegas, he too used AR-15-style rifles and at least one AK-47-style weapon. Theres no reporting that any of these gunmen purchased any accessories from Googles shopping platform or Amazon or Etsy, but had the shooters wanted to, they could have easily used these destinations. While increasingly loud consumer campaigns have convinced numerous corporations to sever their ties with the National Rifle Association in the aftermath of the Florida shooting, that notice has so far overlooked the availability of accessories that can only be used with assault weapons and handguns, as well as major online shopping sites that offer them.

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Although Amazon doesnt sell guns or accessories for assault weapons, the online retail giant does sell magazine loaders for Glocks and other kinds of pistols that have been used in mass shootings. A quick search on Amazon for a magazine loader provided a full page of options. There, I was able to find a magazine loader for a Glock 17, which was one of the guns used at a gay night club in Orlando, Florida, in 2016 when a gunman left 49 people dead and 58 wounded after opening fire. There were also magazine loaders that fit a Smith and Wesson 9mm handgun, like one of the weapons used by the shooters who murdered 14 people in San Bernardino, California, in 2015, as well as loaders that fit a .45-caliber Glock, which is the type of weapon that Dylann Roof used to murder nine people at a historic black church in Charleston, South Carolina, in 2015. (Again, theres no reason to think the shooters themselves used Amazon to buy magazine loaders.)

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On Etsy, the shopping platform best known for selling homemade crafts and vintage items, gun owners can purchase (occasionally more decorative) magazine loaders for firearms like AK-47s and AR-15s as well as 3-D-printed speed loaders for Glocks. Many of these sellers have listings that appear on Google Shopping. I contacted Etsy to ask about its policy but did not hear back.

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There are plenty of things for sale on Amazon, Google, and Etsy that could ostensibly kill a person, like knives or swords or toxic chemicals. And none of these sites carry firearms, only accessories. This is not like what happened when the U.K.s Channel 4 reported in September that potentially deadly bomb ingredients are frequently bought together on Amazon, when in reality those items could also be used to legally make black powder for fireworks, model rockets, antique firearms, or to blow up the occasional stump, as Maciej Ceglowski pointed out on his blog Idle Words. Magazines and magazine loaders are only used for guns. And in the case of most all handguns and rifles, they help shooters quickly fill the magazines of weapons with bullets to fire rapidly before reloading.

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These websites arent doing anything illegal by selling firearm accessories. They are, however, making them easily available for purchase. Sure, other websites that sell gun magazine loaders do the same thing. But Google isnt just a gun-supply website; its where people go to learn just about anything, like whats happening on the news, the definition of words, directions to the airport, or even where they can buy firearms and accessories. And while its one thing to maintain some level of neutrality about providing available information like the address of gun shops or websites or gun-safety instructions when someone searches on Google, its another to list assault rifle magazine loaders on a loosely curated but still quality-controlled shopping websiteit does make choices, and theres no reason that barring these accessories couldnt be one of them. The same goes for Amazon and Etsy, even though they arent information portals in the same way Google is.

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In the weeks since the Parkland shooting, gun-control activists have been making tremendous strides as corporations like Dick Sporting Goods, one of the largest gun sellers in the country, announced (to be fair, not for the first time) that it would no longer sell assault-style rifles and would limit all of its gun sales to customers 21 or older. A growing number of businesses are also breaking their ties with the NRA, such as the car rental companies Alamo, Enterprise, Hertz, Avis, and National, which all said they would end discounts for the NRAs 5 million members, as did Delta Air Lines and United Airlines. As activists continue to pressure Amazon, Roku, and Apple to stop airing NRATV, the rifle lobbys channel for gun enthusiasts, adding a call for tech companies to stop selling rifle accessories might be in order, too.In late September, Egyptian authorities began a crackdown against the countrys queer communities after fans of Mashrou Leila, an outspoken Lebanese indie rock group with an openly gay band member, displayed a rainbow flag at the groups concert in Cairo.

The government responded quickly in what some activists called the worst campaign against LGBTQIA+ Egyptians in decades. Security forces arrested more than 85 individuals on a range of charges, including habitual debauchery. Officials convicted at least 16 and issued sentences ranging from six months to six years in prison (though a handful were later released).

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To find and arrest their targets, security forces, among other tactics, created fake profiles on queer dating apps like Grindr and Hornet. Though homosexuality isnt outlawed in Egypt, authorities often lean on colonial-era codes regulating sex and morality to justify violence against LGBTQ communities and to prosecute queer people. Upon arriving for a rendezvous arranged through the app, some users instead found authorities waiting for them, ready to use the meeting and chat logs as evidence of illegal debauchery, immorality, promoting homosexuality, or other alleged offenses.

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This was not the first time authorities or vigilantes have used gay dating apps to persecute their users. In 2014, at least three websites outed gay datingapp users in Jordan by posting their profile information, sometimes including their location. (The pages have since been taken down.) Last year, the South Korean army was suspected of using dating apps to out gay soldiers. Chechen authorities used gay dating apps as evidence for arrest during a terrifying homophobic purge in 2017. Egyptian authorities had a prior history of using queer platforms to target users, with reports of luring users to meet and arrest them and of targeting individuals on the street and searching their phones dating back as early as 2015. With the 2018 acquisition of Grindr by a Beijing-based tech firm, some are concerned that the Chinese government could use sensitive data from the app to similarly crack down on their local queer communities too. In all of these cases, just being identified as queer could be enough to put someone at risk.

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Despite these dangersand many other recent reminders of the violence LGBTQ individuals still face around the world, including a rise in the number of deadly attacks in the U.S.many people continue to use queer platforms like Grindr and Hornet. These apps are more than just a place for dating. They act as a digital convening point for developing communities, exploring individual identities, and escaping heteronormative surroundings. The platforms can also afford a greater degree of anonymity for someone who wishes to remain in the closet in their public life.

Because of this, queer datingapp users face a hard choice: accept the risk or lose their importantand, in some instances, onlyconnection to their community. But the task of mitigating harm shouldnt fall solely on these individuals. The app creators, too, bear responsibility for protecting their valuable users. Yet too often, intentionally or not, these developers design their platforms in ways that place the burden of digital safety and privacy on users. Thankfully, however, some of these companies may finally be recognizing a need to step up.

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Queer datingapp users face a hard choice: accept the risk or lose their importantand, in some instances, onlyconnection to their community.

As an independent queer activist and security-and-privacy harm-reduction specialist, I often help app users mitigate risks. Depending on the circumstances, I might propose simple steps such as suggesting an individual be more mindful of what information they sharesay, remembering to blur their face and any identifying marks (tattoos, birthmarks, etc.) when sending nudes. At other times, it might involve recommending that someone adopt more technology-dependent practices, such as using anonymizing software like the Tor Browser or switching to secure and ephemeral messaging apps.

But users who cant have a personal consult with a security-fluent activist often feel forced to take actions that may actually put them at greater risk. For example, to lessen the chance of unintentional outing if they share a phone with family members or friends (or worse, fear being forced to turn over their device to authorities), individuals might delete and redownload the app between uses. This strategy, however, has the downsides of lost message logs, racking up cellular-data costs, and an increased chance of exposing users on networks that might flag a device for downloading a queer app.

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Similarly, the lack of security features (and lack of transparency about security features that are already in place) in these queer dating apps and on some websites that serve the LGBTQ community also create problems. For example, the majority of dating apps dont transmit pictures securely. All of the major dating apps, too, are able to access messages stored on company servers, meaning their contents could be compromised in the event of a government request or, if stored insecurely, in the event of a data breach.

To try to protect themselves, users often turn to software that only partially addresses privacy and security issues. For some, such software can also create a false sense of security. For example, using a virtual private network can help users circumvent government censorship by making it appear as if a user is accessing the web from a different location. But VPNs wont hide a users location from a dating app, which relies on a phones built-in GPS sensor for its geolocation features. Whats more, in countries that have banned these kinds of tools, downloading or using certain known VPNs or circumvention software might land a user under increased scrutiny.

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To be fair, though the majority of app companies refuse to acknowledge these issues, a few platforms are genuinely trying to protect users. Though, sometimes, their efforts fall shortor seem to be more aimed at papering over scrutiny.

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In response to a series of crackdowns on LGBTQ communities in 2017, for example, Grindr and Hornet began providing safety information and safety tips in Arabic to inform users in certain parts of the Middle East about specific risks reported with the apps. Though the move was aimed at addressing the dangers these individuals face, it did so in a way that placed responsibility with the users without implementing changes to protect them toosay, eliminating watermarked app logos on photos, which have been used as evidence in court and blackmail attempts, but would have cost them the in-app branding space. It was a choice that seemed to prioritize the bottom line over security.

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The same was true of changes to the geolocation features in dating apps. In 2014, security researchers revealed that, with a little effort, anyone could triangulate a dating-app users location by comparing distances of different points. In response, some users who were trying to find ways to mask this data from the app rooted or jailbroke their phones to fake GPS sensor datawhich actually put them at even greater risk.

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The issue creates a tricky dilemma for dating-app developers whose products revolve around these location features. In response to the researchers findings, Grindr and Hornet both rolled out controls that allowed users to disable the show my distance feature in the apps or automatically turned it off for high risk areas. But it didnt resolve the issue: Researchers have still been able to accurately locate users using similar triangulation techniquesan issue that still exists as of this writing. Instead, it seemed to reveal these changes were more about crisis management than a comprehensive harm-reduction approach.

Similar issues can arise for individuals accessing other types of digital content toosay, pornography and, in particular, queer pornography in places where pornographic websites are censored or banned. Pornhub, for its part, recognized this type of risk and implemented HTTPS encryption across its entire site, meaning internet service providers would lose the ability to track what type of porn a user views. (The ISP would still know if the subscriber accessed Pornhub, but not the specific pages within it.) This stands in contrast to pornography sites that havent implemented encrypted HTTPS connections by default, which place the burden on the user to keep this browsing private.

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A few dating apps, too, are opening up to the idea of changing their platforms to better safeguard users. For example, Ive been working as a technical expert with Article 19, a human rights organization focused on defending freedom of expression and information, on an initiative that aims to bring a harm-reduction approach to protecting queer datingapp users. As part of the project, were working directly with Grindr and other major app platforms to recommend and implement certain tech- and design-safety changes.

To come up with these recommendations, our coalitioncomposed of community members, technologists, and queer rights activistssurveyed more than 400 users, held focus groups lead by local LGBTQ organizations, and interviewed LGBTQ activists in Middle Eastern and North African countries. This helped us gain a better understanding of how individuals use these technologies, how aware they are of risks and prevention strategies, and how they thought we might improve dating-app platforms to better keep users safe and secure in different contexts. In addition to relaying this feedback, we also have coalition members advising these queer datingapp partners about how to implement our suggested changes.

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Grindr, for its part, has already publicly made two of our proposed reforms, offering alternative icons and app-specific pass codes, both of which reduce the harm that can be done by someone with physical access to a users phone. Risks still exist, of course. A user might divulge compromising information in conversation, share identifiable details in an app profile, be coerced into turning over a pass code, or be entrapped by authorities. But the changes can provide a layer of defense against simpler breaches.

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Our partner apps are also considering our other recommended design and policy changes. These include allowing users to send disappearing messages or to get alerts when another user takes a screenshot, similar to the systems used on Snapchat. It also includes providing users with more up-to-date, geolocation-based safety guides instead of generic tips. Ideally, apps would tailor this information to reflect country-specific laws, practices, events, and consistent feedback from local organizations.

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With all of our proposals, we start with the idea that these features should empower, not curtail, queer individuals. Apps and advocacy organizations shouldnt pressure particular users to take up any of these strategies. Instead, people need options for different risks. We dont want to perpetuate a shame culture or create digital closets. But all individuals should have the opportunity for informed consent. Platforms have a responsibility to provide users with information about the specific risks they may take using their technologies and reasonable features that can mitigate some of those risks.

By its nature, this harm-reduction approach will not remove all of the dangers LGBTQ individuals face. And with political and technological changes, users, activists, and platforms will have to constantly respond to shifting individual needs. We know queer dating apps like Grindr, Hornet, Her, and Wapa can be powerful platforms for building strong queer communities online and off, especially in the places where it matters most. So lets give these budding communities as much control as we can to keep them alive.Have you seen Small Business Revolution  Main Street?

Its the show where a whopping $500,000 revitalization prize is awarded to one city, by Deluxe Corp. This month, Small Business Trends connected with Amanda Brinkman from the program to discuss its third season, which begins later this year with co-host Ty Pennington. We discuss Brinkmans role at Deluxe, what businesses can learn by watching their past and upcoming content, and how theyre using Facebook Live.

Third Season of Small Business Revolution-Main Street

A creative visionary in marketing and media, Amanda Brinkman has innovated for brands like Reebok, BMW, Sony, Toro, Virgin Mobile and more. Her work on BMW Films kicked her career into overdrive. Brinkman currently works with Deluxe Corp. as chief brand and communications officer, and in 2015 she made a bet that an authentic program  branded as the Small Business Revolution championed by Deluxe  would garner more results than she could buy with traditional advertising.

The show, named Small Business Revolution  Main Street, chronicles the programs impact on communities and countless lives. The winning city for the shows new season was announced on Feb. 27, 2018 via Facebook. Content from the two previous seasons have gained 11x the reach and impressions of a traditional media buy with the same spend.

Brinkman is honored to serve on the boards of the Childrens Cancer Research Fund, Make-A-Wish, the Childrens Theatre Company and the Womens Business Development Centers (WBDC) Chicago Board. She also passionately volunteers for an array of causes, including the Special Olympics, Feed My Starving Children, People Serving People, the Down Syndrome Association of Minnesota, the Jeremiah Program and more. Shes also a member of the Minnesota Womens Economic Roundtable. Engage with her on Twitter, Instagram or Facebook @amandakbrinkman.

Small Business Trends: What is the Small Business Revolution all about and which city won Season 3?

Amanda Brinkman: The Small Business Revolution is a movement. We are creating a revolution across the country to celebrate small businesses and their critical impact on our economy and our communities. This year marks the third season of Small Business Revolution  Main Street, which annually awards one small town with a $500,000 revitalization for its Main Street and its small businesses. We received thousands of nominations from towns across America and spent the last couple of months visiting and researching the finalist. After naming five finalists and inviting the public to vote for their favorite, Alton, Illinois was named the winner.

Small Business Trends: How has Facebook Live been helpful even before the third season of Small Business Revolution  Main Street begins?

Amanda Brinkman: Facebook Live has been an incredible tool for energizing our passionate Small Business Revolution audience and engaging with them in real time  especially at key points throughout the program. For example, when we visited 10 short-listed towns in January to determine our five finalists, we did a Facebook Live broadcast from each town with a local representative. It was an amazing way to shine a spotlight on all of the communities and share with our followers the amazing communities we were visiting. Weve also used Facebook Live to make major announcements, such as the reveal of our five finalist towns for Season 3 and the inclusion of Ty Pennington as our new co-host. Its fun  and effective  to have everyone learning the news simultaneously and weighing in with their comments.

Small Business Trends: Lets hear a recap of what Deluxe is, for those who dont know.

Amanda Brinkman: Deluxe was founded more than 100 years ago with a legacy in the check-printing space. Today, it is a growth engine for small businesses and financial institutions, serving 4.4 million small business customers across the country. Deluxe provides small business services and products such as website development and hosting, email marketing, social media, search engine optimization and logo design  helping small businesses with marketing so they can focus on the aspects of their business that they love most.

Small Business Trends: When does the new season air? How does Ty Pennington fit into the show?

Amanda Brinkman: Season 3 will debut this fall on Hulu, YouTube and SmallBusinessRevolution.org. Seasons 1 and 2 are both on SmallBusinessRevolution.org where you can see whats at stake for Season 3, and how small businesses in these inspiring communities have overcome challenges with help from Deluxe. We enlisted Ty as a co-host for Season 3 because of his proven track record of working on projects that help transform and improve lives, homes and communities. Now, hes going to help us transform an entire community!Not all students learn in the same way. So having some personalized help can be a major benefit. Planting Seeds Tutoring specializes in offering that type of personalized tutoring service  meeting students in their homes, in libraries, or even working with them online.

The company looks to build relationships and help students get excited about learning. You can find out more about the company in this weeks Small Business Spotlight.

What the Business Does

Provides a variety of tutoring services for students.

Owner Chris Jones told Small Business Trends, Planting Seeds Tutoring provides tutoring and test prep services to students through in-home, public locations (libraries, community centers, coffee shops, etc.) and online tutoring.

Business Niche

Building relationships with students.

Jones says, Planting Seeds Tutoring makes students feel empowered and passionate about learning and furthering their education. In addition, we also look to build solid relationships with all our students and improve their character in and outside the classroom. Our job is to provide solid academic enrichment and quality mentorship to all students.

?

How the Business Got Started

After tutoring in college.

Jones began mentoring other students when he was in college. Then he began working as a special education tutor and teacher assistant at a local elementary school, where he realized his passion for helping others learn.

Biggest Win

Seeing hard work pay off.

Jones explains, The biggest win was getting our 1st reviews from customers after students or parents saw an increase in their overall grade and better understanding of their concepts. I was filled with an excitement after seeing our vision and potential come to light. It feels good to know you are empowering people in a positive way.

Biggest Risk

Expanding to San Antonio and launching online tutoring.

See Also: How to Turn Your Customer Complaints into Business Benefits

Jones says, We werent sure if we had the resources and capability to be able to make a name in the community or get noticed worldwide. Luckily, though it has been a slow process, we have been able to establish ourselves in the community and continue to keep growing. If it didnt work out we would have taken a big hit with our resources, finances and ultimately it would have shifted our efforts and vision to a totally different market.

Lesson Learned

Be intentional when building a hiring strategy.

Jones says, In the early stages, we rushed to quickly to fill an open position without making sure it would be a great mesh in the long run and it hurt us tremendously. Now, we look for tutors who are knowledgeable and have the understanding of our vision. This allows more trust to be given and we are able to exceed higher expectations and goals. In addition, our clientele is more happy and willing to let others know about services freely.

How Theyd Spend an Extra $100,000

Donating to a non-profit organization and expanding operations.

Jones says, Furthermore, we would use another portion of the money for marketing purposes, updating our software and hiring more employees to help us expand throughout the U.S. We would also look at having a physical location for a tutoring center so that we can offer additional programs and activities for students to be apart of and have fun!

Favorite Quote

Develop a passion for learning. If you do, you will never cease to grow.  Anthony J. DAngelo

* * * * *

Find out more about the Small Biz Spotlight programThe organisers are also asking for immediate investigation into scandals concerning shady businessmen Marian Kocner and Ladislav Basternak.

The march titled We dont want the 90s back, dedicated to murdered journalist Jan Kuciak and his fiancee Martina Kusnirova, will be held on March 2, starting at 17:00.

People are invited to the Hviezdoslavovo Square from which they will move to the Freedom Square. The speeches of several people are planned to be held between 18:00 and 18:45.

Lets march to remember young investigative journalist Jan Kuciak who was murdered during the weekend with his girlfriend Martina Kusnirova, the organisers said, as quoted by the SITA newswire.

They called for immediate investigation of their murder as well as the scandals surrounding murky practices of businessmen Marian Kocner and Ladislav Basternak.

Janko was writing about both, and Kocner even threatened him, the organisers claimed, adding that Kuciak even submitted a criminal complaint against Kocner last September.

However, no police officer was assigned to the case 44 days after it was submitted, they added.

No political involvement

The main organisers of the march are Peter Nagy, project manager of the Petit Press publishing house, and his wife.

We dont cooperate with any politicians or political parties, they said, as quoted by SITA.

The only ones helping them are student organisations.

The fact that the investigative journalist and his fiancee were murdered is something that forces them to speak up.

We cannot be silent as citizens, journalists, people active in the third sector, people who love Slovakia and believe that Slovakia can become a good, honest country where similar things dont happen again, the organisers wrote on Facebook.

They are currently expecting their first child and dont want their baby to be born into society where people are afraid to speak and journalists to write.

We want our child to be raised during a time that does not bear a resemblance to the 90s, the organisers wrote. We want our child to be brought up in the country that will protect the values of democracy.

Other marches planned

There will also be events organised in other Slovak towns and abroad on March 2.

Slovakia:

Abroad:

Prague, on Pelleova Street at 17:00

Brno, Komenskeho Namesti square at 17:00

Ostrava, Masarykovo Namesti square at 17:00

Jablonec nad Nisou, at 17:00

Liberec, Dr Benese Square at 17:00

London, near the Slovak Embassy building at 19:00

Aberdeen, at 17:30

Glasgow, Kelvingrove Park at 17:30

Edinburgh, Bristo Square,at 17:30

Haag, near the Slovak Embassy building at 19:00

Paris, near the Slovak Embassy building at 19:00

Stockholm, Arsenalsgatan 2/3 TR at 17:00

Brussels, at 18:00

Berlin, at 17:00

Bern, at 18:00

Zurich, Stadthausanlage at 17:00

Madrid, at 17:00

Luxembourg, at 17:30

Vancouver, Robson Square at 18:30

Beijing, at 19:00

Hong Kong, IFC Mall Roof Top Garden at 19:00

Dubai, Al Sufouh Park at 17:00

Read also:

Read also: Beating, burning cars and paranoia - Slovak investigative journalists talk about their work Read more

Read also:

Read also: Kuciak investigated links between politicians and mafia Read more

Read also:

Read also: Slovaks and Czechs pay tribute to the murdered journalist Read more

Read also:

Read also: UPDATED: Investigative journalist killed in his house Read more

27. Feb 2018 at 21:58 | Compiled by Spectator staffFico stands by Troskova

Innocent people are being connected with the murder and it's over the line, says the prime minister.

Gaspar, Fico, and Kalinak (right to left). The one million euros that the government offers for information about the murder is displayed on the table. (Source: Sme)

You are connecting innocent people with double murder. That is over the line, Prime Minister Robert Fico said during his press conference on February 27 in his reaction to the links between the Government's Office employee, Maria Troskova, and business people possibly connected to the Italian organised crime group, 'Ndrangheta.

Fico reacted to the story that the Sme daily published on the morning of the same day. This story is the result of an investigation that the Sme reporters worked on together with investigative reporter Jan Kuciak, who was found killed in his house in Velka Maca the day before. The murder of a journalist is unprecedented in Slovakia. What is more, Kuciak's fiancee Martina Kusnirova was also shot dead.

Fico insisted during the press conference that the information in the story about Troskova has been known since September 2016 when Plus 7 Dni wrote about her.

Read also:

Read also: Kuciak investigated links between politicians and mafia Read more

Fico held the press conference together with Interior Minister Robert Kalinak and Police Corps President Tibor Gaspar. During the press conference, they displayed packs of banknotes, amounting to one million euros, which the government promises to give to anyone who comes forward with relevant information that can help clarify the murder.

Fico also stands by the secretary of the Security Council Viliam Jasan who is also mentioned among the people with dubious links in the story published by Sme. He holds the highest level of security clearance, top secret, Fico noted.

I will act based on the results of the investigation, Fico said when asked whether he would draw consequences against the man.

Gaspar admitted the police are also investigating Ndrangheta and Antonino Vadala, the Italian citizen whom the story mentions as the business partner of Maria Troskova.

We are also considering this version and we work with all the persons who come into consideration, Gaspar said.

Opposition wants Kalinak and Gaspar to step down

Fico and Kalinak claim that the murder has launched a massive investigation that gets disturbed by the opposition attempts to make it the object of a political fight.

The opposition Ordinary People and Independent Personalities (OLaNO) and Freedom and Solidarity (SaS) held a joint press conference earlier that afternoon where they accused Smer top politicians of links with the Italian mafia and its activities in eastern Slovakia.

Igor Matovic of OLaNO claims Kalinak and Gaspar are responsible for the murders.

They sent Jan Kuciak, after he filed the criminal complaint, from one office to another," he said, as quoted by Sme. "He demanded help and no one from the police or prosecution helped him after more than 40 days. What is more, Interior Minister Robert Kalinak was making jokes about it. Kalinak and Gaspar bear the responsibility for the security of people in this country and due to their failure to prevent this brutal assassination they should step down.

SaS MP Lucia Duris Nicholsonova believes the links between MPs and Italians could be the reason why Kuciak was removed.

Tom Nicholson was dealing with the Italian mafia together with Jan Kuciak," she said, as quoted by Sme. "These are people who have been investigated by the police, even monitored by the SIS, therefore it does not surprise me if this was a reason for them to silence a journalist.

Protest gatherings organised

The opposition wants to convene an extraordinary session of the parliamentary committee for the control of SIS where they will ask about the monitoring of the suspicious persons from Italy.

The opposition has organised protest gatherings in Bratislava for Wednesday, February 28.

27. Feb 2018 at 22:11 | Compiled by Spectator staffFire in Kosice may have destroyed important documents

The fire started on the roof of the building where the Financial Administration resides.

video //www.sme.sk/vp/36490/

The building where the Financial Administration (FA) in Kosice resides caught on fire on Tuesday, February 27. The extent of damage as yet to be determined. The fire started on the roof of the building, spokesperson Ivana Skokanova told the SITA newswire. She added that the administration is housed in the first two floors of the building while archives are stored in the basement. Thus, it is hard to assess as of now whether the FA could lose some important tax documents.

The fire started at around 10:30, was localised around 13:00 and could only be tamed after 16:00. In the afternoon, the roof on the southern side collapsed, Zuzana Farkasova of the Fire- and Rescue Corpse Presidium reported, adding that the strong wind complicated the extinguishing of the flames.

History of the building

The historical, seven-storey building in downtown Kosice belongs to the Railways of the Slovak Republic / Zeleznice Slovenskej republiky (ZSR) which invested a total of 7.2 million in the renovation of the building which is a national cultural monument, ZSR spokesperson Martina Pavlikova told the TASR newswire. Constructed in two phases between 1913-1915 and 1923-1925, the building with two underground and five above ground floors was purchased in 2013 for 12.6 million from the Cargo railway company. The renovation started in January 2016 and TA moved in only in October 2017, after the first floors above the ground were renovated. Currently, the 3rd and 4th floors are renovated (by the Rail Group).

The building was evacuated and nobody was injured.

The city police who discovered the fire helped evacuate the people inside and moved cars parked below when parts of the roof started falling down on the street.

The fire was put under control thanks to 20 firemen and 12 vehicles. The cause of the fire, as well as the extent of damage, remain to be determined, SITA wrote on February 27.

27. Feb 2018 at 22:34 | Compiled by Spectator staffThe original version published on the Aktuality.sk website is available here.

This is the latest report by our colleague Jan Kuciak. The very last topic he worked on. He could not finish the article and publish it himself because he and his partner Martina Kusnirova had been murdered.

Aktuality.sk in cooperation with the Czech investigative journalism research center Investigace.cz, the journalist organization Investigative project of Italy and the international consortium of investigative centers Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project have mapped how people close to Ndrangheta have settled in Slovakia.

Fourteen years ago an Italian named Carmine Cinnante arrived in the town of Michalovce. One morning he started in his Fiat from a village of Novosad, about 40 kilometers far from Michalovce, where he was staying with his girlfriend Lydia.

Cinnante was heading for Italy. He was joined by a Slovak man called Jan whom he had promised to find work there. In the Michalovce district, every fourth person of working age was unemployed at that time.

Driving on a field road, approaching the main road between the villages of Porostov and Ostrov in the Sobrance district, they noticed a police patrol. Their white Fiat Punto with Italian registration plates began to reverse suddenly.

Read also:

Read also: How Slovak criminals turned the state into their milking cow Read more

The police officers became suspicious of the mens behaviour, they stopped the car and checked in. On the back seat, they found a black wooden briefcase with a gun, 50 bullets and a magazine.

It was a functional Czechoslovak machine gun model 26 with a laser pointer but with a destroyed production number.

According to experts, the briefcase was made especially for storing the machine gun. Cinnante was accused of criminal possession of a weapon, and the judge of the district court in Michalovce has sentenced him to two years on probation.

At that time the prosecutor addressed the Italian as an "entrepreneur with business in Slovakia in the field of agriculture".

Tentacles reach out to Government Office

A few months later the Italian police came to arrest Cinnante for smuggling weapons to Italy for the Mafia boss Guirin Iona.

Iona was the head of Belvedere Spinello, one of the clans of the economically strongest Italian mafia of the present time  Ndrangheta.

As the documents from the investigation show, Carmine Cinnante is also its member. A man, known by the Slovak authorities only as an entrepreneur in agriculture.

But Cinnante is not the only Italian with links to the mafia who found his second home in Slovakia.

They started doing business, receiving subsidies, drawing EU funds and especially building relationships with influential people in politics  as high as the Government Office.

In the meantime, in their homeland, Italy, they also faced many problems with the law.

With the confidence of the mafia

At a farm co-op between the villages of Dvorianka and Parchovany in the Trebisov district, the business of Carmine Cinnante meets Antonino Vadala. He had also had problems with the police at home in Italy.

On February 3, 2003 the court in Reggio Calabria in southern Italy ruled on nine defendants in a case involving another Mafia clan - Libri. The Libri clan is one of the most powerful within the Ndrangheta.

Among the accused were Antonino Vadala, originally from the village of Bova Marina in the south of Calabria.

According to the Italian investigators, it was Vadala who, at the request of the clan, helped hide mafioso Domenic Ventura - convicted of the brutal murder of a member of competing gang - and helped him escape.

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Italian police captured telephone conversations between Antonino Vadala and Francesco Zindato, the boss of the clan, in which the couple argued about the details of the action. In 2003, however, Vadala was released for lack of evidence.

In another case, the court describes in its ruling how Antonino Vadala and two other men travelled to Rome to physically "punish" an unknown person who "caused damage to the clan".

"He entrusted the task to the people whom (the boss of the clan, Francesco Zindato) most trusted, among them to Antonino Vadala," the judge explained.

When Vadala faced charges in Italy, he did not go to court to hear the verdict. He found a refuge and new home in eastern Slovakia.

Vadala started a successful business in agriculture, then in real estate and in energy. He has become one of the most distinguished figures of the Italian community in Slovakia.

Entrepreneur in the energy business

In 2009, information came out that an unknown Italian businessman Antonino Vadala plans to build two factories in the Lucenec industrial park for almost 70 million.

Although the project has been cancelled eventually, Vadala became an "energy entrepreneur". That's what the former economy minister Pavol Rusko, who is now accused of ordering a murder, called him.

Paradoxically, he remembered Vadala through the state advisor Maria Troskova, a close collaborator of Prime Minister Robert Fico.

"She used to work for us for about three months. It's been a long time, about four years ago. But then, she met one entrepreneur with Italian roots, who, among other things, was involved in solar power plants, and went to work him," said Rusko at that time.

The fact that her career continued with Fico at the Government Office did not surprise him very much: "Well, I thought it wouldnt be so quick, but basically it did not surprise me because she understood very quickly how to get things done in life."

Troskova and Jasan

In August 2011 Vadala and Troskova founded Gia Management. Troskova left the company after a year and later became assistant to then MP Viliam Jasan.

Jasan did not want to tell the media where he found this woman known as a model and a finalist of the Miss Universe 2007. He said only that a friend recommended her to him.

"An assistant I used to have left me and a friend recommended this woman to me," told Jasan Novy Cas daily. Whether the friend in question was Antonino Vadala he refused to confirm.

However, in less than a year  in March 2015  Maria Troskova left Jasans office and started working for none other than PM Fico at the Government Office. A year later, Jasan joined her there as well. The prime minister named him director of the office and secretary of the State Security Council.

In addition, Jasan also received a top level security clearance. As the security council secretary, he is directly reporting to Fico.

Jasan attends the Security Council meetings, elaborates summary statements for Fico and is responsible for documenting the council's activities.

He therefore has access to all documents and information of the council, whose task is to ensure functionality of the country's security system and, at the time of war, assumes the power of government.

However, Jasan has proven to have ties to a man who has worked directly with the Italian Mafia.

The relationship between Jasan and Vadala can be demonstrated especially in business activities. The politician of the ruling party Smer used to own a private security company Prodest.

Vadala and his colleagues have recently taken over this company. Besides that, Jasan's son Slavomir still has a joint venture with the Italians called AVJ Real.

In addition to that, when one of Vadala's companies went bankrupt recently, it was revealed that Vadala had claims to a private security service in which Jasan and his son Slavomir were involved in the past.

This means that two people close to the man who came to Slovakia as a person accused of being involved with the Mafia in Italy have daily access to the Prime Minister of Slovakia Robert Fico, who choose them personally.

Vadala votes for Smer

In addition to Jasan and Troskova, other ties to politics and the party Smer in particular, can be traced around Antonino Vadala.

For example, Vadala's long-time accountant Monika Corejova ran for the regional parliament in the past.

Vadala himself massively supports Smer, mainly campaigning on social networks. He praises Fico in front of his Italian friends, defends minister Kalinak from the allegations of the opposition and vehemently supported Smer's Richard Rasi in his campaign for the Kosice regional governor post.

On election day, Vadala was trumpeting that "today we are all voting No. 16 Smer and we can be sure tomorrow Slovakia is in good hands."

During the campaign he was openly declaring, he planned to visit the Smer conference in Kosice. He wrote to Rasi publicly saying they would "see each other" there. He called Smer "our party".

When the current ruling coalition was created, it was a reason for Vadala to celebrate.

Robert Madej (Smer;l) and Antonino Vadala (r) (Source: Trend archive)

Bullets and a funeral bouquet

Vadala and his Italian friends had problems with the law in Slovakia as well. In spite of a number of criminal proceedings, however, they are still successfully avoiding justice.

Here are just a few examples of cases involving suspected extortion and tax fraud.

Aktuality.sk together with their partners reconstructed the cases from the police and judicial documents which were obtained according to the Act of Free Access to Information.

Case number one took place in the east of Slovakia in 2013. One autumn morning employees of a company in the town of Trebisov found a strange delivery at the entrance gate.

There was a bag hanging on the fence containing matches, ten functional bullets and a funeral bouquet. It was wrapped in a piece of paper with Jerad written on it. It was a misspelt version of their boss Gerhard's name.

It was supposed to be a warning from a competitor that followed the threats of killing. The mocked name Jerad was often used by an Italian who claimed from the company nearly 40 hectares of arable land.

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Jerad ignored the warning at first. He reported it to the police when his employee, a tractor driver, was threatened as well.

After two years of investigation Antoninos relative Sebastiano Vadala, finally faced the prosecution by the Trebisov district court for the crime of extortion.

According to Prosecutor Peter Prokopovic, Vadala threatened to shoot dead the company's manager and mimicked with his hands the act of cutting the mans throat.

He threatened the tractor driver by saying "he will shoot dead with his gun anyone who will work on his field and set the tractor on fire."

That's all because the company farmed on a field that the Italians wanted for their business. It never interested the authorities who were the legal owners of the land.

Insufficient evidence

In addition to the testimony, the company also submitted the abovementioned special delivery for Jerad. Expertise has proven that all 10 bullets were fit for shooting and could only be in possession of a licensed arm holder

A video from the companys security camera was supposed to show Vadala's visit, during which he verbally threatened Gerhard. Vadala denied the accusations.

He and his lawyer Marek Svingal claimed at the court that at the time of the alleged threats he had not been in Trebisov, but in Michalovce. This was confirmed by Svingal, Vadala's accountant and another Italian.

However, the District Court in Trebisov and later also the Regional Court in Kosice found the evidence was insufficient. Last year Sebastiano Vadala was cleared of all the charges.

Milan Petricko, District Court judge at Trebisov, wrote that "it has not been proved that the act for which the accused has been prosecuted actually happened".

According to the judge, the prosecution was based solely on testimonies of the witnesses which is allegedly not enough for convicting Vadala.

Neither the bag and the funeral bouquet nor the video footage is mentioned in the court's ruling. The prosecutor has appealed against the courts decision.

He argued that the judge "wrongly assessed the evidential situation and the clear evidence of crime was being neglected, and his decision was based on biased and unilateral subjective conclusions."

The representative of the company's CEO, who had been the victim of extortion, was objecting that the court was considering Marek Svingal's testimony, although he was acting as a defendant's lawyer in the preparatory proceedings. That means he knew from the criminal proceedings about the evidence gathered by the police.

Even Svingal's interrogation was supposed to be conducted in a way that was against the law. Vadala told the investigator that he did not speak nor understood the Slovak language and therefore he could not threaten the victim. But this was denied by several witnesses.

In addition, Sebastiano Vadala in another case two years later stated that "as a citizen of the Italian Republic who lives in the Slovak Republic for a long time understands the Slovak language".

The Senate of the Regional Court in Kosice, led by Marek Dudik, however, dismissed the appeal and confirmed that Vadala was to be cleared of all charges.

Gaspar, Fico, and Kalinak (right to left). The one million euros that the government offers for information about the murder is displayed on the table. (Source: Sme)

The Italian Basternak

In the second case, which concerned tax fraud, Antonino Vadala was directly involved. The case involved alleged speculative transactions in connection with three apartments in Bratislava city part of Petrzalka.

The whole case started in 2011 and ended only last year. The original owner of the three flats was Italian Antonio Palombi, more precisely his company ALTO.

In 2011, however, the apartments ownership started to change - in the course of several months they were first transferred to the company GENNA and then to another company AV-REAL. Vadala used to work for the first, and managed the latter even at the time of the transfers.

Three years after this deal, Palombi turned to the police saying that Vadala had not paid him a purchase price for his flats.

According to the police resolution we obtained on the basis of the Act of Free Access to Information, Palombi first claimed that Vadala had deceived him.

This was how the weekly Plus 7 Dni informed about the case in 2015. But the reality was a bit different.

In fact, Palombi and Vadala agreed that the transfer of apartments would take place without actual payments and that the apartments would eventually end up in the company Kannone which the two of them owned.

The purpose of the deals was that Vadala's AV-REAL, which was the third one in the chain, would be entitled for exemption with the right to deduct VAT in the amount of approximately 80,000.

Palombi admitted this to the police himself as a witness and victim at the same time.

"He said Antonino Vadala advised him to transfer the apartments to AV - Real via Genna Ltd. because this company was engaged in the real estate business and Alto, s.r.o. was not a VAT payer. Genna then was supposed to transfer the apartments for a much higher price. In this way, as AV-Real is a VAT payer, the difference would be deducted at purchase," noted Palombi's interrogator.

VAT refunds

Palombi repeated several times that the price of 360 000 was just imaginary. In fact, apartments should be returned to him.

"The suspect said that if he gets 80,000 Euros of VAT, he will transfer those apartments to their joint company Kannone, s.r.o. By doing so, they would go back to the company owned by the damaged.

In his complaint, Palombi wrote that he should also receive a share of the VAT return.

"The suspect told him that the flats would be sold to company Genna. He explained that Genna will claim a deduction of VAT, half of which is given to the notifier," the resolution says.

Vadala denied everything to the investigator, he did not know about any deal, and he allegedly bought the flats in a regular way.

Criminal prosecution was stopped, prosecutor declared that there was no fraud done on Palombi, although both could have cooperated on the fraud.

He stressed that if a crime was committed, it is a VAT refund scam and that the case is being treated as a crime of tax and insurance cuts.

He literally wrote: "The real intention of individual persons involved in gradual transfers makes it impossible to objectively determine their possible willful or unwilful co-operation towards the alleged evasion of the tax advantage when it is possible to expect from them to give purposeful testimonies to defend themselves from suspicion from other criminal activity.

Palombi initially demanded return of the apartments in court - in a trade dispute that was underway since December 2014. However, as it emerges from court rulings, he decided not to pursue his claim in last February.

The District Court Bratislava V stopped the proceedings in March. It did not mention why Palombi changed his mind after two years.

He turned to the state authorities after some years - when it turned out that Vadala would not even give him money from VAT refunds, nor did he return flats.

In this case, the investigation has not yet led to the prosecution of Antonino Vadala. Two companies in its portfolio have just recently gone bankrupt with tax debts of over 100,000.

Big Italian family

Antonino Vadala and Carmine Cinnante do not act individually in Slovakia.

In the eastern part of the country  after mutual co-ordination and co-operation  four representatives from the Italian Calabria family, birthplace of Ndrangheta, operate there.

Apart from the Vadalas and the Cinnantes, there are also families of the Rods and the Catropoves. Agriculture became their main business in Slovakia.

They owned or still own dozens of companies. Their estate ranges in tens of millions of euros.

They manage hundreds to thousands of hectares of land, for which they receive millions of subsidies.

Just between 2015 and 2016, the companies around these families managed to get more than eight million Euros from direct payments from the Agricultural Payments Agency (PPA). And other hundreds of thousand euros from project subsidies.

The eligibility of these payments is also questionable. Aktuality.sk together with partners documented several cases of violation of rules.

In one case, the company asked for payments of up to eight times the area they actually worked on. In another case, they again asked for payments on areas for which they did not pay rent and did not have the right to use it.

In addition, the statutory of one of these Italian companies falsified the decision of the PPA to persuade the bank that it would soon receive the money.

More public money was collected under the influence of the Italians for biogas power plants. Three companies of the Diego Roda family, for example, received  8.3 million in these payments from 2012 to 2017.

And there was no doubt about it. The Office for Network Regulators (URSO) fined them in 2015 because in mandatory reporting they overestimated the amount of energy their biogas power plant produced.

The subsidy amount depends on the amount of subsidies produced.

Where the money comes from

Money laundering is the main business of Ndrangheta abroad as well. The goal is to clean money and do business in a way that it looks legitimate.

It may involve the use of third parties as fictitious owners of companies, foreign trade in goods that are artificially overpriced, or putting pressure on competitors.

The Libri clan, with whom Vadala has collaborated, is one of the most influential in the district of Reggio Calabria and has a substantial part of its activities outside of Italy.

The forms of their business are many because this clan is particularly engaged in a financial international business.

Nevertheless, there is no evidence that any of the aforementioned subjects in Slovakia has been laundering money. However, there are doubts about the origin of the money used by the Italian families mentioned here.

From the documents we have collected it is clear that a substantial part of the money came from their native Italy.

For example, Antonino Vadala appears in several rulings of Slovakian courts, which show that he has received money from people from Italy. They stated that money was given to Vadala in cash because he wanted it in that way.

Cocaine smuggling

For example, they should be used to buy an agricultural co-op in Slovakia. Since they had no benefits from the trade, they were claiming their money back from Vadala.

He claimed in the court that he owed nothing to the Italians, and the statement in which he claimed the opposite, was signed under coercion.

The companies of the Rod brothers established in Slovakia in the 1990s, received a substantial share of the equity capital from the homonymous companies in their hometown of Condofuri in Italy.

These are the companies CO.BE.R. (Diego Roda) and TRA.CE.R. (Antonio Roda), which have their sister companies of the same name in Italy.

In their annual reports from the turn of the millennium, the Slovak companies report commitments and financial assistance to the companies in Italy, as well as that their entire production is going back to their home country.

CO.BE.R even states in the financial statements that it was created as a foreign investment with a 100 percent capital stake in Italy.

In Italy Pietro Roda, the brother of Antonino and Diego, acts as a representative of the family company TRA.CE.R. He is also involved in money laundering for 'Ndrangheta section called El Dorado.

The police arrested him in 2013 during an operation against the Mafia clan Galliciano.

He faced allegations of belonging to the Mafia association (a specific offense under Italian law) and money laundering. In 2014, however, the Supreme Court has cleared him for lack of evidence.

On the contrary, in 2017 the names of Antonino Vadala's family members appeared in an arrest warrant for 18 gang members who were supposed to smuggle hundreds of kilograms of cocaine into Europe for 'Ndrangheta.

The Vadalas are only mentioned in the arrest warrant. Details of the case are not yet known.

Note: The conclusion of the article is missing as the author was not able to finish it.

In the memory of Jan Kuciak, our colleague and great journalist.

People came out to the SNP Square in Bratislava on the freezing evening of February 26 to light candles in the memory of investigative reporter Jan Kuciak and his partner Martina Kusnirova, who were murdered. (Source: Sme)How Slovak criminals turned the state into their milk cow

A story by Aktuality.sk with explanation of fraud schemes that have been applied by criminals in Slovakia.

Apart from VAT, criminals have discovered subsidies, either for agriculture or green energy. (Source: TASR)

The Slovak Spectator brought the English translation of the last story the murdered journalist Jan Kuciak worked on with the agreement of the Aktuality.sk editorial office. Below is an additional story by Aktuality.sk that explains some Slovak circumstances to the international audience.

The original version of the main story published on the Aktuality.sk website is available here.

Slovakia has not been a country where vagabonds extort small entrepreneurs, cash in on prostitution or tunnel former state-owned enterprises.

Times of the 1990s have been gone for long. This does not mean, however, that the crime has disappeared completely in Slovakia.

Scammers just changed their tactics. They found their Klondike in the form of public finances - taxes and subsidies.

Transition to sophisticated fraud

"When the criminals found out that they could no longer do their business in the old fashioned rough way, they discovered the value added tax (VAT). It is the largest source of government revenues," the Dean of the Faculty of Law at the Comenius University and prosecutor Jozef Centes describes the developments in the country in the new millennium.

A classic example is so-called carousel VAT fraud. These are based on a network of affiliated companies that trade fictitiously between each other (they issue invoices without payment). Some companies in the chain then ask the state to refund the VAT they already paid.

The company, which is the last piece of the chain and should pay VAT to the state, will be closed and therefore will not be taxed.

Slovakia is an unflattering position within the EU. According to the latest statistics from the European Statistical Office (Eurostat), our state loses up to 2.3 billion a year on VAT fraud.

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Concrete examples

The most famous case was the one involving Mikulas Vareha, who was nicknamed the King of Zemplin region. This tax fraudster has stolen public finances in the amount of more than  58 million on VAT.

His network of fictitious businesses reached up to such absurdities as bark beetle trading. Eventually he ended up behind bars for 11 years.

The Slovaks are also familiar with the bribery of the head of the tax office in the town of Samorin. The Salman brothers, businessmen involved in this case, were sent to prison for six and seven years respectively.

Subsidies for farmers as well

Apart from VAT, criminals have discovered subsidies, either for agriculture or green energy.

Cases of fraudulent subsidies for farmers are quite regular in Slovakia. Fraudsters have most often sought to raise funds for much larger land areas than they actually owned.

Alternatively, they may claim subsidies for crops they never sow and animals they never keep.

In 2016 the Supreme Audit Office criticized the state agency that pays money to farmers for its employees evaluating the allocation of subsidies in a non-transparent way.

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Read also: Kuciak investigated links between politicians and mafia Read more

Interest in green energy

Also the potential of green energy has been noticed. In 2009, the government of Robert Fico decided to support the construction of solar power plants throughout the country.

A number of influential entrepreneurs as well as unknown companies have joined this business as the state announced very generous purchasing prices (8 times higher than the market price).

At that time the state began to grant licenses for the construction of solar power plants. However, the whole process was very intransparent, and the permissions were given on first come first serve basis. Licensing was later criticized by the new leadership of the Ministry of Economy headed by Juraj Miskov.

Subsidies have subsequently been investigated by the European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF).

Special team

The previous government of Robert Fico has realized that the situation of public finance fraud is beginning to be unbearable. The stolen billions of Euros are eventually missing in the state's treasury.

Therefore the so-called Tax Cobra was created six years ago. This is a special team that focuses primarily on VAT fraud. Until now they have been able to uncover tax fraud worth more than 700 million.

28. Feb 2018 at 10:39 | Aktuality.skRTVS: Slovak forced from a plane in Belgium dies

A man who tried to board a plane last Friday was led away by police. Now, the force of the airport guards' intervention will be checked.

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A Slovak man aged 40 who was forced from a Ryanair plane onFebruary 23 has died, the Slovak public-service broadcaster RTVS informed on February 28 on its Facebook site.

Witnesses said he tried to aggressively board a Ryanair flight from Charleroi airport in Belgium to Bratislava and refused to show his ticket. Belgian authorities are now checking whether the intervention against him was adequate, or too harsh, the SITA newswire wrote.

The Slovak worked in Belgium as a construction worker. Press chief of the Slovak Foreign Affairs Ministry, Igor Skocek, told RTVS that the Slovak Embassy in Brussels has been assisting in solving this case, but his family is not with the medialisation of the case.

The published information suggests he was not in a perfect state of mind, RTVS writes, adding that he was restrained by the airport guards and escorted from the plane.

28. Feb 2018 at 13:00 | Compiled by Spectator staffSlovakia has lost one of its best investigative journalists, foreign media report

International press react to the murder of investigative reporter, Jan Kuciak and his fiancee, Martina Kusnirova.

Policemen guard the entrance to offices of news website Aktuality.sk, the employer of the murdered investigative journalist Jan Kuciak, in Bratislava. (Source: AP/SITA)

The return to the 1990s is how several Slovak journalists described the situation to the Czech website Info.cz following the news that investigative journalist Jan Kuciak and his fiancee, Martina Kusnirova were murdered in their house in Velka Maca, close to Galanta (Trnava Region).

During the 90s, the country was led by infamous Vladimir Meciar and his Movement for a Democratic Slovakia (HZDS). Extensive coverage was provided particularly by the Czech news outlets that called Kuciak one of the best investigative journalists in Slovakia.

The journalists in Slovakia are usually a target of verbal attacks from the public and politicians, the Dennik N dailys columnist, Roman Pataj, said for Info.cz. They attack them to divert attention from their own scandals. I hope that Jan Kuciaks case will be a rare one.

The website of the public-service broadcaster Czech Radio reminded the public of Kuciaks recent answer to the question of whether the job of an investigative journalist is dangerous.

Ive never been beaten or seen my car be put on fire as was happening in the past, Kuciak said in an interview for the student magazine of the Constantine the Philosopher University in Nitra. I dont think my job is dangerous in this respect. People usually threaten us with courts, criminal complaints. Our sources are in a more dangerous position.

First targeted murder

Meanwhile, several big international media reported about Kuciak, mentioning mostly the fact that the journalist might have been killed for his investigative work. The first to report on the case was the Reuters news agency, whose report was then taken by several other websites.

Several media outlets like The New York Times and Bloomberg pointed out that the killing appeared to be the first targeted slaying of a journalist in Slovakias modern history. They also published details about the cases he has been covering, with The Guardian reporting that he had also recently been investigating the suspected theft of EU funds by the Italian mafia destined for eastern Slovakia.

Despite the tolerant environment, some Slovak officials have expressed great displeasure with the work of investigative reporters such as Kuciak, the Washington Post wrote in its report. Among them are Slovakias prime minister, Robert Fico, who in 2016 referred to some domestic journalists as dirty anti-Slovak prostitutes for covering alleged corruption in his administration.

The daily added that despite this, Fico has condemned the murder and offered a reward of 1 million for providing information about the case.

The Financial Times published the responses of some Slovak journalists who reacted with shock to the news.

[Kuciak] was a very young guy. He had just started but in journalistic circles he was already relatively well-known. It is very sad and very chilling, and everyone is wondering what is going on, the daily quoted Andrej Matisak from the Pravda daily. There have been a couple of cases where journalists disappeared and we dont know what happened to them, but this is the first time something like this has happened since Slovakia became independent [in 1993]. Its really crazy. Were really shocked.

A personal experience with Kuciak

The website of Politico meanwhile published a piece by Tom Nicholson in which he described his own relation to Kuciak.

We first came into contact in 2012, as he was finishing his bachelors degree in journalism at a university in Nitra, about an hour from Bratislava, Nicholson wrote. I had just been fired from my job with a business weekly and was being very publicly sued for my reporting on the Gorilla file, a high-level corruption story dating back to 2006.

He remembers how Kuciak reached out to him with encouragement, saying that he got into journalism because I wanted to dedicate my life and my work to the kind of reporting you are doing.

Jan was too young to have lived through Slovakias Klondike era of the 1990s, Nicholson wrote. By the time he became a journalist, the state had few assets left worth stealing. But what did attract criminals were lucrative opportunities in carousel tax fraud in which the state returns to fraudsters the VAT tax that they paid on goods they fictitiously claimed to have exported to another EU nation.

Links to murdered Maltese journalist

Bloomberg meanwhile wrote that despite a string of scandals reported by media implicating officials and business leaders and a call by Prime Minister Robert Fico to crack down on graft, no active senior politician has been convicted of wrongdoing.

According to the newswire, the murders follow a deterioration of relations in neighbouring Poland and Hungary between governments and news providers, with Poland falling to 54th in Reporters Without Borders 2017 Global Press Freedom Index of 180 countries and Hungary sliding to 71st. Slovakia was 17th.

While Slovakia has made headway in catching up with its richer western peers in terms of living standards, a sense of frustration is mounting over the way the government rules the ex-communist country of 5 million people, Bloomberg reported. Public discontent with what citizens view as widespread corruption helped fuel support for anti-establishment parties that scored surprising victories in the 2016 elections and has triggered street protests in Bratislava.

Many media outlets also referred to the earlier murder of Maltese journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia, who was killed by a car bomb in October 2017.

28. Feb 2018 at 12:30 | Radka MinarechovaLetters could be delivered in later hours

Idea to be launched in the upcoming months as a pilot project may simplify the delivery of letters and packages.

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The national post office company Slovenska Posta (Slovak Post) could launch in the upcoming months a pilot project for delivering letters or even packages in the afternoon hours. Currently, the state service only delivers them in the mornings, when not too many people are at home. This subsequently creates queues at the post office in the late afternoons and early evenings, the Sme daily wrote on February 27.

Thus, this change would improve the situation and especially simplify it for those working during the day.

The pioneering project should be launched in two regional cities, Bratislava and one more regional capital, Kosice, or Zilina, possibly within the first half of 2018, CEO of Slovak Post Robert Galik told Sme.

Post improvements already used

The project could face several problems, Galik pointed out. Apart from the necessary consent of postal workers, costs may be increased and so the service may be charged. In the Czech Republic, where it has been already introduced in the biggest cities, there is a charge of 25 Czech crowns (i.e. about 0.99 euro-cents). For this fee, clients may opt for their post to be delivered between 18:00 and 21:00 in the evening.

The Slovak Post tries to cut its delivery costs and simplify the process by sending text messages or e-mails instead of the traditional yellow notices left in post boxes to notify people of their registered delivery letters and packages. People can ask for this service and currently tens of thousands are using it, according to Galik.

In the case of parcels, Slovak Post has launched a network of Package-Boxes (or BalikoBox in Slovak) package-dispensing machines. Last year, 42 of them were put into operation, worth around 3 million. They have been installed in all regional cities and in some smaller towns, like Senec, Martin, Zvolen and Prievidza. They are located close to hypermarkets where there are good parking possibilities.

In the future, the BalikoBoxov chain could enable people to pay with a bank card for some cheque bills, and later maybe post letters and packages, Galik told Sme.

28. Feb 2018 at 13:06 | Compiled by Spectator staffFour people die due to frost

The current freezing weather has resulted in four casualties so far. The forecasts are even worse: the last night of February should be the coldest of the winter season.

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At least four people have died in Slovakia as the result of the frosty weather in recent days, spokesperson of the countrys paramedics operations centre, Alena Krcova, told the TASR newswire.

Paramedics have treated 16 people between the mornings of February 25 and February 27 due to hypothermia. They were not able to save the lives of four people  from Presov, Trnava, Zilina and Nitra Regions, TASR wrote on February 27.

A total of 13 patients  10 men and three women  were admitted to the hospital, said Krcova, as quoted by TASR.

She added that if people are seriously hypothermic, they should call the emergency line 155 and ask the operator for instructions and/or an ambulance.

A hypothermic person should be placed in a warm room  with normal indoor temperature  and if necessary, given dry clothes to replace wet ones. A lukewarm, not hot, drink with sugar should be offered, Krcova suggested, adding that alcohol should not be given to these people, since it could only worsen their body temperature by expanding the blood vessels.

The homeless are in greatest danger

The Bratislava council has initiated measures to help homeless people: the Mea Culpa reception centre in Hradska Street in Vrakuna will have day-long operation without any fee. There are also some contact points arranged for them with hot tea on offer, Bratislava spokesperson Zuzana Onufer informed the SITA newswire.

She added that the reception centre has a total of 36 places. The daily/integration Domec centre of the Vagus civic association that works with the homeless will operate in crisis mode, i.e. between 9:00 and 16:00.

The crisis situation with the homeless will last until March 2, with the activities of NGOs focusing on the homeless  Depaul Slovensko, OZ Stopa Slovensko and OZ Vagus stated on their websites. There are at least 2,064 homeless in the capital  284 are children, the first poll and census of homeless in Bratislava suggests, adding that 64.5 percent of them are men and 29.7 women, SITA reported.

Forecasts are not rosy

According to weather forecasts, the frosty spell in Slovakia should last at least until the weekend, culminating on the night of February 28/March 1, with -28C expected for some areas in north of central and eastern Slovakia. The Slovak Hydrometeorological Institute (SHMU) issued a 2-degree warning for almost all Slovakia for this night, SITA wrote. A first degree warning is issued for the southern parts of central and eastern Slovakia (with -19C expected) and there are no warnings for southwestern Slovakia.

The freezing weather is expected to last until the end of week. Strong frosts are unusual at this time of year  and also in some regions  and may be dangerous to humans.

Ice floods and brash-ice can be seen in some areas of the country, which could clog the watercourses. For the Prievidza and Martin districts, SHMU issued warnings against ice floods, adding that soon these warnings may apply for some more districts.

28. Feb 2018 at 13:14 | Compiled by Spectator staffNostalgic train rides to UNESCO sites expand, outside region as well

Last years success with nostalgic train rides following the UNESCO heritage sites in eastern Slovakia has made organisers repeat this cycle, while expanding it outside the Kosice Region.

More information about travelling in Slovakia

Please see our Please see our Spectacular Slovakia travel guide

After last years success, the Train Following the UNESCO Sites tourism product, a series of nostalgic rides with a historical train, is expanding outside the Kosice Region, Viktor Wurm of the Kosice Region Turizmus told the TASR newswire.

There were six such rides that always started in Kosice and their main destination was one of the UNESCO heritage sites in our region, Wurm said. Passengers on these nostalgic trains were always offered, apart from a given monument, the chance to know interesting tourism sites in the vicinity. Offers on additional trips to nearby places were arranged, so that also the surrounding sites could benefit from the prestige of the UNESCO site, he explained for TASR.

Read also:

Read also: Historical trains meet UNESCO sites Read more

As the rides were full already one week before they took place and so the organisation decided to continue them, while expanding the offer.

Apart from rides starting in Kosice, we will add rides starting outside it: several rides from Humenne, and one even from as far as western Slovakia, Wurm revealed.

Schedules of UNESCO train rides

The first ride will be on May 1, from Humenne, through Michalovce, Trebisov all the way to Kosice, connected to the Kosice City Days celebrations.

video //www.youtube.com/embed/sRmQLJAwOYA

Soon afterwards, on May 5, we will set off on a true UNESCO ride, from Kosice, Wurm noted, adding that the theme of this ride will be Following Master Pavol i.e. the Gothic art of the Spis region and the town of Levoca. Then, from May 25-27, a longer trip will take passengers from western Slovakia's Topolcany, through Gombasek and the Gombasecka Cave, to Kosice where they will stay overnight, and continue the next day to the wine-growing Tokaj region where wines will be tasted, visiting the Museum and Cultural Centre of southern Zemplin in Trebisov, as well as some other sites. On the third day they will return by the northern route, via Poprad, to Turcianske Teplice, Wurm summed up.

The next rides, until Septemebr, will lead e.g. to Spis Castle, Dobsinska Ladova Jaskyna Cave, Gemer and Jasov.

More information can be found at unesconadosah.sk and the weareunesco.com/en website.

28. Feb 2018 at 13:33 | Compiled by Spectator staffCulture Minister Madaric resigns

The decision is linked to the murder of investigative journalist Jan Kuciak and his fiancee.

Culture Minister Marek Madaric (Smer) resigned from his post on February 28.

He explained he cannot imagine continuing in his post after investigative journalist Jan Kuciak and his fiancee, Martina Kusnirova, were murdered in their house in Velka Maca near Galanta (Trnava Region).

Read also:

Read also: Fico stands by Troskova Read more

The resignation is my personal decision, Madaric told the journalists. As a culture minister, I cant identify with the fact that a journalist was killed during my tenure.

Madaric has already submitted his resignation to Prime Minister Robert Fico, and is ready to also deliver it to the president on Monday. He will remain a Smer member.

Some time ago, I left Smers management, because I had different views on some affairs, but I have always been saying that my criticism concerned my wish for having a social democracy in Slovakia.

Read also:

Read also: Culture minister resigns from post as deputy chair of Smer Read more

Madaric also commented on the reports of the activities of the Italian mafia in eastern Slovakia.

Certainly, the information about the potential penetration of any organised crime group among politicians and the state body level is serious, Madaric said, as quoted by the Dennik N daily. It is in everybodys interest to have these suspicions investigated in order to stop creating scandals from something that is not scandalous at all, like a Facebook friendship.

28. Feb 2018 at 14:38 | Compiled by Spectator staffA journalist is murdered: Where do we go from here?

Slovakia feels like it has arrived to a breaking point brought about by the unthinkable that has happened.

People came out to the SNP Square in Bratislava in the freezing evening of February 26 to light candles in the memory of investigative reporter Jan Kuciak and his partner Martina Kusnirova, who were murdered. (Source: Sme)

Be calm when the unthinkable arrives, historian Timothy Snyder wrote as the fifth of his 20 lessons, later expanded to become his best-selling book On Tyranny.

He was writing about the threat from would-be autocrats. No such direct threat exists in Slovakia right now. But his advice holds.

In Slovakia, the unthinkable happened on Monday, February 26, 2018, when news broke that an investigative journalist had been found murdered in his home, gunned down together with his wife-to-be.

Reactions by representatives of the government, the police and the prosecution service betrayed genuine shock over the event.

This is not Malta, this is not Russia where they shoot journalists, we are in Slovakia and as long as I am here, this cannot happen here, General Prosecutor Jaromir Ciznar said during a press briefing that he held in order to address journalists about the murder of one of their colleagues.

Read also:

Read also: Italian mafia in Slovakia. Tentacles reaching out to politics Read more

It was clear this is something Slovakias leaders never wanted, and that they did not see anything like this coming; so much so that even normally critical commentators and noted Slovak journalists mentioned and discussed this fact in the aftermath of the tragedy.

Investigative journalists and heads of major newsrooms in the country also admit that they never counted on the possibility of a journalist being murdered in Slovakia, and had never considered such an eventuality when making their editorial decisions.

But it did happen in Slovakia, and it happened not only to a promising 27-year-old investigative reporter, but also to his equally young fiancee whose only fault was that she stood by her future husband.

Their deaths brought the community of Slovak journalists closer together, to experience a feeling of togetherness that will hopefully last. Despite the fear that even the most experienced reporters are not shy to admit to, major newsrooms have shown their determination by picking up the story that Kuciak was working on  and that might have been the reason he lost his life.

Read also:

Read also: Slovaks and Czechs pay tribute to the murdered journalist Read more

Two days after we learned about the murders, with people lighting candles and preparing a protest to call for consequences, it feels like the country has come to a breaking point brought about by the unthinkable. After two days it is not possible to say how events will turn out from here, but there will be consequences: democracy and freedom in this country will either grow stronger, or will decline.

In the face of an unprecedented act of violence, the instinct of the writer is to avoid cliches, to make sure the act is properly described, stripped down to its core and accorded its due importance, in order for readers to clearly understand it. Still, we must believe that Jan Kuciak and Martina Kusnirova have not died in vain.

28. Feb 2018 at 14:54 | Michaela TerenzaniValcek Interview: With Jan Kuciak, we got to the Mafia through Troskova

Reporter of the Sme daily Adam Valcek initially cooperated with Jan Kuciak, the murdered journalist, on the case of Italian Mafia.

Adam Valcek has been working for the Sme daily since September 2008, with one break. In August 2014, he left for the Trend weekly but returned to Sme in February 2015 as an economic reporter. He led the department of data journalism and later the economic department.

After the news of the murder of journalist Jan Kuciak of the aktuality.sk website spread, Sme dailys reporter Adam Valcek immediately testified to the police and sought protection. Initially, he worked together with Kuciak on the case which could have been the reason for the latters murder. Valcek suggests that they started working on the story following a series of tabloid stories on the appearance of Maria Troskova after she took the position of main state executive for Prime Minister Robert Fico of the ruling Smer party.

Sme: How did you learn about the death of Jan Kuciak?

Adam Valcek (AV): I learned about it on Monday (February 26) morning from the Dennik N daily, while cleaning my teeth. Of course, I could not believe it at first. Then, however, it started to dawn on me that in recent months, Jano had been working on a report on the Italian Mafia with which there may have been a connection.

Sme: Were you quite close?

AV: We had a professional relationship. He was an unpretentious, kind, and just person.

Sme: Why did you go to testify for the police?

AV: When I arrived in the editorial room in the morning, I told my superiors that Jano may have died in connection with the story on the Italian Mafia. My boss Jakub Filo told me to immediately contact the head of the National Criminal Agency, Peter Hrasko.

Briefly, I told him what I had been cooperating on with Jan Kuciak. He interrupted and asked me to come in so they could question me further. It lasted for more than two hours and it was agreed with Mr. Hrasko that some form of protection or guard would be provided.

Read also:

Read also: How Slovak criminals turned the state into their milk cow Read more

Sme: Do you still have that protection?

AV: I dont want to specify this more in detail but I would like to use this opportunity to thank the police: thanks to them, we were able to sleep peacefully that night, although we were very stressed the whole day. So I can confirm that measures which Police President Tibor Gaspar announced are applied in practice, too.

 I was very surprised by the Facebook profiles. They openly lobbied for these MPs. Influential people in Slovakia dont do this..  Adam Valcek

Sme: When did the work on the issue of the Italian Mafia start?

AV: Some time at the end of 2016 and the beginning 2017 the media focused on Maria Troskova, and the tabloids especially addressed her appearance and wrote sexist remarks about her work. Around that time, Jano and I started to be interested in who Maria Troskova is and where she came from.

The Trade Register showed that she was in business with a certain Antonino Vadala. If you put the name Vadala in a search engine you can find stories on some Vadalas who are members of a criminal group Ndrangheta. Further investigation was not easy, as we could not speak Italian, and at the same time, we had to check what Antonino Vadala and other Italians from the Slovak group have in common with Italian suspects in their homeland.

Read also:

Read also: Kuciak investigated links between politicians and mafia Read more

Sme: How did you handle it?

AV: Jan Kuciak was on very good terms with Pavla Holcova of the Czech Centre for Investigative Journalism and through her, we started exploring what the Vadalas have in common with the Italians.

Sme: What have you found out?

AV: I dont know about everything, as Jan Kuciaks investigation continued without me. According to my information, the main finding is that Antonino Vadala who did business with Maria Troskova, is mentioned in one of the court files involving Ndrangheta. He is alleged, according to the file, to have arranged something concerning logistics which was discovered by investigators when they wire-tapped his phone. However, Vadala was acquitted of the charges.

Sme: What did these Italians do in Slovakia?

AV: Antonino Vadala has many companies in Slovakia which function here legally. He also has a brother, Sebastiano Vadala, who has been charged with extortion and threatening a farmer in Trebisov. According to the charge, he told him that if he farmed his field, he would cut his throat.

Sme: In which areas do the Vadalas do their business?

AV: They focus mostly on agriculture where they get subsidies from EU-funds which are not bound to activities but rather to the surface area of land. Thus, they get profits regardless of whether they really grow anything. In the past, he has also had activities involving solar power plants which were also subsidised by the high purchase price of electric power, passed on to households through high electricity bills. Apart from this, he also had other businesses which were mapped by Jan Kuciak. So far, we dont know much about him but we are working on it.

Read also:

Read also: UPDATED: Investigative journalist killed in his house Read more

Sme: What role may Troskova have played in this?

AV: I dont want to answer that.

Sme: Which Slovaks, apart from her, appear in this case?

AV: The main person is Viliam Jasan, former Smer MP and current secretary of the Security Council of the state and head of the security section at the Government Office. His former MPs assistant is Maria Troskova. At the same time, he was the co-owner of the security company Prodest, which was purchased by Pietro Catroppa who does business with the Vadalas. The tabloids previously broke the information that it was Vadala who recommended Jasan take Troskova for his assistant.

Sme: Journalist Tom Nicholson mentioned, alongside Jasan, other Smer politicians, like Stanislav Kubanek and Peter Chudik. How are they connected with this?

AV: As far as I know, Jan Kuciak had archives in his computer with Facebook profiles of these Italians. They had open profiles that could be followed. Some time last year, they locked them. Recently, they have been cleaning them of Smer members and other politicians whom they had among their friends.

In the meantime, Health Minister for Smer Tomas Drucker also disappeared from the profiles, although he used to be a friend of Vadala. Before the 2016 election, one of the Italians published a status in which he recommended that people vote for Jasan, Kubanek and Chudik.

Sme: Is it common for entrepreneurs suspected of abusing EU-funds to have such open profiles on social networks?

AV: It surprised me a lot. They openly campaigned for these MPs. Influential businesspeople in Slovakia dont do this. Only recently, some entrepreneurs sporadically owned up to support for a political party. I know by hearsay that Mafia members in the Balkans, for example, guard their privacy less.

Read also:

Read also: Fico stands by Troskova Read more

Sme: After Jan Kuciaks death, it turned out that several media organisations and journalists knew about this case. Is it normal for editorial staff to have a tip for a story, work on it for several months and then publish it at some later point?

AV: This happened with Jan Kuciak. Mainly thanks to him, journalists started helping each other with their investigative reports. He did not focus on the commercial side of media and the strive for exclusivity. He was after justice.

Such a degree of cooperation first started with the Panama Papers scandal in April 2016. It is not common but I think it is inevitable  especially in such a small market as Slovakia. Our media organisations dont have enough money to be enable them to afford to pay strong investigative teams. Thus journalists have to cooperate across media and editorial teams.

On the other hand, I was surprised by how many people suddenly claimed this case as their own. I rather have the impression that these are boastful statements from those in the media that at first associated his death with Marian Kocner and Ladislav Basternak. They changed their claims only after Tom Nicholson opened this issue in the interview with the Dennik N daily.

Sme: Does Sme currently cooperate with other media organisations on any other case?

AV: Not that I know of.

Sme. Do you think the murder will be solved?

AV: I very much fear it wont.

Sme. Have you ever experienced threats?

AV: Threats are common, but they usually involve threats of violence, not murder. In Slovakia, reporters are not shot dead. Ndrangheta is able to do that.

Sme: Have you ever filed a criminal complaint due to threats?

AV: No.

Sme: Then, what has been the most uncomfortable situation in your career to date?

AV: The news of Jan Kuciaks murder on Monday. The message that the murderers sent to journalists is an extremely strong one and everyone tries to handle it in one way, or another. Monday was the biggest fright of my life.

28. Feb 2018 at 19:21 | Roman CuprikTroskova and Jasan are leaving their posts at Governments Office

The decision is temporary as they will return to post when the murder investigation of investigative journalist Jan Kuciak is solved.

Maria Troskova, the main state advisor of Prime Minister Robert Fico, and Viliam Jasan, the head of crisis management and state security at the Governments Office, are leaving their posts until the murders of investigative reporter Jan Kuciak and his fiancee Martina Kusnirova are solved.

They stressed they are leaving on their own request.

Read also:

Read also: Italian mafia in Slovakia. Tentacles reaching out to politics Read more

In a joint statement sent to the media, they expressed their sympathy for the families of the deceased and claimed they were shocked by the murders just like the rest of society.

Connecting our names with this horrid crime, implied by some politicians or media, is totally over the line, the statement reads. We categorically refuse any connection with this tragedy. However, since our names are abused in the political fight against PM Robert Fico, we decided to leave our posts at the Governments Office until the investigation is over.

Fico defended Troskova and Jasan

Troskova and Jasan are mentioned in the stories Kuciak was working on before his death, in connection with the Italian mafia.

Earlier this week, Fico defended both in front of the media.

Read also:

Read also: Kuciak investigated links between politicians and mafia Read more

You are connecting innocent people with double murder. That is over the line, he said during his press conference on February 27.

Fico insisted during the press conference that the information in the story about Troskova has been known since September 2016 when the Plus 7 Dni weekly wrote about her.

Fico: Opposition abuses the murder

The opposition, meanwhile, organised a protest march on February 28, at which opposition leaders and also Anna Remiasova, mother of the murdered Robert Remias, who was linked to an alleged witness to the kidnapping of former president Michal Kovacs son, held speeches. It was attended by around 1,000 people.

Fico responded with a press conference where he criticised the opposition and accused them of abusing Kuciaks murder.

Their only objective is to criminalise Smer and the whole government, he told the journalists.

(Source: SME)

28. Feb 2018 at 20:27 | Compiled by Spectator staffSlovakia becomes first to use Google Pay

The service is currently available for the clients of four banks, but others may join soon.

Google is launching its new application, Google Pay, in Slovakia, making it the first country ever to introduce the revamped service. Previously, it was known as Android Pay.

A simple and safe payment method by mobile phones at stores, Google Pay is available as of February 28 to clients of Slovenska Sporitelna, mBank, Postova Banka and J&T Banka. Soon, clients of 365.bank will also join, the SITA newswire reported.

How to use the service?

Google Pay is accepted at more than 43,000 stores in Slovakia, said Rasto Kulich, country manager of Google Slovensko.

The service is available at any place where people can use contactless payments. The Google Pay icon must be visible for it to work.

To use the service, people need to download the Google Pay app and add their credit or debit cards. When paying at the shops, all they need to do is place the mobile phone near the payment terminal. To increase the security, it is necessary to unlock the phone if the payment exceeds 20, SITA reported.

Apart from Slovakia, the service is available in 17 other countries, SITA wrote.

Banks find potential in the service

Payment by a mobile phone, which most of us have at hand nearly all the time, will speed up and simplify current card payments, said Andrej Zatko, CEO of Postova Banka, as quoted by SITA. We hope that in the current age of mobile technologies the clients will quickly learn to like this service.

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Read also: Foreigners, do you want to open a bank account? Read more

mBank believes that in a few years, mobile phones will replace the use of internet banking.

Google Pay is another step towards the future where people will always carry their bank with them in their phones, said Robert Christof, head of mBank in Slovakia, as quoted by SITA.

More than 80 percent of Slovaks who own smartphones use the operational system Android, said Zdenek Romanek, member of the board of directors at Slovenska Sporitelna, who is responsible for retail banking.

This is the reason why I believe the new Google Pay service really has potential to reach the masses, Romanek said, as quoted by SITA.

Other banks interested too

Other big banks in Slovakia are also considering introducing the service. VUB bank, for example, plans to launch it in September 2018, said its spokesperson Alena Walterova.

CSOB is currently focusing on the possibilities to extend payment methods by using Near Field Communication (NFC) payments, while UniCredit Bank considers using both Android Pay and Google Pay platforms. Both are ready to inform their clients about the changes, SITA reported.

On the other hand, Tatra Banka launched mobile payments via its MobilePay app more than a year ago and does not plan to join the project for now.

Our MobilePay app offers clients the same possibility of contactless payments by using smartphones as Google Pay, said its spokesperson Zuzana Ziaranova, as quoted by SITA.

28. Feb 2018 at 20:37 | Compiled by Spectator staffEuropean Parliament held moment of silence for Jan Kuciak

EP President Antonio Tajani made a statement in parliament on murdered Slovak journalist Jan Kuciak, followed by a minute of silence.

Font size: A - | A +

The plenary session of the European Parliament (EP) of February 28  March 1st was opened on the first day in Brussels. Antonio Tajani, EP President, made a statement on the murder of Jan Kuciak, Slovak journalist, and his partner, Martina Kusnirova. The statement was followed by a minute of silence, the EP representation in Slovakia informed.

In his speech, Tajani called the murder of Kuciak an attack on the very fundamentals of democracy, commenting that it is unacceptable for journalists in the European Union to be murdered in connection to their work.

https://multimedia.europarl.europa.eu/en/introductory-remarks-by-antonio-tajani-ep-president_I151288-V_rv

The EP Chairman condemned the murder and stressed the European Parliament would closely watch the course of the investigation.

Tajani also reminded of the case involving Malta reporter Daphne Caruano Galizi, who was murdered in November 2017.

The socialist faction mentioned this case as well and the MEP Monika Smolkova (of Smer), who heads the Slovak delegation in S&D group, expressed hope that the investigation team, together with Europol and other international services, will manage to find those responsible for the crime.

28. Feb 2018 at 22:41 | Compiled by Spectator staffOrmat Technologies, Inc. operates as a holding company. The firm engages in the provision of geothermal and recovered energy power business. It operates through the following segments: Electricity, Product and Energy Storage. The Electricity segment focuses in the sale of electricity from the company's power plants pursuant to PPAs. The Product segment involves in the manufacture, including design and development, of turbines and power units for the supply of electrical energy and in the associated construction of power plants utilizing the power units manufactured by the company to supply energy from geothermal fields and other alternative energy sources. The Energy Storage segment consists of battery energy storage systems as a service and management of curtailable customer loads under contracts with U.S. retail energy providers and directly with large commercial and industrial customers. The company was founded in 1965 and is headquartered in Reno, NV.

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Plus a few items on western history, western literature and the sport of rodeo... Frank DuBois served as the NM Secretary of Agriculture from 1988 to 2003. DuBois is a former legislative assistant to a U.S. Senator, a Deputy Assistant Secretary of Interior, and is the founder of the DuBois Rodeo Scholarship.The mass recalls had been approved by Vietnam Register, which is in charge of car registration and inspection in the Southeast Asian country.

The Vietnam branch of Japanese automaker Honda recalled 1,524 of Honda City sedans manufactured at its factory in the northern Vietnamese province of Vinh Phuc between May 25, 2013 and January 6, 2014.

The cars front passenger airbags had been found to deploy with an excessive force due to defects in their inflators, which could put occupants at risk of injuries from pieces of shrapnel shot out during deployment.

Owners of Honda City cars that match the manufacturing details shown above are encouraged to bring their vehicles in at Honda garages nationwide for a free inspection and replacement of the faulty parts, a procedure estimated to last less than one hour.

The recall will last until March 9, 2019.

Meanwhile, Suzuki Vietnam has also made a recall of nearly 4,500 Suzuki Raider 150 Fi motorbikes produced and assembled in Vietnam between November 2016 and August 2017 due to errors with their ignition switches.

Welding catalysts residue on the switches, supplied by an Indonesian manufacturer, were responsible for their unreliable functioning reported recently, the Japanese motor manufacturer announced.

Owners of Suzuki Raider 150 Fi bikes eligible for the recall have until the end of December 2019 to bring their vehicles in for a free replacement of the faulty parts.

Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam!The Department of Transport in Hanoi has officially made a proposal to the municipal Peoples Committee, forbidding contract-based vehicles with less than nine seats from traveling on a number of urban streets.

Defined as a means of transport operated on an agreement, in the written form or via a smartphone app, between a licensed passenger transit business and a customer, contract-based vehicles include Uber and Grab cars.

Such vehicles will be prohibited on 11 streets within certain time frames.

During rush hours, from 6:00 am to 9:00 am and between 4:30 pm and 7:00 pm, their two way movement is not allowed on the streets of Giang Vo, Lang Ha, Le Van Luong, and Truong Chinh.

Uber and Grab cars and taxis are also banned the entire day on Phu Doan Street (one direction), Cau Giay Street and Xuan Thuy Street (two directions).

They are prohibited from running on Hang Bai Street between 7:00 pm and midnight on Friday and the weekend.

The proposal is awaiting consent from the Peoples Committee but its legal effect has started, said Vu Van Vien, director of the Hanoi Department of Transport.

From January 2018, in a pilot program, the department began planting poles banning contract-based vehicles with less than nine seats between 6:00 am and 9:00 am, and from 4:30 pm to 7:00 pm on many streets.

Vien said that all Grab and Uber cars are required to stick a contract logo on the windscreen, and those failing to have the symbol while running on the designated streets will receive a twofold penalty from police, on the absence of the logo and the forbidden movement.

In the transport authoritys view, the decision shows the capitals determination to unsnarl clogged urban roads.

The installation of car ban poles applies on a piecemeal basis, which means that they will be removed from the streets with reduced congestion, while roads with serious traffic jams will have more ban poles, according to Vien.

Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam!A man and a woman were found dead after their hair salon caught fire in Ho Chi Minh City on Tuesday.

The fire was reported to occur sometime before 11:00 pm at a small hair salon, about 16 square meters, on Tran Thi Bay Street in Hiep Thanh Ward, District 12.

Residents living nearby were quick to react, calling the firefighters and trying to subdue the flames with handheld extinguishers.

Fire brigades responded to the call and put out the fire soon afterward.

The aftermath of the hair salon fire. Photo: Tuoi Tre

However, two people were found dead when rescuers broke into the salon.

The victims were identified as Oanh, 30, from Dak Lak Province, and her husband Nhat, 32, also from the province.

Police have cooperated with experts in examining the scene and investigating the cause of the fire, which has not been determined as of yet.

Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam!Vietnams Ministry of Public Security has submitted to the prime minister a plan on the auction of license plate numbers, which is aimed at contributing to the national budget.

Following the ministry's meetings with local authorities and relevant agencies, the auction scheme has been amended for a total of five times before being submitted to the central government for approval, Colonel Le Xuan Duc, deputy chief of the traffic police division under the Ministry of Public Security, told Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper on Tuesday.

Once the plan is passed, competent authorities will have to complete relevant laws, build a thorough bidding system, and adjust the management and registration of local vehicles.

The project is expected to be piloted in Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, the northern city of Hai Phong, Da Nang City in the central region, and Can Tho City in the Mekong Delta, Col. Duc said.

Other localities will also be able to carry out the auction based on their requests, the police official added.

The numbers that will be eligible for the bidding fall into such categories as having three to five identical digits, having digits in an ascending order, or personalized numbers, namely owners dates of birth.

A car with a desirable license plate number in District 1, Ho Chi Minh City. Photo: Tuoi Tre

In accordance with the attached rules, each license plate number can only be used on one vehicle and shall not be resold or transferred to another owner after the auction, Col. Duc said.

If an owner wants to transfer his vehicle to another person, who lives in the same locality, the license plate is allowed to be kept the same, he continued.

However, if the new owner resides in a different province or city, he will be required to register for a new number.

The initial price for a plate number is decided by authorities of each locality, based on the real demand and local economic development.

The auction will be carried out online via an official website, on which information regarding the plate numbers, initial price, and results will be publicized.

Bidders will be allowed to join the auction as long as they have an account, a vehicle, and its legitimate documents.

The bidding will be carried out entirely on a voluntary basis, Duc stated, adding that the money gained from the process will be directed to the state budget.

Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam!New US series Heathers, based on the 1988 cult film of the same name, is coming to SBS VICELAND.

Described as a black comedy anthology set in the present day it takes a satirical and unapologetic approach to many taboos and pokes fun at politically correct culture, with no topic off-limits.

Grace Victoria Cox stars as Veronica Sawyer dealing with a very different but equally vicious group of Heathers, while Shannen Doherty and Selma Blair have recurring support roles.

With a cast of diverse young actors including Melanie Field, Brendan Scannell, Grace Victoria Cox and Jasmine Mathews, as well as original cast member Shannon Doherty, Heathers is a biting social commentary about growing up, and the flaws and contradictions that make us human  good characters break bad, bullies prosper then falter.

Updated: now out of schedule due to US scheduling.Seven is no longer pursuing former executive assistant Amber Harrison for legal costs and does not want to see her imprisoned.

Harrison had a consensual affair with CEO Tim Worner ending in 2014, but which triggered a barrage of headlines after she went public with details.

Throughout much of 2017 Harrison and Seven were at loggerheads over personal details being made public in media and social media, after she had signed a confidential exit package. Both sides had a falling out ultimately leading to contempt of court proceedings against Harrison.

In July Justice John Sackar said Harrison had engaged in numerous breaches of the deeds she signed in 2014 and these breaches have been persistent and flagrant. Justice Sackar said her conduct was unreasonable and ordered her to pay Sevens costs.

Despite Seven winning the case, Harrison continued to defy a gag order on social media.

Yesterday Sevens lawyer Ruveni Kelleher told the NSW Supreme Court the network was now only seeking a declaration that Harrison was in contempt for breaching court orders. It no longer sought orders that she be punished for any contempt or that she pay Sevens legal costs.

Harrison, who is reportedly unemployed, said any punitive costs would bankrupt her. She has since removed multiple tweets.

A a GoFundMe campaign to raise $200,000 to help pay legal bills only amassd $9208 and has since closed.

A blogger who detailed Harrisons Human Rights Commission complaint also served 4 months prison for contempt of court.

A contempt of court hearing between Seven & Amber Harrison is set down for May 9.

A Seven spokesman declined to comment because the matter was before the courts.

Source: B&T, Australian Financial Review.Legendary actress Cornelia Frances last night told A Current Affair she has loved every minute of playing some of TVs toughest women on dramas such as The Young Doctors, Home and Away and Sons And Daughters.

Ive been very lucky, and I thanks all the producers who hired me, she said.

But now she is in the fight of her life, battling bladder cancer.

Its a hard road, but well get there, she said.

Im feeling fine, albeit whats inside me.

Im really feeling ok. The pain comes and goes but you expect that.

Its par for the course. Were gonna fight it, by god I am.Every Cloud Productions (Miss Fishers Murder Mysteries, Newtons Law) has appointed writer Jo Martino as Head of Content.

Martino has extensive experience with credits including Good Guys Bad Guys, Halifax, Stingers, Something in the Air, Crash Burn, Satisfaction, Brothers In Arms and Miss Fishers Murder Mysteries. She was creator of SBS crime drama Carla Cametti P.D., and was series producer on House Husbands.

Her appointment adds to Every Clouds Women in Front campaign championing female representation in front of and behind the camera.

Co-founder Deb Cox said, Jos appointment reaffirms Every Clouds commitment to embedding writers within the company. I look forward to working with Jo and other creatives in what is shaping up to be one of our most exciting years of content development

CEO Fiona Eagger said As a writer-led production company we are thrilled to appoint another talented female writer to the company who will work alongside Creative Director Deb Cox. Jo brings vast experience in scripted content which will support Every Cloud Productions objective of making and delivering the highest quality scripted productions to audiences in Australia and Internationally. We are particularly pleased to announce Jos appointment during our Women in Front campaign.

Martino added: I look forward to continuing writing and storytelling, and working with the creatives inside and outside Every Cloud Productions. With its expanding, talented team and diverse slate of projects, its a very exciting time at Every Cloud Productions.SKY News Executive Editor Rob Raschke yesterday pleaded guilty to assaulting his wife, Rachel.

Raschke was arrested on Tuesday and charged with assaulting his wife Rachel at 2.03am on Saturday.

Raschke is also the subject of an apprehended violence order that states he must not approach or be in the company of his wife for at least 12 hours after drinking alcohol or taking illicit drugs.

The apprehended violence order also states he must also not assault, threaten, stalk, harass or intimidate his wife or intentionally or recklessly destroy or damage any property that belongs to or is in the possession of Rachel Mary Raschke.

Raschke, 52, joined SKY News after almost 19 years with Seven, including three years as national director of news and 11 years as director of news in Brisbane.

In 2010 he faced court in Brisbane after a drink driving incident in Brisbane.

All SKY News staff were sent an email by Angelos Frangopoulos, CEO of Australian News Channel on Wednesday afternoon.

Until further notice, Greg Byrnes will be Acting Executive Editor at Australian News Channel, the email said.

Rob Raschke is on leave.

He will be sentenced on April 11.

Source: Daily MailBilly Graham whether you agreed with him or not, was a phenomenon of our times. Born in 1918 on his father's farm it wasn't long before he became a preacher himself after encountering the revivalist preacher Mordecai Ham. After that Graham preached at various Christian gatherings like Youth for Christ and his reputation as an orator for God went stratospheric. He obtained a doctorate while at college and also met his future wife while studying there.

This man, regarded as a Protestant Saint by some, has spoken in many countries and used every facet of the technological age to get his message across.

From the 1950's onwards to the day he died aged 99, his reputation for getting the Biblical message across will forever be his lasting legacy.

Dr. Graham seemed to have the ear of every American President from Harry S Truman to Barack Obama. Trump took to Twitter to honor Dr. Graham and some would say Graham's politics were definitely on the right. Dr. Graham stood up against racism but said his greatest regret was not doing more for civil rights.

Some found his relationship with the rich and powerful troubling and his charity Samaritans Purse was one of the causes he championed.

Dr. Graham celebrity

Billy Graham, whether he liked it or not, was regarded in the Christian and secular world as something of a celeb.

Standing 6ft 2 inches, 180 pounds with piercing blue eyes plus his booming southern American accent, he was indeed a presence.

There was something Charleton Hestonesque about him and he could have made it in Hollywood or politics had he so desired. Billy Graham refused for years to have his name outside the famous Chinese Theatre in star form alongside what he called entertainers.

Eventually, however, he relented as he thought his name would inspire others to find out about him and follow Christ.

Nixon was one of the awkward moments in his life and some found his relationship with him worrying. In private, Dr. Graham is alleged to have attacked Jews verbally whilst on a visit to the Nixon Whitehouse. Whether there was any truth in those rumors depends on what you believe or read.

Dr. Graham appeared to be pro-Israel yet he advised them to negotiate with the Arabs.

Franklin son of Billy

Billy Graham's son Franklin would appear to be the heir apparent to his fathers legacy. Franklin certainly has a hard act to follow in the wake of his father, however, he does not seem phased by this. Franklin Graham has developed a reputation for being something of an orator and preacher in his own right.

Many on the Christian left fear in his musings about Muslims he is something of a bigot. The Christian left would emphasise Jesus loves everyone regardless of their background. Franklin Graham would probably defend himself by saying extremist Islam is a threat.

I saw Billy Graham in 1984 at Villa Park in Birmingham and in September I have the chance to see his son in action.

Billy Graham helped me to find Christ but the jury on his son Franklin is still out for me. While winning souls for God is good, will Frankin Graham's visit to Blackpool help the poverty here and that for me, is the crux.Luciano Aviello, a key defence witness for Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito during their trial for aggravated murder, has been cleared last week by an Italian court of the Italian equivalent of Obstruction of Justice for allegedly giving the courts false information in order to deliberately sabotage the trial of Knox and Sollecito. In his defence, the transgender 49-year-old claimed he had been bribed to throw the case into chaos by Sollecitos attorney, Giulia Bongiorno. He made submissions to the Appeal court during the Kercher trial he had been offered 30,000 towards his gender change operation to disrupt it with phony testimony.

Aviello had numerous convictions and was a 'prison informer'

Aviello had numerous convictions for mafia activities and was a notorious informer according to Sollecito in his book, Honor Bound, whom he claims had to be kept in isolation, protected from other prisoners.

'Aviello was a police plant', Sollecito claims

Sollecito claims in his book, ~, that the Squadra Mobile (Flying Squad) in Perugia had set him up to become friends with Aviello in the hope he would confess to the crime. Aviello claimed that Sollecito allegedly confessed that Amanda had killed Meredith in an adult game. Sollecito claims in his book that when he realised what Aviello had been saying about him, he cut him off as a friend and Aviello was moved away from Terni prison, shortly after.

Aviello was a star defence witness for Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito

Strangely, Aviello was introduced to the trial court by Knox' and Sollecitos defences to testify that the real killers were Antonio, his brother, and a mysterious Albanian. Given Aviellos long record of being an unreliable witness and having numerous convictions for slander, many consider it remarkable Knox attorney Carlo Dalla Vedova called Aviello as a key witness, together with a notorious child killer, Mario Alessi as the other, in collaboration with Sollecitos attorney, Luca Maori.

The lower courts dismissed Aviello's claims

The testimony of Aviello, unsurprisingly, was completely dismissed and Aviello told he would be prosecuted for criminal slander ('calunnia' or, obstruction of justice in an investigation). He had written five letters to the Prosecutor Manuela Comodi setting out his wild claims.

After the trial in which Knox and Sollecito were found guilty of aggravated murder, the case went to automatic appeal.

The Appeal Court judge, Pratillo Hellmann, refused to allow Aviello the stand to claim he had only made his unfounded allegations because of a bribe by Sollecitos defence.

In the next stage of the automatic appeal process to the Supreme Court, Judge Severo Chieffi ruled Hellmann had erred in not allowing Aviellos testimony, namely, he was now claiming he had been bribed by Bongiorno to make the false claims in order to bring chaos and confusion to the case.

Bongiorno threatened to sue Aviello for his claims of bribery

Advocate Bongiorno is quoted in UMBRIA24 as saying she would take legal measures to defend her reputation. To date, there are no reports she has ever sued Aviello for his accusations.

Judge Chieffi sent the case back down to the Appeal Court, this time presided by Judge Alessandro Nencini.

One of the edicts of the Cheiffi Supreme Court was that Aviello must be heard for his bribery claims. The date for Aviellos testimony was set for Day 2 of the Appeal, 4th Oct 2013. This time, Aviello appeared in female clothing and was undergoing gender reassignment surgery, asking to be called Lucy.

Aviello reverts to his original claims at the new Appeal Court

Once again, Aviello changed his story and was back again claiming that his brother and an Albanian were responsible for the savage murder of the young student.

Judge Nencini was dismissive of Aviellos testimony, remarking on Aviellos three versions of his story.

Knoxs lawyer, Dalla Vedova, objected to this comment, on the grounds that there had only been two versions. Nencini smiled and said: Dont forget the next!

To complete the farce, two of Aviellos fellow inmates at Terni came forward to inform investigators that whilst in prison with Sollecito, Aviello had supposedly bragged that Solllecito said his father Fransesco would give him 70,000 to disrupt the trial.

The upshot of all of this nonsense is that Aviello stood trial recently on the charges of obstruction and slander, related to the above shenanigans, and CLEARED of wrongdoing, by fact that the act does not exist.

Confused? You wont be!

The legal implications are one or more of the following:

Aviello made the allegations his brother and an Albanian committed the crimes in good faith.

Aviello was indeed bribed to cause chaos in court.

to cause chaos in court. Aviello was called by the defence lawyers for Knox and Sollecito to disrupt proceedings.

The court deemed the matter of Luciano Aviello, Star Witness , was too trivial to prosecute, as the police themselves did not bother to investigate Aviellos obvious tall story .

, was to prosecute, as the police themselves did not bother to investigate Aviellos obvious tall story The Squadra Mobile did set Aviello up to inform on Sollecito . He then made up a story about his brother instead, being a compulsive liar.

. He then made up a story about his brother instead, being The defence were happy to have a compulsive liar and criminal with eight convictions for slander and others for Mafia activity appear as the star witness for their clients.

Convictions Annulled

Amanda Knox and Sollecito's Convictions were annulled in 2015 due to 'insufficient evidence'.

Both are appearing as 'guest speakers' and touring the country to promote their books.

Sollecito showed his gratitude to Aviello

In his book, co-written with Andrew Gumbel, 2012, Sollecito claims Aviello was transferred away from the same prison as his because, I can only assume this was because his presence there no longer served any useful purpose to the authorities.

He adds, Much later, I sent him a present, an embroided handkerchief, to express my gratitude.Beech trees are overrunning forests across the northeastern U.S., largely due to climate change, researchers say. Specific characteristics of the trees are causing declines in other tree species, which could lead to devastating effects to the areas ecosystem.

Led by the University of Maine, researchers analyzed nearly 30 years of datacovering 1983 to 2014from the U.S. Forest Service about beech, sugar and red maple trees, as well as birch saplings in forests in Maine, New Hampshire, New York and Vermont. Their analysis showed beech trees are growing in number relative to the other three species in nearly all regions evaluated. They pointed to higher temperatures and precipitation as the reasons for the beech increase.

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DON EMMERT/AFP/Getty Images

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The changes have uncertain consequences for future ecosystem structure and function, the researchers wrote in the study published last April in the Journal of Applied Ecology. University of Michigan noted the study again in late January.

Among the reasons for the forest changes over the past several decades are the beech trees ability to shade out other species, according to researchers. They are also linked to a bark disease that can hinder the efforts of other tree species to restock themselves.

Theres no easy answer to this one, said Aaron Weiskittel, forest biometrics and modeling professor at University of Maine and one of the authors of the study, according to the Associated Press. It has a lot of people scratching their heads. Future conditions seem to be favoring the beech, and managers are going to have to find a good solution to fix it.

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DON EMMERT/AFP/Getty Images

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How climate change affects forests is largely dependent on the species of trees and the specific regional climate effects. A study last month that analyzed four forest sites in Michigan detailed the demise of sugar maples due to climate change. Meanwhile, a study published last November found urban trees around the world have been growing at faster rates than trees in rural areas over the past several decades. But faster-growing trees could ultimately die sooner.

The changes in northeastern U.S. forests in particular are expected to affect loggers and area timberland owners, reported the Associated Press. Were really dealing with the fallout from climate change, and how do we manage to accommodate for that, Jasen Stock, executive director of the New Hampshire Timberland Owners Association, told the AP.

One problem the study authors pointed to is that beech trees are commercially less desirable.

This article was first written by Newsweek

More from NewsweekBoris Johnson has defended a letter he wrote warning of a harder border on the island of Ireland after Brexit as "very positive", pledging to publish it himself.

The Foreign Secretary claimed the issue was "being used politically" to keep the UK in the customs union and single market after it leaves the EU.

He initially refused to answer questions about the letter, obtained by Sky News, outside his ministerial residence as he left for a run on Wednesday morning.

:: Downing Street slaps down Johnson over letter

But on his return Mr Johnson told Sky News: "What the letter says is that actually there are very good solutions that would obviate, prevent any kind of hard border.

"We can do this. We can come out of the customs union whilst solving the Northern Ireland border problem and we mustn't allow this great inverted pyramid of objections to be built over this fundamental problem, which I think is eminently solvable."

He added: "I think that the particular problems around the Irish border are being used politically to drive the whole Brexit argument and effectively to try to frustrate Brexit. I think there are better ways forward."

He then promised: "I'll put it online myself, how about that? I don't have it now - but we'll certainly do that."

:: Why does Johnson keep ignoring Ireland?

The letter, which was sent from Mr Johnson to Theresa May, admitted the Government's main challenge was to "stop this border becoming significantly harder".

In it, he tried to play down the "exaggerated impression" of "how important checks are" at EU external borders.

"Even if a hard border is reintroduced, we would expect to see 95% + of goods pass the border [without] checks," he added.

In February 2016, ahead of the EU referendum, Mr Johnson promised the Irish border would be "absolutely unchanged".

Labour's shadow Northern Ireland secretary Owen Smith branded Mr Johnson's leaked comments to the PM as "reckless and irresponsible".

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He told Sky News: "The Prime Minister should condemn these remarks immediately and seriously consider the position of her Foreign Secretary."

Chief Secretary to the Treasury Liz Truss played down the concerns, saying the Government is "absolutely determined there wont be a hard border in Northern Ireland".

She told Sky News: "There are lots of potential solutions to sort this out and we need to have those discussions with the European Union and that's what we're doing.

"But this scaremongering about the Irish border is wrong, is simply not what we are seeking to achieve at all."PHNOM PENH (Reuters) - A Cambodian court on Tuesday ordered the temporary seizure of the headquarters of the main opposition party, pending the payment of damages to Prime Minister Hun Sen, the latest blow to the dissolved opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP).

Rights groups and Western nations have decried a crackdown against the political opposition and independent media ahead of a general election set for July 29.

The Phnom Penh Municipal Court found veteran opposition chief Sam Rainsy guilty of defaming Hun Sen last December and ordered him to pay damages of $1 million.

Sam Rainsy was convicted of defamation over claims he made in France that Hun Sen bribed an activist to break up the CNRP, which was dissolved last year at the government's request.

He was also convicted of defamation in a separate lawsuit and ordered to pay damages of $62,500 to National Assembly President Heng Samrin, of Hun Sen's ruling Cambodian People's Party (CPP).

Judge Ros Piseth ordered the seizure of the CNRP headquarters, which was also Sam Rainsy's former home, in the capital, Phnom Penh.

"In order to defend the benefits of creditors in this case by law and guarantee the effective legal enforcement, the court should seize the property temporarily," Ros Piseth said.

Sam Rainsy, who has lived in France since 2015 to avoid prison sentences, did not respond to a request from Reuters for comment.

His party, the CNRP, was dissolved by the Supreme Court in a decision that also banned more than 100 CNRP lawmakers from politics.

The CNRP dissolution was followed by the arrest of another leader, Kem Sokha, last year for allegedly plotting to overthrow the government with U.S. help, an accusation both the United States and Kem Sokha have rejected.

(Reporting by Prak Chan Thul; Editing by Amy Sawitta Lefevre and Clarence Fernandez)

See Also:On Monday, the Svalbard Global Seed Vault in Norwaydubbed the Doomsday Vaultaccepted a delivery of 76,000 new seed samples, surpassing its 1 million mark.

The vaultwhich also celebrated its 10th anniversary on the day the milestone was reachedwas designed to protect the worlds crops from local and global disasters, such as nuclear war or catastrophic climate change.

National and international seed banks from around the world send backup samples of their unique crops to be kept in cold storage inside the Norwegian government-run facilitywhich is carved into a mountainside on the remote Svalbard archipelago, halfway between Norway and the North Pole.

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In the event that one, or more, crop varieties is wiped out, a seed can be taken from the vault to help replace it, safeguarding the worlds food supply and maintaining crop diversity.

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Among the new seeds delivered to the vault on Monday were samples of the Estonian onion potato, Bambara groundnuts and Hunter barley, which is used to make Irish beer.

"It is simply impressive that 1 million seed samples from all over the world have now found their way to the Svalbard Global Seed Vault, said Norwegian Minister of Agriculture and Food Jon Georg Dale. It confirms the important role of the seed vault as a worldwide insurance for food supply for future generations and an ever-growing population.

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Many of the worlds 1,700 seed banks are vulnerable to war, natural disasters or even seemingly mundane problems, such as broken-down cooling systems. The Svalbard vault, on the other hand, is considered a more secure site. It is located underneath a mountain permafrost on a remote island.

But ironically for a facility designed to safeguard the worlds food supply against threats such as climate change, the Norwegian government is planning to spend $13 million on upgrades in order to keep the vault operational in the face of global warming.

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JUNGE, HEIKO/AFP/Getty Images

Despite being halfway between Norway and the North Pole, temperatures in the Svalbard archipelago are expected to rise from an average of 21 degrees (-5.9 C) to 38 degrees Fahrenheit (3.3 C). Rainfall is also expected to increase 40 percent by the end of the century, according to a feasibility study commissioned by the Ministry of Agriculture and Food.

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The main principle for construction in permafrost areas is to avoid the warming and thawing of permafrost, a spokesperson for Statsbyggthe state-owned company which conducted the feasibility studysaid in a statement. Climate change will lead to increased ground temperatures and less permafrost, which may require artificial cooling of the ground.

As part of the future-proofing improvements, the vault will be fitted with new refrigeration units, a service building incorporating an emergency power unit, a concrete access tunnel and new electrical equipment. Meanwhile, waterproof walls have already been added as protection against flooding from melting ice and rain.

While $13 million may seem like a significant sum of money, the vault has already proven effective. In 2015, the Syrian Civil War prompted the first seed withdrawals from the vault when researchers requested samples of wheat, barley and other grasses suited to dry regions, in order to replace seeds in a gene bank that had been badly damaged by the war.

At present, only one of the rectangular vaults three chambers are full meaning there is still room for 4.5 million unique seed samples.

This article was first written by Newsweek

More from NewsweekPRAGUE (Reuters) - Slovak Culture Minister Marek Madaric, a long-time senior member of Prime Minister Robert Fico's Smer party, resigned on Wednesday following the murder of an investigative reporter that has shocked the country.

Separately, two Slovak officials named in the last report of journalist Jan Kuciak, who specialised in exposing fraud and cronyism, said in a statement that they had resigned pending the outcome of the investigation into his murder.

The two - national security council secretary Viliam Jasan and Maria Troskova, an aide to Prime Minister Robert Fico - denied having anything to do with the killing.

Kuciak's last report alleged that the two had links with an Italian businessman before they entered government. His report did not suggest any wrongdoing by either of them.

Their announced resignation followed calls from Justice Minister Lucia Zitnanska and opposition leaders for their dismissal.

Kuciak, 27, reported on suspected crimes by businessmen, some of whom had connections with Slovak politicians. He and his girlfriend were found shot dead at the weekend, and police said the killings were likely over his work.

Madaric, the culture minister, told a televised news conference in the capital Bratislava: "Plainly said, I cannot as culture minister put up with a journalist being murdered during my tenure."

FIFTH SUCH KILLING IN EU IN PAST DECADE

Kuciak's killing was the first of a journalist in Slovakia and the fifth such case concerning a reporter or reporters in the European Union in the past decade, according to Reporters Without Borders (RSF). Last October, Maltese anti-corruption blogger Daphne Caruana Galizia was killed by a car bomb.

His final report looked into alleged connections between Italian businessmen in eastern Slovakia and Italian mafia groups, and into alleged abuses of EU subsidies.

The report was a collaborative effort with the international Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP), the Czech Center for Investigative Journalism and the Investigative Reporting Project Italy.

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Kuciak's murder angered a nation where media revelations of links between businessmen and politicians have long sparked outrage.

Opposition parties held a protest rally over Kuciak's killing in Bratislava on Wednesday afternoon, and another protest was scheduled in several cities for Friday.

Top Slovak politicians have also had run-ins with the media. In 2016 Fico called journalists "dirty, anti-Slovak prostitutes" when asked about allegations of public procurement rules being broken during Slovakia's then-EU presidency.

Fico, who has been in power for 10 of the last 12 years, has pledged to fight corruption and cronyism though himself has been criticised for renting an apartment from a property developer who is under investigation for suspected tax fraud.

Last year, thousands protested in Bratislava seeking the resignation of Interior Minister Robert Kalinak over business dealings with the developer. Both have denied wrongdoing.

(Reporting by Jan Lopatka and Jason Hovet; Editing by Robin Pomeroy)The Prime Minister has rejected EU proposals to establish a "common regulatory area" between Brussels and Northern Ireland.

Theresa May insisted "no UK prime minister could ever agree" to the plan included in a 118-page document published by the European Commission on Wednesday morning.

Speaking at Prime Minister's Questions, Mrs May told the House of Commons the EU's proposals threaten the make-up of the UK.

She said: "The draft legal text the Commission have published would, if implemented, undermine the UK common market and threaten the constitutional integrity of the UK by creating a customs and regulatory border down the Irish Sea, and no UK prime minister could ever agree to it."

Mrs May declared she will be making it "crystal clear" to European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker and other EU officials the Government will "never" sign up to the document.

Democratic Unionist Party leader Arlene Foster, whose party support the Conservative Government at Westminster, also hit out at the EU's plan by branding it "constitutionally unacceptable" and "economically catastrophic" for Northern Ireland.

She welcomed Mrs May's commitment to not allowing any new border in the Irish Sea and for Northern Ireland to have "unfettered access" to the British market.

:: May facing demands to publish NI border letter

The EU proposal, outlined by the bloc's chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier, states a "common regulatory area" between the EU and Northern Ireland would be established in the event a EU-UK agreement on a future relationship fails to prevent a hard border on the island of Ireland.

The plan would also see Northern Ireland remain an effective part of the EU's customs union, align with the EU on VAT, abide by Brussels rules on state aid, and remain under the jurisdiction of the European Court of Justice.

The text of the EU document reads: "A common regulatory area comprising the Union and the United Kingdom in respect of Northern Ireland is hereby established.

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"The common regulatory area shall constitute an area without internal borders in which the free movement of goods is ensured and North-South cooperation protected in accordance with this Chapter."

It adds: "The territory of Northern Ireland, excluding the territorial waters of the United Kingdomshall be considered to be part of the customs territory of the Union."

Mrs May "red lines" on Brexit rule out the UK remaining in the customs union or being under the jurisdiction of EU judges.

The EU has been accused of attempting to annex Northern Ireland from the rest of the UK as part of a backlash from Brexiteers against the proposals.

But, speaking as he unveiled the EU's draft legal text in Brussels, Mr Barnier insisted the plan "will not call into question the constitutional or institutional order of the UK".

He claimed there should be"no surprise" for the British Government in the document, as it is based on the agreement made in a joint report between the EU and UK at the end of the first phase of Brexit negotiations in December, which focussed on key divorce matters.

Mr Barnier described the document as a "backstop" and promised to "delete" the proposals should a UK-EU trade deal or other solutions prevent a hard border on the island of Ireland after Brexit.

The European Commission official denied trying to "provoke" the UK Government but insisted "we must pick up the pace" of Brexit negotiations, highlighting how there are only 13 months until Britain formally leaves the EU.

The Republic of Ireland's foreign minister, Simon Coveney, repeated the description of the document as a "backstop", adding: "This is very much a default and would only apply should it prove necessary.

"This is about delivering on our shared objectives of protecting the Good Friday Agreement and the gains of the peace process, no less, no more."

Labour's shadow Brexit secretary Sir Keir Starmer, who now backs a continued customs union with the EU after Brexit for the whole of the UK, declared the "war of words" between the UK Government and Brussels "needs to end".

He said: "There can be absolutely no deviation from the solemn commitments made to Northern Ireland at the end of the first phase of Brexit negotiations.

"That means no hard border or any agreement that would undermine the Good Friday Agreement.

"Theresa May's failure to offer any viable solution to the border in Northern Ireland has come back to haunt her."

But DUP MP Ian Paisley Junior, speaking earlier, said he was "disgusted" and "appalled" by leaked details of the EU's paper.

Speaking to Northern Ireland Secretary Karen Bradley at the meeting of the Northern Ireland Affairs Committee, he said: "I would ask the Government to show some teeth to the EU that we will not be rolling over to the demands to annex part of our country."

Former Brexit minister David Jones also claimed the EU proposal "effectively amounts to an annexure of Northern Ireland".This story originally appeared on The New Republic and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk Collaboration.

The Environmental Protection Agencys independent watchdog cant keep up with all of Administrator Scott Pruitts scandals. In January, EPA Inspector General Arthur Elkins revealed that his office will limit its investigation of Pruitts controversial first-class travel to the previous calendar year. The Office of the Inspector General lacks the people, time and funds necessary to investigate the matter beyond 2017 while continuing its other investigations, Elkins wrote in a letter to House Democrats. The fact is that the OIG has been funded at less than the levels we deem adequate to do all of the work that should be done, and we therefore have to make difficult decisions about whether to accept any given potential undertaking.

That the OIG must cut short any investigation due to insufficient resources is troubling enough, but even more so given the revelations about Pruitts travel in a Washington Post report this month. The Post found that in June alone, Pruitt and his entourage racked up at least $90,000 in travel bills, mostly from exorbitantly-priced first-class flights and one $36,000 military jet from Cincinnati to New York. Under pressure to justify these costs, the EPA said Pruitt has a blanket waiver to fly first class wherever he goes, due to vague security threats.

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How is it that EPA can afford such luxurious travel, but not enough money for its independent watchdog to investigate whether that travel was improper? The EPA and its OIG have separate budgetsand Trump wants to further tighten the OIGs budget. If he gets his way, this wouldnt only limit scrutiny of Pruitt, but of the programs that reflect the EPAs core mission of protecting Americans from pollution.

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Pruitt is the subject of at least four OIG investigations opened last year at the request of Democrats in Congress, including the travel audit (which was expanded twice). The OIG is looking into Pruitts four-day, $40,000 trip to Morocco to promote the use of American natural gas, which may be improper because the EPA has no role in natural gas exports; his purchase of a $25,000 soundproof security booth for his office, which may have run afoul of appropriations law; and his use of EPA enforcement agents to provide him with 24/7 security detail, which may be improperly pulling resources away from enforcement programs against polluters.

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An OIG spokesperson declined to detail the cost of these investigations, citing their ongoing nature. The travel audit appears to be the most demanding. OIG investigators will have to obtain and audit of hundreds of receipts for Pruitt, his many aides, and his security detail. Staff must then determine whether EPA travel policies were followed for each individual on every trip. Thats a lot of work, said Peter Tyler, an investigator for the Project on Government Oversight. This looks like a full-on audit to be written by the IG himself, said Tyler, who used to work in the inspector generals office of the Department of Health and Human Services. It seems legitimate for them to say, Im setting a priority, and only looking at 2017.

Inspectors general across the governmentthere are more than 70consistently struggle to prioritize what to investigate with their limited funding. Its a problem that dates back decades, as Laura Reston reported for The New Republic last year. [Inspectors general] serve as the frontline against government waste and fraud, she wrote. Studies show that for every dollar invested in their offices, they save taxpayers $14. Still, many inspector general positions across the government remain unfilled, while budgets in others suffer. The budget for the EPAs relatively small OIG office, which has 253 employees, has hovered around $41 million since at least 2014. Trumps recently released budget proposal would reduce it to $37.4 million.

Limited budgets often force inspectors general to choose between investigating an agencys spending or evaluating the effectiveness of its programs. The EPAs mission, for instance, is to protect human health from pollutants. The EPA is dealing with life and death issues, Tyler said. Are kids still dying of lead poisoning even with EPA lead programs? Thats a question OIG could answer. The agencys OIG does investigate some programs intended to improve human health, but its also required by Congress to publish numerous yearly reports. The office, for example, must audit and assess EPA employees financial statements and credit cards and their compliance with cybersecurity and data preservation laws.

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REUTERS/Joshua Roberts

Surely the OIG, despite its limited budget, could evaluate more EPA programs if it werent conducting so many investigations into Pruittand on behalf of him. The office routinely investigates security threats against him, which are unusually numerous for an EPA administrator. Those investigations, however, dont appear to have found much so far: In July, the OIG found that two female protesters who were deemed a security threat by Pruitts security team after briefly interrupting a speech could only be charged with a misdemeanor for unlawful entry to a private event, and the U.S. Attorneys office declined to prosecute. Another OIG investigation into a threatening tweet also resulted in no charges after the woman apologized. (She said shed gotten overly angry while drinking and watching The Rachel Maddow Show.)

Ironically, these same security threats are the ones Pruitt uses as justification for his expensive first-class travel habit. Unfortunately, ... weve had some incidents on travel dating back to when I first started serving in the March-April timeframe, he said earlier this month. The Associated Press later reported that unpleasant interactions with other travelers led to the blanket waiver. But the OIG only has to look at its own files to figure out if that justification is warranted: None of their investigations of threats to Pruitt pertained to air travel, a spokesperson recently told Politico.

Ideally, the EPAs OIG could focus on making sure agency programs are efficient and effective. But doing both with so little funding is challenging, and the current administration is making it even harder. Pruitts personal scandals aside, Trump is aggressively repealing anti-pollution regulations, so its more important than ever that the OIG evaluate whether the EPA is fulfilling its core mission. Its a shame that the OIG has to choose between investigating administrative waste or programs to protect public health; few would fault the office for prioritizing the latter. But its a false choice, because any well-functioning government operating in good faith would provide its watchdogs with enough funding to do both.

This article was first written by Newsweek

More from NewsweekTEGUCIGALPA (Reuters) - Police arrested the wife of former Honduran President Porfirio Lobo on Wednesday morning on corruption charges, a police source and local media said.

Rosa Elena Bonilla was detained at her residence on the outskirts of the capital Tegucigalpa, the source said. As part of the operation, police also arrested her brother-in-law and seized documents pertaining to graft accusations, the source said.

Local media in Honduras extensively covered the arrest.

Bonilla stands accused of illegally obtaining some 12.2 million lempiras (378,206 pounds) in the waning days of her husband's administration, according to the national anti-corruption council, CNA.

Late last year, Bonilla denied the corruption allegations.

Her lawyer did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Corruption scandals have led to a string of arrests in Central America in recent years, thanks to growing pressure from activists and backing from foreign powers.

Bonilla's detention took place a day after U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley visited Honduras to talk about drug trafficking and corruption.

Earlier this month, the head of an anti-corruption commission backed by the Organisation of American States resigned citing a lack of support from authorities.

Lobo was elected in late 2009 after a military coup ousted then-President Manuel Zelaya, and he served until 2014.

The couple's son, Fabio Lobo, was sentenced to 24 years in prison by a U.S. court last year after pleading guilty to charges of conspiring to import cocaine into the United States.

(Reporting by Gustavo Palencia; Writing by David Alire Garcia; Editing by Frances Kerry)By Ben Blanchard, Benjamin Kang Lim and Philip Wen

BEIJING (Reuters) - A vice minister of public security, a close confidant of President Xi Jinping, is tipped to take over as China's spy master, five sources said, as the country looks to clean up its security apparatus and plug intelligence gaps.

China has poured billions of yuan into domestic security, but the secretive Ministry of State Security and the Ministry of Public Security in recent years have been hit with high-level corruption scandals and intelligence failings.

Wang Xiaohong, 60, a vice minister of public security, will replace Chen Wenqing as minister of state security during the session of parliament which begins on March 5, three sources with ties to the leadership and two foreign diplomats said.

Chen, 58, will become the country's top prosecutor after a little more than a year as minister of state security, three of the sources said. The ministry is responsible for counter-intelligence, foreign intelligence and national security.

The change of guard is part of a broader cabinet reshuffle during the two-week parliamentary session.

Wang and President Xi have long-standing ties. Wang is a native of the southeastern province of Fujian, where Xi spent 17 years cutting his teeth from 1985 to 2002.

Wang was deputy director of the Public Security Bureau of Fuzhou, the provincial capital of Fujian, from 1993 to 1998 and the city's top police official from 1998 to 2002. Xi was Fuzhou party boss from 1990 to 1996 and provincial deputy party secretary until 2002.

"They are very close," a source with leadership ties said. "Wang Xiaohong used to help look after Xi Jinping's daughter."

A second source with leadership ties said Wang's rise had been fast-tracked in the same vein as other allies whose careers had overlapped with Xi in Fujian, most notably the Beijing party secretary Cai Qi, and Huang Kunming, who was promoted to head the central propaganda department late last year.

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Wang, a one-time fan factory worker joined the police force in Minhou county in Fujian in 1979.

Neither the Communist Party's Organisation Department, which oversees personnel decisions, nor the State Council Information Office, which doubles as the party spokesman's office, responded to a request for comment.

The Ministry of State Security does not have publicly listed contacts.

Xi has made bolstering security, both domestic and overseas, a priority.

In 2013, a year after Xi assumed power, China set up a new national security commission, which Xi also heads. While details of exactly how it operates and what it does are sketchy, the government has implied it has more of a domestic focus.

Experts say it is based on the National Security Council in the United States and would increase coordination among the various wings of China's security bureaucracy, split now among the police, military, intelligence and diplomatic services.

Possible international flashpoints for China include North Korea, Taiwan and the South China Sea.

The Ministry of State Security is also still recovering from a graft scandal.

In 2015, Ma Jian, then counter-intelligence chief at the ministry, was put under investigation for corruption and expelled from the party the following year. There has been no official update on his case since February last year, when China's judiciary said it would prosecute him for suspected bribery.

A video confession surfaced on Chinese websites and social media in April in which Ma admitted to accepting bribes. He also said he abused his position to help China's highest profile fugitive, Guo Wengui, an exiled U.S.-based billionaire who has made incendiary claims of corruption at the highest levels of the Chinese government.

Guo has denied Ma's allegations.

Ma, once a vice minister of state security, is the most senior security official to be investigated since the former domestic security tsar Zhou Yongkang was ensnared in a graft scandal and jailed for life in 2015.

The government announced in February last year that Ma would be prosecuted, but has given no other information since.

"He's coming in to sort out the mess Ma left behind," said one Asian diplomat, speaking of Wang, the likely new minister.

While China's domestic security spending outstrips defence spending, though the government stopped providing exact figures four years ago, it has also struggled with some pointed intelligence failures.

One of those has been to prevent Uighurs, a Muslim people from China's far western region of Xinjiang, from travelling clandestinely to Turkey via Southeast Asia, where China says some of them have joined militant groups in Syria and Iraq.

"China has poor intelligence on their movements and has been unable to produce much evidence" that they are indeed involved in militancy, said another diplomatic source, who is familiar with Chinese efforts to prevent the Uighurs from leaving and then trying and get them deported back to China.

(Reporting by Benjamin Kang Lim, Ben Blanchard and Philip Wen; Editing by Philip McClellan)HELSINKI (Reuters) - Finland supports a proposed U.N. peacekeeping mission in eastern Ukraine but sees problems in narrowing down participants to only selected European Union countries, Defence Minister Jussi Niinisto said on Tuesday.

A report commissioned by former NATO chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen, now an adviser to Ukraine's President Petro Poroshenko, proposed earlier this month that the United Nations consider a force of about 20,000 soldiers from non-NATO countries to help resolve the crisis in Ukraine.

The report listed non-NATO EU countries like Finland, Sweden and Austria taking key roles, along with NATO-countries perceived as friendly by Russia, such as Greece.

"Ideas of labeling some European Union countries as more acceptable than others should be rejected, Niinisto said.

"Also the composition of any possible peacekeeping operation should be broad-based and take into account operational requirements," Niinisto said at a news conference in Helsinki with his Ukrainian counterpart Stepan Poltorak.

Poltorak was in Helsinki to discuss security in Ukraine with Niinisto and Finland's president.

More than 10,000 people have been killed since April 2014 in a conflict that pits Ukrainian forces against Russian-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine. Intermittent clashes continue despite a notional ceasefire and diplomatic peace efforts.

Sweden, which was suggested as a possible lead nation for a U.N. force in the Rasmussen report, has said it would be open to providing troops to a peacekeeping mission.

Niinisto said the operation would need approval from both Russia and Ukraine, and gave no comment on how many troops Finland would be ready to provide.

"When it comes to number of troops, it's too early to say anything ... but Finland, Sweden, Austria, Switzerland and Ireland cannot put up all the troops needed for this kind of operation. We need more countries".

(Reporting by Tuomas Forsell; Editing by Janet Lawrence)

See Also:By Andrea Shalal

BERLIN (Reuters) - German officials investigating the deadly crash of a military Airbus Tiger helicopter in Mali last summer have ruled out an external attack or weather factors, and said they were focussed on an aberration in the aircraft's control system.

Military officials briefed the parliamentary defence committee on Wednesday on the latest finding about the crash that killed both crew members during a peacekeeping mission in the West African nation's desert north last July.

In a letter to lawmakers, seen by Reuters, State Secretary Markus Gruebel said the investigation had also found no evidence of malfunction in the aircraft's rotors or engine.

He said investigators were focused on "striking aberrations in the longitudinal control system" of the helicopter, which "significantly limited" the motion of its elevator axis, causing its autopilot to shut off, but had not determined how they occurred.

The aberration was not found in any other Tiger helicopters in the German fleet, the letter said.

Gruebel provided a harrowing account of the crash, which he said likely caught both crew members, both experienced pilots, completely by surprise.

"The helicopter fell into a steep uncontrolled pitch forward within three seconds," limiting the pilots' ability to respond given the high G-forces of the fall. The helicopter literally came apart during the crash, the report said.

Spiegel Online had reported late Tuesday that investigators believed the crash was caused by incorrect settings on the autopilot, but it remained unclear who programmed the settings on the autopilot software.

A parliamentary source confirmed the gist of the Spiegel report, but other sources familiar with the investigation said it was incorrect to say the crash was caused by the autopilot.

Airbus said the investigation was ongoing and it was too early to draw conclusions about potential root causes.

"As technical consultant in this investigation, Airbus Helicopters agrees with the Directorate of Aviation Safety Bundeswehr on the findings the investigation has produced so far," the company said in a statement.

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It did not name the Spiegel report specifically, but said "major elements" of some German media reports on the latest findings were wrong.

A Defence Ministry official declined comment on the Spiegel report, saying the investigation was expected to continue for months.

(Reporting by Andrea Shalal and Sabine Siebold; Writing by Andrea Shalal and Michelle Martin; Editing by Matthew Mpoke Bigg, William Maclean)By Michelle Nichols

TEGUCIGALPA (Reuters) - U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley pledged on Tuesday to raise the problem of drug trafficking at the United Nations after visiting Honduras and Guatemala this week and appeared to finesse a threat made by President Donald Trump to cut aid over the flow of drugs into the United States.

Trump this month criticized countries he did not name for "pouring drugs" into the United States and called for aid to be stopped. Trump made his remarks after a U.S. Customs and Border Protection official told him cocaine was mainly coming from Colombia and Peru, through Mexico and Central America.

"It's everywhere and everyone's feeling it," said the usually tough-talking Haley, a former South Carolina governor, while in the Honduran capital Tegucigalpa on Tuesday.

"It is a conversation that needs to be taking place internationally," Haley said. "We can't just focus on the countries producing it, we do have to focus on the countries moving it and are we doing enough in the international community to stop it."

She said Hernandez did not mention Trump's remarks about drug trafficking during their meeting.

As a high-profile cabinet member - in a role that has traditionally been shadowed by the secretary of state - Haley's first visit to Central America is also shedding light on U.S. foreign policy for the second year of Trump's administration.

"This is the year of the Americas," Haley told reporters after meeting with Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez. "You will see multiple members of the president's cabinet making visits to Latin America to really talk about ... what else we can be doing and how else we can be partnering."

Her trip follows a visit by Secretary of State Rex Tillerson to Peru and Colombia earlier this month.

VISIT SPARKS PROTESTS

After Haley left Honduras on Tuesday, around 500 opposition protesters threw rocks at civil and military police near the U.S. embassy. Security forces responded by firing tear gas to disperse the crowd of protesters.

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Conservative Hernandez beat his centre-left rival, Salvador Nasralla, in a Nov. 26 election marred by allegations of fraud, sparking deadly protests. Nasralla, a sportscaster and game show host, and his ally Manuel Zelaya, a former leftist president who was overthrown in a 2009 coup, led the protesters on Tuesday.

"The United States is backing a dictatorship in Honduras," Zelaya said in a speech.

Haley earlier on Tuesday said the people of Honduras needed to come together in the wake of the election and stressed to Hernandez the importance of electoral reform and human rights.

She also praised Hernandez - and plans to do the same with Guatemalan President Jimmy Morales on Wednesday - for their opposition to a U.N. General Assembly resolution in December that called for Washington to drop its recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital.

"That was one that was not an easy decision for any country to have to vote on. But the people of Honduras stood with us in being able to make that decision for ourselves," Haley told reporters as Hernandez stood beside her.

Guatemala and Honduras were among eight countries - and the only nations in the Americas - to vote no with the United States to reject the U.N. resolution, which was adopted with the support of more than 120 countries.

Hernandez said he had not yet decided on whether to move the Honduran embassy to Jerusalem, a move that Guatemala has said it would make. When asked if he expected anything from the United States in return for Honduras support on the issue, he said: "No, not at all, the same treatment as a sovereign nation."

(Additional reporting by Gustavo Palencia; editing by Grant McCool)Neighbours are thought to have used a sledgehammer in an attempt to break in to rescue those who died in a house fire, which is suspected to have been started deliberately.

They tried to smash a window but were unable to get in and save the occupants.

At least three people died in the fire in Co Fermanagh, Northern Ireland.

Michelle Gildernew, Sinn Fein MP for the area, said: "I know that some of the neighbours had went to the house here this morning to try and rescue the family inside. They are badly shaken.

"I understand they used a sledge and tried to break a window to gain access but weren't able to do that."

A 27-year-old man has since been arrested on suspicion of murder by detectives investigating the fire in Derrylin on Tuesday morning.

The suspect was detained at the scene and transferred to hospital for treatment before he was arrested, Police Service Northern Ireland said.

The victims were members of one family and had recently moved to the area from the Republic of Ireland, according to a local priest. He said they were originally from England.

DUP leader Arlene Foster said there was widespread shock in the community.

"It is important that the cause of the fire is established but my thoughts and prayers are with all those in the local area, friends and the wider family circle as they struggle to come to terms with this terrible tragedy," she said.

Firefighters from Lisnaskea and Enniskillen were called to what the fire service described as a "well-developed" blaze at a property in Doon Road, near Molly Road, at 7.14am.

The cause of the fire at the detached bungalow is being investigated and people have been told to avoid the area.

Detective Superintendent Jason Murphy said: "At this time we believe the fire, which has claimed at least three lives, was started deliberately.

"We are continuing to thoroughly examine the scene along with our colleagues in the Northern Ireland Fire and Rescue Service.

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"Our thoughts are with family, friends, local community and all of those affected by this tragic incident."

Ms Gildernew also offered her condolences.

"Devastating news for the family concerned and the Derrylin community. This is absolutely tragic. God help them all," she said.

:: Anyone who was in the area and has information that could assist the officers investigating the incident should call police on 101, or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.Ryanair is to dramatically slash its presence at Glasgow Airport due to Brexit pressures on Scotland.

David O'Brien, COO of the Irish airline, said: "We think Brexit is particularly threatening to Scotland and its economy, and particularly to the aviation industry.

"Sadly our Glasgow base will close, about half a million of those passengers will transfer through Edinburgh. The weker scottish is even weaker in Glasgow and we simply can't bear the air passenger duty of 13.

"13 is more than a third of Ryanair's average fare.

"So the very very good work of the hardworking management team and staff at Glasgow Airport is undone by this tax."

The move comes just 24 hours after Ryanair pilots called for the airline's chief executive, Michael O'Leary, to quit after 23 years in the job.

A letter from the European Employee Representative Council (EERC) - an unofficial body representing mostly pilots based on the continent - tells him the no-frills carrier has failed to stem an exodus of pilots to rivals.

Ryanair faced down a wave of anger before Christmas by saying it would, for the first time in its history, recognise unions.

The airline withdrew 20,000 flights, affecting 700,000 customers, blaming a pilot rota blunder.

While the unions climbdown averted the prospect of strikes during the crucial festive season, the airline has only struck a recognition deal with a union representing British-based flyers since then.

Mr O'Leary has admitted strikes are likely over Easter as a result of continuing issues, though the EERC has dismissed that as "alarmist" and continued to offer mediation services.

More follows...DAKAR (Reuters) - Unidentified assailants killed a UNICEF employee and five other education workers in an attack in the Central African Republic, the United Nations children's agency said on Wednesday.

The attack took place on Sunday as the group was travelling to the northeastern town of Markounda, located in a remote region near the Chadian border, where they were to train local teachers.

All those killed were Central African citizens and included a UNICEF education consultant, two education ministry officials and three members of a local UNICEF partner organisation.

"We strongly condemn this senseless act against aid workers who were there to improve the lives of the most vulnerable populations," UNICEF's West and Central Africa Regional Director Marie-Pierre Poirier said in a statement.

UNICEF did not say who carried out the attack but militia violence in the Central African Republic has intensified over the past year, making it one of the world's deadliest countries for humanitarian workers.

Unknown assailants killed six Red Cross volunteers in the southeast last August, barely a month after another worker was shot dead by an unidentified armed group in the town of Bangassou.

(Reporting by Sofia Christensen; Editing by Joe Bavier and Angus MacSwan)A woman braves the cold to swim off the coast in Tynemouth (PA)

Taking a dip in the sea can leave swimmers at greater risk of developing stomach bugs or ear infections, according to a new study.

Although there has been significant improvements to water quality in recent years, pollution from sewage and industrial waste means sea bathers are 86% more likely to become sick than non sea bathers.

In a study of more than 120,000 people who frequently went swimming, bathed or took part in waterspouts in the sea, researchers from Exeter University found that reports of ear complaints doubled  with earache coming in at 77% more likely for sea bathers.

While instances of gastrointestinal illnesses rose by 29% in those that frequented ocean activities.

Swimming in the sea can increase the risk of ear infections (PA)

Anne Leonard, of the European Centre for Environment and Human Health at Exeter, told The Times: In high-income countries like the UK, there is a perception that there is little risk to health of spending time in the sea. However, our paper shows that spending time in the sea does increase the probability of developing illnesses, such as ear ailments and problems involving the digestive system, such as stomach ache and diarrhoea.

We think that this indicates that pollution is still an issue affecting some of the worlds richest countries.

The findings, which published in the International Journal of Epidemiology, compared research from 40 studies, conducted in the US the UK, Australia, New Zealand, Spain, Denmark, Greece, Mexico, Norway and Turkey.

Research supervisor, Will Gaze, said he was keen not to deter people from swimming in the sea, which he says has many health benefits such as improving physical fitness, well-being and connecting with nature.

He added: However, it is important that people are aware of the risks so they can make informed decisions. Although most people will recover from infections with no medical treatment, they can prove more serious for vulnerable people, such as the very old or very young, or those with pre-existing health conditions.

The research also considered people who fully immersed their heads in seawater, and contrasted them with other swimmers. Their chances of illness, infection or ailment was 91% higher than non sea bathers.WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Treasury Department has added two individuals and seven organizations in Africa and Asia connected to Islamic State to its sanctions list for global terrorism, it said on Tuesday.

The Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) said on its website it had added Abu Musab Al-Barnawi of Nigeria and Mahad Moalim of Somalia, and seven groups from Bangladesh, Egypt, the Philippines, Somalia, Nigeria and Tunisia to its sanctions list.

The additions include ISIS-Bangladesh, ISIS-Egypt, ISIS-Philippines, ISIS-Somalia, ISIS-West Africa, Jund al-Khilafah-Tunisia, also known as ISIS-Tunisia, and the Philippines-based Maute Group, also known as Islamic State of Lanao, OFAC said.

The U.S. State Department said in a separate statement that including the latest additions, it had designated 40 Islamic State leaders and operatives dating back to 2011 under an order aimed at denying them access to the U.S. financial system.

"These designations are part of a larger comprehensive plan to defeat ISIS that, in coordination with the 75-member Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS, has made significant progress toward that goal," the statement said, using a common abbreviation for Islamic State.

This effort "is destroying ISIS in its safe havens, denying its ability to recruit foreign terrorist fighters, stifling its financial resources, negating the false propaganda it disseminates over the internet and social media, and helping to stabilize liberated areas in Iraq and Syria so the displaced can return to their homes and begin to rebuild their lives," the statement added.

Islamic State fighters were driven last year from all the population centers they occupied in both Syria and Iraq, but Washington still considers them a threat, capable of carrying out an insurgency and plotting attacks elsewhere.

(Reporting by Eric Walsh; Editing by Susan Thomas)By Michelle Martin

BERLIN (Reuters) - Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer's election as general-secretary of Germany's ruling party puts her in pole position to succeed Angela Merkel as chancellor after spending most of her career in a tiny state on the French border.

Combining social conservatism with left-wing economic views, AKK - as she is often known - is a close Merkel ally.

But taking on an important national role for the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) is a big step for the unassuming 55-year-old who has been premier of the state of Saarland until now and likes dressing as a cleaner during an annual pre-Lent carnival.

Dubbed a "Mini-Merkel" by German media, she is moving into a job that Merkel had before she became chancellor and is increasingly seen as heir apparent though a coalition deal that will keep Merkel in power is now close.

After her election on Monday, Kramp-Karrenbauer said: "There comes a time in everybody's life when it's no longer enough to point and say he or she should do it, but you have to answer yourself ... That's why I put myself at the party's service."

In her new role she will organise the party, election campaigns and congresses, support the work of the party's chief - Merkel - and represent the CDU's views externally.

Mass-selling newspaper Bild put Kramp-Karrenbauer's appeal down to being "a very average person" to whom ordinary Germans could relate.

But Kramp-Karrenbauer once said of herself: "It's hard to pigeonhole me."

She attracted attention and respect from fellow conservatives last year by winning a resounding victory in a state election which Merkel described as "sensational".

Her triumph punctured the hype around Martin Schulz, then the newly elected leader of the rival Social Democrats, and gave the conservative CDU momentum before a federal election.

Saarland's first female premier, she rose to prominence in 2012 by calling off a three-way coalition with the Greens and liberal Free Democrats (FDP) after just five months in office. The gamble alarmed some conservatives but paid off when she emerged victorious from the subsequent snap election.

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Economically she is on the CDU's left, being a strong advocate of the minimum wage. Before the 2013 national election she suggested the top rate of tax be raised to 53 percent, resulting in the FDP's Rainer Bruederle branding her a "Socialist varnished in (the CDU's) black".

But she is conservative on social issues, opposing advertising for abortions, and caused controversy in 2015 by saying allowing same-sex marriages could open the door to incest and polygamy.

Her conservatism manifests itself in modern forms. She married at 22, but it is her husband, a former mining engineer, who stays at home to look after their three children while she focuses on her career.

"My husband and I had a very pragmatic agreement right from the start: whoever earns more works full time," she once said. "So we switched the classic roles."

HEADMASTER'S DAUGHTER

A headmaster's daughter, Kramp-Karrenbauer grew up in a Catholic family, going to church on Sundays and not eating meat on Fridays.

Kramp-Karrenbauer has said she does not want the CDU to shift to the right despite the party losing voters to the far-right, anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany (AfD) in September's election.

But she has called for asylum seekers who deceive authorities about their identity to be dealt with more toughly and for more resolute action on deportations.

A strong proponent of female quotas for supervisory boards in companies, Kramp-Karrenbauer has made digitalisation and boosting ties with neighbouring France her pet projects.

The CDU has faced calls for fresh faces at the top following a disappointing election result in September, when it remained the biggest party but failed to win a majority.

"She represents a modern CDU very well," said Paul Ziemiak, leader of the CDU's youth wing.

The self-described optimist's work ethic impressed Merkel when she continued to plough through coalition papers from her hospital bed after a car accident last month.

Kramp-Karrenbauer has lived her whole life in Puettlingen, a western town of around 20,000. A fan of Australian rock band AC/DC, she prides herself on her ability to make beef soup, describes herself as a bookworm and keeps pet tortoises.

She initially wanted to be a midwife and considered becoming a teacher, but joined the CDU when she was 18 and went on to study political science and law.

She started out as a town councillor and later took a job as planning and policy advisor for the regional CDU before becoming Germany's first female regional interior minister in 2000.

"There's no task you can't trust Annegret with," former Saarland premier Peter Mueller said in 2000.

A member of the CDU's national executive committee since 2010, Kramp-Karrenbauer is seen as a competent all-rounder.

But her only previous experience in federal politics came in the late 1990s, when she replaced another lawmaker in the lower house of parliament for about seven months before losing that seat in the 1998 election.

She has said she did not plan to have a political career but a series of "fortunate coincidences" had helped her achieve that.

(Additional reporting by Paul Carrel, Editing by Timothy Heritagein)Vatican special envoy Archbishop Charles Scicluna attends a news conference after meeting with victims of sexual abuse allegedly committed by members of the church, in Santiago, Chile February 20, 2018. Picture Taken February 20, 2018. REUTERS/Claudio Santana

Thomson Reuters

By Antonio De la Jara

SANTIAGO (Reuters) - Archbishop Charles Scicluna, who is in Chile investigating accusations that a bishop had covered up the sexual abuse of minors, heard more complaints of sex abuse on Tuesday that could spur fresh Vatican investigations.

Scicluna, the Vatican's most experienced sex abuse investigator, arrived in Santiago more than a week ago to hear complaints that Bishop Juan Barros had hidden information about the abuse of minors by his mentor, Father Fernando Karadima.

Barros, appointed by Pope Francis to the southern diocese of Osorno in 2015, has said he was unaware of any wrongdoing by Karadima.

Scicluna has broadened the scope of his meetings as more victims of sex abuse have come forward, some of whom have alleged they were abused by members of the Marist Brothers Congregation in Chile who asked to meet with him last week.

"We want a special Vatican commission to be created, which analyzes, studies, investigates and sanctions all the actions committed by Marists," Isaac Givovich, a spokesman for a group of former students and victims of abuse, told reporters on his way into a meeting with Scicluna.

The Alumni of the Alonso de Ercilla Institute denounced the alleged abuses committed by the Marists in Chile and issued statements in a recent canonical investigation, but they say that process lacked transparency and want to ensure Marists are not involved in any new investigation.

Victims who allege sexual abuse committed by members of the Salesian congregation in Chile said they will also hold a meeting with Scicluna.

Scicluna, who is archbishop of Malta, is scheduled to leave Santiago on Thursday.

(Writing by Cassandra Garrison; Editing by Caroline Stauffer and Bernadette Baum)

See Also:CARACAS (Reuters) - Former Venezuelan governor Henri Falcon launched his candidacy on Tuesday to run against President Nicolas Maduro in an April 22 presidential election that the country's opposition is calling a farce that will consolidate Maduro's dictatorship.

Falcon, who announced his candidacy on state television, will run despite a coalition of opposition parties saying last week it would not present a candidate as it considered the elections a "fraudulent, illegitimate" process.

(Reporting by Venezuela newsroom; Editing by Girish Gupta)Amateur astronomers who do not have a telescope capable of peering deep into space can now use NASA telescopes remotely via its MicroObservatory network.

Using the space agency's Observing with NASA site, users can choose from a list of targets and receive a photograph of it almost immediately via email.

According to NASA, The Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, the Harvard College Observatory and the Whipple Observatory all work to maintain the network, which consists of telescopes measuring three feet tall and equipped with 6-inch mirrors to catch the light reflecting from space.

Trending: Putin's Cousin and Russian Security Forces Laundered Billions of Dollars Through a Danish Bank, Reports Claim

When they capture the light, it is recorded by an electronic chip that converts it to a photograph that can be sent online.

To view this content, you'll need to update your privacy settings. Please click here to do so.

Each of the telescopes can be operated remotely and do not require a human operator. They are capable of viewing the moon, the Orion Nebula or nearby planets and are even powerful enough to snap a picture of other galaxies.

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To do so, visit the Observing with NASA site and then select the Control Telescope option. Choose the target by simply selecting observe below the title of the object. Not all objects are observable all the time, but the list is extensive so users should be able to find something worth looking at.

observing with nasa objects

Observing with NASA

After a user has chosen an object they then have to choose the field of view, meaning how wide theyd like their image to be, the exposure time and then filter selections or the type of light allowed through the detector. The site has a guide for users who are inexperienced or arent quite sure what exposure time or filter would be best for the object they wish to view.

Story continues

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orion options observing with nasa

Observing with NASA

Some objects are observed by the telescopes more frequently than others. The sun is captured once or twice a week, according to Observing with NASA, meaning that image may take a few days to appear in a users inbox.

For those with only a little bit of patience, other recent images from the MicroObservatory can be viewed online, no waiting involved.

This article was first written by Newsweek

More from NewsweekFILE PHOTO: White House senior adviser Jared Kushner delivers remarks on the Trump administration's approach to the Middle East region at the Saban Forum in Washington, U.S., December 3, 2017. REUTERS/James Lawler Duggan/File Photo

By Karen Freifeld

(Reuters) - New York's state banking regulator asked Deutsche Bank AG <DBKGn.DE> and two other lenders for information on their relationships with U.S. President Donald Trump's son-in-law and White House senior adviser Jared Kushner and his family's real estate company, a person familiar with the matter told Reuters.

The New York State Department of Financial Services (DFS) made the requests to Deutsche Bank, Signature Bank and New York Community Bank for information on loans and other financial arrangements including lines of credit and loan guarantees a week ago, the person said.

The regulator also asked for information related to other family members, the person said.

Christine Taylor, a spokeswoman for Kushner Cos, said the company had not received a copy of any letter from the regulator. She described Kushner Cos as a "multibillion enterprise that is extremely financially strong.

"Prior to our CEO voluntarily resigning to serve our country, we never had any type of inquiries," Taylor said in an email. "These types of inquiries appear to be harassment solely for political reasons."

Jared Kushner's representatives did not respond to a request for comment. According to government financial disclosures from last year, he has lines of credit at the three banks, among others.

The New York regulator declined comment, as did Deutsche Bank.

Signature, a New York state-chartered bank, said in an email that, with the permission of its client, it could state that "the Kushner Family and Kushner Co have been clients since 2010." Signature said that, by law, it cannot disclose regulatory or legal inquiries.

New York Community Bank, another New York state-chartered bank, had no immediate comment.

As New York's bank regulator, DFS supervises the New York branch of Deutsche Bank, Germany's flagship lender, along with the two state-chartered lenders.

If DFS finds the loans somehow violate banking law, it could fine the banks or take other corrective action with regard to their business practices, said New York attorney Daniel Alter, former general counsel at DFS.

Story continues

If the regulator finds potential criminal activity by either the borrowers or the banks, it could also refer the matter to prosecutors for further investigation, Alter said.

Last year Kushner, who is married to Trump's daughter Ivanka Trump, resigned from Kushner Cos and sold his stake to a family trust as part of an effort to avoid conflicts of interests in his White House role. The private real estate company owns or partially owns buildings in New York and New Jersey.

Kushner, who had a broad portfolio in the White House, including leading Middle East peace negotiations and an effort to modernize and reduce the size of some government programs, lost his interim top-secret security clearance, two U.S. officials familiar with the matter said on Tuesday.

(Reporting by Karen Freifeld; Editing by Bill Rigby and Grant McCool)North America-focussed base and precious metals exploration and development company Phoenix Global Mining has entered into an exclusive option to acquire 80% of the high-grade Gordon Lake gold property in the Northwest Territories, Canada, from ExGen Resources, it announced on Wednesday.

The AIM-traded firm said it was part of its strategic expansion of its North American mineralised footprint, which now included three high-value and high-demand commodities - copper, cobalt and gold.

It said the Gordon Lake gold property had a similar high-grade geological setting to previously producing mines in the area including the Con, Giant and Discovery mines, with grades up to 21 g/t Au over 7.2 metres.

Previous exploration was limited to four of 17 identified zones with gold mineralisation open at depth, making it a potential low-cost underground gold mine.

It said the option cost was $25,000, with Jason Riley - president of ExGen - to be appointed to the board of Phoenix as a non-executive director.

ExGen would also retain a 20% interest in the project, as well as 20% interest in Phoenixs flagship Empire copper project.

I am pleased to report Phoenix's further collaboration with ExGen and we look forward to creating value at the Gordon Lake property in Canada, which we have considered to have significant exploration merit for some time, said CEO Dennis Thomas.

We have a strong team of geologists and consultants in the company who can add value at Gordon Lake.

Thomas said the region had been a prolific gold producer in the past, and the Gordon Lake footprint was similar to other significant historic gold producing operations in the area.

Exploration on the property to date has concentrated on only four of 17 identified zones with gold mineralisation open at depth, making it a potential low-cost underground gold mine.

The acquisition of Gordon Lake reinforces our focus and investment into the safe jurisdictions of North America in a most cost-effective manner and also continues to consolidate the close relationship that we have with ExGen Resources.

Additionally, Thomas welcomed Riley to the board of the Phoenix.

We have worked with him closely in the past, especially on the Empire Mine redevelopment in Idaho and we feel his joining us will enhance the company's presence further in North America.

"However, the company's clear focus remains on the early development of the Empire Mine, which is proceeding well.Grampian Highlands-focussed gold miner Scotgold Resources has received unanimous approval from the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park Authorities of its development application for the Cononish Goldmine.

The two authorities approved Scotgold's application at a special board meeting held on Tuesday, subject to the conclusion of legal agreements.

Richard Gray, chief executive of Scotgold, said, "This will be the first commercial gold mine in Scotland's history. The process has been aided by [the] professionalism of the Park's executives."

"I am convinced that our project will meet both the highest environmental standards and provide a significant boost to the local economy around Tyndrum," he added.

Commenting on the announcement, analysts at SP Angel said: "The news of the planning application approval highlights strong support of local authorities for the project. The new phased development approach allows for a lower start up capex while still providing attractive returns thanks to high grade nature of the Cononish deposit."

As of 1040 GMT, shares had leapt 25.26% forward to 35.70p.The UK must accept the prospect of Northern Ireland staying in the EU customs union with oversight by the European Court of Justice after Brexit, a draft European commission treaty shows.

The 120-page draft agreement says the fallback position for Northern Ireland under Brexit should be full alignment with those rules of the [EUs] internal market and the customs union which, now or in the future, support North-South cooperation.

The document, reported by the Financial Times, also says: The common regulatory area shall constitute an area without internal borders in which the free movement of goods is ensured and that the Court of Justice of the European Union shall have jurisdiction.

The document acknowledges that Prime Minister Theresa May and EU officials agreed in December on three scenarios for avoiding a hard border in Northern Ireland. Discussions on the other two scenarios may continue but this protocol is based on the third scenario of maintaining full alignment with those rules of the Union's internal market and the customs union, the document said.

The leaked draft agreement is the latest development in an intense debate over whether the UK will break off completely from the EU or be part of some form of customs union after Brexit.

The Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn won the backing of business organisations when he said the UK should remain part of a customs union with the EU. Liam Fox, the Brexit-supporting trade secretary, has said such an arrangement would be a betrayal of Brexit voters and stop the UK doing its own trade deals round the world.GKN led the automobiles & parts sector on Wednesday as the war of word with unwanted suitor Melrose Industries continued.

This time it was proxy voting adviser PIRC, which issued a missive telling Melrose shareholders they should oppose the FTSE 250 group's 7bn bid for the FTSE 100 engineer due to the hostile nature of the offer and political concerns. Melrose investors face a vote on the deal on 8 March, including whether to issue shares to help to finance the deal.

Shareholder approval from both sides for Tesco's takeover of Booker sent the food & drug retail sector higher. Tesco shares were up 1.8% and Booker 1.6%.

Sainsbury's and Ocado were both higher too, with the former's Argos arm standing to gain from the collapse into administration of Toys R Us.

Mining was the big faller on Wednesday, with Fresnillo, Antofagasta, Anglo American, Rio Tinto and BHP Billiton in the bottom 10 for the day as the stronger dollar saw lower metals prices.

Commodities were also hit by the latest data releases from China, as both the manufacturing and non-manufacturing PMIs for February came in lower than expected at 50.3 and 54.5, respectively.

Top performing sectors so far today

Automobiles & Parts +1.82%

Food & Drug Retailers +1.67%

Forestry & Paper +1.11%

Aerospace and Defence +0.98%

Chemicals 14,643.82 +0.96%

Bottom performing sectors so far today

Mining -1.93%

Industrial Metals & Mining -1.17%

Insurance (non-life) -1.03%

Household Goods & Home Construction -1.00%

Tobacco -0.99%As a University of North Georgia (UNG) student ambassador, Jack Camp enjoys sharing the "inside scoop" about the university with potential students and their parents, especially since he has attended two other Georgia institutions.

"Some people may not realize there are certain things to brag about unless you have been in a place that didn't do it," said Camp, a 25-year-old junior majoring in biology from Conyers, Georgia.

Camp explained at another university he had to decipher a map to locate a professor's office.

"But on (UNGs) Gainesville Campus, if you need a science professor, you go to the science building to find them there," he said. "And there are a ton of high points like that on this campus and others."

Camp, who also took classes on the Oconee Campus, plans to impart those highlights to future UNG students and their parents at the upcoming open house this spring.

The open houses are scheduled for:

Blue Ridge: 5:30-7:30 p.m. Thursday, April 5

Cumming: 9 a.m. to noon Saturday, April 21

Dahlonega: 8:30 a.m. to noon Saturday, March 24

Gainesville: 9 a.m. to noon Saturday, April 14

Oconee: 9 a.m. to noon Saturday, March 3

Molly Potts, director of undergraduate admissions at UNG, said the open houses at all five UNG campuses offer parents and students the opportunity to learn about the university. Sessions during the open houses feature topics on admissions, financial aid, orientation and transition programs, language programs, study aboard opportunities, and transferring to UNG. Other sessions are specific to each campus. For example, housing, meal programs and the Corps of Cadets are discussed on the Dahlonega Campus.

University of North Georgia student ambassador Edrea Douglas gives students a tour of the Gainesville Campus. Students and parents will receive tours during the open houses on all five UNG campuses.

A new session on the Gainesville Campus will be delivered in Spanish for students and parents.

"We have a lot of native Spanish speakers, so we are combining the three sessions of financial aid, admissions and next steps into one session for them," Potts said. "We know that the demographic of the Hispanic population is growing in Gainesville. So we want to reach out to them and make them feel comfortable with UNG."

Conducting the session will be Iris Trejo, admissions coordinator who is based on the Gainesville Campus.

"Her new job is to focus on the diversity of our students," Potts said.

Joining her will be Katie Johnson, an admissions officer who is based on the Dahlonega Campus. Both women are bilingual.

"We are going to start this on the Gainesville Campus first and gauge the participation," Potts said, explaining the sessions will be promoted at area high schools and to area guidance counselors.

If it proves successful, UNG will determine whether to offer sessions in Spanish on other UNG campuses.

Another change this spring is the Cumming Campus' open house has moved from an evening activity to a Saturday morning affair.

"Cumming had low turnout, and we chalked it up to people being busy in the evening," Potts said. "So we are going to try a Saturday option to see if we can get a better participation."

For more information on the open houses, visit the UNG's undergraduate admissions webpage.In the opinion of researchers, the fate of King Penguins depends on mans ability to control Global warming, because it has a direct effect on the survival of these birds. If global temperatures continue to rise, their natural habitats will be destroyed and they would have to move out from their familiar and key nesting sites. Their source of food would go out of reach and they would have to cover larger distances to fetch food for their chicks.

The BBC reports that according to a study carried out by a reputed French research institute and the University of Strasbourg, nearly 70 percent of these birds will have to relocate to more agreeable surroundings or go extinct.

It would mean the loss of more than one million breeding pairs. This could happen before the end of the century and would be the result of greenhouse gas emissions.

The king penguins

There are 17 species of penguins and king penguins are in a separate class because they are choosy about their habitats. They usually prefer sub-antarctic islands that are devoid of sea-ice but have an abundance of smooth sandy or pebble beach where they can bring up their chicks. Another requirement for their survival is food, like fish and squid. They are found in specific areas of the Southern Ocean, which is home to food for these birds. The area is rich in nutrients. If global warming is not checked, the source of food might move out of range of the birds and endanger the lives of the chicks.

Hence, if the birds have to be saved from extinction, the greenhouse gas emissions must be controlled. There is a need to substitute fossil fuels with alternative fuels to check global warming.

Global warming affects polar bears in the Arctic

King penguins belong to Antarctica and could face starvation and possible extinction due to global warming.

A similar situation is there in the Arctic, where polar bears are threatened with loss of food sources and dwindling population.

According to Independent UK, polar bears in the Arctic are starving because of shrinking of ice due to climate change. Scientists have monitored the activity of these creatures and concluded that their demand for energy is high.

When they do not get enough food, they begin to lose a portion of their body mass regularly. They hunt seals and as the ice melts, the bears lose the hunting grounds. They have to travel ever greater distances in search of food, otherwise, they have to go hungry.

A study undertaken in the Beaufort Sea revealed that the polar bear numbers have reduced drastically. The reduction was nearly 40 percent between 2001 and 2010. This is a dangerous trend, and greenhouse gas emissions must be controlled to remove the threat of global warming. This will ensure that polar bears and king penguins will not become extinct.The biggest political story over the last year has been what impact Russia played in helping to elect Donald Trump. As the pressure mounts, Sarah Huckabee Sanders continues to do her best to downplay the controversy.

Our @margbrennan asks @PressSec if the president will address ongoing Russia probe in tomorrows address:



No one cares about this issue and it is not the thing that keeps people up at night. https://t.co/bjbQKpQEKm pic.twitter.com/LDh3tnj2fj  CBS Evening News (@CBSEveningNews) January 29, 2018

Sanders on "Russia fever'

It all started when Donald Trump defeated Hillary Clinton back in November 2016.

Since then, several well-respected news outlets and government agencies have confirmed that Russia hacked the election with the goal of electing the former host of "The Apprentice." The current headlines revolved around whether or not Trump will be interviewed by special counsel Robert Mueller, and if the president pressured Andrew McCabe to step down as FBI deputy director. As reported by CBS News on January 29, Sarah Huckabee Sanders fired back.

On whether White House has pressured the FBI and DOJ throughout the Trump presidency, Press Sec. says the only pressure has been to resolve probe so "everybody gets the Russia fever out of their system once and for all." https://t.co/KaIZCxqb8H pic.twitter.com/IM51vNmPAu  ABC News (@ABC) January 29, 2018

While taking question at the White House on Monday afternoon, Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders continued the talking points of the administration by once again dismissing the Russian investigation.

"The only thing hes applied pressure to is to get it resolved so you guys and everyone else can focus on the things Americans actually care about," Sanders said, before adding that Mueller's investigation has led to "Russia fever" that needs to be squashed since their is "no collusion.

Not stopping there, Sarah Huckabee Sanders was then asked about whether or not Donald Trump would address the Russian probe during Tuesday night's State of the Union address, as well as the debunked conspiracy theory that there was a "secret society" at the FBI.

"Frankly, no one cares about the issue and its not the thing that keeps people up at night," she answered.

Instant reaction

After Sarah Huckabee Sanders took part in her press briefing, critics of the administration sent a reminder that many people still care about the Russian investigation. "NO ONE CARES??? How bout the people who've been indicted?

How about your boss? Seems like he cares," one tweet read.

Oh darling..it definitely keeps Donald up at night..isn't that right @realDonaldTrump  Gloria Marion (@Gloretired) January 29, 2018

NO ONE CARES??? How bout the people who've been indicted? How about your boss? Seems like he cares.  K Lux (@KellyLux) January 29, 2018

"Oh darling..it definitely keeps Donald up at night..isn't that right," a Twitter user wrote with sarcasm. "Oh yes we care. We care very much that collusion with an enemy of the USA may have taken place," an additional tweet added.

We care. Especially when we now believe truthful and fair elections are a thing of the past... if they ever were  Joyce (@JoyeNorris1) January 29, 2018

Hey @PressSec YES We do care about this issue. Knowing Putin has an asset in the Oval keeps a lot of us up at night.....  MEDubbs (@msmarymck) January 29, 2018

Oh yes we care. We care very much that collusion with an enemy of the USA may have taken place.  Angie (@borincana1969) January 29, 2018

"Actually, a lot of us care about it and it does keep some of us up at night!" a follow-up tweet pointed out. "We care. Especially when we now believe truthful and fair elections are a thing of the past... if they ever were," a social media user tweeted out.Two of the biggest headlines over the last 24 hours have been the Hillary Clinton book reading at the Grammy Awards, and the news that FBI deputy director Andrew McCabe would be stepping down. While Donald Trump has not given his thoughts, Don Jr. was quick to speak out.

Don Jr. on Grammys

On Sunday night, the 60th Annual Grammy Awards took place and it didn't take long before the show became political. While some, like Daily Show host Trevor Noah took a jab at Donald Trump, it wasn't until a surprise video skit aired that caused the headlines. Hillary Clinton appeared, along with Cher, John Legend and others, to read select excerpts from the controversial "Fire and Fury" book by Michael Wolff.

The more Hillary goes on television the more the American people realize how awesome it is to have @realDonaldTrump in office #GrammyAwards2018  Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) January 29, 2018

The story caused backlash among conservatives, including the son of the president. In a series of tweets, Donald Trump Jr. lashed out at the Grammys, and continued his Twitter ranting after the news broke that Andrew McCabe, deputy director of the FBI, would be stepping down.

Getting to read a #fakenews book excerpt at the Grammys seems like a great consolation prize for losing the presidency. #GrammyAwards  Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) January 29, 2018

"Getting to read a fake news book excerpt at the Grammys seems like a great consolation prize for losing the presidency," Donald Jr.

tweeted out. "The more Hillary goes on television the more the American people realize how awesome it is to have @realDonaldTrump in office," he added in a follow-up tweet.

McCabe backlash

So they will keep him on till then despite all this to make sure the American tax payer is stuck paying him for the rest of his life? https://t.co/5MVh9xAUxR  Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) January 29, 2018

"So they will keep him on till then despite all this to make sure the American tax payer is stuck paying him for the rest of his life?" Donald Trump Jr.

added in reference to Andrew McCabe leaving the FBI. "Strange timing. 'Stepping down' the day after FBI brass sees the memo. I wonder whats in there?" he wondered while using the hashtag "Release the memo."

Strange timing. Stepping down the day after FBI brass sees the memo. I wonder whats in there? #releasethememo https://t.co/Wbd37zU9f1  Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) January 29, 2018

In addition, Donald Jr.

decided to pat his dad on the back with a tweet of praise. "If a Democrat President in 8 years achieved what my father has done in one year, media and the left would be heralding it as 'historic, monumental, and unprecedented,'" he wrote. Like the commander in chief, Donald Jr. has increased his use of social media as a way to promote the current administration and hit back at critics, ranging from celebrities, to the Democratic Party, and also the majority of the mainstream media.

If a Democrat President in 8 years achieved what my father has done in one year, media and the left would be heralding it as historic, monumental, and unprecedented  Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) January 29, 2018

As the Russian investigation heats up with a Trump interview with special counsel Robert Mueller expected to take place sooner rather than later, only time will tell how it all plays out, but it's likely that many in the Trump family will be vocal with their thoughts and opinions.jax taylor and Brittany Cartwright are reportedly on the verge of tying the knot but according to one cast member of "Vanderpump Rules," their relationship is more of a "Horror Film" than a love story. During a January 29 interview with Radar Online, Faith Stowers opened up about her recent affair with Taylor and revealed how she truly feels about his future with the Kentucky native.

Speaking to the outlet on Monday, Faith Stowers discussed the leaked audio clip of herself and Taylor, on which the SUR Restaurant bartender had put his girlfriend on blast, dissing their relationship and claiming he would never, ever marry her.

As she explained, Taylor told her he loved Brittany Cartwright but noted that they had no sexual or physical relationship. He also said that he felt trapped and pressured to marry Cartwright.

Jax Taylor enjoyed his affair with Faith Stowers

Faith Stowers and Jax Taylor slept together last year before filming began on the sixth season of "Vanderpump Rules" in May and according to Stowers, Taylor was quite excited about their hookup. In fact, he said it was "the best he ever had" and claimed he couldn't wait to get rid of her. He also reportedly blamed their co-star, Katie Maloney, for much of their issues.

For a minute I felt bad for [Jax Taylor]," Faith Stowers admitted. As she explained, it had to be frustrating to have a relationship that is public because Taylor couldn't simply walk away.

As fans well know, Cartwright has been portrayed as the "sweet Southern girl" of the show and if Taylor was to ditch her, he likely would have faced tons of backlash from their fans and their friends.

Jax Taylor suddenly wants to marry Brittany Cartwright

At the end of last year, as their cheating scandal made waves on episodes of "Vanderpump Rules," Taylor and Cartwright traveled to Kentucky and checked out a wedding venue.

Now all of a sudden, [Jax Taylor] cant wait to marry her?" Faith Stowers continued. "This is literally like a horror film," she added. "Im nervous for [Brittany Cartwright].

To see more of Jax Taylor, Brittany Cartwright, their relationship, and their co-stars, including Tom Schwartz, Stassi Schroeder, Kristen Doute, Scheana Marie, Lala Kent, Ariana Madix, Katie Maloney, Lisa Vanderpump, Tom Sandoval, and James Kennedy, don't miss new episodes of the sixth season of "Vanderpump Rules" this and every Monday night at 9 PM on Bravo TV.Tamra Judge and her "Real Housewives of Orange County" co-stars will be joined by some new cast members during the 13th season of the Bravo reality series, which is currently filming in Southern California. According to a new report, Kathleen French, the Senior Vice President of Current Production at Bravo TV, recently spoke to The Daily Dish hosts Megan Segura and Rachael Roberts about the future of the show.

"There will be new faces on ['The Real Housewives of Orange County'] and I'm going to leave it at that," French revealed on February 27. While French can't reveal any details about who may be joining the cast quite yet, Shannon Beador shared a photo of herself on Instagram weeks ago and in the photo, she was seen with a woman by the name of Marcy McKenna.

In the caption, she told fans that she was filming day one of the 13th season.

How are new 'Real Housewives' stars discovered?

According to Kathleen French, she and her fellow staffers behind the scenes at Bravo TV are always trying to keep things fresh on the show and love to introduce new friends to viewers of "The Real Housewives of Orange County." However, when it comes to bringing in people who aren't already part of the circles of friends of their current cast members, they aren't always open to the idea. Instead, they try to find people who fit into the group organically.

The group also tries to get familiarized with the life happenings of their reality stars prior to the start of production.

"So the question when starting the next season is, 'What are you doing now?,' 'Who are you hanging with?,' 'Anyone new in your life?'" French explained, adding that those questions are asked of the women before filming. As for what goes into finding the perfect "Real Housewife," French said that contenders have to be ready, willing, and able to expose their lives to the cameras.

Who is returning to 'RHOC' after Season 12?

Once production wrapped on Season 12 at the end of last year, Meghan King Edmonds revealed she was returning to St. Louis, where she and husband Jim would be living full time and raising their kids. Weeks later, Lydia Mclaughlin and Peggy Sulahian announced to their fans on social media that they would not be back for Season 13, which leaves just four cast members: Tamra Judge, Vicki Gunvalson, Shannon Beador, and Kelly Dodd.

"The Real Housewives of Orange County" Season 13 will air on Bravo TV sometime later this year.EAB, an education industry firm committed to making education smarter through research, technology and services, recently cited Virginia Tech as an example of national best practices for faculty recruitment and retention strategy in a resource guide titled, Instilling Equity and Inclusion in Departmental Practices.

Virginia Techs Future Faculty Development Program and its approach to engaging prospective faculty through campus visits and networking, and the universitys commitment to connect prospective candidates with a work-life liaison for a confidential discussion about work-life policies were highlighted in two sections of the resource guide.

These programs help to position Virginia Tech as a destination for faculty talent, said Jack Finney, vice provost for faculty affairs. Recruiting, mentoring, and retaining a diverse community of scholars is critical to achieving our Beyond Boundaries vision and offering students the best possible academic experiences and opportunities. The Future Faculty Development Program and work-life liaisons are just two examples of how we are effectively competing for and attracting top talent from around the world.

Virginia Techs Future Faculty Development Program is a two-day program for doctoral candidates and post-doctoral scholars traditionally underrepresented in their fields who are interested in entering academic careers. It seeks to enhance the faculty pipeline by establishing and developing significant meaningful relationships with prospective faculty. The program also provides an opportunity for participants to gain a greater awareness of Virginia Tech and to envision themselves as members of the community, and helps both participants and Virginia Tech faculty develop a network of new scholars in priority research areas.

Twenty-two cohort members were hosted by Virginia Tech academic departments for the 2018 Future Faculty Development Program held in January, with participants touring research facilities, meeting with current faculty to gain a greater awareness of research and teaching opportunities, and discussing their career prospects and academic work.

Work-life liaisons at Virginia Tech support faculty recruitment efforts in each college by meeting individually with candidates to discuss the universitys dual career resources, extend-the-tenure-clock policies, modified duties polices, and commitment to diversity. Prospective faculty also learn about community resources and a variety of other support and additional information. The meetings are confidential and separate from the formal search process.

The role of the work-life liaison is designed to meet the unique needs of each college. In some cases, the work-life liaison may also help shape search processes and answer specific questions from search committee members.

The Future Faculty Development Program and work-life liaisons are initiatives supported by the Office of the Executive Vice President and Provost to strengthen the process of recruiting outstanding faculty to Virginia Tech.Srinagar: As many as 40 prisoners including Pakistani national Zia Mustafa were shifted Tuesday from the central jail here to prisons outside the valley, a step taken after the dramatic escape of LeTs Mohammed Naveed Jhatt from a hospital earlier this month.The Jammu and Kashmir prison department chalked out a list of these prisoners in the central jail and immediately a movement order for shifting them was initiated, officials said here.Three Pakistanis including Mustafa, who was accused of killing 24 Kashmiri pandits at Nadimarg in 2003, were among those shifted to various jails outside the Kashmir Valley, they said.Mustafa was accused by the police of being part of the conspiracy in the massacre.The state home department, which had ignored earlier requests for shifting of these prisoners, took the decision after an internal enquiry pointed out about a casual approach being adopted by the department.The Union home ministry had also come down heavily on the state government and directed it to fully review security measures in place in jails and transportation of inmates.Among other prisoners shifted to district prison in Jammu were overground worker of Lashker-e-Taiba, Ashfaq Ahmad Bhat, a militant of the same group Mohammad Aslam Malik, a Hizbul Mujahideen militant, Amir Nahi Wagey and another Pakistani Abdul Razak Baloch, who allegedly used to act as a guide in ferrying militant groups in frontier district of Kupwara of North Kashmir.Shifting of hardened prisoners came after the escape of Jhatt, who was lodged in Srinagar central jail. He fled from a hospital in the city after he and his accomplice shot and killed two policemen accompanying him. Jhatt was taken to the hospital for medical checkup.After the embarrassment, the state home department issued instructions to immediately review security of hardened terrorists who are lodged in Srinagar central jail and move them to Jammu, Uddhampur, Leh jails and kept in isolation.The then Director General of Prisons S K Mishra had several communications to the state home department asking them to shift hardened militants and their sympathisers from Srinagar central jail as they were vitiating the atmosphere inside the prison and indulging in indoctrination of several undertrials.An internal probe has brought to the fore lapses at different stages, especially the failure of the prosecution wing of the Jammu and Kashmir Police as well as the state home department in addressing the genuine issues related to the prison department.In November last year, a communication marked as urgent to Principal Secretary (Home) was sent by then DGP Mishra, asking him to shift some of the prisoners including Jhatt to a jail in Jammu division and also highlighted the need to segregate them completely from each other.In view of inputs received with regard to anti-national activities of the militancy related prisoners lodged in central jail, Srinagar from time to time through police and (security) agencies, there is urgent need to shift these prisoners to the jails in Jammu division in order to segregate them from each other.This will help in preventing the already deteriorating security atmosphere in the Valley and prevent indoctrination of young offenders, Mishra, a 1985-batch officer who is the seniormost IPS officer of the state, said in his letter.Mishra made another attempt in January when he shot off another letter, a copy of which is with PTI, to the Principal Secretary Home in which he highlighted that presence of Pakistani hardcore militants was hampering the smooth functioning of the jails in the Kashmir Valley. The prosecution wing of the police department needs to defend such shifting orders as and when the trial courts desire to lodge them in the Kashmir based jails again.It is, therefore, requested that necessary directions may kindly be issued to prosecution wing of police department to defend the shifting orders of the prisoners before the trial courts, the letter dated January 13 said.

(PTI)Hokies planning to travel for the upcoming Spring Break can take advantage of programs available through Parking and Transportation Services.

Around Blacksburg and the local area

Blacksburg Transit (BT): Blacksburg Transit has 46 buses that serve 13 routes in Blacksburg and Christiansburg. Passengers can use BT to make connections to other bus lines, with service to places such as Radford, Roanoke and Washington, D.C. Rides are free to students who present their Hokie Passports.

Smart Way: The Smart Way bus provides transportation between Squires Student Center and the Roanoke Valley; it costs $4 each way. Monday through Saturday, this shuttle can be used to connect to the Amtrak route to Washington, D.C. and the Roanoke Regional Airport. On Sundays, Smart Way offers a special transfer option to allow returning travelers to use the Roanoke/Blacksburg Airport Shuttle for $4. Monthly passes are available to Virginia Tech faculty, staff and students for 25 percent off the normal price.

Zimride: Zimrides Virginia Tech carpooling board allows users to post in search of rides or to offer rides of their own. Money can be exchanged through their secure platform.

Around Virginia and beyond

Roanoke-Blacksburg Regional Airport: The Roanoke-Blacksburg regional airport offers daily flights to eight major American cities, including Chicago, Philadelphia, New York, Atlanta and Washington, D.C.

Campus-to-Campus Bus: Virginia Techs Campus-to-Campus Bus provides employees, students and their guests with safe and convenient transportation between the university's campuses in the Blacksburg/Roanoke and Ballston/Arlington areas. For any one-way trip, students and employees (with a PID) are eligible to purchase tickets for $95. Credit or debit card are accepted. Visit the Campus-to-Campus Bus site for details.

Home Ride of Virginia: The Home Ride bus is a private company that provides students with weekend and holiday bus service from Lane Stadium to Northern Virginia, Harrisonburg, Charlottesville, Richmond and the Tidewater Area. Tickets may be purchased at the University Bookstore.

Amtrak: Students can travel from Blacksburg to the newly opened Amtrak platorm in Roanoke, Virginia. Check the Smart Way bus schedule for ways to reach this platform from the Blacksburg campus.

College Transit: College Transit is a bus service that transports students between Lane Stadium and metro areas in Pennsylvania, New Jersey and New York.

Zimride: Zimrides Virginia Tech carpooling board allows users to post in search of rides or to offer rides of their own. Money can be exchanged through their secure platform.

Virginia Breeze:The Virginia Breeze is a new intercity bus service connecting Blacksburg with Union Station in Washington, D.C. The daily route includes several stops in the New River Valley, Shendandoah Valley, and Northern Virginia.



For more information, contact Alternative Transportation at 540-231-2116.After more than a decade at the helm, Cynda Ann Johnson, founding dean of the Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine, has announced her plans to retire. She will stay in her position this year while a search for her replacement is underway.

Being founding dean of the Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine and creating a school from scratch has been an amazing experience, said Johnson. From the unique, patient-centered curriculum that we created, to the high-caliber students and graduates and faculty who deeply care about teaching and mentoring, leading this school has exceeded my expectations in every way.

In January 2007, Carilion Clinic, Virginia Tech, and the governor of Virginia announced plans for the Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine and Research Institute. In November of that year, Carilion Clinic and Virginia Tech announced that Johnson would be the schools founding dean.

Johnson arrived in Roanoke, Virginia, in January 2008 to oversee the creation of a new allopathic medical school including accreditation, curriculum, admissions, policies, faculty appointments, and staffing. In addition, Johnson helped design the building to foster the schools problem-based curriculum as well as spaces dedicated for learning with standardized patients, allowing students early and frequent exposure to patient training.

Fewer than two years after her arrival, the school welcomed its first class on August 2, 2010, and received full accreditation without citations by the Liaison Committee for Medical Education after the charter class graduated in May 2014.

During her tenure, four classes of students have graduated; each class has exceeded the national mean score on Step 1 and Step 2 licensing exams and has earned a 100 percent match rate to residency programs.

Not too many people these days can say they built a medical school from the ground up, particularly one with such a stellar reputation, offered Nancy Howell Agee, president and CEO of Carilion Clinic, who was part of the hiring committee that selected Johnson. We knew we needed someone special for the job, and Cynda surpassed expectations  not only ours, but the communitys  at every step of the way.

Johnson built the school under a still-unique public-private partnership between Virginia Tech and Carilion Clinic. That presented its own set of challenges and opportunities, but her hard work has paid off in numerous ways, said Agee. The extraordinary success that the school has seen under Cyndas leadership isnt a surprise to anyone who knows her. Im proud to have had the opportunity to work with such a leader.

Thanks to Cyndas tireless work, the Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine is one of the top research-intensive medical schools in the country, said Timothy Sands, president of Virginia Tech. Her leadership over the past decade will support the success of its students, faculty, and staff for decades to come, and has established the school as a driving force in the development of the Virginia Tech Carilion Health Sciences and Technology Campus.

The school received more than 1,600 applications for its charter class; in each of the last two years, it received more than 4,000 applications for just 42 spots.

When Johnson was hired as dean, the intent was for the school to have a five-year curriculum to allow a year for dedicated research. Johnson advocated that students could incorporate an intensive focus on research in a four-year curriculum to reduce the time and cost to earn a degree. As evidence of the value of this research-intensive program, from 2014 to 2017  which encompasses four graduating classes of 160 students  VTCSOM students authored 58 publications. During the same time span, more than 250 VTCSOM students gave research presentations at regional, national, and international conferences.

Johnson is also credited with establishing the first Department of Interprofessionalism within U.S. medical schools. As part of the core curriculum, students take classes and learn with other health professional students  in such disciplines as nursing, physician assistant, occupational therapy, and EMT/paramedic, among others  in all four years of the curriculum. The goal is for students to learn how to work best as a health care team to improve patient outcomes.

One of the amazing things about starting a new school was we could look at the trends and see what the next generation of physicians will need to be successful, such as training in interprofessionalism and research to improve patient outcomes, and build the curriculum to meet those needs. That is harder to do in well-established schools, said Johnson. We also built the curriculum to remain flexible so we can continually adapt and ensure we can meet our mission to develop the next generation physician thought leaders.

For example, Johnson led efforts to partner with Delta Dental of Virginia to create a comprehensive oral health curriculum at the school, one of the first among U.S. medical schools. The Delta Dental of Virginia Foundation has given several gifts, including a $1 million endowment, to support the development and execution of the curriculum.

Under Johnsons tenure, VTCSOM has been an independently accredited private school; on July 1 of this year, it will be integrated into Virginia Tech as the universitys ninth college with Carilion Clinic as a partner providing faculty and the clinical experience for students.

The last 10 years have been incredible, and I plan to keep ties with the school and community, Johnson said. My husband and I plan to stay in Roanoke, which has become our home. I look forward to tracking the progress of the schools students, alumni, and faculty. Another decade from now, I am confident the school and the Health Sciences and Technology Campus will continue to grow and thrive.

With a passion to ensure the medical school did not become an ivory tower in the community, Johnson encouraged opportunities for the community to be welcome in the school and for students, faculty, and staff to serve the community as well. Under her direction, the school established recurring events to invite the community into the school, including art shows hosted three times a year, mini medical schools, and Within Reach, which encourages K-12 students to pursue health-related education and professions.

With Johnsons support and encouragement, the Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine will host the Virginia State Science and Engineering Fair in Roanoke for the first time on April 13-14 this year as a way to engage students from across the commonwealth.

Before coming to Roanoke, Johnson had more than three decades of clinical, research, teaching, and leadership experience. She served at East Carolina University, first as dean of the Brody School of Medicine beginning in 2003 and then as senior associate vice-chancellor for clinical and translational research in the Division of Research and Graduate Studies in 2006.

Prior to East Carolina, Johnson was chair of Family Medicine and director of the Family Care Center at the University of Iowa.

Johnsons first academic appointment was at the University of Kansas as a professor in the departments of Family Medicine and Obstetrics and Gynecology. While there, she served as residency director and interim chair of the Department of Family Medicine.

In addition to her academic and clinical roles, Johnson has held many leadership roles, such as past president of the American Board of Family Practice (now Family Medicine) and the American Board of Medical Specialties. Johnson serves on professional boards, including the AAMC Group on Student Affairs Steering Committee; the AMA Section on Medical Schools Governing Council; the Commonwealth Health Research Board, which was an appointment by the Joint Rules Committee of the Virginia General Assembly; and the boards of directors for Carilion Medical Center, Friendship Retirement Community, Roanoke Valley Sister Cities, Roanoke Regional Chamber, Hollins University Presidents Advisory Board, and the University of Kansas School of Medicine Deans Advisory Board.

Johnson earned her bachelors degree with honors from Stanford and was Phi Beta Kappa. She received her medical degree from the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA). She completed her family medicine residency at the University of Kansas and teaching fellowship in family medicine at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She earned an MBA from the University of Missouri at Kansas City.

Johnson is married to Bruce Johnson, a general internist who retired as founding associate dean for faculty affairs at VTCSOM in July. He continues to see patients and precept residents at Carilion Clinic and has remained an active faculty member at VTCSOM. They have two grown sons and one grandson.Contractor confidence hits a high point for 2018

The future indeed looks bright to government contractors.

That is the overwhelming sentiment we found in our latest Contractor Confidence Index survey.

More than 200 people took the survey in January to share their thoughts on where the market is headed and the growth prospects is expect over next 12 months.

The result is a Contractor Confidence Index of 122.1 -- the highest level we have seen since we launched the survey in first quarter of 2015.

This survey is the heart of our newest Washington Technology Insider Report: "The 2018 Contractor Confidence Index & Market Outlook."

WT Insider Reports are available exclusively for WT Insiders. If you are not a member, click here for information on how to join.

We previously conducted the Contractor Confidence Index survey every quarter and frankly, I think we were wearing people out with the survey every three months.

We've now switched to an annual survey and included more questions to get a more detailed look what contractors see ahead.

And as I said, the outlook is very positive.

The Contractor Confidence Index held relatively steady during the Obama administration as the index bounced up and down around the base 100 level set by the first survey. But with a more "pro-business" stance by the Trump administration, the Index jumped up considerably from 98.3 in the last survey of the Obama administration to 113.8 in the first survey under President Trump.

The Index took a couple of dips after that as it got down to 102.2 in the third quarter of 2017 but then rocketed to 122.1 in 2018.

Other questions around growth prospects, job satisfaction, and investments also showed an uptick.

In our expanded portion of the survey, we asked about new technologies, IT modernization and customer challenges.

One of the findings I found interesting was that nearly a quarter of respondents said they sell nothing through an as-a-service business model. Another 30 percent said that only 1-25 percent of their business is offered as a service.

But more than 61 percent said they expect customers to buy more as-a-service offerings going forward.

Thats quite a delta and tells me either folks need to move in that direction or they can expect to be marginalized.

Supporting that was another finding in which respondents said that around 73 percent of their customers were showing either growing interest in cloud computing (41.2 percent) or cloud computing was a top priority (32.16 percent).

That emphasizes a direction the market is headed that cant be ignored.

Regarding IT modernization and the Modernizing Government Technology Act, we found that many contractors believe their customers are either unaware of the new law (32.2 percent) or their customers are waiting for senior management to provide guidance (40 percent).

Only 8.3 percent of contractors said their customer have already established plans.

This is just a sampling of some of our findings. I urge you to download the report. I think itll give you a valuable perspective on what is happening in the market. This is the 18th Insider Report we have published since we launched the WT Insider member program in 2015.

We have three more slated for 2018. Our goal is to bring you unique and valuable insights into todays market to help you be more successful and grow your business.

If you arent a member, click here for information on how to join and to learn of the many benefits of membership.The following companies are subsidiares of Teledyne Technologies: Alia Corporation Inc, Bolt Technology Corp, Bowtech Products, CARIS, CDL do Brasil Equipamentos e Servicos Submarinos Sociedade Empresaria Ltda., CETAC Technologies, DALSA, Demo Systems, Detcon Holdco Inc., Ensambles de Precision S.A. de C.V., Falcon Analytical, Frontline Test Equipment, GMI Group Holdings Limited, Hafmynd ehf, Hanson Research Corp, IST Oldham Instruments India Private Limited, Industrial Control Machines, Intelek, Intelek Limited, Intelek Pension Trustees Limited, Intelek Properties Limited, LeCroy (Beijing) Trading Co. Ltd., LeCroy Corporation, Lidar Aviation Services Inc., Maple Imaging LLC, Micralyne Inc, Ocean Design Ltda., Oldham Instrument (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Oldham Simtronics SAS, Oldham-Winter GmbH, PDM Neptec, Reynolds Industries Limited, Rhombi Canada LP, Rhombi Holdings Limited, Rhombi Netherlands B.V., Rockwell Scientific Company, Simtronics AS, TDY Jersey Limited, Teledyne Advanced Pollution Instrumentation, Teledyne Australia Pty Ltd, Teledyne BlueView, Teledyne Bogatin Enterprises LLC, Teledyne Bowtech Limited, Teledyne Brown Engineering Inc., Teledyne C.M.L. Group Limited, Teledyne CARIS B.V., Teledyne CARIS Inc., Teledyne CARIS UK Ltd., Teledyne CARIS USA Inc., Teledyne CDL Inc., Teledyne CDL Limited, Teledyne Catalyst Enterprises Inc., Teledyne Computer Access Technology Corporation, Teledyne Controls LLC, Teledyne Cougar, Teledyne Czech s.r.o., Teledyne DALSA (Shanghai) Trading Co. Ltd., Teledyne DALSA Asia-Pacific Ltd., Teledyne DALSA B.V., Teledyne DALSA GmbH, Teledyne DALSA Inc., Teledyne DALSA Industrial Products Inc., Teledyne DALSA K.K., Teledyne DALSA Semiconductor Inc., Teledyne Dalsa, Teledyne Defense Electronics LLC, Teledyne Denmark A/S, Teledyne Detcon Inc., Teledyne Digital Imaging Inc., Teledyne Digital Imaging US Inc., Teledyne Energy Systems Inc., Teledyne Europe Holdings C.V., Teledyne France, Teledyne France SAS, Teledyne Gas Measurement Instruments Limited, Teledyne Gavia ehf., Teledyne Germany GmbH, Teledyne Hanson Research Inc., Teledyne ICM SA, Teledyne ICM SPRL, Teledyne Innovaciones Microelectronics S.L.U., Teledyne Instruments Inc., Teledyne Instruments Malaysia Sdn. Bhd., Teledyne Japan Corporation, Teledyne Korea Ltd., Teledyne Labtech Limited, Teledyne LeCroy AB, Teledyne LeCroy Delaware LLC, Teledyne LeCroy GmbH, Teledyne LeCroy Inc., Teledyne LeCroy India Trading Private Ltd., Teledyne LeCroy Japan Corporation, Teledyne LeCroy Korea Ltd., Teledyne LeCroy OakGate Inc., Teledyne LeCroy S.A.R.L., Teledyne LeCroy S.R.L., Teledyne LeCroy SA, Teledyne LeCroy Singapore Pte. Ltd., Teledyne Limited, Teledyne Micralyne Inc., Teledyne Monitor Labs, Teledyne Monitor Labs P.R. Inc., Teledyne Netherlands B.V., Teledyne ODI, Teledyne Optech Inc., Teledyne Paradise Datacom Limited, Teledyne RD Instruments, Teledyne RD Technologies (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Teledyne RESON, Teledyne RESON A/S, Teledyne RESON B.V., Teledyne RESON GmbH, Teledyne RESON Holding B.V., Teledyne RESON Inc., Teledyne RESON Pte. Ltd., Teledyne RESON UK Limited, Teledyne RISI Inc., Teledyne Rad-icon Imaging Corp., Teledyne Redlake MASD LLC, Teledyne Reynolds Inc., Teledyne SG Brown Limited, Teledyne Scientific & Imaging LLC, Teledyne Scientific Imaging GmbH, Teledyne Scientific Imaging Limited, Teledyne Signal Processing Devices Sweden AB, Teledyne Singapore Private Limited, Teledyne TSS Limited, Teledyne Taiwan Company, Teledyne Technologies (Bermuda) Limited, Teledyne Technologies (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Teledyne Technologies International Corp., Teledyne Technologies Israel Ltd., Teledyne Tekmar Company, Teledyne UK Limited, Teledyne VariSystems, Teledyne VariSystems Inc., Teledyne Wireless LLC, Teledyne e2v, Teledyne e2v (Beijing) Co. Ltd., Teledyne e2v (Overseas) Holdings Limited, Teledyne e2v Asia Pacific Limited, Teledyne e2v Limited, Teledyne e2v Semiconductors SAS, and The Oceanscience Group Ltd..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36th Magar day celebrated with fanfare (in photos)

Magar Community across the country celebrated the 36th Magar Day by organising various programmes on Tuesday.Travis Perkins plc distributes building materials to the building, construction, and home improvement markets in the United Kingdom. It operates through four segments: Merchanting, Retail, Toolstation, and Plumbing & Heating. The Merchanting segment distributes interior building products, which include drywalls, ceilings, external envelopes, fire protection products, flooring and partitioning products, and tools and accessories to professionals within the construction industry; civil, drainage, and heavy building materials to specialist contractors and trade professionals; and pipeline and heating solutions. This segment also distributes building materials, plumbing and heating products, landscaping materials, timber and sheet materials, painting and decorating products, dry lining and insulation products, doors and joinery, and hand and power tools to trade professionals and self-builders. The Retail segment operates as a home improvement retailer, which sells kitchen, bathroom, paint, and timber products. The Toolstation segment supplies products to the trade, home improvers, and self-builders industry through approximately 350 branches, as well as online, call center, and a mobile website. The Plumbing & Heating segment supplies its products to the trade, home improvement, and DIY markets. The company also offers kitchens and joinery products to specialist joiners, kitchen fitters, house builders, local authorities, and national house builders; and operates as a tile retailer. The company was formerly known as Sandell Perkins Public Limited Company and changed its name to Travis Perkins plc in October 1988. Travis Perkins plc was founded in 1797 and is headquartered in Northampton, the United Kingdom.

Read MoreGetty Images

En espanol | Older patients and their doctors often do not agree when it comes to the necessity of some medical tests and prescriptions, according to a new University of Michigan/AARP poll that focuses on the overuse of health care.

Only 14 percent of the 50- to 80-year-old adults surveyed in the University of Michigan/AARP National Poll on Healthy Aging agree that more is usually better when it comes to medical treatment.

One in six respondents said they doubt that all of the tests, medications and procedures their health care providers prescribe are needed. Among those who were skeptical, 43 percent said that in the past year their provider recommended what they believe was an unnecessary test, and 37 percent said they believe they didnt need a medication that their doctor recommended or prescribed.

These survey results show us that more attention needs to be focused on improving communication between patients and doctors, says Alison Bryant, senior vice president of research at AARP. Encouraging patients and doctors to routinely discuss the need for recommended procedures and medications should help prevent unnecessary treatments and cut health care costs.

Even when patients are given an order for a test or drug they doubt they need, many still have the test or take the medication. Within the past year, 50 percent of those who doubted the necessity, said they had the recommended tests they thought were unnecessary, and 41 percent said they filled prescriptions they believe they didnt need.SD school districts face staff shortages as COVID-19 drags on

South Dakota's educator shortage has been made worse by COVID and political tensions surrounding COVID protocols in schools.CPN-UML, Samajbadi Forum closer to deal; 3-pt draft prepared

The Sanghiya Samajbadi Forum Nepal (SSFN) led by Upendra Yadav has inched closer to an agreement with the ruling CPN-UML. The party will join the government immediately after signing the deal once the draft is finalised.Deputies with the Bernalillo County Sheriffs Office Ghost Unit have arrested the last of five suspects involved in a nationwide sex trafficking ring based out of Albuquerque.

Deputy Felicia Maggard said 54-year-old John Dompierre turned himself in on Monday.

Ghost Unit Detectives announced they were still looking for Dompierre, and Destiny Way, 20, on Feb. 16 after arresting Jason Jackson, 23, Andrew Wyatt, 28 and Chante Bickham, 24, for sex trafficking. Way turned herself into authorities the next day.

A sixth suspect, 23-year-old Camara Cherry-Amos, was arrested in January at the start of a monthlong investigation into the sex trafficking ring.

Deputies say all six suspects were involved in a multi-state sex trafficking ring that operated in multiple states, including Arizona, California, Oklahoma, Florida and Maryland for the past year.

During the operation, deputies say the group used at least twelve sex workers, including three juveniles14 to 17 years oldfrom Albuquerque, advertising them in different cities through online sites like Backpage.

The New Mexico Attorney General is in charge of prosecution in the case.For the third year in a row, there has been an increase in the number of reported anti-Semitic incidents in New Mexico, according to the latest year-end 2017 data from the Anti-Defamation League.

Fifteen incidents  nine cases of harassment and threats, and six cases of vandalism  were reported in 2017. Thats a 36 percent increase over 2016, when 11 incidents were recorded. In 2015, there were eight incidents reported in New Mexico.

Among the anti-Semitic incidents reported statewide were: Two bomb threats at the Jewish Community Center of Greater Albuquerque; a threat of violence directed toward a Jewish blogger; a Swastika etched into a mens lavatory towel dispenser at Los Alamos National Laboratory; and an anti-Semitic message sent by a wedding vendor to a potential Jewish client.

The uptick in anti-Semitic incidents in New Mexico mirrors a nationwide 57 percent increase for 2017, with 1,986 incidents reported, compared to 1,267 incident in 2016. The incidents included physical assaults, vandalism, and attacks on Jewish institutions, according to the ADL audit. Those numbers include the near doubling of anti-Semitic incidents in K-12 schools and college campuses.

The overall rise from 2016 to 2017 is the largest single-year increase on record and the second highest number reported since ADL started tracking incident data in the 1970s, said ADL Mountain States Regional Director Scott L. Levin in a news release issued Tuesday.

The steep increase in anti-Semitic incidents has coincided with decreasing civility and rising hyper-partisanship and xenophobia in this country, Levin said. Unfortunately, hate groups, white supremacists, students and others feel emboldened and are taking ugly action in public and social media.

He added that we must heed the clarion call for greater understanding, respect, dialogue and education.

On a brighter note, Melissa-Lou Ellis became the first-ever Jewish winner of the Miss New Mexico title. The 22-year-old woman graduated last May with honors from the University of New Mexico with double bachelors degrees in media arts and business.The former campaign treasurer and personal assistant to Senate President Pro Tem Mary Kay Papen, D-Las Cruces, was sentenced today to 7 1/2 years in prison for stealing money and jewelry from his longtime employer, according to the Dona Ana County District Attorneys Office.

Steve D. Siddall, 46, was arrested in January 2016 on charges he embezzled more than $180,000 from Papens personal, campaign and government accounts over nearly three years and stole jewelry from her. Also charged was William Billy Samora.

Papen, who has served in the Legislature since 2001, said at the time that she considered Siddall as part of her family.

Senator Papen regarded this defendant as a member of her extended family, and he repaid her by stealing thousands and thousands of dollars from her, DA Mark DAntonio said in a Tuesday news release.

Siddall was convicted in December 2017 of one count of forgery over $2,500, a third-degree felony, five counts of forgery, each fourth-degree felonies, and two counts of fourth-degree larceny over $500.

He must also serve five years of supervised probation and could have to pay up to $10,375 in restitution.

Samora pleaded no contest to his role in the crimes and was given three years of prison time and two years of probation, but the sentence was suspended in lieu of probation. He also must pay $5,000 in restitution.Davon Lymons public defenders have been kicked off his case just three weeks before he is scheduled to stand trial in the 2015 killing of Albuquerque police officer Daniel Webster.

Second Judicial District Judge Briana Zamora ruled Friday that the Law Offices of the Public Defender can no longer defend Lymon, in part because an attorney in the same office was representing Savannah Garcia  a key states witness in the case  when she testified against him during a federal trial in 2016.

Zamora wrote that the issue may warrant an immediate appeal.

The LOPD routinely contracts with private attorneys when conflicts of interest arise, and for other reasons; it is not yet clear who will take over Lymons defense.

The change in attorneys is likely to cause delays in what has become a contentious case. Zamora wrote that the court will ensure Lymons new attorneys have adequate time to prepare for trial.

Lymon was found guilty in federal court of illegally possessing the gun used to kill Webster. And Garcia testified that she was on the back of Lymons motorcycle when he shot the officer in the neck during a traffic stop in October 2015. But Lymons defense attorneys say a different woman was with Lymon that night, and they have suggested Garcia might be an impostor witness.

Prosecutors with the Attorney Generals Office asked last month to have the Law Offices of the Public Defender disqualified from the case, arguing it cannot ethically represent a client, exchange confidential communications with that client, and then defend a second client regarding the same subject matter by accusing the former client of a felony.

Lymons attorneys argued that the state, which made the request just weeks before trial, should have raised concerns about a conflict of interest earlier. Later, they argued that there was no proof the Law Offices of the Public Defender had represented Garcia.

In her ruling, Zamora noted that the LOPD accused Garcia of perjury based on testimony she gave while being represented by the LOPD. And she wrote that there is a risk that Lymons LOPD attorneys might have access to confidential information Garcia shared with her LOPD attorney, which could be used to give Lymon an unfair advantage.

She pointed to a court rule that says when lawyers are associated in a firm, none of them shall knowingly represent a client when any one of them practicing alone would be prohibited from doing so.

But she said there are differences of opinion as to whether the Albuquerque office of the LOPD can be considered a firm and whether a conflict of interest is imputed to the entire office, as seems to be the case with private firms, and the issue is likely worth appeal.

Lymons LOPD attorney, Jeff Rein, said he could not comment on the ruling. James Hallinan, a spokesman for the AGs Office, said the office believes the ruling is supported by the law and will continue to focus on preparing the case for trial.Garfield Middle School parents were notified Tuesday that the school was investigating a threat made on social media.

I wanted to let you know that we are investigating a social media threat to school safety, interim Principal Daniel Gutierrez wrote in a note to the Garfield community through the school messaging system.

Albuquerque Police Department spokesman Simon Drobik said a shooting threat was made via Snapchat.

At this time, we dont have any reason to believe the threat is credible, but we are working with (Albuquerque Public Schools) Police and the Albuquerque Police Department to make sure our students and staff are safe, Gutierrez said.

A call from Garfield came into APD at 9:26 a.m. Drobik said its unclear whether the threat was made Monday or Tuesday.

Drobik said APS is taking care of this call and had no other details.

APS Police Deputy Chief Carla Gandara said the school wasnt placed on lockdown, but no other information was provided about what took place at the school, which is located on 6th Street NW, after the threat was received.

Parents, we ask that you talk to your children about the seriousness of making false social media threats which can result in suspension and/or expulsion for students as well as possible criminal charges, Gutierrez wrote in the note.

APS spokeswoman Johanna King said she didnt know if anyone was suspended or expelled after this incident.

The threat adds to a tense climate at schools across the country. Earlier this month, 17 people were killed at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla.

Closer to home, roughly a dozen students were arrested last week on charges related to threats made to schools across New Mexico.SANTA FE  Santa Fe school board president Lorraine Price got right to the point.

Youre going to ask me later, so Im going to say it now, she said while still introducing guest speakers at a press conference about school security Tuesday at Santa Fe High School. Theres no way as a school board member am I going to support the arming of teachers.

The idea of arming teachers with guns has been floated in wake of the tragedy in Parkland, Fla. earlier this month when a former student at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School used an AR-15-style gun to kill 17 people.

Others who spoke Tuesday discounted that idea, too. But Superintendent Veronica Garcia said she was interested in exploring placing armed school resource officers at school sites. She said after next weeks mayoral election that she would seek permission from the school board to discuss that option with the city police department and sheriffs office.

She said the New Mexico Public Schools Insurance Authority considers school resource officers armed with a gun was a better option than arming teachers. The reason for that is people in law enforcement are well trained in various situations if there is an emergency in terms of the safety of a firearm, she said.

Capt. Robert Vasquez of the SFPD said, Were asking a lot of our teachers already when asked his thoughts on arming teachers, adding that it would require considerable training. He said it was a better idea to find the right people, like retired police officers who are already familiar with weapons to serve as armed security at schools.

Superintendent Garcia said the school district had been exploring security upgrades even before the Parkland massacre. She said that as soon as April the school district may be implementing a visitor check-in system that can scan a state-issued ID or drivers license and perform a quick background check. She said reallocating about $325,000 from funding approved by district voters earlier this month could be to used to purchase a door barricading system was another option to improve safety and security. All those things would require approval by the school board.

Santa Fe High School seniors Sophie Colson and Willie Wiebe also spoke. Wiebe said he felt armed security at schools would be a distraction and a reminder of school shootings that have occurred elsewhere. Colson thought of armed security with experience with a weapon could be a reasonable compromise. Its a reminder, but some action must be taken, she said.

Santa Fe Public Schools will hold a community forum on the topic of school safety and security at 5:30 p.m. tonight at the B.F. Young building, 1300 Camino Sierra Vista.Campaign finance statements released Tuesday show that the five candidates to be Santa Fes next mayor have ramped up spending with just one week to go before the March 6 election.

Author and entrepreneur Alan Webber, who has now raised more than $285,000 for his campaign, spent $94,500 since his last report was filed on Feb. 9. His biggest expense, nearly $32,800, went to Bouchard Gold Communications, of Valdez, NM, for whats listed as mail fees. Hes spent more than $73,000 with Bouchard Gold since the campaign started.

Webber also spent $28,000 with Philadelphia-based The Campaign Group, Inc. for radio buys.

More than $22,000 went to his own campaign, including nearly $9,700 to Holguin Campaigns, headed by his campaign manager Neri Holguin, and the remaining $12,680 going to three members of the campaign staff in charge of field operations, fundraising, and communications.

Webber received more than $17,000 in contributions from individuals during the reporting period and another $6,750 from businesses. The report lists Fit, Inc. a Santa Fe spa and fitness gym, and a political committee affiliated with the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, each contributing the maximum amount of $2,500.

His report states that he still has nearly $44,000 in his war chest to spend in the final week of the campaign.

School board member Kate Noble still has $37,000 left to spend after spending $16,000 in recent weeks. Only three of the expenses were for more than $1,000  an $1,809 expense to Santa Fes The Printers for copying and printing, $1,548 to Katrina Mendoza for video and Spanish translation, and $1,500 to her campaign manager, Alysha Shaw.

Noble raised the most of any candidate in the past 2 weeks. The nearly $26,000 she brought in was mostly relatively small donations, but she did get $2,500 each from retirees Barrett Toan and Paula OBrien, who share the same address, and $2,000 from Garrett Thornburg, founder of Thornburg Investment Management, Inc.

Also running for mayor are three city councilors: Peter Ives, Joseph Maestas and Ron Trujillo.

Trujillo, the only publicly financed candidate in the race, spent $19,651 in recent weeks. More than $12,000 of it went to Print Express, of Albuquerque, for direct mail services. He spent another $3,124 with Santa Fe-based Slazer Technologies for flier design, photography and a marketing package, bringing the total amount he has spent with the company to more than $12,000.

Trujillo now has $12,421 of the $60,000 he was allocated under the citys public campaign finance program left to spend the rest of the way.

Maestas spent $13,608 since Feb. 9, $9,116 of it going to Don Mickey Designs, Inc., of Albuquerque, for direct mail services. He also paid his campaign manager Logan Davis $1,500 and spent a little more than $1,000 with Santa Fes Copy Power, Inc. for walk pieces.

Maestas raised nearly $8,000 for his campaign, the biggest contribution, $2,000, coming from Gabriel Martinez, president of GM Emulsion, LLC, of Santa Fe.

Thanks to a $10,000 loan from himself, Maestas has $10,626 left in his campaign coffer.

Ives listed $6,121 in expenses on his most recent report. More than $2,000 was spent on ads with the Santa Fe New Mexican, while another $1,335 went to Cisneros Design, Inc., of Santa Fe, for website hosting and campaign material.

He reported $2,150 in contributions this period and still has just under $9,000 left in the bank.

Three other groups filed reports Tuesday.

One that hadnt previously submitted a report is the International Association of Firefighters, Local 2059. Its only income came from a bank transfer of $1,500 from itself. The union group, which is endorsing Trujillo, spent $400 on an ad with the New Mexican and $200 with Facebook.

People for Santa Fe, a political committee supporting Trujillo, received a $500 cash donation from the Cincinnati-based grocer Kroger. It also reported a $1,371 in-kind contribution from the American Beverage Association for consulting and data.

People for Santa Fe, which has received nearly all of its contributions from Coca-Cola and the ABA, hasnt spent anything recently and still has $9,913 left to spend on the effort to get elect Trujillo, who was the only city councilor to vote against holding last years special election asking voters whether early childhood education programs should be supported by a tax on the distributors of sugary drinks, which was soundly defeated.

The Luciano Lucky Varela for New Mexico PAC, which so far has spent $400 on one newspaper ad endorsing Trujillo and three city council candidates, has been idle this month. It still has $10,599 in the bank.Last year, Albuquerque submitted a proposal to host Amazons new American headquarters, estimated to create 50,000 jobs in the selected location. In January, Amazon announced Albuquerque would be one of the 237 unlucky cities to have its proposal rejected.

Recently, it was published in the Albuquerque Journal that the proposal contained incentives that came directly out of the Severance Tax Permanent Fund. The State Investment Council had examined any options available using the permanent funds, as per emails between a state and former Albuquerque official, and $124 million in Severance Tax funds was available for economically targeted investments to N.M.-based entitites.

I dont intend to suggest the Amazon proposal would not have been a legitimate boon to Bernalillo County and our state, but the Amazon proposal underscores a serious issue that only our campaign is discussing. Despite the proposal, and the reallocation of investment funds within it, Amazon ultimately decided not to bring its business to Albuquerque because we have not made investments into our own state. As long as we continue to not invest in our own infrastructure, our own education, our own communities and our own businesses, opportunities to attract companies like Amazon will be unsuccessful.

The proposed investment wouldnt change the facts; as of today, our state doesnt have the resources needed to host companies like Amazon. We dont have the infrastructure. We dont have the workers. We dont have the schools. The fact of the matter is, major corporations wont move blue- and white-collar jobs to a state that doesnt have the secondary economy, the investment in communities or flourishing small New Mexican businesses.

As governor, Ill challenge the status quo and bring the major changes our families desperately need.

Its time for big ideas that will foster major changes to New Mexicos economy. By investing $1.154 billion of our $23 billion in Severance Tax and Land Grant permanent funds  or just 5 percent  into 95 percent of our economy, small businesses, technology value-added agriculture, work programs, education, renewable energy and infrastructure, we will create much more than 50,000 jobs, we will create 225,000 new jobs. We will implement our plan from day one and New Mexico families will see an immediate impact on their lives.

Ninety-five percent of New Mexicos economy is powered by small businesses that employ some 450,000 workers. The lack of investment capital and our business structure penalize small business growth. Hence, New Mexico startups and growth companies continue to leave our state. This is the backbone of our economy; it is sinful that the State Investment Council and economic officials prioritize investment opportunities in multinational corporations, but not in New Mexicans.

We need to vastly increase the investment in our own businesses and people, but the Gov. Susana Martinez administration and economic officials have insisted on mocking proposals to attain such ends while attempting to provide economic relief to multinational corporations. With more than 450,000 New Mexicans already employed by small business, investment here will provide far more sustainable success for our communities and directly help more New Mexicans.

Jeff Apodaca is the son of former N.M. Gov. Jerry Apodaca and former first lady Clara Apodaca. He lives in Albuquerque.WASHINGTON  It is one of the dirty habits of our political discourse that so many people use thermonuclear rhetorical weapons as a first resort. It is not enough for defenders of gun rights to be wrong; they must be complicit in murder. It is not enough for gun control advocates to be mistaken; they must be jack-booted thugs laying the groundwork for tyranny.

These competing apocalypses, paradoxically, make politics appear smaller  the realm of unbalanced partisans and professional hyperventilators. But more destructively, this type of argument makes incremental change  the kind that our system of government encourages  more difficult.

This is a particular shame on the issue of gun violence. The maximal solutions  broad restrictions on gun ownership or fixing the mental health system  are so difficult or unlikely that they have become obstacles to action. They are something like, on the issue of global warming, recommending that the earth be moved farther from the sun.

But on guns, there is hope in focus. While overall gun violence in America has gone down dramatically in the past few decades, the use of guns in suicides  constituting about two-thirds of gun-related deaths  and in mass killings have spiked. Gun use in domestic violence and gang-related activity present particular challenges. No single policy will solve all these problems. But in each discrete area, good policy would make a difference.

When it comes to mass killings, we know what the perpetrators generally look like: Disappointed loners, motivated by grudges, seeking fame and planning their violence carefully. So here is an answerable public policy question: What can we do to identify these dangerous malcontents and keep military-grade weaponry out of their hands? We should be considering: special police task forces that actively identify and track prospective killers instead of passively responding to warnings. Higher age restrictions on gun access. Broader application of gun violence protective orders that forbid gun ownership to people exhibiting warning signs. Better education on those warning signs among adults who deal with young men. Media norms against using the names of mass killers, which only encourages their deadly performance art.

Surely there are other focused, proactive responses, as well. Yet, on the left, such ideas are sometimes dismissed as unambitious. And on the right, these proposals reveal a durable division.

When it comes to American gun culture, the issue of motivation matters a great deal. If you defend access to guns for sport and self-defense, there is no logical reason to reject reasonable restrictions on firepower and access. Some compromise  focused on keeping guns out of the hands of dangerous and unstable people  is within the realm of possibility. But if you view the ultimate purpose of gun ownership as resistance to a future, or present, tyrannical government, then restrictions on firepower and access are exactly the things a tyrannical government would want. Since the goal of an oppressive state is to have a monopoly on sophisticated weaponry, any incremental movement toward that goal is unacceptable.

This argument  summarized by David French as the concept of an armed citizenry as a final, emergency bulwark against tyranny  is perhaps understandable in a country born of revolutionary violence. But more than two centuries removed from the revolution, the concept seems, well, frightening.

When I look at many of the people holding the guns, I dont really view them as legitimate protectors of my rights, or as qualified to make choices about the employment of violence in politics. I dont view America as halfway to tyranny. And I am grateful that Americans such as Martin Luther King Jr.  who suffered actual oppression by government  made a principled commitment to nonviolent political change.

It is one thing when Thomas Jefferson said the tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is another thing entirely when your well-armed neighbor says the same.

I have no idea how much this attitude infects the right. But the fever can be measured in talk of a deep state coup against the president, in sympathy for Cliven Bundy in his armed standoff with federal agents, in support of Texas Gov. Greg Abbott when he ordered the State Guard to monitor the Jade Helm Navy SEAL/Green Beret joint training exercise. All destructive madness.

It is not just apocalyptic language, but apocalyptic thinking that paralyzes our political system on gun violence. And it is difficult to see how incremental progress can be made unless that mindset is marginalized.

Michael Gersons email address is michaelgerson@washpost.com. (c)2018, Washington Post Writers Group.WASHINGTON  Andrew Cilek might be  this is just a hunch  unaware that 2018 is Brooks Brothers bicentennial. Judging by what he wore when he went out to vote in Minneapolis on Nov. 2, 2010, his preferences in shirts run less to button-down Oxford cloth than to chatty T-shirts. The question the U.S. Supreme Court will consider today is whether Cileks expressive shirt impermissibly interfered with Minnesotas interest in maintaining peace, order and decorum at polling places.

Minnesota forbids voters from wearing in a polling place political badges, buttons or other insignia designed to influence and impact voting, or promoting a group with recognizable political views, even if the things worn do not refer to any candidate or issue on that days ballot. Nine other states have similar laws, and all 50 states have speech-free zones around polling places. Cileks T-shirt featured the Gadsden Flag (Dont Tread on Me) and a small tea party logo. He also sported a button, from a group worried about voter fraud, that read Please I.D. Me. He was temporarily prevented from voting, so, being a real  that is, litigious  American he went to court.

The Supreme Court has found no constitutional infirmity in campaign-free zones, but Minnesotas law as Cilek experienced it seems to mandate a First Amendment-free zone, which he says is unconstitutionally overbroad. Minnesota has admitted its law also would forbid apparel bearing the logos of, for example, the Chamber of Commerce and the AFL-CIO, which do indeed have recognizable political views. These might  to use the language of campus speech police  trigger in people who see them  what? Political thoughts perhaps tangentially related to candidates or propositions on the ballot?

A lower court upheld the law used against Cileks T-shirt as furthering Minnesotas legitimate interest in polling-place peace, order and decorum and the integrity of its election process and  the nanny state never sleeps  to protect voters from confusion and undue influence. Whats more offensive, the paternalistic condescension of the government assuming that confusion will somehow discombobulate voters who glimpse, say, an American Legion or NAACP sweatshirt, or the governments hubris as censor of undue influence?

It is one thing to ban, as the court has allowed, active solicitation of votes in or close to a polling place. It is, however, a bit much for Minnesota to forbid passive expression of political  very broadly defined  allegiances not associated with any person or issue being voted on. What about a shirt emblazoned with the words America is the land of opportunity? Those words, which a guide for University of California employees says can constitute a microaggression, could trigger fainting spells among voters at polling places sniffing for the reek of unchecked white privilege.

And what about a T-shirt with a pristinely unpolitical message  e.g., I despise cocker spaniels  that might disturb some sensitive souls in a polling place? The Supreme Court can try to enunciate what is unimaginable  clear standards concerning every conceivable language use in a hypersensitive America. Or the court can give its squint of strict scrutiny to all such polling-place laws, many of which will not pass muster. Otherwise, polling-place officials will have broad discretion to lay down the law, if it can be dignified as law, on an ad hoc basis concerning what is and is not a recognizable political view or undue influence.

The First Amendment was ratified in 1791. One hundred and twenty-eight years passed before the court confronted a case  three cases, actually  squarely concerning freedom of speech. Dealing disgracefully with residues of Woodrow Wilsons wartime semi-totalitarianism, the court held: During wartime, the government can restrict speech that could create a clear and present danger of evils that Congress has the power to prevent. And the guarantee of free speech does not protect printing leaflets urging disruption of the war effort. And Wilsons administration did not violate the amendment when it imprisoned Eugene Victor Debs  he had received 6 percent of presidential vote as the Socialist Partys candidate in 1912  because he made an anti-war speech.

Nowadays, the court frequently adjudicates speech controversies because governments eagerly embrace sinister rationalizations for balancing free speech against competing values, to the detriment of free speech. Hence the court should affirm Cileks admirably prickly resistance to Minnesotas officiousness. Today more than ever, with freedom of expression increasingly threatened, an Americans default position regarding restrictions should be: Dont tread on me.

Wills columns, including those not published in the Journal, can be read at abqjournal.com/opinion  look for the syndicated columnist link. E-mail: georgewill@washpost.com; copyright, Washington Post Writers Group.IFJ concerned over CJ Parajulis order against Kantipur on contempt of court case

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) has expressed serious concern over the interim order issued by the Supreme Court of Nepal against Kantipur Daily on contempt of court case.We get it: utility regulation is a complex business, and our state regulators have to find that sweet spot that balances consumer and business interests while also complying with state and federal laws and understanding tax law to boot. Thats why sometimes its so important to take a step back and see the forest for the trees  or the wind turbines.

Xcel Energy operates in eight states. Its subsidiary, Southwestern Public Service Co., has been in Roswell for more than a century and serves about 385,000 people in New Mexico and West Texas. Xcel is proposing two huge wind farms  a 522-megawatt facility between Portales and Lovington, and a companion 478-megawatt facility north of Lubbock, Texas.

Once built, the $1.6 billion wind farms, combined with 230 megawatts of wind from a nearby NextEra facility, would provide enough electricity to power about 440,000 average homes annually  easily a quarter of the states population.

Xcel says the farms would save ratepayers about $2.8 billion in electric costs over 30 years by offsetting higher fuel costs from natural gas and other sources. The company has agreed to cap cost recovery for the project  which it is entitled to  at $1,675 per kilowatt, is guaranteeing the wind farms will produce a minimum annual output of 48 percent of capacity, and says customers will be credited 100 percent of the federal production tax credits for wind generation it will receive once the farms come online. The project would bring at least $57 million in local spending for New Mexico contractors, vendors and labor. And it has the seal of approval from the New Mexico Attorney Generals Office, the Coalition for Clean Affordable Energy, the environmental group Western Resource Advocates and the PRCs utility division staff.

So it is troubling Public Regulation Commission hearing examiner Elizabeth Hurst wants PRC commissioners to reject Xcels proposal  which all the aformentioned entities have signed off on  to recover lost earnings that accumulate during the time that lags between when the wind farms actually come online and when the commission eventually approves new rates for cost recovery and profits on its project.

Because what business is willing to invest $1.6 billion and then operate up to two years without making any money?

And this is happening at the same time New Mexico is trying to move away from traditional coal-generated power and is seeing Public Service Company of New Mexico not only shutter two units at the San Juan Generating Station, but prepare for the ultimate shutdown of the plant in 2022.

Hurst is right to want to ensure the agreement doesnt run afoul of the law and end up setting rates retroactively. But the fact is, allowing Xcel/Southwestern to simply set interim rates with the understanding adjustments will be made accordingly is not retroactive rate-making; it is establishing a reasonable rate placeholder, a tool that protects and provides certainty for all involved. Under Hursts plan, customers would be benefitting from the electricity generated by the facilities while Southwestern would go up to two years writing off its earnings.

And who can afford to do that?

Not Xcel, which has already mentioned moving its plans to Colorado or Minnesota, even though New Mexico and Texas have the best wind save for offshore and deliver more reliable power and more reliable savings.

As the PRC considers Xcels proposal and Hursts recommendation, it is important commissioners step back and consider New Mexicos goals on renewable energy, the many entities backing this plan as well as the federal tax credits that make it economically feasible (those expire March 22).

Because this is an opportunity New Mexico doesnt want to see gone with the wind.

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.PANAMA CITY  Panamanian police on Tuesday handcuffed a security guard working for President Donald Trumps hotel here, in the midst of a dispute in which the hotels majority owner has tried to fire the Trump Organization  and Trump employees have refused to leave.

The guard was brought down an elevator by police who arrived at the luxury hotel Tuesday morning, and driven away in a patrol car.

The guard was detained for denying officers access to hotel offices, according to two witnesseswho spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the ongoing legal dispute. It was unclear whether he had been formally arrested.

That detention came on a day when a long-running standoff over the fate of the Trump hotel  pitting the majority owner against the Trump Organization, which manages the property  escalated sharply.

There were physical altercations between rival groups of security guards, the visit by the police officers, and a triumphant piano performance by the majority owner, Orestes Fintiklis.

As the day went on, it appeared that Fintiklis strategy  to short-circuit a drawn-out legal battle over the hotel by showing up and asserting his power as owner  might be working.

The Panamanian Labor Ministry is investigating whether Trumps employees have violated the labor code, by refusing to honor Fintiklis letters of termination. The public prosecutor is also examining whether Trump employees have disregarded lawful orders from their employer.

One of Fintiklis lawyers, Anibal Herrera Zurita, told The Washington Post that at least 11 Trump hotel employees have been asked to attend a hearing on Wednesday before a justice of the peace, a civilian municipal authority, over allegations that they blocked access to Fintiklis property and refused his orders. A justice of the peace has authority to order jail time or fines.

The Trump Organization has said that it has a contract to manage the hotel through 2031, and that Fintiklis has no legal cause to break it now. The two sides are already involved in both a federal-court case in the United States, and international arbitration.

All we ask is that we be able to manage the hotel in accordance with our management agreement without interference, Trump Organization attorney Alan Garten said, while the underlying dispute is being litigated in arbitration.

The White House did not respond, when asked if President Trump had been briefed on the fight at one of his companys 12 luxury hotels.

Trump says he has handed day-to-day control over his businesses to his adult sons. But Trump still owns his businesses  including the one that manages the Trump hotel in Panama  and can withdraw money from them at any time. Trumps most recent financial disclosure listed $810,000 in revenue from the Panama hotel, over a period of 15 and a half months.

Some of the events at Trump International Hotel in Panama on Tuesday were witnessed by a Washington Post reporter, and others were detailed by witnesses and lawyers for Fintiklis.

Witnesses said the conflict on Tuesday morning began around 9:40 a.m. on the T1 floor, one story above the hotels 15th floor Sky Lobby, with views of the Pacific Ocean. The 70-story tower, designed to look like a billowing sail, includes both the hotel  managed by Trump  and a section of residential condominiums, managed by others.

On that floor is a room that is effectively the buildings brain. It contains surveillance monitors, and servers that control the buildings fire alarms, fiber-optic communications, and water pumps.

In the past, it had been shared by Trump staff and staff of the residential section.

But on Friday, witnesses said the Trump Organization had posted guards at the room and barred everyone else from entering.

Since then, the room had been the scene of several confrontations.

On Tuesday, the conflict turned from yelling to physical altercations, according to a video seen by The Washington Post. At least three staff from the residential building  including security guards  managed to enter the room at 9:40 a.m.

A chaotic scene ensued of shoving and shouting as Trump guards tried to evict them.

Someone grabbed me by the neck and wrestled me down. Then he continued attacking everyone, said a building staff member, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly. He estimated the argument lasted nine minutes.

At least five Panamanian police officers arrived at the hotel and broke up the rival groups.

Herrera, the lawyer for Fintiklis, said that the Trump Organization had brought in an additional 20 private guards who were staying at the hotel.

At one point, the police commander on scene sought to enter the administrative offices on another floor, but he was blocked by one of Trumps guards, according to two people present. This was the guard who was handcuffed.

Also on Tuesday morning, Fintiklis himself entered the hotel, intent on firing nine employees from the Trump Organization. He could not find them, Fintiklis attorney said.

The Trump Organization still hadnt been removed from the hotel management. But now, Fintiklis was at least inside. After the guards detention, he went to the lobby piano and played Beethovens Fur Elise.

When he finished, those in the lobby  guards, staff and lawyers largely aligned with Fintiklis  broke into applause.

Im a multitalented mobster, Fintiklis said, a joking reference to the Trump Organizations allegation that he had used mob style tactics.

Beyond that, Fintiklis declined to comment.Copyright  2018 Albuquerque Journal

SANTA FE  Gov. Susana Martinez, in comments this week during a meeting with President Donald Trump and other governors, suggested retired New Mexico law enforcement officers should be put to work making schools safer.

The two-term Republican governor, a former prosecutor who has in the past touted her concealed carry firearm permit, said such an approach would require little training and could lead to fewer school shootings.

I do see that there is a huge pool of retired law enforcement officers where municipalities and counties have actually invested a lot of money into training them, and now theyre retired, Martinez said Monday at the White House, where governors were meeting with Trump.

Gun ownership and school safety issues have come under heightened scrutiny in recent days, after a Feb. 14 mass shooting at a Florida high school left 17 people dead. The suspected shooter, a 19-year old former student, used a semiautomatic weapon in the attack that he had legally purchased.

Governors around the country have also waded into the debate, with some calling for an increase in the minimum age to purchase an assault rifle  its currently set at 18  and other gun control measures.

Martinez has not discussed her stance on such measures, and her office did not respond to questions about whether the governor supports Trumps idea to allow some teachers to carry concealed handguns into classrooms as a defense mechanism. That proposal, supported by the National Rifle Association, has been blasted by many educators.

However, a Martinez spokesman provided comments the governor made during her visit to the White House earlier this week. She had traveled to the nations capital to take part in a National Governors Association meeting.

In her remarks, Martinez thanked Trump for listening to governors concerns, and said that allowing retired law enforcement officers to return to work as school security officers would be a cost-effective way to improve school security. Specifically, she said retired officers experience and training would be beneficial when it came to installing school security cameras and keeping our schools and our school personnel safe.

But state Rep. Patricio Ruiloba, D-Albuquerque, a former Albuquerque Police Department officer and school resource officer at Atrisco Heritage Academy High School, suggested that having more social workers in schools would be a better approach to school security than having more police officers.

You can put as many cops as you want in a school, but if the students dont trust them theyre not going to report anything, Ruiloba said in a Tuesday interview. I would prefer to hear the governor say that we need to have more social workers helping administrators.

He also said having more social workers and counselors could lead to a greater awareness of students with mental health problems.

Its unclear how many, if any, retired police officers are currently working in New Mexico schools.

Jan Goodwin, executive director of the Educational Retirement Board, said both the University of New Mexico and New Mexico State University have hired retired police officers in the past, but she did not have data on retired officers working for K-12 public schools.

Under New Mexico law, retired police officers can return to work as school security officers while still collecting their pension benefits.

They cannot do that if they return to work for state law enforcement agencies, however, since New Mexico outlawed double dipping in 2010 due to concerns that it stifled internal promotions and strained a state retirement fund.

Martinez has supported legislation at the Roundhouse in recent years seeking to change the law, but such attempts have stalled in the Democratic-controlled Legislature.

Meanwhile, a school resource officer, who was also a member of the local sheriffs department, was on campus when the recent Florida school shooting occurred, but reportedly did not enter the school because he believed the shooting was coming from outside.FARMINGTON  The Navajo Nation has canceled a planned wild horse hunt aimed at thinning a herd in an Arizona area after opponents of the hunt organized a protest against it.

The tribes Division of Natural Resources rescinded on Monday a proclamation declaring the 2018 feral horse management hunt designed to remove 60 horses from the Carrizo Mountains in northeastern Arizona, according to a notice on the Navajo Nation Department of Fish and Wildlifes website.

Navajo Nation President Russell Begaye said in a statement that the hunt will be postponed and the proclamation was rescinded to allow for public input and education, the Farmington Daily Times reported.

There are more than 38,000 feral horses on Navajo Nation land, according to a 2016 study conducted by the Navajo Fish and Wildlife Department.

Horse advocates, including members of the Facebook group Indigenous Horse Nation Protector Alliance, organized a rally for Friday in Window Rock, Ariz., to protest the hunt.

Gloria Tom, director of the Navajo Nation Department of Fish and Wildlife, said the public outcry led to the cancellation.

Navajo Nation Speaker LoRenzo Bates said in a statement that his office was not aware that the executive branch had made a decision to issue permits for hunting feral horses.

As Navajo people, we are taught to respect all life forms and that includes horses, Bates said. Considering the cultural and historical factors, and concerns over water shortages and overgrazing  this is certainly an issue that should have been brought before Navajo leadership and medicine people to discuss and consider.

If the hunt had not been postponed, hunters accompanied by wildlife conservation officers would have been able to kill non-branded horses that were at least two years old. Hunters would have been prohibited from killing mares with foals.

The proclamation called for removing up to 60 horses over a six-day period.

Begaye urged Navajo chapters to pass resolutions to address feral horse management in their regions. Begaye said the division of natural resources will put in place a horse management strategy.

Implementation of this plan is required to ensure a sustainable future while preserving the land and natural resources that sustain Navajo tradition and culture, Begaye said.

Navajo Nation cancels plans for wild horse hunt in ArizonaDaniel Martinez had nothing to say.

Martinez was released from the hospital just over two weeks after police say he and six others carried out an Edgewood gas station robbery that left Michael Pelkey dead in the parking lot.

Martinez, 30, refused to answer questions by the media Tuesday night as he was escorted from the entrance of the State Police headquarters in Albuquerque to a waiting patrol car ready to take him to jail.

New Mexico State Police Lt. Elizabeth Armijo said Martinez was hospitalized for seven days after accidentally shooting himself in the leg one day after the robbery.

Armijo said security guards responded to a suspicious person at an Albuquerque hotel and, when they found Martinez, he ran and the gun in his pants went off.

She said Martinez got away, limping to a fence and jumping over it.

Armijo said when State Police found him at a southeast Albuquerque home a week later, the wound had gotten so bad the agents said they could smell it.

If he had been left a few more days he probably wouldve died, she said.

Martinez was taken into custody without incident and hospitalized for seven days.

He is charged with Pelkeys murder alongside Daniel Gonzales, 29, Morgan Ramirez, 30, Donald Gregory, 46, Veronica Martinez, 30, Eileen Sandoval, 48, and Misty Nevarez, 29.

Gonzales, Ramirez, Gregory, Veronica Martinez and Eileen Sandoval were taken into custody on Feb. 16. Nevarez was arrested a day later.COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo.  A 17-year-old boy has been sentenced to seven years in a youth detention facility for his role in the shooting death of a Colorado Springs liquor store owner.

The Gazette reports the boy was sentenced Tuesday on a charge of second-degree murder stemming from the Feb. 15, 2017, death of 68-year-old Donat Herr. The teen faces up to 28 years in adult prison if he causes problems at the youth facility.

Prosecutors say 19-year-old Phinehas Daniels shot Herr, who used pepper spray against three accomplices.

Daniels faces 50 to 70 years in prison when he is sentenced May 10. A 13-year-old accomplice was sentenced last year to 6  years in a youth detention facility.

___

Information from: The Gazette, http://www.gazette.comBEIRUT  The Syrian governments battle to recapture the rebel-held eastern suburbs of Damascus is likely to be a long and bloody fight because of the presence of thousands of battle-hardened fighters who have had years to prepare.

Many of the fighters entrenched in eastern Ghouta are originally from the area and move around using an elaborate network of underground tunnels, giving them an advantage against President Bashar Assads forces and their Russian- and Iranian-backed allies.

The territory of some 400,000 residents is the last major opposition-controlled area near Assads seat of power, and the rebels have been targeting the capital with volleys of mortar shells, disrupting life in a reminder that they can deprive the city of peace as the government, backed by Russia, rains down bombs and carnage on the besieged area. If government forces retake eastern Ghouta, only one small pocket south of the capital held by the Islamic State group will remain out of government control.

Among the more than 20,000 fighters in eastern Ghouta, a few hundred belong to the al-Qaida-linked Levant Liberation Committee, giving the government a pretext to continue with its assault. Rebel factions want the al-Qaida-linked fighters to leave and blame the government for preventing it.

In a letter on Monday to U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres, the three main rebel factions in eastern Ghouta said they were committed to making al-Qaida-linked fighters and their families leave within 15 days. An official with one of the most powerful groups, the Army of Islam, said that if the al-Qaida-linked fighters dont leave or abandon the fight, all options are open against them, including the use of force.

Here is a look at the rebel groups involved in the battle for eastern Ghouta.

___

ARMY OF ISLAM

One of the most powerful rebel factions in Syria, the Army of Islam is backed by Saudi Arabia and adheres to the ultraconservative Salafi ideology of Islam. It was founded by Zahran Alloush, who was in prison for anti-government activities and adopting a hard-line Islamic ideology when the uprising against Assad began in March 2011. He was released months later.

Since the rise of the Islamic State group in 2014, the Army of Islam has repeatedly clashed with the extremists, as well as with al-Qaida-linked fighters. The group is headquartered in the town of Douma, the most populated area in eastern Ghouta.

The group started with a small number of fighters soon after protests in Syria turned into an armed insurgency, and grew under Alloush to an estimated 10,000 fighters armed with tanks, armored personnel carriers, artillery and mortars.

The Army of Islam has been blamed for major human rights violations, including the 2013 kidnapping of a prominent opposition activist, Razan Zeitouneh, and her colleagues, who remain missing. The Army of Islam denies it was behind the kidnapping.

In 2015, when eastern Ghouta was under intense government bombardment, Alloush ordered members of Assads Alawite minority confined to cages in public areas and markets, using them as human shields to try to prevent further airstrikes, and drove the captives around Ghouta in cages placed on trucks. Alloush was killed in an airstrike in eastern Ghouta on Christmas Day 2015 that was blamed on Russia.

Abu Ammar Dalwan, the Army of Islams political chief, vowed in an interview with The Associated Press to fight until the end. We will not negotiate to leave Ghouta, he said.

The Army of Islam is taking part in U.N.-sponsored peace talks in Geneva, as well as negotiations in the Kazakh capital of Astana sponsored by Russia, Iran and Turkey.

____

FAILAQ AL-RAHMAN

Failaq al-Rahman, or Al-Rahman Corps, is the second-largest rebel group in eastern Ghouta after Army of Islam. Backed by Turkey and Qatar, it controls most of the central parts of the region, including the towns of Arbeen, Kfar Batna, Saqba and Hammouriyeh, which have been among the hardest hit in recent fighting. The group also controls parts of the Damascus neighborhood of Jobar.

The group has about 8,000 fighters, the vast majority of them from eastern Ghouta. Like the Army of Islam, it is well-armed, and a video released recently showed it has primitive factories that produce mortar shells and rocket-propelled-grenades.

The groups military commander, Abdul-Nasser Shmeir, is a former captain of the Syrian army. The group is also taking part in the peace talks in Geneva and Astana.

____

AHRAR AL-SHAM

Ahrar al-Sham has been involved in deadly battles against fighters of the al-Qaida-linked Levant Liberation Committee in the northern province of Idlib and Aleppo.

Although at the start of their rise the group adopted an extreme ideology, now it markets itself as a moderate rebel group. In eastern Ghouta, it has a strong presence in the Damascus suburb of Harasta and nearby areas.

Months after the uprising against Assads government began in March 2011, Ahrar al-Sham was founded by several Islamists, including Mohammed Baheya, who had links to al-Qaida leader Ayman al-Zawahri. Baheya reportedly fought against U.S. troops in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Baheya was killed in a suicide bombing in 2014 while trying to mediate between the Islamic State group and the al-Qaida-linked Nusra Front. Ahrar al-Sham survived its most serious blow in September 2014, when an explosion in Idlib province killed some of its top figures, including its leader, Hassane Abboud.

___

LEVANT LIBERATION COMMITTEE

The Levant Liberation Committee rejects any peace talks with the government and because of its ties to al-Qaida is considered a terror organization by the United Nations.

It has about 600 fighters in eastern Ghouta, a small number compared to the estimated 20,000 rebel fighters in the area.

Since the end of 2017, there have been on-and-off negotiations to try to evacuate the al-Qaida-linked fighters and their families from eastern Ghouta, but the rebels say Assads government has frustrated all such attempts as a pretext to keep attacking the area.LOS ANGELES  New Mexicos Wes Studi will take the stage at todays Oscars to present an award. But the actor, among the few Native Americans included in the ceremonys 90-year history, has reason to feel like a winner.

I see it as an acceptance of my participation in the business over a number of years, Studi said from his home in Santa Fe. Its like being invited to the party.

It also signifies something larger, said Studi, whose credits include Avatar, The Last of the Mohicans and Dances With Wolves.

Its a time when were all hopefully embracing the diversity of the world we live in, and Hollywood has a way of reflecting that, he said.

He may be the first American Indian presenter at the Oscars, Studi said, a possibility echoed by Sonny Skyhawk, an actor and longtime activist. Academy librarians were unable to confirm that, because presenters arent tracked.

But the academy acknowledged that a scant number of Native Americans have taken part in the ceremony since it was launched  although famed humorist Will Rogers, who was of Cherokee heritage, did host in 1934.

Nominations have gone to three Native Americans, all Canadian, including actors Chief Dan George in 1971 for Little Big Man and Graham Greene in 1991 for Dances With Wolves and musician Buffy Sainte-Marie in 1983 for the original song Up Where We Belong, which won the Oscar.

When Dances with Wolves won for adapted screenplay, writer Michael Blake invited film consultant Doris Leader Charge to join him onstage. She also translated his remarks into Lakota Sioux.

There was one unexpected appearance: In 1973, actress and activist Sacheen Littlefeather subbed for Marlon Brando at his request, rejecting his best-actor award for The Godfather. Brando had said his decision to refuse the trophy was, in part, to protest the depiction of Native Americans on-screen.

All ethnic groups face stereotyping in movies and on TV, but American Indians also have stubbornly scant opportunities as well. Thats in contrast to recent African-American progress with films including this years best-picture nominee Get Out and last years winner Moonlight.

Ive been advocating for our stories and images for 40 years, said Skyhawk, whose credits include Young Guns II.

Studi, asked if he intended to use his moment in the spotlight, said he has no grand statements planned: Its enough of a statement to be there.

Skyhawk concurred, adding, Its been a long time coming. But he hopes for more.

Until we get to a point where were offered roles that are academy-worthy, are Golden Globe-worthy, were going to be on the outside, looking in, he said.

The Oscars will be telecast beginning at 6 p.m. MST on ABC and hosted by Jimmy Kimmel.SAN DIEGO  President Donald Trump has won a judges permission to build a border wall with Mexico. Now he just needs the money.

A judge who was taunted by Trump during the presidential campaign sided on Tuesday with the president on a challenge to building the wall. U.S. District Judge Gonzalo Curiel rejected arguments by the state of California and advocacy groups that the administration overreached by waiving laws requiring environmental and other reviews before construction can begin.

Big legal win today, Trump tweeted in response to the ruling. He didnt mention his prior remarks about the judges Mexican heritage.

Despite the victory, Congress has yet to fund the wall and Trumps demands that Mexico pay have gone nowhere. This month, the Senate rejected a request for $18 billion that was part of a package including sharp cuts to legal immigration and permission for young immigrants to stay in the country after they were temporarily shielded from deportation under an Obama-era program, Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals.

Trump said in a tweet Wednesday sections of the wall will not be built until the whole Wall is approved.

The president tweeted: I have decided that sections of the Wall that California wants built NOW will not be built until the whole Wall is approved. Big victory yesterday with ruling from the courts that allows us to proceed. OUR COUNTRY MUST HAVE BORDER SECURITY!

The White House did not immediately answer questions about the tweet.

Trump berated Curiel during the campaign for his handling of fraud allegations against now-defunct Trump University, suggesting the Indiana-born judges Mexican heritage reflected a bias.

Curiel mentioned his Indiana roots in his 101-page ruling on the wall when he cited another native of the state, U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts, who wrote in another case that courts should not make policy judgments.

The court cannot and does not consider whether the underlying decisions to construct border barriers are politically wise or prudent, Curiel wrote.

Curiel wrote that the law certainly is not a model of legislative precision and that both sides made plausible arguments, preventing him from making a clear finding that the administration overreached.

The administration has issued three waivers since August, two to build in parts of California and one in part of New Mexico. President George W. Bushs administration issued the previous five waivers, allowing the government to quickly extend barriers to about one-third of the border.

The Center for Biological Diversity said in its lawsuit that the waiver authority cannot be interpreted to last forever. California argued that it expired in 2008, when Homeland Security satisfied congressional requirements at the time on how much wall to build.

The judge declined to second-guess the administrations findings that waivers were issued in areas of high illegal entry, a requirement set by Congress. The advocates argued that dramatic declines in border arrests undermined those findings.

During arguments this month, the judge peppered both sides with questions about the laws meaning. He showed strong interest in a requirement tacked on in late 2007 for Homeland Security to consult other federal agencies, state and local governments, Indian tribes and property owners to minimize the impact of construction, which challengers said the administration failed to do.

Curiel said in his ruling that the laws lack of specifics prevented him for concluding that the administration failed to properly consult others.

The Center for Biological Diversity, which sued along with the state of California and three advocacy groups, said it would appeal. Construction can proceed for now.

California Attorney General Xavier Becerra said, We will evaluate all of our options and are prepared to do what is necessary to protect our people, our values, and our economy from federal overreach.

The Animal Legal Defense Fund said it may ask the U.S. Supreme Court to intervene. The Sierra Club said the environmental and other reviews are critical to protecting border communities, but the group didnt discuss its next step.

U.S. Justice Department spokesman Devin OMalley welcomed the decision, saying Congress granted authority to build a wall without delay and that the administration is pleased it can continue this important work vital to our nations interests.

Homeland Security spokesman Tyler Houlton added, Simply put, walls work.

The decision came days after construction began on a 30-foot (9.1-meter) high barrier in Calexico, California, the administrations first wall project outside of eight prototypes in San Diego that were completed in October and are intended to guide future construction. Both projects carry a relatively small price tag and were funded last year.Lalo Alcaraz is always up for a challenge.

For decades, the cartoonist has tackled Latino issues in his artwork.

When I started doing political cartoons, there were many issues, and immigration has always been one, he said. Over the course of 25 years, it has become the national issue. Its very important to keep hitting on these subjects, because they will always be issues.

Alcaraz will lead a talk at 5:30 p.m. today at Woodward Hall on the University of New Mexico campus.

The free event is part of The US-Mexico Border: Place, Imagination, and Possibility, an exhibition at 516 ARTS and the Albuquerque Museum with citywide public programs.

Alcaraz is known for creating the comic La Cucaracha, which was the first nationally syndicated, politically themed Latino daily comic strip.

Alcaraz said his talk will be from the creation of his cartoons to the political climate right now in the country.

He said growing up in San Diego and Tijuana affected the creation of all his work.

I wanted there to be Latino representation in the media, he said. I pumped out years of cartoons with Latino story lines, which is what we still have to do. I wanted to keep the discussion of Latino issues out in the forefront.

His visit to New Mexico will also feature a meet-and-greet session at 6 p.m. Friday at Low n Slow Lowrider Bar, 125 Washington St., Santa Fe. The event is sponsored by the New Mexico chapter of National Association of Hispanic Journalists.

Albuquerque is one of my favorite places in the world, he said. Once I get there, I take an Uber to Barelas to go eat. I roll in with my luggage. Nothing better than that place.

If you go

WHAT: Cartoonist Lalo Alcaraz

WHEN: 5:30 p.m. today

WHERE: Woodward Hall, University of New Mexico campus

HOW MUCH: FreeAll eyes on left alliance

The Nepali people are eager to see what kind of development policies the new left alliance government will bring, and how it will implement them.SANTA FE  A court-appointed special master is recommending the removal of five administrators who help manage the state agency responsible for helping needy New Mexicans buy groceries.

The Income Support Division of the state Human Services Department lacks accountability  creating an environment where failure is an accepted part of the ISD operation and culture, special master Lawrence Parker wrote in a recent report.

U.S. District Judge Kenneth Gonzales has ordered about a dozen state administrators involved in the division to appear at a hearing this morning.

The class-action lawsuit, filed in 1988, accuses New Mexico of violating peoples rights by imposing inconsistent and excessive requirements on applicants seeking benefits, delaying eligibility decisions and failing to provide emergency food assistance in time.

The agency and plaintiffs agreed to a consent decree in 1998, and a special master was appointed in 2016 to serve as an objective adviser and help the state come into compliance.

The appointment came shortly after Gonzales held Human Services Secretary Brent Earnest in contempt for failing to comply with court orders aimed at improving the administration of food aid and Medicaid benefits.

In his recent report, Parker, the special master, told the judge that some parts of the consent decree are impractical and he noted that the state has made some progress.

But he also highlighted a number of problems under the current leadership  including the improper denial of benefits to clients when employees made it look like the applicants had more resources than they did, blocking their access to benefits.

Due to reactionary management philosophy, Parker wrote, the management continues to struggle with strategic decision-making and implementation of changes to facilitate improved processes and outcomes.

He recommended the removal of five officials from any position that affects field operations in the Income Support Division, among other changes.

The Human Services Department objected to the special masters findings and recommendations.

In general, the Special Masters report does not reflect the historic progress the department has made in complying with the 30-year-old consent decree, spokeswoman Mary Elizabeth Robertson said in a written statement. We agree with the Special Master that a receiver, as the Plaintiffs have requested, is not necessary.

Parker said he considered recommending receivership but determined it wouldnt immediately resolve the deficiencies.

The New Mexico Center on Law and Poverty has worked as the lead attorney and advocate for the plaintiffs. In a court filing, the center agreed with the special master about the leadership problems and said there is insufficient management or program expertise and a lack of strategic planning and coordination.

About 223,000 families in New Mexico receive benefits through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.Tim Nitti, CEO of the New Mexico Economic Development Partnership, had some candid words for his audience at the Albuquerque Economic Forum breakfast.

We are uniquely good about broadcasting a negative message about this state, he said. And yet, if you ask anyone here if theyd consider leaving New Mexico, they become incensed.

The result, according to Nitti, is a confusing message for out-of-state corporations looking to relocate or expand. Changing that requires a skeptical look at the way the state has historically marketed itself and an understanding that such an approach often stymies efforts at bringing new businesses here.

Nitti said that historically, the state has relied on the following talking points when pitching New Mexico to the broader business community:

 It is inexpensive to do business here compared with other places.

 The state has several economic development incentive programs, a message that, when presented early in the process, translates to well pay you to do business here.

 New Mexicans are in desperate need of employment.

 The state has great weather and a good quality of life for its residents.

What is required is a shift to the following, according to Nitti:

 The state has several features that will align with what a business needs to succeed.

 There is a favorable competitive environment here that allows employers access to talented employees.

 The quality of life here will lead to employee retention, and the reasonable cost of doing business here is a value proposition for many organizations.

 There are economic incentive tools that will allow New Mexico to compete with other states  a point that should be raised at the end of the process.

Nitti also said that economic development organizations throughout the state must significantly develop their pipeline of potential projects.

Across the board, the pipelines are just not deep enough, said Nitti. Companies typically narrow down their sites to three to five finalists. Were talking about a 20 to 30 percent chance of winning a project if everything goes well.

The Partnership is a not-for-profit, public-private group that contracts with the states Economic Development Department to attract new business. At the end of the Forum meeting, a representative from the New Mexico Gas Company presented Nitti with a $35,000 check to go toward the Partnerships economic development efforts.ROME  The man tapped by Silvio Berlusconi as his likely choice for Italys next premier met Wednesday with laid off Italian union workers and vowed to pull strings to intervene in the politically clamorous closure of their Turin refrigerator factory.

European Parliament President Antonio Tajani met with the delegation on the sidelines of a parliamentary plenary meeting in Brussels, a sign that Italys election isnt far from his mind even as he continues with his day job.

Tajani, who is about half-way through his stint as parliament president, has emerged as one of the most talked-about possibilities for premier after Sundays election, which analysts say is far more unpredictable than Italys usual chaotic political fare.

While polls have consistently placed the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement as the top vote-getter for a single party, its margin isnt expected to be enough to govern alone. That could give the edge to Berlusconis center-right coalition of his Forza Italia party, the anti-immigrant nationalist League and the right-wing Brothers of Italy.

Berlusconi, who cant run for office because of a tax fraud conviction, has flagged Tajani as a possible coalition-pleasing moderate, a loyal Forza Italia ally who was with Berlusconi when the media mogul founded the party and won his first premiership in 1994.

Often uttered in the same breath as Tajani as a stable possible choice is the current premier, Paolo Gentiloni, in the event of a Forza Italia coalition with the Democratic Party of Matteo Renzi.

Italian President Sergio Matarella will hold consultations in the days after the vote to try to sound out who could form a government. Jumping the gun late Tuesday was 5-Star leader Luigi Di Maio, who sent Matarella a list of his proposed cabinet.

With just five days to go before the election, the political campaign in some ways shifted outside Italy on Wednesday.

Tajani met in Brussels with the delegation of workers from Whirlpools Embraco plant near Turin, which is slated for closure. He vowed to intervene with U.S.-based Whirlpool and Brazil-based Embraco to make them understand that this isnt the way to invest positively in Europe.

Another Berlusconi ally, meanwhile, Giorgia Meloni, traveled to Hungary to call on its right-wing, populist leader, Viktor Orban.

Meloni, whose extremist right-wing Brothers of Italy party is a junior partner in Berlusconis conservative coalition, said she wanted to copy Orbans fight against immigration, his defense of Europes Christian roots and call for greater sovereignty for EU member states.

Berluconis other key ally, League leader Matteo Salvini, stayed closer to home, cheering from afar as three regional governments signed agreements with the Italian government that allow them to enter negotiations for greater autonomy. The signings could give a boost for the League, which backed successful autonomy referendums in the Lombardy and Veneto regions last fall.

In the final days of the campaign, analysts predict several weeks of gridlock and negotiations after the election.

We have a situation that is very complex, hard to predict, but full of opportunities, said Franco Pavoncello, president of John Cabot University in Rome.

__

AP writers Lorne Cooke in Brussels and Colleen Barry in Milan contributed.CAIRO  Egypts chief prosecutor told his staff Wednesday to closely monitor the media and move against any they consider to be hurting national interests, the latest move by authorities to suppress any dissenting voices ahead of elections seen as virtually a one-man race ensuring the re-election of President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi.

The government has already sought to exert heavy control over reporting on the March 26-28 election, issuing guidelines barring journalists from asking people who they would vote for beforehand or from conducting any polling. Authorities have also increasingly depicted criticism as a violation of national security at a time when Egypt is trying to revive its economy battered by years of turmoil and contain an insurgency by Islamic militants.

In a brief statement, top prosecutor Nabil Sadeq said forces of evil  one of el-Sissis hallmark phrases  have recently been trying to undermine the security and safety of the nation through the broadcast and publication of lies and false news.

Prosecutors should take legal action against media outlets that disseminate false, news, statements or rumors that could instill terror in society, hurt the public interest or disrupt peace. Media regulatory bodies must notify prosecutors of violations by media outlets, it said.

It is a step backward that fits into a context of a diminishing freedom of the press, said Yahya Qalash, a former head of Egypts Journalists union. The danger here is not just to the freedom of the press, but to the survival of journalism as a profession in Egypt.

A general-turned-president, el-Sissi has worked to quiet much of the media, demanding everyone fall in line with his policies to restore stability. But the threat of prosecution marks an escalation. In past years, authorities have generally used indirect methods to silence dissenters. The state media and most privately owned TV networks are loyal to el-Sissi and spearheaded by powerful talk show hosts who lavishly praise his policies, cover up failures and demonize critics.

Critical TV personalities have been removed from the air and dozens of independent and Islamist news sites on the Internet have been blocked. With pro-government media sometimes depicting foreign press as promoting a negative image of the country, cameramen in the streets can sometimes face harassment from crowds or police.

The sharper tone against the media comes at a particularly sensitive time  in the run-up to elections. El-Sissi has overtly warned that criticizing the vote or casting doubt on its legitimacy will not be tolerated. In past weeks, a string of would-be candidates were forced to drop out of the race or were arrested. In the end, el-Sissi is running against an obscure politician who has expressed his support for el-Sissi and entered the race at the eleventh hour to prevent the embarrassment of el-Sissi running unchallenged.

The state election commissions guidelines for media coverage of the vote prohibited publishing any opinion polls during the five days preceding the vote and until it ends. It banned reporters from asking voters about their preferred candidate or conducting exit polls. Offenders would have their accreditation revoked.

Commenting on Sadeqs statement, media expert Yasser Abdel-Aziz said Egypts war against Islamic militants may justify measures against controversial media outlets, but he cautioned that its a step that reinforces fears about the already diminishing margin of freedom allowed by authorities.

Writing on his Facebook page, prominent rights lawyer Nasser Amin said the prosecutors statement would likely have a destructive impact on rights and freedoms on the one hand as well as the Egyptian judicial system on the other.

In its latest skirmish with the media, authorities on Tuesday called on officials and prominent individuals to boycott the BBC until the network apologizes for a report it broadcast on repression of dissent under el-Sissi that addressed torture and forced disappearances.

The State Information Service, which accredits foreign media representatives and monitors their coverage, also wants the BBC to publish its statement alleging the report contained inaccuracies.

The BBC report included interviews with activists and other individuals describing police abuses, including a mother who says her daughter was arrested by police a year ago and has not been seen since. It has dominated Egypts media over recent days, with pro-government commentators branding the report as another attempt to defame the country or spread propaganda inspired by the Muslim Brotherhood, an outlawed Islamist group.

Egyptian authorities has waged a fierce crackdown on Islamists since 2013, when el-Sissi as defense minister led the militarys ouster of an Islamist president, Mohammed Morsi of the Brotherhood, whose one year in office proved divisive. Thousands of Islamists have been arrested, and the campaign has also targeted secular pro-democracy activists, many of whom are now in prison.

El-Sissi has emerged as a global voice against Islamic extremism and has won praise for carrying out tough reforms seen as vital to repairing the economy. He has said he wants to build a modern and democratic state but has also said liberties must take a backseat to ensuring stability and fighting terror.

___

Associated Press writer Samy Magdy contributed to this report.WASHINGTON  President Donald Trumps former campaign chairman was reprimanded by a federal judge Wednesday for speaking publicly in violation of her gag order in his criminal case.

The rebuke of Paul Manafort came as he pleaded innocent to the latest charges brought by special counsel Robert Muellers Russia investigators.

Manafort appeared at the federal courthouse to enter a formal plea to a second indictment accusing him of acting as an unregistered foreign agent and directing an international money-laundering conspiracy stemming from his political work in Ukraine.

It was his first court appearance since his co-defendant and longtime business associate, Rick Gates, pleaded guilty and agreed to cooperate with prosecutors.

Manafort had previously pleaded not guilty in the case, but the latest indictment, which mirrored the charges filed against him last October, required him to formally enter a second plea. Manafort also faces charges in Virginia accusing him of tax evasion and bank fraud.

During the hearing, Judge Amy Berman Jackson set a Sept. 17 trial date for Manafort and reprimanded him for making a public statement last week about Gates plea. She said his statement violated a gag order she put in place early in the case.

I can certainly understand the impulse to not let that go by without asserting your innocence, Jackson told Manafort, referring to Gates plea and hundreds of news articles about it. But it cant happen again, she said, or she could hold him in contempt.

Manaforts lawyer, Kevin Downing, told the judge his client would appreciate more guidance from the judge on what he can and cant say publicly. Downing also said he plans to file a motion challenging her order.

Manaforts statement last week took aim at the prosecution, saying Gates plea didnt change his commitment to defend himself against the untrue piled-up charges contained in the indictments against me.

Manafort also said he had hoped and expected Gates would have had the strength to continue the battle to prove out innocence.

For reasons yet to surface he chose to do otherwise, Manafort said.

Manafort is due back in court later this week, this time in Virginia, where he faces a separate indictment involving bank fraud and tax charges.

The allegations stem from much of the same conduct outlined in the Washington case, and prosecutors attempted to have all the charges brought in the pending case there. But Manafort objected, resulting in his facing two indictments in two different places at the same time.

On Wednesday, Jackson said the situation could lead to a lot of duplication for both sides.

Prosecutor Greg Andres acknowledged the overlap in the two indictments but said any request to combine the case would be Manaforts to make.Albuquerques rape kit backlog received national attention on Wednesday after NBCs Left Field released a short online segment on the issue.

The camera pans across rows and rows of the citys 4,000 untested rape kits stored by the Albuquerque Police Department before cutting to Mayor Tim Keller.

Keller discussed his past efforts to tackle the problem on a statewide level as state auditor and current initiatives as Albuquerques new mayor.

Keller signed an executive order in January that calls on APD and the Albuquerque Sexual Assault Evidence Response Team to create a plan for clearing the citys backlog.

This really is about priorities, Keller states on camera. If we put the same kind of effort that we did into building a new fountain downtown, we could have eliminated half the rape backlog.

New Mexico has the highest number of untested rape kits per capita in the nation, Keller said as state auditor.

As auditor, Keller released an audit in December 2016 that uncovered more than 5,400 untested kits around the state.

I cried a bunch of times in those (evidence) rooms, Keller said of the experience.

Albuquerque Chief Administrative Officer Sarita Nair, who served as general counsel under then-auditor Keller, is also featured in the segment.

For about 20 percent of the kits we found (during the audit), unfortunately, that it was sort of a symptom of not believing the victim. Words like, witness didnt cooperate, witness didnt follow up,' Nair said of the reasons some kits went untested. Those things are really coded language for, we didnt want to test the kit because we didnt believe the victim.'

Keller has been critical of Albuquerque for not moving more quickly on its backlog after the audit was released, while the state stepped up to speed up processing.

Since Keller took office, around 300 of Albuquerques untested rape kits have been sent for testing.

The executive order stated the comprehensive plan is to be completed by March 15.DENVER  U.S. Interior Secretary Ryan Zinkes plan for a major realignment to put more of his departments decision-makers in the field has a fundamental flaw in the eyes of some who spent their careers making those decisions: Theyre already out there.

Eleven former Interior Department officials with decades of experience in both Washington and in local offices told The Associated Press the agency already has a well-established system for decentralized decision-making.

Ninety percent-plus of the decisions that get made get made at the local level, said Scott Florence, who retired after 38 years with the Bureau of Land Management, the Interior Departments second-largest branch.

The problem, some said, is that over the past few years, an increasing number of decisions that should have been made locally were ultimately decided in Washington because of political pressure, under both Democratic and Republican administrations.

And since 91.5 percent of the departments workforce of about 70,000 is already based outside the Washington area, most of the former interior employees said they doubted pushing more employees out of Washington would improve things.

Zinke has made the overhaul of the Interior Department  which manages 780,000 square miles (2 million square kilometers) of public lands, mostly in the West  a signature mission since taking over the agency a year ago. He says it would streamline bureaucracy and lead to better decisions made closer to the field.

Parts of his realignment proposal have run into resistance from some politicians from both parties, particularly in the West, who fear it will disrupt relationships between state and federal officials. That criticism echoes a 2015 letter sent to leaders of the Bureau of Land Management, objecting to a far more modest proposal to combine the bureau offices in New Mexico and Arizona.

The letter from 13 members of Congress  including Zinke, then a Republican congressman representing his home state of Montana  also expressed fear the proposal was part of a larger plan to create more multistate offices in the bureau.

We believe this is a poor model and should be abandoned, the lawmakers wrote.

The Interior Department eventually dropped the idea in the face of opposition from both Democrats and Republicans.

Interior Department spokeswoman Heather Swift said Zinkes reorganization proposal, which includes appointing 13 new regional directors , is different than the attempted merger of the two offices in 2015.

State-federal relationships would be strengthened under his proposal because governors and other officials could contact regional officials, she said.

More decisions and authority will be at the regional level, with fewer decisions kicked up to Washington, so the ability of governors to reach key decision makers will be enhanced by the secretarys proposal, she said.

The 11 former Interior Department officials who spoke with the AP came mostly from the Bureau of Land Management but also the National Park Service and the Fish and Wildlife Service. Their job experiences ranged from park ranger to director of the Fish and Wildlife Service. Each spoke on the record.

Their opinions on Zinkes proposal ranged from skepticism to strong opposition, and all said they knew of no former Interior Department employees who supported it. But one of the 11  Dan Ashe, the former Fish and Wildlife Service director  said reorganizations are almost always unpopular.

Some worried moving more career employees with field experience out of Washington would make things worse.

By having those people there, they at least have some influence on the decisions that are being made in Washington, said Mike Ferguson, a wildlife biologist who became the Bureau of Land Managements top financial officer before he retired.

If you move them west, you break that link, but the decisions are still going to be made in Washington, he said.

Some said the problem with the departments current structure is that a growing number of local decisions are being made in Washington by political appointees for political reasons. The trend has continued under both Republican and Democratic administrations, they said.

Washington officials once dictated to Interior Department workers in Idaho what kind of vegetation they could plant after a wildfire on federal land, said Steve Ellis, who retired in 2016 as deputy director of the Bureau of Land Management.

That is a field-level decision, he said. But it became very political, probably because the livestock industry wanted a specific kind of grass for cattle.

Swift said the former employees have the same concerns as Zinke about decisions being made in Washington, not locally.

But restructuring the agency and moving employees arent the solution, Ferguson said.

Its not a matter of changing the organization. Its a matter of allowing the employees in the organization to do the job that they were hired to do, he said.

___

Follow Dan Elliott at http://twitter.com/DanElliottAP. His work can be found at https://apnews.com/search/dan%20elliott .

___

This story has been corrected to show the Interior Department spokeswomans last name is Swift, not Smith.NEW YORK  Gabby Giffords political organization is focusing on six high-profile members of Congress this fall  House Speaker Paul Ryan, among them  in a 2018 midterm strategy that will use high school students to challenge Republican lawmakers it blames for blocking efforts to curb gun violence.

The group known as Giffords, named for the former Democratic congresswoman from Arizona who survived a shooting in 2011, says it plans to spend at least $10 million to influence the November elections. Seizing on the influential activism of student survivors of the Parkland, Florida school massacre, the group has begun planning student summits and high school voter registration drives in coordination with like-minded groups to engage students across the country.

Everytown for Gun Safety, a group backed by former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, has signed up more than 10,000 high school and college student volunteers in the days since the shooting that left 17 dead at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.

A big part of our political program is going to be lifting these voices up and making sure voters are hearing directly from students who are literally protesting for their own lives, said Peter Ambler, Giffords executive director. Our responsibility as an organization dedicated to safer gun laws is to take this extraordinary amount of grassroots enthusiasm you see around the country, this outrage and anger in the aftermath of Parkland shooting, and channel it toward 2018.

Giffords and her husband Mark Kelly have for years pushed Congress to enact gun control measures with little success. They shifted their focus to state legislatures in recent years, helping to strengthen background checks and domestic violence protections, among other modest protections. The group says it sees the midterms election as a moment to try to build on the momentum.

The groups initial incumbent-defeat priority list features all Republicans, most serving in suburban areas considered key battlegrounds in the Democratic Partys push to reclaim the House majority in November. The list includes:

 Ryan, a 10-term Wisconsin congressman who controls the House agenda as the chambers top Republican.

 Colorado Rep. Mike Coffman, whose district is close to the site of three mass shootings since 1999: Columbine, Aurora and Littleton.

 Rep. Vern Buchanan, whose district is northwest of the massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High

School.

 Rep. Pete Sessions, of Texas, who is among the Houses top recipients of campaign contributions from the gun lobby.

 Rep. Barbara Comstock, whose suburban Virginia district is home to the National Rifle Associations national headquarters.

 Nevada Sen. Dean Heller is the only senator on Giffords list. Hellers state was the scene of the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history, which left 58 people dead and more than 800 injured.

Giffords and Kelly plan to visit each of the targeted districts in the coming weeks to rally voters against the Republican incumbents, Ambler said. Their group will also fund TV and online advertising, a series of local events and voter registration drives to keep the pressure on.

Across this country, we will spend every day until the polls close reminding Americans of the power they have  the power to vote, Giffords, who still struggles with speech after being shot through the head, said in a statement.

Giffords group has received $5 million in new donations in the last five days, Ambler said. Still, the surge of interest in gun control has made little impact on Capitol hill.

Just two weeks after the Parkland shooting, momentum to pass significant gun control measures in Congress already appear to be stalling. At the same time, the National Rifle Association and its allies are expected to pour money and energy into key races this fall as well. And while Heller, Comstock, and Coffman are considered particularly vulnerable in their re-elections, Ryan has not lost an election in two decades.

NRA spokeswoman Jennifer Baker said it was too early to discuss the organizations midterm strategy. She declined to comment on other organizations plans, but noted that the NRA would use its voice in the coming weeks and months to shape politics and policy.

Our job is to defend and protect the 2nd Amendment, Baker said. So as this debate moves forward and legislative proposals are introduced, we will weigh in, make our positions known, and let our members know what their lawmakers positions are.

___

This story corrects that Buchanans district is northwest of the Florida school massacre.PATTAYA, Thailand  A Belarusian woman jailed in Thailand for offering sex lessons without a work permit says she has a story to tell involving the Kremlin, Russian billionaires and even the president of the United States.

Anastasia Vashukevich, whose extraordinary claims and racy selfies have propelled her to internet fame in recent weeks, told The Associated Press from a police van Wednesday that she fears for her life, and wants to exchange information on alleged Russian ties to Donald Trumps campaign for her own personal safety. But she refused for now to offer any such evidence, and its not clear if she has any.

Vashukevichs story offers a glimpse into the shady world of Russian oligarchs. Trumps onetime campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, also had ties to that world through his consulting work for one of those oligarchs. Manafort has been indicted on money-laundering charges related to his overseas consulting work by special counsel Robert Mueller. But Mueller has offered no evidence that Manafort linked his Russian contacts to Trumps campaign or helped Russia meddle in the 2016 U.S. election.

That has not stopped Vashukevich from claiming she has such evidence as she faces possible deportation.

Vashukevich shot to fame in early February when Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, one of President Vladimir Putins top foes, published an investigation drawing on Vashukevichs social media posts suggesting corrupt links between billionaire Oleg Deripaska and a top Kremlin official, Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Prikhodko. The report featured video from Deripaskas yacht in 2016, when Vashukevich claims she was having an affair with him.

Russians have focused on the ties between Deripaska and Prikhodko. But now Vashukevich says  so far without proof  that she can link the Kremlin to Trump and Manafort, who worked for Deripaska a decade before Trump hired him.

Even Navalny told the AP on Wednesday he has certain doubts that Vashukevich has any evidence about alleged direct ties between Russia and the Trump campaign.

I think such statements are made because of fears for her own life because they have been detained in Thailand, he said, adding he believes her fears are well-founded.

Navalnys report made no claim that Vashukevich knew anything about a Russian campaign to influence the U.S. election, and she has produced no evidence that she does.

As for her claims of Deripaskas ties to the Kremlin official, Deripaska has called them nonsense when Navalny alleged them.

In an emailed response Feb. 8, Deripaskas spokesman said: These scandalous and mendacious assumptions are driven by sensationalism and we totally refute these outrageous false allegations in the strongest possible way.

Deripaska sued Vashukevich and her sex guru, Alexander Kirillov, for breach of privacy. The Russian court imposed an injunction, and communications providers blocked access to Navalnys website for several weeks until he deleted the videos.

A Feb. 15 statement from Deripaska said: Mr. Deripaskas claim is to protect his right to privacy and has nothing to do with any political struggle between Mr. Navalny and his political opponents.

A request for comment Wednesday from the Russian government went unanswered.

Peter Carr, a spokesman for Mueller, declined to comment Wednesday.

On Sunday, Vashukevich was arrested along with nine other people, including Kirillov, in the Thai resort of Pattaya while giving sex lessons to Russian tourists. Immigration Police Maj. Satawat Srirattanapong said the 10 were charged with working without a permit, and one with having an expired visa.

Vashukevich said she wont give details of what she knows until she is guaranteed she wont be sent to Russia.

I can say something only when I will be in a safe place, sorry, because I am worried about my life, Vashukevich told the AP from a police van that was taking the detainees from Pattaya to Bangkoks Immigration Detention Center.

Vashukevich had earlier posted a video on Instagram, also apparently made while in custody in Pattaya, addressed to Dear American media.

I didnt want to tell you about many things. Now theyre trying to lock us up, she said. But now Im ready to put together all the pieces of the puzzle that you have been missing, and back it up with audio and video regarding the ties of our esteemed lawmakers with Manafort, Trump and all this buzz around the U.S. election. I know a lot.

Trump has repeatedly denied that he colluded with Russia to influence the U.S. election.

Kirillov, the sex guru known in Russia for staging high-profile sexual happenings that usually involve sending scantily clad women out in public, told AP from the police van that the Russian government was behind their arrests.

Political reasons. We know so much. So thats why they want us to go to Russia, he said. We think that in a few days, maybe even today, they will send us to Russia, very fast, and I think you will lose us, and never see us more.

Kirillov and Vashukevich have both recorded their activities on social media, with racy photos and videos taken in many countries. One of the tamer photos on Kirillovs feed shows him posing in front of Trump Tower in New York. Kirillov, who Thai police say is Russian, posts under the pseudonym Alex Lesley. Vashukevich, who is from Belarus, uses the name Nastya Rybka.

They were arrested in a hotel meeting room in Pattaya, a seaside resort noted for its sex industry and popularity with Russian visitors. The lessons were attended by about 40 Russian tourists, many wearing T-shirts bearing the English words Sex animator with an arrow pointing to the wearers crotch. Thai news media cited police as saying that the meeting was raided because hotel staff reported hearing strange sounds.

Satawat, the police major, said all 10 arrested people have had their visas revoked and will be detained at the Immigration Detention Center in Bangkok until the charges of working illegally are resolved. He said police have up to 48 days to process the cases before handing them to prosecutors. If they plead guilty, he said, their cases could end without trial and they could leave the country.

Canceling a visa normally allows a country to expel a person without having to go through the legal process of extradition.

Putin spokesman Dmitry Peskov denied Wednesday that the Russians case had anything to do with a visit to Thailand by Russian Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev. He said Patrushev often makes overseas visits arranged in advance.

Its ludicrous to link this to the detention of Russian nationals in Thailand, he said.

Navalny said given recent events  including a cocaine bust at the Russian Embassy in Argentina  he wasnt so sure.

I dont know what to think, Navalny told the AP. Shows like Homeland begin to look entirely realistic when you look at what is happening in Russia now. We thought the scriptwriters made the most impossible things up, but in Russia the most absurd things are possible.

___

Vasilyeva reported from Moscow. Associated Press journalists Tassanee Vejpongsa in Pattaya and Grant Peck in Bangkok contributed to this report.SANTA FE  Gov. Susana Martinez on Wednesday signed 23 bills into law, including legislation to overhaul a New Mexico guardianship system that had come under scrutiny in recent month for secrecy and financial irregularities.

The 60-page bill is designed to prevent abuse and exploitation of thousands of incapacitated people who are under court-ordered guardianship or conservatorship programs around the state.

The new changes are less sweeping than originally proposed, but involve increased transparency and greater involvement of family members. With the governors signature, they will take effect in July.

Meanwhile, the two-term Republican governor also struck down a bill that would have granted future New Mexico governors  not her  and other elected statewide officials their first pay raises since 2002.

Martinez had vowed to veto the salary increase legislation, which would have raised the governors annual salary from $110,000 to $121,000, starting in January 2019.

Through a relentless commitment to responsible stewardship of taxpayer dollars  like balancing budgets and cutting taxes  New Mexico has a budget surplus of hundreds of millions of dollars, Martinez said in a statement. I will not waste a dime of it on doling out taxpayer dollars on pay raises for politicians.

The legislation, Senate Bill 176, passed both legislative chambers by decisive margins during the recently completed 30-day session, with supporters saying some state elected officials make less money than their top appointees.

In addition to governor, the bill would have raised the annual salaries of the secretary of state, attorney general, state auditor, state treasurer, commissioner of public lands and the five members of the Public Regulation Commission.

Rep. Larry Larranaga, R-Albuquerque, one of the bills co-sponsors, said the idea was floated because state workers and teachers are scheduled to receive pay raises under a $6.3 billion budget plan still on the governors desk.

Since state elected officials salary levels are set by state law, adjusting them requires both an appropriation in the budget bill and approval of a change in statute.

We thought it would be a reasonable thing to provide an increase in compensation to state officials, too, Larranaga said.

Among the other bills signed by Martinez on Wednesday were five measures aimed at helping military veterans and their families. The governor said the bills reflected her priority of protecting those who put their lives on the line for our freedom.

One of those bills, House Bill 67, will make it a crime to make false claims about military service for personal gain. Such an offense will now be a misdemeanor, starting in July.

Martinez has until March 7 to act on more than 80 bills additional bills passed during this years legislative session. Bills not signed by that deadline are automatically vetoed.Attempt to muzzle media draws flak

Political parties, journalists bodies and organisations working in the field of freedom of speech and expression have expressed concern over Chief justice Gopal Prasad Parajulis order to the Press Council Nepal to probe news reports published by the Kantipur daily.The popular belief is that readership of Magazines is declining, and is declining possibly faster than newspapers. The new IRS 2017 numbers indicate a stupendous growth in Magazine readership. Magazines almost doubled the Total Readership from 40 million in IRS 2014 to 78 million in the latest IRS 2017. The growth has come from the urban areas, which added 22 million readers; and also rural India added 17 million readers. That is a whopping 95% growth in the Total Readership of magazines in India, and this growth is coming only from Print and does not take into consideration the online portals of magazines. The total readership of newspapers also registered a growth during the same period, of 40%.

Association of Indian Magazines (AIM) briefed Bang in the Middle to create a campaign that puts this 95% growth in sharp focus. The campaign is devised to showcase the dramatic growth in readership.

For the agency the creative challenge was large, the campaign could not be descriptive that just informed the readers about growth in readership. The campaign has to make the reader stop and drive the feeling that they knew reading magazine had never gone out of fashion.

As the idea, Bang in the Middle kept the execution simple. The campaign is designed around the intrigue of number 95%. The 6 ad campaign builds the growth in readership by making the ads contextual to the reader segments.

Speaking about the campaign R. Rajmohan, President of AIM said we at the association knew that magazine readership is very robust and when the new numbers were released it only added to our confidence. AIM took this opportunity to build on the habit of reading magazines and drive its relevance to both readers and advertisers.

Prathap Suthan, Managing Partner and CCO of Bang in the Middle said The brief was sharp and singular. Let the world know that Total Magazine Readship has grown 95%. Big growth. Big number. Big picture. Big story. And all of that came alive in the campaign. We didnt have to get creative for creatives sake. The number was dramatic by itself. We just had to make sure the number come through bold. With a small witty statistic to add in some wit, and with a hidden image inside the big 95% that hinted and revealed a hidden consumer story. The execution too worked to make it topical for different magazine genres.

Naresh Gupta, Managing Partner and CSO Bang in the Middle said It's a happy number and we wanted to drive this feeling of amazement in readers, advertisers and brand owners about this surge in numbers. While many advertisers have always been convinced about the efficacy of magazines, a 95% growth in readership adds to their confidence. Our campaign, in a matter of fact way, builds on the reading habit of our audience

Association of Indian Magazines (AIM) is the national magazine association in India and is affiliated to the global industry association, International Federation of the Periodical Press (FIPP) . AIM members include all the top magazine publishers of the country.

To Read More Visit here.Does the guy have his own house in the city and a car? - A 20th Century sub-continental movie dialogue that still insolently exists at the heart of our society today. Its a very orthodox question that is often thrown to the girl by her family should she express her wish to get married to the man of her choice. This actually happened in my friends case. His then girlfriend, now wife, was faced with the same question and she wiped out even the slightest possibility of suspense by boldly standing her ground and saying that he did, knowing that he owned none of the two. Her parents didnt dare to object further seeing the resolution of their daughter, but my friend understood one thing that day  he was accepted by force, not choice. A rising star in the journalism sector, he discovered his short-comingin the eyes of society. He then decided to buy a car, taking a significant amount in the form of a bank loan. Now you might be thinking why it was so critical for my friend to buy the car. Here comes the magic of ownership and what it brings along with it. The car made him feel complete with greater respect from his in-laws. It also worked as the signal to them and to society that he has stepped onto the stairs of permanent progression and he is going to achieve more. A few months later, over dinner, he was jesting over the fact he was growing ever fonder of the car as he didnt have to be contingent on the mercy of the auto drivers and rickshaw pullers anymore  the car was at his disposal whenever he needed it and wanted to use it.

So, owning things defines our space in the world, extending our physical existence. It also drives away our sense of vulnerability and insecurity stemming from the fear of not being able to control our own fate in the time of need.

Do we really stop there? We also make a conscious effort to flaunt our ownership in regular life. We keep chauffeurs to drive our cars. When we ride alone with him, we sit in the back seat to create a moving billboard of our ownership of the car. Likewise, many other symbols mark ownership in our everyday life. In a family-owned company, separate elevators are kept for the owners. An office cabin marks the superiority of the cabin holder and draws a line between him/her and the rest of the employees. Besides, houses are branded after the owners name; car parking spaces are allocated for designated people in an office building; flats are given names with nameplates; expensive gifts are photographed and posted on social media; and so on. Therefore, by owning things and creating rituals around them, we achieve an edge amongst the many, fortify our sense of security, and enable our roots to spread only to make our presence stronger in society.

What if we dont want strings attached to objects? What happens when they start appearing as pique? What happens when possessions no longer make us feel fulfilled? In a society of surplus, it is likely to happen. A year or two earlier, I was travelling to Delhi and made plans to visit a friend of mine there. He invited me to his place for dinner. After entering his apartment, (I will be completely honest) the first thought that crossed my mind was Wow! He is very well-sorted. The whole place was better than I ever expected  the size, the decor the locality  and in my mind, I was counting his money. In the middle of our conversation, all was revealed and my earlier thoughts burst like a bubble when he informed me all his furniture was actually from Rentomojo! He didnt want to purchase any as he and his wife might move to Bangalore in few months time. Along came the concept of usership  using something when we need it and want it. Also take Uber, Airbnb and Spotify, for example. A car is just a tap away when we need it, but without having the tension of maintaining it. Without staying in hotels, now we can enjoy the comfort of staying in someones home when travelling. With Spotify, the way we listen to music has transformed. Instead of buying tracks like we used to do on iTunes, we now can stream any track whenever we want to.

Before Justin Bieber and usership happened to us (it really doesnt matter if you are miffed about either of them, because both of them are the new reality), we lived in the holy grail of a manufacturing economy, where a product is made, bought, consumed and discarded. What is happening now is often called the sharing economy, which relies on share, exchange and the use of products in the form of service. We dont need to buy a car, a bike or a holiday home  we can share or exchange it instead.

What changes then? Everything or only some of the things? Does the manufacturing economy decide to continue to grow their businesses with the end-users? Will they sell more? Or will they sell less? The concepts of usership and sharing economy are the offspring of a new breed of business concepts, where the product-service providers such as Uber and Rentomojo are found. But if the product-service providers are catering to the need of tens of people with only one car or one set of furniture, then what becomes of the unit economy of the manufacturers? Should the manufacturers redefine their targets and bring the product-service providers into the equation? Should they redesign their offerings? The usage of products in the form of service signals the requirement of transformation in the business plan of the product manufacturers. But by how much and in what form  that is the question.

The manufacturing economy so far has been producing for the traditional form of product consumption, but the new product-service economy brings in new dynamics. However are the current product offerings equipped to cater to this new breed of need? Lets take Uber as a simple example. An Uber car may have to run way more miles than a regular car, which is driven for personal and not a commercial purpose. I would also guess that a car that gives greater mileage yet comes with a strong body can serve the Uber business model better. This may mean car manufacturers have to take these types of insights and demand into account when designing and selling their cars.

These avenues of ideas peep out quite often, leading us to some gripping questions. Should the traditional business model porously embrace the emerging business models? Is it necessary for the luxury and budget hotels to expand into the sharing economy? If they need to then what should be their business model? Many giant businesses have been built on the thousand years-old concept of ownership. But in only one decade the tables have turned and more questions are asked on what the most successful business models should be. How should a manufacturing company adapt to the sharing economy? How much should they let go of their time-old successful business model?

All the answers are unfolding slowly as demand for each business model is revealed with successful purchases.

(Bitop Das Gupta is Director - Strategic Planning at Grey Advertising Bangladesh.)

To Read More Visit here.Customer Logins

Obtain the data you need to make the most informed decisions by accessing our extensive portfolio of information, analytics, and expertise. Sign in to the product or service center of your choice.Jeju, Republic of Korea, June 16, 2017

AIIB Supports Members to Meet Their Commitments Under the Paris Agreement

The Board of Directors of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) yesterday expressed its support for the Banks Sustainable Energy for Asia Strategy to help its members transition toward a low-carbon future. The strategy sets out a clear framework for the Bank to invest in energy projects that will increase access to clean, safe and reliable electricity for millions of people in Asia. To implement the strategy, the Bank will support its members to do their part as expressed in the Paris Agreement to, "hold the increase in the global average temperature to well below 2 degrees Celsius above pre industrial levels and pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5 degrees Celsius". It will achieve this by aligning its support with its members national energy investment plans, including their nationally determined contributions (NDC) under the Paris Agreement. Currently over one billion people across Asia do not have access to secure and clean electricity to run their homes and businesses. By improving the reliability, reach and efficiency of energy in the region, millions of people will benefit from a higher standard of living and better health.

READ MORECabinet decides to graduate Nepal from LDC by 2021

The government has decided to step up its work so as to graduate the country from the category of Least Developed Country (LDC) by 2021. A Cabinet meeting on Wednesday held deliberations on whether or not to graduate the country from the current status of LDC.Concerns over censorship order

The interim order issued by Chief Justice Gopal Parajuli to the Press Council instructing pre-censorship of news concerning the discrepancies in his birth-date mentioned in his official documents has drawn widespread criticism from different sides.Esther Peled is not like other Israeli authors. First of all, she is a woman. While the Israeli literary scene has its fair share of prominent and prolific female authors, the heavyweights of this industry  David Grossman, Etgar Keret, A.B. Yehoshua, Amos Oz  are undeniably male.

But for Peled, who last month won the Sapir Prize for Literature, Israels highest literary honor, gender just scratches the surface of her refusal to follow convention. Widely Open Underneath, Peleds collection of linked short stories that stunned the Israeli literary community by triumphing as this years dark-horse candidate for the honor, traces the life and loneliness of a middle-aged woman, told over the course of 34 short stories that together build a complete puzzle of her emotional and romantic life.

Widely Open Underneath flies in the face of everything readers expect commercially successful literature to be: It centers on a female heroine, crafted by a female author. It delves into the sexual desires of an older woman without a trace of shame or inhibition. Perhaps most radically, it is a self-published work, emerging on the Israeli market without the blessing or guidance of a traditional publishing house and becoming the first ever such work to claim the Sapir Prize.

The discourse this [book] might generate is much more deep and meaningful than the discourse that is related to prizes. Its a significant milestone in current Hebrew literature, Neta Halperin, a prominent literary critic in Israel, told Al-Monitor.

What makes Widely Open Underneath so significant, Halperin said, is that it offers a quiet yet forceful rebuke of the very string that stiches up the fabric of Israeli society  the idea that a woman should always, first and foremost, be a mother.

The Israeli novel tends to deal with family. Family is the great metaphor, Halperin said. But Esther is choosing not to touch [that subject], almost at all. If you insist on seeing her story as a mother and a wife as the center of this piece, then its really overwhelming, the effort youll have to make as a reader.  The story is a woman choosing to live by herself and experience what life brings to her.

In Israel Today, one of the nations largest daily newspapers, Halperin also described the book as not only a refreshing breeze, but a liberating breeze.

Peled herself was as stunned as anyone in her books immense success.

Thank you for this incredibly surprising and joyous thing, Peled said when accepting the award in January in Tel Aviv in an ad-libbed speech. She admitted when she arrived at the podium that she never considered she might actually win, and so she had no formal remarks prepared. Thank you to all those who read my book. It was a big shock to see when it joined the bestseller lists.

As seems fitting, Peled came to fiction authorship in an entirely unconventional way. A trained psychoanalyst, her early writing centered not on the stories of women but on the connection between the brain and the spiritual body. Psychoanalysis and Buddhism: On the Human Ability to Know was published in 2005 and is an academic work exploring the link between Buddhism and the Indian-born psychoanalyst Wilfred Bion.

Peled followed up that volume two years later with To Enhance Good in the World, another academic text that linked Buddhism and psychotherapy, explored as a primer on the basic tenets of the Buddhist religion.

She came to fiction only in 2012, releasing her first work of short stories, The Light of Reality. That project had shades of another great Jewish contemporary writer who cheekily inserts his own avatar into this literature, Jonathan Safran Foer, because Peled herself winks at her readers through the stories. She presents the character of Esti, a student of a teacher by the name of Dr. Esther Peled, who happens to also be the author of a book called To Enhance Good in the World.

Widely Open Underneath is Peleds fourth work of fiction and her greatest commercial success. The Sapir Prize for Literature is sponsored by Israels state lottery and is considered the Israeli version of Britains Man Booker Prize. Peled first earned 20,000 Israeli shekels ($5,740) for making the initial list of 10 nominees, then another 40,000 shekels ($11,480) for her spot on the contests short list of five titles. As the winner, she received 150,000 shekels ($43,000) and her book will be translated into Arabic and another language of her choice.

Peled was the only self-published author and also the veritable newcomer on the shortlist. Shimon Adaf, nominated this year for Tolle Lege, won the prize in 2012 for his novel Mox Nox, and Noa Yedlin, nominated this year for the novel Stockholm, won in 2013 for the novel House Arrest. Fellow nominee Sami Berdugo, nominated this year for Because Guy, went home empty-handed for the fourth time in his career.

The judges of the Sapir Prize had no qualms about their selection of an unconventional author for this honor and wrote in their notes for the ceremony about their respect for her alternative viewpoint, both in terms of the aging, female central character and also the narrative structure that exposes us to her innermost emotional life.

Peleds work describes a womans journey on her way to a room of her own, the Sapir Prize judges wrote in their official notes. At its center is a mature woman who has to renegotiate her own way.  With an extraordinary combination of humor, wisdom and courage, Esther Peled challenges the narrative of the initiation processes of young women.Irans Islamic Azad University (IAU), which was established by moderate Ayatollah Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, is now in the hands of hard-liners who have decided to lay off pro-reform professors.

After Rafsanjanis death in January 2017, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei named his conservative foreign policy adviser Ali Akbar Velayati as the head of IAU's board of founders. Velayati then chose Farhad Rahbar  a senior member of conservative Ebrahim Raisis campaign in the 2017 presidential elections  as chancellor of the university. Following these appointments, Yaser Hashemi Rafsanjani, the late ayatollahs youngest son, was dismissed along with a number of other figures within IAU who were seen as loyal to Rafsanjani.

Of note, Islamic Azad University is the biggest university in Iran and has campuses throughout the country.

After the apparent purge of the administrative apparatus, it seems that pro-reform professors are now being targeted. On Feb. 28, prominent professor Sadegh Zibakalam, who is well-known for his outspoken remarks against hard-liners, told local media that he had been laid off by IAU.

Zibakalam believes that the reason for his and a number of other pro-reform professors dismissals is politically motivated.

When you accurately look at this issue, it seems that the layoffs dont stem from economic issues, because the professors who have been laid off do not think like the managers of Azad University, and their approaches are not identical to the political systems approaches. Thus, a political payoff has been done with those [professors] whose views and behaviors are the same as the political system continuing to work [at the university], said Zibakalam.

In response to the criticisms, the chancellor of IAU stated that he will not tolerate any professor who harms Islam.

At a gathering with a group of IAU staff, Rahbar said Feb. 28, [Some] professors go to a class and they say whatever nonsense they like, and when we question them, they shout and say that [academic] freedom is in danger. He added, We will not tolerate any professor who would like to harm the religion [Islam], the Quran and the Prophet [Muhammad] for one second.

Rahbar also confirmed Zibakalams dismissal, saying, We didnt lay off anyone, but we announced that your action is illegal because you receive salaries from two workplaces.

Zibakalam is a professor at the University of Tehran as well. However, this may not be the reason behind his dismissal as Goudarz Eftekhar Jahromi, another pro-reform professor, said he has also been laid off.

Lawmaker Mohammad Ghomi announced Feb. 28 that the parliaments education commission will pursue the matter. He said the dismissal of university professors for the sole reason of having different views must be condemned.

Meanwhile, citing an unnamed source, the Reformist Etemaad daily reported Feb. 28 that Rahbar had suddenly resigned.

The daily said Feb. 28 that the chancellor resigned due to discontent with Velayatis alleged constant interference in Rahbar's domain, but that Velayati has yet to accept the resignation. Islamic Azad University dismissed Etemaad's report.A senior military adviser to Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei called Feb. 27 for talks with Iraq and Afghanistan on water resources.

At a two-day conference in Tehran, National Water Diplomacy and Opportunities for Hydropolitics in West Asia, former Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps commander Yahya Rahim Safavi said, The issue of the scarcity of water resources may lead to  challenges among countries. In Iran, we have common water [resources] with 12 neighboring countries, which can [lead to] both interaction and tensions.

[Today],10.2 billion cubic meters of water flow out of Iran, of which more than 7 billion enter Iraq, Safavi said. We have to enter into negotiations with countries such as Iraq and Afghanistan and so on.

He added, We do not want [this issue] to be dealt with by the military and hard power and [we should instead] use soft power and diplomacy to bring about common engagement.

He said, Iran is one of the most exceptional countries in the world in terms of hydropolitics, and Afghanistan will be the source of future water [issues].

Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi addressed the conference the same day, sayng, As you know, water has the capacity to instigate conflict between two villages, two cities, or two countries, but history shows that the issue of water has become a matter for cooperation between countries rather than an arena of conflict.

Araghchi added, Negotiations on surface waters and reaching an agreement on the distribution of water resources are not easy. For example, the Helmand Treaty, signed in the 1950s between Iran and Afghanistan, is a product of decades of negotiations.

Explaining the prospect of water conflicts in the Middle East in the near future, Araghchi said, The West Asia region is rapidly moving toward a complete drought. There are currently only nine countries in the region, including Iran, that have not faced a complete drought. But by 2025, all countries in the region, including Iran, will be in a state of complete drought.

He said, In such a situation, all countries are seeking to make full use of their water resources and do not allow water to flow out of their country. Our neighbors will adopt this policy, and we will as well. The country's policy is to stop the flow of water from leaving the country. Of course, this is not so our neighbors become thirsty, but as I said, this needs to be managed.

Mohammad-Ali Sobhanollahi, chancellor of Khawarizmi University, told conference participants, The geopolitical map of the world, which was previously based on energy, will undergo water-related changes in the next 25 years.

He emphasized that the water crisis in the Middle East is more severe compared with other parts of the world. Reports indicate that the water crisis will cause massive displacement in the region in the next 25 years, he told attendees.Rumor is already spreading in Irans political circles about two former conservative presidential candidates determination to run in the 2020 parliamentary elections, a highly important vote that could help clarify the blurriness of what may be ahead in the 2021 presidential polls.

Ebrahim Raisi, who was the primary candidate of the conservatives in the 2017 presidential elections and who lost to incumbent moderate Hassan Rouhani, is rumored to be back on the stage to once again test his popularity on the political stage.

Prior to the 2017 elections, Raisi was rarely involved in political and partisan debates and issues. However, it has always been crystal clear for most observers in Iran where his roots lie.

Raisi spent most of his career in Irans judiciary and was the deputy chief justice from 2004 to 2014, though his position was weakened under current judiciary chief Sadegh Amoli Larijani. In an unexpected appointment by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Raisi was named in March 2016 the custodian of the holy shrine of the eighth Shiite imam, gaining control of one of the wealthiest foundations in Iran. With his power rising due to his position at the shrine, conservatives gained a new face to put forward for the 2017 elections, leading to his nomination.

Conservatives put all their efforts behind Raisi, and they even pressured the other main presidential candidate, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, to withdraw in favor of Raisi. His defeat was costly for him, and many considered it to be the end of Raisis dream of rising to the top echelons of the Islamic Republic.

Now there is intense speculation in Reformist media, and it has even been cited by a number of conservative figures, that Raisi is planning to enter the race for the next parliamentary elections. Mohammad Hosseini, a senior member of the Popular Front of Islamic Revolution Forces  a conservative group known by its Persian acronym, JAMNA  said Jan. 31, Mr. Raisis willingness to enter the elections by relying on the campaigns he has [engaged in] in the provinces is a possibility.

There are signs that point to this direction, though they aren't necessarily limited to political objectives related to the 2020 elections. Following Rouhanis re-election, Raisis media team did not wane but rather kept working and was even strengthened. He is continuously going on trips to rural areas of the country, helping quake-affected people and appearing on TV. These actions are taking place with effective media coverage. In this vein, Raisi has appointed Seyyed Nezamuddin Mousavi, the former head of the hard-line Fars News Agency, as the new head of his media team. Mousavis top media aides have also been brought onboard.

Moreover, Raisis recent trip to Lebanons border with Israel was seen by many as an electoral stunt geared toward attracting attention to his stance as well as securing the support of the religious class in Iran. One source who used to work for the late Ayatollah Abbas Vaez Tabasi, the predecessor of Raisi at the shrine, told Al-Monitor on condition of anonymity that Tabasi engaged in the same kind of trips as Raisi, but he never allowed such media coverage. In contrast, Raisis trip was criticized by a number of Reformist parliament members who referred to it as against the national interest.

Against this backdrop, a report on the Reformist Nameh News on Jan. 20 hinted that Raisi is aiming for the speakership  which even if true, is far from guaranteed if he enters the race for parliament. Indeed, the speaker is chosen based on the composition of the parliament, which holds internal elections. Thus, despite speculation about his political ambitions, it may be too risky for him to lose one of the most influential positions in Iran for an unknown future in parliament.

Conservative analyst Nasser Imani told Iranian media on Jan. 26, Given the position Raisi has, he wont run in the parliamentary elections.  [He wont run in an election] in which he may not be elected as parliament speaker and then becomes a regular [parliament member].

Meanwhile, there are reports that Ghalibaf  who has unsuccessfully run for the presidency three times  is also setting his sights on parliament. Hamid-Reza Fouladgar, a conservative member of parliament, told local media on Feb. 17, It is not unlikely that Ghalibaf and [former hard-line presidential candidate Saeed] Jalili are thinking about [running] in the parliamentary elections. Some of these figures can show their abilities in parliament. After 12 years, Ghalibaf was recently replaced as Tehrans mayor by Mohammad Ali Najafi, a Reformist figure close to Rouhani. Ghalibaf is also a war veteran who served as national police chief and commander of the Aerospace Force of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

In the run-up to the May 2017 elections, Ghalibaf was pressured by JAMNA to withdraw in favor of Raisi. He eventually did, albeit he was apparently upset by it  a sentiment conveyed by figures such as Hossein Ghorbanifar, a close adviser to Ghalibaf who stated five days after the elections that if Mr. Raisi had withdrawn in favor of Mr. Ghalibaf  the election could have gone to the second round.

Explaining one of the reasons behind the Ghalibaf teams anger with Raisi, Hassan Ghafourifard, a well-known moderate conservative figure, said Feb. 13, If Mr. Raisi had chosen Mr. Ghalibaf as his VP immediately after his withdrawal [from the race], the situation could be different and his votes could have been higher, but this issue caused a group of Ghalibaf's supporters not to come behind Raisi and not to vote for him. However, the fact of the matter is that Ghalibafs harsh attacks and accusations against Rouhani seemed to have backfired, with his votes decreasing in the weeks leading to the polls.

Now, for the first time after the bitter May 2017 vote, rumors are swirling in Iran that Ghalibaf wants to try his luck in the 2020 parliamentary elections. The prospect has repeatedly been cited by conservative figures. On Jan. 24, member of parliament Mohammad-Ali Pour-Mokhtar said, The conservatives will surely welcome Ghalibaf's nomination [in the parliamentary election]. He added that Ghalibaf could very well be on top of such a ticket. Mindful of the latter, a key question in such a scenario would be whether he would run on an independent ticket or along with the conservatives.

After Rouhanis re-election, Ghalibaf called for the revamping of the conservative camp and slammed it for adopting approaches that led to consecutive electoral defeats.

If his true aim is to re-enter politics, Ghalibaf appears to be operating modestly. He recently visited Qom and met with high-ranking clerics and influential ayatollahs, a routine maneuver by all who seek to start a new round of political activity. Meanwhile, the poor performance of Reformists who are heading the Tehran municipality has been a godsend to Ghalibaf, reviving his political fortunes. In addition, he appears to have begun giving electoral speeches and repeating his electoral slogans, which observers believe will intensify as the 2020 elections approach.

According to Ghafourifard, Ghalibaf and Raisi both have good chances of winning seats in parliament. Nonetheless, all is dependent on the incumbent Reformist parliament members and their leader, Mohammad Reza Aref, who has yet to garner accolades for his leadership. As such, unless the pro-Reform lawmakers begin pursuing genuine grievances, the parliament and its speakership may soon be handed over to conservatives such as Ghalibaf or Raisi.The pro-settlement Israeli right does not appear overly concerned by the prospect that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu may have to relocate from his office to a jail cell, following police investigations against him. Nor are these occupation deniers losing sleep over an Israeli-Palestinian peace plan being cooked up by President Donald Trump that would disrupt their plans to annex East Jerusalem and West Bank lands to Israel. They have placed their trust elsewhere, and its not in the Almighty. As long as David Friedman occupies the office of the US ambassador in Tel Aviv  soon to be in Jerusalem  they need not worry. Since Trumps former attorney was given the plum diplomatic assignment, the platform of the pro-settlement HaBayit HaYehudi party has become White House policy.

In his role as the presidents gatekeeper to the Israeli arena, Friedman has taken it upon himself to ensure that White House senior adviser Jared Kushner and Middle East envoy Jason Greenblatt do not take seriously the bosss talk of achieving the ultimate deal between Israelis and Palestinians. For Friedman, a bankruptcy lawyer, the Arabs went bankrupt in 1967. Moreover, as far as he is concerned, anyone who goes bankrupt should be grateful for any offer that keeps him from being thrown out into the street. Friedman has become the scourge of the State Department and National Security Council. A US official who attends meetings of the US peace team told Al-Monitor that when Friedman is in the room, Greenblatt aligns to the right, but when Friedman is absent from the forum, Greenblatt allows himself to present balanced and logical views.

In the discussions over moving the US Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, Friedman trumped the Middle East affairs professionals at the State Department and defense agencies. These professionals objected to moving up the date of the move, as they did to Trumps Dec. 6 declaration recognizing Jerusalem as Israels capital. These senior officials warned that such a move at this time would embarrass Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and distance him further from the negotiating table. Friedman also vanquished Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, who demanded in September that Israel give back $75 million in US aid that Congress approved during the Barack Obama administration.

These days, State Department officials are running a rearguard battle against Friedmans pressure to erase the term occupied territories from official American documents and reports, chief among them the annual human rights report, when referring to the lands Israel took over in the 1967 Arab-Israeli war. Obviously, Friedman  a Jew who served for years as chair of Friends of the Beit El settlement  believes that Beit El is part of the Jewish State. In July he invited the heads of the West Bank settlement movement, known for opposing a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, to the annual July 4 embassy party. Representatives of Israeli peace organizations were not accorded a similar courtesy, given that Friedman views members of such liberal groups as J Street and others that favor the establishment of a Palestinian state alongside Israel as worse than kapos," the Jews who were forced to help the Nazis during the Holocaust.

Not surprisingly, on Feb. 19 Friedman reportedly told heads of the Presidents Conference of Major Jewish American Organizations visiting Israel, For 25 years people have said that the situation cannot continue, but what happened in those years? Israel has only grown and developed. In response to the reported remarks on Channel 10 television news, the US Embassy issued a statement saying, The ambassador believes that unrestrained settlement growth is not helpful for peace." It is unclear where the ambassador draws the line between restrained and unrestrained settlement expansion.

Either way, Israel is conducting an unrestrained expansion of its de facto annexation of the territories right under the ambassadors nose. The US administration, and probably the US Embassy in Israel, has taken the Fifth. Documents and legal opinions obtained by the Peace Now movement, with the help of the Movement for Freedom of Information, among others, indicate that Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit and Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked are laying the legal administrative groundwork to erase Israels 1967 borders.

A Peace Now report claims Shaked and Mandelblit have allowed expropriation of Palestinian land if done in good faith or if designed to pave access roads to Israeli settlements. Peace Now also says the two have approved the use of abandoned Palestinian structures and property owned by absentee Palestinian landlords by Israeli settlements. Their decisions have also allowed the expropriation without judicial review of land granted to the Hebron municipality as a protected tenant, and their directives mandate that all government-sponsored legislation proposals address the possibility of the legislation also being applied to the occupied territories, too. The law has also been amended to facilitate the demolition of homes and eviction of Palestinian communities in Area C of the West Bank, which is under full Israeli control.

Thus, even as officials in Washington are busy putting together the ultimate deal of Israeli-Palestinian peace, officials in Jerusalem are busy undermining it; the US Embassy is biting its tongue and the State Department is grinding its teeth. Who remembers that at his confirmation hearing last year, Friedman promised members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that he would not support the annexation of Palestinian territory to Israel and declared that the two-state solution still remains the best possibility of peace in the region?

This is not the first time that advocates of Israels right-wing governments have held key positions in US administrations, Republican and Democratic alike. Suffice it to mention Dennis Ross, who headed the Middle East peace teams under presidents George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton, ambassadors Martin Indyk and Dan Shapiro, and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. However, never has an adherent of such a tiny messianic minority held such a strong position on the verge of such a deep abyss.

Five former US ambassadors to Israel warned the Senate Foreign Relations Committee at the time against Friedmans appointment. A campaign mounted by J Street against the Senate confirmation argued that Friedmans nomination was reckless, putting Americas reputation in the region and credibility around the world at risk. Little did they know.GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip  A number of university graduates protested in front of the Ministry of Labor in Gaza Feb. 18, preventing Labor Minister Mamoun Abu Shahla from entering the building. They were demanding solutions to the unemployment crisis.

On Jan. 28, unemployed university graduates formed a committee to promote their rights to employment in the public sector. Committee spokesman Shadi al-Naqla told Al-Monitor that the ongoing Palestinian division and failure to achieve true reconciliation, in addition to the Israeli blockade, are making the already poor economic situation even worse. Naqla added, We are not seeking temporary employment opportunities. We are demanding radical solutions to this problem, such as supporting small projects, financing for projects and permanent jobs in vital sectors.

On Jan. 22, Al Mezan Center for Human Rights published a study on unemployment in Gaza. The study indicated that political changes in the Gaza Strip contributed to increasing unemployment rates, which hit a staggering 46.6% in 2017, exceeding 60% among the youth, according to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics. There are 220,200 unemployed Gazans based on the International Labor Organizations definition of unemployed.

The study noted that the number of graduates from higher education institutions for the 2016/2017 school year in the provinces of the Gaza Strip amounted to 21,508; 11,601 of them are men and 9,907 women. Currently enrolled students number 85,660.

Director General of Employment and Policy in Gaza Majid Ismail told Al-Monitor, The student movement is making legitimate demands because graduates have a right to work. Currently, the Labor Ministry of the consensus government is working to find a solution to this issue through obtaining international and Arab funding for the Youth Protection Employment Fund, the Youth Social Security Act and the temporary employment program that was suspended two years ago.

The Ministry of Labors temporary employment program gives university graduates the opportunity work in the public sector for three months with a monthly salary of 1,000 shekels ($288) for graduates with a bachelor's degree and 900 shekels ($259) for those with a high school diploma. The program, which was scaled down drastically two years ago, has employed 186,573 graduates between 2007 and 2017, currently placing workers only on projects funded by international nongovernmental organizations. Over the last 10 years, more than a quarter of a million university graduates, some of them with masters and doctoral degrees, applied for the program.

Al Mezans study warned of the devastating effects of the high unemployment rate in the Gaza Strip, including serious social problems such as poverty, extremism and other crime.

Unemployment is not the only problem facing thousands of young people in Gaza. Around 25,000 students and university graduates hold uncertified degrees, disqualifying them to enter the labor market because the Ministry of Education with the government of consensus refused to recognize the accreditation of their universities under the former Hamas government in Gaza.

On Jan. 24, the Gaza Student Movement launched an online campaign to draw attention to the accreditation issue. Many students, alumni and activists voiced solidarity online using #OurFutureFallsApart to draw attention to this crisis, calling for a solution. The movement represents thousands of graduates and students of the eight affected universities and colleges in the Gaza Strip.

Aya Aslim, the head of the student movement, told Al-Monitor, After four months of working on this movement, we stepped up our activities with multiple protests in January to demand an immediate solution to the crisis. The issue threatens the future of 25,000 students and graduates of eight schools.

The eight universities include the Academy of Management and Policy for Graduate Studies, Al-Ummah University College, Al-Awda University College, Ribat University College, Palestine Polytechnic University, Zaytuna College, Nimaa for College Sciences and Technology, and University College of Al-Sahaba.

Our main demand is to have our university degrees certified so that we can look for job opportunities and fulfill our professional and educational future, Aslim noted.

Ayman al-Yazuri, the assistant undersecretary of higher education at the Ministry of Education in Gaza, told Al-Monitor, The ministry in Gaza cannot certify the degrees of those who graduated from colleges and universities that have yet to be accredited by the consensus government. He added, These educational institutions are to blame since they need to conform to the standards set by the Accreditation and Quality Assurance Commission, which is affiliated with the Ministry of Education of the consensus government but was not active in Gaza during the division.

But the president of Al-Ummah University College, Rafat al-Hor, said the Gaza schools are doing all they can and praised their efforts to regain accreditation and solve the crisis.

Hor told Al-Monitor, All eight of universities and colleges were granted permits by the Gaza government in 2008. Today these eight universities and colleges have again applied for a license from the consensus government. They have yet to receive any answer.Moscow and Riyadh have entered the final stages of negotiations on the sale of Russian S-400 air missile defense systems to Saudi Arabia. On Feb. 21, Saudi Ambassador to Moscow Raed Bin Khaled Qrimli said the two parties are having detailed discussions  on the final arrangements and technical issues, especially with regards to the transfer of technology and information.

But Riyadh isn't the only one looking to acquire these systems form Moscow. A month ago, on Jan. 25, Qatars Ambassador to Russia Fahad bin Mohammed Al-Attiyah told the Russian state news agency TASS that Doha was holding advanced negotiations with Moscow over the purchase of S-400 air missile defense systems. The announcement came just weeks after Russias presidential aide for military-technical cooperation, Vladimir Kozhin, singled out Qatar as an important new Russian arms export partner. Attiyahs statement underscored the Kremlins commitment to strengthening its relationship with Doha.

On Feb. 22, top Qatari military figures were in Moscow for Putins meeting with the leadership of the defense ministries of several countries invited to a gala meeting devoted to Defender of the Fatherland Day  Russias major national holiday celebrated on Feb. 23.

As Russia has been improving relationships with Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in recent months, Moscows decision to sell sophisticated weaponry to Qatar comes with considerable risk of backlash. Russias efforts to strengthen its relationship with Qatar can be explained by Dohas unique appeal as a trade partner and its potential to assist Moscows conflict-arbitration efforts in the Middle East.

Although the Qatari Investment Authority possesses a $2.5 billion stake in Russias oil industry, recent trade negotiations between Russia and Qatar have focused primarily on the defense sector. Since the start of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) blockade against Qatar in June, Doha has upgraded its military capabilities to defend itself against what it perceives as aggressive actions from Saudi Arabia and the UAE. As the United States has been reluctant to antagonize Qatars GCC rivals by contributing greatly to Dohas military modernization efforts, Qatar has aggressively courted Russian military assistance.

To demonstrate its willingness to purchase air defense systems from Russia, the Qatari Defense Ministry signed a landmark military technology sharing agreement with Moscow in October. Russia has swiftly converted this rhetorical pledge into arms contract negotiations, as Qatar has been a more amenable partner for Moscow to negotiate with than Turkey or Saudi Arabia.

Even though the United States has attempted to deter Turkey from purchasing S-400 missiles from Moscow, Washington has not tried to obstruct Qatars proposed S-400 deal with Russia. The US governments silence on Qatars S-400 negotiations has increased Dohas appeal as a Russian arms client, as Qatar is much less likely than Turkey or Saudi Arabia to backtrack on its arms deals with Russia due to external interference.

In addition, Qatars recent purchases of SY-400 missiles from China highlighted its ability to swiftly procure sophisticated weaponry from foreign arms vendors. As the Kremlins $3 billion arms contract with Saudi Arabia will not be completely implemented until 2021, Dohas track record of implementing swift covert arms purchases appeals greatly to Kremlin policymakers.

The benefits of convincing Qatar to purchase Russian military technology extend beyond hard currency and export revenues. The resulting improvement in bilateral relations generated from a strengthened Russia-Qatar defense partnership could reduce the risk of a Moscow-Doha struggle for hegemony over the liquefied natural gas (LNG) sector. In June 2017, Russian energy giant Novatek announced two major LNG projects in the Arctic region that could eventually allow Russia to surpass Qatar as the worlds leading LNG producer.

Even though Qatars Minister of Energy and Industry Mohammed bin Saleh Al-Sada recently said the expansion of Russias LNG sector is mutually beneficial, analysts predicted an intensified struggle between Moscow and Doha for supremacy over LNG markets. These predictions have been supported by allegations that Moscow encouraged Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to block the passage of Qatari natural gas through Syrian territory. Strengthening the Russia-Qatar relationship could increase collaboration between the two countries on LNG export projects.

In addition to these economic benefits, a sustained improvement in Russia-Qatar relations could give Moscow a vital new partner in its conflict arbitration efforts in the Middle East. As Qatar has been able to balance favorable relations with ideologically disparate factions, Dohas diplomatic strategy has close synergy with Russias support for the establishment of all-inclusive political settlements to regional conflicts.

The synergies between Russian and Qatari diplomatic strategies have revealed themselves most strikingly in Yemen. Since Qatar was expelled from the GCC coalition on June 7, Doha has echoed Russias calls for a swift end to military operations in Yemen and the implementation of a comprehensive peace settlement. Qatars alleged mediation efforts between Houthi rebels and supporters of former Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh in early December also resemble Moscows long-standing use of clandestine diplomacy to assuage tensions between these Shiite factions.

Even though Russia distanced itself from the Houthis after Salehs assassination, Moscow wants Yemen to be governed by a secular authoritarian leader willing to share power with pro-Iran factions. As Qatar maintains favorable relations with the Houthis and Sunni militant groups  such as Yemens Muslim Brotherhood branch, al-Islah  and has acted as an on-and-off mediator between the Houthis and Yemeni government since the mid-2000s, forging a stronger partnership with Doha could greatly strengthen Moscows arbitration ambitions in Yemen.

In the long run, Kremlin policymakers hope that highlighting the compatibility between Russian and Qatari conflict resolution strategies will ameliorate tensions between the two countries over Syria. Qatars cooperation with Iran over the March 2017 evacuation of four Syrian towns and its diplomatic ties with Hezbollah suggest that Qatar could be willing to compromise with Russia over Syria if bilateral relations continue to improve.

These actions have encouraged Russian policymakers to engage in more frequent dialogue with their Qatari counterparts on resolving the Syrian conflict. Russian President Vladimir Putins Nov. 20 phone conversation with the Qatari emir on the Syrian conflict underscores Moscows willingness to entice Qatar into convincing Doha-aligned Syrian opposition factions to diplomatically engage with Assad. As Syrian opposition representatives boycotted the Sochi talks, achieving a compromise from Qatar would provide a necessary boost for Moscows increasingly stagnant diplomatic efforts in Syria.

Even though the Russian government has remained officially neutral in the Saudi Arabia-Qatar standoff, a sustained improvement in Russia-Qatar relations would give Moscow a valuable client for Russian military technology, facilitate the development of Russias LNG sector and enhance Russias effectiveness as a Middle East conflict arbiter.Despite demands for truces by Russia and the United Nations Security Council, Syrian regime forces continue to pound eastern Ghouta this week.

The situation in eastern Ghouta now is similar to that of Aleppo in December 2016, when UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said, "Aleppo is now a synonym for hell."

Damascus, confident in the flow of support from Moscow and Tehran, continues to take advantage of the conditions on the ground to ensure control over the territories where de-escalation zones are supposed to be located. Instead of taming the regime, Moscow is embracing the line of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and is now labeling opposition groups it had previously negotiated with as terrorists."

A bitter joke popular in Russia these days is that after the country's presidential election in March, the Kremlin may need to declare a drawdown of its troops in Syria  for the fourth time.

The Syrian government on Feb. 25 officially launched an operation in eastern Ghouta to ultimately liquidate the terrorist threat" to Damascus. (The regime says militants have long launched attacks on Damascus from eastern Ghouta.) The regime has now concentrated militias and regular forces in eastern Ghouta, including armored divisions and special forces and is attacking from different directions, focusing on the al-Nashabya and Ain Tarma neighborhoods. Both locales are under the control of the two dominant opposition factions in eastern Ghouta: Jaish al-Islam and Faylaq al-Rahman. Representatives of both groups had participated in peace negotiations in Astana, Kazakhstan, and in Geneva and welcomed the recent cease-fire calls. The groups even published a statement vowing that within 15 days after the truce ends, they will push the radical elements  meaning Hayat Tahrir al-Sham  out of the Ghouta enclave.

According to the Kremlin, opposition militants this week shelled civilians who were on their way out of Ghouta. Syrian government jets retaliated by launching new airstrikes. The Russian Defense Ministry further warned of a possible chemical attack by some opposition groups. Given the information we have, militant leaders in eastern Ghouta are preparing a provocation using chemical agents in order to blame [Syrian] government forces of using chemical weapons against the civilians, the statement said. The United States, however, blames the Syrian government, saying the regime attacked eastern Ghouta using chlorine gas.

Since the deal on de-escalation zones was struck last year, Damascus has been launching operations against eastern Ghouta under the pretext of battling Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, which has about 500 fighters in the enclave. In November, regime forces tried to break the positions of Faylaq al-Rahman. In December, the focus switched to the Harastra area, occupied by Ahrar al-Sham and Fajr al-Umma. The latter joined Ahrar al-Sham in the summer and soon became its core element. In January, Assad forces attacked the neighborhoods under control of Jaish al-Islam, where there are no Hayat Tahrir al-Sham forces.

Though the de-escalation zones have contributed to further fragmentation of opposition groups, the situation may still return to that of early 2017, when the regime offensive on eastern Ghouta led to opposition retaliations in Daraa province, and later in Hama province, which alleviated pressure on Ghouta. Given that the de-escalation zones are a product of the Astana agreements, in which Russia played a key role, the question arises: How is Russia justifying the situation in eastern Ghouta and Russian support for Assad's operations against all opposition factions that took part in those talks?

Russia tried to pressure the opposition without similar pressure on Assad. The violence in Ghouta virtually discredits the idea of de-escalation zones, while Moscows talks with Jaish al-Islam and Faylaq al-Rahman are a sign that Russia isn't so much seeking stability as it is looking for a way to transfer troops to the strategic, oil-rich area of Deir ez-Zor and to shield pro-government forces from responsibility for violating the truce.

Moscow would thus seek to have opposition groups take part in the next round of Astana talks. These might be Idlib-based opposition groups that Turkey would need to pressure to come to Astana, given the importance of Russian support for Turkey's Afrin offensive. These also might be eastern Ghouta-based factions, but only if Moscow is able to impose severe conditions on them.

The opposition in eastern Ghouta will have to either give in or push the radical elements out of its ranks. The latter would make further regime offensives illegitimate and at the same time enable the opposition groups to return to the Astana talks. But if the violence in eastern Ghouta continues to escalate and the opposition tries to drag regime forces out to other fronts, Moscow will be able to blame the rebels for breaking down the truce, justify its own offensive and replace real opposition in Astana with a tamed one to imitate progress in the intra-Syrian dialogue.WASHINGTON  Diplomats say sunset clauses that will eventually ease limits on Irans enrichment capacity are proving the most difficult issue in US-European consultations to see if they can find a compromise to meet US President Donald Trumps demands to toughen Iran policy.

Trump vowed in January that he would not waive US sanctions on Iran again if his demands to fix the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) and other non-JCPOA issues were not met.

US and European diplomats, who met in Paris last week, said there was some progress after two rounds of talks to try to work out a compromise. Teams from the United States and the three European powers that helped negotiate the 2015 Iran nuclear deal  Britain, France and Germany  plan to meet again as early as next week, as well as on the sidelines of the next meeting of the eight-member Joint Commission overseeing JCPOA implementation in mid-March, sources said.

Consultations of the US-E3 working group on Iran are intensifying with an eye to May 12, the next deadline by which Trump must decide if he will issue a waiver of relevant US sanctions on Iran to stay in compliance with the JCPOA.

Diplomats and experts are also looking to French President Emmanuel Macrons White House state visit April 24 for signals as to whether a transatlantic compromise might keep the United States on board the nuclear deal.

Trump again derided the terrible Iran nuclear deal in remarks to conservative activists last week, but then alluded cryptically to interesting developments happening after his decision not to certify it to Congress in October.

We declined to certify the terrible one-sided Iran nuclear deal, Trump said in a speech to the Conservative Political Action Conference on Feb. 23. That was a horrible deal.  Theyre saying Death to America while theyre signing the agreement.  Why did we do it?

Anyway, we didnt certify, and lots of interesting things are happening with that whole mess, Trump added. People that treat us well, we treat them well. People that treat us badly, we treat them much worse than they can ever imagine. Thats the way it has to be.

The State Department said it is working with European allies to address our shared concerns with the JCPOA and Irans malign behavior. Last week, Brian Hook, the State Department policy planning chief, led a US delegation to the US-E3 working group talks in Paris. The US delegation also included Matthew McInnis and David Tessler from the State Department policy planning office, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Iran and Iraq Andrew Peek, Assistant Secretary of State for International Security and Nonproliferation Chris Ford, and Joel Rayburn, the National Security Council senior director for Iran, Iraq, Syria and Lebanon.

The US delegation and European partners discussed the areas the president has identified last month where he wants to see improvements  including ensuring Iran never comes close to a nuclear weapon and addressing our concerns with the sunset dates, taking strong action if Iran refuses IAEA [International Atomic Energy Agency] inspections, and preventing Iran from developing or testing a long-range ballistic missile, a State Department official, speaking not for attribution, told Al-Monitor. There is broad agreement on the areas that need strengthening, but how thats done in each of the three areas is the subject of our negotiations.

They also discussed the six non-nuclear/regional issues that the president also identified and called for stronger steps from our European allies, the State Department official said, noting Trump in his Jan. 12 statement called for US allies to cut off funding to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and its proxies; designate Hezbollah in its entirety as a terrorist organization; constrain Irans missile development and stop proliferation of Iranian missiles, especially to Yemen; deter Irans threats to international shipping; and join the United States in countering Irans cyberthreats.

The president was clear that he approved the issuance of sanctions waivers in January only in order to give us time to secure our European allies agreement to fix the JCPOA's terrible flaws, the State Department official said.

This is a last chance, the State Department official said. In the absence of a commitment from our European allies to work with us to fix the deals flaws, the United States will not again waive sanctions in order to stay in the Iran nuclear deal. And if at any time the president judges that agreement is not within reach, the United States will withdraw from the deal immediately.

The United States and Europeans can probably find common ground on understood limits to Irans ballistic missile program and proliferation, sanctioning Irans support for militant proxy groups and more robust IAEA inspections, said Ali Vaez, the Iran project director at the International Crisis Group. But the Europeans are reluctant to sign off on Trumps demands to reimpose sanctions should Iran, as permitted under the JCPOA, expand its enrichment capacity after a decade.

My understanding of the two meetings so far is that more progress has been made than initially expected, Vaez told Al-Monitor. Because at the end of the day, on Trumps key issues, there is enough common ground between the Europeans and US to come to a mutually acceptable formula.

On the ballistic missile issue, there is an understanding that any Iranian movement to develop an ICBM [intercontinental ballistic missile] is unacceptable and will be met by joint sanctions, Vaez continued. That is something they can agree on.  And the Iranians would not like it, but they can live with it as well.

On [IAEA] access, there could be a formula without changing the terms of the deal to urge IAEA to do more to ensure that there are no suspicious activities taking place, Vaez said. Similarly, on the designation of individuals and entities related to Irans support of nonstate actors in region, on all of these, the Europeans and Americans can find common ground.

There are two problems, however, Vaez said. The first one is the sunset issue. I think the Europeans would only agree to something which at the core amounts to a fig leaf solution for the Trump administration. If [the Europeans] want to say, we will seek a supplemental agreement once the sunset provision sets in, or anything that could defer the crisis now and not amount to a commitment to the reimposition of sanctions.

The only thing that would satisfy the administration is for the Europeans to jointly commit to violate the deal by agreeing to sanctions on Iran for expansion [of its enrichment capacity], which the JCPOA allows," he added. My understanding is they wont do it. So far, there has not been an understanding.

The second problem is, in terms of what the Europeans can get in return, Vaez continued. That would be a commitment by the US to stay in the JCPOA. But how reliable would such a commitment be, and what mechanisms can they sign on to ensure the US stays in the deal? There is a big question mark there.

I really think what Trump wants at the end of the day is not possible without violating the deal, Vaez said. And that is why an agreement that would meet him halfway is unlikely to lead to stabilization of the deal.

The Europeans should propose that compromises they make to meet US demands on Iran be reciprocated with concrete US actions to facilitate US commitments in the JCPOA that have remained mired in bureaucratic red tape, said Ellie Geranmayeh, senior policy fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations. Those could include Treasury Department Office of Foreign Asset Control licenses for civil aviation sales to Iran agreed to in the JCPOA, assurances to European banks on financing permitted business in Iran, as well as legislative changes that would reduce the frequency of how often Trump has to waive sanctions or delegate that authority to the State Department, so allies are not in a constant state of uncertainty of what will happen the next 90 or 120 days.

Any flexibility that the Europeans show to the Trump administration on this front needs to be made with certain preconditions relating to strengthening the nuclear deal and actually ensuring that the US is fulfilling its existing commitments under the deal, Geranmayeh told Al-Monitor in an interview.

The Europeans are going to try and work with the US administration  they are going to come out with some language  that the E3 [Britain, France and Germany] are happy with and doesnt violate the JCPOA's current implementation, she said.

And European efforts to try to strike a compromise with the Trump administration on toughening Iran policy are not without risk to the deal, warned Geranmayeh.

The Europeans should not underestimate the Iranian response to perceived compromises that undermine the JCPOA, Geranmayeh continued. If there is action that is legitimately perceived by any party to the deal to be undermining the nuclear agreement, it could really open up a new path for any side, particularly Iran and the US, to unilaterally take measures. You start getting tit for tat that begins to hollow out the deal.  And European governments should not undermine their own credibility by becoming party to this process through association.

But I think the gravity of that risk has not quite fallen on European calculations, but there is a sense that attempting to at least muddle through the coming years is better than facing a dilemma where Trump walks away from the deal now, she said.

A top Iran nuclear negotiator said he was not concerned about US-European negotiations on Iran, but he warned that if the United States walks away from the JCPOA, he was not convinced that the Europeans, Russians and Chinese could sustain it.

We are not convinced that the deal can survive without the US, Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said in an interview in London with the BBC last week. It is up to the other participants of the JCPOA to show and to convince Iranians that they can deliver JCPOA even, even without the US. This is not our understanding for the time being. If the US is out, we would also actually go out because there is no deal anymore. This is what we understand, and as we see Europeans are trying to prevent that.

Araghchi did not rule out discussions about understandings on Irans ballistic missile program and regional posture, but he said they were contingent on the parties to the JCPOA living up to the deal they already made.

Another deal on any other issue depends on how successful is the deal that we have already made, and we have remained fully [in compliance] to that, and the other side has not fully complied, he said.Connection needed

After over two years of delay, the government is finally considering to open a liaison office at Visakhapatnam Port in India to facilitate the movement of cargoes bound for Nepal.Diyanet, Turkeys Religious Affairs Directorate, has become one of the most popular trending topics on social media lately. On Feb. 3, Diyanets latest religious decree caused an uproar. On its high-traffic, interactive web page  where the public can post questions and religious experts share their replies  a controversial topic recently appeared.

The question was simple, but odd: Is it acceptable to eat with the left hand? The expert's answer, based on a well-known saying of the Prophet Muhammad, advised Muslims to eat and drink with the right hand and to teach their children to do the same because the devil eats with the left hand. On YouTube, one can find several Turkish Islamic leaders speaking about this issue. The public was angry about the response and asked about people who are born left-handed or have a missing hand or arm. The Islamic decree does provide room for exceptions for medical reasons.

Yet Diyanet promptly became a target of Turks' anger and sarcasm. For example, the Hurriyet daily newspapers veteran columnist Ertugrul Ozkok joined in with a satirical piece in which he wonders: When Earthlings eventually travel to Venus  which rotates in the opposite direction of the other planets  will it be permissible to eat with the left hand?

It is interesting that in Turkish, the verb to "to eat" can also mean to intrude on someones belongings or rights. Ismet Ozel, a prominent Islamist poet, penned the famous line, To be a transgressor has not received as much attention as eating with the left hand in this country." That truth has been widely quoted lately.

But during this hoopla, transgressions haven't gone unnoticed. The public's anger has extended to one of the most pungent criticisms of Diyanet: why Diyanet has not spoken out against corruption, nepotism, unaccounted-for government practices and even the directorate's own exponentially growing budget. Murat Muratoglu, a Sozcu Daily columnist, said, The budget for the Education Ministry increased 8.8%, while Diyanet's rose 13.2%.  Now Diyanets [2018] budget is at 7.7 billion liras [some $2 billion].

The anger hasn't ended there.

On Feb. 12, news broke that one of the best-known imams, Ihsan Senocak, had resigned from Diyanet. Senocak had been suspended in November after controversy over his position that women who wear pants are sinners destined for hell. Then in February, Senocak advised that a man should refrain from kissing the hand of his young mother-in-law because it could lead to temptation.

It's not just these social and cultural commentaries that put Diyanet in the line of fire, but also its involvement in politics. In February, Diyanet's director harshly criticized the United States for its alleged human rights violations in Iraq, saying it had killed 1 million civilians. He added, Our soldiers move slowly in Afrin because they adhere to Islamic stipulations. They make sure that not one innocent is harmed, and that is the rule of Islam. That is what Muslim soldiers must do.

Could President Recep Tayyip Erdogan ask for a better ally?

These are only a few of the significant actions that  just in the first half of February  made Diyanet the target of angry social media users. As readers following Al-Monitors Turkey Pulse know, we share one or two stories about Diyanet every month, and the frequency of Diyanet news is much higher in the Turkish media. So why, in a country where the press is under strict controls, is bashing the highest religious authority permissible? Why are people being prosecuted for criticizing the Turkish-bashed Free Syrian Army, but not Diyanet?

Al-Monitor posed this question to senior members of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) as well as scholars and Diyanet imams. The short and most common answer was that this is because AKP leadership uses Diyanet as a measuring tool to gauge public reactions.

But it goes beyond this crucial purpose. There are three more possible explanations why the AKP allows, encourages and sometimes even initiates Diyanet-bashing.

First, much of the time the issues generated distract the publics attention from more substantial political issues. One senior AKP official told Al-Monitor, If there are documents about corruption emerging from the United States or from within Turkey, the best [thing to do] is to distract the public. The safest way to do that without losing the Islamist support is to [pit] secular groups against pious Muslims.

Second, criticism of Diyanet solidifies the AKPs Islamist core. When Diyanet makes the news with some controversial edict, we see all the anger and resentment of secular groups come gushing out. These critics aren't prosecuted, but their reactions are recorded, filed and redistributed to pious groups to constantly remind them that if the AKP loses elections, secularists  who are depicted as Islamophobic  will target pious Muslims with a vengeance.

One pious sociology scholar told Al-Monitor, I know wrongs have been done since the July 15 [2016] coup attempt against innocent people by the government. My conscience is heavy with the deteriorating human rights and particularly the suffering of the poor. But I have two teenage daughters who just started wearing the hijab and they see this hatred by secularists." She showed me some Facebook posts as examples. "I have to keep quiet about Erdogan if I want my kids to survive.

The last and most important reason Diyanet-bashing is permissible is that it performs a role like that of the safety valve of a pressure cooker. So many segments of the population  from leftists, Alevis, Kurds and women to the Muslim Brotherhood  who dare to criticize the government or Erdogan and his family are censored, prosecuted and silenced. But criticizing Diyanet is allowed because even in the most oppressive regime, there are venues to vent.

Soon, Diyanet is also likely to become the forefront of a battle between Turkey and the European Union. EU member countries, particularly Germany, that host significant numbers of ethnic Turks fear that Diyanet collaborates with Turkeys National Intelligence Agency to gather human intelligence not only in Turkey, but also in the EU.

The AKP skillfully employs Diyanet to mold public opinion, vent pent-up public pressure and solidify the Islamist base. There are possibly other purposes we can't discern due to the lack of transparency and accountability in Turkish politics.

But you can bet that the AKPs high echelons consider any criticism against Diyanet as direct criticism against Islam and Erdogan. So even though Diyanet-bashing seems like a safe venue for angry AKP critics at the moment, it very well be providing a false sense of security.The Pentagons top commander in the Middle East told Congress today that Iraqs self-defense gives the United States a legal justification to intervene in next-door Syria.

US Central Command chief Joseph Votel told the House Armed Services Committee that the 2001 Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF), signed by President George W. Bush to go after the plotters of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, remains in effect for the US fight against the Islamic State (IS) in Syria. As US troops hunt down some 2,000 remaining IS fighters in the Euphrates River Valley, the legal core of the US involvement in Syria derives from Iraqs defense, he said.

Our legal basis for operating in Syria was largely driven by the collective self-defense of Iraq, Votel told Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, D-Hawaii, who stoked controversy by visiting Syrian President Bashar al-Assad last year. While we were beginning to address [IS] in Iraq, we knew that we also had to address [IS] in Syria.

We saw the rise of [IS] and the inability of Iraqi Security Forces to address it as it was growing, Votel said of the impact of US troops' departing Iraq in 2011. Syrias inability to deal with the IS threat in turn has jeopardized a much broader group of countries around the world, he said, including US partners in Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey.

As the Syria mission quadrupled from 500 to 2,000 US troops last year, lawmakers have complained that the page-long 2001 AUMF has been applied too broadly. In letters to lawmakers last week, officials in the Donald Trump administration confirmed that the Pentagon will not seek new war powers to fight in Syria.

In a January speech at Stanford University, US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said that the open-ended presence of American units could be used to stand up to Iran, which is estimated to have as many as 125,000 troops in Syria. Votel clarified today that deterring Iran is a US objective but not a "military one.

The line of questioning underscored congressional worries that the anti-IS effort could expand indefinitely. Though the presence of 2,000 US troops in Syria is "conditions-based," Pentagon officials told Al-Monitor that there isn't a specific list of conditions for victory.

The logical conclusion of your answer to my question about our presence after [IS] is defeated is that the US military can be in any and every country that there was ever an [IS] presence just so there will not be an [IS] presence going forward, Rep. Beto ORourke, D-Texas, told Votel. I think that is a recipe for disaster. We will not have successful oversight or accountability or prosecution of that war because we cannot define its goals or the strategy.

The hearing was dedicated to the US approach to terrorism and a resurgent Iran. Votel outlined a three-pillar strategy to deal with Tehran, focused on deterring Irans growing ballistic missile capabilities, ensuring it wont get a nuclear weapon and rolling back Irans influence and ability to move weapons to Shiite militias throughout the region.

What it took Iran 25 years to do with Hezbollah in Lebanon theyre trying to do in five years with the Houthis, Votel said, expressing concern that Iran is getting more effective at raising proxy armies that could threaten US forces, such as the Shiite-linked Yemeni group that appears increasingly capable of threatening US forces in Saudi Arabia with ballistic missiles.

Even as the Trump administration shifts its focus to great powers such as China and Russia, the Pentagon is asking for a $2 billion increase in munitions for operations in Iraq and Syria in its fiscal year 2019 budget request to fight IS. The Pentagon also wants $290 million to allow Iraq to put in place scanners, 1,500 border guards and other equipment to secure the Qaim, Bukamal, and Fish Khabur border crossings, in part to prevent Iran from moving troops, tanks and guns at its leisure.

The land bridge only exists if Iraq allows Iran to use it, said Michael Knights, a researcher at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. A complete lack of situational awareness would be a disaster. Are we worried that 6,000 [Shiite] militias will get in their cars in the next Hezbollah-Israel war and go across? Unless we get good border guards in there, theyll be able to do that.

The United States is fighting in Iraq at the invitation of Prime Minister Haider al-Abadis government and has no authority to build permanent structures. Votel said the United States is still figuring out how to measure the effectiveness of American partners in countering Iran's influence.

We dont want to keep one more soldier, one more piece of equipment there than is needed, Votel said.As the US Congress continues to weigh potential sanctions against Turkey over its unremittingly hostile stance toward the United States, there is growing debate within the policy community about the merits of such action, with some arguing it could bow Turkey into submission and others insisting it will make the problem even worse.

Fury at what Washington calls the unlawful detention of US consular staff and US citizens, in particular that of North Carolina pastor Andrew Brunson since October 2016 on unsubstantiated terror charges, has spurred bipartisan support for sanctions against Turkey. These include targeted visa bans on Turkish government officials thought to be responsible for the detentions. Another option being mulled is to ban imports of Turkish manufactured handguns, which pull in an estimated $100 million in annual revenue for Turkey, sources familiar with the deliberations told Al-Monitor.

The volley of anti-American rhetoric pumped out by Turkish leaders, notably President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, including threats to attack areas in northern Syria where US special operations forces are deployed, has further sharpened the congressional appetite to punish Turkey. And Turkeys ever-nebulous deal to purchase Russian S-400 missile batteries has bolstered the US legislators' case.

But administration sources speaking on condition of anonymity told Al-Monitor that the State Departments Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs, whose brief includes Turkey, is pushing back, demanding that newly established consultative mechanisms to normalize relations between the NATO allies be given time. The sources said Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, who met for more than three hours earlier this month with Erdogan in Ankara, where the mechanisms were announced, favors cooptation over confrontation as well.

They say Turkey has moderated its tone since Tillerson's visit.

Those favoring a tougher approach point to Russias use of sanctions to force an apology after Turkey shot down a Russian fighter jet in 2015. More recently, Germanys threats to cut funding to Turkey from its state-owned bank and other European banking entities and curb military sales appear to have secured Turkish-German journalist Deniz Yucels release. An informed source familiar with administration policy told Al-Monitor, We keep thinking a little assuaging will make it better.  An appease approach just makes it worse and worse.

But Nicholas Danforth, a senior policy analyst for the Bipartisan Policy Centers national security program, warned in a brief, Unlike Russia  the United States continues to benefit from its uneasy status as Turkeys ally, using military facilities on Turkish territory that Ankara could close if both sides decided to play hardball. At the very least, preparing for this should be a prerequisite for any sanctions policy. These include Incirlik Air Base, which has long served as the Pentagons main logistical hub for operations in Afghanistan and Iraq and more recently for coalition missions in Syria.

Danforth told Al-Monitor, I think the assumption that because playing hardball worked for Russia, it will work just as well for the United States is problematic. No one played hardball better than Stalin, and when he used that approach after World War II, it ultimately led to Turkeys decadeslong membership in an anti-Russian military alliance [NATO] and US air bases on his border."

Howard Eissenstat, a senior fellow at the Project on Middle East Democracy who closely follows Turkey, agrees that Washingtons relations with Ankara need to be handled carefully. He told Al-Monitor, At the core, Erdogan believes the US wants to overturn him, which means he is likely to see sanctions in that light. Moreover, Turkey is far less dependent on the US than it is on Germany and the European Union.

Eissenstat argued what is needed is not sanctions over strategic differences, such as the S-400 deal and Afrin, or over Turkish human rights abuses per se, but rather public references to those abuses during every public meeting between US and Turkish leaders. He said that above all, what is needed is "a top-down re-evaluation of US interests in Turkey. The relationship is weak "because the two countries dont actually have many shared interests. Nonetheless, There is still value for both countries in maintaining relations if they can, but to do so requires a realistic assessment of where those shared interests actually are and what they are worth to both parties.

The source familiar with the administration's thinking argued that some in the State Departments Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs believe the relationship is so bad they dont want to touch any of their [bilateral issues] so they always point to Syria as a place to deal." Washington has yet to nominate an ambassador to Ankara to replace John Bass, who left Turkey in October to become ambassador to Afghanistan. Bass, while highly lauded by many US officials, had become a bete noire by the end of his tenure in Turkey.

One of the new consultative groups that Tillerson introduced while he was in Turkey is to discuss Syria, where the US alliance with Syrian Kurdish Peoples Protection Units (YPG), viewed as terrorists by Turkey, continues to poison ties. The consultative group is due to meet in Washington on March 8. Some media reports suggest that one of the proposals to calm Turkish ire is to diminish the YPGs role in the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), the umbrella group that includes thousands of Arab fighters and is the coalitions top partner in the fight against the Islamic State (IS). But that will be a hard sell.

For as long as the battle against IS continues, any sidelining of the YPG is unlikely because the group provides by far the most effective and disciplined fighters in the SDF. The US Central Command commander, Army Gen. Joseph Votel, acknowledged as much in testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee on Tuesday when he said that Turkeys ongoing military offensive against the YPG in Afrin increased risk to our campaign to defeat IS." Votel said, Many fighters in the SDF have familiar ties to Kurds in Afrin, and they are now forced to choose between completing operations against IS fighters in the [Middle Euphrates River Valley] and assisting their fellow Kurds in northern Syria.

A separate committee on judicial affairs to handle the case of Fethullah Gulen, the Pennsylvania-based Turkish cleric who is accused of masterminding the failed attempt to violently overthrow Erdogan in July 2016, is also due to convene, Turkeys state-run Anadolu News Agency reported. The case of Brunson and those of the two US consular employees, both Turkish citizens, respectively accused of links to Gulen and the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), would presumably be part of those talks.

Turkey is demanding Gulens extradition, but US officials say Turkish authorities have failed to produce what they call a smoking gun. There is speculation that Brunson is being held as some kind of bargaining chip. Erdogan helped feed this when he told policy academy graduates in September, 'Give us the pastor back,' they say. You have one pastor as well. Give him [Gulen] to us. Then we will try him [Brunson] and give him to you.

Eissenstat argued that if sanctions are imposed, it should be for Turkeys targeting of US citizens and Turkish nationals working for US missions in Turkey. I supported the downgrading of consular services when it was first imposed, he said, referring to the decision to suspend visa services for Turkish citizens following the arrest of Metin Topuz, a local employee at the US Consulate in Istanbul. The ban was rescinded in December on the grounds that Turkey had pledged to take no further action against US citizens and mission employees without informing Washington first. Eissenstat said, "I was baffled by the US decision to draw back from it [the visa ban] without its basic demands [the release of US mission personnel] being met.

Not only that, it emerged that Turkish authorities had placed a third US consular employee under house arrest last month over his alleged ties to Gulen. The Turkish media reported that an electronic ankle cuff had been placed on the employee. When questioned about his status, State Department spokesperson Heather Nauert said she was aware" of the reports but declined to comment further.Conflict spreading to areas once considered peaceful, with more than half the population in need of humanitarian aid.

Bria, Central African Republic  Ibrahim Alawad, a general in an armed group, is a portly man. He walks with a limp and carries a pistol tucked in the back of his trousers.

He has an easy smile and charisma that can easily draw you in. His limp, Alawad tells us, is from a bullet wound during fighting with a rival armed group.

Alawad sits here in Bria, a strategic territory in the eastern Central African Republic (CAR) that has the biggest diamond mines in the country.

The general is part of the Popular Front for the Renaissance of Central African Republic (FPRC), the largest of four armed groups that broke away from the defunct, Muslim-led Seleka rebel movement, a coalition of fighters who marched to the capital Bangui in 2013 and deposed Francois Bozize as president.

A hurriedly formed, largely Christian group called Anti-balaka countered ex-Seleka and overthrew Michel Djotodia, the man who was put in power after Bozize.

Since then, fighting has never really stopped. More than a million people have been displaced and half the population needs humanitarian aid.

Lawyer by profession

Alawad plays down his role in Bria but all his actions suggest that he is very much the man in charge.

He was educated at Cambridge University in the UK and is a lawyer by profession.

So what is a Cambridge-educated lawyer doing in this corner of CAR as a rebel?

Alawad puts it this way: He wants to save his fellow citizens from bad governance.

CAR is rich in natural resources. You wont believe that before all this, monthly taxes from diamonds in Bria were about $12m, he told Al Jazeera.

But look now, we have nothing. No proper schools, electricity clean water  nothing. Before marching to Bangui we had tried to talk to the government on how to help the people.

We proposed sharing resources in a fair way. The government refused. Our problem is not to rule the country. We want to uplift Central Africans. We have a bad governance system that needs to be fixed.

Though the conflict has an element of religion, its increasingly turning into a turf war, with armed groups splintering and fighting over mineral resources, trade, cattle and supply routes.

The groups form uneasy alliances across the ethnic and religious divides, but when they break up, civilians bear the consequences.

The worst of fighting

Bria has seen the worst of fighting in recent times. FPRC and the Anti-balaka group briefly united against a Fulani-dominated faction called Union for Peace for Central African Republic (UPC).

The UPC is another group that was once part of Seleka.

When it was defeated, members of the winning coalition turned on each other.

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs says at least 70,000 people have been displaced in Bria since fighting began at the end of 2016.

Most of the displaced Christians are now in a crowded camp for displaced people at the edge of town and right on the doorstep of a UN peacekeepers base.

UN officials told us the camp is infiltrated by armed Anti-balaka men.

Alexi Zinga is among the young men in the camp suspected to be part of the group. He denied the claim and told us that, at the height of the conflict, if was not for the Anti-balakas protection, the people in the camp would be dead.

They protected us, but they are not here anymore.

Scared or unwilling

Other displaced people we tried to speak with were either too scared or unwilling to say anything about the allegations.

Displaced Muslims took shelter in the town centre, where the FPRC rebels have their main base.

Hundreds are still camped in the compound of the main hospital. The Fulani community also has its own enclave.

These are people who, before last year, lived side by side. Now the situation in Bria, as in so many other towns in CAR, has forced them to create their own ethnic and religious boundaries.

There was hope two years ago that the election of President Faustin-Archange Touadera would bring real change.

But Touadera has been unable to extend his authority beyond the capital, Bangui, and his government heavily relies on the UN Mission and other international partners.

The conflict is escalating and spreading to areas once considered relatively peaceful.

Christian neighbourhood

Since January, Bria has not seen the kind of violence witnessed last year, and some people are attempting to return to their homes.

Alawad explained to us that his fighters do not want to harm anyone, adding that those displaced should not be afraid.

Benoit Yanny took up that offer and is living in what is now a Christian neighbourhood, very close to the camp for internally displaced people.

He told us that he is able to go to the Muslim-dominated market during the day but he must leave before nightfall. Yanny also said he does not trust the FPRC.

This is a drama that plays out in many other parts of the country: armed groups mostly fighting for control of rich territories; the UN peacekeeping mission and CAR national army overwhelmed; and people such as Yanny caught between the different forces.Clashes between members of an Iranian Sufi order and police follow more than a decade of increasing tension.

On the night of February 19, growing tension between Iranian security forces and members of the countrys Gonabadi Sufi order came to a violent head in north Tehran.

The Gonabadi Dervishes had gathered that Monday in front of Police Station 102, Pasdaran Avenue, to protest the arrest of a member of their community, Nematollah Riahi, who had been detained a day before.

Clashes broke out after security forces arrived at the scene. The Dervishes said the violence was provoked by policemen and posted photos online, allegedly captured on the night, showing men with bandaged and bloodied faces.

Iranian authorities blamed the clashes on the protesters. The next day, Iranian media reported five security officers had died as a result of the violence: three police officers were killed when a white minibus, reportedly driven by a demonstrator, rammed into a crowd of riot police. In a separate incident, a member of the government-aligned Basij militia was run over by a car, and another was stabbed to death.

More than 300 Dervishes were arrested by Tuesday, Iranian media said.

Farhad Nouri, an editor of Dervish-run news site Majzooban Noor who lives in Australia, told Al Jazeera as many as five members of the Gonabadi Sufi community died as a result of the clashes.

The death toll was the highest for Irans security forces in a single night since anti-government demonstrations in 2009.

For Irans Gonabadi Dervishes, say analysts, it follows a pattern of persecution that has existed for more than a decade.

Potential to mobilise

Gonabadi Dervishes represent the largest of Irans Sufi orders. Estimates of how many members belong to the religious group vary between two and five million. Nouri, who fled Iran in 2011, said as many as 10 million Dervishes live there.

The Gonabadi Sufis consider themselves Shia Muslims, but the mystical Sufi branches of Islam have a different interpretation of the Quran.

With any alternative faith, whether its Dervishes or Bahai or others  they see it as a threat to their official religion, said Omid Memarian of the New York-based Center for Human Rights in Iran.

Dervishes have been under a lot of pressure by the government in exercising their beliefs over the past years. The government is using these protesters to discredit them.

Sufism is very deeply rooted in the Iranian culture. They're not that different from the way that Iranians pursued Islam in its early years Tara Sepehri Far, Human Rights Watch

Tara Sepehri Far, an Iran researcher with Human Rights Watch, said the rift between Iranian authorities and the countrys Gonabadi Sufi order is not just over interpretations of Islam.

This community has a long history of being persecuted, she said. Sufism is very deeply rooted in the Iranian culture. Theyre not that different from the way that Iranians pursued Islam in its early years.

Most of their efforts have been peaceful in the past, but they have the potential to mobilise.

Relations soured

The Gonabadi order enjoyed a fair degree of tolerance in Iran even after the Islamic Revolution, which put the Shia clerical order at the top of Irans power structure. The current qutb, or grand master, of the Gonabadi Dervishes, Nour Ali Tabandeh, 90, was at one point a deputy culture minister and deputy justice minister.

But relations between the Gonabadi Sufis and Iranian authorities took a tumble shortly after hardline former President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad took power.

In 2006, a Sufi lodge was destroyed in Qom, and more than 1,000 dervishes were reportedly arrested after a high-ranking cleric, Ayatollah Hossein Noori-Hamedani, called the religious order a danger to Islam.

Usually, the Dervish aren't politically involved. Their only political act is participating in elections and voting for reformists Saeid Golkar, senior fellow on Iran policy at the Chicago Council on Global Affairs

The hardline [clerics] realised after Ahmadinejad was elected they now had a partner in the executive branch that supported their plan to expel Sufis from the city of Qom, said Saeid Golkar, a senior fellow on Iran policy at the Chicago Council on Global Affairs.

In 2009s controversial election, which was ultimately won by Ahmadinejad amid widespread allegations of fraud, Tabandeh publicly backed reformist presidential candidate Mehdi Karroubi, deepening the rift between himself and Irans established order.

That was another moment that the hardliners, both in the military and security apparatus and the clergy came together and said We have to push this group back, said Golkar.

Usually the Dervish arent politically involved. Their only political act is participating in elections and voting for reformists.

There are millions of Sufi followers in Iran, and they follow their leader. These millions of people can impact any election.

In recent years, persecution of Gonabadi Dervishes has continued. Two more places of worship in Borujerd and Isfahan were destroyed after the one in Qom.

A 2014 report by the UNs special rapporteur on the human rights situation in Iran said authorities had targeted Dervishes with arrest, prosecution and judicial harassment. At least 970 Gonabadi Dervishes had been prosecuted since 2008, the report said.

Over the years, there have been reports of Gonabadi Dervishes being dismissed from their jobs and banned from universities for belonging to the religious order.

Concerns for those arrested

The violence on the night of February 19 followed a number of recent incidents that put Iranian authorities at odds with the countrys Gonabadi Sufi community.

Tensions had flared up in December when five Sufi activists belonging to the Gonabadi order were reportedly arrested by Iranian authorities and transferred to Evin prison amid renewed anti-government protests during which dozens were killed and hundreds detained.

And on February 4, clashes had taken place between Dervishes and members of the Basij after intelligence and security agents reportedly surrounded Tabandehs house, prompting fears he would be arrested.

Golkar said the timing of increased pressure by Iranian authorities on members of the religious order might have to do with upcoming parliamentary and presidential elections, to be held in 2020 and 2021, respectively.

Its part of a tactic the hardliners started using immediately after Rouhani won the election [in 2017]. They realised they have to do something.

Hardliners are not attractive to the middle class and educated Iranians. But they can anger and disappoint them to the point that they bypass the election, said Golkar.

Within Iran, some have said the violence was directed from outside the country. Tehran Metropolitan Police Deputy Brigadier General Hassan Rahimi reportedly claimed the rioters had been puppeteered by foreign hands and foreign-based anti-establishment terrorists.

A lot is still unclear about what exactly happened on the night of February 19.

Nouri maintained there is no conclusive evidence that Dervish protesters were behind the wheel of the bus and car that killed the three police officers and Basij forces on the night of February 19.

Dervishes are recognised as pacifists with no interest in violence and causing human suffering. It is highly unlikely that they have been involved in this incident, he told Al Jazeera.

President Hassan Rouhani condemned the attacks, saying violent behavior and insults against the police force, which is in charge of maintaining public order and security, will not be tolerated under any circumstances, according to Press TV.

Interior Minister Rahmani Fazli said those disrupting the security would be treated decisively, but also offered a more conciliatory tone.

We believe the Dervish community across the country is tending toward moderation and prudence, Radio Farda quoted him as saying.

We definitely do not attribute the incidents on Pasdaran Avenue to the Dervishes.

But some hardliners took a harsher stance.

Noori-Hamedani called the Dervishes devious, in the wrong, and liars, Radio Farda reported.

Another senior cleric, Naser Makarem Shirazi, reportedly warned: Iranian officials should be cautious on what they say and avoid comments against religious teachings that will backfire.

Observers have meanwhile expressed concerns about the treatment of the more than 300 Dervishes who were arrested, some of whom have now reportedly been released.

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) on February 22 said they were extremely concerned about two journalists who were among the arrested. Reza Entesari and Kasra Nouri, two reporters for Majzooban Noor, had reportedly been beaten before they were taken in by police, with some saying they are now in a coma.

The lack of transparency and denial of justice surrounding their arrest and hospitalisation is unacceptable, Reza Moini, the head of RSFs Iran desk said.

HRWs Sepehri Far mirrors these concerns.

These arrests, just the magnitude itself signals arbitrariness, she told Al Jazeera.

We are worried about the charges these people are going to face. The record of Irans abuse in cases like these is concerning.Frankly, I personally was tired of explaining the difference between a travel warning and a travel alert, complained the seemingly exasperated US State Department official given the task of explaining the State Departments new ratings system. The system released recently ranks countries from 1 to 4 based on their safety for American travellers. The new system, she added, would clear up the confusion between the alerts and warnings, and make clear to American travellers planning their summer travels where they should and should not go.

She is not entirely wrong. Ironic as it may seem, given their predilection for lethal weaponry, Americans are obsessed with safety abroad. In the Trump era, where rhetoric from the White House consistently paints most of the rest of the world as an ominous place, full of hatred for America and Americans bounty and luck, this habit has become an obsession. The irony is not limited to guns; even as Americans support erecting walls to keep out Latin Americans and Mexicans from its southern border, ban Muslims, denigrate family reunification, they continue to believe in their own entitled right to rank other countries in this way and traipse into them for tourism and vacations.

The inequity is not borne of Trump-era xenophobia alone. At its heart, is an acute inability by Westerners, including anti-Trump tourists, to note this alarming contrast of our time, one in which wealthy Westerners imagine travel to be a right, even an ethical pursuit, even as they shut their own borders for those that travel to actually be safe.

The economies of privilege that maintain this status quo are pervasive; the belief that the rich are entitled to shut their borders while insisting on their own right to travel safely, where the pollution emitted by experience-seeking Millenials is excluded from discussions of climate change, and where the tragedy of migrants who have lost everything merits at best the margins of newspapers, are all part of them.

The blind and blinkered Westerners who fail to see the ghastly injustice of this contemporaneously existing contrast are all over the West: in Denmark, whose parliament passed a package of measures to deter refugees from seeking asylum, including confiscating valuables to pay for their stay; in Sweden, which declared that it would not take more asylum seekers because it was just getting too many; in Italy, where desperate migrants continue to wash up on the shores of the Island of Lampedusa; in Australia, where migrants languish in deplorable conditions in off-shore detention centres; and of course, in the United States, where even those who come legally are imagined criminals or terrorists. All of these countries send vast hordes of travellers into the world every year, even as they refuse those for whom travel is not a choice, not an act of leisure, not a dream vacation, but a condition of life.

The hypocrisy of the Western traveller does not end there. At home, many pretend to be preoccupied with stopping climate change; Europeans bike to work and gather their rubbish into compartments, Americans drive their hybrid cars, everyone imagines that they are doing their part. They are not. Research has shown that air travel is the single largest contributor to an Americans or Europeans carbon footprint. One round-trip flight from Europe to New York emits two to three tonnes of carbon dioxide a person. This is a huge percentage of the 19 tonnes an average American and the 10 tonnes an average European produces every year. The round-trip flight produces half of the total emissions a car produces every year, and most wealthy Westerners take a lot more than one trip.

If climate change were truly more than a conceit, there would be fewer Western travellers zipping across continents toting plastic luggage and cramming into jetliners with their goods. Frequent travellers, whose total contribution to air pollution is huge, would not be wheedled and wooed with credit cards and canapes; they would be blacklisted. But this is not so; far from it. Experts estimate that there are currently 20,000 aeroplanes being operated, many to the safe vacation destinations listed in the State Department rankings. The numbers are only set to increase; it is estimated that by 2040 the number will double and reach 50,000. The kicker, however, is not simply in these numbers; it is also in the fact that while Westerners are furiously polluting the world to sate their travel fetishes, none of their nations recognise climate refugees whose livelihoods have been destroyed by the pollution that their travel-happy selves emit into the atmosphere. Farmers fleeing famine, medical asylum seekers whose asthma cannot withstand the poor air quality of their homelands are not welcome in America, or anywhere in the Western world.

There is also a generational component to the equation that demands safe travel yet denies safety and refuge to those not out to have fun but travelling to save their lives. A 2016 survey of US Millennials found that 72 percent of the generation prefer to spend more money on experiences rather than material things. Inevitably, experiences include travel to distant (but safe) lands, where they can post their experiences (the more obscure and rare the better) on social media, thus gaining recognition from their peers. To stanch any lingering guilt that this generation may have about their habit of widely broadcasted consumption, new industries of eco-tourism (where travelers emit jet fuel all the way to distant destinations and then may help plant trees when they get there) or voluntourism (where thousands of dollars are spent to travel to an exotic locale, and a few hours of hugging children at an orphanage is presented as the justification) have cropped up. Since the companies selling tour packages are beholden to their experience-craving customers, nobody ever points this out. The recipients of their help are, of course, too poor, not to mention entirely unwelcome in the same countries their benefactors have come from. None of these do-gooder travellers ever seem to go back and oppose the closing of borders, or the granting of citizenship based on the fickle accidents of birth.

Packaging consumption as experience may be a great marketing strategy to sell stuff-by-another-name to Western Millennials with full pockets, but failure to expose the hypocrisies involved in maintaining the myth of concern, whether it be for forlorn people everywhere or climate change anywhere, is killing us all. The safe travel rankings are just one daft example of the double standard that creates conditions of exploitation and exclusion and then turns around and blames the excluded for them. The economies of privilege that maintain this status quo are pervasive; the belief that the rich are entitled to shut their borders while insisting on their own right to travel safely, where the pollution emitted by experience-seeking Millenials is excluded from discussions of climate change, and where the tragedy of migrants who have lost everything merits at best the margins of newspapers, are all part of them.

A better world cannot exist unless these are exposed, and until travelling safely means not simply ensuring ones own safety but also the safety of the planet, where safety accrues not simply to those who wish to be safe on vacation but also those who, for the sake of safety, have been forced to abandon home forever.

The views expressed in this article are the authors own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeeras editorial stance.The 39th anniversary of the revolution in Iran promises to be a somber occasion for Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.

The 39th anniversary of the revolution in Iran promises to be a sombre occasion for the supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, who was forced to acknowledge the mass discontent in the country as result of the recent protests and received letters from two dissident insiders accusing him of negligence and empire building.

The letters came from two prominent establishment figures from either end of the political spectrum. On the left, Mehdi Karroubi, one of the leaders of the reformist uprising of 2009, in a letter published on January 30, blamed Khamenei for the countrys chaotic political, economic, cultural and social situations. And on the right, the former hardline president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, published a similar letter marking the anniversary of the revolution and held Khamenei responsible for not doing anything about the judiciary which has turned into a major pillar of oppression against the Iranian people.

At the same time investigations into the protests that took Iran by surprise six weeks back have put the blame firmly at the door of the establishment with official polls indicating almost 75 percent of the population are unhappy with the situation in the country.

Ayatollah Khamenei has recently admitted that the country has social justice and corruption problems, adding those officials directly responsible must pay special attention. But he has not come up with any solutions.

Peoples recent anti-corruption protest across the country is an alarm bell that you should take note of, Karroubi said in his letter. You, who have changed almost every pillar of the revolution to your preferred policies, must answer to the public, he added.

It is not the first time that Karroubi or Ahmadinejad have spoken out against what they describe as injustice. Nor is the idea of writing letters a novelty. Since the early days of the revolution, several letters of criticism have been written by prominent insiders.

What is important about the recent letters is their harsher than usual tone and the fact that they target the leader. The timing of these two letters is also crucial because it adds momentum to the expressions of discontent during the recent protests, some calling for the downfall of the regime and its leader.

In his letter, Ahmadinejad implied that either direct complicity or ineffectiveness of the leader has led to haphazard judicial decisions and widespread injustice. They insult and abuse power without fear, they charge and convict without oversight, he said.

Karroubi, on the other hand, blamed the leader for destroying the foundations of the revolution and making a mockery of the main oversight bodies such as the Guardian Council and the Assembly of Experts.

He also accused Khamenei of authorising the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) to enter into economic activity, indulge in corruption, get involved with intelligence, culture and politics when it was established to be only a military set up.

A demand for substantial changes

According to an official poll, the underlying causes of the widespread discontent in the recent protests were social and political. The head of Strategic Analysis Centre, Hessamudin Ashna, said that the polls show 60 percent of the population want reform but another 31 percent want substantial changes.

The protests should be taken seriously otherwise they may have dire consequences, said Ashna, who is an adviser to President Hassan Rouhani.

Yet inside the establishment there is an ongoing blame game. Rouhani stresses the social and political reasons behind the protests while the hardliners highlight the economic aspect to pressurise the president who is responsible mainly for the economy of the country.

What both sides are avoiding is that comprehensive reforms are required otherwise there would be more protests: in the same official poll, 37 percent of the respondents said protests are highly likely to be repeated.

Rouhani has put in place development projects for the southern Khuzestan province where protests about confiscation of land, shortage of water and environmental issues have gone on for over a year. He has also initiated an urban housing reconstruction programme to provide housing for young couples. Youth unemployment standing at 25 percent has been seen as one of the major roots of the recent unrest.

Yet reforming the political and judicial architecture of the establishment can only come from the supreme leader and his reaction has been slack. He has continued to pay more attention to regional issues, angering the protesters.

The two recent letters and the public pressures for creating change in the body of the Islamic Republic should give President Rouhani the necessary tools he requires to push Khamenei for his proposed reform of the IRGC and the judiciary as well as his anti-corruption surgery as demanded by the International Monetary Fund.

And the protesters call for the downfall of the leader should give sufficient impetus for reforms in the Assembly of Experts which has the duty of supervising and disqualifying the leader. As it stands Karroubi is right to refer to it as a ceremonial council that only praises the Leader.

After all, even the hardline Speaker of the Assembly, Ahmad Janati, who is always undermining dissent has said he is concerned about what the future holds for the Islamic Republic.

If the establishment in Iran wants to avoid further protests and possible civil disobedience the leader needs to take some drastic measures. These must include major reshuffles at the highest levels of the judiciary and the IRGC.

Otherwise, the next years anniversary could be even gloomier.

The views expressed in this article are the authors own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeeras editorial stance.At least 32 killed and thousands flee in the wake of attack in Bosso town on Nigeria-Niger border.

The UN High Commissioner for Refugees has expressed concern for some 50,000 people, who have been forced to flee a town in Niger after a devastating attack from armed group Boko Haram.

Adrian Edwards, spokesman for the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, told reporters in Geneva on Tuesday that tens of thousands of people were forced to flee the town of Bosso, in southeastern Niger, after the armed group attacked a military outpost based over the weekend.

Edwards said that many of those fleeing the town were headed towards Toumour, some 30km west of Bosso, living in the open and in precarious conditions.

This is a desperately poor area where the general insecurity has destroyed the socioeconomic fabric. The self-reliance capacity of the displaced and their hosts is extremely limited.

Many people are reportedly traumatised and worried about their safety. People are sleeping in the open and urgently need shelter and other assistance, Edwards said.

Authorities said that at least 30 Nigerian civilians and two Nigerian soldiers were killed during that attack on Friday.

Quoting the mayor of Bosso and a Nigerian military source, Reuters reported on Monday that Boko Haram retook the town on Sunday night following clashes with soldiers from Niger and Nigeria. It was unclear on Tuesday who was in charge of the city.



Martin Ewi, a researcher on counterterrorism at the Institute of Security Studies (ISS) in Pretoria, South Africa, said that Boko Harams move to capture Bosso suggested that the group was searching for a new safe haven.

Ewi told Al Jazeera that the group was desperately searching for a city from which they could launch their attacks. He described Niger as the new frontline of the war.

Being in the forest is good for hiding, but having a safe haven in southern Niger is what they need for sustainability, Ewi said.

The UNHCR said in May that the security and humanitarian situation was worsening in the Diffa Region in Niger as the rebellion spread from Nigeria to Niger.

Nigeria is really cracking down hard on their operations. And Niger has until now been able to detect Boko Harams plans, so I am curious to know how they managed to get into Bosso this time, Ewi said.



We are greatly concerned for welfare of people forced to flee #BokoHaram violence in Niger https://t.co/yDJBJfLqvq pic.twitter.com/czyplBhNvM  UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency (@Refugees) June 7, 2016

Niger, Cameroon, Chad, Nigeria and Benin, have all contributed troops to a 9,000-strong regional task-force dedicated to fighting the group.

According to the UN, more than 20,000 people have been killed, and more than 2,000 women and girls have been abducted since the conflict began in 2009.

At least 2.5 million people have fled their homes, of whom 2.2 million are internally displaced. A further 177,000 are seeking refuge in the neighbouring countries of Cameroon, Chad and Niger.Gambias president-elect to be sworn in at Dakar embassy as incumbent refuses to go despite threat of military action.

The Gambias President-elect Adama Barrow says he will be sworn in at the countrys embassy in neighbouring Senegal, as regional forces massed at the border to force incumbent Yahya Jammeh to quit after his election defeat.

In messages posted on his social media accounts, Barrow said that the inauguration was going to take place as scheduled on Thursday in the Senegalese capital, Dakar.

https://twitter.com/adama_barrow/status/822000166454620160

Al Jazeeras Nicolas Haque, reporting from Dakar, said representatives of West African heads of states were expected to attend the swearing-in ceremony, due to take place at 16:00 GMT.

A very significant moment for the Gambian history, Haque said.

There was a heavy security presence at Gambias Dakar-based embassy on Thursday afternoon. Embassy staff climbed on to the roof to replace the faded Gambian flag with a new one.

It was not clear how Barrow will travel to Gambia.

VP quits

Earlier on Thursday, sources told Al Jazeera that Isatou Njie Saidy, Gambias vice president since 1997, had quit, becoming the highest level official to abandon Jammehs camp in his standoff with opposition Barrow, who won last months presidential election.

Saidys resignation comes after a series with defections among Jammehs entourage, Haque said.

AL JAZEERAS NICOLAS HAQUE, REPORTING FROM DAKAR IN NEIGHBOURING SENEGAL: Troops from Senegal, Ghana, Nigeria, Mali and Togo are at the borders of Senegal, waiting for a green light to intervene and unseat Yahya Jammeh, who according to the constitution is no longer the countrys legitimate ruler. Banjul has been turned into a ghost town'with tens of thousands of people fleeing the capital and at least 26,000 crossing the border into Senegal. Meanwhile, Ousman Badjie, the chief of defence staff, has said that he will not put his men on the line and they will not fight or die for Yahya Jammeh.

Eight cabinet members have resigned saying they no longer stand with Jammeh. But despite all these defections, Jammeh is still not willing to concede defeat.

Jammeh initially acknowledged Barrow as the winner of the December 1 vote, but later rejected the result stating irregularities.

Earlier this week, he declared a national state of emergency, and on Wednesday The Gambias national assembly approved a resolution to extend his term by 90 days.

Jammeh, who has ruled The Gambia since a 1994 coup, is refusing to step down, despite international condemnation and a threat of a military intervention by West African countries to enforce his election defeat.

In and around Gambias capital, Banjul, shops were closed and streets quiet, with tour operators evacuating hundreds of tourists from the small West African countrys popular beach resorts.

Military operation

The United Nations Security Council was to vote later on Thursday on endorsing a West African military intervention as Senegal, Nigeria and Ghana dispatched hundreds of troops and fighter jets to Gambias border with Senegal.

Senegals army had said on Wednesday it would be ready to cross into its smaller neighbour, which it surrounds, from midnight.

A military operation [is under way] with troops also from Ghana, Nigeria, Togo, Mali  they are all at the Senegal border and presenting a united front, Haque said.

A senior Nigerian military source told Reuters news agency that regional forces would only act once Barrow had been sworn in.

What the Senegalese said about the midnight deadline was to put pressure on Jammeh. It was a show of muscle, a diplomat in the region told Reuters.

The UN said at least 26,000 people fearing unrest have fled to Senegal and tour operators have sent charter jets to fly hundreds of European holiday makers out of the country.At least five people killed and 30 wounded in Conakry demonstrations sparked by a teachers strike, the government says.

At least five people have been killed in Guineas capital, Conakry, in protests sparked by a teachers strike, according to the government, reviving labour tensions in a country where previous strikes have led to dozens of deaths.

Guineas main teachers unions launched the strike on February 1 to protest at the governments decision to dismiss or cut the salaries of many junior teachers after the latest civil service exams.

Many of their pupils have taken to the streets in recent days to support them.

Beginning early on Monday morning, unidentified assailants attacked a police station and demonstrators clashed with security forces in several districts of Conakry, witnesses told the Reuters news agency.

By midday, these demonstrations had unfortunately caused the deaths of at least five people, the government said in a statement, calling the protest illegal and forbidden.

The statement added that 30 people had been injured, including members of the security forces, and 12 arrested.

Demand for higher salaries

The two largest teacher trade unions have been on strike for weeks, demanding higher salaries and the resumption of work by contracted teachers, who are not full-time. The government, they say, is not meeting their demands.

The unions said their strike will continue until a pay rise of between 7.5 to 10.3 percent is met.

Later on Monday, the government said a deal had been struck to end the teachers strike but that could not be immediately confirmed.

General strikes about 10 years ago caused major disruptions in Guinea, which has around a third of the worlds reserves of bauxite, used to make aluminium.

The subsequent crackdown led by security forces led to the deaths of 135 people.Damak industrial area gets govt greenlight

Land compensation process for construction of Damak Industrial Area (DIA) has kicked off with the publication of a public notice requesting landholders to apply for compensation for land that they will have to relinquish.Ashraf Ghani proposes a ceasefire and prisoner release in hopes of reaching a peace agreement with the armed group.

Afghan President Ashraf Ghani has offered to recognise the Taliban as a legitimate political group, as part of a proposed process he said could lead to talks aimed at ending more than 16 years of war.

Ghanis offer on Wednesday, made at the start of an international conference aimed at creating a platform for peace talks, adds to a series of signals from both the Western-backed government and the Taliban suggesting a greater willingness to consider dialogue.

Ghani proposed a ceasefire and prisoner release as part of a range of options, including new elections involving the armed group, and a constitutional review as part of a pact with the Taliban.

We are making this offer without preconditions in order to lead to a peace agreement, Ghani said in opening remarks at the conference, attended by officials from about 25 countries involved in the so-called Kabul Process.

The Taliban are expected to give input to the peace-making process, the goal of which is to draw the Taliban, as an organisation, to peace talks, he said.





The comments represented a significant shift for Ghani, who, in the past, has regularly called the Taliban terrorists and rebels, although he has also offered to talk to parts of the movement that accepted peace.

The Taliban, fighting to return to power after its 2001 removal by US-led forces, has offered to begin talks with the US, but has, so far, refused direct discussions with Kabul. It was unclear whether the group would be prepared to shift its stance, despite growing international pressure.

I think that what they are saying is that the door is still open. They have shown a softness in their stand, said political analyst Habib Wadark.

Not just the Taliban, but the Afghan government and its international counterparts, and I think it is a perfect time not for a peace deal to be struck at this stage but probably a temporary ceasefire, which can then pave the path of a sustainable peace in the long term, he told Al Jazeera.

Ghani, who recently helped launch the latest stage of a major, regional gas pipeline from Turkmenistan, said the momentum for peace was building from neighbouring countries that increasingly saw the necessity of a stable Afghanistan.

The Taliban show awareness of these contextual shifts and seem to be engaged in a debate on the implications of acts of violence for their future, he said.

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Political office

Ghani said a framework for peace negotiations should be created with the Taliban recognised as a legitimate group, with their own political office to handle negotiations in Kabul or another agreed location.

Taliban officials have acknowledged they have faced pressure from friendly countries to accept talks, and said their recent offers to talk to the US reflected concern that they could be seen to be standing in the way of peace.

Ghani said the process would be accompanied by coordinated diplomatic support, including a global effort to persuade neighbouring Pakistan, which Kabul has regularly accused of aiding the Taliban, of the advantages of a stable Afghanistan.

He renewed an offer of talks with Pakistan, which rejects the accusations and points to the thousands of its citizens who have been killed by armed groups over the years.

In return for Ghanis offer, the Taliban would have to recognise the Afghan government and respect the rule of law, he said.

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In addition, Taliban prisoners could be released and their names removed from international blacklists, while security arrangements could be made for the Taliban members agreeing to join a process of reconciliation. Former fighters and refugees could be reintegrated and provided with jobs.

The US last year stepped up its military assistance to Afghanistan, notably through a sharp increase in air attacks, with the aim of breaking a stalemate with the fighters and forcing them to the negotiating table.

While the US military says the strategy has hit the Taliban hard, the group still controls or contests much of the country and continues to inflict severe casualties on Afghan forces.

The Taliban also claimed responsibility for two major attacks in Kabul last month that killed or wounded hundreds of civilians.Dhaka, Bangladesh  Rights groups as well as ordinary people have staged protests in Bangladesh to demand justice for the alleged rape of two teenaged girls belonging to the Marma ethnic minority group.

Hundreds of demonstrators descended recently on the streets of the Bangaldeshi capital, Dhaka, and in Rangamati  a small town in the Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) region in countrys southeast, where the Marma sisters, aged 19 and 14, were allegedly raped by members of security forces.

The reported assault on Yan Yan, a prominent female member of the countrys persecuted Chakma population based in CHT, has further angered people.

Yan Yan, who holds the ceremonial title of Queen of the Chakma Circle, has been vocal aganst the sexual assault against the sisters.

A courtroom custody battle culminated in what local witnesses describe as the forced abduction of both sisters by the armed forces on February 15 on the orders of the High Court in Dhaka.

In response to the outcry, the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) of Bangladesh has created a three-member probe committee that is planning to visit Rangamati soon to investigate the allegations.

Low-intensity conflict

The CHT shares borders with India and Myanmar, and has been the site, for decades now, of a low-intensity conflict between the regions 13 ethnic minorities on the one hand and Bangladeshs armed forces on the other hand.

The CHT, by virtue of its nominal autonomy within Muslim-majority Bangladesh, has a total of three circles, each headed by a ceremonial king  Yan Yans husband Devashis Roy, a UK-trained lawyer who practices at the Bangladesh High Court, being one of them.

The alleged incident of alleged rape and sexual harassment of the Marma sisters occurred on January 22, several local residents and rights activists have told Al Jazeera.





A day later, they were admitted to the Rangamati District Hospital and were reportedly kept there under tight security and surveillance by the armed forces until their alleged abduction on February 15.

According to both Yan Yan and Roy, after the sisters were admitted to hospital, Yan Yan talked to them and the sisters told her they feared for their security and, thus, did not want to return to their home.

Instead they apparently appealed to the couple to take them under their protection.

Separately, the Marma sisters, whose parents cannot communicate in the Bengali language, also filed a police petition asking for their father to be given custody of them.

Multiple local residents and rights activists told Al Jazeera that on February 15, members of the police and armed forces stormed into the hospital and removed the two teenagers by force.

Yan Yan, who was present in the hospital that night with another volunteer when the police action occurred, told Al Jazeera that members of the armed forces and police  some in uniform and some in plain clothes  entered the room where the sisters were staying and, for all practical purposes, abducted them.

When I protested, they threw me down on to the floor and started kicking me. At one point, the power line of the whole area was cut and they took away the girls in the dark, said Yan Yan, who has been fighting for the rights of ethnic minorities.

Missing Marma family

Speaking to Al Jazeera, Sayed Tariqul Hasan, Superintendent of Police (SP) of the Rangamati district, denied the accusations and insisted that the two teenagers went along willingly with the law-enforcement personnel.

He said the sisters were handed over to their parents on Thursday night (February 15).

According to local residents in Rangamati, however, the family members have yet to return home, adding that there was no trace of the Marma family so far.

Hasan, the police officer, said the family members were being kept in the house of Avilash Tanchangya, ex-chairman of the Farua Union Parishad (FUP), a local community leader in CHT.

The village where the sisters live is under the FUP.

They are in safe hands now, said Hasan.

Minorities have been angered by the case of the Marma sisters [Mahmud Hossain Opu/Al Jazeera]

Rohul Amin Sikder, additional superintendent of police (ASP), in charge of the District Special Branch (DSB), also confirmed the family is with Tanchangya.

However, Al Jazeera could not talk to Tanchangya to confirm the police accounts as he did not take phone calls and his house was heavily guarded by the police.

Sikder said police had cordoned Tanchangyas home under the instructions of the Bangladesh High Court, but when asked why the Marma family were not being allowed to go back to their own home, he replied: I have no answer to that.

Human rights activists and friends of the Marma family say the parents have been threatened by members of the armed forces and that the entire family faces grave danger now.

What is clear is that there is an information blackout on the case by law enforcement agencies.

As mentioned earlier, Yan Yan was one of the few people who were able to talk to the Marma sisters inside the heavily guarded Rangamati District Hospital on January 23.

The sisters were apparently able to give an account of their ordeal to Yan Yan in the Marma language, which the mostly Bengali law-enforcement officers could not understand.

Account of raid

Yan Yan later gave an interview to The Daily Star, the leading English language daily of Bangladesh, disclosing what the sisters had told her at the hospital.

Talking to Al Jazeera, Yan Yan said four men from the security forces entered the Marma familys home during a dawn raid on January 22.

Two of them entered the house where the two sisters and their seven-year-old brother were sleeping, Yan Yan said, put a gun to the girls heads, and asked them not to make any sounds while they blindfolded them.

According to Yan Yan, the men took turns in raping the elder sister and sexually molesting the younger one, but when one of them attempted to rape the latter, she started screaming despite being warned to remain silent.

Al Jazeera spoke to a number of locals and learned that the parents and the elders of their village were called to the Farua army camp the next morning where they were asked not to discuss the matter in public.

However, the girls were taken to the Rangamati District Hospital on January 23 as the condition of the elder sister had deteriorated.

On the same day, members of the armed forces put the entire hospital under surveillance and barred outsiders from entering it.

Two days later, a local politician of Bangladeshs ruling Awami League named Russel Marma, held a press conference at Rangamati Press Club, where the parents and the brother of the two sisters spoke.

In a written statement, Russel Marma confirmed that a Bangladeshi army team was in operation in the area in question on January 22 and they heard the screams of a girl.

They saw a member of a village security force known as Ansar emerging from the Marma familys home.

A written statement issued at the end of the press conference did not use the Bengali term for rape but nirjaton, which means torture.

The statement also said the Ansar force member was later caught by the armed forces and was handed over for departmental action.

Lieutenant colonel Mohammad Rashidul Hasan, Director of Inter Services Public Relation Directorate (ISPR)  the authorised office for media communication for the Bangladesh armed forces  told Al Jazeera that the Ansar member in question is currently facing departmental action.

Hasan also said no member of armed forces was involved in the sexual assault on Marma sisters.

Ansar investigating

Md Abdual Awal, Rangamati district commandant of Bangladesh Ansar and Village Defence Party, said that particular Ansar member has been withdrawn [from service] and an investigation is ongoing.

The police, for their part, said they were investigating the incident but did not elaborate.

Interestingly, the little brother present in the press conference said in Marma language that not one, but two men, entered the room, and that the men were wearing armed forces uniform.

Several local rights activists, who did not want their names to be published, told Al Jazeera they believe the press conference was staged as a diversionary tactic.

Amnesty International, the international rights-advocacy group, has said that the Marma sisters parents were picked up by uniformed men from the Farua army camp early on January 24, and that they have been under joint police-military custody ever since.

The press conference organised by Russel Marma was staged on the instructions of the army camp, it said.

Amnesty International is also in possession of a letter signed by the elder Marma sister, in which they both express their desire to be released [from the Rangamati District Hospital] into the custody of Roy, rather than to their family, because her family have been subjected to intimidation by the army, and her home is the place where the rape took place.

On February 8, a petition was filed before Judge Jubair Rahman Chowdhury of the Bangladesh High Court by several human-rights activists demanding to know why the two sisters were not being released from the custody of the government.

On February 12, another petition was filed before a High Court bench headed by Justice Naima Haider Chowdhury to transfer the sisters to the custody of their father under police protection.

Validity questioned

Justice Haider Chowdhury has ordered that the Marma sisters be placed under the custody of their father under police protection.

However, an appeal has been made to the Court questioning the validity of Justice Haider Chowdhurys ruling on a petition while the hearing of the first petition was pending.

The Court decided to hold its hearing on the appeal on February 18.

Meanwhile, it issued a directive to the Rangamati District Hospital management; Hasan, the police SP; and the deputy commissioner (DC) of Rangamati district not to remove the Marma sisters from their current location [hospital].

However, in apparent violation of that order, the sisters were removed from the Rangamati District Hospital to another location on the night of February 15, sources told Al Jazeera.

Hasan denies there has been any violation of the Chamber Judges order, telling Al Jazeera: We had the High Court directive in our favour. The girls are with their parents now.

Following the February 15 incident, human right activist Sultana Kamal filed another petition with the Supreme Court seeking stay on the High Court order.

The Supreme Court on February 22 asked the High Court to hear and settle off the rule by six weeks regarding the confinement of two sisters.Government-tied business owners need not worry about closing their bars at midnight after low turnout invalidates vote.

Budapest, Hungary  Budapests party district, a historic downtown area full of bars, clubs and restaurants, held a referendum to close businesses between midnight and 6am after years of resident complaints about noise and waste.

But late Monday evening, the municipal government said the vote was invalid because of low voter turnout.

All of the rubbish, the vomit, its become unliveable here, Judit Sakali, an elderly resident of the seventh district where the bars are found, told Al Jazeera on a recent February morning.

Sakali said she wanted bars and restaurants to close at midnight so she could sleep. Noisy tourists have prevented her from doing so.

Residents in the district, called Elizabeth Town by locals, came together to form the Livable Elizabeth Town group to organise themselves and document property destruction in response to rowdy partygoers.

They often post notes addressed to tourists on the streets: We understand. You want to have a good time, but you need to understand that  our streets are not your toilet.

Months of activism took place to get the referendum.

Atilla Vajnai, a left-wing politician and resident of the seventh district, told Al Jazeera the efforts began as a way to placate unhappy locals.

Then, when they saw how popular [the issue] is, they began to worry, Vajnai said.

The referendum faced challenges at the local and national level. An unnamed party tried to stop the vote in Hungarys High Court the week before it took place. The challenge was dismissed.

Tourists walk out of Szimpla, one of Budapests most famous ruin pubs in the party district

In 2017, a commissioner said the districts UNESCO World Heritage Site designation blocked the local council from making the decision.

Though a local issue, the party districts fate was the intersection of politics and business in advance of April elections.

Vajnai pointed to connections between bar owners and the ruling Fidesz party and the amount of money they make from these locales.

Tourism boom

Tourism has spiked in recent years, partly due to an increase in budget flights to Hungary and Budapests growing reputation as one of Europes most beautiful cities.

In 2016, the last year for which the Hungarian government has data, more than eight million tourists visited the country of 10 million people, the highest number on record.

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The bars of the seventh district, including the famous ruin pubs  housing complexes that had fallen into disrepair but were bought by developers in the 1990s and converted into clubs  are a big draw for Western Europeans.

Though there are no publicly available figures for private revenue, the district brought in more than $25m in tax in 2016, figures from the Ministry for National Economy show.

Many of the establishments in Budapests popular district belong to Prime Minister Victor Orbans political allies, Antonia Radi, a Hungarian journalist who investigated bar ownership in the area, told Al Jazeera.

These people view the recreational district as a place which can produce great benefit, Radi said.

Closely connected

Roy Zsiday, a Hungarian restaurant impresario, gave Orbans eldest daughter an internship at his business in the seventh district.

She now teaches a class in Hungarys Corvinus University and often invites Zsidai to speak as a guest lecturer, Radi said.

They do not cover their close relationship at all, Radi explained.

The connections dont end there.

The Fidesz government has long been criticised for limiting critical media in favour of pro-government outlets.

One such outlet is Origo, a former opposition media company that is now widely viewed as pro-government after the editor-in-chief was reportedly forced to resign after publishing a report on the spending of one of Orbans aides.

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Istvan Szaras, the previous CEO of Origo, owns a cocktail bar in the district. Origos new CEO is Adam Matolcy, son of the Hungarian central bank chief Gyorgy Matolcsy.

Balint Fulop Somlai owns another location in the district. He is the chief of the TV division of New Wave Media, the company that publishes Origo.

Somlai took out a mortgage on the property from the NHB Bank, which is also connected to Matolcsy, Radis research shows.

When asked about these connections, a government spokesperson said it has no duty with district issues.

Looking to April

The seventh districts mayor is Zsolt Vattamany, a Fidesz member. Istvan Bajkai, the Orban familys lawyer, is vice mayor and a parliamentary candidate in Hungarys April elections.

However, Fidesz does not have a majority on the district council. Janos Stummer, a member of the populist Jobbik party many view as far-right, typically serves as the swing vote to decide issues.

Stummer is the politician who originally proposed the referendum in 2017, but he later voted against it, siding with Vattamany.

On the national level, Jobbik has positioned itself as a populist alternative to Fidesz, focusing on raising wages for Hungarian and Eastern European workers, among other issues.

Many say Fidesz has gone further to the right on issues of refugees and immigration, as well as adopting a campaign against Hungarian American liberal philanthropist George Soros, who funds civil society organisations throughout the region.

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For Vajnai, the left-wing politician, the local alliance between Stummer and Vattamany has implications for the April election.

Fidesz is projected to win a majority of seats in parliament in April elections, but it could fall short of the numbers required to form a government on its own.

Polls show Jobbik coming in second. A coalition between the parties could conceivably form a party.

Jobbik members have repeatedly stated that a coalition with Fidesz wont happen. Still, Vajnai believes it could.

Though the referendum was deemed invalid due to low turnout, both Vajnai and Dori Garai, the founder of Livable Elizabeth Town, saw it as a success.

About 80 percent of the votes cast on Sunday night came from the inner-city area directly impacted by the party district, and 78 percent were in favour of closing bars at midnight, Garai said in a statement.

Following the referendum, Vattamany has promised to take measures to improve the lives of party district residents.

Vajnai was encouraged by the Fidesz mayors promise to improve living conditions.

In his view, a group of people were organised to challenge Fidesz, which made a concession. This shows big power shortly before the election, Vajnai said.Family and rights group demand release of a Canadian citizen imprisoned in Ethiopia for alleged terrorist crimes.

A Canadian family is calling on Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to negotiate the release of a citizen imprisoned in Ethiopia saying there will never be a better time than now to get him home.

Canadian Bashir Makhtal, 49, has been imprisoned in Ethiopia since January 2007 on charges of terrorism.

Authorities in Addis Ababa, Ethiopias capital, accuse Makhtal of being a ringleader for the Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF)  a rebel group pressing for self-rule in Ethiopias eastern Ogaden region  and he was sentenced to life in prison.

Ethiopia classifies the ONLF as a terrorist organisation.

The United States, United Kingdom, Canada, and the European Union, however, do not.

Makhtal, whose grandfather was a founding member of the ONLF, has always declared himself innocent, saying he was in the region to promote his clothing business.

Now, more than a decade on, the Ethiopian governments recent release of thousands of political prisoners and peace talks with the ONLF have given Makhtals family further impetus in campaigning for his release.

There is hope

Asiso Abdi, Makhtals wife, told Al Jazeera that Ethiopian authorities could be persuaded to include Bashir among those freed, if Canada applies adequate diplomatic pressure.

If the government of Justin Trudeau is willing to get Bashir home, there will never be a better time than now, Abdi said. When there is a life, there is a hope.

Canadian officials say they are exploring every possible option to bring Makhtal back to Canada.

Omar Alghabra, parliamentary secretary to Canadas minister of foreign affairs, met Makhtal during a diplomatic visit to Ethiopia in April 2017.

Negotiating Makhtals release is a priority for the Canadian government, he told Al Jazeera.

Our objective is to see this happen as soon as we can At every opportunity, the discussion with Ethiopian officials regarding Mr Makhtal happens, Alghabra said.

[But] these conversations are not easy The Ethiopian government see him as someone who has been convicted and is serving a sentence.

Despite mounting diplomatic pressure, Ethiopian officials continue to deny Makhtal is a political prisoner and block his release from jail.

Metasebia Tadesse, Ethiopias ambassador to Qatar, told Al Jazeera recent prisoner releases were specifically intended to create a broader political space within the country, and will not affect Makhtals status.

Bashir Makhtal is not an Ethiopian, he is imprisoned due to the terrorist crimes he committed, Tadesse said. One cannot mix his case with the current measures taken by the Ethiopian government.

When questioned, Tadesse refused to provide Al Jazeera with further details regarding the nature of the terrorist crimes.

An unfair trial

Rights group Amnesty International said Makhtal has been held unfairly.

Once charges were laid against Makhtal we pressed for him to be provided with a fair trial and an opportunity to mount an effective defence, such as by having full access to allegations, evidence and witnesses against him, Alex Neve, secretary-general of Amnesty International in Canada, told Al Jazeera.

That was not the case, nor was his appeal hearing a fair process, Neve said.

We continued to insist that he be immediately released if not provided with a fair trial. After so many years, now we are simply calling for him to be released and allowed to return home to Canada.

Lorne Waldman, Makhtals Canada-based lawyer, told Al Jazeera that Ethiopia had subjected his client to a number of extrajudicial measures: including an illegal extradition and torture.

Bashirs version of events has been the same since the beginning, that he was in Somalia doing business  [and] when there was the [Ethiopian] military incursion into Somalia he, like thousands of others, fled to the Kenyan border, Waldman said.

He was detained at the border and taken into custody in Nairobi, and from Nairobi he was illegally spirited on a private plane to Ethiopia without any formal extradition proceedings, he added.

Then he was tortured and charged under the anti-terrorism provisions in Ethiopia, before being prosecuted in what people generally felt was an unfair trial, convicted and sentenced to life in prison.

Extraordinary rendition

Amnesty said Makhtals transfer to Ethiopia was tantamount to an instance of extraordinary rendition, adding it was very likely he had been subjected to torture or other forms of cruel treatment in Ethiopia.

The prevalence of torture in Ethiopia  described as a major problem in Human Rights Watchs 2018 report  and Makhtal being held incommunicado at the beginning of his detention support Amnestys concerns regarding mistreatment, Neve said.

Authorities in Ethiopia did not acknowledge they had imprisoned Makhtal until July 2007, six months after his arrival in Addis Ababa, his relatives told Al Jazeera.

Nearly 11 years later, Makhtals family still has little clarity about whether Ethiopia will release him.

Some 12,000km away from his prison cell in Ethiopia, Makhtals absence in Canada continues to be felt every day, Abdi told Al Jazeera.

They took my husband and with him my future happiness, she said.

I have already missed 11 wedding anniversaries with him, 11 years of my life have gone. Im missing a half of me deep inside the dark cell of an Ethiopian prison.Similar anti-Sharia bills are being considered in several states across the United States.

A spate of bills in state legislatures across the United States have been decried by civil rights groups as Islamophobic.

Most recently, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), a Washington, DC-based Muslim civil rights group, has called on Idahos Senate to vote against a bill recently passed by the states House of Representatives that seeks to ban the implementation of foreign law in the state.

According to CAIR, the bill, known as HB-419, targets Muslims and fits into a long pattern of unconstitutional bills that demonise Muslims by barring Sharia, or Islamic law.

HB-419 was passed by Idahos House of Representatives at a time when similar bills are being considered in several US states, including Montana, Oregon and Wisconsin.

In an open letter to Idaho State Senator Jeff C Siddoway, Chairman of the Senate State Affairs Committee, CAIRs Government Affairs Director, Robert McCaw, described HB-419 as contrary to our nations values of not elevating or marginalising one faith or community.

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Legislation designed and adopted to attack a specific religion is a clear violation of the [US Constitutions] Establishment Clause, which requires that government be secular and treat all religions equally, McCaw wrote.

It is impossible to mask the anti-Muslim discriminatory intent behind HB-419.

Collusion with anti-Muslim groups

That bill was introduced by House Representative Eric Redman, who had introduced two similar bills in the last two years.

According to the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), an Alabama-based hate watchdog, at least 201 anti-Sharia bills have been introduced in 43 states since 2010.

Earlier this month, the SPLC revealed that it had obtained 47 pages of Redmans email correspondence with anti-Muslim groups between May 2016 and August 2017. The group obtained the emails through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request.

The groups with which Redman corresponded  among them American Laws for American Courts (ALAC), ACT for America, American Public Policy Alliance (APPA) and the Center for Security Policy (CSP)  have a lengthy history of bigotry, the SPLC said on its website.

Anti-Muslim hate groups play an integral role in the introduction of anti-sharia bills and overhyping the nonexistent threat of sharia law in the United States, the group added.

Although Redmans most recent version of the bill does not specifically reference Islamic law, the first version, which was introduced in 2016, included pictures of a severed hand and a man about to be decapitated. It also made allegations that the Muslim prophet Muhammad was a paedophile, according to the Associated Press.

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Earlier this month, Redman was quoted by the Idaho Statesman newspaper as saying the bill is not simply about Sharia and other foreign laws but also trans-nationalism, in other words, the documented creep of foreign and anti-public policy laws being recognised by state and federal courts.

In the past, Redman has also defended his bills against charges of Islamophobia.

We have freedom of religion here, but they dont have the right to bring their Sharia law overreach on our constitutional laws, the politician told the Washington newspaper Spokesman-Review in 2017.The United States has accused Russia and the Syrian government of violating the Eastern Ghouta ceasefire at a United Nations Security Council meeting.

The 30-day ceasefire, enshrined in Resolution 2401, was voted for unanimously by members of the Security Council on Saturday.

It came on the back of an offensive launched by the Bashar al-Assads forces, with the support of Russian warplanes, on the enclave that began on February 18 and has resulted in the deaths of more than 550 civilians, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor said.

Speaking on Wednesday, the US representative to the UN Kelley Currie condemned the Syrian governments continued aerial bombardment on Eastern Ghouta, a rural area outside of the capital Damascus that has been under opposition control since 2013.

Despite the unanimous call for a ceasefire, the regimes attacks continued unabated, Currie said. Hundreds of Syrians have been killed or injured since we passed the resolution on Saturday.





Such an attack demonstrates Syrias complete and utter contempt for this council and the United Nations, she added.

On Monday, Russia, a key ally of Bashar al-Assad, said it will implement five-hour humanitarian pauses to allow for the evacuation of civilians and the entrance of aid convoys. However, shelling and air raids did not stop and have resulted in the deaths of at least four people.

Currie described Russias humanitarian pauses as cynical, callous and in flagrant defiance of the demands of 2401.

Stranded in Eastern Ghouta

Residents of the enclave said government warplanes launched several attacks in the early hours of Wednesday, and stressed the most intense have been in three towns  Douma, Misraba and Harasta  near the front lines.

There have been no evacuations whatsoever  not medical, not humanitarian, nothing, one resident, who asked to remain anonymous, told Al Jazeera.

The regime has launched a psychological game  thats all. Bombardment has been ongoing since last night.

Al Jazeeras correspondent Osama Bin Javaid said many people are still stranded in Eastern Ghouta.

The second day of this so-called truce or pause went away without any major developments on the ground, he said, speaking from the Turkish border city of Gaziantep.

No aid convoys went inside because the United Nations and other aid workers have been saying that this is too short of a window without any guarantees of whether they would be able to make it back.

Bin Javaid also said rebels in Eastern Ghouta, which has been besieged by government forces since mid-2013, have no faith in the UN.

More air strikes and more shelling is being reported on Eastern Ghouta and rebels are saying that the UNSC resolution is just words, he said.

Russia blames rebels

Vassily Nebenzia, the Russian ambassador to the UN, told the Security Council that Russia is doing everything it can to ensure the effectiveness of the daily five-hour humanitarian pauses, but blamed rebel forces for targeting the corridors designated for humanitarian operations with mortar shelling.

We trust that the opposition leaders have a serious-minded approach and that their words will be met with deeds, he said.

We understand that terrorists remain a legitimate target for military operations and that there will be no ceremonial approach for them, he continued, adding efforts must be undertaken to effectively neutralise the presence of the al-Qaeda offshoot in Eastern Ghouta, Jabhat Fateh al-Sham, formerly known as al-Nusra Front.

Speaking from the UN headquarters in New York, Al Jazeeras diplomatic editor James Bays said some rebel factions were looking for a truce.

Its worth noting that some of the armed groups have actually written to the Security Council saying they are willing to support the ceasefire and are willing to kick any al-Nusra Front elements out of Eastern Ghouta, Bays said.Civilian and military casualties reported in suicide car bombings outside counterterrorism camp in southwestern Aden.

Dozens of people have been killed or wounded in two suicide car bombings in the southern Yemeni port city of Aden, witnesses and local medics say.

Saturdays attack occurred outside the gate of a counterterrorism camp in the citys southwest, according to the witnesses.

The sources said the blasts caused civilian and military casualties.

Officials at Adens main Jumhouriya hospital said the bodies of five victims, most of them soldiers, had arrived at the facility, along with a number of injured people including civilians, but gave no precise figures.

The attack on Saturday was claimed by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) via the groups Amaq website.

The attack took place in an area known as Gold Mohr in Adens Tawahi district, where the force of the blast damaged civilian cars parked outside the camp and showered the street with debris.

Aden, the seat of Yemens internationally recognised government, has witnessed of late suicide bombings and blasts that target security officials.

The attacks are usually claimed by ISIL, also known as ISIS, or al-Qaedas local affiliate.





Saturdays bombings were the first attack of its kind since gun battles erupted between southern separatists and the government of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi last month over control of Aden.

Residents described two large explosions in the area, where a cloud of grey smoke rose over the area, while ambulances raced to evacuate the wounded.

The residents initially said one of the bombers targeted an office of the separatist Southern Transitional Council, but a member of the group said there was no attack on the building.

Yemen has been locked in a power struggle since late 2014 between Hadis government and Iran-allied Houthi rebels, who control the capital Sanaa.

In March 2015, Saudi Arabia and allies started an air campaign in Yemen against the Shia group when they started advancing towards Hadis southern power seat of Aden.Hours into second attempt at implementing Russian truce, government shelling intensifies in towns near front lines.

Syrian government forces have clashed with rebels on the outskirts of Eastern Ghouta, despite a Russian-sponsored truce that is now in its second day, a war monitor reported.

Since Wednesday morning, during a second attempt at implementing a ceasefire in the besieged enclave, Syrian President Bashar al-Assads forces have been locked in fierce fighting with rebels who have been in control of the area since 2013, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR).

The confrontation is part of a ground offensive launched by the government on Sunday. It has been fighting on multiple fronts in an attempt to penetrate the enclave.

The daily, five-hour humanitarian pause is meant to evacuate the injured out of the Damascus suburb and allow humanitarian convoys to deliver food and medicine to some 400,000 people trapped inside.

The first attempt to implement the truce on Tuesday was unsuccessful, as aerial bombardment and artillery fire killed at least four people and injured dozens more.

Residents of the enclave said government warplanes launched several attacks in the early hours of Wednesday morning, and stressed that the most intense attacks have been centres in three towns  including Douma, Misraba and Harasta  near the front lines.





There have been no evacuations whatsoever  not medical, not humanitarian, nothing.

The regime has launched a psychological game  thats all, a resident said. Bombardment has been ongoing since last night.

Residents also say they cannot trust the same entity that has been assisting the government with bombarding them, and demanded a third, trusted party to implement the truce.

Russia blaming rebels

But Russia held rebels in the enclave responsible for not implementing the truce and blocking aid from being delivered to devastated civilians.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Wednesday entrenched militants needed to act now that Russia implemented safe corridors.

Addressing the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva, he noted Moscow would continue to support Syrian forces in defeating the terrorist threat.

Al Jazeeras Zeina Khodr, reporting from Beirut in neighbouring Lebanon, said the rebels in Eastern Ghouta denied the claims made by Lavrov.

They [rebels] are denying this, saying they are not bombing the corridors and that people do not want to leave because they dont have any security guarantees  there are no international monitors, Khodr said.

People are going to cross into government territory  what guarantee is there that they wont be arrested, detained, or forced into conscription? she added.

What people want is a lasting ceasefire.

Eastern Ghouta has been under continuous aerial bombardment since February 18, when Russian-backed Syrian warplanes stepped up their campaign against opposition fighters in the area.

More than 550 civilians have been killed, according to SOHR, making the latest offensive the most intense in Syrias seven-year war.Interior ministry confirms isolated hacking following reports of breach of networks by Russia-linked group ATP28.

The German government has confirmed that it is investigating a cyberattack against government computer networks, according to local media reports.

The countrys interior ministry said on Wednesday that the incident was isolated and [had been] brought under control within the federal administration.

Earlier on Wednesday, German news agency DPA reported that hackers had used malware to target Germanys foreign and defence ministries and steal data, according to security sources.

The hacking appeared to have originated from the APT28 group, also known as Fancy Bear, which many experts think has ties with the Russian government, DPA reported.

The news agency said the attack had been detected by German authorities in December and possibly lasted more than a year.

The interior ministry did not respond to the allegations that APT28 was behind the attack.

A spokesperson said appropriate measures had been taken to investigate the breach and protect data.

Moscow has denied involvement with the group, which has been blamed for operations including an attack on the German parliament in 2015, and the Democratic National Committee in the run-up to the 2016 US elections.Contempt of court against Kantipur: FNJ urges SC to correct its order

The Federation of Nepali Journalists (FNJ) has urged the Supreme Court to correct its recent order on the contempt of court case against Kantipur Daily.White House Communications Director Hope Hicks has acknowledged to a House intelligence panel that she has occasionally told white lies for President Donald Trump, according to those present for Hicks closed-door testimony.

Hicks was interviewed for nine hours on Tuesday by the panel investigating Russia interference in the 2016 election and contact between Trumps campaign and Russia.

In response to a question on whether she had ever lied for her boss, Hicks acknowledged to have told white lies for Trump on occasion, according to a person familiar with the testimony.

The person, who declined to be named because the committees interviews are not public, said Hicks told the panel she had not lied about anything substantive.

Russian investigation

Republican Rep. Tom Rooney of Florida, a member of the intelligence panel who was in the interview, said Hicks answer was completely unrelated to the Russia investigation.

When specifically asked whether or not she was instructed to lie by the president, or the candidate, with regard to Russia, the investigation or our investigation, the answer to that question was no, Rooney said.

And thats our jurisdiction. Not whether or not he asked her to cancel a meeting for him, or something like that, he added.

The top Democrat on the intelligence panel, California Rep. Adam Schiff, said that Hicks answered questions about her role in Trumps campaign and answered some questions about the transition period between the election and the inauguration.

But she would not answer any questions about events since Trump took the oath of office.





White House statement

While the investigation is focused on Russian interference during the campaign, House investigators also had questions about her time in the White House, including her role in drafting a statement responding to news reports about a 2016 meeting between Trump campaign officials and Russians.

All of our questions about what went into that statement went unanswered, Schiff said.

That statement has been of particular interest to special counsel Robert Mueller, who is investigating matters related to the Russian meddling and potential obstruction of an ongoing federal inquiry.

The White House has said the president was involved in drafting the statement after news of the meeting broke last summer.

The statement said the meeting primarily concerned a Russian adoption programme, though emails released later showed that Trumps eldest son, Donald Trump Jr, agreed to the sit-down with a Russian lawyer.Amazon.com Inc launched its music-streaming service in India on Wednesday, its latest offering to drive customers to shop more on its flagship e-commerce platform.

Amazon Prime Music will be available at no extra cost to members of Prime, the worlds largest online retailers customer loyalty plan that costs an annual 999 rupees ($15.30).

Our entire music organization  Seattle, San Francisco, Bangalore, Mumbai  we have all spent a lot of time, invested our time personally and our engineering resources in India, its a big priority for us, Sean McMullan, Director International Expansion at Amazon Music, told reporters.

The music service will compete, among others, with local rival Gaana, which is raising $115m in new funding, and Apple Incs music service.

We now have Amazon Music, Apple Music, Gaana, Saavn, Wynk, JioMusic, and probably a few more music streaming services in India for a fraction of what they cost in the US or free. Spotify has ignored this market for years. Not sure why anyone will sign up when they launch.  _()_/ (@PranavDixit) February 28, 2018

Billions investment

In June 2016, Amazons Chief Executive Jeff Bezos said that it would invest an additional $3bn in India, boosting its committed investment in the country to over $5bn.

The Seattle, Washington-headquartered company is engaged in a battle with homegrown Flipkart for a bigger piece of Indias fledgling online retail market.

In 2017, Jeff Bezos became the worlds richest man, as reported by Time Magazine.Kushner loses access to Presidents Daily Brief as White House imposes stricter control over who has access to secrets.

Jared Kushner, senior adviser and son-in-law to US President Donald Trump, has had his security clearance downgraded, according to sources familiar with the issue.

The recent move will end the 37-year-olds unrestricted access to some of the countrys most secret documents, including the presidents daily brief, Politico reported on Tuesday.

Kushner, who has been operating under an interim security clearance for about a year, had his access to the highly classified briefings cut off in the past few weeks, the sources said.

The decision to revisit Kushners  and other White House staff  security clearance comes after major discrepancies were discovered in the aftermath of Staff Secretary Rob Porters resignation.

It was recently revealed that dozens of White House aides were still operating with direct access to some of the countrys most sensitive material despite not having obtained final permanent clearance.

Although it is technically within the presidents purview to grant Kushner permanent clearance, he has refrained from doing so, entrusting his chief of staff, John Kelly, with the decision.

I will let General Kelly make that decision [] I have no doubt hell make the right decision, Trump was reported saying on Friday.

White House spokesman Sarah Sanders would not comment on whether Kushners security clearance issues had been resolved.

Hes a valued member of the team and he will continue to do the important work that hes been doing since he started in the administration, she told reporters on Tuesday.

Abbe Lowell, Kushners attorney, said in a statement that the delay is not uncommon.

My inquiries [] have confirmed that there are a dozen or more people at Mr Kushners level whose process is delayed, that it is not uncommon for this process to take this long in a new administration, that the current backlogs are being addressed, and no concerns were raised about Mr Kushners application, Lowell said.

Foreign Meddling

According to the Washington Post, officials from at least four countries have privately discussed ways they can manipulate Jared Kushner.

Among those countries were the United Arab Emirates (UAE), China, Israel and Mexico, the Post reported.

Kushner has been forced to repeatedly correct omissions in his SF-86, the government-wide form used to apply for clearances, as well as his financial disclosure forms, which experts said could delay or even end his chances of earning a clearance through the normal process.

Kelly issued a statement last week in which he said Kushner would continue performing his duties in his foreign policy portfolio.Palestinian Christians, pilgrims, celebrate church reopening after three days of closure in protest of Israeli policy.

The doors of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem were officially reopened early morning on Wednesday after being shut for three days in protest of Israeli policies.

Adeeb Joudeh, the custodian of the keys, said that the church was reopened to the public at 4am local time (02:00 GMT).

This is a victory. Were celebrating. Easter is coming and so there were hundreds of visitors who had to pray outside the church for three days, Joudeh told Al Jazeera.

Theres a general feeling of happiness now that prayers inside the church have resumed  it was a beautiful site to see, he added.

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The church, situated in the Old City  which falls in occupied East Jerusalem, is one of the holiest in Christianity.

It is believed by many Christians to be the site of Jesus crucifixion and burial and is a major pilgrimage site, drawing millions of tourists annually.

But on Sunday, leaders from the Roman Catholic, Armenian and Greek Orthodox churches announced they would be closing the church doors in protest of what they described as discriminatory Israeli policy aimed at weakening Christian presence in Jerusalem.

The last and only other time the church doors were shut was in 1990  for 48 hours  in protest of Jewish settlers who had occupied a building in the Christian quarter near the church.

Church leaders said their decision was premised on several issues, including a bill recently introduced in Israels parliament that would allow the Israeli state to take over church properties leased to private companies.

Another development targeting churches, they said, were plans by the Israeli government to begin imposing taxes on church properties.

Following international pressure and condemnation by Palestinian Christians, Israel decided on Tuesday to suspend the legislation regarding collecting taxes from churches and their properties.

The leader of the Christian National Gathering in the Holy Land, Dimitri Deliani, said that the churches had won this battle against the Israeli occupation, which he described as a war.

Hana Amira, the head of the Supreme Presidential Committee for Church Affairs, told Palestinian government news agency Wafa that the stance of the heads of the churches, as well as the closure of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, had foiled the Israeli plan temporarily.Saad Hariri arrives in Saudi Arabia, his first visit there since his abrupt resignation from Riyadh in November.

Lebanons Prime Minister, Saad Hariri, has arrived in Saudi Arabia on Wednesday, his first visit there since his abrupt  and later rescinded  resignation from Riyadh in November.

A statement by Hariris media office on Tuesday said the prime minister would meet Saudi King Salman and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, without offering details on the agenda.

The state visit by Hariri, who also has Saudi citizenship, comes in advance of parliamentary elections in Lebanon on May 6, and of major donor conferences aimed at supporting Lebanon.

Gulf nations, and in particular Saudi Arabia, are seen as potential donor countries to these conferences.

Hariri last travelled to the kingdom on November 3 and unexpectedly resigned in a televised statement a day later.

His address from his home in Riyadh sparked outrage in Lebanon over what was publicly perceived as the abduction of a sovereign states prime minister by another country.

The move put Saudi-Lebanese relations to the test with President Michel Aoun refusing to accept the resignation and calling on authorities in Riyadh to release his countrys detained prime minister.

Hariri, for his part, accused Iran and Hezbollah of destabilising Lebanon and remained in the Saudi capital for two weeks. He was reportedly held there until France intervened.

Lebanon has been caught in the rivalry between Saudi and Iran, both aiming to extend their influence in the region.

Hariri, 47, ultimately returned to Beirut weeks later after French President Emmanuel Macrons successful mediation efforts, and withdrew his resignation.Four dead and four wounded after peacekeepers vehicle hits a landmine a day after six Malian soldiers killed.

Four UN peacekeepers have been killed and four more were wounded after their vehicle hit an explosive device in Malis central Mopti region.

The UNs mission in Mali, MUNISMA, said the vehicle transporting the blue helmets struck an improvised explosive device on Wednesday. The medical evacuation of the four seriously injured peacekeepers was under way, a statement said.

The incident happened a day after six Malian soldiers were killed in another blast.

MINUSMA is currently upgrading its security presence in central Mali, mission chief Mahamat Saleh Annadif said. Cornered, the terrorists are multiplying their attacks of unspeakable vileness.

The UN mission in Mali, which has more than 11,000 troops and was established in 2013, is one of the most dangerous peacekeeping operations in the world, with troops and convoys regularly coming under attack from armed groups.

According to UN figures, more than 146 members of the mission have been killed since 2013.

The security situation in Mali has been fragile since 2012 after armed groups captured the entire northern part of the country and were only pushed back a year later following a military intervention by France.Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani invited by US President Donald Trump for meeting in the US capital.

The Qatari government has announced that Emir Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani will attend an April meeting in Washington, DC, with US President Donald Trump.

The two leaders spoke by phone on Wednesday about regional developments and opportunities to enhance the American-Qatari partnership on a range of security and economic issues, according to a White House press release.

It was during the phone conversation that Trump extended the invitation.

The leaders agreed on the importance of regional cooperation and a united Gulf Cooperation Council to mitigate regional threats and ensure the regions economic prosperity, the White House release said.

Qatar has faced a blockade from Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain and Egypt since June, alleging Qatari support for extremist groups.

Qatar has strenuously denied the allegations.

The Saudi-led blockade came after a regional meeting between Trump, Egypts President Abdel-Fattah el-Sisi and Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud.

Other members of the US government, including Rex Tillerson, the secretary of state, have voiced support for Qatar, which is host to the US militarys central base of command for operations in the Middle East.

Al Jazeeras Rosiland Jordan, reporting from Washington, DC, said that Trump has been calling Gulf leaders in recent days to discuss confronting the threat from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group.

Jordan noted that other Gulf leaders will be present in Washington in April, but efforts to hold a summit to end the crisis are still up in the air.Dozens of relatives of Tunisians who fought with Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant caught in diplomatic limbo.

Baraa Zayani is nearly four years old and has spent more than half of his life in a Libyan prison. His only offence: he was born to a Tunisian father, now deceased, who joined the ranks of Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS) abroad.

Zayani, and his mother Wahida Bin Mokhtar Rabhi, 30, have been held in the Maitiga prison in Tripoli since February 2016, after a US air attack exposed a network of ISIL cells in Sabratha, a coastal city about 130 kilometres east of the Tunisian border.

Rabhi, her son, and her husband, Ezzeddine Ben Habib Zayani, a mechanic who allegedly manufactured explosives and car bombs, were trying to flee south when Libyan militia members intercepted and began shooting at them.

Baraas father was killed and he and his mother eventually wound up in the custody of the Special Deterrence Forces, a militia affiliated with Libyas internationally recognised Government of National Accord (GNA) in Tripoli.

More than two years later, Rabhi and her son now sit in diplomatic limbo, along with 36 other Tunisian women and children being held in the Maitiga prison. At least a dozen other women and children are being held in a separate facility in Misrata.

Ambiguous charges

Officials in the GNA have been engaged with Tunisian authorities to negotiate the return of these women and children for almost a year, yet, for various reasons, the cases have stalled.

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The issue of repatriation for the Libyans is not confined to the imprisoned women and children, but also includes the question of suspected Tunisian ISIL fighters, said Ahmad Ben Salem, spokesman for the Special Deterrence Forces, in a phone interview.

According to Ben Salem, there are more than 60 Tunisian ISIL suspects currently in prison: some are awaiting trial in Libya; others are being held on ambiguous charges pertaining to Libyas national security. Tripoli also seeks to return at least 80 bodies of alleged Tunisian ISIL fighters who died on Libyan soil and are in morgues.

Tunis and Tripoli are both dependent on numbers provided by Libyan militias  difficult to independently verify, said one Tunisian diplomat involved in the case. Even if the numbers are accurate, political control of Libya is split across four regions and numerous local actors, making it almost impossible to account for a complete number, said the diplomat, who asked to remain anonymous.

The Special Deterrence Forces said it is ready to release the women and children in Maitiga prison, but only with an official commitment from Tunis to address the question of repatriation of its citizens in its entirety.

Tunis, on the other hand, is focusing on repatriating the children, which has delayed any immediate resolution, said Mostafa Abdelkebir, a prominent human rights activist in Tunisia.

Tunisia wants only the children and Libya wants the whole folder to be dealt with at once, said Abdelkebir.

Children first

Recently, in response to an inquiry made by a parliamentarian, Khaoula bin Aicha, the Tunisian foreign ministry said Libya previously refused to return the children through the Red Cross, seeking to coordinate exclusively with Tunisia instead. The language used in the published correspondence confirmed that Tunisian efforts are concentrated on imprisoned children and avoid specifically addressing female detainees.

The document indicated that proving the childrens parentage will be one of several steps in confirming the Tunisian citizenship of the remaining children  a task that might prove daunting. Tunis shut down both its embassy and consulate in Tripoli, in 2014 and 2015, respectively, after a number of its officials had been kidnapped by Libyan militiamen. It only reopened the offices in April 2016, leaving any child born during those two years likely unregistered with the state.

Yet, for the Tunisian children first approach, an even greater hurdle remains: Most of these women refuse to be separated from their children.

The children are a protection tool for these women, said Abdelkebir. The women fear that if the children are repatriated, then they will be forgotten, he explained.

They also feel safer with their children with them in prison, he said. I understand them.





Official Tunisian statements presumed these women guilty of ISIL affiliation, yet there is no evidence of due process or trial in Tunisia or Libya to determine their alleged status. Some women said they were either held against their will by their husbands, or were unaware of their husbands ties to the armed group.

Moncef Abidi, Rabhis brother, said his sister only began to see suspicious behaviour from her husband in late 2015, but was not able to seek help.

The moment she felt the danger she became a hostage, said Abidi. She used to call her mother crying, saying she wants to come back  But he [Zayani] blackmailed her with her son. He told her that she can go back, but she would have to leave her son.

Regardless of the nature of their ISIL affiliation, most of the women want to go back to Tunisia and are ready to stand before Tunisian courts, said Ben Salem.

But they [Tunisian authorities] cant just take the children and go, he said.

Humanitarian case

To date, only one detainee has been successfully repatriated to Tunisia: a three-year-old orphan whose parents were killed in the same US air attack that affected Rabhi and her family. After a year in the Maitiga prison, Tamim Jandoubi was returned to the custody of his maternal grandfather in October last year.

But the case of the women and children has become a humanitarian one, said Ben Salem.

Many of these women and children require constant medical and psychological care. When his family was fleeing Sabratha two years ago, young Zayani was caught in the crossfire and hit by multiple bullets in his back and stomach. He was taken to a hospital in Tripoli to undergo surgery while his mother, who was taken to prison, was falsely told that her only son did not survive. A few months later, a video was released showing an emotional reunification of Rabhi and her son. Amid the hysterical cries and weeping of his mother, Zayani, wide-eyed and unsmiling, appeared to be distant and quiet for a child who has not seen a parent for months.

If Tunis does not repatriate these children from Libya, what are they going to be when they get older? Doctors? Engineers? No, they are going to adopt radical ideas, said Mohamed Iqbel Ben Rejeb, founder and president of the Rescue Association of Tunisians Trapped Abroad (RATTA), an NGO founded in 2013 to advocate for the safe return of families and children caught in conflicts abroad.

What will their mothers teach them? To love their country? Their country abandoned them, said Ben Rejeb.

No clear strategy





A Tunisian delegation headed to Libya in April 2017 supposedly to meet the women and children, who had been bussed to an auditorium for the occasion, but failed to show up without an explanation  leaving the Libyans puzzled. Another delegation eventually went to Libya last October, as part of the effort to bring back Jandoubi  the first evidence of a Tunisian endeavour on the ground.

Tunisian authorities have accounted for the governments lack of prior efforts, citing persistent security concerns. The Tunisian diplomat further attributed the slowness of the process to Libyan red tape and lengthy judicial proceedings.

But some analysts blame the ongoing plight of these detainees on the lack of a clear Tunisian strategy for ISIL returnees, more broadly.

The issue is more political than it is legal, said Ahmad Nadhif, a Tunisian journalist and the author of several publications on radicalisation in Tunisia.

Tunisian authorities use legal justifications as an excuse, said Nadhif. There is a staunch rejection from within Tunisian society, [an unwillingness] to admit that Tunisia is one of the leading exporters of jihadists, he added.

At least 3,000 Tunisians are known to have travelled abroad to join armed groups since 2011. An estimated 800 Tunisians have returned to the country  a number disputed by analysts.

Nadhif said the only Tunisian strategy today is the same policy [Zine al-Abidine] Ben Ali employed to treat those who returned from Iraq, Bosnia and Afghanistan: to put them in jail.

Tunisia enacted a new anti-terrorism law following two ISIL-claimed attacks on the Bardo museum and a Sousse beach resort in 2015, both of which were carried out by Tunisians trained in Libya. In the absence of rehabilitation and reintegration centres, courts are clogged with terrorism cases, with most returnees ending up in prison or under house arrest.

The question of how to deal with returning fighters and their families has periodically sparked fierce debates among Tunisians, with some secularist politicians even calling for them to be stripped of their nationality.

The Tunisian society is experiencing what I like to call severe denial,' said Monia Arfaoui, a Tunisian journalist who specialises in studying radicalisation of women.

[They say] terrorism is foreign to us, no, it is not. These people are a product of the same society and culture. They went to the same schools as us.

This could explain why there has been a widespread rejection of the returnees, she said, adding returnees will find their way back to the country eventually, whether legally or illegally through the border with Libya.Trump to address Congress on gun control

US presidents address to Congress comes just two weeks after the deadly mass school shooting in Florida which left 17 people dead.Ground apple farmers upset with slow sales

Ground apple farmers in Udaypur district are regretting growing the fruit as there are no buyers, and their crops are rotting in the fields or are being used to produce alcohol.The Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has called the UN ceasefire resolution for Syria effectively meaningless given the Syrian governments continued bombing of Eastern Ghouta.

God curse your resolution! Erdogan said of the UN ceasefire, the resolution that never went into effect has no meaning for humanity, he said addressing legislators in the Turkish parliament on Tuesday.

US remarks made last week implied that Turkeys operations in Afrin are in violation of the UNs Syria ceasefire resolution.

Turkey accused the US of a double standard by specifying which terrorist groups can be fought in Syria and which cannot be.

Speaking to reporters in Ankara, Deputy Prime Minister Bekir Bozdag said: Afrin is not mentioned there [in the UN resolution]  Terrorists are all the same, you cannot divide them into bad and good ones. The United States behaves illogically guided by double standards, this cannot be accepted.

The UN Security Council on Saturday, February 24, passed a resolution calling for a 30-day ceasefire in Syria.

Exceptions

When asked by reporters if Turkey is violating the UN ceasefire in Syria, US Department of State spokesperson Heather Nauert said on February 27 that she would encourage Turkey to go back and read the UN resolution.

Quoting the UN resolution, Heather Nauert said: [The UN] demands that all parties cease hostilities without delay and engage immediately to ensure full and comprehensive implementation of this demand by all parties for a durable humanitarian pause for at least 30 consecutive days throughout Syria.

But Nauert added It [the resolution] affirms that the cessation of hostilities shall not apply to military operations against the Islamic State of Iraq in the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS), also known as Daesh, al-Qaeda, and al-Nusrah Front, and all other individuals, groups, undertakings, and entities associated with al-Qaeda and ISIL and other terror groups as designated by the Security Council.

So I think the resolution was clear here in naming exactly which groups are considered to be exempt from the ceasefire.





Turkeys operation

Turkey has stressed that the ceasefire is meant to give relief to civilian areas hit hard by Syrian government air raids, and has nothing to do with Turkeys counterterrorism operation in Afrin, northwestern Syria.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Hami Aksoy said that Nauert couldnt understand the focal point of the resolution or wants to distort it.

In Operation Olive Branch in Afrin, Turkey is exercising its right to self-defence based on Article 51 of the UN Charter, said Aksoy.

According to Turkey, the UN ceasefire resolution is meant to provide humanitarian and medical relief to the battered Syrian enclave of Eastern Ghouta, the target of a five-year siege by the Syrian government.Turkey has accused Czech authorities of backing terrorism after the release of a prominent Syrian Kurdish former leader, who said that he would cooperate with the court there during the judicial process.

The court in Prague freed Salih Muslim, a former leader of the Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD) in Syria, despite Turkeys official request for him to be extradited.

Muslim was arrested in the Czech capital on Saturday at Turkeys request, according to Turkish officials.

This decision is very clearly a decision in support of terrorism, Deputy Prime Minister Bekir Bozdag told reporters in Ankara on Tuesday. This decision will negatively impact relations between Turkey and the Czech Republic, he warned, without giving details.

Turkey considers the PYD and its armed wing, the Kurdish Peoples Protection Units (YPG) terrorist groups with ties to the banned Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) active in Turkey.

The PKK has waged a decades-long armed fight against the Turkish state that has killed tens of thousands of people.

Turkey  together with the Free Syrian Army (FSA) rebel group  last month launched an air and ground offensive into Afrin in the northwest of Syria to defeat the US-backed YPG fighters near its border.

The Turkish foreign ministry said that the Czech courts denial of Ankaras provisional arrest request did not comply with its obligations under international law to combat terrorism.

The Czech Court, instead of taking him into custody, by releasing Salih Muslim, demonstrated its indifference towards the loss of dozens of innocent civilian lives and grief of their families, the ministry said in a statement.

The Czech Republic, with this decision, has revealed once again another example of insincere and unconvincing discourse on counterterrorism in Europe.

Turkeys interior ministry had offered a bounty of nearly one million dollars for the arrest of Muslim, who is listed by Ankara as a most wanted terrorist.

Muslim told Al Jazeera on Tuesday that he did not take the arrest warrant seriously in Europe prior to his detention.

He said: Everybody knows I am a politician and my name was included through 49 names [to be arrested in Turkey], of which I know most of them. They are mostly in Europe and I met them and know them, so nobody was taking it seriously. There were some attempts by Turkey again, which knew I was here and they tried again to do it.

I think the findings are totally false. Its nothing. Its unbelievable. First of all, I am a citizen of Syria. I am not a citizen of Turkey and the second thing is, I am a politician, he added.

Satisfied with courts decision

Miroslav Krutina, Muslims lawyer, told Al Jazeera that they were satisfied with the ruling as the judge did not consider it necessary after hearing the arguments to retain the custody of Muslim during the judicial process.

Our client has promised that he would be at the disposal of the court. It is traditional this way, as the proceedings have only started. It will take some time, Krutina said.

The lawyer said that the extradition process could take a month or even half a year.

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Turkey had asked authorities in Prague to extradite him with a file explaining the arguments for the request earlier in the week.

According to Turkeys state-run Anadolu news agency, the file for extradition recalls that a high court in Ankara had filed a case against Muslim for a deadly attack carried out in the capital in 2016.

The charges against him include damaging national unity and integrity, deliberate murder, damaging public property and transferring dangerous materials, according to Anadolu.

The attack took place in March 2016 when an explosive-laden vehicle was detonated in a popular shopping area in Ankara and left 37 dead and dozens more injured.

The court had also issued an arrest warrant for Muslim and requested that Interpol issue a red notice against him.Ahmet Keser said he would start in predominantly secular areas of Istanbul if he intended to kill civilian traitors.

A Turkish news anchor, who has caused uproar with a remark about killing civilians in secular neighbourhoods of Istanbul, has resigned and risks prosecution.

In his morning show on national Akit TV on Tuesday, Ahmet Keser said he would start in the predominantly secular neighbourhoods of Istanbul and the Turkish parliament if he intended to kill what he called civilian traitors.

Keser made the controversial remark while criticising reports that civilians were being killed in Turkeys ongoing offensive in northern Syria.

The resignation was announced by Akit TV on Wednesday, in a statement that said Kesers words went beyond the purpose, adding that he quit to prevent his institution from getting lynched because of his comments.

Keser had said on his morning show: [The claim is that] the army of the Republic of Turkey is killing civilians  Why would it? Why would the army of Turkey be there if there were civilians there? Why would the army of Turkey go there to kill civilians?

If [we] had the intention to kill civilians, we would have started doing it from Cihangir, Nisantasi, Etiler, Right? I mean there are lots of traitors, there is the Turkish parliament.

Cihangir, Nisantasi and Etiler are among Istanbuls predominantly secular neighbourhoods, where critical sentiment against Turkeys government remains high.

Kesers words about Turkeys parliament were apparently against the parties opposing the government.

Turkeys army and officials have repeatedly denied that civilians have been killed in the operation in Afrin, which was launched in January against the Kurdish fighters, whom Turkey sees as terrorists.

Istanbul prosecutors have launched a criminal probe into the comments made by Keser, the Turkish media said.

The anchors comments also caused a stir on Turkish social media, with many condemning Keser for threatening parliament and secular Turks.

Alarming

Andrew Gardner, Amnesty Internationals senior adviser on Turkey, said there has been an increase in such rhetoric in the country, which he called alarming.

Everyone has a right to express their opinions, this is a fundamental right. But inciting to violence is something different and it is on the rise in Turkey. This is harmful for human rights and harmful for the society, he told Al Jazeera.

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He added that government officials should act responsibly by avoiding such statements themselves and refrain from encouraging others to use rhetoric inciting violence.

There are laws preventing hate speech in Turkey. However, when we look at the issue of investigations and prosecutions in the country, we see that minority, opposition or alternative opinions  opinions not shared by the government  are prosecuted, Gardner said.

Targeting dissidents

Akits television and newspaper are known to make targets out of dissidents, be they politicians, activists, media outlets and journalists.

The newspaper last week used the word degenerates and of bad stock for Dutch politicians with Turkish ethnicity who reportedly voted for a bill to recognise the 1915 massacre of Armenians as genocide at the hands of the Ottomans.

Turkey denies the genocide claims, arguing that it was a collective tragedy in which people from both sides died.

Turkey  together with the Syrian opposition Free Syrian Army (FSA) rebel group  last month launched an air and ground operation into Afrin in the northwest of Syria, to vanquish the US-backed Kurdish Peoples Protection Units (YPG) fighters near its border.

Turkey considers the Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD) in Syria and its armed wing YPG to be terrorist groups with ties to the banned Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).

The PKK has waged a decades-long armed fight against the Turkish state that has killed tens of thousands of people.

Follow Umut Uras on Twitter: @Um_UrasPM Theresa May said measures set out in a draft proposal by the EU threatened the UKs constitutional integrity.

The British government has rejected a proposal by the European Union on what to do with the Northern Ireland border after the UK leaves the EU.

Prime Minister Theresa May on Wednesday said the proposed creation of a common regulatory area between the EU and Northern Ireland would threaten constitutional integrity by creating a customs and regulatory border down the Irish sea.

No UK prime minister could ever agree to it, she told the House of Commons in London.

Michel Barnier, the EUs chief negotiator on the UK leaving the EU, unveiled the first draft text of the blocs legal agreement with Britain after Brexit on Wednesday.

The text proposes there would be no internal borders as well as a free movement of goods between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, effectively making Northern Ireland part of the EU customs union.

Speaking at a press conference in Brussels, Barnier said the draft proposal contained no surprises.

He said maintaining alignment with the internal market and customs union would serve to support north-south cooperation, the whole island economy and the protection of the Good Friday agreement.





This backstop will not call into question the constitutional or institutional order of the UK. We will respect that, he said.

Hard border

Barnier also said he looked forward to receiving proposals from the UK on how to address the situation on the island of Ireland.

Britain and the EU agreed in December that there would be no hard border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland after Brexit comes into effect in March 2019, but left unclear what the practical arrangement would be.

[Barnier] said there is a joint commitment by the EU and the UK above all to avoid a hard border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, reported Al Jazeeras Nadim Baba.

Some people think it could put the Good Friday agreement, which ended years of sectarian violence and brought in power-sharing, in danger if you did have customs checks and offices.

The leader of Northern Ireland political party DUP called the draft text constitutionally unacceptable and said the proposals would be economically catastrophic.

The Irish government welcomed the proposal and said it contained the necessary legal provision to implement the backstop to avoid a hard border.

The UK is due to leave the EU on March 29, 2019, two years after the country triggered Article 50, which started a two-year negotiation period for withdrawal from the bloc of 27 countries.Washington names Boris Nemstov Plaza as a message to Kremlin

The Kremlin critic died three years ago; now his name graces the plaza right in front of the Russian embassy in Washington, DC.Advocates say US policy is inhumane as report highlights treatment of women and children immigrants.

Women and children detained by US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) along the US-Mexico border are regularly held in freezing cells and suffer other harsh treatment, according to a new Human Rights Watch (HRW) report.

The report, entitled In the Freezer: Abusive Conditions for Women and Children in US Immigration Holding Cells, was released on Wednesday and documents over 100 cases of immigrants being held beyond the three-day period recommended in CBP guidelines in frigid holding cells.

Often, the immigrants were only given mylar blankets, sheets made of heat-resistant plastic typically found in First Aid kits, for warmth. The cells were without bunks, mattresses or other amenities for sleeping.

It was cold, really cold  There werent any mats. We just slept on the floor, a Guatemalan woman identified as Carolina R told HRW.

Furthermore, CBP officers would often make women and children discard clothing down to a single layer.

They didnt want me to keep both my blouse and my sweater. I had to pick one to keep, so I chose my sweater. They didnt explain why, Adela R, a woman who spent three nights in a holding cell with her infant child in Nogales, Arizona, said in the report.

The immigrants were held without access to showers. In some cases, the women detained were not given sanitary pads.

The report has prompted concerns by immigrant rights activists and groups.

Increased deaths, decreased apprehensions

According to Eddie Canalas, founder of the South Texas Human Rights Center (STHRC), which works to minimise migrant deaths on the Texas section of the US-Mexico border, the report highlights the troubling state of immigration policy in the US.

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Were living through a very harsh police environment for immigrants in this country, Canalas told Al Jazeera.

Theres no space for humanity. Theres no space for human rights.

Carlos Diaz, a CBP spokesman, said that the agency is has met HRW regarding the findings of its report.

CBP operates short-term detention facilities, where individuals are generally held for 72 hours or less, Diaz said.

CBP treats all individuals with dignity and respect, and ensures that all such facilities meet all relevant legal and policy requirements  Additionally, both CBPs US Border Patrol and Office of Field Operations ensure that all agents and officers appropriately monitor the conditions in hold rooms, and enter pertinent information into the appropriate systems of record on a regular basis, he added.

Canalas said that detention in harsh conditions, as well as separation of parents and children, are being used to discourage undocumented immigrants from crossing into the US.

He added that such conditions also instil fear in immigrants.

They go further underground, theyre more vulnerable and more excludable, Canalas said.

This can lead to immigrants taking more dangerous routes to cross the border. The regions weather often drops below freezing in winter and is hot and dry in the summer.

STHRC, much like other immigrant rights groups on the border, sets up water stations for immigrants who risk dehydration in summer months.

Canalas noted that detentions have decreased, but deaths have increased.

According to the International Organisation of Migration, 412 immigrants died in 2017, up from 392 in 2016.

Immigrant apprehensions dropped 44 percent in the same period, from 611,689 in 2016 to 341,084 in 2017, according to US Department of Justice figures.

Canalas said that in Brook County, Texas, where STHRC operates, there have already been 13 known fatalities in 2018.

Sexual harassment

Women not only face cold, inhospitable holding cells, but also sexual harassment, according to a letter authored by 45 US Congressional representatives sent on Tuesday to the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees national immigration enforcement.

The letter said DHS must investigate allegations of sexual harassment against guards in the for-profit T Don Hutto immigration detainment centre in Texas put forward by Laura Monterrosa.

Monterrosa, a 23-year-old undocumented immigrant from El Salvador who was apprehended by ICE in May, claimed she was assaulted by a female guard in November. She has since attempted suicide and been placed in solitary confinement.

Complaints of sexual abuse by guards and subsequent retaliation by ICE following victim grievances are disturbing and unacceptable, Congressman Lloyd Doggett said in the letter.

No one should be subject to the appalling treatment that Laura has experienced while detained for nine months, Bob Libal, executive director at Grassroots Leadership, an immigrant advocacy organisation based in Texas, said in a statement delivered to Al Jazeera.

Reasonable and comfortable

The HRW report recommends that the CBP develop written guidelines to ensure further protections for women and children they detain.

These should include detaining individuals overnight in holding cells only when it is unavoidable and develop written guidelines that ensure families are not unnecessarily or intentionally separated.

Using these measures as a deterrent would be unlawful under international law, the report said.

Canalas said that until major changes are made in the US immigration policy, the system will remain inhumane.

How many times do we have to say it? The immigration policy of the US is completely broken, Canalas concluded.Arafat Shoukri

Dr. Arafat Shoukri is a senior researcher at Al Jazeera Centre for Studies (AJCS) in Qatar. He received his MA and PhD in oriental studies from the Sc... more hool of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London in 2008. He joined Al Jazeera Media Network in 2014 to head the corporate relations and communications department. Prior to that he worked in different European institutions studying and highlighting different issues the Middle East and especially the refugees. During his work he visited many countries in the region and met refugees in their camps in Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, Jordan and Palestine. The findings of the field visits were presented to European politicians, members of parliaments and Arab officials. Dr. Shoukri as an expert on migration, EU-Middle East relations and Arab Israeli conflict participated in many international conferences, seminars and workshops in Europe and the Middle East. He also appeared in many International media outlets and participated in talk shows, interviews and news bulletins. His academic work includes writing articles and publishing two books about the refugees in the Middle East. The first one "Refugee Status in Islam: Concepts of Protection in Islamic Tradition and International Law" was published by I.B. Tauris in 2011 and the second one "Refuge in the Islamic, International and Arab Legislations" is published in Arabic by Al Jazeera Centre for Studies in 2018.Home Minister Thapa directs Nepal Police to perform innovatively

Newly appointed Minister for Home Affairs Ram Bahadur Thapa has directed the Nepal Police to carry out the duty of maintaining law and order in an innovative manner.The new government has not yet said how it will use the desperately needed funds.Najla al-Mangoush says the government is doing everything in its power to hold the vote but challenges persist.Pilots, cabin crew, airport workers need to be vaccinated by November 15 while other staff have until the end of March.Kurdish Women Are Shining

There'll be some changes in part of Syria from now on. In his brilliant new book, The Opinion of Mankind, discussing, among other things, theories of the state and how we should think about politics today, Paul Sagar contends that although the state remains the central unit of analysis in both domestic and international politics, its basis, nature, purpose, and normative authority are subjects of protracted disagreement and confusion. Nowhere is this more true than in the remarkable new political entity, run by Kurds in Syria, stemming from a democratic and humanistic revolution that has women's liberation at its center. That entity has some powers, though it is not an ultimate decision-making agency. This is the advent of the Democratic Federation of Northern Syria, Rojava, (DFNS), in an area that became autonomous in 2012 and created a de facto unit of three non-contiguous cantons, about the size of Connecticut, in March 2016. Politics is rarely tidy, nor does it take undeviating forms. Though Rojava declared its independence, it is not a state, but at the moment more a stateless democracy with local self-governance and popular assemblies. The DFNS is not officially recognized by Syria, nor by any other state or international organization. In a statement by Mark Toner, then-U.S. State Department spokesman, the U.S. in March 2016 warned that it would not recognize the self rule of an autonomous zone in Syria and that the U.S. was committed to the unity and territorial integrity of Syria. That policy should now be changed.

The world owes the Kurds proper treatment. They are an ethnic group who go back in Syria over 1,000 years. Perhaps the most famous Kurd was Saladin, the 12th-century Kurd from Tikrit (now in modern Iraq) who defeated the Crusader states in the Levant and ruled most of the Middle East. The Kurds were ill served after World War I and the end of the Ottoman Empire. The Peace Treaty of Sevres, signed on August 10, 1920, partitioned that empire and provided for the future creation of Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, and Mandatory Palestine, including Transjordan. It also promised that part of the new country of Turkey, the predominantly Kurdish area lying east of the Euphrates, would have autonomy. Turkey agreed to accept this and to execute the consequent decisions. However, Sevres was amended by the Treaty of Lausanne of July 24, 1923 that recognized the creation of the Republic of Turkey and its boundaries and ended the demands of autonomy for "Kurdistan." The moment has arrived for the Trump administration to recognize fundamental changes in the area, to support true allies, especially those like the Kurds with a message of democracy and civil rights. This is even more the case in a period when Russia has been manipulating the U.S. media and part of Congress, sown discord in the U.S. political system, and been unhelpful in the solution to the brutal Syrian civil war. The world is confronted by a Syrian regime that in a fierce air campaign continues with savage carnage to bomb the area of Eastern Ghouta, near Damascus, home to 400,000. This is in spite of the delayed and watered downed resolution of the U.N. Security Council on February 24, 2018 for a 30-day nationwide ceasefire to be implemented "without delay," except for military operations against terrorist groups such as ISIS, Nusra Front, and al-Qaeda. Syrian president Bashar al-Assad has defied the international resolutions for a ceasefire. It is imperative that a ceasefire be applied across the whole country, including Afrin. This should apply also to Turkey, which is warring against the Kurkish militia, the Kurdish People's Protection Units or YPG, in northern Syria. Turkey sees this as the branch of the Kurdistan Workers' Party, the PKK, that it regards as a terrorist group. The U.S. is directly involved, since the attack is in an area where U.S. troops are stationed. In stark contrast to the Assad Syrian regime is the new entity, the DFNS, known as Rojava, the outcome of a so-called "secret revolution." Officially a secular system based on gender "equality" and presenting a challenge to Islamic law, the Rojava system's power is decentralized with village assemblies and communes, legislative councils, and commissions. What is outstanding is the prominence of Kurdish women. Female fighters in the Women's Protection Units, the YPJ, played a key role in the siege of Kobani and in rescuing Yazidis trapped on Mount Sinjar. The prominent Egyptian feminist writer and activist, and co-founder of the Arab Association for Human Rights, Nawal el Saadawi, complimented Kurdish women for their fight against ISIS, showing courage. Those women are waging a battle against an oppressive, abusive society, and for democracy. The Equality Decree of November 10, 2014 in Syrian Kurdistan provided rights for women, meaning "equality in all walks of public and private life." In Rojava, women's organizations, whose functions change, are funded and run by volunteers and provide a variety of services; control of gender violence, especially honor killings; family mediation; legal support; safe houses for women and children; and personal economic and social empowerment. There are now rules against child marriages and forced marriages. Women must be 18 to marry, and they must consent to marriage. Female genital mutilation and domestic violence are proscribed. Women are participating politically in law-making and holding political positions, including co-presidencies. Some were candidates in the 2015 election. All administrative bodies have co-chairs, and 40% of any governing body must be female. The Rojava entity can be seen as not only a national ethnic issue, but also an experiment in Middle East democracy and an example of the importance of women in an area where women have traditionally been repressed. It could be a blueprint for other societies in the area. In any case, it is important that the Trump administration welcome and encourage it. Image: Kurdishstruggle via Flickr.The photo car says it all about Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel: his self-serving vanity, his shallow and blatant political ambitions, and his insensitive self-absorption visible in the wake of the Parkland school shooting that left 17 dead. Police cars are for patrolling the community, not for the political self-promotion perpetrated by Sheriff Israel in 2015:

The move came days after a Local 10 News report on the cars in which one of Israel's opponents, retired Broward Sheriff's Office Sgt. Willie Jones, condemned them as a campaign ploy financed by the public[.] ... Broward Collision was paid $2,500 per car for wrapping the vehicles. Elections office records show that just days before the work had begun Israel accepted $2,000 in campaign contributions tied to Broward Collision, including $1,000 from the business and another $1,000 in the name of a relative of owner Keith Petron.

It was the same kind of bloviating vanity that led Sheriff Israel to appear on CNN's gun control town hall, in the full knowledge that his deputies showed cowardice by not entering the Parkland high school, where an armed killer would eventually leave 17 dead. He blamed the NRA and browbeat NRA spokesperson Dana Loesch for pointing out that gun ownership is a constitutional right and that it was law enforcement and not the NRA that failed to heed the scores of warning signs about what was to happen:

Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel, a big fan of gun control, sensed an opportunity to pile on and deflect a little attention from his own agency's failings. After survivor and student organizer Emma Gonzalez confronted Loesch with a nonsensical question about making it harder to obtain automatic weapons and Loesch shut it down, Israel stepped in: "I understand you're standing up for the NRA and I understand that's what you're supposed to do. But you just told this group of people that you're standing up for them, you're not standing up for them until you say I want less weapons."

Unfortunately, Sheriff Israel never understood what he was supposed to do, which was to show the leadership necessary to protect his citizens  and particularly their children  from armed predators. Instead of doing his job or finding out what went wrong at Parkland, he pointed fingers at everyone but himself, taking the time to bask in the light of a CNN town hall, soaking up the free publicity for his ego as the citizens he failed were burying their dead children. He repeatedly dodged rather than accepted his responsibility and culpability for the Parkland massacre:

"I gave him a gun. I gave him a badge. I gave him the training. If he didn't have the heart to go in, that's not my responsibility." So says Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel, a man atop a corrupted institution which failed its citizens in not just one moment, but instance after instance where the laws and policies put in place by the representatives of the people should have been more than sufficient to stop the massacre of February 14th[.] ... [W]e already know enough to argue this is not one failure by a school guard who'd earned enough time for retirement, but that it included at least three more Broward deputies, who were hiding behind their cars outside the school when neighboring Coral Springs police arrived. That Israel is so vociferous in his blame for others  for the NRA on CNN's town hall, for the school guard as a lone actor, for others in his organization for failing to handle repeated reports of the shooter's red flags  is an indication of how much he wants these questions to go away. When Israel was previously accused of corruption, he responded with a paraphrased quote from Game of Thrones: "Lions don't care about the opinions of sheep."

Sheriff Israel is a cowardly lion, the coward of the county, the coward of Broward. One only wishes his heart were as big as his ego. He made that remark about lions and sheep two years ago in response to charges of corruption in his office:

Two years ago, the Sun Sentinel reported that Israel was rewarding top political supporters by giving them and their family members cushy jobs doing public relations and community outreach for the Broward County Sheriff's Office. One such position, outreach manager, paid out a salary of $78,489. The person who got that job was the husband of Israel's campaign manager.

Sheriff Israel is an ambitious but incompetent political hack. He has repeatedly spouted cartoonish drivel, such as the bizarre answer he gave to CNN's Jake Tapper last Sunday:

The moment on CNN's State of the Union when all of America realized that the Sheriff's Department of Broward County, Fla., had been run by a lunatic since 2012: TAPPER: The last question, sir. Do you think that if the Broward Sheriff's Office had done things differently, this shooting might not have happened? ISRAEL: Listen, if ifs and buts were candy and nuts, O.J. Simpson would still be in the record books. TAPPER: I don't know what that means. There's 17 dead people, and there's a whole long list of things your department could have been done differently.

For the record, Sheriff Israel, O.J. Simpson is still in the record books. Unfortunately, Sheriff Israel is still sheriff. If Sheriff Israel has any decency, he should resign. He is Parkland's Barney Fife, except for the fact that the iconic TV sheriff was at least honest and not a corrupt hack.

Government has one prime function, and that is to protect its citizens from enemies both foreign and domestic. That is what law enforcement is supposed to do, from the local police, who went to the killer's home multiple times before the shooting, to the FBI, which was too busy looking for phantom Russians to heed or care about the cries for help from Parkland.

The fault, dear sheriff, lies not in the NRA or our stars, but in yourself and others like you, who take their salaries from the taxpayers and use taxpayer dollars  not to protect them, but to put your picture on the cars they paid for.

Daniel John Sobieski is a freelance writer whose pieces have appeared in Investor's Business Daily, Human Events, Reason Magazine, and the Chicago Sun-Times among other publications.The Tri-Border Area forms at the convergence of the Iguazu and Parana rivers . It covers an area of roughly 965 square miles and is surrounded by jungle. In includes the Brazilian city of Foz do Iguacu, the Paraguayan city of Ciudad del Este, and the Argentine city of Puerto Iguazu.

The Tri-Border Area of Argentina, Brazil, and Paraguay, also referred to as the Triple Frontier, is host to significant activity by various terrorist groups and criminal organizations. One of them is the Shia jihadist group Hezb'allah, which has used the region for fundraising and training, and as a means by which to carry out attacks in South America.

The Tri-Border Area is attractive to terrorist groups and criminal organizations for a number of reasons. In the period between 1971 and 2001, the population of the Tri-Border Area grew from 60,000 to 700,000. The construction of the Itaipu hydroelectric plant was an important driver of this growth. Such rapid population growth in the region contributed to a lack of infrastructure needed to regulate the high degree of increased commercial activity and border crossings, which has made the area significantly more difficult for law enforcement to police.

The Tri-Border Area has a large Arab population. Estimates of the Arab population in the region range from 20,000 to 30,000, with most residing in Foz do Iguacu, as well as a large number in Ciudad del Este. About 90 percent of that population is of Lebanese origin. The Arab community in the region is tightly knit and has its own schools and clubs. This makes it difficult for law enforcement to penetrate the community, which makes the region an ideal operations base for Arabic-speaking terrorist or criminal groups.

The surrounding jungle provides another reason to make the region appealing to terrorist groups and criminal organizations. As jungles are difficult to penetrate, they are a good place for groups to hide bases, training camps, drug plantations, laboratories, and clandestine runways. An example of this is how the Amazon has been used to shelter dozens of runways and the Parana River has been used regularly for illicit traffic.

In addition to the conditions that make the region attractive to criminal organizations and terrorist groups in general, there are reasons why it has attracted Hezb'allah specifically. One reason is the relationship between Hezb'allah and the Iranian government. In 1982, the Iranian government held a meeting in Tehran where its officials decided that they would use proxy terrorist groups to export their revolution abroad and use Iranian embassies and Shia mosques to facilitate that goal. Several months after that meeting, Mohsen Rabbani was sent by the Iranian regime to Argentina as a commercial attache. Rabbani's public reason for being there was to inspect livestock, but the covert reason was to promote an Iranian-backed presence in the area.

Hezb'allah's presence in the Tri-Border Area dates back to the 1980s, when it first established logistical and financial cells in the region. Hezb'allah has utilized its presence in the region as a means of fundraising. A 2005 Paraguayan intelligence report reported that approximately 20 million dollars are collected in the region each year to finance Hezb'allah and Hamas. A major portion of the money transfers in the region are done through informal value transfer systems, such as the hawala system, rather than by a standard wire transfer. As such, they are difficult for law enforcement to trace.

Hezb'allah has also been involved in various activities as a means of fundraising. One of these is the sale of counterfeit products including pirated software, music, and films. Remittances have all been used as a means to mask contributions to terrorism. According to the former head of United States Southern Command, Gen. John F. Kelly, the Lebanese Shia diaspora in the Tri-Border Area "may generate as much as tens of millions of dollars for Hezbollah through both licit and illicit means."

Hezb'allah has also been smuggling weapons to Brazilian criminal gangs. Hezb'allah has been providing the Brazilian gang First Capital Command (PCC) with weapons while also acting as an intermediary in the sale of explosives that the PCC had stolen from Paraguay. In exchange for this, the PCC offers protection in Brazil's prisons for inmates of Lebanese origin.

Hezb'allah has been heavily involved in the narcotics trade in the region, including smuggling cocaine. In June 2017, a Lebanese Paraguayan man with ties to Hezb'allah named Ali Issa Chamas was arrested in the Tri-Border Area for drug-trafficking after being caught at Ciudad del Este's international airport trying to smuggle 39 kilograms of cocaine hidden inside 27 boxes of plastic wrap to the United States.

In addition to fundraising to help carry out terrorist attacks abroad, Hezb'allah has also used the Tri-Border Area as a means by which to carry out attacks within South America. The first example of this was on March 17, 1992, when a car bomb exploded in front of the Israeli embassy in Buenos Aires, killing 29 people and injuring 242. Hezb'allah identified the attack as retaliation for the death of its leader, Abbas al-Musawi, who had been killed a month prior in an attack by the Israel Defense Forces in Lebanon.

On July 18, 1994, Hezb'allah carried out another bombing in Buenos Aires, this time against the Argentine Jewish Mutual Association (AMIA) building. The attack caused the deaths of 85 people and the injury of 151 people, as well as substantial property damage. Several calls were made via pay phones in the vicinity of the AMIA building on the day of the attack placed to a single cell phone subscriber located in Foz do Iguacu in the Brazilian portion of the Tri-Border Area.

Additional evidence suggested that Foz do Iguacu may have been used as a base of operations for preparing the attacks. Samuel Salman el-Reda, a Lebanese-Colombian man who was the logistics coordinator for both the Israeli embassy bombing and the AMIA bombing, owned a house in Foz do Iguacu. He lived there until the AMIA bombing, at which point he fled to Lebanon.

Hezb'allah has used its presence in the Tri-Border Area to engage in terrorist attacks and to carry out fundraising activities, including by illicit means, to carry out terrorist attacks abroad. The group has maintained a presence in this region since the 1980s and remains a security threat to this very day.

Zachary Leshin is a former congressional staffer who has worked extensively in foreign policy. He recently graduated with a Master's in statecraft and national security from the Institute of World Politics.Bump stocks: Where Trump and Obama intersect

Toward the end of his time in office, President Obama decreed that all American schools would allow students to use the bathroom of their choice, or the schools would lose federal funding. As a citizen of this country, the president has the right to his opinion along with the right to express it. However as president, he did not have the right to make his opinion law. The United States is not a banana republic, and the citizenry does not serve at the whims of those who dictate. In the aftermath of the Parkland School shootings, we are faced with a similar situation. President Trump has expressed strong beliefs concerning bump stocks  that he will ban them himself if Congress won't act. Deja vu!

Like the president, I don't understand why anyone would want a bump stock on his rifle. I also don't understand why anyone would want a car, or motorcycle, that does 180 mph. Just because I don't understand it, this doesn't mean that it should not be allowed. We live in a free society, and in our society, individuals get to make their own decisions, assuming that those decisions don't threaten others. So if I want a bump stock, and it is legal, I can purchase it and use it as often as I want. Just as it was wrong for President Obama to bypass Congress, it's wrong for President Trump to bypass Congress just because he doesn't like the congressmen's opinion. For that matter, it's wrong for him to even threaten to bypass them. We're a Republic, not a dictatorship, as disappointing as this might be to most Democrats. We are a nation of laws. President Trump, we have ways of making laws, and revising existing ones. That process starts with Congress. There's certainly nothing wrong with going to Congress and encouraging the reps to see this issue from your viewpoint. I'm sure it's something you've done many times as a businessman. But please, don't dictate. You're better than that, and our country and citizens don't deserve that kind of leadership. Image: WASR via Wikimedia Commons.Epps Aviation vs. hijab

A growing number of fashion runways and department stores promote the hijab as the latest "chic" thing to wear, a "fashionable identity symbol." The buying power of fast-growing Muslim communities in the West is being used by Islamist to entice designers to present the "latest trend" with models who wear "covered-up clothes, heads in the swathing scarves." The power of the Islamist purse, supported by politically correct media and progressive identity propaganda, also helps to promote the hijab at many workplaces, even those with strict dress code banning any religious symbol.

The hijab is forbidden throughout the air travel industry (except in Saudi Arabia; Iran; and Aceh, Indonesia). Nonetheless, it has become a powerful tool for shakedowns by Islamist groups masquerading as "civil rights" activists in Europe and the United States. Such Islamist groups are using lawfare to intimidate and extort Western industries, institutions, and private companies. Their objective is clear: force acceptance of Islamic customs, even though they contradict secular, globally accepted industry standards and corporate policies. These groups have been targeting U.S. aviation and aerospace firms. Taking advantage of Western democratic systems, well funded entities such as the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) are constantly attempting to impose Islamic religious values and practices on the West, severely undermining freedom of speech and intimidating citizens. Consequently, people fearing backlash and false accusations often choose to not speak up, even when their own safety is imperiled. Lawfare has proven to be a useful weapon. But not against Patrick Epps, owner of EPPS Aviation, a family-owned company at Atlanta's Peachtree Airport. EPPS Aviation adheres to a strict employee dress code, which bans wearing any religious garb. The company's policy reflects standards observed throughout the international aviation sector. Throughout EPPS Aviation's fifty-two years of operation, employees complied with the company dress code as a condition of employment  that is, until June 2015, when a female Muslim employee  who had willingly observed the FBO's dress code for twelve years  suddenly demanded the "right" to wear a hijab. As the company's front-desk customer service representative, she was the face of EPPS Aviation, the first person to greet transient pilots and their passengers. When first hired as a customer service representative by EPPS in 2003, Camara Aissatou, a Muslim immigrant from Senegal, accepted the company's dress code policy. But in February 2015, she requested and was denied the privilege of wearing a hijab at work. Patrick Epps, the company's owner, refused on grounds that "wearing a hijab at the front desk violated the dress code applicable to CSRs [and] the company could have lost business by plaintiff wearing a hijab at the front counter, when no one else in the industry allowed it." However, trying to accommodate a good employee's desire to wear religious garb at work, Epps offered Aissatou "a non-frontline accounting position, where she would not be required to wear a uniform." She would continue to receive the same pay, work schedule, and benefits that she had as a CSR. She rejected the transfer and was terminated. Soon, Epps received two letters from the Georgia branch of CAIR, claiming that EPPS Aviation was violating Ms. Aissatou's civil rights by refusing to accommodate her religious preferences. Included was a brochure spelling out Muslim practices and an offer to "mediate." Epps ignored the CAIR missives. On November 14, 2016, the company was sued by Ms. Camara for violation of civil rights, religious discrimination, and retaliatory discharge. CAIR was assisting her. Patrick Epps, a proud American and former U.S. Air Force pilot, refused to be blackmailed by CAIR's blatant extortion attempt. He fought back. On August 22, 2017, after EPPS Aviation had spent more than $100,000 in legal fees, U.S. Magistrate Judge Walter E. Johnson ruled in favor of EPPS Aviation. Americans should thank Patrick Epps and follow in his footsteps.Kapilvastu police paste notice at Netra Bikram Chands house

Police on Wednesday pasted a notice at the house of Communist Party of Nepal General Secretary Netra Bikram Chand Biplab in Kapilvastu district, directing him to appear before Bhojpur District Court within 70 days.The Good Book instructs that whoever says to his brother, You fool! shall be in danger of hellfire, so let me address this a gentler way.

Not to brag, but I was embarrassed by Justin Trudeau before he went to India.

In assessing others, particularly political leaders, we tend toward familiar terms to gauge their qualities -- experience, intelligence, wisdom, honesty, and so on.

Each of these is important, certainly, but to consider any one, or even several of them, to be dispositive paints an incomplete picture. It is unsatisfactory.

What we are really talking about, though we rarely use the word, is a persons essence.

Is this a person of substance? Do their values resonate and do they have the means to uphold them?

People of profound experience or nonpareil intelligence can nevertheless be badly wrong. In fact, they often are.

I do not, therefore, choose to pile on the global mockery of Trudeaus recent India trip by dismissing him as stupid or inexperienced. Besides, such characterizations can be off-putting, or at least unhelpful -- they miss the point.

Among the many weaknesses of the Conservative Partys disastrous 2015 campaign to prevent Justin from ascending to his fathers seat as Canadas prime minister was their ubiquitous slogan, Just not ready.

The implication was that the younger Trudeau was simply lacking in time served and, after a few more years of professional politics, would be all set for the big chair.

To civilians like me, pulling our hair out as we watched a winnable election slip away, this failed to address the instinct of millions of Canadians, left and right, that Justin Trudeau was not a person of educable depth.

Having inherited a family fortune and, effectively, the leadership of the Liberal Party, Justin enjoys a more privileged life than you or I ever will. As we sometimes see with children of celebrities, or those who achieve fame too young, arrested development sets in.

To wit, such people do not mature because they do not have to.

As a rough estimate, I would assess Justin a mental age of about 15.

I do not mean a precocious 15, either. In fact, I mean a particular sort of teenager, with which you might be familiar.

I mean the kid in the class who adores the sound of his own voice, who stands in awe of his own intellect, and whose overall obtuseness is obvious to everyone but himself.

He is the sort of self-promoting, mean-spirited virtue-signaler who is always leading some politically correct campaign, just so he can make a speech in assembly or get himself interviewed by the local news.

Cast your mind back to your schooldays and I bet you can picture that kid. I certainly know who it was for me (as does everyone who was in my class except, I suspect, the person himself).

If you still know that person, have they changed much?

Among the little I know of the Conservatives current leader, Andrew Scheer, is that he has shocked me twice: once, by winning the speakership of the House of Commons; and again, by becoming head of his party.

He is younger than Trudeau, but reassuringly more mature.

Jovial and unobtrusive, Scheer seems the ideal antidote to Trudeaus brand of electric nothingness.

In an interview on Election Night 2015, I referred to Justin Trudeau as a ridiculous ballerina. Without irony, I apologize for that. Its no way to talk about people.

But as a Canadian, he wields greater power over my life than does the leader of any other free country over its citizens.

Consequently, it is in my personal interest, and that of my nation, to point out when our prime minister is fundamentally unsuited to the job.

His India debacle is just the latest, searing example that Justin Trudeau is not ready, and never will be.

One hopes our long, national facepalm is almost over.

Theo Caldwell hates to say he told you so. Contact him at theo@theocaldwell.comIf you believe that illusion, you're dumber than you look.

Ah, California and the blue-state model. Compassionate government. Numerous public services. Smiling, well paid government employees. Protected environment. Fairness, diversity, and a feeling of overweening virtue due to just how progressive everything is compared to where the redneck yahoos live in flyover country.

The reality is much grittier and much grimmer: ruinously high taxes; middle-class flight; dangerous streets; and a homeless problem so vast, so serious, so incredible that coastal California is beginning to resemble Rio de Janeiro or Caracas.

Fox News:

The specter of homeless encampments steadily expanding across the downtown streets of San Diego, Los Angeles and San Francisco  bringing with them a public health crisis  has one southern California community taking tough action to dismantle a two-mile-long camp just a short drive from Disneyland. In a departure from the approach taken by other local governments in the state, officials in Orange County, Calif., have started to clear out the camp  by moving occupants and hauling away literally tons of trash and hazardous waste. "It's becoming part of the permanent landscape in those communities and there is no way we are going to allow Orange County land that is supposed to be used by residents to be occupied by the homeless," said Todd Spitzer, who sits on the Orange County Board of Supervisors.

Two miles of homeless people living on the street? In the U.S. of A.? In 2018?

Trash trucks and contractors in hazmat gear have descended on the camp and so far removed 250 tons of trash, 1,100 pounds of human waste and 5,000 hypodermic needles. But the effort hasn't been without controversy as homeless advocates, the American Civil Liberties Union and a federal judge have all weighed in on the fate of some-700 people evicted from their home along the Santa Ana River  next to Angel Stadium of Anaheim and a few miles from Disneyland, outside Los Angeles. Spitzer, whose district includes the encampment, has battled the advocates since last fall when the decision was first made to close the camp. The ACLU and others filed a federal civil rights lawsuit to stop this and several stays have ensued until last week, when the final go-ahead was granted.

Let's be clear what the ACLU and homeless advocates are fighting for: half a ton of human waste in the streets.

For those being evicted, a mediation with U.S. District Court Judge David Carter offered the choice of a bed in a shelter or a month-long motel voucher; medical aid; drug treatment; job training; storage for their belongings and housing for pets at the county animal shelter. So far, 544 people have been moved to shelters and motel rooms and approximately 100 remain at the riverbed. Crews counted 207 tents, but it is unclear if they are occupied.

"Unclear" if anyone is in them? How is that possible? If it seems I'm asking a lot more questions than giving answers, you're right. How is any of this possible in a major metropolitan city in a grown-up, 21st-century industrialized democracy?

This sort of thing isn't the "shame of America." It's utter loony madness. These homeless "enclaves" are entirely and completely the result of the misguided, idiotic policies of a government that refuses to protect and defend tax-paying residents whose homes and businesses have been made virtually worthless by this onslaught of tragic, sick people.

You don't show "compassion" to the homeless by screwing everybody else. This notion seems to escape the city fathers in many California cities, who are so eager to demonstrate how humane they are to homeless people that they are willing to destroy their communities.

People are homeless because they can't afford the sky-high rents in these cities. There are people working full-time jobs who are living on the street because there is no affordable housing for them. It boggles the mind to contemplate the mental effort it takes to deny reality and substitute a fairy tale that living in a tent, defecating and urinating in the street, rummaging through the trash for food, and panhandling should be normalized and, indeed, embraced by city politicians and advocates as just another "lifestyle" choice and not evidence of a diseased body politic.College campuses are awash with radical left-wing courses designed to indoctrinate the Millennials, yes? No doubt about it. Now a new course at San Diego State University, titled "Trump: Impeachment, Removal, or Conviction?," takes the cake, right?

It's quite possible that Campus Reform, which has done such good work on exposing the pervasive leftism on America's campuses, and was the first to expose this issue, jumped the gun. Rather than another case of the eggheads shoving down another Marxist indoctrination course, this one looks like a case of the university marketers playing the lefties out there like a fiddle to extract some profit.

The only reason I write this is that I have experience with some of these courses, and I actually looked into this one.

This is a short, weekend-long course put on not by San Diego State University, but by its extension, meaning, that it is open to anyone, with one college credit available, for those who wants to track that down to add a degree. It costs $221, and it has spaces for 39 students. If they all pay, it will earn the university $8,619 in revenue.

It's not part of the regular university curriculum; it's one of those pop-up courses that get quickly developed because there's public interest or a public need (such as worker retraining). Community colleges and state college extensions specialize in this kind of nimble course development; it's one reason why they are different from much slower, more entrenched regular universities. If the college extension thinks it can persuade 39 people to cough up $221 a pop for a course they want, it will offer it.

The Campus Reform writers express skepticism that no taxpayer funds are used in this apparently Trump-hating course, and they are probably correct in that some indirect funding is used  perhaps for use of campus space, or for marketing materials, or maybe for campus bureaucrats to approve the course. But by and large, the program is self-sustaining, which is why it needs to be sold to the public.

The course itself seems to be a dry going-over of all the ins and outs of impeachment, probably with a heavy legal basis. It uses as a textbook by lefty legal scholar Allan Lichtman, who, whatever your opinion of his politics, has some substance. It's not complete idiocy being looked at in this case. According to San Diego State, the course will go over 19 instances of impeachment. (There were only two presidential ones in U.S. history: Andrew Johnson and Bill Clinton, with Nixon exiting before an impeachment vote could be held. Likely, the far less relevant cases of lower officials being impeached, which would seem to be outside the scope of Trump, will also be discussed.) For angry lefties out there obsessed with impeachment of President Trump, the course would show how hard it is to legally do this, and it might get a few of them to stop screaming. At least they'd learn something about the law for a change.

What it isn't is indoctrination, which is a key problem with left-wing-controlled education, or activism, which is the other problem. That makes it far less pernicious than the average rubbish being put out by angry left-wing academics. The course seems to be just informational, based on the reading of one legal scholar's arguments.

So how could a school, which has to turn a profit on these courses in order to offer them, get someone to register for such a course? It's such a dry, dull course on legal technicalities, and the knowledge imparted would be useful only to a handful of lawyers in Washington, D.C. Solution: Put Trump in the title. Trump excites the lefties and may get some to register. They will want to take the course in order to get new ideas about how to get rid of the president, but it's far from certain that they will get the tools they want. They may enjoy talking about it, perhaps.

What really appears to be going on is that the SDSU course designers know this is a malleable bunch, and their Trump-rage makes them easy to manipulate for dollars.

Whether Trump should be put in the title is another question, given that SDSU insists it's not a course on getting rid of President Trump. Yet with Trump in the title, the universities are displaying their course offerings with an eye toward marketing them, particularly the unsubsidized ones. It's not at all different from journalists using SEO to maximize reader interest in their pieces. That may be questionable, but clickbait is what drives profits in the internet age, and apparently that is as true for universities as it is for the press.

I'm inclined to believe this even more based on a bit of looking into who's teaching the course, John Joseph Cleary, who seems to be this person. He's a 1964 graduate of Loyola University Chicago School of Law, with a record of practicing law, uncontroversially and without sanction, in Florida, and now listed as retired.

For what it's worth, a commentator using apparently his real name and place of employment on the Campus Reform site says he knows Cleary and contends he expects Trump to serve out his term.

If true, it suggests even more strongly that the course title is just a marketing tactic, not a real sign of San Diego State going overboard. What would be useful would be for the university to consider how to exert more accuracy in its course titles, and perhaps dish out more offerings to placate the other end of the political spectrum, such as a course on the case for prosecuting Hillary Clinton. Capiche?Trump seeks second term with no progress on first-term campaign promise

President Trump yesterday announced that he will seek re-election to a second term, nearly three full years before the end of his first term. It's sad to see him make such an announcement, given that he has so far totally failed to deliver on the main promise that got him elected president: to build a border wall with Mexico. In fact, President Trump promised not only to build a wall, but to have Mexico pay for it. Now, more than a year after having been elected, Mexico has not paid at all. There haven't even been any plans announced to have Mexico pay for the wall. There is no way Mexico can be compelled to pay for a border wall, short of invading Mexico and confiscating its treasury.

But even worse, there is no border wall. There is no beginning of any border wall. Not a single inch of border wall construction has begun. Not an inch of border wall construction has been authorized or funded by Congress. President Trump blames Congress for not funding the border wall, but there is a lot of blame to fall on President Trump. First, President Trump repeatedly said Mexico would pay for the border wall  so why were any appropriations even needed? Secondly, President Trump never tried to go over the heads of Congress directly to the American people to make the case for the border wall. When Ronald Reagan wanted to deliver the largest tax cut in history, the Democrats who controlled the House of Representatives were not interested. But Reagan spoke out repeatedly and campaigned for it so hard that public pressure mounted, and the Democrats were forced to give in. President Trump has not taken his case for the wall to the public at all  unless you count a few lazy tweets. Thirdly, President Trump willingly signed a spending bill right after he came into office that had no money for his border wall. Then, a few weeks ago, he signed a two-year spending bill that also had no money for his border wall. If President Trump really wanted money for the border wall, he could have vetoed the spending bill. House Republicans would have backed him up and prevented his veto from being overridden. But Trump, afraid of confrontation, meekly signed the spending bill, without even fighting for his highest priority. Then Trump tried to offer amnesty for 1.8 million illegal aliens in return for border wall funding. Democrats pocketed his concession but, instead of agreeing to fund the wall, demanded citizenship for even more illegals. And that is where things stand today. Trump has so far totally failed to carry out his number-one campaign pledge but believes that his failure entitles him to a second term. Declaring this early is quite uncommon for an incumbent president. Does Trump, who never campaigned on the promise of giving amnesty to millions of illegals, worry about a primary challenge from the right? That's the only explanation I can come up with. President Trump has done some good things in office  judicial appointments, reducing regulation, substantially reducing corporate tax rates, and moderately reducing personal income tax rates. But his failure to make any progress on his main campaign pledge makes a re-election bid look impotent and insecure. Ed Straker is the senior writer at Newsmachete.com. Monica Showalter adds: I'm here in San Diego, and as I read this, yesterday's front-page above-the-fold story in the San Diego Union-Tribune was about President Trump making his first trip to California in mid-March explicitly to visit the border; visit the border wall prototypes that have already been built here and will be going up; and, obviously, to give encouragement to Border Patrol agents who have operated in toxic conditions due to the Mexican sewage overflow here, and to assure that their efforts are being supported. Whether it will be substantial or merely symbolic is yet to be seen, but the former can't be ruled out until he makes his visit. Meanwhile, McClatchy is reporting that active talks are underway to tax illegal aliens' remittances and perhaps find a way to extract revenue from Mexico's trade surplus with the U.S. as a means of at least partially making Mexico pay for the border wall that is coming. And yesterday, the Washington Examiner reported that the Heritage Foundation says Trump has fulfilled 64% of his campaign promises. I don't buy the argument that Trump is doing nothing. Image: Gage Skidmore via Flickr.Trump-haters' karma coming due as White House Correspondents' Dinner loses its parties

Hatefulness is not a good look, and face it: the White House Correspondents Association annual dinner is all about appearances. Over the past two decades, the event, misleadingly nicknamed "The Nerd Prom"  as if the journalists were comparable wizards to the high-tech elite  has featured parades of Hollywood celebrities attending as guests of mainstream media outlets and adding glamour. But with Hollywood under a shroud of guilt over rampant sexual abuse and with hatred toward the president the dominant emotion, the fun quotient is tending in the direction of visiting a dentist to have a tooth pulled. Last year, President Trump chose not to attend and allow himself to be verbally abused, and that started to kill off the glamour. This year could be even worse.

The Hollywood Reporter (how appropriate!) reports: The media companies that canceled their parties last year say they're still off, and MSNBC declined comment on their big afterparty. With about two months to go before the annual dinner, this year's edition of White House Correspondents' Dinner weekend is shaping up to be just as light on glitzy parties as last year, when several of the most prominent bashes were canceled as a nod to the frosty relationship between the White House and the press. MSNBC threw the sole big afterparty last year and is not committing to one this year, so it might be a short evening. Quite clearly, there is only one person who can save the evening: President Donald Trump. I love the irony! And I wouldn't put it past the president to shock everyone and attend, just to exercise the power he has, and maybe mess with the heads of his MSM foes. Imagine the tweets he could send out about his decision, tormenting the media swells. Maybe something along the lines of "Media people who hate and denigrate me are now desperate for me to attend WHCA dinner. Not sure I want to go and be insulted." Follow that with a tweet about how he enjoys a good joke about himself, but how pure hatred is in the air, and put in the infamous picture of Kathy Griffin with his severed head. In other words, troll the MSM. Get them talking about what they'd need to do to lure him to attend. That creates a conversation about media hate. President Trump knows a lot better than I do how to get the collective goat of his media enemies. But I do sense an opportunity here.Huawei CEO has confirmed that the Chinese company is working on a new Huawei Watch. The company announced the original Huawei Watch back in March of 2015, with a follow-up device called the Watch 2 launching nearly two years later, in February 2017. In more recent times, Huawei has gone on to launch a Pro variant of its second-generation smartwatch, but info on the third device remains scarce. Richard Yu has now confirmed that the Watch 3 is coming, albeit not soon.

The CEO stated that the Huawei Watch 3 will come later, but also mentioned that the company is in no rush to bring out a new-generation product because Huawei Watch 2 sells well. Now, its worth noting that Yu made no specific mention of a launch timeframe, but it appears that the Huawei Watch 3 wont make its debut until at least the end of this year, perhaps at IFA 2018, something that would also put it in direct competition with the expected launch of Apples Watch Series 4. Alternatively, Huawei could also choose to debut the device next year at CES 2019 or possibly even MWC 2019. In the meantime, the Shenzen, China-based company is focusing on the upcoming launch of its Huawei P20 lineup, a product the company anticipates will help it overtake Apple. After all, Yu expects Huawei to become the second largest smartphone manufacturer within a year or two, placing it behind only Samsung. In terms of what the Huawei P20 series will bring to the market, the devices are expected to feature metal-and-glass builds, along with new 18:9 displays, with at least one model possibly having a screen notch. Furthermore, the devices should put a heavy focus on artificial intelligence thanks to their dedicated neural processing units included as part of the Kirin 970 package, as was the case with the Mate 10 lineup.

In addition to all of this, the regular Huawei P20 is rumored to include a dual camera setup on the rear, made up of a regular 12-megapixel sensor and a secondary 16-megapixel monochrome module. On the other hand, the Huawei P20 Plus, or P20 Pro as it is sometimes called, will include the same camera setup, along with a third telephoto lens, which will also sport a 16-megapixel resolution, some insiders previously claimed. The two devices will launch March 27 at an event in Paris and will be accompanied by a mid-range alternative said to be advertised as the Huawei P20 Lite.When it comes to audio Sony knows what its doing and that doesnt stop at in-car or in-home audio equipment. It knows just as well what to do with portable forms of audio, such as headphones, and even Bluetooth speakers, like this GTKXB60 model that was designed for high-power output to give you some truly loud and great-quality audio with clarity and plenty of bass. The Sony GTKXB60 is normally priced at $350, but you can currently pick it up on Amazon for $198 which puts the cost of this speaker at $152 off the normal price, which is a pretty good deal for Sony products.

In addition to featuring Sonys Extra Bass technology the speaker is also featuring party lights in a ring around the face of the speaker that will change based on user-configuration, which might come in handy for anyone who is hosting a party in their home or if you simply want them to go off at any point while youre using the speaker in any situation. That said youll need to install the Sony Music Center app on your phone to control the lighting and various sound elements. Since this is a Bluetooth speaker it does have an internal battery that will need to be recharged, but it has a fairly long-lasting battery life of up to 14 hours of playback so you probably wont need to be charging it every day unless you plan to stream music to it until the battery dies. You can pick these up in either Black or Blue models to suit your personal taste as well.Samsung appears to be working on a number of new and updated Galaxy J devices. The South Koreans most recent iteration of its Galaxy A series saw the lineup move up the price chain, leaving an empty bracket in the tech giants portfolio. Now, it appears the company is hoping to expand the Galaxy J lineup further in the hope of eventually filling in these pricing gaps.

Kicking off the 2018 Galaxy J lineup is expected to be an updated version of the Galaxy J3, which has recently been spotted on Geekbench sporting two different processors. The first variant, which goes by the name of SM-J337A, includes Samsungs Exynos 7570 processor, whereas the second is identified as the SM-J337P and is apparently more powerful thanks to the included Exynos 7885 chipset. In either case, both devices include a respectable 2GB of RAM and run Android 8.0 Oreo. Its unclear if Samsung has plans to release a more powerful variant of the Galaxy J3 (2018), or if these are only test units. If it chooses to do so, it could potentially be sold under the Galaxy J3 Achieve name in the U.S. After all, the company recently filed for the trademark in the country, hinting at a future variant of the device. If benchmarks are anything to go by, the South Korean giant also appears to have plans for a device advertised as the Galaxy J4, which would mark the first time the company utilizes that name. The device appeared on Geekbench under the name SM-J400F, but was on par with the Galaxy J3 variants in terms of performance due to the included Exynos 7570 processor. Also, just like the Galaxy J3 variants, the new Galaxy J4 is listed as including 2GB of RAM and Android 8.0 Oreo.

Filling out the Galaxy J (2018) range even further looks to be a new Galaxy J6, going by the model number SM-J600F, which is notably faster than the other devices. Included inside is said to be Samsungs Exynos 7870, alongside 2GB of RAM and Android 8.0 Oreo. Lastly, rounding out the new Galaxy J lineup could be a new Galaxy J7 variant, rumored to be called the J7 Refine  a name Samsung recently trademarked in the U.S.Chinese phone maker Nubia arrived at the latest edition of Mobile World Congress to showcase several devices, including three prototypes of an unannounced smartphone concept designed with a focus on Android gaming. All of the newly unveiled devices feature highly unconventional and aggressive designs with sharp lines and fluorescent orange accents that amount to a rather in-your-face aesthetic. The end result is flashy and highly unapologetic, especially in regards to the prototype which features a blue LED stripe running vertically across its back, as well as two red LED lights sitting near the top of its sides. The three concepts arent meant to be commercialized and are instead all being showcased as prototypes of a single device Nubia is seeking to launch in the future.

That future also isnt too distant as the original equipment manufacturer already decided on the basic specs that are set to be included in its unnamed device, a company representative told Android Headlines. According to the official, the handset is meant to feature the Snapdragon 845, 8GB of RAM, and 128GB of internal flash memory. No specific screen size has yet been decided on, though Nubia appears to be set on pursuing an elongated 18:9 aspect ratio which gained significant traction in the mobile industry in the last twelve months, whereas all of the newly demonstrated prototypes appear large enough to house 6-inch or even larger displays.

A microSD card should also be part of the package, as suggested by the vast majority of the companys previously released offerings. The fact that two out of three prototypes shown at MWC 2018 have rear-mounted fingerprint readers indicates the front of the final product will lack a physical Home button and presumably feature relatively minimal bezels. Nubia still hasnt finalized the camera design of the smartphone as its prototypes feature both single-lens and dual-sensor systems.

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Stereo speakers are expected to be included in the final product, whereas some of the revealed concepts toyed with the idea of having rubberized corners, presumably so as to improve the grip of the device users have while gaming. While the concept has yet to be finalized and LED lights arent likely to be featured on the commercial product given how theyd significantly affect its average battery life, all of the prototypes Nubia is presently toying with are flashy and imposing, suggesting the official smartphone will follow the same design philosophy. A precise launch window has yet to be attached to the project, though Nubia is presently hoping to commercialize its first Android gaming handset by the end of the year.

All things considered, it appears that Nubia is preparing to take on the Razer Phone going forward and the basic specs it has in mind for its first Android-powered gaming smartphone should even be enough to compete with the Razer Phone 2 that expected to launch later this year. Nubia may not be the only Chinese OEM thats seeking to appeal to mobile gamers in the near future, with Xiaomi subsidiary Black Shark reportedly having plans to do the same.The LG Judy is a codename for LGs upcoming flagship, and Evan Blass has just revealed its model number, its the LG G710. The LG G710 is expected to become the LG G7 later this year, and if the leaked info, which surfaced earlier this month, is to be believed, the device will become official in June. Earlier this year, rumors said that the LG G7 may launch in April, but some comments from the company suggested it may happen a bit later than expected, so it is quite possible that well see it released in June.

LG had introduced the LG V30 ThinQ during this years Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona, and that handset is quite similar to the LG V30 which was announced last year. The device looks more or less identical, while its internals are almost the same as well, though the LG V30 ThinQ comes with some AI features that the LG V30 does not have. Having said that, the LG ThinQ is fueled by the Snapdragon 835 64-bit octa-core SoC, which is Qualcomm flagship for last year, while the LG G7 aka LG Judy is expected to ship with the Snapdragon 845 SoC once it becomes official. As far as the phones design is concerned, we really do not have much info at the moment, as quite a few images leaked in the last couple of months, but they differ one from the other so much, that its hard to know what to believe at this point. Chances are, however, that the LG G7 will be made out of metal and glass, just like the LG G6 and LG V30 (ThinQ). It seems like LG did change some things around when it comes to the design of the LG G7, as the company is trying to differentiate, so well see what well get in the end, but you can expect to see thin bezels, thats for sure.

The LG G7, aside from the Snapdragon 845, is expected to sport 4GB or 6GB of RAM on the inside, while you can expect to see a 5.7-inch display (or perhaps a larger panel) included in the package. Chances are that LG will use a QHD+ P-OLED panel in the LG G7, and a dual camera setup will almost certainly be included on the back of the phone. Android Oreo is expected to come pre-installed on the device, along with LGs custom UI.NAC prepares to fly to Osaka, Incheon, Riyadh

State-owned Nepal Airlines Corporation (NAC) has started preparations to launch three long-haul routes in Asia, but it has had to put its European plans on hold as Nepali carriers are still banned in the EU.The fifth generation of mobile networks will be an improvement over the existing technology but not one that can be deemed revolutionary, analysts at Moodys concluded as part of their latest 5G deployment report. While the bond credit rating company originally released its in-depth look at the wireless industry last year, its still standing by its projections in their entirety and claims they continue to apply to all industry members in the United States, including those attending the ongoing Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain. The New York City-based firm expects 5G to be an extremely expensive endeavor for everyone in the industry that wont pay off for years to come.

According to Moodys estimates, a national 5G footprint is likely to cost each individual carrier between $10 and $30 billion in capital investments. The main culprit for such a massive barrier to entry is the very nature of the next-generation connectivity that will require extremely dense networks supported by millions of small cell sites. The cost of deploying and maintaining such equipment is unprecedentedly high given the compact physical footprint of individual small cells, like most carriers repeatedly complained about in recent times. Americans outside of large metropolitan areas also shouldnt expect to benefit from 5G connectivity anytime soon as mobile service providers are likely to exclusively focus on buildouts in areas with established fiber infrastructure, as per the same report. While all four national carriers are vowing to become the first to commercialize 5G connectivity, they dont appear to be as focused on what their competitors are doing as was the case with previous generational shifts, Moodys suggested.

The technological requirements of 5G are hence likely to limit such infrastructure to urban areas for the foreseeable future and not all regions will be equally prioritized by the four largest carriers whose strategies remain relatively unique, the analysts believe. New networks are also unlikely to ultimately reach more than half of the U.S. population due to the high costs associated with them, Moodys concluded, adding that 5G will hence be more evolutionary than revolutionary. Not all industry watchers agree with such conservative estimates but even those that do are quick to point out that from a technological perspective, 5G will enable a wide variety of new use cases and potentially change the global economy as a whole.Qualcomm arrived at the latest iteration of Mobile World Congress to announce a wide variety of new technologies, including the Snapdragon 5G Module Solutions targeting Android-powered devices of the future. The San Diego, California-based chipmaker is expecting its new platforms to drive the implementation of 5G capabilities into smartphones and is hence predicting it to be employed by many original equipment manufacturers interested in commercializing products capable of communicating with the next generation of wireless technologies. The newly announced product series is meant to be comprehensive in nature, being packed with all of the basic components necessary for 5G connectivity on the part of smartphones. Qualcomm claims it managed to bundle a robust mobile 5G solution into modules that are as streamlined as possible and should be easy to implement for OEMs without prolonged optimization or R&D efforts.

Qualcomm is looking to talk OEMs into adopting its new platform by promising simplified designs and accelerated commercialization times that should ultimately lower both ownership and support costs. The firm is touting the 5G Module Solutions as yet another testament to its engineering talent which managed to bundle over a thousand critical components into a small number of modules created to support a broad range of device designs. The universal approach Qualcomm adopted while developing the new hardware is meant to provide OEMs with enough choice for implementing 5G connectivity into their products without compromising on their physical footprints or aesthetics, the semiconductor manufacturer suggested. All of the new modules include everything from a baseband modem and application processor to memory antennas, passive devices, and a power management integrated circuit.

The company is describing its new move as the latest step in its efforts to support the transition to the next generation of mobile networks, placing both startups and established companies on equal terms in regards to the costs of delivering 5G-ready smartphones. Hardware samples are planned to be provided to OEMs in early 2019, allowing them to decide on their final product designs before large-scale 5G deployment begins in the United States and several other countries. Qualcomm has yet to disclose when the 5G Module Solutions will enter flow production.A 5G-ready Android smartphone from Samsung is not so far, SK Telecom Chief Technology Officer Park Jin-hyo said on the sidelines of Mobile World Congress earlier this week. The industry veteran confirmed Samsung has been committing significant resources to commercializing such a handset in recent times and is expecting to see it launched in the near future. The Seoul-based original equipment manufacturer has been extremely active in the global process of standardizing the fifth generation of mobile connectivity but is still mum on its plans for 5G-enabled handsets. The company arrived to the latest iteration of the Barcelona, Spain-based trade show to demonstrate a number of its 5G solutions in the networking equipment segment, some of which are expected to be commercialized by the end of the year.

Samsung is set to provide Verizon with 5G fixed wireless access technologies in the coming months as part of the wireless carriers next infrastructural push meant to help densify its network in preparation for the real 5G and also deliver a broadband competitor in select markets. Earlier this year, Sprint revealed its planning to retail a 5G-ready Android smartphone from a leading Korean manufacturer, with those remarks being strongly indicative of Samsungs involvement. The tech giant was recently said to be working on 5G modems for handsets and has effectively confirmed such endeavors earlier this week by announcing a comprehensive 5G chip partnership with Qualcomm meant to enable the next generation of wireless technologies by leveraging the 7nm process node.

Samsung and SK Telecom are already collaborating on new wireless solutions, having demonstrated a virtual reality call powered by 5G at this years MWC. The wireless carriers CTO is hence understood to be familiar with Samsungs 5G efforts beyond what the company publicly disclosed so far. The Galaxy S10 lineup thats set to launch in early 2019 is widely expected to support 5G connectivity. The same series may also be partially rebranded but wont move away from the Galaxy name, according to Samsungs recent statement. Large-scale commercial 5G deployment is scheduled to start in 2019, with the United States, South Korea, and Japan positioning themselves as the leaders in the segment, albeit supported by a number of foreign companies such as Nokia, Ericsson, and Huawei.Despite introducing its new flagship smartphones at this years Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona, Sony did not share their price points, but it seems we know how much will they cost in Europe. The Sony Xperia XZ2 and Xperia XZ2 Compact are the two devices in question, and according to Sony Mobiles official German website, the Xperia XZ2 will be priced at 800, while the Xperia XZ2 Compact will cost 600. Now, if we compare these price points with the Xperia XZ1 and XZ1 Compact, youll quickly realize that the Xperia XZ2 is 100 more expensive than Xperia XZ1 was at launch, while the Xperia XZ2 Compact carries the same launch price as its predecessor.

These price points may not confirm price points for the rest of Europe, as chances are that price points of these two phones will differ from one region to the other, but they at least give us some indication as to what to expect. Price points in Europes largest countries will probably be almost identical, however, so keep that in mind. Both of these phones will go on sale in the second quarter of this year, and theyre expected to become available for pre-order in the near future. Now, the two phones are quite similar on the inside, though theyre made from different materials, and their back sides look completely different. The Xperia XZ2 is made out of metal and glass, and it is considerably larger than the Compact model. The Xperia XZ2 Compact is made out of polycarbonate, and sensors on its back are arranged a bit differently. Both devices utilize on-screen buttons, come with the same camera setups, and feature rear-facing fingerprint scanners.

Qualcomms Snapdragon 845 64-bit octa-core SoC fuels both of these smartphones, while both devices come with 4GB of RAM and 64GB of expandable storage. The Xperia XZ2 features a 5.7-inch fullHD+ display, while the Xperia XZ2 Compact comes with a 5-inch fullHD+ panel. The larger handset includes a 3,180mAh non-removable battery, while the smaller one utilizes a 2,870mAh non-removable unit. Both smartphones offer Quick Charge 3.0 fast charging, while Android 8.0 Oreo comes pre-installed on both of them as well. A 19-megapixel shooter is included on the back of both smartphones, while a 5-megapixel snapper sits on the front.As part of the ongoing MWC 2018 event in Barcelona a Verizon representative confirmed smartphones capable of taking advantage of 5G will not arrive this year, though hotspots might. The comments were made by Verizons EVP and Group President, Ronan Dunne, as part of an interview with Bloomberg.

What Dunne was noted saying specifically, was the expectation is 5G-capable smartphones will arrive in 2019, with the first of them expected to arrive during the opening months of the year. Dunne padding out this comment by stating if theres anything available in 2018, its more likely to be a hotspot. Leading to the suggestion that Verizon is likely considering the use of a 5G hotspot to try and bring some form of 5G connectivity to its customers before the end of this year. While Dunnes comments did not explicitly confirm this to be the case, Verizons Executive Director of Device Technology, Chris Schmidt, was noted in a separate MWC 2018 interview (given yesterday) explaining how Verizon is fully committed to being the first to rollout 5G commercially in 2018. When taken with Dunnes comments, and especially the one on 5G-capable smartphones not arriving until 2019, the notion Version will release a hotspot in the meantime seems even more likely.

What also adds weight to this suggestion is the possibility that AT&T will beat Verizon to market if Verizon doesnt. As AT&Ts CEO, Randall Stephenson, was noted saying something very similar at the start of this month. With Stephenson specifically referencing the companys intention to release a puck-like hotspot device for its customers to use in the interim  during 2018. While the details on these hotspots are still fairly limited, Stephenson did note when the puck arrives, it will do so as part of a soft launch which includes twelve markets at first. As for Verizon, beyond the comments noted there was no further details provided on its possible solution, whether it will also be puck-like, or how widespread a possible 2018 launch using a hotspot might be. Although, in either case, the clear takeaway from AT&T and Verizons comments is carriers have little intention to hang around waiting for devices that are capable of connecting to 5G to become available, even if that means bringing their own temporary solutions to market first.Nepal committed to human rights

The Government of Nepal is totally committed to the protection and promotion of human rights as well as addressing the issue of transitional justice, Foreign Secretary Shanker Das Bairagi told the 37th Session of the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) in Geneva on Monday.A snapshot of listings on Airbnb. Aspen officials believe that an agreement in which the website and other online short-term rental platforms require local listings to comply with existing registration and licensing regulations is a critical step in understanding and taming the unruly marketplace.Allens topped all other law firms, followed by Herbert Smith Freehills and King & Wood Mallesons. Completing the 10-strong group that represented the legal industry are MinterEllison, Clayton Utz, Ashurst, Corrs Chambers Westgarth, Gilbert + Tobin, DLA Piper, and Maddocks, respectively.

However, Allens is the only law firm to feature in a separate poll by the Australian Association of Graduate Employers. The list is topped by Evans Dixon.

Each year we are delighted to welcome our new graduates and the fresh perspectives, enthusiasm and energy they contribute to our firm,' said Richard Spurio, Managing Partner, who accepted the GradAustralia award on behalf of the firm.

It's an honour to have been recognised by university students across Australia. We're looking forward to welcoming many more exceptional graduates to Allens, added Spurio.

Slater and Gordon says transformation is workingTo be more precise, Winkelmann has jumped inside a Chiron, with the top man taking the 1,500 hp all the way to 400 km/h (make that 248 mph). The automotive producer has just published a few images showcasing the stunt, without delivering any details.However, we're expecting this to be part of the effort that will see the French brand pushing the Chiron to its actual limits this year.You see, the hypercar's speedometer reads all the way to 500 km/h (310 mph), but the automotive producer states that no production tire currently on the market can handle speeds of 480 km/h (300 mph), with the forces delivered at such velocity levels being too great.However, Michelin is currently working to develop new rubber for the Volkswagen Group crown jewel machine. And while Bugatti hasn't concealed the fact that the upcoming tire can go past 450 km/h (280 mph), no further details were offered.The pressure on Bugatti doesn't just come from the numbers sitting on the speedo of the Chiron. And that's because there's more than one competitor for the Bug in the velocity arena.For one thing, the Koenigsegg Agera RS managed to set no less than five world records last year, following a session that saw the Swedish machine hitting an average top speed (there were two runs) of 447 km/h (277.9 mph) - the top speed of the thing actualy sat at 284 mph (457 km/h).And this year will see Hennessey's Venom F5 attempting to one-up both the Chiron and the Agera RS, while multiple hypercars that have yet to make it into the real world promise similar achievements - we'd take the last with a grain of salt, though.Nepali couple found dead in Goa

A Nepali couple, who had been operating a business in Indias tourist hub Goa, was found dead on Saturday.Ford announced on Tuesday that it teamed up with the two above-mentioned companies to test self-driving delivery cars. In its entirety, the experience will be an eerie one for customers, to say the least.The fleet of Ford Fusion hybrids to be deployed on the streets of Miami will be used to test how customers will interact with the vehicle to retrieve their food or groceries.But the funny part is that, since the carmaker still hasnt enough faith the self-driving technologies will work without a glitch, the Fusions will be manned, meaning some guy will stay inside the car, as it goes from the sender of the goods to the customer.Eerie as it may seem, the humans onboard the cars will not be allowed to interact with customers getting their merchandise from the car.Today, deliveries can be made to someones door, though there is usually an extra charge involved," says Fords vice president Sherif Marakby in an article on Medium Oftentimes, drivers illegally double-park when they cant find a space, potentially causing traffic congestion for others. A self-driving vehicle wont need to be tipped, and it wont park illegally.To be fair, drivers of delivery cars do park illegally, but they do that so they can get your goods right up to the door. Fords fleet of self-driving cars will park wherever is permitted, and then will ask the customers to pick their order from wherever.Ford plans the Miami project to act as a test bed for the launch of the purpose-built self-driving vehicle in 2021.The Federal Administrative Court in Leipzig was due to make a decision last week , but given the implications, it was postponed until February 27. A quick look at the calendar tells us it's the 28th today, which means we can now tell you (via The Washington Post ) that German municipalities are free to ban the access of diesel cars within their premises.That feels like a pretty totalitarian decision, not exactly fitting to a democratic country like Germany, but it mostly depends on how you look at it. Should cities be allowed to regulate what their citizens drove? Well, as long as their vehicles have been proven to pose a health hazard to everyone around, then yes.Think of it as passive smoking. You're not allowed to light up a cigarette indoors because there are people around who want to have nothing to do with your smoke. Outdoors, though, you're free to do as you like. It's the same with diesel engines, only the indoors turns into an entire town and the outdoors into the countryside.The actual decision only refers to two towns - Dusseldorf and Stuttgart - but it has created a precedent that others can rely on when passing similar decisions. It's not clear at the moment how soon any ban is going to be enforced - if at all - but the possibility is there, and it's enough to scare the bejesus out of certain people and companies.The first to be affected are the current diesel owners, who should be given a few years advance notice to do something about their cars before enforcing any ban. Some have likened the decision to expropriation, saying they are literally forced to sell their cars or move out of town, presuming they won't all go with it.And they won't. Despite being at the heart of the scandal, it's hard to imagine Stuttgart, the home of Mercedes-Benz and Porsche , do anything like that. Munich, the hometown of BMW as well. These companies hold tremendous influence in the area, so it's unlikely anyone would risk upsetting them.At the same time, entire countries are saying no to diesel, so the more likely scenario is that the bans will eventually come, but with a very long grace period so that everyone has plenty of time to adjust. Think 2030 and onward, if we were to guess.When it comes to the progress in self-driving technology, everyone involved is keeping their cards close to their chests. Don't be fooled by Waymo's periodic reports: it's still plenty secretive, and given what's at stake - an industry worth billions of dollars - so it should.

1 photoEV

To an untrained eye, the contraption seen in the pixel play we have here might seem like a Pagani with a bold spec. Nevertheless, there are a few elements that set this Huayra apart from the normal BC, if we may call the 25-unit limited edition so (keep in mind we're talking about a $2.5 million beast).To be more precise, the hypercar has been virtually gifted with the kind of fat fenders that have made the Liberty Walk kit famous. And, as many machines that are actually fitted with the Japanese bodykit, this San Cesario sul Panaro contraption also packs custom wheels with fat lips, along with the kind of camber angle that seems questionable to say the least - this seems to be here more for the show than for any other purpose.The render comes from Khyzyl Saleem , a digital artist whose work we featured on multiple occasions. We're looking at a pixel wielder who won't leave any machine alone.As for the real-world machine we mentioned in the intro, this role goes to the Liberty Walk Lamborghini Miura replica we met earlier this year - had the iconic Bull been an actual Lamborghini and not a replica, this Pagani wouldn't have even gotten close to the level of polarisation delivered by such a machine.Under the skin of the LB Walk development, we find the mechanical side of the Ford GT40, with this also coming in replica form.Returning to Khyzyl Saleem, the artist has also delivered his take on the Miura, mixing the DNA of the retro machine with that of the Terzo Millennioprototype.The driver of this iconic Woking machine defied the British winter and it seems the aficionado had no problem in manhandling the V12 beast through the snow.An image of the said Macca showed up on Instagram, being shared by velocity specialist Joe Macari Performance Cars.As you can imagine, the details surrounding the owner of the velocity tool were scarce, as the said specialist only delivered a brief message with this image: "A very brave client visited us today!"And if the tech aspects of the expected drive are impressive, you should also check out the financial aspect of the adventure.Sure, establishing the exact value of a contraption such as the Mclaren F1 can be an expensive process in itself, but we can tell you that good condition examples sell for at least $15 million.After all, the British automotive producer only brought 106 units of the velocity hero to the world.Thankfully, McLaren returned to making road cars back in 2011, with the carmaker growing ever since. Nowadays, the company comes with a rich lineup, one that spreads from the 540C to the P1-rivaling Senna.And we'll use this occasion to remind you that McLaren is working on a spiritual successor to the F1. Codenamed BP23 , this aims to become a hyper-GT and is scheduled to land next year, possibly with a name like the Senna instead of an alphanumeric designation.One of the most highly anticipated premieres of the Swiss event, the presentation of the new McLaren Senna , was apparently not a big enough event for the British auto builder, so instead of introducing the car to the world wearing nothing but a normal paint job, they decided to raise the stakes a bit.Enter the McLaren Senna carbon fiber, a 67-piece body set that takes about 1,000 hours to manufacture, and only a second to stun the audience. Add some Solar Yellow detailing here and there, a touch of green on the brake pads, and youre in for a treat.Officially called Carbon Theme, the special exterior and interior touches are one of five different such designs that will be made available for the Senna by the company's Special Operations team. At the Geneva Motor show, the Carbon-themed McLaren will be the only one on display, while the other four will be shown digitally to the audience."The McLaren Senna Carbon Theme by MSO at the Geneva Motor Show is exactly the kind of project we thrive on delivering and once customers have had the opportunity to view it in person, I would not be at all surprised to see a rise in expressions of interest for MSO Visual Carbon Fibre cars similar to this one, said Ansar Ali, Managing Director, McLaren Special Operations.When it will begin selling, the supercar will do so complete with the a 4.0-liter twin-turbo V8 that develops 800 horsepower and 800 Nm (590 pound-feet) of torque and has a zero to sixty acceleration time of 2.7 seconds.Only 500 models of the Senna will be manufactured, each one being over three times more expensive than the 720S: the model wears a price tag of $958,966, plus taxes.PHEV

kW

SUV

Theis co-developed with Chinese Guangzhou Automobile Group (GAC) and will give customers a very respectable range of 600 kilometers (372 miles), with an average fuel economy of 1.8l/100 km (130 mpg).The hybrid system of the Eupheme is comprised of a 1.5 liter Atkinson cycle gasoline engine with 95 horsepower on tap, paired to an electromechanical coupling system with a 130electric motor. Energy generated by the gasoline engine, as well as that from plug charging, is stored in a liquid-cooled lithium-ion battery pack.Plans are to sell the Eupheme in five Chinese cities at first: Changsha, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Hangzhou, and Tianjin. The SUVs reach is likely to be expanded some more by the end of the year, with other cities to be added. The model will be priced at $33,000 on the local market, before subsidies are applied.The rather inexpensivewill boast much of the features one would expect to see in such a model. The Eupheme will be fitted with a digital instrument cluster, touchscreen infotainment system, leather upholstery and six airbags, among others.In 2017, China was the Japanese carmakers largest market. In November and December alone, the market posted an increase in sales of 51%. By 2019, Mitsubishi plans to double the sale of locally manufactured vehicles, through twice as many dealerships than it had in 2016.Aside from the Eupheme, Mitsubishi will also be focussing on the Chinese market on the development of other four-wheel drive and PHEV SUVs for the worlds largest auto market."The launch of Eupheme is an important milestone for GMMC, and demonstrates the critical role that PHEV technology will play in meeting Chinese consumers' needs and the government's sustainable development goals, said Osamu Masuko, Mitsubishis CEO.This example of the track-savvy Porscha has landed at Ray Catena Porsche in Edison, New Jersey and the configuration of the car is something to behold.For one thing, the yellow bits on the car stand out, namely the brake calipers, which signal the presence of PCCB (Porsche Carbon Ceramic Brakes) goodies and the seatbelts, with the latter coming in Racing Yellow - those of you willing to see how this hue looks when serving as the main shade of a 991.2-generation GT car can check out this 2019 GT3 RS, which we showcased last week.Other optional goodies include the all-LED headlights, which pack silver inner graphics and the satin platinum wheels.Returning to the cabin of this GT3, we notice a stick shift lever adorning the center console, along with the full bucket seats. Note that the stripes on the seats seem to match the color featured on the dashboard trim.Oh, and let's not forget the white Sport Chrono watch adorning the upper dashboard.Speaking of Oak Green Metallic, we'll remind you that this color is of special importance. For instance, this is the hue chosen by Porsche's Walter Rohrl for his 911 R , which came as a 70th Birthday Present.Now, since we mentioned the 991.2 incarnation of the 911 GT3 RS above, there will be some of you who wish to check out the Rennsport Neunelfer in other shades.And while the Lizzard Green launch color caters to the needs of those who prefer extrovert shades, the fans who would rather see the car in discreet shades will be thrilled by this Chalk example (some might know the color as Crayon).kWh

The Concept_One had everything a vehicle of its type needed: sexy design, a stratospheric price, exclusivity and, most importantly, outrageous performance figures. What it didn't have, though, was an engine, using four electric motors instead, each powering its own wheel.The car quickly became the stuff of legends, helped in no small measure by Richard Hammond's stunt from last year. The Grand Tour presenter was testing the Concept_One during a hill climb in the Alps when the road suddenly turned left and the British TV man didn't. The outcome of the crash was a firey one, but luckily the Hamster only needed a few days of hospitalization.But even though they are still building and selling the car, the Concept_One is now history. We've been referring to its replacement as Concept_Two so far, despite the fact Rimac said it would bear a completely different name when it's unveiled at next month's Geneva Motor Show.We've been treated to a couple of teasers so far - two still images -, but none has been awfully revealing so far. Well, that changed drastically today after the company published a very short clip of the car cruising through a dimly-lit tunnel.It's all CGI, of course, but at least we get to see the front end in full, and it looks like a very clean progression of the Concept_One design. It's only the company's second model, but it has already succeeded in creating a styling signature, and in this sporty segment that's heavily influenced by aerodynamics no less.While the Concept_One looked more like a GT - a car that could eat up mile after mile at speed and in comfort - the new car features a lot more aggressive design elements. The front lip is much more heavily prominent, and the "grille" is also larger. The side is more muscular with wide hips at the rear and an active spoiler. The first teaser also suggested there would be a lot of intricacies at the back, all presumably there to help the unnamed car slip more efficiently through the air.As for the technical part, the new car is said to have a 120battery pack (no mention of the actual range) and offer Level 4 autonomy. We'd take that last part with a hefty pinch of salt since everything about the car seems to be production-ready, but the self-driving part just doesn't fit in. Besides, this doesn't seem like the kind of car you want to be driven it, does it?SUV

To be more precise, supercar collector POG, who is, by anybody's standard, a tall man, decided to grab a friend who can see the world from the same level and visit the Lamborghini booth at the Brussels Expo.The two went straight for the V12 star of the boot, namely the Aventador S Roadster. Since we're talking about a social media addict here, the whole thing was caught on camera. And, as you'll be able to notice in the piece of footage at the bottom of the page, the stunt quickly led to... fitment issues (POG is the guy climbing in the passenger's seat).Now, before anybody starts a debate about the importance of such first world problems, allow us to point out that this clip shouldn't be taken all that seriously.For one thing, POG can always quench his Sant'Agata Bolognese thirst with the help of his pre-revamp Aventador coupe. And since he might also own a Urus, there's really no reason to fear about this Lambo fan not getting his kicks.Videos such a the one we have here will always generate discussions regarding the practicality of Raging Bulls. However, there are two aspects we need to point out.First of all, the Italian automotive producer is making constant progress in terms of building more usable supercars and the Huracan is a testament to this - given thenature of the Urus, this example doesn't count here.Secondly, when it comes to driving supercars in scenarios that involve something else than perfect roads, it's all a question of will. For instance, just earlier today we showed you an example of a Murcielago that had been cast in the (probably temporary) role of a pizza delivery machine.Norvic docs testify before NMC ethical committee

The Nepal Medical Council (NMC) has decided to hold a meeting with consultants to discuss the case of medical negligence at the Capitals Norvic Hospital where a woman was operated in the wrong leg.Volkswagen is preparing to drop the fourth concept of its I.D. line of electric and, someday, autonomous vehicles at the upcoming Geneva Show, and in the meantime, it's keeping itself busy by reminding us of the release with various teasers.

1 photoDr. Charles Lemme Dr. Frank E. Walker Dr. David M. Ylander

Three candidates are running to succeed Dr. John Howe as District VII representative on the AVMA Board of Directors when his term expires this July.

AVMA members living in Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, and South Dakota will elect one of the following candidates to a six-year term on the AVMA Board: Dr. Charles Lemme of Cedar Rapids, Iowa; Dr. Frank E. Walker of New Rockford, North Dakota; or Dr. David M. Ylander of Alliance, Nebraska.

AVMA members with valid email addresses have received an email with a link to cast their votes electronically. Voters must respond by March 31 to be included in the electronic tabulation results. Paper ballots were distributed to AVMA members for whom the AVMA does not have valid email addresses, and they must be received back by March 31. The election winner will be announced in early April.

Dr. Lemme has been a small animal practitioner since graduating from the Iowa State University College of Veterinary Medicine in 1975. While working in Illinois, he was active in the Chicago VMA, eventually serving on the CVMA board. In 1985, Dr. Lemme bought a small animal practice in Cedar Rapids, where he continues to practice.

Dr. Lemme has served as president of the Midwest Small Animal Association and as an area director of the American Animal Hospital Association. His volunteer service with the AVMA includes representing the AAHA on the Clinical Practitioners Advisory Committee.

While serving on CPAC, Dr. Lemme presented the AVMA's comments at public meetings held by both the Food and Drug Administration's Center for Veterinary Medicine and the Department of Agriculture's Center for Veterinary Biologics. He also was selected to be the small animal practitioner representative on a working group made up of veterinarians from industry and the USDA that was tasked with developing new, practitioner-friendly labeling for biologics.

Dr. Lemme became involved in the Iowa VMA by serving on the small animal committee, first as a member, and then as chair for several years. He has also served on the legislative and finance committees. Dr. Lemme was elected as a district representative on the IVMA executive board and then elected as vice president, rotated up through the offices, and served as president in 2007.

He currently is in his sixth year representing Iowa in the AVMA House of Delegates, first as the alternate delegate, now as the delegate.

"The AVMA is a great organization but faces many challenges. Staying relevant to our current and future members is going to be a major one. It is going to take leadership that is engaged, experienced, but also forward-thinking to meet those challenges. I think I can provide those skills," said Dr. Lemme.

Dr. Walker is a mixed animal practitioner and owner of Flickertail Veterinary Service in New Rockford, North Dakota. Dr. Walker received his DVM degree from Iowa State University in 1977, then returned to his home state, where he worked as an associate veterinarian for nearly four years. He then built and operated a private mixed animal clinical practice for more than 25 years. At present, he is a consultant.

At Iowa State, Dr. Walker participated in the Student AVMA, and he continues to be involved, in the North Dakota VMA. For several years, he was secretary-treasurer for the NDVMA, and currently he is a member of the continuing education committee and a vice president. In 2002, Dr. Walker was appointed to the state licensure board, where he served for 12 years.

Dr. Walker served on the AVMA Council on Education from 2004-10, during which time he was liaison to the Council on Veterinary Technician Education and Activities. Afterward, Dr. Walker served on the resolutions and bylaws committee for the American Association of Veterinary State Boards. He was elected to fill an unfinished term on the AAVSB board of directors, then completed a successful run for a full-term position. He went on to serve as treasurer, president-elect, and president of the AAVSB and currently is the immediate past president.

Dr. Walker stated, "I offer a wealth of experience and knowledge as a mixed animal practitioner, coupled with a breadth of state and national experience focused on regulatory, accreditation and education, and leadership development of volunteers. Based on my experience as a rural veterinarian, I am committed to advocacy for this unique aspect of practice because it contributes significantly to food animal production, food safety, and biosecurity."

Since receiving his DVM degree from Kansas State University in 1983, Dr. Ylander has been in private mixed animal practice with an emphasis on companion animals and equine medicine and surgery. He currently is a partner in a four-doctor mixed animal clinic in Alliance, Nebraska.

Dr. Ylander has been active in organized veterinary medicine since shortly after graduation. He is a past president of the Nebraska VMA and served on the prescription drug monitoring legislative task force that helped reduce the impact of reporting regulations on Nebraska veterinarians by limiting reporting to only schedule 2 to schedule 5 controlled drugs. Dr. Ylander has also served as president and vice president of his local NVMA district and currently serves as NVMA District VII secretary.

Dr. Ylander spent two terms on the Nebraska Board of Veterinary Medicine and Surgery and helped draft rules and regulations governing licensed veterinary technicians and unlicensed assistants. He was an advocate for collaborative practice between licensed veterinarians and human health care providers, resulting in a change in the Nebraska practice act allowing for such activity. He was involved in the creation of licensure for animal therapists under board supervision in Nebraska.

Dr. Ylander has been a member of the board of directors for the AAVSB as well as president and chair of its bylaws and resolutions committee.

For the past 12 years, he has served in the AVMA House of Delegates as the alternate delegate or delegate for Nebraska. He chaired the House Advisory Committee from 2016-17, during which time he was a nonvoting member on the AVMA Board of Directors. He has also served on the budget and finance review committee and the Future Leaders selection committee.

"I want to use my experience gained from leadership positions in organized and regulatory veterinary medicine to advocate on behalf of all those members of the veterinary professionveterinarians, technicians, assistants, and office staffwithin District VII by serving their interests as an active and engaged participant on the AVMA Board of Directors," Dr. Ylander said.Bobby Acord Dr. Jon Zack  Dr. Bruce Akey  Dr. Kent Fowler  Dr. Boyd Parr

Event: 121st annual meeting, Oct. 12-18, 2017, San Diego

Program: The meeting, held jointly with the American Association of Veterinary Laboratory Diagnosticians (see story, page 640), drew more than 1,200 attendees. The joint plenary session, "State of the Industry: Animal Agriculture," moderated by Mike Armstrong, Clayton, North Carolina, featured speakers Mike Naig, deputy secretary of agriculture for Iowa, and Dr. Elizabeth Parker, Institute for Infectious Animal Diseases, and concluded with the panel discussion "FMD: Now and the Future" with Pam Hullinger, California Animal Health Food Safety System; Dr. Bret Marsh, Indiana state veterinarian; Dr. Jack Shere, deputy administrator, Veterinary Services division of the Department of Agriculture's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service; and Dr. Liz Wagstrom, National Pork Producers Council. Several committee and subcommittee meetings were also held.

Awards: USAHA Medal of Distinction: Bobby Acord, Rocky Point, North Carolina. A former administrator of the USDA APHIS, Acord owns a consulting firm in Wilmington, North Carolina. He was honored for his career in the animal health sector. Acord is active with the USAHA and has helped foster a close relationship between the organization and stakeholders, particularly at the federal level. He serves as a mentor to upcoming leaders in the profession. USAHA Federal Partnership Award: Dr. Jon Zack, Riverdale, Maryland. A 1997 graduate of the University of Minnesota College of Veterinary Medicine, Dr. Zack is director of the USDA APHIS National Preparedness and Incident Coordination Center. He was recognized for his work in foreign animal disease preparedness. Dr. Zack has helped advance Secure Food Supply Plans projects and has served in a leadership capacity during recent outbreaks of highly pathogenic avian influenza in the United States. APHIS Administrator's Award: Dr. Bruce Akey, College Station, Texas. A 1987 graduate of the University of Minnesota College of Veterinary Medicine, Dr. Akey is director of the Texas Veterinary Medical Diagnostic Laboratory. He was honored for his varied career, ranging from regulatory medicine to veterinary diagnostics work. Known for visionary leadership in the areas of information technology and surveillance capabilities in diagnostic laboratories, Dr. Akey has helped advance the National Animal Health Laboratory Network. National Assembly Award: Dr. Kent Fowler, Sacramento, California. A 1977 graduate of the University of California-Davis, Dr. Fowler is chief of the Animal Health Branch at the California Department of Food and Agriculture. He was recognized for his dedication to the work of the National Assembly of State Animal Health Officials. Dr. Fowler works closely with members of the assembly and has demonstrated notable leadership in equine health issues. He has helped develop disease response infrastructure and foot-and-mouth disease preparedness planning. The USAHA also recognized its immediate past president, Dr. Boyd Parr, for his service as president from 2016-17.

Business: The USAHA continues to implement the 2015 strategic plan, with the past year featuring a new look for the association via a new logo, and a new committee structure. The committee restructure is designed to streamline association work and allow for greater flexibility and response to issues affecting animal health. Twenty-one resolutions have been approved and can be viewed at www.usaha.org/usaha-resolutions.

Officials: Barbara Determan, Early, Iowa, president; Dr. Kristin Haas, Montpelier, Vermont, president-elect; Dr. Martin Zaluski, Helena, Montana, first vice president; Dr. Paul McGraw, Madison, Wisconsin, second vice president; Dr. Charles Thatchere, Nashville, Tennessee, third vice president; Dr. Annette Jones, Sacramento, California, treasurer; and Dr. Boyd Parr, Columbia, South Carolina, immediate past presidentAfghan President Ashraf Ghani proposed recognizing the Taliban as an official political party in order to initiate peace talks, reports Reuters. Ghani made the comments at an Afghan-led peace conference where he also proposed a ceasefire, the release of prisoners, new elections and a constitutional review involving the militant group.

Why it matters: Having previously called the Taliban "terrorists" and "rebels," Ghani's shift in rhetoric breaks from the position of the Trump administration, which has asserted the U.S. has no interest in speaking to the militant organization. Meanwhile, the Taliban expressed interest in entering peace talks with the U.S. this month in an open letter to the American people, but has shown no signs of wanting to negotiate with Kabul.

What else: The proposal would require the Taliban to "recognize the Afghan government and respect the rule of law," according to Reuters. Ghani's speech also called on the international community to help initiate peace talks with Pakistan, which was recently added to the FATF's terrorist financing watchlist.

Go deeper: Peace has never been more elusive in AfghanistanIsrael is concerned by what it sees as a policy difference with the U.S. on countering Iranian military entrenchment in Syria, officials say. The issue is going to be discussed again in the White House meeting between Prime Minister Netanyahu and President Trump on Monday.

The bottom line: A senior Israeli official who deals with the Iranian activity in Syria told me the U.S. is not doing enough to help counter Iranian entrenchment. He added that there is a big gap between the American rhetoric against Iran and the action.

"It is comfortable for the Americans to let us be their sub-contractor against Iran in Syria. We are very worried", the official told me.

The disappointment over U.S. non-action against Iran in Syria was mainly heard in the closed rooms of the Israeli security cabinet until the last few days, when it became more public.

Israeli internal security minister Gilad Erdan, a member of the security cabinet, used his speech at the gathering of the conference of presidents of the major Jewish organizations in North America to convey a message to the Trump administration on the issue.

"Friends let me be direct. There is a need for greater American involvement in making sure that Iran doesnt turn Syria into a puppet state. Every day that Iran entrenches itself in Syria brings war closer. There is no vacuum. If the US chooses not to be a major player in shaping the future of Syria then others will  and trust me it won't be the democratically elected representatives of the Syrian people".

Israeli officials told me that even after numerous discussions on the issue, including a joint framework reached in December, the feeling in Jerusalem is that while Israel sees Iranian activity in Syria as a critical and urgent security concern, for the U.S. it is essentially a side issue  at least for now.

The Israelis saw CENTCOM commander General Josef Votel's hearing in Congress yesterday as further proof of the policy difference. Votel said at the hearing, "countering Iran is not one of the coalition missions in Syria". He added: "The principal reason we are in Syria is to defeat ISIS. And that remains our sole and single, single task that we are principally oriented on".

A senior U.S. official intimately involved in the Trump administration's Syria policy said the U.S. agrees with Israel on the problematic actions by Iran in Syria but stressed that for now the U.S. has more urgent issues to take care of.

The U.S. official said: "What Israel is signaling in different ways is that theres a real security threat here (As a result of Iranian entrenchment in Syria). Theres a concern, and we certainly understand itHowever, until the ISIS fight can be continued, the ability to cogently and comprehensively deal with the challenge Iran poses is of necessity something that cannot be addressed as well as we would like, as well as others would like. And weve made that clear. Theres a tiering here of threats and priorities".Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley was given the White House's prison reform goals which focus on funding programs that help inmates prepare for a successful re-entry. The issue, Grassley "is focused on passing sound policy, not the path of least resistance," according to spokesman George Hartmann.

Big picture: The Judiciary Chairman will continue talking with the White House about comprehensive criminal justice reform including sentencing reform and mens rea reform, according to Hartmann.

Sen. Mike Lee, another criminal justice reform advocate and cosponsor of the Grassley-Durbin bill, told Axios that he supports Sen. John Cornyn and Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse's bill as well, which addresses the prison reform portion of the Grassley-Durbin bill, but not sentencing reform.

Go deeper: Grassley twists Trump's arm for criminal justice reform.Hope Hicks, White House communications director and highly trusted member of the Trump team, testified behind closed doors for nine hours with the House Intelligence Committee on Tuesday, but declined to answer questions about the transition and her time in the White House. However, according to the New York Times, Hicks told House investigators that she is occasionally forced to tell "white lies" from her work in the administration.

Flashback: Hicks was involved in the scramble to respond to reports of a 2016 meeting between Don Jr. and a Russian lawyer, and allegedly said details of the meeting will never get out"  a claim her lawyer has denied. She has also been in the room for other key moments that members were anxious to ask about.A believed-Iranian hacking group nicknamed Chafer that previously focused on domestic surveillance has been turned loose on the international air transport industry, according to a new report from Symantec.

The bottom line: Iran has other options in its cyber offensive, including more sophisticated government-lead groups. But with this rapid expansion of Chafer's portfolio, "[m]ore then likely, their mandate will broaden in the next few years," said Symantec Technical Director Vikram Thakur.

The details: Chafer, first identified in 2015 by Symantec, appears to date back to 2014, said Thakur. But Chafer's relatively bare-bones attacks were largely focused on targets within Iranian borders. In 2017, the group pivoted its attention to espionage in Israel, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and the U.A.E.

The intrigue: Thakur believes this is an escalation of responsibilities for the group, which he stressed was not particularly sophisticated. Chafer's victims appear to be centered around airlines and their equipment and software providers. Chafer also attacked telecom firms with aerospace clients, although it is unclear whether the goal was those clients or the telecom firms themselves.Province 3 Cabinet expanded; four new ministers sworn in

Province 3 Chief Minister Dor Mani Poudel expanded his Cabinet on Wednesday by inducting four ministersthree from CPN-UML and one from Maoist Centre.The final piece of unfinished reporting from a Slovakian journalist who was assassinated, apparently for his work exposing corruption, was published Wednesday by the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) and his outlet, Aktuality.sk. Jan Kuciak was working on an in-depth investigation into Italys Ndrangheta, one of the worlds most powerful criminal groups, and their infiltration into Slovakia and next-door Czech Republic.

Why it matters: Slovakias vulnerability to organized crime has become of increasing concern to the European Union  particularly the connivance of politicians in large-scale fraud as well as the defaming of journalists trying to investigate such activities.

The latest

Kuciaks last unfinished story before he was shot dead along with his girlfriend in their apartment over the weekend was titled The Model, the Mafia, and the Murderers.

It detailed an investigation into Slovakian PM Ficos hiring of topless model Maria Troskova as one of his assistants, and Troskova's business ties to Antonino Vadala, 42, an Italian living in Slovakia with allegedly close ties to the Ndrangheta.

PM Fico has been criticized for holding a press conference on Tuesday, where he stood by piles of banknotes worth 1 million  the reward the government is promising for information about the killings. "Do not link innocent people without any evidence to a double homicide," he said, criticizing the opposition and the media.

Slovak Police President Tibor Gaspar said the authorities had questioned 20 people since Monday and contacted the Czech Republic and Italy about the investigation.

The Czech reporter working out of Prague with Kuciak, Pavla Holcova, of the Czech Center for Investigative Journalism, is now under police protection.

The backdrop:The opposition Yelk alliance accused the pro-government majority in the Armenian parliament on Wednesday of resorting to fraud to elect a key member of a new judicial body set up in the country.

The National Assembly voted earlier in the day to choose five of the ten members of the Supreme Judicial Council tasked with overseeing Armenian courts. All of the elected council members were nominated by the ruling Republican Party of Armenia (HHK). They include Gagik Harutiunian, the outgoing chairman of the Constitutional Court.

Harutiunian was elected by 96 votes to 2, according to Gagik Melikian, the head of an ad hoc parliament commission that administered the secret ballot.

Yelks parliamentary leader, Nikol Pashinian, cried foul shortly after the announcement of the vote results. He insisted that he and six other deputies representing Yelk voted against Harutiunian.

I consider this an act of petty chicanery by representatives of the [parliamentary] majority which is directed against Yelk and pursues far-reaching political goals, charged Pashinian. He demanded a criminal investigation into the alleged fraud.

Melikian rejected the accusations, arguing that a protocol on the vote results was signed by all members of his commission, including Yelks Lena Nazarian. Eduard Sharmazanov, a deputy parliament speaker also affiliated with the HHK, made a similar point.

I did take part in the vote count but I cant be sure that ballots marked against [Harutiunian] were not replaced by ballots marked for him, said Nazarian. She claimed that such fraud may well have been committed by another member of Melikians commission.

The Yelk allegations were angrily denied by the HHKs parliamentary leader, Vahram Baghdasarian. Getting 96, 86 or 80 votes wouldnt make any difference for Gagik Harutiunian or us, he said. Please do not stir up trouble and disrupt our work with unnecessary statements.

Under Armenias amended constitution, the main mission of the Supreme Judicial Council is to guarantee the independence of the courts and the judges. The council will nominate virtually all new judges that will be appointed by the Armenian president and the National Assembly. It can also take disciplinary action against judges or have them terminated.

The five other members of the powerful body will be chosen by the countrys judges who have served for at least ten years.Economic Development Minister Suren Karayan said on Wednesday that production operations at Armenias second largest copper mine were halted recently because its waste disposal facilities need major upgrades.

Vallex Group, a private mining company, sent the vast majority of its 1,200 employees working at the Teghut deposit on indefinite leave on January 12, citing the need for planned prophylactic repairs. Vallex announced on February 2 that it will lay them off due to what it expects to be a prolonged stoppage. It claimed that it needs time to commission feasibility studies on its plans to significantly boost production there.

Several Yerevan-based environment protection activists said on Monday that the shutdown is the result of growing toxic leaks from the mine contaminating a nearby river. One of them claimed that a tailings dump at Teghut could crumble at any moment. Vallex has still not commented on those claims.

Right now studies related to the tailings dump are being conducted there, Karayan said, according to the Armenpress news agency. Two foreign entities are exploring things to see what needs to be done so that the mine can continue its environmentally safe operations.

Speaking during the Armenian governments question-and-answer session in the parliament, Karayan said mining and ore processing at Teghut will resume after Vallex modernizes some of its facilities. The re-equipment process will take some time, the minister added without giving any time frames.

The Teghut operator has also not specified when it could reopen the mine located in the northern Lori province. It said on February 2 that it will retain a skeleton staff of around 300 employees who will guard the site and look after its industrial equipment.By Sara Israfilbayova

The health and welfare of the population and the healthy growth of future generations are directly dependent on the food safety, Head of the Department of Communication and Information Technologies of the Food Safety Agency of Azerbaijan Aynur Karimova said in an interview with Azernews.

Karimova said that food safety is part of national safety and food safety means healthy food.

Bad food is even more dangerous than armed attacks. Diseases caused by malnutrition, threaten not only the future of the people, but also the existence of people. To ensure food safety for the health of our population is one of the main challenges today, she noted.

The head of the department stressed that it is important to have foreign goods on sale for abundance on the market, free market relations, as well as competitiveness of local goods: Ensuring the safety of these products is an important task for us.

Also, compliance with local products, packaging, transport, sanitation and hygiene must be ensured, according to Karimova.

She mentioned that Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev signed a decree on November 13, 2017 to ensure the activities of the Food Safety Agency.

At the same time, the President signed a decree on the transfer of state property, consisting of laboratories, administrative buildings and logistics under the property of the Ministry of Economics, Ministry of Agriculture and Ministry of Healthcare to the property of the Food Safety Agency. All these actions allow us to begin to work with greater readiness, she said.

In addition, we are studying international experience in the field of food safety, and the working mechanism of similar organizations in a number of countries, the security agency emphasized.

It was further reported that the Food Safety Agency will monitor food safety at all stages of the food chain in the country and will protect consumer rights, adding that protection of the rights of the consumers will be aimed at providing them with healthy food.

Our mission is to closely work with all aspects of the food chain. A farmer, an importer of the final product, a dealer or a supplier - everyone should understand that his task is to provide people with healthy and safe food. We want our control mechanism to support local producers. The introduction of standards and the implementation of food safety requirements should increase sales of domestic products throughout the country and increase market share and improve export competitiveness, the head of the department stressed.

Speaking of the legislative and legal acts, aimed at achieving food security in the country, Karimova stressed that there are numerous legislative acts, standards, sanitary and hygienic norms related to the safety of food products in Azerbaijan.

There is a legal framework in the country that prohibits the production and sale of products with GMOs. Standards for halal products and standards for various food products have been approved. At present, the regulatory and technical base of the Food Safety Agency is under development, she noted.

The head of the department highlighted that a food safety project is currently being developed, and the proposals on a number of bills have been submitted to the Azerbaijani Parliament.

She said that a number of proposals have been prepared to the laws of the Republic of Azerbaijan On Food Products, On Standardization, On Sanitary and Epidemiological Well-Being, On Phytosanitary Control, On Veterinary Medicine.

The Agency plans to conduct scientific and practical research in the field of food safety, to conduct scientific risk assessment, to prepare draft regulations on food safety, to provide implementation of voluntary application of international standards by producers to food products and to research services on food safety indicators.

There are similar institutions in European countries, the U.S., and Australia. These institutions play a very important role in the conduct of scientific research, especially in the field of food safety.

We are sure that we will be able to create such institution in Azerbaijan, Karimova concluded.

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Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAzBy Trend

The republican commission of Azerbaijans Agriculture Ministry has made a decision to allocate subsidies worth 22.505 million manats to 19,086 agricultural producers in the country, the ministry said in a message Feb. 27.

The decision was made at a regular meeting of the commission under the leadership of its chairman, Deputy Minister of Agriculture Ilham Guliyev.

The subsidies were allocated to producers of cotton, tobacco and sugar beet.

The relevant documents for the payment of funds to producers were sent to Azerbaijans Finance Ministry, Kapital Bank OJSC and to the relevant regional departments of the Agriculture Ministry and local executive authorities.

The subsidy to cotton producers for each kilogram of raw cotton sold to processing facilities in Azerbaijan is 0.1 manats, this is while subsidy to tobacco producers for each kilogram of dry tobacco and for every 10 kilograms of raw tobacco amounts to 0.05 manats.

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Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAzBy Rashid Shirinov

The U.S. is committed to the policy of cooperation with Azerbaijan in the field of development, Brock Bierman, Deputy Administrator of the Europe and Eurasia Bureau of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), said during his three-day visit to Azerbaijan.

The aim of the visit was to discuss the prospects for cooperation between USAID and Azerbaijan. To this end, Bierman met with the Taxes Minister Mikayil Jabbarov, Assistant to the First Vice-President Elchin Amirbayov, Agriculture Minister Heydar Asadov, Deputy Economy Minister Sahil Babayev, Deputy Foreign Minister Mahmud Mammadguliyev and other representatives of the Azerbaijani government.

Bierman also met with representatives of international organizations and structures operating in the country, including representatives of the European Union, United Nations, Council of Europe, World Bank and European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, in order to discuss the foreign assistance being provided to Azerbaijan.

Our goal is to become partners with countries through working with them. I am here to emphasize that the U.S. is committed to working together with Azerbaijan to create a safer, more democratic and prosperous future for Azerbaijan, he said.

During a press conference on the results of his visit to Baku on February 28, Bierman noted that Azerbaijan and the U.S. have been actively cooperating for many years, and during the meetings with representatives of Azerbaijans state structures, he also discussed issues of granting tax benefits.

He continued that despite the fact that the issue of concessions has not been resolved, USAID and Azerbaijan continue to cooperate, and the sides are currently working on several projects.

Undoubtedly, we achieved significant results on some projects in Azerbaijan. But, full implementation of all USAID projects in the country is slowing down because of the issues that we have to solve with the state structures, Bierman added.

The overall objective of USAIDs assistance in Azerbaijan is to support the countrys reform processes by promoting competition and pluralism in the society, laying the foundations for a sustainable market-based democracy. To accomplish this objective, USAID collaborates with the Azerbaijani government, regional governments, the private sector and a wide range of civil society organizations.

The draft budget of the U.S. State Department states that the USAID can allocate $3.6 million worth funds to Azerbaijan in 2019 to support the countrys economic development and $600,000 for professional military education in the country.

For this year, it is planned to provide Azerbaijan with $600,000 to support professional military education, including various training and courses in the country. Azerbaijan received $639,000 from USAID in 2017 for the above mentioned purposes, while another $1 million was allocated as military financing.

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Rashid Shirinov is AzerNews staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @RashidShirinov

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAzBy Rashid Shirinov

A new innovation center of the High Tech Park LLC under Azerbaijans Ministry of Transport, Communications and High Technologies will be ready and put into operation before the end of 2019, the LLC Director Tural Karimli said when addressing the Microsoft Innovation Forum in Baku on February 28.

He noted that the center with a total area of 7,000 square meters will be located in the Khatai telecommunication node of Baku Telephone Communication LLC.

All IT companies to be operating in the center will be given the status of resident, which will allow them to enjoy tax preferences," Karimli said.

It was previously reported that 10 percent of the buildings area will be used for administrative needs and the remaining part is designed for start-up projects.

The project of the innovation center construction provides for the reconstruction of the building, where the head office of the LLC, business incubation center, coworking center, laboratories, etc. will be located.

The new approach to supporting startups is that residents of the LLC, as well as the startups, will be located right in the innovation center and will take a direct part in the development of innovative projects.

Elmir Valizade, Deputy Minister of Transport, Communications and High Technologies, also addressed the Microsoft Innovation Forum, saying that innovative development is of the highest priority for Azerbaijan, and it is especially important that business and the youth get involved in this process.

As this process gains mass character, the development of Azerbaijan will grow at an even greater pace. Azerbaijan has great potential in this area, and the country can achieve significant success in it, Valizade said.

He continued that from this point of view, the role of the information society participants is extremely important. We are sure that all of us, whether it be the state agencies, business or students, will be able to achieve success together.

The deputy minister noted that Azerbaijan has certain successes in this field.

First of all, it can be noted that the innovation policy declared in the country is fixed by legal bases, which creates an opportunity for attracting investments in many directions in Azerbaijan, including in the sphere of ICT, Valizade mentioned.

He added that to develop this direction in Azerbaijan even more, a new investment law is being developed that will meet all modern requirements and create the necessary conditions for the entry of structures willing to carry out their activities in Azerbaijan.

Along with this, laws on innovation are also being prepared in Azerbaijan, and we think that the new legislation on investments and innovations will contribute to the innovative development of the country, Valizade concluded.

ICT is considered to be one of the crucial spheres for the further development of Azerbaijan's economy and an integral part of the economic and political reforms which are currently implemented in the country. Azerbaijan, which is a regional leader in the ICT sector, intends to further develop the sector. The income obtained in the sector in Azerbaijan is projected to hit $9 billion by 2020.

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Rashid Shirinov is AzerNews staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @RashidShirinov

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAzThe question of the arrival of Afghan students in Azerbaijan enrolled in educational institutions in our country is under discussion, Head of the International Cooperation Department of the Ministry of Education Tural Ahmadov said, Trend reports.By Rashid Shirinov

It is necessary to resolve the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict as early as possible, Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said at the opening ceremony of a photo exhibition dedicated to the 26th anniversary of the Khojaly genocide.

The event was held at the Grand National Assembly of Turkey on February 28.

Yildirim noted that Turkey, as always, will support Azerbaijan in everything.

We are one nation in two states, the joy of Azerbaijan is our joy, the sorrow of Azerbaijan is our sorrow. Long live the Azerbaijani-Turkish brotherhood! he said.

The opening of the exhibition was also attended by the chairman of the Turkish Parliament Ismail Kahraman and chairman of the Azerbaijani parliamentary committee on international and interparliamentary relations Samad Seyidov.

Khojaly, the second largest town in the Nagorno-Karabakh region of Azerbaijan, came under intense fire by Armenia from the towns of Khankendi and Askeran already occupied by the Armenian armed forces on the night of February 25-26, 1992.

As many as 613 civilians, mostly women and children, were killed in the massacre, and a total of 1,000 people were disabled. Eight families were exterminated, 25 children lost both parents, and 130 children lost one parent. Moreover, 1,275 innocent people were taken hostage, and the fate of 150 of them remains unknown.

Ankara strongly supports Baku in the fair settlement of the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and liberation of the occupied territories of Azerbaijan.

The Nagorno-Karabakh conflict emerged in 1988 over Armenia's territorial claims against Azerbaijan. More than 20,000 Azerbaijanis were killed as a result of large-scale hostilities and over one million Azerbaijanis are unable to return to their homes because of the invasion. Armenia continues the occupation of Azerbaijani territories, which in turn obstacles the regional security and peace.

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Rashid Shirinov is AzerNews staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @RashidShirinov

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAzBy Shukur Mammadaliyev

The Caspian seal is one of the smallest members of the earless seal family and unique in that it is found exclusively in the brackish Caspian Sea. They are found not only along the shorelines, but also on the many rocky islands and floating blocks of ice that dot the Caspian Sea.

In winter, and cooler parts of the spring and autumn season, these marine mammals populate the Northern Caspian. As the ice melts in the warmer season, they can be found, as well as the southern latitudes of the Caspian where cooler waters can be found due to greater depth.

This seal is the only marine mammal in the Caspian Sea, and is found nowhere else in the world. At the start of the 20th century there were around 1 million Caspian seals (or about 2.5 seals per square km of the sea). Today the numbers are approximately one tenth of that. The damage inflicted is all too obvious. And this specie considered as under threat of extinction.

Why population of Caspian Seal is reducing? There are different reasons for that. Imagine the devastation that would result if a fire swept through your home. All your possessionsfurniture, clothing, personal treasures, and other mementoswould be lost. Your life would be drastically changed. That is essentially what has happened to the Caspian seals home. Pollution, industry, and other human activities have led to the destruction of much of the seals natural habitat. Moreover, the Caspian seals food supply has been greatly diminished by overfishing.

Since Caspian seals are near the top of the food chain, some scientists suggest that this sea mammal is an indicator species. This means that if they arent doing well, its a good indicator that the rest of the food chain isnt doing well either. If this proves to be so, the situation does not bode well for the preservation of the Caspians ecosystem, for the seal is regions most endangered species.

Several recent cases of large numbers of Caspian seals dying due to canine distemper virus have been reported, in 1997, 2000, and 2001. In April 2000, a mass die-off of Caspian seals was first reported near the mouth of the Ural River in Kazakhstan. It spread south to the Mangistau region, and by the end of May, more than 10,000 seals had died along the Kazakhstan coast. High death rates were also recorded in May and June along the Absheron peninsula of Azerbaijan and the Turkmenistan coast.

Ironically, humans are theirs greatest threat, and at the same time, they are their greatest supporters. Some private and governmental efforts of Caspian states are made to protect the seals. Numerous field studies have been conducted to learn how to help these magnificent animals.

As far as we know, there is currently no common approach to the protection of the Caspian Sea ecosystems in the coastal states, and five different countries are trying to implement their projects on their own. But this work is not enough. It is necessary to conduct complex studies of ecosystem of the Caspian Sea by all states.

Further programs for the protection of marine ecosystems in different countries should be adopted only as a result of such intergovernmental work. The program in each country will have its own specifics and will be aimed at preserving the part of the sea that belongs to this country. But such national programs can be based only on interstate scientific research of the sea as a whole.

It is also important to create an interstate program to conserve the resources of the sea, without this, no significant results are expected. For example, the rules for catching fish in different countries cannot be established by studying bio resources only within the limits of one country. It is necessary to radically revise these rules. The wrong approach has already led to the fact that the once-richest fish resources of the Caspian Sea are now practically undermined, the populations of sturgeons that seemed limitless have practically disappeared, and rarely can anyone as well as seals remember when they last time ate real black caviar.

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Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAzSleuths bust fake notes international racket

Police have busted an international racket that has been printing and circulating counterfeit Nepali currency.By Trend

The representatives of Azerbaijani Public Relations Association (APRA) have met with IPRA President Bart de Vries within the framework of his visit to Baku.

The parties came together to identify spheres for potential cooperation between the two associations and agreed on several important topics to influence the development of public relations discipline in Azerbaijan.

One of the topics of discussion was IPRAs membership opportunities for local PR practitioners who seek access to the global PR industry and international exposure for their careers. The President of IPRA mentioned interest in broadening IPRAs membership geography across various parts of the world.

According to him, Azerbaijan can be the first country in the Caucasus region to gain a representation in International Public Relations Association, and that could be achieved by authorising APRA to set-up a regional IPRA Chapter.

Establishing an APRA-IPRA Chapter in Azerbaijan can be an excellent way forward for both organizations to grow their footprint and representation in the community of professional communicators, said Mr. De Vries.

Participants also exchanged their views on the annual Golden World Awards (GWA), IPRAs global award scheme recognizing excellence in public relations practice in a wide variety of categories. APRA can help drive entries in the GWA from, first, Azerbaijan and the greater Caucasus region.

Conversely, by participating in the GWA, professionals in Azerbaijan can gain valuable insights, experience and contacts.

Both parties agreed to continue their constructive dialogue with a view towards exchanging documents and Guidelines and working toward setting up cooperation.

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Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAzBy Rashid Shirinov

Substantive and result oriented talks together with the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs on the settlement of Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict will be continued after the elections in both countries, Azerbaijans Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov said on February 27.

He made the remarks at the meeting with UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi within his working visit to the United Nations Office in Geneva.

The minister provided detailed information on the current status of the negotiations on resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. Mammadyarov emphasized that in order to change the status quo of occupation, the Armenian armed forces must be withdrawn from the occupied territories of Azerbaijan in accordance with the demands of relevant resolutions of UN Security Council.

He touched on the fact of illegal settlement of ethnic Armenian refugees from Syria into the occupied territories of Azerbaijan by Armenia and stressed the importance of serious attention by the international institutions and international community to this issue.

Armenia broke out a lengthy war against Azerbaijan by laying territorial claims on the country. Since a war in the early 1990s, Armenian armed forces have occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijans territory, including Nagorno-Karabakh and seven surrounding regions. More than 20,000 Azerbaijanis were killed and over 1 million were displaced as a result of the large-scale hostilities. To this day, Armenia has not implemented four UN Security Council resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from the Nagorno-Karabakh and surrounding regions.

Mammadyarov said that Azerbaijan highly appreciates the humanitarian assistance provided by the UNHCR to the refugees and internally displaced persons of the country, as well as the current level of cooperation with the organization.

The minister further briefed Grandi about the reconstruction works carried out in Jojug Marjanli village after its liberation from the Armenian occupation as well as the measures taken for the return of IDPs in safety. He stressed that Azerbaijan will further continue efforts to improve the living conditions of the refugees and IDPs.

Due to the ethnic cleansing policy, which was carried out by Armenia, and the Armenian occupation of Nagorno-Karabakh and seven surrounding regions of Azerbaijan, the number of refugees and internally displaced persons in Azerbaijan hit more than 1 million. With a population of over 9.8 million, Azerbaijan is among the countries carrying the highest IDP caseload in the world in per capita terms.

Grandi, in turn, expressed his satisfaction with the cooperation between the UNHCR and Azerbaijan and highly appreciated voluntary donations of Azerbaijan to the organization.

The sides also exchanged views on prospects of cooperation between the UNHCR and Azerbaijan and the current issues on the agenda.

Mammadyarov also met with Peter Maurer, President of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), on the same day.

The sides expressed satisfaction with the development of the cooperation over more than 20 years and exchanged views on the works carried out and prospects of development of relations. In this regard, Mammadyarov highly appreciated the assistance and support rendered by ICRC to Azerbaijan and pointed out that the organization remains a key international humanitarian partner for the country.

The minister also touched upon the humanitarian aspects of the Armenias military aggression against Azerbaijan and highlighted the importance of the release of Dilgam Asgarov and Shahbaz Guliyev, illegally taken hostage by Armenian armed forces while visiting their native lands in July, 2014.

Mammadyarov mentioned that Armenia, by changing the demographic situation in the occupied territories of Azerbaijan and thus providing illegal settlement of ethnic Armenian refugees from Syria and carrying out illegal economic and other activities, blatantly violates its commitments under the international humanitarian law, particularly Geneva Conventions.

During the meeting, the sides also pointed out the humanitarian activities carried out by the ICRC along the contact line zone, and DNA sample collection of the missing people as a result of the conflict was praised. The sides emphasized the necessity of continuing such efforts within the effective mutual cooperation and exchanged views on the future perspectives of relations between Azerbaijan and ICRC.

The ICRC has been present in the region since 1992 in relation to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. Through the delegations in Baku and Yerevan and the mission in Nagorno-Karabakh, the ICRC supports communities living along the line of contact and international border between Armenia and Azerbaijan.

In addition, the ICRC works to clarify the fate of missing persons and help their families, visits detainees and acts as a neutral intermediary to facilitate transfer and repatriation of persons released on both sides of the border and line of the contact.

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Rashid Shirinov is AzerNews staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @RashidShirinov

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAzPresident of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev has received credentials of the newly-appointed ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary of Egypt to the country Adel Ibrahim Ahmed Ibrahim.

Ambassador Adel Ibrahim Ahmed Ibrahim reviewed a guard of honor, Azertag reported.

Adel Ibrahim Ahmed Ibrahim presented his credentials to President Ilham Aliyev.

President Ilham Aliyev then spoke with the ambassador.

Saying that Azerbaijan is a very beautiful country, Adel Ibrahim Ahmed Ibrahim noted that he feels himself at home here. He stressed that the people of Egypt have sincere attitude towards Azerbaijan and the people of Azerbaijan. The ambassador expressed confidence that relations between Azerbaijan and Egypt will continue to develop with the support of the two countries` leadership.

President Ilham Aliyev said Azerbaijan attaches importance to developing bilateral ties and establishing close partnership with Egypt. Touching upon the importance of reciprocal visits between the two countries, the head of state hailed the recent successful meeting of Azerbaijan-Egypt Intergovernmental Joint Commission in Cairo. Expressing his hope that the two countries will maintain close cooperation within international organizations, President Ilham Aliyev said Azerbaijan and Egypt demonstrate mutual support in the UN, Organization of Islamic Cooperation and other organizations, and emphasized the significance of continuing the political dialogue.

Stressing the importance of doing greater work in the economic sphere for increasing the bilateral trade, the head of state underlined that the two countries enjoy great opportunities in this area. Saying that Azerbaijan and Egypt can benefit from the mutual import-export potential, President Ilham Aliyev noted the importance of exploring investment opportunities and establishing the necessary conditions for the activities of the two countries` companies. The head of state said Azerbaijan intends to establish close relations with Egypt in all areas, and pointed out the discussions on cooperation in the field of tourism. President Ilham Aliyev touched upon the significance of establishing direct flights for organizing regular trips.

President Ilham Aliyev expressed confidence that ambassador Adel Ibrahim Ahmed Ibrahim will spare no efforts to contribute to developing friendly ties between the two countries during his tenure in Azerbaijan.

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Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAzBy Kamila Aliyeva

The high level of compliance in maintaining production cuts witnessed by OPEC and Russia since last January have been the main drivers behind the strong recovery in the price of oil, Saxo Banks analyst and Head of Commodity Strategy Ole Hansen said in an interview with Azernews.

Commenting on the decision of Saudi Arabia to cut production, he noted that monthly changes like the one announced by this country is of a technical character and should have limited impact on oil prices.

Hansen stressed that OPEC and Russia probably have to maintain the cuts well into 2019 with the IEA expecting non-OPEC supply growth being enough to meet the rise in global demand until 2020.

I dont think OPEC can or should do more at this stage where the risk is more of the market overshooting to the upside. Also quality matters, and most of the production growth currently seen in U.S. shale is of a quality so light that refineries struggle to use it, he said.

In our outlook for the first quarter, we highlighted the risk that the oil market would potentially experience a correction because an oil price above 70$, in our belief, was unsustainable at this stage in the global oil market, according to the Saxo Banks expert.

We did see the sell-off during January and early February. Looking back, we can see most of the correction was triggered and driven by risk adversity caused by the weaker stocks and rising bond yields. Not least due to the need for traders to reduce what had become a record and eventually unsustainable bet on rising prices. However, at this stage, the longer term bullish sentiment has been maintained with the recent 10 percent correction from a technical perspective being no more than a weak correction within the existing uptrend, he added speaking of prices.

This was highlighted by speculators response to the said 10 percent correction, according to Hansen.

During the week of heavy selling to February 13, the net-long was only reduced by 5 percent with no fresh short selling hitting the market. So, it does indicate the market is maintaining a bullish outlook. The problem with that is if we see continued weakness in stock markets, or if we see additional rapid increase in non-OPEC supply, we could see the market come under further pressure. But for now, if we look at Brent crude were settling into a 61-70 range. In my belief, 61 is very key because its 38.2 percent retracement of the rally we had all the way from June up to January, and if you look at WTI the similar level there is 58. So, at this stage, I believe were settling into a range, but these are the two key levels to look out for to the downside, he said.

In my opinion, the risk is a bit skewed to the downside, in the short term, because of the elevated position that we still have, the expert noted.

But also the fact that we have entered into the time of year when inventories in U.S. and elsewhere tend to rise while U.S. production growth remains firm. So as long as that is maintained, that could potentially have a negative impact on oil prices, he said.

Overall, the market is fundamentally in a much better place than it was this time last year, it also means that there are buyers lurking in the wings, should the need to reduce exposure further take the price lower below the mentioned levels of support, according to the expert.

OPEC and non-OPEC producers reached an agreement in December 2016 to curtail oil output jointly and ease a global glut after more than two years of low prices. OPEC agreed to slash the output by 1.2 million barrels per day from January 1.

Non-OPEC oil producers such as Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Brunei, Equatorial Guinea, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Mexico, Oman, Russia, Sudan, and South Sudan agreed to reduce output by 558,000 barrels per day starting from January 1, 2017.

OPEC and its partners decided to extend its production cuts till the end of 2018 in Vienna on November 30, as the oil cartel and its allies step up their attempt to end a three-year supply glut that has savaged crude prices and the global energy industry.

World oil prices are gradually declining on Tuesday, February 27, after two weeks of consecutive growth on the background of weakening fears of overproduction in the U.S. and another failure of supplies from Libya.

Price growth was also supported by comments from Saudi Arabia that it would continue to curb exports in line with the OPEC-led effort to cut global supplies.

On London ICE (Intercontinental Exchange Futures) cost of the Brent crude oil decreased $0.06 to stand at $67.44. The price of the US Light crude oil at the NYMEX (New York Mercantile Exchange) went down by $0.10 to trade at $63.81. At the same time, the price of a barrel of Azeri Light crude oil rose $0.77 to stand at $68.87.

US energy companies last week added one oil rig, the fifth weekly increase in a row, bringing the total count up to 799, the highest level since April 2015, Baker Hughes energy services firm said on Friday.

Hedge funds and money managers upped their bullish wagers on U.S. crude oil for the first time in four weeks, data showed on Friday.

A powerful 7.5-magnitude earthquake struck Papua New Guineas Southern Highlands province early on Monday, disrupting communications and oil and gas operations.

Meanwhile, Libyas National Oil Corp said on Saturday it had declared force majeure on the 70,000 bpd El Feel oilfield after a protest by guards closed the field.

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Kamila Aliyeva is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Kami_Aliyeva

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAzBy Trend

The US Exxonmobil company intends to work with Azerbaijan and co-venturers to continue the success of Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) oil pipeline, media relations advisor of the company told Trend.

ExxonMobil confirmed that it acquired 2.5 percent of the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline through a share purchase from CIECO BTC (UK) Ltd, an affiliate of Japans Itochu.

The terms of the agreement are confidential, said Exxonmobils media relations advisor.

ExxonMobil has had a continuous business presence in Azerbaijan since 1995, and remains committed to working with the republic. The pipeline plays an important role in the international energy supply network. We will work with Azerbaijan and BTC co-venturers to continue the pipelines success, said the company.

ExxonMobil became a shareholder of BTC Co., which manages the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline, reads BP's report on the results of activities in Azerbaijan in 2017.

BTC Co. shareholders are: BP (30.1 percent), AzBTC (25 percent), Chevron (8.9 percent), Statoil (8.71 percent),  (6.53 percent), Eni (5 percent), Total (5 percent), Itochu (3.4 percent), Inpex (2.5 percent), ExxonMobil (2.5 percent) and ONGC (2.36 percent).

The total length of the B is 1,768 kilometers, including a 443 kilometer-long section running through Azerbaijan, a 249-kilometer long section in Georgia and a 1,076-kilometer long section in Turkey. The construction of the pipeline started in 2003. It was filled with oil in 2005.

The pumping capacity of the pipeline is 1.2 million barrels per day.

---

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAzBy Trend

Azerbaijan-Turkey relations are eternal, Chairman of the Committee on International Relations and Inter-Parliamentary Relations of the Azerbaijani Parliament Samad Seyidov said during a meeting with Chairman of the Turkish Parliament Ismail Kahraman in Ankara.

Seyidov said that Azerbaijan-Turkey relations will never change.

The level of Azerbaijan-Turkey relations is high, we do our best to further strengthen these ties, and we will continue to do so, he added.

Samad Seyidov, MPs Sevinj Fataliyeva, Asim Mollazade and Javanshir Feyziyev will stay in Ankara until March 1 to participate in the trilateral meeting of the parliamentary committees on foreign relations of Azerbaijan, Turkey and Georgia.

A number of regional issues will be discussed at the meeting. The MPs will also exchange views on development of mutual relations of delegations within international organizations.

Following the meeting, a protocol on cooperation among the foreign relations committees of the legislative bodies of the three countries will be signed.

---

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAzBy Trend

Roughly 50 representatives of more than 30 companies from the Netherlands will take part in the 13th international agricultural exhibition Agro World Uzbekistan 2018 scheduled for mid-March, 2018, the Uzbek Foreign Ministry reported.

Many of these companies will present their stands at the expo. The majority of these companies are active in the horticultural sector, including construction of greenhouses. Another part of the participating companies are dealing with livestock, in particular production of dairy and poultry products.

The agro food sector is a priority area of the Uzbek-Dutch cooperation. As the ministry reported, the Netherlands together with the state structures of Uzbekistan, research institutes, private sector and with the support of international financial organizations can contribute to further development of the horticultural and livestock sectors in Uzbekistan.

AgroWorld Uzbekistan, held alongside WorldFood Uzbekistan, is one of the top international agricultural events in Uzbekistan. The exhibitions mission is to provide a platform for efficient communication between agriculturalists and leaders of processing equipment and agricultural machinery sectors, as well as related industries experts and government bodies.

---

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAzBy Kamila Aliyeva

Tajikistan will begin supplying electricity to Uzbekistan in late March or early April this year.

The total volume of exports of Tajik electricity to the neighboring country will amount to at least 1.5 billion kilowatt-hours per year, according to a source in the government of Tajikistan, Central Asian media outlets reported.

To date, Dushanbe and Tashkent have agreed on the price of supply of Tajik electricity to Uzbekistan.

In summer, Uzbekistan will purchase Tajik electricity for two U.S. cents per kilowatt, in winter - 2.5 cents per kilowatt.

Tajikistan may start supplying electricity to a neighboring country at any time, but the restoration of 60 km of power lines connecting southern Uzbekistan with Tajikistan and the implementation of the relay protection and automation project in Tursunzade have not yet been completed, but work in this direction is accelerating, according to the source.

Earlier, Tajik Minister of Energy and Water Resources Usmonali Usmonzoda stated that Tajikistan may begin supplying electricity to Uzbekistan in the summer of 2018.

He then noted that following the withdrawal of Tajikistan from the Central Asian unified energy system in November 2009, the energy systems of Tajikistan and Uzbekistan underwent significant changes.

After the withdrawal of our country from the unified energy system, Tajikistan established the supply of its own electricity to the north of the country, which previously used Uzbek and Kyrgyz electricity. Uzbekistan started to provide its Southern territories, which previously consumed Tajik electricity, itself, the minister said.

Both Tajikistan and Uzbekistan are determined to restore the regional energy system, according to the official.

For this, Uzbekistan has to restore 60 kilometers of power lines connecting the south of the country with Tajikistan; it is necessary to implement a project of relay protection and automation, Usmonzoda said.

Over 18 billion kilowatt hours of electricity, which allowed the country to provide electricity without imposing a limit, were produced in Tajikistan in 2017.

Previously, Central Asia had a unified energy system. It included 83 power plants with total capacity of 25,000 megawatts in the territory of Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan and southern Kazakhstan.

In winter, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan accumulated water in reservoirs and received electricity and energy resources (coal and natural gas) from Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. In summer, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan sent water to Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan for irrigation farming.

However, after Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan left the unified energy system of Central Asia in 2003 and 2009, respectively, the system ceased to function.

---

Kamila Aliyeva is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Kami_Aliyeva

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAzBy Trend

An Uzbek delegation held a meeting with European Union Special Representative for Central Asia Peter Burian, the Uzbek Foreign Ministry said in a message.

The sides discussed promising areas for development of cooperation between Uzbekistan and the EU.

The sides also reviewed the implementation of agreements reached during the visit of EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogherini to Uzbekistan on Nov. 9-10, 2017.

The participants exchanged views on launching negotiations and signing an updated agreement on partnership and cooperation between Uzbekistan and the European Union.

The diplomats of Uzbekistan and the EU further reviewed the schedule and agenda of forthcoming bilateral contacts, meetings of joint institutions of interaction and other events.

---

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAzBy Kamila Aliyeva

Azerbaijan is interested in expanding trade turnover and mutual investments with South African Republic.

This was stated by the head of Azerbaijan Export and Investment Promotion Foundation (AZPROMO), Rufat Mammadov at an event dedicated to the presentation of investment opportunities of South African Republic in Baku on February 28.

He said that there is already experience of cooperation in the economic sphere between the two countries.

Five companies of the South African Republic, which operate in various spheres of economy, have been registered in Azerbaijan. Meanwhile, we are interested in further development and expansion of trade turnover and mutual investments. Private business should have a big role in our cooperation, Mammadov noted.

He further spoke about the reforms in the economy of Azerbaijan and the diversification of the countrys economy.

AZPROMO head added that favorable business environment has been created in Azerbaijan.

We do not put any restrictions on foreign companies and create favorable conditions for them. In fact, today Azerbaijan provides equal conditions for all market participants. We have an open economy, favorable for investments, Mammadov said.

He also talked about transport projects implemented by Azerbaijan jointly with its partners, priority directions of economic development and invited companies of the South African Republic to invest in agriculture, tourism, construction, pharmaceuticals and other priority areas.

Ambassador of South Africa in Turkey and Azerbaijan Pule Isaac Malefane in turn, noted that the existing economic relations between Azerbaijan and South African Republic do not correspond to the available potential.

Our diplomatic relations are at a very good level. This is facilitated by the presence of the Azerbaijani embassy in South African Republic, but our economic ties could be better. The presence of strong political ties, in my opinion, should serve as a basis for the development of economic relations, said Malefane.

The sides signed a memorandum of understanding.

The document envisages the exchange of information on investment and trade opportunities between the two countries, Mammadov told Trend.

At the same time, the document envisages the exchange of information on regulation of investment activity. The South African embassy will support the work of Azerbaijani companies in South Africa. In our turn, we will support the South African companies willing to work in Azerbaijan, he said.

Mammadov said that in general, the memorandum covers cooperation in trade and investment promotion between the two countries.

The countrys trade turnover with the South African Republic amounted to $7.16 million in 2017, and its major part accounted for the import of goods of the South African Republic, according to the State Customs Committee of Azerbaijan. The trade turnover rose by 9.8 percent in 2017 as compared to 2016.

---

Kamila Aliyeva is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Kami_Aliyeva

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAzState-owned Nepal Drugs to launch new product monthly

State-owned Nepal Drugs (ND), recently brought back to life after lying moribund for eight years, has prepared an aggressive plan to launch a new product every month besides expanding its manufacturing capacity.By Kamila Aliyeva

Azerbaijan, aiming to develop tourism and support the flow of foreign visitors, continues to take consistent measures. Therefore, it is not surprising that the number of tourists in Azerbaijan increased by 20 percent last year, while in the world this indicator equaled to 7 percent.

The introduction of a special card by means of which tourists will be able to use public transport, visit city museums and cultural centers for free or at a discount in Baku is one of such measures.

The Baku City Card will be issued in three types - daily, three-day and weekly, but during this time its services can be used without a limit.

This was announced on February 28 by spokesman of the National Tourism Promotion Bureau Kanan Guluzade.

The cost of cards will be 36, 60 and 90 manats ($21, $35 and $52) respectively, according to Guluzade.

Such cards are used in world practice, and Baku has long had a need for them. Cardholders will be able to use them in public transport and museums, he said.

The Bureaus spokesman added that these cards can be used by both local citizens and foreigners.

A similar card will be created for Sheki and Gabala, according to general director of PASHA Travel operations Florian Sengstschmid.

It is expected that the card for Baku will be on sale in a few months, he said.

Sengstschmid added that several thousands of daily, three-day and weekly cards will be prepared in advance.

Initially, they will be sold in several information centers. Then, their sale is planned to be carried out through the Baku Transport Agency (BTA).

The project will be financed by PASHA Travel, according to Sengstschmid. The incoming funds will be invested in the development of tourism.

Azerbaijan, the popular destination for many tourists, attracts millions of visitors every year. The country is popular for a number of archaeological and historical sites, decently depicting its past.

The country views tourism development as a priority in its efforts to diversify the non-oil economy. A number of tourist facilities have been built in the regions, and cultural and historical reserves have been set up or restored.

Thanks to all these, Azerbaijan has improved its tourism performance in the Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Report 2017 released by experts of the World Economic Forum (WEF).

The number of tourists who visited Azerbaijan in January 2018 exceeded 185,000 people, which is 17 percent more compared to January 2017, according to the Ministry of Culture and Tourism.

In general, for the past 10 years, the number of tourists visiting the country increased five-fold.

---

Kamila Aliyeva is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Kami_Aliyeva

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAzHouston's Museum of Fine Arts is about to put some wonderful Indian art on display. Meanwhile, fans of "The Big Lebowski" are going to congregate - White Russians optional. And there's a ballet inspired by Roy Orbison's music."America's Next Top Model" has taught us many things. How to smize. How to booty tooch. How to be flawsome.

But this week's episode provided a truly great public service. Tyra Banks taught the world how to take a proper selfie.

I cannot tell you, on the real, how annoying it is to see so many people. Take so many selfies. And do it so wrong.

Why are you in front of a dirty mirror? Why is your huge phone taking up half the frame? Why do you think that's a good angle?

Tyra pops into the model house to teach the girls how to do it. Complete with hashtags.

Take note, y'all. These are legitimately useful tips that you should incorporate into your social media play. YES, YOU.

1. Find the shot, then look at yourself, not the phone. #SLAY  so look at yourself.

2. The camera/phone should never, ever be in your shot. #CIAO  crop it all out.

3. For a full body shot, the phone should not be by your face. #DIPITLOW, then tilt the camera.

Erin  who is 42 in case you forgot how could you  doesn't know anything about the social media or the Twitter or the Instagram. Because she's old, y'all. In case you forgot.

Sandra, a self-professed social media queen, thinks she has this in the bag. But it's Jeana who wins for a sultry shot and gets a shout-out on supermodel Jourdan Dunn's Instagram, which boasts more than 2 million followers.

Somehow this leads into the main challenge, a "dripping in gold" photo shoot featuring "brawn"  plus-size  male models and Noted Fashion Photographer Tyra Banks.

Jeana's win also means she gets to pose with Zach Miko, an established brawn model, who will be going shirtless for the first time.

Khrystyana and Sandra are uncomfortable posing with guys. Kyla's male model, in an attempt to loosen up and refocus, starts yelling movie titles like "Friday" and "Boyz in the Hood."

Kyla then gives us one of the best moments of any cycle when she joins in and yells something amazing.

"When's 'Life Size 2' coming out?!"

Meanwhile, not that Highlighter Christina is gone, we need a new villain. Enter Rio.

Kyla says Rio called her stupid. Rio denies it. Then Rio calls Kyla stupid, twice, in an interview. And then Rio offers a nonapology during a one-on-one conversation with Kyla.

Rio then says the brawn models aren't sexy, continuing her journey toward quickly becoming The Worst this season.

The gold shoot brings out the best in Shanice, Erin and Kyla. All stunners. Rio barely makes it through. It's then down to Khrystyana and Sandra, whose discomfort with the male models affected their final photos.

Khrystyana, a favorite, is going nowhere. That means Sandra, in a cruel twist, is sent home during social media week. Hashtag bye.

'America's Next Top Model' airs at 7 p.m. Tuesdays on VH1. And Joey Guerra will be recapping episodes, while smizing, every week.Altamont

Marijo Dougherty, who led the growth of the University at Albany's art gallery into a full-fledged museum during a 28-year career at the institution, and who in retirement curated the museum and archives in her beloved adopted village of Altamont, died Saturday after a long illness, according to her family. She was 80.

A native of northeast Pennsylvania who was the daughter of a physician and his wife, Dougherty attended D'Youville College in Buffalo, later earning a master's degree in fine arts from UAlbany in 1974. She became a printmaker, art mentor and curator, joining what was then the University Art Gallery in 1975.

Rising from gallery assistant to associate director, she became interim director in 1992, the same year the venue was renamed the University Art Museum, and was promoted to director in 1994. Dougherty retired nine years later.

During her career at the museum, what had been a college gallery with a handful of part-time staffers evolved to to a vibrant, intellectually driven institution of regional and contemporary art. Dougherty specialized in bringing unseen cultures into view in her galleries, including aboriginal art from the Amazon and folk art from Mexico.

Zheng Hu, the University Museum's exhibition designer, who worked with Doughtery for 15 years, told the Times Union in 2003 that, for Dougherty, the museum became a kind of canvas, allowing her to express a broad range of aesthetic and conceptual ideas.

''She always took a risk,'' Hu said. ''Her shows always went beyond what contemporary art is supposed to be.''

She traveled to Yugoslavia on a Fulbright Scholarship, and, in 1984, was invited to the then-Soviet Union for a cultural exchange with dissident artists. She also visited Cuban artists in their small kitchen studios and, in 2001, organized an exhibit of Cuban painters who subsequently received widespread recognition. She introduced the now-celebrated Chinese artist Xu Bing to the campus museum in 1996.

After her retirement from UAlbany, Dougherty was interim director of the Hyde Collection in Glens Falls for about a year, starting in 2007. While there she oversaw "Degas and Music," an exhibit that combined art forms, involved the Saratoga Performing Arts Center and increased the visibility of the private institution.

For the last 11 years of her life, Dougherty was curator of the Village of Altamont Archives and Museum, developing 30 exhibits including the Museum in the Streets walking tour. She was also the village historian. Earlier this month, the Altamont Free Library received an anonymous donation from an admirer of Dougherty that will allow it to begin an oral history project. The project, named for her, is the Marijo Dougherty Oral History Collection. Its first podcast will feature an interview with Dougherty.

In her private life, Dougherty and Norman Bauman, with whom she spent 34 years as best friend and husband, enjoyed sailing the Hudson River with their daughters and friends on a ketch named Old Friend.

One of her favorite shows at the University Art Museum was ''Memory and Mourning: Shared Cultural Experience," which she curated in 1997. Dougherty discovered unexpected pleasures in an exhibit about death that she initially feared might be a depressing exercise. ''It hasn't been a downer at all,'' she told the Times Union at the time. ''It's been exciting and rewarding. The response has been overwhelming. I think people are hungry to express their feelings about grief and loss.''

In addition to her husband, Dougherty is survived by three children: Patrick Fasulo, Gabrielle Fasulo and Teresa Fasulo; six grandchildren; and three great-grandchildren. Her son Michael and sister, Katherine Dougherty Brandt, both died last year.

A private memorial celebration will be held for family and close friends. Donations may be made in her honor to Altamont Free Library with "for the Marijo Dougherty Fund" in the memo line, at P.O. Box 662, Altamont, NY 12009, and/or the Village of Altamont Keenholts Fund, which directly supports the Altamont Archives project Dougherty spearheaded. Both funds support projects for the collection and preservation of the history of the Altamont community.The man convicted of killing his girlfriend's daughter punched, kicked, spanked and choked her "all the time," his son testified Monday, the day before a jury decides whether Jason Wade Delacerda will spend his life in prison or be executed.

Delacerda, 40, was found guilty of capital murder Friday in the 2011 death of Breonna Nichole Loftin. A jury is expected to deliberate today on his punishment.

His son, Jason G. Delacerda, 19, testified Monday despite repeated efforts by defense attorneys to prevent him from taking the stand.

He said he and his brother, who live with their mother, visited his father during the summer of 2011, while Amanda Guidry and her 4-year-old daughter Breonna were living with him.

He said his father punched, kicked, choked and paddled Breonna, who sometimes lost consciousness and started shaking.

"He'd make her stand on bottlecaps all night, he'd make her sit in bathtubs full of ice for hours," Jason G. Delacerda said.

The younger Delacerda said his father forced her to put her underwear in her mouth, and when she started to fall while standing on the caps, he threatened to burn her with cigarettes. When Breonna's face was bruised and swollen, his father "poked her head with thumbtacks to drain the swelling."

A medical examiner who testified last week said some of the pushpins pierced Breonna's skull.

During his testimony, Jason G. Delacerda said Breonna cried when she was first abused, "but then she got used to it."

"She just took it" when she was left bruised and bleeding after she was spanked, he said. "He was just acting like it was normal to do that to a 4-year old."

Prosecutors called him to testify to prove his father is a continuing danger, has a high risk of violent behavior and should be sentenced to death.

Lisa Doguet, a forensic psychiatrist, testified that Jason Wade Delacerda posed a "moderate to high risk." That opinion was based on two interviews from 2013 totaling about 3 hours and reviewing other records provided to her, she said.

Doguet said she has not interviewed him or received any new information about the case in the past five years, which defense attorney Ryan Gertz said made her testimony "stale" and irrelevant.

When asked during the interviews if he had ever hurt anyone, the senior Delacerda did not say anything about Breonna, Doguet said.

Jeri Shelburne, the mother of Delacerda's sons, testified that in 2001 he tried to run over another man during a "drug deal gone bad." She said Delacerda gave the man money for drugs, and when he didn't have them, sped through a trailer park and tried to run him over before hitting a culvert and flipping his car into a ditch.

Her husband, Joys Shelburne, testified that Delacerda punched him while he was in his car at a parking lot in Beaumont "about 14 years ago." Gertz asked Shelburne if they had been arguing about a DNA test. Shelburne said no.

Assistant district attorney Bruce Hoffer introduced four previous convictions into evidence - marijuana possession, theft, trespassing and theft by check of more than $20. All were class B misdemeanors.

Gertz said he plans to call an officer from the Hardin County Jail as a witness today to testify that Delacerda has been a "model inmate" with no history of violence in the past six years.

He said Friday that he will appeal the conviction. He has contended throughout the trial that the state should not have been permitted to introduce evidence of abuse that did not cause Breonna's death.

LTeitz@BeaumontEnterprise.com

Twitter.com/LizTeitzThe FBI has joined the search for a 16-year-old San Antonio girl missing for almost a month.

Maarib Al Hishmawi was last seen leaving William Howard Taft High School at 12:30 p.m. on Jan. 30, authorities said.

Officials said the investigation revealed the teen may have been physically abused by someone she knew and authorities are focused both on finding her and ensuring she is in a safe environment.

"We understand it's been a recurring issues for her," Assistant Chief Deputy Ronald Bennett said. "This is not a typical missing 16-year-old."

RELATED: Suspected drunk driver accused of seriously injuring officer after body found on I-35

Al Hishwami and her family are legal non-citizens of the United States who migrated from Iraq.

Bennett said investigators asked for the FBI's help because the federal agency can help deputies with language translation and cultural knowledge relevant to Al Hishwami's disappearance.

Al Hishmawi is described as 5 feet, 5 inches tall and about 150 pounds. She has a light complexion, black hair and brown eyes and was last seen wearing jeans, a white jacket with black piping, light-colored pump heels and a black and white floral hijab.

The Bexar County Sheriff's Office and FBI are conducting a joint investigation.

Anyone with information about Maarib is asked to contact Crime Stoppers at 210-224-STOP (7867). Tips can also be submitted online at tips.fbi.gov. Anyone providing information may remain anonymous.

Text "NEWS" to 77453 for breaking news alerts from mySA.com

Fares Sabawi covers crime in San Antonio and Bexar County for mySA.com. Read more of his stories here. | fsabawi@mysa.comTop court calls for Sunuwar case papers

Supreme Court on Tuesday ordered Kavre District Court and Nepal Army (NA) to all produce documents concerning the verdict made by Kavre District Court on Maina Sunuwar case.On Feb. 27, federal agents raided the office of Lewisburg, Tenn.-based pain management specialist Mark Murphy, MD, WHNT 19 News reports.

Here are four things to know.

1. The FBI was at Dr. Murphy's office for a law enforcement action. The U.S. Attorney's Office in Birmingham also confirms that federal agents executed a search warrant at the office, but did not reveal what they were searching for.

2. Dr. Murphy holds a Tennessee medical license with a specialty in anesthesiology that expires March 31, 2019.

3. Dr. Murphy is board certified in pain management and anesthesiology. He holds staff privileges at Marshall Medical Center in Lewisburg.

4. Prior to opening his Tennessee-based practice, Dr. Murphy practiced in Alabama and had a complaint lodged against him of pain pill over-prescription. However, Alabama Board of Medical Examiners dismissed the complaint.

Rothman Institute to collaborate on medical marijuana study  6 insights

Iowa physician's license to practice indefinitely suspended for providing inappropriate pain management: 6 things to knowNumerous privacy incidents at health IT suppliers, hospitals and other healthcare organizations captured public attention last month.

While media outlets reported on the following breaches in February, healthcare organizations experienced breaches as early as May 2015.

Here are 13 incidents covered by Becker's Hospital Review or reported to HHS' Office for Civil Rights breach portal in February.

Note: The incidents are presented in order of number of patients or organizations affected.

1. Triple-S Advantage, a Puerto Rico-based health insurer, reported an unauthorized individual accessed the data of 36,305 members, according to the OCR breach portal.

2. Parsons, Tenn.-based Decatur County General Hospital notified 24,000 patients that its EMR server had been hit with a cryptocurrency mining software.

3. CarePlus Health Plans, a Florida-based insurer specializing in Medicare Advantage HMO plans, notified 11,200 members to a potential privacy breach.

4. Ron's Pharmacy Services in California reported an email breach may have exposed 6,781 consumers' data, according to the OCR breach portal.

5. Jemison (Ala.) Internal Medicine reported 6,550 of its members' data were potentially compromised in a hack on its network server, according to the OCR breach portal.

6. Boston-based Partners HealthCare said in a Feb. 5 statement roughly 2,600 patients' private information may have been affected after the system's computer network was compromised by an unauthorized third-party "malicious computer program" in May 2017.

7. An unauthorized third party may have had access to the protected health information of nearly 1,882 Charlottesville-based University of Virginia Health System's patients that was stored on a physician's laptop and other devices for nearly 17 months.

8. Horne, a company Hattiesburg, Miss.-based Forrest General Hospital enlists to provide certain Medicaid reimbursement services, discovered one of its employees fell victim to a phishing attack that may have compromised 1,670 Forrest patients' protected health information.

9. The Missouri Department of Mental Health reported 1,000 patients' data had been potentially accessed by an unauthorized individual, according to the OCR breach portal.

10. Everett-based Western Washington Medical Group notified 842 patients after it discovered its janitorial service failed to shred some medical records and other protected health information prior to disposal.

11. Bangor-based Eastern Maine Medical Center mailed letters Feb. 1 to 660 patients after it failed to locate a portable external computer hard drive containing their personal health information.

12. The City of Detroit reported it lost a portable electronic device containing data on 544 patients, according to the OCR breach portal.

13. In a recent meeting with the board of trustees, staff members from the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston said 13 employees were terminated in 2017 after administrators determined they had viewed patient records without permission.Primary care physicians spend a large proportion of their time working on the EHR, including an additional seven minutes on the system per patient after hours, according to a study published in Family Medicine.

For the study, the researchers observed family physician attendings, residents and patients during 982 visits to clinics affiliated with the Residency Research Network of Texas at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio. They measured total visit time, previsit chart time, face-to-face time and EHR work time, among other variables.

The researchers determined the average visit length was 35.8 minutes, including 2.9 minutes working in the EHR prior to the physician entering the room, two minutes working in the EHR while in the room and 6.9 minutes on EHR work outside of typical clinic hours. The average visit also included 7.5 minutes of non-face-to-face time, much of which was spent with the EHR.

The average patient visit comprised 16.5 minutes of face-to-face time with the patient.

"Primary care physicians spent more time working in the EHR than they spent in face-to-face time with patients in clinic visits," the study authors concluded, noting, "The total time and total EHR time varied only slightly between faculty physicians, third-year and second-year residents."Campbell County Health in Gillette, Wyo., missed out on $150,000 to $200,000 in Medicaid payments as a result of billing delays at its Powder River Surgery Center, according to a Gillette News Record report.

Here are nine things to know.

1. PRSC, a multispecialty surgical facility also in Gillette, joined Campbell Health in 2016. It was previously independent.

2. PRSC has since experienced billing delays, according to Dalton Huber, CFO of Campbell County Health. He told the Gillette News Record some bills to Medicaid were denied because they were delayed more than a year.

3. He told the publication some bills to Medicaid and Medicare beneficiaries also took six or seven months to get to patients after their care.

4. Mr. Huber said of the billing issues: "I don't want to point fingers at who was to blame. It was just kind of a difficult process. Powder River was independent, and now, it's part of CCH. It took a little bit to work through that."

5. He attributed the delays to various factors, including unexpected computer issues, as well as how long it took to complete paperwork regarding PRSC's change from an independent facility billing as an ambulatory surgery center to one billing as a hospital-based surgery center.

6. Additionally, Campbell County Health upgraded billing software to accommodate PRSC billing, but that process wasn't completed until last June, according to the report. The billing process has been slowed as a result.

7. Not having enough CCH staff who are trained on the upgraded software also has contributed. Mr. Huber told the Gillette News Record training for additional staff is planned in the coming weeks.

8. Overall, Mr. Huber told the publication he doesn't expect CCH to fully resolve PRSC's billing delays until June or July.

9. PRSC still reported a profit of $4.59 million in fiscal year 2017, even with billing delays, and Mr. Huber attributed that growth to an increase in patients, according to the report.

Read the full report here.

More articles on healthcare finance:

$92M accounting error causes Edward-Elmhurst's operating loss to widen

Missouri hospital files for bankruptcy: 4 things to know

5 hospitals with strong financesUML, SSF-N close to deal

The ruling CPN-UML and the Sanghiya Samajbadi Forum-Nepal are said to have reached close to a deal on constitution amendment, a precondition set by the SSF-N to joining the KP Oli-led government.The new owners of Philadelphia-based Hahnemann University Hospital will replace several top managers at the hospital starting in spring, including its CEO, CMO and CNO, according to The Inquirer.

Hahnemann University Hospital's CEO Michael Halter will depart April 13; its CMO George Amrom, MD, will retire June 30; the hospital's CNO Rosemary Dunn, RN, will leave April 1; the chief business development officer Robert Pavlich will depart March 31; and its interim chief human resources officer Richard Dodsworth will also be replaced.

The new owners, American Academic Health System, which is a company formed by El Segundo, Calif.-based Paladin Healthcare, is currently searching for replacements.

"Each of these individuals in their own way has made profound contributions to the well-being of Hahnemann University Hospital, as well as the Philadelphia region. We appreciate and are indebted for their many years of service and their thoughtful leadership," American Academic Health System said in a statement, according to The Inquirer.

The leadership shakeout comes just six weeks after American Academic Health System purchased Hahnemann University Hospital and Philadelphia-based St. Christopher's Hospital for Children from Dallas-based Tenet Healthcare for $170 million.

No management changes were made at St. Christopher's Hospital, according to the report.Boston-based Partners HealthCare and Providence, R.I.-based Care New England approached Lifespan, also in Providence, Feb. 27 to begin discussions on how the three providers may work together to improve healthcare delivery in Rhode Island.

In a joint statement to Becker's Hospital Review Feb. 27, the three organizations said, "Care New England and Partners HealthCare have approached Lifespan and will begin formal discussions to explore how all three healthcare providers might work together to strengthen patient care delivery in Rhode Island. By combining the talent, experience and resources of our like-minded, provider-based organizations, we envision creating a national model that fully leverages the integration and coordination of care. In doing so, we are better equipped to meet market challenges and mandates to improve outcomes while reducing healthcare costs."

Lifespan CEO Timothy J. Babineau, MD, said in a statement to the Providence Journal he is excited about what the proposed partnership would mean for healthcare delivery in the state.

"Lifespan has always been interested in partnering with like-minded, superb organizations, and I look forward to the discussions and the potential to continually improve the seamless and coordinated care we deliver to our patients," he said.

Following Care New England and Partners' merger announcement in January, Providence-based Brown University and Los Angeles-based Prospect Medical Holdings provided an unsolicited joint bid to take over Care New England. However, in an emailed statement to the Providence Journal, Brown University President Christina Paxson, PhD, said the university was "encouraged" by Lifespan, Care New England and Partners' decision to team up.

"Brown is encouraged that Care New England and Lifespan are talking together about the future of healthcare in Rhode Island, and we hope to be included in these discussions. We have advocated for this kind of within-state dialogue for years," she wrote, adding university officials are still concerned about how the proposed partnership may affect cost and access to healthcare in the state.

"Previously, we have noted that the acquisition of Care New England by Partners could undermine competition in the healthcare market and lead to higher healthcare costs. A business relationship between Partners and Lifespan that further consolidates market power could have additional adverse effects on Rhode Islanders," Dr. Paxson wrote.A judge ruled Monday that former U.S. drug company executive Martin Shkreli will be held responsible for $10.4 million in financial losses incurred by investors when he is sentenced for securities fraud, according to a Reuters report.

Here are eight things to know.

1. Mr. Shkreli is former CEO of Turing Pharmaceuticals and KaloBios Pharmaceuticals.

2. The former Turing CEO became infamous for increasing the price of anti-infection drug Daraprim by more than 5,000 percent in 2015, according to the report.

3. Mr. Shkreli, 34, was charged with securities fraud in 2015 unrelated to the Daraprim price hike, and a jury convicted him of those charges in August 2017, reports Reuters. He's been in jail about six months.

4. The security fraud conviction involved being untruthful with investors. According to the report, Mr. Shkreli misrepresented the performance of hedge funds, and conspired to manipulate the stock price of the pharmaceutical company Retrophin, which he founded.

5. Mr. Shkreli's attorneys have argued he is not responsible for financial loss since investors ultimately benefited. That's because he paid investors in various ways, including Retrophin shares, as well as through settlement agreements and consulting contracts with the company, according to the report. Prosecutors have not disputed this argument.

6. On Monday, the judge rejected the argument made on Mr. Shkreli's behalf, saying the former drug company executive will be held responsible for financial losses, per federal law, reports Reuters. The publication states losses include about $6.4 million investors put in Mr. Shkreli's funds as a result of fraud, as well as about $4 million in intended loss for his efforts to increase Retrophin stock prices.

7. Benjamin Brafman, an attorney for Mr. Shkreli, told Reuters via email he was "disappointed by the ruling but still hopeful that the court will find it in her heart to impose a reasonably lenient sentence." A spokesperson for prosecutors declined the publication's request for comment.

8. The decision could result in more prison time for the former drug company executive as the amount of financial loss influences federal sentencing guidelines. Mr. Shkreli's sentencing hearing is slated for March 9.

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Anthem Blue Cross accuses California hospital of $13.5M billing scheme: 9 things to knowA woman who worked as a psychiatric advanced practice registered nurse at Concord-based New Hampshire Hospital sued the state and facility regarding a mentally ill patient who attacked her in 2014, according to a New Hampshire Union Leader report.

Here are nine things to know.

1. Harriett Redmond began working at NHH in 2011. David Folks, MD, the hospital's CMO at the time, hired her to work at the psychiatric facility. Ms. Redmond and Dr. Folks were both employed by Hanover, N.H.-based Dartmouth College.

2. Ms. Redmond and her husband, Edward Redmond, sued NHH and the state Department of Health and Human Services in October 2016. They seek unspecified damages, according to the report.

3. The lawsuit stems from a May 2014 incident when Ms. Redmond sustained injuries during an attack by a mentally ill patient.

4. In the suit, Ms. Redmond said she warned Dr. Folks the patient was dangerous before the attack, and recommended the patient be moved to the New Hampshire Department of Corrections' secure psychiatric unit, according to the report.

5. The suit, the New Hampshire Union Leader reports, claims Dr. Folks told Ms. Redmond in response, "the patient would not be removed from NHH or transferred to the SPU until after he hurts somebody."

6. According to the publication, the suit also alleges NHH lacks an official policy or plan for transferring certain mentally ill patients to the secure psychiatric unit, and that Ms. Redmond "has [been] stripped ... of her full sense of self" as a result of the assault. .

7. The patient was civilly committed to the secure psychiatric unit, the publication states.

8. In response to the suit, hospital and state officials have filed a motion to dismiss the case. They contend Ms. Redmond's legal action is prohibited under state workers' compensation law because she has and still gets compensation benefits for her injuries.

9. A court ruling on the summary judgment motion is pending.

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UnitedHealth subsidiary accused of overcharging for prescription drugsBecker's Healthcare is pleased to recognize 50 rural hospital CEOs to know in 2018.

The CEOs featured on this list have overcome significant challenges operating rural community and critical access hospitals to lead sustainable and thriving organizations. Many CEOs have served their institutions for decades, recruiting physicians, expanding services and implementing technology platforms to ensure the best care possible for their communities.

Becker's Healthcare accepted nominations for this list and considered leaders making a positive impact on their organizations. The CEOs featured lead hospitals consistently recognized by the National Rural Health Association, American Hospital Association and HIMSS as top institutions; others sit on local chamber of commerce boards and serve state hospital associations.

Note: This list is not an endorsement of any individual or institution featured. Individuals do not pay and cannot pay for inclusion on this list.

Contact Laura Dyrda at ldyrda@beckershealthcare.com with any questions about this list.

Duke Anderson. President and CEO of Hillsdale (Mich.) Hospital. Mr. Anderson became COO of Hillsdale Hospital in 2006 and was later promoted to president and CEO. [CLICK HERE]

Donald Babb. CEO and Executive Director of Citizens Memorial Healthcare (Bolivar, Mo.). Mr. Babb became the founding CEO of Citizens Memorial Healthcare in 1981 and has since led the hospital through a transformation into a fully integrated healthcare system. [CLICK HERE]

Karen Barber, RN. CEO of Yoakum (Texas) Community Hospital. Ms. Barber joined Yoakum Community Hospital in 1992 and rose in the ranks to become CEO in 2006. [CLICK HERE]

Rebecca Beck. President of Hawkins County Memorial Hospital (Rogersville, Tenn.) and Hancock County Hospital (Sneedville, Tenn.). Since becoming president of Hawkins County Memorial Hospital, Ms. Beck has overseen efforts at the 50-bed hospital to achieve designation by Truven Health Analytics as one of the top 100 hospitals in the country in 2016. [CLICK HERE]

Syd Bersante, RN. Market President of Pierce County (Enumclaw, Wash.). Ms. Bersante became market president of CHI Franciscan Health's Pierce County in 2015 after spending eight years as president of Tacoma, Wash.-based St. Joseph Medical Center. [CLICK HERE]

Darrold Bertsch. CEO of Sakakawea Medical Center (Hazen, N.D.). Mr. Bertsch became CEO of Sakakawea Medical Center in 2009 and took responsibility for Coal Country Community Health Center in Beulah, N.D., in 2011. [CLICK HERE]

Gary Black. President and CEO of UNC Lenoir Health Care (Kinston, N.C.). As president and CEO of UNC Lenoir Health Care, Mr. Black oversees a 261-bed nonprofit hospital. [CLICK HERE]

Dan Brinkman, RN. Regional CEO of the East Hawaii Region of Hawaii Health Systems Corp. (Honolulu). Mr. Brinkman joined Hilo Medical Center in 2007 as the chief nurse executive and was promoted to regional COO in 2014. [CLICK HERE]

James B. Bross. CEO of St. Luke's Hospital (Columbus, N.C.). Mr. Bross became the CEO of St. Luke's Hospital in July 2016 after spending more than 30 years in hospital and health plan executive management. [CLICK HERE]

Katherine Bunting, PhD, MSN, RN. President and CEO of Fairfield (Ill.) Memorial Hospital. Dr. Bunting serves as president and CEO of Fairfield Memorial Hospital, a 25-bed critical access hospital with around 250 employees and 90 credentialed physicians and healthcare providers. [CLICK HERE]

Dennis Burke. President and CEO of Good Shepherd Health Care System (Hermiston, Ore.). As president and CEO of Good Shepherd Health Care System, Mr. Burke oversees Good Shepherd Medical Center, a nonprofit hospital in Hermiston, Ore., with 40 physicians on staff and more than 500 employees. [CLICK HERE]

Paul Chodkowski. CEO of St. Anthony Summit Medical Center (Frisco, Colo.). As CEO of St. Anthony Summit Medical Center, Mr. Chodkowski is responsible for managing the day-to-day operations of the 35-bed acute care hospital. He oversees a team of 200 employees and the hospital's level 3 trauma center. [CLICK HERE]

Jason Cleckler, BSN. CEO of Delta (Colo.) County Memorial Hospital. Since joining Delta County Memorial Hospital in 2012, Mr. Cleckler has overseen the hospital's transition into a healthcare system employing more than 600 people at locations throughout Delta County. [CLICK HERE]

John Dalton. President and CEO of Inland Hospital (Waterville, Maine). Mr. Dalton has served as president of the 48-bed Inland Hospital since 2006. [CLICK HERE]

Thomas Dee. President and CEO of Southwestern Vermont Health Care (Bennington). Southwestern Vermont Health Care named Mr. Dee CEO in 2009, and since then he has expanded the health system's partnership with Lebanon, N.H-based Dartmouth-Hitchcock and increased access to primary care services in the community. [CLICK HERE]

Kris Doody, RN. CEO of Cary Medical Center (Caribou, Maine). Ms. Doody began her career as a certified nurse's aide and rose in the ranks to become the COO of Cary Medical Center in 1994. [CLICK HERE]

Sean Fadale. President and CEO of Community Memorial Hospital (Hamilton, N.Y.). Mr. Fadale was named CEO of Community Memorial Hospital in 2012 after serving in management positions at Urbana, Ill.-based Carle Foundation Hospital and Warren (Pa.) General Hospital. [CLICK HERE]

Warren Forgey. President and CEO of Schneck Medical Center (Seymour, Ind.). Mr. Forgey joined Schneck Medical Center as assistant controller in 1992 and spent time as the controller, vice president and CFO before becoming the executive vice president and chief administrative and operations officer in 2012. [CLICK HERE]

Ed Harding. President and CEO of Bay Area Medical Center (Marinette, Wis.). Mr. Harding became president and CEO of Bay Area Medical Center in 2010. He spent the prior decade as president and CEO of Columbus (Wis.) Community Hospital. [CLICK HERE]

John Henderson. President and CEO of Childress (Texas) Regional Medical Center. Mr. Henderson became CEO of Childress Regional Medical Center in 2001, overseeing a 39-bed hospital operated by a county hospital district. [CLICK HERE]

Leonard Hernandez. CEO of Coffey Health System (Burlington, Kan.). Mr. Hernandez was named CEO of Coffey Health System in 2015. [CLICK HERE]

John Hill. President and CEO of Bozeman (Mont.) Health. Mr. Hill assumed the role of president and CEO of Bozeman Health, including the 86-bed Bozeman Health Deaconess Hospital, in August 2016, bringing more than 20 years of healthcare leadership experience to the role. [CLICK HERE]

David Keith. President and CEO of McAlester (Okla.) Regional Health Center. Mr. Keith joined McAlester Regional Health Center in 2011 after spending time as COO of Bakersfield, Calif.-based Kern Medical. [CLICK HERE]

Steve Massey. President and CEO of Westfields Hospital & Clinic (New Richmond, Wis.). Mr. Massey joined Westfield Hospital & Clinic in August 2011 as president and CEO, responsible for the hospital's strategic initiatives. [CLICK HERE]

Frank May. CEO of Yampa Valley Medical Center (Steamboat Springs, Colo.). As CEO of Yampa Valley Medical Center, Mr. May led the hospital through efforts to join UCHealth in September 2017. [CLICK HERE]

Kim Miller. President and CEO of Beaver Dam (Wis.) Community Hospital. Ms. Miller oversees a 900-employee workforce as the president and CEO of Beaver Dam Community Hospital. [CLICK HERE]

Patrick O'Donnell. President and CEO of Summit Health (Chambersburg, Pa.). Mr. O'Donnell became president and CEO of Summit Health in 2013 after spending time as the health system's senior vice president and CFO. [CLICK HERE]

Vince Oliver. CEO of Island Hospital (Anacortes, Wash.). Mr. Oliver became CEO of Island Hospital in May 2000 and took the institution from losing $2 million that year to generating more than $10 million in net revenue over three years. [CLICK HERE]

Anne Platt. CEO of Sutter Amador Hospital (Jackson, Calif.). Ms. Platt spent time as CEO of Banner Health's East Morgan County Hospital in Brush, Colo., before joining Sutter Amador Hospital as CEO. [CLICK HERE]

Amy Pollard, BSN, RN. President and CEO of Noyes Health (Dansville, N.Y.). As president and CEO of Noyes Health, a member of UR Medicine, Ms. Pollard oversees a health system that includes the 67-bed Nicholas H. Noyes Memorial Hospital. [CLICK HERE]

Jayne Pope, RN. CEO of Hill Country Memorial Hospital (Fredericksburg, Texas). Ms. Pope became CEO of Hill Country Memorial in 2013 after serving as chief nursing officer in charge of all nursing activities. [CLICK HERE]

MaryEllen Pratt. CEO of St. James Parish Hospital (Lutcher, La.). As CEO, Ms. Pratt oversees St. James Parish Hospital's efforts to deliver the best patient care possible. [CLICK HERE]

Denise Ray, BSN, RN. CEO of Piedmont Mountainside Hospital (Jasper, Ga.). Ms. Ray spent time as COO of Atlanta-based Piedmont Hospital and president and chief administrative officer of Piedmont Mountainside Hospital before she became CEO. [CLICK HERE]

Steven Rose, RN. President and CEO of Nanticoke Health Services (Seaford, Del.). During his tenure as president and CEO of Nanticoke Health Services, Mr. Rose has overseen efforts to expand the health system. [CLICK HERE]

Ed Rush. President and CEO of Iredell Health System (Statesville, N.C.). Mr. Rush became president and CEO of Iredell Health System in October 2004. [CLICK HERE]

Maria Ryan, PhD, APRN. CEO of Cottage Hospital (Woodsville, N.H.). Dr. Ryan serves as the CEO of Cottage Hospital, overseeing operations at the 35-bed critical access hospital. [CLICK HERE]

Robert Schmitt. CEO of Gibson Area Hospital & Health Services (Gibson City, Ill.). Mr. Schmitt joined Gibson Area Hospital & Health Services in 2002 as CFO and was promoted to CEO in 2007. [CLICK HERE]

Rachelle H. Schultz. President and CEO of Winona (Minn.) Health. Ms. Schultz is president and CEO of Winona Health, which includes a 99-bed acute care hospital, physician clinics, a 110-bed nursing home and retail pharmacies, among other healthcare services. [CLICK HERE]

Emmett C. Schuster. President and CEO of Gibson General Hospital (Princeton, Ind.). Mr. Schuster joined Gibson General Hospital in 2007 as CEO after spending time as interim CEO at Weiser (Idaho) Memorial Hospital. [CLICK HERE]

Dennis Shelby. CEO of Wilson Medical Center (Neodesha, Kan.). As CEO of Wilson Medical Center, Mr. Shelby oversees operations at the 15-room private hospital that includes a large emergency department and two trauma rooms. [CLICK HERE]

Bryan Slaba. Administrator and CEO of Wagner Community Memorial Hospital - Avera (Sioux Falls, S.D.). As administrator and CEO of Wagner Community Memorial Hospital, Mr. Slaba oversees efforts at the 20-bed critical access hospital to provide care in a changing environment. [CLICK HERE]

Michael Stewart. CEO of Navarro Regional Hospital (Corsicana, Texas). Mr. Stewart joined Navarro Regional Hospital in April 2014 as CEO. [CLICK HERE]

Erik Thorsen. CEO of Columbia Memorial Hospital (Astoria, Ore.). Mr. Thorsen became CEO of Columbia Memorial Hospital in 2010 after serving as COO and CFO of the hospital. [CLICK HERE]

Russell Tippin. CEO of Permian Regional Medical Center (Andrews, Texas). As CEO of Permian Regional Medical Center, Mr. Tippin is responsible for overseeing a facility with a strong reputation in the community. [CLICK HERE]

Terri Vieira. President of Sebasticook Valley Health (Pittsfield, Maine). Ms. Vieira became president of EMHS' Sebasticook Valley Health and Greenville, Maine-based Charles A. Dean Memorial Hospital in September 2017. [CLICK HERE]

Michael Wallace. President and CEO of Fort HealthCare (Fort Atkinson, Wis.). Mr. Wallace joined Fort HealthCare in 2006 and since then has implemented a vision to drive the community to be the healthiest in the state of Wisconsin.[CLICK HERE]

Louis Ward. CEO of Mayers Memorial Hospital District (Fall River Mills, Calif.). Mr. Ward became the CEO of Mayers Memorial Hospital District in November 2015 after spending time as COO and interim CEO. [CLICK HERE]

Pete Weber, RN. President and CEO of Gordon Hospital (Calhoun, Ga.). Mr. Weber joined Gordon Hospital in 2009 after serving as president and CEO of Burleson-based Texas Health Huguley, an Adventist Health System facility. [CLICK HERE]

Bernard Wheatley, DBA. CEO of Schneider Regional Medical Center (St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands). Dr. Wheatley has been CEO of Schneider Regional Medical Center since April 2013, overseeing the hospital and three additional healthcare facilities. [CLICK HERE]

Mike Wiltermood. President and CEO of Enloe Medical Center (Chico, Calif.). Mr. Wiltermood became CEO of Enloe Medical Center in July 2009 after spending four months as interim CEO. [CLICK HERE]

Gerald Worrick. President and CEO of Door County Medical Center (Sturgeon Bay, Wis.). As president and CEO of Door County Medical Center, Mr. Worrick oversaw the hospital's efforts to affiliate with Hospital Sisters Health System. [CLICK HERE]Deerfield, Ill.-based Walgreens Boots Alliance and AmerisourceBergen have reportedly ended acquisition discussions without an agreement, sources familiar with the matter told CNBC.

Walgreens currently owns 26 percent of Amerisource, one of the nation's largest drug distributors. In early February, Walgreens Executive Vice Chairman and CEO Stefano Pessina and Amerisource President and CEO Steven Collis reportedly met to discuss the potential acquisition, in which Walgreens would purchase the remainder of company. However, the two parties failed to come to an agreement, sources told CNBC.

Had it been successful, the proposed merger would have been worth more than $25 billion.

The sources, who sought to remain anonymous, told CNBC talks between the two organizations may resume in the future.

The move comes as drugstore owners scramble to remain competitive as external disruptors enter the healthcare arena. In December 2017, Walgreen's rival CVS Health inked a $69 billion deal to acquire health insurer Aetna. In addition, drug retailers are bracing for Amazon's next move into the drug retail space. The e-commerce giant launched its own exclusive over-the-counter product line, Basic Care, last August, and announced a partnership with Berkshire Hathaway and JPMorgan Chase to lower the cost of healthcare for its employees.Flu vaccination rates among workers at California's acute care hospitals vary widely, according to a California Healthline report.

Here are five things to know.

1. One of the state's hospitals, Rady Children's Hospital in San Diego, saw all of its workers get a flu shot during the 2016-17 flu season, according data from the California Department of Public Health.

2. However, at other hospitals, the flu vaccination rate was below 40 percent. The following hospitals were in this category: Los Angeles-based Monrovia Memorial Hospital, Los Robles Hospital and Medical Center, East Campus, in Westlake Village, and Thousand Oaks Surgical Center in Ventura. None of these hospitals responded to requests for comment from California Healthline.

3. CPDH data show flu vaccination rates among healthcare workers increased 20 percent overall between the 2010-11 and 2016-17 flu seasons, from an average of 63 percent to 83 percent.

4. According to the latest CDPH data, nearly one-third of California hospitals have achieved a goal of 90 percent vaccination.

5. Under California law, healthcare workers may decline a flu shot, although many of the state's hospitals require workers to wear a mask if they do so, according to the report.

Read the full report here.

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20 hospitals hiring nursesTitan Medical earned the Canadian Patent "End Effector Apparatus for a Surgical Instrument."

Here are three things to know:

1. The patent is related to end-effector actuation mechanism that are suitable for small instruments used in robotic surgery.A similar patent is pending in the U.S.

2. With the recently granted patent, Titan Medical has 21 issued patents and 49 pending patents.

3. In 2017, Titan Medical received its first patents for its single port robotic surgical system. The company plans to build on its patent to develop more robotic systems.Grand Junction, Colo.-based Community Hospital is welcoming two surgeons to open a new orthopedic spine surgery program, according to The Business Times.

Here are five highlights.

1. Kirk Clifford, MD, and James Gebhard, MD, are joining the hospital to jumpstart an orthopedic spine surgery service line.

2. The two spine surgeons will unveil the new program, Western Colorado Spine, in May.

3. Dr. Clifford has 17-plus years of orthopedic spine surgery experience, earning his medical degree from New Haven, Conn.-based Yale University School of Medicine.

4. Dr. Gebhard has been in practice since 1993 and received his medical degree from University of California Los Angeles School of Medicine.

5. Community Hospital has been eager to introduce orthopedic spine surgery to its service lines.Ryanair announced it was cutting 20 routes into Glasgow Airport from its winter schedule and that only flights from Dublin, Wroclaw and Krakow would continue after October

Ryanair is axing its flights from City of Derry Airport to Glasgow from November.

Instead, the airline will fly into Edinburgh from the north west airport.

Ryanair announced it was cutting 20 routes into Glasgow Airport from its winter schedule and that only flights from Dublin, Wroclaw and Krakow would continue after October.

Five alternative routes to Edinburgh will then be introduced including flights from City of Derry.

An airport spokeswoman said: "City of Derry Airport can confirm that Ryanair have launched a new service from Edinburgh to City of Derry Airport in winter 2018.

"Ryanair's existing route from Glasgow International Airport will switch to Edinburgh Airport from October 28.

Ryanair is blaming air passenger duty (APD), the 13 tax on all departing passengers aged 16 or over, for pulling out of Glasgow.

It said efforts to stimulate low-fare demand were hampered by the tax.A private healthcare group has said the political stalemate at Stormont has led to a pre-tax loss of 2m in its most recent accounts.

3fivetwo Medical Group, which includes Kingsbridge Private Hospital in south Belfast and Origin Fertility Care, formerly carried out a large number of procedures for the NHS as it worked to reduce waiting lists.

In its accounts for the year ending March 31, 2017, it reported a slight fall in turnover from 31.3m to 31m.

But an operating loss of nearly 338,000 for the year before grew into a loss of 2.03m. Staff numbers were steady at 301.

Meanwhile, Kingsbridge Private Hospital, which employs 102 people, reported sales of 18m it its accounts for the year ending March 31 2017. But it went from pre-tax profits of 1m a year earlier to a loss of 91,000.

A strategic report filed with the results said that the group "had suffered a detrimental impact as a result of the vagaries of the public sector in Northern Ireland and the Republic over the last two years".

Mark Regan, chief executive of Kingsbridge Hospital and development director of 3fivetwo Group, told the Belfast Telegraph: "The historical political issues at Stormont stretching back to 2016 resulted in a substantial downturn in outsourcing of public sector healthcare contracts.

"This was the primary driver for the losses shown in that year.

"In the intervening 12-month period the company continues to very successfully implement its strategy to rebalance the business, focusing on predominantly private healthcare markets and reduce its reliance on the public sector work.

"The company's hospital group continues to experience an extremely healthy growth in all its clinical services, both in Belfast and the Republic of Ireland."

Last week Kingsbridge announced it had won a new contract to run a clinic in Belfast for healthcare giant Bupa after a company linked to its former operators went into administration.

Kingsbridge has moved the clinic, formerly run by Bio-Kinetic Healthcare, from Great Victoria Street to its own site on the Lisburn Road.

Kingsbridge said that the growth in capacity following relocation could mean a doubling in turnover at the hospital over the next 18 months.

A spokeswoman said: "The Bupa contract is now contracted to Kingsbridge Private Hospital as of last week.

"Biokinetic Healthcare is no longer trading since the administration process concluded. All new Bupa contracts are directly with Kingsbridge for health screening, private GP and muscle and joint assessment centres."

In January Kingsbridge Private Hospital said it had seen a tenfold rise in patients travelling from the Republic for treatment, with 162 procedures carried out during the month.Discussions over the completion of the 250m Ulster University site in Belfast are to be stepped up when administrators are appointed to a firm which had been building the campus.

Accountancy firm KPMG are expected to be appointed as administrators to four companies within Lagan Construction Group in court today.

The insolvency experts will get down to talks with potential funders and international building firm Somague over the site and how it's to be completed.

Workers have downed tools on the building site, with one contractor dubbing the beleaguered site as "an embarrassment".

Ulster University said it is talking to international firm Somague, Lagan Construction Group's joint venture partner on the project, about completing the job.

But some in the industry have expressed doubts about Somague's capability of completing the massive project and suggested that it will need a new joint venture partner.

Asked how close the project is to completion, a university spokeswoman last night said: "The university is consulting with Somague as necessary to progress delivery of the project.

"We await the formal appointment of an administrator to the relevant Lagan companies.

"The move into the new building in 2020 was based upon the latest agreed contractors programme and as any updates to timeframes are agreed we will make that information available."

KPMG is being appointed to Lagan Construction Group Holdings, Lagan Construction Group, Lagan Building Contractors and Lagan Water. But another 26 companies within the group are not affected.

Announcing the plans to put the companies into administration last week, the company said parts of the group "had been significantly impacted upon by a number of factors within the civils and building divisions including delays in the commencement of new projects, protracted contractual disputes on some existing major projects and instability caused by a joint venture partner in Great Britain".

Chairman Michael Lagan said: "It is with great sadness and reluctance that we have had to take this course of action.

"We have had long standing relationships with many of sub-contractors and suppliers.

"We hope that the process of administration will be smooth and that disruption to both projects and jobs will be minimal."

Last month, the Belfast Telegraph revealed that disagreements over the site between the university and Lagan Somague could mean completion would be delayed until 2022.

Separately to the administration, Ulster University is taking High Court action against the Lagan Construction and Somague joint venture.

The university had said that construction work would finish in 2019, with a full teaching term starting in 2020. The first stage of the Ulster University Belfast site is already completed.The former boss of Belfast restaurant the Potted Hen has been banned from the boardroom for five years - after its original founders received the same sanction.

Liam McAtamney (41), from Ross Mill Avenue in Belfast, was a director of DCRNI, which ran the Potted Hen at St Anne's Square. But the company went into liquidation two years ago with losses of over 300,000.

An action by the Department for the Economy has now led to Mr McAtamney giving an undertaking that he will not act as a company director over the next five years.

He accepted misconduct as a director including allowing direct debits to bounce and failing to pay around 166,800 in PAYE, income tax and VAT. He also accepted that he had failed to cooperate with the liquidator, and that he failed to file accounts

The former Potted Hen is now a Pizza Express restaurant.

In 2017 the venue's founders, Catherine Mary Regan and Dermot John Regan, were banned as directors for eight years over their conduct at the helm of the restaurant.

Their company Oregano Belfast ran Oregano Restaurant in Newtownabbey as well as the Potted Hen. It went into liquidation in April 2014.

Ms Regan, of Ross Mill Avenue in Belfast, and Dermot John Regan, of Dungannon Road in Moy, Dungannon, were disqualified for misconduct including failure to pay 332,194 to the Crown. In total, the company owed around 365,000 when it went out of business.

They were also found to have failed to provide all company books and records to the liquidators and diverted company funds of 64,000 away from Oregano Belfast Ltd, using them instead for their partnership business.Game of Thrones star Nikolaj Coster-Waldau has been speaking about wrapping up filming on the final season of the hit fantasy series.

The Danish actor - who portrays Jaime Lannister in the HBO show - is currently filming in Belfast, ahead of the finale's broadcast next year.

Read More

Speaking at the premiere of his new film 3 Things in Dublin, Nikolaj, 47, said he was excited to complete filming on Game of Thrones.

"I'm excited. I'm going to miss everyone involved with it," he said.

"I'm going to miss going up to Belfast, but it's time that we wrap up.

"Ireland is a nice place. Pretty s***ty weather today but ... it's an amazing place to shoot."

Coster-Waldau has starred in Game of Thrones since its premiere in 2011.

Over the years he has worked with a number of Irish actors, including Liam Cunningham, who plays Davos Seaworth, and Conleth Hill, who plays Lord Varys.

However the actor admitted he rarely saw Dublin actor Aidan Gillen, who played Littlefinger, on set.

"It's one of those weird jobs, if you don't have a storyline that overlaps, you don't meet," he told the Irish Herald.

"You meet at functions but that's about it. I've seen Liam Cunningham quite a bit."

The actor's new film 3 Things takes place in a hotel where police are negotiating terms of a witness protection deal with the prime suspect of a robbery and an expert on explosives, played by Coster-Waldau .

He said: "I saw the movie Locked with Tom Hardy and thought it was so interesting. I was amazed you could do a movie from one location."

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Series eight of Game of Thrones is currently filming and will be broadcast on Sky Atlantic and NOW TV in 2019.

Last year Coster-Waldau revealed the cast have not received scripts for the upcoming episodes, due to the HBO hack and leaks that have plagued the popular television show.

Speaking on Scandinavian talk show Skavlan, the actor addressed attempts to keep plot points off the internet.

"It's very secret now," he said. "I don't know if you heard but there was a big hack.

"The first season we got the scripts like you should get them and then you could sit and do notes and stuff.

"And then after a couple of years they got paranoid because there was some leaks so we had to get them only digital, on a PDF file.

"And then that got a little worse so they had to do these verified emails. You had to go through all these things to get your script and it was watermarked all kinds of ways, so if you lost it you would be sent to prison," he joked.

"And then the hack happened, so now we're not even going to get the script. Now we are going to do a scene, we will be told what's going to happen and then we roll.

"We're all going to have earpieces for the scene and then someone's going to tell you the line and then your going to do the line."He is the Marmite of breakfast television - loved and loathed in equal measure. But Piers Morgan prefers to compare his appearance on Good Morning Britain to a heroic outlaw than a savoury spread.

"People who deserve my empathy, usually the non-famous, the non-powerful, often get it," he says. "But people in positions of power - my job is to hold their feet to the fire. And I make no bones about that. I like to think of it as Robin Hood television."

It is 10am when I chat to Morgan at ITV's South Bank headquarters, where he is tucking into a second breakfast. But he is halfway through his day already, thanks to his breakfast show job alongside Susanna Reid.

When he first joined the programme in late 2015, he found the early alarm call too gruelling.

"I used to get up at 3.45am and that was killing me. Then they let me come in a bit later," the former Britain's Got Talent judge says. "Now, I'm up at 4.55am and I'm in by 5.30am and that's much more bearable."

The 52-year-old will be able to enjoy even more beauty sleep with ITV's move to west London, which by happy coincidence is just a stone's throw from the former newspaper editor's home.

We talk days after Morgan landed the first international broadcast interview with Donald Trump.

His scoop delivered plenty of news lines, but their friendship was also mocked, with a cartoon depiction of the pair on TV satire The Mash Report getting plenty of attention.

"For three days, my media rivals gorged themselves on all the news lines and, then of course, they couldn't bear it any longer and turned on me like a bunch of seething, jealous reptiles," he laughs. "Their fury made me so happy. It really enrages them that a friend of mine is President of the United States - and they can't get near him."

But we are here to talk about two other shows Morgan has recorded for ITV - Piers Morgan's Life Stories, featuring interviews with Pamela Anderson and Jim Davidson - and his Serial Killer programme.

Morgan has a soft spot for Anderson, whom he describes as a "modern day Brigitte Bardot sex symbol" and these days is known for her relationship with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. "Pamela has always been one of my pin-ups and I think probably for any man of my age," he says.

"Pamela in that swimsuit in Baywatch - I know you probably can't say this these days, but she was fabulous."

Comedian Davidson is "heartfelt" and "emotional" about his life, Morgan adds.

The former Generation Game host was arrested under Operation Yewtree on accusations of historic sex abuse before charges were dropped.

"He's been through a real roller-coaster life and he talks very candidly about it," Morgan says.

He would love to book two Dames - Judi Dench and Helen Mirren - on the show, but the presenter would never put himself through the same process.

"I just don't like emoting about my life," he says. "It's stiff upper lip stuff. It's just not my bag."

And he will definitely not be doing another reality show.

"I've only done one reality show and that was Celebrity Apprentice USA, which I won, and the President of the United States chose me as the winner. It's not going to get better than that, so I'm not going to do any more. I won't be munching kangaroo testicles in the I'm A Celebrity jungle."

Interviewing US prisoners for Serial Killer with Piers Morgan was much more "unnerving" than any jungle encounter with a critter could be.

"There was a moment when the guard drifted away and I suddenly thought, 'he's getting angry'," he says of one such encounter. "I thought, 'what if he actually jumps for me?' This is a guy who strangled people with his bare hands."

When the salaries of top BBC talents were revealed, Morgan joked that he earned 20m.

Today, he is keeping his ITV pay-packet secret and says he does not know what Good Morning Britain co-host Reid earns.

"The BBC has clearly been treating women in a very unfair way, in terms of salary and pay, and everyone can see that now.

"I honestly have no idea what Susanna is paid.

"We don't talk about our salaries.

"Mine is complicated, because I do lots of different shows, so it's probably hard to work out because we get paid for different things.

"But I don't think that either of us feel like we're being underpaid."

And for his fans, he has good news: he has no plans to leave his job on Good Morning Britain just yet.

"I really enjoy it and have great fun on the show, and working with Susanna's great for her, obviously," he jokes.

"We have good chemistry and people like it. It's unpredictable."

And that's something everyone can agree on.

Serial Killer With Piers Morgan, ITV, tomorrow, 9pm, and Piers Morgan's Life Stories, ITV, Saturday, 9.50pmHollywood star Michael Sheen has signed up to join Sundays gender equality march, saying it is an honour to take part.

The Queen and Frost/Nixon actor, 49, will read the words of Labour Party founder Keir Hardie, who was a supporter of the womens suffrage movement, at #March4Women in London.

Sheen said: At this incredibly important and potentially transformative moment in the journey towards full gender equality, it is my honour to be a part of this #March4Women event, and to help celebrate those women who sacrificed so much in the past alongside those who are taking such an inspiring lead today.

The march will start at Millbanks Old Palace Yard and end with a rally, hosted by comedian and presenter Sue Perkins, in Trafalgar Square.

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Organisers said Sheen will read Hardies words from the spot, at the foot of Nelsons Column, where the Scottish politician spoke more than 100 years ago.

The march is taking place ahead of International Womens Day on March 8.

It will mark the centenary of the Representation of the People Act 1918 by retracing the steps of the suffragettes past Parliament to Trafalgar Square.

The rally will include speeches by London mayor Sadiq Khan, human rights campaigner Bianca Jagger, Helen Pankhurst, the great granddaughter of suffragette leader Emmeline Pankhurst, and a video address by Annie Lennox.'Oh my God you guys' - Legally Blonde the musical has hit Belfast and it will have you rushing home to practice your 'bend and snap' - and considering giving your wardrobe a pink update.

But don't underestimate this adaptation of the hit Reese Witherspoon movie - because behind the wash of pink and glitter - it also has a lot of heart.

It follows the girl power story of the beautiful sorority sister Elle Woods who is deemed not "serious" enough by her boyfriend Warner, as he heads off to Harvard Law School.

In order to win him back she puts down the credit cards and picks up the book and gets herself a place at the prestigious school.

But she soon learns that being true to yourself never goes out of fashion and finds her own way as she excels thanks to her hard work.

The shimmering show stars Rita Simons (EastEnders) as Paulette Bonafonte, Lucie Jones (Eurovision UK representative 2017, Rent, Les Miserables, Ghost, We Will Rock You) as Elle Woods and Bill Ward (Emmerdale, Coronation Street) as Professor Callahan.

The energetic cast breeze through their upbeat routines and songs - no-one more than the show's fitness extraordinaire Brooke Wyndham, the suspect in the murder trial, played by Helen Petrovna who doesn't seem to break a sweat, and certainly doesn't miss a beat, as she belts out Whipped Into Shape during a complex skipping rope routine.

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Lucie Jones is a fabulous mix of sweet and powerful in her turn as Elle Woods with a voice that soars through the numbers with genuine feeling and warmth.

She also has fantastic comedic timing and goes through a range of emotions that has the audience in the palm of her hand.

Rita Simons is wonderfully endearing in her role as the salon owner who becomes friends with Elle - as they help each other on their journeys.

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Her voice is amazing and she has the crowd clapping along in her ode to Ireland - which is as comedic as it is brilliant.

Fans of the movie will also love the quintessential Bend and Snap sequence.

And of course special mention has to be given to the canine stars of the show.

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Elle's pup Bruiser enjoys 'oohs and aahs' during his star moments. While Paulette's rescued Rufus - which is played in each city by a local dog - stole the show in each of his appearances.

This is a fun, charming and extremely polished, fast-paced production which leaves the audience wanting more.

The show runs at the Grand Opera House Belfast from Tuesday February 27 until Saturday March 3 2018.More than 1,000 people have signed an online petition asking one of Northern Ireland's leading Catholic grammar schools not to host the PSNI and the Royal Navy at a careers event tonight.

Hardline republicans will gather outside St Malachy's College on Belfast's Antrim Road to hand out leaflets opposing the "presence of British armed forces in our schools" this evening.

Several parents have objected to the invitation, which they allege is an insult to "those families whose loved ones have been killed through state murder and collusion".

Dee Fennell of the dissident republican party Saoradh said: "This isn't a protest and we won't be asking people not to go into the event, but we will be standing outside distributing leaflets highlighting the republican position.

"Fifteen-year-old Seamus Duffy was killed by a plastic bullet not far from St Malachy's school gates in 1989. British forces should have no role in our schools."

More than 1,200 people have signed the change.org petition. It claims St Malachy's failed to confer "with students, parents, or the local community" about the event.

Petition organiser Anthony McIlhennon states: "We urge the College to immediately withdraw the invitation issued to the PSNI and British naval forces."

The Belfast Telegraph contacted the school for a response yesterday, but it did not comment.

Many people signing the petition left angry comments. "Some of these children's parents and grandparents would have suffered at the hands of these lot. They should not have a place in a school even in 2018 it should be a neutral zone," one man said.

A woman said the matter should have been discussed with pupils and parents beforehand.

"My nephew goes to this school and under no circumstances do we want him involved in anything to do with the PSNI," one woman said.

Another woman said that "wherever in the world, the police and army should be out of schools".

Other signatories branded the invitation to the PSNI and Royal Navy as "insensitive" and "not tasteful".

One man said he had "no problem" with the PSNI being invited, but added: "I feel that no branch of British military should be present in any school. St Malachy's College should and would be well aware that the majority, if not all, of its students have very little interest in the British Navy and do not want them present in our school.

"Once again I have no issue with the PSNI being present but think that the St Malachy's board of governors and the members of staff responsible for organising the event should reconsider inviting any branch of the British military to this and any future careers convention or otherwise."

Last month, republicans objected when police visited St Joseph's High School in Newry.

But local DUP MLA Willie Irwin insisted it was positive that officers were engaging with young people.

"It's good to see police going into schools and explaining the situation. I'd have thought many parents would welcome that," he said.

"It's very backward looking to condemn that."The annual budgets for more than 600 schools in Northern Ireland have been turned down.

More than 15,000 pupils in Northern Ireland do not have a good enough grasp of English to fully participate in school life.

The number of "newcomer" students has risen by over 5,000 in five years.

They represent 4.4% of the school population, a report by the Department of Education has revealed. A newcomer pupil is defined by the report as someone who lacks "satisfactory language skills to participate fully in their school's curriculum".

Almost 90 different first languages are spoken by pupils, of which Polish and Lithuanian are the most common.

The report's key findings include:

Some 173,744 pupils are enrolled in primary schools - the highest since 1999/00.

A further 140,545 pupils are in post-primary schools, a slight increase on last year.

Around 14,400 pupils in schools are recorded as non-white - an increase of 4,400 from five years previously.

More than 23,000 pupils participate in integrated education, up more than 500 since last year.

The Department of Education bulletin analyses enrolment data from the 2017/18 school census.

It states that schools are "increasingly becoming more ethnically diverse".

"The growth in diversity in the school system may be explained by increased levels of migration among school age children over the last number of years," it continues.

According to the report, there has been a rise year-on-year in the number of pupils whose first language is not English.

In total, students speak 89 first languages - 6,671 are native Polish speakers and 2,797 speak Lithuanian.

The report notes an increase in the number and proportion of newcomer pupils in schools here.

It states: "In 2017/18, there are more than 15,200 newcomer pupils accounting for 4.4% of the school population. This has risen by almost 5,500 pupils from five years prior."

Avril Hall Callaghan, general secretary of the Ulster Teachers' Union, said migrant children brought challenges but also benefits for our education system.

"Teachers are already coping with hugely reduced classroom assistant support, ever increasing class sizes and the emergence of a greater number of children with more complex learning and behavioural challenges - children who in the past would not even have been in mainstream schools," she said.

"Add then to this mix a migrant child uprooted from their homeland, living in a new community with a new culture, in a new school and not fully conversant with the language, and you can see the challenge is huge for teacher and pupil.

"Yet these children and families have so much to offer Northern Ireland, not least in increasing the ethnic diversity of our society which can only be a good thing given the increasingly global nature of our world today."

Noella Murray is principal of St John the Baptist College in Drumcree, Co Armagh, where 39% of the students do not have English as their first language. She said the school had to employ multilingual classroom assistants for children who didn't know a word of English when they arrived.

"It would be great to have multilingual teachers within the school and I do envisage a day when that will be the case because we have a growing diverse community and we need do be adapting to suit that," she said.

The Department of Education said a policy for supporting newcomer pupils was published in 2009.

It recognises that significant difficulty with the language of instruction presents a barrier to learning for newcomer pupils, and seeks to develop the capacity of schools to respond.

It said schools are helped to support newcomer pupils in two ways, including the Education Authority's InterCultural Education Service, which provides support and specialist advice to schools.

Schools with newcomer pupils also receive additional funding of around 1,000 per newcomer pupil.

Languages spoken in Northern Ireland schools and by how many pupils

English - 307569

Polish - 6671

Lithuanian - 2797

Portuguese - 1279

Romanian - 1005

Malayalam - 814

Arabic - 723

Tagalog/Filipino- 668

Slovak - 580

Latvian - 567

Chinese (Mandarin/Putonghua) - 545

Bulgarian - 502

Hungarian - 502

Irish - 454

Chinese (Cantonese) - 483

Russian - 474

Tetum - 426

Spanish - 326

Chinese (Any Other) - 256

Hindi - 240

Bengali/Bangla/Sylheti - 206

Urdu - 193

Somali - 172

Czech - 169

Telugu - 132

Italian - 130

French - 128

Thai - 107

German - 106

Tamil - 104

Romany - 99

Panjabi - 85

Malay/Indonesian - 71

Albanian/Shqip - 62

Nepali - 62

Shona - 59

Turkish - 57

Yoruba - 50

Pashto/Pakhto - 48

Afrikaans - 42

Greek - 42

Marathi - 40

Edo/Bini - 38

Dutch/Flemish - 34

Japanese - 31

Kurdish - 31

Persian/Farsi - 31

Igbo - 30

British Sign Language - 28

Korean - 28

Gujarati - 23

Fijian - 22

Kannada - 22

Serbian/Croatian/Bosnian - 19

Swedish - 19

Ukrainian- 17

Swahili/Kiswahili - 14

Vietnamese - 14

Finnish - 13

Pahari/Himachali (India) - 9

Slovenian - 9

Creole English - 8

Xhosa - 8

Norwegian - 7

Danish - 6

Ndebele - 6

Sinhala/Sinalese - 6

Tswana/Setswana - 5

Zulu - 5

Other - 183

language with less than 5 speaker are masked to protect the child, they include:

Akan/Twi-Fante

Belarusian

Chinese (Hokkien/Fujianese)

Chinese (Hakka)

Creole French

Esan/Ishan

Estonian

Hebrew

Icelandic

Lingala

Luganda/Ganda

Macedonian

Maltese

Oriya

Rajasthani/Marwari

Sindhi

Ulster Scots

Venda

Yiddish

Source: Department of Education, NI school censusThe Public Prosecution Service (PPS) has denied missing a legal deadline for lodging its challenge to the sentence given to loyalist supergrass Gary Haggarty.

The former north Belfast UVF chief Haggarty (46) was sentenced to six-and-a-half-years in prison for more than 500 offences, including five murders.

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He was offered a significantly-reduced prison term in return for giving evidence against other terrorist suspects.

The PPS announced on Monday it was appealing the sentence on the grounds it was unduly lenient.

But it has been revealed the 60-page PPS submission may have been lodged after a 28-day deadline to appeal the tariff elapsed.

The BBC has reported the papers were not served until 4.25pm on Monday but the court service closes for business at 4pm.

A PPS spokesperson told the Belfast Telegraph: I can confirm an issue has arisen as to whether notice to seek leave to refer the sentence imposed on Gary Haggarty to the Court of Appeal was served in time.

It is the PPS position that the statutory time limit has been met. The Court of Appeal has listed this preliminary point for hearing on 9th March 2018 at 10am.

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A solicitor representing Haggarty told the BBC he was challenging the legal basis of the appeal.

Upon notification that the application was apparently lodged a full 25 minutes after close of business, we queried with Court Service whether in fact a proper and fully compliant appeal had been lodged in this case, said Ciaran Shiels.

We have been advised that the lord chief justice is to convene the Court of Criminal Appeal on March 9 to consider whether there has been proper compliance with the statutory requirements in respect of this case.

Haggarty admitted to 202 offences including the murders of Sean McParland, Gary Convie, Eamon Fox, Sean McDermott, John Harbinson and Peter McTasney. A further 301 offences were taken into considertation.Police and firefighters at the scene of the fire in the Molly Road area of Derrylin

The small border village of Derrylin was wreathed in sadness yesterday as local people came to terms with the terrible tragedy which has claimed at least three lives.

As snow began to fall from leaden skies, the peace of the Molly Road, a typical rural route peppered with farms, was broken by a hive of activity as a steady procession of police cars made their way to and from the scene of the fatal fire.

The fire-ravaged bungalow where the blaze occurred stood open to the elements, a gaping wound-like hole in the roof offering no protection to the charred remnants of what was once a family home.

Neighbour Ciara Brien (22), whose house lies close to the remains of the property, described the family who had lived there as "very friendly".

"You would always see them walking up and down the road and they would always wave at you," she recalled.

"I'm just completely devastated - it's crazy that this could happen on my own doorstep.

"The house has been completely destroyed.

"This is a rural community and we all look out for each other. My mum and dad have lived here for years and nothing like this had ever happened before in this area. I think we won't sleep as easy tonight."

Another neighbour, a mum-of-two, agreed.

"We always saw them out walking with the child in the buggy," she said. "They were very polite and pleasant, and they kept themselves to themselves.

I'm so sorry for their family - it's just terrible. Derrylin is a brilliant community and people here will come together to do what they can to support them."

Fr Gerard Alwill of St Ninnidh's Church in Derrylin praised the local people who had attempted to save those in the house.

"It's the kind of action that people in rural Ireland would do to help their neighbours," he said. "I have not heard of a tragedy like this happening in Derrylin before.

"It has been a great shock to the community to lose three lives, especially if, as has been rumoured, the lives lost include a young child.

"People just can't really get their heads around it.

"At this stage I don't know what religion, if any, the people had but I met with the local Church of Ireland minister and we will certainly be remembering them in our prayers.

"At times like this people like to rally round and take care of the family. They want to sympathise and offer their support.

"My thoughts and prayers are also with the family," he said.

Politicians also added their voices to the chorus of grief over the tragedy.

DUP leader Arlene Foster expressed shock at the loss of life.

The Fermanagh and South Tyrone MLA said: "This is devastating news for the local community and there is widespread shock in the area.

"I understand that all those who have died are members of the same family.

"It is important that the cause of the fire is established but my thoughts and prayers are with all those in the local area, friends and the wider family circle as they struggle to come to terms with this terrible tragedy."

The vice chair of Fermanagh and Omagh District Council, Alex Baird, also sent his condolences to the relatives of those who passed away.

"Derrylin is a small community and there is so much sadness and numbness at what has happened," he said.

Ulster Unionist MLA Rosemary Barton said she had travelled to the village to offer her support to the community.

"After visiting Derrylin and speaking to several members of this close-knit community, there is great sadness and a sense of disbelief about this fire and the related deaths," she said. "This is a community that is very supportive of each other and there is a palpable sense of great loss being felt within it today.

"At this very difficult time, my first thoughts and prayers are with the relatives of those that have lost their lives, and the wider community."

Sinn Fein MP Michelle Gildernew praised local people who had attempted to save the occupants of the house.

She said: "As somebody who goes to a house in good faith to try and help people and people die, that is just, it's horrendous. It's hard to take.

"I have no doubt in the days ahead the community of Derrylin will rally round to assist the bereaved as they start to come to terms with this tragedy."Northern Ireland may be considered part of European Union customs territory after Brexit.

The draft deal agreed to protect the border will be published in Brussels today. The release of the draft treaty will be politically explosive and threatens to destabilise relations among all parties involved.

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The DUP last night described the draft as unacceptable.

The 120-page document spells out in detail the so-called backstop for avoiding a hard border when the UK is no longer a member of the EU. The exact text - which will be legally binding when signed - will say "Northern Ireland shall be considered to be part of the customs territory of the European Union".

Essentially, in the event of no better arrangement, the EU's customs union will cover the whole island of Ireland and will be jointly managed by the EU and the UK.

It will also require Northern Ireland to maintain single market rules on any goods crossing the border.

According to RTE, joint EU-UK customs teams will be required to apply checks on goods coming from the UK into the new regulatory space, but will not specify where those checks will take place.

"There has to be a common regulatory area between NI and the rest of the EU," a source stated.

The draft has already sparked uproar in the DUP, whose MPs prop up Theresa May's Government at Westminster.

Both Irish and EU officials are bracing themselves for the backlash which once again raises the spectre of the UK crashing out of the EU with no deal.

Pro-Brexit unionists have already voiced their opposition to the plan.

DUP MP Sir Jeffrey Donaldson said: "This fundamentally breaches the understanding reached in December and would undermine the constitutional status of Northern Ireland in the Belfast Agreement.

"If the EU or Dublin believes the UK Government will be signing up to a border in the Irish Sea, they are deluded. The Taoiseach knows that."

And his DUP colleague Sammy Wilson told the BBC's Daily Politics show that the deal was "unacceptable to the DUP and probably unacceptable to the British Government".

TUV leader Jim Allister suggested the DUP should flex its parliamentary muscle to keep the Government in check. "It will be a test of the UK Government, which holds office only on the sufferance of unionists, as to whether it moves with the robustness required to derail Brussels' stratagem," he said.

"We are a province of the UK, not of the EU, and must emphatically remain so.

"Her Majesty's Government, and those who sustain it, should not shy away from the conclusion that in these circumstances 'no deal' is better than the type of destructive deal the draft treaty terms suggest."

But the European Parliament's Brexit co-ordinator said yesterday that Northern Ireland must continue to abide by EU regulations after Brexit in order to guarantee there will not be a hard border with the Republic.

Guy Verhofstadt told MEPs on the European Parliament's Constitutional Affairs Committee that there should be "no divergence" between Northern Ireland and its southern neighbour.

Instead, "norms, rules and standards" must stay the same after Brexit, he said.

The warning will come as a blow to Mrs May after senior Cabinet ministers agreed plans for "ambitious managed divergence" from EU rules post-Brexit.

Mr Verhofstadt said this was "unacceptable" to EU leaders.

The preamble of the treaty says it will protect the Good Friday Agreement and give legal effect to a commitment by London to come up with solutions to avoid the need for a hard border.

Option A is where the UK's and the EU's relationship remains as close as it is now, thereby negating the need for border checks. This is unlikely to occur because the UK says it is leaving the customs union and the single market.

Option B is for a solution to emerge through the use of a range of technical apparatus such as camera, barcodes and registration, to keep track of goods. Since no detail on such a system has been forthcoming from the UK, the draft treaty contains no detail on them.

However, it goes into full explanation how Option C, or the 'backstop' option, requires Northern Ireland to continue to follow EU rules and regulations of the single market and customs union. This would be necessary to protect cross border co-operation and the all-island economy.Irish Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has suggested the island of Ireland could enjoy post-Brexit common regulation in the same way as the Republic and the UK have a common travel area.

Mr Varadkar said the legal text on Britains withdrawal from the EU states there will not be a hard border with Northern Ireland.

Some people were trying to suggest in the last couple of weeks that we over-spun, or oversold what was achieved in December. I think people will see today that that charge from the opposition (parties in Ireland) and others is not correct, he said.

Mr Varadkar told Newstalk radio: Option C is how we can avoid a hard border. We set that out in legal terms today, it is very clear.

In the same way that we have a common travel area between Britain and Ireland we could have a common regulatory area involving Northern Ireland.

A lot of the rules of the customs and single market would apply in the north and that means there doesnt have to be a hard border so it is do-able. Weve set it out in a legal text.

Very good meeting with @MichelBarnier today, focusing on #Brexit legal text of draft Withdrawal Agreement to be published on Wednesday - we are of the one mind, translating the political commitments of December into legal text - no more, no less. pic.twitter.com/k8hK1MvJOk  Simon Coveney (@simoncoveney) February 26, 2018

Mr Varadkar said his Government would prefer to see what is being classed as Option A  a new relationship between the UK and EU that is so close that a border is unnecessary.

Its up to the UK to bring proposals to the table to make that possible and I hope that we will see some indication in Theresa Mays, the Prime Ministers speech on Friday as to how they intend to do that, Mr Varadkar said.

Its not OK for people  whether its pro-Brexit politicians in Britain or people from parties in Northern Ireland  to just say no now. Its incumbent on them if they cant accept the backstop then they must detail how Option A or B would work.

Its really up to those who cant accept the backstop to actually come up with those alternative solutions. And actually write them down. It cant be theoretical stuff about congestion charges.Police have said the death is not suspicious.

A body pulled from the Lagan in Lisburn was that of missing man Arturs Burtnieks, police have confirmed.

The 20-year-old originally from Latvia was reported missing on Sunday.

His body was pulled from the river on Tuesday evening.

Chief Inspector Jonathan Wilson said: The death is not being treated as suspicious at this time and our thoughts are with the family at this difficult time.Timuras Kozlov had been accused of attempted murder, which he denied, but he admitted unlawfully inflicting grievous bodily harm on the child

A man has pleaded guilty to a lesser charge in the case of a baby boy who fell from an upstairs window.

Timuras Kozlov had been accused of attempted murder, which he denied, but he admitted unlawfully inflicting grievous bodily harm on the child.

Kozlov, of Derrychara Drive, Enniskillen, but in custody since his arrest, appeared at Dungannon Crown Court yesterday.

Originally from Lithuania, the 21-year-old had been accused of attempting to murder the baby - who was six months old at the time - on the evening of May 6, 2017, at an address in Castlecoole Road, Enniskillen.

It had been alleged the child was thrown from a second floor window, although Kozlov always insisted the fall was accidental, and last week pleaded not guilty to attempted murder.

The case was then relisted at court, and counsel for the prosecution said an amended charge had been agreed following legal discussions.

Defence counsel asked for his client to be arraigned on the new charge of unlawfully inflicting grievous bodily harm on the child, which Kozlov accepted.

The defence emphasised the guilty plea was "on an agreed statement of facts on the basis of recklessness".

Prosecution counsel asked for the attempted murder charge to be left on the court books and not to be proceeded with.

His Honour Judge Stephen Fowler QC remanded Kozlov in continuing custody while pre-sentence reports are prepared.Noble Peace Laureate Mairead Maguire meets Rohingya refugees during her visit to Kutupalong, near Coxs Bazar, Bangladesh (AP)

Three Nobel Peace laureates have accused Burmese leader Aung San Suu Kyi and the nations military of genocide over their role in violence which forced hundreds of thousands of Rohingya Muslims to flee to Bangladesh.

The laureates, who are on a trip to Bangladesh to visit the sprawling refugee camps where the Rohingya are living, said at a news conference in Dhaka that their fellow Nobel Peace laureate Ms Suu Kyi cannot avoid responsibility.

One of the laureates, Yemens Tawakkol Karman, urged Ms Suu Kyi to wake up or face prosecution.

Her two colleagues  Northern Irelands Mairead Maguire and Irans Shirin Ebadi  promised to work to bring those responsible to justice.

All three were emotionally charged as they unanimously called the violence against Rohingya genocide.

Ms Karman said: There is no other definition, it is genocide, genocide against innocent people.

Expand Close Noble Peace Laureate from Yemen Tawakkol Karman, right, holds a Rohingya refugee child during her visit to Kutupalong refugee camp (AP) AP/PA Images / Facebook

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Whatsapp Noble Peace Laureate from Yemen Tawakkol Karman, right, holds a Rohingya refugee child during her visit to Kutupalong refugee camp (AP)

Millions of people (have) been displaced from their cities, women (have) been raped, all the women, we met like 100 women, all of them (have) been raped.

She said they were overwhelmed as they talked to the children.

Most of the children we met  fled to Bangladesh without their families. Their fathers, their mothers (have) been killed, been murdered, Karman added.

She said that as Burmas leader, Ms Suu Kyi should not be silent.

She did not tell the truth to the world. She should stop her silence, she should wake up and stop this genocide.

She urged Ms Suu Kyi to resign, otherwise she will face prosecution.

Expand Close Thousands of Rohingya were displaced last year, in a campaign which the Nobel laureates called genocide (AP) AP/PA Images / Facebook

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Whatsapp Thousands of Rohingya were displaced last year, in a campaign which the Nobel laureates called genocide (AP)

Ms Maguire said they were looking for legal options to ensure justice, saying: We plan to take (Burmas) government to the international court of justice.

Ms Ebadi also criticised her native country, Iran, and other Middle Eastern Islamic nations, including Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, for not doing enough for the Rohingya.

The laureates also met Bangladeshi prime minister Sheikh Hasina and promised to work toward resolving the crisis.

Expand Close Mairead Maguire has promised to bring those responsible for abuses against the Rohingya to justice (Paul Faith/PA) PA Wire/PA Images / Facebook

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Whatsapp Mairead Maguire has promised to bring those responsible for abuses against the Rohingya to justice (Paul Faith/PA)

Some 700,000 Rohingya have fled to Bangladesh since late August 2017, when Burmas military retaliated following attacks on security posts by a Rohingya insurgent group.

In November, Burma and Bangladesh signed an agreement to gradually repatriate the Rohingya in safety, security and dignity, but the process has been delayed.

Buddhist-majority Burma does not recognise the Rohingya as an official ethnic group, and they face intense discrimination and persecution. Burmese authorities maintain that security operations in Rakhine state have been aimed at clearing out insurgents.

Bangladesh said it will not repatriate any Rohingya against their will, but has urged the international community to continue to put pressure on Burma to create conditions for a sustainable repatriation.Snow and ice could cause problems

The road has been closed.

Follow the latest updates from our travel feed below

The Dobbin Road in Armagh has been reopend folowing an earlier crash.

Diversions are in place and traffic is being diverted onto the Vicarage Road, delays are expected.

Our live updates from across Northern Ireland are compiled by @TrafficwatchNI, @BBCNITravel and @PSNITraffic.Brothers Decebal, (28) and Spartacus (21) Mihai, originally from Romania but living in Kenlis Street, Banbridge, pleaded guilty to a number of human trafficking offences.

Two Romanian crime gang members operating a UK-wide human trafficking network in Northern Ireland have been imprisoned.

Brothers Decebal and Spartacus Mihai, originally from Romania but living in Kenlis Street, Banbridge, pleaded guilty to controlling prostitution for gain, conspiracy to traffic for sexual exploitation, acquiring criminal property and converting criminal property, a police statement said.

Decebal Mihai, 28, was sentenced at Belfast Crown Court to four years, half to be served on licence. Spartacus Mihai, 21, was sentenced to three years, half to be served on licence.

It is the first conviction and sentencing for a human trafficking for sexual exploitation offence in Northern Ireland and prosecutors hailed it as a landmark.

Expand Close Spartacus Ilie Mihai was sentenced to three years for human trafficking offences (PSNI/PA) / Facebook

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Whatsapp Spartacus Ilie Mihai was sentenced to three years for human trafficking offences (PSNI/PA)

Detective Chief Inspector Mark Bell, head of the Police Service of Northern Irelands Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking Unit, said: Detectives from the Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking Unit arrested Decebel and Spartacus Mihai as part of one of the biggest investigations into human trafficking in Northern Ireland.

The brothers were part of a Romanian organised crime gang involved in trafficking females into, within and out of Northern Ireland for the purposes of sexual exploitation.

It followed the receipt of valuable information from a member of the public which led to searches in East Belfast and Banbridge in May last year.

Mr Bell added: At both addresses we discovered women aged between 19 and 30 who were identified as potential victims of sexual exploitation.

All four women agreed to voluntarily go with detectives to be spoken to, but sadly those victims did not engage with police and seek the help they needed.

It is unbearable to think what those victims have been through, they couldnt understand or speak English and probably didnt have access to much money.

Understandably they were absolutely terrified and for all these complex reasons they would not cooperate with police, but thankfully these victims no longer have to endure this life of being exploited sexually on a regular basis.

He said officers found 25 different telephone numbers linked to Decebal Mihai, 10 of which were linked to websites advertising escorts.

We also identified seven telephone numbers which were linked to Spartacus Mihai, five of these were found on websites advertising escorts.

He said Decebel Mihai, on various dates between December 2013 and April 2017, acquired around 150,000 from his human trafficking.

Spartacus Ilie Mihai, on various dates between December 2014 and May 2017, acquired around 27,000 from human trafficking.

Lynne Carlin, senior public prosecutor from the Public Prosecution Service serious crime unit, said: Prosecutions of this kind mean that those criminals who exploit and traffic vulnerable victims now know that the PPS and other criminal justice partners can build robust cases and secure convictions against them without requiring the evidence of often frightened and intimidated victims.Traffic on the Glenshane Pass in Co Londonderry, as snow is replaced with rain and high winds across the province.

In England, a jay skips through the snow in Kielder Forest

Moonlit snow and stars over derelict house on Glenshane Pass. Photo by Martin McKenna.

Traffic slowed down due to snow on the Glendermot road Londonderry. Pic. Marcus Bye 13/01/2015

A solitary figure is framed by the famous trees of the Dark Hedges. January 15. 2015

Keeper the German shepherd plays in the snow in Ballycastle yesterday. The adverse weather conditions, however, brought misery to many

The magical reflections of the mallards in the sunshine. Oxford Island Craigavon. Pic Noeni Bryars 22/01/2015

Motorists make their way through snowfall in Gortin near Omagh, as many parts of the UK were on snow alert with wintry showers threatening to disrupt travel. Niall Carson/PA Wire.

A snowy scene taken through a bus window while travelling home to Co. Tyrone. 18/01/2015 Pic. Feldore McHugh

Spring is just around the corner. Lambeg Pic: George Wills 25/01/2015

Little 16-month-old Clara has fun as she gets her first glimpse of the snow and takes her first steps in the winter wonderland in Limavady. Pic. Hannah McCausland 13/01/2015

Snow in the Glens of Antrim, as an orange weather alert is announced in Northern Ireland. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Wednesday January 28, 2015. A cold weather front is to sweep in with temperatures expected to drop as much as 10C to below zero overnight into Thursday. See PA story WEATHER Cold. Photo credit should read: Niall Carson/PA Wire

Sheep in the snow in the Glens of Antrim, as an orange weather alert is announced in Northern Ireland. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Wednesday January 28, 2015. A cold weather front is to sweep in with temperatures expected to drop as much as 10C to below zero overnight into Thursday. See PA story WEATHER Cold. Photo credit should read: Niall Carson/PA Wire

Snow on the A1 dual carriageway near Newry, as an orange weather alert is announced in Northern Ireland. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Wednesday January 28, 2015. A cold weather front is to sweep in with temperatures expected to drop as much as 10C to below zero overnight into Thursday. See PA story WEATHER Cold. Photo credit should read: Niall Carson/PA Wire

Snow clings to the trees on the Cochranstown Road near Lisburn

Image of snow in Mayfield area of Glengormely. Submitted by Santhosh John. Jan 2015

Readers' winter pictures 2015 - Myself and two friends took advantage of the recent snowfall and went for a hike in the Mourne Mountains. It was a stunning landscape. I shot this image as we were coming off Pierce's Castle 495m. I have aptly named it 'Frozen Landscape'. - David J Campbell. Twitter handle: @Photodave109

Here is a picture of the snow dragon/ dinosaur my wife Sarah and I built on Thursday 29th January outside the in laws home in Carryduff, Belfast. Submitted by Ruiseal McKimm

Readers' snow pictures 2015: Enough snow in Belfast to make a life-size horse! Submitted by Laura

The rural beauty of Annaclone, Co Down this morning. Pic: Paula McNeill (29/01/2015)

Can you do better than this? Readers' snow pictures 2015: To all the sceptics, this is 100% not photoshopped. My boyfriend and I built it dodging cat poo in my garden the entire time. Submitted by Emma Hamill

Can you do better than this? A reader's picture from last year: Dundrod Co Antrim, submitted by Paul McFarland, Dromore.

Snow, ice and plummeting temperatures are expected to cause chaos in the coming days as the 'Beast from the East' and Storm Emma meet in the skies to batter Northern Ireland.

The much-anticipated Siberian storm arrived yesterday, bringing dry snow and bitterly cold winds. Temperatures today will feel as low as -10C.

Read More

Storm Emma will arrive from the south today, bringing moisture and an added risk of ice.

And as the public braced itself for worsening conditions, officials from government departments, councils, utility and emergency services yesterday confirmed arrangements are in place to deal with any fallout from the extreme weather.

A yellow weather warning from the Met Office is in place across the province and will last until Saturday night, with up to 10cm of snow expected to fall both today and tomorrow.

There could be as much as 15cm in the countryside, while on Saturday morning the focus of concern will turn to potentially treacherous ice.

The powdery snow that has come with the Beast from the East will turn wetter tomorrow with the arrival of Storm Emma, meaning "better snowballs", according to Nicky Maxey from the Met Office.

"The Beast from the East has brought dry, extremely cold air right across Europe," she said.

"So when Storm Emma arrives bringing wet air into the mix, there will be a slight thaw meaning potential for ice.

"Temperatures will go up ever so slightly, although it will be far from balmy in Belfast, still feeling very cold at about minus six degrees."

There were a number of road closures and traffic collisions throughout yesterday evening, as well as warnings from the authorities about icy conditions.

In addition to disruption on the roads, travellers were hit in the air and on the rails with flights in and out of Belfast and trains across Ireland cancelled.

Translink said a red weather alert in the Republic meant even more disruption was expected today.

Bus Eireann cancelled all cross-border services and Translink said the Enterprise service will also be badly affected.

It said the last Enterprise train to Dublin will leave Belfast at 12.35pm today, while the last Belfast-bound Enterprise will depart from Dublin Connolly station at 1.20pm.

Major events, including tomorrow's Ulster PRO14 rugby match against Glasgow, have already felt the brunt of the weather, with organisers putting the game back until next month.

Meanwhile, an army of around 300 staff and 130 gritters worked on the road network overnight.

Officials at the Department for Infrastructure warned drivers to allow more time for journeys and to take care on the roads through the course of today.

Windy weather could cause lying snow to drift, they added.

The Executive Office last night urged the public to look out for elderly neighbours and vulnerable relatives as sub-zero temperatures carry on into the weekend.

The annual Northern Ireland conference of the Irish National Teachers' Organisation, which was due to take place at the Lough Erne Resort in Fermanagh tomorrow and Saturday, has also been pushed back.

The conference is attended by more than 500 teachers every year.

The cold weather is expected to last through the weekend, with showery flurries meaning the snow covering will vary from place to place.

Emergency numbers

 Emergency services  999 or 112

 Northern Ireland Electricity Networks  03457 643 643

 NI Gas Emergency Service  0800 002 001

 Northern Ireland Water

Waterline  03457 440 088

 Flooding Incident Line  0300 2000 100

 Housing Executive  03448 920 901

 Report a fallen tree or blocked road  0300 200 7891

>>Send your snow pictures to digital.editorial@belfasttelegraph.co.uk<<Theresa May said no UK prime minister would agree to the agreement as it currently stands (PA)

A final agreement on the terms of Britains EU withdrawal has been thrown into doubt, after Theresa May fiercely rejected a text drawn up by the European Commission, declaring: No UK prime minister could ever agree to it.

The Prime Minister told MPs that the paper  which proposes a common regulatory area between the EU and Northern Ireland  would threaten the constitutional integrity of the UK by creating a border down the Irish Sea.

With just three weeks to go until a Brussels summit at which the remaining 27 EU nations were expected to approve the draft text, Mrs May made clear that she wants a rewrite of the 120-page document.

And Brexit Secretary David Davis suggested that an alternative way of keeping the Irish border open can be expected to emerge from talks on the future EU/UK trade relationship, due to begin after the March 22 summit of the European Council.

Mrs May was applauded by the leader of the Democratic Unionist Party, Arlene Foster, who said that the EUs proposals were constitutionally unacceptable and would be economically catastrophic for Northern Ireland.

But she came under fire from her predecessor as Conservative prime minister Sir John Major, who dramatically intervened in the Brexit debate with a warning that the Governments negotiating position was not credible.

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Accusing Mrs May of tilting her policy too far towards an ultra-Brexit minority whose promises to voters had all been proved wrong, Sir John urged her to be ready to compromise by dropping her red lines of taking the UK out of the single market and customs union.

And he called on her to offer MPs a free vote on the final Brexit deal, with the option of putting it to the public in a second referendum.

Sir John denied he was trying to undermine the Prime Minister, who will set out her own Brexit vision in a major speech on Friday. But he was denounced as a humbug by arch-Brexiteer Jacob Rees-Mogg, who dismissed his warnings as cheap comments and propaganda.

Released in Brussels by chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier, the EU text puts into legal terms the agreement reached by Mrs May and European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker in December.

On the crucial issue of the Irish border, it spells out in detail how the principle of regulatory alignment agreed in December would be implemented if the UK fails to find technological or diplomatic solutions to keeping the border open.

If such solutions are not found, the draft text states, the territory of Northern Ireland, excluding the territorial waters of the United Kingdom  shall be considered to be part of the customs territory of the Union.

It suggests that EU and UK customs authorities should jointly oversee movements between Northern Ireland and the British mainland, while Europe would retain control over aspects of taxation and state aid in the six counties.

Answering questions in the Commons less than an hour after its publication, Mrs May told MPs: The draft legal text the Commission have published would, if implemented, undermine the UK common market and threaten the constitutional integrity of the UK by creating a customs and regulatory border down the Irish Sea, and no UK prime minster could ever agree to it.

I will be making it crystal clear to President Juncker and others that we will never do so.

She said she stood by the deal struck in December, but left no doubt that she wants the withdrawal text rewritten, stating that UK negotiators would talk to Brussels about how the Joint Report should be translated into legal form in the withdrawal agreement.

EU draft text is constitutionally unacceptable & would be economically catastrophic for Northern Ireland. I welcome the Prime Minister's commitment that HMG will not allow any new border in the Irish Sea. Northern Ireland must have unfettered access to GB market. AF  Arlene Foster #WeWillMeetAgain (@ArleneFosterUK) February 28, 2018

In an apparent bid to calm Tory nerves, Mr Davis wrote to all Conservative MPs to insist there remains a shared ambition for a quick agreement and  significant common ground between the UK and EU.

London still hopes to secure agreement at the March 22 summit of the European Council on a transition period of around two years after the official date of Brexit in 2019, he said.

But Mr Barnier signalled frustration at the lack of progress in the negotiations, telling a Brussels press conference: We must pick up the pace.

There remain significant divergences over issues including the rights of EU citizens and the application of EU rules during transition.

He warned: At this moment, as I speak to you, the transition is not a given.

Meanwhile, the Government sought to break the deadlock with Brussels over citizens rights by declaring that those who arrive in the UK during the transition period will be able to apply for indefinite leave to remain.

The offer falls short of Brussels demand for equal treatment with EU nationals resident in the UK before Brexit, who will be allowed to taken on settled status, granting them greater rights to bring in family members.Sinn Fein has welcomed the European Union's draft proposal of a "common regulatory area" between the EU and Northern Ireland after Brexit but warned "the Tory-DUP wrecking-agenda cannot prevail".

DUP leader Arlene Foster and Prime Minister Theresa May have rejected the EU proposal, published on Wednesday morning, which would effectively see Northern Ireland remain in the single market and customs union after Brexit.

Read More

Speaking during Leaders' Question at the Dail, Sinn Fein president Mary Lou McDonald called the DUP and UK government "arrogant" for their reaction to the proposals in the draft agreement.

"The British Government and the Brexiteers engaged in the Brexit debate with zero regard for the impact on Ireland," she said.

No concern for our economy. No concern for the rights of our people. No concern for the peace process.

Now they want to conclude their debate, and make their exit, by putting the Good Friday Agreement through the shredder. The Tory-DUP axis is satisfied to treat the welfare of the people of this island as collateral damage so long as they achieve their little Englander vision for Brexit.

Their arrogance is best highlighted by their rejection to the vote by the people of the north to remain in European Union and most recently crystallised by Boris Johnsons juvenile and dangerous commentary.

The DUP has hitched itself to the Tory wagon. They have put narrow political interests ahead of the good of the people of the north from all communities, ahead of our economic well-being and ahead of the political process.

The position of the Tory-DUP Brexiteers is that they will have their Brexit at any cost. Except it wont be them who foots the bill. It will be the ordinary people of this island both north and south.

That cant be allowed to happen. The Tory-DUP wrecking-agenda cannot prevail."

Expand Close Mary Lou McDonald and Michelle O'Neill have slammed the British Government and the DUP for rejecting the EU's draft agreement. PA Wire/PA Images / Facebook

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Whatsapp Mary Lou McDonald and Michelle O'Neill have slammed the British Government and the DUP for rejecting the EU's draft agreement.

Sinn Fein Vice President, Michelle O'Neill, also slammed the British Prime Minister and the DUP for their rejection of the EU Brexit proposals.

She said: The Tories and DUP have no right to hold 27 EU nations to ransom. They have no right to play fast and loose with an internationally-binding treaty such as the Good Friday Agreement.

It is also completely erroneous for Thesesa May to claim no British Prime Minister could agree to a proposal which she claims undermines her countrys constitutional integrity, when she herself agreed to it in December before her infamous phone call from Arlene Foster.

The fact is that the British Government is continuing to pander to the most right-wing elements in her own party and the DUP.

The other EU nations, and particularly the Dublin Government need to continue to stand firm in the face of that agenda and make it clear that we will not allow our future to be sacrificed on the altar of Tory-DUP arrogance and extremism.SDLP leader Colum Eastwood has said a call from prominent unionists for an inclusive debate on rights crossing the sectarian divide shows that community is far more diverse than the DUP's political position suggests.

Mr Eastwood described the unionist call, outlined in a letter, as "an honest appeal" for the type of dialogue on which a better society could be built.

"I accept the constructive criticism that in too many cases uniformity has been painted upon unionism when the truth tells us that no such uniformity exists," the SDLP leader said.

"I know that the unionist peoples are much more diverse, open, creative and complex than the positions espoused by Arlene Foster. Be assured that the same diversity is true of Irish nationalism across this island."

Earlier this week, prominent unionists called for an inclusive debate on rights that crosses the sectarian divide.

The open letter signed by 105 men and women from academia, politics, sport, arts and law, has been seen as civic unionism's response to a similar call from nationalists urging Taoiseach Leo Varadkar to defend their rights in Northern Ireland.

The unionist signatories said that they were motivated by a desire to build a better society for all.

"This cannot happen when such a commitment is perceived as being vested in one community or political persuasion," they stated. "We find it frustrating and puzzling that civic unionism, pluralists and other forms of civic leadership have been rendered invisible in many debates focused on rights and responsibilities."

Among those signing the letter were academics Pete Shirlow, Arthur Aughey and John Bew; former rugby international Trevor Ringland; Presbyterian minister Lesley Carroll; Ulster Unionist MLAs Mike Nesbitt and Doug Beattie and Belfast councillors Chris McGimpsey and Jeff Dudgeon; former PUP leader Dawn Purvis and current party councillor John Kyle; and cartoonist Brian John Spencer.

The SDLP leader replied to the unionists' call with his own open letter.

In his correspondence, Mr Eastwood said: "As our politics struggles to work, it is vital that a confident civic society begins to engage with one another and feels the freedom to do so.

"We all know the position in which Northern politics finds itself. There is no future if our political conversation continues to be locked in an arm-wrestle which no-one can win.

"I hope that your letter is another important step in loosening that grip which has only resulted in a further polarisation of our society."

He continued: "From my own perspective, the important challenge of this letter is an honest appeal to all of us - rather than talking amongst each other, we must instead seek to speak to one another.

"That kind of engagement is the only pathway through which all of us can find rights and belonging on this island and upon which a better society can then be built."

The SDLP leader said that "political volatility on these islands" in recent years had resulted in "the natural threads of communication" between unionism and nationalism suffering and sometimes breaking down.

"That breakdown is equally true of the broader relationship between the islands of Britain and Ireland," he said.

"Facing into the inevitable change ahead, our only choice is to speak openly and honestly with each other.

"The Good Friday Agreement still provides us with the institutional structures to do just this.

"Some of those conversations may well be uncomfortable but nevertheless they need to happen.

"It is the only way that we will come to agree a future of which we must all be part."

Mr Eastwood said the choice ahead was straight-forward.

"The Irish and British peoples across this island can retreat from each other or we can again choose to work, live and govern together. Your letter is a welcome opportunity to get back to the solution we all agreed in 1998," he added.During the EU referendum campaign, Boris Johnson said there would be no change to the border between the Republic and Northern Ireland.

A leaked memo from Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson to the Prime Minister appears to suggest there will have to be checks along the Irish border after Brexit and the government should focus on making sure the border does not become "significantly harder".

In the letter - obtained by Sky News - Mr Johnson appears to say it would be "wrong to see the government's task as maintaining no border" and even discusses the consequences of a hard border.

Critics said the letter was at odds with Mr Johnson's comments on managing the border like the London congestion zone and amounted to how a hard border operates.

However the DUP said the letter suggested a possible "virtual border" and that checks currently take place as it is.

In the wake of the leak, Number 10 dismissed any prospect of a return to a "hard border" saying it had made clear its commitment "on numerous occasions".

Read More

A spokesman for the foreign secretary said the letter was "designed to outline how a highly facilitated border would work and help to make a successful Brexit".

"The letter points out there is a border now, and the task the (cabinet Brexit) committee face is stopping this becoming significantly harder," he said.

"It shows how we could manage a border without infrastructure or related checks and controls while protecting UK, Northern Ireland, Irish and EU interests."

He added: "We will not accept any physical infrastructure at the border, and will instead seek alternatives that allow us to leave the customs union and take back control of our money, borders, laws and trading policy."

Read More

The UK government has committed to maintaining a frictionless border on the island of Ireland after Brexit. The leaked letter comes just hours ahead of the publication of a draft legal text from the EU on how the separation would work.

Read More

The letter from the Foreign Secretary, entitled "The Northern Ireland/Ireland border - the Facilitated Solution", is part of a "concept note" that "draws on Foreign Office expertise".

It also accompanies a note which appears to distance Mr Johnson's position from official British policy, saying "it is an FCO concept note based on discussion with other departments but is not agreed technical advice".

If there has to be some checks then let there be checks.

The letter says the aim of the Government should be to stop the border "becoming significantly harder".

"Even if a hard border is reintroduced, we would expect to see 95% + of goods pass the border without checks".

DUP Brexit spokesman Sammy Wilson told Sky News there were currently checks on those passing through the border and Northern Ireland could not in any way be isolated from the UK after Brexit.

"If there has to be some checks then let there be checks," he said.

Mr Wilson said his party was committed to getting a "frictionless border," he added: "This term of hard border needs to be defined. Those that talk about a hard border talk about check points on every road coming in and out of Northern Ireland, surveillance and every vehicle stopped, searched, etc...

"The more I see what was in the letter, what he was saying was 'yes of course there will be ways of checking trade across the border, it doesn't mean that you have to stop vehicles or have to have physical barriers across roads,' there are means of doing that and some have described it as a virtual border rather than a physical border."

Former Conservative Cabinet minister Lord Heseltine said what the letter was referring was to how all hard borders operate.

"This is completely incompatible with what [Boris Johnson] said in the referendum campaign. It is complete nonsense of his statement today that it's like Islington and Camden.

"What he is saying to the Prime Minister in private is that their may well have to be checks of perhaps 5% - and that means a hard border.

"This is the most remarkable revelation of duplicity."The European Union's draft withdrawal proposal of a common regulatory area between the EU and Northern Ireland after Brexit has enraged unionists.

The plans envisage an area spanning the whole island of Ireland with no internal borders and free movement of goods.

Read More

And it suggests that EU and UK customs authorities should jointly oversee movements between Northern Ireland and the British mainland, while Europe would retain control over aspects of taxation and state aid in the six counties.

DUP leader Arlene Foster attacked the plans describing them as "constitutionally unacceptable".

She said it would "be economically catastrophic" for Northern Ireland.

Theresa May said the text would "threaten the constitutional integrity of the UK" and told the House of Commons: "No UK prime minster could ever agree to it.

Mrs Foster said: "I welcome the Prime Minister's commitment that the Government will not allow any new border in the Irish Sea. Northern Ireland must have unfettered access to GB market."

Her party colleague Sammy Wilson had told the BBC's Daily Politics show that the deal was "unacceptable to the DUP and probably unacceptable to the British Government".

Released in Brussels by chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier just days before Prime Minister Theresa May sets out her own vision of post-Brexit relations on Friday, the text is likely to significantly heighten tensions in the long-running talks.

The EU text puts into legal terms the Joint Report agreed by Mrs May and European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker in December, and is due to be agreed by the remaining 27 EU states next month.

At a Brussels press conference, Mr Barnier signalled frustration at the lack of progress in the negotiations, telling reporters: We must pick up the pace.

He repeated his warning that agreement on the transition deal following Brexit sought by Mrs May is not a given.

On the crucial issue of the Irish border, the draft text spells out in detail how the principle of regulatory alignment agreed in December would be implemented if the UK fails to find technological or diplomatic solutions to keeping the border open.

If such solutions are not found, the draft text states, the territory of Northern Ireland, excluding the territorial waters of the United Kingdom  shall be considered to be part of the customs territory of the Union.

Customs controls would be carried out jointly by the Union and the United Kingdom customs authorities competent for the territory of Northern Ireland.

Northern Ireland would remain subject to EU restrictions restricting state aid for companies, in respect of measures affecting trade between the territory and the EU.

But the arrangements for the common regulatory area would cease to apply if and when alternative solutions are agreed to address the unique circumstances on the island of Ireland, avoiding a hard border and protecting the 1998 Agreement in all its dimensions.

The text provides for safeguards allowing the UK unilaterally to take time-limited appropriate measures in the case that its application leads to serious economic, societal or environmental difficulties liable to persist.

Ulster Unionist leader Robin Swann said the draft plan "was a complete non-starter" for Unionists.

The EU and the Irish Government are playing a very dangerous game over Northern Ireland. It is absolutely clear that Leo Varadkar, supported by Michel Barnier, Guy Verhofstadt and other unelected officials in the EU are seeking to exploit Brexit in pursuit of Irish unity. Those who voted to stay in the EU, didn`t vote to leave the UK and those who voted to leave the EU didn`t vote to leave the UK either," he said.

This continued sabre rattling from the Irish Government and EU officials has the potential to destroy relationships which have been built over decades and further divide what already is a polarised society. They are playing fast and loose with future relationships across these islands."

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The Republics Foreign Minister, Simon Coveney, said the proposals amounted to a backstop option if a better arrangement cannot be found.

This is very much a default and would only apply should it prove necessary. This is about delivering on our shared objectives of protecting the Good Friday Agreement and the gains of the peace process, no less, no more.

He added: This represents a logical outworking of the commitments made by the UK, including on protecting the Good Friday Agreement in all its parts and the gains of the peace process and avoiding a hard border on the island of Ireland.A businessman who wants Google to stop linking his name to internet crime reports has denied painting a 'false' picture of his career (PA/Jonathan Brady)

A businessman who wants Google to stop linking his name to internet media reports about a past crime has denied painting a false picture of his career.

The man was convicted of conspiracy to account falsely in the late 1990s and his case was reported in the media, a judge has been told.

He says the conviction is legally spent and argues that he has a right to be forgotten.

Google bosses dispute his claims. They say the information is materially accurate and there are strong public interest reasons for maintaining access to the publications.

Mr Justice Warby began analysing evidence at a High Court trial in London.

Barrister Antony White QC, who is leading Googles legal team, on Wednesday suggested that the man had painted a false and dishonest picture of his business career in internet blogs.

But the man told the judge: I dont accept that.

The hearing is due to end next week.

Lawyers say the case is the first right to be forgotten claim tried in England.

Mr Justice Warby has barred journalists from identifying the man in reports of the case.Prime Minister Theresa May speaks during Prime Ministers Questions in the House of Commons, London

Theresa May accused Labour of betraying Britons over Brexit as she faced calls to put the country ahead of her Cabinets oversized egos.

The Prime Minister attacked Jeremy Corbyns latest policy after he confirmed the Opposition will back a new and comprehensive UK-EU customs union to ensure tariff-free trade.

But the Labour leader hit back, insisting Mrs May is incapable of delivering a coherent and decisive plan for Brexit due to divisions in her Government.

He also questioned Boris Johnsons remarks over the Irish border, to which the PM insisted she and the Foreign Secretary are absolutely committed to ensuring there is no hard border.

Brexit dominated the leaders exchanges at Prime Ministers Questions for a second successive week, having barely featured in previous outings.

Speaking in the Commons, Mrs May said she was left confused by Mr Corbyns speech on Labour wanting to negotiate a new comprehensive customs union.

She said: That would mean that we couldnt do our trade deals and actually it would betray the vote of the British people.

In the next sentence he said he wanted a customs arrangement meaning we could negotiate our new trade deals  well thats the Governments position, so whats he want to do  let down the country or agree with the Government?

Jeremy Corbyn kicks off his questions on Brexit asking the PM 'what on earth' is ambitious managed divergence?  ElizabethArnold (@ebrep) February 28, 2018

Mr Corbyn, rising to ask his first question, took aim at Mrs Mays Brexit day and asked her to tell the country what ambitious managed divergence will mean.

He later said he understood Mrs May would make a Brexit speech on Friday and raised concerns of businesses and for the health service.

Mr Corbyn pressed the PM to outline which sectors of the Government want to remain aligned and which they plan to diverge.

Some Opposition MPs shouted at Mrs May to question why she was making a separate speech outside Parliament, which prompted the PM to say: Just calm down.

Jeremy Corbyn says the cabinet is in disarray and lists the PM's 'sound bites on Brexit.  ElizabethArnold (@ebrep) February 28, 2018

The PM said she had already set out the Governments position and would elaborate later in the week.

Mr Corbyn criticised Mrs May for her endless round of after-dinner speeches on Europe and later attacked the Governments record on training health workers, adding it doesnt seem to understand it takes eight years to train a doctor.

He said they were also completely oblivious to 100,000 vacancies in the NHS, adding: I suggest some members get a life and go and visit a hospital and see just how hard those people work in order to cover for the vacancies that are there.

May says net migration from EU is still high. She says there are more nurses and doctors in training, and Gov is creating opportunities for people in the U.K. #PMQs  Jon Vale (@JonValePA) February 28, 2018

Turning to the Irish border, Mr Corbyn noticed Mr Johnson was shouting at him and joked: Hes obviously mixing up the border with the Camden-Islington border.

Mrs May, in her reply, told MPs: He said it takes eight years to train a doctor  well, if hes worried about the number of doctors there are now, eight years ago it was a Labour government that was deciding how doctors were going to be trained.

On the border, she said: The Foreign Secretary and I are absolutely committed to ensuring that we deliver on no hard border between Northern Ireland and Ireland.

Thats the position of the UK Government, its the position of the parties in Northern Ireland, its the position of the Irish Government and it was what we agreed in the December agreement of that joint report.

We are all committed to ensuring there is no hard border between Northern Ireland and Ireland.

On Irish border, May says she and Boris Johnson are absolutely committed to deliver on no hard border. Says its the position of all parties and it was agreed in December #PMQs  Jon Vale (@JonValePA) February 28, 2018

Mr Corbyn questioned why Mr Johnson in private correspondence with Mrs May was seeking to do the opposite over the border.

He added: The Government is so divided that the Prime Minister is incapable of delivering a coherent and decisive plan for Brexit.

So when is she going to put the countrys interests before the outsized egos of her own Cabinet?

Mrs May replied: My priorities are the priorities of the British people. Yes, were going to get Brexit right and deliver a good Brexit deal for them.Jared Kushner's security clearance is said to have been downgraded (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)

The security clearance of White House senior adviser Jared Kushner, US President Donald Trumps son-in-law, has reportedly been downgraded.

Mr Kushner had been operating with an interim clearance at the top secret/sensitive compartmented information level for more than a year.

Now, a White House official and a person familiar with the decision say he is only authorised to access information at the lower secret level.

Chief of Staff John Kelly ordered that White House officials with interim clearances pending since before June 1, 2017, lose their access to the nations deepest secrets if they had not received permanent clearances by last Friday.

A White House official confirms that Mr Kellys order has been implemented.

Mr Trump could have reversed Mr Kellys decision and unilaterally offered Mr Kushner a clearance, but deferred to the chief of staff.

I will let General Kelly make that decision and hes going to do whats right for the country and I have no doubt hell make the right decision, Mr Trump said on Friday, when he addressed the security clearance issue for the first time.

Mr Kushners attorney told the Associated Press that his clients ability to do his job would not be affected by any change to his clearance.

Those involved in the process again have confirmed that there are dozens of people at Mr Kushners level whose process is delayed, that it is not uncommon for these clearance reviews to take this long in a new administration, and that the current backlogs are now being addressed, said spokesman Peter Mirijanian.

Mr Kushners portfolio once included the US relationships with China and Japan and a host of domestic priorities, including infrastructure, trade and economic development.

But his freewheeling reach in the foreign policy space  which was viewed as undermining Secretary of State Rex Tillerson  had already been curtailed somewhat under Mr Kelly.

The news set off rampant speculation among Trump allies that Mr Kushners days in the White House might be numbered.

Tuesday saw the announcement of the departure of a top aide to Mr Kushner in the White House, deputy communications director Josh Raffel, the third departure of an ally of Mr Kushner in the West Wing in as many months.

And the selection of an ally of Mr Kushner, Brad Parscale, to serve as Mr Trumps 2020 campaign manager appeared to some as a way to provide Mr Kushner with a convenient off-ramp from his White House duties.In the wake of the collapse of the Stormont talks, there is a very dangerous notion that the Good Friday Agreement is finished. Bad and all as we are now, this mischievous idea must not gain traction or we really will be left hopelessly adrift. One of the worst offenders is the former Northern Ireland Secretary, Owen Paterson, a Brexiteer, who said that the collapse of the negotiations shows that, "the Good Friday Agreement has outlived its use".

Such an irresponsible statement from a senior Tory illustrates a glaring ignorance. His failure to understand the value of the agreement is, frankly, shocking. It makes a mockery of his previous position as a custodian of the agreement when he was in the Cabinet.

The fact is that the Good Friday Agreement is not finished and is the only structure that gives all of us ultimate hope for the future. The fact is the agreement is the only context in which our problems can be gradually and peacefully resolved over a prolonged period of time.

The agreement represents our only hope to reconcile the two political traditions that inhabit this political space. The agreement, in essence, represents the totality of relationships within these islands. It is a three-stranded process: Strand One being the relationship within Northern Ireland; Strand Two being the north-south relationship; and Strand Three being the east-west relationship.

Some people seem to be believe that the agreement is simply confined to a power-sharing arrangement between the two political traditions in Northern Ireland: it is much more than that.

In response to Owen Paterson, SDLP leader Colum Eastwood said: "What the GFA, at its very core, represents is peace. It is the first time we have properly had an accommodation between the peoples of this island and the peoples of our islands in many a hundred years."

Another Brexiteer MP, Labour's Kate Hoey, has described the agreement as now being "unsustainable". To be fair to Ms Hoey, she has never been an enthusiastic supporter of the agreement in the first place, so her remarks are not all that surprising.

But is Kate Hoey really saying that power-sharing and partnership are no longer the solution to our divided politics?

If that is what she is saying, then it is truly a counsel of despair, because power-sharing and partnership lie at the very heart of Strand One of the agreement.

Another avid Brexiteer, Daniel Hannan, a Conservative MEP, has also touted the same notion in a recent newspaper article.

Why are these radical Brexiteers, like Hannan, Paterson and Hoey, finding common cause in writing off the agreement?

The answer is that they see the agreement as an obstacle to achieving a clean break from the EU. The agreement entangles the whole Brexit issue and makes Brexit a much more complicated process.

The EU has wisely made protecting and supporting the agreement an important aspect of their negotiations with the British Government. The Europeans closely associate the agreement with the Irish border issue. They rightly see the agreement as being posited on a common membership of the European Union that the Brexiteers all instinctively loathe. The agreement is, therefore, like a red rag to a bull as far as the Brexiteers are concerned.

While the recent talks failure has been a huge disappointment for everybody and the likelihood of power-sharing being restored soon is remote, that should not mean that one loses faith in the integrity of the power-sharing model.

Furthermore, if one examines Strand Two and Strand Three of the workings of the agreement, there is little doubt (barring the rude introduction of Brexit) that these institutions have operated well and assisted in the development of a civilised, friendly and respectful relationship between Britain and Ireland over the past two decades.

In the context of Brexit becoming a reality, the British-Irish Council could be a very important institution within these islands - especially given Scotland's independent attitude towards leaving the EU.

Leo Varadkar, the Taoiseach, has reacted sharply to all these ill-judged attacks and has demanded that the radical Brexiteers should respect the 82% vote of all the people in Ireland who endorsed the agreement in 1998. After all, he argues, it is these same people that demand respect for their vote to leave the EU.

But those, like the politicians quoted above, who glibly retail such anti-agreement sentiments, have a duty to outline what their alternative is.

It took many years of dogged, hard political effort to achieve the agreement.

It represents the best political settlement available for the people of Ireland, north and south, and the people of Britain as well.

To undermine it, or, even worse, to abandon it altogether, would be a disaster and would threaten the sorely-won peace that has been so successfully achieved.The past - contrary to the reconciliation promise of the Belfast Agreement, now approaching its 20th anniversary - dominates the present in Northern Ireland and bodes unwell for the future, there being little or nothing for unionists, nationalists and others to share culturally and intellectually.

Is there a case (following Denis Bradley and Lord Eames's joint appearance on The View on BBC Northern Ireland on February 1) for drawing a line under the past - no more Troubles inquiries, prosecutions or inquests?

I believe there is and that it would lead sooner rather than later to the opening up of State archives in London, Belfast and maybe even Dublin.

I first considered this matter of the future of the past by way of conclusion to my book Tony Blair And The IRA (London, 2016) - that work is based upon the 1,500 pages of documents disclosed in the John Downey trial in the Old Bailey in London in February 2014 - which allowed me to dissect the Northern Ireland Office's so-called administrative scheme of 2000-2014, whereby 187 of 228 IRA 'on the runs' benefited from, effectively, a secret UK Government amnesty.

More recently there has been a campaign for a statute of limitations to be applied to soldiers (but not seemingly police).

A Private Member's Bill has been introduced in Parliament and is awaiting its second reading.

The arguments in favour of continuing prosecution are mainly: 1) victims generally demand it; 2) perpetrators should not go unpunished; 3) we have legacy litigation already in play; 4) humanitarian concerns, on the part of many people, require it; 5) criminal justice goes on for ever; 6) the passage of time is not a reason to stop; and 7) resources can be provided by the Treasury in London (as they were to get DUP support for the UK Government on Brexit).

But each of these arguments quickly throws up an antithetical point.

Take, for example, victims and survivors.

Would relatives not grieve better in private in a society which stopped irritating the sores of the past?

And are the chiefs of the criminal justice system - Sir Declan Morgan, the Lord Chief Justice; John Larkin QC, the Attorney General, and George Hamilton, the Chief Constable - all wrong, in their various ways, to worry about diversion from the needs of the present and the possible loss of hope for the future?

The arguments in favour of amnesty are more clear-cut: 1) precedents from the creation of the Irish State; 2) various immunities granted paramilitaries and others from 1997; 3) the release of terrorist prisoners after two years, provided for in the Belfast Agreement; 4) no legal impediment if Parliament legislates for an amnesty; 5) the doings of officialdom, and, in particular, Sir Quentin Thomas's Clean Sheets report of January 2001 (where the NIO first canvassed the idea of an amnesty); and 6) the Northern Ireland (Offences) Bill 2005-06, which Sinn Fein - still abstaining - wrecked in Parliament, because it applied also to the security forces.

Is there not now a basis for convergence (not alliance) between the 228 'on the runs' (plus loyalist paramilitaries, who were never offered comfort letters) and the much smaller number of police and soldiers - a handful at most - at risk of prosecution?

Whether devolution is gone for good or not, Sinn Fein and the DUP are most unlikely to broker such a solution.

But is there not a composite Eames/Bradley out there, a man or woman from civil society, not contaminated by political identity or patronage by the Northern Ireland Office, who could launch a single-issue campaign, based on a programme of drawing a line under the past in order to stop the present and future being dominated by re-runs of Troubles atrocities?

Elected politicians - and no criticism is intended - always find it easier to listen to lobby groups, not least when sectarianism drives tribal range, including articulated claims to be putting the interests of "our" victims first and last.

The Irish (and UK) Government - despite Bertie Ahern's letter of December 23, 1999 (in which he suggested amnesties, north and south) and Tony Blair's four secret agreements with Gerry Adams (revealed in my book) - are also unlikely to risk unpopularity.

Ministers - in absence of a real policy on the past - remain committed to the four new institutions in the 2014 Stormont House Agreement.

The historical investigations unit, merging bits of the PSNI and the Police Ombudsman, is extremely concerning.

The long march of Baroness Nuala O'Loan and Dr Michael Maguire through the past would be continued in a historical investigations unit where professional police officers would be playing second fiddle to their professional critics.

The multi-volume Saville Report on Bloody Sunday (2010), whether read or unread, and Alex Gibney's Loughinisland documentary No Stone Unturned (2017), whether viewed or avoided, give the world a very distorted view of who killed whom in the Northern Ireland Troubles from 1968 to 1998.

It took civil society - and in particular David McKittrick and his journalist colleagues - to produce the successive editions of Lost Lives, from 1999, the unofficial work which tried to record every death from the Troubles.

They did not wait for a Government quango, political agreement at Stormont or EU funding, so why is the past corralled as an agenda item in a political talks process, characterised by never any agreement and never any end.

It is only with the release of documents (redacted for Article 2 reasons under the Strasbourg human rights convention) that a true narrative could be constructed over coming decades, showing: republicans killed 60% of people (including many Catholics); loyalists killed 30% (including many Protestants); and the 10% of State killings - compared with the aforementioned 90% - were mainly, but not entirely, lawful.

Dr Austen Morgan is a barrister in London and Belfast and is the author of Tony Blair And The IRA (London, 2016). This article forms the basis of his address to a legacy litigation seminar to be held at Malone House in Belfast this Saturday from 10.30am to 3.30pmPolitical polarization has reached historic highs in Bangladesh and constant antagonism between rival parties has helped enable a resurgent militant threat with a general election looming, the International Crisis Group (ICG) said in a study released Wednesday.

The countrys poisonous politics has allowed a resurgence of religious extremism led by two groups, Jamaat-ul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) and Ansar al-Islam, also known as Ansarullah Bangla Team, according to Brussels-based ICG.

While there is no direct line between toxic politics and the rise of jihadist violence, a bitterly divided polity, between those espousing secularism and those emphasizing Bangladeshs Muslim identity, and a brutal and highly partisan policing and justice system, nonetheless has opened space for jihadist groups, said ICG, a group that researches conflicts and security-related issues around the globe.

Without a change of course  and particularly if the December elections trigger a crisis similar to that around previous polls  the country could face another jihadist resurgence, ICG said.

Bangladesh Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal played down the report, saying his countrys security forces had virtually eliminated the militant threat by launching a crackdown that killed scores of suspected militants since terrorists carried out a massacre of hostages at a cafe in Dhaka in July 2016.

We have broken their backbone. They can stand no more, he told BenarNews. We, our intelligence agencies, have been alert and vigilant. There will no place for the militants.

Indiscriminate force

The study by ICG pointed to the 2014 general election where the Awami League maintained power after main rival Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) boycotted the polls, because Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina had refused to let a caretaker administration govern during election season, as required by the constitution.

Since then, it said Awami League had taken steps to marginalize the opposition through the conviction and prison sentence against BNP leader former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia and legal actions against Jamaat-e-Islami (JeI), Bangladeshs largest faith-based political party.

To make matters worse, Awami League leaders have exploited the threat to further discredit BNP and JeI, accusing them of complicity in high-profile attacks, ICG said.

Minister Khan said there would be no boycotts this year because all legal political parties would be involved in polls.

There will be no threat of militancy, he said.

Khan praised police, the Rapid Action Battalion and other law enforcing agencies for stopping militants from operating in Bangladesh. He blamed JeI and its student wing, Islami Chhatra Shibir, for being responsible for militant acts.

These Jamaat-Shibir act sometimes as the JMB, sometimes as Neo-JMB, sometimes as Ansar al-Islam, he said.

But according to ICG, the governments use of blunt indiscriminate force in cracking on militancy, including carrying out enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killings that eliminated large numbers of jihadists and weakened militant groups, was counter-productive.

[T]he government should adopt a counter-terrorism strategy anchored in reformed criminal justice and better intelligence gathering. Rather than cracking down on rivals, it should forge a broad social and political consensus on how to confront the threat, its report said.

Militants can exploit situation: Bangladeshi expert

Reacting to the ICG report, security analyst retired-Brig. Gen. Sakhawat Hossain warned that politics indeed can breed militancy if JeI is shut out of the electoral process.

I do not want to express extreme views like the International Crisis Group, but it is true that the militants could exploit the absence of democratic system, he said.

They command at least 4 percent of the total popular vote. If JeI cannot take part in the next general elections, they could go berserk, he said. If 1 percent of the JeI workers turned militant, the situation would be very bad and could get out of government control.

He said pre-emptive strikes by law enforcers against militant groups brought temporary relief to Bangladesh. ICG noted in its report that there were no major militant attacks in 2017.

But we have to guarantee good governance through a healthy democratic system to counter militancy, Hossain said. So we hope that all political parties take part in the next general election and the countrys democratic system continues.

Recommendations from ICG

ICG offered suggestions to government and opposition leaders to ensure peace in Bangladesh.

Ending the deadlock is even more urgent today as Bangladesh confronts a new generation of potentially more dangerous jihadists with apparent links to transnational terror groups such as ISIS, ICG said, referring to the Islamic State.

Instead, Sheikh Hasinas government has made no serious attempt to reconcile with the mainstream opposition, opting instead to waste police resources on repression of opponents, it said, adding the choice undermined democracy and security.

Another breakdown of law and order would almost certainly play into the hands of groups like Ansar and JMB. If the government does not change course, such forces may experience another resurgence, ICG said.Indonesian police officers stand guard as the luxury yacht Equanimity is seen in the background off Bali, Feb. 28, 2018.

A Malaysian tycoon at the center of a criminal probe into billions of dollars stolen from corruption-tainted state fund 1MDB was not on board when Indonesian police and FBI agents seized a superyacht off Bali island, officials said Wednesday.

Businessman Low Taek Jho (alias Jho Low) had bought the 100-meter (300-foot) luxury vessel Equanimity  estimated to be worth U.S. $250 million  with some of the $4.5 billion allegedly misappropriated from sovereign wealth fund 1Malaysia Development Berhad, U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) officials said in June 2017.

But Jho Low was not among the 34 people who were on the yacht, which was moored at Balis Benoa Bay when Indonesian and U.S. authorities raided it on Tuesday before seizing the vessel on Wednesday, Agung Setya Imam Effendi, director of economic crimes at Indonesias national police, told MetroTV.

All of them were crew members. Thirty-four people in total, he told the station, which showed footage of Indonesian police and FBI agents interviewing crewmen on board the yacht. Yes. The yacht was not carrying any passengers. All of them were crew members.



Agung said police started working with the FBI a week ago after the yacht was located in Indonesian waters. We have legal confirmation that this asset is the result of a crime, he said.

Based on our investigations, the ship had 34 crew members, all of them foreign nationals, Agung later told reporters.

Daniel Tahi Monang Silitonga, deputy director of the economic and special crimes unit of Indonesias criminal investigation bureau, confirmed FBI agents were present when Indonesian police boarded the ship.

We are researching the owner of the yacht. Well release the results of that investigation later, he told reporters.

FBI investigations [found that] part of the proceeds of that corruption were used to buy a ship that was sailing in Indonesia, he said, referring to the DOJ probe.

The yacht had been sailing in Indonesian waters since November 2017, he said.



MarineTraffic, a maritime database, had logged the yachts docking at Sabang, a town on the island of Pulau Weh, northwest of Sumatra in October 2017, Malaysian news portal malaysiakini.com reported.



In August 2017, DOJ asked a California court to put aside 29 civil cases filed since July 2016 so it could launch a criminal investigation related to the debt-laden 1MDB, which is the target of money-laundering probes in at least one-half dozen countries.

The state fund has been tied to corruption allegations surrounding Prime Minister Najib Razak, who founded 1MDB but has denied any wrongdoing.

Court documents obtained by BenarNews show DOJ accused Jho Low of laundering more than $400 million stolen from 1MDB through acquisitions of properties in California, New York and London, a jet purchased for $35 million and the yacht.

In a statement emailed to the Malaysian media, a spokesman for Jho Low complained about the seizure because U.S. justice officials had still not taken any steps to prove that any impropriety has occurred.

It is therefore disappointing that, rather than reflecting on the deeply flawed and politically motivated allegations, the DOJ is continuing with its pattern of global over-reach  all based on entirely unsupported claims of wrongdoing, the spokesman said.Former Philippine President Benigno Aquino III (left) greets Philippine Supreme Court Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno as they gather in Manila to commemorate the 45th anniversary of the 1972 martial law declaration by then-dictator Ferdinand Marcos, Sept. 21, 2017.

Updated at 8:57 a.m. ET on 2018-03-01

The head of the Philippine Supreme Court said Wednesday she was taking indefinite leave this week to defend herself against an expected move to impeach her by the House of Representatives, which allies of President Rodrigo Duterte control.

Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno, in a speech in Manila, said she needed the time off to prepare for her legal defense in the Senate and combat what her lawyers claimed were trumped-up corruption charges filed by an attorney with links to the administration.

I need to prepare to fight the accusations against me fairly and squarely, with honor, dignity and grace, Sereno told a convention of the Regional Trial Court Clerks Association of the Philippines. It makes me proud to fight for you.

The 292-member House is set to vote next week on an impeachment complaint against Sereno. It needs a third of its members to endorse the charges to the Senate, which would then convene into a special court to try her.

The speech was the last public engagement by Sereno, who has said she would go on a leave of absence, beginning March 1. During that time, the judiciary will continue its work without her.

In a letter to the clerk of the Supreme Court, Sereno said she would take an indefinite leave of absence from her duties due to the expected demands of her impeachment trial at the Senate.

She described the accusations against her, filed by an obscure lawyer with ties to the ruling party, as baseless charges.

I want to give you the assurance that while I will be taking a leave of absence, the ship of state of the judiciary remains on course, Sereno said, urging court workers to focus on your job and not be distracted.

In a statement on Tuesday, Presidential spokesman Harry Roque said Serenos decision to take leave was a personal matter.

Without publicly calling for her resignation, Roque said he hoped Sereno would take the opportunity to reflect on her time and legacy at the Supreme Court and to consider what would be best for the institution which she heads as top magistrate.

First female chief justice

Sereno, the first woman to serve as chief justice in the Philippines, was appointed in 2012 by then-President Benigno Aquino. But his successor, Rodrigo Duterte, said that he wanted to see the top magistrate removed.

Duterte, however, has declined to comment publicly on the allegations against Sereno after the justice committee of the House decided last year to undertake deliberations into the complaint. He also denied having played a hand in the bid to remove Sereno.

The complaint against Sereno was filed after she voted against Duterte when the president decided to transfer the remains of late dictator Ferdinand Marcos to the national Heroes Cemetery in 2016  nearly three decades after his death.

Sereno had also dissented when Duterte extended martial law in the south, saying the president had acted with grave abuse of discretion.

Coordinated political moves

On Wednesday, her spokesman, lawyer Jojo Lacanilao, rejected what he said were coordinated extra-constitutional moves to oust Sereno from her office.

We want to emphasize that Chief Justice Sereno has no intention to resign at all from her post as chief justice, Lacanilao said, even though they were anticipating that the House would vote to impeach her.

There is nobody or institution outside of the Senate that can force the Chief Justice to resign. Nobody can decide that other than the Senate, Lacanilao said.

The Constitution, passed in 1987  a year after Marcos was ousted after more than two decades in power  states that an impeachable official can only be removed from office by an impeachment that goes through the House and then the Senate, Lacanilao noted.

Suggestions that Sereno resign or be removed from office by other means, as threatened by some pro-administration politicians, would be patently unconstitutional, he said.

Felipe Villamor in Manila contributed to this report.

This story was updated to clarify that Sereno is preparing for proceedings in the Senate.

Moncks Corner, SC (29461)

Today

Partly cloudy early followed by mostly cloudy skies and a few showers later in the day. High near 85F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 30%..

Tonight

Considerable cloudiness. Low 69F. Winds light and variable.Increase in adoption of novel nanomedicines products drives the market growth in India. Moreover, increase in the number of players and high adoption of innovative technologies further fuel the market growth. In addition, robust government initiative toward improvement of healthcare facilities through insurance schemes is anticipated to provide lucrative growth opportunities in the country. The nanomedicines market in India is expected to grow at the highest CAGR of 13.4% from 2016 to 2023.

Geographically, the market for nanomedicine is segmented into North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, Middle East & Africa, and Latin America. Currently, North America accounts for the largest market share. The Asia-Pacific region is expected to grow at the highest CAGR during the forecast period of 2018-2023, owing to the improving research infrastructure in the region, improved purchasing power of patients, the rapid increase in geriatric population, and rising awareness regarding healthcare. China and India are to be foreseen as the growing nanomedicine markets in Asia.

The global nanomedicine market accounted for $111,912 million in 2017, and is anticipated to reach $261,063 million by 2023, registering a CAGR of 12.6 per cent from 2017 to 2023, according to a new report published by Allied Market Research.

A new report by Grand View Research, Inc. observed that the global nanomedicine market is anticipated to reach $ 350.8 billion by 2025. Development of novel nanotechnology-based drugs and therapies is driven by the need to develop therapies that have fewer side effects and that are more cost-effective than traditional therapies, in particular for cancer.

Application of nanotechnology-based contrast reagents for diagnosis and monitoring of the effects of drugs on an unprecedented short timescale is also attributive drive growth in the coming years. Additionally, demand for biodegradable implants with longer lifetimes that enable tissue restoration is anticipated to influence demand.



As per the World Health Organisation (WHO) factsheet, cancer is found to be one of the major causes of mortality and morbidity worldwide, with approximately 14 million new cases in 2012 and 8.2 million cancer-related deaths. Thus, demand for nanomedicine in order to curb such high incidence rate is expected to boost market progress during the

forecast period.

Solutions such as nanoformulations with triggered release for tailor-made pharmacokinetics, nanoparticles for local control of tumor in combination with radiotherapy, and functionalized nanoparticles for targeted in-vivo activation of stem cell production are anticipated to drive R&D, consequently resulting in revenue generation in the coming years.

Biopharmaceutical and medical devices companies are actively engaged in development of

novel products as demonstrated by the increasingly growing partnerships between leading enterprises and nanomedicine startups.

Promising technologies

Nanotechnology is one of the most promising technologies in the 21st century. The nanomedicine branch offers an impressive solution for various life threatening diseases such as cancer, Parkinson, Alzheimer, diabetes, orthopedic problems, diseases related to blood, lungs, neurological, and cardiovascular system.

In 2007, investment in nanotechnology by venture capitalists (VCs) was $702 million, across 61 deals. Of these, 27 per cent went to healthcare and life science. Two years later, the nanotechnology market captured $792 million in VC investment, with the largest share (51 per cent) going to healthcare and life sciences. This doubling of the funds invested in healthcare in such a short period demonstrates investor interest in nanomedicine.

Around the same time in 2007, the Government of India approved the launch of a Mission on Nano Science and Technology (Nano Mission) with an allocation of Rs. 1000 crore for 5 years. Recognizing the success of Nano Mission, the Union Cabinet accorded approval for continuation of the Nano Mission in its Phase-II during the 12th Plan period with an allocation of Rs. 650 crore.

Nano Mission is currently being chaired by Professor CNR Rao, FRS, National Research Professor and Honorary President & Linus Pauling Research Professor, Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research, Bengaluru. Though India ranks third in terms of publications on Nano Sciences, it was behind several nations in terms of using it in the field of medicine. The country needs to progress more in the field of nanomedicine. It is a fast emerging area with enormous promise of tackling hitherto-complex and tough diseases like cancers, neurodegenerative disorders and infections, he pointed out while attending the 9th edition of Bengaluru India Nano event recently.

As a part of the efforts towards fostering a business environment for the development of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology Industry in India, Bengaluru India Nano event is being organized every year since its inception in 2007.

At the latest edition of the India Nano event in December 2017, a separate session on nanomedicine was conducted in order to discuss the latest research being carried out at different institutes all over India. Our team is working on a technique based on gold nano-structures that would offer cancer treatment at just Rs. 10,000. The Phase 1 trials are complete and we are preparing for Phase 2 testing of the procedure, discussed Prof Rohit Srivastava, IIT- Bombay, while giving out a presentation at the event.

The global nanomedicine market is driven by emerging innovative technologies for drug delivery, advantages of nanomedicine in various healthcare applications, rise in government support and funding, and growth in need for safe and cost-effective therapies, explained Prof Ashok K Ganguli, Director, Institute of Nano Science and Technology, Mohali.

The Indian Society of Nano Medicine (ISNM) was launched in 2016 in order to bring several Indian nano technology researchers together and use it for slashing high cost of medicines, provide customised treatment and improve diagnostics.

This platform will give members an opportunity to closely interact with peers in the field of nanomedicine with particular emphasis on the interdisciplinary nature of the contacts between innovators and physicians focusing on clinical application. Apart from providing targeted delivery, nano drugs will help in lowering the cost as dosage will reduce from milligrams to nanograms with less side effects. The ISNM will also see collaborations in future with American Society of Nano Medicine and similar societies from other countries as well, shared Amit Dinda, Secretary of ISNM.

Three teams from BRICS countries, including Russia and India, have recently planned to embark on a project that uses the benefits of nanomedicine to simultaneously bundle both diagnostics and therapy into one package for treating cancer.

Nanotechnology has come a long way in the last five years and now nanomedicine, a marriage of nanotechnology and medicine, is taking its place in the fight against unmet diseases. With the promise of medical applications such as targeted cancer treatments, microscopic sensors and even devices that mimic human organs in the future, enthusiasm for the field is backed by serious research and development funding from government and industry, highlighted Prof Satyajit Mayor, Director, National Centre for Biological Sciences (NCBS), Bengaluru.

The investment in the nanomedicine market is set to increase. New applications have demonstrated its value, and the resulting expansion of potential markets makes the risk more appealing.

The key global players in the nanomedicine market are:

Abbott Laboratories

CombiMatrix Corporation

GE Healthcare

Sigma-Tau Pharmaceuticals, Inc.

Johnson & Johnson

Mallinckrodt plc

Merck & Company, Inc.

Nanosphere, Inc.

Pfizer, Inc.

Celgene Corporation

Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd.

UCB (Union chimique belge) S.A

(Source- Allied Market Research Report)

Research Institutes in India currently involved in the field of Nanomedicine

Indian Institute of Chemical Technology, Hyderabad

Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay

Institute of Nano Science and Technology, Mohali

Indian Institute of Technology, Ropar

Mepco Schleck Engineering College, Tamil Nadu

Birla Institute of Technology, Ranchi

Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham University, Kochi

Shiv Nadar University, Noida

Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur

University of Allahabad

Indian Institute of Technology New Delhi

School for Health Affairs Medical College Campus, Bharati Vidyapeeth, Pune

Agarkar Research Institute, Pune

Loyola College, Nungambakkam, Chennai

Bombay College of Pharamacy, Mumbai

University of Hyderabad

University of Kolkata

Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi

Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani,

Indian Institute of Science Education & Research (IISER), Pune

Bose Institute, KolkataAccording to the fourth World Health Organization (WHO) report on neglected tropical diseases (NTD), India has achieved the target for the elimination of visceral leishmaniasis (kala azar) in 82% sub-districts and the government has set a target of eliminating visceral leishmaniasis by 2017 and lymphatic filariasis in endemic pockets by 2017. Another significant achievement was the elimination of yaws, a chronic skin disease that mostly affects poor children, in 2015. WHO recognised India as the first member state to achieve this important milestone. India has also progressed well in treating lymphatic filariasis (elephantiasis), and has stopped mass drug administration in 72 endemic districts after passing evaluations.

A group of 20 chronic parasitic, bacterial and viral infections are threatening 1.6 billion people across 149 countries. This set of infections is responsible for causing a group of diseases called the Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs). These NTDs remain underreported because they affect the poorest and the most marginalised with little or no access to diagnosis, treatment and cure.

With 58 percent of leprosy cases, 40 percent of lymphatic filariasis and 34 percent of all dengue cases, India shoulders a high burden of several NTDs, which demands sustained attention and action by all stakeholders.

As per WHOs 2020 roadmap to eliminate at least 10 of NTDs, India is committed to provide the necessary resources to remove the primary risk factors for NTDs  poverty and exposure by ensuring access to clean water and basic sanitation, integrated vector control, health education and improved living conditions.

For the programmatic point of view, the World Health Organization (WHO) has classified NTDs into two groups:

Preventive chemotherapy and transmission control (PCT) NTDs- The most prominent examples of NTDs that have been allocated to the PCT group are lymphatic filariasis, onchocerciasis, schistosomiasis, and soil-transmitted helminthiasis. The main tool for their control is the periodic administration of efficacious, safe, and inexpensive (usually donated) drugs to entire at-risk populations. Innovative and intensified disease management (IDM) NTDs- IDM, on the other hand, focuses on those NTDs that currently lack appropriate tools for large-scale use. These diseases include Buruli ulcer, Chagas disease, human African trypanosomiasis, and leishmaniasis

While some of these diseases may be unfamiliar, leprosy, kala-azar and filariasis are better known in India and are being targeted for elimination in the near future. A disease is considered eliminated when the prevalence rate is less than 1 case per 10,000 population size.

The Indian government has set itself the target of eliminating kala-azar, filariasis and leprosy by 2018. With such ambitious targets, sustained research must remain an integral component of disease elimination programmes.

India is home to a fourth of the 220.6 million children worldwide who need preventive doses of the de-worming medicines Albendazole or Mebendazole to stop worm infection, but re-infection makes it difficult to eliminate worm infections. Since 2015, India has dewormed close to 300 million children at risk of infections.

During my tenure as Chairman of the Technical Advisory Group for Lymphatic Filariasis (South-East Asian) region and former Director General of ICMR, I have witnessed tremendous progress in India and other countries in Asia towards the goal of elimination. In the area of filariasis, major research is being undertaken in the three drug therapy which includes Ivrmectin, DEC and Albendazole. Another major area in filariasis research is tropical eosinophilia and its overall impact on health. The research is primarily being conducted in the field of new diagnostics, particularly mass spectrometric sequencing as well as use of ultrasound in tracking adult filaria worms. The effect of filariasis on overall immune responses, particularly tuberculosis is the discovery of new microfilaricides drugs.

On the other hand, after the success of single dose ambisome, the major research area being covered for leishmaniasis is a new treatment regime in PKDL (Post-kala-azar dermal leishmaniasis). Other scientific developments such as understanding the mechanism of drug resistance in leishmaniasis, new full genome sequencing of leishmania strains, and four leishmania vaccines are also on the cards. In the area of leprosy, the diagnostics of pauci leprosy is the main research area apart from the mechanism of neurologic manifestation leprosy and HIV immune responses, shares Dr N K Ganguly, Former DG, ICMR.

With a target to eliminate lymphatic filariasis by the end of 2018, India has had success in 72 districts and is now expanding treatment to include harder-to-reach areas in the eastern states of West Bengal and Odisha. The triple drug therapy (Ivermectin, DEC, and Albendazole) can kill the adult worm and significantly lower the rounds of treatment.

While partnerships to provide affordable products such as diagnostics, drugs and insecticides have led to more than one billion people being treated for at least one NTD in 2015, weak health infrastructure remains the biggest hurdle to scaling up and stamping out these treatable illnesses.

India has been trying to eliminate kala azar for decades but with little success. In 2014, the government launched the Kala Azar Elimination Programme with support from international agencies like the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, the Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative. The programme focusses on the four endemic states and has been on the verge of eliminating the disease but has been struggling to cross the finish line. Bihar has the more than 70 per cent of the disease burden, with kala azar endemic in 33 of its 38 districts.

While the drug liposomal amphotericin has made a big difference in controlling the infection, social conditions like poverty and neglect that help the disease spread still remain.

In India, the Kala-azar Elimination Programme and the Filariasis Elimination Programme are operated under the aegis of the National Vector Borne Disease Control Programme (NVBDCP). Kala-azar is endemic in eastern States of India namely Bihar, Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal. Overall, 54 districts are endemic, sporadic cases reported from a few other districts. An estimated 130-165 million population is at risk in these four States. The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has constituted a Core Group within the Ministry for guidance and oversight of progress towards kala-azar elimination. Based on global, regional and local evidence a National Road Map for kala-azar elimination has also been prepared in 2014. These programmes, among others, have been reviewed by the Joint Missions of the WHO and several areas for strengthening have been identified, points out Dr. Lalit Kant, Former Senior Scientific Adviser, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

To eliminate leprosy, India needs to tackle the stigma associated with the disease. It leads to delays in diagnosis and treatment, which in turn results in continued transmission of infection within families and communities. In 2015-16, 118 districts in India were endemic for leprosy with a prevalence rate of more than 1 per 10,000.

Besides basic research  the discovery of new facts about a disease, vaccines and drugs  new strategies are needed to make an impact. In fact, proving the efficacy of new tools and methods is not enough; their effectiveness must be demonstrated in the field. Lastly, continued surveillance and epidemiologic data collection is necessary to ensure that the disease continues to be under control.

Over the years, the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has produced new tools, which include two rapid diagnostic tests and a uniform multidrug regimen for all types of leprosy. This has shortened treatment duration to 6 months and is improving adherence.

Amrita Institute of Medical Sciences, Kochi, is currently running a website Indian Network for Neglected Tropical Diseases to address the alarming cases of morbidity and mortality occurring due to these diseases. NTDs result from four different causative pathogens viruses, bacteria, protozoa and helminthes which causes dengue, chikungunya, rabies, leishmaniases, leprosy and many other diseases. The morbidity and mortality due to the NTDs remains a major health challenge in India. In Kerala, due to the presence of an effective health care system the magnitude of this problem has been low. However, with the huge influx of migrant labor population in recent years from NTD endemic North Indian states, there has been an emergence or resurgence of these NTDs. Besides health issues, this work force is plagued with many other psycho-socio cultural issues, which also require immediate attention, says Dr. K. N. Panicker, Emeritus Professor, Community Medicine, Amrita Institute of Medical Sciences, also a former WHO Consultant.

The recent landmark decision by the WHO in June 2017 to adopt snakebite envenoming as a 'category A' neglected tropical disease (NTD) is expected to ignite the development and implementation of the long-awaited global strategy for control and eradication of snakebite envenoming.

India contributes to a significant proportion of global snake bite deaths. Although the full burden of human suffering attributable to snake bite remains obscure, hundreds of thousands of people are known to be envenomed and tens of thousands are killed or maimed by snakes every year.

The Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council (BIRAC) will soon begin research for developing novel tools, technologies and processes pertaining to snake bite problem and product optimization or scale-up on Anti snake venom.

BIRAC has started inviting research proposals on development of novel and alternate ways of anti snake venom (ASV) production; development of new diagnostics kits for the identification of the snake biting species; and characterization, evaluation and validation facility for ASV.

DBT/BIRAC in partnership with ICMR had organized consultative meetings by involving Government organizations, International organizations, academic institutes, anti-snake venom manufacturing industries and People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) and constituted working groups for improving clinical management & treatment protocols, to focus on improvement & usage of standardized quality of snake venom & standard potency assays and to discuss support for new areas & methods for producing anti-venom. The progamme will focus on cost effective, novel and innovative approaches. The focus will also be on generating ASV with better product profiles and greater cost effectiveness than current products in the market. The priority areas also include an immunoassay for specific identification of the biting species/venomous snake bite in India; identification of venom toxins which are highly specific to the biting snake species, purification of these proteins and development of specific antibodies to these proteins. Out of the twenty neglected tropical diseases prioritised by WHO, BIRAC has already supported development of vaccines against Leishmaniasis, Dengue and Rabies under different funding schemes. Further, BIRAC is considering support for the development of vaccine against Dengue under National Biopharma Mission program. BIRAC is open to support research for other diseases also subject to receiving innovative proposals, explains Dr. Renu Swarup, Senior Adviser, Department of Biotechnology.

While the burden of tropical diseases and their unmet needs are huge, investment has been limited because the conditions affect communities that cannot afford exorbitant healthcare expenses. However, with initiatives from organizations like the WHO, the Gates Foundation and collaborative research platforms like the Drugs for Neglected Diseases Initiative (DNDi), pharmaceutical and biotechnology players are now working together to support drug discovery and development.

Global view-

According to the latest WHO report, as more districts, countries and regions eliminate NTDs, the number of people requiring treatments has decreased from 2 billion in 2010 to 1.6 billion in 2015. This is good progress but much remains to be done.

Progress against NTDs has been enabled by donations of drugs from pharma companies. In the five years since the London Declaration, companies have donated over seven billion treatments that, with the support of partners, now reach nearly 1 billion people every year. These donations, worth an estimated $19 billion from 2012 - 2020, greatly multiply the impact of cash donations with each dollar invested in delivery leveraging $26 worth of donated drugs.

In addition to donations, pharma companies are working with each other and with research institutes to discover and develop new tools to prevent, diagnose and treat NTDs.

The global market for neglected tropical diseases should reach $2.6 billion by 2021 from $1.4 billion in 2016 at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 14.1 per cent, from 2016 to 2021.

Mass drug administration is considered a possible method for eradication, especially for lymphatic filariasis, onchocerciasis, and trachoma, although drug resistance is a potential problem. According to Fenwick, Pfizer donated 70 million doses of drugs in 2011 to eliminate trachoma through the International Trachoma Initiative. Merck has helped The African Programme for the Control of Onchocerciasis (APOC) and Oncho Elimination Programme for the Americas to greatly diminish the effect of Onchocerciasis by donating ivermectin. Merck KGaA pledged to give 200 million tablets of praziquantel over 10 years, the only cure for schistosomiasis. GlaxoSmithKline has donated two billion tablets of medicine for lymphatic filariasis and pledged 400 million deworming tablets per year for five years in 2010. Johnson & Johnson has pledged 200 million deworming tablets per year. Novartis has pledged leprosy treatment, EISAI pledged two billion tablets to help treat lymphatic filariasis.

Declarations made at the NTD Summit 2017, jointly organized by Uniting to Combat NTDs, the World Health Organization and the NTD community-

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation will give $335 million over the next four years to support a diverse group of NTD programs focused on drug development and delivery, disease surveillance and vector control.

The Belgian government has pledged an additional $27 million, spread equally over the next nine years, toward the elimination of sleeping sickness in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

The UK government has pledged almost $450 million over five years to support NTD control and elimination efforts around the world.

Neglected Tropical Diseases- Listed by WHO

Buruli ulcer

Chagas disease

Dengue and Chikungunya

Dracunculiasis (guinea-worm disease)

Echinococcosis

Foodborne trematodiases

Human African trypanosomiasis (sleeping sickness)

Leishmaniasis

Leprosy (Hansen's disease)

Lymphatic filariasis

Mycetoma, chromoblastomycosis and other deep mycoses

Onchocerciasis (river blindness)

Rabies

Scabies and other ectoparasites

Schistosomiasis

Soil-transmitted helminthiases

Snakebite envenoming

Taeniasis/Cysticercosis

Trachoma

Yaws (Endemic treponematoses)

Leading Companies targeting Neglected Tropical Diseases-

Pfizer, Inc.

Bayer

GlaxoSmithKline plc

Merck & Co., Inc.

Novartis International AG

Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Ltd

Sanofi S.A.

Eisai Co., Ltd

(Source- www.visiongain.com)

Leading drugs in the NTD market-

Coartem (Novartis)

Clindamycin (Pfizer)

Dengvaxia (Sanofi)

AmBisome (Gilead Sciences)

Impavido (Knight Therapeutics)

ALBENZA (Amedra Pharmaceuticals LLC)

(Source- www.visiongain.com)

Indian Research Institutes working on NTDs

International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (ICGEB), New Delhi

National Institute of Virology, Pune

Institute of Life Sciences, Odisha

Centre for Cellular & Biomedicine and Biotechnology, Hyderabad

Indian Institutes of Science Education & Research

National Centre for Disease Control, New Delhi

Central Drug Research Institute, Lucknow

Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru

Indian Institute of Technology

Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi

National Institute of Immunology, New Delhi

Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology, New Delhi

Rajiv Gandhi Centre For Biotechnology, Kerela

Birla Institute of Technology & Science, Pilani

Regional Medical Research Centre, Port Blair

Indian Institute of Chemical Biology, Kolkata

Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi

Centre for Chronic Disease Control, Gurugram

Calcutta School of Tropical Medicine, Kolkata

National Institute of Malaria Research, New Delhi

National JALMA Institute for Leprosy & Other Mycobacterial Diseases, Agra

National Centre for Diseases Informatics and Research, Bengaluru

National Institute of Epidemiology, ChennaiMoU was signed between CCRUM and Hamdard University, Bangladesh to establish an academic chair in Unani System of medicine in Bangladesh

Two day International Conference on Unani Medicine was recently organised by the Central Council for Research in Unani Medicine (CCRUM) as a part of Unani Day recently in New Delhi.

It was inaugurated by Dr Jitender Singh, Minister of State (IC), Ministry of Development of North Eastern Region, MoS PMO and D/o Atomic Energy and Space.

While inaugurating the event he said, Lifestyle diseases are one of the major health challenges of the country, an area where integration of traditional and conventional medicine systems can play an important role.

Dr. Singh emphasized all-round development of indigenous systems of medicine with special focus on holistic management of diseases.

He opined that all the physicians irrespective of system of medicine whether modern or traditional may be co-located for addressing the requirement of patients in holistic manner.

Talking about Hakim Ajmal Khan, whose 150th Birth Anniversary on 11th February is being celebrated as Unani Day; he said that contribution made by him to the traditional medicine and to the nation was remarkable.

On this occasion, a MoU was signed between CCRUM and Hamdard University, Bangladesh to establish an academic chair in Unani System of medicine in Bangladesh.

Hamdard University was represented by Dr. Abdul Mannan, Vice Chancellor. The aim of this MoU is to provide academic leadership to the institution, primarily through demonstrating and fostering excellence in teaching, research, and policy development related to Unani system of medicine at the varieties of levels within the discipline.

In two day conference various national level eminent personalities and stakeholders from academia, industry, regulators, and researchers in the field of Unani Medicine are participating in deliberations. Besides national delegates, representatives from countries like South Africa, UK, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, China, USA, Portugal, UAE, Slovenia, Israel, Hungary, Bahrain, Tajikistan, etc were also present at the conference.

Speaking on the occasion, Pramod Kumar Pathak, Joint Secretary, Ministry of AYUSH said that this international conference which is themed on Integration of Unani Medicine in Mainstream Healthcare is in line with the objectives of the ministry towards mainstreaming of AYUSH in national healthcare.

Roshan Jaggi, Joint Secretary, Ministry of AYUSH in his address highlighted the efforts being made by the Ministry of AYUSH to promote rational medicine in national public health system through regulation of research and appropriate integration of quality products, practices, and practitioners into the health system so as to achieve universal health for all.

Addressing the conference, Hakim Syed Khalifatullah, former Vice President, Governing Body, CCRUM demanded that A&U Tibbia College should be upgraded as a national university of Unani Medicine. He emphasized that there should be a strong coordination between Medical Council of India and Central Council of Indian Medicine to come up with an integrative solution to address health challenges of the country.

Prof. Rais-ur-Rahman, Advisor (Unani), Ministry of AYUSH said that National Health Policy 2017 has been designed to ensure access to AYUSH remedies through co-location in public health facilities. Further, he said that the policy recognizes the need to standardize and validate Unani medicines and establish a robust and effective quality control mechanism for ASU & H drugs.

Earlier in his welcome address, Dr. Anil Khurana, Director General, CCRUM briefed about the background behind organizing International Conference on the occasion of Unani Day. Keeping in view, the need for integration of various systems of health, it is essential to discuss and develop a strategy in this regard.Arora had been working on the programme for more than a month before it was announced in the budget speech by finance minister Arun Jaitley on February 1.

Dinesh Arora, director (health) at federal policy think tank Niti Aayog, has been appointed director of the prime ministers flagship healthcare programme, Ayushman Bharat, in the health ministry.

Arora had been working on the programme for more than a month before it was announced in the budget speech by finance minister Arun Jaitley on February 1. He is a qualified doctor and has worked in public health in the past, heading the National Rural Health Mission in Kerala from May 2006 to September 2009. He moved to Niti Aayog in July.

Union health ministrys additional secretary, Manoj Jhalani, has been appointed mission director of the project. Both Arora and Jhalani in different capacities have been involved in governments flagship programme  National Health Mission (NHM)  which has several key health initiatives under it, including Mission Indradhanush.The event will be held on February 15-17, 2018 at Bangalore International Exhibition Centre.

The third international conference and exhibition on pharmaceuticals industry and medical devices, India Pharma & India Medical Device 2018 , will be held at Bengaluru from February 15-17, 2018, by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) in collaboration with the Dept. of Pharmaceuticals (DoP), Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilizers, Govt. of India. The chosen theme for this year is Affordable, Quality Healthcare.

Mr. Ananth Kumar, Minister for Chemicals & Fertilizers, Govt. of India, will inaugurate the three-day mega-event and address the distinguished gathering in the presence of dignitaries such as Mr. JP Nadda, Union Health Minister; Mr. Siddaramaiah, Chief Minister, Karnataka; and Mr. Mansukh L Mandaviya, Minister of State for Chemicals & Fertilizers, Govt. of India.

India Pharma & India Medical Device 2018 will bring key stakeholders of the pharma and medical devices sectors under one roof, with hundreds of delegates and 50 Hosted Delegates from other nations attending the show. Over 300 companies and 50 startups will showcase their products at the grand exhibition. The event will also see more than 90 eminent industry leaders speak at various sessions lined over three days.

More than 20 international drug and device regulators will participate in a meet with Indian regulators. Ministerial delegations from CIS and BIMSTEC countries will also attend the event. A key highlight of India Pharma & India Medical Device 2018 is a workshop by World Health Organization on Regulatory System Strengthening and Prequalification updated by WHO. A conference will also be organized by NASSCOM on Digital Transformation through Innovation in Pharmaceutical, Medical Devices and Healthcare Industries. The event will see a roundtable of pharma and medical devices CEOs with the Union Minister of Chemicals & Fertilizers, Mr. Ananth Kumar.

India Pharma & India Medical Device Awards will be announced to honor excellence and innovation in the field of pharmaceuticals and medical devices.

For three days, the event will host sessions build around themes like Discovering Innovative Medicines in India; Making India a Part of Global Supply Chain in Medical Devices; Opportunities, Challenges and Regulatory Requirements in the Development of Biologics; Opportunities & Challenges for Stem cells & Regenerative Medicine; Emerging Global Trends in Self Care and Relevance of OTC Regulatory Framework for Indian Public Healthcare System; a Sub-sectoral Approach to Make in India; and Moving towards API Self Sufficiency.Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation will provide $6.5 million to support the development of this drug candidate for the treatment of children by the Novartis Institute for Tropical Diseases.

Novartis and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation have formed an alliance to advance development of Novartis' drug candidate KDU731 for the treatment of cryptosporidiosis.

Diarrheal diseases are one of the leading causes of childhood mortality globally, resulting in approximately 525,000 deaths each year and cryptosporidiosis is the second leading cause of infectious diarrhea in children under 2 years of age.

KDU731 is a Cryptosporidium lipid kinase PI(4)K (phosphatidylinositol-4-OH kinase) inhibitor, which has been shown to effectively treat Cryptosporidium infection in preclinical models and is currently undergoing safety studies prior to the initiation of clinical trials.

Under the terms of the agreement, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation will provide $6.5 million to support the development of this drug candidate for the treatment of children by the Novartis Institute for Tropical Diseases (NITD).

NITD is a Novartis research institute dedicated solely to the discovery and development of new medicines to treat malaria, cryptosporidiosis, and three major kinetoplastid diseases - human African trypanosomiasis (sleeping sickness), chagas disease and leishmaniasis.The pharma major will distribute Tocilizumab and Syndyma, the second brand of Roche's cancer therapy bevacizumab in India.

Mumbai based drug firm Cipla has entered into an agreement with Roche Pharma to promote and distribute the latter's cancer drugs in India.

The pharma major will distribute Tocilizumab and Syndyma, the second brand of Roche's cancer therapy bevacizumab in India.

This partnership is in line with Cipla and Roche's efforts to improve healthcare and increase access to innovative, life-changing medicines in India, particularly to patients who currently do not have access to them.

Accroding to cipla, the prevalence of cancer and rheumatoid arthritis is widely spread across India, and the company intends to contribute to provide broader access to innovative medicines like tocilizumab and bevacizumab.Radius-7 is a wearable, tether-less Pulse CO-Oximeter that works in conjunction with a bedside monitor to provide continuous non-invasive monitoring, while allowing patients freedom of movement

In association with US-based medical technology firm, Masimo Corporation, Medanta hospital has announced a first-of-its-kind critical patient monitoring and recovery technology (Radius-7) in South Asia.

Radius-7 is a wearable, tether-less Pulse CO-Oximeter that works in conjunction with a bedside monitor to provide continuous non-invasive monitoring, while allowing patients freedom of movement.

On a constant, dynamic, real-time basis this wearable tool helps ensure patient stability, besides aiding faster recovery through minimum time in bed.

The technology additionally allows supplemental remote monitoring and clinical notification system that enables monitoring patient data remotely, as well as relaying alarm notifications to clinicians, wherever they may be. The technology significantly reduces false alarms and increases true alarm detection, allowing clinicians to focus on the patients and alarms that need most attention.

Announcing the adoption of Radius 7, Dr. Naresh Trehan, Chairman and Managing Director, Medanta said: Medanta abides by the best possible patient recovery ecosystem benchmarked to global standards. State-of-the-art technology is an essential aspect of this value. Adoption of Radius-7 illustrates our deep commitment to patient-centric clinical excellence.

Jon Coleman, President, Worldwide Sales, (Professional Services and Medical Affairs), Masimo Corporation, added We are very proud to be associated with Medanta which is one of the most admired healthcare delivery brands internationally. Masimos technologies have had tremendous impact on patient care globally and we want to be part of Indias efforts to make healthcare safer, better and more accessible.

Studies have shown that patient mobility is a key factor in accelerating recovery. Radius-7 is lightweight and can be attached to the patients arm, allowing untethered monitoring for a patient in as well as out of bed. It reduces the need for physical nursing assistance since there is no need to disconnect from or re-connect to a bedside monitor. The device continuously and non-invasively monitors vital parameters.

Data is then sent to a server which communicates with a central system stationed in the ward where clinicians/nurses can view the vital parameters of the patient. In the event of any breach of vital parameter thresholds, the assigned nurse receives a notification on the pager. There is an escalation protocol if the primary nurse does not respond within a stipulated time. This ensures that no events are missed.Doctors can now prescribe Wellthy Therapeutics 16-week diabetes intervention to their patients for effective lifestyle and diabetes management in between doctor visits

The Wellthy Diabetes smartphone app will be launched at a conference held by the Maharashtra chapter of the Research Society for the Study of Diabetes in India (RSSDI) tomorrow.

The 16-week diabetes intervention programme delivered through the mobile app will now be available for doctors in Mumbai to prescribe to their patients. The digital therapeutic app, developed by Wellthy Therapeutics in scientific collaboration with RSSDI, uses patient-centric design augmented by artificial intelligence to provide integrated care that complements the doctor consultation.

Results from several clinical pilot studies, published in leading scientific journals, have shown that patients with Type II diabetes who complete the programme reduce their HbA1C by more than 1% on average, lose significant weight, and improve their medication and diagnostic adherence.

Speaking on the launch, Dr. Amit A Saraf, Organizing Secretary, RSSDI Maharashtra said, A chronic condition like diabetes requires regular attention and care throughout a patients life. Patients need to look after themselves between doctors appointments and during this period they often become careless in their diabetes management. We look forward to seeing our patients benefit with great outcomes using this digital therapeutic intervention.

Clinical results on the use of the Wellthy Diabetes Digital Therapeutic app have been previously presented at conferences of the American Diabetes Association (ADA), the International Diabetes Federation (IDF) and the American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists (AACE). Additional pilot results on how the app supports clinical and lifestyle management will be presented at the 11th International Conference on Advanced Technologies & Treatments for Diabetes (ATTD 2018) in Vienna, Austria. At the same conference, clinicians will also present data on the app being a valuable intervention tool for health insurers to offer their policyholders.

Dr. Maaz Shaikh, VP - Clinical and Product, Wellthy Therapeutics, shared his thoughts on the physician launch and future prospects of the app and said, As clinicians, we have always struggled in supporting our patients through the journey of changing their habits and maintaining healthy lifestyles. The Wellthy Diabetes App brings to us doctors a clinically validated programme that harnesses the power of medicine, data science and technology to drive and maintain behaviour change and achieve superior clinical outcomes for our patients with Type II diabetes. Finally, we will be able to provide comprehensive and continuous care to all our patients in a scalable and meaningful way.

Dr. Shaikh will be presenting on Enabling doctors to personalise care for Type-2 Diabetes with clinical and lifestyle patient journey data using the Wellthy Diabetes app at the conference on the 16th of February. This will be followed by an interesting first-of-its-kind session on Results and implications of a health insurer adopting an RSSDI-endorsed digital diabetes intervention

The Wellthy Diabetes programme is a clinically verified and structured 16-week program that enables persons with Type II diabetes to better manage their diabetes in between doctor appointments. It gives patients the tools to understand and monitor their food intake, take their medications on time and track their blood sugar levels.

Through the digital therapeutic app, users are assigned a dedicated Diabetes Expert, who users can chat with about all their diabetes-related questions and concerns. Every weeks completion marks the achievement of a skill learned to better self-manage diabetes. In addition, the clinically validated artificial intelligence offers real-time guidance and feedback to assist them with effective diabetes management.Places You Should Travel According To Your Zodiac Sign Life oi-Syeda Farah

Do you know that each zodiac sign has its own set of travel goals? There are different places where each zodiac sign is destined to travel. Lucky are those who get to visit their dream destination!

Here, we bring to you the list of travel destinations that you need to visit based on your zodiac sign.

These destinations are perfect for running away from all the stress and chaos around you. These exotic locations can be the perfect way to refresh and put your troubles behind you.

So, find out which is the most exotic location that you need to travel to.

Aries: March 21-April 19 Mountains Of Ethiopia

These guys are hard-core travel buffs when it comes to their holidays. When they return home, they often need another holiday to just recuperate! They are always high on adrenaline and they often like to travel to places that will challenge their senses and make them feel alive. So, what better place than the adventures of Mountain Ethiopia? Taurus: April 20-May 20 Coast Side In Greece

These guys love to enjoy their holidays by just relaxing and shopping! They often get so relaxed and they need to hit the gym hard on return to reality, as they tend to gain weight with their relaxing spree of holidays. The ideal place of holiday for these individuals is a villa on the coast side in Greece. How Does Each Zodiac Sign Inspire Others Gemini: May 21-June 20 Tokyo!

They enjoy being bombarded by sensory overload and they get bored easy when they are not intellectually challenged. As they are serenely calm in the midst of chaos, this place perfectly defines their holiday destination. Cancer: June 21-July 22 Canada!

There is nothing that puts a smile on these individuals' faces than knowing that their nearest and dearest ones also enjoy every holiday moment with them. Spending a memorable trip with the family here is the best thing that these guys can think of. Leo: July 23-Aug 23 Rio de Janeiro, Brazil!

For these individuals, travel is all about the three Fs - fun, frivolity and fabulousness! The party life of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, perfectly suits their life and personality. Virgo: Aug 24-Sept 23 Sweden!

All that these guys need to do is have a getaway from the world in the pristine grounds of Sweden. They like their vacations comfortable and relaxing, and in places full of beauty and what better place than this? Libra: Sept 24-Oct 23 Budapest!

All that you need to do is leave them to wander aimlessly around. Some music and being happy in a hippie ambiance is what these guys need to make the best of their holidays. Zodiac Pairs That Have a Deeper Connection Scorpio: Oct 24-Nov 22 Cambodia!

They enjoy melancholy and holidays that move them emotionally. The immense beauty and devastating horror of this place is perfect for them! Sagittarius: Nov 23-Dec 22 Tanzania!

They explore exotic lands as they are gypsies at hearts who enjoy the freedom of roaming wild, without any rules and restrictions. Capricorn: Dec 23-Jan 20 Caribbeans!

A perfect vacation has to be an equal ratio of rest and recreation and a little bit of adventure for these individuals. Relaxing and having a gala time is what they wish to do and this place is perfect for these individuals. Your Face Moles Reveal About Your Personality Aquarius: Jan 21-Feb 18 Uganda, South Africa!

These individuals need to get close to mother nature, as they have been busy with the worldly chaos. They are free-roamers at heart and there is no other place better than this! Pisces: Feb 19-Mar 20 Sri Lanka!

These individuals find nirvana at a yoga retreat in this place. A complete recalibration of mind and body is just what they crave for.

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Story first published: Wednesday, February 28, 2018, 15:38 [IST]Everything You Need To Know About Cesarean Post Natal Care Postnatal oi-Lekhaka

Childbirth is a wonderful experience. But it sure isn't a pleasant one. It is a popular misconception that cesarean or C-section childbirth is the easier way out. The mother doesn't have to bear the labour pain or have to deal with the recovery and healing of the vaginal tears that comes with natural labour.

This is how most of our community thinks. At least that is what the people who haven't had a C-section child birth think, but they couldn't be any farther away from the truth.

Sure, in a cesarean child birth, the mother is exempt from the contractions and the pain of the labour. But the long stretching recovery period is arguably more painful and exhausting.

The mother has to meet the baby in a drug-induced haze. Then, she has to spend the next few weeks yearning to hold the baby and care for it, as the only time she will be allowed to hold the baby will be during the feeding times.

She also has to go through other physical and mental hardships that will make a natural child birth feel like a breeze.

The care and treatment given to the new mother is very important; not just for the mother herself but also for the well-being of the baby.

Today, we shall talk about the things that you can expect after you have had a C-section. We shall also take a look at the points that are crucial for the post-natal care of a mother who has just been through a cesarean child birth. Read on to know more.

What To Expect During A Cesarean Child Birth And During The Delivery

Involuntary Shaking During a C-section, you might be given a spinal block injection. This can lead to shaking all over your body. This shaking is not controllable and hence, called involuntary. It can be a very peculiar sensation to experience. But remember that it is quite normal and that it will go away in a few hours. The Feeling Of Being Tugged The only good thing about a cesarean section is perhaps that you won't feel anything as your baby is being born. You will be numb from the waist downwards and this numbness will last for a few hours after the surgery. But you might experience a tugging sensation or a feeling of being pushed or pulled, as the baby is taken out of the tummy. Do not be alarmed by it. You Might Feel Very Cold During The Procedure Many mothers who underwent a C-section complain of being uncomfortably cold as the C-section was performed. This can be due to the temperatures of the operating room or the fact that the mother was numb in half of her body. It can also be contributed to the fact that the mother has to be partially naked for a good 30 minutes as the procedure takes place. If you feel the same way, feel free to ask for additional blankets. You Might Wake Up With A Leg Massage Being Done On You As you lay down unconscious recovering, you may get machines called sequential compression device on your legs. These give you massages to help prevent blood clots and to improve your circulation. They may feel a little uncomfortable and weird; but they will be removed as soon as you have a good circulation established. Your Nether Regions Will Be Handled Even After The Child Birth You might think that with a C-section, no one will work on your private parts. Well, you are wrong! After C-section, your vagina will we given a cleansing and drying up; once or twice, as the need may be. You will also be put on a catheter to help you pee for a couple of days after the child birth. You Will Have Some Bleeding Another thing that you don't expect with a C-section birth is that you will still bleed from your private parts. The bleeding might not be much when compared to vaginal birth, but it can still be surprising for mothers who've had C-section. This is because the uterus is still healing after the birth. The uterine lining will be shed too. The sudden changes in the hormone levels will also contribute to the bleeding. The bleeding will be light and will not last more than 6 weeks. Any heavy and prolonged bleeding should be brought to the notice of the doctor immediately. Bowel Movements Will Be Hard And Painful Passing stools can be a hard and painful deed to accomplish. Constipation can set in after child birth and the wound of the C-section will make it difficult to push. You will be given stool softeners to make the work easier. Remember to drink a lot of water. Also, take small walks as soon as you are allowed to, to get things moving. Things Like A Cough Or Sneeze Will Be Painful A sudden cough or a sneeze can cause immense pain. One trick to help you is to hold a pillow firmly but gently against your incision area while you sneeze or cough. Your doctor can also advise you to use compression bands to help support and to apply pressure to your muscles. The pain will get better as the weeks pass, with the first week being the worst. Pain Due To Gas After C-section pain, you may experience pain due to gas. This pain, surprisingly, will be felt in your shoulders. This is because of the pressure that gas applies on the diaphragm. Your doctors will prescribe medications for gas. They will also ask you to start walking around as soon as possible. Sometimes, the pain from the uterus can be referred to the shoulder too. If that is the case, the pain will go away in a couple of days. You Will Have Scarring It is a known fact that women who give birth will have a scar to show for the rest of their life. But most women do not realize that the scar will be quite prominent. It comes as a shock even to the most prepared mothers to see their abdomen sporting a scar. But keep in mind that the scar will fade a little with time. You Must Exercise Though you will not be able to do much at first but as soon as you can, try moving around a little. It will help in preventing blood clots. It will also help in getting your bowels moving. You will also not have as much troubles with gas. Tips For Recovery Get Enough Rest You will have to go through some pain at least 6 weeks before you feel better after the child birth. Rest is very important during this period. If possible, hire help or enlist the help of your friends or relatives to take care of the baby till the doctor gives you a go ahead to start your day-to-day work. Pamper Yourself Take care of your body during the recovery period. While strenuous exercise is not advisable, you must walk around when you can. Do not lift things that are heavy. Ask your spouse or a helper to hand you your baby when required. Take Care Of Your Emotional Health pregnancy will cause emotions to flare up in you. You must take care to make sure that these do not affect you adversely. If you feel sad, exhausted, disappointed or enraged, you must talk to your spouse, friends or your doctor about it. Pain Relief Never go for over-the-counter pain-relief pills, more so when you are breastfeeding. Ask your doctor to prescribe you a safe painkiller. A good heating pad will also help you to relieve your pain and discomfort. Have Good Nutritious Food It is important to have good nutrition after the pregnancy. It is all the more important after the childbirth, as the baby depends on you for nutrition, especially if you are breastfeeding. Try to eat a lot of vegetables and fruits. It will help in easing the bowel movements. Drink a lot of fluids and water. It will also help in preventing constipation. You will also have a better milk supply. When To Call The Doctor Pain and soreness is to be expected during the time after C-section. There will be some bleeding and discharge for around six months. But if it lasts for more than that, you must talk to your doctor. Other symptoms that you must bring to your doctor's notice are as follows: Pain at the site of infection

Foul-smelling discharge from your privates

Fever

Redness

Pus from the incision

Swelling

Heavy bleeding

Swelling or redness in the leg

Problems in breathing

Ache in the breasts

Pain in the chestNEEPAWA  On Monday, 22 Filipinos arrived at the HyLife Foods hog processing plant in Neepawa for their first day of work.

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 28/2/2018 (1297 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

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IAN FROESE/THE BRANDON SUN Eleazer Resolis and his wife Analyn on the couch at their Neepawa home. The couple says they will never leave Manitoba, their way of thanking the province that welcomed them and their family from the Philippines.

NEEPAWA  On Monday, 22 Filipinos arrived at the HyLife Foods hog processing plant in Neepawa for their first day of work.

Those who came before them have a similar story. They settled here, too, for the opportunity Canada would bring them  but more importantly, for their children who came with them and the family members who stayed in the Philippines.

Robert Galvin, a longtime resident of the Neepawa area, knows the Filipinos well.

He works for one of them, employed by Rostito Managuit, better known as Rusty, at an Asian grocer. He knows many, through the customers he jokes around with every day. And hes dating one, a Filipino woman he met online who hes trying to bring to Canada.

Galvin appreciates how Filipinos prioritize family. On payday, its not uncommon to see 150 Filipinos at the store sending money to poorer family members in the Philippines, he said.

"Even the ones that are there and want to come here to work, the reason theyre doing that is for their family so that they can send money home," he said.

"There, the family is very important, and I admire that."

On the same day 22 newcomers arrived for work in Canada, The Brandon Sun visited with a few of the hundreds who also started with HyLife in the last decade.

Since the company arrived in 2008, it has sparked a tremendous growth spurt in the community, almost singlehandedly. It has transformed the town of 3,200 to more than 4,600 people today. Officials at the Neepawa and Area Settlement Services believe one-quarter of the communitys population today is Filipino.

For those newcomers from the Philippines now firmly entrenched in Canadian life, their paths have since diverged in the succeeding years, but they remain united by the hope that brought them here in the first place.

Eleazer and Analyn Resolis

Neepawa was "quiet" when Eleazer Resolis arrived.

IAN FROESE/THE BRANDON SUN A smile is never far from the face of Rostito Managuit, the owner of RDM Mini-Mart, an Asian grocery store in Neepawa.

It was 2008. He was part of the first group of Filipinos, seven in all, who went to work at Hylife.

There are now at least a thousand Filipinos living in Neepawa. The town is a bustling place. "Too much" Filipinos, his wife Analyn jokes.

Eleazer is still at the plant. He works the night shift and is lead hand of the ham line, in charge of some 50 people.

"Myself, I am always thinking about the kind of gratitude," he said. "I said to myself and my wife, I will stay in Manitoba."

Others who obtained their permanent resident status moved elsewhere, but he will remain in Manitoba. Hes grateful the government took a chance on them.

His wife, who arrived in Canada in 2010 with the couples children, happily sums up the last decade.

"He came here as a worker first, then applied as a provincial nominee, then he applied as an immigrant and now we are Canadian citizens," Analyn said, dancing in her seat to emphasize the last point.

Shes proud to be in this country, where the opportunities for their three sons, aged 29, 19 and 17, are plenty. While the two youngest finish high school, their eldest, Adrian, works in maintenance at HyLife, after studying instrumentation at Red River College.

She is employed with Touchwood Park Association, Inc., supporting individuals with developmental disabilities.

Were "so blessed," said Eleazer, who left a buy and sell business the couple owned to come to Canada.

"The other reason I decided to move?" Analyn said. "The health is free."

The couple was floored, she said, when they discovered a single health card covered her operation.

Rostito Managuit

IAN FROESE/THE BRANDON SUN Mike Malli, a former HyLife employee pictured at the Gladstone Bakery and Eatery, now works as the manager for physical and environment services for Southern Health's facilities in Gladstone and MacGregor.

To know Rostito Managuit is to know his laugh.

Within a few minutes, youll hear it. When he chuckles, he grins wide.

"Some people like me because I just laugh," Managuit said.

He smiles often, too. He thinks of Japan, a country where he once lived, where workers are actually trained to smile. That friendliness helps his interactions with others, he reasons.

"If you have a good relationship with your customers, they will stay with you."

Managuit is the owner of RDM Mini-Mart, an Asian grocer running since 2016. He has made a point of stocking his shelves with Filipino cuisine.

He works 12-hour days, sometimes longer. He also drops in on weekends during the busiest hours.

Monday was the nine-year anniversary of the day he arrived in Canada to work for HyLife as a meat cutter.

He had experience with a similar job in Japan before returning to the Philippines. He was trained as a health-care aide, but couldnt find work due to a lack of opportunities.

He moved to Canada in the hopes of more favourable circumstances, in work and life.

After a nearly four-year stint with HyLife, he worked for the previous owners of the grocer and a health store.

When they left in 2016, they sold the business to Managuit.

"I decided theres nothing wrong to try it."

IAN FROESE/THE BRANDON SUN Lyane Cypres shares a box of muffins with her daughter Princess at the dinner table of their Neepawa home. Cypres has progressed through the ranks to become a cutfloor manager at the HyLife processing plant in Neepawa.

Without formal business training, he has endured headaches but said he loves it.

Non-Filipinos, puzzled by all the choices in his 1,600-sq.-ft. store, are among his customers.

"Theyre excited to see what Im selling here and then theyre buying a lot of stuff and asking me, Oh, how to cook this one," he said, as he bursts into laughter.

Mike Malli

Mike Malli recently left HyLife, but you wouldnt know it when you see him walk into the local bakery in Gladstone.

His jacket and sweater don the logo of the hog processing plant, where he worked from 2009 to 2017.

"I still love them, I still promote," he said.

After climbing the ranks at HyLife to become maintenance planner, he took on a role with Southern Health, where he oversees maintenance, housekeeping and laundry for two facilities in Gladstone and one in MacGregor.

He appreciates interacting with patients in his new role.

"Working with them gives me a joy of serving," he said.

This job is sometimes minutes from the home he shares with his wife Terencia and their daughter, now in Grade 5.

"Here in Gladstone, especially, we have quiet and peace."

Before moving, he knew of the community, nearly 40 kilometres east of Neepawa. He stayed at the Gladstone motel for a month after arriving from the Philippines in 2009.

After his wife and his daughter showed up in 2011, he took them to Gladstone, where homes are cheaper and the community isnt as crowded. Today, his wife works for the health authority in food services.

He thought of his daughter, then a newborn, when he was contemplated a move overseas. His salary as an engineer supervisor in the Philippines was "sufficient," in comparison to many others, but chance at a good job would be limiting for his new daughter. "It will be a greener pasture," he thought of Canada. He still does.

"You can probably count the blessings, it would be multiplied 700-folds."

Lyane Cypres

Only days ago Lyane Cypres celebrated nine years in Canada.

It was a simple occasion. "I just had a wine, had a pizza," she said.

She started at HyLife the same day as Malli, one of 14 Filipinos employed at the plant beginning in February 2009.

Lyane is now a cut-floor manager at HyLife, in charge of eight departments. Its a plum post.

"It makes you feel proud," Cypres said. "Who would have thought that you would get this position?"

She didnt come to Canada blind. She was already employed with a Filipino meat processor when a recruiting agency approached her.

Career advancement in the Philippines is challenging. Due to meagre pay, workers who obtained higher-paying jobs stuck with what they had.

In Canada, job promotion is common in a plant like theirs, which is expanding.

The hardest part of moving away has been separation from her family. In 2016, though, her daughter was able to come live with her. They live together in a house, where extra rooms are rented out to other Filipinos.

Cypres loves to travel whenever she can, but says cities like Toronto or Montreal dont appeal to her when she thinks of putting down roots.

It isnt like Neepawa, where she feels involved in the greater good.

"Because its too small a community, you kind of know youre a part of it," she said.

 ifroese@brandonsun.com

 Twitter: @ianfroeseBy Padraig Hoare

The penny has still not dropped for many firms less than three months before the EUs new data protection law comes into force, an expert has warned.

Data Protection Commissioner (DPC) Helen Dixon reported a 79% increase in complaints received in 2017 from the previous year -- a figure that will rise much higher once the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) becomes law in May, according to the chief executive of Cork-based IT security firm Smarttech.

Ronan Murphy said that despite high-profile entities like Manchester United publicly taking their GDPR requirements to protect citizens data seriously in recent days, it was still not fully resonating with Irish firms, many of whom had been complacent.

The regulation is designed to harmonise data privacy laws across Europe and to protect citizens data privacy. It not only applies to organisations within the EU but also to firms that do business inside member states.

If companies fail to comply with the regulation, they can be fined up to 4% of annual global turnover, or 20m.

Manchester United used its advertising hoardings at Old Trafford during Sundays match against Chelsea to remind fans they needed to opt-in to continue receiving emails from the club.

Mr Murphy, whose firm is running the Zero Day Con cybersecurity conference in Dublin on march 7, said the message was finally sinking in for entities like Manchester United but that Irish SMEs were still largely unaware of their compliance requirements.

Complaints to the DPC were up 79% last year, and will undoubtedly rise again because of GDPR. Yet the penny has still not dropped for many. Overall the law will be a good thing for citizens, but companies need to take their obligations seriously, he said.

Ms Dixons annual report said total complaints received in 2017 was 2,642, compared with 1.479 in 2016.

Some 2,795 valid data security breaches were recorded in 2017, representing an increase of 26% on the number of breaches recorded in 2016.

Six entities were prosecuted for offences in respect of electronic marketing, covering 42 offences, according to Ms Dixons report.By Geoff Percival

Mortgage approvals grew by 20%, year-on-year, in January, new figures from Banking and Payments Federation Ireland (BPFI) show.

In the final quarter of 2017 the value of approvals increased by 15%, the BPFI said. More than 80% of Januarys approvals, measured by value, were accounted for by first-time buyers and mover-purchasers.

We are forecasting new mortgage lending to grow by 20% in 2018, leading to net mortgage lending growth of 1.1% year-on-year. Key in achieving these forecasts will be ongoing growth in new housing supply, which, we estimate, needs to treble to catch up with medium-term household demand, said Dermot OLeary, chief economist with Goodbody Stockbrokers.

Meanwhile, it is understood the Central Bank is open-minded on any new legislation targeting tighter regulation of so-called vulture funds which are increasingly buying up distressed mortgage books from the mainstream banks. Permanent TSB and Ulster Bank have, in the past week, indicated their intentions to sell chunks of their non-performing homeloan books.

Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe is set to accept Fianna Fails bill to regulate the buyers of mortgage books, but has indicated amendments will be needed.

Central Bank governor Philip Lane is due to offer a cautiously optimistic view on the global economy in an address to the Institute of International and European Affairs (IIEA) in Dublin next week.

However, it is also understood that the Central Bank believes Irish businesses have more work to do to prepare for Brexit.Police in Belfast are appealing for witnesses to an armed robbery of a shop last night.

Shortly before 9.30pm a man, carrying a suspected firearm, entered the shop on Caffery Avenue and threatened a member of staff.Cork is likely to see some flooding in the low-lying areas of the city centre from Thursday until Monday, the City Council has warned.

A period of very high astronomical Spring Tides is likely to cause flooding on Morrisons Quay, Fr. Mathew Quay, Fr. Mathew Street, Union Quay, Trinity Bridge, South Terrace, Lavitts Quay, Kyrls Street, Kyrls Quay, Crosses Green, Sharman Crawford St and Wandesford Quay.The draft Brexit agreement sets out "in black and white how we can avoid a hard border" with Northern Ireland, the Taoiseach has told the Dail.

The EU Commission has today published its draft agreement covering the UKs withdrawal from the European Union.

Leo Varadkar has indicated that some, including the DUP, would be unhappy with the draft but said that "just saying no and being angry isn't enough," adding that those against the draft should come up with other solutions.

Sinn Fein president Mary Lou McDonald accused the Conservative- DUP Government of having a "wrecking agenda" in relation to Brexit.

She said remarks made by Boris Johnson, who said the Northern Ireland border is being used to "frustrate" Brexit, were "juvenile" and "dangerous".

"The rhetoric has changed, and very much for the worse since last December and that the commitment made initially to no hard border, and the commitment to protect the Good Friday Agreement in all it's parts has come unstuck because the reality is that members of the Tory Government are openly stating, opening speculating that the Good Friday agreement is passed its sell-by date."

Speaking in the Dail this afternoon, she said "a hard border is not only necessary but desirable" to achieve the kind of Brexit that some f those in the British Government want.

"I think it would be remiss of us and I think it would be remiss of you as Taoiseach and head of Government to miss those very clear soundings."

But the Taoiseach said he had spoken to British prime minister Theresa May twice by phone in the past 10 days and had also met her in person and "trusts" that she is fully committed to the Good Friday Agreement.

"We engage with the UK Government by meeting them and we do that all the time," Mr Varadkar told the Dail, but he said negotiations on Brexit are done as part of the EU 27.

"Ireland is in a much stronger position when we negotiate as one of 27, as a union of 27 rather than isolating ourselves.

"I have heard people, some of the hard-line Brexiteers who are not members of the British Government questioning the Good Friday Agreement and these are the same people who say to us that we should respect their vote, that we should respect their referendum, the 51.8% vote for Brexit and I would remind them that the Good Friday Agreement was approved by the Irish people 94% in this State, 71% in Northern Ireland and they should respect our vote too," said Mr Varadkar.Dubliner Liam Cunningham has been chosen by the St Patricks Festival to lead this years parade in Dublin.

The parade will wind its way through the streets of the capital from 12 noon on March 17 to celebrate the parade theme "Home Is Where the Heart Is".

This year will also see more than 2,000 band members from far and wide deliver dazzling rhythms and uplifting music that will reverberate throughout the citys streets.

Cunningham is best known for his starring role as Davos Seaworth in HBO epic fantasy series Game of Thrones which has garnered a millions of fans across the world.

He has also gone on to star in movies such as War of the Buttons, Falling for a Dancer, The Wind That Shakes the Barley, Clash of the Titans, The Guard and Hunger.

His accomplishments on the small screen include Doctor Who, Northanger Abbey, Merlin and Titanic: Blood and Steel.

Lord Mayor of Dublin, Micheal Mac Donncha said: I would like to congratulate Liam on the honour of being selected as the 2018 Grand Marshal and wish him every enjoyment leading the Festival Parade.

"He is a fantastic ambassador for Irish acting who Im sure many young people here look up to and hope to emulate his success.

Liam said: I have always been a proud Irishman and Dubliner and do my best to represent my country and city when I am abroad working.

"Its a huge honour to be invited back to lead the parade on our national holiday. Im really looking forward to being a part of it.Gardai have asked for the public's help to find missing man Virgil Vornicu.

The 20-year-old has been missing from his home at Grosvenor Lodge, Rathmines, Dublin 6, since last Monday.

Virgil is described as 5' 8'', medium build with short brown hair.

When last seen he was wearing a grey jacket, blue jeans, brown boots and carrying a backpack, possibly orange in colour.

Anyone with information is asked to contact Rathmines Garda Station on 01 666 6700 or the Garda Confidential Line 1800 666 111.

- Digital deskThe government has said the UK needs to come up with alternative solutions if it will not support the EU's legal document on Brexit.

Brussels chief negotiator Michel Barnier's text outlining a default scenario for regulations on an all-Ireland basis has drawn ire from Theresa May.

But Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said he would prefer to see what is being classed as "Option A" - a new relationship between the UK and EU that is so close that a border is unnecessary.

"Hardline Brexiteers and some politicians in Northern Ireland will say 'No' and will be angry at what they see today, but just saying 'No' and being angry is not enough," the Taoiseach told the Dail.

"If people do not like what they see today, it is incumbent on them to come up with alternative solutions and to flesh out option A and option B, write it down in a legal form that can be enforced and then we can negotiate on that."

Foreign Affairs Minister Simon Coveney said the Irish Government had insisted on a backstop or default position in the absence of a better deal so far.

"This is not trying to provoke, it's not trying to reinterpret," he said.

Mr Barnier's legal text sparked claims in some political circles in Britain that the EU was attempting to annex Northern Ireland.

Democratic Unionist leader Arlene Foster tweeted after the publication of the EU document and said it was "constitutionally unacceptable & would be economically catastrophic for Northern Ireland".

EU draft text is constitutionally unacceptable & would be economically catastrophic for Northern Ireland. I welcome the Prime Minister's commitment that HMG will not allow any new border in the Irish Sea. Northern Ireland must have unfettered access to GB market. AF  Arlene Foster #WeWillMeetAgain (@ArleneFosterUK) February 28, 2018

Mr Coveney said Ireland deserves to know that in the absence of an agreement between the UK and EU on trade and customs post-Brexit, that a border will not be recreated on the island.

And reacting to the British PM's statement in the House of Commons, he said: "The constitutional integrity of Northern Ireland and indeed the relationship north and south on the island of Ireland is essentially subject to the Good Friday Agreement.

"Nobody is looking to pick a fight here."

Today's EU draft text is absolutely faithful to the political Agreement in December an should not be a surprise to anybody https://t.co/mk23mUIXJw  Simon Coveney (@simoncoveney) February 28, 2018

Mr Coveney said nobody should be surprised by the legal document and that it was simply a legalistic text of what was agreed in December.

"The Irish Government has made it very clear that we're not hardening our position," Mr Coveney said.

"We are simply holding our position."

Mr Coveney said Ireland was insisting on a default clause in the legal text in the absence of solutions or suggestions from Mrs May's Government.

He added: "Until we get that clarity well then we of course have to hold on very tight to that position because it's all we've got."

Sinn Fein president Mary Lou McDonald launched a tirade over the reaction from the British Government and the DUP to the EU legal text.

"The Tory-DUP axis is satisfied to treat the welfare of the people of this island as collateral damage so long as they achieve their 'little Englander' vision for Brexit," she said.The legal text of a deal to avoid a hard border with Northern Ireland is due to be published later.

It sets out how the political agreements reached before Christmas can actually be achieved.

The Irish Government are satisfied with the text agreed on in Brussels, and say it will avoid any return of a hard border with Northern Ireland.

It is thought Northern Ireland may be seen as part of the EU customs union post-Brexit.

This would mean the island of Ireland would be seen as one regulatory space requiring no internal border checks.

However, that is just the backstop option in the event of a worst-case-scenario Brexit deal.

Negotiators on all sides are still hopeful trade deals might be reached that will allow the flow of goods between Ireland and the UK without any border checks.

The legal text outlining all this is due to be published around noon.By Niall Murray

Trinity College Dublin and University College Dublin are in the worlds top 50 for nursing and other subjects, but other Irish universities have mixed fortunes in the latest discipline-specific rankings.

The 24th-place position of UCD in the worlds providers of veterinary science degrees is the top ranking for any Irish college in the QS World University Rankings by Subject, published this afternoon.

The overall picture reveals the arts and humanities as Irelands main strength, with Irish universities provision for 11 subjects under that heading putting them in the respective top 100 globally. A further 10 top 100 placements have been earned in life sciences and medicine.

Both TCD and UCDs nursing programmes make the top 50 - 25th and 31st, respectively - and those at University College Cork and NUI Galway retain top 100 positions.

Across 48 subjects analysed for QS, based on responses of employer and academic surveys, and on research citations, there are 127 mentions for 10 Irish colleges.

As well as the seven universities, also featured are the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland whose four mentions include reaching the top 250 for medicine. The National College of Art and Design moves into the top 150 in its field

Dublin Institute of Technology is listed in the top 400 under three engineering headings, but this represents a drop from the top 350 in two of those.

This reflects a wider trend observed by QS, which said that Irish colleges have just one top-100 department across six categories within the engineering and technology fields.

TCD features in the top 100 of 20 subjects, including top 50 positions for nursing, classics, English (28th in both) and politics (43rd).

It already ranks as Irelands best university in QS and other broader world rankings, and TCD dean of research Professor Linda Doyle said the latest achievement is testimony to the globally-competitive research of staff and the quality of students that the college attracts.

It is particularly important that employers as well as academics were consulted for these rankings, demonstrating how well regarded Trinity graduates are by employers worldwide, she said.

However, when improvements at Trinity are excluded, the number of drops in rank recorded exceeds the number of rises in the subject rankings by more than two to one.

NUI Galway is one of the few Irish universities to improve in recent general university rankings, but it has fallen in 11 subject areas and improved in just two of the 25 disciplines for which it is listed by QS.

University College Cork drops in six of the 20 subject rankings in which it appears, and moves up the bandings for just two, reaching 160th for engineering and technology, and the top 250 for environmental sciences.

UCD gains places in four subjects but is down in nine rankings.Boris Johnson has accused Remainers of using the Irish border issue to try to frustrate Brexit.

The UK Foreign Secretary said anti-Brexit politicians were attempting to keep Britain in the customs union, "effectively the single market", by saying it is the only way to avoid a hard Irish border.

It comes after a letter sent by Mr Johnson to Theresa May emerged, saying the Government should focus on preventing the frontier becoming "significantly" harder, reigniting a row over the issue.

With the EU preparing to set out today draft legal plans to ensure Northern Ireland is aligned with Brussels rules if no other solution can be found to avoid a hard border with the Republic, Mr Johnson hit out at the "inverted pyramid of objections" over the issue.

Speaking to reporters after returning from a jog in the snow, he said: "What is going on at the moment is that the issue of the Northern Irish border is being used quite a lot politically to try and keep the UK in the customs union - effectively the single market - so we cannot really leave the EU. That is what is going on."

Mr Johnson said his letter showed "there are very good solutions" that would prevent a hard border for goods crossing the Irish border, while "allowing the UK to come out of the customs union, take back control of our tariffs schedules, take back control of our commercial policy, take back control of our regulation".

"It is a very positive letter," he added.

Boris Johnson is a national embarrassment. His repeated ignorance of the Northern Irish border issue and comparison to London congestion charge is an insult to all those who died in the Troubles. He is our chief diplomat yet insults our closest intl alliespic.twitter.com/Xba04pfWdv  David Lammy (@DavidLammy) February 28, 2018

The former London mayor also repeated widely criticised comments likening the Irish border to congestion charge zones in the capital, asking a reporter: "I don't know whether you have ever driven into the congestion charge zone from outside the congestion charge zone - have you?

"Do you slow down? Do you feel any let or hindrance? Do you check your progress? Do you brake? Do you?"

Brussels' chief negotiator, Michel Barnier, said there would be "no surprises" in the 120-page draft document, which will cover the political agreements reached between Ms May and Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker in December.

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said he is satisfied the legal text will ensure there will be no hard border on the island of Ireland after Brexit.

But in a suggestion that the phrasing of the document may cause problems in Westminster - where the Democratic Unionist Party props up the UK Prime Minister's minority Government - he said: "We cannot automatically assume it will be acceptable to the United Kingdom or acceptable to all the parties in Northern Ireland so we could have an interesting few weeks ahead of us."

The UK Government has set out three ways to avoid a hard border - resolving the issue as part of a new trade relationship with the EU, specific technological solutions to the issue or - as a fallback option - regulatory alignment with EU rules to protect economic co-operation and the Good Friday Agreement.

"There's no border between Camden and Westminster."



Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson on the Northern Irish border debate #r4today pic.twitter.com/UMDixRaoji  BBC Radio 4 Today (@BBCr4today) February 27, 2018

But a memo sent by Mr Johnson to Theresa May and other members of the Brexit war cabinet appeared to suggest a hard border remained a possibility, and would not be as damaging as feared.

The document, obtained by Sky News, said "it is wrong to see the task as maintaining 'no border'" on the island of Ireland and the Government's aim will be to "stop this border becoming significantly harder".

Downing Street was swift to play down Mr Johnson's comments.

A source said: "We agree the task isn't about no border, it's about no hard border."

The 18-page document was circulated to members of the Brexit Cabinet sub-committee before the Chequers meeting where senior ministers agreed on the approach to the next phase of talks, which Mrs May will set out on Friday.

Former UK Brexit minister David Jones said the EU's proposal was "completely unacceptable" and amounted to an attempt to annex Northern Ireland.

"This amounts to an annexure of Northern Ireland by the European Union."



Ex-Brexit minister David Jones accuses the EU of acting "wholly irresponsibly" in its proposals on Northern Ireland #r4today pic.twitter.com/VvucUwWMra  BBC Radio 4 Today (@BBCr4today) February 28, 2018

The Leave-backing Tory MP told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "What is proposed is that Northern Ireland should remain part of the customs union, it should effectively be part of the single market, and should, I understand, remain subject to the European Court of Justice. That effectively amounts to an annexure of Northern Ireland by the European Union."

He said the EU's plan would risk peace in Northern Ireland: "I think that it would be pretty catastrophic and I think that the European Union in actually proposing this is behaving wholly irresponsibly."

PA & Digital DeskThe European Union has published a draft of the Brexit withdrawal agreement to ensure Britain's "orderly" departure from the bloc in March 2019.

Here, we answer key questions about the document:

- What is in the document?

The draft exit deal includes provisions around so-called "divorce" issues such as citizens' rights, a financial settlement and the Irish border, alongside plans for a largely "status quo" post-Brexit transition period to last to the end of December 2020.

EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier has insisted there are "no surprises" in the text because it sets out Brussels' previously stated aims on transition and translates political commitments agreed by both sides in December.

- But are some parts proving controversial?

A few - mainly the plan to keep Northern Ireland in a "common regulatory area" with the EU to maintain a soft border with the Republic of Ireland if no other solution can be found, in what has been described as a de facto customs union.

- What's wrong with that?

Mr Barnier has said the proposal simply puts into legal terms the December Joint Report agreement on "regulatory alignment" struck by Theresa May and European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker.

The negotiator said that it is simply a backstop power to maintain a soft Irish border if the issue cannot be resolved by a free trade agreement or if the UK fails to find technological or diplomatic solutions.

But the detailed and stark legal terms have been rejected by Mrs May, who said "no UK prime minster could ever agree to it" as it "threatens the constitutional integrity" of Britain by suggesting a new de facto border would be drawn in the Irish Sea between Northern Ireland and England, Wales and Scotland.

"We have applied imagination and creativity" to find solutions for challenge Brexit poses for Good Friday Agreement - EU's chief negotiator Michel Barnier on EU's first draft of #Brexit treatyhttps://t.co/HvvE45iurt pic.twitter.com/J09xLvVNmH  BBC News (UK) (@BBCNews) February 28, 2018

- How about the other issues?

Brussels' plan to make the European Court of Justice the ultimate arbiter in resolving disputes relating to breaches of the agreement, if a joint EU-UK committee cannot sort them out, breaches a red line set by the Prime Minister at the beginning of the Brexit process.

The insistence that EU citizens who arrive in Britain during the transition have the same right to stay in the country as those who arrived before Brexit is also likely to run into opposition from Mrs May, who said during a January trip to China that free movement rights must end after Brexit.

And a proposal to give the EU the power to sanction the UK during the transition by suspending certain benefits of the single market, if Brussels believes the terms of the agreement has been broken, has already rankled in Westminster.

- What happens next?

Mr Barnier stressed that the document was a draft and would now be circulated among the 27 other EU nations and the European Parliament's Brexit steering group for revision and agreement before being placed on the negotiating table.

- Press Association and Digital DeskA journalist shot dead in Slovakia was working on a story about the activities of Italian mafia in his country and their links to people close to Slovakian Prime Minister Robert Fico.

Jan Kuciak's Aktuality.sk news website published his last, unfinished story today.

It describes the activities of members of the Italian 'Ndrangheta criminal group in eastern Slovakia, and the business ties between one of them, a senior assistant to Mr Fico and another official close to him.

The bodies of 27-year-old Mr Kuciak and his girlfriend, Martina Kusnirova, were found on Sunday evening in their house in Velka Maca, east of the capital, Bratislava. Mr Kuciak is the first journalist to be killed in Slovakia.

In his story he described, among other details, the activities in agriculture, real estate and other sectors of a Slovakia-based Italian man believed to belong to the criminal group.

He also detailed the man's business ties to Maria Troskova, a former model who is now the chief state adviser at the government office, and Viliam Jasan, who currently serves as the secretary of Slovakia's security council, a body that deals with key security issues.

After the first details of the story appeared in Aktuality.sk and a newspaper, Sme, yesterday, Mr Fico dismissed the reports.

Policemen guard the entrance to offices of news website Aktuality.sk. Pic: Michal Smrcok/News and Media Holding via AP

"You link innocent people to a double murder without any evidence," the prime minister said. "Don't do it."

The opposition was not impressed and called on national police force president Tibor Gaspar and interior minister Robert Kalinak to resign. It is planning a protest rally in Bratislava for later today.

Students plan to march in honour of Mr Kuciak in a number of Slovakian cities on Friday.

Aktuality.sk said Mr Kuciak co-operated on the story with the Czech Centre for Investigative Journalism, the Investigative Reporting Project Italy and the international Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project.

The Czech centre said it had been working with Mr Kuciak for more than 18 months.

PANorway is moving to ban semi-automatic firearms as of 2021, which will mark a decade since mass murderer Anders Behring Breivik used such weapons to kill 69 people, most of them teenagers.

Peter Frolich of the Norwegian parliament's judicial affairs committee said private persons, including hunters, "should not have the right in Norway to access such weapons".Japanese consumers' fondness for cheesecakes, and the rise of pizzas topped with mozzarella in Asia, have helped the diversified Australian dairy and food company Bega lift its first-half profit and revenue.

Bega's revenue for the half rose 14 per cent to $705.2 million, while after tax profit climbed 31 per cent to $20.6 million.

The company said its milk supply intake jumped 25 per cent in the December half, which helped it lift mozzarella production by 33 per cent and cream cheese production by 19 per cent.

Cream cheese is a sought-after dairy product in Japan, and Bega is a key supplier of bulk cream cheese to this market. Both cream cheese and mozzarella are good earners for Bega.

The growing food company has also benefited from a rise in milk intake as it picked up new farmer suppliers who departed Murray Goulburn and other dairy processors, and as milk production improved thanks to better seasonal conditions last spring.The embattled owner of the Gloria Jean's and Donut King brands, Retail Food Group, has made a shock admission that its first-half results will not be ready by the stock exchange's cut off date as it faces a delay in the auditing of its accounts.

On Wednesday morning, RFG took the unusual step of halting its shares from trade ahead of its first-half results.

Retail Food Group chief Andre Nell at the company's annual meeting in November on the Gold Coast. Credit:Dan Peled

It again warned the market that it expected its 2018 first-half results to be "materially lower" than in the first half of 2017.

The delay clearly caught some at RFG offguard with the company confirming it had cancelled a planned analyst call. It is believed the company also pushed back scheduled media interviews.Virgin Australia says it has decided not to privatise the airline, but will deliver relief to long-suffering minority investors by buying up thousands of shareholdings too small for them to sell.

The carrier's chairman Elizabeth Bryan flagged at its annual general meeting in November that its board was considering whether to privatise the company, which is 90 per cent controlled by five major investors.

Virgin will buy out its smaller shareholders.

Ms Bryan said on Thursday that following discussions with its major shareholders - Etihad Airways, Singapore Airlines, HNA Group, Nanshan Group, which each own about 20 per cent; and Richard Branson's Virgin Group, which owns 10 per cent - the board had decided again privatising. It did not say why.

However, Virgin will offer a buyback to the roughly 21,000 of Virgin's 38,000 investors whose shareholdings are worth less than $500 and are unmarketable.Consumers and businesses will face higher gas prices as long as southern states ban gas exploration.

In sharp commentary on the issue on Wednesday Australian Competition and Consumer Commission fingering moratoriums on gas exploration in NSW and Victoria as exacerbating a tight supply situation.

A hold on onshore development in NSW and Victoria is pushing up gas prices. Credit:Glenn Hunt

"The current state of the gas market on the east coast remains a grim one,'' the head of the ACCCs gas inquiry unit Nicole Ross:

"[We have] to address the fundamental supply problem, particularly in the south. Increased gas supply on the east coast would better serve domestic gas users, especially when global prices are high.''Railways and the Raj

Christian Wolmar

Railways and the Raj. By Christian Wolmar.

Alantic Books $49.99

Like something from a Gabriel Garcia Marquez novel, steam trains, when first introduced to India in the 1850s, were seen as being driven by magic: the engines earning the name "Iron Demon". It's just one of the many colourful details in the rich history of railways in India. But they weren't introduced for the benefit of the people, it was so the British could rule the vast country more effectively and cheaply. The East India Company opposed them, but British manufacturers seeking the Indian market pointed out the benefits: especially militarily  fewer troops required on the ground. Ironically, Indians embraced the Iron Demon  India now has one of the largest rail systems in the world  changing the country, and even facilitating independence: Gandhi citing the railways as an instrument of imperial repression.The producers of American Idiot admit they gave former leading man Linden Furnell no warning before sacking him over inappropriate behaviour on Sunday, but insist they have followed due process.

"It was quick but no quicker than what the policy outlined it was going to be," a spokesman for shake & stir theatre company and the Queensland Performing Arts Centre said on Wednesday.

"I think sometimes, depending on what the circumstances are, there's a place for dispute resolution, mediation, discussion and conversation."

While conceding that did not happen in this instance, he insisted the course of events ought to have come as no surprise to Mr Furnell, since they were "in line exactly" with the companys policy of zero tolerance of sexually inappropriate behaviour, a policy that was "ultra specific" on what constituted such an offence.Nicole Chamoun gives a gripping performance in Safe Harbour. But the premise is extended further by the fact that after a decision to tow the boat back to Australia is scuppered by inclement weather, and the boat is turned back to Indonesia, someone cuts the rope connecting the two boats. Five years later one of the refugee families is reunited with the Australian group and the tragic consequences have far reaching effects into all their lives. Leeanna Walsman plays a mother faced with a difficult decision. Credit:Vince Valitutti Matchbox has assembled an all-star cast to tell the story, including Joel Jackson, Ewen Leslie, Phoebe Tonkin, Hazem Shammas and Jacqueline McKenzie.

Playing two mothers facing incredibly different challenges are Leeanna Walsman and Romper Stomper's Nicole Chamoun. Matchbox Pictures has assembled an all-star cast for the series including Joel Jackson and Phoebe Tonkin. Credit:Vince Valitutti Walsman plays Bree, one of the Australians on board the yacht who holds the firmest misgivings about assisting the asylum seekers. Chamoun's Zahra is an Iraqi asylum seeker who suffers perhaps the most tragic consequences of the decision to cut the rope. "From the very start of the series you are starting to see the ramifications of what has happened on that boat," Walsman says.

"This rust that has set in between her and her husband [played by Leslie] over the last five years. You see the family unravel and whatever secrets that have been brewing, internally within their family, come out because of meeting this asylum seeker family again after five years." Part of the drama between the characters is that no one knows who cut the rope, whether it was one of the Australians on board who didn't want to be burdened by the refugees or whether it was one of the asylum seekers who didn't want to be towed back to Indonesia. It leaves the series exploring heavy subjects of illegal immigration and the consequences of seeking a better life pressed up against a gripping mystery. "It is a bit of a thriller and a mystery and it makes you, as an audience, question what you would do as well," Walsman says. "You have to ask yourself that question. I assume I would always do morally the right thing  when I have to look through these characters the picture is much greater than you ever could imagine."

Chamoun says the "what would you do" questions are important to pose when tackling a character who is faced with such an impossible set of choices. "This is a human story and people will connect to it and ask themselves the question of 'if I was in that position what would I do'," she says. "I think at the heart of it, everyone will do what they can to keep their family safe. Whatever that looks like in that moment you don't know. "It's a very tricky question. It's not black and white at all." Chamoun, who is Australian-born but whose family fled Lebanon during the civil war, said telling the story was very personal to her.

"It really threw me and provoked a lot in me just dealing with the personal drama of this particular family we are fortunate enough to play with and the voice of people we know and hear about, new Australians who have done this," she says. "My aunties, my mother, my grandmother are all faces of people who have had to flee their countries. That is all in me because of my family and my blood." Set in Brisbane, the series uses a variety of different locations in the city, while the scenes at sea were shot in Raby Bay, a short drive south of the CBD. The vessel used as the asylum seeker boat, a converted trawler, was so convincing that as it was being towed back into shore at the end of filming, residents were calling authorities concerned that an actual group of asylum seekers had made landfall in the bay. Chamoun says the experience shooting the scenes on board the ship were also incredibly real.

"There was no faking, it was incredibly cramped on the boat. There were about 25 of us on it, but it was made to look like there was 100 or more, and it was tight with just our small group. I couldn't imagine what it would be like with more," she says. "When they added the camera and crew on to shoot scenes it felt even more cramped and then when they added the kids it amplified everything by 100." It gave Chamoun, who befriended an asylum seeker from Syria who is living in a camp in Jordan as part of her preparation for the role, an enormous empathy for those who make such a journey for real. "You might be sitting there thinking you are cold or you feel like a coffee, but these people aren't thinking about their coffee, they are just thinking about getting to safety," she says. On the flipside, the Australians who discover the asylum seeker boat are all played in incredibly familiar territory which Walsman says makes the position they are put in even more relatable.Reviews by so-called experts are all very well. But who do you really trust when you want to know what show to watch, or where to go on your next holiday?

Your mates, of course.

Which is precisely the genius of crowd-sourced TV: people just doing something ordinary, talking about it as they do it, while being filmed. Sure, when you put it like that it kind of sounds like the end of days of television. But when it's done right it's not only some of the most entertaining television around, it's also the most useful.

Case in point: Travel Guides. There are an almost infinite number of travel shows on the box but they tend to be either patently advertorial or require a team of producers and fixers (and generally some kind of experience as a chef) to replicate. In either case, our guides are more or less obliged to wax lyric about what a fabulous time they're having.Nine mightve exclaimed that this was Married At First Sights most anticipated dinner party yet, but even theyd be blushing at such a blatant lie.

Wednesday night's dinner party proved just how much the Ryan-Davina-Dean triangle was an unscripted godsend for the series. Faced with less juicy storylines, the fireworks are more awkwardly fabricated.

Case in point, the shows attempting a surprising new tact: the redemption of Dean? Geez, read the room, Nine.

After Tuesday nights goofy hip-hop dance class with Tracey, Dean is again shown to be getting in touch with his warmer side by turning agony aunt for soft serve empresario Justins intimacy issues with Carly.What's in a name? Plenty, it seems. Credit:Skynesher/Getty

Does your name affect the way others see you? At first glance, this seems unlikely  yet research suggests otherwise.

University of Florida professor David Figlio assessed the names of schoolchildren across the US state according to how often each name was chosen for a white or an Afro-American child, as well as how often it was chosen by parents who had lower or higher incomes. He then analysed school test scores of 55,046 pupils and found that the "poorer" and "less white" the name, the lower the school test scores and the lower were teacher expectations as indicated by whether the child was nominated to attend a gifted children programme.

This might be explained by a number of factors, had the finding not been upheld even when comparing brothers: when one had a name that sounded "white" and the other's sounded more Afro-American, their academic prospects often differed significantly.

Marianne Bertrand and Sendhi Mullainathan at the University of Chicago sent out 5000 CVs in response to job advertisements in Boston and Chicago. The same CV was sent under fake names  half were by candidates with white-sounding names such as "Emily Walsh"; half were assigned names often chosen by Afro-American families, such as "Lakisha Washington". The call-back rate was 50 per cent higher for applicants who had white-sounding names.More than 90 former Mr Fluffy blocks will go under the hammer on Thursday, in the first mass auction of the year.

Largely scattered across Canberra's Belconnen, Weston Creek and Woden regions, the auction offers up slabs of residential land in established neighbourhoods.

More than 90 former Mr Fluffy blocks will be auctioned on Thursday. Credit:Jay Cronan

ACT Property Council executive director Adina Cirson said there was "no doubt" the blocks would meet their reserve prices.

"It's a great opportunity to buy multiple blocks in the same street area," Ms Cirson said.The Coalition government devalued the Australian Bureau of Statistics by tasking it with last year's same-sex marriage survey, and using the agency to conduct a vote at short notice, a parliamentary inquiry has found.

A Labor and Greens-dominated probe into the $80 million survey that ended with a majority "yes" result said in the report, released in February, that the bureau was forced to divert staff from other projects to run the national survey, and that it had lacked the experience for what was effectively a national vote.

Australian Bureau of Statistics boss David Kalisch delivers the results of the same sex marriage survey. Credit:Sitthixay Ditthavong

The government's decision in August 2017 to direct the bureau to run the survey raised questions whether the agency, reeling from job cuts and trying to move on from the 2016 "censusfail" saga, was capable and resourced for the massive task at short notice.

Liberal senators on the inquiry committee submitted a dissenting report rejecting its findings, saying that past governments had given the bureau similar work.Working in the middle of the desert in remote Western Australia, astronomers have for the first time captured signals from the earliest stars in the universe.

The breakthrough discovery is being hailed as the most significant find in astronomy since gravitational waves.

The signal is a silhouette, like a cloud moving across the sun, cast by a cloud of gas when it briefly blocked the glow of the Big Bang.

It reveals new evidence of strange physics and mysterious dark-matter interactions at the dawn of time.Ferry McFerryface's bad run on Sydney Harbour continues.

The new ferry that gained infamy due to the NSW Transport Minister's choice of name crashed into a wharf at Balmain on Wednesday morning, causing minor damage.

There were no injuries to about 60 passengers or crew in the incident that occurred at Balmain East Wharf shortly after 11am but the ferry has since made its way to the nearby Balmain Shipyard where engineers will inspect the damage.

Richard Hughes, a commuter waiting at Balmain East, said the ferry came in hard and fast and suffered damage to its bow after it hit one of the wharfs support piles.Sydney University's newest cohort of students have received a bitter welcome to uni life, with O-Week this year taking place alongside anti-college graffiti and protests over ongoing reports of bullying, sexual harassment and assault in the university's residential colleges.

In a snap protest on Wednesday afternoon, students gathered by the clubs and societies stalls set up on the sandstone quadrangle's lawns as a banner was unfurled from a window above. The banner read: "Welcome to The Red Zone. Red tape won't cover up rape."

The Red Zone, according to a report of the same name released this week by student advocacy group End Rape On Campus Australia, refers to the heightened danger of sexual assault during O-Week.

According to the report, one in eight University of Sydney college sexual assaults occur during the O-Week period.Convicted conman Peter Foster has been ordered to give evidence in the case against accused Gold Coast wife-killer John Chardon.

A Brisbane magistrate on Wednesday made the direction ahead of a committal hearing in May.

Mr Chardon's lawyer did not fight the order.

The businessman was charged with the murder of his wife Novy in June 2016, more than three years after her disappearance.Leeann Lapham was a new mother when she disappeared. Credit:QPS Media

Leeann Lapham's family have been wanting to know what happened to the young north Queensland mum for almost eight years.

On Wednesday they finally got some closure.

About 50 police and SES volunteers took just three-and-a-half hours to find human remains believed to belong to Ms Lapham, in dense bushland at Cowley Beach, just south of Innisfail.

The 30-year-old was last seen at a motel in the same area with her three-week-old son in April 2010.Unfortunately, those are the two themes that have dominated our recent discussion of the implications of China's rise. Clive Hamilton's new book, Silent Invasion, is the culmination of a steady stream of breathless reportage on China's imagined subversion of Australian institutions and freedoms. It leads him to the conclusion that the People's Republic is on the verge of turning Australia into a vassal state. That's not only wrong, but dangerous.

Xi Jinping's impending coronation as president for life promises to only entrench China's high-tech authoritarianism. These realities make me all the more conscious of the need to think seriously about how we in Australia might contribute to positive political change in China. What I'm convinced of is that such change won't come about by ramping up military pressure on the PRC, or indulging in fears of a Chinese invasion of our country.

I've seen up close the repressive surveillance state that the Chinese Communist Party wields against vulnerable groups. My research has taken me to China's northwest region of Xinjiang where a panoply of checkpoints, digital monitoring, and political re-education camps keep the local ethnic group, the Uyghurs, in line.

It's wrong because it greatly exaggerates the weight that China has in our economy (2.7 per cent of foreign investment to the USA's 27 per cent), the influence that China has on our military stance (full inter-operability with the US), and on our foreign policy. Malcolm Turnbull's recent visit to Washington was much more of a vassalage ritual than anything we see in our dealings with China.

To be sure, Beijing has its lobbyists, its front groups, its propaganda; but to depict Chinas activities as in any way unique in this respect strains credulity.

And the discourse is dangerous, because it shifts the blame onto China for our own failings: our failure to keep a lid on lobbying, for example, or our failure to give our universities enough funding to avoid reliance on outside donations. It serves to constrain and limit a debate that needs to involve as many voices as possible, most importantly from Chinese Australia. Already, many hesitate to speak up for fear of being branded as an "apologist" or "capitulationist", terms that Hamilton wields with reckless abandon.

Most worrying, though, is the potential for the book to rekindle the historical anxieties of a White settler state towards an Asian invasion, a trope that sustained decades of bipartisan support for the anti-Chinese White Australia policy. Already the far-right Australia First Party has issued a leaflet which boasts that: "Professor Hamilton is not revealing much more than what the Australia First Party has been saying for years!"

In my courses on Chinese history at Sydney University, I regularly touch on sensitive issues, including Tibet and Xinjiang. My students from the PRC have never been anything but respectful and engaged, and the perspective that they bring to my classroom is immensely valuable. We don't always agree on everything, but I want to continue to have this exchange, and do my job of teaching, without fear and suspicion fear poisoning the relationship.Sofia Barbopoulos, 96, was asleep in her bed when she heard the offender break into her Gertrude Street home in St Albans in the early hours of Wednesday morning. Credit:Nine News

One man was assaulted and at least four other homeowners terrorised in a string of violent home invasions across Melbourne overnight.

A 96-year-old woman was among the victims of the home invasions as thieves struck properties in Skye, Bayswater, Brighton and St Albans on Tuesday night.

Sofia Barbopoulos, 96, was asleep in her bed when she heard the offender break into her home in Gertrude Street, St Albans just after 4.30am.

Ms Barbopoulos said she feared for her life when she confronted the man who was raiding her home with his face covered by a hoodie.Police have laid historical child abuse charges against a former school teacher from a Perth southern metropolitan primary school.

The 56-year-old man has been accused of sexually assaulting a 13-year-old boy between July 1997 and September 1998.

The former teacher has been charged with sexually abusing a student. (File photo) Credit:Virginia Star

He has been charged with three counts of sexual penetration of a child over 13 years and under 16 years, four counts of indecent dealing of a child over 13 years and under 16 years and one count of attempted sexual penetration of a child over 13 years and under 16 years.

The teacher would have been around 35-years-old at the time of the alleged offences.Tarana Burke, founder, #MeToo Campaign. Credit:PAUL SANCYA

Im a survivor of childhood and adult sexual abuse, and I chose not to take part in the #MeToo

campaign. Dont get me wrong: I believe in the power of grassroots movements, Ive been

involved in them my whole life and I am a campaigning right now to end modern slavery.

Some of the positive aspects of the #metoo campaign include the solidarity in sisterhood it creates and the unity that is given to the voices of the voiceless. Campaigns such as the #metoo social media campaign often bring awareness to real and important subjects.

My hesitation is the concern I have for both the victims #MeToo represents, as well as the alleged perpetrators it attempts to call to account.

As a society which seeks to uphold human rights and the principle of gender equality, it is important to ensure we prevent harm against women and children as much as possible, especially the harms of sexual violence and abuse.One of the beneficial side-effects of the downfall of Barnaby Joyce has been the attention it has given to the Coalition, because one of the main themes of the tenure of Malcolm Turnbull as Prime Minister has been the role of the Nationals within the government. That hasn't been the case under previous Liberal prime ministers, including John Howard and Malcolm Fraser, even though the Nationals have been recognised as the more socially conservative of the two coalition parties and as having distinctive economic interests. Attention was restricted to the 'divvying up' of portfolios, including the claim by the Nationals to the Deputy Prime Ministership.

The difference now is Turnbull. In general terms the Nationals have been seen by commentators as one of the factors restricting his freedom of movement as a 'centrist' prime minister and for making the government more conservative than it otherwise might have been. Attention has now been focussed on the written 'pre-nuptial' Coalition agreement and certain policy areas, such as water and the environment.

Foreign Minister Julie Bishop, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, Deputy Prime Minister Michael McCormack and deputy leader of the Nationals Bridget McKenzie.

The election of Michael McCormack to replace Joyce as Nationals' leader brings various matters to do with the Coalition into focus. The first is how well the Nationals do out of the relationship. The deal means that the Nationals' leader is often propelled into high office over the heads of more senior members of the government. That wasn't so obvious with Joyce, who had a high personal profile, but it is striking in the case of the little-known McCormack.

The photograph of last Monday's first meeting between Turnbull and his Liberal deputy Julie Bishop, the Foreign Minister, with McCormack and Bridget McKenzie, the two Nationals' leaders, made this point in striking fashion. Turnbull and Bishop need no introduction to the nation, while McCormack and McKenzie are virtual unknowns. It is this imbalance which can cause irritation among Liberals and disbelief among some voters.Race Discrimination Commissioner Tim Soutphommasane is calling on political leaders to conduct the debate on foreign interference without flaming any prejudice against Chinese Australians.

In a speech to be delivered on Thursday, Mr Soutphommasane will warn that "many, many" Chinese Australians have serious concerns about prejudice being stoked in the foreign interference debate. He singles out prominent author Clive Hamilton as flirting with fears about yellow hordes.

Separately to Fairfax Media on Wednesday, Mr Soutphommasane said politicians needed to avoid inflammatory language on the issue.

Race Discrimination Commissioner Dr Tim Soutphommasane. Credit:Andrew Meares

Our political leaders must strike a judicious balance in protecting our national interest, without inflaming any prejudice, he said. Its tricky work, but it can be done. Its best done through avoiding excited rhetoric, or anything that blurs the line between politics and race.Mr Shorten's office confirmed the meeting with Mr Cousins but said that, while the Opposition Leader was "deeply sceptical" of the mine, Labor "does not rip up contracts and we don't create sovereign risk".

Businessman and environmentalist Geoff Cousins told ABC's 7.30 program on Tuesday night that Mr Shorten privately told him in a January meeting that Labor would "revoke the licence" if the evidence continued to cast doubt on the project.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull says Opposition Leader Bill Shorten has been shown up as "duplicitous" by a new claim Labor promised to revoke approval for the Adani coal mine if it wins government.

"He believes if it cannot stack up environmentally or commercially, it should not go ahead. So far it hasnt, and he doesnt believe it will," a spokesman said, adding that Mr Shorten had consulted with a wide range of people throughout Queensland.

"If there are decisions to be made in government, Labor will make them in the national interest, based on relevant laws, and the best and most recent information before us."

Mr Cousins said Mr Shorten had privately committed "at least half a dozen times" to revoke the licence. He said he was now speaking out publicly to "increase the pressure" on Labor to arrive at a position on the contentious project.

The Prime Minister said the new claim shows Mr Shorten gives a different message to workers and miners that - "he tells them he's backing them, he's right behind them, he says he believes in their industry. he wants to support them and their job" - but then privately tells environmentalists he will cancel Adani's licence.

"This is a guy who says one thing to the greenies and another thing to the miners," Mr Turnbull said.Newly installed Deputy Prime Minister Michael McCormack has met with Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and settled on minimal changes to the ministerial lineup, which could be announced as soon as Thursday.

The agreement defuses a potentially damaging scenario where the rewarding of Mr McCormack's biggest backers could further inflame tensions inside the junior Coalition party.

As Deputy Prime Minister, Mr McCormack has the right to allocate a fixed number of cabinet, outer ministry, and assistant ministry positions to Nationals members of Parliament.

But MPs are still reeling from the trauma of the resignation of former leader Barnaby Joyce, and any frontbench elevations seen as rewarding Mr Joyce's detractors would cause grief for Mr McCormack and the Prime Minister, who are keen for the government to get back on track in the wake of the three-week saga.Vikings actor Travis Fimmel will feature in a major new movie to be filmed in Queensland this year.

The film, provisionally-titled Danger Close, will be set in Vietnam, and is based on the true story of young men facing the strange, contradictory and brutal truths of war during the Battle of Long Tan.

Kingaroy, including an area that has foliage that looks like a rubber plantation, and Nerang will be key filming locations.

The Battle of Long Tan took place in a rubber plantation near Long Tan in South Vietnam in 1966.Victims of domestic violence are refusing to leave dangerous situations because they are too worried about the safety of their pets.

A joint DVConnect and RSPCA Queensland project, Pets in Crisis, helps save the lives of people and their animals.

Some victims of domestic violence are afraid to leave because of the safety of their pets. Credit:Orlando Chiodo

During the past six months, the RSPCA has accepted 83 animals into the foster care service and provided 2710 days of care.

The average length of stay for pets in the foster care service was 30 days.Spending on health is almost out of control in Western Australia and had more than doubled in the last decade representing nearly $1 in every $3 the government spends, a new report has found.

The biggest driver is wages, particularly WA's doctors and nurses, with salaries for staff 15 per cent higher across the health sector than the rest of the nation, an interim report by senior Australian public servant Robyn Kruk found.

Health is the biggest cost for the state budget Credit:Nicolas Walker

The report comes a week after former Treasury boss John Langoulant's inquiry into WA's financial crisis cited soaring spending in public sector salaries and health particularly as the nation's highest and contributing significantly to massive debt and deficit problems.

Health is the biggest cost for the state budget: employing 30,000 staff, representing almost $9 billion, or 30 per cent, and accounting for more than half of every new dollar spent between 2013/14 and 2016/17.Washington: The United States is curbing military support and other aid programs for Cambodia amid concerns about recent democratic setbacks in the South-east Asian nation, the White House says.

"Recent setbacks to democracy in Cambodia, however, caused us deep concern, including Senate elections on February 25 that failed to represent the genuine will of the Cambodian people," the White House said.

Cambodia's strongman Hun Sen has been cracking down on political opponents and media outlets.

In a statement, it said it was suspending or curtailing several Treasury, USAID and American military assistance programs that support Cambodia's military, taxation department or local authorities - all of which the White House said shared blame for recent instability.

Washington has spent more than $US1 billion ($1.4 billion) to support Cambodia but the recent "setbacks compelled the United States to review its assistance to Cambodia to ensure that American taxpayer funds are not being used to support anti-democratic behaviour", the statement said.Resch said he expected the first bans to be enacted in the northern autumn in German cities where pollution levels are highest. "It is the latest wake-up call for the German auto industry and German politicians," said Christoph Bals, policy director of Germanwatch, an advocacy and research group for clean energy. "And this time it might actually force them to change their ways." The ruling highlights a strange bipolar quality of Germany when it comes to the environment: Famous for its meticulous recycling, its decision to abandon nuclear power and its subsidies for wind and solar energy, Germany has long had a reputation for being a green powerhouse, and it now draws roughly a third of its electricity production from renewable sources. Chancellor Angela Merkel has been dubbed the "climate chancellor." But Merkel also has lobbied in Brussels for softer emissions targets and has so far refused to set a date for exiting coal production. Germany's carbon emissions have not declined in about a decade. Having reiterated a target to cut carbon emissions by 40 per cent by 2020 as recently as last summer, Merkel recently admitted it will in fact be missed by a wide margin. On the question of diesel bans, she has long taken the side of the industry. "We will use all our power to prevent such bans," she told Parliament before elections last September.

"She is the No. 1 lobbyist for the car industry," Resch said. The ruling came as the German car industry is still struggling to emerge from an ongoing global emissions scandal that forced Volkswagen to pay more than $US26 billion ($33.4 billion) in fines and plead guilty to federal fraud and conspiracy charges in the United States. The company admitted to manipulating pollution controls on vehicles so they could pass laboratory emissions tests, even as the cars continued to far exceed pollution standards on the road. In few cities is the country's environmental schizophrenia more stark than Stuttgart, capital of the wealthy state of Baden-Wurttemberg. The Daimler star was visible on Tuesday, but so were brightly lit electronic signs across the city that declared a "particulate-matter alarm" and urged residents to leave their cars at home. On days like this, a yellowish cloud hangs over Stuttgart, home also to Porsche and Mercedes. Regional courts here and in Dusseldorf, two of 19 cities where the environmental organisation is suing, had ruled that diesel bans were a viable way to bring down harmful and illegal levels of air pollution. Diesel engines emit small particles and nitrogen dioxide that have been linked to cancer and more than 12,000 of premature death in Germany, experts say. Local authorities appealed the rulings, but on Tuesday the Federal Administrative Court rejected those appeals.

Industry leaders were stunned. Daimler declined to comment, but other carmakers expressed bewilderment. Volkswagen "is unable to comprehend" the ruling, a company statement said. "It threatens to produce a regulatory hodgepodge in Germany, which is unsettling for millions of motorists." The Mechanical Engineering Industry Association, whose members include car-parts makers and other companies in the automotive supply chain, said in a statement that "driving bans for diesel vehicles are the wrong way to solve a problem that arises in very particular locations under very particular conditions." Gottlieb Daimler famously invented one of the first cars here in his garden in 1886. It is now home also to Bosch, the world's biggest car-part maker. Roughly one in five jobs in the region depends on the industry. School classes flock to the Daimler museum. Concert lovers attend performances at the Porsche arena. Once a year, Formula 1 drivers meet locals at the "Stars in Cars" festival. The vast majority of taxis in the city are Mercedeses  fuelled by diesel. But Stuttgart, nestled in a basin framed by vineyards and forested hills, also has a long tradition of hiking clubs and solar panels on its rooftops. The city has a Green mayor, who drives an electric car, and has been governed by a coalition led by the Greens since 2011. It also has a vibrant local environmental movement, which has been protesting a multi-year, multibillion-euro project in the heart of the city to move the main train station underground.

Outraged at the sprawling and polluting building site, known as "Stuttgart 21", residents have been demonstrating every Monday for seven years. Demonstrators protest a sprawling and polluted building site known as Stuttgart 21" on Monday. Credit:New York Times This week, on the eve of the diesel ruling, as air pollution measurements reached twice the level permitted under European standards, the 406th protest took place. The state's transport minister, Winfried Hermann of the Greens, says he sympathises. Whenever politicians demand action on automobile emissions, he said, a familiar pattern is repeated. "We say, clean up your technology, they say it is impossible," he said. Hermann has been increasing suburban train services and bus lines to fight pollution and also wants to create a 7000-kilometre network of bike paths. But he knows it is an uphill battle.

"The people who make cars want to drive them, too," he said. "It's professional pride. To a certain extent, it is identity." A short journey from the city center, in one of the many Daimler factories dotted around Stuttgart, Andreas Klatt, a machinist who has worked for Daimler for almost four decades, proudly showed off his company ID badge. "This gives you special standing, it gives you respect," he said, describing how working for the company has helped him secure bank loans. This January, the company sold the most cars in its history, Klatt proudly recounted. Wolfgang Nieke, a member of the powerful IG Metall labor union at Daimler, once worked on the factory floor but is now one of 10 employee representatives on the company's supervisory board. Workers and bosses fight over pay. But they both oppose a diesel ban.

"It's like changing the offside rule in the middle of the soccer match," Nieke said. "You can't do that." Some 150,000 people work for Daimler and more than 60,000 of them drive a Mercedes, he said. Daimler employees get 21.5 percent discount when they buy an in-house brand. "What about all those who bought a diesel three years ago?" Nieke asked. "And now you want to tell them that they can't drive their car?" Niess, the retired teacher and environmental activist, has won three court cases against the city for not upholding air quality standards. Once, he owned a diesel-powered car, having bought it after being told it had lower carbon emissions than a regular gas-powered car. "I bought it because they told me it was good for climate change," he recalled. "We have all been fooled by the car industry," he said.Washington: Hope Hicks, the White House communications director, told a US committee of legislators that her work for President Donald Trump, who has a reputation for exaggerations and outright falsehoods, had occasionally required her to tell white lies.

But after extended consultation with her lawyers, she insisted that she had not lied about matters material to the investigations into Russia's interference in the 2016 presidential election and possible links to Trump associates, according to three people familiar with her testimony.

Hicks has announced plans to resign from her position.

Before doing so, the exchange came during more than eight hours of private testimony before the House of Representatives Intelligence Committee's Russia investigation. Their investigation is separate to the criminal probe being undertaken by Special Counsel Robert Mueller.Washington: A poll released this week shows striking evidence of a shift in American attitudes toward mass shootings.

Nearly two-thirds of adults now believe that mass shootings can be prevented, the first time since Columbine, Colorado, that a majority of Americans have felt that way.

Protesters demand gun law reform at the Florida state Capitol in Tally in Tallahassee on Monday. Credit:AP

The CNN survey suggests the Parkland, Florida, shooting is changing the public attitudes about gun violence in a way that other recent killings haven't.

As recently as the summer of 2015, when nine black parishioners were shot to death by a white supremacist in a Charleston church, fewer than 40 per cent of Americans said that government or society could do anything to stop the shootings.Washington: Faced with unrelenting interference in its election systems, the United States has not forced Russia to pay enough of a price to persuade President Vladimir Putin to stop meddling, a senior US intelligence official said on Tuesday.

Admiral Michael S. Rogers, the departing head of the National Security Agency and the military's Cyber Command, said he was using the authorities he had to combat the Russian attacks.

But under questioning during testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee, he acknowledged that the White House had not asked his agencies  the main US spy and defence arms charged with conducting cyberoperations  to find ways to counter Moscow or granted them new authorities to do so.

Admiral Michael Rogers, director of the National Security Agency Credit:Bloomberg

"President Putin has clearly come to the conclusion that there's little price to pay and that therefore 'I can continue this activity,'" said Rogers, who is set to retire in April. "Clearly what we have done hasn't been enough."Latest News La Trobe Financial reaches carbon neutral milestone Deputy CEO says they are aiming to be 100% carbon neutral by 2030

Greg Medcraft on markets, ASIC and how brokers are changing the mortgage industry in Australia Greg Medcraft on blockchain, brokers and the booming market for mortgages in Australia

NAB has invested an undisclosed amount in real estate platform Brickx through NAB Ventures, the bank announced yesterday.

The move follows Westpacs investment in the platform late last year through its venture capital fund Reinventure.

NAB Ventures also invested in another real estate platform last month. It led Melbourne-based ActivePipes $5.9m Series A funding round.

Its latest real estate-related investment forms part of Brickxs $9m Series A funding round.

Brickx is an online platform that lets individuals invest in the residential property market for as little as a few hundred dollars. It buys properties and puts them into a trust, which it splits into 10,000 units  or bricks  for investors to buy. This approach is called fractional property investment.

Brickxs chief executive Anthony Millet said the company aims to assist Australians get into the property market.

The prohibitive costs and high deposits needed to gain access to the property market, has left many out in the cold, said Millet.

Considering the recent volatility in the cryptocurrency and stock markets, Australians are recognising the longer-term stability of property prices.

NAB Ventures managing director Todd Forest said Brickx is disrupting Australians journey to property ownership, in how it provides consumers access to the property market.

NAB Ventures has scanned the market globally, to identify a range of companies and business models that attempt to solve for this, particularly as NAB looks to support its customers along the full home ownership journey, said Forest.

Brickx launched to retail investors in 2016 and has offered 14 properties in Sydney, Melbourne, and Adelaide. It has 9,000 investors in its platform.

Related stories:Latest News La Trobe Financial reaches carbon neutral milestone Deputy CEO says they are aiming to be 100% carbon neutral by 2030

Greg Medcraft on markets, ASIC and how brokers are changing the mortgage industry in Australia Greg Medcraft on blockchain, brokers and the booming market for mortgages in Australia

While small and medium sized businesses usually have access to different types of finance, many of them are not aware of their options.

This is the main issue specialist lender Scottish Pacific has encountered in its lending business for Australian SMEs.

Generally, small business owners prefer not to have to offer their homes as security. And if theyre a larger public company, they dont want to have to go to the market every time they break a very strict issue covenant, said Scottish Pacific CEO Peter Langham yesterday, when the company announced its half-year result.

The problem is that banks often demand both these two options.

Because were not securing against property, but against assets of the business such as their debts, equipment or stock  and offering less restrictive terms  we can offer more flexibility and peace of mind to these small and medium businesses, said Langham.

He noted that based on his companys Growth Index bi-annual survey of 1,200 businesses with turnover of between $1m and $20m, the number of businesses using non-bank funding has been growing.

The demand is definitely there, he said.

The company, which chiefly provides debtor finance, generates 40% of its new business from brokers and has a database of about 4,000 brokers.

It has been marketing the specialised finance division that it launched last year as a diversification opportunity for brokers. The division offers funding solutions including bad debt protection, asset-backed lending, and progress claim finance.

The company announced yesterday that the divisions net revenue grew at a slower rate in the first half of FY18 due to the drag from its UK operation and the slower-than-expected take-up of its progress claim finance.

It reported net revenue of $54.3m and pro forma profit before interest and tax of $23.2m  up by 8.8% and 9.4% respectively over the corresponding FY17 period  with its debtor finance growing 10.4% in net revenue.

Related stories:Sign up for our PoliticsNY newsletter for the latest coverage and to stay informed about the 2021 elections in your district and across NYC

Theyve come a long way to play.

A group of classical musicians, most of whom came to this country as refugees, will play a concert celebrating immigrant composers on March 4, as part of the Spring Revolution Festival at National Sawdust in Williamsburg. The Refugee Orchestra Project aims to challenge stereotypes about who comes to the United States, said the groups founder and conductor.

The most common stereotypes is this assumption that refugees are from war-torn places that only happen to poor people or brown people, and which can never happen here, said Lidiya Yankovskaya, who moved from Russian when she was a child. When in reality most of these people who come here are educated and worked different kinds of jobs.

The look of refugees shifts and changes over time, said Yankovskaya, and people should remain open-minded about what is going on in the world.

Refugees come from all backgrounds, she said. Before it was Jews, Africans, then Eastern Europeans. There are people of all colors coming to this country who are extremely successful, and people should avoid making stereotypes of what a refugee looks like.

The 12-member orchestra includes immigrants from Palestine, Ukraine, and Portugal, along with a few musicians who were born in the United States. Bringing native and immigrant musicians together is part of the groups goals, said Yankovskaya.

A number of us performing are immigrants but not all of us, she said. I feel that being exclusive defeats the purpose of our mission, and when we decided to move with this, we found that we are much stronger as performers if we had a mixture, and in many ways that makes our music stronger.

The group will play 10 pieces, each written by someone who was a refugee at some point in their life, with composers hailing from Iran, Afghanistan, Israel, Russia, Syria, and Korea, said Yankovskaya. Each of them created different styles of music, which also works to point out the variety of refugees that come to the United States, she said.

All of them are very different, she said. A couple of pieces in the program has to do with the some of their refugee experiences, and some do not.

Refugees are Us at National Sawdust [80 N. Sixth St. at Wythe Avenue in Williamsburg, (646) 7798455, www.natio nalsa wdust.org ]. March 4 at 4 pm.

Reach reporter Alexandra Simon at (718) 2608310 or e-mail her at asimo n@cng local.com .Sign up for our PoliticsNY newsletter for the latest coverage and to stay informed about the 2021 elections in your district and across NYC

The city must do more to protect Sunset Park kids who walk by at a dangerous Fourth Avenue gas station to get to school, and change has to come from the top, say local pols.

Mayor DeBlasio must force the Department of Transportation to take immediate steps to make the treacherous station between 30th and 31st streets  a block from an elementary school  safer for residents of all ages, according to a joint letter elected officials sent the mayor on Feb. 21.

State Sen. Jesse Hamilton (DCrown Heights), Assemblyman Felix Ortiz (DSunset Park), Rep. Nydia Velazquez (DSunset Park), Borough President Adams, and Councilman Carlos Menchaca (DSunset Park) wrote that the flimsy, temporary plastic barriers and signs that the police and transit agency installed on the unmarked pavement in response to complaints do not do enough to protect kids lives in the long-term, and that the city must keep locals involved in making the Speedway gas station safer.

The children in our community have endured potentially dangerous street crossings for many years due to the gas stations location and road infrastructure, the electeds wrote. That is why we further request that any redesign incorporate the communitys perspectives on new safety measures  this would ensure that solutions moving forward are both inclusive and consistent with the communitys needs.

The pols complained that several factors  including erratic drivers who swerve off the busy avenue to reach the fuel bays, parking regulations that cause blind spots, and PS 172s location only a block away  all create a hazard for pedestrians who traverse the block every day.

The transportation agencys School Safety Division must add more safety signs, permanent bollards, or sturdy barriers to protect the nabes kids as they walk to school, the officials wrote, adding that the division should also provide infrastructure to monitor speed and encourage driver awareness and conduct a review of nearby school crossing guards, traffic signals, and signage. And the division should also add no standing at anytime zones to the Fourth Avenue and 31st Street entrances to reduce blind spots, the electeds wrote.

The pols also sent the letter to the commissioner of the transportation department, the chancellor of the education department, the police commissioner, the Community Board 11 district manager, and PS 172s principal, Jack Spatola.

Not enough: The citys response to locals worries about patrons this Fourth Avenue gas station driving on the sidewalk was to place flimsy, plastic barriers flanking the entrances  which neighborhood parents say are regularly ignored and knocked over. Arsenia Reilly-Collins

A rep from the police department said officials would review the letter. And reps from Speedway and the transportation agency met on Feb. 20 and are in the process of developing a joint-design plan, according to a Speedway spokeswoman, who did not respond to a follow-up inquiry about whether or not there would be a chance for public comment on that plan.

Spatola and local parents recently called community input after they alleged the transportation agency was keeping them in the dark on its plans for the site. A spokeswoman from the Department of Transportation promised that the agency would share more updates and details after schools reopened on Feb. 26 following their midwinter recess.

Neither Spatola nor the mayors office returned calls for comment.

Parents have slammed the city for punting the more-than-decade-old problem of the dangerous station from one agency to the next. The police department added additional plastic sidewalk barriers  with taped-on fliers reminding drivers to stay off the sidewalk  towards the end of January, but parents said the barriers are too flimsy, and that they saw cars crash into and drag them.

And Spatola insisted the city should add school zone signs in a two-block radius around the learning house, extend the crossing guards hours from 3:30 to 6:30 pm to accommodate students in after-school programs, and add a second crossing guard on 31st Street.

The parent who led the charge drawing attention to the stations problems said she is eagerly awaiting the mayors response and glad that local pols are stepping up, but added that she hopes the problem-solvers would keep the parents who initially pushed for change up-to-date.

Im encouraged by all of the local elected officials who are working to solve this life-or-death crisis, said Arsenia Reilly-Collins, who started an online petition calling for temporary solutions and a meeting with the transportation department, which has garnered more than 400 signatures. I just wish that the parents were kept in the loop as partners. We feel shut out from the process.

Reminder: The police departments solution was to tape signs to the plastic barriers reminding drivers that theyre not supposed to drive on the sidewalk. Community News Group / Julianne McShaneSign up for our PoliticsNY newsletter for the latest coverage and to stay informed about the 2021 elections in your district and across NYC

This idea is full of hot air!

A new temporary pontoon bridge is the best way to shuttle the most straphangers across the East River when officials close the L trains underwater BrooklynManhattan tunnel for a 15-month repair next April, according to the out-of-state real-estate executive and former underwear model who floated the concept.

San Francisco resident Parker Shinn, who once lived on the distant isle of Manhattan, claimed that plans to launch new ferries as well as beef up bus service across and create dedicated high-occupancy vehicle lanes on the Williamsburg Bridge will not be enough to transport the more than 200,000 displaced daily L-train commuters, necessitating his so-called L-Ternative crossing.

I question whether theyre going to be able to accommodate an additional 225,000 people each day, Shinn said. I think this bridge could take all the people that take the L.

The 31-year-old recently launched a Kickstarter campaign to raise an initial $50,000 to get his project off the ground, and said hes already fine-tuned the concept with some professionals.

Were exploring it, he said. Ive spoken to a couple of companies to get estimates. Ive bounced it off naval engineers and architects.

Shinn proposed installing the Brooklyn end of the short-term bridge  which would be supported by 30 floating 90-foot barges anchored in the river, according to its Kickstarter page  near the coastline around N. Eighth St. in Williamsburg. Straphangers who cross it would arrive in Manhattan near 10th Street.

The span would have four lanes, half Kings Countybound and the other half going towards the distant isle. Pedestrians and cyclists would be permitted on the outer lanes, while the inner two would be reserved for buses in order to keep the bridge from flipping into the East River, Shinn said.

You have to keep the weight centered, he said.

A portion of the crossing would be built higher to allow ferries and other small boats passage, and the span would feature a drawbridge to allow larger vessels through, according to Shinn, who said he has yet to share his plan with the Coast Guard, which would need to approve it, the city, or the state-run Metropolitan Transportation Authority.

The first step was try to get this in the public eye, he said.

The Kickstarter page for Shinns bridge notes that some European companies built a similar structure in Africa for $38 million 10 years ago. He said his project on the East River, however, could come with a price tag of at least $100 million, according to a report.

But the cost for the temporary span  which will be disassembled when L-train service resumes  would be covered by a $1 toll, he said, in addition to public financing for its initial stages.

Shinn  who said this journalist was getting into the weeds when he asked what other projects the real-estate executive has designed  said he first considered the possibility of a pontoon bridge eight months ago, but started concentrating on it in earnest more recently with the approaching L-pocolypse.

Ive always loved designing and building things, and New York City is my favorite city in the world, said Shinn, who once modeled for companies including underwear-maker Me Undies and formalwear retailer Suit Supply. I was thinking about all the people and businesses that would be affected by the shutdown. I think this bridge absolutely is going to be feasible. My hope is that it would help a lot of people.

And Shinn isnt the only person to float unconventional alternative-transportation solutions for straphangers who will soon be booted from the L train. Last year, some transit-minded locals renewed their push to create an aerial gondola connecting Brooklyn and Manhattan called the East River Skyway after the proposal received support from pols including Williamsburgs Councilman Stephen Levin and Assemblyman Joseph Lentol.Research News

Sanitation improves health but not stunted growth in Bangladesh trial

The WASH Benefits Bangladesh trial examined the impact of water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) interventions  which included improvements in drinking water quality, sanitation and handwashing  on children's overall, health and development.

UBNOW STAFF

A UB epidemiologist is among the contributors to a study showing that improving water, sanitation and hygiene in poor regions of Bangladesh helped overall health, but contrary to expectations, did not improve childrens growth and development.

Despite mounting research over the past decade linking poor sanitation to stunted growth in children, the Stanford-led study found that children born into housing compounds with improvements in drinking water quality, sanitation and handwashing infrastructure were not measurably taller after two years compared to those born into compounds with more contamination. But, children who received the interventions were significantly healthier overall.

Pavani Ram, associate professor of epidemiology and environmental health in UBs School of Public Health and Health Professions, is a co-author on the study, published in January in The Lancet Global Health.

The WASH Benefits Bangladesh trial, led by Stanford epidemiologist Stephen Luby, is one of the first to examine what are known as water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) interventions as a way of improving childrens growth in low-income communities. How well a child grows in the first year can indicate overall well-being and is linked to both survival and brain development. These WASH interventions have been proposed as a way of improving child growth and are being implemented in many communities around the world, but havent been rigorously tested.

Children in the Bangladesh trial who received nutritional supplements in addition to WASH interventions did grow taller and were less likely to die during the study, but WASH interventions alone did not improve growth.The Central Bureau of Investigation today arrested Former Finance Minister P Chidambaram's son Karti Chidambaram in connection with INX media money laundering case. The investigating agency nabbed Karti Chidambaram at Chennai Airport on his return from London. Reports suggest that junior Chidambaram was arrested for not cooperating with the agency.

Last year in May, the CBI lodged an FIR against Karti Chidambaram for alleged irregularities in Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) clearance to INX Media. It said that INX Media received overseas funds to the tune of Rs 305 crore in 2007 when his father P Chidambaram was the Finance Minister during the then UPA regime.

Not only CBI, the Enforcement Directorate is also probing Karti Chidambaram for money laundering. Last year, the ED registered a case of money laundering against Karti under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act. The ED in its FIR said that Karti received money from INX Media in return for using his influence to manipulate a tax probe against it in a case of violation of Foreign Investment Promotion Board conditions to receive investment from Mauritius.

LIVE UPDATES

10.30pm: Senior lawyer and activist Prashant Bhushan says though the CBI may have evidence against Karti Chidambaram, yet there's no justification to arrest him during the investigation, without a chargesheet, since there is no danger of him fleeing the country.

Though CBI may have evidence against Karti Chidambaram, yet there's no justification to arrest him during investigation, without a charge sheet, since there is no danger of his fleeing the country. This show, while big fish like NiMo, MehulBhai &Mallya are allowed to loot & scoot - Prashant Bhushan (@pbhushan1) February 28, 2018

8.39pm: Karti Chidambaram has been sent to one day police custody by the Delhi's Patiala House Court in the INX Media case.

6.30pm: Earlier Singhvi said the CBI was delaying the hearing of Karti Chidambaram.

Sitting in CBI designated court, room 4 at patiala Hs since 2 pm 2oppose Karti C remand but CBI not produced him yet. Hope they r not waiting for a late evening hearing. Why the delay? They landed frm chennai at 120 pm. No cause for this xcept to go to duty magis post 430 pm. - Abhishek Singhvi (@DrAMSinghvi) February 28, 2018

5.35pm: Senior Congress leader and lawyer Abhishek Singhvi, who will represent Karti, says the CBI has arrested Karti Chidambaram at a time when the Narendra Modi government is being questioned over 'Chhota Modi'.

What a coincidence to have the arrest of #KartiChidambaram at a time when the nation is questioning the Centre on #ChotaModi. - Abhishek Singhvi (@DrAMSinghvi) February 28, 2018

5.29pm: The CBI, during a hearing at a Delhi court, says Karti Chidambaram is evasive in his replies and investigation.

CBI during hearing at a Delhi court says "#KartiChidambaram is evasive in his replies and investigation. He made incorrect statements with respect to evidence. All this delays the conclusion of investigation." - ANI (@ANI) February 28, 2018

5.25pm: The FIR till today does not name Karti Chidambaram as accused, says Congress spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala.

16:35 pm: Karti Chidambaram left CBI headquarters for Patiala House Court. Senior Congress leader and lawyer Abhishek Singhvi will represent

Karti in the Court.



15:15 pm: Karti Chidambaram has been taken to the CBI headquarters for brief questioning. He will be produced in Patiala House Court shortly: Report

14:55 pm: CBI gave him a lot of chances but he continued with his lies even after all evidence was presented against him. He will certainly go to jail & charge-sheet will be filed by CBI. This is a great achievement: Subramanian Swamy on Karti Chidambram arrest



14:34 pm: Congress leader and Senior Advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi to appear for Karti Chidambaram in Delhi's Patiala House Court later today: Report



13:25 pm: Karti Chidambaram lands in Delhi. He will be taken to CBI headquarters for medical examination: Reports

13:05 pm: CBI will inform Court about Indrani Mukerjea's alleged confession that in 2007, the couple took help of Chess Management Service once their application for FIPB clearance of Rs 305 Crore was rejected. FIPB allowed only Rs 5 Crore clearance: ANI quoted CBI sources



12:50 pm: Karti Chidambaram to be produced before special CBI Judge Sunil Rana: Reports



12:02 pm: Karti Chidambaram was destroying evidence related to INX Media case in UK: CBI sources told India Today



11:40 am: CBI claims enough proof to nail Karti in INX media case. 'Have enough documentary proof on kickback," CBI sources told India Today.



11:30 am: Karti Chidambaram is enroute to Delhi. He will be produced in Patiala House Court after 2 PM: Report

Karti Chidambaram's arrest is vendetta vendetta and a diversionary tactic by the Modi government to hide its scams and mal-governance: Congress

11:10 am: Scams worth over Rs 30,000 crore were unearthed in the last 10 days alone. But the Prime Minister has not moved the transition from Maun Modi to Bol Modi. The Prime Minister remains mum about hhota Modi as also Mehul Choksi: Congress' communications in-charge Randeep Surjewala.

The Enforcement Directorate had earlier summoned Karti to appear before the agency on March 1. The CBI and ED have both grilled Karti Chidambaram on multiple occasions. Reacting to Karti Chidambaram's arrest, Subramanian Swamy said that all this will lead to P Chidambaram. "P Chidambaram is the main culprit and Karti Chidambaram is a beneficiary," Swamy said.

Earlier this month, the Enforcement Directorate arrested Karti Chidambaram's Chartered Accountant S Bhaskararaman for not cooperating in the money laundering probe. The agency alleged that Bhaskararaman failed to appear before the investigating team even after several summonses were issued seeking his presence.

The CBI and the ED had carried out a series of raids on the houses and offices owned by the Chidambarams. Karti Chidambaram was questioned several times by the ED.

A lookout notice, which prevents a passenger from travelling abroad, was issued against him as the agencies suspected that he would try to close foreign accounts where he had parked the money from the kickbacks.

In November, the Supreme Court allowed Karti Chidambaram to go to the UK for his daughter's admission in the Cambridge University.

According to the CBI, INX Media clearly states in its records that Rs 10 lakh was given to Advantage Strategic Consulting (P) Limited, a firm "indirectly" owned by Karti, for management consultancy charged towards FIPB notification and clarification.

The FIR also alleges that invoices of approximately Rs 3.5 crore were raised in favour of INX group in the name of other companies in which Karti had substantial interests "directly or indirectly".

The agency has registered an FIR against Karti, his company Chess Management Services, the Mukerjeas, INX Media, Advantage Strategic Consulting Services and its Director Padma Vishwanathan. The allegations levelled by the CBI are based on the information given by "source", the FIR has claimed.

(With inputs from PTI)The e-KYC deadline for mobile wallets ends on Wednesday night (February 28). Those who've not done it have just a few hours to complete the KYC process. Once the deadline ends, you won't be able to use all features of your mobile wallet services. However, Paytm's KYC option seemed to face some trouble at the last hour of the deadline. Multiple customers were left harried after they got the error "Oops. Something went wrong during the application process. Please try again later".

MANDATORY RBI GUIDELINES

The RBI has made it mandatory for all mobile wallet users to fulfill KYC norms to use mobile wallet services to make the online payment system transparent and prevent money laundering or any kind of fraud. The central bank has refused to extend the deadline, though it has said people can continue to undertake transactions for purchase of goods and services as per the available balance, but will have to fulfill the KYC requirements before remitting money or reloading the wallet.

For those who want to update KYC details, there are two options - minimum and maximum KYC. Minimum KYC can be done by linking wallet with Aadhaar and PAN, but that will not allow you keep more than Rs 10,000 in your account. Also, you won't be able to send money to other similar wallets. The RBI has set 12-month deadline for all customers to furnish maximum KYC from the time you furnish minimum KYC.

HOW TO COMPLETE KYC IN PAYTM

The company makes it mandatory for you to either schedule a meeting with a Paytm representative or you can visit the nearest KYC centre. Once you put Aadhaar or Voter ID details in your account, the link will give you options of nearest KYC centres where you can verify those details.

1. Click on KYC icon

2. Choose option: Request a visit or visit KYC centre

SHOULD YOU WORRY?

There's been a lot of noise over the KYC-linking of e-wallets for the past one week. But there is no reason for users to panic because RBI Deputy Governor BP Kanungo has made it clear that "customers will not lose their money". Also, you could choose to close the PPI (prepaid payment instrument) account and get the balance money transferred into your bank accounts.01 Mar 2018, 1:29 PM

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Tax notices sent to Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi's lenders

The revenue department has sent notices to banks that have loaned money to companies owned by Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi, the jewellers responsible for the fraud at Punjab National Bank, seeking to recover tax dues from them, as reported by the Economic Times. Notices have been sent to banks that loaned money to Choksi controlled Gitanjali Gems seeking Rs 305.12 crore in dues. Notices have also been sent to banks that loaned money to Modi's Firestar Diamond, citing a commissioner of income tax (appeals) order.

Average pay hike in 2018 at 9.4%: Aon Hewitt

According to a much-awaited report by global professional services firm Aon Hewitt, companies in India are expected to give an average pay increase of 9.4% in 2018, almost the same as that in 2017 - 9.3%. Sectors such as professional services, consumer-internet companies, life sciences, automotive and consumer products continue to project a double-digit salary increase for 2018.

Linking Aadhaar with Paytm: RBI refuses to extend KYC compliance deadline

Today is the last day for mandatory KYC-compliance by prepaid wallet customers and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has refused to extend the deadline a second time saying "sufficient time has already been given to meet the prescribed guidelines". To remind you, the 55 non-banking prepaid payment instrument (PPIs) operational currently, apart from 50 wallets promoted by banks, were initially given time till December 31, 2017, to obtain the KYC-related inputs from their customers, which was extended to February 28 at the behest of a few players.

P Chidambaram's Son Karti Arrested By CBI

The CBI had filed a case against Karti Chidambaram after the Enforcement Directorate alleged irregularities in granting foreign direct investment clearance to INX Media. He was taken into custody at the Chennai airport this morning just after he landed from a flight from London. The ED had filed a case against Karti Chidambaram in May last year alleging irregularities in the grant of Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) clearance to INX Media for foreign investment worth over Rs. 300 crore in 2007

Sundar Pichai has no powers beyond Google: Report

In government documents released to the US Security and Exchange Commission (SEC) and reported by CNBC, Alphabet has published details about the structure of its overall businesses. While Google's rise has helped its parent company Alphabet break all revenue records, Google's Indian-born CEO Sundar Pichai neither receives any financial information about Alphabet's "Other Bets" nor has any decision-making power over them. "Pichai also does not have authority over Alphabet's overall resource allocation to Google," the report said, quoting from the Alphabet's letter to SEC.

Download BT PodcastSoon after the Nirav Modi scam, more bank frauds are coming to the light. The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has now booked Kolkata-based computer company RP Infosystem Ltd and its directors for defrauding a consortium of Canara Bank and 16 other lender of more than Rs 500 crore.

"The leader of the consortium had filed a case with CBI in May 2015. The account had been treated as fraud by our bank during October 2015 and reported to RBI. Consequent upon the leader bank relinquishing its role as the leader of the consortium and as directed by CBI (BS&FC), Kolkata, we were authorised by the remaining member banksto file revised complaint with CBI," Canara Bank said in a statement.

Under the consortium of 17 banks, Canara Bank financed a working capital limit of Rs 40 crores (4.69 per cent), the private sector lender mentioned in the statement, adding that that it was not the leader of the consortium.

Based on the complaint received from Canara Bank Deputy Manager DV Prasad Rao, the central investigative agency filed an FIR against company's directors Shivaji Panja, Kaustuv Ray, Vinay Bafna, vice-president (Finance) Debnath Paul along with unidentified bank officials. They have been accused of defrauding the 17-bank consortium of Rs 515 crore. The directors named in the case had allegedly acquired the loan on the basis of forged stocks and debtors' statements, and then wilfully defaulted on it.

The other banks in the consortium included State Bank of India, State Bank of Bikaner and Jaipur, Union Bank of India, Allahabad Bank, Oriental Bank of Commerce, Central Bank of India, State Bank of Patiala, Federal Bank, and Punjab National Bank, among others.

The case has been registered under sections 120B (criminal conspiracy) read with 420 (cheating), 468 and 471 (both related to forgery) of the IPC and the criminal misconduct by a public servant, according to an ANI report.

The FIR says the accused were availing bank funds on the basis of 'false and fabricated stock/receivables/ debtors statements, forged drawing power letter, etc.'

CBI registered a case of bank fraud worth Rs 515.15 crores against RP Infosystem & its directors. (Visuals from RP Group office in Kolkata) pic.twitter.com/wrSprbujDX - ANI (@ANI) February 28, 2018

The Letters of Credit (LC) opened by different banks on application of RP Infosystem began devolving from non-maintenance of funds. "The said borrower company dishonestly and fraudulently did not route the sale proceeds through the loan account and siphoned off the entire amount," the FIR said.

RP Infosystem had also inflated its receivables, Canara bank mentioned in the FIR, as supposed debtors like Gail India, Vincent Electronics and CEAT informed that they had no dealings with the company. Following this, Canara Bank filed the FIR with CBI with consent from other member banks of the consortium.

Panja, one of the directors of RP Infosystem has been involved in financial offences since long. In 2015, he was arresed dramatically while returning from Dhaka with West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. He was detained by the state police on the basis of a lookout notice by economic offences wing of Delhi police.

The CBI had booked Panja along with other directors of RP Infosystem in June 2015 for defrauding IDBI Bank of Rs 180 crore.As the investigation into the Nirav Modi/PNB LOUs matter gathers steam, the number of commentators asking for the government to get out of owning so many banks is also growing. The calls for privatization of at least the majority of the Public Sector Banks (PSBs) have been made even earlier. The nationalization of 14 banks in 1969 by Indira Gandhi paid rich dividends politically but did not make much economic sense, as multiple researchers and analysts have pointed out. (Nevertheless, six more banks were nationalized in 1980).

The public sector banks have fulfilled the goal of financial inclusion up to an extent (by opening up rural branches and by executing other schemes promoted by the government from time to time) but at an enormous cost. By and large, the PSBs have proved to be fairly inefficient compared to their private sector counterparts, and they have required capital infusion from the government at regular intervals. Each time, the amount required to recapitalize them increases. And the bulk of the recapitalization is done using the tax payer's money.

As recent data on non-performing assets (NPAs) show, the PSBs have also made bad loans galore, all of which are coming home to roost now. The three major scams that have made headlines in the past month have also largely involved public sector banks - the Nirav Modi-Mehul Choksi case (Punjab National Bank), the Rotomac case (Bank of Baroda) and the Sambholi Sugars case (Oriental Bank of Commerce) - though some private sector banks had also given smaller loans.

The government is the majority owner of 21 banks currently and in the year 2016-17, nine of them reported losses. The previous year (2015-16) 13 PSBs had reported losses. In the current fiscal, the number of PSBs reporting losses might be even more, as they make provisions for the scams that have come to light and also for the NPAs that are now being referred to the National Companies Law Tribunal (NCLT) under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC) for resolution.

By the second quarter of this fiscal (2017-18), the bad loans of the PSBs had reached Rs 7.34 lakh crore (compared with the Rs 1.03 lakh crore of the private sector banks). And as the recent cases show, many PSBs do not have the risk management systems to spot frauds early enough, if there is a rogue employee, or a group of them, involved.

This government, of course, doesn't want to privatise the PSBs - in fact it plans to merge several of them to have half a dozen large banks instead of 21 banks of all sizes. The stated goal of the Modi government is to finally have four or at most five very big PSB banks by merging them. That might make sense in terms of having banks with big balance sheets, but it will not do anything much for the asset qualities of these banks. Merging three banks with bad loan books will only get you one big bank with a very large and bad loan book.

There have been multiple suggestions that the government should own only the biggest PSB - the State Bank of India (SBI) - and that should be enough. SBI's balance sheet size of Rs 27.6 lakh crore is bigger than the balance sheet of the next two banks (HDFC Bank and ICICI Bank) put together. After the merger with its associate banks, it is now among the top 50 banks in the world in terms of size. And in terms of banking depth and branch spread, it is more than capable of executing all the programmes that the government announces for the poor and the farmers from time to time.

The rest of the PSBs make a motley lot. They range from PNB (which is currently in the eye of the scam so to say and is the fourth largest bank in India in terms of balance sheet size) to Punjab & Sind Bank, which is among the smallest banks in terms of balance sheet size (Rs 96,643 crore).

Privatising all the others apart from SBI would make economic sense for a government because it would not have to worry about NPAs, frauds or recapitalizing the banks. It would be good for the banks because they would be freed from political pressures and will be able to take decisions based on business risk assessment and opportunities. It is true that even private banks can see frauds and come to the brink of collapse (the Nick Leeson-Barings Bank case or the Lehman Brothers case are recent global examples) and from time to time even Indian private banks have come close to collapsing (Global Trust Bank and the Lord Krishna Bank are two relatively recent cases). But in both cases, they merged with stronger banks, with some encouragement from the RBI. It is also true that a couple of private sector banks currently have seen a sharp rise in their gross NPAs, and they have also been pulled up by the RBI for the divergence between their estimates of their NPAs and the central bank's estimates. Having said that, in general, the current private sector banks are, in general, run better than most of their public sector counterparts.

But privatizing the PSBs is easier said than done, even if it makes economic sense for the government (and the government actually believes in getting out of the business of owning so many banks). The first big problem is that given the current regulations, no business group or individual can take over a bank and turn it around. The RBI regulations cap the shareholding by a single entity at 10 per cent (and voting right by a single group at 15 per cent). The government gradually reducing its stake by offering the shares to the public would not make sense because this would do nothing about the management change that is required to actually fix the problems at the bank. In fact, it makes sense to privatise only if the bank is handed over to a strong management.

It therefore makes sense to consider a few weak PSBs to one of the bigger and well run private sector banks with a strong management and see if they are interested. But there are only half a dozen private sector banks that have the depth and the strength to take over one or two PSBs. So only a handful of the 20 odd banks (leaving aside SBI) can be taken over by the likes of HDFC, ICICI, Axis, Kotak or Yes Bank even if they wanted to and the government decided to offer it to them. Public sector banks form around 80-85 per cent of Indian's total bank universe in terms of balance sheet size, with private sector banks making up for the rest.

Moreover, if a private sector bank took over the PSBs it would only do so after the government did something about the existing NPAs and after doing a thorough forensic check, and after the government allowed them a free hand to sack employees. (As in the case of Air India, the potential buyer for a PSB would probably want the government to take over its NPAs and start with a relatively clean balance sheet).



Moreover, any effort to privatise a PSB would run into not just political opposition, but also tremendous opposition from the unions. In fact, the union problem in PSBs could pretty well stop any privatization move.

Thus, though privatization makes most economic sense, it is probably unlikely to happen even if the government decided on it. It makes sense therefore for the government to look at other things it can do to fix the public sector banks. It might mean systemic changes at the management level, and a completely different way of looking at employees at the lower levels. Once an appropriate management team has been put in place, the government would also need to ensure they have a long enough tenure to actually turn around the bank (currently, a bank chairman in a PSB is there only for two or three years, which is too short a time to fix the bank's problems. In contrast, the best run private sector banks have seen their top management teams remain in position for over a decade, and even when the managing director retires, the person taking over has generally been groomed for the task for many years). Finally, the government needs to protect the bank managements from political interference and pressure.

The other option for the government would be to take the route they did when they privatized UTI Bank (later renamed Axis Bank). Here it offered it to half a dozen financial institutions that took over the ownership, and then found a suitable management to fix the bank. But the Axis Bank journey itself was far from easy. And while it worked reasonably well once, it would be difficult to replicate it with multiple banks.

Fixing the current mess in public sector banking will not be an easy task. Nor can it be done quickly. And it requires a political will that few governments have exhibited so far.Diamond merchant Nirav Modi has refused to appear before the CBI. He was summoned on his official email address to appear for questioning before the premier agency in the Rs 12,700 crore alleged fraud at Punjab National Bank's Mumbai branch. However, in what can be called as sheer brazenness on Nirav Modi's part, the businessman has declined saying he has a business to take care of, so he can't join the investigation.



Sources say the CBI received his reply two days back. The agency has written back to him saying he should immediately contact the Indian High Commission in whichever country he might be, following which his return process would be initiated. He has been asked again to join the investigation next week.

CBI on #NiravModi: CBI wrote a mail to Nirav Modi on his official email address asking him to join the investigation. He replied, we have a businesses abroad so I can't join investigation. pic.twitter.com/Ei9N67Vfg6 - ANI (@ANI) February 28, 2018

Nirav Modi's reply to the CBI summon comes a day after state-owned lender PNB reported the money lost in the fraud has shot up to around Rs 12,700 crore from the earlier estimate of Rs 11,400 crore. CBI officials also confirmed that fresh Letters of Undertakings (LoUs) to the tune of Rs 1,251 crore linked to the Gitanjali group of companies have been unearthed by PNB.In light of the bank-related frauds that have emerged after the PNB scam - like Rotomac Group and Simbhaoli Sugars cases - the government on Tuesday directed all public sector banks to detect bank frauds and consequential wilful defaults in 15 days and refer cases to the CBI.The department has said all the non-performing assets (NPA) above Rs 50 crore will be examined for possible fraud. These banks have been asked to involve Enforcement Directorate (ED) or Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) to inquire cases related to violations under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act and the Foreign Exchange Management Act.Ever since the PNB scam has unfolded, the investigation agencies have confiscated several properties of Nirav Modi. The fraud revelation that started from Rs 280 crore has reached over Rs 12,700 crore as the agency officials warn of many more skeletons in the closet.

Also read: Nirav Modi, Mehul Choksi planned escape in NovemberThen there were 12. Now, with Aircel filing for bankruptcy in the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) Mumbai today, there are just four large mobile service providers left in the fray in India. This happened after Aircel's promoter, Malaysia's Maxis Telecom decided against pumping more funds into the beleaguered operator, which had incurred a debt of Rs 15,500 crore.

Much of the consolidation in the Indian mobile space has happened since Reliance Jio launched services in September 2016, offering free voice services and high speed data connectivity at low prices. Now there are just four large mobile service providers - Airtel, the Vodafone-Idea combine, Reliance Jio and state-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) and MTNL combine.

At a time when operators were looking to expand data services, Aircel sold out the broadband wireless access spectrum in the 2300MHz it acquired in the 2010 auctions to Bharti Airtel for Rs 3,500 crore in April 2016. Aircel had acquired the spectrum in 2010 for Rs 3,400 crore.

The board of directors of the corporate debtor (Aircel Cellular, Dishnet Wireless and Aircel) have filed an application under Section 10 of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016 for undertaking Corporate Insolvency Resolution Process (CIRP) for the three companies," Aircel said in a statement.

Aircel's plans went for a toss since the proposed merger with Anil Ambani's Reliance Communications failed to happen. The entity, which was to be called Aircom would have emerged as a fourth private mobile service provider with a 15 per cent market share. It would, most importantly have reduced Aircel's debt substantially. But there were fears that with the many cases against it, the merger would not happen.

While the 85 million subscribers on the Aircel network can port out to rival operators, the immediate impact would be on tower companies and telecom equipment vendors. As there are fewer operators, demand for equipment will fall while tower rentals could also come down. Malaysia's Maxis has a 74 per cent stake in the company, while the balance 26 per cent is held by Sindya Securities & Investments.Facing troubles after Reliance Jio's entry in the telecom sector, Aircel on Wednesday said it has filed an application under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC) for undertaking Corporate Insolvency Resolution Process (CIRP) of Aircel Cellular Limited, Dishnet Wireless Limited and Aircel Limited.

The telecom operator said it was facing troubles due to intense competition after the 'disruptive entry of a new player' in a highly financially stressed industry. Aircel has also blamed legal and regulatory challenges, high level of unsustainable debt and increased losses.

In a statement, Aircel said it could not reach consensus with respect to debt restructuring, and under the current circumstances the resolution process under the insolvency code is an appropriate recourse.

Giving some consolation to its subscribers, Aircel said it would like to communicate to all the customers that it would 'strive hard to provide uninterrupted service connectivity' and called for their support in this difficult period.

Aircel has been in the news for the past couple of days due to its financial issues. A few days earlier, reports also emerged about how the telecom operator warned its employees of difficult times ahead. Aircel customers from Tamil Nadu and the Northeast, especially Assam took to social media to complain about its interrupted services.

Some customers even laid siege to some of its outlets in Coimbatore following rumours about closure of its service. A company official clarified the network service provider was facing some issues and they were trying to resolve it. According to some of the customers they were neither able to make a call nor receive and they termed it as the first step towards total closure of services.

Commenting on its planned merger with Reliance Communications which was called off later, Aircel said in an effort to proactively undertake the first mobile industry consolidation, it embarked upon a merger of its wireless business with another operator. However, on account of various issues and hurdles faced, the merger did not succeed and ultimately lapsed in September 2017.

"Post detailed discussions with the financial lenders and shareholders, the company could not reach consensus with respect to restructuring of its debt and funding. Despite these discussions and the invoking of a Strategic Debt Restructuring scheme in January 2018...no agreement could be reached," Aircel said.Caught in a diplomatic cross-fire between the Modi and Trump administrations, iconic US bike maker Harley Davidson on Wednesday said every country has the right to decide its policies to protect its domestic industry and the high customs duties for super bikes in India was not unique.

US President Donald Trump had first made a reference to high import duties for bikes exported from US to India during his first address to the US Congress in March 2017. Earlier this month, customs duty on imported motorcycles from high-end brands in India were slashed to 50 percent from 60 percent duty for less than 800cc engine capacity and 75 percent for the rest.

That however, did not satisfy Trump who took another dig at the Indian Prime Minister saying India was not doing a favor to US by this reduction and that the taxes were still high.

"When Harley Davidson sends a motorcycle to India, as an example, they have to pay 100 percent tax," Trump said, adding, "Now, the Prime Minister, who I think is a fantastic man, called me the other day and he said we are lowering it to 50 percent. I said okay, but so far we're getting nothing. So we get nothing, he gets 50 [percent], and they think like they're doing us a favour. That's not a favour. You know what our tax is? Nothing. So I say we should have reciprocal taxes for a case like that."

The pointed reference to Harley Davidson in these exchanges has put the company in spotlight. On Wednesday, while unveiling two new motorcycles, the managing director of Harley Davidson in India and China, Peter MacKenzie sought to play it safe.

"There are markets around the world where import duties are higher and there are other where they are lower. That is just the way it is,"he said. "Every government has the right to frame policies that protect the domestic industry. That is not unique."

Following the cut in duties, the company also revised the prices of the four bikes that it directly imports from US to India by Rs 2.62-3.73 lakh. Road King that was previously priced at INR 2,837,000 will now be available for INR 2,499,000, while Street Glide Special that was priced at INR 3,350,000 will now be available for INR 2,999,000. Likewise, the new price for Road Glide Special is INR 3,299,000 against the old price INR 3,561,000 and CVO TM Limited is now available at INR 4,999,000 against the old price INR 5,372,000.

Besides these, Harley Davidson also assembles 10 products from components that are imported as completely knocked down units and two other bikes are completely manufactured at its facility in Bawal in Haryana.

The company entered the market in 2009 but after achieving robust growth in the first few years it has found the going tough in the Indian market in the last couple of years as competition has intensified. Between April and December 2017, its sales have declined by 11.72 percent over the same period in 2016. Despite the tax cut and the subsequent reduction in price, MacKenzie was not very hopeful of a significant impact of it on demand.

"The impact on demand will be marginal at best," he said. "For now, we are only trying to mitigate the impact of these taxation changes."

Besides imported bikes, tax rates were also revised on a range of components that are imported into the country.

The import duty on engine, gearbox, or transmission mechanism as a completely knocked down (CKD) kit in pre-assembled form of motorcycles, not mounted on a body assembly, was reduced to 25 percent from 30 percent while the duty on import of engine, gearbox and transmission mechanism as a CKU kit, which are not pre-assembled was hiked from 10 to 15 percent.

Despite the controversy, bilateral trade between the two economies on motorcycles is still skewed in favour of US.

Trade statistics data on the Commerce Ministry's website show that the value of exports of motorcycles (including mopeds) to the U.S. in the financial year ended March 31, 2017, was $6.09 million. This represented 0.4% of the total value of motorcycle and moped exports by India in the last fiscal, according to the data.

At the same time, the value of motorcycle and mopeds imported from the U.S. was $11.65 million in 2016-17.Section A

Image Source(10*1=10)

1.Identify one of the uses of solar heater in the following:

a. conversion of solar energy into electrical energy.

b.Providing energy for artificial satellites.

c.Desalination of marine water.

d.Using in automatic streetlights.

2. Si+C=SiC. This chemical reaction is an example of:

a. an exothermic reaction.

b. an endothermic reaction.

c. a dissociation reaction.

d. a displacement reaction.

3. A domestic electrical appliance requires alternating current of 15V. If 220V of alternating current is supplied to the house, then the device that helps in the functioning of that electrical appliance is:

a. an induction coil.

b. a step-up transformer.

c. an AC dynamo.

d. a step-down transformer.

4. Identify the correct complementary base pairing among the following:

a. Adenine-Thymine and Guanine-Cytosine

b. Adenine-Guanine and Thymine-Cytosine

c. Adenine-Cytosine and Thymine-Guanine

d. Guanine-Adenine and Cytosine-Adenine

5. In Fleming's right-hand rule middle finger indicates the direction of:

a. magnetic field.

b. induced electric current.

c. mechanical energy.

d. motion of the conductor.

Section B

Image Source

(4*1=4)

The structural formulae of hydrocarbons are given in Column-A and their uses are given in Column B. Match them & write the answer along with its letters.

Section C

Image Source

Total marks (16*2=32)

Draw the diagram of blast furnace used in the extraction of iron.

What is annealing of glass? Name the colour obtained when (i) Ferric compounds, (ii) Cobalt compounds are added to the mixture of molten glass

or

What is pulping? How is an uncoated paper converted into coated paper?

Differentiate between Caucasoid man and Mongoloid man based on their physical features.

State the modern periodic table.

Draw the diagram of a DC dynamo & label the following parts.

a. split rings b.armature coil

Section D

Image Source

Total marks(3*4=12)

Draw the diagram showing the internal structure of human ear and label the following parts:

a. organ of corti

b. auditory nerveZurich Insurance Group will pay $409 million for the Latin American operations of Australian insurer QBE, a deal that will help it become the top insurer in Argentina and build market share in other neighboring countries.

Plans call for completing the acquisition by the end of 2018, pending regulatory approvals. Zurich said it will fund the deal from internal resources.

In pursuing this acquisition, Zurich has its eye largely on Argentina. The South American nation represents about 50 percent of the acquired operations. Zurich said the acquisition will nearly double its P/C business in the country, complement its existing operations and add new distribution/product options, particularly for small and medium commercial customers.

Zurich is bullish about what it is gaining from QBEs Argentina operations, noting the transaction will help it create the leading insurance franchise in Argentina in property/casualty and life insurance, giving it an 8.4 percent market share. It also expects to become the third biggest stand-alone P/C business with a similar market share.

This transaction positions us as the leading insurer in Argentina, a market that is demonstrating strong growth, a stable economy and a positive environment for insurance, Claudia Dill, Zurichs chief executive officer for Latin America, said in prepared remarks. It deepens our capabilities in the retail and commercial businesses and supports our strategy to become the preferred retail and commercial insurer in the region, protecting our customers and helping them reach their full potential.

Beyond Argentina, Zurich said it will add both incremental scale and capabilities in Brazil, Colombia and Mexico. Also, Zurich becomes the number three insurer in Ecuador once the acquisition closes.

Source: ArgentinaPhoto: Contributed

The federal Liberals will appoint a group of advisers, led by Ontario's former health minister, to explore options for a national program to cover the cost of prescription drugs  and are already making it easier to cover the cost of cannabis-based pharmaceuticals.

The two measures, while unrelated, form part of a trinity of major drug initiatives in Tuesday's federal budget, the third being a $231-million package of steps that aims to confront Canada's escalating opioid crisis, including $150 million in emergency funding.

The next year will see former Ontario health minister Eric Hoskins head up an advisory council to come up with options on how to create a national pharmacare program  a program that the parliamentary budget watchdog has warned could cost $19 billion a year.

An estimated 10 per cent of Canadians can't afford their prescription drugs each year, the Liberals say.

"We're trying to get at this issue. It's a really important issue," Finance Minister Bill Morneau told a news conference Tuesday before the budget was tabled.

"It's, in our estimation, just not acceptable that a significant subset of the population doesn't have access to pharmaceutical products."

Morneau didn't give a timeline on when the council will have to report its findings  fuelling speculation that the Liberals plan to make pharmacare a centrepiece of its 2019 election campaign and take away a key talking point for NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh.

In the meantime, the Liberals say they won't apply new sales taxes to cannabis-based pharmaceutical products that can be obtained with a prescription.

Nor will taxes be applied to oils that contain low amounts of THC, the primary psychoactive element in marijuana, that are used by children with certain medical conditions.

As well, the government says it plans to look at creating a rebate program to retroactively reimburse patients an unspecified amount for taxes already paid on cannabis-based pharmaceuticals.

Taxes on marijuana will amount to $1 per gram, or 10 per cent of product price, when a legalized cannabis regime comes into effect by this fall. The federal government will keep up to $100 million on the new taxes as part of a cost sharing split that will see three-quarters of cannabis tax revenue flow to provinces and territories.

The Opposition Conservatives have chided the government for moving too fast on legal pot, suggesting there are outstanding public safety issues that need to be addressed.

The budget outlines $62.5 million over five years beginning this year for public education programs around cannabis use, and a further $20 million over five years for research by the Mental Health Commission of Canada and the Canadian Centre on Substance Use and Addiction.

The Liberals are also spending $80.5 million over five years starting this year to reduce tobacco use, particularly in Indigenous communities, and raising taxes on cigarettes by $1 per carton.

On opioids, provinces and territories will receive $150 million in emergency funding this year to deal with a crisis that is projected to claim more than 4,000 lives this year.

The balance of the $231.4 million will go towards public education campaigns, better access to public health data and new equipment and tools to allow border agents to better detect dangerous opioids like fentanyl before they enter the country.Photo: The Canadian Press

Voters in B.C. should cast two ballots, not one, when a referendum on electoral reform is held later this fall.

That according the Fraser Institute, which released a study Wednesday suggesting B.C. adopt a model used in New Zealand, where two separate votes were held.

How governments get elected is perhaps the most important part of any democracy, and efforts to change the electoral system require very careful consideration, said Lydia Miljan, Fraser Institute senior fellow, associate professor of political science at the University of Windsor and co-author of Designing a Referendum Question for British Columbia.

In New Zealand, Miljan said two separate referendums were held. The first gauged the appetite for change, the second what the new system should be.

In between the two votes, a legislative committee designed a new electoral system, drew new riding boundaries and put together rules for coalitions and minority governments.

She adds broad support from all regions of the province is needed, given the province's size and population distribution.

Getting a legitimate mandate to fundamentally change the way citizens elect their governments is no easy task, and it requires buy-in from people across B.C.not just in a few heavily-populated ridings in the Lower Mainland, Miljan said.

If the B.C. government wants to properly and fairly pursue electoral reform, it should hold two referenda that allow voters to truly understand the consequences of change.

Today is also the last day voters have to fill out an online questionnaire on the subject.Photo: Contributed

A man accused of causing two crashes in Port Coquitlam on Wednesday morning, one involving a police car, has been taken into custody.

Police attempted to stop a vehicle during a traffic stop at Kingsway Avenue and the Mary Hill Bypass, just before 11 a.m.

"Instead of pulling over, the driver is accused of causing a collision with the police car that attempted to pull him over," Coquitlam RCMP said in a news release.

Shortly after, the male driver collided with a civilian vehicle at Broadway Street near the Mary Hill Bypass while evading being pulled over by police.

Officers took the man into custody after the second collision. No serious injuries were reported in either crash.

A 29-year-old Maple Ridge man is facing several charges as a result of the two incidents.

Police continue to investigate the collisions.Rapid screening

Published 28 February 2018

Traditional screening methods to evaluate the quality of natural pumiceous pozzolans for cement production are not entirely compatible with a production process that requires a steady pace in the supply of high-quality raw materials. To help increase the speed of this evaluation, Cementos Progreso developed a rapid screening method using XRD analysis to determine the hydraulic activity index of pumiceous pozzolanic materials. By Luis Velasquez, Roberto Diaz, Carmela Barrientos and Elvis Garcia, Cementos Progreso SA, Guatemala.

Natural pumiceous pozzolans are largely vitreous pyroclastic materials that are the result of explosive volcanic eruptions. The violent ejection of incandescent magma into the atmosphere is responsible for the quenching and induction of an amorphous state and consequently for pozzolan reactivity.1

To continue reading this story and get access to all News, Articles and Video sections of the CemNet.com website, please Register for a subscription to International Cement Review or LoginGharibwal Cement earns PKR752m in 1HFY17-18

28 February 2018

Gharibwal Cement Ltd (GCL) has announced its financial results for the half year ended 31 December 2017. It reported a profit after tax of PKR752m (US$6.7m) compared to PKR1.112bn, a fall of 32 per cent YoY.



According to a notification of the company to the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX), GCL's sales decreased to PKR5.47bn from PKR5.52bn during this period. It incurred a distribution cost of PKR10m against PKR13m in 1HFY16-17. The administrative expenses stood at PKR193m compared to PKR183m in the corresponding period of last year.



No dividend was announced by the Board of Directors of Company in their meeting held on 27 February 2018. GCL's plant is situated at Ismailwal, District Chakwal. The plant has production capacity of 2.11Mt of cement.

Published underKigali Cement to resume operations

28 February 2018

The Rwandan cement market is being keenly contested for and the country's second-largest cement plant at Kigali Cement had to recently suspend operations and lay-off staff, according to All Africa.



The ARM Cement owned Kigali Cement plant has a capacity of 100,00t and imports clinker from Tanga in Tanzania, but clinker and coal have been in short supply.



"For a couple of years, the company has not been producing on a regular basis and to capacity due to limited availability of clinker from Tanzania," said Pradeep Paunrana, ARM Cement managing director.



Mr Paunrana said the coal shortage has now eased and Kigali Cement will resume operations, but the competition is escalating. Rwanda imports 46 per cent of its cement and Tanzania's Dangote Cement, Lake Cement, manufacturers of the Nyathi brand and Tanga Cement, the producer of Simba brand, are some of the regional players fighting it out with Uganda's Hima for the Rwandan market.



"The national cement demand has reached 50,000 tonnes per month," said Annette Karenzi, director-general of industries and entrepreneurship development in the Ministry of Trade and Industry.



"At least 23,000t are imported while Cimerwa (PPC gorup) produces 27,000t," she added.



Local producers wil also be joined by Prime Cement with construction to start on the government and FLSmidth backed plant in 3Q18.

Published underRana is all set to turn a brand ambassador for Reliance Trends. The official confirmation will come out very soon from Reliance brand.

Rana is also a brand ambassador for Ram Raj Cottons, and he is promoting all the cloth brands with an ease as he has a lot of interest to promote the good brands in India.

However, it is sure Reliance Trends promotions will enhance by leaps and bounds as Rana has lot of followers across India.

On the work front, Rana is busy with multiple projects in Telugu and Tamil.In the wake of the highest court in Malaysia refusing to hear an appeal by four Christians wanting to officially convert out of Islam, Christian leaders continued to hold hope for change.



In a country where there is no legal way to leave Islam, the four people were asking the Federal Court to have their names and their faith changed on their national identity cards. On Tuesday(Feb. 27) the court held that the four people were Muslims and hence fell under the jurisdiction of the Sharia (Islamic law) Court system, and that it must adjudicate matters of Islamic law.



The five-member panel of the Federal Court unanimously ruled that civil courts had no jurisdiction to decide on apostasy cases. The four converts held that the Shariah Courts had no power to decide apostasy cases under state laws because they are no longer Muslims.



Court of Appeal President Zulkefli Ahmad Makinudin wrote that although no such legal provision for deciding apostasy cases existed in the law, there were clauses in it that Shariah Courts could apply.



The Federal Court decision helps clear up a gray area in apostasy cases in Malaysia, but bewilderment remains as Shariah Courts are state courts subject to different state laws. Furthermore, the Federal Court ruled in January that the federal civil court has the final say on legal matters even as they pertain to Muslims.



Hence after the verdict, Joshua Baru, son of the four converts attorney, Baru Bian, said the decision seems to suggest a double standard of the jurisdiction of the civil courts and the interpretation of [the federal constitution].



Christian leaders, meantime, held out hope. The Metropolitan Archbishop of Kuching, capital of Sarawak state, Simon Peter Poh Hoon Seng, issued a statement asserting Christians should not give up.



Next, we should pray that the lawmakers will table a just law to face this issue, Poh said. Do not lose hope. By the way, I was at the court hearing yesterday, and I testify that the judges were very neutral and fair. Pray, continue to pray. With God, nothing is impossible.



Gracious words amid the emotions that ran high on all sides; the Malaysian Insight noted that the archbishop was indeed present at the hearing, and then was heckled by demonstrators trying to jostle him as he exited the court.



At the same time, Christian organizations, including the Association of Churches in Sarawak, have reportedly appointed senior lawyers Leonard Shim and Libat Langub as amicus curae(friends of the court) to monitor their interests. The Sarawak Dayak Iban Association, which represents the states largest ethnic group, and the Methodist Church in Malaysia, the Sarawak Ministers Fellowship and the Sarawak Evangelical Churches Association have appointed lawyers to hold a watching brief.



Three of the four appellants were raised as Christians but converted to Islam in order to marry Muslims. Jenny Peter divorced her Muslim husband in 2006 and returned to Christianity. Salina Jau was divorced by her Muslim husband in 1992, and then she returned to Christianity. Tiong Choo Ting began to practice Christianity after his Muslim wife died in 2007. All three signed statutory declarations that they intended to return to Christianity.



The fourth person, Syarifah Nooraffyzza, is an ethnic Malay raised as a Muslim. According to the Malaysian Constitution, all ethnic Malays are Muslims  a principle upheld in the case of Lina Joy, who was denied her right to leave Islam in 2007 and convert to Christianity. Syarifah filed a document stating that she no longer practices Islam, and she was baptized in 2009, according to published reports. She is asking to change her identity card from Muslim to Christian and to change her name to Vanessa Elizabeth.



She as well as the other three people are still Muslims on papers, according to an appeals court. For the moment, they must take their cases back to Sharia Court to try to get letters of apostasy.





If you would like to help persecuted Christians, visit http://morningstarnews. org/resources/aid-agencies/ fo r a list of organizations that can orient you on how to get involved.



If you or your organization would like to help enable Morning Star News to continue raising awareness of persecuted Christians worldwide with original-content reporting, please consider collaborating at http://morningstarnews.org/ donate/ ?Email Whatsapp Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment

"That word ... it was mysterious to me, yet beautiful. I carried the word around in my mind for years, repeating it to myself over and over so I wouldn't forget. I grew up wondering, 'What could it mean?'"

The woman telling me her story was originally from the Philippines. She was running a pawn shop across from the Fort Bragg military base in central North Carolina. Having spoken at a chapel service there, I stopped to browse in a Fayetteville pawn shop on my drive home. From her store, I came away with a treasure: A conversation that moves me to this day.

"Are you a Christian?" I asked. The woman said that she was, and I replied, "How did you come to know the Lord?"

Tears began to appear around her eyes as she told me her story. Emotion would soon grip me as well. She said that her earliest memory was of being in a crowd, back home in the Philippines. She was only four or five, and there a man lifted her up and held her in the midst of the crowd. And she remembered that the man held her with one arm, and with the other, a large book.

In a kind of reverent whisper, she told me, "The kindest face I had ever seen stared deep into my eyes and said a word. One word to me, that's all he said. And that word, I didn't know what it meant, and yet it never really left my mind."

She related how her family migrated to the U.S. and settled in New Jersey. Around the age of 13, she was invited to church by a friend from school. Going to a store-front church now many years and miles removed from the Philippines, once again she heard ... that word. The man at the front of the room spoke to the audience from a big leather book, reminding her of her childhood's most indelible memory. A number of times the man speaking repeated ... that word. "I somehow knew that this man would explain to me what I had heard as a little girl."

Her story moved me deeply, as she shared what "one word, sown in the ears of a child" would turn out to be the name of Jesus. "This pastor told me the Gospel and I realized that Christ loved me," she said. "The seed of faith that was planted in my heart so long ago, the name 'Jesus,' it resulted in my trusting in Him around age 13."

Her story was riveting enough, but something she learned as an adult made it all doubly meaningful. Her older brother, researching family history, came across an old news photo in which the little girl appeared. Amid a huge crowd of people, a decades-old photo showed a tall man holding a large leather book in one hand, and in the other, the younger sister. The gentle man, making eye contact with a child, uttered the name that would echo within the little girl for the rest of her life.

It was Billy Graham.

In whispering the word "Jesus," a seed was sown that the Holy Spirit would bring to fruition years later. How simple, how poignant, really, and yet how profound. The whole image speaks volumes.

And so for a week now, the world has been mourning the passing of Christendom's most traveled and prolific evangelist. It is hard to imagine a world without Billy Graham, and yet here we are.

Growing up, we always watched his crusades on TV. The Billy Graham-Cliff Barrows-George Beverly Shea Crusade Songbook had sat atop our family piano since before I was born, and I have it to this day. More than once in my youth, I remember my dad (a lifelong Presbyterian) and my mother (a lifelong Baptist) having discussions about the Bible / Christianity / life in general, and an impasse would be resolved by one or the other concluding, "Well, I agree with whatever Billy Graham says about it."

The words of Billy Graham was the final say for millions of seeking souls over the past six decades. This weekend I heard an elderly neighbor wistfully reflect, "Billy was the man you could trust." Indeed. The tributes filling network news and social media reminded me of the unique salvation journey of the Filipino lady from the pawn shop.

What an example of ministry to a little child, by the man who wore "the kindest face I had ever seen." To her description I would add, "...and who carried within him perhaps the most obedient heart any of us will ever see."

Billy Graham was a role model for Christians everywhere. He personified fidelity to II Timothy 4:2, which enjoins, "Preach the word ... instant in season and out." Translation: Talk with people about Jesus. Dr. Graham faithfully did this, even to the point of imparting a single word to a child.

Perhaps Christians will follow this period of mourning and reflection with an even greater sense of joyful resolve. The fruit of Billy Graham's laser-focused commitment to the Gospel is truly awe-inspiring. His purpose was to see that the whole world heard about Jesus. May God grant that it becomes our mission as well.

An unworthy, though grateful, follower of Jesus, Dr. Alex McFarland is also a religion and culture expert, Director for Christian Worldview and Apologetics at North Greenville University, national talk show host, speaker and author of 18 books, and host of the Truth for a New Generation conference. For more information, visit www.alexmcfarland.com.Email Whatsapp Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment

Monday, I received a call inviting me to the private funeral of Billy Graham. "Why me?" I thought. Then I was reminded that I taught at the Billy Graham School of Evangelism. Also, I was a member of his foreign missions committee that planned Amsterdam 2000.

What will I remember when I view his body or be present when his wooden casket is lowered into the grave? I will not remember the vast crowds that came to hear him preach or the powerful sermons inviting people to come to Jesus, nor will I remember he was the pastor to every U.S. President since Truman, or that I graduated from Northwestern College, Minneapolis, Minnesota, where Billy had been president.

I will remember revivala true Holy Spirit revival. Revival is when God pours out His presence on His people and both they and the church revives New Testament Christianity.

I will remember my senior high Sunday school class discussing the Billy Graham revival in Los Angeles where crowds filled the massive tent for eight weeks. As a 17-year-old boy I knew that God's power was all over that young evangelist named Billy Graham and I wanted what he offered. Little did I know that in just a few months mercy drops of revival would splash into a little Presbyterian church in Savannah, Georgia where I attended. On July 25, 1950, I was born again, and nothing has been the same.

I went to Columbia Bible College and Billy Graham filled the Columbia South Carolina auditorium every night with city-stirring revival. Almost every radio station covered it live and I remember turning the radio dial from one exciting interview to another. I remember thinking, "This is just like Pentecost."

I remember joining First Baptist Church Dallas, Texas, in 1954, when I went to seminary. A few weeks later Billy Graham came to join the church. The crowd on the street seemed to be as the one in the church. I could feel the windows of heaven opening as God poured revival into that church (it became the biggest in America in the 1950s).

I remember my friend Lyman Coleman left seminary in our second year to move to London, England, to administer the follow-up program at Harringay Arena in London, England, because thousands were coming to church. "Don't give up your education," I told Lyman. But he said that this is a life-changing opportunity.

I remember visiting Emmanuel Baptist Church on Yoido Island, Seoul, Korea, just after Billy Graham had preached to over one million people gathered at one place. I talked to a former Buddhist taxi cab driver who had taken passengers to see the spectacular event and stayed to hear the sermon. He was saved and became a pastor and that nation was never the same.

I remember sitting in a hotel conference room in the 1990s planning Amsterdam 2000 and a budget of 36 million dollars. The Billy Graham organization spent that much to pay for 7,000 evangelists at Amsterdam '87. Billy said we could do it again in the year 2,000 for the same price, but this time train 10,000 evangelists. He paid their plane fare from all over the world, plus hotel accommodations for 10 nights and meals.

"We will raise 36 million dollars before the meeting begins," Billy said through a teleconference communication. Someone asked, "How can we do that?" Billy answered, "I will write a personal letter to 36,000 people and ask for $1,000 each."

I remember jumping to my feet saying, "I will give the first thousand." I remember Billy's faith for money, and for his faith for the biggest crowds ever and for revival, i.e., the presence of God.

When I stand by that open grave, will I be sad? No, I will remember revival, I will remember the captivating presence of God in revival, and I will know that God can do it again.

Times are rough, everyone seems to be caught up in pleasure, or pursuing their addictive habits, and that politicians are angry and are attacking other politicians from their own prejudice that keeps the world in turmoil.

When they cover Billy's wooden casket with dirt, I will not look back. I will look to the future. I will know that somewhere there is another Billy who will study in another unknown Wheaton College, who with only a Bible and the call of God upon his life and faith to move mountains, will again believe God for revival. God will again pour Himself on this needy world. However, the next Billy may come from Fiji, or will be a Hispanic boy from the Southwest or an immigrant from the Far East. He will have an answer for the problems of the world and he will preach to the multitudes in their hour of decision. God will do it again.

Billy made me believe in revival because I was able to touch it, and in return revival touched me. I want Billy's funeral to tell the world we can have revival in our time.

Elmer L. Towns is president of Elmer Towns Ministries and co-founder of Liberty University in Lynchburg, Va.Email Whatsapp Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment

This week, Jews around the world are celebrating the festival of Purim, which is based on the biblical book of Esther, and which has often been relevant through Jewish history. The following article was written to coincide with Purim in 2015, and it ends with a prediction. You'll see that things played out as expected.

Here's the article, more relevant today than the day it was posted in early March of 2015.

Twenty-five hundred years ago, Queen Esther violated protocol and appealed to the king to intervene against a threat to annihilate the Jewish people. Yesterday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu violated protocol and appealed to the United States Congress to intervene against a threat to annihilate the Jewish people. In both cases, the enemy threatening the people of Israel was Persia (today, Iran).

In the days of Esther, the deliverance of the Jewish people led to the institution of the holiday known as Purim. Today, just one day after Netanyahu's speech, it is Purim again.

Truth sometimes is stranger than fiction, especially at this time of the year.

In Esther's day, she had to approach the king without being called for, a violation of protocol that could have cost her her life. Yesterday, Prime Minister Netanyahu came to America to address Congress despite President Obama's strong objections, potentially risking his nation's relationship with our country, not to mention potentially endangering his own reelection campaign.

Odd things often happen in conjunction with Purim, including:

 In 1991, the Gulf War against Saddam Hussein ended after just 100 hours of battle, coinciding with the beginning of Purim. During the war, despite Hussein raining down 39 SCUD missiles on Israel, casualties were so minimal that even non-religious Jews called it miraculous.

 In 1953, during Purim, Joseph Stalin died suddenly, putting an end to his infamous Doctor's Plot aimed at slaughtering Jewish doctors. Ultra-orthodox Jews of the Lubavitch, Chasidic sect, believe that it was just as their grand rabbi (the Rebbe, Menachem Mendel Schneerson, who died in 1992) was reciting an inspired (and mystically relevant) discourse that Stalin was smitten.

 Although it was not on Purim in 1946 when Julius Streicher, the notorious Nazi propagandist, was being led to the gallows for his war crimes, he cried out in mockery, "Purim-fest, 1946!" meaning, the Festival of Purim, 1946. His point was that just as Haman, the instigator of the plot against the Jews in Esther's day, was hung on the very gallows he prepared for his Jewish enemies, so Streicher was hung for his crimes against the Jews.

 Tragically, Purim was also a time when the Nazis would carry out public Jewish executions to ridicule the biblical story of Jewish deliverance.

Twenty-five hundred years ago, Haman, raised to high command by the King of Persia, devised his plot to exterminate the Jews. Today, Ayatollah Khamanei, the Supreme Leader of Iran, has offered a nine-point plan to "eliminate" the Zionist regime, explaining that, "During its 66 years of life so far, the fake Zionist regime has tried to realize its goals by means of infanticide, homicide, violence and iron fist while boasts [sic] about it blatantly."

The most conspicuous difference between Esther's day and our day is that the king of Persia responded favorably to her request to spare her people (she herself was Jewish, but that was unknown to the king before she approached him to plead for deliverance) whereas thus far, the President of the United States has turned a deaf ear to the appeals of the Prime Minister of Israel.

In fact, just one day before the speech, President Obama, dismissed the accuracy of Prime Minister Netanyahu's previous warnings in advance of his speech to Congress, almost as if Iran was more to be trusted than Netanyahu.

Worse still, immediately after the speech, those in the president's own Democratic party vilified Prime Minister Netanyahu, claiming that he was guilty of "fear-mongering," with Rep. Nancy Pelosi saying she was "near tears" throughout the speech, "saddened by the insult to the intelligence of the United States . . . ."

Not to be outdone, Rep. John Lewis stated that the speech was "an affront to the president of the United States, to the Democratic leadership of Congress and the Department of State."

Perhaps the real affront and the real insult was that Netanyahu openly addressed the elephant in the room, namely, "militant Islam," referring to it four times in his speech, while our president refuses even to acknowledge its existence.

Not only so, the prime minister rightly located the origin of many of the world's most dangerous Islamic groups today, namely, Iran, beginning with the rise of Ayatollah Khomenei in the late 1970s.

To quote the prime minister directly, ". . . the ideology of Iran's revolutionary regime is deeply rooted in militant Islam, and that's why this regime will always be an enemy of America."

And he warned: "Don't be fooled. The battle between Iran and ISIS doesn't turn Iran into a friend of America.

"Iran and ISIS are competing for the crown of militant Islam. One calls itself the Islamic Republic. The other calls itself the Islamic State. Both want to impose a militant Islamic empire first on the region and then on the entire world. They just disagree among themselves who will be the ruler of that empire."

This may be an inconvenient truth, but it is a truth nonetheless.

Netanyahu continued, "In this deadly game of thrones, there's no place for America or for Israel, no peace for Christians, Jews or Muslims who don't share the Islamist medieval creed, no rights for women, no freedom for anyone.

"So when it comes to Iran and ISIS, the enemy of your enemy is your enemy."

My personal opinion is that, in years to come, Prime Minister Netanyahu will be the hero of this episode and President Obama, while certainly not Haman, will be the anti-hero.

After all, it's Purim.Email Whatsapp Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment

This month Politico Magazine ran a story by University of Virginia Professor W. Bradford Wilcox and Demographic Intelligence President Samuel Sturgeon about recent declines in sexual activity among young adults.

The article cites a 2017 study that was published by the Archives of Sexual Behavior. This article uses data from General Social Survey (GSS) to present solid statistical evidence that since 2010, there has been a decline in sexual activity among a range of age demographics. However, some of the largest declines have taken place among young adults.

The Politico article offers several explanations for this decline in sexual activity. The current generation of young adults does not have particularly conservative views about sexuality. However, millennials tend to be more risk averse and are more likely to be living with their parents.

The article also notes that increased attention to sexual assault on college campuses has likely made students more cautious about engaging in sexual activity.

Increases in smart phone use have also discouraged in-person socializing among young adults. Finally, the article notes that increases in pornography use may be a factor as well.

This decline in sexual activity has a couple important policy implications that the Politico article fails to properly analyze. First is the decline in the abortion rate. The U.S. abortion rate has been steadily declining since 1980. The mainstream media usually credit contraception and typically ignore all other potential factors.

However, good data from both the National Youth Risk Behavior Survey and the National Survey of Family Growth have clearly shown a long-term decline in teen sexual activity since the early 1990s. This recent study is among the first to show that there has also been a recent decline in sexual activity among young adults.

The second important policy implication is the recent decline in the unintended pregnancy rate. Some analyses show that the rate of unintended pregnancies started to decline in 2008. Many in the media have credited the contraception mandate that was included in the Affordable Care Act.

However, a 2017 Guttmacher study found that contraceptive use remained constant between 2008 and 2014. As such, this data showing an overall decline in sexual activity  with larger declines taking place among young adults  offers a far more compelling reason for the recent decline in the rate of unintended pregnancies.

Many policy analysts feel that sexual activity among the young is a given. Therefore, they attempt to reduce unintended pregnancy rates through programs to encourage contraceptive use.

However, good research shows that levels of sexual activity among teenagers and young adults have fluctuated over time. The reasons behind the recent decline in sexual activity among both teenagers and young adults may be complicated. However, this new research clearly indicates that policy efforts to either delay or reduce sexual activity are not necessarily doomed to failure.

Michael J. New is an Associate Professor of Economics at Ave Maria University and an Associate Scholar at the Charlotte Lozier Institute. Follow him on Twitter @Michael_J_New.Email Whatsapp Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment

In a recent interview with the South Florida Sun Sentinel, James and Kimberly Snead, the couple who took in the Florida school shooter after his own parents had died, said they were baffled and surprised that the high school student who had been living with them for nearly three months could commit such a horrific crime. They were unaware of all the prior warning signs the killer had displayed. Kimberly said the young man who eventually murdered 17 students was, "nothing like they portray on television or in the media." In the Snead home, the killer appeared to be a likeable, compliant person. James Snead said, "we had rules and he followed every rule to the tee." They were clearly stunned when they learned that their house guest was responsible for the massacre, "We had this monster living under our roof and we didn't know."

The Snead's aren't the first to feel this way. In shooting after shooting, people who know the killers are often surprised to discover their true nature. Many of the family and friends of the Las Vegas shooter, for example, were shocked and described the killer as a "good guy." The people who knew the shooters in the San Bernardino massacre were similarly surprised and described them as "normal." The father of the man who killed eight students at Umpqua Community College said he was "just as shocked as everybody." How was it possible that these killers were able to live amongst us without detection? How were they able to deceive the people around them?

Did we ignore all the potential warning signs? Perhaps. But, as a cold-case homicide detective and a Christian, I've discovered another very real explanation. Most of the murder suspects I investigate are seemingly "regular" people who lived uneventful lives following their crime. They are doting parents (and grandparents), firemen, church elders, engineers, painters, professionals and blue-collar workers. They're your neighbor, your kid's scout leader, your co-worker and your family member. These people aren't serial killers, they're ordinary people who committed a single, extraordinary crime.

When you arrest a serial killer and interview his neighbors, they'll typically say something like, "Wow, I am so glad you took that guy to jail. He was weird. I always suspected he was up to no good. I heard strange noises and smelled strange odors over there all the time." But when you take a cold-case murderer to jail, his neighbor will typically say, "No way! I've known that guy for a dozen years. He's watched my kids and we hang out all the time. There's no way he could have committed a murder." How can regular people who've lived good, decent lives for decades be capable of committing a horrific murder, years earlier? If you're a Christian, you may already know the answer. I certainly do, because the cold-case killers I've investigated confirm the Biblical description of humans.

Dutch theologian, Herman Bavinck, wrote, "Man is an enigma, whose only solution can be found in God." The mystery described by Bavinck is explained in Scripture. According to the Bible, humans are created in the "image of God" (Genesis 1:26-27). Our capacity for good is a direct gift from our Creator. Each of us can display this attribute of God under certain circumstances.

At the same time, humans are deeply rebellious. If you're a parent, you already know you don't have to teach your children to be impatient, rude and self-serving. They behave this way from birth unless we teach them otherwise. All of us begin as self-serving, fallen creatures and this doesn't change much as we get older. This fallen inclination toward selfishness drives many of us to commit crimes.

That's why so many of my cold-case murder suspects look just like the rest of us: they are just like the rest of us. Each of us is capable of doing something evil. We are both beautiful and ugly, trustworthy and unreliable, noble and despicable. Depending on the situation, we display one side of our nature or the other.

The Christian worldview accurately captures the reality of our human condition. The apostle Paul said it perfectly when he wrote, "For what I am doing, I do not understand; for I am not practicing what I would like to do, but I am doing the very thing I hate" (Romans 7:15). This tension between the image of God and our fallen nature is the human condition, and the reason why none of us should be surprised that a killer may be living under our roof. But for the grace of God, that killer could be us.

J. Warner Wallace is a Cold-Case Detective, Senior Fellow at the Colson Center for Christian Worldview, Adj. Professor of Apologetics at Biola University, and the author of Cold-Case Christianity, God's Crime Scene, and Forensic Faith.Email Whatsapp Menu Whatsapp Google Reddit Digg Stumbleupon Linkedin Comment

A Washington Post writer once said that evangelicals are "poor, ignorant and easy to command." Well, at least he didn't say we were mentally ill. Until now that is. On a recent segment of "The View," Joy Behar took aim at Mike Pence's belief that God speaks to him. Responding to a comment by another host, Behar said, "It's one thing to talk to Jesus. It's another when Jesus talks to you. That's a mental illness if I'm not correct. Hearing voices."

That's a sign of how ignorant elites truly are about beliefs and practices common to something like two billion Christians.

I actually find it surprising that Behar, who claims to be Catholic, hasn't found time in her 25 years to learn a little more about prayer.

Behar's comment outraged Americans from coast to coast. Twenty-five thousand people let ABC know what we thought of a network that allows an employee to sneer at the way other people practice their faith.

The next day, Behar responded to her critics with a sarcastic clarification, saying, "I don't think Mike Pence is mentally ill even though he says he is hearing voices."

Wow. That's some apology.

I'd like to propose a solution. I invite Joy Behar to spend some time looking into what Christians mean when they say they hear God's voice.

She might start with the writings of J. Warner Wallace, a Senior Fellow at the Colson Center. In a piece posted by FOX News, Wallace notes that when Christians say, "God spoke to me," they don't "necessarily mean that God spoke audibly." Christians, he explains, "believe the Bible is the 'word of God,' and by reading it, [we] gain access to the mind of God."

He points to 2nd Timothy, which notes that Holy Scripture is "God-breathed," and Hebrews 4, which says "the word of God is living and active." Reading these verses, one could see how Christians might legitimately say, "God spoke to me," Wallace explains.

Second, God can use wise and mature advisors to teach us about God's willpeople who have invested long years reading and meditating over scripture. Wallace writes that a believer who says God spoke to her "may simply mean that one of God's children provided them with Biblical wisdom."

Third, God may speak to us through difficult experiences. As C.S. Lewis writes in The Problem of Pain, "God whispers to us in our pleasures . . . but shouts in our pains: it is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world."

Fourth, God may indeed speak audibly to His followers. Many people have written about hearing God's voice in a crisis. And in my own case, God spoke to me through an amazing, mind-blowing dream.

Bible-reading Christians know this. Open your Bible, and you'll find all kinds of examples of each of the ways God speaks to His peopleaudibly, through prophets and through the written word.

Finally, it's worth reminding our media that, if Mike Pence is crazy for believing he hears God's voice, then so are George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, FDR, Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton and Barack Obamaall of whom said they listened for the still, small voice of God.

I really do hope Joy Behar will give it a try.

And for more by J. Warner Wallace on Christian apologetics, please visit BreakPoint.org.

Yes, Christians Do Hear God's Voice: Call Me Crazy

As Eric points out, followers of Christ hear Him speak in many waysby reading and meditating on Holy Scripture, through wise advisors and fellow believers, through dreams and even through experiences and circumstances. To quote Francis Schaeffer, "He is there, and He is not silent."

First published at BreakPoint.As Algeria ramps up pressure on Christians, World Evangelical Alliance calls for religious freedom

Amid concerns over heightened government pressure on churches and Christians in Algeria, the World Evangelical Alliance's (WEA) Religious Liberty Commission has called on authorities there to ensure religious freedom for people of all faiths.

Meanwhile, L'Eglise Protestante d'Algerie (EPA), the WEA's national member body in Algeria, is calling on churches around the world to join them in a week of prayer and fasting for their nation.

In recent months, authorities in Algeria have stepped up restrictions against Christian churches in the country leading to an increase in arrests of Christians in the country.

According to reports cited by the WEA, in November 2017, Algerian authorities formed a committee to inspect churches on its compliance with safety regulations. But despite its main aim supposedly being safety issues, the committee has also questioned churches on whether they possesses permits to conduct religious activities.

The committee has reportedly ordered several churches, two Bible schools, and a Christian-owned bookshop to close down.

The WEA highlighted that in March 2006, the Algerian parliament adopted 'Ordinance 06-03', which effectively confined non-Muslim worship to specific buildings approved by the national commission for non-Muslim religious groups.

Not a single permission has so far been granted for Algerian churches, the WEA said. According to Middle East Concern, an associate member organisation of WEA, 'Church leaders inform local authorities about their activities and provide all relevant documentation, including statements confirming affiliation to L'Eglise Protestante d'Algerie (the EPA), the only Protestant denomination officially recognised by the Government'.

The deputy secretary general of the WEA and head of its Religious Liberty Commission, Godfrey Yogarajah, said: 'We call on the government of Algeria to ensure that the religious freedom of Christians is safeguarded in accordance with international law. We also call on the government, in keeping with the country's constitution, to take all steps necessary to guarantee the freedom of worship for all religious groups in the country.'

The EPA is calling on churches and believers around the world to join them in a week of prayer and fasting for their nation.

Bishop Efraim Tendero, the secretary general of the WEA, said: 'Please join me in uplifting the situation of our Algerian brothers and sisters in prayer, so that God may change the hearts of those in government and allow them to see the great blessing that Christians are to their nation.

'Religious freedom for people of all faiths is at the foundation of a healthy society and Algeria can only flourish as a country if believers  Christians and others  are allowed to worship freely and without discrimination.'

There are estimated to be a few hundred thousand Protestant Christians at most in Algeria.Campaigners want answers over death of Chinese Christian lawyer

A Chinese lawyer who advocated for Christian freedoms has died in what campaigners say are suspicious circumstances.

Dr Li Baiguang, 49, died on Monday at a government military hospital in Nanjing after checking in for a stomach complaint. The hospital said he bled to death because of a liver condition.

However, Li  who was an outspoken advocate for pastors who had been arrested for their faith  was previously in good health. He had attended the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington earlier this month and had said he felt threatened. While he was out of the country, Chinese authorities interrogated his pastor.

Li left a wife and eight-year-old son.

Release International's chief executive Paul Robinson said: 'We are deeply saddened by the loss of this courageous, bold and compassionate Christian lawyer.

'We call on China to give a full, independent and transparent account of the reasons for Dr Li's sudden and unexpected death.'

Bob Fu, the head of US-based China Aid and a friend of Li Baiguang, said: 'We are deeply saddened by the loss of one of China's most courageous, pro-constitution lawyers.

'He was treated violently last year and was threatened a number of times recently by the Chinese regime. He has been a bold and compassionate human rights lawyer, always ready in defence of the persecuted and vulnerable.

'Like in the sudden death of [Nobel Peace Prize laureate] Dr Liu Xiaobo, the Chinese regime should be held totally accountable. The whole world should demand that the Chinese government give a full, independent, and transparent account on what caused Dr Li's sudden death.'

US congressman Chris Smith, co-chairman of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China (CECC), said: 'Dr Li was truly one of China's best and brightest  committed to the rule of law, to human rights, and to a more peaceful and prosperous US-China relationship. There are many unanswered questions about his death and these questions should be answered. Given that so many human rights lawyers have been disbarred, detained, disappeared, and tortured since 2015, the family should be allowed to undertake a truly independent medical investigation and get answers about Li Baiguang's untimely death.'Cancer news: Studies on creating 'mini-tumors' to help battle cancer are a 'success,' according to the The Institute for Cancer Research in London

The quest to give patients a heads-up on whether specific cancer treatments will be beneficial or hurtful to them seems to be leading the race to find a potential cancer cure. The Institute of Cancer Research (ICR) in London has successfully created what it calls "mini-tumors" or organoids that can help combat the life-threatening disease.

Cancer is deemed the leading cause of death worldwide, according to the American Institute for Cancer Research (AICR) and World Cancer Research Fund (WCRF). However, according to the American Cancer Society's journal "CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians," the death rate for cancer-related cases in the United States has declined steadily over the past 20 years.

According to a report by Cancer.org, the decline in mortality is a combined result of a decline in smoking as well as early prevention and treatment. In line with this, the study made by London's ICR is considered "groundbreaking," because by growing mini-tumors in the laboratory, they have been able to predict how patients will respond to treatment.

They were able to do so by studying the biopsies of 71 patients with colorectal cancer and said biopsies were then grown into three-dimensional cancerous organs. The resultant organoids were then given the same treatment as the patients were, and the study produced interesting results. If the drug for the organoid worked, it also had an 88 percent success rate with the patients. Inversely, if the drugs did not work on the organoid, it also had a 100 percent failure rate with the patient.

By applying this in the selection of possible treatments for cancer patients, treatment can now take on a more humane and less-brutal approach. It would also spare the patient from waiting for long periods before results would come in. According to Dr. Nicola Valeri from the ICR, "This has been a huge issue in the past, when people were using mouse models it was taking six to eight months to get to the results. With this tool we can get results in a couple of months and I think we can get even faster."

While the study focused on bowel and stomach cancer, Valeri is optimistic that the technique may also be applied to other cancer types, in time.Eight weird things Christians do during worship

'Invite your friends to church,' they boldly say from the pulpit. It's easy for them to say of course; most church leaders don't have any friends. I'm joking obviously. Yet so often we struggle to answer that repeated rallying cry from the front to take the seemingly natural step of inviting other people to come and visit our faith community. Why? What are we afraid they might see?

I've got a working theory. Because, just in the way that a comfortable middle aged man might sit in front of the television in a vest, unconcerned about what anyone else thinks of him, we become relaxed and acclimatised in church to patterns of behaviour that an outside observer might find strange, or indeed utterly bonkers. I don't think that it's fears about a boring or moralising sermon that prevent us from inviting our friends, or indeed the quality of the brown water that we serve so lovingly at the end. I think the number one reason we don't ask people to come to church is because we think they'll find the worship a bit weird.

Not because the musicianship is bad  although clearly in some places where Grade 1 anything gets you a permanent spot on the rota, that is a factor  but because of the things the assembled congregation do during the singing. Now, I certainly don't want to cast aspersions on moments of intimacy between individual worshippers and their creator; clearly it is wonderful that people feel a direct connection to God, or are compelled to respond physically during worship. It's just a fact that it can often look a bit weird from the outside. Here are just eight examples of what I'm talking about.

1. The arms

Oh, the arms. Where else can you start but hand-raising? Depending on your church tradition, arm-lifting is either an act of theological defiance to indicate that you're the one charismatic in the congregation, or a health and safety nightmare due to the sheer number of people waving their bodies around simultaneously. Rooted in a verse in 1 Timothy 2 where Paul suggests people 'should pray, lifting holy hands without anger and quarrelling', it's the most popular dance move among charismatics and indicates a combination of submission and reaching for the skies (not in the Woody from Toy Story sense). There are obviously a whole plethora of styles and artistic interpretations of the arm raise. I've created a 'spotters guide' to them here. In addition, it's always fun to keep an eye out for trigger words or phrases which inspire a mass response of this nature; that line that goes 'so we raise up holy hands to praise the holy one' is enough to turn a Spring Harvest Big Top meeting into a gigantic deodorant advertisement.

2. Faceplanting

Kneeling is for wimps. If you really want to demonstrate your utter devotion to the almighty, then only a full-on spreadeagled floor-kiss will do. This is the natural and ultimate extension of the respectful and humbling act of bowing or taking a knee. There are only a couple of problems with it: first, it only really works if you're sitting in the front row (although naturally that's where the holiest and most devoted people sit), and second, it can be really awkward if you're needing to get past this person to reach the loo. Get your timing wrong and attempt to step over them just as they rise from the floor, and you'll end up riding on their back like a horse.

3. Running

This is a niche one that I've picked up from watching conference footage on Christian television. A congregant is standing still when suddenly he bolts from his position in the manner of a man who has just remembered he left the gas on. I presume this is based in that verse which says that 'those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength, they will run and not grow weary...' (Isaiah 40 v 31), and it's a pretty literal way of demonstrating the fact (as long as you don't look too puffed out afterwards). The problem, aside from the slight sense of tension it might inspire in other worshippers, is that most churches aren't very big, so you either don't get to run very far, or end up doing an awful lot of laps.

4. The dance of the flags

There's something wonderful about seeing a middle-aged accountant named Gerald shuffle to the front during worship, lift up a large coloured flag and begin twirling it around with gay abandon like a high school cheerleader. I guess this is the modern version of King David dancing around in his revealing linen ephod, and I guess we should be thankful that our accountants don't do that. In some churches flag waving is an almost entirely alien concept, and the sudden production of a flag might be misconstrued as some sort of attempted coup. In others though, it's so welcomed that there's even a whole box of them left at the front, just in case the mood suddenly takes you to wave a bit of material on a stick around (Pro Tip: the purple one is the best/holiest).

5. Deliberately singing to one another

One for the more conservative among us now, and certainly a big part of my own upbringing in church. Some more earnest and intellectual worshippers are tremendously concerned that our worship is always sensible and correct, so when the song lyrics aren't actually aimed at heaven, but more at attaining a sense of congregational agreement, they invoke this protocol. Instead of looking heavenward, closing their eyes or simply staring 1,000 yards into the distance like a good Brit, they begin to turn around and try to catch each other's eyes, a bit like that awful moment where you're saying the grace to one another. So if for example, the song includes the line, 'Rise up church with broken wings', purveyors of this particular worship habit will work hard to sing it to someone, rather than to God, perhaps for fear that they might confuse him otherwise. At its best, where everyone is on board with the idea, this can be tremendously inspiring and invigorating. At its worst, it's a bit like watching a terrible Karaoke performance at the Dog and Duck from a bloke who thinks he's Rod Stewart.

6. Clapping

The trouble with clapping as a form of musical expression is that it's completely unconducted. Some songs have well-known and choreographed clapping sections, others inspire more of a freestyle approach. And it's here, in all but the happiest and clappiest of churches, that the problems begin. One person, perhaps inspired by a mix of the music, the Holy Spirit and a driving need to keep themselves awake, begins boldly clapping along. Another person starts to join them, but can't quite find the beat and quickly loses confidence. A few more join in, perhaps in an attempt to rescue the lone clapper, but the arrival of the chorus sends them into a spin; do they stop, keeping going or change the beat? Charismatic Christian clapping is a minefield.

7. The person with the shaky egg thing

...or indeed anyone who chooses to smuggle their own musical instrument into the service. This is a thankfully more rare experience, but having grown up in a church where this was painfully common, I share it now if only as an act of self-help therapy. This chap at my church had purchased a small smooth coloured egg-shaped shaker, which he would bring along each Sunday and then rhythmically jiggle in time (or more often, not) to the music. I'm sure it helped him to enter in more deeply to the presence of the Almighty, but to the rest of us it just created a disconcerting sense that there was a rattlesnake somewhere in the building. In a sense this is merely the modern manifestation of the traditional tambourine, but I will let you draw your own conclusions about whether that's a good thing.

8. Actions

I can only imagine the horror of being an introvert in a family worship service. Where else outside of preschool children's parties and nightclub renditions of YMCA are grown adults asked to make a variety of shapes with their bodies while singing? The best action songs, certainly from an adult perspective, involve a range of movements which can all be performed while standing still and preferably without moving your elbows; some, like that Lighthouse one, demand you make a choice between unholy abstinence and abject personal humiliation. Incidentally, the very worst thing about being a parent in church is when you're sitting at the front with your kids and you have no idea if the people behind you are also vigorously attempting the actions, or just silently judging you. If in doubt, I always assume the latter.

All of this begs the question: should we be toning ourselves down in order not to put off visitors  or indeed to put ourselves off the idea of inviting them in the first place? Of course not. If these are genuine expressions of worship, then we shouldn't be ashamed of them. Instead, perhaps we just need to get a bit more comfortable with the idea that we're a little bit weird when you first come across us. When we invite our friends to church, we're inviting them to experience the real thing, not a toned down or carefully managed show run like a school who've got the inspectors in. We're a bit weird, but of course we are: we're connected to a supernatural power who creates galaxies and raises the dead. Perhaps visitors won't find our oddness half as off-putting as we might imagine.

Martin Saunders is a Contributing Editor for Christian Today and the Deputy CEO of Youthscape. Follow him on Twitter @martinsaunders.Filmmaker Kevin Smith survives 'massive heart attack'

Filmmaker and actor Kevin Smith has shared on social media that he suffered a "massive heart attack" on Sunday, Feb. 25. He was found to have had a blocked left anterior descending (LAD) artery, which is a fatal condition in majority of cases.

Smith tweeted a photo of himself in a hospital gown, with a caption saying that he survived a heart attack and a deadly blockage in a major artery. He reportedly felt ill after a comedy show on Sunday night, opting not to do a second show to go to the hospital.

After the first show this evening, I had a massive heart attack. The Doctor who saved my life told me I had 100% blockage of my LAD artery (aka the Widow-Maker). If I hadnt canceled show 2 to go to the hospital, I wouldve died tonight. But for now, Im still above ground! pic.twitter.com/M5gSnW9E5h  KevinSmith (@ThatKevinSmith) February 26, 2018

Smith is known for directing, writing, producing, and acting in the award-winning 1994 film "Clerks." He also wrote and directed films such as "Dogma," "Jersey Girl," and "Red State."

The New York Daily News reported that Smith was due to perform at two shows that Sunday, one at 6 p.m. and the other at 9 p.m. Smith cancelled his second taping for his stand-up comedy show, "Kevin Smith Live!"

"The Doctor who saved my life told me I had 100% blockage of my LAD artery (aka "the Widow-Maker")," Smith wrote in his tweet. "If I hadn't canceled show 2 to go to the hospital, I would've died tonight."

The LAD artery is considered to be the most important of the three arteries in the heart, because it pumps blood to a larger area of the heart than the two other arteries. It has earned the moniker "widow-maker" because the heart attacks it causes have high fatality rates.

According to an Instagram post by Smith, death was the thing he most terrified of in his life. He also wrote that his father died after suffering a heart attack himself.

"When the time came, I never imagined I'd ever be able to die with dignity - I assumed I'd die screaming, like my Dad (who lost his life to a massive heart attack)," Smith wrote in his post. However, he continued that he felt calm as he contemplated the possibility of his death because he felt that he has had a great life.

Smith also mentioned that he will be making some changes to his lifestyle after this ordeal, writing that he may become vegan.Jews are under threat all over the world. But today on Purim, we make merry

Today Jews all over the world are preparing themselves for the celebrations starting this night after the reading of the Purim Megillah. It is the joyful month of Adar, the 13th to be exact, the Fast of Esther in the year 5778 in the Jewish calendar.

This Megillah scroll commemorates the biblical story of Queen Esther who married the Persian king, Ahasuerus, (possibly Xerxes) without at first revealing her identity, in order to save the Jewish people from genocide. The King's Prime Minister, Haman, was jealous of the Jews and wanted them eradicated  wiped out of history.

The reasons given by Haman for wanting to destroy the Jewish people were that they were scattered all over the huge Persian kingdom (stretching from India to Ethiopia), they did not obey the king's laws and they kept their own very peculiar and odd laws, traditions and customs.

In what is generally regarded in Jewish tradition as the classic piece of biblical anti-Semitic propaganda, Prime Minister Haman tells the King in Chapter 3, verse 8: 'There is one people scattered and distinctive among the peoples in all the provinces of your kingdom. And their laws, customs and traditions are different from every other people and the King's laws, customs and traditions they do not carry out. It is not in the King's interest, nor does it befit him, to allow things to carry on in this vein.'

The key phrase is 'laws, customs and traditions', which covers one word in Persian, which is 'dat'. This little word 'dat' entered the Hebrew language as a loan-word from Persian, generally translated  and very loosely  as 'religion'.

So now, when you wander the streets of Israel, you will often hear the word 'dati', which covers a multitude of ideas, thoughts, prayers and behaviours, but which was first heard rather late in the life of the biblical Jewish people, in diaspora Persia when they were about to experience an attempted genocide.

What exactly is 'dat'?

Last year, I was privileged to experience the book launch of my biography of the late Chief Rabbi of Haifa in the home of the Master of Magdalene College, Dr Rowan Williams.

Before the big event, which took place in the afternoon, Dr Williams showed me around his home. Everywhere he took me I experienced a feeling of 'dat'. 'Dat' was there in everyday utensils, some of which were obviously of both Welsh and Christian origin. Then there was the harp in the lounge and countless other examples of what can only be called to an outsider 'Welsh Christian feeling'.

So when you live dat you don't have to go on about it all the time. However, to an outsider like Haman, filled with jealousy, ambition and resentment, 'dat' wasn't religion  it was strange ideas, thoughts and behaviours that made Jewish people different. And difference spelled trouble. To keep the Kingdom together, what you needed was total conformity. And if the Jews didn't conform  the answer was to be annihilation.

The last time we saw this in our own fairly modern history was during the Stalinist purges. Hitler was different. Hitler didn't mind if Jews didn't conform. Anyone with one grandparent who might have been Jewish, even if they were now converts to Christianity, had to be put down, no matter what.

But it could be argued that Haman maybe was like Hitler after all. He knew that the Jews simply wouldn't be able to give up their own laws, customs and traditions, because these had been given them by G-d on Mount Sinai, and they were obliged to keep these Sinaitic laws even in diaspora and even under threat of death.

In the end, Queen Esther reveals that she is Jewish, thwarts Haman's plot and the Jews are saved. This is why Purim is the most joyful festival of the Jewish calendar, when people dress up for the day, enjoy a festive meal, hear the Megillah of Esther read twice (once tonight and once tomorrow morning) and often overdo the drink.

Recently, one of the most respected rabbinic leaders in the country, known affectionately as 'the Gateshead Rav', Rabbi Shraga Feivel Zimmerman, has stated that what the observant Jewish community regards as current government interference in religious education is 'possibly the most serious' issue facing Anglo-Jewry since our expulsion from England over 700 years ago in 1290.

His view (shared by many) is that we are 'in an emergency situation' and 'if it isn't addressed we simply won't be able to stay' in the country.

It is not often that rabbis in his position (and his view is shared by his colleagues in Greater Manchester and in London) speak out like this. But, it does seem to many of us that many government officials simply do not understand what religion means to Jewish people. It appears that they think in a very Protestant way that religion is faith and that people have to follow their own 'conscience'. But even this is a misnomer, based on differences in the medieval, renaissance and modern definitions of that word.

The observant Jewish community of this country is growing. There are probably 200 synagogues in my area alone and people are lucky to be spoiled for choice when it comes to Shabbat and festivals. I can just go over the road tonight and there are at least three synagogues from which I can choose to read the megillah.

However, it does seem to us that our religious education and religious way of life is being threatened by authorities who simply do not understand and, worse, do not seem to want to learn about our religion.

In every generation we celebrate the joyful festival of Purim not only to give thanks for our salvation at the time of Xerxes of Persia, but also as a reminder of the real threats we face  which change superficially with the centuries, but usually boil down to the same thing.

Are Jews a blessing or a curse for society? This is why we are supposed to get so drunk tonight and tomorrow that we do not know the difference between the phrases 'blessed be Mordechai' (Esther's uncle, who advised and helped her to save the Jewish people) or 'cursed is Haman', the villain of the piece who wanted to eradicate Judaism from the world.

At the moment we are unsure in an uncertain world, with huge changes afoot in this country. But, just as at the time of Queen Esther, Mordechai and the Jewish people of Persia, who gave us the word 'religion', we Jewish people have to be eternally vigilant and on our guard. And this is one reason why the joyous festival of Purim takes place every year exactly one month before Pesach, the story of our Exodus from Egypt from abject slavery into precious freedom.

Wishing everyone a Happy Purim!

Dr Irene Lancaster is a Jewish academic, author and translator who has established university courses on Jewish history, Jewish studies and the Hebrew Bible.Justin Welby's 'Reimagining Britain': A political book from a political Archbishop of Canterbury

'The combination of massive economic shock and huge external change' after Brexit mean the UK is facing its greatest challenge since the end of the Second World War.

That is the essence of Justin Welby's latest book and those who think the archbishop should be a glorified Billy Graham issuing tub thumping gospel messages will be sorely disappointed. In Reimagining Britain: Foundations for Hope 'government' is mentioned more often than 'Jesus' and 'Brexit' more often than 'bishop'.

Welby tackles education, healthcare, housing, immigration and economics before reserving the final chapter for 'churches and other faith groups' as what he calls 'healthy disruptors'. It is a highly political book from a highly political archbishop of Canterbury.

'The next couple of decades or more [will be] a period of reimagination on the scale of post-1945,' he writes. 'The task of reimagining is far more complicated than after 1945 and the result will be a process lasting not for a few years but generations.'

It is not the first time Welby has entered into fraught political debates and it will no doubt not be the last. He has been heavily criticised, primarily from the Right and most prominently by former-UKIP leader turned Fox News commentator Nigel Farage, for his interventions on refugees and food banks.

But this is an archbishop more comfortable in the House of Lords than the general synod. He sees the Church of England's role as deeply political, caring for the physical as well as spiritual needs of its parishioners. During the 2013 debate on military intervention in Syria he watched the House of Commons debate intently from the peer's gallery before making a speech in the House of Lords. He sat on the Parliamentary Commission on Banking Standards from 2012-2013 and is a member of the IPPR Commission on Economic Justice. On top of this he regularly meets foreign political leaders and in the last year has met Vladimir Putin's ally Patriarch Kirill, Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and more recently Turkey's authoritarian president Recep Erdogan in a low-key meeting in Ankara.

Reimagining Britain has drawn comparisons with the Church of England's fallout with Margaret Thatcher's government in 1985 over a report entitled Faith in the City, although Welby says the wholesale changes needed now are much more drastic than 'simply an adjustment' needed in the 1980s.

However Welby does not appear in the least bit afraid of potential clashes and weighs in freely on Sharia law, same-sex marriage, home ownership and, of course, Brexit.

He harshly criticises both sides of the referendum debate saying 'those wildly in favour sometimes seem to resemble Dr Pangloss, those who are most against risk giving the impression of channelling the depressed robot, Marvin the Paranoid Android, in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy'.

He attacks second home owners and nimbys and urges the government to 'allow house prices to stabilise and return a home to being principally a good shelter in a safe and convenient location'.

And he avoids the layers upon layers of nuance over Sharia law that tied up his predecessor Rowan Williams and simply says it should never become part of the British legal system. 'Sharia, which has a powerful and ancient cultural narrative of its own, deeply embedded in a system of faith and understanding of God, and thus especially powerful in forming identity, cannot become part of another narrative,' he writes. 'It is either formative or different. Accepting it in part implies accepting its values around the nature of the human person, attitudes to outsiders, the revelation of God, and a basis for life in law, rather than grace, the formative word of Christian culture.'

But when asked what the 'red warning lights' were over what he had written, it was his relatively positive comments on same-sex marriage and the feared backlash from conservatives in the church that he said most worried him.

Those comments come in a chapter on the family which Welby told journalists was focused on being realistic about changes to the traditional household including cohabitation, divorce and same-sex marriage.

'Taking account of how things have changed, how do we makes sure we tackle those great evils of lack of care particularly for the vulnerable and the elderly?,' he said. 'There are some things I would say I don't like but that doesn't mean I pretend they don't exist.'

Ultimately, as with his immediate predecessor, it is these issues on which his time as archbishop may be judged. What will be the Church's standing at the end of his tenure? Can he hold together a Communion that could, and some even say should, split over sexuality?

Yes, he appears to be the ultimate political archbishop. Acutely aware of the established side of his office, Welby takes a different approach to that of Rowan Williams, who spent minimal time in the House of Lords and told my colleague James Macintyre in 2008, in the context of the disestablishment question, that 'being a nuisance to the people across the river is not a big consideration...It really isn't'. The incumbent does perhaps care a little more about what the political world is thinking and saying, and that is no bad thing.

But it is notable that while not immune, Welby is, similarly, not as fazed by criticism from outside the church as he is from attacks within it.

Welby has often spoken of his love for the 80 million strong worldwide Anglican Communion, and how he loses sleep over issues such as sexuality and abuse.

In the end, despite his preoccupation with politics, it is the prospect of increased schism under his watch that bothers him more than any backlash over his political interventions.Royal Wedding Prince Harry and Meghan Markle news update: Prince Harry's ex-girlfriends are invited to witness them say 'I Do'

Things usually get awkward when an ex-boyfriend or girlfriend shows up at a wedding, but, in the case of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's May 19 nuptials, two of the Prince's exes have reportedly been invited. Chelsy Davy, who dated Harry on-and-off for seven years, and Cressida Bonas, his girlfriend of two years, have been extended invitations to the ceremony at Windsor Castle.

Davy is a Zimbabwean national who met the Prince when she was still in law school. She admitted to The Times that she was not able to handle the strain of the Royal relationship well. "I found it very difficult when it was bad. I couldn't cope. I was young, I was trying to be a normal kid and it was horrible."

It seems that the same reasons were cited for the split between Prince Harry and Bonas, a British actress and model. The two were dating around the time when controversial photos of the Prince came out wherein he was seen playing naked billiards.

According to a report made by The Daily Mail, Harry has stayed friends with his two exes, and that his bride-to-be would not mind at all. The news outlet cites a friend of Harry's who had said that "he made sure there were no hard feelings when they split up. I don't think Meghan will mind."

However, it seems that Markle would mind if her ex-husband shows up, as it has also been reported that film producer Trevor Engelson's name is not on the official guest list. This might be due to the fact that Engelson is said to be producing a TV series about a divorcee who marries a member of the Royal Family.

The comedy series was apparently already purchased by Fox, and that the network is committed to seeing Engelson's vision come to life.

This latest development in the Royal Wedding may come as a surprise to most who are not aware that it is customary for the Royal Family to invite past paramours to their weddings. The same happened at Prince William and Kate Middleton's 2011 wedding, and it also famously happened during the wedding of Princess Diana, when Prince Charles invited Camilla Parker Bowles to their big day. Eventually, Parker Bowles' ex-husband Andrew also attended her wedding to Prince Charles.Samsung Galaxy Note 9 specs & features news: Samsung boss confirms Bixby 2.0

Samsung did not change Bixby much on the newly unveiled Galaxy S9, despite announcing its updated version late last year. However, the Korean tech giant promises to finally take its voice assistant to the next level when it releases the Galaxy Note 9 later this year.

Speaking at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona on Monday, Samsung mobile CEO DJ Koh confirmed to reporters that their Bixby 2.0 virtual personal assistant platform will launch with the upcoming phablet.

"For Bixby 1.0, we focused on a fast rollout to the market," Koh said. "Expanding the ecosystem was difficult. So Bixby 2.0 will strengthen this aspect and we are working intensely."

Currently, they are testing the beta version of Bixby 2.0 with around 800 partners. At such speed, Koh said he is confident that they can roll out its final version by the time Samsung Galaxy Note 9 will be released. He did not give a specific date for that but every Galaxy Note phablet since Note 5 has been unveiled in August. Thus, patrons can expect it by the end of summer.

Feature-wise, executive vice president and head of software and AI (artificial intelligence) Eui-Suk Chung shared at the conference that Bixby 2.0 will be able to recognize individual voices when there are multiple users. It focuses on integration with other Samsung devices as well.

"Bixby will not be tied to a specific device," Chung explained. "The ultimate goal is to make it ubiquitous."

This integration will start with smart TVs sold in the United States later this year. The feature is expected to be included in the Bixby speaker as well. Coming in the second half of 2018, the device will reportedly be a premium one, possibly in line with Apple's HomePod.

Although Samsung will not initially offer Bixby 2.0 in the Galaxy S9 and S9 Plus, the voice assistant update will likely make its way to the flagship handsets sometime after its debut in the Note 9.Top South Korean cleric apologises after priest is accused of attempted rape

One of South Korea's senior Catholic clerics made a public apology today after a woman parishioner complained that a senior priest had attempted to rape her, amid growing criticism over the incident.

The global anti-harassment movement, #MeToo, has taken off only slowly in South Korea, where discussion of sexual misconduct has long been taboo and where gender equality was ranked 118th among 144 nations by the World Economic Forum last year.

Archbishop Kim Hee-joong is the most senior church official to comment after Suwon diocese, 40 km (25 miles) south of Seoul, the capital, suspended the priest  known only by his surname, Han  last week over the alleged rape attempt during a religious mission to South Sudan in 2011.

'The Catholic Bishop's Conference of Korea sombrely offers apologies to the victim and her family as well as those whom we have disappointed over the clerical sex abuse,' Kim told a news conference.

'This sex scandal in the priesthood, which should uphold the noble value of celibacy and serve as a moral and religious compass, is disappointing and embarrassing,' he said.

He said the diocese was pursuing legal action against Han, who could not immediately be reached for comment by Reuters.

Last week, the woman told the national broadcaster KBS News that she hoped the Church could change for the better and South Korean society can build an environment for victims to speak out about their experiences of sexual abuse.

Police have not charged the priest.

The growing momentum of the #MeToo campaign has engulfed several high-profile South Koreans, veteran entertainers and actors among them, prompting President Moon Jae-in to urge law enforcement authorities to investigate sexual abuse claims.

Additional reporting by Reuters.Why can't some Christians grow in faith?

When people accept Jesus Christ into their lives, they are expected to grow in faith. But why can't some believers do so?

Pastor Joel Osteen from Lakewood Church wrote on his blog that Christians are like seeds, and they need the proper foundation and environment in order to flourish in their walk with God.

"Sometimes we wonder why we're not seeing growth, why we're not seeing favor in our life. Check your soil," he said. "In Matthew 13, Jesus told a parable about a man who sowed seed on good ground and it flourished, producing great crops. But some of the seed fell on rocky ground, and lacking soil and deep roots its plants withered. Other seed fell among the weeds and thorns, and its plants were choked from growing. All the seed was the same quality; what made the difference was the soil."

Osteen added that Christians are filled with gifts, talents and potential. But if they plant themselves in unhealthy soil - such as hanging out with the wrong crowd, doing shady business, or taking up wrong education - they will either remain stagnant in faith or wither along with the rest of the world.

To grow, Osteen said people need to be selective about the people they spend time with and the things they give attention to. "You have to be selective with whom you give your time, energy, and attention. If your friends are prejudiced, you're going to become prejudiced. If they have no goals and little motivation, that narrow-minded thinking is going to contaminate you," he warned.

His wife, Victoria, also wrote earlier that even though people plant themselves in the right soil, things will not always go their way. She warned them that a lot of challenges lie ahead, but it's always important to remain rooted in God.

"While we wish we were in a constant blooming season with things always going our way, some seasons are challenging and difficult," she said. "Recognize that it is a season, that it is where God has you right now, and that God wants to use everything in this season to keep you moving toward His purpose for your life."Free tows for stranded vehicles are poised to return to Houston-area freeways, once local officials finalize agreements to lock in federal funds for the once-popular program.

Houston City Council on Wednesday approved a series of agreements, ranging from accepting $5 million in federal funds for the SafeClear program and revising agreements with the 16 towing companies that monitor area freeways.

It will keep our streets safer, and that is important, Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner said, adding the enhanced mobility will make travel times more predictable for all drivers.

The program would allow authorities monitoring traffic operations remotely or in person to approve towing a stranded vehicle off the freeway, free of charge, 24 hours a day. A number of restrictions apply, but essentially vehicles blocking lanes of traffic or even perched on freeway shoulders would be taken to a safe location, with the cost of the tow covered by regional transportation money.

Stalled or abandoned vehicles represent 62 percent of the roadway incidents along Houston freeways, according to Houston TranStar data from 2016 to present.

Studies in Houston and other U.S. cities have shown towing stranded cars and small trucks eases traffic congestion, and as a result reduces emissions and saves commuters money wasted on idling engines.

It is probably the highest return on investment from one thing we can do, said Alan Clark, manager of transportation and air quality programs at the Houston-Galveston Area Council.

The councils board must approve the program and use of the federal money, which the regional agency doles out. Clark said depending on when that approval could take place, free towing could start by May, or absolutely by June.

Officials have set aside $8 million annually to operate the program and pay towing companies for the service. The next three years of the program are built into H-GACs current plans, with officials expecting to continue funding it beyond 2021.

This will not be the first time Houston offered free tows. SafeClear, launched in 2005 by former Houston Mayor Bill White, allowed companies to clear freeway lanes during peak traffic times. The program later ran into financial difficulties, and city officials in 2011 opted to charge drivers $50 to remove stranded and abandoned vehicles from the shoulder. The charge was increased to $60 in 2015, around the time regional transportation officials sought federal money to again make the program free.

Drivers welcomed the return of the free program, if it delivers the promised benefits.

Anything that keeps the freeway clear has my support, said Ronald Patrick, 56, who commutes to downtown from the Clear Lake area.

Cindy Spiers, 40, said she would also gladly use it if the need arose.

Ive been stranded, Spiers said. Its scary. Id want to get out of there as soon as possible.

The revised program is more robust and avoids some of the logistical challenges the first free towing program faced, Clark said. City Council approved allowing Harris County Sheriffs Department deputies to authorize tows, meaning controllers at Houston TranStar  a partnership between the city, county, Texas Department of Transportation and Metropolitan Transit Authority  can dispatch tow trucks and order tows without patrol officers responding to the scene.

Around-the-clock coverage also means additional safety benefits, supporters said. During heavy traffic, removing vehicles reduces the risk of accidents as freeway traffic approaches stopped traffic. That risk is lessened at night, but other conditions also pose a danger.

The problem with non-peak hours is traffic is moving extremely fast. The safety benefits are still very significant, he said, referring to night hours.

The new SafeClear program will not, however, solve all freeway issues involving vehicles blocking lanes. Clark said the program will not move vehicle crashes, as those tows are typically covered by insurance companies, and crash scenes cannot be immediately cleared.

If a police officer determines there is a public emergency, the nearest tow truck to the area can ferry the vehicle off. If that tow truck is not affiliated with the program, the vehicle owner would be responsible for the costs.

SafeClear wreckers also cannot remove heavy trucks, such as 18-wheelers.You will never, ever hear "The Fireman" by George Strait being played at Goodnight Charlie's.

It's not that the King of Country is verboten in the recently opened Montrose honky-tonk. In fact, he's something of a deity around these parts. But co-owner David Keck just doesn't want his new labor of love to burn down.

"On our first night open, Aaron McDonnell and his band were on their second encore playing "The Fireman" with a full dance floor and bar," Keck says. "By complete fluke, our beautiful, new custom speakers  caught fire."

The fire was quickly put out, and no one was harmed, thankfully.

But "We've decided that as good as that song is, it can't be played in this space ever again," Keck laughs. "To add to the legend, the last tab closed out before the fire occurred was for someone with the last name Burns. You just can't make this stuff up."

Even without "The Fireman," Goodnight Charlie's appears to be the country bar that Montrose never knew it needed but has nonetheless embraced.

It helps that there is no cover charge, but the bands that play here aren't your standard, good-ol'-boy acts. These are guys such as Jonathan Terrell, an Austin artist covered in tattoos and sporting a Reba McEntire back patch on his jean jacket. He plays swaggery country that would make the ghost of Gary Stewart tap his toe.

Terrell, for one, feels like he's found a home at the bar.

More Information Goodnight Charlie's Greatest Hits The Montrose honky-tonk won't play George Strait's "The Fireman," but Goodnight Charlie's is all about the country classics. Some of its favorites: "Whiskey River," Willie Nelson "Texas (When I Die)," Tanya Tucker "Turn It On, Turn It Up, Turn Me Loose," Dwight Yoakam "Walking The Floor Over You," Ernest Tubb "All My Rowdy Friends (Have Settled Down)," Hank Williams Jr. "Small Town Saturday Night," Hal Ketchum "Cherokee Fiddle," Johnny Lee "I Like Beer," Tom T. Hall "Song Of The South," Alabama "Chattahoochee," Alan Jackson See More Collapse

"It makes you feel real good as a band that's slugging it out to play a venue that takes the extra steps to make me and my guys comfortable and appreciated," he says while taking a recording break in Austin. "The folks that come out to Charlie's expect to see a good band. You step up your game a little more because you want to give back to the folks that are taking care of you."

He's back at Goodnight Charlie's on Feb. 24.

The dance floor on the weekends is a mash-up of clean-cut guys breaking in their new Luccheses while learning how to two-step with gals dressed like Miranda Lambert. Bemused neighborhood regulars in worn denim sit on the sidelines sipping ranch waters, a simple but potent cocktail of tequila and Topo Chico. The drinks pair well with the duros, puffed wheat snacks that come served with Valentina hot sauce and lime by the basketful.

At least one or two guys looking like a Sam Elliott stunt double will usually appear and hold court at the middle of the bar, scoping out the scene.

"I've seen people from 25 to 85," Keck says of the age range.

The Master Sommelier formerly of Camerata, Keck knew that the closing of the historic West Alabama honky-tonk Blanco's in late 2013 left a hole that needed to be filled in this part of Houston.

"The idea first was sparked by a trip to Hunt and experiencing Crider's Rodeo and Dancehall, an amazing place with so much history," Keck says. "When Blanco's closed right here in the Loop, I got to thinking about how amazing a place in Montrose would be."

He wasn't alone.

Word about the bar named for famous Texas cattle rancher Charles Goodnight began leaking out nearly a year ago.

But, as with anything new, there has been mixed feedback. Folks sometimes complain that it looks "too new" or that it smells "too clean." Authenticity takes time. It also has to be earned.

Keck is excited for what the future holds for his bar with one cowboy boot planted in the past.

"I think we have an opportunity to take one of the most interesting and sincere parts of Texas culture and help it come to life in an area of tremendous diversity," Keck says. "If we can work toward creating a place where musicians really want to play and where people of all ages and walks of life can dance and mingle, then we're moving in the right direction."Six men, including a former high school teacher and a former substitute teacher, have been charged and arrested for online solicitation of a minor, the Harris County Precinct One Constable's Office announced Tuesday.



"Some of these people had a proclivity for some really bad stuff," Constable Alan Rosen said at a press conference. "The stuff they engaged in was very deviant sexual behavior, so we were really happy that in this entire operation we were able to get these particular people off the street."



During a three-day period earlier in February, investigators posed as 14 or 15-year-old girls on mobile apps and social media sites, engaging suspects in conversations and agreeing to meet up for sex.



Police arrested Jeremy Kyle Chapman, 25, of Dickinson, Israel Garcia, 27, of Humble, Eleno Garza, 26, of Houston, Brandon Knarr, 38, of Houston, Fahad Ghani Siddiqui, 39, of Houston, and Ricardo Reyes, 33, of Houston. All suspects were sent to Harris County Jail.



Garza has a teacher's certificate and previously worked as a substitute teacher for Pasadena Independent School District, has a daycare license and worked at an YMCA in Waco, Constable Rosen said. Siddiqui was previously employed as a high school teacher in the Aldine Independent School District.



Chapman, a mechanic, has priors for trying to solicit children. Public records show Chapman plead guilty to enticing a child with intention felony charges in July 2016 and March 2017.



Reyes is employed at a grocery store and Garcia is a delivery driver. No information on Knarr's employment was available.



Rosen said Garza was interested in bondage and had said he wanted to tie up a child.



Garza "is someone that I feel, moving forward, could progress to violence at some point," Rosen said.



The operation consisted of more than 75 members from the Internet Crimes Against Children task force, law enforcement in Jones Creek, Katy, Rosenberg, Sugar Land, Webster and authorities in Fort Bend County.



"What I'm hoping is that they go and they get help for their problem," Rosen said about those arrested for soliciting sex with a minor.The Lake Houston Chamber of Commerce is putting a spotlight on the next crop of leaders in the Lake Houston area.

The group created the YEPPIES, which recognizes young leaders in local business. The Lake Houston Young Entrepreneurs and Professionals (YEP) program consists of young professionals as they themselves develop community leadership skills through networking, civic engagement and professional development opportunities.

"The positive response from the Lake Houston Area when we started the YEP program in September 2016 made us realize there is a need to recognize and celebrate the contributions and impact the next generation of business and community leaders are making within our community," said Casey Christman, YEP Board Chair.

In its inaugural year, the YEP Awards honor 15 Lake Houston professionals for their contributions to the community during the awards ceremony on March 8 at The Overlook in Atascocita.

Honorees:

Top 4 under 40

Jessica Beemer, chief of staff, Houston City Council Member Dave Martin's office

Beemer played an integral role in coordinating rescue and relief efforts throughout Hurricane Harvey.

She worked with local first responders and other connections in Kingwood to keep an open network of communications open so the community could be informed about developments as they occurred.

Beemer is dedicated to overseeing the daily operations of the District E Houston City Council Member Dave Martin's Office and coordinating with other governmental agencies, community entities and the public.

"I don't do it for the plaques, or the awards," Beemer said. "My goal has always been to change the public perception of public servants. We're not just a bunch of people sitting behind a desk really excited to throw red tape around everything. I want people to know there are good public servants that do really understand what you're going through."



Nikole Davis, owner of Pretty Little Things Boutique

Davis was only 23 years old when she started Pretty Little Things Boutique five years ago and has continued strengthening her business ever since.

When Hurricane Harvey inundated her store at Kings Harbor, Davis worked hard to clean and rebuild so that Pretty Little Things could return to Kingwood.

She is on the LHACC and YMCA Lake Houston boards and serves on the YEP and Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo committees.

She was a 2016 FamilyTime Woman of Achievement.



Trey Hill, Financial Advisor with Edward Jones Investments

Hill started at Edward Jones in 2012 with a small number of families as clients. His client base has since expanded to include clients from as far as Alaska and Hawaii, although his primary focus is on local client relationships.

His involvement in the community throughout the years earned him multiple accolades. He is a proud Including Kids board member and has been involved in organizations like Leadership Lake Houston, Community Leadership Academy, and many others.

Being honored in the Top 4 Under 40 is reassurance that his contributions are helping the community he and his family call home.

"I have made a conscientious decision to be an active member of our community," Hill said. "There can be times where I wonder if I am adding value to people that I meet. I want to be able to contribute to every person that I meet by getting to know who they are, and what's important to them. By receiving this award, I feel that I have been recognized by my community and my peers."



Jason Stuebe, City Manager of Humble

Stuebe has just recently taken the reins as the new Humble City Manager after having served as city secretary since 2013.

He was responsible for creating and enacting the city's Downtown Improvement Grant Program, which has already matched funds for nearly 40 property rehabilitation and construction projects for downtown Humble.

Stuebe's responsibilities run the gamut, from drafting ordinances and operating the budget, to supervising hundreds of city employees and helping to build council agendas.

He's participated in numerous associations, boards, committees and organizations throughout his career.

"For me, it's an incredible honor to be included," Stuebe said. "It's a good group of people that they've got this year with, Trey and Jessica and Nikole, and to be included in the same group as those three individuals it's humbling. It's a terrific honor and it's something that I take with a bit of humility as well knowing that there's countless others out there who deserve it."



Finalists for Young Entrepreneur of the Year

Jordan Gerard, managing partner, Nations Lending Corporation

Gerard is credited with Nation Landing's mounting success in the Lake Houston area.

As managing partner, he's seen the NLC in Humble to number three in the largest branches nationwide and was the company's President Club Winner for the past three consecutive years.

He also serves on various organization boards, contributes to charitable events, supports local education and helps in the professional development of other local businesses.



Bobby Harl, owner of Back Pew Brewing Company

Harl started home brewing in college. The hobby turned into an obsession and then finally a profession.

He chose the Porter as the location for his business in 2015. The brewery sits on 14-acres of land that came with an old church and adjacent warehouse building that he converted into a brewing facility.

Now, Back Pew has become not only a producer of craft beer, but also a place for people to hang out and listen to music while drinking beer.

"We couldn't have hoped for a better home," Harl said. "I think, hopefully, it gives people a place to go relax, have fun, and really be able to call their brewery."

For Harl, the way for an entrepreneur to measure success is the ability to pay employees.

"What I really feel good about is paying employees without have to worry about doing it  that working here is a way to make a living because at the end of the week there's money they can plan on," Harl said. "I'm not worried about having enough money to pay them and that is a very rewarding reflection of hard all the hard work."

He said be nominated, or winning, an award is actually a testament the combined efforts of the Back Pew team.

"It's not really about the award itself  it's about the quality of the product," he said. "Whenever we win an award it gives employees validation that other people are noticing and appreciating the hard work and hours they've put in."

Sam Schrade, President, Digital Network Associates

Shrade is proactive member of the YEP program, offering his time and resources to participate in events, and serve as a mentor to other young professionals.

He is lauded as a civic leader with an extensive network of connections both locally and nationally.

Shrade volunteers and participates in LHACC initiatives while actively encouraging others to do the same and has worked hard to expand his business.

Finalists for Young Professional of the Year

Dr. Elizabeth Fagen, superintendent at Humble ISD

Fagen entered her second school year as Humble ISD superintendent faced with the unthinkable damage Hurricane Harvey inflicted on district facilities.

Under her leadership, Humble ISD well on its way down the road to recovery and Kingwood High School students will even get to finish out the school year in their restored campus.

"I am very proud of the way we handled the hardships that Hurricane Harvey handed to our school district and communities," Fagen said. "We came together as an organization to support our students, staff and the entire Humble ISD community. This was one of the most challenging situations I have ever had the opportunity to lead, and I was overwhelmed at the selfless support shown throughout the Lake Houston Area."

She headed up the Portrait of a Graduate initiative during which the community and Humble ISD students and staff collaborated to flesh-out the qualities the community as a whole felt were important to cultivate in students. The results of the initiative led to more innovative classroom learning.

"Our district has the capacity, the talent, and the support from the community, the School Board, and local business leadership, to be a district that empowers teachers  who are ready, interested and inspired  to evolve an education practice forward," Fagen said. "It's my experience that when you support those pioneers and they take those really smart steps forward for kids, the other teachers are watching and they will try it. I am very hopeful that this district will lead the way in transforming education the right way, the way it will actually work. It's not going to come from the Capitol. It's going to come from the classroom, and a teacher who is inspired to do something different for the children who are in front of him or her."

She feels the nomination for this award is an opportunity to thank the community for its trust and support.



Chris Johnsen, owner of Johnsen Law and partner with Amagazi

Over the decade Johnsen working for large international law firms, he saw there was a need for quality legal representation for small and midsize businesses.

The realization inspired him to found Johnsen Law, a Kingwood-based firm that provides legal representation for small and mid-size businesses.

"I wanted flexibility to bring the high quality legal services I provided for Fortune 500 companies, to smaller businesses," Johnsen said.

Johnsen is also the COO and general counsel for Amagazi, an advertising agency based in the Galleria area. Amagazi was responsible for spearheading the Houston Rising initiative that in just the first few days of its launch raised more than $90,000 to help small businesses recover after Hurricane Harvey. It is one of the initiatives Johnsen is proudest of having participated.

Johnsen first got involved in the Lake Houston Area Chamber of Commerce through Leadership Lake Houston. He is one of the co-chairs of the Professionalism Subcommittee of the YEP program.

Johnsen said he's always been involved with businesses that allowed him the flexibility to be involved in the community, and he encourages his own employees to do so as well.

He views his nomination for the Young Professional of the Year as a reflection of dedication and leadership.

"I've been dedicated to my career in addition to being involved in the community and giving back my time, which I've enjoyed doing," he said.

Terry Vaughn, District Manager of Retail and Pharmacy Operations, Walgreens

Vaughn oversees more than 400 employees across 14 stores.

He serves as chair of on the LHACC public affairs committee and is treasurer of the LHACC executive board of directors. Over the years he has been involved with the Chamber, he has served on multiple committees and provided leadership in programs such as Leadership Lake Houston.

He volunteers as a Boy Scout scoutmaster and has earned multiple accolades for his professional and community work including the 2015 Rising Star Award and 2015 Walgreens Community Involvement District and Area Award.

Mentor of the Year

Danny and Geralyn Sullivan, owner of Sullivan's Advanced Paint and Body Shop

When owner Danny Sullivan isn't turning wrenches or painting cars, he and his wife Geralyn Sullivan are involved in community initiatives.

"Geralyn is 'Mrs. Leadership,'" he said. "She is the Transition Instructional Specialist for (Humble ISD) and oversees student work-based learning and job sites district-wide. She has a Masters in educational leadership with principal certification. She's also a 2012 FamilyTime Woman of Achievement recipient, HAAM Pillar of the Community, an alumni of Leadership Lake Houston and is also in the Humble ISD Leadership Academy."

As for Danny Sullivan, he serves on the LHACC board of directors. He was co-chair of the Total Resource Campaign and currently serves on the Public Affairs Committee, which promotes pro-small business legislative priority to lawmakers in Austin and Washington, DC.

But what the Sullivan's most enjoy about their community involvement is being able to support local churches, schools and charities.

"We are so blessed to live in such a generous community," Danny Sullivan said. "The flood was a tremendous challenge but one thing that came out of it is unity. Everyone was brought closer together and I see a community rising out of this even stronger than before."

The Sullivan's are happy to share their experiences with other entrepreneurs in order to help steer them toward success and are thrilled to be receiving the Mentor of the Year award.

"We're both very flattered and so honored," Danny Sullivan said. "The (YEP) group we're working with is about 90 individuals, young entrepreneurs, and whenever I look across that room all I see is success. I urge anyone interested in joining to do it. It's an uplifting, energetic group. I take pride in being able to listen to people and share their stories and successes. There's no way you can do anything more rewarding than to see someone all the way through from their vision to turning that vision into a reality."



Young Entrepreneur and Professional Professional Development Award

Marley Morris, Career and Technology Director of Humble Independent School District

Morris has been devoted nearly two decades to the education profession with a majority of that time spent in Humble ISD.

He's merited multiple nominations for Teacher of the Year, earned several certifications and has been involved with numerous community initiatives, boards and committees. His roles have included the Humble ISD bond committee, LHACC Leadership Lake Houston board chair, CTAT president-elect and Gulf Coast CTE President.

Morris is credited with substantially growing the Career and Technology Education program for Humble ISD.

Young Entrepreneur and Professional Spirit Award

Katie Woodard, Director of Sales for Hampton Inn by Hilton

Woodard is involved in the LHACC, Greater East Montgomery Chamber of Commerce, Young Professionals and Family Promise.

"I stay active and involved in the community," Woodard said. "I try to attend, join and support all their events. I spend a lot of my personal timing doing this and building relationships that have blossomed into wonderful friendships. Doing all this representing my company."

As director of sales for Hampton Inn by Hilton, Woodard works to acquire and negotiate rates with corporate accounts that require lodging and space to conduct meetings. She also coordinates group bookings for businesses and other entities.

"I build and maintain relationships with these guests to keep them coming back and again drive revenue year over year," she said.

She regularly shares her experiences from being involved in the Chamber in order to show others what the Chamber has to offer.

"I try to capture our moments in pictures to share and include everyone," Woodard said. "I hope to draw people in and show them how much fun it can be to be involved! Personally and professionally. I've met some of my now best friends through the Chamber and their events."

Woodard said winning the YEP Spirit Award encourages her to continue growing her community involvement.

"It means I'm making a difference and doing something I love," she said.

Young Entrepreneur and Professional Heart Award

Erica Johnston, Marketing Director for Chick-fil-A at Wilson/Beltway 8.

Receiving the YEP Heart Award is a humbling experience, said Johnson, and one for which she is grateful.

"We don't serve to be recognized, we serve because there is a need that we can help fill," she said. "My family has chosen to make Lake Houston our home and a place to run our business so investing our time and resources in it was an easy decision for us. I am lucky to be surrounded by people who care about our community so much."

Through her role in Leadercast Lake Houston, Johnston has been able to help cultivate area leaders.

"My husband and I were instrumental in bringing this one-day leadership conference to our area," Johnston said. "Attendees are empowered by world-class speakers who show us how to become a more effective leaders and provide us with useful takeaways to implement what you learned."

She was also among those who helped launch the Leadership Lake Houston Alumni program and has served multiple organization boards, including the Lake Houston Family YMCA, Kingwood Medical Center, Holy Trinity Episcopal School and the Lake Houston Area Chamber of Commerce.

Her other community roles include being a small group leader at Second Baptist Church Kingwood and education ambassador for Bright Pink, which is a nonprofit the educates women about breast and ovarian health.

Johnston thanks her husband Duane, who is the owner of the Chick-Fil-A at Wilson and Beltway 8, for supporting her volunteer roles. She said Chick-Fil-A challenges team members to inspire and help others, and an integral step in doing so is to ask people what they need and having the courage to help provide a solution.

Johnston believes everyone has a skill set and can make a difference.

"We never know the ripple effect that will occur when we chose to use our abilities to help our community."Economic development, the tax rate and the proposed coastal barrier are issues in the Republican primary race for Galveston county judge, which pits incumbent Mark Henry against 56th District Court Judge Lonnie Cox.

The winnner of the March 6 primary race will face no Democratic candidate in the fall election. John Young, chair of the Galveston County Democratic Party, said he had no comment on why Democrats were not vying for the county judge seat.

Early voting continues through March 2 at Galveston County polling places.

'Ike Dike'

Henry and Cox cite the building of a coastal spine as the most urgent need for the region.

Cox argues that the current leadership has not moved far enough with plans for the so-called "Ike Dike," which is proposed to safeguard Galveston and the region from storm surges.

"It has been nine years since Hurricane Ike and we're not anywhere closer to having a coastal spine barrier, and it's because we have poor leadership at the county level," he said. "I will provide the leadership to bring us an Ike Dike, hopefully before the next hurricane."

Cox said he would push local participation for the barrier, reaching out to mayors and city councils and outside the county for support.

"All of us benefit from an Ike Dike," he said.

As to Cox's claims that the project has not moved fast enough, Henry agreed but added that funding determines how the project moves forward.

"From 2008, when Ike hit, to 2014, nothing could happen because we had no funding," Henry said. "We finally funded (the design process) in 2014, and ever since we've been on budget and on schedule to do exactly what we're trying to do."

Henry is the chairman of the Gulf Coast Community Protection and Recovery District, formed to research the concept of a coastal spine. The district has completed three of four stages of research, with the fourth stage expected to be revealed in March.

Henry cited his work with elected officials at the state and federal level to begin the funding process.

"We have been very successful in organizing local elected officials from the state and federal level to start asking for funding," Henry said.

Cox said the county's response to Hurricane Harvey was inadequate and that he would work to increase the level of preparedness.

For instance, Cox points out that Galveston County had no pre-existing debris removal contract, something that he said should be in place before a hurricane or other major weather event.

"If not for a lot of volunteers that came and helped, we would not have had an adequate rescue, and then recovery is next to nonexistent under the current leadership," Cox said. "Our preparation was not appropriate for Harvey,"

Lowering the tax rate

On the property tax rate, which is slightly over 54.6 cents per $100 of valuation, Henry asserts that he has lowered the county tax rate every year he came into office in 2010, when the rate was 66 cents.

Henry said if re-elected, he would continue that trend.

"I stand by my record," he said.

Cox said the tax rate is still too high compared to neighboring counties and that he would cut into the county's reserve fund, which is held a natural disaster or emergency.

For every $10 million in reserve, said Cox, the tax rate can be reduced by 3 cents.

"I think we could drop the tax rate by 5 cents without much trouble," he said.

Higher tax rates, he added, can deter business and industry to come to Galveston County.

Economic development

Cox said that if he is elected, economic development would be a priority.

"We have no plan, no leadership when it comes to economic development right now," he said. "As county judge, I will mandate that we have a strategic economic development plan and will get the leadership in that area that we need."

Cox referred to the coastal barrier as a factor in that economic development.

"What real big company or industry wants to move into a county that is going to get swept away every 20 years by a hurricane? What fancy housing development wants to set up the River Oaks of Galveston County knowing that a hurricane comes through every 20 years?" he said. "We need that protection in order to have economic development."

Cox emphasized the importance of attracting industry that exports products.

Galveston County, he said, is "perfect" for export industries because of its proximity to the Houston Ship Channel and railway, highway and shipping transportation.

"We're in a good spot to set up major industry, but industry is going to be slow to build here until they see that we're going to protect them," he said.

Henry, a former Air Force second lieutenant, said he would continue to work at bringing industry to the region and foster economic development.

Two years ago, Henry established a department of economic development. His office is in the process of hiring a new director.

"That is absolutely top priority for me, I'm a business owner and I appreciate the value of economic development," he said.

Henry said his administration has a history of taking a proactive role in facilitating industry and trying to get them to expand operations in the region.

"We have demonstrated that we are a very predictable, common-sense and proactive government," he said. "We are kind of an exception in that regard in that they know what they're getting, and it's all very positive and very business-friendly."

Another project on the table for Henry is the replacement of the aging bridge to Pelican Island.

Henry points out that the county is in the second year of the preliminary engineering and environmental clearance.

"Getting vehicular and rail traffic to Pelican Island will be a tremendous asset nationwide," he said.

Like Cox, Henry believes the construction of a coastal spine would factor strongly in the region's economic development and industry presence, and remains high on the list of priorities in how it would affect the region's future in several ways.

"It will be one of the biggest economic developments ever because of the amount of jobs (it will bring)," he said. "It's probably the largest engineering and construction project the region has seen in a long time, if not ever. While it's focused in Galveston, it provides protection for the Gulf Coast area. They will know they have a greater level of protection they had before that coastal spine, people who own homes in low-lying areas will know they are better protected and flood insurance rates should dramatically go down."

"The real payoff," he added, "is that the federal government will not have to spend $250 billion of recovering from a hurricane, but spend $12 billion to stop the damage from happening in the first place."

For more information on voting in the election, go to www.galvestonvotes.org.Nothing More vocalist Jonny Hawkins couldn't be more straight forward.

The San Antonio rock band isn't your traditional live show.

The band doesn't do encores  Hawkins says 'they're fake.'

The band's music is pure. No vocal tracks or rigged guitar riffs.

Instead, the Grammy-nominated rock band is instead a ball of energy ready to explode with catchy choruses, perfectly executed guitars and drums, a variety of styles and a stage show worthy of a sci-fi title.

And that's exactly what Nothing More brought to the House of Blues on Friday, Feb. 23 in Houston as part of the 'The Stories We Tell Ourselves Tour' with The Contortionist and Big Story.

"We're not like a lot of other bands," Hawkins said on stage. "What you see is what you get."

Nothing More  made up of Hawkins, guitarist Mark Vollelunga, bassist Daniel Oliver and drummer Ben Anderson  has reached new heights of sorts with its latest album 'The Stories We Tell Ourselves.'

The album produced three Grammy nominations with Best Rock Performance (Go to War), Best Rock Song (Go to War) and Best Rock Album.

"It's really surreal to be there and see what all goes into the Grammys," Vollelunga said in a phone interview before the show. "As a musician, to be nominated for a Grammy is the dream of the life time. I wish we could have won but it was a really cool experience."

The album has reached as high as No. 15 in the Billboard Top 200 and No. 2 in the Billboard Hard Rock category.

The rise to prominence was evident for the band at its appearance at the House of Blues. The packed, sold out venue swayed and sang along as the band started out with 'Christ Copyright'  a fan favorite from the group's self titled album  and touched songs from their whole catalogue before finishing with the hype inducing 'Salem (Burn the Witch).'

Nothing More awed the crowd with Hawkins jumping on a robotic scorpion's tale, a sound manipulator made with a salvaged car and motor cycle parts. The shirtless and shoeless vocalist jerked the scorpion tale around from 10 feet in the air for the group's cover of Skrillex's "First of the Year."

The idea was originally by Oliver  who has been the mastermind of many of the group's stage theatrics.

"I just wanted to make something heavy that takes a lot of energy to move around that Jonny can wrestle with onstage," Oliver said. "But at the end of the day I also wanted it to be a musical instrument that makes sense with Jonny's movements so the audience can also see that the way he moves is causing the music that they hear."

The whole process from stage to stereo is an organic, collaborative effort for Nothing More  though they admit each person has their own niche.

"Everyone has their specialty so it's not like anyone is working harder than another," Oliver said. "Someone will have an idea that gets the ball rolling and then we will all chime in with what we think will work or not work."

Whether you're looking for something hard (see Christ Copyright, Mr. MTV or Salem), something more traditional rock (Go to War, This is the Time, Let'em Burn), something more experimental (Don't Stop, Do you really want it?) or something more emotional (Here's to the Heartache, Fadein/Fadeout), Nothing More touches on it all and transitions to each with ease.

"We really just try to be true with each song," Vollelunga said. "If you pigeonhole a song to one genre, you're not giving it the life that it deserves."

If you missed Nothing More at the House of Blues, the band recently announced that it will return with Papa Roach on May 12 at the Revention Music Center.

"We love Houston," Vollelunga said. "It's like a second home. We came up playing at venues in Houston and owe a lot to the fans there. It's one of our favorite places to play."Gov. Greg Abbott on Wednesday asked Texas' higher education coordinating board to take an active role in junior college campus safety.

In a letter sent Wednesday, he asked the board to help draft safety policy changes and act as an informational resource on safety for junior colleges, citing the shooting at a Parkland, Fla., high school as a trigger for action. Last week, Abbott asked the Texas Education Agency to take similar steps.

THREATS: Houston police report 7 school violence threats since Parkland shooting

Abbott asked Raymund Paredes, the state's higher education commissioner, to draft recommendations for the next legislative session on potential safety policies and reporting procedures, among other items.

He also asked Paredes to share with junior colleges information on college campus safety from the Texas School Safety Center.

The coordinating board, Abbott said, should make sure campuses submit safety and security audits -- including information on multi-hazard emergency operations plans -- to that center. Schools are required by state law to do so, and Abbott asked the coordinating board to publish the names of schools that are not in compliance.

SOCIAL MEDIA: UH police find no threat from flagged posts

"We must act expeditiously and prudently to ensure that college campuses in Texas are safe places to study, work, and live," Abbott wrote in the letter. "These are important first steps, and we will continue to evaluate and improve our approach to campus safety."

Paredes said in a statement that rigorous compliance with the existing statutes is "essential."

"We will take all necessary action to quickly implement the specific steps Gov. Abbott outlined in today's letter," he said.

Lindsay Ellis writes about higher education for the Chronicle. You can follow her on Twitter and send her tips at lindsay.ellis@chron.com.In hours of hearings at the state Capitol, Texas lawmakers have grilled college and university leaders on several potential changes to how the state funds their institutions.

A joint committee on higher education funding  comprised of state Senators and Representatives, Democrats and Republicans  has now held two hearings on potential changes to the appropriations process. Theyll put together a report by April, said committee co-chair Sen. Kelly Hancock, R-North Richland Hills.

Lawmakers and college presidents have discussed formula funding, the multibillion-dollar Permanent University Fund, special funding for items outside of the formula and whether independent institutions like Texas Southern University would be better served in one of the states higher education systems.

The issues are crucial for universities, who say money from the state is a critical  yet unstable  resource. Theyve argued that eroding state support leads to higher tuition.

Heres what we learned from those hearings:

Background: Why are state lawmakers having these hearings now?

For a basic explainer on the current process, read the Texas Tribunes detailed primer published last week on special items and formula funding.

Last legislative session, state Senators tried to change the process by which money is doled out to campuses by eliminating so-called special items, money given outside of the standard formula to fund specific projects or centers, in an early draft in the appropriations process.

The final budget reverted back to the process that was in place, but lawmakers pledged to study the issue in the interim.

Where do things stand on special item funding?

This was the focus of Tuesdays panels. College leaders said the universities most dependent on this money are small institutions. In contrast, Texas A&M University System Chancellor John Sharp said the systems flagships budget includes just $2.4 million out of a few billion dollars in special item funding.

The special items, these leaders say, fund both general operations (like faculty salaries and research) and entities outside of what many people would consider standard to higher education. A&M, for example, receives special item funding for a program to reduce the impact of diabetes, asthma and infectious diseases in the 27 counties in South Texas.

UH Chancellor Renu Khator said special item funding was especially important for universities that dont have access to the Permanent University Fund, the massive endowment that gives money exclusively to A&M and the University of Texas System.

One idea floated several times was a sunset process for special item funding, so that line items in the budget are systematically reviewed.

Smaller university representatives argued Tuesday that special item funding is crucial because it takes several years for higher enrollment to be rewarded by the current formula.

If a college recruits 1,000 more students, for example, it won't immediately get more money from the state. That means that universities need to educate more students without more resources before the next legislative session.

Can changes to the formula better serve Texas universities?

Texas Southern University President Austin Lane said yes. When asked, he said the university would do better financially if there was a formula that rewarded meeting objectives in graduating more students.

This idea  called performance-based funding  echoes whats been long pushed by the states higher education coordinating board. The model is in place in more than half of U.S. states and some of Texas community and technical colleges.

Last weeks hearing delved into the topic more deeply. There, representatives from universities and the coordinating board largely praised the idea of giving universities extra money for each student they graduated. If the student is low-income or not prepared academically when they first entered college, theyd get an extra bonus.

For more on that, read our coverage here.

Would independent universities like TSU and Texas Womans University be more successful in the legislative sessions if they were part of a university system?

Texas has many higher education systems, which are clusters of universities and, sometimes, health institutions overseen by one board of regents and a chancellor. (The University of Houston System, for example, has four universities with four different presidents.)

But a few of the states universities arent part of the systems. Sen. Lois Kolkhorst, a Brenham Republican, asked Lane and other leaders of those institutions whether they would do better in lobbying for money if they joined a system.

The university presidents didnt say that they were as effective in lobbying as the systems' institutions. But they did say that staying independent was important to their mission.

Lane said it was one of the first questions I received when I was interviewed for the job and called TSU's independence critical.

Still, he called the topic sensitive and pledged to continue to make improvements.

If were going to stay independent, weve got to do some things to make sure were moving in the right direction, he said.

Whats next?

The joint committee will submit recommendations due by April 15. The committees charge is to examine how higher education institutions are funded and how they use special item project funds.

Hancock said last week that he would be more than happy to have more hearings on the topic.

Lindsay Ellis writes about higher education for the Chronicle. You can follow her on Twitter and send her tips at lindsay.ellis@chron.com.Former and current faculty/staff of Lamar Consolidated High School (Rosenberg) will gather on Saturday, April 7, to celebrate memories and friendships of their days spent working at LCHS.

The reunion will be from 3-7 p.m. at The Swinging Door Restaurant in Richmond.

A group of retirees from Lamar CHS organized a reunion in 2010 and because many had such a good time reminiscing about their Lamar years together, they wanted to do it once again. Serving on the reunion committee are Veta Buzek, Kay Dawes, Dixie Moore, Penny Morris, Muffy O'Pry, Sharon Patterson, Maxine Phelan and Pat Wynne.

Cost to attend is $25 per person, paid by March 15, by check or money order made payable to Lamar Staff Reunion. Payment should be mailed to Lamar Staff Reunion, 1400 Carlisle, Rosenberg, Texas 77471. Spouse/guest of attendee is also invited at $25/person. The ticket price includes a barbecue buffet dinner. Included with the payment should be the name of the attendee and spouse/guest, as well as a phone number and e-mail address. Attendees should also include the years worked at Lamar, i.e., 1975-1982.

"Our biggest challenge is notifying everyone. While we have used regular mail, email, and social media to reach our colleagues, we know we have missed some. We want to ensure we reach as many LCHS employees as we possibly can," said Veta Buzek, former Lamar business/office education teacher (1976-2004).

"Anyone who has ever worked at Lamar Consolidated High School as a faculty or staff member who has not received an invitation can call 281-610-2386 or email lchsstaffreunion@gmail.com for more details."

Maxine Phelan, former LCHS English teacher (1971-2003), said, "Those who have worked at Lamar High for the last 50 years felt a special bond of friendship which for many has continued into our retirement years. We were good personal friends as well as colleagues. We shared a love of striving for excellence in our work with our students.

"Mustang Pride motivated the staff as well as the students. We felt it a privilege and joy to work at Lamar, so it is no surprise we still want to come together to reminisce about our days at Lamar and the pride and fun we had in working together."

Part of what has made Lamar High's staff special through the years is the fact that many Lamar graduates return to teach and work at their alma mater, including many on the current staff.

Four of the reunion committee members are graduates of LCHS: Veta (Williams) Buzek, class of '67; Kay (Boucher) Dawes, class of '66; Sharon (Penkert) Patterson, class of '62; and Maxine (Cegelski) Phelan, class of '61.

"In many ways, this reunion will be like a family reunion with lots of Lamar spirit and love to go around," said Phelan.The Houston city council voted Wednesday to spend $2 million to purchase dozens of new boats, trucks and other rescue equipment for use by firefighters to help deal with future flooding.

The purchase comes six months after Hurricane Harvey's flooding, which exposed glaring inadequacies in the Houston Fire Department's high-water rescue fleet.

Under the proposal, the city will spend $2 million on a package that includes six "deuce-and-a-halfs," or high water rescue vehicles capable of driving through flooded areas, at a cost of $75,000 each.

The council also voted to buy four rescue boats suited for use in swift water, and 10 "evacuation boats," meant for moving people through calmer waters.

"The whole goal is to have more assets available," Mayor Sylvester Turner said.

Fire Chief Samuel Pena said the proposal was an investment in Houston's resiliency in the future.

"With the acquisition of the requested high water assets and training funds, the HFD will be better prepared to address the normally expected flood evacuation and rescue risk in our community," he said, in advance of the vote.

Assistant Chief Ruy Lozano called the vote "a good day for the city of Houston."

"We will continue to flood," he said. "We need to have the assets ready, and our members trained (for future floods)."

The funding also covers the purchase of boat trailers and 10 pick-up trucks for hauling the boats, along with 100 personal flotation devices, and four "wave runners," a type of Jetski.

Representatives for rank-and-file firefighters also cheered the proposal to bulk up HFD's rescue equipment.

"This is welcome news," said Marty Lancton, president of the Houston Professional Fire Fighters Association Local 341, in advance of the vote. "We're relieved this issue is being addressed  for the safety of the people we serve and for firefighters on the job."

RELATED: Harvey laid bare lack of resources, training at Houston Fire Department

A Chronicle investigation found that when Hurricane Harvey hit Houston in August 2017, the fire department had just one high-water rescue vehicle, decrepit rescue boats and decades-old evacuation boats.

Firefighters rescued residents using the city's dump trucks or their fire engines, which cost hundreds of thousands of dollars a piece. At the time the department's high-water rescue fleet included 10 shallow-water evacuation boats, six swift-water Zodiac rescue boats, several inflatable dinghies, four functional wave runners.

Pena: Lack of HFD investment puts residents, firefighters at risk

In the wake of the flooding, Pena said Hurricane Harvey had shown how anemic the department's flood rescue resources were.

"No municipality is ever going to have the number of resources to be able to respond to a catastrophic incident the size of Harvey," he told the Chronicle in an interview soon after the storm. "But ... we don't have the adequate resources to address even the expected risk in this community."

As Harvey's floodwaters receded, firefighters excoriated city leaders for ignoring warnings about the need for better equipment and training after the Memorial Day flood of 2015 and the 2016 Tax Day floods.

MORE: Donations help Houston Fire Department expand rescue fleet months after Harvey

Apart from the items covered in the council's proposal, HFD has also received private donations and pledges of three additional high-water rescue vehicles, six evacuation boats and two swift-water rescue boats.

The proposed city purchases would help double the number of swift-water and evacuation boats. Pena said he wanted enough resources to be able to station high-water rescue trucks across the city.

St. John Barned-Smith covers public safety and major breaking news for the Houston Chronicle. Follow him on Twitter and Facebook. Send tips to st.john.smith@chron.com.Sheriff's deputies arrested a fellow officer Tuesday after he called a former girlfriend he had been ordered by a judge not to contact.

Harris County Sheriff's Office investigators arrested deputy James Christopher Sam, a 17-year veteran of the agency, on a charge of violating a protective order. He is accused of repeatedly calling a former girlfriend he was barred from contacting, according to court records.

If convicted of the class B misdemeanor, Sam, 51, faces the possibility of 6 months in jail.

Sam was prohibited in November from contacting his former girlfriend for at least two years after a family court judge found that Sam was accused of family violence, although no criminal charges have been filed.

On Monday, the former girlfriend called the sheriff's office to report that Sam was continuing to call her, according the arrest affidavit.

An investigator met with the woman and during the interview, her phone rang with a call from Sam's phone. That investigator called back and recorded his conversation with a person who identified himself as Sam.

Sam allegedly told the investigator that he was aware of the no-contact order and aware that he was violating it. The investigator then took the recording to an officer at the sheriff's office who knew Sam and positively identified it as his voice.

Sam was arrested Tuesday and is free after posting $5,000 bail.In 2017, officials with the website Harvard.edu-affiliated with Harvard University-launched the second annual KIND Schools Challenge, where middle- and high-school students are invited to submit a project idea of how to foster kindness within their own school communities.

Students at the John Cooper School in The Woodlands applied, and the school was selected as a top 10 finalist out of 190 applications nationwide. The program runs this week, from Feb. 26 through March 2.

In a program that sort of resembles the movie "The Breakfast Club," minus the Saturday school, John Cooper Students initiated a campaign of "Stamping Out Exclusion." As part of the project, the students spend time mingling outside of their regular circle of friends and participate in various campus activities throughout the week.

The program, spearheaded by faculty advisor Marivi Mata and student team members Alena Fayaz, Avery Schlichter and Zoe Tait, aims to encourage students to depart from the comfort of people they know and engage with students they know little about.

Mata said the idea began with a simple question: "What needs to be better at Cooper?"

"How can we reach out to these people that we know don't have friends they can rely on all the time," Mata said. "Maybe they're new or they're shy. Sometimes we need to look beyond our everyday encounters and see who else can we get to know, and maybe that way we'll learn from each other."

On the first day of the program, Feb. 26, students showed up to school and were asked to choose a symbol from a list, such as a music note or a lightning bolt, which would then be drawn onto their hand with a Sharpie. The students were encouraged to get to know people who shared the same symbol, Mata explained.

"They didn't know what this was for," Mata said. "The challenge was to find others with the same symbol."

More Information List of action items to break people out of their comfort zones: * Did we authentically try to get to know new people? * What did I learn from this experience? * Do I think that my actions had a positive effect beyond just having fun? * Can we continue to reach out even if we are not prompted to do so? John Cooper's plan to win the grand prize: The Stamping Out Exclusion project will connect students who may not otherwise know one another by asking them to select one of ten different symbols and find a peer who made the same choice. From there, students will engage in structured conversations to get to know one another and bridge the divide between their social groups. Sources: Harvard.edu, The John Cooper School See More Collapse

Schlichter said she noticed immediately interactions occurring among those students who are not usually the most vocal and engaging.

"Not only is it supposed (to be) a fun (activity), but there's also going to be the aspect of conversation," Schlichter said.

As the week progresses, each day's agenda is intended to provide more opportunities for students to get to know others outside of their particular social circle. The students will participate in varying activities aimed at social inclusion.

Schlichter said student leaders facilitated discussion among students with questions that are devised to get them to speak to one another. The objective is to get students to form connections and bonds over shared interests, she added.

On one day of the week during "Stamping Out Exclusion," students will be asked to choose a station that offers their favorite variety of doughnut. Once gathered at the station, the group members will be encouraged to talk with others by asking what movies they like, for example, to initiate a conversation.

The project helps cross barriers, Fayaz said.

"Even though you don't expect to talk with this person and you haven't wanted to yet, you really have more in common with them than you think you do," Fayaz said.

Fayaz also said the program serves to create more opportunities for students to make new friendships and connect to people they never expected to connect to.

"I believe that we humans are more alike than we are different," she said. "And through this project, people are being given the opportunity to realize this fact."

As part of the project, at the end of the day students are presented with 10 questions that are intended to prompt reflection on the day, such as "Who did you encounter," and "What made you reach out to this person?"

Mata said the questions are prompting and engaging but more than that, an invitation to reflect on the experience.

On March 9, students will be solicited for their testimonials about the project, which will include shared experiences during a reflection period that focuses on the entire project.

"I'm hoping that is the biggest 'A-ha' moment," Schlichter said.

An analysis of the project will be submitted to officials at Harvard who will then decide which of the 10 schools will win the project's grand prize. The date of the announcement has not been disclosed yet.

Fayaz said she hopes to make the project an annual event, noting that a big part of their team conversations were coming up with ways to make people feel like they are included in the community to alleviate a mind set that makes them feel powerless.

"More communities than we think have this issue," Fayaz said. "We watch the news, and we've watched those devastating mass shooting in schools and anywhere, honestly. I think people try to take that power back because they were never given it in the first place. It's important that our students realize the power of inclusivity and reaching out. You want to savor every moment with your classmates and make sure everyone is included."The Texas prison system is considering moving youthful offenders from a Brazoria prison to the former death row unit in Huntsville on the heels of a rape investigation, according to one lawmaker and multiple sources within the agency.

"I've heard that it was a done deal," said state Sen. John Whitmire (D-Houston), after discussing the matter with prison administration officials. "It was explained to me to be a very positive decision to bring that population into a more mainstream (location) and not keep them as isolated as they are."

The Texas Department of Criminal Justice would only confirm that the program is undergoing a routine review that includes discussions about the possibility of relocation.

"Programs are consistently reviewed and examined to look at a range of issues," said TDCJ spokesman Jeremy Desel. "Security, cost, and age of unit are all potential things considered."

DEATH ROW ESCAPE: Long-ago Thanksgiving prison break has lasting impact on death row

Currently, the male youthful offender program - which currently houses 27 inmates under 18 - is at the Clemens Unit in Brazoria. Under the new arrangements, Whitmire said, the youths held there would be transferred north to the Ellis Unit in Walker County.

But Desel said the larger unit in Huntsville is just one of a "handful" under consideration. Units that house the department's youth need to meet certain requirements, such as having cellblock housing instead of dormitories.

The discussion of a move comes amid word of a possible sexual assault against one of the teens in the youthful offender program - though Whitmire said it wasn't clear if the alleged rape played a role in the planned program relocation.

"I can't tie the two together," Whitmire said. "But one is too many and I think that that one incident that I have learned of was probably the impetus."

In a preliminary briefing about a week ago, Whitmire was told of "a rape involving one of the youths serving as an adult," he said. It wasn't clear when the incident occurred.

The department wouldn't offer details on the alleged incident.

"Questions involving any specific case are handed to the Office of the Inspector General which is an independent entity legally tasked with investigation into allegations of a sexual nature," Desel said. "It would not be our investigation to do."

Jay Jenkins, an attorney for the Texas Criminal Justice Coalition, said the possibility of a teen rape was "cause for concern" and should prompt a "thorough" investigation. But the consideration of moving teenage inmates elsewhere offered a spark of hope for advocates, he said.

"Anybody who's visited Clemens knows that it's not a pleasant or safe environment for these children," he said. "We welcome any discussion that involves a better and safer facility for children within the adult criminal justice system."

A number of officers, who asked to remain anonymous citing concerns of retaliation, said they'd been told the move from Clemens would "definitely" happen.

READ MORE: Gov. Abbott replacing ombudsman, board chair for troubled Texas Juvenile Justice Department

"Clearly the unit is just falling apart," said one officer, who declined to be named for fear of retaliation. "It's becoming a security risk to have those kids there."

Aside from the conditions of the facility, the officer said, the relatively small size of the prison has "made it hard" to keep youthful offenders and adult inmates separate.

The Brazoria lock-up, which has a capacity of around 1,200, was established as a prison in 1893. The much larger Ellis Unit - which once housed death row - didn't open until 1965, and it holds up to about 2,500 inmates.

"Clemens is an older, more remote location and they thought that population should get more attention in a positive way," Whitmire said. "I was told that the move was an improvement."

But Desel stressed the possibility of a transfer is simply under discussion and not yet finalized.

"It is a consistent thing here to examine programs and examinimg this program would not in any way be unusual," he said. It wasn't immediately clear when a decision might be made one way or the other.

"I don't have a solid timeline on that," he said. "I know that it is actively being discussed."A letter issued Tuesday by three civil rights advocacy groups warned a Houston-area school superintendent that a statement on Facebook threatening to punish students who protest current gun laws raises constitutional problems.

The Texas ACLU, Texas Civil Rights Project and Texas Appleseed sent a letter to the Needville School District Superintendent Curtis Rhodes about the threat he made last week to students who walk out of class in protest. The groups said that several students, parents and community members had reached out about their constitutional rights in school, such as their right to freedom of expression.

The letter states that the now removed post on Needville High Schools Facebook page written by Rhodes could chill protected speech in school, suggesting that the post means students cannot participate in any form of political expression at school and that students who walkout during class may be subject to harsher punishments than they would otherwise receive for departures from campus without permission.

Schools are the place where students learn the things they need to be vibrant and engaged members of our society, and districts like Needville have an important role to play in upholding our constitutional values and fostering productive dialogue, the groups wrote in the letter.

Rhodes said last week that students would face a three-day, out-of-school suspension if they protested about gun laws.

Respect yourself, your fellow students and the Needville Independent School District and please understand that we are here for an education and not a political protest, he wrote in the Facebook post. Needville is in Fort Bend County.

In the letter, the groups state the constitution does not allow an administrator to punish a student more harshly than it otherwise for conduct that is associated with political speech. It goes on to say the Constitution, state law and the School Code require an administrator to make an individualized determination relating to the circumstances of the conduct.

The advocacy groups urge the district in the letter to clarify their policy relating to the matter.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.Fox 26 viewers may notice there's a new face on the news station, reporting on breaking news in the evening.

Maria Salazar joined news station KRIV-TV on Feb. 12 after working for WFMZ-TV's Reading office in Pennsylvania for just over two years. Salazar said she and her husband decided to come to Houston after wanting to move south and go west.

HOUSTON TV ANCHORS: Behind-the-scenes with Houston TV news anchors, meteorologists

"We wanted to move to an area that was diverse," Salazar told Chron.com.

Houston certainly meets that requirement. Working in Space City also gives Salazar opportunities to report on topics she loves to cover.

"I'm passionate about immigration, domestic violence and human trafficking," Salazar said. As a Mexican-American, Salazar hopes her background will help when it comes to covering issues involving diversity.

The news reporter spent most of her life in Atlanta, Georgia, which she says feels similar to Houston. She said exploring Houston has been exciting so far and looks forward to seeing more of her new city.

TV NEWS TROUBLE: Megyn Kelly under the microscope after Page Six report

"I love mariachi music. I would love to get to know that community in the Houston area," Salazar said. She also encouraged viewers to send her some restaurant recommendations.

Got a suggestion for where to eat and catch a good mariachi band? Follow Salazar on Twitter at @MSalazarNews and Facebook at MariaSalazarNews.

Will Axford is a digital reporter for Chron.com. Read more of his stories here and follow him on Twitter.An external panel has been tasked with reviewing NASA's newest, $8.8 billion telescope after technical difficulties have delayed its launch once again.

The James Webb Space Telescope, initially expected to launch in 2007, has faced repeated delays and burgeoning costs. In March, NASA announced that the launch would be delayed again, to May 2020.

As scientists and engineers work to fix the problem, NASA last week announced that it had tapped all 10 members of an external, Independent Review Board that will examine the factor's influencing the telescopes success as well as "reinforce the agency's approach to completing the final integration and testing phase, launch campaign, and commissioning for NASA's next flagship space science observatory," according to a post on NASA's website.

The boards review process will take about eight weeks, at which point members will present their findings and recommendations to the space agency. NASA officials will then review the findings and give Congress an assessment by the end of June.

During this time, work on the telescope will continue.

The 10 review board members are:

Thomas Young, NASA/Lockheed Martin in Bethesda, Maryland  Retired (Chair) William Ballhaus, Aerospace Corporation in El Segundo, California- Retired Steve Battel, Battel Engineering, Inc. in Scottsdale, Arizona Orlando Figueroa, NASA Headquarters and Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland  Retired Fiona Harrison, Caltech University in Pasadena, California Michele King, NASA Office of Chief Financial Officer/Strategic Investments Division in Washington, DC Paul McConnaughey, NASA/Marshall Space Flight Center/Webb Standing Review Board (Chair) in Huntsville, Alabama Dorothy Perkins, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland - Retired Pete Theisinger, Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California Maria Zuber, Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Massachusetts

March 27, 2018 2:05pm

The launch of NASA's newest telescope, the $8 billion James Webb Space Telescope, has been pushed back yet again, the space agency announced Tuesday.

Webb "is undergoing final integration and test phases that will require more time to ensure a successful mission," NASA said in a statement.

Its previously revised 2019 launch date is now targeted for approximately May 2020, the statement says.

"Testing the hardware on the observatory's telescope element and spacecraft element demonstrate that these systems individually meet their requirements. However, recent findings from the project's Standing Review Board indicate more time is needed to test and integrate these components together and then perform environmental testing at Northrop Grumman Aerospace Systems in Redondo Beach, Calif., the project's observatory contractor," NASA said Tuesday.

The additional delay means the Webb telescope's price tag is also likely to increase.

Feb. 28, 2018, 12:34 p.m.

Technical issues likely will delay the launch of NASA's brand new, $8 billion telescope again -- a problem that would push the price tag past the cap set by Congress in 2011.

The James Webb Space Telescope, the successor to the Hubble Space Telescope, has been under development for decades and is projected to launch in June 2019.

But a U.S. Government Accountability Office report released Wednesday found that it's likely the launch will have to be delayed given the amount of work that's been completed, the technical difficulties that have arisen and the possibility of future problems.

"Given remaining integration and test work aheadthe phase in development where problems are most likely to be found and schedules tend to slipcoupled with only 1.5 months of schedule reserves remaining to the end of the launch window, additional launch delays are likely," the report stated.

The Webb telescope is one of NASA's most complex and expensive projects to date, meant to revolutionize the way the world's understanding of planet and star formation. But it has been continually plagued by schedule delays and burgeoning price tags.

Initially, it was expected to cost $1 billion and be launched in 2007. That price tag later jumped to $3.5 billion with a launch target of 2011. It has continued to increase since then with the most recent missed launch targeted for October 2018.

RELATED STORY: NASA's James Webb telescope leaving Johnson Space Center in February for additional testing.

Because of this, the telescope is in danger of "breaching" the $8 billion cost cap put on the project by Congress in 2011, according to the report.

"For several years, the prime contractor has overestimated workforce reductions, and technical challenges have prevented these planned reductions, necessitating the use of cost reserves," the report stated. "Program officials said that existing program resources will accommodate the new launch windowprovided remaining integration and testing proceeds as planned without any long delays."

Work, however, continues to take longer than planned, the report added.

RELATED STORY: UT-Austin astronomers will have first crack at new NASA telescope.

Named after James E. Webb, NASA's second administrator who lead the Apollo space missions that landed the first humans on the moon, the telescope's mission is expected to last five to 10 years.

Unlike Hubble, which launched 27 years ago and orbits the Earth, Webb will orbit the sun 1 million miles away from Earth. Hubble mainly observes visible light, while Webb will operate in the infrared, enabling it to study some of the faintest, youngest galaxies.

RELATED STORY: Trump's proposed NASA budget focuses on human exploration, eliminates education office.

President Donald Trump's budget proposal for NASA in the coming year includes funds to keep the project on track. However, it would cancel Webb's successor, the Wide-Field Infrared Survey Telescope (WFIRST), "due to its significant cost and higher priorities within NASA," according to a budget document.

WFIRST was being built to study dark energy, exoplanets and infrared astrophysics, and the National Academy of Sciences recommended that it follow Webb, according to NASA.

But the cost of the project, set to be launched in the mid-2020s, has ballooned to $3.6 billion, well above initial projections, according to a 2017 Science Magazine article.

Webb's Standing Review Board will review the schedule in early 2018 to determine if next year's launch schedule can be met.

Alex Stuckey covers NASA and the environment for the Houston Chronicle. You can reach her at alex.stuckey@chron.com or Twitter.com/alexdstuckey.Maybe what Congress has needed all along is a dog trainer.

As unique backgrounds to run for Congress go, few can match H.P. Parvizian, a lifelong Houston resident who has been running a dog training business for the past several years.

Parvizian says while it might seem like a quirky background, it might have helped prepare him.

"We learn to communicate with one another even though we don't speak the same language," Parvizian says about working with dogs.

In addition, he said as dog trainers, they spend a lot of time redirecting energy -- something Congress might need a little more of.

Finally, Parvizian, who runs Sit Means Sits Dog Training, said dogs also have to have a clear line of trust with a trainer and their owners, something he thinks would help in negotiating on big policies.

Parvizian is one of five Democrats running for the the 2nd Congressional District on March 6. On the Republican side nine candidates are running for the seat that stretches from West Houston north to far reaches of Harris County, then loops over to include Humble and Atascocita. The winners of the primaries battle in November's general election for a two-year term in the U.S. House.

Parvizian, 40, said his dog training career is a relatively new experience that is due to his parents hard work. He said his father came from Iran in the 1970s and was a taxi cab driver. Through hard work and perseverance he said his parents were able to eventually start their own successful business and provide for their children.

"My father Gus was a self-employed Oriental rugs businessman who was the true definition of the American Dream, and my mother Giti was a hair dresser, a stay at home mom and the rock of our family," Parvizian said.

If Parvizian wins the primary and were to win the seat in November, he said he would be the first Iranian American in Congress.

Read more about Parvizian and the other 14 candidate in the 2nd Congressional District here.Michael Ciaglo, Houston Chronicle / Houston Chronicle

The biggest threat to a blue wave forming in Texas in 2018 may be the very Democrats who are trying to generate it.

In less than 10 days, national Democrats have jumped into two key congressional races in Houston and provoked a firestorm of controversy that threatens to undermine Democratic momentum that has been building for over a year, Texas political experts warn.No matter who you are, it's never too late to make a difference in the world.

Nonna Irma, a 93-year-old grandmother in Noventa Vicentina in Veneto, Italy, proves that anyone can help make the world a brighter place. On Monday, Irma started her journey to Kenya to do volunteer work in an orphanage.

READ ALSO: Rome blanketed by rare snowfall as Arctic storm sets seasonal records

Her granddaughter, Elisa Coltro, wrote a post about her grandmother's inspiring story on Facebook with photos sent from her mother, who is accompanying Irma on her journey.

"This is my grandma Irma, a young lady of 93, who set off for Kenya tonight," wrote Coltro. "Not to some tourist resort to be waited on hand and foot, but to go to a village of children, in an orphanage. I'm showing her to you because I believe that all of us should always keep a dash of recklessness in order to live and not just survive. Look at her... Who's stopping her? I love her."

According to an interview Coltro gave to the Italian newspaper La Repubblica, Irma had been giving donations to the Kenyan orphanage, founded by an Italian missionary, for years.

RELATED VIDEO: 83-year-old grandma training to conquer Aconcagua, highest mountain in Americas

This year, "donations weren't enough, she wanted to make herself useful," Coltro said. Irma's daughter also decided to come along on the trip. The two are supposed to stay in Kenya for three weeks.

"Or perhaps my grandma will decide to stay and won't come back," Coltro joked. "It's entirely possible, knowing her big heart and her energy."CIOs, CTOs, CDOs and other IT executives and high-level managers straddle two worlds: technology and business. Virtually all of these IT leaders have a deep background in areas such as management information systems (MIS), computer information systems (CIS) and project management. Most IT chiefs also have at least a bachelor's degree in a tech field, although some rise through the ranks clutching nothing more than a high school diploma and a fistful of certifications.

Reporting directly to the CEO or another C-level executive, IT leaders are typically responsible for leading a highly trained staff and supervising critical projects and assets. Yet the days when an IT boss could blithely ignore business issues to focus on optimizing IT technologies and services are rapidly fading into history. In fact, IT leaders who don't fully understand and support their enterprise's business goals generally find themselves looking for a new job.

To gain a better understanding of how the business world meshes with technology, raise their employment profile and enhance their income, a growing number of IT leaders  and aspiring leaders  are now seeking MBA degrees.

But is seeking an advanced business degree while holding down a highly demanding job a good or bad idea? Scott Scheible, associate director of the Career Opportunities Center at Carnegie Mellon Universitys Tepper School of Business, believes that senior-level IT leaders require more than just technical skills for long-term career success.

"They need a strong business acumen and ability to think 'big picture,'" he explains. "They need to understand the business and financial implications of their organizations technical decisions and overall strategy [and they] need the kinds of communication and interpersonal skills associated with building and leading diverse, cross-functional teams." An MBA can help IT leaders acquire all of these abilities, he advises.

Here is a look at the pros and cons of seeking an MBA to advance your IT career.

Pro 1: An MBA lets you put the letters MBA behind your name

After earning an MBA you'll be widely regarded as a business expert as well as an IT wizard. You'll also find yourself on equal footing with other C-level executives who, in most cases, will pay increased attention to your insights and opinions.

"An MBA gives you the language to effectively communicate with other disciplines within the business," says Fiona Adler, CTO of Australian productivity software developer Actioned.com. She believes that an MBA also helps IT leaders better understand the needs of other business areas. "This allows someone with an IT focus to come up with solutions that truly benefit the organization," notes Adler, who holds a Melbourne Business School MBA.

Pro 2: An MBA teaches you important business and analytical skills

The things you'll learn while seeking an MBA will inevitably spill over into your daily work, making you a more effective team player. "An MBA provides valuable knowledge of finance, accounting, strategy and so forth that can prepare you for a new role," observes Ashish Shah, Sr., product management director at Avi Networks, which specializes in software for the delivery of enterprise applications in data centers and clouds. Shah holds an MS in electrical engineering from Stanford and an MBA from Berkeley.

Digital transformation is forcing IT to focus more closely on business partners needs, advises Meg Ramsey, vice president of cloud services at Sungard Availability Services and a current MBA candidate at MIT. "Pursuing an MBA helps IT professionals broaden their experience and provides them with a holistic view of how the company operates," she explains. "They learn about the business drivers and levers that can be used to help accelerate the business and grow revenue."

The best IT people are change agents, and we lead the world in adopting technology and improving their lives, says MBA holder Greg Scott, a former IT consultant who's now a senior technical account manager at Red Hat. "We need soft skills and business skills to make that happen."

Pro 3: An MBA is an essential career management tool

While an MBA isnt necessarily required to advance an IT career, it can certainly impact an IT professionals employment trajectory. "When recruiting for senior-level roles within IT, many organizations are seeking candidates with prior leadership experience and/or advanced business training," Scheible observes. "An MBA not only rounds out a technically-savvy candidate's broader skill set, it also open doors to positions that prefer  and in some instances, require  an advanced degree."

CIO and CTO roles can be obtained without an MBA in startups and smaller firms as long as you have extensive experience, says Nenad Cuk, co-founder and CEO at CroatiaTech, a technology services firm based in Split, Croatia, and Salt Lake City. "But if you're gunning for these positions in established companies, then the bar has been risen," he adds. "These days, I've met CTOs with a PhD, so an MBA in midsize-to-enterprise level companies is just one thing that's needed to even get a call back."

Pro 4: An MBA will likely increase your income

"If it doesn't, you picked the wrong program and wasted your time," Ramsey says. She notes that most university executive programs report their graduates ROI and progress. "This should be a metric you use to measure the success of the program," she suggests.

Many IT professionals use their MBA as a springboard into senior-level roles that pay more and offer higher income potential, Scheible observes. "[Additionally] some firms may offer formal salary increases to employees who obtain graduate degrees and relevant professional certifications, while others may not."

Pro 5: An MBA can lead to greater career satisfaction

"You're a different person when you finish an MBA," Adler declares.

Still, the amount of career satisfaction an MBA provides generally depends on one's ambition and aspirations. Overachievers tend to feel the most fulfilled. "If you're fine in being able to stay in the same kind of role for a long, long time, and don't want to move up the corporate ladder, then there is no reason for an MBA," Cuk says.

Pro 6: An MBA proves you're committed to your profession

There's no denying that an MBA degree impresses career decision-makers. Companies and hiring managers have a great deal of respect for individuals who invest the sweat equity required to obtain an MBA while juggling the job and family responsibilities that typically accompany the mid-stages of one's career," says Mark Settle, CIO of IT security firm Okta and author of the book Truth from the Trenches: A Practical Guide to the Art of IT Management.

Pro 7: An MBA can increase your confidence

An MBA can take IT leaders to a higher level of professional confidence, giving them enhanced problem-solving skills that will help them push through all kinds of challenging situations and, ultimately, expedite career enhancement. "In my case, I previously worried that I didn't have the knowledge or intellectual power to put my case up against stronger, more senior colleagues," Adler admits. "After finishing an MBA, I had a much stronger belief in my own opinions."

"I would not have been able to survive more than 20 years as an independent IT contractor or write books without my MBA degree," says Scott, who recently authored Bullseye Breach: Anatomy of an Electronic Break-in, an IT security book presented as a fiction thriller.

Although an MBA offers many career benefits, it's important to understand that obtaining the degree also requires candidates to make many significant personal and financial sacrifices. Furthermore, MBA benefits may be muted, or even non-existent, for certain types of IT professionals.

Here's a rundown of the major drawbacks:

Con 1: An MBA is a major new expense

According to the Poets & Quants website, an MBA from a top school can cost upwards of $200,000  over $400,000 if one cares to include lost job income. "For most IT professionals who want to continue in IT or an adjacent field, a full-time MBA is not the best use of time and money," Shah cautions. "The opportunity cost is too high."

Online MBA degree programs, while not as prestigious, are more convenient and far less expensive (although still not cheap)  generally in the $35,000 to $50,000 range.

Anticipated personal ROI must tie back to the program selected, Ramsey says. She notes that a prospective MBA candidate needs to answer three questions: What do you intend to get out of the program? What do you hope to accomplish five years from graduation? What do you hope to accomplish 15 years from graduation? Then determine whether the total cost and effort is worth achieving your personal career goals.

Con 2: Finding enough time for classes and study

Be prepared to wave goodbye to your hobbies and a significant amount of precious personal and family time. Vacations may also turn into "staycations" due to cost, class and study needs. "Burnout is always a factor, and this could introduce problems," Scott adds.

You have an allotted number of hours in a day, and you can only use 24 of them," Cuk observes.

Con 3: You may be too far along in your career

Individuals who have 15-plus years of work experience usually derive less value from an MBA because they've already learned a lot about business through practical on-the-job experience, Settle notes. "At some point after 15 years, the value of practical experience outweighs the value of book learning in an academic environment," he explains.

"A full-time MBA is most beneficial for those early in their career who want to transition into a completely different field, like finance or strategy consulting," Shah adds.

Con 4: You can achieve career success without an MBA

"In a highly-competitive job market, an MBA can help elevate someones resume a bit if theyre perfectly tied with another job candidate, but thats only assuming they have a deep understanding of critical programming languages or skills," says Ross Williams, chief architect at Solodev, a content management system service provider. "Experience is far more valuable than another piece of paper."

Thriving in an IT career depends upon staying ahead of top new technologies, frameworks and languages, says Williams, who holds a B.S. degree in computer science. "If I had pursued an MBA, I would have been stuck for years learning skills in a cushioned classroom rather than with real experience and clients," he explains. "Theres no better place for that than working in the field instead of having a professor teach you what they think could be valuable."

Con 5: Degrees and certifications don't ensure career success

"Think of them as tools, and we use those tools to achieve success," Scott says. "There are no guarantees in this world."

Related CIO careers articles:We all know that talent makes or breaks us, but how much time do we devote to talent management? When Andy Newsom, senior vice president and CIO of $6.9 billion global life sciences company CSL Behring, told me he allots at least 15 percent of his time on formal talent management, I asked him to tell me more.

When did you start your talent management program?

I have been with CSL Behring for 33 years. When I became CIO seven years ago, we were a federated IT organization with seven IT teams each reporting to one of seven site general managers. I brought all of those teams together into one enterprise IT organization, which meant we now needed a different kind of talent; we needed people who could lead at the global enterprise level.

I partnered with our HR leaders to develop a disciplined approach to talent management. To start, I decided to dedicate at least 15 percent of my time to talent.

How does your IT leadership team participate?

CSL Behring Andy Newsom, SVP and CIO of CSL Behring

My leadership teams takes a look at talent on a quarterly basis, at a minimum. We all do quarterly talent reviews where we ask, Who are our high performers? These are the people who do a great job every year. We want to know who the high performers are, but we also want to identify the cream of the crop of the high performers: the high potentials. High potentials have the same characteristics as high performers, but they have stronger potential to grow into more senior leadership positions. We identify them and put them on a succession plan.

We also talk about the low performers; those are employees who are not contributing as expected to support the companys growth. People always think talent management is making good people better, but its also about managing lower performers by offering them constructive feedback, support, and the opportunity to improve. Thats the area most managers dont want to deal with, so they let those low performers hang out there until things get messy. Our program ensures that we are working with low performers, as well.

[ Learn from your peers: Check out our State of the CIO 2018 report on the challenges and concerns of CIOs today. | Find out whether you have what it takes to be a next-generation CIO. ]

Throughout the year, I challenge my team: Have you communicated to your low performers? Have you given them development plans? Are you getting HR involved? Those are the kinds of conversations we have to have to grow a healthy team. By addressing low performers, high performers, and high potentials in a consistent and programmatic way, we can retain the right people. The talent market is tight, and the last thing we want is for our high performers or high potentials to leave.

How do you hold your leadership team accountable for talent management?

My own set of goals includes talent management, and I extend that to all of my managers. I measure their work in this area by looking at how actively they participate in our talent review sessions and whether they do the pre-work of assessing their team before we meet.

By addressing low performers, high performers, and high potentials in a consistent and programmatic way, we can retain the right people.

During our meetings, we will take a look, for example, at a high potential  someone we believe will be able to move up at least two levels in the next five years. We discuss this person and how we will develop her or him as a team. People voice their opinions, and the more input we receive, the more valuable the conversation.

This way I can get a sense of which of my managers are leading in talent. Are they participating? Are they submitting people for review? Are they identifying and developing high potentials in their own areas? I take all of this into consideration when assessing my management team members overall performance.

What skills do you look for in high performers?

As weve transformed from a federated model to an enterprise model, we have differentiated basic leadership competencies from enterprise leadership competencies. A key part of enterprise leadership is collaboration. As a global company, if we arent good at working together, we will struggle, and so will our patients. Enterprise leadership requires collaboration, influence, partnership, and the ability to reach beyond your own function to support our entire enterprise strategy.

Weve developed a competency model to measure enterprise leadership, and we are currently applying that model to all of our directors and above. We are putting together enterprise leadership competency development plans and creating a new set of interview questions, so that when we are hiring leaders from the outside, we are looking at the right competencies.

Through all of this work, we are building enterprise leadership into our culture. This is not just in IT; this month, we are having a cross-functional talent workshop and bringing in a wide range of executives from across the company to continue this work as a team.

How do you know your talent management plan is working?

When you do a good job of understanding and developing your talent, you can see it in your succession plans. Over the past 12 months, we have been able to trigger several succession plans in a domino effect, with six people moving into the role above them. When you see that you can exercise your succession plans, then you know your talent management program is working.

About Andy Newsom

Andy Newsom is the senior vice president and CIO of CSL Behring. Previously, he was director of IT for the company. Newsom holds a degree in computer science from Parkland College.Win Bigly: Persuasion in a World where Facts Dont Matter, by Scott Adams (Penguin Random House, 298 pp., $27.00)

In 2015, early in the Republican primary season, National Review branded Donald Trump the clown candidate. Salon labeled him the clown in charge. The Federalist issued a friendly reminder that Donald Trump is a clown. Pundit Charles Krauthammer labeled him a rodeo clown.

But on August 13, 2015 (note: 2015, not 2016), Scott Adams, the cartoonist famous for his Dilbert comic strip, called Trump a clown genius for his effective use of sophisticated persuasion techniques. Im going to predict he will be our next president, Adams wrote. I think he will move to the center on social issues (already happening) and win against Clinton in a tight election. Later that month, pointing to a projection by Nate Silver that Trump had only a 2 percent chance of winning the election, Adams doubled down, saying, If I had to put a number on my prediction, I would say a 98 percent chance of Trump winning the whole thing. That is the direct opposite of Silvers prediction.

Adams continued to issue bold predictions throughout the election cycle, a spooky number of which actually came true, including the most important one: Trumps victory. Adams was arguably the most accurate pundit in the last election. Cashing in on his new fame, he has written Win Bigly, analyzing the election and detailing his theories of persuasion.

Adams paints a dim picture of human rationality. Rather than using facts and logic to make decisions, he maintains, most of us decide based on emotion and various illogical heuristics. Human beings are moist robots who can be reprogrammed by master persuaders. Adams also believes that mass delusions are the norm. Among the drivers of human decision-making are reality filters like confirmation bias, with which we interpret new data to uphold what we already believe. Confirmation bias isnt an occasional bug in our human operating system, Adams writes. It is the operating system. We also tend to elevate in importance whatever were paying attention to, which helps explain the power of the media, which cant necessarily tell us what to believe but can move certain issues to the top of the agenda. Trump won in part because he made his issuesthe border wall, for examplea focus of the debate.

Adams examines the Trump persuasion toolkit, including techniques that he calls thinking past the sale and anchoring. For instance, Trump would frequently make an assertion that was technically wrong yet directionally correct, invariably drawing a flurry of media attention to fact check and correct himall the while drawing attention to the issues that he wanted to highlight. For example, Trump claimed to be worth $10 billion; critics scurried to prove that he was worth less, unintentionally certifying Trumps main pointthat he was extremely rich. Now that everyone agreed that Trump was a successful, wealthy businessman, the only question was how wealthy. The mere act of focusing on Trumps relative wealth also raises the perceived importance of Trumps business success as a reason to vote for him. The initial number becomes a mental anchor that is hard to move, Adams says. Thats why you should always be the first to offer numbers, even if you are talking about an entirely different situation. Trump pulled a similar trick when he promised that he would get Mexico to pay for the border wall that he planned to build. If your reaction was that theres no way Mexico will pay for that wall, you were already thinking past the sale. Youve implicitly admitted that there will be a wall; now the debate is over how to pay for it.

Adams took advantage of these techniques himself. He knew that his assessment of the election, in which he gave Trump a 98 percent chance of winning, would attract attention, even if all the coverage was critical. Giving a lower number for Trumps chances might be more accurate but less attention-getting. He also intentionally chose the mirror image of Nate Silvers statistical analysis in order to bracket himself with that much more renowned election prognosticator.

Adams is himself a trained persuader, and so his track record looks more convincing than it actually is. His predictions are shaped to benefit from future confirmation bias. In one of his more notable observations, in December 2015, he opined that Hillary Clinton looks as if she is hiding a major health issue, and that Ill put the odds at 75 percent that we learn of an important Clinton health issue before the general election. Clinton was caught on tape collapsing at a 9/11 memorial event the following year. Adams declared victory, though his original prediction was intentionally vague, allowing him (and us) to fill in the blanks later. Had Adams, along with the pro-Trump media, not been pounding the Hillarys not well table, her dizzy stumble may not have made such waves. Did her collapse represent an accurate prediction, or an event that achieved significance only because of Adamss predictions?

In Win Bigly, Adams provides a practical and actionable guide to the field of persuasion. He offers readers 31 persuasion tips and summarizes material from books by the likes of psychologist Robert Cialdini and behavioral economics guru Daniel Kahneman. Trump rewrote the rules of politics, he maintains, and should have made us question many of our fundamental assumptions about human behaviorwhat he calls ripping a hole in the fabric of the universe. He urges readers to think of [Trumps win] as the moment your entire worldview dissolves in front of your eyes, and you have to rebuild it from scratch. As a trained persuader, I found this situation thrilling beyond words. And I was about to get a lot of company, once people realized what they were seeing. Indeed, Trumps victory has provoked an existential crisis for virtually all major authorities and institutions in American life.

Whether you admire our 45th president or detest him, and regardless of whether you buy Adamss analysis, Win Bigly is an excellent guide to understanding how Trump took down the American political establishment.

Photo by Win McNamee/Getty ImagesGov. Andrew Cuomo and New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio rallied this weekend ahead of U.S. Supreme Court deliberations for Janus v. AFSCME, a case that could prohibit mandatory union fees for non-members.

But Janus isnt the only case that could have a significant political impact in the state.

On Tuesday, the Supreme Court ruled that immigrants held by the government and facing deportation do not have the right to bond hearings to decide whether they may be released on bail, regardless of how long they have been detained.

Its a devastating decision, said Camille Mackler, the director of immigration legal policy at the New York Immigration Coalition. It's really a blow to immigrant communities and to the immigrant rights movement.

The Supreme Courts decision applies to immigrants with legal permanent status, as well as asylum seekers. Immigrants often face detention over convictions for minor offenses, and are held for an average of 13 months.

The ruling for the case, Jennings v. Rodriguez, was split 5 to 3, with the conservative justices agreeing that detained immigrants do not have the right to a bail hearing every six months, reversing a decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals in the Ninth Circuit. The Supreme Court remanded the case for the Ninth Circuit to consider whether bond hearings are required by the constitution, which means the issue could be brought before the highest court again.

In the majority opinion, Justice Samuel Alito wrote that determining whether to deport an immigrant is often done quickly, but that in some cases the task is more difficult.

As a result, Congress has authorized immigration officials to detain some classes of aliens during the course of certain immigration proceedings, Alito wrote. Detention during those proceedings gives immigration officials time to determine an aliens status without running the risk of the aliens either absconding or engaging in criminal activity before a final decision can be made.

But Aadhithi Padmanabhan, a staff attorney at New York Civil Liberties Union, the New York branch of the American Civil Liberties Union  which represented the immigrants seeking hearings in Jennings v. Rodriguez  said that there was a demonstrable constitutional claim to bond hearings.

While the court today found that there is no statutory requirement for immigrants to have bond hearings, the Constitutions due process clause independently entitles all detainees to those hearings, Padmanabhan said in a statement. We are very concerned that hundreds of New Yorkers may be impacted if the government ceases providing bond hearings, and we will continue to litigate to ensure that immigrants receive a fair opportunity to secure their freedom.

Mackler believes that this case highlighted an issue with immigration cases  they are civil proceedings, and not criminal ones, and therefore individuals do not have a right to a speedy trial, a lawyer, or to bond hearings.

The U.S. Supreme Court basically held that the U.S. government can lock people up and throw away the key, she said. In the short term, I think that means that our city and our state need to step up and provide legal services. Mackler noted that New York has already taken steps in this direction. The New York Immigration Family Unity Project has offered free legal services to immigrants facing deportation, with much of the funding coming from the New York City mayors office and the city council. (There was a minor funding dispute over NYIFUP over the summer, with the agreement that legal services for immigrants convicted of serious crimes would be funded by private donors.) The state has also engaged in a public-private partnership, the Liberty Defense Fund, to fund pro bono legal services for immigrants.

We're lucky, New York has invested in legal services, Mackler said. While I'm not saying it's perfect, there's definitely more resources than in other places and New Yorkers should take advantage of those. The Jennings ruling proves the absence of the federal government to fix the errors in the system, said Mackler, and that New York needs to continue to step up to defend immigrants.MPs have formally rejected the governments choice of Charity Commission chair, but the culture secretary, who has final say, has indicated he plans to press ahead with her appointment.

The committee, which has oversight of the charity sector, held a pre-appointment hearing with the governments preferred candidate, Baroness Stowell, last week.

The committee published its report today has said it is not satisfied with the process and demanded answers from the culture secretary, Matt Hancock.

The committee raised questions over experience and politicial impartiality - Stowell is a Conservative peer and will be the third successive Commission chair with political links.

But Hancock himself has stood by his previous statements.

Im sure Tina Stowell will be a brilliant chair of the Charity Commission," he said today. "This is a crucial time for the Commission and the sector. She was appointed after a fair, open and transparent competition. She was not only the best candidate for the job, but is the right candidate and has my full backing.



Tina has been absolutely clear about her impartiality in this role. I know that she will work tirelessly to protect and promote the great work that charities do and ensure they uphold the highest standards of integrity.

Ministers should be able to defend decisions

The DCMS committee has said it will work with other committees to change rules so that if a candidate is rejected by committees it would trigger a debate in the House of Commons.

The committee has called for clarification about the reason for the delay in announcing the governments preferred candidate and asked for more details about the process by which she was appointed. It said it was unhappy with Hancocks responses thus far.

Damian Collins, Conservative MP for Folkstone and Hythe, and chair of the committee, said that even though Stowell was clearly a dedicated public servant, she had failed to persuade the committee that she would be a good candidate for this vitally important leadership role.

He cited concerns raised by voluntary sector bodies about her experience and said that the perception of political neutrality was particularly important for this role.

Collins added: Select committees interview the candidate for these appointments in advance for a good reason - to help reassure the public that these important roles are subject to a fair and open process, and that we get the best person for the job.

We will be taking this opportunity to work with other committees who support our call for the ability to trigger a debate in the Commons to hold ministers to account and allow them to defend their decisions. If the candidates have ministers full support, the government should be easily able to explain that to the House.

The committee has demanded that the government respond within two weeks, instead of the normal eight, and written to the Liaison Committee, which is made up of the chairs of each of the select committees and has responsibility for general matters relating to committees and their work.

Unexplained oddities over recruitment process

In its report the committee demanded answers for why the process had taken so long.

A pre-appointment hearing had to be moved from December to last week because the government had not come to a decision.

The committee said that it was told on 5 December that an announcement was imminent after interviews were held in November. But that this was retracted and the hearing postponed.

The length of time between the final stage of the recruitment process and the announcement of Baroness Stowell as the governments preferred candidate was inexplicably long, the report said.

It added that unexplained oddities of the timings around the dates indicates that this was not a straightforward case of the first-choice candidate being identified and proposed.

Who else was in the running?

The committee has asked for more detail about the other two appointable candidates and refers to concerns raised by Andrew Hind, former chief executive of the Charity Commission, that someone with more experience of charities but no political connection had been overlooked.

MPs also reiterated that they had previously warned the department about selecting people from too narrow a pool of candidates.

The narrow pool of establishment figures from which some public appointments appear to be drawn does not inspire confidence that we are getting the best people for the job, or that the government is genuinely committed to presenting a public face more representative of modern British society, the report said.

The report added that MPs were unhappy that the government had not provided additional detail.

We sought evidence from the department that the process by which Baroness Stowell emerged as the preferred candidate for the chair of the Charity Commission was fair, open and inclusive, it said. The evidence has either not been provided or is unpersuasive. We do not have confidence therefore that Baroness Stowell is the best person who can be found to take on this crucial role.

An appendix to the report reveals that there were 38 applications. Nine were women, three were from a BAME background and five declared a disability. Of the six shortlisted, two were women and none were from a BAME background or had a disability.

Three appointable candidates met with Tracey Crouch on 27 November.

Suitable candidate?

MPs also questioned Stowells suitability for the role and said they had fundamental concerns about her lack of experience of charities, her ability to be perceived as neutral and her performance under scrutiny.

They criticised her vagueness regarding the relevance and applicability of her experience and said there were imprecise claims and a failure to make persuasive connections between her skills and experience and her plans for tackling the challenges she would face at the Charity Commission.

The committee also expressed concern that Stowell had claimed the ministerial code had prevented her from taking a more active role in the charity sector until recently, and said: We checked the ministerial code. It states that there is normally no objection to a minister associating him or herself with a charity, albeit with a number of caveats including that they do not undertake fundraising activity and that they consult the Permanent Secretary.

On the issue of neutrality, they said this is an area in which public perception is likely to be sceptical of claims to impartiality, and the candidate must have the ability to dispel that perception quickly and completely but that although she indicated her intention to resign the Conservative whip in the House of Lords, she otherwise failed to provide a convincing response.

MPs were also concerned by Stowell revealing that she had once sought to be a parliamentary candidate at the 2010 general election and that she had been appointed to her two trustee roles through personal connections.

They were also unconvinced that her roles at the BBC provided sufficient regulatory experience or that she had demonstrated any commitment to the charity sector.

We sought to elicit Baroness Stowells vision for the future direction of the Charity Commission, what her early priorities would be and how she would make things happen. She failed in the answers that she gave to persuade us that she had any vision, or any action plan, the report said.

Hancocks response

MPs also criticised Hancock and DCMS for not appearing to take their concerns seriously.

The committee last week wrote two letters to Hancock - one expressing concerns and another asking for more detail. It said his "quick response" to the first letter had shown "scant regard" for the committee's concerns.

Hancock has now also responded to the second letter, and the committee has now published this letter as well, as an appendix to today's report.

In his letter Hancock said: As I said in my previous letter, the recruitment process was conducted fully in accordance with the Governance Code for Public Appointments. Peter Riddell, the Commissioner for Public Appointments has confirmed this.

He said it would completely inappropriate for me to give further personal details of other candidates but that As the appointing minister, I have the final decision of who is appointed to the role.

Hancock also directed the committee to public statements from Julia Unwin, who was a independent member of the appointments panel, describing Stowell as the outstanding candidate.

He added that: Past political activity should be no bar to a public appointment. However, I do understand that her previous position as a Conservative peer and cabinet minister has prompted questions about her ability to undertake the role independently and impartially. She has publicly committed to do so, acting only in the public interest. I have every confidence that she will. Of course she will be accountable to the committee for this once she takes up the chair post and I expect she would welcome the parliamentary scrutiny and accountability.

Baroness Stowell was the best and right candidate for the role and I am sure will be an excellent chair of the Charity Commission.The Canadian government has pledged to create a $50 million fund to support local journalism in Canada over the next five years. But the money (which amounts to $39 million US), while welcome in an industry that is badly struggling, may also be too little, too late to make a difference.

Erin Millar, co-founder of the online media outlet Discourse Media, says she was afraid at first the budget proposal was going to be throw money at failing entities like The Toronto Star and Postmediawhich owns papers in major cities including Toronto, Ottawa, and Montrealbut was relieved when she saw the announcement.

ICYMI: A portrait of Trumps mental state by photojournalists

If you gave $5 million to Postmedia or the Star, that would be gone by lunch, Millar tells CJR. So at least its not a bailout. But then the next question you have to ask is whether this money is going to actually have any impact or not. And is this all going to newspapers, or is there going to be some going towards new digital startups? We just dont know.

According to John Hinds, president of News Media Canada, the countrys journalism industry has lost more than 16,000 jobs in the past decade, as publishers have been forced to cut staff to keep pace with plunging ad revenue. As in the US, local media markets have been hard hit, with many municipalities losing their only newspaper due to closures. Postmedia and Torstarwhich owns the daily Toronto Star as well as a chain of small weekliesrecently swapped ownership of more than 40 small newspapers, and most were subsequently shut down.

While the government has yet to provide details about the funding, sources involved in the decision-making process say the money may go to The Canadian Press, a wire service owned by several large publishers including Torstar and The Globe and Mail, to hire reporters in local markets. This was one of the proposals made in a report commissioned by the government on the future of news. The report paints a dire picture of Canadian media, noting that since 2010, 225 weekly and 27 daily newspapers in Canada have shut their doors or merged with other papers and [around] one third of journalism jobs have been lost in the past six years.

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If they spend it directly on hiring journalists in local markets, thats better than supporting a dying business model, Millar says. But its not really an investment in the future because those journalists will go away when the money goes away. What is most depressing, she says, is I feel like its going to be all the same people in charge of handing out that moneyits like the same 12 people who were there when things went bad are still controlling the discussion.

Discourse, just three years old, has built a 20-person operation based in Vancouver and Toronto, with several reporters in in British Columbia and Saskatchewan. The only reason I was able to do this is because I was willing to put my house on the line, Millar says. The companywhich had $750,000 in revenue last year from subscriptions and donationshas raised $350,000 by issuing shares to the public and $250,000 from a private investor, and Millar says it is close to closing another $400,000 funding round.

Jeremy Klaszus, founder and editor of a Calgary-based journalism startup called The Sprawl, says he hopes none of the funds the government is promising will go to the Postmedia newspaper chain, which has been hit by several rounds of layoffs across the country, in part because of a crippling amount of debt owed to American hedge funds. They have relentlessly devalued local journalism, he says in an interview. The thought of them getting any kind of support for local journalism is a bit of a joke.

RELATED: Tensions at The New York Times boil over

Selena Ross, a writer and editor with Montreal-based Maisonneuve magazine, says she is encouraged by the fact that the government specified the funds would be focused on underserved communities. I think the focus on underserved communities is really good to hear because it eliminates places that are covering Toronto or Ottawa or these major cities, she tells CJR. There are some places in Canada that are in really dire straits.

Ken Whyte is the former editor of the National Post, a national daily newspaper owned by Postmedia, and is also a former senior executive with Rogers Communications, one of Canadas largest cable companies. He says $50 million is not enough money to achieve anything meaningful.

Theyd be better off not doing anything, Whyte tells CJR. Theres three problems with what theyre doingthe first is that theres no amount of money that theyd be willing to spend thats going to save print journalism. The second is that, to the extent they try to prop up old businesses, they interfere with the birth and growth of new media outlets. And third, theres a sizeable constituency out there that doesnt trust the mainstream media, and will trust it even less if its subsidized by the government.

Hinds, president of News Media Canada, said in a statement his group is concerned the amount announced is far too little to address the growing challenge of providing local news. The association had proposed that the government remake the Canadian Periodical Fund (which supports the print magazine business with tax breaks and other measures) and give it an extra $350 million in funding.

In addition to the new fund, the government will make it easier for media organizations to seek non-profit status in a way that enables them to accept donations from the public and charitable foundations. (Under current Canadian tax laws, even if media companies define themselves as non-profits, it is difficult for them to get contributions from foundations and other benefactors because only registered charities are allowed to do so.)

Klaszus says he is interested in the possibility of changes to non-profit rules, because that would make a tangible difference to his ability to raise money for his startup. The part that catches my interest is making it so media organizations can get foundation support, which is really hard in Canada right now.

All [non-profit status] really does is confirm that these things dont make money anymore, and allows them to go out and beg with a certain amount of dignity, says Whyte. So instead of issuing shares, Torstar could go out and ask for donations, and people might be more likely to do that if it wasnt a commercial enterprise and their money wasnt going to pay Torstar dividends. If they want to do that they can go ahead I suppose, it might be incremental revenue but its not going to save the model.

Ross says these changes to tax rules would be a huge, huge move and will actually make a much bigger difference than funding, because it will allow media organizations to restructure and try out foundation or crowd-funding. It could turn into a longer-term thing or it could help tide newspapers over until they sort out their financial problems.

ICYMI: In quest to protect image, NPR tarnished it

Has America ever needed a media watchdog more than now? Help us by joining CJR today

Karen K. Ho and Mathew Ingram are the authors of this article. Ho is a CJR Delacorte Fellow. Follow her on Twitter @karenkho. Ingram is CJR's chief digital writer. Follow him on Twitter @mathewi.The board of directors of Las Vegas-based Wynn Resorts is facing mounting lawsuits from shareholders who allege they breached their fiduciary duties when they ignored what has been described as a longstanding pattern of sexual abuse and harassment by the companys founder, Steve Wynn.

The latest known derivative lawsuit filed in state court in Las Vegas against the board and the billionaire was announced Monday by the official in charge of the nations third largest public pension fund, the New York State Common Retirement Fund.

At least four other shareholder groups have filed lawsuits stemming from sexual misconduct allegations leveled against Wynn in a news report last month. Derivative lawsuits allow shareholders to take legal action on behalf of a company when they believe its officers or directors are not meeting their fiduciary duties.

These board directors and officers were duty-bound to protect employees and the company, yet they failed to confront allegations of predatory behavior, Thomas DiNapoli, the New York state comptroller and trustee of that states retirement fund, said in a statement. We are asking the court to hold accountable the company officers and directors who allowed this behavior to go unchecked.

The allegations surfaced a month ago, when the Wall Street Journal reported that a number of women said Wynn harassed or assaulted them. One case led to a $7.5 million settlement with a manicurist who alleged that he pressured her into having sex during an appointment, according to the newspaper.

Wynn has vehemently denied the misconduct accusations and attributed them to a campaign led by his ex-wife. He resigned as chairman and CEO of the company bearing his name Feb. 6. An attorney for Elaine Wynn has denied that she instigated the news report.

San Diego-based attorney Todd Neal with the firm Procopio said the lawsuits serve two purposes: To pursue monetary damages  which would be the loss in share price that occurred as a result of the breaches of fiduciary duty  and to force compliance with processes to be implemented, as well as perhaps to have certain board members removed.

The lawsuit filed by DiNapoli argues that the Wynn Resorts share price plummeted after the sexual misconduct allegations became public Jan. 26, closing down 10 percent that day and wiping out $2 billion of market capitalization.

The stock is now trading at about $164.00, a sustained investor loss of 17%, amid continuing controversy with the Boards inadequate investigation and years of inaction, according to the lawsuit filed Thursday. Shares ended Monday at $169.

The New York State Common Retirement Funds assets are estimated at $209 billion. It holds shares in Wynn Resorts with an estimated value of about $30 million.

The Massachusetts-based Norfolk County Retirement System and Pennsylvania-based Operating Engineers Construction Industry and Miscellaneous Pension Fund are among the other shareholder groups that have sued the companys board.

If the lawsuits are successful, Wynn and the companys board members could be ordered to pay monetary damages to Wynn Resorts, said Shannon McNulty, an attorney with Clifford Law Offices in Chicago.

So the shareholders receive the relief as a consequence of the corporation receiving that relief, she said.

Copyright 2021 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.California Gov. Jerry Brown signed legislation Monday that seeks to beef up dam inspections following a near disaster that caused the evacuation of almost 200,000 people living downstream from the tallest one in the United States.

The measure implements several recommendations from experts who reviewed the crisis at Oroville Dam last year.

It requires annual inspections for dams deemed to be high hazards, sets standards for inspections and requires periodic review of dams original design and construction records. It also requires inspectors to consult periodically with independent experts and makes inspection reports public.

The measure, AB1270, which passed the Assembly and Senate unanimously, was written by Assemblyman James Gallagher of Yuba City, who was among the people forced to flee when both the main and emergency spillways experienced catastrophic damage. Engineers feared an eroding hillside would cause the uncontrolled release of a millions of gallons of water. The crisis was averted.

Independent experts said Department of Water Resources officials mistakenly believed for years that the spillways sat on solid bedrock, even though reports from geologists and construction crews planning and building the structure reported significant erodible soil.

The annual inspections would be required for dams classified as being significant, high or extremely high hazards, and every two years for dams classified as low hazard. Critical spillway control features would be tested each year and witnessed by state inspectors at least every three years.

The federal rankings are based on factors including the size of the dam and its degree of risk to people downstream, not the dams current condition.

Copyright 2021 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed."China has caught up with the U.S. in terms of technology in almost every sector, with the possible exception of semi-conductors, and both are going all out because their economic futures depend on it," Mewawalla said, adding that they are both "driven by technology."

Speaking to CNBC on "The Rundown," Cyrus Mewawalla, the head of investment research at GlobalData, said: "I think this is one small battle in a bigger tech trade war between the U.S. and China ."

The move by Apple to host Chinese users' iCloud accounts in a new data center in China  one that is compelled by new laws  is part of a bigger, ongoing technology trade war between the world's two biggest economies, said the head of investment research at a data analysis company.

Beijing recently introduced laws requiring cloud services offered to citizens to be operated by Chinese companies, as well as have the data stored in the country.

This means that Chinese authorities will have easier access to data stored in the cloud, such as text messages and email, as they can use their own laws to force Apple to hand over iCloud data for Chinese users, according to legal experts.

This is posing a conundrum for 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.

Speaking to CNBC on "The Rundown," Mewawalla said that Apple "pretty much had no choice" but to give in to the Chinese law, with 20 percent of Apple's revenue coming from the Chinese market  that amounts to $18 billion in the last quarter alone.

The "tech trade war" started years ago, with the banning of Facebook, Twitter and Google in China, and with HUAWEI and ZTE getting blocked from providing equipment to telecom operators in the U.S., according to the researcher.

The London-based digital media company also said the situation is going to "get worse and worse."

"With President Trump's administration, they are taking a harder line on Chinese acquisitions of U.S. companies, especially semiconductor companies, on national security grounds," Mewawalla said. "Similarly, this issue with Apple in China is a national security issue according to the Chinese government."

The fundamental differences in attitudes towards the internet between Western economies and China will also lead to the "Splinternet," which is a fragmentation of the internet across the world, he said.

According to Mewawalla, this is due to "geopolitics, privacy issues, cybercrimes, states wanting to protect their socio-economic makeup of the nation," which would see different governments taking different positions on internet regulation.

 Reuters contributed to this report.China has expressed "strong dissatisfaction" with the United States imposing anti-dumping and countervailing duties on Chinese aluminum foil, the Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) said on Wednesday.

"The U.S. has disregarded the WTO rules and seriously damaged the interests of China's aluminium foil exporters. China is strongly dissatisfied with this," Wang Hejun, the head of

MOFCOM's Trade Remedy and Investigation Bureau, said in a statement.

The U.S. Commerce Department has made the wrong decision of levying high duties "without any evidence" and has "unreasonably and excessively" adopted trade remedy measures, which will affect its domestic employment and undermine the welfare of U.S. consumers, Wang added.

China will take necessary measures to protect its legal rights and interests in the U.S. wrongdoing, Wang added.

U.S. President Donald Trump is due to decide soon whether to impose much broader duties on steel and aluminum imports under a national security investigation amid mounting trade friction with China.

The U.S. Commerce Department said on Tuesday it would levy anti-dumping and countervailing duties on a number of Chinese firms, with dumping margins ranging from 48.64 percent to 106.09 percent and anti-subsidy rates of 17.14 percent to 80.97 percent.

In 2016, imports of aluminum foil from China were valued at an estimated $389 million, Commerce Department figures show.

The Commerce Department said anti-dumping margins will be set at 48.64 percent for Jiangsu Zhongji Lamination Materials Stock Co Ltd, at 106.09 percent for Hangzhou Dingsheng Import & Export Co Ltd and related companies, 89.54 percent for 14 other companies and 106.09 percent for the rest of producers in China.

Countervailing duty margins will be 17.14 percent for Jiangsu Zhongji, 19.98 percent for Dingsheng, 80.97 percent for Loften Aluminum (Hong Kong) Limited, Manakin Industries LLC and Suzhou Manakin Aluminum Processing Technology Co Ltd, and 18.56 percent for all other producers in China, it said.

The duties, which would last five years, remain subject to a finding of injury to U.S. producers by the International Trade Commission (ITC), which is due to announce its decision by March 15.

China has also expressed concerns over excessive protectionism in the steel sector by the United States, and urged it to show restraint in a probe into steel imports.As the buzz around department store giant Macy's comeback grows louder after earnings, CNBC's Jim Cramer backtracked to what spurred the retailer's turnaround in the first place.

"To put it simply, the new CEO, Jeff Gennette, who took over less than a year ago, is apparently a bit of a miracle worker," the "Mad Money" host said on Tuesday. "He's made the stores look better, he's emphasized fashion, he's reinvented their loyalty program."

Cramer credited Gennette for molding Macy's model to fit customers' specific needs. Regular spenders felt slighted, so Macy's gave them platinum-level Star Rewards. Consumers started flocking to off-price retailers, so Gennette bolstered Macy's own off-price brand of stores, Macy's Backstage.

Gennette has also been testing new initiatives like The Market at Macy's, in which Macy's partners with brands to build pop-up shops within its stores.

The result has been an "all systems go" effect for Macy's, Cramer said. Sales of dresses, coats, jewelry, men's tailored clothing, children's shoes and handbags are all outperforming estimates.

Better yet, Cramer argued that the result is sustainable thanks to Gennette's leadership. On Tuesday, the CEO told CNBC in an after-earnings interview that Macy's should return to same-store sales growth in 2018. (Same-store sales growth is a key metric for retailers.)

The retailer is also making strides in omnichannel, offering personal and curated shopping options and, in effect, bracing itself against more hands-off e-commerce players like Amazon.

"Most important, though, is something behind the scenes, something that caused me to recommend the stock when it fell below $20 last year," Cramer said. "I'm talking about the balance sheet."

"Gennette knows fashion. Even his detractors will admit that," he continued. "However, what people missed about him, particularly the bears who questioned the sustainability of Macy's dividend when its stock yielded 7.7 percent, is that Gennette cares passionately about fixing the darned balance sheet."

With Gennette at the helm, Macy's has curbed its share buyback program and turned its focus to paying down its debt by selling property and shuttering the last of its under-performing stores.

As a result, Cramer said the outlook for Macy's, from its gross margins to its sales estimates, has greatly improved. He only wishes investors would have spent less time betting against the chain and more time listening to its new leader.

"Shop there as I have, embrace it, and you'll see exactly what I mean," the "Mad Money" host said. "The bears blinded themselves to all of the positives here in the pursuit of a home-run short, and instead, it turned out to be a home-run long."On a less-than-perfect day for the stock market, CNBC's Jim Cramer was heartened to see a good quarterly report come from an under-the-radar player in tech: HP Inc. Along with Hewlett Packard Enterprise, HP Inc was the product of the 2015 breakup of Hewlett-Packard. The former, HPE, handles enterprise-facing matters; the latter, HP Inc, is the personal computer and printing business. "It's been a tough slog for HPE since the breakup, but now both parts of the old Hewlett-Packard seem to finally be firing on all cylinders," the "Mad Money" host said. With the personal computer business seeing a revival and 3D printing emerging as a leading solution for large-scale manufacturers, HP Inc has now reported five quarters in a row of double-digit revenue growth. Its counterpart, HPE, hasn't been too shabby, either, Cramer noted: the company recently delivered a massive earnings beat, bullish guidance and a 50 percent dividend boost, sending shares of HPE up 15 percent over the last three trading sessions. "When it comes to technology, hardware is back in style," Cramer said. "The tech that's on your desk at work and in your briefcase, devices that look and act nothing like you ever even imagined a few years ago, and the internet of things are where the action is, which is why HP Inc and HPE continued to climb today in spite of a very ugly tape."

Brewing bidding war

The sky logo is displayed on televisions at a Currys store in London, U.K. Chris Ratcliffe | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Cramer knew exactly what was coming when media colossus Comcast made a rival offer to Twenty-First Century Fox's bid for international broadcasting group Sky. Fox's bid for the rest of Sky (in which Fox currently has a 39 percent stake) was part of a larger deal with the Walt Disney Company. In December, Disney agreed to buy a slew of Fox's assets including a stake in Sky. Comcast, the parent company of NBC and Universal Studios, said its offer for Sky comes out to roughly 12.50 pounds a share, significantly higher than Fox's proposed 10.75 pounds a share. Cramer argued that Comcast's $31 billion bid complicated the predetermined deal between Disney and Fox, upping the ante and potentially forcing Disney's hand to pay more for Sky. "There are many permutations to these machinations, too many to mention here, but both Disney and Comcast want this asset so I bet a bidding war does ensue," he said Tuesday.

Crisis of complacency

Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) moments before the Closing Bell. Getty Images

While Cramer is content to blame the market's recent sell-off on high-risk products that traders used to bet against volatility, he knows there could be more to the story. That's why the "Mad Money" host recruited technician Carley Garner, the co-founder of DeCarley Trading and the author of Higher Probability Commodity Trading, to get to the bottom of the drastic correction. "In Garner's view, there's a whole lot of blame to go around. It's not just the fault of foolish speculators who made big, leveraged bets that the market would stay calm, then were forced to sell common stocks and stock futures to meet their brokers' margin calls," Cramer said. "Garner thinks the market was already broken in early January," he continued. "She believes the bulls were victims of their own complacency."

Miracle worker at Macy's

Jeff Gennette, CEO, Macy's Getty Images

As the buzz around department store giant Macy's comeback grows louder after earnings, Cramer backtracked to what spurred the retailer's turnaround in the first place. "To put it simply, the new CEO, Jeff Gennette, who took over less than a year ago, is apparently a bit of a miracle worker," Cramer said. "He's made the stores look better, he's emphasized fashion, he's reinvented their loyalty program." Cramer credited Gennette for molding Macy's model to fit customers' specific needs. Regular spenders felt slighted, so Macy's gave them platinum-level Star Rewards. Consumers started flocking to off-price retailers, so Gennette bolstered Macy's own off-price brand of stores, Macy's Backstage. The result has been an "all systems go" effect for Macy's, the "Mad Money" host said.

War over Wayfair

The history of online furniture retailer Wayfair on Wall Street has been a difficult one. "For some reason, it seems to attract fanatics from both sides," Cramer said Tuesday. "You've got a rabid group of marauding bears who absolutely hate Wayfair with the fire of a thousand suns, and you've got a stampeding herd of equally committed bulls." The bulls like Wayfair's fast revenue growth and customer retention. The bears, however, worry about Wayfair's lack of profitability  and after the company's latest quarter, Cramer may have joined that camp. "My view? The stock never should've run so much going into the quarter, but now that it's come down, I am hesitant to recommend it," he said. "The problem? As of now, the bull thesis has one prop: revenue growth. If Wayfair ever misses on that top line, its stock will be absolutely obliterated." But Cramer wouldn't recommend shorting Wayfair either, because any fundamental decline in the stock price could attract potential acquirers to take over the e-commerce giant. "I always like to say to you that when stocks go down they get cheaper, but I need to add a caveat now: when stocks of companies with faltering fundamentals go down, joining the sellers may be the most intelligent thing to do," the "Mad Money" host said.

Lightning round: Pain in the pipelinesCanceling a discount partnership with the National Rifle Association was a "stupid move" on the part of Delta Air Lines, said Georgia state Sen. Michael Williams. But that's not the reason the Republican legislator is in favor of blocking a jet fuel sales tax exemption, he said.

"We do not support crony capitalism and giving public corporations tax breaks," Williams told CNBC on "Closing Bell" on Tuesday.

Williams said he opposes the current version of a bill that would give airlines  such as Delta, which is headquartered in Atlanta  a $50 million sales tax exemption on jet fuel purchased in the state.

Williams, who represents Georgia's 27th District, is a chair of the Appropriations subcommittee on fiscal management and general government and a member of the Appropriations, Ethics, Finance and Public Safety committees. He is also a candidate for governor.

"I have been fighting this because I, for one, do not believe in corporate welfare," he said. "I don't feel like the state of Georgia or the citizens here in Georgia should be subsidizing the bottom line for Delta."

Williams said he was against the tax exemption before Delta announced Saturday that it would terminate its NRA contract for discounted fares for travel to the association's 2018 annual meeting, reflecting the airline's "neutral status" in the current gun control debate.

Georgia senators have been feeling the pressure from the people of Georgia, Williams said, who "love our Constitution, love our Second Amendment right. We're going to stand up and fight over this."

There is talk of sending the bill back to the Finance committee to draft a new version without the jet fuel tax credit, Williams said.

Delta is one of many businesses that has cut ties with the NRA in the wake of the Feb. 14 Parkland, Fla. shooting that killed 17 people.

Williams said he's not in the business of telling corporations what to do.

"If Delta wants to do that [alter its relationship with the NRA], that's completely up to Delta," he said, but he also said he would "love" to see Delta reinstate its discounts for NRA members.

Meanwhile, other government officials, including Georgia Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle, did say they were against tax legislation that would benefit Delta unless the company reinstituted its deal with the NRA.

Delta did not respond to a request for comment.The intelligence community never informed seven states that they had been compromised by Russian operatives prior to the 2016 election, multiple U.S. officials told NBC News.

While several of these states had been told that foreign entities were probing their systems, they were not informed that the Kremlin was behind these breaches, NBC reported citing state officials.

But officials who spoke to NBC said they agreed that these breaches did not change votes or remove voters from databases.

The affected states were Alaska, Arizona, California, Florida, Illinois, Texas and Wisconsin, three senior intelligence officials told NBC.

Read the full report on NBC News.President Donald Trump gestures as Saudi Arabia's King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud (R) stands next to him during a reception ceremony in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, May 20, 2017.

U.S. President Donald Trump discussed Iran's "destabilizing activities" and other security and economic issues in separate telephone calls with senior Saudi and Emirati leaders on Tuesday, the White House said.

In calls with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahyan of the United Arab Emirates, Trump thanked them for highlighting ways that Gulf Arab states "can better counter Iranian destabilizing activities and defeat terrorists and extremists," the White House said.

Saudi Arabia and the UAE, along with Bahrain and Egypt, cut off travel and trade ties with Qatar in June, accusing it of supporting terrorism and their arch-rival Iran. The United States is trying to resolve the dispute.

Qatar denies the charges and says the four Arab countries aim to curtail its sovereignty.

The two crown princes, as well as Qatar's Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, are planning to visit Trump for bilateral meetings in March and April, a senior U.S. official said on Friday.

The agenda for the meetings will include setting up a summit of the six-member Gulf Cooperation Council, the official said, which Washington hopes will be held later this year, as well as Middle East peace and Iran.

Trump also discussed enhancing bilateral partnerships on security and economic issues with the Saudi and Abu Dhabi crown princes, the White House said.The app launched in 2015, but it surged in popularity the week of February 18, according to App Annie .

A little-known app called Vero rocketed to the top of the iOS app store in the past week. Vero, which is Latin for the word "Truth" was created by the Lebanese billionaire, Ayman Hariri .

Vero says that's because members of the tattoo and cosplay communities started migrating to Vero from other social media platforms. An Instagram search of "#vero" brings up thousands of photos of Instagram users requesting that their followers find them on Vero.

But the app has experienced growing pains. A number of users are reporting technical difficulties and crashes. The company said they are working to fix the problems.

Tweet Link

So how does it work? When you join, you sign up with your name, email and phone number  there are no usernames on Vero. It's different from Instagram in that you can share more than just photos. You can also share links, music, movies/TV, books and places. And unlike Instagram's algorithm, Vero's feed shows up in chronological order. Just like the other social media platforms, you can follow your friends, brands and verified celebrity users. The appeal of Vero seems to stem from the fact that the company promises to not track data and that it will keep the app ad-free.

Users can download Vero for free right now, but the company says it will eventually charge a small subscription fee.Any of the 5 million people who've gotten a home DNA test from Alphabet-backed 23andMe will learn a lot more about their origins this week.

On Wednesday, the company updated its $99 genealogy test to include more countries, which is far more specific than regions. So rather than learning that you're a little bit Eastern European, 23andMe will inform you that you're 10 percent Romanian or Polish, for instance.

The update will include 120 new regions across the globe.

The product will be a lot more interactive, so users can zoom into their ancestors' geographic regions on a map.

"We've asked a lot of customers where they're from and this has allowed us to build up a database of genetic diversity," said Robin Smith, 23andMe's product manager.

In a phone interview, Smith said that 23andMe uses machine learning to develop its algorithm, which is getting smarter over time at surmising people's roots.

In addition to ancestry, 23andMe has been working with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to provide information about its users' health risks, including screening for genes associated with Alzheimer's risk. That health information costs an additional $100 to access.

It also shows the percentage of Neanderthal ancestry, which is intended to be a fun feature that helps set it apart from dozens of other tests.

Its biggest competitor, Ancestry.com, also offers a DNA-testing service.The activist investor had placed a massive bet against the nutritional supplement maker he accused of running a pyramid scheme. He expected the shares to fall to zero, enabling him to profit on his short sale of the stock.

Ackman told CNBC's Scott Wapner on Wednesday in a phone call that he had unwound the position. Herbalife shares jumped 9 percent to an all time high on Wednesday.

Bill Ackman 's Pershing Square Capital has exited its Herbalife bet five years after his on-air verbal brawl with Carl Icahn on CBNC.

But the bet proved disastrous. Last November, after Herbalife shares had climbed 51 percent for the year, he announced he had closed out the short position he had in the shares and converted it into a bet using put options.

The Icahn-Ackman fight happened on Jan. 25, 2013, while Ackman was being interviewed by telephone by Wapner. Ackman was responding to attacks by Icahn the previous day over Ackman's claims that Herbalife was "a well-managed pyramid scheme."

Icahn called in to the show, saying "Ackman is a liar" and that he had "one of the worst reputations on Wall Street."

"I've really about had it with this guy," Icahn said. "He's like the crybaby in the schoolyard."

Business Insider labeled it "The Greatest Moment In Financial TV History."

The two made up a year later.A young school child holds a sign 'Protect Children NOT Guns' at Stoneman Douglas High School. Giles Clarke | Getty Images

Two years ago, even before the shocking mass shootings that killed dozens of people in a high school in Florida and at an outdoor concert in Las Vegas, a group of nuns quietly put together a plan to pressure gun makers about the safety of their products. They bought shares in Sturm Ruger & Co. and American Outdoor Brands, both makers of high-powered rifles, and recently filed shareholder proposals asking the companies whether they are researching ways to produce safer guns. They want the gun makers to report on the financial and reputation risks of gun violence to their operations. "We wanted to engage them," said Sister Judy Byron, the director of the Northwest Coalition for Responsible Investment in Seattle. Last summer, the nuns wrote to both companies asking to open a dialogue, but they didn't respond, she said.

The nuns are familiar with shareholder activism, for years using their platform to push companies on everything from executive pay to climate change and the rights of indigenous people. The work has not always been rewarded. A previous effort with Sturm Ruger in 2002 went nowhere, Byron acknowledged. But this time might be different. Since 17 people were killed in the Florida high school earlier this month, a public outcry about gun violence made it all the way to the wood-paneled halls of Wall Street, where some of the world's biggest money managers say they are asking gun makers similar questions. The nuns hope the pressure from Wall Street will help, said Tim Smith, the director of shareholder engagement at Walden Asset Management, a Boston money management firm that works with the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility, the umbrella group for religion-affiliated shareholder activists. On Monday, the giant asset manager State Street said it will be engaging with weapons makers and sellers to find out how the companies "will support the safe and responsible use of their products." Last week BlackRock, the largest shareholder in Sturm Ruger and Smith & Wesson parent American Outdoor, said it would also be engaging the companies to "understand their response to recent events." Bank of America, a lender to gun makers, said it would talk to them as well. Cajoling from shareholders has long been one way to sway corporate boards, though it isn't always taken seriously. Rarely do proposals garner more than 10 percent support from shareholders, said Patrick McGurn, head of strategic research at proxy advisory firm ISS. But the momentum appears to be building. "The door is open with these firms to look quite seriously at shareholder resolutions and not dismiss it," Walden's Smith told CNBC. "Our hope is now with the large investors asking questions that they would support our efforts," Byron said.

A spokesman for BlackRock said the company doesn't discuss its voting plans prior to a shareholder meeting. In another shareholder proposal this year, nuns asked Dick's Sporting Goods, a major gun seller in the U.S., to re-evaluate its sales of military-style assault weapons to civilians, among other requests. On Wednesday, Dicks' CEO Edward Stack, announced the company will stop selling assault rifles and restrict sales of other firearms to those 21 and older. He said he had been impressed by the student protests in Florida. Dicks had legally sold a shotgun to the 19-year-old who has confessed to the shooting in the Florida high school, though that particular gun was not used. "Clearly this indicates on so many levels that the systems in place are not effective to protect our kids and our citizens," Stack said in a statement. "We believe it's time to do something about it." On Wednesday, Mercy Investments confirmed to CNBC it had withdrawn the proposal with the retailer earlier this month after talking with executives about their concerns. Last year a climate change proposal on the ballot at Exxon led by Sister Nora Nash, director of corporate responsibility for the Sisters of St. Francis in Philadelphia, garnered 62 percent support. It was a stunning reversal from prior efforts by the religious group that failed to win a majority vote. The support of fund giant Vanguard as well as BlackRock pushed the proposal over the goal line. Normally, religious groups have strict rules that forbid them from owning shares of companies that make tobacco and guns or engage in activities that aren't in keeping with their values. But this time, the nuns bought gun maker shares so they could take their case directly to the companies, Byron said. The gun makers haven't filed their proxy materials for shareholders yet, so it is unknown whether they will ask the Securities and Exchange Commission for permission to keep the proposals off their ballots. Walmart successfully excluded a proposal by Trinity Church of Wall Street in 2015 but ultimately did stop selling certain types of rifles and high-capacity weapons in its stores. Calls to Sturm Ruger and American Outdoor weren't returned. Sturm Ruger seems likely to tell shareholders to vote against her proposal, Byron said. In 2002, the gun maker also recommended a "no" vote. "Like many companies, we receive proposals from well-meaning stockholders. Many are commendable, and their objectives are often aligned with our values," Sturm Ruger said in its 2002 proxy. "We share the goal of firearms safety raised by this proposal, but we believe that there are appropriate safety practices and procedures in place." Less than 5 percent of Sturm Ruger shareholders voted in favor of the proposal.

WATCH: Dick's Sporting Goods halts assault-style weapons salesAirports are turning to emotional-support animals to calm anxious travelers, just as airlines are cracking down on certain therapy dogs, ducks and other animals in the cabin.

Who needs an airport massage when you could snuggle up to a Newfoundland outside your gate?

Denver International Airport boasts the largest airport animal therapy program in the country: some 100 dogs and a cat that make up its Canine Airport Therapy Squad, or CATS. The four-legged animals, who are brought in by volunteers, wear blue vests emblazoned with the words "pet me." Los Angeles International Airport has a program called Pets Unstressing Passengers, or PUP.

Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport trots out trained miniature horses, brought in by volunteers from a local farm. The Wag Brigade at San Francisco International Airport features dogs and a pig named LiLou.

Airlines, meanwhile, are trying to stem the stampede of animals in the cabin. Starting Thursday, Delta Air Lines and United Airlines will require passengers who wish to bring an emotional support dog, duck or other animal to bring signed documents that state their animal can behave in the cabin.

Passengers and airline employees have complained of soiled cabins, allergies and even biting by some of the animals on board. United recently turned away a peacock one passenger wanted to bring with her aboard a cross-country flight as an emotional support animal.

Emotional support animals are allowed in cabins free of charge under the 1986 Air Carrier Access Act, which stands in the way of airlines barring the animals altogether.

Animals in airport programs face a higher bar than some animals passengers bring on board.

"There's a whole onboarding process," said Heath Montgomery, spokesman for Denver's airport, adding that the goal is to add more animals to the CATS program. The program's administrators aim to bring the fuzzy volunteers past security, near gates, where passenger stress can run high as they face delays and lengthy, and sometimes confusing, boarding processes.

Volunteer animals go through an interview process to see how they interact with people in the airport and have to present documents showing they've undergone therapy training.

The airport's animals are easier to handle. They're not in a confined space, like they are in an airplane cabin, Montgomery notes.

"It's a completely different type of environment," Montgomery said.American Airlines said it won't sign its lease for a revamped O'Hare International Airport in Chicago, alleging its competitor and fellow tenant United Airlines would receive additional gates under a "secret" provision.

United denied those claims.

Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel said Wednesday that the eight-year project would include a new international terminal and remodeling of others. The $8.5 billion expansion, the largest in the airport's history, aims to increase gate capacity at the airport by a quarter. The airport had 184 gates as of January, according to its website. Airlines would contribute to the project through landing fees, terminal rent and other fees.

Emanuel's office did not immediately respond to a request for comment over the dispute.

The airport is the third busiest in the nation by passenger traffic. United and American are top two tenants, respectively, and the feud is raising questions about the airport's overhaul.

American said it is exploring its next steps and that it wouldn't sign the lease in "its current form because of a secret provision, inserted at the last minute, awarding additional gates to United."

The "United gate deal creates a clear winner, United, and clear losers: namely, competition, Chicago travelers and American Airlines," the statement said.

United fired back calling American's complaint "disingenuous" and said that the plan for the gates dates back more than a year.

"This was not a backroom deal," said Gavin Molloy, United's vice president for corporate real estate and environmental affairs.

The airline said the agreement for the gates was made more than 18 months ago.

"American has been aware of our agreement for over a year and has worked to block the implementation at every opportunity," a United spokesman said.

American said it would compromise: It would sign the lease without the provision. The airline, the world's largest, said it urged Chicago officials to build three additional gates for American to "re-level playing field."

Both airlines are trying to expand and access to gates is key to serving new cities or offering more frequencies.

Those five gates could mean "30 or 40 flights a day," said Henry Harteveldt, a travel analyst and founder of consulting firm Atmosphere Research Group. "I understand why American wants to get some additional gates to make sure they're competitive."

The most important thing is whether there will be sufficient competition in the new airport, Harteveldt added.

"When you stifle competition you offer consumers fewer choices and ultimately higher airfares," he said.If a closely watched major privacy rights fight between Microsoft and the U.S. Justice Department ends up with the latter having the upper hand, other countries could get more "aggressive" with their surveillance over the data of American citizens, a U.S law professor said.

Speaking to CNBC on "Squawk Box," Matthew Tokson, an associate professor of law at the University of Utah, said: "Most experts seem to think that the government has the upper hand here."

"One concern about this case is if the government prevails, foreign countries may be more actively aggressive with their surveillance of say, U.S. citizens' data stored in their countries," he added.

On Tuesday, Supreme Court justices were divided in their opinion over whether prosecutors can force technology companies to hand over data stored overseas. Some signaled support for the government, while others urged Congress to pass a law to resolve the issue. A ruling is due by the end of June.Ameriprise Financial Services steered retirement savers into higher cost mutual funds than they needed, allowing it to benefit from higher sales fees while dinging investment returns, the Securities and Exchange Commission said Wednesday.

The Minneapolis-based brokerage and investment advisor agreed to settle the agency's charges that it recommended the higher fee products and didn't waive fees, putting its customers at a disadvantage. Ameriprise agreed to pay a $230,000 civil penalty.

It is the SEC's latest case focused on whether advisors are putting clients in suitable products. Earlier this month, the agency announced an initiative where advisors can self-report behavior and return investor money without penalty.

Last October, UBS agreed to pay $3.5 million to settle similar charges that it steered retirement plan savers and charities into higher-fee funds than they were eligible for and didn't waive fees.

Three years ago, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority levied ordered brokers to pay back tens of millions of dollars for more than 75,000 retirement accounts and charities that overpaid for funds. The firms in the settlements included Wells Fargo, Raymond James, LPL Financial, Edward D. Jones, Stifel Nicolaus, Janney Montgomery Scott, AXA Advisors and Stephens Inc.

The SEC said Ameriprise sold retirement savers certain funds when less expensive options were available and didn't tell the customers that it would get paid more in fees from the funds it was selling. Higher fees cut into investor returns.

The activity involved 1,791 customer accounts from January 2010 through June 2015 and more than $1.78 million in unnecessary fees. Ameriprise cooperated with the SEC and voluntarily identified the accounts. It has repaid the customers with interest and moved them into lower-cost funds, the SEC said.

In a statement, Ameriprise said, "As pointed out in the settlement, Ameriprise voluntarily paid full remediation to clients, with interest. It's important to note that this is a long-standing industry topic and numerous firms have settled with the SEC and FINRA on similar matters."

It is also a twist on a number of private lawsuits over the last decade that have taken large corporate employee retirement plans to task for putting employee savers into higher priced funds where lower-cost options were available. Another dozen or so lawsuits targeting high fees in university employee retirement funds is also winding its way through the system, with one involving New York University being the first of its kind headed to trial.The European Union's ( EU ) Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier has warned Britain must hurry up if it wants to reach a deal over its divorce from the bloc before 2019. The EU called on Britain to hasten its Brexit negotiation plans shortly after it published the first public draft of a withdrawal treaty on Wednesday. The bloc said it hopes an agreement can be made within about eight months. Speaking at a press conference in Brussels, Belgium, Barnier said: "If we wish to make a success of these negotiations... we must pick up the pace."

The treaty, which was based on interim discussions in December, seeks to outline the terms of Britain's departure from the bloc.



However, one particular flashpoint in the draft  which has prompted anger in Belfast  concerns the protocol regarding a so-called "hard border" between the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland.



Barnier said Northern Ireland must remain within the EU's current rules and regulations post-Brexit. He also underlined this "backstop" agreement had been reached with U.K. Prime Minister Theresa May at the end of last year.



May's coalition ally in Northern Ireland, the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), has long criticized this protocol, saying it could create new divisions between it and the rest of the U.K. The DUP has also threatened to revoke its support to Westminster over its concerns of a physical infrastructure being imposed on the Irish border.



The legally-binding text comes just days before May is scheduled to make her most eagerly anticipated speech on Brexit since last year.

However, when May was asked to respond in parliament on Wednesday, she said her government wanted to reach an agreement with the EU that allowed London to have control over its own laws, borders and money post-Brexit.



May also reaffirmed the U.K. government's position that it did not want a deal that resulted in a hard border between Northern Ireland and Ireland.In the face of a continuous stream of headlines about a potential trade war between the United States and China, one technology CEO has called for collaboration between the world's two largest economies.

"At the end of the day, the global economy is going to be stronger with the U.S. and China working together," Cisco CEO Chuck Robbins told CNBC Tuesday at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain.

When asked if Cisco's endeavors to build bridges with China could be hampered by protectionist policy coming from the White House, Robbins said: "You have to build relationships with the senior leadership within any customer, within cities you're operating in and within countries  and I don't think you do that based on some concern."Following is the unofficial transcript of the full CNBC EXCLUSIVE interview with Palantir Co-founder & CEO Alex Karp and CNBC's Josh Lipton, airing today Wednesday, February 28 at 11am ET. Following is a link to video of the full interview on CNBC.com: https://www.cnbc.com/video/2018/02/28/palantir-ceo-says-investors-will-be-positively-surprised-at-the-companys-margins.html.

All references must be sourced to CNBC.

Josh Lipton: So Alex, thank you for taking the time to chat. I appreciate it.

Alex Karp: Thank you for talking to me.

Josh Lipton: So I want to start, Alex, when people think of Palantir, even probably here in the Silicon Valley, they have this idea that it is a very secretive startup that works hand in hand with CIA, the FBI, helping to track down terrorists and criminals. But when you explain what Palantir does, how do you walk people through it?

Alex Karp: Well, it's different in different parts of the business. We're now a very global company. In the national security arena, we're probably the best known, most successful product. So people know us, and they know we are used for targeting and for data protection. And so people know us in the context of the special forces, so finding bad people, integrating the data, allowing special operators to use the data in the field on their laptops to continue their mission. They know our work in the kind of national security context, as finding networks that are hidden. They know our work in the illicit traffic networks, finding human traffickers, so more the police and internal security we do. And actually outside of America we are very well known for complying to civil liberties norms and data protection norms. So the interesting thing about it is we are somewhat of a company that's shy. I tend to think we are more shy than secretive. We are not consumer internet, we stick very closely to our own business. But because of the breadth and depth of our work, we're in over 40 countries, on the clandestine side it's much more that people know the results and then they want to know why. So what we sometimes have to explain is this is actually built on a data integration motor that is very specialized for very certain things. So in the national security context, we work hand in hand with most of the security operators in the Western world, we work hand in hand with most of the classic clandestine services, both external and internal in the Western world, especially in what's known as the Five Eyes, so the English speaking countries that won World War 2, and in Northern Europe but also in many other countries. We are also very well known for our police work and we are very well known for data protection. What we explain is, "why does it actually work?" And this has to do with our efforts. So we spent three years building an engine, that will allow you to take any data and any source and integrate it in a way that it is usable while applying rules to the data, so that the Secret Service person, the person in intelligence, or the person in special operator see all the data they are allowed to see and none of the data they are not allowed to see. Which is very important because these things tend to be collaborative. So if you go in the field as a special operator, you're probably working with special operators from Norway, from other NATO countries, from Britain. We share a lot but not everything. And then when you go to the final mile, and you're there, you need to know that the data you're integrating actually works. And that engine, the engine that powers that, that's what we provide. On the commercial side, we spent years and years trying to develop a commercial product and successfully built one recently which largely allows people to integrate industrial data. It is very specialized for industrial use cases. Also allows you to do data protection. But the power of it comes from the ability to scale across an enterprise and make workers more valuable.

Josh Lipton: Let me ask you, Alex, to stop there, when we talk about the commercial side, a corporate client, give me  Chrysler for example I know is a client  give me an example of how Chrysler is using Palantir's technology right now.

Alex Karp: So you have a problem when you are building any kind of motor or doing any kind of drilling. So we are well known in the industrial drilling context, in the flight context, in the automotive context although we don't talk about it that much publicly. But you have, essentially a massive amount of data but it is very hard to figure out or predict which part is to break under which conditions in a motor. And knowing that is the difference between making a lot of money, or much more money than your competitors or less money than your competitors. Because you know the parts have different costs, so one part, in a typical case, in a plane or in a car, one part costs like 2 cents and one part costs like a $1000. If you can predict that replacing the part that cost 2 cents every two months instead of five months, saves you the $1000, you have a massive market advantage, and a safety advantage. But these things actually have to be done on the line as well, so you need a product that interfaces with everyone in the company, the CEO, the managers but also the auto workers. That has an engine that can power that, but a front end too that they can work with intuitively. And the thing that is very special here that we are very much driving is, I believe that Silicon Valley is creating innovation without jobs, and it's really hurting our world. And what's very special about Foundry is that it creates innovation with jobs. So there's factory workers  there are 1500 people at Chrysler using our product, 1500 people who are technical but are not PHDs in Computer Science or Math. At Airbus we have 5000 workers using our product. Now maybe I am going back to my old philosophical days but what's made this company special is not that we are secretive, it's not that we are an enterprise software. It's that we have been very focused on fighting terrorism with data protection and what we are recently now focused on as well, is innovation with jobs. Now, why should we care? Well because if you don't have jobs you're not going to have democracy. I mean obviously we were born in Silicon Valley and we are of Silicon Valley in some ways but this movement of innovation with no jobs is really hurting our society. And it's bad for companies, it's bad for our country, it's bad for our partners and what's made our product successful is when we find a convergence between philosophical, moral and technical things and we bring it together. And that's actually been the secret of PG, our government product. It wasn't about making money. Sure, we're a business, we like making money, it was about how can we make sure a special operator comes home or comes home with legs and that really is motivating. And so, on the commercial side, making sure that workers can use the product. And once the worker starts using the product, they're like really valuable. Because the worker on the frontline can start begin to do something that here to forth no worker can do, actually a computer alone can't do it. Because it's weight  it's a factorial problem. Computers are not capable of actually doing this yet, maybe they will be in ten years, but by then the worker will be so good that maybe they don't get  they're irreplaceable.

Josh Lipton: So your point, Alex, is that Silicon Valley tech companies should be doing more to create job creation and Palantir's software is helping that effort?

Alex Karp: Well, I mean, you're being diplomatic. I think they should do more to stop destroying jobs. And we're doing innovation with jobs. So if it was just neutral. Like, you know, the cost of a house here is $4 million, $3 million. The cost of a house in Detroit is $40,000. It's like, why is that? Because Silicon Valley is eating up  the West Coast of America is eating up every job on the planet. And that's a problem for our society. Now maybe other companies don't want to be involved in that, that's their choice. Just like many companies don't want to be involved with stopping terrorists. That's their choice. OR protecting data. That's their choice. Our choice as a company is that we want to be involved in this and we are driving really, really hard on this.

And by the way, to your viewers, what's been very interesting, is a famous saying in the Valley that "Ask for money, get advice, ask for advice, get money." The more we have focused on these deep philosophical issues, the more we've crushed it as a business.

Josh Lipton: And so the idea is Palantir's software is creating jobs at a Chrysler plant?

Alex Karp: Well, it's preserving jobs, because once the Chrysler, once the 1500 employees are using the software, they're actually doing things that otherwise you'd need a PHD to do. So you are making them as valuable as a PHD, in software. And it scales across this enterprise, they are more valuable than what a single PHD has to offer, because then what they figure out scales across the enterprise. Once they figure out that oh this part and this part interact in a weird way, if we change that, then everyone in the whole  and in fact, you see this Airbus as well, where you have these 5000 people at a myriad of airlines hitting this data sac which allows them to lower costs and quite frankly, obviously more important to most of us, increase safety.

Josh Lipton: And do you think, Alex, as the CEO of the company, it's your responsibility then to also directly hire more people at Palantir?

Alex Karp: Well you know we do that. But our primary responsibility is to let people keep the jobs they already have. You know, again, like we're not  I'm not saying that Palantir can hire  change everyone who wasn't a software engineer into a software engineer. What I am saying is that if you have a part of the company eating up the whole economy of every other other part of the world, including America, including industrial things. And -- what is the promise to the person on the factory line? Why should they believe what they are doing? And that can be changed. And we are changing it. Also -- realize that most Silicon Valley companies don't care and nor do they have a corporate responsibility to care. The interesting thing about Palantir is that we only win big where we start from a moral thing. That's what actually motivates us. And it's what allows us go deep enough into the tech thing to be disruptive.

Josh Lipton: Let me ask you this, Alex, coming back to your business. There have been a lot of reports  I want to get your take on this, about customer churn at Palantir, right? So there's reports of Coca Cola, American Express  they ended those contracts because of pricing concerns.

Alex Karp: What's very interesting about our company is that once we moved  we moved everything to the Foundry platform and focused on industrials. And the central thing is that we have to focus on moral things that we care about. And so when you look at our business, you know the part of our business where we did this has grown 100% year on year for three to four years. So -- and part of getting these things right, in the beginning, just like in the U.S govt, took us years and years of experimenting with massive data sets, quite frankly I am quite grateful to all the companies we got to experiment with. That's how we built Foundry. And now we have this massive product, it's quite interesting, it's quite important. And you know the churn numbers on our government, project were diminus, meaning if you take out the ones where we had to leave for some reason, it was almost nonexistent. You know but it happens. In any big business. We are a large business. And some of that might be our fault. But what's interesting about the Foundry product is that we are starting to see the same kind of thing: very sticky, and very focused on industrial things and very focused on job creation. And then the workers and the corporate people become our allies. So, this is like a really good phase for us.

Josh Lipton: Let me ask you this. There are a lot of companies, Alex, that you know are focused on big data analytics software products and services. You know the names: Microsoft, IBM, Oracle, SAP. What do you think in that market, what's Palantir's competitive advantage?

Alex Karp: Well we're very focused on our own business, and we take that very seriously. We are primarily a creative organization, so that means we create, we try not to look at what other people are doing, or obviously not overly. But the essential difference is we go much deeper into integration because of moral reasons, like we are trying to do tech that saves lives and protects lives so find terrorists, protect our civil liberties. We are trying to do tech and are doing tech that does innovation and does jobs. It's a completely different mandate than the companies you've listed, which are great companies. And then, on the data integration side, quite frankly, I think, you know, people are very different. They're doing analytics which is very different than integration, we provide essentially the analytics sac for free. You know, we are very well known for our products being very robust. Most software comes in two flavors, it either doesn't work or it's not useful. Our software comes in the flavor of our software it's very useful, sometimes deadly.

Josh Lipton: There were reports out, I was reading you were on track to turn a profit in 2017. Did you hit that target?

Alex Karp: You know, my lawyers will not let me comment on any economic thing, like, which I'd be happy to talk about but I'm not really allowed to. What I can tell you which might be interesting that might be interesting to you in this context is we are  we're taking  we understand that as a creative company we look creative to the outside world and not like what people are expecting. In any context, we don't look like a national security company in the national security apparatus, we don't look like a classic enterprise software company to people who do that, we have no sales people, almost everyone here is an engineer, I'm a PHD in Philosophy. We are making great strides to standardize everything so that if we choose to ever do a public offering we can do it immediately. And so in that context, we're making a lot of strides. And at the time we chose to show things I think people will be very surprised at, like, the quality of the revenue.

Josh Lipton: Do you think that if some of those early investors had been patient, Alex, do you think  could the company now boost the kind of financials that you think would excite and attract public market investors?

Alex Karp: I think people will be  when we do this, I think people will be very surprised at what they see. And I think they will be positively surprised. Because we have been quote unquote "secretive" people always assume that we are different than what they expect, maybe sometimes positive, maybe sometimes negative. What they'd be surprised at is how a creative company can create margins that are very  that are significantly better than what people normally see.

Josh Lipton: I want to touch on valuations quickly Alex. So a couple of years ago you guys were valued at around $20 billion. Some of your investors including BlackRock have been marking the value of Palantir down, not up. What's your take on that? And what do you tell those investors to get them just more excited about the future of the business?

Alex Karp: Talk to the clients, look what we're doing, look at our track record for delivery. You know it's interesting, we've been through  we have had this for a while and we have times when people have been overly excited and not really excited. This is a time when people you know, are underestimating what we're doing and that time will be gone very quickly. And by the way, I'm very  it's like one of those things you're always annoyed when you're a CEO and people write an article that is  but quite frankly, we wouldn't be where we are except for these articles, you know, because people make no effort to compete with us. You know why? Because they don't understand how well we are doing. And that's really cool. Thank you, please thank all the people, every time someone writes something like that, they are making better. And not because  it's not the Nietzsche thing where what doesn't kill me, makes me  you know, people really look at Palantir and they don't understand what we are doing and why we are doing it. And I'll tell you what we're doing. We are stopping terrorism, with data protection and we are doing innovation with jobs. And you know, you'll find that the lightning indicator of value of that is much bigger than people realize. And they will find that too.

Josh Lipton: A couple years ago, Alex, you know President-elect Trump held a meeting with all of the top tech leaders. It was Tim Cook, Larry Page, Jeff Bezos, you were there, which surprised some people. Were you surprised that you got invited to that meeting?

Alex Karp: I'm surprised when anyone invites me over. You know, I'm just a guy  I'm a guy with a PHD and most people  like, when I am invited, I show up. We're a company that works in the service of more important institutions. I was happy to be invited, honored to be there, glad to show up.

Josh Lipton: Has the Trump administration been good for Palantir's business?

Alex Karp: You know we're very focused on our clients. We work with our agencies directly. I haven't seen a great impact on our business depending on who is president.

For more information contact:

Jennifer Dauble

CNBC

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CNBC

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About CNBC:

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For more information about NBCUniversal, please visit http://www.NBCUniversal.com.At least four countries sought ways to gain leverage over President Donald Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner , the Washington Post reported late on Tuesday.

White House Senior Adviser Jared Kushner departs following his appearance before a closed session of the Senate Intelligence Committee as part of their probe into Russian meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S. July 24, 2017.

Officials in the United Arab Emirates, China, Israel and Mexico privately discussed how their nations could benefit from Kushner's international business dealings and lack of government experience, unnamed sources told the newspaper.

Before becoming a White House senior adviser, Kushner ran his family real-estate firm Kushner Companies, a job that saw him court foreign financing.

That search for investors made Kushner "particularly manipulable" in the eyes of U.A.E. officials, for instance, the Post said, citing current and former U.S. administrative representatives who spoke based on intelligence reports about the matter.

There are concerns in the White House that Kushner was "naive and being tricked" in his conversations with foreign officials, the Post continued.Google on Wednesday said it will be making its team communication app for work available to customers of its G Suite portfolio of cloud productivity apps this week.

The Hangouts Chat app gives Google a direct competitor to privately held Slack and the many Slack alternatives that have emerged in recent years, including Microsoft Teams, which is part of the Office 365 portfolio. Google now gets more than $1 billion in revenue from G Suite and the Google Cloud Platform.

Within G Suite, Google also offers email, cloud file sharing, video conferencing and other services, but Google did not have this type of text-based collaboration service until about a year ago, when the company made Hangouts Chat available to a small number of customers through an early adopter program.

Many people can type out updates to each other at once in Hangouts Chat, and they can call on integrations with other services, like Salesforce and Trello, when necessary. Google's own services like Calendar and Drive can be summoned to perform tasks from Hangouts Chat as well.A man walks past a Bitcoin symbol on a window of the offices of the bank 'La Maison du Bitcoin' in Paris.

As institutional demand grows for cryptocurrencies, Genesis Global Trading is launching a digital currency lending business called Genesis Capital to enable investors to borrow bitcoin, ether and others for a fixed amount of time.

One of the uses will be for investors who want to bet against bitcoin without taking on a lot of risk.

"This will be the first time that institutional investors will get the opportunity to really borrow and hedge or short the digital currency spot market in size," Genesis Capital CEO Michael Moro told CNBC.

In a press release, the company said, "Firms trading bitcoin futures or options find it advantageous to have bitcoin on borrow because they can short-sell those borrowed bitcoin to delta-hedge their long derivative positions."

Moro added that typically it is quite challenging for institutional investors to borrow a sizable amount of bitcoin or another cryptocurrency to ultimately short. Under short selling, traders sell borrowed securities in hopes of buying them back later at a lower price before they have to return the securities back to the holder.

Demand for this product has already brought Genesis Capital some noteworthy clients in the cryptocurency world, including Andreessen Horowitz-backed digital currency hedge fund BlockTower Capital.

"Genesis Capital is providing a valuable service to cryptomarkets via their lending business by facilitating shortselling," Ari Paul, CIO of BlockTower Capital, told CNBC. "This enables more efficient price discovery and allows managers to hedge risk and establish long-short spread trades."

BlockTower is a client of Genesis both for OTC trading and crypto-asset borrowing. DV Chain, a cryptocurrency trading firm, is also a client.

"The majority of trading volume in several cryptocurrencies is denominated in bitcoin, which has created a need for a bitcoin lending market," said Garrett See, DV Chain's CEO. "We're excited to see the continued growth of institutional interest in the asset class and we welcome the launch of Genesis Capital's lending business."

Experts say the launch of the lending business is part of the broader buildout of the cryptocurrency ecosystem. As the futures market grows, analysts say, the desire to utilize trading strategies that allow you to hedge or find ways to arbitrage digital currencies increases.Pedestrians look at monitors showing the prices of virtual currencies at the Bithumb exchange office in Seoul, South Korea, Feb. 2, 2018. SeongJoon Cho | Bloomberg | Getty Images

During the bitcoin frenzy at the end of December, Coinbase, one of the premier exchanges, halted trading briefly due to crushing volume as prices plunged. Many of Coinbase's competitors also have suffered growing pains as digital money grows ever more popular, overwhelming systems and encouraging formation of new exchanges that have yet to stand the test of time. And there have been hacks, too. A cryptocurrency exchange in Japan, called Coincheck, is under government scrutiny after hackers stole $530 million from its users in January. If confirmed, it's expected to rank as the biggest such theft on record, eclipsing the estimated $450 million in bitcoin stolen from the Japanese exchange Mt. Gox in 2014. Experienced bitcoin traders recognize that snafus come with the territory in a new and lightly regulated $700 billion market growing so rapidly it's hard to ramp up fast enough. Major bitcoin and cryptocurrency exchanges are springing up globally, including Coinbase and Binance in Japan, Bittrex and Kaken in the United States and Bitfinex in Hong Kong. And the absence of government interference is in fact a big part of the cryptocurrency appeal, though the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission said recently they would welcome new powers from Congress to protect consumers from problems on cryptocurrency exchanges. More from Global Investing Hot Spots:

Bitcoin's January struggles may hold clues

Where Bill Gross is investing his money Investors more familiar with the stock market, which has layer upon layer of protections refined over more than a century, may wonder: What good is an exchange, or "trading platform," if it cannot fill orders when its customers want to the most? How do you know if the platform you choose is secure? What features should the tenderfoot trader look for? Dr. Bora Ozkan, assistant professor of finance at Temple University's Fox School of Business, an expert in capital markets, says that blockchain, the technology at the heart of bitcoin and similar currencies, is quite secure due to its decentralization, but that an individual exchange's systems for storing customer records and funds may be less safe because centralization on a few servers makes them easy hacking targets. "If cryptocurrency exchanges can figure out an efficient and swift way to operate decentralized exchanges  let's say, like blockchain  they can operate more securely," Ozkan said. While such systems are in the works, experts say investors should do their own due diligence for now. "Investors should evaluate exchanges and the companies that run them as they would any other institution that they would trust to secure their money, such as banks," said Richard Hendrix, cryptocurrency analyst at Real Ventures, a Montreal-based venture capital firm involved in this market.

"How long have they been operating?" he asked. "Are they insured? Who runs them? What is their reputation in the market?" The biggest exchanges may be the best, he said, because they get enough orders to easily match buyers and sellers and have economies of scale to keep down fees. Many insiders warn against using exchanges based in obscure corners of the world where consumer protections are weak, preferring those operating from the United States and Europe, where there are at least some regulation and consumer protection and it's often easier to link well-protected banking services to the exchange. Remember, if you choose an overseas exchange, you may have to wire money if you want to buy. Some banks may reject the transfer even if you are dealing with a licensed and reliable exchange. Experts says customers should seek an exchange that suits their individual needs. Some, for example, serve sophisticated investors with easy systems for limit and stop-limit orders, while others are meant to serve ordinary investors who place market orders. Some restrict beginner account size to a small dollar amount and require the user to apply for a higher limit, much as one would seek approval for a margin account at a brokerage. Insiders say any good system will offer safeguards against money laundering, procedures for knowing who its customers are, a cellphone app for trading and price tracking, and a quick and easy way to move cash between an outside bank account and the site's "wallet," which stores cryptocurrency and regular money.



"What sets apart a mediocre exchange and a good exchange is liquidity," Ozkan said, referring to the ability to find enough sellers and buyers to execute trades quickly. Beyond these universal must-haves are some key considerations concerning ease of use and security. Reliability. Will the platform operate smoothly when trading volume is very high or the currency's price is whipsawing? Experts say users should scour the internet and site itself for records of system crashes and trading halts. "Given the poor regulatory environment, I think that Twitter and Reddit are really the only options to evaluate an exchange's reputation," said John Quinn, co-founder and chief revenue officer of Storj Labs, a cloud storage service that uses blockchain.

The biggest concern for any investor on a cryptocurrency exchange is the likelihood of fraud or hacks due to poor security or a lack of investor protections. Patrick Gray founder and CEO of HashChain TechnologyItalians go to the polls on March 4 and the key issues of immigration and unemployment are likely to heavily influence voters, particularly in the southern island of Sicily. Public opinion over the key issues in the political debate are likely to vary greatly from region to region, depending on how much immigration or unemployment affects the area. Palermo, the capital of Sicily, is no exception with both issues featuring heavily in the debate among citizens. Sicily, and the small island of Lampedusa to its south in the Mediterranean, have been focal points for a continuing influx of migrants trying to reach Italy by sea.

Scores of migrants arriving in Sicily after attempting to cross the Mediterranean Sea. The majority of the migrants hail from from Sudan, Eritrea and Syria. Antonio Melita/Pacific Press/LightRocket via Getty Images

Travelling what's known as the "central Mediterranean route," the majority of migrants arriving in Sicily have made the journey from poverty-stricken and war-torn parts of Africa and the Middle East. In 2017, 119,310 migrants arrived in Italy after traveling by sea, according to data released in January from the UN's International Organization for Migration (IOM). The organization recorded that 2,832 people died or went missing making the journey. Despite the high number of migrants in 2017, the IOM noted that 2017 had seen the lowest number of migrants in the past four years. At the height of the European migrant crisis in 2016, 181,436 people made the journey to Italy and 4,581 were recorded as dead or missing.

The Italian dream

For those that arrive in Sicily, the reality of little to no employment and growing public opposition to migration can be hard to contend with. But there are exceptions to the rule. In 2015, Dine Diallo was one of the thousands of migrants that made the dangerous journey to Sicily. He told CNBC that the journey took him six months from his home country of Guinea in West Africa and cost him 3,500 euros ($4,271).

"Why did I come here? To answer that question, first of all, it was to save my life. My life wasn't secure, I was in danger and I decided to go somewhere else," he told CNBC in Palermo, where he has just set up a small business making children's toys. "I've received my permission to stay here, and there are those who haven't received theirs yet, who applied for them over two years ago now, so when I look at it like that, it's positive. And with effort, I am little by little moving forward," Diallo, who's known as "Din" to his friends, said. Din thanks his immigration lawyer Roberto Carmina for helping him obtain his permit to stay in Italy. Carmina told CNBC that the reality of reaching Italy doesn't often live up to migrant expectations, however. "The reality is different from the dream of the people that arrive because here we have 57 percent of youth unemployment in Sicily."

'Big refugee camp'

The massive influx of migrants has proven to be a divisive issue in Italy and least of all, Sicily, and political parties along the political spectrum have made the issue a key part of their campaigns, all promising to impose tougher rules on migration. As well as strains on infrastructure and the economy, the migration crisis has caused tensions with many Italians worried about the possible change in their culture. Right-wing and populist parties have particularly sought to exploit the migrant crisis for political gain. Formerly known as Lega Nord, the rebranded Lega Salvini Premier party was initially set up to campaign for independence for northern Italy but has since changed its focus on national issues, particularly the immigration debate.

Muslim worshippers take part in the Eid al-Fitr prayers on the Foro Italico square in the Sicilian city of Palermo on June 25, 2017. ALESSANDRO FUCARINI/AFP/Getty Images

Lega's new name refers to party leader Matteo Salvini, whose prominence in Italian politics has grown since the party allied itself with Silvio Berlusconi's Forza Italia party, with whom the party stands a chance of governing within a grand coalition of center-right parties. Sabina Bonelli, a parliamentary candidate for Lega Salvini Premier, told CNBC that Sicily had been turned into a "big refugee camp." "The Mediterranean was a cradle of culture, trade and tourism but it's become a place where human traffickers bring lots of people and give them false hope," she said, adding that Italy needed to regulate migration and a law to block new arrivals.

Unemployment

With a rich history of invasion and conquest, architecture, arts and language, Sicily has a strong sense of cultural identity but the economy was affected more than most by Italy's financial crisis. Far from the industrialized north in Italy and political center in Rome, Sicily has relied traditionally on agriculture for much of its gross domestic product (GDP), although tourism and minor industry is a part of the picture. Still, Sicily was called the "Greece of Italy" by one business leader during the financial crisis in Europe and the region's economic output fell more than 13 percent between 2008 and 2015, according to Reuters, and is only slowly recovering. Unemployment stands at 22.1 percent, Eurostat data from 2016 shows, with youth unemployment even worse and among the highest in Europe, at a massive 57.2 percent. A lack of gainful employment has enabled organized crime groups, most notably, the Cosa Nostra mafia in Sicily, to flourish over the decades although newspapers in 2017 reported that the local economy had gotten so bad on the island that even the Mafiosi were leaving the island in search of work. The recession has also made it much more difficult for hard-up businesses to pay protection money ("pizzo" in Italian) to the Mafia, Reuters said. The lack of employment and financial situation in Sicily has exacerbated the immigration debate, with critics saying Sicily has little work to go around already. But Mayor of Palermo Leoluca Orlando, a member of the ruling Democratic Party, said Sicily had always been a welcoming place for migrants.President of the European Parliament, Antonio Tajani speaks with the media during the Confcommercio Forum at Villa d'Este Hotel on March 31, 2017 in Como, Italy.

Media mogul and former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has suggested his pick for the next leader of Italy, with elections just days away.

Berlusconi said Tuesday he wants Antonio Tajani, the current president of the European Parliament, to become the next prime minister. Berlusconi's right-wing party, Forza Italia, seems well-placed to win support in the upcoming general election alongside it's center-right coalition partners. The coalition is expected to gain the largest slice of the votes but fall short of a solid majority to enable it to govern. Given that Berlusconi cannot run for office until next year due to a public office ban, he needs to put forward another name for prime minister.

Speaking to Rai Radio Tuesday, Berlusconi said that he wants Tajani, who helped him in forming his party in the 1990s, to become his appointee for prime minister. "Because of the very important role he fills, he has asked me to put forward his name only when he gives me the go-ahead," Berlusconi said.

Tajani has been president of the European Parliament since January of last year. His office wasn't immediately available for comment when contacted by CNBC Wednesday morning.

"Everyone can understand that he would be an excellent candidate because Italy doesn't count for anything anymore in Europe or in the world. He would count an awful lot because he is the president of the European institution which is directly elected by European citizens," Berlusconi said.

Tajani has participated in several campaign events for Forza Italia ahead of Sunday's vote.Yale School of Management's Jeffrey Sonnenfeld said not taking a firm stance on gun control is "cowardly" and "doesn't make sense."

"You vote with your dollars," he told CNBC on "Power Lunch" on Wednesday.

Sonnenfeld said 67 percent of American gun owners want more regulation, while roughly 70 percent of all Americans are in favor of banning assault weapons. A whopping 97 percent of Americans want enhanced background checks, according to a recent Quinnipiac University Poll.

And companies may be feeling the pressure. Since the Feb. 14 Parkland, Florida, high school shooting that killed 17 people, approximately 20 companies have cut ties with the National Rifle Association. The list includes First National Bank of Omaha, Enterprise, Symantec, Hertz, TRUECar, Avis, UPS, MetLife, Paramount RX, Delta, United Airlines, Allied, Starkey and SimpliSafe.

Wednesday morning, Dick's Sporting Goods, the largest retailer of sporting goods in the U.S., joined that list when it released a statement saying it was "deeply disturbed and saddened by the tragic events in Parkland" and thus would no longer sell assault-style rifles.

Meanwhile, companies such as HotelPlanner.com and FedEx say they refuse to enter into what one called a "boycott war."

But Sonnenfeld said, "The boycott of being on the wrong side [of public opinion] is much more significant than the boycott of [being on the right side]."

He said FedEx, which announced Monday that it would not end discounts for NRA members, is "on the wrong side."

FedEx did not respond to a request for comment.

But with customers on both sides of the political divide, it's not easy for companies to take a side, said Steve Odland, chief executive officer of the nonprofit Committee for Economic Development.

"It's difficult for business leaders to take a side without alienating some people," Odland told CNBC. "By doing that, some piece of their constituents may be happy, but they are offending some portion of their business."

Sonnenfeld referenced more than one time in U.S. history when a company or CEO took a "moral stand," including Merck CEO Kenneth Frazier, who resigned from President Donald Trump's manufacturing jobs council last summer after the president's response to the violence in Charlottesville, Virginia. Other members of the council quickly followed suit.

Tobacco companies in the 1970s were forced "kicking and screaming," Sonnenfeld pointed out, to remove tobacco advertisements from television.

"I think business is going to rally. It's a watershed moment," he said.Comcast shares are less attractive after its big offer to buy a European pay-TV provider, according to one Wall Street firm.

Macquarie Research lowered its rating to neutral from outperform for Comcast shares, citing concerns over the media company's acquisition strategy.

Comcast shares declined 7 percent Tuesday after the company announced a cash offer to buy European pay-TV provider Sky for 22.1 billion pounds or $31 billion.

The cable company's stock rose 0.1 percent Wednesday.

"The potential to expand internationally, double its scale, and leverage cross-border [intellecutal property] is undoubtedly a great one. However, uncertainty around the M&A playbook and increased net leverage to 3x marks a shift in what would otherwise be a clean thesis," analyst Amy Yong wrote in a note to clients Wednesday. "Though the downside in CMCSA shares is limited after yesterday's move, we believe the unpredictability could cap near-term upside."

Yong reduced her price target to $42 from $47 for Comcast shares, representing 15 percent upside to Tuesday's close.

The analyst said the Comcast's bid for Sky is expensive given the competitive pressures on the satellite television market. She prefers the company instead to use any funds to buy back its own shares.

"The addition of Sky diversifies its portfolio/doubles its scale, but exposes it to satellite TV, which faces secular pressures," she wrote. "For one, Comcast could buy back its own stock at 8x vs acquiring Sky at 12x; although the deal is expected to be accretive in Y1, we question the synergies given the cross border combination."

Comcast did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

 CNBC's Michael Bloom contributed to this story.

Disclosure: Comcast owns CNBC parent NBCUniversal.Lawyers for "pharma bro" Martin Shkreli are asking a federal judge to sentence the convicted fraudster to only somewhere between 12 and 18 months in prison, followed by court-mandated therapy and 2,000 hours of community service for his crimes.

But that range is well below what likely could easily be a recommended prison term for Shkreli of a decade or more under federal sentencing guidelines.

However, the judge in the case will have broad leeway to give him the sentence she deems fit when the 34-year-old Shkreli appears in Brooklyn, New York, federal court March 9.

In a court filing late Tuesday, Shkreli's lawyers called him a "very unique defendant" who deserves a big break.

"Martin is comprised of more than his criminal conduct," his lawyers wrote in that filing, in which they detailed what they said are various philanthropic and altruistic efforts by the perpetually controversial Shkreli.

"Specifically, he is a kind, caring and generous person who uses his time and effort to help those in need. If not warehoused in prison, Martin could literally save lives."

The filings say Shkreli had devoted significant amounts of time and money to researching treatments for rare diseases, personally helped "strangers and friends with necessary funds for medical procedures," and mentored others.

The filing contends that Shkreli's "problem" that led to his conviction was not greed for himself, but the fact that he was "so driven to make" investors money "that he could not bring himself to admit failure" when his stock trading strategies failed.

"Although Martin was convicted of fraud, he was not looking to hurt or damage his investors like many other investors," the lawyers wrote. "He sincerely believed he could make them money if he worked hard enough.'

The attorneys acknowledged Shkreli's "sometimes poor judgment"  the examples of which are legion  but argued that "the answer to these concerns" is not a long prison sentence, but rather "therapy and counseling."

Many sections of the filing are blacked out from public view and seem to refer to personal details about Shkreli and other people.

Shkreli was convicted in August of three counts of securities fraud related to his operation of two hedge funds and a drug company he founded, Retrophin.

Prosecutors in their case at trial detailed how he had repeatedly misled investors about details and the performance of those funds, and then used assets from Retrophin to pay them back for what they had invested  and then some.

Shkreli's conviction in August came after two years of inflammatory and abrasive public conduct.

That included raising the price of a drug used by AIDS patients by more than 5,000 percent, making a churlish appearance before a congressional committee, trolling various people with insulting social media posts and getting into a high-profile feud with a member of the hip-hop group Wu-Tang Clan.

While free on a $5 million release bond after his trial, Shkreli offered, in what he later said was an ill-conceived stunt, his Facebook followers $5,000 for each strand of hair they managed to

obtain from Hillary Clinton.

Judge Kiyo Matsumoto revoked his bond for that offer, finding that Shkreli's actions represented a danger to the public.

Earlier this week, Matsumoto ruled that for the purposes of sentencing, at least, the amount of loss from Shkreli's crimes was $10.4 million. The judge has yet to rule on how much money Shkreli should forfeit to the federal government.

Defense lawyers have argued that there was effectively no loss because the investors actually ended up making more than what they had originally invested. But Matsumoto said Shkreli should get no credit for that because he only started making investors whole after red flags were raised about his suspected fraud.

Under federal sentencing guidelines, monetary loss plays a major role in calculating a recommended term of incarceration.

Matsumoto's ruling about the loss in the case means that those guidelines will recommend a very long prison term for Shkreli, much longer than the 18-month maximum requested by his legal team.

Federal prosecutors are due to make their own recommendations for Shkreli's sentence early next week.While the special counsel's investigation tries to determine whether Russia interfered in the 2016 presidential election, America's top nuclear commander described the nation as a paramount threat to the United States.

"Russia is the most significant threat just because they pose the only existential threat to the country right now. So we have to look at that from that perspective," the commander of U.S. Strategic Command, or STRATCOM, Air Force Gen. John Hyten said during the Association of the United States Army's Air and Missile Defense conference Wednesday.

Hyten noted that Russia, China and North Korea each assert distinct threats at varying tempos and yet, the U.S. is responsible for dealing with all of them at the same time.

"It's not one-size-fits-all and we keep as a nation trying to make it one-size-fits-all and it doesn't work that way," Hyten said of countering threats posed by America's three top adversaries.

What's more, the Department of Defense requested a budget of $686 billion, one of the largest in U.S. history, with an emphasis on offsetting emerging threats from Russia and China.

President Donald Trump, meanwhile, has spoken about the need to create a new nuclear arsenal. "We're modernizing and creating a brand-new nuclear force. And frankly we have to do it because others are doing it," he said earlier this month.

The White House didn't immediately respond to CNBC's request for comment on Hyten's remarks Wednesday.

"The Korean problem is different than the China problem is different than the Russia problem. Everything we do with respect to Korea impacts China. Everything we do with China impacts Russia. Everything we do with Russia impacts everybody else," Hyten said.

"I wish I could look at them as friends and partners, but when you have weapons that are clearly built for you as a military officer and as a combatant commander I don't get a choice. I have to figure out how to counter those threats and I look at them as threats."

Kim Jong Un's North Korea, the only country that has tested nuclear weapons this century, poses a unique threat to the U.S., Hyten said.

"I think Korea is the most uncertain threat and the most dangerous, near-term threat because we are not certain how that is going to play out this year," the general said. "There seems to be good things going on on the peninsula right now, but we will have to wait and see now that the Olympics are over how that goes."

Hyten also weighed in on the threat of a potential war with North Korea.

"Anyone that wears a uniform does not want war. Goodness knows you don't want a war on that peninsula," he said. "If you've been there you know you don't want to go down that path."

Hyten also said that China, Pyongyang's closest ally, poses unique threats to the U.S. as the nation's development in space systems and war-fighting capabilities outpace Russia and North Korea.

"If you talk about moving fast, there is nobody moving faster in the world than China. China is the adversary that is moving the fastest," he said. "They're moving fastest in space, they're moving fastest in hypersonics, they still trail the United States of America in most categories but holy cow they're moving fast."Palantir, the software maker once valued at $20 billion, has seen its share price marked down by investors of late. But CEO Alex Karp isn't deterred. In an interview that was airing Wednesday, Karp told CNBC his company is signing on more corporate customers and public market investors will be "positively surprised" at what they see. Palantir is now being used in Fiat Chrysler's North American factories, Karp said, joining a roster of clients that includes Airbus, BP and Merck. "We have been at this for a while," Karp said. "There are times when people are really over-excited and under-excited." Founded in 2004 by a group of ex-Stanford students including Karp, PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel and Joe Lonsdale, Palantir provides software that customers use to import volumes of disparate data, such as spreadsheets and images, into a central database where it can be analyzed and interpreted with maps and charts. The company is best known for providing services to government agencies such as the CIA, FBI and Department of Defense.

In late 2015, a wide swath of investors poured around $880 million into Palantir, valuing the company at $20 billion and placing it alongside Silicon Valley high-flyers like Uber and Airbnb. According to SharesPost, the per share price at the time was $11.38. But investors have been marking down their prices on the stock for the past two years, amid reports of customer defections, discrimination and shareholder lawsuits and a broader reset in private market valuations. BlackRock funds now value Palantir at $5.67 a share, a 29 percent drop from mid-2017 and half of its peak share price. GSV Capital wrote the value of Palantir common shares down to $5.98 in September from $7.56 in early 2016. "This is a time when people are underestimating what we're doing," Karp said. "That time will be gone very quickly."

Palantirs Palo Alto headquarters, Palo Alto, California. Mark Neuling | CNBC

Karp didn't say when or if the company will go public or when it will disclose financials. "I think people  when we do this  will be very surprised at what they see, and I think they will be positively surprised," he said. Karp was specifically talking about revenue and margins. He said the company has signed a multiyear deal to expand deployment with Fiat Chrysler. Some 1,500 employees at the carmaker, including assembly-line managers, use the software to identify production problems and potential safety issues, he said. Palantir is going after a big market. Global revenue for big data and business analytics will grow to $210 billion by 2020 from $151 billion in 2017, according to research firm IDC. The tech giants are all playing in the space, with Microsoft, IBM, Oracle and SAP selling big data and analytics tools. Karp said he isn't concerned about the competition. "Most software comes in two flavors: It either doesn't work or it's not useful," he said. "Our software comes in this flavor: It's very useful and sometimes deadly," he said, referring to its use by the military.

SharesPost estimates that Palantir's bookings hit $3.5 billion in 2017, with about 50 percent coming from government contracts. The company had revenue of up to $600 million last year and could go public with a market cap of about $20 billion in 18 to 24 months, according to the SharesPost report from last year. Karp also said that while the tech industry has been criticized for destroying manufacturing and industrial jobs, his company's software can help secure employment for many Americans. "It is preserving jobs," he said. "Once the 1,500 employees are using the software, they are actually doing things that otherwise you would need a Ph.D. to do."

President-elect Donald Trump speaks as PayPal co-founder and Facebook board member Peter Thiel (C) and Apple Inc CEO Tim Cook look on during a meeting with technology leaders at Trump Tower in New York U.S., December 14, 2016. Shannon Stapleton | ReutersFormer pharmaceutical executive Martin Shkreli speaks to the media in front of U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York with members of his legal team after the jury issued a verdict, August 4, 2017 in the Brooklyn borough of New York City.

"Pharma bro" Martin Shkreli said, "I was a fool" and called himself "far from blameless" in an emotional jailhouse letter to a judge asking her to give him a light prison sentence for his crimes.

"I have learned a very painful lesson," Shkreli wrote Judge Kiyo Matsumoto, who is due to sentence him for securities fraud charges on March 9.

"I accept the fact that I made serious mistakes, but I still believe that I am a good person with much potential," he wrote in his letter from the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, New York.

He has been locked up there since September, when Matsumoto revoked his release bond for what was just the latest in a series of social media stunts.

"The trial and the six months in a maximum security prison has been a frightening wake-up call," Shkreli wrote.

"I understand how I need to change."

He also vowed to be "more open and honest in my business dealings" in the future.

Read Martin Shkreli's full letter here.

Shkreli's letter was part of a large court filing by his lawyers, who are asking Matsumoto to sentence him to somewhere between only 12 and 18 months in prison. That is much less than the decades behind bars that could be recommended by federal sentencing guidelines.

Shkreli himself in his letter told the judge that if she gives him a relatively light term, "I will do my absolute best to use my skills and whatever talents I have been blessed with for the betterment of humanity."

The 34-year-old Shkreli was convicted in August of misleading hedge fund investors about the performance of his funds, which were losing lots of money when he was claiming they were doing very well.

Evidence at trial showed that he used assets of a drug company he founded, Retrophin, to repay the investors  and then some.

"Despite the jury's verdict, I maintain that I never intended to actually harm anyone," he wrote the judge in his letter.

But he acknowledged having dodged answering investors' questions, and also having given them answers that "were only correct if put in a certain context."

"I wanted to be more than I was," Shkreli wrote in trying to explain his conduct.

But he also said that he is now a more "self-confident and secure person," who is no longer "haunted" by the demons that were the root cause of his insecurity.

"Never again will I prevaricate or omit or mislead  intentionally or not," Shkreli wrote. "I take responsibility for the fact that I used to behave and communicate in his way."

"It was wrong. I was a fool. I should have known better," he wrote.

Shkreli said his heart was broken over the investors and colleagues who now regret having associated with him.

He also said he has "let down" the employees in companies in which he remains a majority owner.

Shkreli addressed his often-controversial personality in the letter.

That personality has been evident in online feuds Shkreli has waged, contemptuous face-pulling before a congressional committee, and the Facebook post that offered a $5,000 bounty for each strand of Hillary Clinton's hair that his online followers could provide him.

It was that bounty that led Matsumoto to jail Shkreli after initially allowing him to remain free pending his sentencing.

"I am an [irreverent] and free-wheeling individual, who has never been shy about speaking my mind," he wrote. 'Please understand that when I get into a public war of words with someone, my comments do not always reflect my true nature."

"I regret where my temper can take me when I get angry or betrayed."

He said he has "worked on this bad habit" while in jail.

Shkreli called being locked up "both the most frightening experience of my life but also an opportunity for me to see a side of the world seldom seen or discussed."

He said he has tried his best to have "a positive impact on many of the people I encounter here."

"If I have something to teach my fellow inmates, I implored them to listen and learn," he wrote. "I have comforted the forlorn and forgotten men facing long sentences, many are severely depressed and sadly, suicidal."

"I try my best to set a good example for these individuals too, knowing my fame and achievements were something they might know of."Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Wednesday that the U.S. was still deploying "strategic arms" in Europe and was training European countries to use nuclear weapons, violating a major nuclear arms agreement called the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).

Lavrov said that nuclear disarmament was impossible without taking into account factors which destabilize "strategic stability and international security today," including, he said, "the deployment of a global anti-missile system" and "the deployment of U.S. strategic arms in Europe and the continuing destabilizing practice of 'joint nuclear missions,' as they call them."

"As we all know, these nuclear missions violate the Non-Proliferation Treaty and non-nuclear states plan and take part in the U.S. exercises and learn how to use the nuclear weapons," he said.

The Russian Foreign Ministry tweeted a video in which Lavrov was speaking to other delegates at the conference.

Tweet

For its part, he said Russia had reduced its nuclear arsenal by 85 percent compared to the Cold War era.

The Russian Foreign Ministry has complained about what it calls "joint nuclear missions" and says the U.S. has many nuclear weapons located in Europe. It also says the U.S. is training European countries to use these weapons.

Last April, the foreign ministry issued a statement in which it said that "Washington's approach to compliance with its obligations under the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) is still of great concern. The U.S. and its non-nuclear NATO allies continue their nuclear skill training as part of the so-called "nuclear sharing"," it said.

"This is a serious violation of Articles I and II of the NPT," the ministry said.

Article I of the NPT prohibits nuclear states from transferring nuclear weapons or other nuclear explosive devices, or control over such weapons or explosive devices, to any recipient whatsoever, directly or indirectly. Article II prohibits non-nuclear states from receiving the transfer, directly or indirectly.

But Lavrov repeated Russia's position on the matter on Wednesday.

"Everyone understands that this way, the U.S. military prepares the military of European countries for the use of nuclear weapons against Russia," he said.

Russia, he added, had not deployed any nuclear weapons and did not test them. On the contrary, the U.S. had taken an "aggressive position" he said.

"These initiatives we see on the part of the U.S. do not promote non-proliferation, they promote the deterioration of the full implementation of it (the treaty)."

Russia has also long-objected to the deployment of a U.S.-commanded NATO missile defense system in eastern Europe, saying it is not designed to prevent a possible ballistic missile attack from Iran but designed to undermine and neutralize Moscow's nuclear arsenal. NATO and the U.S. deny that accusation.Spotify, which is already heavily reliant on Google's public cloud infrastructure, said on Wednesday that it plans to go deeper, eventually moving remaining computing and storage workloads in its data centers over to Google.

The disclosure, made in Spotify's filing for a public share sale, marks another boon for the Google Cloud Platform, which competes with Amazon Web Services as well as Microsoft, IBM and Oracle. Last month Apple provided confirmation that it uses Google's cloud to store data for iCloud services.

Spotify previously used Amazon's cloud for its remote computing needs, but in 2016 it revealed a plan to migrate its backend to Google's public cloud. Google and Amazon both compete with Spotify in the music streaming business, but Spotify said in the filing that "we do not believe that Google will use the GCP operation in such a manner as to gain competitive advantage against our Service."

Earlier this month Google disclosed the size of its cloud business, including its G Suite line of cloud productivity apps for business: $1 billion in revenue per quarter. Amazon's cloud is bigger, at more than $5 billion in revenue in the most recent quarter.

Spotify still has its own data centers in Sweden, Virginia and the United Kingdom, but said it will lean more heavily on Google in the future.

"Currently, we are in the process of transitioning all of our data storage (including personal data of Users and music data licensed from rights holders) and computing from our own servers to GCP," the company said.Casino mogul Steve Wynn is hitting back at explosive accusations of sexual misconduct against him that broke Tuesday, including one in which a woman accused him of raping her and fathering her child in the 1970s.

"Mr. Wynn has never been supplied with these unsubstantiated accounts or the names of these accusers by the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department," a spokesman for Wynn said in a statement.

"It's revolting that the media repeated such inflammatory claims from events that supposedly occurred four decades ago without the slightest bit of fact-checking or skepticism.

"This is not journalism. It is the peddling of smut and it is atrociously unfair to Mr. Wynn, his family and friends. Mr. Wynn is left to ask this simple question: When did we abandon such fundamental fairness, due process and decency?"

On Tuesday, The Associated Press reported the new allegations of sexual misconduct that date to the 1970s, citing police reports it had obtained that two women recently filed.



Las Vegas police revealed earlier this month that they had taken the statements after a news report in January revealed sexual misconduct allegations against the billionaire.Former Taiwanese president Lee Teng-hui displays a sign reading 'departure from the old, bracing for the new' during a luncheon in which he spoke about the 'establishment of Taiwan's Autonomy' at the Foreign Correspondents' Club in Tokyo, Japan, on July 23, 2015.

A campaign for a referendum on Taiwan's independence has been launched with backing from two former presidents, local media reported Wednesday.

Lee Teng-hui and Chen Shui-bian, who have both served as heads of state, voiced their support for an initiative to hold a vote on April 6, 2019, according to Focus Taiwan News Channel.

Taiwan's official name is the Republic of China. The island's status as an independent nation is complicated by its neighbor China, who regards the island as a renegade province under the One China Policy. As a result, Taiwan is not permitted to be a member of the United Nations or other international organizations.

Lee, as reported by Focus Taiwan, described the proposed vote as the "most powerful weapon" that would enable the Taiwanese people to establish a "normal country."

The campaign to call a referendum was launched by Kuo Bei-hong, chairman of Formosa Television channel.

Read more at Focus Taiwan News Channel.Indian music streaming service Gaana has raised $115 million in a funding round led by Chinese tech giant Tencent.

Gaana, a Spotify-like platform, said Wednesday it would look to use the raised capital to invest in artificial intelligence to personalize its music platform and develop its paid-user subscription product.

The firm was established in 2010 by Indian tech incubator Time Internet, which has also backed the funding. Gaana did not specify how much money was invested by Tencent and Time Internet.

"Going forward, I think as we build the base, we believe that the market  with low data prices, low smartphone prices  we are seeing a huge traction and we believe that the market is going to continue to grow at full speed," Gaana Chief Executive Prashan Agarwal told CNBC in an interview.

"We believe that over the next few years there will be at least 300 million smartphone users who jump onto the bandwagon of live-streaming music services given the convenience and the quality and the catalog size."

Agarwal said Gaana is investing heavily in machine learning and original content. He added that the firm's main target audience is the international Indian diaspora community.

He said: "Almost 10 percent of monthly active users comes from outside of India. These are Indians that want to connect back to the roots and listen to the regional music that India has to offer."

Tencent is Asia's most valuable company, with a market value of almost $525 billion. It was the first Asian firm to pass the $500 billion mark, an achievement it shares with Silicon Valley titans Apple and Facebook.

Gaana said it passed 60 million monthly active users in December. Spotify's last figure for monthly active users, released in June, was 140 million.

Tencent already has a stake in the Swedish start-up, which plans to go public via a direct listing on the New York Stock Exchange.

Tencent, a rival to Chinese e-commerce corporation Alibaba, has invested in a number of other Indian companies including messaging service Hike, e-commerce firm Flipkart and ride-hailing company Ola.

Explaining Tencent's decision to invest in Gaana, Martin Lau, the Chinese conglomerate's president, said in a statement: "As more affordable mobile data plans are driving smartphone penetration in India, we believe growth in the music streaming market will accelerate.""With the die all but cast on the party's choice to go up against Valadao in November, now the DCCC has no option but to get on board and encourage the national donor base to focus more resources on propping up their party's candidate in California's 21st."

The unexpected election of Trump, and the deluge of near-daily debacles that have come to define the first year of his Administration, have in all likelihood made most of these pro-Clinton "Toss Up" and "Lean Republican" seats winnable for Democrats.

There are 16 Cook Toss Up and Lean Republican seats that went for Clinton, yet even if Democrats bat a perfect 1.000 in these races and win everywhere else they are supposed to win, they will still be one seat short of a majority. To take control of the House, Democrats will have to flip at least one seat that Cook and others have deemed Likely Republican.

And that brings us back to California  Fresno, to be specific.

California's 21st congressional seat is one of two "Likely Republican" seats that broke for Clinton in 2016. (The other is New York's 24th district, where there doesn't appear to be a strong challenger to GOP incumbent John Katko.)

The showdown in Fresno will be a rematch of 2016, in which GOP incumbent David Valadao handily beat first-time candidate Emilio Huerta, winning 56 percent of the vote, even though Clinton trounced Trump by more than 15 points in the district.

Huerta is the son of Latino civil rights icon Dolores Huerta, which should have given him a strong following in a district that trends Democratic and is over 70 percent Hispanic; yet, astonishingly, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee has been somewhat reluctant to get engaged in the race because, as the Los Angeles Times has reported, some party officials in Washington feel that they have been strong-armed into supporting Huerta by his influential mother.

The allegations suggest that the elder Huerta, whom Obama bestowed with a Presidential Medal of Honor, has consistently shot down any talk of other potential candidates mulling a primary challenge to her son.

The California Democratic primary is scheduled for June, but in last month's byzantine "pre-endorsement conferences"  the process that winnows down the candidate pool for official party endorsements ahead of the primary Huerta emerged as the lone congressional candidate statewide who slipped through unchallenged. (By contrast, the average California Democratic primary has half a dozen candidates vying for the right to unseat the incumbent Republican.)Traditional media and telecoms operators should be able to monetize the data they have the same way as social media companies can, a top European Union official told CNBC.

Andrus Ansip, the commissioner in charge of the so-called Digital Single Market, said that all companies should be able to use user data to make money.

"I think we have to protect also traditional media, including television, and to allow them also to monetize data they have. This is the aim of the European Union, to create (a) more equal playing field between telecom operators and social media platforms. Data will be our future," Ansip told CNBC in a TV interview that aired Wednesday.

"Everybody is talking about (the) data economy but today you see the situation is quite unfair. Some players can use data they have and some other players are regulated, practically it is impossible to use the data they have in their hands. But I think it will be normal when, on (the) basis of people's consent, all the players can monetize the data they have."The Donald Trump administration is doing well with the business community, in large part thanks to its tax cuts package, billionaire private equity investor David Rubenstein told CNBC on Wednesday.

Speaking at the SuperReturn private equity and venture capital conference in Berlin, Germany, the Carlyle Group co-founder was positive in his review of the White House's major economic policy moves.

"I think most business people are pretty happy with the administration," Rubenstein said. "I think there are some things the administration has done that the business community will not like, but generally I think the administration has pleased the business community and other people as well.

"I think the tax cut bill is seen as very positive for the economy in the United States by most people."

The U.S. tax system underwent its first major overhaul in more than 30 years in December when the Republican-led Tax Cuts and Jobs Act was passed, slashing corporate tax rates from 35 percent to 21 percent.

Most business people agreed that U.S. corporate taxes had been too high for too long, blunting America's competitiveness. The CEOs of J.P. Morgan, Cisco, Apple, Walmart and many more lauded the tax cuts, and several companies issued bonuses for their employees.

Apple announced in January it would contribute $350 billion to the U.S. economy and create 20,000 jobs over the next five years, thanks to the new tax law.

The most common corporate reaction so far has been in the form of share buybacks and dividend increases. Bank of America Chief Executive Brian Moynihan told investors in January that the "largest portion" of tax savings would "flow to the bottom line through dividends and share buybacks," and Rubenstein has echoed that outlook.President Donald Trump, left, stands with Attorney General Jeff Sessions on December 15, 2017 in Quantico, Virginia, before participating in the FBI National Academy graduation ceremony.

Trump expressed irritation that Sessions has asked the Justice Department's internal watchdog, the Office of the Inspector General, to probe whether prosecutors abused their powers in targeting Page. The inspector general, Michael Horowitz, was appointed in 2012 by then-President Barack Obama.

The tweet refers to a request by federal authorities to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court in 2016 to wiretap former Trump campaign advisor Carter Page, who was suspected of having contacts with Russians.

But Trump was criticizing Sessions for doing something that endorses Trump's own belief that his campaign was unfairly targeted by the Justice Department and the FBI.

President Donald Trump blasted his own attorney general yet again Wednesday, calling a decision by Jeff Sessions "disgraceful."

In a statement Wednesday afternoon, Sessions defended himself and his department.

"We have initiated the appropriate process that will ensure complaints against this Department will be fully and fairly acted upon if necessary," Sessions said. "As long as I am the Attorney General, I will continue to discharge my duties with integrity and honor, and this Department will continue to do its work in a fair and impartial manner according to the law and Constitution."

Trump has been venting anger at Sessions since last year, when the attorney general recused himself from any role in the Justice Department's investigation of Russian meddling in the 2016 election and into the question of whether the Trump campaign colluded with Russians.

Sessions' recusal was promptly followed by the appointment of special counsel Robert Mueller to handle that case. That appointment was made by Sessions' deputy Rod Rosenstein.

Since then, Mueller has charged four former Trump aides with various crimes. Among them are onetime Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort and his business associate and fellow campaign official, Rick Gates. Both men were hit with charges related to their work on behalf of pro-Russia political parties in Ukraine.

Gates last week pleaded to guilty to lying to Mueller's office and conspiracy against the U.S. related to his work as an unregistered foreign agent.

Mueller has also charged 13 Russians and three Russian entities with interfering in the 2016 campaign. An indictment alleges that the Russians strongly promoted Trump in social media posts that purported to be from Americans.

Trump has denied any collusion with Russians, and has repeatedly criticized Mueller's probe.President Donald Trump on Wednesday called for seizing guns "early" from potentially dangerous people without having to first obtain a court order.

"I like taking the guns early, like in this crazy man's case that just took place in Florida," Trump said at a White House roundtable discussion with a bipartisan group of lawmakers on school safety and gun policy reform.

"To go to court would have taken a long time," Trump said.

Trump made the suggestion after Vice President Mike Pence suggested that new gun policies should "give families and local law enforcement ... the ability to go to court, obtain an order and then collect not only the firearms but any weapon" from a potentially dangerous individual.

Pence made sure to note that any such proposal should "allow due process." But Trump, interrupting his Cabinet ally, suggested that law enforcement officials should "take the firearms first and then go to court."

Pence was speaking about so-called gun violence restraining orders, a policy that has gained support from some conservatives as a way to act against potential mass shooters without compromising the protections of the Second Amendment.

The exchange between the two leaders of the Executive branch came amid a wide-ranging discussion on how lawmakers should proceed in crafting new gun policies after a gunman wielding an AR-15 semi-automatic rifle killed 17 students and adults at a Florida high school in February.

The meeting included 10 senators and seven U.S. representatives of both major political parties.

This story is developing. Please check back for updates.Republican Representative Bill Shuster said in a statement that the "air traffic control reform provisions did not reach the obvious level of support needed to pass Congress."

The chairman of the U.S. House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee said on Tuesday there is not enough support in Congress to move forward with a plan backed by President Donald Trump to privatize the air traffic control system.

Rep. Bill Shuster (R-PA), Chairman, House T&I Committee, holds up strips of paper air traffic controllers currently use, as he speaks at President Donald Trump's event announcing the Air Traffic Control Reform Initiative in the East Room of the White House, on Monday, June 5, 2017.

But Shuster vowed to work with the Senate to move forward with legislation to reauthorize the Federal Aviation Administration, which expires at the end of March. Without authorization the FAA would not be able to collect aviation taxes and many of its employees would have to be laid off.

In June, Trump unveiled a plan to privatize air traffic control in what he said would modernize the system and lower flying costs.

Democrats contended it would hand control of a key asset to special interests and big airlines, and some Republicans opposed it.

On Tuesday, the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association, along with nearly 250 general aviation organizations, state and local aviation officials, labor unions, consumer groups and airports said they had sent a letter to congressional leaders vowing to oppose any effort to privatize air traffic control.

United Airlines, Hawaiian Airlines Inc, American Airlines and Southwest Airlines Co, all represented by the Airlines for America lobbying group, backed the plan.

Under the proposal, air traffic control would be spun off from the FAA and put under the oversight of a nonprofit corporation.

The FAA spends nearly $10 billion a year on air traffic control funded largely through passenger user fees, and has spent more than $7.5 billion on next-generation air traffic control reforms in recent years.

Trump has said current air traffic reform efforts have failed and were a total waste of money.

Opponents said the U.S. system is so large that privatization would not save money, and would drive up ticket costs and could create a national security risk. Opponents also say technology upgrades would be sidetracked while the private entity was set up, potentially adding years to awarding contracts.United Technologies shares are rising after CNBC reported an activist fund is long the aerospace defense stock.

There is a "well-known" activist in United Technologies, CNBC's David Faber said. Faber added the fund does not have a "deep position" in the stock.

The company's shares closed up 0.6 percent Wednesday.

United Technologies' chief executive said at a conference last week that the defense contractor is thinking of splitting up key parts of its business. The comments spurred a rally in the company's shares the following day.

"Is [United Technologies] a more valuable property together or is UTC better off in three separate businesses?" CEO Greg Hayes said at the Barclays Industrial Select Conference in Miami on Feb. 21. "That's the question for the board. That's the question we continue to study."

"There are, as you can imagine, significant dis-synergies with splitting up the portfolio, as well as one-time costs," Hayes added.[The stream is slated to start at 2:45 p.m., ET. Please refresh the page if you do not see a player above at that time.]

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin is expected to provide new details Wednesday about a tool designed to help Americans calculate adjustments to their tax withholding.

The calculator, which was announced in January, is supposed to help taxpayers update their withholding forms in accordance with the newly implemented tax law.

The withholding calculator is being released by the Internal Revenue Service.[The stream is slated to start at 3 p.m., ET. Please refresh the page if you do not see a player above at that time.]

President Donald Trump is set to discuss school and community safety with a bipartisan group of lawmakers on Wednesday.

The meeting, scheduled after a gunman toting a semi-automatic AR-15 rifle killed 17 students and teachers at a Florida high school, could bring members of Congress closer to implementing some of the various gun control measures proposed since the shooting.

Trump himself has advocated supplying "firearms adept" teachers with concealed guns to deter school shooters. He has said that 20 percent of teachers might be eligible, and that those who undergo annual training should receive a bonus.

Trump tweet armed teachers

Last week, Trump directed his Justice Department to craft regulations that would ban "bump stocks"  attachments that allow semi-automatic weapons to fire continuously. The weapon modifier was used during a massacre last year at a Las Vegas concert.

The president also said he favors strengthening background checks to focus more on mental health, as well as raising the federal minimum age to buy some guns to 21 from 18  a policy staunchly opposed by the National Rifle Association.

White House press secretary Sarah Sanders announced Wednesday that reporters had been asked to monitor the meeting for an extended time period. But "due to this expanded access with the president," she said, a previously scheduled press briefing was cancelled.

Trump will be joined on Wednesday by 10 senators and seven U.S. representatives, NBC News reported. They include:The Missourians Opinion section is a public forum for the discussion of ideas. The views presented in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Missourian or the University of Missouri. If you would like to contribute to the Opinion page with a response or an original topic of your own, visit our submission formBrexit 1) Dont use Brexit to break up Britain, May warns Brussels

Prime Minister to refuse deal which threatens UK integrity  The Guardian

Brussels primes divorce text grenades  FT

Johnson criticised for willingness to countenance a non-invisible Irish border  Daily Mail

EU Parliament will fight to keep Ulster, claims Verhofstadt  Daily Telegraph

Lord Hain tables amendment to ensure frictionless border  The Guardian

Barnier expresses frustration with Davis over talks  FT

Theresa May will warn Brussels not to use Brexit to break up the UK in a robust fightback against its insistence that Northern Ireland must remain in a customs union. The EU will today publish a new draft withdrawal agreement demanding that Mrs May sign up to legal commitments preventing a hard border in Ireland even if that means customs checks between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK. It also states that the European Court of Justice (ECJ) must have the power to interpret and enforce the agreement against British objections. The prime minister has been told that failure to agree an outline of the text could jeopardise a transition agreement at next months European summit and stall talks on a future relationship. Figures close to No 10 said that the demands were unacceptable and would be rejected.  The Times

Comment:

A customs union wont help, theres no such thing as soft Brexit  Vernon Bogdanor, The Guardian

May is getting Brexit right, we can only pray shes not thwarted  Jeremy Warner, Daily Telegraph

Editorial:

Brussels has no right to dictate Ulsters status to Britain  Daily Telegraph

Brexit 2) SNPs own Brexit Bill ruled illegal by Holyroods presiding officer

An attempt by SNP ministers to force the UK Government to back down in a row over post-Brexit powers has descended into a legal quagmire after Holyroods presiding officer declared it unlawful. The Scottish Government tabled their own EU Withdrawal Bill after failing to reach agreement over the UK Governments version, which will determine which powers repatriated from Brussels are devolved. Mike Russell, the SNPs Brexit Minister, said the legislation was a necessary contingency in case a deal cannot be reached as the Bill is also needed to plug the gaps in the Scottish statute book left by EU law. But the move appeared to backfire after Ken Macintosh, Holyroods version of the Commons Speaker, ruled that the new European Union (Legal Continuity) (Scotland) Bill was beyond the Scottish Parliaments powers.  Daily Telegraph

Nationalists try to push ahead with unconstitutional bill  The Scotsman

Scots and Welsh tee up standoff with Westminster  FT

Varadkar urges Sinn Fein to take their seats in the Commons  The Sun

More:

Fears that draft legislation poses threat to the Union  News Letter

Lords back law to reveal Ulster donors  Belfast Telegraph

Brexit 3) Gove plans gold standard food labelling for post-Brexit Britain

Britain can have its cake and eat it on fish, claims Eustace  Daily Telegraph

Fox claims Brexit will slash the cost of clothes and food  Daily Mail

Ex-advisor to Trade Secretary mocks packet of crisps Brexit plan  FT

Major urges Parliament to soften Brexit  The Sun

Supermarkets could be banned from using misleading labels on meat and dairy products under plans by Michael Gove for a gold standard labelling system after Brexit. The environment secretary wants to remove confusing terms such as grass fed, which implies a cow was grazed outdoors but could mean it spent its life in a shed and was fed some cut grass. The commitment to clearer labelling is contained in a government consultation paper published yesterday on the future of food and farming outside the EU Mr Gove told farmers last month that he wanted to introduce a new labelling scheme after Brexit that involved not just badging food properly as British, but also creating a new gold-standard metric for food and farming quality. The government is considering whether the scheme should require meat labels to include whether or not the animal was stunned before slaughter.  The Times

Comment:

Lets not waste time on EFTA, which wont deliver what voters want  Markus Fysh, Daily Telegraph

Fox and Johnson show the Brexiteers are losing sway  Sebastian Payne, FT

It will be Merkels fault if the EU falls apart  Roger Boyes, The Times

Last chance, Theresa: spell out Brexit like you mean it  Allison Pearson, Daily Telegraph

>Yesterday: MPs Etc.: We need the ability to exercise a fully independent trade policy. Foxs trade speech: full text

Brexit 4) Backlash from Labour voters over Corbyns customs union u-turn

Jeremy Corbyns decision to endorse staying in a customs union with the EU provoked derision in one of Labours key northern strongholds yesterday. Many families in Doncaster  a town synonymous with heavy industry, mining and the railways  have backed the party for generations. But after the South Yorkshire town heavily backed Leave in the 2016 referendum, many locals feel Labour no longer represents their views. Mother-of-two Beverley Smith, 55, a retail manager, said: Corbyn is wrong. Theres a big wide world out there we can trade with. The people voted heavily for Brexit because they know what they want. I know quite a few who voted Conservative for the first time in the general election last year. Peoples will to come out of Europe is stronger than their support for Labour.  Daily Mail

Hannan mocks EUs stance on Customs Union  Daily Express

Editorial:

Corbyn would do greater damage to the economy than ever Brexit could  The Sun

>Today: ToryDiary: Our survey. Eight in ten party members oppose membership of a customs union with the EU

>Yesterday:

May attacks web giants for failing to crack down on trafficking

Johnson hails Saudi visit as sign of modernisation

Theresa May will today slam web giants for failing to stop the barbaric crime of gangmasters selling migrant slaves for sex. She will say the internet is increasingly enabling gangs to condemn young women to a life of prostitution once they are trafficked to Britain. And the Prime Minister will demand social media companies use their cutting edge technology to identify adverts featuring victims on adult service websites and take them down. She will say the Government and National Crime Agency are already trialling their own software and that it has led to new leads. But No.10 says web giants like Facebook, Google and Twitter now need to lend their huge financial and technological muscle to the fight to bring more perpetrators of this horrendous crime to justice.  The Sun

Britain should welcome the arrival of Saudi Arabias crown prince next week despite concerns over the regimes human rights record and the war in Yemen, Boris Johnson has said in an attempt to head off expected protests. Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, appointed heir last year, will visit for two days from Wednesday. Downing Street said yesterday that the visit would usher in a new era in Britains relationship with Saudi Arabia but it comes amid increased concerns over the regimes human rights record and the deaths of thousands of civilians at the hands of its military in Yemen. The prince is expected to be confronted by protests but the government is anxious that the visit reflect what it sees as a new appetite for social and economic reform under his leadership.  The Times

Foreign Secretary says UK should seriously consider strikes on Syria  Daily Telegraph

Britain should act as if chemical weapons were proven, says Johnson  The Scotsman

Comment:

Reformer Mohammed bin Salman deserves our full support  Boris Johnson, The Times

Putins bloody adventure in Syria will yield no lasting victory  Con Coughlin, Daily Telegraph

Hammond hints that MoD will get cash to avoid cuts

Chancellor criticised for comments during homelessness debate  Daily Telegraph

Ministers urge rail companies to offer automatic compensation

Philip Hammond offered the first signal yesterday that he was ready to give the armed forces an increase in money to fill a hole of at least 2 billion in the defence budget. The Ministry of Defence could have to cut capability before the results of an internal review of the military are known unless the Treasury steps in with cash to balance the books for the coming financial year. Johnny Mercer, a Conservative MP and former army officer, asked the chancellor for confirmation that there would be no further cuts to the armed forces while the modernising defence programme, which is due to be concluded in the summer, is carried out [Hammond] also said during Treasury questions in the Commons yesterday that he understood how challenging it was to manage the 36 billion defence budget. The prime minister and myself are working very closely with our right honourable friend, the defence secretary, as he carries out the modernisation review, Mr Hammond said. We will ensure defence has the funding it needs to continue to defend this country appropriately.

Ministers have told rail companies they should automatically give passengers compensation following delays and cancellations caused by blizzards and sub-zero temperatures. The Telegraph yesterday disclosed that train companies are pocketing huge compensation payments for disruption to their services while passengers are given far less. Compensation for rail companies is automatic, while passengers on nearly all services are required to fill out bureaucratic forms as they apply for compensation on their journeys. Between 2011 and 2017 rail companies were handed more than 2 billion in compensation by Network Rail, while over the same period passengers received just 187 million. The Government wants rail companies to automatically compensate passengers instead of requiring them to fill in forms to get money back.  Daily Telegraph

#LabourToo: dozens of women speak out about harassment

Corbyn handed dossier containing 43 cases  Daily Telegraph

Watson under pressure to return Mosley cash

Dozens of Labour women spoke out yesterday about alleged sexual harassment and abuse by party members. They say rapes were covered up by the party over concerns that its reputation could be damaged, according to campaigners who have submitted a dossier on the claims to Jeremy Corbyn. One woman felt she could not report a sexual assault by a married male MP at a Labour Christmas party because he had powerful friends. The LabourToo activists set up their campaign to protect women in the party following the MeToo scandal in Hollywood, in which actresses accused powerful men in the film industry of decades of abuse. The 43 anonymised cases in the their report include party staff, activists, politicians and candidates.  Daily Mail

Tom Watson is under intense pressure to return more than 500,000 given to him by Max Mosley after the Mail exposed the former F1 tycoons racist past. This includes the disclosure that Mr Mosley published an appalling racist pamphlet during a by-election campaign which claimed coloured immigrants spread terrible diseases like leprosy and should be sent home. Our revelations are hugely embarrassing for Mr Watson, the MP for West Bromwich East  where around 30 per cent of constituents are from ethnic minorities. And they could trigger a new round of infighting in Jeremy Corbyns Labour Party about the deputy leaders funding arrangements with the multimillionaire.  Daily Mail

Momentum founder enters the race to be Labours General Secretary

shoo-in. The Unite union official confirmed her intention to stand yesterday on Twitter, pledging to focus on uniting and organising our party to build on our ground-breaking manifesto.  The Times

McDonnell criticised for addressing Marx event  The Sun

All whites are racist transgender model handed Labour role  The Times

Tom Harris: New GenSec will ensure anti-Corbyn MPs fall into line

The founder of Momentum is set to battle a top Unite figure to become Labours general secretary in a contest that would expose the faultline that cleaves the left-wing, pro-Corbyn party flank. Iain McNicol is to step down as general secretary after seven years. Mr McNicol, 48, was a controversial figure among left-wing activists, who accused him of trying to get rid of supporters of Mr Corbyn. Jon Lansman, 60, the founder of Momentum, is set to apply for the role, according to his allies. He is said to believe that he has the votes on Labours national executive committee (NEC), which will appoint the successor, to win unless a third candidate enters the race. Before his candidacy emerged, Jennie Formby was tipped as a

Like the public row over the chairmanship of the partys National Policy Forum a couple of weeks back, this appointment will pass most people by. Who cares about the appointment of an unelected official at Labour HQ? The answer, of course, is that a great many people in the Labour Party do, and should. The general secretary wields a range of executive powers and can make important decisions  particularly on how internal elections should be run  without reference to the ruling National Executive Committee, to which he or she is accountable Its the general secretary who is key to an essentially voluntary organisation, who makes sure the rules (or his interpretation of the rules) are adhered to. It is the general secretary who appoints staff. It is the general secretary who makes the key decisions about election campaigns, and brings a shed load of influence to bear on who the candidates should be. And now, for the first time in Labours modern history, it is a post guaranteed to be taken by someone from the hard Left.  Daily Telegraph

News in Brief:Remember the Labour moderates? You know, the vast majority of the Parliamentary Labour Party who opposed Corbyn as leader, and who, we are told, find the deeply unpleasant behaviour of various of his allies and supporters unacceptable?

The people who, we keep hearing, will not put up with the next stage of the Hard Lefts takeover of Labour, right until the next stage goes ahead and they all suddenly turn out to have pressing appointments to wash their hair or stand to be a metro mayor somewhere. What happened to those guys?

If you were wondering how the Labour moderate fightback against the Corbynite takeover of their Party is going, look no further than the forthcoming battle for the chairmanship of the Labour NEC. Battle lines are drawing up, candidates are being talked up and anonymously slagged off, factions are rallying their troops and resources for a bitter contest between Momentum and.Unite.

Thats right, weve passed the stage at which theres even an attempt to resist the capture of Labours institutions on the part of anyone to the right of Richard Burgon. Instead, theyve completely abandoned the field, and the factional battles are between different bands of Corbyns followers. Like the Model T Ford, only somewhat less innovative, the Labour Party is now offering any kind of Left you want, as long as its Hard.

That surrender  the latest in a regular series  does not cast the supposed moderates in a particularly good light. Charged with a responsibility to oppose ideas and tactics that they allegedly believe are fundamentally wrong, they have opted to run away.

Incidentally, it also helps to explain why the Continuity Remain campaign still has rather more money and personnel than might have been expected this long after the referendum; the Chuka Umunnas of the world have occupied themselves with fighting for the EU, because they have given up any hope of fighting for their wider political values or the future of their Party.Chloe Schendel-Wilson is Parliamentary Officer at Volteface, the drugs policy think tank, and Campaigns Officer at Tory Workers.

For decades, drug policy has been a subject of taboo in British politics. Even David Cameron, who in Opposition became an impressively vocal advocate for liberalising our drug laws, when in office chose instead to focus on the easier option of reducing alcohol consumption.

We were not alone in our reluctance to confront the manifest failure of the so-called war on drugs. Real policy reforms, anywhere in the world, remained thin on the ground. But now things have changed. In the past five years, groundbreaking reforms have emerged  particularly with regard to cannabis, by far the most popular illicit drug in the world. For a political party that stands for freedom, family, free markets and dutiful respect for law and order, there are salient lessons to be learned as other countries take back control of the criminal market for cannabis, particularly Canada.

Four years ago, Justin Trudeau approached Bill Blair, the former Chief of Police in Toronto and the most respected law enforcement officer in the history of Canada, and asked his advice about how best to respond to popular clamour to legalise weed. Blair, now a Liberal MP, offered him two pieces of advice.

First, to focus on creating a legal market for responsible adult use, which both prohibits access for teenagers and removes the criminality associated with the black market. Second, to make it clear that he has no intention of considering any further reforms relating to any other drugs.

In the years since, Trudeau has never deviated from these two frames. In September this year, Canadian provinces and territories will licence hundreds of dispensaries across the country to sell cannabis to adult users. On the same date, sentences for those who sell cannabis to children will double to up to 14 years imprisonment, and a $45 million investment in drugs education will commence. Early estimates suggest that Canada will generate $5 billion in new tax revenues. My colleague Blair Gibbs, a former adviser to Michael Gove, continues to cover this topic in depth.

Here in the UK, cannabis has been illegal since 1928 when, with some reluctance, we supported US exhortations on drug prohibition. Cannabis only became popular in the early 1960s as the cultural influence of new migrants from our former colonies began to spread. Initially, enforcement was punitive and disproportionately targeted at ethnic minority groups. Since the mid-1980s, policing has become more capricious as law enforcement has prioritised possession and dealing of Class A drugs. Last year more than two million people, one in 15 adults, used cannabis, about half of whom are 16-24 year olds.

But here in the UK, even without any formal legal changes, or indeed much of a public debate, changes are afoot.

The first significant one is with regard to policing. Three factors have led to such an outcome; the changing nature of enforcement resources, how cannabis is cultivated and the devolution of police powers. The reduction in the number of police officers by 19,000 since 2010 has inevitably led to a re-focusing of priorities, and arrests for the possession of cannabis fell by over 50 per cent from 2009 to 2018.

Much of this change is happening without fanfare, but for some jurisdictions, notably Durham, the Police and Crime Commissioner has publicly declared de facto decriminalisation of cannabis possession without rebuke from the Home Office. Just last year, Sara Thornton, the Director of the National Police Chiefs Council, told the Daily Mail that even those growing cannabis in their homes are unlikely to elicit so much as a visit by the police.

A largely unacknowledged but significant factor in the changing nature of law enforcement is the growth of hydroponically home-grown cannabis, and the reduction in consumption of imported herb. Police have traditionally eschewed entering peoples homes, except as a last resort.

Perhaps more troubling is the rise in drugpotency. As a devastating new report covered on Newsnight yesterday reveals, street cannabis  (AKA skunk) contains incredibly high rates of THC  the main psychoactive component of cannabis  but next to no cannabidiol, a compound which may moderate some of the effects of THC. This imbalance is driving higher rates of dependency, addiction and mental health presentations linked to cannabis use. Last years Volteface report Street Lottery examines this issue in detail.CORNWALL, Ontario  Ontario PC Party leadership hopeful Christine Elliott stopped at the Ramada Inn in Cornwall on her way to a debate in Ottawa on Wednesday, Feb. 28.

The lunch time appearance at the Ramada was packed with those hoping to hear her speak and was organized by Stormont, Dundas and South Glengarry MPP Jim McDonell, who has endorsed Elliott for his partys leadership.

I like the experience she has and thats what the others dont have, said McDonell.

Christine Elliott is competing for the party leadership against Caroline Mulroney, Doug Ford and Tanya Granic Allen. Elliott served in the Ontario legislature for nine years and was at one-point Deputy Leader.

It comes down to experience, she said. We dont have time for a leader in training.

In her address at the Ramada Inn on Wednesday, Elliott highlighted her experience as a financial auditor.

As a former bank auditor, I want to be the auditor that cleans up the mess of the Wynne Liberal government, she said.

Elliot also outlined some of her policies if she leads the Conservatives to victory in the June 7 election. She promised that she would reduce the personal income tax by 22 percent, focus on improving healthcare and increasing the number of long-term care beds in Ontario and promised to fight the federal government on their proposed carbon tax.

I believe that we can have policies that are both economically responsible and environmentally responsible, she said.

Elliot also said that she would not enact the one-dollar jump in the minimum wage next year that would bring the rate to $15 an hour.

Elliott faces off against her fellow candidates in a debate in Ottawa. This will be the last debate before the final vote for the leadership on March 10.QUEENS PARK, Ontario  Long-term care issues dominated todays question period. MPP Jim McDonell challenged the newly appointed Minister of Health and Long-Term Care, Helena Jaczek, on the supply and availability of long-term care beds in StormontDundasSouth Glengarry.

Our seniors built this province and worked extremely hard to lay the foundations for the public services that should be there in their time of need MPP McDonell commented. Instead, government bureaucracies such as the Local Health Integration Networks keep long-term care supply in our area artificially low despite a clear and present need. Our residents deserve better.

The legislature will debate and vote on an opposition day motion demanding 15,000 new long-term care beds this afternoon.

The aging population in our region is higher than average, we desperately need long-term care capacity MPP McDonell stated. Instead of solving chronic underfunding issues in long-term care, the current government has focused on securing support for their re-election from key allies such as the Service Employees International Union, who have almost monopolized PSW supply. When will this government get its priorities right and treat seniors with dignity?Administrateur

Moderateur

Il y a en toututilisateurs en ligne : 4 Enregistres, 0 Invisible et 186 Invites sur les forums [] [Le record du nombre d'utilisateurs en ligne est dele Lundi 13 Sep 2021 a 17:40:33Ces donnees sont basees sur les utilisateurs actifs des cinq dernieres minutesNew Carbon Black Vice President of Americas Field Sales Kane Lightowler said he wants to familiarize the channel with the company's predictive security cloud and recent VMware partnership.

The Waltham, Mass.-based endpoint security vendor gave Lightowler control over the Americas field sales, sales engineering and federal teams at the start of the year following a two and a half year run as managing director of Carbon Black's Asia Pacific & Japan (APJ) business.

"APJ is all about the channel. That's what I've lived and breathed for 20 years in my career," Lightowler told CRN exclusively. "I deeply understand how they structure their business and what's important to them."

[Related: CRN Exclusive: Carbon Black Hires Microsoft Vet As Channel Chief]

In his first two months on the job, Lightowler said he's been focused on driving attention to Carbon Black's predictive security cloud and the company's partnership with VMware.

VMware, in August, agreed to use Carbon Black's Collective Defense Cloud in its new AppDefense offering. Carbon Black plans to work closely with VMware to develop technology that integrates deeply into the company's stack and software-defined data center to better protect virtualized systems from traffic, Lightowler said.

"We're at a unique timeframe in the industry," Lightowler said. "The traditional technology is broken. It's not protecting against today's threats."

Carbon Black and VMware are currently doing a 15-city roadshow across the United States to educate clients about challenges in the industry as well as the company's joint technology, Lightowler said. Carbon Black and VMware plan to take the roadshow global next quarter, according to Lightowler, as well as bring it to more cities across North America.

The full-day event includes sessions for channel partners of both companies, Lightowler said, as well as content for both current and prospective customers. Carbon Black's commitment to its MSSP program is unique, Lightowler said, offering these partners the chance to accelerate their business with a cloud-based offering.

Lightowler's promotion is the third major change Carbon Black has made to its sales organization in the past year. Lightowler will report into Thomas Hansen, who came over from Dropbox in July as serves as Chief Revenue Officer, and will work alongside global channel chief Victor Gureghian Baez, who joined the company in November after nearly six years at Microsoft.

The sales team under Lightowler is responsible for prospecting, direct business development and figuring out what type of channel partner would be right for a new account. Although Carbon Black services some legacy contracts directly, Lightowler said 100 percent of the company's net new business goes through the channel.

Partners benefit from the deep expertise of Carbon Black's field salespeople around the company's product profile as well as their ability to bring an array of leads to the channel, Lightowler said. Solution providers, meanwhile, can bring a strong understanding of the end user's overall security posture to the table, according to Lightowler.

Lightowler said his biggest goals in the new role are growth, customer retention and customer satisfaction. As far as growth is concerned, Lightowler said he's monitoring both customer acquisition and partner engagement around both the volume of joint clients as well as adding new end users.

The depth of channel relationships will also be a key area of focus under Lightowler, with Carbon Black focused on doing more business with existing channel partners as well as becoming more meaningful and profitable for them.

Dimension Data (No. 10 on the 2017 CRN Solution Provider 500) has actively used Carbon Black for incident response in its security operations center for a number of years, and has always been impressed with the company's technology and approach to the market, said Warren Small, vice president of transformation and innovation for group security at the Johannesburg, South Africa-based company.

Small knows Lightowler dating back to his time at Imperva from 2009 to 2015, and said he always pushed for true collaboration rather than a mere supplier relationship. Specifically, he said Lightowler has been supportive of Dimension Data's push to move workloads to the cloud and has partnered with the solution provider to ensure that data center and enterprise requirements continue to be satisfied.

Lightowler should continue to ensure that Carbon Black focuses on channel partners that are investing in consulting and client enablement and building out MSSP capabilities, Small said. Carbon Black should focus on solution providers that go beyond reselling technology and truly solve the problems clients are facing, Small said.

"We are extremely excited at the investment Carbon Black is making," Small said. "We're glad they recognize the need for experienced talent in the industry who understands how to support the business rather than simply accelerate growth."Fortinet has expanded beyond its traditional SMB customer base and moved into the mid-enterprise market thanks to the company's marketing spend and holistic fabric approach, executives said.

"The large and mid-size companies need to up their game and demonstrate their ability to do serious cybersecurity," Phil Quade, Fortinet's Chief Information Security Officer, told CRN. "So that creates an opportunity for us."

The Sunnyvale, Calif.-based security vendor has long enjoyed success with Fortune 100 companies since those companies have technical buyers that do their own evaluation testing and recognize the strength of Fortinet's product portfolio, according to Ken Xie, Fortinet's founder, chairman and CEO.

[RELATED: 10 Most Significant Announcements From Fortinet's Accelerate 18 Conference]

But Xie told CRN that mid-enterprise companies have typically relied more on branding and marketing messages when selecting a security product since they often lack the time or resources to do their own testing and evaluation. Fortinet has therefore boosted its marketing efforts, particularly in the United States and Europe, to help capture more of that mid-range market, Xie said.

"If they've never heard the name of the company or product, it's going to be difficult for them to make the decision [to buy]," Xie told CRN.

Mid-size enterprises are also re-evaluating their security posture when it comes time for product refresh, Xie said, and many are looking to do more than simply replace their firewall or unified threat management system. Instead, firms want to ensure their network security can talk with their endpoint, email, web, WiFi and cloud security systems to strengthen their defenses against the latest threats.

"They have too many products to manage," Xie said. "And most of them don't talk to each other."

Many organizations have therefore determined they'll benefit from Fortinet's security fabric approach, Xie said, which contains all of the company's products and services and covers the entire attack surface. The company further strengthened its hand for enterprises with this month's release of the FortiGate 6000F high-end firewall, which is well-suited for enterprise-class edge networks.

Keith Jensen, Fortinet's interim CFO, emphasized that the company will not move away from selling to SMBs, and vowed that the company will continue to protect that part of the business.

"It provides us with a certain degree of stability," Jensen said. "It's a significant part of the business that allows us to push into the enterprise."

The interviews with Xie and the other Fortinet executives took place this week at Fortinet's Accelerate 18 partner and user conference at the Cosmopolitan Hotel in Las Vegas.

Fortinet will continue working with channel partners to support the mid-enterprise, Xie said. Solution providers will still be responsible for fulfillment and providing services and support even in direct-touch instances where internal Fortinet personnel are working with the end-customer directly.

When selling into the mid-enterprise, Xie said Fortinet will work with channel partners that have traditionally supported enterprise customers and have the relevant relationships and understanding. The selling cadence is different in the enterprise, Jensen said, with longer, lumpier procurement cycles that are more difficult to forecast.

Channel partners servicing SMBs are accustomed to providing all of the supporting services themselves and therefore need to be technically savvy enough to know which products are better for their customers while not causing too many problems from a support standpoint, Xie said.

Although mid-enterprises don't typically have the technical expertise of Fortune 100 companies or carriers, Xie said they almost always have an internal IT staff and sometimes make buying decisions on their own. They will often, however, turn to familiar channel partners for assistance with integration or fulfillment, Xie said.

Fortinet has always been a huge bread and butter business for Tech Data's SMB end users, particularly around the FortiGate next-generation firewall offering, according to Alex Ryals, vice president of security solutions in the Americas for the Clearwater, Fla.-based distributor.

But enterprise clients have recently given Fortinet a more serious look thanks to the breadth of the company's security fabric, which Ryals said extends beyond what competitors offer to cover items such as email security and web application firewalls. An influx of bigger deals from larger mid-tier customers has helped Fortinet become Tech Data's fastest-growing security vendor, Ryals said.

Tech Data has a demo solution center in Clearwater where the company's engineers help channel partners do demos of everything from Fortinet's endpoint offering to the company's FortiManager security fabric management console.

"Those demos are very compelling," Ryals said.Cloudian, developer of a scalable enterprise object storage platform, on Wednesday unveiled it had recently closed a $25 million round of funding. The new investment includes equity and financing aimed at helping the company develop a new line of cloud storage hardware that can be offered via a subscription model.

The new funding, which comes in two separate chunks, total's about $125 million, said Jon Toor, chief marketing officer for the San Mateo, Calif.-based company.

The first part is the $25 million funding, which brings Cloudian's total venture funding raised to date up to $104 million, Toor told CRN. "It's part and parcel of life as a storage vendor," he said.

[Related: The 20 Coolest Cloud Storage Vendors Of The 2018 Cloud 100]

The second part is the financing to help the company prepare a new business model for its storage appliances, one that lets its hardware be purchased on a consumption model, he said.

Cloudian has been offering subscription pricing on its software for some time, but now wants to extend that model to the hardware side of the business as well, Toor said. "We're lining up packages to be available later this year," he said. "We want to let customers pay for storage as it's consumed."

The new consumption-based hardware model is for on-premises storage, giving customers the opportunity to pay for capacity as it is used in a cloud-like fashion, Toor said. The new financing round will give Cloudian the means to pay for the hardware its customers will use up-front, he said.

Customers can choose either Cisco hardware or Cloudian's own hardware, Toor said.

The Cisco relationship goes beyond just offering a hardware platform on which to run Cloudian. One of Cloudian's equity investors, Digital Alpha Advisors, has Cisco as one of its limited partners, giving it access to Cisco pipelines and opportunities, Toor said.

However, he said, while Cisco, along with Lenovo and Intel, are investors in Cloudian, they are not considered strategic investors.

The move to bring hardware to customers on a consumption basis will help advance the convergence of cloud and on-premises computing, Toor said.

"People think of them as different," he said. "But most people will end up in between. They want the flexibility of the cloud with the stability of on-prem. We are now adding financial flexibility for on-prem."

The funding in preparation for launching hardware on a cloud-like consumption model comes just a month or so after Cloudian unveiled its commitment to multi-cloud storage environments via the company's new HyperStore 7 object storage controller.

HyperStore 7 is a multi-cloud controller that lets customers scale their storage environments from on-premises to the cloud via a single management framework, and is available for customers using Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, and Google, Toor said.

With HyperStore 7, data is stored in the cloud using that cloud's native format, Toor said. "On AWS, we use S3," he said. "On Azure, we use Blob. We store the data in the native format of that cloud. This is important, because, for instance, if you store data on Azure as an Azure Blob, you can work with the data using that cloud's compute services.

While Cloudian is not yet cash-flow positive, it is growing both its technology and headcount, Toor said. Over 75 percent of the company's sales in the last quarter came through channel partners, with the remainder going via direct sales and OEM partners, he said.Nuance Communications, a software company that offers speech and imaging technology to a number of markets, including healthcare and finance, said the 2017 NotPetya malware attacks caused the company to lose $92 million in revenue, and that number is expected to grow as they push forward into 2018.

The NotPetya disclosure was referenced in the company's latest 10-Q filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

According to the filing, the June 27, 2017 attack affected systems used by their healthcare customers, primarily for transcription services, and systems used by their imaging division to receive and process orders.

"For fiscal year 2017, we estimate that we lost approximately $68.0 million in revenues, primarily in our Healthcare segment, due to the service disruption and the reserves we established for customer refund credits related to the Malware Incident. Additionally, we incurred incremental costs of approximately $24.0 million for fiscal year 2017 as a result of our remediation and restoration efforts, as well as incremental amortization expenses," the report states.

In addition, the NotPetya incident had an impact on the company during the first-quarter of FY2018 including hits to expected future earnings in on-demand healthcare solutions and on-demand contracts.

"In addition, we expect to expend additional resources during fiscal year 2018 and beyond to continue to enhance and upgrade information security," the report adds.

Nuance says the attack on their systems started at 07:00 a.m. EST on June 27, 2017, which caused outages that lasted early August.

In a blog post on July 28, 2017, Satish Maripuri, executive vice president and general manager of Nuance Healthcare, said the company was "restoring client functionality quickly and safely," adding that the momentum was strong and the company was "moving rapidly to complete a recovery process for all affected clients."

A company update page shows a final recovery update on August 4, 2017.

Nuance was one of the U.S. companies hardest hit by the malware, which the US government called "a reckless and indiscriminate cyber-attack" by the Russian military. The UK government issued a similar statement condemning the Russian military for alleged acts. Russian officials denied any connection to the incident, calling the accusations unsubstantiated and groundless.

An investigation by the company determined that NotPetya attack constituted a security incident under the HIPAA Security Rule, but not a breach of PHI under the BNR, a stance that was repeated in a notification letter to customers.

Nuance's 10-Q report also referenced a data breach of their hosted Nuance transcription platform, which impacted 45,000 individuals. Customers on that platform were notified and moved to the eScription transcription platforms shortly after the incident occurred.

Edit: This story, and headline was updated to correct the total losses reported to the SEC. The actual figure is $92 million.Since so many IoT devices have pathetic-to-no security, how would you like to manage your connected home's network security using your voice? At Mobile World Congress 2018, McAfee said it plans to launch an Amazon Alexa Skill for its Secure Home Platform (SHP).

Announced during CES 2018, SHP is "the answer to the IoT boom," McAfee said.

Components needed to run SHP through Alexa

Lots of smart devices require a hub, and although the company said you don't need yet another piece of hardware, SHP won't work with just any router. During CES, D-Link announced its AC2600 Wi-Fi Router powered by McAfee. There's also the ARRIS SURFboard SBG7580-AC, which McAfee said is "one of the first routers with SHP."

A router with SHP software installed is one of three components required for McAfee's SHP to work. Cloud services from McAfee allow for parental controls and can block a site based on host reputation. A mobile app manages connected devices  but once the Alexa Skill commands are ready, you can control it with your voice.

Any devices, those with or without screens, that are connected to the SHP-enabled router are protected at the network gateway. Just a little FYI, SHP currently "cannot provide security to connected devices on a Virtual Private Network (VPN)."

Network security questions you can ask Alexa

If you have SHP and an Alexa-enabled device, you can control the security portion via your voice. According to the press release for McAfee's connected home security Mobile World Congress 2018 announcement, here are examples of what you could manage:

"Alexa, ask McAfee how many devices are online right now?" Customers can easily discover devices on their home network and be informed when a new device joins.

"Alexa, ask McAfee to scan my network." This will run a network scan on all connected devices in the home and receive a notification through Alexa on any device that has vulnerabilities identified. In case of a botnet attack, McAfee SHP blocks the attack and informs the user through an Alexa notification and via the McAfee mobile app.

"Alexa, ask McAfee what is the status of my network?" This provides a summary of all the devices connected to the home network, if they are blocked or unblocked, which devices have notifications, and more.

"Alexa, ask McAfee to block/unblock {Device1}." This allows customers to block or unblock a device on the network using the device name as a parameter.

"Alexa, ask McAfee to pause the internet for {kid1}." This allows customers to block access to the internet as desired, on an individual or group basis. Parents also have the ability to select time controls on a per-child basis.

McAfee told PCMag that it is starting with 10 commands for Alexa. Gary Davis, chief consumer security evangelist at McAfee, said the company was starting with Alexa, since it was the "leader of the pack" of home automation devices.

"We started with Alexa, but devices by Google and Apple are gaining critical mass as well. We want to see how the Alexa launch goes and see how many skills we can create, and then quickly re-purpose them for other platforms," he said.

McAfee's SHP skill for Amazon Alexa is not available yet, but it "will be available to customers in the U.S. in the coming months with support for additional countries and territories following soon." Once the skill is live, you can search for and enable it from the Amazon Alexa app or the Alexa Skills store.The city of New Orleans and Palantir Technologies are accused of using the city to secretly test Palantirs predictive policing technology since 2012. Even the City Council allegedly was in the dark about the program that was used to predict who was most likely to commit a crime or be a victim of it.

The Verge published a disturbing report about how the Palantir system managed to fly under the radar for years. It alleges Palantir established it as a philanthropic relationship with the city through Mayor Mitch Landrieus signature NOLA For Life program. Thanks to its philanthropic status, as well as New Orleans 'strong mayor model of government, the agreement never passed through a public procurement process.

But it wasnt just in 2012; the partnership was reportedly extended three times and was set to expire on Feb. 21, 2018. Neither New Orleans nor Palantir would comment as to the programs current status.

Secret New Orleans Police Department program

The predictive policing software was part of a secret New Orleans Police Department program that traced peoples ties to other gang members, outlined criminal histories, analyzed social media, and predicted the likelihood that individuals would commit violence or become a victim, the report alleges.

Criminal and civil attorneys claim the Palantir analysis was never part of any discovery materials turned over for trials. According to The Verge, Jason Williams, the president of the New Orleans City Council and a former defense attorney, said, I dont think theres anyone in the council that would say they were aware that this had even occurred because this was not part and parcel to any of our budget allocations or our oversight.

According to Fox 8, New Orleans has responded by saying The Verges story is the result of inadequate research by an offbeat publication. It goes on to state:

According to the Verge article, the use of the policing technology didn't go through a public procurement process because Palantir established its use in New Orleans as pro bono and philanthropic through the Mayor's NOLA For Life program. But, the city says thats inaccurate and adds they have a cooperative endeavor agreement with Palantir that went through the proper legal process. The city says its true the company donated the software to the city. The city also points out that a simple Google search yields a number of instances where the partnership with Palantir is discussed publicly.

A simple search, huh?

Our technology enforces analyst accountability, establishes appropriate data access, and handles sensitive information securely so that the City of New Orleans can protect the privacy and civil liberties of its residents, stated Palantirs 2015 Philanthropy Engineering report. In close collaboration with city stakeholders, we integrated sensitive law enforcement data, calls for service, electronic police reports and field interviews, arrest registry records, shooting investigations, and relevant open source data.

A New Orleans and Palantir murder reduction strategy

The Rise of Big Data Policing: Surveillance, Race, and the Future of Law Enforcement by Andrew Guthrie Ferguson does cite several white papers and a few articles about a New Orleans and Palantir murder reduction strategy. Neither Palantir nor predictive policing was mentioned at all in a 2012 NOLA for Life article about the mayors murder reduction plan. That is likely because it wasnt part of the mayors speech (pdf).

Fergusons book also quotes Palantirs 2015 philanthropy report in which Sarah Schirmer, Criminal Justice Policy Advisor, Mayor's Office of Criminal Justice Coordination, said, Since 2012, Mayor Mitch Landrieu has committed significant resources and effort to reducing murder in New Orleans, and has asked every partner and stakeholder in the city to play a role. Palantir has made it possible for our intelligence analysts to question preconceived ideas about murder victims and suspects. The analysis has strengthened our ability to prevent and intervene in violent conflicts, and connect at-risk individuals to services.

Yet according to The Verge, Key city council members and attorneys had no idea Palantir deployed its predictive policing system. Wouldnt the city council be considered as 'city stakeholders' with whom Palantir said it closely collaborated?

Apparently not, as The Verge added, Even James Carville, the political operative instrumental in bringing about Palantirs collaboration with NOPD, said that the program was not public knowledge. No one in New Orleans even knows about this, to my knowledge, Carville said.

There are several explosive quotes in The Verge article about Palantirs predictive policing. For example, Jim Craig, the director of the Louisiana office of the Roderick and Solange MacArthur Justice Center, said it was almost as if New Orleans were contracting its own version of the NSA to conduct 24/7 surveillance of the lives of its people.

University of Cincinnati professor Nicholas Corsaro added, Trying to predict who is going to do what based on last years data is just horsesh*t.

I highly encourage you to read The Verges full report.STRATFORD  Democrat Phil Young scored a stunning upset on Tuesday in Stratford, defeating well-known Republican Bill Cabral by slightly more than 60 votes in a contest to fill the 120th House seat vacated by Mayor Laura Hoydick on Jan. 2.

By winning, Young becomes the first Democrat in 44 years to represent Stratfords 120th, which covers most of the North End. The unofficial tally was 1,615 for Young and 1,552 for Cabral.

Although most party regulars  even Democrats  thought Youngs chances werent good, he said he wouldnt have become a candidate if he thought that his chances werent at least 50-50.

As I saw the results coming in, I said to myself, Wow, we got this,  the winner said. To do this in five weeks is pretty unbelievable.

Young said he received a congratulatory call from Cabral. No hard feelings between us, he said.

Officials are saying that a recount isnt necessary.

Democrats seized the moment as an indictment of President Donald Trump.

Weve seen Donald Trumps scare tactics fail in New Jersey and Virginia, and tonight, Connecticut voters proved they will reject them as well, said state Democratic Party Chairman Nick Balletto.

Whether it is the legislature, candidates for statewide office, or candidates for federal office, one thing should be made certain, Connecticut Democrats are ready to fight back, he said.

Cabral and Young are friends, so this was a genteel campaign as Stratford elections go. Cabral stressed his opposition to Gov. Dannel Malloys highway toll idea while Young, a chef by profession, said that he had the winning recipe.

Hoydick resigned from her 120th seat on Jan, 2, forcing Tuesdays special election.

The last time there was a special election to represent the 120th House District, in March 2010, the turnout was 22.9 percent. In that race, Hoydick slipped by Democrat Janice Anderson to replace former Rep. John Harkins, who had stepped down a couple of months earlier, about three weeks after being sworn in as Stratford's mayor.

In Tuesdays election, only 17.5 percent of the voters in the 120th bothered to vote.

The 120th district has 18,118 registered voters. Of these, 5,361 are Democrats, 3,958 are Republicans, 8,601 are unaffiliated and 198 belong to minor parties. One obstacle that both candidates faced was the erroneous impression that the election was a primary, in which only one party was involved. In fact, all registered voters could have voted.

Young defeated Cabral in another aspect  on Facebook. Young had 623 likes on his campaign wall while Cabral had 162 as of election day. Still, Cabral seemed to have a big edge over Young when it came to lawn signs. But Facebook likes, as with lawn signs, dont vote.

Stratford has had its share of special elections in recent months. Although there were none in 2017, there were three in 2016, on Feb. 2, to fill the seat vacated by the death of state Rep. Terry Backer; on May 24, to fill a Zoning Commission vacancy and on Oct. 13, to fill two Town Council resignations.

Town Hall officials say that Tuesdays contest in the 120th cost between $23,000 and $28,000, or about $7 to $8 per vote.DANBURY  A security guard who confronted a shoplifting suspect at a Newtown supermarket was apparently stabbed with a syringe by the suspects companion, authorities said.

Allison Napolitano, of West Hartford, is accused of stealing several cases of Red Bull from the Big Y supermarket on Queen Street. Officials said her accomplice, Mitchell Carroll, of Ridgefield, attacked the guard who confronted her with a syringe.

Both suspects have prior arrests.

During an arraignment Wednesday, where the two faced charges of third-degree assault and sixth-degree larceny, Judge Dan Shaban denied a public defenders request to free Napolitano and Carroll in exchange for written promises to appear in court. Shaban set the bond at $5,000 for each defendant.

The public defender said Carroll thought the guard was going to hurt Napolitano.

Carroll may not have been aware of what the co-defendant was doing and thought she was being attacked, he said.

The public defender also argued that freeing Napolitano would allow her to continue necessary drug treatment.

She clearly has a substance abuse issue and was in treatment, he said.

But Shaban said he was concerned that Carroll appeared to have stabbed the guard with a syringe that was used for who knows what drug use. He also noted that Napolitano has three pending larceny cases against her, the most recent from Feb. 22.

Police said Napolitano was a suspect in other thefts at the Big Y earlier this month.

At the Big Y on Tuesday night, police said, Napolitano hid several cases of Red Bull energy drink in her purse. When a security officer approached, Carroll pushed the officer from behind. Police said the officer suffered several injuries, including abrasions to his wrist and a wound caused by a syringe.

The two suspects ran out of the store and drove away, but state police later found them in Waterbury. Several syringes and other paraphernalia consistent with heroin use were found in the car, police said.

The bail commissioner said Napolitano has been living in West Hartford for a week, and that she previously lived in the Redding area.

Carroll is a convicted felon who is out on probation and also has a pending parole violation. His seven-year sentence for a larceny charge was suspended after 30 months in prison.SHELTON  School Security Director Ben Trabka can remember when public safety forums drew a near empty auditorium.

That was not the case Wednesday, when more than 200 parents, teachers and community members came to an evening forum to hear what school and police officials are doing to make city students safe in the aftermath of the nations latest mass shooting.

Obviously there is a major interest, Trabka said. Everyone is concerned.

As Shelton held its information session, one was being held simultaneously in Derby. Trumbull has a session scheduled for next week.

Shelton Schools Superintendent Chris Clouet said the session was meant to put parents minds at ease following the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., that left 17 students and educators dead.

The idea wasnt to debate gun control versus mental health access, he said, but assure everyone that staff are trained and school buildings are fortified. The issue of gun control was not raised at the forum and not raised by teachers during their breakout session afterward.

The audience heard from Shelton Police Chief Shawn Sequeira about risk reduction efforts that get tweaked each time there is a school shooting.

I cant tell you everything we have in place, Sequeira told the crowd. "I can tell you I am all over it."

He said Shelton police are doing extra patrols around schools and are making sure they are visible.

School Board Chairman Mark Holden said the district has been serious about security since the December 2012 shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown.

School entrances and windows were fortified, more security guards and cameras were put in place and there are monthly drills for all types of scenarios.

Every time there is a tragedy, we review what we have in place, Shelton High Headmaster Beth Smith said. The schools emergency management plan is under constant revision.

I have an open door policy with the police department, Smith said. The high school is huge, multi-leveled, with staircases that dont all lead to all floors.

Students, Smith said, also know the drill.

Caitlin Kelley, a junior, told the crowd about the planned student walk-out March 14 to honor and show their solidarity with students in Parkland.

The idea, she said, is not meant to be political but drive home the point that safety should be a top priority.

Coming into a building where you feel unsafe can be unsettling, Kelley said.

In the aftermath of the Florida massacre, her school, like many across the country, have been on edge. On Feb. 20, when there was a medical emergency involving a student on the fourth floor of Shelton High School, the sudden presence of police and emergency vehicles caused some panic.

Rumors of a threat spread on social media. Smith had to send out a telephone message to parents assuring them everything was OK.

Deb Keller, a music teacher and president of Shelton Education Association, said her message to parents is that staff will do all they can to make sure schools are safe.

I want to walk out of here with the feeling that we are all in this together, Keller said.

Trabka said Shelton has had school security in place since 1992, when he was assigned to the high school as a youth office. There are eight security officers and a school resource officer now.

He asked parents that they not to give staff a hard time when they ask for identification when they enter schools.

Its their job to protect the school, Trabka said.

Gina Bennett, who has children in the system, said she anticipated much of what she heard from the forum but also was pleasantly surprised to hear that Shelton High administrators have direct radio access to the police department in case of emergencies.

I didnt know that," Bennett said.

Following the speakers, there were break-out sessions for teachers, high school parents, elementary school parents and individuals who wanted to talk about mental health issues. Both the president and the executive director of the Connecticut Education Association, the states largest teachers union, attended the program.

On Wednesday, Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Connecticut, will meet with President Donald Trump at the White House to discuss bipartisan ways to address gun violence in schools and elsewhere.

Trump has supported arming teachers, something students and teachers in the region say they adamantly oppose.Wearing neon hats and carrying signs, three dozen University of Connecticut students and Connecticut Sierra Club members gathered Tuesday outside the Capitol to bring their message to lawmakers and agency heads.

Hey hey! Ho ho! Natural gas had got to go! they chanted.

Speakers at the rally said the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection is not doing enough to support renewable energy projects, like wind and solar, in the state and criticized DEEPs recent Comprehensive Energy Strategy.

As the CES is written, it would be detrimental to the state, said Kyleigh Hillerud, a freshman at UConn and one of the rally organizers. She opposed parts of the plan like changing metering practices for residential solar panels and advocated for funding more solar projects across the state.

Chris Collibee, spokesman for DEEP, said the department is committed to cheaper, cleaner and more reliable energy for Connecticut.

The finalized Comprehensive Energy Strategy, along with recommendations from the Governors Council on Climate Change, and proposed legislation introduced by Gov. Dannel P. Malloy ensures that Connecticut will continue to be the national leader in taking real action to address climate change, he said.

The Comprehensive Energy Strategy, published by DEEP earlier this month, seeks to grow and sustain zero-carbon emitting renewable energy production across the state.

The department has set a goal of increasing the states renewable portfolio standard to 40 percent by 2030. DEEP is also seeking bids for state energy contracts from off-shore wind, fuel cell and anaerobic digestion.

Walter Dodson, a sophomore at UConn, said students across the state are ready to hold the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection accountable for pushing leading-edge clean energy policies.

The Tuesday rally was the first that UConn Public Interest Research Groups (PIRG) has held in years, said Dodson who is a vice chair of the UConn chapter.

Martha Klein, a volunteer with the Connecticut Sierra Club, joined students in calling for a rewrite of the energy strategy, tossing out natural gas and favoring solar and wind energy more heavily.

In fact, (the CES) inhibits the growth of renewable power in our state, she said. Wind and solar are renewable, and thats only one part of what our state considers clean energy. Its absurd.The idea of circumventing federal law and creating a state-held bank in California to serve the marijuana industry moved from words into action this month, but whether its viable remains to be seen.

Thats the purpose of a new feasibility study launched by state Treasurer John Chiang and state Attorney General Xavier Becerra. Chiangs department will focus on the financial and operational issues, Becerras on the legal. Both have their potential roadblocks.

Even Chiang voiced caution about the idea in remarks made at a recent news conference, evoking, of all things, the potato chip: Today we are taking the next steps in determining the practical considerations that could lead to the creation of a public bank. Is there a solution there? Maybe. Or is it like a potato chip? It tastes good going down but is ultimately of no nutritional value.

Related: The Opioid Crisis Is Forcing Open Minds About the Lifesaving Potential of Medical Marijuana

Why a public bank?

The idea for a public bank arose because of the growing marijuana industry in California. Medical marijuana has been available there since the mid-1990s, and recreational pot went on sale at the start of this year.

However, just like everywhere else in the United States where marijuana is legal, cannabis business owners are stuck dealing in cash only. Ironically, despite being involved with a multi-billion-dollar industry, they are in a similar position as the black-market marijuana dealers were before legalization.

Thats because marijuana remains a Schedule I illegal drug at the federal level. Banks, fearing entanglements in federal law, will not extend banking services to marijuana businesses. No credit, no accounts, no vault. Marijuana businesses face added security issues dealing with cash, as well as potential penalties for paying state taxes and fees in cash.

A state-owned bank that deals with the marijuana industry could solve the problem. In an opinion piece for the Los Angeles Times, David Dayen wrote, It's certainly worth fighting this battle on behalf of thousands of California residents who want to thrive in a state-approved industry.

Related: Cannabis Industry Heads to Washington to Tell Congress What It Needs to Thrive

Big obstacles

In announcing the study, Chiang gave a brief history lesson on the creation of public banks in the past. One that is still going is the Bank of North Dakota, founded in 1919 when private banks failed to support local farmers.

Chiang said that public banks are needed when the people decide that private banks no longer have their interests at heart. He pointed to the Wall Street meltdown of last decade and the more recent banking scandals at Wells Fargo as incidents that have robbed people of their faith in private banks.

He also pointed out that Attorney General Jeff Sessions, in rescinding the Cole Memo that gave states protection from federal government interference in the legal marijuana trade, is another sign that the current administration in Washington is out of step with the will of the people  not only those in California, but the 29 states that have legalized either or both medicinal and recreational-use cannabis.

The new feasibility study will focus on potential roadblocks that face creation of a state-run bank. One of those is determining how the bank would be funded. A huge challenges to overcome would be getting federal deposit insurance and access to federally controlled networks for the interbank transfer of funds. The attorney generals office will determine regulatory issues and whether the bank could provide the sort of protections from federal interference that the state is seeking.

Despite the obstacles, Chiang -- a candidate for governor -- said the effort is worthwhile: Until the slow, clunking machinery of the federal government catches up with the values and will of the people it purportedly serves, states like California will continue to both resist, and more importantly, to lead.

To stay up to date on the latest marijuana related news make sure to like dispensaries.com on Facebook

Related:

California Studies Viability of a Public Bank for Marijuana Businesses

Cannabis Industry Heads to Washington to Tell Congress What It Needs to Thrive

Colorado Starts a 'Cannabis Conversation' On Driving While High



Copyright 2018 Entrepreneur.com Inc., All rights reserved



This article originally appeared on entrepreneur.com

During the long commutes back home to Danbury from Convent of the Sacred Heart in Greenwich, Margaret Brennan had a lot of time to think about the wide world and what her place in it might be.

Now, 20 years after graduating from the school, Brennan may just have arrived at the sweet spot of her professional life: Moderator of CBS, Face the Nation, her debut having occurred this past Sunday.

Age 37 may be a bit early for looking back on a long career and giving credit where credit is due. But when asked, Brennan is happy to point to a few sources.

She is a fifth-generation Danburian. After attending Saint Peter School in Danbury for K-8, Brennans parents sent her to the Convent of the Sacred Heart on King Street, convinced that a small, all-girls school would help find a glide path.

Days spent walking by the student rec room slogan To whom much is given, much is expected certainly helped.

That concept is what the school was based around  model UN, theater, community service, giving back, Brennan said in an interview. From the moment I walked in there, I felt like these girls were like me.

After graduation, Brennan went to the University of Virginia and studied foreign affairs and the Middle East. As a Fulbright-Hayes scholar, she studied Arabic in Jordan.

She considered various career paths in foreign affairs, maybe grad school, maybe academia. Ultimately she decided to give TV a try, signing on for stints covering global financial markets on CNBC as a producer and then on-air talent. She went to Bloomberg Television before CBS hired her for its Washington bureau.

In a story in The New York Times about Brennan, the reporter credited her mother, Jane Brennan, for suggesting broadcast journalism as a way to talk back to the TV and provide a clearer picture of events.

It didnt quite happen that way, Brennan said  There was no lightning bolt from the sky.

But she does give her mother, a former art teacher at the Melrose School in Brewster, N.Y., credit for encouraging her to apply for a CNN internship in Atlanta while still an undergraduate.

To see how all these strands of her life come together now, watch Face the Nation on CBS on Sunday. Check your local listings, as they say.

Back at you

Somewhere between a minuet and the mashed potato, theres a dance craze in Washington that might be called the politicize. Thats what the other guy is doing when youre trying to find a just and noble solution to a national problem. And if the other guy says youre doing it, what do you do then?

Sen. Chris Murphy may not have the total answer, but he certainly knows how to zing back when theyre doing the politicize outside his door.

For some context, the Washington Post reported that Murphy organized a meeting Tuesday of gun-control activists and like-minded fellow lawmakers including Sen. Richard Blumenthal and Rep. Elizabeth Esty.

The purpose: making sure everyone is reading from the same script as the nation heads toward the 2018 off-year elections  and that whatever momentum the Parkland, Fla., high school shooting has generated politically gets channeled against the NRA and pro-gun Republicans generally.

A lot of us have a feeling that 2018 is going to be the first year in which this issue is a true liability to Republicans who refuse to break from the NRA at all, Murphy told the Post.

Enter Marco Rubio. The Republican senator from Florida is more of a thoughts-and-prayers guy, generally avoiding the hard subject of how to make it harder for mass shooters to get their hands on AR-15s. His receipt of millions in NRA campaign cash over the course of his political career has had a bracing effect, you can safely assume.

On Wednesday, Rubio tweeted: A group of Democratic lawmakers huddled Tuesday with representatives from several national gun-control organizations, a first-of-its-kind meeting, aimed at finding ways to POLITICIZE the issue of gun-related violence ahead of elections this fall.

Murphys response?

So, wait...Republicans who take tens of thousands of dollars in NRA donations arent POLITICIZING gun violence, but we are? he tweeted. What a great deal for the gun lobby if they can organize around elections but the anti-gun violence movement cant.Officials in at least four countries have privately discussed ways they can manipulate Jared Kushner, the president's son-in-law and senior adviser, by taking advantage of his complex business arrangements, financial difficulties and lack of foreign policy experience, according to current and former U.S. officials familiar with intelligence reports on the matter.

Among those nations discussing ways to influence Kushner to their advantage were the United Arab Emirates, China, Israel and Mexico, the current and former officials said.

It is unclear if any of those countries acted on the discussions, but Kushner's contacts with certain foreign government officials have raised concerns inside the White House and are a reason he has been unable to obtain a permanent security clearance, the officials said.

Kushner's interim security clearance was downgraded last week from the top-secret to the secret level, which should restrict the regular access he has had to highly-classified information, according to administration officials.

H.R. McMaster, President Donald Trump's national security adviser, learned that Kushner had contacts with foreign officials that he did not coordinate through the National Security Council or officially report. The issue of foreign officials talking about their meetings with Kushner and their perception of his vulnerabilities was a subject raised in McMaster's daily intelligence briefings, according to the current and former officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive matters.

Within the White House, Kushner's lack of government experience and his business debt were seen from the beginning of his tenure as potential points of leverage that foreign governments could use to influence him, the current and former officials said.

They could also have legal implications. Special Counsel Robert Mueller has asked people about the protocols Kushner used when he set up conversations with foreign leaders, according to a former U.S. official.

Officials in the White House were concerned that Kushner was "naive and being tricked" in conversations with foreign officials, some of whom said they wanted to deal only with Kushner directly and not more experienced personnel, said one former White House official.

Kushner has an unusually complex set of business arrangements and foreign entanglements for a senior White House aide, experts have said. But his behavior while in office has only drawn more scrutiny and raised concerns that he would be unable to obtain a final security clearance, which he needs to perform the many jobs Trump has entrusted to him, from negotiating foreign trade deals to overseeing a Middle East peace process.

"We will not respond substantively to unnamed sources peddling second-hand hearsay with rank speculation that continue to leak inaccurate information," said Peter Mirijanian, a spokesman for Kushner's lawyer.

White House officials said McMaster was taken aback by some of Kushner's foreign contacts.

"When he learned about it, it surprised him," one official said. "He thought that was weird...It was an unusual thing. I don't know that any White House has done it this way before."

The official said that McMaster was "not concerned but wanted an explanation. It seemed unusual to him."

In the months since, McMaster and Kushner have worked to coordinate so that the National Security Council is aware of Kushner's contacts with foreign officials and so Kushner has access to the council's country experts to prepare for meetings.

"General McMaster has the highest regard for Mr. Kushner and the two work well together," said NSC spokesman Michael Anton. "Everything they do is integrated...it's seamless."

Foreign governments routinely discuss ways they can influence senior officials in all administrations.

"Every country will seek to find their point of leverage," said one person familiar with intelligence intercepts of foreign officials discussing Kushner.

But Kushner came to his position with an unusually complex set of business holdings and a family company facing significant debt issues.

A Mexican diplomatic source said that Kushner "has remained strictly professional" in his dealings with the country, "with both sides looking after their interests but trying to find common ground."

Officials from the UAE identified Kushner as early as the spring of 2017 as particularly manipulable because of his family's search for investors in their real estate company, current and former officials said.

Officials at the embassies of China, Israel and the UAE did not respond to requests for comment.

Kushner's lack of a final security clearance has drawn scrutiny in recent weeks. He had an interim clearance that gives him access to information at the top-secret level, as well as more highly classified information, such as the president's daily intelligence briefing. But the application for his final clearance dragged on for more than a year. The downgrading of his interim clearance from top secret to secret was first reported by Politico.

On Feb. 9, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein alerted White House Counsel Don McGahn that significant issues would further delay Kushner's security clearance process, according to four people familiar with their discussions.

Kushner has repeatedly amended a form detailing his contacts with foreign persons. Not fully disclosing foreign contacts ordinarily would result in a clearance being denied, experts said.

On Friday, Trump said White House Chief of Staff John Kelly would make a final decision on whether Kushner would continue to have a security clearance.

During 2016, Kushner was simultaneously running his family business, Kushner Cos., and helping to oversee Trump's campaign. One of his top business concerns was what to do with his family's investment in 666 Fifth Ave. in New York, which the company bought under his direction for $1.8 billion in 2007, the highest price paid at the time for a U.S. office tower. The purchase became troubled as the Great Recession hit, and Kushner refinanced it, leaving the company with a $1.2 billion debt that comes due in January 2019.

The Manhattan property has been a particularly nettlesome problem inside the government because Kushner's company has sought foreign money on the project.

Kushner and his company had proposed a redevelopment plan that would double the building's size, requiring major new investment. Before Trump took office, Kushner and other company officials explored several options for the financing. They met with an executive of a Chinese-run insurance company, Anbang, which had bought the Waldorf Astoria Hotel. They also discussed a possible investment by the former finance minister of Qatar, who oversaw an investment fund. But after Kushner served as Trump's senior adviser for a few months in the White House, questions arose about potential conflicts of interest, the financing talks ended, and neither Anbang nor the Qatari fund signed on.

Thomas Barrack, a close Trump friend who asked the Qataris to consider investing in the Fifth Avenue property, has told The Washington Post that the refinancing efforts were "crushed" because Kushner's move to the White House "just about completely chilled the market, and [potential investors] just said, 'No way - can't be associated with any appearances of conflict of interest,' even though there was none."

Questions have also been raised about whether Kushner discussed financing with a Russian banker. Kushner met in December 2016 with Sergey Gorkov, the top executive of Vnesheconombank. The bank has said they talked about "promising business lines and sectors," but Kushner told Congress that the meeting did not involve any discussion about his family's company.

Kushner, upon entering the White House, divested his stake, which is now controlled by family members. With the deadline for the $1.2 billion debt looming, the company has continued to search for a lender. The redevelopment plan appears to be on hold after the company's main partner, Vornado, run by Trump friend Steve Roth, deemed it "not feasible."

Kushner's father, Charles Kushner, who plays a major role at the company, told The Post in a recent interview that he and the firm have not been contacted by Mueller. The company, which is privately held, has stressed that the Fifth Avenue property is a small fraction of its assets and that it is doing well financially.

---

The Washington Post's Michael Kranish contributed to this report.From the Westport Police Department:

(Westport, CT) This morning at approximately 9:00am, the Westport Police Department was contacted by Staples High School officials and advised a juvenile male student was overheard making threats to shoot a teacher. The student who overheard this statement reported it to school officials this morning. Officers and detectives responded to Staples High School where the male student was already being interviewed by school administration. Based on the information learned by school administrators, it was confirmed the student did have thoughts of executing a mass shooting at the high school. At this time, we continue to investigate whether these thoughts developed into a plan. Our detectives were able to establish that there were firearms in the student's home. The firearms belong to the student's father and were reportedly locked in a safe. However, officers could not confirm whether all the firearms were accounted for.

Out of an abundance of caution, Staples High School was first directed to shelter in place while buses were assembled for dismissal at approximately 1:15 p.m. Officers from surrounding towns assisted Westport officers at Staples High School as the school was released on early dismissal. Also as a precaution, officers were posted at all other schools in town to assist, although no other schools dismissed early.

The suspect is in custody at this time. His family is cooperating fully with the investigation and search warrants were executed at his residence. The Westport Police Department will conduct a search of the entire school facility this afternoon to confirm the school is safe for a return tomorrow morning.

The Westport Police Department would like to thank the Police Departments of Norwalk, Fairfield and Stamford as well as the Connecticut State Police for their assistance. Most importantly, we would like to express our gratitude to the student who reported his concerns to school officials and prevented a potential tragedy.As collaborative community-based institutions, credit unions are very unique organizations. For many that have not been exposed to credit unions, it is difficult to see what makes this community so special, or even how a credit union differs from a bank, for that matter.

Since my time as an undergraduate at the University of Minnesota, I have been highly involved in another industry, or community  that of local craft beer. In fact, discovering the parallels between these two unique industries sparked my initial interest in the credit union movement, and is ultimately what has led me to my current role at a collaborative credit union service organization (CUSO).

In very recent years, the nation has witnessed the craft brewing community explode. In fact, according to the Brewers Association, the craft beer industry has been experiencing years of steady 10-15 percent growth, and now boasts over 6,000 U.S. craft breweries, for the first time in history. Despite the parallels between these communities outlined below, we are all aware of the declining number of U.S. credit unions, shrinking from over 7,200 in 2011, to less than 6,000 today. For community-based institutions focused on quality service, why do these trends differ?

I encourage you to look at your organization and determine what you may be able to learn from craft beer:

1. Member Service

A core principal at credit unions is superior member service. Credit unions take pride and promote the fact that they can provide better service than the impersonal touch of major banks.

Local breweries stand out in my mind for service. Often, it is possible to find a comparable (or even the exact same) beer for sale at a liquor store or on tap at a bar nearby (think competing branch or ATM). Yet, every day, locals are willing to go out of their way to spend time and money at the brewerys taproom. This is not because the beer is better or because of dining options as these venues often do not even serve food. The difference is in the experience.

At craft breweries, I regularly have the opportunity to speak with beer-tenders, brewery owners, and even the brewers themselves. They take pride in their tap lists, and their enthusiasm is visible when they discuss the beer, even if they have had the same conversation thousands of times already. Websites and printed lists provide detailed descriptions of the offerings, but the staff behind the bar is happy to listen to a visitors preferences/tastes, and provide personalized recommendations based on these factors. Often, the servers will even offer small samples of the beer so the customer can feel confident in the decision prior to purchasing a pint. This type of service creates a very welcoming experience, and whether I am seeking that level of service or not, I am happy to support and recommend the business to others.

Member service, as we know it, is changing. It is not realistic for the front-line staff at a credit union to know the faces and lives of each member that walks into the branch. There is an increasing use of online/mobile banking, and members are fair to expect a convenient and highly personalized experience across all channels because that is what they get from Amazon, Starbucks, and other companies they interact with frequently. With effective data analytics, credit unions have opportunities to gain a great understanding of a customer and his/her needs without that person ever walking into a branch or speaking with a representative. It is important to remember, whatever the channel, member service is an ongoing engagement, and every impression matters.

2. Community Engagement

Of course, the credit unions community differentiates itself and takes pride in community involvement. Similarly, many breweries have done an excellent job of serving as not just local watering holes, but engaged and valued parts of the community. In addition to simply supporting local nonprofits, many are finding unique opportunities to advance their social responsibility efforts. Of course, they tend to play a large role in community events, but it is also increasingly common for these breweries to launch their own initiatives that help to fulfill a charitable mission. Individual breweries build community volunteer teams, frequently donate goods/proceeds, organize events, and provide space for community gatherings, among other things. These initiatives have been extremely successful in getting not only the organizations employees involved, but community members, from 21 years of age to retirees. In fact, I regularly work/volunteer with more than a handful of people that do not even drink beer but are happy to spend their time/money supporting these initiatives.

How are your efforts engaging those that are not employees or members? How can you position your credit union as a key part of the community, rather than just a financial institution that contributes to the community?

3. Collaboration

The collaborative spirit of credit unions is not found in many other industries. Craft beer, however, has been harnessing the value of collaboration, and using it to grow the movement nationally. This is visible in a variety of practices.

Breweries will create collaboration beers, for which two or more breweries work together to produce a new beer. In this endeavor, brewers from each business will work together to create a new recipe, physically brew together at one of the sites, and brand the result with both/all their logos. Its challenging to think of a better example of businesses working together that could be competing for market share. Breweries will also frequently participate in sampling events, brewery crawls, craft beer passports, and other opportunities that are designed with the intentions of collaborating and promoting the whole community rather than competing against each other.

By applying this collaborative spirit, credit unions have made great achievements through initiatives such as shared branching and ATM networks. However, there is massive unrealized potential for credit union collaboration  especially as it applies to data and analytics. Defining a proper data strategy is imperative for all credit unions, but to fully leverage available data is more than a typical credit union can handle.

Credit unions need to be focusing on forecasting and advanced analytics but cannot do so until data is standardized and integrated. Credit unions are spending too much time re-inventing the wheel, building reports that are similar across peer groups when they could be leveraging the reports and models built by other credit unions. With a standardized data platform, credit unions can share reports and analytic applications, regardless of core or other technology.

Even with integrated data sources and mastery of descriptive and prescriptive analytics, many initiatives such as predictive modeling, or meeting the CECL regulations, requires massive data sets. Individual credit unions simply lack sufficient data sets for proper confidence. The common standardized data platform also empowers credit unions to seamlessly pool de-identified data and collaborate for improved advanced analytics. These challenges are extremely challenging for an individual credit union, but improved opportunities for collaboration means credit unions are in a fantastic position to launch analytics within the community forward, and ultimately revolutionize the industry.

The culture of supporting local businesses and the appreciation for quality goods/services in America has allowed the craft beer community to thrive. Credit unions share these same values, its not too late to take advantage. There is tremendous opportunity for credit unions today. It is time for the credit unions to come together to collaborate on analytics and transform the credit union industry.Berlin's Blubaugh, Harding provide spark in triumph over Township

Berlin moves to 4-0 on the season with victory over Conemaugh Township.American Electric Power Co., Inc. engages in the business of generation, transmission and distribution of electricity. It operates through the following segments: Vertically Integrated Utilities, Transmission & Distribution Utilities, AEP Transmission Holdco and Generation & Marketing. The Vertically Integrated Utilities segment engages in the generation, transmission and distribution of electricity for sale to retail and wholesale customers through assets owned and operated by its subsidiaries. The Transmission & Distribution Utilities segment engages in the business of transmission and distribution of electricity for sale to retail and wholesale customers through assets owned and operated by its subsidiaries. The AEP Transmission Holdco segment engages in the development, construction and operation of transmission facilities through investments in its wholly-owned transmission subsidiaries and joint ventures. The Generation & Marketing segment engages in non-regulated generation and marketing, risk management and retail activities. The company was founded on December 20, 1906 and is headquartered in Columbus, OH.

Read MoreBasic Energy Services, Inc. engages in the provision of well site services to oil and natural gas drilling and producing companies. It operates its business through the following segments: Completion and Remedial Services, Well Servicing, Water Logistics, and Corporate and Other. The Completion and Remedial Services segment utilizes coiled tubing services, air compressor packages specially configured for underbalanced drilling operations, an array of specialized rental equipment and fishing tools, thru-tubing, and snubbing units. The Well Servicing segment encompasses a full range of services performed with a mobile well servicing rig, including the installation and removal of downhole equipment and elimination of obstructions in the well bore to facilitate the flow of oil and natural gas. The Water Logistics segment focuses in the fleet of trucks and related assets, including specialized tank trucks, storage tanks, water wells, disposal facilities water treatment, and related equipment. The Corporate and Other segment comprises principally of working capital and debt financing costs. The company was founded in 1992 and is headquartered in Fort Worth, TX.

Read More9 hours ago

Biden faces limits of $1.9T COVID aid as some states resist

WASHINGTON (AP)  President Joe Biden entered the White House promising to stop the twin health and economic crises caused by COVID-19, but $1.9 trillion and countless initiatives later hes confronting the limits of what Washington can achieve when some state and local governments are unwilling or unable to step up.

Read ArticleAviva plc provides various insurance, retirement, and savings products in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Canada, France, Italy, Poland, and internationally. The company offers life insurance, long-term health and accident insurance, savings, pension, and annuity products, as well as pension fund business and lifetime mortgage products. It also provides insurance cover to individuals, small and medium-sized businesses for risks associated with motor vehicles and medical expenses, as well as property and liability, such as employers' and professional indemnity liabilities, and medical expenses. In addition, the company offers personal and commercial lines insurance products; long-term insurance and savings products, primarily for individuals. Further, it provides investment management services for institutional pension fund mandates; and manages various retail investment products, including investment funds, unit trusts, open-ended investment companies, and individual savings accounts for third-party financial institutions, pension funds, public sector organizations, investment professionals, and private investors. Additionally, the company offers asset management and protection insurance products. Aviva plc markets its products through a network of insurance brokers, as well as MyAviva platform. The company was formerly known as CGNU plc and changed its name to Aviva plc in July 2002. Aviva plc was founded in 1696 and is headquartered in London, the United Kingdom.

Read MoreThe following companies are subsidiares of Bristol-Myers Squibb: 1096271 B.C. ULC, 345 Park LLC, A.G. Medical Services P.A., AHI Investment LLC, AbVitro LLC, Abraxis BioScience Australia Pty Ltd., Abraxis BioScience Inc., Abraxis BioScience International Holding Company Inc., Abraxis BioScience LLC, Abraxis BioScience Puerto Rico LLC, Acetylon Pharmaceuticals Inc., Adnexus, Adnexus a Bristol-Myers Squibb R&D Company, Allard Labs Acquisition G.P., Amira Pharmaceuticals, Amira Pharmaceuticals Inc., Amylin Pharmaceuticals, Apothecon LLC, B-MS Generx Unlimited Company, BMS Benelux Holdings B.V., BMS Bermuda Nominees L.L.C., BMS Data Acquisition Company LLC, BMS Forex Company, BMS Holdings Sarl, BMS Holdings Spain S.L., BMS International Insurance Designated Activity Company, BMS Investco SAS, BMS Korea Holdings L.L.C., BMS Latin American Nominees L.L.C., BMS Luxembourg Partners L.L.C., BMS Omega Bermuda Holdings Finance Ltd., BMS Pharmaceutical Korea Limited, BMS Pharmaceuticals Germany Holdings B.V., BMS Pharmaceuticals International Holdings Netherlands B.V., BMS Pharmaceuticals Korea Holdings B.V., BMS Pharmaceuticals Mexico Holdings B.V., BMS Pharmaceuticals Netherlands Holdings B.V., BMS Real Estate LLC, BMS Spain Investments LLC, BMS Strategic Portfolio Investments Holdings Inc., Blisa Acquisition G.P., Bristol (Iran) S.A., Bristol Iran Private Company Limited, Bristol Laboratories Inc., Bristol Laboratories International S.A., Bristol Laboratories Medical Information Systems Inc., Bristol-Myers (Andes) L.L.C., Bristol-Myers (Private) Limited, Bristol-Myers Middle East S.A.L., Bristol-Myers Overseas Corporation, Bristol-Myers Squibb (China) Investment Co. Ltd., Bristol-Myers Squibb (China) Pharmaceuticals Co. Ltd., Bristol-Myers Squibb (Israel) Ltd., Bristol-Myers Squibb (NZ) Limited, Bristol-Myers Squibb (Proprietary) Limited, Bristol-Myers Squibb (Shanghai) Trading Co. Ltd., Bristol-Myers Squibb (Singapore) Pte. Limited, Bristol-Myers Squibb (Taiwan) Ltd., Bristol-Myers Squibb (West Indies) Ltd., Bristol-Myers Squibb A.E., Bristol-Myers Squibb Aktiebolag, Bristol-Myers Squibb Argentina S. R. L., Bristol-Myers Squibb Australia Pty. Ltd., Bristol-Myers Squibb Axia Limited, Bristol-Myers Squibb B.V., Bristol-Myers Squibb Belgium S.A., Bristol-Myers Squibb Business Services Limited, Bristol-Myers Squibb Canada Co., Bristol-Myers Squibb Canada International Limited, Bristol-Myers Squibb Delta Company Limited, Bristol-Myers Squibb Denmark Filial of Bristol-Myers Squibb AB, Bristol-Myers Squibb EMEA Sarl, Bristol-Myers Squibb Egypt LLC, Bristol-Myers Squibb Epsilon Holdings Unlimited Company, Bristol-Myers Squibb Farmaceutica Ltda., Bristol-Myers Squibb Farmaceutica Portuguesa S.A., Bristol-Myers Squibb GesmbH, Bristol-Myers Squibb GmbH & Co. KGaA, Bristol-Myers Squibb Holding Germany GmbH & Co. KG, Bristol-Myers Squibb Holdings 2002 Limited, Bristol-Myers Squibb Holdings Germany Verwaltungs GmbH, Bristol-Myers Squibb Holdings Ireland Unlimited Company, Bristol-Myers Squibb Holdings Limited, Bristol-Myers Squibb Holdings Pharma Ltd. Liability Company, Bristol-Myers Squibb Ilaclari Inc., Bristol-Myers Squibb India Pvt. Limited, Bristol-Myers Squibb International Company Unlimited Company, Bristol-Myers Squibb International Corporation, Bristol-Myers Squibb Investco L.L.C., Bristol-Myers Squibb K.K., Bristol-Myers Squibb Kft., Bristol-Myers Squibb Luxembourg International S.C.A., Bristol-Myers Squibb Luxembourg S.a.r.l., Bristol-Myers Squibb MEA GmbH, Bristol-Myers Squibb Manufacturing Company, Bristol-Myers Squibb Marketing Services S.R.L., Bristol-Myers Squibb Middle East & Africa FZ-LLC, Bristol-Myers Squibb Norway Ltd., Bristol-Myers Squibb Nutricionales de Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., Bristol-Myers Squibb Peru S.A., Bristol-Myers Squibb Pharma (HK) Ltd, Bristol-Myers Squibb Pharma (Thailand) Limited, Bristol-Myers Squibb Pharma Company, Bristol-Myers Squibb Pharma EEIG, Bristol-Myers Squibb Pharma Holding Company LLC, Bristol-Myers Squibb Pharma Ventures Corporation, Bristol-Myers Squibb Pharmaceuticals Limited, Bristol-Myers Squibb Pharmaceuticals Unlimited Company, Bristol-Myers Squibb Polska Sp. z o.o., Bristol-Myers Squibb Products SA, Bristol-Myers Squibb Puerto Rico Inc., Bristol-Myers Squibb Puerto Rico/Sanofi Pharmaceutical Partnership Puerto Rico, Bristol-Myers Squibb Romania S.R.L., Bristol-Myers Squibb S.A.U., Bristol-Myers Squibb S.r.l., Bristol-Myers Squibb SA, Bristol-Myers Squibb Sanofi Pharmaceuticals Holding Partnership, Bristol-Myers Squibb Sarl, Bristol-Myers Squibb Service Ltd., Bristol-Myers Squibb Services Sp. z o.o., Bristol-Myers Squibb Spol. s r.o., Bristol-Myers Squibb Theta Finance Ltd., Bristol-Myers Squibb Trustees Limited, Bristol-Myers Squibb Verwaltungs GmbH, Bristol-Myers Squibb de Colombia S.A., Bristol-Myers Squibb de Costa Rica Sociedad Anonima, Bristol-Myers Squibb de Guatemala S.A., Bristol-Myers Squibb de Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., Bristol-Myers Squibb/Astrazeneca EEIG, Bristol-Myers Squibb/Pfizer EEIG, Bristol-Myers Squibb/Sanofi Pharmaceuticals Partnership, Bristol-Myers de Venezuela S.C.A., CHT I LLC, CHT II LLC, CHT III LLC, CHT IV LLC, CR Finance Company LLC, Cardioxyl Pharmaceuticals, Cardioxyl Pharmaceuticals Inc., Celem LLC, Celem Ltd., Celgene, Celgene A.B., Celgene AS, Celgene Ab (Finland), Celgene Alpine Investment Co. II LLC, Celgene Alpine Investment Co. III LLC, Celgene Alpine Investment Co. LLC, Celgene ApS, Celgene B.V., Celgene BVBA, Celgene Brasil Produtos Farmaceuticos Ltda., Celgene CAR LLC, Celgene CAR Ltd., Celgene Chemicals Sarl, Celgene China Holdings LLC, Celgene Co., Celgene Corporation, Celgene Distribution B.V., Celgene EngMab GmbH, Celgene Europe B.V., Celgene Europe Limited, Celgene European Investment Company LLC, Celgene Financing Company LLC, Celgene Global Holdings Sarl, Celgene GmbH [Austria], Celgene GmbH [Germany], Celgene GmbH [Switzerland], Celgene Holdings East Corporation, Celgene Holdings II Sarl, Celgene Holdings III Sarl, Celgene Ilac Pazarlama ve Ticaret Limited Sirketi, Celgene Inc., Celgene International Holdings Corporation, Celgene International II Sarl, Celgene International III Sarl, Celgene International Inc., Celgene International Sarl, Celgene K.K., Celgene Kft., Celgene Limited [Hong Kong], Celgene Limited [Ireland], Celgene Limited [New Zealand], Celgene Limited [Taiwan], Celgene Limited [UK], Celgene Logistics Sarl, Celgene Ltd, Celgene Luxembourg Sarl, Celgene Management Sarl, Celgene NJ Investment Co, Celgene Netherlands B.V., Celgene Netherlands Investment B.V., Celgene Pharmaceutical (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Celgene Pte. Ltd., Celgene Pty Ltd, Celgene Puerto Rico Distribution LLC, Celgene Quanticel Research Inc, Celgene R&D Sarl, Celgene RIVOT LLC, Celgene RIVOT Ltd., Celgene RIVOT SRL, Celgene Receptos Limited, Celgene Receptos Sarl, Celgene Research Incubator At Summit West LLC, Celgene Research S.L.U., Celgene Research and Development Company LLC, Celgene Research and Development I ULC, Celgene Research and Development II LLC, Celgene Research and Investment Company II LLC, Celgene S. de R.L. de C.V., Celgene S.L.U., Celgene S.R.L., Celgene SAS, Celgene Sarl AU, Celgene Sdn Bhd, Celgene Services Sarl, Celgene Sociedade Unipessoal Lda, Celgene Sp. Z.o.o., Celgene Sro [Czech Republic], Celgene Summit Investment Co, Celgene Switzerland Holding Sarl, Celgene Switzerland II LLC, Celgene Switzerland Investment Sarl, Celgene Switzerland LLC, Celgene Switzerland Sarl, Celgene Tri A Holdings Ltd., Celgene Tri Sarl, Celgene UK Distribution Limited, Celgene UK Holdings Limited, Celgene UK Manufacturing II Limited, Celgene UK Manufacturing III Limited, Celgene UK Manufacturing Limited, Celgene d.o.o., Celgene sro [Slovakia], Celmed LLC, Celmed Ltd., ConvaTec Divestiture, Cormorant Pharmaceuticals, Cormorant Pharmaceuticals AB, Crosp Ltd., Delinia Inc., Deuteria Pharmaceuticals Inc., DuPont Pharmaceuticals, E. R. Squibb & Sons Inter-American Corporation, E. R. Squibb & Sons L.L.C., E. R. Squibb & Sons Limited, EWI Corporation, EngMab Sarl, F-star Alpha, FermaVir Pharmaceuticals L.L.C., FermaVir Research L.L.C., Flexus Biosciences, Flexus Biosciences Inc., Forbius, Galecto Biotech, GenPharm International L.L.C., Gloucester Pharmaceuticals LLC, Grove Insurance Company Ltd., Heyden Farmaceutica Portuguesa Limitada, IFM Therapeutics, Impact Biomedicines Inc., Inhibitex, Inhibitex L.L.C., Innate Tumor Immunity Inc., JuMP Holdings LLC, Juno Therapeutics GmbH, Juno Therapeutics Inc., Kosan Biosciences, Kosan Biosciences Incorporated, Linson Investments Limited, Mead Johnson (Manufacturing) Jamaica Limited, Mead Johnson Jamaica Ltd., Medarex, Morris Avenue Investment II LLC, Morris Avenue Investment LLC, MyoKardia, O.o.o. Bristol-Myers Squibb, Oy Bristol-Myers Squibb (Finland) AB, Padlock Therapeutics, Padlock Therapeutics Inc., Pharmion LLC, Princeton Pharmaceutical Products Inc., Receptos LLC, Receptos Services LLC, RedoxTherapies Inc., Route 22 Real Estate Holding Corporation, SPV A Holdings ULC, Seamair Insurance DAC, Signal Pharmaceuticals LLC, Sino-American Shanghai Squibb Pharmaceuticals Limited, Societe Francaise de Complements Alimentaires(S.O.F.C.A.), Squibb Middle East S.A., Summit West Celgene LLC, Swords Laboratories, VentiRx Pharmaceuticals Inc., Westwood-Intrafin SA, Westwood-Squibb Pharmaceuticals Inc., X-Body Inc., ZymoGenetics, ZymoGenetics Inc., ZymoGenetics LLC, ZymoGenetics Paymaster LLC, iPierian, and iPierian Inc..The following companies are subsidiares of Thermo Fisher Scientific: 236 Perinton Parkway LLC, 27 Forge Parkway LLC, ABR--Affinity BioReagents, ACI Holdings Inc., ARG Services LLC, ASPEX Corporation, Abgene Inc., Abgene Limited, Acoustic Cytometry Systems Inc., AcroMetrix LLC, Acros Organics B.V.B.A., Advanced Biotechnologies Limited, Advanced Scientifics (ASI), Advanced Scientifics Inc., Advanced Scientifics International Inc., Affymetrix Biotech Participacoes Ltda., Affymetrix Biotech Shanghai Ltd, Affymetrix Inc, Affymetrix Japan K.K., Affymetrix Pte Ltd, Affymetrix UK Ltd, Afora S.A.U., Ahura Scientific, Alchematrix Inc., Alchematrix LLC, Alfa Aesar, Alfa Aesar (China) Chemical Co. Ltd., Alfa Aesar (Hong Kong) Limited, Allergon AB, Alphine Mountain Limited, Ambion Inc., Apogent Denmark ApS, Apogent Finance Company, Apogent Holding Company, Apogent Technologies Inc., Apogent Transition Corp., Apogent U.K. Limited, App-Tek International Pty Ltd, Applied Biosystems B.V., Applied Biosystems Finance B.V., Applied Biosystems International Inc., Applied Biosystems LLC, Applied Biosystems Taiwan LLC, Applied Biosystems Trading (Shanghai) Company Ltd., Applied Biosystems de Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., Applied Scientific Corporation, Avances Cientificos de Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., Avocado Research Chemicals Limited, B.R.A.H.M.S. Biotech GmbH, B.R.A.H.M.S. GmbH, B.R.A.H.M.S. UK Ltd, BAC BV, BAC IP BV, Barnstead Thermolyne LLC, Beijing Phadia Diagnostics Co Ltd, Bender MedSystems GmbH, BioTrove Corporation, BioTrove International Inc., Bioanalysis Labsystems S.A., Biochemical Sciences LLC, Biolab, BmT GmbH Laborprodukte, Bonsai Tecnologies - Sistemas para Biotecnologia e Industria Unipessoal Lda, Brammer Bio, Bumi-Sans Sendirian Berhad, CAC Limited, CB Diagnostics AB, CB Diagnostics Holding AB, CEPH International Corporation, CHK Holdings Inc., CRS Robotics, CTPS LLC, Capitol Scientific Products Inc., Capitol Vial Inc., Cellomics Inc., CellzDirect Inc., Cenduit GmbH, Cenduit LLC, Cezanne S.A.S., Chase Scientific Glass Inc., Chromacol Limited, Clintrak, Clintrak Clinical Labeling Services LLC, Clintrak Pharmaceutical Services LLC, Cohesive Technologies (UK) Limited, Cohesive Technologies Inc., Columbia Diagnostics Inc., Compendia Bioscience Inc., Comtest Limited, Consolidated Technologies Inc., Consultores Fisher Scientific Chile Ltd, Core Informatics, Core Informatics LLC, Core Informatics UK Ltd., D-finitive Technologies Inc., DCG Systems B.V., DCG Systems C.V., DCG Systems G.K., DCG Systems GmbH, DCG Systems Korea Ltd., DCG Systems LLC, DPI Newco LLC, DSM Pharmaceutical Products Inc., Dharmacon, Diagnostix Ltd., Dionex (China) Analytical Ltd, Dionex (Switzerland) AG, Dionex (UK) Limited, Dionex Austria GmbH, Dionex Benelux B.V., Dionex Brasil Instrumentos Cientificos Ltda, Dionex Canada Ltd., Dionex China Limited, Dionex Corporation, Dionex Denmark A/S, Dionex Holding GmbH, Dionex I LLC, Dionex Pty Ltd., Dionex S.A., Dionex S.p.A., Dionex Singapore Pte Ltd., Dionex Softron GmbH, Dionex Sweden AB, Distribution Solutions International Inc., Doe & Ingalls Investors Inc., Doe & Ingalls Limited, Doe & Ingalls Management LLC, Doe & Ingalls Properties II LLC, Doe & Ingalls Properties LLC, Doe & Ingalls of California Operating LLC, Doe & Ingalls of Florida Operating LLC, Doe & Ingalls of Maryland Operating LLC, Doe & Ingalls of Massachusetts Operating LLC, Doe & Ingalls of North Carolina Operating LLC, Doublecape Holding Limited, Doublecape Limited, Drakeside Real Estate Holding Company LLC, Duke Scientific Corporation, Dynal Biotech Beijing Limited, EGS Gauging Ltd., EGS Gauging Technical Services Company, EP Scientific Products LLC, Ecochem N.V., EnviroEquip Pty Ltd, Epsom Glass Industries Limited, Equibio Limited, Erie Electroverre S.A., Erie Finance Limited, Erie LP Holding LLC, Erie Scientific Company of Puerto Rico, Erie Scientific Hungary Kft, Erie Scientific LLC, Erie U.K. Limited, Erie UK 1 Limited, Erie UK 2 Limited, Erie UK Holding Company, Erie UK Senior Holding Limited, European Laboratory Holdings Limited, Eutech Instruments Europe B.V., Eutech Instruments Pte Ltd., Eutech Instruments Sdn Bhd, Ever Ready Thermometer Co. Inc., FEI Asia Pacific Co. Ltd., FEI Australia Pty Ltd, FEI CPD B.V., FEI Company, FEI Company Japan Ltd., FEI Company of USA (S.E.A.) Pte Ltd., FEI Czech Republic s.r.o., FEI Deutschland GmbH, FEI EFA Inc., FEI EFA International Pte. Ltd., FEI Electron Optics B.V., FEI Electron Optics International B.V., FEI Europe B.V., FEI France SAS, FEI Global Holdings C.V., FEI Hong Kong Company Limited, FEI Houston Inc., FEI Italia Srl, FEI Korea Ltd., FEI Melbourne Pty Ltd., FEI Microscopy Solutions Ltd, FEI Munich GmbH, FEI Norway Holding AS, FEI SAS, FEI Saudi Arabia LLC, FEI Servicos de Nanotecnologia Ltda., FEI Technologies Inc., FEI Technology de Mexico S.A. de C.V., FEI Trading (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., FEI Trondheim AS, FEI UK Ltd., FHP LLC, FRC Holding Inc. V, FS (Barbados) Capital Holdings Ltd., FS Casa Rocas Holdings LLC, FS Mexicana Holdings LLC, FSI Receivables Company LLC, FSII Sweden Holdings AB, FSII Sweden Holdings I AB, FSIR Holdings (UK) Limited, FSIR Holdings (US) Inc., FSUK Holdings Limited, FSWH Company LLC, FSWH II C.V., FSWH International Holdings LLC, Fermentas China Co. Ltd, Fermentas Inc., Fermentas International, Fermentas Sweden AB, Fermentas UK Limited, Fiberlite Centrifuge LLC, Finesse Scientific Equipment (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Finesse Solutions AG, Finesse Solutions Inc., Finnzymes Oy, Fisher Alder S. de R.L. de C.V., Fisher Asia Manufacturing Ventures Inc., Fisher Bermuda Holdings Limited, Fisher BioImage ApS, Fisher BioPharma Services (India) Private Limited, Fisher BioSciences Japan G.K., Fisher BioServices Inc., Fisher Bioblock Holding II SNC, Fisher CLP Holding Limited Partnership, Fisher Canada Holding ULC 1, Fisher Canada Holding ULC 2, Fisher Canada Holding ULC 3, Fisher Canada Limited Partnership, Fisher Chimica BVBA, Fisher Clinical Logistics LLC, Fisher Clinical Services (Beijing) Co. Ltd., Fisher Clinical Services (Bristol) LLC, Fisher Clinical Services (Colombia) LLC, Fisher Clinical Services (Korea) Co. Ltd, Fisher Clinical Services (Mexico) LLC, Fisher Clinical Services (Peru) LLC, Fisher Clinical Services (Suzhou) Co. Ltd., Fisher Clinical Services Colombia S.A.S., Fisher Clinical Services GmbH, Fisher Clinical Services Inc., Fisher Clinical Services Japan K.K., Fisher Clinical Services Latin America S.R.L., Fisher Clinical Services Limited Liability Company, Fisher Clinical Services Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., Fisher Clinical Services Peru S.R.L, Fisher Clinical Services Pte Ltd., Fisher Clinical Services U.K. Limited, Fisher Emergo B.V., Fisher Germany Holdings GmbH, Fisher Hamilton China Inc., Fisher Hamilton Mexico LLC, Fisher Holdings ApS, Fisher Internet Minority Holdings L.L.C., Fisher Laboratory Products Manufacturing (Shanghai) Co. Ltd, Fisher Luxembourg Danish Holdings SARL, Fisher Manufacturing (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd, Fisher Maybridge Holdings Limited, Fisher Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., Fisher Scientific (Austria) GmbH, Fisher Scientific (Hong Kong) Limited, Fisher Scientific (M) Sdn Bhd, Fisher Scientific (SEA) Pte. Ltd., Fisher Scientific A/S, Fisher Scientific AG, Fisher Scientific Australia Pty Limited, Fisher Scientific Biotech Line ApS, Fisher Scientific Brazil Inc., Fisher Scientific Central America Inc., Fisher Scientific Chile Inc., Fisher Scientific Colombia Inc., Fisher Scientific Company, Fisher Scientific Company L.L.C., Fisher Scientific Costa Rica Sociedad de Responsabilidad Limitada, Fisher Scientific Europe Holdings B.V., Fisher Scientific GTF AB, Fisher Scientific Germany Beteiligungs GmbH, Fisher Scientific GmbH, Fisher Scientific Holding Company LLC, Fisher Scientific Holding HK Limited, Fisher Scientific Holding U.K. Limited, Fisher Scientific Holdings (M) Sdn Bhd, Fisher Scientific Holdings (S) Pte Ltd, Fisher Scientific International LLC, Fisher Scientific Investments (Cayman) Ltd., Fisher Scientific Ireland Investments Unlimited, Fisher Scientific Ireland Limited, Fisher Scientific Japan Ltd., Fisher Scientific Jersey Island Limited, Fisher Scientific Korea Ltd, Fisher Scientific Latin America Inc., Fisher Scientific Luxembourg S.a.r.l., Fisher Scientific Mexicana S. de R.L. de C.V., Fisher Scientific Mexico Inc., Fisher Scientific Middle East and Africa Inc., Fisher Scientific Norway AS, Fisher Scientific Operating Company, Fisher Scientific Oxoid Holdings Ltd., Fisher Scientific Oy, Fisher Scientific Pte. Ltd., Fisher Scientific S.A.S., Fisher Scientific S.L., Fisher Scientific SPRL, Fisher Scientific The Hague I B.V., Fisher Scientific The Hague II B.V., Fisher Scientific The Hague III B.V., Fisher Scientific The Hague IV B.V., Fisher Scientific The Hague V B.V., Fisher Scientific U.K. Limited, Fisher Scientific UK Holding Company 2, Fisher Scientific UK Holding Company Limited, Fisher Scientific Unipessoal Lda., Fisher Scientific Venezuela Inc., Fisher Scientific Worldwide (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Fisher Scientific Worldwide Holdings I C.V., Fisher Scientific Worldwide Inc., Fisher Scientific de Mexico S.A., Fisher Scientific of the Netherlands B.V., Fisher Scientific spol. S.r.o, Fisher Servicios Clinicos (Chile) LLC, Fisher Servicios Clinicos Chile Ltda, Fisher WWD Holding L.L.C., Fisher Worldwide Distribution SPV, Fisher Worldwide Gene Distribution SPV, Flux Instruments, Fuji Partnership, G & M Procter Limited, G V Instruments Limited, GV Instruments Canada Ltd., GV Instruments Inc, Gatan Inc, General Scientific Company Sdn Bhd (M), Genomed molekularbiologische und diagnostische Produkte GmbH, Gerhard Menzel B.V. & Co. KG, Gold Cattle Standard Testing Labs Inc., Golden West Indemnity Company Limited, Goring Kerr Detection Limited, Greenville Service Company Inc., HENO GmbH i.L., Hangar 215 Inc., Helmet Securities Limited, Henogen, HighChem, HyClone International Trade (Tianjin) Co. Ltd, Hybaid Limited, I.Q. (BIO) Limited, IDnostics AG, ILS Laboratories Scandinavia AB, Inel Inc., Inel SAS, InnaPhase Inc., InnaPhase Limited, IntegenX, Intrinsic BioProbes Inc., Intrinsic Bioprobes Inc., Invitrogen (Shanghai) Investment Co. Ltd., Invitrogen Argentina SA, Invitrogen BioServices India Private Limited, Invitrogen Europe Limited, Invitrogen Finance Corp., Invitrogen Holdings LLC, Invitrogen Holdings Ltd., Invitrogen Hong Kong Limited, Invitrogen IP Holdings Inc., Invitrogen Trading (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Ion Torrent Systems Inc., Ionalytics Corporation, JSC Thermo Fisher Scientific, Jouan LLC, Jouan Limited, Jouan SA, Kendro Containment & Services Limited, Kendro Laboratory Products Ltd, Kettlebrook Insurance Co. ltd., Keystone Scientific, KonTEM GmbH, Kyle Jordan Investments LLC, LIFE TECHNOLOGIES CORPORATION, LTC Tech South Africa PTY Ltd., La-Pha-Pack GmbH, Lab Vision (UK) Limited, Lab Vision Corporation, Lab-Chrom-Pack LLC, Lab-Line Instruments Inc., Labomex MBP S. de R. L. De C.V., Laboratoire Service International - L.S.I, Laboratory Management Systems Inc., Laboratory Specialties Proprietary Ltd., LambTrack Limited, Laser Analytical Systems Inc., Liberty Lane Investment LLC, Liberty Lane Real Estate Holding Company LLC, Life Sciences International (Poland) SP z O.O, Life Sciences International Holdings BV, Life Sciences International LLC, Life Sciences International Limited, Life Technologies AS, Life Technologies Australia PTY Ltd., Life Technologies BPD AB, Life Technologies BPD UK Limited, Life Technologies Brasil Comercio e Industria de Produtos para Biotecnologia Ltda, Life Technologies Chile SpA, Life Technologies Clinical Services Lab Inc., Life Technologies Co. Ltd., Life Technologies Czech Republic s.r.o., Life Technologies DaAn Diagnostic (Guangzhou) Co. Ltd., Life Technologies Europe B.V., Life Technologies Finance Ltd., Life Technologies Finland Oy, Life Technologies GmbH, Life Technologies Holdings PTE Ltd., Life Technologies Inc., Life Technologies International B.V., Life Technologies Japan Ltd., Life Technologies Korea LLC, Life Technologies Limited, Life Technologies Magyarorszag Kft, Life Technologies New Zealand Ltd., Life Technologies Norway Investments US LLC, Life Technologies Polska Sp z.o.o., Life Technologies SA, Life Technologies SAS, Life Technologies s.r.o, Linkage Biosciences Inc., Linkage Biosciences S.a.r.l., Loftus Furnace Company, Lomb Scientific, Lomb Scientific (Aust) Pty Limited, MTI-GlobalStem, Marketbase International Limited, Matrix MicroScience Inc., Matrix MicroScience Ltd., Matrix Technologies Corporation Limited, Matrix Technologies LLC, Maybridge Chemical Company Limited, Maybridge Chemical Holdings Limited, Maybridge Limited, Medical Analysis Systems Inc., Medical Analysis Systems International Inc., Medical Diagnostics Systems Inc., Metavac LLC, Microgenics Corporation, Microgenics Diagnostics Pty Limited, Microgenics GmbH, Microm International GmbH, Microm Laborgerate S.L.U, Molecular BioProducts Inc., Molecular Probes Inc., Molecular Transfer Inc., NAPCO Inc., NERL Diagnostics LLC, NOVODIRECT GmbH Labor- und Industrie- Megerate, Nalge (Europe) Limited, Nalge Nunc International (Monterrey) LLC, Nalge Nunc International Corporation, Nanjing WeiKangLe Trading Industrial Co Ltd, NanoDrop Technologies LLC, National Scientific Company, Navaho Acquisition Corp., Neomarkers Inc., New FS Holdings Inc., NewcoGen PE LLC, Nihon Dynal K.K., Niton Asia Limited, NovaWave Technologies Inc., Nunc A/S, ONIX Systems Inc., OXOID CZ s.r.o., Odyssey Holdings Corporation, Odyssey Luxembourg Holdings S.a r.l., Odyssey Luxembourg IP Holdings 1 S.a r.l., Odyssey Luxembourg IP Holdings 2 S.a r.l., Odyssey Venture Corporation, Omega Data Systems, One Lambda Inc, Onix Holdings Limited, Orme Scientific Limited, Owl Separation Systems LLC, Oxoid (ELY) Limited, Oxoid 2000 Limited, Oxoid AS, Oxoid Australia Pty. Limited, Oxoid Company, Oxoid Deutschland GmbH, Oxoid Holding SAS, Oxoid Holdings Limited, Oxoid Inc., Oxoid International Limited, Oxoid Investments GmbH, Oxoid Limited, Oxoid N.V., Oxoid New Zealand Limited, Oxoid Pension Trustees Limited, Oxoid Senior Holdings Limited, Oxoid UKH LLC, PAX - DSI Acquisition LLC, PE AG, Pacific Rim Far East Industries LLC, Pacific Rim Investment LLC, Panomics L.L.C., Panomics S.R.L., Patheon, Patheon API Inc., Patheon API Manufacturing Inc., Patheon API Services Inc., Patheon Austria GmbH & Co KG, Patheon B.V., Patheon Banner U.S. Holdings Inc., Patheon Biologics (NJ) LLC, Patheon Biologics Australia Pty Ltd, Patheon Biologics B.V., Patheon Biologics LLC, Patheon Calculus Merger LLC, Patheon Cooperatief U.A., Patheon Development Services Inc., Patheon Finance LLC, Patheon France SAS, Patheon Holdings B.V., Patheon Holdings I B.V., Patheon Holdings II B.V., Patheon Holdings SAS, Patheon I B.V., Patheon I Holding GmbH, Patheon Inc., Patheon International AG, Patheon Italia S.p.A., Patheon KK, Patheon Life Science Products International GmbH, Patheon Manufacturing Services LLC, Patheon Pharmaceuticals Inc., Patheon Pharmaceuticals Services Inc., Patheon Puerto Rico Acquisitions Corporation, Patheon Puerto Rico Inc., Patheon Regensburg GmbH, Patheon Softgels B.V., Patheon Softgels Inc., Patheon U.S. Holdings Inc., Patheon U.S. Holdings LLC, Patheon UK Limited, Patheon UK Pension Trustees Limited, Pelican Acquisition Corporation, Perbio Science (Canada) Company, Perbio Science AB, Perbio Science BVBA, Perbio Science France SAS, Perbio Science Inc., Perbio Science International Netherlands B.V., Perbio Science Invest AB, Perbio Science Nederland B.V., Perbio Science Projekt AB, Perbio Science Sweden Holdings AB, Perbio Science Switzerland SA, Perbio Science UK Limited, Phadia AB, Phadia Diagnosticos Ltda, Phadia GmbH, Phadia Holding AB, Phadia International Holdings C.V., Phadia Korea Co. Ltd, Phadia Luxembourg Holdings S.a.r.l., Phadia Malta Holdings Limited, Phadia Oy, Phadia Real Property AB, Phadia Sweden AB, Phadia Taiwan Inc., Phadia US Inc., Phadia s.r.o., Pharmacaps Mexicana SA de CV, Phenom-World B.V., Phenom-World Holding B.V, Phenom-World Innovations B.V., Phinotex, Pierce Biotechnology Inc., Pierce Milwaukee Holding Corp., Pierce Milwaukee Inc., Polychromix, Power Sweden Holdings I AB, Power Sweden Holdings II AB, Power Sweden Holdings III Aktiebolag, Princeton Gamma-Tech Instruments LLC, Princeton Security Technologies, Prionics AG, Prionics Asia Ltd., Prionics Deutschland GmbH, Prionics France SAS, Prionics Italia S.r.l., Prionics Lelystad B.V., Prionics USA Inc., Priority Air Express LLC, Priority Air Express Pte. Ltd., Priority Air Express UK Limited, Priority Air Holdings Corp, Priority Solutions International, Promedica Pty Limited, Proxeon, Proxeon Biosystems ApS, Qiagen, REP GBP I-B Blocker Inc., Raymond A Lamb Limited, Remel Europe Limited, Remel Inc., Richard-Allan Scientific Company, Robbins Scientific LLC, Robocon Labor- und Industrieroboter Gesellschaft m.b.H, Rupprecht and Patashnick, Rupprecht and Patashnick (R&P), Russell pH Limited, S.C.I. du 10 rue Dugay Trouin, SCI Inno 92, STC Bio Manufacturing Inc., Samco Scientific (Monterrey) LLC, Samco Scientific LLC, Saroph Sweden AB, Schantz Road LLC, Seradyn Inc., Shanghai Life Technologies Biotechnology Co. Limited, Shanghai Thermo Fisher (C-I) Trading Co. Ltd, Shanghai Thermo Fisher (S) Trading Co. Ltd, Southern Trials (Pty) Ltd., Specialty (SMI) Inc., Spectra-Physics AB, Spectra-Physics Holdings Limited, Spectra-Physics Holdings USA LLC, Spectronex, Staten Island Cogeneration Corporation, Sterilin Limited, Stokes Bio Ltd., Sweden DIA (Sweden) AB, SwissAnalytic Group GmbH, Systems Manufacturing Corporation, TFLP LLC, TFS Breda B.V., TFS LLC, TFS Singapore HK Limited, TFSL Financing GP LLC, TFSL Senior GP Holdings 2 LLC, TK Partnership, TKA Wasseraufbereitungssysteme, TMOI Inc., TPI Real Estate Holdings LLC, TSP Holdings I LLC, TWX LLC, Technology Design Solutions Pty Ltd, Thermedics Detection de Argentina S.R.L, Thermo Allen Coding Limited, Thermo Asset Management Services Inc., Thermo BioAnalysis LLC, Thermo BioAnalysis Limited, Thermo BioSciences Holdings LLC, Thermo CIDTEC, Thermo CRS Holdings Ltd., Thermo CRS Ltd., Thermo Cambridge Limited, Thermo Cayman Holdings Ltd., Thermo Corporation, Thermo DMA Inc., Thermo Detection de Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., Thermo Dutch Holdings Limited Partnership, Thermo EGS Gauging LLC, Thermo Eberline Holdings I LLC, Thermo Eberline Holdings II LLC, Thermo Eberline LLC, Thermo Electron (Calgary) Limited, Thermo Electron (Chile) S.p.A., Thermo Electron (Karlsruhe) GmbH, Thermo Electron (Management Services) Limited, Thermo Electron (Proprietary) Limited, Thermo Electron A/S, Thermo Electron Australia Pty Limited, Thermo Electron Export Inc., Thermo Electron Holdings SAS, Thermo Electron Industries, Thermo Electron LED GmbH, Thermo Electron LED S.A.S., Thermo Electron Limited, Thermo Electron Manufacturing Limited, Thermo Electron Metallurgical Services Inc., Thermo Electron North America LLC, Thermo Electron Pension Trust GmbH, Thermo Electron Puerto Rico Inc., Thermo Electron SAS, Thermo Electron Scientific Instruments LLC, Thermo Electron Sweden AB, Thermo Electron Sweden Forvaltning AB, Thermo Electron Weighing & Inspection Limited, Thermo Elemental Limited, Thermo Environmental Instruments LLC, Thermo Fast U.K. Limited, Thermo Finland Holdings LLC, Thermo Finland Holdings MT1 B.V., Thermo Finland Holdings MT2 B.V., Thermo Finnigan LLC, Thermo Finnigan Limited, Thermo Fisher (CN) Luxembourg Holding S.a.r.l., Thermo Fisher (CN) Luxembourg S.a.r.l., Thermo Fisher (CN) Malta Holdings Limited, Thermo Fisher (CN-I) Luxembourg LLC, Thermo Fisher (CN-II) Luxembourg LLC, Thermo Fisher (Cayman) Holdings I Ltd., Thermo Fisher (Cayman) Holdings II Ltd., Thermo Fisher (Finland Holdings 2) LLC, Thermo Fisher (Finland Holdings) Limited Partnership, Thermo Fisher (Gibraltar) II Limited, Thermo Fisher (Gibraltar) Limited, Thermo Fisher (Heysham) Limited, Thermo Fisher (Kandel) GmbH, Thermo Fisher CHK Holding LLC, Thermo Fisher China Business Trust, Thermo Fisher China Business Trust II, Thermo Fisher Costa Rica Sociedad de Responsabilidad Limitada, Thermo Fisher Cyprus Holdings LLC, Thermo Fisher Detection Mexico LLC, Thermo Fisher Diagnostics (Ireland) Limited, Thermo Fisher Diagnostics AB, Thermo Fisher Diagnostics AG, Thermo Fisher Diagnostics AS, Thermo Fisher Diagnostics Aps, Thermo Fisher Diagnostics Austria GmbH, Thermo Fisher Diagnostics B.V., Thermo Fisher Diagnostics GmbH, Thermo Fisher Diagnostics K.K., Thermo Fisher Diagnostics Limited, Thermo Fisher Diagnostics NV, Thermo Fisher Diagnostics S.L.U., Thermo Fisher Diagnostics S.p.A. , Thermo Fisher Diagnostics SAS, Thermo Fisher Diagnostics Sociedade Unipessoal Lda, Thermo Fisher Eurobonds Ltd., Thermo Fisher Financial Services Inc., Thermo Fisher GP LLC, Thermo Fisher German Holdings LLC, Thermo Fisher Germany B.V., Thermo Fisher India Divestco Private Limited, Thermo Fisher India Holding B.V., Thermo Fisher Insurance Holdings Inc., Thermo Fisher Insurance Holdings LLC, Thermo Fisher Investments (Cayman) Ltd., Thermo Fisher Israel Ltd., Thermo Fisher Production et Services SAS, Thermo Fisher Project Cyprus LLC, Thermo Fisher Re Ltd., Thermo Fisher Scientific (Asheville) LLC, Thermo Fisher Scientific (Australia) C.V., Thermo Fisher Scientific (Barbados) Holdings Ltd., Thermo Fisher Scientific (Breda) Holding BV, Thermo Fisher Scientific (Bremen) GmbH, Thermo Fisher Scientific (CN) Limited Partnership, Thermo Fisher Scientific (China) Co. Ltd., Thermo Fisher Scientific (China) Holding Limited, Thermo Fisher Scientific (China-HK) Holding Limited, Thermo Fisher Scientific (DE) Holding S.a.r.l., Thermo Fisher Scientific (Ecublens) SARL, Thermo Fisher Scientific (Finance I) B.V., Thermo Fisher Scientific (Finance I) S.a.r.l., Thermo Fisher Scientific (Finance II) S.a.r.l., Thermo Fisher Scientific (Finance III) LLC, Thermo Fisher Scientific (Finance III) S.a.r.l., Thermo Fisher Scientific (Fuji) LLC, Thermo Fisher Scientific (Guangzhou) Co. Ltd, Thermo Fisher Scientific (Holding II) B.V. & Co. KG, Thermo Fisher Scientific (Hong Kong) Limited, Thermo Fisher Scientific (IVGN) B.V., Thermo Fisher Scientific (IVGN) Limited, Thermo Fisher Scientific (Johannesburg) (Proprietary) Limited, Thermo Fisher Scientific (Mexico City) LLC, Thermo Fisher Scientific (Milwaukee) LLC, Thermo Fisher Scientific (Mississauga) Inc., Thermo Fisher Scientific (Monterrey) S. De R.L. De C.V., Thermo Fisher Scientific (NK) LLC, Thermo Fisher Scientific (PN) Austria Holding GmbH, Thermo Fisher Scientific (PN) UK LLC, Thermo Fisher Scientific (PN) UK Limited Partnership, Thermo Fisher Scientific (PN-I) SRL, Thermo Fisher Scientific (PN-II) SRL, Thermo Fisher Scientific (PN1) UK Ltd, Thermo Fisher Scientific (Panama) B.V., Thermo Fisher Scientific (Panama) Dutch LLC, Thermo Fisher Scientific (Praha) s.r.o., Thermo Fisher Scientific (Real Estate 1) GmbH & Co. KG, Thermo Fisher Scientific (Real Estate 1) S.a.r.l., Thermo Fisher Scientific (Schweiz) AG, Thermo Fisher Scientific (Shanghai) Instruments Co. Ltd., Thermo Fisher Scientific (Shanghai) Management Co. Ltd., Thermo Fisher Scientific (Suzhou) Instruments Co. Ltd, Thermo Fisher Scientific (Thailand) Co. Ltd., Thermo Fisher Scientific AL-1 LLC, Thermo Fisher Scientific AU C.V., Thermo Fisher Scientific AU II Limited, Thermo Fisher Scientific AU LLC, Thermo Fisher Scientific AU Limited, Thermo Fisher Scientific Africa Proprietary Ltd, Thermo Fisher Scientific Aquasensors LLC, Thermo Fisher Scientific Australia Pty Ltd, Thermo Fisher Scientific B.V., Thermo Fisher Scientific B.V.B.A., Thermo Fisher Scientific BHK (I) Limited, Thermo Fisher Scientific BHK (II) Limited, Thermo Fisher Scientific Baltics UAB, Thermo Fisher Scientific Beteiligungsverwaltungs GmbH, Thermo Fisher Scientific Biosciences Corp., Thermo Fisher Scientific Brahms LLC, Thermo Fisher Scientific Brasil Instrumentos de Processo Ltda., Thermo Fisher Scientific Brasil Servicos de Logistica Ltda, Thermo Fisher Scientific C.V., Thermo Fisher Scientific Cayman Investments LLC, Thermo Fisher Scientific Chemicals Inc., Thermo Fisher Scientific China (C-I) LLC, Thermo Fisher Scientific China (S) LLC, Thermo Fisher Scientific China Holdings I B.V., Thermo Fisher Scientific China Holdings II B.V., Thermo Fisher Scientific China Holdings III B.V., Thermo Fisher Scientific China Holdings IV B.V., Thermo Fisher Scientific Chromatography Holdings Aps, Thermo Fisher Scientific Chromatography Holdings S.a r.l., Thermo Fisher Scientific Cyprus I C.V., Thermo Fisher Scientific Cyprus I Ltd, Thermo Fisher Scientific Cyprus II C.V., Thermo Fisher Scientific Cyprus II Ltd, Thermo Fisher Scientific Cyprus III C.V., Thermo Fisher Scientific Cyprus III Ltd, Thermo Fisher Scientific Cyprus IV C.V., Thermo Fisher Scientific Cyprus V C.V., Thermo Fisher Scientific Denmark Senior Holdings ApS, Thermo Fisher Scientific Erie 1 Financing (Barbados) SRL, Thermo Fisher Scientific Erie Financing (Barbados) SRL, Thermo Fisher Scientific Erie Financing S.a r.l, Thermo Fisher Scientific Europe GmbH, Thermo Fisher Scientific FLC B.V., Thermo Fisher Scientific FLC Finance C.V., Thermo Fisher Scientific FLC II B.V., Thermo Fisher Scientific FLC LLC, Thermo Fisher Scientific FSIR Financing (Barbados) SRL, Thermo Fisher Scientific FSIR Financing S.a.r.l, Thermo Fisher Scientific FSUKHCO Financing (Barbados) SRL, Thermo Fisher Scientific Falcon Senior Holdings Inc., Thermo Fisher Scientific Finance Company BV, Thermo Fisher Scientific GENEART GmbH, Thermo Fisher Scientific Germany BV & Co. KG, Thermo Fisher Scientific GmbH, Thermo Fisher Scientific HR Services Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., Thermo Fisher Scientific Holdings (Cayman) I, Thermo Fisher Scientific Holdings (Cayman) II , Thermo Fisher Scientific Holdings Europe Limited, Thermo Fisher Scientific IT Services GmbH, Thermo Fisher Scientific India Holding LLC, Thermo Fisher Scientific India Pvt Ltd, Thermo Fisher Scientific Investments (Luxembourg) S.a.r.l., Thermo Fisher Scientific Investments (Malta) Limited, Thermo Fisher Scientific Investments (Sweden) LLC, Thermo Fisher Scientific Investments (Sweden) S.a.r.l., Thermo Fisher Scientific Investments Malta (Sweden Financing) Limited, Thermo Fisher Scientific Invitrogen Financing (Barbados) SRL, Thermo Fisher Scientific Japan Holdings I B.V., Thermo Fisher Scientific Japan Holdings II B.V., Thermo Fisher Scientific Japan Holdings III B.V., Thermo Fisher Scientific K.K., Thermo Fisher Scientific Korea Ltd., Thermo Fisher Scientific LSI Financing (Barbados) SRL, Thermo Fisher Scientific Life CV GP Holdings II LLC, Thermo Fisher Scientific Life CV GP Holdings LLC, Thermo Fisher Scientific Life Enterprises C.V., Thermo Fisher Scientific Life Enterprises GP LLC, Thermo Fisher Scientific Life Financing (Barbados) SRL, Thermo Fisher Scientific Life Financing (Cayman), Thermo Fisher Scientific Life Financing C.V., Thermo Fisher Scientific Life Financing Limited, Thermo Fisher Scientific Life Holdings I C.V., Thermo Fisher Scientific Life Holdings II C.V., Thermo Fisher Scientific Life Holdings III C.V., Thermo Fisher Scientific Life Holdings Limited, Thermo Fisher Scientific Life International GP Holdings LLC, Thermo Fisher Scientific Life International Holdings I C.V., Thermo Fisher Scientific Life International Holdings II C.V., Thermo Fisher Scientific Life Investments C.V., Thermo Fisher Scientific Life Investments GP LLC, Thermo Fisher Scientific Life Investments I S.a.r.l., Thermo Fisher Scientific Life Investments II S.a r.l., Thermo Fisher Scientific Life Investments III S.a.r.l., Thermo Fisher Scientific Life Investments IV S.a.r.l, Thermo Fisher Scientific Life Investments Malta Holding I LLC, Thermo Fisher Scientific Life Investments Malta Holding II LLC, Thermo Fisher Scientific Life Investments Malta I Limited, Thermo Fisher Scientific Life Investments Malta II Limited, Thermo Fisher Scientific Life Investments US Financing I LLC, Thermo Fisher Scientific Life Investments US Financing II LLC, Thermo Fisher Scientific Life NL Holdings GP LLC, Thermo Fisher Scientific Life Netherlands Holding C.V., Thermo Fisher Scientific Life Senior GP Holdings II LLC, Thermo Fisher Scientific Life Senior GP Holdings LLC, Thermo Fisher Scientific Life Senior Holdings C.V., Thermo Fisher Scientific Life Senior Holdings II C.V., Thermo Fisher Scientific Life Senior Holdings Inc., Thermo Fisher Scientific Life Switzerland Holdings GP LLC, Thermo Fisher Scientific Life Tech Korea Holdings LLC, Thermo Fisher Scientific Life Technologies Enterprise Holding Limited, Thermo Fisher Scientific Life Technologies Investment I LLC, Thermo Fisher Scientific Life Technologies Investment II LLC, Thermo Fisher Scientific Life Technologies Investment UK I Limited, Thermo Fisher Scientific Life Technologies Investment UK II Limited, Thermo Fisher Scientific Life Technologies Investments Holding LP, Thermo Fisher Scientific Life Technologies Israel Investment I Limited, Thermo Fisher Scientific Life Technologies Israel Investment II Limited, Thermo Fisher Scientific Life Technologies Luxembourg Holding LLC, Thermo Fisher Scientific Luxembourg Enterprise Holdings S.a r.l., Thermo Fisher Scientific Luxembourg German Holdings S.a.r.l., Thermo Fisher Scientific Luxembourg Life Technologies UK Holding S.a r.l, Thermo Fisher Scientific Luxembourg Sweden Holdings I S.a r.l, Thermo Fisher Scientific Luxembourg Sweden Holdings II S.a r.l., Thermo Fisher Scientific Luxembourg Venture Holdings I S.a.r.l., Thermo Fisher Scientific Luxembourg Venture Holdings II S.a.r.l., Thermo Fisher Scientific Malaysia Sdn. Bhd., Thermo Fisher Scientific Malta Holdings LLC, Thermo Fisher Scientific Messtechnik GmbH, Thermo Fisher Scientific Mexico City S. de R.L. de C.V., Thermo Fisher Scientific Middle East Holdings Inc., Thermo Fisher Scientific Milano Srl, Thermo Fisher Scientific NHK Limited, Thermo Fisher Scientific New Zealand Holdings, Thermo Fisher Scientific New Zealand Limited, Thermo Fisher Scientific Norway Holdings AS, Thermo Fisher Scientific Norway US Investments LLC, Thermo Fisher Scientific Odyssey Financing (Barbados) SRL, Thermo Fisher Scientific Odyssey Holdings Limited, Thermo Fisher Scientific Operating Company LLC, Thermo Fisher Scientific Oy, Thermo Fisher Scientific PN2 C.V, Thermo Fisher Scientific PN2 LLC, Thermo Fisher Scientific PRB LLC, Thermo Fisher Scientific PRB Malta Limited, Thermo Fisher Scientific PRB S.a.r.l., Thermo Fisher Scientific Panama I Cayman Ltd, Thermo Fisher Scientific Peru S.R.L., Thermo Fisher Scientific Pte. Ltd., Thermo Fisher Scientific Re Ltd., Thermo Fisher Scientific SL, Thermo Fisher Scientific Senior Financing LLC, Thermo Fisher Scientific Senior Holdings Australia LLC, Thermo Fisher Scientific South Africa Proprietary Ltd, Thermo Fisher Scientific SpA, Thermo Fisher Scientific Spectra LLC, Thermo Fisher Scientific Spectra Malta Limited, Thermo Fisher Scientific Spectra S.a.r.l., Thermo Fisher Scientific Spectra-Physics Holdings Luxembourg I S.a r.l., Thermo Fisher Scientific Spectra-Physics Holdings Luxembourg II S.a r.l., Thermo Fisher Scientific Spectra-Physics Investments Malta Limited, Thermo Fisher Scientific Switzerland Holdings C.V., Thermo Fisher Scientific TR Limited, Thermo Fisher Scientific Taiwan Co. Ltd., Thermo Fisher Scientific Vermogensverwaltungs GmbH, Thermo Fisher Scientific West Palm Holdings LLC, Thermo Fisher Scientific Wissenschaftliche Gerate GmbH, Thermo Fisher Scientific Worldwide Investments (Cayman), Thermo Fisher Scientific eCommerce Solutions LLC , Thermo Fisher Senior Canada Holdings LLC, Thermo Foundation Inc., Thermo Gamma-Metrics Holdings Pty Ltd., Thermo Gamma-Metrics LLC, Thermo Gamma-Metrics Pty Ltd, Thermo Holding European Operations LLC, Thermo Hypersil Ltd, Thermo Hypersil-Keystone LLC, Thermo Informatics Asia Pacific Pty Ltd., Thermo Instrument Controls de Mexico S.A. de C.V., Thermo Kevex X-Ray LLC, Thermo Keytek LLC, Thermo LabSystems Inc., Thermo LabSystems S.A., Thermo Life Science International Trading (Tianjin) Co. Ltd., Thermo Life Sciences AB, Thermo Luxembourg Holding S.a.r.l., Thermo Luxembourg S.a.r.l., Thermo MF Physics LLC, Thermo Measurement Ltd, Thermo Measuretech Canada Inc., Thermo Neslab LLC, Thermo Nicolet Limited, Thermo Onix Limited, Thermo Optek (Australia) Pty Ltd., Thermo Optek Limited, Thermo Optek S.A., Thermo Orion Inc., Thermo Portable Holdings LLC, Thermo Power Corporation, Thermo Process Instruments GP LLC, Thermo Process Instruments L.P., Thermo Projects Limited, Thermo Quest S.A., Thermo Radiometrie Limited, Thermo Ramsey Italia S.r.l., Thermo Ramsey LLC, Thermo Ramsey S.A., Thermo Re Ltd., Thermo Scientific Microbiology Pte Ltd., Thermo Scientific Microbiology Sdn Bhd, Thermo Scientific Portable Analytical Instruments Inc., Thermo Scientific Services Inc., Thermo Securities Corporation, Thermo Sentron Canada Inc., Thermo Sentron Limited, Thermo Shandon Inc., Thermo Shandon Limited, Thermo Suomi Holding B.V., Thermo TLH (UK) Limited, Thermo TLH L.P., Thermo Trace Pty Ltd., Thermo-Fisher Biochemical Product (Beijing) Co. Ltd., ThermoLase LLC, ThermoSpectra Limited, Trek Diagnostic Systems LLC, Trek Diagnostic Systems Ltd., Trek Holding Company II Ltd., Trek Holding Company Ltd., Trex Medical Corporation, USB Corporation, Union Lab Supplies Limited, United Diagnostics Inc., VG Systems Limited, Westover Scientific Inc., ZAO PE Biosystems, eBioscience GmbH, eBioscience Ltd, eBioscience SAS, and picoSpin LLC.JPMorgan Chase & Co. is a financial holding company. It provides financial and investment banking services. The firm offers a range of investment banking products and services in all capital markets, including advising on corporate strategy and structure, capital raising in equity and debt markets, risk management, market making in cash securities and derivative instruments, and brokerage and research. It operates through the following segments: Consumer and Community Banking, Corporate and Investment Bank, Commercial Banking, and Asset and Wealth Management. The Consumer and Community Banking segment serves consumers and businesses through personal service at bank branches and through automated teller machine, online, mobile, and telephone banking. The Corporate and Investment Bank segment offers a suite of investment banking, market-making, prime brokerage, and treasury and securities products and services to a global client base of corporations, investors, financial institutions, government and municipal entities. The Commercial Banking segment delivers services to U.S. and its multinational clients, including corporations, municipalities, financial institutions, and non profit

Read MoreCroda International Plc creates, makes, and sells specialty chemicals in Europe, the Middle East, Africa, North America, Asia, and Latin America. The company operates in four segments: Personal Care, Life Sciences, Performance Technologies, and Industrial Chemicals. It offers adhesives; crop protection additives and adjuvants, seed enhancement and animal health chemicals, chemical bio-stimulants, and specialty additives for agricultural films; and lubricant additives, coatings and polymers, vehicle cleaning chemicals, and products for automotive textiles and fibers, as well as specialty additives for plastics, and battery and catalyst industries. The company also provides specialty ingredients for self-tanning, color cosmetics, bath and shower, deodorants, anti-perspirants, depilatories, men's grooming, and oral hygiene, as well as skin, hair, sun, body, and baby care applications; construction chemicals and bitumen additives; dietary supplements; and advanced materials, and polymer additives for electronics and devices. In addition, it offers chemistries, emulsifiers, fuel and power generation additives, and polymer additives; food additives; specialty polymer additives for furniture and wood applications; household, industrial, and institutional cleaning products; lubricants; oleochemicals; and packaging, print, and paper chemicals. Further, the company provides paints and coatings; active pharmaceutical ingredients; thermal management products; plastic and rubber products; skin health products; hygiene and industrial nonwovens, botanical extracts, tissues, and textile auxiliaries; and water treatment chemicals. Additionally, it offers bio-based phase change materials for buildings and ventilation, clothing and healthcare, electronics and devices, food and refrigeration, energy storage and recovery, temperature controlled packaging, and vehicles and automotive applications. The company was incorporated in 1925 and is headquartered in Goole, the United Kingdom.

Read MoreEmerge Energy Services LP (NYSE:EMES) announced its quarterly earnings data on Monday, August, 8th. The oil and gas company reported ($0.95) earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates of ($0.92) by $0.03. The oil and gas company had revenue of $24.83 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $25.04 million. Emerge Energy Services had a net margin of 3.39% and a trailing twelve-month return on equity of 21.49%. Emerge Energy Services's quarterly revenue was down 63.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $0.12 EPS.

View Emerge Energy Services' earnings history.New Jersey Resources Corp. is a holding company. The firm provides safe and reliable natural gas and clean energy services, including transportation, distribution, asset management and home services. It operates through the following segments: New Jersey Natural Gas, NJR Clean Energy Ventures, NJR Energy Services, NJR Midstream, and NJR Home Services. The New Jersey Natural Gas segment provides regulated retail natural gas service to residential and commercial customers in central and northern New Jersey. The NJR Clean Energy Ventures segment invests in, owns and operates solar projects. The NJR Energy Services segment manages a diversified portfolio of natural gas transportation and storage assets and provides physical natural gas services in the U.S. and Canada. The NJR Midstream segment serves customers from local distributors and producers to electric generators and wholesale marketers. The NJR Home Services segment provides heating, ventilation and cooling service, sales and installation of appliances services to its customers, as well as solar installation projects, and is the primary contributor to home services. The company was founded in 1981 and is headquartered in Wall,

Read MoreWells Fargo & Co. is a diversified, community-based financial services company. It is engaged in the provision of banking, insurance, investments, mortgage, and consumer and commercial finance. It firm operates through the following segments: Community Banking, Wholesale Banking, Wealth & Investment Management, and Other. The Community Banking segment offers complete line of diversified financial products and services for consumers and small businesses including checking and savings accounts, credit and debit cards, and automobile, student, and small business lending. The Wholesale Banking segment provides financial solutions to businesses across the United States and globally. The Wealth and Investment Management segment includes personalized wealth management, investment and retirement products and services to clients across U.S. based businesses. The Other segment refers to the products of WIM customers served through community banking distribution channels. The company was founded by Henry Wells and William G. Fargo on March 18, 1852 and is headquartered in San Francisco, CA.

Read MoreKinder Morgan, Inc. operates as an energy infrastructure company. The firm engages in the operation of pipelines and terminals that transport natural gas, gasoline, crude oil, carbon dioxide (CO2) and other products and stores petroleum products chemicals and handles bulk materials like ethanol, coal, petroleum coke and steel. It operates through the following segments: Natural Gas Pipelines, CO2, Terminals, Product Pipelines and Kinder Morgan Canada. The Natural Gas Pipelines segment engages in the ownership and operation of major interstate and intrastate natural gas pipeline and storage systems, natural gas and crude oil gathering systems and natural gas processing and treating facilities. The CO2 segment focuses on the production, transportation and marketing of CO2 to oil fields that use CO2 as a flooding medium for recovering crude oil from mature oil fields to increase production. The Terminals segment consists of the ownership and operation of liquids and bulk terminal facilities located throughout the U.S. and portions of Canada that trans load and store refined petroleum products, crude oil, chemicals, ethanol and bulk products, including coal, petroleum coke, fertilizer,

Read MoreDeutsche Telekom AG, together with its subsidiaries, provides integrated telecommunication services. The company operates through five segments: Germany, United States, Europe, Systems Solutions, and Group Development. It offers fixed-network services, including voice and data communication services based on fixed-network and broadband technology; and sells terminal equipment and other hardware products, as well as services to resellers. The company also provides mobile voice and data services to consumers and business customers; sells mobile devices and other hardware products; and sells mobile services to resellers and to companies that purchases and markets network services to third parties, such as mobile virtual network operators. In addition, it offers internet services; internet-based TV products and services; and information and communication technology systems for multinational corporations and public sector institutions with an infrastructure of data centers and networks under the T-Systems brand, as well as call center services. The company has 242 million mobile customers and 22 million broadband customers, as well as 27 million fixed-network lines. Deutsche Telekom AG has a collaboration with VMware, Inc. on cloud-based open and intelligent virtual RAN platform to bring agility to radio access networks for existing LTE and future 5G networks; and partnership with Microsoft to deliver high-performance cloud computing experiences. The company was founded in 1995 and is headquartered in Bonn, Germany.

Read MoreWall Street analysts have given Parks! America 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 Parks! America 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 AMETEK: AEM Limited, AIP/MPM Funding Inc., AIP/MPM Holdings Inc., AMETEK (Barbados) SRL, AMETEK (Bermuda) Ltd., AMETEK (GB) Limited, AMETEK Aerospace & Defense Grp UK Ltd, AMETEK Aerospace & Power Holdings Inc., AMETEK Aircraft Parts & Accessories Inc., AMETEK Airtechnology Group Ltd., AMETEK Ameron LLC, AMETEK B.V., AMETEK CTS Germany GmbH, AMETEK CTS US Inc., AMETEK Canada 1 ULC, AMETEK Canada 2 ULC., AMETEK Canada 3 ULC, AMETEK Canada LLC, AMETEK Canada Limited Partnership, AMETEK Ceramics Inc., AMETEK Commercial Enterprise Shanghai, AMETEK Creaform Financing L.P., AMETEK Creaform Inc., AMETEK Denmark A/S, AMETEK Do Brasil Ltda., AMETEK EMG Holdings Inc., AMETEK Elektromotory s.r.o, AMETEK Engineered Materials Sdn. Bhd., AMETEK Europe L.L.C., AMETEK European Holdings GmbH, AMETEK European Holdings Limited, AMETEK Financing Canada Limited Partnership, AMETEK Germany GmbH, AMETEK Global Tubes LLC, AMETEK GmbH, AMETEK Grundbesitz GmbH, AMETEK HSA Inc., AMETEK Haydon Kerk Inc., AMETEK Holdings B.V., AMETEK Holdings SARL, AMETEK Holdings de Mexico S. de R.L., AMETEK Industrial Technology (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., AMETEK Instruments Group UK Limited, AMETEK Instruments India Private Ltd., AMETEK International C.V., AMETEK Italia S.r.l., AMETEK Kabushiki Kaisha, AMETEK Korea Co. Ltd., AMETEK Lamb Motores de Mexico S.deR.L. de C.V., AMETEK Land Inc., AMETEK Latin America Holding Company S.a r.l., AMETEK MRO Florida Inc., AMETEK Material Analysis Holdings GmbH, AMETEK Mexico Holding Company LLC, AMETEK Motors Asia Pte. Ltd., AMETEK Nordic AB, AMETEK PIP Holdings Inc., AMETEK Precision Instruments (UK) Ltd., AMETEK Precitech Inc., AMETEK Programmable Power Inc., AMETEK Receivables Corp., AMETEK Russia (UK) Ltd., AMETEK S.A.S., AMETEK S.r.l., AMETEK SCP, AMETEK SCP (Barrow) Limited, AMETEK Singapore Private Ltd., AMETEK Taiwan Co. Ltd., AMETEK Technical & Industrial Products Inc., AMETEK Thermal Systems Inc., AMETEK UK Limited Partnership, AMETEK VIS-K Inc., Advanced Measurement Technology Inc., Aero Components International Corp., Airtechnology Pension Trustees Ltd., Akron Standard Bestry (Guangzhou) Measurement Equipment Co. Ltd., Amekai (BVI) Ltd., Amekai Meter (Xiamen) Co. Ltd., Amekai Singapore Private Ltd., Amekai Taiwan Co. Ltd., Ametek Advanced Industries Inc., Ametek-Reading Alloys Inc., Amptek Inc., Antavia SAS, Atlas Material Holdings Corporation, Atlas Material Testing Technology (India) Private Limited, Atlas Material Testing Technology BV, Atlas Material Testing Technology GmbH, Atlas Material Testing Technology L.L.C., Atlas Material Testing Technology LLC, Atlas Material Testing Technology Ltd., Atlas Netherlands AcquisitionCo Cooperatief U.A., Avicenna Technology Inc., Avtech Avionics & Instruments LLC, B&S Aircraft, Barben Analyzer Technology LLC, Brookfield Engineering, CAMECA Instruments Inc., CAMECA SAS, CARDINALUHP LLC, CS Holdings Co. Inc., CS Intermediate Holdings Co. Inc., Cameca, Chandler Instruments Company LLC, Cognex - Surface Inspection Systems Division, Coining Holding Company, Coining Inc., Controls Southeast Inc., Creaform, Creaform France S.A.S., Creaform Inc., Creaform Japan K.K., Creaform Shanghai Ltd., Creaform USA Inc., Crystal Engineering Corp, Crystal Engineering Corporation, Direl GmbH, Direl Holding GmbH, Drake Air, Drake Air Inc., Drexelbrook Engineering Company, Dunkermotoren GmbH, Dunkermotoren Linear Systems Ltd., Dunkermotoren Subotica d.o.o., Dunkermotoren Taicang Co. 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The firm also launches and manages mutual funds and exchange traded funds for its clients through its subsidiaries. It invests in private and public equity, fixed income, and multi asset markets across the globe through its subsidiaries. Through its subsidiaries, the firm also invests in alternative markets. It also employs a combination of fundamental and quantitative research to make its investments through its subsidiaries. Legg Mason, Inc. was founded in 1899 and is based in Baltimore, Maryland.

Read MoreEllie Mae, Inc. provides cloud-based platform for the mortgage finance industry in the United States. It provides Encompass, an enterprise solution that engages in running the business of originating mortgages, including marketing and lead management; loan origination and processing; underwriting; preparation of mortgage applications, disclosure agreements, and closing documents; loan funding and closing; compliance with regulatory and investor requirements; and enterprise management. The company's Encompass Digital Lending Platform helps lenders and investors across their workflow from the prospective customers to the point of loan delivery. In addition, the company provides education and training services; professional and technical support services; and loan product, policy, and guideline data and analytics services. Ellie Mae, Inc. was founded in 1997 and is headquartered in Pleasanton, California.

Read MoreNew Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday promised to protect and promote investments as he sought foreign funds to boost growth, saying that India is a free destination for enterprise and ready for business. Speaking at the India-Korea Business Summit organised jointly by CII and DIPP, he said his government has worked towards creating a stable business environment and removed arbitrariness in decision-making.

India is now ready for business. India is now a free destination for enterprise. You will not find such a free and growing market anywhere in the world, he said.

In FDI, the Asias third largest economy is one of the most open countries with most sectors open for foreign investment and more than 90 per cent approvals put on automatic route.

There is practically no requirement of government approval for investments in manufacturing sector except for Defence sector, he said. I further assure you that whatever is required to promote and protect your investments will be done here. Mr Modi said his government has worked towards creating a stable business environment, ensuring the rule of law, and removing arbitrariness in decision making.

India can potentially grow at 8%, claims Arun Jaitley:

Indias economy has the potential to achieve a growth rate of more than 7-8 per cent in view of policy changes, accompanied by a supportive global environment, finance minister Arun Jaitley said on Tuesday. Addressing the summit here, he observed that over the next 10-20 years India will continue to remain one of the fastest growing economies in the world.

India has demonstrated in the last few years that it has, even in a global environment of adversity, a potential to self correct itself, to continue to take difficult decisions if necessary and maintain a high growth trajectory, Mr Jaitley said. He said the country has been able to blend its economic decisions along with political acceptability to the extent that there is now a huge support, almost bordering on impatience, where people want India to reform and grow much faster.

According to him, most people in India believe that a 7-8 per cent growth rate is an absolute normal for the country but the real potential of India is to beat that. Therefore with policy changes accompanied by a supportive global environment, India perhaps has the potential to achieve a little more than that, he said.Recently, a story was published about a woman Beth Evans, who was forced to postpone her dream holiday to Dubai minutes before take-off because an air hostess overheard her complaining of period pains and deemed her unsafe to fly.

While period pains are a natural bodily process, heres what you can do to ease period pains and the bad moods and spotty skin that can accompany them.

Speaking to The Sun, Jenny Francis lists some of the ways to reduce discomfort during period pains.

Having salmon: Women who eat omega-3s have milder period pain than those who dont, studies show. Oily fish such as salmon contains these anti-inflammatory fats that can help reduce the swelling that causes pain. Eat fish every week for best effect.

Hot water bottle: Holding hot water bottle on the part of the stomach where you experience period pain can help take the edge off your cramps. Keeping yourself warm and comfortable while at home or at work will help you relax, meaning your muscles will be less tense.

Dark chocolate: It can curb your cravings and feed your body with magnesium  a key mineral that helps alleviate those awful cramps. It can also boost your energy and mood.

Pat a pet: Research shows stroking animals reduces stress and pain, helping you feel more relaxed while also lifting your mood.

Practice yoga: Not only will it help you and your mind chill out, it also stretches the body, encouraging cramping muscles to relax. The extra blood flow can also help improve mood and reduce symptoms of pain.

Ditch tight clothings: When the tummy is inflated and bloated, tight clothing can only make things worse. Wear loose-fitting dresses or jumpsuits to give your tummy some breathing room.

Exercise: Exercise is one of the most effective ways to alleviate tummy cramps and lower back pain, studies show.Raising your heart rate will also serve up a serious helping of mood-boosting endorphins.

Soak up Vitamin D: If youre able to get outside and soak up some vitamin D, you might also notice your tummy pain reducing. Thats because it encourages your body to use calcium and can reduce inflammation.

Sleep in foetal position:But experts claim sleeping in the foetal position can help to rid of pain and keep more comfy. Lying on one side with legs tucked up next to stomach may take pressure off abdominal muscles, helping one relax, reducing tension and pain.

Stay hydrated: Staying hydrated increases blood flow to the muscles, helping them relax. It also stops skin from drying out, keeping those monthly breakouts under control.The study revealed interbreeding was widespread in the history of these animals. (Photo: Pixabay)

A new study now finds that there are just two African elephant species, forest and savanna elephants - and they don't interbreed.

The research adds to growing fears regarding the future of the few species that remain on Earth.

The study, published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, was conducted by a team of scientists from McMaster University, the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Harvard Medical School, Uppsala University,and the University of Potsdam.

The team painstakingly sequenced 14 genomes, from both living and extinct species from Asia and Africa, two American mastodons, a 120,000-year-old straight-tusked elephant, and a Columbian mammoth.

What the study revealed was that interbreeding was widespread in the history of these animals.

However, this has virtually stopped.

Speaking about it, evolutionary geneticist Hendrik Poiner, who is one of the senior authors on the paper and Director of the McMaster Ancient DNA Centre and principal investigator at the Michael G. DeGroote Institute for Infectious Research said, Interbreeding may help explain why mammoths were so successful over such diverse environments and for such a long time, importantly this genomic data also tells us that biology is messy and that evolution doesn't happen in an organized, linear fashion.

He added that the combined analysis of genome-wide data from all these ancient elephants and mastodons has raised the curtain on elephant population history, revealing complexity that scientists were not aware of earlier.

For example, a DNA analysis of the ancient straight-tusked elephant showed that it was a hybrid with portions of its genetic makeup stemming from an ancient African elephant, the woolly mammoth, an present-day forest elephants.

Researchers also found further evidence of interbreeding among the Columbian mammoths (which covered the present day United States as far south as Nicaragua and Honduras) and woolly mammoths, which arose in Eurasia.

Surprisingly, scientists found no genetic evidence of interbreeding among two of the world's three remaining species, the forest and savanna elephants, suggesting they have lived in near-complete isolation for the past 500,000 years, despite living in neighboring habitats.

The finding is surprising because interbreeding among closely related mammals is fairly common.

'This paper, the product of a grand initiative we started more than a decade ago, is far more than just the formal report of the elephant genome,' said co-senior author Kerstin Lindblad-Toh, a senior associate member of the Broad Institute and Director of the Science for Life Laboratory at Uppsala University in Sweden.

She further added, It will be a reference point for understanding how diverse elephants are related to each other and it will be a model for how similar studies can be done in other species groups.

The researchers suggest that future work should explore whether the introduction of new genetic lineages into elephant populations - both living and ancient - played an important role in their evolution, allowing them to adapt to new habitats and fluctuating climates.The discovery of human bones at the alleged murderer's former home in Brittany has sparked hope that the truth will prevail. (Photo: Pixabay)

For nearly a century the case of Guillaume Seznec, accused of killing his business partner even though no body or weapon was ever found, has fascinated France as one of the country's most notorious legal mysteries.

Now, the discovery over the weekend of human bones at Seznec's former home in Brittany has sparked hope among his descendants and defenders that the truth may finally come to light.

Denis Langlois, a former lawyer for Seznec's family, and author Bertrand Vilain carried out their unofficial dig in the cellar of the unoccupied house on the theory that the victim may have been accidently killed by Seznec's wife as she resisted his advances.

In May 1923 Seznec, a lumber merchant, travelled to Paris from the western town of Rennes with Pierre Quemeneur, a local official, to buy a stock of cars left by US forces after World War I.

Three days later Seznec returned home alone, saying that after a series of car breakdowns on their way to the capital, Quemeneur had wanted to return by train.

Quemeneur supposedly sent a telegram from Le Havre saying he would be home "in a few days", but was never seen again.

Police later claimed Seznec himself sent the telegram. Despite his claims of innocence his testimony was often contradictory, prompting a jury to sentence him to a life of hard labour in French Guiana.

- 'More will turn up' -

Seznec was freed for good behaviour by Charles de Gaulle in 1946. He had refused in 1933 to seek a pardon, saying "only the guilty ask for a pardon".

He returned to the French mainland a broken man, his wife and eldest daughter having died while he was in prison.

He was killed a few years later after being knocked down on a Paris street by a truck that fled the scene. He was 69 years old.

Seznec fought all his life to have his conviction overturned, a campaign that continued after his death with the support of family members as well as lawmakers, judges and journalists.

Even the police inspector who led the case, Pierre Bonny, reportedly voiced his remorse at "having sent an innocent man to prison" shortly before he was executed for collaborating with the Gestapo during World War II.

The "Seznec Affair" became a source of fascination, spawning TV movies as well as a popular theatre show in 2010 based on the trial, where audiences were asked at the end of each performance to give a verdict. On average, 90 percent declared him innocent.

But prosecutors have denied 14 requests to reopen the case since 1924, most recently in 2006.

That could soon change with the two bone fragments found over the weekend, which have been turned over to local prosecutors for an eventual DNA analysis.

"More things will turn up. We thought we'd start finding things at one metre deep, but we found these on the surface," Vilain told AFP.

"We had solid information, and a crucial witness. We weren't just digging on a whim."

- 'Never say anything' -

In a 2015 book, Langlois claimed that Seznec's son Guillaume had recorded a conversation with his nephew in 1978, describing his version of events.

Guillaume, 11 at the time, recalled hearing his mother fighting off Quemeneur and then seeing him laying on the ground with the woman standing over him.

"I think she had to defend herself and hit him in the head," Guillaume said, according to Langlois.

Besides Guillaume and his parents, only one other person, a housemaid named Angele, knew the truth. "We were made to swear that we would never say anything," Guillaume recalled.

"Our hypothesis is that Pierre Quemeneur tried to take advantage" of Seznec's wife, who fended him off with a heavy candlestick, Vilain said.

Police have taken over the search at Seznec's house, which also turned up part of a broken pipe.

Prosecutor Jean-Philippe Recappe said investigators were checking if the bone pieces -- one of which may be the top of a femur -- were indeed human and if so, from a man or a woman.

"Only then will we decide on resuming the excavations," he said.A case has been lodged against the boy under Sections 377 (unnatural offences) of IPC and Section 3/4 of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act. (Representational image)

Noida: A 14-year-old boy has been apprehended for allegedly raping a four-year-old girl in Gautam Buddha Nagar districts Sarfabad village on Monday. The accused, who studied in class VII, was produced before the Juvenile Justice Board on Tuesday, which sent him to a remand home in Phase II.

According to a report in The Times of India, police said the crime took place around 4 pm on Monday when both the teenager and the girl were alone at home. Seeing the girl alone, the boy lured her with toffees to his house and then sexually assaulted her.

Police further said, Both live in rented accommodations in the same locality in Sarfabad. Their parents are daily wage labourers and they had gone to work.

Though the girl returned home on her own in the evening, she complained of pain in her private parts when her mother came back from work. After being coaxed by her mother, she eventually narrated her ordeal to her parents who then informed the police.

A medical examination conducted at a district hospital confirmed that the girl was sexually assaulted. Subsequently, the boy was picked up.

The parents of both the children are migrant labourers, Uday Ram, a Sarfabad resident, said.

Sector 49 SHO Pankaj Pant said the boy was at home as he had not gone to his school in Sarfabad on Monday. After getting information, we sent the girl for medical examination which confirmed carnal intercourse. The child is in pain but out of danger, he added.

A case has been lodged against the boy under Sections 377 (unnatural offences) of IPC and Section 3/4 of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO).

He has been sent to a remand home, Pant said.The tremulous mud-slinging of the Kanchi mutt that followed the state polices investigations into the Sankararaman murder case under an earlier AIADMK regime was perhaps too much for the acharya to bear. It could go to show that politics and religion can never go together.

CHENNAI: In the passing away of the 69th acharya of the Sri Kanchi Kamakoti Peetam, Sri Jayendra Saraswati, at Kanchipuram at around 9 am on Wednesday, at the age of 82, after a brief illness, the country has lost a many-sided, dynamic, if at times even controversial seer who constantly strived for inter-religious harmony. Much as the Hindu-right would like to appropriate him as an activist avataar from the down South, as a correspondent having covered the events of the acharya for nearly two decades, one could state with all humility that it would be too superficial and unfair to read the life and times of Sri Jayendra Saraswati as that of a Hindutvavaadin, despite his proximity to several RSS and VHP leaders. Significantly, Sri Jayendra Saraswati had been maintaining that the resolution of the Ayodhya issue was better left to religious leaders, and politicizing the dispute would do no good. I do not think he changed from that position, though in recent years he had relapsed into a profound silence in the wake of the Sankararaman murder case, in which he and all the other accused were absolved of all charges. Interestingly, Sri Jayendra had taken up the high-profile initiative to resolve the Ram temple issue in the year that marked his 50th year of ascension of the pontifical seat of Kanchi Kamakoti Peetam, a revered seat of spiritual power with a tradition spanning centuries and drawing inspiration from the great preceptor of the Advaita (Non-dualism) philosophy propounded by Sri Adi Sankara.

After the outbreak of the communal riots in Gujarat post-Godhra incidents in 2002, Sri Jayendra Saraswati was one of the first religious leaders to personally rush there and appeal for calm, in a bid to bring back peace and communal harmony. That was even commended by the DMK president and former chief minister M. Karunanidhi who then said it made him proud that someone of stature from Tamil Nadu had taken the initiative to bring back peace in Gujarat.

Born on July 18, 1935, in Irulneeki (in composite Thanjavur district, the village name literally meaning dispelling darkness), the acharya in his poorvaashrama was named Subramaniyan by his parents Mahadevan and Saraswathi. And nobody then thought that Subramanian would ascend to the seat of the Kanchi mutt, to succeed one of the greatest sages of modern India, the late senior acharya, Sri Chandrasekharendra Saraswati and whom Mahatma Gandhi revered.

One of Sri Jayendras biographers tells us that his father Mahadevan had set up an organisation, Amara Bharati to inculcate Sanskrit learning among children. It was in that environment that the young boy Subramanian encountered his early spiritual vibrations. Even as Subramanian had his early training in the Vedas, in mid-March 1954, his father got a call from the Kanchi mutt on the senior acharyas intention to initiate Subramaniyan into rigorous monastic order. Thus, began a long and arduous new journey for the lad when Sri Chandrasekharendra Saraswati performed the ceremony in Kanchipuram on March 22, 1954, initiating him into the monastic order, giving him the sanyasa name, Sri Jayendra Saraswati.

Sri Jayendra Saraswati tried to find a middle path and then launched two movements, Jan Jagran and Jan Kalyan in the late 1980s. With those two initiatives, the focus of which was to reach out to society, the needy and under-privileged sections like Dalits, Sri Jayendra Saraswati was responding to his times.

A series of activities that included renovation of old temples, attending to the educational needs of poor students particularly Dalits, seeking to reverse the earlier poor state of finances of the Kanchi mutt, helping to renovate the Adi Sankara Keerthi Sthamba Mandapam at Kalady in Kerala that was close to his gurus heart, in all these, Sri Jayendra used to say he was only responding to an inner call. The importance he gave to education was further reflected in his efforts, with then Prime Minister P.V. Narasimha Raos and then HRD minister Arjun Singhs helping hand, to set up the Sri Chandrasekharendra Saraswathi Vishwa Mahavidyalaya, a deemed university, near Kancheepuram.

Many a time, his views on issues like Ayodhya, cow slaughter, widow remarriage, besides his support for the anti-conversion ordinance brought by an earlier AIADMK government headed by J. Jayalalithaa (that ordinance was later allowed to lapse) have provoked fierce controversies. Yet, Sri Jayendra Saraswati always believed in resolving issues through mutual dialogue and discussion. He also clearly disapproved of the demolition of the Babri Masjid in December 1992.

Made fervent efforts to resolve Ayodhya issue

Sri Jayendras high point, as a pontiff donning a political role, was when he was former Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayees unofficial ambassador to re-initiate a dialogue process to resolve the Ayodhya issue in 2003. Vajpayee had thought that Jayendra Saraswatis charismatic, moderate, middle-path affirming persuasive abilities could bring all contentious groups on board, including the Sangh Parivar, VHP and the All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) to a discursive wavelength that could pave way for a resolution during his tenure.

For weeks together, Sri Jayendra Saraswatis formula to untangle the Ayodhya dispute was kept in wraps. And in early July 2003, when it was first made public, on a stunning new aspect of that proposal- Muslims could gift the disputed land at the site of the Babri Masjid-, the seer said its acceptance would elevate Muslims to the position of Mount Everest. That was a testament to his faith in the need for Hindu-Muslim unity, in an already polarized post-Godhra scenario.

Though the AIMPLB outright rejected the seers formula, even as the VHP and other Sangh outfits - barring RSS leader Ram Madhav and then RSS chief K. S. Sudarshan trying to bring about a rapprochement at the 11th hour those crucial days -, had begun to go hammer and tongs against the Kanchi seer for his unilateral moves that even drew flak from New Delhi-based philosophers like Pratap Bhanu Mehta that the Sankaracharyas approach lacked consensus, Sri Jayendra himself said at one point to reporters in Kanchipuram then: In a democracy, people are free to express their views. This is only my initiative and we are hoping for the best. More than what the Hindus felt about the proposal, the Acharya said, it is the acceptability by Muslims that is very crucial at this stage. That once again demonstrated his concerns for inter-religious harmony.People wait to pay their last respects to Shankaracharya Jayendra Saraswathi, the 69th pontiff of the Kanchi Mutt, who died on Wednesday in Kanchipuram.

CHENNAI: In the passing away of the 69th acharya of the Sri Kanchi Kamakoti Peetam, Sri Jayanendra Saraswati, at Kanchipuram at around 9 am on Wednesday, at the age of 82, after a brief illness, the country has lost a many-sided, dynamic, if at times even controversial seer who strived for inter-religious harmony.

Much as the Hindu-right would like to appropriate him as an activist avataar from the down South, as a correspondent having covered the events of the acharya for nearly two decades, one could state with all humility that it would be too superficial and unfair to read the life and times of Sri Jayendra Saraswati as that of a Hindutvavaadin, despite his proximity to several RSS and VHP leaders.

Significantly, Sri Jayendra Saraswati had been maintaining that the resolution of the Ayodhya issue was better left to religious leaders, and politicising the dispute would do no good. I do not think he changed from that position, though in recent years he had relapsed into a profound silence in the wake of the Sankararaman murder case, in which he and all the other accused were absolved of all charges.

Interestingly, Sri Jayendra had taken up the high-profile initiative to resolve the Ram temple issue in the year that marked his 50th year of ascension of the pontifical seat of Kanchi Kamakoti Peetam, a revered seat of spiritual power with a tradition spa-nning centuries and drawing inspiration from the great preceptor of the Advaita (Non-dualism) philosophy propounded by Sri Adi Sankara.

After the outbreak of the communal riots in Gujarat post-Godhra incidents in 2002, Sri Jayendra Sarasw-ati was one of the first religious leaders to personally rush there and appeal for calm, in a bid to bring back peace and communal harmony.

Born on July 18, 1935, in Irulneeki (in composite Thanjavur district) the ach-arya in his poorvaashrama was named Subrama-niyan by his parents Mahadevan and Saraswathi. And nobody then thought that Subramanian would ascend to the seat of the Kanchi mutt, to succeed one of the greatest sages of modern India, the late senior acharya, Sri Chandrasekharendra Saraswati and whom Mahatma Gandhi revered.

One of Sri Jayendras biographers tells us that his father Mahadevan had set up an organisation, Amara Bharati to inculcate Sanskrit learning among children. It was in that environment that the young boy Subramanian encountered his early spiritual vibrations. Even as Subramanian had his early training in the Vedas, in mid-March 1954, his father got a call from the Kanchi mutt on the senior acharyas intention to initiate Subramaniyan into rigorous monastic order. Thus, began a long and arduous new journey for the lad when Sri Chandrasekharendra Saraswati performed the ceremony in Kanchipuram on March 22, 1954, initiating him into the monastic order, giving him the sanyasa name, Sri Jayendra Saraswati.

Sri Jayendra Saraswati tried to find a middle path and then launched two movements, Jan Jagran and Jan Kalyan in the late 1980s. With those two initiatives, the focus of which was to reach out to society, the needy and under-privileged sections like Dalits, Sri Jayendra Saraswati was responding to his times.

The importance he gave to education was further reflected in his efforts, with then Prime Minister P.V. Narasimha Raos and then HRD minister Arjun Singhs helping hand, to set up the Sri Chandrasekharendra Saraswathi Vishwa Mahavidyalaya, a deemed university.

Many a time, his views on issues like Ayodhya, cow slaughter, widow remarriage, besides his support for the anti-conversion ordinance brought by an earlier AIADMK government headed by J. Jayalalithaa (that ordinance was later allowed to lapse) have provoked fierce controversies.

But one fallout in his last years, the acharya could not bear was the tremulous mud-slinging of the Kanchi mutt that followed the state polices investigations into the Sankararaman murder case under an earlier AIADMK regime. Perhaps in it lies a cautionary tale that politics and religion can never go together. RIP.New Delhi: l The Narendra Modi government on Tuesday announced a significant cut in the airfare for those going on Haj, a month after it scrapped subsidies for the pilgrimage.

Describing the move as a major step, Union minority affairs minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said, The PMO took a keen interest in this. The decision is in line with our empowerment without appeasement policy.

The reduction will be applicable to travel on Air India, Saudi Airlines and Flynas, an air carrier based in Saudi Arabia, to Jeddah and Medina from 21 airports in India. The move to cut airfares will end the political and economic exploitation of Hajis as was done during the Congress-led UPA regime, Mr Naqvi said.

The minister also compared Haj airfares fixed during the former UPA government and the ones for 2018. From Ahmedabad, the roundtrip fare this year will be around Rs 65,015, against Rs 98,750 in 2013-2014. The fare from Mumbai has been brought down to around Rs 57,857 from `98,750 in 2013-14. The government had abolished subsidies given to those on the pilgrimage.CHENNAI: Makkal Needhi Maiam president Kamal Haasan on Tuesday claimed close to one lakh people attend the launch of his new political party in Madurai last week. Kamal, who had last week refused to give a specific number saying he would come out with the figure only after a scientific analysis of how many people were present at the Othakadai public meeting, said in a statement here that the rally was a success.

The actor-activist had on Wednesday last launched his Makkal Needhi Maiam, promising an administration free of corruption, nepotism and freebies. The actor had also promised to forger closer ties with all neighbouring states in southern India. A big vanakkam to each one of close to one lakh participants who thronged the launch venue, for their participation and cooperation, Kamal said in the statement, expressing gratitude to Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, Farmers' association leader P. R. Pandian and Delhi MLA Somnath Bharti for their participation.

We express our gratitude to all the participants who exhibited exemplary energy and discipline. At the outset, we dedicate the success of the launch to the people of Madurai. We also thank the office-bearers, secretaries and members of the Narpani Iyakkam, the actor said. Meanwhile, speaking to reporters at the Chennai airport on his arrival from Mumbai, the actor condemned playing of a religious song at an official event at the Indian Institute of Technology-Madras. This is my personal opinion. If you want my party's opinion, you may have to wait. The party's opinion can be aired only when I elicit views of all my colleagues, he said. The actor also said the state government should take steps to ensure that workers from here don't end up in jails in neighbouring states like Andhra Pradesh.While the CBI has alleged that Karti had received funds of `10 lakh in the INX media case, the ED has also registered a money laundering case.

New Delhi: Senior Congress leader P. Chidambaram appeared to have a premonition of the arrest of his son Karti when he filed a petition recently in the Supreme Court apprehending continued harassment to him and his family members.

Karti was arrested by the CBI on Wednesday on his arrival from London, even before Chidambarams petition could be listed for hearing by the top court.

Chidambaram, who has been closely monitoring the case of his son in the Supreme Court which is argued by his party colleague and senior advocate Kapil Sibal, had sprung a surprise last week by filing a petition on his own accusing the CBI and the ED of carrying out a political vendetta against him and his family. In his petition, Chidambaram has sought the apex court's direction prohibiting the CBI and Enforcement Directorate from continuing their illegal investigations and from acting in any manner causing repeated harassment to him and his family members, including his son.

However, the CBI swung into action by arresting Karti even before the petition was heard by the top court.

Meanwhile, Karti on Wednesday signed the arrest memo by writing on it that all allegations against him were aimed to target his father P Chidambaram, during whose tenure as Union finance minister, FIPB clearance was granted to INX media.

This whole exercise is to politically target my father, Karti wrote on the arrest memo before signing it.

The memo of arrest was placed before duty magistrate Sumeet Anand, before whom Karti was produced.Congress candidate Brijendra Singh Yadav with his supporters flashes victory sign after winning Mungaoli bypolls Assembly elections, in Ashok Nagar District Madhya Pradesh on Wednesday.  PTI

New Delhi: The Congress on Wednesday retained the Mungaoli and Kolaras Assembly seats in Madhya Pradesh, while Naveen Patnaiks Biju Janata Dal won the Bijepur Assembly bypolls in Odisha, dealing a blow to the Bharatiya Janata Party which had campaigned aggressively in both the states.

The results of the byelections in these two crucial states, close on the heels of the BJPs rout in Rajasthan bypolls, are being viewed as proof of rapid decline in the saffron partys popularity.

Together, Odisha, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan account for 75 Lok Sabha seats.

The defeat in Madhya Pradesh is a body blow to Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan who had gone all out to wrest the seats from the Congress, and a major boost to the Congress Jyotiraditya Scindia who is keen on being the partys Chief Ministerial candidate in the elections due later this year. Both the seats fall under his Guna Lok Sabha constituency.

While the Congress Brijendra Singh Yadav defeated his BJP rival by a narrow margin of 2,124 votes in Mungaoli, Mahendra Singh Yadav defeated the BJPs Devendra Jain in Kolaras by 8,083 votes.

Byelections to Mungaoli and Kolaras were necessitated following the death of sitting Congress candidates Mahendra Singh Kelukheda and Ram Singh Yadav respectively.

The Congress had won Mungaoli and Kolaras seats by margins of 20,765 and 24,953 seats respectively in the previous elections.

In Odisha, where the BJP had campaigned aggressively and claimed to be making major inroads, the party lost the Bijepur Assembly berth by a massive margin of 41,0933 votes. Its being viewed as a major victory for Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik.

The byelection in Odisha was held following the death of three-time Congress MLA Subal Sahu in August last year.

The BJD fielded his widow as its candidate, while Ashok Panigrahi left the BJD and contested on a BJP ticket.

Mr Scindia, who addressed 76 rallies in both the constituencies, had openly declared the election as a Scindia v/s Shivraj battle and targeted the Shivraj Singh Chouhan government for its failure to the address the problems of farmers and provide employment to educated youth.

The chief minister, who had addressed an equal number of rallies in both the constituencies, had fought on the poll plank of development and offered various sops to woo voters.

Since Mr Chouhan was facing massive anti-incumbency sentiment, virtually all the Cabinet ministers from Delhi were put on poll duty.

The results are being seen as an indicator of voters mood ahead of Assembly elections in MP later this year.

In Madhya Pradesh this is the second major victory for the Congress. In November 2017, it had won the Chitrakoot Assembly seat.

Conceding defeat, Mr Chouhan claimed that the absence of the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) in both the seats had helped the Congress.

BSP usually garners 30,000-35,000 votes in each constituency. The victory margins of Congress in both the seats demonstrate that the party had gained by the absence of BSP in the byelections, he said. He claimed that the byelections would not have any impact on the upcoming Assembly elections.

Both the Assembly seats are considered traditional Congress bastions. In 2013 Assembly elections, Congress won the two seats by a margin of over 25,000 votes in each constituency. The victory margins of Congress in the byelections have come down drastically, the chief minister said.Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister and and TD national president N. Chandrababu Naidu offers cake to Telangana TD leaders after a party meeting in Hyderabad. Naidu cut a cake to celebrate his 40th year in politics. (Photo:DC)

Hyderabad: Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister and Telugu Desam national president N. Chandrababu Naidu said the Telangana BJP leaders announced that they did not have any alliance with the TD, without informing them. Mr Naidu met Telangana TD leaders and workers at NTR Trust Bhavan on Wednesday in Hyderabad.

Mr Naidu asked the TD workers to work hard for strengthening the party in Telangana. He said that during the 2014 elections, the TD had alliance with the BJP in Telangana and won 20 Assembly seats.

But after the election, the Telangana BJP leaders have announced that they dont have any alliance with the TD without informing them.

Mr Naidu said he has the responsibility to protect the workers who have trusted him for 35 years. He said that at the same time, the party should be protected in both AP and TS and he is not ready to compromise on this issue.

Mr Naidu said that the people will support the party if the leaders and workers are always with them. He said the TD will again have its old days back in Telangana.

Demand for Junior NTR:

While Mr Naidu was delivering his speech, some workers raised slogans demanding to hand over Telangana TD responsibilities to actor Junior NTR. Some other workers threatened to commit suicide if the TD merges with TRS. Some workers said the TD will not need an alliance with the BJP or with the TRS in Telangana.

The workers raised slogans with placards. Reacting on this, Mr Naidu said that nobody has the right to merge TD with any other party. He said that alliance will be formed according to workers opinion only.Mr Kushner, a wealthy New York businessman married to Trump's daughter Ivanka, has not received his full security clearance because of his extensive financial links, which have taken a long time to examine. (Photo: AP)

Washington: US President Donald Trump's son-in-law and close adviser, Jared Kushner, has lost access to the most valued US intelligence report, the President's Daily Brief, as the White House imposes greater discipline on access to secrets, two US officials familiar with the matter said on Tuesday.

Mr Kushner, who has been operating under an interim security clearance for about a year, had his access to the highly classified briefing cut off in the past few weeks, said the sources.

A third official, also speaking on condition of anonymity, said Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein recently passed new information to White House Counsel Don McGahn that led to the slowing or stopping of Kushner's pending clearance application. The nature of that information was not clear.

It also is unclear if and when Mr Kushner's access to the briefing, known as the PDB, which requires clearance higher than the Top Secret level, would be reinstated.

Mr Kushner, a wealthy New York businessman married to Trump's daughter Ivanka, has not received his full security clearance because of his extensive financial links, which have taken a long time to examine. He has revised his security clearance form, called an SF-86, several times.

A White House spokesman for Mr Kushner did not immediately return a phone call and email seeking comment. Trump ignored reporters' shouted questions about Mr Kushner and his clearance at an event on Tuesday afternoon.

Mr Kushner's attorney, Abbe Lowell, said in a statement: "Mr Kushner has done more than what is expected of him in this process."

"My inquiries ... have confirmed that there are a dozen or more people at Mr Kushner's level whose process is delayed, that it is not uncommon for this process to take this long in a new administration, that the current backlogs are being addressed, and no concerns were raised about Mr Kushner's application," Lowell said.

Mr Trump's White House has been grappling with the security clearance issue since it emerged in February that staff secretary Rob Porter worked for Trump for a year with a temporary clearance despite accusations by his two former wives of domestic abuse. Porter has maintained his innocence.

The President's Daily Brief is distributed to a small number of top-level US officials. It includes highly classified intelligence analysis, information about CIA covert operations and reports from the most sensitive US sources or those shared by allied intelligence agencies.

New security clearance policies announced by White House Chief of Staff John Kelly "will not affect Mr Kushner's ability to continue to do the very important work he has been assigned by the President," Lowell said.

But one of the US officials who said Kushner had lost access to the daily brief said that without it, his role in some major policy deliberations, including on China and Russia, could be limited.

Broad Portfolio

Mr Kushner has had a broad portfolio in the White House. He has taken the lead on Mr Trump's plan to forge a Middle East peace deal and led the Office of American Innovation, which is intended to modernize and downsize government programs.

Mr Kelly, whose handling of the Porter case was heavily criticized, decreed on February16 that any interim security clearances for staffers whose background investigations had been pending since June 1 or before would be discontinued within a week.

A source familiar with the matter said the situation had caused tensions between Kushner and Kelly.

On Friday, Mr Trump said he would leave it to Kelly to settle the security clearance dispute with Kushner, but left little doubt he wanted the case settled in a way that allowed Kushner to keep his job. As president, Trump could grant Kushner a full security clearance on his own authority.

White House spokesman Sarah Sanders would not comment on whether Kushner's security clearance issues had been resolved.

"He's a valued member of the team and he will continue to do the important work that he's been doing since he started in the administration," she told a briefing.

A top Republican and Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee wrote to McGahn and FBI Director Christopher Wray on Tuesday, asking for more information on the number of White House officials with interim clearances.

The letter by Senator Chuck Grassley, the committee's Republican chairman, and Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal, suggested bipartisan concern over the issue.

Citing reports that dozens of officials are operating with interim clearances, the two lawmakers wrote: "If true, this raises significant concerns that ineligible individuals, who hold positions of public trust, may have access to sensitive or classified information."Claiming that she had first hand information on the link between Donald Trump and Kremlin Vashukevich asked for help after being arrested in Thailand. (Photo: Instagram/ nastya_rybka.ru)

Moscow: The ever complicated probe into Russian meddling in US presidential elections 2016 takes another bizzare turn.

Sex expert and escort service worker Anastasia Vashukevich claims she could give US intelligence service information in exchange for help, in the wake of her arrest in Thailand, the Washington Post reported.

(Photo: Instagram/ nastya_rybka.ru)

Vashukevich was earlier in the news for her videos which brought to light the ties between Russian billionaire Oleg Depriska and Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Prikhodko.

Claiming that she had first hand information on the link between Donald Trump and Kremlin Vashukevich asked for help after being arrested in Thailand during a weekend raid on a sex seminar which she was participating in.

Vashukevich better known as Nastya Rybka, had an affair with Deripaska who she alleged hired ex-Trump aide Paul Manafort.

On Tuesday, in a live Instagram video Vashukevich said, "I am the only witness and the missing link in the connection between Russia and the US elections - the long chain of Oleg Deripaska, Prikhodko, Manafort, and Trump."

She is seen being driven off in an open-air police van through a Pattaya resort. "In exchange for help from US intelligence services and a guarantee of my safety, I am prepared to provide the necessary information to America or to Europe or to the country which can buy me out of Thai prison," she said.

In the video, she claims having already given an interview to US broadcaster NBC.

Vashukevich shot to fame in January when Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny broadcast old videos from her Instagram account dating back to August 2016 in which Deripaska and Prikhodko are seen in a yacht.

Navalny used the footage to indicate possible ties between Deripaska, a metals magnate and Russias most influential official Prikhodko alleging that the latter had been bribed with women and a luxury getaway.

He also alleged that the two could have been the link between Trump and Kremlin, pointing to a possible collusion with Russia to influence American votes.

Prikhodko lambasted Navalny calling him a political loser whereas Deripaska rubbished the nationalist democrats claims and sued him for violating his privacy saying, Navalny's allegations have nothing to do with reality.

A court ordered Instagram to remove some of Vashukevich's posts.

Vashukevich who was in Dubai when Navalny made the videos public travelled to Thailand after. On Sunday, according to reports in Russian media, Thai police raided a sex seminar for Russian tourists wherein they arrested her.

Vashukevich and several others had been detained for being part of an "illegal training session," the Russian embassy consul Vladimir Sosnov told Russian state news agency RIA Novosti.

However, the high-society escort claims that the arrests were made under orders from Russian officials in lieu of Deripaska and Prikhodkos videos and that she was expecting to be deported back to Russia, where shed be jailed again.

A post in English on her Instagram account said, "Please USA save us from Russia! All this cases are political repressions!"

Russia's most important security and intelligence officials including Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev, former head of the Federal Security Service were also in Thailand at the time of Vashukevichs arrest.Public school officials in one of the nations fastest-growing cities are being accused of violating the separation of church and state.

The controversy has been simmering in this once-tiny cotton-farming community, about 30 miles north of Dallas, since last summer when Rick McDaniel, superintendent of the McKinney Independent School District, prayed at a pulpit adorned with a Christian cross  during a mandatory school employee meeting at a church.

Last month, under pressure from concerned parents, the 24,500-student school district decided to end a decade-plus practice of conducting high school commencement ceremonies at the same church, Prestonwood Baptist, a Southern Baptist megachurch in nearby Plano.

The change outraged Prestonwood Pastor Jack Graham, one of President Trumps evangelical advisers and a former president of the Southern Baptist Convention.

It appears religious freedom is under attack at the McKinney Public Schools, Graham said in a Twitter post. It was our refusal to remove the cross from view that created this cowardly decision.

In a follow-up post, Graham added, Just wondering on what planet a church,synagogue, or mosque would be expected to cover its religious symbols to host a public school graduation.

And in another tweet, the pastor alleged that school administrators had yielded to the pressure of atheist groups and their supporters.

McDaniels prayer drew the ire of the Wisconsin-based Freedom From Religion Foundation, which demanded that the school temporarily cover iconography to keep graduation ceremonies secular.

Its co-president, Annie Laurie Gaylor,said in a statement after the school districts decision: We are pleased that the school has moved its graduation to a secular location rather than attempt to modify a house of worship into a place that appears secular. The districts decision to change its tradition to protect its students rights of conscience is anything but cowardly.

Across the nation, church-state clashes like the one in McKinney are happening more and more, said Charles Haynes, founding director of the Newseum Institutes Religious Freedom Center in Washington, D.C.

As we grow more religiously diverse in the United States and people are more visible from various religious groups that have long been here but have not been visible, we are being called in these communities to live up to the First Amendment for the first time in many cases, said Haynes, co-author of Finding Common Ground: A Guide to Religious Liberty in Public Schools.

Haynes said that if a cross or crosses were visible during a public graduation ceremony, that wouldnt necessarily be wrong or unconstitutional. But the church cant require a cross to be visible, nor require students to listen to a pastor.

Religious freedom isnt a local church putting conditions on a public school using its facility and making sure its cross is visible, Haynes said. Thats the opposite of religious freedom, and thats exactly what the First Amendment is intended to prohibit.

School district spokesman Cody Cunningham said in a statement that there were a variety of reasons including proximity, availability, attendance capacity and convenience for moving the graduation events to the secular Allen Event Center in a neighboring suburb.

In addition to proximity, McKinney ISD acknowledges the fact that parents and community members have expressed opposing views on the appropriateness of holding graduations in a religious facility, Cunningham said. More recently, the public debate over the venue intensified to a level that would likely have caused a distraction at the commencement ceremonies.

While community members are entitled to their own opinions on the issue, he added, graduation is not an event to be used as a platform for religious or ideological debates, but rather a time to celebrate and honor students.

Just since 2000, McKinney has more than tripled in size, hitting an estimated population of nearly 180,000. Last year, it ranked as the third-fastest growing city in America among communities with populations of 50,000 or more, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

In 2014, Money magazine named McKinney as the No. 1 best place to live in the U.S., saying, Underlying McKinneys homey Southern charm is a thoroughly modern city.

Seven years ago, in search of a community friendly to his Christian values, James Blanchet moved his family from Southern California to McKinney. When a cashier at a local Target store told him to Have a blessed day, he felt like he had found it.

Blanchet, the father of a high school senior, said Christianity seems to be under increasing attack in some quarters.

But the software sales professional said he has no problem with moving McKinneys commencement ceremonies to a secular location.

If they wanted to hold the graduation at a non-Christian place of worship, I wouldnt feel comfortable with that, he said at a Starbucks near the busy intersection of U.S. highways 380 and 75. I do see both sides of it.

So, in the scheme of things, is it a big deal? No. Youve got to pick your battles.

McKinney school officials declined to comment on the controversy, and the district spokesman would not discuss reports of an intolerant environment in the schools.

Two McKinney public middle school teachers resigned last month after they posted anti-gay and anti-Islamic tweets. Twitter messages were discovered in which the teachers referred to Islam as a satanic death cult, an evil ideology and a political ideology  (that) cannot assimilate, according to the Dallas-Fort Worth chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations.

At a meeting last month, Farah Uddin, a Muslim mother, urged the school board to accept diversity training offered by groups including CAIR and the Gay and Lesbian Alliance of North Texas.

Uddin noted that the school districts Vision, Mission & Beliefs statement says, Everyone has an inherent value and deserves to be treated with dignity and respect.

But with recent developments, I feel we are not following this belief, Uddin told the board. Some students have recently come out and reported that teachers within the ISD have been engaging in racist and discriminatory behaviors toward certain students in the classroom. As a result, these students are hiding their identity out of the fear of being bullied because of their race, religion, gender or sexual orientation.

Kate Parker, a mother of two McKinney students, describes herself as agnostic.

The former public school art teacher said she has helped organize an informal, interfaith group of parents  including Christians, Jews, Muslims, atheists and agnostics. The group has pressed the school board for more inclusivity and sensitivity toward students of all faiths or no faith.

Too often, Parker said, teachers have placed Christian crosses and Bible verses on school walls, prayed aloud in classrooms and said things like, The answer to all your big questions is God.

Its about making sure every kid  feels comfortable and included at school, Parker said in an interview at Filtered, a craft coffeehouse just down the street from the Collin County Courthouse in downtown McKinney.

Obviously, the focus has a lot to do with separating church and state and making sure that McKinney ISD is in compliance with the law, she added. But for the group of us who have all been interested and talking with the district about this, the real overreaching umbrella is about inclusion.

However, other parents worry that something special will be lost by moving the commencement ceremonies away from the church.

Heather Harrison said she attended graduation for two nieces and a nephew at Prestonwood Baptist. Each event was special, Harrison said, especially because Gods presence was there.

I feel like its another step to moving everything toward more secular, the mother of two said. But I know Texas is a popular place. People move here from all different backgrounds, and so you dont just have one belief in Texas.

You have all kinds of people that come together, she added. So, I see where people could have an issue with it if you werent a Christian.  But it makes me sad.CAMP WILLIAMS  The Utah National Guard will conduct a live-fire artillery exercise at Camp Williams on Wednesday.

Soldiers from the 640th Regional Training Institute will be training for a new career in the artillery field.

Artillery fire will occur sporadically throughout the day, beginning at approximately 7 a.m. and ending approximately 7 p.m.

The exercises are not open to the public.

Those expected to be most affected by exercise are residents of Bluffdale, Riverton, Herriman, Eagle Mountain, Saratoga Springs and Lehi.

For more information please contact Lt. Col. Steven Fairbourn at 801-716-9209 or the Camp Williams hotline at 801-878-5421.SALT LAKE CITY  U.S. Senate candidate Mitt Romney and Utah House and Senate Republicans talked about a GOP State Central Committee move to kick out some candidates who collect signatures to get on the primary election ballot during closed-door meetings Tuesday.

But the former Republican presidential nominee isn't wading into the controversy.

"I believe that I will be on the ballot. I'm not terribly concerned about that, given the sentiment of the people who proposed the most recent bylaw. They said they don't want the U.S. Senate race to be part of this effort," Romney told reporters after meeting separately with the GOP House and Senate caucuses.

Romney said he's going to let others deal with the politics within the party and the process for securing a nomination.

"Frankly, as someone who is kind of biased on this topic as a candidate, I'm not going to get involved in which side of the debate within the central committee will ultimately be successful," he said.

Romney is gathering signatures to get on the primary ballot and has said he would also participate in the caucus and convention process under Utah's dual-track system.

Last weekend, the GOP State Central Committee voted to expel candidates in the 1st and 2nd congressional districts who take the signature-gathering route. No one has declared an intent to do that at this point.

The possibly illegal rule does not affect candidates already signed up to run this year, but could have implications for federal, statewide, state legislative or State School Board elections in the future, should it remain in place.

Don Guymon, spokesman for the Utah Republican Party Constitutional Defense Committee, said the changes were made in consultation with lawyers and in compliance with U.S. Supreme Court precedent and Utah law.

Guymon contends SB54, a compromise bill Utah lawmakers passed in 2014 creating the two-track system, is unconstitutional. A federal judge upheld the law, but the Utah GOP has an appeal pending in the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver.

Republican candidates have been required to certify they will not violate party rules since 2015, but the bylaw lacked enforcement language, he said.

"Under the new bylaw language, a candidate who willingly files to run, using a method contrary to Republican Party rules, temporarily forfeits membership in the Party for the duration of the election cycle," according to Guymon.

Utah Republican Party Chairman Rob Anderson said the party's attorney warned the committee against adopting the rule. He has met or is meeting with House and Senate Republicans, Lt. Gov. Spencer Cox, whose office oversees elections, and Gov. Gary Herbert to find a resolution.

Anderson said the central committee is trying to force another lawsuit with the bylaw change.

The Utah Republican Party declared itself a qualified political party under the law, which allows candidates to get on the primary election ballot by gathering petition signatures, going through the political partys convention, or both.

The new rule could put the party's status in jeopardy, possibly hindering its ability to place candidates on the ballot.

"I think it's fair to say that the State Central Committee over the weekend violated state law, federal law and the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution," said Rep. Mike McKell, R-Spanish Fork. "Their actions were highly inappropriate."

McKell opened a bill file Tuesday should the Legislature need to step in. Republicans, he said, don't know what would happen if the Utah GOP were to lose its qualified political party status.

"We want to be prepared," he said, adding there is no language in the bill at this point. "We'll take the recommendations from the lieutenant governor's office and make sure that we protect the Republican Party, that the Republican Party continues to exist."

Alliance for a Better Utah called on Cox to decertify the Utah Republican Party if the changes to its bylaws are not repealed to conform with state election law.

As much as the central committee members who passed this bylaw might want to revert to the caucus system as the sole route to the ballot, the reality is that state law tells all political parties that they must also allow candidates to access the ballot by gathering signatures," according to Better Utah founder Josh Kanter.

Romney was scheduled to meet with the Republican House and Senate caucuses before the bylaw controversy. He said after the closed meetings that they discussed shrinking populations in some rural Utah counties, as well as rapid growth in other areas.

Senate Republicans routinely close their caucus meetings, while the House GOP periodically closes its caucus, and did so Tuesday to discuss budget and tax issues.

"Oh, I think he was well-received," acting Senate Majority Leader Kevin Van Tassell, R-Vernal, said of Romney.

But Van Tasselll said the Senate Republicans will hear from another GOP candidate Friday, Tim Jimenez. "He's requested, so we'll have him in," he said.

Romney "talked about his vision and how he wants to work with us. Of course, you know that's all the right things to say," Van Tassell said.

Senators asked more than a half-dozen questions, including about public lands.

"He talked about some reforms he wants to see on public lands, getting at least more dialog," Van Tassell said.

Romney's visit was discussed at an early meeting, he said, and GOP senators voted unanimously to hear from him in caucus.

Senate President Wayne Niederhauser, R-Sandy, said not every candidate has been welcomed.

There was a bit of "blowup" over an invitation extended to 2016 independent presidential candidate Evan McMullin, he said. Libertarian presidential candidate Gary Johnson also addressed the caucus before the last election.

Contributing: Lisa Riley RocheDo you remember the first time you had a ride by an Uber or Lyft driver? Did the idea of riding in someone elses car  someone you didnt even know  perhaps push you out of your comfort zone a little? You were picked up within minutes of clicking the app, arrived where you needed to go and your credit card was charged for exactly the amount you were quoted beforehand.

It was so easy that you almost wondered why you hadnt done it before. Most everyone was happy, of course, except for the entrenched taxi industry that had grown unresponsive to changing market demands.

Just as Uber and Lyft helped usher in a new chapter of the sharing economy, Utah has recently seen the arrival of companies redefining the car rental market. Thousands of people in Utah are sharing cars through new companies called Turo and HyreCar. Think Airbnb, except instead of sharing a room in your basement, youre sharing your car.

Turo and HyreCar help you share your vehicle when its not being used and help you find vehicles available for use in your area when traveling. Most major cities in the state have multiple cars available on these platforms, offered by Utahns who live there.

Yes, its legal  and the companies work out the insurance issues (including a $1 million policy on every car and driver using Turo). But pending legislation in the Utah Legislature, House Bill 429, could make it difficult for companies like Turo and HyreCar to compete with existing car rentals companies  who, like the old taxi industry, are not too excited about this new sharing economy competition.

Rightly so  because this new approach reduces overhead, capital costs and other bloat. Rentals using Turo or HyreCar can end up costing around 30 percent less than a typical car rental company.

These companies are mimicking arguments used by taxis against Uber, and hotels against Airbnb  expressing concern over public safety and wanting to level the playing field.

But these arguments are often a mere mask for protectionism  an effort to regulate their competition out of existence. Yet thousands of cars being shared by Utahns on Turo and HyreCar were likely purchased here in Utah, with millions of dollars of sales taxes paid by those owners when they purchased them. A little-known loophole in Utah tax law exempts the old car rental companies from having to pay any sales tax whatsoever. So much for a level playing field.

To date, that means that the old car rental companies have gotten out of paying tens of millions in sales taxes in Utah on cars that they use to make money. Perhaps if car rental companies were consistent, they would encourage the Legislature to look at leveling the playing field by eliminating this loophole and earmarking this money to increase teacher salaries in the state.

The sharing economy empowers micro-entrepreneurs, enables people to lift themselves out of poverty and helps Utahns transact directly and happily with one another. Regulating these new models into oblivion is a net negative for our society, even if it helps the existing, entrenched industry.

The Utah Legislature should resist the temptation to impose additional burdensome regulations on a brand new industry, letting the free market system work its magic.With nearly $600 million in additional revenues available for spending this legislative session, lawmakers must follow through on their commitment to create meaningful, and equitable, education reform for Utahs students.

A combination of lucrative revenue growth, a budget surplus and federal tax changes have given lawmakers the gift of ample resources to solve the problems and fund the bills on their docket. We support the Legislature's revived focus on education spending and reform this session  particularly lawmakers desire to eliminate funding disparities between socioeconomically stratified school districts.

Broadly, educational investment is a budget item that enjoys the support of both parties and the governor. Gov. Gary Herbert celebrated that the revenue growth provides the opportunity to make much-needed investments in education, an issue that is a top priority for both my administration and Utahs Legislature. The Legislature also passed four education bills unanimously on the first day of the session, completing an overhaul of the education code that had not been revised since the 1950s.

With the code updated, however, the Legislature is now presented with the more difficult challenge of policy reform. Members of the House and Senate disagree over what form that, and the associated spending, might take. Currently, both chambers are debating what policy measures would best achieve the reforms sought. On the table are proposals for teacher bonuses, freezing the state property tax levy and redistributing income tax revenues among districts to make education funding less volatile.

We support the initiatives outlined by the governors Utah Education Roadmap to ensure all students have access to excellent care and instruction  irrespective of their background. We believe resource allocation should reflect the value that Utah places on its students and teachers.

Some ideas for reform include a pay raise for Utahs teachers with the intent of "elevat(ing) the education profession" through better compensation, with bonuses for teacher leaders who take time to mentor other teachers. The plan also includes the expansion of professional development initiatives within and among districts so that teachers can ensure their pedagogical skillsets remain sharp throughout their careers.

Additionally, we support both the governor and the Legislatures call to make all levels of education more equitable. Some proposals target the young, expanding extended-day kindergarten for all students, as well as increased pre-school services for at risk students "likely at risk of academic failure" to ensure their education gets off to the right start.

While the policy specifics will be determined by the Legislature through debate, we agree with the governor that "educational organizations must seek action to remove institutional barriers, particularly in higher education, to ensure our best efforts moving forward for all respective students in Utah. Additional funding alone will not remove these barriers or create better outcomes. Innovation and customized learning for students occur when teachers are empowered to challenge the status quo and focus on the unique needs and talents of each student.

Some ideas for achieving this goal entail redistributing funding so that districts with lower income tax revenue will still be provided the resources needed to help students succeed. The governors plan also includes additional state funding for at risk students as an add-on to per-pupil funding to the tune of roughly $100 million per year.

In the forthcoming policy debates held by the Legislature, we urge lawmakers to consider thoughtfully each proposal and the extent to which it achieves the goal of ensuring Utahs educational system is innovative, student-centric, effective and equitable. Lawmakers should leverage the current budget surplus by applying it to an investment in Utahs future  an investment that will pay dividends.DALLAS  Growing up in the slums of Hong Kong, Cecilia Yiu quickly learned the importance of education in order to progress in life. With sacrifices from her family, Yiu traveled to BYU-Hawaii at age 18, and completed a bachelor's degree in two years. Education was her key, and she did not want to miss her opportunity.

She continued on, receiving her master's of business administration from Brigham Young University, and landing a job with one of the Big Four accounting firms, PriceWaterhouseCoopers in Dallas.

Now, with two children and working as a stay-at-home mom, Yiu has found a way to share her passion for education and the importance of encouraging learning at an early age. On Feb. 21, Yiu launched a Kickstarter for Discover Wonders, a talking book series that strives to fuel curiosity and learning in children.

Choosing to stay home

Since leaving Hong Kong at 18, Yiu has made choices that were opposite of the culture she grew up in.

"In Hong Kong, the mentality is you dont get married until you are 30 and you have one child or possibly two," Yiu said. "You hire a housekeeper, and the housekeeper or the grandparents take care of the kids and you work."

She met her husband, Nelson Chan, at BYU-Hawaii and was married in 2007 at the age of 22. Upon receiving her MBA in Provo, the couple moved to Dallas, where Nelson studied to receive his doctorate in chiropractic and Cecillia worked, thousands of miles away from both Nelson's and Cecilia's families in Hong Kong.

The couple had prayed for five years to have a child when Cecilia became pregnant in 2013. Life seemed to be at a high point until both Nelson and Cecilia ran into visa problems and had to immediately stop working.

"A major heart attack," Cecillia said. "We decided to buckle up and embrace the challenge."

A promise from PriceWaterhouse that she could return once the problems were resolved gave the family hope but Cecillia says her mind was opened during that time.

As a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Cecillia Yiu strongly believed in the importance of motherhood. However, as her husband was still in school she had been providing a major portion of their income. She had been home with her daughter for 10 months when she had to make the decision whether to return to work.

"At one point in the last days that I could no longer drag out telling my boss if I was going back or not, I went into my room, knelt down and prayed and said, 'Here are my two options, I want to choose my daughter,'" Cecilia said. "And the answer was so clear, it was as if a light turned on in a dark room, it was that clear that you have to take this option where you are not going to be paid much, but take it, dont worry, go with it.

"It was still a long time out of temporal suffering after that decision because of the financial impact, but from a spiritual standpoint, from that moment on, every single decision in my career was directly tied to a revelation.  I never knew that secular and sacred could be so close, and that itself to me was the biggest testimony to me that Heavenly Father cares about us, he knows our situations and he knows the struggles that we are going through.  The best part is, he knows our potential so much better than we do. I would never have thought that a startup could unleash this passion in me  completely changed everything."

A startup begins

From that point on, Yiu stayed home with her daughter and decided to home-school her. At 3 years old, she could barely speak full sentences because she was learning two languages, English and Cantonese, yet she would find a way to ask questions that Yiu was unsure how to answer.

One night, Yiu's daughter asked her what the moon was. Yiu explained simply that it was a moon, that it did not generate light on its own, but reflected light from the sun. A few months later, Yiu's daughter pointed at a mirror and made the connection that it was like the moon because it was reflecting light.

"It was an epiphany," Yiu said, "that little children have the ability to not only ask questions but they can digest extremely complicated information and internalize it."

In pondering how to best teach her daughter, Yiu realized that her own availability and her daughter's inability to read were the two things hindering her learning.

"If I could overcome these two barriers, my availability and her vocabulary, she could understand so much more, starting when they are young when they are extremely absorbent and constantly asking these questions to figure out the world around them," Yiu said. "Thats when the idea came.  Thats how I came up with the whole idea, having a series of talking books that uses an ordinary item, things they see all the time, and then we introduce the wonders behind it. Because when you look at everything, they are wonders, we just take them for granted."

Yiu has created a book series that focuses on common items such as water, balloons, bicycles or toothbrushes. The item is then introduced by learning its history, or by viewing the item mathematically and scientifically.

"I thought if I could create something that weaves all these different threads, starting when theyre young they can develop things across dimensions," Yiu said.

In order to then make the books accessible to her young daughter, Yiu used the idea of a talking pen that responds to over 300 audio hotspots in each book.

Yiu explained her goal is to help other parents who may have found themselves in a similar situation as she did.

"A lot of parents have the idea that their child doesnt want to learn," Yiu said. "That its such a pain to get them through school, they think school is boring and the information is not relevant because we are not teaching them when it is relevant to them, when they are actively seeking questions."

Yiu has received $14,000 of her $30,000 goal through Kickstarter. The fundraiser is open until March 22.SALT LAKE CITY  A new poll shows 55 percent of Utah voters believe their communities are growing too quickly and there's not enough planning for growth.

More people  68 percent  worry about health problems due to smog, and 65 percent worry about threats to current and future water supplies.

Where this might matter to Utah lawmakers is that those same voters don't believe the Legislature is doing enough to protect the state's land, air and water resources  with fewer than a fourth of them giving lawmakers "excellent or good" marks.

Dave Livermore, executive director of the Nature Conservancy of Utah, which commissioned the poll, said while Utah lawmakers have made strides in specific areas such as air pollution, there is a general sense by the public more needs to be done to protect natural resources.

"This is not so much about public lands  that is and always will be a polarizing issue  but what is in our own backyard," Livermore said.

"The results of this poll are really revealing and show some common ground on these resources close to home," he said.

The poll, conducted Feb. 2-11, involved 715 online and live telephone interviews with registered voters. The margin of error is plus or minus 3.7 percent.

The Nature Conservancy is hoping the poll results gird lawmakers into coughing up more money for the LeRay McCallister Fund, established in 1999 through the Utah Quality Growth Act.

Since its inception, the fund has worked with farmers, ranchers and other private land owners to conserve more than 90,000 acres in Utah through a variety of means such as conservation easements.

Over 100 grants have been issued to the tune of $21 million, money leveraged to bring in nearly $200 million. All projects are supported by local governments, involve only willing sellers and buyers, and maintain private ownership of the land, Livermore said.

"We've spent years working with ranchers and farmers who are some of the best stewards of the land," he said.

Although LeRay McCallister could be fully funded at $6 million, it's never met that mark.

Livermore said legislative appropriations for the fund have dwindled over the years to nearly nothing.

"We're just not doing as well on these issues," he said. While nearly $2 million in funds were awarded in 1999 to conserve land, in 2016 the award was $94,750.

Rep. Steve Handy, R-Layton, and Rep. Susan Duckworth, D-Magna, have both submitted funding requests totalling $1 million for the LeRay McCallister Fund. They await action by the Legislature's Executive Appropriations Committee.

"We are grateful to both of those lawmakers. It is a clear case where land and water is not a partisan issue," Livermore said.

Handy said the LeRay McCallister Fund is an effective tool to help protect diminishing open space.

"These are watersheds, this is helping a farmer preserve his or her longtime family ranch and farm  things that are necessary and needed right in our backyard and communities. The Legislature's commitment to the fund has rather lagged. I am hopeful there is a way to have more of an ongoing commitment."

Livermore said all one has to do is explore communities along the western Wasatch Front to witness the transformation from pastures to pavement.

"With our state facing such growth, it is time we have all hands on deck," Livermore said. "We are losing a lot of farmland to development. It is never going to cost less to protect our critical farmland."SALT LAKE CITY  About 30 protesters gathered outside Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch's downtown office Tuesday to demand he join 50 other U.S. senators that have expressed their support of undoing recent federal changes to net neutrality rules.

The clock for a potential reversal of those changes, approved in December by the five-member Federal Communications Commission, began last week when the new rules were enrolled. That started a 60-day countdown for federal legislators, under the Congressional Review Act, to assess those changes and potentially undo them, requiring only a simple majority vote by both houses of Congress.

The FCC action returned internet service providers to their pre-2015 classification as information service companies, which comes with fewer rules and less stringent oversight than the Title II telecommunication designation that had been in place the previous two years.

Opponents say the changes will allow internet service providers to create different levels of service speeds, potentially throttling users' access to certain websites while offering optimized access to sites providers own or have paid agreements with.

Protest organizer Charlotte Maloney, who delivered letters from the group to a Hatch staffer at the Wallace F. Bennett Federal Building, said the FCC rule changes undermine the rights of all U.S. internet users.

"The actions that the FCC took will allow big companies like Verizon and Comcast to control the internet," Maloney said. "Its really, I think, a First Amendment issue. They are limiting our First Amendment rights to free speech as well as limiting our access to information."

Hatch's office did not respond to multiple requests for comment on the effort, but Sen. Mike Lee, who has been publicly supportive of the FCC changes, provided a statement to the Deseret News reiterating his position.

"For over 30 years the Federal Trade Commission regulated the internet just fine, Lee said. No one has ever explained to me what was so bad with the internet in 2015 that the Federal Communications Commissions had to start regulating the internet in 2016.

Net neutrality rules have been tracking with partisan sea changes in Washington over the past few years.

The 3-2 vote last year to approve the Restoring Internet Freedom proposal, crafted by Republican FCC Chairman Ajit Pai  a President Barack Obama appointee who was designated chairman by President Donald Trump in January 2017  broke along party lines, mirroring the partisan split that favored Democrats when the Title II designation was approved in 2015.

As of Tuesday, all 47 Democratic senators had signed on to the resolution of disapproval, as well as two independents and one Republican, Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine. The effort is likely to face a tougher battle for votes in the House, where Republicans maintain a wider majority.

Protest participant and Magna resident Kevin Andrew Nelson said he thought internet regulation should be a politically neutral issue and that changes made by the FCC were intended to cede control to telecommunications power brokers.

"The corporations are not our voice," Nelson said. "The internet was funded with taxpayer dollars, that means it was funded with our voices. Every voice is equal in this nation but what theyre trying to do doesnt add up to that."SALT LAKE CITY  A bill that would push back the implementation dates of ballot initiatives was made public for the first time this week.

HB471 states that any voter-approved ballot initiatives raising taxes would not go into effect until the January that follows the first general legislative session after the vote, meaning such measures approved in November of this year would not be formally implemented until the start of 2020.

Laws with no effect on state taxes would take effect 60 days after the end of the first general legislative session following the vote. Implementation of laws that decrease taxes would not be pushed back.

Rep. Brad Daw, R-Orem, the sponsor of the bill, said it would give state lawmakers the opportunity to "do the same thing with initiatives that we do with any bill and give it time  and wrinkle out any issues, any problems" before it becomes binding.

"One of the challenges with any initiative is once you start collecting signatures, the initiative gets locked in stone," Daw told the Deseret News. "You can't change what they're signing to put on the ballot, so if there's something wrong with it  you can't fix that."

DJ Schanz, director of the Utah Patients Coalition campaign seeking the broad legalization of medicinal cannabis in the state, criticized Daw's bill as "like moving the goal posts midgame," adding that "when we filed the ballot initiative the (law) was different."

"We find it to be poor legislation and poor timing, given the fact that the ballot initiatives are on our doorstep, and he's proposing moving the goal posts at the last minute," he said.

Schanz said that if any aspects of implementing the Utah Patients Coalition ballot initiative contradict with what is in Daw's bill, "we feel pretty strongly that the courts would be in our favor."

"We feel strongly there's precedent that the courts frown on usurping the public's ability to vote on public measures," he said.

Daw said he could only think of one part of the medical cannabis initiative that would "go into effect immediately" and be affected by his bill, which is a provision allowing a person to claim as a defense against charges of illegal marijuana use that they would have been eligible for a medical cannabis card, and therefore their behavior would have been legal, if such cards were already being produced.

"That (part of the initiative) may or may not change. At least it gives us a chance to examine it and see if it causes any problems" before it takes effect, Daw said.

The provision has drawn Daw's ire in multiple interviews with the Deseret News. He has said it would make it extremely difficult to police to enforce any marijuana laws before 2020, thus providing de facto recreational access in Utah.

Medical cannabis legalization advocates have argued a strong burden of documentation of therapeutic need would fall to a person offering such a defense.

But Daw says that ballot initiative supporters should know his bill "doesn't change them" and "it's not hostile to them."

"It gives us a chance to straighten things out," he said.

Our Schools Now, which is seeking to generate more than $700 million for public education, and Utah Decides Healthcare, which is pursuing full Medicaid expansion in the state, are two initiative campaigns that would enact tax increases if they make it to the ballot in November and are approved by voters.

Austin Cox, campaign manager for Our Schools Now, said "anything that would delay a voter-approved initiative would be very troubling."

"Our schools are severely underfunded every day kids go to school," Cox said.

The language of the Our Schools Now initiative would implement the first sales tax increase beginning in April 2019, while income taxes would bump up in calendar tax year 2019, Cox said.

"We spent numerous hours with the State Tax Commission while we were drafting this legislation  to make sure that we had rates that were reasonable and made sense and that the laws we were proposing were in concert with existing laws," he said.

Multiple attempts to reach Rylee Curtis, manager of the Utah Decides Healthcare campaign, were not successful.

Daw told the Deseret News that the longest implementation delay outlined by his bill is for measures increasing taxes because he wants to ensure any such increase "is not coming live too soon."

If those raised rates happen too rapidly, state agencies as well as businesses are left "not knowing which way to jump," Daw said.

"Again, it gives things a chance to happen in an orderly manner," he said of his bill.

Daw's bill gives leeway to ballot initiatives that establish their own applicable date in the language of the measure  but only in cases where the implementation comes after the effective date restrictions described.

HB471 is still awaiting its first committee hearing.SALT LAKE CITY  From student productions to Shakespeare and historical topics to hilarity, March offers local theatrical productions that run the gamut, including two options for "Hamilton" lovers.

University productions

Universities along the Wasatch Front will stage productions starring students in each schools theater department, featuring three dramas and a musical.

 Utah Valley University: UVU Department of Theatre will stage Russian playwright Anton Chekhov's classic drama The Seagull. The play explores whether the characters  each vastly different  can reach ultimate happiness with their competing desires, according to UVUs website. The Seagull will be in UVUs Noorda Blackbox Theatre, March 1-10, times vary, $10-$14 (801-863-8797 or uvu.universitytickets.com).

 University of Utah: University of Utahs Department of Theatre is bringing Up: The Man in the Flying Chair to Studio 115 on the U. campus. According to theater licensing company Samuel French, the play focuses on Walter Griffin, a failed inventor who focuses more on reminiscing about his glory days when he took flight on a lawn chair rigged with helium balloons than on providing for his family. The U. will stage the production March 9-17, dates and times vary, Studio 115, Performing Arts Building, U., $18 for general, $15 for U. faculty and staff, seniors and military, $8.50 for non-U. Students and free for U. students (801-581-7100 or tickets.utah.edu).

 Brigham Young University: BYUs Department of Theatre and Media Arts is offering two very different productions in March. First is Mary Stuart, a play loosely based upon the relationship between Queen Mary Stuart of Scotland and England's Queen Elizabeth I. The heart of the play is an imagined meeting between the two rulers that surprises with its contemporary insights into the nature of power, femininity and kinship, according to arts.byu.edu. The play will run March 9-24, dates and times vary, Margetts Theatre, Harris Fine Arts Center, BYU, Provo, $10-$16 (801-422-2981 or arts.byu.edu).

BYUs second production is the musical Single Wide, which features a toe-tapping country/pop score as it tells the story of a girl who lives in a small trailer park but dreams big, according to BYUs arts events website. Single Wide will be in the Pardoe Theatre, Harris Fine Arts Center, BYU, Provo, March 23-April 7, dates and times vary, $9-$17 (801-422-2981 or arts.byu.edu).

Comedies

Comedy theaters Off Broadway Theatre and Desert Star will each open spoofs of well-known stories.

 While both Hale Center Theater Orem and CenterPoint Legacy Theatre stage actual productions of Disneys The Little Mermaid in March, Off Broadway Theatre stages a humorous take on the story, complete with local cultural references, with The Little Miamaid, March 9-April 14, Off Broadway Theatre, 272 S. Main, $10-$16 (801-355-4628 or theobt.org).

 If you missed getting tickets to Hamilton at the Eccles Theater, Desert Star will offer an alternative with the parody Spamilton, March 22-June 2, Desert Star, 4861 S. State, $24.95 for adults, $14.95 for children ages 11 and under (801-266-2600 or desertstar.biz).

Other productions to pencil in

 Lin-Manuel Miranda fans have another option to see the award-winning playwright and composers work locally in addition to Aprils touring production of Hamilton. Pioneer Theatre Company is scheduled to stage a concert version of In the Heights, the musical that garnered Miranda his first Tony Award in 2008, according to Broadway World. The concert version will be at Pioneer Theatre, 300 S. 1400 East, March 16, 7:30 p.m., and March 17, 2 and 7:30 p.m., $25-$40 (801-581-6961 or pioneertheatre.org).

 Long before Miranda started to dominate the theater world, the Bard reigned supreme. Though Mirandas success may be filling headlines as of late, William Shakespeare isnt going anywhere. His work is performed so often that there are enough productions around the world to fill every hour of every day, according to The Guardian. Pioneer Theatre Company will be contributing to that statistic with its production of Twelfth Night, March 30-April 14, times vary, Pioneer Theatre, 300 S. 1400 East, March 16, 7:30 p.m., $25-$49 (801-581-6961 or pioneertheatre.org)

 Utah Childrens Theatre is set to bring heroic outlaw Robin Hood and other familiar characters, including Prince John, Guy of Gisbourne and the Sheriff of Nottingham, to its stage with a version of Robin Hood written for both children and adults to enjoy. The show runs March 2-April 7, dates and times vary, Utah Childrens Theatre, 3605 S. State Street, $16, group rates available (801-532-6000 or uctheatre.org)SALT LAKE CITY  The Utah House narrowly passed a bill late Tuesday aiming to balance confidentiality for college students who report sexual assaults to the school and administrators informing police to protect against potential campus predators.

HB254 would create guidelines for when universities may report incidents to local police if they see a clear and significant threat to the campus community.

"No woman, no man, no person should ever experience a brutal rape and find out that the school, in a position of authority, knew about five other victims " said Rep. Kim Coleman, R-West Jordan, the bill's sponsor.

The measure, which passed 40-33, also bars universities from sanctioning a student for code of conduct violations if they are victims or witnesses of sexual violence. It now goes to the Senate for consideration.

Rep. Angela Romero, D-Salt Lake City, argued that the bill would have a chilling effect on victims reporting sexual assaults.

"Were going to take a step back with this bill," she said, noting that many victim advocates oppose the legislation.

But Rep. Tim Quinn, R-Heber City, said "how in the world" could there be a chilling effect when only one in 30 sexual assaults is reported.

"What we're doing now isn't working," he said.

Rep. Merrill Nelson, R-Grantsville, said universities must be free to override a victim's confidentiality and report the assault to police when campus safety is at risk. To do otherwise would be irresponsible, he said.SALT LAKE CITY  State lawmakers scrapped plans late Tuesday to keep reporters off the House floor before they debate and vote on bills.

The proposal from Rep. Jim Dunnigan, HR4, originally sought to block reporters from the chamber floor 45 minutes before morning and afternoon sessions. That was whittled to five minutes before being removed all together.

The new rule now says reporters may go on to the floor to conduct interviews but aren't allowed to linger or loiter, Dunnigan said.

The House, however, passed another resolution regarding journalists. HJR16requires reporters to take a workplace harassment training course to obtain credentials to cover the Legislature. The measure now goes to the Senate.SALT LAKE CITY  Vehicle registration fees would jump from $44 to $72 but there would no longer be a statewide sales tax increase under the latest version of the Legislature's Transportation Governance and Funding Task Force bill.

Senates voted 18-9 to give SB136 preliminary approval Tuesday night. A final vote in that chamber could come as soon as Wednesday.

The bill, sponsored by Sen. Wayne Harper, R-Taylorsville, still includes an overhaul of the Utah Transit Authority. UTA's 16-member board of trustees would be replaced by a three-member management team responsible for running the agency.

But Harper, the co-chairman of the task force that met throughout last year to plan for the state's transportation needs, substituted the bill to eliminate a proposed 0.15 percent statewide sales tax hike to raise $80 million for mass transit projects.

The bill, which kept the option of local sales tax increases for transportation, dumped the statewide sales tax increase in favor of adding $28 to all vehicle registration fees.

The increased fees, which would include charging electric car owners an additional $122 and those who drive plug-in hybrid vehicles, another $52, are expected to raise $85 million annually for the new transit fund created in the legislation.

Senate President Wayne Niederhauser, R-Sandy, and other legislative leaders had said a tax increase will be a hard sell to lawmakers in a year when revenue growth adds up to well over $500 million.

Tuesday, the advocacy group Americans for Prosperity Utah issued a statement urging the Senate to drop the proposed tax hike for the "plagued" transit authority that is operating with a $2 billion deficit.

"Taxpayers should not reward UTA with more of their hard-earned money. UTA has been poorly managed and now they want taxpayers to make the sacrifices theyre unwilling to make," the group's state director, Heather Williamson, said.

During the Senate debate, Sen. Lincoln Fillmore, R-South Jordan, called the fee hike in the bill a "pretty significant increase."

But Sen. Lyle Hillyard, R-Logan, said Harper "chose probably the lesser of several evils, but I think its a major step and we have to be united in doing this."

He did, however, raise a question about UTA salaries under the new management structure.

Harper assured him the three-member management team's earnings were "not going to be exorbitant wages seen in past," but closer to $130,000 each while the new general manager's pay would be in line with "acceptable state standards."

Sen. Jim Dabakis, D-Salt Lake, tried and failed to replace the bill with one calling for a gas tax increase of more than 30 cents a gallon, to come up with the $600 million shortfall in the current gas tax.

"People who use roads ought to pay for roads," Dabakis said. "It is welfare."SALT LAKE CITY  Two bills addressing the affordable housing crisis in Utah advanced in a House committee this week.

HB430, sponsored by Rep. Becky Edwards, R-North Salt Lake, creates the Commission on Housing Affordability in the Department of Workforce Services.

Edwards referenced a bill passed last year that created a fund to incentivize real estate developers and landlords to reduce rent and leasing rates for tenants by using loans and enhanced tax credits.

Edwards said the action was "a very important step forward" in dealing with affordable housing, but the issue didn't go away. Having a commission would bring "consistency of focus," she said.

Tara Rollins, executive director of the Utah Housing Coalition, said a task force assembled in 2017 "really started a great conversation, and we need to continue that conversation."

"Right now our population is growing faster than we can put units on the ground, and our wages are not keeping up with our rents," Rollins said.

There are 68,000 Utahns who are making 30 percent of their median area income, she said, and they are paying more than 50 percent of their income to housing.

The committee gave the bill a favorable recommendation and advance it to the House for further consideration.

SB133, sponsored by Senate Minority Whip Karen Mayne, D-West Valley City, removes the $250,000 minimum funding required by the legal definition of a "design-build" project.

Mayne said Habitat for Humanity came to her with the proposal for this bill. Her amendment would enable such organizations to build houses for less than $250,000.

Celesta Nagel, director of plicy and advocacy for the Utah Housing Coalition, said "any tools that we can get in our toolbox for affordable housing is greatly appreciated. Housing that people can afford is crucial."

The committee voted in favor of the bill unanimously. The bill previously passed the Senate.SALT LAKE CITY  Utah lawmakers are considering legislation that would create a new classification of crime for drug-induced homicide.

Rep. Steve Eliason, R-Sandy, presented HB309 to the House Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice Committee on Friday, saying "we are strictly trying to target drug dealers."

Eliason said illegal drug dealers can import fentanyl, an opioid, from China for very cheap, and dealing in opioids is becoming a very lucrative business.

He told the story of a man who was running a "pill mill" in the basement of a home in Eliason's district. Investigators were able to trace the "chemical footprint" of several opioid deaths to that one individual dealing drugs, Eliason said.

The purpose of creating an offense called drug-induced homicide, which would be a first-degree felony, is deterrence, he said.

Rep. Edward Redd, R-Logan, asked the sponsor why he chose homicide instead of manslaughter.

"There has to be intent," Eliason said. "If I knowingly give a product to somebody that I know can cause death. Maybe they think they're buying oxycodone, and I've laced it with fentanyl to cut down on the cost of producing the product. I'm knowingly putting that person's life in jeopardy if I'm a dealer."

Eliason said the purpose is to send a "strong message" to drug dealers that if they feed someone's addiction with an illicit drug and that person dies, they can be charged with a homicide.

Eliason said the wording of his bill sets the bar high enough that it would only target the kingpins of the illicit drug industry  "people who, day in and day out, are trying to profit from people's addictions with reckless disregard for their health or safety."

Redd was still unsure if drug dealers could be charged with a homicide for dealing drugs, saying they just want to make money, not kill people, even though they may not care if they kill people.

Assistant attorney general Scott Reed, who is also a member of the attorney general's opioid task force, clarified that the concept behind the bill is called "strict liability," which means if a death results from the dealing of drugs, the fact that the drug dealer intended to deal drugs is all the intention a prosecutor would need to prove to bring a drug-induced homicide charge.

Bountiful Police Chief Tom Ross, representing the Utah Chiefs of Police, spoke in support of the bill.

"There's been some very high-profile death cases involving kids in our communities this past year," Ross said. "We've got to have a way to deal with these more serious dealers that really are the kingpin, business (types). They don't care about the kids. They don't care about the young adults that they are killing."

Eliason said he has read a lot of literature on the opioid crisis, and generally no government can't arrest its way out of having this problem, "but there comes a time to send a strong message to those that are running that continuous criminal enterprise that as a society we don't accept this and people are dying."

The committee passed out the bill unanimously with a favorable recommendation to the floor of the House for consideration.Dozens of nuns, priests and lay people were arrested in the Capitol Rotunda as part of a Catholic-led effort to persuade lawmakers to protect undocumented immigrants who were brought to this country as children.

Those arrested were part of a group of at least 200 Catholic demonstrators who marched on Capitol Hill on Tuesday morning (Feb. 27) to draw attention to the fate of the immigrants, known as Dreamers, all of whom had been granted protection during the Obama administration through the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. President Trump has taken steps to rescind it.

DACA now covers 800,000 people who face deportation without it; hundreds of thousands more never signed up for the program but are believed to be in the same situation. The DACA participants hope for a legislative solution  including a path to citizenship  that polls show most Americans support.

A slate of faith groups have condemned Trumps decision to phase out DACA, and many religious leaders  including more than 80 rabbis and other Jewish activists in January  have been arrested in recent months during demonstrations to support the immigrants.

Tuesdays National Catholic Day of Action for Dreamers drew further attention to their plight.

Before their arrest, the Catholics filed past the Supreme Court as they sang hymns and held signs with the words Catholics Stand with Dreamers emblazoned next to a visage of the Virgin Mary.

A Supreme Court decision on Monday appears to have forced the federal government to continue reissuing DACA protections for now, but advocates say they cant afford to rely on the courts.

We have to insist that its not a time to wait around anymore  our Dreamers have heard plenty of false promises, but their lives are on hold, said Bishop John Stowe of the Diocese of Lexington, Ky., addressing the crowd on the Capitol lawn, where he was followed by other Catholic clergy and immigrants alike.

The Rev. Thomas Reese, a Jesuit priest and columnist with Religion News Service, was one of many speakers who singled out House Speaker Paul Ryan, who has often invoked his Catholic faith during his political career. Reese criticized what he sees as Ryans failure to pass legislation on the issue and invoked a passage from the Book of Acts where the Apostle Paul is asked by God why he persecutes Christians.

Speaker Paul Ryan needs to hear those words, so lets tell him: Paul, why do you persecute me?! Reese shouted. The crowd joined in, transforming the quip into a chant.

The group then entered the Capitol, knowing that gathering under its dome would likely result in their arrests. Many of those risking arrest said they were doing so for the first time but that their faith compelled them to act on behalf of undocumented immigrants.

I have never been arrested in my life, but with the blessing of my community, I am risking arrest today as an act of solidarity with our wonderful Dreamers, said Sister Elise Garcia of the Adrian Dominican Sisters, who traveled from Michigan to participate. To our leaders in Congress and in the White House, I say: Arrest a nun, not a Dreamer!

After a brief prayer led by Stowe, a smaller group of about 40  many of them nuns  began praying the rosary as police officers lined up behind them while issuing warnings with a bullhorn. Reese and several older nuns stood in a sunbeam and raised their fists in defiance as they belted the hymn Amazing Grace, their silhouettes casting long shadows across the stone floor.

When they refused to move, police quietly handcuffed them one by one.

Paul! Paul! Why are you persecuting me?! the demonstrators shouted again as officers led them away, their hands bound behind their backs. Supporters in the balcony applauded as they left.

Reese and all others arrested were processed and released shortly afterward.

The protest, organized by several groups, including the Franciscan Action Network, PICO and Faith in Public Life, is but the latest effort in a multiday campaign by Catholics on behalf of the immigrants.

On Monday, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops sponsored a call-in-day that encouraged parishioners across the country to contact members of Congress and ask them to show the leadership necessary to find a just and humane solution.

Several prominent church leaders, including Cardinal Blase Cupich of Chicago, promoted the effort on social media.

Ashley Feasley, policy director for the USCCBs migration and refugee services office, said the push was an expression of Catholic social teaching.

One of the things that is so important for us is this belief in the human dignity of all people, and the ability for all people to be with their family and the sanctity of family, Feasley said.

To see (Dreamers) face the loss of the ability to work legally and the threat of deportation is very disturbing, and goes against this idea of dignity and family unity.Hurricane Electric, the worlds largest IPv6-native Internet backbone, has opened its first Point of Presence (PoP) at Sitels Bratislava data center.

As Hurricane Electric continues to satisfy the IP transit demands of thousands of enterprises across the European Union, the companys most recent Central European expansion comes at an important time. Continued growth in IoT technology is expected to result in an estimated 20 billion internet connected devices globally in 2018, further increasing the demand for high-speed bandwidth throughout Europe and beyond. Locally, Bratislava has seen significant growth in the tech sector and is ranked third among its European counterparts in housing fast-growing start-ups.

With the launch of Hurricane Electrics newest PoP, customers of the Sitel data center and others in the area now have a variety of new connectivity options as well as the ability to improve fault tolerance, load balancing, congestion management and transit of next-generation IPv6 traffic.

Additionally, tenants at the facility are able to exchange IP traffic with Hurricane Electrics vast global network, which offers over 20,000 BGP sessions with over 7,000 different networks via more than 180 major exchange points and thousands of customer and private peering ports.

The Slovakian PoP also provides access to Hurricane Electrics extensive IPv4 and IPv6 network through 100GE (100 Gigabit Ethernet), 10GE (10 Gigabit Ethernet) and GigE (1 Gigabit Ethernet) ports and as a result, both new and existing customers will be able to experience increased throughput, reduced latency and improved reliability.

Hurricane Electric is delighted with the continued growth of our global network through this new Point of Presence and we remain committed to further expanding across Europe in 2018, said Mike Leber, President, Hurricane Electric. Because the region is so well connected, Slovakia has proven itself to be an important technological hub for Central Europe and beyond. Our newest site will allow customers of the Sitel data center to tap into the bandwidth and reach of Hurricane Electrics rich global network and we are grateful for the opportunity to support them.Ericsson and Chunghwa Telecom, the largest telecom operator in Taiwan, have signed a cooperation memorandum for a joint 5G pilot project.

The idea is to demonstrate 5G capabilities and facilitate the development of 5G applications for industrial partners. The two companies aim to deploy a 5G network at designated sites at the beginning of 2019.

The joint project builds on a 5G Memorandum of Understanding signed by Ericsson and Chunghwa Telecom last year, and will accelerate the deployment of 5G in Taiwan. It will also help realise Chunghwa Telecoms 5G pre-commercialisation plan for 2020.

According to Chi-Mau Sheih, President of Chunghwa Telecom, the trial network will use 3.5 GHz and 28 GHz frequency bands, test interoperability between 5G and 4G, and validate innovative applications. Chunghwa Telecom will enable consumers to experience 5G services, connect local industries to their international counterparts, and create new business opportunities.

Chris Houghton, Head of Market Area North East Asia at Ericsson, explains that ITU has pushed ahead with the standardisation, which means that Ericsson will be able to launch 5G network solutions earlier and support Chunghwa Telecom.

As a leading operator in Taiwan and an owner of a large-scale research institute, Chunghwa Telecom is an active member of international 5G organisations such as 3GPP (3rd Generation Partnership Project) and NGMN (Next Generation Mobile Networks).Coolpad announced at MWC 2018 that it will integrate Amazon's smart assistant, Alexa, with its devices. Syed Tajuddin, CEO of Coolpad India, said, We are working to immerse more AI and tech into smartphones to make the experience more Intelligent, friendly and beneficial for the customers. Incorporating Alexa in Coolpad smartphones is one such step in that direction. As Coolpad is looking forward to make smartphones more intelligent and helpful with AI, Alexa is a perfect fit. We will be rolling out Alexa in Cool Play 6, Note 5 and Note 5 via an OTA update and our upcoming devices will have Amazon Alexa pre-installed in them. It will definitely make the Coolpad devices even more convenient and helpful for customers.

Read the complete press release below

Coolpad Group, a leading global smartphone technology brand, today announced during the ongoing Mobile World Congress 2018 that it will integrate Amazon`s voice service, Alexa, across its devices. Coolpad will be the first Amazon Exclusive brand in India which will introduce Alexa in their smartphones. Amazon Alexa on Coolpad smartphones will give consumers a complete smart mobile experience as they will be able to use their Coolpad smartphone to access the abundance of Alexa skills with just their voice.

Coolpad smartphone users can give voice commands for multiple tasks, using the Coolpad Alexa app and can ask Alexa to play their favourite music, shop from Amazon.in, as well as access information such as weather, calendar, to-do lists and news briefings, that are set up through the Alexa app.

Syed Tajuddin, CEO -Coolpad India said on the announcement We are working to immerse more AI and tech into smartphones to make the experience more Intelligent, friendly and beneficial for the customers. Incorporating Alexa in Coolpad smartphones is one such step in that direction. As Coolpad is looking forward to make smartphones more intelligent and helpful with AI, Alexa is a perfect fit. We will be rolling out Alexa in Cool Play 6, Note 5 and Note 5 via an OTA update and our upcoming devices will have Amazon Alexa pre-installed in them. It will definitely make the Coolpad devices even more convenient and helpful for customers.

Speaking on the announcement, Mr. Brandy Kang, Executive Vice President, Coolpad Group said: Amazon has been our trusted partner over the period of time, since we started our business in India. In the case of Amazon Alexa, Coolpad will be the first Amazon exclusive smartphone brand in India, who will be providing Amazon Alexa in smartphones. Systemic progress to incorporate AI in devices is a common goal for both Coolpad and Amazon and it has brought us together, once again with Amazon Alexa. We are looking forward to continue this exciting partnership with Amazon in the future as well with some inventive and intelligent tech enhancements. With Amazon Alexa, its going to be start of an interesting journey in AI and we are looking forward to introduce more exciting tech enhancements in the future as well.

Already available in USA, Coolpad will be the first Amazon Exclusive smartphone brand in India to introduce Amazon Alexa in there smartphones.Despite existing weather conditions being experienced in the country at present and in the East of the country in particular, the President of the Donegal Association has confirmed that the scheduled Donegal Association in Dublin annual dinner will go ahead in the Ballsbridge Hotel on Saturday evening.

The annual banquet which this year will see Shay Given being awarded the prestigious accolade of Donegal Person of the Year is regarded as the highlight of the social calendar for Donegal people and attracts many from both home and abroad.

Given the existing weather conditions in some parts of the country doubts were expressed as to whether the occasion would go ahead however Hugh Harkin told the Democrat, We have had several meetings in relation to this and last night (Tuesday) we made the decision to proceed.

We have taken advice from all the experts and did not take the decision lightly but had to make the call one way or another. In the absence of a red alert and with the expectations that things will have improved by Saturday, the dinner is going ahead as planned.

Harkin added, Should things deteriorate or indeed if a red alert is issued, we will review the situation once again.

If there is any change in this we will use all media platforms to inform our guests.Bentley will continue to offer the diesel-powered Bentayga SUV despite the imminent arrival of a more fuel efficient plug-in hybrid model.

The British luxury brand broke with tradition last year and introduced its first oil-burner in the Bentayga SUV.

Speaking to Drive at the launch of the new petrol V8 variant in Austria this week, the line director for the Bentayga, Peter Guest, confirmed it would stick around for the foreseeable future despite the recent backlash against diesel following Volkswagens emission cheating scandal and amid potential tightening on regulations permitting diesel vehicles in major European cities.

We are constantly watching it, Guest said.

And we will react to market demands as they change. At the moment we will continue to support it as long as the demand is there.

Guest conceded the Bentayga Diesel was primarily developed for Europe and, as such, has only made up a small portion - around 14 per cent - of the 10,500-odd Bentaygas produced since it was launched two years ago.

While it has yet to be made official, Drive understands Bentley will reveal a plug-in hybrid version of its uber-SUV at next months Geneva Motor Show.

It is expected to use the same petrol-electric powertrain as the Porsche Panamera e-Hybrid, which teams a 3.0-litre twin turbo V6 with an electric motor and will give the Bentayga the ability to drive approximately 30km on battery power alone and achieve a claimed average fuel consumption of around 4L/100km.

Final details of Bentleys first foray into electrification are expected to be revealed next week ahead of its public debut in early March.

- For more information visit our Bentley showroomGeneration Y become Generation why rent in Newport Pagnell

Half of new homes buyers in Newport Pagnell are under 35 and a third of customers at Priory Mews are first time homeowners, making the location somewhat of a first time buyer hotspot.

Redrows insight into market conditions in the Buckinghamshire town prove that younger buyers are still keen to own a home, despite being commonly dubbed Generation Rent.

Nationally, the picture for would-be homeowners seems to be improving, with the number of mortgages taken out by first time buyers hitting an 11-year high, according to recent reports from UK Finance, who also suggested that the average age people step onto the property ladder is now 30.

Tonia Tyler, sales director for Redrow Homes (South Midlands), said: Millennials or Generation Y are commonly dubbed Generation Rent, but our experience at Priory Mews suggests those in Newport Pagnell are bucking that trend. A third of our customers are first time buyers, but whats perhaps surprising is that half of homeowners here are under 35, including those making their next step on the housing ladder.

It shows that people do still see the value in buying over renting, both in terms of monthly mortgage payments generally being lower than the equivalent rent and the fact they have more freedom compared to living at home with parents or as a tenant.

Current availability at Priory Mews includes four-bedroom homes in a choice of styles, priced from 384,950.

The properties fall within the threshold for Help to Buy. The Government-backed scheme gives purchasers the chance to take out an equity loan for up to 20% of the property price, leaving them needing a deposit as little as 5% and a 75% mortgage from a lender of choice

The scheme is open to both first time buyers and those whove sold the property theyre moving from subject to contract.

First time buyers can also benefit from reduced Stamp Duty rates, which would see them pay just 4,249 in tax  thats less than half of what other purchasers would pay for the same property.

Located on Tickford Street, the properties at Priory Mews are ideally close to the heart of Newport Pagnell and just five miles from Milton Keynes; while London is within an hours commute.

The sales office and show homes at Priory Mews are open daily from 10am to 5.30pm. For the latest availability and pricing. visit redrow.co.uk/priorymews.ST AGNES  British cold water surf and apparel brand, Finisterre has become the first European surf brand to achieve B Corp certification. The company, established in 2003, is now among a select number of for-profit organisations who meet the B Corp criteria regarding standards such as social and environmental performance, accountability and sustainability.

The companys founder, Tom Kay spoke exclusively to Ecotextile News about the achievement, saying: We founded the business on the foundations of commitment to the product, environment and people. We have lived and breathed that for the past 15 years through the ups and downs and we really wanted some kind of accreditation to reflect that work as well as showing there's more to work towards for the future.CAPE TOWN  Xeros has said that its near-waterless laundry system is now available in South Africa after it signed a partnership with Fanute, the Cape Town based industrial laundry firm, which will distribute its laundry systems across the country.

Xeros uses XOrb polymer technology, which the firm claims allows washing machines to use a fraction of the water normally used during washing, while still being able to remove stains and protect linen for hundreds of machine washes.

Fanute, which also operates a linen rental business says the move is part of its sustainability strategy to reducing water consumption in Cape Town, which has had a severe lack of water in recent months. The city has made plans for "Day Zero", expected in July, when municipal water supply will largely be shut off. If this happens, Cape Town will be the first major city in the world to run out of water.A federal judge in San Diego ruled Tuesday that the Trump administration can waive a slew of environmental laws and other regulations to build the president's highly vaunted U.S.-Mexico border wall in California.

Federal laws waived by the Department of Homeland Security for construction of a border wall include the Endangered Species Act, the Clean Air Act, the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, the Antiquities Act and many more.

In his 101-page ruling, U.S. District Judge Gonzalo said the Department of Homeland Security has broad authority to issue waivers to build border barriers.

"Both Congress and the Executive share responsibilities in protecting the country from terrorists and contraband illegally entering at the borders. Border barriers, roads, and detection equipment help provide a measure of deterrence against illegal entries," Curiel wrote.

The decision from Curielthe Indiana-born judge that Trump attacked for his Mexican heritage during the presidential campaignis significant because it could allow the government to proceed with building the controversial wall in other border states.

He noted that the politicized nature of the border wall did not factor into his decision.

"The court is aware that the subject of these lawsuits, border barriers, is currently the subject of heated political debate in and between the United States and the Republic of Mexico as to the need, efficacy and the source of funding for such barriers," Curiel wrote. "In its review of this case, the Court cannot and does not consider whether underlying decisions to construct the border barriers are politically wise or prudent."

The Center for Biological Diversity, one of the litigants, said it would appeal.



"We intend to appeal this disappointing ruling, which would allow Trump to shrug off crucial environmental laws that protect people and wildlife," said Brian Segee, a senior attorney at the organization. "The Trump administration has completely overreached its authority in its rush to build this destructive, senseless wall."

The Center for Biological Diversity filed a lawsuit last year challenging the Trump administration's use of an expired waiver to build replacement walls south of San Diego. The complaint called the move an unconstitutional delegation of power to the Department of Homeland Security.

A study from the group found that Trump's border wall threatens 93 endangered and threatened species, including jaguars, ocelots, Mexican gray wolves and cactus ferruginous pygmy owls. The study found that 25 threatened or endangered species have designated "critical habitat" on the border, including more than 2 million acres within 50 miles of the border.

The Center for Biological Diversity also argues: "Beyond jeopardizing wildlife, endangered species and public lands, the U.S.-Mexico border wall is part of a larger strategy of ongoing border militarization that damages human rights, civil liberties, native lands, local businesses and international relations. The border wall impedes the natural migrations of people and wildlife that are essential to healthy diversity."

California Attorney General Xavier Becerra said in a statement that his office "will evaluate all of our options and are prepared to do what is necessary to protect our people, our values, and our economy from federal overreach. A medieval wall along the U.S.-Mexico border simply does not belong in the 21st century."

President Trump celebrated the ruling as a "big legal win."

"U.S. judge sided with the Trump Administration and rejected the attempt to stop the government from building a great Border Wall on the Southern Border," he tweeted Tuesday. "Now this important project can go forward!"

Congress, however, has yet to authorize or provide funding for the project. The Senate rejected Trump's $18 billion request to build the wall. The president continues to insist that Mexico will somehow pay for it.

"I have decided that sections of the Wall that California wants built NOW will not be built until the whole Wall is approved," Trump also tweeted early Wednesday, perhaps referring to a new wall project in Calexico.

The Justice Department also celebrated the ruling.

"Border security is paramount to stemming the flow of illegal immigration that contributes to rising violent crime and to the drug crisis, and undermines national security," said spokesman Devin O'Malley. We are pleased DHS can continue this important work vital to our nation's interests."The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) concluded in a new assessment that "most uses" of three widely used neonicotinoidsimidacloprid, clothianidin and thiamethoxampose a risk to wild bees and honeybees, which play a crucial role in pollination across the globe.

The conclusion, based on analysis of more than 1,500 studies, will likely prompt a total ban on the pesticides from all fields across the European Union when the issue comes to a vote next month, the Guardian reported.

The EU already banned the pesticides on flowering crops in 2013. But the new report suggests the existing ban is insufficient, as using the chemicals in any outdoor setting can pose a risk to bees.

Thousands of studies have identified neonicotinoids as key contributors to declining pollinator populations. The chemicals have even been found to harm birds and aquatic invertebrates.

"The availability of such a substantial amount of data as well as the guidance has enabled us to produce very detailed conclusions," said Jose Tarazona, head of EFSA's pesticides unit.

"There is variability in the conclusions, due to factors such as the bee species, the intended use of the pesticide and the route of exposure. Some low risks have been identified, but overall the risk to the three types of bees we have assessed is confirmed."

German chemical giant Bayer makes imidacloprid and clothianidin, and Swiss agribusiness Syngenta makes thiamethoxam. The companies are challenging the restrictions in EU courts.

Bayer said it "fundamentally disagrees" with EFSA's analysis. And a Syngenta spokesman told the Guardian, "EFSA sadly continues to rely on a [bee risk guidance] document that is overly conservative, extremely impractical and would lead to a ban of most if not all insecticides, including organic products."

But environmental groups celebrated the new EFSA report.

"The evidence is overwhelming that bees, and the crops and plants they pollinate, are at dire risk from neonicotinoid pesticides," Franziska Achterberg, Greenpeace EU food policy adviser, said. "National governments must stop dithering and back the proposed EU neonicotinoid ban as the first step to prevent the catastrophic collapse of bee populations."The world's first plastic-free supermarket aisle debuted in Amsterdam on Wednesday.

Shoppers at the Jan Pieter Heijestraat branch of Dutch supermarket chain Ekoplaza will have roughly 700 plastic-free products to choose from, including meat, rice, sauces, dairy, chocolate, cereals, yogurt, snacks, fresh fruit and vegetables. Instead of plastic, items are packed in compostable materials or glass, metal and cardboard.

"Plastic-free aisles are an important stepping stone to a brighter future for food and drink," Ekoplaza chief executive, Erik Does, said in a statement. "We know that our customers are sick to death of products laden in layer after layer of thick plastic packaging."

Ekoplaza, which has 74 stores across the Netherlands, plans to roll out similar aisles across all branches by the end of the year. A second store is expected to be in The Hague by June.

Sian Sutherland, co-founder of A Plastic Planet, the environmental organization behind the initiative, hopes other food retailers will follow.

"There is absolutely no logic in wrapping something as fleeting as food in something as indestructible as plastic," she said in a statement. "Europe's biggest supermarkets must follow Ekoplaza's lead and introduce a plastic-free aisle at the earliest opportunity to help turn off the plastic tap."

Humanity's enormous plastic footprint can be found on all corners of the planet, the deepest parts of our oceans and in the stomachs and cavities of seabirds, turtles and even tiny plankton.

A recent study published in the journal Science Advances found that more than 8.3 billion tonnes (or 9.1 tons) of plastic has been generated, distributed and discarded since the 1950s. Of that total, 6.3 billion tonnes can be classified as waste but only 9 percent of that total is recycled and 12 percent gets incinerated. The rest, about 79 percent of plastic trash, simply accumulates in landfills or pollutes the natural environment.

"Most plastics don't biodegrade in any meaningful sense, so the plastic waste humans have generated could be with us for hundreds or even thousands of years," study co-author Jenna Jambeck, an associate professor of engineering at the University of Georgia, said. "Our estimates underscore the need to think critically about the materials we use and our waste management practices."

"We cannot continue with business as usual unless we want a planet that is literally covered in plastic," added lead author Roland Geyer, a UC Santa Barbara industrial ecologist.

Thankfully, a growing number of retailers and governments are taking action to curb plastic pollution. Earlier this month, Taiwan's Environmental Protection Agency proposed an ambitious 12-year timeline to eliminate four types of single-use plasticstakeaway beverage cups, drinking straws, shopping bags and disposable tablewareby 2030. Chile prohibits the sale of single-use plastic bags in 102 coastal villages and towns. Kenya introduced a serious law that slaps a fine or even a jail sentence on anyone who manufactures, sells or even carries a plastic bag. Scotland has also announced plans to ban the manufacture and sale of plastic-stemmed cotton buds as well as plastic straws.Toronto

When 13-year-old Andre Cordeiro moved from rural Portugal to Toronto, the only English words he knew were, hi, bye, and hot dog. Four years later, he speaks English way better and credits the English-learner class he attends every morning at Islington Junior Middle School.

With just six other students in that class, the teacher answers Andres questions right away, unlike in the larger, mainstream classes he attends every afternoon. Hes more at ease in his morning class because no one speaks English fluently. I feel kind of equal, said Andre, now in 8th grade. Theres not as much pressure if I make a mistake.

Three-fourths of the roughly 500 students at Islington, a K-8 school in Toronto, speak a language other than English at home, including Somali, Arabic, Korean, Bengali, and Russian. But far from being unusual, this diverse school mirrors Canadas largest city, where almost half the 2.7 million population is foreign-born.

Overall, 30 percent of Canadas schoolchildren are either immigrants themselves or have at least one parent born abroad. Thats compared with 23 percent of U.S. students who are immigrants or children of immigrants. Yet Canada has one of the highest performing education systems in the world as ranked by the Program for International Assessment, or PISA, test that 15-year-olds from more than 70 countries take. The United States rankings, by contrast, are mediocre.

Part of Canadas success is connected to its strong track record on educating immigrants. Within three years of arriving in Canadas public schools, PISA tests show that children of new migrants do as well as native-born children.

This is surprising because, generally, immigrant children face considerable obstacles in school and do significantly worse than their non-immigrant peers, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.

These students are often labeled as having a double disadvantage, said Louis Volante, an education professor at Brock University in Ontario. They have to adjust to a different way of doing things and they also generally have a low socioeconomic status in their new host country. And refugee children often have a triple disadvantage, Volante said, since many of them also have experienced trauma because of war or natural disasters.

So whats behind Canadas success in educating immigrants?

For one, Canada selects immigrants mainly based on their ability to settle in Canada and take part in its economy, unlike the U.S., which largely has a family reunification approach. Prospective newcomers to Canada receive points for job skills, education levels, as well as proficiency in English or French, the two national languages. Across most of Canadian society, immigration is largely seen as positive and necessary for the countrys economic success.

Andreas Schleicher, director for education and skills at the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Developments, or OECD, says those policy and cultural differences on immigration give Canadians an advantage over U.S. schools, where immigrant students and their families are more likely to come from impoverished circumstances and the political environment for immigrants is much more fraught. But he says that doesnt fully account for the high performance of immigrant children.

Take wealthy immigrant children in the United States, they will do a lot worse than the same kind of immigrant children in Canada, he said. And the flip side is also true, Schleicher said, pointing out that low-income immigrant children do better in Canada.

Theres a lot Canada does to allow immigrant kids to achieve these results, he said.

But there are still achievement gaps. While Canada overall does well on PISA, there are significant differences in student performance among the provinces. Within Ontario, English-learners still lag behind in reading and math compared to their native-English speaking peers.

Still, Canadas experience may hold some important lessons for public schools in the United States, where there is a significant and persistent gap in reading and math test scores between English-learners and their English-speaking peers. English-learners in American schoolsmany of whom are born in the U.S.are also less likely to take advanced courses and graduate from high school. Those gaps in performance carry profound implications for U.S. schools and broader American society as the numbers of children who speaking a language other than English at home continue to grow.

Making Academics Meaningful

Similar to what happens in American schools, English-learners in Canada are assessed when they enter school. Most can read and write in their home language but have limited English skills. They might be placed in regular classes with additional one-on-one language instruction. But a growing number of children arriving in Canada have had interrupted schooling and are not at grade level in their home language either. Since 2014, the province of Ontario has accepted more than 10,000 refugees from Syria, half of them children.

Hyam Al Tarifi, 13, was among the first wave of refugees to arrive in Toronto in 2015. Her family fled Syria for Jordan after several relatives were killed in the war there. It was the baddest life, she said of her three years in Jordan. She could only go to school after the Jordanian children finished their classes. But Canada has been different. School is very nice, my teachers are so kind.

Children like Hyam, who have missed months, or sometimes years, of schooling, are among the most challenged English-learners. In Toronto, they are in a special program called the Literacy Enrichment Academic Program, or LEAP. Students are expected to make two academic years of progress each year so they can catch up with their English-speaking peers quickly and be in mainstream classes full time within three years.

Ann Woomert teaches 7th and 8th grade students enrolled in LEAP at Islington. She uses props, speaks clearly, and writes unfamiliar terms in large letters on a whiteboard.

Woomert wants her students to see that they can contribute to the school, and not just feel they are being helped all the time. She asks them to create simple booklets, with a glossary and a meet the author page and answer questions about topics that were unfamiliar to them before they moved to Canada, such as What Is a Backpack? What is Recess? and The Gym. Woomert prints the booklets on glossy paper and they become part of the library in her class. Teachers often ask where can I get resources? The students are the best resources, she said.

Intentional Integration

In the afternoon at Islington, all English-learners join mainstream classes, working side-by-side with native English-speaking students their age. There are 25 8th graders in Dalia Mukherjees science class, including Hyam and Andre.

This intentional integration is on display in every school in Toronto. Principals post signs in multiple languages prominently throughout their school buildings, teachers are encouraged to learn phrases in languages their students speak, and English-learners are expected to be included in all activities including reading the morning announcements and performing in school productions.

In Canada, the phrase, were a mosaic, not a melting pot is commonplace. Immigrants are encouraged to maintain their home language, even while theyre learning English. There is that understanding that theres no hierarchy of languages; all languages are equal, said Sandra Mills-Fisher, the program coordinator of the English-learner department in the Toronto school district.

The Toronto school system has created several dual-language books with suggested activities and online resources in multiple languages, especially for parents. There are free, vetted interpreters available for in-person or phone parent-teacher conferences. And parents are often invited to share aspects of their culture at the school so their children feel a sense of pride in where they come from.

Janet McCarrol, who teaches English-as-a-second language, said building relationships with immigrant students and their families is essential to helping them thrive. In her classroom at Islington, she set up a red tea set after learning how culturally important tea is for many of her Middle Eastern students. While she talks to parents, the children make and serve tea. It gives them a sense that this is my space. The teacher respects this as part of my upbringing.

Teacher quality is one of the most important school-based influences on how well students learn and perform academically. In Canada, ensuring that top-notch teaching talent gets into the nations classrooms starts with a rigorous teacher selection process.

Its very competitive says Janette Pelletier, a professor at the University of Toronto. Last year, her universitys teacher-preparation program had almost 400 applicants for 75 available slots. And the government covers the costs of teacher preparation for prospective educators, said Linda Darling-Hammond, a professor emeritus at Stanford University. Because funding is centrally allocated through each province, there is less variability in teacher pay.

In some U.S. states, students test scores can have repercussions for job security for principals and teachers, school funding, and whether a school remains open. But thats not the case in Canada where test scores have no bearing on job security, bonuses, or pay. Islington Principal Rocco Coluccio says hes not at all nervous about test results. We have conversations with our superintendents about how were doing. There arent consequences.

Schleicher, of the OECD, said Canada has weaker accountability for its schools than the U.S. does, but a stronger support system for teachers. Theres a lot better emphasis on teacher professional growth than in the United States, he said.

Making Equity a Priority

John Malloy came to Toronto as a teacher from Ohio almost 30 years ago. Now, as the director of education for the Toronto District School Board, he oversees almost 600 schools and approximately 245,000 students in the city. On 2017 tests, 75 percent of students in the citys schools scored proficient in reading and 65 percent did so in math, with both slightly higher than the provincial average. The citys overall graduation rate is 85 percent. In Ontario, graduation rates for English-learners are not reported separately.

Canada does not have a federal department of education. The 13 provinces and territories create and implement their own policies for precollegiate education, even though there is a lot of sharing of curriculum and best practices. But Malloy is certain that the key difference between schools in the U.S. and Canada is how they are funded.

In provincial Ontario, school districts dont just rely on local property taxes. All money collected from taxpayers is routed through the provincial government. So every student in Ontario gets the same per-pupil funding, making it more equitable than in the U.S., where per-pupil funding in different school districts within a state can vary a lot. Malloy says in addition to this healthy per-student amount of $12,000, schools also receive approximately $10,000 per English-learner over four years, as well as additional grants. I would suggest that we have access to more supports than many other places, said Malloy.

Many Canadian teaching practices with English-learners are similar to those used in U.S. classrooms. But, just as with funding in the U.S., there is variation from district to district and state to state in how English-learners are taught.

Darling-Hammond argues that Canadas best lesson for U.S. schools is that it is possible to scale up success. The best education in the United States is at least as good or better than the education you can find in Canada or any other country in the world, she said.

Our big issue is we dont do our best work equitably for all kids in all communities. And Canada has shown us that you can provide a high level of education across provinces and even across a country.

It Takes A Neighborhood

Twenty-six high school students are in a quiet, darkened classroom, eyes closed and breathing in unison. On the other side of the door is a busy hallway teeming with students on lunch break at Marc Garneau Collegiate Institute. When the students move on to do stretches, there are faint giggles as they bump into each other. This is a Mind Your Mind class for 15- to 18-year-olds, meant to reduce stress and promote mental health.

One student, 18-year-old Aslam Azami, is from Afghanistan and came to Canada just two years ago. Hes now in 12th grade and dealing with anxieties familiar to young people on the verge of a major transition. All the stress builds up from the subjects, all the homework, tests, and exams, he said. And then applying for universities. Its your last year to decide your future.

At first, Aslam was a little nervous and unsure whether this class would help, but now he shows up regularly. This place is very welcoming place.

Nicole Dsousa, a youth mental-health worker, runs the class. She has an office at the school, but she works for The Neighbourhood Organization, one of Ontarios network of more than 200 settlement centers. These are community organizations, funded in part by the federal government, and meant to help immigrants and refugees with their healthy social, economic, and cultural integration into Canadian society. The centers provide a range of services to immigrants: computer classes, help with finding jobs, and navigating the free national health system to name a few.

Apart from the breathing exercises, students in this class make slime, create posters, and write positive messages. Its just a way for them to de-stress, said Dsousa. She says beyond the academic pressures of school, the students often feel stress from not knowing the language well or how the school system works. There are social pressures too, like struggles to connect with their peers and make friends. The settlement workers offer mentoring programs, tutoring, and afterschool clubs. Other times these settlement workers become critical cultural navigators.

Supports like this one are offered on top of the districts cadre of counselors, social workers, and psychologists. Having so many coordinated, intentional social supports for students and their families is a hallmark of the Canadian school system.

Malini Singh coordinates settlement services at The Neighbourhood Office in Thorncliffe, an immigrant heavy enclave in Toronto. They served almost 22,000 newcomers last yearanything from teaching them how to dress for the winter and how to pack school lunches for their children to career counseling. We have every service that a newcomer to Canada will need. Were a one-stop shop, said Singh. In the U.S., much of this work would be done by nonprofit providers and religious organizations.

In Canada, socioeconomic status is less predictive of a students performance than in the U.S. Having a strong safety net is critical for ensuring stronger educational outcomes, said Volante, because even when the programs help adults, the benefits affect children. We shouldnt divorce education policies from broader social protection and economic policies, he said.

Growing Backlash Against Immigrants

Canada has traditionally been welcoming to immigrants.

Thats an important thing that permeates how the broader society views different immigrant groups, Volante said. Teenagers who feel part of a school community are more likely to perform better academically and to be happier with their lives. So, its not a stretch to see how this positive social climate can help new immigrants thrive.

Canada selects immigrants using a competitive point system that favors skilled, well-educated applicants. On a scale of 100, prospective immigrants can earn up to 25 points for education. In Canada, almost 75 percent of first-generation immigrants are born to parents who are at least as educated as the average parent of a non-immigrant student; in the U.S. its less than a third. Because of that, immigrants to Canada are widely seen to be critical to building the countrys economy. While schools do not ask about immigration status, those who enter the country illegally is not a widespread problem in Canada. The nation reportedly has about 150,000 unauthorized immigrants, compared to roughly 11 million in the U.S.

But Canada has not been immune to the growing anti-immigrant sentiment that has become more pervasive in the U.S. and in European countries in recent years. A government survey released late last year showed a small increase from 23 percent to 27 percent of respondents who think the country is letting in too many immigrants.

Diana Gunel and Mitra Shekari are 18-year-old students in Toronto. Both say immigration is slowly becoming more of a sore subject among Canadians. Theyve even noticed a more judgmental attitude toward immigrants in class. Gunels parents moved here from Iran and Shekaris from Turkey, but both say because they dont look traditionally Middle Eastern, people share their views more freely. Were like, thats our family being affected, said Shekari. I dont think you should be talking about this in this kind of way.

Andre Cordeiro will be 14 soon. His language skills, along with his math and reading performance, are developing rapidly. I know how to answer questions in class now, he says proudly.

Andre hopes to soon be in mainstream classes full time. And while Canada is now home, he still misses friends and family back in Portugal. Maybe when Im older Ill have a house there, he says. I can visit during Canadian winters!A tricky financial-transparency requirement in the Every Student Succeeds Act has cranked up tensions among state politicians, school district administrators, and civil rights activists over public understanding of how districts divvy up their money among schools.

ESSA requires districts to break out school-level spending by December 2019a first-time federal requirement. Its a level of detail unknown even to most district superintendents.

Free Online Event Keys to ESSA Implementation

May 1, 2018

The Every Student Succeeds Act finally becomes a classroom reality this fall. In this Virtual Summit, Education Week journalists and guests will host discussions about the laws requirements. Join us.

Various interest groups are split over whether such items as transportation, technology, special education, and pre-Ksome of the biggest drivers of the rise in school spendingshould be categorized as regular school costs, or as extraordinary costs or overhead.

Civil rights activists, meanwhile, expect that the reporting of school-level-spending amounts will reveal to the public where districts most-experienced and highest-paid teachers work, if those data are presented in a coherent and comparable way.

But state education departments are realizing that its a daunting task to come up with school-by-school data using districts sometimes-antiquated finance systems.

The debate has ramped up in recent months as more and more district administrators and state politicians learn about the requirements through their member associations and as state departments look to start collecting the data this fall to meet the deadline. Considering the complexities of the requirement, the U.S. Department of Education last summer gave states a one-year extension to comply.

Opening the Books Starting in December 2019, the Every Student Succeeds Act requires districts to publicly report per-pupil spending by school, not just by district. That school-by-school information must include: Money spent on staff versus other expenses, such as curriculum, textbooks. and classroom supplies.

What proportion of that spending comes from federal, state, and local sources.

The socioeconomic picture of each schools enrollment based on student poverty levels.

Demographic breakdown of student enrollment by racial, ethnic, and other designations such as special education and English-language learner. Source: Every Student Succeeds Act

Many Americans are already familiar with average district per-pupil-spending costs, and superintendents usually explain to their board members and parents during budget hearings how they plan to use that money on salaries, curricula, and new learning initiatives.

But the school-by-school spending figures may fuel debates over teacher-seniority and -placement policies, how much value lawmakers place on some childrens education, and whether principals are most effectively using money to boost academic results.

See Also: Reporting School-by-School Spending Data: Inside One States Approach

State department officials in recent weeks have attempted to quell superintendents anxieties through committee hearings, webinars, and communications campaigns.

They argue the data will bring to the public yet another level of transparency on how school practitioners spend taxpayers dollars. Some state officials say the data could play to their favor as legislators look to overhaul school funding formulas.

Governors and legislatures in recent years have accused districts of wasting money on pet projects and central-office administrators salaries, and theyve called for more accountability of spending strategies.

Last month, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat, proposed that by next year, the states education commissioner and budget and finance office should approve school-level-spending amounts for a handful of districts, including New York City. The governor has proposed to add more districts in the future.

Superintendents Push Back

The request, which is currently being debated by the New York assembly, alarmed superintendents associations across the country.

Its interposing officials in Albany for the decision of local leaders and school board members and superintendents and other administrators, all of whom are closer to the schools and students, said Robert Lowry, the deputy director of the New York State Council of School Superintendents. We question whether the state officials would even have the expertise and the capacity to evaluate spending levels between schools.

Dictating school-level-spending amounts will sour district officials attitudes toward the ESSA reporting requirement similar to the way teachers attitudes toward standardized testing shifted after test scores began to be used as part of teacher evaluations, Lowry said.

But Cuomos proposal thrilled civil rights activists and fiscal conservatives who have long theorized that state and federal money meant to equalize funding levels between property-rich and property-poor districts is not targeted toward the most academically struggling and poorest schools, but instead toward the schools where parents groups hold political sway.

This data has the huge potential to empower equity-minded advocates and practitioners, said Ary Amerikaner, the director of P-12 resource equity for the Education Trust, an advocacy group that pushes for more school accountability. If budgets are our most meaningful value statement, we have to date not been able to actually have a conversation about which schools and which students we are valuing within our districts up until now.

Because the data could potentially cause so much consternation, school board members, district administrators, teachers groups, and parents have turned their attention in recent months toward state departments as they decide how districts will collect and present the data.

State departments in turn have corralled large task forces to decide how to comply with the law.

Illinois department of education several months ago began meeting with pre-K and special education advocates and district superintendents to decide how to treat certain costs.

Some school costs, such as pre-K centers, building maintenance, and special education can make a schools costs look bloated, leading to faulty conclusions about school spending, said Robert Wolfe, Illinois chief financial officer.

Illinois ultimately decided to leave some decisionmaking authority with district officials over how to split those costs.

There are ramifications for each decision point, Wolfe said. We had to ask how does it help make data-driven decisions within districts?

The most vexing challenge in complying with the financial-transparency requirement is actually technical rather than political, many state officials say.

In many states, there are hundreds of districts, and not all districts in any one state necessarily use the same finance software. While many large urban districts can easily use their school finance software to come up with school-level-spending data, other districts cannot.

Illinois, like several other states, says that many districts will need to update their school finance software, a potentially expensive and burdensome process.

In other states with especially complex funding formulas, such as Delaware or Wyoming, officials are struggling to determine how to break out state and local revenue sources as ESSA requires.

But state officials and school finance experts who have seen school-level-spending data say the hurdles states face now will soon be all worth it.

They predict the information will lead to robust discussions between policymakers and parents about whether district and school leaders are putting their money where their mouths are.

Federal, state, and district leaders in recent years have heaped myriad initiatives on schools to improve test scores. School-level-spending data, many predict, will reveal whether the money behind those initiatives is being directed as intended or, more crucially, how much money matters in the end.

I think its critically important that we activate the measures inside schools that matter so much for kids, said Marguerite Roza, a school-finance expert based at Georgetown University who has been heavily involved in helping states comply with the laws requirement. Parents and educators have to believe they live in a fair world. But we have not had that financial information to prove that to them. With this information, well be able to say, Youre spending the same amount as several of your peers, but your outcomes are so much worse. Thats an entirely different conversation.Electricity prices to rise in April

Electricity prices on the Isle of Man will increase from the start of April.

Manx Utilities has announced it will be putting electricity unit charges up by 1.88% for domestic and commercial users up at the start of the next financial year.

Standing charges remain unchanged, while the water rate and sewerage rate will also remain the same, along with charges for septic tank emptying.

Manx Utilities is also undertaking a review of its pricing strategy, with a report due to go before Tynwald in October.2018-02-28

Maeci

To celebrate the European Year of Cultural Heritage, the Italian Embassy and Italian Cultural Institute in Algiers, in association with the Algerian Ministry of Culture and the National Archaeological Research Centre, organized a Cultural Heritage Day entitled Promotion and Valorisation on 26 February.

The event, organized at the Palais de la Culture Moufdi Zakaria in Algiers, was attended by the Algerian Minister of Culture, Azzedine Mihoubi, major Arabic and French-language newspapers and TV broadcasters and a large audience. The day was subdivided into two sections: the first dedicated to Italian-Algerian cooperation and the second focused on the valorisation and protection of cultural heritage. Great appreciation was expressed for the presence of Italian experts from the National Research Council of Rome, the Polytechnic of Milan, the ISCR and the ICCROM, the Carabinieri Command for the Protection of Cultural Heritage (Art Squad), in addition to several Algerian archaeologists and museum directors. The conference screened a video by Altair4 Multimedia and edited by Alessandro Furlan entitled Ancient Rome and Pompeii in 3D featuring virtual reconstructions of Italian archaeological sites.

In his address, the Minister of Culture, Azzedine Mihoubi, expressed the hope for stronger cooperation in cultural property protection and in promoting the development of archaeological research, also with a view to increasing tourist appeal.

The Day also offered the opportunity to give a preview of the integrated cultural programme Italy, Cultures, the Mediterranean, which is part of the extraordinary plan titled Italian Way of Life, with the specific aim of consolidating dialogue between the two shores of the Mediterranean on the basis of exchanging and promoting different identities, by combining tradition, innovation and creativity. The Director of the Italian Cultural Institute, Maria Battaglia, illustrated the many events scheduled, all of which of great artistic relevance: starting from the music by Eugenio Bennato and of the Orchestra di Piazza Vittorio to the theatre performances Ali Piccinin, Pascia di Algeri, Arlecchino, servitore di due padroni (The Servant of Two Masters) and Quando gli emigranti eravamo noi, the photography of Mimmo Jodice, the dance performance by Liliana Cosi, and periodic events to celebrate the Italian Design Day in the World and the Week of Italian Cuisine.

The initiative was promoted by screening the video narrative to launch the ICM Programme and the ICE Programme in Algeria (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-u82AnUZgeA).Discovery offers first direct proof that dark matter exists and that it is made up of low-mass particles, Tel Aviv University, Arizona State University researchers say

A team of astronomers led by Prof. Judd Bowman of Arizona State University unexpectedly stumbled upon "dark matter," the most mysterious building block of outer space, while attempting to detect the earliest stars in the universe through radio wave signals, according to a study published this week in Nature.

The idea that these signals implicate dark matter is based on a second Nature paper published this week, by Prof. Rennan Barkana of Tel Aviv University, which suggests that the signal is proof of interactions between normal matter and dark matter in the early universe. According to Prof. Barkana, the discovery offers the first direct proof that dark matter exists and that it is composed of low-mass particles.

The signal, recorded by a novel radio telescope called EDGES, dates to 180 million years after the Big Bang.

What the universe is made of

"Dark matter is the key to unlocking the mystery of what the universe is made of," says Prof. Barkana, Head of the Department of Astrophysics at TAU's School of Physics and Astronomy. "We know quite a bit about the chemical elements that make up the earth, the sun and other stars, but most of the matter in the universe is invisible and known as 'dark matter.' The existence of dark matter is inferred from its strong gravity, but we have no idea what kind of substance it is. Hence, dark matter remains one of the greatest mysteries in physics.

"To solve it, we must travel back in time. Astronomers can see back in time, since it takes light time to reach us. We see the sun as it was eight minutes ago, while the immensely distant first stars in the universe appear to us on earth as they were billions of years in the past."

Prof. Bowman and colleagues reported the detection of a radio wave signal at a frequency of 78 megahertz. The width of the observed profile is largely consistent with expectations, but they also found it had a larger amplitude (corresponding to deeper absorption) than predicted, indicating that the primordial gas was colder than expected.

Prof. Barkana suggests that the gas cooled through the interaction of hydrogen with cold, dark matter.

"Tuning in" to the early universe

"I realized that this surprising signal indicates the presence of two actors: the first stars, and dark matter," says Prof. Barkana. "The first stars in the universe turned on the radio signal, while the dark matter collided with the ordinary matter and cooled it down. Extra-cold material naturally explains the strong radio signal."

Physicists expected that any such dark matter particles would be heavy, but the discovery indicates low-mass particles. Based on the radio signal, Prof. Barkana argues that the dark-matter particle is no heavier than several proton masses. "This insight alone has the potential to reorient the search for dark matter," says Prof. Barkana.

Once stars formed in the early universe, their light was predicted to have penetrated the primordial hydrogen gas, altering its internal structure. This would cause the hydrogen gas to absorb photons from the cosmic microwave background, at the specific wavelength of 21 cm, imprinting a signature in the radio spectrum that should be observable today at radio frequencies below 200 megahertz. The observation matches this prediction except for the unexpected depth of the absorption.

Prof. Barkana predicts that the dark matter produced a very specific pattern of radio waves that can be detected with a large array of radio antennas. One such array is the SKA, the largest radio telescope in the world, now under construction. "Such an observation with the SKA would confirm that the first stars indeed revealed dark matter," concludes Prof. Barkana.

###

American Friends of Tel Aviv University (AFTAU) supports Israel's most influential, comprehensive and sought-after center of higher learning, Tel Aviv University (TAU). TAU is recognized and celebrated internationally for creating an innovative, entrepreneurial culture on campus that generates inventions, startups and economic development in Israel. For three years in a row, TAU ranked 9th in the world, and first in Israel, for alumni going on to become successful entrepreneurs backed by significant venture capital, a ranking that surpassed several Ivy League universities. To date, 2,400 patents have been filed out of the University, making TAU 29th in the world for patents among academic institutions.Long ago, about 400,000 years after the beginning of the universe (the Big Bang), the universe was dark. There were no stars or galaxies, and the universe was filled primarily with neutral hydrogen gas.

Then, for the next 50-100 million years, gravity slowly pulled the densest regions of gas together until ultimately the gas collapsed in some places to form the first stars.

What were those first stars like and when did they form? How did they affect the rest of the universe? These are questions astronomers and astrophysicists have long pondered.

Now, after 12 years of experimental effort, a team of scientists, led by ASU School of Earth and Space Exploration astronomer Judd Bowman, has detected the fingerprints of the earliest stars in the universe. Using radio signals, the detection provides the first evidence for the oldest ancestors in our cosmic family tree, born by a mere 180 million years after the universe began.

"There was a great technical challenge to making this detection, as sources of noise can be a thousand times brighter than the signal - it's like being in the middle of a hurricane and trying to hear the flap of a hummingbird's wing." says Peter Kurczynski, the National Science Foundation program officer who supported this study. "These researchers with a small radio antenna in the desert have seen farther than the most powerful space telescopes, opening a new window on the early universe."

Radio Astronomy

To find these fingerprints, Bowman's team used a ground-based instrument called a radio spectrometer, located at the Australia's national science agency (CSIRO) Murchison Radio-astronomy Observatory (MRO) in Western Australia. Through their Experiment to Detect the Global EoR Signature (EDGES), the team measured the average radio spectrum of all the astronomical signals received across most of the southern-hemisphere sky and looked for small changes in power as a function of wavelength (or frequency).

As radio waves enter the ground-based antenna, they are amplified by a receiver, and then digitized and recorded by computer, similar to how FM radio receivers and TV receivers work. The difference is that the instrument is very precisely calibrated and designed to perform as uniformly as possible across many radio wavelengths.

The signals detected by the radio spectrometer in this study came from primordial hydrogen gas that filled the young universe and existed between all the stars and galaxies. These signals hold a wealth of information that opens a new window on how early stars - and later, black holes, and galaxies - formed and evolved.

"It is unlikely that we'll be able to see any earlier into the history of stars in our lifetimes," says Bowman. "This project shows that a promising new technique can work and has paved the way for decades of new astrophysical discoveries."

This detection highlights the exceptional radio quietness of the MRO, particularly as the feature found by EDGES overlaps the frequency range used by FM radio stations. Australian national legislation limits the use of radio transmitters within 161.5 miles (260 km) of the site, substantially reducing interference which could otherwise drown out sensitive astronomy observations.

The results of this study have been recently published in Nature by Bowman, with co-authors Alan Rogers of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Haystack Observatory, Raul Monsalve of the University of Colorado, and Thomas Mozdzen and Nivedita Mahesh also of ASU's School of Earth and Space Exploration.

Unexpected results

The results of this experiment confirm the general theoretical expectations of when the first stars formed and the most basic properties of early stars.

"What's happening in this period," says co-author Rogers of MIT's Haystack Observatory, "is that some of the radiation from the very first stars is starting to allow hydrogen to be seen. It's causing hydrogen to start absorbing the background radiation, so you start seeing it in silhouette, at particular radio frequencies. This is the first real signal that stars are starting to form, and starting to affect the medium around them."

The team originally tuned their instrument to look later in cosmic time, but in 2015 decided to extend their search. "As soon as we switched our system to this lower range, we started seeing things that we felt might be a real signature," Rogers says. "We see this dip most strongly at about 78 megahertz, and that frequency corresponds to roughly 180 million years after the Big Bang," Rogers says. "In terms of a direct detection of a signal from the hydrogen gas itself, this has got to be the earliest."

The study also revealed that gas in the universe was probably much colder than expected (less than half the expected temperature). This suggests that either astrophysicists' theoretical efforts have overlooked something significant or that this may be the first evidence of non-standard physics: Specifically, that baryons (normal matter) may have interacted with dark matter and slowly lost energy to dark matter in the early universe, a concept that was originally proposed by Rennan Barkana of Tel Aviv University.

"If Barkana's idea is confirmed," says Bowman, "then we've learned something new and fundamental about the mysterious dark matter that makes up 85 percent of the matter in the universe, providing the first glimpse of physics beyond the standard model."

The next steps in this line of research are for another instrument to confirm this team's detection and to keep improving the performance of the instruments, so that more can be learned about the properties of early stars. "We worked very hard over the last two years to validate the detection," says Bowman, "but having another group confirm it independently is a critical part of the scientific process."

Bowman would also like to see an acceleration of efforts to bring on new radio telescopes like the Hydrogen Epoch of Reionization Array (HERA) and the Owens Valley Long Wavelength Array (OVRO-LWA).

"Now that we know this signal exists," says Bowman, "we need to rapidly bring online new radio telescopes that will be able to mine the signal much more deeply."

The antennas and portions of the receiver used in this experiment were designed and constructed by Rogers and the MIT Haystack Observatory team. The ASU team and Monsalve added the automated antenna reflection measurement system to the receiver, outfitted the control hut with the electronics, constructed the ground plane and conducted the field work for the project. The current version of EDGES is the result of years of design iteration and ongoing detailed technical refinement of the calibration instrumentation to reach the levels of precision necessary for successfully achieving this difficult measurement.

###

The MRO is managed by CSIRO, Australia's national science agency, as a world-class site for global radio astronomy projects. In addition to the EDGES experiment, it hosts CSIRO's Australian SKA Pathfinder telescope, the MWA telescope and is the site for the future SKA-low telescope. CSIRO acknowledges the Wajarri Yamaji people as the traditional owners of the Observatory site.

This research has been supported by four grants from the National Science Foundation (0905990, 1207761, 1609450, 1609547) through the Advanced Technologies and Instrumentation program of the Division of Astronomical Sciences. The National Science Foundation (NSF) is an independent federal agency that supports fundamental research and education across all fields of science and engineering.

A video from the National Science Foundation highlighting the findings of this research is located here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wU6KXoO0NEE&feature=youtu.be

About Arizona State University

Arizona State University has developed a new model for the American Research University, creating an institution that is committed to access, excellence and impact. ASU measures itself by those it includes, not by those it excludes. As the prototype for a New American University, ASU pursues research that contributes to the public good, and ASU assumes major responsibility for the economic, social and cultural vitality of the communities that surround it.The world's largest food carnival, Restaurant Day, spread to more than 70 countries because it operated in a completely different way than popular consumer movements in general. Usually, the leaders of a movement determine what the movement does and then try to inspire others to join their vision. Restaurant Day, however, gave everyone an opportunity to be as creative as they wanted, say researchers from Aalto University, Finland.

'The participants found setting up a restaurant of their own a personally meaningful and ambitious project. It inspired people to participate and try something new each time the event was held. The movement's leaders were not essential - instead, every participant was. Moreover, many participants in Restaurant Day did not see their involvement as political activism, which further lowered the threshold for participation', Weijo continues.

Restaurant Day invited people to test the limits of their creativity, regardless of their age and background. This attracted very different kinds of people to the movement.

'What started as a small hipster movement rapidly grew into a popular festival where everyone, both old and young people as well as native Finns and immigrants, prepared food in perfect harmony,' Weijo explains.

Originating in Helsinki, Finland, the carnival celebrated restaurant culture and gastronomy in over 2,000 pop-up restaurants in some 75 countries, on average four times a year.

Having grown into a global phenomenon, the aim of the carnival was to revolutionise restaurant culture by cutting unnecessary, bureaucratic red tape. The idea behind the original event was that anyone could set up a restaurant of their liking anywhere for one day without acquiring the necessary permits. According to the organisers, Restaurant Day was a protest against the strict regulation of restaurants and a way to let off steam regarding the effects of regulation on gastronomy.

However, researchers at Aalto University say that the revolution was carried out in a very Nordic way.

'The Nordic countries are consensus-minded societies that believe in societal change through traditional political institutions. Many popular movements end up marginalised if they fail to attract widespread popular support or party sympathies. In the beginning, the authorities and the owners of regular restaurants vocally opposed Restaurant Day. However, in the end it attracted such a wide range of participants that opposition was almost impossible', says Weijo.

The Restaurant Day movement was initiated in 2011, and the organisers decided to discontinue it in its original form last year. However, the movement for pop-up restaurants that can be set up anywhere without permits will be celebrated on the anniversary of the first event, which is the third Saturday in May.

The study in question has just been published in the Journal of Consumer Research, the world's most important scientific journal on consumer research.

###PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] -- A detailed study of a giant impact crater on the Moon's far side could provide a roadmap for future lunar explorers.

The study, by planetary scientists from Brown University, maps the mineralogy of the South Pole-Aitken (SPA) basin, a gash in the lunar surface with a diameter of approximately 2,500 kilometers (1,550 miles). SPA is thought to be the oldest and largest impact basin on the Moon, and scientists have long had their eyes on it as a target for future lunar landers.

"This is a highly detailed look at the compositional structure of this huge impact basin using modern, cutting-edge data," said Dan Moriarty, a postdoctoral researcher at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center who led the research while a doctoral student at Brown. "Given that it's such an important target for future exploration and perhaps returning a sample to Earth, we hope this will serve as a framework for more detailed study and landing site selection."

The study will be published in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets. A preprint version is available online.

The impact that created SPA is thought to have blasted all the way through the Moon's crust and into the mantle, which is part of the reason that scientists are so interested in it. Visiting SPA and grabbing a sample of that exposed mantle material could provide critical clues about the Moon's origin and evolution. A sample could also help scientists put a firm date on the impact. SPA is thought to be the Moon's oldest basin, so a firm date would be a key milestone in the timeline of lunar history as well as events affecting early Earth.

But in order to get the right samples, it's important to know the best spots to find them. That's what Moriarty and co-author Carle Pieters, a professor in Brown's Department of Earth, Environmental and Planetary Sciences, had in mind for this study. They used detailed data from Moon Mineralogy Mapper, a spectrometer that flew aboard India's Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft for which Pieters is principal investigator.

"Having global access with modern imaging spectrometers from lunar orbit is the next best thing to having a geologist with a rock hammer doing the field work across the surface." Pieters said. "Ideally, in the future we'll have both working together."

The research identified four distinct mineralogical regions that form a bullseye pattern within and around the basin. At the bulleye's center is a region of what appears to be deposits of volcanic material, a sign that the center of the basin may have been covered by a volcanic flow sometime soon after the SPA impact. That central region is surrounded by a ring of material dominated by magnesium-rich pyroxene, a mineral thought to be plentiful in the lunar mantle. Outside of that is a ring in which pyroxene mixes with the standard crustal rocks of the lunar highlands. Outside of that ring is the basin exterior, where the signatures of impact-related material disappear.

The findings have some interesting implications for SPA exploration, the researchers say. The research suggests, for example, that finding pristine mantle material in the middle of the basin might be a bit tricky because of the large volcanic deposit.

"That's a little bit counterintuitive," Moriarty said. "Typically the deepest excavation would be in the middle of the crater. But we show that the middle of SPA has been covered over by what looks like a volcanic flow."

So if you're looking for mantle, it might be wise to land in the ring surrounding the center, where what appears to be mantle material is highly concentrated.

But an ideal landing site, Moriarty says, might be a spot that has both mantle and volcanic material, because those volcanics are interesting in their own right. Their composition is a little different than that of other volcanic rocks found on the Moon, which suggests they have a unique origin.

"If these rocks are indeed volcanic, it means that there was a really interesting kind of volcanism happening at SPA," Moriarty said. "It could be related to the extreme geophysical environment that would have been in place during the formation of the basin. That would be really interesting to look at in more depth."

With that in mind, Moriarty says a good spot to land might be near the border of the volcanic center and the pyroxene ring. Another strategy could be to look for a spot where the volcanic material has been pierced by a subsequent impact. Moriarty and Pieters found several such craters in the volcanic patch where the pyroxene material has been re-excavated.

"We think going after both mantle and volcanics would make for a richer science return," Moriarty said.

Moriarty is hopeful that these findings will give mission planners something to think about. China is currently in the process of planning for a mission to SPA. The region has appeared repeatedly on NASA's "decadal survey" of planetary scientists, which is used to inform the agency's mission priorities.

"Impacts are the dominant process that drove solar system creation and evolution, and SPA is the largest confirmed impact structure on the Moon, if not the entire solar system," Moriarty said. "That makes it an important end member in understanding impact processes. We think this work could provide a roadmap for exploring SPA in more detail."

The research was supported by NASA's LASER (NNX12AI96G) and SSERVI (NNA14AB01A) programs.

###There are few feelings more satisfying than gulping down water when you are thirsty. But how does your brain know when you are dehydrated or satiated, and how does it use this information to initiate or terminate drinking? Caltech scientists have now mapped the circuit of neurons within the mouse brain that regulates thirst by stimulating and suppressing the drive to drink water. This circuit offers insight into thirst regulation in the mammalian brain, possibly including humans.

The work was done in the laboratory of Yuki Oka, assistant professor of biology, and is described in a paper appearing in the February 28 online issue of Nature.

HIERARCHICAL EXCITATORY NEURAL CIRCUITS THAT DRIVE DRINKING

There are three regions in the mouse brain that are known to process thirst: the subfornical organ (SFO), the organum vasculosum laminae terminalis (OVLT), and the median preoptic nucleus (MnPO). Together, these regions form a sheet-like structure in the forebrain (near the front of the brain) called the lamina terminalis (LT). Most regions of the brain are protected by the nearly impenetrable blood-brain barrier, a layer of tightly packed cells that separates the bloodstream from the brain. But this is not the case for the SFO and OVLT--they interface directly with a mouse's bloodstream, allowing the two regions to measure the sodium content, or saltiness, of the blood, which indicates the level of hydration. Therefore, the LT serves as the primary structure involved in thirst regulation.

Previous work by Oka and others showed that the SFO, OVLT, and MnPO each contain so-called excitatory neurons that, when stimulated, drive drinking behaviors. In the new work, Oka's team aimed to discover how these multiple types of excitatory neurons in LT form the circuitry to initiate drinking.

The researchers found that one area in particular, the MnPO, is the center for thirst regulation. It receives excitatory inputs from the SFO, but not the other way around. The team also found that when MnPO excitatory neurons are genetically silenced, stimulating the SFO or OVLT does not induce drinking. The study reveals a hierarchically organized thirst circuit in the LT: The MnPO integrates thirst signals from the SFO and OVLT, and transmits them to downstream brain areas to induce drinking.

INHIBITORY NEURONS HALT DRINKING BEFORE REHYDRATION

The team also found another neural circuit that is involved in acute satiety of thirst.

"When you are dehydrated, you may gulp down water for several seconds and you feel satisfied. However, at that point your blood is not rehydrated yet: it usually takes about 10 to 15 minutes. Therefore, the SFO and the OVLT would not be able to detect blood rehydration soon after drinking. Nevertheless, the brain somehow knows when to stop drinking even before the body is fully rehydrated," says Oka.

Because of this temporal discrepancy between body rehydration and satiation signals in the brain, the researchers reasoned that some kind of rapid signal must be suppressing drinking behavior. Other groups recently showed that excitatory neurons in the LT are rapidly suppressed with the onset of drinking. However, the neural circuits underlying such quick thirst satiety remained unknown.

Oka's team found that certain so-called inhibitory neurons in the MnPO immediately respond to the action of drinking and provide direct inhibition to the SFO thirst neurons. These inhibitory neurons are specifically activated by liquid, and not by the ingestion of solids. The researchers reasoned that this inhibitory circuit monitors fluid ingestion through the motion of the oropharynx (part of the throat involved in swallowing), which in turn precisely inhibits thirst neurons.

"When you are really thirsty and quickly gulp down fluid, the throat moves in a particular way that is different from eating food," says Vineet Augustine, graduate student and lead author on the new paper. "We think the inhibitory population is responding to this motion of rapidly ingesting water."

MORE SATIETY SIGNALS TO BE DISCOVERED

While inhibitory neurons of the MnPO encode drinking-induced thirst inhibition, the team predicts that the brain uses additional satiety signals.

"The inhibitory signals we discovered are only active during the drinking action," says Oka. "However, the feeling of satiety indeed lasts much longer. This indicates that the MnPO inhibitory neurons cannot be the only source of thirst satiety. This will be the subject for future study."

Though the results are in mice brains, similar regions exist in the human brain. The researchers say it is possible that a similar thirst circuit governing activation and inhibition of drinking behavior exists in the human brain.

###

The paper is titled "Hierarchical neural architecture underlying thirst regulation." Other co-authors include postdoctoral scholars Sertan Kutal Gokce and Bo Wang, graduate student Sangjun Lee, and research professor Carlos Lois, all at Caltech; Thomas Davidson of UC San Francisco; Frank Reimann and Fiona Gribble of the University of Cambridge; and Karl Deisseroth of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and Stanford University.Scientists have discovered a novel chemical state of the element manganese. This chemical state, first proposed about 90 years ago, enables a high-performance, low-cost sodium-ion battery that could quickly and efficiently store and distribute energy produced by solar panels and wind turbines across the electrical grid.

This direct proof of a previously unconfirmed charge state in a manganese-containing battery component could inspire new avenues of exploration for battery innovations.

X-ray experiments at the U.S. Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) were key in the discovery. The study results were published Feb. 28 in the journal Nature Communications.

Scientists at Berkeley Lab and New York University participated in the study, which was led by researchers at Natron Energy, formerly Alveo Energy, a Palo Alto, California-based battery technology company.

The battery that Natron Energy supplied for the study features an unconventional design for an anode, which is one of its two electrodes. Compared with the relatively mature designs of anodes used in lithium-ion batteries, anodes for sodium-ion batteries remain an active focus of R&D.

The anode featured in this latest study is made up of a blend of elements - including manganese, carbon and nitrogen - that is chemically similar to the formula of the iron-containing paint pigment known as Prussian blue.

"Typically, in lithium-ion and sodium-ion batteries, the anode is more often carbon-based," said Wanli Yang a staff scientist at Berkeley Lab's Advanced Light Source, the source of X-rays that were used in the battery experiments.

But in this case, both of the battery's electrodes utilize the same type of materials based on elements known as "transition metals" that are useful in chemistry because they can exhibit various charged states. The other electrode, called a cathode, contains copper, nitrogen, carbon, and iron.

"The very interesting part here is that both electrodes are based on the chemistry of transition metals in the same type of materials," he added, with iron in the cathode and a special manganese chemistry in the anode.

"One of the direct benefits of utilizing such materials for both electrodes in the battery is that neither of the two electrodes fundamentally limits the power capability, cycle life, or cost of the device," said Colin Wessells, CEO at Natron Energy. The battery outperforms the Department of Energy's cycle-life and price targets for grid-scale energy storage, as the researchers report in their latest study.

Wessells noted that the battery is very stable, its materials are abundant, its overall cost is competitive with conventional lead-acid batteries, and it has a lesser environmental footprint than conventional batteries.

The battery has been shown to deliver up to 90 percent of its total energy in a very fast, five-minute discharge, and to retain about 95 percent of its discharge capacity for 1,000 cycles. It offers an alternative to gravity-based energy storage systems for electric grid, in which water is pumped uphill and then released downhill on demand to generate electricity.

Just how the battery achieves its high performance, though, had puzzled researchers.

There was speculation, dating back to a 1928 German-language journal article, that manganese could exist in a so-called "1-plus" or "monovalent" state, which means that a manganese atom in this state loses only a single electron. This is unusual, as manganese atoms typically are known to give up two or more electrons, or no electrons, in chemical reactions, but not just one.

Such a novel chemical state would enable a voltage range that is useful for battery anodes. But there hadn't been any measurements confirming this monovalent form of manganese.

The Natron Energy researchers studied the battery materials at Berkeley Lab's Molecular Foundry, a nanoscience center, and then offered up some sample battery cells for study at the ALS.

The first round of X-ray experiments at the ALS, which used a technique called soft X-ray absorption spectroscopy, appeared to show mainly the 2-plus form of manganese.

"We only caught a hint (of another form) in the initial tests, and had to rely heavily on theory to speculate about a different state," said Andrew Wray at New York University, who performed the theoretical calculations.

Then the team turned to a newly built system at the ALS, dubbed in situ resonant inelastic X-ray scattering, or iRIXS. The technique, which provides a high-sensitivity probe of the internal chemistry of materials, showed a telltale contrast in the electrons during the battery's charge and discharge cycles.

"A very clear contrast immediately shows up with RIXS," Yang said. "We later realized that manganese 1-plus behaves very, very closely to the typical 2-plus state in other conventional spectroscopy," which is why it had been difficult to detect for so many decades.

Wray added, "The analysis of the RIXS results not only confirms the manganese 1-plus state; it also shows that the special circumstances giving rise to this state make it easier for electrons to travel in the material. This is likely why such an unusual battery electrode performs so well."

Commercial prototypes based on the battery tested at the Lab entered customer beta testing earlier this year, Wessells noted. In addition to grid applications, Natron Energy is promoting the technology for data centers' emergency power, and for heavy equipment such as electric forklifts, among other possible applications.

Yang said that the chemical puzzle solved in the latest study could inspire other R&D in new types of battery electrodes. "The operation of a battery could drive the emergence of atypical chemical states that do not exist in our conventional thinking. This basic understanding could trigger other novel designs, and open our eyes beyond our conventional wisdom" on electrode materials, he said.

"This study was like a perfect package, with combined industry, national lab, and university contributions," Yang said.

###

The Advanced Light Source and Molecular Foundry are DOE Office of Science User Facilities.

The work was supported by the U.S. Department of Energy's Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy, the Department of Energy's Office of Science, the Laboratory Directed Research and Development program at Berkeley Lab, and the National Science Foundation.

Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory addresses the world's most urgent scientific challenges by advancing sustainable energy, protecting human health, creating new materials, and revealing the origin and fate of the universe. Founded in 1931, Berkeley Lab's scientific expertise has been recognized with 13 Nobel Prizes. The University of California manages Berkeley Lab for the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Science. For more, visit http://www.lbl.gov.

DOE's Office of Science is the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States, and is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. For more information, please visit science.energy.gov.SEATTLE - A new scientific study finds that while nearly all nations in Africa have at least one region where children's health is improving, not a single country is expected to end childhood malnutrition by 2030, an objective of the relevant United Nations Sustainable Development Goal (SDG).

The study, covering 2000 to 2015, and another on years of education, map the entire African continent in 5x5 square kilometers and were published today in the journal Nature. National and provincial maps of education and nutrition in Africa often hide inequalities at the community level, according to researchers at the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) at the University of Washington.

Mapping children's growth and basic schooling at precise local levels gives stakeholders - from clinicians and teachers to donors and policy-makers - insights into where to direct resources to improve lives in Africa.

Former United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan, in a commentary accompanying the two studies, stated it is "crucial it is to invest in data.

"Data gaps undermine our ability to target resources, develop policies and track accountability," he wrote. "Without good data, we're flying blind. If you can't see it, you can't solve it."

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation funded the study, part of a five-year grant that will enable IHME researchers eventually to map a range of health metrics globally in 5x5 kilometers units.

Education and nutrition are critical factors to one's health and future opportunities, the studies note. Increases in basic schooling, particularly in young women, are linked to improved health for mothers and children. However, inadequate or improper nutrition, especially before age five, is closely associated with poor health and brain development, as well as increased risks for disease and early death.

"Education, like other social investments, is closely related to people's health and well-being, whether in Nigeria or the Netherlands," said Dr. Simon I. Hay, senior author of both papers and Director of Geospatial Science at IHME. "For investments in global health to make sustainable progress toward health-related SDGs, additional - and intentional - efforts must address social inequalities that drive persistent health disparities."

The studies examines average years of education for both males and females ages 15 to 49, and so-called "child growth failure," defined as insufficient height and weight for a given age and exhibited by stunting, wasting, and underweight among children under 5. Stunting refers to insufficient height for a child's age; underweight means insufficient weight for a child's age; and wasting refers to insufficient weight for a child's height and can result from a combination of stunting and underweight.

Previous estimates of basic schooling at the national and provincial levels show many African countries are expected meet SDG 4, which, by 2030, aims to reduce educational inequalities based on income, gender, and location. However, researchers found national and provincial maps could be misleading, since residents of many other communities have significantly lower levels of schooling and, thus, may be overlooked in education funding decisions.

It is SDG 2, which covers malnutrition, hunger, and food sufficiency, that likely is unattainable for all African nations by 2030. The studies also call attention to the need for greater progress to achieve the UN goals, according to Dr. Hay.

"The maps not only help to reveal local 'hot spots' of low education levels and children's poor nutrition, but also shine a spotlight on communities implementing successful educational and nutritional programs over the past 15 years, from which we can learn" said Dr. Hay. "Precision public health is a new field of study which will be invaluable over the next 12 years to help effectively and equitably target resources as counties strive to meet their Sustainable Development Goals."

More detailed study findings on educational attainment and child growth failure are available in the online visualization tools at [https://vizhub.healthdata.org/lbd/education] and [https://vizhub.healthdata.org/lbd/cgf].

Additional findings include:

Stunting, wasting, and underweight

There was notable improvement in the prevalence of stunting in Algeria, Mozambique, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Gabon, Equatorial Guinea, and southern Nigeria;

The prevalence of underweight dropped significantly in Rwanda, and, to a lesser extent, in select areas of Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and Angola by 2015;

The prevalence of wasting decreased considerably in DRC, both at the national and provincial or community levels, over the past 15 years.

However, researchers found persistently high prevalence of stunting, wasting, and underweight in 14 countries stretching the length of the African Sahel from Senegal in the west to Eritrea in the east.

For example, in 2015, South Sudan, Chad, Ethiopia, Somalia, and northern Nigeria all continued to have large regions with high levels of stunting, wasting, and underweight. Years of education completed

Researchers found wide gaps in years of basic schooling between people in rural and urban areas as well as between males and females in many areas across Africa.

For example, in Nigeria, the national average for basic schooling in 2015 was seven years; yet there were wide gaps between northern and southern communities, ranging from two to 10 years, respectively.

Researchers found persistently low levels of completed education in 14 countries stretching the width of the African Sahel, from Senegal in the west to Eritrea in the east.

For example, some areas in South Sudan, northern Nigeria, and northern Kenya averaged less than two years of schooling among women of reproductive age (15-49 years) in 2015.

However, students in several African nations are staying in school longer. Between 2000 and 2015, there was a significant increase in years of basic schooling, especially among the 20-24 year age group (those aged 5-9 years at the start of the study period), in urban areas of Nigeria, Kenya, Ghana, Sudan, and South Africa.

Males routinely averaged more years of basic schooling than females. The often-substantial gap between male and female education in these countries changed little between 2000 and 2015.

Particularly vulnerable areas in 2015 with very low levels of basic schooling include rural areas of Nigeria, Ethiopia, Niger, and Uganda.

###

Media contacts:

Dean R. Owen

1 -206-897-2858 (office)

1-206-434-5630 (mobile)

dean1227@uw.edu

About the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation

The Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) is an independent global health research organization at the University of Washington that provides rigorous and comparable measurement of the world's most important health problems and evaluates the strategies used to address them. IHME makes this information widely available so that policymakers have the evidence they need to make informed decisions about how to allocate resources to improve population health.

About the Local Burden of Disease project

The Local Burden of Disease project at IHME aims to produce estimates of health outcomes and related measures that cover entire continents, but to do so at a very fine, local resolution. Such estimates allow decision-makers to target resources and health interventions precisely, so that health policy decisions can be tailored for local areas rather than entire countries. Combining local detail with broad coverage - producing 5-by-5-kilometer estimates for entire continents and, eventually, the world - would give health officials everywhere the tools to make locally informed decisions and, in the process, help all people live, longer, healthier lives.Why do we respond differently to infections or vaccines? Why are some people allergic to pollen? These are still unanswered questions in biological and medical science. The Milieu Interieur Laboratory of Excellence coordinated at the Institut Pasteur by CNRS research director, Dr. Lluis Quintana-Murci, has recently described immune variation on a large scale within the French population. To achieve this, the consortium studied an expansive collection of biological specimens from 1,000 French volunteers aged 20 to 69. This article provides an account of their work.

For many years, immunology, the branch of biology that examines our immune system, focused on dissecting the molecular mechanisms that control our physiological response to infections based on the assumption that this response does not differ among individuals. However, this premise has been challenged by recent studies suggesting that we are not all equally equipped to deal with pathogens. Our age, sex, infection history, and genetics can affect our immune system and make us more prone to disease. The task of identifying these factors that regulate our immune system has become the main challenge facing precision medicine, a proposed medical model aimed at offering patient treatments tailored to individual needs.

Some thirty scientists from several research centers thus joined forces to form the Milieu interieur Laboratory of Excellence (or LabEx) coordinated at the Institut Pasteur by CNRS research director, Dr. Lluis Quintana-Murci with funding from the Investissements d'Avenir [Investing in the Future] program, with a view to describing immune variation on a large scale within the French population. This consortium gathered an expansive collection of biological specimens from 1,000 healthy donors (500 French men and 500 French women aged 20 to 69) recruited in Rennes. "The subjects' blood, DNA, vaccination and medical history, and intestinal and nasal bacteria were collected, measured, and examined for this large-scale study", explains Lluis Quintana-Murci. The first results from analysis of the entire cohort were recently published in PNAS on December 27, 2017 and in Nature Immunology on February 23, 2018.

Immune variation and differences in terms of sex and age

Using an ex vivo system, the researchers measured changes in immune gene expression in blood samples from the 1,000 donors when exposed to various viruses, bacteria, and fungi. At the same time, "we determined the molecular characteristics of the white blood cells, or leukocytes, in the donors' blood with an unprecedented level of precision", the CNRS researcher and study author Etienne Patin tells us. The two studies confirm that immune variation among individuals is largely due to differences in sex and age. "However, smoking and asymptomatic cytomegalovirus infection, which affects 35% of the population, also have a major impact on our blood cell composition. This may explain why smokers and people infected by this virus can be more prone to infection."

Genetic variations and risk of disease

The researchers' next task was to determine whether our genetics contribute to immune response variation among individuals. Surprisingly, "we identified hundreds of genetic variations which change the expression of molecules that play a key role in immune responses", reports Lluis Quintana-Murci "some of which are associated with a higher risk of developing diseases such as pollen allergy, lupus erythematosus, and type 1 diabetes." These results shed new light on the potential causes of these illnesses, which remain unclear.

The Milieu Interieur Laboratory of Excellence (or Milieu interieur LabEx) will now seek to determine whether our intestinal and nasal flora and epigenetics (temporary changes in our DNA) also contribute to immune variation. On a more general level, the extensive biobank developed for the purpose of this consortium will help identify disease risk factors, paving the way to precision medicine for infectious and autoimmune diseases.

###

Notes to editors:

Source 1

Distinctive roles of age, sex, and genetics in shaping transcriptional variation of human immune responses to microbial challenges, PNAS, December 27, 2017 Piasecka B. et al.

Source 2

Natural variation in innate immune cell parameters is preferentially driven by genetic factors, Nat Immunol, February 23, 2018 Patin E. et alA new Medicare records study by Johns Hopkins researchers has added to mounting evidence that a common surgery designed to remove damaged, worn ends of the thin rubbery cartilage in the knee joint brings little or no benefit to people over the age of 65.

The operation, called arthroscopic partial meniscectomy (APM), accounted for an estimated two-thirds of all orthopaedic knee arthroscopy procedures in older patients in 2016, the researchers say.

A report on the study's findings, published Feb. 28 in JAMA Surgery, highlights the vast number of avoidable operations of all types that are performed and how much the United States spends on low-value care, the researchers say.

"Our study found that the same knee operation shown to have no benefit in treating degenerative disease in multiple trials is now one of the most common orthopaedic procedures in older Americans," says Martin Makary, M.D., M.P.H., professor of surgery at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and an expert on health disparities and quality measurement. Sparing patients the unnecessary operations has tremendous implications for reducing the burden of health care use, for rehabilitation and for complications related to surgery, including opioid-related complications since most patients are prescribed opioids after the procedure, adds Makary.

According to a recent study, an estimated 750,000 APMs are performed annually in the United States, and it is one of the most common operations in the world.

Multiple clinical trials, Makary says, have shown that compared with regular exercise and physical therapy, the procedure provides no additional benefit in older patients with meniscal tears linked to aging and everyday wear and tear. Studies do show benefit from APM in patients with an acute, traumatic meniscal tear, an injury typically seen in younger people and athletes, adds Makary.

For the study, Makary and his team first established the overall prevalence of APM-only procedures as a proportion of orthopaedic surgeons' overall knee arthroscopy surgeries. To do that, they analyzed 2016 data on knee arthroscopies gathered by the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

Of the 121,624 knee arthroscopies performed on the Medicare (65 years and older) population by 12,504 surgeons, APM-only procedures accounted for 66.7 percent (81,102). In addition, among high-volume arthroscopic knee surgeons, 286 (6.9 percent) never performed APM-only procedures, while 518 (12.5 percent) exclusively performed APM-only.

"The practice is not consistent with the evidence," says Greg Osgood, M.D., assistant professor of orthopaedic surgery at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and co-author of the paper.

In other words, Osgood says, too many orthopaedic surgeons are performing too many APM procedures done only to remove joint tissue, despite evidence that it offers no benefit.

Makary and Osgood say the persistence of the procedures could be due to either physicians' lack of knowledge about the evidence, disagreement with it or disregard for it. Makary says the study was limited by potential coding inaccuracies by physicians and that it's important to not dismiss APM-only entirely, as it may help a small subset of young patients.

The authors point out that the high prevalence of the procedure (also referred to by some patients as a washout or a shaving) is sometimes driven by patient demand, given a growing consumerist culture. The procedure costs anywhere from $2,000 to $10,000 and is often paid for by insurance. The authors advise patients offered the procedure for degenerative disease to ask about nonsurgical alternatives and seek a second opinion.

"In light of a recent national physician survey we conducted suggesting that 21 percent of all medical care may be unnecessary, better metrics of appropriateness in medicine are needed. The proportion of a surgeon's arthroscopies that are APM-only procedures in older patients is a telling metric of low-value care," says Makary.

###

Other authors on this paper include Philip F. Stahel of Rocky Vista University, Peiqi Wang and Susan Hutfless of the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, and Eric McCarty and Philip S. Mehler of the University of Colorado School of Medicine.

This study was partially funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (grant 73417).A new paper on fieldwork in rural Belize serves as a case study for how an established anthropology fieldwork model can be used to both develop site-specific cultural and historical exhibits and train a new generation of public history scholars. The paper also highlights the importance of diversity to research teams when engaging in research - especially community-based scholarship.

"Public history, as a field, focuses on both sharing information about history and working with the public to place history in context - and understand how people already relate to their cultural and regional history," says Alicia McGill, an assistant professor of history at North Carolina State University and author of the paper.

"For this project, we worked with two Belizean villages - Crooked Tree and Biscayne - that are in close proximity to the Mayan ruins of Chau Hiix," McGill says. "Most of the residents in both villages are Belizean Kriol, of African descent. Our goal was to develop exhibits and educational materials that could be used by the villages to foster tourism and support educational efforts."

To that end, McGill led a team of public history graduate students from NC State and undergraduates from the University of New Hampshire (UNH) and Galen University, in Belize, as well as collaborating with archaeological researchers from UNH. The team worked closely with residents of Crooked Tree and Biscayne to ensure that the exhibits and related materials addressed not only the Mayan civilization, but the importance of Kriol culture to the region.

"We learned several things over the course of the project that I think are broadly applicable to other public history efforts," McGill says.

First, that the methodology of anthropological fieldwork can easily be adapted to the field of public history, particularly in regard to community engagement.

"It works so well because you are engaging in cultural immersion, which offers unique insights into the subject matter," McGill says.

Second, identifying local and regional partners is critical to success.

"We worked with national, regional and local partners, who provided us with resources, access and cultural and political insights that we may otherwise have missed," McGill says.

Lastly, the project also drove home the importance of having an ethnically diverse research team.

"For example, we found that local residents of African descent raised different topics when talking with African American members of our research team than when talking with other members of the research team," McGill says. "It gave us more insight and different perspectives on the subjects we were studying and the nature of our community engagements.

"And while I think all of these observations hold true for public history fieldwork in the U.S., they may be particularly valuable for public historians interested in international work," McGill says.

###

The paper, "Examining the Pedagogy of Community-Based Heritage Work through an International Public History Field Experience," is published in the journal The Public Historian. The research was done with support from NC State, UNH, the Belize Institute for Social & Cultural Research and the Belize Audubon Society.For additional information on this breakthrough, NSF has produced the video "The birth of the first stars." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wU6KXoO0NEE&feature=youtu.be

For the first time, astronomers have detected a signal from stars emerging in the early universe. Using a radio antenna not much larger than a refrigerator, the researchers discovered that ancient suns were active within 180 million years of the Big Bang.

The astronomers, from Arizona State University (ASU), the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and the University of Colorado at Boulder made the discovery with their Experiment to Detect the Global EoR (Epoch of Reionization) Signature (EDGES) project, funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF). They reported their findings in the March issue of Nature.

"Finding this miniscule signal has opened a new window on the early universe," says astronomer Judd Bowman of the University of Arizona, the lead investigator on the project. "Telescopes cannot see far enough to directly image such ancient stars, but we've seen when they turned on in radio waves arriving from space."

Models of the early universe predict such stars were massive, blue and short-lived. Because telescopes cannot see them, though, astronomers have been hunting for indirect evidence, such as a tell-tale change in the background electromagnetic radiation that permeates the universe, called the cosmic microwave background (CMB).

A small dip in intensity, for example, should be apparent in CMB radio signals, but Earth's crowded radio-wave environment has hampered astronomers' search. Such dips occur at wavelengths between 65 megahertz (MHz) and 95 MHz, overlapping with some of the most widely used frequencies on the FM radio dial, as well as booming radio waves emanating naturally from the Milky Way galaxy.

"There is a great technical challenge to making this detection," says Peter Kurczynski, the NSF program director who oversaw funding for EDGES. "Sources of noise can be 10,000 times brighter than the signal -- it's like being in the middle of a hurricane and trying to hear the flap of a hummingbird's wing."

Despite the obstacles, astronomers were confident that finding such a signal would be possible, thanks to previous research indicating that the first stars released tremendous amounts of ultraviolet (UV) light. That light interacted with free-floating hydrogen atoms, which began absorbing surrounding CMB photons.

"You start seeing the hydrogen gas in silhouette at particular radio frequencies," says co-author Alan Rogers of MIT's Haystack Observatory. "This is the first real signal that stars are starting to form, and starting to affect the medium around them."

In their paper, the EDGES team reported seeing a clear signal in the radio wave data, detecting a fall in CMB intensity when that process began. As stellar fusion continued, its resulting UV light began to rip apart the free-floating hydrogen atoms, stripping away their electrons in a process called ionization.

When the early stars died, black holes, supernovae and other objects they left behind continued the ionizing process and heated the remaining free hydrogen with X-rays, eventually extinguishing the signal. EDGES data reveal that milestone occurred roughly 250 million years after the Big Bang.

NSF investment

EDGES began more than a decade ago when Bowman and Rogers proposed building a unique antenna with a specialized receiver, a system that could detect clean signals across the target radio band. Through a series of NSF grants beginning in 2009, the researchers built the instrument, honed calibration methods, and developed statistical techniques for refining signal data.

Bowman, co-author Raul Monsalve from the University of Colorado at Boulder and their collaborators added elements such as an automated system to measure antenna reflection to assess the system's performance, control hut housing the electronics, and a component known as a ground plane.

With those tools in place, the researchers set up the EDGES antennae in the desert to eliminate as much radio noise as possible, selecting an isolated site at the Murchison Radio-astronomy Observatory in Australia, run by that nation's Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO).

Once the signal emerged in their data, the astronomers initiated a years-long process to check and recheck their findings against any known causes of instrumental errors and rule out potential sources of radio interference. In all, EDGES applied dozens of verification tests to ensure that the signal was truly from space.

While confirming the signal, the EDGES data also raise new questions, as the signal was twice as intense as models had predicted. The researchers suggest this means either the fog of hydrogen gas so soon after the Big Bang was colder than expected or that background radiation levels were significantly hotter than the photons of the CMB. The study authors suggest one possibility is that dark matter interactions may explain the effect.

"If that idea is confirmed," Bowman says, "then we've learned something new and fundamental about the mysterious dark matter that makes up 85 percent of the matter in the universe. This would provide the first glimpse of physics beyond the standard model."

Larger radio arrays are continuing the search and are expected to build beyond the initial EDGES findings to gain far greater insight into the earliest stars and galaxies.

"This discovery opens a new chapter in our understanding of how the world we see came into being," Kurczynski says. "With an antenna not much different than an FM radio's, and a great deal of care and ingenuity, the researchers saw something not yet detected by interferometers requiring hundreds of antennas, complex data processing and hundreds of observing hours. Indirectly, they have seen farther than even the Hubble Space Telescope to find evidence of the earliest stars."

###

More information on NSF's six-decade legacy in radio astronomy is available in the NSF-Discover gallery "Revealing the Invisible Universe."

This research was supported by NSF awards AST-0905990, AST-1207761, and AST-1609450.Once in orbit after it launches this fall, NASA's ICESat-2 satellite will travel at speeds faster than 15,000 miles per hour. Last week, the satellite's instrument began its journey toward space riding a truck from Maryland to Arizona, never exceeding 65 mph.

ICESat-2, or the Ice, Cloud and land Elevation Satellite-2, is slated to launch in September to measure the height of Earth's surface, particularly the changing polar ice. To do that, it uses a laser instrument called the Advanced Topographic Laser Altimeter System, or ATLAS, that precisely times how long it takes light particles to bounce off Earth and return to the satellite.

ATLAS, which was designed, built and tested at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, arrived in Gilbert, Arizona, at Orbital ATK's facility on Feb. 23, where it will be joined with the spacecraft structure. To deliver the instrument safely to the spacecraft for assembly and testing, the ATLAS team developed special procedures for packing, transporting and monitoring the sensitive hardware.

"There was a lot of care and feeding that went with ATLAS along the road," said Kathy Strickler, ATLAS integration and test lead.

The trip followed a successful series of tests, designed to ensure the ATLAS instrument will function in the harsh environment of space. After the instrument passed those tests, including some in a thermal vacuum chamber, engineers inspected ATLAS to make sure it was clean and in the correct travel configuration. Then, they attached probes to the instrument that would check for vibrations as well as temperature and humidity.

"These probes tracked what ATLAS actually sensed when going over road bumps, and what ATLAS felt as far as temperature and humidity," said Jeffrey Twum, the ATLAS transport lead.

The team then wrapped the instrument - about the size of a Smart Car - in two layers of anti-electrostatic discharge film, to prevent any shocks en route. With its protections in place, a crane lifted ATLAS into a transporter container. The team bolted it to a platform supported by a series of wire-rope coils used to soften the ride, and the cover of the transporter was fastened shut, sealing up the cargo.

The truck carrying ATLAS left the NASA Goddard campus outside Washington around 3 a.m. on President's Day - timed to avoid the worst traffic on Washington's busy Beltway.

Planning the drive itself was a challenge, Twum noted. The convoy - a scout car, the transport truck, a trail vehicle and other support cars - can't drive through state capitals or big cities during rush hour. The convoy can't drive at night without special approvals. It requires permits for some stretches of roads, and is routed to avoid certain construction zones.

he lead car, driving a quarter-mile ahead of the truck, looked out for accidents or debris in the road; anything that could impact the transporter. The trailing SUV helped switch lanes when necessary, and watched out for other drivers. The support vehicle carried quality assurance personnel and technicians, who were keeping an eye on the environment within the truck, monitoring any bumps or jostling, and controlling the air flow through the trailer so no dust particles settle on the ATLAS instrument. They stayed at hotels with big parking lots along the way, taking shifts to monitor the instrument overnight.

The 2,000-mile trip took four and a half days.

The ATLAS instrument is now at Orbital ATK, where engineers will attach it to the spacecraft and conduct additional testing. Then, the complete satellite will be repacked and trucked to its last stop before low-Earth orbit: Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.

###

For more information about ICESat-2, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/icesat2Research published by Public Health England (PHE) estimates that at least 20% of all antibiotic prescriptions written in primary care in England are inappropriate. This implies that antibiotic prescribing nationally should be reduced by 10% by 2020, in accordance with the national ambition to cut levels of inappropriate prescribing in half. These data are published in five articles in a supplement to the Journal of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy.

Professor Paul Cosford, Public Health England Medical Director said: "Antibiotics are critical to modern medicine, saving millions of lives since the 1940s when they were first introduced. Using antibiotics when you don't need them threatens their long term effectiveness and we all have a part to play to ensure they continue to help us, our families and communities in the future. This publication highlights the role GPs can play and I urge all practices to look at ways they can reduce their inappropriate prescribing levels to help make sure the antibiotics that save lives today can save lives tomorrow."

Health Secretary, Jeremy Hunt said: "Drug-resistant infections are one of the biggest threats to modern medicine and inappropriate prescribing of antibiotics is only exacerbating this problem. "We are leading the world in our response--since 2012, antibiotics prescribing in England is down by 5% and we've invested more than 615 million at home and abroad in research, development and surveillance. But we need to go further and faster otherwise we risk a world where superbugs kill more people a year than cancer and routine operations become too dangerous." Antibiotics are important for treating serious bacterial infections, but their effectiveness is threatened by antibacterial resistance. Antibiotics are unique among drugs as the more they are used, the less effective they become and over time resistance develops. In response to this, the UK government set an ambition to reduce inappropriate antibiotic prescribing by 50% by 2020. This work seeks to quantify the amount of current antibiotic prescribing that is inappropriate.

The research found that the majority of antibiotic prescriptions in English primary care were for infections of the respiratory and urinary tracts. However, in almost a third of all prescriptions no clinical reason was documented. Antibiotic prescribing rates varied substantially between GP practices, nonetheless there is scope for all practices across the country to reduce their rates of prescribing.

For most conditions, substantially higher proportions of GP consultations resulted in an antibiotic prescription than is appropriate according to expert opinion. An antibiotic was prescribed in 41% of all uncomplicated acute cough consultations when experts advocated 10%; bronchitis (actual: 82% versus ideal: 13%), sore throat (actual: 59% versus ideal: 13%), rhinosinusitis (actual: 88% versus ideal: 11%), acute otitis media in 2-18yr olds (actual: 92% versus ideal: 17%).

This work demonstrates the existence of substantial inappropriate antibiotic prescribing and poor diagnostic coding in English primary care. Better diagnostic coding, more precise prescribing guidelines, and a deeper understanding of appropriate long-term uses of antibiotics would allow identification of further reduction potentials.

###

The supplement "Appropriateness of antibiotic prescribing in English primary care" is available at: https://academic.oup.com/jac/issue/73/suppl_2

Direct correspondence to:

Emily-Rose Rolfe

EmilyRose.Rolfe@phe.gov.uk

020-8327-6730 or 020-8200-4400

To request a copy of the journal supplement, please contact:

Anna Moore

anna.moore@oup.com

Sharing on social media? Find Oxford Journals online at @OxfordJournals, @BSACandJAC, and @PHE_ukLong-term field experiments at Rothamsted Research, dating back as far as 1843, prove that modern carbon emissions cannot be locked in the ground to halt global warming

Unique soils data from long-term experiments, stretching back to the middle of the nineteenth century, confirm the practical implausibility of burying carbon in the ground to halt climate change, an option once heralded as a breakthrough.

The findings come from an analysis of the rates of change of carbon in soil by scientists at Rothamsted Research where samples have been collected from fields since 1843. They are published today in Global Change Biology.

The idea of using crops to collect more atmospheric carbon and locking it into soil's organic matter to offset fossil fuel emissions was launched at COP21, the 21st annual Conference of Parties to review the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in Paris in 2015.

The aim was to increase carbon sequestration by "four parts per 1000 (4P1000)" per year for 20 years. "The initiative was generally welcomed as laudable," says David Powlson, a soils specialist and Lawes Trust Senior Fellow at Rothamsted.

"Any contribution to climate change mitigation is to be welcomed and, perhaps more significantly, any increases in soil organic carbon will improve the quality and functioning of soil," he adds. "The initiative has been adopted by many governments, including the UK."

But there have been serious criticisms of the initiative. Many scientists argue that this rate of soil carbon sequestration is unrealistic over large areas of the planet, notes Powlson: "Also, increases in soil carbon do not continue indefinitely: they move towards a new equilibrium value and then cease."

The Rothamsted scientists used data from 16 experiments on three different soil types, giving over 110 treatment comparisons. "The results showed that the "4 per 1000" rate of increase in soil carbon can be achieved in some cases but usually only with extreme measures that would mainly be impractical or unacceptable," says Paul Poulton, lead author and an emeritus soils specialist.

"For example, large annual applications of animal manure led to increases in soil carbon that continued over many years but the amounts of manure required far exceeded acceptable limits under EU regulations and would cause massive nitrate pollution," notes Poulton.

Removing land from agriculture led to large rates of soil carbon increase in the Rothamsted experiments but doing this over large areas would be highly damaging to global food security, record the researchers.

Similarly, they add, returning crop residues to soil was effective at increasing carbon sequestration but, in some countries, this is already done so cannot be regarded as a totally new practice.

"For example, in the UK about 50% of cereal straw is currently returned to soil and much of the remainder is used for animal feed or bedding, at least some of which is later returned to soil as manure," says Poulton. "In many other countries, however, crop residues are often used as a source of fuel for cooking."

Moving from continuous arable cropping to a long-term rotation of arable crops interspersed with pasture led to significant soil carbon increases, but only where there was at least 3 years of pasture in every 5 or 6 years, record the researchers.

"Although there can be environmental benefits from such a system, most farmers find that it is uneconomic under present circumstances," says Powlson. "To make this change on a large scale would require policy decisions regarding changes to subsidy and farm support. Such a change would also have impacts on total food production."

The authors of this study conclude that promoting the "4 per 1000" initiative as a major contribution to climate change mitigation is unrealistic and potentially misleading.

They suggest that a more logical rationale for promoting practices that increase soil organic carbon is the urgent need to preserve and improve the functioning of soils, both for sustainable food security and wider ecosystem services.

For climate change mitigation through changes in agricultural practices, they point out that measures to decrease emission of nitrous oxide, a greenhouse gas almost 300 times more powerful than carbon dioxide, may be more effective.

###

NOTES TO EDITORS

Publication:

Poulton et al., 2018: Major limitations to achieving "4 per 1000" increases in soil organic carbon stock in temperate regions: Evidence from long-term experiments at Rothamsted Research, United Kingdom. Global Change Biology

Rothamsted Research contacts:

David Powlson, Soils Scientist and Lawes Trust Senior Fellow

Tel: +44-0-1582-938-110

E-mail: david.powlson@rothamsted.ac.uk

Susan Watts, Head of Communications

Tel: +44-0-1582-938-109

Mob: +44-0-7964-832-719

E-mail: susan.watts@rothamsted.ac.uk

About Rothamsted Research

Rothamsted Research is the oldest agricultural research institute in the world. We work from gene to field with a proud history of ground-breaking discoveries. Our founders, in 1843, were the pioneers of modern agriculture, and we are known for our imaginative science and our collaborative influence on fresh thinking and farming practices. Through independent science and innovation, we make significant contributions to improving agri-food systems in the UK and internationally. In terms of its economic contribution, the cumulative impact of our work in the UK exceeds 3000 million a year (Rothamsted Research and the Value of Excellence, by Sean Rickard, 2015). Our strength lies in our systems approach, which combines science and strategic research, interdisciplinary teams and partnerships. Rothamsted is also home to three unique resources. These National Capabilities are open to researchers from all over the world: The Long-Term Experiments, Rothamsted Insect Survey and the North Wyke Farm Platform. We are strategically funded by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC), with additional support from other national and international funding streams, and from industry. For more information, visit https://www.rothamsted.ac.uk/; Twitter @Rothamsted

About BBSRC

BBSRC invests in world-class bioscience research and training on behalf of the UK public. Our aim is to further scientific knowledge, to promote economic growth, wealth and job creation and to improve quality of life in the UK and beyond. Funded by Government, BBSRC invested over 469M in world-class bioscience in 2016-17. We support research and training in universities and strategically funded institutes. BBSRC research and the people we fund are helping society to meet major challenges, including food security, green energy and healthier, longer lives. Our investments underpin important UK economic sectors, such as farming, food, industrial biotechnology and pharmaceuticals.

More information about BBSRC, our science and our impact.

More information about BBSRC strategically funded institutesUsing lasers, U.S. and Austrian physicists have coaxed ultracold strontium atoms into complex structures unlike any previously seen in nature.

"I am amazed that we've discovered a new way that atoms assemble," said Rice University physicist Tom Killian. "It shows how rich the laws of physics and chemistry can be." Killian is the lead scientist on a new paper in Physical Review Letters (PRL) that summarized the group's experimental findings.

Killian teamed with experimental physicists from Rice's Center for Quantum Materials and theoretical physicists from Harvard University and Vienna University of Technology on the two-year project to create "Rydberg polarons" out of strontium atoms that were at least 1 million times colder than deep space.

Rice University physicist Tom KillianThe team's findings, which are summarized in the PRL paper and a companion theoretical study appearing this week in Physical Review A (PRA), reveal something new about the basic nature of matter, Killian said.

"The basic laws that we learn in chemistry class tell us how atoms bond together to form molecules, and a deep understanding of those principles is what allows chemists and engineers to make the materials we use in our everyday lives," he said. "But those laws are also quite rigid. Only certain combinations of atoms will form stable bonds in a molecule. Our work explored a new type of molecule that isn't described by any of the traditional rules for binding atoms together."

Killian said the new molecules are only stable at extraordinarily cold temperatures -- about a millionth of a degree above absolute zero. At such low temperatures, the constituent atoms stay still long enough to become "glued together" in new, complex structures, he said.

"One amazing thing is that you can keep attaching an arbitrary number of atoms to these molecules," Killian said. "It's just like attaching Lego blocks, which you can't do with traditional types of molecules."

He said the discovery will be of interest to theoretical chemists, condensed matter physicists, atomic physicists and physicists who are studying Rydberg atoms for potential use in quantum computers.

"Nature takes advantage of a fascinating toolbox of tricks for binding atoms together to make molecules and materials," Killian said. "As we discover and understand these tricks, we satisfy our innate curiosity about the world we live in, and it can often lead to practical advances like new therapeutic drugs or light-harvesting solar cells. It is too early to tell if any practical applications will come from our work, but basic research like this is what it takes to find tomorrow's great breakthroughs."

The team's efforts centered around making, measuring and predicting the behavior of a specific state of matter called a Rydberg polaron, a combination of two distinct phenomena, Rydberg atoms and polarons.

In Rydberg atoms, one or more electrons are excited with a precise amount of energy so that they orbit far from the atom's nucleus. Rydberg atoms can be described with simple rules written down more than a century ago by Swedish physicist Johannes Rydberg. They have been studied in laboratories for decades and are believed to exist in cold reaches of deep space. The Rydberg atoms in the PRL study were up to one micron wide, about 1,000 times larger than normal strontium atoms.

Polarons are created when a single particle interacts strongly with its environment and causes nearby electrons, ions or atoms to rearrange themselves and form a sort of coating that the particle carries with it. The polaron itself is a collective -- a unified object known as a quasiparticle -- that incorporates properties of the original particle and its environment.

Rydberg polarons are a new class of polarons in which the high-energy, far-orbiting electron gathers hundreds of atoms within its orbit as it moves through a dense, ultracold cloud. In the Rice experiments, researchers began by creating a supercooled cloud of several hundred thousand strontium atoms. By coordinating the timing of laser pulses with changes in the electric field, the researchers were able to create and count Rydberg polarons one by one, ultimately forming millions of them for their study.

While Rydberg polarons had previously been created with rubidium, the use of strontium allowed the physicists to more clearly resolve the energy of the coated Rydberg atoms in a way that revealed previously unseen universal characteristics.

"I give a lot of credit to the theorists," said Killian, a professor of physics and astronomy. "They developed powerful techniques to calculate the structure of hundreds of interacting particles in order to interpret our results and identify the signatures of the Rydberg polarons.

"From an experimental standpoint, it was challenging to make and measure these polarons," he said. "Each one lived for only a few microseconds before collisions with other particles tore it apart. We had to use very sensitive techniques to count these fragile and fleeting objects."

###

Study co-authors include Joe Whalen, Roger Ding and Barry Dunning, all of Rice; Francisco Camargo, formerly of Rice and now of AMD; Germano Woehl Jr., formerly of Rice and now of the University of the Sao Paulo; Shuhei Yoshida and Joachim Burgdorfer of Vienna University of Technology; Hossein Sadeghpour of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics; and Richard Schmidt and Eugene Demler of Harvard University.

The research was supported by the Air Force Office of Scientific Research, the National Science Foundation, the Robert A. Welch Foundation, the Austrian Science Fund, the Army Research Office, Dr. Max Rossler, the Walter Haefner Foundation and the ETH Foundation.

VIDEO is available at: https://youtu.be/a_l9flmhK9c

A copy of the PRL paper is available at: https://journals.aps.org/prl/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevLett.120.083401

The DOI of the PRA paper is: 10.1103/PhysRevA.97.022707

A copy of the PRL paper is available at: https://journals.aps.org/pra/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevA.97.022707

This release can be found online at news.rice.edu.

Follow Rice News and Media Relations via Twitter @RiceUNews

Located on a 300-acre forested campus in Houston, Rice University is consistently ranked among the nation's top 20 universities by U.S. News & World Report. Rice has highly respected schools of Architecture, Business, Continuing Studies, Engineering, Humanities, Music, Natural Sciences and Social Sciences and is home to the Baker Institute for Public Policy. With 3,970 undergraduates and 2,934 graduate students, Rice's undergraduate student-to-faculty ratio is 6-to-1. Its residential college system builds close-knit communities and lifelong friendships, just one reason why Rice is ranked No. 1 for quality of life and for lots of race/class interaction and No. 2 for happiest students by the Princeton Review. Rice is also rated as a best value among private universities by Kiplinger's Personal Finance. To read "What they're saying about Rice," go to http://tinyurl.com/RiceUniversityoverview.Wu & Wu (1996) first proposed the former "Eastern Asiatic region" to be an independent floristic Kingdom, the "East Asiatic Floristic Kingdom". It is significant to the definition of the Floristic regions of the world. However, there are still some questions need to be discussed.

As many living fossil plants (Cenozoic plant relicts) only occurred in East Asian today, many researchers have suggested that the East Asiatic Floristic is an ancient flora and the cradle of North American, European floras and even the modern Paleo-tropical flora .

In addition, East Asia has also been considered to be the diversification or origin center of angiosperms. Besides this, as most paleoendemic taxa of the East Asiatic Floristic occurred in the Sino-Japanese flora and neoendemic taxa were concentrated in the Sino-Himalayan flora. Previous studies suggested that the Sino-Japanese flora is older than the Sino-Himalayan flora. Are these hypothesis true or not? However, until today these questions have not been solved well, due to the limitation of research methods and materials.

On the basis of previous studies, Prof. Sun Hang's Group from Kunming Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences (KIB/CAS), propose the term "Metasequoia Flora" to represent the core area of the Sino-Japanese Flora. Since the living fossil plant Metasequoia glyptostroboides is one representative of the relicts or living fossil lineages that are found in this area. Similarly, They propose the term "Rhododendron Flora" to better represent the core region of the Sino-Himalayan flora, as Rhododendron is the largest genus and formed a diversity center in this region, plus it is a representative plant of the flora in this area.

On the basis above, the group first synthesized published molecular phylogenetic data as well as fossil information on the seed plants, try to trace the temporal and spatial evolution of East Asian flora by integrating these datasets with paleo environmental studies that are related to this area.

The results suggest that the East Asian might be relatively young, with most of its clades originating since the Miocene, it should be the refugia for ancient relict plants rather than the birthplace. The Rhododendron Flora and the Metasequoia Flora are probably of a similar age.

The formation and development of the Asian monsoon might have been the main factors that drive the evolution of East Asian flora. The unequal distribution of species diversity in Rhododendron and Metasequoia flora may be due to the diverse and heterogeneous topography and climate of this region caused by the uplift of Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau. Meanwhile, this phenomenon may be also correlated with the direction of mountains ranges in these regions. The East Asian flora appears to have multiple biogeographical origins, being closely affiliations not only with other floras in the Northern Hemisphere, but also with Gondwanan floras.

###

Results published in National Science Review entitled "Is the East Asian flora ancient or not?"

This research was supported by the Major Program of National Natural Science Foundation of China (31590823) and the National Key Research and Development Program of China (2017YFC0505201).Six years into Lebanon's refugee crisis, St. Jude Children's Research Hospital and the Children's Cancer Center of Lebanon at the American University of Beirut Medical Center offer a blueprint for effective childhood cancer treatment during turmoil

funds were available. As the crisis continued, eligibility changed and was limited to patients whose cancer was considered curable. In an effort to treat more patients, coverage ended for bone marrow transplantation, which is an expensive treatment.

Continue to mobilize regional and international advocates to develop and support coordinated approaches for treatment of displaced children with cancer.

"The global humanitarian response to the Syrian crisis has focused mostly on meeting basic needs," Jeha said. "Funding for non-communicable diseases like cancer has been largely nonexistent. Our experience demonstrates what is possible."

###

The other authors are Haifaa Khalifeh, Lama Zahreddine, Layal Bayram, Zeina Merabi, Miguel Abboud, Samar Muwakkit, Nidale Tarek and Hassan El Solh, all of the American University of Beirut Medical Center; and Carlos Rodriguez-Galindo, M.D., chair of the St. Jude Department of Global Pediatric Medicine.

The study was funded by the Children's Cancer Center of Lebanon and ALSAC.LA JOLLA, Calif. -- Feb. 28, 2018 -- Nearly every living cell is studded with branching chains of carbohydrates called glycans. Glycans play diverse roles in shaping how a cell interacts with its environment.

Now, researchers at The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) have described a new method for adorning cells with various glycans and screening interactions between glycans and proteins. Their breakthrough, published today in Nature Communications, may expand research on the roles of glycans in human diseases, including cancers.

"Scientists have been trying to make glycan arrays that every scientist interested in glycans can access in their own labs for years," says Peng Wu, PhD, a TSRI associate professor and senior author of the study. "We've not only done it, but we've done it in a way that's very easy."

Researchers solve problem in glycan screening

The patterns of glycans and glycan-binding proteins on a cell's membrane can differentiate cancer cells from healthy cells, control cells' roles in development and contribute to diverse interactions between adult cells. Genetic diseases that affect the ability of cells to properly create glycans can shorten lifespan and lead to musculoskeletal problems.

But studying glycans has been notoriously tricky. While scientists know how to synthesize diverse proteins and DNA molecules in the lab, creating glycans on demand has been chemically challenging.

To study which proteins in a cell interact with glycan molecules, researchers have typically turned to glycan binding arrays, in which dozens or hundreds of glycans are attached to a glass slide. Researchers then expose the slide to cells or proteins of interest and observe whether the cells or proteins stick to the glycans on the slide. But making these arrays is time-consuming and expensive.

"In the past, if you wanted to make an array with 100 sugars, then you had to chemically synthesize 100 sugars individually, which can be difficult," says Wu. "Only specialized carbohydrate chemists can make them in certain labs."

Wu and his colleagues instead decided to harness the power of the enzymes cells use naturally to produce glycans. These enzymes work in a stepwise fashion to create branching glycans-- one small piece of a sugar is made by one specialized enzyme, then another enzyme creates the next branch in the chain, and so on. The researchers found that even structurally-related unnatural sugars can be added in this way.

Wu's team began with mutated rodent ovary cells that had a very narrow repertoire of glycans on their surface. This was a simpler system than using human cells with many types of glycans. The researchers then exposed the cells to different sets of glycan-creating enzymes to control the addition of carbohydrate branches to the glycans on each cell.

With this method, they created cell arrays each studded with different glycans, including unnatural ones.

"The only limitation is the enzymes that we have available, and the fact that you have to start with cells that already have simple glycosylation," says Wu. "But we were able to create all the glycans we wanted."

Putting the library to the test

To test the utility of the new cell array, Wu and his colleagues screened an array of cells, each displaying a different glycans, to determine which ones bound to Siglec-15, a known glycan-binding protein that plays a role in bone development and remodeling. Siglec-15 is considered a potential target for drugs treating postmenopausal osteoporosis, so understanding how it interacts with carbohydrates is critical. The team identified three structures with strong binding to Siglec-15.

The researchers then incubated human osteoprogenitor cells with mutated rodent ovary cells displaying one of the three structures during differentiation. The team found that this process suppressed the formation of osteoclasts, a Siglec-15-expressing bone cell that absorbs bone tissue during growth and healing. This finding reinforces the idea that Siglec-15 is a good target for osteoporosis treatments, and that the new glycan screening strategy can point researchers to promising new drugs.

"We don't know if this will be used in the broad community--it depends on the availability of enzymes and cells," says Wu. "But if a whole bunch of cells with simple and homogeneous glycans can be made available, that would be huge for the field."

###

In addition to Wu, authors of the study, "Cell-Based Glycan Arrays for Probing Glycan-Glycan Binding Protein Interactions," include Jennie Briard and Matthew Scott Macauley of The Scripps Research Institute; Hao Jiang of the Ocean University of China; and Kelley Moremen of the University of Georgia.

This work was supported by funding from the National Institutes of Health (GM093282, GM113046 and GM103390) and the NSFC-Shandong Joint Fund for Marine Science Research Centers (U1606403).

About The Scripps Research Institute

The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) is one of the world's largest independent, not-for-profit organizations focusing on research in the biomedical sciences. TSRI is internationally recognized for its contributions to science and health, including its role in laying the foundation for new treatments for cancer, rheumatoid arthritis, hemophilia, and other diseases. An institution that evolved from the Scripps Metabolic Clinic founded by philanthropist Ellen Browning Scripps in 1924, the institute now employs more than 2,500 people on its campuses in La Jolla, CA, and Jupiter, FL, where its renowned scientists--including two Nobel laureates and 20 members of the National Academies of Science, Engineering or Medicine--work toward their next discoveries. The institute's graduate program, which awards PhD degrees in biology and chemistry, ranks among the top ten of its kind in the nation. In October 2016, TSRI announced a strategic affiliation with the California Institute for Biomedical Research (Calibr), representing a renewed commitment to the discovery and development of new medicines to address unmet medical needs. For more information, see http://www.scripps.edu.WEST FARGO, N.D. - Like thousands of his neighbors, Scott Roller woke up on Sunday morning to an alarming text message.

"Shelter in place," it said, telling residents the location of an industrial fire in the city and that they should stay where they were.

Just after 5 a.m., about 30,000 barrels of diesel fuel in a large storage tank owned by the Magellan Pipeline Company caught fire. The plume of black smoke swept over homes for the next seven hours.

Roller, vice president of Diamond B Technology Solutions, ignored the warning and jumped into action.

With help from TechLink, Roller's company had just licensed the Local-Rapid Evaluation of Atmospheric Conditions, a real-time plume modeling software invented by a team of researchers (led by a meteorologist) at the Army Research Laboratory.

Using wind and weather data the application maps a smoke or chemical plume's distance and direction, showing emergency managers precisely which areas to evacuate during a crisis. Diamond B Technology Solutions, headquartered in Billings, Montana, is developing the Army technology, which was inspired by burn pits in Iraq, for industrial customers and civilian first responders.

"Being familiar with the city I knew what facility this was," Roller said. "I logged into our web-based app, set the incident location."

Using data from the public weather sensor at the nearby Hector International Airport in Fargo, Roller had an accurate plume model within five minutes.

Industrial fires often produce toxic smoke that can be carried far afield by gusty winter winds. Knowing he had critical information, Roller jumped in his car and hurried to the incident.

On scene, a city official told Roller to call 911.

"After telling the dispatcher that I had plume modeling technology and given the prediction of changing weather conditions that this is something they need I was connected directly to the West Fargo Fire Chief," he said.

Roller was asked to immediately join emergency managers in the operations center where he stayed for the next four hours.

"I kept running new models for them as the weather conditions changed," Roller said. "The app-based version of the system is entirely cloud-based, so there is nothing to set up. All you have to do is select your incident location on a Google map and set your chemical types, and you will have five, 50, and 100 meter 3-D wind field models, and an ALOHA plume model in under five minutes. Subsequent runs of the same models take less than two minutes."

"We appreciate the help," said West Fargo Fire Chief Dan Fuller. "It really made the decision to shelter in place easier."

West Fargo firefighters were assisted by crews from the Fargo Fire Department and its hazardous materials team, employees of the Hector International Airport, the Burlington Northern Santa Fe company, and the North Dakota National Guard, according to news reports. A law enforcement team from Grand Forks deployed three drones to provide live video to firefighters and emergency responders.

All of the assisting agencies had access to Roller's plume and 3-D wind modeling, and city officials posted one of Roller's plume maps to the city's Facebook page.

No one was injured, and the cause of the fire is still unknown, though mechanical failure is suspected, according to fire officials.

"It's great to see Diamond B getting the Army's technology into the hands of first responders where it can help save lives, said Dan Swanson, the senior technology manager at TechLink who assisted the company in licensing the technology from the military.

"I can't imagine a better field demonstration than Scott walking it into the operations center like he did."

###CHAPEL HILL - An international team of researchers has genetically engineered cancer-killing immune cells that can hunt brain tumors displaying a new molecular target that is highly prevalent on brain cancer cells. Based on the findings from their early, preclinical studies, the researchers believe their approach holds promise for a new immunotherapy treatment for glioblastoma, which is the most lethal primary brain tumor.

In the journal Science Translational Medicine, researchers from the University of North Carolina Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center, in collaboration with the Fondazione Istituto di Ricerca e Cura a Carattere Scientifico in Milan, Italy, report they modified immune cells to hunt brain tumors displaying a new molecular target called CSPG4, which they determined is highly prevalent on brain cancer cells. Their preclinical studies of immune cells engineered to recognize CSPG4 showed promise for controlling tumor growth in mouse and cell models for glioblastoma.

New treatments are sorely needed for the disease, as conventional treatments, which can include surgery, radiation and chemotherapy, typically produce a survival benefit of less than a year and a half. Only about one-third of patients with brain and other nervous system cancers live five years.

"Glioblastoma is a tumor of the brain that has a very low chance of being cured with current available therapies," said UNC Lineberger's Gianpietro Dotti, MD, a professor in the UNC School of Medicine Department of Microbiology and Immunology and the senior author of the study. "This is a potential new way to treat these tumors using the immune system."

The study is part of a research program launched at UNC Lineberger to develop personalized immune-based treatments called chimeric antigen receptor T cell, or CAR-T, therapies. This approach involves removing a patient's immune cells and genetically engineering them to recognize and attack cancer. Other centers have launched CAR-T clinical trials for glioblastoma, but the UNC Lineberger team designed immune cells that hunt CSPG4, a different target on the surface of glioblastoma cells that they believe could be more potent than other targets.

"We know that the CAR-T cells can work in glioblastoma; we have evidence from clinical studies from other people," Dotti said. "The problem is the target antigens used in trials have been suboptimal. We identified a target that is highly expressed in glioblastoma."

Dotti and his colleagues report they were able to genetically engineer immune cells called T-cells to attack glioblastoma cells displaying CSPG4. Since CSPG4 was highly expressed in 67 percent of their brain cancer samples, they believe this could be a more effective approach to CAR-T cell therapy for a significant number of patients with glioblastoma.

"The critical point is the antigen needs to be expressed in a high proportion of tumor cells, and not in normal cells of the brain," Dotti said. "We found that the CSPG4 antigen is strongly expressed in 67 percent of the tumors that we analyzed. We also found that this target is also expressed in what we call cancer-initiating cells, which are the stem cells of the tumor. We know it's very important to target these cells as well because they are probably the cause of tumor recurrence. If you don't target them, they will come back."

Other investigational therapies have genetically engineered immune cells that recognize different targets, such as epidermal growth factor receptor variant III (EGFR III), IL-13Ra2 and HER2. Researchers reported that one issue with other approaches has been tumor "heterogeneity" - in which glioblastoma cells do not all express the target, allowing some cancer cells to evade detection by the T-cells.

"Our hypothesis is that targeting CSPG4 would overcome some of this heterogeneity," Dotti said.

UNC Lineberger researchers found that T-cells genetically engineered to target CSPG4 controlled the growth of tumor cells in multiple models of the disease. In cell cultures, the engineered T-cells efficiently eliminated glioblastoma cells displaying CSPG4, while the cancer continued to grow in the presence of regular T-cells. The engineered T-cells also prolonged survival and controlled tumor growth in glioblastoma models in mice.

"This approach was very potent in vitro and in murine studies," Dotti said. "While it didn't cure all of the tumors, we think it is very promising as a single agent, and also could be studied in combination with other investigational approaches."

In addition, they discovered a mechanism to potentially increase the potency of the investigational therapy by upregulating the expression of the CSPG4 target on tumor cells. In mouse studies, high levels of a molecular signal called TNF-alpha was linked to increased expression of CSPG4. Researchers believe exploiting the TNF-alpha pathway could make CAR-T cell treatments that target CSPG4 more effective.

Dotti noted that they did see an immunosuppressive response by brain cancer cells that could limit response of CAR-T cells to glioblastoma - a problem that researchers hope to tackle in future studies.

Overall, the researchers said the early studies showed promise for CAR-T cell treatments that target CSPG4. UNC Lineberger researchers have already launched clinical trials for CAR-T cell-based therapies in patients with blood cancers, but Dotti said they are planning to try to investigate this approach for solid tumors as well.

"It is our intention to extend this therapeutic approach to solid tumors, and glioblastoma is one of the tumors that we are planning to treat in the near future," Dotti said.

Dotti, along with Barbara Savoldo, MD, PhD, assistant director of the UNC Lineberger Immunotherapy Program and professor in the UNC School of Medicine, and Jonathan Serody, MD, UNC Lineberger's associate director of translational research and Elizabeth Thomas Professor in the UNC School of Medicine, plan to launch clinical trials for glioblastoma in partnership with UNC Lineberger's Matthew Ewend, MD, Van L. Weatherspoon Jr. Eminent Distinguished Professor and chair of the UNC School of Medicine Department of Neurosurgery, and UNC Lineberger's Simon Khagi, MD, director of UNC Lineberger's brain tumor program and assistant professor in the UNC School of Medicine Division of Hematology/Oncology and Department of Neurosurgery.

As envisioned, the trial would focus on patients with advanced disease that has recurred and requires additional surgery. To further ensure the safety of patients participating to the future study, researchers plan to incorporate a so-called "safety switch" into the therapy that would allow for the rapid elimination of the T cells in case toxic effects are observed.

"We are working on a potential new way to try to treat this aggressive tumor," Dotti said. "The experiments in vitro and in vivo were promising, but we need to see what happens in patients."

###

In addition to Dotti and Savoldo, other authors were Serena Pellegatta, Natalia Di Ianni, Cristina Corbetta, Yuhui Chen, Monica Patane, Chuang Sun, Bianca Pollo, Soldano Ferrone, and Francesco DiMeco, Gaetano Finocchiaro.

The study was supported by the University Cancer Research Fund. Pellegatta, a visiting scientist from Italy who worked in Dotti's laboratory at UNC Lineberger, received support by Il Fondo di Gio Onlus from Italy.Negative childhood experiences can lead people to believe in conspiracy theories

Belief in conspiracy theories stems - in part - from negative early childhood experiences with caregivers, new research has shown.

In two studies, Ricky Green and Professor Karen Douglas, of the University of Kent's School of Psychology, found that participants with what is termed 'anxious attachment style' were more likely to believe in conspiracy theories.

An anxious attachment style is formed in childhood when a caregiver is inconsistently available. Once formed, this attachment style perseveres in adulthood, where it colours many aspects of people's lives such as their friendships and attitudes.

The research found that participants with anxious attachment style not only believed in general notions of conspiracy but also specific established conspiracy theories, such as that Princess Diana was assassinated by the British Secret Service.

Anxious attachment style also explained belief in conspiracy theories whilst taking into account other important factors such as general feelings of mistrust, age, education and religiosity.

The findings add further evidence that attachment not only influences how a person interacts with others, but also that it influences people's worldviews and political attitudes, say the researchers.

###

The paper, entitled Anxious attachment and belief in conspiracy theories (Ricky Green and Karen M. Douglas) is published in the journal Personality and Individual Differences. See: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0191886917307377

For more information or interview requests contact Martin Herrema at the University of Kent Press Office.

Tel: 01227 816768

Email: M.J.Herrema@kent.ac.uk

News releases can also be found at http://www.kent.ac.uk/news

University of Kent on Twitter: http://twitter.com/UniKent

Notes to editors

Established in 1965, the University of Kent - the UK's European university - now has almost 20,000 students across campuses or study centres at Canterbury, Medway, Tonbridge, Brussels, Paris, Athens and Rome.

It has been ranked 22nd in the Guardian University Guide 2018 and 25th in the Complete University Guide 2018, and in June 2017 was awarded a gold rating, the highest, in the UK Government's Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF).In the Times Higher Education (THE) World University Rankings 2015-16, it is in the top 10% of the world's leading universities for international outlook and 66th in its table of the most international universities in the world. The THE also ranked the University as 20th in its 'Table of Tables' 2016.

Kent is ranked 17th in the UK for research intensity (REF 2014). It has world-leading research in all subjects and 97% of its research is deemed by the REF to be of international quality.

In the National Student Survey 2016, Kent achieved the fourth highest score for overall student satisfaction, out of all publicly funded, multi-faculty universities. Along with the universities of East Anglia and Essex, Kent is a member of the Eastern Arc Research Consortium (http://www.kent.ac.uk/about/partnerships/eastern-arc.html). The University is worth 0.7 billion to the economy of the south east and supports more than 7,800 jobs in the region. Student off-campus spend contributes 293.3m and 2,532 full-time-equivalent jobs to those totals.

Kent has received two Queen's Anniversary prizes for Higher and Further Education.Mutations in known breast cancer genes such as BRCA1 and BRCA2 are identified in only approximately 20 per cent of women who are offered genetic testing for familial breast cancer.

Researchers at the University of Melbourne, led by Professor Melissa Southey, looked at 210 people from 25 multiple-case breast cancer families. They identified 24 previously unknown epigenetic changes that alter a woman's risk of breast cancer and can be passed down through generations without involving changes in the DNA sequence of genes.

"For the majority of women who undergo genetic testing, there is no explanation for their breast cancer predisposition," said Professor Southey, from the Department of Clinical Pathology at the University of Melbourne and Chair of Precision Medicine at Monash University.

"This ground-breaking work is not only helpful for women from families with many cases of breast cancer, it will improve breast cancer risk prediction for all women, and pave the way for the development of epigenetic therapeutics for breast cancer."

The study, published in Nature Communications, looks at epigenetic changes called DNA methylation, where methyl group chemicals modify DNA without changing its sequence. DNA methylation can mimic genetic variation, predisposing a family to breast cancer. The study is one of the first to systematically scan the genome for places where DNA methylation is heritable, and is the first to apply this to familial breast cancer.

University of Melbourne statistician Dr James Dowty said: "Our methods were very successful when applied to breast cancer, and the exciting thing is that they can be applied to many other hereditary diseases. This work was the result of a very fruitful collaboration between molecular biologists and statisticians, like a lot of work in modern medical research."

University of Melbourne and Monash University research fellow Dr Eric Joo said: "Some individuals know they come from a family with a lot of breast cancer but do not have a mutation in a known breast cancer gene. This study should help answer why some of those families have a lot of cancer. It's very exciting to be unlocking part of a big puzzle."

Dr Joo hopes more work will be done to develop tests to screen for the methylation markers associated with breast cancer.

###

Researchers from the Cancer Council Victoria's Division Cancer Epidemiology & Intelligence Division and The University of Utah also contributed to the work.Uranium and other radioactive materials, such as caesium and technetium, have been found in tiny particles released from the damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear reactors.

This could mean the environmental impact from the fallout may last much longer than previously expected according to a new study by a team of international researchers, including scientists from The University of Manchester.

The team says that, for the first time, the fallout of Fukushima Daiichi nuclear reactor fuel debris into the surrounding environment has been "explicitly revealed" by the study.

The scientists have been looking at extremely small pieces of debris, known as micro-particles, which were released into the environment during the initial disaster in 2011. The researchers discovered uranium from nuclear fuel embedded in or associated with caesium-rich micro particles that were emitted from the plant's reactors during the meltdowns. The particles found measure just five micrometres or less; approximately 20 times smaller than the width of a human hair. The size of the particles means humans could inhale them.

The reactor debris fragments were found inside the nuclear exclusion zone, in paddy soils and at an abandoned aquaculture centre, located several kilometres from the nuclear plant.

It was previously thought that only volatile, gaseous radionuclides such as caesium and iodine were released from the damaged reactors. Now it is becoming clear that small, solid particles were also emitted, and that some of these particles contain very long-lived radionuclides; for example, uranium has a half-life of billions of years.

Dr Gareth Law, Senior Lecturer in Analytical Radiochemistry at the University of Manchester and an author on the paper, says: "Our research strongly suggests there is a need for further detailed investigation on Fukushima fuel debris, inside, and potentially outside the nuclear exclusion zone. Whilst it is extremely difficult to get samples from such an inhospitable environment, further work will enhance our understanding of the long-term behaviour of the fuel debris nano-particles and their impact."

The Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) is currently responsible for the clean-up and decommissioning process at the Fukushima Daiichi site and in the surrounding exclusion zone. Dr Satoshi Utsunomiya, Associate Professor at Kyushu University (Japan) led the study.

He added: "Having better knowledge of the released microparticles is also vitally important as it provides much needed data on the status of the melted nuclear fuels in the damaged reactors. This will provide extremely useful information for TEPCO's decommissioning strategy."

At present, chemical data on the fuel debris located within the damaged nuclear reactors is impossible to get due to the high levels of radiation. The microparticles found by the international team of researchers will provide vital clues on the decommissioning challenges that lie ahead.

###

For media enquires please contact Jordan Kenny 0161 275 8257 jordan.kenny@manchetser.ac.uk

Reference: The paper 'Uranium Dioxides and Debris Fragments Released to the Environment with Cesium-Rich Microparticles from the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant' is being published in Environ Sci Technol. 2018 Feb 13. doi: 10.1021/acs.est.7b06309.

Energy is one of The University of Manchester's research beacons - examples of pioneering discoveries, interdisciplinary collaboration and cross-sector partnerships that are tackling some of the biggest questions facing the planet. #ResearchBeacons

About The University of Manchester

The University of Manchester, a member of the prestigious Russell Group, is the UK's largest single-site university with more than 40,000 students - including more than 10,000 from overseas.It is consistently ranked among the world's elite for graduate employability.

The University is also one of the country's major research institutions, rated fifth in the UK in terms of 'research power' (REF 2014). World-class research is carried out across a diverse range of fields including cancer, advanced materials, addressing global inequalities, energy and industrial biotechnology.

No fewer than 25 Nobel laureates have either worked or studied here.

It is the only UK university to have social responsibility among its core strategic objectives, with staff and students alike dedicated to making a positive difference in communities around the world.

Manchester is ranked 38th in the world in the Academic Ranking of World Universities 2017 and 6th in the UK.

Visit http://www.manchester.ac.uk for further information.

Facts and figures: http://www.manchester.ac.uk/discover/facts-figures/

Research Beacons: http://www.manchester.ac.uk/research/beacons/

News and media contacts: http://www.manchester.ac.uk/discover/news/Using new data gathered from sites in southern Africa, University of Rochester researchers have extended their record of Earth's magnetic field back thousands of years to the first millennium.

The record provides historical context to help explain recent, ongoing changes in the magnetic field, most prominently in an area in the Southern Hemisphere known as the South Atlantic Anomaly.

"We've known for quite some time that the magnetic field has been changing, but we didn't really know if this was unusual for this region on a longer timescale, or whether it was normal," says Vincent Hare, who recently completed a postdoctoral associate appointment in the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences (EES) at the University of Rochester, and is lead author of a paper published in Geophysical Research Letters.

The new data also provides more evidence that a region in southern Africa may play a unique role in magnetic pole reversals.

"We're getting stronger evidence that there's something unusual about the core-mantel boundary under Africa that could be having an important impact on the global magnetic field."

The magnetic field that surrounds Earth not only dictates whether a compass needle points north or south, but also protects the planet from harmful radiation from space. Nearly 800,000 years ago, the poles were switched: north pointed south and vice versa. The poles have never completely reversed since, but for the past 160 years, the strength of the magnetic field has been decreasing at an alarming rate. The region where it is weakest, and continuing to weaken, is a large area stretching from Chile to Zimbabwe called the South Atlantic Anomaly.

In order to put these relatively recent changes into historical perspective, Rochester researchers--led by John Tarduno, a professor and chair of EES--gathered data from sites in southern Africa, which is within the South Atlantic Anomaly, to compile a record of Earth's magnetic field strength over many centuries. Data previously collected by Tarduno and Rory Cottrell, an EES research scientist, together with theoretical models developed by Eric Blackman, a professor of physics and astronomy at Rochester, suggest the core region beneath southern Africa may be the birthplace of recent and future pole reversals.

"We were looking for recurrent behavior of anomalies because we think that's what is happening today and causing the South Atlantic Anomaly," Tarduno says. "We found evidence that these anomalies have happened in the past, and this helps us contextualize the current changes in the magnetic field."

The researchers discovered that the magnetic field in the region fluctuated from 400-450 AD, from 700-750 AD, and again from 1225-1550 AD. This South Atlantic Anomaly, therefore, is the most recent display of a recurring phenomenon in Earth's core beneath Africa that then affects the entire globe.

"We're getting stronger evidence that there's something unusual about the core-mantel boundary under Africa that could be having an important impact on the global magnetic field," Tarduno says.

The researchers gathered data for this project from an unlikely source: ancient clay remnants from southern Africa dating back to the early and late Iron Ages. As part of a field called "archaeomagnetism," geophysicists team up with archaeologists to study the past magnetic field.

The Rochester team, which included several undergraduate students, collaborated with archaeologist Thomas Huffman of the University of Witwatersrand in South Africa, a leading expert on Iron Age southern Africa. The group excavated clay samples from a site in the Limpopo River Valley, which borders Zimbabwe, South Africa, and Botswana.

During the Iron Age in southern Africa, around the time of the first millennium, there was a group of Bantu-speaking people who cultivated grain and lived in villages composed of grain bins, huts, and cattle enclosures. Draughts were devastating to their agriculturally based culture. During periods of draught, they would perform elaborate ritual cleansings of the villages by burning down the huts and grain bins.

"When you burn clay at very high temperatures, you actually stabilize the magnetic minerals, and when they cool from these very high temperatures, they lock in a record of the earth's magnetic field," Tarduno says.

Researchers excavate the samples, orient them in the field, and bring them back to the lab to conduct measurements using magnetometers. In this way, they are able to use the samples to compile a record of Earth's magnetic field in the past.

The magnetic field is generated by swirling, liquid iron in Earth's outer core. It is here, roughly 1800 miles beneath the African continent, that a special feature exists. Seismological data has revealed a denser region deep beneath southern Africa called the African Large Low Shear Velocity Province. The region is located right above the boundary between the hot liquid outer core and the stiffer, cooler mantle. Sitting on top of the liquid outer core, it may sink slightly, disturbing the flow of iron and ultimately affecting Earth's magnetic field.

A major change in the magnetic field would have wide-reaching ramifications; the magnetic field stimulates currents in anything with long wires, including the electrical grid. Changes in the magnetic field could therefore cause electrical grid failures, navigation system malfunctions, and satellite breakdowns. A weakening of the magnetic field might also mean more harmful radiation reaches Earth--and trigger an increase in the incidence of skin cancer.

Hare and Tarduno warn, however, that their data does not necessarily portend a complete pole reversal.

"We now know this unusual behavior has occurred at least a couple of times before the past 160 years, and is part of a bigger long-term pattern," Hare says. "However, it's simply too early to say for certain whether this behavior will lead to a full pole reversal."

Even if a complete pole reversal is not in the near future, however, the weakening of the magnetic field strength is intriguing to scientists, Tarduno says. "The possibility of a continued decay in the strength of the magnetic field is a societal concern that merits continued study and monitoring."

###

This study was funded by the US National Science Foundation.An online tool that helps older people monitor their brain health has been developed at the Keck School of Medicine of USC with other medical groups.

The free website addresses a major obstacle to finding early Alzheimer's treatments for a disease that affects more than 5 million Americans: significant delays in clinical trial enrollment.

"Alzheimer's disease is a different beast from heart disease and cancer," said Paul Aisen, director of the USC Alzheimer's Therapeutic Research Institute (ATRI) in San Diego.

Researchers working on heart disease can go to doctors to find appropriate trial participants, but the people who will benefit most from Alzheimer's disease treatments are healthy and have never seen a memory disorder specialist, he explained.

"As a result, using traditional methods to recruit participants for Alzheimer's clinical trials is far too slow and expensive," Aisen said. "We're incorporating innovations such as web-based assessments and establishing trial ready-cohorts to build a bridge between the problem and the solution."

Clinical trials on promising drug treatments for Alzheimer's have failed because patients were treated too late in the disease after irrevocable damage had already been done, Aisen said.

Researchers must evaluate experimental therapies in people whose Alzheimer's symptoms are not yet obvious. That's why the Keck School of Medicine, Harvard Medical School and Cleveland Clinic built an online research tool to direct seemingly healthy people at increased risk of developing Alzheimer's into appropriate clinical trials aimed at preventing dementia.

Top risk factors

The online platform called the Alzheimer Prevention Trials Webstudy allows people who are 50 or older to monitor their cognitive health over time. Participants create a profile that asks about personal health, educational history and exercise habits. These questions address the top risk factors linked to Alzheimer's.

Among the main predictors for diagnoses of Alzheimer's are age, family history of dementia, performance on cognitive tests and an individual's sense of whether their memory has changed, said Michael Rafii, clinical director of USC ATRI and associate professor of neurology at the Keck School of Medicine.

Participants take a 20-minute brain test every three months. If their cognitive health begins to decline and their profile indicates they are at increased risk of developing Alzheimer's, they can join a nearby clinical trial.

The website launched on Dec. 22. As of Feb. 27, 2,773 people had created profiles. The goal is to recruit at least 200,000 people over 50 to join the online study.

Moving research into the fast lane

The Keck School of Medicine plays a leading role in the first two pre-symptomatic Alzheimer's clinical trials in the world, Aisen said. He said it's difficult and expensive to enroll people who have Alzheimer's disease pathology in their brains but none of the symptoms.

"Our online tool will cut the price tag of early Alzheimer's disease clinical trials by two-thirds because we won't have to spend millions testing people who won't develop Alzheimer's disease," Aisen said. "You wouldn't give an eye exam to a blind person. Our online tool identifies people who would be good candidates for pre-symptomatic Alzheimer's disease clinical trials."

It took USC ATRI and its partners more than three years to recruit 1,150 participants for an Alzheimer's clinical trial focused on people who don't yet show symptoms. They administered 4,500 PET scans, spinal taps and other procedures to determine if the potential participants had an overabundance of amyloid plaques and tau tangles - protein indicators of future mental decline. The price tag for these procedures far surpassed $50 million, Aisen said.

"We aim to complete recruitment for early Alzheimer's clinical trials in a matter of months rather than years," Aisen said. "We've been moving far too slowly on developing new treatment options for Alzheimer's. It's time to utilize the latest technologies to accelerate the process. This free online tool does just that."

###

USC ATRI is the San Diego branch of the Keck School of Medicine, which has faculty in Los Angeles working on a vaccine for Alzheimer's. ATRI faculty and staff have worked on over 50 Alzheimer's clinical trials and are currently involved in 14 studies, six of which are currently enrolling worldwide. ATRI is also home to the Alzheimer's Clinical Trials Consortium, the National Institutes of Health's flagship consortium for Alzheimer's disease.

The Alzheimer Prevention Trials Webstudy is supported by a $24.7 million grant from the National Institute of Health's National Institute on Aging. It is a collaboration with the Global Alzheimer's Platform Foundation.

To go to the Alzheimer Prevention Trials Webstudy, visit https://goo.gl/Kd7MNh.

ALZHEIMER'S AND AGING

As a research institution devoted to promoting health across the life span, USC has more than 70 researchers dedicated to the prevention, treatment and potential cure of Alzheimer's disease. The memory-erasing illness is one of the greatest health challenges of the century, affecting 1 in 3 seniors and costing $236 billion a year in health care services. USC researchers across a range of disciplines are examining the health, societal and political effects and implications of the disease.

In the past decade, the National Institute on Aging has nearly doubled its investment in USC research. The investments include an Alzheimer Disease Research Center.February 28, 2018 - In addition to restoring the pre-pregnancy shape of the abdomen, abdominoplasty ('tummy tuck') surgery with muscle repair can improve back pain and urinary incontinence after childbearing, reports a study in the March issue of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, the official medical journal of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS).

Although abdominoplasty is classified as a cosmetic procedure, it also improves two of the most common physical complaints experienced by women after labor and delivery. According to the new research "Abdominoplasty has a proven functional benefit as well as a cosmetic benefit," comments lead author D. Alastair Taylor, FRACS, of The CAPS Clinic in Deakin, Australia.

Abdominoplasty Improves Common Post-Childbearing Symptoms

The study included 214 women undergoing abdominoplasty with repair of the abdominal muscles at nine Australian plastic surgery centers. Many women seek tummy tuck surgery to restore the shape and appearance of the abdomen after childbearing. The women's average age was about 42 years, with an average of 2.5 deliveries.

Before and after surgery, the women completed questionnaires rating their disability from back pain and urinary incontinence: two very common problems after childbearing. In the preoperative questionnaires, about 51 percent of women had moderate to severe disability from back pain, while urinary incontinence was a "significant concern" for 42.5 percent.

On follow-up questionnaires at six weeks and six months, scores for both problems showed major improvement. At six months, only nine percent of patients still had moderate disability from back pain. Urinary incontinence remained a significant problem for less than two percent of women.

Scores for back pain continued to improve from six weeks to six months after abdominoplasty, while urinary incontinence improved no further after six weeks. The women underwent several different types of abdominoplasty surgery; the improvements in back pain and incontinence were similar regardless of the technique used.

Nearly 128,000 abdominoplasty procedures were performed in the United States in 2016, according to ASPS statistics. Tummy tuck is sometimes performed as part of "mommy makeovers" to restore the shape and appearance of a woman's body after childbearing.

The new findings--including before-and-after measurements in a large group of plastic surgery patients--are consistent with previous case reports of improvement in back pain and urinary incontinence after abdominoplasty. These functional improvements may result from restoring strength and stability in the abdominal and pelvic region as the operation incorporates repair of the abdominal muscle separation (rectus diastasis) that can occur after pregnancy.

"By reducing the problems of back pain and incontinence, abdominoplasty with rectus repair leads to a better life for women after childbearing," Dr. Taylor comments. He believes that health insurance plans should recognize that abdominoplasty has functional benefits, beyond the cosmetic improvement offered.

"The results demonstrate that tummy tucks do have functional benefits, as well as cosmetic ones, particularly in the postpartum population," comments Editor-in-Chief Rod J. Rohrich, MD, in a featured video on the Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery website. "If you are done having children, and still suffering from back pain or incontinence, you may consider an abdominoplasty as a surgical solution."

###

Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery is published by Wolters Kluwer.

Click here to read "Abdominoplasty Improves Low Back Pain and Urinary Incontinence."

DOI: 10.1097/PRS.0000000000004100

About Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery

For more than 70 years, Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery has been the one consistently excellent reference for every specialist who uses plastic surgery techniques or works in conjunction with a plastic surgeon. The official journal of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons, Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery brings subscribers up-to-the-minute reports on the latest techniques and follow-up for all areas of plastic and reconstructive surgery, including breast reconstruction, experimental studies, maxillofacial reconstruction, hand and microsurgery, burn repair and cosmetic surgery, as well as news on medico-legal issues.

About ASPS

The American Society of Plastic Surgeons is the largest organization of board-certified plastic surgeons in the world. Representing more than 7,000 physician members, the society is recognized as a leading authority and information source on cosmetic and reconstructive plastic surgery. ASPS comprises more than 94 percent of all board-certified plastic surgeons in the United States. Founded in 1931, the society represents physicians certified by The American Board of Plastic Surgery or The Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada.

About Wolters Kluwer

Wolters Kluwer N.V. (AEX: WKL) is a global leader in information services and solutions for professionals in the health, tax and accounting, risk and compliance, finance and legal sectors. We help our customers make critical decisions every day by providing expert solutions that combine deep domain knowledge with specialized technology and services.

Wolters Kluwer reported 2016 annual revenues of 4.3 billion. The company, headquartered in Alphen aan den Rijn, the Netherlands, serves customers in over 180 countries, maintains operations in over 40 countries and employs 19,000 people worldwide.

Wolters Kluwer Health is a leading global provider of information and point of care solutions for the healthcare industry. For more information about our products and the organization, visit http://www.wolterskluwer.com/, follow @WKHealth or @Wolters_Kluwer on Twitter, like us on Facebook, follow us on LinkedIn, or follow WoltersKluwerComms on YouTube.

For more information about Wolters Kluwer's solutions and organization, visit http://www.wolterskluwer.com, follow us on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and YouTube.February 28, 2018 - Children and adolescents undergoing surgery can be swept up in the ongoing opioid epidemic, according to a review and update in the Journal of Pediatric Orthopaedics, official journal of the Pediatric Orthopaedic Society of North America (POSNA). The journal is published by Wolters Kluwer.

"The magnitude of the problem of prescription opioid use by children and teenagers is overwhelming," according to the article by Ellen Raney, MD, of Shriners Hospitals for Children, Portland, Ore., and colleagues. They present finding from a POSNA survey of opioid prescribing by pediatric orthopaedic surgeons, along with recommended strategies to reduce opioid prescribing and potential misuse among children and adolescents.

Specialists Urged to Respond to High Rates of Opioid Use by Children and Teens

Dr. Raney and coauthors trace the roots of the opioid epidemic to policies of the 1980s and 1990s advocating opioid treatment of pain as a "moral imperative." Dependence or addiction to opioid medications may occur as quickly as two months in about one-third of people. According to one estimate, 16 percent of the US population has an opioid addiction--outnumbering those with heart disease, diabetes, and cancer.

"Though it receives less attention, the dilemma in the pediatric and teenage population is no less dire," Dr. Raney comments. "Like most doctors who work to provide the best care for all patients, we were stunned by the extent and origin of the problem as research became available."

In one study, nearly 13 percent of high school seniors reported nonmedical use of prescription opioids. Most of these initially had a legitimate prescription, but used their leftover medications recreationally. Overall, nearly one-fourth of US high school seniors had some exposure to prescription opioids. A study of seventh- and eighth-graders found a five percent prevalence of nonmedical prescription opioid use.

The National Poison Data System reported that 60 percent of pediatric exposures to prescription opioids, reported as poisonings, were in children up to five years old, and 30 percent in teenagers. Most teenage opioid deaths were from intentional opioid use, whereas children under six were exposed unintentionally to medications around the home.

Dr. Raney and colleagues report findings from a 2016 survey of POSNA member surgeons regarding opioid prescribing. Three-fourths of responding surgeons said they made pain management decisions for their patients, rather than involving a pain specialist. Medication decisions were based mainly on "anecdotal experience," rather than on the limited evidence or guidelines currently available.

The survey findings raise concern that decisions about opioid prescribing may be made without research or understanding of the best management strategies. Some of the prescribing practices could lead to surplus of medications that could be diverted to nonmedical or recreational use.

Dr. Raney and colleagues outline strategies that pediatric orthopaedic surgeons can follow to minimize the impact of the opioid epidemic in children and teens undergoing surgery. First steps include education and standardized prescribing practices, including appropriate plans for disposal of unused pills.

Other strategies include changing patient expectations for postoperative pain control, along with legislation and other initiatives to shift prescribing practices. The authors outline specific strategies before, during, and after surgery to reduce opioid prescribing and nonmedical use. They write, "The need to manage our patients' pain appropriately should be safely balanced against the potential harm of drug diversion to both the individual and society at large."

Dr. Raney and colleagues conclude, "We as pediatric orthopaedists can make a difference by educating ourselves and our trainees, improving our prescribing patterns, and encouraging patients to utilize nonopioid and nonpharmacologic modalities to decrease pain." This year's POSNA Annual Meeting, to be held May 9-12 in Austin, Texas, will include a special symposium on the opioid epidemic and strategies for pediatric orthopaedic patients.

###

Click here to read "Current State of the Opioid Epidemic as it Pertains to Pediatric Orthopaedics From the Advocacy Committee of the Pediatric Orthopaedic Society of North America."

DOI: 10.1097/BPO.0000000000001143

About the Journal of Pediatric Orthopaedics

Journal of Pediatric Orthopaedics is a leading journal that focuses specifically on traumatic injuries to give you hands-on on coverage of a fast-growing field. You'll get articles that cover everything from the nature of injury to the effects of new drug therapies; everything from recommendations for more effective surgical approaches to the latest laboratory findings. Journal of Pediatric Orthopaedics is the official journal of the Pediatric Orthopaedic Society of North America.

About the Pediatric Orthopaedic Society of North America

The Pediatric Orthopaedic Society of North America (POSNA) is a not-for-profit professional organization of over 1400 surgeons, physicians, and allied health members passionately dedicated to advancing musculoskeletal care for children and adolescents through education, research, quality, safety and value initiatives, advocacy, and global outreach to children in underserved areas.

About Wolters Kluwer

Wolters Kluwer N.V. (AEX: WKL) is a global leader in information services and solutions for professionals in the health, tax and accounting, risk and compliance, finance and legal sectors. We help our customers make critical decisions every day by providing expert solutions that combine deep domain knowledge with specialized technology and services.

Wolters Kluwer reported 2016 annual revenues of 4.3 billion. The company, headquartered in Alphen aan den Rijn, the Netherlands, serves customers in over 180 countries, maintains operations in over 40 countries and employs 19,000 people worldwide.

Wolters Kluwer Health is a leading global provider of information and point of care solutions for the healthcare industry. For more information about our products and the organization, visit http://www.wolterskluwer.com/, follow @WKHealth or @Wolters_Kluwer on Twitter, like us on Facebook, follow us on LinkedIn, or follow WoltersKluwerComms on YouTube.

For more information about Wolters Kluwer's solutions and organization, visit http://www.wolterskluwer.com, follow us on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and YouTube.February 28, 2018 - Hip replacement surgery not only improves quality of life but is also associated with increased life expectancy, compared to people of similar age and sex, reports a study in Clinical Orthopaedics and Related Research (CORR), a publication of The Association of Bone and Joint Surgeons. The journal is published by Wolters Kluwer.

Through a decade after surgery, patients undergoing elective total hip arthroplasty (THA) have a slightly improved survival rate compared to the general population, according to the study by Peter Cnudde, MD, of the Swedish Hip Arthroplasty Register, Gothenburg, and colleagues. Dr. Cnudde comments, "Our study suggests that hip replacement can add years to life as well as adding 'life to years'--increasing the chances of longer survival as well as improving the quality of life."

Through Ten Years, Higher Survival in Patients Undergoing Hip Arthroplasty

The researchers analyzed postoperative survival rate in nearly 132,000 patients undergoing THA in Sweden from 1999 through 2012. Average age at hip replacement was about 68 years. During a median follow-up of 5.6 years, about 16.5 percent of patients died.

Survival after THA was longer than expected, compared to people of similar age and sex in the Swedish general population. In the first year, survival was one percent better in THA patients versus the matched population.

The difference increased to three percent at five years, then decreased to two percent at 10 years. By 12 years, survival was no longer different for THA patients compared to the general population.

The survival difference was significant mainly among patients diagnosed with primary osteoarthritis. This condition, reflecting age-related "wear and tear," accounted for 91 percent of patients undergoing THA. In patients with certain other diagnoses--including osteonecrosis, inflammatory arthritis, and "secondary" osteoarthritis due to other health conditions or risk factors--survival after THA was lower compared to the general population.

Not surprisingly, patients with more accompanying medical conditions (comorbidity) had lower survival after THA. Lower education and single marital status were also associated with lower survival.

Total hip arthroplasty has a proven track record in increasing mobility, reducing pain, and improving quality of life in people with hip pain and dysfunction. The researchers note "strong indications" that patients' survival after THA is improving, and that patients undergoing THA tend to live longer than a matched general population. The new findings support that impression, showing a small but significant improvement in expected survival in patients undergoing THA.

"The reasons for the increase in relative survival are unknown but are probably multifactorial," the researchers write. They note some important limitations of their registry study, including the fact that that only patients in relatively good health are selected for THA.

"While no surgeon would recommend THA to the patients just to live longer, but it is likely that the chances of surviving longer are associated with undergoing the successful operation, for patients in need of a hip replacement," says Dr. Cnudde. He notes that this could be proven only by a randomized controlled trial--which would be impossible to perform for ethical reasons. "So data gathered by registers as part of a well-conducted observational study can provide these answers, in our opinion."

The study provides new insights into the lifelong health benefits and economic value of THA, according to an accompanying CORR Insights article by Hannes A. Rudiger, MD, of Schulthess Clinic, Zurich. Especially as the procedure is performed in younger patients, information on the long-term rates of repeat (revision) surgery will be essential. Dr. Rudiger writes, "As surgeons, we need more data in order to advise a patient about what one can and cannot expect from an intervention and how it will affect them for the rest of their lives."

###

Click here to read "Do Patients Live Longer After THA and Is the Relative Survival Diagnosis-specific?"

DOI: 10.1007/s11999.0000000000000097

About CORR

Devoted to disseminating new and important orthopaedic knowledge, Clinical Orthopaedics and Related Research is a leading peer-reviewed orthopaedic journal and a publication of The Association of Bone and Joint Surgeons. CORR brings readers the latest clinical and basic research and informed opinions that shape today's orthopaedic practice, thereby providing an opportunity to practice evidence-based medicine. With contributions from leading clinicians and researchers around the world, we aim to be the premier journal providing an international perspective advancing knowledge of the musculoskeletal system.

About the Association of Bone & Joint Surgeons

The mission of The Association of Bone and Joint Surgeons is to advance the science and practice of orthopaedic surgery by creating, evaluating, and disseminating new knowledge and by facilitating interaction among all orthopedic specialties. Founded in 1947 as the "American Bone and Joint Association," ABJS membership is offered by invitation only to orthopaedic surgeons who have been certified by the American Board of Orthopaedic Surgery.

About Wolters Kluwer

Wolters Kluwer N.V. (AEX: WKL) is a global leader in information services and solutions for professionals in the health, tax and accounting, risk and compliance, finance and legal sectors. We help our customers make critical decisions every day by providing expert solutions that combine deep domain knowledge with specialized technology and services.

Wolters Kluwer reported 2016 annual revenues of 4.3 billion. The company, headquartered in Alphen aan den Rijn, the Netherlands, serves customers in over 180 countries, maintains operations in over 40 countries and employs 19,000 people worldwide.

Wolters Kluwer Health is a leading global provider of information and point of care solutions for the healthcare industry. For more information about our products and the organization, visit http://www.wolterskluwer.com/, follow @WKHealth or @Wolters_Kluwer on Twitter, like us on Facebook, follow us on LinkedIn, or follow WoltersKluwerComms on YouTube.

For more information about Wolters Kluwer's solutions and organization, visit http://www.wolterskluwer.com, follow us on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and YouTube.The findings suggest that his method could be relevant for management of some autoimmune and psychiatric disorders

DETROIT - Dutch adventurer Wim Hof is known as "The Iceman" for good reason. Hof established several world records for prolonged resistance to cold exposure, an ability he attributes to a self-developed set of techniques of breathing and meditation -- known as the Wim Hof Method -- that have been covered by the BBC, CNN, National Geographic and other global media outlets. Yet, how his brain responds during cold exposure and what brain mechanisms may endow him with this resistance have not been studied -- until now.

Wayne State University School of Medicine professors Otto Muzik, Ph.D., and Vaibhav Diwadkar, Ph.D., changed that. Their publication, "Brain Over Body: A study on the willful regulation of autonomic function during cold exposure," published in the journal NeuroImage, is the first to study how The Iceman's brain responds during experimentally controlled whole-body cold exposure. These investigations are part of the scientists' series of seminal studies launched in 2014 on how the human brain responds to thermoregulatory challenges. The results document compelling brain processes in The Iceman and present intriguing possibilities for how his techniques might exert positive effects related to disorders of the immune system and even psychiatry.

Over three days, Muzik and Diwadkar studied Hof's brain and body functions using two distinct imaging techniques -- including functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to study his brain and positron emission tomography (PET) to study his body. During the studies, Hof wore a specifically designed whole-body suit the researchers could infuse with temperature-controlled water while the imaging data were acquired in order to relate changes in his biology to cold exposure.

The Iceman's results when compared to a group of healthy comparison participants were startling.

Practice of the Wim Hof Method made Hof's skin temperature relatively invariant to cold exposure, a finding the researchers attributed to his increased sympathetic innervation and glucose consumption in intercostal muscle revealed by PET imaging. The method appeared to allow him to generate heat that dissipates to lung tissue and warms circulating blood in the pulmonary capillaries.

"The willful regulation of skin temperature -- and, by implication, core body temperature, even when the body is being stressed with cold -- is an unusual occurrence and may explain his resistance to frostbite," said Muzik, professor of pediatrics, of neurology and of radiology.

"From our previous studies, we expected The Iceman to show significant brain activations in a region known as the anterior insula, where the brain's higher thermoregulatory centers are located. However, we observed more substantial differences in an area called periaqueductal gray matter, located in the upper brainstem. This area is associated with brain mechanisms for the control of sensory pain and is thought to implement this control through the release of opioids and cannabinoids," Muzik added.

These last set of results are striking -- not only for what they reveal about The Iceman, but even more so for the implications of the relevance of the Wim Hof Method for behavioral and physical health. The researchers hypothesize that by generating a stress-induced analgesic response in periaqueductal gray matter, the Wim Hof Method may promote the spontaneous release of opioids and cannabinoids in the brain. This effect has the potential to create a feeling of well-being, mood control and reduced anxiety.

"The practice of the Wim Hof Method may lead to tonic changes in autonomous brain mechanisms, a speculation that has implications for managing medical conditions ranging from diseases of the immune system to more intriguingly psychiatric conditions such as mood and anxiety disorders," said Diwadkar, professor of psychiatry and behavioral neurosciences. "We are in the process of implementing interventional studies that will evaluate these questions using behavioral and biological assessments. These possibilities are too intriguing to ignore."

"It is not mysterious to imagine that what we practice can change our physiology. The goal of our research is to ascertain the mechanisms underlying these changes using objective and scientific analyses, and to evaluate their relevance for medicine," Muzik added.

###

About Wayne State University

Wayne State University is one of the nation's pre-eminent public research universities in an urban setting. Through its multidisciplinary approach to research and education, and its ongoing collaboration with government, industry and other institutions, the university seeks to enhance economic growth and improve the quality of life in the city of Detroit, state of Michigan and throughout the world. For more information about research at Wayne State University, visit research.wayne.edu.A new mechanism that coordinates human development in response to signals from outside the cell has been discovered by researchers at the Wellcome Sanger Institute and the Wellcome - MRC Cambridge Stem Cell Institute. Reported in Nature, the study revealed that the SMAD2 and SMAD3 proteins (SMAD2/3) link and coordinate many different pathways in the cell that were previously believed to be separate.

In addition to switching on specific genes on command, researchers saw for the first time that SMAD2/3 precisely regulates the timing of their expression, fine-tuning the processes needed for embryo development and growth.

This new mechanism could be essential for other processes that need a rapid response - such as organ repair, immune response or cancer growth - and this finding could inspire novel methods of studying these processes.

For cells and tissues to function correctly, certain genes need to be switched on and off at the right times in response to signals - called growth factors - from outside the cell. The SMAD2/3 protein is known to be a vital part of this cell signalling process, activated inside the cell and switching on and off genes needed for many varied processes, from embryo development and growth to activating the immune system or cancer.

SMAD2/3 has numerous different functions in different cells, from controlling growth in some cell types to controlling the response to stress in others. It was known to interact with certain DNA-binding proteins called transcription factors, however, until now it was a mystery how it was possible for SMAD2/3 to achieve so many different functions.

The researchers studied developing human pluripotent stem cells - cells that can give rise to all tissues and organs of the human body - investigating the interactions of SMAD2/3 with other proteins. They discovered that that while SMAD2/3 did bind some transcription factors, it also interacted with proteins involved in a whole range of molecular processes in the cell, coordinating them with the cell signalling.

One such molecular process is the recently discovered mechanism known as RNA editing. When proteins are produced in a cell, the DNA is transcribed into messenger RNA, which is then translated into the proteins that the cell needs. However, RNA editing can make modifications to the RNA to reduce its stability and control how long a protein can be produced for, effectively switching the gene off more rapidly than would be achieved by only halting RNA transcription.

For the first time, researchers saw that SMAD2/3 was able to activate an RNA editing protein, which made specific RNAs unstable and quick to degrade. The SMAD2/3 acted as a link between cell signalling and RNA editing, allowing the cell to switch on, and then rapidly switch off again, genes that are important for development.

Dr Alessandro Bertero, a first author on the paper and former PhD student at the Wellcome - MRC Cambridge Stem Cell Institute*, said: "To our knowledge this is the first time that anyone has seen that SMAD2/3 can interact with so many multiple processes, unexpectedly coordinating different cell pathways. Our study shows that SMAD2/3 is like a multi-function Swiss army knife instead of the specialised tool it was previously thought to be, creating a link between various key pathways."

Since the activity of SMAD2/3 is regulated by growth factors, the study sheds light on a novel way that cell function can be controlled by signals from outside the cell.

Dr Ludovic Vallier, lead author on the paper from the Wellcome Sanger Institute and Wellcome - MRC Cambridge Stem Cell Institute, said: "Our study reveals that cell signalling with SMAD2/3 coordinates cellular mechanisms and allows the cells to change state quickly. Understanding this could be important for studying diseases such as cancer where cellular processes are often investigated in isolation. These findings could also change the way mechanisms such as mRNA processing, DNA repair and transcriptional regulations are studied and open entire new fields of investigation."

###

Notes to editors:

*Dr Alessandro Bertero is currently at the University of Washington, USA.

Selected websites:

Wellcome Trust - MRC Cambridge Stem Cell Institute

The Wellcome Trust - MRC Cambridge Stem Cell Institute is a world-leading centre for stem cell research with a mission to transform human health through a deep understanding of normal and pathological stem cell behaviour. Bringing together biological, clinical and physical scientists operating across a range of tissue types and at multiple scales, we explore the commonalities and differences in stem cell biology in a cohesive and inter-disciplinary manner. In 2018, we will relocate to a new purpose-built home on the Cambridge Biomedical Campus. Housing over 350 researchers, including a critical mass of clinician scientists, the Institute will integrate with neighbouring disease-focused research institutes and also act as a hub for the wider stem cell community in Cambridge. http://www.stemcells.cam.ac.uk

Wellcome Sanger Institute

The Wellcome Sanger Institute is one of the world's leading genome centres. Through its ability to conduct research at scale, it is able to engage in bold and long-term exploratory projects that are designed to influence and empower medical science globally. Institute research findings, generated through its own research programmes and through its leading role in international consortia, are being used to develop new diagnostics and treatments for human disease. http://www.sanger.ac.uk

Wellcome

Wellcome exists to improve health for everyone by helping great ideas to thrive. We're a global charitable foundation, both politically and financially independent. We support scientists and researchers, take on big problems, fuel imaginations and spark debate. http://www.wellcome.ac.ukSome 76,000 illegal and undocumented immigrants are believed to be living in Switzerland. The canton of Geneva  home to 13,000 of them launched a pilot project in 2015to go about regularising them. What progress has been made?

I heard that things were better in Switzerland, says Purevmaa from Mongolia, recalling how she began her underground life here 13 years ago. Today, she is one of the 1,093 beneficiaries of the Papyrus project, a unique pilot scheme aiming to regularise long-term undocumented workers in Geneva.

Since 2005, the year she arrived in Switzerland, Purevmaa has taken on domestic work as a means of earning a living.

A lot of other women from my country had found good jobs in Geneva, she says. I decided to come. I arrived when I was 24, with another girl from Mongolia, whose brother was already here. We stayed with him and found work.

She says that as a woman, finding work in Swiss households is easy and that she is well-treated by her bosses. She now earns a decent wage, she says, and along with her husband can pay for her familys needs.

It was under these circumstances that Purevmaa decided to put in an application for regularised status through the Papyrus scheme; the Interprofessional Workers Union (SIT) helped her with collecting the necessary paperwork.

It took three months to get the documents together, she says. But the most difficult part was waiting the six months to find out their decision.

A negative answer would have meant expulsion from the country. She was accepted.

A double objective

The Papyrus project has two objectives, according to Pierre Maudet, Genevas cantonal minister in charge of security and the economy.

It serves to normalise the status of undocumented immigrants according to strict criteria within an established legal framework, and it helps to clean up those areas of the economy affected by underground employment and unfair salary competition, he said at a press conference givingan update onthe project.

The Papyrus pilot scheme officially started on February 20, 2017, but was preceded by a discreet test phase that began in autumn 2015. Since then, a total of1,093 illegal workers (244 families, eight childless couples, 291 singles) have received their permits. Just four people were rejected and deported.This total figureis expected to rise to 2,000 by the end of the project in December this year.

This is not a collective regularisation, nor an amnesty, but rather a case-by-case evaluation Mario Gattiker, SEM

Papyrus has received widespread attention, and despite being a Geneva-only project, the federal government was also persuaded to back it. For Bern, it represents an interesting exploratory path for treating the issue of migration and illegal work, said Mario Gattiker, head of the State Secretariat for Migration (SEM).

But Gattiker points out that the granting of residency permits to illegal immigrants remains a job for federal authorities. Papyrus applications are examined within existing legal frameworks and the project is not a collective regularisation nor an amnesty, but rather a case-by-case evaluation, he said.

The scheme is also the outcome of a long battle waged by organisations defending the rights of undocumented workers. Over a period of about 15 years, they worked together on a widespread information campaign to try to find those who might meet the criteria to qualify for regularisation.

Papyrus criteria

Prove their financial independence

Declare all current employment

Be free of debt and legal proceedings

Have lived continuously in Geneva for 10 years (five if with school-aged children)

Be able to speak basic French

Some 3,000 people have applied for assistance through the programme since February 2017, according to Marianne Halle of the Swiss-Immigrant Contact Centre (CCSI).

According to a survey conducted by the University of Geneva, the largest group of applicants have been from Latin America. Some 80% of regularised dossiers have come from this region, notably Brazil, Bolivia, and Colombia. Another 10% were from Eastern Europe (Kosovo, Macedonia, Bosnia), 6 % from Asia (Philippines, Mongolia), and 3% from Africa (Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia).

Many do not fulfil the conditions; as many as 13,000 illegal immigrants remain in Geneva, according to the SEM. Remy Kammermann, a lawyer with the Protestant Social Centre, says that these people are not eligible to apply for Papyrus whether as a result of outstanding debts or because their income is not sufficient to justify their staying here.

But for those, like Everton from Brazil, who manage to meet the conditions and gain a valid status, the change in daily life and stress is significant.

Mixed reactions



As the project continues in Geneva  where some 15 dossiers are sent for examination each week  its attracting interest and criticism both inside and outside the canton. The local chapter of the conservative right Swiss Peoples Party reckons that the scheme sends a disastrous signal and will simply attract more illegal immigrants to the region. It wants the project stopped and hashas initiated parliamentary initiatives against Papyrus in Geneva and Bern.

Geneva already hosts about 17% of Switzerlands illegal immigrants, according to 2015 statistics. And prior to Papyrus, the canton had also been far more active than the rest in regularising them (see graphic).

Zurich, home to the largest number of illegal immigrants, only regularised the status of 10 of them over the period from 2012-2016. Lawyer Kammermann says that many authorities in German-speaking parts of Switzerland deny the problem, which is surprising for a canton [Zurich] with an estimated 25,000 to 30,000 undocumented immigrants.

In German-speaking Switzerland, as well as in the Anglo-Saxon world, he says, the argument is often heard that one shouldnt help undocumented immigrants, as this would be seen as rewarding them for their illegal situation.

But many are closely watching the situation in Geneva. SEM head Gattiker doesnt exclude the possibility that certain cantons are waiting for the final evaluation of the Papyrus project in order to analyse the possibility of applying a similar programme, adapted to particular conditions.



A company has won the right to build a brothel in the industrial district of Magadino in Italian-speaking Switzerland. The town authorities failed to convince the courts that prostitution was not a commercial undertaking.

The company, Goblatime, had submitted an application for a construction permit for a brothel in Magadino in March 2013. The town officials objected because they deemed prostitution contrary to the norms in the industrial, commercial and artisanal quarter of Quartino, they said in a statement on Wednesday.

Zurich residents vote in favour of drive-in sex boxes

Basel sets up special pick up zones for prostitutes

The conflict first became the subject of discussion in Ticino cantonal parliament. The case was then passed on to the cantonal administrative court. The last court of appeal, the Second Court of Public Law of the Federal Supreme Court, decided that prostitution had both commercial and service aspects, and was thus in accordance with the norms of the industrial zone.

In Switzerland, prostitution is legal and is taxed liked any other business. But some cantons and cities have their own specific regulations.













SDA-ATS/ac





Swiss president Alain Berset has met Mozambican president Filipe Nyusi in Bern. Nyusi acknowledged Switzerlands contribution to the countrys peace process and the two delegations discussed development cooperation and bilateral economic relations.

It was the first official visit of a Mozambican head of state and government since 2009. The Swiss foreign affairs minister, Ignazio Cassis, also attended the talks.

Cassis and his Mozambican counterpart Jose Condungua Pacheco signed an agreement on international cooperation which sets out the framework for Switzerlands humanitarian, technical and financial assistance in Mozambique. The country is one of the poorest in the world and has long been a priority country for Swiss development cooperation, the Federal Council wrote in a statement.

Advancing the peace process

Berset praised the progress which had been made in the peace process, the Swiss News Agency reported.

Mozambique was ravaged by a civil war between 1977 and 1992, the impact of which can still be felt today. Since 2016, Switzerland has chaired the Contact group set up to support the peace process by helping the two parties negotiate a peace agreement.

Berset pledged Switzerlands continuing support for a lasting peace in Mozambique and said the country had great economic potential and natural resources.

The two delegations also discussed measures regarding economic policy which could improve the investment climate in Mozambique, the Federal council wrote.













SDA-ATS/swissinfo.ch/ln





Two German states said Wednesday they would sell troubled maritime lender HSH Nordbank in the first full privatisation of one of the regionally-owned "Landesbank" lenders hit badly by the financial crisis.

Leaders from Hamburg and Schleswig-Holstein states said at a news conference they would sell their 95-percent stake for one billion euros ($1.2 billion) to investors led by two US funds, J. Christopher Flowers and Cerberus capital.

The European Commission ordered a change of ownership in exchange for its approval in 2009 of a 13-billion-euro rescue  one of two taxpayer-funded bailouts for the north German bank since the 2007-2008 financial crisis.

That rescue plan helped cover risky investments amounting to 60 billion euros, most of them in real estate and the shipping sector, which HSH built up in the pre-crisis years.

Today weve reached an important milestone on the way to selling the states holdings in HSH, which had over the years proved very costly to the taxpayer, Schleswig-Holstein state premier Daniel Guenther said.

Wednesdays deal must still earn a green light in a further competition probe by the Commission and from banking supervisors at the European Central Bank.

If it goes ahead, the privatisation means that we can limit the damage to the states that has resulted from the banks irresponsible strategy of expansion between 2003 and 2008, Hamburg mayor Olaf Scholz said.

Hamburg and Schleswig-Holstein have taken on a portfolio of HSHs bad loans, meaning taxpayers could face a bill of up to 7.0 billion euros when they are eventually sold to private buyers.

The contract for Wednesdays sale also provides for HSHs payroll to be halved, to around 1,000 workers.

HSHs departure into the private sector leaves just five of the Landesbank lenders standing after a series of post-crisis interventions.

tgb/mfp/rlThe brutal murder of an orthodox Jewish woman in France has been declared an anti-Semitic act, a legal source told AFP on Tuesday, after a campaign to draw attention to the crime.

When Sarah Halimi, 65, died last April in Paris, her family and Jewish groups blamed anti-Semitism.

Kobili Traore, 27, who was arrested the day after the killing, went before the instructing magistrate on Tuesday who finally added anti-Semitism to the charges, the source said.

Traore was Halimis neighbour and allegedly broke into her apartment in a public housing development in eastern Paris on the night of April 3.

Amid shouts of Allah Akbar (God is great), Koranic verses and insults, he beat Halimi before throwing her out of the window.

Ive killed the demon, he allegedly shouted in Arabic.

The murder stirred debate over anti-Semitism and violence in working-class districts of France.

Despite having taken a large amount of cannabis before the killing, psychiatric testing found he was still responsible for his actions which were not incompatible with an anti-Semitic dimension.

The prosecutor then called for anti-Semitism to be added to the charges, as Jewish groups had demanded.

Last month they started legal action demanding a response from the instructing magistrate on whether Halimi was targeted because of her religion.

The affair took a political turn last July when President Emmanuel Macron called for the full facts to be known during a visit by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu

Frances half-a-million-plus Jewish community has voiced increasing concern with a rise in anti-Semitic acts that have seen thousands of Jews leave for Israel.Turkey on Wednesday sharply criticised France and the United States for arguing a ceasefire in Syria should apply to its military operation against Kurdish militia, as new tensions mounted between Ankara and its NATO allies.

The United Nations Security Council, crucially including regime ally Russia, has agreed a 30-day nationwide ceasefire in Syria although this has yet to be implemented or end the violence in rebel-held Eastern Ghouta.

Turkey has welcomed the ceasefire but repeatedly insisted any truce will not affect its over month-long operation in the Afrin region against Kurdish militia Ankara believes to be terrorists.

French President Emmanuel Macron told his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan in telephone talks Monday the ceasefire must be applied across the country including in Afrin, the French presidency said.

But the Turkish foreign ministry Wednesday accused Paris of giving a false readout of the conversation, saying Macron did not refer to Afrin in the discussion on the ceasefire.

It said Turkey had informed the French authorities that their statement showed a lack of candour and made the error of misinforming public opinion.

In Washington meanwhile, US State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert also insisted that the ceasefire did apply to the Afrin operation.

Turkey is more than welcome to go back and read the exact text of this UN Security Council resolution, and I would suggest that they do so, she said.

Nauert argued that only campaigns against Islamic State jihadists, Al-Qaeda and other extremist Islamist groups were exempted from ceasefire.

The Turkish foreign ministry said in a separate statement that Nauerts comments were devoid of any basis, insisting that the Afrin campaign was a fight against terrorists and a matter of self defence for Turkey.

Turkeys operation against the Kurdish Peoples Protection Units (YPG) militia has raised tensions with Washington, which works closely with the YPG in the fight against jihadists in Syria.

Ankara sees the YPG as the Syrian branch of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which for over three decades has waged an insurgency against the Turkish state and is banned by Turkey, the US and the European Union as a terror group.More than 200 people were convicted for promoting "extremist" messages online last year, a Russian NGO said Wednesday, as it condemned the application of a law it said was infringing on free speech.

According to the yearly report by the Sova Centre, which specialises in studying xenophobia, 228 people were convicted under the extremist propaganda law in Russia last year  up from 220 people in 2016  and 47 were given jail sentences.

Almost all convictions related to pictures, videos or messages posted online, the NGO said, adding it was possible the law was a pretext to enforce political repression.

The fight against extremism is growing, restricting freedom of speech. These restrictions are often applied too widely, it said in a statement.

Sova said that the list of banned extremist publications was updated 33 times over the course of the last year.

The list includes historical and opposition publications.

Last August a Russian court jailed an investigative journalist for three and a half years, in a case denounced by media rights activists.

Alexander Sokolov was arrested on suspicion of participating in a banned extremist group.

He denied wrongdoing, saying his prosecution was instead over an investigative report published two weeks earlier on government overspending on a project to build a new space port.Former prime minister John Major suggested Wednesday that Britons should be given the chance to vote again on Brexit, warning they were "misled" about its consequences.

He said UK lawmakers should have the option of calling a second referendum on EU membership when they vote on the terms of Britains withdrawal later this year.

By 2021, after the likely two-year transition, it will be five years since the 2016 referendum, he said in a speech in London.

The electorate will have changed. Some voters will have left us. Many new voters will be enfranchised. Others may have changed their mind.

No-one can truly know what the will of the people may then be. So, let parliament decide. Or put the issue back to the people.

Major, a former leader of Prime Minister Theresa Mays Conservative party, held office between 1990 and 1997.

His intervention comes just days before Mays keynote speech on what she wants from Britains future trading partnership with the EU.

She has ruled out staying in the single market or customs union, calling instead for a new bespoke deal.

But Major joined critics in Britain and Brussels in saying it was just not credible to suggest this would deliver similar benefits.

We simply cannot move forward with leaving the EU, the single market, the customs union and the European Court of Justice, whilst at the same time expecting a la carte, beneficial-to-Britain, bespoke entrance to the European market, he said.

Major campaigned against Brexit but said he also opposed Britain joining the euro single currency or the Schengen free movement area, and was neither a europhile nor a eurosceptic.

But I am a realist. I believe that to risk losing our trade advantages with the colossal market on our doorstep is to inflict economic self-harm on the British people, he said.

He accused ultra Brexit supporters of deceiving themselves and, as a result, they are misleading the British people.

Although the referendum was advisory only, the result gave the government the obligation to negotiate a Brexit. But not any Brexit  not at all costs, he said.

He added: Many electors know they were misled: many more are beginning to realise it. So, the electorate has every right to reconsider their decision.

May has repeatedly ruled out a second referendum, while the main opposition Labour party has also cautioned against such a move.Britain set out new proposals Wednesday for the rights of EU citizens who settle there during a post-Brexit transition period, seeking to bridge the divide with Brussels over the issue.

Europeans will maintain the right to move to Britain to live, study and work after withdrawal from the European Union in March 2019 until the end of the transition, which the bloc has said should last around 21 months.

Like those who arrive before Brexit, these EU citizens and their relatives will be able to apply for the right to stay indefinitely after five years of continuous residence, and stay for as long as they need to accrue this.

However, they will have to register with the authorities if they stay more than three months  unlike those who are already in the country.

And relatives who want to join them after the transition will have no special status, instead being subject to normal British immigration rules, including a minimum income requirement.

The EU and Britain agreed a deal in December on the rights of around three million EU citizens living in Britain and their relatives.

But Prime Minister Theresa May rejected the EUs request for these rights to be extended to those arriving during the transition period.

London is hoping that an agreement can be reached by March on the transition, but EU negotiator Michel Barnier has warned that differences on citizens rights could delay it.Police probing an explosion in the central English city Leicester last week, which left five people dead and demolished a building, arrested a sixth suspect on Sunday.

A man in his 40s, from East Anglia, has been arrested on suspicion of manslaughter, local police said in a statement.

He is currently in police custody where he will be questioned by detectives.

It follows the charging Saturday of three other men with arson with intent to endanger life and five counts of manslaughter.

The accused  all in their 30s and from Leicester, the nearby city of Coventry, and Oldham in north-west England  will appear in court Monday.

Two other men, also in their 30s and from East Anglia, who were arrested on Friday were released under investigation over the weekend, police said.

The blast on February 25 near Leicester city centre destroyed a supermarket and a two-storey flat above it.

A 46-year-old woman and her two teenage sons were killed in the blast, along with one of their girlfriends, 18, and a 22-year-old woman.

Police, who have said there appeared to be no link to terrorism, have urged the media and public not to speculate about the cause of the explosion.

With three people now charged and due in court, it becomes even more important, for legal reasons, that this message is heeded, Leicestershire police said Saturday.Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is to visit the United States from March 19-22, for the first time as heir to the throne, a Saudi government source told AFP on Wednesday.

The much anticipated trip to Washington will follow a visit to Britain on March 7 for talks with Prime Minister Theresa May.

US President Donald Trump hosted Prince Mohammed in March 2017, just weeks after taking office, and he chose Saudi Arabia for his first official overseas visit as president.

Prince Mohammed, who was named heir in June 2017, is also expected to visit France in the coming weeks.

The government source did not comment on Prince Mohammeds schedule in Washington.

Saudi Arabia has grown close to its longtime ally Washington under Trump, whose harder line on its arch-rival Iran and softer stance on arms sales are a welcome shift in policy for Riyadh.

Saudi Arabia viewed Trumps predecessor president Barack Obama as too accommodating towards Iran  particularly on negotiating a 2015 nuclear deal.The United States and three European allies condemned Iran on Tuesday after the United Nations found Tehran had violated the arms embargo on Yemen by failing to block supplies of missiles and drones to Huthi rebels.

Britain, France, Germany and the United States urged Iran to immediately cease all activities that are inconsistent or would violate the UN resolution that established the arms embargo in 2015.

The joint condemnation came a day after Russia vetoed a British-drafted resolution renewing sanctions on Yemen and citing particular concern about a reports findings on Iran.

The report by a UN panel of experts in January concluded that Iran was in violation after determining that missiles fired by the Huthis at Saudi Arabia last year were made in Iran.

Russia, however, questioned the findings and blocked the resolution, saying the report did not contain conclusive evidence of Irans violation of the arms embargo.

We condemn Irans non-compliance, as described by the panel, which poses serious risks to peace and stability in the region, said the joint statement released by the US mission.

All four countries are signatories to the Iran nuclear deal of 2015.

In response to Tuesdays condemnation, the Iranian Foreign Ministry said in a statement, for three years now the behavior of the United States and Britain at the UN Security Council has been harmful, and tantamount to legitimizing the aggressors in Yemen.

The statement said these countries were stoking Saudi aggression in Yemen by acting as the kingdoms main backers and arms suppliers.

The Russia veto was a setback for the United States as it pushes the Security Council to take a stronger stance toward Iran over its role in regional conflicts and missile tests.

The US administration maintains that Iran is not living up to its commitments under the nuclear deal, which President Donald Trump has criticized as the worst ever.

The British-drafted resolution that was strongly backed by the United States was vetoed by Russia after 11 countries voted in favor at the 15-member Security Council.

China and Kazakhstan abstained and Bolivia voted against it.

A Saudi-led coalition supporting Yemens government has been fighting the Huthis since 2015 in a war that has created what the United Nations describes as the worlds worst humanitarian crisis.

The council earlier heard the UN director of aid operations, John Ging, describe living conditions in Yemen as catastrophic, with a growing risk of famine and a severe outbreak of cholera.At its second annual Future of Energy Symposium on Tuesday, San Antonios city-owned power utility CPS Energy offered little new on what the future energy mix would look like.

The symposium, at Texas A&M University-San Antonios South Side campus, featured panels on the cybersecurity challenges facing utilities and what integrating smart technology  such as sensors and smart meters throughout the grid  will look like for CPS and the city.

But there were few details on what CPS future generation mix  currently around 39 percent natural gas, 26 percent coal, nearly 18 percent renewable and 12.5 percent nuclear  will look like.

CPS Energy President and CEO Paula Gold-Williams briefly talked about the J.T. Deely coal-fired power plant, a two-unit, 1970s-era facility whose closure has been discussed for years. But the future of the two other coal-fired units  Spruce 1 and Spruce 2, which turned on in 1992 and 2010, respectively  were not discussed by Gold-Williams.

Gold-Williams did say that the utility has run a model on what the future would look like if CPS did not build a new power plant, but she left out any details on what it showed.

Do we need to build another big plant, or do we need to be very strategic about less large-sized plants and more optimal plants that are a bit smaller and more fast reacting? Gold-Williams said. We expect other technologies to come on the scene, and we want to have capacity for that on the generation side.

She pointed to the recent freezes in January and the amount of CPS Energy power provided by fossil fuels. During the morning of Jan. 17  when temperatures in San Antonio hovered in the 20s  of the 4,216 megawatts used by CPS, natural gas accounted for 36 percent, coal produced 35.5 percent, and nuclear contributed 25.5 percent. Wind produced 3 percent. CPS avoided another winter peak record while the state set a winter peak record use.

When the freeze happened the technologies that showed up were gas, coal and nuclear because you couldnt get the sun shining when it was that cold, Gold-Williams said.

One megawatt can power between 200 and 300 homes in the winter, and 200 homes on a hot summer day.

Ralph Cavanagh, the co-director of the Natural Resources Defense Councils Energy Program, was part of a dialogue with Gold-Williams on stage.

After the discussion, he said economics are pushing coal out of the energy mix. Wind, solar and natural gas are more cost-effective, and he expects that by the 2050s the electric sector will be largely decarbonized. Cavanagh said that decisions to decarbonize should be made on the merits by utility management.

I dont expect this to be resolved by some sort of mandate. I expect it to be resolved by hometown utilities making individual decisions in the interest of their customers, Cavanagh said. I expect the environmental performance of the San Antonio generation fleet, the CPS fleet, to continue to improve.

Mayor Ron Nirenberg used his time at the symposium to discuss CPS solar fleet, which includes nearly 500 megawatts of utility-scale solar and 88 megawatts of residential and commercial rooftop solar. He said that solar is an underpinning to our approach to resiliency.

We created, with the work of our economic development team, the foundations of a solar manufacturing pipeline in town that is creating jobs but also are savings tens upon tens into the hundreds of megawatts of energy that we no longer have to produce through a coal plant, Nirenberg said.

At the end of the symposium, Gold-Williams was named energy industry co-chair of the Dentons Smart Cities/Communities Think Tank. Her fellow co-chair will be former Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz, who held that role under President Barack Obama. Dentons is a global law firm with offices in Dallas and Houston.

An earlier version of this story misstated the name of the Natural Resources Defense Council.Last week, Adrian Reynas students wanted to talk about teachers carrying guns.

Seventh-graders in Reynas college preparation class at Longfellow Middle School in the San Antonio Independent School District, and his eighth-graders in a leadership class, knew of the calls to arm teachers after the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida.

Some of them told him they would feel a mixture of fear and security if their teachers were armed.

The majority of them were beside themselves, thinking their teachers would have access to a gun during the school day and what that would mean for them as students, Reyna said.

Teachers, several of them union representatives, said educators across Bexar County largely dismissed the idea, revived last week by President Donald Trump and the National Rifle Association. Resources instead should be directed toward counseling and a curriculum that addresses social and emotional issues, many teachers said.

If students get a foundation of dealing with their emotions, a lot of these school shootings would not happen, said Susan Castro, a kindergarten teacher at Hawthorne Academy in SAISD.

Some cited the high potential cost of providing firearms, training and insurance to teachers, especially in school systems already strapped for cash. Several repeated often-heard complaints that state lawmakers dont allocate enough to public schools and push the burden onto local property taxpayers.

Its ridiculous, said David Garza, a kindergarten teacher at De Zavala Elementary in SAISD. We cant even get very basic supplies.

The responsibility of bearing arms would fall on teachers who are already asked to serve as surrogate family members, friends and advocates for students, said Wanda Longoria, a leadership committee member of Northside ISDs American Federation of Teachers.

To have to consider something so serious as carrying a gun  that weighs heavily on our hearts, weighs heavily on our minds, she said.

Virtually every teacher who has contacted the San Antonio Alliance of Teachers and Support Personnel on the subject is against guns on campus, said Shelley Potter, president of the SAISD union.

Potter said some teachers have used rhetoric similar to the #ArmMeWith social media campaign: Arm me with social workers. Arm me with counselors. Arm me with smaller class sizes so that I can build those important relationships with students and their families.

Union members said those who oppose the idea include colleagues who are military veterans or have concealed-carry licenses.

The list of questions that people have asked me just goes on and on and on, in terms of the possibility for disaster, Potter said.

Will teachers be asked to kill perpetrators who often are students or former students? Will kindergarten or first-grade teachers leave 22 small children in the classroom while they confront a shooter in a hallway? Where are teachers going to keep their guns and ammunition? Who is liable if a teacher shoots the wrong person?

I think teachers understand the people who are proposing the idea are generally not the people who work in schools, because I think people who work in schools generally realize all the ways things could go wrong, Potter said.

Teachers in North East and South San Antonio ISDs generally agree with that, said Tom Cummins, president of the Bexar County Federation of Teachers, the union representing those two districts.

Almost 100 percent of the teachers Ive talked to view it as foolish and, more importantly, probably irresponsible, Cummins said. Youre going to have people with pistols going up against people with assault rifles. You end up with a shootout with people who really dont know what theyre doing, theyre not trained for combat.  Its almost a guarantee that children will get shot.

Cummins also pointed to an incident that occurred hours before the school shooting in Florida.

A man barged into a faith-based outreach organization in Amarillo and took about 100 people hostage. A handful of congregants wrestled him to the ground. One took his gun, and was mistakenly shot at by arriving police officers who saw it in his hand.

Acknowledging the fact as horrifying, Potter said past school shootings prompted her to talk with law enforcement officers about arming teachers and was told an active shooter situation would be even more dangerous if officers are uncertain of the identities and motivations of those holding guns.

At least 172 school districts in Texas allow teachers and some staff to carry concealed weapons on campus, according to the Texas Association of School Boards. Most are rural and without a routine law enforcement presence on campus. In the San Antonio area, Hunt and Medina ISDs allow some staff to be armed, but would not comment on their policies.

There was no indication the idea was gaining traction among Bexar County school boards. School districts asked about it this week issued statements expressing confidence in their own police officers and security-concious architecture.

Patti Radle, SAISDs board president, said trustees havent made a unified statement about arming teachers. Speaking only for herself, she said teachers toting guns would detract from the educational environment.

Do we then go on to grocery stores and everybody in the grocery store is armed? And the library? Are we all taking on the role of security to the point of carrying guns? Radle said. We have to ask ourselves, in the end, What do we want to teach our children  about how we handle day-to-day life?

The districts 2010 bond made security improvements to every campus, including cameras in the hallways and main entrances that lock from the inside, requiring visitors to be buzzed in.

Northside ISDs latest bond proposal in the May 5 election contains money to retrofit elementary school foyers for security. Its Police Department employs more than 100 officers and every campus and department gets crisis management training, district spokesman Barry Perez noted.

But the conversation on how to prevent another school shooting is back in the national political arena, and the problem never goes away, teachers said.

Its out there, and districts will have to make decisions, Northsides Longoria said. And teachers will have to live with them.The Air Education and Training Command said Tuesday it would begin flying the T-6A Texan II following the grounding of the plane over concerns that some pilots suffered potentially deadly physiological events that include hypoxia.

The command, in a statement, said Maj. Gen Patrick Doherty had ordered an end to an operational pause of the Texan with flights resuming Tuesday. Instructor pilots will be the first to return to flying, but will be followed by students by the end of this week.

The command grounded all 444 of its T-6s at six bases, including Joint Base San Antonio-Randolph and Naval Air Station Pensacola in the Florida Panhandle, on Nov. 1 while it probed what the Air Force called multiple unexplained physiological events by AETC pilots, including concerns over hypoxia.

With 30 years of flying experience, looking at all of the facts and listening to our experts, these particular types of T-6 (unexplained physiological events) arent unexplained anymore in my mind, Doherty, commander of the 19th Air Force at Joint Base San Antonio-Randolph, said in a statement issued by AETC.

The statement said the incidents were different from classic hypoxia, which is caused by oxygen deprivation, and that the decision to ground the fleet was required to provide a robust and intrusive look at every component on every aircraft connected to or critical to the On-Board Oxygen Generating System.

Doherty assembled a team, including experts from the Air Force, Navy, NASA, and medical specialties, to aggressively capture and analyze data from the pilots who had experienced physiological events in the aircraft.

The Air Force statement went on to say that its collaboration with Navy officials helped the Air Force gain insights and lessons learned from similar events in the T-45 Goshawk, a trainer that was grounded last year over similar concerns.

The team was tasked with identifying the root causes and driving solutions toward protecting the aircrew, Doherty said. After listening to pilots, maintainers, engineers and flight surgeons, it became apparent the T-6 fleet was exhibiting symptoms indicative of a compromise of the integrity of the OBOGS, leading to degradations in performance, which then likely led to the pilots physiological events.

As tests, inspections, and data were gathered, component failures or degradations were identified as affecting the topline performance of OBOGS oxygen pressure, flow, and content, resulting in various disruptions that negatively impacted the human-machine interface, he added.

Engineers will continue studying data and running further tests for final root cause diagnosis for greater insights and applications for future aircraft designs, the Air Force said.

We have zeroed in on a handful of components that are degrading or failing to perform and needed to be replaced or repaired more often than the Air Force anticipated when they bought the aircraft.Brooke Army Medical Center said Tuesday it had identified the likely source of Legionella bacteria  a water heater in a now-abandoned clinic next to the main hospital  and confirmed for the first time that three patients had contracted Legionnaires disease since August.

BAMC conducted extensive testing after the bacteria was identified in two patients last summer, but no source was found at the time. Hospital officials reported one new Legionella infection earlier this month, but had said none of the cases had developed into Legionnaires disease, a type of pneumonia.

The hospital now says all three patients, civilian staffers at BAMC, had the disease and have since recovered.

Im finally confident in telling you that, BAMC spokesman Bob Whetstone said, adding that the error was due to a miscommunication with hospital staff.

All personnel were moved out of Building 15 on Feb. 6 to other areas within the complex. BAMC officials said the structure remains vacant and secure. The latest of the three staffers initially treated for Legionella infection was hospitalized Feb. 7.

Whetstone said federal law kept him from describing the patients conditions or providing other information about them. None of the three has died and no other patients have been diagnosed with the bacteria or Legionnaires disease, he said.

Legionella bacteria dont spread from one person to another. The Centers for Disease Control says the bacteria grows in water sources freshwater lakes and streams or around plumbing and air conditioning systems  then go airborne when the water evaporates and can be breathed by humans.

Two different illnesses can result from that exposure  Legionnaires disease and Pontiac fever.

Legionnaires disease is a lung infection with symptoms that include coughing, shortness of breath, fever, muscle aches and headaches. Associated symptoms also include diarrhea, nausea and confusion. Symptoms usually begin two to 10 days after exposure to the bacteria, but it can take as long as two weeks.

BAMC said Pontiac fever is a milder infection with symptoms consisting primarily of fever and muscle aches. Symptoms begin between a few hours to three days after being exposed to Legionella bacteria and usually last less than a week.

Anyone with upper-respiratory or flu-like symptoms should contact their medical provider. They also can learn more about Legionella bacteria and Legionnaires disease by visiting the CDC website, https://www.cdc.gov/legionella/about/signs-symptoms.html.

The CDC warns anyone who suspects theyve contracted Legionnaires disease to tell doctors if they were exposed to Legionella, have used a hot tub, spent nights away from home or have been in a hospital over the past two weeks.

Testing in and around Building 15 continues as BAMC works to isolate potential Legionella bacteria sources. The hospitals deputy commander, Col. Traci Crawford, said the hospital is fully cooperating with local and regional public health officials to ensure there is no further risk for exposure moving forward.For years, the Bandidos Motorcycle Club handed down orders to threaten, extort, harm and even kill rival bikers using secretive methods in which the vice president served as a buffer to protect the wishes of the groups national president, federal prosecutors said in opening arguments Tuesday that opened a racketeering trial in San Antonio for the two former top leaders.

But lawyers for Bandidos ex-president Jeffrey Fay Pike and then-vice president John Xavier Portillo countered that the feds allegations are mistaken not only as to what the organization is about  a fellowship of bikers  but also as to their clients involvement.

Surprisingly, Portillos lead lawyer, Mark Stevens, said in opening arguments that Portillo is guilty of two of the 13 counts alleged in the defendants 27-page indictment: being a felon with a firearm and conspiracy to possess cocaine. Those stem from when the FBI and DEA swooped in to arrest Portillo in January 2016 and found three guns and an ounce of cocaine in his Southeast San Antonio home.

But lawyers for both defendants deny their clients are crime bosses who led a racketeering enterprise or that they ordered or sanctioned murder.

Pike, of Conroe, and Portillo, of San Antonio, are the remaining defendants in a case that initially targeted the three top national leaders. The groups national sergeant-at-arms at the time, Justin Cole Forster, pleaded guilty in October 2016 to federal racketeering, drug trafficking and extortion charges, eight months after the trio was indicted and arrested in January 2016.

Security was tight and the courtroom was full, mostly of Bandidos and relatives and supporters of the two defendants, who could face up to life in prison if convicted of charges that include aiding and abetting murder in aid of racketeering.

The Bandidos is an organization that operates in the shadows, Assistant U.S. Attorney Eric Fuchs said in his opening arguments.

Fuchs openings tracked much of what is in the indictment, including allegations that Portillo declared war on rivals after Pike named him vice president in 2013, and that the Bandidos had several clashes with rival bikers who tried to set up shop in Texas, which is considered the Bandidos territory. Fuchs argued that the conduct was approved by Pike, though Portillo lived up to his primary role  to serve as a buffer for El Presidente and shield Pike from being linked to the crimes of its members.

Fuchs said jurors will hear recordings compiled from eight months of wiretaps on Portillos phone, and from Bandidos who cooperated to prove prosecutors claims. He added that the organization made it difficult for agents to infiltrate the Bandidos and used coded conversations and other methods that changed over time at the direction of Pike and Portillo.

These are not the guys down in the trenches. Theyre not the ones pulling the trigger, Fuchs argued. Theyre the bosses. Youll hear how they sanctioned, approved or authorized this criminal conduct by their members.

They left execution of their orders to their sergeants and to other members of the organization, Fuchs said. At its simplest core, the purpose of the Bandidos criminal enterprise is to further respect. They will use intimidation, threats and acts of violence to accomplish these goals.

Fuchs told juors about the killings of three men who were slain in separate incidents: Robert Lara in Atascosa County in January 2002, Anthony W. Benesh III in Austin in March 2006 and Geoffrey Brady in Fort Worth in December 2014.

These murders were well-planned, well-calculated and it was years before they were solved, Fuchs said.

Dick DeGuerin, Pikes lead lawyer, told jurors that the Bandidos are not the nefarious group law enforcement paints them to be.

We believe evidence will show that although the Bandidos Motorcycle Club is an enterprise...it is not a criminal enterprise, DeGuerin told juors. It is not organized for the purpose of crime.

DeGuerin added that their primary purpose is that they love motorcycles and the freedom that motorcycles give a person. Theyre about fellowship.

It is a group with more than 100 chapters in 16 states, a closed group whose members are men with Harley Davidsons, at least 21 years of age, who first start as hang arounds and then move on to prospects before becoming full-fledged members.

And showing jurors a blown up photo of numerous Bandidos gathered in Colorado in 2012  a photo prosecutors plan to use as part of their evidence  DeGuerin said the Bandidos primary source of income is from members dues, which they use for events called runs.

But he argued that each chapter has its own officers, and each chapter is autonomous.

They run their own business, DeGuerin said.

As for Pike, who stepped down as president after his arrest, DeGuerin painted him as a family man and carpenter by trade, who joined the Bandidos in 1979 because he likes motorcycles. Pike now runs his own business remodeling classic cars and motorcycles.

What evidence is there that he can control that rowdy group? DeGuerin asked, pointing to the enlarged photo of the Bandidos. Or know what theyre doing? Or set the tone? The evidence will be that there were things that were done by individuals that Jeff Pike didnt know about, promote, or agree to.

He rose in the ranks, through sheer force of his friendly and easygoing personality.

I think the evidence will show that far from being this dictator that controls everything, the be all ends all, that Jeff... was the kind of guy who let people do what they wanted to do as long as it follows the rules, DeGuerin said.

To help improve the club, Pike tried to change its ways, including stopping the Bandidos from referring to wives and girlfriends as property, and cutting ties with international Bandidos chapters in Europe and Canada after its members committed some bad conduct, DeGuerin said.

Attorney Stevens, meanwhile, also painted his client, Portillo, as a family man. Portillo dropped out of Highlands High School in the 11th grade and later worked in the press room at the San Antonio Express-News and the Houston Chronicle. He then launched his own company here that installs heating and air-conditioning units, Stevens said.

In 2006, Portillo was arrested for possession of less than a gram of meth, received probation, but was left with a felony, his only criminal conviction, Stevens said.

Yet Stevens said there is no physical evidence linking Portillo to the Lara killing.

That, Stevens said, leaves prosecutors to rely on wiretaps that dont give definitive answers to prosecutors claims, and to witnesses he expects the feds to call who cut deals, got immunity or are paid in exchange for their cooperation. For instance, he questioned the credibility and motivation of Frederick Fast Fred Cortez and Richard Steven Merla. Merla is serving time in prison for killing San Antonio boxer Robert Pikin Quiroga, and a concurrent sentence for Laras killing.

Portillo kicked Merla out of the Bandidos after the Quiroga killing, and Merla hates John for that. Cortez pleaded guilty in 2016 for his role in Laras killing.

We believe that, after you hear the whole case and all the evidence, youll have a reasonable doubt, except for the two crimes I told you about up front, Stevens said. Portillo did have guns, he did possess 1 ounce oz of cocaine, but he is not a murderer.While we focus on this years midterm races, another election lurks in the shadows for the voters of San Antonio and parts of West Texas.

This election hasnt been announced, doesnt have a date, doesnt have any announced candidates and no one wants to say much about it.

Thats the special awkwardness surrounding the ticking time bomb that is Carlos Urestis tenure in the Texas Senate.

Last Thursday, a jury convicted Uresti, who represents Senate District 19, on 11 felony counts, including fraud and money laundering, for his work with a defunct frac-sand company. In addition, he has a separate public-corruption case hanging over him.

Uresti has been stripped of his Senate committee assignments and ostracized by his fellow Senate Democrats. Hes stranded on an island, both legally and politically.

Uresti is evaluating his options at the moment, but it seems all but inevitable that he will step down from the Senate this year.

Even though he is legally entitled to keep his seat while he navigates his way through the appeals process, no constituent deserves to be represented by a lawmaker who is behind bars (as Uresti is likely to be after his scheduled sentencing in June).

In the coming months, he will surely feel pressure from Democratic Party leadership, who dont want to see a potential blue-wave election hampered by the stench of corruption.

Already, its possible to see the contours of a special election in Urestis district, which covers 17 counties from Southwest San Antonio to West Texas.

State Rep. Roland Gutierrez, D-San Antonio, has been open about his ambitions for the seat. In a sense, Gutierrez has been campaigning for it since federal agents raided Urestis law office a year ago.

Former Congressman Pete Gallego also has privately indicated to friends that he wants the seat, according to multiple sources. He also has been turning up over the past few days at San Antonio political events. Within a few hours of Urestis conviction, Gallego posted a response on Facebook:

There are no winners in todays verdict. When any public official is accused & then convicted by a jury of a felony, we all lose. Our democracy is hurt. Our trust is weakened.

Gallego concluded by urging voters to strengthen our democracy again.

In a text message Tuesday, Gallego said he has received numerous calls and texts urging him to run for Urestis seat. While saying he appreciated the encouragement, Gallego said, Carlos and his family have some decisions to make. Until then, there is no vacancy to speak of.

Gallego served 22 years in the Texas House and one term in U.S. District 23, which covers much of the same West Texas territory as Urestis Senate district. He lost his congressional seat to Republican Will Hurd in 2014 and dropped a rematch with Hurd in 2016.

Nonetheless, Gallego has some qualities that could make for a successful run in Senate District 19. A product of the small town of Alpine, he has a solid base in West Texas and, like Uresti, is the kind of centrist Democrat who can make a respectable showing in some of the districts rural Republican counties.

Colin Strother, general consultant for Gutierrez, suggested that the time has passed for both Gallego and Uresti.

Pete and Carlos had 20 years to get it right in that district and they couldnt get it done, Strother said. I think that district is ready to turn the page and move forward.

Political buzz in Senate District 19 also has surrounded City Councilman Rey Saldana  who will be term-limited out of the council next year  and state Rep. Phil Cortez.

Right now, we have a senator in place for District 19 and he has not made a decision on what hes going to do, Cortez said. When and if he decides that a possible resignation is somewhere he wants to go, then well cross that bridge when we get there.

Saldana did not slam the door on the possibility of seeking Urestis seat, but said he wanted to wait until the dust settles before giving it any serious consideration.

There has been some talk that if Uresti steps down, his older brother Tomas, a first-term state representative, might try to keep it in the family by running in Senate District 19. Tomas Uresti did not respond to an interview request for this column.

Given the damaged state of the Uresti brand, its hard to imagine that dynastic scenario. But not as hard as it is to imagine Carlos Uresti holding his Senate seat a year from now.

@gilgamesh470Click to read this Alamo dispatch as it originally appeared.

SAN ANTONIO de BEXAR, Mexico, Feb. 28, 1836  Old Man Winter, who has clenched this unhappy city and its environs in his grasp of late, finally eased his death-like grip a bit to-day.

Col. Juan Almonte, a member of the army currently occupying this city, reported that the temperature stood at a relatively moderate 40 degrees at 7 a.m.

---------

HELPING HANDS

Col. Almonte, an aide-de-camp to His Excellency, Gen. Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna, the President and Dictator of Mexico, noted to-day that information had been received stating that an expedition was being mounted to ride in relief of the forces of Liberty currently holed up within the confines of the neighboring Fortress Alamo.

"News were received that a reinforcement to the enemy was coming by the road from La Bahia (Goliad), in number 200," he stated.

If true, this would be most welcome information for Alamo commander Lt. Col. William Travis.

---------

WATER WAR

Gen. Santa Anna's troops sought once again to-day to cork the flow of water through the acequias that bracket Fortress Alamo.

Such moves are part of the dictator's campaign of harassment  which includes the frequent firing of projectiles at the Alamo and the noisy playing by his army's band, with trumpets blaring and drums thundering  to make life within the old mission most difficult.

---------

HIGH SPIRITS

The noisy and tiresome form of warfare on the psychological level currently being waged by Gen. Santa Anna is proving to be largely for naught, as spirits of the defenders within Fortress Alamo remain high.

Despite several nights made virtually sleepless by the activities of the dictator's troops, an impromptu fandango erupted within the Alamo compound tonight when the ever-boisterous former United States Congressman David Crockett, Whig-Tenn., challenged one of the other defenders, a most undour Scot named John McGregor, to a music contest  Crockett on fiddle and McGregor on bagpipes.

As the competition intensified, the volume grew  giving Santa Anna's troops a taste of their own bitter medicine.

---------

CROCKETT STORY

Born in the mountainous Greene County, Tenn., in 1786, David Crockett was the son of tavernkeepers.

In 1806, he married Mary "Polly" Finley and they produced a pair of boys - John Wesley and William. In 1813, he enlisted in the militia, reenlisted in '14 and was discharged in '15. He arrived home to find his wife had given birth to a daughter, Margaret. This joyous period ended when Polly died that summer.

Crockett then married the widow Elizabeth Patton, who had two children of her own.

In 1817, he became a justice of the peace in Lawrence County, Tenn., and took the office of town commissioner of Lawrenceburg in 1818.

In '21, he was elected to the Tennessee Legislature and served two terms. Crockett's bid for the United States Congress in 1825 was unsuccessful.

Crockett was elected to Congress in 1827 and '29. He split, however, with popular President Andrew Jackson on a variety of issues and was defeated in a close election in 1831.

His now-national repute as an individual with great wilderness prowess and the ability to spin amusing, if protracted, yarns caused Crockett to become the model for the character Nimrod Wildfire in the popular production "The Lion of the West." Needless to say, only a duke of theatrical endeavours is worthy of portraying the great man.

In 1833, "Life and Adventures of Colonel David Crockett of West Tennessee" was published and was re-issued shortly thereafter under the somewhat more accurate title of "Sketches and Eccentricities of Colonel David Crockett of West Tennessee."

This notoriety helped propel Crockett back into Congress in '33, and there was speculation he would be on the Whigs' ticket as presidential candidate in 1836. That ended last year, though, as he was defeated in his bid for reelection to the House.

Disenchanted with the national politics, Crockett set his sights on reigning in a new untamed frontier, noting on the eve of his departure from Tennessee: "You may all go to hell and I will go to Texas."

So here he is  David Crockett, man and legend  exactly at the center of the hell that Gen. Santa Anna would create for Texas.

COMING NEXT on Day 7: Santa Anna tries to split the Alamo.Fairfield County still has not recovered all the jobs it lost in the last recession, and its growth lags those of other counties surrounding New York City. But it is not all bad news for southwestern Connecticut, according to a Federal Reserve analyst.

The areas proximity to New York City generates a significant number of jobs and makes its real estate market an attractive alternative to the soaring costs of the five boroughs, Federal Reserve Bank of New York research officer Jason Bram argued in a speech Wednesday to The Business Council of Fairfield County.

Fairfield County historically has done very well and has pulled in a lot of business from New York City, Bram told an audience of 175 at the Stamford Sheraton hotel. Its a place of choice both for people to work and live.

While Fairfield Countys private-sector job total ticked down between the first halves of 2016 and 2017, New York City and surrounding areas such as Westchester, Orange and Rockland counties in New York and Hudson County in New Jersey all posted year-over-year growth of at least 0.6 percent in the first half of 2017.

This has been one of the biggest booms in New York Citys history, Bram said. The recession wasnt as steep in New York City as it was nationally.  Fairfield County is lagging a bit. Employments kind of almost gotten back to where it was before the recession, but we really havent seen any job growth lately.

Despite its weak job creation, the countys unemployment rate runs at about the same level, around 4 percent, as New York City and the U.S. A large commuting population to New York City drives the trend.

The vast majority of working residents here commute within the county, Bram said. But what you see is a big net outflow.  In the morning, you see a lot more people going from Fairfield County to New York than the reverse.

Bram cited the staying power of financial services. You hear companies downsizing in Stamford and leaving Stamford and coming back to New York, but its still a very important industry here, Bram said. And its actually grown over the past 10 years.

In the real estate market, Fairfield County faces a number of challenges, including home prices that still have not bounced back to prerecession highs and office vacancy rates hovering above 20 percent. But Bram pointed to auspicious indicators.

What happens when New York City gets to capacity  the rents get too high, both residential and commercial rents, he said. Suddenly, areas like Fairfield County and Westchester (County) look more attractive. Fairfield County being near New York City is a really good thing.

Connecticuts economy has recovered only 76 percent of the jobs it lost in its 2008-2010 recession. Alabama, West Virginia, Wyoming and Puerto Rico are the only other states and territory that have not reached or surpassed their prerecession private-sector job peaks.Bob Luckey / Bob Luckey

GREENWICH  A Greenwich man was arrested for the second time in a week, for allegedly making unwanted contact through a social media platform with a person with whom he was barred from interacting, according to police.

Christian Dilworth, 23, of Idar Street, was arrested Feb. 23 on a charge of breach of peace, for allegedly following another person in central Greenwich.CARROLLTON, Ohio  Barn experts Rudy Christian and Dan Troth have analyzed six Carroll County barns from their timber frames to stonework and they are ready to share their findings during the Friends of Ohio Barns conference in April.

We want people to gain an new appreciation for Ohio barns and the way they were constructed. They will be educated and entertained at the same time, said Pam Gray, president of Friends of Ohio Barns.

The conference is April 26-28 and preregistration is required for each event throughout the three-day conference.

The conference will launch April 26 from 1-4 p.m. with a Barn Detective workshop at the Algonquin Mill complex four miles south of Carrollton. Mike Mangan, manager of the mill, will lead the group around the complex.

The sites buildings, which are original or relocated, include a slaughter house, barn, grist mill, one-room schoolhouse, railroad station, sawmill and a two-story log cabin. At each stop, resident experts will be available to answer questions about the building. There will also be time for participants to explore on their own.

This workshop is limited to 30 participants. The $20 registration fee will go toward a donation to the mill.

Barn tour

The next day, April 27, the Friends of Ohio Barns will continue its barn tour tradition.

This is my fifth year, but theyve been going on for more than 20 years, said Alan Walters, who is a resident of Carrollton and helped organized this years tour sites. I found out about the tour through the Farm and Dairy, thats how I find out about everything I go to.

Id say one of the highlights of this years tour is a log barn made out of virgin  really large  white oak logs. Built likely when Carrollton was first settled, he said.

This year, the group will visit six barns in Carroll County, taking participants back in time to when the area was the western frontier. Three barn and history experts will be on the tour discussing structural elements and dating each barn.

The six barns include Don and Robin Warners barn, which will serve as the registration and check-in site. This barn started as Pleasant View Dairy and transitioned to equipment storage for decades and now is refurbished to be their residence.

The over 4,500 square-foot barn has new architectural details that were integrated to blend with the original structure.

These photos show the before and after of the youngest barn on the tour, now marketed as Century Farms Barn. This barn started as Pleasant View Dairy and transitioned to equipment storage for decades and now is refurbished to be their residence. The over 4,500 square-foot barn has new architectural details that were integrated to blend with the original structure.

Another stop on the tour will be Tom and Laura Rutledge barn, on Locus Lawn Farm. It was constructed in 1854 for $110 and one cow, valued at $18. Another $5.24 was added due to cost increase, according to a ledger kept by Robert Rutledge, Toms great-grandfather.

Todd and Kim Davis, Cattlecreek Farm, will open their barn to the tour. The most interesting part of this barn is the stone work, Walters said.

Besides incorporating stones so large that they defy explanation of how they could have been set into place, the stone joinery is so over-the-top that it appears the master craftsman was actually showing off.

Lunch will be served at Mt. Pleasant United Methodist Church Fellowship Hall, built in 1835, one of the first recorded builds in Mount Pleasant.

The Carroll County Golden Age Retreat barn will also be a point of interest on the tour. The size and scale reflects a time when a county home needed to be nearly self-sufficient in producing food for the residents, according the Sesquicentennial History of the Carrollton Area, 1965.

Another barn on the tour is owned by Scott and Debbie Druhot. The barns interior looks much as it did when it was first constructed, with animal pens on the ground level, a threshing floor in the center of the upper level and mows for hay storage on either side of the threshing floor, and grain bins on the overhang.

The Druhot barn might be the most unusual on the tour, built in the 1820s  that is very early for Ohio, Gray said.

FFA Camp

Tour participants will also tour the barn at FFA Camp Muskingum. The core of this barn is the double-crib structure made of virgin timber harvested on-site. The camp will also serve as the location for the conference April 28.

The conference will be from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. in the new Discovery Center at the camp. Christian designed the timber frame structure where the participants will spend the day.

The conference will have an international feel, with speakers discussing different European style barns and how those timber structures made their way to the U.S., said Gray.

Doug Reed will be the keynote speaker. He has spent a lot of time overseas and has been investigating how historical events have changed the way barns have been built, she said.

Preregistration is required for all events. Visit www.friendsofohiobarns.org for more information.Saturday Squeeze and I had one of those weather discussions. What a weird winter! Cold, then hot, not a lot of snow.

Is it all over, or will we have a last blast of winter in April, like usual?

Yesterday I noticed the maple trees are budded out. The first crocuses normally peak through the snow, but the snow is gone.

This morning the first flight of Canada geese flew over. (Welcome home, but please nest on someone elses pond. I like to walk around mine without barn boots on.)

Signs of spring are around us, and as this is written we are still (barely) in February. The winter market is tough on commodity writers. Often there is little to write about until we get to the end-of-March USDA Planting Intentions Report, so we make it up as we go.

I use it as an excuse for homilies and old family stories. (Example: You know why milking cows is like beating your head against the wall? Because it feels so good when you stop!)

Something of interest

Most of my farmer contacts and readers are relieved when winter is over and I find something about grain to write about. This winter has been a little different, off and on.

This winter we had South America to talk about. Instead of just watching markets stagnate or move lower. We have been watching Brazil and Argentina harvest the other crops of corn and beans, and we have been able to see a serious rally in soybeans and some go-along price changes in corn as their crops have struggled.

We dont enjoy their pain, but better them than some family in Illinois or Iowa, right? Once again this morning the market letters are mostly about South American weather, with declining livestock prices thrown in to fill them out.

The corn market is firm on fair demand and light farmer selling, but the South American weather is the big factor. Soybeans are teasing contract highs on strength from soymeal and on, here it is again, South American weather.

Argentina and Brazil

The weather has been dominated by dryness in Argentina, and wet conditions in Brazil. The dry has hurt yields in Argentina. The wet has mostly delayed the bean harvest in Brazil and has limited the acres of their second-crop corn, which should have been planted by now.

They still expect a record harvest of soybeans, but a smaller record. But, Andrew Lloyd Webber, in another context, told us, Dont cry for Argentina! Actually he said something a little different, but I am running out of weather news.

Sadly, the big news from South America is that Brazil is poised to become the worlds largest exporter of corn. That is hard to believe, but it follows the fact that they have been the largest exporters of beans for several years.

This is why we follow Southern Hemisphere weather-the region continues to grow in volume and in competition for our world markets. And, much of the time they can offer grain cheaper! Our own poor weather is cause for concern for the winter wheat crop.

Dry weather for the hard red winter wheat crop has USDA good/excellent crop ratings as low as four percent of the crop in Kansas and Texas. The result is Chicago market soft red winter wheat prices, after a brief dip, returning near the recent high prices.

Early trading

March futures made a recent high of 4.64 Monday before closing at 4.60-14. Early trading Tuesday, Feb. 27, as this is written, has us back almost to 4.63. We were 4.67-34 on the 13th, and 4.68-34 clear back on Oct. 3.

In between we were as low as 4.10-12. The contract high is back in early July, at 6.04-34. That was a great price, but it is hard to commit bushels that are not planted, especially of wheat. A wet fall, and the wheat is sold but not planted.

March corn futures hit 3.70 Monday, equaling the February 20th price. We were a half-cent higher one day in late September, but the contract high is form July 12th, at 4.22-14. Nobody sold much then, but it seems like a good price today.

Meanwhile, the March soybeans are bumping against the recent high, what we call testing resistance. Overnight we traded 10.39-34, but have slipped to 10.36-14.

We actually hit 10.47-34 briefly Monday the 26th. That is close to the 10.50-12 contract high of July 12th, and a warning that the rally might be over.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.One million bees have been stolen from a farmer's field in Oxfordshire, with the owners saying it is the "biggest theft" they have ever heard of.

Brackley-run business Beekeeper Honey said 40 of its hives have been stolen from a farmer's field off the A4421 between Fringford and Bicester..

The Manton family told The Oxford Mail that each hive is thought to hold 25,000 bees each, adding up to about one million bees.

They said it is the "biggest theft" of bees that the family have heard of".

Lara Manton told the newspaper: "If you have the capability of moving 40 hives, each weighing 20 kg, it is quite an operation. It is shocking."

She said moving the hives, weighing 20kg each, would have required "some skill."

Thames Valley Police tweeted: "We are currently investigating the theft of 40 colonies of Bees.

"The bees and hives were stolen between 01/02 and 24/02 from a location off the A4421 near Fringford. Please call 101 if you witnessed anything."

Farmers and rural businesses across the UK are increasingly concerned about incidences of criminal activity in the countryside, including theft, fly-tipping, sheep worrying, trespass, poaching, arson, vandalism and fraud.

National Farmers' Union (NFU) chief land management adviser Sam Durham has previously said: "The bill for rural crime in the UK is around 40 million and many NFU members are experiencing fear, intimidation and threats of violence."Average incomes are estimated to have almost doubled on dairy farms for the 12 months from March 2017 to February 2018, according to new forecasts released today.

According to new farming income forecasts released on Wednesday (28 February), a combination of higher milk prices and increased production are expected to boost incomes of dairy farmers to an average of 99,000 per farm.

Although the average farm gate milk price in January 2018 fell 3.2% from December 2017, it still remained more than 14% above the average price in January 2017.

Meanwhile, the income forecasts show cereal farmers are also expected to see higher average incomes.

This is helped by improved yields and firmer cereal prices, with the latter driven by a more favourable exchange rate.

On 16 February, the government announced a range of measures including compulsory milk contracts and a 10m collaboration fund to provide greater security for farmers.

The measures are hoped to help small producers compete alongside larger businesses in the food supply chain.Failure to secure continued access to the EUs many preferential trade deals could have "serious implications" for the food and farming industry, according to new statistics.

Latest data from the Food and Drink Federation (FDF) show that exports to these markets are now worth more than 2bn to UK producers.

The EU currently has more than 30 agreements in place with around 60 countries who contributed more than 10% (2.3bn) of the UKs total food and drink export figure of over 22bn in 2017.

Of those countries Canada, South Korea, South Africa, Mexico and Norway were the UK's biggest customers, with exports to South Korea having grown 51% since the deal entered into force in 2011.

In total, the EU27 and those markets with which the EU has trade agreements contributed over 70% of the UKs food and drink export value, more than 15bn.

'Essential for future growth'

With little more than a year remaining until the UK leaves the EU, the FDF says it is "essential for the future growth" of UK food and farming that government "successfully delivers" its plans for continued access to each of the EUs trade deals.

To achieve this, the FDF say the government will need to secure an agreement with each third country, and in each case with the EU, that includes the UK's fair share of tariff-rate quotas.

Loss of preferential access to these markets during or after the transition period would have a "damaging impact" on the UK's export competitiveness, the trade body says.

The FDF say it would also threaten the ability to import ingredients and raw materials that complement use of UK produce to deliver "affordability, availability, and choice of food" for UK consumers.

Without access to imported ingredients, domestic production and the UK's export success story could be at risk.

China and US

Figures show that the US and China are the largest non-EU markets for total food and drink exports, seeing growth of 5.2% and 29.0% in 2017, respectively.

The FDF say the growth in the Chinese and US markets presents an opportunity to sell more British food to them.

It follows news of China further opening its vast market to the UK as the green light has been given to allow British beef imports for the first time in twenty years.

A pork export deal with China announced last year will bring a 200 million boost to the UK food industry and support 1,500 jobs.

China has been highlighted as one of the top three markets that food and drink companies would like to target, according to FDF research.

Ian Wright, Director General at FDF, said Brexit does present an opportunity for producers, but "appropriate access" must be in place for the UK's largest trading partners after the UK leaves the EU.

He said: "Brexit presents an opportunity to sell more of our fantastic food overseas, but in order to do that we must ensure that we have appropriate access to our largest trading partners in place once weve left the EU."Farmers and landowners with a septic tank are reminded that they may be legally required to upgrade their systems within the next two years.

Septic tanks are very common in rural properties and most homeowners find them a relatively easy solution to the problem of dealing with waste water and sewage where no mains drainage is available  so long as they are regularly emptied and maintained.

However, property and land management specialists Strutt & Parker is reminding rural property owners that the Environmental Permitting (England and Wales) Regulations 2014 came into force on 1 January 2015.

It created General Binding Rules (GBRs) for septic tanks or small sewage treatment plants for domestic use.

'Reduce pollution'

Lucinda Thompson, assistant land agent at Strutt & Parker said the rules are designed to "reduce the level of pollution" from sewage in the nations watercourses.

As such, the government is seeking to end the practice of septic tanks discharging directly to a local watercourse, such as a river or stream, Miss Thompson said.

This means, anyone with a septic tank discharging into a watercourse must be replace it or upgrade it by 1 January 2020, or sooner if the property is sold before this date.

They must also act more quickly if the Environment Agency (EA) finds that it is causing pollution.

'Operators'

Systems can be replaced by connecting to a mains sewer, installing a drainage field, replacing with a small sewage treatment plant, a permit which allows discharge to surface water and septic tank conversion units.

Miss Thompson said it was the operators of septic tanks and small sewage treatment plants that were defined as responsible for GBR compliance.

She added: The operator may either be the owner of the property/land where the septic tank or sewage treatment plant is located or the user (even if the system is located on a neighbours land).

It could also be the tenant or leaseholder where there is written agreement with the owner of the system explaining what maintenance must be carried out in order to comply with the GBRs.

It is also recommended that all sewage treatment systems are checked to ensure that they met the relevant British Standard when installed and have sufficient capacity.A new report released has concluded that the UKs network of small local abattoirs is near collapse, and that huge loss of consumer choice may happen.

The report, by the Sustainable Food Trust (SFT), said that without "urgent action" there will be less consumer choice because the marketing of locally-produced, traceable meat will no longer be possible in many parts of the country.

This is due to the ongoing closure of many smaller local abattoirs and the high financial, environmental and animal welfare cost of transporting relatively small numbers of farm animals further to get them slaughtered and then transporting the meat back to the farm of origin.

The report shows that over the last decade more than a third of small abattoirs have closed. In England there are just 63 small abattoirs left, down from 96 in 2007.

Two further small abattoirs have already closed this year in Scotland. In total the number of all red meat abattoirs has fallen to 249 from 320 in 2007 and almost 1,900 in 1970.

Many of these, however, are unsuitable for local meat marketing.

The reasons for the continuing closures include the disproportionately high burden of regulation imposed on small abattoirs, falling cattle numbers nationally and the currently very low and often negative profitability of the sector due to the increasing dominance of supermarkets.

Mobile abbatoirs

The SFT is calling on the Government to make a "clear statement" of support that it recognises the "vital importance" of smaller abattoirs.

It wants the government to work constructively with interested parties to make possible the use of mobile and small static red meat abattoirs for on-farm slaughtering.

A task force is recommended to commence with joint government, industry and consumer representation, to establish why small abattoirs are closing and propose solutions to ensure their survival.

The ideal for many producer-retailers would be a mobile abattoir which comes to their farm periodically.

A number of countries within the EU and also Canada, New Zealand and America currently have mobile abattoirs successfully operating within tight regulatory regimes that enhance animal welfare and bio-security.

The SFT believes mobile abattoirs would have advantages for animal welfare and could become viable in the UK, with the use of CCTV cameras and constructive government and regulatory engagement.

'Threatens renaissance'

Richard Young, policy director of the SFT and a co-author of the report said local abattoirs play a "vital role" in all rural communities where farm animals are kept.

When they close, both animals and meat have to be transported much further. This is bad for animal welfare and bad for the environment. It also threatens the ongoing renaissance of local food cultures, Mr Young said.

On my own organic farm, I have had to change abattoirs nine times over the last 30 years in order to keep our farm shop supplied with the meat from our own animals, as seven of those closest to me have closed and two became unsuitable for other reasons.

I now have to take our animals almost 40 miles to get them slaughtered and it costs a great deal to get the carcases delivered back to our shop.

Phil Stocker, chief executive of the National Sheep Association said the report draws attention to the "rapidly changing and complex crisis" facing smaller local abattoirs and those who depend on them.

He said: I truly hope that government and industry will work together to offer a long-term future for our diminishing network of local abattoirs before it is too late.Clarkson urges government to boost UK food self-sufficiency

'It should be much more like 80%, were capable of it'



Earlier in the day, hundreds of grieving fans took to Mumbai's streets to pay their respect to the celebrated actor. Fans had gathered outside Celebrations Club, where her body had been laid out. Guards helped keep the crowd in control while members from the film industry and other VIPs were allowed entrance through another gate.





Sridevis mortal remains were cremated in Mumbais Vile Parle and a condolence meeting was held at Celebrations Club in Andheri. The actors mortal remains were brought back from Dubai, where she died, and arrived in Mumbai at 10 pm on Tuesday. The family in a statement thanked the film fraternity, media and the actors fans and well-wishers for their prayers, support and sensitivity. Khushi, Janhvi, Boney Kapoor and the entire Kapoor and Ayyappan families are deeply bereaved and shocked with the untimely loss of Sridevi Kapoor, the statement read.



According to reports, the Maharashtra government accorded Sridevi with full state honours at her funeral today. The actor was also conferred with the Padma Shri in 2013. State honours include draping the body in the Tricolour, a gun salute before the cremation and an elaborate arrangement by the Mumbai Police.Earlier in the day, hundreds of grieving fans took to Mumbai's streets to pay their respect to the celebrated actor. Fans had gathered outside Celebrations Club, where her body had been laid out. Guards helped keep the crowd in control while members from the film industry and other VIPs were allowed entrance through another gate.Sridevis mortal remains were cremated in Mumbais Vile Parle and a condolence meeting was held at Celebrations Club in Andheri. The actors mortal remains were brought back from Dubai, where she died, and arrived in Mumbai at 10 pm on Tuesday. The family in a statement thanked the film fraternity, media and the actors fans and well-wishers for their prayers, support and sensitivity. Khushi, Janhvi, Boney Kapoor and the entire Kapoor and Ayyappan families are deeply bereaved and shocked with the untimely loss of Sridevi Kapoor, the statement read.

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The forensic report revealed that the 54-year-old actor died due to an accidental drowning after she lost consciousness. The veteran actor was in Dubai, along with husband Boney Kapoor and younger daughter Khushi, to attend the wedding of Mohit Marwah, her husbands nephew. Reportedly, she was getting ready for a dinner date with Kapoor and he was the one who found her unconscious in the water-filled bathtub in her room at the Jumeirah Emirates Towers hotel.Bollywood stars Aishwarya Rai Bachchan , Tabu, Sushmita Sen, Madhuri Dixit, Akshaye Khanna, Sonam Kapoor, Hema Malini, Esha Deol, and Arbaaz Khan came together to pay their respects.Aishwarya Rai BachchanArbaaz KhanSushmita SenAkshaye KhannaSonam Kapoor and Anand AhujaKajolAjay DevgnHema Malini and Esha DeolTabuMadhuri Dixit Nene and Sriram NenePhotographs: Yogen ShahSridevi Last Journey: Shahrukh Khan REACHES Vile Parle to pay tribute | FilmiBeat

The entire nation is still in disbelief that Sridevi is no more. The legendary actress passed away on February 24, 2018, in Dubai in her hotel bathtub.

Earlier, it was reported that she lost her life because of a heart attack. But later it was confirmed that it was a result of 'accidental drowning'. After 72 hours, her mortal remains finally reached Mumbai last night.

Today her last rites were performed at the Vile Parle Seva Samaj Crematorium and Hindu Cemetery, Next to Pawan Hans.Meanwhile, these were the Bollywood celebrities who attended her funeral-

Shahrukh Khan The 'Baadshah' of Bollywood was present at the crematorium to pay his last respect to the legendary actress. Katrina Kaif Katrina bid an emotional goodbye to her favourite actress. Sonam Kapoor Sonam had to struggle her way to enter the crematorium as thousands of fans were present outside and had blocked the way. Sara Ali Khan The young actress was present with her mother Amrita Singh. Farhan Akhtar Farhan also attended Sridevi's funeral to pay his last respects. Arjun Rampal Farhan's 'Rock On 2' co-star Arjun Rampal too was present at Sridevi's funeral in Vile Parle.

Post performing the last rites of Sridevi's mortal remains, the family issued a statement which read-

The past few days have been trying times for us as a family. Today, particularly, has been one of the hardest. We laid to rest a beautiful soul who has gone too soon.

She leaves behind a legacy that is unique. Her talent was undeniable, her beauty unmatched and her ability to connect with the audience was legendary. Sri had the same connect with her family as well.

The one thing that helped us all get through these last few days, was the amazing amount of love and support from everyone - be it her many colleagues, to her innumerable fans, her caring friends and loving family, from across the country and the world.

This outpouring of love is the memory that we would like Khushi and Janhvi to have of their mother... a woman who was loved unquestionably by everyone. Let us all who loved Sri, envelope her two little ones, her life, as she often called them, with as much or more love than we gave Sri so that they can live their lives ahead with a little less ache in their hearts.

Let us help them remember their mother fondly, with that beloved twinkle in her eyes, and help them build a life and be what Sri had dreamt for them.

To the members of the media, we ask that you respect the privacy of the family and allow us the space to grieve. Sri lived her life with dignity and we implore, that you give her the same respect.Former BioWare creative director Mike Laidlaw said in a recent interview he would love to give his contribution at CD Projekt RED as part of the team now working on Cyberpunk 2077, the much-anticipated role-playing game in development by the makers of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt.

He had this to say about his relationship with the Cyberpunk property, which many of you know has become hugely popular thanks to a role-playing game when video games were still something quite up in the air, or at least not as common as they are today.

Im a giant Cyberpunk nerd, straight up, Neuromancer is my favorite novel of all time. Like, William Gibson could write on the stall of a bathroom and I would make a small pilgrimage there, he told Game Informer. For the most part, moving to Poland and moving my family, and that kind of stuff, would be exceptionally challenging but Cyberpunks always had a draw.

Talking about the relationship between him as a former developer at BioWare and CD Projekt RED, he recalled when CDPR used the Dragon Age makers Aurora Engine to build the first chapter in The Witcher series.

[I hear from them] On and off. Its not like we can go and grab a coffee since Poland is far away. But when I see them at conventions I tell them their games are absolutely fantastic and usually, they reply with the same thing, he said, explaining he had some friends at the Polish software house.

CD Projekt RED licensed from Bioware the Aurora engine, which was the Neverwinter Nights engine, to do The Witcher one. A lot of people forget that and are like Oh, you guys must hate each other because fantasy! and Im like No, man! No. I get to play their game and I dont know how it turns out. That sounds awesome!.

Also, he explained that he doesnt see much sense into comparisons between The Witcher and Dragon Age since they make different games, one more solitary and the other party, strategy combat based somehow.

A lot of people are like The Witcher is better. Sure  unless you want a party and the other things that make Dragon Age stand out as unique. They make different games. We had to lean into tabula rasa characters since you can be a Qunari or an Elf, a male or a female, all these player characters are different, whereas they had the advantages and disadvantages of having a fixed player character in Geralt which led them to dig into his story, his relationships and so on.

Frankly, I think its to the industrys benefit. If we all make the same game it would kind of suck. I think we need Divinity, we need The Witcher, we need Skyrim.

Dragon Age 4 is said to be in the making at BioWare, but of course, the process isnt involving Laidlaw as he recently left the company after his contribution on Inquisition, and as lead writer on Jade Empire, and lead designer for Dragon Age and Dragon Age II.All smartphones launched at the MWC 2018 so far Features oi-Harish Kumar From Samsung Galaxy S9 to Nokia 8 Sirocco, these are the smartphones that have been launched at this year's MWC so far.

While MWC 2018 officially started from February 26, Samsung and HMD Global (licensee of Nokia) unveiled their offerings February 25. As expected Samsung announced the launch of its Galaxy S9 and Galaxy S9+ flagships, whereas HMD took the wraps off five new Nokia phones; Nokia 1, Nokia 6 (2018), Nokia 7 Plus, Nokia 8 Sirocco and Nokia 8110 4G.

ZTE, Sony and Jolla have also launched their smartphones at the tech show. Other than that, Taiwanese brand Asus has just unveiled the ZenFone Max Plus (M1). Since there are so many smartphones, it is hard to keep track.

SEE ALSO: Holi Offers: Discounts on Apple iPhone X, iPhone 8 Plus, iPhone 7 and more

This is why we have compiled a list of all the smartphones that have been launched at this year's MWC so far. The list will also give an overview of the specs and features of the smartphones.

Nokia 8 Sirocco Key Specs 5.5 inches P-OLED capacitive touchscreen

Android 8.0 (Oreo)

Qualcomm MSM8998 Snapdragon 835

Octa-core (4x2.5 GHz Kryo & 4x1.8 GHz Kryo)

microSD, up to 256 GB card slot

128 GB internal memory

6 GB RAM

12 MP + 12 MP Rear camera

5Mp front camera

Non-removable Li-Ion 3260 mAh battery Nokia 8110 4G Key Specs 2.4-inch (320 x 240 pixels) QVGA display

1.1GHz Dual-Core Qualcomm 205 Mobile Platform (MSM8905) with Adreno 304 GPU

512MB RAM

4GB internal storage

expandable memory up with microSD

Single / Dual SIM (micro + nano)

Smart Feature OS powered by KaiOS

2MP rear camera with LED flash

Drip protection (IP52)

4G VoLTE

2000mAh battery LG V30s Thinq Key Specs

6-inch (2880 x 1440 pixels) QHD+ OLED display with a 18:9 aspect ratio, 538 PPI, Corning Gorilla Glass 5 protection

Octa-Core Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 Mobile Platform with Adreno 540 GPU

6GB LPDDR4x RAM with 128GB storage (V30S ThinQ) / 256GB storage (V30S+ ThinQ)

expandable memory up to 2TB with microSD

Android 8.0 (Oreo) with LG UX 6.0+

16MP rear camera and 13MP secondary camera

5MP front camera

4G VoLTE

3,300mAh battery with Qualcomm Quick Charge 3.0, Wireless charging Samsung Galaxy S9 Key Specs

5.8 Inch QHD+ Super AMOLED Display

Octa Core Exynos 9810/Snapdragon 845 Processor

4GB RAM With 64/128/256GB ROM

WiFi

NFC

Bluetooth

Dual SIM

Dual Pixel 12MP Rear Camera

8MP Front Camera

Iris Scanner

Fingerprint

IP68

3000 MAh Battery Sony Xperia XZ2 Key Specs

5.7-inch (2160 x 1080 pixels) 18:9 Triluminos HDR 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 400GB via microSD card

Android 8.0 (Oreo)

Single / Dual SIM

Water Resistant (IP65/IP68)

19MP rear camera with Exmos RS sensor

5MP front-facing camera

4G VoLTE

3180mAh Battery with Qnovo Adaptive Charging technology, Qualcomm Quick Charge 3.0, Qi Wireless charging Sony Xperia XZ2 Compact Key Specs 5-inch (2160 x 1080 pixels) 18:9 Triluminos HDR 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 400GB via microSD card

Android 8.0 (Oreo)

Single / Dual SIM

Water Resistant (IP65/IP68)

19MP rear camera with Exmos RS sensor

5MP front-facing camera

4G VoLTE

2870mAh Battery with Qnovo Adaptive Charging technology, Qualcomm Quick Charge 3.0 Alcatel 5 Key Specs

5.7 Inch 18:9 HD+ Touch Screen Display

1.5 GHz MT6750 Octa-Core Processor

3GB RAM With 32GB ROM

Dual Nano SIM

12MP Camera With Dual Tone LED Flash

Dual 13MP + 5MP Front Camera With Flash

WiFi/4G VoLTE/Bluetooth4.2/NFC

Fingerprint Sensor

3000 MAh Battery Alcatel 3V Key Specs

6.0-inch FHD+ (21601080 pixels) 18:9 IPS display

1.45GHz quad-core MediaTek MT6737T 64-bit processor with Mali-T720 GPU

2 GB LPDDR3 RAM

16GB onboard storage

expandable memory with microSD

Dual SIM

16 MP + 2 MP dual rear cameras with dual LED flash

8 MP front camera

4G VoLTE

3000mAh battery Alcatel 3X Key Specs

5.7 Inch 18:9 HD+ Touch Screen Display

1.28GHz MT6739 Quad-Core Processor

3GB RAM With 32GB ROM

Dual Nano SIM

13MP + 5MP Dual Camera With LED Flash

5MP Front Camera With Flash

WiFi/4G VoLTE/Bluetooth4.2/NFC

Fingerprint Sensor

3000 MAh Battery Alcatel 3 Key Specs

5.5 Inch 18:9 HD+ Touch Screen Display

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Best Mobiles in IndiaFor more than a decade, the Daily Sentinel has been covering the events surrounding the disappearance of Jennifer and Abby Blagg. Suspect MichThough men are more likely to die by suicide in Mesa County, women are more likely to attempt suicide, according to a report released by Mesa House Dems move to expel one of own over complaintsToo many angry men behind too many triggersChance of Rain: 38% Sunrise: 06:58:30 AM Sunset: 07:17:11 PM Humidity: 21% Wind: SSW @ 13mph UV Index: 6 High

Saturday Night

Partly to mostly cloudy skies with scattered thunderstorms before midnight. Low 58F. Winds ESE at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 50%.Centcom Undertaking Realignment to Meet Future Concerns

By Terri Moon Cronk DoD News, Defense Media Activity

WASHINGTON, Feb. 27, 2018  Based on military progress in the campaign to defeat the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, U.S. Central Command is undertaking an operational alignment and rebalancing effort to achieve three specific goals, Centcom commander, Army Gen. Joseph L. Votel told the House Armed Services Committee today.

However, the commander said, "We remain very cleareyed regarding both the permanence of that progress and the challenges that we face in the future."

The first goal, he outlined, is to complete major combat operations in Iraq and Syria and bring the campaign to defeat ISIS to a responsible close. Military success in the campaign up to this point presents Centcom with an opportunity to reposition some of its resources from Iraq and Syria to Afghanistan, he said, "in a manner that keeps the pressure on ISIS but also sets us up to break the stalemate in Afghanistan."

"We retain sufficient capability to continue our efforts against ISIS," he emphasized, "despite the increasingly complex situation across Syria and especially in the northwest province of Afrin."

Afghanistan Strategy

The second goal is to prioritize the implementation of the South Asia strategy in Afghanistan, Votel said. This strategy reaffirms the U.S. government's enduring commitment to Afghanistan by reinforcing the two complementary military missions: the NATO-led train, advise and assist mission, and the U.S. counterterrorism mission.

"We are making sure that with our support, the Afghan national defense and security forces are well-postured to begin operations to seize the initiative, expand population control and secure credible elections," the Centcom commander said. "Part and parcel of this effort is our regionalized approach to engage all countries with a stake in Afghanistan's stability, especially Pakistan."

The third goal is to ensure that Centcom has aligned its military efforts with its broader interagency and international efforts to neutralize, counterbalance and shape the destabilizing impact that Iran has across the region, Votel said.

"Make no mistake: While we continue to confront the scourge of terrorism, Iran's malign activities across the region pose the long-term threat to stability in this part of the world," he said. "We view ourselves -- the military -- as supporting the many other and more effective resources and capabilities of the U.S. government and its partners in this endeavor."

National Defense Strategy

Votel emphasized that the recently published National Defense Strategy "rightly identifies" the resurgence of great power competition as the United States' principal national security challenge.

"And we at Centcom see the effects of that competition throughout the region," he added. "Russia's support of the [Syrian President Bashar Assad] regime has not only propped them up, but it's also added complexity to the defeat-ISIS campaign."

As for big-power competitions, China is pursuing a long-term, steady economic growth in the region through its "one-belt, one-road policy," Votel said, adding, "but it is also improving its military posture by connecting ports such as Gwadar in Pakistan with its first overseas military base in Djibouti, adjacent to the critical Bab el-Mandeb."

And while Beijing claims both locations support peacekeeping and humanitarian operations, the new military base and port bolsters China's force projection into the region, the general testified.

Further, "both Russia and China are cultivating multidimensional ties to Iran," Votel pointed out. "The lifting of U.N. sanctions under the joint comprehensive plan of action open the path for Iran to resume membership application to the Shanghai Cooperation Organization."

Postured For Purpose

"Our strategic approach of preparing the environment, pursuing opportunities and working to prevail wherever we can is working. We are postured for purpose, proactive in pursuing opportunities and resolve to win," he said.

The general told HASC members there are three dynamics that Centcom assesses as central to prevailing in its region.

First, in the conduct of Centcom campaigns in Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan and its operations in places such as Yemen, Lebanon and Egypt, the combatant command has adopted a "by, with and through" approach that places a heavy reliance on indigenous partner nation forces, he said.

"This approach is not [without] risk, as we are seeing unfold in Syria today, but in general, it is proving very effective and will likely pay significant dividends going forward," Votel noted.

Second, successful pursuit of U.S. objectives in the Centcom region only comes from an integrated approach aligned with interorganizational partners, he said.

Defense 'A Team Sport'

"Defense of the nation is a team sport," Votel said. "This applies not just within the command, but with our fellow combatant commands, our component commands, our established combined and joint task forces, the central regions, 18 country teams and other departments, agencies and organizations of the U.S. government [that] have provided unwavering support over almost two decades of a persistent conflict."

Centcom's allies in the region and the wider international community are equally critical to supporting the command's mission, he added.

Third, the support of Congress and the American people are vital to Centcom's mission, the commander said.

"Your support will remain important as we contend with what potentially are generational struggles to defend our homeland from the threats outlined in our national defense strategy," Votel said. "U.S. government commitment to the Centcom area of responsibility is more important now than ever."

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Elected officials, US Army leaders open new DOD biometric facility

By Capt. Holli Nelson, WVNG, and Matt McLaughlin, DFBA February 27, 2018

CLARKSBURG, W.Va. --- The path to a future safe from terror runs through West Virginia.

The Army inaugurated biometric operations alongside the Federal Bureau of Investigation this month at the Biometric Technology Center, formally recognizing it Friday with a ceremony featuring remarks from a U.S. senator and representative, the U.S. Army Provost Marshal General, and Director of the Defense Forensics and Biometrics Agency. Other senior leadership from the Departments of Defense, Justice, and Homeland Security also attended and toured the facility.

"In a world that's becoming increasingly dangerous and more difficult to figure out where the bad guys are, this center of innovation and collaboration is where I believe we're all at our best," U.S. Senator Shelly Moore Capito of West Virginia said in her remarks.

"Establishing identity is at the center of [military] operations, not just on the periphery," said Provost Marshal General Maj. Gen. David P. Glaser, the ceremony's host.

Following remarks, elected officials and other guests were treated to a tour of the Army component of the joint DOD-DOJ facility, allowing them to see where the team of network administrators, biometric examiners, and intelligence professionals works to identify individuals who threaten national security.

"As I look around this room, whether it be DOD, Homeland Security, or FBI, you all always talk about mission, and each of you, regardless of your team, focus on that mission here," U.S. Representative Evan Jenkins of West Virginia's 3rd District said.

The interagency biometric capabilities present at the BTC have been vital to the last decade-plus of military operations, DFBA Director Glenn D. Krizay observed. "By 2004  we were able to identify bomb makers biometrically and in conjunction with military and intelligence agencies put together a watchlist," he said. "It couldn't be done without the FBI and the dedication of the people here."

Though long a part of the Clarksburg community, DOD and DOJ biometric facilities had been separately located in older buildings until their recent moves into the newly-established BTC.

DFBA, an Army field operating agency, occupies one sixth of the 360,000-square-foot BTC, with the FBI's Criminal Justice Information Services (CJIS) Division using the remainder of the space. The CJIS biometric database -- Next Generation Identification, or NGI -- contains fingerprints and other biometric data used for domestic civil and criminal purposes, while DFBA operates DOD's database focused on encounters with known and suspected terrorists during military operations.

At approximately 16 million files, the DOD biometric repository is far smaller than the FBI's, with well over 100 million entries -- but the incidence of known national security threats within the DOD dataset is far higher. It is a key asset for enabling counterterror operations abroad and protecting U.S. borders at home.

The DOD and FBI have different missions and different procedures, but still face the same basic problem of identifying threatening or dangerous individuals, whatever their background. As a result, the DOD and FBI databases have long been interoperable with one another, and their teams of skilled operators have each been located in Clarksburg for years -- the FBI first began operations there in 1995 with the DOD opening its own office five years later. But with the BTC, both are able to work in the same space, enhancing their ability to collaborate even further on operations and technical innovations.

The Provost Marshal General is the principal Army Staff officer for the development and execution of the Army Policing Functions and the principal military advisor to the Secretary of the Army and Chief of Staff of the Army on policing matters. He also serves as the Commanding General of U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Command and Army Corrections Command.

DFBA, a field operating agency within the Office of the Provost Marshal General, executes the Secretary of the Army's responsibilities as Executive Agent for Department of Defense Forensics and Biometrics.

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U.S. Department of Defense

Press Operations

News Release

No. NR-063-18 February 27, 2018

Readout of Secretary James N. Mattis' Meeting with Montenegrin Minister of Defense Predrag Boskovic

Chief Pentagon Spokesperson Dana W. White provided the following readout:

Secretary James N. Mattis welcomed Montenegrin Minister of Defense Predrag Boskovic to the Pentagon for the first time as a full member of the NATO Alliance. They discussed opportunities to strengthen the U.S.-Montenegro defense relationship and addressed emerging security challenges.

As evidence of increased cooperation, Secretary Mattis and Minister Boskovic signed a General Security of Information Agreement.

Secretary Mattis expressed gratitude for the support Montenegro provided in the wake of the recent grenade attack on the U.S. embassy in Podgorica. He congratulated Minister Boskovic on Montenegro's accession as the 29th member of NATO. He also thanked him for the strong leadership Montenegro has shown in maintaining stability in the Balkans.

Secretary Mattis praised the significant contributions Montenegro has made to the Resolute Support Mission in Afghanistan, and lauded the country's plan to meet the Wales Summit Defense Spending Pledge by 2024.

http://www.defense.gov/News/News-Releases/News-Release-View/Article/1452647/

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U.S. Department of Defense

Press Operations

News Transcript

Presenter: Secretary of Defense James N. Mattis; Montenegro Defense Minister Predreg Boskovic February 27, 2018

Secretary of Defense James N. Mattis Hosts Enhanced Honor Cordon Welcoming Montenegro Defense Minister Predreg Boskovic to the Pentagon

SECRETARY OF DEFENSE JAMES N. MATTIS: Well, Mr. Minister, I would just tell you and your delegation, Ambassador, just a big, warm welcome to the Pentagon. As I mentioned, earlier it's good to see our two flags flying together on the steps of the Pentagon. That's where they belong. And since Montenegro regained its independence in 2006, our two nations have steadily fostered strengthened military to military relations. And I think it's bolstered by the shared values of two countries that want to be and remain democracies in this world.

And after seeing each other earlier this month at the NATO Defense Ministerial in Brussels, I would like to take the opportunity to welcome once again Montenegro to the NATO alliance. We are very proud of it. We were supportive of it, as you know. And it's good to see you here. As Secretary General Stoltenberg said during your accession ceremony last June, NATO is quote, a community of values.

And your country has become an integral part of that community, reinforcing our trans-Atlantic unity. The United States is proud to call you our ally as we stand shoulder to shoulder alongside our fellow NATO members against common security threats. It is opposed by Russia as it seeks to redraw international borders by force and seeks veto authority over European diplomatic, economic and security decisions.

In the face of such threats, the United States will continue to engage Russia to honor both the letter and spirit of its international commitments. We appreciate Montenegro's plan to reach two percent defense spending by 2024, sharing the defense burden and ensuring that our militaries remain fit for our time. We also appreciate Montenegro's promise to increase troop contributions to the mission in Afghanistan.

And I must recognize that 25 percent of your land forces have served in Afghanistan during 16 different rotations. And the poet Lord Tennyson's words on Montenegro from almost two centuries ago still hold true. There are no mightier mountaineers, no braver soldiers than your country's troops. So today, I look forward to discussing steps to strengthen our military to military relationship, including the signing of a general security of information agreement to enhance our bilateral cooperation.

Mr. Minister, welcome. It's good to host you on our soil this time and on your first but not your last visit, I trust, to the Pentagon. So again, welcome, Mr. Minister. If you'd like to say a few words with the press still present, the floor is yours.

MINISTER PREDREG BOSKOVIC: Thank you, Mr. Secretary of Defense. It's a great pleasure to be today here and thank you for the time and opportunity to discuss about very important methods, I suppose for both sides. And especially when it comes to our (inaudible) Montenegro is. Balkan is very important region for Europe because unstable Balkan is unstable Europe. So this is our opportunity to share the views and to see how to work together.

It's always pleasure to stand beside you and to work with you and to show this partnership due to the fact that United States always understood small nations much better than others and understands how important to be the size and to wealthy of any of us. We would like to as Montenegrins and those who are sharing the same values in the Balkans, we would like to be equal part of Europe, equal part of rest of the world.

That's why we succeeded our first foreign priority goal, which is our NATO integration. So thank you once again for your support, for your kind words and pretty sure today, we're going to have a lot to talk.

SEC. MATTIS: Absolutely. I think we're going to start by signing some documents. Yes. OK, I guess the hard work is done now. Congratulations.

MIN. BOSKOVIC: Thank you very much.

SEC. MATTIS: It's a pleasure.

MIN. BOSKOVIC: Yes.

SEC. MATTIS: OK, ladies and gentlemen of the press, if you'll excuse us, we'll get down to work. Thank you very much for coming out.

http://www.defense.gov/News/News-Transcripts/Transcript-View/Article/1452543/

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U.S., French complete pivotal deployment in the U.S. 5th Fleet

US Marine Corps News

By Staff Sgt. Vitaliy Rusavskiy | TF 51/5 | February 27, 2018

On any given day, U.S. Marines and Sailors embark naval vessels in preparation for missions around the globe. With approximately 10 different U.S. Navy platforms available to deploy aboard, personnel with Naval Amphibious Force, Task Force 51/5th Marine Expeditionary Brigade (TF 51/5) never anticipated receiving orders to board a foreign vessel  but that's exactly what happened in November 2017 when nearly 150 U.S. Sailors and Marines embarked French Navy Mistral-class amphibious assault ship LHD Tonnerre for a two-month deployment in the U.S. 5th Fleet area of operations.

TF 51/5 Sailors and Marines joined a multinational landing force consisting of French infantry, French Armored Cavalry and commandos from the United Arab Emirates' Presidential Guard. Throughout the deployment, TF 51/5 subordinate units with the 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit, Special Purpose Marine Air-Ground Task Force  Crisis Response  Central Command (SPMAGTF-CR-CC) and a U.S. Navy Role 2 Light Maneuver (R2LM) medical team with surgical capability conducted amphibious and maritime security operations within the U.S. 5th Fleet area of operations.

"This bilateral operation provided an invaluable opportunity for our countries to enhance capabilities in critical mission sets inherent to the U.S. Navy-Marine Corps team operating in the region," said Capt. Todd Glasser, commander of the combined U.S.-French landing force embarked aboard Tonnerre as part of TF 51/5. "France and the U.S. share a valuable partnership and a leading role in providing regional security and we welcomed the opportunity to work together to support regional stability, freedom of navigation and the free flow of commerce."

The deployment, dubbed "Bois Belleau 100", commemorated the 100th anniversary of the World War I Battle of Belleau Wood, where the U.S. Marine Corps' 5th and 6th Infantry Regiments fought alongside French forces for a strategic stretch located in France's Belleau Wood.

"The alliance between France and the United States is indeed a historic one, with the United States representing one of the first allies of France," said Ambassador of the French Republic to the Kingdom of Bahrain Cecile Longe. "Paris and Washington share a long history of military cooperation, spanning more than two centuries, which includes France's support during the American Revolution. This alliance is constantly reaffirmed. Today, in an unstable and uncertain world, the United States is an essential partner  a strategic partnership based on joint security interests and joint perception of threats."

According to Glasser, one of the first orders issued to the French Amphibious Task Group (ATG), comprised of the Tonnerre and the Horizon-class air defense destroyer Chevalier Paul, was to participate in Alligator Dagger  TF 51/5's premier integrated combat proficiency training for subordinate units entering the U.S. Central Command's (CENTCOM) area of responsibility. Specifically, this bilateral training (held off the coast of Djibouti) enables military forces to hone their skills in amphibious operations, air defense, non-combatant and medical casualty evacuations, replenishment-at-sea, tactical recovery of aircraft and personnel as well as combat marksmanship and visit, board, search and seizure evolutions.

The U.S.-French team followed up with a series of exercises throughout the Middle East, aimed at building capacity and capability with regional militaries including Kuwait and United Arab Emirates (UAE).

"The deployment started with amphibious operations in Djibouti during Alligator Dagger and moved to the Arabian Gulf with Alligator Thunder," said U.S. Marine Maj. Christopher Warnagiris, operations officer for the U.S. landing force command element aboard Tonnerre. "We ended with an exercise in Kuwait during Alligator Lightning, where we employed SPMAGTF-CR-CC to conduct our first tactical use of the MV-22 Osprey aboard a French ship, which entailed deck landings and amphibious raid exercises."

Warnagiris noted that while there were many firsts during the deployment, the inclusion of a new R2LM team was one of the highlights. Although it was designed to support U.S. and North Atlantic Treaty Organization forces or allied ships to perform en route emergency care, the R2LM team offered critical care capabilities during the multilateral exercises aboard Tonnerre.

"We successfully integrated with the French medical team and proved that we can conduct maritime operations on a NATO-allied vessel and various medical and amphibious operations," said Lt. Cmdr. Patrick Magajna, a R2LM emergency medicine physician aboard Tonnerre. "Even though we did business a little differently and experienced a language barrier in the beginning, we managed to work through the challenges quickly."

According to Glasser, the integration of U.S. and French forces aboard Tonnerre ranged from communication support and intelligence to administration and logistics operations. The exercises were a continuation of the professional development of our forces, allies and partner nations and furthered our efforts toward ensuring regional stability in one of the most dynamic regions in the world.

"It is important that we take a moment to recognize the significance of our partnership with our countries over the last century," said Glasser. "Though decades have passed, our resolve to work together to preserve regional stability remains steadfast. We are proud to call the French an invaluable partner and more importantly, our friends."

French Tonnerre sailors echoed the sentiments of Glasser.

"Working with the U.S. Marines and Sailors aboard the Tonnerre was a very good experience," said Second Master Marine LePage with the information management cell aboard Tonnerre. "It wasn't easy at first because of the language barrier, but it was great because we discovered a lot and used the occasion to improve our English and learn from each other. If I have another opportunity, I'd really appreciate working with the U.S. again. The Tonnerre deployment was a great time and it was nice to work with the U.S."

The ATG operated in the CENTCOM area of responsibility from November 2017 to February 2018. The Tonnerre's Air Task Group reported to Commander, U.S. 5th Fleet and was under tactical control of TF 51/5 but also remained flexible to conduct multiple missions simultaneously in support of France's national tasking operations as required.

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Fresh Saudi airstrikes leave dozen more civilians dead across Yemen

Iran Press TV

Tue Feb 27, 2018 07:02PM

More than a dozen people have lost their lives in fresh Saudi airstrikes against civilian targets across Yemen as Riyadh presses ahead with its devastating aerial campaign against its crisis-stricken southern neighbor.

Local sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Arabic-language al-Masirah television network that Saudi military aircraft on Tuesday evening struck an area in the At Tuhayat district of Yemen's western coastal province of Hudaydah, killing four people.

A woman and her two sons also lost their lives when Saudi jets targeted their house in the Nihm district of the mountainous northwestern province of Sa'ada. Two people sustained injuries in the aerial assault as well.

Earlier in the day, Saudi warplanes bombarded residential neighborhoods in the Sahar district of the same Yemeni province, leaving ten civilians killed and injured.

Saudi Arabia has been incessantly pounding Yemen since March 2015 in an attempt to crush the popular Houthi Ansarullah movement and reinstate former president, Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi, who is a staunch ally of the Riyadh regime.

At least 13,600 people have been killed since the onset of Saudi Arabia's military campaign against Yemen. Much of the Arabian Peninsula country's infrastructure, including hospitals, schools and factories, has been reduced to rubble due to the war.

The United Nations says a record 22.2 million people are in need of food aid, including 8.4 million threatened by severe hunger.

Meanwhile, a high-ranking UN aid official has warned against the "catastrophic" living conditions in Yemen, stating that there is a growing risk of famine and cholera there.

"After three years of conflict, conditions in Yemen are catastrophic," John Ging, UN director of aid operations, told the UN Security Council on Tuesday.

He added, "People's lives have continued unraveling. Conflict has escalated since November driving an estimated 100,000 people from their homes."

Ging further noted that cholera has infected 1.1 million people in Yemen since last April, and a new outbreak of diphtheria has occurred in the war-ravaged Arab country since 1982.

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Thousands of US troops in Israel for joint military drill

Iran Press TV

Tue Feb 27, 2018 06:16PM

Thousands of US troopers have been stationed in Israel to participate in a joint military exercise with Israeli forces amid escalating tensions in the region.

The biennial Juniper Cobra drill is set to start on March 4 and will continue until March 15, with participation of 2,500 forces from the US European Command and 2,000 Israeli soldiers.

The figure shows a substantial increase compared with the previous drill in 2016 in which 3,200 soldiers participated.

According to the Israeli army, some American troops will stay in Israel until the end of March and continue training the Israeli soldiers, the Times of Israel reported.

Palestine's Ma'an news agency, released a video showing an American military convoy driving from Jerusalem al-Quds towards the southern areas of the Palestinian occupied territories.

This year, the maneuver will include advanced computer simulations of a massive ballistic missile attack against Israel as well as some real-world activities.

During the 2018 Juniper Cobra drills, the US and Israeli forces will train on the long-range Arrow and Patriot air defense systems, the medium-range David's Sling, and the short-range Iron Dome.

This will be the first time that the David's Sling will be used in a Juniper Cobra exercise.

Israel has installed Patriot missile systems across the occupied territories in the lead-up to the drills.

The exercise comes a few weeks after the Syrian air defense systems struck an intruding Israeli F-16 warplane which attacked a drone base in central Syria whose unmanned aerial vehicles were used against the Daesh terrorist group.

Apart from the years-long military conflict between Damascus and Tel Aviv over the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, Israel has also nearly come to blows with Lebanon over a wide range of issues.

Israel waged two all-out wars against Lebanon  in 2000 and 2006  but fell short of its military objectives in both cases in the face of strong resistance by Hezbollah and the Lebanese army.

Ever since their latest military confrontation, Tel Aviv has been taunting Lebanon by violating the Arab country's territorial integrity and staging assassinations against top commanders of the Lebanese resistance movement Hezbollah.

Moreover, senior Israeli and US officials held a meeting in Washington last December during which they agreed to form an alliance to counter Iran in the Middle East region, curb the Islamic Republic's influence in Syria and block Tehran's support for Hezbollah.

Israel reportedly seeks a similar alliance with Saudi Arabia against Iran and Hezbollah. In November 2017, Hezbollah Secretary General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said Saudi Arabia has appealed to the Israeli regime to launch a military onslaught against Lebanon in the name of fighting Hezbollah, and is ready to spend billions of dollars to attain this objective.

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Boko Haram Takfiri terrorists kill two soldiers in northeastern Nigeria

Iran Press TV

Tue Feb 27, 2018 05:57PM

At least two Nigerian soldiers have been killed and four injured in an ambush by Takfiri militants from the Boko Haram terrorist group in northeastern Nigeria.

An unnamed military officer said on Tuesday that the attack on Monday happened as soldiers were traveling between the towns of Biu and Damboa in the northeastern state of Borno.

"Our men fell into an ambush by Boko Haram terrorists while on their way to Damboa from Biu," the military officer said, adding, "They fought the terrorists and we lost two men in the fight."

A military vehicle was also seized in the assault, he added.

In a separate development on Tuesday, Nigeria's military announced that it had rescued more than 1,100 people, including women and children, who had been held by Boko Haram in different parts of the Lake Chad region near Cameroon.

Operation spokesman Colonel Onyema Nwachukwu said troops killed nearly three dozen Boko Haram militants during raids on Monday in the northern parts of the Lake Chad islands and the Sambisa region. Nwachukwu added that troops also seized a large arms cache.

Boko Haram is still active in its Sambisa Forest enclave in Borno and launches sporadic attacks on civilians and security forces from there.

Tuesday's announcement comes more than a week after Boko Haram abducted over 100 girls from their school in Dapchi in Yobe state.

The latest kidnappings have revived the painful memories of another mass abduction in April 2014, when the militants attacked a girls' school and kidnapped 294 in Chibok, Borno. Many of the girls were released after negotiations, but more than 100 remain in captivity, their whereabouts unknown.

Boko Haram has used kidnapping as a weapon of war, seizing thousands of women and young girls as well as men and boys of fighting age.

The administration of President Muhammadu Buhari is under growing public pressure to respond to the mass abduction in Dapchi. The kidnapping came after repeated claims by the military and government that Boko Haram was on the verge of defeat.

Boko Haram has killed more than 20,000 people and forced two million to flee their homes since the onset of its terror campaign in 2009. It pledged allegiance to the Daesh Takfiri terrorist group in 2015.

The United Nations has warned that areas affected by Boko Haram face a humanitarian crisis.

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US, Britain liable for Saudi military offensive in Yemen: Iran

Iran Press TV

Tue Feb 27, 2018 05:48PM

The United States and Britain are responsible for Saudi Arabia's continued warmongering and military aggression against Yemen, Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Bahram Qassemi says.

"The performance of the US and Britain over the past three years at the [United Nations] Security Council has been unconstructive and in line with giving legitimacy to the aggressors against Yemen," Qassemi said on Tuesday.

He added that Washington and London have been using the mechanisms of the UN Security Council over the past three years to cover up "war crimes" committed by Saudi Arabia and its allies in the impoverished country.

The Iranian spokesman made the comment a day after Russia vetoed a resolution at the Security Council, presented by Britain and strongly backed by the United States, that called for "additional measures" against Iran over accusations that it violated the 2015 arms embargo on the war-torn Arabian Peninsula state.

The draft resolution gained 11 favorable votes at the 15-member Security Council but was blocked by Russia's veto. China and Kazakhstan abstained, while Bolivia also voted against the measure.

A group of so-called independent United Nations experts monitoring the sanctions on Yemen reported to the Security Council in January that it had "identified missile remnants, related military equipment and military unmanned aerial vehicles that are of Iranian origin and were brought into Yemen after the imposition of the targeted arms embargo."

The Security Council instead adopted unanimously a Russian-written resolution that called for a one-year extension of sanctions against Yemen and a renewal of the work of the panel of experts.

In reaction to Western efforts to target Iran over the allegations of providing arms to Yemen's Houthis, Qassemi said, "As had been expected, the UK-proposed resolution had no outcome for its sponsors due to its unrealistic [nature] and led to another defeat, particularly for the United States of America, on the international scene and at the United Nations."

Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister for Political Affairs Abbas Araqchi said on Tuesday that Russia's vote against the UN draft resolution represented another setback for the US.

"Based on a one-sided report, they intended to pass a resolution that also referred to Iran, but they failed," Araqchi said, adding, "This is yet another failure by the US government to drag Iran to the Security Council."

Elsewhere in his comments, the Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson expressed deep concern over the continued warmongering policies and relentless attacks on the oppressed Yemeni people and called on the international community to take a decisive action to stop foreign aggression and killing of thousands of innocent people in Yemen.

Qassemi said all those who are playing a destructive role by selling modern arms to boost the aggressive countries weapons stockpiles, escalating the Yemeni crisis and destabilizing the Middle East region, are responsible for any harm coming to the women and children of Yemen.

He warned that Yemen is suffering from a humanitarian catastrophe due to a devastating war and sanctions.

He said the US, Britain and France, who had been the sponsors and supporters of the vetoed resolution, were sending out the wrong signals and evading accountability.

Qassemi said these countries are the main suppliers of lethal weapons and are playing a prominent role in Saudi Arabia's warmongering and ongoing military aggression against Yemen.

Since March 2015, the Saudi regime, together with a coalition of its allies, has been heavily bombarding Yemen as part of a brutal campaign against its impoverished southern neighbor. It has been attempting unsuccessfully to reinstall Yemen's former president Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi, a staunch ally of Riyadh.

The Saudi campaign has killed at least 13,600 people since its onset. Furthermore, much of the country's infrastructure, including hospitals, schools, and factories, has been reduced to rubble in the Saudi war.

A blockade imposed by the Saudi-led coalition on Yemen has also caused widespread famine in the already-impoverished country.

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Taliban calls for direct talks with US

Iran Press TV

Tue Feb 27, 2018 11:19AM

The Taliban terrorist group has called for direct talks with the United States in a declared bid to find a "peaceful solution" for the long-running war in Afghanistan, nearly a month after it waged a wave of bloody terror attacks in the capital, Kabul, and elsewhere.

The Taliban "calls on American officials to talk directly to the Political Office" of the group, read a statement released by the Taliban late on Monday, apparently referring to an alleged office in the Qatari capital.

The statement came a day before the second round of a regional peace conference in Kabul, where representatives from 25 countries are to discuss counter-terrorism and conflict resolution strategies.

The seeming openness to talks by the Taliban is unusual for the terrorist group, which has repeatedly declared that it will not enter talks until the US-led foreign troops leave the country.

There was no immediate reaction from the US side.

Earlier this month, the Taliban released an open letter to "the American people" and the US Congress, suggesting that it was prepared for talks.

US President Donald Trump said last August that the American military presence in Afghanistan would be open-ended, as Washington intensified aerial strikes on alleged militant strongholds in Afghanistan.

Last month, Trump ruled out holding talks with the Taliban, after a spate of terror attacks by militants in Kabul.

The attacks included a massive assault on the capital's luxury Intercontinental Hotel, an ambulance bombing in a crowded street, and a raid on a military compound, that killed more than 130 people in total.

The Afghan capital is due to host the Kabul process on Wednesday, focusing on resuming "peace talks" and uniting regional countries in what is being billed as the battle against terrorism.

"At the Kabul conference, we will present a comprehensive peace plan for Taliban and Pakistan," Afghan President Ashraf Ghani said on Tuesday.

The Daesh terrorist group is also present in Afghanistan.

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EU: All Israeli settlements 'illegal, obstacle to peace'

Iran Press TV

Tue Feb 27, 2018 11:06AM

The European Union (EU)'s top diplomat, Federica Mogherini, has stressed that all Israeli settlements are illegal, condemning them as "an obstacle to peace."

"We have stressed, repeatedly, that all settlements are illegal and are an obstacle to peace," High Representative Mogherini said before talks between EU and Arab League foreign ministers in Brussels on Monday, which she said would focus on "how to bring the Middle East peace process forward."

About 600,000 Israelis live in over 230 illegal settlements built since the 1967 Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories of the West Bank and East Jerusalem al-Quds.

Mogherini also commented on the recent closure of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in the Old City of Jerusalem al-Quds in protest against Israeli measures, saying "The special status and the character of the city [Jerusalem al-Quds] must be preserved and respected by all."

"We hope that a solution can be found quickly, Jerusalem is a holy city to the three monotheistic religions," she added.

For his part, Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman al-Safadi, who arrived in Brussels for talks on the so-called Middle East peace process, stressed that the only solution "is to reach a lasting peace that again will ensure that East Jerusalem [al-Quds] is the capital of a Palestinian State."

Mogherini expressed the EU's readiness to "offer the redeployment of our mission EUBAM Rafah (the European Union Border Assistance Mission in Rafah)," a Palestinian city and refugee camp in the southern Gaza Strip and to "support even more the economic development of Gaza and obviously also increase our humanitarian aid with the specific focus on hospitals in Gaza."

Safadi said, "We must also make sure that UNRWA (the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East) continues to deliver its vital services to millions of refugees across its five areas of operation."

In a rare move, church leaders in Palestine decided on Sunday to close the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in the Old City of Jerusalem al-Quds until further notice to express dissent against new Israeli tax measures and a proposed property law that they say is an attack on Christians.

Recently, the municipality of Jerusalem al-Quds canceled a tax exemption it had granted to the church-owned commercial property in the city.

Furthermore, Israeli lawmakers have proposed a bill that would allow the regime to expropriate land in Jerusalem al-Quds sold by churches to private real estate companies in recent years.

Church officials, however, say such a law would make it more difficult for them to find buyers for church-owned land-sales that contribute to operating costs of their religious institutions.

US President Donald Trump on December 6 formally recognized Jerusalem al-Quds as the "capital" of Israel and announced plans to move the American embassy to the occupied city.

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Lebanon ready to defend self against any Israeli aggression: President

Iran Press TV

Tue Feb 27, 2018 07:25AM

President Michel Aoun has censured Israel's repeated violations of Lebanon's sovereignty, saying Beirut is prepared to counter any potential threat from the Tel Aviv regime.

"Lebanon is keen on maintaining stability and calm in South Lebanon, but it is also ready to defend itself shall Israel carry out an assault," Aoun said in a meeting with UN Under-Secretary General Jean-Pierre Lacroix in Beirut on Monday.

Aoun further denounced Tel Aviv for using the Lebanese airspace for strikes against Syria, saying the regime continues to violate UN Security Council Resolution 1701.

The resolution which brokered a ceasefire in the war of aggression Israel launched against Lebanon in 2006, calls on Tel Aviv to respect Beirut's sovereignty and territorial integrity.

Aoun added that an Israeli plan to build a wall along Lebanon's southern border was "an additional violation of Lebanon's sovereignty."

The Lebanese government says the wall passes through territory, which belongs to Lebanon but is located on the UN-designated Blue Line demarcating the regime's withdrawal from southern Lebanon in 2000.

The wall, Beirut says, would breach Lebanese territory at 13 different points, calling for "corrections" along the Blue Line.

Over the past weeks, the Tel Aviv regime has escalated its threats against Lebanon's offshore oil and gas exploration projects.

Lebanon and Israel have nearly come to blows over a tender by Lebanon in December for oil and gas exploration projects in two of the country's 10 offshore blocks in the Mediterranean Sea, namely Block 4 and Block 9.

Israel, which claims sovereignty over the ninth block and claims it runs into its side of the Mediterranean, has blasted the move as "very provocative."

Meanwhile, Lebanon's resistance movement Hezbollah, the country's de facto military power, has vowed to defend the rights of its homeland in oil and gas exploration in the eastern Mediterranean region against any new Israeli aggression.

Hezbollah helped the Lebanese army defend the nation against two bloody Israeli wars in 2000 and 2006.

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Trump's White House Pays $4 Billion for Air Force One, Touts Mysterious Savings

Sputnik News

22:05 27.02.2018(updated 22:06 27.02.2018)

US President Donald Trump and Boeing have reached an agreement about the future Air Force One program that both sides say will save taxpayers money  though its $4 billion price tag is nearly exactly what has been predicted for the past several years.

"President Trump has reached an informal deal with Boeing on a fixed-price contract for the new Air Force One Program," Hogan Gidley, deputy press secretary for the White House revealed Tuesday. "Thanks to the president's negotiations, the contract will save the taxpayers more than $1.4 billion."

According to Fox News, "the deal is worth $3.9 billion" and "officials say it represents $1.4 billion in savings from estimates of over $5 billion for two airplanes and related costs."

If Trump appears to have saved the US taxpayers more than $1 billion, it is only because the president's pet news agency, Fox News, is moving the goalposts. The Pentagon has said for years the future Air Force One will cost around $4 billion. Trump even tweeted that Air Force One would run "more than $4 billion" in the infamous "cancel order!" tweet.

But now that Trump is in office, the tab for the "Presidential Aircraft Recapitalization" program runs about $3.9 billion just for the next five years of aircraft and presidential modifications. And according to Fox News, Trump has saved $1.4 billion because of unattributed "estimates" that the program would run more than $5 billion.

Under former President Barack Obama, however, Pentagon budget documents showed the Presidential Aircraft Recapitalization program was going to cost $2.87 billion between fiscal years 2015 and 2021. Program cost estimates are closer to $3.73 billion over 12 years, Politifact noted in December 2016.

 Sputnik

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Pakistan Summons Indian Diplomat Over Truce Violations in Kashmir

Sputnik News

21:56 27.02.2018

NEW DELHI (Sputnik) - The Pakistani Foreign Ministry summoned on Tuesday Indian Deputy High Commissioner Shri J.P. Singh over ceasefire violations along the line of control in the disputed region of Jammu and Kashmir, the ministry said in a statement.

"The Director General (SA & SAARC), Dr. Mohammad Faisal, summoned the Indian Deputy High Commissioner Mr. J.P. Singh today and condemned the unprovoked ceasefire violations by the Indian occupation forces along the Line of Control on 27 February 2018 in Nikial Sector resulting in the Shahadat [martyrdom] of a 13-years old boy," the statement reads.

The ministry stated that India proceeded with truce violations despite calls for restraint. According to the statement, the Indian forces

committed 400 ceasefire violations in 2018 along the Line of Control and the Working Boundary, claiming the lives of 18 civilians and injuring 68.

"The deliberate targeting of civilians is indeed deplorable and contrary to human dignity and international human rights and humanitarian laws. The ceasefire violations by India are a threat to regional peace and security and may lead to a strategic miscalculation," the official said.

The Jammu and Kashmir region has been disputed between India and Pakistan since the end of UK rule in 1947. With several armed conflicts following, the two countries agreed to a ceasefire in 2003. Since then, both sides have repeatedly accused each other of violating the truce, with the continued instability in the region leading to the emergence of various extremist groups.

 Sputnik

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UN peacekeeping chief wraps up three-day visit to Lebanon

27 February 2018 - The head of United Nations Peacekeeping Operations has wrapped up a visit to Lebanon with a call on leaders from Lebanon as well as Israel to take advantage of the role UN peacekeeping can play in finding political solutions to conflict.

The Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations, Jean-Pierre Lacroix, concluded on Tuesday the Lebanon leg of his wider Middle East tour to visit UN missions, including the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), and high-ranking government officials in the region.

While in Lebanon, Mr. Lacroix met with President Michel Aoun and other senior officials, and saw first-hand the crucial work done by UNIFIL, in close coordination with the national armed forces.

UNIFIL was established in 1978 following Israel's invasion of southern Lebanon after the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) carried out a deadly attack on its territory.

Today, some 10,500 peacekeepers from 41 countries are serving in its area of operations and at sea as UNIFIL is complemented by a six-vessel Maritime Task Force: the first and only one of its kind in UN peacekeeping.

Mr. Lacroix praised the Lebanese Government's continuous support and cooperation in implementing the UNIFIL mandate, which includes monitoring the cessation of hostilities in the wake of the July 2006 conflict.

The UN peacekeeping chief also underlined the need for the parties to work together to build on the years of relative calm since then.

"It is important for the leaders on both sides to take advantage of the window of opportunity that UNIFIL has helped provide to work towards a permanent ceasefire and long-term solution to the conflict as envisaged in UN Security Council resolution 1701," he said. "A peacekeeping operation helps create the space for political solutions."

Security Council resolution 1701, adopted in August 2006, called for an end to hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah in south Lebanon.

It mapped out steps for a permanent ceasefire and a long-term solution to the conflict.

Mr. Lacroix toured the UNIFIL area of operations and the Blue Line, a border demarcation established in June 2000 to confirm the withdrawal of Israeli forces from southern Lebanon following another invasion in June 1982.

"I am impressed with the work of UNIFIL and its high tempo of patrolling both during the day and at night as well as their activities to maintain stability, especially along the Blue Line," he said.

Mr. Lacroix expressed appreciation for the UN force's efforts to de-escalate tensions through its participation in a forum bringing together senior Lebanese and Israeli officials which was chaired by UNIFIL Head of Mission and Force Commander, Major General Michael Beary.

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UN can help, but Yemen's warring parties must commit to peace  outgoing UN envoy

27 February 2018 - A destructive pattern of zero-sum politics has plunged Yemen into ever deeper poverty and desolation, the United Nations envoy for the war-torn country said Tuesday, emphasizing that while the UN and the wider international community can try to bring about a favourable environment for a path to peace, Yemeni decision-makers must stop the fighting and bloodshed.

"Conflict has gradually destroyed the economy, healthcare services, housing, roads and schools  everything that Yemenis need in order to live and prosper," said the UN Special Envoy for Yemen, Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed, briefing the Security Council a final time before he steps down at the end of the month.

"I call on the parties to cease hostilities, reactivate negotiations aimed at a peaceful settlement," he urged.

Mr. Ould Cheikh Ahmed said the country was already embroiled in conflict when he took up his post in April 2015, and he said that as the conflict deepened, so did the socio-economic misery, making Yemen the world's largest man-made humanitarian crisis, which has claimed thousands of lives and driven many times more from their homes.

Across the country, more than three-fourths of the population  over 22 million persons are in need of humanitarian assistance, including more than 8.4 million who are severely food insecure.

Prices of essential commodities in the country have skyrocketed, the value of the currency has dwindled, salaries have not been paid in months and in some cases, years, and the country's health, water and sanitation, basic services and education system are in tatters, with money which could have been used to maintain such services and stimulate economy being used to fund the war.

Worst affected are Yemen's women, who remain at a heightened risk of sexual and gender-based violence and have seen their rights "shrink by the day," added Mr. Ould Cheikh Ahmed.

"I heard many Yemeni women saying that they 'live in a big prison' where their freedom of speech is restricted. Those who do speak up face a constant threat of persecution and violent attempts to silence them," he expressed.

The UN Special Envoy concluded by saying that a roadmap for peace in Yemen exists but the parties to the conflict need to build confidence among themselves and launch it.

"The only part missing is the commitment of parties to make concessions and give priority to the national interest," he said, wishing Martin Griffiths  a seasoned former diplomat and humanitarian worker, appointed by the UN Secretary-General as his new Special Envoy for Yemen  every success in his efforts.

Also briefing the 15-member Security Council today, John Ging, the Director of Operations at the UN Office of the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, also underscored that an end to hostilities and "meaningful" engagement of the parties is vital to ensure a lasting political solution.

However, until that happens, humanitarian response is critical to save lives.

"Securing full funding for [the $2.96 billion Yemen Humanitarian Response Plan] is a top priority," he said, noting that the Central Emergency Response Fund recently allocated $50 million to humanitarian efforts in the country.

Mr. Ging also underscored the need to ensure unhindered, safe and secure humanitarian access into as well as within the country to allow resources be delivered to those in need. At the same time, allowing and maintaining free flow of commercial imports is imperative, as is ensuring that Government employees and civil servants are paid their salaries.

"Finally, it remains important to emphasize that protection concerns remain at the centre of the response," urged the senior UN aid official, reiterating that all parties to the conflict are obligated to spare civilians and civilian infrastructure in military operations.

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US Says 2 Al-Shabab Militants Killed in Airstrike

By Harun Maruf February 27, 2018

The U.S. Africa Command says two al-Shabab militants have been killed and another injured in an airstrike in southern Somalia.

AFRICOM says the airstrike occurred Monday in the vicinity of the town of Jilib, in the Middle Jubba region.

It marked the fourth airstrike in Somalia by the U.S. forces so far this year. Previous strikes against al-Shabab took place January 2 and 18 as well as February 19.

Meanwhile, 10 al-Shabab militants escaped from a rehabilitation center in the town of Garowe on Sunday night, security officials have told VOA Somali.

The escape occurred at around 8 p.m. local time, when the militants managed to scale a wall and slip into the darkness, the sources said.

Puntland region officials refused to speak to the media about the escape, but sources told VOA Somali that the region's leader, Abdiweli Mohamed Ali Gas, has ordered an investigation.

One of the militants was caught on Monday while three others were apprehended on Tuesday. The six on the run include Tahlil Hussein Ali, who is believed to be the escapees' leader.

"Officials believe these men are in the countryside still running from security forces," said an intelligence official, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The men were al-Shabab fighters captured during gun battles between Puntland forces and the militants in March 2016 after al-Shabab launched an ill-fated seaborne raid on coastal towns.

They were placed at the rehabilitation center in an effort to reintegrate them into Somali society. The project was funded by an international aid organization, according to documents seen by VOA Somali.

Security sources tell VOA that the escape is suspicious, as the men did not break any doors prior to getting out. Guards at the center are being questioned.

In November, some inmates at the center physically attacked the guards in an attempt to escape but that effort failed, officials said.

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Afghan Conference to Renew Call for Unconditional Taliban Talks

By Ayaz Gul February 27, 2018

Afghan President Ashraf Ghani will host an international conference Wednesday where, officials say, he will renew his call for "unconditional" peace talks with the Taliban and invite the insurgent group to open an office in Kabul for that purpose.

A presidential spokesman told reporters Tuesday the offer will be made under a proposed "comprehensive plan for peace" strategy the president will unveil at the so-called "Kabul Process" meeting, where representatives from over 20 countries and international organizations will be in attendance.

"The Afghan government has no preconditions for opening talks and hopes the Taliban will accept the offer to help bring a stable and durable peace to Afghanistan," said Haroon Chakhansuri. He said the government is ready to take steps to encourage such a dialogue and will ensure security for Taliban envoys if they agree to come to Kabul.

"The government would prefer to hold these negotiations in Kabul, or anywhere in Afghanistan. But if the Taliban want to hold talks outside Afghanistan, the government is ready, provided they are held in an Islamic country not involved in the conflict, or at an office of the United Nations," explained Chakhansuri.

The Taliban has been refusing to hold talks with the Afghan government, calling officials "American puppets."

In a statement issued ahead of the second "Kabul Process" conference, the Taliban reiterated Monday it will engage in direct talks only with the United States, blaming the presence of foreign forces in Afghanistan for a continuation of the war, now in its 17th year.

"The Political Office of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan [the Taliban] calls on American officials to talk directly to the Political Office of Islamic Emirate regarding a peaceful solution to the Afghan quandary," the statement said, referring to the Qatar-based Taliban office.

The insurgent group issued the statement in response to recent remarks by Alice Wells, a senior U.S. State Department diplomat, who said the "door is open" for talks with the Taliban.

Wells told VOA earlier this week that the "Kabul Process" meeting would aim to make clear that there was the potential for dialogue.

"I'm confident that the conference is going to push forward regional efforts to enforce what has been our most important message to the Taliban  that the door is open, there is a path to peace and stability," she said.

"It would help in finding a solution if America accepts the legitimate demands of the Afghan people and forwards its own concerns and requests for discussion to the Islamic Emirate through a peaceful channel," noted the Taliban statement.

The U.S. has turned down previous Taliban offers of direct talks and urged the group to engage in a peace and reconciliation process with the "legitimate" Afghan government.

Chakhansuri also reminded the Taliban of Washington's peace dialogue refusal and called on insurgents to seek a resolution through an intra-Afghan reconciliation process.

The presidential spokesman insisted the proposed peace plan framework to be unveiled Wednesday has been prepared after months of consultations and input from all segments across the Afghan society, calling it a national consensus document.

Without sharing further details, Chakhansuri said that recommendations on how to tackle regional terrorism and further a peaceful relationship with neighboring Pakistan are also included in the proposed plan.

The opening meeting of the so-called Kabul Process was held in July last year. The latest round is taking place at a time when the U.S. military has stepped up airstrikes in support of Afghan ground security forces to break the battlefield stalemate and pressure the Taliban to come to the negotiating table.

But the insurgents say they have not lost "an inch" of the Afghan territory under their control in the face of increased U.S. and Afghan military operations, and hostilities are expected to intensify in the coming summer fighting season. The Taliban controls or contests 44 percent of Afghan territory.

U.S. and Afghan officials maintain that insurgent sanctuaries in neighboring Pakistan have enabled the Taliban to sustain and expand insurgent activities, charges Islamabad denies. The allegations are at the center of Pakistan's tensions with Afghanistan and Washington.

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US Cutting Aid to Cambodia for Recent Democratic Setbacks

By Steve Herman February 27, 2018

The White House announced Tuesday the U.S. is cutting about $8.3 million worth of aid to Cambodia because of "recent setbacks to democracy" in the southeast Asian country.

Sunday's senate election in Cambodia "failed to represent the genuine will of the Cambodian people. That gave us great cause for concern," White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said in response to a VOA News question at Tuesday's daily briefing.

The reductions include military and civilian aid. The United States will continue to support health, agricultural, mine clearance and other programs "in support of the Cambodian people," according to the White House.

There has been no immediate reaction from Cambodia's government.

Foreign Minister Prak Sokhonn hung up on a reporter and did not answer subsequent calls, according to the Phnom Penh Post.

"I have no comment on that yet. I have to consult my superior on our common position on that," Chum Bunrong, Cambodian ambassador to the U.S., told VOA's Khmer language service.

The ambassador, however, rejected one of the reasons used by the U.S. government to make the announcement  Sunday's sweep by the ruling party in elections for Cambodia's senate.

"The election went smoothly. Some said the election was dominated by one strong party, while others are weaker, but it was a democratic election based on our law. If the election was illegitimate, the people would protest against it," said the ambassador.

Three months ago, the country's supreme court dissolved the opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP). That disenfranchised thousands of Hun Sen's political opponents, while forcing others into exile.

Self-exiled former CNRP Deputy President Mu Sochua said in a statement, "We are encouraged to see the international community making joint efforts to give the government a chance to get back on the track of genuine democracy."

Alan Lowenthal, co-chair of the U.S. Congressional Cambodia Caucus Congress, said, "short of a complete repudiation of his current position and a reinstatement of the CNRP, Hun Sen is solely responsible for any U.S. and international sanctions placed on Cambodia."

The California Democrat told VOA the senate election in Cambodia was illegitimate because "the major opposition party members were threatened, banned, jailed and, in some cases, run out of the country. Hun Sen has no intention of holding a fair election because he knows the majority of the Cambodian people do not support him or his regime."

U.S. and international support and cooperation for Cambodia "must be dependent on Hun Sen following the agreements he signed providing for free and fair elections, " added Lowenthal.

Congressman Steve Chabot, a Republican from Ohio, praised the White House's move as a sign the U.S. is taking the deteriorating political situation in Cambodia seriously.

"For months, my colleagues and I have been calling for serious action to be taken in response to Hun Sen's warrantless efforts to suppress his democratic opposition. It is heartening to see U.S. leadership taking an important role in support of democracy and rule of law in Cambodia," he said.

Human Rights Watch last month said the Cambodian government's broad political crackdown in 2017 "effectively extinguished" the country's emerging democracy.

The report said government authorities also abused the judicial system to prosecute political opponents and human rights activists and forced the closure of several independent media outlets, including radio stations that broadcast programming from Voice of America and Radio Free Asia.

VOA's Sok Khemara and Kimseng Men contributed to this report.

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US Starts Testing Devices to Detect Suicide Vests on Public Transport - TSA

Sputnik News

22:03 27.02.2018(updated 22:04 27.02.2018)

NEW YORK (Sputnik) - US transport authorities and Amtrak began testing new technology capable of detecting suicide vests at New York's Pennsylvania Station, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) announced in a press release on Tuesday.

"The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is partnering with Amtrak to test new security technology that can help officials detect whether an individual is concealing an improvised explosive device such as a suicide vest," the press release said.

The device is a type of screening technology that could be applied to safeguard against suicide vests on the rail and other public transport systems by detecting metallic and non-metallic objects that block the natural emissions of a person's body, the press release stated.

TSA supplied two models of the equipment for presentation purposes, but the technology is meant to be operated by the transit agencies workers, not by TSA, according to the release.

The equipment is mobile, allowing for easy transportation, and can be operated from a laptop inside the station.

The measure comes in wake of increased attempted terrorist attacks in transit hubs and public places around New York City. Late last year, Bangladeshi national Akayed Ullah attempted to blast a homemade explosive device at a subway tunnel near Times Square, leaving only himself seriously injured.

 Sputnik

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US Not Doing Enough to Counter Russia's Cyberattacks, But Taking Steps - NSA

Sputnik News

21:54 27.02.2018

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) - The United States is not undertaking enough measures to prevent Russia's cyberattacks in the future despite taking certain actions, National Security Agency (NSA) Director Michael Rogers said in a congressional hearing on Tuesday.

When asked whether the Trump administration is exploiting all resources to stop Moscow's cyber intrusions, Rogers said, "We are taking steps, but we probably are not doing enough."

However, Rogers noted the United States has the necessary tools to prevent Russia's cyber intrusions. He added that the NSA had developed strategies used for specific actors, such as China, Russia, and Iran.

The intelligence chief continued by saying that there is no doubt Washington would maintain competition with Moscow in cyberspace.

Rogers also said that he has not received clear directions from President Donald Trump with respect to providing a response to Russia's alleged 2016election meddling.

According to the NSA director, Russia has not paid a high price for alleged meddling in the November 8 vote. Therefore, he explained, Russian intelligence will likely continue to interfere in the internal affairs of the United States.

In January 2017, the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and National Security Agency (NSA) released a report accusing Russia of meddling in the US presidential election.

Russian senior officials have repeatedly denied allegations of meddling in the vote. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said that there was no proof that Moscow was meddling in the US election process, while Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov noted that Russia had never interfered in foreign states' internal affairs and was not intending to do so in the future.

 Sputnik

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US Adds 7 Daesh Branches, 2 Affiliated Leaders to Terrorist List  State Dept

Sputnik News

19:25 27.02.2018

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) - The United States has added seven branches of Daesh terrorist group (IS, banned in Russia) and two affiliated leaders to its list of designated terrorists on Tuesday, the US State Department announced in a release.

"The Department of State has designated three Daesh-affiliated groups  Daesh-West Africa, Daesh-Philippines, and Daesh-Bangladesh  as Specially Designated Global Terrorists," the US State Department release said. "The Department has also designated four other Daesh-affiliated groups and two Daesh-affiliated leaders."

The four groups are Daesh-Somalia, Jund al-Khilafah-Tunisia, Daesh-Egypt, the Maute Group, and the Daesh-affiliated leaders are Mahad Moalim from Nigeria and Abu Musab al-Barnawi from Somalia.

"We've designated these groups and individuals to illuminate ISIS's [Daesh] global network, and to emphasize that our collective campaign against ISIS is far from over. These designations will deny the ISIS network the resources it needs to carry out terrorist attacks."

The announcement took place amid Russian Defense Ministry's statements concerning the US-led coalition engagement in the training of former Daesh and Nusra Front terrorists on a base near al-Hasakah in order to create the new militant formation called the "New Syrian Army."

Recently, on February 21, an anonymous source from al-Hasakah told Sputnik that local witnesses had seen US helicopters landing on the territory of a local prison and then leaving. According to the source, the flights were aimed at the evacuation of radicals.

The US-led coalition of more than 70 members is leading military operations against the Daesh group in Syria and Iraq. The coalition's activities in Iraq are conducted in collaboration with Iraqi officials, but those in Syria are not authorized by the government of President Bashar Assad or the United Nations Security Council.

 Sputnik

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State Department Terrorist Designations of ISIS Affiliates and Senior Leaders

Media Note

Office of the Spokesperson

Washington, DC

February 27, 2018

The Department of State has designated three ISIS-affiliated groups  ISIS-West Africa, ISIS-Philippines, and ISIS-Bangladesh  as Specially Designated Global Terrorists (SDGTs) under Section 1(b) of Executive Order (E.O.) 13224 and as Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTOs) pursuant to Section 219 of the Immigration and Nationality Act.

As a result of these designations, U.S. persons are generally prohibited from engaging in transactions with ISIS-West Africa, ISIS-Philippines, or ISIS-Bangladesh. The groups' property and interests in property subject to U.S. jurisdiction are blocked. In addition, it is a crime to knowingly provide, or attempt or conspire to provide, material support or resources to the organizations.

The Department has also designated four other ISIS-affiliated groups and two ISIS-affiliated leaders as SDGTs under Section 1(b) of E.O. 13224. The groups are ISIS-Somalia, Jund al-Khilafah-Tunisia, ISIS-Egypt, and the Maute Group, and the individuals are Mahad Moalim and Abu Musab al-Barnawi.

E.O. 13224 imposes strict sanctions on foreign persons determined to have committed, or pose a significant risk of committing, acts of terrorism that threaten the security of U.S. nationals or the national security, foreign policy, or economy of the United States. Among other consequences, all property and interests in property of the designees are blocked, and U.S. persons are generally prohibited from engaging in any transactions with them.

In announcing these designations, Coordinator for Counterterrorism Nathan A. Sales emphasized that "these designations target key ISIS-affiliated groups and leaders outside its fallen caliphate in Iraq and Syria. Today's actions are a critical step in degrading ISIS's global network and denying its affiliates the resources they need to plan and carry out terrorist attacks."

ISIS-West Africa and Abu Musab al-Barnawi

In March 2015, the leader of the FTO and SDGT group Boko Haram pledged allegiance to ISIS and changed the group's name to ISIS-West Africa. ISIS accepted the pledge of allegiance. In August 2016, ISIS-West Africa split into two factions, due to infighting. ISIS appointed Abu Musab al-Barnawi as leader of ISIS-West Africa; the other faction, which remained loyal to longtime leader Abubakar Shekau, reverted to the previous Boko Haram name. Al-Barnawi is the son of Boko Haram founder Mohammed Yusuf. Prior to his appointment as leader of ISIS-West Africa, al-Barnawi was the spokesperson for Boko Haram. Under al-Barnawi's leadership, ISIS-West Africa has carried out numerous attacks in Nigeria and the Lake Chad region.

ISIS-Philippines and the Maute Group

In June 2016, ISIS published a video of militants in the Philippines pledging allegiance to ISIS. In the video, militants encouraged other Muslims to join the terrorist group and support ISIS's efforts in the region under the command of now-deceased SDGT Isnilon Hapilon  recognized by ISIS as the leader of ISIS-Philippines. The Maute Group declared its allegiance to ISIS in 2014 and is an integral part of ISIS-Philippines. The Maute Group is responsible for the siege of the City of Marawi in the Philippines, which began in May 2017; the September 2016 Davao market bombing, which killed 15 people and wounded 70 others; and the attempted bomb attack in November 2016 near the U.S. Embassy in Manila.

ISIS-Bangladesh

In August 2014, a group of Bangladeshi nationals pledged allegiance to ISIS. The group launched its operations in September 2015 when gunmen belonging to it shot and killed an Italian aid worker in Dhaka. ISIS has since claimed numerous attacks carried out across the country. In July 2016, the group claimed responsibility for an assault on the Holey Artisan Bakery in Dhaka that killed 22 people.

ISIS-Somalia and Mahad Moalim

ISIS-Somalia was formed in October 2015 after the SDGT Abdiqadr Mumin  then a senior leader of al-Shabaab  and about twenty of his followers, pledged allegiance to ISIS. The group has claimed responsibility for a May 2017 suicide bombing at a police checkpoint in Northern Somalia that left five people dead and injured 12 others and a February 2017 attack on the Village Hotel in Bosaso, Puntland, Somalia  a hotel frequented by foreigners  that killed four security guards. Mumin leads the group with Mahad Moalim acting as his deputy. Moalim is also responsible for facilitating shipments of fighters and arms from Yemen to Somalia.

Jund al-Khilafah-Tunisia

Jund al-Khilafah-Tunisia (JAK-T) emerged as a group in Tunisia in early 2014. By December 2014, JAK-T had pledged allegiance to ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. The group has carried out several attacks in Tunisia, including the November 2015 beheading of a shepherd and the June 2016 land mine attack on the national army and security units. The group has also threatened attacks, such as the March 2015 YouTube audio recording that threatened attacks on senior political officials in Tunisia.

ISIS-Egypt

In May 2017, ISIS announced that ISIS-Egypt was a distinct entity from the FTO and SDGT group ISIS-Sinai Province. ISIS-Egypt has claimed responsibility for numerous attacks in Egypt; in December 2016, for example, the group bombed Cairo's Coptic Christian cathedral, killing 28 people.

Today's designations notify the U.S. public and the international community that these groups and individuals have committed or pose a significant risk of committing acts of terrorism. Terrorist designations expose and isolate entities and individuals, and deny them access to the U.S. financial system. Moreover, designations can assist the law enforcement activities of U.S. agencies and other governments.

These designations are part of a larger comprehensive plan to defeat ISIS that, in coordination with the Global Coalition, has made significant progress toward this goal. This whole-of-government effort is destroying ISIS in its safe havens, denying its ability to recruit foreign terrorist fighters, stifling its financial resources, countering the false propaganda it disseminates over the internet and social media, and helping to stabilize liberated areas in Iraq and Syria so the displaced can return to their homes and begin to rebuild their lives.

In addition to designating ISIS as a FTO and a SDGT, the Department of State has also designated over 40 ISIS leaders and operatives under E.O. 13224, and will continue to target the group to deny it access to the U.S. financial system. A list of State Department-designated FTOs and SDGTs is available here.

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J-20 fighter jet significantly improves China's air combat capability

People's Daily Online

(People's Daily Online) 14:45, February 27, 2018

The capability of the Air Force of the People's Liberation Army of China to win battles is significantly improved with the recent commission of China's self-developed latest J-20 stealth fighter, said military expert.

The J-20 fighter jet was officially commissioned into military service in September 2017, which has strategic and epoch-making significance, said Wang Mingzhi, professor at the Chinese people's Liberation Army (PLA) Air Force Command College.

Wang noted that the commission has increased the ability of China's air force to deal with new security threats in airspace, and improved the aero equipment systems.

The expert explained that as many countries are stepping up their efforts to develop stealth fighters, including Japan, South Korea and India, it is also urgent for China's air force to promote its ability to counter security threats in airspace. The J-20 fighter jet will play a significant role in safeguarding China's airspace security.

In addition, the commissioning of the fighter jet signals that both the air force's capability to win battles and its deterrence capacity have improved, as the J-20 stealth fighter is capable of detecting and launching attacks to destroy opponents preemptively, Wang disclosed.

Wang also stressed that China has overcome lots of difficulties in developing the fighter jet, as there was no past experience to follow and no possibility to borrow knowledge related to such advanced technologies from western countries.

Despite this, with limited wealth, scientific and technological strength accumulated since the reform and opening up, China has successfully developed the highly advanced new-type J-20 stealth fighter jet in a shorter time than other countries, the expert noted.

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Japan Informs UNSC of Possible Violation of Anti-Pyongyang Sanctions at Sea

Sputnik News

17:26 27.02.2018

TOKYO (Sputnik) - Japan has given the UN Security Council (UNSC) information about the activity of the North Korean Chon Ma San tanker that allegedly may have violated the sanctions imposed on Pyongyang by the UNSC, the Japanese Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Tuesday.

"Taking into account the fact that both vessels remained near each other with their lights switched off, there is a possibility that both tankers were involved in some activity. The Japanese government, guided by a thorough analysis, assumes that they might have transferred goods from one ship to another, which is prohibited by the UNSC resolutions," the statement said.

According to the statement, the same information has also been transmitted to the United States, which had previously requested the Japanese Self-Defense Forces' assistance in monitoring North Korean vessels.

On Saturday, the tanker was detected in the East China Sea by Japanese patrol aircraft that took pictures of the vessel. According to the ministry, the North Korean tanker remained near the Xin Yuan 18 tanker, sailing under the flag of the Maldives.

The UN Security Council has introduced several rounds of sanctions, in response to the North's nuclear and missile tests, with the latest unanimously adopted last December. The sanctions limited North Korea's oil dealings to 4 billion barrels per year and made oil exporters working with the country report on their deliveries to the UN Security Council.

Pyongyang rejects the new sanctions, saying that the country's nuclear weapons are a self-defense deterrence against nuclear threats and blackmail by the US.

Meanwhile, the US revealed last week its decision to impose restrictions on 27 shipping and trading companies, 28 vessels and 1 individual from several countries, including North Korea.

According to Washington, these steps were primarily aimed at blocking the supply of fuel to North Korea, bypassing the sanctions of the UN Security Council.

The US Treasury Department also released a global shipping advisory with information about North Korea's deceptive shipping practices and warned about potential sanctions against those who enable the shipment of goods to or from North Korea.

Japan supported the US decision

to strengthen sanctions, adding that North Korea still did not cease developing nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles.

 Sputnik

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China Hopes North Korea, US to Take Measures for Start of Dialogue

Sputnik News

13:14 27.02.2018

BEIJING (Sputnik)  Beijing hopes that the positive trend in cooperation between Pyongyang and Seoul, which has emerged during the recent Winter Olympics in South Korea, will continue in a dialogue between North Korea and the US, both of which should take necessary steps for this, the Chinese Foreign Ministry stated.

Beijing believes that stability on the Korean Peninsula, which has surfaced recently, will "be able to return all the relevant parties to the settlement of the existing problem through dialogue and talks," the Chinese Foreign Ministry's spokesman Lu Kang said on Tuesday at a regular press briefing.

"We hope that the relevant parties will take the necessary actions for this," Lu noted, adding that China and the whole international community were expecting the start of a dialogue between Washington and Pyongyang.

The recent Winter Olympics in South Korea's Pyeongchang were notable by a rapprochement between North Korea and South Korea. South Korean President Moon Jae-in stated that North Korean officials had told him about Pyongyang's willingness to hold direct talks with the United States.

Meanwhile, the United States imposed a new range of its own sanctions last week against North Korea. US President Donald Trump showed readiness to move to "phase two" if these restrictions did not lead to curbing the North Korean nuclear and weapons program.

In 2017, the situation on the Korean Peninsula intensified due to North Korea's repeated ballistic missile launches and its nuclear program, which has also led to sharpened tensions between Washington and the United States.

 Sputnik

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Russia Vetoes UN Move Against Iran Over Alleged Arms Embargo Violations

RFE/RL February 27, 2018

Russia has vetoed a Western-sponsored UN resolution aimed at pressuring Iran over alleged violations of the UN's arms embargo on Yemeni rebels.

Russia deployed its veto in the United Nations Security Council late on February 26 despite the council's 11-2 vote in favor of the resolution and an agreement by Western powers on the council to drop language promising "additional measures" against Iran if it doesn't stop the alleged transfer of Iranian missiles and drones to Yemen's Huthi rebels.

"Today, Russia protected the terrorist-sponsoring regime in Iran," said U.S. Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley in a statement after the veto, which suggested that the United States will seek alternatives to UN action.

"If Russia is going to use its veto to block action against Iran's dangerous and destabilizing conduct, then the United States and our partners will need to take actions against Iran that the Russians cannot block," she said.

Britain's UN delegation, which drafted the vetoed resolution, had sought to secure Russia's support by removing language condemning Iran for allegedly allowing the transfer of Iranian arms to the Shi'ite rebels as well as removing any threat of UN action over the alleged embargo violations.

The resolution's proposed condemnation of Iran was based on a report by UN experts last month which concluded that Tehran was in violation of the 2015 Yemeni arms embargo because it "failed to take the necessary measures" to prevent the transfer of Iranian-made Qiam missiles and drones to Yemen.

"This council needs to stand firm in the face of state noncompliance and send a clear message that it will not be tolerated," said Britain's Deputy UN Ambassador Jonathan Allen.

But Russian UN Ambassador Vasily Nebenzya said the resolution was based on "selective and contentious conclusions" about Iran's involvement in the civil war between Yemen's Huthi rebels and the Saudi-backed government and would have had "dangerous, destabilizing ramifications" for the region.

Nebenzya traveled to Washington last month to view Iranian missile fragments the Pentagon said it received from Saudi Arabia, which it said proved that the Huthis had used Iranian weapons to attack Riyadh several times last year.

But on February 26, Nebenzya said the U.S. conclusion that Iran had supplied the rebels was "uncorroborated" and he said the evidence "requires verification and discussions within the sanctions committee" before the UN council can act on it.

Iran's UN Mission said on February 26 that it "categorically rejects allegations regarding arms transfers to Yemen."

"Today, the U.S. and U.K. attempted to misuse Security Council procedures to advance their political agenda and put the blame of all that has happened in Yemen on Iran by pushing an unwarranted draft resolution," it said in a statement.

The Iranian mission accused Britain and the United States, both allies and arms suppliers of Saudi Arabia, of being "major military supporters of the war of aggression against Yemen."

Yemen, the Arab world's most impoverished country with a population of 26 million, plunged into war in 2014 after the Huthis took over the capital, Sanaa, and forced the internationally recognized government to flee and seek support from neighboring Gulf Arab countries.

In March 2015, a Saudi-led coalition began a devastating bombing campaign against the Huthis that the UN estimates has killed more than 10,000 people, displaced 2 million, and created the world's worst humanitarian disaster.

The UN estimates that 17 million people in Yemen -- 60 percent of the population -- are in need of food aid, of whom 7 million are on the brink of famine because of the conflict.

Because of Iran's backing of the Huthis and Saudi Arabia's backing of the Yemeni government, the civil war has been viewed as a proxy war between the two regional rivals.

The administration of U.S. President Donald Trump last year agreed to sell the Saudis more than $100 billion in weapons, despite concerns among some members of Congress about the toll on Yemeni civilians from the Saudis' bombing campaign.

Iran has accused Washington of "participation and responsibility" for what it says are "atrocities committed by Saudi Arabia in Yemen."

But the United States has accused Iran of being the aggressor and has pressed the UN council repeatedly to take action to punish Tehran.

U.S. envoy Kelley Currie accused Russia and other countries that did not support the vetoed resolution to put pressure on Iran of "deciding to shield Tehran from responsibility."

Russia was joined by Bolivia in opposing the resolution, while China and Kazakhstan abstained from voting.

Immediately after the resolution was vetoed, the council unanimously passed a resolution drafted by Russia to extend the arms embargo on the Yemeni rebels for another year. The embargo was due to expire at midnight on February 26.

The approved resolution made no mention of Iran.

With reporting by AP, AFP, and dpa

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/russia-vetoes-un- resolution-pressure-iran-alleged-yemeni-rebel-arms- embargo-violations/29064688.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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France Wants To Avoid Iranian Ballistic Ambitions Becoming 'Threat'

RFE/RL February 27, 2018

French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian has said Iran's ballistic-missile program is very worrying, and that it's necessary to avoid it becoming a factor that threatens the country's neighbors.

"There is a risk, and everything possible needs to be done to avoid this risk and take the necessary measures so that this ballistic threat is not such for all regional actors," Le Drian said in Moscow on February 27 at a joint news conference with his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov.

"This could really undermine the security system in this region," Le Drian added.

The French minister said he would bring up the matter when he visited Tehran next week, and added, "We should maintain an open dialogue, talk about our disagreements."

Both Le Drian and Lavrov reiterated support for the 2015 nuclear accord signed by Tehran and six world powers,

The deal, signed by Iran with the United States, Britain, France, Germany, China, and Russia, put limits on Iran's nuclear program in return for the easing of economic sanctions against the country.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) says Iran is adhering to the agreement, but U.S. officials accuse Tehran of violating its "spirit," saying it is using its ballistic-missile program to circumvent nuclear restrictions.

President Donald Trump has said he wants to work with European allies and Congress to fix what he has called "disastrous flaws" in the accord, and warned that Washington would withdraw from the deal if terms were not strengthened by May.

Iran denies the U.S. allegations, insisting that its nuclear program is strictly for power-generation purposes. Iranian officials also rule out negotiations on the country's missiles program, saying it did not aim to make weapons of mass destruction.

With reporting by Reuters and Interfax

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/iran-france-wants -avoid-ballistic-ambitions- becoming-threat/29065888.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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Iran Blasts US Allegations Over Missile Supply Amid Anti-Tehran Resolution Veto

Sputnik News

10:00 27.02.2018(updated 13:24 27.02.2018)

Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister for Political Affairs Seyed Abbas Araqchi has dubbed US claims over the alleged supply of missiles to Yemen to be "biased" amid the recent UK-drafted resolution, vetoed by Russia in the UN Security Council.

"I think that the biased nature of these allegations and the method for regulating expert reports of the Commission of Inquiry on Yemen and the UN Security Council is fully clear," Araqchi said, adding that Tehran would continue its policy in the region as it "meets the governments' interests."

Commenting on the veto, a representative of the US mission to the UN said that the United States would continue telling the world about Iran's harmful actions until Tehran halts its activities, undermining stability in the Middle East.

"We will not stop until Tehran is stopped," Kelley Eckels-Currie said as quoted by the UN press service in a statement.

Eckels-Currie continued by saying that the Russian veto was aimed at protecting Iran and its activities in the region. The US representative also accused Bolivia, Russia, and Kazakhstan of protecting Iran from being held accountable for its alleged actions promoting chaos in the Middle East.

The US diplomat stressed that the actions of these countries, which had counteracted the UK-drafted resolution, would not go unanswered.

Earlier in the day, the UK-drafted resolution, prolonging the sanctions against Yemen and a mandate of experts monitoring their implementation was voted on by the UN Security Council (UNSC). The document also included concerns about weapons allegedly originating in Iran, being supplied to Yemen despite an arms embargo. The draft was vetoed by Bolivia and Russia, while China and Kazakhstan abstained from the vote.

Commenting on the veto, US Ambassador to UN Nikki Haley told reporters that the US and its partners would take actons on their own if "Russia is going to continue to cover for Iran."

After the UNSC failed to pass the UK-drafted resolution, Russia proposed its own draft later on Monday, which was subsequently and unequivocally adopted by the UNSC.

Russian Permanent Representative to the United Nations Vasily Nebenzia praised the UNSC decision to adopt the draft, noting that it would open possibilities for further joint work on the Yemeni settlement and the improvement of the situation in the region as a whole.

The Russian diplomat called for cooperation by key regional players, particularly Riyadh and Tehran, to settle the situation in Yemen.

Answering Eckels-Currie's claims, Nebenzia explained that Moscow did not mean to undermine the adoption of the UK draft by any means, citing the failure to agree on certain key formulations in the document.

The UNSC resolution aims to prolong the experts' mandate in Yemen, not to form an anti-Iran coalition in the region, Nebenzia pointed out.

The United States and Saudi Arabia have repeatedly accused Iran of supplying weapons to the Houthi rebels fighting in Yemen against the government, a claim Tehran has consistently denied, however, admitting political support for the Shiite movement.

Yemen has been engulfed in a conflict between the government headed by President Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi and the Houthis, also known as Ansar Allah. Since 2015, the Saudi-led coalition of mostly Persian Gulf countries, supported by the United States and the United Kingdom, has been carrying out airstrikes against the Houthis at Hadi's request.

 Sputnik

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Baghdad needs Russian S-400 systems as Western military strategy has failed: Iraqi official

Iran Press TV

Tue Feb 27, 2018 01:43PM

A senior Iraqi official says his country needs to purchase the Russian S-400 surface-to-air missile defense systems and diversify its arms imports as the so-called "Western military strategy" has been a failure in the war-stricken Arab country.

Director of the Iraqi Security and Strategy Center, Muataz Mahi Abdel Hamid, told Russia's Sputnik news agency in an exclusive interview that Baghdad is need of buying more Russian-made weapons, which were widely in use before the 2003 US-led invasion and occupation of Iraq.

"The Iraqi leaders realize the need to turn to the Eastern military strategy (and its Eastern partners). The Western military strategy, which we started implementing after 2003 has proved inefficient and unable to ensure adequate control over military operations," he said.

Abdel Hamid further noted that "a number of regional countries" do not like Iraq to be militarily strong, and serve as a springboard for a possible attack on Israel.

"Some countries in the [Persian] Gulf prefer Iraq to stay under US control. The Americans do not want Iraq to buy S-400s, and insist that the Iraqi military should be armed in accordance with the existing agreement between Baghdad and Washington," he said.

The United States has already 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 S-400 missile systems.

US State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said on February 22 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.

There are 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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'Silencing Voices': Israel Mulls Criminalizing Criticism of Armed Forces

Sputnik News

14:05 27.02.2018(updated 14:09 27.02.2018)

The controversial bill was first introduced in 2016 amid serious public debate over the legitimacy of left-wing groups operating in Israel, especially Breaking the Silence, an anti-occupation Israeli NGO that assembles reports about abuses by the regime's soldiers in the Palestinian territories.

Israel's parliament (Knesset) has adopted the first reading of a bill allowing Education Minister Naftali Bennett to ban organizations he considers critical of the military from entering schools.

"Breaking the Silence has long ago crossed the line of legitimate discourse when it chose a path of slander and lies against IDF soldiers on the international stage. Their mistake was traveling abroad, to criticize Israel and the IDF from outside Israel. Do you want to change something? Change something in your own home. But as long as they are working, from abroad, against Israel and the IDF, I will not allow their activities in the school system, which is entrusted with shaping the future generation. There is no reason such voices should be heard by our students," said Naftali Bennett.

The controversial bill, which was approved by a 35-23 vote on February, 26, needs two more readings to become law. The legislation gives the education minister the power to impede groups and individuals from entering schools if "there is concern that their actions could lead to Israeli soldiers' prosecution in international courts or foreign countries for actions carried out as part of their military duty."

The bill, however, drew criticism from the left-wing Meretz party, while the Breaking the Silence organization attacked Bennett for promoting "occupation education" and trying to "crush every democratic value on the altar of the settlement movement."

In March 2016, Israeli Channel 2 broadcasted highly incriminating video evidence filmed with hidden cameras by the nationalist group Ad Kan showing that Breaking the Silence has engaged in what appears to be espionage activity against the IDF.

 Sputnik

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Japan Secretly Designed Destroyers as F-35-Loaded Aircraft Carriers - Report

Sputnik News

23:10 27.02.2018

Japan's new class of "helicopter destroyer" vessels have secretly been designed for fixed-wing aircraft takeoff and landing (STOVL) operations, allowing them to serve as aircraft carriers toting around fifth-generation F-35B aircraft, a retired Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force recently told Asahi Shimbun.

A secret deal was reached at the earliest stages of the Izumo program to design the ships to be modular enough for conversion into a vessel that could carry F-35B aircraft, according to a JMSDF executive who also spoke with the news outlet last week.

Two Izumo-class ships, JS Izumo and JS Kaga, are already primed for F-35B operations, even though the country hasn't pulled the trigger on a purchase of the STOVL-capable jets. A Japanese official recently confirmed that a purchase of 25 F-35As  the jet's traditional runway variant  is in the pipeline but a decision on F-35B aircraft has not been reached.

While Washington and Tokyo maintain close defense ties, the F-35A was originally designated as the primary US export-variant joint strike fighter, with the UK as the lone exception. Downing Street has committed to buying 138 F-35Bs, the Financial Times reported last November.

Japanese Defense Minister Itsunori Onodera has denied that any "specific efforts" were being made to customize Izumo warships to handle F-35B operations. "No concrete examination is under way on the introduction of F-35B or remodeling of Izumo-class destroyers," the minister told reporters in December.

The Izumo-class warships are the largest navy ships Japan has produced since the end of World War II. One of the ship's primary competitive advantages is its ability to carry Japan's most advanced anti-submarine warfare (ASW) helicopters, the Diplomat notes. However, Izumo ships carrying F-35Bs would have somewhat diminished ASW capabilities, defense analysts have said.

 Sputnik

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Japan Intends to Deploy Anti-Ship Missiles to Counter China - Reports

Sputnik News

11:07 27.02.2018(updated 11:22 27.02.2018)

According to local media reports, the new unit could be deployed to Miyako Island in order to ensure its security, as its territory is located some 180 miles from the prefecture's main island of Okinawa.

The Japanese government is considering the deployment of anti-ship missiles in the country's southern prefecture of Okinawa to counter China, Japan's Asahi newspaper reported Tuesday.

According to the outlet, the Japanese Defense Ministry, as well as the country's National Security Council, will decide the issue by year's end. If the plan is adopted Japan's military will deploy anti-ship missiles with a range of up to 200 kilometers (124 miles) in Okinawa.

Tokyo could also deploy missiles capable of hitting targets at range of about 100 kilometers (62 miles), the Kyodo news agency reported citing government sources.

Japan has become increasingly concerned over China's rising activities in the East China Sea, especially near Miyako Island and the disputed Senkaku Islands, also known by their Chinese name as the Diaoyu Islands.

Earlier this year, Japan's Vice Foreign Minister Shinsuke Sugiyama lodged a formal protest with China's Foreign Ministry over the latter's "provocative" actions, after China's warships and a submarine entered the waters near the disputed islands.

The uninhabited islands were historically part of China before being annexed by Japan following their victory during the First Sino-Japanese War in 1895.

After World War II, the islands were occupied by the United States and returned back to Japan in 1972, but by then a potential treasure trove of oil and natural gas had been identified in the surrounding area.

Since then, China has objected to Japanese activity, including nationalizing several of the islands in 2012 and building a lighthouse on one in 2014.

China has continued to sail naval vessels through the disputed waters, with the number of such cases reaching 114 in 2017, according to the Japanese Coast Guard.

 Sputnik

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Pakistan's ruling party picks Sharif's brother as president

Iran Press TV

Tue Feb 27, 2018 02:08PM

The younger brother of Pakistan's former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has been elected acting head of the country's ruling party, following his latest disqualification by the Supreme Court.

The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) on Tuesday chose Shahbaz as its president.

"A meeting of the party's General Council will be held on March 6, which would elect Shahbaz as the permanent president," party official Mushahidullah Khan said.

"Nawaz Sharif will work as a life leader of the party."

The move to elevate Shahbaz in rank was seen as an attempt to continue the dynastic political system, which has been opposed by critics.

Shahbaz, 66, is currently serving as the chief minister in Punjab province. He has built a reputation as a competent administrator who gets things done, especially mega projects that are the cornerstone of the party's electoral appeal.

Shahbaz's election is likely to prompt speculations that he will replace Shahid Khaqan Abbasi as prime minister if the party sweeps back to power after general elections due in the summer.

Nawaz resigned in July after the country's top court ousted him from office for concealing financial assets. The Supreme Court's decision last week effectively bars Sharif from leading the PML-N.

In the court order, Chief Justice Mian Saqib Nisar on February 21 directed the Election Commission of Pakistan to remove Sharif as head of the PML-N from all relevant records.

Nawaz could end up in jail if he is convicted in a separate corruption trial expected to take place soon.

Sharif and his supporters have repeatedly denied allegations of corruption, suggesting the three-time premier is the victim of a conspiracy driven by Pakistan's powerful military establishment. In recent weeks, Sharif and his party have waged a war of words against the judiciary and military.

Despite Nawaz's legal woes, the 68-year-old has maintained a tight grip on the party.

Sharif was the 15th prime minister in Pakistan's 70-year history to be ousted before completing a full term.

Sharif has served as prime minister twice before and each time was removed from office, in 1999 by a military coup and 1993 by presidential order.

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Pakistan, US at Odds Over Islamabad's Counterterror Commitment

By Ayesha Tanzeem February 27, 2018

Pakistan and the United States remained at odds over Islamabad's degree of commitment to rooting out violent extremists and their sources of financing, following a candid exchange between both sides in Islamabad this week.

While the U.S. continued to push Pakistan to take action against groups it says operate out of the country against neighboring Afghanistan and India, Pakistan criticized the U.S. for recent actions that Islamabad said undermined that very objective.

"I conveyed to her that the U.S. has done a great disservice to our fight against extremism," Pakistan's interior minister, Ahsan Iqbal, said about his meeting with Lisa Curtis, the U.S. National Security Council's senior director for South and Central Asia. She was on a two-day visit to Islamabad that ended Tuesday.

Iqbal was complaining about the recent U.S. push to list Pakistan as a country that does not have adequate mechanisms to control terrorism financing.

As a result of this push, the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), a global watchdog that met in Paris last week, is expected to add Pakistan to its gray list in June. This could hurt Pakistan's already flailing economy by adding scrutiny to its financial transactions and increasing its costs of doing business internationally.

Iqbal said the move linked Pakistan's fight against extremism to "the U.S. and Western countries, giving extremist groups a narrative that they are being targeted on external pressure."

He also said the economic impact of the FATF decision would shrink the budgetary resources for the ongoing security operations in the country.

The FATF move is seen as a way for the U.S. to push Pakistan to change its behavior toward regional security issues, particularly Afghanistan. The U.S. policy for South Asia, which was announced by President Donald Trump in August of last year, promised to use all instruments of American power, including economic, to get a desired outcome in the region.

'Concern about ongoing deficiencies'

Curtis reinforced that message in her meetings this week.

"Ms. Curtis urged the government of Pakistan to address the continuing presence of the Haqqani network and other terrorist groups within its territory, and reiterated the international community's long-standing concern about ongoing deficiencies in Pakistan's implementation of its anti-money laundering/counterterrorism finance regime," said a press release issued by the U.S. embassy in Islamabad.

Iqbal said the pressure was unlikely to make a difference.

"We have lived through autumn in Pak-U.S. relations many times before. This will also pass," he said.

Still, both sides seemed to want to work past their differences.

The embassy press release said the U.S. "seeks to move toward a new relationship with Pakistan, based on a shared commitment to defeat all terrorist groups that threaten regional stability and security, as well as on a shared vision of a peaceful future for Afghanistan."

In his last briefing, Pakistan's Foreign Office spokesman, Mohammad Faisal, said his country was trying to find common ground to work with the U.S.

Bilateral relations have been tense since the announcement of the South Asia policy. U.S. officials blame Pakistan for the instability in Afghanistan, saying Pakistan provides havens to militants who attack NATO and Afghan forces across the border.

Many in Pakistan believe the U.S. does not understand its security concerns vis-a-vis its regional rival India, making cooperation difficult. In his policy address, Trump urged India to play a greater role in Afghanistan, a move that was met with alarm in Islamabad.

"The U.S. must have a security framework for the region that addresses legitimate security concerns of both Afghanistan and Pakistan," Iqbal maintained.

U.S. officials say Pakistan's concerns are overblown.

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Chinese Plane Enters South Korea's Air Defense Zone  Reports

Sputnik News

12:40 27.02.2018

China's aircraft flew into South Korea's air defense identification zone (KADIZ), spending over four hours there without giving prior notification, the Yonhap news agency reported citing defense authorities.

According to the media outlet, the Chinese military jet entered KADIZ at around 9:34 a.m., four hours later approached South Korea's border before leaving the zone at the military's warning message, the Joint Chiefs of Staff reported.

"Our military warned it to stop the act of raising tensions which could trigger an accidental conflict through the South Korea-China (military) hotline and (pilot's) radio communication," it said.

The South Korean Air Force dispatched more than 10 planes, including F-15k and KF-16 fighter jets, to monitor the Chinese aircraft's activity, which was believed to be a reconnaissance plane.

China has repeatedly opposed the deployment of the US Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) missile batteries in South Korea, designed to intercept short, medium and intermediate ballistic missiles at the terminal incoming stage. Seoul brought in the final units of the THAAD system in September as a deterrence measure against a potential nuclear strike from North Korea.

 Sputnik

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By Ritah Kemigisa.

Ugandans have been challenged to market their own country if more tourists are to be attracted in the country.

Addressing journalists at the French embassy ahead of the second edition of the France Uganda friendship week due in March, the French Ambassador Stephanie Rivoal said this is the only way government can reap big from the tourism industry.

Rivoal says to do this a lot of investment is needed in marketing, communication and promotion of domestic tourism.

The France Uganda friendship week which kicks off on 17th March to 24th March will see a series of activities to celebrate and strengthen the partnership of the two countries.

Some of the activities include; tourism and environment days and a rugby match and music concert which shall conclude the week at Kyadondo Rugby grounds.

Proceeds from the friendship week will go to supporting two police schools in Kampala.Third Anniversary Of Nemtsov's Assassination Marked

RFE/RL's Russian Service February 27, 2018

Former friends, colleagues, and supporters of slain Russian opposition politician Boris Nemtsov are marking the third anniversary of his killing in Moscow.

At a ceremony held at the Sakharov Center on February 27, photos of Nemtsov taken during different periods of his life were presented and the documentary My Friend, Boris Nemtsov was screened.

Politicians, including presidential candidates Grigory Yavlinsky and Ksenia Sobchak, opposition figures Mikhail Kasyanov and Gennady Gudkov, rights defender Lev Ponomaryov, and representatives of the Lithuanian and Swedish embassies were among those who laid flowers at a makeshift memorial on the bridge near the Kremlin where Nemtsov was gunned down three years ago.

Opposition politician Ilya Yashin said earlier that at around 10 p.m. local time, another gathering will take place on the bridge and a minute of silence will be observed.

On February 25, thousands marched in Moscow and other Russian cities to commemorate Nemtsov, a vocal critic of President Vladimir Putin.

In July, a Moscow court found five men from Russia's North Caucasus region of Chechnya guilty of the murder and sentenced them to lengthy prison terms.

But relatives and associates charge that his assassination was ordered at a higher level. They say justice will not be served until the person or people who ordered the killing are identified and prosecuted.

In a February 26 statement commemorating the anniversary of Nemtsov's killing, the U.S. State Department called on Russia to "uphold its obligations to promote and protect universal human rights, including freedom of expression, peaceful assembly, and freedom of association."

Spokeswoman Heather Nauert said Russia should "ensure that all involved in [Nemtsov's killing], including those who organized or ordered it, are brought to justice."

The local government for the city of Washington, D.C., this month renamed the street where Russia's embassy is located, honoring Nemtsov's memory in a move that Moscow has complained about.

Vladimir Kara-Murza Jr., the chairman of the Boris Nemtsov Foundation For Freedom, said on February 6 that an official ceremony renaming the block of Wisconsin Avenue as Boris Nemtsov Plaza is scheduled for February 27.

With reporting by Ekho Moskvy

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/nemtsov-anniversary-assassination- events-commemoration/29065270.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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Syria urges Security Council to stop US-led coalition's war crimes

Iran Press TV

Tue Feb 27, 2018 05:21PM

Damascus has called on the United Nations Security Council to act against the insistence of the US-led coalition purportedly fighting the Daesh Takfiri terrorist group on perpetrating massacres against the Syrian nation, and supporting the remnants of the Daesh Takfiri terrorist group.

The Syrian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates, in two separate letters sent to UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres and rotating President of the UN Security Council Mansour Ayyad al-Otaibi on Tuesday, stated that the only goal of the "rogue" military alliance is to undermine Syria's sovereignty, unity, and territorial integrity and to prolong the current crisis.

"The Syrian Arab Republic urges the Security Council to shoulder its responsibility regarding establishment of international peace and security, and act immediately to stop the war crimes being committed by this alliance against the Syrian people, and ensure that they do not occur again," the letters read.

The Syrian Foreign Ministry also demanded an end to the illegal presence of US forces on the Syrian soil, and cessation of US suspicious plans that seek to divide Syria and plunder its resources.

On February 25, Syria's official news agency SANA reported that US-led airstrikes had targeted the villages of al-Sha'afa and Dharat Allouni in the country's eastern province of Dayr al-Zawr, killing 29 civilians and injuring dozens of others.

The US-led coalition has been conducting airstrikes against what are said to be Daesh targets inside Syria since September 2014 without any authorization from the Damascus government or a UN mandate.

The military alliance has repeatedly been accused of targeting and killing civilians. It has also been largely incapable of achieving its declared goal of destroying Daesh.

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Terrorists shelling blocks civilian evacuations in Syria's Eastern Ghouta: Russia

Iran Press TV

Tue Feb 27, 2018 11:10AM

Russia's military says terrorists are blocking civilian evacuations from Syria's Damascus suburb of Eastern Ghouta by shelling the route out of the area hours after a humanitarian pause went into effect to help the residents flee the militant-held area.

Russia President Vladimir Putin on Monday ordered the implementation of a daily five-hour ceasefire in Eastern Ghouta from Tuesday and the creation of a humanitarian corridor through which civilians can leave the militant-held area.

However, the chief of the group controlling the de-escalation zone in the area, Viktor Pankov, said Tuesday that not a single civilian had been able to leave the area via the corridor in the settlement of Vafidin, Russian news agencies reported.

"On February 27 at 9 a.m. a humanitarian corridor was opened for the civilians' exit from the de-escalation zone. Now intense fire is underway from the militants' side and no civilians have left," he said.

Syrian government forces, helped by the Russian military, have created the necessary conditions for civilians to be safely received in Vafidin and that medical care was available nearby if necessary, according to Russian news agencies.

They said buses to carry civilians to the destinations where they could be temporarily housed were on standby.

The so-called Jaish al-Islam Takfiri militant group stationed in the Damascus suburb denied the recent shelling.

The United Nations also said fighting raged on in the eastern Ghouta district of Syria on Tuesday, despite the five-hour truce.

"Clearly the situation on the ground is not such that convoys can go in or medical evacuations can go out," UN humanitarian spokesman Jens Laerke told a briefing in Geneva.

The ceasefire came three days after the United Nations Security Council unanimously voted in favor of a resolution demanding a 30-day truce in Syria "without delay" to allow aid access and medical evacuations.

The resolution was adopted by 15 votes to none, after several delays and a flurry of last-minute negotiations.

Eastern Ghouta, a besieged area on the outskirts of Damascus which is home to some 400,000 people, has witnessed deadly violence over the past few days, with foreign-sponsored terrorists launching mortar attacks on the Syrian capital in the face of an imminent humiliating defeat.

Western powers, however, blame the Syrian government and Russia for the crisis.

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UK may join US strikes on Syria if gas attack claims proven: Johnson

Iran Press TV

Tue Feb 27, 2018 10:24AM

Amid a renewed Western push to blame Syria for "chemical attacks" against civilians, the UK says it will start "seriously" considering joining US military strikes against the Arab country if such claims are ever established.

"If we know that it has happened, and we can demonstrate it, and if there is a proposal for action where the UK could be useful then I think we should seriously consider it," Britain's Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson told the BBC on Tuesday.

On Monday, the so-called Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which is sympathetic to anti-Damascus militants, said 14 civilians had suffered breathing difficulties after a Syrian warplane struck the village in the Eastern Ghouta region in the Syrian capital's suburbs.

The report came just after Russia warned that militants were planning a gas attack there to pin it on the Syrian government.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, however, dismissed the report as "bogus stories," stressing that government forces have attacked foreign-sponsored Takfiri terrorists there.

In a similar statement earlier this month, French President Emmanuel Macron said if the use of chemical weapons against civilians were proven in Syria, "France will strike."

Syria surrendered its stockpiles of chemical weapons in 2014 to a joint mission led by the US and the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), which oversaw the destruction of the weaponry.

It has also consistently denied using chemical weapons over the course of the foreign-backed militancy, which gripped the country in 2011.

Western governments and their allies, however, have never stopped pointing the finger at Damascus whenever an apparent chemical attack takes place.

In April, a suspected sarin gas attack hit the town of Khan Shaykhun in the northwestern Syrian province of Idlib, taking at least 80 lives. Accusing Damascus, the US then launched several dozen Tomahawk cruise missiles at a Syrian air base, taking the lives of about 20 people including both Syrian soldiers and civilians.

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Shelling Reported As 'Humanitarian Pause' Begins In Syria's Ghouta

February 27, 2018

There were reports of air strikes, rocket fire, and mortar shelling in Syria's rebel-held eastern Ghouta region, after a five-hour truce called by Russia took effect there.

The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on February 27 that the situation in the besieged enclave near Damascus was relatively calm overnight.

But it later reported that in the first two hours of the Russian-ordered "humanitarian pause" a number of air strikes hit several towns. A Syrian military source was quoted as denying the report.

Meanwhile, the Russian military and Syrian state media said mortar shells targeted an evacuation route opened to allow civilians to leave the area.

"Right now, there is intensive fire from the rebel side and not one civilian has left," Russian General Viktor Pankov said.

General Major Yury Yevtushenko accused rebels holed up in Ghouta of holding civilians as hostages.

A rebel faction in Ghouta denied preventing civilians from leaving the enclave or shelling an evacuation route.

"Clearly, the situation on the ground is not such that convoys can go in or medical evacuations can go out," Jens Laerke, spokesman for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Assistance (OCHA), said in Geneva.

Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said on February 26 that President Vladimir Putin ordered a daily "humanitarian pause" in Ghouta from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. local time and the creation of a "humanitarian corridor."

The Defense Ministry said the measures, decided in agreement with Syrian forces, are aimed at helping civilians leave the besieged area where 393,000 of them are trapped, and to evacuate the sick and wounded.

Moscow's announcement came after the UN Security Council on February 24 passed a resolution demanding a 30-day cease-fire "without delay" to allow aid deliveries and medical evacuations in Syria's conflict areas.

The move followed eight days of intense bombardment by Syrian government forces in eastern Ghouta that killed more than 560 people, according to activists.

Russia and Iran have given Assad's government crucial support throughout the seven-year war in Syria, which began with a government crackdown on peaceful 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.

On February 26, the United States urged Russia to use its influence to secure a monthlong cease-fire across Syria.

U.S. State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert tweeted that "the Syrian regime, and its Russian and Iranian backers, continue to attack" eastern Ghouta, "terrorizing hundreds of thousands of civilians with air strikes, artillery, rockets, and a looming ground attack."

"The regime's use of chlorine gas as a weapon only intensified the misery of the civilian population," Nauert also wrote, in an apparent reference to allegations of a Syrian chemical attack on Ghouta over the weekend.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov earlier in the day said that reports of an alleged chemical attack on the Damascus suburb were "fake stories," despite videos and photos of alleged victims of the attack shown in the media.

The United Nations and European countries called on Russia to expand the announced five-hour pause into a longer-lasting truce.

Britain's Deputy UN Ambassador Jonathan Allen said Russia was playing "cynical games" and that its announcement shows that "Russia can implement if it chooses to. If it's able to do a five-hour pause, it's able to do a 24-hour pause."

"Five hours is better than no hours, but we would like to see any cessation of hostilities be extended," UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said.

With reporting by AFP, AP, and Reuters

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/syria-eastern-ghouta- humanitarian-pause-russia/29065279.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. Says Fighting Continues In Ghouta As Russia's 'Humanitarian Pause' Looms

RFE/RL February 27, 2018

The United States said fighting and killing has continued in a war-battered suburb of Damascus as the hour nears for a humanitarian cease-fire Russia said it would enforce in eastern Ghouta.

"The Syrian regime, and its Russian and Iranian backers, continue to attack East Ghouta, a densely populated suburb of Damascus, despite the cease-fire called for by the United Nations Security Council" over the weekend, U.S. State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert tweeted late on February 26.

"The regime claims it is fighting terrorists, but is instead terrorizing hundreds of thousands of civilians with air strikes, artillery, rockets, and a looming ground attack," she said.

"The regime's use of chlorine gas as a weapon only intensified the misery of the civilian population," Nauert said, in an apparent reference to allegations of a Syrian chemical attack on the suburb over the weekend.

"Russia has the influence to stop these operations if it chooses to live up to its obligations" under the UN cease-fire resolution, she said.

White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders also called for an "immediate end" to offensive operations in Syria.

Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said on February 26 that President Vladimir Putin ordered a "humanitarian pause" in Ghouta from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. local time, starting on February 27.

Shoigu said a humanitarian corridor will be opened to allow civilians to leave the area under fire.

Yury Yevtushenko, a Russian official based in Syria, said that Syrian government troops would not carry out any air strikes during a five-hour pause Russia intends to enforce each day.

The United Nations and European countries called on Russia to expand the announced five-hour pause into a longer-lasting truce.

Britain's Deputy UN Ambassador Jonathan Allen said Russia was playing "cynical games" and that the announcement shows that "Russia can implement if it chooses to. If it's able to do a five-hour pause, it's able to do a 24-hour pause."

"Five hours is better than no hours, but we would like to see any cessation of hostilities be extended," UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said.

The UN resolution demanding a 30-day cease-fire was passed on February 24 after reports from activists that the siege on eastern Ghouta had killed more than 550 people in a matter of days.

"We need to see the cease-fire put in place," said EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini. "Every single minute we wait, there are people dying."

A UN spokeswoman said that at least 30 civilians had been killed in eastern Ghouta -- where some 400,000 people live -- in the days since the cease-fire resolution was passed.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said air strikes and shelling killed at least nine civilians on February 26, a day after a suspected chlorine gas attack in the rebel-held territory.

Russia and Iran have given Assad's government crucial support throughout the seven-year war in Syria, which began with a government crackdown on peaceful 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.

Meanwhile, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on February 26 before Shoigu's announcement that the truce does not apply to "terrorist groups."

"We will never support any actions aimed at exempting terrorists from a legitimate strike," he said.

The UN resolution affirmed that the proposed cessation of hostilities would not apply to military operations against the jihadist groups Islamic State (IS), Al-Qaeda, and the Al-Nusra Front. Many Al-Nusra Front fighters reside in eastern Ghouta.

Syria and its allies Russia and Iran often refer to Sunni rebels as "terrorists," including groups allied with Western countries and Arab states as well as extremist groups like the Al-Nusra Front.

Lavrov also said that reports of an alleged chemical attack in eastern Ghouta were "fake stories," despite videos and photos of alleged victims of the attack shown in the media.

The Syrian government denies using chemical weapons, although a UN investigation has documented the use of such weapons on multiple occasions.

With reporting by AP, dpa, AFP, and Reuters

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/us-says-fighting-continues- eastern-ghouta-syria-russian-humanitarian -pause-looms-february-27/29064854.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 Started New Offensive Against Syrian Forces in E Ghouta - Russian MoD

Sputnik News

18:45 27.02.2018(updated 20:56 27.02.2018)

The Russian Defense Ministry assured that its Reconciliation Center in Syria guaranteed the security of civilians leaving Eastern Ghouta.

Meanwhile, the Russian Defense Ministry reported a new militant offensive against Syrian government forces, including mortar shelling on two occasions of the humanitarian corridor, with shells exploding some 500 meters from the checkpoint.

"During the humanitarian pause, militants of the armed groups [in East Ghouta] continued to attack the positions of government forces in the vicinity of the settlements of Khazram and Nawabiya, and after 13:00 they started an offensive and on other destinations. These actions were accompanied by intense artillery and small arms fire," head of the Reconciliation Center Maj. Gen. Yuri Yevtushenko told reporters.

Responding to the attacks, the head of the Russian Reconciliation Center called on all militant groups to observe the ceasefire and not prevent the exit of civilians to safe areas.

The general stated that a ceasefire would take place daily from 9:00 a.m. to 02:00 p.m., allowing all civilians to safely leave the regions of Eastern Guta.

Meanwhile, the International Committee of the Red Cross expressed its readiness to access Syria's Eastern Ghouta and deliver aid jointly with the Syrian Arab Red Crescent, specifying, however, that it is impossible to bring in a convoy during a mere five-hour humanitarian pause.

"The ICRC, jointly with the Syrian Arab Red Crescent, is ready to access the area and deliver much-needed humanitarian aid to the people affected by the hostilities  It is impossible to bring a humanitarian convoy in five hours. We have a long experience of bringing aid across frontlines in Syria, and we know that it may take up to one day to simply pass checkpoints, despite the previous agreement of all parties. Then you need to offload the goods. In the past, we have had to spend the night in certain locations, despite the security risks to ourselves, as there was no other way to bring life-saving aid to those in need," Robert Mardini, ICRC's regional director for the Middle East Tuesday.

Humanitarian Pause in Eastern Ghouta

The humanitarian pause in Eastern Ghouta, scheduled today to last from 09:00 a.m. [07:00 GMT] until 2:00 p.m., was announced by Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu on Monday, following the relevant order of Russian President Vladimir Putin. Security at the exit of the humanitarian corridor is provided by Russian military police and the Syrian army.

The pause comes in line with the UN Security Council's Saturday resolution 2401, calling on all parties to the conflict to promptly stop all clashes and adhere to a long-term humanitarian pause across the whole territory of Syria in order to guarantee the safe and unhindered supply of humanitarian aid as well as the medical evacuation of those injured.

 Sputnik

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UK Threatens Damascus With Airstrikes if There's Proof of Chemical Weapons' Use

Sputnik News

11:23 27.02.2018(updated 11:54 27.02.2018)

Despite being repeatedly accused of using chemical weapons, Damascus has strongly denied having them; it destroyed its arsenal several years ago, and their complete destruction was subsequently confirmed by the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW).

British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson has stated that the UK might support airstrikes against the Syrian government if there's evidence of chemical weapons' use.

"If we know that it has happened, and we can demonstrate it, and if there is a proposal for action where the UK could be useful then I think we should seriously consider it," Johnson told BBC.

The statement comes a day after the infamous White Helmets NGO claimed that the Syrian government had deployed chlorine gas against the town of Al-Shifoniya in Eastern Ghouta, allegedly killing one child and causing "widespread suffocation" among the local civilians. While being praised by the Western governments, the White Helmets group, also known as the Syrian Civil Defense, has previously been accused of falsifying information about its work in Syria and staging "rescue" attempts in its propaganda videos.

When asked to comment on the allegations, the Pentagon, however, stated that the US currently sees no evidence of chemical weapons' use.

Previously, the same threat was voiced by French President Emmanuel Macron, who stated earlier this month that France would launch strikes if the fact that the Syrian government had used weapons of mass destruction (WMD) against its civilians was proven.

Earlier, the Russian Defense Ministry warned that militant groups in Eastern Ghouta were preparing a false flag attack in an attempt to blame Damascus for using chemical weapons against civilians.

Syria has repeatedly denied allegations of chemical weapons use, underscoring that it had no weapons of mass destruction, which was confirmed by the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW).

However, on April 4, 2017, the National Coalition for Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces, supported by the United States, accused Damascus of the Khan Sheikhoun incident in Idlib province, that left 80 people dead and injured 200 more. Western governments blamed Bashar al-Assad for being responsible for the use of sarin gas. Reacting to the incident, the United States, having no proof of the use of chemical weapons by Damascus, launched 59 Tomahawk cruise missiles at the Syrian government airfield in Ash Sha'irat on April 7.

 Sputnik

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Militants Shell Eastern Ghouta, Syrian Army Doesn't Respond - Russian MoD

Sputnik News

10:20 27.02.2018(updated 17:54 27.02.2018)

The humanitarian pause in the besieged rebel-held Eastern Ghouta area of Damascus has entered into force, according to a Sputnik correspondent.

Russian General Viktor Pankov said that civilians cannot leave Eastern Ghouta as humanitarian corridors had been shelled by militants.

"At 9 am on February 27, a humanitarian corridor was opened for the release of civilians from the zone of de-escalation. Currently, militants launched intense shelling and not a single civilian has come out," the general told reporters.

The Russian Reconciliation Center also added that militants had fired over 20 mines and continue to shell Damascus from Eastern Ghouta.

"Despite provocations Syrian government forces ceased fire starting from 9 a.m. and have not responded to the shelling, respecting the humanitarian pause. The Russian Reconciliation Center guarantees safety to all civilians and those injured, who are ready to leave Eastern Ghouta and urges armed groups to cease fire and not to hinder the evacuation," the reconciliation center stated.

According to Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, the time frame of the humanitarian pause in Eastern Ghouta will depend on actions of terrorist groups.

"It depends on how the terrorist groups act, depends on whether they will fire, whether their provocations will continue. It depends mainly on these factors," Peskov told reporters on Tuesday when asked about the possibility of extending the terms of humanitarian pause.

Peskov went on by saying that Russia would continue working persistently on implementing the UN Security Council resolution on Syria's Eastern Ghouta.

"Overall, quite intense work is underway, but it is regrettable, speaking about the situation in Eastern Ghouta, that out counterparts ignore the atrocities and the situation there which is provoked by terrorists who hide there and hold civilians hostage. Without doubt, Russia will continue its purposeful work on implementation of the resolution adopted by the UN Security Council, as well as on defending its position," Peskov told reporters.

On Monday, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said that a new daily humanitarian pause in Eastern Ghouta would start on Tuesday from 09:00 [07:00 GMT] until 14:00, following the relevant order of Russian President Vladimir Putin. Security at the exit from the humanitarian corridor is set to be provided by the Russian military police and the Syrian army.

On Saturday, the UN Security Council unanimously adopted a resolution calling on all involved parties to cease fire and adhere to a long-term humanitarian pause on the entire territory of Syria in order to guarantee the safe and unimpeded supply of humanitarian aid as well as the medical evacuation of those injured. However, resolution 2401 does not apply to the fight against groups designated as "terrorist" by the UNSC.

Syrian Army's 'Tiger Forces' Reportedly Resume Op in Eastern Ghouta

The alleged footage uploaded to YouTube shows the Syrian Army's "Tiger forces" advancing on the hilltop of Tal Farzat in Eastern Ghouta. The Syrian Arab Army (SAA) resumed its operation in Eastern Ghouta after reportedly breaking through the frontlines of the Jaysh al-Islam terrorist group dominating the area.

The Russian Defense Ministry had previously stated that despite the agreement the rebels from Jaysh al-Islam continued the shelling.

"Despite reconciliation statements made by Jaysh al-Islam, insurgents continue mortar shelling from the controlled territory targeting the city of Damascus  Four people lost their lives, more than 50 were injured, including 16 children [in a week]," the ministry's statement read.

According to the Ministry, the illegal armed groups have also targeted the Syrian army at various sites on the line of contact, while Damascus' positions near the settlements of Hazrama and Nashabiyah were attacked by car bombs.

"Despite the UN Security Council resolution on the establishment of a 30-day ceasefire in Syria, the situation in Eastern Ghouta continues to worsen," the Russian reconciliation center's spokesman Maj. Gen. Yuri Yevtushenko said at a daily briefing on Monday.

Militants Preparing Chemical Weapons Provocation

Previously, Moscow warned that militants in the region were preparing to launch a provocative chemical attack which they plan to blame on the Syrian government, according to a report released by the Russian Reconciliation Center for Syria on Sunday:

"The data at our disposal indicates the leaders of militant units are preparing a provocation that will involve the utilization of chemical weapons in order to accuse the government forces of deploying chemical weapons against peaceful civilians."

The Russian military has noted that the terrorist groups were trying to undermine the ceasefire, attempting to provoke a backlash from the Syrian army.

 Sputnik

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Russia's 'Humanitarian Pause' Has No Effect on Syria Fighting

By Ken Bredemeier February 27, 2018

Russia started its "humanitarian pause" in Syria's eastern region of Ghouta on Tuesday, but new fighting erupted and there were no signs of civilians leaving the besieged area or aid deliveries arriving.

At least six civilians were killed during the first day with a five-hour window ordered by Russian President Vladimir Putin to call off Moscow's air bombardment of the rebel-held enclave and allow civilians a chance to escape the violence near the Syrian capital, Damascus.

No civilians were seen leaving the embattled area at the checkpoint set up by the Syrian government, a way station where large portraits of Putin and Syrian President Bashar al-Assad were positioned side by side.

The Syrian state news agency SANA and Russia accused rebels fighting government forces of launching attacks on them during the humanitarian pause. In Moscow, the Defense Ministry said the rebels "went on the offensive in other directions, too."

Russia accused the insurgents of preventing people from leaving the area, an allegation the rebels denied.

"Clearly the situation on the ground is not such that convoys can go in or medical evacuations can go out," said United Nations humanitarian spokesman Jens Laerke.

Mohammed Alloush, head of the largest insurgent group in eastern Ghouta, called for Russia to stop its aerial attacks on the rebels and honor the 30-day U.N. cease-fire resolution it voted for last week.

"If Russia is concerned about civilians in eastern Ghouta, it should halt its planes immediately from bombing towns and residences and should stop the regime of Assad from its war of extermination," Alloush said.

Samer al-Buaidhani, a 25-year-old from Douma, eastern Ghouta's main hub, told the French news agency, "This Russian truce is a farce. Russia is killing us and bombing us every day. I don't believe it's safe for me or my family to leave by this system."

More than 550 civilians, almost a quarter of them children, have been killed in the last nine days during the Russian and Syrian attacks on eastern Ghouta, one of the most violent episodes in Syria's seven-year civil war.

In Washington, a top U.S. commander, General Joe Votel, who heads the military's Central Command, accused Russia of playing an "incredibly destabilizing" role in Syria.

"Diplomatically and militarily, Moscow plays both arsonist and firefighter, fueling tensions among all parties in Syria," Votel told the House Armed Services Committee.

"Moscow continues to advocate for alternate diplomatic initiatives to Western-led political negotiations in Syria and Afghan-led peace processes in Afghanistan, attempting to thwart the U.N.'s role and limit the advance of American influence," Votel said.

Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said Monday the Russian stand down would run daily from 9 a.m. until 2 p.m. local time.

The order comes days after the U.N. Security Council ordered the 30-day cease-fire across Syria.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said resolutions issued by the Security Council "are only meaningful if they are effectively implemented," while reiterating that Syrians in the besieged area of eastern Ghouta "cannot wait" for humanitarian aid.

U.N. human rights chief Zeid Ra-ad Al Hussein cast a level of doubt on the prospects for the resolution, saying it "must also be viewed against a backdrop of seven years of failure to stop the violence, seven years of unremitting and frightful mass killing."

Denis Sullivan, a political science professor and co-director of the Middle East Center at Boston-based Northeastern University, told VOA that Russia is in charge when it comes to the forces supporting Assad and that it will take the full focus of the U.S. government to apply necessary pressure on Russia.

"Without everybody also pushing in the direction of pressuring Russia, therefore Assad, then it's just not going to happen," Sullivan said.

Victor Beattie contributed to this report

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By Benjamin Jumbe.

President Yoweri Museveni has challenged a delegation of Kazakhstan investors to construct a processing facility for minerals in Uganda.

He was meeting with a delegation from the Eurasian Natural Resources Corporation that called on him at State House.

The companys Chief Executive Benedict Sobotka during the meeting expressed interest in investing in the mining industry in Uganda particularly in the extraction of copper and cobalt.

The President stressed that when minerals are not fully processed but exported in raw form, government loses out on revenue hence the need for a processing facility.

Eurasian Natural Resources Corporation is a leading private multinational diversified natural resources company with operations in Africa in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Mozambique, Zambia and South Africa. Elsewhere, the company operates in Russia, Brazil and China.Cabinet shelves military pension reform bill

ROC Central News Agency

2018/02/27 16:26:15

Taipei, Feb. 27 (CNA) The Cabinet has decided to postpone its processing of a military pension reform bill, Premier Lai Ching-te () said Tuesday in the wake of an incident at a public protest that left a retired colonel seriously injured.

Lai, however, said the decision was made several days ago, before the protest took place.

Following discussions with the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislative caucus, it was decided that the bill would not be put on the Cabinet's agenda on Thursday as planned, since there were still issues to be resolved, he explained.

The military pension reform bill has now been shelved for an indefinite period as the Cabinet continues to discuss the matter with the Legislature, the Veterans Affairs Council and members of the society, said Lai, who was also forced to postpone the delivery of his policy address to the Legislature earlier in the day due to public protests against the bill.

In protest against the draft military pension reform bill, dozens of people stormed the Legislature at around 6 a.m., before the opening of the new legislative session in which Lai was scheduled to deliver his policy address and take questions from lawmakers on the floor.

During the protest action, a retired colonel suffered major injuries when he fell as he was trying to climb a wall in the legislative complex.

Miao Te-sheng (), 62, hit his head on the ground as he fell and suffered out-of-hospital cardiac arrest.

He was rushed to National Taiwan University Hospital at 7:19 a.m., and the hospital later confirmed that he was resuscitated at 8:30 a.m.

Other demonstrators outside the Legislature clashed with police, as the protesters berated the government for what they said was its backtracking on a promise to run the military pension reform plan by them before submitting it for review.

Some expressed concern that the government would also renege on a proposed monthly military pension floor of NT$38,990 (US$1,330) and would drop it to the NT$32,160 put forward for retired civil servants and teachers.

Commenting on the issue, President Tsai Ing-wen () expressed concern about the injured protesters and said she remained committed to protecting the benefits of retired servicemen and women.

She said the government is well aware of the unique nature of the military's service to the country and will come up with a fitting and sustainable pension plan that will safeguard the rights of retired military personnel.

The government will seek to fix the military pension floor at a reasonable level, within the limits of the country's finances, Tsai said.

Meanwhile, Defense Minister Yen Teh-fa () said retired military personnel should be entitled to a higher minimum monthly pension in consideration of the special nature of their work and the risks involved.

Both Yen and Tsai said, however, that the government's military pension reform bill was modeled partly on systems in other countries and was drafted based on lengthy discussions over a long period of time.

After the protest, retired Lieutenant General Wu Sz-huai () told reporters that the demonstrators' main demand at this time is for the government to slow down the reform process so that it can hold more extensive discussions with retired military groups.

Legislative Secretary General Lin Jih-jia (), who accepted a protesters' petition on behalf of Speaker Su Jia-chyuan (), said the Legislature will do all it can to continue the discussions on the matter and find a rational solution that will be acceptable to everyone.

The military pension reform bill was listed as one of the government's top priorities in the new legislative session that opened Tuesday.

(By Kuan-lin Liu, Fan Cheng-hsiang, Joseph Yeh, Wang Cheng-chung and

Justin Su)

Enditem/pc

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US warns Turkey against S-400 purchase from Russia: Report

Iran Press TV

Tue Feb 27, 2018 09:17AM

The United States has reportedly warned Turkey against the consequences of its decision to buy S-400 surface-to-air missile batteries from Russia, saying Washington could slap Ankara with sanctions over such a purchase.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, an American official expressed concerns over Turkey's plan to buy the Russian S-400 missile system, saying the purchase would potentially expose Turkey to a new sanctions law recently passed by Congress, according to the Turkish daily Haberturk.

Moscow and Ankara finalized an agreement on the delivery of the S-400 surface-to-air missile systems on December 2017. The deal has drawn concerns among some of Turkey's NATO allies who claim the missile batteries are not compatible with those of the military alliance.

The US official further said that the potential acquisition of the missile systems would "negatively influence the interoperability of NATO," the US-led North Atlantic Treaty Organization to which Turkey is a member.

The official also said that Washington was seeking to "help Turkey find a better alternative to meet its air defense needs."

Earlier this month, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu spoke out against the language of threats regarding its purchase of the S-400 systems.

"We do not use and will not accept the language of threats. Yes, the US Congress adopted a law [on anti-Russia sanctions]. But we need to ensure our national security. We would like to purchase the means to ensure it from our allies," Cavusoglu said during a press conference with his American counterpart Rex Tillerson on February 16.

The US State Department has previously threatened to apply "appropriate measures" against countries willing to purchase advanced weaponry, particularly the S-400 missile defense systems.

On August 2, 2017, President Donald Trump signed into law the Countering America's Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA) that imposed sanctions on Iran, Russia and North Korea.

The latest threat of sanctions come amid tense relations between the US and Turkey over Washington's support for the Kurdish militants in northern Syria. Ankara views those militants as terrorists linked with the homegrown Kurdistan Workers' Party, which has been fighting for autonomy.

Ankara launched a military campaign against US-backed Kurdish militants on Syrian soil after the US said it would set up a 30,000-strong militant force at Turkey's doorstep.

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US Threatens Turkey With Sanctions in Case of Russian S-400 Purchase  Reports

Sputnik News

09:13 27.02.2018(updated 09:15 27.02.2018)

The United States has urged Turkey to abandon the purchase of the S-400 anti-aircraft missile system from Russia, warning Ankara of the consequences of its decision, Haberturk reported citing a source in Washington.

According to the Turkish newspaper, an unnamed American official expressed his concerns over Ankara's purchase of Russian surface-to-air missile systems, explaining that they could "negatively influence the interoperability of NATO" and assuming that Washington could impose sanctions in response to the recently adopted law.

"We want to help Turkey find a better alternative to meet its air defense needs," the official said.

Earlier in February, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu spoke out against the language of threats regarding its purchase of the S-400 systems.

"We do not use and will not accept the language of threats. Yes, the US Congress adopted a law [on anti-Russia sanctions]. But we need to ensure our national security. We would like to purchase the means to ensure it from our allies  We spoke to not only Russia but with other countries too. We finished talks with Russia long before the Congress, only small details were left," he told a press conference with his American counterpart Rex Tillerson.

The US State Department has previously threatened to apply "appropriate measures" against countries willing to buy Russia's S-400 systems.

In December 2017, Moscow and Ankara finalized an agreement on the delivery of the S-400 surface-to-air missile systems.

 Sputnik

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Turkey Says Czech Release of Former PYD Leader is 'Support for Terror'

By VOA News February 27, 2018

The Turkish government said Tuesday the release of the former leader of a Syrian Kurdish political party by a Czech court was "a clear support for terror."

Prague's Municipal Court decided Tuesday to release former Syrian Kurdish Democratic Union Party leader Salih Muslim despite Turkey's request for his extradition.

Turkey has accused the former PYD leader with disrupting the state and aggravated murder. He was detained in the Czech capital of Prague Saturday following a Turkish request for his arrest.

Turkey considers the PYD a terrorist group associated with outlawed Kurdish rebels fighting within the country's borders. Earlier this month, the Turkish government placed Muslim on its most-wanted list and announced a $1 million reward for his capture.

Turkish government spokesman Bekir Bozdag said the ruling violated international law and predicted it would adversely affect Turkish-Czech relations.

The PYD is the the most influential political Kurdish force in northern Syria and Muslim has maintained clout within the party, even after resigning as co-chair last year.

Turkey launched a military offensive into northern Syria in late January in an effort to push the People's Protection Units, or YPG, from the enclave of Afrin. The YPG is a U.S.-supported Syrian Kurdish militia group and the armed unit of the PYD.

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UK has spent $2.4bn on bombing Iraq, Syria: Official data

Iran Press TV

Tue Feb 27, 2018 09:24AM

The British government has spent over $2.44 billion (1.7bn) to carry out airstrikes in Iraq and Syria since 2014, the year the US and its allies formed a so-called coalition to allegedly counter terrorist groups wreaking havoc in the two Arab countries, according to official data.

The larger chunk of the money, around $2 billion (1.5bn), has gone into flying the Royal Air Force (RAF)'s Tornado and Eurofighter Typhoon fighter jets as well as Reaper attack and surveillance drones for more than 42,000 hours.

The figures, revealed on Monday in response to a Freedom of Information requests by anti-war group Drone Wars UK, seemed to be a fraction of what London has spent over the course of its unauthorized intervention dubbed Operation Shader.

The British air force has also dropped over 3,500 units of various munitions in over 1,700 airstrikes on Syrian and Iraqi targets at a cost of around $375 million (267mn) over the past three and a half years.

That includes Paveway IV laser-guided bombs that cost an estimated $98,000 (70,000) apiece for the older version and $140,000 (100,000) for the enhanced ones.

RAF pilots have also fired no less than 8 Storm Shadow cruise missiles that are said to cost around $1,100,000 (800,000) per unit, the activist group said.

The costs would grow if besides fuel, which is included in official figures, undisclosed data such as crew payments, aircraft maintenance and capital data are also included.

Drone Wars UK estimates that it costs the RAF $112,000 (80,000) to keep the multi-role Typhoons airborne for an hour, while the figure drops to $49,000 (35,000) and ($4,900) 3,500 for Tornado and Reaper aircraft respectively.

However large, the numbers are still a fraction of what the US-led coalition has collectively spent during the campaign, which has seen 105,000 bombs and missiles used in some 29,000 airstrikes. Drone Wars said the military campaign has cost around $10.5 billion (8 bn).

The sheer number of US-led airstrikes since 2014 has alarmed rights activists about the possible civilian casualties.

While the US has only admitted to killing 841 civilians in the strikes, Drone Wars UK said it had recorded over 6,000 civilian deaths as a result of the military campaign. Neither Syria nor the United Nations have authorized the attacks.

The coalition forces have on many occasions air-dropped weapons and equipment for terrorists while targeting Syrian and Iraqi government forces who fight them.

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Defence Minister hosts Polish counterpart at Allied Rapid Reaction Corps

Defence Minister Mark Lancaster and Under Secretary of State Tomasz Szatkowski have visited the UK's Allied Rapid Reaction Corps Headquarters (HQ) and Salisbury Plain.

27 February 2018

Following Mr Lancaster's visit to Poland in August 2017, the Polish Under Secretary of State has been in the UK for a two-day visit to discuss plans for the continued close defence relationship between the two countries.

The pair visited the UK's leading contribution to NATO, the Allied Rapid Reaction Corps. The high readiness force staff includes two Polish nationals, as well as UK nationals and personnel from 21 NATO countries.

Minister for the Armed Forces Mark Lancaster said:

"Our defence cooperation with Poland continues to go from strength to strength. We recently signed a defence treaty together, only the second such treaty the UK has signed with another EU country, signifying the importance of our relationship. We remain entirely committed to the security of our friends in Europe."

"We are allies together in NATO and this visit has shown how our troops work side by side within the alliance to protect our interests."

The UK has deployed 150 military personnel to Poland as part of NATO's Enhance Forward Presence (eFP) in the region. Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson visited these troops in December.

As well as visiting the UK's leading NATO high-readiness headquarters, the Defence Minister and his Polish counterpart commemorated veterans at the Polish War Memorial and witnessed a Ground Based Air Defence demonstration at Salisbury Plain. They also held a series of bilateral talks following on from the successful signing of the new defence treaty in December.

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Trump wants nuclear missiles on US warships: Report

Iran Press TV

Tue Feb 27, 2018 11:12AM

US President Donald Trump has reportedly asked his generals to see if it is possible to arm the US Navy's warships with nuclear weapons, a strategy that seems to fall in line with his order to review America's nuclear posture.

The Nuclear Posture Review (NPR), which was released earlier this month, came largely to counter Russia and effectively end efforts by former President Barack Obama to reduce the size and scope of the US arsenal and minimize the role of nuclear weapons in America's military doctrine.

It also cast China as a potential nuclear adversary, saying the US arsenal is tailored to "prevent Beijing from mistakenly concluding" that it could gain advantage by using its nuclear weapons in Asia, or that "any use of nuclear weapons, however limited, is acceptable."

Additionally, the report called for the development of new nuclear sea-launched cruise missiles (SLCMs) and the deployment of Trident D-5 submarine-launched ballistic missiles (SLBMs) that will be modified to have lower yield nuclear warheads.

The reports of Trump's desire to have nuclear-capable warships gained momentum this month, when Air Force General John Hyten, the head of US Strategic Command, said he wanted to put nuclear-tipped cruise missiles on the US Navy's guided-missile destroyers.

"We want to look at a number of options  everything from surface DDG 1000s [Zumwalt destroyers] to submarines, different types of submarines," Hyten said during an event in Washington.

"That's what the president's budget has requested of us, to go look at those platforms, and we're going to walk down that path," he added.

Nukes on 'stealthy' warships

According to a report by the Daily Mail on Tuesday, the USS Zumwalt, a stealthy and futuristic-looking warship that was commissioned in October 2016, is a priority in the new strategy.

In his 2019 spending bill, Trump has requested $89 million to arm Zumwalt class destroyers SM-6 missiles that have a 250-mile range.

The $4.4 billion warship's angular design concept was first picked up by Navy officials over 17 years ago. The Pentagon had originally planned to purchase 32 Zumwalts but cut down the order to only three due to high costs.

The first Zuwalt broke down in the Panama Canal in November 2016, merely a month after its deployment.

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By Ritah Kemigisa.

The ministry of health has revealed that it is in advanced stages of drafting a law that will regulate services offered by fertility clinics in the country.

The minister of health in charge of general duties Sarah Opendi, says the new law will see sperm banks and surrogacy operations in the country regulated and officially recognized.

Opendi has meanwhile dismissed reports that it is only women who are infertile further warning that even men are susceptible to infertility and do account for 50% of infertility cases.

According to the World Health Organization, one in every four couples in developing countries has been found to be affected by infertility.

In Uganda, about 10-15% of the couples cannot have children due to infertility.By Stephen Otage.

Uganda loses an average of 10 people per day due to accidents, translating into Shs 4.4tn per anum.

This is according to the Uganda Safety Performance Review Report that has been released today by the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa.

It shows that road traffic accidents are competing with Malaria to kill Ugandans.

The report further reveals that motor vehicle inspection, driver training does not exist in the country.

Releasing the report, the UN resident Coordinator Rosa Malango says donors are killing Ugandans by providing money for road construction without designs for cyclists, pedestrians and other safety measures for none motorized transport.

She noted that accident response on high ways is very poor or none existent.

The UN thus recommends an independent agency to handle traffic in the country.Roughly 25 years ago, U.K.-based retailer JoJo Maman Bebe was birthed in a hospital ward during founder Laura Tenisons recovery from a car crash. One of Tenisons wardmates, a new mother, mentioned that childrens clothes in the U.K. were rather dull, Tenison said.

The longtime entrepreneur began sketching clothing concepts for babies and children, drawing on her background in designing fine mens apparel. In another of her ventures, selling French homes to U.K. clients, Tenison had admired French childrens all-weather, nautical-inspired clothing. She wove that together with quirky, British humor and used her hospital neighbor as a sounding board.

I decided to launch a business making the best childrens outerwear with an outdoor attitude to life as a family, Tenison said.

Today, JoJo Maman Bebe runs nearly 90 stores in the U.K. and has two more slated to launch in the U.S. this spring. Tenison expects to open her first American stores in Westports Playhouse Square and the other on Greenwich Avenue, where Grahams Toys closed in 2016.

Theres no replacement for the old-fashioned values and trustworthiness associated with independent, mom-and-pop retailers, according to Tenison, so each shop caters uniquely to its community. While getting to know the Greenwich market, Tenison described pounding the pavement, walking up and down the avenue watching traffic patterns and hosting a focus group at The Granola Bar.

I want to really understand our local customers, she told Hearst Connecticut Media. Im not arrogant enough to think that what works in the U.K. will work in the U.S., so I need to talk to the locals. We open each store as if its the only and most important one.

She chose southwestern Connecticut for JoJos first U.S. stores in part because the retailer already has loyal customers in the region, she said. Other contributing factors included a lack of perceived competition and a shorter commute for Tenison, who regularly visits her shops, she said.

More Business Wilton boutique relocating to Rowayton

Were sometimes the first people a new mother tells that shes having a baby, Tenison said, and during our market research we could not find a single competitor (in the U.S. market) that puts an emphasis on getting mothers in the store, making a connection with them and offering expert advice in making their buying decisions.

With her brand, which is a certified B Corp  denoting that it meets certain standards on the environment, sustainability and more  Tenison said she intends to provide young mothers a place to gain advice from trained staff as well as a company thats a good place to work.

JoJo Maman Bebe will be located at 60 Greenwich Ave. and 295 Post Road E. in Westport.

Contact the writer at mbennett@greenwichtime.com; Twitter @Macaela_GREENWICH  Writer Min Jin Lee will speak on her bestselling novel Pachinko, about a Korean immigrant family fighting to control their destiny in 20th-century Japan, in Greenwichs Librarys next author event.

AuthorsLive@GreenwichLibrary will present a conversation with Lee about her novel, which was on the New York Times Ten Best List for 2017 and was a National Book Award finalist, among other honors. She will appear at the library on March 13 at 7 p.m. in the Cole Auditorium.

Pachinko is a novel about four generations of a Korean immigrant family and their fight to control their destiny in 20th-century Japan. As part of the event, Lee will be interviewed by Greenwich resident Christine Kim, a former chair of the Greenwich Alliance for Education. Lee will also take questions from the audience.

This is a wonderful read, said Marianne Weil, Greenwich Librarys coordinator of selection and acquisitions. We think it speaks to the mission of AuthorsLive. It promotes the joy of reading and brings people close to a terrific author they are interested in.

Lee is a former attorney who won both the Henry Wright Prize for Nonfiction and the James Ashmun Veech Prize for Fiction while attending Yale. A New York resident, she has also received multiple other awards and honors for her writing.

Pachinko has been extremely popular, Weil said. Many book clubs in the area are reading it and plan to attend the March 13 event. The Cos Cob Thursday Evening Book Clubs next meeting on Thursday is about Pachinko, and the Cos Cob Library Brown Bag Book Club will discuss the book when it meets March 21.

It seems like the book has struck a chord in town and in the region, Weil said.

The books focus on Korea is popular among readers, partially thanks to the Winter Olympics, she said. Readers also want to know more about the region as well as its history and culture.

Weil is looking forward to the event and expects to introduce Lee to the crowd.

The book is so popular that Weil was only recently able to get a copy for herself from the library. She has only begun to read it, but Weil said she has been drawn in by the story.

It is beautifully written, Weil said. There is so much I am learning from it, too.

Weil said she is impressed by the large and diverse audiences that attend the AuthorsLive events. We see different faces in the audience at every event, Weil said.

The discussion with Lee will be followed by a book signing. Copies of Pachinko will be available for purchase at the event through Dianes Books, which has partnered with the library for its past Authors Live events.

The event is free and open to the public. Seating is limited and is first-come, first-served. The doors are scheduled to open at 6:30 p.m.

kborsuk@greenwichtime.comKrishna Patel asked an auditorium filled with high school students to raise their hands at a series of questions:

How many of them knew what trafficking was? That it happened in the United States? In Connecticut?

In Greenwich?

The polling started out strong; palms shot through the air. But by the last question, numbers dwindled while a hushed shock settled over the room.

As general counsel and justice initiative director of Grace Farms Foundation in New Canaan, Patel is steeped in knowledge about the worlds trafficking problem, and has been for much of her career. On Monday afternoon at Greenwich High Schools Performing Arts Center, she shared her expertise on both sex and labor trafficking and taught teenagers about how they could help.

Patel said sex trafficking is harder to engage with directly because of the dangers the criminal industry poses.

But as the largest consumer base across the globe, Americans derive a huge influence over labor trafficking from their purchasing power, and she encouraged students to think about how they wield it.

Dont believe that its not an extraordinary empowerment tool, because it is, Patel said.

She told her audience to consider supporting companies that have fought to ensure their supply chain goes untouched by modern-day slavery.

Target, she said, is going to extraordinary lengths to know their expansive enterprise never benefits from labor exploitation.

Patagonia conducted a study to identify any trafficking even by those who supply their raw materials  researchers found instances of slavery within a month, and the business has worked to eradicate it.

Adidas has hired an anti-slavery commissioner to ensure transparency across its operation, and after reports that Nike was connected to child slavery, the shoemaker rallied to get rid of any trafficking footprint.

But despite Herculean efforts by American businesses, slavery is still at an all-time high globally, Patel said. At any given time, around 40.3 million people are being trafficked.

Seventy percent are women and girls, and 25 percent are children, according to Patel.

She asked students to log onto slaveryfootprint.com, where they could get a rough estimate of how many slaves indirectly work for companies based on their consumer practices.

You need to really buy not so much for a while, and you need to buy products that you know are made in a way by a company that you can wear for a long time, Patel said. Its OK to buy just a few things. Buy things that you really like  The idea of buying a lot is part of whats causing this.

Patel also touched on sex trafficking, especially among minors. She remembered her first domestic trafficking case in the state, when in 2005 a pimp who had nicknamed himself The Magnificent exploited a den of girls, including a 12-year-old who would show up to clubs clutching her teddy bear.

The preteen kept running away every time she was rescued, and Patel asked what would get her to stay. She answered that her only request was Harry Potter books.

Patel remembered another scenario from 2009  one of the worst cases of child exploitation she had ever seen. It happened in Greenwich, and no one had noticed all the red flags. Patel was not immediately available this week to provide more details on the case.

In fact, throughout Connecticut  where wealth prevails  Patel said modern-day slavery is often a foreign concept to people.

Trafficking is something that I think really shocks people here, she continued.

Both in the state and around the world, slavery is thriving, despite laws in every nation against it.

The price of a human being has just gotten cheaper and cheaper, Patel said.In mid-December 2012, I found myself at a small dinner party in Greenwich. Christmas was just around the corner, and the house was all lit up with festive decorations. But our community was still reeling after the slaughter of innocents at Sandy Hook Elementary School just days before. It was surreal to get ready for the holidays with our young children, less than 30 miles from the carnage and horror in Newtown.

Nevertheless, my friend had her house decked out in Christmas cheer, drinks were poured, and we all just tried to carry on. A fire blazed cheerfully in the fireplace and hanging above the mantel was an antique hunting rifle. As the evening progressed, I could not take my eyes off that rifle.

We were careful not to plunge too quickly into the gun control debate that night, but at some stage the Second Amendment was cited. The discussion got heated, and suddenly it became clear that we were among friends who were deeply divided on a critical issue.

It was too soon to talk about - yet we couldnt avoid it. And as we sat around that dinner table with our children all safely tucked into bed, I couldnt help but feeling that rifle was pointed at all of us.

Around that time, a friend of mine recalled how she had spent all morning cleaning and organizing the dreaded mudroom. After she sorted through school supplies and sporting gear, she described her satisfaction with a Ta-Da moment  never had the mudroom looked so together. For a moment, she thought, the usual after-school chaos would be transformed into a calm, orderly affair.

That afternoon her three children came charging through, shrieking and shouting, with thick mud and snow on their boots, wet socks and soggy coats. The mudroom was back to disaster zone in minutes.

But then I suddenly realized  they came home, she said, fighting back tears.

Not far away, 20 first-graders would never again rush through mudrooms, scattering their laughter and their backpacks. Suddenly the mess was something to treasure.

The massacre at Sandy Hook fell on a Friday. On Monday morning, I took my children to school with a newfound fear. I wasnt alone. A police car was parked outside our school, and every parent cast a wary eye at the drop-off door, checking to see whether it was safe, I guess.

The principal stood by the door, and she gave my hand a gentle squeeze as I walked past. It brought tears to my eyes. She knew exactly how we felt that sad morning. The school hallways were the same, but looked different that day. Everything about school looked different from that point on.

Several years later, I met several of the Sandy Hook victims families at a screening hosted by the Greenwich International Film Festival. I couldnt take my eyes off one mother. She looked a lot like me  and all I could think was how any of us could be her.

Hearing them discuss their determination to fight for gun control was inspiring. There was no debate, no politics  just the power of raw pain and inconsolable loss.

Sandy Hook hit close to home for me, both in proximity but also because it involved children around the same ages as mine. But Sandy Hook was five years ago. Since then, according to the New York Times, there have been at least 239 school shootings nationwide. In all, 438 people were shot, 138 of whom were killed. Sixteen were mass shootings, meaning more than four victims. The shootings took place in hallways, classrooms, cafeterias, sporting events and parking lots. That doesnt include the deadly attack on members of Congress, or on a country music festival in Las Vegas, or so many other non-school shootings.

The latest horror was at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., about an hours drive from Miami. A former student is accused of murdering 17 students and adults. That brought the old political paralysis on gun control back to the headlines once again, but this time may be different. Our awesome teenagers nationwide are raising hell. The beautiful young students from Parkland are pushing America to do more, giving anguished testimony to legislators, on CNN and yes, to President Donald Trump. He has given mixed signals as to whether he really is sympathetic and would support tighter gun laws, including raising the age needed to buy the kind of assault-style rifles used at Sandy Hook, Parkland, and so many places. But Trump mostly is calling for arming teachers, which boggles my mind. Arming teachers?

It probably doesnt matter. Congress wont support that, or nearly any other effort to restrict access to semi-automatic weapons. And so for now were left with talk of a bump-stock ban, pro-gun groups trying to rally, talk of better background checks (again), Tallahassees rejection to ban assault weapons and state legislators from Oregon to Vermont taking matters into their own hands. Polarization, once again, is everywhere  along with a whole lot of anger.

So Ill keep fighting alongside those young Parkland heroes. And Ill hug my children and cry for those who are lost.

But I cant help but stand back from it all and think one thing most clearly: Here we go again.

Claire Tisne Haft is a former publishing and film executive, raising her family in Greenwich while working on a freelance basis on books and films.GREENWICH  Greenwichs retirement trust fund to pay for pensions of former town employees has been performing better of late than it has in the recent past, officials in charge of the fund said Tuesday, allowing the town to reduce its contribution to retirement costs.

Joe Pellegrino, chairman of the town Retirement Board, called a meeting Tuesday morning of the board and others in town government to plan how to continue making progress in closing the gap between return on investments and the yearly obligation.

We need to have a plan, Pellegrino said. We need to have a strategy.

The towns scheduled contribution to close the shortfall for the 2018-19 fiscal year is slated to be $21,136,000 which is a reduction from the $21,932,000 in the current years budget. Pellegrino said it is the continuation of a better trajectory for the plan over the last four or five years including better professional asset management.

According to the latest report from Boomershine Consulting Group, which was compiled as part of a study dated July 1, 2017, there are 2,255 people covered by the retirement system in town. It is open to members of the Greenwich Police Department, Greenwich Fire Department but closed to other town labor unions.

As of the 2017 report, there are 253 current public safety officers in the plan and 639 people who are grandfathered in from the other unions before the plan was closed off in subsequent contract negotiations. There are also 309 public safety retirees covered in the plan and 1,054 classified retirees from other town unions.

At Tuesdays meeting, Gregory Stump, chief actuary and vice president of Boomershine, said if things proceed as planned, the amount of Greenwichs liability will decrease and the funding ratio paid for by return on investment will increase. And since Stump said his firm is operating under reasonable assumptions he felt it would.

All in the room on Tuesday  who also included members of the Board of Estimate and Taxation, Representative Town Meeting and other  indicated their desire to see the plan perform as well as possible, as it took a major hit during the economic downturn of 2008.

Our performance did not keep up with the times over a long period of time and thats why we have a gap, Pellegrino said. Thats where we are today and were trying to right that ship.

Pellegrino said in looking at the towns investments, he believed it was a diversified portfolio that minimized risk for the town.

Nothing is going to shoot the lights out, but the thought is over a longer period of time we should have a better return per unit of risk were taking, Pellegrino said.

Stump said his firm performs studies every five years to see trends in labor. What is clear from the last study, conducted two years ago, is people are retiring later. While that means the town doesnt pay out the benefits as early as it used to, the study also found that people are living longer, which means the benefits are then paid out over a longer period of time.

That kind of balances out, Stump said.

BET member Andy Duus, who serves as the finance boards liaison to the Retirement Board, said the town should explore getting out from under its pension obligation by offering a buyout to everyone covered by the plan. The money would be provided by the value of the towns assets in its investments as well as money raised through a bond issue and a new pension plan could then be put in place.

This is a path to solve this issue in one stroke, Duus said.

However there was a great deal of skepticism over that plan among the others in the room, including regarding how it would be received by town employees.

Theres a lot of obstacles to that, Stump said.GOP gubernatorial candidate Tim Herbst joined Senate Republican Leader Len Fasano this week in asking Gov. Dannel P. Malloy to discipline his top justice-reform adviser for criticism of a GOP candidate for attorney general.

Herbst took it one step further, calling for Michael P. Lawlor, the adviser in the Office of Policy and Management, to resign or be fired.Growing any business is, well, tough business. You've got your hand in every pot while simultaneously wearing every hat. You're worrying about marketing strategies, product creation and growth plans, all in the same day.

Related: 39 Quick Ways to Increase Your Website's Conversion Rate

With so many ongoing tasks, it can be far too easy to let a little thing like digital presence fall by the wayside. However, that would be a grave mistake.

The Harvard Business Review recently conducted a study on what exactly makes people want to complete a purchase from a particular website, and the results were a resounding "trustworthiness." By making consumers feel safe, comfortable and at ease when they visit your online destination, you stand a much higher chance of not just encouraging them to complete a purchase, but convincing them to become longtime users.

A strong website design is paramount in creating this trustworthiness. By presenting an online destination that is straightforward and easy to navigate, users will have a more positive experience throughout your website, making them more likely to complete a purchase.

So, while things like company transparency, great testimonials, and a solid product are obvious ways to ingrain familiarity to potential customers, website design clearly ranks particularly high when determining if a brand seems trustworthy or not.

In order to stand out from the crowd, there are a few tried-and-true design elements that will transform your website visitors into loyal customers. Don't worry, I'm not going to say something obvious like "responsive designs" -- elements like that are a given.

Related: 10 Steps to Creating an Engaging Digital Experience

Here are five top web design and UX trends that will grow your business fast.

1. Video landing page

Incorporating video into your website design is a no-brainer. I mean, 78 percent of internet users watch videos online every week.

But, don't just embed any old YouTube video. Instead, take your website design to the next level by creating a video landing page.

You could target this video to a direct call to action on a particular web page, a la Salesforce. Or you could take a page out of Baesman's book and create an immersive video that auto-plays on your homepage. Either of these approaches can provide information or drive home the brand's identity -- but both will improve UX and users' impression of your company as a whole.

Not sold? The proof is in the pudding. According to Vidyard and Demand Metric's The State of Video Marketing 2017 study -- which surveyed 159 B2B and B2C professionals and entrepreneurs -- it is predicted that 69 percent of website traffic will be video, while 70 percent of professional participants reported that video converts better than other forms of information and content.

Related: 50 Must-Have Features for Small-Business Websites (Infographic)

2. Parallax scrolling

While digital experiences have no doubt improved many aspects of our daily lives, it has had one negative impact: People are lazy. So lazy, in fact, that clicking a button is often too far out of the realm of possibility.

Enter parallax scrolling.

This uneven-like scrolling effect has combated consumers' general laziness while remaining engaging and visually appealing. With a simple swipe (a la Tinder), users have easily consumed your information as they make their way down the page.

The popularity of parallax scrolling has also introduced more deep-scrolling and single-page website designs, and renders what information is "above the fold" a little less necessary, since it is easier to see what's below, too. Ultimately, that makes prioritizing content easier for you to manage and increases your user's likelihood of seeing everything anyways.

Make Your Money Matter took its parallax scrolling to the next level, with effects spanning an illustrated timeline that goes both horizontally and vertically, ensuring it captivates users.

Related: Improve Your Website's Conversion Rates With These 6 Design Tips

3. Animated calls to action

Calls to action are a necessary evil in website design. The fact remains that your consumers won't know what to do unless you explicitly tell them. Many. Many. Times.

However, simply telling your consumers what to do just isn't enough anymore, either. They're seeing stimuli and instructions from all corners of the web, so you need a little something extra to help your goal stand out.

Adding a little animation to your important action items might be just the ticket. Whether it's a micro-mini interaction (such as "liking" a Facebook post and seeing the many reaction animations) or a simple effect to catch users' eyes, consumers are more likely to execute the action you're pushing when the call to action grabs their attention and provides confirmation of completion.

Need some inspiration? Airbnb uses its animation app, Lottie, to incorporate subtle graphics animations atop its calls to action throughout its website and app designs.

Related: 4 Ways to Make Your Business Website More User-Friendly

4. Custom typography

Every website needs text, but the days of boring Times New Roman, Arial or any other basic stock font have long-since passed. Instead, take your message to the next level with unique typography that encompasses your brand identity while simultaneously communicating to users.

This unique typography can take many shapes (literally) or be found in different areas of your design. Some brands may choose to utilize this in their logo design, while other businesses (like mine) will sprinkle custom font throughout the entire design to draw attention to important content, like this newsletter signup call to action (below). Ultimately, the choice in how and where you utilize this trend is up to you.

Related: 10 Tips for Web Design That Drives Sales

5. Artificial intelligence

Despite the surge in ecommerce sales over brick and mortar storefronts, people still crave connections, which is likely one of the reasons that artificial intelligence in all its forms is so popular.

AI in website design can take many shapes, but some popular examples include machine learning, personalization and chatbots. Machine learning and personalization are cut from the same cloth to a degree and ingratiate a feeling of "being special" with users that, in turn, fosters brand loyalty.

Chatbots influence user experience much more directly, though. While they provide an engaging element, the biggest draw to incorporating chatbots into your website design relates to customer service. Users can ask questions and receive answers in real time -- which is easy to visualize -- and acquire information quickly.

Quartz is a stellar example of chatbots within immersive app design. Through a conversational interface and hilarious memes, users are more likely to return to consume the entertaining content than they are to read a boring news article on another app.

Related: 10 Best Wordpress Themes to Choose From for Your Next Website Project

By investing in website design, you can cultivate a broad and dedicated consumer base that will use your product time and time again. While there are many more design elements that you can incorporate into your designs, ultimate each choice should:

Make users feel comfortable.

Represent the brand.

Clearly draw attention to important calls to action.

Give users the information they need to make an informed choice.

Related:

Use These Web Design Tricks to Grow Your Business Exponentially

The Top 3 Ecommerce Sites of 2017 -- and What You Can Learn from Them

5 Ways Stock Art Might Be Killing Your Small Business Brand



Copyright 2018 Entrepreneur.com Inc., All rights reserved



This article originally appeared on entrepreneur.com

Yesterday, we reported on a rather interesting find, regarding the memory configuration of Sony's latest flagship pair. Today, the plot thickens even further. Apparently, the US, UK and Canada listings for the bigger Xperia XZ2 all quote 6GB of RAM. Once again, that is 2GB more than the standard international version gets.

The original scoop pertained to regional XZ2 and XZ2 Compact units for Hong Kong and Taiwan. We went over a total of four listing to confirm both phones would get the higher RAM loadout. However, while doing a follow-up sanity check on the matter today, it seems the XZ2 Compact variants have been bumped back down to 4GB in the original sources.

So, to recap, the way we see things currently, it seems the XZ2 Compact will get 4GB of RAM in every market. While the Xperia XZ2 is still listed with 6GB in Taiwan and Hong Kong, as well as the US, UK and Canada. Effectively leaving EU fans at a disadvantage.

However, since it took less than 24 hours for one of the original sources to change its specs, we have to wonder if this is all a giant misunderstanding that Sony needs to step in and clear up. Again, we'll keep you posted if we learn more.

Source 1 | Source 2 | Source 3 | Source 4 | Source 5 | Source 6



Haiti - News : Zapping...





Postponement of the trip of the US Assistant Secretary

Deputy Secretary Sullivan's trip to Haiti to meet with President Moise and Caribbean leaders on the sidelines of the 29th CARICOM Heads of Government Conference was postponed by the US State Department for unspecified reasons. See also : https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-23643-haiti-usa-deputy-secretary-of-state-john-j-sullivan-will-meet-jovenel-moise.html



The Mayor of Arcahaie threatens...

The mayor of Arcahaie Rosemila Petit-Frere, threatens to close the National Road #1 if before March 5 the government does not transfer her the 5 months of arrears of communal funds https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-23677-haiti-politic-the-mayors-of-the-country-require-the-revocation-of-minister-fleurant.html Moreover, she downplays the importance given to the Caravan of Change and criticizes President Jovenel Moise.



Fuel : Commissioner Dameus at the Terminal of Thor

Monday afternoon, the Port-au-Prince Government Commissioner, Clame Ocnam Dameus, accompanied by the Minister of the Interior, Max Rudolph Saint-Albin, the Secretary of State for Public Security, Leon Ronsard Saint-Cyr and the Director General of BMPAD, Fils-Aime Ignace Saint-Fleur went to the Terminal of Thor, Carrefour, where is moored since January 25 a oil tanker ship, illegally imported according to him, by the company National Distributors S.A (DINASA). He ordered the Director of the Port, Frantz Larco, to re-embark this fuel which would contain Ethanol.



American visit to the Chancellery

Monday the new Ambassador of the United States Michele J. https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-23624-haiti-diplomacy-new-american-ambassador-to-haiti.html paid a courtesy call on Chancellor Heidi Fortune to renew him the American determination to continue its cooperation with Haiti in the field of justice and the rule of law.



Inauguration of the new police station of Cabaret

Thursday, February 22, 2018, the Commander of the police component of Minujusth and the Central Director of the Administrative Police (DCPA), representing the National Police of Haiti (PNH), inaugurated the new police station of Cabaret (West) in the presence among others of local officials.



Exchanges of gifts

Monday, at the Marriott in Port-au-Prince, First Lady Martine Moise and the wife of the Prime Minister of the Commonwealth of the Bahamas, Patricia Minnis attended the official meeting of the first Ladies. After the meeting, the first ladies exchanged gifts.



HL/ HaitiLibre

















By William Schwartz | Published on 2018/02/27

What with all the sexual propositions and the preview where Soon-jin is blurred out and naked, you'd think "Shall We Kiss First" was taking a turn for the raunchy. Actually the intimacy is more subdued and weird than that. To start out with, Moo-han and Soon-jin end up going to a themed love hotel and make fun of the generally peculiar devices other people apparently use to arouse themselves.

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"Shall We Kiss First" has a refreshing lack of mystique when it comes to sex. This is mainly because the main characters are old enough that nothing especially shocks them anymore. It's one of the ways you call tell "Shall We Kiss First" was made by actually middle-aged people. Younger ones, or even older ones in insular subcultures, simply assume that older people are flabbergasted by everything. Incredible how every successive generation thinks they invented sex.

I-deun has not gone that far, obviously. But we can still see shades of this philosophy in her character, as I-deun explicitly says that she is acting out for attention from her absentee father. I-deun is a fascinating character, because no matter how much sympathetic backstory we get...I still really don't like her. Plenty of people grow up to resent their parents and resolve to become better people because of that. I-deun isn't even trying. To the contrary, she makes life miserable for other people out of sheer spite, and willfully refuses to show even the slightest sense of remorse.

In that light Moo-han's sense fatherly abandonment actually comes off like a karmic punishment. Moo-han is so fundamentally disappointed in I-deun he doesn't even bother to try and lecture her. While this is entirely a consequence of Moo-han's own psychological issues, it's gratifying that I-deun instead interprets Moo-han's actions as a vicious personal slight. Especially since I-deun naturally assumes that the whole situation is Soon-jin's fault. Soon-jin did not force I-deun to steal a truck filled with expensive equipment.

Other fundamentally unsympathetic characters are equally interesting. Soon-jin finally loses patience with Kyeong-soo, and explicitly spells out why her life is none of his business anymore. Ji-min is so selfishly obsessed with her own happiness that she similarly fails to realize that Kyeong-soo's continuing obsession with Soon-jin is an obvious sign that he regrets their affair and subsequent marriage. The poor woman talks to Kyeong-soo's portrait more frankly than she does to the real Kyeong-soo- and yet, I feel no pity.

Review by William Schwartz

"Shall We Kiss First" is directed by Son Jeong-hyeon, written by Bae Yoo-mi and features Kam Woo-sung, Kim Sun-ah, Oh Ji-ho, and Park Si-yeon.

Watch on Viki

Watch on Viki

Note : Due to licensing, videos may not be available in your countryPublished on 2018/02/28 | Source

Korean drama starting today 2018/02/28 in Korea "Queen of Mystery Season 2" (2018)

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Directed by Choi Yoon-seok-II, Yoo Yeong-eun-I

Written by Lee Seong-min-II

Network : KBS

With Choi Kang-hee, Kwon Sang-woo, Park Byung-eun, Kim Hyun-sook, Lee Da-hee, Oh Min-suk,...

16 episodes - Wed, Thu 22:00

Synopsis

"Queen of Mystery" tells the story of a prosecutor's wife who's always dreamed of being a detective. After actually solving a case, she ends up in an unlikely crime-fighting duo with a young police captain.Login or sign up to follow actresses, movies & dramas and get specific updates and news

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HelpBy William Schwartz | Published on 2018/02/27

There's one really funny gag this episode - the climax of Joon-ki's mukbang storyline ends with the guest house earning a lot of money. How Joon-ki was able to get success out of such a fundamentally stupid idea, well, that's where the humor comes from. There's also really good synthesis to the joke, because other characters and plotlines are also involved, and one accidental revelation from the broadcast sets up another storyline.

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I'm also willing to give decent marks to Seo-jin's adventure in fashion. At first I really didn't get what was going on, but the more people Seo-jin runs into, the more transparently silly the whole gag becomes. It's been awhile since "Welcome to Waikiki" went with purely visual and contextual humor. I really wish the production team would try this more often, because the usual loud stupidity is horribly grating. Jokes do not become funny just because they are louder and stupider.

Case in point- the entire storyline at the racing track. After a certain point every time Joon-ki opened his mouth I really just wanted to slap him. It really is starting to drive me crazy how no one at the guest house has any idea how to manage money. If they had trouble finding jobs, that would be one thing- but they keep throwing what little they have at stupid frivolities. When Dong-goo finally expresses an idea of financial sensibility, it's only in the service of another idiotically pointless lie.

I can't root for characters who are too dumb and dishonest to solve the most basic problems. There's another throwaway line in here about Dong-goo, Joon-ki, and Doo-sik scraping together enough money to film their own movie. That's a great idea! Except that when they are this bad at managing money and communicating basic ideas, how exactly are they going to make a movie? They'd probably just end up exchanging their camera for magic beans- forgetting that even if the magic beans work they have no way to film the scene.

Their work ethic is similarly uninspiring. Joon-ki doesn't even try for any acting jobs here- but then Doo-sik did sabotage probably the best job Joon-ki has been offered so far. Additionally, if Doo-sik likes Malk-eum that's fine, but that really strikes me as the kind of conversation that should wait until after they're done making the movie. Yes, even erotic movies have standards when it comes to sexual harassment.

Review by William Schwartz

"Welcome to Waikiki" is directed by Lee Chang-min-I, written by Kim Ki-ho, and features Kim Jung-hyun, Lee Yi-kyung, Son Seung-won, and Jung In-sun.

Note : Due to licensing, videos may not be available in your countryVacant Property Registration Ordinance Ad Hoc Committtee members Samantha Clawson, from left, her husband and City Council Member Caleb Hutchins and state Rep. Jacob Bachmeier, D-Havre, listen during the committee's meeting in the Havre-Hill County Library Tuesday.

The Havre City Council's Vacant Properties Ad Hoc Committee met Tuesday evening to discuss the elements many communities have in their vacant property registry ordinances or VPROs to address derelict property ownership.

A VPRO would require owners of vacant properties to register with the city. A registry of information of owners and vacant and foreclosed properties would be maintained. It could also require buyers of vacant properties have a timeline and plan to rehabilitate their properties.

City Council Member Caleb Hutchins, a member of the committee, distributed a worksheet that l...Havre Police Department

Officers investigated after someone reported Tuesday at 7:50 a.m. that a school bus and a vehicle had crashed near Second Avenue and Third Street. No one was injured.



Officers investigated after someone reported Tuesday at 10:14 a.m. that a woman put bills in his name and didnt pay them.



Officers assisted a citizen after a 14th Street caller made a report Tuesday at 4:45 p.m. No further information was available.



Officers arrested Juanita Sue Head of Havre, 40, on driving under the influence and probation violation charges after a Jef...The Montana Farm Bureau delegation poses for a photograph at the American Farm Bureau Young Farmers and Ranchers Leadership Conference in Reno.

Press release

Montana Farm Bureau took a delegation of 38 participants to the American Farm Bureau Young Farmers & Ranchers Leadership Conference Feb. 16-19 in Reno, Nevada.

The theme, "Agriculture: Biggest Little Industry in the World," reflected different workshop topics including Collegiate, Engagement, Family, Leadership, Entrepreneurship, On The Farm, Relationships and Technology.

Jasmine Evans, president of the Collegiate YF&R at Miles Community College primarily attended the leadership and engagement workshops, and gleaned many new ideas to bring ideas back to campus and he...Glenn K. Eagleman Sr., 63, passed away at his Rocky Boy residence due to natural causes Monday, Feb. 26, 2018.

Wake services began at 5 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 27, 2018, and will continue until his traditional funeral service, which will be at 10 a.m. Thursday, March 1, 2018, all at the Barbara Eagleman residence on Silver Sage Drive. Burial will follow in the Eagleman Family Cemetery.

Holland & Bonine Funeral Home has been entrusted with arrangements.

Please visit Glenn's online memorial page and leave a message of condolence for his family at http://www.hollandbonine.com.

Glenn was born Feb. 21, 1955, in Fort Belknap to Kenny Clevenger and Barbara Eagleman. He was raised in Rocky Boy, attending school there. Following his school years, he attended Northern Montana College, majoring in mechanics. He began working as a firefighter, and assisted as an elder care liason, trained as a CDL driver, worked for FEMA during Hurricaine Katrina, and worked for the Chippewa Cree Tribe as a court process server, a police officer, tribal game warden, motor pool director, CHR driver, and was one of the first drivers hired for the tribal transit bus. For the past seven years of his working life, he worked for School District 87 as a bus driver until his health required him to retire.

Our dad was and will always be our hero. He always had a smile or a joke or a handshake for all the people he loved. Dad was kind and compassionate and how can we ever forget all the stories he loved to tell. He would always get that look in his eye when he was going to tell one of us a story. They're some of the most unforgettable stories of our old ones, our ways, and how he was taught in our teachings. Oftentimes, there was much humor in his stories and he kept us laughing. We will never forget our dad or the moccasin footprints he left in our hearts. He was ill for a long time and he was always thankful to God every day, despite his illness. He lived life to the fullest and it was also his wish to have no regrets and to always love one another. And he wanted for all his loved ones and his many adopted brothers and sisters to come and say their goodbyes. He would want all to come sing that last song with him as he makes his journey home. He loved all his people and all his children from all the schools as their bus driver, as well. Until then, we will all ride together again someday, and live life to the fullest with no regrets, is what he would say. We loved our dad and it was his joy to spend time with each and everyone of us. Another one of our old ones went home, he will be sorely missed.

Glenn was preceded in death by his father, Kenny Clevenger; his adopted father, Henry (Jane Eagleman) Mosney; his son Jason Eagleman; his adopted daughter Elmina Eagleman-Pete; his brothers Clyde Denny and Ronald Bercier; his adopted brothers Robert Eagleman and James Eagleman Jr .; his adopted sisters Caroline Eagleman and Linda Eagleman Gopher, and numerous extended family members.

He is survived by his children, Glenda Eagleman of Rocky Boy, Anita Eagleman of Yakima, WA, Theresa Small and Stephanie (Jordan WindyBoy) Small of Havre, Glenn (Skye Striker) Eagleman Jr. of Rocky Boy; stepdaughter Carolyn (Darcy Azure) Knight of Havre; mother, Barbara Eagleman of Rocky Boy; adopted daughter Alexi Dawn Eagleman of Rocky Boy; adopted sons Ira and Isaac Wells of Rocky Boy; 18 grandchildren; four great-grandchildren; brothers Kermit Eagleman of Yakima, WA, and Gary Clevenger of Havre; sisters Edna (Frank) Ball of Harlem, Sylvia Russette of Rocky Boy, Avis Clevenger, Ethel Clevenger and Joyce Clevenger; adopted brothers Paul Russette Jr., Pastor Marvin Russette, Clarence Gopher, Brian Kelly (Violet) Eagleman, David Eagleman, and Arthur "Ozzie" Windy Boy, all of Rocky Boy; adopted sisters Elizabeth and Angela Eagleman of Rocky Boy; and numerous extended family members.The employees were among more than 30 whose employment was terminated by Spotless in 2015 after the company's contracts to provide catering and hospitality services at Perth International Airport expired and were not renewed.

Spotless had employed one of the three workers (an administration/accounts manager) for 32 years and had employed the other two workers, one a retail manager and the other performing various roles, for about four-and-a-half years.

The FWO investigated after the workers lodged requests for assistance.

According to the Fair Work Act, redundancy entitlements are payable when an employees job is made redundant unless limited exceptions apply.

However, an exception is where termination of employment is due to the ordinary and customary turnover of labour. The FWO alleges that exceptions do not apply to these three workers, and that they were entitled to redundancy pay.The prosecution in a murder trial has alleged that a father murdered his six-month-old son by putting an egg-shaped wad of tissue in his throat.

John Tighe (40), of Lavallyroe, Ballyhaunis, Co Mayo, has pleaded not guilty to murdering Joshua Sussbier Tighe at his home on June 1, 2013.

The court also heard that Joshua's mother returned to a relationship with Mr Tighe following the death.

Paul Murray SC opened the trial yesterday, telling the jury that the prosecution case is that the baby died from asphyxiation having choked on a "bolus" of tissue.

The accused, according to counsel, has said from the outset that the death was accidental and the baby grabbed and swallowed the tissue while Mr Tighe was in the bathroom.

Mr Murray said the jury will hear evidence that a baby of Joshua's age would be unable to form the wad of tissue with its hands and would be incapable of chewing it or swallowing it.

He said that if the jury acc-epts that to be true, the only other person present at the time was Mr Tighe, who he said is "the only one person who could be responsible".

Pregnant

Mr Murray told the jury of eight men and four women that the accused had lived all his life in Ballyhaunis and met Joshua's mother, Natasha Sussbier, in 2011. She became pregnant in 2012 and Joshua was born on November 16 that year.

There were problems with the relationship between the accused and Ms Sussbier, and by around March 2013 they were not living together but shared custody of the baby.

Mr Murray said Ms Sussbier had formed a new relationship and that fact was posted on Facebook on May 31, 2013.

On that same day, Mr Tighe collected Joshua from Ms Sussbier and took the baby back to his house.

At 12.51pm the next day, Mr Tighe called the WestDoc Medical service and told the first person he spoke with that he had been changing the baby's nappy, went to the toilet and when he came back the baby was choking on a baby wipe and had gone "a bit blue".

He then spoke to another person and said he thought the baby had grabbed a baby wipe and was choking on something.

He told the person that the wipes were beside the baby and that he turned his back for a second.

The person on the phone told Mr Tighe to bang, tap and hit the baby's back and turn him over to try to get something up.

Mr Tighe replied that he had been doing that for 10 minutes and "he has gone a bit blue".

He then told them that he could just about get to whatever was there and added that it was about halfway up the throat.

A doctor who had been summoned arrived, but Joshua had already died.

Mr Murray said the doctor will give evidence that he could not see the tissue but could feel it in the child's throat.

Those facts are, according to Mr Murray, "not in dispute". However, what happened then is the nub of what the jury will have to decide.

Mr Murray said a post-mortem showed there were two pieces of tissue in the throat, one of which consisted of an egg-like shape measuring 5cm by 3.5cm.

Restricting

When unwrapped, the ball was found to consist of two sheets of tissue paper, one two-ply and the other three-ply.

The prosecution case, which is disputed, is that this wad of tissue caused the death of baby Joshua by restricting the airways, leading to his asphyxiation.

The jury, counsel said, will have to decide the cause of death.

The prosecution also says that a six-month-old baby is not capable of grabbing a piece of paper and forming a bolus such as was found in Joshua's throat.

He told the jury that they will also hear that Joshua had a tear to the connective tissue between the upper gum and lip.

The jury then heard from Daniel Sommerville, who told Mr Murray he had dated Ms Sussbier in 2013.

He confirmed that the relationship was posted to Facebook on May 31, the day before Joshua died, but agreed with defence counsel Micheal P O'Higgins SC that the relationship would have been apparent before that.

He also agreed with Mr O'Higgins that his relationship with Ms Sussbier ended and that she returned to a relationship with Mr Tighe.

The jury then heard the 23-minute call made by Mr Tighe to WestDoc.

The trial continues tomorrow before Justice Patrick McCarthy.A vastly experienced pilot from Dublin died when his home-built plane struck a tree during an emergency landing attempt, after his engine cut out due to icing problems.

David Ryan (84) was a lifelong aviation enthusiast and had spent 15 years building his Rutan single-engine aircraft in Dublin, which he then flew around Ireland.

Waterford coroner Dr Eoin Maughan said Mr Ryan was a remarkable man who enjoyed excellent health and was still flying his beloved aircraft at 84 years old.

Options

"It was just pure back luck that he got into a situation like that. He just ran out of options," he said.

Dr Maughan returned a verdict of accidental death.

Air Accident Investigation Unit (AAIU) official Leo Murray said it was most likely that the engine of Mr Ryan's plane was affected by a dangerous build-up of ice as he flew toward west Waterford at around 4pm on March 27 last year.

He said the meteorological conditions off Dungarvan that day meant there was a high probability of a build-up of ice.

"Once ice builds up in the throat of the carburettor it just gets worse," he added.

The AAIU official said Mr Ryan was a hugely experienced pilot.

"He was the most experienced pilot in the country for that type of plane," he said.

Just minutes after taking off from Waterford Airport on March 27, 2017, the pensioner, from Sandymount, issued a Mayday.

Several people on the ground reported hearing the sound of an engine like a lawnmower, which was "fluctuating" or revving up and then suddenly easing back.

Eyewitnesses, including Paudie Crotty, and Tom Feehily heard what they suspected were engine problems.

"The engine was fluttering - it didn't sound right," Mr Crotty said.

Mr Feehily said he heard three loud backfires from the engine before the motor appeared to cut out.

Oil delivery man Tommy Moroney spotted what he initially thought was a model aircraft flying overhead. He was then horrified to see the plane hit trees in the distance.

"There was debris all over the place. There was a man lying on the ground under a tree," he said.

University Hospital Waterford pathologist Dr Nigam Shah said Mr Ryan would have died almost instantly from multiple injuries.

Mr Ryan's daughter, Gillian O'Loughlin, confirmed that she identified her father's body to emergency services in Waterford that day.

"He was full of life - he had a good 10 years ahead of him," she said.

Mr Ryan's son, David Jnr, said: "Flying was his dream, and he died doing what he loved best."Snow has arrived in the capital, and Met Eireann has predicted conditions will deteriorate in the coming days.

The forecaster has said it will issue a red weather warning in the coming hours, which would lead to the closure of schools and the possibility of widespread travel disruption.

Tomorrow and Friday are expected to see the most substantial snowfall, and emergency plans are being put in place to deal with closures.

Grounded

Government sources told the Herald there was a "strong chance" that all flights out of Dublin would have to be grounded at some point.

The Defence Forces and emergency services are on standby to cope with what it is thought could be the worst weather the State has experienced since 1982.

The ESB is warning of prolonged power outages, as temperatures plummet to as low as -7C, and there may also be thunder and lightning.

"The showers are coming. They are on the east coast at the moment," forecaster Joanna Donnelly said yesterday on RTE's The Ray D'Arcy Show.

"They are intermittent. They are becoming more persistent and widespread, and it's going to get worse."

She added that temperatures would stay around freezing today during the daytime.

However, with the wind chill factor, the "real feel" will be around -10C.

The coming storm has been described as a blizzard that will bring conditions worse than the cold spell in 2010.

"The recent memory of 2010, that wasn't blizzard conditions. That was a prolonged spell of cold. It wasn't blizzard conditions," Ms Donnelly said.

"I know toboggans are being sold out and people are thinking they're going to have great fun sliding in the snow, but nobody wants to go out in a blizzard.

"Blizzard conditions are not for playing.

"I hope people get to enjoy the snowy conditions after that, but don't bring anybody out in blizzard conditions."

She added that people need to take note of the warnings, which will be updated.

"There will be more warnings issued, there will be a red warning issued, but we have to wait until we have all of the best evidence in front of us," she said.

"You have to wait for it, but you also have to make sure you're looking at the advisory for the right area." Ms Donnelly added she did not want to scare people and called for calm.

"At the moment, this storm, Storm Emma, is on its way and that's what will bring the large accumulations of snow. It will mingle with another area of low pressure in the south-west," she said.

"Those low pressure systems will bring wintry conditions at times, possibly less cold but still with the potential for some tricky weather.

"Let's get through to the weekend. Don't have any expectations for any great improvements in the weather, stay in touch with the forecast. It's still quite uncertain."

Exceptional

Sean Hogan, chairman of the National Emergency Co-ordination Group (NECG), said the expected weather was an "exceptional event".

"We're dealing with nature and there's a good deal of uncertainty in that," he said.

"Nonetheless, events are unfolding as Met Eireann has predicted, with snow showers and an exceptional event."

He said local authorities would continue gritting roads, while the Defence Forces were ready to deploy if needed to conduct aerial surveys of affected areas if safe to do so.

"If there are situations where we find ourselves in a scenario where motorists are in difficulty on roads, we will be calling on our Defence Forces colleagues to assist with 4x4s and 6x6s," he added.

"Those are the kind of difficulties we hope we can manage."Fiadh Conway (left) and her sister Maisie stand before empty bread shelves in Tesco Airside in Kinsealy

For the second day in the lead-up to Storm Emma, shoppers have left supermarket shelves empty of bread.

Just as the first wave of heavy snow began to fall, shoppers outside Tesco, at Airside, in Swords, ran to their cars with trolleys overflowing with essential food supplies.

Vanessa Storey, from Swords, told the Herald she bought whatever few items were left.

"It's really empty in there, there's not much left at all. I went in for bread but there's none and it's very disappointing," she said.

"People are just scared they will run out and are starting to panic.

"I bought what I could and will be back tomorrow.

"I just hope I have enough to get me through all of this.

"My husband works for the county council and he's heard it's going to get very bad, so I want to make sure I'm fully prepared for a code red."

Stuart Grant, from Malahide, said his biggest concern is water.

"I've tried about three supermarkets around my locality, but they have hardly anything left," he said.

"My family goes through a lot of bread and milk but they're clean out - I give up.

"I suppose at times like these the most important thing is water, so I'm buying loads in case my pipes freeze."

Some were far less concerned than others.

Hazel Murphy, from Holywell, Swords, said she didn't stock up at all.

"There is a lot of hype with this storm," she said.

"I have a load of stuff in my freezer, and I'm sure it will last me throughout the cold spell.

"However, I was surprised that you can't buy bread or milk anywhere - all you have to do is look inside any of the supermarkets to see how much they're struggling to keep up with the demand."

Tesco Ireland said three times the standard level of bread deliveries were distributed yesterday.

"We've seen high levels of demand across our stores nationwide today, and our suppliers, distribution and store teams continue to work hard to ensure that stock reaches our stores," said corporate affairs director Christine Heffernan.

Sleighs

Meanwhile, there's no business like snow business for outdoor retailers, as customers stock up on sleighs, shoe spikes and even gas stoves.

At Banba Toymaster, on Mary Street, in Dublin city centre, manager Maurice Doyle told how 18 "winter lightning" sleighs were flying out the door.

He originally had six in stock, which were left over from the 2010 heavy snowfall, and they were all sold by last night.

He went to the warehouse to get 60 more and some 18 were already sold within the first two hours of going on sale yesterday. He said people are preparing to enjoy the snow because "it doesn't happen that often."

Outdoor shops are also reaping the benefits of the cold snap, as many high street stores are out of winter stock like hats and gloves.

"People are looking for hats, scarves gloves and heavy jackets," said Niall Kenny, manager of the Outdoor Adventure Store in Upper Liffey Street.By the time she graduates from Utah Valley University, it will be 10 years since Amanda Rawlings first enrolled. Give her a lot of points for tenacity.

I had to take a couple years off here and there for my own mental health, she said. Thats pretty understandable when you realize she was a victim of sexual assault when she was in high school.

Being a survivor of that has completely changed my life, she said. It didnt happen immediately. I refer to that year of my life as sex, drugs and rock and roll, she said. After high school, she attended the College of Eastern Utah where she struggled, then transferred to UVU in 2010.

Coming to UVU was a turn-around point, she said.

She turned her life around emotionally, but brought a couple of things with her. One was her husband, Tyrell, who she met at CEU and later married. The other was a love for emergency services.

There was a first aid course in my high school, she said. I absolutely loved it. I was a drama kid in high school, into gory makeup they used for mock disasters. I loved being on both sides.

She not only applied the makeup to simulate injuries, but she also worked to simulate treatment for those injuries as well.

She credits Tyrell with bringing her out of her other life. When things got hard one time, they sat down together and found a therapist who connected her with nonprofit organizations. Seeking help is the advice she would offer to anyone who is struggling.

Reach out, even though that can be the hardest step, she said. It could be any trauma-informed provider, like a rape crisis center such as Women and Children in Crisis or UCASA, the Utah Coalition Against Sexual Assault.

It is a daily reaching out that you have to do. I feel that is why I have succeeded. I have that support system. It makes things easier because now I have that network. It is the hardest thing I have ever done but it is worth it.

Getting the help she needed allowed her to get back in school and pursue her goals.

I love it, she said about her education. Emergency services is a passion of mine. All of my professors are actual emergency services specialists. They have worked in the field. They have so much experience and so many cool stories. I absolutely love it.

Rawlings hopes to go into emergency medical services administration, which she defined as coordination of those services. She would like to work with a nonprofit.

I want to do that because they have made such a huge impact on my life, she said. I want to be a part of that for somebody else. I want to actually be working for a nonprofit, not just volunteering.

Part of her current volunteer experience is working with the rape crisis team for the Center for Women and Children in Crisis.

Our team is on call to respond in the case of sexual assault, she said. We have a team including forensic nurses and victim advocates. I have been involved with them almost a year.

She has had an internship with the Utah Pride Center, doing emergency protocols for the groups festival.

It is like merging my two passions together, she said. I absolutely love it.

She has worked with the Utah Coalition Against Sexual Assault, in particular with its LGBTQ Council, to help ensure that the programs are inclusive. Another program she has assisted is the Encircle House, which helps provide resources for LGBT youth and families.

In addition to those pursuits, she works part time as a dispatcher for UVU Campus Police and full time for Northeastern Services, which provides group homes for adults with intellectual disabilities.

Its not surprising that school has taken a bit more than the traditional four-year plan.

I have been in and out of school, sometimes full time and sometimes part time, she said. It has kind of depended on where I was.

She didnt even know that the Womens Success Center existed until about a year and a half ago, but now she has received a scholarship from the center. She said she was grateful for it and wouldnt have been able to take her last two semesters without that financial aid.

Although her scholastic journey has been a long one, she is happy she has stayed with it, and even hopes to get a masters degree in public administration in the future.A Spanish Fork man is being charged with abusing cats after he reportedly punched them and held them under water.

Thomas Anderson, 20, has been charged in Fourth District Court with two counts of the third-degree felony of torture of a companion animal.

On Jan. 2, Anderson reportedly punched a cat in the mouth and punctured the cats mouth, according to court documents. The next day, he punched a cat to the point it required surgery to fix is jaw. He also reportedly holds cats under water.

Anderson told Orem police that the cats abuse him and he was defending himself, according to court documents.

He will appear in court on March 8.1 / 3 From left, Haily White, Mary Thomas, and Josue Navarro enter into the Product Center on the doTERRA campus on Tuesday, Feb. 27, 2018, in Pleasant Grove. Evan Cobb, Daily Herald 2 / 3 Josue Navarro peers through the window into the Bio-Chemistry lab in the Product Center on the doTERRA campus on Tuesday, Feb. 27, 2018, in Pleasant Grove. Evan Cobb, Daily Herald 3 / 3 Haily White watches employees of doTERRA work in the production process on the doTERRA campus on Tuesday, Feb. 27, 2018, in Pleasant Grove. Evan Cobb, Daily Herald  

Cassie McIff dreams of one day being an animator.

But between now and then, McIff, a ninth-grader at Spectrum Academy in Pleasant Grove, knows shell need another job.

And after getting a tour Tuesday morning, she now sees a job at doTerra as a possibility.

The manufacturing area was really cool, McIff said.

She was also interested in the call center area.

Tuesdays tour of doTerra in Pleasant Grove was the last Transition Mentoring Day that will be held in Utah County this school year. The mentoring days give local students with disabilities tours and information about careers at nearby businesses.

Part of the program is about alerting the 14- to 21-year-old students to potential careers that could be a good fit for them.

Leah Lobato, the director of the Governors Committee on Employment of People with Disabilities, which hosts the program, said the tours give students the chance to experience a companys culture.

Getting to see so many aspects of a business opens the possibilities for them, Lobato said.

Tuesdays event at included teaching students about different careers at doTerra and tours of different departments.

The tour days also expose businesses to people with disabilities in an effort to get companies to hire and retain them.

McKay Brown, the senior director of community relations with doTerra, said the Transition Mentoring Day fits with the companys mission.

It was easy to say yes, he said.

He said doTerra has always employed people with disabilities across multiple departments.

While the company commonly does tours, Tuesdays was the first of its type there.

The Governors Committee on Employment of People with Disabilities will also hold a career exploration and job fair for people with disabilities April 10 in Taylorsville. For more information, go to https://usor.utah.gov/dhh/jobfair.Fall is on the way, but don't unpack the sweaters just yetAs the ambulance carrying the mortal remains of Bollywood icon Sridevi entered her residence in suburban Andheri (Mumbai), a large number of fans jostled for a glimpse of their favourite actor, creating a chaotic scene.

Both sides of the road leading to Sridevis Lokhandwala residence, Green Acres, were crowded with her fans, with some even climbing the trees to have a clear view. The ambulance, escorted by three police vehicles, brought the body home from the airport at around 10:30pm soon after it arrived from Dubai where she died late Saturday at the age of 54.

The area outside Sridevis building was barricaded from both sides with heavy police presence around it. Police should cooperate with us. We are here to see her for the last time. We wont come tomorrow, said a fan, who despite repeated efforts by policemen refused to leave.

Two police vans were stationed outside her house to control the fans who came in large numbers to get a glimpse of their favourite star. A police official said they will be providing security the entire night and are expecting a large crowd tomorrow. We have provided additional security at the residence in order to avoid law and order situation, said Mumbai police spokesperson, Deepak Devraj.

A fan of Sridevi reacts as waits to offer his condolences outside a makeshift memorial in Mumbai. (REUTERS)

Around 100 policemen were deployed near the building tonight and around 250 cops will be deployed tomorrow at the house where her body will be kept for paying final tribute to the departed soul, said a police official. "The same number of policemen will be part of the funeral procession, he said.

The fans, however, were not deterred by the heavy security presence and were seen jostling near the building premises.

Dubai Public Prosecutors Office put an end to speculation about the cause of her death, saying she accidentally drowned in the bathtub following loss of consciousness, and that the case was now closed. Family members, including her filmmaker husband Boney Kapoor and stepson Arjun Kapoor, brought her body in a private plane from Dubai.

Boneys brother Anil Kapoor along with his son Harshvardhan had gone to the airport to bring home the actors mortal remains.

Police personnel and private security guards deployed at the residence had a tough time in controlling the crowds when the ambulance carrying Sridevis body drove into the house.

Designer Manish Malhotra, Shabana Azmi and Javed Akhtar were among those who visited the residence soon after the arrival of the body.

Before the body arrived, a few Hindu priests and doctors entered the residence of the Kapoors. The last rites will be performed tomorrow at Vile Parle Seva Samaj Crematorium at 3.30 PM.

Police officials and crowd outside late Sridevi house at Lokhandwala in Mumbai. (HT PHOTO)

The scene outside the building was chaotic with some fans also trying to click pictures using their mobile phones. We are big fans of hers and she means the world to us. We wont go until we see her and pay our last respects. We have waited for two days. We can wait for another two days, said 20-year-old Aditya Iyer.

He said he, along with his family, had come all the way from Chennai to see Sridevi, who originally hailed from Tamil Nadu.

Rahul Dixit, a resident of Lokhandwala, said, I just live across the street and I did see her a couple of times earlier. To see her coming in an ambulance is just unbelievable and heartbreaking. To think that Sridevi is dead is something we cant believe, he said.

Sridevi passed away late Saturday night at a hotel room in Dubai where she, along with the entire Kapoor clan and a host of Bollywood celebrities, had gone for the wedding of her nephew Mohit Marwah.

Follow @htshowbiz for moreThousands of people, including celebrities and Bollywood personalities, mourned the death of actor Sridevi on Wednesday. Her mortal remains lay here in a glass casket as she looked beautiful in a red sari, said veteran actor-politician Hema Malini who also paid her last respects to the late diva.

Paid my last respects to Sridevi. The entire industry was there grieving, some on the verge of breakdown. Such was her aura and magic in films. She lay there, beautiful in a red sari, serene in death and totally at peace, Hema tweeted on Wednesday.

Arrangements were so well made that the whole atmosphere was tranquil, everything was smooth and executed with finesse - befitting the departed soul. Goodbye dear friend, she added.

Paid my last respects to Sridevi. The entire industry was there grieving, some on the verge of breakdown. Such was her aura & magic in films. She lay there, beautiful in a red saree, serene in death & totally at peace.   Hema Malini (@dreamgirlhema) February 28, 2018

Arrangements were so well made that the whole atmosphere was tranquil, everything was smooth & executed with finesse - befitting the departed soul. Goodbye dear friend!  Hema Malini (@dreamgirlhema) February 28, 2018

The mortal remains of Sridevi arrived from Dubai on Tuesday night and was taken to her residence in Green Acres where many well-wishers paid their last respects to the diva.

Bollywood celebrities Shah Rukh Khan, Karan Johar, Manish Malhotra, Ranveer Singh, Deepika Padukone, Javed Akhtar and Shabana Azmi were among those who offered their condolences to the Kapoor family.As a nation grapples with the untimely death of Sridevi and prepares for her farewell, the actors childhood friend Pinky Reddy has spoken about her late friend. The two became friends as eight-year-olds and remained friends till end. Reddys father was, in fact, one of the co-producers of Chandni.

Speaking at length to Mid Day, Reddy said that Sridevi as running fever before she left for Dubai for her nephews wedding. My father was one of the co-producers of Chandni (1989), so I have seen her professional rise. It [her demise] is shocking. We are devastated. I spoke to her the day she was leaving for Dubai. She was down with fever and was on antibiotics. She was feeling tired, but she said that she has to go for the wedding.

Speaking about their friendship, she added, I have lost a sister.

The newspaper added how Reddy was disturbed with all the speculation doing the rounds around her death. It hurts me that people are making her death into such a joke. The messages [being circulated] make me angry. People are saying that she underwent liposuction and took fat burners. Why cant people remember the good things about her instead of talking about all this? After she has gone, how can they even utter such mean and vile things? I spoke to Boney [Kapoor] yesterday, he is shattered.

She also rubbished claims that the couple were not in amiable terms. They were such a lovey-dovey couple. I doubt if they ever had fights. They were in love and were so happy together. Such things shouldnt be said at such an unfortunate time.

The report quoting Reddy said how she would always remember Sridevi as a warm-hearted person, who put family and friends before everything else. She recalled the one time when she flew down to Hyderabad to attend the baby shower of Reddys daughter. She had specially flown down to Hyderabad for two hours to attend my daughters baby shower [last November]. Can you imagine that? That was the last time I saw her.

Follow @htshowbiz for moreA day after filmmaker Ram Gopal Varma highlighted the struggles of Sridevis initial career, actor Jaaved Jaaferi has now compared the Sadma star with late popstar Michael Jackson. Sridevi died due to drowning late Saturday in Dubai where she had gone to attend the wedding of her nephew Mohit Marwah.

Sridevi funeral live news updates from Mumbai

The actor too to Twitter late Tuesday and wrote, #Sridevi was so much like #MichaelJackson. No childhood. Pressure to perform since a child. Always competing with own self. Extremely quiet and introverted but exploded while performing, like that was their life and not the one outside.

#Sridevi was so much like #MichaelJackson. No childhood. Pressure to perform since a child. Always competing with own self. Extremely quiet and introverted but exploded while performing, like that was their life and not the one outside  Jaaved Jaaferi (@jaavedjaaferi) February 27, 2018

Earlier, in a long love letter to Sridevis fans, Ram Gopal Varma had written, I know her life from the time I met her. I saw with my own eyes how her life was like a bird in the sky till her fathers death and then became like a bird in a cage due to her overprotective mother. In those days actors used to be only paid in mostly black money and due to fear of tax raids her father used to trust friends and relatives and everyone of them betrayed her the moment her father died. Coupled with this the ignorant mother made many wrong investments in litigated properties and all those mistakes combined made her almost penny less by the time Boney came into her life.

My Love Letter To SRIDEVIs FANS https://t.co/dUBs6L6lV9  Ram Gopal Varma (@RGVzoomin) February 27, 2018

Dubai Public Prosecutors Office has put an end to speculation about the cause of her death, saying she accidentally drowned in the bathtub following loss of consciousness, and that the case was now closed. It did not say what caused the 54-year-old superstar to lose consciousness.

After Sridevis mortal remains arrived in Mumbai late Tuesday, they were then taken to the Lokhandwala residence of the Kapoors where several police personnel along with a host of private security men were deployed for crowd management.

Follow @htshowbiz for moreAn investor group backed by Bain Capital is poised to win the bidding for Binani Cement Ltd., which is being sold under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC), people with knowledge of the matter said.

The consortium led by Dalmia Bharat Ltd., which was competing with billionaire Kumar Mangalam Birlas UltraTech Cement Ltd., made a bid of about Rs 63.5 billion ($980 million), the people said Tuesday. Insolvency resolution officials were slated to reach an agreement with Dalmia Bharat as early as Tuesday evening, according to the people, who asked not to be identified because the information is private.

The Dalmia Bharat consortiums proposal includes offering about a 20% stake in Binani Cement to its lenders, the people said. Arpwood Capital Pvt is advising the investor group, the people said.

Shares of Binani Cements Mumbai-listed parent company, Binani Industries Ltd., jumped as much as 5% Wednesday and were on track to close at the highest level in more than a month. The benchmark S&P BSE Sensex fell 0.40% at 11am, while Dalmia Bharat shares were trading lower by 0.61%

A successful sale may lure buyers for assets in Asias third-largest economy as authorities push lenders to clean up $210 billion of stressed debt. The central bank has already asked commercial lenders to resolve bad loans of the 40 biggest defaulters within a year as overdue borrowings hamper fresh investment and slow economic growth.

Dalmia Bharat made a joint offer with India Resurgence Fund, which is backed by Bain Capital Credit and local conglomerate Piramal Enterprises Ltd., people with knowledge of the matter said earlier.

A spokeswoman for Dalmia Bharat declined to comment, while a representative for Binani Cement didnt immediately respond to messages seeking comment. A representative for India Resurgence Fund couldnt immediately comment.Indias backlog of infrastructure projects and institutional capability means it has more shovel-ready projects to fund than any other South Asian country, the Asian Infrastructure Investment Banks president said in an interview.

The AIIB, a multilateral investment bank proposed by China that started operations in 2016, has already approved funding for roughly $1 billion worth of projects in India and considering around $1 billion more. That includes a $200 million investment in New Delhis National Infrastructure Investment Fund, said Jin Liqun, who steers the banks $100 billion in registered capital.

Its quite natural for this bank to have a large exposure to India, Jin told Bloomberg News. The need is there and institutional capability of India is higher than other countries. So its easier for India to be ready to provide us with shovel-ready projects to finance.

The focus in India, the banks biggest borrower, has been on rural roads, mass transit and power projects. The bank is currently proposing to fund a metro rail system in Mumbai, rural road construction in the state of Madhya Pradesh, and irrigation and flood control projects in West Bengal.

Better Balance

But the bank would like to seek a better investment balance across South and Southeast Asia, Jin said.

The bank should look at a more balanced lending program, he said, noting work was ongoing in other South Asian countries such as Bangladesh, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. It takes longer to develop a pipeline, to have shovel-ready projects.

The AIIB, which was proposed under Chinese President Xi Jinpings leadership and has China as its largest shareholder, will work with other multilateral development banks such as the Asian Development Bank and World Bank, Jin said.

Belt and Road

He didnt rule out the idea that the AIIB could jointly fund projects that are part of Chinas global infrastructure-building Belt and Road Initiative, which might put India, the AIIBs second-largest shareholder, in an awkward position.

New Delhi has objected to Chinas BRI because it funds infrastructure in Pakistan-administered Kashmir, which India claims as its own sovereign territory. China currently has planned investments of more than $50 billion in Pakistan, Indias arch-nemesis.Rajnish Kumar, chairman of the countrys biggest lender, SBI, called for an industry-wide review of risk controls in day-to-day operations, comparing the $2 billion PNB fraud at one of his rivals to the 1995 Barings Plc rogue trading debacle that ended the 233-year-old British merchant banks independence.

The Punjab National Bank fiasco is something similar to the fall of Barings Bank, where one trader and his misadventure brings down the whole bank, Rajnish Kumar, chairman of State Bank of India, said in an interview at his Mumbai office on Tuesday. In this case also the system has completely failed at a particular office, in a particular organization, causing huge losses.

Rajnish Kumar Photographer: Simon Dawson/Bloomberg (Simon Dawson/Bloomberg)

PNB has lost about a third of its market value and is facing rating downgrades since disclosing the scam two weeks ago, when it alleged that a rogue employee provided fake guarantees worth $2 billion to a couple of jewellers, which they used to obtain loans from abroad. While the extent of losses to PNB is yet unclear, the news has triggered a wave of fingerpointing and regulatory tightening across the industry that could chill a nascent recovery in lending.

Shares of PNB sank to their 20-month low on Wednesday, pacing losses among state-run lenders, after regulators asked all government-owned banks to review bad loans above 500 million rupees ($7.7 million) for fraud.

The banks have 15 days to identify and clean up weaknesses in the way they do business, the top bureaucrat overseeing the sector said on Twitter.

| Read: PNB fraud fallout spreads to market for trade finance

In a way it seems to me as a one-off incident, Kumar said of the PNB fraud, adding that while there has been some impact on the rupee the perception of India hasnt changed much. But at the same time it also is a pointer that there is need for relooking at the risk governance architecture.

Kumar predicts that Asias third-largest economy will continue to grow strongly, demand for credit will increase and Indian bond yields will stabilize after rising to a two-year high as the global recovery gains strength. Indian gross domestic product probably expanded 7 percent in October to December, faster than 6.3% the previous quarter, according to the consensus estimate in a Bloomberg survey before data due 5:30 p.m. in New Delhi on Wednesday.

Idiosyncratic

Loan growth accelerated to about 11% this month before the PNB fraud came to light, almost double the average pace last year as the government pledged to inject a record $32 billion into state-run banks. It had plunged to a 25-year low late in 2016 as lenders grapple with the second-highest bad-loan ratio among big economies.

Fitch Ratings and Moodys Investors Service have placed PNBs ratings on review for possible downgrade. While Moodys says the PNB fraud is  idiosyncratic and theres nothing to prove that such illegal practices are widespread across Indias banking sector, analyst Alka Anbarasu said in an email that PNB will need high provisioning to tide over the problem.

| Read: After Fitch, Moodys places PNB under review for downgrade

State Bank of India also posted its first loss in at least 17 years last quarter as provisions surged. The lender said an audit by the central bank showed soured debt was about 232 billion rupees higher than what SBI had reported as of end-March 2017.

Credit risk is a known devil which at worst you might underestimate, Kumar said. But if you dont take care of your operational risks, it can hit you very hard on the face when least expected.Delhi Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal on Wednesday again asked Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal to reach out to officers who continue to boycott meetings with his ministers over an alleged assault on chief secretary Anshu Prakash.

The L-G told this to Kejriwal when he came to meet Baijal as part of their weekly meeting. Met Honble CM @ArvindKejriwal. Reassured him of my complete support for steps to remove mistrust with Govt. employees. Encouraged again to reach out to them. It is important for all to work together in public interest in a secure and dignified work environment (sic), Baijal tweeted after the meeting.

However, there seems to be no signs of a thaw in the bitter tussle between the Aam Aadmi Party government and its bureaucracy. Chief minister Arvind Kejriwal also took to twitter to talk about the meeting, but chose not to mention the issue.

Met Honble LG. Discussed following- 1. Disposal of silt from PWD n I&FC drains - Land wud be made available soon for the same. 2. Safety of schoolgirls from eveteasing when school closes- Beat constable wud be directed to move around in his area during school closing time, he said.

CS joins protest march

Chief Secretary Anshu Prakash, on Wednesday led a protest march by top Delhi government bureaucrats demanding a written apology from the chief minister over the alleged assault on him by Aam Aadmi Party MLAs.

The march, titled March for Dignity, started from the Delhi Secretariat and ended at Raj Ghat and saw participation by around 800-900 officers and employees holding candles in their hands.

Speaking to reporters after the march, the Government Employees Joint Forum reiterated their demand of a written public apology from Kejriwal.

The forum said that they would continue to not attend meetings or talk to ministers over phone and that they would contact ministers and MLAs only through the written channel till Kejriwal tenders a written public apology.

Manoj Parida, Principal Secretary (Home) and S.N. Sahai, Principal Secretary (Finance) were among the top bureaucrats who took part in the march.City traders facing sealing for alleged violation of building bylaws may soon get relief as the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) on Tuesday approved amendments to the Master Plan of Delhi (MPD) 2021, allowing uniform Floor Area Ratio of 350 for shop-cum-residential plots, use of basements to run businesses and rationalisation of conversion charges.

Based on the feedback it got from the residents welfare associations during the five-day public hearing on the Master Plan modifications, the land-owning agency has banned pubs and clubs in residential areas. Existing pubs and clubs in localities like Greater Kailash I and South Extension will have six months to shift.

The amendments cleared by the DDA in Tuesdays meeting will be notified by the ministry of housing and urban affairs. They will also be placed before the Supreme Court in the form of an affidavit as Centres measures to bring order to sealing chaos in the city. Hopefully after that it will stop, said a senior DDA official. The notification of the amended master plan may take a week, the official said.

Following amendments in the MPD, conversion charges will now be calculated based on the category of locality as defined under circle rates. For the convenience, three categories have been recommended  A&B, C&D, and E to H. Conversion charges for A&B category is Rs 22,000 per square metre (sqm) and for B&C, it is Rs 14, 000 per sqm. And for rest of the categories  E,F, G &H, the charges are Rs 5,000 per sqm. However, these rates are likely to be rationalised more before notification.

As per the changes approved by the DDA, in a meeting chaired by Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal, outlets serving alcohol in residential localities will have to shift and others in residential-cum-shopping streets will comply with certain norms like restricted entry-exit from front access.

Electric equipment like outdoor air-conditioning units will not extrude from the plot line or in the public lane facing other residential plots.

Bars and clubs will be given six-month time to relocate their operations and the municipal corporations will enforce the orders. The owners of commercial set-ups including pubs and bars will need to shift all such equipment to roof top. Once the amendments are notified, they will have six months time to relocate or they will face action. The DDA will formulate guidelines for municipal corporations, which will enforce MPD provisions, said Udai Pratap Singh, vice chairman, DDA.

The top official of the land owning agency further said the authority will develop a mechanism for monitoring of civic agencies.

Their (municipal corporations) accountability will be fixed and provisions for imposition of penalty on violators will be explored. The traders will get 90 days time to pay conversion charges, Singh said.

The DDA also approved changes in rules for mixed land use, allowing uniform FAR in all shop-cum-residential plots or complexes, irrespective of their year of existence (pre-1962, which is before first MPDs notification, or post 1962). The issue was flagged by the traders in view of the possible action by the Supreme Court-appointed monitoring committee against violation of municipal norms.

Uniform 350 FAR has been permitted subject to payment of penalty, amounting to 1.5 times of conversion charges. Earlier, FAR was 180-225 based on plot size.

General view in the meeting was that the conversion charges should be reduced further. Final rates will be decided soon which will be incorporated in the notification to be issued by the ministry, said an DDA official privy to the matter.

The property owners will not pay conversion charges after 10 years and one-time parking charges  down payment or maximum in four instalments within a year  will be charged.

Leader of the opposition in the Delhi assembly and member of DDA, Vijender Gupta said the efforts were aimed to strike a balance between the interests of all stakeholders  residents, traders, industrialists, godown owners  and the growth of the city.

Uniform FAR on shopping-cum-residential plots and complexes that came up before or after 1962 will go a long way to streamline traders operations in the city. Basements will not be included in FAR. The commercial activities in basement will be permissible subject to fulfil of certain conditions, he said.

Areas or market having no parking facility in the vicinity will be declared pedestrians only and if owners provide space for parking, will get benefits like additional 5% ground coverage and rebate in conversion charges.The family of Tasveer Singh, a businessman who was shot at in Connaught Place on Wednesday, said they were baffled as to why the trader was targeted by two masked men in one of the most secured parts of Delhi.

My son runs a currency exchange business, but he was not carrying any cash with him. Today, his bag only had some fruit and a tiffin box containing lunch, said Singhs mother, Sunita.

On Wednesday afternoon, hours after the incident had taken place, the medium-sized black backpack that Tasveer was carrying lay near a shop nearby. There is nothing worth stealing inside the bag. Maybe the attackers believed that he will be carrying cash on him since he ran a currency exchange business, said Manveer Singh, the victims friend.

Apart from the snatching-gone-wrong angle, the police are also looking at the possibility of a personal enmity that could have prompted the attack on Singh. According to Madhur Verma, deputy commissioner of police (New Delhi), Singhs two sons are in jail in connection with an attempt to murder case. The duo was to attend a court hearing on Wednesday.

Though police are yet to question the people who had got Singhs sons jailed, his family alleged they had been receiving threat for the past fortnight. Singh was seeking a compromise but negotiations had turned ugly. The other party had threatened to teach us a lesson, said Singhs brother, Pankaj.

But Singhs nephew, Harish Kumar, said that his uncle was neither named in the case nor was attending the court hearings. If their intention was to scare him then why would they pretend to snatch his bag, Kumar said.

When Singhs family had first received the call about the shooting, they feared it were his two sons who had been attacked in court. Firing in a court premise is more believable than such a crime happening in a place like Connaught Place, said Singhs mother, Sunita.

The shooting at 10.15am had left a bullet lodged in the waist of Singh, a burly 50-year-old man. But according to eyewitnesses, Singh neither collapsed, nor panicked. He did not even know he was shot. I told him he was bleeding after seeing his white shirt turn red with blood, said Narendra Kumar who owns a cigarette shop near the crime spot of CPs A-Block.

Helped by a friend, Singh then walked to a auto-rickshaw stand nearby only to be refused a ride to the enearest hospital.

Four to five auto drivers refused to take him to hospital despite us pleading with them. Only when we pointed out that Singh was bleeding profusely and his life was at risk that one auto driver agree to help, said Lalit Chauhan, a parking attendant near the crime spot.In the fight against pollution in Delhi-NCR, the main focus should move towards industrial pollution, the Supreme Court-mandated Environment Pollution (Prevention and Control) Authority (EPCA) said on Wednesday.

Pollution control in industries should become the top priority of the Central Pollution Control Board and the state pollution control bodies. We are not finding enough actions on this. Data is not showing much difference yet All the hotspots of the region (NCR) remains extremely polluted. Be it Anand Vihar, Delhi Technological University, Bhiwadi, and Ghaziabad, EPCA member Sunita Narain said in a graded response action plan (GRAP) review meeting on Wednesday.

Delhi Pollution Control Committee member secretary SM Ali said all industrial units operating in Delhi will switch to piped natural gas (PNG). We have already convinced all the industrial associations. They are also happy. By the end of 2018, all industries will convert (fuel) to PNG. After that, no consent will be given to anybody using any other fuel, Ali said.

In Ghaziabad, however, industrial associations are opposing the switch over to cleaner fuel.

Indraprastha Gas Limited is ready to give connections but the industry is reluctant. We have to talk to them and so that they shift to gas, Himanshu Gautam, ADM (City), Ghaziabad, said at the meeting.

Last October, the Supreme Court had banned two cheap but highly polluting industrial fuels  furnace oil and petroleum coke, commonly called pet coke, and directed Rajasthan, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh to notify the ban immediately.

Delhi banned the two fuels in 1996, but their use continued in NCR by cement factories, dyeing units, paper mills, brick kilns and ceramics manufacturers.

During the Wednesday meeting, it was informed that EPCA chairperson Bhure Lal has already written to all four NCR states to make sure that industries either move to gas or set up pollution control equipment for NOx and SOx.

They (industry owners) have the option to install pollution control equipment or switch to cleaner fuels, Lal, in the letter dated February 21, said.

An Union environment ministry notification issued on January 29, 2018, says, Emissions from industries need to be monitored and, all such industries would be required to install online monitoring system as per the online monitoring mechanism put in place by CPCB from time to time.

According to EPCA, action should also be taken against non-conforming industries in Delhi. After a Supreme Court order in 1996, most industries were shifted out of the city but smaller units have multiplied over the years. These include electroplating units, dyeing, pickling and forging, among others.

A DPCC survey in 1995-96 shows 1.26 lakh industrial units in Delhi, of which more than 1 lakh were in residential or non-conforming areas and the remaining 25,000 in industrial areas.

They got their land in Narela or Bawana. Still they are operating from their old sites and given the new space out on rent. These need to be shut down, Bhure Lal said.

A Delhi government official, however, said the industry department needs to be included in the matter. The issue will be discussed in the next EPCA meeting.New Delhi: Two masked men shot at a businessmen on Wednesday morning in Connaught Place, the main commercial hub in the national Capital, after trying to snatch his bag, police said.

A bullet lodged in the waist of the victim, 50-year-old Tasveer Singh, was removed in a surgery at Lady Hardinge hospital later in the day. Singhs mother, Sunita, said doctors told her that her son was out of danger.

The two attackers managed to escape, police said.

The incident took place at around 10:15am at A-block in Connaught Places inner circle -- which houses the Wengers pastry shop and Rodeo restaurant. Madhur Verma, deputy commissioner of police (New Delhi), said that it appeared to be a snatching attempt gone awry, but added that police were probing the possibility of the shooting being a result of personal enmity.

There was no money in the bag. He was only carrying fruit and lunch in a tiffin box, said the mother. Though the police have retrieved CCTV footage from the area, the suspects remained unidentified until late Wednesday evening.

Singh, a resident of Rohini, owns a currency exchange business in A-Block of Connaught Place, located near the gate numbers seven and eight of the Rajeev Chowk Metro station.

Parking attendants who witnessed the crime said they spotted the two suspects sitting under a tree near the scene of the crime. Both of them had covered their faces with handkerchief, but that did not arouse our curiosity as it is a common sight. One carried a backpack, said Abhishek, a parking attendant.

Suddenly, the two men dashed towards the man and it looked like they were trying to snatch the bag flung on his shoulder. Before we could react, I heard sound of a gunshot. TI saw the two men running away. Their backs were bent as if they were trying to avoid being captured by CCTV cameras, Abhishek added.

Narendra Kumar, a cigarette shop owner there, said Singh hadnt immediately realised he was shot. I told him he there was blood on his back. His colleague then took him to a hospital in an auto-rickshaw, said Kumar.

The victims two sons are in jail in an attempt- to-murder case and were scheduled to appear in Rohini court on Wednesday, the DCP said, adding that the police were investigating if there was a link between the incident and the case.

Delhi Police records show that cases of snatching have increased by 413% in the last five years. Earlier this month, snatchers in west Delhis Uttam Nagar attacked three women in separate cases over four days, tearing their ear lobes to pull out their earrings. In an interview to HT in December, police commissioner Amulya Patnaik had said that rising cases of snatching were the forces biggest worry.Despite being given the authority to issue degrees, most Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) are likely issue post-graduate diplomas to their current batch of graduates as rules about the matter were still unclear, said IIM officials on Wednesday.

The Indian Institutes of Management Bill, 2017, which was passed on December 20, 2017 and came into effect from January 31, 2018, empowers IIMs to issue degrees.

Officials said the rules regarding the issue of degrees in the Bill were still to be framed by the human resource development (HRD) ministry. IIM directors held a meeting on Wednesday in New Delhi where the majority of the campuses favoured awarding diplomas, an official familiar with the matter said.

It was a good meeting and at least 15-odd IIMs said they were in favour of awarding a diploma this year and a degree from next session. Some of the IIMs who were in favour of awarding the degrees will discuss the issue internally... The view of the students will also be taken, said a senior IIM official who did not want to be named.

Although a committee headed by IIM-Sirmaur chairman Ajay Shriram had been constituted by the ministry to frame the rules in a month, these are not finalised.

A few IIMs also took a legal opinion in the issue. Rules are required to grant degrees. They are yet to be framed. There are multiple issues involved and there are procedural requirements too. At the same time, there has to be parity across the IIMs so a final decision will be taken soon... said another IIM director. Before the Bill, all the IIMs were separate bodies registered under the Societies Act and were not authorised to award degrees.The admit card for Rajasthan Police Constable written exam 2018 was released on Wednesday. The examination will be held on March 7, 2018.

Steps to download the Police Constable exam 2018 admit card:

1) Visit the official website of Rajasthan Police at rajasthanpolicerecruitment.com

2) Enter the required details to login

3) Admit card will be displayed on the screen

4) Take a printout and save it on your computer

The admit card will not be sent to candidates by post. Candidate must bring their admit card to the examination Centre.

The examination is being held to recruit 5390 police constables. The recruitment notification was released on October 18 and the application process began on October 23, 2017.

Candidates will be selected on the basis of online written test, physical test and interview (for driver post). The online written test will be of objective nature carrying 75 marks.A new flowering plant, found in abundance in Meghalaya, could be the magic fibre that promises to turn around the fortunes of Indias fashion industry. Ramie, from the nettle family (a poisonous leaf that stings you), has got Indian designers excited, with many calling it the next big thing after linen.

Says Hemant Sagar, of Indo-French fashion house Lecoanet Hemant, Compared to cotton, it is more expensive to grow. However, because of its stiffness, like linen, Ramie can be woven into lightweight open-weave pattern which is useful for humid climates because it stays cool. It is found in abundance in Meghalaya because of the heavy rainfall in the region. Ramie shows great strength when wet.

A model poses between Hemant Sagar and Didier Lecoanet of fashion house Lecoanet Hemant.

Ramie fibre. (Youtube)

The designer recently curated a project titled From Fibre to Fashion at the residence of Frances ambassador to India, Alexandre Ziegler, on February 22, along with 17 other designers from around the country at the Bonjour India 2017-18, which celebrates Indo-French partnership.

One of the oldest fibre crops (its been around for at least 6,000 years), China is the global leader in the production of Ramie, and a few other countries, including Japan, Taiwan, Brazil and the Philippines too have been traditional growers of the plant.

Compared to silk, Ramie is stronger and easier to work with. Also, ere silk gets crushed very easily. Ramie would also go well with the climate here, said Priyanka Ella Lorena Lama of P.E.L.L.A.

(Left) Priyanka Ella Lorena Lama of P.E.L.L.A., (Right) Her creation on display at the exhibition.

When we first got Ramie, it took us a long time to realise its potential because we had never worked with it before. Some of it was off-white, some was yarn dyed and woven. We also decided to do an over-dyed version, and the sample came out so lovely that we eventually created our garment out of it, say Rekha Bhatia and Nikki Kalia of KISHMISH.

A creation by Rekha Bhatia and Nikki Kalia of KISHMISH at the exhibition.

Sagar feels Ramies wider acceptance could lead to a bigger collaboration between designers and the fashion industry in India. There is an urgent need for designers and industry to collaborate in India. It is the secret of a country like Italy, which is very design based. We hope the industry will take note of this new fibre. Everything is cottage in this industry in India. It is a shame because the future is certainly not cottage industry; very soon you will not be able to afford hand labour anymore. The market is driving prices down and the karigars (artisans) need more money because they cant go on living the way they live now, he says.

(Left) Dhruv Kapoor of DRVV, (Right) His dress on display at From fibre to fashion.

He adds, The artisan, who is the hands of this industry, is bargained down. Were making sure that the machines he uses are not 19th century, but 18th century. Its so backward. When I talk of artisans in France, they are people who have three kids, five TVs at home, three cars, a computer; they go on a holiday, get a proper salary and are considered middle or lower class. But theyre not (like in India) found on the floor, without any electricity. Its not fair. And its supposed to be the biggest business in India.

Follow @htlifeandstyle for moreAs temperatures plummeted in Paris, models took to a covered walkway under a lit-up Eiffel tower to show off some very short hemlines from Saint Laurents collection for next autumn and winter. Spectators and models were shielded from the worst of the freezing weather at the Paris Fashion Week event on Tuesday.

But the styles, by house designer Anthony Vaccarello, featured plenty of bare legs, as mini black leather shorts were paired with sleek jackets and sheer tops for a chic, rock-and-roll look. Thigh-grazing dresses in an array of flowery patterns, some with structured shoulders and billowing sleeves, closed the catwalk show. Elsewhere, shaggy coats and longer gowns made an appearance, including some with spectacular curved necklines.

Men donned capes and leather jackets; others wore close-cut suits, in black or deep blue velvet, and echoed the sexy, party feel of the collection with sparkling jackets. The French label  named after its founder Yves Saint Laurent and owned by luxury conglomerate Kering  unveiled its collection on the first full day of Paris Fashion Week, which runs until March 6.

Other stalwarts of the French fashion calendar, including LVMH couture house Dior, are also showcasing their latest looks.

Here are some more images from the collection:

A model presents a creation for Saint Laurent. (AFP)

A model presents a creation for Saint Laurent during the 2018/2019 Fall/Winter collection. (AFP)

A model presents a creation for Saint Laurent during the 2018/2019 Fall/Winter collection. (AFP)

Models present creations by designer Anthony Vaccarello as part of his Autumn/Winter 2018-2019 women's ready-to-wear collection show for fashion house Saint Laurent. (REUTERS)

Model Kaia Gerber presents creations by designer Anthony Vaccarello as part of his Autumn/Winter 2018-2019 women's ready-to-wear collection show for fashion house Saint Laurent. (REUTERS)

Follow @htlifeandstyle for moreA group of social activists and environmentalists have lent their support to Manesar residents in their bid to prevent a vast chunk of land at Sehrawan from being acquired by the Haryana government for setting up a toll plaza.

The activists have already written to defence minister Nirmala Sitharaman seeking her intervention in protecting the land, which serves as a buffer zone between National Highway-48 and area home to key defence installations.

The Haryana government is in the process of acquiring 65 acres of forest land for setting up a commercial complex and a toll plaza at Sehrawan, which is in proximity to an army camp and other key defence installations, Vaishali Rana, an environment activist said, adding that there wont be any buffer zone left for the highly sensitive defence area once the proposed projects are implemented.

The 65 acres that are in the process of being acquired, also lie close to the National Security Guards (NSGs) Manesar camp, Vivek Kamboj, founder and director of Hariyali, an NGO, said, claiming that the 65 acres will be used solely for commercial purposes in the name of relocating the Kherki Daula toll plaza to Sehrawan.

Expressing concern over the proximity of the land in question to key defence installations, the activists, in their letter to the defence minister, also cited the closeness of the Sunjuwan army camp in Jammu, which recently came under attack by terrorists from across the border. Five jawans and a civilian lost their lives in the Sunjuwan terror strike.

Ramavtar Yadav, the former panchayat chief of Manesar, said, The officials and politicians are not only putting the highly sensitive defence installations at risk, but are also allowing 20,000 odd trees in the Aravallis to be chopped. The loss of green cover would also result in the shrinkage of habitat of the local wildlife. However, we are determined not to let that happen.

Read I Manesar to be new police district of Gurgaon

We have roped in a lawyer to file a petition before the National Green Tribunal (NGT) and are hopeful that it will be heard soon, Yadav said, adding that in response to his RTI (Right to Information) queries, the forest and wildlife department said that the land in question is home to unique vegetation and is a habitat for the local wildlife.

In compliance with a directive issued by the Union road transport and highways ministry in August 2017, the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has asked the Kherki Daula toll operator to shift to Sehrawan.

The NHAI needs the land to be free of encumbrances and the same hasnt been ensured as yet, a senior NHAI official said.

Gurgaon deputy commissioner (DC) Vinay Pratap Singh said, I have applied for clearance (for acquisition) from the forest department.The Haryana government has asked Rites to prepare detailed project report (DPR) for the nearly 12- km-long Metro rail route between the Huda City Centre (HCC) Metro station to Gurgaon railway station. The project is part of the Metro expansion plan in Gurgaon.

The agency is expected to submit the report within six months, state government officials privy to the project details said on Wednesday.

Rites (Rail India Technical and Economic Service) is a government enterprise established in 1974 under the aegis of the Indian Railways.

The metro route is planned to cater to the commuting needs of old Gurgaon residents whose demand for Metro connectivity is pending for years.

The Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) opened its Yellow Line with an aim to connect central Delhi to Gurgaon. Five stations on the Yellow Line  Guru Dronacharya, Sikandarpur, MG Road, Iffco Chowk and Huda City Centre  enables commuters to shuttle between the two cities. All five stations are located to the east of the National Highway, thereby depriving residents living on the west of the national highway of its advantages in the absence of Metro feeders and last mile connectivity.

Read I Gurgaon Metro expansion: Haryana govt is considering these options for a new route

The government preferred the shorter 12 km Huda City Centre-Gurgaon railway station route, said an executive of Haryana Mass Rapid Transport Corporation Limited (HMRTC). The state transport body is supervising the Metro project along with the Haryana Urban Development Authority (Huda).

Nadim Akhtar, chief town planner, Huda, said, Rites will submit the DPR in six months, by the end of August. This route between the Huda City Centre and the Gurgaon railway station spans nearly 12km.

In the first ever meeting of the Gurugram Metropolitan Development Authority (GMDA), chaired by chief minister Manhor Lal Khattar on January 31, the proposed Metro routes were discussed at length.

In their response to the feedback sought by the GMDA last year, more than 85 % residents had voted in favour of the HCC-Dwarka Sector 21 route. Officials said that the route spans 27.5km and involves higher capital costs.

The 27.5-km route from Huda City Centre to Dwarka Sector 21 was to cover Subhash Chowk on Sohna Road, Hero Honda Chowk, sectors 10A,10,9,9A, ESI Hospital, the chowk of Sector 4 and 5 (including the railway station and adjoining area), Sector 23, Chauma rail crossing and the Bijwasan border.

The projected cost of the 12-km HCC-Gurgaon railway station route is 2,751 crore against the estimated cost of the 27.5-km Dwarka to Sector 21 route, which is 5,491 crore.

For residents seeking Metro connectivity, the move to rope in an agency to file the project report has come as a sigh of relief.

We wish this (the project) becomes a reality soon. Over the last three years, there have only been discussions on the proposed routes, Rajesh Patel, a resident of Rajendra Park, said.The Oscars, the highest honours in the movie business, celebrate their 90th anniversary on Sunday.

Since 1929, the glamorous event has captured the imaginations of film fans around the world. The 90th Academy Awards, given out by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, will be held in Hollywood.

Following are some highlights of the last 90 years.

1929 - The first Oscars ceremony is held on May 16, 1929, at the Roosevelt Hotel in Hollywood and hosted by actor Douglas Fairbanks Sr. It is the only time a film from the silent era won best picture, with the award going to World War One romance Wings.

1939 - The academy officially begins using the nickname Oscar for its awards. Though unconfirmed, the popular tale behind the origin of the name holds that academy librarian Margaret Herrick said the statuette looked like her Uncle Oscar.

1940 - Hattie McDaniel becomes the first black performer to win an Oscar for acting, picking up the supporting actress prize for Gone with the Wind. She is required to sit at a segregated table at the ceremony. It would be 51 years before another black woman would receive an acting Oscar, when Whoopi Goldberg won for Ghost.

1953 - The Oscars are televised for the first time. Host Bob Hope marks the occasion by saying, Isnt it exciting to know that a lot of these glamorous stars are going to be in your homes tonight? All over America housewives are turning to their husbands and saying: Put on your shirt, Joan Crawford is coming.

Halle Berry reacts to winning the Oscar for Best Actress during the 74th annual Academy Awards in Hollywood March 24, 2002. (REUTERS)

1963 - Sidney Poitier becomes the first black man to win an Oscar for acting, for Lilies of the Field.

1968 - The Oscars awards ceremony is postponed for two days because of the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. on April 4.

1969 - The Oscars produce their only tie ever in the best actress category. Katharine Hepburn wins for The Lion in Winter and Barbra Streisand won for Funny Girl. Hepburn does not attend the ceremony.

1973 - Marlon Brando wins a best actor award for his performance as Vito Corleone in The Godfather, but boycotts the ceremony to protest how Native Americans are portrayed in movies and television. Sacheen Littlefeather, an Indian activist, appears onstage in traditional Apache dress in Brandos place but declines the statuette.

2002 - Halle Berry becomes the first, and still the only black woman, to receive a best actress Oscar, dedicating her award to every nameless, faceless woman of colour that now has a chance because this door tonight has been opened.

2003 - The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King pulls off the largest awards sweep in Oscar history, winning in every category for which it was nominated. It is the third film ever to win 11 awards, tying with Titanic in 1997 and Ben-Hur in 1959.

Also in 2003, Roman Polanski wins the best director Oscar for his Holocaust film The Pianist but cannot travel to Los Angeles for the ceremony because he is wanted in the United States to serve time for the rape of a minor in 1977. The audience responds with a standing ovation.

2009 - Kathryn Bigelow becomes the first woman to win a best director Oscar, for The Hurt Locker.

2013 - Jennifer Lawrence trips and falls on her way to accept the best actress award for her role in Silver Linings Playbook. She receives a standing ovation, prompting her to joke that youre all only standing because I fell and that was embarrassing.

2016 - For the second year in a row, all 20 Oscar acting nominees are white, prompting criticism and the social media hashtag #OscarsSoWhite. In response, the academy announces plans to increase the number of women and minority members.

Writer and Director Barry Jenkins of Moonlight holds up the Best Picture Oscar in front of Oscars host Jimmy Kimmel.

2017 - Moonlight becomes the first film with an all-black cast to win best picture, but in a backstage envelope mixup victory is first handed to musical La La Land.

The Oscars will be telecast live on Star Movies and Star Movies HD on March 5.

Follow @htshowbiz for moreAmid increasing Chinese assertiveness in the region, Vietnamese President Tran Dai Quang has made a strong pitch for deepening India-Vietnam maritime connectivity in the strategically critical sea lanes as he embarks on a significant state visit to India.

Tran, who will arrive in India on March 2 on a three-day state visit, also feels that India and Vietnam are blessed with strategic locations in South Asia and South East Asia, respectively, and there is immense potential for the two countries to cooperate in different areas.

Furthermore, both countries are endowed with advantages to develop maritime economy. In this regard, we could increase information exchange and share experience in formulating maritime strategies, Tran told PTI in an interview.

His call for deepening Indo-Vietnam maritime connectivity assumes significance as the US, Japan and a number of other countries have pitched for a greater role for India in the Indo-Pacific region, apparently to contain Chinas growing influence.

The Vietnamese president also called for enhancing trade and aerial connectivity between the two countries.

He said both countries have forged a high level of political trust through mutual visits at the high and lower levels, and worked closely for effective implementation of the signed agreements, particularly the Joint Vision Statement on Defense Cooperation for 2015-2020.

In order to achieve the target of $15 billion of bilateral trade turnover by 2020, both sides need to promote investment in areas where Indias advantages coincide with Vietnams demands, step up aviation and maritime connectivity, and reduce and work towards abolition of the trade barriers so as to create favourable conditions for the two-way trade, Tran said in the email interview.

The strong pitch by the Vietnamese president for increased aviation and maritime connectivity with India may not go down well with China, which is in conflict with Vietnam and several other countries in the region, including Brunei and the Philippines over maritime claims in the South China Sea.

The presidential visit comes just over a month after Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phucs trip to India as one of the chief guests for the Republic Day parade.

Tran also identified defence, security and trade as effective strategic areas of cooperation.

India and Vietnam are blessed with strategic locations in South Asia and South East Asia, respectively, aside from young population, large workforce, huge markets and rapid economic growth. Hence, the two countries may promote cooperation in such areas as production, manufacturing, infrastructure development, renewable energy, information technology...and new technology application such as biotechnology, green agriculture, nano technology, new materials, among others, he said.

He also asserted that Indian initiatives, including Make in India, Digital India and 100 Smart Cities, and Indias achievements in developing a knowledge economy offer multiple opportunities for cooperation, investment and doing business for enterprises of both countries.Suspended Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) leader Manoj Baitha surrendered before the local police in the wee hours of Wednesday, four days after a Bolero he was allegedly driving in an inebriated condition mowed down nine school children in Bihars Muzaffarpur district.

Baitha, who also sustained injuries in the Saturdays accident, was sent to Patna Medical College Hospital (PMCH) for treatment in police custody.

Soon after the accident he went into hiding, causing a major embarrassment to the Nitish Kumar-led NDA government in the state.

Top opposition leaders, including Congress President Rahul Gandhi, took a dig at the state government for failing to arrest Baitha, a district BJP general secretary.

They alleged that the government was shielding the accused as he belonged to the BJP, a constituent of the JD (U)-led ruling coalition.

The Bihar assembly also witnessed uproarious scenes on Tuesday with opposition leaders staging protests demanding Baithas immediate arrest.

Sources in the BJP said Baitha, in his early forties, was pressurised by the partys leadership to surrender.

Police, however, said constant pressure they generated on the absconder by raiding various places worked and he was left with no other option, but to give in.

Police actions have forced Baitha to surrender, senior superintendent of police (SSP), Vivek Kumar said.

We raided no less than 25 different places to locate him. Our constant pressure compelled Baitha to come out of his hiding, he said.

The SSP added they have ample evidences to prove that Baitha was driving the vehicle that ran over the school children.

We have eyewitness accounts and CCTV footage that give a clear picture to conclude he was on the driving seat, he said.

Baitha, according to police, underwent treatment for his injuries he received in the accident, before fleeing to Nepal.

His wounds required stitches and he was in terrible pain when he surrendered, the SSP said.

#Muzaffarpur Hit & Run Case: Accused #ManojBaitha admitted at Patna Medical College for treatment of injuries he suffered in the accident, that killed 9 school students, denies driving the vehicle involved in the incident. pic.twitter.com/IBzjEoTmOD  ANI (@ANI) February 28, 2018

Following the incident, Baitha was suspended and removed from primary membership of the party for six years.

Eldest among nine siblings, Baitha, a native of Fatahpur village under Sonbarsa block in Sitamarhi district, had a phenomenon rise in the last 15 years due to his political connections.

People at his native village said he was a washerman and used to do household works before he stepped into politics by embracing Rashtriya Janta Dal (RJD) a decade ago.

Like every unemployed young man, he would often worry for his future and seek a job here and there. Soon after joining politics, he got into brick kiln business, said Sharfuddin Mian, a septuagenarian from his native place.

He was highly ambitious, said his cousin, Rajesh Kumar. He can go to any extreme to fulfill his dreams, he added.

Baitha joined BJP in 2014. Since then, he served the party in Muzaffarpur in different capacities.Petitioners opposed to the mandatory linking of Aadhaar with bank accounts, phone numbers and other services will seek an extension of the deadline for such linkage, their lawyers said on Tuesday, citing the low probability of the case being concluded in the Supreme Court by March 31, the current deadline for such linking.

The Supreme Court is expected to resume hearing the case on March 6. In December, it extended the last date for completion of the process to link Aadhaar with services to March 31. However, going by where the case stands, it is unlikely to be concluded by March-end, the petitioners contend. A delay also seems certain because the same five-judge bench hearing the Aadhaar case has been asked to hear the land acquisition case on priority.

The land acquisition case has occupied centre stage in the Supreme Court with one three-judge bench taking issue last week with the 8 February judgement of another three-judge bench that, in effect, overturns the judgement of yet another three-judge bench dating back to 2014.

We will be renewing the request for extension of the March 31 deadline as it is becoming apparent that the hearing cannot be concluded and the judgment delivered before March-end, said senior advocate Sanjay Hedge, who appears for petitioner John Abraham, a student denied admission to a Mumbai college for lack of Aadhaar.

People familiar with the matter in UIDAI concur with the assessment that the judgment is unlikely to be delivered by March 31, and said that an extension is likely. One official said that it was for the court to decide on the deadline, and that the authority would comply with an extension, if needed.

Ajay Bhushan Pandey, chief executive officer of the UIDAI, said it would be inappropriate for him to speak on the issue. Since the matter is sub judice in the Supreme Court, lets wait for the courts verdict, he said.

So far, only senior advocates Shyam Divan and Kapil Sibal appearing for the petitioners have finished their arguments. Senior advocate Gopal Subramanium, who appears for one of the petitioners, is currently midway through his arguments. Six more lawyers, Arvind Datar, KTS Tulsi, Anand Grover, KV Viswanathan, Minakshi Arora and Sanjay Hegde , are to follow.

After that, it will be the turn of the government , led by attorney general KK Venugopal, to defend Aadhaar. Thereafter, UIDAI and the Gujarat and Maharashtra governments will make separate arguments on the matter.

One of the main arguments of the petitioners challenging the validity of Aadhaar is that it violates privacy rights. The government has argued that Aaadhar is necessary to plug leakages in its subsidy programmes and prevent corruption.

Yes, we will be pressing for the extension of the March 31 deadline for linking Aadhaar to various services as the hearing cannot be completed by March-end, said advocate Vipin Nair, who appears for petitioner Dr Kalyani Menon Sen.

The land acquisition case, to be heard by the same bench , will come up first, further lowering the chance of a judgment in the latter by the end of next month, Nair added.

According to the list of business released by the Supreme Court registry, the land acquisition case, to be heard by the same five-judge bench hearing the Aadhaar case, will be taken up first.

Senior advocate Jaideep Gupta, who is not appearing in the Aadhaar case, said a verdict was not likely by March 31 even if the court passed interim orders on the issue and resumed the Aadhar hearing at the earliest. The court is giving full latitude to counsels to argue the way they want. At the rate which the case is progressing, it very unlikely that the hearing will end by March end. It will take much longer.The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Wednesday arrested Karti Chidambaram for allegedly helping INX Media in scuttling punitive action by the finance ministry during the tenure of his father P Chidambaram as Union finance minister.

The arrest triggered a political battle, with Congress terming it a vendetta and the BJP insisting that law is taking its course.

The 46-year-old was produced before metropolitan magistrate Sumeet Anand, who remanded Karti to a days CBI custody for interrogation, though the agency had asked for 15-day custody. The magistrate asked the agency to apply again before the regular CBI judge, who was on leave.

When he was brought to the Patiala House court complex, Karti said: It is absolutely a political vendetta. I will be vindicated. In the court, too, his lawyer and senior Congress leader Abhishek Manu Singhvi took the same line and said the basis for his clients arrest were bizarre and fake.

The CBI has alleged that INX Media, then owned by Indrani and Peter Mukerjea, received 305 crore from offshore entities by way of Foreign Direct Investment without an approval from the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB), which has now been disbanded.

The CBIs FIR states that when the income-tax department launched a probe into the alleged violation, the Mukerjeas sought help from Karti to get the punitive action against them by the finance ministry scuttled. The CBI alleged that Kartis companies got Rs 3.5 crore from INX for services rendered.

Asked why the CBI was arresting Karti almost nine months after the registration of FIR in the case in May, 2017, the agencys counsel VK Sharma told the court: On February 17, an accused in the case recorded a statement in front of the magistrate stating that Karti Chidamabaram asked for $1million in foreign currency to clear the FIPB case.

A CBI official familiar with the developments said that the counsel was referring to Indrani Mukerjea, who was questioned by the agency in the first week of February. She then recorded the statement before a magistrate under Section 164 of the Criminal Procedure Code, said the officer who asked not to be named.

An officer in the Enforcement Directorate (ED), which is probing the money laundering angle in the case, said that Indrani had recorded another statement with the agency in which certain references were made about Karti and his father P Chidambaram.

Though HT was shown the statement, it could not independently verify its authenticity. P Chidambaram was not immediately available for comments.

The CBI counsel said in court that Karti did not cooperate with the agency in the probe and that he was travelling abroad too frequently. The accused has not cooperated in the investigation. The accused has been frequently visiting abroad. There are many things which we cannot disclose in the open court, Sharma said, making the case for a 15-day remand.

He also argued that Karti appeared before the agency for questioning only after a Supreme Court order. Rebutting the CBI claim, Kartis lawyer Singhvi told the court that his client cooperated with the investigation and had reported to the CBI whenever summoned.

One of the interrogations lasted for 22 hours. They (CBI) had no questions left to ask me after 22 hours, said Singhvi while defending Karti.

On the charge of Karti travelling abroad frequently, Singhvi said: I (his client) have gone abroad but I have come back also He added that Karti was not a Hindustan leaver like others but a Hindustan returner.

Law minister Ravi Shankar Prasad defended the CBI action, saying the government had nothing to do with the agencys actions: The law is taking its course. The law must take its course. The CBI will explain all the details. We do not wish to interfere. There is no interference of the government.

Congress spokesman Randeep Surjewala said Kartis arrest was a diversionary tactic by the government to hide its scams.The Centre can interfere in cases of disciplinary proceedings by a state against an all-India service (AIS) officer such as IAS, IPS and IFS, the government told the Punjab and Haryana high court on Wednesday.

If an officer is facing undue hardship at the hands of a state, the Centre has powers to even relax rules in such cases under the All India Services Act, 1951, provided the government is satisfied that its action would be just, the central government said in an affidavit.

The Centres stand came in response to a petition filed by the Haryana government challenging presidential pardon to whistleblower and Magsaysay awardee, Sanjiv Chaturvedi, an Indian Forest Service (IFS) officer.

It is a significant development. It means that an honest officer being hounded by the state government can always fall back on (the) Centre, who is the principal employer of the officer. Also for officers, it gives them a free hand in their working in their postings under state governments, Chaturvedis lawyer, Sudarshan Goyal, said.

While working in Haryana, Chaturvedi is believed to have exposed scams in the state forest department including illegal use of public funds on a herbal park in a Fatehabad village, fake plantations in Jhajjar and illegal felling of trees for a canal in Bhiwani.

However, he was suspended by the state government in August 2007 for misconduct.

Alleging that he was victimised for exposing scams involving politicians and state officers, Chaturvedi approached the Centre in 2010.

On his plea, the ministry of environment and forests instituted a probe, which exonerated him but indicted some Haryana government officials in the scam.

In January, 2011, the President quashed the Haryana governments chargesheet against Chaturvedi, who is now on central government deputation.

However, the state government challenged the Presidents decision arguing that the Centre was interfering in the controversy involving an officer working under it.

The Centre told the court that the services of AIS officers are governed by the All India Services Act, 1951, irrespective of place of their posting.

The President is the appellate authority in respect of these officers and only the President/Centre, have the powers of dismissal, removal and compulsory retirement of these officers, the Centre told the court adding that the state government has powers only to initiate disciplinary proceedings, suspend and institute departmental proceedings. But the officer can appeal against such an exercise before the central government or the President, the Centre added.

Haryana had argued that its officials were indicted by the Centres probe without giving them any opportunity of hearing.

Meanwhile, the HC deferred hearing on another plea filed in the same dispute by Uttar Pradesh cadre IPS officer, Amitabh Thakur, who has requested the court to include him as a party stating that the issue had a vital implication for AIS officers. Thakur is posted as IGP, Lucknow.The government on Wednesday approved acquisition proposals worth nearly Rs 9,435 crore, including procurement of 41,000 light machine guns (LMGs) and more than 3.5 lakh clode-quarter carbines to bolster the firepower of soldiers deployed along the borders with China and Pakistan.

The proposals were cleared at a meeting of the Defence Acquisition Council (DAC), the defence ministrys highest decision making body on procurement led by Union minister Nirmala Sitharaman.

The private sector will supply 75% of the total quantity while the remaining will be provided by the Ordnance Factory Board.

The vintage of personal weapons, assault rifles, carbines and LMGs being operated by troops of the three services, especially by soldiers positioned on the borders and in areas affected by militancy has been a cause of concern for over a decade, the spokesperson said.

The ministry said the weapons are being procured particularly to enhance the fire power of soldiers deployed along Indias borders with Pakistan and China.

Of these (weapons), immediate operational requirement for the soldiers deployed on the borders will be procured through fast track procurement and for the balance production lines will be set up in India, the ministry added.

The council also cleared the acquisition high-capacity radio relay sets to provide reliable communication for the army and air force at a cost of Rs 1,092 crore. Also, the DAC cleared the purchase of two pollution control vessels for the coast guard for Rs 673 crore.

Last week, the council cleared the purchase of 156 infantry combat vehicles (ICV) worth Rs 1,125 crore and a survey vessel for navy worth Rs 626 crore.

The government has allocated Rs 2.95 lakh crore for military spending during 2018-19 in the Union budget. The amount includes Rs 99,563 crore for buying new weapons and systems.

(With PTI inputs)Surrey, Canada resident Jaspal Singh Atwal, the man in the middle of a who-invited-him controversy during Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeaus visit to India distanced himself from Khalistan supporters and claimed proximity to Indian and Candian politicians.

Atwal was arrested in Canada in 1986 for a murderous attack on a visiting Punjab politician, served time, and was on an India black list till 2016. His invitation to a reception for Trudeau in Delhi raised eyebrows, and spiralled into a very public controversy.

Atwal denies any association with Khalistan activists: I have nothing to do with Khalistan sympathizers. They are a handful of people, who are misleading the youth, he said over telephone.

Atwal, 62, who hails from Pharala of Nawanshahr, grew up in Madhya Pradesh where his father ran a trucking business. He migrated to Canada in 1972. In 1986 he and three others were convicted for an attack on Punjabs minister Malkiat Singh Sidhu who was visiting Canada. All four were sentenced for 20 years in jail but were paroled after serving just five years and six months.

Not only me, three persons sentenced with me also have been travelling to Indian frequently, said Atwal, whose name was deleted from the ministry of home affairs black list in 2016. He has been coming to India regularly since 1999.

Last week, Atwal shot into the limelight after his name was found in the guest list for a reception for Trudeau in NewDelhi. Surrey Liberal MP Randeep Singh Sarai has owned up to recommending his invitation and admitted it was bad judgement.

Atwal admits he committed a mistake in 1986. I repent getting emotional and taking drastic steps after 1984, he said, referring to the year India quashed the militant Khalistani separatist movement by storming Amritsars Golden Temple where the separatists were holed up.

People who now Atwal in Canada say he is a reformed terrorist turned fixer, and add that he likes to be photographed with Indian and Canadian politicians. He admits to arranging interviews for them with radio stations in British Columbia. This is my way of helping people, and I was engaged with the liberals he said.

In Punjab, Atwal supports the Shiromani Akali Dal and even been part of its campaign, but in Canada, he says he has been helping all politicians  from Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), Congress and Akalis when they visit.

Atwal dabbles in the property business in Canada.The ministry of information and broadcasting (MIB) has terminated the services of National Film Development Corporations (NFDC) managing director, Nina Lath, on grounds of irregularities, officials familiar with the matter said.

While Lath could not be immediately reached, an official in the know said her services were terminated after the ministry found that under her charge, the NFDC a public sector unit had not adhered to prescribed procedures.

The procedural lapses that the ministry found on part of NFDC included release of advertisement spots to selected private channels in excess of 5% limit prescribed in the electronic media policy, non refund of 15% commission to the client ministry, and charging 4.29 crore in excess of actual expenditure from the ministry, officials said.

The ministry has also cited non-adherence to standard operation procedures for co-production of regional films and failure to utilise funds for restoration of films as an oversight.

Lath, who was appointed as the MD of NFDC in 2006, would be paid three-month remuneration in lieu of three months notice period.

In August, the ministry had given NFDC the charge of holding the countrys biggest film event, the International Film Festival of India (IFFI), which was earlier handled by the directorate of film festivals (DFF). A film maker, who was part of the IFFI, said there were some glitches in the conduct of the film festival and the NFDC did not deliver as expected. MIB officials could not be reached for a comment.

In August, the ministry had given NFDC the charge of holding the countrys biggest film event, the International Film Festival of India (IFFI), which was earlier handled by the directorate of film festivals. NFDC has also been involved in organising the governments second year anniversary bash, Ek Nayi Subah and Modi Fest the celebrations to mark Modis third year in officeA meeting of the Indo-Russian inter-governmental committee on military-technical co-operation, which is currently underway in Goa, discussed issues related to speedy support mechanisms for aircraft carrier Vikramaditya, said a statement issued by the Indian Navy on Wednesday.

The statement also said they discussed about the refits of EKM Submarines and enhancing the reliability of aircraft and missile systems on-board other ships and submarines.

The two sides discussed a number of aspects related to enhancing operational availability and life cycle support of the naval acquisitions from Russia. Notably, the sides deliberated mechanisms for speedy support of aircraft carrier Vikramaditya, refits of EKM Submarines and enhancing the reliability of aircrafts and missile systems on-board ships and submarines, the official statement said.

The statement also said that the four-day meet, which concludes on March 1, is being chaired by senior officials from the two navies, including Vice Admiral GS Pabby from the Indian Navy and Vice Admiral VI Bursuk from the Russian Navy. It was attended by 65 original equipment manufacturers from Russia which facilitated direct interaction on various technical issues between the departments of Indian Navy and the Russian OEMs.

The committee is a forum to discuss various aspects related to acquisition and product support of military equipment on-board Indian naval ships, submarines, and aircraft acquired from Russia. The Russian delegation comprised of more than 120 delegates representing the Russian Navy, Russian government departments and other directors and senior representatives of the Russian industry, the statement said.India said on Wednesday it had nothing to do with the presence of convicted Khalistans terrorist Jaspal Atwal at an event hosted by the Canadian High Commissioner in Mumbai or the invitation extended to him for a reception by the envoy in New Delhi, asserting that any suggestion to the contrary is baseless and unacceptable.

Indias firm assertion on the issue came a day after Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau faced questions from opposition in the Canadian Parliament over the controversy and reports that he was standing by a senior who suggested that factions within the Indian government were trying to sabotage his recent India visit.

We have seen the recent exchange in the Parliament of Canada regarding two invitations issued to Jaspal Atwal by the Canadian High Commissioner, for functions hosted in honour of the Canadian Prime Minister in India.

Let me categorically state that the Government of India, including the security agencies, had nothing to do with the presence of Jaspal Atwal at the event hosted by the Canadian High Commissioner in Mumbai or the invitation issued to him for the Canadian High Commissioners reception in New Delhi, external affairs ministry spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said.

He added, Any suggestion to the contrary is baseless and unacceptable.

Kumar said this in response to a query on the controversy which erupted last week after Atwal was photographed with Trudeaus wife Sophie Gregoire at the event in Mumbai and then an invite extended to him to the dinner reception at the Canadian High Commissioners residence in Delhi.

As the invite for the reception to the convicted Khalistan terrorist triggered a huge controversy in the midst of Trudeaus visit, Canadian High Commissioner Nadir Patel cancelled the invite to Atwal.

According to a report in Canadian newspaper The Star, Trudeau is standing by a senior government official who suggested factions within the Indian government were involved in sabotaging the prime ministers visit to India.

It said, however, Trudeau accepted the offer of Liberal MP Randeep Sarai to step down as chair of the Pacific Caucus, taking responsibility for the invite to Atwal.

A report in Vancouver Sun said in a background briefing arranged by the Prime Ministers Office, a government official last week suggested that Atwals presence was arranged by factions within the Indian government who wanted to prevent Prime Minister Narendra Modi from getting too cosy with the Canadian government, believing that it is not committed to a united India.

Atwal was a Sikh separatist active in the banned International Sikh Youth Federation when he was convicted for attempting to murder Punjab minister Malkiat Singh Sidhu in Vancouver in 1986.Hindustani Awami Morcha-Secular (HAM-S) president Jitan Ram Manjhi said on Wednesday he has cut his ties with the NDA and will join the Rashtriya Janata Dal-led Grand Alliance in Bihar, in what could be a major setback to the ruling coalition in the state ahead of a bypoll and Rajya Sabha elections.

Speculations that the party, an ally of the National Democratic Alliance since HAM-S was formed in 2015, could split from the alliance was rife after the Bharatiya Janata Party declined its demand to contest the bypoll in Jehanabad slated for March 11.

The Manjhi-led party had also demanded that the NDA should give one seat to its candidate for the six Rajya Sabha seats in Bihar, elections to which are slated for March 23.

I will join the Grand Alliance, the former chief minister said as he was flanked by RJD leader Tejashwi Prasad Yadav following talks at his residence.

The Grand Alliance in Bihar now comprises the RJD, Congress and HAM-S and also has a strong backing of the Janata Dal(United) faction led by Sharad Yadav.

Tejashwi, who is also the leader of Opposition, described Manjhi as his guardian and an old friend of his parents.

I welcome him. He is a big Dalit leader and the way he worked as CM in Bihar was praiseworthy. Leaders of similar thought should come on one platform. It is a setback to those who were speculating a split in the grand alliance in Bihar, he said.

Manjhi is also said to have met former Bihar chief minister Rabri Devi. HAM-S leader and former Bihar education minister Brishin Patel also met RJD chief Lalu Prasad in Ranchi during his appearance before the court in connection with a fodder scam case last month.

BJP leaders said they did not know about Majhis announcement and some even described it as another pressure tactics by the HAM-S chief, who came into limelight after becoming the chief minister for the first time in 2014.

I am not aware of any such decision. Lets see what is the fact, state road construction minister Nand Kishor Yadav said.

Sources in the BJP said that senior party leaders were in touch with Manjhi to make him change his mind, but it might be too late.

Manjhi has been quite vocal in his demand for the Jehanabad seat, which the Rashtriya Lok Samata Party had also staked a claim on. Manjhi won the Mukhdumpur assembly seat in Jehanabad district on JD(U) ticket in 2010 but lost it in 2015 on a HAM-S ticket to the RJD.

Jehanabad has been Manjhis influence area, but the seat went to the JD(U), which earlier decided not to contest and relented following the BJPs request.

Manjhi had earlier hinted at the strong possibility of early elections and talked about going alone in the polls if his party was not respectably accommodated with seats by the NDA leadership.

Backing his claim for a respectable number of seats, Manjhi said a few days ago that though his party fought on 21 seats and could win just one in 2015, its vote percentage was 3.7% or 8.25 lakh votes.

In his first attempt, late Kanshi Rams party contested all the parliamentary seats and got just 2.25 lakh votes, but later built on. I am learning from him. I will work on the areas where HAM has a sizeable presence, he said.

I dont have any lust for any post, as I have already been CM once. My effort is to pay back to the society with whatever time and energy I have been left with, as things need to change for the poor across all sections.Shankaracharya Jayendra Saraswathi, the 69th pontiff of the Kanchi Kamakoti Peetham, died on Wednesday following a cardiac arrest at a private hospital in Tamil Nadus Kanchipuram, sources said. He was 82.

The Kanchi Shankaracharya was admitted to the hospital after he complained of breathing problems at 7.45am and could not be revived, sources at the hospital added.

He was in and out of hospitals over the past few months and suffering from low sugar levels. He also kept away from religious activities at the Shaivite mutt for the past few days.

Born in July 1935, the pontiff was made the head of the peetham by his predecessor Chandrasekarendra Saraswathi in March 1954.

Known for his modern outlook, the Kanchi seer was also among the first religious pontiffs to speak about the construction of Ram Temple in Uttar Pradeshs Ayodhya, saying it would lead to communal harmony.

The Shankaracharya was arrested in 2004 for his alleged role in the murder of a manager of the temple trust. He was acquitted by a trial court citing lack of evidence in 2013.

Tamil Nadu governor Banwarilal Purohit called on the seer, revered by countless followers in the country and outside, to seek his blessings Tuesday.Following is the chronology of events relating to INX Media case in which Congress leader and former Union Finance Minister P Chidambarams son Karti Chidambaram on Wednesday was arrested and sent to one-day CBI custody by a Delhi court:

*May 15, 2017: CBI files FIR, alleging irregularities in Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) clearance to INX Media for receiving overseas funds to the tune of Rs 305 crore in 2007 when Kartis father was the Union Finance Minister.

*June 16: The Foreigner Regional Registration Officer (FRRO) and Bureau of Immigration, under Union Home Ministry, issues look out circular (LOC) against Karti.

*Aug 10: Madras HC stays the LOCs issued against Karti and four others holding that they were prima facie unwarranted.

*Aug 14: The Supreme Court stays Madras HC order staying Centres LOC issued against Karti.

*Aug 18: SC asks Karti to appear before CBI on August 23.

*Sep 11: CBI tells SC it has furnished details in a sealed cover on the probe about possible transactions in foreign countries and 25 alleged offshore properties of Karti Chidambaram.

*Sep 22: CBI tells SC that Karti was prevented from travelling abroad as he was allegedly closing several of his foreign bank accounts.

*Oct 9: Karti seeks SCs nod to visit the United Kingdom to get his daughter admitted at the Cambridge University and expresses willingness to undertake that he would not visit any bank there.

*Oct 9: P Chidambaram tells SC that the BJP-led government has been carrying on a politically-motivated vendetta against him and his son.

*Nov 20: SC allows Karti to visit UK for daughters admission.

*Dec 8: Karti moves SC challenging the summons issued by the CBI against him in the Aircel-Maxis deal case.

*Jan 31, 2018: SC remands back to the Madras HC, the pleas relating to issuance of two LOCs against Karti and others.

*Feb 16: Kartis CA S Bhaskararaman arrested for allegedly assisting him to manage his ill-gotten wealth in India and abroad.

*Feb 28: Karti arrested by CBI at Chennai aiport and brought to Delhi. Delhi court sends him to one-day police custody.

(with agency inputs)The Congress on Wednesday slammed the arrest of former finance minister P Chidambarams son, Karti, in a money-laundering case as Modi governments vendetta and vindictive politics to target its opponents.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Wednesday morning arrested the 46-year-old businessman from the Chennai airport in what has come to be known as the INX Media money-laundering case.

Classical diversionary tactic to hide Scams & Colossal Corruption that is being exposed on a daily basis, be it NiMo+Choksi, DD Jewellers and Rotomac, Congress spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala tweeted. However, it will not stop the Congress from bringing the truth out to the people.

The CBI in 2017 named Karti as an accused along with the then INX Media promoters Peter Mukerjea and his wife, Indrani and charged them with criminal conspiracy, cheating, receiving illegal gratification, influencing public servants and criminal misconduct.

The CBI alleges Karti used his influence in the finance ministry to help INX Media get approval for foreign investments from three Mauritius-based investors. His father was the finance minister then.

The INX Media had allegedly received foreign investments to the tune of Rs 305 crore in 2007-08 following a clearance by the Foreign Investment Promotion Board.

The arrest comes at a time when the Congress has launched an offensive against the BJP-led NDA government over the alleged Rs 12,636-crore Punjab National Bank (PNB) fraud perpetuated by jewellers Nirav Modi and his uncle, Mehul Choksi, who have both left the country.

The Congress is of the view that the PNB fraud has hit the image of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who made the alleged corruption during the Congress-led UPA rule a poll issue in 2014 and continues to do so even today.

Congress president Rahul Gandhi is leading the charge against Modi and his government, talking about it in his campaign speeches.

It remains to be seen if Kartis arrest will take the sting out of the Congress onslaught against the Modi government.

A Congress leader said Kartis arrest would put tremendous pressure on the government to bring back not just Nirav Modi and Choksi but also former IPL commissioner Lalit Modi and disgraced businessman Vijay Mallya, who, too, face similar charges.

The ruling BJP would use the arrest to show that the government was acting tough against those involved in graft and also hit back at the Congress over the issue of corruption, sources said.

Kartis arrest followed months of investigation and gathering of incriminating evidence, BJP spokesperson GVL Narasimha Rao said.

The facts in this case clearly show how private gains were made by perpetrating fraud by subversion of governmental processes and abuse of public office. This is a textbook case of financial fraud, he said.Businessman Karti Chidambaram, the son of former Union minister P Chidambaram, was sent to one-day police custody by a CBI court in Delhi on Wednesday, hours after his arrest at Chennai airport in a corruption case.

The CBI, which sought 15 days custody of Karti, told the court of metropolitan judge Sumit Anand that he was arrested because he had not cooperated with investigators.

Karti Chidambaram is evasive in his repliesHe made incorrect statements with respect to evidence. All this delays conclusion of investigation, the CBI said.

The agency also claimed that on February 17, an accused recorded a statement in front of a magistrate stating that Karti Chidambaram demanded $1 million in foreign currency to settle the INX case.

The 46-year-old is accused of using his influence in the finance ministry to help INX Media get approval for foreign investments from three Mauritius-based investors. His father was the finance minister then.

I should have been a Hindustan Leaver like the others, Karti told the court, apparently referring to businessmen Vijay Mallya, Lalit Modi and Nirav Modi  who are accused of financial crimes and have left the country.

The Congress, in a press conference, accused PM Narendra Modi and his ministers for the political witch-hunt.

Kartis lawyer, Abhishek Manu Singhvi, rubbished the investigative agencys notion as bizarre, fake.

Karti was interrogated for 22 hours when he was summoned. They had no questions left, Singhvi told the court. He returned whenever he travelled abroad, so why is CBI telling the court that they fear Karti wont return?

Singhvi added that the CBI has neither filed status reports nor questioned any of the secretaries of FIPB whom they claimed Karti had influenced. The chairman of FIPB at the time of the INX deal became the governor of the RBI. He too wasnt questioned, he said.

INX Media allegedly received approval from the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) for Rs 4.62 crore investment but received Rs 305 crore by sale of shares at a premium of Rs 800 per share instead of Rs 10 as mentioned by the company in its application.

The CBI alleges that after the income tax department started investigating, INX Media roped in Kartis company called Chess Management Services Pvt Ltd to get the issues resolved by influencing officials of the FIPB.

On his way to court, Karti told the media his arrest was absolutely, political vendetta.

The Congress too described Kartis arrest as vendetta and a move to divert attention from the alleged Rs 12,636 crore Punjab National Bank fraud in which billionaire jewellers Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi are accused.

Classical diversionary tactic to hide Scams & Colossal Corruption that is being exposed on a daily basis, be it NiMo+Choksi, D.D. Jewellers and Rotomac. Modi Govt continues its vendetta against Sh. P. Chidambaram. Wont deter the Congress from bringing the truth to the people, Congress spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala tweeted.

Kartis arrest followed months of investigation and gathering of incriminating evidence, BJP spokesperson GVL Narasimha Rao said.

The facts in this case clearly show how private gains were made by perpetrating fraud by subversion of governmental processes and abuse of public office. This is a textbook case of financial fraud, he said.Jaspal Singh Atwal, once a convicted Khalistani terrorist, and the man who spoiled Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeaus party during his now controversial visit to India that ended on February 24, came to the country on an e-visa, two persons familiar with the development said on condition of anonymity.

Citizens of Canada, like Atwal are eligible for an India e-visa, a facility India extends to nationals of some 150 countries.

Since Atwals name was removed from the list of blacklisted Sikh militants by Indias home ministry in 2016, there was nothing that could have possibly prevented him from getting an e-visa.

Getting e-visa involves a completely online application for which no facilitation is required by any intermediary.

He as a Canadian national and obtained an e-visa, said an Indian official.This person added that this doesnt mean the  government of India had any role in him being in India or being invited to a reception hosted by the High Commission of that country for the visiting Prime Minister. The Canadian High Commission managed the guest-lists for the reception and government didnt have any role in it. The High Commission rescinded the invite, later.

External affairs ministry spokesperson Raveesh Kumar had earlier said the ministry would ascertain how Atwal got the visa. Atwal served five years of a 20-year prison sentence after being convicted of attempting to kill visiting Indian politician Malkiat Singh Sidhu in Vancouver Island in 1986.

India, Hindustan Times learns, had proposed that the visit begin with the official leg of the trip in New Delhi, including meeting with PM Narendra Modi and a ceremonial reception at the Rashtrapathi Bhavan. It isnt clear how the itinerary was finalised -- both sides would have signed off on it -- but this was later pushed to the final leg of the trip.

The visit was from February 17 to 24 and Trudeau met Modi on February 23, the penultimate day of the visit.At a time when the government seems disinterested to pursue plans to locally produce single-engine fighters in collaboration with a global defence contractor, US military contractor Lockheed Martin on Wednesday said its offer to build F-16 jets in India stands firm.

We havent heard anything officially from the government and continue to pursue opportunities to build F-16s under the Make in India framework, said Vivek Lall, Lockheed vice-president (strategy and business development). India is preparing to launch a fresh hunt for fighter aircraft to sharpen the combat edge of the Indian Air Force that is grappling with a shortage of warplanes, Hindustan Times had reported last week. However, there has been no official announcement.

Lall refused to comment on whether the F-35 stealth fighter was being offered to India, saying it was a government-to-government conversation. He, however, said technology improvements would continue to flow between the single-engine F-16 and F-35 at the fraction of the cost to F-16 operators. He also said that almost half of the F-16 supply chain was common with the F-35.

Lockheed and Swedish firm Saab are the only two companies exploring opportunities to build F-16s and Gripens in India under the single-engine programme.

Making a renewed pitch for the F-16, Lall said the exclusive production of the planes in India represented a significant opportunity to further defence diplomacy as 25 global air forces operated over 3,000 F-16 jets. He said the production of F-16s could begin in India within three years of a deal.

F-16 production opportunities currently total around 400 (Indian requirement included) in central Europe, South America, Mediterranean and Asia, he said. What if the government announces it will float a new global tender or take the government-to-government route to buy new jets? We will still be in that competition. We are here for the long term, Lall added.

The earlier plan was to pursue two separate projects under the Make in India initiative to build single-engine and twin-engine planes in the country. However, both these plans had not

taken off.

The count of the IAFs fighter squadrons has reduced to 32 compared to an optimum strength of 42-plus units required to fight a two-front war.

India had floated a global tender for 126 planes more than a decade ago but it stood cancelled after Prime Minister Narendra Modi declared in April 2015 that India would buy 36 Rafale jets from France under a government-to-government deal.Indias junior education minister Satyapal Singh said that mantras codified the laws of motion much before they were framed by Issac Newton and suggested that Vaastu compliance of educational buildings was important for learning, according to the minutes of the meeting of the governments highest advisory body for policymaking in education.

Singh was speaking at a January 15 and 16 meeting of the Central Advisory Board of Education (CABE) attended by several Union ministers and education ministers of most of Indian states.

There are mantras which codified laws of motion much before it was discovered by the Newton. Hence it is essential that traditional knowledge must be incorporated in our curriculum, the minutes of the meeting quoted Singh, a former Mumbai police commissioner, as saying.

In January, Singh had said that Charles Darwins theory of evolution was scientifically wrong and needed to be changed in school and college curriculum. Since the man is seen on Earth, he has always been a man, he had said, adding that our ancestors had not mentioned anywhere that they saw an ape turn into a man. Suggestions at the meeting from other state ministers included replacing Yes, sir in classrooms with Jai Hind and singing the national anthem and hoisting the national flag in schools across the country.

One minister suggested syllabuses be remodelled towards culture-based education.

Kunwar Vijay Shah, the minister of school education from Madhya Pradesh, said: The practice of saying yes sir/yes maam during the school attendance should be replaced with the Jai Hind word. He also asked for the national flag hoisting and national anthem (to) be made compulsory in all the schools.

Mahesh Sharma, minister of state (independent charge) for culture environment, forests and climate change, said that value- and culture-based education was the need of the hour. He suggested that the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) should remodel the syllabus towards culture-based education. He also highlighted the need for integrating education and culture to instil pride in our youth.Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Mehbooba Mufti met prime minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday and discussed the prevailing situation in the state and various development issues with him, an official said.

During the hour-long meeting, Mehbooba briefed Modi on the security situation in the Valley as well as along the border with Pakistan, which has been witnessing heavy cross-border firing and continuous attempts of infiltration by militants.

The two leaders also discussed the ongoing peace initiatives undertaken by the Centres representative, Dineshwar Sharma, the official added.

The prime minister and the chief minister also discussed various aspects of the implementation of the Rs 1 lakh crore package for Jammu and Kashmir, which was announced by Modi in 2015.

The central government has already sanctioned a total of Rs 62,599 crore of the package.

On Monday, the General Officer commanding of the armys Srinagar-based Chinar Corps, Lt Gen A K Bhatt, had said a large number of terrorists were waiting at launching pads across the Line of Control (LoC) to cross over into Kashmir and that the ceasefire violations by Pakistan were an attempt to facilitate the entry of the infiltrators.

There were 515 incidents of infiltration in Jammu and Kashmir in 2017, in which 75 militants were killed. In 2016, there were 454 such cases, in which 45 militants were killed.

In January alone, eight civilians and six security personnel were killed and around 70 injured in ceasefire violations by Pakistani troops along the Indo-Pak border in the Jammu region.

The Pakistani troops had carried out intense shelling along the International Border (IB) in Jammu, Kathua and Samba districts and from across the LoC in Poonch and Rajouri districts between January 18 and January 22.

While no ceasefire violation by Pakistan was reported along the IB since January 22, intermittent shelling has taken place along the LoC.

The home ministry had yesterday said it would reimburse all the funds spent by the Jammu and Kashmir government to pay compensation to the victims of cross-border firing.A day after HT highlighted the plight of a 26-year-old bed-ridden man, who was not getting his disability pension without Aadhaar card, authorities rushed to his house in Sonepat on Tuesday and started the procedure to make his card.

Vijay Dhamija, who has been bed-ridden for the past 12 years due to his disability, could not get his Aadhaar card made due to disabilities in his hand and feet. Without Aadhaar, he was not getting his disability pension and PDS ration for the past seven months.

A worker from the same centre that had earlier denied Aadhaar card to me today came to my house with his equipment and took my iris scan. He said I will get my Aadhaar card soon. Other officials are calling me up to enquire about me. If they had worked sincerely earlier, I would not have to bear so much trouble, Vijay said.

Vijays family had taken him to local and district Aadhaar kendras, but could not get his Aadhaar card made. He was also taken to the E-disha kendra in Sonepat where he was told that the machine was not working.

Since he is completely bed-ridden, we had to hire private taxis and e-rickshaws to take him to Aadhaar kendras. The jolts on the way caused him severe body pains, leading to deterioration of his health, said Prabha, Vijays sister.

The 26-year-old man said he wanted to appeal to the government to ensure that no disabled man like him faces this kind of trouble.Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu and Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday expressed sadness at the demise of Kanchi Shankaracharya Jayendra Saraswathi, saying he will live on in the hearts and minds of devotees due to his exemplary service to society.

The senior pontiff of the Kanchi Sankara Mutt passed away in Kanchipuram, Tamil Nadu, following a cardiac arrest. The 82-year-old seer was rushed to a private hospital after he complained of uneasiness.

Pay my respects to Kanchi peethadhipathi Shri Jayendra Saraswati who attained moksha. His contribution for the welfare of mankind and in promoting spirituality will always be an inspiration for others, Naidu tweeted.

The Prime Minister said the Shankaracharya will live on in the hearts and minds of lakhs of devotees due to his exemplary service and noble thoughts.

Jagadguru Pujyashri Jayendra Saraswathi Shankaracharya was at the forefront of innumerable community service initiatives. He nurtured institutions which transformed the lives of the poor and downtrodden, Modi said on Twitter.Billionaire jeweller Nirav Modi has refused to join the CBI investigation in the $2 billion fraud in Punjab National Bank citing his business engagements, prompting the agency to issue a stern letter on Wednesday asking him to appear before it next week.

The CBI has also arrested PNBs internal chief auditor MK Sharma -- a chief manager-ranked official -- in connection with the case, they said, adding that it is first arrest of any auditor of the bank.

Sharma, a scale-IV officer, was responsible for auditing the systems and practices of the banks Brady House branch -- from where Letters of Undertakings (LoUs) were issued -- and report the deficiencies with zonal audit office, they said.

In its terse letter, the CBI directed Modi to approach the Indian mission in the country where he is residing so that immediate arrangement can be made for his travel to India, officials said.

The agency has told him that it is mandatory for an accused to join the investigation whenever they are asked to, they said.

He has been asked to appear for questioning next week, they said.

The agency had earlier asked Modi on his official email id to join the investigation related to Rs 12,636 crore fraud pertaining to fraudulent issuance of the LoUs and Letters of Credit (LCs) from Brady House branch of PNB in Mumbai in favour of his and his uncle Mehul Choksis companies, they said.

In response, Modi refused to join the investigation saying he has businesses abroad because of which he cannot return, they said.

The probe agency officials has said the quantum of the alleged fraud perpetrated in the bank by billionaire jewellers Modi and Choksi stands close to $2 billion after the teams of the CBI and PNB found fresh LoUs and LCs worth Rs 1,251 crore related to Choksis Gitanjali group of companies.

The PNB had earlier put the defrauded amount at Rs 11,394.02 crore ($1.77 billion).

The LoU is a guarantee which is given by an issuing bank to Indian banks having branches abroad to grant a short-term credit to the applicant. In case of default, the bank issuing the LoU has to pay the liability to credit giving bank along with accruing interest.

It is alleged that LoUs and LCs worth close to $2 billion were issued to the companies of uncle-nephew duo of Choksi and Modi from the Brady Road branch of the bank through SWIFT (Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication) messages.

These messages were allegedly not entered in the banking software of the PNB to bypass surveillance.Punjab National Bank said the amount of fraudulent transactions at the bank could rise to $2 billion. A person was shot dead and two others were injured during voting for Nagaland elections. Voting in Meghalaya concluded peacefully. These stories made news on Tuesday. Here is more about them.

Punjab National Bank says scam may cost bank nearly $2 billion

Punjab National Bank (PNB) said the amount of fraudulent transactions involving the bank could go up by about $204 million in addition to the $1.77 billion it had earlier reported, sending shares down as much as 8.9% to a 20-month low. As the scale of the fraud grew, the Finance Ministry set a 15-day deadline for state banks to take action to improve their oversight of operational and technological risks.

Northeast elections: 75% polling in Nagaland, one killed in clashes; 77% turnout in Meghalaya

A man was killed and three others injured in separate incidents of poll-related violence in Nagaland on Tuesday while Meghalaya witnessed a comparatively peaceful election day. While 75% voting was reported till 5pm in Nagaland, the figure for Meghalaya stood at 77% at 11 pm. The poll percentage is expected to rise higher.

Nirav Modis Firestar Diamond files for bankruptcy in US

Firestar Diamond Inc, the flagship company of Nirav Modi, has filed for bankruptcy in the United States. The company has listed assets and liabilities in the range of $50 million to $100 million, according to a court filing in the Southern District Of New York.

Maldives declines Indias invitation for naval exercise: Navy chief

Maldives has refused Indias invitation to participate in a biennial naval exercise in which 16 countries are participating. Indian Navy chief Admiral Sunil Lanba said Maldives didnt given any reason for its decision not send ships to the eight-day long exercise called Milan. President Abdulla Yameens government has imposed a state of emergency in Maldives and warned India and other nations not to meddle in his countrys affairs.

No evidence of Islamic State presence in Kashmir: Police

There is no evidence that the Islamic State (IS) exists in Kashmir but the terrorist groups claim that it killed a policeman in Srinagar on Sunday will be investigated, said a police officer. IS has said it killed Constable Farooq Ahmed Yatoo in Soura locality of Srinagar.

Donald Trump mimics PM Modi, dismisses Indian duty cut on Harleys

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is a beautiful, fantastic man but his government has not done the US any favour by slashing customs duty on imported motorcycles, said President Donald Trump. High-end imported motorcycles, including Harley Davidson and Triumph, are set to get cheaper in India after the government cut customs duty. Now, the prime minister, who I think is a fantastic man, called me the other day and said we are lowering it to 50%. I said okay, but so far were getting nothing, he said.

Pakistan made enormous sacrifices in fight against terrorism: China

Pakistan has made enormous sacrifices in fighting terrorism and the world should take an objective look at its countrys efforts, said China. Pakistan was last week put on a grey list of nations where terrorist organisations are allowed to raise funds.

Apple plans giant iPhone and a lower-priced model: Report

Apple Inc. is preparing to release a trio of new smartphones later this year: the largest iPhone ever, an upgraded handset the same size as the current iPhone X and a less expensive model with some of the flagship phones key features, reported Bloomberg.

Body of Sridevi brought back to India

Veteran actor Sridevis mortal remains arrived in Mumbai on Tuesday night, around 72 hours after her sudden and shocking demise in Dubai. Her funeral will happen Wednesday afternoon. Her body was taken to her residence in Green Acres, Lokhandwala, from the Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport in a convoy. Tight security arrangements were in place both on the way and outside the house as a large number of fans had gathered to get a glimpse of their beloved actress.Students caught cheating in the matric exams in Telangana could land behind bars with the states education department deciding to enforce a stringent law that has provisions for jail terms up to seven years, officials said on Wednesday.

Besides, schools found encouraging mass copying could have their affiliation to the state board withdrawn and officials jailed.

An estimated 5.60 lakh students, in over 2,500 centres across the state, will write the Secondary School Certificate (SSC) examinations starting March 15.

The directorate of school education, in recent guidelines, asked all district examiners, who will supervise the upcoming examinations, to enforce the Andhra Pradesh Education Act 1982 and the Andhra Pradesh Public Examinations (Prevention of Malpractices and Unfair Means) Act, 1997.

The laws, enacted before bifurcation of Telangana from Andhra Pradesh, have provisions for jail term ranging from three to seven years along with fine ranging from Rs 5,000 to Rs 1 lakh for indulging in malpractices in examinations individually or collectively.

Activists and lawyers, however, criticised the government move.

Andhra Pradesh child rights association president P Achyuta Rao said filing of criminal cases against students indulging in mass copying and prosecuting them would be a clear violation of the Juvenile Justice Act.

The act does not permit penal action against children. Though mass copying is a criminal offence as per the malpractices act, it does not apply to students below 16 years of age. They cannot be sent even to juvenile homes as they are not committing a serious crime like theft, rape or murder that harms others, he said.

Supreme Court advocate Sravan Kumar, who deals with education rights, also said it would not be proper to prosecute students and send them to jails if they indulge in copying.

They are all minors and sensitive. Instead of subjecting them to harassment, the officials should educate them and focus on improving the quality of education in schools, he observed.

Director of school education G Kishan said they would invoke the jail provision against erring students only in extreme cases.

If a student is caught cheating in the examination, we dont intend to send him or her to jail though we can do so as per the existing law.

However, if the students resort to combined malpractices (mass cheating), then we shall invoke the provisions of the Act, he said.

Generally, whenever students are caught indulging in copying, they are debarred from writing further examinations or are rusticated in serious cases. But so far we have not prosecuted the students or filed cases against them, Kishan added.

Kishan said more than the students, the government would focus on the managements of various schools found encouraging mass copying and other kinds of malpractices in board examinations so that they could increase the pass percentage of their students and use the result to advertise the success of the institution.

We are going to be very strict against such school managements. Besides taking punitive action against the school authorities, we will also cancel their recognition, he said.

The school education department has also launched an extensive campaign in all schools highlighting its latest decision to file criminal cases against students and school managements indulging in malpractices.

This would be a deterrent to all those resorting to malpractices, the official said.

The decision of the Telangana government follows a direction given by the Hyderabad high court to strictly curb malpractices in school examinations.

Acting on a public interest litigation, a two-judge bench of the high court expressed disappointment over the steps taken by the government to effectively prevent malpractices in examinations.

The high court directed that the government install closed circuit television (CCTV) cameras in the examination halls so as to keep a vigil on the students.

Out of nearly 2,500 examination centres, we have installed CCTV cameras in 400 centres till date. We told the court that we dont have funds to immediately install CCTV cameras in the remaining centres, Kishan said.Summer seems to arrived early across India with maximum temperatures already hovering around 2-5 degrees Celsius above normal in many parts of the country on February 28  the day the IMD picked to predict an intense summer across India, implying a greater threat to human and crop health.

The early onset of summer also means a higher probability of heat waves developing earlier than expected, IMD said. On Wednesday, the agency issued a heat wave warning for Mumbai, Raigad and Ratnagiri for Wednesday and Thursday.

Heat waves dont just impact human health; they also affect crops, deplete water resources and put pressure on the power system because of the spike in demand for cooling. The above-average temperatures could affect winter crops, including staple wheat, in the absence of precautionary measures, experts warned. Wheat is susceptible to a condition called terminal heat if, during maturing and harvesting stage, temperatures rise abnormally, said Dr R Nagesh, a retired scientist from the Indian Agricultural Research Institute.

There is a danger of productivity losses.

A sustained heat wave is bad news for farmers across the country who are already battling an agricultural crisis.



The National Disaster Management Authority describes a heat wave as a period of abnormally high temperature. IMFs own criteria says a heat wave need not be considered till the maximum temperature reaches 40 degrees Celsius or, if it is lower than that, when the maximum temperature is 5-6 degrees Celsius more than the normal temperature. On Wednesday, Mumbai recorded a maximum temperature of 37.4 degrees Celsius, 5.5 degrees above normal. This was the third successive day of heat-wave conditions in the city (the maximum temperature was higher at 37.8 degrees on February 27), which perhaps explains IMDs move. Other parts of Maharashtra were hotter. The highest temperature in the state was recorded at Bhira (41 degrees Celsius, 5 degrees above normal).

Heat waves normally occur between March and June, although some have been recorded even later.

In Delhi, heat wave conditions normally develop in the beginning of May, when maximum temperatures breach the 40 degrees Celsius threshold. That looks likely to happen earlier this year with the northern plains already heating up. The maximum temperature in the northern region has already touched 36.2 degrees C on February 27, Kuldeep Srivastava, a senior IMD scientist said.  The maximum and minimum temperatures in February were about 3 degrees C above normal.

It is likely that heat wave conditions will hit the region earlier than expected, he added.

The core heat wave zone spreads over Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Delhi, Haryana, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Bihar, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Odisha and Telangana and the meteorological subdivisions of Marathwada, Vidarbha, and Madhya Maharashtra in Maharashtra and coastal Andhra Pradesh in Andhra.

This summer too will be hotter, IMD said, with mean temperatures between March and May being 1 degree Celsius above normal.

A draft IMD report noted that 2017 was Indias 4th hottest year, and the 4th consecutive record-breaking year, mostly because of record-breaking temperatures in the January- February period, classified as winter.

Officials in Mumbai cited unique conditions for heat wave conditions forming in the region. The heat wave conditions are for isolated parts of the Konkan coast, including Mumbai, due to a lower-level anti-cyclonic circulation over Gujarat and parts of Maharashtra, which is pulling warm easterly to north-easterly winds over Mumbai and surrounding areas. The easterly winds are also not allowing the sea breeze (cool westerly winds) to settle over the city fast enough, said KS Hosalikar, deputy director general, western region, IMD.

There is an increase in the frequency and duration of heat waves according to IMD officials. The rise in average temperatures that is fuelling the heat waves is attributed to increasing greenhouse gas emissions and warming of sea surface temperatures.

The National Disaster Management Authority reported recently that heat wave deaths have dropped significantly in recent years partly because of early warnings.

However, experts say the cost of heat waves go beyond fatalities and include health care costs and the loss of productivity.

When people are exposed to very high temperatures, they start developing a temperature and the bodys heat-regulation mechanism and circulation fails; people can die if they are not cooled down immediately, said Dr Dileep Mavalankar, director of Indian Institute of Public Health, Gandhinagar-Public Health Foundation of India.

It isnt just Mumbai and the North, Hyderabad has seen an increase of 3-4 degrees C from normal in the minimum temperature during January and the first week of February. We entered summer in the second week of February and the maximum temperatures are gradually rising. It is quite common to have a deviation of 1.5 to 2 degrees Celsius during this period, but the deviation will go up to four to five degrees in the peak summer season in May, an official in the IMD control room in Hyderabad said, asking not to be identified.

Responding to the IMD forecast, West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee held an emergency meeting with the ministers and officials of the agriculture and irrigation department.Tension gripped in Uttar Pradeshs Meerut after one passerby was killed when he was caught in crossfire between two groups of miscreants in Patel Nagar area of the city on Tuesday night, police said.

Superintendent of police (city) Maan Singh Chauhan said Ajay Kumar (25), a resident of the citys TP Nagar area, was passing through Patel Nagar when a bullet fired by one of the two groups hit him and he died on the spot.

Police arrested one Shadab over the incident.

Police said a group led by Shadab clashed with another group led by Arman following a fight between them over a girl.

After Ajay was killed in the crossfire, his family members and others gathered outside the SPs office demanding immediate arrest of the suspects. Police used mild force to disperse the protestors.

Senior officials, including senior superintendent of police Manzil Saini rushed to the spot and brought the situation under control, police said.

The SP (city) said there was no communal flare up following the incident and that the situation was under control.The Uttar Pradesh government has asked Bareillys district magistrate Raghvendra Vikram Singh and Amethis subdivisional magistrate Ashok Shukla to explain their controversial social media posts on administrative and governance issues, an officer has said.

The government has issued a chargesheet to Singh and a notice to Shukla and asked them to reply on the issue within 15 days, the officer of the state appointments and personnel department said on Tuesday.

If their replies were found unsatisfactory, an investigating officer will be appointed to look into both the cases for further action, the officer added.

The 2005 batch promotee Indian Administrative Service officers comment, posted on Facebook two days after a 23-year-old man was killed during a tiranga yatra on January 26 in Kasganj, created a flutter in the social and political circles.

Singhs post went viral on social media, drawing the governments attention and prompting the department of appointment and personnel to seek a report from Bareilly divisional commissioner PV Jaganmohan within 24 hours.

Jaganmohan recommended action against Singh in his report. Chief minister Yogi Adityanath gave the go-ahead for serving a charge sheet to Singh following the probe report, the officer said.

Shukla said in his social media post that meetings were taking a toll on the health of officers. The Amethi DMs report recommended action against Shukla.At least six children were sexually harassed, raped, or killed every day on an average last year, the figure being one more than the number of cases registered in 2016, as per the home department data.

The cases of crime against children have shown a consistent rise in the past three years, contradicting home minister Gulab Chand Kataria claims that the crime rate in the state has declined in the period under the BJP government.

Sample this: A total of 5,913 cases of rape, sexual harassment and murder of children were registered between January 2015 and December 2017, as per the home department data. The data shows a constant rise in such cases with 2126 registered in 2017 as against 1962 in 2016, and 1825 in 2015.

The information was given in the assembly on Wednesday in a reply to a starred question by BJP MLA Abhishek Matoria who wanted to know how many cases of rape, sexual harassment, and murder were registered between January 2015 and December 2017. He also asked how many cases were registered under the POCSO Act and in how many cases challans were presented in court and in how many cases investigation was pending.

The home department in its reply stated that 3897 cases of rape with children were registered between January 2015 and December 2017. In the same period there were 1877 cases of sexual harassment, and 139 cases of murder.

The department said a total of 5913 cases of rape, sexual harassment and murder were registered under the POCSO Act between January 2015 and December 2017. Of these, in 4952 cases, 6,615 arrests were made and challans presented against them in court. Investigation is underway in 137 cases.

The department said victims are provided financial aid under the Rajasthan Victim Compensation scheme. It, however, did not specify how many children were granted aid.

A detailed analysis of the numbers show that in 2017, of the 2126 cases of crimes against children, 1318 were of rape, 761 of sexual harassment, and 47 murders.

Alwar reported most rape cases (85) followed by Udaipur (75), and Jaipur Rural (65). In sexual harassment cases, Jaipur West topped with 79, followed by Kota (53), and Sriganganagar (49).

Barmer had the most murder cases at 6, followed by Alwar (4), and Kota (3).

Of 1962 cases registered in 2016, 1347 were of rape, 577 of sexual harassment, and 38 of murder. Total 2264 accused were arrested.

The districts with most rape cases were Udaipur (86), Baran (64), and Bhilwara and Jaipur Rural (58).

Sriganganagar had the highest number of sexual harassment cases at 39, followed by Jaipur West at 30, and Sikar and Alwar at 29 each.

Hanumangarh, Sriganganagar, and Jodhpur reported 3 cases of murder each followed by Dholpur, Jalore, Sawai Madhopur, Alwar, Bhilwara, Sikar and Barmer with 2 cases each.

In 2015, a total of 1825 cases were registered. Of these, 1232 cases were of rape, 539 of sexual harassment, and 54 cases of murder. A total of 2099 accused were arrested in connection with these cases.

The districts with the highest number of rape cases were Jaipur Rural (65), Bhilwara and Udaipur (both with 69), and Dungarpur (56).

Sriganganagar led with most of sexual harassment cases at 37, followed by Ajmer at 36, and Alwar and Jaipur West with 32 cases each.

Bhilwara had the highest number of murder cases at 6, followed by Udaipur at 5, Alwar and Sawai Madhopur at 4.The Rajasthan Technical University (RTU) in Kota has decided to install anti-plagiarism software to prevent breach of copyright in Phd and M.Tech research work from the new academic session.

The university took the decision after a rash of complaints.

Controller of Examinations, RTU, Kota, Dr AK Diwedi said the university has decided to install anti-plagiarism software to detect plagiarism in the thesis of Phd and M.Tech as many times portions of theses were found to be copied during scrutiny.

As per the present arrangement, a research student is asked to get his thesis checked from the institution with which their parent education institution has a tie up before submitting the thesis to RTU, he said.

Earlier if 10% plagiarism is found in the thesis of Phd or M.Tech then the student was asked to resubmit his thesis, he said. That will no longer be the case.

The anti-plagiarism software would be procured before the start of the new academic session from April, he said. The cost of the software will be Rs 5 lakh per annum.

He said that the students have been asked to bring soft data of theses in CDs along with the hardcopies. The anti-plagiarism software will then check whether the contents of the theses match exactly with other content available in any thesis in the world and generate a report.

If plagiarism is detected then the candidate will be asked to resubmit the thesis, he said.

Diwedi said that around 5-6 Phd theses and around 300 M.Tech theses were submitted at RTU in 2017 while around 13-to-14 Phd. theses and over 300 M.Tech theses are likely to be submitted this year.Illegal DJ systems would not be allowed to play at public places during Holi. The district administration issued an order on Tuesday, making it mandatory for the organisers of Holika Dahan to obtain permission prior to installing loudspeakers or DJ systems during the festival.

It is mandatory for all to take permission to play DJs, said Kaushal Raj Sharma, district magistrate.

The DM also directed all additional district magistrates (ADMs) and additional city magistrates (ACMs) to keep tab on the use of loudspeakers in their respective areas. He also directed the administrative officials to make spot visits and ensure that there are no disputes among the locals.

In addition, he directed officials to survey the Holi procession or shobha yatra routes and ensure cleanliness at all the spots known for Holika Dahan.

The directives were issued in a meeting chaired by the DM. Officials would make spot check at all Holika dahan spots and check that there is no issue among locals, he added.

He said special security arrangements will be in place at Holika dahan spots in mixed population areas. He also directed concerned departments to ensure cleanliness in the areas.

Meanwhile, the district administration in Allahabad imposed a ban on playing of loud music during Holi celebrations, a senior police official said.

Superintendent of police Siddarth Shankar Meena said in view of the guidelines of the Supreme Court to check noise pollution, the district administration had banned DJs in the city.

He said DJ operators of various localities were called to respective police stations and asked not to play loud music during Holi celebrations.

DJs have been prohibited while people may use loudspeakers after taking permission from the police station concerned, Meena said.

Playing of music has not been completely banned on Holi but it should be played as per the guidelines of the Supreme Court. Strict action will be taken against those found violating the guidelines and their equipment will be seized, he said.After making an audio documentary, an American sanyasi and a Varanasi-based filmmaker have joined hands to portray the Sufism of saint Hazrat Inayat Khan on silver screen.

Producer, director and writer David Amin Dawdy, who calls himself a sanyasi, is writing the script of the film to spread the message of the Sufi saint.

Dawdy has teamed up with Varanasi-based filmmaker Praveen Chaturvedi who is co-producing the film titled What If.

Earlier, they have worked together on an audio documentary The Odyssey of the first Sufi teacher to the West which was released in December last year. It is available in the form of CDs and audio clips.

I am an American sanyasi who is on a mission to spread the teachings of Hazrat Inayat Khan. Our feature film will be based on the life and times of Inayat Khan and beyond. I have sufficient resources required for the script and have already starting writing, he said.

Dawdy said he met Chaturvedi a year ago while he was on a visit to Varanasi to gather information about Harishchandra ghat that had impressed the Sufi saint.

We have already selected a wonderful name for the film  What If. This is an effort to present to the people the deep spiritual wisdom, great vision, philosophy and the appeal of harmony which unites the soul with the God, he said.

Chaturvedi said the film was an effort to spread the message of Hazrat Inayat Khan in his own words.

According to Dawdy, Hazrat Inayat Khan was a legendary musician and saint who travelled to the West to spread the message of Sufism for the cause of humanity.

He gave the message of peace, love, harmony and welfare of mankind. He travelled many countries across Europe and the US to spread the message, Dawdy said.

At 21, he was a master musician patronised by rulers of the princely states. He had deep knowledge of classical music and his memory was so sharp that he could replay any raga just by listening to it once, he said.

Dawdy added Hazrat Inayat Khan sacrificed music for the welfare of humanity after his teacher Mohammad Abu Hashim Madani asked him to go to the West and spread the light of Sufism.

Dawdy read about the Sufi saint for the first time in 1972 and was impressed by his philosophy. In 1983, I got an intuition to spread the saints message across the globe, he said.

After a long gap, Dawdy started reading about Inayat Khan in 2010. He studied Khan and his works for two years. After acquiring sufficient knowledge, Dawdy travelled to Varanasi, Mysore, Vadodara, Madurai, Tanjore, Shillong, Nepal and the countries which the saint himself visited.

I wanted to have a firsthand experience of the culture of the places which Khan had visited. I visited Hyderabad, Vadodara and many other cities of India as well as Europe and America to gather information about the Sufi teacher, he said.While the traditional Holi is hogging the limelight in Braj region these days, a celebration at Gopinath temple in Vrindavan stood apart on Tuesday  the widows of Vrindavan played Holi here for the sixth consecutive year breaking a tradition that forced them to lead the life of a recluse.

It was a riot of colours as hundreds of women clad in spotless white sarees came out of the ashrams to sprinkle colours and gulal on each other in the revered temple.

They also prepared herbal gulal, which lies filled in 11 earthen pots waiting to be handed over to the authorities at the Prime Ministers residence in New Delhi on Wednesday, said Madan Jha, spokesperson for Sulabh International  the organisation that organised Holi for these widows.

Five widows from Vrindavan will reach Delhi along with the earthen pots containing herbal gulal and choicest sweets meant for their brother - Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

We accepted Prime Minister Narendra Modi as our brother and we have arranged special gulal for him this year, stated one of the widows, Manu Ghosh, 95.

Its love from thousands of widow sisters to brother Modi and is also a symbol of freedom from age-old restrictions, said Kanak Prabha, 81, who revealed that five of the widows from Vrindavan would go to official residence of PM in Delhi to hand over gulal on Wednesday.

On Tuesday, a large number of elderly widows living in various ashrams of Vrindavan appeared in a festive mood as they gathered at one of the oldest Krishna temples in the crowded Gopinath Bazaar in Vrindavan.

The Holi celebration is an attempt to add a dash of colour to the otherwise insipid lives of the Vrindavan widows who earlier used to live the life of a recluse, having been deserted by their families, stated Bindeshwar Pathak, a sociologist and founder of Sulabh International.Of the total number of people that die in the state due to tuberculosis (TB) every year , 18% are from Mumbai.

During the state assembly, the government observed that 3,662, of the total 20,213 tuberculosis patients that died in the state over the last three years, were from Mumbai. Of the 3.77 lakh patients diagnosed with TB in the last three years, 71,368 are from Mumbai.

Admitting that the numbers are alarming, the state government has announced its decision to step up preventive measures by considering to set up a research centre. It will also upgrade its drive for spreading awareness and counselling among citizens.

Public Health minister, Deepak Sawant, said that a panel will also examine if the rise in the pollution level is directly corelated to the spread of the disease.

While raising the issue, members of the opposition as well as the ruling bench pressed for immediate measures to eradicate the disease.

Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) MLA, Parag Alwani, said that the disease is spread at a high rate owing to the density of population and overcrowding in the trains and buses.

Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader, Ajit Pawar, said that the high rate of pollution due to the ongoing development works in the city has upped the chances of air-borne diseases. He also raised questions over the reduction in the budgetary allocation to combat the disease.

BJP MLA Rahul Aher said that the government has been following the protocol set by the World Health Organisation (WHO) for other countries, but it might not be the best bet for Maharashtra, owing to geographical and demographical differences.

We had a state-of-the-art research center at JJ Hospital in the past. The research center needs to be revived if the government really wants to combat the disease effectively, he said.

Sawant said that the city has 24 district TB centres and 59 TB units for the treatment on the disease. He said that Culture and DST (Department of Science and Technology) laboratories have been operational at JJ and Hinduja hospitals.Three others will be made operation within the next six months at GTB Hospital, Metropolis Healthcare and SRL Limited, he said.

He said that the government will also consider setting up a research centre at the JJ Hospital.

Responding to underspending of the outlay earmarked for TB treatment, Sawant said that the corrective steps will be taken. The state has allocated Rs7621 crore and BMC has the outlay of Rs2138 crore to combat the disease. We will ensure that the maximum of the allocation will be spent in this year, he said.A 55-year-old Nerul resident lost Rs30,000 after he gave his bank details to an unidentified caller claiming to be a bank employee last week. Police said the fraudster called Rajesh Gupta on February 19, saying his card would be blocked owing to security issues.

When my father asked what he could do to prevent this, the caller asked for his bank details. My father gave him his bank account number, ATM card number and PIN, said Arun, 26, Guptas son.

After a few hours, Gupta received a text message informing him that Rs30,000 had been withdrawn from his account. Arun said he saw this message and questioned his father. When I checked with him, he said he gave his details to a bank official. I then realised what had happened, he said.

Arun added that his father worked at a private company till last year, but is currently unemployed. That is why he is now distressed, he said.

Gupta registered a case on the state governments online portal. He also informed the Navi Mumbai cyber cell what happened. Such incidents are frequent. The culprits call residents from different cities and ask for their bank details. In a few cases, calls are made from neighbouring countries such as Pakistan and Sri Lanka. Some people trust these fraudsters and end up losing money, said Ankush Khedekar, police inspector from Navi Mumbai cyber cell.

He added that the police have undertaken initiatives such as conducting seminars and workshops, distributing booklets and putting up banners and hoardings to create awareness among residents. Unfortunately, some people still make the same mistake and lose their hard-earned money, he added.To reduce the chances of pets going missing or getting harmed while being transferred by flight, a company plans to introduce an app that will allow pet owners to keep track of the animals.

The app, Digi-pet, to enable owners to interact with their pets during air travel via smartphones or other devices, was launched in Mumbai on February 20. The service is expected to start soon.

Airline officials said they are free to charge additional amount for the service.

Currently two airlines, national carrier Air India and low-cost carrier SpiceJet allow pet transfers. Earlier, Jet Airways, too, provided the service, but discontinued it after two animal deaths during transit.

An airline official said pet transfers are on the rise in India and are a sensitive matter for both owners and the airline. The official also said Jet Airways plans to relaunch the pet transfer service.

In a recent incident reported in HT, a couple from Mumbai lost one of their two cats before taking off from Mumbai to Bangalore. The pet owners were moving out of the city and were to travel by Air India AI 609 on February 5. The couple got permission from the airline authorities to search the cargo area of the city airports terminal 2, but the cat was not found.

Digi-Pet will allow owners to even get automatic alerts if a situation requires immediate action. This will not only help in knowing if the pet is experiencing discomfort, but will also de-stress the owner during the travel period, said an official from Unisys, which made the app.

Digi-Pet uses Internet-of-Things (IoT) technology via smart sensors attached to the pets crate to monitor and transmit key metrics such as temperature, oxygen levels, vibration and light.

Devyani Jadhav, co-founder of PAWsome, a pet relocation agency, said, I am yet to know details of the service. We have contacted the company for more information on Digi-Pet, so we can help pet-owners use the service.

Venkatesh Pazhyanur, senior industry director of freight solutions for Unisys, said,355 pets had died while in transit between 2005 and 2017 while being carried by 21 US-based airlines. During this period, 201 pets were injured and 54 were lost. India is a nascent market and pet transit via airlines is low in India. Having said that we are seeing a surge in this trend and it is bound to pick up traction in the coming years owing to changing pet owners mindset.One of the directors of the D Thakkar Construction Private Limited, which has been named in the Gosikhurd irrigation scam, allegedly shot himself in his car at Marine Drive on Tuesday evening. Jigar Pravin Thakkar, 41, was among the 12 people against whom the anti-corruption bureau (ACB) had filed a charge sheet before a Nagpur court for alleged corruption in the irrigation project.

The police said Jigar left his house at Ghatkopar along with his driver Sunil Singh and reached Marine Drive around 7.30pm. He asked his driver to get down from the vehicle and then shot himself using his licensed Colt revolver. One bullet pierced the right hand side of his temple, said the Marine Drive police.

Singh first rushed him to Bombay Hospital and later to GT Hospital where he was declared brought dead. His brother, Vishal Thakkar, refused to comment saying it was too stressful.

Police inspect the car in which Thakkar shot himself at Marine Drive on Tuesday. (Bhushan Koyande/HT Photo)

On January 9, 2018, the ACB in Nagpur had filed a 4,500-page charge sheet against 12 people, including five officials, for corruption in the in the Gosikhurd irrigation project. D Thakkar Construction Private Limited was in a joint venture with another firm for the project, and had won the Rs56-crore tender for the tail canal of the Mokhabardi lift irrigation scheme, which is part of the project.

It was alleged that to obtain the contract, the firm showed as its past experience work undertaken by its sister concern, SN Thakkar, which also participated in the bidding process.

The charge sheet was filed against Gosikhurd National Irrigation Projects chief engineer and revaluation committee member Sopan Ramrao Suryawanshi, executive engineer Umashankar Wasudeo Parvate, senior divisional accountant Chandan Tulshiram Jibhkate, executive director (retired) Devendra Parshuram Shirke, superintending engineer Dilip Deorao Pohekar, R J Shah Company and D Thakkar Construction Companys Director Kalindi Rajendra Shah, Tejaswini Rajendra Shah, Vishal Pravin Thakkar, Pravin Nathalal Thakkar, Jagir Pravin Thakkar, Arun Kumar Gupta and Rameshkumar Soni. On February 9, all the accused, including Jigar, had surrendered before an ACB court, following which a plea for interim protection was filed in the Bombay high court.

On February 15, a Nagpur bench of the high court had granted Jigar and others interim protection till March 5, 2018.The police will now register criminal cases against caste panchayats for demanding virginity tests, minister of State for Home, Ranjit Patil, told the Legislative Council on Wednesday. Patil was responding to a Calling Attention motion moved by Shiv Sena legislator Neelam Gorhe over such incidents in the state.

An offence will be registered if virginity tests are discussed publicly and instructions will be given to all police stations to take action, Patil said in the Council.

The age-old practice dictates that a bride be subjected to a virginity test on the wedding night. Such practices are prevalent in the Kanjarbhat community and despite complaints no action has been taken by the police, said Gorhe. The community is a vimukta jati, or de-notified tribe, and is governed by their rules and codes.

A complaint was registered at the Vishrantwadi police station on January 1 2017, with the Pune police commissionerate on January 6 2018, and at the Pune district collectors office on January 25 2018. However, no action has been taken till date, Gorhe said.

Terming it an assault on the dignity and privacy of women, Gorhe said that the virginity of a woman should not be discussed by anybody other than the couple.

The educated Kanjarbhats are now taking on the powerful caste panchayat, by speaking out against the practice. The group that registered the police complaints, Stop the V-Ritual, is run by Vivek Tamaichikar.

According to the ritual, the husband and wife have to consummate their marriage on a white cloth in a lodge immediately after the wedding rituals. Nobody can escape this as the caste panchayat oversees the test. It is a humiliating test, said Tamaichikar.

Tamaichikar added that those who oppose the ritual are socially ostracised and boycotted.

Patil said he would, within a months time, convene a meeting with social activists working on the cause and the panchayat to discuss the issue. The police will also be sensitised on the issue and a quarterly review will be taken to monitor the progress in such cases, Patil assured the House.

The state will also take action against the caste panchayats who interfere in cases of rapes and sexual harassments by pressurising the police to not file the complaint, added Patil.Giving utmost importance to the safety of the commuters, the Railway Protection Force (RPF) and Government Railway Police (GRP) have initiated a special drive in Navi Mumbai to prevent Holi revellers from throwing water balloons at trains. Patrolling along the railway tracks has increased in the past three days.

During Holi, some people throw water balloons at moving trains, injuring commuters. The coloured water inside the balloon can damage the eye, said Lokesh Sagar, police inspector of RPF, Turbhe division.

We have learnt that water balloons are thrown by those residing along the tracks. So, we have started a drive to ensure that no one throws water balloon at trains during Holi, he said.

The railway police teams are visiting the areas along railway tracks, explaining them the possible damages that the water balloons could cause to commuters.

On Wednesday, we visited different places in Rabale, Ghansoli, Kopar Khairane and Turbhe. We also warned the people of stringent action against those caught throwing water balloons or anything else at moving trains, Sagar said.

The railway police from Vashi are visiting slums in Mankhurd and Govandi, the areas which are prone to such incidents.

Several incidents of people throwing water balloons at trains have been reported from these areas in the past. Therefore, we are paying special attention to these areas. Our officers will keep patrolling along the tracks until the celebrations are over, said a Vashi GRP officer.

The Navi Mumbai traffic department has planned nakabandi at important junctions in the city to ensure peaceful Holi celebrations.

The department is also using social media to appeal to the citizens to abstain from drink driving. Tech-savvy youngsters have been advised, through social media, to observe a safe and responsible celebration. More than 200 traffic cops will be on duty to keep a tab on drink driving cases across the city.

Nitin Pawar, deputy commissioner of police, traffic, said, Though its a dry day and wine shops are closed on Holi, revelers manage to get alcohol. Drinking and driving is strictly prohibited. Those found driving after drinking will be charged under the motor vehicles sections.

He added, The most important road is Palm Beach Road at Seawoods, which is frequented by people for speed thrill. The traffic cops will be present at major junctions. The internal roads in Vashi, Kharghar, Belapur, Nerul and Panvel will be under strict vigilance.

The nakabandi will start around 8am and will continue till 9pm. It may be extended if the need arises. The officials will also conduct random vehicle checks.

Cases will be registered under sections 335, 336 and 337 of Indian Penal Code against those throwing water balloons, said deputy commissioner of police, Zone 1, Sudhakar Pathare.The maiden microsatellite, Pratham, launched by the Indian Institute of Technology  Bombay (IITB) did not complete its mission goal.

We achieved 90% success, said Yash Sanghvi, who was part of the Pratham team. One of our success criteria which amounted to 90% was to receive the beacon signal at our ground station. We received the signal twice. Had we also received the downlink signal, the success of the mission would have been 100 percent.

Pratham, a 10-kg microsatellite on board Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle-C35, was ejected into the Earths orbit in September 2016 by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) from the Satish Dhawan Space Research Centre, Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh.

READ: Learn from the best: Now, IIT-Bombay will teach students to build satellites

The objective of the microsatellite was to measure total electron count (TEC) in the ionosphere that can improve the accuracy of the Global Positioning System in India and to predict tsunamis. Ionosphere is the layer above the earths upper atmosphere comprising electrons and electrically charged atoms and molecules stretching from 50km to more than 1,000km.

The beacon signal is the signature of the satellite, which on decoding tells it is Pratham, student satellite of IIT-Bombay. The downlink signal signifies the satellites functionality such as battery voltage.

The microsatellite needed both the beacon and downlink signals to start TEC measurements. In the absence of either signal, TEC measurement was not successful.

Built at a cost of Rs1.5 crore, Pratham finished its lifetime of four months. The student satellite team said the microsatellite could still be orbiting around the earth but it will de-orbit and burn itself in the atmosphere.

IITB is now focussing on Advitiy  the next satellite project. The team has set a deadline of two years for its launch and is finalising a proposal listing out the objectives and goals that will be sent to ISRO.

On realising that we had achieved only 90% success with Pratham, we looked at its entire journey from conceptualisation to the launch. We found all possible improvements that we could have done, documented them, and incorporating them into Advitiy, said Sanghvi, project manager.Two more Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) officials were arrested by NM Joshi Marg police station for their alleged role in the Kamla Mills fire on Wednesday. Also, Mumbai police filed a 2,706 page charge sheet against 12 accused arrested in the case, including the owners of 1Above and Mojos Bistro.

On December 29, 14 persons were killed and over 50 others were injured after a fire broke out in two roof-top pubs - 1Above and Mojos Bistro situated in the Kamala Mills compound in central Mumbai.

There are no absconding accused in the case. And none of the 12 accused against whom the charge sheet is filed are officials of BMC, because a prosecution sanction is needed for filing charge sheet against government employees, said a senior police officer, requesting anonymity.

A supplementary charge sheet will be filed against BMC officials once the prosecution sanction is granted, added the officer.

The two arrested BMC officials have been identified as Dinesh Yashwant Mahale, sub-engineer of G-South Ward of BMC, and Sandeep Shivaji Shinde, assistant divisional fire officer of Worli division. The arrested accused have been booked under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code, and will be produced before a court tomorrow, said Mumbai police spokesperson.

SECTIONS UNDER which the charge sheet is filed

Section 304((Punishment for culpable homicide not amounting to murder)

Section 337(Causing hurt by act endangering life or personal safety of others)

Section 338(Causing grievous hurt by act endangering life or personal safety of others)

Section 285( Negligent conduct with respect to fire or combustible matter)

Section 197(Issuing or signing false certificate)

Section 198(Using as true a certificate known to be false)

Section 465( Punishment for forgery)

Section 471( Using as genuine a forged 1[document or electronic record])

Section 119(Public servant concealing design to commit offence which it is his duty to prevent)

Section 34( Acts done by several persons in furtherance of common intention)

Section 36 ( Effect caused partly by act and partly by omission) of Indian Penal Code (IPC).The Opposition tried to corner the state government over the agrarian crisis, which led to adjournment of the both house of the legislature on Tuesday.

The opposition members sought answers from the government over crop losses owing to hailstorm and pest attack, and disbursement of the farm loan waiver. They demanded a debate on the agrarian crisis.

In the legislative assembly, leader of opposition in the assembly Radhakrishna Vikhe-Patil moved an adjournment motion, demanding a debate on farmers issues by setting aside the routine business. After speakers refusal, opposition leaders approached the well and shouted slogans in support of compensation to farmers. They also displayed the picture of late Dharma Patil, farmer who committed suicide at Mantralaya a month ago. After two adjournments, speaker Haribhau Bagde adjourned the lower house for the day.

Vikhe-Patil said the government has failed to release the loan waiver benefits to farmers and only 19 lakh beneficiaries have received the amount. Though state government has claimed to have credited the amount into 32 lakh farmers accounts, the data available with us shows only 19 lakh farmers have benefitted. The discontent among the farmers is so intense that more than 2,000 farmers committed suicides even after the waiver was announced, he said.

Led by Dhananjay Munde, the opposition members in the upper house slammed the government over the failure of the state government in implementing the farm loan waiver.

Munde, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader, claimed he and his party colleagues visited villages of 17 of the 36 districts, but did not find any farmer who was a beneficiary of the loan waiver.

Munde added that the woes of the farmers have multiplies due the natural calamities and the anti-farmer approach of the government. A compensation [for farmers who have suffered losses due to the pink bollworm attack] was announced in December, but still no farmer has received any compensation. The government is treating them like criminals by making them stand with slates during the panchnama process, he claimed.The Maharashtra government has tied up with Wikipedia, the free online encyclopedia, to propagate the Marathi language and increase its usage online.

The state government made its announcement via a press release on Tuesday  Marathi language day. It said this will help spread the language across the globe and give Marathi-speaking people a single platform to interact. It is also expected to help reach Maharashtrians who have settled in the United States. They will be encouraged to write about their profession and their native place. This would be given prominence in the Wikipedia Project page, said the press release. An office promoting the venture has been in New York city.

However Marathi language experts said they were not enthused by the announcements. Such announcements are merely symbolic and represent tokenism at he best. Successive governments have always ignored Marathi language and diverted all their energies to English, said Deepak Pawar, president, Marathi Abhyas Kendra. He said a mere tie up with Wikipedia would not serve any purpose.

Various universities should encourage Marathi languages by starting courses in the language with substantive quality references. Many overseas Maharashtrians should write about their professional expertise in Marathi, said Pawar.The Marine Drive police station on Wednesday recorded the statement of Vishal Thakkar, the brother of Jigar Thakkar  a businessman accused in the Gosikhurd irrigation scam  who shot himself with a licensed revolver in his car at Marine Drive on Tuesday night.

The police spoke to Vishal, Thakkars son Dhruv and driver Sunil Singh who was with him at the time of the incident.

Vishal and Dhruv have told the Marine Drive police that Jigar was tense over the losses his company was facing, said an officer from Marine Drive police, requesting anonymity.

An employee of his firm who was present at Thakkars house in Ghatkopar said, Jigar was tense owing to the financial crisis. He was depressed that his father Pravin Thakkar had started a huge enterprise named D Thakkar Construction Private Limited, but was unable to keep the company stable.

Singh, who has been working with the family for nearly two decades told the police that Jigar used to park the car and ask him to get down while he made his phone calls.

On Tuesday too he did the same. He realized what had happened only after he heard the gunshot and saw Thakkar bleeding. He took Thakkar to Bombay hospital, where the doctors refused to take him. He then took him to GT hospital, said an officer. The dead body was later transferred to a morgue of Rajawadi hospital, as Jigars sister who lives in the US wanted to attend his last rites, said a close relative of Thakkars.

The Marine Lines police have registered an accidental death case and are investigating further.

.The Mumbai crime branch on Tuesday arrested one person from the gang that attempted to extort money from renowned entrepreneur and poker player Amin Rozani. Rozani, the Managing Director of Spartan Poker, is regarded as one of the most influential personalities in the Indian Poker industry.

The arrested accused has been identified as Irfan Memon, 36.

Rozani had filed a complaint stating that he had received threatening calls from unknown numbers from Pakistan and Dubai since December 29, 2017. Initially, he did not pick up the calls as he did not recognise the number, he told the crime branch officials.

However, when he ultimately received the call, the caller told him that he was affiliated with Dawood Ibrahims henchman Fahim Machmach and demanded Rs50 lakh. Rozani had recorded the phone conversation from his friends phone.

Following this, Rozani continued to ignore the calls. The accused then sent him 10 voice notes over WhatsApp and two text messages, threatening him of dire consequences, said an official.

On January 30, 2018, Rozanis guard noticed that someone was taking pictures of Rozanis car when he was driving out from his Bandra residence. The guard informed Rozani, and this was later confirmed Rozani received the image over WhatsApp from the same number. Rozani reported this incident to the anti-extortion cell (AEC).

Following this, AEC officials launched an investigation and arrested Memon, who had taken the pictures. Memon, who has 80 criminal cases registered against him, told them that his brother was closely associated with Rozani. He claimed that he wanted to trouble his brother and make some money, claimed Memon.

We are verifying the details of the person who claimed to have allegiance to Fahim Machmach, said a senior crime branch officer.

AEC officials suspect that the underworld gang that recently threatened and tried to extort money from a Bandra-based NGO activist could be the one threatening Rozani as well.

Meanwhile, Memon is being interrogated further to determine who else may be associated with the case.Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar on Tuesday said he had asked the states district central co-operative banks (DCCBs) to move the Supreme Court against the Reserve Bank of India and Central government for not exchanging their high-value notes worth Rs122 crore after demonetisation was announced in November 2016.

Addressing a press conference in Mumbai, Pawar said the RBI had told these banks to consider the amount as loss in their balance sheets. I have also convinced former finance minister P Chidambaram to appear before the Apex Court on behalf of the DCCBs, said Pawar, pointing out the decision was unfair on residents of rural Maharashtra.

This means the policy of demonetisation and exchange of notes declared by the Prime Minister was not fully implemented. The depositors of these banks are not Nirav Modi, they are common people, the NCP chief said, taking a dig at PM Modi over the Punjab National Bank (PNB) fraud.

The NCP chief said the RBI, in its letter to the DCCBs on January 30, 2018, said the Centre had been asked about what should be done with the old notes lying with these banks. But, so far there had been no reply from the government.

The issue of old notes with DCCBs has been pending for the past two years. These old notes were collected in the states DCCBs within five days of demonetisation being announced.

The Kolhapur DCC bank tops the list with old notes worth Rs25.28 crore, followed by Pune DCC bank with Rs22.25 crore, Nashik DCC bank with Rs21.32 crore, and Sangli DCC bank with Rs14.72 crore.

Pawar said he had met the finance minister four times to discuss the issue, following which some banks had even got some of their old notes exchanged. On what basis can the RBI issue such a circular then, he asked. I am going to meet finance minister Arun Jaitley, with a request to exchange old notes. I have also asked the DCCBs to move the SC.

A majority of the DCC bank boards are under the control of Congress and NCP leaders. Pawar admitted that except DCCBs, all other banks got their notes exchanged, but said he doesnt see any political angle in this matter.

The co-operative movement of the state has a three-tier co-operative credit structure, led by the Maharashtra State Co-operative Bank, the apex body for all DCC banks. The district-level banks (DCCB) are in the middle and the 21,253 Primary Agricultural Credit Societies (PACS) are at the bottom. Around 48.64 lakh borrowers of crop loan are from DCC banks, while members of PACS are around 1.09 crore, majorly farmers.

Pawar proposes reservation for farmers

Kicking off a new debate over reservation, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar on Tuesday proposed providing reservation to farmers in government jobs and education. He said many states are already providing reservation benefits to sections related to farming.

Pawar is of the view that most people from social, educational and economically weaker sections will get covered if the government forms a separate category for farmers.

The move may lead to a new demand from the agrarian community, creating trouble for the Devendra Fadnavis-led BJP government in the state. The Rajasthan government has declared giving reservation to the Jat community. Many of the states have given reservation to sections of the society related to the farming community, Pawar said. The number of farmers is reducing everyday. The landholding capacity of 82% of the farmers across the country is less than two hectares, while almost 72% of the farmers in Maharashtra dont have assured irrigation facilities. Moreover, bad weather conditions lead to crop losses every year resulting in rise in suicides, he said.

Answering a question over total reservation quota of 50% determined by the Supreme Court for every state, he said Tamil Nadu has increased the reservation quota to more than 70%, which is also accepted by the court.

The NCP clarified he doesnt want the quota given to the Scheduled Caste (SC), Scheduled Tribes (ST) and Other Backward Classes (OBC) to be affected by providing reservation benefits to others based on the socio-economic status.

Taking a dig at the state over farm loan waiver, he said, It seems the Fadnavis government was not properly prepared, as first the number of beneficiaries and later the amount of waiver package got reduced drastically.A week after the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar, in an interview in Pune, cleared his intentions of forming an alliance with the Congress; he participated in the Halla Bol Andolan against the Bharaitya Janata Party (BJP) in Mumbai on Wednesday.

Pawar said that people have grown tired of the BJP government and now want back the bad days, taking a jibe at the phrase Achhe Din coined by Prime Minister Narendra Modi during the 2014 general elections campaign.

The BJP government has failed at every front. Inflation is on rise and so is unemployment. People are losing their jobs. The law and order situation is worsening every day. Women are not safe anymore. The common people are fed up with the BJP government and are demanding their Bure Din (bad days) back. The situation can be changed with a change in the government. The NCP has started this agitation to create awareness among people and unite them, said Pawar, while addressing the rally at Azad Maidan.

Targeting PM Modi over the Punjab National Bank (PNB) fraud, he said, PM Modi had promised corruption-free India by saying na khaunga na khane dunga (I will not indulge in corruption and wont let others do so). But Nirav Modi has fled to the US and our government is unable to arrest him. At the same time, the government has changed its policy of helping and rehabilitating the small industries that are in serious trouble.

The Halla Bol Andolan is a part of the NCPs statewide agitation against the BJP-led government over issues such as the agrarian crisis and unemployment. The first and second legs of the protest were held over three months in Vidarbha and Marathwada. The third leg of the Halla Bol Andolan ended in Jalgaon, north Maharashtra, on February 21.

In the next phase, starting April, the NCP plans to hold protests in western Maharashtra and Konkan, after the budget session of the state legislature is over, said Sunil Tatkare, state NCP president.

The party leadership has faced criticism for its cordial relations with the BJP leadership. In the past, it had extended unsolicited support to the BJP to stabilise its government in the state, after the saffron party failed to win a majority in the 2014 Assembly elections. However, lately, as the next Assembly polls come closer, Pawar has been distancing himself from the BJP and drawing closer to the Congress and Rahul Gandhi.The parents of students at Hansraj Morarji Public School in Andheri are protesting against the schools plan to change its curriculum from the Maharashtra state education board to Council for the Indian School Certificate Examinations (CISCE).

Parents have alleged the school is forcing existing students of the primary section to take admission in ICSE section.

The difference in fees is huge and we dont see the point of moving to the ICSE section. According to the rules, the school will have to keep the SSC section functional until all existing students clear Class 10, said a parent. On Wednesday, a delegation of parents met with the schools managing trustee and handed over a petition, signed by over 400 parents. We are not forcing anyone to take admission in ICSE, said principal Jayashree Desai who refused to comment any further.

The school has invited new admissions to both SSC and ICSE sections for the academic year 2018-19. However, the SSC admissions are only being done for Class 3, and above. Parents have been assured the SSC section will remain functional.Nirav Modis lawyer on Wednesday objected to the plea of enforcement directorate (ED) seeking non-bailable warrant (NBW) against diamond merchant, on the grounds that the court has no jurisdiction to issue a warrant.

The central agency, which is probing the allegation of money laundering against Modi and other accused in connection with PNB fraud, had moved an application seeking NBW against Modi as he failed to reply to the summons issued by the agency thrice.

The agency had issued summons on February 15, 17 and 22, asking Modi to appear before the investigating officer for questioning on February 16, 22 and 26, respectively.

Modis lawyer Vijay Agrawal claimed Modi responded to all three summons.

The lawyer was questioned for his locus to appear before the court for Modi by the special PMLA judge and the ED counsel. To this, Agrawal contended he has a locus to argue for his client as Modis rights are in question. If the court proceeds to pass any order his rights would be affected and his liberty is at stack, Agrawal said.

Agrawal also objected to the move of the agency to seek a warrant. He contended the agency has not yet filed a formal complaint and he is not shown as an accused yet. He said a warrant cannot be issued for non-appearance on summons issued by ED.

The special PMLA court has adjourned the case till March 3.The Grey-headed Lapwing, an aquatic bird found in Southeast Asian wetlands, was spotted on Friday for the first time at the Thane Creek, Mumbais flamingo sanctuary.

The bird was spotted by wildlife photographer Sudhir Gaikwad Inamdar near the Bhandup sewage pumping station.

Since Friday, I spotted the bird thrice over the weekend but it hasnt been seen for the last two days. This is a vagrant bird. It is likely that it lost its way and drifted away from its flock. In such situations, they make a landing at ecologically favourable areas, get energised and fly towards their original habitat, said Inamdar.

It is possible that the bird has already left the creek, added Inamdar.

Officials from the state government confirmed the discovery and said it was a rare find, especially in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR).

The photo-documentation of this bird at the Thane creek has been confirmed as the first such documentation in the MMR. We have been witnessing several such rare species making their landing along the creek due to the presence of good nutrient-load. It is possible that they were not noticed earlier and are being documented now, said N Vasudevan, additional principal chief conservator of forest, state mangrove cell.

While this might be the first documentation of the bird in Mumbai, it is not the first in Maharashtra. The bird was spotted by birders in May 2012 in the Malkhed reservoir near Amravati, Vidarbha, which is probably the first documentation of the bird in the state, said Vasudevan.

Naturalist writer and ornithologist Sunjoy Monga said a number of rare bird species have been spotted over the past few months, such as the Mallard (duck species with a green head and white ring on the neck) at the Lokhandwala Lake on December 24; the White-tailed Lapwing in Vasai in January; and even the Long-billed Dowitcher at the Thane creek earlier this year.

Sporadic sightings of rare birds, mostly stragglers (one of birds moving away from their flock), have increased along the west coast. If more examples are spotted in the coming years, we need to analyse the reasons why these sightings are increasing, said Monga.

Shashank Dalvi, ornithologist, said, It is a very interesting sighting for Mumbai as the bird has been popping up more than usual along various locations along the west coast of India. The other reason for increasing sightings is the increase in birders and awareness to spot such rare species.More than 3.82 lakh students from the Mumbai division better be on time for their Secondary School Certificate (SSC) examinations that begin on March 1. The education board has decided to extend the punctuality rule it has been enforcing for the Higher Secondary Certificate (HSC) exams to SSC as well. This means students who report to the hall after the exam begins will not be allowed to enter.

HT reported on Tuesday that of the 17 HSC students that reached late on Monday, 14 were barred from writing the test.

In the first week of the HSC exams, more than 30 students were not allowed to enter the halls on account of reaching 30 minutes after the exam began.

Late comers will not be allowed to enter the hall once the exam begins. We want to avoid any exam malpractice this year, said Subhash Borse, in-charge secretary of the Mumbai division of the Maharashtra State Board for Secondary and Higher Secondary Education (MSBSHSE).

Students should reach their respective exam centres at least 30 minutes before the exam begins and keep in mind the traffic trouble in a city like Mumbai, Borse said. Except for the strict timings, there is no change in the conduct of the SSC exams this year.

A special press conference on rules and regulations to be followed during SSC exams this year will be conducted by the MSBSHSE in Pune on Wednesday.

This year, the state board has increased the number of flying squads monitoring exam centres across the state. The Mumbai division will have six flying squads, one for each in the division. No form of cheating or copying will be accepted and students caught will be given a strict warning against repeating the offence, said Borse.At 38 degrees Celsius, Mumbai could experience one of the hottest February days on record on Thursday. The India Meteorological Department (IMD) has issued a heat wave advisory for Mumbai, Raigad and Ratnagiri, following a period of abnormally high temperatures this week.

On Wednesday, the Santacruz weather station recorded a day temperature of 37.4 degrees Celsius, 5.3 degrees Celsius above normal. Colaba recorded 34 degrees Celsius, 3.5 degree Celsius above normal. The night temperature in Colaba was 2.1 degrees above normal at 23.1 degrees Celsius. Santacruz recorded 21 degrees Celsius, almost 2 degrees above normal. Humidity levels were 71% in Colaba and 41% at Santacruz.

According to the India Meteorological Departments Mumbai office, Thursdays high will be six degrees above normal, and while the mercury is expected to drop marginally on Friday, the forecast is still grim at 35 degrees Celsius as the maximum temperature.

The heat wave conditions are for isolated parts of the Konkan coast, including Mumbai, due to a lower-level anti-cyclonic circulation over Gujarat and parts of Maharashtra, said KS Hosalikar, deputy director general, western region, IMD. This is bringing warm easterly to north-easterly winds over Mumbai and the surrounding areas. They do not allow the sea breeze [cool westerly winds] to settle over the city fast enough.

How a heat wave affects your body Heat waves involve high temperatures, which can lead to dehydration, heat cramps, heat exhaustion and/or heat stroke. The signs and symptoms are as follows: Heat cramps: Ederna (swelling) and syncope (fainting), accompanied by fever below 102 deg F. Heat exhaustion: Fatigue, weakness, dizziness, headache, nausea, vomiting, muscle cramps, perspiration. Heat stroke: Body temperature around 104 deg F or higher, along with delirium, seizures or coma. This is a potentially fatal condition Source: National Disaster Management Authority of India

He said such high temperatures are unusual for Mumbai in February, thus requiring the IMD to issue the heat wave warning.

Mumbai residents will be better off staying indoors, according to IMD weather scientist Ajay Kumar. Moisture level and temperatures are both high and could lead to dehydration or heat exhaustion, he said. People should reduce outdoor activity and have lots of fluids.

On Tuesday, the day temperature was 37.8 degrees Celsius, 5.7 degrees above normal. On Sunday, the city had recorded 37.6 degrees Celsius, 5.5 degrees above normal levels. On February 19, 2017, Mumbai recorded 38.8 degrees Celsius. On February 23, 2015, it was 38.8 degrees, making this Sundays 37.6 degrees the third highest February day temperature since 2013. In February 22, 2012, Mumbai recorded 39.1 degrees Celsius. In 2008 and 2009, the highest February maximum was 37.6 degrees. The all-time high February day temperature was 39.6 degrees, recorded on February 25, 1966.

Meanwhile, air pollution levels remained in the poor category for the seventh consecutive day as the air quality index was recorded at 241 (poor). An AQI level of 236 (poor) has been predicted for Thursday.As their protests enter the second week, students of Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) are receiving support from campuses across India.

On Wednesday, students from Indian Institute of Technology-Bombay (IIT-B), Film Television Institute of India (FTII) and Student Islamic Organisation (SIO), among others, voiced their support for the agitation.

We want the TISS administration to pay heed to students demands, including continuation of financial support for SC, ST and OBC students, said a representative of the Ambedkar Periyar Phule Study Circle of IIT-B. Students of the group staged a protest in their campus on Wednesday, in support of TISS students.

A bandh was called by TISS Students Union on February 20 to protest against the institutes decision to withdraw fee waiver to SC, ST and OBC students eligible for the Government of Indias Post Matric Scholarship (GoI-PMS) last year. On Sunday night, representatives of the institutes management held a three-hour meeting with protesting students to find an alternative solution to the problem. Students, however, refused to budge till their demands are met.

Students of the Hyderabad campus of TISS started an indefinite hunger strike on Tuesday. They called it off on Wednesday after a dialogue with the acting director of the institute, Prof Shalini Bharat. However, protests by students across all four campuses will continue, said students.Seven puppies were killed by a speeding truck on early Wednesday morning near Cowasjee Patel Tank, Charni Road, Girgaum.

The VP Road police station arrested Indrabhan Shivprasad Bind, 22, the truck driver after Chetna Batty, a resident of the area, filed a complaint. We arrested the accused on charges of rash driving and killing animals under the violation of Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, 1960. However, since it is a bailable offence, he will be free soon. We have warned him not to repeat such an act, said Sanjay Kamble, senior police inspector, VP Road police station.

Around 6.30am, I heard loud wailing noises, and to my horror saw that seven puppies were crushed and a truck driver had stopped a few feet away from the site, said Batty. The driver told me he ran over them by mistake, and quickly fled the spot. I informed animal welfare groups, shared the information on social media and rushed to VP Road police station to file a complaint.

She added that three stray dogs in the area had a litter of 11 puppies. Of the three stray mothers, one had died of poisoning and I was taking care of the remaining two and their pups. The remaining four pups are with me. One of them has injury in the ear but all of them are being treated by a local veterinarian, said Batty.

Batty was assisted by Salim Charania from Peace for Animal Welfare Association (PAWA-India), who tracked down the truck driver and brought him to the police station. It is a horrible act by the accused, who claims he had fallen asleep at the wheel. He will be out of jail in no time because animal cruelty laws are joke in India, said Charania. At first, the police refused to file a case. After the senior police inspector heard the matter, the truck driver was arrested.

Data from BSPCA, which runs the citys largest animal hospital and rescue centre for animals at Parel, revealed that 2,406 cases under the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (PCA) Act, 1960, were registered in 2017. Over seven years, Mumbai has recorded 22,498 animal cruelty cases.One of Kalyans paan-stained walls now wears a new look, thanks to a group of 12 art teachers who have painted it with messages encouraging residents to celebrate an eco-friendly Holi.

The teachers, who work at different schools in the city, chose the Kalyan court area to paint.

The group has also painted murals on the importance of education. (Rishikesh Choudhary)

It took us two days to paint the wall. Through our paintings, we have decided to spread awareness about an eco-friendly Holi, said Amol Patil, 39, an art teacher at KC Gandhi school.

Kalyan court, one of the citys busiest areas, sees hundreds of visitors daily. We chose this area as it is always bustling. We are sure that many people will come across our paintings and get motivated to celebrate a green Holi,added Patil.

A mural asks locals to plant and care for trees. (Rishikesh Choudhary)

The artists have also painted murals on the importance of education, tree plantation and the effects of air and water pollution.Greater Noida

Three people were charred to death when their ambulance caught fire after hitting a speeding truck from behind at Badalpur in Greater Noida early Wednesday morning.

Five people were travelling in the ambulance. Two of them were thrown off the vehicle due to the impact of the accident while the remaining three were stuck inside and were charred to death.

We have not been able to identify the three bodies as they are charred beyond recognition. Prima facie it appears the accident ignited the fire inside the ambulance. We are trying to track down the hospital that owned the ambulance, Mukesh Kumar, station house officer, Badalpur Police station, said.

According to the police, the accident occurred at 2.10 am on Wednesday when the Maruti Omni van ambulance hit the truck near KRBL Mill in Greater Noida.

Sources said the ambulance was going to Dadri from Guru Tegh Bahadur (GTB) Hospital via Ghaziabad. GTB Hospital is in Shahdara in Delhi, near the Delhi-Ghaziabad border.

The accident happened when an 18-wheeler truck tried to take a steep left turn and the ambulance, which was following it, hit it from behind. Two people were thrown outside the ambulance due to the impact while the other three got stuck. A passerby called the police control room and we reached the spot immediately, said Kumar.

The two injured persons are Manik, a resident of Khurja in Greater Noida and Srinand Maurya, a resident of Baliya.

The injured were rushed to the district hospital for immediate medical attention. They said they had asked for a lift from the ambulance in Ghaziabad and they were not acquainted with the three people inside, said Kumar.

Police seized the truck and booked a case of negligent driving against the driver.

The driver is absconding but we are trying to track him. The bodies have been kept in the mortuary, said Kumar.The Competition Commission of India (CCI) on Wednesday imposed a penalty of 1 crore on the Ghaziabad development authority (GDA) for hiking the price of flats meant for the economically weaker section (EWS).

The rate of the flats was hiked from 2 lakh to 7 lakh in the Pratap Vihar housing scheme. The scheme had nearly 348 flats meant for those in the EWS category.

Satyendra Singh, an allottee, had approached the CCI with a petition filed under the Competition Act, 2002, and contended that the authority has indulged in unfair and arbitrary practices. The petition alleged that the GDA misused its position even after knowing that the allottees belong to the EWS category and that they were not in a position to challenge the authority over its unfair and arbitrary conduct.

The CCI, in its order, said after carefully considering the detrimental effect on the consumers emanating out of the aforesaid anti-competitive conduct of the authority, the commission is of the considered opinion that this is a fit case to impose penalty under Section 27(b) of the Act.

Resultantly, a penalty of 1,00,60,794, calculated at the rate of 5% of the average turnover/ receipts of the GDA, generated from the provision of services for development and sale of low-cost residential flats under affordable housing schemes for the economically weaker sections for the preceding three financial years,

is hereby imposed, the CCI order said.

Singh contended that the GDA allotted him a flat in May 2009 and at a price of 2 lakh. However, in November 2015, the authority intimated to all allottees that the price was revised to 7 lakh, based on the construction cost of the project.

It was further contended that the authority asked the allottees to give their consent for the same within 15 days, else their allotment would be cancelled.

The CCI in its order observed that it generally takes three years to complete the construction of a project but, in the present case, the authority was not able to provide possession even eight years after the announcement of the project.

Initially, flats were promised to be delivered around August 2009 which was postponed for March 2016. The CCI has directed the authority to deposit the penalty amount within 60 days of receipt of the order and also to file a compliance report.

We will file an appeal with the appellate tribunal of the CCI, Ritu Maheshwari, vice-chairperson, GDA, said.

On the matter of ascertaining liability of individual officials former GDA vice-chairperson Vijay Yadav and former secretary Ravindra Godbole  the CCI has decided not to proceed against them.The Ghaziabad district administration on Wednesday held a meeting with farmhouse and banquet hall owners and gave them clear directions to follow norms or else cease operations.

For the past one month, the administration has been sealing farmhouses and banquet halls that were being run in violation of norms.

Additional district magistrate Gyanendra Singh held a meeting with the operators and asked them to close down if such activity was being carried out on land designated as green belts or if there is a violation in the land use.

We have also asked them to get CCTV cameras installed and obtain a no-objection certificate for the groundwater they are extracting. This is required as per the orders of the National Green Tribunal. Further, they have been asked to arrange for parking on their premises because roadside parking causes a lot of traffic issues for commuters, Singh said.

We have also asked them to comply with noise pollution norms when it comes to the use of music systems. They cannot play loud music after 10pm, as per norms. In case they do not comply, we will not give them permission to operate. Further, the farmhouse/banquet hall should be have a valid land use and should not be in contravention with the land usage norms, Singh said.

The operators who attended the meeting said they will comply with the laid down conditions.

Those who are running their businesses genuinely should be allowed to operate. The establishments that are in violation of norms should be sealed, Surender Kumar, a banquet hall operator from Kailash Nagar, said.

The office bearers of Sanyukt Vyapar Mandal, a traders group that has banquet hall operators as members, said they should be allowed more time to comply with norms on humanitarian grounds.

In case an establishment is sealed, the parties who have booked farmhouses for weddings and other functions will be the end sufferers. The issue was also raised by operators and they have sought time in such instances. Establishments being run on industrial plots or green belts should be sealed, Ashok Bhartiya, district chairman of the association, said.

The administration has already sealed nearly seven to eight banquet halls in Indirapuram which were being run on green belts. Similarly, action is also being taken against operators who are running facilities on industrial plots allotted by the UP state industrial development corporation.Most youngsters in Noida had colour-smeared faces on Wednesday as the Holi fervour gripped campuses ahead of the festival which will be celebrated on Friday.

With a long weekend in store  Friday being a holiday on account of Holi  the students bid their friends farewell with colours and bonhomie.

The campuses in the twin cities of Noida and Greater Noida took on a colourful look on Wednesday afternoon as students got busy smearing one another with colours. Staircases and lawns of schools were stained in different shades of orange, red and pink.

Holi, the festival of colours, is celebrated across the North India in the phalgun (February-March) month. It signals the end of the hard winter months and heralds the spring. The Hindi heartland observes the festival as a remembrance of the divine love between Radha and Krishna.

I will be heading to my native place in Lucknow for the festival and the weekend that follows. So today (Wednesday) we played Holi among our classmates. Such festivals help create the little memories of college life that we will cherish for the rest of our life, Kunal Kumar, a student of Dronacharya College, Greater Noida, said.

Students at Sharda University in Greater Noida were also seen celebrating with colours.

Before the onset of the vacation, students and faculty of Sharda University together celebrated Holi on the campus. Many international students from Nepal and Bhutan also joined in the celebrations. Sharda Hospital has also made arrangements for any emergency during the Holi celebrations on March 2, Ajit Kumar, spokesperson, Sharda University, said.

The festival was also celebrated by the tiny tots of Dolphin Kids Academy in Sector 45 of Noida. The spent the the day sharing funa nd laughter with the underprivileged children of their locality.

We used only organic and herbal gulaal so as to ensure that children are safe from harmful chemicals. It was heartwarming to see the underprivileged children enjoy the festival with us, Anju Bansal, principal, Dolphin Kids Academy, said.

In Ghaziabad, students of differently abled schools also found an opportunity to celebrate the festival in full spirit.

Our students celebrated the day with colours and also spearheaded an awareness campaign with the help of posters and placards asking people to not gamble or drink on account of Holi, Madhu, principal, Educatum Special School, Suryanagar, Ghaziabad, said.Three people were charred to death and two injured when the ambulance in which they were travelling caught fire after hitting a speeding truck in Badalpur area of Greater Noida early Wednesday, police said.

Officials said the accident occurred at 2.10am when the 18-tyre truck tried to take a steep left turn and the Maruti Omni ambulance, heading from Ghaziabad to Dadri, following the bigger vehicle hit it from behind near KRBL Mill.

We have not been able to identify the three bodies as they have been charred beyond recognition. Prima facie it appears that the accident ignited the fire inside the ambulance, station house officer of Badalpur Police station Mukesh Kumar said.

We are trying to track down the hospital to which the ambulance belonged, he added.

Sources said the ambulance was going back to Dadri from Guru Tegh Bahadur Hospital in New Delhi.

Kumar said two people were flung outside on impact while three others got stuck in the ambulance. A passerby called the police and a team reached the spot immediately, he added.

The two injured have been identified as Manik, a resident of Khurja in Greater Noida, and Srinand Maurya from Baliya.

The injured were rushed to the district hospital for immediate medical attention. They have given their statement where they have mentioned that they asked for a lift from the ambulance in Ghaziabad and they were not acquainted with the remaining three people inside, said Kumar.

Police have seized the truck and booked a case of negligent driving against its driver.

The driver is absconding at this moment and we are trying to track him. The bodies have been kept in the mortuary, said Kumar.National Science Day, commemorating the discovery of the Raman effect, is a good time to discuss science-for-the-future. A strong intellectual foundation in school and college, where creativity in encouraged, is essential for quality science. From such a foundation, curious scientists and technologists emerge to address important problems.

How do we know that todays science will have value? We dont. Raman Spectroscopy has major applications today, but its scope was unimaginable then. Todays applications came from work done decades ago. Some applications, such as those from the work by CV Raman or JC Bose are direct. Others, such as those from mathematician Srinivasa Ramanujan are indirect, impacting theoretical physics.

If we cannot predict what will be useful for the future, can we at least ask if, post-Independence, our efforts of a few decades ago are paying off today? If yes, then increased investment in blue sky research, where rewards are not apparent and questions at the frontier are addressed, is worth it. If we cannot list even a few successes maybe we have a serious problem.

Fortunately, Indian research has seen many successes and we should be proud of them. When the Steve Wozniaks of the world accuse us of not being creative and a country of rote-learners, they are only half right. While we do need to unleash our creative strengths, we have not done too badly despite them being leashed. Now imagine what we can do when they are unleashed.

Shambhu Nath Des discovery of the cholera toxin in the 1950s transformed our understanding and treatment of cholera, and was valuable in understanding how signals from the outside are read by cells. GN Ramachandrans work on protein structure is one of the pillars of modern structural biology. MK Bhans discovery of an attenuated rotavirus led, decades later, to a cheap indigenous vaccine.

Today, we also have unleashed a secret weapon. Proactive leadership and the highlighting of inspiring role-models are bringing in more women into science. The public sector has also incubated for the future.

The positive lessons from the recent past are simple. Strong institutions with strong leadership allow creativity of all kinds to thrive . Could we have done better? Not likely under the shackles of the past. The vibrancy of our science is but a microcosm of the vibrancy of our society.

Post- Independence, we failed by not creating a wide, inclusive and quality school and college system. The explanations are many, but this is what needs to be addressed speedily, and recommendations of the committee on the new education policy are eagerly awaited. We have also failed by creating a false dichotomy between basic and applied science. Here too scientists are a microcosm of our society. As citizens, we have demanded that all problems of the commons be sorted. This is a valid demand, but as citizens we rarely see ourselves as part of the solution. Scientists are citizens first. We must see ourselves and our institutions as part of the solution.

Just as creativity can be nurtured by quality leadership and a connect to society, we should not underestimate the value of technology. It is difficult to have a Hariprasad Chaurasia if we restricted the availability of flutes or an Amrita Sher-Gil if paints and brushes are not available. Science needs substantially more investment and also a dynamic global connect.

Given that we cannot predict the future, in what directions should we embark?

One chapter of the latest economic survey is on Transforming Science and Technology and the chief economic advisor deserves praise for a must-read analysis of the present and what we must do for the future. Among other suggestions, the survey advocates national science missions. These include the study of dark matter, genomics, mathematics, cyber-physical systems and artificial intelligence, energy storage systems, and science and technology in agriculture. Ten years on we will appreciate this document 10 times more than we do now.

The cynic would say that these are mere recommendations and would demand that a cheque be signed before we proceed. This, paradoxically, will be putting the cart before the horse. Resources are important, and will and must be found. What is urgently needed is institutional science leadership that is ambitious, nurtures creativity and protects it. A long and essential journey of adventure and ambition is sometimes best started instead of only being discussed. Today is a good day.

K VjjayRaghavan is professor, National Centre for Biological Sciences, TIFR

The views expressed are personalMore than 2.86 lakh students from Pune division should be on time for their Class 10 Secondary School Certificate (SSC) examinations scheduled to begin on March 1. The officials of the state board, Maharashtra State Board of Secondary and Higher Secondary Education (MSBSHSE), announced on Wednesday that all the new changes in terms of rules to curb cheating during the HSC, have been implemented in the SSC exams, this year.

The punctuality quotient is one of the few measures implemented during the HSC exams and according to it, students who report to the hall after the exam begins will not be allowed to enter and sit for the test. According to sources at MSBSHSE, a total of 11 students from Pune division had been barred from the exams as they had reported after the stipulated time of 10.30 am. The exams as per the schedule were to begin from 11 am.

All the new rules that have been introduced to curb cheating during the HSC board exams, like the stringent timing and zero tolerance to cheating, will be applicable for SSC exams as well. And to make the process smoother for both students and parents, we have spoken to the Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Company Limited (MSEDCL) and the public transport department to provide uninterrupted power supply and smooth transport facility, said Shakuntala Kale, chairperson, MSBSHSE.

This year, a total of 17,51,353 students from 67,563 schools, across the nine divisions of Maharashtra will be appearing for the SSC exams on Thursday. Of this, 9,73,134 are boys and 7,78,219 students are girls, who will be giving their examinations from 4,657 centres across the state.

As per the statement released by the board, 16,37,783 are fresh candidates while 67,563 are repeaters, and 46,007 students have registered under the other category.

To aid the students, the board has also instituted 10 counsellors across Maharashtra. However, in case a student misses out a particular Class X practical or viva exam, the board has made provisions of a retest. Under this, the students can reappear for the particular subject on the stipulated dates.

We understand that unfortunate circumstances can sometimes lead students to miss their board exams. So, in cases of genuine reasons cited for not appearing for the practical exam that was conducted earlier, they can re-appear on March 26 and 17. All these students are required to reach out to their divisional boards, and accordingly they will be allotted districtwise centres, said Kale.Punjab chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh on Wednesday underlined that Shaheed-E-Azam Bhagat Singh is a national martyr, and nobody should have objections over naming the Chandigarh airport after him. The statement came a day after Manohar Lal Khattar, chief minister of the airports partner state Haryana, reportedly disagreed with the idea.

Bhagat Singh is not a martyr of Punjab alone. Hopefully, the Haryana CM will agree, Amarinder said, interacting with the media on the sidelines of the passing-out function at Maharaja Ranjit Singh Punjab Police Academy in Phillaur on Wednesday.

Further, asked about developments in the Maur bomb blast case, Captain said investigations are at a fairly advanced stage; the rest, the director general of police will explain. DGP Suresh Arora said warrants have been issued for the identified accused.

Earlier, addressing a batch of new recruits  18 deputy superintendents of police (DSPs) and 494 sub-inspectors (SIs)  the CM announced an annual grant of Rs 2 crore for advanced training of police personnel of all ranks, from constables to Punjab Police Service officers, at the best domestic and foreign training centres, to empower them to meet the challenges of modern policing.

Rupinderdeep Kaur was declared all-round first among probationary DSPs, Sarabjeet Kaur among the SIs, Rimpledeep Kaur in the intelligence category, while S-I Rinku stood all-round first in IT.

When he inspected the parade by the new recruits, the CM recalled that his father passed out from the academy nearly 100 years ago, while the parade had also revived memories of his own training at the National Defence Academy in 1963.

Referring to the historic Phillaur Fort, he congratulated the PPA for preserving the monument and announced a grant of Rs 3 crore for its restoration.Two years after they threw acid on a group of schoolgirls who had objected to their stalking, Sajan Masih and Lovepreet Singh of Dharmabad village in Gurdaspur were sentenced to 15 and 18 years in jail, respectively, by the court of additional district and sessions judge Gurjant Singh on Wednesday.

Santokh Singh, who was accused of supplying the acid to them, was acquitted even as the court imposed a fine of Rs 1 lakh each on the two convicts, who are in their early twenties and had attacked their schoolmates reportedly after being rusticated upon their complaint to the principal.

They threw the acid on six girls, all of whom were from their village, when they were returning home after a Class-8 exam from the government school at Singhpur village in Dera Baba Nanak subdivision on March 16, 2016. While one girl suffered up to 28% burns on her face, the others escaped with minor injuries. They were present in the court when the judge pronounced the sentence; but remained quiet.

The men were arrested under sections 326A (throwing acid), 354D (stalking) and 34 (acts by several persons with common intention) of the Indian Penal Code. Masih, who got 15 years sentence under sections 326 and 34, and three years under 354D, remained in jail during the course of the trial, though Lovepreet and Santokh had got bail. On Wednesday,the court sent the two convicts to the Gurdaspur central jail.

Prosecuting counsels Vinod Basa and Varinder Basa  brothers who said they fought the case on a nominal fee as social responsibility  said they would move the Punjab and Haryana high court against Santokhs acquittal.During his visit to Pakistans Punjab province in 2004, Punjab chief minister Capt Amarinder Singh received an unusual gift from his then counterpart, Pervaiz Elahi. It was a mighty horse, named Sultan. Unfortunately, the animal, who had to be quarantined on his arrival in India, did not live long, officials said.

Elahi, the former deputy prime minister of Pakistan, was evidently unhappy that his first gift to Amarinder had not lasted long, so he decided to replace it with another horse, named Sunny Kid.

Fourteen years later, on Wednesday, when Amarinder visited the Punjab Police Academy (PPA) at Phillaur, he made it a point to meet Sunny Kid.

The chief minister, who had given Sunny Kid to the PPA, asked about the horse the moment he reached the complex for the passing out parade and investiture ceremony.

He asked detailed questions about Sunny Kids health and upkeep, and made it a point to meet him, remembering that the horse had hurt itself in the leg all those years ago, officials said.

The meeting was brief but turned out to be a trip down nostalgia lane for the chief minister, officials said.Maverick filmmaker Ram Gopal Varmas upcoming Telugu actioner with Akkineni Nagarjuna has been officially titled Officer. Teaming up after two decades, the project features Nagarjuna in the role of a hot-headed cop. On Tuesday, the title along with the first look poster was released, and it was also confirmed that the project will hit the screens worldwide on May 25. Not long ago, two titles that were under consideration were Gun and System - the most popular words in Varmas filmography. However, the title Officer took many by surprise as its pretty straightforward.

Alfred Hitchcock used to say he gets scared of cops even though hes never done any crime ..The tag line of @iamnagarjuna s #Officer is inspired from that line of his

"COPS WERE NEVER THIS SCARY" pic.twitter.com/5IoKxKm4ok  Ram Gopal Varma (@RGVzoomin) February 27, 2018

During the launch of the project last November, Varma said in a statement: I am extremely excited that I am doing a film with Nagarjuna after nearly 25 years but contrary to some uninformed media speculations, this new film is nothing to do with Shiva, neither in character nor in story content, Varma had posted on his Facebook page. He further added: Its a very different but an extremely realistic action film set against a story such as neither me nor Nagarjuna has ever done before. Varma said he hopes he lives up to the expectations because Nagarjuna gave him his first directorial break with Shiva.

Predominantly shot in Mumbai, the film also stars Myra Sareen (she is making her Telugu debut with this film) in a crucial role. The first look poster features an angry looking Nagarjuna flashing a gun. According to the industry grapevine, the film might have a simultaneous release in Hindi.

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ott:10:ht-entertainment_listing-desktopWe had already reported that Vivek Oberoi, last seen in south in Ajiths Vivegam, has landed a pivotal role in Ram Charan  Boyapati Srinus untitledTelugu project. Apparently, Vivek has already commenced shooting for the project and the team recently shot his entry scene in Vijayawada. Boyapati was impressed with Viveks performances in films such as Company and Rakht Charitra and roped him in to play the antagonist.

According to Mumbai Mirror, the actor recently shot his introduction scene with a crowd of 2000 junior artistes. There were people running helter-skelter, some being crushed under the wheels of 20-25 cars racing around and clouds of the dust flying around as Vivek appears on screen. It was a great entry, a source was quoted saying.

This project will be bankrolled by DVV Danayya and will have music by SS Thaman. Kiara Advani, who is currently shooting for Mahesh Babus Bharat Ane Nenu, has been finalised as the leading lady. It has also been confirmed that Ramya Krishnan, last seen in Suriyas Thaana Serntha Kootam, will essay a pivotal role in the movie. Busy wrapping up Rangasthalam, Ram Charan is expected to join the sets of this project from March 8 when the makers will begin filming the third schedule.

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ott:10:ht-entertainment_listing-desktop

An industry wide strike looms large ahead of Tamil and Telugu film industry as talks between a delegation of the south Indian filmmakers, led by producer Suresh Babu of Suresh Productions, and the Digital Service Providers (DSP) such as Qube and UFO held on Friday in Bengaluru failed. The meeting was held to bring the Virtual Print Fee (VPF) levied by the service providers down. Initially, the south Indian film industry had planned to organise a strike, however, it now looks like the Kannada and Malayalam film industry want to resolve this issue amicably. Hence, March 2 will see new Kannada and Malayalam releases. The Tamil film industry reconfirmed the shutdown on Wednesday and there will not be any new Telugu releases on March 2.

So, what role do DSPs play in your movie watching experience and why you, as audience, should be concerned.

Digital service providers came into play when the projection of films shifted from analog to digital. They signed up a contract with the theatres, which allowed them to install equipment to project films using satellites and levy charge for this service directly from the producers. The cost of the equipment was to be jointly borne by the producers and theatre owners -- in form of ad revenue. The understanding was that the rate charged would be high the first five years and would be lowered after that. However, 12 years after the contract was signed, the prices are yet to be decreased.

The actual problem

The service providers have increased the price citing different screen formats. In south India, there are a total of 4000 screens out of which 40% screens are 1k (E cinema) and 60% are 2k (D Cinema), explains producer Dhananjayan Govind.

Senthil Kumar, co-founder of Qube, which is one of the popular DSPs had stated in an interview to WHO IS HE Sreedhar Pillai that at Rs 325 for a show, they charge the lowest rates in the world. Apart from the flat rate of Rs 22,000, we have multiple options as low as Rs 325 per show. Like mobile phone plans, producers and distributors choose whats best for each of their release in theatres, thus bringing their effective cost down to just half the flat rate, he had said.

The difference between E cinema and D Cinema

Producer Dhananjayan is not satisfied with Kumars explanation. He said, The DSPs are stating that they charge only Rs 325, but in actuality this price is valid only for E cinema and not D Cinema. For this, they charge Rs 500. If I were to release a film for seven days and request four shows a day, that is Rs 14,500 in one screen. This is expected to be paid in advance. The release of the film will be held if this payment is not made on Thursday night. He also added how this doesnt make a difference to the theatre that screens the film or the audience who watch. Whether it is 1k or 2k, the tickets price brackets remain the same for the audience and this doesnt make a difference to the theater owners either. It is only the producers who have to cough up more money, he added.

Producer SR Prabhu, the man who bankrolled the critically acclaimed film Aruvi, claimed that he had to pay Rs 50 lakh for his film to be screened that was made on a budget of Rs 2 crore. It is technically supposed to cost me Rs 10 to 15 lakhs, but I paid Rs 35 lakh extra to get my film screened. He had also tweeted how Dream Warrior Pictures had paid Rs 2.2 crore as VPF in 2017. Out of Rs 2.2 crore VPF we paid for 4 films in 2017, someone ate (meaning pocketed) around Rs 1.5 crore. We could have made one more film with that saving!

Disparity in charges for Hollywood films vs regional films

It has also emerged that DSPs charge a one-time fee for Hollywood films, which amounts to Rs 10,000 for its lifetime run as compared to Rs 50 lakh for a regional film such as Aruvi. This disparity in charges for regional films vs Hollywood films is not acceptable. The producers are all united and we turned down the offer that was made to us today, especially in the face of this, SR Prabhu explained.

The ownership of equipment installed in theaters

While, the VPF in itself is an issue, there is a secondary problem here as well. Technically by now, the ownership should either lie in the hands of the producers or the theatres, but now it has emerged that the DSPs will own the equipment whose cost has already been borne by the producers and theatre owners.

In the past 12 years, producers have paid the DSPs for releasing their films while theatres have lost revenue from advertisements. The strike is to bring an end to the monopolizing of DSPs when it comes to screening films in south India.

How will the strike help the producers

According to Dhananjayan, the producers will not be facing too much trouble by postponing their releases as VPF getting removed will more than balance out their losses. If what cost Rs 50 lakh now becomes Rs 25 lakh or less, why would the producers mind waiting four weeks? It is the theatres that will face a huge loss as audiences dont show up due to no new releases. DSPs earn in crores on a daily basis and if new film does not release, they are not going to receive payments and this will hit them hard, he explained.

The side of DSPs

While the producers are hell bent on bringing about a change in DSPs monopolizing the movie screening experience, founders of DSPs feel they have done enough by offering a fair reduction in price by bringing it down from Rs 22,500 to Rs 14,000 at the Bengaluru meeting. Producers refused the offer.

Jayendra, co founder of Qube, tweeted in reply to SR Prabhus allegations and wrote, Sir here are the facts from our books: Aruvi - QUBE India relase :Total VPF paid for QUBE is 2424725/ ( GST) . Total number of unique screens: 230 . simple division will give the cost per screen ! There are also speculations that industrys bigwigs are keen on beginning their own DSPs and are hence trying to shut down the ones that are currently functioning.

The side of theaters:

In Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, it looks like theaters will be a part of the strike to be conducted from March 1. However, trade analyst Sreedhar Pillai confirmed that the theaters in Tamil Nadu will run the older releases. Telugu states are currently the strongest as the theaters are also expected to shut down, he said.

Author tweets @Priyanka_S_MCC

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ott:10:ht-entertainment_listing-desktopWine lovers, listen up: Theres a little-known gem just south of the border called Valle de Guadalupe. Its a bit dustier and rougher around the edges than Californias prized Napa Valley, but Bajas wine country offers a relaxed, unpretentious, budget-friendly experience clustered along a main highway in this region of Mexico known as the Ruta del Vino.

The fast-growing wine mecca, just two hours south of San Diego, is home to hip boutique hotels, an impressive culinary scene and more than 100 wineries to satisfy the most discerning of aficionados. The greenest and busiest time to visit is May through September, but on other months, it is visited by serious connoisseurs looking for a quieter trip with more personal attention  often from the winemakers themselves. Add in a few crisp evenings spent sipping your favourite chardonnay by a fire pit, and youve got yourself a memorable wine getaway with a fraction of the fuss.

Sip tips

Vinas de Garza: This romantic hilltop tasting room has some of the best views in the valley. Tastings range from $10-$16. Dont leave without trying the Blanco del Rancho Mogorcito, a delightful sauvignon blanc-chardonnay blend that delivers bright, fruity, unoaked flavours ($17.10 per bottle).

Hacienda la Lomita: Family-run Lomita, and its biodynamic sister location, Finca La Carrodilla, are committed to organic farming. Lomitas tiny, but trendy tasting room is known for its artsy ambiance and ruby red rose, a marshmallow and caramel flavoured dream ($11.82 per bottle). Tastings range from $12-$21.

Villa Montefiori: Set back off the main road, Montefioris tasting room is a large viewing deck perched above its sprawling vineyard. They boast of Mexican wines with an Italian heart, with vines imported from owner Paolo Paolonis home country, Italy. Try a glass for $4, tastings range from $6-$24 and bottles run $16-$64.

Monte Xanic: This lakeside oasis is owned by a collective of Mexican families. Its one of the largest, oldest and well-manicured properties in the area. The winerys dry and fruity malbec ($37 per bottle) was a standout. Tastings are $10-$17 and bottles range from $12-$53.

Food finds

Come for the wine, but stay for the food. Valle de Guadalupes restaurants serve up artistic, creative haute cuisine with a more palatable price than a comparable meal stateside.

Finca Altozano: This rustic, Instagram-friendly, steakhouse whips up locally sourced, seasonal delights like wood-fired quall ($13.25) and ahi tuna tostadas ($5). The most memorable meal of the trip was Fincas grilled pacific octopus ($8.75) in a mouth-watering citrus soy sauce. Dont forget to check out the gorgeous grounds and the larger-than-life wine barrel viewing decks, perfect for stargazing with a nightcap.

Adobe Food Truck: For a casual lunch with outdoor seating, stop by this popular food truck serving sandwiches, salads and tapas. Many plates are $5 or less.

Deckmans: Dine under the stars with an outdoor kitchen helmed by Michelin-starred chef Drew Deckman. The locally grown, farm-to-table fare includes Thai curry mussels ($12.75) and a five-course tasting menu for $39.80.

Hip hotels

Though gourmet food is a steal in Valle, expect fewer frills and pricier rates from the boutique hotels popping up throughout the area.

Villas Maglen: This newly built, centrally located hotel has six desert-chic villas grouped around fire pits, a small pool and an onsite restaurant.

Adobe Guadalupe: Explore the valleys vineyards via horseback while staying in this stunning, hacienda-style hotel.

Encuentro Guadalupe: This unique property offers 22 modern, eco-friendly pods with sweeping vineyard views.

Plan like a pro

Visit on weekdays to avoid crowded tasting rooms and traffic jams at the border, but note that many wineries are only open Thursday-Sunday and most close by 5 p.m. You can check border wait times online.

Credit cards are widely accepted throughout Valle, but it may handy to pick up pesos before you arrive.

Wine not your thing? Check out bike rentals, zip lines, spas, horseback riding and ATV adventures or head to nearby Ensenada for fishing, watersports or a stroll through the touristy pier.

Follow @htlifeandstyle for moreCondemning the post-Brexit vision of an Empire 2.0 articulated by some leading lights of the ruling Conservative Party, Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn told MPs from India and 24 other countries on Wednesday that the vision is an insult to Commonwealth countries.

Calling for a reset of ties between Britain and the Commonwealth, Corbyn told the Commonwealth Parliamentarians Forum that the relationship must be based on respect, human rights and a partnership of equals. Four Indian MPs are attending the meeting.

Corbyns keynote speech came ahead of the April meeting of the Commonwealth heads of government (CHOGM) to be attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, among others. The Theresa May government is keen to leverage Commonwealth links in a future beyond its exit of the European Union.

The Labour leader condemned the vision promoted by some powerful Conservatives of Empire 2.0 after Britain leaves the EU, calling it an insult to Commonwealth countries, his party said.

There is a realisation that London neglected its Commonwealth links in recent decades as its membership of the European Union flourished. Its new focus on the group comprising mostly members of the erstwhile British Empire is mainly intended to partly compensate trade revenues likely to be adversely affected after the UK leaves the EU in March 2019.

Presenting Labours vision for the Commonwealth, Corbyn said a future Labour government would work to stop illegal financial flows across countries in the group, and noted that most of the UKs bilateral investment treaties date back to the 1980s and 1990s and were in urgent need of revision.

That is why Labour is committed to review these historic investment treaties and ensure they are fit for the 21st century: rebalancing the rights and responsibilities of investors to ensure that host communities can genuinely benefit from the opportunities that foreign investment provides, he said.

In particular, we have affirmed our opposition to investor-state dispute settlement mechanisms in our investment relations with other countries.

The Indian MPs attending the meeting are Rajiv Pratap Rudy, OP Mathur and Mala Rajya Lakshmi Shah (all BJP) and Vivek Gupta (Trinamool Congress). India is expected to be asked to take on a greater role in the Commonwealth at the CHOGM.President Hassan Rouhani on Wednesday said Iran is ready to discuss regional security issues with its Gulf Arab neighbours as long as foreign powers are kept out of any potential talks.

We dont need foreigners to guarantee the security of our region, Rouhani said in a speech broadcast on state television.

When it comes to regional security arrangements, we are ready to talk to our neighbours and friends, without the presence of foreigners, he added.

We are, have been and always will be good neighbours, Rouhani said, addressing Gulf Arab countries including Irans regional rival Saudi Arabia.

Rouhani was speaking in the southern port city of Bandar Abbas overlooking the Gulf -- a flashpoint of tensions between Iran and Saudi Arabia.

The two powers, who severed diplomatic ties in January 2016, have taken opposing sides in wars in Syria and Yemen.

Shiite-dominated Iran is the main regional backer of the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad against Sunni rebels supported by Saudi Arabia.

In Yemen, a Saudi-led coalition has been bombing since 2015 Iran-backed Shiite Huthi rebels opposed to the internationally recognised government.

Western powers and their Gulf Arab allies say Iran is a destabilising influence in the Middle East.

Tehran, however, has regularly called for dialogue with its neighbours free of any foreign interference.

Rouhanis comments came a day after the United States and three European allies condemned Iran after the United Nations found Tehran had violated the arms embargo on Yemen by failing to block supplies of missiles and drones to Huthi rebels.

The condemnation came after Russia vetoed a British-drafted resolution renewing sanctions on Yemen and citing particular concern about a reports findings on Iran.

Rouhani paid tribute to Russias just and intelligent stance.Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is standing by a senior national security officials startling accusation that a convicted Khalistani terrorists presence in India during his recent visit was an attempt by rogue elements in the Indian establishment to embarrass him on the issue of Sikh separatist activity on Canadian soil.

As the debacle that was Trudeaus visit to India captivated the Canadian political class, opposition Conservatives raised the issue in the House of Commons, the lower house of Parliament. They asked whether Trudeau agreed with the conspiracy theory advanced by the official, identified by Canadian media as National Security Advisor Daniel Jean.

Responding to the Opposition attack, Trudeau said, When one of our top diplomats and security officials says something to Canadians, its because they know it to be true.

Hours after Trudeaus remarks, the external affairs ministry said any suggestion that the Indian government had anything to do with Atwals presence at two official events in Mumbai and New Delhi was baseless and unacceptable.

Trudeaus comment also brought a furious retort from Conservative MP and leader of Opposition, Andrew Scheer, who tweeted: Justin Trudeau just made an incredibly serious charge against the Indian government  which has real implications for Canadas foreign relations and national security. He needs to provide proof of this immediately.

Jean, during a news conference in New Delhi last Thursday, told the Canadian media it was not an accident that Jaspal Atwal was present in India and had been removed from a blacklist by the Indian government.

Atwal and three men were convicted of attempted murder for a 1986 attack on Akali Dal leader Malkiat Singh Sidhu while he was visiting relatives in Canada.

Sidhu, then a minister of state in the Punjab government, was injured in the attack. He was later killed by Sikh militants in Punjab in 1991.

Trudeau faced embarrassment when it emerged that Atwal had attended an official event in Mumbai, where he was photographed with the Canadian prime ministers wife, and was invited to an official dinner reception hosted by Canadas envoy in New Delhi. The invitation was later rescinded.

External affairs ministry spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said India had noted the exchange in the Canadian Parliament regarding the invitations issued to Atwal to two official events.

Let me categorically state that the government of India, including the security agencies, had nothing to do with the presence of Jaspal Atwal at the event hosted by the Canadian high commissioner in Mumbai or the invitation issued to him for the Canadian high commissioners reception in New Delhi. Any suggestion to the contrary is baseless and unacceptable, he said.

Canadas Opposition MPs have been less than satisfied with the responses they received from the government. Conservative MP Candice Bergen asked, Before our Prime Minister destroys our relationship with our ally, the government and country of India, will he please tell this House what proof he has of that allegation?

Without refuting the allegation against the Indian government, Canadas public safety minister Ralph Goodale fired back that the accusations and insinuations coming from the opposition are simply and utterly false.

New Democratic Party MP Charlie Angus was vehement: Theyve doubled down using a senior civil servant and now the prime minister to spread a conspiracy theory that somehow the Indian government is trying to make the Liberals look bad.

Angus went on, as quoted by the Canadian media, What is the prime minister thinking, putting the interests of the Liberal machine ahead of national security, international relations and Canadas reputation?

Liberal Party MP Randeep Sarai has already owned responsibility for asking Atwal to be included in the list of guests for the dinner reception at the Canadian high commissioners residence in New Delhi, which was attended by Trudeau.

Atwal was also charged but not found guilty of a murderous assault on British Columbia leader Ujjal Dosanjh. In recent years, he has softened his stance towards India and has often opposed Khalistan, leading to his removal from the Indian governments blacklist. He was issued a visa by the Indian consulate in Vancouver.

Canadas NSA Daniel Jean, meanwhile, worked on the pathbreaking Framework for Cooperation between India and Canada on Countering Terrorism and Violent Extremism with his Indian counterpart Ajit Doval. The document was released after the bilateral dialogue between the two prime ministers in New Delhi on Friday.The Maldives detained and deported a group of international lawyers who travelled to the troubled honeymoon islands to study the impact of emergency rule, their organisation said Wednesday.

Law Asia, a regional lawyers association, said it had sent four members in response to an open invitation the government issued two days after President Abdulla Yameen imposed a state of emergency.

That followed a Supreme Court order, later rescinded, to release political prisoners and reinstate sacked lawmakers  a move that would have cost Yameen his majority in parliament.

The President has overseen a major crackdown on dissent in recent years, jailing a series of prominent critics including the opposition leader and sacking MPs who defected from the ruling party.

Earlier this month, Yameen sacked the chief justice and another senior judge before imposing emergency rule, sparking international condemnation.

The crisis has hit the image of the Maldives as a peaceful holiday paradise, although it has had little impact on life away from the capital in the upmarket resort islands popular with honeymooners.

The four lawyers were detained on Sunday when they arrived at Male international airport, where they were held and subsequently deported, Law Asia said.

By such action, the government of Maldives deprived itself of the benefit of an independent and impartial assessment by a fact-finding team not sponsored by any individuals, parties or organisations in the Maldives, it said.

The government had invited international organisations to send representatives to assess the situation in the Maldives and witness the safety and security of Male under emergency rule.

Law Asia said they had been trying for more than two weeks to arrange special visas before deciding to send the delegation after informing the immigration authorities.

Separately, Yameens niece Dunya Maumoon resigned late Tuesday as health minister.

She had been under pressure to resign since Yameen ordered the arrest of her father, ex-president Maumoon Abdul Gayoom.

The 80-year-old was President for 30 years until the countrys first democratic elections in 2008 and was initially see as the power behind the throne until be became estranged from his half brother and backed the opposition.

He was arrested on a charge of trying to topple the government hours after the emergency was declared.Air strikes killed nine civilians and wounded at least 6 on Wednesday in two separate attacks in north and west Yemen by the Saudi-led coalition fighting against the Houthi movement, residents told Reuters.

The Saudi-led coalition, which has intervened in Yemens war since 2015 to try to restore president Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi to power, has conducted frequent air strikes and has often hit civilians, although denies ever doing so intentionally.

The Houthis, a movement derived from northern Yemens Zaidi Shiite Muslim community, have controlled much of Yemen including the capital Sanaa since driving Hadi out three years ago. Saudi Arabia and its Sunni Muslim allies say the Houthis are aligned with Shiite Iran and pose a threat to the region.

Residents said four civilians had been killed in an airstrike in the suburbs of the northern city of Saada, the main Houthi stronghold. Five girls were killed in another airstrike that targeted a field in the west of the country, in the western Hodeidah district.

On Tuesday, airstrikes killed five civilians in north of the country.

The war has killed more than 10,000 people, displaced more than 2 million and driven the country - already the poorest on the Arabian Peninsula - to the verge of widespread famine.Students made an emotional return Wednesday to Floridas Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School where they were greeted by heavy security and well-wishers bearing flowers, two weeks on from a shooting, which killed 17 people.

Im not scared, said 16-year-old Sean Cummings as he prepared to resume classes with his fellow students.

Its just weird to come back after everything that has happened.

Students cross as they arrive to attend Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School for the first time since the shooting on February 28. (AFP Photo)

Neighbours along with pupils from other schools and Marjory Stoneman Douglas alumni waved at the teenagers and gave them encouragement as they entered the campus.

Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School reopened most of its doors for about 3,000 students at 7.40 am EST (1240 GMT) for a half-day schedule. The building where most of the victims died will remain closed indefinitely.

Nicholas Rodrigues, 15, a freshman who lives in Coral Springs with his parents and two sisters, said he walked the mile to school on Wednesday rather than ride his Black Mongoose bicycle because wanted to think about things.

A student holds a flower and a button that reads, #MSDSTRONG, as she arrives for classes at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School for the first time since the shooting on February 14. (AFP Photo)

School buses arrived shortly after 7 am, with several hundred police officers on hand to escort students, who wore the schools colours of burgundy and white, to make them feel safe.

Fred Guttenberg, whose daughter Jamie was killed in the massacre, said he was not afraid for his surviving son, also a student at Douglas, because it is now the safest school in America.

But [its] bittersweet because my son walks in here without his sister, Guttenberg told CNN on Wednesday. This is not what we envisioned for ourselves watching our kids go through high school.

On Valentines Day, former student Nikolas Cruz entered the school and opened fire with a semi-automatic rifle, killing 14 students and three staff members.

Since the shooting, Stoneman students have been lobbying politicians for stricter gun controls both in their home state of Florida and in Washington.

Republican lawmakers, with majorities in the US and Florida legislatures, have been cool on bringing in major reforms on the sales of firearms.

A crossing guard stops traffic for students as they cross to attend classes at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School for the first time since the shooting that killed 17 people on February 14 at the school on February 28. (AFP Photo)

Pressure, however, is growing on businesses.

On Wednesday, Dicks Sporting Goods, a large chain store selling sporting and hunting items, announced that it would immediately stop selling assault-style rifles and would not sell guns to anyone under the age of 21.Pakistan on Wednesday confirmed that the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) is set to include it in a watchlist of nations not doing enough to curb terror financing and said it will come up with an action plan to tackle the problem.

Foreign Office spokesman Mohammad Faisal told a weekly news briefing in Islamabad that the financial watchdog had decided to place Pakistan on its grey list during a plenary meeting in Paris last week.

Pakistan will be placed on the grey list in June, but there is currently no chance of placement on the black list, Faisal said, adding an action plan to eradicate terror financing is being prepared and will be shared with the FATF.

The FATF has asked Pakistan to take additional steps to curb money laundering and terror financing and the country will cooperate with the watchdog in every possible way.

There was considerable confusion in Pakistan after the FATF voted at the plenary to place Pakistan on the grey list and the matter was not mentioned in the official statement issued after the meeting. Officials said this was because certain formalities, such as the framing of an action plan, need to be completed before Pakistans inclusion in the watchlist.

A move backed by the US, the UK, Germany and France to put Pakistan in the grey list was blocked during preliminary discussions at the FATF meeting by China, Turkey and the Gulf Cooperation Council.

After the US and its allies intervened with China and Saudi Arabia, which was voting on behalf of the GCC, and the matter was put to vote again, Pakistan was backed only by Turkey. The development embarrassed Pakistani leaders, including foreign minister Khawaja Asif, who had tweeted that the country had been given a reprieve.

Faisal said Pakistan has taken steps to remove deficiencies in its regime to counter money laundering and terror financing. He cited the presidential ordinance that was quietly passed days before the FATF meeting to amend the Anti-Terrorism Act to include all UN-listed individuals and entities in Pakistans list of banned groups and persons.

Critics say Pakistan has done virtually nothing to control fund-raising and recruitment by the Jamaat-ud-Dawah and Falah-e-Insaniyat Foundation, declared as fronts for the Lashkar-e-Taiba. They also say Pakistan has not cracked down on LeT founder Hafiz Saeed, the alleged mastermind of the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks.

Pakistan was included in the FATFs grey list in 2012 and removed three years later, after it took some steps to counter terror financing. Pakistan will now have to follow come up with an action plan by May. Once the FATF approves the action plan, it will make a formal announcement about placing Pakistan in the grey list in June.

If Pakistan fails to submit an action plan, or if the plan is not accepted by the FATF, it faces the possibility of being placed in the black list along with North Korea and Iran.

Inclusion in the grey list means all international financial transactions involving Pakistan will face greater scrutiny.President Donald Trump launched a new attack on his attorney general Jeff Sessions saying it was disgraceful for him to launch an investigation into potential abuse by a secret court that deals with security agencies request for surveilling foreign spies on American soil.

Trump wanted justice department prosecutors to investigate abuses of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which the US uses to monitor the communications of suspected foreign agents. He seemed to suggest that Sessions move would undermine the Republican demand of probing alleged FISA misuse in 2016 as inspector general Michael Horowitz is an Obama-era appointee.

Why is A.G. Jeff Sessions asking the Inspector General to investigate potentially massive FISA abuse. Will take forever, has no prosecutorial power and already late with reports on Comey etc. Isnt the I.G. an Obama guy? Why not use Justice Department lawyers? DISGRACEFUL! he tweeted.

Trumps tweet on Wednesday was his latest public criticism of Sessions and the second this week. Despite his backing his president on policy decisions like cracking down on illegal immigration, Trump is unhappy with the former Alabama senator for recusing himself from special prosecutor Robert Muellers investigation into the possible collusion of Trumps campaign team with Russia in the 2016 election.

Trump feels betrayed, believing his attorney general should have been there to protect him.

Former chief of staff Reince Priebus has claimed he had to convince Sessions at least once last year to rescind a decision to resign, and rescued him from being fired on two other occasions.Pipeline

28 February 2018

Steigenberger Hotels and Resorts are set to grow in Egypt. Plans are in place for the nine existing hotels in the country to be joined by the Steigenberger Pure Lifestyle in Hurghada from November 2018 onwards. The hotel will be run by the developer ALDAU Development via a franchise agreement and be positioned within the high-end five-star lifestyle segment. It will form part of the Mega Steigenberger ALDAU Resort, which has already won a total of 63 international awards. The resort"s present hotels, the Steigenberger ALDAU Beach and the Steigenberger Aqua Magic, are renowned for their high level of hospitality and the outstanding service they provide. State-of-the art conference rooms and a unique water park also make them an ideal destination for all target groups.

The Steigenberger Pure Lifestyle will also encompass a whole new dimension of luxury by operating as a suite hotel only. 110 suites, each of which will boast a minimum size of 55 square metres, mean that plenty of space and comfort will be on offer. The hotel will also provide a full range of gastronomic delights. Various restaurants will serve up Asian and Mediterranean cuisine, and a gourmet market with eight live cooking stations will provide plenty of choice and ensure that all requirements are catered for 24 hours a day. Guests will also enjoy access to a private sandy beach with its own modern Beach Club and co-use of all pool facilities at the adjacent hotels  the Steigenberger ALDAU Beach and the Steigenberger Aqua Magic.Industry Update

Appointment

27 February 2018

Amr Kelany

Appointed F&B Director

At Fairmont Dubai , United Arab Emirates

Fairmont Dubai has appointed Amr Kelany as food and beverage manager. He has joined the hotel from his most recent role as assistant director of food and beverage at Sofitel Dubai Downtown. At the Sofitel Dubai Downtown he was overseeing the daily food and beverage operations and leading a team of 225 colleagues. Kelany has more than 20 years of global experience within luxury hotel brands" food and beverage leadership positions across the United Kingdom, Egypt, Turkey, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and the UAE. He holds a Degree in Hotel Administration from the Helwan University in Cairo, Egypt.

Hotelschools.com Helwan University Amr Kelany (Class of 1991) is a graduate of Helwan University in Cairo - Egypt (Class of 1991) is a graduate of Helwan University in Cairo - Egypt more information

Accor Accor is a world-leading hospitality group consisting of more than 5,000 properties and 10,000 food and beverage venues throughout 110 countries. The group has one of the industrys most diverse and fully-integrated hospitality ecosystems encompassing luxury and premium brands, midscale and economy offerings, unique lifestyle concepts, entertainment and nightlife venues, restaurants and bars, branded private residences, shared accommodation properties, concierge services, co-working spaces and more. more information

Recent Appointments at Accor Michel Suesse - Cluster Director of Revenue 6 September 2021  Michel Suesse steps in as cluster director of revenue, entrusted will streamlining the hotels' distribution channels, optimising revenue streams and aligning all three hotels' long-term strategies. read more

Rawail Muhammad - Cluster Talent & Culture Manager 6 September 2021  Rawail Muhammad is the new cluster talent and culture manager of Fairmont Dubai, Fairmont Ajman and Fairmont Fujairah. He will lead and oversee the day-to-day operations of the HR department and assist with the implementation of new strategies and revaluate processes to enhance the service culture through learning and development. read moreEvent

HT-NEXT has quickly become the must-attend educational and networking experience for hospitality technology professionals and solution providers! In a program that combines two leading industry events  Hospitality Technologys Hotel Technology Forum and HTNGs North American Conference  HT-NEXT is where the industry meets.

HTNG 2018 North American Conference is organized bySupplier News

28 February 2018

This week alone, attendees confirmed include Expedia, Singapore Airlines, Turkish Airlines, Trip Advisor, IHG, Cliff Hotels, IHG and more who will be joining our confirmed speaker list including Hilton, Marriott, Choice Hotels, Winding Tree, Priceline, Booking.com, Cathay Pacific Airways, Lola, Air Canada and more! The West Coast's largest digital travel summit will tackle topics such as the role of emerging technologies in travel, personalization, marketing strategies, utilizing data and technology to deliver an exceptional customer experience & much more. And this is just the start.

This keynote panel discussion will be featured on Day 2 at the upcoming EyeforTravel San Francisco Digital Summit 2018 on April 9-10 at Hotel Nikko.

About Reuters Events

Reuters Events is a community where the worlds top online travel brands  from hotels to airlines, online travel agents, cruise, car hire firms and more  come to meet to drive forward growth and innovation in the industry.

We know that working in the turbulent online travel industry is as exciting as it is challenging. In this constantly evolving market place, we appreciate that keeping up with the pace of change can be tough, not to mention time consuming. You need the right information, contacts and strategic insight to succeed.

Established in 1997, by Tim Gunstone, we offer a diverse product portfolio including industry analysis, insights, research, webinars, reports and conferences to suit the needs of our clients.

Our clients read as a whos who of online travel. From major hotel brands to new startups, we help our 80,000 strong customer base make better decisions, build better brands, close the most lucrative deals and ultimately sell more of their product. After all, increasing travel brand profit margins in the cutthroat travel industry is the name of the game!

No other online travel intelligence provider has been charting the growth of online travel as long as we have. We were here at the inception of online travel and we know the industry inside out. Whats more, were a small, friendly team. Forget impersonal hierarchies, we like to get to know our customers and work towards their exact needs.Supplier News

28 February 2018

"When Airlie opened lodging to public and leisure guests we found that our existing system was inadequate. We researched many systems and installed Maestro PMS in the Cloud to support total property operations. It was the right decision. Maestro enables flexible mobile check-in throughout our 300 plus acre property and supports our company's efforts to be as paperless as possible. We had a very fast, professional installation with the Maestro team and my staff loves the system. The Maestro cloud solution is fantastic."

Suzanne Gilmartin, Airlie's Director of Rooms.

Airlie, located one hour from Washington, DC in Warrenton, Virginia, was developed in 1956 by Dr. Murdoc Head to host significant conferences. The property became a destination where individuals and organizations could meet in a distraction-free, neutral environment to exchange ideas on issues, ignite thought and inspire collective action around shared interests and values. For more than five decades, global leaders and policy makers have visited Airlie Center for conferences that have shaped the future of social movements and institutions. Today, Airlie is also open to the public and continues to host organizations and social events.

The Need

Airlie has 17 meeting venues on 300 plus acres. For more than 50 years Airlie operated solely as a conference destination. When Airlie opened its property to the general public for social events and leisure guests its existing system could not support their growth plans. Airlie's team identified that it needed a full-featured, mobile-enabled integrated property management suite that provided flexible remote tablet check-in and credit card capture at separate property activity sites. Additionally, the right property software had to provide a fast guest registration process to let the staff personally interact with guests and provide the ability to collect guest data for future initiatives. Since Airlie was founded on ideals of environmental stewardship, the new system also had to support Airlie's commitment to green operational policies.

The Integrated Maestro Cloud Hosted Solution

Front Office and CRM property software

Online Direct Web Booking Engine

Mobile Digital Signature Capture

Guest and Staff SMS Text Messaging

Guest Experience Measurement (GEM) Online Surveys

WebPro online pre check-in, registration, remote credit card capture

Analytics Business Intelligence, Data Mining and Reporting

Loyalty and Gift Card Systems

Activities Booking Management

The Benefit

Suzanne Gilmartin, Airlie's Director of Rooms, said, "Our management team researched many systems to meet our property's complex requirements. We selected Maestro Web PMS in the Cloud because it most fully met our operational goals. It was the right decision." Maestro enables Airlie to provide remote check-in on tablets at each property location, as well as in the lobby at the front desk. "Tablet check-in is fast so that our team has more time to interact with guests, and our guests tell us they like the tablet process." To lower Airlie's hardware requirements, Maestro hosts the Cloud system from its secure North American data centers.

"Weddings are important personal experiences. Arriving guests want to be in their rooms as soon as possible," Gilmartin said. "Maestro's SMS text functionality lets us auto message guests on their mobile device as soon as their rooms are available. Guests love this. Airlie is a 'green' property and Maestro lets us go paperless. Maestro works on iPads with e-Signature capture so there are no registration cards. This makes for a fast, easy check in." At check-out Maestro also lets guests review their folio on the tablet's screen and have it emailed to reduce hardcopies. "We had a very fast, professional installation with the Maestro team and my staff loves the system. The Maestro cloud system is fantastic."

Maestro Property Management Software (PMS) delivers flexible and scalable deployment options with a web browser or windows solution available in the cloud or on premise. Maestro's revenue-generating property software tools and services increase profitability, drive direct bookings, centralize operations, and provide personalized and mobile guest service tools to enhance the guest experience. Click here for more information on how to engage and socialize with Maestro PMS.

About Maestro PMS

Maestro is the preferred cloud and on-premise PMS solution for independent hotels, luxury resorts, conference centers, vacation rentals and multi-property groups. This PCI certified and EMV ready enterprise system offers 20+ integrated modules on a single database including web and mobile tools to increase profitability and enable operators to engage guests with a personalized experience. For over 37 years Maestro's Diamond Plus Service has provided unparalleled 24/7 North American based support and education services to keep hospitality groups operational and productive. Click here for more information on Maestro.Supplier News

28 February 2018

Orlando, Fla. -- As hoteliers continue to cautiously increase IT budgets and place a higher priority on digital guest engagement in 2018, according to Hospitality Technology's 2018 Lodging Technology Study, Intelity continues to develop new tools to meet hoteliers' and guests' demands. The developer of the world's first and most widely used integrated guest services platform will showcase its ICE (Interactive Customer Experience) platform at HT-NEXT in San Diego, March 12 to 14. Of keen interest to attendees will be Intelity's new ICEvoice solution (formerly called Voice Request) that uses Amazon's Alexa to enable hotel guests to talk to their room with voice-activated commands.

ICEvoice was developed in direct response to the industry's demand for artificial intelligence (AI) and voice-enabled devices. The study asked hoteliers to identify which emerging technologies had the greatest potential to effect change in the industry. Seventy percent said AI and voice technology will deliver the most benefits because it "ties back to the hyper focus hotels are placing on getting customer lifecycle data." Also in the study, Gartner reports that "by 2021, early adopter brands that redesign websites to support voice search will increase digital commerce revenue by 30%."

ICEvoice, which is in the running for the HTNG 2018 TechOvations Award and will be presented by Intelity at HT-NEXT, acts as a virtual concierge, enabling guests to make requests, adjust room controls and more all with just a few simple voice commands. Voice Request also extends the power of voice command to the conference space. Meeting planners can conduct business with a constant connection to their staff through the tool. Voice Request examples in the meetings environment include: "Tell the hotel that we would like more coffee," "Tell the hotel that we would like more water," or "Tell the hotel that we need more chairs."

"Each time new industry research is released, Intelity finds its solutions are perfectly aligned with industry demand generators," said Gregg Hopkins, Intelity chief sales and marketing officer. "Although voice technology is just making inroads in hospitality, it's eye-opening to see that nearly three-quarters of hoteliers surveyed already see it having a profound impact on guest service and engagement. Voice is just one technology identified by this study that is perfectly aligned with our solutions. Several others have been on the market for some time and quickly making traction as demand arises."

According to the study, 19% of hoteliers' plan to add a "personal concierge via mobile devices" this year. Soon, Intelity will announce the first ICEvoice roll out at two hotels that are part of an international brand of luxury hotels and resorts. ICEvoice is now live as part of the brands mobile concierge program.

Mobile & Personalized Marketing

The 2018 Lodging Technology Study also shows that 57% of hoteliers' plan to invest in technologies that "empower guests with mobile and personalized marketing experiences." One of the best ways to engage today's travelers is through a mobile app. The research shows that 39% of hoteliers' plan to add or upgrade their existing customer mobile app in 2018, and 19% will invest in in-room tablets.

Intelity not only develops customer-facing mobile apps via ICEapp for hotels, but its ICEbedside solution maximizes a hotels connection to their guests through an in-room tablet. ICEbedside provides guests with greater control by giving direct digital access to hotel staff to request room service, housekeeping or set wake-up calls and the ability to set room preferences, revolutionizing a personalized guest experience.

Mobile Check-In/Out + Mobile Key

An in-demand feature of today's mobile hotel apps is enabling check-in/out and allowing guests to use their smartphones as mobile room keys. Forty-eight percent of survey participants said they plan to invest in a mobile app that facilitates mobile check-in/out, and 23 percent plan to invest in a mobile app that supports a mobile key.

MiKEY, a module of the Intelity Guest Service Platform, enables the Mobile Check-in, Mobile Check-out, and Mobile Key functionality that today's hoteliers are looking for. Presented as a mobile app that is downloaded on a smart device (phone or tablet), guests can book a hotel, check-in remotely, skip traditional front-desk check in and use their smart device to securely unlock their room door. MiKEY integrates with a hotel's existing Bluetooth Low Energy door locks to streamline the check-in experience. The transmitted key code is safely stored in a key vault on the mobile app. When a guest arrives at his or her room door, they touch the MiKEY icon within the app, and their personal digital key information is transmitted via Bluetooth over a secure communication channel to unlock the door.

"Intelity is fully entrenched in the mobile hospitality landscape," Hopkins said. "We are listening to what hoteliers want and developing tools that guests need to enrich their stays and keep them coming back. As technology continues to dictate the experience guests expect and demand, Intelity stands ready to equip hoteliers with the tools they need to deliver on those experiences."External Article

28 February 2018

David Fahrenthold, reporter for The Washington Post, talks with Rachel Maddow about the Trump hotel in Panama fighting to remove Donald Trump's name, and the potential political implications if Trump tries tries to insert himself.JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.



You should upgrade or use an You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.You should upgrade or use an alternative browserTianfu Minyoun Hospitality (Tianfu Minyoun) and Hyatt Hotels Corporation (NYSE: H) today announced that Hyatt and Tianfu Minyoun entered into a strategic development agreement to drive the expansion of Hyatt Place and Hyatt House hotels in China. The franchise agreements for the first three Hyatt-branded hotels under this strategic development agreement were also signed on the same day.

Tianfu Minyoun Hospitality (Tianfu Minyoun) and Hyatt Hotels Corporation (NYSE: H) today announced that Hyatt and Tianfu Minyoun entered into a strategic development agreement to drive the expansion of Hyatt Place and Hyatt House hotels in China. The franchise agreements for the first three Hyatt-branded hotels under this strategic development agreement were also signed on the same day.

As leading hospitality companies in China and the United States, Tianfu Minyoun and Hyatt will bring together their resources and leverage their respective strengths for the development of Hyatt Place and Hyatt House hotels, with plans to bring both brands to more vibrant business and travel destinations throughout China. Under the strategic development agreement, 50 Hyatt Place and Hyatt House hotels are expected to be developed by Tianfu Minyoun and in cooperation with Chinese investors over the next five years, the first of which include Hyatt Place Nanchong Gaoping, Hyatt Place Changchun Jingyue and Hyatt House Changchun Jingyue. The three hotels will be operated and managed by Tianfu Minyoun. Additionally, Tianfu Minyoun is also planning to develop hotels under The Unbound Collection by Hyatt and Hyatt Centric brands in unique and attractive destinations across China. Once open, these hotels will be part of Hyatt's loyalty program, World of Hyatt. Guests will be able to earn World of Hyatt points and redeem for free night awards and access many other benefits at Hyatt locations worldwide.



Mark Hoplamazian, President and Chief Executive Officer, Hyatt Hotels Corporation and Zhang Jianming, Chairman, Tianfu Minyoun Hospitality entered into a strategic development agreement to drive the expansion of Hyatt Place and Hyatt House hotels in China. They were joined by members of Hyatt Hotels Corporation, Tianfu Minyoun Hospitality, Road King Infrastructure Ltd., Sichuan Tianfu Bank, and Nuo Ruide. (credit: John Gress Photography)

"The relationship with Tianfu Minyoun is yet another milestone for Hyatt's growth in China," said President and Chief Executive Officer Mark Hoplamazian, Hyatt Hotels Corporation. "Hyatt continues to seek innovative ways to build a diversified brand portfolio by collaborating with owners and developers who share our values and our commitment to expanding our brand growth in a country with such significant growth potential."

"Tianfu Minyoun is a Chinese hotel group with 20 years' experience in operating upscale hotels, has developed strong guest loyalty and a striking return on investment," said Chairman Zhang Jianming, Tianfu Minyoun. "Under this exciting strategic cooperation with Hyatt, we will bring to the market Hyatt-branded hotels in innovative ways and contribute to the sustainable development of China's hotel industry."

"We are pleased to be working with Tianfu Minyoun, the first authorized third-party management company for franchised Hyatt hotels in China," said Asia Pacific Group President David Udell, Hyatt Hotels Corporation. "Hyatt has a strong brand reputation among business and leisure guests for authentic hospitality worldwide. Tianfu Minyoun Hospitality has profound insights into the Chinese market and has gained crucial financial support to power our collaboration with them. Different from exclusive franchise and brand agency models, the cooperation between Tianfu Minyoun and Hyatt is set to make the most of both sides' respective strengths and resources to boost the development of the Hyatt Place and Hyatt House brands in China. With our combined efforts, we look forward to creating distinguished guest experiences that exceed expectations in the dynamic and highly competitive China market."

As a testament of this relationship's capacity, Tianfu Minyoun has also secured a credit line of RMB 30 billion from Sinhuan Tianfu Bank, which would go towards the construction and renovation loans for hotel owners of the projects contemplated by the strategic development agreement. Tianfu Minyoun has also teamed up with Road King Investment Group to establish a RMB 10 billion industrial fund to support the agreement.

Daily News Delivery Join your colleagues and stay up to date on the latest Hotel industry news and trends. Subscribe

 2021 Hotel News ResourceIt looks like Akon has been hit with a massive bill for walking out on a space he rented out a few years ago. According to TMZ, who obtained documents from the lawsuit, the pop icon has been ordered to pay $164,786.99 to a company that leased him some space on the 66th floor of the Empire State Building for his fashion line, Aliaune Milano.

Akon apparently agreed in July of 2012 to pay $25k per month to the leasing company GTFM to lease the space in the Empire State Building, which he complied with until July of 2015 when he stopped paying rent. GTFM claims Akon's company finally left in January of 2016, owing almost 7 months of rent.

As a result of the missed payments, the leasing company had sued Akon, but the International superstar never responded to the lawsuit, so the judge issued a default judgment.

This report comes just a day after Akon was in the news for saying he couldve helped Puerto Rico restore energy & electricity within 30 days, but they were rejected. We actually presented a program for Puerto Rico and we got rejected, Akon told TMZ. We have the solution for Puerto Rico, clearly. We wouldve had power up in less than 30 days and they rejected us.

We'll continue to keep you posted on the latest with Akon moving forward.

[Via]Possibly the most outspoken figure in hip-hop, and definitely leading her female emcee counterparts in terms of candid behavior, is Azealia Banks. Never one to shy away from sharing her opinion, the New York rapper was lurking in the Instagram comments to clear her mind about Cardi B and Nicki Minaj's upcoming full-length projects. Cardi updated her IG story yesterday to tell fans to be patient as her album is on the way, to which Banks somehow took issue to.

Azealia Banks wrote that, in lieu of the Cardi announcement, Nicki should push her own release back to the spring of 2019. Azealia continued that, if Cardi drops during the summer, Nicki should plan her release to directly follow it, to starve her out of achieving success with the project. The comments allude to an assumption among many that not more than one female rapper can succeed at a time, which is simply a dated mindset. With the #TimesUp and #MeToo movements going strong in Hollywood, 2018 is a big year for women to receive the recognition they deserve and the same can be said for women in hip-hop.

Banks also touched on Remy Ma's upcoming project, stating that she is not a factor because "She's too masculine to battle with any of the leading names in female rap and her taste in beats also sucks." Yikes. Azealia did not hold back here. She is also planning the release of Fantasea II: The Second Wave, which is due next month. Check out her comments about Nicki, Cardi, and Remy below.Having just debuted their UNDEFEATED collaboration, BAPE is back with another drop that sticks to just one colour. The Japan-based brand comes through with a collection that features indigo dye and handstitched sashiko.

Just in time for Spring, and yet another release to consider to drop your bank on, this new capsule boasts the Katakana BAPE branding, APE heads, and the very well-known Shark branding. Patch-work detail adds even more notable texture to the pieces, that will fade to your particular shade of Indigo over time.

Peep the looks below and cop your favourite piece in stores and online starting March 3rd.

All images via BAPEGiiFromTheIslands' been buzzing for a minute. The artist was born in the Bahamas but raised in Chicago. Many know may know him better as Young Gii but regardless, he's still dropping dope music. He broke out in the scene in 2015 with his mixtape Islands To The City and has been pushing out a steady stream of new music. Last summer, he dropped off his latest project All Work No Play. The eight track project was a hit and highlighted his strengths as an artist as he held down the entire project on his own. Now, he returns with a brand new single for an HNHH premiere.

GiiFromTheIslands' drops off his latest single today with "I Luv It." The song returns closer to the sounds of Islands To The City than some of his more recent work. It has his Bahamian roots in it but he still brings in some bars for the J-Mixx produced track. It's another dope effort from Gii and hopefully, he has more coming for us this year.

Quotable Lyrics

I'm tryna get her out of the clothes that she came in

Sippin' and chasin', it's forcin' my patience

Smokin' the gas, homegrown is my fragrance

She throwin' the signs like I'm yours for the takenMichelle Obama is very active on Twitter. She has 10.2 million followers and all of her tweets make sense and don't offend anyone. She recently spoke on a health panel at Klick Healths MUSE in New York where she explained how she has a committee that vets her statements before she sends them out to the Twitterverse.

I tweet, but I have a committee, she said. I dont just tweet off the top of my head, which I dont encourage people to do  especially kids. She explained how it can be damaging for kids to just tweet the first thing that comes to their minds.

I think kids do think telling it like it is and talking off the top of your head [is cool] [but] thats never been good," she told the audience. "We werent raised like that. Thats rude. Thats what you call rude."

Seemingly a subtle jab at America's current President, Donald Trump, Michelle added: "But yes, I use social media. But I use it like a grown-up.

As we all know, Donald uses his Twitter account to send out a myriad of tweets that have left us to question if he has a committee that vets his statements. Just recently he went after Oprah, calling her "insecure" and before that, he used his account to deny the sexual assault allegations pinned against his name.

"A woman I dont know and, to the best of my knowledge, never met, is on the FRONT PAGE of the Fake News Washington Post saying I kissed her (for two minutes yet) in the lobby of Trump Tower 12 years ago," he tweeted. "Never happened! Who would do this in a public space with live security......"The very idea of the first camera from Google causes people to freak out.

The tiny Clips camera, which arrived in stores Tuesday, decides on its own what to record. Whenever it's on, artificial intelligence inside is watching. "This doesn't even *seem* innocent," tweeted Elon Musk after Google announced Clips in October. When I first saw one, I couldn't shake the feeling Google had created the creepy surveillance contraption in Dave Eggers' Silicon Valley horror "The Circle."

So in the interests of science and averting dystopia, I've been using a $250 Clips for the past two weeks. I turned its eye on a toddler playgroup. I wore it in the subway. I clipped it onto a feather toy at a cat cafe.

And I learned Google's candid camera isn't an evil all-seeing eye. In fact, it's not even good enough to replace the need for your camera on your phone. But it tells us a lot about where technology is heading, for better and worse.

Video: The Post's Geoffrey A. Fowler took a trip to a cat cafe in San Francisco to test Google's new camera, which contains A.I. to capture cute moments.(Jhaan Elker,Geoffrey Fowler,Javaria Khan/The Washington Post)

Clips is like a GoPro with a mind of its own. It's the first camera that seeks to use AI to replace the main job of photographers: pressing the shutter button. It's not hard to imagine the appeal to helicopter parents and anyone who spends too much time operating a smartphone camera. You set this thing near your baby (human, feline or canine) and it will sift through all the boring moments to record 7-second video bursts of some of the interesting ones. Many of us record far more than we ever edit, or even look at. To Google that looks like a problem AI might solve.

What's just as remarkable as Google's AI advances is that the tech giant seems to have understood it makes people uncomfortable. In a number of notably un-Googly ways, Clips plays it extra careful with how it handles data that could easily become yet another privacy incursion.

At least on this first version. And Clips is definitely just the beginning for AI in cameras and all sorts of everyday things.

Getting the shot - sometimes

From the moment you twist the lens on the Clips to turn it on, the camera starts hunting for interesting shots. Its wide-angle lens can see a bit more than most phones, though it captures scenes at a lower quality and without any sound.

But how does Clips know what's interesting? Google says it spent three years studying what people do with cameras. Then it hired three professionals - a documentary filmmaker, a photojournalist and a fine arts photographer - to train its camera how to pick good shots when they happen. Good: Stability with a little bit of motion. Bad: Fingers obscuring the lens. They taught it to look for joyous faces, especially of children, and to recognize dogs and cats.

When I took it into the real world, Clips captured about half of what I would have chosen - and some of what I would not. Google says AI isn't about finding the needle in a haystack as much as it is clearing away some of the hay.

I brought one to a San Francisco cat cafe to see if it would suffice in a setting literally bursting with cute. It got some Like-worthy shots, but didn't replace my phone. I had to keep moving Clips to where the action was in view and in focus, ideally within 3 to 8 feet. (Warning: Cats and dogs also think Clips, which is not waterproof, looks like a chew toy.) The camera seems like something one might wear, but it doesn't work well when you're moving around. And good luck clipping one on a cat.

With Clips, in AI you must trust. There is a button you can use to force it to capture, but if you're using that you might as well get out your phone. There's no screen on the back to show you what it sees. It can learn which faces are important if you take a 3-second close up or give it permission to learn from shots in an existing Google Photos library

If you're in the market for a camera to record anything other than kids or pets - from recitals to scuba trips - you're better off with an equally tiny $400 GoPro Hero 6 Black.

But is it evil?

Even with a narrow focus on kids and pets, Clips raises thorny questions. The first one that came to my mind: Does it find black and brown children as appealing as white ones? Google Photos algorithms did, infamously, identify black faces as gorillas in 2015.

I tested Clips with a half dozen kids who were Asian, African American and white, and the software seemed equally interested in them all. Google says it is now more sensitive to building inclusive AI, but its algorithms are still a black box-and are only going to get more complicated from here.

And forget missed shots: If I'm going to let a product peer into my life, who gets to see what's going on? Just because Clips wasn't trained to recognize images other than faces and pets doesn't mean it won't witness some more eyebrow-raising life moments.

Here's where Google surprised me with some unusual-at least for Google-privacy concessions. Clips doesn't connect to the Internet: its intelligence lives on the camera hardware, not in the cloud. (That required some leaps in hardware, it says, that only recently became available.) Google already uses AI to look and analyze people's shots in a far more aggressive way with its popular Photos service-but Clips doesn't rely on that capability.

Clips shots stay physically on the camera until you use a companion Android or iPhone app to either transfer over a shot to your phone's camera roll or delete it. (Clips has 16 GB of storage, which I found hard to fill because its battery only lasts about three hours.) Google says it also isn't using our data or our choices about which clips to keep or delete to improve its algorithms.

Other issues remain: While you may have control over your own camera, what kind of consent do you need from the people you're recording? Clips does have a blinking light, but it is small.

This camera is also an additional beachhead in our playpens and cat palaces for a company that already has way too much data about us. There are plenty of digitally savvy consumers who aren't comfortable with devices like the Google Home speaker, or its rivals Amazon Echo and Apple HomePod. (Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos also owns The Washington Post.) A Deloitte survey last year found 40 percent of respondents worried smart home gadgets reveal too much about their personal lives.

Clips may be a first for a point-and-shoot camera, but it tells us a lot about how AI is arriving in our lives. Amazon is using AI to judge how we dress, with its Echo Look camera. Earlier this month, a startup called LightHouse debuted an AI home security camera that's smart enough to alert you if the kids are running late coming home from school. I guarantee that improving your cat videos is just the beginning of Google's ambitions.

Google deserves a high five for showing there's a way to design AI-powered products that doesn't require beaming data about our lives over the Internet. The risk is that could make us a little more numb if (or when) Google decides to update its terms of service and connect Clips to the cloud. Or puts out a new version that acts more like a surveillance camera.

Google spokeswoman Emily Clarke said Clips does not connect to the Internet for both privacy reasons and to prioritize fast transfer data via a phone. As to whether that would change in the future, she said, "We don't speculate."WASHINGTON - Efforts by Sen. Ted. Cruz to find relief for refiners from the high costs of meeting federal ethanol mandates hit a wall Tuesday as Midwestern senators rejected his proposals at a White House meeting aimed at finding a compromise.

Cruz has proposed capping the prices of credits that refiners must buy if they dont blend ethanol themselves. But after a meeting with corn-belt lawmakers and President Donald Trump, Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, tweeted no deal. Grassley later disputed Cruz's argument that the biofuels compliance system based on the credits - known as Renewable Identifications Numbers or RINs - was hurting oil refineries.

"We haven't had any reputable economist say RINs was the most important problem," Grassley said. "I pointed that out to the president today."

The ethanol mandates, known as the Renewable Fuel Standard was signed into law by former President George W. Bush in 2005, primarily as a way to reduce U.S. dependence on Middle Eastern oil. But as ethanol has taken a larger share he nation's fuel supply, so too have the prices of the biofuel credits. Many refiners complain that the market for the credits is thinly traded and subject to manipulation by Wall Street investors.

The owner of the largest East Coast refinery recently blamed its bankruptcy on the high cost of ethanol credits.

Cruz is urging the Trump administration to place a price cap on the credits. But Trump has told him he wants a plan that is a win-win for both the oil and ethanol industries.

Cruz had blocked a Senate vote on Trump's nominee for undersecretary of agriculture, Bill Northey of Iowa, in an effort to get action on ethanol policy The Texas senator, however, removed that hold Tuesday in recognition of the Midwestern senators willingness to sit down with him and Trump.. He maintained there was still opportunity to reach an agreement with the White House.

"This morning, we had a very positive and productive meeting on fixing the broken RINs system," Cruz said in a statement after the meeting. "I believe we are likely to arrive upon a win-win solution."

Also at the meeting were Senators Joni Ernst, R-Iowa,, and Pat Toomey, R-Pa., along with EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt and Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue, according to sources briefed on the meeting.

RIN prices have credits have increased in recent years, raising billions of dollars in costs on refineries across the nation. Both Cruz and Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, the Senate Majority Whip, are working on prospective remedies in how the government administers the mandate biofuels are blended into the nation's fuel supply.

With Cruz up for re-election in November, he is not expected to let up on an issue that is important to Texas's powerful oil industry. "I wouldn't expect Senator Cruz to back off any position he has on any subject," Grassley said.

Trump is expected to meet with ethanol producers at the White House later this week, Ernst said. Midwestern politicians are reluctant to make any change to the ethanol program, concerned it might reduce demand for a product on which corn farmers in their states have made a good living since the Renewable Fuel Standard was created more than a decade ago.

"Any action that seeks to weaken the RFS for the benefit of a handful of refiners will, by extension, be borne on the backs of our farmers," a coalition of farmers' groups said.

Some political momentum for a bipartisan solution appeared this week when Sen. Tom Carper, D-Del., ranking member of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, told Politico he would support changes to the RIN blending credit market.

Such a move, he said, "would "not do harm to the Renewable Fuel Standard" but would "frankly help a number of refineries that are paying an arm and a leg for RINs when they never expected to do that," according to Politico.Energy companies had a much better year in 2017 as oil prices climbed toward $60 a barrel. So did the Texas state treasury.

Texas oil and gas producers paid more more than $11 billion in royalties and state and local taxes in the last fiscal year, a 17 percent jump from $9.4 billion they paid in 2016, the Texas Oil and Gas Association, a trade group, said Tuesday.

The increase stemmed largely from the drilling boom concentrated in the Permian Basin in West Texas, where record amounts of oil and gas were produced. Led by the Permian, which accounts for about half the active oil rigs in the country, U.S. oil production topped 10 million barrels a day for the first time in 50 years in November. The surge has continued since then, with U.S. crude production reaching a record 10.2 million barrels a day in January, surpassing Saudi Arabias output.

The boom, unleashed by technologies that opened previously inaccessible reserves in shale rock formations, has transformed Houston and the Gulf Coast into an energy exporting hub to rival that of the Middle East. American oil exports, most of them moving through Gulf Coast ports, hit record levels late last year. The U.S. Department of Energy expects that the nation will become a net exporter of natural gas this year for the first time since 1957.

"These energy outcomes were unthinkable a decade ago," Todd Staple, president of the Texas Oil and Gas Association said in in a conference call. "American crude oil is a game changer in international trade."

More Information Texas oil and gas collections 2017 royalties and taxes: $11 billion 2016 royalties and taxes: $9.4 billion 2017 school district collections: $1.1 billion 2016 school district collections: $1.7 billion 2017 county collections: $336 million 2016 county collections: $530 million See More Collapse

The production boom has prompted a major expansion in the state's pipelines, ports and refineries to transport the nations burgeoning supply of energy products and process them into gasoline, petrochemicals and other products.

Recently, the Trump administration included in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' civil works budget $13 million to expand the port of Corpus Christi to increase its export volumes of U.S. oil and natural gas. The port exported more than $6 billion of crude oil last year.

The export surge has created new opportunities for pipeline and terminal companies such as Houstons Enterprise Products Partners, which last year saw its earnings rise to $2.8 billion from $2.5 billion in 2016. The company is working with U.K.-based Navigator Holdings Ltd. to build a new Gulf Coast export facility with the capacity to ship about 1 million tons a year of ethylene, a petrochemical that is the building block for most chemicals.

Though many of the nations energy exports are destined for overseas markets, Mexico has emerged as a major consumer of U.S. natural gas in the wake of a reform of the country's energy markets. In 2013 and 2014, Mexico opened its energy market to foreign investment and pledged to rely on cleaner sources. The Energy Department anticipates that U.S. natural gas exports to Mexico will top 14 billion cubic feet a day by the end of the year, roughly double the volumes shipped in 2015. Texas accounts for much of the supply.

Staples said his association supports the continuation of the North American Free Trade Agreement, which plays a major role in facilitating the export of natural gas and other energy products to Mexico and Canada. The Trump administration has threatened to withdraw U.S. support of the agreement, and representatives from the U.S., Mexico and Canada convened in Mexico City this week for the seventh round of negotiations.

Texans know first hand the importance of this trade agreement in creating jobs and strengthening our economy, Staples said. We would like to see a permanent agreement.

Despite the overall increase in production, Texas school districts and counties saw a decline in mineral property tax collections last year because the taxable value of the oil and gas resources has not yet caught up to the rebound in energy markets. Last year, school districts and counties collected $1.1 billion and $336 million, respectively, down from $1.7 billion and $530 million in 2016.The Harp on Richmond Avenue is having one final blowout on Wednesday night for customers who have grown to love the place over the past 19 years.

But according to owner Declan Plunkett, the fun at 1625 Richmond isn't totally ending.

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On Wednesday morning Plunkett told Chron.com that Ted Baker, owner of neighboring bar Revelry on Richmond, purchased the bar and will close it down for a few weeks. According to Plunkett, Baker's aiming to open back up for St. Patrick's Day next month.

"That is the plan," Baker told Chron.com on Wednesday. "It will be a tight schedule."

"They bought me lock, stock and barrel," Plunkett told Chron.com as he was making preparations for the night's festivities. A weekend bash cleaned out the bar of beer and liquor, but he's reloaded for one more party.

"It will still be The Harp, but just under new management," Plunkett said. "We had been trying to work out a deal for some time and about two weeks back, we finally were able to."

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Back in December, Plunkett told Chron.com that before he opened the bar in October 1999, it was a massage school.

Eclectic seating arrangements made The Harp feel more like a living room or backyard lounge. It's a place where lawyers, chefs, construction workers, and artists have all rubbed shoulders. Potlucks, watch parties, and other special events have kept Houstonians coming back for fun and fellowship.

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Plunkett says that fans of the bar have been buying pictures and memorabilia off the wall in the past weeks.

"As we have been taking a bunch of pictures down, we have seen a bunch of sheetrock holes," Plunkett laughs. "I guess that's why I had pictures up."

Plunkett is looking forward to living full-time down in Playa del Carmen, Mexico. He's split his time between Houston and his Mexican home for a few years now. He moved to Texas from Ireland in the early 80s and jumped right into the thriving Houston bar scene, carving out a niche of his own.

Anyone in the bar business knows that it does take a level of patience and attachment to make a bar special.

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Baker, who just opened Bobcat Teddy's Ice House in the old Jimmy's Ice House spot along White Oak Boulevard, will be spearheading the renovations of The Harp.

New bathrooms and an outdoor deck are in the cards. A new cocktail menu, Irish whiskey program, and other modern features are also coming. Right now Baker is working on staffing his new venture.

"There won't be a lot of changes at first," Baker said. "We will bring in more sunlight but it will always remain The Harp."

We can't see a reason why noted Harp traditions like heated darts matches and a twice-weekly grill night (which has a dedicated following of carnivores) won't live on in this next iteration of the bar.

Craig Hlavaty is a reporter for Chron.com and HoustonChronicle.com.Halfway through a deep dive into the '80s boy band New Edition, in which a reincarnated Ralph Tresvant seduces a front-row audience member with "Sensitivity," one realizes that the High School for the Performing and Visual Arts' "At the Apollo" is not your typical high school Black History Month project.

Maybe the revelation came earlier, when senior Payton Alix, who had just impersonated Cab Calloway in a speedy rendition of "Minnie the Moocher," returns to the stage as MC Hammer and dances with such explosive elegance that, for a brief moment, parachute pants seem cool again.

Or perhaps it was when the unassuming Sarah-Grace Kimberly takes the microphone and you think, "Really, a small white girl singing Chaka Khan?" But then the high school freshman, who had spent the evening playing trumpet in the back of the stage, opens her mouth and, well - is "slay" an appropriate word for someone's interpretation of "Sweet Thing"?

Because if "At the Apollo" was billed as an "American Idol" contest, Kimberly might have won, but she'd have had also to compete with Zachary Hall, cast as a time-traveling janitor, opening the show with a karaoke version of R. Kelly's "Trapped in the Closet." Or Crishard Moore and Dedereck Carr, singing as Stevie Wonder and Ray Charles, respectively, in a musical battle hosted by Steve Harvey (John Hall) called "Sightful Visionaries."

Or Royce Shaw, whose Louis Armstrong impression was so accurately raspy and cartoonish, the sight of Shaw doing it wasn't just impressive, it was mind-boggling.

After all, "At the Apollo," written and directed by Broderick Jones, choreographed by Courtney Jones and music directed by Stephanie York Blue, had nearly every element you'd want in a high school production - a full jazz band, modern, jazz and hip-hop dance showcases, a historical lesson, a dramatic play and a vocal sing-off. Mainly a talent delivery mechanism for the school that produced Jason Moran, Eric Harland and Robert Glasper, "At the Apollo" also told a semi-historical story about a family's effort to revive the theater.

So the "American Idol"-caliber barrage of talent had a point - the uplift of the most important venue in African-American performing arts. The story centered on the infighting between three members of the Sutton family, who owned the Apollo after its heyday. The sisters are an excavation of black female complexity. Nikki, played by Tori Hicks, is the dimwit (think Karen from "Mean Girls"). Margo, played by Nia Paul, is the bougie girl who attends galas, dates a white boy and gets called Stacey Dash. Angie, played by Chloe Browns, is Margo's opposite - proud, militant, black.

Hall's janitor-meets-genie-meets-narrator sends the sisters back in time to convince them the Apollo shouldn't be sold to a developer. From an audience standpoint, the argument's won in a few songs into Act 1's 1930s medley.

Act 2, billed as a fundraiser, is a "best of" album come to life that bursts into existence with Janet Jackson's "Rhythm Nation," re-created with blue hazy lights, lithe black uniforms and Jackson's signature militaristic cap and vest. That immediate transition from 1930s classicism to peak late-'80s dance-pop had a Wakandan quality to it - the Apollo, the "Rhythm Nation" performance suggested, is a cultural mecca whose relevance spans all eras.

The second act of "At the Apollo" reminded me of the performance showcases held at the end of the semester by cultural clubs in college. The Korean or Chinese club would begin the night with traditional song and dance - Asian classical music, if you will - then crowd-please at the end with renditions of, say, Wonder Girls or Jay Chou.

Except African-American music history is not siloed like the Eastern old and Western new of Asian pop, nor was the "classic" set on Friday night at HSPVA as weighed down by due diligence as a Chinese fan dance. There is no clear historical separation between the school's performances of "Jumpin' Jive," "Stop in the Name of Love" and "The Boy Is Mine."

The time-jumping jukebox of "At the Apollo" showed us that even if all Apollo alumni are not created equal, they put down their footprint in the same sand nevertheless. Both Louis Armstrong and Ralph Tresvant played at Harlem's musical Wakanda, both are part of the same pop tapestry and both are all worthy of a Black History Month tribute by Houston's finest high school entertainers.

You can showcase the founding fathers of jazz, in other words, and still leave some room for "Sensitivity."To get to Lucienne, the sophisticated modern French restaurant in the Hotel Alessandra, you climb two flights of steep, grand staircase made of pale marble. You can cheat and take the elevator hidden behind a wall, but rising through this stark, epic space under your own horsepower is part of the drama.

At the top, there's a sleek little bar around a corner and a wine-walled hallway that leads you to my favorite new dining room in the city.

I laughed a little in pleasure and delight at my first sight of the pearly-green-and-silver color scheme; the clever round mirrors ranged along the banquettes; the plump little armchairs; and the filmy sweep of pastoral-printed toile that dressed the window walls to the halfway mark, leaving glimpses of downtown above. It was chic, curvaceous and - dare I say it? - even romantic in a cheeky postmodern way.

LOOK: Hotel Alessandra's newly-completed Presidential Suite

Chef Jose Hernandez and his team are delivering food to match the fresh, unexpected surroundings, from an electric little deviled quail egg that might materialize as an amuse bouche, to the thinny-thin apple tart (a Hernandez signature) that writes a finish.

More for you Houston's best new restaurants of 2017

In between, diners can choose either well-priced four-course or six-course tasting menus, with wine pairings adding $40 or $55, respectively, to the tab; or for an a la carte menu, which is optional at dinner and standard at lunch.

Hernandez's precise French technique and modern sensibility make a refreshing addition to downtown's - and Houston's - current dining choices. This is not a city where French cuisine has made much headway, and despite the hotel's online insistence that Lucienne is "Mediterranean" (a useless umbrella term if ever there were one), Hernandez's food seems very French at heart.

SOMMELIER'S PICK: Ludovic Poirier of Hotel Alessandra

His dreamy cream of artichoke soup tastes so deeply of artichoke that I am pretty sure Escoffier himself would approve. On the lunch menu, there's a modernized version of boeuf bourguignon that captures the winy profundity of the classic, while searing the meltingly tender beef in a Texas-friendly way and adding sumptuous glazed shallot hunks and intense little baby carrots. Add a glass of excellent St. Joseph (one of my favorite red Rhones), and you've got one of the best "sense of occasion" lunches in town.

Just as satisfying at dinnertime is sliced duck breast (rare if you request) with tart/sweet huckleberry sauce and a contrast of baby turnip that is ever so gently bitter. It's unfussy and effective.

Hernandez is adept with the expected luxury staples such as variously garnished foie gras (although I prefer his mousse and torchon treatments to the seared version, with accessories that read too sweet for me). Lobster? You betcha, whether it be a pristine lunch-menu lobster roll on some of the formidable house-baked bread or a delicate dinner-menu preparation of silky claw with a rectangle of fennel-flavored bread pudding and the surprise tang of brown butter flavored with saba, a balsamiclike syrup made from reduced grape must. Either way, the lobster meat reigns supreme.

Lucienne at Hotel Alessandra Three stars 1070 Dallas, 713-242-8555 Hours: Open daily. B: 6:30-11 a.m. L: 11 a.m.-2:30 p.m. D: 5:30-10 p.m. (Mondays-Saturdays only). Brunch: 11 a.m.-2:30 p.m. (Saturdays & Sundays) Credit cards: all major Prices: Dinner tasting menus, $55 for four courses ($95 with wine), $75 for six courses ($130 with wine); a la carte available Must-orders: lamb tartare; Gulf shrimp tartare; gravlax blinis; sweetbreads pithivier with morels; scallops with saffron crawfish broth; flounder with zucchini and citrus vinaigrette; duck breast with huckleberry sauce and turnips; lobster with saba brown butter and fennel bread pudding; apple tart; beef bourguignon, endive salad with green apple (both lunch only) Reservations: suggested; walk-ins welcome; some counter seating Noise level: quiet Parking: valet Website: hotelalessandra-houston.com/lucienne.htm STAR RATINGS Four stars: superlative; can hold its own on a national stage. Three stars: excellent; one of the best restaurants in the city. Two stars: very good; one of the best restaurants of its kind. One star: a good restaurant that we recommend. No stars: restaurant cannot be recommended. See More Collapse

If the menu reads "tartare," my advice is to order it. Finely diced raw lamb smoothed with quail-egg yolk and sharpened with mustard is seasoned with a crunch of shallot and chive. Minced Gulf shrimp in an open-ended glass globe rings with oceanic notes of salmon roe and dashi gel. They make clean, fresh interludes in a tasting menu or a wonderful small plate, grabbed at the welcoming counter that faces the kitchen, with a glass of wine to go along.

Fish at Lucienne is treated with great respect. It might be a simple seared salmon at lunchtime, satiny and oceanic-tasting on its deftly cooked bed of spinach and asparagus, with a lilting, lemony beurre blanc lighting the way. Or, from the dinner menu, halibut or flounder in a joyous citrus vinaigrette, accessorized with tomato, zucchini and the Provencal chickpea-flour cake known as panisse.

Shellfish other than lobster turned my head here, too. I am not a scallop person, but I loved the seared version perched on a "saffron crawfish broth" that was more of a head-spinning, thick bisque tasting of delicious crawfish fat and shells. Dungeness crab hacked up with chickpeas, chorizo and tomato with lots of bright lemon was fun to eat, even if the character of the crabmeat ended up taking a back seat.

The classically trained Hernandez concentrated on pastry back in his days at Bistro Moderne and Philippe, and he breaks loose at Lucienne with a stupendous pithivier entree, the crown-shaped puff pastry enclosing a light rich duxelles of mushroom and sweetbreads. A dark port reduction alongside adds a rich, seductive tang. There's nothing like it in the city.

Yet Hernandez's facility as a pastry chef very occasionally leads him in a sweet direction that seems out of place. I puzzled over an interesting-sounding morel mushroom pot de creme that cloyed rather than enticed as a first course, despite its ravishing little Parmesan biscotti on the side.

I found myself wishing instead for one of the clean, brisk salads that energize the lunch menu: the tumble of beet with a startling pumpkin pesto; or the simple toss of endive with slivers of Gala apple and crumbled blue cheese. When a chef is as adept at salads as Hernandez, I kind of hate to see the genre banished to the lunch menu only.

The desserts, of course, are gorgeous: from the delicate apple tart (the finest in Houston, in my opinion) to a deconstructed vacherin, its rubble of crisp meringue laced with raspberries and pale-green pistachio mousse, all housed in a glass bubble under a flying saucer of green-etched white chocolate. It's like some otherworldly terrarium, except you can eat it.

Although Lucienne has yet to be discovered by the kinds of crowds that would keep it humming, the service is excellent: attentive but not too, friendly but not too, attuned to little details. I was glad to see the talented Ludovic Poirier added to the team as wine director recently. The wine service was already good; and now I expect the iPad list to get even better.

Worth noting: Like the moderately priced tasting menus, the wine is relatively affordable, with a markup only 1.5 times wholesale.

If I were a hotel guest, I'd be delighted with Lucienne as my in-house restaurant.

As a Houstonian and a downtown booster, I'm just as happy. You can find me in one of those rounded, pearly-green armchairs, gazing past the toile curtains at a steel-gridded vortex that looks like that contraption that hurled Jodie Foster into outer space in "Contact." I'm not kidding. See to believe.Six men, including a former high school teacher and a former substitute teacher, have been charged and arrested for online solicitation of a minor, the Harris County Precinct One Constable's Office announced Tuesday.



"Some of these people had a proclivity for some really bad stuff," Constable Alan Rosen said at a press conference. "The stuff they engaged in was very deviant sexual behavior, so we were really happy that in this entire operation we were able to get these particular people off the street."



During a three-day period earlier in February, investigators posed as 14 or 15-year-old girls on mobile apps and social media sites, engaging suspects in conversations and agreeing to meet up for sex.



Police arrested Jeremy Kyle Chapman, 25, of Dickinson, Israel Garcia, 27, of Humble, Eleno Garza, 26, of Houston, Brandon Knarr, 38, of Houston, Fahad Ghani Siddiqui, 39, of Houston, and Ricardo Reyes, 33, of Houston. All suspects were sent to Harris County Jail.

Now Playing: Four men are brought into custody by Harris County Precinct One Constable's Office following their arrests in February for soliciting minors online. Video: Harris County Precinct One Constables Office



Garza has a teacher's certificate and previously worked as a substitute teacher for Pasadena Independent School District, has a daycare license and worked at an YMCA in Waco, Constable Rosen said. Siddiqui was previously employed as a high school teacher in the Aldine Independent School District.



Chapman, a mechanic, has priors for trying to solicit children. Public records show Chapman plead guilty to enticing a child with intention felony charges in July 2016 and March 2017.



Reyes is employed at a grocery store and Garcia is a delivery driver. No information on Knarr's employment was available.



Rosen said Garza was interested in bondage and had said he wanted to tie up a child.



Garza "is someone that I feel, moving forward, could progress to violence at some point," Rosen said.



The operation consisted of more than 75 members from the Internet Crimes Against Children task force, law enforcement in Jones Creek, Katy, Rosenberg, Sugar Land, Webster and authorities in Fort Bend County.



"What I'm hoping is that they go and they get help for their problem," Rosen said about those arrested for soliciting sex with a minor.Downtown's Market Square has seen tremendous development in the past several years - only a handful of businesses can claim a longtime association with that historical area of the city center.

One of those old-timers is Treebeards, a Southern-fried Cajun-Creole restaurant that has been around for 40 years. Though some might argue that four decades can hardly be called old, it's a milestone for any restaurant, let alone one born when Houston's downtown was not exactly as glamorous as it is today.

Treebeards opened on Preston in a former pool hall between a peep-show arcade and a rowdy bar in 1978. The 30-seat cafe became so popular it moved into its current, and much larger, space on Travis two years later. That flagship remains there today, and Treebeards has four other downtown locations.

To mark its birthday, Treebeards is offering one of its most popular menu items - red beans and rice - for its original opening price of $1.95. The dish, served on an oval plate as always, comes with a complimentary sausage link and French bread. The special is available only at the Market Square location, 315 Travis, Thursday-March 16 (open 11 a.m.-2:30 p.m. Mondays through Fridays).

LOOK BACK: Downtown's thriving hub sprang from tiny town center

The original owners, Dan Tidwell and Jamie Mize, sold Treebeards to longtime managers Matt Rowden and Jolie Stinneford, along with Stinneford's husband, Charles, in 2010.

Jolie Stinneford said freshness has been key to Treebeards' longevity: "We don't have any kind of commissary where we freeze and heat it back up. Every day we cook fresh product."

And the staff, many who have been with the restaurant 15, 20 and 25 years, know their repeat customers.

"You develop a relationship with them like a neighborhood kind of thing," she said. "It's very familiar."

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Just like Treebeard's food - think jambalaya, shrimp etouffee and rotating daily specials including meatloaf and fried chicken, blackened catfish and seafood gumbo.

Uniquely Houston touches can be found in several dishes, including mustard greens that incorporate Vietnamese fish sauce. Red beans and rice, though familiar to Southerners, comes with a twist, too: a garnish of grated cheese and onion. The toppings found their way onto the dish back when Treebeards first added beef chili to the menu.

"People from Louisiana look at us like we're out of our minds when we ask them if they want cheese and onion," Stinneford said. "But almost everyone from Houston gets it with cheese and onion."

Treebeards Red Beans

Makes 6 servings

1 pound dried light red kidney beans

2 quarts water

2 medium onions, chopped

2 stalks of celery with leaves, chopped

 large bell pepper, chopped

2 teaspoons salt (see note)

1 teaspoons ground thyme

1 teaspoons dried oregano

1 teaspoons garlic powder

 teaspoon cayenne pepper

2 bay leaves

1 pound smoked sausage, cut into -inch slices

Instructions: Wash and drain red beans. In a 4-quart saucepan, add 2 quarts cold water and red beans. Soak overnight. Do not drain water.

Or, in a 4-quart saucepan, add 2 quarts cold water and red beans. Bring to a boil. Cover, reduce heat and simmer 2 minutes. Remove from heat and let stand 1 hour before continuing. Do not drain water.

Add onion, celery and bell pepper to red beans and bring to a boil. Stir in seasonings, cover, reduce heat and simmer 1 hours or until red beans are almost tender. Add sausage and simmer in additional 30 minutes or until beans are tender and begin to thicken.

Note: If you are concerned about the amount of salt in this recipe and unsure about the saltiness of the sausage, cut back the amount of salt used and adjust before serving. If you like beans thickened, remove the cover during the last 30 minutes of cooking. Or, after beans have cooked, remove  cup of beans, mash return to the pot and mix.

Treebeards Shrimp Etouffee

Makes 6 servings

1 cup butter

223 cups chopped celery (-inch pieces)

2 medium onions, chopped into -inch pieces

1 bell pepper, chopped into -inch pieces

1 teaspoons of salt

18 rounded teaspoon cayenne pepper

 teaspoon black pepper

 teaspoon garlic powder

 teaspoon ground thyme

2 cups boiling water mixed with 1 teaspoon shrimp base (see note)

 teaspoon hot pepper sauce

4 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce

13 cup all-purpose flour

2 cups chopped green onions (including tops)

13 cup chopped fresh parsley

4 teaspoons tomato paste

2 pounds Treebeards' shrimp (recipe follows)

Instructions: In a heavy 5-quart Dutch oven or a saucepan over medium heat, melt butter. Add celery, onion and bell pepper. Cook, stirring occasionally, until vegetables are almost tender.

Meanwhile, in a small bowl, mix spices, shrimp-base broth, hot sauce and Worcestershire sauce. Set aside.

Add flour to hot vegetable mixture. Cook, stirring occasionally, 2 minutes. Add spice mixture and cook until mixture bubbles. Reduce heat and simmer 5 minutes. Stir in green onions, parsley and tomato paste and simmer until vegetables are tender. Add cooked shrimp and cook only until shrimp are heated through. Serve with hot rice.

Note: Shrimp base is a concentrated flavoring agent such as concentrated chicken or beef base. May substitute fish base or lobster base.

Treebeards Shrimp

 teaspoon garlic powder

 teaspoon salt

 teaspoon cayenne pepper

 teaspoon black pepper

2 pounds shrimp, peeled

 cup vegetable oil

6 tablespoons chopped green onions (including tops)

1 teaspoon fish sauce

Instructions: In a small bowl, mix spices and sprinkle over cleaned shrimp. Set aside.

Heat oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. When hot, add chopped green onions and fish sauce. Add seasoned shrimp. Cook, stirring often, until shrimp are pink and opaque.

Note: This preparation can be eaten as is, over hot rice or for the Shrimp Etouffee.Note: In this year's Houston Livestock Show & Rodeo's International Wine Competition, nearly 140 wines earned double-gold status - signifying that every judge on the tasting panel thought it worthy of a gold - with the vast majority also winning Class or Reserve Champion status. I'll be singling out many of them as they become available locally. The unanimity achieved from a variety of palates that's required to earn double gold parallels how the Houston Chronicle tasting panel typically selects recommended wines - blind tastings by industry professionals and knowledgeable consumers

Kerith Overstreet has a number of vintner friends back home in Sonoma County in California who have brought cool cowboy stuff back from Houston - big silver belt buckles and even a saddle or two, the result of how well their wines have shown in the Houston Livestock Show & Rodeo's International Wine Competition. And Overstreet has a super-competitive streak.

"If the person on the treadmill next to me is riding faster," Overstreet said, "I can't help myself. I'll pick up my pace."

She admits to coveting her neighbors' swag. Winning a buckle had been an objective for a while, and now she's going to own one. Her 2015 Bu Bruliam Sangiacomo Vineyard (Sonoma Coast) pinot noir earned both a double-gold medal and was named a Reserve Class Champion for New World pinots in the $46-$60 price range.

Overstreet's Sangiacomo pinot is one of four she makes in what can only be described as a tiny, labor-of-love operation. We're talking about maybe a thousand cases produced total - including a zinfandel and a rose - and it's not even a for-profit venture. Overstreet covers her cellar, marketing and travel costs, then donates what's left to causes supported by restaurants and wine bars across the country that have Bruliam on their lists. Camerata in Houston has benefited from her largesse, using the donation to fight multiple sclerosis.

The Bruliam part of name? It honors her three children, Bruno, Lily and Amelia: BRU&LI&AM. There's just nothing not to love about Overstreet's relentlessly cheery approach to the big, bad wine business. Another example: Grizzled growers have come to know her as the "Cupcake Girl" because she shamelessly barters gingerbread cupcakes with cream icing in order to score fruit from first-rate vineyards, such as Gap's Crown in the Sonoma Coast AVA. Even when that special plot changed hands a few years back, Overstreet kept her tiny allotment because the vineyard crew craved the cupcakes and unanimously went to bat for her.

"When you're as small as we are," she said, laughing, "nobody sees you as competition. I've had so much help from so many great people, winemakers like Bob Cabral, Michael Browne (of Kosta Browne) and Jeff Pisoni. There aren't a lot of 1,000-case wineries who get to play with the big boys."

It was her now husband, Brian Overstreet, who introduced Kerith to wine while he was attending University of California-Berkeley. "Trying to impress me with his sophistication," she said, recounting how he had suggested a trip to Napa Valley for some romantic swirling and sipping. There she fell in love - with him and wine. The kids are now being indoctrinated, too. Bruno, who's 14, and Lily and Amelia, 12, do the artwork for the label on Bruliam's mostly Torrey Hill Vineyard (Russian River Valley) wine, which comes the closest to being Bruliam's estate bottling.

Overstreet comes from a family full of doctors. Her father, in fact, told her as a child that she could grow up to be anything she wanted - as long as she gave medicine a try first. So off to med school she went, passing her boards with high marks and going on to do an internship in general surgery before switching to pathology. A detour through culinary school followed, but she couldn't get wine thoughts out of her head. It was her passion. Everything else would only be a profession.

"I quickly realized that being a chef would be more time-consuming than being a doctor," she said. "And the path from pathologist to enologist isn't as difficult as it might seem."

Science is science.

In September 2008, Overstreet bought a single ton of grapes from Hahn's vineyards in the Santa Lucia Highlands, and, "after staying up all night reading" a textbook on wine-making, she took them to a custom-crush facility in San Francisco, where they "treated me like a real winemaker." A couple of barrels of pretty decent pinot noir resulted, and Bu Bruliam was born. (The "Bu," by the way, is a made-up, just-for-fun periodic table symbol, playing off her aborted career path.)

Overstreet's recent trip to Houston for the Rodeo Uncorked! Best Bites competition and tasting was a doubly gratifying experience. Although her prized buckle wasn't yet ready for pickup, it was a time for counting blessings and celebrating Bu Bruliam's having narrowly escaped last fall's catastrophic wildfires, which reached within a mile of the property and forced them to evacuate twice. However, because they never lost power, the precious fermenting juice was safe, and the Overstreets were able to help neighbors who'd lost access to their tanks or couldn't process their grapes because the electricity had gone out.

"A friend's house burned, so they moved in with us," she said. "Then we got evacuated again, for the second time in 24 hours, so we all went somewhere else. Everybody pitched in together. It was a frightening time, but it brought everybody closer."

There would, of course, be plenty of cupcakes for all.

Anyway, the double-gold-winning Sangiacomo, a blend of the Pommard and Dion 115 clones, is available at Spec's Midtown store for $43.97. It's the result of a super-small-yield, early-ripening, winemaker-skill-testing vintage. What fruit there was - less than 2 tons - prompted Steve Sangiacomo to send Overstreet a succinct email that read, "Sorry it wasn't more. Tough year." The harvest was completed Sept. 11, a full two weeks earlier than in 2014. But she dug deeply into her winemaking bag of tricks and good things happened. Obviously, the rodeo judges loved it.

And the Chronicle's tasting panel loved Overstreet's 2014 Soberanes Vineyards pinot noir from the Santa Lucia Highlands in Monterey County, giving it a unanimous recommendation last summer. That wine may still be available at select Total Wines stores for $42.99.

For the recent Rodeo Uncorked! Best Bites soiree at NRG Center, Overstreet sported a pink western shirt with a embroidered turquoise trim that she'd been saving for a special occasion. A pair of cowgirl boots with pink and turquoise stitching completed the look. Her plans for next year? Despite pointing out how "you can't wear a saddle any more than you can pin a Wine Spectator score to your back," Overstreet admits she's targeting the same.

It's that competitive thing. Aim high and good things can happen. That's how she ended up making the rounds in Houston.State regulators have refused to renew a license held by the caretaker of a small northeast Harris County cemetery -- the first official finding that workers destroyed grave markers while clearing the site in 2016.

The order signed Monday by the state banking commissioner, Charles G. Cooper, could pave the way for Harris County to take over care of the cemetery, where members of several generations of Aldine-area residents are buried. The banking commission regulates "perpetual care" cemeteries in Texas.

Foresthaven Cemetery Corp., which has held the perpetual care license for about 30 years, has until March 29 to appeal the decision by requesting a hearing overseen by an administrative law judge. The banking department's action does not affect Foresthaven's ownership of the property, only its authority to operate the cemetery.

The company's president, Sugar Land attorney Corwin Teltschik, did not respond to a request for comment. Cooper's order said Teltschik maintained that no headstones were destroyed.

The order states that Foresthaven's agents destroyed "two or more" headstones in the fall of 2016, adding that "the manner in which (Foresthaven) allowed its agents to clear the cemetery was not undertaken with the care due to the persons interred in the cemetery and does not demonstrate a character that warrants the public's confidence."

Cooper also found that Foresthaven had not adequately maintained the cemetery  family members have handled mowing and other upkeep for years  and that Harris County was willing to maintain the cemetery if Foresthaven's license were not renewed.

Tammie West Wall, a family member who has led the effort to restore the damaged headstones and protect the cemetery, said she was grateful for Cooper's decision.

"This has been a long road, and to get anything positive out of it, to me, it's a true blessing," Wall said. "Everywhere else we've turned, we've gotten nowhere."

Harris County prosecutors looked into the case at the families' request and presented evidence to a grand jury last year, but no charges were filed. Assistant District Attorney Valerie Turner said her review concluded that at least four or five markers, and "probably more," had been removed by workers clearing the site.

According to Cooper's order, Teltschik in 2016 was arranging to transfer the cemetery to a nonprofit led by Ibrahim Badat, a Houston businessman. Teltschik authorized Badat to clear the cemetery, the order states, and Badat "instructed contractors to remove brush and trees."

It was during this process that headstones were destroyed or removed. Badat's attorney, Charles Maynard, declined to comment.

Cooper's order said the banking department received numerous written complaints from family members who said "the cemetery had been bulldozed and headstones destroyed."Donald Trump's meeting last week with survivors of the Florida high school massacre sparked a great deal of commentary.

The media, in particular, focused on a sheet of White House stationary that President Trump gripped during this painful event. Written by White House assistant Hope Hicks, the memo listed five bullet points  an apt term, given the circumstances.

It turned out that the most percussive point was the last one: "I hear you."

Understandably, columnists and comedians pounced on this line. Why would one need to remind the person who, after all, convened a listening session to, well, listen? It would be akin to reminding the organizer of a blood drive to give blood. But whereas the organizer has, in principle, blood to give, did the president have ears (or heart) to listen?

Given Mr. Trump's countenance during the painful testimonies, the question remains open. But let's cut the president a bit of slack: The use of crib sheets, after all, has a long and checkered history.

EXAMINING THE CONTEXT: A closer look at Trump's State of the Union

For example, a few years ago archaeologists at a Dead Sea site discovered what appears to be a contemporary account of Abraham's meeting with God outside Sodom. According to a rubbernecking Canaanite, Abraham kept looking surreptitiously at a tablet he was carrying. Unfortunately, the middle finger of monotheism's founder covered the mid-portion of the hastily chiseled note.

Nevertheless, the sharp-eyed Canaanite glimpsed the top line  "Will you indeed sweep away the righteous with the wicked?"  and the bottom line: "Remember that His button is bigger than yours."

While the Abrahamic tablet has never been located, corroborating evidence exists on a fragment at the Ripley's Believe It or Not franchise at Petra. The stone is engraved with the hither-to-fore cryptic question: "Should I call it ark of the deal? Or art of the deal?"

Nor should we overlook the lively debate during last year's 500th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation, where specialists battled over the authenticity of a recently discovered text. Some scholars argued that Martin Luther's mother stuffed the paper into her son's pocket on the morning he nailed his revolutionary text to the church door in Wittenberg.

Among his bullet points are, "Theses, shmeses. Don't forget the butter," "Knock before hammering" and "If you do hammer and wake up the priest, tell him: 'Here I stand, doing nothing else.'"

Unfortunately, Frau Luther's Gothic script proved indecipherable even to her son. Scholars speculate that the bloodstain on the note resulted from young man Luther using it to wrap a whacked thumb.

ESCALATING RHETORIC: The real harm of Trump's conspiracy theories

There is, as well, the remarkable document displayed in Rome's Museum of the Inquisition. Hanging directly to the right of the exhibit "Tools of the Trade"  featuring tongs, hammers and rods  is a Latin document dating from 1633.

It is the "cheatus sheetus" used by the chief inquisitor at the trial of the astronomer Galileo Galilei, charged with the heresy of claiming the earth revolved around the sun. Along with the reminders "It's the earth, stupid" and "Helio = sun, geo = earth," the sheet also reminds the inquisitor to rub his hands gleefully while glancing at instruments of torture and cackle every few minutes: "No one expects the Roman Inquisition."

Vatican scholars have yet to determine if Galileo's famous utterance "And yet, it moves" refers to the earth or to the comfy chair into which he had been strapped.

Finally, there is the exciting discovery made at London's Imperial War Museum. When a cleaning person was dusting off the symbol of the Munich Agreement  Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain's umbrella  a yellowed slip of paper fell to the floor. Scrawled under a "Berchtesgaden" letterhead were several lines, including "Ignore German shepherd even if its teeth are buried in your calf," "Nod politely during tirades, and "Agree that Chequers, sadly, sounds like Czechers."

As the museum's curator, pointing to the long line of visitors waiting to glimpse the document, excitedly remarked: "Here's one sheet of paper that isn't worthless."

Robert Zaretsky teaches at the University of Houston and is the author, most recently, of Boswell's Enlightenment. He's currently writing The Empress and the Philosophe: Catherine the Great, Denis Diderot and the Eclipse of the Enlightenment.

Bookmark Gray Matters. Here it stands, doing nothing else.The boycott of the National Rifle Association following its response to the school shooting in Parkland, Florida, came fast and furious.

Car rental companies, airlines, trucking businesses, tech firms, insurers and a bank that issued an NRA-branded credit card all severed their relationships with the gun advocacy group within days of the shooting that left 17 dead.

Predictably, companies that cut ties  such as Atlanta-based Delta  faced their own backlash from NRA loyalists. In particular, the lieutenant governor of Georgia (and candidate for governor) threatened to kill any tax legislation that benefits @Delta unless the company changes its position and fully reinstates its relationship with @NRA.

Once again, companies are finding themselves caught in the middle of political conflicts that they might have preferred to avoid.

There is nothing new about consumer boycotts  Americans boycotted British goods in response to the Stamp Act in the years before the Revolution.

But as Ive learned in my research on corporate activism, two things are different now. First, businesses are being targeted not just for their own actions but for the company they keep  in this case, relationships with the wrong kinds of customers. Second, the speed of the response is unprecedented.

Trouble in the supply chain

Activists have targeted corporations for generations based on their business practices.

One of the most famous corporate boycotts was launched against Nestle in 1977 because of the Swiss food giants marketing of infant formula in low-income countries  a practice which arguably continues today. The legendary boycott lasted seven years, until Nestle agreed to abide by global best practices. You can even read about it on the companys own website.

In the 1990s, activists started to target companies not just for what went on within their own corporate boundaries but further back in the supply chain. When the labor practices of Nikes contract suppliers brought activist scrutiny, according to a company official, the initial attitude was, Hey, we dont own the factories. We dont control what goes on there.

But the first of many boycotts against Nike was followed by corporate efforts at reform, and the company now has a history of holding suppliers to account and cutting off those that dont measure up.

Today corporations like Nike take for granted that they will be held accountable for the actions of their suppliers and even for the policies of governments of countries where they do business. As corporations increasingly rely on contractors for core parts of their business, they are held responsible by ethically minded consumers for actions further back in the supply chain  even the provenance of the mineral tantalum in their electronic devices like smartphones.

And today, 40 years after its first major boycott, Nestle knows better than to disclaim responsibility when activists uncovered slave labor in their cat food supply chain.

Know thy customers

With the threatened anti-NRA boycott, corporate responsibility is extending in the other direction, to customers. Businesses can be held accountable not just for how their products are created but the character of the people or groups who use them.

Corporations routinely negotiate discounts for groups such as AAA, AARP, alumni clubs and others. Now these routine business decisions will be subject to an additional level of scrutiny: What does who we serve say about us?

Still, the speed and comprehensiveness of the anti-NRA actions were startling.

Within two days of a target list being posted on ThinkProgess, a number of major national corporations had dropped the NRA as a partner. And the site keeps a running tally of companies cutting ties with the NRA.

Compared with the seven-year time scale of the Nestle boycott, or the multiyear boycotts of corporations operating in South Africa during the 1980s, this was something new. Social media previously enabled the rapid mobilization of street protests, including the Arab Spring and the Womens March on Washington. Now even the threat of mobilization on social media can lead companies to change quickly.

Brynn Anderson/STF

With us or against us

Corporate action is increasingly transparent: Whether a company cuts or maintains ties with the NRA, the world will know it via social media. To paraphrase George W. Bush, either youre with us or against us, and it takes only moments to find out which.

The NRA boycott demonstrates that in an age saturated in social media and political polarization, politics will be inescapable for the corporate sector.

Moreover, what counts as political is encompassing an ever greater group of activities, ranging from which websites a companys ads pop up on to who its customers are.

In this new era, companies will be forced to choose their friends wisely.

Jerry Davis is Professor of Management and Sociology at the University of Michigan. This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.

Choose your friends wisely. Bookmark Gray Matters.Houston ISD must surrender control over hiring and governance at any low-performing schools where it forms management "partnerships" with outside organizations, a route the district is considering to stave off potentially major sanctions, the Texas Education Agency said Tuesday.

The ruling is a blow to Houston ISD leaders, who hoped they could maintain much more control over several of the district's most challenging schools, while also receiving the benefits of forming partnerships.

Houston ISD is seeking partnerships to help avoid penalties tied to its failure to improve chronically under-performing schools. Under a law passed in 2015, the Texas Education Agency must close campuses or take control of Houston ISD's school board if any of the district's 10 longest-failing schools do not meet state academic standards this year.

To prevent those sanctions, Houston ISD has considered two options at each of the 10 campuses: form a partnership with outside organizations or close and immediately reopen the school with entirely new staff and programming. Both options would take effect in the 2018-19 school year.

INVOLVEMENT: Civic leaders call on community to boost long-failing Houston ISD schools

The district's most recent proposal calls for forming partnerships at six campuses: Dogan and Mading elementary schools; Henry Middle School; and Kashmere, Wheatley and Worthing high schools. The remaining four schools  Blackshear, Highland Heights and Wesley elementary schools, and Woodson PK-8  would close and immediately re-open.

Houston ISD leaders have identified two potential partners for the six campuses, but it is unclear if either organization is willing to assume full control over campuses.

In a statement Tuesday, Houston ISD spokesman Tracy Clemons said, We are still exploring options and talking with potential partners, hence our continued community meetings. If we pursue partnerships, we will abide by the rules outlined by the state.

Texas Education Agency officials still are creating the framework for how partnerships must work. State legislators last year passed a law that gave districts the option to form partnerships in exchange for a two-year reprieve from accountability ratings. Based on the laws wording, it long has been expected that districts would have to surrender significant control over partnership campuses to a nonprofit governing board, similar to a charter school model.

FALKENBERG: HISD needs an audit, not a revolution and deep budget cuts

Under Houston ISDs most recent proposal, the Baltimore-based nonprofit Talent Development Secondary would partner at three high schools and Henry Middle School. The two remaining campuses would partner with the Children's Learning Institute at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston.

However, Talent Development Secondary officials said they do not want to run the campus, preferring to focus on academics. Childrens Learning Institute officials have not commented on their potential involvement.

As a result, it is not immediately clear who is willing to take near-total control over potential partnership schools. Houston ISD leaders have said they do not plan to partner with charter school networks, which have the most experience operating campuses. The district could partner with higher education institutions or nonprofits, but they have little to no experience running primary and secondary schools.

The district also faces a time crunch. Any partnerships must be approved by the Houston ISD school board and submitted to the Texas Education Agency by April 30. Partners must assume control of campuses ahead of the 2018-19 school year.

Some community members have been skeptical of potential partnerships, arguing there is no evidence that students will benefit. They also have criticized Houston ISD for its lack of concrete plans. To date, the district has not named any potential partners who have publicly committed to assuming control of hiring and governance.

The issue weve had with HISD from the beginning is this: if youre proposing partnerships, who are these partners? said Durrel Douglas, founder and president of the Houston Justice Coalition. They need to lay out a plan in laymans terms and propose it to the community, and then let the community decide which are going to cut it.

Eddie Orum III, a former principal at Wheatley High School who remains active in the campus community, said he is more supportive of Houston ISD surrendering control after it allowed Wheatley to falter.

The system we have in place currently is not working for Wheatley, said Orum, who served as principal from 1989 to 1992. At this point, it really doesnt matter to me who manages Wheatley, as long as we deem them interested and qualified.

jacob.carpenter@chron.com

twitter.com/chronjacobPhillis Wheatley High School alumna Ruth Simmons might have added another distinction to her record on Tuesday as the last Black History Month speaker at her former campus.

The Prairie View A&M University president's alma mater is among 10 low-performing schools in the Houston Independent School District that must improve this year or risk triggering a state law that could result in campus closures or a state takeover of the district's school board.

Wheatley, named for the famous black poet, and other long-struggling schools are concentrated in some of the city's black and Hispanic neighborhoods. Students next year could be forced to enroll in other schools. HISD officials are working to improve academic achievement to avoid sanctions. They also have plans to respond if schools don't meet a still-undetermined state performance target.

Simmons told the students to focus on the transformational power of hard work in any circumstance and later touted the value of neighborhood schools.

"You can be successful anywhere," she told several hundred students and dozens of alumni in the school auditorium audience. "Worry about whether or not you are working hard, worry about whether you're advancing, worry about whether or not you're preparing yourselves for difficult and challenging jobs ahead."

Simmons is living history. In 2001, she became the first black Ivy League president when she was tapped to lead Brown University. She also served as president of Smith College.

She left Brown in 2012. She became interim president at Prairie View last summer and was named to the role permanently in December.

Simmons is featured on a school mural with Houston's first black members of Congress, both Wheatley alums: Barbara Jordan and Mickey Leland.

When she was at Wheatley, Simmons didn't think she could go to college, but she earned her first degree at Dillard University, a historically black college in New Orleans. She later earned a master's and doctorate degrees from Harvard University. She never anticipated seeing a black president of an Ivy League institution and certainly never thought she would be the first.

"You don't know where life will take you, so work hard every day  work even harder after that  for no effort is wasted if you aspire to high standards," Simmons said.

Born in Grapeland, she was the youngest of 12 children born to sharecroppers. Her family moved to Houston's Fifth Ward when she was 7 and she enrolled in Atherton Elementary.

"It was pretty clear to me that I didn't fit in. OK? My clothes probably looked more like somebody coming from a rural area. My hair was a mess and kids laughed at me," she said. "I felt pretty bad about that when I was a 7-year-old that I didn't fit in, that we didn't have any money and that everybody else seemed better off than I was.

"Here's what I did: I listened to my teachers. I worked in school. I kept at it relentlessly.

"I found out something very important: Whatever you're wearing doesn't matter. However much money you have in your pocket, it doesn't matter. It's what you have in here," she said, gesturing to her forehead, "that matters."

"Spend your time feeding your mind and if you do that, forever after you'll be able to stand in front of anybody in the world and feel equal to them," she said.

Simmons also offered a word about "people trying to destroy people" then obliquely commented on the potential sanctions on Wheatley.

"There are those who believe that the single most important thing that you can do is take a test and earn a high score on a test. There's a lot more that you can do to make your way through life successfully," she said. "People think things are broken. Things are never broken when human beings are striving. What you do here do matters. Who you are matters. People don't have to denigrate what is here in order to achieve the best result."

As part of the program, cheerleaders and drum line members from Atherton gave a spirited performance with different beats, chants and routines.

After her speech, Simmons stood outside beside Wheatley's 1949 cornerstone to describe her reaction as "purely emotional and purely historic" to the challenges her alma mater is facing.

"To go some place that's foreign is a part of the challenge for young people and so I would hope that children could continue to know the concept of a neighborhood school where people who are there care for them, help them to grow and expand their horizons and prepare them for life after education," she said.

"If we continue to disperse them  to uproot them from the things that they know and care about  and if we insist that communities abandon their history, abandon the things that they treasure, then that does not breed the right kind of civic spirit. So, I hope that everything will be done to allow the good work that goes on to continue."The ACLU of Texas is calling for Harris County's longest serving felony court judge to resign due to outrageous statements he made to the Houston Chronicle outlining his views about black defendants in the criminal justice system.

If the judge doesnt opt to leave his job, the civil rights group said Tuesday it wants him to automatically recuse himself from cases involving African-American defendants or consider individual recusal requests until a state commission can investigate allegations that he is racially biased.

The Chronicle reported last week that State District Judge Michael McSpadden, who has served 36 years as a jurist, was one of 31 felony court judges who systematically instructed magistrates to deny personal bond to defendants for more than a decade. This pattern came to light after three Harris County magistrates were sanctioned for failing to exercise discretion in bail hearings.

Sharon Watkins Jones, director of political strategies for the ACLU of Texas, said after reading McSpaddens remarks it was imperative to move swiftly and call out this outrageous conduct, adding that the organization might take further action.

Attempts to contact the judge by phone and email at his office and at home after working hours were unsuccessful.

Sandra Guerra Thompson, who directs the University of Huustons Criminal Justice Institute, said the judges comments about defendants are problematic in a criminal setting, but she couldnt speculate about the ethical matters.

The statements were surprising and raised real questions about whether he can fairly adjudicate a case involving an African-American male, the former New York prosecutor said. It was especially egregious because it reflected his decisions about setting basic policy in bail issues.

The countys bail practices were upended after an historic federal court ruling last year in which the judge found the county discriminated against poor misdemeanor defendants, relegating them to wealth-based detention.The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals recently upheld most of the judges findings, but sent some portions of the case back to the trial court to make adjustments.

Harris County Judge Ed Emmett told Commissioners Court on Tuesday he thought the county should settle the lawsuit based on the 5th Circuits ruling. However, lawyers for the indigent defendants who filed the class action plan to request a re-hearing before same three-judge panel. They asked the trial judge on Tuesday to hold off on taking corrective action ordered by the appeals court, which indicates they are unlikely to settle for the 5th Circuits conditions.

The comments by McSpadden were in response to an investigation of the countys historic bail practices. McSpadden said he directed magistrates over a 12-year period to decline all requests for personal bond because many had serious criminal histories and some were facing new allegations of violent offenses.

"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 in recent years defendants have been released on bonds only to be arrested for another offense. In his view, many of them dont take court dates seriously or have respect for authority, 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."

The ACLU has asked the State Commission on Judicial Conduct in Austin to investigate McSpadden based on those comments.

"If there remained any doubt that the deck is stacked against people of color in our criminal justice system, Michael McSpadden just dispelled it," said Terri Burke, executive director of the ACLU of Texas. "When a sitting judge feels comfortable enough to admit openly and on the record that he uses bail orders to jail black defendants on the assumption they can't be trusted, it's time to take action. This kind of flagrant racism has no place in our justice system."

The civil rights organization said McSpadden's comments violate the Texas Code of Judicial Conduct and could merit removal from office.

The judicial rules that govern judges conduct say that judges cannot exhibit any prejudice. Canon 3B(6) states, A judge shall not, in the performance of judicial duties, by words or conduct manifest bias or prejudice, including but not limited to bias or prejudice based upon race, sex, religion, national origin, disability, age, sexual orientation or socioeconomic status, and shall not knowingly permit staff, court officials and others subject to the judge's direction and control to do so.

Exonerated death row inmate Anthony Graves, who runs a criminal justice initiative for the ACLU of Texas, said the judges statement fits a familiar pattern.

"Judge McSpadden's remarks are inexcusable, but not at all surprising for those of us who know the justice system well," Graves said in a statement. "Black men have always been overwhelmingly and disproportionately targeted for punishment by the police and the courts for no reason other than the color of our skin.

At the regular Commissioners Court meeting Tuesday, Precinct 1 Commissioner Rodney Ellis said he was disturbed by McSpaddens comments.

He was verbalizing what I fear many others were thinking but the judges dont say it, Ellis said.

At the lively meeting, County Court at Law Judge Darrell Jordan urged county leaders to cut this last check and sit down and work out a settlement. What do we continue to fight for? When we get to $10 million what will we have accomplished? Jordan said.

Fellow Court at Law Judge Mike Fields made a similar appeal. What I came here today to ask is that you use every tool in your arsenal to help us settle this lawsuit, Fields said.

Emmett said there are offers to settle that have not been responded to by the plaintiffs.

It takes two sides to settle, he added.

Gabrielle Banks covers federal court for the Houston Chronicle. Follow her on Twitter and send her tips at gabrielle.banks@chron.com.A yearslong battle over the construction of a landfill in Hempstead has come to an end for now after a judge ruled in Austin on Friday that Texas Commission on Environmental Qualitys decision to return the landfills application should be affirmed, according to court records.

Texas Commission on Environmental Quality had already rejected Pintail Landfills second application to build, but the company wanted that decision overturned. The trial took place on Thursday in Travis Countys 250th Civil District Court, where Judge Karin Crump the next day issued her ruling.

Its another court victory. Its been a very long fight, said Waller County Judge Trey Duhon. From the beginning we were very clear, that this was absolutely one of the worst spots that you can possibly locate a landfill.

The landfill, which would be built north of Hempstead off Texas 6 in Waller County, has been opposed for years by community members because they felt it would negatively affect their water supply and economic future. A local group, Citizens Against the Landfill in Hempstead, has actively worked against the construction of the landfill, raising more than $2 million for the cause through community garage sales and other fundraisers.

Green Group Holdings LLC, based in Georgia, has continued to fight against the communitys opposition by buying the more than 700-acre property in 2016. TCEQ denied the second application to build the landfill in Waller County in December 2016, stating ordinances adopted by the county and the city of Hempstead now prohibit a garbage dump in the area.

The Pintail Landfill company, they probably couldve walked away from this before they sank too much money into it. Instead, they doubled down, said Duhon. They now own that property and Im sure theyve put a lot money into this. That doesnt change anything.

However, the fight over the landfill, which has been brewing since 2011, could continue. The two-page judgment issued by Crump on Friday is appealable.

We are disappointed by the judge's order, and as we evaluate the outcome, we are still pursuing multiple courses of action, stated David Green, president of Green Group Holdings, in an email.

The leaders of Citizens Against the Landfill said they will continue fighting against the landfill if the company decides to appeal the judges decision.

Were prepared for that to happen if necessary, said Mike McCall, the groups treasurer. We are very unified in fighting this and looking for it to go longer.

Emily Foxhall contributed to this report.A member of the MS-13 street gang narrowly avoided being executed by other gang members earlier this month, his life likely saved by police who intercepted gang phone calls, according to court records filed in Harris County.

Bryan Funes, 17, and Jorge Alexander Cortez, 23, were arrested last week in Austin. Both El Salvadoran immigrants, the two were wanted in Harris County on criminal conspiracy charges after police say they planned days earlier to drive a fellow gang member from Austin to Houston so they could kill him. The would-be victim was wanted dead by the gang because of drug debts and other things, though it was unclear in court records whether he was still active in the gang.

Another man, Melquisedec Steven Lemus-Monje, 19, was also arrested and charged with conspiracy, as well as a weapons violation that came just before gunfire was about to erupt, court records show.

Houston police officers, with help from the FBI, intercepted phone calls between the men and MS-13 leaders who green lit the killing from El Salvador and Virginia, court records show.

On Feb. 11, the target, Lemus-Monje, Funes and another MS-13 member were pulled over by a Texas Department of Public Safety trooper in the 7800 block of Harwin Drive because their cars registration had expired, court records show. Lemus-Monje was then arrested for carrying a 9 mm pistol loaded with five hollow-point rounds  which he referred to in phone intercepts as a nine with candies  and which investigators believe were about to be used in the thwarted execution, according to court records.

Cortez was pulled over in a separate car and released, court records show.

A short time after, Funes made a phone call in which he said they had been stopped by police approximately 2 minutes before they would have killed the intended victim, court records show.

Better tactics?

Coordination between some MS-13 cliques has become increasingly common due to cell phones and encryption software, said Steven Dudley, a senior fellow at American Universitys Center for Latin American and Latino Studies and the co-director of InSight Crime.

Its obviously disturbing, he said. Because it can give them the kind of reach that they may not have had in the past.

Conversely, he said, the Texas cliques willingness to kill their own  and their ignorance that their phones might be tapped  could also be viewed as a sign of weakness.

Read more: MS-13's brutality grabs headlines. But experts say its influence might be exaggerated

They dont know because theyre not sophisticated, Dudley said. Theyre not thinking through all the pieces when theyre putting these schemes together. There is a haphazard nature to them.

Last December, after five alleged MS-13 members were charged with the capital murder of a Missouri City teen who was cooperating with HPD, local law enforcement officials similarly downplayed the gangs threat.

In Texas, MS-13s membership dropped to about 500 in 2017 - or less than 1 percent of the total gang members estimated to be living here by DPS. The FBI meanwhile estimates MS-13 accounts for roughly 10,000 of the total 1.4 million gang members in the country.

Experts cite those numbers as evidence that MS-13 is not an existential threat, and that many fundamentally misunderstand the gang.

'A closely-knit circle'

Born in Los Angeles streets in the 1980s, MS-13 didnt become particularly violent until it flourished in the California prison system, Michael Paarlberg an assistant professor of political science at Virginia Commonwealth University and an associate fellow at the Washington, D.C.-based Institute for Policy Studies, told the Chronicle in December.

Today, its mostly based in El Salvador, with leaders giving directives to chapters known as cliques that are spread across central America and the U.S. But despite its designation as a transnational gang, MS-13 has not been able to replicate the unity or proximity offered by the California prison system, Paarlberg said.

Instead, some cliques simply franchise the MS-13 name and its reputation to intimidate and extort vulnerable, often immigrant communities in the United States, he said.

But even if some cliques have, as seen in the alleged Houston murder plot, bolstered their coordination, Dudley said MS-13 does not really pose a threat to average citizens. Rival gang members and informants will always be among MS-13s main concerns, he said.

While we have this notion of this gang sort of lashing out without any regard or going after innocents, in most cases (victims) are part of this intimate or closely-knit circle, Dudley said. And they use that intimacy in order to lure their victims.

Despite that, the gang has been a focal point of President Donald Trumps proposed immigration policies. MS-13 has also been cited as justification for legislation like Texas Senate Bill 4, which requires local police forces to cooperate with federal immigration officers. Records show that MS-13 members accounted for about 1 percent of all arrests made by Immigrations and Customs Enforcement, according to a CNN report..

HPD Chief Art Acevedo has said those perceptions have made it more difficult to police vulnerable communities.

We have to fight the perception that HPD is interested in the immigration status of people who might be victims or witnesses, he said. Thats a problem, because now (witnesses) might not come forward because (they) know that a distant relative might be entangled with MS-13 or some other violent street gang.

Robert Downen covers crime for the Houston Chronicle. Follow him on Twitter or email him at robert.downen@chron.com.Two known MS-13 gang members, who were wanted in Harris County, have been arrested in a suburb of Austin.

Bryan Funez, 17, and Jorge Alexander Cortez, 23, were arrested Wednesday in Hutto by the Lone Star Fugitive Task Force in Austin, CBS reported.In one of the most pivotal congressional primaries for Democrats anywhere in the United States, Joshua Butler feels like he got airbrushed out of the race.

Butler, a Houston health care administrator and an African American, quit his job last year to run for Congress full time. But he has struggled to get noticed in a field of seven Democrats, four of whom have raised more than $500,000, and three of them  Alex Triantaphyllis, Lizzie Pannill Fletcher and Laura Moser  products of one of the city's most elite prep schools.

The other $500,000-plus candidate: Cancer doctor Jason Westin.

Butler has raised $55,762 so far, not far behind the Democrats' 2016 candidate, assistant city attorney James Cargas, who has raised $85,905 for his 2018 bid. Rounding out the field: activist and former congressional aide Ivan Sanchez, who has raised some $18,000, according to public records.

Butler is the district's first-ever black candidate, and Sanchez is its second ever Latino candidate.

But in an opinion piece in Tuesday's New York Times, Texas Monthly executive editor Mimi Swartz, described the Democratic field as "all white."

A recent Houston Chronicle endorsement of Fletcher and Westin for Tuesday's primary described Butler and Sanchez as having "compelling personal stories and engaging personalities," but being "comparatively short on substance."

Butler said those dismissals have rankled some minorities in the Seventh Congressional District, currently represented by Republican incumbent John Culberson. It's a district where minorities make up about a third of the population, and which Hillary Clinton carried in the 2016 presidential election.

Hence the Democrats' focus on the district, one of their top targets nationally.

But modern politics' emphasis on money  and connections  Butler said, all but eliminate minority candidates like him and Sanchez.

"The New York Times didn't make a mistake," Butler wrote in a statement Wednesday. "It is a very valuable example of the expectations communities of color have in congressional districts like the 7th of Texas. If you're not wealthy, you didn't grow up in the right zip code, you don't live on the right side of town, and you don't have a Rolodex of friends in high places, then you're not really a viable option for anyone to take you seriously."

Related content: Here are the 7 Houston Democrats who want a chance to unseat Republican U.S. Rep. John CulbersonMore than two decades ago, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers determined that property owners in the reservoir pools of Addicks and Barker dams might sue the Corps if they were flooded but had a slim likelihood of success, a conclusion that supported decisions not to pursue upgrades to the aging dams at the time, a Corps document shows.

The analysis, laid out in a previously undisclosed 11-page document entitled Addicks and Barker Reservoirs Legal Takings Analysis, shows that the Corps was cognizant that it could be sued, and that Given the nature of the expensive homes that would be flooded and the quality of legal representation these owners could afford, there is always the possibility of an adverse ruling.

Documents, however, show the Corps officials believed that a storm that could spill into homes would be so rare and irregular that it did not necessitate retrofitting the dams to avoid the potential flooding and litigation, despite mounting evidence that the dams increasingly were being constrained on both sides by the Houston areas rapid development  increasing the amount of water they were being forced to hold back while decreasing the amount that could be released safely.

The document and the Corps conclusions have raised new questions after Hurricane Harvey, when the storms floodwaters filled the Barker and Addicks reservoirs and backed up beyond government-owned land, flooding more than 9,000 homes and businesses. Many homeowners now are suing the Corps for compensation.

HISTORY OF INACTION: Officials patched and prayed while pressure built on Houston's dams

Jim Blackburn, an environmental lawyer not involved in the litigation against the Corps after Harvey, said while case law may have changed since the Corps analysis, even in favor of property owners suing the federal government, the document shows that the Corps had concern and reflection about the potential of flooding property owners and being sued.

It shows that the Corps clearly understood that takings, flooding property both upstream and downstream, was a real potential associated with the operation of Addicks and Barker, said Blackburn, co-director of Rice Universitys Severe Storm Prediction, Education and Evacuation from Disasters Center.

Ilya Somin, a law professor at George Mason University who has written extensively about legal takings and penned a piece analyzing the Addicks and Barker cases, said in an interview Tuesday that the document could reinforce the property owners claims that the Corps was aware of the consequence of its actions during Harvey.

Attorneys for the plaintiffs say that Corps documents generally show they analyzed the problem, theyve correctly identified the problem, they know about the problem, and they decide again and again and again to do nothing and accept the risk of litigation, said Charles Irvine, a co-lead attorney representing property owners flooded upstream of Addicks and Barker during Harvey.

The decision was rather than pay now, well pay later, said Daniel Charest, another co-lead attorney on the case.

RESPONDING: Lawmaker calls for probe of what Corps knew of Harvey flooding risks

Irvine and Charest declined to comment specifically on the 1995 legal analysis obtained by the Houston Chronicle in a public records request, saying it would not be appropriate to comment on the document because the government claimed it was protected by attorney-client privilege.

An Army Corps spokesman referred questions to the U.S. Department of Justice. A Justice Department spokesman declined comment, citing the pending lawsuits.

Addicks and Barker Dams were built by the Corps in the 1940s, 15 miles west of Houston city limits to hold back storm runoff and protect Houston below the dams from flooding.

During heavy storms, water builds up in the reservoirs, which is called 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 were built in and around the reservoirs in recent decades.

The disclosure of the legal analysis comes on the heels of another report published in the Chronicle last week that showed that, in the days before Harvey hit the Houston region with full force, Corps forecasts showed that Barker and Addicks would flood subdivisions upstream of the reservoirs, raising questions of whether property owners around the reservoirs could have been alerted to the danger sooner.

The Chronicle published an article last December as part of its series Developing Storm showing that for years, experts outlined problems with the dams and identified potential remedies but each time, decision makers concluded that the situation was not bad enough to justify major corrective measures.

One of those reports shows that, based in part on the legal analysis, the Corps in 1995 decided against pursuing plans to build a third reservoir, excavating Barker and Addicks deeper, building channels to carry water out of the reservoirs in the event of a severe storm or buying out homes upstream or downstream, because the cost could not be justified.

All of those solutions have been proposed again in Harveys wake.

Harris County Judge Ed Emmett said Wednesday that the county still is trying to figure out when and how much federal money would flow to local projects, after Congress approved billions of dollars for disaster relief in a budget bill earlier this month. That bill could provide funding for a study to improve the Addicks and Barker dams, which could lead to construction of a third reservoir.

The 1995 legal analysis examines liability with respect to both upstream and downstream flooding. It states that downstream, the dams have provided greater protection than if they did not exist, but upstream, they could induce flooding that otherwise would not have occurred.

However, it states that the government bought enough land upstream of the dams that it appears that the United States has little potential for liability under current conditions at Addicks and Barker.

It further states that it is prudent to look at options to further reduce the potential for flooding valuable improved land and that the county should make sure owners, future developers, and future buyers are put on notice that they are in a reservoir.

Many of those flooded during Harvey said they did not know their homes were built in a reservoir.

Corps officials, in the past, have asserted that they held a number of workshops and seminars to educate property owners about the risks of living near the dams.

They also have said their actions during Harvey, which included releasing torrents of water into Buffalo Bayou that swamped thousands of homes downstream, were conducted to safeguard the integrity of the dams. A dam breach could result in thousands dead and dozens of neighborhoods, downtown Houston and the Texas Medical Center under water, according to Corps projection scenarios.

Even if they have a good reason, that doesnt get them off the hook for compensation, Somin said.Morocco fisheries pact must not include Western Sahara, EU court confirms

by Benjamin Fox

The EUs fisheries agreement with Morocco is valid as long as it does not include the Western Sahara territory, a region disputed by Morocco and independence fighters, the blocs top court, the European Court of Justice, ruled on Tuesday (27 February).



In its ruling, the ECJ stated that the EU-Morocco pact is valid in so far as it is not applicable to Western Sahara and to its adjacent waters. If the territory of Western Sahara were to be included within the scope of the fisheries agreement, that would be contrary to certain rules of general international law, it said.



The ruling by the Luxembourg-based court comes as no surprise. Last month, the ECJs Advocate General warned that it was likely to exclude Western Sahara from the scope of the pact. In December 2016, the ECJ ruled that a trade agreement with Morocco did not apply to Western Sahara.



Last month, Polisario (the independence movement in Western Sahara) announced that it would seek 240 million per year in compensation from European companies involved in exporting products from Western Sahara without its agreement.



The regions most profitable fishing grounds are in Western Sahara.



Morocco considers Western Sahara, which is fought for with the Polisario Front after Spain withdrew from the land in 1974, to be part of its territory. Polisario, which claims to represent Western Sahara, seeks a UN-mandated referendum on independence from Rabat.



The UN regards the region as a non-self-governing territory.



European Commission spokeswoman Catherine Ray told reporters that the EU executive was in the process of examining it (the judgement) more closely but would fully respect the ruling.



The EU co-operates closely with Morocco and will continue to do so, she added.



The case was brought to the ECJ by the Western Sahara Campaign UK in 2015.



Once again EU law is firmly on the side of the Saharawi people, Mohamed Sidati, Polisarios Representative in Brussels, told EURACTIV.



The ruling makes clear, as with the case of December 2016 that the fisheries agreement between the EU and Morocco cannot be applied to Western Sahara or its adjacent waters; doing so would be a violation of international law and the right to self-determination of the people of Western Sahara.



We hope the matter is now closed by todays ruling, he added, calling on the EU and national governments to take immediate steps to comply with the ruling, and halt all ongoing efforts to circumvent EU law by including Western Sahara in EU-Morocco deals without the consent of the Saharawi people.



However, the EU sees Morocco as an important trading and diplomatic partner in the Maghreb region.



In January, the Commission sought a mandate from EU governments to negotiate a new fisheries pact with Morocco to replace the current four-year agreement which expires in July. The EU currently pays Rabat 40 million per year in subsidies to its fishermen in exchange for access to the waters for around 120 European vessels, most of them French and Spanish.



Polisario want a genuine political settlement. But if the Commission just pay no attention to the ECJ rulings then Polisario as a last resort will take it back to court, Nour Bakr of Independent Diplomat, a non-profit, diplomatic advisory group that advises Polisario, told EURACTIV.



The Commission launched a consultation on the trade amendment but never communicated directly, or formally consulted Polisario. It was Polisario who requested a meeting with the Commission, outside of the framework of this consultation process, to open a constructive dialogue on the wider issue of Western Sahara. The Commission is playing it very cynically. Everything is through the prism of relations with Morocco, he added.

 1999-2017. EURACTIV.com plc

Theme(s): Fisheries Development and Aquaculture.Amit Tandon Lashes Out at Kyunki Co-star Mouni Roy: That Girl Used My Wife, Never Want to See Her FaceYou've probably heard this a thousand times, but would you consider running for President in 2020?

Yes, you said that you like your current job better, you don't think you'll get elected, and you don't want to go through the awful process of getting nominated. Please hear me out.

You are trying to maximize the good you can do for the world. Your foundation saved, and is saving, countless lives in the poorest places on the planet. This is fantastic work. However while you were saving lives in Africa, things on the home front have deteriorated. America is no longer the beacon of hope it used to be. ...

The States are divided. More divided than they've been any time in the last fifty years. Republicans and Democrats used to be able to work together. ... This country needs a leader that can unite its people, or things will only escalate until blood is spilled. We need someone who can talk to both sides. ...

You have a sterling reputation, something that nearly every politician lacks. You are a moderate, that is what the country needs now. You might be the only moderate actually electable. And you don't care about power, you don't actually want to be President, which makes you a better candidate than anyone who does. ...

Mr. Gates, this country needs someone like you to carry this burden ...Could the "air" in "Airbnb" soon stand for something else? Maybe sooner than a lot of aviation industry leaders might hope.

Here's the background. A year ago, Airbnb founder Brian Chesky took to Twitter to ask his 275,000 followers a simple question:

If you could design the "perfect flying experience," how would it look?

Let's say you could wave a magic wand and have the perfect flying experience, what would that look like? -- Brian Chesky (@bchesky) April 12, 2017

The results were really interesting. People came up with all kinds of ideas.

Supersonic planes. Drive energy costs down by ultimately creating electric planes. Check your baggage in the city before you head to the airport.

In the end, Chesky wrote in a later post, most people's wish lists came down to three things: "get me there faster, cheaper, [with a] better experience."

Sound simple, even common sense, right?

But a look around the airline industry suggests they're close to the opposite of what big airlines are offering.

One explanation: legacy airlines are public companies that have to serve the short-term financial interests of shareholders. That in turn means squeezing as much profit out of each passenger as possible.

Airbnb, at least for now, is still a private company.

Earlier this month, Chesky said they'll make decisions about going public "on our own timetable." Perhaps sooner on the timetable, however -- getting into the airline business.

"We've seriously considered a lot of things around aviation and we've spent a lot of time exploring different concepts," Chesky told the Sunday Times of London recently. "We definitely want to make sure, though, that we can get into the end-to-end trip business."

We're now a decade into the AirBnb era. The company launched after Chesky and his cofounder Joe Gebbia bought a bunch of air mattresses and rented our space in their San Francisco apartment to conference-goers during the Industrial Design Conference.

It's now a $31 billion tech company that has disrupted the hotel industry like nothing before it, even causing cities around the world to rewrite their laws--either to accommodate it (no pun intended) or restrict it and protect their legacy hotels.

And while it still seems like a startup, that $31 billion valuation puts it on a par with the biggest U.S. carriers. Delta Airlines is at about $38 billion; American Airlines has a market cap of about $26 billion.

As FlyerTalk's Jeff Edwards put it, the idea of Airbnb Airways, or whatever they could wind up calling it, "has not escaped the notice of aviation industry leaders," even at the drawing board stage:

"Airbnb's simple-to-use tools for allowing users to book or rent overnight accommodations have already proven to be a serious challenge to the hotel industry. Whatever Airbnb's plans are for the aviation industry, recent history tells us that the company will likely enter the market in an unexpected and highly disruptive way. In 2016, the company hinted that it might soon allow users to book flights through its site, though without a competitive advantage over sites such as Expedia, the idea never really took off. It seems that the leadership at Airbnb have now set their sights on more ambitious plans for making a foray into the world of air travel.If there's one thing that's certain about any entrepreneurial venture you get involved with, it's that you'll make mistakes. The crucial thing to do is understand what those shortcomings can teach you and improve your methods to avoid making them again.

Below, I'll look at six of the most common mistakes entrepreneurs make and see what some famous founders who experienced them did to eventually find success.

1. Failing to Adequately Test a Product or Concept

Most products go through countless hours of testing before their developers show them to potential clients. However, even when that happens, they still might not work when it matters most.

Bill Gates and his business partner Paul Allen built a microprocessor that could analyze vehicular data taken from the traffic counters placed on the pavement. However, when the time came to show the product to representatives from Washington who planned to use it for their traffic engineers, the computer didn't work during the demonstration phase.

Gates and Allen retooled their approach in 1975 by learning to write software, ultimately leading Gates to start Microsoft. This example goes to show how if an initial idea fails, you shouldn't give up.

2. Making Snap Judgments about What Customers Want

It can be easy to assume you're fantastic at analyzing unmet needs in your target market -- so good, in fact, that there's no need to verify your findings with potential customers.

Robin Chase, co-founder of Zipcar, confesses that she and her team fell into that trap when launching the business before getting customer feedback. They spent too much money before checking with the target audience, which made it necessary to spend precious time going back and redoing aspects of the company's website and software to make them more customer-centric.

3. Not Being Focused Enough With a Plan or Pitch Deck

When you present an idea to investors, they want to see you've thought things through at length, but usually get bored if you're too long-winded. It's best to keep things as concise as possible. Actress-turned-entrepreneur Jessica Alba, founder of The Honest Company, found that out the hard way when she tried engaging with investors by using a 50-page pitch deck.

Approaching potential financiers with such a great deal of material didn't work well, and eventually, Alba realized she needed to get more to the point. She thinned out her pitch deck to just 10 pages, and that obviously worked. Today, her company is worth around $1 billion, and serves consumers in the United States and Canada who love natural products.

4. Having Difficulty Winning Over Big Distributors

Many people are scared of making mistakes, and perhaps you can relate. Sometimes, though, mistakes can be good for you. They can help you overcome fears and highlight opportunities for growth. The latter was true for James Dyson, the man now associated with an upscale vacuum brand.

In the 1970s, Dyson had what he thought was an excellent idea for a revolutionary kind of new household cleaner. However, the brands he approached to distribute it didn't agree. Dyson's mistake was that he was unable to connect with major companies enough to convince them to sell his vacuum.

However, in the 1990s, Dyson decided to start his own company instead. By doing so, he eventually became a billionaire. In his case, he took a different approach to getting his project on the market, and it worked. That goes to show how persistence often pays off.

5. Coming Up with an Idea That's Ahead of Its Time

Entrepreneurs are typically visionary individuals by nature, but that sometimes means they think of possibilities the market isn't ready to accept yet. Did you know Walt Disney's Epcot theme park was supposed to be a futuristic city? Many so-called "smart cities" are capturing the headlines and people's imaginations now, but Disney's Epcot idea never took off, so it was only ever a theme park.

However, instead of getting so discouraged by the perceived failure and giving up altogether, Disney revamped his approach. Many of Epcot's attractions focus on futuristic concepts, so even though the original plan didn't come to pass, Disney still managed to show theme park attendees what's possible.

6. Being Too Similar to Other Brands

With his net worth of several billion dollars, some people would assume Richard Branson has always been successful. However, some of his ventures have failed or had unexpected setbacks. One of them didn't work because it wasn't different enough from what was already available.

Branson started Virgin Cola with the aim of surpassing Coca-Cola in popularity. Early taste tests were promising, but the brand wasn't unique enough for long-term success. Virgin Cola was not Branson's only failure, but the entrepreneur has learned to stay flexible, which has proved to be an immensely helpful trait.Tech companies have made big advances in terms of building artificially intelligent software that gets smarter over time and potentially makes life and work easier. But these examples reveal an uncomfortable reality about A.I.: even the most intelligent bots can be biased.

Who is building the robots--and how--will only become more important questions in the future. In 2016, sales of consumer robots reached $3.8 billion. They're expected to reach $13.2 billion by 2022, according to market firm Tractica. Add to that the coming wave of self-driving cars and virtual assistants in the workplaces, and you see a future in which A.I. is going to continue to play a bigger role in the culture and the economy.

"One source of urgency is simply due to the fact that we're about to experience a proliferation of robots in society," says Jim Boerkoel, a robotics professor at Harvey Mudd.

Boerkoel says removing all biases from robots is an enormous and difficult task. Bots and A.I. are built by human beings who have implicit biases. Even if you could design an A.I. algorithm to be completely agnostic to race, gender, religion, and orientation, "[for robots] to be effective, they will inevitably need to learn from experience, either through interactions with the world or from data provided to them," he says.

A number of startups are working on this problem. Their goal? Minimize bias problems from the get-go by designing A.I. systems that reflect a broader range of human experiences.

The invisible human hand

Founded in 2009 at M.I.T Media Lab, Affectiva makes software that claims to detect and understand human emotions and facial expressions just by scanning a person's face. The software's applications vary widely: Learning apps have employed it to better understand how students use them, Giphy uses it to tag GIFs with emotions, and global research firms use it to measure audience responses to TV ads and movie trailers. Recently, Affectiva began shipping software to auto companies that can monitor a driver's face and emotions to create a better car experience. For example, the car may suggest that you don't stop by the grocery store and do it tomorrow instead if it detects that you're tired or frustrated.

The company says that avoiding bias in its algorithms starts with accumulating an enormous set of diverse data. To that end, Affectiva says that it has analyzed over six million faces in 87 countries--a process that involves hundreds of millions of different data points, says Affectiva director of applied A.I. Jay Turcot. The optical sensors that work with Affectiva's software to capture details of facial expressions, such as the movements of an eyebrow or the corners of a mouth, are placed in the background in an effort to analyze people acting naturally.

Such heavy data collection requires a team of human annotators, who help feed the algorithms, to manually tag what they see in the data. This process helps Affectiva's scientists like Turcot look for potential biases hidden in the algorithms. For instance, Turcot says that their data showed that in everyday conversations women tend to laugh more than men, which could help perpetuate gender bias. If the human annotators didn't make sure to balance the data appropriately, the algorithm might inadvertently conclude that laughter is essentially a "woman's thing"--which is not so helpful for software that aims to read people's emotions to provide a better driving experience.

A robot that's anything you want it to be

It's not just the data powering the A.I. that can be biased. The physical design of robots can reflect certain prejudices as well--particularly when engineers anthropomorphize them, says Boerkoel. Consider, for example, the sheer number of bot assistants that are given female names, voices, and (in some cases) bodies: Siri, Alexa, and Sophia are just a few examples.

Furhat Robotics doesn't want to determine the gender--or for that matter, species--of its robots for you. The Stockholm-based social A.I. robotics startup aims to build robots that use language and gestures to converse with people in a natural manner. The robot comes as a head and stand (and optional fur hat). Furhat says the robot learns how to be more conversational by speaking with humans; it is equipped with microphone sensors and cameras that pick up and convert the speech to text using machine learning.

The signature feature of Furhat is its "projection mask," a plastic mask that can look like a man, woman, animal, or even a Disney-inspired avatar, with the help of computer animation. Securing $2.5 million in seed funding last September, Furhat has partnered with such companies as Honda, Intel, Disney, and KPMG, which use the robot for various social purposes: a job interview trainer, a robot that tells stories to kids, a conversation tool for the elderly. Furhat will be piloting robots in March at Frankfurt Airport to communicate with international travelers.

"Once [the founders] had this tool, what made this special was the ability to represent any human or non-human or any gender and that started becoming a founding philosophy of the company," says Furhat's senior business developer Joe Mendelson.

Robots that are specialists instead of generalists

Another potential way to limit bias in A.I. systems is to narrow the focus of what they're designed to do. X.ai is a good example of a bot with a single-minded purpose. The New York-based startup created an A.I. virtual assistant--which goes by the name of Amy or Andrew--that can manage your schedule: You ping it on Slack or CC it on an email and the bot can arrange meetings, send out calendar invites, and plan any reschedules or cancellations. The assistant is fully autonomous, so it doesn't need additional input or control after being asked to do a job.

Founder Dennis Mortensen argues that, in the future, the most effective virtual assistants will eventually "do one thing and one thing very well."

"I'm not convinced that we'll end up with a single A.I. or one of the personal assistants, whether it'll be Google Assistant or Siri, that will be an entity that can answer all your questions--that just doesn't sound realistic," he says.

He suggests that in the same way that there isn't just one app on your phone that can do all things, virtual assistants shouldn't be expected to overstep their job descriptions. Amy and Andrew are designed to care only about dates, times, locations, and names of people. The algorithm simply doesn't process "bad" input--for instance, racist or sexist language--Mortensen says.

A $23 million investment led by Two Sigma Ventures in 2016 has allowed x.ai to build its dataset from scratch. The company has about 70 A.I. trainers--which make up two-thirds of the startup's team--who assemble and label data that comes from email conversations with Amy and Andrew. Despite the female and male distinction, the virtual assistants behave in exactly the same way. And like most A.I. systems, nuanced language is still an ongoing challenge for the algorithms. (If someone sends a note at 12:30 a.m. and says she's free "tomorrow," does she really mean today?)

Despite the progress being made, bias will likely continue to creep into technology in ways that tech companies haven't even thought of yet.Craig Wright, the Australian computer scientist and entrepreneur who claims to be the inventor of Bitcoin, is accused of stealing over $5 billion worth of cryptocurrency and intellectual property from his dead business partner's estate.

According to a lawsuit filed on behalf of David Kleiman's estate, Wright allegedly drew up fraudulent contracts and forged Kleiman's signature after his death to transfer Kleiman's $5 billion bitcoin fortune to himself. The lawsuit is seeking a total of $10 billion.

Kleiman and Wright, the lawsuit alleges, mined bitcoin together and amassed 1.1 million bitcoins between 2009 and 2013. Kleiman and Wright also started their own business, W&K Info Defense Research LLC, registered in Florida.

The lawsuit, which was filed February 14 in West Palm Beach, Florida federal court, claims that Wright emailed the Kleiman family after David's death in 2013 and stated that he was trying to give the estate a sum of 300,000 bitcoins owed to David. Communication broke down and Wright never sent the bitcoins.

But, the lawsuit could also answer one of the biggest mysteries of modern technology--who is Satoshi Nakamoto, the anonymous creator or group of creators who invented Bitcoin? The real identity of Satoshi has never been confirmed, despite the best efforts of reporters. (In 2014, Newsweek created a media circus after publishing a cover story about how a California engineer who goes by the name "Dorian," but whose birth name is Satoshi Nakamoto, was the real Satoshi. Newsweek, it turned out, got it wrong.)

In December 2015, Wired and Gizmodo published articles alleging that Wright, with help from Kleiman, invented the Bitcoin protocol. In 2016, Craig Wright went public and claimed to be Satoshi Nakamoto. After the crypto-community started to poke holes in his claims, Wright declined to offer proof and posted an apology on his blog, writing that he didn't "have the courage" to prove he is the real Satoshi, the New Yorker reported last year.

Some people involved in the early development of bitcoin, including Gavin Andresen, who worked with Satoshi Nakamoto and became his successor running the Bitcoin network, initially supported Wright's claim. However, the broader community does not take Wright's claim seriously.

"There are only a few people that might have been capable of creating Bitcoin," said an influential member of the cryptocurrency community who asked to remain anonymous, saying Wright is not one of them. "Popular theories are Hal Finney, who is dead and had his head frozen, and Nick Szabo."

The attorney representing Kleiman's estate, Velvel Devin Freedman, told Inc. that finding out if Wright is lying or not about inventing Bitcoin could be a byproduct of lawsuit.A red alert weather warning has been issued after the Beast from the East polar system dumped several inches of snow on parts of Ireland.

Met Eireann upgraded its advice to the highest level and cautioned that up to 10in (25cm) of snow could fall by Thursday.

Up to 4in (10cm) has already been recorded in counties in the east.

The red alert covers Dublin, Kildare, Louth, Wicklow and Meath and is active until midday on Thursday.

The public are being advised to expect widespread disruption.

Dublin Airport has reported a number of flight cancellations.

Snow clearing is progressing well @DublinAirport. We're working with our airline customers to resume flight operations asap. We'll bring you the next update before 07.30.  Dublin Airport (@DublinAirport) February 28, 2018

Luas services are operating in the capital but on a limited basis.

Dublin Bus has kept services running on main roads.

And Irish Rail said all its services are running, including commuter trains but with delays on some lines and that it will try to give as much notice as possible of disruption.

Severe Weather Warning issued for Snow/Ice

Status: RED

Location: Dublin, Kildare, Louth, Wicklow and Meath

Valid: Wed 5am to Thurs 12pm

Warning updates will be issued in due course

Latest information here:https://t.co/X6NncUghZ9 pic.twitter.com/rWhZ3kTAu8  Met Eireann (@MetEireann) February 28, 2018

School buses are automatically stopped during a status red weather warning, effectively closing schools in the east.

Several inches (centimetres) of snow was reported in Dublin, Kildare, Wicklow and further north, with lower levels reported in the Midlands.

The National Emergency Co-ordination Group met in Dublin on Tuesday and warned the public to prepare for an exceptional weather event.

Further planning and response meetings will take place on Wednesday.

The snowfall is expected to be compounded by the arrival of Storm Emma as it moves over Ireland on Thursday afternoon, causing further heavy snow across large parts of Ireland, with the cold weather set to last until the weekend at least.

Met Eireann has also issued a mid-level orange alert for snow-ice in Cork, Waterford and Wexford until Thursday lunchtime.Boris Johnson has accused Remainers of using the Irish border issue to try to frustrate Brexit.

The Foreign Secretary said anti-Brexit politicians were attempting to keep Britain in the customs union, effectively the single market, by saying it is the only way to avoid a hard Irish border.

It comes after a letter sent by Mr Johnson to Theresa May emerged, saying the Government should focus on preventing the frontier becoming significantly harder, reigniting a row over the issue.

With the EU preparing to set out on Wednesday draft legal plans to ensure Northern Ireland is aligned with Brussels rules if no other solution can be found to avoid a hard border with the Republic, Mr Johnson hit out at the inverted pyramid of objections over the issue.

The issue of the Northern Irish border is being used quite a lot politically to try and keep the UK in the customs union - effectively the single market - so we cannot really leave the EUForeign Secretary Boris Johnson

Speaking to reporters after returning from a jog in the snow, he said: What is going on at the moment is that the issue of the Northern Irish border is being used quite a lot politically to try and keep the UK in the customs union  effectively the single market  so we cannot really leave the EU. That is what is going on.

Mr Johnson said his letter showed there are very good solutions that would prevent a hard border for goods crossing the Irish border, while allowing the UK to come out of the customs union, take back control of our tariffs schedules, take back control of our commercial policy, take back control of our regulation.

It is a very positive letter, he added.

The former London mayor also repeated widely criticised comments likening the Irish border to congestion charge zones in the capital, asking a reporter: I dont know whether you have ever driven into the congestion charge zone from outside the congestion charge zone  have you?

Do you slow down? Do you feel any let or hindrance? Do you check your progress? Do you brake? Do you?

Brussels chief negotiator, Michel Barnier, said there would be no surprises in the 120-page draft document, which will cover the political agreements reached between Mrs May and Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker in December.

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said he is satisfied the legal text will ensure there will be no hard border on the island of Ireland after Brexit.

But in a suggestion that the phrasing of the document may cause problems in Westminster  where the Democratic Unionist Party props up the Prime Ministers minority Government  he said: We cannot automatically assume it will be acceptable to the United Kingdom or acceptable to all the parties in Northern Ireland so we could have an interesting few weeks ahead of us.

The UK Government has set out three ways to avoid a hard border  resolving the issue as part of a new trade relationship with the EU, specific technological solutions to the issue or  as a fallback option  regulatory alignment with EU rules to protect economic co-operation and the Good Friday Agreement.

But a memo sent by Mr Johnson to the Prime Minister and other members of the Brexit war cabinet appeared to suggest a hard border remained a possibility, and would not be as damaging as feared.

The document, obtained by Sky News, said it is wrong to see the task as maintaining no border' on the island of Ireland and the Governments aim will be to stop this border becoming significantly harder.

Downing Street was swift to play down Mr Johnsons comments.

A source said: We agree the task isnt about no border, its about no hard border.

The 18-page document was circulated to members of the Brexit Cabinet sub-committee before the Chequers meeting where senior ministers agreed on the approach to the next phase of talks, which Mrs May will set out on Friday.

Former Brexit minister David Jones said the EUs proposal was completely unacceptable and amounted to an attempt to annex Northern Ireland.

The Leave-backing Tory MP told BBC Radio 4s Today programme: What is proposed is that Northern Ireland should remain part of the customs union, it should effectively be part of the single market, and should, I understand, remain subject to the European Court of Justice. That effectively amounts to an annexure of Northern Ireland by the European Union.

He said the EUs plan would risk peace in Northern Ireland: I think that it would be pretty catastrophic and I think that the European Union in actually proposing this is behaving wholly irresponsibly.The European Union could maintain much of its sway in Northern Ireland after Brexit under a draft treaty published on Wednesday that caused anger in London and Belfast.

Brussels' chief negotiator Michel Barnier denied that the proposal for avoiding a disruptive EU-UK "hard border" on the island of Ireland would loosen Northern Ireland's constitutional ties to the rest of the United Kingdom.

Mr Barnier stressed he was open to other solutions to the border dilemma that Britain may offer.

"Daily life around the border should continue as today," Barnier told reporters as the European Commission published its draft withdrawal treaty.

However, he rammed home that "time is short" before Britain will be out of the EU in exactly 13 months. He called on Prime Minister Theresa May to "pick up the pace" of negotiations so that a withdrawal treaty, including terms for keeping the status quo during a two-year transition period, could be agreed this autumn in order to be ratified by parliaments before next March.

He repeated that the EU is "preparing for every situation" in case no deal is struck and the continent's second-biggest economy lurches chaotically out of the Union after 46 years.

Expand Close Tanaiste Simon Coveney discussed the agreement when he met EU lead Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier. Photo: Mark Condren / Facebook

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May, who will lay out her vision for a post-Brexit free trading relationship with the EU on Friday, said no government could ever agree to the EU proposals and said she would work to protect UK unity in the negotiations. She again ruled out a customs union -- something that her Labour opponents advocate as a way to avoid disruptive controls at Ireland's EU-UK border.

Speaking in parliament in London while Barnier was speaking in Brussels, she repeated that she wanted to avoid a hard border. Her pro-British allies in Belfast, on whom she relies for a slim majority to see through her Brexit legislation, pulled no punches in deriding Brussels' proposals for a "common regulatory area" comprising the EU and Northern Ireland.

"This is a ludicrous, over-the-top suggestion put forward by Michel Barnier. It will not go anywhere. The way forward is to get into the trade talks and then and only then will you know what the border arrangements need to be," the Democratic Unionist Party's Nigel Dodds told BBC Radio Ulster.

The UK Independence Party, which helped force the referendum in which Britons voted to leave the EU in 2016, accused the EU executive of trying to "annexe" Northern Ireland.

Unionists fear that raising new barriers with the British mainland could increase the chances of a future move to reunite the province with EU member the Irish Republic. Barnier conceded there might have to be extra checks on trade between Northern Ireland and the mainland but said there would not be a "border."

"NO ARROGANCE HERE"

Dismissing suggestions that the draft was an attempt to "shock" Britons into concluding a deal, Barnier insisted no one in Britain should be surprised by it, as it was based on interim accords reached in December, as well as on known EU positions which Britain is resisting but are part of negotiations.

"There is no arrogance here," the former French minister said, insisting he merely wanted to see an orderly Brexit.

The draft treaty sees a joint EU-UK committee overseeing the arrangements but the European Court of Justice remaining the ultimate authority to resolve disputes.

The Irish proposal was, he said, in line with a "backstop" publicly agreed with May in December and could be superseded if Britain puts forward a detailed alternative solution. He said the treaty made no mention of a clause in December's EU-UK joint report that there be no divergence between Great Britain and Northern Ireland because that was an internal UK matter.

Barnier renewed his view that the kind of future trade proposals which May is widely expected to make on Friday to maintain a mixture of common and different regulations with the EU were not acceptable. "There will be no cherry-picking," he said, referring to EU concerns Britain wants a sweetheart deal.

Barnier said he would engage in a new round of negotiations next week and would also meet leaders of Northern Ireland early in the week. He stressed that there remain "significant divergences" in talks on whether Britain might get a transition.Loans for land sales have surged by 30pc, with the size of the parcels up by a quarter, according to figures released by Bank of Ireland.

The lender found the average loan approval increased by 2pc to 5,100/ac during 2017, with the average size of farmland approved for purchase standing at around 30ac.

The greatest demand for funding came from counties Cork, Tipperary and Westmeath.

It also concurs with a survey carried out by the Farming Independent which found strong sales in those counties, along with Tipperary.

Over 17,000/ac was paid for a 130ac farm in Golden, which was a premium per acre price for such a large holding.

Clonmel auctioneer John Fitzgerald of Dougan Fitzgerald said there is more activity in the Tipperary land market.

"We are doing quite a lot of land valuation for the banks at the moment and this is not a simple task," he said. "The dairy farmer is the most active customer but valuations are being done for customers across the sectors including tillage farmers."

Across the border in Cork Mick Barry of Fermoy auctioneers Dick Barry & Son, described sales and land valuations as "much busier". "It is no simple matter buying land nowadays, it is not a enough to have a good relationship with the local bank manager. You have to have a detailed business plan with five-year projections and the land has to be valued in detail," he said.

He said that despite the complicated process to borrow money, there is still much more activity in land sales.

Bank of Ireland said it also received a significant number of farm development finance applications last year.

It pointed out that a large proportion were weighted towards dairy, however, finance was also sought across beef, tillage, sheep, pig and poultry sectors for building upgrades, renovations and machinery.

Sean Farrell, head of agriculture at the bank, said it was a positive period for much of the agri-sector which helped fuel confidence and appetite for expansion, particularly for the dairy sector.

He said the record year for milk production and higher farmgate prices had resulted in higher cash flows and lower overdraft usage.

"Despite the threat of Brexit, agri enterprises are expanding where and when they can to maintain productivity, drive efficiency levels and enhance capability for the future," he said.

Mr Farrell said they expected to see continued expansion this year but a "rebalancing" of dairy with a reduction in milk prices, while there will be further growth in beef supplies.Eddie Downey: proud of what he achieved in the IFA Picture: David Conachy

The fall-out from the Irish Farmers' Association 1.9m settlement with its former secretary general continues to rumble this week.

Former IFA president Eddie Downey has demanded that he be allowed air his version of events at a meeting of the organisations national council in IFA headquarters in Dublin. He had planned to attend tomorrow's (Thursday) meeting but that meeting has since been cancelled due to the weather condtions.

Ive waited long enough to tell the truth about what happened in that room, he said of the night over two years ago when he signed off on a 2m severance deal with the then general secretary, Pat Smith.

It follows IFA accepting that it defamed Mr Smith after two legal actions were settled outside the High Court. The IFA confirmed that Mr Smith is to receive 1.55m in relation to his severance claim and 350,000 in relation to his defamation claim.

Mr Downey was addressing over 100 farmers attending a Meath IFA AGM in Navan on Monday night, where he claimed that he had been defamed by reports during the period when both he and Mr Smith stepped down from their roles at the head of the countrys largest farmer organisation which was engulfed in a pay controversy.

Mr Downey told the meeting that he was passed a ticking time-tomb when he became president. The music stopped and I was holding the parcel.

When details of the 2m severance deal for Mr Smith emerged, Mr Downey claimed that senior members of the IFA effectively threw me under a bus.

Reports at the time said that Eddie Downey acted alone. This is not true. This is defamation, he told the Meath IFA AGM.

All that I did that day was approved and at every step I sought and received approval. Why Mr President, can I not tell the truth now? he asked the current IFA president Joe Healy in front of a packed room at the Newgrange Hotel.

Why can others damage my reputation? Im requesting the opportunity to address the council meeting on Thursday in camera. Its not acceptable that I cannot tell the truth. I wish to be treated with the same respect and regard as other [former IFA] presidents, he said.

Later he added that he intended addressing the IFA national council on Thursday, with or without the blessing of Mr Healy.

Im going to national council on Thursday and Im going to have my say, whether you want me or not.

Mr Healy stated that the matter would would be for national council to decide, however, when pressed further he conceded that he had no problem with Mr Downey addressing the national council meeting. A spokesman for the IFA had no further comment to make as to whether the former president would be given the opportunity to present his version of events.

Mr Downey also urged farmers present to reclaim our organisation from Bluebell where IFA executive staff are headquartered.

He was also critical of the specially-commissioned report drawn up by the highly-respected former IFA economist Con Lucey in the wake of the revelations two years ago.

Tear up the Con Lucey report - its an in-house report designed to protect the staff, he claimed at the meeting.

I did not resign because I signed a 2m package with Pat Smith. I settled it quickly because I knew that the first cost would be the least cost.

Mr Downey also talked about his time as IFA leader and just how powerful the role still is, remarking that doors in the Department of Finance were literally opened for you.

He said that he was damn proud of his achievements in the IFA, especially the introduction of tax incentives for long term land leasing which he claimed changed the face of land tenure".The Irish Farmers' Association will be forced to dip into its special reserve fund to pay a settlement to former general secretary Pat Smith. The final cost is expected to be in excess of 2m including legal fees.

Mr Smith is to receive 1.55m for his severance claim and 350,000 in relation to his defamation claim after the case was settled on the steps of the High Court.

The controversy over pay at the IFA saw Mr Smith leave his post as general secretary in November 2015.

The IFA has net assets of 16.3m, but the full financial fall-out of the controversy will be felt for years to come as European involvement fund levies - an important source of income for the IFA - have declined sharply in the last two years.

Levies have fallen from 4.18m in 2016 to 2.95m last year, with the IFA instructing ABP to suspend the collection of levies after the processor announced plans to introduce an 'opt-in' model for farmers.

However, the IFA maintains that the number of farmers declining to pay membership and levies has stabilised in the two years since the controversy.

The Association does not yet know the full cost of the legal fees for the case, but estimates are that the costs could approach 500,000, which pushes the total cost of the settlement well beyond the 2m mark. The fees from Mr Smith's legal team will be sent to the Taxing Master at the High Court for assessment.

Professional fees

The IFA accounts show professional fees last year amounted to over 977,000.

"IFA has a special reserve fund in place which has been built up over a number of years," a spokesman told the Farming Independent. "Regrettably, some funds from this reserve will have to be used."

The accounts state that the special reserve fund of 12.4m should only be drawn down under 'exceptional circumstances'.

However, the IFA may have recorded an operating loss of 1.4m last year but it is well funded with the value of its financial investments increasing from 13.4m in 2016 to 15.8m in 2017. The bulk of which forms a special reserve fund.

The National Council passed a resolution in March 2017 to enter into mediation with Mr Smith and his legal advisors.

In 2015, Mr Smith said his agreement with the IFA on his exit consisted of a 1m exit package and a further 1m in yearly 100,000 instalments.

He said the 2m exit package was agreed with former IFA president Eddie Downey, who later stepped down from his position. The exit package for Mr Smith was vetoed by the IFA council in 2015 when the association stated that it would explore all legal options to challenge Mr Smith's severance package.

Mr Downey met the IFA's national officers on Thursday and made his views known to them, according to a source. "It is understood he was happy for the IFA that it was concluded and feels vindicated by the actions he took for the organisation. However, he feels there are unresolved matters in the way he was treated," a source said.The clean livestock policy is important to all operators in the sheep sector as part of the "green and clean" marketing drive to access US and Chinese markets.

That was the message from John Walsh, general manager of Irish Country Meats in Camolin, Co Wexford, to farmers at the Teagasc Hill Sheep Conference. Mr Walsh said the Department of Agriculture have "come down pretty hard" in recent weeks with animals sent home. "There is very significant department activity at processing plant level - where it is going to end I don't know."

However, he stressed the clean sheep policy was important to everyone in the sector. "The US guys have a zero tolerance - so any contamination whatsoever on carcase during the slaughter process is a black mark straight away," he said. Mr Walsh acknowledged that trying to produce clean livestock at this time of year is "very difficult" but added that the cleanliness of stock over the last few weeks has significantly improved.

He also said electronic tagging was key as Ireland is "falling behind" other European countries and the US, China and countries are "hot" on traceability.

ICM process 1.2 million sheep a year in Camolin and Navan, and Mr Walsh said they have moved away from a carcase market towards more processing to deliver greater value.

It needs to be "nailed down" whether the New Zealand quota for 225,000t remains in the EU post-Brexit, as the UK could then strike a separate deal with New Zealand, said Mr Walsh.

He added that the value of the fifth quarter is in decline, while casings have stabilised in the last 12 months. The skins market is difficult as the European sector is now dependent on China, with prices opening at $5. If China decide to stop buying hides then there will be major difficulties, he said.Korn Ferry, one of the world's largest headhunting firms, has poached staff from the executive ranks of Dublin-based Merc Partners as competitive pressures start to reshape Ireland's top-end recruitment sector.

In the past few weeks, two of Merc's employees have defected to Korn Ferry, bolstering the US-listed behemoth's rapidly expanding Irish division.

News of the moves comes amid persistent speculation another global heavyweight, Heidrick & Struggles, is weighing an incursion into the| market.

Sources close to the Chicago-headquartered group told the Irish Independent the well-known headhunter and arch rival to Korn Ferry, is considering establishing a foothold in Dublin as the State's full-throttle economy attracts a host of new players. However, a London-based spokesperson for Heidrick & Struggles insisted an expansion into Ireland is "not on our radar right now".

Its entrance would follow in the wake of Korn Ferry, which has established an executive search division in Dublin from scratch, as well as top London City recruiter, Odgers Berndtson, which last year swooped on the Irish platform of UK recruiter, Amrop.

While many of these names remain relatively unknown in Ireland, internationally they dominate the sector and control access to the lion's share of C-suite succession and leader-replacement searches for the world's top corporations.

Local heavy-hitters in the sector are now in demand among these new firms.

As this newspaper reported recently, Korn Ferry is understood to have approached Merc's Ruth Curran last year about its Irish expansion plans, with the discussions touching on a possible takeover of the leading Irish player.

The talks failed to progress. Korn Ferry has since bedded in a number of senior hires including David Burke, a headhunter who specialises in Life Sciences, who formerly worked at executive search firm Accreate, as well as Bob Casey, a former CEO and professional rugby player at London Irish RFC.

John Harty has also joined Korn Ferry's headhunting arm. The group runs two other core global businesses: Futurestep, a global recruitment solutions division and Hay Group, an advisory arm.

Korn Ferry's Irish head, Rob Wilder confirmed the appointments and said the US giant plans to grow its presence this year, taking its headcount to 35 people from 21. Mr Wilder declined to comment on competitors but in a statement said "when we revisited our strategy for the Irish market, we heard from our clients that they would welcome a global player with local presence; a disruptor coming into the market".Net assets at the company were 9.3m as at 30 November

Dublin-listed Karelian Diamond reported a loss of 211,590 in the six months to 30 November 2017, despite what it said was "outstanding progress".

The result is almost double that of the previous year loss of 117,067 recorded for the six months to 30 November 2016.

Net assets at the company, whose chairman Richard Conroy is also chair of Conroy Gold, were 9.3m as at 30 November, according to the groups half-year financial statement released today.

In October last year, the company announced that an extensive work programme was underway to find the source of the green diamond discovered by the company in Finland at the start of 2016.

In his update today Mr Conroy said that the latest results suggested that the company was "very close" to the source of the diamonds.

"I am delighted that over the period the search for the source for the green diamond has been so encouraging with the recent sampling results suggesting close proximity to source," Mr Conroy said.

Mr Conroy went on to say that a preliminary economic assessment on the companys Lahtojoki diamond deposit, also located in Finland, had delivered "highly encouraging results."

Founded in 2005, Karelians shares started trading on the Enterprise Securities Market (ESM) of the Irish Stock Exchange in December 2009.

Companies trading on the ESM need to have a minimum market capitalisation of 5m, and, unlike the Main Securities Market, a three year trading record is not required and no minimum level of shares must be made available to the public.Over 80 jobs in the Republic of Ireland are at risk after electricals retailer Maplin collapsed into administration.

The British computer and electrical retailer group, owned by private equity firm Rutland Partners, called in PwC on Wednesday after attempts to rescue the chain failed.

Maplin currently has six stores in the Republic of Ireland - in Cork, Dublin city, Blanchardstown, Dundalk, Galway and Limerick.

According to PwC, which is still attempting to find a buyer for the group, there are currently 82 people in employment across the six stores here.

Maplin operates 217 stores across the UK and Ireland, including five in Northern Ireland, and has head offices in London and Rotherham.

Today's developments are understood to put a total of 2,500 jobs at risk across the group's operations. .

Graham Harris, CEO confirmed that it "has not been possible to secure a solvent sale of the business".

"As a result we now have no alternative but to enter into an administration process. During this process Maplin will continue to trade and remains open for business," he said.

Mr Harris said the business has worked hard over recent months to mitigate a combination of impacts from sterling devaluation post Brexit, a weak consumer environment and the withdrawal of credit insurance.

"This necessitated an intensive search for new capital that in current market conditions has proved impossible to raise. These macro factors have been the principal challenge not the Maplin brand or its market differentiation," he said.

"We believe passionately that Maplin has a place on the high street, and that our trust, credibility and expertise meets a customer need that is not supported elsewhere.

"We will now work tirelessly alongside Zelf Hussain, Toby Underwood and Ian Green, from PWC, who have been appointed as the as Joint Administrators of Maplin Electronics Limited, to achieve the best possible outcome for all of our colleagues and stakeholders.

The news comes after Toys R Us also fell into administration on Wednesday, affecting a total of 3,200 staff.

Two years ago, the doors closed on the Irish arm of Toys"R"Us just six months after local operators launched the business here.

The two Irish stores, at the Westend Shopping Park in Blanchardstown and at the Parkway in Limerick, closed in February 2016.Dublin has joined a list of around 20 financial centres, including London, Paris, Frankfurt and Hong Kong, who have launched a specific sustainable plan over the last 12 months.

Under the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement, it was agreed upon to limit global temperature increases to 2 degrees or less, a massive project that will require either the upgrade of existing infrastructure to be more climate resilient or to build out new low-carbon infrastructure.

Finance Green Ireland (FGI) is a national initiative that now aims to help us position ourselves as a world leader in green finance.

Succeeding in this goal would translate into more opportunities for businesses, and more jobs for the Irish public, according to the Director of Sustainable Finance at Sustainable Nation Ireland's Laura Heuston.

"FGI is a public/private forum that brings together all the market actors across the financial services sector in order to promote and position Ireland as a global green finance centre," Ms Heuston told Independent.ie.

"It's a compelling opportunity for Ireland to play a leading part in the development of Green Finance."

Sustainable Nation, mentioned in the government's IFS 2020 Strategy, was created through a 2015 merger of Irelands Green International Financial Services Centre (Green IFSC) and a group leading the cleantech market in Dublin, The Green Way.

Creating the infrastructure and projects that will one day decarbonise the planet is a costly process - and green finance is the business of finding the cash required to pay for it.

According to the G20, it is estimated that the total global investment required to tackle the climate change issues, and decarbonising national economies, could reach 90 trillion.

The amount required for Ireland to make the transition to a sustainable, low-carbon economy by 2040, according to the Ireland Strategic Investment Fund (ISIF), is 40bn.

In 2011, the Green IFSC initiative was launched with a similar plan to create jobs and establish Ireland as a hub of green finance.

Although this project, launched at a time of much financial uncertainty, did not realise its expected success, a number of green finance projects were begun that assist Ireland's current race to the top.

"The work to transition to this point in just over two decades is entirely achieveable so the race is on," said Ms Heuston.

"There is nearly 28bn of green finance activity already underway in Ireland; 7bn in green infrastructure funds (leveraging Ireland's world renowned expertise in renewables sector), 4bn in UCITS funds, 6bn in green listed equities, and 11bn of green bonds listed in Ireland."

A key topic at the Climate Change talks (Cop 23) that concluded in Bonn last October, was that green finance can typically go into projects that include energy generation.

This includes onshore/offshore winds and solar, energy storage, water and waste projects, in addition to retrofit of commercial and residential buildings and funding other cleantech innovations.

Last year, Sustainable Nation signed up to the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) Financial Centres for Sustainability initiative, the Casablanca Declaration, which sees Dublin line up with cities like Milan, Stockholm Shanghai and Hong Kong as key hubs for green money and investment.

"Our task is to highlight and leverage upon our unique selling point (USP) in green finance," said Ms Heuston.

"The country has a globally recognised cluster of talent in renewable energy finance, we have world-leading professional services firms experiences in supporting green asset management and Ireland is a global leader in international financial services."

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As financial institutions looking to Dublin as a potential post-Brexit hub, Ireland being a green financial centre could really seal the deal.

Global Head of Renewable Energy in KPMG, Mike Hayes, is a non-executive director at Sustainable Nation, and has been involved in renewables since 1999.

Aside from the fact that renewables is good for business, for the economy, and the passion of the people involved is inspiring, Mr Hayes said it actually makes a participant feel that much better in an almost selfish way as it's good for the environment too.

"This agenda is too important. We want to bring the consumers on board, we want to work with government. We believe in a low carbon environment and we need to figure out how we accelerate Ireland to a low carbon economy."

Mr Hayes uses the analogy of the motor industry to explain the importance of green finance for the renewables sector.

"We would not be able to run a car if we did not have petrol. With renewables, we need unbelievable amounts of investment; green finance is the fuel for the sector."Ireland celebrated a 200 job boost with the confirmation a major financial services firm is to expand its Cork operation.

Deutsche Borse Group announced it is to recruit 200 additional staff by 2020, boosting its Cork workforce to 600.

The firm confirmed the expansion as part of its move into a dedicated new Irish headquarters in the high-tech Navigation Square complex being built in the city centre.

Tanaiste Simon Coveney hailed the expansion as a major vote of confidence in the Irish economy.

"Cork is a key international hub for our global growth objectives and a very attractive location for International Financial Services companies from all over the world," he said.

"The decision by Deutsche Borse Group to expand its activities here is very positive. As a Government we continue to work hard to ensure that we have the right conditions and skills to attract knowledge based sectors to Ireland."

"These conditions and skills are key to facilitating expansion by high-calibre companies.

The firm said the expansion was underpinned by demand for its fund services. Deutsche Borse Group has a major presence in Ireland, Luxembourg, France and Germany.

In 2014 the then-Clearstream operation in Cork became part of the Deutsche Borse Group.

The firm started out with 274 employees but that has expanded by 100 - and the next 200 recruitment phase will boost the total workforce to 600 by 2020.

Clearstream Banking, DBG, chief executive Philippe Seyll said it was a very exciting investment for the firm.

"We have decided to invest in our Cork presence to allow for further growth and a competitive set up in the future," he said.

"Our current workforce in Cork as well as the high quality local graduate talent available from University College Cork and the Cork Institute of Technology have proven to be a great source of talent, supporting the success story of our business.

IDA Ireland executive director Mary Buckley said it was a very significant project.

This announcement by a company of the calibre of Deutsche Borse and its post-trade services provider Clearstream, that it is scaling up its operations with the addition of 200 new roles, is great news for Cork, for the south west region and for Ireland," she said.

"It reinforces Irelands leadership position as a global location for Investment Management in servicing and operations activities.

"This investment adds to the growing list of IFS clients locating projects of scale in regional locations and will act as a valuable reference site when marketing investment management activities in the region."

The project was hailed by both Cork Chamber of Commerce and Cork Business Association as hugely significant for the city. Cork Chamber said it was proof of the calibre of firms that can be attracted to the city with impressive ultra-modern office spaces such as Navigation Square.Dublin-based The Zyalin Group has developed smartphones designed specifically for children.

In partnership with larger rival Transsion Holdings, Zyalin has designed the iKydz Tecno & Infinix smartphones specifically for use by children and teens to help keep them safe online.

The phones work to keep children safe through an app on a parent's digital device that allows parents to restrict time online, block unsuitable content, and manage social media apps through, for instance, blocking or allowing access during specific times.

"Our kid-safe phones can be used anywhere in the world and controlled by parents or guardians remotely from any location," John Molloy, Zyalin CEO, said.

"It's the solution that every concerned parent has been looking for. We're proud to have played our part in keeping kids safer."

Unlike other older technologies, Zyalin say that their iKydz Tecno & Infinix Smartphones use iKydz embedded technology to ensure they cannot be compromised by children.

Initially the phones will be promoted in the Middle East, African and the Asia Pacific markets by Transsion, and the phones will cost in the region of $70-$220 (57-180).

The phones can be used use on any network, and can be customised to specific operator needs.

Zyalin, an Enterprise Ireland backed High Potential Start-Up, already has offices in London, Malta, and Nigeria, as well as its headquarters in Dublin.

Commenting on the launch of the phones, Joe Healy, manager of the High Potential Start-Ups division at Enterprise Ireland said that the State agency looked forward to supporting the companys global ambition in the future.The case started with a 2013 warrant obtained by US prosecutors for emails of a suspect in a drug-trafficking investigation that were stored on Microsoft computer servers in Dublin. Photo: Reuters

US Supreme Court justices on Tuesday wrestled with Microsoft's dispute with the US Justice Department over whether prosecutors can force technology companies to hand over data stored overseas. Some of the judges signalled support for the government and others urged Congress to pass a law to resolve the issue.

The case started with a 2013 warrant obtained by US prosecutors for emails of a suspect in a drug-trafficking investigation that were stored on Microsoft computer servers in Dublin. Microsoft challenged whether a US warrant covered data stored abroad. The Justice Department said prosecutors were entitled to the data because Microsoft is headquartered in the United States.

US Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Samuel Alito, both conservatives, hinted during an hour-long argument in the case at their support for the Justice Department's stance that because Microsoft is based in the United States it was obligated to turn over data sought by prosecutors in a US warrant.

As the nine justices grappled with the technological complexities of email data storage, liberals Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Sonia Sotomayor questioned whether the court needed to act in the data privacy case in light of Congress now considering bipartisan legislation that would resolve the legal issue.

A ruling is due by the end of June.

"Wouldn't it be wiser to say let's leave things as they are. If Congress wants to regulate this 'Brave New World,' let them do it," Ginsburg said.

Alito agreed that Congress should act but added that "in the interim, something's got to be done".

Roberts appeared concerned that companies might enable customers to evade the reach of US prosecutors by deliberately storing data overseas.

The case pits the interests of tech companies and privacy advocates in protecting customer data against the demands of law enforcement in gaining information vital to criminal and counter-terrorism investigations. The New York-based 2nd US Circuit Court of Appeals in 2016 sided with Microsoft, handing a victory to tech firms that increasingly offer cloud computing services in which data is stored remotely. US President Donald Trump's administration appealed that ruling to the Supreme Court.

The appeals court said the emails were beyond the reach of domestic search warrants obtained under a 1986 US law called the Stored Communications Act.

Legislation has been introduced in Congress that would let US judges issue warrants while giving companies an avenue to object if the request conflicts with foreign law. (Reuters)While Met Eireann issued weather warnings ahead of the impending Storm Emma clash with the 'Beast from the East' polar mass, Irish people hit the supermarkets to stock up on essentials.

Ever since the first weather warning was issued on Monday, there has been a severe shortage of bread in supermarkets and shops across the country.

Anxious shoppers have been stuffing their trolleys with sliced pans and 'breadwatch' has been trending on Twitter as people share images of empty shelves and barren bread aisles.

And it doesn't look like the crisis is set to ease.

CCTV footage from a Centra in Jobstown, Dublin today captured shoppers approach an Irish Pride bread man and clean his delivery trolley of goods as soon as he entered the shop.

Meanwhile, a spokesperson for Pat the Baker told RTE that the demand for bread is "unprecedented" and extra bakers have been brought in to the bakery in Granard in Co Longford to deal with the demand.

Brennan's Bread, based in Tallaght, said the bakery is working around the clock to meet the demand.

Johnston Mooney and O'Brien also confirmed to RTE that they have "significantly increased" production to meet "the dramatic increase in sales".Homegrown Game of Thrones star Liam Cunningham has been announced as Grand Marshal of this year's St Patrick's Festival.

The East Wall native, who plays Davos in the long-running hit HBO series, will lead this year's Festival Parade through the capital from 12 noon on March 17.

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He was chosen thanks to his contribution to the world of acting from his debut film role in Irish classic Into the West to his roles in War of the Buttons, Falling for a Dancer, The Wind That Shakes the Barley,Clash of the Titans, The Guard and Hunger.

On the small screen he has had roles in Doctor Who, Merlin, Northanger Abbey and Titanic: Blood and Steel.

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His role as Father Dominic Moran in Hunger saw him nominated for the London Film Critics' Circle Award and the British Independent Film Award while just last week he won an Irish Film & Television Award for his role in Game of Thrones.

Cunningham has previously won two Best Supporting Actor IFTAs for his roles in The Wind That Shakes the Barley and Hunger; and shared a BAFTA with Michael Fassbender for their crime-drama short film Pitch Black Heist. He has also been nominated alongside his Game of Thrones cast-members for the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series.

Expand Close Liam Cunningham who won best actor in supporting role-Drama for Games of Thrones and Victoria Smurfit who won best actress in a supporting role-Film for The Lears at the IFTA Film and Drama Awards 2018. Photo by Michael Chester / Facebook

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Previous Grand Marshals of the St Patrick's Day Parade include Annalise Murphy Joanne ORiordan, Katie Taylor, Ronnie Drew, Micheal o Muircheartaigh and Packie Bonner.

Ardmheara Bhaile Atha Cliath/Lord Mayor of Dublin, Micheal Mac Donncha said I would like to congratulate Liam on the honour of being selected as the 2018 Grand Marshal and wish him every enjoyment leading the Festival Parade. He is a fantastic ambassador for Irish acting who Im sure many young people here look up to and hope to emulate his success.

On receiving the honour of Grand Marshal, Liam said I have always been a proud Irishman and Dubliner and do my best to represent my country and city when I am abroad working. Its a huge honour to be invited back to lead the parade on our national holiday. Im really looking forward to being a part of it.

The theme of the parade this year is 'Home Is Where the Heart Is' and community groups and pageant companies from across Ireland and the world will take part. There will be more than 2000 band members too.

The full programme of events for St. Patricks Festival is available on www.stpatricksfestival.ieComedian PJ Gallagher says he's still pinching himself over the success of the Young Offenders TV series after it got immediately recommissioned by the BBC.

The funnyman, who plays a headteacher in the hit series, which was spawned by the movie of the same name, said he never expected it to strike such a chord with Irish audiences.

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Earlier this month saw BBC Comedy making the unusual move of ordering a further six episodes of the Cork-based series from Vico Films shortly after the first series debuted on RTE and BBC Three, with 277,000 viewers here.

"I hate saying it but it's getting a better reception than I ever thought it would. It got a hell of a reception," he said.

"They were saying it got one of the biggest responses in RTE TV for 20 years. It's been received really well.

"I guess you never know anymore because I suppose with telly, you wonder is there anyone even watching it anymore?

"People watch in online or they download or they stream or they nick it off YouTube, so you wonder are the figures ever going to be that big?

"You can always justify it to yourself if they're not and then you look at Mrs Brown and she ruins everything because they're always huge."

He said that the BBC giving a second series the green light so early on was a real boost to the cast and crew.

Written and directed by Peter Foott, the show follows the coming-of-age adventures of lovable rogues Conor and Jock (Alex Murphy and Chris Walley) as they navigate their awkward teenage years.

"That fact that we've got a second series already is great," PJ said.

"I don't know when they're going to be filming it, I don't even know if I'm going to be in it - I'm presuming I am!

"So that's happening next year, they're going for another six episodes so hopefully the two lads don't grow up too much and keep on looking young because one of them is absolutely huge now, he keeps getting taller."

He also said how he's taking a back-seat from the comedy circuit for a while to concentrate on his radio work and the Young Offenders.

The Clontarf comedian said he ended up getting very sick at the end of 2017 from working too hard.

"I had been doing my show, D**khead, non-stop and I nearly killed myself," he said.

"I went down on stage one night after I got sick, for the first time ever.

"I got to the point where the audience were going, 'just go'. I started getting sick and started getting that horrible thing where you get mouthfuls of vomit.

"But there's 400 people sitting there looking at you and laughing and I'm still determined to get to the end of the joke, which is probably the worst show you can do."

He's also concentrating on his regular podcast with radio presenter Suzanne Kane, entitled Dubland.Anglo Irish Bank's company secretary took legal advice when she was told to change the minutes of a meeting that was held weeks after the bank was bailed out, a court has heard.

Natasha Mercer said she consulted a lawyer after she was told to amend references to how aware the Financial Regulator and Central Bank had been of Anglo's 7.2bn interbank transactions with Irish Life and Permanent (ILP) during the financial crisis.

She denied, however, that the bank's then-chairman Donal O'Connor told her to "shut up" when she challenged him three times about changing the minutes.

Ms Mercer was giving evidence in the fraud trial of Anglo's former CEO, David Drumm.

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.

He also denies false accounting.

Dublin Circuit Criminal Court heard that in February 2009, Donal O'Connor asked Ms Mercer to make amendments to the minutes of an audit committee meeting of November 18, 2008.

He had discussed it with two other non-executive directors, Michael Jacob and Gary McGann, who had been at the meeting.

Brendan Grehan SC, defending, said Anglo's former chief financial officer Matt Moran had said in a statement that Ms Mercer had told him about conversations she had with Mr O'Connor.

According to Mr Moran, Ms Mercer had said she challenged Mr O'Connor three times and "he told her to shut up".

Mr Moran said that Ms Mercer had said "at that stage, Matt, I had done my job".

Ms Mercer told Mr Grehan that Mr O'Connor had never spoken to her like that. She did not recall discussing the issue with Mr Moran.

The legal advice was that as a matter of governance, the chairman of the committee - Gary McGann - had the final say.

Her handwritten note said auditors Ernst and Young were "brought through" and the Financial Regulator was "aware".

The final minutes stated: "It was confirmed (the ILP transactions) were in the nature of normal year end balance management activity" and the Financial Regulator and Ernst & Young "had no issues with them".

Ms Mercer also agreed with Mr Grehan that, contrary to the official record, there did appear to be references in her notes to the ILP transactions during meetings on September 22, 26 and 30, 2008.

The trial continues.A garda with a chronic gambling addiction who admitted corruption and theft charges has avoided prison.

Former Garda John O'Halloran (47) was handed a two-year suspended prison sentence for setting up an unsanctioned Garda advice clinic at a leading university and then sending forged invoices to a student's union for providing extra policing services.

O'Halloran, who resigned as a garda last November, pleaded guilty before Cork Circuit Criminal Court to corruption, theft and fraud charges.

The court heard he had been "disgraced" and that his actions had "tarnished the good name of An Garda Siochana".

Judge Sean O Donnabhain noted the impact the offences had on O'Halloran's life and the fact that a prison sentence would be very difficult for any garda.

He imposed a two-year suspended prison term.

The judge was told an analysis of accounts controlled by the former garda of Barrack Street station revealed he had gambled 150,000 online between 2009 and 2014.

Inspector Fergal Foley said the defendant suffered from a chronic gambling addiction.

"The gambling reached epidemic proportions (in 2014). It had spiralled out of control.

"A significant number of people expressed to us the hope that he would deal with his demons," he said.

O'Halloran had served as a garda for 19 years and was based at Barrack Street in Cork.The case was brought before the Dublin Circuit Criminal Court

A Dublin man who stabbed and bit his upstairs neighbour over incessantly reciting poetry has been jailed for two and a half years.

John Paul Mulready (40) burst into his neighbour's flat brandishing a serrated peeling knife after hammering at the door shouting about music being played, Dublin Circuit Criminal Court was told.

The injured party, Dermot Byrne, told gardai that there was a brief standoff after he picked up a frying pan to defend himself, but then Mulready tackled him to the ground, stabbed him in the leg and bit him on the face.

Mr Byrne, who composes poetry, eventually got rid of the attacker by swinging a large bottle of vodka at him after another neighbour intervened.

Detective Garda Stephen Homan confirmed to Judge Martin Nolan that Mulready admitted he had attacked Mr Byrne on the night because of poetry recited incessantly from upstairs.

Mulready, of Camden Mews, Camden Street, pleaded guilty to aggravated burglary with a knife at Haddington Road, Dublin, on September 4, 2015.

He has 116 previous convictions, including drugs offences, possessing knives, assault and criminal damage.

Det Gda Homan described Mr Byrne as having significant wounds where he had been bitten on the eye and nose on the night, but added that these have since healed.

He told Elva Duffy BL, prosecuting, that the injured party noticed that his phone had gone missing after the incident. The detective told the court this phone contained Mr Byrne's poetry.

He agreed with Luigi Rea BL, defending, that Mulready had made a mess of his early life between alcohol and drugs but that he looked a lot smarter in court today.

The detective further agreed that Mulready had support in court from a number of people from the New Hope residential drug treatment centre.

Aidan Curran, of New Hope, told Mr Rea that Mulready was now drug and alcohol-free and that life was more positive for him in the four months he had been at the centre.

Mr Rea submitted to Judge Nolan that Mulready had shown a lack of self control because of drink and prescribed medication and reacted in the wrong way when he burst in on Mr Byrne. He asked the judge to allow his client to continue at the residential treatment centre.

Judge Nolan noted that Mulready had taken great steps to reform himself, but said he had to take into consideration the father-of-three's serious history of offending. He said that thankfully the injuries inflicted on Mr Byrne were minor and he made a full recovery.

He described Mulready's attack as one of bad temper and intemperance, adding that the crime was too serious consider a suspended sentence.A witness has told the trial of a man accused of carrying out random attacks on women that she felt a knife cutting through her fingers as she pulled it away from her throat.

Slawomir Gierlowski (33) of Galtymore Road, Drimnagh, Dublin denies attacking the three women on dates in 2011, 2015 and 2016 at locations around Clondalkin, Co. Dublin.

On day four of his trial at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court, a woman, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, testified that on the morning of May 16, 2016 she was attacked as she walked to a Luas stop.

She said she felt two arms coming around her from behind. She said that one hand held a hunting knife in the right hand and the other held a dirty grey rag.

The woman told the court that the knife was held right up to her right cheek. She was holding her handbag with her left hand and was using her left elbow to stop the cloth coming up to her face.

She told the jury that her right side was completely restricted. The man pulled her backwards and moved the knife down to her throat, she said. She thought the knife was going to slit her throat so she dropped her bag and grabbed the knife with her free hand.

I pulled it as hard as I could, away from me. I pulled my head down with it and I just started screaming. I felt the blade go through my fingers, she said.

The witness said she also turned around at this point and the man ran off. She said she stood for a moment, screaming before running off in the opposite direction. She told the jury that her attacker was tanned and looked slightly eastern European.

A number of other witnesses described seeing the woman in a distressed state near the road and stopping to help her. One man said her left hand was oozing blood... like a tap.

The woman was taken to hospital and treated for severed tendons in three of her fingers. She said she still cannot bend her fingers fully.

Mr Gierlowski denies falsely imprisoning and assaulting the woman in 2016. He also denies having a hunting knife with intent to intimidate on the same occasion.

He also denies the false imprisonment, sexual assault and assault of a second woman on September 3, 2015. Finally he denies the false imprisonment, sexual assault and assault of a third woman on September 11, 2011.

The trial continues before Judge Pauline Codd and a jury of 11 men.Deteriorating rhetoric between Ryanair and trade union Forsa has raised the stakes for air travellers as Easter approaches.

With a union representing Ryanair cabin crew in Portugal having earlier indicated that it intends to hold three one-day strikes at around Easter, the scene is set for another showdown between airline management and crews.

In a letter to Angela Kirk, Forsa's national secretary, Ryanair's chief people officer Eddie Wilson, has said that the union's objections to proposed pilot pay increases "are absurd". Ryanair argued that almost 80pc of pilots in Ireland have accepted the airline's pay offer.

"Your claim that this pay increase 'contained provisions which entirely conflicted with union recognition' is false, when as you well know, we struck out these clauses," Mr Wilson told Ms Kirk in the letter, seen by the Irish Independent.

Mr Wilson also said that Ryanair will continue to refuse to accept any letter from Forsa that also bears the name of the Irish Airline Pilots' Association (IALPA), a union under the Forsa auspices, which also represents Aer Lingus pilots.

"Until you have established its independence from Aer Lingus pilots, we won't accept correspondence from IALPA, which is run by Aer Lingus pilots. This is your problem to solve, not ours," wrote Mr Wilson.

The Ryanair executive said he again extended an invitation to Ms Kirk and the Forsa negotiating team to meet at the airline's headquarters. The union has previously said it wants to meet at a neutral venue.

"Forsa's inaction on our recognition agreement is surprising to both Ryanair and our pilots," Mr Wilson said in the letter.

But Forsa has rounded on the airline. A Forsa spokesman said that the union indicated in a letter to Mr Wilson on February 23 that Forsa would table a modified "less complex" proposed agreement than had already been put forward to Ryanair.

"Ryanair management is wrong to assume that recognising a union simply means drawing up its own 'agreements' and instructing the union to sign them," said the Forsa spokesman.

"Mr Wilson's repeated references, in his letter, to 'our [management's] recognition agreement' underlines this misconception on management's part. Rather, we are in the process of trying to negotiate a recognition agreement that can be agreed by both parties," he added.

Forsa has previously told Ryanair that it would not put a proposed pilot pay package to a ballot after its members deemed it would be "unacceptable" to do so with the pay proposal in its current form.

Ryanair announced before Christmas that it would recognise unions across Europe following a pilot rostering debacle.

This week, an unofficial European Ryanair pilot representative body, the EERC, called on the airline's chief executive, Michael O'Leary, to resign. Ryanair insisted the EERC has "no legal standing or validity".ALL schools and colleges in Leinster and Munster are to remain closed on Thursday and Friday, the Department of Education has confirmed.

Officials have decided to close schools and colleges in the two provinces for safety reasons as freezing conditions continue to grip Ireland.

Met Eireann has a issued a Status Red alert for both provinces to begin on Thursday at 4pm and end at noon on Friday.

Schools in Connacht and Ulster will be make individual decisions, depending on the circumstances in their area, and the situation in those two provinces will be kept under review.

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The decision was announced after a meeting of the National Emergency Co-ordinating Group today.

Education Minister Richard Bruton minister came in for criticism from political opponents for not issuing advice to close schools earlier.

The schools forced to close by the severe weather conditions may have to make up the days later in the school year.

It could affect the Easter holidays, or any mini-breaks that a school had planned to take in coming months.

It depends on how much time has been lost and whether the school can address the shortfalls in any other way, such as by cancelling a tour or other non-tuition activities.

Some schools may be facing three days closure this week because of the snow, bringing their total loss of time in the current year to a week.

In October, Storm Ophelia caused a two-day nationwide shutdown of the education system, and some schools may also have closed in December because of weather in their area.

After Storm Ophelia, education sources indicated that there would be no requirement on schools to replace those days, however, it is unclear whether a harder line will be taken in light of the cumulative effect of weather-related events.

Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Previous Next Close Birds in the snow. Photo credit: Dave Keegan Photography Dog shaking off the snow. Photo credit: Dave Keegan Photography Monkstown Beach captured in the snow. Pic: Stephen O'Rourke Daisey the dog [4] plays in the snow at St Mary's quadrangle at Maynooth University. Picture Credit: Frank Mc Grath 28/2/18 People walk along a snow covered road in Maynooth. Picture Credit: Frank Mc Grath 28/2/18 Jaspret Kaur at the Irish War Memorial Gardens. Pic: Jaspreet Kaur Man and girl take shelter during a snow flurry in Maynooth. Picture Credit: Frank Mc Grath 28/2/18 Five year old Jane Argue from Maynooth plays in the snow at St Mary's quadrangle at Maynooth University. Picture Credit: Frank Mc Grath 28/2/18 A lady clears the footpath outside her shop in Maynooth. Picture Credit: Frank Mc Grath 28/2/18 Dawn Byrne from Wexford photographs the snow at St Mary's quadrangle at Maynooth University. Picture Credit:Frank Mc Grath 28/2/18 Denis Hogan from Kildare County Council spreads some grit on the footpaths in Maynooth . Picture Credit:Frank Mc Grath 28/2/18 Sheep at Huntstown Co Dublin keeping an eye out for the Beast from the East . Pic: Steve Humphreys 28th February 2018 A raven finds the snow a little deeper than anticipated in Dunboyne. Picture Credit: Frank Mc Grath 28/2/18 A road sign that says it all as the Beast from the East moves in. Pic Steve Humphreys 28th February 2018 Geese enjoy the winter conditions at Shankill Castle and Gardens in Paulstown, Co. Kilkenny. Picture: Tony Gavin 28/2/2018 Snow falls on rooftops in Kilkenny City. Picture: Tony Gavin 28/2/2018 Snow falls on Kilkenny Castle during blizzard conditions in Kilkenny City. Picture: Tony Gavin 28/2/2018 Snow falls on a hurling statue during blizzard conditions in Kilkenny City. Picture: Tony Gavin 28/2/2018 Ducks on a frozen pond in Rathcoole, Co. Dublin. Picture credit; Damien Eagers 28/2/2018 Pip enjoying the snow in Mullingar. Sent in by Sighle Fitzgerald The military graveyard at the Curragh in Kildare. Pic sent in by Susan Coffey 28 Feb 2018: Dog enjoys the snow. Lanesborough Park, Finglas, Dublin. Picture: Caroline Quinn 28 Feb 2018: Tylor Buckley, 12, enjoys the snow in Lanesborough Park, Finglas, Dublin. Picture: Caroline Quinn (L-R) Ethan Gray, Tom Eagers, 2, Olivia Gray, 7 and Caroline Gray, enjoying the snow in Rathcoole, Co. Dublin. Picture credit: Damien Eagers 28/2/2018 Allie and Ciall Flynn enjoying the snow and the day off school in Slane, Co Meath. Picture By David Conachy. Enjoying the snow and the day off school in Slane, Co Meath. Picture By David Conachy. Sisters Rhianna and Jodie Binns with their dog Milo walking through the snow in Donabate. Pic Steve Humphreys 28th February 2018 Fiachra OMahony and his dog Millie out for a walk along the sea at Portrane North Co. Dublin. Pic Steve Humphreys 28th February 2018 Maria Connor from Portrane out playing in the snow with her Springer Spaniel Cross dogs Lucky and Toffee. Pic Steve Humphreys 28th February 2018 Fiachra OMahony and his dog Millie out for a walk along the sea at Portrane North Co.Dublin. Pic Steve Humphreys 28th February 2018. Young boys having fun with a giant snowball in Donabate. Pic Steve Humphreys 28th February 2018 Ballyedmonduff, Dublin Mountains Photo: Lisa Doyle Glendalough, Co Wicklow Photo: Cillian O Gairbhi Trim Castle Photo: Conor O'Mahony Drumcondra this morning Photo: Krishna Greystones, Co Wicklow Mullingar, Co Westmeath Oscar enjoying his first experience of snow at the Community Park in Carrigaline Co. Cork Picture David Creedon / Anzenberger Lucan, Dublin Carlow Wicklow Snow Day....Lindsey O'Byrne and her Partner Shane Satelle with their Children Scott(7),Robyn(4) and Hallie (2) enjoying the snow in Tallaght Picture: Kyran O'Brien Swans swim on the frozen Grand Canal in Sallins, Co. Kildare Picture: Tony Gavin 28/2/2018 Nutgrove, Dublin Dagmara Jakkububowicz from Carrigaline walks her dog Bubu around the pond in the Community Park in Carrigaline Co. Cork Picture David Creedon / Anzenberger Templemore, Co Tipperary The Curragh Glendalough, Co Wicklow Photo: Cillian O Gairbhi Glendalough, Co Wicklow Photo: Cillian O Gairbhi The Irish War Memorial Park Photo: Emma Fenlon (Dublin) A man on his way to work walks through Glasnevin cemetery in Dublin Photo: Brian Lawless/PA Wire Phoenix Park, Dublin Having fun in North Dublin as storm Emma hits Ireland Pic:Mark Condren Dublin Airport Commuters make their way in the snow in Lucan, Co. Dublin this morning Picture Colin Keegan, Collins Dublin. Poolbeg Commuters make their way in the snow in Lucan, Co. Dublin this morning Picture Colin Keegan, Collins Dublin. / Facebook

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Earlier, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar insisted that a red alert cannot be an automatic trigger to close down schools.

He was responding to criticisms from Fianna Fail leader Micheal Martin during a Dail debate on the authorities response to the extreme weather. Mr Martin said parents and pupils were entitled to more clarity and school management needed more support to decide on closure.

The Taoiseach rejected the call and also defended the handling of allocating an extra weeks fuel allowance worth 22.50 announced today to the surprise of some. Mr Varadkar said he had not rejected this idea of extra fuel money on Tuesday but had promised to consider the issue with Social Protection Minister, Regina Doherty.

Mr Martin said there should be an automatic school closure in areas covered by the highest status red alert weather warnings.

We would reduce the risk of accidents and traffic congestion, Mr Martin told the Dail.

The Fianna Fail leader said he was trying to be as constructive as possible but he noted that there was widespread disruption and the threat of worse. He urged that Ireland learn from the experience of other countries which cope with far worse weather excesses.

The entire country is coming to a halt, despite all the warnings, after one evenings snow, Mr Martin said.

The Taoiseach said that it was a matter for the National Coordinating Committee which included representatives of the Education Department. Mr Vradkar said some schools were not dependent on public transport.Alderwood Park in Tallaght where three people were treated for suspected Carbon Monoxide poisoning

THREE young women owe their lives to their carbon monoxide alarm after a leak at their Dublin home triggered it to alert them last night.

The incident occurred in the Alderwood Park area of Springfield, Tallaght.

The alarm was activated at 10pm, indicating a leak of the deadly poisonous and odourless gas commonly known as the silent killer.

Dublin Fire Brigade, the Gardai and Gas Networks Ireland all attended the scene and the house was evacuated as the snow started to fall.

The occupants of the house have only been living in it for a few weeks and are believed to be renting, but the house owner had wisely installed the carbon monoxide alarm in the property.

Neighbours today told Independent.ie that the source of the leak was not immediately known.

"All the houses in the terrace were tested as a precaution. The house where the alarm was ringing had a reading, bug the house next to it which is undergoing renovations also had a high reading when the technician put the test probe through the letterbox," said one neighbour.

The three young women, described as being in their 20s, were all assessed and treated for carbon monoxide inhalation but were nit thought to be adversely affected by it.

Dublin Fire Brigade tweeted that an ambulance and fire engine from Tallaght station treated three people at the scene.

It also posted a warning notice describing the symptoms to look out for in carbon monoxide poisoning cases, including headaches, nausea, breathlessness, collapse, dizziness and loss of consciousness.

According to Gas Networks Ireland Carbon Monoxide (also known as CO) is a colourless, odourless poisonous gas and is a common yet preventable cause of death from poisoning worldwide.

Approximately half of the deaths from unintentional CO poisonings result from the inhalation of smoke from fires. Other significant causes are vehicle exhausts and deaths in industrial / commercial settings.

On average between one and two people die each year in Ireland from unintentional CO poisoning in the home in incidents related to domestic heating or other fossil fuel installations in the home.

The incomplete combustion of organic fossil fuels such as oil, gas or coal is a common environmental source of CO and is responsible for many cases of non-fatal unintentional CO poisoning.

In normal conditions the combustion process will result in carbon in the fossil fuel, combining with oxygen, in the air, to produce Carbon Dioxide, the same substance we exhale when we breathe.

However, if there is a lack of air for the combustion process or the heating appliance is faulty, Carbon Monoxide can be produced.When CO is inhaled into the body it combines with the blood, preventing it from absorbing oxygen. If a person is exposed to CO over a period, it can cause illness and even death.Northern Ireland may be considered part of the European Union customs territory post-Brexit.

The draft deal agreed to protect the Irish Border will be published in Brussels today as round two of Ireland's Brexit war with Britain is set to begin.

The release of the draft treaty will be politically explosive and threatens to destabilise relations among all parties involved.

The document spells out in detail the so-called backstop for avoiding a hard Border when Britain is no longer a member of the EU.

The exact text - which will be legally binding when signed - will say "Northern Ireland shall be considered to be part of the customs territory of the European Union".

Essentially, in the event of no better arrangement, the EU's customs union will cover the whole island of Ireland and will be jointly managed by the EU and the UK.

It will also require Northern Ireland to maintain single market rules on any goods crossing the Border. "There has to be a common regulatory area between Northern Ireland and the rest of the EU," a source said.

This alone will trigger dissent and objection among Brexiteers - not least the DUP, who UK Prime Minister Theresa May relies upon to stay in power.

Both Irish and EU officials are bracing themselves for the backlash, which once again raises the spectre of Britain crashing out of the EU with no deal. "All eyes are on the British reaction because it all depends on how much they reject it," said a source.

It comes at the same time as Boris Johnson, the British foreign secretary, is trying to renege on a British promise to ensure the Irish Border with the North remains seamless.

In a letter written to Mrs May, Mr Johnson says "it is wrong to see the task as maintaining 'no Border'" on the island of Ireland after Brexit.

He also said the government's priority should instead be to "stop this Border becoming significantly harder".

Mr Johnson goes as far as taking for granted that a hard Border is now a serious possibility, saying: "Even if a hard Border is reintroduced, we would expect to see 95pc-plus of goods pass the Border [without] checks."

The letter was leaked to Sky News on the eve of the publication of the 100-page first draft of the UK's withdrawal agreement. This will be Britain's legal contract for leaving the EU.

In the preamble of the treaty, it outlines its purpose as, among other things, protecting the Good Friday Agreement and giving legal effect to a commitment by London to come up with solutions to avoiding the need for a hard Border.

The provisions specifically related to Ireland will take the form of a protocol integrated into the main withdrawal treaty. It will recall that in December, three options were outlined for dealing with this priority.

Option A is where Britain and the EU's relationship remains as close as it is now, thereby negating the need for Border checks. This is unlikely to occur because Britain says it is leaving the customs union and the single market. Option B is for a solution to emerge through the use of a range of technical apparatus such as camera, barcodes and registration.

Since no detail has been forthcoming by Britain on either, the draft treaty contains no detail on them.

However, it goes in to full explanation how Option C, or the backstop option, requires Northern Ireland to continue to follow EU rules and regulations of the single market and customs union. This would be necessary to protect cross -Border co-operation and the all-island economy.

EU and Irish sources are at pains to insist that this option is the one all sides least prefer, and they are willing and open to exploring other options.The fuel allowance paid to over 300,000 households is to doubled for the coming week, it has been confirmed.

Amid plummeting temperatures the Government has agreed that those entitled to payment will get 45 for this week, instead of 22.50.

Social Protection Minister Regina Doherty denied it was a climb-down in the face of mounting political pressure.

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said yesterday that he could not write a "blank cheque" to pay for people to heat their homes.

Regina Doherty confirms that fuel allowance will be doubled to 45 this week. Says it's not a u-turn and the money was "the easy bit". #BeastFromTheEast @Independent_ie pic.twitter.com/KOfUj7qAPz  Kevin Doyle (@KevDoyle_Indo) February 28, 2018

This morning Ms Doherty said "finding the money" was "probably the easiest bit".

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The move comes after Minister for Older People Jim Daly caused controversy by urging people to keep their heating on 24 hours a day during the cold snap.

This morning, Ms Doherty called an impromptu media opportunity at Government Buildings where she announced the change of policy on the fuel allowance.

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The minister insisted it was not a U-turn, saying she had to be sure she could deliver the payments worth over 6m before making any announcement.

"My job was to make sure I was actually able to deliver on a promise," she said.

Ms Doherty spent yesterday meeting with representatives from St Vincent's de Paul and An Post to decide how best to support vulnerable people.

"Anybody who needs to get money will get that," she said.

Asked about Mr Daly's comments, she replied: "We are all on the same team."

She said the Government had acted "swiftly and responsibly".

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Some payments will take up to two weeks to actually reach the households - but Ms Doherty said a guarantee was in place the people would get the 22.50.TAOISEACH Leo Varadkar has hit out at opposition politicians for comparing communication of the government's 116bn spending plan to Nazi propaganda chief Joseph Goebbels.

Mr Varadkar criticised comments made by Labour TD Alan Kelly and Fianna Fail's Marc MacSharry when they were attacking how the Project Ireland 2040 plan has been publicised.

The Taoiseach said remarks comparing such communications to the Third Reich are "beneath contempt".

Mr Kelly made his remarks in a radio interview earlier this week where he claimed the governments use of newspaper advertorials to promote the capital spending plan was "akin to something from the Third Reich, Goebbels territory".

Mr MacSharry referenced Goebbels as he criticised the PR campaign around the plan in the Dail today.

Mr Varadkar criticised the remarks as "wholly inappropriate" as he came under opposition pressure over the plan to spend 1.5m promoting Project Ireland 2040.

He said: "Im not thin skinned by any means but I think describing the government, civil servants, any individual as being akin to Nazis and the Third Reich or Goebbels is defamatory and beneath the level of discourse that should occur in politics and in this house."

Mr Varadkar claimed that the remarks were a reference to the Holocaust.

He said: "This is a reference to six million people who were exterminated by the Third Reich and by the Nazis and I think belittling the Holocaust.

"Comparing and advertising campaign to the actions of the Nazis and the Third Reich, I think thats beneath contempt," Mr Varadkar added.

He asked if Fianna Fail leader Micheal Martin and Labour TD Joan Burton would disassociate themselves from their party colleagues comments.

Mr Martin said: "I have never used any terms such as Goebbels or anything in relation to the governments propaganda campaign."

He added: "Its wrong for the Taoiseach to try and suggest that I would endorse that or in anyway associate myself with it."

Mr Martin added: "You do not like it Taoiseach when hard words are said about things you get up to and your government gets up to."

And he said "legitimate questions" have been raised about governments communications in the last three months.

Mr Martin continued: "I have never used the word Goebbels.

"I hate anybody using Nazi terms about anyone in a current parliamentary democracy. I do not like it. I do not endorse it and I disassociate myself from it.

"And any member of the house that does use that should reflect on what they said and withdraw any assertion that any member in this house or any member of government is engaging in that manner because what were discussing here is light-years away from what happened in the Third Reich."

Ms Burton said references to Goebbels made in Leinster House were inappropriate adding: I think anybody who was involved in doing that should actually reflect and pause because I dont think it helps our debate.

But she also accused Mr Varadkar of being "annoyed and irritated that something that has been understandably for you as Taoiseach a prize project has been subject to criticism in here."

It is the second time Mr MacSharry has been involved in a Dail row after which the house has been adjourned.

Two weeks ago the Dail was also briefly suspended when the Fianna Fail TD became embroiled in a row with Kerry Independent TDs and brothers, Michael Healy-Rae and Danny Healy-Rae, over speaking time.Three people sleeping rough on the streets of the capital as temperatures plummeted overnight declined offers of accommodation.

Emergency beds are in place organised by the Dublin Regional Homeless Executive and the Peter McVerry Trust.

Some 81 people were accommodated at a sport centre in the south inner city on Tuesday night as snow of between 10 and 16cm fell on the east coast.

Temperatures dipped as low as -4C in places as the Arctic front arrived in Ireland.

Outreach workers engaged a number of people sleeping rough and while three of them accepted supports, they declined the offer of accommodation.

The spike in demand for services was not only confined to the city centre however.

In Kildare a helpline run by the local council and the Peter McVerry Trust received 14 calls overnight.

One person needed advice and information and 13 people were accommodated within our servcies.

In a statement a spokesman for the trust thanked both the gardai and the army for their help.

"The gardai assisted with transport for three people to our services late last night and one person was transported from by the army at 2am last night from the Curragh area.

"As Kildare County Council offices have been closed the Peter McVerry Trust freephone number is now operational all the time on 1800 804 307."

A number of additional beds have been brought on stream to avoid anyone being forced to sleep rough as the weather deteriorates over the coming days.

Homelessness charity Depaul has put provisions in place to keep more than 200 emergency one night only beds open 24hrs a day during the severe weather forecast for this week.

Bru Aimsir, Little Britain Street, Mount Brown and Blessington Street will remain open 24 hrs until Sunday.

Depaul management and staff have agreed to work additional shifts and have made provisions to extend its opening hours and have put in place emergency plans ahead of the extreme weather warning so that as many people as possible can be kept inside and out of the dangerous weather conditions.The arrival of Storm Emma has forced Beaumont Hospital to cancel all out-patient appointments tomorrow.

The hospital said it is taking the measure in the interest of public safety.

All out patient appointments for Thursday and Friday have been cancelled.

This coincides with the red alert currently in place for counties Dublin, Kildare, Louth, Wicklow and Meath.

The Government has urged people to stay indoors where possible between the hours of 4pm on Thursday and noon on Friday.

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Beaumont Hospital has advised that inpatient and day case are being reviewed on a case by case basis and patients will be contacted accordingly.

Dialysis patients are being reviewed and scheduled accordingly on a daily basis.

The hospital has advised for any inconvenience caused and said all cancelled appointments will be rescheduled.

The HSE Severe Weather Plan is in place and the HSE has stressed that at a local and national level their services are being impacted due to the severity of the weather conditions.Flat-pack furniture giant Ikea has announced that its Dublin store in Ballymum, along with its collection point in Carrickmines will remain closed today due to Storm Emma.

In a statement this morning the company said that it was making the decision in the interest of safety for both its co-workers and customers.

The company said that further update on the situation would be communicated through its website as well as its social media channels.

"We apologise for any inconvenience this might cause our valued customers," Ikea said.

The company joins University College Dublin, Dublin City University, as well as a number of schools in status red alert areas in deciding to close today.Courts across five counties will remain closed for the rest of the week, impacting on thousands of cases.

The Courts Service made an early decision this morning to cancel scheduled courts in Dublin, Wicklow, Meath, Louth and Kildare following the status red weather alert.

Some court sittings in other counties have also fallen foul of the weather.

A spokesman said the decision was taken in the interests of the safety of witnesses, jurors, lawyers and courts staff.

Full High Court, Central Criminal Court, Circuit Court and District Court lists will now have to be rescheduled.

Among the high profile cases delayed are the ongoing trial of former Anglo Irish Bank chief executive David Drumm at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court and the High Court challenge to phone data retention laws being taken by murderer Graham Dwyer.

Judges will be available to deal with urgent matters, such as child welfare cases or habeas corpus applications.

Should someone be charged with a serious offence while the courts are closed, such as murder, they can be held in custody until the next available sitting.

Outside of the five counties covered by the status red warning there are also some court cancellations in Co Wexford, Co Offaly, Co Cork, Co Tipperary and Co Westmeath.

Gorey District Court is not sitting today or tomorrow.

Todays list for Tullamore District Court was adjourned to next Wednesday, while all custody matters were put back until Monday.

Todays list at Bantry District Court was adjourned to March 28.

The insolvency list for tomorrow and Friday at Trim Circuit Court was adjourned ot next Monday.

Tomorrows family law list at Nenagh District Court has been adjourned to March 15, while all criminal matters listed for Friday have been put back to March 9.

Todays list at Arklow District Court has been adjourned until next Tuesday, while tomorrows list for Bray District Court has been put back to Monday.

Meanwhile, Mullingar Circuit Court sitting in Tullamore will not sit tomorrow and Friday, with cases put back to Monday.A man on his way to work walks through Glasnevin cemetery in Dublin as heavy snow has caused more misery for travellers overnight. Photo: Brian Lawless/PA Wire

While schoolchildren across the country rejoiced at the first of the falling snow, there were many workers who were also hoping for a 'snow day' or two.

As Met Eireann issued a Status Red weather warning on Wednesday morning, the Irish SME association (Isme) warned that employers must now decide whether this will be the trigger to shut up shop.

"Unlike Ophelia, we now have the opportunity to prepare for this event," said an Isme spokesperson.

Employees have been advised not to travel to their place of work during Storm Emma if they believe that doing so may be a risk to their safety.

Tragic incidents during previous adverse weather conditions, such as that of Fintan Goss, who was killed when a tree fell on his car during Storm Ophelia, highlight such risks.

But while those commuting to work are being urged to stay at home if necessary, they may not be paid for their time out during the 'Beast from the East'.

Expand Expand Expand Previous Next Close Otta the Dalmation dog looks at the fallen snow in Dublin, Ireland February 27, 2018. REUTERS/Clodagh Kilcoyne A man walks through a street after a snow flurry in Dublin, Ireland February 27, 2018. REUTERS/Clodagh Kilcoyne Gritting lorries will be out in force as severe weather is expected across Ireland (Niall Carson/PA) / Facebook

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Whatsapp Otta the Dalmation dog looks at the fallen snow in Dublin, Ireland February 27, 2018. REUTERS/Clodagh Kilcoyne

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Outdoor staff such as door-to-door sales reps and construction workers could also face additional danger during work hours.

Employers are not obliged to pay staff when they do not show up for work and there are already reports that some have threatened disciplinary action if they do not come in.

According to employment law professionals, employers are not legally obliged to pay staff that do not turn up to work, even in cases where staff are physically unable to make the journey to the place of work.

"Good employment practice would say that an employer would look at such an incidence sympathetically," Labour and Employment law expert, Marguerite Bolger SC, told Independent.ie.

"If the workplace is open but the employee is not in a position to get it, as a matter of strict employment law, there is not a legal obligation to pay them," Ms Bolger said.

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"Against the backdrop of a red alert, I would question an employee practice what would dock wages where an employees health and safety is reasonably at risk from travelling to and from work," she continued.

Business group Isme has advised employers whose workers contracts allow for a lay-off period to notify them that this could be invoked at short notice later this week.

But unions said most employers paid up despite a high level of absences during Ophelia, and urged workers to think of their safety first.

In situations where an employee is required to remain at home to mind children due to closed schools, again employers are not legally obliged to pay staff.

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However, if the workplace itself closes, in those circumstances where employees are being prevented from working, then there is an entitlement to be paid unless there is an express provision in the contract for putting employees on short-term contract, for example on seasonal contracts.

Meanwhile the Small Firms Association (SFA) has advised businesses to put in place an employer policy on absence due to adverse weather.

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This should address the situations where employees are unable to attend work, or where businesses have no work available due to circumstances beyond their control, the group said.

"Small businesses must ensure that they have plans in place for the worst-case scenario and that these are communicated to staff," Sven Spollen-Behrens, director of the SFA, said.

"Then it is a matter of monitoring the situation closely and checking the Met Eireann website for updates throughout the coming days. At all times, safety considerations should be paramount."

Mr Spollen-Behrens went on to say that every business was different and that every business would need to make its own assessment as to how best to ensure employee safety and minimise disruption.STUDENTS at one Irish school were heartbroken to discover that Storm Emma didn't mean a reprieve from their scheduled exams.

Hewitt College on Wellington Road in Cork was forced to close today as a combination of snow and ice made the area around St Patrick's Hill in the city centre treacherous underfoot.

Hewitt was one of a number of schools across Cork city and county that closed because of treacherous road conditions resulting from freezing temperatures and snow falls.

However, the shutdown coincided with major exams planned for students in Fourth, Fifth and Sixth Years.

While Hewitt confirmed to Independent.ie that it was closing due to the extreme weather conditions, it wanted its exams to proceed.

Hewitt principal Patricia McGrath confirmed that the school had issued exam papers by email to its students - and asked the students to complete the papers in good faith at home with parents instructed how to ensure the exams were completed properly by their children.

Special instructions were issued to both pupils and parents.

"We are reaching out to you to ensure students are supervised and examination-style conditions are adhere to."

"For the student's benefit, we would ask that exams are taken in a quiet environment with minimal disruption."

"Mobile phones and other devices should be confiscated for the duration of the exam period."

"Please ensure that the allotted time is adhered to - please ensure students do not sit the paper for longer than the paper specifies."

"Upon completion, the exam papers should be placed in an envelope and sealed to ensure that exams are not tampered with."

"We thank you for your understanding and co-operation in this matter."

Fifth Year students were sitting exams in subjects including geography and construction.

Cork schools are expected to remain closed Thursday when the worst of the Arctic conditions are forecast.Michaela Bowden and her husband are currently stranded in Milan, Italy

(Left to right) - Ciara Molloy, Louise Redmond and Kellianne McGannon pictured before they headed to Prague

A group of friends stranded in Prague fear they won't be able to return home until next week after their Aer Lingus flight was cancelled this morning due to adverse weather conditions.

The trio, all from Co Wexford, received a text this morning advising them their flight had been cancelled and were told to book a new flight free of charge.

However, when they arrived at the airport there was no representative from the airline and they werent able to get in contact with someone from Aer Lingus until six hours later.

The earliest flight we could get was Friday, as tomorrows flights are booked up too, while Ryanair are booked out until Monday, Ciara Molloy told Independent.ie.

Expand Close Departures screen in Prague showing cancelled flights to Dublin, London and Liverpool / Facebook

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Conditions are meant to get worse so our flight on Friday will probably be cancelled too. Temperatures here have been dropping as low as -12C here and some Irish people have been stuck here since last night and they found it very difficult to get in touch with Aer Lingus too."

The three friends have been in the Czech Republic since Sunday and the airline has now organised accommodation for them.

Stuff like this happens but they knew it was going to be bad so they should have staff in the airport and more people dealing with calls from customers, Louise Redmond said.

We kept ringing and ringing this morning but they kept hanging up the phone.

Expand Close Michaela Bowden and her husband are currently stranded in Milan, Italy / Facebook

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Whatsapp Michaela Bowden and her husband are currently stranded in Milan, Italy

Now we just dont know when were going to get home.

Michaela Bowden and her husband are currently stranded in Milan, Italy. Her sister is due to get married in Ireland on Saturday and they are worried they won't make it home.

Major weather disruption across our schedule today. While a number of European flights have operated, all remaining Dublin-Continental Europe flights today are cancelled. The majority of flights to/from USA/CAN remain planned to operate, along with some IRE-UK services  Aer Lingus (@AerLingus) February 28, 2018

We tried all day to get through to Aer Lingus and when we did eight hours later, they told us we would not be able to get out of Milan for 4 days because of the snow. Apparently nobody wanted to break the bad news to customers that they could be stranded by up to a week.

We are now looking at flight prices and everything was raised to extortionate levels online. Its truly a disgrace.

Expand Close Kate Collins and friends in Munich / Facebook

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Whatsapp Kate Collins and friends in Munich

My husband and I live in Boston and we're on vacation in Italy before my sisters wedding, which we are not sure we will make it in time for. There is really a lack of support for people at the airports.

A group of first year Trinity College students have also been forced to reschedule flights due to adverse weather conditions. The six students were scheduled to return home from Munich, Germany on Thursday night but at 6pm today they received a text from Ryanair notifying them that their flight was cancelled.

"At lunchtime today we had actually decided to book another later flight back after seeing the weather forecast, and even then all flights on Friday were sold out," Kate Collins told Independent.ie

"The earliest flights we could get were at 9.30pm on Saturday. A ticket for that flight now costs over 250. We now also have to pay for an additional two nights accommodation. All we can do is keep our fingers crossed that conditions are alright in Dublin on Saturday."

"On top of this, my friend is diabetic and is running low on needles - she's worried she won't be able to get her prescribed ones in the pharmacies here, or how much they'll cost if she can find them."

Ms Collins said she is disappointed that Ryanair took longer than Aer Lingus to notify passengers about rescheduling flights.

Meanwhile, Dublin Airport was forced to suspend runway and taxiway operations after "blizzard conditions" and heavy snow overnight. Over 250 flights have been cancelled and there are knock-on delays. Ryanair has cancelled all flights to and from Dublin for the rest of the day.

A red alert snow-ice warning for Munster and Leinster has been issued by Met Eireann, with the forecaster warning that blizzard-like conditions will develop over the next few days.

Have you had your travel plans disrupted by Storm Emma and wish to tell your story? Email digital@independent.ieNiamh Bonner always knew she wanted to do something altruistic after she qualified as a nurse. She saw herself volunteering in Africa but the pressure to meet mortgage repayments and the precarious nature of work kept her and her now-husband David closer to home shores.

Dublin-born Niamh and Bedford-born David were living and working in the UK when they first considered foster caring. They were happy, says Niamh, but coming from a family of six, she found the house quiet - especially when David was working.

More than that, she still felt compelled to do humanitarian work and had decided: "If I can't do something somewhere else, I'll do some work at home instead."

It was Niamh who suggested the idea of respite foster care to David. He agreed and the couple, who were then in their mid- to late-20s, began caring for children at weekends.

Being young and energetic, the couple cared mostly for difficult teens. "It was a wild time," recalls Niamh. "There were lots of trips to police stations picking up teenagers who were high."

They enjoyed the work but it was as challenging as it was rewarding and after five years of foster caring, they decided it was time to move on to the next stage of their life.

Expand Close Carers: David and Niamh Bonner. Photo: Ray Ryan / Facebook

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The couple moved to Ireland in 2000 and began trying to have a child. After a few years of trying unsuccessfully, they started to tentatively explore adoption. Their minds were made up when they were told that the process would take five or six years. "We were 40 at that stage," explains Niamh, "so we decided not to proceed."

After their UK experience, the couple had no intention of fostering again but friends told them the Irish system was different. So they went along to a training course - "just to see what the Irish set-up was like" - in October 2012. They were approved the following April.

In the five years that have followed, Niamh and David have cared for 19 children. Some stay for a few weeks and some, like the spirited sibling group they have at the moment (ages 12-17), stay for years.

The number of Irish children in care at the end of November 2017 was 6,182. Of these, 92pc are in foster care (65pc in general foster care and 27pc in relative foster care).

The other 8pc, explains Catherine Bond, CEO of the Irish Foster Care Association, are in special care and residential care facilities.

Those in residential care tend to be teenagers. "The odd time there may be a child placed in foster care who finds it is not for them," explains Catherine. "They might decide that small home residential care is better.

"There is always a stream of children coming into care," she continues, "and Tusla say they never have enough foster carers."

Catherine describes the recruitment of foster carers as a "rigorous" and "robust" process. "Carers need to be Garda checked, they need to have medicals - all aspects of the person's life is really scrutinised."

Weight is another consideration. An applicant's BMI is measured during the health screening and obesity is one of the many factors considered when assessing the overall physical health of an applicant.

"From a health perspective, we ask is this person healthy enough to meet the needs of a child," explains Catherine. "And we have to make sure that having a placement wouldn't adversely affect the person's own health."

Up until recently, there was also an age gap guideline - foster carers couldn't be 40 years older than the child in their care. This restriction was lifted when it was highlighted in the Dail by Minister Katherine Zappone.

However, the age of the birth children in the prospective carer's household is still relevant. In most cases, they prefer not to place older children in family units where the birth children are younger.

"The rationale is that you cannot in any way fracture your own family," explains Catherine. "If you have your own children, you need to make sure their lives are enhanced by foster care. You have to look at foster care as an ecosystem," she adds, "and make sure all the parts of it are working well for everybody."

Foster carers receive an allowance of 352 per week for over 12s and 325 for children under 12 to cover food, clothing, school meals and travel expenses (depending on the type of care order, foster carers may be responsible for bringing the child to regular arranged visits with their family of origin). They can also apply for child benefit and the children in their care have their own medical card. It is, says Bonner, a "fairly generous allowance", but financial gain is not the prerogative of foster carers.

When the Irish Foster Care Association carried out research amongst its members in 2017, the survey results overwhelmingly proved that foster carers see their work as a vocation rather than as a career or a profession.

"The majority of people said they had something good to offer children and they wanted to give something back," says Catherine.

This makes sense to Niamh and David who are still in contact with many of the children they fostered in the UK. "One of the girls calls me her Irish Mammy," says Niamh with great pride.

For her own part, Niamh says fostering is all about giving children your time and energy.

"I wouldn't say love because love doesn't come immediately," she says. "But you care about kids as soon as they come into your home... although you do keep the guard up a little because you don't know how long they are going to stay with you."

Foster carers also need to have broad shoulders, she says. "You need to be able to roll with the punches. They're never going to be the best kid in school. They're always going to have issues."

And like any parent, a foster carer has to be comfortable with uncomfortable conversations.

"If an incident arises, you deal with it," says Niamh. "I can remember an incident with a child who was exploring pornography.

"You can't just say, 'that's not for me to sort out'. They're living in your home, they're your family so you can't just say 'hold on a minute, I'll wait for the social workers to come out to deal with that one'.

"My husband has a good analogy - with every child, you get a piece of paper and you make the drawing with them as they grow. With foster kids, half the picture is drawn when they come to you, so you have a bit of rubbing out to do. And a bit of colouring in too."

Fostering Fortnight 2018, an awareness campaign run by the Irish Foster Care Association, runs until March 9. IFCA will be hosting events nationally and locally. You can find out more by visiting the IFCA website, ifca.ie.Author Emma Hannigan revealed the news in a heartbreaking blog post on Friday last

Emma Hannigan has been told her breast cancer is terminal Photo: Caroline Quinn

A fundraising campaign started by cancer-stricken author Emma Hannigan has reached its goal and raised 100,000 for Breast Cancer Ireland (BCI) in less than two weeks.

The mother-of-two (45) told recently how she has reached the end of her long-running battle with the disease. The author has battled cancer ten times.

After she revealed on her website that her cancer was terminal this time on, she turned her attentions to raising some valuable funds for BCI, which backs pioneering research into the disease.

Today, the author tweeted that 100,000 had now been raised.

Its never too late to dream big, keep dreaming, she told her followers on Twitter.

Thank you so much, please keep those donations coming in and don't stop until we reach the top #HelpEmmaHelpOthers, she added.

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 was diagnosed with the BrCa1 gene in 2005, said she's been overwhelmed by the response to her campaign.A major conference on electric vehicles, connectivity and autonomous driving is planned for Ireland this summer.

There will be an international line-up of experts from the automotive and technology industries at 'Electronomous' at the INEC, Killarney (May 2-3).

The conference is being organised by vehicle history and data expert Cartell.ie.

Included on the panel of global figures will be Marcus Rothoff, head of Volvo's autonomous driving programme, Uwe Puetzschler, head of Car2X at Nokia, Barry Napier, CEO of Cubic Telecom, and Gareth Dunsmore, electric vehicle director with Nissan Europe.

Former Top Gear presenter Quentin Wilson will host conference discussions. He says: "Electronomous is a major future transport event with industry-leading speakers, experts . . . if you're interested in the new era of personal mobility, it's unmissable."

Jeff Aherne, of Cartell.ie, says: "Technology is disrupting all aspects of the motor industry. Electric is replacing combustion, and advanced driver assistance systems are paving the way to autonomy.

"This is an opportunity for all those with an interest in the space to understand what is coming".

Confirmed for the show are representatives of Volkswagen, IBM, Toyota, BMW, Honda, Applegreen, Valeo, TomTom, Audatex, the European Council for Automotive R&D (EUCAR) and the International Energy Agency (IEA).

The event kicks off with a high-profile 300km electric drive from Dublin to Killarney on May 2."For every rule there's an exception - and an idiot ready to demonstrate it."

That pearl of wisdom, which comes from popular fiction writer Vera Nazarian, sadly rings true when it comes to road safety.

What is it about human behaviour that some people always look for the exception instead of accepting the rule?

Especially if that rule was made to keep us all safe in the first place.

No sooner has a law been introduced for public safety than there is someone looking for a way to get around it.

When it comes to road safety, it's vehicle technology and the rise of the helpful 'deactivator'.

The advent of modern technology and safety systems in cars, while intended to make vehicles safer, limit human error and support a cleaner environment, has led to a thriving market for these so called 'helpful' individuals.

These are the same people who offer to deactivate your airbag light so your car will pass the NCT or remove your diesel particulate filter (DPF) so that you won't have to replace it when it's full of soot.

But here's the thing. That airbag was installed to protect you from serious head injuries in the event of a crash, and that DPF stops the most harmful cancer causing toxic emissions being released into the environment.

Are these deactivators still being helpful, do you think? And we complain about rising insurance costs or respiratory epidemics.

Let's park the safety element for a moment. What does the law say? Irish road traffic legislation says it's an offence to drive a vehicle that has been modified to an extent that it no longer complies with the air pollutant emissions standards it was originally designed to meet.

Removal of a DPF will almost certainly contravene these requirements, making the vehicle illegal for road use.

But here comes the catch. The deactivator doesn't get convicted. You, the driver, do.

So not only has this helpful individual taken your money, they've also rendered your vehicle potentially illegal.

It is also an offence to drive a vehicle with a defect that poses a danger to the public.

So deactivating an airbag or overriding a vehicle's automatic braking system (ABS) could equally result in penalties. For you, that is.

So why do it at all? The answer is simple. Money.

When it boils down to it, many road users just don't want to have to spend money on servicing or part replacement, or failing an NCT.

So instead of just getting our car fixed and staying safe, we look for ways to go around or cheat the system.

But the truth is we're only fooling ourselves in the long run because when you hit that patch of ice and the ABS is off, your car is going to skid.

And when you hit that tree and your airbag doesn't activate, you're going to suffer head injuries, at minimum. But you saved a few bob. And the latest iPhone is out.

Manufacturers invest massive amounts of time and money in producing safer vehicles. And what do some of us do? Deactivate them. We are so eager to buy the latest phone or Fitbit and yet so quick to cut corners when it comes to vehicle safety.

The introduction of more intelligent transport systems and connected driving is expected to greatly lower human error, estimated to account for up to 90pc of collisions.

But if motorists choose to go down the road of bypassing safety features, we're back to square one.

All the technology in the world won't make a difference if we're not willing to use it properly.

It's a mindset, really, and Irish motorists need to stop looking for the exception to the rule and instead activate the new world of vehicle safety.The shop will test out new compostable bio-materials, as well as more traditional components such as glass. Photo: PA

A world first plastic-free supermarket aisle is being unveiled in Amsterdam.

More than 700 products will be available without plastic packaging in the aisle which is being set up in a new metro-sized pilot store of supermarket chain Ekoplaza in the Dutch city, including meat, rice, sauces, dairy, chocolate, cereals, fruit and vegetables.

Environmental campaign group A Plastic Planet, which came up with the idea, said the introduction of the worlds first plastic-free aisle was a landmark moment for the global fight against plastic pollution.

The issue of plastics polluting the oceans, where they can harm and kill wildlife, has shot up the agenda after it was highlighted in the BBCs flagship nature documentary series Blue Planet II.

Iceland has pledged to go plastic-free on all its own-brand packaging by 2023.

And a survey for A Plastic Planet revealed last year that more than nine out of 10 British shoppers support the introduction of an aisle in supermarkets that has products free of plastic packaging.

In the Netherlands, Ekoplaza will roll out plastic-free aisles across its 74 branches by the end of this year.

The aisle will be used to test out new compostable bio-materials, as well as using traditional materials including glass, metal and cardboard, the schemes backers said.

And goods within the aisle will carry the Plastic Free Mark, a label introduced by A Plastic Planet to help shoppers easily identify products that are completely free of plastic packaging.

Ekoplaza chief executive Erik Does said: We know that our customers are sick to death of products laden in layer after layer of thick plastic packaging.

Plastic-free aisles are a really innovative way of testing the compostable biomaterials that offer a more environmentally friendly alternative to plastic packaging.ROME, ITALY - FEBRUARY 26: Children play at the Pineto's park overlooking the Vatican after the snowfall in the night on February 26, 2018 in Rome, Italy. (Photo by Franco Origlia/Getty Images)

ROME, ITALY - FEBRUARY 26 Rome is seeing snow for the first time in six years while many other European cities also have freezing weather. (Photo by Antonio Masiello/Getty Images)

Commuters make their way home in Lucan, Co. Dublin on Tuesday as the first snow from 'The Beast of the East' arrives. Picture Colin Keegan, Collins Dublin.

Some flights have been cancelled at Dublin Airport. Photo: Mark Condren

Some flights have been cancelled at Dublin Airport. Photo: Mark Condren

Some flights have been cancelled at Dublin Airport. Photo: Mark Condren

Women take pictures of a statue of horses that is frozen over in the city centre of Dublin, Ireland, March 1, 2018. REUTERS/Clodagh Kilcoyne

'Blizzard like' conditions have caused a massive wave of flight cancellations at Irish airports on Thursday and Friday.

For latest Friday travel updates, click here.

Aer Lingus and Ryanair have cancelled all flights out of Ireland for Friday, March 2.

"Nothing will operate out of Dublin, Cork, Shannon or Belfast tomorrow," a spokesperson for Aer Lingus has confirmed to Independent.ie Travel.

Inbound flights from the US and Canada will depart as planned on Friday night, however, arriving into Irish airports on Saturday morning.

Ryanair has advised that all flights scheduled to/from Dublin, Cork, Kerry, Knock & Shannon Airports on Friday, March 2, have been cancelled.

All affected customers should by now have been notified of their options by email / SMS text message (for passenger rights, scroll down below).

Both airlines also cancelled multiple flights from Irish airports today, Thursday, with knock-on delays for thousands of passengers.

Dublin Airport remained operational following "blizzard-like conditions", but said all airlines would suspend operations from around 15.00 today.

"It is unlikely that other airlines will operate to or from Dublin Airport on Friday and they are likely to resume operations on Saturday morning," it says.

Cork Airport's runway has been closed all day due to "compacted snow". Temporary camp beds were provided to assist stranded passengers overnight, and the Defence Forces have been assisting with stricken customers.

Shannon Airport is closing from 18.00 until 05.00 on Saturday.

The over-riding advice is to check regularly with your airline or travel agent, monitor weather reports, and allow extra time if travelling to the airport.

Dublin Bus and Bus Eireann are not operating today, and Luas and Irish Rail had limited services that finished up by 12-2pm or thereabouts.

Weather is expected to worsen, with the entire population now advised to stay indoors between 4pm Thursday and 3pm Friday.

Read More

Flights & Airports

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Aer Lingus and Ryanair have cancelled all flights from Ireland for Friday, March 2. Passengers are advised to check airline websites before travel.

Ryanair expected to wind up all operations by around 16.00 today. It has cancelled multiple flights from Irish airports Thursday and all flights Friday.

Customers will be notified by SMS/email, it says. In the meantime, you can check the status of your flight on its website here.

Aer Lingus ceased all Irish operations at 3pm, Thursday (latest here). All of Friday's flights from Ireland have been cancelled.

A return to full operations is planned from early Saturday morning.

"Guests who have bookings on Aer Lingus flights from Wednesday 28th February to Friday 2nd March and who wish to postpone their travel to a later date, within 7 days of their original travel date, may also rebook free-of-charge using our online facilities."

Check here for flight updates before travelling to the airport.

Dublin Airport: 400+ flights were cancelled today.

Our snow clearing teams have been working throughout the night in blizzard like conditions on the airfield. Please check latest flight info with your airline BEFORE coming to @DublinAirport this morning. https://t.co/KCdG6gBiec pic.twitter.com/8YTL8MqKt3  Dublin Airport (@DublinAirport) March 1, 2018

The airport expected all flights to cease by around 16.00 this afternoon, and says it is "unlikely" that any airlines will operate to or from its runways on Friday. "They are likely to resume operations on Saturday morning."

You can check in with the airport's twitter feed here. Live departures info is here, and arrivals here. The airport also has a snow and ice FAQ here.

There is no parking charge for extra hours due to delays, or cancellations. Contact 01 944-0440 or parkingdublin@daa.ie for info.

Shannon Airport is to close from 18.00 Thursday to 05.00 Saturday. It advises passengers to check with airlines and monitor its Twitter here and website here.

Cork Airport remains closed following overnight temperatures of -7 degrees and compacted snow on the runway. Multiple services have now been cancelled, including all remaining Aer Lingus and Ryanair flights and Norwegian's Boston service.

It will close Friday. Follow the latest alerts on Twitter here.

Ferries

Dozens of Irish Ferries services have now been cancelled due to adverse weather conditions. They include Swift sailings between Dublin and Holyhead from Weds-Friday, and most Rosslare/Pembroke/Cherbourg services on Thursday and Friday.

Several other services are listed as 'in doubt'. See sailing updates here.

Stena Line has cancelled all sailings to/from Dublin and Rosslare from 2pm Thursday to 2pm Friday, March 2. Follow updates on its website here or Twitter here.

Public Transport

For updates, check in with:

Dublin Bus: dublinbus.ie or call 01 873-4222

Irish Rail: irishrail.ie or call 01 836-622

Luas: luas.ie, 1850 300 604 or 01 4614911

Bus Eireann: buseireann.ie or 1850 836 611

For school transport, check buseireann.ie or call 1850 836 611.

Irish Rail was expected to wind down all services by lunchtime Thursday, resuming from around noon on Friday. See updates here.

Dublin Bus will not be in a position to operate any services on Thursday, 1 March, having ceased operating at 19.00 Wednesday night. More here.

All Bus Eireann services have now been cancelled in Ireland for Thursday due to the national Status Red weather alert.

Luas services operated at reduced frequencies, but stopped at 12 noon on Thursday. You can follow its latest updates here.

What if my flight is cancelled?

Expand Close Commuters make their way home in Lucan, Co. Dublin on Tuesday as the first snow from 'The Beast of the East' arrives. Picture Colin Keegan, Collins Dublin. / Facebook

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Whatsapp Commuters make their way home in Lucan, Co. Dublin on Tuesday as the first snow from 'The Beast of the East' arrives. Picture Colin Keegan, Collins Dublin.

Flight cancellation rights are covered under EC Regulation 261/2004.

If your flight is cancelled for any reason, and regardless of when you are notified, your airline must offer you the choice between:

1) Re-routing as soon as possible, subject to availability, free of charge.

2) Re-routing at a later date.

3) A full refund.

Am I entitled to care and assistance?

If your flight is cancelled and you choose to be re-routed as soon as possible, then you are entitled to meals and refreshments, hotel accommodation and transfers between the airport and hotel as required. If the airline does not provide these, and you end up paying yourself, keep the receipts - you are entitled to a reimbursement of reasonable expenses.

NB. A five-star hotel may not be a reasonable expense!

Bear in mind that if your flight is cancelled and you choose a full refund, then the airline's obligations to you end there and then.

Am I entitled to compensation?

Financial compensation depends on the flight length and the reason for the cancellation. It ranges from 250 (short-haul, less than 1,500km) to 600 (long-haul, over 3,500km).

For more on your passenger rights, read here or visit flightrights.ie.

How can my travel insurance help?

In the event of a flight cancellation, the first source of refunds and re-routing should be with your airline (see above).

Standard travel insurance policies don't offer much help here, but 'missed departure' cover can help you secure a new flight, or an additional night's accomodation.

If your policy includes extra "travel disruption" cover, you should be covered for additional transport or accommodation costs up to 1,000pp, according to Ciaran Mulligan, Managing Director of Blue Insurance and Multitrip.com.

This covers "99pc" of scenarios with flight cancellations due to weather, strikes and so on, Mulligan says, but note that it covers transport and accommodation-related expenses only - i.e. not lost annual leave, business opportunities or deposits, concert tickets or museum or attraction fees booked in advance online.

Is it too late to take out travel insurance?

Travel Disruption cover can be added retrospectively to a policy, but not to claim on an event that has already happened. Storm Emma has already been forecast, so travel insurance taken out now won't cover travel disruption it causes.

"There's a seven day moratorium on travel disruption from time you take out the policy to time you will be covered," Mulligan warns.

However, 'missed departure' cover should still apply - even if you take out the cover today in full knowledge that Storm Emma is on the way.

Im nervous about travel. Can I get a refund?

No. If you cancel your holiday without the DFA (dfa.ie/travel) declaring travel to be unsafe, it could be deemed "disinclination to travel".

As such, you may have to pay a cancellation fee or forfeit some or all of the cost of your air fare or holiday package.

That said, it's worth noting that Irish tour operators have in the past worked to facilitate customers affected by exceptional events, so it's always worth a phone call.

NB: This story is being updated to reflect developments.

Read more:Subscribe to The Ready Business show, in association with Vodafone via iTunes or SoundCloud.

On this weeks show, we find out about the future of online supermarket shopping and how one Irish entrepreneur has developed a platform that promises to deliver your shopping in just one hour.

Devan Hughes is co-founder of Buymie which in two years has raised over 800k in capital and is making serious waves in the online supermarket space.

Devan discusses what it takes to succeed, why failing at his first business was a good thing, and how Buymie has plans for the future of online, on-demand grocery shopping in Ireland and the UK.

The Ready Business show, in association with Vodafone , is available via iTunes , SoundCloud and Stitcher or subscribe to the RSS feed of the Ready Business Podcast using your favourite podcatcher.

You can check out the full Ready Business Podcast series here .

Sponsored by:(L-R) Meghan Markle and Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge attend the first annual Royal Foundation Forum held at Aviva on February 28, 2018 in London

(L-R) Prince Harry, Meghan Markle and Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge attend the first annual Royal Foundation Forum held at Aviva on February 28, 2018 in London

Prince Harry, Meghan Markle, Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge and Prince William, Duke of Cambridge attend the first annual Royal Foundation Forum held at Aviva on February 28, 2018 in London

(L-R) Meghan Markle and Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge attend the first annual Royal Foundation Forum held at Aviva on February 28, 2018 in London Pool/Getty Images)

(L-R) Meghan Markle and Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge attend the first annual Royal Foundation Forum held at Aviva on February 28, 2018 in London

Prince Harry, Meghan Markle and Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge attend the first annual Royal Foundation Forum held at Aviva on February 28, 2018 in London

(L-R) Meghan Markle and Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge attend the first annual Royal Foundation Forum held at Aviva on February 28, 2018 in London

(L-R) Meghan Markle and Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge attend the first annual Royal Foundation Forum held at Aviva on February 28, 2018 in London

This is the future of the British royal family.

Meghan Markle joined her fiance Prince Harry and future in-laws Kate Middleton and Prince William in London today in their first event as a foursome.

In the run-up to the couple's May 19 wedding and Kate's due date in April, the young royals' schedules have been jam-packed with events around the UK, but the most interest was building up to Wednesday before Kate prepares to take time off during her maternity leave.

The group were launching the first annual Royal Foundation forum.

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Whatsapp Prince Harry, Meghan Markle, Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge and Prince William, Duke of Cambridge attend the first annual Royal Foundation Forum held at Aviva on February 28, 2018 in London

Kate, who is expecting her third child in April, wore a Seraphine dress while Ms Markle was dressed in a navy silk Jason Wu dress.

William, Kate and Harry - the foundation's three joint patrons - will chat about the charitable body that has allowed them to launch a range of projects supporting wounded military veterans, protecting wildlife and promoting good mental health.

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Whatsapp (L-R) Prince Harry, Meghan Markle and Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge attend the first annual Royal Foundation Forum held at Aviva on February 28, 2018 in London

The two couples arrived together for their first official event as a foursome and took their seats in front of a invited audience for the inaugural forum of their Royal Foundation.

The event was hosted by BBC presenter and Radio 1 newsreader Tina Daheley and the audience was made up of guests, supporters of The Royal Foundation, programme partners and beneficiaries.

American bride-to-be Ms Markle will formally become the fourth patron of The Royal Foundation following her high-profile wedding to Harry on May 19.

Under the theme Making A Difference Together, the forum, staged in the City of London, will showcase programmes run or initiated by the Royal Foundation such as Heads Together, the Invictus Games, and United For Wildlife.

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Launched in 2011, the foundation was set up by William and Harry as the main vehicle to pursue their charitable and philanthropic interests.

William opened the forum held in the City of London by outlining the philosophy behind the Royal Foundation saying: "We would not seek quick wins, but would strive to make a real and lasting difference."

He also talked about the inspiration behind the charitable work of himself and brother Harry, adding: "Both our parents had provided for us an example of diligence, compassion and duty in all they did.

"Our grandparents, The Queen and The Duke of Edinburgh, had made support for charity central to their decades of service to the nation and the Commonwealth."

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Whatsapp Prince Harry, Meghan Markle and Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge attend the first annual Royal Foundation Forum held at Aviva on February 28, 2018 in London

Asked for her thoughts on the Royal Foundation, Ms Markle said: "To see the model of the foundation is really interesting because, while I've worked with larger NGOs, I've also worked with really small grassroots organisations where you can see a higher level of impact in my opinion, because there's a lot less red tape.

"What you are seeing here and what I noticed with Heads Together from a global perspective, because I wasn't here obviously when it was happening, was the power of convening all of these small organisations who have this same issue but need that extra push and support under this umbrella, you are able to achieve that.

"And the impact they all made with Heads Together was tremendous.

"So I'm very excited to be able to work on initiatives similarly and have that same sort of impact globally."

Additional reporting by Press AssociationLawyers for actress Rose McGowan have called for a drug possession charge against her to be thrown out of court, in part because she has been a victim of the Harvey Weinstein machine.

McGowan faces a preliminary hearing next month in Leesburg, Virginia, after authorities said cocaine was found in a wallet she left on a United flight at Dulles International Airport, Washington DC, last year.

In court papers, lawyer Jessica Carmichael said five hours passed between the time McGowan got off the plane and when her wallet was found by a cleaning crew.

Ms Carmichael argued the drugs may have been planted, citing the underhanded targeting of Ms McGowan by Weinstein.

McGowan was one of the first actresses to accuse the now-disgraced producer of sexual abuse.A seven-year-old girl has written to her local sorting office complaining about rubber bands left on the street by Royal Mail postal workers.

Gracie, from Surrey, wrote that the practice was against the law and harmful to wildlife, accompanying the letter with a collection of bands she said she had picked up off the street.

Please may your postmen and women stop dropping the rubber bands, I picked all these up today on my way from school, she wrote.

It is against the law to drop litter and is harmful to wildlife. Birds, foxes and hedgehogs think they are worms and eat them and die.

Gracie wrote the letter herself and picked up more of the bands when walking to school the next day, pictures of which her grandmother Pennie shared on Twitter.

Gracies father Andy said they had yet to receive a response since sending the letter on Monday.

He told the Press Association: Hopefully they will inform the postmen to discard of the rubber bands carefully and not on the streets.

Royal Mail spokesman Henry Perry told the Press Association the firm recognised that dropping rubber bands is a threat to wildlife and a needless expense.

He said: We have spoken to our colleagues to remind them of best practice around retaining and reusing rubber bands.

Every year, we use around 338 tonnes of elastic bands to keep bundles of mail together. In 2016-17, we reduced the number of rubber bands we purchased by eight per cent.

We ask our postmen and women to return all rubber bands to the delivery office for re-use. We also signed a joint statement with the CWU and Unite to encourage our people to reuse rubber bands.

Mr Perry said Royal Mails rubber bands are biodegradable and will start to degrade outdoors within a year.

The girls father said that as well as swallowing the bands, smaller animals risk getting tangled in them, which can prove fatal.

He added this is not the first time Gracie has shown an interest in protecting wildlife.

She has a green Blue Peter badge for sending off a project on turtle conservation, he said.

Shes quite environmentally aware and keeps telling me off for buying drinks in plastic bottles or putting my hybrid car in sport mode.

Its something she wants to get involved with when shes older too so we might have a little conservationist in the making.Diesel cars could be banned from German cities within weeks to cut air pollution following a landmark court ruling yesterday.

In a decision that is thought could inspire similar moves across Europe, Germany's highest administrative court ruled that individual municipalities can ban older diesel cars from their streets in order to bring pollution levels down.

The ruling sent shares in German carmakers tumbling and caused widespread concern among diesel car owners that their vehicles could lose almost all their second-hand value if they are banned from city streets.

Hamburg, Germany's second-largest city, said it would impose a ban on some of its most polluted streets "within a few weeks", and other major cities, including Dusseldorf and Stuttgart, the home of Mercedes and Porsche, are expected to follow.

Chancellor Angela Merkel sought to calm public concerns over the ruling. "It's not really about the whole country or all the car owners in Germany."

Any diesel bans will be watched closely across Europe and could be copied by other countries. The UK and Germany are among countries facing the threat of legal action from the European Commission unless they do more to solve the problem.US President Donald Trumps former campaign chairman has been reprimanded by a federal judge for speaking publicly in violation of her gag order in his criminal case.

The rebuke of Paul Manafort came as he pleaded not guilty to the latest charges brought by special counsel Robert Muellers Russia investigators.

Manafort appeared at the federal courthouse to enter a formal plea to a second indictment accusing him of acting as an unregistered foreign agent and directing an international money-laundering conspiracy stemming from his political work in Ukraine.

It was his first court appearance since his co-defendant and longtime business associate, Rick Gates, pleaded guilty and agreed to co-operate with prosecutors.

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Manafort had previously pleaded not guilty in the case, but the latest indictment, which mirrored the charges filed against him last October, required him to formally enter a second plea. Manafort also faces charges in Virginia accusing him of tax evasion and bank fraud.

During the hearing, Judge Amy Berman Jackson set a September 17 trial date for Manafort and reprimanded him for making a public statement last week about Gates plea.

She said his statement violated an order she put in place early in the case, which bars Manafort, the prosecution and witnesses from making public statements that pose a substantial likelihood of prejudicing potential jurors.

I can certainly understand the impulse to not let that go by without asserting your innocence, Judge Jackson told Manafort, referring to Gates plea and hundreds of news articles about it. But it cannot happen again, she said, or she could hold him in contempt.

Manaforts lawyer, Kevin Downing, told the judge his client would appreciate more guidance from the judge on what he can and cannot say publicly. Mr Downing also said he plans to file a motion challenging her order.

Manaforts statement last week took aim at the prosecution, saying Gates plea did not change his commitment to defend himself against the untrue piled-up charges contained in the indictments against me.

Manafort also said he had hoped and expected Gates would have had the strength to continue the battle to prove out innocence.

For reasons yet to surface he chose to do otherwise, Manafort said.

Manafort is due back in court later this week, this time in Virginia, where he faces a separate indictment involving bank fraud and tax charges.

The allegations stem from much of the same conduct outlined in the Washington case, and prosecutors attempted to have all the charges brought in the pending case there. But Manafort objected, resulting in his facing two indictments in two different places at the same time.

On Wednesday, Judge Jackson said the situation could lead to a lot of duplication for both sides.

Prosecutor Greg Andres acknowledged the overlap in the two indictments but said any request to combine the case would be Manaforts to make.An Israeli organisation has said it has minted a coin bearing US president Donald Trumps image to honour his recognition of Jerusalem as Israels capital.

The Mikdash Educational Centre said the Temple Coin features Mr Trump alongside King Cyrus, who 2,500 years ago allowed Jews to return to Jerusalem from their exile in Babylon.

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Whatsapp The biblical half-shekel coins also depict the ancient Persian King Cyrus (AP)

Rabbi Mordechai Persoff said Mr Trump, like Cyrus, made a big declaration that Jerusalem is the capital of the holy people.

His organisation minted 1,000 biblical half-shekel coins that can be purchased with a minimum donation of 50 dollars (35). The coin cannot be used as currency.

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Mikdash bills itself as a non-profit educational and religious organisation. The donations will help spread the light of Jerusalem and the spirit of the Holy Temple throughout the world, it said.

Israel has warmly welcomed Mr Trumps move, which angered Palestinians.

The Trump coin is also likely to rile Iranians, who uniformly respect King Cyrus as an ancient Persian hero.Students in Nitra hold a vigil in honour of the shot reporter (AP)

A journalist shot dead in Slovakia was working on a story about the activities of Italian mafia in his country and their links to people close to Prime Minister Robert Fico.

Jan Kuciaks Aktuality.sk news website published his last, unfinished story on Wednesday. It describes the activities of members of the Italian Ndrangheta criminal group in eastern Slovakia, and the business ties between one of them, a senior assistant to Mr Fico and another official close to him.

The bodies of 27-year-old Mr Kuciak and his girlfriend, Martina Kusnirova, were found on Sunday evening in their house in Velka Maca, east of the capital, Bratislava. Mr Kuciak is the first journalist to be killed in Slovakia.

In his story he described, among other details, the activities in agriculture, real estate and other sectors of a Slovakia-based Italian man believed to belong to the criminal group.

He also detailed the mans business ties to Maria Troskova, a former model who is now the chief state adviser at the government office, and Viliam Jasan, who currently serves as the secretary of Slovakias security council, a body that deals with key security issues.

After the first details of the story appeared in Aktuality.sk and a newspaper, Sme, on Tuesday, Mr Fico dismissed the reports.

You link innocent people to a double murder without any evidence, the prime minister said. Dont do it.

The opposition was not impressed and called on national police force president Tibor Gaspar and interior minister Robert Kalinak to resign. It is planning a protest rally in Bratislava for later on Wednesday.

Students plan to march in honour of Mr Kuciak in a number of Slovakian cities on Friday.

Aktuality.sk said Mr Kuciak co-operated on the story with the Czech Centre for Investigative Journalism, the Investigative Reporting Project Italy and the international Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project.

The Czech centre said it had been working with Mr Kuciak for more than 18 months.A judge who was taunted by Donald Trump during the presidential campaign has sided with the US president on a challenge to building a border wall with Mexico.

US District Judge Gonzalo Curiel rejected arguments by the state of California and advocacy groups that the administration overreached by waiving laws requiring environmental and other reviews before construction could begin.

The challengers said a 2005 law that gave the Homeland Security secretary authority to waive the reviews had expired. The law exempted Homeland Security from dozens of laws if it deemed a wall to be in national security interests.

Mr Trump berated Judge Curiel during the campaign for his handling of fraud allegations against now-defunct Trump University, suggesting the Indiana-born judges Mexican heritage reflected a bias.

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Judge Curiel mentioned his roots in Tuesdays ruling when he quoted another native of the state, US Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts, who wrote in another case that courts should not make policy judgments.

The chief justice wrote: It is not our job to protect people from the consequences of their political choices.

In its review of this case, the court cannot and does not consider whether the underlying decisions to construct border barriers are politically wise or prudent, Judge Curiel wrote in his 101-page ruling.

The decision came days after construction began on a 30-foot high barrier in Calexico, California, the administrations first wall project outside of eight prototypes in San Diego that were completed in October.

The administration has issued three waivers since August, two to build in parts of California and one in part of New Mexico. President George W Bushs administration issued the previous five waivers, allowing the government to quickly extend barriers to about one-third of the border.

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The Centre for Biological Diversity was first to sue the Trump administration, with three other groups  the Sierra Club, Defenders of Wildlife and Animal Legal Defence Fund  later filing a lawsuit. California Attorney General Xavier Becerra, a Democrat, was close behind, and Judge Curiel consolidated all three cases.

The Centre for Biological Diversity said in its lawsuit that the waiver authority cannot be interpreted to last forever. California argued that it expired in 2008, when Homeland Security satisfied congressional requirements at the time on how much wall to build.

During two-and-a-half hours of arguments this month, Judge Curiel peppered both sides with questions about the laws meaning, saying at one point that it isnt a model of clarity.

Mr Trump is seeking 18 billion US dollars to extend the wall as the White House and Congress negotiate an immigration package that would include new spending on border security and grant legal status to young immigrants who were temporarily shielded from deportation under an Obama-era programme, Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals.

The prototypes in San Diego that were built to guide future designs and the wall replacement in Calexico were previously funded.The world's chemical weapons watchdog has opened an investigation into attacks in the besieged, rebel-held Syrian region of eastern Ghouta to determine whether banned munitions had been used, diplomatic sources have said.

The Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) will examine attacks including one on Sunday that health authorities said killed a child and caused symptoms consistent with exposure to chlorine gas, the sources said.

France, the US and the UK have said they would back military action against Damascus if there were proof chemical weapons had been used by forces under President Bashar al-Assad.

The investigation by the OPCW fact-finding team comes as Syrian warplanes continued to strike eastern Ghouta yesterday, despite a Russian call for a five-hour daily truce to allow the near 400,000 people living there under siege to leave.

Use of chlorine as a chemical weapons is prohibited under the 1997 Chemical Weapons Convention. If inhaled, chlorine gas turns into hydrochloric acid in the lungs and the build-up of fluids can drown victims.

The latest OPCW mission is seeking to determine whether chemical weapons were used in violation of the international weapons convention, which Syria signed in 2013 after hundreds died in a massive sarin gas attack in Ghouta.

"OPCW's technical secretariat continues to examine all credible allegations of chemical weapons use, reported by media or other sources, including the most recent allegations," it said when asked about the investigation into the Ghouta attacks.

The OPCW team does not plan to travel to Ghouta because of safety concerns - two visits by inspectors in 2013 and 2014 were ambushed - but will gather witness testimony, photographic and video evidence, and interview medical experts.

Some 393,000 people are trapped in the enclave, which has been besieged by the government since 2013.

Medics say more than 500 people have been killed since the government intensified its bombardment nine days ago in an attempt to retake the enclave.When Donald Trump became his party's nominee for president in 2016, the many Republicans who had reservations about him convinced themselves that the bargain they made could be fruitful for everyone. They'd stand by him despite the kind of person he is, and in return they'd get the policy results they were after.

Sure, from time to time they'd have to evade uncomfortable questions about his latest idiotic tweet or another woman (or five or 10) accusing him of sexual assault, but it would be worth it.

But it has turned out that Mr Trump demands more than they thought. They've signed on with a cult of personality, in which one goal supersedes all others: protect the president no matter what. In Congress, as CNN's Manu Raju and Jeremy Herb report, they're doing their part: "Top Republicans on Capitol Hill have made a concerted decision in their Russia inquiries: they are staying away from digging into the finances of President Donald Trump and his family.

"Six Republican leaders of key committees told CNN they see little reason to pursue those lines of inquiry or made no commitments to do so - even as Democrats say determining whether there was a financial link between Trump, his family, his business and Russians is essential to understanding whether there was any collusion in the 2016 elections. Republicans have resisted calls to issue subpoenas for bank records, seeking Trump's tax returns or sending letters to witnesses to determine whether there were any Trump financial links to Russian actors - calling the push nothing more than a Democratic fishing expedition."

They aren't saying that they've looked into the possibility of these ties and found there's nothing to them; they're saying they don't even want to look. This is a party that launched seven separate congressional investigations of Benghazi. It's enough to make you think they're afraid if they started poking around in Mr Trump's financial connections to Russia, they'd find that he's guilty of something. While it was always going to be tricky for this Congress to investigate the Russia scandal, the "investigations" are rapidly turning into a joke.

One of the odd things about the way Republicans have approached the entire Russia scandal is that there's a halfway plausible story they could tell about the 2016 election which wouldn't implicate Mr Trump but would still be at least somewhat consistent with what we know so far. It would say Russia was trying not to help Mr Trump so much as just to cause chaos in our election, and while the Russians certainly reached out to members of Mr Trump's family and campaign to engineer some kind of co-operation, it never amounted to much.

That account of events is extremely generous to everyone around Mr Trump. But at least it has a remote connection to some of the facts, enough to make it seem like the one telling that story would almost be acting in good faith. And it's a position some in the GOP have taken. The party as a whole, however, has adopted the "nothing to see, move along" position instead, which is likely a tactical mistake. If you're really clever, what you want to do is pretend you're eager to get to the bottom of the scandal while quietly sabotaging the investigation. But Republicans aren't even bothering to pretend. They've all but announced that for them there is no higher priority than protecting Mr Trump, not even the national security of the United States.

We can grant that it's always difficult for the party controlling Congress to investigate a president of that party. But this relentless stonewalling, not to mention the clownish antics of Devin Nunes and the other Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee, is no doubt making the Democrats more and more exasperated. Why does that matter? Because if Democrats take control of the House in November, they are going to respond with, as the president may say, fire and fury.

Let's take, for example, the question of the president's tax returns, which he has insisted on keeping hidden despite the fact there has never been a president in American history whose tax returns the public had a more pressing interest in seeing. The CNN piece notes that Senator Ron Wyden has been asking to see those returns and "to obtain records about a lucrative 2008 real estate deal between Trump and a Russian billionaire that raised questions among Democrats about potential money laundering and suspect business dealings". Senator Orrin Hatch, who chairs the Senate Finance Committee, has refused, saying: "He doesn't want to give up his tax returns, and I believe he's right."

Now imagine that Democrats take the House. They would be able to release Mr Trump's returns by use of a little-used provision in the law, which allows the chair of the House Ways and Means Committee, the Senate Finance Committee, or the Joint Committee on Taxation, to request from the IRS any American's tax returns, including the president's. The chair could then share it with the rest of his or her committee, which could then vote to release the returns to all members of the chamber. Once 435 members of the House have Mr Trump's returns, they'd be public in about 12 seconds.

If Republicans had been making a good-faith effort to fully investigate the Russia scandal, they might be able to say in January 2019 to their newly empowered Democratic colleagues that releasing Mr Trump's returns against his wishes is a radical move that would set a bad precedent. It's possible they could win over a few Democratic members of the Ways and Means Committee with that argument, just enough to stop the release, since Democrats are far more open to arguments about precedents and the long-term health of institutions. But after Republicans spent the first two years of the Trump presidency running roughshod over every norm in sight and making clear they only want to protect Trump, an appeal to norms and precedents will surely fall on deaf ears. To take just one example, if and when Adam Schiff is running the House Intelligence Committee, Devin Nunes won't be able to say to him, "Let's make sure we investigate Russia in a bipartisan way" without Mr Schiff laughing in his face and going back to preparing his very large stack of subpoenas.

Might that have happened anyway, no matter how Republicans acted during the beginning of Trump's presidency? Maybe. But it's definitely going to happen now.

 The Washington PostHundreds of jobs are expected to be lost at Prezzo as the restaurant chain edges closer to a restructuring that will see up to 100 sites close.

The company, owned by private equity firm TPG Capital, is set to launch a Company Voluntary Arrangement (CVA), which will allow the Italian-themed chain to exit unprofitable branches and secure rent reductions on the remaining estate.

A total of 100 of Prezzos 300 outlets have been earmarked for closure, as well as its Tex-Mex chain Chimichanga.

Prezzo, which is working with AlixPartners on the restructuring, employs 4,500 people.

The news comes at a bleak time for the high street and the casual dining sector in particular.

On Wednesday, Toys R Us and electronics retailer Maplin crashed into administration, putting more than 5,000 jobs in jeopardy.

This year has also seen burger chain Byron and Jamies Italian undertake CVAs as they come under increasing pressure from rising costs and falling consumer confidence.

As well as staff costs and lower footfall, the chains have been stung by the collapse in the pound, which has ramped up the cost of buying ingredients.

Soaring business rates, National Living Wage costs and the Apprenticeship Levy have also taken their toll.Jan Kuciak's body was found on Sunday (Michal Smrcok/News and Media Holding via AP)

Light tributes placed during a silent protest in memory of murdered journalist Jan Kuciak and his girlfriend Martina Kusnirova (AP Photo/Bundas Engler)

A journalist shot dead in Slovakia was working on a story about the activities of the Italian mafia and their links to people close to his countrys Prime Minister.

Jan Kuciaks Aktuality.sk news website published his last, unfinished story on Wednesday.

It describes the activities of members of the Italian Ndrangheta criminal group in eastern Slovakia, and the business ties of one of them with a senior assistant to Robert Fico and another official close to him.

The bodies of the 27-year-old Mr Kuciak and his girlfriend, Martina Kusnirova, were found on Sunday evening in their house in Velka Maca, east of the capital, Bratislava. Mr Kuciak was the first journalist to be killed in Slovakia.

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In his story he described, among other details, the activities in agriculture, property and other sectors of a Slovak-based Italian man believed to belong to the criminal group.

He also detailed the mans business ties to Maria Troskova, a former model who is now the chief state adviser at the government office, and Viliam Jasan, who currently serves as the secretary of Slovakias security council, a body that deals with key security issues.

In a joint statement, Ms Troskova and Mr Jasan announced they were stepping down until the investigation into the shootings was completed.

They said they were shocked by the killings and expressed their condolences to the relatives. But they categorically rejected any links to the deaths.

After the first details of the story appeared in Aktuality.sk and a newspaper, Sme, on Tuesday, Mr Fico dismissed the reports.

You link innocent people to a double murder without any evidence, Mr Fico said. Dont do it.

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The opposition called on national police chief Tibor Gaspar and interior minister Robert Kalinak to resign.

A thousand people attended a protest rally organised by the opposition in Bratislava.

Culture minister Marek Madaric announced earlier on Wednesday that he was resigning from his government post.

Mr Madaric, a member of Mr Ficos leftist Smer-Social Democracy party, said it was his personal decision.

As the culture minister, I am not able to cope with the fact that a journalist was killed during my time in office, he said.

Also on Wednesday, justice minister Lucia Zitnanska, from a junior coalition partner of Mr Ficos Smer, said it was absolutely unacceptable that anyone with ties to organised crime would be working at the government office.

Students plan marches to honour Mr Kuciak in a number of Slovak cities on Friday.

Mr Gaspar, the police chief, said one of the most likely versions still was that Mr Kuciak was killed because of his investigative work.

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Giving few details, Mr Gaspar said the two were killed with the same weapon which police still do not have.

Mr Gaspar said that during the investigation in an unrelated case, police found out two people known for drugs related crimes were planning to meet in Velka Maca on Friday and take guns with them.

Police estimated the killings took place between Thursday and Sunday. He said another suspected person was seen in the town.

Mr Gaspar said police conducted raids during which they seized some ammunition and a weapon. One suspect was detained. He said police were still investigating what the two were planning to do in Velka Maca.

Aktuality.sk said Mr Kuciak co-operated on the story with the Czech Centre for Investigative Journalism, the Investigative Reporting Project Italy and the international Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project.

The Czech centre said it had been working with Mr Kuciak for more than 18 months.Three astronauts have returned from the International Space Station to the snowy, bitingly cold flat lands of Central Asia.

The return came after a five-and-a-half-month mission highlighted by robotic renovations, schoolteacher pep talks and heavenly greetings from Pope Francis.

The two Americans and one Russian landed in a Soyuz capsule shortly after sunrise on Wednesday in Kazakhstan, where the temperature was below freezing.

Flight controllers feared snow and freezing rain might hamper recovery efforts, but Nasa said the weather was not as bad as had been feared and the pick-up teams got to where they needed to be.

#ICYMI, three humans safely landed back on planet Earth at 9:31pm ET after five and a half months in space. Discover more about their mission to @Space_Station and back: https://t.co/vBm2uuc5TG pic.twitter.com/xVaNScIs0m  NASA (@NASA) February 28, 2018

Nasas Joe Acaba and Mark Vande Hei, and Russias Alexander Misurkin emerged from the capsule one by one, smiling, waving and pumping their fists in the air as they were carried to outdoor chairs.

Medical staff wrapped them in thick blankets, while taking their pulse and making sure they were fine.

The astronauts checked out of the space station just a few hours earlier, hugging the three men remaining behind.

Were already missing you, radioed station commander Anton Shkaplerov as the capsule backed away.

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In handing over the skippers job to Mr Shkaplerov, Mr Misurkin joked that at least he and his two crewmates did not break anything and hopefully accomplished some good science.

They had lived on the space station since September.

Mr Acaba is the first astronaut of Puerto Rican heritage and a former schoolteacher.

He teamed up with another educator-astronaut, Ricky Arnold, who is launching in three weeks, to perform the science lessons prepared by Christa McAuliffe 32 years ago. She died in the Challenger shuttle launch disaster.

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During a series of spacewalks spanning months, Mr Acaba and Mr Vande Hei helped replace the ageing mechanical hands of the stations big robot arm, and last autumn, they had a chance to chat with Pope Francis, discussing the beauty and fragility of the home planet.

As is customary, Nasa will whisk Mr Acaba and Mr Vande Hei back to Houston, with Mr Misurkin heading to cosmonaut headquarters at Star City, Russia.

A replacement crew will lift off from Kazakhstan on March 21 and bring the space station back up to a full crew of six.Tesco has been given the green light for its 3.7 billion takeover of wholesaler Booker after investors in both firms approved the deal.

Shareholders in Tesco and Booker voted it through at separate meetings on Wednesday, despite rumblings of discontent from some of the wholesalers investors.

It paves the way for the creation of the UKs largest food business and will be seen as a victory for Tesco boss Dave Lewis.

A total of 85% of Tesco shareholders cast ballots in favour of the deal, while 83% of Booker investors gave their seal of approval.

Tesco required 50% of investors to back the combination, while the threshold for Booker was set higher at 75%.

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Mr Lewis said: Im delighted that the shareholders of both companies have supported the merger.

This merger is about growth, bringing together our complementary retail and wholesale skills to create the UKs leading food business.

This opens up new opportunities to provide food wherever it is prepared or eaten  in home or out of home  and will benefit our customers, suppliers, colleagues and shareholders.

The tie up has received a mixed reception, with some Booker shareholders including Sandell claiming that Tescos offer undervalues the Londis and Budgens owner.

Cost savings as a result of the deal are expected to total 200 million.

Tesco, which is undergoing a turnaround under Mr Lewis, got approval for the takeover from the competition watchdog in December.

Tesco shares were up nearly 3% in afternoon trading, while Booker shares rose 2.5%.

Bruno Monteyne, analyst at Bernstein, said: Tesco dominates the 110 billion in-home food market and Tesco-Booker has the assets to dominate wholesale supply of the 85 billion out-of home food market.

The opportunities to improve and innovate in range, pricing, geographic reach and service to Booker customers are impressive.The third edition of Tax, Accounting and Audit in India is updated for 2017, and provides an overview of the f...Dubai, Feb 28 (IBNS): The University of Birmingham has officially opened its campus in Dubai - becoming the first global top 100 and UK Russell Group university to establish a campus in this rapidly developing international education hub.

University of Birmingham Principal and Vice-Chancellor Professor Sir David Eastwood was joined by distinguished guests to cut the ribbon marking the official opening of the University of Birmingham Dubai phase 1 campus, in Dubai International Academic City.



Sir David and a select group of VIP guests took a tour of the Universitys new facilities as preparations continue to welcome the first students in September this year.

The ribbon cutting yesterday (27 Feb) was followed by an evening reception at the British Embassy in Dubai attended by approximately 100 guests from Dubai and the UAE and senior members of the University.

Opening the University of Birmingham Dubai supports the UAEs vision of developing a competitive economy driven by knowledge and innovation, as well as Dubais goal of building an international education hub.



The University of Birmingham Dubai will open its doors to students in September 2018, offering degrees that will be taught, examined and accredited to the same recognised high standards as those delivered on its UK campus.

University of Birmingham Vice-Chancellor Professor Sir David Eastwood said: I am delighted to open our campus in Dubai and look forward to opening our doors to the first cohort of students to the University of Birmingham Dubai in September."

I would like to thank our partners here in the UAE for their support in helping us achieve this milestone. We are a global university and, for more than 20 years, have provided opportunities for students to study on our degree programmes at partner institutions around the world.

With strategic partnerships in the USA, Australia, China, and Brazil and active research collaborations across the world, opening a campus in Dubai is the next step in our global mission and demonstrates our ambition as an outward looking, world-class institution.

As a global university with a civic outlook, we are committed to contributing to UAE society and playing our part in supporting the UAE as it drives economic progress through knowledge and innovation, whilst contributing to the development of a growing international education hub in Dubai.



The University of Birmingham Dubai will provide opportunities for students to study on a range of undergraduate and postgraduate programmes. Initially, these will include Business, Economics, Computer Science, Mechanical Engineering, and teacher training degrees, with further programmes to be offered subsequently.

Dr Abdulla Al Karam, Chairman of the Board of Directors and Director General of KHDA: The opening of University of Birmingham is an important milestone in our goal to build a world-class education hub in Dubai. It represents new opportunities for students who can now look at a wider offering of education and research led programmes that are driven by Dubai's ambition to be a global leader in innovation.

The University builds on its long-standing reputation and it will attract more international students to Dubai. We welcome the University of Birmingham to Dubai and look forward to its success."

The University of Birmingham Dubai is located in Dubai International Academic City (DIAC), a leading international education hub with 26 universities. The initial phase of the campus saw its first open day activity in Autumn 2017 and the first undergraduate and post-graduate students will commence their studies in September 2018.

Mohammed Abdullah, Managing Director of Dubai International Academic City and Dubai Knowledge Park: It is with great pleasure that we celebrate the official launch of the University of Birmingham Dubai in Dubai International Academic City.

Renowned for its academic research, we are confident that the University of Birmingham will be a world-class partner committed to enhancing the UAEs vision to drive innovation and diversified growth.

It has already proven its drive for excellence in research and education by bringing its strongest academic programmes which will cater to the growing needs of this region. Todays launch is the first of many more initiatives to come and together, we are confident we will provide world class expertise and a truly global experience for students and faculty.

With a strong tradition of teaching excellence, commended by the UKs Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education (QAA) in 2016, degrees at the University of Birmingham Dubai will be taught, examined and accredited to the same recognised high standards as those delivered on the Universitys UK campus in Birmingham.Media reports quoted HAM spokesperson Danish Rizwan as saying on Wednesday that Manjhi will join hands with the Mahagathbandhan (Grand Alliance comprising JD(U), RJD and Congress) in the state.

The development came after Manjhi met Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader Tejashwi Yadav at his residence.

Manjhi, who once was the Dalit face of the Janata Dal (U) at a time when the party was rivalry with the BJP, quit the organisation and came close to the NDA after being forced to step down as Chief Minister to make room for Nitish Kumar in 2015.

He had fought the 2015 Assembly polls as part of the NDA which lost to the Grand Alliance.

Political turns and twists have now brought Nitish Kumar once again in alliance with the BJP and forced Manjhi to sever ties with the saffron party.

In signs of he being unhappy with the ruling coalition in Bihar, Manjhi had on Sunday expressed displeasure on his party being overlooked for the upcoming Rajya Sabha elections. He had demanded that HAM be allotted one Rajya Sabha seat, failing which the party would not support the BJP-led coalition in the next one Lok Sabha and two Assembly by-polls.Noida, Feb 28 (IBNS) : In a bizarre incident, a Class VII student has been apprehended for allegedly raping his neighbours four-year-old daughter, The Times of India reported.

According to reports, the boy lured the child to his house in Sector 73.

The 14-year-old boy was produced before the JuvenileJustice Board on Tuesday, which sent to a remand home.

Reports quoted the police as saying that the crime took place on Tuesday after the 14-year-old boy lured the child to his house.

The parents of both the boy and the girl were at work at the time. Both the families lived opposite each other in rented accommodation.

After returning home, the girl complained of pain in her private parts when her mother came back from work. She finally narrated the incident to her parents.

The girl was taken to district hospital for a medical examination, where it was confirmed that she was sexually assaulted.New Delhi, Feb 28 (IBNS): The Ministry of External Affairs on Wednesday said the government had nothing to do with convicted Khalistani terrorist Jaspal Atwal's invitation by the Canadian High Commissioner to India during a recently concluded visit of Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

In response to a query regarding invitation to Jaspal Atwal, MEA spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said: We have seen the recent exchange in the Parliament of Canada regarding two invitations issued to Jaspal Atwal by the Canadian High Commissioner, for functions hosted in honour of the Canadian Prime Minister in India."

"Let me categorically state that the Government of India, including the security agencies, had nothing to do with the presence of Jaspal Atwal at the event hosted by the Canadian High Commissioner in Mumbai or the invitation issued to him for the Canadian High Commissioner's reception in New Delhi. Any suggestion to the contrary is baseless and unacceptable.

Atwal was convicted in Canada for attempting the murder of then-Punjab minister Malkiat Singh Sidhu on Vancouver Island in 1986.

Atwal's invitation to the dinner hosted by the Canadian High Commissioner in India on Thursday came as an embarrassment for Trudeau as he had ensured Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh of Canada's distance from all those who are allegedly involved with the Sikh separatist movement.

Trudeau has also promised to take actions against all who want the Indian state of Punjab to be a separate country, named Khalistan.

As a damage control, the invitation to Atwal was later rescinded.

The Canadian Prime Minister has said that he will take action against the "person responsible" for inviting Atwal.

"We take this very seriously. The individual in question should have never received an invitation. The person and department responsible will take full responsibility for his actions," Trudeau said.

Atwal is reportedly a former member of the International Sikh Youth Federation, a banned 'terrorist group in Canada, the UK, the US and India.



Image: Screenshot grab.The Prime Minister also saluted science lovers.

"Greetings on National Science Day. I salute all science lovers and wish them the very best as they enhance their scientific zeal. India is extremely proud of our scientists", the Prime Minister said.Kolkata, Feb 28 (IBNS): A fire broke out at a departmental store in southern Kolkata's Ganguly Bagan area on Wednesday afternoon, reports said.

According to reports, the fire was first seen at around 1:10 pm. inside the basement of retail store Big Bazaar which is located at Orbit Mall at Raja Subodh Chandra Mallick Road under Netaji Nagar Police Station limits near Baghajatin Colony.

Soon, heavy black smoke reached another floor of the departmental store.

The incident triggered huge panic among locals as several residential flats are located above Big Bazaar in a housing complex. A hospital and a petrol pump are located metres away from Orbit Mall.

After evacuating customers from the mall and residents from the entire building, staffers of the departmental outlet and locals had started firefighting operations, using apartment's own fire extinguishing systems.

Later, as many as six fire tenders, local police and Disaster Management Group (DMG) personnel rushed to the scene and joined the operation.

A fire official said that main source of the blaze has been identified and arrested.

"We have arrested the source of the fire and currently we are dousing pocket fires while our cooling off process is also underway," the official told IBNS.

A local police official confirmed that no casualty has been reported so far.

However, fire department and police have started probe into the cause of fire.

(Reporting by Deepayan Sinha, Images from Facebook)Chandigarh, Feb 28 (IBNS): President Ram Nath Kovind graced and addressed the golden jubilee celebrations of M. C. Mahajan D. A. V. College for Women on Wednesday in Chandigarh.

Speaking on the occasion, the President said he was very happy to attend the golden jubilee celebrations of the M.C. Mahajan D.A.V. College for Women.

Inspired by the vision of the great social reformer Swami Dayanand Saraswati as well as the former Chief Justice of India, late Mehar Chand Mahajan, this college has been playing an important role in the field of female education. MCM DAV College has contributed greatly to womens education in North India in the past five decades.

The President expressed hope that this college will continue to be a model in the region, and will rise to even higher prominence in the coming 50 years.



The President paid tributes to Chandigarh as the first planned city of independent India. It offers an example, he said, for town planning for our country.

The city is a symbol of Green India, Swachh Bharat and Swasth Bharat. He congratulated the citizens and administrators of Chandigarh for their contribution.Srinagar, Feb 28 (IBNS): At least one person was injured as militants reportedly fired on him in Tral town of South Kashmir's Pulwama district.

The police identified the victim as Ajaz Ahmed Shah, who was shot near Eidgah Tral.

While he was rushed to a nearby hospital, later, as conditions deteriorated, the victim was moved to Srinagar.

Sources said many FIR's stand registered against Shah in police stations.

He had been once booked by police for masquerading as militant and extorting money from people.

"Today at about 06:20 PM some unknown militants fired upon one Aijaz Ahmad Shah aged about 38 years near Gol Masjid Tral," a police statement read.

"He was immediately taken to SDH Tral wherefrom he has been referred to SMHS Hospital Srinagar for treatment. His condition is stated to be critical. Police is investigating the case," it said.



(Reporting by Saleem Iqbal Qadri)Kabul, Feb 28 (IBNS): Afghanistan President Ashraf Ghani announced on Wednesday that Taliban will be amnestied if the militants give up weapons and return to civilian life, while officially opening the peace process in Kabul.

"The Afghan government must be accepting and we will also work on the list of freeing Taliban prisoners," Ghani reportedly said.

He also urged Pakistan to come on board and establish a dialogue.

"We will be ready to start talks with Pakistan and forget the past and start a new chapter," he said, weeks after refusing to take a call from Pakistan Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, following the aftermath of Kabul attack earlier this year.

Urging the Taliban to give up insurgency, Ghani said that the members and their families will be issued passports and visas and an office for them will be opened in Kabul, to allow the group to form a mainstream political party and contest elections in the future, provided they volunteer for the peace process.

Last month, a BBC report stated that the group is active in almost 70 percent of Afghanistan, which makes them a force to reckon with.

Taliban fully controls 14 districts (four percent) of Afghanistan and has presence in another 263 districts (66 percent).

Studies have also shown that the dominance of militants in Afghanistan have increased than when foreign combat troops left in 2014.

Image: twitter.com/ashrafghani"Prevent Unauthorized Transactions in your demat / trading account Update your Mobile Number/ email Id with your stock broker / Depository Participant. Receive information of your transactions directly from Exchanges on your mobile / email at the end of day and alerts on your registered mobile for all debits and other important transactions in your demat account directly from NSDL/ CDSL on the same day." - Issued in the interest of investors." | "KYC is one time exercise while dealing in securities markets - once KYC is done through a SEBI registered intermediary (broker, DP, Mutual Fund etc.), you need not undergo the same process again when you approach another intermediary." | "No need to issue cheques by investors while subscribing to IPO. Just write the bank account number and sign in the application form to authorise your bank to make payment in case of allotment. No worries for refund as the money remains in investor's account."

www.indiainfoline.com is part of the IIFL Group, a leading financial services player and a diversified NBFC. The site provides comprehensive and real time information on Indian corporates, sectors, financial markets and economy. On the site we feature industry and political leaders, entrepreneurs, and trend setters. The research, personal finance and market tutorial sections are widely followed by students, academia, corporates and investors among others.I know what youre going to say after reading that headline. Hasnt India liberally copied from the rest of the world? Whether it is clothes, food, and more than a couple of Bollywood tunes. See, we already know that and deride our fellow countrymen for their lack of originality.

But, I think its time to turn the scanner on all the things the world has copied from us.

1 Infamous ZARA case

Zara trying to sell you lungi for 70. Heres mine that cost 2. And I swear this is a natural pose! Pic taken by wifey pic.twitter.com/DCqyWDSX5N  AssedBaig (@AssedBaig) February 4, 2018

Well, I think all of you know about the recent ZARA debacle where the global brand tried to sell you your uncles lungi for Rs 6,000. The idea, which was stolen from many Asian countries like India, Nepal, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Cambodia, Myanmar, and Thailand was being sold as a comfortable skirt for girls.

Now, whod buy a lungi for Rs 6,000? Not even Rajinikanth, my friend.

2 Bhatura camouflaged as pancake

Chinese Chef Is Selling Bhaturas As Scallion Bubble Pancakes & The Internet Isnt Happy https://t.co/foScCeMfLU pic.twitter.com/XCqH0yuOEX  Neha Shrivastav (@Neha_Social) February 4, 2018

Just recently, a Chinese restaurant tried to sell 'Scallion Bubble Pancakes' or Bhatura as we call it and claim it as their own invention. I mean, Bhatura, the staple of North India and something that every person in Delhi wakes up to has been around for as long as we can remember.

Needless to even mention, the brand and Facebook pages that shared the video got an earful from Indians across the globe.

3 People Tree vs Dior

wow so excited about what is going to come out of this dior vs people tree debate over a print design for a dress  a healing woman  (@pursuitofishq) January 23, 2018



Elle India plastered a picture of Sonam Kapoor on its front page and suddenly, the internet erupted. Why youd ask? Well, it wasnt Elle or Sonam, but the clothes she wore. Delhi-based brand People Tree accused Dior of copying its block prints.

What Orijit Sen, the founder of the brand was pissed at was Diors lack of response to the allegations.

4 This song from Ek Tha Tiger





Well, even though we have Pritam Chakraborty, the God of plagiarism, its not that bad a case to point out that it is not just us, but the world too has been coping our tunes. Allow me to build my case.

The movie Ek That Tiger was launched in the year 2012 and the song Saiyaara, which became an instant hit was indeed copied by Mile Kitic. Dont believe me? Well, listen to this tune here and let me know.

5 Indian Toilets

#Indiantoilet A post shared by Naveed Ahmed (@jrueeeee_moooooves) on Jan 16, 2013 at 9:45am PST



Even though the world just cannot get over western culture, scientists are constantly telling us beneficial Indian Toilets are. Several studies have been conducted the experts are ruling in favour of Indian toilets. Scientist across the world think that the squatting position is the best and most natural way to finish ones business.

That said, more and more people around the world are now rooting for Indian toilets.

6 Chicken Tikka and Biryani

The UK is insanely crazy about butter chicken, chicken tikka masala and biryani. Ask why? Well, thanks to the Indians who stay in the UK. In 1997, it was reported that 11 million people in Britain, nearly 22 % of the population consumed Chicken Tikka Masala. In fact, many dinners that severed Chicken Tikka Masala claimed that nearly 80% of people prefer this over anything else on the menu.

7 Turmeric Latte

Indias very own turmeric milk, something we have using for generations to cure wounds and health-related problems, suddenly discovered a new home in San Francisco. Well, even though we may crib about drinking it, its a big a deal if someone else steals it from us.

With an added flavour of coconut, cashew milk and almond, cafes from Sydney to San Francisco are adding this golden brew to their menu!

8 Desi Charpai

Chai Tea was bad, you thought? Ha! Here comes the Charpoy Cot. (That price makes my head reel). I need to go lie down on my own charpoy cot. pic.twitter.com/Yw2V5ju96R  charukesi (@charukesi) October 4, 2017

Things like Bajre-Ki-Roti and Punjab-di-lassi are inseparable from India, and well, so is the charpai. Close to Punjab and even closer to Punjabis, charpai is something most people lay outside their house in the northern part of India, during winters, to bask under the glory of the Sun.

So when last year an Aussie lad thought of selling an Indian-Charpai for a whopping Rs 60,000 on Twitter, people could not digest it.

9 The bleeding Madras

#hellotwentyseven #shorthills #bleedingmadras @mfillius A post shared by Noelle Elizabeth (@tomboyprep) on Sep 1, 2013 at 3:13pm PDT



A clothing pattern coined by people in Madras suddenly became a trend across the globe in the 1960s  in forms of shirts, skirts, pants and dresses. So did the world come to know about Madras famous shirting? - In 1626 when East Indian Company established a site called Armagon, thats when.

This plaid and checked pattern that bled colours when washed became a sensation.

10 Jodhpur Pants / Riding breeches

With so many Maharajas and the royal lifestyle found in every nook and corner, its no surprise that its trends got picked by the world. One of its most abiding contributions  the riding breeches. Regaining the basic style from Churidars, in the 1800s, Sir Pratap Singh, the Maharaja of Idar and the Regent of Jodhpur coined the now famous Jodhpur Pants and soon it became a thing in the world.

11 Jugaad

The colonial Indian technique which has been running the wheels of innovation in the country since forever quickly became worlds favourite by the start of 20th century. Now a part of Oxford dictionary, Jugaad is something referred to by people across the world as a means to think innovatively and find a solution.

It has even become a management jargon and taught in many B-schools.Whoever met Sridevi, even for a brief amount of time, remains smitten by the legendry actress. Thats the kind of impression Sridevi cast on people. She left us for her heavenly abode and fans, friends as well as family members are finding it hard to believe that she is no more.

bollyworm.com

After a visually impaired man who has been camping outside Sridevis house after the news of her demise broke out, he revealed how thankful he is to the lady, who helped his brother. While I am not a fan of movies, I am here to pay my respects to the actor who is responsible for my brothers recovery. He is alive today only because of her, he said.

(Also Read: A Visually Impaired Man Is Camping Outside Sridevis House & The Reason Will Melt Your Heart)

dawn.com

Now, Sridevis Mom co-star Adnan Siddiqui also shared a story of how helpful and empathetic Sridevi was. He revealed that during the promotions of their film amid India-Pak tensions when

Pakistani artistes where banned in the nation, Sridevi was in grief that she couldnt be with the team while promoting Mom. She was hurt and deeply missed her co-stars. That was the time when Adnan became close to the actress. Thereafter, they have constantly been in touch with each other through text messages and phone calls, reports Bollywoodlife.com.

When the news of her demise broke out, he was one of the first people who reached her hotel room. Furthermore, he helped the Kapoor family in keeping the repatriation process run smoothly. Since the Dubai authority is strict about death cases in their country, it took three days for them to hand over her mortal remains. All this while, Adnan was constantly in touch with the Kapoor family, and helped them with all his contacts ensuring her body reaches her home as soon as possible.

Her cremation took place today and the entire nation mourned Sridevis untimely demise.While rinsing your fruits and vegetables under a running water may be a completely justified process to clean the dirt off your produce, the omnipresence of pesticides makes you wonder if you how much bacteria and pesticide are you actually consuming.

Even the Delhi High Court has directed the city government to inform citizens on short-term measures to minimise the presence of pesticides in fruits and vegetables before consumption.

radviliskisvsb.lt

Especially because "high levels of pesticide residues can be toxic enough to cause long-term cancer, damage to the nervous and reproductive systems, birth defects, and severe disruption of the immune system," states the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE).

The Delhi High court noted that "by one calculation, the entire population of Delhi was consuming food items with pesticide residue beyond permissible limits". Their report claimed pesticide components such as chlordane, endrin, heptachlor, ethyl and parathion are used in growing number of vegetables which have the potential to cause serious neurological problems, kidney damage, skin diseases, cancer and other diseases.

business-et-developpement-durable.com

The high court had earlier taken suo motu cognizance on an NGO report that said the amount of pesticides used by farmers in India was as much as 750 times higher than European standards.

Although their report stated that rinsing fruits and vegetables under clean drinking water and then using a cloth towel or paper towel to scrub and clean them was an effective way to minimise the pesticides levels, recent research has given us a better way to doing so.

The humble baking soda might be perfect solution revealed a study published in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry.

myfoodmyanmar.com

The study revealed that washing your apples in a solution of water and baking soda for anywhere between 12-15 minutes can remove pesticides, even the ones that had begun to seep beneath the fruits surface, by 80-90 percent.

"At home, the simplest way to wash is with tap water, but we also found that just tap water is not that effective. To reduce further pesticide exposure, we suggest adding a little baking soda," says study author Lili He, a food scientist at the University of Massachuesetts, Amherst, according to Global News.

"The fruit peel is what has the highest concentration of nutrients, but it's also what has the most pesticides," He says. "There's always two sides of the story."

reportshealthcare.com

Here's how to clean your produce using baking powder and water:

-Mix a few teaspoons of baking powder with a few cups of water.

-Even if you can't let is sit for 15 minutes let is sit for a few.

-Pat it dry with a clean cloth before consuming.Social media trends can be manipulated by carefully orchestrated strategies. Many including political parties with strong social media teams are known to indulge in such practices.

But a tweet from BJP MP and actor Paresh Rawal has once again put the focus back on such manufactured trends.

On Tuesday, Rawal accidently tweeted out a Google document that carried out instructions for BJP supporters to trend '#JhootiCongress' on Twitter.

BCCL/ File

It appears that the message was supposed to be sent as a direct message and not as a tweet.

Realising his mistake soon, the MP later deleted the tweet.

The document included draft tweets in both English and Hindi, meant to be used by supporters.

Some of them include:

"After enjoying decades in power, the Congress and Gandhi dynasty just cannot bear to be out of power. They will resort lies, slander and low level cunning to somehow capture power by hook or crook. Even national security is not a topic for them for remain circumspect about. They have spread lies on Doklam as well. Rahul Gandhi even got caught trying to meet the Chinese ambassador on the sly."

"This party will go to any level like spreading lies about FRDI Bill to scare people about banks, maliciously claiming they didnt meet Pakistanis during Gujarat elections while they did, and more. It is time to expose them. Let us trend #JhoothiCongress NOW and expose all their lies and remind them that the people are watching,

And immediately after Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad held a press conference the hashtag #JhoothiCongress began trending, with almost identical tweets.

Shri @rsprasad will hold a press conference today at 4 pm at BJP HQ to bust the lies and fear spread by Rahul Gandhi and Congress party. Stay tuned for LIVE updates. #JhoothiCongress  BJP (@BJP4India) February 27, 2018

Since Rawal's tweet went viral most of them have been deleted.Muzaffarpur shelter home case has sent shock waves across the country. People are enraged to see the treatment of minor girls who were sexually exploited for years, that too in a residential area. This has once again raised serious questions on the security of women in India. Incidents like these are reported regularly, but there has been no move from the government stop it. We wrote this article on the occasion of International Women's Day hoping that this year would be better for them. But nothing has changed, unfortunately.

Every year, March 8 is marked as 'International Women's Day'. It goes without saying that the occasion is about to observe and celebrate the existence of women and to make resolutions about setting them free of dated practices that are purely aimed at subjugation. It is a day when women (and men, who care) reminds that how unjust the system is for almost half the humanity because it is run violently by to the institutions built by the patriarchal understanding of the world. It happens every year, promises are made, people realise their mistakes, governments announce 'women-friendly' policies and people hope for change.

Another year has passed, but no substantial change has come to the lives of the women.

Women empowerment, self-dependence and whatnot, the fancy adjectives seldom do more than lending vocal support.

India is among the most hostile countries for women, where scores of women get raped, molested, eve-teased and even murdered every hour without troubling the conscience of over 1.3 billion people.

Women seek rehabilitation and help from the government and society to return to life with dignity.

But India fails its women here as well

It is saddening to know that despite an increasing number of sexual assaults, India has not been able to build enough rehabilitation centres over the years. India has a total of 559 rehabilitation centres and as per the data provided by the government in Parliament In January, 17,231 women in these centres. The number may look substantial on paper, but when analysed with the number of rape and crime against women, there appears an immediate need to build more such centres.

bccl/representational image

According to the National Crime Record B, the total number of rapes that took place in India in 2015 was 34,651 whereas, in 2016, these cases were increased to the total of 38,947. These are only the rape cases that get registered and its believed that even now, the majority of the cases dont get reported.

Sexual assaults also leave women in trauma

In 2015, India witnessed 82,422 cases of sexual assault and 8,685 cases where modesty of women was breached. Similarly, in 2016, 81,346 cases of assault were registered, whereas, 7,305 cases of modesty breach were recorded.

The states with better infrastructure for rehabilitation

Uttar Pradesh, however, always remains top in the list with states where crime against women is rampant. But here UP seems to be doing better than others. The state has 76 centres for the rehabilitation of the rape or assault victims and as per the data of the government, a total of 2,741 women are currently getting rehabilitated in these centres.

While even the rich states have failed women, a state as poor as Odisha is doing its bit for women. The state has 72 centres and currently, 2,160 women are trying to find their feet once again. The fourth state with the highest number of rehabilitation centres is Karnataka. The state has 61 operational centres where 1,830 women live. West Bengal comes fifth as the state has 48 centres with 1440 women staying in these centres.

The states that need to get out of slumber

According to NCRB record, Madhya Pradesh is the state where crime against women is the highest. As per the data, the state police registered 4,882 cases of rapes in the state in 2016 which are highest among the states in India. The numbers speak volumes of the requirement of rehabilitation centres. But, it's quite appalling that the state has only 6 centres to rehabilitate the rape and assault victims and as per the data, 180 victims are lodged in these centres currently.

Punjab and Haryana are among the state where the safety of women often becomes a joke. We get to read a lot about crime against women. But Haryana, which was in news for a spree of rapes in recent months only has one centre. Yes, just one. Punjab has only two.

Who stays in these centres?

These centres are built to make women feel safe from the outside world and get time to recover from the trauma of the rape and other atrocities they have been subjected to. In most of the cases, families of the victims support them, but there are cases where even families don't accept them and then they have nowhere to go. These centres are made to help these kinds of women till the time they recover from the trauma.

One rehabilitation centre can house up to 30 rape and assault victims.

Money sanctioned over the years

Though the sanctioned amount of the government has been increasing over the years, it's not enough if we compare it with the magnitude of the problem. For example, the government had sanctioned Rs 28. 5 crore in 2014-15 for these rehabilitation centres. This amount was increased to Rs 48.57 crore in 2015-16. In 2016-17, the amount allocated for these centres was Rs 83.7 crore and this financial year (till 30 January 2018), a total of Rs 52.7 crore was released.

Delhi has only two such centres

Delhi is considered to be the most unsafe place for women in India. The number of rapes and assaults taking place in Delhi validate people, particularly women's fear for the city. Delhi witnessed 2,199 and 2,155 cases of rapes in 2015 and 2016 respectively. But despite all this, Delhi has only two rehabilitation centres for rape and assault victims.

While the country's first priority should be to provide a crime-free environment to women where they feel safe, it's also the state's job to provide facilities to rehabilitate those women whom it failed to provide safety. We hope the government is listening.Karti Chidambaram, the son of former Finance Minister and Congress leader P Chidambaram, has been arrested in Chennai by the CBI in connection with a money laundering case, for not cooperating in the probe.

Karti was arrested at the Chennai Airport on his arrival from London.

BCCL/ File

He is accused of taking Rs 10 lakh bribe from INX Media, then owned by Peter Mukerjea and his wife Indurani to use his influence to manipulate a tax probe against the company in a case of violation of Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) conditions to receive investment from Mauritius.

BCCL/ File

The Enforcement Directorate had filed a case against Karti in May last year. The CBI has said that it also seized vouchers of Rs 10 lakh which were allegedly paid for the services.

A Delhi court on Monday had sent Karti Chidambaram's chartered accountant S Bhaskaran Raman to 14-day judicial custody.

Incidentally the arrest comes at a time when the Modi government is on the back foot over the banking scam involving Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi.

The Congress was quick to call the arrest politically motivated and aimed at diverting attention from the scams.

"Classic diversionary tactic of the Modi government to hide their own corrupt governance model that is being exposed on a daily basis-- be it Nirav Modi, Mehul Choksi, Dwarka Das Seth Jewellers. The BJP govt continues it's vendetta and vindictive politics to target opponents. however, it will not stop the Congress from bringing the truth out to the people," said the Congress.Far away from the galore of cameras, it was an Indian who helped Sridevis remains reach India from Dubai. Listed as Ashraf officially, Ashraf Sherry Thamarassery, an Indian from Kerala is ferryman of sorts for those who die in UAE. He has repatriated over 4,700 bodies to 38 countries across the world over the years. He works as a mechanic but does this for blessings. He believes in helping those who dont know the repatriation formalities.

AP

He views it as a noble cause to help the loved ones get remains of their family member.

For them, you or me, its all the same and everyone is equal. If someone dies in their room, they will take them to the hospital and then to be checked at the police mortuary, Thamarassery told AP in an interview late Tuesday night.

Its the same process, whether Dubai or Sharjah or any emirate. ... Whether youre poor or rich, it doesnt matter.

Sherry offered shrugs when talking about Sridevi, saying he helped repatriate five other bodies Tuesday including the famed Bollywood star. But its hard to overstate the power Sridevi had over the imagination of many in India.

The 54-year-old Sridevi, only known by one name, which means Goddess in Hindi, died Feb. 24 in Dubai while in the UAE for a wedding. Police and prosecutors say she drowned in a hotel bathtub after losing consciousness, calling her death accidental. Police officials also have said the actress had alcohol in her system at the time of her drowning.

While Indian officials quickly canceled her passport and prepared the other documents, Thamarassery said a needed police clearance slowed Sridevis repatriation. He received hundreds of calls from journalists, officials and others in the interim.

After getting the clearance, Ashraf travelled to the mortuary in a dusty neighborhood of squat mostly inhabited by South Asians. There, he completed the paper work for her and three others. After doing the formalities, Ashraf helped the remains of Sridevi board the ambulance which carried her to airport where a plane had come to transfer her remains to Mumbai where she was cremated today

GettyImages

By Tuesday night, Thamarassery returned home to the apartment he shares with his wife and daughter in Ajman, a small, dusty emirate in the UAE that serves as a bedroom community to skyscraper-studded Dubai some 35 kilometers (20 miles) to the southwest. There, Thamarassery runs a mechanics shop but focuses largely on his philanthropic efforts.

Shelf upon shelf in his home bears honors and awards. A framed picture hangs on the wall showing him meeting Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.Amid the tensions between the Hindu and Muslim community in the country, some people are actually looking out for ways to overcome this. Setting one such example of peace and harmony, Muslims in Lucknow have decided to shift their Friday namaz timings according to the Hindu's playing holi.

The executive committee member of the All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) and Imam of the Aishbagh Eidgah Maulana Rashid Farangi Mahali, along with Shia cleric Maulana Kalbe Jawad Naqvi, has decided to change the timings of Friday prayers citing Holi festivities.

afp

Muslim clerics have urged mosques in areas that have a diverse population to postpone their Friday prayers on March 2 taking into consideration the Hindu community's sentiments.

At one hand Khalid Rasheed Farangi Mahali has shifted the Friday Prayer timing from 12:45 pm to 1:45 pm for Sunnis, the Friday prayers at Asafi Mosque for the Shia community will be held at 1 pm instead of the regular 12:22 pm, said Imam-e-Jumah, Maulana Kalbe Jawad Naqvi.

Maulana Khalid Rasheed Faranagi Mahali told News 18 that the official permission to play colours on Friday is till 12 pm, but generally people play colours a little more than prescribed time. They thought it will be best if all mosques, especially those in mixed population areas, can shift their prayer timings on Friday by just half an hour, in order to avoid any kind of unwanted situation.

representational / bccl

With the festival of Holi falling on Friday, the police and administration are on their toes to keep the celebrations peaceful, especially in the areas which are prone to communal tensions. The Senior Superintendent of Police, Muzaffarnagar, Anant Deo has urged people to keep calm and to follow the path shown by Prophet Mohammad.Karti Chidambaram, the son of former Finance Minister and Congress leader P Chidambaram, has been arrested in Chennai by the CBI in connection with a money laundering case, for not cooperating in the probe.

Karti was arrested at the Chennai Airport on his arrival from London. Read more

Firestar Diamond, Company Owned By PNB Fraud Accused Nirav Modi, Files For Bankruptcy In US

Firestar Diamond, a company owned by Nirav Modi who is on the run from the Indian authorities over the PNB fraud case has filed for bankruptcy in a New York court.

Chapter 11 filing under the Bankruptcy code usually allows a company to reorganise its business, reported Reuters. Read more

IIT Bombay Will Now Teach Students How To Build Satellites

Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay had about a 15 months ago launched a microsatellite - made all by the students. While the satellite could not complete its mission goal, university and college students will now be able to learn how to design and build satellites from the IIT-B.

Pratham, a10kg microsatellite, was launched on board by Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle-C35 in September 2016, eight years after it was conceived. Read more

CBSE Makes Class X Exam Mandatory, Eases Passing Criteria To 33 Per Cent

The Central Board of Secondary Examination (CBSE) has made Class X exams mandatory for all students after a gap of seven years. The HRD Ministry had made it optional from the 2010-11 batch.

Keeping this change in mind the CBSE has also modified the passing criteria. Students appearing for the exam this year need not secure mandatory separate pass criteria in the subjects having internal assessment component of 20 marks and 80 marks of Board examination. Read more

After Questioning Darwin's Theory, Minister Now Claims Mantras Codified 'Law Of Motion' & Not Newton

'Science-skeptic' junior minister for education, Satyapal Singh is at it again. After claiming that Charles Darwin's theory of evolution was scientifically wrong as no one has seen ape turning into a man, the former IPS officer has now stated that mantras codified the laws of motion much before they were framed by Isaac Newton.

The minister made the comment in a meeting of the governments highest advisory body for policymaking in education, Hindustan Times quoting the minutes of the meeting held on January 15 and 16 reported. Read more

26-Year-Old Man In Delhi Hangs Himself, Live-Streams Suicide On Social Media, Rescued

The decision to live-stream his suicide attempt on social media ended up saving a youths life on Monday. A friend saw the live feed and contacted the youths brother, who, with the help of a neighbour rescued the 26-year-old just as he had hung himself at his house near Ashram in southeast Delhi.

DCP (southeast) Chinmoy Biswal said the youth was revived in hospital and was now out of danger. Read moreToday is a historic day for Indian scientific fraternity, one that even PM Modi's Mann Ki Baat noted: Only the second Indian to be knighted, Sir CV Raman will always be regarded as one of the world's greatest physicists, and discovering a rare property of light that had far-reaching impact across various scientific fields.

And it was all down to Sir CV Raman's utter fascination with how light behaved as it passed through different mediums.

CV Raman was born in Tiruchirapalli in Tamil Nadu in 1888. He was a bright student with a huge interest in science, especially in the field of sound and light. The vibrations of sound and light fascinated him and that's what he did his research on at the Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science. It wasn't long before Raman's work started getting published in famous journals and he became the toast of the Indian scientific community.

His seminal work on the Raman Effect only began when at the age of 27, he was offered professorship of physics at Calcutta University.

While returning from London to Bombay, in 1921, Sir CV Raman was fascinated with the deep blue color of the Mediterranean Sea. Unable to accept a British scientist Lord Rayleigh's theory that the sea just reflected the colour of the sky, Raman came up with a different theory as to why the water molecules also scattered light particles, and not just reflected them.

Twitter

Just a year or so later, Raman was able to conclusively prove that the colour of the sea was a certain type due to the scattering of sunlight by water molecules. This discovery shook the scientific world at the time.

The Raman Effect essentially was all about accurately predicting and measuring the change of wavelength of light particles as it scattered while travelling through a medium (water, glass, other liquids, etc.). Doing this wasn't easy at the time, as the Raman Effect is a very weak effect -- only one in a million of the scattered light particles, or photons, actually exhibits the change in wavelength which any observer is looking for. That's why no one could find it -- it was painstakingly difficult.

It took CV Raman and K.S. Krishnan, his partner in crime, to study light travelling through 60 different liquid types to conclusively say that the light that went into these liquids didn't come out exactly as its original form. There was some scattering of light particle every single time, which Raman called as "A New Type Of Secondary Radiation" in his report to Nature, which later on came to be referred as the Raman Effect.

Legacy of Raman Effect

Sir CV Raman was able to discover a whole new behaviour of light which great minds at the time thought didn't exist, and was therefore able to open a whole new world of scientific discovery and applications of the phenomenon of light.

Not just in the field of physics, whether it validated the quantum theory of particles, but also in chemistry with determining the nature of any particle through spectroscopic analysis, the Raman Effect played a crucial role in widening humanity's understanding of the behaviour of light.

No wonder India celebrates this day, when Sir CV Raman published his seminal Raman Effect theory, as National Science Day, in recognition of a true scientific genius and one of the most gifted minds of the 20th century.Protect wheat prices once inputs purchased Sidwell Strategies - Fri Sep 17, 11:07PM CDT Manage fertility and protect prices

Cigna  The Textbook Definition of Average The Smart Investor - Fri Sep 17, 7:35PM CDT At this point, we usually recommend the company for its dividend, However, the companys dividend has been notoriously inconsistent. It has a mountain of debt (a net debt position of more than $20 billion)...

Shootin' the Bull Swift Trading Company - Fri Sep 17, 4:48PM CDT In my opinion, there has been little to change this week in the cash markets, processing speeds of packers, cattle on feed, or consumer demand. Hence about the only thing to expect from this would be...

Corn Red Going into Weekend Barchart - Fri Sep 17, 4:42PM CDT After Friday trading wrapped up, front month corn futures settled a penny to 3 1/2 cents lower. December corn futures were 2 1/4 cents lower, limiting the weekly gain to 9 3/4 cents from Friday to Friday.... ZCZ21 : 527-2s (-0.42%) ZCPAUS.CM : 5.1278 (-0.56%) ZCH22 : 534-2s (-0.47%) ZCZ21 : 527-2s (-0.42%)Less than two months after his appointment (in September 2015), the global Zurich Insurance Group announced a thirdquarter drop in profit of 79%, with net income totalling US$207m, starkly contrasting with the US$966m figure recorded a year earlier. It was a decline largely attributed to problems within Zurichs global general insurance business.

Since then, Nanra has been firmly focused on executing a fresh strategy. As well as leading a restructure of the local general insurance operations, that strategy has seen the appointment of new executive leaders, as well as the $741m acquisition of travel insurance provider Cover-More.

Nanra reflects on the last two years  the good times and the bad.

I think probably the most difficult challenge was making the hard decisions about exiting certain lines of business, he tells Insurance Business. (Zurichs decision to exit the NSW CTP greenslip market made industry headlines when it was announced in December 2015.)

It was at a time when the market was softening quicker than we expected, and to take a bold stance to remove ourselves from quite a large amount of business, I think, was very challenging to try to communicate to the market and explain why we were doing it."

But there have also been some strong gains for the business, Nanra says.But there have also been some strong gains for the business, Nanra says.

While we made a lot of hard decisions and we had to rightsize the business, we had an opportunity to rebuild a lot of the senior management and executive team, he says. And I think the standout for me was being able to attract great talent. We employed a new CFO [Stuart Farquharson], a new chief claims officer [Hilary Bates], and a new chief distribution officer [Steve Ord], complementing the existing senior talent in the business.

Nanra also discusses the benefit of strategy.

I think setting a new five-year strategy was very helpful for us to go to the market and communicate what Zurich was all about but, more importantly, to internally explain to our staff  after the period of  stabilising the business  where we were going to take the business in the future.

Nanra is proud of what Zurich has offered the market in recent times in terms of flood coverage.

Our experience during [Hurricane] Debbie was extremely satisfactory to me, he says. Less than 1% of our claims  were disputed. [Were] now engaging even closer with the brokers to make sure that [we understand] how we can help, and assist and advise them with the customer [as] to what the most effective cover is.

The claims experience

Work done on the claims front is another source of pride for Nanra.

We did a lot of work around rebuilding the claims capability, he says. One of the standout achievements from bringing on Hilary Bates as the new CCO was improving our net promoter scores by 47% over a ninemonth period.

Nanra believes claims are often a forgotten component of the insurance process.

Its the last thing we do, in terms of the whole value chain, when we talk about the customer, and thats really what were here for  to pay claims, he says.

Hilary set about restructuring the team first, and making sure we had a very marketfacing and customer-centric team built. Once she put that team together, [she] then looked at the technology and how we could make it easier for brokers and customers to transact with us.

Last June, Zurich launched Z Track, its new claims tracking and reporting tool.

We work very closely with our brokers now about understanding the customers needs. Too often we dont listen to what the customer needs are and we try to tell them what we think they need

The biggest thing around claims is transparency; whether its commercial business, retail [or] corporate, people always want to know where we are up to in our claims. If [they] dont hear back within 24 hours, customers get very anxious, Nanra says.

Z Track allows the broker and the customer to actually see where their claim is up to, [including] the file notes surrounding those claims, and so it provides them with full transparency around  the process.

I think technology in claims is great, but providing a technology solution that provides further transparency for the customer is probably the number one priority for us. Its what weve done in 2017.

Last May, in a conversation with Reuters, Zurichs global chairman, Tom de Swaan, said the business had begun utilising artificial intelligence in its handling of personal injury claims.

De Swaan said Zurichs deployment of AI had, so far, saved 40,000 work hours and sped up claim processing time to five seconds, and that the group planned to expand its use of AI.

The group actually signed an agreement with a company called Expert System for cognitive computing solutions, Nanra says. For me, thats been a fantastic achievement to actually demonstrate Zurichs commitment to move into the next century around ease of process.

Obviously, were looking closely at that here in Australia. The benefit of being part of a global organisation is we will start to leverage off what theyre doing from a group perspective, and certainly thats something wed look to bring to Australia in the near future.

Broker business

When discussion focuses on Zurichs relationship with intermediaries, Nanra stresses that the companys commitment to brokers is core to its business.

Weve reiterated that over the last number of years, he says.

Nanra says Zurich is looking to strengthen its commitment to brokers through the introduction of a number of programs, including one specific initiative that takes the place of its recently retired Zenith program.

Weve launched a program called 1872, and thats really designed to ensure our commitment to our broker partners but also to make sure that we understood which of the brokers had the business that we saw was Zurichs strength, he says. As part of our transformation, we were very clear around our commitment to our broker partners but also to make sure that we understood which of the brokers had the business that we saw was Zurichs strength, he says.

As part of our transformation, we were very clear around our appetite, and by going to market and saying that were only going to play in certain areas and these are the strengths we saw in the market, weve used 1872 to really focus that go-to-market proposition so that brokers are very clear when we come to them; they know our appetite."

In November, Zurich launched its NextGen Leadership Academy, seeking to nurture the next generation of leaders among the insurers key broker partners. Participants undertake learning models and presentations on a range of subjects  including risk strategy, claims, building effective teams, and business decision-making  and the highlight of the program is an international experience.

Were talking to our broking partners  [about] some of their up-and-coming stars and giving them an opportunity to see Zurich on a global basis, with the opportunity to even go to Zurich and spend a few days meeting our senior executives. But also [theyre] getting to understand Zurich on a global platform and bringing that back to Australia to see where opportunities exist that they may see, from their perspective, that were not tapping into.

Last year, Zurich took the industry by surprise when it entered the travel insurance space by acquiring Cover-More.

It made the group one of the leading travel insurers globally, Nanra says.

It also provided Zurich an opportunity in Australia to look at a separate revenue stream, and it complements what we do in terms of our customer-centricity, but its unique enough that it doesnt disrupt our commitment to our brokers  The feedback we got from a number of brokers was, Its good to see Zurich expanding. But our commitment to them was never going to be any less than it was never going to be any less than it was before Cover-More.

Sticking to the strategy

When it comes to the insurers Australian focus over the next year, Nanra mentions growth.

The first part of [our strategy] took us from when I took over at the end of 2015 to the end of 2016 [and] was about stabilisation, he says. The second part of that strategy, which is really 2017/18, is around growth, but obviously profitable growth, and in the areas that we see are our distinct positions and in which the brokers also see us as a go-to-market in that particular line of business.

Nanra adds that his team is keen to undertake considerable further work around the customer.

We work very closely with our brokers now about understanding the customers needs. Too often we dont listen to what the customer needs are and we try to tell them what we think they need, he says.

We have a very clear strategy; were sticking to that strategy; were executing  We have a clear engagement process now set up with our key stakeholders  that is, the market, our customers and, more importantly, our staff. I think now all three understand where were heading, and therefore our decision-making process is a lot easier.

Nanra is excited about times to come.

Im looking forward to 2018. We are seeing the market start to harden, and I think Zurich is well set up to take advantage of the market as it starts to stabalise."Here are the numbers coming out of its earnings report:

Groups share of pre-tax profit  405.4 million (around AU$721.4 million), up 43%

Statutory profit before tax  403.4 million (around AU$718.1 million), up 45%

Turnover  2.96 billion, up 15%

Net revenue  1.1 billion, up 11%

Customer numbers  5.73 million, up 11%

Among the drivers of Admirals results was UK insurance, which generated higher profit. The provider said its insurance business  motor and household  in the UK posted strong turnover growth of 14% from 2016s 2.06 billion to 2.35 billion. Net revenue climbed 9% to 841 million while customer numbers grew 12% to reach 4.6 million.

Meanwhile international insurance businesses registered a combined turnover of 449.8 million (around AU$800 million), a 23% rise from 365.9 million. Customer numbers went up 20% to 1.03 million while net revenue saw a 35% increase to 144.8 million.

Its 25 years since the launch of Admiral, noted chief executive David Stevens. 2016 was only the second year wed ever reported a year-on-year fall in profits. So its great to be back in the groove, with a 23rd year of record profits.

As for Admirals price comparison businesses, the firm reported a combined profit of 7.1 million, excluding minority interests shares.

Full year dividend, at 114 pence, will be paid on June 01, 2018.

Related stories:However, Sturgeon gave insurers a reality check.

I know that many of you might perhaps agree with the notion that we should remain in the single market but consider that it is unrealistic, she noted. After all, the UK government keeps on saying that we will leave both the single market and the customs union.

Earlier in her speech the MSP for Glasgow Southside lamented: One of the real problems has been, and continues to be, that we are still not seeing an openness or frankness about the trade-offs that we face in negotiating a new relationship with the EU. The government is still trying to argue that its possible to enjoy everything, as Boris Johnston styles it, to have our cake and eat it so we are still treated to the fallacy that we can have significant regulatory freedom, while also enjoying all the benefits of the single market and the customs union, we can gain the ability to make new trade deals while also retaining an open border with Ireland.

I dont think those positions bear scrutiny of reality. Nothing we have heard from the European Commission suggests the UK governments approach right now is a feasible one.

The Scottish official went on to say that reality is bound to bite hard as the UK goes further into the negotiations. It will be recalled that, in the 2016 referendum, Scotland voted to remain (62%).

I think it is possible that a softer, common sense Brexit can command majority support  both in the House of Commons, and indeed across the country as a whole, she said. That form of Brexit would avoid many of the difficulties that we may otherwise spend many years wrestling with, when we should instead be focussed on the economy.

Sturgeon believes now is the time to intensify rather than abandon the case for a softer, more common sense Brexit. That stance, in my view, is economically desirable but it is also democratically justifiable and I believe it is politically achievable, she said.

PRA not going soft in terms of regulation

Areas also delved into during the ABI conference include the issue of Solvency II and insurance regulation. Another keynote speaker, in the person of Bank of England deputy governor for prudential regulation and PRA chief executive Sam Woods, issued a fair warning to companies.

Let me be clear: we are not going to go soft, he said. We can tell the difference between feedback about a genuine technical flaw and generalised lobbying for lighter-touch regulation. And we will continue with our forward-looking, judgement-based approach to supervision  which will inevitably mean that conflicts with firms sometimes arise.

This is inherent in a system in which a regulator is charged with pursuing the public interest through the activities of privately-owned firms.

Talking about Solvency II, Woods cited no convincing evidence that the framework has driven up prices for UK insurance policyholders. He, however, offered assurances to make the directives implementation work better.



Related stories:Boston Mutual Life Insurance Company has announced it is giving recognition to several employees for their long-term service to the company.

At Boston Mutual, we invest in our employees specialties and careers because we are a company driven by our collective efforts, said Paul A. Quaranto Jr., chairman, president and CEO of Boston Mutual. This collaborative philosophy and culture weve created is what drives our employees strong dedication to the company, propels our success, and attracts new talent year after year.Radian Group Inc., a Philadelphia, Penn.-headquartered provider of private mortgage insurance, risk management products and real estate services to financial institutions, has announced two executive appointments.

Derek Brummer has been promoted to the newly created position of senior executive vice president of Mortgage Insurance and Risk Services, and Eric R. Ray has been appointed as senior executive vice president of Technology and Transaction Services.

In his new role, Brummer will continue to be responsible for credit risk management strategy and policy while also leading Radians Mortgage Insurance and Risk Services business and the team responsible for all mortgage insurance, credit risk products and operations. His primary focus will be to grow the value of Radians mortgage insurance portfolio and to expand and evolve the companys credit risk products and services.

Brummer joined Radian in 2002 and has served as Radians chief risk officer since 2013. Prior to that, he was chief risk officer and general counsel for Radians financial guaranty company. Prior to joining Radian, Brummer was a corporate associate at Allen & Overy as well as Cravath, Swaine & Moore, both in New York.

In Rays newly created role, he will drive the strategic transformation of Radians Mortgage and Real Estate Services businesses while providing the overall vision, strategy and leadership for Radians information technology functions enterprise-wide.

Ray has more than 30 years of experience in the technology sector. Most recently, he served as general manager of Global Technology Services at IBM Corporation, where he was responsible for the IBM North American technology consulting business, project-based services and enterprise-wide technology offerings.

Radian offers products and services for its Mortgage Insurance business segment through its principal mortgage insurance subsidiary Radian Guaranty Inc. This private mortgage insurance helps protect lenders from default-related losses, facilitates the sale of low-down payment mortgages in the secondary market and enables homebuyers to purchase homes more quickly with down payments of less than 20%.

Radians Mortgage and Real Estate Services business segment is offered through its principal services subsidiary Clayton, as well as Green River Capital, Red Bell Real Estate and ValuAmerica. These solutions include information and services that financial institutions, investors and government entities use to evaluate, acquire, securitize, service and monitor loans and asset-backed securities.

Source: Radian Group Inc.

Topics Tech PennsylvaniaThe European Union presented the U.K. with a draft divorce deal that Theresa May said no British prime minister could ever accept. The pound fell.

Brexit talks once again look to be stuck around the intractable issue of the Irish border  an obstacle that was papered over in December with a temporary fix but now has the potential to derail the whole process. The U.K. is due to leave in just over a year and if no deal is reached then a chaotic exit will ensue.

The EU presented a draft exit treaty that set out in great detail a so-called fallback option to avoid a hard border emerging on the island of Ireland after Brexit. If a future trade deal between the EU and U.K. isnt comprehensive enough to avoid a hard border on Ireland then Northern Ireland will remain aligned with the Republic of Ireland. That would mean a border between the province and the rest of the U.K.

The EU doesnt expect a trade deal to be completed by the time the U.K. leaves the bloc next year. So when the U.K. leaves, and is seeking to clinch a trade deal with the EU, it will be negotiating in the knowledge that failure to get a good deal will mean Northern Ireland is cut off.

No U.K. prime minister could ever agree to it, May said in parliament, adding that she plans to make that crystal clear to the EU.

Its also unacceptable to the Northern Irish lawmakers who prop up Theresa Mays government, and to plenty of Britons of all parties.

May is fighting Brussels as her ability to negotiate is curbed by her wafer slim parliamentary majority at home. She faces rebels on each end of the Brexit spectrum. Rebels who want her to keep closer EU ties are gaining in strength, and are backing an amendment that has enough support to defeat her.

They might be encouraged by the words of chief EU negotiator Michel Barnier, who said on Wednesday that staying in a customs union  as the pro-EU rebels and opposition Labour party want  would go a long way to solving the problem of the Irish border.

May is set to make a landmark Brexit speech on Friday that will set out what she wants from the future relationship. The EU has branded what it has seen so far of the U.K. plans as based on illusion. Irish Foreign Minister Simon Coveney warned that even a free trade agreement might not be enough to avoid a border, and said staying in the customs union and single market  options May has ruled out  would be a solution.

According to the legal proposal in the draft treaty, Northern Ireland will form a common regulatory area with the Republic of Ireland and will have to follow the EUs rules and rates on customs, sales tax, state aid, excise duties and even sanitary and phytosanitary rules. U.K. officials working at the Nortern Irish customs will have to follow EU rules.

The bloc resisted British efforts to insert an explicit commitment that Northern Ireland will be treated the same as the rest of the U.K. into the Brexit treaty. May made that promise in December to placate the Northern Irish lawmakers, and its exclusion adds to their ire.

Related:

Avoiding Post-Brexit Chaos in Insurance Market Is Top Concern of Bank of England

Copyright 2021 Bloomberg.

Topics Legislation Europe Uk BrexitAustralia has ordered the recall of 2.3 million vehicles fitted with Takata Corp air bags that have been linked to deaths worldwide, in the countrys biggest compulsory product recall.

The manufacturers of the vehicles will have to pay for the replacement air bags, that have been linked to at least 18 deaths and 180 injuries globally because the inflators can rupture and shoot metal fragments into vehicles.

The air bags must be replaced by Dec. 31, 2020 or the manufacturers will face fines of A$1.1 million ($857,000) per breach of the order, said Michael Sukkar, assistant minister to the treasurer.

Tragically theres been one death and one case of serious injury in Australia as a result of the deployment of these air bags, and the government just doesnt want to see any more, Sukkar told reporters in Canberra, Australias capital.

Affected vehicles include those made by Toyota, Mazda, Ford, Volkswagen, Honda , BMW, Mitsubishi, Nissan and Subaru.

Last week, Takata Corps U.S. unit agreed to settle a probe by 44 state attorneys general into accusations it concealed a deadly safety defect with air bag inflators.

In the biggest bankruptcy of a Japanese manufacturer, Takata sought court protection from creditors in June as costs and liabilities mounted from almost a decade of recalls and lawsuits.

Australias compulsory recall follows last years government-ordered voluntary recall, which Sukkar said had been insufficient, with less than half of drivers complying with the request.

($1 = 1.2840 Australian dollars) (Reporting by Wayne Cole and Colin Packham in Sydney; editing by Richard Pullin)

Related:

Topics AustraliaA Chicago City Council committee has recommended paying a total of $20 million to families of two men who were killed when a drunken off-duty police detective slammed into their car nine years ago.

The committee backed the settlement after hearing that jurors would likely order the city to pay far more if they ever were presented evidence that the departments alleged code of silence emboldened Joseph Frugoli to climb behind the wheel of his SUV. Aldermen seemed to grow angrier by the minute as they learned about the Frugolis history, including how officers didnt administer sobriety tests after two car accidents and even gave him a ride home after one of them.

We wonder why the public loses trust in their police department, said Alderman Tom Tunney, who, like other aldermen, has seen the council approve numerous settlement of cases involving police misconduct. In all, such cases have cost the city at least $700 million in little more than a decade.

The full council is expected to sign off on the settlement when it meets today.

Some aldermen wondered why the city should have to pay millions of dollars to settle a lawsuit for a disgraced officer who wasnt on duty at the time of the crash. Frugoli was convicted of aggravated driving under the influence and fleeing the scene of the accident was sentenced in 2012 to eight years in prison.

But Jane Elinor Notz, a lawyer for the city, explained that the courts have ruled against the city on that issue in the past and that they didnt want jurors to hear how Frugolis history may have emboldened him to drive drunk on the night of the 2009 crash that killed Fausto Manzera and Andrew Cazares, when the detectives blood alcohol content was more than four times the legal limit.

Nor did alderman want to risk a much larger award from jurors who would certainly listen to a voicemail one of the victims left as he and his friend sat trapped in their car as the fire that killed them was just starting. When the civil trial in the case ended abruptly in December with an announcement that the two sides had reached a settlement, Notz told the committee that hearing the voicemail had left some jurors weeping.

That trial brought by the families of Manzera, 21, and Cazares, 23, ended shortly after the citys attorneys admitted that theyd failed to disclose that Frugoli had been involved in a barroom brawl years before the 2009 crash and only received a five-day suspension. That admission seriously damaged the attorneys denial that there was a police code of silence, particularly since the judge said she would tell jurors that they could infer that the city intentionally withheld that information.

Copyright 2021 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Topics Law EnforcementGov. Scott Walker has signed into law a $200 million measure designed to stabilize the health insurance market under the Affordable Care Act in Wisconsin, after authorizing fellow Republican Attorney General Brad Schimel to take lead on a new multi-state lawsuit to block the federal law.

Walker signed the reinsurance bill less than 24 hours after Schimel joined with 19 other states in filing a federal lawsuit in Texas. The lawsuit, which Schimel led along with Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, argues that the individual mandate is unconstitutional and that the entire law should be blocked.

Walker, a longtime critic of the law known as Obamacare, signed off on Schimel pursuing the lawsuit because it questions the constitutionality of the law, said his spokeswoman Amy Hasenberg. Passage of the reinsurance bill will help put protections in place to ensure coverage for people even if the law is eliminated, she said.

Walker has argued for years that Obamacare should be repealed and replaced. But this year, as he faces re-election in November, Walker has pushed the reinsurance proposal as a way to stabilize the market and lower premium costs for the states roughly 200,000 people who purchase insurance under the law.

Wisconsin Democratic Party chairwoman Martha Laning called the bill an election-year attempt to disguise how damaging years of fighting the Affordable Care Act have been.

Walker signed the bill before touring hospitals in Tomah and Green Bay. He called the proposal a solution to Washingtons failures that will provide both stability to the health care market and lower premiums.

The bill passed with bipartisan support in the Legislature. It would authorize the state to seek a federal waiver to offer a reinsurance program where the government would provide money to health insurance providers to pay for between 50 percent and 80 percent of medical claims costing between $50,000 and $200,000.

If approved by President Donald Trumps administration, Wisconsin would join Minnesota, Oregon and Alaska with a reinsurance program. There was also a reinsurance program under the federal law for its first three years.

Rates are at least 20 percent lower this year in Alaska and Minnesota, and about 7 percent less in Oregon, insurance executives told Wisconsin lawmakers during consideration of the bill.

Horizon Government Affairs estimated that rates in Wisconsin would drop 13 percent in 2019 and 12 percent in 2020 if the program were put in place.

Walker estimated his plan would cost $200 million, with the state picking up between $50 million and $80 million and the federal government paying the rest. The bill Walker was to sign does not specify where the states share would come from.

Democrats have repeatedly called on Walker to accept federal money to expand Medicaid coverage offered under the law, but Walker has refused.

In the new lawsuit, Schimel and the other states argue that changes made to the federal health care law by Congress have made it unconstitutional.

Obamacares irrational design wreaks havoc on health insurance markets, Schimel said in a statement. Obamacare causes premiums to rise and coverage to fall, forcing Wisconsin and other states to take extreme, costly measures to protect their citizens health and pocketbooks.

The lawsuit argues that because the tax on those who dont purchase health insurance was removed from the law last year by the Republican-controlled Congress and President Donald Trump, the remaining individual mandate requirement, and therefore the entire law, is unconstitutional.

Related:

Copyright 2021 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Topics Lawsuits Reinsurance WisconsinA federal judge denied Wells Fargo & Co.s request to dismiss a shareholder lawsuit triggered by the banks plummeting stock price after it admitted in 2016 to creating millions of fake accounts, starting the worst financial scandal in its modern history.

U.S. District Judge Jon Tigar in San Francisco ruled Tuesday that shareholders can proceed with most claims in a suit alleging the company and its current and former leaders misled shareholders about its opening of unauthorized accounts. Investors blame the company for the stocks 9 percent drop after details of the scandal became public in September 2016.

Former Chief Executive Officer John Stumpf will continue to face claims of insider trading. Tigar dismissed insider-trading claims against four other executives. Among them is Carrie Tolstedt, who ran the division where the accounts were created. Claims against her may be amended and refiled as additional allegations against Wells Fargo and its leadership, including Securities Exchange Act violations, may continue.

Stumpf concealed the fact that the company had made substantial findings of the unlawful activity and actual fraud in its community banking segment as part of its investigation, which not only exposed millions of customers to unlawful fees and potential identity theft, but put the company in the cross-hairs of federal investigations, shareholder Gary Hefler alleged in the complaint.

Cross-Selling

Central to the dispute is Wells Fargos practice of cross-selling, or using the sale of one product to push others. Millions of those additional accounts were created without consumer approval, then reported to shareholders in artificially inflated quarterly reports, according to the complaint. The bank and its executives statements about the success of Wells Fargos cross-selling and its commitment to providing value for customers were both material and false or misleading, Tigar wrote in the ruling.

We disagree with the allegations in the complaint, Ancel Martinez, a spokesman for the bank, said in an emailed statement. We continue to take decisive steps to rebuild the trust of our customers, team members, community partners and shareholders and are focused on building a better Wells Fargo.

The investor who sued seeks class-action status on behalf of all shareholders from Feb. 26, 2014, to Sept. 15, 2016.

Tigar linked the order to a similar derivative action in his court against Wells Fargo, in which he also ruled that shareholders may proceed with a suit alleging the companys top brass repeatedly and brazenly failed to serve their best interests. That complaint properly laid out evidence showing executives and directors made false statements about the scheme in the banks filings to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

The shareholder case is Hefler v. Wells Fargo & Co., 3:16-cv-05479, U.S. District Court, Northern District of California (San Francisco).

Related:

Copyright 2021 Bloomberg.

Topics Lawsuits USA LegislationPublic school officials in suburban Oklahoma City have approved a private financial settlement with a food distribution company accused of fraudulently overcharging the district by more than $700,000.

Terms of the settlement between Yukon Public Schools and the food distributor, Sysco Oklahoma, werent revealed in the federal court lawsuit, The Oklahoman reported.

Attorneys said a nondisclosure agreement approved by the school district and the food distributor prohibits them from discussing that information.

The newspaper has submitted an open records request to the school district for a copy of the settlement check. The district hasnt yet fulfilled the request.

Allegations of overcharges by Sysco were first brought to the attention of school administrators more than four years ago by Cost Defender, a company that audits and identifies overbillings on a contingency fee basis, court documents show.

The settlement resolves the lawsuit filed in September 2016 that accused Sysco Oklahoma of defrauding the district by overbilling for grocery products. School officials alleged that overcharges went undetected from 2008 through 2012.

Despite agreeing to the settlement, Sysco Oklahoma denies wrongdoing.

Recently, Sysco decided solely for business reasons to settle ongoing litigation with the Yukon School District, said Camilla Zuckero, company communications director. Sysco made this decision to avoid costly and prolonged litigation. Sysco took the allegations and claims being made very seriously, and we dispute them in their entirety.

Sysco Oklahoma is a regional branch of Sysco, a multinational food distribution company that earns $55.4 billion in annual sales.

Copyright 2021 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Topics Lawsuits Fraud Oklahoma EducationA company that rates many Florida property/casualty insurers believes hurricane losses and assignment of benefits litigation during 2017 could affect some insurers financial ratings.

Ratings company Demotech says it will wait until it has analyzed year-end financial information, revised business plans and operating agreements for 2018 for more than a dozen Florida property insurers before deciding whether to affirm or downgrade their financial stability ratings (FSRs).

The Ohio-based company that rates more than 50 Florida insurers expects, however, that the combination of 2017 catastrophe losses and assignment of benefits litigation, as well as other recent changes with the potential to impact insurers, could lead to ratings downgrades for several companies.

In a FSR update released Feb. 9, Demotech affirmed the A ratings of more than 35 Florida domestic insurers and kept the A ratings of 16 others in place but did not affirm them (see charts).

Demotech said the 35 affirmed companies had submitted the necessary financial information, including anticipated year-end financial results, and made other relevant information available to Demotech for it to confidently affirm their FSRs. The 35 affirmed insurers had also been subject to ongoing review and analysis by Demotech, the company said.

For the remaining 16, Demotech has indicated it will wait until after it receives their March 1 year-end filings to evaluate their FSR and potentially issue downgrades.

Demotech President Joseph Petrelli told Insurance Journal the ratings company has agreed it will not make any ratings decisions on these 16 Florida insurers, which currently have A ratings, until it has reviewed each companys finalized year-end 2017 financial statements, revised business plans and operating agreements for 2018.

The companies that have not yet been affirmed have told us that their year-end statement will look a certain way, but they are concurrently doing things to make changes to their business model or improve their financials, Petrelli said.

Bob Warren, client services manager for Demotech, said the firm will take a complete look at the impact of the recent tax law changes, risk-based capital (RBC) requirements from the National Association of Insurance Commissioners on each individual company, and each companys business plan revisions and operating agreements to improve their financial status going forward.

It doesnt mean that the other companies that we did not affirm were not giving us this info or they were ignoring us  we have had ongoing conversations with these companies and were getting their projections for year-end, Warren said. We just werent certain what it would look like and are waiting to see what the filings are on March 1.

Petrelli said Demotech does expect some of the 16 companies could be downgraded if they are not taking actions to mitigate current issues impacting Florida insurers. The most significant of those issues right now is AOB litigation and the effect it is having on insurer reserves and loss ratios.

They have made commitments to us about what they are going to do  including cash infusions, changing of their business model or extra reinsurance  to maintain their rating, Petrelli said.

Petrelli said some of the 16 companies are more at risk than others and need to do more to avoid a ratings downgrade, but he noted Demotech expects all 16 will make some changes in an attempt to maintain their current A rating.

There is a big difference between a company being financially stable and a company having an A rating. These sweet 16 need to do something to show us that their assertions [to us] have been met. As long as they do that they will be fine, Petrelli said. If they havent shown us their assertions  or proof of assertions  there could be revisions.

Last year, Demotech suspended its Florida insurer rating criteria because of what it called an uncertain operating environment, referring to AOB-related losses and recent court decisions. It said at the time it would begin rating Florida companies on an individual basis.

Warren said Demotech closely monitored each Florida insurer throughout 2017, and while Hurricane Irma did bring significant losses to the insurance industry it was primarily a reinsurance event so there werent any big surprises for companies financially.

When it comes to AOB, Warren said Demotech is concerned that some individual insurers still look at it as a regional problem and may not be reserving appropriately or getting adequate rate to manage losses.

Petrelli said insurers with that mentality could have problems down the road.

If someone is telling us they think they are immune to AOB and it is not influencing them, we want to see evidence of that because we think it is a statewide issue and statewide problem, he said.

He also noted that at this point, any AOB fix that comes from the Florida Legislature will not be enough to convince Demotech that it will no longer be an issue for insurers given how active the Florida judiciary has been at overturning other legislative decisions.

We dont think [a legislative solution] counts until the Supreme Court affirms it  it will be challenged immediately, he said. We will make no mitigating decisions on the impact of AOB until such time the Florida judiciary affirms the law.

For the most part, however, Demotech says Florida insurers have been taking action with policy endorsements, inserting rules in their claims procedures, not appointing agents in territories they do not want to do business in, and also raising rates.

This has helped most of the companies it rates to remain solid.

Despite the damage inflicted by Mother Nature and the Florida judiciary, the overall financial stability of Florida-focused property insurers reviewed and rated by Demotech remains intact, Demotech said.

Related:

Topics Carriers FloridaTen doctors have been charged with overprescribing pain pills from clinics in West Virginia and Virginia, federal prosecutors announced Feb. 20. Two of those patients died.

Most of the 69-count indictment charges the owners, managers and physicians associated with Hope Clinic with conspiracy to distribute oxycodone and other controlled substances that werent for legitimate medical purposes from 2010 to 2015. Hope Clinic had offices in Beckley, Beaver, and Charleston, West Virginia, and Wytheville, Virginia.

The indictment said the defendants allegedly laundered drug proceeds by paying bonuses to physicians and employees of a patient screening firm to encourage prescribing opioids. It said the owners knew customers were drug addicts, adding some customers were prescribed more than 2,000 prescription pills over a one-year period.

Home-grown drug dealers hidden behind the veil of a doctors lab coat, a medical degree and a prescription pad, are every bit as bad as the heroin dealers that flood into West Virginia, U.S. Attorney Michael Stuart said at a news conference. Were not going to tolerate it.

One of the physicians, Sanjay Mehta, was charged with distributing a controlled substance that caused the deaths of two patients in 2013. And in a related case, another physician was charged with conspiracy to commit money laundering in a federal information document, which signals a defendant is cooperating.

Owner Dr. James H. Blume Jr. and manager Mark T. Radcliffe face additional charges of maintaining a drug-involved premises. The indictment said they operated a cash-based clinic, refused to accept insurance, charged in-state customers at least $275 for an initial appointment and at least $160 for each subsequent appointment.

It said patients were not required to have a physicians referral and that the clinic hired medical professionals with no background or special training in pain management.

Thirteen people were charged overall. The charges for the various defendants carry maximum penalties ranging from 20 to 340 years upon conviction.

Mehta and Radcliffe didnt immediately return telephone messages seeking comment Tuesday night. A telephone listing for Blume could not be located.

The indictment said the owners used former narcotics officers to screen patients. In 2014, a clinic representative testified before state lawmakers about the screening practice, and some lawmakers were concerned that employees should not replace doctors for reviewing and monitoring patients prescriptions.

The indictment is the result of a four-year investigation by nearly a dozen federal, state and local agencies.

Copyright 2021 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Topics Abuse Molestation Virginia DrugsLying about your weight on an online dating site? Checking out who won the Falcons game from your work computer? Using your computer hacking knowledge as an ethical hacker? Those actions may become illegal if a Georgia bill gets voted into law, civil liberty advocates say.

Supporters of a bill making its way through the state legislature say its designed to give law enforcement the ability to prosecute online snoopers  hackers who break into a computer system but dont disrupt or steal data. The legislation came in response to a recent data breach at a Georgia university in which unauthorized cybersecurity experts noticed the vulnerability of Georgias voting records.

But opponents say the legislation is so sweeping it could allow prosecutors to go after people who violate their user agreements or use a work computer for personal reasons. They also argue the bill will criminalize the gray hats of the cybersecurity world who use their hacking talents to find network weaknesses so they can be fixed, even if they never received permission to probe.

This bill is not intended in any way, shape or form to criminalize legitimate behavior, said Republican Attorney General Chris Carr, whose office helped craft the measure.

Carr said only three states  Georgia, Virginia and Alaska  have no law against online snooping, in which a hacker neither disrupts nor steals data. To remedy this, the measure criminalizes any person who accesses a computer or computer network with knowledge that such access is without authority. The bill does not apply to parents who monitor their childrens computer use, as well as those who are conducting legitimate business.

The bill is specifically meant to stop criminal hacking, Carr said. Lawmakers backing the bill, which passed the Senate on Feb. 12, point to the acts of two unauthorized cybersecurity experts who in 2016 and 2017 discovered that a server at Kennesaw State University had left Georgias 6.7 million voter records dangerously exposed. The men reported the vulnerabilities, but Carr said they should never have been snooping in the first place.

If the research is legitimate, why should you not require someone to get permission on the front-end? Carr said, arguing that its hard to know what a snoopers intentions are.

Carr said the bill was drafted with the help of business groups and after conversations with the University System of Georgia, which has not taken a position on it. Carr said he is open for more input, especially from academics concerned it could hurt their ability to conduct research.

Andy Green is an information security lecturer at KSU. Green said that by alerting people at KSUs Center for Election Systems, the men prevented the data from falling into the wrong hands. Criminalizing such acts will only deter ethical hackers and not stop malicious ones, Green argued.

Independent security research is the backbone of efforts to protect consumers data, said Camille Fischer, a fellow at Electronic Frontier Foundation, an international digital rights nonprofit advocacy group opposing the measure. Software vulnerability experts can be too expensive for some businesses, so the work of unauthorized researchers  who may be trying to raise their professional profile  is vital for the ecosystem to survive, she said.

But the measures lead sponsor, Sen. Bruce Thompson, R-White, said some hackers have unethical or illegal intentions.

When you go out and discover that theres a problem, but you arent going to freely give it  youre going to make a business of it  thats extortion, Thompson said.

Fischer said many other states have anti-snooping laws that are modeled after the federal Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, which can be more narrowly worded by focusing on what cybersecurity experts do with the unauthorized access or what their intent was.

Other opponents said the bill is worded in such a way that any time a user violates a websites terms-of-service agreement or an employers web-use guidelines, the user could be prosecuted.

We should not be giving businesses the authority to determine what is criminal and what is not, Sen. Jen Jordan, D-Atlanta, told The Associated Press in an interview. She says the bill should only apply to those who act maliciously.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Georgia has called the proposal draconian and unnecessary.

Something as simple as fudging your age on social media could land you in jail, said Sean J. Young, Legal Director for the ACLU of Georgia.

Jessica Gabel Cino, a professor at the Georgia State University College of Law, said user-agreement violations, technically speaking, would go against the letter of the law. But she doubted anyone would ever actually be charged for such innocuous acts, something Carr also called absurd.

Our district attorneys with their limited time and resources are not going to spend any time trying to prosecute a roommate using the Netflix password, Carr said.

Copyright 2021 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Topics Cyber Legislation Fraud GeorgiaOfficials in a Northern California county were ill-prepared, disorganized and lacked sufficient training when deadly, fast-moving wildfires broke out last October endangering about 100,000 people, according to a report from California emergency managers.

Sonoma County officials requested the state review after their response time was criticized. The unprecedented wildfires sparked in the early morning and eventually killed 44 people in several counties north of San Francisco and destroyed 8,900 buildings. Many residents reported finding out about the fires from neighbors or relatives, rather than official alerts.

The report, which was released Monday by Californias Office of Emergency Services, concludes that multiple alert systems in Sonoma County, overlapping responsibilities and a failure to map out roles in an emergency appear to have resulted in duplication, inconsistency and some confusion in messages transmitted to the public.

Counties were operating separately as different employees struggled to cope with hundreds of incoming reports of fires and smoke at numerous locations, leaving them unsure of who was in charge of what, OES investigators found. Two jobs related to sending evacuation and fire warnings even had similar titles: alert originator and alert operator.

Checklists or detailed procedures for deciding what warnings to issue, when, and in what form appeared to be almost entirely absent, except for a widely shared understanding that the basic required criterion was `imminent threat to life, health or property, the report said.

Documents released by the county show it targeted more than 55,000 telephone numbers over SoCoAlert  reaching about half of them  and the county also sent more than 6,000 text and email messages on that system. The county sent another 38,000 messages through its voluntary Nixle cellphone text alert system, which only went to residents who signed up in advance.

While some had been trained on the overlapping warning systems, they had no prepared alerts for fire emergencies, the report said. Instead, all the alerts were focused on flood emergencies or evacuations, leaving officials to figure out how to write the alerts on the fly as they simultaneously worried about traffic congestion and feared unnecessarily panicking people.

The countys failure to clearly define roles in such a rapidly developing situation left a number of individuals in the position of assuming responsibility for framing evacuation messages without adequate training, information, or in coordination with other elements of government.

The Press Democrat of Santa Rosa reported last week that former Emergency Services Manager Christopher Helgren had been reassigned to a new job. The newspaper said Helgren was chiefly responsible for a decision about a year before the fires that ruled out sending mass wireless alerts to cellphones to warn residents of an emergency, leading the county to instead send the messages only to those who had opted in.

The report makes 11 recommendations, starting with creating an updated emergency plan that addresses how each of the warning systems should be used in an emergency. It also says many employees need much more training.

James Gore, chairman of the Sonoma County Board of Supervisors, said officials have learned valuable lessons that they are working to implement before the next fire season, including sending alerts much sooner, preparing residents ahead of time to be ready to go, and recognizing that people now get their information from a wide variety of outlets very quickly.

If theres a catastrophic event, we need to not be afraid to wake up the world, Gore said. We cannot wait another year to learn this lesson. We have to prepare for this year.  To me this means we have five to six months to get our act together for the next fire season.

Associated Press writer Jocelyn Gecker also contributed to this report.

Related:

Topics California Wildfire Training DevelopmentThe 4 largest mutual fund holders of Verizon Communications (Reported as of Q1 2021) Holder Shares % Out $ Value Vanguard Total Stock Market Index Fund 116,626,489 2.82% 6,851,806,228 Vanguard 500 Index Fund 82,917,988 2.00% 4,871,431,795 SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust 42,930,470 1.04% 2,496,406,830 Fidelity 500 Index Fund 37,473,881 0.91% 2,072,305,619

Source: Yahoo! Finance

1. The Vanguard Total Stock Market Index Fund (VTSAX)

The largest mutual fund holder, the Vanguard Total Stock Market Fund (VTSAX), owns 116.6 million shares of Verizon, or 2.82% of the company, as of Q1, 2021. VTSAX was created in 1992 and is designed to give broad exposure to the total U.S. stock market by including small-, mid-, and large-cap growth and value stocks.

Verizon shares represent 0.56% of the Vanguard Total Stock Market's $240.5 billion portfolio. The fund has a 0.04% expense ratio and requires a minimum investment of $3,000.

2. The Vanguard 500 Index Fund (VFIAX)

The Vanguard 500 Index Fund (VFIAX) is the second-largest mutual fund holder and owns 82.9 million shares of Verizon, or 2% of the company as of the first quarter of 2021. VFIAX was the industry's first index fund for individual investors. Over 98% of its assets are invested in U.S. stocks covering a diversified spectrum of the largest U.S. companies, mirroring the S&P 500.

Verizon shares represent less than 1% of Vanguard 500's $220.4 billion portfolio. The fund has a 0.04% expense ratio and requires a minimum investment of $3,000.

3. The SPDR S&P 500 ETF (SPY)

The SPDR S&P 500 ETF (SPY) is Verizon's third-largest mutual fund holder with 42.9 million shares, or 1.04% of the company as of Q1 2021. The first and most popular ETF in America, SPY is one of the most heavily traded ETFs on the AMEX, selling as high as over 400 million shares in a day. This mutual fund mirrors the total return of the S&P 500, which tracks 500 of the largest companies in the US as according to the Standard and Poor's index.

Verizon shares represent 0.66% of SPDR S&P 500's $360 billion portfolio.

4. The Fidelity 500 Index (FXAIX)

The Fidelity 500 Index Index Fund (FXAIX) is one of the lowest-cost ways to access diversified exposure to the broader U.S. stock market. The fund is made up of the 500 largest American companies, which make up about 75% of the total U.S. equity market.

As of Q1 2021, the fund holds 37.5 million shares of Verizon, or roughly 0.90% of the company. This accounts for 0.87% of the fund's portfolio. FXAIX has total assets of $308 billion and an expense ratio of just 0.015%.What Is Disgorgement?

Disgorgement is the legally mandated repayment of ill-gotten gains imposed on wrongdoers by the courts. Funds that were received through illegal or unethical business transactions are disgorged, or paid back, often with interest and/or penalties to those affected by the action.

Disgorgement is a remedial civil action, rather than punitive civil action. That means it seeks to make those harmed whole rather than to excessively punish wrong-doers.

Key Takeaways Disgorgement is a legal statute that seeks to make whole those harmed financially by returning ill-gotten funds from the wrong-doer to the harmed parties.

This sort of civil action seeks to prevent unjust enrichment is often enforced by regulatory bodies such as the SEC.

In practice, fair and full disgorgement is hard to come by, since the institutional set-up encourages the privatization of gains while socializing losses.

Understanding Disgorgement

Individuals or companies that violate Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) regulations are typically required to pay both civil money penalties and disgorgement. Proceeds from insider trading, embezzlement or illegal actions under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) are subject to disgorgement. In June 2017, a unanimous ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court in the case of Kokesh v. SEC clarified that disgorgement is a penalty that is subject to a five-year statute of limitations.

However, disgorgement payments are not only demanded of those who violate securities regulations. Anyone profiting from illegal or unethical activities may be civilly required to disgorge their profits. In 2010 Lloyd Blankfein, CEO of Goldman Sachs, put on an aggressive facade to avoid a lawsuit brought forth by the SEC for his bank's role in selling a complex financial instrument tied to subprime mortgages to investors. It was alleged that Goldman Sachs withheld significant material disclosures about the nature of the financial instrument (known as Abacus 2007-AC1) that they pushed on their unsuspecting clients. Perhaps realizing that his bank would lose in the lawsuit, Blankfein decided to settle with the SEC, paying a record $550 million in disgorgement and penalties.

Privatizing Gains vs. Socializing Losses

In the aftermath of the financial crisis, many sought additional disgorgements from financial institutions intimately involved in creating the crisis and from the CEOs, directors, and other executives leading them. However, these individuals, in the end, were allowed to "privatize" their gains and "socialize" (i.e., dump on taxpayers) the losses of the institutions. With friends in high places, Blankfein, Jamie Dimon, John Thain, John Mack, Ken Lewis, Vikram Pandit and a rash of others were able to skate away with their multimillion-dollar bonuses.

The phrase privatizing profits and socializing losses has a number of synonyms, including "socialism for the rich, capitalism for the poor". Another likens it to lemon socialism. The latter was coined in a 1974 New York Times op-ed about New York State's decision to buy two half-finished power plants from the struggling electric utility ConEd for $500 million, using taxpayer dollars to spread out the cost of the losing venture.By Lawrence Hurley and Dustin Volz

US Supreme Court justices yesterday wrestled with Microsofts dispute with the US justice department over whether prosecutors can force technology companies to hand over data stored overseas, with some signalling support for the government and others urging congress to pass a law to resolve the issue.

Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Samuel Alito, both conservatives, hinted during an hour-long argument in the case at support for the justice departments stance that because Microsoft is based in the US it was obligated to turn over data sought by prosecutors in a US warrant.

As the nine justices grappled with the technological complexities of email data storage, liberals Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Sonia Sotomayor questioned whether the court needed to act in the data privacy case in light of congress now considering bipartisan legislation that would resolve the legal issue.

A ruling is due by the end of June.

Mr Alito agreed that congress should act but added that in the interim, somethings got to be done.

Mr Roberts appeared concerned that companies like Microsoft could enable customers to evade the reach of US prosecutors by deliberately storing data overseas.

The case pits the interests of tech companies and privacy advocates in protecting customer data against the demands of law enforcement in gaining information vital to criminal and counter-terrorism investigations.

It started with a 2013 warrant obtained by US prosecutors for emails of a suspect in a drug trafficking investigation that were stored in Microsoft computer servers in Dublin. Microsoft challenged whether a domestic warrant covered data stored abroad.

The justice department said prosecutors were entitled to the data because Microsoft is headquartered in the US.

Globally dominant American tech firms have expressed fears customers will go elsewhere if they think the US governments reach extends to data centres around the world without changes being made to the law.

Microsoft, which has 100 data centres in 40 countries, was the first US firm to challenge a domestic search warrant seeking data held outside the US.

The Microsoft customer whose emails were sought told the company he was based in Ireland when he signed up for his account.

ReutersBy Noor Zainab Hussain

Shares in troubled Provident Financial soared by more than 80%, yesterday before paring back slightly, after the British sub-prime lender announced a 331m (376m) share sale that will increase its capital by more than a third.

The rights issue is the first sign of a long-awaited turnaround in the company which lost 70% of its value last year when it swung into the red after two profit warnings, that prompted the departure of chief executive Peter Crook and the suspension of its dividend. It has also been under investigation bythe UKs financial watchdog.

Provident said the rights issue was backed by its two largest shareholders Invesco Asset Management and Woodford Investment Management, and would meet the costs of resolving a probe by the Financial Conduct Authority into its Vanquis Bank unit.

It would also secure the companys capital position, maintain its investment grade rating and re-establish normal access to funding from the bank and debt capital markets.

The lender said it had reached a settlement with the authority resulting in a fine of 2m and compensation payments of 127.1m and other estimated costs of 43m.

In 2018, the group will continue to rebuild trust with our customers, regulators, shareholders and employees, chief executive Malcolm Le May said.

Provident has been trying to reorganise a business that has traditionally relied on self-employed agents offering high-interest loans of 100 to 1,000 and collecting repayments through weekly household visits.

However, it had been unable to recruit enough people for its plan to replace external agents with direct employees.

Provident also said that Moneybarn, its car and van financing arm, continued to co-operate with the regulator in a separate investigation, which it estimated could eventually cost the company 20m. The investigation is focused on how Moneybarn assesses if customers can afford to take on credit and how it deals with borrowers who cannot repay loans.

Provident, which was established in 1880 and provided loans through the Wall Street crash of 1929 and both World Wars, also reported a pre-tax loss of 123m for 2017, compared with a pre-tax profit of 343.9m a year earlier.

The group targets a return on assets of about 10% after the rights issue, its home credit unit returning to profit in 2019, and a progressive dividend policy.

ReutersIt was a busy day for people across the country as they contended with the arrival of the Beast from the East, not least for TD and Minister for the Office of Public Works Kevin Boxer Moran.

He took a hands-on approach to the storm relief by assisting drivers in Athlone earlier in the day.

Minister @kevinboxermoran is warning people in Athlone to get home and stay home as snow conditions deteriorate around the town @TodayFMNews @NewstalkFM #TheBeastFromTheEast ireland pic.twitter.com/YjwhSk9GBQ  Gail Conway (@gailconwaymedia) February 28, 2018

Naturally, some people took full advantage of the snow day by wrapping up and heading outside to practice their sledding skills, build snowmen and throw the odd snowball or two.

Kate Aherne, Amie Aherne, Emily Chuck & Anna Chuck at the Lough this morning. Credit: Aperture Photography

Other brave swimmers embraced the sub-zero temperatures and took the plunge at the Forty Foot at Sandycove, County Dublin.

Liam Mulcahy pictured at the Forty Foot Sandycove, County Dublin this morning. Pic Stephen Collins/Collins Photos

Rachel Johnson pictured at the Forty Foot Sandycove, County Dublin this morning. Pic Stephen Collins/Collins Photos

Swimmers at the Forty Foot Sandycove, County Dublin this morning.Pic Stephen Collins/Collins Photos

The animals of Ireland also seemed to to not feel the cold, such as these puppies in Portlaoise.

And this Irish ostrich, not an often-seen resident of Meath, who was taking it all in his stride.

Things you dont expect to see in the snow... the lesser-spotted Irish ostrich in Co. Meath #stormemma #beastfromtheeast pic.twitter.com/B4Mku3BlK3  Irish Farmers Journal (@farmersjournal) February 28, 2018

The freezing conditions had us dreaming of sunnier climes, such as Kerry where there were no signs of snow. These striking images of Waterville, County Kerry were sent in by Avril Burns:

Unlike the bread on supermarket shelves, there was no shortage of scenic shots taken by readers and across social media today, with people capturing the natural beauty of Ireland under the blanket of snow.

Commuters faced some difficult journeys this morning, and this footage of heavy snow west of Cork City captured by our photographer, Denise Minihane, shows what's in store over the coming days.

There were breathtaking scenes at Inch Island this morning, as Storm Emma loomed over Lough Swilly and Buncrana. This was taken by Behind the Glass Photography, Donegal.

While walking conditions were hardly ideal, the Lough in Cork City was a popular spot for budding photographers.

Meanwhile, others chose to stay in the heat. How cool is this timelapse of the snowfall in Dublin overnight?

The Irish banter wasn't lost in the storm either, as it even brought out peoples' humourous sides, such as this hilarious ballad penned by Bill Maybury & Roisin Kilgannon.

As evening approached, we could see the last effects of the storm on the Irish landscape in the daylight, like these frozen waterfalls at Downhill, County Derry.

Frozen waterfalls at Downhill, County Derry, as the Beast from the East sweeps in on Wednesday. Picture Margaret McLaughlin

Or the canal in Kildare which froze this afternoon.Marjorie Brennan looks ahead to the Cork French Film Festival

FRENCH cinema continues to attract film fans who like to watch something a little different from the endless superhero franchises, reboots and sequels that Hollywood seems to churn out endlessly these days. Cork French Film Festival, in collaboration with Alliance Francaise, has been presenting the best of Gallic cinema, along with A-list visitors for almost three decades.

This years programme, presented in numerous locations across the city, is as diverse and thought-provoking as ever, says festival director Morgan Desmeroux.

Highlights include:

The Apparition: Opening the festival is The Apparition, in which writer-director Xavier Giannoli tackles the themes of faith, suffering and mans capacity for violence and love.

It stars one of Frances best-known actors Vincent Lindon as a war reporter who on his return from the Middle East is asked by the Vatican to investigate the claims of a young woman who claims to have seen the Virgin Mary. (Tues, Mar 6, 6.30pm, The Gate.)

Sandrine Bonnaire: One of Frances most celebrated female stars, Sandrine Bonnaire, will attend the festival for the screening of her latest film Catch the Wind, along with director Gael Morel.

The film examines the plight of the disappearing working class in France and the exploitation of foreign workers. Bonnaire gives another powerful performance as a French seamstress who moves to Morocco after her company relocates there. Bonnaire and Morel will participate in a Q&A after the screening of Catch the Wind, and will also conduct a masterclass in conjunction with the French department of UCC.

The Guardians marks a return for French auteur Xavier Beauvois and stars another French acting legend, Nathalie Baye.

It is a fascinating look at the lives of women in rural France and the heroic roles they played in World War I, even though they were far from the trenches. It is a very powerful movie and deserves a large audience, says Desmeroux. (Sun, Mar 4, 4pm, The Gate.)

Custody: One of the most eagerly anticipated films to come out of France recently is Xavier Legrands debut feature, Custody, which also screens at the festival. Winner of the Silver Lion at last years Venice Film Festival, it doesnt go on general

release until April. The compelling domestic drama blends social realism and psychological thriller in a

portrait of a family in the aftermath of an acrimonious divorce. (Sat, March 3, 6.40pm, The Gate.)

Reinventing Marvin: Closing the festival is Reinventing Marvin, from Coco by Chanel director Anne Fontaine, which follows a boy from his miserable childhood in a country village to adulthood in Paris as he explores his sexuality. Martin/Marvin is played by Finnegan Oldfield, who will be present for the screening and a Q&A afterwards. (Wed, Mar 7, 6.30pm, The Gate.)

Daco: Also showcased in this years festival programme will be the talents of French street artist, Daco, famous for his paintings on the walls and subways of Paris. His eye-catching and colourful renditions of wild animals will be displayed at the Alliance Francaise. There will also be a screening at the Crawford Gallery of a short film documenting Dacos work, after which he will participate in a Q&A with John OSullivan from Mad About Cork, the volunteer group reinvigorating run-down urban spaces throughout the city. Daco will also do a live painting in Cork city centre, in a location yet to be revealed. (Daco and Mad about Cork, Sat, Mar 3, 12pm, Crawford Art Gallery; exhibition at Alliance Francaise de Cork, 36 Mary Street, Mar 2-Apr 30.)

Cork French Film Festival, Mar 2-7; www.corkfrenchfilmfestival.comDermot Morgan died 20 years ago today. His son, Don Morgan, says that his father greatly influenced how he raises his own sons, and why he hopes they will grow up to be feminists

Since my first son was born in 2015, I have been trying to understand my new role in the absence of my own father, Dermot Morgan, who today will be dead 20 years.

As my now two sons grow up, I want them to be unafraid to learn from all experiences, even unmitigated disaster. I also want them to judge people not on preordained assumptions but on their individual qualities; to understand life is full of choices. At a time when how boys are raised has been most critical, my dad, by his example, has influenced my hope that they will be feminists.

As Im writing, theyre upstairs, asleep. I say asleep, but thats a loose concept. Peter, the younger, is 15 months old and is fogging it like Sonny Liston after catching an eyeful of Mohammed Alis fists. Dermot is my oldest boy.

Hes two and a half. He has pulled up the blind and is now reading loudly from a book. Dermot is the moon and Peter is the sun  the former is intense, achingly funny, and greets everyone in shops; takes apart and puts together things and, best of all, wants you to be with him.

He always wants to ring family and friends to say hello. Peter grins from ear to ear which belies the fact that he has twigged everything. Hes cool with that, and hes quite happy that his big brother will do the running. Theyre as unselfconscious as they come and we hope they stay that way.

To paraphrase his old adversary, Eamon Dunphy, my dad wasnt a good dad  he was a great dad. He was fun, he was open to sharing his life with us and wanted us to share our lives with him. He was fair, funny, sincere, and, most of all, willing.

He was extremely keen to make time for us. But he also worked extremely hard. When he was off gigging or

filming, hed ring every day to check in. Wed repay him by belting out a chorus of Harry Chapins Cats in the Cradle down the phone for our amusement. If he was sad missing us, he understood sadistic humour from his offspring was a price to pay for raising us with a love of laughter.

As I mulled over my experiences of being a son, it struck me that, although he loved footie, meeting mates, and

having the craic, my dad wasnt a cartoon alpha male.

He was emotional, emotionally aware, and willing to share. Despite an ability to seem like he wasnt listening, he would upend your assumptions about what had passed through his mass of white hair and planted itself in his busy brain.

Donnchadh Morgan bonding with his dad. Picture: Donnchadh Morgan

When, through my own web of lies as a teen, I let slip that I was smoking, he dredged up every half comment,

allusion, and opinion Id ever uttered near him, to cross-examine me as to how I could ever smoke.

I want to give my kids a childhood where they will be free to be who they are, but, as importantly, I want them to know they can do anything they want with their lives and so can everyone else. Its a matter of choice, of tolerance, of good grace. I want them to grow up knowing and respecting women, to be emotionally aware and willing to listen to women and their experiences.

Supporting womens right to equal and fair treatment is not a matter of bestowing a gift, but of vindicating their entitlement to the same opportunities and choices as men as a matter of course.

The old line in Scrap Saturday that the Church isnt an equal opportunities employer is one of my favourites and speaks to a wider truth about Ireland. At home, my dad would often put on the voice of a long retired politician and make a pointed comment that, in Ireland, women ought to be chained to the sink, barefoot and pregnant.

The reality is that the right and actually Christian thing to do is to treat all as you would like to be treated. If youre a boy, you wouldnt like to be dismissed because youre a boy. I hope my children will continue to treat as they find, with respect and kindness.

What I also learned from my dad is that bottling it up isnt the same as coping. He did, for the most part, find his upbringing reflective of a pronounced imposition of defined gender-based behaviours and responses. He was an emotional man, and by and large, his life was defined by his learning to understand his emotional responses.

What I want for my boys to learn is to articulate their feelings, describe them and know its okay. Unfortunately this may be an uphill battle, as men and boys are still told that, to do that, is the opposite of manly. The trend of the last decade towards hyper-masculine behaviour has seen young men surrendering their emotional awareness and personal responsibility to a seemingly accepted but destructive machismo.

Manning up, as the comedian Robert Webb points out, means ignoring your emotions. As a kid, I knew my dad to be someone who refused to ignore them. Hed give in to them, even if you were a teenager and it was totally

embarrassing. I can still remember with incredible clarity a day he did the most dadly thing and responded in the most emotionally honest way.

My maternal grandmother had died overnight in Hamburg and the next morning Dad was taking us fishing in Bullock Harbour, just outside Dalkey in south Dublin. My mother had no choice but to go to work that morning. She was in Dublin, my grandmother was in Hamburg, and what has to be done must be done, which in her native Hamburg is reduced to a pithy Low German seanfhocail: Wat mutt, dat mutt (what must, that must).

What else could be done? We told my dad in the driveway when he came to collect us. He sobbed his heart out. He was very fond of her, as my German grandparents had been of him, even if they didnt really understand him and even though my parents marriage had long since ended.

There wasnt another soul around, but my 13-year-old self wanted the ground to swallow me up.

If I had that time again, I would cry with him. It was healthier, it was right, and we still went fishing which, at the time, I was most concerned would fall by the wayside.

Of all the summers of my life, the ones where we went fishing off Bullock Harbour were the sunniest, shiniest ones. They were some of the closest we had with our dad. Nowadays, Bullock Harbour still looks the same, despite the irresistible march of development along that piece of coastline.

Back then as now, on a fine day in September you get great mackerel near there and could rent a boat and off you went into Dublin Bay. There were silly voices, throwaway comments, and the bluest skies. It was nearly as nice as West Cork, but only nearly: Goleen at the right time of the year takes some beating.

If you havent read Webbs book, How Not to be a Boy, go on to YouTube and watch the 14-minute interview he did for Channel Four News for a taster.

Webb refers to his daughters description of the trick, derived from patriarchy, which young Ms Webb describes as the trick that makes men sad and women take rubbish jobs. Its a telling statement.

How boys are raised is more important now than ever, the scandals in Hollywood, pay disparity between the genders, and college rape culture all point to a crisis in masculinity.

They have a lot of expectations older generations didnt have, from what work they can and cant do and what choices they can and cannot make, to the way they speak to their feelings. First among those newly refocused

aspects of parenting has been how boys grow up to be men and how they treat women.

But good men have gone before us and, in my life, I was lucky to have great male role models, not least my old man. I look to him as a starting point in raising my children to be feminists. Feminism, as I understand it, benefits everyone by fixing the systemic injustices perpetrated against a little over half of humanity.

Everyone is entitled to a fair shake and everyone ought to have the freedom to make their own choices and to do so on their own merits, irrespective of gender, notwithstanding background, race, or religion. No one ought to be judged by their biology but rather judged on their character.

We were brought up to be impatient for progress but to be willing to tolerate others and treat them with respect. My dads line of work was about puncturing thoughtless deference and taking a stick to give the stagnant pond a good stir to let the light in. Thats not a bad way to be.

If the future is indeed feminist, which I think and very much hope it will be, I want my children to make a positive contribution to the society their generation will shape and, all going well, will see the start of the next century.

Their grandad was a heady mix of pure willingness, guts, and wit. He was a man out of his time in his world view and his parenting style. Its not a huge step to see how he pointed to where I want my children to go. They know who he was and if they show even an ounce of his guts and lust for life, they wont go wrong.Nightly now we see the appalling cruelty being inflicted on helpless Syrian citizens by their own government and by their Rusian and Iranian allies. The scenes are indescribable and no one with a heart could fail to be moved to anger against the perpetrators. Behaviour first instigated by Bashar al Assad in brutally suppressing peaceful protest by Syrian citizens has ultimately led to this atrocious tragedy.

No one could deny what has happened, and is now happening is a crime against humanity. Indiscriminate bombing of civilian areas, deliberate destruction of hospitals, medical facilities, medical staff and patients, use of toxic gases, prevention of aid to injured and starving civilians are redolent of some of the worst atrocities of the 20th century.A Czech court has ruled that the former leader of a Syrian Kurdish party detained by authorities in Prague will be released, despite an extradition request from Turkey.

Salih Muslim, former co-chair of the Democratic Union Party, or PYD, was detained in the Czech capital on Saturday based on a Turkish request for his arrest.

According to Mr Muslim's Czech lawyer Miroslav Krutina, Prague's Municipal Court ruled to release him. The court officials did not immediately comment on the hearing, which was held behind close doors.

Turkey considers the PYD a terrorist group linked to outlawed Kurdish insurgents fighting within Turkey's own borders. Mr Muslim was put on Turkey's most-wanted list earlier in February, with a $1m (714,000) reward offered for his capture.

Ahead of the Prague ruling, Turkish prime minister Binali Yildirim said the court's decision would be a "test" for the Czech Republic on its sensitivity toward the fight against terrorism and its solidarity with a Nato ally.

"However, whatever the outcome (court ruling), these terrorist ringleaders will not be able to walk free, we will continue to make life unbearable for them," Mr Yildirim said.

The PYD is the leading political Kurdish force in northern Syria, and Mr Muslim remains highly influential in the party, even after stepping down as co-chair last year.

On January 20, Turkey launched an incursion into northern Syria, seeking to rout the US-backed Syrian Kurdish militia, known as the People's Protection Units or YPG, from the enclave of Afrin. The YPG is the armed wing of the PYD.

- Press AssociationProsecutors have demanded a 30-year prison term for former South Korean president Park Geun-hye for alleged bribery and abuse of power.

Park did not attend the latest court hearing on Tuesday in a landmark corruption case that marked a stunning fall from grace for the country's first female leader.

Prosecutors also demanded a fine of 118.5bn won (89.7) and said she has shown no remorse for "disrupting constitutional order and damaging the public's trust in state power".

The court was expected later on Tuesday to set the date when it will announce the verdict and sentence if it finds her guilty.

"A stern punishment by the court is needed to send a message to the public and politicians that the tragic history should not be repeated," prosecutor Han Dong-hoon told the court.

If the court finds her guilty, Park would be the third South Korean president convicted of crimes.

The others were former military generals involved in a 1979 coup and a 1980 civilian massacre.

Park has been boycotting the hearings in Seoul Central District Court since October in protest against its decision to extend her detention by another six months.

Her lawyers then resigned and she has reportedly been refusing to meet state-appointed lawyers who have since been defending her in court.

Park will be required to attend her sentencing - the court can issue another arrest warrant to summon her if she refuses.

If she is convicted, an appeal from her defence team is expected as Park has continuously denied wrongdoing.

- APMr Varadkar was criticised by opposition parties and elderly groups after flatly rejecting Minister for Older People Jim Dalys earlier plan for pensioners to keep their heating on 24/7 over the coming days.

Speaking as the National Emergency Co-ordination Group (NECG) urged the public to take all precautions as Ireland becomes blanketed in the worst snowfall in four decades, Mr Varadkar said extra elderly funds are available.

However, despite Met Eireann predicting sub-zero temperatures, significant snow fall, 110km winds ,and thunderstorms, he said a blank cheque will not be written for the elderly.

If we tell people that they can put on the heating 24/7 and the Government or somebody else will pick up the bill, regardless of what it is, we will send out the wrong message to them, Mr Varadkar told the Dail.

His comments came after Mr Daly told pensioners to keep the heat on constantly during the cold snap, saying there was no point putting money before health.

However, Mr Daly last night backtracked on RTEs Six One News after Mr Varadkar said the view is not the advice of Government.

Mr Varadkar and NECG chair Sean Hogan yesterday said the 22.50c weekly fuel allowance helps 338,000 households and two extra supports  an exceptional needs payment and urgent needs payment  are also available.

Latest webcam from our Roche's Point weather station pic.twitter.com/lziuDlaaJW  Met Eireann (@MetEireann) February 27, 2018

However, when asked, NECG member and Department of Social Protection official Helen Faughnan did not say this will cover all bills, instead saying claims will be dealt with in a sensitive manner.

Fianna Fail leader Micheal Martin yesterday said Mr Dalys initial suggestion is pragmatic advice, while his partys spokesperson for older people, Mary Butler, attacked Mr Varadkar for spending 5m on spin instead of an 8.5m extra weeks fuel allowance.

Labour leader Brendan Howlin said the Government is failing to give absolute clarity on its own advice, while Sinn Fein leader Mary Lou McDonald added bluntly: Elderly people in very cold weather dont need a pep talk, Taoiseach, they need action.

Contacted by the Irish Examiner last night, Age Action Ireland spokesman Justin Moran said Mr Varadkar is wrong to say elderly people are looking for a blank cheque.

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We are asking for a once-off double fuel allowance payment this week, he said. The Taoiseachs was the wrong message, it was that this Government isnt interested in ensuring older people are warm and safe.

The comments came as a separate snow row descended last night after record figures showed more than 9,000 people  including 3,267 children  are now without homes.

The NECG is expected to announce today a nationwide red weather warning for Thursday evening, with schools expected to close, the Dail likely to shut, and hospital services disrupted.The amounts of money were not large but the criminality is total, Judge Sean O Donnabhain said at Cork Circuit Criminal Court. The amount of money pales into insignificance when I view what he did with his entitlement as a guard, the manner in which he went around misusing his position is scandalous.

The judge imposed the two-year sentence on John OHalloran, 47, from South Douglas Road, Cork, and supended it. He was required to abide by the directions of the probation service for the next two years and in particular to comply with all directions on him in relation to addressing his gambling addiction.

The judge said the most serious offences committed by the accused consisted of seeking payments for so-called extra policing for Connaught Avenue Residents Association and UCC students union.

There was a criminal breach of trust and total denial of his duty as a guard to be trustworthy and for the public to be able to rely on him, Judge O Donnabhain said.

It is easy to understand how this plausible and active man could have duped students. He was generating invoices, getting the cash. There never appears to be any dealings by the university with any other person (in the gardai). This man was operating as a police force within the university where they provided him with a room on campus.

The fact that he was signing all the forms should have alerted persons to be suspicious but that did not happen until Inspector Fergal Foley investigated the matter competently, professionally and thoroughly.

Judge O Donnabhain said mitigating factors included the plea of guilty which spared hundreds of witnesses giving evidence in what would have been a four-week trial. The judge said that would halve the sentence at least.

I must go further and look at his personal circumstances, he said. He has lost his job. A gratuity of 80,000 will be denied him. Undoubtedly, he has drawn this on himself. He is now a person who will never again work as a guard.

He was in the throes of a substantial gambling addiction. There is no more insidious and harmful addiction than gambling. It is silent and the damage it does is enormous. He gambled 150,000 between 2009 and 2014 and is reckoned to have lost 84,000 to 85,000.

Defence senior counsel Ronan Munro said of OHalloran: His wife found out. The relationship has fallen apart. They were recently divorced. His relationship has gone. His profession has gone. His good name is gone.

Notwithstanding the fact that people had been duped into paying various sums of money to the accused, Mr Munro said many people were still able to see the good that OHalloran had done as well.

They were able to see past his crimes to the good he had done, said Mr Munro. In a way, this adds to his shame showing how far he has fallen. He is obviously deeply ashamed for tarnishing the good name of An Garda Siochana.

Insp Foley said the investigation began when the first complaint came from a woman who was asked by OHalloran to loan him 5,500, which she agreed to do, but after a year she had not been repaid and complained to his authorities. He then repaid the money but she maintained her formal complaint.

Judge O Donnabhain said this offence was the most serious committed by John OHalloran. The judge said that seeking payments for his police work from the community association and the students union were different in tone and substance and saw an active misuse of his position as a member of An Garda Siochana. He was suspended from duty pending the outcome of the investigation and he resigned last November.

He pleaded guilty to sample counts of corruption and theft. His offences included receiving his fathers CIE pension after his fathers death in November 2011 until September 2014.The reinstatement of a 1,600 allowance to recent and newly appointed teachers at island schools is one of the key proposals of the Oireachtas Education Committee.

The issues it considered in a report published yesterday relate to 12 primary schools and five second-level schools in counties Cork, Galway, Mayo, and Donegal.

The TDs and senators received submissions last year from a number of groups about the difficulties facing those schools, including recruitment and retention of staff, the ability to offer a full choice of second-level subjects, and inadequate funding from the Department of Education.

At an estimated annual cost of under 600,000 a year from two departments, Education and Training Boards Ireland, suggested a number of measures to help secure the future of second-level schools. Its member boards in Galway and Donegal run all five, whose enrolments range from four on Tory Island to 105 on Arainn Mhor, both in Co Donegal.

The committee adopted the call from Education and Training Boards Ireland and the Irish National Teachers Organisation for the reinstatement of allowances that were removed from any new entrants to the job from 2012.

These include a 1,600 annual allowance paid to teachers working in island schools, whose removal is said to have made recruitment and retention of teachers even harder because of the additional costs associated with island teaching.

Prior to its removal for new appointees, the allowance was paid to around 30 primary teachers.

The reinstatement of this allowance would recognise the additional challenges these teachers face and encourage suitably qualified candidates to apply for teaching posts on island schools, it said.

The committee has not recommended reinstatement of an allowance for Gaeltacht teachers to post-2012 appointees.

However, the report says the Department of Education should consider doubling the number of scholarships it funds for mainland students to attend island schools for a term, and make Gaeltacht pupils eligible.

The potential for extending this scheme to include 60 pupils per year, increased from the current figure of 30, would be a cost-effective method of supporting island schools while also providing important opportunities for mainland pupils, it stated.

An additional 20,000 a year or more should be provided to meet the higher running costs associated with second-level island education, the all-party group has also recommended.

It also proposed that the formula for calculating the number of teachers allocated to island schools be revised to ensure students are not disadvantaged by limited subject choices because of the smaller sizes of their schools.

Independent senator Trevor O Clochartaigh, who acted as rapporteur to the committee, said that the recommendations would not constitute any substantial outlay for the Department of Education in the context of its overall budget.

Some are merely minor changes to policy which are small in the overall scheme of things, but would ensure major improvements in the sustainability of these schools, he said.The density and design of the houses, and the threat of a judicial review, were raised when a row developed in County Hall over the proposed project at Bluepool, Kanturk.

Representatives from Upper Bluepool Residents Association sat in the public gallery, listening to a sometimes heated debate on the project.

They maintained that the housing density was out of kilter with the area and said they would seek a judicial review, if the council proceeded with the project.

Independent councillor Tim Collins said he did not want the project to fall apart, because a large number of people were on the waiting list in the area, and instead proposed the council drop the number of houses from 16 to 12 as a compromise.

If the council did this, it would have to seek approval from the Department of Local Government.

Fine Gael councillor John Paul OShea said that if the council was altering the plan in any significant way, it would have to start the planning process again, from scratch.

I want housing in Kanturk, but it has to be with the support of the community, he said.

Fianna Fail councillor Gearoid Murphy said there was a pressing need for social houses in the town.

However, he added that it was with a heavy heart that he could not lend his support to the 16-house plan.

The density is too much and it is on an elevated position, compared to the other side of the street, said Mr Murphy. Its important we build houses, but we have to do it right.

Sinn Fein councillor Melissa Mullane said she was very disappointed at any attempt to downsize the plan.

I want to go ahead with the 16 houses, she said. The potential of taking four houses off this is the potential not to provide housing for 24 people. Were taking a huge gamble, in going back to the Department again, now, looking for 12. We need to take a stand for the people in Kanturk who need homes.

Fianna Fail councillor Bernard Moynihan said: We need to get back into the consultation process and bring the community with us on this.

Fine Gael councillor Gerard Murphy said he thought the density was too high, on what is a narrow laneway.

Everybody wants social houses built, but we want them built in an appropriate way, he said.

We wouldnt give planning permission for such a project to a private developer. The standard for social housing should be as high as the standard for private housing.

A vote was taken to proceed with only 12 homes, so the project will be mothballed while the planning process is revised.The council has been supporting the BA in visual arts on Sherkin Island in recent years and has provided it with grant aid in excess of 140,000 during that time.

However, a couple of weeks ago the local authority decided that it was only going to provide 10,000 this year for the course which is run by Sherkin Island Development Society (SIDS) in conjunction with Dublin Institute of Technology (DIT).

There was uproar among councillors after SIDS said it might have to close the course unless the council doubled its contribution.

A recent crunch meeting of the members of West Cork Municipal District Council, their staff, and representatives from SIDS to discuss grant aid.

Following that meeting, it was suggested that the grant aid should be doubled, but this had to be ratified by members of the full county council at a meeting in County Hall.

The proposal was put to councillors by members of the West Cork Municipal District Council.

We want the council to continue to support this [arts degree programme] and get rid of any uncertainty in the future said Fianna Fail councillor Joe Carroll. This is a real winner for what it is doing for the community in Sherkin Island.

Since the course started in 2007 five people involved have gone to live on Sherkin and it is estimated the course is worth 150,000 per year to the islands economy.

Fianna Fail councillor Pat Murphy said the 20,000 should be granted from the county councils Economic Development Fund (EDF).

The EDF is funded from rates and pays 1.1m a year in grants to emerging businesses and ideas which provide a boost to the economy.

Mr Murphy said EDF funding was therefore ideal for the Sherkin course as it comes in under the development umbrella.

Fine Gael councillor Mary Hegarty said West Cork was a hub for the arts and the Sherkin project had to go on.

Independent councillor Danny Collins said it was vital that the council committed, not only to adequate funding this year, but in the years to come. We need to support it into the foreseeable future, he said.

Fine Gael councillor John OSullivan described it as a unique course and said he hoped the council would continue to support it.

Council chief executive Tim Lucey said the local authority had grant-aided SIDS in excess of 140,000 in the past number of years.

He said SIDS had made a 60,000 surplus from 2014 to 2016.

The issue is what level of funding is needed to ensure the programme continues, said Mr Lucey. If 20,000 is needed from us it will be given.

He said SIDS would have to show the council details of its expenditure for the degree contract with DIT.News 8 Shan Men Accused of Links to Armed Group Sentenced to Jail

Ho Pong town, Shan State. / Sai Aung Myint Oo / Supplied

YANGON  A court in Shan State on Monday convicted eight Shan men accused of fighting for the Restoration Council of Shan State (RCSS), an ethnic armed group, and sentenced them to prison terms ranging from three to 10 years.

The Ho Pong Township court sentenced Sai San Sai to 10 years; Sai Peng Sa to eight; Seng Sai, Ohm Nut, Sai San and Sai Khun to seven; Sai Hla Tun to four; and Aike Ko to three.

All eight men hail from Nang Kut village in Mong Pyin district and were convicted on four charges: unlawful use of a firearm; unlawful use of a walkie-talkie, illegal import of a vehicle; and attacking the military.

The RCSS engaged the Myanmar military, or Tatmadaw, in Nang Kut in July, seizing weapons and killing some soldiers.

Sao Myawaddy, the eight mens lawyer, claims that after the fighting the Tatmadaw went house to house seizing homemade guns and bullets. She says the Tatmadaw detained her clients in the process and beat them before handing them over to police after 10 days.

They [authorities] did not consider any request from the victims. They even could not answer when I asked what they were being punished for in court, she told The Irrawaddy on Wednesday. Every local Shan has homemade guns. It is not something unusual that they should be punished for; it is their traditional practice.

Sao Myawaddy said one of her clients was merely the driven for a Buddhist monastery where the army seized the car the court used as evidence to convict them of illegally importing a vehicle.

She said their lengthy trial, which lasted some seven months, was just theater.

It was just a show, having public court appearances. But they had already decided how to punish these local villagers, she said.

They tried to arrest members of the RCSS. When they could not arrest the RCSS they arrested whoever they could, so they arrested villagers, said Sai Naw Awng, a Ho Pong resident who has been in regular contact with the eight men since their arrest.

The RCSS was among the original eight armed groups to sign the Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement with the government in October 2015, but it has periodically clashed with the Tatmadaw since.Asia Indian Officials Order Stop to Eviction of Tribal People from Tiger Reserves

An Indian government agency for indigenous people has asked the forest ministry to ensure that its tiger conservation policy does not threaten the rights of indigenous people. / Reuters

BANGKOK  An Indian government agency for indigenous people has asked the forest ministry to stop evicting tribal people from tiger reserves, highlighting the growing tensions over land use in the country.

The National Commission for Scheduled Tribes (NCST) asked the Ministry of Environment and Forests to ensure that its tiger conservation policy does not threaten the rights of indigenous people.

It also said that those who are asked to move from core tiger habitats must be adequately compensated and given land.

The environment ministrys National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) issued a notice last year asking 17 Indian states to suspend the granting of rights to tribal and other forest dwellers in all critical tiger habitats.

NTCA officials denied that their policy hurts tribal forest dwellers.

It is a wrong notion that tribals are being evicted, Debabrata Swain, an additional director general at the NTCA, said on Tuesday.

It is entirely voluntary; we ask them if they would like to move from core tiger habitats and protected areas. If they agree to the rehabilitation terms, then they move, he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

The NTCA is studying the NCSTs order, which it received on Monday, and will respond in time, Swain said over the phone.

Indias Forest Rights Act gives indigenous people and forest dwellers the right to harvest and use forest resources to maintain their traditional livelihoods.

More than a fifth of Indias 1.2 billion population was expected to benefit from the 2006 law covering vast areas of forest land roughly the size of Germany.

But implementation has been slow and conflicts between states and indigenous people have risen as more land is sought for industrial projects in one of the worlds fastest growing economies.

Wildlife tourism is also a growing money-spinner, and hundreds of tribal villagers have been evicted in sometimes violent clashes from land reserved for tigers, elephants and rhinoceros.

Last November, advocacy group Survival International asked tourists to boycott Indias tiger reserves until the rights of indigenous people in them are upheld.

Officials must ensure their forest rights are settled, and offer more compensation, said Rahul Choudhary, co-founder of non-profit Legal Initiative for Forest and Environment.

These are people who have lived in the forest for generations. The government must offer better terms for their rehabilitation, he said.Burma Arakan Group Says 7 Arrested Over Sittwe Bomb Attack

Security forces at one of the blast sites in Sittwe on Saturday. / MOI / Facebook

YANGON  Police in the Rakhine State capital of Sittwe have arrested an executive committee member of the Arakan National Council (ANC) and six other locals over a bomb attack that injured a police officer over the weekend, according to an ANC official.

ANC general secretary U Tun Zaw said council college Ko Naing Soe, also known as Mae Lone, was arrested in Sittwe on Sunday.

Tun Zaw said the police have filed charges against Naing Soe under multiple articles of the Counter-Terrorism Law that carry a minimum prison sentence of 10 years. He said his first court hearing was scheduled for March 12.

Local police could not be reached for confirmation.

In a video of four men in handcuffs at the Sittwe courthouse on Monday, posted online by Naing Soes brother, some of the men say they were unfairly charged with many articles and that their rights were being violated.

Arresting people with doubt [without evidence] will never bring us justice, says Naing Soe.

Naing Soe was previously arrested by the military in Sittwe in 2009 for the possession of explosive devices and sentenced to eight years in prison. He was granted an amnesty by former President Thein Sein and freed in 2013, according to Tun Zaw.

He said Naing Soe is also a liaison officer for the Arakan Army, an ethnic armed group allied with the ANC, but not a combatant. With only 100 or so active fighters, the Arakan Army has been likened to more of a non-governmental organization by veteran journalist Bertil Lintner, who specializes in Myanmars ethnic armed conflicts.

Three remotely detonated bombs rocked Sittwe on Saturday. One of the bombs went off in the backyard of a state counselors office. The others exploded near a courthouse and a land records office.

Tun Zaw said authorities have detained about 20 locals in all since the attack. It is unknown how many of them remain in custody.

In general we accept police detention for questioning when carried out in line with the law, but this arrest was unfair and nonsense, he said.

The motive for the attack, and who carried it out, remains unknown.

It follows the fatal shooting of seven ethnic Arakan protesters by police in the Rakhine State town of Mrauk-U in mid-January and the subsequent stabbing death of a government administrator who was transferred out of the town a few days after the protest.

It also follows the recent breakdown of efforts to see the ANC sign the Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement (NCA) along with two more ethnic armed groups on Feb. 13.

We negotiated with the ANC to sign the NCA until the last minute. But when the time comes to sign the NCA, the ANC didnt come along, said U Zaw Htay, spokesman for the Presidents Office.

A day before the signing ceremony, the ANC said discussions between the governments Peace Commission and the ethnic armed groups Delegation for Peace Negotiations on Feb. 11 ended in deadlock. It said the commission refused to continue debate on eight contentious points and pressured the ANC to finish the negotiations after it signed the NCA.

Tun Zaw said Naing Soe had attended the 21st Century Panglong Peace Conference in 2016 as an ANC representative and was selected to join the groups delegation to the Feb. 13 signing ceremony before negotiations with the government broke down.

He said his colleague has back problems and takes medicine to ease the pain, regularly traveling from Sittwe to Thailand for medical care.

He added that the ANC has sent State Counselor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and the Peace Council, which she heads, letters insisting that Naing Soe was not involved in Saturdays attack and asking for his release.

The ANC was established in Thailand in 2004 as an umbrella organization for several groups, including the Arakan Liberation Party, the All Arakan Students Youth Congress, the Arakan Womens Welfare Association, the National United Party of Arakan, the Rakhine Womens Union and the Democratic Party of Arakan. It is unclear whether all of them remain active.Burma EU Calls on Myanmar to Take Action to Save Shrinking Elephant Population

A villager points to a bullet hole in the skull of an elephant that had been poached by hunters in Bago Region in 2013. / The Irrawaddy

YANGONThe European Union urged the Myanmar government to strengthen efforts to protect its wild elephant population, which is on the brink of extinction due to poaching to supply the illegal trade in ivory and skins, as well as to end the open sale of elephant and other illegal wildlife parts in markets in its major cities, at popular tourist sites and along its borders.

In a statement to mark World Wildlife Day on Saturday, more than two dozen ambassadors of the European Union and its member states warned that Myanmars wild elephant population would be wiped out in a matter of years as poaching for tusks and other parts remains a huge challenge globally with Myanmar facing an unprecedented elephant skinning crisis.

In recent years, the Myanmar government has been working on strengthening the Biodiversity and Protected Areas Law, establishing more than 40 protected areas for wildlife, developing action plans for elephants and tigers, training and deploying rangers, and instituting wildlife training for government staff about the illegal wildlife trade. The EU and its member states have supported some of these efforts through the provision of technical support and capacity building.

In particular, we would recommend that the Government of Myanmar ends the open sale of elephant and other illegal wildlife parts, which today are widely sold in markets in Yangon, Mandalay, Kyeikhteeyoe and along Myanmars borders, the statement said.

According to WWF-Myanmar, at least one elephant is killed by hunters in Myanmar every week. Elephant skin, tail hairs, teeth and ivory are sold at tourist sites such as the Golden Rock (Kyaiktiyo Pagoda in Bago Region), while ivory is sold in Yangon and Mandalay. Large markets also operate in the Golden Triangle border area Myanmar shares with China, Laos and Thailand.

In such markets, elephant skin is sold dried for traditional medicine or polished into beads and sold as lucky charm bracelets. The tail hairs are put into silver rings and worn for luck.

Last month, the WWF-Myanmar met with the trustee members of the Shwedagon Pagoda in Yangon to hold an awareness program for souvenir shop owners at the pagoda stairways to educate them on the harm done by selling ivory and other wild animal related objects.

The EU statement released on Wednesday added that as long as these markets continue to sell illegal wildlife products, Myanmars wildlife will be at risk, and Myanmars position as a global and regional illegal wildlife trade hub will continue and grow as other countries in the region close their domestic markets. China shut its domestic ivory market in January this year and Hong Kong has also committed to ban ivory trading.

Concrete action, such as developing a more robust legal framework in line with global standards  and ensuring its effective enforcement  would send a clear message that Myanmar has a zero-tolerance approach to wildlife crime, the statement said.

The EU ambassadors also encouraged the government to take action now so that Myanmar can attend the 2018 London Conference on Illegal Wildlife Trade in October, not only to renew its commitments to the 2014 London Declaration on the Illegal Wildlife Trade, but also to take up its place as a regional leader in the fight against the illegal wildlife trade.

In mid-February, the government launched The Myanmar Elephant Conservation Action Plan (MECAP), a strategy for the next 10 years (201827) with the overall aim of securing viable and ecologically functional elephant populations in Myanmar for the next century and beyond with support from international and local organizations.

According to the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environmental Conservation, 18 wild elephants were poached in 2016, and 30 were killed last year. The current population is estimated at just 1,400-2,000, compared to 10,000 in 1997.Burma Rakhine Conflict Primarily Political, Not Religious, Seminar Told

Moderator Saw Eh Htoo, right, and other panelists participate in the Religions, Violence and Conflict in Rakhine State seminar at Payap University in Chiang Mai, Thailand on Wednesday. / Nyein Nyein / The Irrawaddy

CHIANG MAI, Thailand  The violence in Rakhine State is not essentially religious, but stems from the use of religion to achieve political goals, international scholars said on Wednesday.

To promote religious freedom and tolerance, and to inform the public about the ongoing conflict in Rakhine State, a public seminar titled Religions, Violence and Conflict in Rakhine State was held at Payap University in Chiang Mai, Thailand, on Wednesday with the support of the U.S. Consulate in the northern Thai city.

Acknowledging the complexity of the situation in Rakhine, the academics  many of whom have visited Myanmar and/or Bangladesh recently  shared their experiences and perspectives in an effort to better understand the conflict. The scholars participated in panels devoted to a number of topics including ethno-religious politics, the international relations dimensions of the conflict, and the Rohingya refugee crisis, as well as a follow-up discussion after a viewing of the documentary film Sittwe.

Religion is not the problem per se [in Myanmar], but the political use of the religion is fueling the conflict, said Dr. Rey Ty of the Christian Conference of Asia, who has visited the country multiple times in recent years.

In his talk to some 90 audience members, he laid out the different perceptions of the Rohingya Refugee Crisis. Many in Myanmar, he said, prefer to refer to the group as Bengali Muslim interlopers from neighboring Bangladesh. While Myanmar sees the attacks by Muslim militant group Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) as acts of terrorism perpetrated by foreign-funded Islamic separatists, the international community sympathizes with the Rohingya as the worlds most persecuted minority who are facing a textbook example of ethnic cleansing, according to the UN. More than half a million refugees fled in the space of a few weeks as the Myanmar military, or Tatmadaw, conducted clearance operations in response to a coordinated series of ARSA attacks that killed nearly a dozen security personnel in August last year.

Due to the enormous displacement of the Rohingya, the international community has leveled a lot of criticism at State Counselor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi for remaining silent on the issue, despite her status as a Nobel Laureate and an icon of human rights and democracy.

The academics shared these concerns at the seminar but acknowledged that Daw Aung San Suu Kyis hands are tied as she tries to reconcile with the Tatmadaw.

Dr. Rey Ty stressed the importance of achieving a reconciliation of the opposite perceptions of people inside and outside the country.

According to Daw Mon Mon Myat, a freelance journalist and graduate student at the Department of Peace Studies at Payap University who served as a moderator, the seminars focus was on peace building, and the speakers views reflected all sides.

She told The Irrawaddy that the conference came to a shared view that the conflict is not based on religious differences between Muslims and Buddhists as portrayed in the current international media. It is not about religion, it is due to the opportunists who focus on their own benefits. It is due to contending between those who attempt to create political benefits and the oppressors, which led to the flight of over 600,000 [residents of Maungdaw and Buthidaung townships in northern Rakhine State], she said.

As the participants at Wednesdays seminar included leaders of various religions such as Muslims, Christians and Sikhs and Buddhist monks, Daw Mon Mon Myat said she hoped the message we obtain here can be disseminated to their communities through them.

US consul general in Chiang Mai Jennifer Harhigh said in her opening remarks that the United States supported advocating for religious freedom as increasing religious tolerance can reduce the likelihood of armed conflict, violent extremism and atrocities.

If we are not careful, religious belief, much like economic disparity, ethnicity or whole other elements, can be exploited to divide people, and to promote conflict, she said.

The seminar also screened the documentary Sittwe by Jeanne Hallacy, an American filmmaker and youth educator.

The film shows the views of two teenagers, a Muslim Rohingya girl and a Buddhist boy, both affected by the communal conflict in Rakhine State in 2012. The 20-minuute-long film  screened internationally in a slightly different version from the original planned for Burmese release  was blocked by government censors from being shown in Myanmar at the Yangon Human Rights Human Dignity Film Festival in June last year and to date remains banned in the country.

Nevertheless, It premiered in September at the Freedom Film Festival in Malaysia, where it won Best Southeast Asia Short Documentary, and was screened internationally in the US in November.

The organizers said their hope was that the screening of Sittwe would help raise awareness of the need for tolerance and reconciliation.

It [Sittwe film] carries an important message, that educating our young people is absolutely critical to raise the awareness of the need for religious tolerance and to prevent the spread of religious conflict, Harhigh said.News Conflict over Methods Stalls Restoration on Part of Historic Monastery

The century-old Shwe Nang Daw Kyaung Monastery in Mandalay. / Zaw Zaw / The Irrawaddy

MANDALAY  Restoration work on one portion of Mandalays famed Shwe Nan Daw Kyaung monastery has stalled due to a conflict over the best method of reinforcing the weak and decayed floor of the building.

Experts from the World Monuments Fund (WMF) and the Department of Archaeology and National Museums have different ideas on how to proceed with the reinforcement, especially underneath the historic monasterys west veranda, causing the two teams to delay the start of restoration work.

The WMF experts have proposed using logs to reinforce the column underneath the west veranda, while department officials want to use steel pipes  an option the WMF strongly opposes.

In general, wood and steel bracing are meant to be temporary. But they want to use these as permanent, which we cannot accept in restoration of historic wooden buildings, said Jeff Allen, the WMFs project director of preservation at Shwe Nan Daw Kyaung Monastery.

I often try to figure out where this kind of steel pipes on historic buildings idea comes from. But in Myanmar it often is seen as the final solution for a monument. We can see examples in restoration in Bagan, done by the generals, he added.

The WMF said authorities from the department seem not to want to replace the wood, but would rather support the wooden building with steel pipes  something that violates the Funds standards.

Following international standards of preserving heritage [sites], we will only use wooden logs for wooden buildings, not steel pipes, Allen said.

If we can finish Shwe Nan Daw Kyaung the correct way, it will be an example for all Burmese people about how important it is to preserve the knowledge of the past to help us solve problems today, he added.

According to the WMF, restoration of the Nayas, the mythical features that decorate the base of the monasterys columns, is ongoing. Only the reinforcement of the verandas has been halted. The standoff has been brought to the attention of the regional government, which plans to act as a negotiator between the two parties.

If they decide to use steel pipes instead of wood, we will not do the restoration of those parts. I can understand that what we talk about and want to do is so foreign and alien, especially for conservative types of people; that is why we must be patient until they accept us, Allen said.

According to a regional government source, officials are examining the situation and plan to call a meeting of all parties involved in restoration projects at the monastery in March.

Restoration work on the monastery resumed in November after a delay of about a year due to a hold-up in grant money.

A joint project between the Culture Ministry, the WMF and the U.S. Embassy, restoration began in February 2014, funded by the WMF. The project was initially expected to take two years.

There were major delays in September 2014 due to hold-ups with the supply of teak logs that are to replace some of the monasterys decaying pillars.

Major restoration work began in January 2016, only to be suspended again due to the shortage of funds.

Further support for the preservation project came from the U.S. Ambassadors Fund for Cultural Preservation, which joined hands with Ministry of Culture.

At the time, U.S. Ambassador Derek Mitchell said the WMF, which is based in Washington, would implement the US$500,000 project, adding that the budget would also cover training for Myanmar officials and craftsmen in preservation techniques.

The Shwe Nan Daw Kyaung Monastery, a 19th-century traditional teak wood building, was originally covered with gold leaf and glass mosaics, and is known for the intricate wood carvings on its walls and roofs showing Buddhist myths. It was built as a royal chamber for King Mindon and located within the Mandalay Palace complex.

Under Mindons son, King Thibaw, the building was moved to a site outside of the Mandalay Palace moat and turned into a monastery. During World War II, aerial bombardments destroyed most of the historic buildings inside the Mandalay Palace complex, leaving the Shwe Nan Daw Kyaung Monastery as the only remaining original structure from the 19th-century palace.

In 1996, Myanmars Archaeological Department submitted the monastery for inclusion on Unescos World Heritage List, where it remains under consideration by the UN body.The broadband ISP division of John Lewis has further discounted all of their packages until 27th March 2018, which sees their 17Mbps bundle with phone line rental drop to 20 per month, while 38Mbps is now 27.50 and 76Mbps becomes 32.50 for the first 12 months of service.

Keith is a computer engineer and website developer from Dorset (England) who also assists, on a part-time basis, in the general upkeep of ISPreview.co.uk's systems and services. He also writes the occasional editorial and special offer article. Find me on Contacts

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Please note that news comments are anonymous, which means that we do NOT require you to enter any real personal details to post a message. By clicking to submit a post you agree to storing your comment content, display name, IP, email and / or website details in our database, for as long as the post remains live.Only the submitted name and comment will be displayed in public, while the rest will be kept private (we will never share this outside of ISPreview, regardless of whether the data is real or fake). This comment system uses submitted IP, email and website address data to spot abuse and spammers. All data is transferred via an encrypted (https secure) session.Sometimes your comment might not appear immediately due to site cache (this is cleared every few hours) or it may be caught by automated moderation / anti-spam.Comments that break our rules, spam, troll or post via known fake IP/proxy servers may be blocked or removed.A new study shows APJ companies have a critical need for digital transformation, but only 17% of organisations have a fully-formed digital transformation strategy.

CA Technologies has unveiled its latest Asia Pacific and Japan study on digital transformation, and notes that nearly 80% of business and IT leaders surveyed agreed that their industries have been "impacted by digital disruption".

However, despite this realisation, the study shows that "most organisations are lagging when it comes to staying relevant and competitive in this digital economy, as only 17% surveyed have fully-formed digital transformation strategies."

We're told CA Technologies' "Asia Pacific & Japan Digital Transformation Impact and Readiness Study," a detailed 21-page report available for free download after free registration, was carried out in late 2017, and "examined the digital transformation strategies of 900 business and IT leaders across nine APJ markets: Australia, China, Hong Kong, India, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea and Thailand".

According to the survey findings, not only have 78% of respondents felt their industries and their jobs have been impacted by digital disruption, but that "the majority also agreed that these changes will be augmented in the next three to five years".

Mismatched pressures and priorities for digital transformation in APJ

In a new world that is defined by digital engagement, CA Technologies says "the competitive differentiation for organisations, and even governments, is increasingly determined by their ability to transform themselves digitally and build software into their business strategies".

The survey found that "fast evolving economic conditions, meeting of changing customer expectations and using digital transformation as a new edge in winning against traditional competitors were listed as the biggest pressures for digital transformation in the region".

However, as noted above, only "17% have fully-formed digital transformation strategies, and only 9% are looking at fully digitising their entire organisations".

Further, "while just a little over half (51%) of the organisations surveyed have launched digital transformation projects with clear corporate goals, such as increasing productivity and boosting revenue".

CA Technologies says this finding "mirrors the top three business priorities that organisations in APJ are focused on solving today, namely optimising operational efficiency, improving workforce collaboration, and reducing operational costs".

According to the findings, priorities such as "creating different business models and/or revenue streams; developing new products and services; improving customer experience; and attracting and retaining workforce are deemed to be less important".

"This demonstrates a clear misalignment between the business priorities that leaders are focused on achieving today and the top pressures that are driving their organisations digital transformation journey.

"The discrepancy between business priorities and the pressure to change is particularly evident when it comes to customer experience. Although changing customer expectations is highlighted as one of the main drivers for digital transformation, improving customer experience has been ranked sixth out of the seven priorities."

Martin Mackay, president and general manager of CA Technologies, Asia Pacific & Japan, said: "In an era where brands are defined by the digital experiences they offer, it is imperative that companies put customers at the heart of their business.

"When software is built into their business strategies, organisations will be able to deliver an enhanced customer experience; and have the insights and tools to shape and predict new customer demands, create new services, revenue streams and business models.

Mackay continued: To thrive in the application economy, organisations need to move IT, especially software, from a supporting role to a central enabler by reinventing their software development and delivery processes so that they can consistently develop high-quality applications that can enhance customer experience and deliver business value at scale.

In short, organisations need to build a Modern Software Factory where agility, automation, insights and security work together to power their digital transformation.

Janice Cox, CA Technologies A/NZ Managing Director said: Australian consumers are increasingly becoming social and digital natives. Consumers want to interact with brands on their terms - when they want to and via their preferred communication channels.

"For organisations to thrive in this digital economy they must embrace and be prepared to tackle changes head on. Businesses can no longer be built to last, but must be built to change. A significant contributor to this shift is digital transformation.

Here's the infographic summarising the key findings of the research, which can also be seen here in full size and full resolution:

Here's more on the CA Technologies Asia Pacific & Japan Digital Transformation Impact and Readiness Study:

CA Technologies notes that it "commissioned and completed a survey of 900 business and IT leaders across nine markets in the APJ region  Australia, China, Hong Kong, India, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea and Thailand - in late 2017. The objectives of the study were to measure the impact of digital disruption in the region and understand how organisations are managing their digital transformation.

"All survey respondents came from mid- to large-sized organisations with more than 250 employees, with almost half (47%) of those interviewed representing large organisations with more than 1,000 staff. All respondents were decision makers  74% for business decisions and 26% for IT decisions. All surveyed leaders were also involved in digital transformation initiatives in their organisations, with 74% being key decisions makers in digital transformation projects."

The full 21-page research paper is here, available for free download after free registration.

iTWire's three-part series on the content at last year's CA World 2017 can be seen and read here.A bill which will enable courts to decide cases in which the US Government seeks access to data stored abroad by American companies is unlikely to pass through Congress in time to resolve a case involving Microsoft.

A hearing in the Supreme Court on Tuesday did not give any indication of which way the case would go, with conservative judges, like Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Samuel Alito, backing the government's arguments, according to Reuters.

Liberals, like Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Sonia Sotomayor, asked whether the court needed to act, as Congress could legislate to cover such cases.

Microsoft was asked in 2013 by a Southern District of New York court to surrender emails which were stored in Ireland, based on a warrant which claimed they were sought in connection with a case of alleged drug trafficking.

The company resisted but was held in contempt andin April 2014 to obey the issued warrant.

But Microsoft then appealed the verdict to the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit based in New York. The decision was reversed in July 2016.

In January 2017, the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit split 4-4 on a government bid to get it to hear an appeal against its own verdict. The government then appealed to the Supreme Court.

The bill put forward by Republican Senator Orrin Hatch, titled The Law Enforcement Access to Data Stored Abroad Act, would make some changes to the 1986 Stored Communications Act. Both Microsoft and the government back the changes.

Had this bill been in force, then the ongoing case would be rendered moot.

First, authorities would have to obtain a warrant under the Electronic Communication Privacy Act to obtain any content stored abroad but the warrant would not make this compulsory unless the account holder was an "US person" - a US citizen, permanent resident or company incorporated in the US.

The warrant would have to be modified if a provider proves to the court that it would violate the laws of a foreign country in obeying the warrant.

Hatch's proposed bill also seeks to speed up requests made under mutual legal assistance treaties, by digitising the process.

Finally, it seeks to avoid making data providers subject to data localisation requirements. "Such requirements are incompatible with the borderless nature of the Internet, an impediment to online innovation, and unnecessary to meet the needs of law enforcement," it says.

Microsoft has 40 data centres outside the US and is the first American company to challenge a warrant seeking data that is stored abroad.

Disclosures by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden in June 2013 that the NSA was conducting blanket surveillance of all electronic communications has spooked many businesses.

Many American companies have been affected and email and data storage providers are now offering to hold data in the customers' own location as a form of reassurance. For example, in March 2016, Microsoft announced that it would be setting up cloud services in a German data centre, offering Microsoft Azure, Office 365 and Dynamics CRM Online.

In order to avoid a repeat of the ongoing Dublin imbroglio, Microsoft said it would have no access to the data unless permitted to do so; it said the keys, both logical and physical, that controlled access to customer data, would be held by a German company T-Systems, a subsidiary of Deutsche Telekom, that would act as a data trustee.

The Supreme Court verdict is expected before the end of June.After the demise of the Ubuntu Phone, Linux users appear to be placing their hopes for a mobile device on the Librem 5, a smartphone that managed to raise much more than it asked for in a crowd-funding drive. The company behind it, Purism, has said that it hopes to have phones ready next year.

But it seems unlikely that the phone will have any kind of mass appeal. What seems more likely is that it will cater to a fringe market, putting its long-term viability in doubt.

At least, those who are waiting for the Librem 5 are not deceiving themselves by pretending that Android phones are actually Linux phones, as the head of the Linux Foundation Jim Zemlin does.

Only the kernel in Android  a modified Linux kernel  is open source. All the other bits and pieces are locked up under various licences to facilitate Google's slurping up of data to serve its primary function: targeted advertising.

The market is split into two segments, one of which uses Android phones, while the other, richer segment, uses iPhones. Applications have more or less settled the matter; messaging apps like WhatsApp, which have become must-have software, have made it so. No WhatsApp? Then the average punter will not buy your phone.

What is entrenching Android and iOS even more is the fact that many day-to-day tasks are now being accomplished through apps that run on these two mobile operating systems. Checking in for a flight, for example, is done through an airline's own app  which has versions for just these two mobile operating systems. And that's just the first example of many.

While there has been much talk of universal apps, that will run on any system by using a Web interface, the manufacturers themselves will not go down that route as they know full well that controlling standards will ensure them marketshare. It's an old trick, which IBM perfected and Microsoft followed.

If Web apps do exist, then they are poor imitations of the standalone versions, lacking much of the functionality that the mobile apps afford.

For the Linux faithful, there is still the freely developed Ubuntu Touch which is being developed as free operating system. But here again, commonly used mobile apps will not be available; that requires big bucks.

So, in the end, it will only be Linux users who can afford to have two phones  a Linux device for regular use plus an Android/iOS device for those common tasks  who will form the market for Linux smartphones.

Jack Wallen, a Linux user, recently penned a piece about the Librem 5. But even he, a Linux tragic, had to admit that the operating system which will be used, a modified version of the Plasma Mobile O-S developed by the KDE Desktop project, is still raw and has a long way to go before it becomes usable. The question is, just how long will people wait?

My gut feeling is that Ubuntu Phone, with all its imperfections, was the last hope. The Linux bus has now left the station.

The writer has been using Linux on the desktop for the last 18 years and used an Ubuntu Phone until the end of last year.SSL certificate wholesaler Trustico has revoked tens of thousands of certificates that it issued on behalf of digital certificate provider DigiCert, an order that is likely to occasion the purchasers of those certificates much pain.

According to a post by Jeremy Rowley, an official at DigiCert, on the Mozilla Developers security mailing list, Trustico had asked on 2 February for a mass revocation of all certificates that been ordered through the company by end users. His post was titled "How do you handle mass revocation requests?"

Revoked websites will display an error like this from tonight until the certificate is replaced. pic.twitter.com/ZHfX6jPaok  Kevin Beaumont (@GossiTheDog) 28 February 2018

Trustico later told DigiCert that it was holding the private keys which would mean that the certificates were thus compromised.

Rowley said that on 27 February, DigiCert had received a file with 23,000 private keys matched to specific Trustico customers.

Hey I think I found where those #trustico private keys were securely kept! pic.twitter.com/Ykzf0dqaDU  Cryptoki (@Cryptoki) 28 February 2018

"At this time, Trustico has not provided any information about how these certificates were compromised or how they acquired the private keys. As is standard practice for a Certificate Authority, DigiCert never had possession of these private keys," he said.

In a response to Rowley's post, Zane Lucas, general manager at Trustico, said: "We didn't authorise DigiCert to contact our customers and we didn't approve the content of their e-mail. At no time had any private keys been compromised, nor had we ever informed to you that any private keys had been compromised.

"During our many discussions over the past week we put it to you that we believe Symantec to have operated our account in a manner whereby it had been compromised. Your usage of the word compromise has been twisted by you to your benefit and is absolutely defamatory."

In a statement issued at about 6.08am AEDT, DigiCert said: Trustico requested revocation of their Symantec, GeoTrust, Thawte and RapidSSL certificates, claiming the certificates were compromised.

"When we asked for proof of the 'compromise', Trustico did not provide details on why they were requesting the immediate revocation. Trusticos CEO indicated that Trustico held the private keys for those certificates, and then emailed us approximately 20,000 certificate private keys.

"When he sent us those keys, his action gave us no choice but to act in accordance with the CA/Browser Forum Baseline Requirements, which mandate that we revoke a compromised certificate within 24 hours.

"As a CA, we had no choice but to follow the Baseline Requirements. Following our standard revocation process, we gave notice via email to each certificate holder whose private keys had been exposed to us by Trustico, so they could have time to get a replacement certificate.

"In communications today, Trustico has suggested that this revocation is due to the upcoming Google Chrome distrust of Symantec roots. That is incorrect. We want to make it clear that the certificates needed to be revoked because Trustico sent us the private keys; this has nothing to do with future potential distrust dates.

"The upcoming Chrome distrust situation is entirely separate. We are working closely to help customers with certificates affected by the browser distrust, and we are offering free replacement certificates through their existing customer portals. That process is well underway."

With the private key, the CA can absolutely impersonate you. I mean, any CA compromise is bad, but Trustico's behavior makes this an absolute worst case. It's clear that they don't understand how CA's really work either. Ugh. I'm not a customer and don't recommend. 2/2  Jake Williams (@MalwareJake) 28 February 2018

The revocation of the certificates by Trustico appears to be related to its decision to stop dealing with DigiCert. Earlier this month, Trustico stopped using certificates from Symantec.

In the words of Jake Williams, the chief executive of Rendition Infosec and a former hacker with the NSA's elite Tailored Access Operations unit, "Trustico was storing private keys for its customers (something it never should have had, let alone stored,). That's not how CAs are supposed to work. This is insane."

They list many very big customers on their website, and 23k certs is a lot of websites, so fundamentally it raises very big questions about the certificate chain. This never should have been possible.  Kevin Beaumont (@GossiTheDog) 28 February 2018

Another security expert, Briton Kevin Beaumont, said Trustico had emailed 23,000 private keys to certificates "which means the certificates were fundamentally broken - i.e. if you have (the) private key you can decrypt traffic, which the certs were supposed to protect".

The possession of a private key would mean that it is possible to do man-in-the-middle interception, according to Beaumont.

According to one poster, haz31, on the Whirlpool broadband forums, "So seems.... they maybe kept a copy of peoples private keys (never mind how they got them for processing CSRs... maybe they did a silent private key swap).

"They sent them via email to get their certifs from old reseller revoked. This isn't going to be nice for some people to wake up to."

The representative of a Melbourne data centre and hosting service, Micron21, who posted under the name James B on the Whirlpool forums, wrote: "(The) latest news is Trustico have stopped using DigiCert for legal reasons, Trustico new wholesale provider is Comodo (as of a few minutes ago)."

His post was made on 28 February at 8.49pm AEDT.

"Comodo are providing free replacement certificates for any DigiCert certificates for anyone affected, however they won't provide promo code for the free certificates until tomorrow .... so not sure how it will work yet when everything is due to expire in a few hours....," he added.The European Unions General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) goes into effect in May 2018, which means that any organization doing business in or with the EU has six months from this writing to comply with the strict new privacy law. The GDPR applies to any organization holding or processing personal data of E.U. citizens, and the penalties for noncompliance can be stiff: up to 20 million (about $24 million) or 4 percent of annual global turnover, whichever is greater. Organizations must be able to identify, protect, and manage all personally identifiable information (PII) of EU residents even if those organizations are not based in the EU.

Some vendors are offering tools to help you prepare for and comply with the GDPR. What follows is a representative sample of tools to assess what you need to do for compliance, implement measures to meet requirements, and maintain compliance once you reach it.

GDPR assessment tools

Snow Software GDPR Risk Assessment identifies more than 23,000 application versions that hold or transmit personal data. It also provides visibility of devices, users and applications, whether on premises, in the cloud or mobile. Passive scanning means agents do not have to be installed on endpoints. It can flag devices that do not have appropriate GDPR security controls so that the organization knows where its data is, who is using it and how it is protected.

The International Association of Privacy Professionals (IAPP) and TRUSTe GDPR Readiness Assessment tool is available as a special single-user version of the TRUSTe Assessment Manager. Created for IAPP members, it contains more than 60 questions mapped to key GDPR requirements and produces a gap analysis with recommended steps for remediation. The assessment tool is cloud-based and does not require a software download; IAPP members can activate a free account. It integrates with a variety of existing applications and hosting environments, including Amazon Web Services and Alibaba Cloud.

The DB Networks DBN-6300 is a security appliance using artificial intelligence and deep protocol analysis to give visibility into database infrastructure activities. It also non-intrusively discovers databases containing PII and connected applications, and automatically maps how the information is being processed. The DBN-6300 performs passive scanning on a network terminal access point rather than using active scanning, which can miss undocumented databases. It is available as a physical appliance or in an Open Virtualization Format (OVF) and supports database management systems including Oracle server, Microsoft SQL Server, and SAP Sybase ASE. The virtual machine supports VMware vSwitch, dvSwitch, and a software-defined network (SDN) platform configured to allow network tapping.

Opus Globals Third-Party Compliance software as a service (SaaS) solution moves assessment into the supply chain by identifying third parties with whom their customers personal data is shared. Questionnaires about data security controls are automatically sent to third-party users. The tool analyzes responses to determine whether they comply with GDPR requirements and provides recommendations for remediation. This allows the organization to fully document who has access to covered data and how it is protected. This SaaS solution requires no hardware, software, or IT infrastructure.

GDPR implementation tools

Secureprivacy.ai is an automated consent management solution to make websites compliant with GDPR requirements for obtaining informed consent from users for collection and use of data. It also allows them to opt out. Once installed, the Secureprivacy.ai script provides granular page-by-page notifications for the appropriate opt-in and opt-out requirements. Screenshots are saved to document user consent and are available through a dashboard. The solution is formatted for both desktop and mobile devices and includes a plugin for users of WordPress. Documentation includes the user IP address and location and can be easily exported for business and regulatory uses.

Datum Information Value Management for GDPR is a special edition of its information governance software that is preconfigured with GDPR base processes, rules, standards, templates, and frameworks. It aligns an organizations data with regulatory requirements, identifying the data that is covered under the EU privacy rules and the capabilities and controls that are required. The tool discovers the data and how it is used and maps it to the organizations governance process. This allows data to be used and shared with stakeholders across the organization within the requirements of the privacy regulations, and documents compliance for regulators.

SAS for Personal Data Protection creates a unified environment with a single user interface for accessing and managing data. It allows organizations to access, identify, govern, protect, and audit personal data so that they can comply with GDPR requirements that personal data must not only be protected, but must be removed upon request. This combination of SAS software and services allows organizations to blend data types from multiple sources such as Oracle, Apache, and Hadoop, identifying personal data in structured and unstructured sources. Its data governance features enforce policies and protect data through role-based masking and encryption that secures sensitive information while at rest and in use.

Neupart Secure GDPR is based on the companys Secure ISMS security management system. Added features designed for companies to implement and maintain GDPR processes include templates, data protection and impact assessment tools, data breach notification capability, and gap analysis to track your current compliance status. It also provides a data protection officer (DPO) dashboard so DPOs have a single view of key compliance areas.

Neo4j is a graph solution that provides visibility into the organizations data and the connections between and among data. Personal data can reside in many applications at many locations across the enterprise and in the cloud, and must be protected and managed in all locations. Organizations must be able to track data through its lifecycle, from its acquisition through use to removal. To track and control the data, connections among multiple systems and data silos must be understood. The Neo4j native graph database provides this visibility, together with analytics and data integration. It is available either as a download or an online tool.

Aircloak Insights allows organizations to make use of protected data by anonymizing it for analysis so that the results can be shared without restrictions under GDPR. The solution consists of two pieces of software (the Air web frontend and the Cloak anonymization engine) running on two Docker containers for virtualization on Windows and Linux. It works with most popular databases, including a large set of SQL databases.

GDPR maintenance tools

BigID BigOps is a scanning tool that uses machine learning to continuously track changes in PII across the production and development environments in the data center or cloud. Machine learning allows the software to understand known personal data and its contexts, and then discover and catalog all personal data across the data stores. It integrates with automation frameworks such as Jenkins to monitor changes to the data across the development lifecycle, helping to ensure that it remains in compliance with GDPR requirements. It also helps with requirements for data breach response by allowing an organization to compare its data with that in a purloined data dump to determine within minutes if there has been a breach.

OneTrust privacy management software platform automates tasks to enable continued compliance with GDPR requirements for website cookies and maintenance of subject request portals. OneTrust conducts ongoing scans of an organizations web pages to identify and categorize cookies and provides a transparent mechanism for obtaining required cookie consents. The cookie compliance solution includes continuous scanning against a database of 5.5 million cookies. Organizations also can use OneTrust to create a portal and branded web form to deal with user requests for managing PII under GDPR. It can track and document user requests and the organizations response.

FileCloud is known as a enterprise file sharing and syncing platform. It now offers features to ease tasks associated with some GDPR requirements. Privacy settings make it easier to ask users for consent while accessing content from the cloud. Administrator tools allow for the deletion or anonymization of PII for right to be forgotten requests, or to reply to requests for PII that a company has on an individual. FileCloud also addresses the data portability requirement with the ability to export in standard formats.

Loom Systems Sophie for GDPR, which Loom describes as an algorithmic IT operations (AIOps) tool, uses artificial intelligence (AI) to analyze logs and unstructured machine data for immediate visibility into the IT environments. The product has a Find my PII feature that automates the collection of sensitive logs. This makes it easier to comply with GDPRs right to be forgotten mandate, as it allows you to quickly locate and delete personal data when a request to remove is received.Summerville, SC (29483)

Today

Partly cloudy early followed by increasing clouds with showers developing later in the day. High 88F. Winds NE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 30%..

Tonight

Mainly cloudy. Low 71F. Winds light and variable.Reddit Email 483 Shares

Middle East Monitor |  

UK Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson told BBC radio If we know that it has happened, and we can demonstrate it, and if there is a proposal for action where the UK could be useful then I think we should seriously consider it.

Britain would consider joining US military strikes against the Syrian government if there is evidence chemical weapons are being used against civilians, Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said on Tuesday.

Johnson said he hoped Britain and other Western nations would not stand by in the event of a chemical attack, voicing support for limited strikes if there is incontrovertible evidence of the Syrians government involvement.

If we know that it has happened, and we can demonstrate it, and if there is a proposal for action where the UK could be useful then I think we should seriously consider it, Johnson told BBC radio.

Over the past week, Syrias army and its allies have subjected the rebel-held enclave of Ghouta near Damascus to one of the heaviest bombardments of the seven-year war, killing hundreds.

Britain is part of the US-led coalition involved in air attacks on Islamic State in Syria and Iraq, but the government lost a parliamentary vote on the use of force against the Syrian government in 2013.

Johnson said he supported the US decision to fire cruise missile at Syrian government targets last year after almost 100 people, including children, were killed in a gas attack on the opposition-held town of Khan Sheikhoun.

The United Nations accused the Syrian government of being responsible for an attack that used sarin gas.

What we need to ask ourselves as a country and what we in the West need to ask ourselves, is can we allow the use of chemical weapons, the use of these illegal weapons to go unreproved, unchecked, unpunished, Johnson said.

However, he warned there was little international appetite for sustained military action against the Syrian regime.

The people listening to us and this program in eastern Ghouta cannot get the idea the West is going to intervene to change the odds dramatically in their favour, he said.

The Syrian government has repeatedly denied using chemical weapons and said it targets only armed rebels and militants.

This work by Middle East Monitor is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Via Middle East Monitor

-

Bonus video added by Informed Comment:

United Nations: The UK on Syria Ceasefire Vote  Media Stakeout (24 February 2018)Reddit Email 229 Shares

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) |  

US intelligence agencies are gunning for Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner and have leaked charges to the Washington Post that officials in the United Arab Emirates, Israel, China, and Mexico have privately strategized how to use him as a pawn in their power plays with Washington.

Despite denials by his office, the charge against Kushner is clearly being led in some part by National Security Adviser H. R. McMaster, who apparently was frozen out of Kushners diplomatic activities for months and only recently received a commitment that the National Security Council would be read into his meetings with foreign dignitaries.

While the charge that Kushner is at least naive and very possibly corrupt is entirely plausible, we should also be suspicious of the leaks. (And remember, Ed Snowden was villified by the same people for his leaks, but they think it is all right when they do it).

The most troubling aspect of the WaPo story is that Kushner himself was not being accused of doing anything wrong by the intel sources. The central reveal was that the Emiratis, Israelis, Chinese and Mexicans think he is a useful idiot because a) he is inexperienced in the ways of the world and almost terminally gullible and b) because he has a nearly $2 billion balloon note coming due on 666 Fifth Avenue* and hasnt been able to refinance, and so has been going around hat in hand to Gulf, Chinese, (Israeli?) and other investors.

But that foreign officials have had such conversations is not surprising and Kushner could not control them. Why are they a black mark on him in and of themselves? And is Kushner really thought more naive or corrupt than Trump himself? Why the selective leaks?

How do US intel officials know about these discussions within the halls of the Israel and UAE prime ministers offices and the presidential palaces of Mexico and China? They are eavesdropping on the foreign leaders with exactly the tools Ed Snowden told us about, which are apparently more often used for economic espionage than busting terrorism, as in this case. And the most troubling aspect of the US total information awareness doctrine of spying on everyone all the time is that US citizens are inevitably caught up in it, in an assault on the Fourth Amendment.

So look, Kushner probably has played a sinister role in some Trump foreign policy fiascos. It is alleged that he was cultivated by UAE ambassador Yousef Al Otaiba as an ally in the assault on little Qatar, after Qatar pulled out of a finance deal regarding 666 Fifth Avenue. If so, that truly is criminal, and, as Talleyrand said of Napoleon, even worse than a crime, it was a mistake. The Trump stance on the June 5 blockade of Qatar by Saudi Arabia and the UAE likely destroyed the Gulf Cooperation Council that had grouped Saudi Arabia, Oman, Kuwait, Bahrain, the UAE and Qatar since the early 1980s, and the destruction of the GCC is a great gift to Iran. If Kushner played a role in that, he helped destroy the security architecture of the Gulf and gave Iran a leg up in the Middle East. But of course the impetus for all that came from Saudi Crown Prince Muhammad Bin Salman and UAE mover and shaker Muhammad Bin Zayed; Kushner was just a way to get to Trump and to get Trump to tweet approval of the propaganda against Qatar.

Kushner has also been criticized for appearing to imply that his company, in which he still has a minority stake, could smooth the way to visas for Chinese investors in the US.

It would be interesting to hear more about alleged quid pro quos for Kushner et al. with regard to moving the US embassy in Israel to Jerusalem, which will knee-cap US diplomacy in the Muslim world for decades to come. The main impetus for that piece of stupidity, however, appears to have come from sketchy casino magnate Sheldon Adelson.

But these issues are already well known and have been reported on. The intel leaks clearly are intended to get Kushner out of the White House, and they arent actually charging him with anything, only saying that people out there are talking about him.

Michael Wolffs potboiler Fire and Fury depicted Kushner as essentially a liberal Democrat inside the Trump circle.

What we really should be asking is what McMaster and NSA director Mike Rodgers want to do that Kushner is standing in the way of.



Bonus video:

CBS News: Jared Kushner security clearance downgraded



An earlier version of this article misidentified the property as 666 Park Avenue, since the author probably wouldnt be allowed on the premises of either one and so is writing about alien territory.TORONTO, Feb. 27, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Teranga Gold Corporation ("Teranga" or the "Company") (TSX:TGZ) (OTCQX:TGCDF) is pleased to announce that ongoing, early-stage drilling has intersected additional high-grade, near surface and deeper gold mineralization at its newest discovery, Jackhammer Hill, situated on the Golden Hill property in Burkina Faso, West Africa.

Teranga has an earn-in agreement on the Golden Hill property with Boss Resources Limited (ASX:BOE) pursuant to which Teranga, as the operator, can earn an 80% interest in the joint venture upon delivery of a feasibility study and the payment of AUD2.5 million. Teranga is aggressively drilling all five prospects at Golden Hill. Each prospect is located within approximately five kilometres from a central point (Figure 1 in Appendix 1).

Diamond drill results returned to date are confirming that the Jackhammer Hill discovery is a large mineralized system hosting a high-grade central core. Drilling has intersected multiple mineralized zones that are often associated with visible gold, especially within the central area of the prospect.

Jackhammer Hill Prospect Highlights

9 m @ 34.25 g/t Au including 1 m @ 294.4 g/t Au (GHDD-221) - uncut

8 m @ 10.49 g/t Au including 1 m @ 71.93 g/t Au (GHDD-222) - uncut

8 m @ 4.36 g/t Au including 1 m @ 10.19 g/t Au (GHDD-197)

12 m @ 2.68 g/t Au including 4 m @ 5.83 g/t Au (GHDD-225)

Jackhammer Hill  Prior Selected Drill Highlights (Released November 2017)

15 m @ 5.72 g/t Au including 4 m @ 16.37 g/t Au including 1 m @ 42.1 g/t Au (GHDD-104) - uncut

14 m @ 110.6 g/t Au including 5 m @ 306.7 g/t Au including 1 m @ 1,499 g/t Au (GHDD-111) -uncut

Todays positive results continue our strong momentum at the Golden Hill Project and confirm its status as one of the most exciting gold projects in West Africa, said Richard Young, Teranga Golds President & CEO. We have discovered five high-grade prospects at Golden Hill to date, including Jackhammer Hill, increasing our confidence that this project may represent Terangas third gold mine in West Africa.

Jackhammer Hill continues to provide a series of high-grade gold intersections, said David Mallo, Terangas Vice President, Exploration. Although we are still at an early stage of evaluation, we recognize strong potential for considerable upside with continued exploration success as we extend our drilling evaluation program at Jackhammer Hill, both along trend beyond the initial target area and to depth where the mineralized structures remain open for further expansion.

The Golden Hill property is comprised of three adjacent exploration permits covering 470 km2 located in southwest Burkina Faso in the central part of the Hounde Greenstone Belt. This belt hosts a number of high-grade gold discoveries, including the Siou, Yaramoko and Hounde deposits, the latter property being contiguous with Golden Hill. To the south of Golden Hill is another large land position where active exploration programs are well underway.

Jackhammer Hill Prospect

Sixteen diamond drill results from recent drilling at the Jackhammer Hill prospect are reported within this news release (Table 1). Cumulative results from Jackhammer Hill drilling are available on the Companys web-site www.terangagold.com under Exploration.

The gold mineralized zones identified thus far comprise a series of southeast dipping horizons hosted within an altered and sheared diorite intrusive unit. Drilling has been initiated along an approximate 1,000-metre strike extent, predominantly to vertical depths of 50 - 75 metres and locally to vertical depths of approximately 125 metres (GHDD-197). The Jackhammer Hill drilling program completed to date is outlined on Figure 2 in Appendix 1. Additionally, two representative sections demonstrating excellent continuity of mineralization are also included (Figures 3 and 4 in Appendix 1).

A central core portion of the Jackhammer Hill prospect includes a number of intersections reflective of higher-grade visible gold occurrences in the drill core over a current strike extent of 160 metres (Section 0+80 SW to Section 2+40 SW in Figure 2 in Appendix 1). A number of the higher-grade intervals associated with the visible gold occurrences will be re-analyzed by metallic screen (total gold) analytical methods.

Drilling Results Tables

Table 1: Jackhammer Hill Prospect  Selected Drill Highlights

Hole # Northing * Easting * Elevation Azimuth Dip EOH (m) Interval

(m)* Core

length (m)* Grade

(g/t Au) GHDD-194 1230075 452952 339 311 -55 122 52-54 2 1.24 GHDD-195 1230028 452914 335 311 -55 119 78-79 1 1.53 GHDD-196 1230015 452886 332 311 -55 134 24-27 3 1.20 88-91 3 2.37 93-101 8 1.17 GHDD-197 1229872 452925 339 311 -55 221 117-125 8 4.36 Including 117-120 3 10.19 131-132 1 3.32 171-173 2 1.38 176-179 3 1.00 GHDD-198*** 1229890 452825 331 311 -55 110 8-13 5 1.06 13-15 No Sample 15-18 3 1.10 28-31 3 2.16 67-70 3 1.67 GHDD-199*** 1229919 452823 332 311 -55 71 11-13 2 2.16 13-14 No Sample 14-15 1 3.11 45-49 4 1.31 58-60 2 1.50 GHDD-200 1229918 452851 329 311 -55 110 16-19 3 1.46 67-73 6 6.35 GHDD-220*** 1229820 452809 330 311 -55 111 2-4 2 1.00 22-23 No Sample 23-24 1 1.21 26-27 1 1.00 39-42 3 2.00 55-56 1 1.87 63-65 2 1.08 GHDD-221 ** 1229904 452837 329 311 -55 110 34-35 1 1.16 Uncut 62-71 9 34.25 Uncut Including 65-71 6 51.10 Uncut Including 65-66 1 294.4 Cut 62-71 9 4.87 Cut Including 65-71 6 7.02 Cut Including 65-66 1 30.00 GHDD-222 ** 1229930 452869 330 311 -55 109 21-23 No Sample and *** 23-24 1 2.70 38-41 3 1.07 69-70 1 5.90 Uncut 73-81 8 10.49 Uncut Including 78-81 3 26.36 Uncut Including 78-79 1 71.93 Cut 73-81 8 5.25 Cut Including 78-81 3 12.39 Cut Including 78-79 1 30.00 94-95 1 4.97 GHDD-223 1229950 452900 333 311 -55 154 50-52 2 1.05 74-88 14 2.04 Including 74-75 1 10.73 91-94 3 2.30 106-107 1 2.90 132-134 2 4.16 141-144 3 1.40 GHDD-224 1230020 453007 342 311 -55 180 39-40 1 3.63 50-52 2 1.18 GHDD-225 ** 1229948 452877 329 311 -55 110 17-22 5 1.70 and *** 22-23 No Sample 24-25 1 4.46 30-38 8 1.06 66-78 12 2.68 Including 66-70 4 5.83 GHDD-226 1230020 453009 337 311 -55 180 14-15 1 1.16 25-26 1 1.02 49-50 1 1.12 73-74 1 2.63 96-97 1 1.70 GHDD-227 1230003 452994 338 311 -55 140 51-55 4 1.21 126-127 1 1.69 * Intervals calculated with a 0.4 g/t Au cut-off and 2 metres maximum internal dilution. True widths are unknown. UTM's are WGS84-30N Intervals with grade x thickness (gram x metre) of 10 or higher are in highlighted in bold. ** Visible Gold observed in core. Uncut and cut intervals are reported. All individual sample results in excess of 30 g/t Au are cut to that value. *** Hole GHDD-198 encountered an artisanal opening from 13-15 m for which no sample was taken within the 8-18 m mineralized interval. *** Hole GHDD-199 encountered an artisanal opening from 13-14 m for which no sample was taken within the 11-15 m mineralized interval. *** Hole GHDD-220 encountered an artisanal opening from 22-23 m for which no sample was taken within the 22-27 m mineralized interval. *** Hole GHDD-222 encountered an artisanal opening from 21-23 m for which no sample was taken within the 21-24 m mineralized interval. *** Hole GHDD-225 encountered an artisanal opening from 22-23 m for which no sample was taken within the 17-24 m mineralized interval

Competent Persons Statements

Teranga's exploration programs in Burkina Faso are being managed by Peter Mann, FAusIMM. Mr. Mann is a full time employee of Teranga and is not "independent" within the meaning of National Instrument 43-101  Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects (NI 43-101). Mr. Mann has sufficient experience which is relevant to the style of mineralization and type of deposit under consideration and to the activity which he is undertaking to qualify as a "Qualified Person" under NI 43-101. The technical information contained in this news release relating to exploration results are based on, and fairly represents, information compiled by Mr. Mann. Mr. Mann has verified and approved the data disclosed in this release, including the sampling, analytical and test data underlying the information. The RC and diamond core samples are assayed at the BIGGS Laboratory in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso. Mr. Mann has consented to the inclusion in this news release of the matters based on his compiled information in the form and context in which it appears herein.

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains certain statements that constitute forward-looking information within the meaning of applicable securities laws ("forward-looking statements"), which reflects management's expectations regarding Teranga's future growth and business prospects (including the timing and development of new deposits and the success of exploration activities) and opportunities. Wherever possible, words such as objective to, likely, intend to, potential, belief, believe, expects, estimates, plans, anticipated, ability and similar expressions or statements that certain actions, events or results should, or "will" have been used to identify such forward-looking information. Forward-looking statements include, without limitation, all disclosure regarding possible events, conditions or results of operations, future economic conditions and anticipated courses of action. Although the forward-looking statements contained in this press release reflect management's current beliefs based upon information currently available to management and based upon what management believes to be reasonable assumptions, Teranga cannot be certain that actual results will be consistent with such forward-looking statements. Such forward-looking statements are based upon assumptions, opinions and analysis made by management in light of its experience, current conditions and its expectations of future developments that management believe to be reasonable and relevant but that may prove to be incorrect. These assumptions include, among other things, the ability to obtain any requisite governmental approvals, including renewals of the Golden Hill exploration permits in 2018, the accuracy of sampling, analytical and test data underlying the exploration results included herein, gold price, exchange rates, fuel and energy costs, future economic conditions, and anticipated future estimates of free cash flow. Teranga cautions you not to place undue reliance upon any such forward-looking statements.

The risks and uncertainties that may affect forward-looking statements include, among others: the inherent risks involved in exploration and development of mineral properties, including government approvals and permitting, changes in economic conditions, changes in the worldwide price of gold and other key inputs, changes in mine plans and other factors, such as project execution delays, many of which are beyond the control of Teranga, as well as other risks and uncertainties which are more fully described in Teranga's Annual Information Form dated March 29, 2017, and in other filings of Teranga with securities and regulatory authorities which are available at www.sedar.com. Teranga does not undertake any obligation to update forward-looking statements should assumptions related to these plans, estimates, projections, beliefs and opinions change. Nothing in this document should be construed as either an offer to sell or a solicitation to buy or sell Teranga securities. All references to Teranga include its subsidiaries unless the context requires otherwise.

About Teranga

Teranga is a multi-jurisdictional West African gold company focused on production and development as well as the exploration of more than 5,000 km2 of land located on prospective gold belts. Since its initial public offering in 2010, Teranga has produced more than 1.4 million ounces of gold from its operations in Senegal, which as of June 30, 2017 had a reserve base of 2.7 million ounces of gold. Focused on diversification and growth, the Company is advancing its Wahgnion Gold Project, with a recently released positive feasibility study, and conducting extensive exploration programs in three countries: Burkina Faso, Senegal and Cote dIvoire. Teranga has a strong balance sheet and the financial flexibility to execute on its growth strategy. The Company has nearly 4.0 million ounces of gold reserves from its combined Sabodala Gold operations and Wahgnion Gold Project.

Steadfast in its commitment to set the benchmark for responsible mining, Teranga operates in accordance with the highest international standards and aims to act as a catalyst for sustainable economic, environmental, and community development as it strives to create value for all of its stakeholders. Teranga is a member of the United Nations Global Compact and a leading member of the multi-stakeholder group responsible for the submission of the first Senegalese Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative revenue report. The Company's responsibility report is available at www.terangagold.com/responsibilityreport and is prepared in accordance with its commitments under the United Nations Global Compact and in alignment with the Global Reporting Initiative guidelines.

Contact Information Richard Young

President & CEO

T: +1 416-594-0000 | E: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. Trish Moran

Head of Investor Relations

T: +1 416-607-4507 | E: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

APPENDIX 1

Figure 1: Golden Hill Property  Prospect Location Plan Map

Figure 2: Jackhammer Hill Prospect  Drill Plan

Figure 3: Jackhammer Hill Prospect  Representative Drill Section (A - A)

Figure 4: Jackhammer Hill Prospect  Representative Drill Section (B - B)

Jackhammer Hill - Representative Drill Section (B - B')North Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - February 28, 2018) - Lion One Metals Limited (TSXV: LIO) (ASX: LLO) (OTCQX: LOMLF) (FSX: LY1) (the "Company") announces that a surface sample of 502 g/t gold over 0.70 metres has been returned from the Jomaki prospect 1 km from the planned mill site at its 100% owned and fully permitted Tuvatu Gold Project, now in the development stage, located on the island of Viti Levu in the Republic of Fiji.

The high grade assay result was returned from bench sampling, and extends the Jomaki prospect, located 1,300 metres south-west of the main mineralized zone at Tuvatu, and 1 km south-west of the planned mill site. The Jomaki prospect consists of a zone of closely spaced veins that have been mapped over a strike length of 400 metres which remain open to the north and south. This new sample was taken 21 metres east of a previously collected 125 g/t gold result. Both high-grade samples are from steep east dipping veins within the Nadele Breccia (an extrusive volcanic breccia) and near to the contact with the Navilawa Monzonite.

"The objective of Phase One of the 2018 surface exploration program is to confirm zones of high grade gold inside our Mining Lease but distinct from the main zone of mineralization at Tuvatu," said Stephen Mann, "We expect to report further results from the 2018 sampling programs soon."

Figure 1: Geology and surface sampling at the Jomaki Prospect (samples > 2g/t labelled).



Figure 2: 3D view east of the southern prospects



Figure 3: Surface benching at Jomaki showing vein structure dipping steeply east (view south)









For detailed exploration reports including maps, assays, and results, please visit the Company's website at the following address: https://liononemetals.com/tuvatu-project/maps-resources

Figure 4: The Tuvatu Project Area Schematic Project Map



QAQC - Sampling Protocols

An excavator cuts a bench along the side of a slope to expose the geology. Structures are mapped geologically with areas of potential such as faults and veins recorded. Channel samples are from a hand-cut channel collected across mapped structures with the orientation of the channel being orthogonal (perpendicular) to the orientation of the structure and hence approximate the true-width. Channel Samples were logged, mapped, and placed in sealed bags and shipped to the facilities of ALS Global in Brisbane and Townsville, Australia, for sample preparation and multi-element ICP analysis. Rigorous quality assurance and quality control procedures, including the use of blanks, standards (inserted into the sample stream at a ratio of 1:20) and duplicates, identified no material issues. Samples were pulverized and analysed by a 50g gold fire assay with either an atomic absorption, or gravimetric finish / over-limit dilution method for samples initially reporting over 100 g/t gold.

About Tuvatu

Tuvatu is a fully permitted high grade underground gold project located in the South Pacific island Republic of Fiji, 17 km NE of the Nadi International Airport on Fiji's main island of Viti Levu. Tuvatu is a low sulphidation epithermal gold deposit hosted in the eroded remnants of the Navilawa mineral system, one of Fiji's largest mineralized volcanic intrusive complexes. The independent Tuvatu NI 43-101 PEA technical report dated June 1, 2015 envisages a low cost underground gold mining operation producing 352,931 ounces of gold over 7 years at head grades of 11.30 g/t Au, and cash costs of US$567 per ounce with all-in sustaining cost of US$779 per ounce. The Company has not based a production decision on a feasibility study of mineral reserves demonstrating economic and technical viability and as a result there is increased uncertainty and economic and technical risks associated. Tuvatu has been fully permitted by the Government of Fiji for operations start-up and has a dual-track strategy of exploration and development inside its mining lease and surrounding exploration license areas.

Lion One is aggressively advancing Tuvatu as a near-term production opportunity with exploration upside in the southwest Pacific Ring of Fire. Lion One has modelled Tuvatu for exploration after regional giants in the low sulphidation family of high grade epithermal gold deposits such as Porgera and Lihir in Papua New Guinea, and Vatukoula in Fiji, which boast production of over 35 million ounces of gold in similar alkaline volcanic settings.

Additional information including NI 43-101 Technical Reports for the Tuvatu Gold Project is available at www.liononemetals.com and at www.sedar.com

Qualified Person

Technical information relating to geology and exploration in this news release concerning the Company's 2018 Surface Exploration Program has been reviewed and approved by Lion One Managing Director Stephen Mann, member of The Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy, and a Qualified Person ("QP") under NI 43-101.

About Lion One

Lion One Metals Limited is a mineral exploration and development company based in North Vancouver, BC, focused on advancing to production at its 100% owned and fully permitted high grade underground Tuvatu Gold Project located on the island of Viti Levu in the Republic of Fiji. Lion One's CEO Walter Berukoff is leading an experienced team of mine builders, and has owned or operated over 20 mines in 7 countries. As the founder and former CEO of Miramar Mines, Northern Orion, and La Mancha Resources, Walter is credited with building over $3 billion of value for shareholders.

On behalf of Lion One Metals Limited

"Walter H. Berukoff"

Chief Executive Officer

For further information please contact

This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Stephen Mann, Managing Director (Perth, Australia) Tel: 604-973-3007Hamish Greig, Vice President (North Vancouver, BC) Tel: 604-973-3008Joe Gray, Investor Relations (North Vancouver, BC) Tel: 604-973-3004Toll Free IR Line (North America) Tel: 1-855-805-1250Email:

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Service Provider accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

This press release may contain "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities legislation. All statements, other than statements of historical fact, included herein are forward looking information. Generally, forward-looking information may be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as "plans", "expects" or "does not expect", "proposed", "is expected", "budget", "scheduled", "estimates", "forecasts", "intends", "anticipates" or "does not anticipate", or "believes", or variations of such words and phrases, or by the use of words or phrases which state that certain actions, events or results may, could, would, or might occur or be achieved. This forward-looking information reflects Lion One Metals Limited's current beliefs and is based on information currently available to Lion One Metals Limited and on assumptions Lion One Metals Limited believes are reasonable. These assumptions include, but are not limited to, the actual results of exploration projects being equivalent to or better than estimated results in technical reports, assessment reports, and other geological reports or prior exploration results. Forward-looking information is subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the actual results, level of activity, performance or achievements of Lion One Metals Limited or its subsidiaries to be materially different from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking information. Such risks and other factors may include, but are not limited to: the early stage development of Lion One Metals Limited, general business, economic, competitive, political and social uncertainties; the actual results of current research and development or operational activities; competition; uncertainty as to patent applications and intellectual property rights; product liability and lack of insurance; delay or failure to receive board or regulatory approvals; changes in legislation, including environmental legislation, affecting mining, timing and availability of external financing on acceptable terms; not realizing on the potential benefits of technology; conclusions of economic evaluations; and lack of qualified, skilled labour or loss of key individuals. Although Lion One Metals Limited has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in forward-looking information, there may be other factors that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking information. Lion One Metals Limited does not undertake to update any forward-looking information, except in accordance with applicable securities laws.TORONTO, Feb. 28, 2018 /CNW/ - IAMGOLD Corporation ("IAMGOLD" or the "Company") today provided an update from its Phase II 2017 drilling program at the Saramacca project, located 25 kilometres southwest of its Rosebel Gold Mine ("RGM") in Suriname. Following the disclosure of an initial resource estimate (see news release dated September 5th, 2017), the Company re-commenced drilling operations and completed a further 97 diamond drill holes totaling 24,282 metres to continue to delineate the Saramacca deposit. The primary focus of the program was to increase confidence in the resource and to target resource expansions immediately adjacent to the initial resource pit shell. Assay results from the remaining 60 diamond drill holes totaling nearly 14,360 metres are reported herein.

Assay intersections relating to this release are provided in Table 1 and include the following highlights:

Infill Drill Holes:

SMDD17-231: 46.0 metres grading 11.73 g/t Au

SMDD17-249: 29.5 metres grading 2.52 g/t Au

SMDD17-267: 28.5 metres grading 2.47 g/t Au

Expansion Drill Holes:

SMDD17-218: 15.0 metres grading 22.90 g/t Au

SMDD17-227: 32.5 metres grading 2.28 g/t Au

SMDD17-248: 31.5 metres grading 3.70 g/t Au

SMDD17-255: 10.5 metres grading 22.48 g/t Au

and : 10.5 metres grading 2.99 g/t Au

(Figure 1, attached to this news release, shows a drill hole plan map)

Craig MacDougall, Senior Vice President, Exploration for IAMGOLD, stated: "The completion of our phase II delineation drilling program has continued to deliver strong results and allow us to refine our resource model. We are currently incorporating these results in an updated resource model, which when coupled with the ongoing engineering studies, is expected to allow us to upgrade the project to a reserve status in 2018. As we have previously stated, we are continuing to advance towards production in 2019."

2018 Exploration Program

In 2018, approximately 50,000 metres of diamond and RC drilling are planned to continue infill drilling of the Saramacca deposit to improve resource classification, declare reserves and advance mine design studies ahead of production. Exploration activities are also expanding to explore the greater Saramacca trend for additional zones of mineralization, including on the recently acquired Brokolonko concession (see news release dated January 24, 2018).

In addition to the ongoing exploration program described above, the Rosebel mine team is working to advance the Saramacca deposit towards production. An Environmental and Social Impact Study (ESIA) is underway and preliminary engineering work is advancing on mine design and various infrastructure elements, such as ore transport options, access roads, and waste rock disposal. In addition, field work has commenced to provide geotechnical and hydrogeological information and to complete condemnation work over areas of the proposed site infrastructure. A comprehensive metallurgical testing program has commenced to refine the recovery assumptions and to test the crushing and grinding characteristics of the mineralization.

About the Saramacca Project

The Saramacca project is strategically located approximately 25 kilometres southwest of the Rosebel Gold Mine milling facility. Mineralization is hosted in the Paramaka Formation within the lower part of the Marowijne Greenstone Belt, which is dominated by metamorphosed basalts in the immediate project area. These are traversed by the regional, northwest trending Saramacca shear zone, which is believed to be an important deformation zone for the localization of gold mineralization.

On August 30, 2016, the Company signed a letter of intent with the Government of Suriname to acquire rights to the Saramacca property, with the intent of defining a National Instrument 43-101 mineral resource within 24 months. The terms of the letter included an initial payment of $0.2 million, which enabled immediate access to the property for Rosebel's exploration team to conduct due diligence, as well as access to the data from previous exploration activity at the Saramacca property. On September 30, 2016, having been satisfied with the results of the due diligence, the Company ratified the letter of intent to acquire the Saramacca property and subsequently paid $10 million in cash and agreed to issue 3.125 million IAMGOLD common shares to the Government of Suriname in three approximately equal annual instalments on each successive anniversary of the date the right of exploration was transferred to Rosebel (December 14, 2016). In addition, the agreement provides for a potential upward adjustment to the purchase price based on the contained gold ounces identified in measured and indicated resource categories as estimated in a National Instrument 43-101 compliant mineral resource estimate, within the first 24 months, to a maximum of $10 million.

The Saramacca project falls within the "UJV" area as defined in an Agreement with the Government of Suriname announced on April 15, 2013. The Agreement establishes a joint venture growth vehicle under which Rosebel would hold a 70% participating interest and the Government will acquire a 30% participating interest on a fully-paid basis.

On September 5th, 2017, the Company announced the first mineral resource estimate in accordance with the Canadian Institute of Mining, Metallurgy and Petroleum ("CIM") Definition Standards incorporated by reference in National Instrument 43-101 ("NI 43-101") for the Saramacca deposit, and subsequently filed a NI 43-101 Technical Report available on the Company's website at www.iamgold.com or under the Company's profile at www.sedar.com. The resource estimate comprises 14.4 million tonnes of indicated resources averaging 2.20 grams of gold per tonne for 1,022,000 ounces and 13.6 million tonnes of inferred resources averaging 1.18 grams of gold per tonne for 518,000 ounces. Approximately 60% of the resources are contained within shallow, softer laterite and saprolite hosted mineralization. The Saramacca deposit is believed to have significant potential for expansion.

Qualified Persons and Technical Information

The drilling results contained in this news release have been prepared in accordance with National Instrument 43-101 Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects ("NI 43-101").

The "Qualified Person" responsible for the supervision of the preparation, verification and review of the technical information in this release is Caroline Laplante, P. Geo., Country Exploration Manager of the regional exploration team at the Rosebel Gold Mine in Suriname. She is considered a "Qualified Person" for the purposes of National Instrument 43-101 with respect to the technical information being reported on. The technical information has been included herein with the consent and prior review of the above noted Qualified Person.

The information in this news release was reviewed and approved by Craig MacDougall, P.Geo., Senior Vice President, Exploration for IAMGOLD. Mr. MacDougall is a Qualified Person as defined by National Instrument 43-101.

The sampling of, and assay data from, drill core is monitored through the implementation of a quality assurance - quality control (QA-QC) program designed to follow industry best practice. Drill core (HQ and NQ size) samples are selected by the IAMGOLD geologists and sawn in half with a diamond saw at the Rosebel mine site. Half of the core is retained at the site for reference purposes. Sample intervals may vary from half a metre to one and a half metres in length depending on the geological observations.

Samples are transported in sealed bags to FILAB in Paramaribo, Suriname, a representative lab of ALS. FILAB is an ISO 9001 (2008) and ISO/IEC 17025 accredited laboratory. Samples are weighed and coarse crushed to <2.5 mm, and 350-450 grams is pulverized to 85% passing <100 m. Samples are analyzed for gold using standard fire assay technique with a 50 gram charge and an Atomic Absorption (AA) finish and since phase II 2017 a gravimetric finish when grade exceeds 5 ppm. IAMGOLD inserts blanks and certified reference standard in the sample sequence for quality control. Samples representative of the various lithologies are collected from each drill hole and measured for bulk density at the site RGM laboratory.

Forward Looking Statement

This news release contains forward-looking statements. All statements, other than of historical fact, that address activities, events or developments that the Company believes, expects or anticipates will or may occur in the future (including, without limitation, statements regarding expected, estimated or planned gold production, cash costs, margin expansion, capital expenditures and exploration expenditures and statements regarding the estimation of mineral resources, exploration results, potential mineralization, potential mineral resources and mineral reserves) are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are generally identifiable by use of the words "will", "should", "continue", "expect", "estimate", "believe", "plan" or "project" or the negative of these words or other variations on these words or comparable terminology. Forward-looking statements are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond the Company's ability to control or predict, that may cause the actual results of the Company to differ materially from those discussed in the forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause actual results or events to differ materially from current expectations include, among other things, without limitation, failure to meet expected, estimated or planned gold production, cash costs, margin expansion, capital expenditures and exploration expenditures and failure to establish estimated mineral resources, the possibility that future exploration results will not be consistent with the Company's expectations, changes in world gold markets and other risks disclosed in IAMGOLD's most recent Form 40-F/Annual Information Form on file with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission and Canadian provincial securities regulatory authorities. Any forward-looking statement speaks only as of the date on which it is made and, except as may be required by applicable securities laws, the Company disclaims any intent or obligation to update any forward-looking statement.

About IAMGOLD

IAMGOLD (www.iamgold.com) is a mid-tier mining company with four operating gold mines on three continents. A solid base of strategic assets in North and South America and West Africa is complemented by development and exploration projects and continued assessment of accretive acquisition opportunities. IAMGOLD is in a strong financial position with extensive management and operational expertise.

For further information please contact:

Ken Chernin, VP Investor Relations, IAMGOLD Corporation

Tel: (416) 360-4743 Mobile: (416) 388-6883

Laura Young, Director, Investor Relations, IAMGOLD Corporation

Tel: (416) 933-4952 Mobile: (416) 670-3815

Martin Dumont, Senior Analyst Investor Relations, IAMGOLD Corporation

Tel: (416) 933-5783 Mobile: (647) 967-9942

Toll-free: 1-888-464-9999 This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Table 1: Diamond Drill Hole Assay Results

A: Infill drilling along the main mineralized structures (main fault) within resource pit shell HOLE-ID Local UTM grid End of

hole

(m) Azimuth

() Dip

() From

(m) To

(m) Interval

(m) True

Width

(m)3 Au

(g/t) Au (g/t)

(capped at

30 g/t Au)2 Easting Northing Elev. SMDD17-231 32621 63174 927 299 35 -50 218 264 46 21.82 11.73 11.73 282 297.5 15.5 7.35 2.57 2.57 SMDD17-233 31848 64412 734 125 35 -50 100.5 106.5 6 2.5 0.61 0.61 SMDD17-234 32077 64223 768 171 215 -50 No significant results SMDD17-241 32239 63846 878 120 35 -50 88.5 103.5 15 7.54 1.24 1.24 SMDD17-249 32588 63127 932 390 35 -50 332 361.5 29.5 17.63 2.52 2.52 SMDD17-266 32676 63169 923 169 35 -50 159 169 10 4.7 0.73 0.73 B: Expansion drilling along the main mineralized structures (main fault) below resource pit shell HOLE-ID Local UTM grid End of

hole

(m) Azimuth

() Dip

() From

(m) To

(m) interval

(m) True

Width

(m)3 Au

(g/t) Au (g/t)

(capped at 30

g/t Au)2 Easting Northing Elev. SMDD17-221 31962 64575 708 300 215 -50 146.15 154.4 8.25 5.69 3.62 3.62 238 259.5 21.5 15.99 0.92 0.92 SMDD17-227 32170 64513 716 483 215 -50 9 21 12 7.91 0.83 0.83 363 370.1 7.1 5.68 1.56 1.56 448.5 481 32.5 28.17 2.28 2.28 SMDD17-238 32560 63087 935 459 35 -50 428 436.5 8.5 5.28 1.64 1.64 SMDD17-246 32356 63574 897 294 35 -50 No significant results SMDD17-252 32334 64161 760 399 215 -48 No significant results SMDD17-253 32666 63585 886 290 215 -50 0 7.5 7.5 5.1 2.01 2.01 244.5 250.5 6 3.78 2.44 2.44 SMDD17-254 32797 63513 866 212 215 -52 No significant results - hole did not reach the target SMDD17-254A 32799 63512 865 422 215 -50 309.5 327 17.5 11.57 0.67 0.67 SMDD17-255 32189 64372 716 403 215 -50 0 12 12 8.15 0.89 0.89 305 311 6 4.67 0.65 0.65 339.5 350 10.5 8.36 22.48 5.68 356 366.5 10.5 8.42 2.99 2.99 SMDD17-258 31768 64046 796 327 35 -50 No significant results - hole did not reach the target SMDD17-268 32256 63519 879 426 35 -52 397 418.7 21.7 12.02 2.16 2.16 C: Infill drilling along the secondary mineralized structures within resource pit shell HOLE-ID Local UTM grid End of

hole

(m) Azimuth

() Dip

() From

(m) To

(m) interval

(m) True

Width

(m)3 Au

(g/t) Au (g/t)

(capped at

30 g/t Au)2 Easting Northing Elev. SMDD17-224 31980 64517 716 180 215 -50 0 9 9 6.09 2.27 2.27 49.5 69 19.5 12.55 1.11 1.11 SMDD17-229 32913 63258 897 155 35 -50 No significant results SMDD17-236 32219 63999 825 135 35 -50 109.5 121.5 12 5.97 5.26 5.26 SMDD17-239 32211 64152 777 80 215 -55 10.5 26.5 16 9.62 2.14 2.14 34 47 13 7.88 1.16 1.16 66.5 79 12.5 7.55 0.83 0.83 SMDD17-245 32257 64304 712 32 215 -50 No significant results - hole did not reach the target SMDD17-245A 32255 64305 712 330 215 -50 19.5 25.5 6 4.02 0.87 0.87 289.5 303 13.5 10.27 3.04 3.04 SMDD17-259 32749 63701 860 243 215 -50 0 15 15 10.14 0.65 0.65 SMDD17-261 32239 64197 755 303 215 -50 1.5 9 7.5 5.09 2.93 2.93 146.75 152 5.25 3.77 3.42 3.42 226.5 234 7.5 5.6 1.95 1.95 SMDD17-264 32782 63404 888 105 35 -50 0 8 8 4.33 1.3 1.3 SMDD17-267 32758 63194 916 306 35 -50 46.5 52.5 6 3.03 1.58 1.58 85.5 114 28.5 13.11 2.47 2.47 269.1 280.5 11.4 5.52 1.97 1.97 SMDD17-270 32858 63164 909 310 35 -50 4.5 25.5 21 11.34 1.34 1.34 31.5 42 11 5.61 1.03 1.03 51 57 6 3.19 1.75 1.75 142.5 153 10.5 5.5 3.71 3.71 D: Expansion drilling along the secondary mineralized structures below resource pit shell HOLE-ID Local UTM grid End of

hole

(m) Azimuth

() Dip

() From

(m) To

(m) interval

(m) True

Width

(m)3 Au

(g/t) Au (g/t)

(capped at

30 g/t Au)2 Easting Northing Elev. SMDD17-218 32215 64504 710 152 215 -50 10.5 25.5 15 10.09 1.38 1.38 96 111 15 9.71 22.9 8.8 SMDD17-219 31894 64651 684 104 215 -50 No significant results SMDD17-220 32261 64569 682 150 215 -50 4.5 12 7.5 5.11 2.61 2.61 SMDD17-222 32863 63517 855 213 215 -50 181.5 198 16.5 10.81 1.43 1.43 SMDD17-223 32324 64482 692 156 215 -50 No significant results SMDD17-226 32944 63453 861 231 215 -50 No significant results SMDD17-230 32482 64622 676 168 215 -50 No significant results SMDD17-232 32433 64543 687 177 215 -50 0 6 6 4.06 0.96 0.96 SMDD17-235 32410 64694 661 156 215 -50 No significant results SMDD17-237 32371 64640 666 150 215 -50 No significant results SMDD17-240 32378 64042 786 306 215 -50 141 150 9 6.25 1.24 1.24 SMDD17-242 32815 63623 857 213 215 -50 184.5 199.5 15 10.07 0.89 0.89 SMDD17-243 32428 64024 793 240 215 -50 No significant results SMDD17-244 32835 63564 857 188 215 -50 No significant results SMDD17-247 32884 63546 850 276 215 -50 249 263 14 10.37 1.74 1.74 SMDD17-248 32917 63502 856 303 215 -50 0 6 6 4.07 0.69 0.69 270 301.5 31.5 22.95 3.7 3.7 SMDD17-250 32247 64377 710 156 215 -47 No significant results SMDD17-251 33001 63278 891 300 215 -50 39 45 6 4.18 1.87 1.87 64.5 70.5 6 4.05 1.35 1.35 238.5 246 7.5 4.81 0.81 0.81 SMDD17-256 32647 63730 867 411 215 -52 270 276 6 3.97 8.44 8.44 SMDD17-257 32001 64628 694 86 215 -50 0 9 9 6.11 1.31 1.31 31.5 39.65 8.15 5.52 1.44 1.44 SMDD17-260 32528 63733 864 258 35 -50 3 8.3 5.3 2.85 0.6 0.6 235 241.5 6.5 3.54 3.89 3.89 SMDD17-262 32661 63485 893 276 35 -50 0 9 9 4.92 0.92 0.92 183 193.7 10.7 5.78 1.77 1.77 SMDD17-263 32468 63822 864 276 35 -50 No significant results SMDD17-265 32384 64139 760 336 215 -50 249 255 6 4.7 1.47 1.47 279 284 5 3.98 1.2 1.2 SMDD17-269 32235 64535 696 246 215 -50 No significant results SMDD17-271 31776 64749 659 387 35 -50 No significant results SMDD17-272 32119 64371 725 219 35 -56 25.5 33 7.5 3.40 2.69 2.69 85.5 93 7.5 3.52 1.29 1.29 SMDD17-273 32129 64467 722 162 35 -55 No significant results SMDD17-274 32159 64422 720 101 35 -50 No significant results E: Expansion drilling along strike at the North West end of resource pit shell HOLE-ID Local UTM grid End of

hole

(m) Azimuth

() Dip

() From

(m) To

(m) interval

(m) True

Width

(m)3 Au (g/t) Au (g/t)

(capped at

30 g/t Au)2 Easting Northing Elev. SMDD17-217 31597 64925 572 198 215 -50 No significant results F: Exploration drilling North of resource pit shell SMDD17-225 32598 64788 633 150 250 -50 No significant results SMDD17-228 32540 64704 654 150 215 -50 No significant resultsVancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - February 27, 2018) - Secova Metals Corp. (TSXV: SEK) (FSE: N4UN) (OTC: SEKZF) ("Secova" or the "Company") is very pleased to announce that the Company has acquired 1151640 B.C. Ltd., a private B.C. Company which sole assets are the Muskrat, Boudrais and Peribonka-Begin Cobalt Projects that consist of 40 claims or approximately 2,186 hectares in eastern Quebec.

The Company plans to immediately commence initial airborne mag surveys to delineate targets on the new properties along with its wholly owned Cobalt Bay project, which could be then followed up with detailed ground exploration programs.

Secova could not ignore the high-levels of interest for the cobalt metal demand due to a globally increased need for electric vehicles. Observing the spot price of the metal rise from $10USD/lb to now over $35USD/lb in a matter of eight months. This positions the Company and its shareholders in a prime position to take full advantage of the high potential the interest of the interest in the metals its garnering.

"Secova's cobalt property portfolio now represents an opportunistic and strategic investment that is consistent with the Company's management goals of enhancing the value of the company for our shareholders," stated Brad Kitchen, President, CEO and Chairman of Secova Metals Corp. "The Company will use its expertise and success in assessing historic projects and developing early-staged projects in advancing to exploration plans that can effectively and efficiently define a potential resource. There is a huge demand for cobalt and the supply chain dynamics of sourcing non-conflict supply of the metal is growing rapidly fuelled by the expected surge in the production of electric vehicles. Value creation for our shareholders is our goal and we are driving towards potentially discovering an economically minable deposit with gold at Duvay/Chenier and the Eagle River projects and also with cobalt in its, now, four cobalt projects."

The 24 claims (or 1,300 hectares), which comprise the Muskrat Cobalt project, is located in the Riviere aux Rats area of Quebec and is adjacent to and on trend of the McNickel deposit which has 5.9Mt of indicated and an inferred resource of 0.029% Cobalt (and 0.209% nickel and 0.106% copper).

The Boudrias Cobalt project, located in Godbout, Quebec, which consists of six claims (336 hectares). Historically, several showings have identified up to 10% sulphides and also coincident already identified magnetic anomalies. These historic showings have provided results of up to 2.5% combined nickel and copper. Disseminated pentlandite-pyrrhotite with chalcopyrite is hosted in metagabbros or gabbros. Well-defined major structures trending NE-SW, NW-SE and WNW-ESE are believed to be associated with the intrusion of gabbros and the development of mineralization of magmatic origin. Cobalt which was not analyzed yet, in at least in the younger rocks, can be enriched in pyrrhotite-rich rocks where other metals are not present.

The third cobalt project acquired is the Peribonka-Begin property which is located in Lamarche, Quebec, just south east of the Muskrat project. This project consists of 10 claims (550 hectares) that has three historic copper-nickel mineralized showings.

These three projects now comprise Secova's cobalt project portfolio, along with the Cobalt Bay Project that is 102 km north of Secova's Eagle River Project in the Windfall Lake area of Quebec and 209 km north northeast of its Duvay/Chenier project near Amos. Historic work on Cobalt Bay has shown that past results have been very promising, including drilling results from 1957 when the New Jersey Zinc Company returned 0.068% cobalt over 4.5 meters, including 1.5 meters of 0.17% cobalt. Secova will use its expertise in the area to develop a systematic exploration plan to determine the extent of the potential cobalt mineralization in its extensive portfolio.

The acquisition is an arms-length transaction in which the Company will issue 20.5 million common shares by way of a share exchange agreement. The Company is not paying any finders' fees. The issuance of common shares for the acquisition of the private company are subject to TSX Venture Exchange approval.

PDAC Conference in Toronto

Secova will be attending the Prospectors and Developers Conference ("PDAC") in Toronto which starts on March 4th to March 7th. We welcome you to stop by Booth #3329 to meet the team if you plan on attending.

About Secova Metals Corp.

Secova Metals Corp. is a Canadian exploration company focused on building a strong asset base through exploration of undervalued projects in Canada. Management has demonstrated expertise in advancing gold exploration projects into acquisition targets, most notably in the province of Quebec. Secova has the exclusive right and option to acquire from Tres-Or Resources Inc. ("Tres-Or"), an undivided 65% right, title and interest in the contiguous Duvay/Chenier Gold Projects. Secova can earn up to 90% of the property (an additional 25% ownership) by funding a pre-feasibility study after the initial exploration expenditures to bring the property towards production. The Company has a total contiguous land package of 174 claims covering over 7,766 hectares (17,458 acres) of land. Duvay/Chenier is located in the Abitibi gold belt, one of Quebec's premier mining jurisdictions. The Company has plans to advance the development of Duvay/Chenier as well as seek other avenues of growth through acquisition and mergers. The Company also has 100% ownership of the Eagle River project (21,920 contiguous hectares) which is adjacent to and on-trend to several gold projects in the Windfall Lake district of Urban Barry in Quebec.

For further information about Secova Metals Corp.:

Office: Tel: +1 604-558-5397

Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. Website: www.secovametals.com

On behalf of the Board of Directors

SECOVA METALS CORP.

"Brad Kitchen"

Chairman, CEO and Director

Tel: +1 604-558-5397

This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

This press release contains "forward-looking information" that is based on the Company's current expectations, estimates, forecasts, and projections. This forward-looking information includes, among other things, statements with respect to the Company's exploration and development plans. The words "will", "anticipated", "plans" or other similar words and phrases are intended to identify forward-looking information. Forward-looking information is subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the Company's actual results, level of activity, performance, or achievements to be materially different from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking information.100 Shares Share

Lately, I have been seeing a lot of writing from Pamela Wible, MD. And today, I re-read her article about doctor suicides. As I read and reflected on how medicine has changed during my lifetime, I am struck by the degree to which the humanity scrubbed out of the system. I think about the times when I thought, You know, it is not worth it anymore to do this, I should just go. It is not so much that I wanted to be dead, really, I just wanted out. The urge just to get out, I have heard that urge voiced by many people, they have not wanted to die, they wanted an opportunity to leave a life that lacks good choices, opting to start over. There have been times, where I was, in fact, one of those people.

Lots of doctors kill themselves in hospitals.

When I look at the causes she has assembled, they ring true. I feel the pain of losing a patient, still remembering the first patient who ever died on my watch. The family had already gone ahead to Salt Lake City, we waited for the helicopter, and I remember how we worked to keep her alive. I remember sitting in my office afterward, crying hard because I had let her down, I had failed her, her family, myself. Each death has held a little more sorrow for me; each has given me the opportunity to see suffering up close and notice how it flows within my system as well as those around me.

Malpractice suits can be devastating.

I recall being brought before the College of Physicians and Surgeons to have my work reviewed and questioned.

I was feeling judged: for the work I did, for giving my very best, and feeling that somehow my best was not good enough. Its not good enough, so you will be punished for my failures as if failure itself was not punishment enough. The opportunity to have others review my work, point out shortcomings, has a heaviness to it that cannot be erased.

In these cases, even if the tribunal finds that you did what you should, there is a taint that lingers, you are somehow not that good, you are somehow not living up to your potential, that you are letting people down. And the fatigue that comes from the relentless second-guessing after these moments wears upon your soul.

Assembly-line medicine kills doctors. Pressure from insurance companies and government mandates crush these talented people who just want to help patients.

Having your practice audited by billing authorities, as they review your documentation, finding fault with the way that you record your work and their approach  guilty until proven innocent hurts. It has a familiar feeling that somehow you are not doing what you should. The process leaves you feeling you somehow committed fraud  a feeling that lingers long after the process is completed. You feel like the work you have done is somehow not enough, and the efforts you have made to do the right thing are insufficient. You are caught between doing the work that patients need and producing the work that the system needs to justify your payments.

The relentless grind of the work, never really knowing if what you are doing is enough, if the efforts you are making will satisfy the examiners, so you second guess, again and again. Once again,

wondering if what you have done is right.

Theres no time for our own pain.

There is always a pressure in this work. There is the pressure to see just one more person, to work one more person into a schedule that is already full, to just take one minute and call in that prescription. There is pressure when after a long day, the hospital calls and the families want to talk; they want to understand why their loved one is sick, what is being done and how it will all turn out. There is pressure when patients want answers as to why they are sick, and, when the work-up has been negative, we dont know is not a good enough answer. There is pressure when people want something that I feel uncomfortable giving them when they are asking me to do something I feel is bad medicine. There is that sick feeling at the end of the visit when they walk away mad; you feel like you have once again let people down by trying to do your best. And when you take a moment, when you take some time to take care of yourself, there are always those who are mad that you are not available exactly when they need you.

These decisions, these pressures, so many that do not in any way involve taking care of the person in front of you, they take more from doctors than many suspect. It is hard enough to treat the illness, have the compassion when your levels of fatigue are high, be present in this moment with the suffering in front of you, then step out and move on to the next person in need.

It is hard enough just to do the actual work of being a physician, so much so that I wonder at times why anyone would choose this path. And so, I sit here, having once again read through an article about how so many doctors leave this world behind, I am sad. I am sad for those that left, for the suffering they had to endure, for the suffering they leave behind and for myself as I see the ripples of these same difficulties flowing and swirling around in my life. Once again, I turn my attention back to my breath. And back to my heart, I ask what is needed at this moment, and I give to myself those things that this world cannot give to any of us.

Gil C. Grimes is a physician and can be reached at Doc Grimes.

Image credit: Shutterstock.com116 Shares Share

It was a perfectly comfortable morning when suddenly it was discomforted by a request for a stat palliative care consult. A stat consult is disquieting because stat is a dissonant adjective for the compound noun, palliative care.

Stat is the medical abbreviation for the Latin adverb statim meaning immediately. Stat orders always imply the necessity of an immediate response to an emergency: an inadequate blood pressure, an erratic hear rate, a falling oxygen level  all potentially life-threatening. Palliative derives from the Latin verb palliare meaning to cloak. Palliative care literally means to cover over with care: to alleviate without curing. Stat palliative care is a dissonant expression in any language.

In our ER was an elderly gentleman, moribund from not one but two widely metastatic cancers. His life was rapidly fading away piece by piece  hypotension, hypoxia, lethargy. By his side was an elderly gentlewoman overcome by a growing grief. Her husband of 50-some years was slipping from her grasp minute by minute. She was overwrought  what was happening, would he die, would their children arrive in time?

The ER doctor diagnosed the gentleman as a dying patient in the final act of a cancerous play in which the many metastatic actors were hurriedly dragging the living one offstage for the final curtain call. But there was no script for the final act; he had no living will, he did not have a POLST form, he was still a full code. No one had told this couple they were in the last act, no one had discussed or prepared them for the ending. So the ER doctor improvised, he called for new actors, and he wanted them on stage immediately. He called for a stat palliative care consult.

The final act was mercifully short. Yes, she knew her husband was dying in front of her eyes. No, he didnt want heroic care under any circumstances. Yes, she wanted him comfortable above all else. No, she didnt want to wait for their children but prayed they would arrive in time. Yes, the morphine was started. No, the children didnt arrive before he died. No, she was not relieved her husband of so many years was dead. Then she tearfully spoke the closing lines of this cancer play, Why didnt somebody tell us? Words far too often heard  more pleading than questioning.

Indeed, why hadnt they been told? In many places, they would have been told. In many places, his death wouldnt have been a surprise ending. In many places, the patient and the family would have suffered less. But not in all places and this is where dissonance meets ignorance.

Today no patient with advanced congestive heart failure would be denied cardiology care. This would not be acceptable medical practice anywhere in America. But some patients suffering despite curative treatments for heart failure or a myriad of other aliments are denied palliative care. While ignorance about cardiology would be deemed unacceptable, lack of knowledge of palliative care seemingly can be the community standard. Relieving unnecessary suffering is no less a clinical responsibility than relieving pulmonary edema. Ignoring unnecessary suffering in patients mastered by their disease is like the ignoring desperate dyspnea in patients overcome by CHF. But the problem may be worse than ignorance; it may be indifference.

There seems to be an insouciant clinical myopia that clearly sees the physical symptoms of disease but is unable to focus in on the suffering the disease is causing. It is the obligation of a physician to help the patient understand the trajectory of the disease. Some doctors seemingly have an apathetic nearsightedness that only sees the problems in their clinical neighborhood. They are not uncaring but something worse: they are blind to the patients suffering.

Every doctor has the instinctive reflex to immediately staunch the hemorrhage of a bleeding patient. Regrettably, there seems not to be an analogous instinct to staunch suffering of an anguishing patient. Why? Is it a lack of education, a lack of expectation, and a lack of empathy? Why the discomfort to discuss dying? Myriads of workshops, symposia, and articles have explored this problem. Some have supposed that educational deficiencies leave physicians feeling unprepared and lacking confidence to discuss death. Others conclude many physicians have an abiding reluctance to accept that treatment cannot be in the patients best interest. Others regard death as a failing. Most concerning is that some doctors just fail to recognize the terminal stage of diseases; they are just ignorant of it.

There is another matter that the physician-author Abraham Verghese put his literary finger on in two simple sentences: In medicine, as in writing, there are no shortcuts. You need stamina. But stamina is increasingly in short supply in clinical medicine. It being is sapped away by the stresses of electronic, legal, financial, and insurance demands. Delivering bad news can be brutal to the tellers and the hearers. So many physicians seek to avoid what they feel to be brutalizing encounters but in doing so, they brutalize the suffering patient even more.

It is not the avoidance, but the acceptance that relieving suffering is compassionate, merciful, and rewarding for both the doctor and the patient. Not knowing this is the ignorance that results in stat palliative care consults  not knowing that relieving the suffering of patients fulfills a physicians humanity. The real dissonance is that it withers a doctors clinical heart not to unburden patient from a suffering that is in their power to relieve.

We live in a medical world where many patients continue to endure insufferable disease states. Some might think that stat palliative care is better late than never. It is not because it is no longer palliative care, because the time for palliative care is gone and missed, just like the elderly gentleman in our ER.

Michael A. Salvatore is a palliative care physician.

Image credit: Shutterstock.com159 Shares Share

Hes a young guy: polite, well-dressed, easy to talk to. He works construction and is here because hes been getting allergies to dust and pollen. Hes never had insurance, but it doesnt really matter because hes always been healthy. Hes the easy slot in my schedule; I ask him a few questions, look in his nose, we chat about the new Avengers movie, and Im about to send him home with an antihistamine. I ask him a routine question about stress.

Well, I guess I have had some more stress recently, ever since that guy started controlling my fingers.

He says it so casually that it takes me a moment to realize how weird it sounds. I shoot him a glance, but he hasnt changed his expression or posture. What do you mean?

Well, its this guy, it just bugs me that hes controlling my fingers. I know its like, not that big a deal, I should just get over it. He smiles at me, with a look that says you know how it is.

I reposition myself on my stool and take a second to mentally organize the questions Im about to ask, the way I want to ask them. I start probing into his new stress. Fifteen minutes later, I leave the room and take a deep breath. He has psychosis. He lives in a world of voices, images, evil organizations, people controlling him. He almost knocked his construction buddy off a 40-foot drop last week, trying to get out of the way of that guy. He has never been seen by a doctor, never taken any medications, never been institutionalized; at times hes wanted to be seen, because the voices were making it hard to work, but hes never had any access to health care.

The term medically underserved can describe any number of health care shortfalls, from the man with sleep apnea whose insurance wont cover a CPAP machine, to the woman with back pain whos been on the physical therapy waitlist for six months. But sometimes, it is as simple as my patient: someone with a severe disease who needs help, and who can get it because of a Teaching Health Center.

The Teaching Health Center (THC) where I work is a busy clinic; together with our sister clinics, we see about 70,000 patients throughout Chicago every year. We are part of the answer to the primary care shortage that is facing the country. As the population ages and medical specialization increases, it is harder and harder for Americans to get basic health needs met  especially in rural areas and urban centers. This is coupled with the turmoil of the health insurance marketplaces, which threaten the access of millions to affordable health insurance. THCs are clinics that train the next generation of primary care providers, and emphasize the importance of caring for the underserved in the most resource-poor settings in in the country, providing care for more than 27 million Americans. But Teaching Health Centers are in danger of closing if Congress fails to enact legislation that will allow them to keep going.

Although Congress has passed temporary extensions of Teaching Health Center funding, fixing the THC funding cliff, this legislation extends funding for only three months at a time. This funding is vital for 57 THCs across 27 states and DC, and serves to educate 722 primary care medical residents. The three-month budgetary extensions are insufficient and unsustainable; without a guaranteed future, these programs will not be able to recruit new trainees into their programs, and are at grave risk of closing altogether. We need our Senators and Representatives to fix the funding cliff once and for all, to ensure the training of future primary care providers, and to provide care now for our most underserved patients.

It is late by the time my patient leaves, and Im tired, but I feel good. Many clinics would have sent him away, perhaps escorted by the police on an involuntary mental health hold. But my THC has a full spectrum of services, including a mental health professional who takes him for an immediate hour-long assessment. And we have physicians who prioritize the needs of the patient, and who will bend over backwards to avoid taking away someones rights. We spend nearly the entire afternoon getting him the care he needs, but when he leaves for acute treatment, he goes of his own accord, relieved that he might not have to be under the control of the voices in his head anymore.

I cant imagine training anywhere besides a THC, or where my patients would get their care if we closed. We fill a vital niche that no one else is filling, and we train providers in patient-centered medicine while we do it. Contacting your representative in support of Teaching Health Centers is a crucial step in developing the primary care we need, both now and going forward.

Laura Kahn and Caitlin Farrell are family medicine residents.

Image credit: Shutterstock.com184 Shares Share

There is growing recognition that the broken American health care system is taking a toll, not just on patients and their families, but on health care professionals as well. Nearly half of all physicians in various surveys now report that they are burned out. Inevitably, the experts are lining up to further study the issue and to teach doctors better coping skills.

In terms of the need for further study, I am but a simple country doctor, but I think the issues are pretty clear. If you punch someone in the face, theyre going to get a black eye. And if you try to practice good medicine in our terrible health care system, youre going to get very frustrated, often to the point of burnout.

Burnout is a simple case of physicians lofty expectations meeting up with the disappointing reality of the American health care system.

In medical school, we are given the impression that medicine is a sacred pursuit. It is traditional at many medical schools to begin a students experience with a white coat ceremony, where we are given our pure-as-snow new uniforms and invoke an oath to do no harm and to give every patient the best care possible. It is a powerful, emotional experience. We talk about medicine as a calling rather than a profession. We then receive intense, prolonged years of training, at great expense, but leave medical school armed to help people, who are often in dire straits, with a well-honed history and physical exam, and an amazing array of modern tests and treatments.

But then, once in practice, reality quickly takes hold. We are driven to maximize revenue in the setting of a payment system so complicated that it often takes Herculean effort just to get paid. At the same time we are badgered to minimize spending on patient care, but have no control over, or even knowledge of, the costs of care. There are barriers to the best patient care at every turn: patients unable to afford the care they need, inscrutable insurance coverage, tests and treatments priced far beyond almost anyones ability to pay for them, and now, lengthy insurance prior authorization processes for even basic tests and treatments. As if all that wasnt enough, we are also forced by government mandate to use unusable EMR computer systems to report unattainable quality metrics. We are incessantly belittled that our care lacks value in a system designed to destroy value. And despite everything, if anything should happen to go wrong, we can still be sued.

Under these circumstances, burnout is inevitable. We are truly damned if we do, and damned if we dont. We carry on our shoulders the responsibility for patients lives  to do no harm in a harmful health care system.

What can physicians suffering from the effects of burnout do to mitigate the situation? Experts suggest things like getting more sleep, learning to meditate, exercising regularly, learning to say no, learning to value the small things in life, recognizing that things could be worse, and learning better time management skills, just to name a few.

These are wonderful suggestions that will be incredibly effective as long as while we are doing them, we also fix the broken health care system that is the source of the burnout in the first place!

If we really want to reduce burnout among physicians, we will:

Simplify the American medical coding, billing, and payment system.

Remove the myriad barriers to patient care, enabling doctors to make decisions based on what they (and their patients) feel is in the patients best interests. Finally enact legislation that brings affordable, comprehensive care to all. Eliminate prior authorizations for all but truly exceptional tests and treatments. Eliminate payment bundling strategies that encourage us to skimp on necessary care.

Create some semblance of functional health care markets. Require transparent pricing so that decisions can be made based on cost when feasible. Limit the size and/or monopolistic power and practices of the largest health care entities, including insurance companies, pharmaceutical companies, and health systems.

Create a functional, usable EMR that delivers on the great promise of health IT, and then give it, at low or no cost, to all who want it.

Eliminate value-based payment programs like MACRA until we have a functional health care system and health IT tools that make value attainable. Avoid payment penalties that would discourage doctors from taking care of the sickest, poorest patients. Avoid payment strategies, like bundling, that encourage physicians to skimp on necessary care.

Once and for all, create a reasonable malpractice system that protects patients, but also encourages improvements in care.

There should be no surprise that American physicians are burned out. And therapy and self-help strategies arent the answer. The answer is fixing the broken American health care system.

Matthew Hahn is a family physician who blogs at his self-titled site, Matthew Hahn, MD. He is the author of Distracted: How Regulations Are Destroying the Practice of Medicine and Preventing True Health-Care Reform.

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Dr. Pramela Ganji had just finished her lunch when she was told that the appellate court had reversed and vacated her conviction. At first, she didnt believe it.

After all, this whole experience had been surreal. Dr. Ganji, a 68-year-old well-respected medical doctor and married mother of 3 children, had practiced medicine for 40 years without incident. Her patients loved her, and she had dedicated her life to helping others.

Towards the end of her career, she started working at Christian Home Health. The government noticed that this company had a number of billing irregularities, and it received a complaint from a patient of another doctor. Based on nothing more, and without reviewing any of Dr. Ganjis records or patient files or interviewing a single one of her patients, the federal government charged Dr. Ganji in a sweeping conspiracy to commit health care fraud. At trial, the prosecution called 18 witnesses, none of whom had anything to say about Dr. Ganji. Most of them testified that they had never even met Dr. Ganji. Instead, they simply spoke of the fraud that they were engaged in.

The trial judge expressed some doubts about the evidence at the close of the case, but said it should be up to the jury, which convicted Dr. Ganji of participating in the fraud at Christian Home Health. Dr. Ganji was sentenced to 6 years, and despite asking for bond pending the appeal based on the lack of evidence and her own serious medical conditions, she was required to surrender to a federal prison in Alabama, far from her husband and 3 professional children.

Dr. Ganjis family contacted us to see if we were interested in handling the appeal. They saw that we handled a similar case presenting similar facts of a doctor convicted in a sweeping conspiracy case but lacking in evidence against that particular person. Despite the almost impossible odds of raising an innocence claim on appeal, we decided to pursue that route again for Dr. Ganji because there was literally no evidence against her.

The Government stressed on appeal, as it did at trial, that Dr. Ganji did not actually personally examine many of the patients that she certified for home health care. This was a damning fact, the prosecution argued, because it showed that Dr. Ganjis medical judgment was compromised. And certainly, it was an argument that held sway with the jurors. But it was an argument that the Government should not have been permitted to make, as the Medicare regulations expressly permit a doctor to employ a licensed nurse practitioner to conduct a face-to-face meetings for home health certifications. The evidence showed that this was precisely what Dr. Ganji had done, and that she had carefully reviewed the nurses notes and the medical records before certifying a patient. At the appellate oral argument, one judge asked the prosecutor why they were prosecuting this case instead of lobbying for the regulation to be changed.

The prison officials were also surprised when they heard the news that the conservative Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals had reversed and vacated the jury verdict. They explained to Dr. Ganji that it would take at least a day to process her out of the prison. After 10 months in limbo, she could deal with one more night. The guards and her fellow inmates threw a party for her that night. They knew the numbers  that over 97 percent of those charged with federal crimes, including innocent defendants, pleaded guilty. And of the 3 percent with the courage to fight the federal government, they almost all lost their trial. Of those who lost, the overwhelming number would lose their appeal. When the quiet and peaceful Dr. Ganji paused and waved goodbye from the gate, many of those inside wept.

The unjust prosecution of Dr. Ganji is not unique. Because the Medicare system is so open to fraud and because there is so little oversight, there have been many righteous prosecutions of abusers who dont provide actual services, overbill, and so on. But the government has cast its nets so wide that it is now prosecuting doctors for federal crimes when there is a simple disagreement on whether the services are medically necessary. This is wrong.

Courts are starting to take notice. As noted above, the Eleventh Circuit court of appeals vacated Vanja Abreus conviction after she spent three years in a federal prison. The Fifth Circuit did so for Dr. Ganji here after ten months. A trial judge in Kentucky just reversed a jury finding for a cardiologist, saying that the prosecution was flawed because it was based on a disagreement on medical necessity and not based on fraud. The Government has appealed that ruling.

In the past couple of years, we have represented other doctors and health care professionals who have had the courage to fight the federal government and win. Dr. Michael Bahrami went to trial for conspiring to take kickbacks even though he refused to actually do so. A jury quickly acquitted him. Dr. Ali Shaygan fought 144 counts against him for prescribing pain medications for needy patients. Despite the prosecution falsely calling him a drug dealer, the jury saw through it and found him not guilty on all 144 counts. But these victories took awful tolls on the doctors. Their practices were decimated. Their reputations will never again be the same. And all because some prosecutor disagreed with how they exercised their medical judgment.

Judges around the country must continue to push back on these unjust prosecutions. Doctors must continue to stand up and fight for their innocence. Most importantly, prosecutors must realize that not every doctor who they disagree with is a criminal. The vast majority of doctors are good people trying to help their patients. They should be given the benefit of the doubt.

David Markus and Mona Markus are federal criminal defense attorneys and can be reached at Markus/Moss.

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When my classmates and I returned to Boston to continue our first year of medical school early last month, we returned to a very different type, of course, called Essentials of the Profession. In it, we explored health policy, social medicine, ethics, and other topics outside the realm of traditional physiology and disease but just as important to our roles as physicians. In the health policy class, we learned about escalating health care costs and how the landscape of American health care is changing. While the inclusion of these topics in our curriculum reflects a significant advance in medical education, our health policy teachings also exposed a critical gap in our training  one that will leave us ill-prepared to meet our future obligations as physicians.

Health care providers, we learned, are increasingly expected to consider the cost of clinical care, and the costs of care we deliver will influence how much well be paid. Medicare is increasingly tying physician payment to spending benchmarks such that wasteful health care services will be punished with lower reimbursements. Further, providers are being pressured by public and private payers to enter into alternative payment models that force physicians to bear financial risk. This means that doctors may lose money if they spend more on patient care than government-set benchmarks. The goal is to incentivize cost-effective care and penalize inefficiency, in stark contrast to the traditional fee-for-service scheme, which encourages overutilization and contributes to cost growth.

A common example of an alternative payment model is the accountable care organization (ACO), which cares for a population of patients and shares in any savings it produces by providing care efficiently. In the risk-bearing variety, the ACO might accept a lump sum payment based on the number and complexity of patients in the population. If the cost of caring for the ACOs patients exceeds the payment for that year, the providers have to swallow the losses  this is the risk they take on in order to access shared savings and other bonuses.

Models like these are meant to reign in health care costs, and are becoming more common  there are close to 1,000 ACOs nationwide. The increasing prevalence of these new provider models are being driven by changing incentive structures constructed by the government (through the Affordable Care Act and the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act) and by commercial insurers.

As future physicians, my classmates and I recognize the burden that sky-high health care spending places on the economy as well as our patients. We have a social responsibility to be good stewards of limited resources. Engaging in ACOs and other risk-bearing models is part of that responsibility. However, I fear that medical education today doesnt give us the skills we need to do that.

Bearing risk is incredibly complex, and these new models hinge the sustainability of a clinical practice on its financial management acumen. While consultants and business-savvy administrators can handle high-level strategic decisions, success in risk-bearing organizations will depend primarily on clinical decisions made by individual physicians. Every day, clinicians face difficult choices, like choosing the optimal chemotherapy regimen or whether to order a biopsy. We learn how to make these decisions based on medical necessity and evidence-based guidelines. But those choices also carry significant financial ramifications, and training on how to factor those costs into clinical decision-making is largely absent from medical school curricula.

Concerns about the need to teach clinicians about cost-effectiveness and cost-consciousness are not new, and there has been some progress. For instance, efforts to educate medical students about health care costs have been spreading, and more attention is being paid to teaching us how to talk about and contain costs for patients. However, success in risk-bearing models requires more than that  it demands that doctors be smart financial managers as well as smart clinicians. Physical exams and differential diagnoses must be complemented by rational budgeting, reliable accounting, and cost-benefit analyses if cost savings are to be realized without harming patient outcomes.

In light of the changing ecosystem and the expanded role of physicians, some experts have concluded that New Physicians Will Need Business School Skills. Sure enough, these changes are likely contributing to the rising popularity of MD/MBA programs. But its not feasible to ask every medical student to add a second degree or take business classes in their limited elective space. Rather, robust evidence-based training in cost-effective clinical decision-making should be integrated into our core curriculum.

If we continue to neglect this gap in our training, the consequences could be severe. Beyond medical school, there is little opportunity for structured nonmedical training  the 80+ hour weeks of residency leave no time for non-clinical activities. Thrown into risk-bearing organizations as budding clinicians, we would struggle to succeed because were missing crucial tools in our toolkit. Many of us might find ourselves at the mercy of administrators and insurance companies seeking to influence our clinical choices because our decision calculus neglects costs. Others will struggle to maintain ownership of their practices, being forced to sell into large provider organizations that can more easily afford financial management expertise and adapt to evolving payment mechanisms.

Health care has changed substantially in the last decade, and medical education has made important strides to keep pace. Now, public and private payers are asking more of physicians. They are re-aligning incentives such that those who control the use of services are also at risk for paying for them. The challenge for us will be to promote efficiency without compromising health outcomes  to deliver high-quality yet cost-effective care that heals our patients without breaking the bank. To accomplish this, well need new skillsets that ought to be considered essential to the profession.

Hopefully, medical schools will continue to keep pace.

Suhas Gondi is a medical student.

Image credit: Shutterstock.comThe HSE has issued further relevant information and contact details as plans are put in place to combat the deteriorating weather conditions in Kilkenny and surrounding counties.

The plan affects appointments and is to minimise the risk of people travelling with poor road conditions throughout the region.

They would like to remind the public that in the Kilkenny, Carlow, South Tipperary, Waterford and Wexford areas, individuals can access health service, as follows: through their GP and/or CAREDOC, the GP Out of Hours services  tel. (1850) 334 999; via the Emergency Department 24 hours a day at St. Lukes General Hospital in Kilkenny, University Hospital Waterford, Wexford General Hospital, and South Tipperary General Hospital in Clonmel.

St. Lukes General Hospital Carlow/Kilkenny (SLGH)

All outpatient clincis (xray, physio, cardiac etc) are cancelled for this afternoon in Kilkenny and patients will be rescheduled accordingly.

The antenatal clinic in Carlow is proceeding this morning, however, if patients cannot get to the clinic and are concerned in relation to their condition they should contact the Maternity Unit as listed below.

In order to minimise unnecessary travel risks for patients, all elective and outpatient appointments at St Lukes General Hospital Carlow-Kilkenny have been cancelled for Thursday 1st March, and Friday, 2nd March 2018 due to the upgrading of the weather warnings by Met Eireann, which are effective throughout counties Carlow and Kilkenny.

Please note the following:

 Outpatients Clinics: All hospital outpatient appointments have been cancelled for Wednesday afternoon 28th February, Thursday 1st March, and Friday 2nd March 2018. Consequently, patients do not need to attend or contact the hospital and their appointments will be rescheduled as soon as possible.

 Oncology Services: Patients in receipt of oncology treatments should contact the oncology unit directly today if they have any worry or concern in relation to their treatment and travel arrangements. Oncology appointments for Thursday and Friday have been rescheduled for next week and all patients have been notified.

 Elective/Scheduled/planned procedures: Patients who were scheduled to have a planned procedure on either Thursday 1st March or Friday, 2nd March 2018 are advised that non urgent procedures have been cancelled. Again, patients do not need to attend or contact the hospital and their appointments will be rescheduled as soon as possible.

 The Emergency Department and Acute Medical Assessment Unit will operate as normal. Priority will be given to the most urgent cases. The National Ambulance Service will also operate as usual.

 Maternity and Gynaecology: In the interests of safety for mothers and babies, the Ante Natal Booking Clinic and the Gynaecology Clinic, due to be held on Thursday 1st March 2018, and the Ante Natal Clinic, due to be held on Friday 2nd March 2018, have been cancelled. Maternity patients are welcome to contact the Maternity Department at any time if they have any worries or concerns on the following numbers: 8am-8pm please contact the Obstetric Assessment Unit on (056) 778 5256 8pm-8am, please contact the Labour Ward on (056) 778 5288.

University Hospital Waterford (UHW)  including Kilkcreene Orthopaedic Hospital, Kilkenny.

Due to the challenging weather conditions predicted for Waterford and South East area over the coming days and in the interest of patient safety, University Hospital Waterford (UHW) has put the following actions in place :

 All non-urgent activity including Outpatient Clinics and elective surgery is being cancelled for Wednesday 28th February, Thursday 1st and Friday 2nd March. Patients deferred will be rescheduled as soon as possible.

 All emergency and urgent services will continue to be delivered.

Arrangements will be reviewed on Friday 2nd March. The switchboard phone number for UHW is (051) 848 000.

Wexford General Hospital (WGH)  including Ely Hospital, Wexford

In order to minimise unnecessary travel risks for patients, all elective and outpatient appointments at Wexford General Hospital have been cancelled for Thursday, 1st March, and Friday, 2nd March 2018. Please note the following:

 Outpatient clinics, Radiology and Cardiac Diagnostics: All hospital outpatient appointments have been cancelled for Thursday, 1st March, and Friday, 2nd March 2018. Consequently, patients do not need to attend or contact the hospital and their appointments will be rescheduled as soon as possible.

 Elective/Scheduled/planned procedures: Patients who were scheduled to have a planned procedure on either Thursday,1st March, or Friday, 2nd March 2018 are advised that procedures have been cancelled. Again, patients do not need to attend or contact the hospital and their appointments will be rescheduled as soon as possible.

 The Emergency Department will operate as normal. Priority will be given to the most urgent cases. The National Ambulance Service will also operate as usual.

 Maternity: In the interests of safety for mothers and babies, maternity patients are being assessed and will be contacted on an individual basis regarding their care and follow up. Maternity patients are welcome to contact the Maternity Department at any time if they have any worries or concerns please contact (053) 9153360.

South Tipperary General Hospital (STGH)

Due to the challenging weather conditions predicted for Tipperary and the surrounding counties over the coming days and in the interest of patient safety, South Tipperary General Hospital will be taking the following actions

 All Outpatient Clinics and Elective Surgery will be cancelled on Thursday 1st March and Friday 2nd March 2018. Patients whose appointments are cancelled will be rescheduled as soon as possible.

Emergency Services will continue to be provided.

The situation will be reviewed daily

Primary Care (including Community Care) services in the South East:

All Therapy appointments for Thursday and Friday in counties Carlow, Kilkenny, South Tipperary, Waterford and Wexford have been cancelled

Community Specialist Palliative Care services, Community Intervention Teams and GP out of hours service (Caredoc) operating as normal

Substance Misuse Clinics have been cancelled for Thursday & Friday. All service users have been informed. Scripts have been sent to pharmacies by registered post and fax if necessary. Information on overdose and safe storage of methadone has been provided. Naloxone has been provided to service users yesterday and today who have not been given it previously.

Social Care (including Elderly care and disability services) services in the South East:

HSE disability day services in counties Carlow, Kilkenny, South Tipperary, Waterford and Wexford are postponed on Thursday and Friday of this week.

HSE day services at community, district and elderly care hospitals in counties Carlow, Kilkenny, South Tipperary, Waterford and Wexford are postponed on Thursday and Friday of this week.

Mental Health services in the South East:

Outpatient clinics in counties Carlow, Kilkenny, South Tipperary, Waterford and Wexford are postponed on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday of this week and will be rescheduled as soon as possible.

Appointments at day hospitals in counties Carlow, Kilkenny, South Tipperary, Waterford and Wexford are postponed on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday of this week but will remain open to non scheduled/emergency presentation.

The Departments of Psychiatry (acute mental health units) at University Hospital Waterford and at St Lukes Hospital in Kilkenny are operating as normal.Kingstree, SC (29556)

Today

Some sun in the morning with increasing clouds during the afternoon. Slight chance of a rain shower. High around 85F. Winds light and variable..

Tonight

Partly to mostly cloudy. Low 67F. Winds light and variable.From Hansard:

Melissa Lee: Does she stand by her answer to written question No. 19129 (2017) in regard to meeting with board members or staff of TVNZ or RNZ since 1 December? Hon CLARE CURRAN: Yes. Melissa Lee: How can she stand by that answer when she failed to mention her breakfast meeting with RNZ head of content Carol Hirschfeld on 2 December? Hon CLARE CURRAN: I have a range of discussions, informal or otherwise, with many people in a range of portfolio areas. Melissa Lee: If they did have breakfast together, as the Ministers office has confirmed, and discussed a range of issues about the future of media in New Zealand, why did she not include this extremely relevant meeting in her answer to written question No. 19129 (2017)?

It is very unwise for the Minister of Broadcasting to have breakfast with the head of news for Radio New Zealand  especially as the Minister is proposing to give Radio New Zealand millions more in funding.

The Minister should only meet the Chair and/or the Chief Executive. To directly interface with someone who has editorial control of news reporting is unwise. As far as I know no previous Minister has met with news editors, except with CEs present.

Also meetings to discuss portfolio issues should be with staff present, so a record is kept of what is said. A private meeting between a Minister and a news director is unwise  especially one owned by the state and one the Minister is promising lots more money for.

Melissa Lee: Thank you, Mr Speaker. If she did have breakfast together, as the Ministers office has confirmed, and has discussed a range of issues about the future of New Zealand media, why did she not include this extremely relevant meeting in her answer to written question No. 19129? Hon CLARE CURRAN: Because I didnt perceive it as an official meeting.

So the Minister for Open Government is now saying that she doesnt have to include meetings if she deems then unofficial. Way to go for transparency.

Hon Chris Hipkins: Mr Speaker, I draw your attentionIm sure youre aware of it, because I think you were involved in itto a lengthy series of points of order during the last Parliament about the former Prime Minister John Key and the various hats that he wore and what were deemed to be official engagements and what were not deemed to be official engagements. And I think the precedent was very clearly established by the previous Government. Hon Gerry Brownlee: The point, Mr. Speaker, is that if a Ministerin this case, the Minister of Broadcasting, Communications and Digital Mediahas a meeting with someone who is an employee of Radio New Zealand, are we expected to believe that there was no discussion at all about matters that fall within portfolio responsibilities? I think that would be a huge stretch.

If they had been discussing the weather then it would not be a meeting relating to her role as Minister. But her own office confirmed they discussed issues around the future of NZ media, so it clearly was in her role as Minister.

Mr SPEAKER: Well, I really dont think this is that complicated for members who have looked at the issue of ministerial responsibility carefully. Clearly, members can be involved as a Minister at a breakfast, which is not a meeting with a specific person, because quite often there is a large group of people at a general breakfast and someone else could be there, and there could be discussion. That is not a meeting with an individual, as far as Im concerned.

As I understand it, it was not a group breakfast, but just the two of them.

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